#wolfwood i'm counting on you

[cimeret]

I seem to have a thing for tragic "old soul" characters who end up trapped on desert planets in a binary star system, who are made for infinite sadness, and who are legendary fighters but would rather not fight. Also, there should be an evil brother figure and metal limbs, please!

Anyway, this is about Trigun Stampede. I'm so hyped for the new series. Time again for Deep Space Planet Future Gun Action!

Spoilers for the new and old anime under the cut.

I went in intending to like it, and I was not disappointed! The old anime has a special place in my heart. When I first watched it, I was at a really low point in my life, and I could so relate to the struggles of the characters who find themselves in these perceived hopeless and often unfair situations, having to decide what is the morally right thing to do. The new anime can't capture that (yet?), but it's only been four episodes, Wolfwood has just joined the squad, and Knives has been very effectively established as a threat. It feels like most of the characters are now on stage and the plot can truly unfold!

Even if it doesn't become the emotional spectacle I'm hoping for, this anime is worth watching for its visuals alone. I wasn't prepared to love the CGI so much. At the latest, Hōseki no Kuni convinced me that CGI can work well in anime. How I wish Disney would take inspiration from this regarding its computer-animated movies and try to recapture the traditional 2D look this way. Especially for the action scenes, the CGI feels perfect and creates pictures that are just jaw-droppingly stunning and beautiful to look at. The moment when Wolfwood whipped out his Punisher? Perfection. (Wolfwood in general is such a mood, he just adds so much to the series)

(Just look at this gorgeous gif made by genorium)

It took me a bit to get used to the new character designs. Looking at Vash and Meryl makes me feel so old, haha! But I like them. Vash's prosthetic arm looks beautiful. At first, I wished it wasn't so obvious because I felt it would make the gun reveal more of a surprise. But I think older viewers know the arm is a gun anyway, new viewers will still be surprised by the reveal, and anything along the lines of "omg, the shock, my arm is actually a prosthetic and not flesh and blood, isn't it tragic??" feels outdated these days. Don't need it.

Once again, however, I have a problem with the directing. It's not so much the overall pacing, it's more some small details or how certain scenes are set up. A lot of it just feels cold to me, a bit detached and stiff. It's hard to describe. Shots that linger too long or not long enough to really work. Music that swells or fades in the wrong places. Sometimes the characters don't react at all or react inappropriately to things that are happening. For example, in ep. 3, Meryl's and Roberto's reactions to the destruction of the city or to Tonis' injury. It's a lot better in ep. 4, so either it's a conscious part of the style and I'm getting used to it, or it's not as noticeable in this episode. The many discussions and banter between the characters also helped create a nice flow between scenes.

This is only partly related to the new series, but I adore Vash as a character so much. All the emotion and the softness and the big, pretty eyes, but he is also badass and guns and just so physical as a hero, and then there's his wackiness that is mostly portrayed as annoying rather than cute or endearing. It's a lovely combination and never feels forced. I don't mind that he's less goofy in the new series and that he doesn't chase women; especially the latter has always bugged me in the old series, but unfortunately, it's standard for many male anime heroes. As a result, Vash seems more serious and tragic in the new anime but the new dynamic that unfolds when Wolfwood joins in ep. 4 helps make him seem less melancholy. Compared to ep. 3 with the destruction of Jeneora Rock, the last one was less dark and even had a bit of humor, which is necessary and good. I want to see Knives try and break Vash, and for that to really have an impact on the viewer, we need to see all the beautiful moments and his connection with the humans he wants to protect.

(wearing shades in the club, yo!)

I like that they don't hold back on the weird and gory stuff. Severed limbs and spurting blood, yay! And everything about how they handled Knives so far is great! He's such a dramatic creep, I love it! Zazie, too! Their new design looks awesome and I can't wait to see more of them. The scenes in ep. 4 inside the worm were all great, the goo, the slight horror vibes, characters crawling around in dark, cramped spaces, Wolfwood eating bugs ... good stuff!

I'm slowly warming up to Roberto and his dynamic with Meryl. Although from a narrative point of view, I still don't understand why they swapped Milly for another character. What's the idea? Aside from liking Milly per se, I also found Meryl more interesting when she could play off of Milly and her contrasting sweet personality. The relationship between Meryl and Roberto feels so generic, and so far I don't think it offers much to the story. I'm also not completely on board with Meryl as a journalist. Hm. We'll have to see how things progress. In general, though, I'm quite optimistic about this series. I only hope they slow down the pace a bit in the coming episodes and leave room for some strong character moments. So far, the nostalgia factor and my fanfiction brain are helping me get over the fact that the series takes less time to develop the characters in favor of pushing the plot and creating mysteries. I still have no idea how many episodes there will be, so theoretically anything is possible.

[eshtaresht]

didn't see anyone post this screencap yet......... this one is gonna get me throught the week

[doedipus]

Tumblr users I would like you to know that you can still just like yaoi. There are worse things than being a fujoshi or whatever. You don't have to pretend that yaoi you like is Yuri because it's in vogue

[nexadarling]

Trigun Explicit Recs!

So it turns out there are too many good fics in this fandom and I maxed out the amount of links allowed in a single post (it's 100 btw) so I decided to split the E rated stuff from everything else, cause it makes sense to me.

I offer you my list of smut! Most of which will also give you so many emotions cause what is Vashwood with out self-loathing and biblical references. I tried to tag all the authors who have tumblrs, but if I missed someone pls tag them/let me know!

Any fic that features "+" after the word count is on-going/uncompleted. As they finish, I will add the final word count.

Check the tags yall!!!

(Non-explicit rec page)

so i'll sing to the grave (put you back together) by desertblooms - 18k; Vashwood; E; Canon-verse; Wolfwood doesn't feel worthy to touch Vash, so Vash shows him that's not true

la petite mort by @babeyxiao-art and expertfool - 3k; Vashwood; E; Trimax; look this is just straight smut involving a gun. If you're not into that i would highly advise you do not read this. If you are tho..... it did something to my brain chemistry for sure

Trillium and Ivy by @shastafirecracker - 80k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU; Funeral Director Wolfwood; Garden Center Vash; Wolfwood works at a funeral home across from the garden center, and notices the cute co-owner; this one is a personal favorite it makes me feel insane if I think about it too long

you'll never get enough by tagteamme ( @phaltu) - 19k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU - Boxer/Gym; Wolfwood owns a gym that is under Nai's thumb, Vash is a regular at the gym and should be off limits; I have read this at least twice and it occasionally haunts my dreams

Within Us An Orchard by plumtoad - 13k; Vashwood; E; Vash is a sad plant boi, so Wolfwood cheers him up feat. fruit

Amarillo Sky by just_a_lil_shipmate - 15k; Vashwood; E; Cowboy/Angel AU; Vash makes Wolfwood realize maybe he's not better off alone

i’m here in search of your glory (there’s been a million before me) by @sascake - 22k; Vashwood; E; Post-Trimax fix it feat. Wolfwood's entire orphanage

Your Beauty Never, Ever Scared Me by Sacramental_Wine - 5k; Vashwood; E; Wolf shifter!Wolfwood (if you've ever seen Wolf's Rain it's like that); Vash helps an injured wolf, the next morning a man shows up at his door

if you were church (I’d get on my knees) by iokanaan - 18k; Vashwood; E; T4T; Actual Priest Wolfwood, feat. trimax Vashwood as guardian angels (I have no excuse for this one but it goes really hard)

someone to last your whole life by catchatter ( @needlab7) - 73k; Vashwood; E; Post-Trimax fix it, with deep attention to the realities of mourning and what it means to have mourned someone who is no longer dead; genuinely one of the most beautiful things I have ever read

to control against the pull by catchatter ( @needlab7) - 13k; Vashwood; E; A/B/O; "Wolfwood tries to help out the bro and gets consumed with The Longing"; It is my personal mission to make everyone read this. Please, even if you don't like omegaverse just give it a chance I am begging you

CAUSE OF DEATH (See instructions and examples) by neatrogenous ( @floofyfluff) - 39k; Vashwood; E; Post-Trimax fix it, but Vash runs faster than the Flash from every single Emotion he's ever had (body horror cw for the first chapter)

Gun Barrel Red Hot by varelsen ( @cloudstrifing) - 17k; Vashwood; E; plant heat plant heat plant heat plant hea-

Strange Powers by @tenshinokorin - 5k; Vashwood; E; they accidentally get high and fuck about it; I laughed my ass off reading this, pls, it's so good

when your stitch comes loose by @starkillling - 4k; Vashwood; E; Vashwood's relationship with Vash's wings

End Racism in the OTW | a kind heart to haunt by littleghost ( @ghostlandtoo) - 20k; Vashwood; E; Cowboy/Western AU; Wolfwood is an outlaw, Vash left that life a long time ago and doesn't want to get wrapped up in it again

you tear down my reason by halfdemonvash - 8k; Vashwood; E; .... trimaxVashwood/stampedeVashwood; yeah it's selfcest, i'm not sorry about it, it's so fucking good

Bind Your Faith in Scars and Tape by just_a_lil_shipmate - 8k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU - College; Vash pines after Wolfwood, and then properly falls for him when they're forced to spend time in the university greenhouse regularly; Meryl is my favorite

blood in the badlands by eviscerates - 34k; Vashwood; E; Vampire Vash/Vampire Hunter Wolfwood on NML; the Eye of Michael is a hunter group, Wolfwood is not supposed to have feelings for Vash

the sun is warm (i miss your smile) by mor (mornin) ( @bakubaji) - 12k; Vashwood; E; also Vamp Vash/Vamp Hunter Wolfwood but this time modern AU, and Wolfwood is independent instead of with EoM

you're a canary (i'm a coal mine) by PotatoButt ( @rubyredgh0st) - 32k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU; Zoo keeper Vash; Orphanage Worker Wolfwood; Wolfwood brings his kids to see the tomas show, but sometimes he comes alone to watch the cute handler; Brad is so protective here I love him actually

The Lighthouse by EloFromMars - 51k; Vashwood; E; Lighthouse guy Wolfwood; Eldritch Horror Vash; legitimate lovecraftian level eldritch horror but like.... Vash is still a baby girl and Wolfwood is still into it; honorary mention for Kuroneko

try my hardest (if you ask me to) by nbagenda - 15k; Vashwood; E; the team stays at Ship 3, and Wolfwood has Feelings about everything being so clean (and so much gay panic about Vash); this one uses he/they interchangeably for Vash which I really really love

water supply by outdoorcats - 9k; Vashwood; E; they get wine drunk and get like emotionally horny

perfect world by outdoorcats - 8k; Vashwood; E; sequel to above fic; less drunk but more (beautifully) emotional; "What if we ran away and got married" vibes

today, and all of the days by @pushclouds - 24k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU; Vash owns a donut shop, Wolfwood owns a smoke shop/bar; Vash doesn't realize they're definitely dating

My Body's Moving Into Retrograde by Sacramental_Wine - 3k; Vashwood; E; Wolfwood makes Vash want something for himself for once

dance in our catastrophe by @pushclouds - 28k; Vashwood; E; Post-Trimax fix it; Wolfwood and Vash are stuck in a safe house together, what could possibly go wrong?!; Wolfwood's inner monologue in this is so delightful and sad

welcome to the beautiful place by @pinklicour - 7k; Vashwood; E; Vash watches Wolfwood interact with a kid for too long and has Feelings about it, turns out Wolfwood feels the same

i think that we should go and get you out of here by molotovhappyhour - 39k; Vashwood; E; Exorcist Wolfwood AU; Wolfwood travels to July to help rid them of a haunting that's taken root there for years, Vash is, of course, at the center of it

I'd Get Rid of the Sun in Favor of the Moonshine by FlowerFed - 22k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU - Coffeeshop/Cafe; Milly asks Vash to vouch for her ex so he can get a job at the same cafe as him, Vash meets a handsome stranger at the beach; surely there is no connection between these events...

Trial and error by Anonymous - 10k; Vashwood; E; Vash has freaky plant parts and is pretty sure he can't orgasm, but he's happy to be with Wolfwood however he wants! Wolfwood is determined to prove Vash wrong; Literally cannot get enough of unconventional, incompatible plant stuff for Vash, so this was very fun

Saturdays at 6 p.m. by maginot - 42k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU; Vash reaches out to professional Dom Wolfwood to ask if he's taking on new subs. Wolfwood realizes he's fucked as soon as Vash walks through his front door; Okay yes this is kinky in the sense that it is an actual, structured BDSM relationship, but it's actually not the kinkiest thing on here??? It is absolutely delightfully spicy and sweet though. And watching Wolfwood fall apart about actually falling for Vash is so fucking GOOD; also vash's pain kink has me on the fucking floor dear god

when I picture you by @pinklicour - 5k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU - College; This is just a silly little fic about Vashwood hooking up, but Wolfwood's pining is so precious and I've reread the scene where they actually become a couple several times cause it makes me so happy

a tide of tender mercies by @gloriousporpoise - 23k; Vashwood; E; Wolfwood and Vash are on the run after July, chasing bounties; Wolfwood finds himself in a bad way without his serum and gets taken care of (ha, take that, WW!); I'm a sucker for Wolfwood pining hoplessly after Vash and this is just the perfect mix of pining and his snark

sugar rush by corvidcaper ( @not-miss-marple) - 42k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU; Vash owns a candy shop; Friends with benefits to lovers; Everyone knows their dating except the two of them, and goddamn does Wolfwood try to keep it casual; Spoiler, it is anything but casual lol

At the Top of the World by Insomniac_with_dreams - 35k; Vashwood; E; Cowboy AU; Wolfwood follows a help-wanted ad and finds himself at the Saverem ranch for the summer. He gets... more than he bargained for; God above please read this it's so beautiful and heartfelt and wonderful and they love each other so much fuck

four suns by Joelene - 31k; Vashwood; E; Trimax Vashwood and Tristamp Vashwood meet in the middle of the desert!!; This is genuinely very cute as well as hot, I reread this immediately after finishing it lol Trimax Vashwood being competitive and then getting lost in themselves is so precious; Wolfwood begging will always be my downfall; They all fuck, but they don't fuck each other. Like each version Vashwood stays together. They do all make out with their own alternative versions, so do with that what you will I guess

Strawberries & Cigarettes by Umbr_el_on - 71k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU - Tattoo shop/Flower shop; "No, seriously, Livio, it's just casual, it doesn't mean anything, stop"; several days later: *calls Livio crying about how much Vash makes him feel*; and that's it that's the fic; I like that they're both broken and fucked up here, and they make mistakes and piss each other off, but they continue to choose to try together. It just makes me really happy. They aren't perfect but they're perfect together

Daylily by @needlesknives (bakusboi) - 10k+; Vashwood; E; Modern AU - Tattoo shop; Vash comes to Wolfwood wanting to get his scarring covered with tattoos, Wolfwood realizes this project entails a lot more than he anticipated. In several ways

Ascension Day by farseersfool ( @birdadjacent) - 26k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU (but still Plant powers); Wolfwood is a hitman hired by Nai to protect Vash. Surely keeping his mark as close as physically possible is only the logical thing to do. Right? Right.

Holding My Breath by @nekotachis - 9k; Vashwood; E; Canon-verse; Vash tells Wolfwood he's never been on a date, so Wolfwood takes him on one. Feelings are definitely not had during said date

sun comin' up by amaiyo - 23k; Vashwood; E; Mermaid AU; Modern AU; Wolfwood is a priest assigned to a tiny island, and sometimes he stands on the pier at night to listen to the strange songs on the ocean wind

you'll leave me lonely at best by @procrastinating-bookworm - 3k; Vashwood; E; Post-Badlands Rumble; You know the fucking drill, it's time for some widow Wolfwood reunion sex; God I love the way this fandom explores the hell Wolfwood went through before Vash pops back up like "Jk guys, I'm not dead!"

Long Goodbyes by ChenamaReel - 17k; Vashwood; E; Trimax; After the Arc and before the orphanage, Vash and Wolfwood talk about the what-ifs of the future. With the knowledge of their respective missions, their normal flirting banter turns to something more real

song of solomon 4:7 by ellisisntreal - 68k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU; Trans Vash; A cute new neighbor moves in across from Wolfwood, one who he quickly realizes is the hottest DILF ever and exactly his type; listen. LISTEN! This is so good, Vash's kid is 13, so he's old enough to be funny and snarky, Vash and Wolfwood's banter is amazing, and scenes with all three of them (and eventually Livio) are actually so funny I was wheezing. Idk how you write dialog so real and hilarious, but I had a grand fucking time

I know I'm gonna die of this by @orcelito - 13k; Vashwood; E; T4T; Vash doesn't like to be touched during sex. He does, however, desperately want to fuck Wolfwood. Wolfwood shows him exactly how much he appreciates it; THE Strap Fic; the fact that this is part of a series based on Nothing But Thieves' song Impossible has me incredibly fucked up; Nico, darling, thank you for writing this, it was delightful

Nothing Left to Hide by GGumdrops - 7k; Vashwood; E; Wing fic wing fic wing fic; Vash is clearly uncomfortable but doesn't want to tell Wolfwood why. When he finally convinces Vash to show him, he preens his wings for him

geoplant medicinals by @avoidingavoidance - 11k; Vashwood; E; Tristamp; Wolfwood accidentally gets soooo fucking high. Vash joins him and they have some frankly awesome sex; Wolfwood spends this whole fic being sickeningly in love with his boyfriend and thinking about how pretty Vash is and I love it

with the same sweet shock of when Adam first came by feelingfoxylmao - 12k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU- BDSM Scene; Wolfwood fucks up at the BDSM club and Vash (consensually and pre-scripted) teaches him his lesson; Dom Vash, Sub Wolfwood, Vash makes Wolfwood bark, what more could I possibly say to make you want to read this??? It's wonderful; slight secondhand embarrassment warning for the beginning where Wolfwood fucks up, but it's worth getting through, trust me

like the holding of hands (like the breaking of glass) by @flowercitti - 10k; Vashwood; E; Tristamp; Vash wakes up after the sandsteamer and faces Wolfwood's full knowledge of his inhumanness; (spoilers WW still thinks Vash is beautiful)

Little Pieces of the Nothing that Fall by starkstateofmind - 5k; Vashwood; E; Tristamp; it rains and Vash manic pixie dream girls himself into bed with Wolfwood; i kinda stared at a wall for a little after reading this, it's really beautiful I might also be a manic pixie dream girl

Sing Pretty Melodies on the Motel Bed by @amphetamine-keen - 5k; Vashwood; E; Trimax vibes; Wolfwood convinces Vash to try a vaginal plug; this is just smut but I did read it at least twice. idk what that says about me, but it does say that it's a good fic

Wildflowers by @shastafirecracker - 103k; Vashwood; E; Dark Fantasy AU; cottagecore; Trans Wolfwood; Wolfwood is sent to kill the Beast Lord of the forest and gets far more than he bargained for; dear fucking God please read this holy shit I cannot overstate how good the world building is

in the woods somewhere by halfdemonvash - 42k; Vashwood; E; Fantasy AU; cottagecore; Vash finds Wolfwood injured in his forest and takes him to his home to nurse him back to health. Wolfwood... kinda really loves it. Even if he wasn't entirely there on accident

waking up in vegas by kae_karo - 17k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU; They wake up married to each other in Vegas after a night they barely remember. They try to track down the chapel they got married in, but kinda don't wanna undo it by the end of the day

laughter lines by @beesinspades - 21k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU; Ace Vash; Grey Ace Wolfwood; Knives sends Wolfwood to bring Vash back to him. Vash doesn't want to go. Wolfwood kind of doesn't want to make him; crying go read this i love it so much all of Bee's stuff brings me such joy

Pillow Talk by fantasy_stupid - 47k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU; Nai sends Wolfwood to secretly trail Vash and make sure he's safe while Nai is gone. Vash clocks him immediately and they try to make the best of it; bodyguard Wolfwood you have my heart and soul

Citronella by @canyondotcom - 58k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU; Vampire AU; Creature Vash; Woodworker Wolfwood; Wolfwood wakes up in the middle of the night to something--no, someone on his porch. Against his better judgement, he lets them in... Things get... Interesting; Uuggggghhhhh God this is so good I love creature Vash and the vampire lore is so unique and non-traditional I love it so much

take my breaking heart (and tear it all apart) by johnnyfucksup - 12k; Vashwood; E; Wolfwood tries not to let himself want. Enter Vash, who ruins those plans

just a holy fool by @avoidingavoidance - 19k; Vashwood; E; Tristamp; Wolfwood is so upset about how much of a soft spot he has for Vash and Vash somehow makes it worse all the time always; sure Wolfwood, we all believe that you're annoyed with Vash and not stupidly in love with him

A Step By Step Guide to Love and Peace, Written by Vash Saverem (Co-Authored by Friends, Family, and Nicholas D. Wolfwood) by calandos - 71k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU - Fleabag; Trans Vash; Priest Wolfwood; It's fucking.... it's a fleabag AU idk how much harder I call sell this I clicked immediately when I saw the tag; yeah, it has the confession scene; this made me want to cry. I may have actually cried; god I relate to Vash so much

Late Night Confessional by ValiantRose ( @sleepyartcryptid) - 12k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU I think?; Trans Wolfwood; Priest Wolfwood; Vash comes to confess his sins... the fic then earns it's place on the explicit rec list

giving in to your fever touch by honeyseeking - 46k; Vashwood; E; Trimax/98; Wolfwood finds Vash as Eriks and gives him three days to make up his mind; *violently shaking this fic* it's so full of emotions

I'm not a Psycho (I'm Just Trying to Get Laid) by @inkfishie - 34k; Vashwood; E; Tristamp; Various times Vash and Wolfwood have... encounters. Feat. Vash's emotions and awkwardness; this is so cuteeee

in love with my own sins by spicecandy ( @gaycowboyjesus) - 15k; Vashwood, Vash/Vash, Wolfwood/Wolfwood; E; Trimax VW meet Tristamp VW; listen the everything between everyone is so good but the romantic tension between Tristamp VW is so cute

Give Me Mercy No More. by hollyleighannee ( @wytchsbrew) - 14k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU; Bodyguard Wolfwood; During a sandstorm, Vash spends a special night with his secret boyfriend; OH MAN OH GOD WOW; first of all this Wolfwood... I gotta go sit down for a second, damn; the sex is hot, but the emotions are hotter Wolfwood is so careful to give Vash everything he wants and cares so much they are both so in love; Holly your fics give me so much joy, I'm so sorry for decimating your notifications

a softer world by Harubo ( @helloharubo) - 2k; Vashwood; E; Modern AU; Painter Vash; Doctor Wolfwood; Reincarnation vibes; Wolfwood has regular dreams of Vash where he's covered in scars and full of a deep, aching sadness. When he wakes up, he needs his husband to reassure him he's still in one piece

Where The Delicate Stops (Show Me) by @nexadarling - 10k; Vashwood; E; Trimax; Creature Vash; Predator/Prey; Wolfwood sets off Vash's competitive nature and gets chased through the woods. He likes it more than expected; shameless self-plug, I'm just real proud of this one

save a horse by ofxanadu - 37k+; Vashwood; E; Western AU; Trans Vash; Wolfwood saves Vash from getting mugged by the Badlands Gang and has a night so memorable he's hung up on it for almost a year when Vash shows up again; i cannot even put into words my thoughts on this fic I'm just making feral sounds about how much I love it

la vache! by @skittidyne - 28k+; Vashwood; E; Modern AU - Sex Work; Sex Worker Vash; Trans Vash; Wolfwood needs to learn French very quickly since he promised Livio he would. He finds his solution in Vash's... unique way of teaching (it might involve dildos); I'm rabid over the fact there are not more chapters of this

honeysuckle red by @beelzebby666 - 43k+; Vashwood; E; Modern AU; Line Cook Wolfwood (yes it's important shut up); A one night stand turns into Wolfwood spending so much time with Vash and his fucking garden (why does he like bees so much I love him????); Wolfwood just wants to be kept. He just wants to be kept!!!

If you know me no you don't!

Come tell me your opinions about all of these my DMs are open I promise

[anyasathenaeum]

Our Father, Who Art In Heaven (98!WW X Reader Smut)

A/N: Hey everybody, I'm baaaaack! It's been a bit of a stressful and busy time, but hopefully you guys can enjoy this. I actually wrote this piece well over a year ago privately (for my dearest and best friend, @vanille-sweet, who has kindly granted me permission to alter and share this work so you can all enjoy it!). Literally nobody asked for this but here, have it anyways. I went with 98!WW here. Please be nice. Warnings: MINORS DNI!, AFAB!Reader (female terms used), smut (lots of it), sacrilege (y'all get nasty in a church), oral (female receiving), P in V sex, penetrative sex, unprotected sex (WRAP IT BEFORE YOU TAP IT, FOLKS), a tiny hint of exhibitionism towards the end, WW has a thing for being called "Father" (does that count as a daddy kink?...), no established relationship

Time on the road was wearing you down.

Slowly but surely, you felt your resilience and your drive to continue beginning to die out. Everything was becoming too much for you to handle. From the chaos of being around Vash, all the people hunting him down and, by extension, you and the others, to just constantly moving from town to town, you found yourself exhausted. Mentally, physically, emotionally, you were drained.

What you hadn't expected was to find solace and a moment of peace in a place you had only stepped foot into maybe once before - a church. It was nothing special - no beautiful stained glass windows, no huge arches, no beautiful, expensive chandeliers. Just a small building with an alter, a confessional, and a bunch of small, wooden pews for those wishing to pray in this tiny town.

You now found yourself sitting in one of those pews, entirely alone in the whole building, left to be with your thoughts and emotions and try to sort yourself out. You sighed heavily, resting your head on the pew in front of you, shutting your eyes tightly as your exhaustion coursed through you.

"Hey, pretty lady, whatcha doing here in the house of the Lord?"

The sudden voice scared the crap out of you, causing you to yelp and jump straight out of your skin, turning to see Wolfwood standing there, smiling coolly as if he hadn't just scared you.

"Oh, Wolfwood, it's just you. You startled me," You replied, letting out a deep breath and lean back against the pew where you were sitting, your gaze going straight up to the ceiling as you answered him, "I'm just... thinking."

Wolfwood didn't say anything as he approached you, sitting directly next to you in the same pew. Once he had been seated, he spoke softly.

"Thinking about what? You don't look too happy, I gotta say. It's not a good look on you, (Y/N)."

You just scoffed and shot him a look, "That's rich, coming from you, Mr. Preacher Man."

That drew a chuckle from the priest, who brought his arm around your shoulders and drew you in close to him, bringing a blush you hoped he wouldn't see to your cheeks.

"Seriously, (Y/N). What's on your mind?"

He spoke softer, his voice gentler than before. Wolfwood always surprised you with how kind he could be - you never anticipated it, for some reason. But right now, you didn't mind one bit. It felt nice, having just one person there with you right now, and Wolfwood seemed like the perfect person to talk to about your troubles.

"I just..." You sighed out, "I'm struggling to keep going on. Constantly being on the run is starting to drain me. I wish I could just... stay somewhere for a little. Forget about life for a moment. You know?"

Wolfwood was smiling down at you softly as you spoke, nodding his head in understanding, "Yeah, I get it. It's a lot. But you're strong, pretty lady. Don't doubt that for a second."

You felt your blush darkening as you looked away from him for a moment, quietly mumbling "Thanks, Wolfwood" in return.

Of course, though, Wolfwood noticed your blush and tilted your head towards him, his fingers under your jaw firm in their motion but somehow still gentle. You felt your heart rate hit the roof as you looked up at him - he was exceptionally handsome. You always knew as much, but now... it felt like you were really seeing him for the first time. His dark skin, his eyes, his curved nose, his muscled figure, his dark hair, everything was suddenly hitting you all at once and the thoughts going through your mind were bordering on unholy for being in such a holy place.

"Ya know... you're pretty much in confessional right now, pretty lady. Got any sins you wanna get off your chest?"

Wolfwood's tone was sultry and gently teasing, his dark eyes scanning your face for signs of a reaction to his comment. You, however, took this as a challenge and decided not to make it easy for him.

"My sins are all I have left in my life, Father," You replied, your own tone dropping and silky smooth as you answered, "I have nothing but my sins to hold onto."

You could see Wolfwood's face changing colour at your answer, and you could see him swallowing hard as he processed your tone and your words. You had succeeded in flustering the priest back just as he had flustered you, and a sense of pride swelled in your chest.

After a few moments, Wolfwood had recovered and immediately took it one step further, bringing his face down close to yours. So close that you could feel his breath fanning across your skin as he spoke.

"Then... why don't I give you something else to hold onto?"

Your eyes widened at what he was insinuating - he couldn't possibly be serious. Could he?

"My, my, Wolfwood... are you suggesting what I think you are? And in a church, no less?"

Your tone was teasing, but you genuinely wanted to know if Wolfwood was seriously asking you if you wanted to sleep with him in a church. You knew that if Wolfwood was even the slightest bit serious in his teasing, you would accept without hesitation. It had been forever since you'd had sex with anybody, and the last time it had been some random stranger in a one-night stand. But Wolfwood... that would be sex to remember.

Wolfwood grinned cheekily at you, bringing himself closer until his lips were mere centimeters away from yours, "What's the point of absolving people of sin if they have no sins to absolve, eh, pretty lady? Makes my job more interesting."

"Oh, so I'm just a job to you, then?" You snapped at him - there was no way you were gonna let him get away with this.

You weren't making it easy for him to get into your pants, regardless of how badly you wanted it. You stood up, scoffing as you walked past him and begun walking towards the alter of the church, pretending to be upset with him to get him riled up.

"Hey, wait, I'm sorry, (Y/N). That's not what I meant, I just-" Wolfwood was explaining as he followed you up to where you stood at the front of the church, "I just meant-"

You couldn't keep it in any longer, bursting into laughter at his attempts to fix the "damage" he had done. The look of confusion and disbelief on his face was worth it, causing you to laugh harder.

"Oh, Wolfwood! Your face!" You were laughing hysterically, almost doubling over from laughing as you heard him grumbling under his breath. Once you recovered from your laughing fit, you turned to Wolfwood and walked up to him, getting all up in his personal space the way he had done with you earlier.

"So... Father... you gonna punish me for my sins?"

Your tone was sultry and silky again, low and seductive as your breath ghosted over his skin. You could see the goosebumps raising across Wolfwood's skin at your words, and you knew then and there you had him hook, line and sinker.

Sure enough, without saying another word, Wolfwood was pressing you up against the wall near the alter of the church, his lips pressing against yours in a passionate, messy, heated kiss. You could feel every muscled plane of Wolfwood's body pressing against yours, your arms coming up to wrap around his neck as you kissed him back hungrily.

"God..."

The whisper that escaped Wolfwood was breathless, as if the kiss and the taste and feeling of you had knocked the wind straight out of him. You just smirked up at him, panting slightly.

"I thought you weren't supposed to use the Lord's name in vain, Father."

The growl that left Wolfwood's throat was beyond primal, and you soon found yourself with his lips pressed against yours once more, his tongue soon exploring your mouth as yours explored his, relishing his taste and the feeling of him against you. His leg nudged yours apart, and you let out a stifled moan into his mouth as his thigh brushed against your clothed core, sending shockwaves of pleasure through your body.

"N-Nicholas," You moaned out, panting more heavily than before, struggling to find words as you felt his thigh continuing to brush against your core.

The smirk on Wolfwood's face was large, and it only grew as he brought his hand down to wrestle your pants off, revealing your underwear and the extremely noticeable wet spot forming on them from your arousal.

"Well, well, well, pretty lady," Wolfwood growled, "Seems somebody's enjoying herself."

"More," You moaned out, not caring of the location anymore - you wanted Wolfwood and you wanted him now, "More, Nicholas, please, more."

"Shhh, (Y/N). Don't you know patience is a virtue?" Wolfwood teased you gently, his fingers beginning to rub circles over your clit through your underwear, drawing more beautiful moans out of you.

"S-Sorry, Father," You replied, a small smile appearing on your lips as a groan escaped from Wolfwood as you spoke the word "Father" - it confirmed your suspicions that Wolfwood got turned on being called as such.

"Good girl," Wolfwood praised you, before kneeling down in front of you.

He slowly but surely pulled your underwear down and off of your body, before lifting one of your legs and letting it rest over his shoulder, raising your leg slightly and exposing your pussy to him, dripping wet from his touch and his taste and his words. The moan Wolfwood let out at the sight of your pussy had you blushing, and then you suddenly heard him mumbling something lowly. It took you a few moments to realize that he was praying.

"N-Nick?" You whined, shifting slightly as you desperately wanted him to touch you, even if only for half a second, but Wolfwood just continued praying until you were whining more and more. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, you heard Wolfwood mumble "Amen", signaling he was done praying.

"What was that?" You asked, looking down at him, your face flushed red as you gazed at the man who was level with your pussy.

A devilishly charming smile appeared on his face as he replied simply, as if stating the most obvious thing in the world, "I was saying grace and giving thanks for the meal I'm about to have."

Your expression became one of confusion, but before you could understand what Wolfwood had meant, Wolfwood leaned forward and immediately begin to eat you out like a starved man.

You almost shrieked at how amazing it felt, your hands burying themselves in the priest's dark hair as he continued to lick your pussy, alternating between licking and sucking and fucking you with his tongue. You had all but lost the ability to form coherent words, the only thing leaving you being moans, high-pitched whines, whimpers and Wolfwood's name on repeat.

"God, (Y/N), you taste incredible," Wolfwood moaned into your pussy, causing your cheeks to heat up and a particularly loud moan to slip from your lips.

You couldn't say anything in response, only bucking your hips so that Wolfwood could fuck you with his tongue a bit deeper, and suck on your clit just a touch harder.

The pressure within you was building, the coil of pleasure tightening more and more until you were right near the edge. As if reading your body and your thoughts, Wolfwood continued to eat you out but then slipped one of his fingers into your pussy, causing you to cry out. The sudden intrusion was welcomed, with you bucking your hips more as you chased your high, moaning louder and louder. Then, to your surprise, you felt Wolfwood moving his finger within you in a "come-hither" motion, grazing over that spongy spot inside you perfectly until you cried out and the coil of pleasure suddenly snapped, your orgasm washing over you in waves, over and over.

Wolfwood didn't move from your pussy, continuing to lick you and eat you out until you were completely down from your orgasm. When he finally withdrew, he was smirking widely, your slick all over his lips and chin, even as he pressed forward and kissed you, causing you to moan loudly as your tasted yourself on his lips and on his tongue. You don't know how, but this man, this priest, was making you feel better than anybody else ever had.

You simply continued to kiss Wolfwood passionately, your hands coming down to fumble with his belt, all but ripping it open and pulling his pants down enough so that you could palm his rock-hard cock. You gasped slightly at the feeling of Wolfwood, and you realized that this man was BIG. You cleared your throat, feeling your cheeks turning a bright red as you spoke up softly.

"Nicholas, a-are you sure you're gonna... fit?"

The smile on Wolfwood's face was big, and you could hear him chuckle as he leaned in for another passionate kiss.

"Don't worry, (Y/N), I think we got you well prepared to take it."

With that, Wolfwood pressed you back into the wall, lifting your leg into the crook of his elbow, stretching you open a bit more so that he could glide his cock over your pussy, letting out a moan as he watched and felt his cock brush against your slick, soft skin. If it was up to him, Wolfwood would've already been fucking you hard. But he knew this was the first time you two were together like this, so he should play nice.

"God, I've wanted you for so long, sweetheart."

You almost missed his words, your eyes widening at the priest's confession, your mind wandering away from the feeling of his cock against your pussy for a moment as you processed that. You just smirked in reply.

"Well, now you have me. Make it good, Wolfwood, and I'll consider doing this with you again."

Not needing to be issued the challenge twice, Wolfwood immediately adjusted himself so that his cockhead caught on your entrance, and in one slow, steady thrust, sheathed himself completely within you.

The cry of his name that left your throat as he did so would forever be engraved in Wolfwood's mind, and it would be something he'd strive to hear again and again for every day for the rest of his life. The feeling of your warm, tight walls clenching down around him was SO much better than he'd envisioned all those times he'd touched himself to the thought of fucking you. This was incomparable.

"O-Oh, God, (Y/N)..."

The broken moan that slipped from Wolfwood's lips made you clench tighter around him, pulling another moan from him in return. He was already so stupidly close to cumming, it was unbelievable. Just the feeling of sliding into you and feeling you around him was enough to get him close to the edge.

On your end, the sting of the stretch of Wolfwood entering you surprised you, causing you to hiss a bit at the feeling - he really was big. You hadn't ever been stretched as much during sex as you were being right now, and it was enough for you to know that you'd definitely want to fuck Wolfwood again and again and again. He just made you feel so full. It was incredible, feeling him pressed up inside you, his cock pressing on all the right places just sitting within you, not even moving yet.

"I-" You hiccupped, trying hard to form words, "You can move, now."

Wolfwood was now the one unable to speak, taking a moment before nodding and pulling himself out of you slowly before thrusting back into you hard. Immediately you moaned, reaching up to wrap your arms around his neck and pulling him down so you could kiss him. You and Wolfwood were moaning into each other's mouths as he fucked you at the alter of the church, with you begging him to move faster, thrust harder as that familiar coil of pleasure began to build within you again, faster than ever before.

"F-Father, I- I'm gonna-" You stuttered, your voice high-pitched and breathless as all you could focus on was the feeling of his cock stretching you out over and over, brushing over that spot deep inside you that drove you closer and closer to the edge.

"Cum for me, (Y/N), cum for me," Wolfwood growled, his hands grabbing your ass with a grip tight enough that you were sure he'd bruise you and slamming your hips forward in time with his thrusts, somehow going even deeper than he was going before.

Just feeling him grip you and manhandle you like that and hearing him growl alongside all the other sensations raging through your body immediately brought you straight over the edge, you crying out Wolfwood's name over and over as you came again, clenching down on him harder than ever before, milking his cock as you came on him.

That feeling of you squeezing him harder, your walls fluttering on his cock brought Wolfwood to the brink in an instant, another broken moan escaping his lips as he thrusted into you a few final times, "I'm cumming, oh, God, (Y/N), I'm cumming!"

You felt Wolfwood thrust into you one final time, all the way to the hilt and a warm feeling bloomed within your abdomen, signaling that Wolfwood had made good on his promise, cumming deep inside you. Both of you were panting hard as he let your leg down, his cock slipping from within you, both of you letting out a moan as he did so.

"O-Oh, my God..." You panted, your legs shaking as you looked at the priest, your eyes shining from the afterglow of your orgasm, "Nicholas, th-that was amazing..."

Wolfwood simply grinned at you as if he hadn't just fucked you better than any other man had before, before pulling his pants back up and getting himself more cleaned up. As you went to put your underwear back on, Wolfwood reached out and slapped your wrist.

"Ah, ah, ah. Leave those off."

You just gave him a confused look as he began to walk towards the entrance of the church, calling out, "What, why? Wolfwood, I can't walk back to the inn with no underwear on."

The priest smirked as he answered, "Yes, you can. Because I hope to sin with you again tonight the minute we get back to the inn. What do you think about that?"

You let out a small laugh, your pussy clenching at the thought of Wolfwood fucking you again tonight, and you could feel the combination of his and your cum beginning to trickle down your thighs. Regardless, you began to follow Wolfwood out of the church, heading back to the inn.

"I think I'm gonna have to actually go to confessional after all this."

And you couldn't have been happier.

[mediocreanomaly]

Oooh uncanny Vash! Yes! May we have hsfw hc with him?

Authors Note: I'm so sorry I turned this into a drabble instead of a HC list- if you guys still want general HC's lmk and I'll write it but hit with inspiration after a week of writers block. oh uh also no beta (we die like wolfwood?)

*Gender neutral reader but AFAB anatomy used. Inhuman genitalia, general uncanny bf stuff*

Uncanny Vash x Reader NSFW Drabble

Vash swallows, he knows you can see how hard he's staring. He couldn't count how many times you'd playfully shoved his face away with a smile on your lips.

"You know the reflection of your eyes give you away every time" you'd tease.

You don't laugh right now, not when your laying in front of him on the bed in nothing but your underwear, watching him through hooded eyes. God you'd be the death of him he was sure of it.

"Vash?" your voice is velvety with need "I want you"

He makes a high pitched keen at that, the two of you had been talking about tonight for awhile but he was still a bit apprehensive. You knew about his less than human traits and you loved him anyways. You never pulled away when his too long fingers laced with your own nor did you flinch when his body made noises it probably shouldn't. This was different though, he didn't want to hurt you, didn't want to be the cause of anything but your pleasure.

You watch as Vash's iris dilate watching you intently, he could see better than any human could in the dark something he was currently using to his advantage. Yet despite the longing look on his face he doesn't move, just lets his fingers flex and unflex at his sides as if it's causing him physical pain to not be touching you. That won't do at all. You reach out gingerly and take his hand in your own. His skin is cool to the touch, it's honestly a bit refreshing considering how obnoxiously warm all of Gunsmoke is. Although his fingers would feel better other places.

"You won't hurt me Vash, I trust you" and you do, more than you probably should.

Vash's breathing stutters and another whine bubbles up from somewhere in his chest.

"Mayfly...what if I go too far? What if I-"

"You won't" you interrupt. "And we have a safe word remember? Even if something happened I'd just say donuts! and we'd be done"

He weakly smiles at that, the silliness of the word easing a bit of the anxiety that's surrounding him but you can tell he needs a bit more convincing. You move forward and run a hand under his shirt, tracing out the scars the litter his body. He shivers and you can hear the creaking of his limbs as he leans forward.

"Mayfly..."

Whatever he was going to say dies on his lips as you push his shirt up and litter kisses along his abdomen trailing down his blonde happy trail lower and lower until you stop right above the sweat pants he has on, luckily he was smart enough to have changed out of the ridiculous leather outfit for tonight...not that it didn't look good on him.

Vash can feel his will power slipping away, he should be stronger than this but he's not. You've barely even touched him and his mind is going fuzzy with thoughts of you being bare under him.

"Vash?"

He glances down at you, the room suddenly feeling too hot, he blinks lazily and you get of glimpse of his extra eyelid clearing his eyes.

"I need you" you let your breath fan his hip and have to rub your thighs together when a low growl rips though Vash.

He drags you up further on the bed and you feel his body straightening out. Vash is already tall, but he has a habit of hunching so humans don't realize how tall he really is. You can hear the snap and groan of bones as he hovers over your body, seven feet at least if not more.

His hands roam over your body cool skin making you shiver as he pulls your underwear away to expose you fully. Any protest about you being the only one bare are fully interrupted when Vash makes an eager chirp noise. He opens his mouth revealing a row of razer sharp teeth and is it sick that only makes you more aroused?

An abnormally long tongue darts out of his mouth to drag across your aching sex. You whine throwing your head back as Vash eats you out, moaning when the thick muscle presses against your puffy walls. It reaches deep inside you, Vash seems fixed on mapping you out, exploring every part of your body he can. You mewl which causes drawn out clicks from the man- or plant between your legs.

He pulls his head back and you make a soft protest at the loss but it doesn't last long. Vash focuses his tongue on your aching clit as two fingers move to replace the empty space his tongue left. You cry out, thanking every god you can think of that Vash's fingers are longer than most, or at least certainly longer than any normal persons ought to be as he curls against a spot that makes you see stars.

"Mayfly please, need to taste you" he begs proving his point by burying his face back between your legs, assaulting your bundle of nerves.

You shudder as you cum, burying a hand in the mess of blonde hair that's adamant on taking you apart. It's almost comical when Vash looks up at you. Eye's so dilated there's almost no white or blue to be seen, mouth lulled open too far, putting his teeth and serpent like tongue on full display, faint feathers already beginning to peak out along his cheeks. Something probably meant to be an apex predator watching you as your own release drips off his face.

Vash makes a trill noise and crawls on top of you, long limbs framing your form as he leans down to kiss you. You can taste yourself when he presses his tongue into your mouth, you reach up to card your hand along his under cut rewarding you with as purr as his chest rumbles against your own. Speaking of which, you lazily peak your eyes open to see he's undressed, when did he even do that?

He pulls away to look between the two of you and you finally see Vash fully. Something akin to flower petals sit between his legs, they flare out, thin lines of some sort of bioluminescent slick string from petal to petal. There's a slit nestled among the flower, when something wet begins to protrude from it. It reminds you a bit of a tentacle although it looks smooth and is covered in the same substance at the petals. You tentatively reach down and the member wraps around your hand, it pulses slightly trying to chase release. Vash's chest rumbles with a growl as he buries his head against you neck bucking his hips slightly, an embarrassed keen joining his sounds of pleasure.

"So pretty..." you breathe watching the way Vash's body so eagerly reacts to you.

"Mayfly please- no teasing I can't take it" he whines, although it sounds a bit off like two voices slightly delayed over each other. That was new, what else could Vash do?

You guide Vash to your entrance and he's all but panting, his body creaks and groans as his real form shows through more and more, you can see the bones of his hips and spine jut out against his skin but he seems to out of it to notice, not that you want him to hold back. You want to show Vash he can be himself, that you won't run.

He lifts his head to look at you, his eyes widening when he sees your face. You look intoxicating, your cheeks flushed, lips swollen from kissing, eyes hazy with lust. He swears something short circuits in his brain his instincts screaming claim. He can't help it, he jerks his hips forward sinking into you in one motion.

You moan at Vashs sudden movement, he doesn't give you time to recover either, growling and whimpering as he fucks into you.

"a-ah m'sorry Mayfly, can't help my-myself" he whines between noises, you can't respond but you show him your okay by crashing both your lips together, moaning into his mouth which he dutifully swallows down.

His body is vibrating, a deep rumble coming from his chest paired with the sound of something snapping and ripping. Multiple pairs of large white wings sprout from his body reaching up high enough to touch the ceiling. Some of them curve out in pleasure while others wrap around your body as if protecting you from the outside world. Vash's breath catches and he mewls as he thrust before biting down against your neck.

You arch into him and he tightens his grip on your hips, fingers long enough they almost fully wrap around your waist. He makes a cooing noise as he licks up any of the blood beading from the wound soothing it down.

"Mine" he snarls in your ear, you moan squeezing down around him making his wings flex as a needy whine leaves his mouth.

You can feel his cock moving in you, fucking itself even deeper into your wet pussy, it's a bit odd but certainly not unwelcomed especially when you can feel the tip of it's blunt head massage at your womb.

You can hear the bed creak from how rough Vash thrust against you. his body shivers and he makes a shrill noise. His hand flies down to grip at the sheets, you hear it rip he cums with a cry.

It's warm, filling you to the brim and he pumps you full of it. It doesn't seem to stop, continuously leaking out of him as he shows no sign of slowing down.

"May-mayfly cum on me- want to feel it, want you to feel good too"

His movements are desperate and you can feel his own cum frothing at your entrance as he spills into you then fucks it back in. You reach up to claw at his back and he shivers when you touch along where his wings meet flesh. His hand moves between your bodies to press against your clit and it's all it takes to send you over the edge.

You tremble crying out his name as you finish. Vash howls at the feeling burying his face against your neck as he finally spills all he has left into your pussy. You can tell the blanket is soaked from how much Vash came but you're too tired to do much about it but shift slightly out of the wet spot.

The two of you breathe when you hear a small whimper from your boyfriend. His kisses along the bite he left and looks at you teary eyed.

"I'm sorry Mayfly was I too rough? Did I hurt you?" he ask looking you over, you silence his worries with a kiss. He melts into it with a pleased hum, loud purrs starting back up.

"I love you" you stroke your fingers softly over the feathers that still cover his cheek and temples, a happy chirp leaves his lips as he turns to kiss your palm.

"I love you too"

[novasintheroom]

Hellooooo!! Could you write about how Vash and wolfwood would react to reader being jealous, or the boys getting jealous over the reader please? Either would be great!

Thank you so much!!!

So, I only did Vash with this one since I'm in a Vash mood. Hope you enjoy a jealous reader!

Now part of the 150 Bullets drabble series on AO3.

010: Jealousy

♡ Pairing - Vash x fem!Reader

♡ Word count - 0.7k

♡ Warnings - none

His shoulders are broad – that coat hides it well. You watch him rub shoulders with some of the locals at the bar. They pat his back, congratulate him on a job well done turning those bandits out of town.

“First round’s on me,” a woman purrs next to him. She rubs one of his shoulders. His ears go red, and you turn away with a silly gut feeling reserved for jealous teen girls. Luckily, your meal order comes.

“Alright,” the man says, setting down two large sets of plates, “got your house special here, and two bread bowls with our daily soup.” He wipes his hands and gives you a smile. “That’s a lot for a lady!”

“Oh, uh,” you blanch at the slight insult, “my friend, he’s…” you gesture toward Vash. The woman is hanging off his arm now, and it’s hard to tell if his coat or cheeks are redder. Still, he gives her a charming smile. Your stomach curdles. You thought that was your smile.

The man looks toward Vash and clicks his tongue. “Wouldn’t want to be him. Gabby has a way of getting into your wallet when you aren’t looking.” Alarmed, you stand, but the man laughs and waves you down. “I just mean her looks, darlin’. Fellas always throw her gifts and presents when they walk into town. Our hero might just find himself some double dollars short if he lets her keep at it.” He pauses and smiles, “‘Sides, maybe he deserves it for leaving you alone.” He looks you over and gives a wink. “Couldn’t be me if I had someone like you around all the time.”

Now you feel hot. A shaky laugh escapes, but you’re still slightly charmed by his obvious flirting.

“Here,” he continues, and slips a fat slice of cake on the table. “It’s not much, but you’re a hero like him. I saw the way you tricked those bandits into going outside. Wouldn’t have turned out nearly as nice if you hadn’t.” He takes your hand, bends down, and presses a light kiss to your knuckle. The man thankfully waves and goes back to the kitchen afterward.

You don’t know why, but you’re touched by the gesture. Not often people even notice you around when Vash saves the day – or ruins it, depending on who you are. You hum and pick at the cake, thinking of eating it before Vash can even smell it.

“Who was that?”

You jump at his voice and watch Vash slide into the booth. He gives you a smile, but it’s off. It’s one of his reserved ones, the one where he isn’t sure about something. “Oh,” you say, “just the waiter from the kitchen. He was just chatting.”

“Looked like flirting to me,” he comments. His mouth skews, his eyes watch the waiter go back through the swinging door with a strange intensity.

And just the way he says it, after he had a woman nearly in his lap not two minutes ago…An ugly little monster crawls up your throat and says, “Maybe it was.” You stab a bit of the cake and take a bite. “Wouldn’t mind getting picked up by him. Good lookin’.”

Those broad shoulders slump, and you feel no joy in the way his eyes sadden. “Oh, well…” he clears his throat and picks up a fork for his soup, “good for you!”

Any mirth you got from his reaction is short lived. He swirls the fork in his bread bowl, picking it up and letting the liquid dribble off the prongs, then doing it again. It's like you kicked a puppy. You sigh and get up. Damn his thick skull. Vash watches, suddenly afraid you're leaving (where? To the waiter?), but instead you sit beside and hip-check him to make room. “We’d better eat this cake before Gabby gets her grubby hands on it, too.”

Your shoulders brush, and you feel more than see him perk up – at your closeness, and the promise of cake. He’s too easy to please, you think. But your forks pick away at the cake before your dinner, and as you both fight over the last piece in a duel of utensils, you think you’re easy to please, too.

Especially when you have that charming smile all to yourself again.

[bendycxmet]

Pent-Up—Nicholas D. Wolfwood

Summary: Wolfwood has been waiting for you all day. Plus, he's horny.

Pairing: gn!reader x Wolfwood

Content: smut (18+ MDNI), oral (reader receiving), maybe a lil nasty if you count not showering immediately when you get home, dry humping, desperation, wolfwood is horny and a lil dirty pervert, i tried to make this as gender neutral as possible

with a heavy sigh, you shoulder your way into your and Wolfwood's apartment. the door shuts noisily behind you as you collapse your whole weight against it, alerting your boyfriend to your late arrival from work. wherever he is.

you groan, upset he's nowhere to be seen. you really needed a hug from him. immediately.

you throw your bag onto the ground, relieving yourself of some of the heavy burden that's been on your shoulders since leaving your workplace. toeing off your shoes, you make your way into the kitchen to look for a much needed snack.

"wolfwood??" no response.

"wolfie~?" you start to tease, knowing he despises but secretly loves your nicknames for him.

"...woowoo?" you try one last time. that's definitely gonna get him to you.

closing the fridge, you peek around to the hallway, finally noting the doors are all closed. is he not home?

you're quickly proven wrong, the door to your shared bedroom flying open, steam flowing to the ceiling from the bathroom off to the side. Wolfwood stands in the doorway, a surprised look on his face.

"wolfwood! i knew that last one would get you. sorry i got home so late. busy day yanno. did you just take a shower? a bit late isn't it?" you remark to him, turning your eyes back to the kitchen, navigating your snack options.

"how-" he clears his throat. "how was your day darling?" he breathily asks.

you look towards him, eyebrow raised. you take in his appearance, from his heaving chest, to his hand gripping the doorframe, and finally to his boxers. he's only in his boxers, a tent evident in the front.

"uh, it's not that important. it's whatever. are you ok?"

he growls at you, taking steps towards where you stand in the kitchen, grabbing at your hands.

"I've been alone all day, missing my sweetheart, and the first conversation we have, they won't even tell me about their day? the day that's kept them so busy... away from me?"

you gulp at the gravelly tone he's speaking with.

"Wolfie... what's gotten into you?"

"oh honey, a guy has needs. and today, i was feeling a little... abandoned. with my issue down there." he moves your hand to cup him, gasping when you feel how hard he is. he's been pent up for hours.

he moans, squeezing his eyes as he pushes your hand away. "I've missed you too much." he sinks to his knees, hands wrapping around your hips to keep you in place.

"wolf-" your knees buckle slightly when he noses your crotch. "wolfwood! wait! i haven't had the chance to shower! I'm all sweaty and gross." you whine.

his chuckle vibrates into your pelvis.

"when I asked you about your day, i want to know about all of it." you shudder at his implications, hand shooting out to grip the counter as he grabs your bottoms, pushing down both your underwear and pants.

your other hand knots itself into his dark waves when you feel his hot breath hit you. a deep groan rumbles through him.

"yeah you better hold on tight baby. I've been waiting for this all day. not even a hot shower could clear my head of you."

with that, he dives in, desperately sucking in a mouthful of you. you cry out, your fingers tightening in his hair. he puts his tongue to work, licking you vigorously.

you pry your eyes open, haze settling over you as pleasure courses through every nerve ending. you wanted to see what was down below you, rarely seeing wolfwood on his knees for you.

maybe you could die happy in that moment, knowing wolfwood would always worship you like this.

a long lick up your most intimate area causes you to hiss, your body stepping backwards to get away from the overwhelming sensation. wolfwood doesn't like that.

he pulls away, an angry downturn in his eyebrows. he wraps his large hands further around you waist and pushes you against the fridge. now there was no space left for you to shy away from his affections. his hand snaps against your backside, causing you to yelp.

"stay." he demands, a finality layering his command.

wolfwood returns to you with newfound determination. perhaps as punishment for keeping him waiting so long today. his hands comes backto your backside, squeezing, humming his appreciation of the nectar that flows from between your legs. you whimper, feeling your lower stomach beginning to burn, signaling the end. he brings his hips closer to your leg. you feel the wetness of his pants, the twitching of his cock. so he was getting off to this. what a pervert.

you give him some relief, pushing your leg harshly against his cock. he moans his thanks into you, hips moving against you.

"baby, i won't last much longer," you manage to get out between stuttering breaths, his tongue making it hard to concentrate on the sentences formulating in your head.

he hums, knowing exactly what'll get you to your peak. his hands move to play with you, stroking you gently, the opposite of how his tongue was treating you. your hips begin to buck, breath hitching as the coil in your stomach tightens.

"wolfwood-!"

his lips suddenly reach your most sensitive spot, lips wrapping and sucking harshly around the area. you moan loudly into the kitchen, body rigid as your orgasm courses through you. the fog in your brain clears just enough for you to catch the hitch in wolfwoods panting, hips pressing roughly into your leg. your knees shake, threatening to take you to the ground.

wolfwood of course would never let that happen. he grabs you, pulling you down to his level, letting you catch your breath against his shoulder. he pets your hair, kissing the side of your face.

"so rough day huh?"

"you have no idea." you reach your hand down to graze your fingers against the incredibly wet spot on his boxers. "looks like I wasnt the only one having it rough."

he laughs roughly, pulling you up until you're standing.

"let's just call it a tie. shower?"

"never without you~" you peck his cheek, pulling him towards the bathroom.

masterlist

divider by saradika

a/n: look i just remembered someone talking about their fav eating them out pre shower and I immediately thought of wolfwood. that man can get down and dirty. also this is written so late at night for me so forgive me for any errors. i need to go to bed

[meguwumibear]

fics for gaza

hello everyone!! let's see how this goes. i will be participating in the @ficsforgaza initiative in an effort to raise money towards vetted fundraisers. please follow the blog and reach out with additional questions there.

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better a beta

beta!dabi x omega!reader (NSFW, dubious consent) endeavor has a hot new intern at his hero agency and dabi can't wait to ruin her

no rest for the wicked 1,500/10,000

post war dabi x reader (NSFW) the plf successfully defeats hero society. shame they're having such a hard time rebuilding the world in their image. lucky for them you worked for the hpsc and are great with pr

untitled

hawks x reader (NSFW, dubious consent)

i'm having a hard time summarizing this but basically the reader was left behind by the plf after the gigantomachia incident and hawks finds her holed up in a hotel room. they've both had sexual experiences with dabi and in his absence, well...

untitled

megumi x reader (no curse au, currently sfw) 1,000/?

meet ugly in which megumi loses control of his dogs and in an earnest attempt to stop them from escaping you get knocked flat on your ass

untitled

megumi x reader (no curse au, NSFW) 500/8,000

your shitty roommate cheats on her nice boyfriend and you suffer the consequences. years later you reconnect with her ex and wonder what life would have been like if you'd been the one to date him instead.

untitled

nai x reader (currently sfw)

once, as a child, you stick your nose where it doesn't belong. you learn what a plant is and what your survival costs. now you're a plant engineer who's caught the eye of someone or something dangerous.

i was born knowing you 500/?

astarion x reader (currently sfw, plot heavy, complex mc) a mysterious, irremovable ring finds itself on your finger. as long as you wear it you are cursed to be forgotten. decades into your sentence, you stumble across a pale elf able to remember.

requests

i will also open 3-5 request slots. same pricing as above ($1 per 100 words) however I am going to cap requests at 1,000 words. i reserve the right to decline requests i do not feel comfortable taking on.

what i'll write for:

jjk: open to most characters, especially megumi, yuuji, sukuna, and nanami. if you request a character i do not feel i can do justice i will inform you so

bnha: again open to most characters, especially dabi, tomura, hawks, shouto, and shinsou. and again if you request a character i do not feel i can do justice i will inform you so

trigun: wolfwood, vash, nai, legato

bg3: astarion

you can ask about other fandoms but these are currently my mains.

i am comfortable writing dark content and nsfw. if you would like to request something from me i ask you do so off anon with your age in your bio.

i will not write pregnancy or kid fics but am open to basically anything else. if you are curious about other content i will or won't write for feel free to ask.

i will do my best to send updates regarding the wc of your request. please keep in mind i work during the week and do not always have the time to write consistently.

[concussed-to-pieces]

Wolves At The Door; Epilogue

Fandom: Resident Evil [Village]

Pairing: Karl Heisenberg/AFAB!Reader

Rating: Holy shit M.

Summary: It was a little comforting to have a nightly ritual once more, however. Before it had been you and Karl discussing anything that struck him after dinner, and the silence continued to yawn around you at mealtimes. 

A/N: Welcome all, welcome to our final installment! I'd like to thank you all for reading, and for having faith in me to see this through safe and sound. Never fear, you will always have your happy ending 💚 Enjoy!

Tag List:  @cookiethewriter @amneris21 @topgirl17 @vodkafolie @a-smol-witch @clockworkmidnight @calwitch @silver-quinn01 @velvet-paradox @hijackser @mrs-wolfwood @nonstop-haikyuu @mic-sunderland @somethingthatsaysbubbles @fullofmoonsandstars @stargazerofgoldenwords @imthegreenfairy86 @karlskitten @nitrogennightmare @chunnies @thirstworldproblemss @highly-unknown @tartimaar-bloggeth @thesmartbiscuit @spoopyredacted @crowtrobotx @kotall-ohh @doggydale @jackie-loves-yalls-writing @simplysolo @teeheemax

x. Prelude

1. Indebted

2. Blood On Your Hands

3. Brush With Death

4. Come To Bed

5. Smells Like Snow

6. Hot Iron

7. Turnover

8. Backslide

9. Tender Gray Light

10. Hubris’ Weight

[!TRIGGER WARNING!: This installment contains mentions of blood, canon-typical violence, graphic depictions of mental and physical duress and sexual acts between two consenting adults. Stay safe!]

You hadn't been counting, but if you had, it would have been sixty-seven days. Sixty-seven days since Karl had vanished, sixty-seven days since you had heard another human's voice or even seen another person. 

Sixty-seven days. You weren't counting. 

Spring was fully upon the forest, buds erupting on the trees and the river swollen with runoff from the melting snow. It was one of your busiest times of the year between scavenging fallen trees, resetting the snares and sorting through your seeds to plant. You were extremely busy and you didn't think about it at all.

Not even when the Duke made his first appearance of the season.

…

“It brings me joy to see you once more, my dear! This winter was long and harsh.” The large man exclaimed, mopping his sweaty face with a handkerchief. “I'm wondering if you might assist me with a small problem. It seems someone may have suffered a bit of an incident, a turn of bad luck.” 

Despite this being the thing he always said when he had found an animal for you to nurse, your heart still gave a traitorous little jump in your chest. That is, of course, until a small doe limped around the rear of the cart. 

“What's wrong, my dear?” The Duke queried, and when you glanced at him his expression was strangely stoic. “Were you expecting someone else?”

“No, I…” You hesitated. “I guess not. What's happened to this little girl?”

“She claims that she got her fore left leg caught in the fork of a tree. The woods have been so peaceful as of late though that, aside from the pain, she wasn't scared,” the Duke mused thoughtfully, a swollen hand resting gently on the animal's head. “Apparently her leg would have been broken had she panicked. She had to remain still for several hours to get free.”

You were always entertained by the way the merchant acted like he could understand the woodland creatures he brought to you, but if nothing else he clearly had a way with them. The black horse that drew his cart, for instance, had never balked or shied away in all the times that the Duke had rattled his wares around behind the creature's head. 

You squinted upwards at the Duke. “So I'm salving and wrapping her leg?”

“Indeed, a simple fix.” He bent down, giving you a look so intent it made you a little uncomfortable. “And I'll give something to you as a token of my appreciation.”

“Huh?”

He simply winked, then gestured at the doe. 

You were burning with curiosity. What could he be granting you? And for free, no less! Ablaze with possibilities you didn't dare hope for, you nonetheless dutifully tended to the small scrape on the deer's thin leg.

“A familiar task for you, I'd wager.” The Duke finally spoke again, cigar smoke wafting around his head like a cloud. You gave him a confused look, quirking your brow, yet his face remained amicably bland. 

You eventually settled back onto your haunches, wiping a few beads of sweat from your brow. While the weather had yet to truly warm up, the sunlight was beaming through the still-leafless trees. 

The doe staggered to her feet, bleating at you loud enough to make you jump. The Duke laughed as if in reply, that large hand landing on the animal's head once more. “Off you get now, little hind. You know the way home.” He murmured, giving her another pat before she departed. “She said thank you, by the by.” The large man informed you almost absently, already searching through his pockets for another cigar.

“Oh of course,” was your dry response, making him chuckle. “What's with all this cryptic stuff, though?”

“Ah, to business.” The Duke rubbed his hands together, his rings jangling discordantly as he did. “A favorite subject. Regrettably my gift is nothing really physical, it is instead a message.” His keen eyes felt suddenly sharp, as though he was seeing through your soul itself. “That iron horse does not forget its master so easily, especially one so gracious as you, my dear.”

You stared up at him blankly. Horse? What? What the hell is that supposed to mean?

The Duke seemed entertained by your bewilderment, the man grinning and leaning back on the bench of his cart. “Perhaps it would be more apt to dub him the feral mutt you've brought to heel. After all, kindness and a warm meal are lures potent enough to drag in even the most stoic of men.”

“That's not funny.” You said in a curt tone, hating that you could feel your lower lip quivering slightly. “I…that's not funny, Mr. Duke.”

He was abruptly serious. “I don't jest lightly, my dear.”

“Then why would you say that?!” You snapped, getting to your feet and dusting off the knees of your pants. “I didn't help out just so you could sit up there and make fun of me-”

“My dear I assure you, I'm as sincere as the day is long.” The Duke insisted, knocking some ash from the end of his cigar. “Call it a…perhaps a merchant's intuition. After all, it's important to have a certain level of foresight, to be able to read the ebbs and flows of the market and adjust to demand ahead of schedule. How else would I keep my clientele?” 

“You're not making any sense.” You growled, now frustrated with your corpulent visitor.

He tipped his head back, expelling another waft of smoke upwards. “Have a little faith, will you? Creature of habit that you are, have faith in the unseen, the unknown.” The Duke jabbed his cigar at you. “Or continue to wallow in your discontent, counting the days that you claim mean nothing.”

You recoiled physically as if he had struck you, taking in a deep breath to deny his words. But instead all that came out was a soft, pitiful, “I miss him.”

The Duke nodded, oddly sympathetic all of a sudden. “Have faith, my dear.” He clasped your hand between his own enormous paws, eyes sincere. “The spring is upon us, and new life grows eternal in these woods. Keep your lanterns lit.”

…

Damn, it's quiet. 

It echoed in his ears, a looping nothingness like static. Abruptly his heartbeat interrupted it, thudding deafeningly in his skull. What the hell had the good-for-nothing organ been doing before that?!

The beat was slow, much slower than it ought to be. His thoughts were barely there, sluggish and disjointed. 

Rain hammering what was once his face, the boom of thunder and the grinding shriek of metal–

No, no, he had dealt with that already. Where was he? It was so frustrating not being able to think, to string along a process to its conclusion. 

He flexed his right hand, confused by how numb it was. Pins and needles lurched down the limb in a wave, making him shudder and grunt. That shudder dislodged…something, a huge, sharp something that, from what he could struggle to put together, was what had pinned him to the wall he was currently pressed against. 

It didn't seem to matter if he opened his eyes or kept them closed, either way he was effectively sightless and plagued with vertigo. Had he gone blind?

A groan rattled dryly out of his throat. The skin on his lips cracked with the exhale, and he felt liquid begin to dampen them. His tongue flicked out on reflex, the man tasting rust and dirt. Unbidden came a warm flash as if from a dream, cinnamon and brown sugar, plum spice cake.

Standing was a challenge. More of a slow, creaking shift into what could be vaguely considered an upright position. Fingers scratching at the mud around him, the man levered himself off the ground with the help of what was left of his enormous hammer. The handle of it felt more brittle than he had expected, the scent of rust filling the air when his fingers gripped down. 

How long has it been? 

And then, a new thought occurred, one that seemed to fully shock him to life. Have I just been dreaming this entire time?

Had you just been some vivid hallucination? Had the Duke even scraped him off the ground and brought him to safety, or had he just crawled back into his burrow to die once the saga of he and Winters’ fracas had played out? 

Was any of it real?

The ground squelched wetly beneath whatever was left of his boots as he staggered forward, but it also crunched in a grim manner. He didn't want to think too hard on that, instead focusing on sending out pulses of his power. He couldn't truly see, but at least he knew where metallic objects were in proximity to him and he could use that knowledge to keep from toppling over. 

He wasn't certain how long he meandered through the sunless wreckage. Was it hours, or weeks? Slowly, painfully, one shuffling foot in front of the other, he continued on aimlessly. He wondered to himself if this was how earthworms felt, wriggling through the cold earth in search of sustenance and never deigning to see the sunlight.

He barely even noticed when it started to become brighter around him, reasoning that he must simply be imagining it when faintly from far, far above came a distant dawn chorus of birdsong. The man paused, straining his eyes to see in the dim light, and he could only just make out a faint glow in the distance. His legs, all but atrophied from disuse, protested mightily when he tried to up his pace, so he was forced to maintain the speed of a snail moving through cold molasses.

It was a long, hard trek. The rubble-laden floor angled slightly upwards to the…hole? cave in?, leaving the man to simply flounder and scrape his shins on the detritus he was too weary to lift his legs over. 

As the light strengthened, he came to the sudden realization that he was all but naked. What was left of his clothing was in ribbons, caked with ichor, old blood and mold. His boots seemed to be coming apart at the seams, blooming white patches of mold eating into the remnants of the leather. He then shivered as the first bracing breeze of the outside world graced his lungs, and the coughing spasm it startled out of him seemed to dislodge more than it should have. 

When he finally was able to straighten back up, his spine settled into place, releasing an earsplitting pop! as it did. Relief flooded his body, the pain dulling to a manageable throb. He took a few more tentative breaths, noting as he did how much brighter his surroundings had become. Had he been walking through the night, and just reached the entrance at dawn?

It doesn't really matter, he decided, squaring his shoulders. The only thing that matters is…

“I have to go back.” He grimaced at the rasp of his own voice, swallowing and trying again. “I have to…make sure it wasn't all in my head.”

I have to see them. And when I do, I…

His heart lurched painfully in his chest. What if it had all just been a dream? Some wild wish-fulfillment of a gentler, kinder existence while his body slowly repaired itself after his glorious defeat at the hands of Ethan Winters? 

His empty stomach felt like it was caving in, fear and resignation warring in his gut, but after a moment of hesitation he shook the hair out of his eyes and stepped out into the cool yellow light of a spring morning.

The first thing he noticed was no humanoid footprints, to his absolute delight. No wolf prints, no footprints, nothing. At least he hadn't failed in that regard. Unless he had imagined it and those fucks who put up the fence had also been the ones to eradicate the lycans and their pets. 

Gods, his head hurt. The sun, just barely over the horizon now, seemed like it was burning his retinas clean out of his skull. He shaded his eyes with his palm, grimacing in pain. He would go check the bulkhead he had entered through, he decided. Check the bulkhead, see if it even existed, then check for fresh tracks there. And then…and then…

He slumped against the rubble of the caved-in factory wall, running a hand over his face. His facial hair was extremely unruly and matted with grime, and he doubted the rest of him looked any better. Once he departed the village, put some distance between himself and this…malodorous valley, he would have to clean himself up. If you were real, if he hadn't imagined you in a fit of self-indulgent madness, he doubted you would be overly impressed with him showing up half-dead, reeking of stale sweat, mold and wet dog.

To say nothing of the fact that his clothing was in tatters.

It was a slow, zig-zagging walk back to where he had descended into the factory previously.  At least he knew for certain that the bulkhead existed, the man reasoned with himself while he scrutinized the ground around the bulkhead that hadn't caved in. Again, nothing. No fresh marks, no scrapes, no scuffs. Not so much as a sparrow's tiny claw marks graced the ground. Seemingly the local wildlife gave the valley a wide berth, which made sense. Between Miranda's crow forms and the various nightmarish denizens of this place, it was only logical for normal creatures to avoid it.

He straightened up, squinting against the sunlight once more. He could only just make out that ridiculous fence way off by the outskirts of the valley, and if he remembered the fence…

The man gripped the remains of the haft of his hammer and began walking. It had only taken him a few hours of running to get here before, but after his…rest, it would seem that running wasn't in the cards for today. Or ever again, if the screaming in his calves was anything to go by. So walking it was, doing his best to ignore the tremor in his legs as he went. 

He mainly left his attention on the ground, familiar enough with the valley that he could afford to do so. Back around the swamp he went, nearly losing the sole of one of his boots to the sucking mud that surrounded the area.

He had to get to you. He had to know whether you were real. The fear and hope cycled in his head, back and forth, round and round, and he wondered hazily if he had snapped (or snapped more). 

Climbing the rise felt like an impossible task and yet eventually he stood at the top, sweating and panting but there. 

Without an ounce of finesse, Karl Heisenberg gracelessly tore open a section of the fence and made his escape out into the forest, never once looking back at the village that had been his home for so many years. No, all that his thoughts could stay latched onto was the memory of plum spice cake and the way you had looked at him that night.

He had to get to you. He had to make sure that you were real. And…

He had to apologize.

He had to make this right.

If you hated him, that was fine! It was your right. He would hate him. What he had done was stupid. You made him feel something that he didn't understand, and for someone as self-assured as Karl, that was terrifying. 

Cut them off at the source. More like run from a problem he didn't think he could handle, like some cowardly bitch. The man snarled at himself in discontent, his pace picking up to some sort of lumbering jog. Deer fled before him, nimble bodies flitting through the undergrowth as he did his best to retrace his steps. At least he had the river to follow, if nothing else.

Speaking of which.

Karl knelt beside the rushing water, grateful that he couldn't see his reflection. He had a decent imagination, he didn't need to confirm it. 

It was cold as ice, the chill of it taking his breath away. Karl took another breath and shoved his head underwater, closing his eyes to keep…whatever was in his hair out of them. The man then flipped the soggy hair back over his head, finger-combing it away from his face.

Karl proceeded to drink greedily from the river, the frigid water a shock and blessing all in one. He hadn't realized just how thirsty he was, the man finally sloppily wiping his mouth and beard and then getting to his feet once more. The handle of his hammer remained on the ground beside the river, forgotten, as Heisenberg continued onward along the bank.

He felt like he was actually awake now, like he'd emerged from some kind of dream (or nightmare) into these woods. His footing grew more sure, atrophy fading as his muscles warmed up both from use and from the strengthening sunlight streaming through the trees.

He wanted to laugh, he wanted to cry. The day was so young, the sky overhead a vibrant blue and the moss beneath his boots a lush, fluffy green. It was honestly beautiful and Karl had no idea how he had never seen it before. Had he been wandering through life with his eyes shut until now?

No, he thought firmly, he had only begun to open them when he met you. You had done that. You had been worth it, had been worth him taking actual notice of the world around him. 

You had to be real. You must be. None of the other phantoms he had encountered in his life had any substance to them, but you…

Heisenberg clenched his fists, urging his body to move faster.

…

Keep your lanterns lit.

And so you did. The Duke had left you with a physical gift despite his claims to the contrary; a sturdy metal lantern with a large cutout shaped like a horse. Every night as the sun was setting, you went out to where it hung on your front gate and lit the candle inside it, which, curiously, never seemed to get any shorter. You, admittedly, didn't have much faith, you just assumed the Duke had been trying to comfort you with some platitude. 

It was a little comforting to have a nightly ritual once more, however. Before it had been you and Karl discussing anything that struck him after dinner, and the silence continued to yawn around you at mealtimes. You would take what you could get. You often lingered out by the fence for a while, telling yourself you weren't really listening as you strained your ears to hear anything, anything at all. You knew it was futile and you weren't actually expecting anything to come of it, yet still you persisted in wasting time by the front gate.

With the lengthening days you were occasionally out past dusk, cutting wood or finishing house repairs. On one such day, a floorboard on the porch that had begun creaking in the winter finally annoyed you enough that you decided to attempt to fix it. 

You spent most of the day carefully foraging drips of pine pitch from nearby trees, intending to make a batch of pine tar in the evening. Board couldn't creak if it couldn't move, right? 

You set up your highly-technical ‘refining station’, which definitely wasn't just an old beans can nestled down into the dirt beneath your fire pit, a slightly-larger tomato can with holes poked into the bottom of it resting on top. Then, after dropping all your resin in the upper can, you carefully built the fire up, placing a rock over the top of the can to act as a lid. The melting process could take a few hours, depending on the fire, so it was after sundown when you began to cautiously sift through the charcoal. You would need a few good, clean pieces to mix in with the now-filtered resin, in order to ensure some pliability remained.

You had interrupted the task at sunset, moving in an automatic way from the firepit to the fence to light the lantern. You could see the glow of it now out of the corner of your eye, even while you pored over the char. 

Maybe it does nothing but make me feel a little less alone. 

You stared down at your gloved hands full of blackened wood, blinking furiously when tears began to blur your vision. You continued, albeit a bit more clumsily, to separate out the cleanest chunks of charcoal, doing your best to make a neat little pile. 

A boot abruptly landed squarely in the middle of the pile and you couldn't help the terrified noise that left your mouth, scrambling to try and get to your feet. Before you could, though, the person dropped to their knees and wrapped their arms around you, trapping you in place. Wiry unkempt facial hair scuffed your cheek while you just sat there, frozen stiff with fear.

“Sugar.” 

Karl. 

Your breath caught in your throat. You felt his entire body shudder. “I couldn't remember if you were real.” His voice cracked. “I followed the light, but I couldn't–I'm…I'm so sorry, sugar. I'm so, so sorry, I don't know if I can ever make it up to you, I-I just-”

You silently returned his hug, sure that you were leaving charcoal stains on his clothes but not able to find it in you to care all that much. Karl stopped trying to speak after a few moments, the man sagging against you with his forehead resting on your shoulder. “Tell me in the morning, okay?” You whispered, relieved when he nodded. “Let's just get you inside.”

It wasn't much of a struggle to get him indoors, and he bedded down on his old cot without so much as a peep of complaint. He was filthy, but now wasn't the time for your hygiene regiment. He was clearly stripped for energy and worn out. Better to let this particular sleeping dog lie, at least for now.

…

Karl woke suddenly, whatever dream he had been having rapidly fading from his mind. He stared up at the ceiling, momentarily perplexed. Pine truss beams running lengthwise, the pattern of knots and wood grain achingly familiar. 

Sugar. 

He shoved himself into a sitting position, body still heavy from sleep, and saw you. 

You weren't really doing anything all that impressive. The stove door was ajar and you were busily tending the fire. But at that moment, Karl was certain he had never seen a more beautiful sight. “Sugar,” he rasped, voice gruff and drowsy. 

You turned to look at him, your eyes softening upon meeting his own. “Hey, Karl.”

Oh, he could fucking cry. Heisenberg huffed out a breath, feeling his heart twist in his chest. You lugged over the basin of water that had been sitting next to the stove (maybe to keep it warm?), toting a washcloth and the bar of soap as well. “Talk with me once you've sponged off.” You said, not unkindly. “You kinda’ smell like BO and dead animal.”

“I doubt it's a kind of level of smell.” Karl admitted wryly, making you snicker and nod. “Sorry about all this. You tend to smell like death if you're dead for a little while, after all.”

“I don't know if I would call two months and some change a ‘little while’. Also, dead?” You raised an eyebrow. 

Karl stared at you. Two months. Over two months. Gods almighty. 

You, seeming to register that the news was a shock to him, patted his knee. “Y'know what, worry about it later. Focus on the first thing and we can go from there. I'll make us some lunch.”

“Lunch?” 

You nodded, turning your wrist so he could see your watch. It was indeed a little after one in the afternoon. “Get washed up,” you reiterated softly. 

So Karl attempted to do so, flushing a little once he'd stripped and realized just how dirty he actually was. “Sugar?” He called, using the remains of his clothes to cover his groin just in case you turned around. Sure, sure you had seen him entirely naked before, but…

From the kitchen you replied, “yeah?” He wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed that you didn't look at him.

“I'm just going to throw myself in the river. I don't think this glorified bucket is going to cut it.” He reasoned. 

“Okay, you know where the towels are. Just make sure you go downstream a ways.”

The freezing water in the river was a far cry from the lukewarm comfort that the basin had held, but Karl was a little more certain in his cleanliness once he emerged, teeth chattering and body pink from scrubbing, from the pool that swirled and eddied alongside your far fenceline. Spreading out the worn towel once he had mostly dried himself off, Heisenberg took a moment to lay back on the riverbank and examine the new scars.

The cadou had healed him, of course, but now he was riddled with scars. He'd prided himself previously on his ability to guard quickly, to be able to adjust during a fight and use his powers to shield himself. But that many lycans, vârcolaci, in essentially total darkness…

He knew he was lucky to be alive at all, and that he shouldn't be so unsettled by a few new marks. He still couldn't help the sinking feeling in his stomach. He had never worried about his looks, it had never crossed his mind. His confidence in his abilities was so all-encompassing he hadn't considered the possibility, but what if you had only been attracted to his looks? You had vocalized interest in his appearance, after all.

Karl frowned, rubbing a hand over his face and noting even more unfamiliar raised areas. Maybe he would feel better once he got his facial hair under control. Once he looked like himself again, or some sort of approximation of it. First things first though, he would need to beg some clothes off of you.

…

You tore into a thick slice of bread, slathered with a little of the precious squirrel fat you had left and a healthy sprinkle of salt. Karl had vanished into your bedroom with the haircare kit, stating that he “felt more human, but could use a shape-up”.

He looked much too good for someone you had convinced yourself to be mad at. Truthfully your confusion and anger at being…well, abandoned, in your own terms, had ebbed substantially upon his arrival. He had seemed–breakable wasn't quite the right word. Maybe fragile? He had clearly been through hell, if nothing else. At that moment, you had decided to be merciful. You would hear him out. If you didn't like his answer, you could always show him the door.

Another bite was crammed into your mouth, and you focused on chewing furiously before your thoughts could wander any further. Cool it, hotshot, you scolded yourself mentally. Try to be normal about this.

Once Karl emerged from your room he gingerly settled into the seat across from you at the table. Wearing some borrowed, slightly ill-fitting clothes and sporting some uneven edges to his facial hair, the man didn't exactly cut an imposing figure. 

God, you had missed him so much.

To your surprise he entirely ignored the food in front of him, instead reaching across the table and clasping your free hand between his own. The look he leveled at you made you want to break eye contact, but stubbornly, you refused. He owed you this much, you reminded yourself with more than a touch of irritation.

“I'm sorry.” His voice was still raspy, but it seemed to be from disuse. “I…sugar I fucked up. I own that. I was scared.”

You gaped at him, thrown entirely off balance. The man who had faced down a horde of lycans, the man who could control metal with a look, a gesture–

Scared?

He wasn't done clearly, his grip on your hand tensing as he leaned in with an earnest expression. “You deserved better than what I did. You were–gods, you were so kind to me. Opened your home to me when I didn't know who I was. Opened yourself to me.” 

Were you blushing?! Dammit! 

“I know we didn't mean fuckall to one another, I get that it was…I guess a convenience, using each other for mutual benefit. But I-” Heisenberg paused, leaving you reeling. It was true though, wasn't it? Convenience. No emotions involved in it. “-I don't know what the hell happened.” He finally admitted, his voice soft. “I don't know when it changed for me. Whether it even changed at all, or if it was always like that and I was just ignoring it. I'm, uh, not exactly experienced here, and I guess I can blame it on that.”

“‘Experienced’ how?” You managed to ask, a hysterical giggle escaping you when he stuttered and fell silent. “Seriously?”

“This isn't how I-look, sugar, I figured me dying, me wiping out all those lycan freaks and probably dying in the process–I mean it wasn't great, but I thought I could at least be useful. I'm not…good.” His voice faded to an awkward mumble. “Good, like how you are.”

One thing at a time. You could process that later. “All the lycans?” The woods had been peaceful the last few months. You hadn't really thought…damn. 

Karl nodded, his jaw set in a grim line.

“You…You really thought you were gonna’ die?” You felt a little nauseous when he nodded again. “How? You're so tough!”

“I'd never fought the horde on their turf. They holed up in my factory after-” he gestured at himself. “-everything.” The man sighed heavily, rotating his shoulder. “Brought the house down on top of them and me. Not sure how long I fought them before then.”

“You've got to be shitting me.” You planted your palms on the table, shoving your chair out behind you from the force as you stood. “You went back there and nearly got yourself killed-”

“Yes.” Heisenberg cut you off. “I did, sugar, and I'd do it again.”

“Why though?” You exclaimed, incredulous.

“You really don't know?” He asked, sounding just as incredulous. “You try coming to a realization like I did when you're fucking–balls deep in someone!” His eyes widened, the man dropping his head to thud against the table after a moment of stunned silence. “Dammit,” he snarled, his voice muffled.

“W-what realization?” You knew you should probably leave it alone. It was an invasive question and, despite the intimacy the two of you had shared, an apology was already on your lips when it was cut off by a loud groan from Karl.

“That I–that you–” the man floundered, then suddenly jerked his head up to fix you with an appropriately-intense look. “I think I love you.”

What.

What?!

Your shoulders dropped, hands slack on the tabletop. You stared at Karl, but all he did was stare back at you, his gaze one of weary resignation.

I think I love you. 

“S-So–” Gods, when had your mouth become so dry?! “So you don't know?” You half-squeaked, half-choked on the words.

“I've never felt this way before,” was his blunt reply. “I can only infer from the evidence.” He didn't seem thrilled about the circumstances, but maybe that could also be chalked up to his lack of experience.

“Is it…are you okay with it?”

Karl's brow furrowed, and then he offered you a slow, firm nod. “...yeah. Had a lot of time to think during my walk back. Even if you…I mean, if you think I'm gross-looking now, that's okay. I'd understand.”

You blinked, entirely baffled. Gross? Sure, he had a few new scars on his face. They only stood out to you because the tissue was still pink, unlike the silvery lines that had littered his visage before. But that wasn't gross, not to you anyway. 

Karl was still talking however, and it seemed that he was picking up speed. “Sugar, I showed up, an unknown, a starving wolf at your door and yet you showed me kindness, even if it was just a favor for that fat bastard at first. You fed me from your own damn plate, let me take comfort in you.” His words hitched momentarily when he continued, “I was just so–so twisted and broken, I didn't understand that you could offer with open hands. I didn't understand what you had given me and then I realized as I was throwing myself at the lycan hive that…I was an idiot. It wasn't that I wanted to die, I wanted to live! I'd never wanted to live so much in my damn life, so I could get back to you, so I could apologize, so I could–” Heisenberg's fists clenched, the man soldiering on doggedly, “so I could tell you how I…felt. How I think I feel.”

“So you could tell me that you love me.” You were reeling. 

“Yes.” His broad shoulders caved a little, the man shrinking into himself. “And now you know. Now I know. But I don't know what to do. I've never…this hasn't happened before.”

You picked up your glass of water and drained it in one long gulp, attempting to buy time while your brain ran through a million possibilities at once. Your main takeaway, however, was simple. He loves me. A warm sensation flooded your body, tingling down to your fingertips. He loves me. “Want me to offer some input?” You asked, your steps light as you rounded the table. 

Heisenberg nodded dully, his eyes fixed on the bowl of stew in front of him. You gently brought your hands up to cup his chin, tilting his face so you could meet his gaze. You found no regret in that stare, only apprehension, which was immensely heartening.

“Next time you have a realization like that, talk to me.” You said in a sweet tone, the ‘loving’ pat you gave him on the cheek not quite a smack. “Don't pull something like that again…and I'll let you stay with me.”

“You…what, seriously?” Karl demanded, his eyes widening. “You'll let me stay here? Even after-”

“Don't push your luck,” you warned, blowing a raspberry at him when he began to laugh incredulously. “This isn't a vacation, after all! You'll need to fix holes in the roof, help me with the supplies every year, check the traps-”

Karl swept you up in a hungry kiss, effectively cutting off your eternal to-do list. “That all sounds wonderful, sugar.” He murmured against your lips. “Let me finish lunch and I'll get right on it.”

Thoroughly flustered, you stammered out in protest, “i-i-it's not going to be easy, Karl! Don't agree to this unless you understand the burden of responsibility you're taking on.”

“I do.” He insisted around his first mouthful of bread. “I pr’mise.”

…

He wasn't certain where your underwear had gone, but he was immensely grateful for its absence. You leaned forward, taking his dick out of your mouth for a second to catch your breath and Karl forced your knees to slide out on either side of him with his forearms so he could draw his tongue along your cunt. His thumbs spread you open, the man rumbling when he felt your breath hitch. Then, Karl delved his tongue into you, making you moan and whimper around his dick while he slowly, slowly ate you out.

Karl could feel his heartbeat in his neck when your thighs suddenly snapped shut around his head, hips rocking back and forth as you ground yourself against his mouth. Finally, someone who could be as greedy as he was.

His own hips bucked upwards, driving his cock into your throat mercilessly while you continued to attempt to crush his skull. Your thighs were trembling, body undulating helplessly. All Karl could do was urge you onward and that's exactly what he did, his voice a low burr against your cunt as he demanded that you come for him. It didn't matter that you'd already come before, it didn't matter that you were still sloppy and fucked-out from his previous, extremely enthusiastic efforts. Karl wanted more and he knew you did too.

Your pelvis lurched abruptly, breath coming in sharp little gasps as you began to climax. The former Lord growled in satisfaction, clasping his hands up over your thighs to pin you where you were as you rode out your orgasm. 

“Mmm, told you that you had one more in you,” he hummed, grinning when you whined your annoyance at him. “Shh, no complaining sugar, or I'll wring another one out of you for fun.” As if to prove his point Karl slid a finger into you, using it to massage your still-trembling walls. You whimpered but made no attempt to wriggle away from him, so Heisenberg simply carried on gently stroking his finger in and out of your entrance. “One more, sugar, c'mon, match me.” The man teased, his eyes half-lidding when you took his dick in hand once more.

“You're ridiculous-” You panted. He could hear the laughter in your words despite your evident breathlessness. “I love you.”

“Love you too, sugar.” Karl patted your leg, guiding you to turn around and slide back down to straddle his thighs. He then sat up slightly, meeting you halfway in a hungry kiss. “I love you,” he sighed, finding his eyes still searching your own for reassurance. 

But then you smiled at him, knocking your forehead gently against his own. “And I love you, Karl.”

I love you. 

“‘Course you do,” Karl breathed, half to himself. You rolled your eyes at him and your wry chuckle was music to his ears, as was your singsong reply.

“Of course I do.”

[vshthestmpede]

Hi there!

Could we get some headcanons for vash, nick, and knives and what pet names they use for their s/o and how they would use them? Like in what situations they would use them? And what their s/o would call them in return?

Thank you 🫶🏻

the boys & their nicknames for their significant other

word count; 896

warnings; none, this is just some sweet stuff to alleviate the constant trauma our boys (and subsequently, we enjoyers) go through

note; i am such a damn sucker for cute nicknames, so this request was super fun to write!! tysm for requesting, i truly appreciate it <3 so sorry for the lack of things, covid has been kicking my butt lately on top of college ;-;

cross-posted to ao3

VASH

mayfly + lovebug

to make up for the lack of pda, vash makes sure you know how he cares by the way he calls for you

as soon as it starts, your real name is out the window and you're only to be called by the pet name he bestowed on you

you love the way it rolls off his tongue, like it was meant for you

started as a private thing as vash prefers to keep his love life under wraps but eventually became something he was proud to use in public amongst those he trusted

"good morning, mayfly."

you stretched the sleep out of your joints, blinking to adjust to the bright sunlight. vash had himself propped up on his forearms, twirling your hair around his fingers gently.

"sleep well?" he asked as you turned on your side to face him. he leaned forward and kissed your forehead as you nodded. "good. we don't have to leave for another hour or so, wanna snuggle?"

you responded by pulling him closer to you, burying your face in his chest. he wrapped his arms around you, his fingers lazily drawing shapes into your back.

"how'd you sleep, lovebug?" you murmured, voice still heavy with sleep.

vash grinned. "lovebug, hm? that's new."

you shrugged and readjusted, looking up at him. "well i thought with mayfly i needed to come up with something similar."

"fair enough, i like it." vash chuckled. "very creative. i slept okay, had a weird dream though."

"is that so? tell me all about it."

WOLFWOOD

my star + handsome

you never took wolfwood to take to romance or any of the cheesy aspects of being in a relationship

however, being a man who wasn't given any real love growing up, he craved it more than anything

of course, he'd never show it to the other three, so things like nicknames were saved solely for time between the two of you

you savored those times, enjoying the softer side of the undertaker

he would tell you how there were billions of stars in the sky yet only you were his, the brightest and most dazzling in his eyes

you pounded on the bathroom door, fed up. "c'mon, princess, i'm sure you look amazing now open the damn door!"

the door swung open and nicholas, hair still wet and messy, gave you the coldest stare behind his sunglasses.

"the hell did you just call me?" he asked, blocking you from moving past him. "no, no, no. you've never called me any sort of name before and now you just -"

"i'll keep calling you it if you don't let me use the damn bathroom," you snapped back, grabbing his arm and literally pulling him out of the bathroom. "thank you!"

coming out of the bathroom after finishing your business, you held back a laugh when you found nicholas sitting on the edge of the bed with his lips pressed into a tight frown. you flopped on the bed next to him, pulling him down with you.

"oh my gosh." you laughed as he turned away from you with a small 'hmph'. "c'mere, handsome."

instantly, he melted into your embrace, clearly much more pleased with the new nickname.

"that's better," he murmured.

"you're such a big softie," you chided playfully, brushing his hair from his face. "never change, okay?"

"yes, my star."

KNIVES

sunshine + sweetheart

if you thought it would take knives forever to even acknowledge the feelings you two shared, just imagine how long it took for him to take up on any sort of romantic gesture

you were at the helm in this voyage, showing him acts of affection first to egg him on

quickly you both learned he wasn't the biggest on physical touch but definitely enjoyed the whole concept of nicknames, something that made you stand above the rest even more to him

despite that, he found himself fighting on what he thought would fit you perfectly

you had cycled through the generic ones (babe, baby, etc.) but decided that sweetheart was the winner the way a goofy, almost childlike smile appeared on his face when you called him it the first time

knives refused any help on coming up with your nickname, demanding he figure it out himself

"i've got it!"

your head snapped up from your book as the piano playing suddenly ceased and knives stood, knocking the bench over at his abrupt movement.

"are you alright, sweetheart?" you asked, pushing yourself up out of your chair and heading towards him. he met you halfway, taking your hands in his excitedly. "what's going on in that head of yours?"

"you're my sunshine, (name)."

he had said it so happily, staring right in your eyes as he declared his newly thought of nickname. you felt your heart race at the simple gesture and the look on his face, basking in the joy that radiated off of him.

"i love it." your hands moved from his up to cradle his face. "what made you think of sunshine?"

knives leaned into your hand, proud of himself. "you just. . .you light up my life. you're so warm and caring, it's like you're if sunshine was a human."

your heart swelled at his kind words, this soft and sweet side of knives - albeit rare - was something you treasured and would always hold close to your heart.

[ruporas]

apologies if you've already been asked this but do you have any favorite trigun fics? i absolutely adore your art btw!

thank you!!! and i've answered this on insta, but i don't think i've ever shared on tumblr... i'm not good at reading fics, esp long ones, because my attention span is pretty bad, but from the ones i have bookmarked, i'll share some that i like in no particular order

hills like white elephants (meet me halfway) - adlvnam

pairing: vashwood word count: 1.1k, sfw, vague post v.10 spoilers ‘I read a story once,’ Vash says, unsure. ‘I’m kind of thinking about it right now.’

i like a lot of adlvnam's fics, i find them very unique and creative in their execution, and their writing is wonderful! this was the first fic i've read from them and it's stuck with me ever since. others that i like from them are in manus tuas (no spoilers) and vox dei (warning for post vol.10 spoilers).

stay - Anonymous

pairing: vashwood word count: 2.3k, sfw, no spoilers “Hold up,” Vash groans. He presses his free hand to Wolfwood’s mouth and shushes him. He’s probably going for a stern look, though between his poor attempts to stop grinning like the biggest idiot this side of the planet and the way he’s patting him, it’s hard to take him seriously. “Stop laughin’. Where’s the keys?” “What keys?” Wolfwood tries to ask, muffled by Vash’s hand, and his tongue is a little thick and slow in his mouth so… something comes out, but it’s probably not very wordy. Word-like. Not a sentence, probably. (or, wolfwood and vash get drunk, bicker, and then share a bed together.)

i enjoyed the mundanity and silliness of this fic and i think about it from time to time... i think fics where one of them or both drink together are pleasant to read.

Last Summer - varilien

pairing: vashwood word count: 741, sfw, no spoilers You are what you love.

tags on this one are "sunrises, morning routines, coffee, sentimental" which caught my attention. very sweet and beautiful.

Rain - Kokohamstar

pairing: none, wolfwood centric word count: 768, sfw, major spoilers - post v.10 Ever since he was a little kid listening to Bible stories, he dreamed of the day the world would be washed clean and wondered what the rain would feel like on his face.

as most wolfwood centric fics, it was a gutpunch and melancholic, but still soooo.. augh.... the last paragraph really does it for me.

water bucket blues - fathomfive

pairing: vashwood word count: 3.7k, sfw, major spoilers, post trimax Vash the Stampede goes on the record about a friend he once had. Also about card games, cats, family, and some other things. "Start with a piece of the whole, Meryl said. It doesn’t have to be the first piece. Start with a specific. That’s what they mean when they throw around the words human interest. I know the pieces. Believing they make a whole is another thing. But she’s a broadcast professional and I trust her advice. Maybe if I can figure out how to tell one piece—like the story of Wolfwood as I knew him—I can learn how to tell the others."

i love vash pov fics and i love it when it's first person and this one in particular hits because it's his pov and he speaks, honestly, openly, telling a tale that he can't really flub because it's about the people he loved. i love how grounded this fic is in the present of max, i love how vash grows within the 3.7k words, i love how he moves forward with the world he's living in. this fic makes me teary if i think too much about it... it's really wonderful.

it’s a summer day, and I want to be wanted more than anything else in the world - goldenglitz

pairing: vashwood word count: 3.9k, nsfw, no spoilers Vash has the lung capacity of a man who’s cried for 150 years. It isn't like Wolfwood takes more than he gives — but like with most things, he barely keeps up with Vash. He works his body to the limit, even as his lungs burn and his legs and arms give out under him. They fuck like they’re on borrowed time. All of this makes it so easy — so much easier than just talking. Wolfwood would sometimes rather pull new and interesting noises from Vash with just his mouth than do anything else with it. Their own dialect: moans, groans, and four words. “Yes” — “Please” — “Vash” — “Wolfwood.”

i love all of their vashwood fics, they only have 3 but they're all lovely and has a sort of characterization to both vash and wolfwood i don't see often. definitely one of my faves, especially when it comes to explicit vw fics.

i think these are all the ones i'll share for now!!

[uollop]

hello Ana, how are you doing?:) I love your writing style and I've been lurking in for a while now but haven't really interacted yet - today I feel like trying though! Since the Wolfwood's section on your masterlist is empty, may I ask how he would act around his crush and how would he confess to them (GN or Fem reader, whichever you feel like)?

sending you hugs!

Wolfwood's Got a Crush! (HCs + Fic)

Content: Pining, fluff, GN! Reader, touchy Wolfwood, lots of nicknames, Reader is a little slow, WW thinks there's something between you and Vash, alcohol consumption!

Pairing: Wolfwood x Reader

Word count: 1.5k

Notes: THIS IS A LITTLE LONG MY BAD- Thank you for asking how I am though YvY I'm doing alright! I hope you're doing well too, Anon! Also tysm for the compliment on my writing style! I'm still trying to get back into the groove of writing~ Enjoy :))

Wolfwood had always told himself he didn't have time for romance. Hell, he didn't even believe he had the ability to have feelings for someone like that. Sure, there were people he found attractive, but he had never thought about anyone as anything more.

That was until he met you and all of those ideas came crashing down. For a while, he thought you were just like the others. Another pretty face that he could flirt with until he got bored. Problem is that he never really got bored of you. He enjoyed making you blush, he was happy with the way his heart skipped a beat when you laughed, he liked you.

He didn't know what made you different. You didn't act different, you didn't treat him differently, and you didn't even look that different. You were just different. You made him feel different.

He had to keep telling himself he didn't have time for that kind of thing, though. He pushed his feelings for you down and tried to focus on his mission.

He still allowed himself to indulge in you occasionally, though. For a man that claimed he didn't have time for romance, he sure spent a lot of time worrying about you and what you thought about him.

This man would be touchy as hell. Whenever you questioned him about why he almost always had a hand on or near you, he shrugged it off.

"I'm just like that with everyone, sweetheart."

You couldn't help but feel like that was a straight up lie. You were almost positive he didn't place his hand on Vash's leg whenever the two of them sat next to each other. You were certain he never wraps his arms around Meryl's waist, leaning his head on her shoulder to get a peek at what she was doing. And there was no way he places his hands on Roberto's hips when he moves past him in a tight space.

So what made you different than them?

You couldn't help but wonder if he liked you. The idea made you so flustered that you had to immediately squash the concept. Wolfwood said that he was like that with everyone, so you had no choice but to believe him.

Then there were the nicknames though.

"Needle-noggin" for Vash was one thing, but the sugary sweet nicknames he would use for you were countless. Anything from "babe" to "sweetface". It never failed to make you blush. You had to keep telling yourself that they were just nicknames. He was like this with everyone.

Wolfwood knew that, at the start of this, he had told himself he didn't have time for romance.

But, God, after so many months of endlessly flirting with and teasing you, he was starting to become a little frustrated that you hadn't caught on yet.

Whenever the others would ask you about him, you would tell him what he had told you. That he was like that with everyone. The deadpan look that everyone gave you should have been enough for you to know that he wasn't really like that with everyone, but you chose to remain blissfully unaware of the man's feelings.

Right now, Wolfwood was sitting across a diner, watching as you giggled at one of Vash's jokes while the two of you sat at the bar. You placed your hand on his shoulder as you laughed, leaning on him for support.

It made Wolfwood's blood boil.

Vash knew that Wolfwood had a thing for you. Hell, by now, you should know that Wolfwood had a thing for you. But there you were, laughing and leaning against Vash. He felt his eye twitch a bit as the blond blushed, shaking his head at something you said with a chuckle and sitting you up straight.

You smiled, sipping your drink before you continued to chat with him, unaware of a certain brunette who was burning holes into the back of your head.

Wolfwood knows that, if Meryl and Roberto saw him like this, they would probably march up and tell you about the way he felt themselves. He knew how annoyed they were with how often he danced around a confession, narrowly avoiding being direct with you every time. It was almost painful. For everyone involved.

Suddenly, Vash glances back at Wolfwood. He looks back at you and leans in, whispering something in your ear. You perk up for a moment, turning as well and seeing Wolfwood sitting by himself. You gave him a smile and waved him over, gesturing towards the barstool on the other side of Vash.

His glare softened immediately, a light blush crossing his cheeks as he stood up, putting out the cigarette that he had been nursing before he moved towards the bar.

Once he was close, Vash suddenly stood from his stool, letting out a comically fake yawn as he stretched above his head, talking about how he was exhausted and that he was going to go to bed. He bids his goodbyes to you before he walks past Wolfwood, winking at him and giving him a thumbs up.

"You got this."

Wolfwood narrows his eyes at the set-up, grumbling something to himself before sitting next to you and ordering a drink. He was going to need to be plastered if he was going to do this. The two of you chat as you continue to sip from your own drink, your cheeks painted a pretty pink color, either from the alcohol or from the handsome man sitting next to you.

"So, you and Vash, huh?" He asks as he downs a drink before wiping his mouth with his sleeve, "You got a thing for him?"

Your eyes widen and you shake your head, the pink color of your cheeks turning darker as you stumble over your words, "No... No! No, not Vash. He's nice, but he's not really my type."

Wolfwood blinks for a moment, considering your words. The way you said that made it seem like there was someone else. He couldn't help but smirk at the idea of it being him.

"Really? What's your type then, darlin'?" He asks as he orders another drink, immediately downing it again. You watch him chug the drink, a small frown on your lips.

"If you keep drinking like that, you'll regret it in the morning-"

"Trying to change the subject, huh?" He teases as he finishes the drink, a grin tugging on his lips. You sigh and return to your drink, sipping it for a moment before you look back at him.

"Just worried about you," Your voice is filled with honesty as you place your hand on his arm, a playful smile crossing your face, "I like men who don't have alcohol poisoning."

He stares at you for a moment as you laugh, his grin widening as he leans closer to you.

"Oh yeah? Is that the only requirement to be a man you like, sweetheart?" He chuckles, reaching up and touching your cheek with his calloused hand. You look from his face to his hand on your cheek before looking at him again.

"Maybe. Who knows~" You shrug, placing your hand over his with a smile, "What about you, Wolfwood, what's your type?"

He watches your hand press against his, his cheeks turning a bit pink at your touch. His breath hitches for a moment as his eyes look up and down your face. God, he wanted to kiss you. He was going to do it. It was tonight or never.

"You."

His bluntness catches you by surprise, your hand dropping from his and your already pink cheeks turning a more red color.

"Do you-"

"I don't say that to everyone. I don't treat everyone like I treat you." He interrupts quickly, pulling your face a bit closer. Your eyes widen at the close proximity, but they never look away from his face.

"Now... I'm going to kiss you, ok? If you want me to stop, say so now."

You watch as he scans your face for any sign that you wanted him to stop, before you lean in a bit with a whisper, "You can kiss me-"

As soon as you've given the green light, his lips are on yours, hungrily kissing you as he wraps one arm around your waist, pulling you close, the other staying on your cheek. Your eyes are open for only a moment before they flutter shut, your hands moving to the collar of his shirt as you reciprocate the kiss. Months of pining for each other were finally paying off. The kiss lasts for as long as it can before you pull away for air, both of your faces flushed as the two of you catch your breath.

He looks at you for a beat, taking in this moment in time before he leans in for another kiss. He had months of pent up affection and he was going to give it all to you, right now.

Masterlist | Ao3

[multiverse-imagines]

A/N: y'all, let me tell you that when they revealed Tristamp Vash had eating issues, I bawled. Like, baby no! please eat food! You deserve so much better!! So enjoy!

Eat, Dearest

The team sat around the campfire. Roberto, Wolfwood and Meryl were chatting as they ate their food. The night sky above them set the atmosphere, adorned with a billion stars. You on the other hand, couldn't take your eyes off of the Sad sap stampede sitting next to you.

To be fair, an entire town got demolished, and a lot of people died today. Knives ran off with another plant. Today was a major loss in this quiet war between the two Plant brothers.

Vash's food sat uneaten before him, he followed along with the conversation the other three were having. He was merely an observer at this time, though. His mind was obviously elsewhere.

You knew about Vash's self punishment when it came to food. Although you hadn't seen it in person, but you'd heard from Meryl about Juneora Rock, and Vash not eating for three days afterward.

Finished with your own food, you gently brushed your fingers against his, gaining his attention. He flinched as he was brought back into his body, giving you a loving look.

The two of you had been partners for a few weeks now. You had to reassure him constantly that the two of you would be okay, that you would always be by his side, and if he said run, you were faster than lightning. You trusted Vash, and you wanted him to believe it. You weren't going to treat him like all of the other people who had betrayed him in the past.

"Hey," you returned his loving look, "you better eat. It's gonna be a long day tomorrow."

"I'm… not really hungry…" he rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand, a liar's chuckle coming from him.

"Vash… you need to eat." You chastised, but your voice gently said, "Please?"

"I'm fine, Mayfly. I don't need anything to eat." He leaned in for a kiss, and you grabbed the sandwich on his plate, and held one end in your mouth.

"No kisses until you eat." Your voice came muffled behind the bread. Vash pouted. You had the attention of the rest of the group now, but you and Vash ignored them. Vash's eyes were locked with yours, showing how serious you were about this. He sighed, and took a bite of the opposite end of the sandwich. Chewing, swallowing. Another bite, repeat. Soon, the only part left was the part you held in your teeth, which you ate. You smiled, caressing his cheek.

"Thank you, Dearest. You did such a good job." You leaned in, giving him a kiss. He gave a shy smile and blushed at the praise.

"Th-Thanks, Mayfly… I guess I was hungry after all."

"Your stomach was the one ratting you out. They could probably hear it in space." You smiled, cuddling up to him.

--

Later that night, the two of you lie cuddled up in your sleeping bag.

"Hey, Mayfly?" Vash whispered, "Thanks again for earlier."

"Anytime, Dearest. You need to eat just like the rest of us. There's nothing wrong with that. You deserve to eat."

"I-I know, it's just, I don't have to-"

"I don't care if you technically don't have to. Plant genetics be damned, you will eat, Vash Saverem. You will keep your stomach content at minimum with food as often as possible. You have to listen to your body." She chastised.

"Oh, shit, using my last name? I'm really in trouble now." Vash giggled quietly. He loved hearing his last name, honestly, even if you didn't use it often.

"Damn right, Dearest. I mean business." You nodded with determination, your face softening and giving him a gentle kiss, "and now it's time to rest. I'll be right here to chase those icky nightmares away, okay?" You pet his hair, and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"Okay, Mayfly… I'm counting on you…" he snuggled into your chest, and you gently pet his hair until you could tell he was asleep. You soon fell asleep as well, knowing Vash would sleep soundly despite today's events.

[greetingfromthedead]

A Little Cold (Vash x GN!Reader)

Plot: You catch a cold and Vash is there to take care of you.

Pairing: Vash x GN!Reader

Raiting: Everyone

Tags: domestic fluff, sickfic, hurt/comfort, flu, common cold, caretaking

Word count: ~ .9k

Author's Note: (H/Cr)appy flu and cold season! Since everyone I know seems to have a cold or at least is feeling like death then have a little something to take your mind off it. @jellys-compendium, hope you feel better :)

Will make a Wolfwood version of this too in a bit where he is being a little shit cause ofc he would be. Here it is.

"I did offer you my coat, love," Vash says softly as he sits next to you on the bed. One of his hands is occupied with the cup of tea he offers you; the other gently lays on the blanket covering your shivering body.

"Yeah, yeah, I know you would never outright tell me I told you so, but just because you use different words doesn't make it any less annoying," you reply with a nasal voice as you take the warm cup of tea out of his hand, your fingers still clutching a clean tissue.

"Getting caught in the cold wind is how you get sick." He smiles tenderly while looking at you.

"Uh-uh." You sip the hot tea and feel it soothe the scratching in your throat. "And hanging around a diseased person is another way to get sick. Shoo!"

You try waving him away before setting the cup on the nightstand and blowing your nose loudly. Vash shows no sign of leaving; his hand on your leg strokes it through the thick fabric. He feels your body shivering and reaches out for a second blanket draped over the edge of the bed.

"You're still cold. Have this," he says, unfolding the cover and leaning closer to drape it around you.

"No! Begone! I'm sick, not dead! I can do it myself. You'll get sick too!" You complain as you push him away with one hand, the other still covering your face with the handkerchief.

"I've heard the quickest way to get better is to pass it on," he chuckles. You give him a death stare, not finding his joke the least bit funny. You take the blanket and wrap it around yourself. Before you can swat him away again, his large hand is pressed against your forehead, checking for a fever.

"Are you deaf?" Your outburst itches your hurting windpipe in the wrong way, and you manage to hide yourself under the covers before the coughing fit begins. "We'll get your ears checked next time we're in town."

You take the mug back and down most of the hot liquid to soothe your raw throat. You lean your head against the backrest and let out a sigh. The warm tea brings you some comfort, and as you close your eyes, the shivering starts to subside. Vash's hand pats your thigh again.

"You should go to sleep now," he says softly. You nod in agreement, feeling grateful for his care and concern. "You'll feel better when you wake up."

He takes the cup from your hand and stands up to give you more room to slither deeper under the covers. He tucks you in and looks at your curled up position with slight amusement. Your stubbornness always makes him laugh, but he doesn't want to rile you up again, so he keeps it to himself.

"Sleep tight, hun!" he says quietly as he pushes your hair away from your face.

"Thanks, love!" Your muffled answer can be heard from between layers of blankets.

Vash returns to the bedroom a few hours later, after he hasn't heard violent coughing outbursts for a little while. He finds you sleeping peacefully, limbs spwarled out on the bed, taking up all the space. He smiles as he creeps closer to the bed. You are still obviously sick, but perhaps the fever has gotten better. He thinks back to the little rumor he heard about passing on illness. He has very rarely been sick; his slightly alien nature has spared him of such a thing. So what's the worst that could happen?

He leans closer to you and plants a soft kiss on your lips. You don't wake up, but you do mumble something through the haze of sleep. He smiles softly and whispers, "I love you too."

He straightens up again and gets changed into his night clothes before climbing into bed next to you. He is careful not to stir your sleep; he doesn't want you to chase him away or, worse, leave to sleep on the couch yourself. He knows how much you need your sleep, and he wants you to feel safe and loved. Not to mention, he cannot bear sleeping in a different room than you. He positions himself on the very edge of the bed, his long limbs finding space where yours aren't. He would like to pull you tight and keep you close all night long, but the earful he would get wouldn't let either of you sleep.

The night passes with the peaceful snores and occasional coughs, but dawn breaks into the room and strokes your face with warm sunlight. You stretch your achy muscles and yawn, feeling a lot better than you did the night before. You sit up and roll your neck, surprised to find that you slept soundly through the entire night and your throat doesn't feel like it's strangling itself. You look to your side to find an unexpected large lump under the blankets. You start to reach over as you hear muffled sniffles escape it.

"Vash?" you quietly ask, unsure if he is asleep or not.

Two hands creep out from under the blanket and grab the edge of it to pull down, revealing Vash's slightly red face. He snivels loudly, but his eyes have an innocent glimmer in them.

"Darling, I think I might be sick," he says nasally, a sorry look on his face.

"You dumbass," you say, rolling your eyes but unable to hide the smile.

Did you like this? Go check out my MASTERLIST and drop a follow for any and all future projects!

[brucebocchi]

Ranking every new anime I watched in 2023, Pt. 3: #10-6

hey, i just started a ko-fi for my writing and possible other creative outlets. this post will also be available there, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i'm currently between jobs. the tumblr version of part 1 can be found here and part 2 here.

I didn't mean to drag this out quite so much, but I ended up writing a TON for the top 10, so for the sake of everyone's attention spans (and so I can buy some time to finish my top two) I broke it up into two more posts.

​ALSO! I've embedded a link to each show's OP in the title of each entry. I wanted to give more of a visual element to each show outside of the header images, plus there have been some incredible OPs this year. I've gone back and edited them into the prior posts as well.

10. Trigun Stampede

It’s funny, I had fond memories of watching Trigun on Adult Swim in my adolescence, to the point where I used to count it among my all-time favorite anime for a while, but I didn't realize until this year that I hadn't actually sat down and watched it from beginning to end. It’s honestly a very uneven watch, and it’s clearly split into two parts: The first, a dieselpunk western revolving around a mysterious goofball with a big-ass gun and a bounty on his head, and the second a slightly more somber revenge quest as he is forced to survive his way past a rogues gallery while vowing not to take any lives. Still, it was a hit among western anime fans for a reason, and it was formative to me even back when I thought anime was kinda cringe.

Trigun Stampede is far from a faithful reinterpretation of Yasuhiro Nightow’s manga nor of the original Madhouse production. Meryl Stryfe is no longer a jaded veteran insurance adjuster but a much younger muckraking journalist. She’s no longer tailed by the gentle giantess Milly Thompson, but rather following her senpai, the gruff, bleary-eyed Roberto De Niro (the names in Trigun have always rocked). Nicholas D. Wolfwood isn’t an affable priest with a dark past; he’s all dark past now. And Vash the Stampede, now rocking a fuckboy undercut, is less of a mercurial wisecracker with a soft side and more of a reluctant gunman freaking it in a sensitive style. 

Stampede wastes no time differentiating itself from any previous version of Trigun. Vash’s history is no longer a mystery waiting to be uncovered; it’s a driving factor of the plot as his brother Knives seeks revenge on humankind for their use and exploitation of “plants,” an alien race to which the two seem to be connected, as an energy source. This was always an element of the original anime that I felt went unexplored, so it was fascinating to see Stampede dive right in. It’s a great introduction to the story for people who haven’t seen the original, and full of unexpected turns for existing fans. It’s still built on the bones of Trigun as we know it, but it is very much its own thing. 

People made a lot of hay about Vash’s new appearance, but I think it works. The huge pleather trench coat, spiky flat-top, and tiny glasses remain an iconic 90s design, but I believe the 90s is where it belongs. This take on Vash is just as capable but much more self-effacing, tortured, and averse to violence. This is a younger Vash, and it’s clear that his history with Knives is a much fresher wound, rather than the dull, nagging ache in the original. This is a gentler (but no less talented) Vash, so I think the softboy look suits him this time around.

I also spent most of the season quietly insisting to myself that the original version of Meryl is much better (and cuter) than the Stampede variant, and I still stand by that, but the updated version definitely grew on me. I mean, just look at that hat. But it’s clear from the jump that Stampede’s first season is very early in this version of the Trigun story (you may notice that the bounty on Vash’s head is much, much less than the famous 60 billion double-dollars), and Meryl has some growing to do (and presumably a whole lot of professional frustration) before she becomes something like the one we knew and loved around the turn of the 21st Century.

I’m still yet to watch Beastars, but it’s immediately apparent why Studio Orange was entrusted with the Trigun IP. This show looks incredible. This is some of the best CG animation I’ve ever seen outside of a Pixar or Spider-Verse movie. Characters are amazingly expressive and oscillate between naturalistic, weighty movement and cartoony flailing. Action scenes are inventive and dynamic and stand up to even the wildest sakuga. And yet, it still looks like an anime. It still retains the classic 24fps look and even occasionally trades in the CGI for hand-drawn animation for effect. We are long past the botched Berserk revival: This is what CGI anime should look like.

It’s plainly obvious that Trigun has always carried influences from landmark western media like Mad Max and Dune (not to mention Fist of the North Star, but that one always wore its Mad Max influence on its sleeve), so it’s been an unexpected delight to see those influences take a new shape now that both franchises have seen major updates since the last iteration of Trigun went off the air. For all of the alien technology and technicolor glowing lights, Trigun takes place entirely in a desert setting, and it’s impossible to see these chase scenes and not immediately think of Fury Road, or halfway expect to see Villanueve’s take on the Fremen popping out of the dust clouds. 

Stampede is a very welcome entry to a franchise long believed to be well and truly over, and the more eyeballs on Trigun, the better. It’s evident by the end of this season that this take on the story is only just beginning, and it has already taken unexpected departures from the story as we already knew it. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here, but that’s mostly because we have confirmation that Milly will be in the next season. It can’t get here quickly enough.

9. Insomniacs After School

I watched and read a frankly absurd amount of romance-centric anime and manga this year, especially of the slice-of-life variety, to the point where even by the early summer I thought I'd had my fill. I'm overjoyed to say that Insomniacs After School proved me dead wrong.

What a treat this was. It's a simple enough premise: A boy with insomnia is sent on an errand to his high school’s abandoned observatory, where he finds a classmate sleeping because she suffers from insomnia as well. They quickly find out that the observatory is a perfectly quiet environment for the both of them, and that they actually get restful sleep around one another. In order to get away with making use of the area, they resurrect the school’s astronomy club and find a genuine love for astrophotography and, you guessed it, one another.

You couldn’t have picked a more apt studio to adapt this work than Liden Films. Call of the Night made a splash last year for its saturated, vibey nightscapes, and Insomniacs’ gorgeous astral visuals carry that mantle. The nighttime backdrops of the quiet suburbs, wide-open beaches, and lush countryside are nothing short of stunning, and Isaki’s adolescent wonder at the world’s hidden beauties reminded me, and I do not say this lightly, of something Miyazaki would’ve animated.

On a couple of occasions this year, I’ve been able to step back from an anime, take a breath, and simply say “That was beautiful.” Insomniacs gave me one such occasion. Even putting the visuals aside, the story itself is lovely and would have made this the feel-good anime of the year, if not for the next entry on this ranking. I would have more to say, but Insomniacs After School speaks for itself. Give it a shot.

8. Skip and Loafer

There are so many standalone adjectives I could use to describe this one, and most of them are ones that would normally make me want to impulsively run the other way like “comfy,” “feel-good,” “wholesome,” what have you, but I think the most comprehensively I can boil it down to a single word is “lovely.” Everything about it just gives you the warm fuzzies, and almost makes me think that the “I want more stories with no conflict” dorks might actually be onto something.

It’s a simple one: Mitsumi, a dorky teenage go-getter with her entire life planned out, moves to Tokyo from her no-horse beach town to attend one of the country’s best prep schools, but much like everyone who played the first two hours of Persona 5, she quickly gets lost in Shibuya’s subway station on the first day of school. She runs into Sousuke Shima, a laid-back boy from the same school who’s also running late, because that’s, like, what he does, and manages to wrangle him into running to school with her.

Mitsumi quickly draws attention from her classmates, not only from delivering a speech as the incoming class representative (and subsequently barfing all over her teacher), but because she inadvertently made fast friends with the hottest, most popular first-year in the school. This attracts the attention of social climbers and jealous hangers-on, but Mitsumi hardly notices. She’s used to knowing everyone in her school back home, so she wastes no time reaching out and seeing what’s up with anyone who’ll give her the time of day.

A lot of Skip and Loafer revolves around the roles for which we think we’re destined in a controlled social environment like high school, and how easily the preconceptions you have of other people can be shattered if you just get to, like, talk to them for 20 seconds. Mitsumi’s friend group quickly fills itself out with people who wouldn’t give each other so much as a passing glance at first, but come together so naturally that you almost can’t believe they weren’t friends already.

Shima, for his part, also struggles with those preconceptions; for as laid-back as he seems on the surface, he’s a habitual people pleaser and is constantly playing a role. He’s so caught up in the performance that he doesn’t quite know what’s going on half the time or how he really feels about most things. Mitsumi is so naturally magnetic, though, that he does seem to genuinely enjoy his time with her, and vice versa. You can see where this is headed, if the gorgeously-animated dances they do together in the OP weren’t enough of a tell.

Everything about Skip and Loafer is just downright pleasant. Character models are simple and sketchy, the color palette is awash in pastels and neutral tones, and the soundtrack is peppy and whimsical. It’s a warm hug of a series, and at no point does it feel cloying or manipulative. High school slice-of-life is pretty bloated as a genre, and I watched a ton of those this year, but there’s just something so charming and magnetic about Skip and Loafer that instills in me a sort of false nostalgia for the ideal high school experience I never had.

Also: Nao-chan. Exceptional trans representation. We do not get enough of that in anime and she is a breath of fresh fucking air. I would die for her.

7. The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You

And now for something much less wholesome.

I really don’t seek out harem anime. Tenchi Muyo was formative to me as a tween, and a rewatch last year ended up being a major catalyst in getting me back into anime, but despite it being widely considered the second-ever harem anime, it hasn’t left much of a legacy in the ones that followed. Harem anime from the 00s onward has largely been formulaic wish-fulfillment slop that runs itself in circles as a perpetual money-making machine rather than developing any sort of plot (see: Hina, Love and Girlfriend, Rent-a-). I know I covered Girlfriend Girlfriend earlier, and while that’s nothing like Tenchi either, it does scratch an ever-present itch for stupid, madcap, relentless anime bullshit.

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, [...] Really Love You, meanwhile, sees that itch and takes a fucking chainsaw to it. To say everything about it is over-the-top would be an understatement: The top is Hyakkano’s floor. This show gives you everything you could ever want in a harem comedy, but to the extreme: It is your dad making you smoke the whole carton. It is Hell’s donut machine, and you are Homer Simpson. Satire is often at its best when it pushes the boundaries of absurdity, and 100 Girlfriends revels in that push like a horny bulldozer. This is not genre subversion, it’s genre explosion.

The headcount isn’t the only wildly outsized element of this series; every single member of the titular harem, each a tick on the checklist of every -dere archetype you can imagine, pushes the slider of each of their character tropes so far to the right it’s breaking the track. The deredere is a ball of deranged horniness, the tsundere betrays her intentions so compulsively that she’s functionally incapable of lying, and the kuudere is so robotically devoted to pure efficiency that it’s salient to mention that her name is literally pronounced “Nano A.I.” If you can think of an anime girl archetype, she is in this (or will be in future seasons), and she is the apotheosis.

And yet, this show still bothers to make each one of them an actual character. Harem anime has such a low bar to clear on that front, yet most entries in the genre still bang their dicks against it. Hyakkano's titular girlfriends, at least the ones introduced in the first season, are actual characters with actual backgrounds, actual motivations, actual growth, and actual reasons to like the protagonist beside the premise. They’re all founded on stock anime tropes, to be sure, but the original manga’s author actually put in the work to give them, you know, personalities. And above almost all else, they actually like each other too! This isn’t exactly a full-on polycule (though two of the girls are prone to making out with each other on occasion), but for as deeply weird as this family unit is on paper, they actually come across as a group of people who love and care for each other rather than everyone cattily jockeying for the same position. 

And not for nothing, but Rentaro is easily one of the best harem protagonists I’ve ever seen, and again, this is coming from a Tenchi Muyo fan. I do enjoy Naoya’s over-the-top earnestness in Girlfriend Girlfriend, but Rentaro is the gigachad version. He is exceedingly patient, kind, and understanding of each of these girls’ unique quirks and qualities and quickly grows to learn to manage them in conflict and help them work through their insecurities, and he loves them back in kind and puts in the work to make equal time for each of them. He doesn’t want to “fix” these girls; he sees them for who they are and proactively does everything in his power to accommodate them. He's like if Tadano from Komi Can’t Communicate actually got the harem he deserved. Putting aside the fact that he’s, y’know, 100-timing his girlfriends, he comes across as just a really good partner.

I also want to be clear: For its rampant, fanservice-laden anime bullshit, this show is genuinely hilarious. It’s not some kind of “how did this shit even get made” trainwreck; it is a comedy first and foremost, and the comedy hits exactly as intended. The comic pacing is buckwild, the visual gags are so rampant that they’re almost difficult to keep up with, and the translators, at least in the version I watched, did an outstanding job of localizing the constant wordplay. It’s also so unapologetic in its horniness that you can’t help but admire it a bit; 100 Girlfriends knows exactly what it’s about, and it dares you to say something.

There’s a very good chance this won’t be for you. 100 Girlfriends is constantly pushing the boundaries of good taste, but never in an offensive way and never truly at its characters’ expense. Geoff Thew calls it the “most 'harem' harem anime,” but I'd argue that it’s the most "anime" anime: It is every trope you’ve ever seen in romcom anime cranked up to a thousand and smushed up against your nose. This shit hits like Panera lemonade. It is peak trash. If you have a tolerance for anime bullshit, this show may very well test that, but I still cannot recommend it enough.

6. Heavenly Delusion

Didn’t think I’d be getting into more than one post-apocalyptic anime this year, but I’d seen this one recommended so many times that I felt this list would be incomplete if I didn’t watch it. Don’t ask me about Pluto.

Heavenly Delusion (Hulu lists it under its Japanese title, Tengoku Daimakyo, for some reason) splits its runtime between two different stories: The first, a pair of young travelers making their way across a ruined Japan in search of nebulous goals neither is sure even exist; the second surrounding a group of adolescents in an unnervingly idyllic walled garden in some sort of school setting. The narrative flips between these two sporadically, rarely ever showing its hand in how they are even remotely connected.

On the post-apocalypse side, we follow Maru and his bodyguard-for-hire, Kiruko, as they trek across the country to deliver Maru to someplace called “Heaven,” while at the same time, Kiruko is in search of a pair of men from their youth. They are often beset by bandits, cults, and most crucially, horrifying monsters called “Man-Eaters,” which Maru has the unique ability to kill. On the school side, we see a group of gender-ambiguous kids in an enclosed space, constantly monitored and kept in a very controlled environment. Everything feels… wrong. Nobody seems entirely human. There is a lingering and seemingly taboo curiosity about what lies outside the walls. I hesitate to say any more.

There is phenomenal human drama in here, and sparks so many conversations about transhumanism and human nature, gender, trauma, community, all things I’m not smart enough to really dive into. But to even address these topics here is to give the game away, and Heavenly Delusion is a story better left unspoiled, even if, a full season in, I’m still not 100% sure what’s going on.

This show is gorgeous in ways I’m still struggling to articulate. The character designs, animation, lighting, and cinematography are so immaculate that I repeatedly had to remind myself that I wasn't watching a movie. Heavenly Delusion looks like a grungy Shinkai film: Character models are immaculately realized and fluidly animated, the light and shadow effects are some of the best I’ve ever seen in TV animation, and action sequences are visceral and unpredictable. Maybe all I needed to say is that it was made by much of the same Production IG staff in charge of Psycho-Pass.

I want to say as little about what happens as possible, because the mystery is the main draw of Heavenly Delusion, but I feel the need to warn that there is a very dark and sour turn near the end of the season in the form of some strongly implied sexual violence. It was thematically unnecessary, and once that side of things is resolved, everyone just kinda… moves past it. It doesn’t ruin the show, I still recommend it heartily, but be forewarned. I found it upsetting, but more in the “did this REALLY need to be in there?” sense. The mounting tension and slowly-unfolding existential horror in this series are otherwise expertly woven into the narrative, and this part landed with a wet thud.

This is a much longer story than most of the season would have you believe, and it ends with far more questions than answers. One side of the story leaves off with an open end, and the other with a massive cliffhanger, which left me a little cold but with interest piqued for the next season. For what it is right now, though, Heavenly Delusion is a nearly perfect, endlessly thought-provoking mystery and one of the most gorgeously ugly things I’ve seen this year.