#to tie into their special interest in the JUMP System and how it works with its users

[morninkim]

cybernetics expert, mechanic and they/them baddie, here's Mason AKA GanbareBlue! they agreed to join the team for the chance to have a look at the schematics for JUMP Strider and JUMP Striker's cyborg components, ethics of their creation aside. So far though, Mr. Ishino has been wishy-washy with that promise.

[bogleech]

Ok but I have seen you talk about this so many times, even referencing it in your old cartoons, so I gotta ask - when and how did you fall in love with neopets, like that?

Wait, is it that obscure now? I didn't know a single person from its inception to roughly 2010 who didn't have a neopets account. It was the single biggest gaming-esque name on the internet for years. Celebrities casually mentioned playing it, it got mainstream marketing tie-ins, it had plush toys people waited in line to buy up and a TCG made by the same company as Magic the Gathering. It's not that I especially "fell in love with neopets" like it's a niche thing but that there was a time it was almost outselling Pokemon, so it's just another huge cultural phenomenon that was a big part of everyone's lives during my teens to twenties, and hits my special interest in creature design since it has THOUSANDS (beyond the pets alone) ranging in quality from extremely creative to just plain heinous. I personally only got invested in it when they introduced the mutant pets, though, because it started out having almost like a "rule" against making any pets that were "ugly." They'd joke about it as a prank for instance, and originally only featured the mutants as part of a storyline they never intended players to actually adopt. They even had a fake alternate version of the site with fake "adoptions coming soon" and somehow didn't anticipate the userbase genuinely wanting the slime creatures.

The Chia and Aisha were my favorites but mainly the chia because that kind of "scuzzy" creature was already my own design aesthetic, polar opposite of the site's established style and reminded me of if Jeff Goldblum got fused with a tardigrade instead of a fly:

Is that just me? I feel like the tardigrade similarity jumps right out but I think it was an accident and they were possibly actually thinking of the rotting giant from Nausicaa:

The fact that they intended its design to be unlovably ugly and were surprised anyone wanted it only made it more sympathetic. Eventually they made mutants available and I got fully invested into playing, at the time having to spend hours a day on their little flash games until I could afford a mutant after months of labor. But then a couple of years later they just abruptly decided they really didn't feel like having its design around anymore and "updated" it, which back then was automatic for all pets owned by all players with no going back:

It had unfortunately been fairly common that they'd just completely, totally redo a pet like this with no warning and no user poll to make sure it's what anyone wanted. You just had to pray they never did it to your favorites.

All the other mutants in that earlier image would also get completely changed or never released at all. They still kept some of the other "gross" mutants and would make even grosser, so that wasn't even part of the reasoning. Just the random whims of mad gods I guess. I think what killed the game for a lot of people was actually when they did this to basically everyone at once, standardizing almost all the pet artwork so they could wear clothes in their new dressup system. It wasn't as drastic as replacing a sludge guy with some kind of hairy leaf guy but it did eliminate hundreds of technically unique designs from the site, and I found someone else's examples they put together so I thankfully don't have to do it myself:

If anyone's not familiar enough with neopets or didn't figure that out from the last paragraph, the ones on the right are just recolors of the same exact art as all members of their species with added accessories (now wearable items) Players used to work hard to get pets they wanted based on their unique poses and personality, but you could only keep the original art for a small number of these. The customization feature kind of attracted a different new fandom, from what people say, but it never approached a fraction the site's peak, which is probably how the brand wound up getting sold to some NFT bros who aren't even involved in the site itself and supposedly never even spoken to its remaining staff outside some business emails? This is unrelated to the brief period it was bought by scientologists and the siterunners had to fight back against their propaganda leaking into it. I really didn't expect to turn this response into a mini article, I should really just make a thing on bogleech.com about it sometime. Some of my tumblr mutuals to this day are people I met through the neopets fandom and probably have equally lengthy memories/complaints.

[dyke-terra]

Tip for anyone who wants to learn more about the world or gain useful skills but struggles because it’s not their special interest or hyperfixation: tie that learning to your hyperfixation! Unironically, I’ve spent the past quarter year using my interest as comics as a jumping board to get into real world history/current events because I wanted to understand the context my blorbos were in. Not going to say I’m an expert on anything, I’m one hundred percent not, but I’m a lot more equipped to kvetch about why a comic from the 90s I was already obsessed with makes no gddamn sense (but compels me, though.)

Interested in learning about other cultures but hyperfixated on Supernatural? Maybe look into how mythological figures were/are perceived across different faiths and how the modern notion of angels evolved. If that’s too big, start with looking into specifically what a biblically accurate angel is (because it’s probably not what you think!) A fan of the DreamSMP who wants to understand systems of oppression but unsure where to start? Try looking at specific anarchist or anarchist adjacent movements. One I’m currently learning about is Rojava in Eastern Syria, but Catalonia is an interesting, exciting one too.

This works for skills too. Obviously, a lot of people get into writing because of fanfic, art because of fanart, but cosplay is REALLY useful as a jumping off point for other skills. Sewing, to start with, but 3D printing, vacuum forming, mold making, woodworking… and you don’t need to jump in the deep end. In fact, you shouldn’t! It’s incredibly easy to get overwhelmed. Be intentional about gaining skills but focus on what you’re doing at the moment and also focus on your blorbo! You can become more like them, or you can gain context as to why they are the way they are.

It’s important to remember that the knowledge you gained isn’t any less useful because of why you learned it.

If you have any hyperfixations you want help connecting to real world useful information, my ask box is open. Though I’m obviously not an expert on everything.

[tssidesfics]

Requests: Analogince where they’re human and also single dads? And they all meet because their kids fought and got called to the principals office

Virgil's POV

Upsides to being a single father to a child with ADHD: you got to raise a beautiful, special boy with a sharp mind. You got to teach him all the coping mechanisms you'd painstakingly learned over the years to cope with his condition and watch as he lit up over the things that brought him joy. You got to watch as he zipped from topic to topic, brighter than the sun, mind racing at a million miles an hour. You got to be the first person to hear about his beautifully creative ideas. You got to have a reason for living, all yours and wonderful, that you didn't have to share with anyone else.

Downsides to being a single father to a child with ADHD: you had no one else to pass the buck to when he got in trouble at school.

"It'll be fine," I chanted to myself for the billionth time as I turned off the ignition and unbuckled myself, gripping the steering wheel and forcing deep, measured breaths. "It'll be fine. He probably won't get expelled for this. This is his first fight and you don't even know why he got into a fight. You didn't raise a bully, so he was probably defending himself or another kid." Terror clasped me around the throat and squeezed. "But what if you did raise a bully and you didn't realize it, and now you've sentenced your son to a life of crime trying to make up for the hole in his heart where his father should have loved him oh God I broke my son!"

Immediately, my therapist's voice spoke up in my mind. You're catastrophizing again, he said in that obnoxiously aware, gentle way of his. Calm down. Take it one step at a time.

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, focusing on the feeling of my stomach and then my chest expanding with air. I let it out through pursed lips, a quiet whistle in the exhale.

I'd played through scenarios like this a million times in my mind. The second Cassie told me, five months pregnant with tears streaming down her cheeks, that she didn't want the baby, I'd prepared myself for any possibility. I'd created contingency plans and contingency plans for my contingency plans, because I knew how much harsher the world would be on him. With a grandparent, his biological mother, and me all with ADHD, there hadn't been any doubt Drew would get it, too, and I'd prepared for that. I'd prepared for the possibility that poor grades and emotional dysregulation would put him on the back foot and even get him expelled. I'd taught him all the coping mechanisms I could. I'd tried to show him as much love and patience as I could muster, and I'd show him the same now. We'd get through this. We would make it through this.

I nodded, resolute, even as doubt and worry niggled at the back of my mind. I'd raised Drew alone, without any support from my parents or Cassie, working a call center job that barely paid enough to live off of. I'd demanded a child psychiatrist the second Drew started displaying symptoms and beat the system for the help he deserved. I'd beat the system for the help I deserved. I was a badass. I was a badass.

I got out of the car.

The two people at the front desk--a woman with strawberry blonde hair and a baby-faced guy--looked over, presumably torn from their conversation, when I walked through the door. The woman swiveled her chair to face me with a friendly smile. "Hello there," she said. "How may I help you?"

I forced myself to look her in the eyes and strained through a smile. If you act like a weirdo, it'll just make things worse for Drew. "Hey," I said. "I'm, uh...Drew Griffith's father. You called me and--"

"Oh!" She gestured to the side, at a door that read: PRINCIPAL MOROZOV. "He's in there."

I looked over and gulped, staring in fear at the door. "Say, uh..." I smiled at the woman as politely as I could. "You wouldn't happen to know the correct social etiquette for talking to the principal after your son gets into a fight at school, would you?"

She gave me a funny look. "Huh?"

"Never mind." I hung my head in defeat and commenced the walk of dread to the front door of the office. The wall facing me was all glass, which meant I could see inside. Two adults, one natural-haired in a polo shirt with his arm around one of the kids in the chair beside him and the other behind a desk, looking stern. I couldn't see the other two kids or any other adults.

And then Principal Morozov spotted me through the glass and shit, I was out of time.

I took a deep breath and opened the door. "Sorry it took me so long," I said, hoping that was the right thing to say. "It was hard getting off work."

"It's all right," Principal Morozov said. "We haven't even reached Mr. Accardo yet."

"Hey, Dad," came the halfhearted voice of Drew, hidden behind a chair too big for him, especially when he slumped in it like that.

I peered over the top and smiled at him softly. "What the heck, kid?" I asked.

"He called Patton a freak." Drew pointed at the kid in the middle, with a busted nose and--oh God.

He had scattered burn marks across the right side of his face, with two differently-colored eyes and a scowl.

"So of course you had to beat me up," the kid sneers. "Because that's a perfectly rational, healthy thing to do."

The third kid--Patton, I presumed--bounced in his seat, humming in distress. His father, a man wearing glasses and a polo shirt with a tie, rubbed his back.

"I don't see why my son has to be here," the other father said, looking at Principal Morozov. "He didn't do anything."

“Patton sits alone at lunch time and doesn’t have any friends,” the principal said. “We think if he tried to get along with his peers better, he’d have a happier time here.”

“Or, you know, you could make an effort to teach your students not to bully kids who are different from them,” I grumbled.

“What was that, Mr. Griffiths?”

I hesitated, glancing up at Principal Morozov, then back at Drew. On one hand, I wanted to lead by example: teach Drew that it was okay to stand up to authority for what he believed. On the other, sometimes, you had to pay lip-service to authority just to stay out of trouble. It was a lesson no child had the mental capacities to understand, but I supposed I’d have to do my best to teach him, because if I gave Principal Morozov cheek, he might expel Drew.

“Nothing, sir,” I said, feeling like a child cowering beneath the glare of my teachers again. I prepared to search for the bullshit in the story I was about to get fed and asked, “What happens now?”

"I'd prefer to wait for Mr. Accardo," the principal said.

"Roman teaches at a high school," the bully grumbled, slouched over with a glare fixated on the desk. "He's probably in the middle of class."

"Then you're going to have to stay after school to address this," Principal Morozov told him sternly.

"Whatever."

I had a very bad feeling about that kid. The scars on his face told a frightening story. He could just as easily be bullied for those as Drew got bullied for his ADHD and Patton for being a loner, which probably meant he turned that abuse outward and attacked others for their perceived differences in a never-ending cycle of abuse.

What? I could be bad at people and have a special interest in human psychology. Those two things were not mutually exclusive.

Suddenly, the door banged open. I jumped out of my skin, clamping a hand over my chest and struggling to breathe levelly, eyes crushed shut and body frozen. Then I heard the babbling.

"I'm sorry!" The principal's door opened. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. The kids were in the middle of rehearsal and--Janus, what happened? I'm so sorry, Mr. Morozov." A frazzled man with warm skin rushed inside and sat down next to the bully--Janus--hastily hugging him and turning his attention to the principal.

I frowned at the scene. I withheld judgment and looked at Principal Morozov as he said, "All right. Now that you're all here, there are going to be some serious consequences to what happened today."

********

"I can't believe you let him give me detention!" Drew whined. "Janus deserved to get punched!"

"And you deserve to die abandoned and unloved in a ditch, steeping in your own feces," Janus snapped.

"Janus," his father, Roman, said firmly, kneeling down and taking him by the shoulders. Janus tried to turn away from him, but Roman lightly shook him and made him meet his eyes. He softened. "I know how much you're hurting, but a hero never redirects his pain onto others. There are other ways."

"What if I don't want to be a hero?" Janus snapped. "What if I want to be the bad guy?"

"I don't believe that," Roman said gently, adjusting his bangs. "I don't think you do, either."

Janus turned from him sharply, crossing his arms and glaring at the asphalt. He sniffled.

Drew glanced up at me in confusion and I rubbed his back. "Sometimes," I said gently, "when people are hurting, they deal with that by hurting other people."

"That's stupid," Drew said with the blunt confidence of a ten-year-old.

"Maybe a little," I agreed, "but humans aren't always logical." Drew wrinkled his nose. "I know. It's so annoying, but it's true. You're not always logical, either. Remember when you burst out crying because your pencil broke?"

"Dad!" Drew turned bright red.

Roman chuckled. "So." He stood up and crossed his arms. "You're the little rascal who dared challenge Janus to a duel for--Patton, right?" He looked at Mr. Davis--or Logan, as he'd introduced himself--who nodded. "You're the rascal who challenged Janus to a duel for Patton's honor," Roman finished.

"He was being an asshole," Drew protested.

"I'd say it's not my fault he uses that language," I said through a wince, "but it's definitely my fault he uses that language."

"I'm the same way with Janus, don't worry." Roman chuckled--a low, rumbly sound. He turned back to Drew. "You're got a paladin's heart and a temper. I was a lot like you when I was a kid."

Drew snorted. "You think you're cute, don't you?"

"He's always like this," Janus said, shoving in front of Roman. "He thinks it's so inspiring to talk about heroes all the time, like fairy tales are the best thing ever."

"That's gotta be annoying," Drew said, wrinkling his nose.

"It is." Janus stopped and scowled. "Don't relate to me!"

"Ew! You're a jerk! Get away from me!"

I exchanged a fond, exasperated look with Roman, who chuckled and squeezed Janus' shoulder. "Hey," he said, "maybe, if you apologized, you could have a friend."

"I don't want to apologize."

"So you'd rather another kid think you're a horrible person!"

Janus hesitated a moment before straightened his back. "Yes."

"I don't believe that."

I glanced over at Logan and saw that he was busy talking to Patton, kneeling on the ground and smoothing his hands over his shoulders in measured strokes. It seemed to soothe Patton. I looked at Drew.

"You know how it sometimes hurts you when you think about your Aunt Cassie?" I said softly, pulling him into my side as the shadow washed over his face.

"He called Patton a freak, Dad," Drew argued. "He's not even really my friend, but he's not a freak. He's just...different. Like me."

"I know, kiddo," I said, squeezing him against my side. "You don't have to give him a chance. He hasn't asked forgiveness, and you wouldn't owe him one even if you did. I just know you don't like to see people struggling alone."

Drew hesitated.

I looked over at Logan. "How's Patton?"

Logan glanced back at me, then looked at Patton. "Do you want to answer?"

Patton hesitated.

"It's okay," I said, not looking at his face. Patton hadn't made eye contact with a single person, including his father, since I'd met him. He clearly had more trouble with it than I did, and I wasn't always a huge fan. "I'm autistic, too."

Patton immediately perked up. "Really?"

"Yeah." I smiled, looking over the top of his head. I looked at Drew. "Can I tell him about you?"

"I'm ADHD," Drew told him, turning to him. "I got diagnosed last year."

"Oh cool!" Patton flapped his hands at his sides and bounced eagerly. "I don't, I don't think, because I'm actually pretty good at focusing most of the time and I have a really good memory, but Dad says autism and ADHD are really close together. It's really nice to meet someone else! I don't have many friends."

"Well, I guess you have me," Drew said. "I didn't get in trouble defending you for nothing."

Patton squealed and continued stimming enthusiastically. Drew offered a hug, which Patton considered for a long moment before accepting.

Logan smiled softly at the exchange and looked over to me. "You've raised a very kind son."

"More than half of it is all him," I said. "I do the best I can, but...I'm just one person. He's probably gonna hate me once he's a teenager."

"Nuh-uh!" Drew objected, charging over to embrace me around the middle. I smiled and hugged him close, squeezing him as tight as was safe. He grunted.

I caught Janus staring at us. I couldn't read his expression. He was glaring, but I had a feeling it wasn't anger. But clearly, Roman did understand it, because he knelt down and hugged him close, even when he tried to push him away. He just held fast. I thought for sure Janus would react badly--he hadn't wanted to be held, what was wrong with Roman?--but then he slowly relaxed and leaned against him. I still couldn't read him very well, but that...didn't look particularly resigned.

"You know," Roman said, pulling back after a long while, "I bet Drew and Patton would be willing to forgive you if you really, really earnestly apologized."

Janus shoved away from him, crossing his arms and glaring at the ground. "I don't want to apologize."

Roman sighed heavily, and Drew whirled on him. "You're such a freaking jerk!" he screamed. "What's wrong with you? Why do you have to be a jerk to everyone? I tried to be your friend and you just spit on me!"

"I don't want your pity!"

"It wasn't pity!"

"It's always pity!" Janus screeched. "You think I don't know what these scars make me? You think I don't know I'm a freak? If the fire didn't teach me that, then my parents sure did! I'm nothing! The only reason anyone would be nice to me is pity and I don't want anyone's pity! I just want to be left alone!"

Janus turned and ran. Roman chased after him frantically, never sparing Logan or I a glance.

Drew and Patton stood stunned. Drew looked at Patton, who stared at his forehead. "Well..." he said. "What the heck am I supposed to do now?"

Patton ran in the direction of Janus.

At that point, about the only thing for Drew and I to do was chase after his new friend, hot on the heels of his father.

We found Patton with his backpack unzipped, standing beside Janus' car door, already buckled in with Roman partway into the driver's seat, holding out a picture of a flower.

"It's ivy," Patton said. "It means friendship."

Janus stared at him through the window, unmoving. Patton, to my shock, held his gaze for one, two moments and then averted his eyes. Logan hurried over to hold him, clearly expecting Janus to reject him again.

Janus opened the car door. "Why would you want to be my friend?"

"He didn't say he wanted to be your friend," Drew sneered. "He just said it meant friendship, dummy."

"Drew," I chided softly, and he recoiled into my side.

"Because it's nice to know I'm not the only one who can't make any friends," Patton said. "I like having other friends who are special."

"I'm not special," Janus snapped.

"Dad says that being different is always special, because different people have discovered some of the coolest, prettiest things ever."

"It's true," Logan said. "Albert Einstein, Hans Christian Anderson, and Michelangelo. were all autistic."

"See?" Patton bounced and beamed at Janus. "So maybe we can all be different and special together and do really cool things one day! Like the three Musketeers."

Janus considered strongly. "I'm Athos."

"You can be whoever you want to be!" Patton said earnestly. "Then we can all have lots of musketcheer."

Drew, Roman and I choked on a laugh. Logan shook his head fondly. "He watches one sitcom that likes puns and he suddenly won't stop," he said.

Even Janus cracked a small smile. He accepted the paper. "Fine," he said. "We can have musketcheer."

Drew pouted. "Does this mean I'm your friend now?"

"Yes," Patton said firmly, looking at him.

Drew jumped, looking fearfully at Patton, who somehow managed to look intimidating while also avoiding eye contact. He looked up at me. "What have I done?" he asked.

"Made friends." I rubbed his back. I looked around. "We should probably get all these guys home. They've had a long day, and school will be letting out soon."

"I guess now that all our kids are friends, I'll be seeing more of you," Roman said to both Logan and me.

Logan hummed. "I presume so. Patton does not own a phone of his own. I can give you my number if your children wish to contact him?"

"I hate to say it, but you should probably get him his own phone," I said. "It's dangerous not to have one. If I ever lost sight of Drew...I'd rather he have a phone."

Logan considered this. "I suppose you have a point. Nevertheless, for the moment, you'll have to go through me to reach Patton."

"Don't have to ask me twice. Here." Roman accepted Logan's phone and typed in Janus' number, then passing it to Drew, who stared at it for a moment.

I recited his number to him and he punched it in. "Don't worry, kid," I said. "One day, you're going to have to tell so many doctors your number that it's going to be emblazoned on your brain."

After all numbers had been exchanged, I shook Logan's and Roman's hands goodbye and let Patton and Drew embrace again. Janus stayed stubbornly in his seat, refusing any sort of affection, which kind of concerned me, but then Roman whispered, "This is the most receptive he's been since I started fostering him."

I nodded and smiled, leading Drew back toward the car. He looked at me. "I guess I have friends now."

I glanced back toward Roman's car as it drove away and caught Logan's eye as he loaded into his own. He smiled at me.

"Yeah," I said. "I think I might have, too."

[wiypt-writes]

Sunny Side Up

Summary: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? And for Mike, there’s no better way to start it than by eating his favourite thing, ever.

Pairing: Mike Weiss x Reader

Warnings: Smut (NSFW, 18+) Brief mentions of drug addiction- nothing graphic. Language!

A/N: So this was what popped into my head after seeing @imanuglywombat​ post that damned latest Sex Position as part of her downright filthy and wonderful “Is That Even A Sex Position” weekly challenge. This position is called “The Special Breakfast”. See here for more information. And you can totally blame @sweater-daddiesdumbdork​ for this one. I wasn’t gonna write it but…yeah, I did. Sorry not sorry.  I’ve tried to make the reader as non-descript and as inclusive as I can but I don’t usually do reader x fics so I apologise if it hasn’t quite hit the mark.

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar the reader.  By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Tagged my permanent tag list.

Main Masterlist

********

“No, that’s not the same, at all.” Mike’s voice drifted up the hallway of you house as you closed the door behind you, shutting out the bitter January wind that has descended over Dover. “Yeah, well they signed up to the terms so....”

You glanced at your watch, it wasn’t even seven-AM yet and he was already on to someone about the current case he was working. But then, that was Mike all over. An addict, only now you were glad to say the only thing flooding his system was adrenaline and passion for his work.

You hung your jacket up on the pegs by the door, unwrapped your woollen scarf from round your neck and placed that over the hook above your jacket and then reached down to unzip you boots, before toeing them off. Your sock clad feet padded down the wooden floor of the hall towards the kitchen and you walked in to see Mike was bent over a file on the island in the middle, already dressed for the office.

“Clause ninety-one, paragraph twenty, sub-bullet two. Yup. We’ll present that to them today, give them chance to respond.” He paused for a moment, his head turning to you, a warm smile spreading across his face as you leaned over for a quick peck before you headed to the fridge for a soda. “Yeah. Okay, no problem, see you about half eight.”

With that he placed the cordless phone down and turned to face you.

“Morning, Baby.” He grinned, before he nodded to the Diet Coke in your hand. “Interesting choice of drink for breakfast.”

“Technically it’s not my breakfast time.” You shrugged back. “More like dinner, I suppose.”

Mike chuckled as he crossed to space towards you, his hands falling to your hips before he bent down and brushed his lips against yours in a hardly there kiss. “Good shift?”

“A heart attack, car accident, two broken legs, couple of flu cases and a shit tonne of idiotic drunks, the finest Delaware has to offer.” You shrugged. “Usual shit.”

“I don’t know how you do it, Dr Y/L/N”

“Lucky for you I do, or we’d have never met.”

“And I’d be dead.”

“Don’t.” You shook your head, swallowing a little. The memory of that night almost eighteen months ago was still raw. If you hadn’t stopped by at Mike’s that evening following an argument the pair of you had earlier in the day, you’d never have found him almost dead from an overdose. It had been a long road to recovery, and whilst nothing was ever proven, Mike and Paul were convinced that it was something to do with the safety needle case they had been working. Despite the fact that there was enough heroin in his system to stop his heart, Mike swore blind to you he hadn’t taken anything but a few lines that night, and there was something about the way he said it that made you believe him. And so did Paul.

The authorities never managed to prove anything, but there was one good thing to come out of it. When you had broken down and told Mike how scared you’d been that he was going to die and that you couldn’t cope anymore with the constant fear that one day he would kill himself for real, it gave Mike the final kick he needed because he didn’t want to lose you.

So he got clean. And this time he did it for good.

It wasn’t easy, for either of you. Once he was medically fit enough, Mike had been placed on a programme at a Rehab Centre, whereby he saw no one bar trained medical specialists and councillors for six weeks. It felt like the longest six weeks of your life but he did it. And when you went to pick him up, you instantly burst into tears at how different he looked, how better he looked, how healthy he looked.

The road to recovery is a long one, paved with temptations, you knew that being a Doctor. And whilst Mike knew and understood his triggers thanks to his programme, those temptations met him everywhere, especially because he knew exactly where and how to get his fix. So the pair of you agreed to take a fresh start. You traded Texas for Delaware, the State you were originally from, and you were beyond proud to be able to honestly state that Mike Weiss had been clean now for eighteen months. Well, apart from alcohol that is. But even that was enjoyed in moderation, and to be honest, you’d rather him sit at home with a glass or two of bourbon each night that sticking fuck knows what into his veins.

You cocked your head to one side as his hands flexed on your hip and he gave you a little side smile. “Sorry. Oh, hey guess who I got a call from?”

“Who?” You asked as he stepped back, grinning.

“The Alligator Farm. Snappy’s got himself a lady friend. They’re gonna send me some photos and stuff.”

You smiled, giving up that beloved alligator had been a hard sell to Mike. “That’s great.”

“Yeah. Oh and Paul was thinking of coming over with the family in the spring. I said they could stay here, I know it’ll be a squeeze but is that okay?”

“Course it is.” You reached up to cup his cheek. “It’ll be lovely to see them again.”

Mike smiled and dropped another kiss to your lips, this one slightly stronger before you pat his chest as he rest his forehead against yours.

“I need to go shower.”

“Want me to come join you?” He asked, eyebrow raised and you smiled.

“As good as that sounds there’s something else I want more.”

“Oh yeah?” He grinned, his eyes flickering down to the buttons on your blouse and you laughed.

“Calm down, Stud. I want pancakes and bacon, I don’t give a shit what time it’s supposed to be for me.”

Mike groaned as you moved away from where you’d been stood with your back to the large, stainless steel fridge and headed out of the room. He watched you go, the gently sway of your hips in your well fitted black pants made his groin twitch. He was half tempted to fuck your demands and go and jump you in the shower whether you wanted him to or not, but he’d seen the flicker your face had given when you’d described how your twelve-hour shift had gone down. Despite your blasé tone, he knew you too well and understood exactly how tired and stressed you were feeling. So, instead, he turned his attention to making breakfast.

Something he prided himself on was his cooking ability. He’d picked it up pretty fast since you’d moved here, he found it was a welcome distraction, so much so you very rarely made meals now, bar when you insisted on doing a roast which he never argued against.  Within fifteen minutes he had a stack of pancakes, bacon, eggs- sunny side up, as you preferred- all laid out on the island and ready for you to help yourself to. He’d just poured you an orange juice when you walked back into the kitchen, hair piled on your head in a messy bun, wrapped in a dressing gown and he was pleased to see you looked relaxed.

“Oh, Mikey, this looks great!” You smiled as he wrapped an arm round you, kissing your head. He watched as you helped yourself to a huge plateful before making your way over to the table and sitting down with a sigh. Mike tucked his tie into his shirt to avoid it dropping into his food and plated himself a helping up before he sat down at the place next to you, cracking his neck slightly. The pair of you chatted about the day ahead, which for you consisted of sleeping until it was time to get up for your next shift, Mike’s contained a meeting with a company who he was currently in the process of negotiating a settlement with on behalf of a client. When you’d finished, Mike made to clear away the dishes but you gently placed your hand on his arm and stood up, insisting on doing it as he’d cooked.

When you returned to the table, Mike pushed his chair back slightly and patted his knee.

“Come ‘ere.” He smiled softly and you grinned, settling yourself on his lap sideways, your arm looping round his shoulder, fingers gently playing with his suspenders. He gave a contented sigh as he wrapped his arms around you and pressed a kiss to your head, happy to simply be close to you for a moment.

“You doing okay?” You asked and he smiled, your words carrying that hidden meaning- ‘Do you want a fix, today?’

“I’m good, Babes.” He pulled back to look at you. “I promise.”

Smiling you gently placed your lips on his in a soft kiss, which soon became heated as Mike’s hand slid up to the back of your neck, holding you in place as his tongue slid along your bottom lip. He was pleased when you reciprocated, opening your mouth slightly to allow him in. He could taste the sweetness of the syrup on you from your pancakes and, as your tongue gently swirled against his, he let out a little groan from the back of his throat and he felt you smile.

“How long till you have to be in the office?” Your voice was lower than you’d intended, betraying exactly what you had in mind and Mike grinned at you, pulling back a little, as he glanced up at the clock.

“Just over forty-five minutes, why?”

You bit your lip, fingers toying once more with his suspenders which were clipped to the waistband of his light, grey trousers and sat over a maroon shirt, set off with a black tie. “Do I gotta spell it out to you, Weiss?”

“No, I just like hearing you beg.” A cheeky glint flashed in his eyes and you gave a snort.

“I do not beg.”

“Really?” He arched an eyebrow and in a swift moment he stood up, causing you to give a shriek of a giggle as he sat you on the table in front of him. “I bet,” he pushed on your shoulders causing you to rest your weight on your elbows as he loomed over you, gently reaching for the tie on your robe, “that I can have you singing my name and begging for more,” his hands made quick work of the knot and pulled it open, before his fingers slid up the front, opening it to leave you bare in front of him, “in less than five minutes flat.”

“Less than five minutes?” You looked up at him, his eyes blown with lust and you smirked. “You’re so full of shit.”

He wasn’t though, you knew full well that you were the one full of shit. Mike had on many an occasion had you crying his name in less time than it took you to sing a verse of the National Anthem, and he knew it as the cocky expression on his face showed.

“Oh, Baby Girl.” He chuckled, bending over, his mouth brushing against that spot on your neck, the bristles of his short beard scratching your skin. “Have you learnt nothing, yet?”

“Only that you’re a cocky little bastard.” You tried to keep your voice level but it didn’t work. Your words came out a shaky whisper as one of his hands gently splayed on your stomach and brushed up your body to your sternum as he peppered hot, opened mouthed kisses across your collar bone, before his lips ghosted up your neck, over your chin and his mouth claimed yours in a searing kiss as his hand palmed at your breast. As he rolled your nipple between his finger and thumb you gave a moan and he smirked against your mouth.

Suddenly, he was gone from over you and you frowned, missing his sudden presence and you propped yourself up on your elbows to see him settling back in the chair by the table.

“Mike, what the-“

You were cut off as he reached over, grabbing your ass and hoisting your pelvis up, pulling you towards him. Before you could register what was going on, your legs were over his shoulders and you just caught a glimpse of his face, as he quirked an eyebrow at you, lips curled upwards in that maddeningly smug bastard grin, before his mouth was trailing up the inside of your thigh.

“Oh, Jesus.” You let out a little groan as he neared the place you now desperately wanted him and he chuckled.

“No, just me.”

“Fuck off you-“ But whatever it was you were going to call him flew from your mind as his tongue licked up your sex, and grazed against your clit, teasing it with quick, hardly there flicks which, you were ashamed to say, had you riled up something feral. His hands palmed at your ass, his fingers curling round the outside of your thighs as he quickened his movements, his mouth expertly devouring you, tongue flicking into your entrance as his lips circled that sensitive nub, giving a suck that made you cry out, your back arching off the table, pushing yourself further onto his face.

Mike let out a chuckle which vibrated exquisitely against you and you gasped again, your hands slapping onto the cool surface of the table, fingernails feeling the grain of the wood as he upped his efforts dramatically, lips and tongue teasing you in a way that was so delectable it was teetering along that fine line between pain and pleasure. His mouth expertly devoured every inch of you, from your inner and outer pussy lips to the depths of your walls, tongue fucking you like you he was starving, despite the breakfast the pair of you had eaten moments ago.

“Fuck, Mike, I need…” Your voice was croaky, the words sounded far off as they bounced around your lust addled brain and once again he chuckled.

“I told you.”

“Yeah, yeah you arrogant sh-oooh fuck!” You cried as he gently nipped your clit. “Shit!”

You were willing yourself to remain grounded, wanting to prove him wrong but you couldn’t. You couldn’t fight the urge you felt to ride over the edge which was building like a fire inside you. When his mouth was over you completely once more, tongue deep, you felt him move one of his hands and his thumb pressed against your clit, before the pressure eased off and his tongue slipped away.

"Okay, okay you win, Mike, please for the love of God!” You groaned and with a final, maddeningly smug chuckle he dove back in, only this time when you felt your orgasm brewing he didn’t stop. One of your hands flew to his hair, pulling lightly on his soft, spiky strands and he gave a growl as you tugged, his efforts doubling once more as his beard scratched against your sensitive pussy and inner thighs. The coil in your belly was tightening, your entire body quivered and with a final flick of his tongue you gave a cry as your orgasm crashed over you. Your toes curled into his back just below his shoulders, your own back arched as your walls clamped down over nothing, the room fading out as everything went silent and the lights erupted in front of your eyes, your entire body feeling like you were floating.

Mike grinned, guiding you through your release before he stood up, pulling you further to the end of the table as he undid the flies on his trousers, freeing his painfully hard erection. The swollen head of his dick gently swirled around your folds before he buried himself inside you, groaning as he felt you fluttering around him in the after throes of your orgasm. You let out a low groan and finally opened your eyes, looking up at him as he pounded into you, fully clothed, those fucking suspenders that drove you wild still looped over his shoulders.  

He slid one, large hand under your back and pulled you up causing you to cry out as he drove deeper into you, his hand on the base of your back pulling you up and towards him as he dipped his head to give you a dirty, sloppy kiss whilst he rolled and thrust into you. Then His lips moved down, nipping at your neck, his breath hot on your ear as your head fell back, a low moan rumbling in his throat.

“God, I love seeing you like this, fucking wrecked all because of me.” His panted words made you groan even more as the heat in your groin was beginning to mount again. “Makes me higher than any fucking drug ever could.”

His thrusts continued, hard, deep, and you felt his dick throbbing inside you as he drove up against your spot, his lips back on yours as he kissed you hard, swallowing the pants and whimpers you were making as you began to teeter on that cliff edge again. With a deep roll of his hips you let out a low wail and came, once more, your core spasmed around him as your entire body tingled, and that was enough for him to follow you. With a powerful thrust he stiffened, a low grunt stuttering from his lips as he pulsed inside of you, his hips growing sloppy before they stopped completely. His chest heaving, he pressed his forehead to yours, the pair of you gasping for breath as you came down from your high.

“Shit, Mike.” You managed to stutter as he grinned, his lips meeting yours in a soft peck. “That was…”

“Yeah, I was pretty good.” He chuckled and you slapped his arm as he moved and pulled out of you. You straightened your robe and stood up, wincing as you felt his release trickled down your inner thigh.

“I need another shower.” You grumbled, before you glanced at his crotch, the damp patch where he’d pressed against you was clear as day. “And you should probably change your trousers.”

Mike glanced down before his eyes met you, and he shrugged. “Maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll go into the office like this and then every time I see it I’ll be reminded exactly what a damned good breakfast I had this morning.”

You blinked before you shook your head, scoffing. “You’re gross.”

He laughed. “You love it, Sweetheart.”

“I love you.” You corrected, your hands sliding up over his shoulders and he smiled, a pure, innocent smile that made him look like a schoolboy before he took your face in his hands and kissed you deeply, pulling away, his nose bumping against yours.

“I love you too.” He whispered, his eyes locking onto yours. “Now go, before I decide to play hooky for the day.”

“Don’t tempt me with a good time, Weiss.” You smirked, before with one final quick peck you left the room.

Mike watched you go, before he ran his hands through his hair and turned to glance around the kitchen, his eyes falling to the table he’d just fucked you senseless on.

He should probably clean that before he went to work…

[svnarintaro]

gross.. do it again

authors note: I LOVE HIM OKAY DONT COME AT ME- i really have to up my game here i got some have high expectations for myself for this one so i hope you like it also low key y/n’s personality is kinda based off of my favourite bae @katsuhoee​

synopsis: you knew the stress of being a pro hero was tough, through it all you were there for him, on a particular day he was just burnt out so you spend the night together.

word count: 1.2k 

warnings; fluffy fluff fluff.

!pro hero! bakugou katsuki x reader

katsuki bakugou was really a force to be reckoned within the hero industry, he was too hard working for his own good, even as a rookie he was making great progress in climbing up the ranks. you were an ordinary person that worked at a cafe, that was how you met your doting boyfriend. he ordered at the cafe and you had to shut your co worker up and the moment you bowed to apologize you looked up to see some of the prettiest eyes you have ever seen and thats when katsuki felt infatuation for the first time. so every week he made it his effort to see you and what he thought was a dumb little crush turned into genuine feelings, and thats how you got in a relationship. 

bakugou had finally finished a mission today and he felt exhausted, his arms were sore, there were new callouses on his hands and his head hurt a lot. feeling lazy, he didn’t want to go to his apartment that was across town, so he went to yours instead since it was far more closer. he didn’t have his phone on him so he couldn’t text you before hand. he had already changed out of his hero costume and he was now in his work clothes, in a suit and tie. the sun was down already and the moon was out and bright as ever. 

he knocked on your door and waited for you to open the door, he just hoped that you were home. the door swung open to see you in casual clothing, your hair was a little messy but it was okay, ‘how adorable,’ bakugou thought. “b-bakugou?! what are you doing here? you know what never mind just get inside.” you lead him inside your apartment and you sat him down. “you want water or do you-” he pulls you onto the couch and wraps his arms around you.

he sighed, his head was on his shoulder, “baku-” “call me katsuki.” you eyes widened, the extra weight on your shoulder, “katsuki are you okay? do you feel sick? do you need water?” you gently moved him off your shoulder, “i’ll get you some water.” “y/n i-” you kissed his cheek and got off the couch, “i’ll be like three minutes, i won’t go anywhere.” as you skipped your way to the kitchen

you were freaking out, ‘he told me to call him katsuki, he let me say his first name.’ you hands were shaking out of excitement. you hummed a little tune that was stuck in your head, as you reached for two glasses, ‘he trusts me..’ a small smile creeped up your face as you thought it through, ‘he’s such a little softy’ you filled the glasses with water and set them aside to get some fruit for the little gremlin on your couch. 

on the other side katsuki was on the couch and touched his cheek. ‘they kissed my cheek’ the tingly feeling left a feeling in his stomach, there was a beautiful array of butterflies in his stomach and his heart was pumping out more and and more adrenaline into his system. ‘they really are a special little person.’ 

the two of you were just cut out for each other right now, it felt like it was a fairy tale. 

and you both loved it.

finally returning you returned to the couch and laid the fruit and water on the little coffee table that you owned, bakugou had his blazer off and you handed him an oversized shirt and sweat pants your guy friend had given you. as you sat back down you felt strong arms slithering around your frame, as the two of you giggled as you snacked on the fruit talking about your interests and the highlights of your week. the moment that the plate was empty “why do you have to be so kind to me.. i really am a top level jerk, a jerk that is complaining to his s/o but you know what it gets worse,” he let out a breathy sigh, “it gets so much worse.” a singular tear ran down his face, he felt pathetic and tired of everything. “katsu.. you can always count on me.. i care about you too much to let this go..”  looked him straight in the eye and softened the gaze as much as you could. you were scared that you would break him, he looked too fragile and beautiful. 

“here take my. hand katsu..” you stood up and held out your hand, “please.. i promise you are not a jerk, you are anything but a jerk.. you are in need of time, you need sleep” he slowly took your hand, he wanted to trust you with all of his heart. he needed to be sure that he would never hurt you. he squeezed your hand as you lead him to your bedroom. 

his pupils widened, ‘wait wait wait, this is going too fast, are they sure they want this?’ his hands were becoming sweaty. your giggles cut through the silence, “katsu, i’m not going to do what you think i’m going to do. i want you to sleep comfortably tonight.” and you sat him down on your bed. “so you are sleeping here and i’m sleeping on the couch.” you pet his head and turned your body away from katsuki, that was until a tender little tug on the back of your t-shirt.

“please don’t go.. i... i need you to stay, just..” his tug was more assertive and you lightly pushed his shoulder to where his back hit the mattress and you crawled into bed with him, “shh i’m here, i am not leaving anytime soon,” you cooed as you cradled his head into your chest. he was so gentle right now, like a baby, like a vulnerable baby. like the world didn’t matter anymore since he was in your arms, ‘what did i do to deserve you katsuki?’

“i am here for all your days, good or bad, and i promise that i will be here for you with open arms. you can alway come here, you can always come to me. this space?” you paused to catch your breath. katsuki felt warm inside with your words filling him up, your arms rubbing his back felt like heaven to him, his soreness was no longer there. it was like magic to him. after a while you checked on katsuki, his eyes were slowly staring to close and you wanted to help him sleep so you pushed his hair back to reveal is forehead and kissed his exposed skin. 

his eyes opened once again and groaned, “that was gross..” you jumped back a little and started apologizing as many times as you could. “i- i didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, it was an accident i’m so sorry-” bakugou interrupted you once more but it was different this time..

he kissed you lips. 

it felt so fluffy, and his chapped lips were coarse against yours, as soon as it started, it was already over. 

he lowered his head again to bury his head , “wha- what do you want me to-” “it was gross... but do it again.” he huffed out and you gladly complied and showered him with kisses until his eyes were now covered with his eye lids. “i love you katsuki bakugou..”

“i love you too you sap”

[dokoni-mo]

Far Away, Together || Darth Vader x Reader

(A/N: Hello all! This is my first post on tumblr and I am so excited to share my fic with all you lovely people!!! I used to write alot, but haven’t in some time. Since I am renewing my love for star wars, I thought that I would do a little something for my favorite man of all time: Vader!!! A big thanks to Kenna for helping to inspire me to write again (you know who you are :))) ). This is chapter one of a series of about 10 chapters I plan to write. Please enjoy and feel free to ask to be added to the tag list!! also, not my gif)

WARNINGS: mentions of a TIE crash, some cursing

Key: (F/N) = first name  (L/N) = last name

Word Count: ~3600

Edit: Link to Chapter Two: [x]

Life on the Super Star Destroyer was exactly the same as the ship looked on the outside: cold, dull, and gray. Color? What’s that? Life? Never heard of it. 

No one ever really stopped to mingle with one another, even for a brief, courteous “hello!” or “hey, how’s it going?”. These types of action were seen as unnecessary and not impactful to squashing out the rebellion, as well as to eliminating any sign of hope that one day the Empire will just cease to exist, leaving everyone alone. Everything and everyone had a purpose within the Empire. Everyone had their own job, and heaven forbid that you are somehow unable to do that job. Any failure was seen as weakness, and the Empire had no use for weakness amongst its ranks. These were the fundamental truths of working under the Empire.

Being a mechanic wasn’t so bad. You got to do what you loved to do, so what’s so bad about that? Sure, you had very little contact with the outside world (aside from the occasional news briefing or smuggled-in holovid), you had very few acquaintances, and you were always just referred to as last name only, but all of these could be overlooked. You wake up, put on your drab, gray-green uniform, go to work, then go back to your quarters, rinse and repeat every day of every week. A nice little routine for your nice little job on the nice little imperial vessel. 

To say you blended in with the crowd was wrong. Everyone blended in with the crowd, so to say you blended in with the crowd was diagnosing yourself with special-snowflake syndrome. There was no individuality within the Empire. There was only the Empire, the usage of names only a formality or a way to get one’s attention. Despite this, due to human nature, those serving would often try to attempt some sort of individuality. Female officers would have a signature way of pulling back their hair, troopers would talk in different made-up accents, and some even gave themselves tattoos. You, however, found your individuality within your work. 

When fixing something, you would often put  your own spin on how you bring said thing back to its former glory. Fixing a speederbike? Lets rewire the wires so that they make a nice, pretty zig-zag pattern. This will help it steer a bit better, anyway. Fixing a blaster with a faulty trigger? Why not add a new cooling system just to be nice. Fixing a TIE? Oh boy, the possibilities are endless. 

This may be what has allowed you to rise through the ranks so quickly as a mechanic. There was seemingly nothing that you couldn’t inflict your midas touch upon. Plop anything down on your workbench and it's a guarantee that it will be fixed. 

On the other hand, it may just be dumb luck. This is ultimately what you thought. You were just merely doing your job, trying to not cause any trouble for yourself, just like everyone else you worked with. It just so happened to be you that the Empire had noticed. 

It was this attention that landed you this new assignment.The news had come suddenly and almost unexpectedly. Pack your bags, (F/N), you're out of the Endor research station and now on a one-way ticket to the Super Star Destroyer. Of course, there was no one around to pat you on the back when you got the news, and certainly no one to say congratulations. You did that yourself that night by treating yourself to an extra ration. 

If you were anyone else within the Empirical army, you would be over the moon about working on this ship. But, you felt no emotion towards the subject. It was just another job, what’s so special about it?

You quickly learned the answer to that. 

Him. 

He made the entire aura of the ship much tenser than any other research station or star destroyer that you had ever been on. People were not kidding when they said that his entire presence dripped with authority and power. To defy him, was to defy the Empire. To fail him, was to fail the Empire. It also always meant a loss of your life by the point of his saber. 

You remember the first time that you saw him with your own eyes, not just an image from a news briefing or the picture you formed in your head when you heard the stories. You were lined up along with all of your new fellow troopers, officers, and mechanics, your hands firmly by your sides and your chin held up high, your eyes the only part allowed to move. He had been returning from some sort of escapade, and it was time for another customary formal greeting for him.

He was hard to miss when the door to the shuttle had touched the cold, hard ground. Everything about him was massive, intimidating. Dressed head to toe in black, his frame resembling a man but his features that of a droid. Despite the layers upon layers of armor and clothing, you could tell his muscles were nothing to bat an eye at. His shoulderspan looked like it could be twice your own, and his hands look like they could wrap around your waist and crush you in to a million tiny pieces at any second. Hot. 

As he walked past you, you could feel the floor vibrate with menacing trembles as he took each step. His breathing was enrapturing, filling up your ears like it was there to live rent-free. When he finally spoke (a simple “Good, admiral”), you could feel the bass right in the middle of  your chest. His voice was encapsulating, surrounding you with it's deep, authoritative, encompassing demeanor. Even hotter. 

Yes, Darth Vader was quite the interesting character. But, he was not the one, you had decided, to try and become buddy-buddy with. Far too risky. Instead, you would carry on as normal: do your job, and don’t get in anyone’s way. You have done this for years, and a change of scenery with a far more intimidating boss wouldn't change that. 

Except when it did. 

The day (you believed that it was day, at least. It was hard to keep track of time in the middle of space on a giant floating mouse cursor) was as simple as ever. You woke up, ate your breakfast rations, then went straight to work. They had you fixing a few blasters and comms that day. How exciting. 

You almost didn't hear the sound of the sirens when they went off, nor how the room suddenly was flashing red. When you had finally came-to, the sound of a highly distressed officer was over the hangar’s comm system. 

“Everyone clear the bridge now! Lord Vader is coming in hot!”

Coming in hot? You wondered what that had meant. Of course, you knew what that meant, but this was Lord Vader we were talking about. He was the best pilot in the whole Empirical fleet. He never crashed, you had thought. 

Despite your judgement, you put down your tools and started to run along with the other mechanics. They seemed just as confused as you were, awkwardly trying to shuffle out of their stations into somewhere safe. Quietly slipping past the small crowd, you found refuge on the other side of the doorway you were in, finding a place to watch within one of the windows. 

Looking up to the stars that made up the tail-end wall of your workplace, you were almost shocked to see that the officer over the comm wasn’t hallucinating. Lord Vader’s TIE was, indeed, coming in hot. A noticeable plumage of smoke followed in his wake, as well as the occasional burst of sparks and the odd chunk of metal falling off. The noise that TIE made when it passed through the barrier was unholy, making you wince right before you had jumped in your polished boots. Lord Vader’s TIE crashed right on the floor of your workspace, skidding along and spinning not before crashing into several unfinished projects and stopping just before the doorway you had been standing in.  

Oh, maker. He’s dead. 

That was your only thought as the smoke and dust around the TIE settled in the air. The smoke was occasionally illuminated by the sparks coming out of the ship. This was definitely not a pretty scene. That TIE was busted. 

A twinge of some sort of odd emotion rippled through you as you saw the tip of a red stream of light pierced through the metal of the broken TIE. It made a large circle motion before shrinking back inside. Moments later, the circle had been thrown off, flying past the group of mechanics that had begun to shuffle awkwardly back into the hangar to inspect the scene for themselves. You had joined them as the circle was discarded off of the TIE, the wind making a strand of your hair raise. 

He stepped out of the burning pile of metal mess moments later. A small amount of smoke radiated off of his body as his boots collided with the ground. His shoulders were raised, his left fist in a ball as his right held on firmly to his weapon. He offered no one any explanation as he marched his way to the medical bay, an air of contempt and loathing following him. 

They had let you off to lunch early that day. The smoke from the TIE could be toxic, and they needed some time to clear out the hangar before everyone could get back to work. 

You ate your ration in silence as everyone around you murmured their theories and rumors about the incident that had occurred about an hour earlier. There was no need to speculate, in your eyes, and the only people you talked with were out on some other assignment. Silence kept you company, anyhow. 

Your peaceful lunch, however, was eventually rudely interrupted by some rude, old geezer. His uniform adorned many different patches and pins, so you figured he had to be some sort of presiding, know-it-all, experienced officer. The lines in his face only made him look more stern and stuck up than he sounded, his lips pursed as he eyed the datapad he held whilst he stood in front of your lunch table. 

“(L/N), I presume, yes? Our newest mechanic from Endor?” the old man questioned, his dark eyes flicking back and forth between you and your glowing blue picture. 

“Yes, sir. That’s me.” you responded, sitting up to offer some sort of respect to the officer. 

The old man turned off his datapad with that, folding his arms behind his back as he addressed you fully. “Well, Miss (L/N), I do hope that your current assignment holds no sentimental value to you. You are being reassigned with a very important alternative, effective immediately.” 

“Immediately?” you questioned, “I apologize sir, I don’t quite-”

“Your new assignment, Miss (L/N), is to repair Lord Vader’s TIE. I assume you bore witness to his entrance earlier today.” said the old officer, cutting you off. “Lord Vader’s ship is of utmost importance to the Empire, and we only assign our best to repair it when needed. We have already removed your previous assignment from your station and place Lord Vader’s TIE in its place.” 

Before you could get another word out, the officer turned on his heel to leave, only giving you a side glance over his shoulder as he continued, “You should be pleased, Miss (L/N). You just became one of our finest mechanics.” 

~~~

You only saw a heaping pile of garbage that was vaguely shaped like a TIE Advanced x1 at your station when you returned. The ship was mangled beyond repair. Aside from the gaping hole in the center of the fighter, the wings were gnashed beyond recognition, many of the metal plates lining the surface either gone or melted, the wires that snaked along the inside of the craft were now on the outside, and it still hadn’t stopped smoking completely. 

You couldn't hide your expression as you walked around the TIE. Why the hell would you even try and repair this hunk of shit? you thought to yourself, Just get a new TIE, I’m sure the Empire can afford it. 

You contemplated on going back and finding that old man that gave you the assignment and asking him to repeat it back to you. Whoever wanted this thing repaired was a madman at best. Sighing, you reminded yourself of your virtues. Do your job, don’t get in the way. And, this was your new job. 

You had no idea on where to start. 

~~~

It was long past quitting hours when you heard the doors to the hangar open. 

You were perched on top of the broken down TIE, your jacket long since discarded. You were left only in your boots, pants, tanktop, and goggles as you heard heavy footsteps draw closer to your station. 

You paused briefly from your welding to listen to the footsteps for a brief moment. You pondered for a short time on whether or not to address the person walking towards you, but decided against it. You figured that they were just some trooper or other mechanic sneaking out for a midnight walk or snack. Although you were loyal to the Empire, you were no snitch to your fellow troop. You resumed your welding after your judgement had ended. 

You continued to listen, however, and noticed how the footsteps had ended very close to your station. Listening past the sound of your welding, your heart almost jumped out your throat and hitched a ride to the outer-rim when you noticed an all-too-familiar sound. 

That breathing. 

To make sure that your ears were not playing tricks on you, you stopped your welding and peeked over the top of the TIE. Sure enough, there he was, staring up at you without a word, without even moving one muscle. Your blood ran cold. 

“L-Lord Vader!” You called down as you scurried to put down your tools, pushing your goggles up to rest on your sweat-gleamed forehead. You landed on the ground with a thunk as you slid down the TIE, hurriedly walking over to address the Dark Lord properly. 

Standing so close to him forced you to notice the height and size difference between the two of you. He was tall, so tall that you had to almost crane your neck to look him in the eyes of his mask. His frame dwarfed yours in every way, making you feel so, so small and weak compared to him. As the sith looked down at you, you couldn't help but feel his real eyes behind the mask bare into you, almost as if he were looking right into the fiber of your being. You swallowed thickly but silently, forgetting that you were out of uniform in front of the Emperor's right hand. 

“I-I apologize, my Lord, I did not hear you come in over the sound-” 

“Is it not past active hours for your department, mechanic?” He interjected, interrogating you. You felt your cheeks gain a touch of rouge out of embarrassment. You had barely even noticed that it was so late, that almost all of the lights in the hangar had gone dim. 

“Yes, my Lord, it is. But, I had-”

“You need not explain yourself to me, mechanic. I have come here for a report on the damage to my ship. If you will so generously supply me with that, perhaps I will overlook your discrepancies tonight.” He said to you, his head tilting to the side. The eyes of his helmet never left your frame as he spoke to you. His authority made a shiver run down your spine, your breath hitch. He could kill you at any moment's notice, and you both knew that. 

“Yes. Yes, of course, my Lord.” You responded quietly. It was then you finally dared to let your gaze fall off of the menacing, tall figure before you. Turning on your heel, you looked up at the broken down craft before you, pressing a hand against the cool metal. “Well, my Lord, I will not dare lie to you. This fighter is in real bad shape. Her left wing is almost completely non-existent, her guns are unrecognizable, and her central computer has been totally fried. Her engine received a great amount of damage as well, and it looks like all of her spark igniters and thrusters will need to be replaced. This is all, of course, not to mention the damage to her framework.” 

You had circled around the TIE absentmindedly as you spoke, your hand gliding over the jagged surface of the craft. Vader’s gaze followed your diminutive frame as you paced about. You could feel the eyes of his mask follow you with every footstep. Were it not for the continuous babbling on about damages, you would be shitting a brick right about now. 

“And how do you plan to proceed with these repairs, mechanic?” He asked you, a hint of his temper and curiosity poking through. 

“Well,” you retorted, looking at him once more, right in the face, “In order to proceed with anything, I have to get the central computer back online and running. That way, I will be able to talk to her better, and maybe even run a diagnostic for any damages that I haven’t caught yet. After that will be the repairs to the wing, which I will likely have to build from scratch from other scrapped TIEs. Once that is complete, repairs to the frame will begin, then onto the guns and engine. This may change, however, if I am able to run that diagnostic, my lord.” 

The way you held yourself in front of the sith lord was certainly a pleasant surprise. Lord Vader was used to his subordinates making a vain attempt to make the situation sound better to him so that he would be pleased. You, however, did not shy away from cutting to the chase and telling Vader how it was. He felt a twinge of appreciation bubble deep, deep down inside him. He always did value someone who truly knew their way around a ship or two. 

Vader took a glance at the mess of his TIE Advanced then back to you before he spoke again. You had refused to take your eyes off him again. 

“I understand,” he rumbled out, placing his large hands on their respective sides of his belt, “I presume that these repairs will take a small while.” 

His words were spoken as a statement, but you knew he was asking. 

“Yes, Lord Vader,” you said, nodding in affirmation, “They indeed will, but I will do all in my power to have her running again just like new.” You couldn't help but flash a small, quick smile at the end of your positivity. 

Vader stared down at you for a brief moment before speaking again, the sound of his steady breath winding around you once again. 

“Good,” he finally said, “I expect no less from you, mechanic. I will come here again periodically, and I expect a full report of progress for each of my visitations. Do I make myself clear? Do not fail me.” 

“Of course, my Lord. I will do exactly as you wish” you replied, giving him a firm nod as you stood at attention. Quickly, you relaxed your pose, letting your gaze fall once more and your body to turn to resume your work. 

Vader, however, stood completely still. He was not done with you quite yet. 

“Your name.” Vader said flatly, with a hint of demand. 

This sent a jolt through you. You shot your gaze back to the sith, your hand gently clutching one of your tools, applying just enough strength to keep it from falling. 

“P-pardon, my Lord?” 

“Your name, mechanic. I wish to know your name.”

You licked your bottom lip hurriedly. You prayed that he couldn't notice your cheeks tint pink. 

“It's (L/N), my Lord-”

“I know that, Miss (L/N). I wish to know your full name. Do not make me ask again.” 

You almost burst out laughing. He had to be joking. This was the first time in years that someone had asked you for your first name. You were surprised that you even still remembered it. 

“It’s… It’s (F/N), my Lord. (F/N) (L/N).” 

Another pause from him, along with another long staring contest between the two of you. Was his breathing always this loud?

After an eternity, he spoke once more, “I have full faith in you, Miss (F/N) (L/N). It is not everyday I have the privilege to converse with one of your skill level and courage.”

With that, he was done. He stepped to the right, turned, and walked to the door, leaving without another look or word. You stared at the door for a long moment before looking at the floor, replaying the past events in your head, letting his words plague your mind over and over like a broken record. 

Was that a compliment?

No, of course not, you had convinced a majority of  yourself. 

With a sigh, you climbed back up to the top of the broken TIE, seated on your perch again. You adorned your goggles once more, telling yourself just a little more before you retired for the night. 

Little did you know, this was only the first interesting night of many to come. 

[kaylaxwrites]

Candlelit Dinners & Blanket Forts

Paring: Matt Murdock x Reader Words: 1710 Request/Summary: “ Hey there! I saw you’re taking marvel requests! Can I request a super fluffy and domestic kind of life with Matt Murdock x female reader?” by @billhaderstrashbag​ Warnings: reader drinks wine? also talks about quarantining. this is my first Matt Murdock fic, so that’s like a warning itself A/N: Decided to draw inspiration from the mess that is 2020 and this seemingly never-ending pandemic. Wear a mask and stay safe out there! 

“I’m going to go crazy if I’m in this apartment another minute,” you moaned, sprawled across the couch. This months-long social distancing lockdown has felt like it’s been going on for years. You heard Matt chuckle from the kitchen table behind you. You peaked your head over the back of the couch to glare at him. …Not that it would do any good. “What’s so funny?”

Matt shook his head and raised his hands in surrender. “Nothing,” he smiled before returning his hands to fly across the braille display attached to his computer. Since the city-wide quarantine had started, Matt had been working from home as much as he could. Most courts weren’t open yet, but he was still preparing for the day they do. Whenever that happens.

If it happens.

You were convinced this self-isolation would never end. At least you had Matt to keep you company. And FaceTime calls to Karen and your family.

You stood and moved to stand beside Matt. “Don’t you miss being outside? Going places? With people?” You never thought the day would come where you would actually say that. “I mean, I even miss grocery shopping. Can you believe that?” You plopped yourself in the chair next to Matt.

“I believe it.”

“I’m just so bored, I’m gonna go crazy.” You scrubbed your hands over your face.

“I think you mentioned that already.” You shoved his shoulder playfully. He seemed to think for a moment and then said, “Why don’t you go take a bath and I’ll get dinner started?”

You groaned. You didn’t really feel like doing that, but at least it was something to do. “Okay,” you sighed. You stood and kissed his cheek as you made your way to the bathroom. “Holler if you need anything. Don’t burn down the kitchen.”

“I’ll try not to,” Matt laughed.

You took a long bath, staying well past the point of your fingers pruning and the water turning cool. You took your time with some needed self-care, using your only-for-special-occasions favorite body scrub and regularly stopping to belt out your favorite songs in time with the radio. You finished your self-care routine by generously applying lotion all over your body—unscented so as to not mess with Matt’s nose too much. Finally, you were ready to step into the bedroom to change into some clean, not-three-days-old pajamas.

Matt caught you off guard when you stepped into the room. You almost jumped. You weren’t expecting him to be sitting on the bed.

He had changed clothes. It almost looked like he was headed into the office: he was wearing a white button-up shirt with a tie and a nice pair of slacks, but his glasses were off and he was barefooted. Okay, maybe he had to make some last-minute Zoom call or something, but what really confused you was the dress he held in his lap. It was one of your fancier dresses, but one of your favorites. One of those little black dresses you bought for if you ever need to go to a cocktail party or a work event. You hadn’t had much chance to wear it yet.

“What do you have that for?” you asked, padding across the room to stand in front of him.

As you neared him, Matt stood, holding the dress between you. “Will you do me a favor and put this on?”

Your eyebrows scrunched in confusion. “Why? Are we going somewhere? Where is there even to go?”

“Just do it,” he huffed playfully.

You didn’t move, just stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out his intentions. He wasn’t giving any clues away, but what else did you have to do? “Fine,” you finally agreed. You let your towel fall away from your chest as Matt helped you into the dress, his hands ghosting along your sides. You turned so he could zip up the back. “I still don’t know where you’re going with this.”

“Don’t you trust me?” Matt looped your arm around his as he escorted you to the living room. Your jaw almost dropped when you took in the room. Matt had been…busy while you were self-caring.

The room was dim, but cozy. The only sources of light were the billboard outside, a few candles, and a string of fairy lights you’d hung up some time ago. The little kitchen table was set with plates and silverware. Wine glasses caught the light of the two candles flickering in front of each seat. Soft music filtered through the apartment as your eyes drifted to the couch. Was that… “A fort?” you laughed. “You built a fort?”

Matt ran a hand over the back of his head. “Yeah, I thought maybe we could watch a movie later or something…”

“I love it!” It wasn’t necessarily the best blanket fort you’d ever seen. It was a little wonky on one side and some of the blankets were starting to slip, but it was perfect to you. Matt had cleared the area in front of the couch and littered the floor with all the pillows he could find. Honestly, the fact that Matt would even attempt to build a blanket fort made you giddy. You never expected him to be the type of guy to build one, especially without you having to rope him first. So the fact that he made one—for you—made you beyond happy. “Matt, this is amazing.”

“I figured we can’t go out to eat, so I’d try the next best thing.” Matt pulled out a chair for you and ushered you into your seat. In front of you was a bowl of tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich cut into triangles carefully arranged around it. Before you could comment on the menu, Matt explained, “Yeah…we actually really do need to go to the store. This was the best I could do.”

“It’s perfect,” you replied. You watched the candlelight dance across Matt’s skin as he poured each of you a glass of wine before sitting across the table from you. You made easy conversation as you ate, though you weren’t sure how you still had things to talk about after being cooped up together for so long.

Matt was relaxed as he sat across from you. He twirled his spoon lazily in his hand. He leaned towards you, interested in every word you said. You thought his eyes were breathtaking as they caught the light. His lips were pulled in a gentle smile and he threw his head back with laughter whenever you told a joke. After a few glasses of wine, he decided to remove his tie and undo the top three buttons on his shirt. When he finished eating, he leaned back contentedly in his chair.

Easy silence settled over you. You watched him lazily as you finished the last of your drink, taking in every piece of him. (He was easy on the eyes, that was for sure.) From what you’d learned of his mannerisms, he was similarly taking in you. He once confessed he enjoyed listening to your heartbeat and you assumed he was doing it now, his head cocked to the side for easier listening. You briefly wondered what it was like to be able to hear that well. It calmed you greatly at night when you could press your ear against Matt’s chest and listen to his heartbeat, thankful he had made it home relatively unharmed each night. You wondered how well your nerves would be put to ease if you could hear him from across the room.

Once you’d drained the last bit of drink from your glass, you rose and attempted to clear away the dishes but Matt quickly stopped you. “Later,” he promised. He stepped around the table to grab your hands and pulled you to a cleared section of the living room. He pulled one of your hands up to his shoulder before his settled on your waist. Your other hands were still clasped together. You noticed the music again as Matt swayed you side to side.

“Took inspiration from a Hallmark movie, did you?” you teased. “Planning everything out like this.”

Matt’s cheeks flushed slightly. “Foggy…might have been watching cheesy romance movies while we were on the phone the other day.”

You threw your head back and laughed. “You’ll have to tell him that some of the moves from those movies actually work. I wonder how many he could pull on Marci before she noticed.” Matt chuckled.

Silence washed over you once more. You hummed along to the music as you and Matt danced—if swaying was considered dancing. At some point, you rested your head against Matt’s shoulder and your eyes drifted closed. The wine had finally settled in your system and you were drowsy. You almost felt as if you could fall asleep leaning against him. But Matt pulled you from the point of dozing when he spoke: “Time for the fort?” You could hear the smile in his voice.

You nodded without lifting your head or even opening your eyes. Matt reached down to grip behind your knees. Before your sleep- and wine-addled mind could comprehend, you were lifted in the air and tucked firmly against his chest. He walked over to the couch and sat down, careful not to rock you too much. He pulled a couple pillows from the ground to rest behind his head before he stretched out across the length of the couch. You heard things fall as a blanket settled over you. You squinted your eyes open to see Matt had pulled the blanket fort apart for the cover. You hoped maybe one day you could convince Matt to rebuild the fort he just destroyed. But that thought quickly washed away as sleep pulled you closer.

You felt safe here, tucked between Matt and the back of the couch. If these were the kind of dates quarantining led you to, maybe this lockdown wasn’t so bad after all. You nuzzled closer into Matt’s chest. “Thank you for this,” you murmured sleepily. “I love you.”

Just as you drifted off to sleep, you heard Matt whisper an “I love you” in return as he pressed a kiss into your hair.

[imagine-loki]

Lionheart

TITLE: Lionheart

CHAPTER NO./ONE-SHOT: ONE-SHOT

AUTHOR: fanfictrashdump

ORIGINAL IMAGINE: After the Chitauri attack on New York, imagine Loki being sentenced to public service on Earth, specifically in aiding people who got hurt during the attack. His magic has been limited to only be enough to aid keeping Odin’s spell in place so he wouldn’t turn blue. His task is to help people with special needs, to do house chores, help them get around, do their grocery and keep them company while they recover. He is assigned to a girl who ended up blind after one of the Chitauri shot at her. + Imagine Loki wandering into the room you’re working in, hearing you singing to yourself. The phrase “you’re a King and I’m a Lionheart” piques his interest and he decides to sit nearby. A little later, he nearly gives you a heart attack when you notice he’s just been quietly sitting there, and he tells you he’s been listening to you sing for the better part of an hour.

RATING: T-M

NOTES/WARNINGS: This story ended very differently than what I had in mind when I first thought of it. I kinda dig it. Like… do I… do I want to make a superhero out of her? How would this work? I have too many ideas and no time to write them!

Language, suggestive themes, blatant disregard for Tony’s rules. Loki discovers he has two kinks (and one of them is stronger than the other… and it’s not the one everyone thinks). Mostly just fluff. 

*Song is “King and Lionheart” by Of Monsters and Men

=

Loki rolled his eyes, scoffing for what seemed to be the millionth time that morning. “I need my magic, Stark. I don’t think you’re quite understanding my dilemma.”

Tony put a hand on the other man’s shoulder, fixing him with a meaningful stare. New York had been going through a rash of bad crime, people who found alien tech and decided to modify it in order to obtain their evils means. Loki had become increasingly worried about keeping Charlie safe. Magic would guarantee that not a single wild, unruly hair on her sweet, adorable head would be ruffled by a would-be villain.

Asgard had different ideas.

“Look, I know you’re frustrated, but your dad made it abundantly clear that he’s not giving you back your hocus pocus and that you’re not allowed any real weapons.”

“Odin is not my father. And if he knew anything about anything, he would give me my magic back. How am I meant to defend a realm with no resources?” Loki argued back, pushing Stark’s hand away, his cheeks turning a flushed pink in his anger.

Tony was smirking. “A realm or just Charlie’s apartment?”

“Don’t act like you’re not just as concerned for Charlie as I am, Anthony! She’s in a vulnerable position, she has ties to both of us. She’d be such an easy–how am I meant to keep her safe?”

The sudden shadow that crossed Loki’s face made Tony pity the poor fool. He knew what he was feeling–fuck, Tony felt like that about Pepper every single moment of every single day. He would be tearing down the city to make sure no harm would come to her. And he loved Charlie. She was smart as a whip, stubbornly determined, took no shit from anyone. She had even started to pick up coding again, working on a few side projects for Tony, using an operating system he specifically designed for the vision impaired.

But Asgard had been very clear on what they thought Loki was and was not allowed to do. They had already raised concerns over the fact that Loki spent a considerable amount of time with that one helpless mortal. Loki had nearly torn off Odin’s head at the comment and Tony had had his own share of nasty commentary as a response as to worry about keeping Loki on a short leash. Still, here they were, idle and useless.

“I can’t stop you from getting weapons elsewhere, but I can’t give you your daggers or turn off your magic dampener.”

Loki looked like he was close to screaming, the muscles in his jaw jumping dangerously with the effort to reign himself in. It wasn’t Stark’s fault, he knew, but he was so tired of feeling powerless. He could fight off any threat, but what if something happened when he wasn’t there? What if she was in danger and there wasn’t a cocoon made of his seidr keeping her safe and sound? What if he was ever too late?

Tony sighed, furrowing his brow like he was fighting with himself. “Look, if you tell anyone I gave you this, I will kill you. Do you understand?” He asked barely above a whisper, leveling his gaze with Loki’s. The Prince nodded a little skeptically. Tony fished something out of his pocket and shoved it into Loki’s hands. “Take these and put them on her. If anything starts going to hell in a handbasket, she’ll be safe.”

Loki felt like he could breathe again when he closed his hands around a set of dainty metal bracelets he assumed were built of Stark’s nanite technology. This wasn’t mere coincidence–no one just casually walks around with this kind of technology on the off-chance of someone needing them. The message was clear as a bell: I care about Charlie, too.

He offered a meaningful nod before turning neatly on his heel and heading off.

After a jaunt through a farmer’s market, Loki crossed the street towards Charlie’s building, arms laden with bags of fresh fruit. He unlocked the front gate (which he had insisted, to the supervisor, needed to be locked) before taking the stairs up to Charlie’s apartment by twos. Though there was an undeniable tension clenching at his spine from the morning’s meetings, his worry melted away the second he saw her door. He tentatively tried the doorknob, smiling to himself when he found it fully locked–for once. He promptly used his key to gain access.

Charlie was sitting at the kitchen table, a laptop open in front of her. Her fingers flew over the keyboard with an ease that was still awe-inspiring to him, despite the fact he watched her do it every single day. Her hair was still in the overly complicated plait he had twined it into that morning, having spent the night (a detail Tony had asked about nearly a million times during their meeting) entirely by accident (he swore up and down that he had just passed out on the couch). Charlie had changed out of her nightshirt and into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Loki couldn’t help but smile–the t-shirt was inside out, after all–but she was just the portrait of perfection in his eyes.

He put the fruit down on the kitchen counter, figuring he would have time to worry about it later. At the sound, Charlie tilted her head and jutted her face out towards the space beside her, allowing Loki press a kiss to her expectant lips, as she barely broke her working stride.

“Hello, darling.”

“Hey, yourself. How was your meeting?” Loki groaned immediately, and Charlie could only chuckle. “I imagine that was a ’no’ on ’can we give the alien prince who tried to invade us his magic back’?”

“No would have been a kind answer,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around her and hiding his face into the crook of her neck. “Odin doesn’t do kind. He relishes in me being reduced to secondhand protection,” he finished, taking the objects out of his pocket and tossing them onto the table with a sigh.

Charlie smiled, reaching back to pat him soothingly before her fingers sought out the objects on the table. “You worry too much.”

Loki chuckled, rolling his eyes. “One of us has to.” He pressed another kiss, this time to her temple and enjoyed the contented noise she made at the back of her throat. “Besides, Stark was more interested in hearing why my GPS signal and your GPS signal–”

“Were on top of each other?” Charlie questioned, smirking like an imp.

“His phrasing was much cruder, believe me.”

“What did you tell him?”

“The truth.” He rested his chin on her crown. “That you tied me up and demanded my servitude in the form of my flesh.”

Charlie giggled, shaking her head at the notion. “Oh, please. Like I need to tie you up for your servitude,” she joked, rolling her hazel eyes. Her hands covered whatever she had heard tinkle onto the table a moment prior. “What are these?”

“Some peace of mind courtesy of Stark. Hence, secondhand protection,” he replied, taking care to slip them onto her wrists and letting the nanites adjust to her size. “So, please keep them on.”

“Are you sure it’s not an alarm system to keep you from not-so-accidentally, accidentally sleeping over?”

“I fell asleep!” He defended, sounding like it was the fiftieth time that he had to say so that day.

She barely caught the peal of laughter, rushing to catch her lower lip between her teeth. Her face had turned perfectly towards him and he couldn’t help the small sigh that escaped his lips. “Who are you trying to convince, you or me? Because I don’t care. I’ve been asking you to stay for forever, you know that.”

“Make your fun, but whenever I do manage to take myself back to Stark’s for the night, I need be sure you will be wearing those. Please, Charlotte.”

“Whatever you say, babe”, she offered, winking at him before turning back to her monitor and resuming her typing position. Loki was only too happy to listen to the click-clacking of the keys while he puttered around the flat.

After a while, he had finished straightening up when an unfamiliar sound grasped his attention. He tilted his head curiously, shaggy hair flitting into his eyes and eyebrows drawing in tightly in concentration. It was a tune, sweet and smooth, though it filled his heart with a certain type of dull ache that was almost wistful. Following the source, he stepped outside of the bedroom, unfolded laundry forgotten on her bed.

“Howling ghosts they reappear in mountains that are stacked with fear. You’re a King and I’m a Lionheart.*”

Loki stopped, mid-step.

This was certainly a first.

He had never heard Charlie sing before, other than the quiet humming she did under her breath while she showered or tidied up. He now felt nostalgic for the sound. More importantly, something about her song–it stirred a ridiculous, long-dormant feelings within him. Even now, seeing her with her headphones in, clearly concentrating on her task, he couldn’t help but feel that the song was meant solely for him.

So he ventured a little closer.

If there was one true benefit of him spending so much time in her flat, other than Charlie’s stellar company, it was the fact he could now sneak around. For the longest time, his scent gave him away even though he was deathly silent. Apparently, now everything smelled faintly of him–which awoke a whole other host of emotions he did not need to go into–and so it was harder for her to tell when he was trying to surprise her. However, if he lingered a little too long, the weight of his stare surely had Charlie turning his direction with a pleased smile. The key was to stay a meter or two away, preferably sitting on the floor, to avoid detection.

And so he did.

Loki sank onto the floor, legs bent and his arms resting on his knees, a reflexive smile pulling at the sides of his mouth as he watched her.

He noticed tiny traits that he had not in the past. Like the way she would chew on the inside of her left cheek when she was thinking or how she crinkled her nose when she hit high notes. Loki committed the way her voice oozed like caramel with soulful, jazzy songs to memory and delighted in the slight sway of her hips during what he assumed were musical interludes.

The watch on her wrist buzzed against the table. With little hesitation, Charlie stood from her seat, stretched her arms over her head and let her spine pop noisily with a sigh of contentment. Her legs turned from her little workstation and went to step away, in what Loki quickly realized was straight in his direction. She still had her earbuds in, and so did not hear the small, panicked sound escaping his lips while he decided where to go.

Unhelpfully, he decided the best course of action was to wrap his hand around her ankle before she managed to tread on him.

Charlie let out a shriek, jumping a meter back before her whole body was enveloped in metallic armor. A mechanical whirr and a whining hiss filled the air, as the two gauntlets pointed outwards, blasters charged.

“Charlie, what’s going on? Do you need backup?”

Charlie stilled at Tony’s voice inside the suit, still locked into its defensive position. There were several thoughts rushing through her mind, at once. “Um… er, I–I don’t think so." It was a little too hard to grasp at any particular one, though the most pressing was probably the fact that Loki was sprawled on the floor, hands up in a passive stance though his eyes shone with something she couldn’t quite put her finger on… No, the most pressing thought was the fact that she could–See? Perceive?–she knew that was how he was sat.

"Is this the new neural link you were working on?”

“Yeah. It’s the prototype. Are. You. OK?”

Charlie chuckled to herself, her arms lowering and the repulsors on her palms dimming to a mere candle’s worth. She watched, if that was even the correct term, Loki’s breath hitch anxiously and his body attempt to curl into itself to hide away. “I’m fine, Tony. Just a loud pigeon startled me, is all,” she lied.

“OK. Just remember that thing’s not a toy, CeeCee. So, you–”

“Bye, Tony,” she called, disconnecting the call with a quick swipe of her eyes. Tony was many things, an overbearing idiot being chief among them, but he was a genius.

Loki had pulled himself tightly, arms around his legs, keeping perfectly still, and his eyes downcast; worried. He briefly glanced up at her through his eyelashes, green eyes peeking through thick veils of black, but he didn’t linger on her for too long.

He looked so vivid, so comforting, so real. Not a voice she invented in the back of her mind to keep herself company. Real and there and very nervous at this turn of events, but so lovely, all the same. It was nice to take him in, if just for a moment. 

“Loki?”

His expression became pained as it focused on the tile beneath him. “Yes?” He shifted before she could offer a follow-up question. “I’m sorry. I just… I… I’ll go and…,” he trailed off once again getting to his feet. A second later, he had the breath knocked out of him all at once. Nanites faded and armor gone, she barreled into him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a vise. “What are you–”

The rest of the question was swallowed up by her lips on his. He had barely managed to secure her frame to his when she pulled back.

“I can’t believe I forgot how pretty you were,” she whispered, pressing her forehead to his with a smile.

Loki knew she couldn’t register his expression of surprise plastered on his face, but it slipped onto his face, regardless. Her hazel eyes still trailed him, as if still cataloguing whatever it was she saw when inside the suit. Though he dreaded the idea that she might have seen something–someone–she didn’t like, her gentle stare didn’t hold disappointment, but rather, delight. His skin burned at the compliment and he was sure she could feel it.

“It was nice to have a refresher, though.” Loki shuffled her body, securing his hands under her thighs, where they had wrapped around his waist. “And at least I now know I could probably fight crime,” Charlie joked, laying her head on his shoulder. “Or become a super villain. I haven’t quite decided which, yet.”

“Don’t get any ideas or I will have to, regretfully, return the bracelets to Stark,” Loki chided, though he pressed a kiss to her crown. He had not quite gotten over the shock that for a moment, the briefest of minutes, Charlie had been able to see and that all she had concerned herself with was him.

She shrugged. “That’s OK. I can’t say I see myself using them very often.”

Loki stilled in the gentle swaying he had started, perplexed. He would’ve thought that Charlie would jump at whatever technology would allow her to see. Of course, once she had gotten her sight back, there would be little reason for him to stay. Not that she had much use for him now, frightfully independent as she was. But this would have set her life back to normal, and the voices in his head had loudly declared that the end of his time in this flat, loving this mess of a woman was nearing its end.

“Why?”

“Colors are too bright. They’d give me a headache.” She smiled against his neck and kissed his pulse. “And it terrified you.”

Loki’s heart clenched in guilt. “You can’t give up this opportunity just because I feel inadequate.”

Charlie chuckled. “I’m not.” With great reluctance, she asked Loki to set her down and the Prince felt the sense of loss of her body echoed particularly strong in his frayed emotions. She sighed, taking his hands in hers and lacing their fingers together. “The neural link is new and buggy and would takes ages to master. I’m happy with how my life is going. Whenever Stark refines the technology, I’ll think about it again. And until then, well, I’ll spend my energy reminding you that I chose you–”

“I know, but–”

“And that nothing is changing that. I don’t know why you think I would just exclude you from my life, Loki. Plus, if you were hot as hell when you attacked New York, you’re even finer now. I mean, what the hell?”

Loki guffawed at her declaration, another surge of heat tinting him pink from his chest to the tips of his ears. “Says the woman who didn’t hesitate jumping into a fighting pose after someone touched her ankle,” he purred, raising their linked hand and brushing his lips over her knuckles.

It suddenly dawned on Charlie that the mystery emotion she couldn’t place earlier was simply him swooning over her defensive stance. 

“I didn’t know you were there, you dork!” She tilted her head. “Why were you there?”

“You never told me you sang, Lionheart.” It was Charlie’s turn to blush, a lovely red that turned her bronzed complexion copper. “Hmmm, that would lend itself to a secret identity, don’t you suppose?”

“You just want me to call you King, don’t you?” The sage tilt of her lips thrilled him and so he kissed them to share in her amusement.

“Perhaps a little,” he admitted, though it felt pulled against his will.

Charlie beamed and Loki could practically see the ideas sparking into her brain. “I see. How about you and I let our GPS signals mingle for a while, my King?” She had let go of his hands and was deftly walking backwards towards the bedroom. “I’ll show you another fighting pose.”

“Oh, fuck.” The words seemed to tumble out of his mouth on their own accord in barely above a whisper. The suggestion had let a full-length shiver loose in his spine. “Yes, please.” His voice cracked faintly, as he shook the shock out of his system in favor for heart-pattering excitement.

With a chuckle, he closed the distance between them in a single bound, bending low to throw Charlie’s smaller frame over his shoulder. He only hoped her shrieking giggles didn’t activate Stark’s suit again.

[recurring-polynya]

Request: RenRuki; Mad Scientist!Renji shocks Frankenstein Monster!Rukia with electricity to test the endurance of Mikasa's heart

I am not quite sure who you mean by Mikasa-- I am guessing either Masaki or Hisana? I really enjoy making Renji into Byakuya’s beleaguered minion in any universe, and I was extremely charmed by the idea of the latter, so that’s what I went with. I supposed this is a little less “Mad Scientist” and a little more Ticked-Off Postdoc, but a crumbling castle on a moonswept cliff? In this economy??

CW: Some detailed discussion of building a monster out of body parts. It’s not intended to be scary or gross, but just wanted to be on the safe side.

Read on ao3 or ff.net

🧪   🧠   ⚡

I should have finished my dissertation, Abarai Renji thought to himself, irritably rubbing at the nicotine patch under the collar of his shirt.

Education-in-perpetuum was a rich kid’s game, though, and when he’d had to choose between a paying entry-level gig at Kuchiki Biotech or a continued monk-like existence grading freshman papers and scrubbing out the autoclave, he’d followed the money. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, working in industry. Eating food that didn’t come with a seasoning packet, living in an apartment that had both heating and air-conditioning, the indescribable luxury of a monthly transit pass. Yeah, it stung a little when Kira and Hinamori sent selfies of themselves at that conference in Berlin, and later, in their stupid graduation get-ups, but after seven years of working his ass off, of being on time every day, of covering his ink and minding his manners, Renji had been noticed by Kuchiki Byakuya himself, the reclusive CEO of the company.

“You were a student of Dr. Aizen Sousuke?” Kuchiki had asked, his cold grey eyes skipping past Renji’s carefully knotted tie and spotless lab coat to linger on his bandana and the cover-up smudges that protruded from beneath it. “The cephalopod neurophysicist?”

“That’s correct.”

“His work on artificial chromatophores was stunning.”

Right. That.

“Er, the camouflage stuff wasn’t my area of interest, but I have a couple of friends in that area if you’re--”

“You studied nervous system regeneration. But you did not graduate.”

Renji had tried not to look surprised, because his supervisor had warned him that Byakuya liked to try and surprise people and then judge them for being surprised. Byakuya had probably just dug up his resume from HR prior to this interview. “That’s right. Well. About the nervous system thing. I did graduate, just, y’know, ABD. That’s not even true, I wrote about half a dissertation. Maybe two-thirds.” His mouth snapped shut. Kuchiki Byakuya definitely did not want to hear about his two-thirds of a dissertation.

“I read your article in the Journal of Zoological Neuroscience, the one about using a donor octopus brain to reanimate a dead specimen? I assume you wrote it. You were listed as second author, but it was not rife with Dr. Aizen’s usual bloviations. It was excellent work.”

Renji had failed in his attempts to keep from looking surprised.

“I am starting a special project that could use a man of your expertise. Dr. Shirogane spoke well of your time here, and felt that you were ready to take on the role of primary investigator.” Byakuya looked at his extremely expensive watch, as though he were already getting bored of this meeting. “It is a small project, a one-man project, and I am afraid it will not produce any sort of publishable results. In fact, I will require you to sign a number of non-disclosure agreements, should you accept. But it is a very important project to me, personally.”

Renji could still remember the excitement, the feel of his heart stuttering in his chest. He imagined telling Kira and Hinamori about the personal project he was doing for the wealthiest biotech entrepreneur in Japan. He felt smart. He felt important. He felt like industry was finally paying off for him.

Two days later, he found out that this project involved grave-robbing.

It turned out that Kuchiki was a widower. His wife had been a kind, beautiful angel who had died of complications from cystic fibrosis at the tender age of 34. Despite everything, her heart has been very strong at the time of her death. So Kuchiki kept it, y’know, like a normal person. And then he found one of his employees, a guy with big muscles and no family and a lot of student debt, and asked him to make a new body to put that heart in.

That was three years ago. Since then, Renji had acquired his own sub-basement laboratory and a used pick-up truck. He had a lot of middle-of-the-night meetings with Kuchiki, where he got used to delivering absolutely deranged progress reports in a calm and conversational tone. He’d taken up smoking again, but then he had to quit because Kuchiki didn’t like the smell. He stopped seeing most of his old friends, in favor of his fabulous new friends, like Isane, the nervous assistant mortician at the hospital, and Hisagi, who worked down at the funeral home and drove a hearse like it was a Shelby Cobra. His new best drinking buddy was a guy named Akon, who worked over at Kurosutchi Heavy Industries and was building some sort of cyborg daughter for his creepy boss.

And now he had her.

Maybe she’ll turn out to be better than a dissertation, Renji thought, contemplating the girl-thing floating in an antifreeze bath in his sub-basement lab.

She was small, in part because the original Hisana had been small, but also because regrowing the nervous system had been the hardest part, and the less he had to grow, the better.

At first, he’d put a fair amount of effort into making her look like Hisana, but Byakuya never seemed to give a shit about stuff like that, so Renji started to take a few liberties here and there. An athlete’s limbs (well, more like three different athlete’s limbs) gave her a lean and powerful build, instead of the wispy slenderness of her predecessor. He’d been very picky about the eyes, but his patience had paid off when he scored a stunning pair from Ishida, a bitter med student who had a part time job in the university’s dissection sample acquisition department. They were deep blue, nearly verging on purple, like a starless sky. Renji wasn’t very good at suturing at first, and the big, clunky stitches that held her mismatched parts together were a little jarring. Renji had come to rather like them, though. She wasn’t a perfect, flawless angel. She was a pile of lost potential, cobbled together and given a second chance, and he liked that she wore that openly on her skin. If she didn’t like it, well, he could always offer to take her down to his tattoo place.

The only thing Byakuya had objected to was the brain.

It was a criminal’s brain, or at least that’s what Byakuya said. The brain had belonged to a teen girl who’d been caught shoplifting, and in her attempt to make a break for it, darted into traffic. It was extremely fresh, though. The girl died in the hospital and Isane called him right away. By the time Byakuya even found out about it, Renji already had the brain nestled in among the little baby human-octopus hybrid nervous system he’d been growing, so there was nothing to be done. Renji had assured Byakuya it would be fine, she wasn’t going to remember anything about her old life anyway. He did not mention that he’d done a fair bit of petty theft in his youth, and he’d turned out… well. Never mind.

He’d turned out to be an insane person, actually. A person who flaunted the rules of ethics and nature. He was an actual, real-life, mad scientist (ABD). Well, assuming all this worked.

In the morning, Byakuya was expecting a demonstration. The demonstration. The part where Renji pulled a lever and sent enough voltage surging through that precious little Kuchiki heart to bring Byakuya’s new sister to life.

He’d run and re-run all the individual organ tests. Reviewed his check list three times. Read and re-read all his notes. It was either going to work, or it wasn’t. If it worked, he was a genius, a mastermind. Kuchiki would give him a pat on the back and a big bonus and he was also going to start addressing Renji as Doctor Abarai, dissertation be damned.

If it failed, Renji was going to be lugging his belongings to the curb in a cardboard box.

It was now 2:16am.

If he went home, he’d just stare at the ceiling for four hours, but at least he would be able to shower before he had to face his moment of doom.

You could just do it, he realized. Pull the lever. Pull it right now.

Byakuya would be pissed, of course, he wanted to be there for the Big Shock, but if it worked, he’d be so happy to have a living, breathing, undead sister that he’d probably overlook Renji jumping the gun. If it didn’t work, Renji would have those four hours to troubleshoot.

The more he thought about it, the better the idea sounded. He honestly wasn’t real sure what kind of mental capabilities, if any, his monster girl was going to have. If she woke up spitting and clawing, he was okay with that, but Byakuya might not take it so well. Yeah, it definitely made good sense to give her a boot up now, so there were no surprises in the morning.

Renji stood up, and strode over to the portable generator he’d rigged up over the weekend. His hand hovered over the switch. He was gonna do it.

No.

In a minute.

He walked back over to the cold tank and plopped down in the chair sitting next to it, where he often sat when he had Serious Thinking to do. She floated serenely an inch under the liquid, her pale skin tinted blue, her hair floating in a cloud around her face. The cold was necessary to keep her organs in stasis, and it’s not like she could feel it, but he felt a little bad about it anyway.

“Hey, there,” he said softly. “It’s me. Renji. We’ve been through a lot, you and me. I’m gonna turn you on, in a minute. I’m not sure how it’s gonna go. I’ve been kind of a screw-up my whole life, but you seem pretty perfect, so may we’ll even each other out.” He chewed the inside of his cheek. “Another guy is gonna come by in the morning. He’s rich and powerful and has, like 17 cars. He’s gonna be your brother, and if you can be a convincing enough person, he’s gonna treat you like his sister and you’ll be set for life. But I want you to know that even if you’re a failure, even if you try to eat my face or something, that I always liked you. Hopefully, I’ll still get to see you a lot. But if not… I just wanted to let you know that I’m only giving you up ‘cause I gotta, not ‘cause I want to.” He breathed out through his nose. “Kuchiki’s probably gonna give you some flowery princess name. He’s never told me. But a while ago, I started thinking of you as ‘Rukia.’ I don’t really know where it came from. I think it means ‘light.’ So if you don’t like whatever name he gives you, you always got that one to fall back on.” He slapped his knees and stood up. “Enough of this! It’s time for you to get up.”

Once again, Renji stood, gripping the on switch in one sweaty hand. “Here goes nothing,” he declared, and flipped it.

First, there was a hum, which gradually raised in pitch until his ears rang. The needle on the voltage gauge climbed steadily. A few wisps of Renji’s hair began to stand on end. Rukia’s body bucked.

And then, with a loud crack, all the lights went out. Fuck.

Of all the things he had double and triple checked, the power supply to the generator had not been one of them. Renji groaned, and scrolled through his phone, trying to find the damn flashlight app. He only had 6% battery, which meant it was going to last about sixteen seconds. Fortunately, his lab was on an isolated circuit, so hopefully, he hadn’t knocked out power anywhere else in the building.

He had his phone pointed the wrong way when he turned the app on, and it immediately blinded him. “Ah, shit!” he exclaimed.

As he was blinking the stars out of his eyes, he heard a splash and he realized that he might have actually managed to bring Rukia to life before the generator died. He dashed over to the bath frantically. If she tried to get her own oxygen mask off, she might drown. Renji scanned liquid with his flashlight, but it was murky with bubbles. He couldn’t see anything. Had she sunk down to the bottom? He was practically leaning over the tank when he felt a hand on his arm that was so frigid that it burned, even through his lab coat and the shirt beneath it.

Slowly, Renji panned his already-dimming flashlight around, keeping it pointed at the floor, in part, so he didn’t blind her as he had himself, and in part because… well, because…

“Hi,” he said, as a pale face swam into view.

“Hi,” she repeated in the exact same inflection.

She could talk. She had speech, or at least repetition abilities. Renji wanted desperately to take notes, but he was frozen. “How do you feel?” he asked.

Those big, dark blue eyes blinked at him. “Cold,” Rukia replied.

[notespeed]

Non-Performing Notes:  Are They Back? Eddie’s Theory - Real Estate NoteSchool

Non-Performing Notes:  Are They Back? Eddie’s Theory 

 The “Shadow Inventory” 

The “Piper” Will Have to be Paid 

When Will We See This Inventory 

 Uncover Why Savvy Investors Use Proven Mortgage Note Strategies for Massive Monthly Profits In Today’s Ever-Changing Market… Risk-Free! 

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 #NoteSchool #EddieSpeed #RealEstate #MortgageNotes

------------------------------------------------------

Brian Lauchner (00:06): All right. Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! So glad you joined us today for another great, absolutely live in the flesh, virtually NoteSchool TV. We're going to be digging into some of the hotter topics. Some of the content that really is applicable in today's marketplace and why you need to know this information today. We've got some really cool stuff that we want to dig into, but first, if this is something that you find valuable, this is something that you want to know, the latest and greatest information, and you want to hear it first ahead of your competition. Make sure that you're liking this video, make sure you're going and subscribing to the channel, but more importantly, probably than anything else is actually clicking that bell notification so that you're getting the notifications so that when we go live, you know about it first, you're getting this information before anybody else.

Brian Lauchner (00:57): That's a huge benefit to you and we're going to get into it. Feel free to, as we're going through this slide, man, leave your questions, leave a comment. If it's something that we can tie into what we're talking about today, we'd love to address those here, live on the show. And so every single Wednesday, you're going to see us. I'm going live at 11:00 AM central time. Absolutely every Wednesday, so make sure you mark it on your calendars or watch for that notification to come across your screen. Here is the gist today, what are we going to be talking about today? We are going to be talking about the Non-Performing Loan Side of the Business. Is it back? What does it look like? Where is the opportunity? And probably most importantly, why it is probably the absolute game changer for your business moving forward.

Brian Lauchner (01:41): And today we have a very special guest, the one and the only Joe Varnadore, who's going to pop up on the screen well he's a veteran of over 30 years in the Note Business and absolute pro. And we've brought him on to really talk a little bit more about the Non-Performing Note Side of the Business, where the inventory is, you know, is it coming back? What does that look like? Moving forward to Joe, if you'll join us on the screen, how you doing?

Joe Varnadore (02:07): I'm doing great, man. How are you this morning?

Brian Lauchner (02:09): Is living The Dream as always living, living The Dream as always. And so tell us a little bit about what are your thoughts about this Non-Performing Note Piece and just share a little bit about what your thoughts are, where you think it's going, where the opportunity is?

Joe Varnadore (02:24): So great, Brian. So here's the, here's what I wanted to do and how I wanted to start this. Right? So I wanted to give you a little history lesson, right? We're going to go all the way back, well, from 1980 to 2006 delinquencies on single family, residential first mortgages was less than 1%, right? So for a period of 26 years, even through, you know, the crazy things that happened such as mortgage interest rates in 1980, and by way, I started in the business

Joe Varnadore (03:00): Back in 1990. So but anyway, when the rates were, you know, 20% on mortgage interest rates, so all of this, but delinquencies were very, very low. So then we have the Boom that starts in what, 2004 and Eddie and I, Eddie Speed, founder of NoteSchool. We talk about this and we call what happened in this great recession. We call that kind of a Crash in Slow Motion cause it really started in 2004. And then it just kind of built up until the housing market crashed in 2007 and then the the banking debacle in 2008. And then this led all the way through really until about 2014. So what did that look like? So after 2006, moving forward, we know that somewhere between 11 and 12 million non-performing first residential mortgages were in the United States in the system in the banking system in the United States.

Joe Varnadore (04:04): Right? That's a lot. So that looks like somewhere around 20% of the loans that were out and we know why, right. We remember the great recession and, you know, anybody could get a loan. It was the whole pulse thing. And if you could fog a mirror, right, all of that stuff. So over the past, what seven, five or six years we've seen that start to clean up? Well, what happens unbeknownst to everyone, even at the end of February of this year you know, we had this pandemic that kind of slapped us around a little bit. So, you know, we know that unemployment went from virtually very little, all the way up to where there was almost 40 million people that were unemployed. And so it started this whole ball rolling again, of people not being able to pay their rent number one, and most importantly, people not being able to pay their loans on their house, their mortgages on their property. Right? So it has become a thing again now, hopefully, and I certainly don't believe in, it's not the consensus, that NoteSchool that we're going to have, you know, 20%, you know, 11 million loans that are non-performing again, but it's somewhere around half of that. Right?

Brian Lauchner (05:28): Okay. So, when you're looking at, then the opportunity you're saying there's still a massive opportunity was clearly triggered by this pandemic, this Black Swan type of event.

Joe Varnadore (05:41): Right.

Brian Lauchner (05:41): Why is either this market cycle shift different or what inventory is different today than it was maybe for example, in 2008, like why does this one look a little bit different?

Joe Varnadore (05:54): Great question. So here's what all of that look like. Housingwire put out a great article here about three weeks ago, and it was talking about this very thing. So, I'm not saying there's going to be a massive number. There's a massive number of Non-Performing Loans that you can buy today, but it's on the horizon. We'll talk about that. And we'll kind of wrap that up at the end of the podcast today. But so here's the way this article starts. So by the end of January, by the end of December of this year, when the forbearances run out and the moratoriums on foreclosure and all of those things happen, then there's going to be this pile of stuff out there. And the way the article was titled as the Piper is going to have to be paid, Right?

Brian Lauchner (06:48): Okay

Joe Varnadore (06:48): So what does all of this look like as far as numbers, right? So what is the different government sponsored entities like Fannie and Freddie and HUD and FHA and VA. These are those GSEs, right? So those folks that are, that have done that, or they've gone into what is called a forbearance, Brian. So that means that they get a break on making payments. Now, oddly enough, Brian those folks that are in a forbearance situation, and it's a GSE, a government sponsored loan, a government insured. Those really don't show up as being in the delinquent pile, right. Because they're saying, well, we're giving them, you know, we're giving these folks a break. And so with those loans, they don't have to pay the Piper because what's going to happen is those payments will be just stacked on the back end of that.

Joe Varnadore (07:55): So if you had 340 payments left and give your 10 months, well, it's going to be 350 payments left at the end of that. Right?

Brian Lauchner (08:03): Okay.

Joe Varnadore (08:05): And by the way, just some quick numbers here, FHA HUD reported last week, that FHA alone as 1,000,300 and 60,000 of those of those loans. Right? And then you've got a Fannie Mae to $194 billion in delinquent loans. So it, depending on who you read and what you read, what we can ascertain from all of this is that inventory is somewhere in the 5 to 7 million loan range. Okay.

Brian Lauchner (08:44): Wow.

Joe Varnadore (08:45): Yes. So here's the difference in the GSE loans and then the Commercial Bank Loans, like you're working with Bank of America or PNC or Wells Fargo. Those, and I had a friend of mine, Brian. He we went to school together. I live in a little small town in South Florida called Okeechobee. Right? And everybody knows everybody. And so he calls me and he says, you know, my lender and it was a commercial bank. And he says, they, you know, they've offered me this. I don't have to make a payment for three months. And I go, so it's not like a Fannie or Freddie loan he's no, It's and he gave me the name of the lender. Right. And I said, Hmm, we need to find out something because he was all excited. So I get on the phone with him and we call the lender, Right. And so they said, Oh yes, Mr. Jones, you know, you don't have to make a payment for the next three months. And I kind of look at him and I go, and they go but, he goes, but what? And he goes, well they said, but you got to pay $4,500 in three months. So yeah. He could not make a $1,500 payment for the next three months, but the fourth month he's got to make a $4,500 payment.

Brian Lauchner (10:01): So let me just jump in here, because this is where I think a lot of people, especially when they're newer, if this is a newer market cycle for them, that they may not grasp is a lot of times people don't understand that forbearance is not forgiveness. And I'm not just talking about the investors. I'm literally talking about the homeowners who somebody talked to him and said, yeah, you don't have to make a payment. Like this example that Joe's talking about, it sounds so good. But the problem is when you look at just the math here, like if you can't afford, let's just use easy math, a thousand dollars a month today, if you can't afford it because of your situation, there's this forbearance program that'll allow you to forego that. But it's a three month a forbearance or a six month forbearance, well, at the end of that six months, you haven't been paying on that seventh month.

Brian Lauchner (10:48): And now you have to have all $6,000 plus the thousand for the seven months. So the psychology here is if you don't have a thousand dollars today, why do you think you're going to be signing up for something to where you'll magically have $7,000 in the future? And this is especially important seeing that the majority of Americans don't have a thousand dollars in savings. They're not setting aside large payments on a monthly basis. And so you can start to see when Joe talks about these troubled loans, right? Some of them aren't even reported in some of the numbers because of the programs that they're in, but it really shows you this group of, of loans that are sitting there, that they're not really, they're not in trouble as far as like, Oh, look, they're being foreclosed on right now. They're just sitting in this gray area.

Brian Lauchner (11:33): Right? And I think that's really, what's really important is first of all, understanding the difference between forbearance and understanding that it's just a delayed you know, program. It's not actually forgiveness. You can imagine how many Americans think they're not ever going to have to make this payment again. Right?

Joe Varnadore (11:48): Right.

Brian Lauchner (11:49): And so it just kind of adds to the numbers. And I just want to make sure I clear that up just in case anybody's brand new or they're not grasping that it's really important to understand there's this massive inventory sitting there and, and Joe's going to kind of talk a little bit more about that. Go ahead, Joe.

Joe Varnadore (12:01): Yeah. So with the forbearance pile, we know there's somewhere around three and a half to 3.7 million loans in forbearance. Right. That's got it, but that's got to change. That's, you know, that's going to have to, it's going to have to come out of forbearance at some point in time. And we're looking at the end of the year. For the ones that are with commercial banks. Well, again, that's that number is somewhere in the 3 million ish range. So those are the ones that at some point in time, it's going to have to go from being, you know, they're not paying right. They're in a kind of a forbearance situation. What happens, you know, in three months when, you know, the Piper has to be paid and they owe $9,000 in past due payments, what happens at that point? And so the banks, and here's the other thing, that most people don't realize is that the banks, the big three, right?

Joe Varnadore (13:00): I think it's Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase, and maybe I think it's City Bank, right? So they have gone in a position to where they are raising their loan loss reserves from like five and a half billion trillion, billion trillion dollars, right. In a billion dollars in January to where they have re increased those reserves up to about $32 billion. Now, Brian, here's the significance of that, when you're a commercial bank the Fed gives you some leveraging techniques, right? So when you've got to take money out of your lending category on this side, and you've got to move that over here to cover bad loans, non-performing loans. That means you can't loan this money out. You can't count that in your pile over here that you can make loans against. So that basically is money that has to sit over here in dry cash, unless there's, they're thinking of a significant event then it's they wouldn't be doing that.

Joe Varnadore (14:12): Let me share something else with you guys. We've got one of our students out in in California and he does, you know, his name is Seth and he does a lot of he's a great NoteSchool student. And he brought a deal to us here the other day and he and I were talking about it. So here's a person that I'm looking at the deal sheet right here. So here's a person that buys a house in February, 1st payment is due in March. The house, he buys it for 395. He's, he has, he gets a VA as a VA entitlement. So he gets a VA loan. And so he gets a zero money down VA loan, which is really about 1% Ryan. So he's got about $4,000 in it. So he gets the loan and he has not, he still hasn't made a payment, his first payment on that.

Joe Varnadore (15:03): So he takes it into a forbearance. So he's lived in the house for what, nine months now. And I'm looking at his forbearance amount here and it's $9,691 now, principal and interest. So that will be thrown on to the back end of the loan, and what we're seeing and what Seth is seeing specifically, is he seen eight deals like this in the last, I don't know, in the last 30 days, where he's seeing more situations like this, where someone, you know, bought a house and, and by the way, the Fed put out a a message here about three weeks ago that says, when originating a loan, if it's a G if it's a government sponsored any loan, a VA and FHA or Fannie or Freddie whatever it is, in a GSE realm that you have to, the borrower has to sign a document saying that you will not take that in to forbearance within the first 90 days. So Brian, if that were not happening over and over and over again, like Seth's experience here, it would not, that message or that bulletin would not have been put out there to people that are originating GSE loans. Right? So it is a hopefully it's not as tsunami coming, right? Hopefully it's just kind of a little bit of a way that's kind of pushing forward there, but that's the kind of thing that you don't see on the nightly news, right?

Brian Lauchner (16:37): Yeah. And I think that I've heard you use this phrase before, you keep talking about these different kind of chunks of inventory, right? You've got like Seth's example where you have all these assets sitting out there on a zero down VA loan. So you can imagine that this, person's not going to go list this with a real estate agent to play water, right? Like they're underwater, they're in trouble. The real estate agents can't help them. The majority of investors across the country who think like a wholesaler, we think, Oh, I need this thing at 70 cents on the dollar. They can't help them. It's going to take a very unique skill set. Well, we call becoming a Deal Architect. It's going to take a Deal Architect to go out and actually be able to buy this thing at retail or over retail and turn it into a solution for the seller, but profit for the investor, the Deal Architect.

Brian Lauchner (17:24): But you've got that group of people. Then you also have this entire group of people over here. That's like, you know, it's all these landlords that have tenants that aren't paying that now, maybe they can't afford their mortgages. And so I want you to talk about this term and I want you guys to listen carefully cause, this took me a minute to get, but they call it the Shadow Inventory. And the Shadow Inventory is something that we need to discuss because a lot of people have this mindset that things are going really good right now, Brian, like, what do you mean? There's going to be this big wave of problems. Like there can't be, the market's going up and up and it's probably going to go up forever. Right? But the reality is, there's this looming inventory sitting there. And so I want Joe to talk a little bit about what he calls Shadow Inventory and go a little bit more into detail into that so that you know, what you should be focusing on in the marketplace right now.

Joe Varnadore (18:13): Couple of things here and starting out with this Seth deal, right? That is, can we do something with that deal with Creative Financing? And the answer to that is absolutely, because Seth can sell this house for, he can take it over something we call Subject To, and he can then resell that what we call a Penalty Box Buyer. Brian, that's going to be another episode, right?

Brian Lauchner (18:38): Yeah.

Joe Varnadore (18:38): But, we can work with this person because the house, he could probably resell it for around 420, and then wrap the underlying and do all of that. But here's the other piece of this, before I get into this other Shadow Inventory here, but here's the other piece of what I wanted to share with you guys. And I'm going to read this here for you. It says that, and I took this, wrote this yesterday sellers in major Metro areas like San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Seattle, Tampa, have had to reduce their asking prices to sell their properties.

Joe Varnadore (19:15): Highest drop is in red hot Denver. I mean, Denver has been hot, 41% of sellers had to reduce their asking prices in Denver. Okay. So we think that it's up, right? But the challenge there's challenges out there. The market is speaking, it's speaking in many different languages, right? That's the way it looks right now. So the other part of this and the Shadow Inventory that Brian was referring to, refers to all of these pile of landlords. And we kind of talked about this in last week's episodes. We call them Burnt Out Landlords, right? BOLs. So these are the folks we know that there is about, I don't know, it's around 20 million landlords out there that own from one unit up to four, right? So single family, they own one house, a single family house they use as a rental and maybe a duplex, which is two units.

Joe Varnadore (20:17): So they own three units. So that's what they own. We know that about 35% of the folks didn't landlords out there that were surveyed did not receive a rent check in September. That's the snowball effect when you're not getting paid as the landlord, then how do you continue month after month? Remember, this has been going on since March. So we're well into this. So we've got these, these landlords out there that are not receiving their rent checks. So those guys, when the, we call them Burnt Out Landlords, they're folks that they're in trouble as well, and they need to sell, they need to do something with that asset. And what, you know, we teach it at NoteSchool is the fact that yes, you can work with somebody like that. Even if they have very little equity, because we do we teach buying on terms or is that he would say buying on terms, right?

Joe Varnadore (21:17): We teach how to buy on terms, and then how to sell on terms. And we'll get that in an episode in the next week, or so, maybe the next week's episode they're talk more about that and what that looks like. But there is a pile of inventory. Brian, the thing that shocked me about these landlords that are, you know, there's about 20 million doors out there representing about 15 million new landlords over the last 10 years. And you know, most of them, 70%, self-manage their properties. And I'm just like, you know, why? why would you want to end what they've done really is they've bought themselves a business, and that was never their intent to do so. Their intent was to have a have passive, true passive income. And that's the beauty of the NoteSpace. That's the beauty of doing what we know and that's the performing side of the business. So guys, as we start to, you know, kind of draw the conclusions here, it's the simple fact is, is there is plenty of inventory out there. A lot of folks say, well, you know, there's no inventory, there's inventory. If, you know where to look for that inventory, you've got to, you know, kind of look through the gaps.

Brian Lauchner (22:36): Yeah, absolutely. And I think that we're painting two pictures here. We've got the whole side of, there's a bunch of failing loans because either tenants aren't paying or they bought a house and they couldn't pay, think about all the commercial buildings that are sitting out there that people aren't paying rent on. So you've got all these that yes, we could be acquiring on terms. There is a huge opportunity there, but the other benefit of the Non-Performing Side are Notes that, Hey, once they go delinquent, the banks use a process to lower the value on their books so that eventually they will sell these off for pennies on the dollar. And this is why it's so important that you learn this skillset specifically in the fourth quarter of 2020, because Joe is going to talk a little bit about when the wave is coming, but specifically this quarter it's important because Non-Performing Notes is going to be your lowest barrier to entry into whatever your strategy is. So if you could acquire a Note at a deep, deep discount, because it's not paying, you could rehab it so to speak or add value to it, to make it performing again. Or you were to take that asset back. Well, now you have a rental property or a flip that you acquired at a substantially cheaper price than you would have at a wholesale price. Right? So Joe, talk to us a little bit about maybe the charge off process and more importantly, when are we going to see this inventory hit the marketplace.

Joe Varnadore (23:55): Yeah. Great topic here guys. So back in, you know, so after the great recession, right? And we saw for those of you that were in the business back, you know, from 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, you saw REO inventory, right? Real Estate Own banks had foreclosed on properties and they were selling them. And Hey, as investors, we were buying those that, you know, 30, 40 cents on the dollar, 50 cents on the dollar. That kind of went away and then banks decided that, well, it wasn't we really, and there's a, there's a specific category of properties where the properties are worth less than $125,000 in as is value that they really don't want to to foreclose on. And there was a pile of those and we were buying those at a substantial discount sometimes as little as 15 to 20% of the, as is value of the property. So that's the background. So let's move forward to today.

Brian Lauchner (24:54): Hold on, Joe, I gotta jump in here because as a full-time wholesaler for many years, flipping houses, getting the rentals done on these strategies, I'm happy to buy something at 50 or 60% of the value happy to. Right? In almost any situation. And you are saying with Non-Performing Notes, I have an opportunity to get in at 15%, 20%, 30%, like.

Joe Varnadore (25:18): Probably not today, right? Get in it, it's somewhere between 30 and 60%, does that sound okay?

Brian Lauchner (25:27): You know what? I think I can work that into our leads here. So tell us more about tell us more about this.

Joe Varnadore (25:33): Yeah. So understand, that when this thing started back in, you know, back in March, so most people, Brian, made their March payment, right? It was not a big deal. And so now you've gone from March to April, May, June, July, August, you know, you've moved forward. So as this thing has gotten deeper people have not been able to make their payments. So here's the way that it generally works with the way of bank charges off loans over time, so that they can eventually sell those at 30, 40, 50% of value. So typically a lender, a bank is not going to start the charge off process until the loan, the borrower is 90 days past due. So you've got from 0 to 90 days, and then it hits that 90th day in the 91st day, the lender starts saying, okay, this is serious.

Joe Varnadore (26:36): And in their accounting processes, through the Fed and the way that the, you know, the, all that works, they are then allowed to start charging that off. So, Brian let's just typically say that you had Joe home buyer or home owner who they made their March payment. They didn't make their April, May or June. Right? So in July that became Delinko officially delinquent. And then the lender started charging that loan off. So they start in July, they charge, it may be down 8%. So they maybe they're charging it down 10% a month. So you go July, August, September, October, November, December, right? That's six months. So after about six months, they have charged the value of that long down on their books, through their accounting system, to where now, that loan is worth about 50% of value, actually, it's worth 50% of the as-is value of the property, not the unpaid principal balance.

Joe Varnadore (27:42): So you've got a $200,000 house, right? The borrower's delinquent, then it starts to be charged off. So the bottom line is, is when can we buy that Non-Performing Loan for a hundred thousand dollars, 50% of as is value. That's going to be somewhere in the January range, right? So if you're looking to buy at a 50% discount, then that's on the horizon. That's coming up. And guys, it's already mid October, you know, two and a half months, we're going to see this dam, you know, the breach in the dam. And that's going to start opening up and we're going to see these loans, these houses, these loans on there, that we're buying now understand, again, Brian, we're buying the Non-Performing Loan, but here's the good news NoteSchool. We've done tens of thousands of Non-Performing Loans back in the day, we know a thing or two about Non-Performing Loans.

Joe Varnadore (28:46): We know how to buy them, right. We know how to price them. We know how to work them out. There's only three things that can happen when you buy a Non-Performing Loan, right? You're either going to modify the loan. If you think the borrower can start paying again, they just need a little bit of help. We can get a deed in lieu, which means the borrower is just throwing their hands up. And they're saying, we just want out no more. Right? And we get the deed in lieu of foreclosure, meaning we get the house. Or in some cases we're going to have to literally go in and foreclose, but that's okay too. Right. It's just part of the process. You know, we, we teach you how to build you know, build a budget, understand that it's just like buying an ugly house.

Joe Varnadore (29:30): Like Christina and Tarek bought an ugly house on Flipper Flop. We buy an ugly house, we fix it, and then we resell it, and we make a profit. You buy an ugly note, a note that is delinquents, severely delinquent non-performing. And then we go through the process. If we modify the loan, Brian, we get a shiny new re-performing loan, which we can enjoy the cashflow on. If we get a deed in lieu or we get at the foreclose, then we're getting the house. And then because we're buying that at anywhere from 30 to 60% of value, we have multiple exit strategies, right? We can, you know, do what we need to do, and we can resell it with seller financing. If you just love being a landlord, you can become a landlord again. You can do all of those things, right? That's the whole process. But the key is, is we're buying it at a tremendous discount.

Brian Lauchner (30:29): Man. That is that's huge, Joe. And I really appreciate you kind of filling us in on this side of things and really what I really take away from this. And what I would encourage most of you to look at is that if there is an opportunity coming, like I said into the year, beginning in the new year, why I said a minute ago, it's most important that you're hearing this in the fourth quarter of 2020, because you literally have we're about two and a half months from the end of the year, that gives you about two and a half months to get the education you need, get the resources to line up your capital. All of this stuff really get prepared so that when the opportunity presents itself, you can actually strike, right. Obviously the better the deal. It is the faster it's going to go.

Brian Lauchner (31:10): And so you're going to want to be prepared. And so I will say this first of all, just say, thank you, Joe, for spending some time with us today, talking about Non-Performing Notes, we're going to spend more and more time talking about these topics, as you would imagine, over the next couple of weeks coming months, we're going to dig into this more and more and more. But this is a huge opportunity that I think literally every investor can relate to. They can see the opportunity and they're going to be able to go out. And those who have that knowledge, they're going to be able to jump on that. And so I'm going to wrap up this this episode of NoteSchool TV and just kind of say, thank you so much for joining make sure again, to like, and subscribe and definitely go out and click that notification button so that when we go live, you know about it, for those of you who are like, I want to know more about NoteSchool.

Brian Lauchner (31:54): I want to get involved a little bit more, get a little bit more education from you. If you'll go to www.NoteSchool.com/TV, I'm doing a one day class that is really a deeper dive into all of these topics. We're going to help get you equipped and get you educated so that you can actually go out and take action. Just go to www.NoteSchool.com/TV and sign up for the class that we've got coming up is going to be an absolute blast. Yeah. David just said, Non-Performing Notes is going to be absolutely huge, and it is. So thank you guys for spending some time with us. We will catch you next Wednesday because every Wednesday we go live at 11:00 AM central time here on NoteSchool TV to bring you the latest and the greatest news in the investing space specifically in the Creative Financing and the NoteSpace. We'll catch you guys next Wednesday, have a great week.

David (32:43): Thanks everyone.

[hag-rambling-on]

Rewinxing Timeline Pre-Series

Keep in mind that between events and events can pass centuries. The average experience of a person is 10,000 years. and if you have magic and you know how to use it... Because I love Belgariad Chronicles so magic MAY makes you inmortal because yes.

WARNING: LONG. AND SURE I'M MISSING SOMETHING. OR CROSS SOMETHING. AGGG. MY HEAD.

And yes, in my rewinxing there is racism, selfishness, "human" idiocy and other nonsense. Why do The Ancestresses ALWAYS fight together?

PROTOHISTORY

Ethereals Fight - Big Bang

They actually do it two more times -Nobody says the must be AllIntelligents. So, Out Life, Big Bang Again.

They decide that they better stop and see what could happen to the result of their first and third fights: "life" they decide to call it, it would be interesting if it were allowed to develop.

Planets are formed, they become habitable.

The first intelligent creatures are born (Clariel -female human races, Carabossa -male elven races, Kristjana -female mermaid/triton races, Oros - male centaurs races, Ninfea -female pixies, Laufey -female gigant races, Danu- hermaphrodite selkies). They all talk funny. They all are old as dust.

TIME OF LEGENDS  - ANCIENT TIMES

Skips and happens a millennium or two of advance in all systems and their planets.

Magic flourishes. But technology also, the native giants of Xenia are particularly advanced in it.

Darkar, previously knows as Lord Argulus of Larisa, Fae of Birds (one now uninhabitable planet from Hercules, aka Domino system) borns.

All the Mythix members are born already.

Solarian witch Selemisa meets Lumeria and Lumen race (also, first Cosmix user).

Acheron, Wizard of Memories begin to writes the Legendarium.

The days of the groundhog begin.

The Ancestral Witches have born.

Mythix comes together and decides to confront Acheron and his allies.

The Legendarium is closed and the Mythix Ones get separated because people are scared of their association.

THE WAR - THE DARK AGE

Sparks (First Queen of the planet that would become Domino) has born.

Carabossa Acrypta, as soft as dangerous his thorns; finds, keeps safe and educates said the ancestral witches maybe too early in their magic.  

The InterRealm Wars starts. Nobody remembers anymore why - which is SHAMEFUL - because wars are stupid. Some energetic or magical resource. It will last for centuries.

Darkar gets both Morix and Shadow Phoenix Blessing.

Many of the planets and kingdoms reflected in the Legendarium no longer exist, Many histories and cultures that will be forgotten. Solaria, Andros and Romulea, among others, can boast they are ancient and have stood on their feet. But even they don't remember everything.

Many other planets, like Domino, Titania and Zenith, have flourished from the remains of previous ones.

The three witches begin to go “a little” crazy - Only Carabossa and his near ones know them at this point.

Darkar is one of the biggest detractors of peace. Something about "new beginnings". Most people take for granted that the Ethereal's blessing and the destruction of his planet drove him crazy.

Acrypta and Arcadia, along with other Mythix and Elders are offered position in the Golden Kingdom. Almost all reject. The Mythix faes and witches in the end they die by age, minus Arcadia because the Ethereals need someone who knews about the Legendarium and forces her. Ninfea escapes on a tiny technicality (but she can no longer move from Hike's remains), Laufey and Carabossa use their magic to go on the run and Danu melts into the Infinite Ocean [[So yes, the Council of Elders don’t actually likes that much the Ethereals but they are not foolish enough to be rude from the front]].

Somehow that includes that it’s the little bricks that make up a castle, the war actually ended. The Peace Accords are signed and their symbol is the Monastery of Roccaluce. Day celebrated on all planets.

The Council of Magic Realm is created with its headquarters in Monastery of Roccaluce in the rest of the planet Hike, Magix.

Alfea, Cloud Tower and Lymphea College are founded. There were already other schools being founded in each pleant, but these have the approval of the Council.

The connection of the Earth/Terra with the rest of the planets is cut abruptly JUST WHEN ALL THE AGREEMENTS WERE FINISHED AND after they played a significant role in the Peace Negotiations.

The Three Witches disappear. Along Darkar. They actually go to Omega and whatever Darkar teach the Three Witches, is such that the planet has been claiming the magic of the visitors to try sustain itself ever since.

MODERN AGE - NEW TIMES

The Major Earth Fairies (Morgana, Diana, Nebula, Sibylla, Aurora, Tinkerbell, Eldora) are teenagers right now.

Overlapping with the Peace Accords, the Wizards of the Black Circle (a minor section of Terra magic user who went their own way). They begin to hunt the fairies as soon as said fairies begin their formation (which is when the wings are solid) and tear them off. This forces all the fairies on Earth to back down and all the negative magic users to hide for not wanting to join them. The Earth soon forgets about magic. The Earth, with the ley lines cut (because in its crossways, now closed, are the last refuges of the fairies, this includes Neverland, El Dorado and Tir Nan Og among others ) it got stuck, lost its quality, and the terrans, quantity of life. But it never got to the Omega level, because, well, something there. The only way the fairies had to get out were the ones able to cast White Circles, only half of the Major Fairies on Terra are capable of doing them, and usually the visits did not turn out well or did not like what they saw outside and the Wizards were destroying them very time they could.

Acrypta keep missing to THE ETHEREALS SIGHT, still searching his kids. ALSO Laufey, whether they are together or not, no one knows, but the Council take for granted that they are in the Golden Kingom, and no one there is going to deny that. Because, while the Elders don't hate the Council, they don't endorse it either. Council of Elders against the Universe.

The Three Witches visit for first time Domino. Tharma and/or Liliss tricked the King of Domino and tried got part of his Dragon Flame - but they couldn't store it all because of how the Blessing works- This visit will become a recurring and increasingly destructive thing, something personal.

Lord Darkar dirty kills Carabossa before he reaches the Three Witches... I... I  just tried to redeem the The Ancestresses... NO. Not on my guard... well maybe, they are CRAZY. But he is the first Wizard and kinda blessed by ethereals too. The guy respects that. If Ninfea, bonded pixie to Carabossa didn't die then was by Ethereals dis-grace, I mentioned before. But two ethereal-blessed dudes could "cancel" the other blessings (in Carabossa not the typical blessing but Golden Kingdom inmortal membership blessing)

Almost all people from the Company of Light has born and started or almost finished school at this point. Faragonda switches from Witch to Fairy, Kalshara things happens,

Marion borns and receives the Dragon Flame from her father.

Valtor is “born”. Physically his appearance is a carbon copy to Carabossa, but sadly not my adorkable one and composed of the flesh and blood of the three sisters, Carabossa and the King of Domino Ninfea and Carabossa's pixie tie influences the birth of Valtor (I'll leave it there). AND HE FUCKING ACTUALLY GETS THE DRAGON’S BLESSING. Twisted universe and Ethereal Dark Sense of Humour.

Valtor is sent to mingle with the people to conquer the planets "by wordiness" and get allies, while the witches try “by force”. Griffin joins Valtor, not the Ancestresses. Daphne and Politea borns sometime around here.

The Lord of the Templars Gareth seal Darkar back in Omega BEFORE the destruction of Domino hoping that the fact that according to their latest reports the Ancestresses have abandoned it and the planet now absorbs magic will keep him locked up. It begins to be used as a prison in general. Also he sends Darkar to Omega because their current Boundless Oblivion Keeper, Mandragora had switched sides and he preferred to finish ensuring that everything was in order and check any what she could have done.

With an unexpected, but welcome freedom, the Ancestresses become more agressive and forces Valtor’s political hand. All politics in vain but for all this policy and such is that in season 3 Valtor moves so fast in the theft of spells between planets.

Griffin lefts Valtor, the Company of Light is officially founded. YAY!!! -F*CKING FINALLY. They had suspicions against Valtor until then.

Bloom (named Ariadne in Domino) and the main cast and others around their ages are born.

With Valtor as the most obvious and localized target, they easily send him to Omega and one less problem.

Politea betrays Daphne.

Roxy is born with Morgana visit to Terra. She stays with her family for a bit.

The Ancestresses attack Domino in retaliation knowing that "his daughter" had a lot to do with this. No, not because he was their son, but because he was their toy. The witches first attempted to attack Domino across the Infinite Ocean, so only Daphne was able to defend it. Quickly changing the scene, they attacked her sister and and even faster than them she jumped to protect her, then Daphne transferred the Dragon's Flame to Bloom, a moment that they took advantage of to defeat but actually not kill her (because having a fairy who had obtained the Nymphix could be useful later to dissect).

All this time it served to reunite the Company of Light who totally went with the intention of -kill- seal them in Boundless Oblivion since they are not as nice as The Templar Leader (specially with Oritel and Marion leading and their missing daughters), and there are many so they can actually do the spell quickly (Gareth went one on one with Darkar, go Gareth!!) But the witches did not leave without a fight and all Domino went with them to Oblivion.

PRE-SERIES

Faragonda becomes Headmistress.

Morgana witnesses Bloom's arrival on Earth and gives a super-ultra-mega-fast  advice to Mike and Vanessa. She didn't even get a chance to properly introduce Roxy and Bloom or learn Bloom's name.

Sadly, Bloom arrival also triggers the one of the Wizards of the Black Circle. To the trash the years Morgana spent being careful! So, placing on both girls a little glamour that would prevent their still-developing magic from being detected she had to put on a great little performance to make the Wizards thinks she was the only magic user there, and returned to her Kingdom.

Said spell in the future would prevent Eldora from detecting Bloom's magic.

[cooper-blogs]

Wheatley Reviews: Doom Eternal

finished doom eternal a couple days ago so now it’s time for the review!

Doom Eternal is a by-the-books sequel, and I mean that in a sense that almost no game developers read this book anymore.

Doom Eternal improves upon the mechanics introduced in Doom 2016, fixes a lot of issues people had with Doom 2016, and adds more things to make the game more fun than Doom 2016.

You’re given several new movement options that completely change the way you play the game and go about it’s combat, as well as opens up a ton of new possibilities for puzzles and secrets.

In Doom 2016, you could double-jump and mantle. In Doom Eternal, you can double-jump, mantle, dash, grapple, and swing. The combat arenas are so much fun to traverse, you’ll almost always be in the air as you dance around, avoiding attacks, setting up kills, grabbing pickups, and more.

And that’s not even talking about your slew of new combat options: your frag grenade and freeze grenade, your blood punch, your flame belch, your chainsaw, and of course the crucible.

All of this ties in to a game that’s all about in-the-moment decision making that’s fast, fluid, and fun. You use your chainsaw to get ammo back, you glory kill staggered demons to get health back, and you shoot or kill demons ignited with your flame belch to get armor back. You use the crucible to instantly kill up to 1 demon per charge of the crucible for a max of 3. With several combinations to keep yourself afloat, high-level gameplay is an absolute clusterfuck to watch, let alone to play (this is a good thing because it looks sick as fuck).

Doom Eternal also brings back it’s collectibles, of which there’s the addition of classic Cheat Codes to unlock which aren’t openly present in a lot of games nowadays, that actually don’t halt progression, so you can use them to freely explore levels and collect hidden progression items without worrying about wasting resources. Additionally, there’s a ton of progression items and things to spend several different points on to upgrade your suit, your health, armor, and ammo capacities, your abilities, and your weapon mods, as well as unlocking new, awesome looking costumes for your slayer such as the classic Doom Marine outfit. A fully-upgraded Slayer is a force to be reckoned with, and tests your skills to manage all your abilities and use your weapon mods to beat down demons.

A welcome reintroduction is a system of extra lives, in which the player can die while consuming a life, and continue the fight with a couple seconds of invulnerability. As the difficulty gets higher, these become more and more precious, especially in Doom Eternal’s classic “extra-lives” mode, where losing all your lives means game over.

Another welcome improvement/addition from Doom 2016 is the addition of enemy weakpoints, which opens up several strategies for taking out the gun(s) on an arachnotron or revenant so it has to get up close, or taking the guns out on a mancubus so it has to use its weaker ones. This ends up having the in-the-moment decision making feeling very tactile, and can make just about anyone with decent aim feel like a badass. Enemies are fun and interesting to fight, and managing each one (given they all have their special quirks about how they work in combat) feels so satisfying to those that can handle the hordes. The way the game introduces new enemies feels like a smooth transition as you fight them alone, before they’re incorporated among the slew of demons you face in every arena. This is especially apparent with the Marauder enemy, a mid-game enemy that feels like a mini-boss, but is then incorporated into regular arenas alongside several other types of demons, taking control of the fight’s pacing with how he blasts you with his shotgun up close, but fires energy projectiles from his axe at a distance, while only opening up for a counter-attack after he drops his shield to take a swing at you, telegraphed by the distinctive sound and his glowing eyes. And that’s just what one special enemy does for the game’s combat among all the others and their mechanics.

Overall, Doom Eternal is a beautifully written love letter to classic gaming, and is expertly woven in how all its mechanics tie together to make the experience an absolute frenzy of fun. I actually can’t say I especially disliked anything about this game, it’s just that good.

Doom Eternal gets a 10/10 from me!

This has actually been the best game I’ve played that’s come out this year, and is without-a-doubt my personal game of the year with how much fun I had with it. If you like classic doom, or love Doom 2016, you’ll want to marry Doom Eternal, just as it marries everything it brings to the table in terms of its gameplay into the most fun and rewarding thing to play to date.

[project-ohagi]

Keiji Akaashi x Reader {Haikyuu!!}

The grace with which he had been blessed was astounding, even to his upperclassmen. You always searched for him in the onslaught during break and lunch, hoping against hope that he would gaze your way. His politeness and the blunt way he voiced his opinions were surely going to be your downfall; every time he opened his mouth, your heart began pounding in your chest, and all the blood in your system would surge to your ears and cheeks. The sound of blood swirling around your head almost drowned out your love's magnificent voice. Almost. Once, he caught you zoned-out, on cloud nine, and questioned the intensity of your blush. The handsome setter thought that perhaps you were ill and seeking medical attention. Afterwards, he seemed to make a routine of greeting you every morning, and on the off-chance you happened to meet in the hallways.

Although he never appeared too interested in physical contact, his friend was incredibly touchy-feely. It humoured you for a while, but gradually, the amusement was replaced with fury - that was your man, your gorgeous specimen, and no matter how close those two were, Bokuto was not getting Keiji. You dedicated an entire journal to learning and recording his habits, mannerisms, likes and dislikes, as well as any other helpful bits of information. You wanted to know everything.

Sitting behind him in class had its advantages, because he couldn't tell that you were writing about him, and from your angle, you could garner his mood from the movement of his upper body alone. You didn't need to be an expert at deciphering facial expressions. You were quickly becoming a master on the topic of Keiji Akaashi. Following him also worked in your favour - the way he stood (hands interlocked behind his back) was utterly adorable, so you started copying it. You would try out the things you knew he liked, and also considered joining the girls' volleyball team. However, that way there would be less chance of you seeing his matches up close.

You examined his character in more depth, exploring how he talked to, and acted around, his classmates and team mates. His closest confidante was indeed Bokuto, but you feared that striking up a conversation would lead to some weird places. He was such a loud, rambunctious individual, and you couldn't risk the exposure. Not when you were so near to completing your most daring, yet most exciting plan. It needed perfecting and executing, but that was now only a matter of days. Keiji was quiet, but certainly not shy. Heck, you weren't exactly sure he was capable of reading the mood, but all his little quirks combined to make him so incredibly endearing.

Your Romeo was far more special and charming than anyone else in your life, and you were prepared to go to some insane lengths to keep him caged. Ten foot tall iron bars, and an ivory roof would surely sedate him. He would look so handsome, so perfectly submissive, splayed out amongst your sheets. His hands would turn a hot white as he gripped them, trying to chain himself to reality. The poor thing wouldn't know what to do, lying and trembling beneath you. Nothing would be veiling his perfection from your eyes, so they could feast on what they saw, and it would satisfy them for life.

A sticky white liquid would dribble down his stomach, having been shot out a short while earlier, when your lips closed around his throbbing member, and sultry moans filled the room. Keiji's soft, haggard sounds would be music to your ears - a choir of angels, and your legs would further entrap him. Lining his member up with your aching hole, you would sheathe him inside, relishing in the sudden, pleasure-induced moan that escaped his lips. It would be throaty, in his lustful haze. Leaning forwards, you would forcefully press your lips together, coaxing his tongue out to play. At some point, he might gain control, turning the tide of dominance. Pinning you to the bed, perhaps he would will you to beg, to plead for his glorious sex. He might release you, or he could make you suffer. Maybe he would pull out, so that only the tip remained, or perhaps he would even deny your orgasm, as punishment for screwing with him. Would he do that?

Licking your lips, you imagined all the possibilities, ranging from soft sex to rough sex, to no sex at all. It was entirely plausible that, once he gained the upper hand, he would tie you against the bed, stranding you until morning, or whenever someone decided to walk in and found your naked, or semi-naked body, shaking from the cold, desiring nothing but Keiji Akaashi.

Then again, Fukurōdani would provide the best environment. Plus, it would be much easier to find and lure your prey in a place that he felt comfortable. You might be able to find a jump rope to tie his hands, and maybe the gymnasium's storeroom would be a good spot to launch an attack. However, first came the annoying part: removing Keiji's larger-than-life friend from the picture. You didn't really have to go to the extreme of killing him, but that was always a viable option. No, you could just get someone to help you take his attention off Keiji, and go home by himself. He was constantly hoarding your beloved, never letting you get too close. You could have even sworn he glared at you once, for attempting to limit the space between yourself and the setter. Regardless, he had to go, if only for a few hours.

You crossed your legs, well aware that you were growing too aroused, from your fantasies alone. The object of your (obsessive) affections tilted his head in concentration. You loved this, because it meant that he was working really hard. He was incredibly smart, but never boasted about his grades. You adored his humility. The temperature had risen significantly in the past few minutes, but you hadn't noticed, since you spaced out. However, the heat seemed to affect Keiji, as his blazer was draped gracefully over the back of his chair, and you could see the sweat rolling down his neck. In that moment, all remaining reason flooded out, and you had to stab your hand with a sharpened pencil, just to stop yourself from leaning in and lapping up the substance. Glancing at the clock, you realised that there were less than ten minutes left. You sighed in relief. Keiji's dark eyes flicked to the side, catching a glimpse of your flustered state. He would attest to being concerned. You were a classmate, after all.

He looked back towards the teacher, listening with one ear. The notes in his book were becoming more and more confusing - his focus was wavering, as he tried to disperse it between you and the lesson. He always appeared so cool, so collected, able to dish out the most brutally honest comments without batting an eye, but, a slight panic was building in his stomach. It twisted unnaturally, bringing him to the brink of nausea. Although, no-one would be able to tell, not even if they invaded his personal space, like Bokuto. The extraordinarily beautiful setter often noticed you staring, out of the corner of his eye, but he never said anything. You seemed quite timid, since you scarcely talked to anyone, so he didn't necessarily want to make you uncomfortable. However, while he thought that you kept your head down and got work done, you actually had a very different, very special reason for scribbling in your book, only sparing two or three glances towards the teacher.

Earlier, you had been in the process of writing out, and testing, various methods of torture/execution. You see, Keiji had a bad habit of being friendly around the girls at school. Well, he was an incredibly amiable person anyway, but, much like Aobajōsai's setter, he had a fanclub. They were absolutely obsessed with him.

Although, they could never love Keiji like you did.

Their president was a small-ish, brown-haired female, who compensated for her height by donning these ridiculous, strictly prohibited heels, which gave her a few more inches. She had a horrible, toxic sort of personality, and a smile that could wipe out an entire species. For her, you implemented a very special, very inhumane plan. One day, during lunch, you asked her (privately) about joining the Keiji Akaashi Fanclub. She was thrilled to have yet another member, and she entrusted you with all sorts of written documents, ready and waiting for your signature. The two of you had a clandestine meeting, because you wanted to 'show' her something. You shrugged off all her guesses. There was a spring in your step, and a happy giggle bubbling in your throat. In your bag, an iron contraption sat amongst your school supplies. After placing it (with much force) on her head, and twisting it violently, almost breaking the poor girl's jaw before the fun really started, you hauled her into the furnace.

She had been your first victim.

Proceeding her, were five more members of that detestable, and frankly annoying, club. When they were dealt with, you transitioned into Phase 2, which primarily involved the possible abduction, and definite enchantment, of your love: Keiji Akaashi. So now, you were in class, gazing dreamily at him, and wondering about your plan. It needed a touch more...flavour, so it would, unfortunately, have to wait. At least until tomorrow.

The bell rang, and freedom had never tasted so sweet. Thankfully, your chosen methods of extermination required minimal bloodshed, so nothing was visible on your clothes. Just as you packed away your items, and got out of your chair, a mildly concerned-looking Keiji blocked your view of the door. You recognised a slight imbalance in his stance, indicating that something was troubling him.

"(L/n)-san." He addressed, nonchalantly.

Your response was almost too quick. "Yes, Kei-Akaashi-kun?"

He quirked an eyebrow. "Did you need me for something? You're always staring. It can be confusing."

"Ah..." You guessed he stopped himself from saying 'annoying'. "I can tell you tomorrow, maybe?" You muttered, attempting to stall for time.

Shaking his head, he spoke, "Please tell me now."

This was happening far too suddenly, yet you weren't about to let this opportunity slide. "Um...well, I could tell you on the way back? We go the same way, if I remember correctly."

"Yes, we do. Let's go then." His fingers brushed past yours, causing your skin to prickle.

Right, cool. Just keep this momentum, and everything will go smoothly.

While walking, you spotted him fumbling with his fingers - something he did quite frequently. It wasn't really a sign of anxiety, but you found it adorable. His gunmetal blue eyes were fixated on the road ahead, and his lips had long since been sealed. You desperately needed to take action, otherwise, if your actual strategy did not work, you would completely fail. You couldn't let him go home, but it would seem really strange if you asked him to join you for a cup of tea, or something to that effect. Whilst you were pondering this dilemma, droplets of water dripped down on to your hair and clothes, thoroughly wetting both of you. Since your house was close, and you lived alone, this was the perfect opportunity to invite him inside. Silently, you thanked whatever god was out there, listening to your prayers.

The two of you hurried inside, grabbing some towels and shaking yourselves off. Your (e/c) eyes glimpsed his shirt, now transparent due to exposure to the rain. Gulping, you averted your gaze, attempting not to grow too aroused. Keiji looked around, seeing nothing he didn't expect. Your hallway was pretty barren, to be honest, because everything of personal value was compiled in your room. That is to say, you had lots of...helpful tools.

"Thank you. I figured it might rain, so I gave my umbrella to Bokuto-san." He nodded politely.

Sighing, you stated, "You do so much for him."

"He's our captain. If he loses his cheerful nature, he won't be as good in practise." He clarified, not seeming to understand why you suddenly sounded quite out-of-sorts.

I need some love too, y'know?

You smiled. "I get that. Sorry, I wasn't trying to offend you."

He followed your lead, walking slowly behind you. "It's alright. I should have brought another umbrella, so you didn't get wet."

"It was inevitable."

I'm always wet when you're around, Keiji.

"I apologise anyway." He bowed, halting his movements.

You stopped outside your bedroom door. "Then, how about you make it up to me?"

[phoenotopia]

2019 October Update

Woops, I slipped by my stated blog date since I thought September had 31 days for some reason. So here's the end of September update, 1 day late.

--------------------------

Writing... And more writing.

That captures the majority of what transpired the last 2 months. The biggest cutscenes have been scripted as well as most towns, so we're really close... I estimate that the writing will conclude within the next 3 *weeks* and we will actually have a game that can be played from start to finish... Don't get too excited though, because then begins the game's vigorous playtesting phase and more polish. And since I've never launched a commercial game before, the next steps (PR, marketing, lot checking, ESRP rating application, trailers recutting, release date finding, etc) are uncharted territory. The only experience I have is launching a flash game 5 years ago, and that was a lot quicker and a lot less complicated... And so, I can't gauge how long it'd take nor give an accurate release date yet. However, as soon as I do know, it'll be sure to post it here first!

--- COMPUTER BROKE DOWN ---

Among the events that transpired in the last 2 months, my computer actually broke down. It would manifest as the computer shutting off about 10 minutes after turn on. And this was really worrisome because if my computer croaked, it would be a huge blow to the game's development. The time it would take to restore the specific dev environment I had set up would be considerable...

Luckily, it was repaired after 4 days of intense troubleshooting. I'll spare you the long list of events that transpired, but eventually my brother and I were able to narrow the problem down to non-spinning fans on the graphics card. I was able to zippo-tie two chassis fans together, and insert them below the Gfx Card's heat sink. Much cheaper than replacing the whole graphics card!

(please hold until the game's done)

--- MORE PLAYTESTING CHANGES ---

I'll discuss here some additional fixes/changes to the game based on my brother's previous playthrough (still going through that list, heh...)

F. Remember you can climb roots

I remember from a public demo I attempted (3 years ago?), that a lot of people got stuck at these roots, not realizing they could be climbed. Since then, we did a few things to ensure that the first encountered roots would be climbed. The roots' colors were brightened so they would stand out. A character, Ernest, comments that others have climbed the roots. And finally, standing in front of the roots will cause the "Press UP" tutorial prompt to appear.

So how did my brother fare when I did the playtest 2 months ago? He climbed the roots, thankfully. He climbed the next few sets as well. However, later on, in a dungeon, he forgot that climbable roots were a thing. Back to square one. So there's a lesson here... Even if you teach a player something, there's no guarantee that it'll stick.

So in the picture above, you can see my next attempt at an invisible hand to remind the player. In the red circle, notice there are 4 blue dots. These blue dots pulsate wherever there are climbable roots (They're a lot more visible in motion). The idea is to tie an unusual image to an action. I anticipate when the player sees 4 pulsating dots, they'll react by attempting a variety of actions, before eventually concluding that you can only climb them. And that this experience will be more memorable for it - to be conjured up whenever the player sees 4 blue dots. I look forward to observing what happens with the next blind playtester. (Btw, in reading this blog, you have disqualified yourself from playtesting :P)

G. Instant Food Eating

As stated in a previous blog post, the player can't eat from the menu. Food must be eaten in real-time. It's up to the player to find a safe spot to eat, away from interruptions. Some foods can be eaten more quickly, proving more valuable in a fight.

However, what about on the world map?

You can't use tools or items on the world map, which means no healing at all! I saw my brother opening the menu and tinkering around, confident that it could be done. Because why couldn't you?

Indeed... he didn't say anything, but I wrote it down as a feature to be added. And after adding it, found that eating from the menu was  fun! After years of using the new system, to have the old flash system's implementation of healing again was refreshing.

And so I decided to add it as a possible new characteristic of food. There's now a special class of food, "candy", that actually can be used from the menu (world map or no). Rest assured, candy items will be balanced - costing more than regular food, and their healing effects will tend to be less than other more timely items.

(the “eat” subcommand appears for "candy" class items. The candy icon on the bottom-right denotes a candy class item)

H. Fishing Hud finally updated

This wasn't something discovered through playtesting, more of an unfinished task that sat around for far too long. 

(Old fishing hud on left. New fishing hud on the right)

In the old fishing hud (perhaps an example of minimalism taken too far), the fish's health is represented by 10 white dots. In the new fishing hud, the fish's health lines up and mirrors the player's own stamina. Whoever outlasts the other wins!

I had actually been sitting on the finalized graphics for over a year. For some reason, the last 10% implementation of a feature tends to be the most boring. In game development, I find myself jumping around often, working on whatever can catch my interest. That's good for ensuring that the game's development is always moving forward in *some* capacity. But now at the tail end of development, only the most boring tasks are left...

--- WRITING ---

So I mentioned writing. One of the things written in the last 2 months was the entirety of the "monster" village's NPCs. This time I also roped in Pirate (formerly artist, now also writer), since she's quite familiar with their lore having drawn them and their town.

When I wrote trolls, I wanted to give them a unique speech, not unlike the Mr. Saturns from Earthbound. My idea was to capitalize all words and then strip away as many unnecessary words as I could, while keeping the meaning identical.

Pirate then took the result and improved upon it, establishing rules their language could follow to be consistent:

Simplified negatives (no instead of not/don’t/can’t/etc);

Object pronouns replace subject, possessive and reflexive pronouns (me/name instead of I/my/mine/myself). 

No ‘be’ verb or it’s conjugations (am, is, are).

No verb conjugation.

No articles.

(A sample of troll language. Harpy language is similar, but no caps, and a few other variations.)

Another neat thing that happened naturally over the past two months was a construction of a "timeline". The timeline takes the form of a 2D chart, with the major players lined up on the left, and the years up top. There are new characters this time around, and having the timeline as a reference, helps to make sure the lore is on point.

(the timeline, blurred. An internal tool to aid writing)

--- FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY ---

Speaking of which, it was the game's 5 year anniversary this past August 20th. Thank you to Firana for reminding me!

Five years... Five Years... T_T (I thought I'd be done by now)

It'd be neat to do a longer in-depth retrospective on this game's long development, but I'll wait for the game to be properly finished first.

--- FAN ART ---

We have 3 lovely fan arts that came in the past 2 months.

(Art by Amaury Lorin)

I like how this picture selectively colors the night sky, comet, and fire. Very artistic! Amaury also submitted a poem (in French). Here it is!

Parmi cette clarté que la nuit seule émet, Au-dessus des radis géants qui s'épanouissent, Nonobstant sans souci les herbes qui frémissent, Sous un ciel calme et sombre, un village dormait.

Éprise de liberté, une puki part Là-bas, quelque part où des prés plus verts la tenant. "Oh, s'écrie un enfant, une étoile filante!" Veille, enfant : pour tes grands yeux curieux seuls, ce soir,

Indifférente au sol précipité sur elle, L'étoile tombe... Écoute, enfant, elle t'appelle; L'étoile : "Suis-je un ange, un messager du ciel?

Avec mes feux, suis-je augure, ou suis-je étincelle? Gloire d'un monde haut, d'une nuit éternelle... Et j'arrive!" --Dors, enfant, tes yeux ont sommeil...

                                                         ...mais demain...

(Art by LittleLys Owo)

Gale smiling and flashing the peace sign. Nice! I like the skillful use of vectors to draw the lineart.

(Art by Shafiyahh)

Shafiyahh, who also drew fanarts in the last update, returns with this cool picture of Gale sporting the katana, a hidden weapon that... JK. I Love the composition of characters, and the flashy background - very anime-esque!

That's all for now. Next update will come at the end of November!

[shatteredprismspirits]

Custom Pokemon Gijinka

Shattered Prism’s Gijinka Servitors

This is not the full listing, to see the full form please go HERE.

     While this isn’t necessarily an original idea for the Shattered Prism (after all, many creators in the Meta community have had similar ideas concerning servitors, thoughtforms and tulpas in the past) we are more than excited to present our very own spin on created entities fashioned from the likeness of the loveable monsters of the Pokemon franchise! Before we get to that, however, we would like to post a few small disclaimers:

     We do not own-- nor have we ever owned-- any facet of Pokemon. We do not claim to be of the official franchise, and we by all means wish for you to support them. In fact, this was made due to our love and nostalgia for Pokemon. That said, those interested in this service are paying for the energy woven to create a servitor in their likeness, and the binding formed to tie this servitor to your spirit; NOT the likeness itself. Basically, we aren’t selling pokemon. We aren’t even selling you beings/creations with appearances and abilities that resemble pokemon. You are paying for the work behind the service. Make sense? Awesome! Let’s move on.

     Let’s address their popularity! We know there are a lot of people out there who work long and hard on their servitors, so we at Shattered Prism would like to make something clear: this is NOT a cash grab. We already have a love of Pokemon, and we have worked together to experiment with Pokemon Gijinka Servitors in our off time. We wanted to provide something to the shop with our own unique flare. Time, energy and love goes into these creations, especially since some of us here are die-hard fanatics who have useless pieces of information stored away since their initial US release (stares really hard at Kaida). These gijinkas are made to stand out from anything else that we know of that are offered, and we hope that these qualities make this service unique (not necessarily better or worse) compared to other meta sellers.

     On our next point, servitors can be many things, but one thing they are not are slaves. We see our servitors as beings of another caliber. While yes, they do have their own safety features built into their energetic systems which prevents them from “going rogue,” they still have thoughts and feelings, and deserve to be treated with respect as any other being, living or otherwise. They are created, yes, but they are not machines. They are not sex toys. They are their own brand of people, and we hold them to the same rules and rights as any other vetted being we otherwise conjure.

     Finally, we would like to stress that, as with all things metaphysical, nothing is guaranteed. We can pour all of our time and energy into creating a servitor, but manifestations and other such displays of potency are also dependent upon other factors aside from our labor. This includes the keeper's perspective (meaning a Keeper’s magick ability, sensitivity, energetic blocks and even overall mood) as well as the veil between our world and the astral (some days are easier than others to produce manifestations because the barrier surrounding our plane fluctuates naturally). Please understand that as with all faith-based services, there is a level of faith to be put into these servitors. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your servitor, no refunds can be issued because the work we expended cannot simply be retracted the same way money can. That in mind, please set it firmly in your mind that this is something you want before making a purchase. No one wins in buyer’s regret.

Now that the formalities are out of the way, we can dive into the fun!

What is a Gijinka Servitor?

    Gijinka Servitors are creations designed to resemble pokemon in both their original and unique anthropomorphic forms. If you have no idea what Pokemon is, then we highly suggest looking into jumping into their storyline games to get a good idea about why there is so much hype surrounding them. Regardless, our servitors resemble a specified pokemon in appearance, personality, mannerisms, abilities and overall power. Not only do these Gijinkas look like your childhood (or current) favorites, but they pack a punch to boot! What they are designed to help with depends completely on the Gijinka’s design (what you desire) and inspiration (the general blueprints laid out according to their likeness). We work together to create an intelligent being with character and magickal potential that works fluidly with both characteristics and provides a servitor who will become your spiritual, lifelong partner.

    These Gijinkas are practically limitless in potential. Need help with ancestral magick? How about a Ghost type with a kind, wisened nature? Want to rekindle your inner child and rediscover the joy in life through your practice? Fairy types tend to be good with that! Do you just want a friend who will be loyal and stick by your side as you travel the astral realms to be the very best spiritual self you can? Well, the choice is yours. We honestly can’t wait to provide you with this service, but there are a few things to keep in mind when requesting your servitor.

     All Gijinkas will begin in their basic evolutionary form and grow with you on your life path. How they evolve and transform as servitors are, at least in part, determined by you as their Keeper. Evolution is “programmed” into their energetic systems to happen at specific points of growth, though evolution that requires specific items or circumstances in canon lore will need to be talked out in consultation regarding your order.

     Shinies are an available option! However, since these are more desirable and are considered extremely rare in canon, they cost a little bit extra compared to standard forms. Do you have a “special” design for your Gijinka like Pink Butterfree? Well, this is exactly the function you would use to do it! Simply mention it when filling out your form.

     Each Gijinka comes with a set “movepool” limit as well as unique abilities. A Gijinka’s “moves” are simply another term for their skills in magick, while abilities refer to powers which act passively (meaning without their conscious effort) either on a constant basis or in specific scenarios. Their moveset limit is and the total number of abilities are determined by their tier. This move limit may increase by evolution, and can be planned out prior to servitor creation. However, if you want to expand upon this, you can look at the table below to see what you can add for $10 per extra addition. Hidden abilities and special moves are the same cost as moves that can be learned normally in canon. If the pokemon can learn the move in the storyline games, a skill or power based on said move/ability (or the pokemon’s core personality) can be given to your gijinka.

     Let’s talk rarity! Everyone wants a Mewtwo on their team, while not quite as many people will be looking for Pidgey. Why? It’s mostly in terms of strength, rarity and canon lore. When making Gijinkas, we have to pour in a lot more energy to accurately portray a Lugia’s strength than, say, a Pikachu. That said, the rarity and status of a particular Pokemon will affect pricing. We have specific tiers for each type, so keep an eye on your options to hash out what you truly want in a servitor.

     As you might be aware, Jynx creates a wide array of servitors already, including Eros Servitors. Eros are R rated servitors created with the capacity for learning the art of sex magick, as well as having the ability to keep things exciting in the bedroom. We are pleased to announce that we will be offering similar options regarding the creation of Gijinkas! However, we would like to note that the standard applications for Eros Servitors also apply to Gijinkas.

     Concerning Mega Evolutions and Gigantamax/Dynamax Gijinkas: we will be offering these as well! HOWEVER! These will be separate add ons, as these require particular items and an extra expenditure of energy (both for us to build into it and for the Gijinka to be able to sustainably expend while taking these forms).

     Fusions are a topic among some enthusiasts that seems to be pretty popular as of late. Concerning Fusions, we will be taking these ideas tentatively as custom creations under the following stipulations:

Until noted otherwise, fusion gijinkas cannot be obtained by “meshing” two Gijinkas together. The fusion must be made as a single entity with a single form.

Fusions will not be able to evolve. This is because they require original designs and a fluid mesh of both influences regarding the pokemon’s form for each new fusion, which may clash as evolution progresses. We may make an exception should the fusion be deemed appropriate, but this is completely at our discretion. That in mind, fusions are the exception to the previous “start as basic evolution” rule.

Fusions will be considered custom listings, and need to be discussed prior to order. Before putting down a request through the shop, please consider contacting us at our email to discuss “blueprinting” your servitor.

     This brings us to the subject of the obscure realm of “Fakemon.” While we will create these gijinkas upon request, we do have a few special rules for these as well.

These Fakemon will generally follow the same rules as Fusions, with the exception that evolutions can be made for them. However, we need design concepts and enough “lore” for the Fakemon to work with.

If the designs are not your own, we ask that you come up with your own lore for the design. For example; if a “Witchicat” is a Ghost/Dark Type made by a pokemon fan in the online community, try to create your own story for them to start us off and we can take that and create something unique. Please do remember that, as stated before, we do not claim to own their designs. We simply create servitors in their likeness.

     If you want your servitor to stop evolving at a particular point, we have the option to create our own version of the Everstone for your Gijinka to carry or wear at all times. This stone is designed to convert excess energy into extra power behind current abilities/movesets, as well as reinforce and cement their current energetic layout in order to help keep the Gijinka from further transformation. The result is a servitor who’s strength becomes exponentially more powerful than regular unevolved gijinkas over time, which makes up for their lack of final stage in evolution. The sooner an Everstone is applied, your gijinka becomes much stronger far more quickly.

Gijinkas with multiple forms that it’s canon inspired origin can shift between one or the other will only be able to access a single form unless an add-on is purchased that allows the servitor to toggle forms. For example, a Meloetta will only take one form unless specifically requested otherwise. Also, Arceus and Sylvally will have a charge for each type form you wish to add (for example, Dark, Fairy and Bug forms will each need to be unlocked via separate additions)