#when your dm asks you a lot of specific questions and you immediately fear

[abominationvault]

Session 48: Sat 17 Aug 2024

Last week: Rabies, black puddings, Chafkhem! This week: Nadia gets a Hero Point for being so brave about the thunderstorm by her house. Jorg’ath and Skabb’s neighbours have had a window open for a suspiciously long time; Jorg’ath is convinced he’s dead. The DM thinks he’s probably murdered someone and is airing out the house. Are octopoo from space? The jury is out…

Hartvig can become saturated with divine power, now. Nadia: “That sounds… soggy.” Hartvig: “Yes; I can become engorged.” Retching all around.

Sprocket recaps for a Hero Point, and we’re off. A cliffhanger…

Chafkhem was contained by a locked door, and some runes that prevented teleportation. (Skabb, upon being told that Chafkhem is a he: “She’s a she, because she’s grandma.”)

Sprocket recalls knowledge about mummies. Hartvig helps out: he has an “understanding of death and undeath in all its macabre complexity”. Skabb is not remotely interested if he’s a mummy, because all the good stuff has been taken out. They surmise that Chafkhem is one of your dry undead. Could we rehydrate him…? There’s a big pond underneath us… Jorg’ath wants to have a chat first. We don’t know that she’s a bad lady. They are dry, from a specific location, immune to bleeding damage (no blood) and harm spells heal them and vice versa.

As the dust clears Chafkhem sees a lizard (Jorg'ath) and asks who he is, in a creaky, dry voice. “I am Chafkhem.” Immediate giggling all round. There is some confusion over the spelling/pronunciation of Chafkhem, so in our grand tradition of refusing to pronounce NPCs' names properly, we christen him Chuffcum. Jorg’ath introduces himself and asks how he came to be in this room. “We’ll get to that. Who are you?” Jorg’ath explains who we are; Skabb bites him. (Jorg’ath. He seems to have appointed himself our leader, and she didn't vote for him.) Chuffcum asks what year it is. Sprocket asks what calendar he uses. Absolute Reckoning; the normal one. Does Absalom still stand? Yes. How did we get here? Mostly a lot of stairs. Did the inhabitants upstairs not prevent us from coming down. ... No…?

Do we know what he means about the Absolute Reckoning, we ask the DM? Yes, that’s the one we use. The year is 4721AR now. (For being polite, Hartvig is Making An Impression.) What year was he incarcerated here? Chuffcum starts rifling through papers on his table, looking. Around 4244, so about 500 years… Fashion may have changed a bit. Sprocket says we may have a home for him. (Immediately rescinded by the DM who still hasn't forgiven us for Augie.)

Who put him in here?

Jafaki. Have we encountered him? Her? … No. What about the rest of the Sagathin? Do we know these words? (Skabb is bored and doing laps on Rabies.) Was Jafaki mummified, Sprocket asks. “I mummified myself,” Chuffcum says proudly. Those others are… unworthy? I think. (Skabb is doing BMX tricks using Jorg’ath’s tail now.)

Chuffcum demands we answer his questions. Were we just allowed to waltz in here? Broadly speaking, yes. Impressive. What is our intention?

Why did he mummify himself, Hartvig answers. His bandages are made of parchment, some with writing on, Hartvig notices. Chuffcum isn’t sure he can trust us, but says that he mummified himself because he wasn’t ready to die.

We on the other hand are here to fuck up a lighthouse. (It’s been a while… some of us sort of forgot why we were here.)

We’ve nothing to fear from the lighthouse, he says, Velcro is long dead. Sprocket tells him she’s a ghost. If a corpse could look concerned, that’s what we would see in Chuffcum’s face. That changes things, he says. We will be progressing further down, yes? Well, if we scratch his back, he’ll scratch ours. (Sprocket takes this literally and makes a faux pas.) If we deal with Jafaki he will help us.

We’re aware of worms that crawl? The (neophytes)? An ancient evil. We will know them when we see them; they are grotesque worm-like creatures. Smaller than a purple worm, possess occult powers. (Sprocket, delighted: “me too!”)

Chuffcum used to run the entire arena. (The floor we’re on.) Was he not under Velcro’s command? Yes, he was, but any loyalty he may have held was diminished when he was shut into his own study. After Velcro was slain, chaos reigned in here. He was bundled in here and locked up by a jealous Jafaki.

Let’s say we help him, and get the wealth of his wisdom. Then what? He gonna stay in here forever? He doesn’t intend to stay here, no. How do we know he isn’t going to come back and fuck us up? What about Absalom? He says he has no interest in either fucking us up, or Absalom.

Hartvig wants to know about his five year plan. Chuffcum tires of this conversation.

For Luna, this is simple: We are going to fuck stuff up anyway, we might as well get something for it?

Skabb wants to know about the runes; he says he put them there himself to stop others teleporting in. He crosses the threshold of the door to prove he can; Jorg’ath is satisfied.

He hasn’t attacked us, but we’re still not entirely trustful. Sprocket hugs his shin.

Team huddle!

Nadia thinks we should talk to Jafaki and get the other side of the story. The others agree with her and Luna, essentially - we are going around this vault beating up everything that attacks us, so why not this Jafaki and his worms as well? We will move on, and see what we find, and go from there.

Chuffcum says he will stay here until we return.

Onward? Question mark?

Does Chuffcum want us to leave the door open, or lock him back up? “You will leave the door open.” (Skabb does not like this mummy one bit. "He might be learned, but he's got no manners.")

Okay, which way are we going? South, that’s right. And where is Jafaki and the beasties? Luna pokes her head back in to Chuffcum’s office to ask him. Level below, in their laboratory. Are they weak to anything? They possess powerful occult abilities including telepathy and magic. They have a natural resistance to magic; regular weapon attacks are best.

Before we leave, Sprocket puts a day’s worth of rations in the room with Chuffcum. Luna: “Are you trying to lure the mice in to eat him, or what.” Chuffcum smiles at Sprocket. He has magic, yes? Can he reawaken the teleportation circle in here? It connects to the level above. It’ll save us taking the stairs. Sprocket thanks him.

Getting back to town will be less arduous if we can awaken a few of these. If we make one in town, we could even zip straight there. Sprocket does a ritual, starting it off with “BEHOLD!”. Hartvig, Augustus, and Nadia will help (you don’t need to be a caster to assist in a ritual).

Sprocket makes an Arcana check (red 9). “Oooh, I biffed it.” Hero Point, not better. The others don’t roll very well either; the runes sputter but don’t come to life. Chuffcum asks if we need help. Sprocket, dully: “Yes… It’s my first go…”

“We were all apprentices once,” Chuffcum says kindly. (Sprocket may be imprinting on this mummy.) He tries again with Chuffcum’s help - the circle comes to life!

We continue exploring. What are we each doing? Skabb is petting Rabies; Hartvig raises his shield. (Every six seconds.) Nadia, Augustus, Jorg’ath and Luna watches for threats. Sprocket casts Detect Magic. Skabb listens at the next door but hears nothing; she pushes it open with Jorg’ath watching in case something attacks her.

The DM is quiet for a moment; we assume he’s making secret rolls. Oh wait, he's dropped off Discord.

Something looks off about the wall in this room. Skabb can’t tell what it is so she calls Luna over for help but she can’t tell what’s wrong, and neither can Nadia. Sprocket however sees, cleverly hidden in a painting, an outline of a doorway. It’s a hidden door! “There, there! See! A handle I can’t reach.” It has no handle. "Oh." He pushes the door open. “Tadaaaa!”

Another corridor that opens into a chamber. Sprocket army-crawls down it. He sees a door, and “some kind of structure”. “It’s all safe!” He yells back to us. We follow in.

“Wait there Sprocketses,” the DM tells him. “I raise my shiel-” says Hartvig, probably too late.

There are six long blades hidden in the door, as he steps into the room he hears a click and the tile he is standing on moves down… Because he’s so tiny they miss him, fortunately. Initiative!

Hartvig goes first and creeps cautiously into the room. The whole room has things on the walls where the blades come out. “Oh, well… I raise my shield.” He presses into a corner.

Luna wants to get in and disarm the traps. Nadia goes in on the same turn and assists. Luna makes a Perception check - 27. This is a complex trap, and it controls six blades. Each mechanism would need to be disarmed individually. Luna disarms one, Nadia fails her crafting check to destroy another. She makes a note to just shoot the thing next round; if we don’t get minced by blades.

The trap goes next; more blades appear. One slices at Luna - it misses. One slashes at Hartvig, who is covered in armour class, and it misses.

Skabb is next. She can’t see what’s going on, only hear hurt noises from her friends. Can she see where the traps are? Past Nadia and Luna, not really. Nadia points out some more of the traps so that Skabb can take a look at them. She is trained in Thievery, and has tools! She makes a check - 25, close, but not enough. Hero Point for a 14. She awaits her slashing, but is standing in the bit of the room with no active blades, hooray!

Jorg’ath comes up and asks Nadia if she would like to leave (she’s good), and retreats, there being not much he can do.

Sprocket checks his spells while Skabb’s cat makes her opinions known. Assessing the situation he sees that if he were to put a hand too close without knowing what he’s doing, he might lose it. There are bone chunks on the floor - can he have Augustus shovel bits of bone into the mechanism? Yes he can. He looks at Luna to see if this has helped; she gives him a withering look and shakes her head, so he lies on the floor in a star shape.

Hartvig can’t do much here either. He could use Guidance…? He does "one on Lunes, and one on Nads", and raises his shield again. (He gets a Hero Point for “Lunes and Nads”. What does that shop sell, Sprocket wonders? We don't know, but it’s next door to Guns and Banjos.)

Luna has a go at another one, and manages two. Hero Point on the last one, still a miss. Nadia disarms two more.

Some stuff happens, I am AFK. Hartvig and Skabb take their turns, but are unable to do anything to disarm the last trap. Jorg’ath hits one with a 34 to attack! Crit damage brings it to 51!!!! It has a hardness of 16, removing the first 16 damage, but he still manages to break it!

Luna, Nadia and Skabb make Reflex saves - we all manage to dodge away in time. Yay! We all get Hero Points for teamwork, the DM is going soft in his old age.

Some of the bones in here are relatively undisturbed, but it seems there’s something curious about them. They don’t look like normal humanoid bones. Hartvig does an Occultism check of 21. He’s heard tales of fleshwarping experiments; some of the bones seem fused together in ways they shouldn’t be. “Foul magics!” he cries. One set looks like the bones of a snake, or an eel. Or a worm…

Skabb does a Nature check on the wormy one. This, with a 30, would have been Large. Bigger than any of us, but not as big as a purple worm. About the size of an ogre. One of its teeth is about half as tall as Sprocket, who is just shy of a foot tall. Nadia picks up a tooth, with the intention of making Sprocket a hat or a breastplate or something.

In the next room Nadia finds dried fluids in bottles and a desk. Is anything about to leap out and attack…? No. She takes a look at the bottles she finds, Crafting check 16. Skabb watches her do this. She could help her, and in fact feels a strong impulse to do that, so she does. Herbalism check: 30. Between the two of us over about ten minutes, we identify 3 moderate tanglefoot bags, and an expanded set of Alchemists tools. A mobile alchemical laboratory! Nadia keeps both, while Skabb finds some bottles that used to contain specimens, and drinks the (still alcoholic) contents.

Sprocket, still casting Detect Magic from earlier, gets a ping from the room we were just in. He follows it. Right in front of him there is some form of scrying magic. He gets another ping from two different places as well… He tries to identify it with Recognise Spell; he makes an Arcana check. 12, Hero Point, 12 again. “Never mind!” He’s not sure what kind of magic it is. Is someone spying on us?

He tells us what he’s discovered. Skabb has Detect Magic…? She could have a go. She agrees - it’s scrying magic. She can make an Occultism check. 28. She has heard of this spell: it’s called Clairaudience. It has been cast here in its permanent form, and allows you to hear what’s happening on the other side of the wall… She touches the wall, and hears rats scurrying around. For the rest of us, the wall becomes see-through and we can see into the next room. It looks like a cell - broken bed, otherwise empty.

We should check out the other places the spell has been cast, and see what we can see-see-see. Again, as soon as she touches the wall, we can all see through it into another cell. The door is open in this one - we saw this one before, we’ve been in it.

Any other points? Yes, they sensed more, further down the corridor. Another cell, no baddies, door is closed. The final one, another cell. Closed door, and a rotten looking mattress on the bed. Skabb thinks it looks boring as shit in there. “Um… yup. Yeah.”

Nadia noticed some papers on the desk in the room with the bottles. Some of the pages relate to the pattern of the trap we triggered. After that it gets more interesting. She finds a series of pages with notes about gladiators who were kept in the cells, and Velcro. She and Chuffcum were spying on them, and deciding which were the most promising. “Perverts.” She shows the others.

Hartvig continues to investigate. He finds a long thin corridor, that mirrors the one we’ve already been in. Something seems off about the wall in front of him. The stonework doesn’t look the same as what is around it. He Investigates: Perception 8. “I don’t Perceive well.” He Hero Points it for 19, giving it a sound prod with his staff. It moves - it’s a door. “Found a door!” he shouts, in a scream-whisper.

Luna and Nadia can see an annoyed-looking raccoon hovering in the doorway. We’ve found Grabby! Nadia finds some woodlice and gives them to Grabby, and we follow Hartvig to the north. Arguing that finding doors is quite Heroic for Hartvig, Skabb thinks he should get a Hero Point. It is granted.

Nadia follows Hartvig and covers him while he opens the door. (“Slice the pie!”) He’s found a cupboard! Amusement all around. We’ve been here before; it’s a bit anticlimactic for him, but he’s also quite relieved.

We go back to the room, and try the door to the north. A plain room, except for something funny about a section of wall. Anything else funny, like holes for spikes? Not that Hartvig can see. He Perceives: 9. Hero Point 26! And he gains a Hero Point for finding his second secret door in ten minutes. He finds a stately hallway - frescoes of battles, points of light on the ceiling, balconies, stone bridge connecting them, access to the tunnels. Badly damaged statues.

And we call it there! Hartvig is in Kent next week, getting drunk and judging LARPers, so Nadia will take him for the session.

[gut-shabbos-sluts]

Tell Me Things About Kitrit 🌟☀️🌙❄️🔥❤️🕊️🍼☕🍂🦋💐🌼🥀🏞️🏡🔪💎📚🌗👑💕☁️👀❓ Yes I'm asking every question. No there are no ulterior motives. Promise. Kinda.

I don’t trust this but I love my girl so here are some answers (under the cut bc this is a Lot of questions)

🌟 When your OC loses all hope, who do they turn to first? What helps make them feel better? What calms them down and reassures them? Why?

When things go down, Kitrit first turns to her sister, Gadiela. This is a poor choice on many levels, the first being that Gadiela is a Literal Snake, but Kit trusts her sister more than anyone in the world, and knows that she would do anything to help her. Whoever’s comforting her, Kit wants to be held, to be told that things will be alright, to be distracted from whatever’s going on. She’s used to being in a bubble. Comfort that takes her back to that works best.

☀️ What makes your OC genuinely happy? A person, an item, their hobby? Where is the place they’re happiest, or most at home? What is the happiest they’ve ever been?

She’s at her happiest when she’s with her sister (this will be a running theme). Before Plot Things happened (more on those later), she also took a lot of joy from creating different types of art: painting, drawing, glass blowing. But she can’t do those anymore. The happiest place for her is her family’s garden, and all of her happiest memories are of spending time there, talking to her sister, enjoying the flowers and recreating them in art.

🌙 If your OC could have one wish come true what would it be and why? Would there be consequences to this wish or would they regret it once they get what they want? What would they give in return for this wish to come true?

The greatest wish Kit has is to turn back time and never agree to leave home. Things have gone from bad to worse since that agreement, and as far as she can tell, there was nothing but good at home. She’d give up her new magic in a heartbeat to go back to that.

❄️ What makes your OC sad, so sad that they can’t help but cry all day? How do they cheer themself up? Does their sadness upset any of their loved ones too?

She’s not one to be sad, really. Scared, angry, horrified, lost, those are her negative emotions. Kitrit is rarely straight up sad.

🔥 Is your OC known for having temper tantrums? If not, what gets them really angry? What makes their blood BOIL? Is there anyway to calm them down or are they unstoppable? What are they like when they’re angry? Do they take it out on their loved ones?

Kit’s not known for her temper, with most of her emotional reactions being to shut down, but she gets angry. She’s angry at the people who have hurt her, the people who force her to be someone she doesn’t want to be, the fact that her sister isn’t accepted by the others she cares about. She steeps the emotions, not wanting to show them or take it out on anyone, and one day she will burst.

❤️ What would your OC’s ideal lover be like? Appearance, personality, voice? Would their family approve or would it be civil war?

She has no clue what her ideal lover would be like. She’s very sheltered and very obedient and has never thought to have thoughts about anyone except the person her parents set her up with.

🕊️ Would your OC ever get married or are they already wed? If they’re married, describe what their wedding was like! If not, describe their ideal wedding (or do this if you feel like it anyway!)

She’s engaged, to a man she’s met once. And she wants out. So Kit’s ideal wedding is one that Does Not Happen.

🍼 Does your OC have any children or want children? What names would they pick? Are they good with kids or a complete disaster?

Kit’s barely not a kid herself, and couldn’t imagine having children of her own. She doesn’t want anyone to rely on her.

☕ Give us one (or more if you feel like it) of your OCs deep dark secrets! Why do they keep it hidden? Spill the tea!

So, the first one, the biggest secret she’s got (that honestly her sister and party have probably already caught on to in some degree): she’s grateful for the trauma she underwent, for the sole reason that it means she can push off getting married for as long as possible. Then, another secret she’s keeping from her party: her sister is a Literal Snake who lives under her skin and is the source of her magic. Both of them are secrets because she’s terrified of rejection and abandonment.

🍂 What are their opinions on the different seasons? Which one do they hate and which one do they love and why?

She loves them all, between the changing colors and wildlife. But Kit’s favorite is by far summer. She loves the feeling of everything being lush and alive around her.

🦋 If your OC could change everything (or just something) about their life would they? What would they change? What do they think would happen if they did? What would their loved ones think?

She’d live someplace quiet and full of nature, with her sister, and where only her closest friends knew how to find her. She’d have peace, and no pain. Her injuries would be healed. She’d be with the only family member she cares about, and she knows that that person wants the same.

💐 Does your OC like flowers? What are their favourites? Do they keep a garden of some sort? What flowers would they use in a flower crown? (and if you like, research the meanings behind those flowers!)

Kit loves flowers, spent most of her childhood in her family’s gardens, and doesn’t know anything about their meanings. Her ideal flower crown is made of dahlias, lilies, peonies, and zinnia.

🌼 Write a short drabble from your OCs POV meeting their LI (or if they don’t have a love interest, their best friend. If you don’t want to do a drabble, describe their first meeting instead!)

Kitrit met her sister at the age of ten, while sitting in the gardens. A snake has wound its way up the bench, and began to speak to her, and she could understand it. There was no shock, as she had grown up with stories of the snake that had left the womb with her, but Kit was dumbfounded, all the same. A sister, after all these years? Someone only she could speak with? It was the best sort of miracle.

🥀 Has your OC ever been hurt by someone they love? Ever been betrayed? Abused? Attacked? Give me the angst! (if you’d like, write a short drabble about it!)

She left home to go meet her fiance, and that’s where things went wrong. Kitrit’s caravan was attacked by what seemed to be bandits, and she was dragged out of her carriage. Every person traveling with her was killed in front of her, and when that was done, the leader approached her, cutting her eyes out of her head and her hands from her body. She was left for dead.

🏞️ If your OC could travel to anywhere in their world where would they go? Why? If they could live there would they?

The one thing Kitrit would like to experience before she withdraws into privacy is the sea. Everything about the water fascinates her, and she’s never been close to it in such a large way before. But she wouldn’t live there. There isn’t enough green, and it's too foreign. Just the visit is enough.

🏡 Describe your OCs ideal house! Give us a tour around! What’s their garden like? Their bedroom? Kitchen? Where is it and how many people live there?

Kit’s ideal house isn’t a full house, it’s a bedroom, full of light and air, and a garden, sprawling and beautiful. There’s a kitchen somewhere and guards protecting it from a distance, but otherwise, it’s just her, her sister, her art, and nature surrounding them.

🔪 Has your OC ever killed someone? Ever had to defend themselves against violence? How did this make them feel? Or, alternatively, has your OC ever attacked someone? Seen someone die?

She’s seen many die, now, and she has no interest in seeing it again. But she has attacked in self-defense. It was strange and not something she wants to have to do often.

💎 Does your OC collect anything? Is there a reason? When did they start and is it beginning to turn into a little bit of a hoarding issue? What do they do with their collection?

She doesn’t collect anything, at least, not yet.

📚 If your OC was given some kind of forbidden knowledge, what would they do with it? Would they tell anyone? Use it for evil or good? How would it change their outlook on life, if at all?

There’s a high chance that Kit wouldn’t understand the knowledge. She’s not the brightest, and assumes that everything she needs to know will be explained to her. If it was entrusted as a secret, though, she wouldn’t tell a soul. Except maybe her sister.

🌗 Early mornings or late nights? What do they spend their time doing during these hours?

Of the two, early mornings, for the sunrise. But she prefers the brightness of day.

👑 If your OC was made royal (or is royal) how would they use their power? Are they a good leader or bad? Do their subjects like them or is it ‘off with their head’? Do they enjoy being royal?

She’s noble, and she hates it. Everything about being in the center of attention makes her uncomfortable. From that, at least, she would be a good leader, but she’s also very quick to trust, and is too much of a people-pleaser for her own good.

💕 How is your OC like with physical affection? What are their boundaries? Do they enjoy being touched or is that a no-go? Is there any reason behind this?

There’s no particular reason for it, but Kit loves physical affection. Casual touch, being held, she craves affection in that form. It’s helpful that she likes it, now, with all the comforting she needs.

☁️ What’s something your OC wishes they could forget? Why is this? Or, what is something that your OC has forgotten? (or do both!)

She wishes she could forget the last things she saw. Everything else she could live with.

👀 Describe your OC through the eyes of another person! (bonus + specify who)

She’s small, frail almost, with dark hair. The bangs almost let you miss the blindfold. She smiles often but doesn’t sound happy when she speaks. There’s a sense of nervous energy that can’t be relieved. Her arms are crossed, hugging herself, and she sits with her knees at her chest.

❓ A random fact or short drabble! Or make up your own question to ask the OC!

Ask Me Something Specific, Wren

[feelingofcontent]

DNP Rewatch: Answering SPICY questions I would usually avoid!

Date video was published: 04/30/2021 (X)

DNP Main Channel Rewatch: 439

A sequel to the first one of these just a few months before...not complaining though, both of them are great videos. There was another month between videos on Phil’s channel, but it was still filled with Stereo content until they announced the end of that on April 15. But then weekly videos for 3 weeks starting with this! He had asked for questions in earlier April.

0:00 - his quiff was getting so long again at this point! also I love him going for “spicy” specifically in this

0:13 - I don’t want to read into that actually

0:22 - “from the juice” did not make that better

0:28 - I’m sure he just got this question as a joke a bunch after the last one

0:32 - another question I’m surprised he went for, even if he did start with a joke answer

0:42 - ten years is quite a long time

0:59 - this is very specific. and somehow very interesting even though there is really nothing we can tell from it. he doesn’t have DMs that often...the fifth one is from back in November 2020

1:22 - I agree with him on that

1:27 - “let me find a sharpie” struck fear into my heart...

1:31 - you can tell he did this at the end and then cut it in, because the lava lamp is fully bubbling during this clip when it wasn’t before or after

1:47 - I mean...it looks okay actually

1:56 - that car insurance commercial will haunt him forever

2:12 - “don’t sell your soul to the devil...unless he’s hot” 😂

2:17 - a “kind of” boyfriend. so, someone he just hooked up with, right. he just doesn’t want to say it like that

2:23 - his little laugh and side eye there. I wonder if his parents still watch all his videos, although at this point they must be immune to him saying just about anything

2:43 - Phil once again immediately in love with any hot guy that spoke to him during uni

3:03 - yikes. I’m sure Phil felt so bad when he realized 

3:20 - oh, sad 🙁

3:37 - bleeping himself out there!

3:44 - I feel this. my family is the same. I once accidentally dropped a “fuck” in front of my dad and I don’t know which of us was more shocked

3:56 - sure...let’s just ignore that a few questions ago he was talking about a hook-up asking him to write their name on his dick... 😂

3:59 - of course it did

4:04 - I didn’t know I needed Phil just shouting “tit” into the air until this moment, but I’m so glad we have it forever

4:13 - they were so excited about getting into the new house 🥺

4:30 - Phil clarifying in the text there that Martyn is his brother, in case people don’t know

4:43 - sibling fights getting violent there

4:51 - Phil coming up with a “cool” name to use is always interesting

5:11 - “we hung out a lot” alrighty then 👀

5:18 - awww, poor Phil

5:31 - I love this so much. those were good friends

5:59 - Phil thinking of something funny to do and then laughing at himself for it is great

6:14 - every time they mention the Japan trip I want to weep 😭 they are so soft about it

6:28 - good Phil annotation there

6:37 - that art is so cute!

6:51 - and something cursed, of course

7:04 - Phil really likes to reference that accidental “ASs” tweet

7:09 - this discussion on Stereo was hysterical

7:25 - getting very real there. DNP had to deal with a lot of that and people just using them for views

7:41 - he was proud of himself for that line! it’s a good one

8:02 - honest-Phil. he has a great face

8:14 - he had just made that photo (with Dan cropped out 😂) his icon in several places shortly before this. Dan apparently hated it though

8:26 - that clarification of who Martyn is earlier...no clarification at all of who Dan is

8:33 - the leather shirt in 2013...Dan didn’t like Phil’s look either, to be fair

8:44 - laughing at the idea of Phil just throwing it away at some point without telling Dan

8:47 - wonder if this gave him the idea for Viewers ROAST my outfits!

8:50 - a continuation of the joke from the end of the last questions video

More enjoyable and personal Phil content! So many great videos from early 2021.

For Easter, they were still in lockdown although Kath sent treats. Dan was also busy recording the audiobook for YWGTTN at the end of March and through April. The new house was also making more progress by mid-April, but was not “ready-for-move-in” yet (1, 2). I also wonder if Phil’s dizziness issue was starting around this time; he was already having scans for it by mid-May.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

What are some parts of everyday culture that Greeks usually do all the time. I wanna have to Greeks gods to that to. Some of the stuff I thought of is Hestia smoking a lot, (well all of them smoke but Hestia does it the most) and the death gods eating melomakarono on good friday

Hey!! Oh dear, there are many but it's hard to come up with an answer now but FEAR NOT

Open my blog on desktop and search the tags #modern greece #balkans and #tiktok (there are many videos from Greeks there and some are about everyday life) as a start! If you want something translated I am happy to help! And also if you have more specific questions about mannerisms or expressions or behaviors, you can ask in DMs or with an ask.

Last year I made post about some small things Greeks in Greece do but I don't remember how I tagged it 😭 That's the reason I didn't answer this ask immediately, I was trying to remember 😭 I didn't!! Maybe it's somewhere in my #writing tag!

Smoking is connected to a more "edgy" character and I think Hestia would be too soft or elegant or homely to start the habit 😁 (that's just my view of it) In 2022 smoking is slowly dying out (the percentage is still higher compared to Northwest countries) but vaping is slowly taking the market. Of course the older people who started tobacco cigarettes decades ago rarely stop it. Seeing the generation who smoked a lot (starting from 14-15 yrs old even), I'd say it's a bit unrealistic to have all of then smoke. Maybe a 50% would be a more accurate?

Plus, smoking is banned in the interior parts of public spaces like cafes, restaurants or the bouzoukia for some years now, so you may want to keep that in mind for some scenes. Also if you go and visit someone else's house you need to ask if they want you to smoke in there otherwise you don't, or you go to the balcony - alone or with some other smoker friends - to have your cigarette, and then return.

Some things I might point out is that we don't remove the shoes when going for a visit to another house. The only exception is when there is a baby in the house and the parent believes that the house would be cleaner and safer if the guests removed their shoes. People usually remove their shoes in their own house and go around in sleepers - or barefoot.

Oh!! Also for Greeks (in Greece at least) it's VERY important to say "good morning" and "good week" and "good evening" with the people you speak daily or not. I never thought it a Greek thing but apparently some nations don't think it necessary.

In Greece - and the younger, recent Greeks of diaspora - typically eat lunch between the hours 14:00-16:00 and dinner between the hours 20:00-22:30. It's also not strange to hear that some sleep in the afternoon for half an hour or a bit more.

Another thing is that we wish γείτσες! when someone sneezes and Χριστούλης/Ο Χριστός! when someone coughs (from choking). If someone gets sick we say περαστικά, and if someone dies we say συλλυπητήρια to the living relatives. For weddings and baptisms we say να ζήσετε! , and να σας ζήσει! respectively. Thought I might include this.

++ Greek men here love beards, and almost everyone under 30 has one, and the percentage gets smaller the older the man is. The older ones find it more professional if they are shaved.

Also in Greece as of 2022 we don't throw paper in the toilet we have bins for that, because our solar system can't take it.

If Greeks in Greece or in other countries want to add things that they do all the time, please add them here! Or tell me if I didn't transferred something correctly 😁

[pact-ideas]

Ways your characters can transition between genders within the mechanics of dnd

this is not at all what this blog is usually about but I recently watched Identity: a trans coming out story by philosophy tube and like a true nerd I saw a moving and breath-taking piece of art and immediately attempted to apply it to Dungeons and dragons.

1. The Witches brew

The viscous green liquid within the cauldron bubbled as a wizened hand stirred with a gnarled wooden spoon “Sip once a day, every day for a year” croaked the witch “but never during the full moon”

A potion or blessing provided by the local wise woman/witches coven/hag that will slowly but surely transform the subject. This idea is maybe less steeped in the mechanics of dnd but this idea seems so classically witchy i had to include it plus this would likely be the only method of transition available for the common folks in your average dnd setting, for DM’s a fun level 1 adventure for your hero's could maybe include a character wishes to brew a potion of transitioning but is missing a vital ingredient and the party must set off on a quest to find it or it could be more of a long term thing, maybe one of the PCs is using such a potion and must occasionally either return to the witches hut to stock up or gather the ingredients themselves, lots of possibilities.

I thought that a slower transformation was appropriate since witches are fairly low level in the grand scheme of things however hags are known for making deals so maybe your character has bargained for a faster transition but then the question is what did they offer in exchange?

2. By Divine Favour

You kneel and whisper a prayer as you had done a thousand times before but this time something was different, from the sky, a beam of golden light falls down upon you and you feel power deep within your bones.

The gods are the most powerful creatures in the lore of dnd but with that comes a degree of separation, the gods are not likely to grant your wishes just because you asked so your best bet is to go to a cleric or become one yourself, spell wise however there is little they can do for you unless the dm has a very generous interpretation of the term ‘restoration’ luckily clerics have the divine intervention feat where they roll a d100 and if the number they roll is below their cleric level they can call on their deity for aid with a specific task, this task can be anything from drying out the laundry with some sun beams or alleviating dysphoria with a godly transfiguration. clerics get this ability at level 10 which means that there's a one in ten chance of success from the beginning and they can perform it once per long rest so just hang out with them for a fortnight and wait for luck to turn your way.

3. A Pact From Beyond

You hang in space as if swimming in an ocean and flying through the clouds all at once. You feel a mind older that time and vast enough to swallow a city whole asks you “what is it you desire?”

Here we are at my bread and butter. Eldritch pacts have been made for much less than a definitive change of identity so you could also throw in that your friends and family will only remember you as your new identity or you could just have anyone who ever deadnames you sucked into the nine hells.

There are other option if you don’t want to base your entire pact on transitioning. At second level you gain access to eldritch invocations one of which could be mask of many faces which allows you to cast disguise self at will without using a spell slot, what this means is that you can decide how your character looks 100% of the time. disguise self only lasts an hour but you can just cast it again and again. obviously this is a low level ability so it does have limits, the main draw back is that the spell is only an illusion. you can make your character look a certain way but you can’t change their body, at least until 7th level when you can get the sculptor of flesh invocation that allows you to cast polymorph but sadly you do have to use a spell lot for this invocation so even though you will have a proper transformation it will at most last an hour.

but hey the situation isn't hopeless I’ve heard that unfathomable eldritch beings are very reasonable creatures as long as you are willing to negotiate.

4. Find a wizard

“The ritual lasts an hour and requires you to be completely submerged” Said the kindly old man as he excitedly hopped around his arcane laboratory showing off his research which is complete gibberish to you “the magic of the clay will sustain you but if you are uncomfortable with the sensation of not breathing I have some improvised wooden reeds which you could use to breath through however a foreign body within the ritual may require me to take a little extra time to...” 

You silence him with a wave of your hand “Don't worry about it.” You lie back on the table “Lets begin,” 

Wizards have access to a larger amount of spells that other classes but only a few of those spells are fit for our purposes, Wizards have access to disguise self which we discussed in the previous section as well as alter self which would be perfect for our needs if it wasn't for the hour long time limit, if you can find a way to keep the alter self spell up indefinitely through either a magic item or a round the clock team of spell casters who take turns casting every hour, you would have a better time but even then it is an ongoing magical effect so it can be cancelled either by a dispel magic spell or an antimagic field but fear not dear reader! for wizards have the ultimate trans spell... Widowgast’s Transmogrification.

Now technically this spell isn’t part of official dnd material however the world the spell exists in is an official dnd world so I consider it cannon by proxy. Widowgast’s transmogrification is a spell that permanently transforms a willing humanoids body into another type of humanoid body this means you can change the race and/or gender of the subject. So you essentially get to look exactly how you want to with no magical baggage. There are some drawbacks of course this is a 6th level spell so you need to be at least an 11th level wizard to be able to cast it or you need to find a trustworthy wizard which is a challenge in of itself plus the spell components are costly but in my opinion the pros of the unique spell outweigh the cons.

[oddshelbyout]

Secrets // Thomas Shelby X Fem!Reader

Requested by: @comebackjessica

Summary: You are Tommy’s girlfriend and your relationship starts getting serious. The problem is you keep a secret from him and that is the fact that you are Alfie Solomons’ younger sister.

Warnings: Swearing, Drinking

Word count: 1427

Taglist: @captivatedbycillianmurphy

Author’s Note:

This is my first request and I’m really happy to write it. I had so much fun writing it and I’m proud if it. Hope you’ll enjoy it.

Please excuse any mistakes I might have because English is not my first language. Please let me know if there’s anything I can fix.

Requests are open. You can request any Peaky Blinders related imagines or prompts for me to write. I’m a minor so I don’t take NSFW requests, please keep that in mind.

You can ask to be added to my taglist. You can be tagged to works on a specific character or just any of my works. Please dm me or send your wish to my ask box if you’d like to be added.

———————

You woke up to a loud knock on your door. You had slept in until noon because you stayed up last night. Knowing you had nothing to do that day, you slept longer than you normally would.

You opened the door barely awake. Tommy, your boyfriend stood before you. Looking as sharp as he always does.

“Good morning.” you said in your sleepy voice. Tommy squinted, “It’s almost 2pm Y/N.” he said directly. “Oh.” you didn’t realise you slept that long. “Won’t you come in?” you said while rubbing your eyes.

You stepped to the side, giving Tommy a way to step in. He directly went to the living room. Tommy looked nervous, like he had something to ask. Something serious probably but you couldn’t guess why.

“Is there something wrong?” you asked, Tommy shook his head. “You wouldn’t be here in the middle of the day if there wasn’t.” you continued, “Well…” Tommy started but stopped immediately.

“Come on Tom, tell me.” your curiosity took over your mind as you were trying to wake up completely. “This apartment isn’t safe anymore for you to stay in.” he said directly.

You chuckled, “Oh, believe me it is.” Tommy looked confused. “You are compromised Y/N, I can’t let anything happen to you, move in with me.” he said, your jaw dropped.

“If you want to ask me to move in with you, you don’t need excuses.” you confidently said, putting your chin up. You raised your eyebrows.

“I am serious Y/N, I have a lot of enemies and they know about you.” Tommy said sharply. “I told you before, I don’t need your protection Thomas.” you never called him Thomas, you only used that name when you were serious.

“Y/N listen to me, you’ll be safer in my home.” you nervously chuckled. “Why are you laughing?” you felt him getting slowly angry.

“Listen my love, my brother is already taking care of my security.” you looked him in the eyes. “I get it, our relationship is serious now and you can want me to move in but I see this as just an excuse.” you continued.

Tommy walked closer to you, “I’m Tommy Fucking Shelby!” he said. You chuckled again, he didn’t understand why and how you found that funny. It made him uneasy.

“There’s nothing to laugh at!” he raised his voice. “No need to shout love, my brother is very capable of protecting me as much as you do.” you knew Tommy was going to ask who your brother was but you weren’t sure if it was the right time to mention his name.

“Who is he then?” Tommy asked, you got closer to him and put your arms on his shoulders. “You’ll know when he knows.” you said. Tommy’s jaw dropped, “He doesn’t know about me?” he knew why you wouldn’t tell but didn’t understand.

“It’s for both of your good and mine that he doesn’t know.” you simply said. “Now, since you’re here, why don’t we have a drink?” you offered to sooth the environment. He nodded and gave you a little kiss.

You let your arms fall on your side and went to the small bar in your living room. You poured him a glass of whiskey and a glass of rum for yourself.

He sat down on the armchair as you poured the drinks. You walked back to him with two glasses in your hands and sat down on his lap instead of the couch beside the armchair. You gave him his drink and took a sip of your own.

“So will you move in with me or not?” he asked, he obviously wasn’t going to leave until you said yes. “I can’t, I want to but I just can’t.” your words made him finish his whiskey in one sip.

“Is it your brother?” he asked and just when you were going to speak, someone started knocking on your door really hard.

“Y/N! Open your fucking door!” you heard your brother shout. You jumped on your feet, “Fuck!” you shouted. Tommy didn’t move an inch, “I assume it’s the brother.” he said. The voice was familiar to him but he couldn’t tell who exactly.

You groaned loudly, “Don’t you fucking move!” you said to Tommy just as he was going to stand up. He listened to you and sat back.

You nervously walked to the door and opened it, “Alfie.” you said with a nervous smile. Then there was a shout from your living room coming after Tommy’s realisation. “Your brother is Alfie Solomons?” you looked at Alfie who stormed in after hearing Tommy.

You closed the door and followed Alfie with a growing fear in your body. “Tommy Shelby, really Y/N?” he turned to you, you nervously smiled again.

“Now I see what you mean when you said no protection needed.” then he looked down at your glass of rum on your coffee table. “And explains the excessive amount of rum in the house.” Alfie laughed loudly.

You were so nervous, you now understood why Tommy looked so uneasy when you laughed. “How did I not realise I was shagging your sister for six months?” Tommy asked, returning a small chuckle to Alfie’s laugh.

“Half sister, different last name, I’m not surprised.” you mumbled. “I don’t appreciate you talking about my sister like that Mr. Shelby.” Alfie said, still laughing, he somehow enjoyed the moment.

“Is the sex at least good?” Alfie turned to you, you blushed from embarrassment. “Definitely.” Tommy answer for you. You wanted to disappear but at least they hadn’t killed each other yet.

“When my people told you had a man in your house, I’d never imagined that would be him.” Alfie confessed, his smile was making you extremely nervous. “Uhh.” you didn’t know what to say.

“I asked your sister to move in with me.” Tommy said, now you knew this was when they would attempt to kill each other. “Oh I see.” Alfie turned back to you, you were on your toes waiting for the guns to come out.

This was exactly why you asked Tommy to not visit you at your own home. “I assume you said yes.” Alfie continued, “No.” you answered in fear. “Were you going to?” he asked, you had never felt this nervous, even when you had a gun pointed at your head.

“I considered it.” your hands were sweating. “I can’t see why not.” Tommy answered, you couldn’t believe how calm he was. You knew what kind of interaction they had and you assumed if Tommy knew, he would leave you. You were surprised seeing that he was still interested in keeping you as his girl.

“Well Y/N, what do you say?” you really didn’t know how to answer your brother’s question. “Uhm, I would love to.” you answered, rubbing your hands together slowly. You hoped the guns would never come out since they hadn’t already.

“I say this calls for a new alliance.” Alfie offered, Tommy squinted and looked at you before returning his gaze to your brother. “As long as I’m with her.” Tommy said as if he had more to say. Your eyes opened wide.

Tommy made a gesture to call you to his side, so you went to him. “What do you say Darling?” he asked you while you grabbed his hand. “I’m okay with it if you don’t try to kill each other, again.” you said. “Oh you knew.” Tommy said, he seemed actually surprised.

“Alright then Solomons.” Tommy offered his free hand for Alfie to shake. Thankfully your brother took the hand and shook it. You finally relaxed.

Tommy bended down to your ear, “This could’ve gone way worse.” he whispered before turning back to Alfie. “Darling, why don’t you pour us a drink?” he asked, Alfie took his hand up as if he asked you to stop.

His hand fell back to his side and he said “I can’t stay for long, you enjoy yourself.” the fact that this was happening felt like a dream. Alfie just left after that, not even waiting for you to say goodbye.

You turned to Tommy, “Thank God, there’s no blood on my carpets.” you said and he smiled. He kissed you like he never kissed you before, with more passion than you were used to.

“No more secrets okay?” he told you, you put on a smirk on your red lips. “As long as you don’t keep any either.” he nodded and gave you another kiss.

[smilingleoo]

Bts reaction-You´re a youtuber and your fans ask you to make a video with them

Request: Hi I was wondering if you could do a bts reaction where you are a YouTube and the fans have been asking for them to be in one of your vlogs so you make it happen.

Author´s Note: I tried my best! I wrote it as if they were your friends and you were spending time with them but never had really filmed them on-camera...If this isn´t what you asked for, feel free to ask me for the request again!

-------

RM (Kim Namjoon)

You had been friends with Namjoons since you had worked together during a talk show. They had invited you to represent the “social media” group and Bts was supposed to be the “music industry” area.

Needless to admit, you were a big fan of their music and performances. However, you understood the overwhelming sensation of being bombarded by too many questions so you made an effort to stay calm and friendly. When the event was over, you had had the opportunity to meet all the memebers and actually become friends with most of them. Little did you knew that Namjoon would be the one to catch you entire attention. He was intelligent, interesting to hear and a wonderful listener too. Other memebers would joke about you two being two seperated pieces of the same puzzle. ARMYs and your fans noticed it too, watching your Tik Toks or short videos together. Really soon, they were begging you to film a vlog with him. You had his number so you thought that, while beingin the same country, you could ask him if he wanted to be in one of youe videos. He, of course, said yes.

“Do I stay here or do you want me to dance like this?”

Jin (Kim Seokjin)

You loved food.

Seokjin loved food.

Many ARMYs were not only Seokjin´s fans but also yours.

Therefore, it was a common thing for you to receive messages about Jin´s famous eating videos. You watched them often and felt really inspoired to, at least, try to cook some Korean food Seokjin had shown during his videos. You filmed yourself, uploaded the video and, in no more than minutes, your fans began spamming you with comments. They were ushering you to film a video with Seokjin but the problem was that he barely knew you. Thus, your followers made sure to inform the idol about your existence. He eventually gave in and started to get to know your channel, becoming addicted eventually. In fact, he was the one who texted you. Establishing an houy, you decided to do an Instagram live together due to distance difficulties.

“Okay but you need to send me the KImchi you made in your video, Y/N-ah”

Suga (Min Yoongi)

You were a vlogger interested in visiting every country you could. You were keen on investigating and knowing different cultutres as well as inform other about it. Recently, you had heard a lot about South Korea´s development as regards the entertainment industry. Therefore, you planned a trip there, explaining to your fans the minimum research you had made about the country. Obviously, most of them recommended you to listen to bands such as Got7, TXT and BTS. The last one had really caught your attention and you soon added various of their songs to your playlist. You even mentioned Suga´s rap on your videos, claiming how talented he was. ARMYs made their magic and, out of nowhere, Yoongi was on your DM´s asking you to collaborate with him

Your heart nearly popped off your chest as you read the message nearly one hundred times. Fortunately, you pulled yourself together and accepted his offer without even thinking.

“Maybe we can talk abot your music and lyrics”-you suggested.

“Love that”-he answered warmly-”Shoot”

Jhope (Jung Hoseok)

You had been working with one of BTS sponsors for a while nowr.

They had contacted you because of your huge influnce among teens and young adults, telling you that they would love to have you in their business. You accepted liking their terms and friendly atmosphere and soon you were travelling around the world participating in events and talk shows. That night you had to be in an award show talking to popular artists and you were extremely excited. However, the company told you to focus in one specific band; BTS. They had come from Korea and this was an opportunity they couldn´t ignore. You made your best to talk to them, which they were pleased to do so, and you even got their manager´s number to contact them on behalf of the company.

Although your chat was brief, Hoseok was nseaky enough to slip his telephone number into your purse. He had tried to be discreet but a camera had caught his action and soon your fans were begging you to have him on your channel.

“I don´t mind all”-he shrugged-” It means I can have more time with you!”

Jimin (Park JImin)

You had filmed yourself doing the “Idol Challenge”, going viral in just days.

Jimin, being always thoughtful with his fans, scrolled through the tag finding their dancings amusing and entertaining. He tried to see every video he could but yours charmed him immediately. You had a bright smile on and you had actually nailed the choreography. A sudden urge to ask you if you wanted him to teach you one of their choreographies overtook him and he found himself texting you. Of course, you said yes.

“ So you step forward and then push your body backwards”-he instructed and watched how you copied his movements-” Pefect! You´re a fast learner”

V (Kim Taehyung)

Kim Taehyung had acknowledge your art in one of his Vlives.

You had panicked due to his recognition.

Your fans nearly smashed their keyboards while writing comments on your most recent video about the event and how you should consider inviting Taehyung for your next video. You wanted to please your viewers, you really did, but insecurities were far stronger. What if he laughed at your poor attempt to convince him? Or maybe he wouldn´t even open your request, claiming that he was far better than a mere youtuber. However, you truly knew he wouldn´t do such thing. He was sincerely kind as well as thoughtfull, so you discarded your fears and texted him. Two days went by before he finally answered you. He apologized for his late response and said he would be pleased  to appear in your video.

“ Y/N is really talented”-he would admit while filming-” Her work really caught my eye”

Jungkook (Jeon Jungkook)

You weren´t aware of the fact that you were playing with Jeon Jungkook until your viewers started commenting it on your video.

They told you that they had seen your username on his Vlive and that it would be a great idea to film a gameplay with him. You were neither the best player among your group nor the worst, and Jungkook knew it because he watched your videos. Therefore, when you asked him through the game´s chat if he wanted to join your streaming, he accepted without hesitation.

“So”-he smirked -” Do you know BTS” (He was trying to flirt ;))

[mossnotes]

some things that boys ought to know about girls:

- some of us wear pads, others wear tampons, others wear menstrual cups or menstrual underwear. some switch between them.

- it blows my mind that i have to say this but no, pads are not attached to our vagina. they’re pressed onto the inside of our underwear.

- it’s important that you get the specific pads/tampons we ask you for, if you can. they are all very different and tailored to suit. most of us bleed heavily. a liner is not going to cut it. if you’re not sure, ask, but otherwise a regular flow (WITH WINGS if it’s a pad) is usually a safe bet.

- girls can be toxic and abusive too. you are valid. if she hits, threatens, belittles, manipulates, or gaslights you, that is abuse. it is not normal behaviour or treatment.

- no means no. when she says it, and when you do. you are allowed to say no. women can be rapists too.

- some of us want and like sex. we are not “sluts”. some of us don’t want or like sex. we are not “prudes.”

- if a girl’s nudes get leaked, don’t you dare shame her for sending them. shame the guy who leaked them. if anyone’s life will be ruined, it should be his, for nonconsensual distribution of pornography.

- we don’t want to open our phone to pictures of your dick.

- your misogynistic jokes are not funny. we also do not care about what you think a girl “should” be or wear or act, nor what they “should not”.

- if she takes the pill for you, do not make light of or take advantage of it. it is a literal depressant. it messed with our hormones and emotions like crazy. do not think we are taking it just for the sake of it.

- not everyone takes the pill for sex. it can also be taken for medical reasons, including to regulate/control her period.

- if she has cramps, your pity and a cuddle will not help. depending on the pain level, she will likely be irritable and angry. don’t get angry in return, be patient. try to understand the pain she’s in. make sure she’s changed her pad/tampon/cup recently, get her a hot water bottle or heat pack and a painkiller, make sure she’s as comfortable as possible and do what she asks.

- do not expect us to make ourselves small for you.

- no matter what we are wearing, it is not consent. you have no right to catcall, stare at, harrass or touch us.

- we do not wear makeup for you. we do not care what you think.

- if you try to tell us “not all men”, you are immediately one of those men. we have to generalise our fear and anger towards men because we do not know who is safe and who is not. we are at genuine risk of being harrassed, raped, kidnapped or killed whenever we go out alone, so don’t you dare belittle us for it.

- if one of your friends leaks a girl’s nudes, catcalls her, harrasses her or rapes her, do not defend him out of loyalty, no matter if you know you would never do anything like he did so you’re a “good guy”. you are just as bad if you choose to brush it off or stay loyal to him.

- sex is not just about you.

- on that note, learn the female anatomy.

- protect your female friends on nights out. if she asks you to, pretend to be her boyfriend or call her when she’s walking. a lot of the time the only way to make a man back off is to use another man - for example, “i have a boyfriend” works, but “i’m not interested” doesn’t.

- be a feminist. feminism literally means equal rights for all genders. the “man-hater” narrative has been fed to you by misogynists. equality for women does not mean oppression for men. to be a feminist is to be a decent fucking human being. we should all be feminists.

- just because she’s bisexual doesn’t mean she wants a threesome.

- no, you can’t turn her straight. if anything you just assured her of how gay she is, and now she despises you.

- let girls love themselves. to be proud of her body and love herself fully is perhaps the biggest act of patriarchal defiance.

thank you, now go forth a little wiser :)

p.s. boys if you have any questions, it doesn’t matter how weird or gross, please feel free to ask me! either dm or askbox :) there is a whole lot neither sex ed or our mothers taught us!!! it’s 100% okay for you to ask me anything, as long as it’s from a place of genuine curiosity and desire to learn and improve :)

[miracle-sham]

When Sitting on the Roof, We are but Coffee Sleuths.

| {Sequel to Death is the Stage, My Art is Your Grave.} |

| [Ao3 Link] | | [Masterlist Link] | | [DitSMAiYG Link] |

| {Repost due to original post disappearing from tags.} |

| Triggers/Warnings: Mentions of drugs/drug ring (in regards to a case), Mild language. |

| After a long day of boring casework, there's nothing better than getting a new commission, and then drinking coffee and having a chat on top of a roof with a certain bat. |

| Word Count: 3051 |

==–==

| A/N: First of all, I'd like to quickly thank everyone for all the positive response and support the original oneshot got on both Tumblr and Ao3! It really motivated and inspired me to continue with this Au (expect at least another sequel, maybe more if I get more inspo but even if I don't there's definitely gonna be one sequel minimum to this). I'd also like to mention, that this took a lot longer to write as I got a cold halfway through writing it and also it's romance based fluff (which is not my forté), but thanks to those who've waited for this! And finally, for reasons that I'll explain in a separate post later, it might be a "little" while before I can start work on the sequel to this one but it will get written at some point. |

| If you want to be tagged in future oneshots/fics, or a specific Au, then send me a DM or an ask! |

| Also side note, Don't Like? Don't Read. Also also, please do not criticise any of my writing. This was written for fun and receiving criticism, even in a compliment/criticism sandwich, is the exact opposite of fun. |

==–==

It's been a month since Marinette got kidnapped, kissed Red Robin, and solved the Elemental Park Serial Killer case. For three weeks she's been held off active duty to make sure her bruised ribs heal but now that she's able to be on active duty again, all the available cases are those that are paperwork heavy. A small part of her misses the immediate healing of the Miraculous Cure but she's not Ladybug anymore and even if she was, it would raise too many flags for her to even use it anyway. But logic doesn't stop her from missing the days when she could literally and metaphorically magic away her aches and pains.

Marinette groans and slumps into her chair, it's been a surprisingly slow day at the GCPD, so when her phone beeps rapidly for a few seconds, she thinks, please be something interesting, and can't help but take a quick glance to see what new notifications she has. The screen reads: '3 new messages from Red'. So she taps the notification and reads through each message.

>RedRob: Hey, found some new evidence on our case, want to meet up for coffee to discuss it?

>RedRob: Rooftop coffee after dark, of course.

>RedRob: I mean I could waltz into a coffee shop during the day in my suit but that might get too much attention for case talk.

Marinette snickers to herself as she reads the messages over a second time. She quickly taps out her response.

>MariBlue: Will we need to worry about one of the other Gotham vigilantes crashing our coffee not-date?

Almost instantly she receives a response.

>RedRob: I'll bribe Oracle or Batgirl, maybe even Black Bat, into keeping the others away.

She sends a heart emoji back, then returns to sorting out her boring paperwork.

Detective Grayson raises an eyebrow at her from over the desk, clearly having caught her looking at her phone. “Red Robin again?”

She flashes him a sheepish grin. “How'd you guess.”

He gives her a deadpan stare. “He's the only person you respond to when working.”

Marinette bites her lip. “Whoops, that obvious?”

“Yes.” Detective Grayson hesitates for a second, he leans in closer—and like a teenage girl at a sleepover in a cheesy teen drama, asks, “So are you dating yet?”

She shrugs. “Well neither of us have asked the other so not really.”

“But you guys are perfect for each other!” He exclaims, gesturing towards her with an outstretched arm—very narrowly avoiding knocking anything off the desk.

It's Marinette's turn to raise an eyebrow. “We literally have only seen or talked to each other when working…”

“So? What do you call you quote unquote "not-dates"” He huffs, making air quotes as he speaks.

She huffs and shakes her head. “There's a reason they're called "not-dates" and that's because we discuss work at them. And anyway it's too early to rush our relationship.”

“Fair.” Detective Grayson stills, frowns and then almost hesitantly, he asks, “Is it because if the mask? The whole not knowing his real identity?”

Marinette rolls her eyes and shakes her head again. “Nope, I couldn't care less about finding out his real identity—at least not without his consent that is.”

He hums, a pensive look on his face. “So you're not curious?”

She shrugs. “Not particularly, why?”

Detective Grayson shrugs back. “Just wondering,” he leans back on his chair and for a split second, Marinette fears he might topple over but somehow he seems unaffected by gravity, “I think you're the first person I've met, who doesn't want to know who's behind a vigilante's mask.”

A smile tugs at Marinette's lips. “I think it's kinda dumb that so many people are obsessed with the people behind the masks because if they're doing good, unmasking them will only deter them from continuing fighting the good fight and all that, y'know.”

He nods slowly, “huh, that's one way of putting it I guess but I agree, the vigilantes do more for this city than people think they do.” Detective Grayson then tilts his head towards the Commissioner's office. “Anyway back to work, don't want to get in more trouble with the Commish than we are already!”

Marinette huffs in amusement and rolls her eyes but complies nonetheless. Wouldn't do to get in trouble so soon after getting back onto active duty!

==–==

It isn't until gone seven pm, that Marinette finally gets home. She slips through the door, locking it behind her. Now that she's in, the first thing she does, as she does every day, is check her online portfolio and commission site.

Marinette plops herself down in her wheely chair and logs onto to her computer, going through all the verification and security Max had kindly added. A new commission notification grabs her attention. With three clicks, she brings up the new commission's details. She scrolls down to the name of the commissioner: one Mr 'T. Drake-Wayne'.

Curious as to why the name sounds vaguely familiar, Marinette opens up a tab on Google with a hum and types in the name. Upon reading the top results, she half chokes in shock and thinks to herself, Are you kidding me? She blinks and breathes in, a small part of her very glad she wasn't drinking anything otherwise she definitely would've fully choked on that or spat it all up from the shock. I know a bunch of well-known celebrities have all commissioned me many times before, but still why the heck is a fortune 500 CEO commissioning me? I'm not Audrey Bourgeois, Gabriel Agreste, or even Valen-hecking-tino. I do celebrities, not fortune 500. The heck. What. The. Actual. Heck.

Eyes wide and gobsmacked, Marinette shakes her head and clicks back to her latest commission's details page to read through the actual commission. After reading the first line, she scrambles for her sketchbook and begins jotting down notes and scribbling down ideas.

Half an hour in, Marinette takes a break to sort out and eat dinner, no point designing on an empty stomach but once she's done eating and washed up, she goes straight back to designing.

Even at a quarter past midnight, she's still at it—surprisingly only three drafts in and so thoroughly lost in her own head in designing, Marinette nearly misses the knocking against her window facing the fire escape.

The rapid rap-tap-tap spooks her so much that she falls out of her chair with an “Eep!”

Marinette, face flushing bright red, scrambles up and scurries over to the window in question. Shoving her blinds out the way, she stares through the window and is greeted with the absolutely glorious sight of a beaming and uninjured Red Robin holding two takeaway coffee cups on the fire escape. He waves at her with one hand and gestures for her to join him on the fire escape.

She can't help but grin back at him and deftly opens the window and slinks out onto the fire escape. He hands a coffee cup towards her and instead of taking it, Marinette gives him a good ol' bearhug—smooshing pressing her face into his Kevlar armoured chest. Which is unsurprisingly, very uncomfortable. She shifts her head to stare up at him (as he's at least whole head taller than her) “Hey,” she greets.

Awkwardly hugging her back, as to not spill either of the coffees in the process, “hey yourself,” Red Robin responds, pressing a tender kiss to her forehead.

Marinette pulls back from the hug and nabs the coffee cup that had been offered to her before their hug. “Thank you~!”

“No problem.” He then gestures towards the fire escape stairs leading to the roof, “after you.”

“So which of our cases did you manage to get a lead for?” She asks, making her way up to the roof.

“The one pertaining to the new drug ring in the fashion district. I've narrowed down where they're storing the drugs to potentially three warehouses near Miller Harbour.” Red Robin answers, following after her.

Reaching the roof, Marinette sits down on the half wall around the roof edge. She glances over at Red Robin as he joins her on the improvised seat. “That's the drug ring dealing Miraclo right?”

“Yeah, that's the one.” He pauses to take a sip of his coffee, “I got the intel from an old friend of Catwoman's called Mackey lives in an apartment that overlooks the Harbour and saw a shipment of the drug arrive at the warehouses.”

Taking a sip of her own coffee, Marinette raises an eyebrow. “And will Detective Grayson and I will be able to get that intel as witness statement?”

Red Robin nods. “Yep, Catwoman's vouching for you both.”

She jerks back in surprise, nearly toppling off the half wall but managing to cling to the edge in time to keep her from falling. Miraculously somehow managing to avoid dropping or spilling her coffee. Oof, if it wasn't for my stint in Spandex I definitely would've made a fool of myself in front of Red Robin. And here I thought that part of my life had since passed. Marinette thinks to herself, wincing at the newly gained superficial graze across her palms. She clears her throat and attempts to look like she didn't just nearly fall off a half wall. “Catwoman's vouching for us? Since when? I've literally never encountered her before.”

Red Robin, the traitor, snorts at her predicament. “You are the epitome of elegance. And Detective Grayson's bumped into her a few times on the job.”

“Thanks.” She responds drily, layering on the sarcasm thickly. She shakes her head and sighs. “So do you know what the addresses are for the warehouses and this Mackey's apartment?”

He takes an excruciatingly slow sip of his coffee before speaking. “Of course I can, what kind of vigilante do you take me for?” He then proceeds to rattle off the addresses.

Which Marinette jots down on the napkin that came with her coffee, and puts it into a pocket for safekeeping. “Thank you.” With it written down, she pauses then starts kicking her legs in the air. She sniffs. “And I take you for the kind that flirts with innocent police officers.”

Red Robin grins at her as he gently elbows her in the ribs. “I don't hear you complaining.”

Marinette scoffs and slaps her hand to her chest in an overly dramatic mock of shock. “Unfair! If I complained I wouldn't get any hugs or kisses from you!”

Humming he wraps an arm around her shoulders and presses a kiss to her temple. “That's true, what a shame it would be for you to miss out on all those hugs.”

She hums back and the two ease into a comfortable silence; leaning against each other and sipping their coffees whilst staring at the night sky.

Once Marinette gets halfway through her coffee, she glances at Red Robin and hesitates, her earlier conversation with Detective Grayson springing to mind. “Communication is key in healthy relationships,” she prefaces, “so are you okay with our current relationship? Y'know the flirting, the not-dates, the whole me not knowing your identity?”

Red Robin laughs, sounding slightly bitter. “Of course I'm fine with the flirting and not-dates but I'm not going to lie and say I don't have any worries over you not knowing my identity. It's one of the reasons a relationship I had with a fellow mask didn't work out.” Rubbing at his jaw, he tilts his face away from her slightly, as though reminiscing about something. He then shakes his head and turns back to her. “Really, I ought to be asking you that. So what about you, are you okay with how our relationship is?”

Marinette hums. “This isn't the first time relationship I've had with a masked hero.” Then takes a calm sip of her coffee.

“So you've got a thing for masks then huh? Lucky me I guess.” He responds, smirking mischievously, and whilst she can't see the rest of his face thanks to the cowl, Marinette just knows that he's wiggling his eyebrows at her from underneath that cowl.

His comment nearly sends her tumbling off the half wall—again. She coughs and splutters in laughter as she nearly spits up her sip of coffee. It takes her a full thirty seconds to recover and mock gripes, “remind me why I love you again.”

Red Robin cocks his head to the side and grins. “Because I bring you coffee?”

She huffs, “good point.”

“So back to the mask thing, can I ask what happened with your masked hero relationship?” He asks, tone hesitant. He stares at her, ready to back off the topic at the slightest sign of discomfort from her.

Marinette hisses through her teeth and states, “I can trust you.”

His stare conveys an 'I would hope so' whilst he bobs his head a little in a 'yes you can' and a 'please continue' gesture.

She takes a deep breath before speaking, “I used to be a hero, back when I lived in Paris.”

“Oh?” Red Robin freezes, thrown off guard by her admission.

Nodding, Marinette continues. “It was difficult. We started when we were barely teens and had no training and no support except for temporary heroes we could bring in when the battles got too hard for just me and my partner to handle. When we started, we were repeatedly told to never, under any circumstances, let anyone find out our identities. My partner and I, neither of us knew who the other was beneath the mask. And we only knew the identities of the temporary heroes because we gave them the ability to become superheroes. But even then we didn't always know their real identities and they certainly never knew ours.”

“Yikes.” Is all he can respond with, mind racing with questions. “That can't have been good, at least I had Batman and Nightwing when I was starting out, but you had no one to talk to about being a mask, outside the mask.”

She flashes him a watery smile and sighs. “No, I did have someone. Tikki. But we're uh, not in contact any more. Since I retired.”

Still, Red Robin makes a noise of concern at that.

“Anyway, one thing led to another led to another, and my partner found out my identity.” Marinette puts her coffee down then tips her head back and closes her eyes. “We started dating not long after that. But once we defeated the BBEG terrorising Paris and some… concerning things came to light, our—we,” She shakes her head, “we realised that because of that, neither of us were emotionally able to continue our relationship in a romantic way. So we decided to stay friends and I—uh, I retired and moved to Gotham.”

He puts his coffee down as well, and pulls her into a tight hug, although making sure it wasn't too constricting as to not make her uncomfortable. “I'm sorry.”

She leans into the hug, rests her head on his shoulder, and delicately wraps her arms around him in return. “What? Why? It's not your fault.”

Red Robin frowns, not that she can see in their current position, “I know but no one should be forced into becoming a hero at such a young age with no support network.”

Huffing, Marinette buries her face in his shoulder, somewhat muffling her voice but not enough to make her unintelligible, “what about Spoiler? She became a hero around that age and had no support network.”

He sighs. “Spoiler chose to become a vigilante, she wasn't forced. And anyway, she had Robin and the rest of the bats to support her once they realised what she was doing.”

“Hmm… fair.” Marinette pulls back from the hug and pauses. “On a lighter note, I got a commission on my fashion site from Tim Drake-Wayne!”

Red Robin raises an eyebrow and with poorly concealed amusement, responds, “Oh? And what's so special about him”

She rolls her eyes at him. “He's the youngest fortune five hundred CEO, founded the Neon Knights among other charities, and often donates to various charities around Gotham! Plus Wayne Enterprises is one of, if not the most ethical company in the fortune five hundred bracket. Employees get living stipends, and training and higher education paid by the company. They get healthcare and dental insurance. They get flexible work hours, paid breaks, and receive above minimum wage pay!”

He laughs. “I guess he is a pretty decent sounding guy then.”

“Mhmm.”

“So what's the commission then? Or is it a secret?” He teases, leaning towards her.

Marinette dramatically places her hand over her heart. “I guess I can spare you the details this one time.”

“Wooh!”

She bites her lip before launching into a long ramble about the commission, gushing over what design and colour palette she's thinking of going with, what bots and bobs and patterns to add, what stitch to use and how to make sure it fits his style, etc.

Red Robin spends the entire time listening attentively, despite not really understanding half the fashion terms, and staring at her like a love-struck puppy.

“Damn, I love you!” He exclaims once she finishes speaking, then leans in to kiss her on the lips.

Marinette bursts into giggles and kisses him back. Her giggles are seemingly infectious, as once they part from the kiss, both are giggling and flushed red.

A bright flash of white followed by a camera shutter sound immediately distracts them both. They just manage to catch sight of Nightwing swinging away.

She gives him a look, which is somewhat less effective as she's still smiling from the kiss. “What happened to bribing Oracle, Black Bat, or Batgirl?”

Red Robin groans and drops his face into his hands. “Clearly Nightwing was able to one-up my bribe. Probably in the form of giving them copies of the photos both he and Detective Grayson have taken.”

“You mean to tell me those two are working together? No wonder Detective Grayson was asking about our relationship earlier today at work!” Marinette gasps, sounding mildly horrified and betrayed.

“Are you thinking what I'm thinking?” Red Robin asks, lifting his head up and grinning deviously at her.

She smirks back, “Revenge?”

He nods—the sagely kind of nod. “Revenge.”

==–==

| Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little oneshot! Comments, likes, and reblogs are much appreciated! |

@casual-darkness

[sleepychai-fics]

Road to Salvation ~ Chapter 3 - Detained

Warnings: mentions of blood at the end (nothing graphic, just the way it moves), heights, guns (let me know if I’m missing anything)

Word Count: 3,229

Pronouns - Female

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters in BNHA. However, there are many OC’s in this fic that I’ve created. These OC’s belong to me and are specifically created for this fic.

Feedback is appreciated!

Want to be part of the taglist? DM me or reply to this chapter!

Michi awakens with a twitch, the result of a nightmare he thankfully doesn’t remember. His body shivers from the lingering fear, heart beating away in his chest. His eyes stare blankly at the dark crusted wall in front of him.

He flinches at the feeling of gentle pressure rubbing along his spine, but the gentle hush that accompanies it settles his nerves. Without a second thought, he lifts his head out of your lap and crawls up to you, nuzzling his face into your chest.

You adjust your arms around him, pulling him closer to you, letting him relax in your comfort. You tuck Dabi’s jacket around his figure before you continue your ministrations along his back.

You remain this way for a few minutes, sitting up against the wall with Michi buried into your chest. Sunlight streams into the room through the front door and the boarded-up windows.

Michi mumbles against your chest. You peer down at him. “What was that?”

He pulls his face out of your chest, opting to press his ear against it instead. “Where’s Dabi?”

A smile adorns your face. “He’s downstairs helping with breakfast. Did you like spending time with him?”

Michi remains silent for a few seconds before speaking up. “He was very nice to me.” Your smile brightens. “He’s really warm and cuddly.”

A chuckle leaves you. “Yeah, he acts different to what you expect, doesn't he?”

“Can we go see him?” Michi lifts his head out of your chest, leaning back to look straight up at you. “I want to give his jacket back.” He grips said jacket around him, tugging it tighter around his shoulders.

“Sure. You should get some breakfast as well.”

Michi shuffles himself out of your lap, standing up next to you. With a pained groan, you stand.

“Are you ok?” Michi looks at you with worry.

With a sigh, you reply. “Yeah, I’m fine kiddo. Don’t worry about me, just tired from last night.” Michi takes your open hand, letting its warmth encase his.

“What did you do?” He says as the two of you walk out of the dull room and into the bright, stale environment.

“I fought some bad guys and saved someone.”

Michi gasps. “Really?” You giggle at his reaction, nodding in confirmation. “Wow, that sounds really cool. But, are you hurt?”

You guide him carefully down a set of stationary escalators. “No. Not really. My muscles are just a bit sore from all the energy I used.”

“Oh. Is that good?” He asks with a tilt of his head, watching his feet as he steps over various bumps and dents.

“Well, it’s better than other injuries.”

As you make it down the first set of stairs, you look over the balcony to see a small crowd of children gather around a table, plates being filled with single pieces of bread.

“What is an injury?” Michi questions as you continue to lead him down another flight of stairs.

“An injury is like a cut, or a bruise, or a broken bone. Your body is damaged in some way,” you inform, giving an assuring squeeze to his hand.

Once you make it down the final steps, you immediately spot Dabi over at the table with the other kids. He stands at the end of the table, regulating a small fire barrel, helping a couple kids toast their bread pieces.

Michi sees him too, waving his unoccupied arm at him. Dabi snaps his gaze up, a small smile appearing on his face as he notices the two of you. You make a beeline towards him. As you pass by the table, you snatch a piece of bread from one of the many plates, handing it to Michi.

“Good morning.” Dabi greets, passing the toast to a small child.

“Morning.” You reply, leaning on the table. “You left quite the impression on Michi. Thinks you’re all cuddly and warm.” The playful tone is associated with the knowing smirk.

Dabi chuckles, looking down at Michi. “Aw, you're messing with my tough-guy image,” he says, ruffling his head earning a chipper giggle from the child.

Michi carefully untangles himself from the jacket and holds it up to Dabi. “Thank you for letting me cuddle with it.”

Taking the jacket, Dabi smiles. “No problem buddy. Did you sleep ok?”

Michi frowns, looking down at the ground. “I had a nightmare.”

You kneel down beside him, gently running your hand along his arm. “Really? Do you remember it?” Michi shakes his head, unconsciously leaning towards you. “That’s good then. It’s ok to have nightmares. I have nightmares all the time.” Michi looks at you with disbelief in his eyes. “I do. Everyone has nightmares. It’s normal. Don’t be afraid to cuddle one of us when you have them. Whenever I have a really bad nightmare, I snuggle into Dabi. And he does the same thing as well, he cuddles up to me.”

Michi looks to Dabi for confirmation, clearly unsure on whether he believes it or not.

“It’s true,” Dabi confirms, passing another toasted piece of bread to a child.

Michi turns back to you. “A-are you sure? I don’t want to wake you up if I do that.”

“Of course. I don’t mind. We can snuggle the nightmares away together.” You reply with a smile, which passes on to Michi.

“(Y/n). Dabi.”

You stand up and look to your side. “Zara.”

Zara is a rather tall woman. Her long red hair tied up in a messy bun with a few strands framing the sides of her face. She wears a baggy sweater, bits of thread peeking out in various places, and a pair of leggings on the edge of ruin. Her tanned complexion can only be seen by her face and her hands.

Zara positions herself in the gap between you and Dabi, smiling at the few children who greet her before turning her focus on you. “Do you mind doing a library run? We need a few school books and storybooks.”

Dabi nods. “Sure. We’ll head out after breakfast.”

“Great.” Zara hands you a folded up piece of paper. “If you can’t find anything on this list, try to get something similar to the subject. And for fantasy books, look for ones about dragons. The kids are especially interested in those at the moment.”

With a smile, you pocket the list. “Sure thing.”

Michi’s brown eyes gaze up into Zara’s blue, curiosity swimming among his irises. With a smile, Zara kneels down. “Hi there. I heard you came in last night.” Michi subconsciously leans closer to you.

You chuckle, placing a hand atop his head and giving it a soothing rub. “You don’t have to be afraid. She’s a nice person. Just don’t say anything about her hair.” You smirk as Zara scoffs and sends you a playful glare.

“Don’t listen to her kid. I’m a sweetheart,” Zara replies, scrunching up her nose.

“Sure. Let’s go with that.”

Ignoring your comment, Zara lays her palm out flat. “Look what I can do.” Michi watches as a sparkling light appears hovering above Zara’s palm. His mouth drops in amazement. He continues to watch as the light begins to slowly change colours.

“That’s so cool,” Michi mutters as the light fades to nothing.

“My name is Zara.”

Michi looks to her gentle gaze. “My name is Michi.”

Zara smiles. “It’s nice to meet you Michi. Will you be going with these two to the library?”

His eyes light up, switching his gaze to you. With a shrug, you reply. “I don’t see why not.” Michi nods enthusiastically.

Zara laughs as she stands. “Well, I’ll leave you to it then. See ya’ later!”

You, Michi and Dabi all wave your goodbyes.

“I’ll get stuff ready to go.” You say, grabbing another slice of bread for yourself. “Would you like to come with me Michi?” He nods with a small smile on his face. You then turn to Dabi. “I’ll meet you out front.”

Dabi nods, using his quirk to feed the fire.

Michi’s hand grasps onto yours as you head back upstairs.

~*~

Almost a dozen books are piled in your arms. Thankfully they aren’t too big, but it still requires a bit of effort to walk straight with them. As you walk out the aisle, you see Michi staring at a book in his hands.

You approach him from behind. “Do you want to read that book?”

Michi turns to face you, putting the book back in its place. “N-No! I was just looking.” He starts to play with his fingers.

Kneeling down, you smile. “It’s okay. The good thing about libraries is you can pretty much borrow however many books you want. As long as you return them.”

Michi looks at you with a dazed expression. “Really?” Your nod of confirmation brings a small smile to his face as he retrieves the book from the shelf.

You giggle as he pulls out the book, holding it to his chest.

“Are we ready to check out?” Dabi approaches with his own handful of books.

You stand up, looking to Michi who holds his book with one hand and clasps his necklace in the other. “I think we are.”

After checking out the books and putting them into your backpack, you head off.

Michi walks in between you and Dabi. One hand holds tightly onto yours whilst the other grips onto his book.

Dabi glances down at him. “What book did you get?” The simple question seems to set a spark behind Michi’s eyes.

“It’s a story my mum read to me a lot. It’s about a little girl who runs from home. She has magic powers that no one knows about. She meets a boy and he takes her to a new world where everyone has magic. She grows up to be the queen! It’s my favourite bedtime story.” Michi excitedly explains, smiling as he moves his hands closer to his chest, roughly where his necklace sits at his collarbone.

Dabi hums in response. “That sounds like a good story. Do you mind if I read it with you?”

“I’d like to read it as well,” you add. Michi immediately nods, the smile growing on his face. “We’ll read it together before bed tonight then. Or we can-”

“Excuse me, ma’am?”

The three of you stop, eyes flicking up to the uniformed officer in front of you. “I’m sorry to interrupt your day, but I’d like to ask you a few questions about a recent event. May we discuss this down at the station? It won’t take long.”

Your eyes immediately flicker about the environment. The streets aren’t too crowded, people are grouped in pairs, a few feet of space in between each couple. Two police cars remain stationary nearby, the silhouettes of other officers can be seen in the front seats. Scattered amongst the street, you notice a few suspicious eyes staring at you, brows crinkled in observation.

You smile at the officer. “Sure. Do you mind if I take a minute to part with my husband and son?”

The officer, unbeknownst to your actual relationship with the boys, hesitantly nods. You can practically see the nerves dripping off of him.

You bow your head slightly before turning to face the boys.

Dabi is calm, but under the guise he’s alert and guarded. Blue eyes silently glare at the officer, the dangerous intent hidden beneath his composed mask. His fist clenches tightly by his side whilst his other hand gently touches Michi.

Michi looks terrified; you can see it's taking all his energy not to burst into tears right then and there and you silently praise his control. His eyes are glazed over with dread. His hand clasps around his necklace, bringing it close to his lips.

With a smile, you kneel down in front of him.

“Don’t tell me you’re leaving me.” You almost tear up yourself. Anger washes over you; seeing a small child have anxiety about you leaving them is inexcusable.

You offer your arms out for a hug which he immediately dives in for. “I’m sorry Michi, I really don’t want to go either. But I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Michi presses into the hug, nuzzling his head into your neck. It takes a few more seconds before you have the heart to pull back from him. With a brush of your fingers, his teary river stops momentarily. “Dabi will take good care of you while I’m gone.”

Michi sniffles, leaning his weight onto you. “I don’t want you to go.”

You bite back the wave of tears that threatens to arise. “I know. I don’t want to either.”

He throws his arms around you once again, holding onto you tightly. “Promise you’ll be safe.”

“I promise.” After parting from him once again, you smile at him and run your fingers through his hair.

Standing up, you face Dabi. Without hesitation, he plants a smile on his face and opens his arms. You engage in the hug, wrapping your arms around his waist and bringing him in close. You situate your mouth close to his ears, allowing your voice to drop to a faint whisper.

“Take care of him. Make sure he isn’t alone.”

In response, he tightens his grip on you. “I will.”

“If I’m not back by tonight, I’m MIA.”

“Your record is clean so far, don’t dirty it now.”

You smile. “I’ll try not to.”

With a final squeeze, you part from each other. Michi reaches out for Dabi who immediately picks him up and settles him on his hip.

“I love you!” You call out with a fake smile as you turn back to the officer.

“Love you too!” You hear Dabi reply.

The officer looks relieved when you return. “Shall we make our way to the station?”

You mentally hold yourself back from punching him, despite the desperate urge to. Can’t risk it now, not yet at least. Instead, you nod politely.

As you follow the officer, you glance around, observing every watchful eye on you. The officer opens the backseat door for you, gesturing for you to enter. You stand at the door, smiling at the officer as you peek over towards Dabi.

You watch as he ducks into an alley, Michi held tightly against his grasp.

A smirk crosses your lips as you return your attention to the officer.

There’s no more stalling, you strike out your fist, knocking the officer out immediately. He drops to the ground in a heap, blood pooling out from his nose.

Ignoring the screams and yells, you spring upwards, using your quirk to push against your shadow, propelling you high into the air. At the peak of your jump, you latch onto a window sill and scale up the remaining floor of the building.

Just as you reach the top, a hand grasps onto your hand. You gasp but quickly regain your composure. Flipping over the grip, you tug him over the edge, sending him plummeting to the ground. Once climbing over the ledge, you stretch your hand out before clenching it in a fist.

The officer’s momentum depletes substantially, enough to only leave him breathless on touch down.

“Stop right there!”

You turn around, coming face to face with another 4 officers, each armed with a handgun. For a moment, you stop moving, calculating your next move.

Locking eyes on the officer closest to you, you leap at him, grabbing the gun-wielding hand and twisting it back. The response is a yelp of pain as the gun falls from his hand. You catch it, flip it to hold it by the barrel before throwing it to another nearby officer. It hits him in the eye - not your exact target but enough to have him dropping to the ground in pain. A quick jab to the first guy’s chin leaves him out of the fight for now.

A bullet grazes your skin the same time the gunshot rings in your ear. You ignore the fiery pain that shoots through your left shoulder, swatting your hand out with your quirk activated. The officer falls to the ground, his gun clattering to the ground. The last one standing looks shocked, but only for a second. Taking the opportunity, you leap in front of the officer. He takes a swing at you, aiming for your head. You block the punch with one hand and go for one of your own with the other, decking him in the mouth.

You bolt across the building, jumping over the small gaps to reach the next. The blaring sounds of sirens surround the area, sparking anxiety within you. Holy fuck, how many are after me? The answer shows itself once you reach the end of the building.

The streets seem to be clear of any citizens, occupied only by several cops as well as a couple of heroes.

“Fuck.” With a shake of your head, you jog back a few steps. “Okay (Y/n), you’ve done this trick many times. The only difference now is you have an army of police after you. Not any different than your typical night.” The encouragement you say to yourself doesn’t do much for your shaking nerves.

Denying yourself another thought, you take off in a sprint. It only takes you seconds to approach the ledge. As your foot connects with the ledge, you throw your hands down violently. Your quirk activates as you do so, launching you high into the air, allowing you to fly across the street. Your descent quickly follows, gravity pulling you back down to earth. It’s almost too fast, but you’ve done this plenty of times beforehand, you know the drill.

Outstretching your hand, your fingers flex. You grab hold of your growing shadow on the building. With a confident hold on your shadow, you pull it back, slowing down your descent enough for you to roll safely onto the ground.

You continue to dart across buildings, jumping over alleyway gaps and making a couple of turns, trying your best to scrape off the persistent heroes.

Another street approaches and you speed up. Everything goes to plan until you jump. You feel it through your fingers before anything else. The lack of weight in your fingers confuses you and it isn’t until you start falling towards the street do you realise what’s happened. You quirk stopped working.

“No!” You scream as your body plummets down to the street. Your eyes quickly scan the environment below and target a light post. Thanking whatever high being is up there, you reach out to grab it.

Unfortunately, you fall just short of it. You touch it with the tips of your fingers, but don’t clasp onto it.

Everything flashes before your eyes.

Fabric wraps tightly around your body, stopping any and all movement of your limbs. You grunt as your body is whipped upside down, your head inches from the ground.

Blood rushes to your brain too fast, your body unable to comprehend the fast motion and quickly shutting down. Fiery hot pain shoots through your arm and your head thumps painfully with the excess blood. Before your vision cuts out, you catch a glimpse of a figure.

Floating black hair and bright yellow goggles are the last things you see before you lose consciousness.

[demolover]

ive seen ur posts mentioning u have thoughts on queer perspective towards death and how mcr fit into it so. if u ever decide to share other ideas on the topic id love to read it! (i think ur really good at getting your thoughts accross) (u dont have to answer btw i just wasnt sure abt shooting a dm abt this)

it’s been so long i’m so sorry um i have a lot of thoughts idk if u still want them here’s an attempt at a short version... 

edit: changing this to under a cut cuz it’s insanely long. if u don’t feel like reading almost 1.5k words probably don’t read it.

basically i think that mortality and death are very common things for all humans to think about and make art about because we’re kinda... obsessed with and extremely afraid of death. which (i think) stems from how death is one of the few things we know is going to happen to us, and yet we can’t understand it really. we know it is the end but we cannot know anything about it because it is the end. so that intrigues us (and makes us afraid) and then u can add in how we see other people in our life die before we do... basically it all adds up to us being obsessed with understanding and defying our own mortality somehow.

we can see this theme in mcr a lot, the interplay between mortality and defiance and hope... i call it hope vs inevitability and i think it’s especially noticeable in bullets and danger days, because in the other two they’re not really fighting so much as existing side by side... i wrote in notes once that in those albums, the hope is in the inevitable...

in black parade it’s pretty much totally like this; after you die you join the black parade, and your memory will carry on. there is fear going into it, but it very much feels like an album accepting and even embracing the end, not fighting it. accepting it and embracing it with this crazy tone... come one come all to this tragic affair. wipe off that makeup, what’s in is despair... (note: i used to think that line was what sin is despair and i still wonder if that was on purpose). revenge is a bit more complex but i have always thought that beyond the hope of getting the girl back, of bringing her back to life (against the end, against death and mortality) there must also be some relief in death for the guy demo lover... if you would kill a thousand men to get your lover back from the dead, would you die to meet them there? <- maybe i’m wrong; there is still hope vs inevitability here.

in danger days and bullets, though, is where i feel like we see those things ultimately fight; in bullets we have this desperate desire to be immortal and mean something, coupled with the strong feeling that you will die with nothing. that you will die. (i have a post on this theme in the song demolition lovers). then, in danger days we see this theme come with this absolute denial of mortality (killjoys never die) coupled with this intense fear of death and being remembered wrong or not at all. and of course this culminates in them dying. (here is my post on this theme in danger days it’s kinda a mess but so is this post so whatever).

right so we’ve established mcr (and humanity in general) is obsessed with mortality we already knew that though. what does it have to do with queerness.

basically there’s a couple things.

1. the connection of both otherness and love with death (note: this also applies to a lot of minorities but queerness is what’s really applicable to mcr specifically). the extent to which mcr intertwines narratives of love and otherness with death and violence is.... a lot. we see it in every album, i believe; it’s most noticeable in bullets in drowning lessons and demo lovers, in revenge in so many songs i’m not going to try to list them, in black parade in cancer, wttbp and my way home is through you, and in danger days in save yourself, only hope for me, and scarecrow. this was just off the top of my head; there’s probably more songs with examples of this.

this is very queer (at least when done by mcr; as most of mcr is white the issues that come with things like the history of interracial marriage, etc. don’t really apply) because of how for queer people our identities and love can be deadly to us... the history of queer love and identity is obviously marked with violence against the people displaying that love and identity.

straight cis white guys don’t usually talk about death with the connection with love at the forefront, at least not that i’ve seen. every once in awhile they do, i guess, if they’re talking about grief, but otherwise, no. demo lovers is my favorite example of the connection of love with death; especially in the first couple verses, the two seem so linked. the first 2 mentions of death or the end in the song are immediately followed by “with you”... “i’d end my days with you in a hail of bullets,” and “i would drive on to the end with you.”

in the whole demo lovers arc, through bullets and revenge, the themes of death and love are so intertwined it’s impossible to untangle them. if i tried to make a post of all the times in revenge death and love are talked about in the same lyric, as if one thing, i would be screenshotting lyrics all night. of course, if we bring in gwgt theory, and start thinking about how the girl and guy demo lovers are a metaphor for gerard’s relationship with his gender, we can go way further with this too. the simultaneous love story involving these parts of himself, and intertwined violence and death. the fear present... the lyrics that talk at the same time about hurting yourself and being hurt by others... but that’s a different post, really. i’m gonna try to stay more surface level. no speculating on metaphors (today).

in black parade i think we see the connection of otherness with death a lot more than the connection with love, although they’re both still present... in danger days the concept of otherness when associated with death is super clear: killjoys defy the city and become something “other,” which is scorned and hated by BLI/nd, and they get killed for it. love is also a pretty common theme in danger days songs, often intertwined with death, though less obviously than in revenge.

2. just... the extent to which this idea of mortality and death and immortality and memory is talked about is interesting in itself i think. this obsession with our legacy and our mortality is present in a lot of stuff, not just queer stuff, but it’s just everywhere in mcr’s discography (and a lot of the subsequent groups of music related to/associated with mcr, which are also often known for being queer). they constantly talk about how they’ll die, and how they’ll die sooner rather than later, and can they live forever anyway, what does immortality mean after all, will they be remembered, what will their legacy be... etc.

memory and legacy is something i haven’t really talked about, but i think it’s also essential to the conversation. for obvious reasons queer people (and people of a lot of other minorities but i’m only talking about the queer part cuz it’s the most/the only applicable thing here) have a more complicated relationship with how we’ll be remembered and whether we’ll be remembered than cishet people do. how mcr talks about this reminds me a lot of the sappho fragment tumblr passes around ever so often... “someone will remember us / i say / even in another time.” (comparison/parallels post of mcr lyrics and that quote by @milfygerard (and added onto by me) here.)

and that brings us back around to the theme of hope vs inevitability... as i mentioned earlier, this theme isn’t necessarily totally queer on it’s own, but as with talking about memory and legacy the way mcr does, if you talk about it so much that it becomes a core theme in all of your albums it ends up feeling a lot more queer than before. hope vs inevitability in mcr’s work connects to love and death and both at once and is just everywhere. and it ends up connecting to the way a lot of queer people think about our death and our mortality and our hope. and how the future and the past are thought about in connection to these themes i think is kind of queer too — when your history is barely spoken and your present is in hiding, of course you look to the future. despite that that means looking towards the ending. and maybe you embrace that ending, because what else is there to do?

i’m very sorry. this was not short. if you have questions, or want to tell me how i’m wrong, or have your own thoughts, do not be afraid to dm me or send me asks please... fascinating topic.

[arieyoukiddingme]

Sleuthing the Sleuths: The Heat of the Moment

Check out our post-session chat below as we explore what happened in our last session, The Heat of the Moment!

Carp A DM: Hey y’all! I’m gonna ask for your reactions to the session from the start up until like the last 30 minutes of play. We’re gonna table talking about that last encounter for justttttt a bit 😉

Dog Mom: I mean where to start? Lots of good RP happened. I think Faylen is frustrated with the visa thing for sure, she wants to help people and is struggling with the lack of desire for them to aid the situation. Everything else that happened that session was just rooted in her desire to keep things moving towards the underdark.

Filia-Well What Do We Have Here?: Filiadel is definitely feeling a little.... confused...about the group's internal conflicts. She obviously doesn't have as much history with everyone and isn't privy to all information, so she's trying to piece together what she can. As far as she can tell, these are three people who care for one another, have reservations about one another, and are horrible at expressing both of those things. She is happy, albeit a little surprised, that Brinne is comfortable enough confiding in her, though. Oh, and she is definitely curious about the concept of substituting material components for spells (although you can be damn sure she is going to make Kathra be the guinea pig next time)

Raging and Confused: Honestly, I was really shocked that I started talking about Brinne’s fears like that last night... but Brinne is feeling inadequate, insecure, and uncertain of the future... she needed someone who was “impartial” but understood the situation to talk to about what was wrong, and Fili fit the bill... both Kathy and Fay seem like two opposing forces bound to go in different directions and Brinne doesn’t like not being able to control that outcome/prevent a breakup... she’s also confused about where this leaves us now and what we’re going to do once this immediate underdark problem is taken care (if it can be since we can’t get into the underdark)

Carp A DM: What would Faylen do if the party wasn’t allowed into the Underdark? It was soooo cute and cool seeing Brinne open up to Filiadel! I can’t wait for them to get that drink together. How is Brinne feeling after having her dream? Was Filiadel hoping for a specific outcome when agreeing to help Kathra experiment with substituting spell components? If it were successful, did she have a specific spell in mind she’d want to try out next?

Dog Mom: I think Faylen would decide it was time for her to return to Di’Sow. The party would be welcome to join her and I think she would be really pushy about helping every pedestrian that needed help if they ended up not going that route. She’s not at the point of leaving the party yet but she’s struggling knowing her purpose right now is to do some good in the world and heal herself and follow Avandra and it really feels like so much is preventing her from doing that in this place.

Filia-Well What Do We Have Here?: Filiadel had no particular spell in mind aside from Kathra's list and such when helping with that experiment. She doesn't know much of what is actually on the list, but it all sounds pretty odd/bad/difficult to achieve. She's not necessarily cool with things like baby murder (although I don't think she is privy to that particular item on the list), but if the team could find a way to substitute some of the less favorable items in the spell, she wouldn't feel compelled to stop them if Kathra and Mr. Macadoo decided to become liches. That would be Kathra's/Macadoo's personal choice. If they then became full on evil and started slaughtering people (which they would have to do as liches to keep their phylacteries placated and not turn to demiliches), then Filiadel would take up arms. But till then, she's treating it like an addict with drugs: she won't supply them with the drugs. She may help them earn money, and if they so choose to spend that money on drugs and die from an overdose, well that's their own fault. (also, sorry that I'm still assuming Lichdom. I understand it has never been confirmed that that is what this list will lead to. I’m just working off my weirdly deep knowledge of liches...)

Carp A DM: From Faylen’s perspective, could the party do something to keep Faylen from heading home? That’s okay, Filia-Well What Do We Have Here?! I love hearing what y’all think is happening insert evil laugh here. Does Filiadel have a desire to learn more about Kathra’s list or would she rather stay as removed as possible from it? As a newcomer, what does she think of the party dynamic so far?

Dog Mom: So much! Faylen is looking for reasons to stay and as a player I’m not done with her! Shes so deep and I love exploring her inner works. She’s having a rough go and is incredibly homesick, but she’s been here before and stuck it out (I’m not going to name specific things because I don’t want to meta game!)

Filia-Well What Do We Have Here?: Filiadel wants to toe the line between knowing enough about Kathra's list that she can make informed decisions while staying separated enough from it that she won't feel complicit in the act if anything goes horribly wrong. And Filiadel is a little astounded that the party has remained together for as long as they apparently have given the communication issues that they all seem to have. She does appreciate, though, the fact that this makes her feel useful since speaking her mind has never been a problem for her

Carp A DM: That’s okay! We don’t want any meta gaming pigeons here, haha. Okay, that’s really clever. Filiadel is a clever lady. Alright everyone. Let’s talk about the encounter that made the whole session seem tame compared to the epic screaming match that was mall cop vs Faylen and Kathra. I guess my first question goes out to everyone: what was going through your minds!?

Filia-Well What Do We Have Here?: (after the first minute) "...why are they still arguing with a mall cop?"

Dog Mom: DIFFUSE THE SITUATION! DIFFUSE THE SITUATION! It’s not working..... REMOVE SELF FROM THE SITUATION! In all seriousness Faylen thought the person following her was looking for Filiadel once that was established it was not the case she was more than happy to just find her friends and leave. Then things got.... intense.

[lewnatic]

For the D&D asks, 1-20

Oh gosh, okay. This is gonna be long so I’m gonna do it under a cut.

What was your favorite Nat 1 Experience?

I don’t think a lot of my characters have had really funny Nat1 moments, sadly. I will always remember the one when @zhixx​ made a goblin named Spook’em specifically designed to have the least survivability possible. The first time he was downed he rolled a Nat1 on his first death save. The feeling of comedic timing was just beautiful.

Favorite D&D Inside Joke?

“You are a privateer! BUT ON LAHND.”

Favorite Item Your Character received in D&D?

Phailyn was supposed to get a tome to increase his strength, but when his crush said she wanted it, he immediately fucking dropped it so she could have it. So the DM let me sneak off and get a scrying orb we’d passed up earlier. He hasn’t used it yet, but I just like the story behind it.

Ves probably considers Sikrikta to be the best item she’s received has a lot of really expensive shit she’s keeping just because she has bourgie taste. She got a bottle of wine as a gift that would have been 400g if she’d left it unopened. She’s drinking it gradually through the adventure. It’s good, but not quite as good as what she’s used to.

Teeki has a gaudy diamond crown that Bing bought for 300 gold. It does nothing. It is purely cosmetic. She loves it.

Basically I love frivolous shit.

Preferred Animal Companion (if you had any)?

Vesxlit has a familiar, if that counts. He’s a parrot named Brilliant. He talks like a normal human (in a setting where that is definitely not commonplace) and is a member of the Bardic College in the capital city of the nation we’re traveling in.

He’s a posh gentleman who helps Ves sew dresses. They spend 90% of their time arguing because, being a bird, his fashion sense is incredibly bright and garish.

Favorite D&D Battle Encounter?

Every boss fight Skaaren has done is goddamn awesome, tbh. My favorite is the first just because of how scary it was.

Keep in mind, we’re level 1 in Pathfinder, an Oracle (Ves) and a Barbarian (Cato.) We’ve just watched a big hole open up in the ground, and our characters don’t know why, but we’re looking for missing people (including the barbarian’s boyfriend Fabius, he’s important) so we figure hell, this is probably where they’re missing.

We find some of the missing people at the bottom of the hole, but we haven’t found Fabius, so we go deeper in. We find this creepy old woman doing some kinda ritual or something by a pool of water? Barbarian charges in to kill her and save his man, and… kills her very quickly.

Silence. We go to check on Fabius, and we’re not sure if we can safely move him. I’m running out of heals from earlier stuff and I pop my last one on him, and after a while of debating what to do a ton of undead start coming out of the water. Just a goddamn mob. Whatever the hell creepy-lady was doing, we were suddenly way in over our heads. Even if we picked up Fabius and ran, we don’t have a fast way out of this hole. And we start taking damage fast. Including Fabius.

I don’t remember the specifics of the fight. I think that’s a testament to how much we were panicking. I remember feeling the helplessness of being a mage completely out of spell slots frantically trying to hit things with my stupid mace.

And I remember when the fight was over, I stayed down there panicking for several more minutes, trying to determine if Fabius was even alive while the barbarian ran to get the local doctor in a town of which he didn’t even speak the language.

In the end, Fabius was okay, and we both got out of it alive. It was just that sense of dread and fear, that we didn’t know how the DM’s rolls were going or if anything we were trying had any impact. Skaaren has always done a stellar job since of bringing that sense of genuine fear into the game when he wants to, but that first unexpected taste of it was so damn cool.

Favorite D&D NPC Interaction?

Varis Vrynn was my favorite villain. Not because of his fight, or how he fit into the greater lore, but because of how @extravagantshoes​ played him. He was a slimy uppity elf in the city of Galthiel, a city with heavy class divides based on magic ability. Varis was a powerful diviner, and a lot of our party interactions involved everyone in the party trying to piss him off and Varis looking down his nose in disgust at all of us.

Then Cedlanna, our young sorcerer, got a conversation with him alone in his manor, where he wanted to make a deal with her. And she just ripped into him. Cut to the core of his insecurities and how with all of his riches on display, his manor still was incredibly empty–that for all the parties he hosted he was completely alone.

He was doing some really irredeemable things and later tried to kill us all but I still managed to feel kind of sad that we ended up gruesomely killing him.

Dumbest thing You & Your Party Did

Charging through multiple spinning saws comes to mind. Every time I try to sneak around in heavy plate armor also comes to mind.

I feel like I need to make a separate post to discuss just all the impulsive things Cato does. Turning an entire city upside down just for the chance to punch a specific guy in the face was one.

Most Epic thing You & Your Party Did

I might also make a separate post about this, but Cato and Ves convinced a bunch of lizard people that they were their gods.

Basically in this setting, the level 1 baddies generally fought are called Rapia. They’re kobold-esque in design, but they have a faith-based culture and… well, kind of a faith-based biology. Rapia need something to worship, they undergo gradual physiological changes based on the thing they follow. (Say it’s a sea creature, they might get gills.) And if they don’t have something to worship, they literally become sick and presumably die.

We’d fought a few before and looted crap from their caves, including a tiny hammer that we never could have used but the barbarian held onto cuz idk??

We later ran into some others by falling through the roof of their cave, but they didn’t attack us. They started to assume that we were the gods depicted on one of their cave walls. For the sake of brevity, a fight broke out later when we were trying to leave, and Cato gave the hammer to one of the rapia who was helping us escape. It turned out in the DM’s notes, this hammer had significance to the rapia, and was supposed to be given to the religious leader of a tribe. And so the entire tribe turned to our side and protected us. And… they started following us.

It was about this time that the DM broke character to tell us he had no plan of this happening, and I guess we just have a tribe of rapia now. And we’ve had the goddamn campaign balanced around having a tribe of rapia ever since.

What did you like about your Campaign’s World?

I’m gonna try to sum these up quickly cuz these stories have already gotten long.

The Ascension world has elements of what I affectionately like to call Pop Fantasy, there’s some genre-awareness while not being parody, and all the work on the pantheon Spi did has been goddamn amazing. I also cannot figure out the overarching mysteries and that is awesome.

Nejj puts a ton into immersing us into the world. I can always very clearly get a feel for the sort of setting he’s putting us in, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with the political intrigue he’s been setting up.

Skaaren’s got the weirdest goddamn races in his setting and I love every single one of them. He’s also packed the setting full of little cultural details, I swear to god he’s done extensive research into what we’re having for breakfast in the morning based on where we’re staying.

What was the most Interesting Lore you Found?

I seriously can’t pick a favorite here so I’m going to give a silly answer, and that’s that acolytes of Ves’s goddess commune with her by getting super high. 

Summarize Your Campaign(s) in a Single Sentence

One for each campaign:A group of weird rebels and one very ordinary guy dismantle the ruling government.Goblins discover crazy politics and necromancy, what happens next will warm your heart.Tourists getting intimate with the horrifying hidden truths of nature

Describe your whole Party Dynamic in a Sentence

The best bunch of weirdos and one stupid shady paladin.Loner rogue becomes Team Mom by sheer force of how much the other two hate each other.Bug Jesus and The Angriest Boy discover family in the form of lizards.

What Alignment do your characters lean towards?

I have a weird time choosing an alignment for characters cuz motivations change a lot for my nerds. Teeki was True Neutral but has become more Chaotic Good. Ves is Lawful Good I guess?? And Phai is a goddamn mess whose alignment has shifted at least thrice since his conception.

How do you tend to Take Notes (if you do)?

Badly! Next question.

Prefer Story/Plot Driven or No Plot/Character-Driven Campaigns?

I tend to prefer plot-driven, but I honestly think elements of both should be implemented in your narrative–occasionally giving breaks from the overarching plot to give the cast some time to dick around can give a breath of fresh air to roleplay.

Combat or Role Play?

Roleplay, of course. I actually used to think I hated D&D combat. It took a lot of great sessions to make me realize that the RP doesn’t stop for combat, and that’s when I started really getting into learning and enjoying mechanics elements.

Favorite D&D Monster/Creature?

Illithid. I would love to actually play as one someday.

Magic User or Fighter?

Magic is more engaging to me, personally, but I like both.

Preferred Weapon/Spell in D&D?

Tasha’s Hideous Laughter. In large part because of how it’s roleplayed in Critical Role tbh. I also have felt the high of Sneak Attack enough times to really love it now.

What was your Favorite Nat 20 Experience?

One time I rolled a Nat20 perception while we were on the road and it was literally just to find a coin on the ground. That might always be my favorite. 

[mittensmcedgelord]

Phantoms

LST didn't help me with a title this time.

Yet more of the mimic story wherein Morgan discovers a recording of a Fatal Fortress game, learns something new about his former self, and makes plans to avoid a doctor's visit. ( And where I attempt to lighten the mood after the last update. )

Previous: https://mittensmcedgelord.tumblr.com/post/161916575340/the-human-condition

I feel like I know them. If I shut my eyes, I can hear their thoughts pulse through the coral, the subtle vibrations of memory ghosts. I’ve spent the whole day listening to a backlog of employee recordings from Talos 1 that were ejected when the apex Typhon attacked. Alex held onto them in the hope that maybe, eventually, we’d find their surviving family. I’m sure it wasn’t purely altruistic. There are plenty of logs that are scientific, bits and pieces of Bellamy’s work or employees showing off their new neuromod skills. There are more that aren’t. I told him I wanted to study people, try to understand how they work. It took a lot of convincing and some shameless playing of the ‘little brother’ card, but I got access to the files.

 The memories I have don’t go back far enough to remember the boltcaster fights or the Fatal Fortress games. Not that I think either Yu was ever invited to join in. It sounds like it was a different world back then. The crew is still relatively optimistic. There are still dart gun fights. There’s a different color to it now, though. There’s no Yellow Tulip, for one. Which means that there’s a distinct lack of drunken karaoke and that I will never get to hear Sho sing off key love songs outside of TranScribe recordings. And after the invasion I don’t think anyone is in the mood for drunken karaoke anyway. Now that they’ve encountered Typhon, humans are becoming a little more like them in order to continue. The priority is survival, at all costs, and everything else is frills.

 So, it’s a pleasant surprise when I come across a second recording of Sho singing, this time completely sober. It’s the song she performed during the big show to promote musical neuromods. There’s a few other voices laughing and applauding. Someone wants to know where she even got a banana to use as a microphone. Someone else is teasing her for taking the ‘role play’ aspect of the game too seriously.

“I didn’t realize you dual classed as a bard,” the DM quips. I recognize the voice as Abigail Foy’s from the simulation. “Alright, you get 10XP for that performance. And…”

 I hear shuffling and more laughter. Sho groans. There’s clapping all around the table again before the DM clears her throat and continues triumphantly.

 “You also earn ten gold from the audience.”

 “Hey,” a male voice interrupts. He’s doing his best to sound offended, but it’s obvious he’s not. Something slides across the table. “When I performed I only got silver coins. And I’m an actual bard.”

 “Yes, but she actually sang,” Foy says matter-of-factly and taps something on the tabletop.

 “So did I.”

 “Poorly. Besides, we all know it’s because Abby thinks our new player is cute.” Someone laughs. High pitched. Female. A hint of an accent I don’t quite recognize.

 “I’m cute,” he protests. I have to put a hand over my mouth so I don’t laugh louder than the recording. The other players are enjoying it too. He must have done something because a sharp peal of laughter comes through the speaker.

 “Really, Chang? You’re trying to get Foy to say you’re cute?”

 “And you’re only filling in for Elias for tonight.” The second male voice scoffs. “What do you really XP and gold for?”

 “It’s the principle.”

 “Oh my god,” Sho laughs. “Can someone please just tell Chang he’s cute so we can get on with it? Zack? Emma?”

 “Don’t look at me,” the second male voice says. “Besides, I thought he were busy swooning over Dr. Yu? Or is it just a coincidence that your password is ‘OMGhotboss’?”

 “How did you even know that?”

 “It’s on a post-it note on your desk. It’s more of a surprise that anyone on the station doesn’t know it.”

 I wonder if Morgan ever noticed it. I remember in the sim I saw it almost immediately. He wasn’t exactly trying to hide it. Morgan must have walked past his work station every day and caught a glimpse of it. The ‘devastatingly handsome’ line on his psychoscope profile makes a lot more sense now. Jason Chang was dead by the time the simulation started, though. There weren’t a lot of recordings, either. He had unrestricted access to the office during the testing, which seems like a lot of power for a secretary. Given the office I remember was mostly filled with useless junk, a few books, and a stash of moonshine there probably wasn’t too much to worry about. Another player—Emma, I’m assuming—interrupts my train of thought.

 “Does this have to do with that time at the Yellow Tulip?”

 “You mean the New Year’s party?” Sho sounds smug as she asks. She knows the answer, but clearly wants to hear it from Chang.

 And this is when the audio runs out. I might have yelled ‘damn it’ when the playback stopped, but now at least I know which files to search through for the other game logs. I am, however, left with a significant amount of unanswered questions. Particularly about the New Year’s party in question.

 “How’s it going, Morgan?” Alex’s voice cuts in over the TranScribe. Responding to higher levels of brain activity, maybe. I’m sure whoever monitors my data feed has been getting some interesting response levels.

 “Great.” I’m a little too enthusiastic in responding. I also just found the next log for this session courtesy of Emma Beatty’s ‘IMPORTANT MEETING NOTES’ file.

 “That’s great.” He sounds genuinely happy about that. Considering what a mess my first few days interacting with the crew have been like, I can’t blame him. I hear footsteps on the other end of the line briefly before Alex comes back in. “I’m glad the files are useful. Learning anything interesting?”

 “A little. Wish there was more data on some of the employees. Emma. Zachary. Jason. The latter particularly.”

 “Jason Chang?” He snorts. It’s almost a laugh. “You were drinking buddies. Or something like that. He’s probably why your entire stash of moonshine was missing when you finally made it to your office.”

 I make an executive decision not to mention the “hot boss” thing. Or the party. Alex sounds like he’s impatient to get to the topic he actually called about. I load up the next recording and let it buffer while I wait. He gives me a few seconds to type before continuing ahead.

 “You think you’ll be ready to go face the world again soon?”

 “Yeah. Definitely.”

 “Doctor Igwe told me you were having some trouble with your mimetics the other day.”

 “I wasn’t feeling great. Some people cry, I turn into wispy black sentient smoke. Kind of a weird trade off.”

 “Morgan, try to be serious.” When he says that, I can actually hear him taking his glasses off and pinching his nose. The first Morgan must have been a real joy to work with if that’s such an innate reaction in him. “If you think that’s going to happen again, I need you to be honest with me. We’ve never monitored extreme emotions in Typhon before. It could be a natural reaction to stressful stimuli.”

 “It might. I’m still getting the hang of things.” I’m aware of what a vast understatement this is, but I want Alex to have some faith in me. His optimism about the project is contagious. I’d rather not lose that. I take a breath, hold it for a second, and let it out. My thoughts clear. “If it happens again and I start to change, what do I do? Head back up here?”

 “Or the Typhon Research Lab if you can’t get to the grav shaft. Dr. Park knows about your situation. She’ll help.” He pauses. Something clinks against glass. “She actually wanted to schedule an appointment with you for a physical exam, but it didn’t seem like a good idea right now.”

 “What kind of physical?”

 “DNA stability, mostly. See if the dosage of psi hypos you’re getting is right or if you need any more cell lines to balance things out.” Another pause. I wish I could hear thoughts over TranScribe, but no such luck. Alex makes a small humming noise. “This isn’t about what happened the other day, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s all routine. Well, it’s going to be a routine. We’ve all got a lot of adjusting to do, but I think once we start getting things back to something like normal it’ll start going a lot smoother.”

 “Yeah.” Now I’m a little glad you can’t project thoughts through a TranScribe. I’m pretty sure fear of doctor’s visits isn’t something I’m supposed to have.  The name Bellamy comes to mind, a swirl of respect and regret, and I remember that I saw his corpse in the sim. I tune out just long enough to get my mind in order and come back to myself to catch the end of Alex’s explanation of the examination procedure.

 “I’ll make arrangements with Dr. Park when you’re feeling up for it,” he finishes. I get the feeling that’s going to be never. The way my body works is as alien to me as it is to anyone else on the station and I’m not sure I want to know the result of a physical, let alone take one. I start to tell Alex that, but think better of it. Silence hangs on the other end of the line producing the kind of gravity specific to situations you don’t want to be in. Glass clicks against one of those gaudy, TranStar coasters. Alex sighs. “Morgan, listen. I know it’s been rough, but you’re doing great. I want you to know that.”

[lissaremade]

uHHHH 1-10 section 1 for alek?

LETS DO THIS

Briefly Describe your OC: Appearance, personality, role in a story, etc..

alek’s 5′6″ and pretty skinny - he has No muscle whatsoever because he’s a sorcerer. he has long, pretty curly hair that he pulls back into a low ponytail, with two little wispy sideburn type bits. his hair flares up like fire when he gets emotional (excited, angry, sad, flustered, etc.) but it’s not composed of fire itself. (we established that it would be like lava girl’s hair in shark boy and lava girl)

overall he’s a gigantic Grump, he’s reluctant to trust people because of bad experiences in his past (which i’ll get to in the next question) he’s pretty quick to temper, but tries to keep a tight reign on his emotions (also due to backstory stuff). he tends to bottle things up so they eat away at him. he’s not really the type of person to wear his heart on his sleeve, and it takes a long time to earn his trust. but once you get it, he’d probably Die for you.

he’s honestly pretty depressed (AGAIN due to backstory shit as well as campaign plot stuff) and blames himself for a lot of things. he’s trying to move forward though, but it’s sorta hard considering his circumstances.....i mean the dude has to save not one, but TWO worlds from TWO apocalypses among other things.

Briefly describe their backstory/childhood

(RUBS HANDS TOGETHER) OH BOY

SO alek grew up in a pretty isolated genasi community. his parents were the head of it, and he was the second youngest of four total siblings. he was pretty close to his sister, luce, the scarf he wears is actually hers.

he met milo when the two were fairly young - milo’s family were traveling merchants who visited the community once a month. i’d like to imagine their friendship cultivated over many months of milo just like. actively following alek around when he visited their community and popping out like “HI” and alek screaming a lil bit at the sudden appearance of a boy his age

he didn’t really have any other friends growing up besides milo. also they’re gay

eventually, when the two of them were 18, milo was drafted to a war. the war was a conflict between the country where they lived and a neighboring country of dwarves. alek immediately decided to go with him, not wanting him to have to go off by himself and wanting to protect him. alek’s sister gave him her scarf when he left as a token to remember her with.

they fought for a few years, until they were both 22, when milo was killed in combat, protecting alek from an oncoming blow. overcome with grief, alek lost control of his abilities and razed an entire battlefield of enemies and allies alike.

he immediately fled, fleeing the country and ending up wandering around for a few years before running into his current party. he hasn’t returned to his home country or hometown since. 

stuff that’s happened during the campaign is a bit more complicated because a Lot has happened and my memory is bad, but we caused the apocalypse in the world we lived in during the very first session by killing a cultist named miss princey, blacked out and were transported to another world connected to the previous world we ruined. 

the old world still exists, however it’s a lifeless place where monsters ravage the land and the sky is an eternal vortex of dead souls, trapped under the sky until we can save them and return them to whatever afterlife they existed in previously.

we may have caused the old world and the new world to start to merge into one?? we aren’t sure. we just know that something Bad is happening in the new world now too.

Describe their family life and friends.

alek has three siblings, two older brothers and a younger sister.

this is based on how they were characterized in a 1x1 with my dm and my memory is Bad so this might not be 100% but!

arun is the oldest brother, he tries his best ok...he has the best intentions but he’s not really the Brightest i guess? he tries though...he’s good

ciro is a sarcastic shithead older brother tbh. he’s really book-smart and is always reading but he can be sorta lazy and not good with physically exerting himself

luce is Good and energetic and friendly and she loves everyone!! she’s a little naive and clumsy but she’s always very genuine. 

his parents are named kamara and roshan - roshan is quiet and sorta intimidating, but he cares for his family a lot. kamara is really bright and full of energy. she knows Everything about Everyone. she’s a good mom

What is the world they come from like?

i would probably need to ask josh, our dm, more about this tbh

Are they original or exist in a certain fandom?

he’s an original character for a dnd campaign i’m in with my friends!

Are they an introvert or extrovert?

INTROVERT

Greatest fear?

probably losing his friends due to a mistake he made tbh

What’s their sense of humor like?

i’d imagine he’d have a very dry and sarcastic sense of humor and would just like. crack a joke without changing his tone of voice and everyone’s like “HOLY SHIT did alek just make a joke”

Favorite pieces of fiction or genres they enjoy?

he’s secretly very much into fluffy romance novels

probably? nonfiction tbh?

Favorite music genres?

i have a Very specific aesthetic of music i associate with him which can be heard here

we always joke he’d have a secret stash of vocaloid in a modern au because i listen to primarily vocaloid lmao

[miracle-sham]

When Sitting on the Roof, We are but Coffee Sleuths.

| {Sequel to Death is the Stage, My Art is Your Grave.} |

| [Ao3 Link] | | [Masterlist Link] | | [DitSMAiYG Link] |

| Triggers/Warnings: Mentions of drugs/drug ring (in regards to a case), Mild language. |

| After a long day of boring casework, there's nothing better than getting a new commission, and then drinking coffee and having a chat on top of a roof with a certain bat. |

| Word Count: 3051 |

==–==

| A/N: First of all, I'd like to quickly thank everyone for all the positive response and support the original oneshot got on both Tumblr and Ao3! It really motivated and inspired me to continue with this Au (expect at least another sequel, maybe more if I get more inspo but even if I don't there's definitely gonna be one sequel minimum to this). I'd also like to mention, that this took a lot longer to write as I got a cold halfway through writing it and also it's romance based fluff (which is not my forté), but thanks to those who've waited for this! And finally, for reasons that I'll explain in a separate post later, it might be a "little" while before I can start work on the sequel to this one but it will get written at some point. |

| If you want to be tagged in future oneshots/fics, or a specific Au, then send me a DM or an ask! |

| Also side note, Don't Like? Don't Read. Also also, please do not criticise any of my writing. This was written for fun and receiving criticism, even in a compliment/criticism sandwich, is the exact opposite of fun. |

==–==

 It's been a month since Marinette got kidnapped, kissed Red Robin, and solved the Elemental Park Serial Killer case. For three weeks she's been held off active duty to make sure her bruised ribs heal but now that she's able to be on active duty again, all the available cases are those that are paperwork heavy. A small part of her misses the immediate healing of the Miraculous Cure but she's not Ladybug anymore and even if she was, it would raise too many flags for her to even use it anyway. But logic doesn't stop her from missing the days when she could literally and metaphorically magic away her aches and pains.

 Marinette groans and slumps into her chair, it's been a surprisingly slow day at the GCPD, so when her phone beeps rapidly for a few seconds, she thinks, please be something interesting, and can't help but take a quick glance to see what new notifications she has. The screen reads: '3 new messages from Red'. So she taps the notification and reads through each message.

 >RedRob: Hey, found some new evidence on our case, want to meet up for coffee to discuss it?

 >RedRob: Rooftop coffee after dark, of course.

 >RedRob: I mean I could waltz into a coffee shop during the day in my suit but that might get too much attention for case talk.

 Marinette snickers to herself as she reads the messages over a second time. She quickly taps out her response.

 >MariBlue: Will we need to worry about one of the other Gotham vigilantes crashing our coffee not-date?

 Almost instantly she receives a response.

 >RedRob: I'll bribe Oracle or Batgirl, maybe even Black Bat, into keeping the others away.

 She sends a heart emoji back, then returns to sorting out her boring paperwork.

 Detective Grayson raises an eyebrow at her from over the desk, clearly having caught her looking at her phone. “Red Robin again?”

 She flashes him a sheepish grin. “How'd you guess.”

 He gives her a deadpan stare. “He's the only person you respond to when working.”

 Marinette bites her lip. “Whoops, that obvious?”

 “Yes.” Detective Grayson hesitates for a second, he leans in closer—and like a teenage girl at a sleepover in a cheesy teen drama, asks, “So are you dating yet?”

 She shrugs. “Well neither of us have asked the other so not really.”

 “But you guys are perfect for each other!” He exclaims, gesturing towards her with an outstretched arm—very narrowly avoiding knocking anything off the desk.

 It's Marinette's turn to raise an eyebrow. “We literally have only seen or talked to each other when working…”

 “So? What do you call you quote unquote "not-dates"” He huffs, making air quotes as he speaks.

 She huffs and shakes her head. “There's a reason they're called "not-dates" and that's because we discuss work at them. And anyway it's too early to rush our relationship.”

 “Fair.” Detective Grayson stills, frowns and then almost hesitantly, he asks, “Is it because if the mask? The whole not knowing his real identity?”

 Marinette rolls her eyes and shakes her head again. “Nope, I couldn't care less about finding out his real identity—at least not without his consent that is.”

 He hums, a pensive look on his face. “So you're not curious?”

 She shrugs. “Not particularly, why?”

 Detective Grayson shrugs back. “Just wondering,” he leans back on his chair and for a split second, Marinette fears he might topple over but somehow he seems unaffected by gravity, “I think you're the first person I've met, who doesn't want to know who's behind a vigilante's mask.”

 A smile tugs at Marinette's lips. “I think it's kinda dumb that so many people are obsessed with the people behind the masks because if they're doing good, unmasking them will only deter them from continuing fighting the good fight and all that, y'know.”

 He nods slowly, “huh, that's one way of putting it I guess but I agree, the vigilantes do more for this city than people think they do.” Detective Grayson then tilts his head towards the Commissioner's office. “Anyway back to work, don't want to get in more trouble with the Commish than we are already!”

 Marinette huffs in amusement and rolls her eyes but complies nonetheless. Wouldn't do to get in trouble so soon after getting back onto active duty!

==–==

 It isn't until gone seven pm, that Marinette finally gets home. She slips through the door, locking it behind her. Now that she's in, the first thing she does, as she does every day, is check her online portfolio and commission site.

 Marinette plops herself down in her wheely chair and logs onto to her computer, going through all the verification and security Max had kindly added. A new commission notification grabs her attention. With three clicks, she brings up the new commission's details. She scrolls down to the name of the commissioner: one Mr 'T. Drake-Wayne'.

 Curious as to why the name sounds vaguely familiar, Marinette opens up a tab on Google with a hum and types in the name. Upon reading the top results, she half chokes in shock and thinks to herself, Are you kidding me? She blinks and breathes in, a small part of her very glad she wasn't drinking anything otherwise she definitely would've fully choked on that or spat it all up from the shock. I know a bunch of well-known celebrities have all commissioned me many times before, but still why the heck is a fortune 500 CEO commissioning me? I'm not Audrey Bourgeois, Gabriel Agreste, or even Valen-hecking-tino. I do celebrities, not fortune 500. The heck. What. The. Actual. Heck.

 Eyes wide and gobsmacked, Marinette shakes her head and clicks back to her latest commission's details page to read through the actual commission. After reading the first line, she scrambles for her sketchbook and begins jotting down notes and scribbling down ideas.

 Half an hour in, Marinette takes a break to sort out and eat dinner, no point designing on an empty stomach but once she's done eating and washed up, she goes straight back to designing.

 Even at a quarter past midnight, she's still at it—surprisingly only three drafts in and so thoroughly lost in her own head in designing, Marinette nearly misses the knocking against her window facing the fire escape.

 The rapid rap-tap-tap spooks her so much that she falls out of her chair with an “Eep!”

 Marinette, face flushing bright red, scrambles up and scurries over to the window in question. Shoving her blinds out the way, she stares through the window and is greeted with the absolutely glorious sight of a beaming and uninjured Red Robin holding two takeaway coffee cups on the fire escape. He waves at her with one hand and gestures for her to join him on the fire escape.

 She can't help but grin back at him and deftly opens the window and slinks out onto the fire escape. He hands a coffee cup towards her and instead of taking it, Marinette gives him a good ol' bearhug—smooshing pressing her face into his Kevlar armoured chest. Which is unsurprisingly, very uncomfortable. She shifts her head to stare up at him (as he's at least whole head taller than her) “Hey,” she greets.

 Awkwardly hugging her back, as to not spill either of the coffees in the process, “hey yourself,” Red Robin responds, pressing a tender kiss to her forehead.

 Marinette pulls back from the hug and nabs the coffee cup that had been offered to her before their hug. “Thank you~!”

 “No problem.” He then gestures towards the fire escape stairs leading to the roof, “after you.”

 “So which of our cases did you manage to get a lead for?” She asks, making her way up to the roof.

 “The one pertaining to the new drug ring in the fashion district. I've narrowed down where they're storing the drugs to potentially three warehouses near Miller Harbour.” Red Robin answers, following after her.

Reaching the roof, Marinette sits down on the half wall around the roof edge. She glances over at Red Robin as he joins her on the improvised seat. “That's the drug ring dealing Miraclo right?”

“Yeah, that's the one.” He pauses to take a sip of his coffee, “I got the intel from an old friend of Catwoman's called Mackey lives in an apartment that overlooks the Harbour and saw a shipment of the drug arrive at the warehouses.”

 Taking a sip of her own coffee, Marinette raises an eyebrow. “And will Detective Grayson and I will be able to get that intel as witness statement?”

 Red Robin nods. “Yep, Catwoman's vouching for you both.”

 She jerks back in surprise, nearly toppling off the half wall but managing to cling to the edge in time to keep her from falling. Miraculously somehow managing to avoid dropping or spilling her coffee. Oof, if it wasn't for my stint in Spandex I definitely would've made a fool of myself in front of Red Robin. And here I thought that part of my life had since passed. Marinette thinks to herself, wincing at the newly gained superficial graze across her palms. She clears her throat and attempts to look like she didn't just nearly fall off a half wall. “Catwoman's vouching for us? Since when? I've literally never encountered her before.”

 Red Robin, the traitor, snorts at her predicament. “You are the epitome of elegance. And Detective Grayson's bumped into her a few times on the job.”

 “Thanks.” She responds drily, layering on the sarcasm thickly. She shakes her head and sighs. “So do you know what the addresses are for the warehouses and this Mackey's apartment?”

 He takes an excruciatingly slow sip of his coffee before speaking. “Of course I can, what kind of vigilante do you take me for?” He then proceeds to rattle off the addresses.

 Which Marinette jots down on the napkin that came with her coffee, and puts it into a pocket for safekeeping. “Thank you.” With it written down, she pauses then starts kicking her legs in the air. She sniffs. “And I take you for the kind that flirts with innocent police officers.”

 Red Robin grins at her as he gently elbows her in the ribs. “I don't hear you complaining.”

 Marinette scoffs and slaps her hand to her chest in an overly dramatic mock of shock. “Unfair! If I complained I wouldn't get any hugs or kisses from you!”

 Humming he wraps an arm around her shoulders and presses a kiss to her temple. “That's true, what a shame it would be for you to miss out on all those hugs.”

 She hums back and the two ease into a comfortable silence; leaning against each other and sipping their coffees whilst staring at the night sky.

 Once Marinette gets halfway through her coffee, she glances at Red Robin and hesitates, her earlier conversation with Detective Grayson springing to mind. “Communication is key in healthy relationships,” she prefaces, “so are you okay with our current relationship? Y'know the flirting, the not-dates, the whole me not knowing your identity?”

 Red Robin laughs, sounding slightly bitter. “Of course I'm fine with the flirting and not-dates but I'm not going to lie and say I don't have any worries over you not knowing my identity. It's one of the reasons a relationship I had with a fellow mask didn't work out.” Rubbing at his jaw, he tilts his face away from her slightly, as though reminiscing about something. He then shakes his head and turns back to her. “Really, I ought to be asking you that. So what about you, are you okay with how our relationship is?”

 Marinette hums. “This isn't the first time relationship I've had with a masked hero.” Then takes a calm sip of her coffee.

 “So you've got a thing for masks then huh? Lucky me I guess.” He responds, smirking mischievously, and whilst she can't see the rest of his face thanks to the cowl, Marinette just knows that he's wiggling his eyebrows at her from underneath that cowl.

 His comment nearly sends her tumbling off the half wall—again. She coughs and splutters in laughter as she nearly spits up her sip of coffee. It takes her a full thirty seconds to recover and mock gripes, “remind me why I love you again.”

 Red Robin cocks his head to the side and grins. “Because I bring you coffee?”

 She huffs, “good point.”

 “So back to the mask thing, can I ask what happened with your masked hero relationship?” He asks, tone hesitant. He stares at her, ready to back off the topic at the slightest sign of discomfort from her.

 Marinette hisses through her teeth and states, “I can trust you.”

 His stare conveys an 'I would hope so' whilst he bobs his head a little in a 'yes you can' and a 'please continue' gesture.

 She takes a deep breath before speaking, “I used to be a hero, back when I lived in Paris.”

 “Oh?” Red Robin freezes, thrown off guard by her admission.

 Nodding, Marinette continues. “It was difficult. We started when we were barely teens and had no training and no support except for temporary heroes we could bring in when the battles got too hard for just me and my partner to handle. When we started, we were repeatedly told to never, under any circumstances, let anyone find out our identities. My partner and I, neither of us knew who the other was beneath the mask. And we only knew the identities of the temporary heroes because we gave them the ability to become superheroes. But even then we didn't always know their real identities and they certainly never knew ours.”

 “Yikes.” Is all he can respond with, mind racing with questions. “That can't have been good, at least I had Batman and Nightwing when I was starting out, but you had no one to talk to about being a mask, outside the mask.”

 She flashes him a watery smile and sighs. “No, I did have someone. Tikki. But we're uh, not in contact any more. Since I retired.”

 Still, Red Robin makes a noise of concern at that.

 “Anyway, one thing led to another led to another, and my partner found out my identity.” Marinette puts her coffee down then tips her head back and closes her eyes. “We started dating not long after that. But once we defeated the BBEG terrorising Paris and some… concerning things came to light, our—we,” She shakes her head, “we realised that because of that, neither of us were emotionally able to continue our relationship in a romantic way. So we decided to stay friends and I—uh, I retired and moved to Gotham.”

 He puts his coffee down as well, and pulls her into a tight hug, although making sure it wasn't too constricting as to not make her uncomfortable. “I'm sorry.”

 She leans into the hug, rests her head on his shoulder, and delicately wraps her arms around him in return. “What? Why? It's not your fault.”

 Red Robin frowns, not that she can see in their current position, “I know but no one should be forced into becoming a hero at such a young age with no support network.”

 Huffing, Marinette buries her face in his shoulder, somewhat muffling her voice but not enough to make her unintelligible, “what about Spoiler? She became a hero around that age and had no support network.”

 He sighs. “Spoiler chose to become a vigilante, she wasn't forced. And anyway, she had Robin and the rest of the bats to support her once they realised what she was doing.”

 “Hmm… fair.” Marinette pulls back from the hug and pauses. “On a lighter note, I got a commission on my fashion site from Tim Drake-Wayne!”

Red Robin raises an eyebrow and with poorly concealed amusement, responds, “Oh? And what's so special about him”

 She rolls her eyes at him. “He's the youngest fortune five hundred CEO, founded the Neon Knights among other charities, and often donates to various charities around Gotham! Plus Wayne Enterprises is one of, if not the most ethical company in the fortune five hundred bracket. Employees get living stipends, and training and higher education paid by the company. They get healthcare and dental insurance. They get flexible work hours, paid breaks, and receive above minimum wage pay!”

 He laughs. “I guess he is a pretty decent sounding guy then.”

 “Mhmm.”

 “So what's the commission then? Or is it a secret?” He teases, leaning towards her.

 Marinette dramatically places her hand over her heart. “I guess I can spare you the details this one time.”

 “Wooh!”

 She bites her lip before launching into a long ramble about the commission, gushing over what design and colour palette she's thinking of going with, what bots and bobs and patterns to add, what stitch to use and how to make sure it fits his style, etc.

 Red Robin spends the entire time listening attentively, despite not really understanding half the fashion terms, and staring at her like a love-struck puppy.

 “Damn, I love you!” He exclaims once she finishes speaking, then leans in to kiss her on the lips.

 Marinette bursts into giggles and kisses him back. Her giggles are seemingly infectious, as once they part from the kiss, both are giggling and flushed red.

 A bright flash of white followed by a camera shutter sound immediately distracts them both. They just manage to catch sight of Nightwing swinging away.

 She gives him a look, which is somewhat less effective as she's still smiling from the kiss. “What happened to bribing Oracle, Black Bat, or Batgirl?”

 Red Robin groans and drops his face into his hands. “Clearly Nightwing was able to one-up my bribe. Probably in the form of giving them copies of the photos both he and Detective Grayson have taken.”

 “You mean to tell me those two are working together? No wonder Detective Grayson was asking about our relationship earlier today at work!” Marinette gasps, sounding mildly horrified and betrayed.

 “Are you thinking what I'm thinking?” Red Robin asks, lifting his head up and grinning deviously at her.

 She smirks back, “Revenge?”

 He nods—the sagely kind of nod. “Revenge.”

==–==

| Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little oneshot! Comments, likes, and reblogs are much appreciated! |

@casual-darkness