#which feels a little bit like. y'know. you could've liked us. for us. instead of the fact that we saved the world. y'know

[front-facing-pokemon]

[cyxnidx]

YOUR SOUL !

character: choso x reader

genre: fluffy, sappy shit :p

warnings: just some fluff. and uh, poetic choso? maybe?

a/n: a bit of a rainy day today, so i decided to make something a little softer today. i'm not good with sappy shit but i tried; also the beginning is just.. angsty? kind of? i have no real idea what i was doing here

you found yourself breaking down - why? at the moment, you couldn't fathom a reason.

sniffling, tears ran down your cheeks to be caught by your boyfriends hoodie. your head was throbbing from the constant stress and crying.

your muffled apologies and useless reasonings were hushed by the thick fabric while his larger hands worked to instill comfort into you.

because for the moment, that's all he knew how to do.

other than the occasional-

"baby?" choso's soft, smooth voice beat against the walls of your skull, trying to pull you back from your constant sobbing. "baby, did something happen?"

though, he got no response.

he felt about as powerless as a puppy in the moment. it wasn't like he could read your mind, and he was sure you didn't expect him to.

but damn, nothing?

resorting to what felt like his last resort, he began humming. humming, and using his larger frame to rock you side to side with him.

perhaps he had to treat you like a baby to get you to calm down? you did like being spoiled.

and after about five minutes passed, you began to hush. your sobs got quieter and quieter, apologies lessoned and random words seized.

he got you to stop.

it almost bought a smile to his face - but he wasn't exactly finished yet.

"l'me hear you, baby. what's the matter?" he asks softly, lifting your face from his now snot-covered hoodie.

your eyes were red and puffy, lips pouty and face wet. you looked ruined.

"m' sorry-"

"stop; stop apologizing, baby. tell me what's wrong." he says gently, minding his tone as to not stress you again. "what caused you to cry so much, hm?"

and at his question, you felt your eyes tear up once again.

"no, it's okay." he drew his thumb up to wipe them away. "no more tears, talk to me baby."

you blink, vision blurry. "jus' love you so much, but-" you swallow harshly.

"but?" he waits, embracing the silence with patience as you gather your response the best you could.

"jus feel like m' not enough for you sometimes, y'know?" you say through a choked tone, trying to force out a laugh. a mere chuckle, to try and make the conversation more lighthearted. lessening it to something minuscule.

choso's eyes widen, only for a moment, only for a millisecond before you decide to put your head back down. to find comfort in his heartbeat, to hopefully block out both the negative thoughts and the wretched migraine you've given yourself.

"oh.." was all you heard, and you could swear you felt something in your chest break, only for a moment. and the silence that follows is like the last straw for the dam trying to keep your tears from leaving your eyes. the waterworks were on again, and you felt even worse.

a hand comes from your back and instead to your jawline, lifting your face to make eye contact with him. silently, choso runs his thumb under your puffy eyes, hushing you quietly and wiping your tears. his digits run over your features.

making their way from under your eyes, to the sides and bridge of your nose. the cupids bow of your lip, and the cheeks he always loves to see smile. and in doing that itself makes himself smile.

his fingers explore from your cheeks to your eyes once again, adorning their shape and your eyebrows above them, and finally, he speaks. he speaks in which to you, felt like he hasn't spoken for decades, and says,

"not enough?" he kisses your forehead, hands cupping your face gently. "baby, you're all i could've wished for."

and in gazing at your eyes, he can tell there's doubt. which almost makes him frown. "i love all of you, not just your physical features but your emotional and mental features, too. i adore the way you think, the way you interact with things and the way you interact with me. i feel weak in the knees when i hear your voice, and every, little, touch," he touches the tip of your nose playfully. "warms my body with joy. joy i haven't felt in a very long while."

a soft look of admiration crosses him when he sees you're still pouting, but he adores it nonetheless.

he kisses the perimeter of your face, a smile tracing across his lips when he hears your small protest mixed with a playful giggle. "i love you with my mind, heart, body, and soul. i love you with all i've been given. and with every bit of adoration you give to me i try my hardest to pour back into you." he then places his forehead on yours, eyes meeting yours once again.

and for the time he's there, it feels like he doesn't blink, nor move a muscle for the time he's holding you there. just gazing at you, into you.

"if they say the eyes are the window to the soul, i'd gaze into yours for a lifetime. almost like a deer in headlights. you, and your soul, amaze me."

[torhues]

tsukishima kei.

"you're crying," tsukishima speaks over your soft sobs filling the atmosphere around an empty staircase.

"thanks for noticing, idiot," even though your throat is soar and you're barely in a position to say something, you manage to utter words of delightful gratitude, or insult, whatever fits the situation better.

he sighs, and you feel him sit next to you. to be honest, he's the last person you expected to see at the moment, and also the last person you wished would see you in your current state.

you don't have anything against again, not at all, but neither of you can stand each other's presence, especially you. perhaps, it's the way he refuses to compromise, or the moments he straight up calls your ideas stupid and lame, always getting on your nerves. tsukishima isn't a half bad student, but he sure is the worst project partner you could've been assigned.

another sigh escapes his lips. "if you would tell me what happened, maybe i can help,"

"yeah, no thanks, asshole," you reply.

"i don't see the need to call me names when i'm being nice to you,"

"jesus, tsukishima, i don't want to talk to anyone right now so please leave me alone," there's annoyance in your voice, hints of anger in your eyes, a frown on your face while you try your best to compose yourself and not break down.

it doesn't faze him.

tsukishima doesn't even blink. in fact, he looks at you as if he's used to seeing you this way. his eyes are still brimming with indifference, or maybe there's a little bit of emotion— warmth— you don't know, it's hard to figure out. reading him is hard because on other days, tsukishima doesn't seem to care.

he takes a deep breath, pulling out his phone from the pocket before leaning against the step behind him. "guess we're staying quiet,"

and you don't know why he doesn't leave.

the typical tsukishima would be with his friend or in a corner of the classroom, sitting by himself with air-pods plugged in. some say he listens to crime podcasts while others have seen him re-listen to the lectures, which could be the reason behind his excellent grades. on normal days, he would call you stupid for minor miscalculations in mathematics, suggesting that you should sign up for remedial classes before it's too late.

maybe, it's the significant change in weather today that has got him acting this way. maybe, he just needs someone to kill his boredom and coincidently, you happen to need someone who would lend you an ear.

"i broke up with my boyfriend," you begin, eyes on the gray tiles, voice low enough to equalize a whisper. "well, he broke up with me, and even though i said that i fucking hate him and that i'm better off without him, it hurts, y'know?"

tsukishima sighs again. it's a lighter one this time, like a sigh of relief, a sigh without stress, a sigh of comfort. you wait for him to speak but, all you hear is silence. for a second, you wonder if it was a wrong decision to tell him this in the first place, and the reason is far beyond the ideologies of sharing your weakness with your biggest rival. to put it simply, you don't think tsukishima is the right person to find comfort within.

he slips his phone back inside the pocket. "you curse a lot when you're angry, or upset,"

"is that what you inferred from everything i told you?"

he shrugs. "perhaps,"

"gosh, i new this was a bad idea," actually, you thought it was a good idea to share a few things with him, just for a brief second. of course, this isn't the only decision you'd be regretting, but you still hope you could go back in time and stop yourself while you still had the chance.

you grab your bag, swinging it up your shoulders before taking a last look at him, hoping he'd say something else, something worth noting instead of initiating pointless talks. when nothing comes your way from his side, you decide to leave on your own accord, for your own good.

"crying over men is lame," his words make you halt in your way. "just saying," and it's surprising and equally fascinating to hear something along those lines from his mouth.

"i know," you chuckle, "but, some of us have it tough out there,"

"you're not some random person. you decked your friend's ex because he cheated on her," first things first, you don't know the need to bring that up. you were in first year and had subpar hatred for people to cheat on their significant others— still do— but the current you wouldn't deck someone. and secondly, you don't know how that has anything to do with your relationship.

"hey, now, that was a different case,"

"you can deck your ex too," he states with a monotonous voice, being ever so serious and certain of his words as if they're wedding vows. "i don't see how that's any different,"

a trail of silence follows. you almost consider his words, almost, and brush off those thoughts from your mind the very next second. you take a look at his face, wondering if he's joking, but reading tsukishima has always been so hard, you don't know if his eyes resonate with a mere prank or if they spell something else out loud.

"minato treated me well, tsukishima," you retort, "i don't know what's going on in that head of yours but, don't make any assumptions,"

the slight necessity to clarify your relationship compelled those words to fall off your lips. although, you did broke up on bad terms, the period while you were with him wasn't half bad. you both had your share of happiness and sorrow, arguments and comfort, just like any other normal relationship would. maybe that's why now that you've broken up, it hurts more, and perhaps, the reason is not him but instead, everything that the two of you had.

"well, you've got other guys out there," once again, tsukishima's words pull out of your thoughts. his expression is ambiguous and his gaze mirror something that you've never seen in his eyes. you take your time to come up with a response, knowing that while his words means more than what they seem to.

and when you don't say anything for the next new seconds, tsukishima stands up, taking a step towards you. "i'm saying, you have me,"

[inventors-fair]

Mix and Match Commentary: Putting it All Together

What a weekend... That's what I get for thinking I can juggle a dozen things this close to the end of the school year.

It looks like 13 out of 25 different adjectives were used in this contest, as well as 13 out of 25 different nouns! "Belligerent" was the most-used adjective, appearing on three cards, and "Choir" was the most-used noun, appearing on a whopping five cards, but oddly enough there was no Belligerent Choir today. I'll be honest: I'm shocked that nobody went for a Gargantuan Frog or something of the like. There were definitely some favored ideas on display with the given combinations.

And yet, there were a few that truly surprised me! I think that overall I'd call this contest a success. The words on the list were fairly straightforward and also 100% off-the-cuff, so perhaps if you all would like to see this again I can have a more curated list, perhaps taken from some actual cards with the idea that you can't use a name of an actual card in the combo. But hey, we'll see how it goes. How do y'all feel about this contest? It's something I've been wanting to do for a little while now.

There were quite a few cards that almost, but didn't quite, make the cut here, so I'll be talking about them as JUDGE PICKS. Check 'em out to see what we liked about them. Onto the commentary!

~

@an-anarchist-shapeshifter — Umbral Expertise (JUDGE PICK)

This combination checks out with the card superbly. I'm reminded of cards like Training Grounds, from a vibe perspective, or other cards that would probably depict a location in which a specific form of magic is practiced and honed. This card's mechanics are, to say the least, massively complicated, and it took me a little bit to figure out the real gist of why it works so well. The ability of each player to have shadow creatures makes those decisions harder to pick up on based on board state; I would worry about places where you're behind and have to continuously flicker your cards to make the best blocks, and then there's the option of blinking a creature after blocks if there's a shadow war going on—you get the idea.

Blink shells and aggro shells are both strange places to see cards like this that have the best of both worlds. What I will say is that I worry about how much board complexity this card adds. Making lots of tokens, for example, might be easy to track in digital but harder on paper if there's no good way to show how shadow counters are distributed. And even then, what indicator would be good enough? Would it be the theme of a set, or is this more Commander-focused where you can have these weirder mechanics? I've got a few questions about that, but complexity is my main concern. I can imagine someone being quite upset about a huge board that's inadvertently badly represented because of weird counter checks. Playing with it in a moderately-built board, though—I'd love that.

~

@big-golyat — Ossified Choir

I find it interesting that both cards that used "Ossified" this week used them with "Choir." Small world! When I looked at this card, the one thing that I wanted from it mechanically was something that it could do with that tap ability that wasn't just, y'know, tapping. Would it have been unreasonable for this card to have "2, T: You gain 1 life" instead? I don't think so. With the notion of a choir, though, exalted is absolutely one of the best mechanics you could've used for the flavor connection, and I totally get that.

Flavor's a strange one here, no? Not a bad one, of course, but I'm wondering if these things are statues, if they're just made of bone, etc. I'm imagining statues because of how it would work with gods, relics, all that stuff. Being enchantment creatures doesn't hurt with that, either. I think that it makes them feel a little more constructed and less naturally, well, that. Regardless of the cool flavor, though, this card would probably be a good addition to an evasive color combination in limited. Exalted is awesome and I like how you can see this as a pseudo-Enlist? Almost? I mean, tapping for extra power is related in at least one way. Smallest of notes: quotation marks go around the periods.

~

@curiooftheheart — Unbound Tomb

Huh! I like the ETB on here, and I just had a throwback to Zendikar. For some reason I was thinking about cards that exiled without a specific ability tied to them, but then Bojuka Bog hit me, and yeah, this card totally works in that vein. Entering untapped is pretty crazy comparatively; then again, so is not hitting the entire graveyard. What're you going to do, play this against Dragon's Rage Channeler? Possibly. But I don't know if it would be strong enough to mainboard or sideboard, unless you're deep into graveyards and lifegain. Most graveyard hate wants the entire thing to be exiled. De-delirium-ing someone is fun, though, and I wonder if that's what you meant to hit specifically. All the same, though, gaining massive amounts of life ain't nothing. This can probably get 3-5 life fairly consistently in a grindy limited game.

I'm wondering about the name and combination, though. The tomb is in the process of being unbound, sure, and that may be enough; lands are hard to get through with action words if it's not repeatable, and that may be a me issue. And while I like the flavor text, I'm not sure how it precisely relates. Are the ideals mentioned there the things being exiled? It's not a major issue for the card itself, and it's a strange little card to be sure. I think ultimately I like it, and the life gained would only be a problem in formats where it's a) easy to bounce lands for some reason? or b) heavily graveyard-based AND grindy, like Shadows over Innistrad was.

~

@dimestoretajic — Tyrannical Response

Play this on your turn, and your opponent is basically boardwipe-or-scoop. Play this on an opponent's turn after attackers have been declared, and once more, boardwipe-or-scoop. I would've been totally down for this card making 2/2s, but 4/4s is such a massive swing for the number of creatures that you'll be getting that it's not worth justifying this even as a legendary instant. I respect that you put the limitation, don't get me wrong, and it was the right thing to do. The massive amount of power on board is enough to tip the scales in a way that's probably not as balanced as one might imagine it to be.

But again, one could argue the nature of legends and legendary instants/sorceries, whatever, I know where that's coming from—and I still say that it's too much. The last limited format with legendary instants/sorceries had almost fifty legendary cards that could fulfill that role. Maybe it's a pendulum issue, though... But no, I'm really iffy about this one. Maybe I'm just paranoid about the swingier board states that this could enable. Still, you picked the right combo, name, and flavor text for this kind of effect at the very least. The numbers game is the only thing I'd change.

~

@feyd-rautha-apologist — Belligerent Tomb

Conceptually, I like this card, so let's work on how to do some editing for it. Firstly: auras have to enchant either objects or players. Graveyards are zones, so a card can't actually enchant a graveyard. Rather, this card should probably be enchanting a player and should probably be a curse as well, so that the text can read: "Whenever a card is put into enchanted player's graveyard from anywhere, that player loses 1 life." For the flavor text, this should probably be in quotes, since it appears to be spoken from the perspective of a specific character and not a general ephemeral being or omniscient extrapolating voice.

This enchantment, however, has got a lot of power problems going for it. Turning something like Tome Scour into a Lava Axe, which you can do quite easily on turn three, barring any Hedron Crab shenanigans, is a bit much when comparing cost to effect. I know that it seems expensive, but I wouldn't be shocked if this had to cost as much as 3BB overall. 2BB might be okay, I suppose, depending on how much milling is in the set that you can force onto your opponent. Again, not a bad idea, but the power, practicality, and wording could use some work.

~

@hypexion — Belligerent Spirit

One must be punished for being alive, after all. This card's simple for sure, but it does the Undying stuff well enough for me to say that it's really a pain and I'd love to play it in limited. Swing, get in kinda, sac, etc. A four-mana 2/2 might not seem great until you also have extra damage and a recursive body to think about. Having it be a 2/3 wouldn't necessarily be out of the question either, would it? Or would that throw off some numbers... I dunno, but either way, I could definitely see this blowing up in draft tier lists.

Is it just modern sensibilities that make this card difficult to balance without being too powerful? I don't know, honestly; Murderous Redcap was good in its day and this is pretty much in the same vein, innit? I don't think that it's too far off from that design and I...honestly just noticed that it was that close when writing this. Heh. But in all seriousness, it fits the name, it fits the ability, and I don't think anyone would complain about a Redcap effect being in limited, the more I think about it. That said, I've never played with it. Last note, but the flavor text is 85% there. It's an awesome notion and I'd love to tweak some wording in the editing bay. The vibe is great.

~

@izzet-always-r-versus-u — Impossible Notion

I think this card needed one more line of rules text: that you could spend colorless mana as though it were mana of any color to cast it. Would that have been too much? Or would that even be relevant? The point is, I'm not quite meeting this card on the mechanics side. The name and ability combination, though, not only makes sense but also feels like it wants to have some kind of Eldrazi invocation. Getting things back from exile by a) casting them and b) having to own them and c) having to spend colorless mana all makes sense for a restriction.

Then the question remains: should this card exist, and why? Getting things out of exile has long since been a bit of a thorn in R&D's side. Combining this with Karn, the Great Creator—or at least putting them in the same design-space room and letting them duke it out—makes for a deck that really puts a damper on things. Insta-speed Relic of Progenitus plus this is a real pain. In limited, what would this card do then? I honestly couldn't tell you. This card may not be too bad for a one-time use, I'll give you that. I'm struggling to find an argument in favor of its presence, though, strictly based on the rules that have been set for exile recursion and the prevalence of problematic possibilities for which this card allows. Still, a bold design for sure—even if the flavor text could be a little meatier.

~

@masternexeon — Ravenous Overflow (JUDGE PICK)

I was actually quite happy that multiple people took abstract nouns and made creatures out of them. This card is, additionally, a real pain in the butt and ravenous indeed. You know I really like how you framed this combination of green and blue here. There's a force of nature that's representative of consumption, but that consumption is also taking the form of flooding and overtaking the land (and its inhabitants) through how much it's flowing. Green gets its hunger sated, but not by flesh; blue gets its domain expanded, but is forced by ferocity. It's a cool balance. That's one of the major reasons I'm going with it as a Judge Pick this week!

Whether or not this card is balanced is another thing, and it's really funny regardless to turn everything into Islands. The thing to keep in mind is that turning something into an Island without it being a land... I honestly don't know what that would do. Seriously, I took a few hours off after reading the comprehensive rules—I know, long weekend—and I don't have a definitive answer. To be fair I wasn't sure what to look for but the point stands. I think the payoff might be a bit too swingy in limited, honestly. Sacrifice two random creatures to more or less shut off your opponent's big threats and/or mana sources, and then use any additional synergy to permanently keep your opponents off their colors unless they're also blue? Seems a bit hard to stem the flow, pardon the pun. But how can you scale the effect to keep this while adjusting the numbers? And also by putting "Island lands" instead of just "Islands." Saves me a headache.

~

@misterstingyjack — Abandoned Choir

I did ultimately like this card even if I wasn't super convinced about it. That said, the card draw could be pretty neat—I suppose I was just more swayed by Amonkhet's designs and the use of counters as a resource, because this can kind of turn itself into a draw resource and/or potentially use other cards with defender and the ilk as resources, but it's a bit...narrow? Maybe Amonkhet had its different themes that it was working with, and Phyrexia is a little iffier on that front. I do like how you've used white card-draw to its strengths, though. This feels like reasonable space.

So how often will one have three toughness? Probably often enough to make a difference. I do wonder how this card would've played with the change to do a creature with power 1 or less instead. I honestly don't know if that would be too powerful considering an abundance of tokens and/or weenies, but hey, it's an end step effect, whaddaya gonna do. This card really is a thinker. I do appreciate the writeup, though, and I think that as an Aftermath-y card, I can totally buy what the effect was going for. What's a choir to do in Norn's wake? Sing the praises and all, which makes sense to me. I'm also very curious as to why this is the second mono-white Choir with an implied self-tapping theme. What's up with the psychic connection here?

~

@partytimesdeluxe — Freshwater Tomb (JUDGE PICK)

There's this wonderful freshness to this design combination that feels great even if the practicality is a bit strange. What's the best-case scenario for this card in terms of mana-fixing? I suppose that a hybrid card dying would make for a great trigger, but beyond that, this card feels a lot slicker than I imagine it to play. Y'know? I think that a lot of folks liked this design because of how it feels. On the battlefield, I have to wonder if this card would do everything that one wants it to do. Protecting a creature from being animated and/or cycling the creatures that die is...also something.

I suppose I too want this design to play well but I'm not sure what the true benefit is. Perhaps I'm not seeing something? If this land was, like, Bloom Tender...hoo boy. Would that be too powerful? Or, if it was "1, T: Add two mana in any combination..." That way it could turn dying creatures into XX, XY, or YY, depending on if they were multicolored or now. Multiple ways of filtering. Honestly that sounds a lot stronger than the one-mana restriction. Child of Alara dying would help this card, sure, but beyond that... I think I'm picking this card because the possibilities and the slickness are absolutely there. It's just on the brink of being perfect in terms of actual gameplay; I absolutely need to praise the idea because, well, of how cool it feels!

~

@piccadilly-blue — Plentiful Canyon

Alright, so, neat as the notion is, I think everyone is in agreement that this card doesn't 100%-functionally-work, and the only question is why within the comprehensive rules. As far as I can tell, the main reason is that playing a land is a special action that doesn't use the stack, and can't have costs associated with it, because playing a land isn't a spell and additional costs only exists for spells and abilities. Assuming that everything within the comprehensive rules is how I understand it, you could play this land and pay its cost with its own mana ability since there's no moment that this card would be on the "stack," i.e. it would exist on the battlefield by the time you would have to pay the "cost" to play it.

...God, does that make any sense? I hope it does. Regardless, the discussions have been discussed and I think that we're all in agreement. I've talked a zillion times about your envelope-pushing and how much it makes me think so we'll leave it there. The flavor text, then! I like the rhyme here. Feels like the western prairie ballad that you were aiming for, and that's a great addition to the vibe of the card. 

~

@real-aspen-hours — Draconic Absolution

The flavor text here is great, and the implication is pretty cool; it feels kind of like Jund's dragon worship but with less of a predatory-shaman nature and more aligned with the Phyrexian-style divinity that is creepy and powerful all at once. I'm starting with the flavor and feeling here because—and I'm not sure if this was intentional or not—this card is an upgraded Rip Apart from Strixhaven. Where Rip Apart destroyed instead of exiling and was sorcery speed, this card is just that but slightly better.

Is that enough? Not exactly. If there was consideration for Rip Apart, I really would've liked to see a mechanical distinction beyond "strictly better." If there wasn't, well, I don't blame you; it's a clean design and clearly someone at Wizards thought the same thing if the card was actually printed. Tried and true, I suppose? That's unfortunately all I got for this particular card considering all of the considerations. In the end, I think that we're left with one last request: make sure you put your rarity indicators in your text submissions! Argh.

~

@reaperfromtheabyss — Freshwater Lasso (JUDGE PICK)

I'll give this card the award for "most physically imaginative use of world tropes in conjunction with the name." Lassoing things is super on-par for Thunder Junction, and I love how you connected that to the name. And we gotta agree—this lasso is indeed fresh and watery. Hydromancy allows for this card to really come into its own, and I love how it can be something that revolves around potential dexterity for untapping creatures, or as a prison for your opponent's creatures.

I wish this didn't have to be a rare, but like, it really really does. Insta-speed gaining control of a creature is something that can't happen too often in limited. The fact that it is instant-speed definitely ups the complexity. I don't mind that at all! Could there be one additional thing that this card does to make it so that putting it on your own creature doesn't suck as much? Well, actually, gaining control of a creature that you can then untap is...really cool. Man, this card is cool. We had a lot of strong contenders for this week and this is as close to being in the top six as you can get, honestly. Maybe I've just been enamored with Thunder Junction but I don't care because of how darn cool this card feels. Good job.

~

@sombramainexe — Kindred Spirit

So for the render here, the name did have to change in order to fit the contest; pluralizing the names does indeed count as changing the words, ergo, disallowed. Regardless of whether or not is was changed, I'm not a fan of having the name and typeline be the same thing. Perhaps it was a mistake to have "Kindred" be part of the adjectives list considering the kind of cards that a name like that drives people towards. I'm still working on it. With this particular card I feel that the name could have been changed because of the fact that it's not currently giving as much without AD or flavor text. The tongue-in-cheek aspect comes across as ultimately derivative instead of subversive, which is what I imagine the intent to be.

Mirrorweave is still a valid card, though, and I think that this card is an interesting take on it. Turning things into Spirits could be an awesome blowout. Why do the names not change, though? I imagine that it's because of legendary rules, and I understand that—is there a different way to go about it? I think that this is honestly completely new design space, because as far as I can tell there's no mass copy effect that allows creatures to keep their names. I wonder what the design principle behind that is, and I'd be curious to hear.

~

@stupidstupidratcreatures — Magnificent Mortar

Hey. Listen. Don't look at the card, look at me. Okay? I think that this is hilarious. This is a very, very funny card and I'm also a little bit mad. But it's still funny. But I'm a tiny-teensy-little bit mad. And I can't help but admire the fact that you designed a card with an implied second card that will, as far as we know, never exist. That's chutzpah if I've ever seen it. As for the interpretation of "mortar" here, I was thinking more in terms of salvos when I made this card and less about the combination, and yet you're here with one of the most creative combinations I've seen.

Mashing up creatures for mana is awesome, actually, and the way to activate it with a pestle is funny enough. As far as mana rocks go, I don't think that this card is the most powerful and I wish that it could've had one additional ability to really get the pestle's power online. You know how there was the whole "Blank of Empires" cycle of artifacts from some core set a while back? M12, that was it, right. But yeah, no, the abilities really ramped up because it's hard to get artifacts with the same name on the battlefield at the right time. Might want to consider that in terms of power level for next time. I'm gonna be very concerned if there's a future contest in which the Perfect Pestle can make an appearance, but hey, the world may never know if I accidentally do that one. Heh.

~

@tanknspank — Draconic Choir (JUDGE PICK)

I think we're in the realm, once again, of having really cool cards with really cool abilities that happen to be so normally and pragmatically good that they just barely miss the ledge of greatness. Having that pseudo-flashback kind of effect, the Dreadhorde Arcanist ability, is really cool, and stacking those triggers is necessary for making this effect really max out. It's a bear that beats in limited and burns out your opponent before blocks. What more can one ask for?

The last question I could possibly have is why "Choir" was such a popular choice this week. What was it about that word that just made people go nuts with these collective designs? I'm not complaining, I'm just really surprised. A choir of dragons is still pretty awesome, though, so I won't complain about that. What world would this be on? It feels almost like a Baldur's Gate kind of style, but that's probably not it. Maybe the "choir" is a metaphorical one and all the roaring is what brings the fire to life. Who can say, who can say. All the same, this card is a self-evident wonderful piece of work and I think that it should be commended for its solid design choices as a support card for limited and constructed spellslinging decks.

~

@wildcardgamez — Kindred Banner

We have a mix between Pillar of Origins and Rally the Ranks; Is that enough? I think, while this design is normal, its effects are really generic slash expected. Kindred means creature types, banner is an anthem. I feel that this could've been flavored somewhat, or given more mechanical significance that we haven't seen before. I'm actually surprised we haven't seen this exact combination, but it's a normal enough effect that I can imagine we'll see something like it in the future of design.

So, I'll say for the rest of this commentary to take a look at the uniqueness of the winners and the expectations for them. Or... No, actually, I won't do that. Because I'm not going to say that this card is bad. It's pure good design, based on the foundations of the creature-type-matters effects that we've seen printed before, and what else can one possibly ask for. I think there's the question to ask: are you submitting for the contest, or are you submitting to show you know what a good card is? That's something I can't answer, so I can offer only a couple small edits, and leave the rest up to you. Firstly: you probably want this as an "as" ability, like most of these creature type effects are. There are many reasons why, but the stack is a pain. Secondly: Like Pillar of Origins, you want to say "spend" instead of "use" in the text of the second ability, and you might also want to add that this is for abilities too if you want that.

~

There we go, whew. Have fun designing artifacts this week! — @abelzumi

[sayakxmi]

[Magi reread] Night 75: Cassim

Title: Cassim

Me, tears in my eyes: HOE DON'T DO IT

;_;

Idk what to say, man, I'm just sad. This is so unfair.

Also, UGH, my heart. The fact that Cassim wants to reassure Alibaba in that moment, but also he doesn't choose the right words for it - the right words would've been a lie. And I just wonder, is he saying it because he can't say anything else to reassure him, or does he assume it's what's Alibaba worrying about right now? Tbh, I'm kinda leaning towards the former.

And Alibaba's reaction. Like, first of all, he immediately recognizes what Cassim is saying. Just, right away. That Cassim doesn't include himself in the survivor group. And, like, I've seen it several times the "Character A says 'you' instead of 'we', and Character B realizes that once it's too late", and i'm glad that's not the case here. I think it would've been needledly depressing. Like, it's still sad as shit, but at least there's that sense of catharsis with their last conversation.

Anyway, I went on a tangent. The fact that the Djinn is breaking, and Alibaba goes ?? but I'm here to save YOU.

Just, in this moment they prioritize each other over themselves, and, anyway, I'm SAD.

Me: Man, I took a bit of a break, I'm worried I might kinda lose the feeling bc of that & just not be as emotional as usual. A bit of a shame.

Cassim:

Me: -literal tears in my eyes-

GOD. I'm not even joking. Fucking hell, Cassim breaks my heart every single time. No matter how many times I read this arc, these chapter, I still end up fucking crying for him. Like, he was so awful for most of the arc, but by the end you just cry for him, bc it's so incredibly unfair, and also just overall sad.

Like. Look at him. He's smiling. Tear-streaked. Just because Alibaba came all the way here to save him. Even if he can't. Alibaba loves him.

God, seeing him so awkward is just. Ugh.

You know what's the worst? That it's true. Had they communicated better, all of this could've been avoided. But it wasn't, and now they're here.

A bit of a sidenote, bc people often claim that Alibaba had no character development (which is bullshit), the problem Alibaba'd had here was that he hesitated too long to take action. It was shown to us from the very beginning. And while it kinda worked out earlier, like with that little girl he'd saved (tho he needed Aladdin to save him later), this time he wasn't so lucky. Him hesitating too much led to this - at least that's how he's gonna see it. Frankly, it wasn't simply Alibaba's fault - Cassim was there, too, after all. And you can make the case that Cassim has trauma, but here's the thing - so does Alibaba. So they both fucked up. But anyway, Alibaba definitely blames himself, and the point I'm trying to make is that as a result he goes to the other extreme - he rushes into things. Hesitating got Cassim killed, so he can't just... not do anything. They just needed to talk it out, right? Hakuryuu will definitely come around if they're just gonna be honest with each other, right?

Though I also feel like mentioning, that it's not a linear thing. Alibaba still hesitates to share his suspicions, that's kind of what happens with Hakuryuu before the Madaura fiasco. He suspects something is up with him, but doesn't follow that train of thought, and Hakuryuu leaving gives him pretty prominent Cassim flashbacks for a reason. From Alibaba's perspective, he's making the same mistake. So the moment he hears Hakuryuu's pulled something big (y'know, like starting a civil war), he rushes there, instead of spending half a year around him hoping for... who knows what.

Anyway. Listen, I throw in there all I think about at the time, so tangents happen, as you've noticed.

Back to the heartbreak.

-screams-

All I can think of is, god, this is fucked up. The good things in his life, Alibaba (always so far away), Mariam (she was crying), Hassan and Zainab... All these things he had no power over, his father beating him up (the same blood flows in his veins), Anise bowing after he tried to steal from somebody (he was the one to do it, and yet, she's the one suffering the consequences), Alibaba leaving (but he told him to do this, right? he told him he didn't belong there, it's his fault).

His fault, his fault, it's all his fault. Everything bad in his life is his fault, and all the good things disappear as he stays behind, watching helplessly.

Bro.

Another break from the heartbreak (lol), but I've kinda realized that Alibaba... he gets what makes people fall. Becaues of Cassim, he gets what makes people fall. He'd expreienced all of Cassim feelings, the feelings that led him to curse his destiny. It's like, I sort of knew, but it never hit me until this moment that Alibaba quite literally had, like, a second-hand falling experience. He fell without falling.

Ok, I let myself be excited for too long, back to being sad.

It kinda fucks me up, how big Cassim's father looks here VS how little Cassim himself is. Jesus.

Sidenote: in the anime what drives Cassim to kill him is his father talking about essentially forcing Mariam to become a prositute, so he can get money for alcohol, while in the manga the reason is unknown.

Cassim looks so... dead. God.

But I'm actually putting it here for the Al-Thamen. Markko, I think? Unimportant. The thing is, this is how Al-Thamen operates - by exploiting people who had reached the bottom, at their darkest, weakest points. People who have nothing and nobody else to turn to.

They offer them a way to escape.

And, honestly, no wonder they take it. Nobody else had ever offered them help. And it's not like Al-Thamen is doing all that much, right? - it just gives them the means, it doesn't fix their problems. It leaves them with the illusion of being in control.

Cassim loves him, too.

For all the hatred and envy he felt, he also loved Alibaba just as much. His best, brightest memories all surround Alibaba.

Fucks me up every time.

Like. GOD. Imagine you just fucking killed your father whose parting words were "you're a scum just like me", only to return home and have somebody say "Welcome back~" to you. Have somebody be so happy to see you they greet you even before you get inside. You feel like you're nothing, completely worthless person whose blood had been tainted since before they was born.

But somebody loves you.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Sorry I'm not saying anything I'm busy CRYING

Like, fuck. Aladdin with tears in his eyes greeting Alibaba back, Alibaba thinking about Cassim's smile as he cradles his dead, withered body.

Like, bro, I'm sitting here fucking crying.

Oh, right, they're here, too.

Anyway, I'm sad. I don't have anything else to say. I'm sad.

[peachymilkandcream]

Someone To Love|Part 3|Reiner x Jealous Reader

(A/N: I hope you guys have been enjoying this series, not writing Yandere does feel a little unfamiliar I'm not going to lie. But I'm enjoying it to be honest. Like I said I don't know how long this series will be but I am enjoying writing it. Comment to be added to the taglist!)

WARNINGS: implied nsfw, depression, attempted suicide, violence, general angst, slowburn, lowkey love triangle with a happy ending, not a warning but Reiner calls you nicknames instead of y/n (because I personally can't stand it)

=============================================

It all could've gone so well, Reiner could have gone through a bit of sadness and heartache but eventually heal, ready to move on with his life.

But then she returned.

She saw Evelyn walking with Reiner, strutting around like she had always been from Marley, her new Warrior uniform matching that mentality. The way she carried herself felt like they were all less than her, she was set above all and should be worshipped as such.

She couldn't deny that Evelyn was beautiful, probably more than she. But who cared? At least she was truly on Reiner's side, this girl originated from Paradis, the island of devils. She was the enemy, a devil. They were all devils, she deserved to be in hell with all those other ones. How could Reiner be in love with a woman who caused their people so much pain and suffering?

Those thoughts kept her fuming, jealousy burning in her heart. Couldn't he see he was being used? Why wasn't this woman in prison? Paying for the crimes she undoubtedly committed which caused all Eldians to be set back hundreds of years.

"Hey kid, I want you to meet Evelyn, the friend I was telling you about." The amount of boyish glee in his face made her stomach turn, his crush burning bright in him.

"Nice to meet you-" She forced out, the other woman's stare so intense she couldn't help but feel a pang of insecurity the feeling of being inadequate.

"A pleasure." Evelyn states, her smile void from her face. Her whole countenance oozing authority , this was a military woman.

"I'm taking her around Liberio, showing her the sights, making her feel welcome, y'know?"

She swallows. "Yeah- for sure- uhm- can I? Talk to you for a second Reiner?"

"Yeah no sweat, do you mind just waiting here Evelyn? This should only take a second."

With Evelyn's consent the two walk a few steps away so that they can speak privately.

"Reiner I thought you said she was from Paradis, what is an island devil doing here?"

Now he frowns. "She's not a devil, she's had a hard time of it and I'm just trying to help her out."

"While she helps our people's few rights to be stripped away?"

"Look, you don't understand. Evelyn deserted to come here, that- that bastard- what he did to her-"

"What are you talking about?"

"Levi- the sick fuck tricked her into marrying him, beat, used her- and then got her pregnant against her will- She ran from him kid, you have to understand."

She didn't say what was on her mind, but clearly he was being used. How could no one see that the bitch was lying about all of it and using him for free shelter and food? "How do you know she's not a spy?"

Anger flashes on his face, she'd gone too far. "How could you even suggest that? This is my dear friend who I've been through thick and thin with. She asked for me specifically because there was no one else she could trust. Took an oath and got her red armband, she's a Warrior through and through like me."

"I didn't mean to offend-"

"Well you did. It disgusts me that you would look at a woman who's been beaten and raped and accuse her of threatening this country." He starts to march away.

"Reiner wait-"

"No! I don't want to hear your poison any longer! If you can't respect my friend by holding your nasty opinions to yourself, then I don't want anything to do with you."

"Reiner please, I'm sorry!"

"Leave me alone, I'll take Evelyn somewhere she can feel safe from judgmental assholes like you."

One to never keep her temper she fires back. "Fine then! See if I care! When you have a knife in your back because you trusted an Island Devil then don't expect to see me at your funeral!"

As Evelyn and Reiner retreat with an angry glare back she allows her temper to cool slightly, instant regret following. She shouldn't have yelled at him. Besides, maybe Evelyn was perfectly lovely and she judged everything based off of what she'd been told.

But she couldn't apologize, not yet. Reiner would need time to cool off, if she did it now he'd order her to never speak to him again. For now she'd buy her time. but make sure to act before it was too late for Reiner.

The unease in her stomach churned more.

[octoagentmiles]

do you have any hcs for barnacles and dashi ? I'm rewatching it and many episodes start with the two of them in the main area , oftentimes there's a third person involved but it's always the two of them so they must spend alot of time around each other :O 10 / 10 bonding

Had to think hard about this since Dashi's role in the main series is so small—but you're actually so right 👀 10/10 buddies 👍

You'll get my headcanons I promise but first you gotta listen to me infodump, okay? Deal:

I personally headcanon that Dashi was one of the first Octonauts, she hasn't been around a super long time- but at least long enough that she was probably around for the first Octopod, and that would give her and Barnacles (and the other OGs) plenty of time to get close.

We know Inkling canonically founded the Octonauts, but I imagine that it was actually Barnacles who picked out the crew—over various fateful encounters (Kwazii, Peso), or already knowing them (Tweak)—with the two exceptions of Dashi and Shellington.

Shellington heard about them through the kelp vine by pure chance, and got himself a job via determination. Then, at some point—he recommended Dashi to Barnacles or Inkling, and got her a position as an intern. (He knew her through her photography; she took pictures for him once or something like that.)

I also headcanon they weren't called The Octonauts yet at that point. I headcanon that Dashi came up with the "Octonauts" name during her first few days, and they kept it. (Coincidentally, the first Octopod crashed during those first few days. T'was completely unrelated, I promise 😅)

Fast forward: I've been thinking about Dashi in AnB a lot lately, and the one question that keeps coming up is: "Why did Barnacles make her the Captain of the Octoray?"

They haven't addressed it in the show yet, and it felt a little bit like the writers just wanted her to Do Something, y'know? So I went back to rewatch some of her main series episodes, and this scene from The Surfing Snails stuck out:

This scene shows how much he trusts her. He trusts her to make the right calls, and to be careful. He shows this trust in her again in the Wild Windstorms:

"...I'm ready for this!"

"I know you are, Dashi."

I REALLY wish they had spent more time giving her some kind of arc, showing this trust being built. She absolutely deserved an arc like Peso's, where we could've seen her growth and her bond with Barnacles getting stronger. It would've made the Octoray thing make much more sense, and I would've loved to actually SEE her evolution from "getting stuck in a whale shark" to "inventing stuff with Tweak" to the level of respect that Barnacles clearly has for her in S4 and Beyond, but instead it feels like all that stuff happened off-screen.

I also wanna point out real quick; that Dashi is one of the select few characters to ever call Barnacles by his first name only. This is something that the writers frequently use to emphasize closeness between Barnacles and someone else (Kwazii, Natquik, etc), and Dashi has done it twice. I'll admit I thought it was an error the first time, but then I caught her doing it again in Sac Actun. SO CLEARLY THEY ARE CLOSE. YES? WE AGREE. YES.

ok I'm done. pleasure doing business with you 🤝

*slams hands down on table* MISC. HEADCANON TIME ‼️ (which technically, could all totally be canon until the writers finally decide to give us real information ✨)

She has 100% read ALL of his books and journals, at least twice. Sometimes he gives them to her so she can beta read them, and she's also helped edit a few.

She has written her own journals, mostly in the form of scrapbooks, that she shares with him too. He has a first edition signed copy of one of them.

She made friendship bracelets for everyone on the ship after the Octopod was rebuilt, and he keeps his on his desk. It's still in mint condition.

I feel like at least ONE of the cameras in her collection was a gift from him.

She is trained on how to steer the Octopod manually. Considering the only two on board at the time who knew how to do it were Barnacles and Tweak—her showing slight interest was the only convincing he needed to teach her.

Sadly, she's never needed to use this skill. Yet.

She learned how to play harmonica when he decided to learn accordion, so they could duet together, but she got the hang of it much faster than he did.

They work out together sometimes. She's much stronger than she looks—and has won an arm wrestling match against him at LEAST once. She's also beat him in a foot race; it was almost a very close tie, and she needed to lay down for an hour after—but she did it. He will never live either of these down.

They definitely gossip in HQ sometimes, when it's just the two of them.

[lycorisrxdiata]

He Said, She Said

She says she loves the way mother used to never care about using her as displays for her latest fashion trends.

Most little boys would find it humiliating, the fact that they were being stuffed into doll-like dresses for the sake of showing off their parent's work.

Not them.

If anything, it was the amount of fawning their relations did that sickened them the most.

"Oooooh, look at you! Just like a pair of little dolls!"

"She's at it again, that devil. Dressing up her sons to be a pair of angels - it's just too cute."

"She should put them in commercials - bet you her sales would go out though the roof!"

Murmurs would reach around to them when said relations approached them; they would pinch their cheeks, croon, and even tried to play along and guess who was Hikaru (of course, nobody got it right).

After a while, it gets old, even they're only five. A pair of children could only stand so much babying, which is exactly why they slip away from the party and head to the backyard. Few adults ventured there - the meet-and-greet was contained to the front, so this leaves them with enough space to venture.

"What a boring party." Kaoru is the first to voice their dissent, brushing down the blue extensions.

"All of mom's parties are boring." Hikaru picks at the end of their dress, examining the frills.

"She could've just dressed us up without all the dumb adults."

Both share a giggle.

"Yeah, totally. I just like the dress, y'know? Kinda makes me feel like..."

"...a girl?"

The elder twin nods. Seconds later, they tilt their head a bit and blink - of course, their twin guessed right, but wasn't it odd? How can a boy /feel/ like a girl?

"Don't you - "

" - think it's weird?" Kaoru finishes.

"Yeah. Boys aren't - "

" - girls. And girls aren't - "

" - boys."

"..."

"...but I don't feel like much of a boy right now."

"Me either."

Both of them scrunch up their noses and sit on the ground, ruffling the dresses.

"Hikaru, does that mean we're girls now? If we don't feel like boys?"

"I dunno. We're boys, aren't we? But if we don't feel like boys.."

Pause. It wasn't adding up to either of them, and yet -

"...I kind of like it though - "

" - feeling like this. Yeah. I do, too."

"Do you think mom would let us do this more?"

"Why not? Mom wants to show off her clothes whenever she can."

An enthusiastic nod is followed by the bobbing of pink pigtails. Both end up smiling.

"Maybe we can show up like this to school when we feel like wearing dresses too, right Kaoru? It'd be kinda fun."

"Yeah! We should do it!"

Pleased murmurs slip between them as they entertain the thought of the school's reaction to them showing up in the girl uniforms. Maybe they could put more natural-looking extensions in and have fun performing different hair styles. Mother might even let them experiment with some nail polish -

"Hikaru! Kaoru! There you two are!"

So much for that fantasy. The bubble is popped when the gentle voice of their mother snaps them out of their little conversation.

"Awwww, but mommmmm!" Sycophantic whines escape their throats in unison.

"No 'buts', you two. You know the family has been dying to see how much you've grown."

"No they haven't, they just wanna see us look cute."

Yuzuha chuckles, hands resting on their small shoulders.

"Of course. Who wouldn't? You're simply adorable."

In unison, they roll their eyes, hands quick to reach for the other's.

"Come on. You boys can have lunch after you say hello to your grandmother, alright?"

Although their mother calls them boys, it doesn't sit right with them. They don't like the odd sensation of disappointment that stems from those syllables, but don't know what to say in response. Instead, both grin with excitement at the mention of their grandmother. She was simply the best, what with her unconventional fashion statements and eccentric love of motorcycles.

As they head back, they both share glances past their mother's back. She likes to dress them for her shows, but what if she wouldn't let them do this for school?

(Dressing up is for home, only.)

[twothpaste]

three questions- 1, how do you headcanon Ness chose his name? 2. what other names was he considering before he settled on Ness, if he was considering other names? and 3. if the other intermission characters could dye their hair, what would they dye it? (for Kuma feel free to answer with other colors she’s dyed/considered dying her hair before)

i actually don't have much of an origin story for ness' name, aside from knowing was a longtime childhood nickname before he knew what it meant to be "trans," and before he settled on it as a replacement for his deadname (whatever that might be, none of my business). he might've straight up nicknamed himself after his favorite video game console, giving his name the same origin it has in reality - i think that'd be funny. his dad's got a big nintendo collection, and they used to play video games together a lot - his dad could've even been the one who first started calling him that 🥲. a little kid insisting upon being called by a gender-neutral nickname, which emerged from a "tomboyish" hobby, from like age six onward?? i feel like that tracks.

i haven't drawn her in color yet, but my take on tracy has black hair that she bleaches blonde. as a teen she starts selectively bleaching streaks/portions of it, instead of doin' it all the way, 'cause she thinks it looks cool. poo wishes he could dye his hair literally any color at all, but if he does his family will have his head. he fantasizes about going off on months-long international archaeological surveys once he's graduated, with a glorious mane of green hair, just to live a little. one time lucas agreed to let kuma dye a little (small) (tiny) cyan streak into his hair. he thought it was sort of fun, but perhaps a bit intense for his tastes. people noticed him, he got a lot of compliments, aw jeez, that's super overwhelming for a big pile of oatmeal like lucas, y'know 😞. i think the older duster gets, the more eccentric he becomes - dude's probably only a few years away from turning his graying balding locks bright firetruck red while he's still got the chance. imagining his little goat scruff beard in all the colors of the rainbow 🌈

[tohisprettyc00l]

could you do a Vee x Basilisk reader where Vee sees the reader's true form, instead of their disguise?

request from Tumblr: could you do a Vee x Basilisk reader where Vee sees the reader's true form, instead of their disguise?

A/n: just for clarification, this starts when Vee is pretending to be Luz.

You had escaped the Emperor's Coven and into the human realm a few months ago. And currently, you were living in a random shed you found. Listen, you weren't homeless! You're just... Okay, there is no good way to phrase this, you are homeless. But on the plus side, you have an area to camp out in and a school lunch! Speaking of school, it's time to go to school.

You quickly shape-shifted into the human form you've been taking. It's a bit of a mix-mash of other people you've seen. It does stop people from getting you in trouble with a person whose form you took though. You quickly ran to school.

Once you got to school you saw your friend Luz. She always seemed very familiar since the moment you met her. She reminded you of your old life, but somehow in a good way? "Y/N! how's it going?" "Pretty good!" She smiled sweetly. you felt a warm feeling in your heart as she smiled. "Same here! I've been doing some cleaning." You paused. "How did you earn the reputation as a 'trouble-maker?' You're so chill!" You said. Luz seemed to get oddly nervous, "Well one summer can really change a person, y'know." You nodded. "Yeah, it's like you're a whole different person though!" "I wouldn't say that." You dropped the topic because it seemed to be freaking her out. The bell rang and you both went to your respective classes.

Soon class started. But you weren't really paying attention. You were more focused on Luz's reaction. That might have been when of the most nervous she had been. At least around you. Soon the bell rang that snapped you out of your thoughts. When you walked out you saw Luz talking to one of her other friends in the hallway. You looked at Luz and you could've sworn you saw her blink sideways. At first, you didn't think much about it until you remembered that humans don't do that. You rubbed your eyes and looked at her again. She blinked again, normally. So, you chalked it up to you being tired or something.

Luz looked at you and walked up to you. "Hey, Y/n!" She waved, "Wanna hang out later." You nodded. "Okay, I've never seen your house so-" "No!" You accidentally shouted. Which earned you a few weird looks from other kids and a concerned look from Luz. "Um- I mean, I like your place a lot more. So I want to go to your house instead." You said nervously. "Oookay?" Luz said, "Yeah we'll just go to my place." You sighed in relief. "What time should it be at?" Luz asked. "Um around 8?" "Sure!"

After a few more hours school ended. You gather all your stuff and run to the shed you call home. Once you got there you sighed. You only had enough magic for a week. Even if you used as little as possible. But at least you could hang out with Luz later, that could take your mind off it, if only for a few hours. You lay your head back on the wall.

Suddenly you heard footsteps in the other room. You got up to check it out when suddenly there were banging noises. You ran as fast as you could. You peaked slightly around the corner. And there, in the middle of your shed, was another basilisk. You froze, not sure of what the right way to react was.

A small mirror with a messy-haired Luz caught your attention. You tried to speak but your voice was caught in your throat so you stood still. "Stop moving, you'll make it tighter!" The Luz in the mirror said, "I didn't mean to freak you out. I just want to figure it out, okay?" "Mhm." "Your a demon, from the Boiling Isles. What's your name?" "I'm number five- I mean, I'm Vee." Your eyes widened with shock. Not only was she the closest to you when you were still imprisoned. But she also seems to have been impersonating Luz!

"Okay, Vee, I'm going to help free you. You're going to be alright. Now, back up a bit, give it some slack." Luz instructed, "Now look for a little metal thing-a-ma-boba, sorry I don't know what it's called." Vee pulled on it and released her leg. "There you go!" She jumped out of the trap quickly. You suck in your breath and walked to the basement door. You entered and quietly closed the door.

You just stared at the wall for a few moments. There were a million thoughts going through your mind. Well, God that explains a lot. you went back upstairs hoping they left. Thankfully they did. So you went outside hoping to organically run into Vee.

After a while of walking, you spotted Masha and her other friends. They were holding hexes hold'em cards which had the scent of magic on them. You concluded this would be your highest chance of seeing Vee. "Hey, guys!" You waved. "Hey Y/N!" Masha greeted, "I got some tarot cards I was just giving him a reading." They pointed to their friend. They cleared their throats, "As I was saying, a past connection that left a mark on your soul, has shown up again. And is asking you to shed your old ways and enter a metamorphosis! And be the spiritual leader you were meant to be" "Yeah, that sounds about right." The guy who they were giving a reading to said.

Suddenly Vee appeared. "Yes!" You mentally cheered. "Hello." She greeted you. "Oh, hey Luz! Nice to see you out of prison." "Oh come on, camp wasn't that bad. We did have the best cabin." Cabin seven! Ho-ha-ha" They all said in unison then laughed. You giggled at their goofiness.

"Cool cards, where'd you get them?" She went to grab the card but Masha grabbed it first. Uh-uh. Let me give you a reading first. I wanna practice." They laid three cards down, "You're running from your past. From a previous life that was not kind to you. However, the guilt and fear you carry will eventually catch you in a self-fulfilling prophecy that you won't be able to escape from. You're going to need some bath bombs, girl." You felt slightly tense, it might've been for Vee, but it hit way too close to you as well.

Masha started collecting the cards, "Anyway, I got the cards over at the Graves Field historical society." "Thanks, I'll see you around." Vee got up and started leaving. "Did you see the look in her eyes? I got to find out where she got those contacts." Vee leaving snapped you out of your thoughts. "Here why don't I go find out right now?" You said. "Thanks." With that, you got up and started walking toward Vee.

Once you finally entered you heard Vee and Luz around the corner. "I know what it's like to want to run away from home. I did the same thing." "You and I are not the same. You had a mom that Loved you, a life. You had it good! And you still wanted to run away. I-I didn't have a choice." You cringed slightly at her last sentence. "My real name is Number Five. I'm a Basilisk, and technically I-I shouldn't exist. My kind went extinct a long time ago. But we were brought back. They wanted to see how we drained magic." "I met a Basilisk one. She hurt a lot of people." "For many of us all we knew how to do was feed. Some of us escaped, but I knew it was only a matter of time before he caught us again. But then I saw you and you could be a way out of this!" Vee explained, "I didn't mean to keep playing this role but Camila was nice to me. I resent you for running away. But I'm also thankful you did. I don't know, it's confusing."

Vee turned to you and loudly gasped. You nervously waved. "How much did you hear..?" Vee asked nervously. You dry swallowed, "Umm, all of it." Vee's face went pale. "Y-y/n-" "I'll be fine. You seem to need help." "I do. But you can't do anything. Please, just leave for now." You opened your mouth to speak but words didn't come out. You sighed, nodded, then left. "Did you find out where she got them?" Masha asked when you walked by. "Huh?" "The contacts!" "Oh- um- no she forgot." "Awh, that sucks. Thanks anyway." You nodded and began walking home.

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

It had been a little less than a week since "Luz '' came to school. Your hope of even seeing her again kept dwindling. But on a saturday morning your phone rang. Your eyes lit up seeing who sent it. Luz. You quickly opened it. "Hey y/n it's been awhile. Can I come over please?" You looked at your phone. "There's a shed by your house, can we met there?" you texted.

What you thought was going to happen, was Vee texting you yes and a time. Not suddenly getting a text telling you that she's at the shed. Your phone rung and your heart sank reading the message. Suddenly your door opened and Vee stood, looking at you in a similar manner as you first looked at her. As quickly as you could, you shapeshifted into your usual form. "Sup-surprise." Vee teared up.

"You okay-" "Number seven!" She ran over and hugged you, "I missed you!" You smiled, "Yep, seems no matter the realm we'll be friends. But I'm running out of magic..." "Oh!" Vee exclaimed. She pulled some cards out of her pocket. "The cards Masha was using had magic! There from the demon realm." "Thanks Vee!" "Anything for us not to be split up again."

[mercury-lurks]

APHS!AU

Word Count: 4,182

Character Number: 64~

TW: very brief mention of SA but it's like one sentence we good 👍

Notes: this isn't canon in the slightest i just had a brainworm and couldn't let it go.

Benny walked into the school, backpack slung over his shoulders. He was a bit nervous, as he was coming into the school year part way through and from another state. Everybody probably had their friend groups already. It would just stick out like a sore thumb like he always had.

He pulled out his schedule, trying hard to remember where he's supposed to be. This school is so much bigger than his old one, with a lot more people. It wishes it could've been homeschooled instead of dealing with all this.

The classroom system was really confusing, and Benny couldn't quite figure out where to go. He wandered a bit, went upstairs and downstairs, and looped past the same bathrooms at least three times. Eventually it ended up back at the front of the school, resolving to just ask for directions. He was thankful that his first real day wasn't until tomorrow, it just wanted to get used to the place today so he didn't look like an idiot.

Benny went into the office sheepishly, brushing his hair out of his face only for it to fall right back where it was before. He walked up to the counter and pushed a little bell, one of the office attendants looking up.

"Um.. h- hi, I'm new here… could I get some directions? Well, I don't start until tomorrow, but I just wanted to, y'know, get a feel for things? I- if that's not allowed I can leave, but I really don't want to go in blind, and, um… yeah."

The office attendant just smiled. "Oh, no worries hun. I can have someone show you around!"

Benny blinked under its long fringe, not quite expecting this to go as well as it already had. "Really?"

"Of course. James? Could you come in here for a moment?"

A boy wearing a black baseball cap poked his head out of what Benny assumed to be a copier room, holding a stack of papers. "Yeah? What's up?" He pushed his glasses up with a knuckle, scrunching his nose to make it stay.

"I need you to show a new student around."

James looked over at Benny and grinned. "Oh, sure thing." He set the copies down on a counter and walked out, hopping over a table and the front desk to get over to him. "So, what's your name? I'm James."

Benny already knew this was either going to be either the worst tour he'd ever had or the funnest. "Benny." It answered, ducking its head down to his shoulders.

"Sweet. Can I see your schedule real quick?" He reaches his hand out for the paper, and Benny gives it to him. James reads it over, clicking his tongue. "Oof, you've got Hevarro as your Algebra teacher."

"U- uh, what's wrong with Mr. Hevarro?" Benny asked, suddenly even more nervous.

"Oh, nothing really. He's just really strict. If you get the homework done on time he won't be a problem. He does tend to randomly call on students and pick on them, which is what happened to one of my friends. We call it 'Sacrifice.'" He explained, reading over the rest of its schedule. "Heyyy, you've got Araujo! She's awesome. Come on, I'll show you around." He hands Benny's schedule back to him, gesturing for it to follow.

Benny followed James out of the office, walking a bit behind him. "So, you're a freshman right?" It nodded. "Ah, figures. You got that child look to you still. I'm a junior, I just have chronic baby face syndrome." James chuckled, and Benny did too just to be polite. They stopped in front of a classroom. "Here's your physical science classroom!" James opened the door to his A1 class, letting Benny peer inside.

It wasn't anything special, just a regular classroom with regular students. James pointed over his head at the teacher. "That's Ms. Araujo. She's the teacher for AP Bio and the Environmental club, too. She's super nice, most people who've taken her classes say she's their favorite teacher."

Benny was hopeful about this class. He wouldn't jump the gun and say he was going to join the Environmental club, but it sounded like fun. It's always liked plants, especially molds and fungi.

"Oh, and that guy with the blond hair is Neil, he's a Freshman too. So is Karmen, that girl sitting next to him. They're pretty cool." James waved at them, and got a small wave back from both of them. "Andy's out today, he got his wisdom teeth removed yesterday and he's delirious."

Benny frowned. "Oh. That doesn't sound good."

The other shrugged, pulling him out of the class and closing the door. "Eh, he'll be back in a few. What's your next class?"

"Um.. Speech."

James walked down another hall, this one with a mural on it. It was a work in progress, but seemed to be of a dog of some sort. He must've had some sort of look on his face, because James went on to explain. "My sister's part of the Art Club, and they're doing a big fuckin' mural on the wall. Our school's mascot is a Hellhound, so that's what the dog is."

A Hellhound sounded pretty edgy, but Benny thought it was cool. He likes dogs.

They stopped at another class right by a staircase and James opened the door to Benny's A2 class. There was a class in session once again, but if James didn't care Benny would try his best not to either. "HEY MORNINGSTAR!" He yelled, getting the entire class's attention on him. Benny shrank back, trying to avoid their stare.

The teacher, a man with ginger hair that was slowly graying, turned around with a deadpan look. "Mr. Watson. Please try not to interrupt my class again just because you feel like it." A few students giggled, suggesting this might be a regular occurrence.

"What? I'm just showing a new student around! What's so bad about that?" He feigned innocence, making his eyes bigger and pushing up his glasses.

"The new student could be shown around without interrupting me." Morningstar pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to hide an amused smile threatening to take hold.

"Whatever you say, Mr. M." James backed out of the conversation and closed the door. "That was Morningstar, the school Speech teacher. I've been over to his house before."

Benny furrowed his eyebrows, but elected to not ask any questions lest he regret it. He followed James upstairs and to Hevarro's classroom, Benny's A3, where they stood outside for a moment.

"Not going in?" It questioned, peering in through one of the windows. There was a class in session once again.

"Well, we could, but I don't want to set you up on bad terms with Hevarro. We'll just look through the window." James joined it at the window, scanning the class. "You see that kid with the paper airplane?"

He nodded, seeing a kid in the back of the class making a paper airplane. The kid was wearing a red facemask, his eyes darting to the board every so often before going back to fiddling.

"That's Fox. He's a Sophomore, and a huge social butterfly-slash-class clown. Hevarro hates him, he Sacrifices Fox like every day." James points to someone sitting in the middle of the class with a long braid. "That's Nimue, xe's also a Sophomore. Xe and Fox are like.. glued to the hip. Most people think they're dating, but to tell you a secret, they're both Aroace. Nimue may seem sweet on the outside, but there's a reason they're called the Poltergeists. So. Many. Pranks."

Benny resolved not to get on their bad side, and then they moved on to the next class, Benny's A4. Once again, they didn't go inside this class. "Bad teacher too?"

James scoffed. "That's not even the half of it. Mr. Morrold is just so incompetent at technology, and yet he's the one teaching the Multimedia class. Several students have tried to get him fired because he's got several accusations of SA under his belt. He's been investigated a lot over the years, but Principal Bit can't find any physical evidence behind it to get him jailed. So for the time being, he's here."

"Oh." Benny really didn't like the sound of this class.

"He doesn't really interact much with the class, which is a good thing for you." James changes topics swiftly, pointing at the window. "That's Casey, Andy's boyfriend, and sitting next to him is Ë. Both of them are Freshmen, and I'm sure Casey would be happy to catch you up if you asked him. And since you have Morrold for your fourth period, you'll have Terrence and Mona with you."

"You know a lot of people." It remarked idly, a bit confused by all these names.

James chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Dude, this isn't even half the people I know. I know people who know people who know people, and I'm on the student council."

Benny can't ever imagine James being responsible enough for student council, but keeps its mouth shut. They move on to another class, Benny's B1 period.

"Oof, Dorren's the substitute." James winced, looking in the window. "Mr. Levi would've been your English teacher, but he's out on paternity leave."

It looked in the window too, spotting the teacher, Dorren, fairly easily. The beard gave it away. "He's bad?"

"Oh, he's a nightmare. He tries to hex us."

Benny paused, slowly turning his head towards James. "Hex?"

He laughed, looking over at Benny. "Hex. He thinks he's some sort of deity. Oh, god, that reminds me about the Turf War."

This school was insane, Benny concluded. "...Turf War?"

James looked excited to explain, which didn't help the foreboding feeling. "So, there's three different sides to this school, like a big clique. There's Heaven, Hell, and Neutral. Like gangs, I guess. At the end of the year we have a big competition for who gets the APHS Duality Dagger. It's school endorsed, which means Principal Bit probably thinks it's hilarious. She's cool like that. Anyway, if your side wins an event, more Turf gets added to your side of the school. Right now, you've probably noticed the weird decorations, right?"

Benny nodded. It had noticed that there were two distinct halves of the school, each decorated weirdly. There were propaganda posters with either devil horns or angel halos, yellow decorations and red decorations, even one Hit List per side.

"The school for the majority of the year is half Heaven, half Hell. Hell won last year, so Heaven's doing their best to get new Freshmen recruits."

It officially decided that this school wasn't just insane, it was batshit fucking crazy. "Um.. which side are you on?"

"I'm on Hell's side. Once an Ashpoint Devil, always an Ashpoint Devil!" He put his two pointer fingers on his forehead like horns and grinned.

"What about Neutral? Don't they get a side?" Benny asked, tilting its head in confusion.

"They would if they participated. Neutral is just one person though, and acts as the mediator and referee throughout their time here. If things start getting really ugly between teams, Neutral is there to remind us it's just a friendly competition. Right now Neutral is Ferry, but he's graduating this year so he's gonna have to nominate a new Neutral before he leaves. I'm betting it's going to be Quincey, and Quincey's gonna choose Evan."

He didn't know who Quincey or Evan were, but he was sure it was going to meet them eventually. "Do I have to pick one now?"

James shook his head. "No, not right now. The Freshmen only have to pick when the Turf War starts, but until then the Freshies are free game. That's why there's all the posters up, because a good majority haven't picked yet."

Benny supposed that made sense. James began pointing out people. "Oh, there's Ellias and Stevie, they're Juniors, and that's Molly in the red beanie. Oh, there's Zaliel too, and over in the corner is Aven. I think she's making a spit funnel." He waited for a few moments, and then Aven spat into the rolled up paper and blew it at Dorren, who whipped around and demanded to know who did it. In the end, it was blamed on Zaliel, because apparently everyone hated Zaliel. All the teachers, anyway.

They moved on to Benny's B2, welding with Mr. Miller. James opened the door this time, letting Benny know Mr. Miller was at least decently safe to be around.

"Now, Miller looks like a crotchety old fart, but he's actually pretty nice. A bit flat and deadpan, but he's actually willing to help you if you ask. Oh, there's Salem. Hi Salem!" He waved at a tall student in the back who was putting away their welding stuff. Salem looked back and gave James a small smile and wave, turning back to their things. "They're a senior. She may look a bit scary because they're fucking huge, but Salem's really great. They're ASB Vice President."

Benny looked over and spotted someone wearing a cowboy hat. He pointed over to them questioningly.

"Oh, Thomas? I don't actually know too much about him, but I think Mr. Lofenshire knows him? He's the chemistry teacher, and also the guitar teacher. You're taking Guitar 1, right?"

He nodded.

"If you wanna know more about Thomas, I'd ask Lofenshire. He's a crazy old coot, but he's good at what he does." James shrugs. "Or just ask Thomas himself. Whichever."

James then leads him to Lofenshire's classroom, which is empty. "He has a chemistry class on right now, but this is where you'd go for your B3 class."

Benny made sure to memorize the location of this classroom, since it was kinda far away from his others. It then heard a clicking sound coming from behind him, and turned around to find there was nobody there.

Presumably hearing it too, James turned around with him. "Francis? You there, buddy?" There was another click and a whistle. "Hi! You looking for Ellias and Stevie? They're in Levi's English class." Francis whistles again and walks away.

"Um.. who was that?" Benny asks.

"Oh, that's Francis. He's an Office Assistant like me, and they usually run around the school delivering notes, loves to hide and stuff. All I know is that Ellias and Stevie got detention today for vandalizing the school bathroom. I think it was Avery, but Ellias is always getting blamed for his shit and Stevie just goes along with it because they're a ride or die couple, apparently."

Benny didn't think that was very fair. "Avery?"

James snickers. "Yeah. He was supposed to graduate last year, but he failed too many of his classes. He's a super senior now, and one of Morningstar's flock of demon children. We were pretty close last year." That probably explained why he'd been over at Morningstar's house before.

After that, the bell rang, and James started taking him to the cafeteria for lunch. It had to admit, the tour wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, and he was actually looking forward to attending. Once they got into the cafeteria, James led him over to a table.

"Alright, so, what do you think about the school so far?" He asked, watching as kids poured in.

He thought for a moment, collecting his answer, and then spoke. "It's weird. But not a bad weird. I think?"

Laughing to himself, James shrugged. "Yeah, that's pretty accurate. Oh, hey, there's Taylor! Hey!" He got up and waved at a kid with long blond hair in a braid. They just averted their eyes and kept walking. "Aww, boo. Taylor's one of my best friends, they just don't act like it at school because of their reputation."

Benny tilted its head. "Reputation?"

"Mhm. Taylor's one of the popular kids. Well, they're their brother's lackey, and he's apparently the hottest guy in school- I really don't see it, I think that's Matthew, but Nicky's tall, thin and blond- whatever, doesn't matter, you'll just want to avoid him. Oh, there's Avery." James points to the door.

Avery walks in with three other kids, one of whom is riding on another's back. Benny has to admit, he does look kind of nasty- not because of the scars, he just looks mean.

"Yeah, he's really upset this year because his boyfriend broke up with him, graduated, he got held back, and his younger brother Lust graduated too. I mean, he's a good guy, but just really peeved. Those three guys with him are Louis, Jason, and Ezekiel. They're all Seniors. Zeke moved up here from Florida, believe it or not, and Lou and Jace are from Tennessee. Real thick Southern accents. I heard they all plan to go into the army together. Stupid, right? Avery makes fake IDs and he wants to go into the army? He'd die."

Benny definitely couldn't process all of that, and so he just nodded. James seemed to take that as the right answer, grinning. "Glad you agree! Ah, there's Matthew! If he ignores me I'm going to kill him. Matthew!" He shouts, standing up.

The boy, whose name was Matthew apparently, looked up. He was wearing a hood, hands stuffed into his hoodie pocket. Matthew walked over and sat down. "Hey, JJ."

"Hey yourself! Where have you been, man? It's been like.. five days!" James shook him by the shoulder.

Matthew brushed James' hand off him, sighing. "Legal stuff. Don't worry about it."

James clicked his tongue. "Phantom almost went to juvie again, huh?" When he didn't speak to confirm or deny, he cackled. "How many times is he going to skirt the edge before he gets sent in!"

Trying to avoid the conversation, Matthew starts picking at his food. James is about to speak when someone jumps on the table.

"HEY ASSHATS, I HEARD MY NAME!" Presumably, this must be Phantom. He looks quite a bit like Matthew, if Matthew was built like a skyscraper, had green hair and had the raspiest voice known to mankind. Benny flinches back.

"Hello to you too, Phantom. I'm trying to eat lunch here." Matthew looks up, just completely defeated.

Phantom sits down cross-legged on the table. He's wearing a letterman jacket with a bear patch sewn onto the front, and a football just below it, along with two more patches below that. He must've lettered in football since Freshman year, then. "Shoulda thought about that before saying my name. I hear that shit, you know? Like a.. like a hawk."

"Hawks see stuff, dumbass. I get you're failing English but you can do better than that." Rolling his eyes, Matthew proceeds to ignore whatever mindless yelling comes after, until Phantom huffs and slides off the table, stalking away.

James turns to Benny and begins to explain. "That's Phantom, Matthew's twin brother. He's Quarterback of the football team, real angry guy, almost goes to juvie like three times a school year for assault and battery. But he's fun. I like to think we're friends."

Benny doesn't know why anyone would want to be Phantom's friend at all, but keeps his mouth shut anyway.

"Oh, hey, there's Solace and Mona. Solace is a Junior, Mona's their younger sister and she's a Freshman. She follows them around all the time like a lost puppy." James turned his head and saw two girls walking in. "And those two over there are Rosalind and Lyra. Rosa likes to bring her snake to school, and they're planning on starting their own reptile store after highschool." A shorter boy with a green hat walked up to Rosalind and Lyra. "That's Dee, Fox's younger brother. He's a Freshman, and really likes snakes. I'm not surprised he's over there."

Spotting three girls walking into the cafeteria, Benny tapped James' arm and pointed them out. "Them? Those are Inferno, Flame, and Ember. They're sisters, obviously, that red hair is really distinct. Inferno's a Senior, but both Flame and Ember are Juniors. Flame is set to graduate a semester early though, because she took summer school classes. I like setting fires with them, and they're always fun to team with during the Turf War. Except for Ember, she's on Heavenside and Avery has serious beef with her."

They start idly talking and eating their lunches, Benny getting used to the loudness of the cafeteria, when two boys, one with white hair, the other with brown hair, walk over, the first holding a clipboard. "Hi guys, would you care to sign my petition to get Baron Morrold removed from staff? Principal Bit said we needed five hundred signatures to get the school board to consider firing him."

"Hell yeah, I will." James grabbed the pen from the clipboard and wrote his name down. He hands the pen to Matthew, who signs wordlessly. Then the pen gets transferred over to Benny, who writes down its name as best as it can. "I'm glad someone's finally doing something about it, and I'm not surprised it's you and Petey, Quincey."

Quincey grins and flicks James' hat. "What can I say? He needs to be passive-aggressively told to fuck off." He gives Benny a small wave, both of them walking away to find more signatures. Benny waves back, of course.

A few minutes later, the lights in the cafeteria dim, and three blond students get onto a table. They begin a glorified sales pitch, complete with cardboard angel wings and holy sounding music. James scoffs. "Ugh, the Council. They're Heaven's representatives. Ariel, Asheal, and Ariuk."

Matthew looks over at them. "What's wrong with the Council? We do the same stuff."

"They're on Heaven's side, that's why I don't like them!" James slouches in his seat, although the bench is backless so he ends up almost tumbling back.

"I guess." Matthew goes back to eating. However, that's interrupted when Avery gets on another table and takes his shirt off to reveal bright orange body paint just absolutely streaked all over him.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP! DEVILS OR DIE!" He turns to face the crowd, beginning to hype them up. "COME ON, WHO'S WITH ME? DEVILS OR DIE!"

Avery surprisingly creates a successful chant with a lot of the Hellside students in the cafeteria. It goes for a few minutes before he gets dragged off the table kicking and screaming by someone James says is named Mariel.

Ariuk mumbles a few choice words as the lights come back on and hops off the table, leaving the lunchroom. Asheal follows after with crossed arms, chatting with apparent frustration at Ariel as the three leave.

Benny sees Avery getting a stern talking to by another student, one who is far taller than him, with black and white hair in a braid that goes down to their hips. James sees it staring and nudges him, pointing. "That's Ferry. That guy is terrifying. But he's really, really hot. And weirdly polite."

He probably didn't need to know that second part, but it's grateful for the context nonetheless.

The rest of the day goes by pretty smoothly as he gets bounced between friends. James would've liked to show him around more, but unfortunately he had classes to get to. Benny ended up hanging out in Lofenshire's classroom chatting with Thomas, and he really liked Thomas. He had a funny accent and a cool hat.

For the fourth period, he ended up hanging out with two people named Ollie and Coriander who were really nice to him, and met a few other people too! There was Vertigo, a Senior, who just kind of stared and left (but that was okay, Benny knew it probably just didn't want to speak), and Solomon, a Senior, who was pretty rude and Ollie didn't like him, and Ozymandias and Basil, both Seniors too, who didn't really talk to it and just kept bantering back and forth trying to catch each other in tricks. Of course, there was also Nai Re, a Freshman, who was part of the Environmental club and got him interested in it, and Nathanial, a Junior, who gave him a bar of chocolate. Oh, and there was also Siren and Spirit, Sophomores, who Benny thought were a bit scary. They apparently had some sort of rivalry with Nimue and Fox he wasn't aware of, and they were on Heavenside while Fox and Nimue were on Hellside. It was really confusing…

There were so many people here, but Benny was really glad he was going to be attending! He already told Thomas he was going to hang out with him during lunch tomorrow, and he'd already made so many new friends it was kind of dizzying.

Once the day ended and Benny was free to go, he stopped by a little booth near the entrance, manned by a few people called "The Reapers." The booth was red and demon themed, and Benny happily signed away the next four years of its life to Hell.

Once an Ashpoint Devil, always an Ashpoint Devil!

[molsno]

ok wait i think i’ve realized something… i think it’s interesting how a lot (not all, but a sizable portion) of people who say they have really complex identities with conflicting labels aren’t actually all that complicated & just like “reclaiming” words and slurs that aren’t theirs so they feel “more queer” or more oppressed. not necessarily that they do it for clout, but moreso that they don’t have to acknowledge any distinctions within the community that might make certain things harder for certain groups. i also think they do it (and probably more frequently) so that they can pass as “Maybe Possibly [x minority]” like schrodingers queer.

im talking about like trans men calling themselves the t slur while never having it used against them, and tme people purposefully obfuscating whether they’re TME or TMA (and arguing that the distinction is arbitrary and useless) so they have a Get Out Of Jail free card if they’re ever criticized on their transmisogyny. or people who list every queer slur under the sun in their bio, even those that they would never be called irl, as a way to induce shock or confusion (which is so common now in these circles it actually has the inverse effect, lol). or people saying that they’re lesbians who also like to fuck men and date them (cuz didn’t you know it’s okay for lesbians to like men and have sex with them and date them and it’s so radical and transgressive?) instead of just calling themselves bi because that wouldn’t be good or queer enough, no matter how much effort bisexuals have put into fighting for recognition over the years. idk this kind of got away from me a little bit but i have noticed this sort of trend with people who commodify their identities and labels in some sort of fucked up, counter-intuitive point system, which is not always but usually white lgbts who feel that their suffering goes unrecognized (again, lol). these are also usually the same people who don’t see a problem with white sapphics calling themselves studs. historical revisionism is alive and well.

and i do want to say it’s not like i don’t think you can’t have a complicated identity or gender, im not gonna argue that people can’t feel sexual attraction one way and romantic attraction another (im literally an ace lesbian) but using language arbitrarily and diluting their significance until they essentially mean nothing is not the progressive W they all think it is. implying we all have the exact same experience and that there’s no tangible difference between a trans(fem) lesbian and a tme bi man (because in a hypothetical world, they could be called the same slurs) is not helpful. but hey, as long as they’re breaking down those walls and never feel like they have to address any privileges! sigh

sorry this got so long, feel free to ignore

I'm gonna be honest I don't really know why you sent this to me. this isn't a question y'know? you could've just... made your own post

[whcclxr]

relationship w marauders

please don't take this, it's my work.

tw/cw: they/them pronouns, more on the harsh side of words, slapping (brief), mentions of sub!dom dynamics, pet names such as pet, puppy, pup, toy, slut, whore, love, darling, it has a bit of insensitivity i think (didn't mean for that part sorry), angst in a way i think, fluff at the end

my daydream of the day: marauders in a poly relationship w them (for this im gonna say dom!remus over everyone; dom!sirius to you and james; sub!james to everyone and readers a switch) (peter was excluded from this sorry)

so you've walked back to the boys dorm w them and remus can sense something isn't right y'know (werewolf type shit), you're not your usual energetic self, and sirius and james are too into a conversation to sense much.

anyways you get back to the dorm and sirius automatically is tauntingly saying "so puppy, have you been good today ?" not knowing of your day and thinking you're more quiet bc you're feeling subby. instead of giving him satisfaction of saying yes or no you just sit in a chair and stare at the wall or start your work, but ultimately just dismissing him and his attitude.

and this leads to him thinking you've started being bratty so he starts up with meaner words like - "wow pups decided today, they wanna act like a fucking brat" "are you wanting us to use you love ? like our little pet ?" and sirius signals the others to join but only james does, coming to stand behind sirius while he squats to the right of you. so they, together start taunting you more, james just nodding along with sirius, joining in only briefly. then sirius gets so fed up that he starts calling you more names including "his whore" or "their slut" and "just our useless little toy"

and that there is what gets you, the calling you rude names when all you've wanted was a nice, peaceful night. so you slap him. not too hard, across the face. this earned 'ooh's' from both boys, and a step back from james not wanting the same. of course y'know you're not allowed to be doing that, 'specially to your dom but you were too fed up to care in this present moment.

he's squatted next to you when you finally stare at him and say "you do not get to call me ruthless names thinking you can get away with it. i am done with your shit tonight sirius and james, a bit. i wanted a nice evening to spend with all of you but you are to in your mind to care about anyone else's needs other than your own sexual fantasies. i'm not your whore nor slut, nor any other names you have graced me with tonight. don't be such a fucking douche and notice other people." and with that you storm out.

this leaves the boys in bewilderment, 'specially sirius, as you've just slapped him and bad mouthed him. he gets up from his stance on the floor and doesn't know what to do, does he go after you ? do one of the others go ? do all or none go ?

"we should ask lily" james suggests, after moments of silence, which the boys nod along to.

after they track down lily, whilst keeping an eye out for you, they ask if anything has happened to not be in your particular favor today which lily responded "oh yea, they've had a pretty bad day. sev's been getting onto them more and more. they spilt a potion in class and severus started making crude comments when they blew the project, calling them useless and not capable of anything. then they spilt ink on themselves going to lunch and, well i think you get it."

this causes the boys to all look amongst each other, knowing sirius had said some rude things along with james a bit. even though they knew that they didn't know you'd had such a miserable day, they felt pretty bad. this caused them to rush out 'thank yous' to lily and rush off to find you.

you on the other hand felt bad. yes you had a bad day however took it a bit far. you knew the boys didn't know of your bad day, thinking you were in the mood for other things when you really wanted peace. yes you could've handled this better however what's done is done. now just apologies would be necessary. so you went back to the dorm only to find the boys gone, so you decided to wait it out.

they got back in a hurry, shoving through the door, racing to find the map to ultimately find you. except remus, who did want to apologize on the others behave, 'specially severus' while promising to pummel his face in, but took it slower thus finding you first.

the boys, without turning their fronts towards the door, were unknown of your presence. "boys" came from you and they spun to meet you, sitting in the rocking chair near the door, remus on your left rubbing your shoulder comfortingly.

"m'love" and they came running to you, kneeling in front of you ( 🧍🪑🧎‍♂️🧎‍♂️) they both started rushing out apologizes but after a minute james stood and went next to remus.

"darling i am so so sor-" "i'm sorry"

all boys turned to you and stared in a bit of confusion as sirius had said the mean things.

"i took it out of proportion, and i'm sorry for slapping you and saying what i said, not so sorry on the latter." with a little laugh from all. "i had a bad day, which you probably know of now and it just got to me." "i'm sorry my love, i should've taken signs and noticed you weren't in that mood. i'm sorry"

with that, you hug him and the other boys join too. "m'sorry again loves" mutters james "it's alright boys, doesn't matter anymore"

after a few minutes of hugs and kisses, remus stands properly and says "alright, who's ready to go beat snapes ass ?"

[void-selfships-archive]

😘 😚 💘 for the kiss asks!

-selfshippery

@selfshippery

!!! I'ma talk about Jon and Martin ehchehd

😘 How do each of you feel about PDA? 

Mhmhmhm Martin's a fan, he gets all happy when i hold his hand and I have a moment of pure unadulterated happiness! We're both pretty much like 'Hehe that's my boyfriend, I'm dating them!' Plus it's a grounding thing for us. Especially after the whole thing with The Lonely and me being apart of The Dark sometimes hand holds and kisses are. Necessary. And that's ok

Jon...he's actually pretty neutral about pda. He has a tendency to hold my hand or kiss my cheek randomly throughout the day (does the same with Martin too) He's more physically affectionate when we're at home tho.

I like it, I mean, i get nervous sometimes bc it's weird when they grab my hand or kiss me like !!! What !!! I've been...percieved...what the fuck. But I got used to it yknow? Its nice.

😚 What was your first kiss with your FO like?

OH ok so. Mhmhmh. My first kiss with Martin was. During a movie actually. We ended up shifting during to talk about a scene and well y'know! Close friends! Sitting close! We both had a moment where we just looked into each others eyes and it was one of those moments where time just. Slowed. The lean in, the eyes closing, the KISS !!! It was so nice and of course he apologized after but I just pulled him back in for another and! Yea hehe

My first kiss with Jon was. Ok well he could've died so. Or I could've died- which i didn't even think was possible but I was. Very scared. We were being chased, we hid, my brain is going "Wow this is the most human you've felt in AWHILE." Like we were hurt. It was all bad. The thing chasing us was getting closer and I think he turned towards me to say something- maybe a plan for escape or something but with my thoughts veering in the "Well we might get fucking killed or at least HE might die yknow what have you got to lose amiright?" I just pulled him in for a kiss instead. He was a little shocked! And then we made it out safely because of COURSE we did.

[Might've avoided him for a bit, but he managed to run into me eventually. It was a pretty positive conversation despite me worrying for a solid week about it]

💘 Tell about a tearful kiss?

Mmm...for Martin? During the bullshit with Peter Lukas. We hadn't seen each other for a bit and I mean we lived together? It wasn't fun. But I caught him grabbing something from the kitchen and- ough. I just went over n'gave him a kiss! It was- like a hi and a bye at the same time. He looked so. Sad when he pulled away. It was another while before we saw each other again after that.

With Jon! Mmm...after he woke up from that coma. Came back to work n' all that- god it was!!! I lost him for a while and Martin was avoiding me so when he came back !!! They were happy tears, I might've startled him but still. Happy tears.

[deliverydefresas]

moving step by step (together)

second and last thing i posted on wp that i haven't posted here ((i think)) feel free to ignore if you've read this on wattpad already, as i'm just posting it in case i need to refer to it later.

(not proofread. it never is)

prompt(?): domestic!simbar deciding to move in together (toanothercountry)

When her day began, she didn't imagine it'd end up the way it did. In fact, to Ámbar the day felt like an endless nightmare.

Between her washing machine breaking, one of her kitchen cloths accidentally catching on fire when she was making her breakfast, her car not starting and thus being late to her first class, forgetting an important paper at home and losing 1/5 of her grade for one of the toughest classes in her semester; Ámbar just wanted to call it a day and forget she even had to endure it.

"The professor told me he'd let me turn it the paper, as long as I added 10,000 words more; and hear this: he won't give me the 20% of the grade, but a 15%, tops." She still needed to get her laundry done, so she'd opted to come by Simón's loft (and Nico and Pedro's too) when her classes had ended. While she waited for it to be done, she'd grabbed a glass of wine while venting her boyfriend's ears off. "So now I need to find something to write about that's worth 1000 words of coherency, otherwise I'll be lucky to even have a 10%. And God knows I need it."

Simón kissed her head sympathetically, adjusting her head - previously leaning on his shoulder- a little bit closer to his neck. "You will, little gem. You're the smartest one in your class, I'm sure you'll find something and, it's penultimate semester, you can do it."

She groaned, "I wish it were as easy as that." He kissed her cheek this time, and she snuggled into him a bit more, needing his support to make her feel less stressed. "Enough of me, how was your day?"

He chuckled, "not as interesting as yours, I'm afraid. Did a little songwriting, had a video-call with a magazine, changed my sheets..." he winked at her, making her laugh.

"Aw, do you want me to give you a gold start? Maybe I should call your mom, tell her her little boy is a nice young man who makes his own bed." Simón leaned in to bite her cheek, causing her to and almost spill her wine all over the couch, and to prevent this, the red liquid ended up on her shirt. Technically, it was one of his, since today's clothes had been thrown in the washer with the rest of the laundry, but still, spilling wine on her clothes wasn't nice. "Simón!" she scoffed him, which only made him laugh at her. He told her to grab another of his old shirts, while he refilled her glass.

She stood up then, cursing him all the way to his room to grab one of the 'pajama' shirts he kept in his top drawer. Ámbar heard him call to her once she had put it on; "hey, is tacos okay with you for dinner? Or do you want me to order you something else?"

"What are the guys having?" she questioned, to prepare herself in case the others ordered less than what their stomachs wanted to eat, and later lead them to steal her food.

"Pedro's staying at Delfi's and Nico is out with his fling, so nothing." Simón answered her, entering his room with his cellphone at hand.

"Then the usual." She told him simply, her boyfriend nodded. "Hey, can I use your laptop to check my e-mail? My phone died."

Simón nodded again. "Sure. Hello? I would like to order two pastor gringas..." he left the room again, not before pointing at his desk, where his laptop was sitting on. She quickly turned it on, taking it to the living room to wait for Simón to finish the call.

Her boyfriend was one of those people who didn't put a password on the device itself, but on the archives in it (which were mostly lyrics, tracks, and unreleased songs), so it didn't take long until she had the browser opened.

Ámbar tried to ignore whatever Simón had open in his last tab, but the images displayed caught her attention.

No, it wasn't porn, nor was it anything compromising. At least not in that way.

Her boyfriend had a Real Estate website open, showing apartments in sale. However, that wasn't what surprised her – he'd talked about finding his own place before-, but that all the options listed Mexico City as their location.

He'd never mentioned moving back to Mexico. They'd planned vacations to his hometown Cancún, sure, but somehow in all their talks about the future she'd had assumed their plans took place in Buenos Aires, close to her family instead of his. She could deal with him going on tour for weeks – she didn't bear months as well as she did weeks, and for this he always flew her in- but to live in two different countries? How was their relationship supposed to work in that scenario? Would it even work out? Sure, she was almost over with her degree, but-

"Little gem," her eyes snapped from the screen to where Simón was standing, by the kitchen's door, "I ordered you an almond horchata, is that okay?" she kept staring at him. "What? Is my laptop giving you problems? Your mail?"

She sighed. "No, I actually haven't opened my mail yet." He gave her a confused look.

"Then what's it? You've been staring at the screen for at least two minutes."

"When were you planning on telling me you're moving to Mexico?"

His mouth shut, his eyes showed surprise and an underlying regret. "Uh... soon?"

"So it's true, then? You're moving there?" Ámbar didn't want her voice to sound as hurt as it did, but she couldn't conceal it, either. After all, this was her boyfriend, the guy she was in love with, and who she'd loved for years now... to imagine him living so far away from her, it hurt her deeply.

To find out like this, instead of from his own mouth, was like salt to the wound. Her already shitty day was turning for the worse.

Simón sighed, his demeanor showing he was ashamed of it. "It's an option." He pursed his lips slightly, walking over to the couch, taking the device off her lap to turn her body towards him. "I was planning on talking to you about this sooner than later, I promise."

"When? When you had already bought it? Or when I had to say goodbye at the airport?" she couldn't help but dab at him, her temper was talking for her right then, "and what do you mean with 'it's an option'? You're looking for a place already, surely it's more than simple 'option'."

Simón let out a sigh, a sign he wasn't sure how to explain it to her, "I- have you noticed how most of our label meetings have been taking place in México?" She nodded, it was hard not to. The boys and him didn't really leave the city unless they absolutely had to, which could be summed up in three reasons: touring, vacations, and meetings. She'd always frown a little when those meetings took place, because she couldn't really understand why they had to leave when their label had offices in BsAs, but never really dared to ask Simón, afraid she'd come out as clingy for not wanting him to leave her for a couple days.

"I just assumed all the 'important' people chose to meet there instead of flying down here."

He scratched his nape. "It's a little bigger than that. Their HQ has always been up there, and their offices here have worked on a smaller scale for years; however, they've wanted all their more... 'recognizable' artists to be closer for a while now."

"So, they're making you move there?"

"Yes and no. They've been nagging us since the beginning to move to Mexico City, but it's only now we've – well, I've- considered it as an option."

"Why? Don't Pedro and Nico want, too?"

Simón grimaced. "They've already been considering it for a couple of years." Oh. Now that she thought about it, Delfina had hinted multiple times over the months 'the possibility' of working in another country. She'd always assumed she meant taking international jobs for a short period while Pedro was out on tour too, but now she guessed she'd meant for her to imagine that possibility, too.

It seemed like she'd assumed lots of things, and it stung to know she'd been in the dark far longer than everyone else. Even Delfi – who'd been dating Pedro a considerably less time than she'd been with Simón- knew of this before her.

Which made her ask him once again. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Because you're still in uni, little gem, and I didn't want to move somewhere else while you were here; I still don't. I had a plan, honestly; I was going to wait until you neared graduation to slowly get you used to the idea, and, well, I also wanted to wait in case we didn't work out." She pursed her lips as she was still mad, but knew he had a point. He always did.

"You could've talked to me sooner, though. We could've planned this way sooner, make it easier for both." Ámbar sighed out, trying to get her anger out with it.

"I know, I get it now, and I'm very sorry." He apologized sincerely, grabbing one of her hands to kiss it. "This in no way is me telling you I'm moving tomorrow and leaving you here, little gem, I'd never do that. Hell, I don't even think I could. It's just..."

"An option." She finished for him, sighing again. "I guess I- I don't know, maybe I could start looking at internships in CDMX? When- when would this take place anyway? And I have to talk to my mo-" her eyes widened, "God, my mom! What do I tell her if we go? She'll be all alone here!" Her voice sounded panicky even to her.

"Hey, it's okay, there's no hurry. We've already postponed this for years with the boys, another year or so won't change anything, in fact, we'll need all we can get to get papers and stuff in check. And your mom can always come with us if you're worried about her, no biggie." He told her, as if the three of them moving countries wasn't a big deal, or, y'know, extremely expensive.

"Do you seriously want my mom living with us, Simón?" she snapped at him, and immediately felt bad to do so. He was just trying to help her and then here she was, bitching on his offers. "Sorry, sorry. I'm just... overwhelmed, sorry." He shrugged it off.

"I was actually thinking of you two getting your own apartment but since you're oh so kindly offering to live together..." Her eyes widened once more, shocked. She hadn't realized she'd implied that. "... I guess we can either buy or rent one for ourselves and rent another for your mom."

"That's not what- I mean it's not necessary. An apartment for my mom and I would be okay if she even agrees to move."

Her boyfriend started pouting. "Are you saying you don't want to move in with me?"

"No, no, that's not what I mean-" she stopped talking once she saw a teasing grin on his face. "You're messing with me."

He shook his head, silently laughing as he reached out to sit her on his lap, hugging her waist tightly. "I'm not. I'm actually happy you asked me to move with you, so I don't have to when the time comes."

"I didn't ask you." She felt the need to point it out. "You just assumed I did."

"Because you assumed we'd live together. It's okay; if it were up to me I'd be living with you in a heartbeat, I've thought about it for a while."

She gulped. "You have?"

"Yeah, but since I'm living with two dudes and you're living with your mom... it just isn't viable." That got her thinking.

"Why haven't you gotten your own apartment yet? Any of you?"

Simón shrugged, leaning into their coffee table to grab their glasses. "Rent is cheaper when you divide into three, and all of us have been saving up to get our own pads for when we moved to CDMX."

"It was never a matter of 'if', was it? It was always a 'when' you moved." She already knew the answer, of course, so she didn't wait for him to answer. "What took you so long to do so? I'm sure you could've done so years ago, and now you're waiting for Delfi and I, I guess, but before? What held you back?"

He pondered it for a minute, didn't speak immediately. "Something always came up. At first, we didn't have enough money saved, then Nico's mom had an accident, Pedro wanting to stay until his little sister finished high school... then you. My guess is the universe was waiting for us to meet to let me leave the city." She couldn't help but laugh at this.

"You're such a corny guy."

"Only for you, little gem, only for you." Ámbar took a sip of her wine before snuggling closer to his chest, earning her a kiss on her hair. "So, are we doing this?"

She pushed the anxiety of the unknown to the back of her mind, she knew that if she overthought about it she'd find reasons not to. Instead, she took a deep breath, intoxicating herself with the smell of soap and lotion that lingered on her boyfriend all the time.

"Yeah," she sighed, "but we're doing this together."

"Together," he repeated, giving her hand another kiss. "I like the sound of that."