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kaeichi · 7 months

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love is in the air.

. . . and maybe that's why mikage reo can view the world with such clouded, pink-hued vision, and why nagi seishiro cannot breathe at all.

series. nagi + reader + reo. no gendered terms, but some implications of m! reader. reader likes boys. bestfriend! nagi. valentines/white day. highschool setting. swearing. humor. fluff & angst.

a/n. repost bc it wasnt showing up in tags T-T i js want a shoujo anime w these two as the MLs...

prev ┊ next ┊ 01 … 02 … 03

⊹ 01 : my dear partner [wc: 4.7k]

TWO YEARS AGO

“…dude. you're scaring all the hoes away.”

nagi watches your lips move, though he barely registers anything you've been saying since he has stopped listening a while ago—which, honestly, comes as no surprise to anyone.

there’s no real reason to be so lethargic at this hour (it's already late noon, plus he surprisingly had a decent amount of sleep the previous night for once), nor the time to think about trivial things, but he can’t help but think about how exactly every single thing stopped being so bothersome like it used to.

he can't quite pinpoint what brought on this gradual change, but if he had to, then it’d probably be three springs ago—when he’d wake up a little earlier than usual to the gentle kiss of the sun through his window and the cherry blossoms were in perfect bloom. around that time is when he’d received his quiet companion choki, he’d finally scored top 1 in the leaderboards after months and months of grinding in his favorite mobile game, and… when you’d first sat next to him in middle school.

for as long as he remembers, you were simply just there. an unexpected oddity that has not only forced its way through, but has also wedged firmly into every aspect in his life. and somehow, he’d concluded that maybe some things weren't so bad—that some things weren't such a hassle to him after all.

“move, idiot. at this point you might as well hold my hand.” the snow-haired male barely hears your voice over his wandering thoughts, stumbling from the light shove you give him. he has now become acutely aware of your swinging hand, wary of the close proximity and the faint buzz of static that lingers on his skin. huh. maybe it is better to move away.

still, he’d rather not reposition himself. it’s too much work, he’d like to reason, and it's certainly not because of anything else… maybe. he doesn't really know for sure. what he does know though, is that the space beside him suddenly feels strangely empty.

when he looks at you to see a pout forming on your lips, he can't help but sigh. you're being unreasonable. there's something that's been nagging his curiosity for a while now, and it took him quite a bit to realize what it is.

“seishirooo,” you whined one day, allowing your head to sink against his mattress, taking up nearly the whole space while nagi sits at the corner of the bed. you came over to his place that day to bother him, stating that you needed some comfort because apparently, “no one ever looks at me. i feel so damn invisible.” he shrugged and offered you his controller, challenging you to a 1v1 with him as a distraction.

“…but i look at you all the time?” he replied.

“yeah, but that's different.” and he would've asked you to elaborate more, if not for the fact that you've been horribly vague about it when he does ask, and the perpetually sleepy gamer only has so much patience before he gives up and decides it's something not worth spending his energy on.

besides, you're always emotional like that. this was probably just another one of your fleeting phases.

it's not until he notices you've been longingly gazing at the couples on the campus, quietly seething under your breath that it finally clicks. now, he may not have the greatest understanding when it comes to feelings and all its complexities, but even he can tell you’re reeking with jealousy.

despite being pushed off only seconds ago, nagi shuffles closer again as he falls into step beside you. even if sparks prick his skin, it feels right in this way. “dunno why you ‘need’ hoes when you already have me.”

“just because i'm into guys doesn’t mean that i like you in that way,” you mutter, sending him an odd glance like you thought there’s something wrong with his head for even suggesting that. not knowing how to respond, he settles for staring right back without a word.

“what's with that look? you know what i mean, seishiro.” you continue, averting your gaze from him. what look? he asks internally. “it's just, well, literally everyone is getting into relationships. and i know we're still first years, but… it just feels like i’m missing out, y’know?

“do you really? sounds like a hassle to me,” he shrugs, and it truly does—he never saw the appeal of dumb crushes, of drama nearly every day, of possible unrequited “love,” or of wasting half your time and energy on someone just for it to not mean anything at all in the end. video games sound way more fun, and way less heartbreak inducing.

“you can't say that when you haven’t even experienced it,” you argue, still pouting.

“it’s overrated anyways. being single is better.”

“hah! of course you’d say that, you virgin.”

“you’re one to talk,” nagi boredly quips. “i’m celibate purely by choice, but you on the other hand… if you really think about it, you're basically an incel.”

nearly choking on your spit, you exclaim, “hah?!”

“you don't even really talk to other guys except for me, and on top of that, you're barely approached by anybody,” he explains in a matter-of-fact tone, oblivious to the way his best friend’s confidence waning rapidly by the second the more he speaks.

“yeah? and who’s fault is it, you cockblocker!”

nagi simply sticks a tongue out as you flip him off.

right after that, the two of you ended up breaking into a sprint as you heard the clicking sound of heels walking on the tiles around the corner, not wanting to get caught for skipping classes. well, you ran, and just dragged him by the wrist. he felt the warmth of your fingers even through the thick barrier of his baggy sleeve.

PRESENT

you try not to trip and fall face first as a cold hand guides you through the crowded hallway.

it's embarrassing enough as it is to be rushing through the middle of the corridor and pushing past the bodies of random students like you're a main character or some sort, but even more so when the (apparently) most popular guy of the campus that you’ve (never) seen is walking right in front of you.

and it gets even more humiliating when said popular guy has taken hostage of your wrist, leading you away to a more secluded area. shocked, harsh whispers echo throughout nearly the whole floor, and multiple eyes shoot daggers at the fingers wrapped around the sleeve of your uniform, and you’ve never wanted to bury yourself alive more than this moment.

after rounding a corner into a miraculously empty hallway, you finally skid to a stop, yanking your hand away, ready to pounce at the culprit who made you go through all that unnecessary attention. however, before you can get a word in, the refined male bows his head low in front of you, and you find yourself face-to-face with sleek purple locks.

“i’m sorry, but i have no time for dating. i’m really flattered, though. i hope we can stay friends still.” he hurriedly says, hope gleaming in his matching purple eyes.

…what.

who is he again? and why is he rejecting you?

for some reason, you find the stranger’s gaze too bright that you have to look away; so you do exactly that, tilting your chin downwards instead and letting your hair mask your expression.

after a few beats of silence, he clears his throat. “i'm really sorry, it hurts me to see you look so down… i’m sure we can put this behind us and—”

“nice shoes,” you interrupt, still not raising your head to meet his now confused stare. “i can tell you really love wearing them, judging by the busted, worn out stitches. hey, is it just me or is that prada logo kinda wonky too?”

the male's jaw drops down nearly all the way to the floor.

“pardon me?” he says through gritted teeth, keeping his composure by flashing his usual award-winning smile, albeit a lot more stiffer. “i know i just rejected you, but you don't have to be so hostile…”

when you finally raise your head, your expression can only be described as terribly and solemnly unamused, unimpressed beyond words.

then, you suddenly lean closer, peering closely into his violet irises with thoughtful hum. an unwilling flush of red creeps on the tips of the boy’s ears, his eyes widening comically at the sudden intrusion of space. “you’ll do,” nodding to yourself, you now grab his wrist and pull him away. “come.”

“w-wait, huh? where are we go—”

“you're the one who made me late. let's go!”

reo isn't quite sure why he's the one being dragged away now.

he has only initially planned to gently turn down the person who last confessed to him, whose family just so happened to be related to his father’s business partners—but now he somehow finds himself on a whole date with that person? (the same one who brazenly insulted him by implying his shoes are fake, by the way!)

“i have other plans today, you know…” the heir says, subtly trying to inch away from you.

you tug him back by his sleeve, with twice as much force than he had used on you earlier. “i can imagine, my dear partner.”

“w-what?” reo stutters, and he's cringes at himself for how he's acting at the moment. the usually composed and charming mikage reo, now reduced to a stuttering and blushing mess? how embarrassing.

“normally my best friend would do this with me, but he slept in today.” leave it to seishiro to leave me all alone on the day that actually matters, you irritatedly mutter under your breath. “well, whatever. come on.”

as you and him enter the packed bubble tea shop, the fingers that were wrapped around his sleeve slides down to interlace with reo’s own clammy ones. he realizes this a second too late, and before he has the chance to let go, the clerk by the entrance greets them with an enthusiastic “welcome, lovebirds!”

“huh?!” reo’s jaw slackens, dumbfounded. he’s really starting to hate himself now—it's unbecoming of him, really, but it's hard to process everything when you're so close to him that the scent of your shampoo keeps invading his senses and subsequently messing with his head.

“here’s your special tickets for today. thank you for participating, and happy valentines!” you drag him straight to the back, where the colorful claw machines are set up. reo catches a glimpse of the pink posters set up on the walls of the quaint shop, which reads: couples get free special tickets! today only! …ah. that's why he's here.

“aoi-san… you're gripping too tight,” he says, gritting his teeth together into a forced smile.

“aoi?” you repeat, your grip finally loosening until you let go entirely. “huh… i see. by the way, what's your name again?”

needless to say, the purple-haired male is beyond perplexed. “is this your unique attempt at a joke or something?”

“come on, rich boy. we've held hands and i don’t even know your name!”

“right… which i totally wasn't being forced to do…” he lets out an awkward laugh. sure, some admirers of his tend to get a tad excessive, but they were never able to get far with him, much less forcibly drag him out on a date—and it's not even because they want him to spend his unlimited budget on them and spoil them rotten, but just so they can get… a free special ticket for a claw machine. how did he end up getting in this bizarre situation? more importantly, how does he get out?

you simply shrug. “your fault, rich boy. you should try thinking about anyone other than yourself for once.”

“excuse me?” he narrows his eyes, slightly peeved. he's had enough of your rude attitude; potential business partner or not, he hopes that he never has to interact with you again in the future. “stop calling me that. i have a name, and it's mikage reo.”

the way your eyes widen doesn't go unnoticed by him. “and what did you even mean by that?” he presses defensively.

you plop down on the seat, with reo mirroring you as you insert the rouge ticket decorated with pink hearts into the slot of the claw machine. “well, mikage reo. i’m sure you're aware how aoi’s family is important, right?”

yeah, this person is definitely a weirdo, reo muses. who refers to themselves in third person?

“i heard they had connections everywhere… just like you. it's crucial to maintain a good relationship with someone like that, right?” you conclude—that would explain why reo had taken the time to personally talk to “aoi” one-on-one instead of just flat out rejecting them on the spot.

reo tilts his head to the side. “i’m not following…?”

“mikage.” you emphasize, looking at him straight in the eye before turning your attention back to playing. “i’m saying that the poor kid’s still waiting for an answer. your heartfelt and sincere rejection, to be exact.”

a few seconds of silence pass. well, as silent as it can be with the loud chattering of the crowd and the mechanical whirrs of the claw machine you're currently messing with resounding in the air.

“you mean, you're not…” reo trails off, all color draining from his face. “i’m so, so sorr—”

“aoi’s the one you should apologize to, not me. oh, i got a double! how lucky.” you eagerly grab the prize, the limited edition valentine’s merch exclusive to this boba shop; a plushie collectible that comes with a redeemable code for your favorite video game. you want to collect all of them, but you’re broke as hell and you’re only here due to the free ticket. turning to reo, you shove the second plushie to his chest. “here, this is for you. since you did help me out with getting these.”

“ah, thank you…” reo absentmindedly accepts the small toy, still reeling on how he could make such a careless mistake. “listen, i do apologize—”

“i wonder how'd you even mix us up. is it ‘cause we have the same hair color?” you ask, slightly amused because aside from that, you and aoi look nothing alike. your fingers tap on the surface of the control panel, observing reo’s shame-stricken visage. “or maybe… is it because everyone just looks the same to you?”

at that moment, mikage reo realizes two things: (1) maybe he's more transparent and vulnerable than he thinks, and (2) you're dangerous, and it's better to stay far, far away from you. how could you see right through him so quickly? what if that's something you'll use against him?

he doesn't like to admit it, but it's true—in his perspective, everyone's the same. they're just after him for money and status, and at some point, they've all just become faceless, superficial pawns vying for his attention.

and of course, you’re no exemption.

noticing he’s gone quiet, you continue, “but i guess if my world was as vast as yours, i couldn't possibly keep up with everything either, so i get it. i’m not saying i’m in the same situation as you, but i can kind of relate, i guess. i only keep the ones who's important to me close, and the rest just exist and do whatever. i’m selective, but in that way, at least i can give my all to the ones that really matter.”

reo closes his mouth shut. here you are casually saying that you don't matter to him, and while that isn't a lie in the slightest, he still can't help but feel guilty. maybe it's just the people-pleaser in him, or maybe it’s the way the corners of your lips are slightly quirked up and to form a miniscule, accepting smile, but he wants to reassure you, “still, i’m sure you feel that—”

“i don’t.” you don't mind that he didn't know you, because you didn't even know him either—there’s no reason for you to take it personal. you’d be a hypocrite otherwise. “i really don’t.”

you smile at him. he thinks it's out of understanding, but unbeknownst to him you're actually just entertained by how his inner turmoil is so clearly reflected on his expression. “so don’t worry about it. plus, we’re even now.” you add, gesturing towards the prize.

hopping off the stool, you wave at him as you start to walk away. “...happy valentines. i'll see you around, mikage. maybe. er, probably not.”

“wait!” he hurriedly jumps off the stool as well, clutching the plushie in his hand as he follows after you. “i… let me drive you home.” the words stumble out before he even realizes what he's saying. you're probably just using him, and you're dangerous, and you see right through him, and he should stop wasting his time because his actual valentine's date is probably three seconds away from storming out the restaurant he's booked at—

so why is he doing this?

“drive?” you repeat, because of course he’d have a driver. damn rich people, you think internally. “nuh uh. it's like a ten minute walk, and i’d rather save the environment.”

“then i’ll walk with you.”

“you do realize i’m done dragging you for the day, right?” you quirk a brow up, amused; you could've sworn he was itching to get the hell away half an hour ago. “you're free. you can go home if you want.”

reo smiles, a more genial one this time. “i know.”

“so, you into popular guys now?”

“hell no.”

nagi narrows his eyes at you. “you’re just into reo, then?”

while you expected to be grilled first thing in the morning by random people about your apparent relationship with mikage reo (to which you simply replied, “i don’t know who that is, sorry,” and proceeded to run away), you didn't expect to be interrogated by your apathetic best friend as well.

usually, nagi prefers to be completely silent during the 1st period (and actually all the way through lunch), not bothering to utter more than a few words, but today, he seems uncharacteristically on edge, waiting for you at the corner of the gym with a wrinkle between his brows.

“why are you on a first name basis with him?”

“everyone calls him reo.” he shrugs. “why him?”

“i never said i was into him.”

“then what's all that partner thing about?” he asks, which confuses you a bit. you doubt that reo would go around announcing to everyone how you teasingly called him ‘partner’ and practically dragged him to a date against his will, but it's not like him and nagi are close either, so you wonder where nagi has heard this information from. then, you suddenly recall back to yesterday, where you saw the curtain of your neighbor’s bedroom window swinging side-to-side, as if it was drawn close a mere second before you looked up.

it seems that your mind wasn't playing tricks with you after all, and that a certain someone was eavesdropping on your conversation with reo as he walked you to your door.

“fake partners, you mean? and it was a just a joke—i met him that day.”

“that day? why are you acting so close if you've just met that day?”

“you're awfully talkative today, seishiro.”

“i know. it's making me exhausted, and it's all your fault.” he then presses his weight against you, leaning his forehead on your shoulder—as he always does when he's tired and you're within reach. your eyes widen immediately, darting around the gymnasium to see if any of your classmates has noticed.

you don't want people to get the wrong idea about you two. it's not because it kills your chances with anyone due to the assumption that you aren't single (which you still very much are, by the way), or even because of potential issues of being a two-timer due to a certain rich boy—it's just that whenever you get asked if you and your best friend are together, you can't help but flinch from the idea, like ice is being poured inside the back of your shirt. you don’t really know what to call it, but you do know that you've answered the question a hundred times and you're positively sick of it.

“i told you to stop doing this in public,” you hiss, trying to push the giant, clingy sloth off you. “and stop whining, nagi. i’m not going anywhere. besides, i’m not even looking for a relationship or anything like that. not after… you know, what happened during our first year.”

he lifts his head up, frowning at you. “don’t call me nagi. just ‘cause you met a new guy doesn't mean you get to call me nagi.”

you raise an unimpressed brow. what’s his problem? “only if you stop whining.”

“…‘m not.” he slurs his words together, only proving your point.

“yes you are!”

“why do you have to be so annoying? you're such a pain,” he sighs, now walking away from you.

“i'm the annoying one?! and don't call me a pain, you—!” without hesitation, you promptly snatch a red ball from the steel ball cart beside you before swinging your arm at him, slamming the dodgeball right to his head. well, you tried to, at least; even with his back facing towards you, nagi only takes one step to the side to avoid it.

“your shitty aim sucks balls,” the tall male comments unenthusiastically, his white fringe falling over his eyes as he gazes at you over his shoulder. his nonchalance only spurs you on, now hauling multiple dodgeballs at him.

“how about you suck my ba—”

“give it up already. you're never gonna hit me.” and nagi actually has the audacity to yawn mid-dodge. of course, it only fuels your irritation even more. you eventually run out of balls to throw, so you mindlessly grab the nearest object to your right and chuck that as well.

…which unfortunately, happens to be nagi’s phone that he's snuck inside the gym, peeking under a face towel on the bench.

“oh, fu—”

because of your (rightfully) so-called shitty aim, it swung way up high to the left, a few steps away from nagi. in less than a second, he realizes what you have flung at him, and his body moves instinctively; he throws himself towards it, swinging his leg upward and trapping it with his foot with perfect ease before it has the chance to plummet down on the floor.

“why are you making me move so much…” he sighs. “what a pain.”

“you’re supposed to move anyways, we're in PE. you're welcome,” you smugly reason out. and then not even a second later you fold, shoulders curling inwards as you glance toward his phone; if it weren't for his godly reflexes, you would've broken it. with a small voice, you meekly add, “sorry.”

nagi shrugs in response.

when he saunters over to place his phone on the bench again, a silver glint catches your eye. a small charm swings lightly, small beads of white and black strung haphazardly together attached to the side of his phone case.

“wait, this is…” a phone charm crafted by hand, which is your birthday present for him four years ago. “i didnt know you still had that.”

“why wouldn't i?”

“where was it this whole time? this wasn't here a few days ago.”

“i just kept it in my drawer ‘cause i don’t wanna lose it.”

tilting your head to the side, you ask, “so why'd you suddenly decide to attach it to your phone now?”

he looks away, scratching the back of his neck. “…dunno.”

eyes dropping into slits, you mutter, “you know, that kinda sounds sus—”

“hey! that was amazing! nagi, right? you should play soccer with me!”

nagi and yourself both turn to the direction of the sudden voice, seeing a familiar figure running towards you, vivid purple eyes gleaming under the gymnasium’s stark white lights.

“mikage?” you exclaim.

ever so slightly, nagi sharpens his usual droopy eyes. “nah.” he immediately says, turning on his heel.

“seishiro? wait, weren't you supposed to be looking for a club?”

“don’t really care.” you follow him, lightly jogging to keep up. as soon as you catch up by his side, the taller male glances at you as he asks, “will you join too?”

is he seriously asking you that… “no?”

“then i won't.” nagi concludes as he continues to walk away from reo.

“hey, wait up!” reo calls out, placing a hand on your shoulder. “ah, i was completely shut down… say, will you help me convince him?”

your brows shoot up as your gaze flicks down where he's casually touching you. after your initial confusion of who he is yesterday, you then recognize him after learning his name—the most popular boy in school, known for his good looks, charisma, and most especially, his wealth. he gets along well with literally everyone, and acts genuinely close with them even if they aren't.

“uh, why should i?”

“remember that limited edition merch you like? i can get you the rest of the collection. in fact, i’ll even buy out the whole place just for you.”

“wha– seriously?” you feel your eye twitch. damn rich people. “it was limited edition. they all ran out of stock already.”

“i have my ways.” well, that's not shady at all. he flashes a grin at your skepticism, winking at you, “anything for my partner.”

and you now understand why he's earned his title. this is probably how he always gets what he wants—with a smile like that, anyone would drop to their knees and do whatever he’d ask. two years ago, you would've keeled over for attention like this, but now, you're nothing but indifferent.

he places his hands on both of your shoulders now, completely stopping you from taking off. wide violet eyes scrutinize your own, making you scrunch your nose at the close proximity. “shouldn't you be begging him and not me?”

“yeah, but...” reo swears he feels an air of animosity radiating from the white-haired male, and that's why he has decided to turn you instead. “you wouldn't leave your partner hanging, right? as partners, we help each other out, riiiight?” he says, dragging his words out.

you lean as far as you physically can from his grip, but he doesn't seem to care, excitedly looking at you with stars evident in his eyes. “mikage, you—” he smiles at you, bright and blinding, and you find yourself withering under his intense gaze. “okay, fine, just—”

“well, that's settled then! they’re joining the club too, nagi seishiro. they can be our manager.” you briefly wonder why he didn't outright offer to have you join the team, but he probably saw how you threw the dodgeballs earlier… though it's not like you have to use your hands in soccer, so what the hell, this is kind of insulting.

“says who, mikage?”

“you're gonna come watch all our games?” he negotiates.

“why don’t you offer that i join the team?”

“ahahaha. haha. hah.” he laughs awkwardly, swinging an arm around your shoulder and ultimately evading your question.

because you were too busy trying to shrug him off, you miss the way nagi’s eyes zero on to reo’s arm around you, wordlessly observing the whole interaction with his lips pressed taut.

you still don’t know why reo hasn't moved away; he's so close that you can see the dark amethyst specks in his irises, the long strands that frame his face are lightly tickling your cheek, and if you lean in even just an inch, you can practically—

“you said anything i want, right?” your voice drops to a low whisper, and reo nods slowly, still seemingly oblivious to the lack of space between you.

“then... what if i said i wanted a kiss?”

reo’s smile drops immediately, recoiling away from you as if you've slapped him, his whole entire face heating up all the way to the tips of his ears. finally out of his grasp, you erupt into boisterous laughter, shaking your head as you leave the flustered boy alone and catching up to nagi.

likes/reblogs/feedback appreciated ♡

#blue lock x reader #nagi seishiro x reader #mikage reo x reader #reo mikage x reader #bllk x reader #bllk x you

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basicallyaturtle · 3 months

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never been part of a tag game, sounds really fun! tagged by dear Lanvender, @khan-crete

Do you make your bed? A freshly decrumbed, stuffed animal arranged and dirty clothes removed bed feels great. How often do I do this? We mustn't ask (like once or twice a month) that's all making the bed entails for me, I just have a fitted then normal sheet and blankets

Favorite Number? 4 4 4 4 4! I've loved four my entire life she is like a goddess to me. 2+2 2*2 2^2, divides into halves twice. can only compete with sixteen, whose status and 2^4 and 4^2 is nice, but not as symmetric. 37 and 73 have a place in my heart as the 12th and 21st primes, but not a large place compared to 4

What's your job? What do I get paid for? undergrad lab TA, what do I do? grad research in low energy nuclear physics

If you could go back to school, would you? In school technically still. Would I rewind time to experience school again? highschool no college yes. would I go back for another college degree? I could be convinced if it would be cheap and unobtrusive to my current schooling. Was always torn between physics and linguistics. I made the right choice but I always wonder what if.

Can you Parallel Park? I have done it, on the driving test, like four or five years ago. I think I could do it again, but not too confident

Do you think Aliens are real? Eh, probably in a 'the observable universe 9.3e+9 ly across, it must have happened more than once' kinda way, but not in a 'they've been feeding us tech for thousands of years or are visiting us' kinda way.

Can you drive a manual car? Never tried, hubris tell me yes, anxiety with even normal cars tells me I'd probably fuck up the transmission while trying to leave the driveway. gonna say yeag

Guilty Pleasure? I think like cheesy childhood disney live action movies?, generally I'm pretty full chested about the things I enjoy

Favorite Type of Music? yeah, hard, a lot of vocaloid, which isn't reallly a genre, a lot of edm genres from like old school monstercat, a lot of jrock by way of anime OP's of show's I've never watched then finding other songs by those artists. some rock music though that genre is also extremely expansive and I'm not sure how I'd categorize a lot of it. Generally my music consumption consists of a group of maybe five songs completely unrelated on repeat for months at a time and genre is not a huge factor in that

Do you like puzzles? twisty puzzles like rubik's cube type puzzles are really fun working, towards doing a 3x3 blindfolded but challenging, I used to do jigsaw's with my mom but over the course of a very long time because we'd get frustrated. crosswords, but I'm no good at them

Favorite Childhood Sport? Soccerrrr. Wish I'd stayed with it, but there were only a couple more years before there wasn't a league for my age group anyway, been trying to get back into it recreationally

Do you talk to yourself? I do, but as if I'm talking to someone else. I prefer not to do it because I'm not content with my voice atm, but I find myself doing it a lot especially when getting stuck on research stuff trying to talk it out or I will say a comment to someone I disagree with outloud rather than typing it and posting it. A lot of this is to my reflection which is probably part of the reason it feels like someone else lol

Tea or Coffee? tea all the way. drank iced sweet black tea my entire childhood and started drinking it hot with milk in college. I was the kind of person that disliking coffee was a sort of pillar of my tastes, but then a few years ago made it with like half milk and a lot of sugar and like it, lotta people wouldn't call that coffee, but eh.

First thing you wanted to be when you grew up? The actual first thing was everything. I would amalgamate like all the stereotypes of things kids want to be into one so a firefighter-astronaut-whatever else. When I got a better sense of my interests, inventor, so I guess like product designer, but what that meant to me was I got to sit around and think of neat gadgets and items then figure out how to make them like freeze ray, time machine, clone gun, that kind of thing lol. the first practical idea of a job I wanted was theoretical physicist in like middle school, which I kinda am now so success I guess

What Movies do you Adore? not much of a movie person, but like to watch movies other people are interested in with them, love castle in the sky, LOTR, howl's moving castle, your name, probably others in those categories I don't know about yet or have forgotten and I have a strong soft spot for childhood halloween movies like twitches and halloweentown

I'm curious what @arc-archernar and @charyou-tree have got to say if they'd like to, and anyone else that wants to participate!

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clu-ven · 2 years

Text

“Your lips, against mine. Boom. Kiss” Prompt with Jesse

word count: 3.1k

summary: At this point, Jesse is willing to try any cheesy pick up line in the hopes you’ll reciprocate his feelings.

tags: plenty of bad pick up lines, a make out session and discussions surrounding relationships/friends with benefits situations

! some small details might not be canon compliant (oops) !

“Ok, ok, ok, I got another one”.

At this point, you don’t even need to turn around, already well aware of who’s approaching you. After all, this is his fourth time coming over, wandering from his section of the Resolute’s training facility to yours.

“Aren’t you supposed to be learning some disarming techniques?” you sigh, having overheard some of the other 501st troopers talking about it upon entering.

Jesse shrugs in response “Yeah, I think I know what I’m doing when it comes to disarming clankers”. Crossing his arms, he leans on the table you’re working at, watching you methodically clean the blaster you were just practising with.

“So… you wanna hear it?” he asks, wiggling his eyebrows at you.

You know he won’t leave until you say yes. It’s as if Jesse takes pleasure in pestering you with terrible pick up lines, something you’re sure is a joke among him and some of his brothers.

There was a point in which you wondered if he was serious and genuinely trying to flirt with you but you were quick to brush off that idea, knowing Jesse is a man who prefers to simply have some fun when he can.

“Fine,” you huff in feigned annoyance, putting down the blaster and giving Jesse your full attention. He gulps, your bored expression making his hands clammy.

“Ok but this is one Fives told me,” he warns “so if it’s bad, you can’t blame me”.

You reply in the form of a raised eyebrow, waiting for him to just spit it out already.

Kriff, do you even know how intimidating you look like this? Jesse is sure you do and that you’re doing it on purpose, a hard lump forming in his throat the longer you stare at him. A mixture of excitement and apprehension tugs at his gut, his adrenaline urging him to say his secondhand pick up line.

Clearing his throat, Jesse puts on his best smouldering look “Hey, I’m the Azure Angel but you might know me best as the General’s ship”.

Without thinking, you crease your brow, confusion clouding your train of thought. Azure Angel? As in Anakin’s starfighter, the one he somehow destroyed months ago? Though, knowing the General, it’s safe to presume he probably crashed it.

Keeping his expression as charming as he can, Jesse continues “And I was wondering, can I crash at your place tonight?”.

Oh.

Your expression doesn’t falter. “Right… well, that’s definitely a new one” you slowly nod your head, trying your best to digest his flirting skills.

Honestly, you’ve seen better from Jesse. In fact right at the beginning of his escapade to sweep you off your feet, he actually made you blush with his provocative flirting style.

He started out hot and heavy, using his filthiest yet downright lustrous pick up lines back then but you never gave in… and now the poor trooper is scraping the bottom of the barrel, using any cheesy pick up line in the hopes of wooing you.

It’s not that you don’t want to be with Jesse. It’s the opposite actually. If you were sure that Jesse is into you then you’d reciprocate his feelings, but that’s the problem, you’re not sure.

There’s still a piece of you that wonders if this is a game, some kind of bet he has with the others. Or what if Jesse only wants some kind of one night stand? Or a ‘friends with benefits’ kind of predicament, something with no strings attached?

Being completely honest with yourself, you don’t think you could fall into a no strings attached arrangement, not when you already feel so connected to him. Yes, you’ve convinced yourself that having no romantic relationship with Jesse is better than one where you get too attached to him. It’s the most logical option… right?

Jesse sighs, bringing you out of your thoughts “Yeah, it’s a bad one… but not mine! That one is all Fives”. You try not to smile at his urgency to deflect the terrible pick up line, knowing that Jesse would have taken full credit for it if you instead showed any sign of liking it.

“Oh so I should be continuing this conversation with Fives?” you tease, suddenly perking up “Since it’s his pick up line?”. Straightening your posture, you glance over at the other troopers.

It’s not a surprise when you see a group of them staring back, the usual bunch, all suddenly looking at the floor or ceiling the second they see you peer over.

“What?” Jesse’s eyes go wide, his gaze following yours “Why? I thought you didn’t like it?”.

You shrug, keeping your eyes on the others as you blatantly lie “It’s pretty witty… it makes sense that you got that one from Fives, he’s always been the funny one”.

“I can be funny,” Jesse instantly blurts out, not even registering the words himself as he continues “definitely more funny than Fives”.

At the mention of his name, Fives looks over. Although you know he’s trying his best to be subtle, he gives Jesse two thumbs up and a big grin. All Jesse gives him in return is a scowl, which leads to Fives quickly looking away again and whispering something to Echo as he shuffles to the back of the crowd and out of sight.

“Yep, definitely the funny one,” you repeat, trying to contain your smile when you see Jesse clench his jaw “but I wouldn’t say he’s the charming one”. As much as you love to tease Jesse, you don’t want to overdo it.

“Charming one?” at the sliver of hope you give him, Jesse’s face lights up, his attention solely focused on you as he continues “Who’s the charming one?”.

“Can’t say” you continue to tease him, not bothering to hide your smirk anymore.

“Why not?” he smiles, leaning closer to you “is it because you’re looking at him? Huh? You getting all shy now?”.

Damn this man. Shrugging again, you look away from him and back at the blaster in front of you. “You are!” He exclaims, moving his head down to get a better look at your face “Aw, are you getting flustered in front of the man of your dreams?”.

You involuntarily laugh at that, finding the amount of confidence this one man can have utterly shocking at times. Jesse chuckles too, revelling in the fact he can make you laugh.

He opens his mouth to speak again but before he can get the words out, someone calls out his name. “Jesse!” you both look over, slightly grimacing when you see an annoyed Captain Rex has appeared “Over here, now”.

“Duty calls,” Jesse sighs, standing up straight at the order from his Captain “see you later?”.

You decide to stay vague “We’ll see”.

Jesse smiles at your ambiguity, appreciating how you like to keep him on his toes. With one last nod, he turns and jogs back to the others. You glance over your shoulder as he does, a tight yet strangely pleasant feeling in your chest. Damn his charm… and his nice butt.

***

Later turns out to be two rotations, which feels too long for you. You hoped you’d run into Jesse a few hours after your previous interaction or perhaps in the mesh hall early the next morning. But unfortunately, since you both have busy schedules, it takes two very long rotations for your paths to cross again.

You’re not sure what time it is, too early for any trooper to be waking up but too late for you to get a proper night’s sleep. Despite feeling more at home practising your fighting skills or strategizing the Republic’s next battle plan, you spent the rotation filling out an array of paperwork which has kept you busy well into the night.

Since a good night’s sleep is out of the question, you’ve found yourself in the mesh hall, devouring either last night’s dinner or an early serving of this morning’s breakfast. Your internal clock is haywire, unable to decipher which timely meal this is supposed to be.

“There is no way you’re eating that” just as you spoon another heap of food into your mouth, Jesse comes into view, watching in awe. With your mouth full, all you can give in response is a questioning look, your eyebrows coming together as you tilt your head up at him.

“Mesh’la, you should be wined and dined in the snobbiest restaurants of Coruscant,” he flatters you, planting both of his hands on the table as he clambers into the seat across from you “not forced to live on rations bars and whatever gruel that is”.

Once you swallow the so-called gruel, you reply “And do you have the credits to take me to some fancy, high and mighty Coruscant restaurant?”.

Despite it being (presumably) the middle of the night, Jesse’s smile radiates a burst of energy. “Oh so when you imagine yourself at some nice restaurant, you picture me there with you? …And me paying?!”. He scoffs after adding in that last question, pretending to be baffled.

You roll your eyes, too busy taking another bite of the food to reply.

Resting his head in his hands, Jesse watches you with content fascination. “Actually, do you know what’s always on the menu at those fancy restaurants?” he asks, his smile unwavering.

For a moment, you think, unsure whether this is some ploy or if Jesse is being serious. Giving in, you walk right into his trap “What?”.

“Me ‘n you” he replies with a wink.

Dammit. Luckily for Jesse, you’re too tired to make a big deal out of it, the long rotation finally catching up with you. With your eyelids feeling heavy, your face says it all.

Jesse chuckles at your reaction, deciding to push his luck as he asks “Was that a good one?”.

With the shake of your head, you reply “Just as cheesy as the rest”.

Surprisingly, this seems to be a revelation for Jesse. Running his hand along that pristine jawline of his, he questions “They’re… cheesy? All of them? Cause I’m pretty sure I used a few smooth ones at the start of all of this”.

Finishing the rest of your food, you stifle a laugh “What, do the ladies at 79’s not tell you how cheesy your flirting is?”.

He replies with an amused scoff “I don’t think they care to be honest”.

Taking in this new yet frustratingly vague intel, you involuntarily lean forward “And what’s that supposed to mean?”.

Never one to miss an opportunity, Jesse leans forward too, not close enough to invade your personal space but enough for you to notice his 5 o’clock shadow and the way his eyes study you. “I’ll tell you…” he trails off for dramatic effect “if you leave me walk you back to your quarters”.

You roll your eyes at the request but accept it nonetheless “Fine but if you think you’re entering my quarters then you have another thing coming” .

Practically jumping up from the table, Jesse offers you his hand. “That’s fine by me, just an escort back to your room and nothing more” he confirms. Grabbing the empty container you were eating out of with one hand, you use the other to accept Jesse’s act of chivalry.

Jesse waits until you’ve binned the container and are walking down the quiet corridors of the ship before elaborating on what he said earlier.

Noticing your expectant look, he begins “Alright, alright… I just meant that at 79’s, the ladies are usually there for a reason, y’know? I don’t think a lot of them would be spending their night at a clone bar if it wasn’t for the cheap drinks and some quick fun”.

He keeps his eyes on the corridor, only sparing you a glance. While Jesse tends to act like topics such as this are his forte, he’s never had to discuss this with someone he’s attracted to. It makes his chest tighten, the same question whirling around his brain as he tries to decipher whether he’s explained it in a fair way or if he’s coming across like an arrogant jackass.

Your lack of response doesn’t help, his worries only intensifying when you don’t quip back a teasing reply. The only noise is his footsteps in sync with yours, getting closer and closer to your quarters. Jesse opens his mouth, about to ramble on a bit more but thankfully, you speak.

“I don’t get it,” you admit, the door to your quarters coming into view, just a few more paces away “why do you flirt with me when you can go have as much ‘quick fun’ as you want while on Coruscant?”.

Jesse immediately raises his hand to stop you from saying anymore, his feet coming to a halt as he clarifies “Hold on, I’ve never said I wanted to have some quick fun with you”.

No way.

Oh kriff, this can’t be happening. Is he really denying it? At this point, you presumed that fact was a given, even if he never said those words exactly. Though you try to hide your expression, your face drops, his words hurting you in a way you didn’t realise was possible.

Your shift in mood makes Jesse’s heart almost lurch out of his chest. “No! No I didn’t mean it like that,” he hurriedly states, placing a hand on your shoulder so you turn to face him fully “Well, actually I did mean it but not in the way you think, just please, hear me out”.

You stay quiet, reluctantly meeting his gaze. “I don’t want quick fun with you… or well, that’s not how I imagined us,” he explains, his eyes never leaving yours as he continues “I thought we would have some long term, committed fun. Well, that’s if I can ever convince you with any of my cheesy pick up lines”.

Feeling too vulnerable with his confession, Jesse tries his best to lighten the mood with that last part, hoping to deflect some of the attention back onto his supposed cheesy flirting skills.

With the inklings of a smile gracing your lips, you quietly ask “You got anymore of those pick up lines?”. The look in your eyes tells Jesse all he needs to know, a subtle shyness gleaming in your pupils, sprinkled with hope and anticipation.

“I’m sure I can think up another one,” he says confidently while his brain scrambles for a pick up line. Not wanting to waste any time and potentially lose this moment, Jesse says the first thing he thinks of; “Your lips, against mine. Boom. Kiss”.

You smile in response, taking your time as you consider the suggestion his pick up line so blatantly alludes to. “Straight to the point,” you comment “I like it”.

Certain this is too good to be true, Jesse’s eyebrows momentarily quirk upwards as he replies “You mean it?”.

Although there is little space between you and Jesse as it is, you take a half step forward, closing the gap between your two bodies. “I think it’s your best one yet” you confirm, a buzz of satisfaction emulating through you when Jesse’s eyes flick to your lips.

Looking for one last sense of approval, his gaze meets yours again, searching your eyes for the same lust that fills his own. Angling your head upwards, you bring your lips close enough for Jesse to understand your intentions but too far away to initiate the kiss. Though you’re positive Jesse wants the same thing, you want him to make the final move.

You can feel his breath turn shallow, as though the anticipation is too much. With his eyes fluttering shut, Jesse closes the gap, tentatively pressing his lips to yours as he tests the waters.

Everything in Jesse's head is telling him not to do this, that doing such a vulnerable act in an open corridor where anyone could see is a bad idea. And yet it feels so right, a dam of emotion bursting within him as you gently bring your hand up to cup his face, his stubble coarse beneath your fingertips.

In one bold move, Jesse loops his arm around your waist and takes determined strides towards the door to your quarters. You move backwards, trying to match his pace while simultaneously keeping your lips locked on to his. You keep moving backwards, only stopping when the corridor wall presses against your back. Yet even at that, you both continue to move though it’s now in smaller, more shuffled paces as you reach your door.

Jesse hungrily captures your lips in long, hard kisses, urgency lacing each kiss. Slowly, his hands begin to move from your waist, trailing up and down your sides without touching any part of you that’s too intimate.

Keeping one hand by his cheek, you use your other to quickly punch in the security number for your quarters, not even looking down at the command panel as you do.

Waiting for the door to open, you eagerly deepen the kiss, tongue gliding against his lips. With the same amount of eagerness, Jesse opens his mouth to you, bringing his hand up to hold the back of your head as his tongue glides against yours.

When the door opens, you step backwards again and into your room. You expect Jesse to follow, to keep his tight grip on you and continue your fiery kiss… but instead he simply leans into the room, his feet never leaving the corridor as his hands slip away from your body.

As his lips leave yours, it takes you a second to realise he’s not following you, a surprised pout forming on your face. Jesse smiles instantly, a flame of passion burning brightly in his chest when he sees your cute expression.

“Just an escort back to your room and nothing more,” he repeats, echoing his promise from before “that was the deal”.

“Jesse” you groan, slipping your hand into his and playfully tugging.

He chuckles, cherishing the action. “Next time, huh?” he says, pulling you in close to him one last time “cause I’m not in this for some quick fun, y’hear? You’re not getting in my pants that easily”.

You join in on his laughter, giving him a quick kiss on the jawline and making no attempt to unwrap yourself from his embrace. Lowering his head to your ear, he mumbles “Go on, get some sleep”.

Reluctantly, you break away from Jesse, knowing he’s right. “Fine,” you sigh, stepping deeper into your room “see you later?”.

His relaxed grin quickly turns into a smirk as he replies “We’ll see”. That earns another eye roll from you, though it doesn’t hide the smitten look on your face. And with that, your door slides shut.

Leaving out a satisfied sigh, you walk to your bunk and sit on the edge, adrenaline coursing through you. With a fond shake of your head, you damn Jesse once more, knowing full well he’s got you wrapped around his pinky.

#star wars the clone wars #tcw jesse #jesse x you #jesse x reader #arc trooper jesse #tcw jesse x you #tcw jesse x reader #arc trooper jesse x reader #arc trooper jesse x you #clone trooper jesse #clone trooper jesse x you #clone trooper jesse x reader #the clone wars fanfiction #star wars fanfiction #clone wars jesse

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mirrortouchedsea · 2 months

Note

*prompt* = pls i beg

promts from Touches Ask Game

handholding: only linking the pinkies together, not ready to let go completely | loosely holding onto each other’s hands, laying in one’s lap | holding hands while skating | *bandaging the other’s hand and not quite letting go* | *holding onto the other’s hand so they can’t run away*

kisses: *kisses as a promise* | *kisses to shut them up* | kisses with their last dying breath | reassuring kisses

touching: *listening to the other’s heartbeat* | *bandaging/stitching up an injury* | *kissing their bruises and scars* | braiding the other’s hair

my own idea: df come back from mission. niki immediately yoink kohaku away for care. leaves mdhm alone. himeru insists on caring for mada. mada is Allergic To People Caring For Him as per usual. hime essentially drags his ass to the couch and uses cuddles to make sure any injuries r cleaned and bandaged. kiss by Accident (it felt natural) only to turn into a "who can givw more kisses before someone walks in" (kohaku suffers by walking in on them being fruit)

Sorry this took so long. Uhm. Enjoy

---

Madara opened the door to Niki's apartment, an unofficial meeting place for Double Face if a mission went wrong, and the two of them stumbled inside. While they had managed to make it out without losing an organ, there were still some scrapes that needed to be patched up and Crazy:B had stopped asking questions a while ago. Well, the apartment had started as a drop off point for Kohaku, but at some point Madara started tagging along too.

The rest of Crazy:B had very mixed opinions on Double Face's actions, but ultimately supported their youngest member in living his life, Niki going so far as to offer his parents' home to them if they ever needed a place to stay (the spare key was kept beneath a fake potted plant in the hall). Niki was also the one who fussed over Kohaku the most, followed by Rinne, which often left Madara alone with the hardest person to crack, HiMERU.

Madara had been able to figure out some of HiMERU's past, though the specific details of what happened after the incident continued to evade him (if Jun was anything to go by, the boy had completely changed after being discharged from the hospital.

So when Madara started finding himself stuck with HiMERU tending to his hard to reach wounds, the two began talking. Talking is a strong word for Madara's one sided jokes and comments, asking about the weather and how idol work was going. HiMERU's hands were always strangely cold while he worked, as cold as his personality.

Slowly but surely over the course of several months, HiMERU began to open up and the mask was cracking. Madara could see from the corner of his eye the way HiMERU stared at him, could feel the way his fingers lingered just a little too long after cleaning a cut. HiMERU rolled his eyes and made a comment about how he was "just as insufferable as Amagi and twice the trouble to clean up after." Madara took this as a challenge to be even more insufferable during their quiet meetings.

Which led to his current situation, where Madara was teasing HiMERU and trying not to wince at the antiseptic wipe running over his hands. "HiMERU-san, you sure are gentle with your hands~ I thought you hated cleaning up after me~" Madara teased, fingers lightly stinging.

"Would you rather HiMERU was rougher with you? That can be arranged." Immediately, Madara's hand started stinging real bad and he had to blink tears from his eyes.

"How rude HiMERU-san! If Mama says he's sorry will you forgive him?"

"You will have to try much harder than that, Mikejima."

"If I ask nicely, will you kiss them better?" Madara grinned, teasing the other man. What he didn't expect was for HiMERU to bring Madara's hand to his lips and press a gentle kiss to the palm of his hand. Stinging forgotten, Madara's face felt like it was on fire.

"If it'll shut you up, HiMERU has no problems obliging you."

"You'll have to try harder than that, HiMERU-san~" Madara did his best to keep his voice steady despite how flustered he felt. HiMERU yanked his hand forward (notably, not letting go) and pulled Madara into a kiss. HiMERU's lips felt purposeful, practiced, as if he'd done this before (this was not the boy who went to Reimei, Madara decided then), but Madara gave in, just for a moment.

"Will that shut you up?" HiMERU's thumb ran over Madara's knuckles, his hand still cold despite holding onto Madara's hand for several minutes now.

"I don't know, why don't you try it again?"

Madara briefly registered Kohaku and Niki making vomit noises between kisses, but he didn't care.

#message in a bottle #conurii-san #enstars #madara mikejima #himeru #madahime #not linking the ask game sry its too far back atp #also didn't hit everything and kinda took a little spin on it but its. longer than i thought it would be so enjoyyyyy

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tombstuck-writes · 3 months

Text

Knucklehead: Part 1, Chapter 1

Genre: Midwest Contemporary Young Adult Romance.

Word count: 27,615. Chapter 1/27.

Summary: “There was only one queer kid in town. That’s what he thought anyway, because it was him. If only his online almost-boyfriend lived nearby, things might be a little more tolerable.”

Content warnings: Graphic child abuse (it's not until part 2, and part 1 can be read stand-alone.)

Author's note:

This story is my baby! I've been writing it for almost 6 years, and it's finally seeing the light of day! A big thank you to anyone who reads it. I'll be posting one chapter every Saturday until it's done. Chapters will be under the #tombstuck-knucklehead tag, and I will also link them on the "Read Knucklehead" page on the header of my tumblr site.

Brandon Campbell got out of his car to start another shift at the grocery store. Brandon lived in Cohocton, Missouri, but the grocery store he worked at wasn’t in Cohocton, because nothing was in Cohocton. Nothing except homophobes and Baptist churches.

And a high school. The very one that Brandon had graduated from earlier that month. He had done nothing since then except do his part-time job at the grocery store.

He went to clock in and saw a familiar face.

“Rodney, hey,” he said, a few different emotions running through his head. Rodney had been his best friend while he was still in school, and they were even on the basketball team together. But he was a year younger than Brandon.

Rodney looked up at him, nodding in greeting. “What’s up, Bran?”

“Oh, not much. Just making some money. You work here now?” He asked.

“Yeah, I just wanted to make some extra money. I’m saving to move out.” Rodney hesitated. “Um, you been pretty absent since you graduated. Everything okay?”

“Yeah, man. Sorry about that. I’ve just been hanging with Nat and she can get kinda…” He trailed off. In reality, he had been doing absolutely nothing except working and isolating himself.

“Yeah, I get it. Hey, at least you’re starting college in August, right?”

“Uhhhh, no.”

“Oh,” Rodney answered. “My bad, I assumed. Sorry.”

“No worries, man. Anyway, we better clock in.”

He bought Rodney a coke on their lunch break to try to make up for not hanging out that month. He also received a text, from someone he wasn’t expecting.

Hey. Wanna hang out? It was from Norm, another one of Brandon’s friends from school. He had graduated at the same time as Brandon.

I’m at work. Later tonite? Brandon answered.

Hell yeah.

It was strange that Norm had texted him. Hearing from two of his old basketball friends on the same day a month after graduation was a big coincidence. He hadn’t been that close with Norm when they were in school, either. Well, close enough to have exchanged phone numbers, but still.

Norm texted Brandon his address, and after work, he headed over to Norm’s house.

He lived in Green Meadows, which was a small trailer park in Cohocton. He parked in front of Norm’s house after checking the number, then got out. A dog barked at him. He knocked on the door.

“Bran!” Norm yelled after answering the door, smiling. He looked about the same as he had a month ago. He was wearing an old Zelda t-shirt with a million holes in it, and sporting his same old mullet and septum ring. Brandon had kind of forgotten that he was attracted to Norm, but the feeling came back as he smiled at the greeting, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

“Hey, man. What’s up?” he said.

“Dude, I watched this movie. Come in, come in— I watched this movie where these people went on a picnic,” He walked into the house, and saw who he assumed was Norm’s mom asleep on the couch. Norm was slurring his words a bit and his gait was uneven. “And I just had this real bad hankering to just like, eat a sandwich on a blanket outside.”

“Oh, wow,” Brandon said. He didn’t really know what else to say. He remembered Norm always getting drunk after basketball games, whether they would win or not. It seemed it had become a habit now.

“Bran, you gotta have a picnic with me,” Norm insisted.

Brandon laughed. “A picnic? I guess so. That’s so random.”

Norm was running around his kitchen gathering items to make sandwiches. “No, it’ll be amazing, seriously.”

He made two bologna sandwiches and put them in sandwich bags. He dashed messily into the living room, and grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch where his mom still slept. “Come on!”

Brandon drove them and their picnic supplies to the nearest park. The day was extremely nice, with a light breeze blowing and the sun shining, and big puffy clouds floating through the sky. Brandon guessed he was happier to be here with Norm outside on a nice day than cramped up in his room at home.

Norm seemed to deliberate on the best spot for their picnic, before finally laying the blanket out on a nice patch of grass. He plopped unceremoniously down onto the blanket and Brandon sat next to him. The blanket wasn’t very big, so they were sitting pretty close.

Brandon ate his sandwich pretty quickly because he was hungry from work, but Norm didn’t seem too interested in his. He would take a little nibble now and then but mostly he was looking at the sky.

“Not hungry?” Brandon asked.

“Oh, nah, not really. I just had to bring it to really evoke the feeling of a picnic.” He answered. “When I drink I don’t really get that hungry. I drink too much these days. That’s why I’m getting so skinny.” He felt at his ribs, no doubt feeling the bones underneath his skin.

“Have you ever thought about quitting?” Brandon asked.

“Oh, nah. I don’t really have any other way to cope with stuff, you know?” Norm answered, looking over at Brandon and shrugging.

Norm put his sandwich back in its baggie and laid down with his head on the blanket and his legs in the grass.

“Dude, you gotta see this!” Norm said and pulled Brandon down on the ground with him. He laughed and landed next to Norm with their heads together. Norm pointed upwards. “It’s a mermaid!”

Cloud gazing, Brandon thought with a rush. I’m cloud gazing with Norm while we’re on a picnic. What has my life become?

“I see a dog, I think,” Brandon said.

“What? No that’s definitely a mermaid. And look over there! It’s a little guy running,” Norm exclaimed.

Brandon was enjoying himself, for once lately. He didn’t want their picnic to end, but eventually they mutually decided to get up and pack up the picnic blanket and Norm’s uneaten sandwich and head back to Norm’s house.

Norm was headed up the front steps of his house, but hesitated at the door and turned around. “I had a lot of fun today, Bran. Thanks for taking me.”

That’s similar to what Natalie said to me after our first date, Brandon thought, but didn’t say.

“Yeah, man. Me too. No sweat. We should hang out again soon.” Brandon said, smiling. Norm waved cutely and smiled brightly. Brandon waved back.

Driving home, Brandon felt at once excited and uncomfortable about the time he had just spent with Norm. On the one hand, it was his first human contact besides his parents and coworkers for 2 weeks. On the other hand, he did have a beautiful girlfriend — Natalie— and spending time with someone else he found attractive felt a bit wrong.

He wondered, though. Is Norm still thinking about me too?

_____________________________________________________

Author's Note: Thank you so much if you read this far! I truly appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. Please consider following the #tombstuck-knucklehead tag if you want to read next week's installment, and follow my blog for various writing-related reblogs, as well as behind the scenes stuff about my stories.

#tombstuck-knucklehead #writeblr community #writeblr #creative writing #writers on tumblr #original fiction #novel writing

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espilver-week · 11 months

Text

Fanfics...

Last month we had 💜🤍Espilver Week 2023🤍💜, and we set up some polls to ask Espilver fans about their favorite everything for this ship ✨

"What tags do you like to see when looking for an Espilver/Silvespio fic?"

Over half of the votes went to fluff 💕 Many people seem to prefer something sweet and comforting for Silver and Espio. Mod as well, loves to read fluff as well! But since we are talking about fanfics, there are a few that I would like to share!

Us (by Midnight Mischief, 2014-2015; Words: 17,753; Rate T)

One of the earliest fics mod has read, and this is a re-imagined story for Rivals 2 with romance subtext. For people first starting to look into the two characters' chemistry, what's better than looking at something similar to the games? There are a bunch of interesting character dynamics between the cast, and events are mainly significant moments in both Silver's and Espio's story. People will need to know the Rivals 2 plotline to recognize certain setting re-use or changes in this fanfic.

No Evidence (by Cubicrot, 2018; Words: 23,519, Rate T)

This is a fic with plenty adventure and a bit of romance, with Espio and Silver first encountering each other in an alternate event which is irrelevant to Rivals 2. Silver was in desperate need of chaos drives, while Espio was on a case investigating a case of missing chaos drives. They ran into each other by chance, and went on their joint journey to achieve what they want. Despite not following the games 100%, it can still be counted as "canon deviation". Being one of the earlier fanfics you can find on the internet, mod absolutely enjoyed reading through it!

Time Together, How Sweet (by mousewritings, 2020; Words: 2,374. Rate G)

A silly story about Espio and Silver going to a store to buy presents for Charmy, but ended up getting kicked out of the store for certain reasons. A purely fluff fic, great for people that wants a quick but pleasant time to read an Espilver fanfic. Genuinely light hearted, this is one of the cute fics mod likes a lot. 💛

New Beginnings (by TrueBlueSonic, 2020-2022; Words: 195,768, Rate T)

Mod believes many people have already read this, in fact, with how there is over 13k hits on AO3, many might have taken a like to Espilver because of this fanfic! Congrats~! 🎉 This story is an aftermath of Rivals 2, "canon deviation" fanfic that involves Silver getting to experience life in the present time, choosing between going back to the future or staying in the present. Many fluffy moments and tear-jerking chapters, those who want a few novel-lengths of fanfic to immerse will have a good time reading this!

Sharp eyes would realize these fanfics here are from years ago! Mod wants to share them for newcomers, so everyone can experience how people perceive Espilver/Silvespio during earlier days when content for this ship were less frequent. Hope you enjoy reading them!

Many fanfics involve not only fluff, but with conflicts and heart-wrenching moments as well. Mod is glad to see people willing to try out all kinds of content despite our main preference!

I noticed many people tend to enjoy stories with Silver feeling conflicted about going back to the future or staying in the past. Indeed, fiddling with timelines are a huge topic that could go on forever, and the decision of staying became very important to Silver. Espio himself then became one of the biggest reasons Silver travels back in time, and even stay in the present forever in some stories.

Letting Silver enjoy life with Espio in the present is also one of the most popular scenarios. Some fanfics with more than a chapter or two would sure to have them hangout in a chill manner, maybe explore their feelings with each other in the meantime.

Besides the main focus on fluff or happy endings, quite a lot of fanfics also go with #slow burn, #friends to lovers, #established relationship, etc. For people that want something other than these settings, now it's the time for you to shine!

There are lots of content for Espilver/Silvespio on the internet, with all kinds of preference and ratings to take note of. Remember to keep an open-minded mentality and enjoy your time within the fandom!

#espilver #silvespio #2023 #post #espilver fanfic

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dragonsongmakhali · 10 months

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10 fandoms, 10 characters, 10 tags:

Basic rules: choose 10 fandoms that you are part of/support, and choose a favorite character from each of those. Then, tag ten folks!

Tagged by: @jigschosai @sealrock @reikatsukihana and @sasslett! Thank y'all :'D

This is not ordered by how much I'm into them, they're just in whatever order came to mind :) I will caution that I don't tend to choose favorite characters, I'm more of an OC maker. Feeling chatty, so I'm putting the actual list under a cut. You're welcome.

1. FFXIV : Pretty self-explanatory for the xiv sideblog. Since I'm not as in to the MSQ, I don't think I actually have a favorite character (which I know is illegal, I'm sorry :<). I really love seeing what the community does with the characters, though!

2. Halo : The storyline went to hell long ago, but I do still adore the original trilogy and constantly mine it for gpose captions. It was basically what I lived off of in high school. If I had a tumblr back then, I'd have been insufferable. Favorite character is easily Rtas 'Vadum.

3. WoW : Kind of. Asterisk. I really only know Classic, and even then, I'm way more Horde than I am Alliance. I have approximate knowledge of many things. No favorite there either - I'm all about the world and making OCs. We have two concurrent WoW tabletop games running at the moment, so this is where most of my headspace is. Their shared timeline is different from the canon, so I'm not really in the fandom per se.

4. Mass Effect : Alien dating sim, my beloved. I even enjoyed Andromeda (jump jets implemented perfectly, fun combat, the Jardaan reminded me of Forerunners). If you ask me to choose a favorite, I'll cry. How is a mother supposed to choose between her two sons (Legion and Grunt)? Drack also gets an honorary mention for his 100s of low res pictures of guns email.

5. Elder Scrolls : Mostly Skyrim, some Oblivion. I know, I'm one of those fans. Anyway, I've probably played over 1k hours of Skyrim by this point and yet. And yet! I don't have a favorite. The entirety of the Companions? I just wish that the faction questlines in Skyrim weren't "you killed 3 wolves and have been here a week. You lead us all now", but it does give me good scaffolding which. As an OC fiend. Grabby hands.

6. The World Ends With You : This game made me good at calculus in high school. My favorite character from here is Sho Minamimoto, and I was a completely normal teenager who dealt with that by doing calculus problems for fun. Turns out, the trick to get good at math is repetition.

7. Pokémon : Probably my earliest fandom. Still play the games now and again, just got Legends Arceus (super late, I know), and that's been a lot of fun. My favorite character from the franchise is Sinnoh's Rock type leader, Roark. I had a long-running sideblog dedicated to the Sinnoh region because gen IV is my favorite in general! It's inactive at the moment.

8. Guild Wars : 2, to be more precise. I started playing about a month after release, and since it's f2p, I still drop in from time to time. Like every MMO, I have no favorites. I really love playing Sylvari, though! (The glow!! The nightmare!! The [[Heart of Thorns spoiler!!]] They're just so neat)

9. Star Trek : we're now getting into "shows I watched and didn't hate" because I'm definitely not in the 'fandom' for Trek. We've been going through the old series as a way to wind down before bed, starting with TNG. We're on Enterprise now, and I'm sad that it got canceled. Still will probably have a better ending than Voyager. I don't have a favorite, but I can tell you that the writers' collective favorite must be either Seven of Nine or Data.

10. Uh. Various anime? I can't say I've recently loved any particular series to the point of fandom, but as a whole, I've been a weeb since I was in middle school. "Recent" series that I've enjoyed have included Mob Psycho and Love is War. Coincidentally, they both saved the most banger opening for their third season.

We had to stretch a little bit, but we made it to ten! Proud of this community (this community is my brain desperately trying to remember 10 things I like)

Have no idea who's been tagged in this, so if you've done this, please ignore! Or reblog it again!

@miqojak @airis-ray @wilanserulia @ahollowgrave @blackestnight @starstrider @iron-sparrow @sumifinalfourteen @jump-n-dive @otherworldseekers

#it was so hard to come up with more than 8 imma be real #i tend to hyperfocus for years on things so I'm more depth than breadth #sorry makhali all of my brainworms are for the tabletop :(#tagged

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wanderingaldecaldo · 2 years

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Gush about your OC

✨ Post 5 facts about your CP77 OC.

✨ Open the latest section of #cyberpunk 2077 tag and reblog 5 posts of people you don’t follow, giving them nice tags.

✨ Tag 5 people to spread the game.

Finally catching up on tags, and ages ago @morganlefaye79, @fereldanwench, @fonfan121, @miss--river, @jessxmetal, @chilljustacat, @thenocturnalblossom, @zinkleberg, and @lizzy--wizzy all tagged me to gush about my OC, and more recently @nananarc and @ladyotakukiut, so thank you two for reminding me to go back and do this 😂

Valerie Vermilion

✨ Her First Cyberdeck

V got her first cyberdeck at age 10 when she stole an old one from a used tech dealer in a street market. She wanted one for a long time after seeing some older streetkids use them to hack vending machines for food. She taught herself to use it by hacking all the appliances in the apartment. Mark -- her guardian after her mother Virginia died -- used her skills to supplement dinner and his low wages from his job at Night City Maintenance Department. V didn't mind. It gave her an excuse to be out of the tiny apartment when he was home, and it turns out she's pretty damn good at it. In her late teens, when she starts to be able to save up money, she is able to upgrade to an implanted cyberdeck.

✨ Tech Skills

While her primary specialty is quickhacks, V also loves to dabble with hardware. To her mother's dismay, Val took apart their radio when she was six, then spent six months putting it back together. It never quite sounded right. That Christmas, Virginia scrimped and saved and picked up extra johns so that she could buy Val a good quality multi-tool.

A few months later, Virginia died an innocent bystander in a shootout between Tyger Claws and Maelstrom and, of course, the NCPD. Mark, a middle-aged man who never wanted kids, took guardianship of Val, only because of a promise he made to his favorite cousin, and he couldn't turn away the pathetic creature who turned up on his doorstep clutching her radio and a trash bag with a handful of clothes and a ratty old teddy bear that was losing its stuffing.

Mark didn't know what to do with a grieving seven-year-old, and gave her the closet in his studio apartment so she could have some privacy. With that multi-tool from her mother, V spent days at a time alone in there. She took that radio apart again and obsessively worked on it until it sounded better than ever. V still carries the multi-tool.

✨ Her Mother's Necklace

Val didn't have many physical mementos from her mother. They shared a tiny studio with another joytoy/friend of Virginia's, and had few material possessions. V can't remember the roommate's name, can only see her banged up, second-hand faceplate with permanently etched eyebrows. Upon Virginia's death she immediately found a replacement roommate and was ready to displace Val onto the street. She also kept most of Virginia's small wardrobe, though Val did save the necklace that her mother regularly wore -- a simple lab-grown ruby, which was Virginia's birthstone. In her late teens, after she started getting real gigs as a netrunner, V saved up her eddies and replaced the synthetic ruby with a real one. She rarely goes without wearing it.

✨ First Kiss & Girlfriend

When she was fourteen-going-on-fifteen, she decided she knew what was best for her life and moved out from Mark's closet. He had tried to enforce a curfew after she got busted by NCPD for trying to rip off some corpos with a couple of friends, and rather than listen to him, she took her radio, her multi-tool and cyberdeck, and a backpack's worth of clothing and moved out.

She spent three months on her own, sleeping in doorways and park benches during the day because she was scared to sleep at night. On occasion she would ask one of the few friends she had made for a night's shelter with them. After a few months she met Emma, another orphaned streetkid a little bit older, and they quickly became friends and partners. V would distract the targets -- primarily corpos in Westbrook -- while Emma would use her Sandevistan to steal their wallets and bags, anything she could grab.

Emma took V "home" to a rundown apartment in an abandoned building in North Side, Watson that she shared with a handful of other streetkids, some already working as joytoys, others playing pretend as netrunners. The first night, she led V upstairs to the roof and they watched the sunset and the city come alive with neon. Emma kissed her, and they became inseparable, for a moment at least. They were exclusive for eight months, then they broke up nominally. Until V finally moved out a year later, she and Emma continued to have a rocky yet passionate on-again-off-again relationship.

✨ 6th Street Era

When she was seventeen V met Travis on a gig and fell pretty quickly for his big teal eyes. He was a member of the 6th Street gang, and he recruited her to join. She did so nominally, just for access to regular food and shelter, plus the good dick. Her quickhacking prowess proved valuable to the gang and she secured a number of steady jobs. She stayed with Travis for almost three years before she grew tired of his regular cheating and constant broken promises. She left the gang and went out on her own for a few years, finding a place with a couple of Mox. They heavily recruited her to join them but V wasn't interested in joining another gang. In retrospect, she wishes she had joined them and met Judy sooner, and maybe saved Judy from the heartbreak of Evelyn.

✨ Tags

Gonna take the liberty of tagging more than five people. I know this went around awhile ago, so forgive me if you were already tagged, but feel free to do it again with a different OC or five new facts about the same OC! If you were one of the people who tagged me, consider yourself re-tagged. And of course, no pressure to play!

@aurorartz, @ugh-my-back, @86maylin, @cybervesna, @velmesh, @thegunslingerandthevoodooboy, @a-pirate, @arcandoria, @cinnamon-mey, @gloryride, @breezypunk, @holofishes, @tarmac-rat 😏 plus @bnbc for good measure 😘

#tag meme #cyberpunk asks #seriously thanks for the tags #been meaning to flesh out some of her backstory #streetkid!val #valerie vermilion #streetkid val things #streetkid!val lore #val things #oc lore

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adecila · 2 years

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Ten First Lines Game

Rules: Share the first line of ten of your most recent fanfics and then tag ten people. Don't have ten? Not to worry, just share what you have (ignore if you’ve been tagged)

Tagged by @the-last-targaryens @fierypen37 @jellybeanficwriter

Thank you so much!

1. For the Cameras (co-written with @muttpeeta)

From chapter 2, which is Dany's POV:

Dany was still sulking. Contrary to the caption on the photo she’d just posted on Instagram, the anniversary of her first—and only—album made her feel anything but nostalgic. Even after all this time, all she felt was hopelessness and bitterness at the lost opportunities.

2. our souls, intertwined

Dany’s attention was pulled to Jon’s index finger tapping thrice against his coffee mug: their way of asking ‘Is everything ok?’. She wasn’t listening to whatever was being said in their weekly meeting, having tuned everyone out minutes ago, her conscious self lost somewhere in the depths of her own mind.

3. do you remember?

“Do you remember?”

4. gonna cheat and only quote the last in the series since these are drabbles: Things you said ...that I wasn't meant to hear

As always, Jon’s Monday consisted in hopping between meetings. He walked briskly, head down, eyes trained on the smartphone in his hands, fingers quickly typing a reply to his boss, explaining for the third time that day how to get around the technical bug that temporarily seemed to be affecting their system.

5. I hate you.

She hates him.

6. One Last Time

The autumn air hits him as soon as he steps out into the dimly lit back alley, sending a shiver through his entire body. It’s not that cold, but the contrast between the stuffy air inside the club and the chilly night makes it impossible not to tense up. Or maybe it’s just his nerves.

7. Moonlight (co-written with @tomakeitbeautifultolive)

It was overcast as usual in Winterfell. The sky a perfect grey duvet. Chilly wind whipped through the open window as Jon drove alone to class. He wore his favorite black hoodie, which easily doubled as a security blanket on his first day.

8. if it doesn't go away by the time i turn 30

The sound of the wine glass smashing against the floor ripples through her entire soul, finally breaking through the glass ceiling of the box she has locked herself into for the past twenty years.

9. If it's the last thing I do (co-written with @thescarletgarden1990)

The Red Keep was still at night, the halls and chambers barely seeming to belong to the same castle when illuminated only by the candlelight. Ned appreciated the quiet, the way this despicable place only seemed to become bearable when everyone else was sleeping. But even in the comforting silence of the night, punctuated only by the soft footsteps of some handmaiden, he couldn’t shake the mounting feeling of dread from his heart.

10. i know better than to call you mine

Winter stuck to the barren willow branches like bad perfume. The cold air burned his lungs with every deep breath. It was supposed to snow tonight; no more than a light dusting over the cobbled streets of Oldtown. In the past six months, Jon had come to appreciate the ancient port city; it was home in ways Winterfell could never be.

Pretty sure most people have been tagged so feel free to do this and tag me if you haven't already been tagged! 💜

#fandom games #jonerys fanfic #oh look i'm still alive woohoo #jonerys

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blu3stwizard · 7 months

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Gerudian Dashboard Simulator 2

🍷 WhinewithWine Follow

Capitan Marcus Graphitter, Mariott's head crime syndicate boss who co-opertaes with the city guard, is a nasty little thottie and just died making it clap in his own tavern

🖼 Grandiose-Aesthetic Follow

#Lascue #Knightly Adventure #Enchanting #Northwestern Vale #Breathtaking

🖋 Coralines-shameless-smut-blog Follow

Ser Sean Mar y Lyonel de Lazure x !Arranged Bethrothed Reader Imagines

Keep reading

🦐Drunken Treasure Follow

gurll this is nottt the time he was just declared missing two days ago

🎻He/Hymn Follow

So like are we *totally* sure that Duke Berdrick isn't a lich? Because like. Have y'all seen him?

💎Revivify Follow

The Duchy Necromancer when you ask him why he has to spend a minute with Berdick alone once every 8 hours

💃Eladrinking Follow

Leaving the function almost immediately after entering. call that Huanthing

🧙‍♀️Fagisterium-Ofiicial

Wait I gotta cast legend lore

🧙‍♀️Fagisterium-Official

Okay yeah this is funny

🔪Butcher-than-a-butcher

I think that not having a courtyard to dunk on some barons during balls is false advertising, and should be illegal

🏹MILFs-top-Milf Follow

So i'm on my watch as a city guard, yeah? And we've been hosting mercenaries for the past two months, so it's been hectic, i've seen some shit, don't get me wrong, but this is beyond even me. I'm on street patrol on Smith's Bend, and i see this gagglefuck cluster of adventurers just like? Enter the sewer that were pointed out by a child or perhaps a gnome. And lemme tell you. They looked like professionals. I'm talking like plate armor and magic items. So protocol dictates that i observe and not intervene, because I don't want to get my rectum mangled by some jackass wizard's spell. So they enter, sure, why not, and I decide to move along on patrol, which takes me the better part of two hours, and as I go back there, there they are? BUt they're covered in some strange viscera, and one of them is like fucking caked in blood and mucus, and weirdest part is that one of them is missing??. Anyway they don't pay me enough to bother adventurers, but like what? Girl help

🏰Marthot

the tags on this post are killing me sksjhsjaj

🐉Tiamats-head-game Follow

hey would that not be the guys who felled the sewer hydra

🐄Cowmomma Follow

Yes! They are called The Songbird Brigade, and they were also present at the Lazuli Palace Gala recently. they seem to be closely associated with both Lord Commander Creagan and Jacynthia's bethrothed, Krugan. Supposedly, they were also present at the great knighting of Ashenaide crisis

🎇Beric-the-Cleric Follow

So what happened to the last guy? Wouldn't they at least recover his corpse?

😈Thiefling Follow

maybe the sewers orcs got him?

🎇Beric-the-Cleric Follow

the what?

🐈Nekomancer Follow

🧙‍♂️BlizzardWizzard Follow

Hey guys they're actually called the Nightingale Company

⚔MILFs-top-Milf Follow

what happened to my post

🐐GOAT-knight Follow

Wake the fuck up sheeple. New archeological dig reveals the remenants of a long forgotten civilization from before the giants, along with what seems like an attempt to create an artificial god

✨Blame-Shift

and Marcianno Kordessa's third volume of Encyclopedia Geneticae STILL isn't out

#unproductivity king #go girlie give us nothing 💪

🌹Maidone

Need me nepo-dick from a cringefail Ashenaidean knight

🐙Blundersea Follow

🦈Elf-on-the-shelf

🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀

🐙Blundersea Follow

kys knife-ears

again. campaign meme. don't worry everybody

@zoomire @no-comment-data-missing

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tacticalhimbo · 2 years

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Hi, I wonder if you have some theory / thoughts about damnatio memoriae ending, losing faith and his (worsen?) mental state.

I'm not Catholic but the connection between mental health and faith is one of my favorite issues to talk about.

Also why Gary tried to make John as the new vessel?

Thanks!

Hey, thank you so much for asking!

I personally see the loss of faith having a few possible explanations! And Gary's focus on John is entirely intentional, both from a mental health standpoint and a general-ish standpoint.

A recap for the general audience (and myself, because I had to look a few things up since it's been a while):

The ending, "A New Vessel" is accompanied by the soundtrack (and text, if I believe) Damnatio Memoriae, which comes to mean a "condemnation of memory", akin to where a person or event is stricken from all official records.

As for the plot of the ending, here's the Wiki's summary -> On the day of the Profane Sabbath, Ward finds his house surrounded by cult members and unlocks the crucifix-riddled door. Inside he confronts Amy, and he begs for the nightmares to end. Amy drags him into her gaping portal, and John finds himself at the abandoned Martin house in complete disrepair, somehow much worse than it was only a month ago. Inside, he discovers that the twins he's been searching for throughout the entire story never existed. Nancy, Amy's mother, miscarried the twins, but was in complete denial of it, going so far as to host a birthday party for them. Eventually, John finds two effigies in their room and succumbs to his despair. Amy and Michael appear and take his hands before a giant demonic hand appears and swallows them up. Then the entire Martin house vanishes.

Please let me know if this needs to be tagged! I also apologize for any grammar errors, I got excited to answer this and I'd just woken up, so my brain isn't all there yet sdjdkdkd—

I'll put my thoughts below the cut, though, because this got more wordy than I'd thought ^^;

In regards to John's deteriorating faith, the explanation for why his faith is so weak/withers so easily is dependent on how the game's plot is interpreted (at least, in my opinion). So, to circle back to some of the points I made in my first solid meta post regarding John [LINK], I'll break down the two primary perceptions.

If assuming everything happening is 100% real and John's perspective is reliable:

It's simply a matter of fighting a losing battle. Seeing your faith be challenged so successfully (re: multiple dead priests, a church taken over by demonic entities, etc) is... a lot!

As someone who's loosely Catholic (vaguely raised, abandoned, and now on the fence of re-converting), the main lesson people are taught is that sin and evil are two very powerful things. They swallow and consume a person. They're what made the world the place it is today, and why humanity could not remain in the Garden of Eden. Of course, the emphasis put on these points and the way they're told is variable on the individual church's belief system (re: the difference between "normal" Catholics and fascist Evangelicals), but that's besides the point.

So John seeing that happen over and over and over, and ultimately failing to save Amy, is just tiring. It's draining. He realizes by the end of Chapter 3 that he's lost, and Gary has won. Gary was right.

However, if assuming that either everything was "in John's head" (lack of better phrasing), or that some things were true but exaggerated by John's mental health:

Then I believe that John's loss of motivation/faith could genuinely be him coming out of an episode and perceiving the gravity of everything.

This is a bit harder to explain given the precursor for this ending is not entering Garyland, and the strongest case could be made by pointing to the fact that, allegedly, John was the one to eviscerate the cultists in the bloodied room... but still. A lot of things happen in Chapter 3 outside of Gary's labyrinth that would weigh heavily on John's consciousness. One of the other most notable circumstances being if he cannot save Lisa from Alu/the cult, and she dies because he (while possessed or in a state of psychosis) ultimately kills her.

That, and there is the idea that John is outright killing the cultists/people he flashes the crucifix to.

Now, before I explain part of that, I just want to say that all cops are shit at their jobs. They protect nobody and often target folk just because they can, and use "self defense" as a way to get out of the repercussions. However, it is interesting that when John raises the crucifix (when exiting the front door of the daycare, opposed to the back entrance), the cops state that he has a gun. Of course, this could be that classic "shoot anything that moves and make a move" mentality, or it could be a genuine observation (after all, they are fictional so there is a chance they have some intelligence).

My disdain for the law aside, the very act of exorcism is a banishment. A damntation of demonic entities back to Hell, where they either are imprisoned (returning to their natural states and unable to re-enter the surface) or executed (if the demon is too weak to presumably recuperate from Christ's intervention/flee to Hell). So, in the assumption that the UNSPEAKABLE really is grasping every cultist's soul... Yeah. They're gone. John has effectively killed the person and, maybe, left behind a husk. A shell of who they were.

And that acts as a segue into the second question:

Why in the hell (pun intended) would Gary want to use a priest as a vessel?

The short answer is that John is, genuinely, the perfect vessel. My understanding of the process is that the victim must be on the younger side, physically healthy, and (most importantly) non-consenting to the process (able to be manipulated and coerced into "consenting").

John is in his early 30s, is pretty healthy minus the achey knee and dormant asthma, and very much non-consenting, seeing as he goes through so much to attempt to stop the UNSPEAKABLE's commanding demon, Gary/Astaroth. Plus him being in active bouts of psychosis makes it so much easier for someone like Gary to affirm the delusions and essentially become the little devil on John's shoulder.

EDIT: I've posted some audio files regarding this! Check it out here [ LINK ]

But aside from that, it comes down to power. Gary wants to demonic rebellion to have influence. To be something that compels people and leaves behind a great legacy.

What better way to do that than take a holy man (assuming John is/was ordained) and make him a tool for the devil?

In context of a cult structure, the move is one of the biggest chess plays Gary can make as a leader.

Cults, especially those with destructive and a religious structure, are hierarchial and authoritative. There is supposed to be no question to what the leader wills. What Gary says should go. That's why he ultimately ended up targeting Lisa. As a failed attempt by Tiffany to make Lisa a vessel (and therefore prove her own worthiness to Gary), she knows too much about the true intentions. She is a flight risk. She's been found to be communicating with John (an extension of the church). People like Lisa are dangerous to the cult's imbalance, as are the ties they have within the greater community.

Which is why, too, John becomes such a pertinent target for Gary (lest we forget one of the Chapter 1 endings has him and his cult confront John on an empty highway).

It all shows that, even if he were not a demon, that he is convincing. That he can wear down at someone with a (presumably) strong conviction and duty to Christ. People would be fools to question him! He must know what he's doing if he can "break" a priest.

TLDR: Gary's entire mentality as a cult leader (and demonic commander) trying to regain control after a critical incident ks

And this, ultimately, is what is referred to with the idea of Damnatio Memoriae! John is so overshadowed and overtaken (whether by the UNSPEAKABLE, the cult, or his own mind) that he's effectively erased from memory. Him, the twins, Michael, Amy, they all mean nothing in the grand scheme of what would come should the cult succeed in its plan. They were all mere cogs in the machine.

#txt #ask #faith the unholy trinity #faith chapter 3 #faith airdorf #john ward #gary miller #mentioned:#lisa pearson #tiffany robinson #the unspeakable #meta post #meta analysis #my writing

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