#I think the only non-cat creature that has spoken to the cats in any of the books

[artaintfartwarriors]

#midnight #midnight wc #tnp #oots #dovewing’s silence #tpot #I think the only non-cat creature that has spoken to the cats in any of the books #sorry for the random order of posting I’m just trying to post all of the characters sitting in my gallery lol

[bilgisticallykosher]

Don't Jump To Conclusions

TS g/t one-shots

I'm in a Sanders Sides g/t server, and sometimes we take scenarios and write on them. I've written a fair amount of stuff on there, myself, and I decided to collect my stuff, and clean it up. This was partially written by @borrowedblue and @andtheyreonfire

Happy birthday, Vel!

Masterpost | AO3

My Discord, not to be confused with the above g/t Sanders Sides one.

Word count: 3,300

Warnings: Spiders! Spider, anyway. Sentient beings sold as pets, attempting restriction of said beings, mentions of bites, implied past abuse/bad treatment.

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Virgil was out shopping. Not for groceries or clothing; he was at a pet store, shopping for supplies for his, let's say, pets. Okay, technically they weren't pets. They were research at the lab he worked at, but he still liked them, even when they did try to bite and attack and hiss at him. His descriptions of such had led people to believe that he worked with cats, but he didn't. 

He worked with spiders. 

Well, a lot of bugs, but he liked the spiders the best. His lab observed their behaviors both individually and in groups to catalog a variety of information. As part of their observations, they needed to keep the spiders in their ideal environment, which included as close to the exact blend of earth as they could get. Unfortunately, they'd run out of their supply today. Fortunately, that sort of stuff was widely available. Unfortunately, they used a very specific brand. Fortunately, they found some in a pet store pretty locally. Unfortunately, Virgil was the one who lived nearest to it, so he was stuck going in and getting it on his way home. What a drag, he had to actually interact with people. 

When he got there, he could see why this was the store that had it. It was certainly… well-stocked. Which, really, was just another way to say "huge." It was like the Home Depot of pet stores; no employees in sight, and aisles in need of some serious maps. But whatever. He at least knew which sections to go past. When he finally got to the specialty mix of dirt, near the back of the store, he grabbed it with an 'Ah-hah!' Then, after his elation had faded, he took in his surroundings a bit more. He looked to his left, and noticed the rescue. 

It wasn't odd for a pet store to have a rescue in it. And despite his surly exterior, well, Virgil wasn't immune to cute fluffy animals. Maybe he just so happened to need to walk back to the registers while passing it by. And maybe while he was walking that way, he'd take a little look. You know. While he was there. 

So, path decided, nodding to himself, he strolled over, bag of soil in hand, and prepared to look at the puppies and kittens. Then he stopped and blinked. There were certainly puppies and kittens, and even a bird there, but there were also some different manner of pets. 

He saw fairies, tiny mers, and all manner of little magical creatures. He walked through the display of cages and terrariums, when one in particular caught his eye. He stared at the sign plastered on the seemingly empty glass case.

CAUTION: I BITE! 

"What the-" he squinted, leaning closer to see if there was anything actually in there. He thought he saw something moving underneath the front of the fake log, and then all of a sudden-

-there it was right in front of him. 

He flinched and took a half step back on instinct, despite the fact that it's in a freaking terrarium, genius, and he took in the creature. It was partly human, but had multiple eyes, and its back half was an abdomen, black with dark blue bands, and had multiple legs. 

A drider. 

It was reared up on its back legs, and it was bearing its (he squinted closer to be certain, and sure enough its human half had freaking fangs), and was generally acting very aggressive.

He thought it- they were trying to puff themself up, emphasizing their eight (eight!!!) limbs, six on the bottom, plus their arms. Their multiple eyes were narrowed, directly at him. They were snarling. 

And Virgil couldn't possibly help but to walk towards the terrarium, warning sign be damned. He sees the spider-person pause, some of the aggression draining out, before they rear back again, seemingly trying to be more intimidating than before. Virgil smirked, fascinated, and sank down into a crouch. He really took in the shape and look of their eyes, and his own eyes widened in response. 

Jumping spider, he realizes, and then, Well, duh, they jumped at you, moron, of course they're a jumpy. He tilted his head a few times, trying to really see the details of the drider, while he had the chance. 

"Woah," Virgil whispered. "You're so cool looking." He watched as they frowned and clicked their mouthparts (didn't look completely like typical chelicara) idly, running their pedipalps over them. They seemed to hesitate, lowering down, and stared at him in a more placated manner. 

Honestly, they were pretty cute. "How far can you jump?" Virgil asked, taking in the size of the enclosure. The creature was watching his gaze like, well, someone who had plenty of eyes, then finally, they spoke up. 

"Far beneath my limit in this facsimile of a proper environment," they crossed a pair of human arms and one set of spider legs. They seemed distrustful, gaze still not fully on him. As though they were apprehensive about his reaction, like it was going to be negative? 

"I'll bet," Virgil responded instead, and he nodded a little as his smile fell into a grimace. "This thing has gotta really suck, huh?" He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, eyes still flitting over the spider creature's form every so often. They raised an eyebrow. 

"Indeed." Yeah, there was no way they were used to having a normal conversation. They seemed less wary now, but they didn't seem to be holding back their speech at all. Virgil really admired that. He liked that attitude, and that he was the one getting it out of them, and, well, he liked a lot about them. He had...a dangerous thought. 

"What if," Virgil bit his lip, "what if you got out?" The spider huffed, rolling their (well, some of their) eyes. 

"Then I would be able to jump further," they replied, voice clearly dry despite their size difference. 

"No, no," his smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. "I mean. What if you," Virgil hesitated meaningfully, being sure to emphasize the words. "Got, out." The creature's limbs uncrossed. Virgil saw as comprehension dawned. 

"I am," their words were chosen carefully, he noticed. They had been throughout this entire interaction. "Not allowed to leave my enclosure." Their eyes raked over the human's form. 

"What if I got you out?" The spider person chittered, nervousness written on their face. 

"Theft is not an encouraged activity," they eventually settled on. Virgil snorted and muttered 'be gay, do crime' under his breath. "No, I meant like. Maybe, I could, sort of." He paused, breathed in, breathed out, and tried to look as serious as possible. "Take you home? With an adoption fee and everything?"

"I," the drider swallowed visibly, and of course they didn't trust him, they just met him and he doesn't even know their name, or anything, and he didn't introduce himself- "I am unable to survive in the wild on my own," they finished succinctly. 

Virgil hadn't meant that. They might be a drider, but they were clearly still human, especially after the conversation they'd been having, so, was it wrong that he wanted to take them home? He knew that everyone here was raised to live in a home, with a human taking care of them, just like the pets they adopted out beside them. So, maybe they wouldn't mind if he took them home? But, he guessed that their non-answer gave him his answer, then. That kinda sucked. 

"My name's Virgil," he blurted out before he forgot again. "He/him." They stared at each other for a moment. "Uh, what's your name?" He saw them startle, "I mean, y'know, only if you don't mind."

"My name is Logan." They said, voice even, still, but maybe a little less cautious, he thinks? "I… am also male?" And Virgil couldn't help but smirk again at his confused tone. It was sort of adorably endearing. His eyes drifted towards the sign again. 

"So," he smirked a little more. "You actually ever bite anyone before?" Logan rolled (all of) his eyes. 

"Of course," he pointed to the sign. "Otherwise, it would not be stated on my tank." He sounded almost a little proud. He went on, clarifying despite not being asked to. Virgil was not complaining. "Two separate humans, not to mention the time a child opened my tank after wandering away from his parents." His pedipalps whisked over his face, "I jumped just under my potential that day, unfortunately." He didn't sound sorry at all. Virgil's mouth twitched dangerously. "I landed right on his head."

Virgil burst out laughing. Several people in the store turned around to see what the commotion was about. A volunteer in particular hesitated, before starting to come over to the pair. Logan looked smug, Virgil wiped a tear from his eye. 

"Hello, sir, may I help you with anything?" The voice came suddenly from over his shoulder. He just barely suppressed a flinch. 

"Ah!" Couldn't suppress the scream, though.

"You two seem to be getting along!" The volunteer said. "Do you have any questions about him?" The tone of the question was clearly an underlying 'Would you please take him?'

Virgil gave a look towards Logan's direction. He looked back at Virgil. Maybe, Virgil thought, not as hesitant as before.

"Well," Virgil pulled his gaze away, "maybe just a few."

~~~~~

Logan watched the human- Virgil- as the volunteer led him away, and he found himself repressing a pout. He'd been… nice. Pleasant. Tolerable. 

Okay, so Logan had enjoyed his company, and his conversation. It had been quite some time since that had happened with a human. In fact, it had been quite some time since any conversation at all had happened with a human. They never spoke to him directly. Every human he'd ever known had spoken over him, both literally and figuratively. Especially here, where they spoke instead to the volunteers and his general caretakers. 

He exhaled. Perhaps his standards for 'good conversation' had just slipped considerably. As well as his standards for 'acceptable human.' After all, there he was, discussing taking Logan into his home, with someone all-too-anxious to never see him again. Nice or not, he had to be cautious. He seemed like he cared about his opinion, but that was the thing about humans; they were good at seeming. 

He gave up on trying to listen into their conversation. They were far away, and it only seemed to pertain to what supplies he would need if he took him. At the very least, the volunteer was doing their job of explaining his needs. He skittered into the fake log that was in his environment as he considered his future. 

This was not the first time he'd met someone excited to see him, eager to adopt him. It had happened, once before. He'd been much younger then, much more innocent, much happier, much more eager to go into a home with a human family. 

That eagerness and happiness had lasted about a week. 

And, well, that's why he was with a rescue now. 

He considered Virgil. He spoke to him, yes, was interested, but he was still larger; Logan surmised he could easily fit in his hands, probably even only one. He had more legs, and more eyes, and could jump, and had venomous fangs (barely, to a human), but he was still the one with the disadvantage. A severe one. He shuddered from memories he'd considered long in the past. Apparently, they were still with him in the present. 

Likely, he would not get an opinion on who he went home with, anyway. It was why he made it a point to be so aggressive with everyone who came over to him. But Virgil… Well, he supposed he would see, and soon. The two humans were walking towards his enclosure again, this time Virgil had a large bag of items relevant to Logan’s care. 

He poked his head back out, eyes roving over his figure. Virgil smiled at him, one corner of his mouth tugged further up than the other. He turned to the volunteer. 

"Could you, I mean, if there's maybe…" he made a gesture with his empty hand, seemingly unable to finish his thought. "I kinda wanna," he lost his momentum again. He inhaled and exhaled a few times. "Could I just have a minute with him," he rushed out. The volunteer made some sort of face, but nodded, and left. Virgil took a step forward, and Logan met him (as much as he could from within his glass case) halfway, stepping out from his log. He was certainly more willing to be out in the open with only Virgil there. He returned a tiny, if uneasy smile of his own. 

Virgil crouched down again. "Have you really been here for most of your life? Around humans?" Logan blinked. That took some time. 

"Yes," he admitted. "I was abducted too young to learn any survival instincts." He couldn't say why he so willingly told him his past, but Virgil wanted to know, and Logan knew what that thirst for knowledge was like. "How did you know?" He wasn't accusatory, merely curious, undoubtedly as Virgil had been. 

"Volunteer told me," Virgil made a slight face, and Logan wondered what else he'd been told about his past. He was about to ask, but Virgil continued. "Said you'd been waiting here for way too long." There was a look on his face that Logan had only seen on childrens' face moments before a tantrum. 

He believed that Virgil was sad, but he couldn't figure out why. "That you'd been rescued from a bad situation." Ah. "Uh, listen." Virgil brought a hand up, and Logan flinched, but it was only to awkwardly scratch at his cheek. 

He looked at Logan intensely. "I know we've only known each other for a bit, and I totally understand if your answer's no, but." He looked pained. "Um." Virgil coughed into his hand, likely a gesture to fill the silence rather than a violent expulsion of the contents in his throat. "Would you? Like me? To uh? Take you home? Er- fuck." Virgil groaned, clearly frustrated by his own ineloquence. "Would you like to live with me? I could offer you a bigger space than what you've got here, take care of you- that water looks too old to be healthy- and you can decline if you want. I just- yeah," he finished, slumping over with hunched shoulders from the effort. 

Logan considered it. He considered it for a while. He considered the short time that he'd spent with the human, and made his decision. At the very least, Virgil wouldn’t be that cruel compared to his...other options. Logan nodded. The smallest of smiles flitted up onto his mouth, and that was apparently what Virgil was waiting for. He offered him a 'be right back', and went to grab an employee. Logan took in his cage one last time, hope was rapidly raising in him.

Meanwhile, Virgil was paying for his purchases as well as Logan's adoption fee. When he came back, it was with the volunteer, who was carrying a smaller containment box meant for transportation, and something else in the other hand. 

Logan's habitat was opened, and suddenly, the volunteer's hand plunged into his tank, startling Logan out of his thoughts and immediately put him on the opposition, fangs bared and ready. It didn't matter, though. The volunteer was wearing thick rubber gloves, preventing any form of retaliation on the part of the drider, and he was grabbed roughly around the middle. He hated being held, nobody knew how to properly hold him; he wasn't a human infant, why did they insist on holding him that way? Unable to resist, Logan squirmed in the grip of the human, receiving a light squeeze and a pained look from Virgil for his efforts. 

“Now, just to get him all ready for you,” the volunteer chirped, bringing a bundle of rope into view. Logan’s eyes widened, and he started struggling anew.

As if he hadn’t moved a muscle, Logan felt his arms being pinned and bound behind his back, knotted tightly. Logan couldn't move his upper arms. The volunteer had just grabbed a few of his legs between two fingers, Logan was kicking and still trying to bite, when-

“The hell are you doing?” Virgil asked in a tone that was, quite frankly, utterly terrifying. It made Logan shudder, before almost instinctively he stopped his efforts to escape. Was this Virgil's true nature, then? 

"Oh, this is just standard procedure for all dangerous creatures," the volunteer responded. And Logan's head snapped up to the two. His internal organs seemed to quiver, as much as he knew that wasn't possible. Virgil had been upset at the volunteer? "Just for everybody's safety." 

"Well then," his unending glare at purely the volunteer seemed to confirm who his ire was directed at. "I guess you'll have to untie him, because I don't think he's a danger to me at all." The volunteer stared back, and understandably backed down. 

"Well, you're his new owner, so!" And Logan remained untied, minus his upper arms, and placed in the transportation  carrier. Virgil paid the adoption fee, and took Logan by the handle, and he felt a thrill of freedom, combined with an atypical bout of anxiety. 

"Hey," Virgil started, as they were walking out of the store. "There's some more stuff on the shelves that I could get you,"  Virgil rolled his shoulder. "It's not, like, required equipment or anything, but some of it looked like it could be kind of cool?" Logan squinted. 

"Why would cold items be preferable to own?" Virgil smirked and then bit his lip. 

"No, I mean, like." He mulled it over, tilting his head. "Nea- no." He exhaled some air out his nose. "Fun? Awesome?" Ah. 

"I suppose, if you wanted to look, I would not be opposed." Virgil smiled, and for the next half hour, Logan was treated to a trip around some of the aisles. Virgil held up his cage, letting him look at some of the items made for a drider's physical and mental engagement. He let Logan decide entirely what he did and did not want to buy, even though he was sure it was difficult for him to keep lifting the transport box, in addition to being a tedious way to shop. His favorites were a little him-sized version of a 'Rubick's Cube,' as well as a better version of the log cave that he'd grown accustomed to in the store. 

He paid when he got up front, and they made their way to his car, placing his other purchases in the back. He put Logan on the seat next to him, 'passenger seat,' Logan vaguely recalled. He was about to buckle him in. 

"Alright, sit tight," Logan was about to ask what that meant when Virgil gasped. "Holy shit, I forgot about the rope." He dropped to the ground, crouched again, and opened the top of his carrier. He carefully took his fingers and untied the ropes, immediately freeing his arms. Logan rubbed around his wrists on instinct, "I'm sorry! Does it hurt? Are you okay?" Logan looked up at Virgil's earnest, open face, full of concern for Logan, and thought of how he'd treated him this entire time, how hopeful and excited he'd been. 

"Yes," Logan smiled. "I think I will be."

-----

In my mind he kinda looks like this, and check out that cool size comparison chart at the bottom!

My favorite line from the original: I guess there's like normal things there like cats and dogs and birds and like maybe magical-y things like, winged cats and winged dogs and winged birds.

Taglist

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#sanders sides #logan sanders #virgil sanders #my stories #infinitesimal!sides #g/t sides #g/t!sides #analogical #spiders #sanders spides #andtheyreonfire 🧇 #borrowedblue #velvets

[misdre]

misi's beyblade AUs masterpost

i like making AUs, i have many of them, here's a post of them from oldest to newest. (at least approximately) (the ones that got no art of them have photos from unsplash. i just enjoy setting the mood)

⸻⸻⸻

Magical boy AU takao is an ordinary middle schooler who one day gets dragoon the magical spinning top from a cute little azure dragon, seiryuu, and transforms into a magical boy to protect the world from evil for some cosmic reasons that i haven't come up with yet. the rest of the characters have similar powers from their holy beasts and takao needs to gather up his team to fight the evil and. you get the drill is there art of it? yes 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 is there a fic of it? no note: i originally created this just because i like designing the outfits so i haven't planned the story much (this used to be my main focus but then 4kingdoms happened GJSDHGHSDG) i'd want to though, i'll get back to it eventually...at some point...... one of the charm points of this AU is that the holy beasts are these digimon-like animals that hang out with the characters and each have their own personalities.

Fairy tale monster AU takao and gramps live in a cabin in the middle of a forest full of monsters and takao decides one day to venture out to look for a silver-haired boy he once saw, he meets up with the other BBA characters one by one in the grim woods. is there art of it? no is there a fic of it? yes note: my oldest halloween fic. the characters are all these different cute spooky creatures and it's intended to sound like a fairy tale.

One day, he determined that the time was ripe: Takao decided to leave for an adventure. For his grandfather was old, it was not at all unusual for him to lay down to bed before sundown. Once the hut had fallen in drowsy silence, Takao packed his one and only bag with what little he felt he needed, took his cap and jacket, and stepped over the doorsill. He had left the safe warmth of the hut behind.

Royal fantasyverse AU (the tale of four kingdoms) takes place in a fantasy universe with four kingdoms (east, west, south & north) created by the four holy beasts, in an era where each kingdom happens to be ruled by an exceptionally young king due to their respective circumstances. when the four meet for the first time, a snowball of events is set in motion that's going to affect all four kingdoms. is there art of it? yes 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 is there a fic of it? yes 1 / 2 note: like a period drama with magic and gay and tons of worldbuilding. probably has way too many mysteries for the boys to solve because i have no self control when it comes to creating twists. this is The one AU that i have crammed every usable canon character into, i need enough people to inhabit four fucking countries

After creating the four lands, the holy beasts created people to inhabit them. Because the beasts were celestial beings and couldn't but guard people and the world they lived in from far above, they needed human vessels to lead the four nations. Thus they created four kings who would rule over other people using the four beast’s powers. The four kings were neither human nor gods, but something between – they were messengers, or icons, of the four holy beasts.

Omegaverse AU a canon divergence AU (i guess??) where genders are replaced by A/B/O and everyone being either canine or feline. max is a late bloomer canine and finds out he's the only alpha of the BBA boys thanks to a certain feline omega. is there art of it? not really but i do have dog boy max and cat boy rei art (which are a bit too cute for this kinkfest. i mean they're obviously aged up for the real thing.) 1 / 2 is there a fic of it? it's been in the works for like, five years but i always shy away from finishing it note: it's omegaverse, it's exactly what you'd expect. the smut is so filthy i've been too embarrassed to even post it. hiromi is also an alpha by the way

Coffee shop AU highschooler rei goes on a venture to hit on a local Hot University Teacher and coffee shop owner judy in a cafe owned by her, ends up receiving a bunch of flirty cups of latte from barista max working there. is there art of it? no is there a fic of it? yes note: i mean, rei being into blonde MILFs is pretty much canon

Now that Rei looked at the boy more carefully, he realised his hair was just as fair and eyes just as blue as he knew Judy Mizuhara's to be. Maybe they were related? It wasn't that strange if Judy had hired a relative's kid to help out at the shop, right? He certainly looked American, but he had spoken Japanese. And then, all of a sudden, the boy turned to look back to him. Startled, Rei blinked his own golden brown eyes and shifted them back to his now empty cup. God, it was rude to stare at someone, wasn't it? He'd been too deep in thought to even notice doing it. Not that the boy had looked judgmental – he only seemed to wear a smile.

Soulmate AU max keeps having dreams with peculiar scenarios about a boy named rei. one day he borrows a book on soulmates from hiromi and finds a chapter talking about meeting your soulmate in the realm of dreams. is there art of it? no is there a fic of it? yes note: i don't even care for soulmate AUs, this was my own dare to myself to find a single soulmate trope that interested in me enough to write a thing of it.

Max was walking through a crowded airport, carrying a heavy backpack with him. He had never been to this airport in his life, but somehow he knew exactly where he was, and where he was supposed to go. And he was in a hurry, and Rei had at some point emerged from the crowd, as usual, keeping up with him without bumping into any of the people that should have blocked his way. “I'm sorry, this is probably my fault,” Rei said. “I haven't even travelled in ages anymore, but these dreams just keep coming back to haunt me.”

Chess player AU rei is a young chinese chess champion participating in the world junior championships, ends up falling for the american chess prodigy max somehow in the process and is determined to get to play against him again. is there art of it? no is there a fic of it? yes note: so this is one of the weirder ones i've done. it was inspired simply by me having a very vivid mental image of a scene of them playing dramatic chess together. this is probably my most underrated AU even by myself, i think the writing is pretty solid for such a short story of a topic i know practically nothing about

As a child, Rei had initially been taught to play xiàngqí, a Chinese game much more popular back in his home country; but chess with its refined, uniquely shaped pieces was love at first sight for the young Rei. He was a fast thinker and had amazing concentration skills once he set his mind on something, and he also had an outstanding memory, making it easy to memorise game patterns he once saw and then use them for his advantage. This all granted him natural talent in chess. But despite his skill, he had a bad habit of easily losing his temper and becoming indecisive once his focus wavered. Also, he was just a tad bit too sentimental. These traits often became his worst enemy in important matches, much worse than the actual opposing player. Keep your cool. Focus. Play well.

Flower shop + fake dating AU yuriy doesn't really know anything about flowers but is working part-time in a flower shop for the easy cash. he keeps getting a pair of weird customers who ask about flower language for hypothetical situations. is there art of it? not by myself and i don’t have a link to the fanart made of it unfortunately is there a fic of it? yes note: did i write this for valentine's day? i feel like i maybe did. this is my only AU (and fic in general) so far that's about a non-BBA character as the main lmao

“So, I need some advice for a particular situation,” the customer then began, idly tapping the counter with his hand. “I mean, not a real situation, of course – hypothetically speaking, if someone was just pretending to be going out with another person, but they weren't really going but it just needed to seem that way to everyone else, what kinda flowers would get the message through?” Possibly an idiot, Yuriy concluded his analysis. “So you need suitable flowers for a date,” he stated, shooting his eyes at his notes about common flower-usage.

Classical music AU (the heart that i love) max is a piano prodigy attending a classical music college that holds annual music competitions for the students. he's got some haters for being the son of a world-known pianist who's one of the teachers, but he also ends up having a budding romance with rei the mysterious chinese violinist. is there art of it? yes 1 / 2 is there a fic of it? yes note: the origin of this was my "max and mao are besties" college AU. then it got mixed in with my thirst for classical instruments and max being bullied.

Max isn’t exactly a synesthet, but he has always been able to see music as pictures – as entire sceneries, as great adventures. This tendency of his emerges especially strong whenever he’s learning to play a new piece on the piano; as he moves along the melody, the scenery is also being built around him like a jigsaw puzzle, creating a complete picture piece by piece; and once he has mastered the song, he’s able to freely traverse and immerse himself in the world inside that puzzle. Some pieces have a more relaxed or soothing scenery than others, some are exciting and thrilling – even deliciously sinister in the way that a good horror film can be. Setting himself down in front of a piano is always an invitation to a world of his choice.

Bakeneko AU after moving to a small rural town in japan, max hits his head and starts seeing things, such as a weird white cat following him around. after a while, he's convinced that he's being haunted. is there art of it? yes is there a fic of it? yes note: another halloween AU, a more surreal one where max is human and rei is. well. not

Max kept walking, his eyes still on the narrow road. He hadn't noticed while deep in thought, but it really was quiet that evening. The sun had nearly set by now, leaving the sky striped with the dusk of the approaching nightfall. There was no wind to rustle the treetops, no birds chirping, nothing. Only the sound of Max's own footsteps on the pavement, and the matching sound that followed. Followed. What if someone actually was following him? A sudden, violent chill struck down Max's spine, causing his hair to stand on end. He stopped. After a short delay, the steps also stopped.

Genderbend AU a canon divergence AU where everyone's a different gender from canon (duh). starts off as an alternate version of the g-revolution world championships where the girls meet for the first time and befriend each other. rei is a professional model in addition to being a blader in the baihus, and max from the PPB is delighted to be able to battle her. she has no idea that rei has fallen for her at first sight, though. is there art of it? yes 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 is there a fic of it? it's... in the works. note: i created this because i wanted to design attractive girls, what about it. absolutely partial to maxine's huge badonkadonks.

It wasn’t like Rei hadn’t already taken notice of her before, given that they were participating in the same world championship tournament, but the real turning point was the first time they stood on the opposing sides of a bey stadium. It was the day when the match-up roster signalled the match between the Chinese team and the American team, the Baihus versus the PPB All Starz; and despite both teams consisting of five players, it came down to, to Rei’s immense joy, the tag team of Rai and herself against the two most interesting US players, Rikki Anderson and Mizuhara Maxine.

Vampire & merboy AU rei is a starved vampire just about to end his own life when he meets merboy max at a forest lake. is there art of it? of max yes is there a fic of it? yes note: yet another halloween monster AU, this time they are both monsters though. this one’s a pretty grim one i have to admit

Rei succumbed into deep thought, considering his few options, when something grabbed his unsuspecting hand. Something yanked him forward in one mad splash and forced not only the rest of his arm but also his shoulders and head underwater. Half a second later Rei, so badly startled that he’d come close to slipping into insanity, found himself staring at a pair of bright blue eyes only inches away from his own face. His other hand and lower body still firmly on land, Rei pulled himself back with strength that he didn’t even know his weak body still contained. As he did, he also pulled up whatever was clutching his hand, which turned out to be another hand – a white hand with elongated, dirty fingers, so sharp at the tips that they looked like daggers.

Mafia AU max is the boss of the BBA mafia family, rei is a hitman and max's right hand man, the rest have various roles in the organisation. salima, mariam and some other girls (at least) are reporters doing investigative journalism on organised crime who get interested in covering the story of a group of russian elite detectives doing a thorough investigation of the BBA. is there art of it? of rei and max yes 1 / 2 / 3 is there a fic of it? it's in the works but it's just a gratuitous reimax smut note: this is a story i wish existed but this kind of police investigation action thing is so not my genre of expertise. that's why i'm just doing a PWP of my boys and the rest exists on conceptual level

“Did you know,” Salima said, perfectly peppy about it, “that there are secret underground auctions for stolen artwork that’s sold in the black market? Not just online auctions in the dark web but actual, physical events held somewhere in the city! Isn’t that so intriguing? Can you imagine how an event like that would look like, Max?” Max can – in fact, he doesn’t need to imagine. But he’d rather not think about it; the memories bring the familiar taste of bile in his mouth and make his gut curdle with a mixture of disgust and very particular guilt. The mere thought of it makes him set his coffee aside and bring a hand between his tightly shut eyes.

⸻⸻⸻

the next thing i come up with? who knows............

#bey things #i am only moderately insane #so i'm a person who never reads her own writing #but for this post i did. i read my old oneshots #and i wasn't disgusted by them!! actually i was rather impressed with them!!! #i didn't know such a feeling existed. to read your old writing #and be like how nice! writing of my OTP just the way i want it! #genuinely i was charmed by the soulmate AU because i'd forgotten most of it #bc i was so embarrassed about it for some reason? but it was a very nice story

[iturbide]

More Crest Control Edelgard in Heroes

(CheeseAndCake here) I just want to let you know that the CC!Edargard art is amazing, and it works as both a thank you and a bribe. Here is the accepted bribe’s payment!  More Crest Control Edelgard in Heroes snippets have been delivered! Enjoy!

(Also, Me? Shamelessly inserting my headcanon that Almyra uses non-gendered language? It’s more likely than you think.)

_______________________________________________________________

It’s only after a long, tense, chat with the Crèche Guardians that Edelgard allows herself to relax on the bench in the dining room, and return her dagger to its hiding place. She left it on the table where both parties could see- and neither could easily grab- as a sign of good will, which for the most part seems to have worked. 

The previous conversation wasn’t pleasant in the slightest, but it was something she needed to hear, and the distrust is warranted, since her past- and alternative- selves are here as well. 

Considering what they might have done, she’s surprised she wasn’t set on fire the moment she entered.

Most of the castle is empty by now, aside from the occasional hero on patrol, which suits her fine. The silence gives her room to think.

She doesn’t know how long she sits on the bench to process the meaning of the words said- each of them have their own cultures, their own beliefs, so many reject the title of god, some find it holding a different meaning, some- the dragonkin aren’t one collective unit- which isn’t surprising, but somehow still hard to grasp- they’re people.

And Edelgard refuses to leave this dining hall until she finds the idea at least slightly easier to understand. 

If it takes a while, and the Guardians are willing to talk again while she’s still processing, the least she can do is make sure the conversation’s on neutral grounds so it doesn’t feel like an invasion.

She must have fallen asleep at some point, because when she wakes up, the sun is just starting to rise over the horizon, which is surprising, since she usually has night terrors, but Askr apparently has heroes that can control dreams, so it might not be that strange.

She’s just glad she removed most of her armour before approaching the Crèche, and that this place is apparently safe enough to fall asleep without armour. 

It’s only when she feels a small tug on her dress and looks down that she realises she’s not alone. 

She looks down, and sees a very sleepy child with pink hair under the table. The child holds her hands out, and makes what she assumes to be an ‘up’ gesture. 

Slowly, carefully, she picks up the child and paces her on the bench, and the child’s face scrunches before she moves onto Edelgard’s lap.

It’s only when the child looks directly at her face and cheerfully says “I’m Fae!” That Edelgard see’s the young girl’s forehead, remembers her visit to the Crèche, and realises she has a dragon child sitting on her lap.

For a moment, she swears her heart skips a few beats. Even now, despite everything, the word “dragon” in her mind still conjures an image of a fairy-tale creature, and not a… person. 

She shoves that disgusting line of thinking to the side, and forces herself to think of anything else. No bad thoughts around the child. Second thoughts are more important than the first.

The Grima’s were going to kill her. 

Think. She talked to Claude about this in Fodlan, didn’t she? Humanising comes from learning about the individuals. You are sitting in a room holding a- an adorable, tired, child with pink hair. Ask the child something. Anything. What’s a good thing to ask a child?

“So, Fae-“ Calm, casual, voice. Gentle, good, “What’s your… favourite colour?” 

She really needs to learn how to talk to children. 

If Claude ever found out about this, she’s going to strange him with his own sash. She could practically hear him saying “It’s a learning experience, Edelgard!” In the back of her mind.

Fae blinks a few times and smiles up at her. “Purple!”

“Oh, because of your hair? You have very pretty hair.” She didn’t make a move to ruffle the girl’s hair, but she shifted into what she hoped would be more comfortable for the little one.

“No! It’s the colour of mama and papa’s wings!” 

“That sounds-“ don’t panic, don’t panic, “- lovely. Did you get your wings from them?” -don’t panic. This is a small, fragile child, if you panic, she will cry. Think you your younger- don’t think of that, it will make you panic-

“Nope! Fae’s wings are-“ Fae yawns and stretches, before curling up against Edelgard’s chest, “-white! But! Fae still has feathers, like them!”

“They must be very beautiful.” This time, Edelgard makes sure to pat Fae on the head since she’s giving Edelgard the same look cats give her when they want affection. “Fae, did you stay up late to spy on your parents?” 

Because if there’s one thing all children do, no matter what their backgrounds, it’s staying up late to listen in on your parents.

“Hmmm…” Fae blinks slowly, and wriggles to get herself in a more comfortable position. “Yep!” 

And then Fae falls asleep. 

Edelgard has no idea how to move without waking up the child, and she’s pretty sure at this rate, no matter what, the entire Crèche is definitely going to kill her. 

“You look uncomfortable.” A new voice rings out, and instinctively, her right hand goes to her dagger and she tightens her grip on the child in her arms. 

Edelgard glances at the man with long red hair, relaxing as she realises he’s one of the Crèche’s caretakers. “I have no idea how to talk to children.” 

The man lets out a small, relieved smile, and sits next to her.

“Give it time. It will come.” He says casually. Then, he leans over the child in her arms, holds his hand out, and whispers, “Fae, come on, your mama and papa are going to panic if they realise you’re missing.”

Just like that, the small, half asleep, child practically falls into the man’s arms, and whispers “Warm.”

The man lets out a soft laugh and says, “I’ll be returning the little one to her parents. Thank you for looking after her. My name is Arvis.”

“It’s no problem. My name is Edelgard, though I’m guessing you’ve already ment several versions of me.” She nods in response as the man- Arvis- leaves the hall with Fae in his arms. 

—————————————

The next Crèche Caretaker she meets is named Lyon, a soft-spoken man with purple hair and kind eyes, who volunteered to talk to her about the Crèche’s activities after he saw her listening to Emmeryn. Apparently, that was what convinced him she was serious about wanting to understand the dragonkin and change. 

The conversation was mostly natural, talking about the children’s’ favourite fairy tales, their favourite games, so on and so forth, until Lyon spoke about his fallen self. 

Because Lyon- and the entire Crèche, apparently- use future tenses for his fallen self, but the guilt she can see in his eyes is an entirely different type.

“You’re lying.” She says it softly with a sigh, but perhaps it comes out blunter than intended. It needs to be said, because if what that implies is true, then she needs to know. No, she doesn’t need to know, but it’s something that will haunt her if she doesn’t at least ask.

“Pardon?” Thankfully, he doesn’t sound offended, only cautious and curious.  

“You don’t have the eyes of someone trying to fight their fate.” She explains, keeping her voice low, in case the former prince wants to keep it a secret, “Or someone resigned to it. You’re not from before you’re fallen self, you’re from after, aren’t you?”

Just for a moment, she sees a shadow pass over his face, and his eyes seem to become so much older and wiser. “…Yes.”

Hope is a dangerous, terrifying thing. It’s not something that Edelgrad believes in, but in that moment, it crawls through her stomach and into her mouth, and she can’t help asking, “Did death bring you peace from the Demon King?”

“I don’t know. I don’t remember, but…” He smiles, sadly as he looks at her. He doesn’t comment on the question. He doesn’t need to, “I can hope.”

—————————————

It’s rare to see Claude- and of the Claudes- on his own, since she usually sees him with the Crèche- who she’s giving space to approach her, no matter how hard the waiting is-  with the Grimas’ twins and the other tacticians, or with his Golden Deer, which she knows to stay away from, since most give her death glares she approaches. 

So, when she sees one of the older ones alone, she decides to ask him for a game. His strategies are always interesting and versatile, and she finds herself missing the matches they would play in their spare time. 

“Sun’s light warm you and wyverns’ sing, Claude, High Ruler. Would you be willing for a game of Shatranj?” She asks, giving her usual greeting as she approaches him. He’s standing next to an empty table big enough to fit the board on, and she knows he always carries a small set with him when he can.

for just a second when the words leave her lips, Claude’s expression perfectly matches a deer’s when it sees a hunter, and he slowly sits on the chair. His expression becomes a calm mask and doesn’t change, and that’s how she knows she surprised him. 

Claude. Surprised. She doesn’t know what to do with the information. 

“I should let you know, I’m not king yet,” Claude corrects, somewhat stained and somewhat gentle, as if he hasn’t completely thought his words though, “Brave me has that honour.”  

Oh. Oh, that’s embarrassment burning in her gut, but she can’t take back her words. Ruthlessly she shoves it down. There are better times for shame, and this isn’t one of them. 

 “Oh? I never did learn how to greet a prince.” Do it. Ask. Implications give nothing. Shame in asking is worthless. Somehow, the idea that she would have been too ashamed to ask before gives her what she needs to push on, “Would you be willing to teach me?” 

“Sure, it’s: ‘Heir of High Ruler’ if you want to be super formal about it, but most people just use ‘Heir’ for any child of a governing family.” She can tell Claude’s been caught off guard, but now that he knows where the conversation is going, he has it under control. “‘Wyverns’ sing’ is also only used after the person’s Rite of Challenge.”

“Ya-kessh?” She repeats, butchering the pronunciation. 

“No, Heir.” It rolls off his tongue naturally, and Edelgard bites the inside of her lip to stop her frustration and embarrassment from rising. Not the time, not the place.

“Heir-ch?” She says, forcing herself to try again. She can do this.

“Heir.” 

“Heir.” 

“There you go.” Claude responds with an easy smile. It’s not perfect, but Edelgard can practice later. 

Edelgard rolls her eyes. She’s worked for Claude often enough to know that type of smile isn’t completely real. “The offer for Shatranj is still there, Claude, Heir, do you accept?”

“With joy, Edelgard, Ruler of Land and People.”

“I lost that title years ago, Edelgard, Commander, is as formal as I’m going to allow you to go.” 

Claude’s smile becomes sharper as he places his pieces, and Edelgard allows herself to smile in return. This was going to be fun. 

In the end, she loses, again, which really isn’t surprising. Against someone like Claude, it doesn’t sting that much. 

 ______________________________________________________________

[AN: yes, Edelgard did 100% refer to the Robins as “the Grimas’ twins,” since she doesn’t really know their history.]

[On another note, how do you think the Bad End cast would react to CC!Edelgard? I’m not going to write anything for that, I’m just really curious.]

______________________________________________________________

#submission #cheeseandcake #fire emblem: three houses #fire emblem: heroes #dragon creche #crest control #i've read this so many times now #i really wanted to finish the duo hero art before clearing out my inbox #just to make sure i didn't lose momentum #but i keep going back to this and reading it #and i absolutely love how cc!edelgard is clearly still working on things #she's in the process of unlearning bad habits #and has to remind herself about the good ones that she's trying to replace them with #because yeah changing that kind of mindset is really hard #this kind of growth is incredible and i absolutely love all of it #from her pushing herself to ask claude about how to address a prince #instead of shutting down because she feels she embarrassed herself #or talking herself through interacting with a tiny dragon child #when she still hears 'dragon' and thinks 'inhuman monster' #it's just such good character writing and i love every bit of it #this is an absolute gift #so i'm definitely going to write some bad end interactions to cc!edelgard for you

[levyfiles]

Last week the @skepticbeliever-bookclub prompted us to post a selection of our favourite shyan fics so there’d be a nice little way to highlight all the hidden gems of favourites we might already recognise and love while sharing a few we might never have found otherwise. Last December I posted a little list of some of my favourites so I figured I’d dust off that list with a few new additions of particular favourites I treasure. 

Be All My Sins Remembered by spoopyy

Summary:  In every lifetime, they find each other.

Review: This fic manages to take you on a long journey through what feels like a series of AUs and they all weave in and out of the wealth of their relationship with some vivid descriptions of the historical settings their journey takes them through. As someone who grew up reading Anne Rice’s epics through historical events, this fic is right up my alley. A vampire Shane passing through the wave of human society’s climb searching for a reincarnated Ryan again and again, trying to hold on to him and keep him through great tragedies and timeframes that just don’t let them be together. This was one of the first fics I read when I was only a lurker and to be quite honest, I need to give this one a nice re-read, maybe for the book club which would be loads of fun. Either way, 10/10. Would be Hurt in the heart again.

Perfect Fit by @beaniegara

Summary:  There’s a legend that says anyone able to take all of statue Shane’s cock will summon the god to the mortal realm. Given the statue’s excessive size, no one has ever succeeded to prove or disprove the story. Until Ryan that is.

Review: Listen. You wanna talk actual fandom legends. This fic is one of them and it pulls out all the stops on being delicious and evocative. Also features one of my favourite incarnations of size queen bergara. Good stuff and you’re really rooting for Ryan in this lol.

a prize for rotten judgement  by sarcasticfishes

Summary: “You’d drive each other crazy. You sit together at your office all day, and then you’d be commuting home together, eating dinner together, watching TV together, going to bed — well, not together, but you get it, right?”

It doesn’t sound so awful to Shane. There are worse people he could be spending all his hours with than Ryan Bergara.

Review: The moment I happened to glance at the notes of this and saw that Fie’s secondary title for this would have been Ryan and Shane move to the Suburbs, I about lost it with excitement. Primarily because the show this references is one of my favourite comedies and that is one of my all-time favourite episodes. Let me tell you though, even if the reference is lost on you, this story is so much gold rolled into a heart-gripping tale of two best friends who spend every waking moment together taking the plunge to share a home and they were roommates oh my god they were roommates. Shane is pining and you’ll pine right along with him as you’ll yell and holler for him to stop being so damn real and full of doubt. It really is worth every gasp of pain and all the more for the execution but the delivery will leave you in delight. Certainly had me yelling at the author. This fic is gonna be one of my timeless favourites; I knew it the moment I began.

Everything’s Weird and We’re Always in Danger by beethechange

Summary: Ryan perches on the edge of the bed, an indistinct shape that Shane can only just make out in the dark, so he turns the lamp back on. He wants to see Ryan’s face, wants to know that he is alright. Ryan’s cheeks are damp, his hands fisted in the hideous flowered duvet.

“It won’t go away,” Ryan says miserably. “I’ve been like this since we got here, basically, and it won’t fucking—”

“Ah,” Shane says. “Well, you know, sometimes fear…adrenaline…they can affect people. Physically.” He waves his hands indistinctly crotchward. “It’s a, a scientifically known phenomenon.” Shane feels a little better staying in the realm of scientifically known phenomena.

Review: Word of advice. You see a fic is authored by beethechange, run don’t walk because you’re absolutely always going to be treated to the best of banter, the best of prose, chemistry, organic execution and feels right up the bottom end of your heart. This fic, this changed everything I thought I knew I wanted out of a bed-sharing fic. It’s got a little bit of two treats here. You got a sex-pollen-esque situation mixed with bed-sharing and holy fucking damn that is more than you think you deserve, but read this because you do deserve the best of the best. The build up, the dialogue, the surprisingly hilarity of it, the hotness woah, and The Aftermath. When you think you know what you’re in for, you’re wrong and you’re most pleasantly surprised. Get this fic in your life and honestly? while you’re at it, you could do a clean sweep of every fic in her list of works and while my less than adequate reading time management may still be short on some of her most well-recommended pieces, I have an adamant faith that Bee doesn’t disappoint. Go get y’all juice.

Maelstrom by thewindupbird

Summary:  Here’s the thing about driving halfway across the country to see someone. You can’t really deny, after that, that you’re pretty much head over heels for them.

Review: Listen. One morning on a day off, I just laid in bed and read this– all 40k+ words– while lying there clutching my pillows, hurting and loving every moment of it. The descriptions of Americana, the slow steady metronome rhythm of Ryan’s feelings as frightened and helpless as they feel when you’re relating deeply to them juxtaposed with the deep-seated struggle of understanding what it is to be with someone you love so much but your mental health is burning quiet holes in your ability to express it in a way that can be understand. Ryan’s fierce determination, breaking through the silence of their non communication is really Everything to me in this fic. i think I really left my heart in the scene in Shane’s parents kitchen. That finished me. Read this fic and understand the deep relief you get when you’ve finished a fight with someone you fiercely care about and they understand you and you understand them and it’s OK; it’s gonna be all right. Augh.

5 times Shane had to overrule Ryan’s “No Homo” + 1 time he didn’t have to by ghoulboyboos

Summary: There was only one thing that would truly drive him up the wall with Ryan, much more than any debate about ghosts ever could: Ryan’s consistent twitches of “no homo” when any sort of physical contract between them happened.

Review: I have such a soft special spot in my heart for this fic particularly because Lud manages to examine a trope I tend to avoid in such a sweet and honest way I couldn’t not love this fic. The story takes a painstaking and very real look at the “no homo” issue as it weaved through the journey that was early days Ryan and Shane. Shane’s reaction to in this and how he communicates with Ryan has such a very heartfelt and once again, real quality to it. I get in my feelings all over again about how far they’ve come and what it meant for Ryan to have Shane there. Lud really nails this piece and it’s a classic in my eyes.

A Burial on Box Hill by InkStainsOnMyHands

Summary: The Celtics believed that the yew flower symbolized both immortality and death. Meanwhile, for centuries, the buxus flower was seen as a symbol for safe passage into the afterlife.

Or,Shane and Ryan were never the same after investigating the Black Forest of Germany alone.

Review: Let me just quote my bookmark comment here. Usually I flee from tragedy like a cat spotting a cucumber but the brevity and the prose dragged me in and now I’m a functioning mess. Bless this fic. Oh my god it’s short and reads like one of those quick horror stories you’ll read to your friends just as the scary stories are transitioning from the urban legends to the ones that feel real. Big warning for main character death but still read it if you appreciate a good story told.

Body Farming by shiphitsthefan

Summary: Failed suppressants and a surprise heat: the worst of cliches, and here Ryan stands, living the trope on location with the alpha he’s hopelessly in love with. Even worse, they’re spending the night in the famous Bell Witch Cave, completely alone and with no way to contact the outside world.

Ryan knows he can survive and keep his preheat a secret, as long as Shane will stop being so protective and concerned. After all, it’s not like Shane wants to bond with him.

Right?

Review: Now judging from the reactions of many people I’ve spoken to, big heavy ABO kink is not popular here but guys, GUYS. This one. Let this one in I promise it is not what you think it is. The dynamic is organic and the worst side of the trope is subverted in all the best ways and lord help us, the smut is hot, like swelteringly smoking. It’ll stay with you.

Believer by cellard00rs

Summary:  Some demons and otherworldly creatures love climbing up the power ladder. Shane is not one of these. He likes where he is (thank you very much) and has no interest in moving up. All he wants is to give his friend Ryan a nice birthday gift. So, naturally, everything goes to hell.

Review: This fic is another fandom legend. When I think demon!Shane. It’s this and one other one that always pops right into my mind. This was my first exposure to the bureaucracy meets the supernatural!Shane trope and I was sold from the get-go. The Shane in this fic is everything I imagine a demon!Shane is and his ginger care for Ryan, the concept of their bond and how even though Shane is a demon and responsible for keeping the supernatural a firm secret from Ryan and the rest of the world, his skepticism is relayed through his status as a demon. I want to talk more about it but I think so much of the enjoyment comes from the surprises as the plot unfurls.

hey boy, take a look at me by weakspots

Summary: Ryan is 27, for Christ’s sake, and he’s not exactly hideous, so there’s really no reason to spend his money on a dude — a dude — whose face he’ll never see but whose livestreams he’s been jerking off to for roughly 4 months now. He should be going out and partying and fucking random chicks. Or a guy, whatever, just to get it out of his system and confirm to himself that he really is 100% straight.

Because he is. This is morbid curiosity, if anything.

Review: I’ve been a long-time fan of this universe and it was a universe I didn’t know I needed until this author gave it to us. We or rather me, a desperate audience, just devoured this with every update. Not only is it hot, but it has the delicious intrigue of secret identity, anonymous stuff and a LOT of blush-worthy prose therein. This version of Shane makes me thrive but the titillating nature of straight-identifying!Ryan being bowled over by the turn of events that leads him to his world tilting into the gravity of a camboy just--you Have to read this one!

Heartbeat by quackers

Summary:  So the guy Ryan sits next to at work is a vampire. That’s no big deal, right?

Review: I could talk your literal ear off about this fic. Vampires, man. I love the trope; you don’t know me as a person if you don’t know this at least. And this fic kept me fed all damn year. It was a readable garden. If there is one thing I can guarantee about quackers’ work, it’s that their world-building is a festival of detail. The realms and alternate universes they work with while still managing to keep Shane and Ryan’s voices so familiar and real is a talent not attributed to your everyday author. This fic propelled me into wanting to write more and more because quackers makes stories so much fun! Reading their work is, to me, not unlike the feeling I got when I was younger and finding series that speak to my need to escape this crummy existence, made me want to believe in fun spicy things like a vampire that lived through centuries, cynical but still searching, navigating a world where people are still people, adjusting to differences and prejudices, finding comfort in a guy that understands that and more. I’ve talked about this fic in more than a few different posts so I’d just be reiterating a lot of things I loved about the more historical aspects of Shane’s journey, the way Ryan is so firmly curious and inventive in ways to connect with Shane. Look, even if vampires aren’t your thing, I can promise that if you visit quackers list of work, you will find something for your supernatural-lovin’ palate that speaks to a gentler side of your own curiosity about monsters and the jocks that love them. lol.

I’ll Crawl Home by carrieonfighting

Summary:  “Shane was almost unnerved by how quickly he’d settled into this body, this name, this life - his friendship with Ryan was the most time he’d spent with any human before, and yet the man fascinated him.”

Review: This is the second fic I think of when someone says the words ‘demon!Shane’ to me because ohhhh my word, this fic is a masterpiece. I really am hard-pressed to find anything better than the feeling I get when I think of demon!Shane headcanons interwoven with the irl Buzzfeed reality and the idea of the Ryan as we know him being protected and watched and loved so deeply by a demon that found him so long ago and wanted nothing but to protect him. I feel an almost vicious glee reliving that moment when Ryan and Shane are on goatman’s bridge and man, I just really love canonical fic mixed with a slight twist. The writing in this makes it work so well with lines that still haunt my heart and soul like “Ryan liked popcorn. So did the demon. Genuinely, not just out of a desire to please the human – he liked the way it crunched between his vessel’s teeth. There were some aspects of taking a corporeal form that were… nice; laughing, coffee, feeling warm. Ryan made him laugh.” FUCK! The beautiful agony of it, watching the demon fall in love with Ryan through the eyes of his vessel. Just stark with pain and unspoken, well-written angst and pain with a perfect ending, I wouldn’t change for anything. I love this for us as a fandom and will always love that author crafted this piece and shared it with us. (Also every time I hear Work Song by Hozier, I think of this fic again and sigh).

#shyan fic #shyan #shyanbookclub #otp: we took an oath

[bungou-stray-dingus]

hey!! could you do the non ability innocent s/o scenario but with fukuzawa and mori? (Ps I just binged all of your writing I love it so much 🥺💗)

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! YOU’RE AMAZING!!

IM SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG, WORK HAS ME BACK AT IT AGAIN.

LOVE YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Fukuzawa

You were perfect to him, and for him. He first saw you sitting on a park bench, all the stray cats were flocked around you as you handed treats out to each of them. He saw you every day doing the exact same thing, and it was always the same cats. He had overheard you talking to the cats in a soft sweet voice as you passed out the treats. He decided that he would join you one day after watching you do this for two weeks. (It took him that long to build up the courage to talk to you. Silver Wolf is good with the blade but not with the words with woman.)

You were shy, slightly awkward, your cheeks would turn the most beautiful shade of pink whenever he sat next to you, and the blush wouldn’t fade until he left. The two of you bonded, conversations went from the cats that you were feeding, to personal lives, dreams and wishes.

You had been dating for about five months, and he still thought you were just as stunning as the first day he saw you. You were still shy and soft spoken, the dictionary definition of pure innocence. He’d come visit you after work, and his eyes would light up, seeing you curled up on the couch with your cats, Mochi, Mimi, and Mogi, watching funny cat videos on your tv.

Your cheeks would still turn a bright red whenever you’d see him, covering your face with your hands to hide your smile. You were just too much, you had to be protected at all costs. In his eyes you were the most precious thing on the earth, next to cats.

He didn’t think you were weak, he just thought that you were too sweet to put up a fight, and he always feared that you would end up in a bad situation because of your sweetness, it would be taken as weakness by people who could take advantage of you and you’d get hurt.

You were walking to your spot one afternoon, meeting up with the local stray cats to hand out their daily treats when you saw a group of men surrounding one. They were throwing things at the little ball of fluff, and they had it circled so it couldn’t run away. Your heart sank, but you saw red. Your fists were balled up, and you stomped over to where the men were standing around, laughing at the tiny creature in the center. You swing at one of the men, hitting him square in the jaw. He staggered back as the other men started shouting at you. You seemed to black out, not remembering anything but throwing punches, kicking and scratching these men who found it somehow amusing to torture a poor defenseless animal.

When the cops showed up you were sitting on the bench, the cats surrounding you as you fed them their treats. Your knuckles were red from the hits and you had blood from one of the men under your nails from the scratches. There were tiny blood splatters on the ground from the man who’s nose was bleeding. They were standing around, glaring at you as they explained to the cops “what happened”.

“May I ask something?” You called to the cop who was questioning the men. He sighed and walked over to you, nodding for you to continue. “Would you be able to get in touch with the Armed Detective Agency Director, Fukuzawa Yukichi?”

“I’m sorry, this is no case for the ADA ma’am.” The cop said, turning back to the men to continue his questions. You sighed and pulled out your phone, calling Fukuzawa yourself. He came as soon as possible, eyeing the scene in horror. He saw the blood on the ground and ran over to you to make sure you weren’t hurt.

“What happened?” He asked you in a hushed voice. The cop eyed him, confused about the presidents interest in such a minor situation.

“They were messing with the kitten. I couldn’t let them do it.” You said, and he nodded.

“So you’re not hurt?” He asked, just to be sure that you were alright.

“I’m fine. Are you mad that I fought them?”

“Of course not. I’ll handle this.” He was serious as ever when he walked over to where the cop was standing, jotting down notes on a notepad. You couldn’t hear him, but his mouth was moving quickly as he motioned his hands between you, the men, and the cats on the ground in front of you.

Fukuzawa took you away from the area before you could figure out what happened to the men. He was quiet as the two of you walked down the street towards the agency building, but once you got inside and into his office his questions were endless.

“I didn’t know you could fight.” “When did you learn how to do that?” “Why did you never tell me you could fight like that?” “Are you sure you’re not hurt?” “It’s just so strange, I never would have thought you had it in you. You’re sure you don’t have an ability?”

“I’m sure. I’m fine. I didn’t learn how to do it, I didn’t even know I could fight like that. I just got really mad, and I blacked out and it happened.” You explained, your voice soft and sweet, your hands folded in your lap, your eyes wide and doe like, it made it hard for him to believe that it was you who beat the hell out of the men.

“Well, I’m proud of you, for defending the cat. Try to stay out of situations like that though, I don’t want you getting hurt. Alright?” He said, trying to stay serious, but when you smiled at him he couldn’t help but smile back.

He never brought up what happened, not around you at least. He talked about it with everyone at the agency. “Welcome Y/N, Defender of Stray Cats!” Dazai would call out whenever you walked in the door. Fukuzawa would just roll his eyes, but secretly he found it even more adorable, your little nickname. He even started using it.

You were Y/N, Defender of Cats, and he absolutely adored you.

Mori

Being Mori’s s/o meant watching Elise way more than you usually had when you were just his intern at the Port Mafia. She became something like your daughter, even though you knew she was just Mori’s ability, you absolutely adored her, and she loved you. Your almost motherly love towards Elise made Mori’s heart sore, he absolutely loved both you and Elise more than anything else.

He often watched you and Elise from his desk, you laying on your stomach on the floor coloring with Elise, talking about anything and everything that kept her interest. You would let her play with your hair, or put makeup on you. Mori enjoyed watching these moments between you and Elise. Your heart and your soul were so pure, he often wondered how you managed to get mixed up with the Port Mafia, somehow ending up with the boss of the organization. Everyone there had blood on their hands, their hearts and souls were tainted with the blood and carnage they had caused, you were like a bright light that shines brighter than anyone else there.

You’d often come into the office with gift wrapped boxes, laying them all in front of Elise before making your way over to Mori’s desk, standing behind him as he sat in his chair. He and you would both watch Elise open her gifts, and then you’d spend the rest of the day playing with the new toys you had bought her.

“You are so kind to my dear Elise, I’m so glad that we both have you.” Mori would often say, calling you over to him, pressing a kiss to your temple.

You never struck him as a violent person, especially when compared to the other members of the Port Mafia. You were sweeter than sugar, Mori’s complete opposite when it came to feelings, morals, values, sympathy... everything. He wouldn’t change anything about you though, you were the contrast in his life that he didn’t know he needed. He cherished you like a fine jewel, he would happily murder anyone that tried to take you away from him.

Mori, Elise, and you were out shopping one afternoon, it was kind of like a family day, at least that’s how you labeled it. He couldn’t help the wide grin that was plastered on his face, seeing you walk down the street a couple steps ahead, holding Elises hand as you window shopped. You’d point out little things that caught your eye, smiling down at Elise when she picked out something that she liked, he knew she would most likely have it the next day.

“I’m going to step in here for a second.” Mori said, walking into a clothing store to pick new dresses for Elise. She was dragged in by him and you decided to stay outside, knowing that if you went in you’d come out with double the dresses.

It was a nice afternoon, which is why you were completely shocked when a group of thugs cornered you, backing you up into a side alley. It was a dead end, you didn’t know what to do.

“Port Mafia garbage.” One of the thugs mumbled as he pulled out a switchblade. Your gulp was audible, and your entire body was shaking with fear.

“Your boss will be here soon, we’ll just keep you until then.” Another thug said, his arms crossed as he seemed to be enjoying the look of terror on your face.

Soon fear turned to worry, they were planning on hurting Mori... you couldn’t let it happen. “Please, I only have a little bit of money, but you can have it. Let me go.” You said, reaching into your purse. Your fingers brushed against the metal, it was the scalpel that you had saved in your purse. Mori has given it to you as a way to think of him, and at the time you were confused by the item, never finding a need for it, but he must have known something like this would happen. You silently thanked yourself that you hadn’t taken it out of your purse, until now.

You quickly pulled it out, moving too fast for any of the men to notice. You swiped it across the closest mans throat, the blood shot out onto your face. You were swift, finishing off the rest of the thugs in what felt like only a couple seconds. They all had their throats slit before they realized what was happening, they didn’t have time to run or scream. They didn’t even have time to think about what was happening before they were on the ground, choking on their own blood or bleeding out.

You stared wide eyed at the scene in front of you, dropping the scalpel to the ground by your feet. You couldn’t seem to move your eyes from the bodies that were strewn across the ground, the gurgling gasping breaths from one of the men seemed to echo in the empty alleyway.

“Oh my, someone is going to have to clean this up.” Your head whipped up at the sound of Moris voice. His eyes were glued to you, a grim smile on his face. The blood that was splattered on your face reminded him of himself when he murdered the president of the port mafia. In this moment you reminded him of himself, and he couldn’t be prouder.

“They were going to hurt you, I couldn’t let that happen.” You whispered, but Mori wasn’t listening. He just wrapped his arms around you, pulling you into the tightest hug you’ve ever received from him.

“I’m so proud of you, my sweet sweet darling. You’ve done well.” He murmured into the top of your head.

He couldn’t get over the fact that you wiped out three grown men with just a scalpel, he couldn’t believe it. He knew you didn’t have an ability, but it didn’t stop him from thinking that you would make a great addition to the Black Lizards.

You weren’t as innocent as he believed, but that just made him adore you even more. You were an angel, his crazy angel.

#bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs x reader #bungou stray dogs x reader #bsd request #bsd scenarios #bsd imagines #bsd headcanons #bsd x reader #fukuzawa yukichi #yukichi fukuzawa #fukuzawa x reader #fukuzawa imagines #fukuzawa headcanons #fukuzawa scenarios #mori ougai #ougai mori #mori x reader #mori scenarios #mori imagines #mori headcanons

[paaradoxum]

BakuTodo Rec List of Fics Vol. II

It’s been a while since the last time I did the other list and many new, wonderful fics appeared (the dynamics will be the same: AO3 fics that includes top!Bakugou and bottom!Todoroki for those that are NSFW), so if you wanna check out here is Part I.

This time there are 32 fics in this list, I have more and probably I will make Part III soon.

Spoiler: EVERY SINGLE one of these stories are FUCKING AWESOME.

Rating: G

→ flowers die, feelings grow by kinneyb

Summary:  When Bakugo first visits a local flower shop with Jirou, he buys some flowers in a lame attempt to piss off one of the employees - a guy named Shouto. But then he gets a little too invested in keeping his flowers alive.

→ Pretty by doop-doop.

Summary:  Like so many things that had to do with Shouto, the question took Bakugou entirely by surprise. “Do you think I’m pretty?”

→ For a Single Moment by itsclowreedsfault.

Summary:  Katsuki shakes his head with a sigh and an unbidden smile. Shouto's always been like an overexcited kid when it came to cats; Katsuki should've known he didn't stand a chance against them in Shouto's first visit to a cat cafe.

Rating: T

→ Ruin My Life by justhavesex.

Summary: He's not a vengeful person, really, he's not.

But him and Bakugou have started this little on-going war of theirs back in middle school when they were 10 years old and Todoroki had accidentally—if you got Todoroki drunk enough and fed his ego well enough he would, in fact, admit that it was very much on purpose—accidentally fed Bakugou's limited edition All Might magazine to his cat.

→ Aesthetic Distance by llyn.

Summary:  This was around the time Shouto was appearing in all the blogs and rags and instagrams wearing a hideous faux fur coat of bright, hot neon like some awful crawling creature from an acid trip had been hunted and skinned, its pelt draped over Shouto's shoulders.

→ Dance To This by justhavesex.

Summary:  Bakugou has never cared much about being an alpha, not really, not until he met the most frustrating omega in all existence: Todoroki Shouto.

→ Welcome to the Mile-High Club by minhakos.

Summary:  In which Todoroki realizes that maybe airplanes aren't the only thing that should make him nervous.

→ Boyfriend Tactics by Esselle.

Summary: 'Shouto's eyes go impossibly wide. He seems to lose all powers of communication for a moment and just stands there, frozen, staring at Katsuki and the kitten. Finally, eventually, he utters the tiniest noise Katsuki has ever heard him make.

"Ah…" '

--

Katsuki comes to the aid of a small and fluffy civilian while on patrol.

→ Line by Line by Lillabelle.

Summary:  With half his sketchbook filled with drawings of the guy, Katsuki wondered if he’s already crossed the line of being insanely creepy. They’ve never spoken, and he honestly only knew the person’s name was Todoroki Shouto because of role call in class. Shouto was just… so unique to look at with his half and half appearance. It was hard for Katsuki’s eyes not to get drawn to him. Not to mention they shared several classes, so if Katsuki ever got bored and felt like drawing something, there he was.

→ a todobaku one-shot collection by kagehinataboke.

Summary:  all of my multiple, multiple, multiple todobaku one-shots. i stan two (2) dipshit boys that are obviously in love and hate with each other.

→ amaryllis by ?

Summary:  The amaryllis has come to symbolize pride, determination and radiant beauty. Somehow this all suited Katsuki a lot more than Shouto expected.

→ tell ourselves a good lie by ElmoIsSatan. (In-Progress 12/?)

Summary: For a straight guy with anger issues, getting a “boyfriend” might just be his only escape.

Or-

Bakugo makes an impulsive decision and suddenly gains a boyfriend just to prove his parents wrong... The only problem is it’s all fake.

→ how to register for a library card (and get a boyfriend in the process) by Kaleid369.

Summary: “Friends have each other’s numbers, yeah?” Bakugou shrugs. “I don’t hate you, I guess.”

“Lucky me.”

“Lucky you,” Bakugou snorts. “I gotta go. Text me so I have your number.”

“I will.”

He's already started walking away when Shouto blurts out, “See you tomorrow?”

Bakugou shoots him a smirk over his shoulder, as if to say, Duh.

Shouto stands and stares at his retreating back, and the thought of kissing him pounds along with the beat of his heart.

→ on brand by dinosuns.

Summary: Midoriya is honestly unsure what’s worse: the tragic fact that Todoroki Shouto can make anything look objectively incredible or the fact Kacchan has six versions of the exact same photograph saved onto his camera roll.

Nobody saves a photo that many times by accident.

Kacchan set the bar, Todoroki raised it. That is not a good thing.

→ The Journey Home by dinosuns.

Summary: “Your hair looks real fucking nice.”

“I thought it was about time I grew it out,” Todoroki says, something wistful caught in his voice. “You were always saying I should.”

That’s true. And Bakugou is satisfied to know he was right about it looking good, but it’s not like he can share that with the fucking class anymore.

--

Bakugou tells himself that he's fine with how things turned out between them. He also tells himself he's not still in love.

Rating: M

→ Zephyr by yeetin. (In-Progress 4/?)

Summary: The breeze that sifted gently through a golden sea of tall, dry grass brought the tiny spike of a different scent. An inconspicuous little prickle down the spine, barely even worth paying attention to. Something no one else would even imagine being able to notice.

But Bakugou did.

→ Objection, Your Honor by Myona. (In-Progress (8/?)

Summary: Shoto Todoroki hated Katsuki Bakugou. And he had plenty of reasons to do so.

But he didn't know that how things can change for the two of them who saw nothing but trouble in each other's presence and life altogether. Katsuki was a trouble from the first time Shoto heard his name, to the first day he met the man.

Rating: E

→ On Hot Blondes and Drunken Hookups by Crossfire. (In-Progress 4/?) I love this so so much.

Summary: “I’m Bakugou. What’s your name, Pretty Boy?”

Shouto looks at the drink in his hand, then back to the beautiful blonde boy, then back to the drink and downs it in one go, ignoring the slight burn as it slides down his throat, and while it would have been more suave to appear unaffected, he gives his head a little shake. He takes a quick breath and forces the words out before he has a chance to realize what a massive mistake this all is.

“Hot blondes I want to bang can call me Shouto.”

→ Tick Tick Boom by Ajaxthegreat. (In-Progress 6/?) THIS is so good, I’m in love.

Summary: An exhausted socially awkward violin prodigy and a deaf punk rock drummer walk into a bar.

→ Better Take a Mental Picture by chibibeeee. This is HOT HOT.

Summary:  The one where Deku watches Bakugou take Todoroki and their exhibitionist kink is unlocked.

→ Cover: Blown by darkanddank. (In-Progress 1/2)

Summary: Some undercover agents got hooked on drugs. Went full Stockholm Syndrome, flipped and joined up with the other side. As Bakugou’s palm went flat over Todoroki’s navel and dove beneath his closed zipper, Todoroki started to understand just how easy it might be to go rogue.

...aka cop Todoroki gets his world rocked so hard by bad guy Bakugou that he has an existential crisis

→ Just One Bite by Crossfire.

Summary: This particular fuckup begins when he saves a cat from a demon in a sketchy alley.

Well, maybe slightly before that when his esteemed hedge-witch mentor turned out to be an incubus who coincidentally turned him and his stupid nerdy neighbor into incubi.

Or maybe when he was born to a non-magic family, but early on developed minor magical inclinations that turned out to be not-so-minor and kind-of-hugely-destructive.

Wherever this fuckup was born, it’s culminated as follows: Bakugou has been an incubus for one hundred and twenty-two days, seven hours, and thirty-six minutes, has not had a single successful feed, and is essentially slowly starving to death. His mentor is suspiciously MIA and that stupid shitty nerd has managed to secure himself a two-person harem so it’s just Bakugou, starving. To death. Slowly.

→ Gangster by Brixxen.

Summary: Bakugou is a detective trying to solve a case that's been open for months. He ends up in a town and meets a man who could be his undoing...

Todoroki wasn't expecting the blonde at the bar to leave him wanting more...

→ How to spend a Friday night by veltana.

Summary: That's how Katsuki ended up on his bed on a Friday night leaning against the headboard with his laptop between his spread legs, his hard dick in his hand, watching Shouto open himself up for him on the screen.

→ Your Turn by doop-doop.

Summary: An extra scene/epilogue/continuation of smd.

Bakugou and Todoroki housesit for Bakugou's parents and take advantage of Bakugou's large bed.

→ Comfort by hellaradholly.

Summary: Katsuki agrees to be Shouto's roommate after UA despite having an unbearable crush on him.a gift for Katie for the BakuTodo Valentine's Day Exchange!

→ Empire of Dirt by castiiron, clairesail. (In-Progress 5/?)

Summary: There was something different about being with Bakugou Katsuki. Something that Shouto had been searching for tonight, to no avail. A consistent burn in his gut, the warmth of a fire that hadn’t been stoked in many years. Katsuki had been inexcusably rough with him. Harsh in a way that had pulled him back to reality. Shouto hadn’t realized he was missing out, being so used to what he knew; going through the motions, a means to an end. His life for the last few years had revolved around mediocre sex as a way to abate constant desire, always at the forefront of his mind.

Unhealthy coping mechanisms are easier to hide when you aren't screwing your ex-classmate.

→ Be Quiet by chibibeeee.

Summary: Katsuki and Shouto stay the night at Deku's. If only they had any self control, then they wouldn't have to keep so quiet.

→ Speak Softly My Sweet Villain by Brixxen.

Summary: Ask anyone in Tokyo and they’ll tell you the same thing. That the No.1 Pro Hero Todoroki Shoto is the perfect hero. He’s kind to everyone, always the first to arrive on a crime scene, always the calm and collected hero everyone wants him to be.

It was ironic how things happened to lead Shoto to his current situation. Him moaning and shuddering like a teenager, clinging to the strong perfect body of the most wanted villain in Japan, Ground Zero.

→ Peanuts and Wolves by cashmeresho.

Summary: “Yeah, man, okay!” The guy holds up his hands in surrender and Shouto shoots him another apologetic look. “I really didn't know you guys were married! I didn't see a ring!”

“Oh,” Katsuki says. He frowns hard for a minute and then grabs Shouto by the arm to whisk him away to his table with Izuku and Kirishima to guard him or sniff him or whatever weird territorial thing he wants to do.

→ College Roommates|BakuTodo by S_Kuro.

Summary: Todoroki is the son of the famous Todoroki Enji, also known as Endeavor, his father is a famous business man that wants Todoroki to take over his business, but Todoroki wants to become a photographer. He goes against his father's wishes and goes to an art university miles away from home. There he meets a certain explosive blonde, who turns out to be his roommate. what sorts of ridiculous shenanigans will they find themselves in and what relationships will they end up in.

a BakuTodo fanfic

This is my first fanfic with these two, so don't judge me and I hope you like it.

→ Locker Room by darkqueen_25.

Summary: There are worse things to walk in on in a locker room, Inasa thinks, than your two new friends fucking against the shower walls.

There's probably nothing better than being asked to join in, though.

#bnha #mha #bakutodo #todobaku #todoroki shouto #bakugou katsuki #shouto todoroki #katsuki bakugou #bakugou x todoroki #top!bakugou #bottom!todoroki #bakutodobaku #fanfic #fic recommendations #fic list

[sylvari-bouquet]

Shadows remain: Curiosity killed the cat

Previous chapter: [click here]

Next chapter: [to be updated]

Nettle visits Papaver after a long time. However, not everything seems be normal with them...

tw: emotional abuse, manipulation

Chapter 1 - Curiosity killed the cat

Nettle's notes

I paid a visit to Papaver's workshop today. It's located on the lower level of the Grove, a small one-room place they rented out when I told them that I won't allow them keep storing their crafting tools in my kitchen or keep welding indoors. That exchange had been a long time ago, at least it felt that way. A lot had happened between meeting the troublesome mentor to today, three months after the fall of the Jungle dragon. Even in my following isolation, I had seen them few times after that, yet this was the first time I sought them out of my own volition. I couldn't name the reason why, was it happenstance or an urge that pushed the events into motion. The walls around me that I had been staring through day and night began to crush me, and I had to find someone, anyone, before I would have been completely buried in my grief and depression. So, they were the logical choice.

I really did not know a lot about them at that point. Despite their jovial and social personality, they hardly talked about themselves, especially about their past. I knew that they are part of Whispers', and they did share stories about the time when they, a charr who fancied apples, and a human noble turned spy were part of a strike team. Although I've seen their Holoforge in action, and the parts of Asuran tech embedded in to their bark, I have never broken the tact to inquire about the story behind them - Papaver has told spending some years in Rata Sum, where they learned the basics of their craft. But other than that - truthfully, I know nothing else about them. The only information about their saplinghood that they have mentioned in passing was working at a fern hound kennel - not surprising reveal, considering how they act around any dog-like creatures. I can admit that I was curious why they were so tight-lipped about this particular subject, but I wanted to respect their privacy, and never pushed for answers. I wonder how things would have turned out if I had approached them earlier.

When I entered the workshop, Papaver was engrossed in their work, hunched over something I could not see from the doorstep. Their workspace was small, just one room and alcove they sometimes slept when they'd work late into the night. It was barely furnished, with a single excessively bright asuran lamp over the table. Unlike the communal stations in grove, Papaver's was not grown, but build, they had told they had carved it themselves. They had certain fondness to processed wood. I could relate to that, although interesting in their natural shape, gemstomes only revealed their shine after they had been cut.

"What's this about?" I asked Papaver, and they finally turned to face me. Their appearance supported my theory of

The scene seemed normal enough. However, I noticed some things were amiss: Their long ferns, usually tied to a bun to keep them out of the way, were now hanging loose down their shoulders. The ferns didn't look properly cared, either, which suggested they had been working almost non-stop for days, if not more. Their workstation was in a chaotic disarray. Had it been any other part of their living quarters, it would not had stood out, but the work desk was the one place they almost always kept organized to the last detail.

There were designs scattered around, an as I picked up one to examine it closer, it was incomprehensible. Between the scribbles and torn papers, what they were working on seemed to be a sword. I had never before seen them craft any weapons before. Grenades and turrents, yes, but not an actual blade. Something in it did not sit right with me.

Before I could examine the design further, they all but tore the paper from my hands. I was taken aback by their strange behavior.

"You didn't need to do that", I replied, a little hurt.

"It's still unfinished", Papaver said, as if that was any sort of explanation.

"I see. When was the last time you slept?" I asked instead.

"I don't have the time", the answer was as curd as the last one.

"What on Tyria is so important about that that you neglect yourself?" I asked, worry slipping to irritation at that point.

"I- I need to finish this. I think it's best for you to leave." With that, they turned their back to me and returned to their work.

I felt like I should have stayed and argued further, but something in their behaviour told me that if I tried to push, they were ready to push back. So, I walked the workplace, but I lingered in the area, hoping to find some clues to this mystery. What had possessed Papaver to work so feverishly on this cryptic sword?

The duo left the Grove behind, turning almost immediately left and continuing the empty path past Mossheart Garden.

Certainly the mystery deepened, as a warden walked in to Papaver's workshop, and after a moment, they both took their leave, heading to upper floor.

I made the error of trailing behind them. To my defense, I was curious, and even more concerned. And I wanted answers, and if they were not sharing them willingly,I had to find another way.

There was an another sylvari waiting for them. His leaves were pale pink, dipping into a deeper purple, and his appearance seemed innocuous enough, at least if one did not notice the uncomfortableness that both Papaver and the Warden radiated around him.

"Oh dear, you look terrible", the pink sylvari remarked as he stepped close to Papaver, and stroked their hair, a gesture so overtly familiar and tender it felt more like a parody of the act, "I assume you have good news for me. Show me the sword, wouldn't you?"

"No, and you won't be getting it from me", Papaver pushed Dinadan's hand away and replied, voice tense and strung with defiance, "I won't work on your dirty schemes anymore. I am over you, Dinadan."

The plastered smile on Dinadan's face dropped.

"Ah, unfortunate. Puppy has finally learnt how to bark, hm?" the tone of the pink sylvari was nowhere near the casualness of the spoken words.  

I gripped the hilt of my sword, about to step in to whatever was going on in this tense scene, when Dinadan spoke again:

"But before that, I'd like to welcome our special guest. Commander, care to join us?"

I felt a strong glaw grip my shoulder, and it became clear I had not been as unseen follower as I thought I'd be. The glaw-wearing person rudely pushed me towards the rest of the party, making sure they kept their hand on me.

Papaver's anger had been snuffed out like a candle, now their face only had a mixed look of fear and shame. I wish there had been something I could have said to them, but all I could offer was somewhat apologetic look.

"I must thank you for your presence, commander Nettle", Dinadan talked, stepping too close to my liking. My instincts told me to back away, but I couldn’t move. “I was already dreading I’d have to find alternative ways to persuade our mutual friend here, but then you kindly offer yourself as a much more solution.”

"Keep away from hir", Papaver protested, "Ze has nothing to do with-"

"Don't dare to interrupt me", Dinadan almost hissed, and continued in his regular, unsettling tone: "also, I order you to stay put until we're done here."

Papaver stopped in their tracks, pertified with magic and something else. I tried to blink away, but as I was dematerializing, the glaw pierced my shoulder, and the pain and poison that pulsed through made it impossible for me to focus my magic.

"Now that's a good boy. Remember, next time we meet, you should bring the sword with you. Don’t worry, I’ll personally take good care of the commander while ze is in my care. Hope to hear from you soon~”

With the final remark, he snapped his fingers, and a teleportation portal appeared around us. In a flash, we were gone, leaving Papaver behind and taking me somewhere I did not know.

#my writing tag #nettle tag #papaver tag #dinadan tag #guild wars 2 #gw2

[heamarvel]

Holiday Movie Challenge Prompt and Badge lists

Hellooooo shippers of all Marvel ships!

This marks the kickoff to HEA (Happily Ever After) Marvel’s Holiday Movie Challenge! If you don’t know us, we’re a group of crafty mods under the direction of our own personal Pepper Potts ( @betheflame​​ ), so really, this is going to be great fun, and we hope that you’ll join us!

A brief intro to our event:

At no point do you need to sign up for this event. You are not beholden to post anything, even if you say that you will. This is a guiltless, fun event!

Pick a prompt, any prompt!

Interpret the prompt any which way you wish. We have prompt examples available for people to peruse on our blog and on our Discord, if you’re in need of a few examples.

Write (or art, podfic, or moodboard, etc.) any ship you want, even polyamorous relationships of any number or type (even if the prompts contain just two characters!).

Include additions from our badge list if you wish! They function like video game achievements (think World of Warcraft, or Xbox) and you will be rewarded with little achievement badges designed by the wonderful @kocuria​ that you can display anywhere you please.

The collection will open on November 1st and close on December 24th.

Around then we will provide a Google form to submit the badge info and other info for your fic.

BUT REMEMBER! All contributions to this event must have a Happily Ever After as per holiday movie standards (doesn’t mean there can’t be tons of angst and pain in the middle, though).

For any further info, please check out our Holiday Movie Challenge page, our Prompt and Badge page, our Frequently Asked Questions page, or ask us questions on Tumblr, Twitter, or on Discord! (Links on Tumblr.) 

But that’s enough mod-splaining, let’s take a look under the cut at the prompts and badges that we’ve been eagerly waiting to share with you!

*We have included both (1) images to download and save as well as (2) text for those who prefer or need that medium! The images are at the bottom of this post.

Here’s a separate post with just the images.

Prompts

1. Character A is a big city lawyer who swore to never go back to their hometown. Suddenly, their grandfather dies and leaves them the family Christmas Tree farm. They’re determined to go back and shut down the farm. Character B runs the farm and is determined to save it.

2. After losing their job as an au pair in New York, Character A accepts a position as a nanny in the castle of a small European principality no one has ever heard of. Character B is a single parent & ruler of the country.

3. When architect and Christmas amateur Character A finds themselves hosting their family for Christmas, they recruit holiday coordinator Character B to bring holiday joy to their home.

4. A high-powered executive reconsiders their priorities when car trouble leads them to Christmas Valley, a town in love with Christmas.

5. Two new students at nearby university, Character A and Character B, meet the first day of classes and become study partners. A local bookstore becomes a close part of their lives as their relationship grows.

6. Character A - a famous author who writes about how to stay single - is forced to look after their niece and nephew over the holidays. With the help of their Christmas-loving neighbor, Character B, they learn to find love and the Christmas spirit.

7. A young royal (Character A) escapes their entourage to explore New York City over Christmas. They meet Character B who shows the beautiful stranger their side of the city.

8. As Christmas approaches, Character A (the Lizzie Bennet character), a New York event planner, is sent to a quaint, small town to organize their holiday festival. When they arrive, they find Character B (the Darcy character), a high-profile billionaire lacking in holiday spirit, in the process of selling the charming estate they hoped to use as a venue.

9. An anxious bride-to-be (Character A, “bride” is non-gender assigned) throws in with broken-hearted and cynical Character B and a happily married couple for an emergency ride to NYC from New England.

10. Character A has to go to their cousin’s holiday wedding that’s taking place a year to the day they were left at the altar. Unable to face going alone, they con Character B into going “just as friends.”

11. When a restless young married Character A is granted a wish by a Christmas Angel to be single again, they soon discover their new life isn't what they bargained for, and embark on a quest to win Character B back.

12. Character A and Character B have been archrivals ever since a memorable fight over a coveted Christmas recital solo in elementary school. Now adults, they work side-by-side at the same school where they still constantly compete over everything. As the holiday season approaches, the entire school is getting into the spirit with the annual fundraising festival, which will feature an exciting new event - a teacher Christmas Cookie Bake-Off, judged by a tough five-star chef.

13. Character A inherited a toy factory. The town needs the factory to stay open, but they have no interest in being tied to their hometown. Especially when they find out that Character B - who broke their heart in high school - is the town’s mayor.

14. A WWII era nurse (Character A) is transported in time to 2019 and meets Character B who helps them discover the bonds of family and that the true meaning of Christmas is timeless.

15. Stranded at an airport at Christmastime, Character A accepts a ride from Character B, who has just rented the last car in town.

Badges

Length

500

1k

5k

10k

15k

20k+

Ships

We’ll be custom-making the badges for whatever ship you choose to bring to the table! (Just keep in mind our limits: no underage, no non-con, no nazis.) Popular ship or rarepair+, this group of multishipping mods would love to see whatever you choose to write!

General fic elements

Baking/Cooking

Needing a passport

Non-abled character

Neuro-diverse character

Passes the Bechdel Test

Set outside the United States

Addresses a legitimate societal ill/charity/cause

Character learns a craft as a coping mechanism

Someone eats popcorn in a dramatic scene

Mention or include a Hallmark store or movie

Character is tracing their genealogy

Character writes fanfiction

Character learns a new skill

NSFW

A/B/O

Sentinels & Guides

Soulmate-Identifying Marks

Historical AU: Scottish or Irish clans

Historical AU: Ancient Rome or Greece

Historical AU: Regency or Victorian

Historical AU: American West

Inclusion of animal other than a dog, cat, or horse

‘It Takes a Village’ (town or community helps them hook up)

Use of holiday other than Christmas - including non-winter holidays

One sentence or more spoken in a language other than Russian

Discussion on classic literature and/or classic rock ‘n’ roll

Write a pairing you’ve never written before

Holiday Movie and general tropes

Inversion/Subversion of any trope

Main character has a cuddly dog

Presence of a small town festival

'And they were roommates!'

Fake Relationship

Only One Bed

Snowball fight

Ice skating or Ice hockey

Interrupted first kiss

Stories from childhood

Sassy/nosy best friend

Conniving co-worker

Kid as matchmaker

Single parent

Holiday specific

Yule log

Playing Dreidel

Holiday movie pick: Die Hard

Use of the phrase “Santa! I know him!”

Home Alone style shenanigans, serious or not

Trying to balance an egg on the Solstice

A non-Jewish character mixes up Passover and Hanukkah

Writing format/style

Outsider POV

First Person POV

Text Message/Chat Room

3+ perspectives in one story

Dialogue Only

Epistolary

Avengers stereotypes/fanon

Thor is foreign

Bots as children

Tony has insomnia

Tony Is Worthy (of Mjolnir)

Tony as a non-Iron Man mechanic

Ceiling vent Clint Barton

Budapest Explanation

Natasha is a scary spy/likes sneaking

Super-Nanny Phil Coulson

Peter Parker being a klutz

Peter and Shuri team up on Tony

Bruce has anger management problems

Avengers Movie Night

Darcy uses her taser

Bucky speaks Russian

Steve and/or Bucky need to play catch up on modern and pop culture

Shrunkyclunks (Modern Steve/CA & non-Avenger Bucky)

Shrinkyclinks (Modern Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier & non-CA Steve)

Side Character speaking role (any apply): Dr. Doom, Reed Richards, Galactus, Ghost Rider, Frank Castle, any Inhuman, any Runaway, Sif or one of the Warriors Three, Frigga, Amora or Lorelei

Set in a Marvel canon universe (even if not canon-compliant), for example: 1872, Noir

Mod Requests

Supernatural creatures

Gender swapped MC

Someone wears a tiara

Someone wears a kimono

Long-distance relationship

Snuggling to keep warm

1940s AU

Disclaimer: The above plot summaries in the prompt list belong to numerous movies in the Hallmark catalogue. We do not claim to own them, and are not making any money off of this, nor are we being paid by Hallmark to run this event.

Additionally, as of December 14th, 2019, we are no longer associating with Hallmark even in name, due to their poor choice to cave to pressure and remove an advertisement of a gentle, loving same-sex kiss occurring at their own wedding. We cannot and will not abide that.

#heamarvel #hallmarkholidaychallenge #Hallmark Challenge #marvel comics #mcu #marvel 616 #marvel ultimates #deadpool #x-men #mod post #prompt post #badge post #mod: juuls #holiday movie challenge

[moirai-au]

Timeline: Arc 5 - The Orator, several days after Mars’ dissapearance

Warnings: mention of kidnapping

Taglist: @immabethehero @bupine​ @tabbynerdicat @i-maybe-exist @its-ethan-bro @sandinthetardis @honestlyitsjustkenna @taikeero-lecoredier 

Cecil breathed in, his arm draped over his eyes in an attempt to stifle his pounding headache. He felt cold and weary, the feeling of Dave’s fingertips ghosting over his the only thing keeping him grounded.

He breathed out. Any minute now. Any minute and they could-

 The door slammed open, letting in the pale light of early winter morning. Dave and Cecil started and jumped to their feet as Ollie entered the house- exhaustion clinged to their features, their movements stiff and jittery. “Anything?”

This song and dance was familiar to them by now. But this time, the air felt colder than usual, and thick with an overwhelming sense of dread- a feeling that none of them could really place, but all-encompassing all the same.

The younger man looked… angry. But it wasn’t his usual fiery rage, the one that had fueled him for the last few days, the one that often led him to lash out and go off to do something reckless, no. It was righteous anger, more focused, but just as scalding.

He didn’t speak, stepping up to the table in the middle of the room. Then he dropped something, and it was like the sword of Damocles fell right onto their heads.

 A sleek, matte back cat mask. Mars.

 Dave looked like he was going to be sick, while Cecil gripped the fabric of the couch so hard his joints became white. “Where.”

His voice was level, too level for it to be genuine. Ollie was used to the doctor’s cold demeanor by now, but he could start seeing the despair seeping through the crack. “South-east, in a clearing right by the lake. There were footprints, two different ones. Signs of a struggle. And tire tracks.”

“Jesus Christ,” Dave croaked out, falling back onto the couch to bury his face in his hands. Cecil clenched his jaw, his expression morphing into something sharp. “I can’t do this,” the father muttered, his breathing rapid and shallow. “ I can’t- it’s- it’s been days, he could be anywhere by now. Oh god, he could be-”

“He’s not dead.”

 All eyes turned to Aster- the green-haired man was sitting prone on the carpet, his legs drawn up against his chest and his back resting against the bottom of the couch. His words were spoken in a tone that didn’t leave room for doubt- like he was stating facts rather than trying to convince someone.

Ollie seethed at him. “And how, pray fucking tell, do you know? You sure as shit didn’t help us find him.”

The imp looked back at him in bored annoyance. “Our Deal,” he said slowly, like he was speaking to a toddler. “It’s still active. Scars was the main contractor. If he was dead, it would’ve been nullified.”

“You can tell?” Dave asked quietly from his place on the couch. “How?”

“I can feel it.” Aster shrugged. “A Deal isn't just some agreement that’s up in the air.”

“Then what is it?”

Cecil’s hoarse voice rang like cold ice in the room- the older man was still sitting at the table, but his head was up now, half his face covered by a trembling hand, his right eye staring at Aster with frightening intensity. “You keep mentioning it. Yet we know nothing of it.”

“You never asked.”

“Well I am asking now,” the doctor said sharply, getting up and briskly walking up to the demon. “So start. Talking.”

 The others felt a shiver run down their spine at the sight- they knew the doc was a… driven person, but they’d never seen him act with such fevered intensity. Something was up. Aster bared his razor-sharp teeth at him from his spot on the floor. “I don’t take orders from the likes of you, you pathetic excuse for a-”

The rest of his words died in his throat when he felt himself being pulled up by the collar, so startled by the sudden movement he didn’t even swipe at his aggressor. Ollie’s face was distorted with barely-repressed rage as he pulled the fiend to his level. “Now you listen,” he spat between clenched teeth, “We don’t have time for your bullshit. I remember the terms. No lies, we can’t hurt you, you can’t hurt us. See?” he smirked, “I’m not hurting you right now, am I?”

Aster only growled in return, his clawed hand ghosting over the red-clad boy’s jugular. Ollie didn’t falter at the obvious threat. “But if you don’t start fucking explaining that demon shit to us, if you’re hiding something that could help us find Mars…”

He maintained eye contact with the fiend, murderous intent coming from both of them in waves. “I won’t hesitate to beat it out of you, deal or not, demon or not.”

 Aster stared at the human. He was young, the equivalent of mere spawn for his kind. Yet he looked ready to lose himself to violence, to burn down spacetime itself to find Scars. He snorted- guess he was finally reaching the end of his little game of pretend, so he might as well come clean now… just a tad. 

He opened his mouth, a string of sharp hisses and clicks rising from his throat. Cecil and Dave blinked in confusion, and Ollie squinted- what was the fucker playing at now? “What the hell was that.”

“Me.” Aster tsked. “I’m not a ‘demon’. I’m-” The same sounds again. “You humans don’t have a name for us, obviously. ‘Climbers of the Black Sun’ is pretty close. Or just ‘Sunbound’.”

The three humans gaped at Aster, trying to process the bombshell that had just been dropped on them. “Then-” Dave sputtered, “then why’ve you been calling yourself a demon this entire time?!”

“I didn’t. Never said I was, you just kept calling me that.”

“Ugh!” Ollie groaned, letting go of Aster in disgust and anger. “You- you and your fucking mind games and twisted words and- God, I fucking hate you.”

He seethed for a moment, pacing back and forth through the living room with his fists curled tightly at his sides. They were too clean- he wanted them bruised and bloody from beating the hell out of that lying piece of shit.

 Aster scowled. “Stop that. I can feel your intent from here, it’s distracting. And you can’t just go at me because you feel like it. A Deal is binding. When it’s violated or broken, there are consequences, and not good ones.

“All parties involved are bound… linked by the Deal. When Scars asks me to-” a few clicks and hums, a frustrated snarl. “-add someone to the ‘not to be messed with’ list,” he continued, annoyed with the lack of the proper terminology in the human language, “the Deal... extends to that person.”

Dave ran a hand through his hair, dislodging his snapback who fell on the couch. “So… all of us are like… connected by this thing?”

Aste’s neck twitched to the side, fingers tapping rhythmically on his forearms. He was obviously struggling to make them understand a very much non-human concept. “It’s not as simple. I am a Sunbound. Sunbound can make Deals with other Sunbound.”

He jerked his head to the side with a low chirp, then back up straight. “Scars is… not Sunbound. But he has something. That most humans don’t. Lets him do… human magic.”

He growled and scratched at his arms, his body doing a weird back-and-forth motion, black clawed hands twitching. “A Deal is... hook-string-rope. Needs an anchor. You,” he pointed at the humans in the room, “No magic. No anchor. Flat-smooth-slippery. Deal can’t… stick well.”

He put a hand to his face, mimicking a mask. “Scars. Magic. Rough-magnet-nooks. Deal works with him.” He raised his arms at his sides, palms up. “Me and Scars. Link. You- magicless humans- get echo. Afterimage. Exists, but indirectly.”

“So basically you two share the strongest connection while we get the shitty ADSL bandwidth?”

Aster glared at Dave. “That’s literally the worst way I’ve ever heard it described as, but sure, why the fuck not.”

 Cecil squinted, understanding flashing across his features. “Is that why you two look so much alike? Why your body was molded after him?”

“Didn’t inherit Mars’ height though.” Oliver jeered. Aster flipped him off, and the doctor raised his hand in an authoritative gesture. “Quit it, this is important. Aster, how strong is your connection to Mars?”

The demon -or “sunbound” as he called himself now- peered at the older man; Doc was so guarded all the time, it was hard to tell what he was thinking or feeling, despite his own extra-sensory abilities. “...Deal is steady. Link is strong.” he said cautiously.

“You said it was similar to a string. Is it possible to follow it somehow?”

 David and Olive perked up. Aster stayed silent, still, his expression unreadable.

After a while he blinked, letting out a quiet click. “I don’t know. Never been tried before.”

Dave gaped at him. “Seriously?”

“My realm was- small.” Aster dismissed flippantly. “There was no need to track anyone down like this.”

“So you can’t do it.”

“I didn’t say that! I can figure this out, and I will!” the fiend hissed back at the red-clad vigilante, who smirked internally- there truly was no better way to get the fucker to do something then by jabbing at his pride. “Then you better work fast. And if you end up wasting our time I will destroy you, consequences be damned.”

“Fine.” Asten spat, plopping down on the carpet with a loud bump. “I’ll try. Scars dying isn’t advantageous to me anyway.”

“Do you… need us to leave? So you can focus?” Dave asked, already getting up. Aster stopped him with a wave. “Don’t. If I have to do this, I’m going to do it right.”

He sighed at the father’s confused gaze. “You’re all part of the Deal. There’s a better chance of success if you help.”

“Hold on, does ‘helping’ involve letting you into our head? Because you can fuck right off with that.” Ollie warned as Dave and Cecil wordlessly joined Aster on the floor. The green-haired creature stared at him impatiently. “Do you want to find Scars or not?”

Ollie didn’t respond, his green eyes burning with stubborn drive. Aster tsked. “That’s what I thought. Now stop bitching and sit your ass down.”

#arc 5: the orator #oliver #aster #cecil #david #jse au

[dimples-of-discontent]

My Cockles Crack Masterpost:

Hello, yes, did any of you need a little pick-me-up? I know I do. So I’ve collected for you all most of the Cockles crack that I’ve written. I left off collaborative pieces of crack and ones attached to long gifsets. But all the text posts (especially “Jensen vs. Jensen’s brain”) are all there. I’ll drop a cut somewhere since this baby is long but I hope you all enjoy. 

LONG LIVE TEAM DUMPSTER MANSION!!! 

Dabb: So, let’s have AU Cas.

SPN writers: Cool. Why don’t we ask Misha to do one of his accents?

Jensen: *flings door open* *pants* AM I TOO LATE?! DID I MISS IT?!

BONUS alternative by @postmodernmulticoloredcloak​:

Dabb: So, let’s have AU Cas.

Everyone: …

Jensen: *starts vibrating at a very high frequency*

Misha: …okay I’ll do an accent

Isn’t it so weird that none of Jensen’s kids look like Misha?

Jensen is CONSTANTLY hosting his own episodes of Queer Eye and every one is about Misha.

[Below the cut]

Jensen: *looks up suddenly and stares into the middle distance* *vibrates at a high frequency*

Danneel: What is it, babe?

Jensen: Somewhere…Misha is doing an accent. Badly. He’s doing it badly, but he’s still doing it.

Danneel: You’ve gotta go!

Jensen: You’re right, I’ve gotta go!

Somewhere in Austin a high-pitched whistle blows.

Jensen, holding his ears and running into the kitchen: Alright, alright! What?!

Danneel, points wordlessly at laptop screen where this is displayed.

Jensen: Oh no.

Danneel, accusatory: I thought you HID those!

Jensen: I did! *pause* Why would he look in my dirty laundry anyway?

*Danneel stares*

Jensen: Oh right. I guess he needed something to wear.

Danneel: Pretty dumb, babe.

Jensen: Hmmm…yeah. *pause, then, hopeful* I guess we couldn’t fly to Hawaii to get them, right? *pause* No, no of course not. *mumbles* Damn shorts.

Text convo, probably:

Jensen: mish miss you. send me a pic.

Misha: *photo of something random like an interesting leaf*

Jensen: no, i mean like i MISS you miss you. send a pic of you.

Misha: *photo of his foot*

Jensen: oh for fuck’s sake! *posts flex meme and tags misha in it*

Jensen: there now it’s public you have to do it. and you can fuck off.

Misha: *sends dick pic*

Me: god Misha has the perfect jawline. Not that it matters.

Lizard brain: lick it

Me: yes, yes if I actually had a real relationship with him that would be well and good but…

Lizard brain: LICKIT

Me: yes, yes I heard you but what’s crucial is that Misha is one of the very best humans out there not that he has the stubbled and chiseled jawline of a Greek god so I really think we should focus on…

Jensen (in the distance): oh my God! it doesn’t have to be a choice, dummy!! L I CK IT!!

Jensen’s brain: It’s Misha’s birthday. We love Misha. Say it.

Jensen: No. We are in public. I am just going to call him “the man” and post a cute pic of us in matching outfits.

Jensen’s brain: NOOOOOO…SAYITSAYITSAYITWELOVEHIMSAYIT

Jensen: God fine ok…but I’m using an emoji not words.

Jensen’s brain: Acceptable.

Jensen: And also I’m going to add “bro”.

Jensen’s brain: …. 😒

Jensen: So now no one will ever know.

Jensen’s brain: 🙄

(About this mess right here)

Jensen’s brain: hold his hand

Jensen: NO it will look gay!

Jensen’s brain: but…you are gay for each other? so who cares?

Jensen: Yes, but we can’t LOOK gay ok? So just shake hands.

Jensen’s brain: fine 🙄

**Jensen does whatever this subby, hand-groping bullshit is**

Jensen’s brain: is that…. is that how humans shake hands? in a non-gay way?

Jensen: Shut up.

Jensen’s brain: i’m just trying to understand

Jensen: Shut up, asshole

Jensen’s brain: 😏

Look, I know it’s not going to happen, but all I want in life is for Jensen to respond to Misha’s shirtless video by saying “Hey Mish, if you need a shirt I have a few old ones for you.”

New theory: Jensen gives Misha so many shirts because otherwise his natural inclination is to run around bare-chested and Jensen’s poor, queer heart cannot handle it. (Photo version.)

Cockles trash cat meme origin

So you know how you sometimes go out with you friends and one of them gets way too drunk and ends up getting confessional with someone they don’t know that well? And you kind of want to stop them but, y’know, it’s their life and their choices so you have nothing to do but sit back and watch and be equal parts mildly horrified that they are spilling secrets to a relative stranger and incredibly amused at how they will feel about it later?

THAT is how I feel watching Misha tell the same story, over and over, about wearing Jensen’s hand-me-down shirts.

Misha, you’re currently my intensely emotional drunk friend and you need to stop before you reach the point of crying in the club. Neither of us can handle that. Thanks in advance.

Misha on social media: hahaha…Jensen is my cabin boy…that means he’s a sub who likes BDSM…hahaha…gonna make a comment about a giant space tongue rimming Jensen b/c why not lolz…gonna post a pic of myself covered in white goo and imply that it’s come from the conclusion of a threesome with Jensen and Jared…haha I’m such a scamp…I’m just incorrigible…teehee…

Misha when a fan mentions clothing: WHAT’S A JENSEN??? I’ve never heard of one and even if I had I definitely wouldn’t have had any non-heterosexual thoughts or feelings about him…and we’re absolutely not so close that we share in casual intimacy without a second thought…what could possibly make you think that?? I DON’T EVEN LIKE JENSEN OK!!!

Stages of Cockles in Gifs.

I feel like Jensen is one con away from straight-up answering an only tangentially-related question with, “…and that’s why I love Misha. You do know I love Misha, right? Like, love love him, like the way we love our wives. I feel like you guys get it so let’s just move on. Next question!”

At the next con, Jensen and Misha will be projecting the words “JUST SO YOU KNOW, I LOVE THIS MAN” on the side of the building across from the hotel in case you somehow miss that message in their panels.

At the next con, Jensen and Misha will be screening a 12-minute video that is just them giggling while one of them films the other; there will be no lines and nothing else will happen. Fandom will deem it a masterpiece.

At the next con, instead of his usual classic rock covers, Jensen will be performing a spoken word piece about how great Misha is, accompanied by Jared on bongos and Richard Speight on the kazoo.

In the final episode we are brought to the realization that the show DOES exist in our universe and on our timeline and that this entire time J2M have ACTUALLY BEEN TFW and kept this cover story about being actors on a TV show to keep us from knowing what they are really up to. Most of the show is just footage of their lives, though some of the things on the show were just absurd and to keep us off track.

Misha Collins is an actual angel. Jensen Ackles is a grumpy-faced softie with the biggest nerd streak. Jared Padalecki is a fiercely loyal and intelligent guy who has fought off more than his share of darkness. Gen and Danneel are actually supernatural creatures though neither will fully commit to being an angel or demon. Vicki is too powerful to be captured on film. And of course Jensen and Misha have been husbands for years. It was hard to hide that one on the show.

Jensen: *does interview quote game on his own* Great! Now, I’m gonna go get Misha. He’s gonna be so terrible at this game lol…He has the worst memory and never watches the show…hahaha isn’t that so cute?

Interviewer: oh actually we weren’t quite done interviewing you…

Jensen: yeah but Mish is gonna be so bad at this and I can’t afford to miss that! Imma go find him right now!

Interviewer: you really don’t have to…we’re actually talking to you all individually.

Jensen: ….

Interviewer: y’know, so we can cut the clips together?

Jensen: ….

Interviewer: And because you probably have a lot of other interviews at this huge press event for your 300th episode?

Jensen: ….. Yeah, no, I’m getting him right now. Hey, Mish! Get in here!

Filming with JenMish (aka “why’s Dean wearing a seatbelt?”)

**Jensen makes a dirty joke and Misha cracks up** **Misha and Jensen playfully push each other around the front seat of the car** **Misha says one thing that is mildly amusing and Jensen falls over laughing**

Sanchez, conferring with Bob Singer: What do you do to stop this?

Singer: strap one of them down

Sanchez: You mean, like, tell them to get it together or else?

Singer: No, no. I mean LITERALLY strap one of them down.

Sanchez: ….

Singer: Why do you think they get tied to so many chairs? **sighs** These two have cost us so much in duct tape.

photographer: alright, everyone, fight each other for pie! jensen: mish, you should pull my hair. misha: why? it’s not like that would stop you moving your arm. jensen: …. jensen: misha. you. should. PULL. MY. HAIR. misha: ooohhhhhh! jared: I don’t want to be here for this.

Cockles is the gay booze cruise of ships.

a text exchange that probably happened: jensen: I can’t believe ur still going running on vacation jensen: nerd misha: hello to you too. … misha: awww, babe, you must really miss me! that comment is so sappy! jensen: shut up misha: you “dig” the “WHOLE THING” huh? jensen: fuck off misha: don’t I know it!! jensen: fuck OFF misha: now I have to go like it. … misha: ok done. you huge softie. jensen: not always misha: oh really? misha: how about now? jensen: not now jensen: call me misha; as you wish…

Jensen’s brain (Jensain): holy shit!! look at our hot husband!! mmm…we like the grey and the sweat and the beard and, hey, did we give him that shirt? Jensen: yep. Jensen’s brain: and he sounds all smart and sincere, which turns us on….WOW we’ve been apart for too long! Jensen: tell me about it. Jensen’s brain: Say something about how good he looks. Jensen: I can’t. It’s public. Jensen’s brain: You gotta. Jensen: I. CAN’T. Jensen’s brain: But how these bitches gonna know he’s yours!? Do you know how many people are looking at this video RIGHT NOW?! Jensen: OMG Jensen’s brain: OMG Jensen: they gotta know… Jensen’s brain: YESSSSS!! DO IT!! Tell everyone the sexy, scruffy, deep-voiced, poetry-reciting motherfucker standing in the sunlight belongs to you! Jensen: I can’t say that. I’m just..gonna…tease him? about something? Jensen’s brain: u serious? 😒 Jensen: Well…no… Jensen’s brain: tell him you like the whole package! Jensen: I cannot use the word “package” about Misha in public. Jensen’s brain: 😏 Jensen’s brain: Fine! Can you at least mention how strong he is? Jensen: … I guess that’s less…gay… Jensen’s brain: uh-huh, sure. way less gay. 🙄 Jensen: ok, I did it. now leave me alone. I have to post a picture of my family so that no one suspects I only logged in because I have alerts set for Misha. Jensen’s brain: … Jensen’s brain: hey, you know who looks sexy in flannel PJs?? Jensen: ALRIGHT THAT’S IT

me: *wakes up in a cold sweat and sits upright in bed*

But how much of the mockumentary did Jensen shoot??!?

Misha is busting out of his shirt and jacket in those EW pics again, which makes me think something like this exchange must have taken place:

EW stylists: So, what size is Misha? SPN costumers: Eh, he’s the small one. EW stylists: But…he doesn’t…look small? SPN costumers: Nah, trust us, he’s the small one. EW stylists: Uh, looks more like he’s a 6’ wall of muscle but ok Misha: What’s a clothes? I will wear it. *Jensen sobbing in the background*

”I’m Full Frontal in Here Dude: Guest Starring Misha Collins” title of Jensen’s sex tape.

Jensen’s brain: you should give Misha that valentine.

Jensen: Yeah, good. It will work for the video. Like, as a joke.

Jensen’s brain: no. not joke. he’s your valentine.

Jensen: No he’s…

Jensen’s brain: you can’t lie to me. I’m you.

Jensen: shit. that’s true.

…

Jensen’s brain: Sooooo…valentine?

Jensen: Fine, but I’m gonna call him “buddy” when I give it to him.

Jensen’s brain: 😐

Jensen: People can’t KNOW!!

Jensen’s brain: You literally just called him your valentine on camera on a livestream but OK WHATEVER make sure you say “buddy.”

Jensen: I did WHAT??!

Jensen’s brain: Why do I bother? 🙄

Destiel AU where Cas is a poet who writes secret poems for Dean and posts them anonymously to an Instagram account that he gets Dean to follow and Dean falls in love with the mystery man he feels is speaking to him…and then realizes it was the guy he already crushed on from afar.

aka AU where Destiel is Cockles (with some tiny changes)

#masterpost #cockles masterpost #cockles crack masterpost #my stuff #bex writes #though sometimes only crack #my cockles crack #cockles crack #these two idiots #jensen vs jensen's brain #jensain #cockles humor #life in the trash can #jensen trash cat ackles #pray4jensen #pray4misha #pray4us #TEAM DUMPSTER MANSION #rps for ts

[ckret2]

What are your alien headcanon for ghidorah?

I didn’t realize that i desperately wanted somebody to ask about Ghidorah’s alienness until you did so thank you very much for this opportunity, I won’t let you down. I’ve tried to roughly divide paragraphs by topics and this is obscenely long so most of it is under a cut.

All of these are specific to MonsterVerse.

I know I’ve mentioned this before but I’ve decided that for the purposes of my fics, Legendary!Ghidorah’s backstory is a mix of Invasion of Astro-Monster (he’s been mind-controlled by aliens for the purpose of destroying other planets) and Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (he was made out of three tiny adorable mildly telepathic dragon-cat things). So put together: some unknown alien species in the distant past took three sweet little household pets, frankensteined them together, threw in a mountainload of genetic modifications, and trained/mindcontrolled the resulting abomination to be a flying apocalypse to destroy planets they want to conquer. (to stick with the Invasion of Astro Monster parallels, i might go with the aliens being Xiliens. undecided.)

At some point, Ghidorah escaped his handlers, went rogue, and has been bopping around the galaxy razing planets every since.

So this is why he’s a planet-destroyer: because 1) he was specially designed as a weapon that’s so good at planet-destroying he starts passively wrecking the environment simply by flying, and 2) he’s an escaped domesticated pet that was strenuously trained to destroy planets, so he’s kept doing the one thing he was trained to do. it’s the only thing he’s ever known, except for a couple years of being three dragon-kittens before getting experimented on. He doesn’t think it’s his manifest destiny to conquer and rule a private world, he’s not particularly keen on being King; he just, like… has no other hobbies besides mass murder, and is scared to try new things. He’s uh, probably got some trauma to work through.

Yes: he did, in fact, wreck Venus’s atmosphere. There may or may not be extraterrestrial refugees from Venus on Earth. He may or may not also be responsible for Jupiter’s red spot.

And he actually can fly without creating hurricanes, even in hurricane-prone atmospheres like Earth’s; it’s just harder and a lot less comfortable. Like imagine if it rained every time you walked—but not on you, just somewhere else—unless you walked sideways with your hands on your head. like, you COULD, but it’d be annoying.

His heads are not actually related, although all three did know each other before getting mad scienced together.

Because his original species was Domesticated Pet, and because his modifications allowed him to actually understand his “owner” species and what they said to/about him, he thinks of himself and other species that are disinclined toward tool-using, structure-building, and complicated-society-forming as “creatures” rather than “people”—i.e., a naturally inferior state of being. He thinks of himself as a “creature,” which is sorta messed up, because like, he’s definitely a person. Three people? At least one person. (This is in contrast to most Earth titans, who think of titans as highly diverse “people” and, on the other hand, think of humans and their cities as rather like rabbits and their warrens or bees and their hives—that is, most  usually don’t think about them at all, and certainly don’t consider such small critters to be “people.” There are a few rare exceptions—like Mothra—who consider humans to also be people like titans.)

Because of his awareness of “people” that are often much smaller than him, he’s got a capacity for sadism toward humans that titans who don’t even notice humans, like Rodan, lack. When Rodan flies over streets, he’s accidentally blowing around some ants. When Ghidorah flies over streets, he’s slaughtering living sentient individuals, knows it, and enjoys it.

Also because of his awareness of “people,” he’s far warier of their contraptions than other titans. Like, Rodan thinks jets are crunchy birds; but Ghidorah knows. At a glance he understands the rough purpose and use of most human machines based on analogous inventions he’s seen on other planets—he understands jets, drones, missiles, bombs, telephones, cameras, TVs, speakers, street lights, power grids, satellites…

He considers humans a class of people he refers to as “machine makers,” because that’s their defining trait to him, He considers machine maker species the most dangerous type of alien because they’re the ones who might conceivably have the capacity of inventing things that can put him back under mind control.

He can basically flap on up to the moon any time he wants, and probably does from time to time to get away from King Skreeonk and his insufferable friends. Who’s gonna go get him on the moon? SpaceX?

Ghidorah’s original species was genetically modified to be lightly empathic—able to read other living beings’ emotions—to help the pets care for their dear beloved owners’ emotional states; members of the species can also freely telegraph their emotions to each other. Ghidorah retained the power after being frankensteined, but it atrophied greatly over time. Possibly due to trauma, possibly due to three-people-aren’t-supposed-to-share-one-spinal-cord brain damage, who knows. He can still use it, but it only really fully works when he’s deeply sleeping/hibernating (i.e., when he was frozen in Antarctica, or when he’s traveling from one solar system to another and needs to pass time). When he’s awake, he’s got to press his foreheads directly to someone else’s head to sense their emotions. He can also transmit emotions this way. (He doesn’t need the ability to telegraph emotions between heads, since they’ve got a sorta interconnected brain system already.)

As an offshoot of this empath power, one of his multitude of apocalyptic powers that may or may not have been intended by his original designers: Ghidorah is capable of mild mind control—which is actually how he managed to control a whole planet of titans—by “singing.” It’s not direct control so much as it is a forced emotional state; what the victim does in that emotional state is up to them, although he can offer gentle suggestions that line up with their state. (i.e., “you’re extremely angry now; perhaps punch someone?” would function; “you’re extremely angry now; perhaps tenderly kiss someone?” would fall apart.)

This ability works directly on the brains of his targets, and since every evolutionary tree builds its brains different ways, when he lands on a new planet he has to put significant effort into studying the minds on the planet before he can figure out how to compose a song that will affect them at all, much less tune it to the specific emotions that he wants to cause. For this reason, he usually doesn’t consider it worth the effort, and he usually wrecks a planet and moves on long before figuring out how to sing to their minds. He probably wouldn’t have figured out how to sing to Earth’s titans if his battles with Godzilla hadn’t slowed him down from destroying the planet & motivated him to find other ways to get an advantage.

His song didn’t work on humans because titan brains are just too different for the same tune to work on both. His song didn’t work on Mothra because she’s telepathic herself, and a stronger telepath than Ghidorah. His song didn’t work on Godzilla because he was legally braindead at the time; otherwise, it probably would have. His song’s effectiveness is a matter of brain biology, not “alpha” ranking.

He can learn to sing other emotions, but right now the only one for Earth he’s figured out is “PANICRAGE AND DESTROY THINGS!!” because that’s the only one he wanted to figure out.

And I refer to it as “singing” partially because siren song parallels and partially because, from Ghidorah’s perspective, it is like, just singing. He also enjoys totally normal non-mind-control singing, like, just for fun.

When Ghidorah escaped his home planet, there were other “Ghidorahs” that had been made for the same purpose. He occasionally glimpsed them while bopping around the galaxy, but crossing paths with them was usually his signal to Get The Hell Out Of This Solar System because homeworld handlers might be with them. It’s not safe to stick around long enough to figure out whether they’re escaped like him or not.

He hasn’t seen any other “Ghidorahs” in a long time. He doesn’t know if any are still alive, or even if his homeworld is still alive & out conquering. He’s not interested in checking.

When he’s in parts of the galaxy with more well-traveled spacefaring aliens who recognize him as a world-ending weapon gone rogue, he’s sometimes hired as a mercenary to ravage planets. And by “hired” as a “mercenary” I mean “they ask him to destroy a specific planet and he says yeah okay because he was going to destroy a planet anyway and doesn’t care which one, and he doesn’t really have any material needs or keep any possessions so payment would be wasted on him.”

This is how he met Gigan, who is also a gigantic living war machine gone rogue from his homeworld and now occasionally doing mercenary work. Unlike Ghidorah, Gigan actually requests payment for flattening a world; but like, he’s also willing to flatten it per the client’s specifications—i.e. “please STOP flattening it if they pay our ransom” or such—which at times makes him a better hire than Ghidorah even at the extra cost. Being somewhat cyborg, Gigan can download and speak languages that aren’t technically supposed to be compatible with his anatomy, so he was able to strike up a conversation with Ghidorah a lot faster than most aliens because he already knew how to speak Ghidorah’s homeworld owner species’s language.

Along with understanding his owner species’ spoken language, Ghidorah can also read their written language, and possibly the languages of some other aliens too; and he can recognize what The Written Word is when he sees it even if he doesn’t know the language. He can, potentially, write—slowly and badly, like, if he’s got a long enough beach and a big enough stick to hold in his teeth and drag in the sand. He’s really not anatomically designed for writing, or even typing, in any easy way, and he’s never felt the need to find a method that works for him.

If, somehow, Ghidorah managed to spawn offspring, they would be of his original species: extremely small dragon-cats.

Being a deliberately designed weapon with a specific purpose, he probably wasn’t designed to reproduce, or even to simply be able to perform the physical act of mating. His creators did not, however, bother to remove his urge to do so. This has been a source of lifelong frustration. (That said though, he might still be capable in some fashion—if, y’know, it seems narratively interesting enough to pursue. But if so, it WILL be difficult to manage, full of complications and frustrations, and most likely require some creativity and/or unexpected wild accidents on Ghidorah’s part to achieve.)

Despite the fact that he’s a giant murderous asshole, Ghidorah is, in his heart, still just three domesticated pets, and so thinks that being an indoor pet with a loving owner taking care of all your needs is in fact A Fine And Good Thing To Be. All three parts of him were quite happy to be owned and taken care of—up until they got frankensteined and forced into mind-controlled giant monster boot camp.

So if he did spawn a bunch of extremely small dragon-cats and humans, being humans, started snatching them up and taking them home to be quirky exotic pets, he’d be like, “hell yeah. go, my children. this is your destiny.”

Ghidorah doesn’t consider himself as having any name at all. In fic when I call the heads “First,” “Second,” and “Third,” it’s more for the convenience of readers; they themselves don’t bother to think of themselves or each other by any names, even just numbers, because they always know who they’re thinking about already. He’s always surprised when someone gives him a name to go by—surprised and a little bit uncomfortable, because he feels like a name threatens to psychologically anchor him down to a “normal” life amid “normal” people. Homeworld may or may not have given him a name, or at least a code name; might have just him a serial number, idk. In any case he doesn’t remember it. His component parts had individual names before they were frankensteined, which none of them consciously remember, but if someone were to ever call them by their original names they’d probably start bawling like babies.

#ghidorah #king ghidorah #godzilla #kotm #headcanons #anonymous #ask

[theriannation]

Possible Causes of Feeling Non-human that are NOT Therianthropy

I've often seen it written that Therianthropy or Otherkinity are not the only reasons a person might feel nonhuman. After research and help from the community, I have put together this list to introduce those other possible causes. It can be a starting point for those who are seeking answers about why they don't feel human. Even if you are certain that you are a Therianthrope or Otherkin, I highly recommend that everyone read over this list and share it with others. We want everyone to be honest with themselves and to feel comfortable being who they are. This list is most likely not exhaustive. 

If you have any questions, you can contact the author, Ulfrvif. Created April 13, 2018 Last updated May 30, 2018

Tumblr hides posts from searches if there are links to other websites. If you would like to see all of the sources for this information, please see this post: https://theriannation.tumblr.com/post/184680960857/citation-for-possible-causes-of-feeling

Alter-human

Alternative Humanity Personal Identity (AHPI) is "A category of personal identity which encompasses identification that is alternative to the common societal idea of humanity." You may decide to call yourself alterhuman if you experience an internal identity that is beyond the scope of what is traditionally considered ‘being human’. If you feel nonhuman but your experiences do not fit into Therianthropy or Otherkinity, you may want to learn more about Alter-humans. Shifter's Disease This "occurs when a person starts reading some therianthropic meaning into mundane, everyday occurances." Individuals who are researching Therianthropy may begin to trick themselves into thinking that normal feelings and sensations that can be explained rationally, are actually therianthropic shifts or evidence of Therianthropy. This in turn, leads them to falsely identify as a Therian for a short period of time. This is similar to Medical Student's Disease (MSD) in which medical students perceive themselves to be experiencing the symptoms of a disease that they are studying. Animal-hearted/Other-hearted/Kith People can obviously feel deeply connected with animals without identifying as nonhuman. Some Animal-hearted people do claim to have shifts similar to Therians. Copinglink/Otherlink Therianthropy (and a therioside) is an innate part of us that is not consciously chosen. Copinglinks and Otherlinks knowingly create nonhuman personas as coping mechanisms or for various other reasons. Creating an Alter Ego An alter ego (Latin, "the other I") is a second self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term also refers to "the different behaviors any person may display in certain situations" and "the part of someone's personality that is not usually seen by other people". Some create alter egos to live out better versions of themselves because it can be fun and empowering. Other people create alter egos to protect themselves. It's possible that young children and teens are creating nonhuman alter egos to explore who they are and test social situations. Experience Taking This psychological phenomenon occurs when a person reading a book, watching a movie or animation, or playing a game begins to mimic one of the fictional character's behaviors and personality. Experience taking can happen without a person realizing it; however, it's usually temporary. "Psychologists have discovered that while reading a book or story, people are prone to subconsciously adopt their behavior, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses to that of fictional characters as if [these traits] were their own. Experts have dubbed this subconscious phenomenon ‘experience-taking,’ where people actually change their own behaviors and thoughts to match those of a fictional character that they can identify with." While experience taking is temporary, Therianthropy and Otherkinity are permanent identities. Roleplay/Pet Play/Pet Regression It's fun to create characters and act out being someone or something else. This can be a positive interest or outlet. It's easy to feel connected to anthropomorphic characters. Mimicking these characters and their animal behavior can and does occur. Roleplaying is an interest or hobby that anyone can enjoy. Pet Play is also roleplaying as an animal, but this activity can either be a sexual kink or nonsexual. It can also include bondage. There is usually a dominant and submissive partner. This is an activity that people choose to participate in and they can pretend to be any animal they choose. Pet regression is when people prefer to act like animals to reduce stress, anxiety or it just makes some people happy. It is not sexual like pet play can be. This is considered a form of coping in the regression community. Pets enjoy imaginary play and they often have a caregiver to pet them, feed them, and give them rewards. An individual participating in either of these activities may choose to dress up in items such as collars, leashes, ears, tails, and other items to help them act out their character. They also enjoy having chew toys and plushies like dogs and cats. People who are into pet play are known to use litter boxes during play. How is Therianthropy different? Therianthropy as an identity is not related to sexual practices. Therianthropy is not a choice, and the therioside is also not a choice. Therianthropy is not a coping mechanism and is not a form of imaginary play. Therianthropes are comfortable with using modern amenities, and are not demanding to have litter boxes placed in public washrooms. Using litter boxes is something that pet players do in their own personal homes during roleplay. Some Therians may choose to also participate in these alternative activities, but roleplay as an animal and pet regression are not Modern Therianthropy. Power Animals/Spirit Animals/Guides/Totems "Everyone is thought to have a few of these guardian power animals, from childhood on. Over the course of her or his life the person may have several." -Shaman Links Power animals are external, independent entities that can guide us through difficult events in life. They are not limited by the physical world and may choose to speak to you. Others are more cryptic and will use symbology. It depends on what you need. Often, an animal guide will have specific qualities that help a person through a single event or challenge in life. This means spirit animals can be temporary and change over time. They can be with us for an extended period of time if we maintain the relationship with them. It is possible that working with a power animal can cause shift-like experiences that leads one to feel like an animal. These encounters should not be taken lightly and should be respected due to the connection to Shamanic and Aboriginal cultures across the globe. In comparison, theriosides, are the inner animal self. They are based on real-world animals and should not be able to speak to you or carry on conversations. When identified correctly, theriosides are a permanent part of a person's identity, personality, and sense of self. I've worked with spirit guides and teachers myself, and for me personally, those experiences differ from Therianthropy. Practicing an Animal or Earth Based Spirituality/Religion Therianthropy itself is not a religion or spirituality, and it does not require any individual to be a believer in such. There are many religions and spiritualities in which people worship gods or goddess that are often represented as animals. Some gods and goddesses appear as part animal and part human, such as Egyptian Gods. Believers of these theologies sometimes worship the animal itself too. Some rituals involve becoming the animal for a short period of time. Some beliefs also promote fellowship with all creatures on earth. Daemon The following comes from The Daemon Page website. A daemon is a personified version of the second half of someone's mental dialogue, usually mentally represented in an animal form. Usually has a name, gender and personality; usually the dæmon's personality is at least somewhat different from that of the person.

Daemons are considered to be "mental constructs" instead of spiritual entities. Mental construct means "The idea that dæmons are something that people "do" with their minds, rather than something that exists objectively and independently of us."  They can be spoken to, and they can speak back to you. Daemons can change form or shape until they become stable, but some remain fluid. Those of us who call ourselves "dæmians" have taken [Phillip] Pullman's wonderful dæmon concept (His Dark Materials) and turned it into a fun - and even useful - mental construct. For us, dæmons are a part of our consciousness that we've assigned a name, gender, and symbolic animal form. They're glorified imaginary friends that act as the other side of our mental dialogue - sometimes being the voice of reason, devil's advocate, or just a friend. Simply put, dæmons play the role of constant mental companion. Daemians, people who enjoy daemonism, do not believe they are an animal like Therianthropes do. They do not identify as a nonhuman species. It is highly possible that a lot of people are actually creating daemons and then tricking themselves into having shift-like sensation and feeling nonhuman. Tulpa The tulpa itself may not cause a person to feel nonhuman, but it could be possible for a person to create an animal tulpa and mistake it as a therioside. This could easily lead them to confuse normal behaviors and sensations with being nonhuman. Whereas a therioside usually merges and integrates with the humanside of us, a Tulpa becomes more and more independent and separate. The most general definition as accepted by the Western tulpamancy community is as follows: A tulpa is a thought-form that is imagined into existence. It is a sentient and autonomous mental companion. Tulpas are–or resemble to an indistinguishable point–a second consciousness co-inhabiting a brain with their creator. Upon creating a tulpa, the creator, or “host” will essentially share their head and their life with another person. They are distinct from the host in that they possess their own personality, opinions, and actions, which are independent of the host’s, and are conscious entities in that they possess awareness of themselves and the world. Tulpamancy is a branch of the wider phenomenon of plurality. Plurality is an umbrella term encompassing all phenomena where multiple consciousnesses coinhabit a brain. It should be noted that Western tulpamancy is a practice that is wholly different from the original practice in Tibetan Buddhism. Tulpas are now created for a variety of reasons, some similar and many very different from the reasons of Buddhism and occultism–curiosity, understanding the brain and the nature of selfhood, inspiration, and, most commonly, companionship." The Western tulpamancy community does not believe that the tulpa can physically manifest. Interacting with/Observing an Animal When we are around animals often, we can begin to unintentionally mimic them. Veterinarians, animal handlers, and researchers may need to think like those animals in order to treat, train, and study them. For some people, it's possible that they may temporarily feel more animal-like than human. This can also happen to children who are raised around animals. Some imprinting may happen, but most children grow out of it. However, it is possible that imprinting on a nonhuman animal could lead to Therianthropy in some cases. Medical/Psychological Conditions The following can cause people to have unusual feelings about their physical bodies and react to their environment in ways that might make them feel nonhuman. In most cases, Therianthropes live a balanced and successful life. An individual could be a Therianthrope and also have one of these disorders with the Therianthropy being a positive part of the individual's life. If your quality of life is being negatively affected for any reason, please seek professional guidance. This information should not be used for self diagnosis. Bodily Aches/Pains It was mentioned by several people that back pain can possibly cause an imaginative person to think they have wings or other nonhuman phantom limbs or cameo shifts. Also pain could make it harder to figuring out if you’re Therian/Otherkin. If you are in pain, the first explanation should not be that you are Therian/Otherkin. Pain that lasts more for several day or that is acute and/or accompanied with fever/numbness/tingling should be checked on by a medical professional. Don't go untreated because you want to be Therian/Otherkin. Dissociative Disorders Dissociative disorders involve problems with memory, identity, emotion, perception, behavior and sense of self. Dissociative symptoms can potentially disrupt every area of mental functioning. The attitude and personal preferences of a person with dissociative identity disorder (multiple peronsality disorder) may suddenly shift and then shift back. The identities happen involuntarily and are unwanted and cause distress. There are three types of dissociative disorders: Dissociative identity disorder Dissociative amnesia Depersonalization/derealization disorder Others in this category can include but are not limited to Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, and borderline personality disorder. Clinical Lycanthropy Clinical lycanthropy is a rare form of reverse inter- metamorphosis wherein patients believe that they are undergoing transformation or have transformed into a non-human animal. In comparison, Therianthropes do not suffer from the hallucinations or delusions of having physically transformed. Autism Spectrum/Asperger Syndrome Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impacts brain development causing most individuals to experience communication problems, difficulty with social interactions and a tendency to repeat specific patterns of behaviour. There is also a markedly restricted repertoire of activities and interests. Some people who are autistic may feel isolated, because they have trouble interacting and communicating with other people. A lot of people on the autism spectrum are also hypersensitive to light or sounds which can make it difficult for them to go out in public. They may also feel like they don't belong, and all of this can possibly make them feel inhuman. Some describe feeling "alien" because they have trouble with social situations and reading normal human behavior. Being LGTB+ Instead (The next possibility is controversial, but we felt that it should be included.) While there is no published data about the number of LGTB+ people in the Therianthrope community, the number does seem to be high compared to the regular population. The Furry Fandom and Therianthropy are not to be confused with one another, but a lot of Therians also participate in the Furry culture. "It may be the case that the furry fandom, which espouses openness and acceptance as its central virtues, may be a particularly welcoming place for members of sexual minorities." "Ultimately, future research is needed to clarify the nature of these interesting sex and fandom differences in sexual orientation." Plante, C. N., Reysen, S., Roberts, S. E., & Gerbasi, K. C. (2016). FurScience! A summary of five years of research from the International Anthropomorphic Research Project. Waterloo, Ontario: FurScience. The same could be true for the Therian community. It could be seen as a safe place in which to explore sexuality by a person saying their therioside is the opposite gender of the human body. Of course, this might not mean that person is actually a Therianthrope. An individual who is surrounded by anti LGTB+ might use Therianthropy as a reason for why they don't feel comfortable in their body. Therianthropy could be a safer alternative explanation that the individual could keep to themselves without feeling guilty or ashamed. People who join the Therian community often come out as LGTB+ after they have been accepted and found it to be a safe environment in which to discuss how they feel about their gender dysphoria. The feeling of being nonhuman could diminish as a person accepts that they are LGTB+.

#therian #therianthropy #otherkin #alterhuman #nonhuman #possible causes of feeling nonhuman

[novarasalas]

Second Look Review: The Grudge

Sigh.

Work sucks. I’m not even checking how long it’s been since I started writing this. So..let’s get to it.

-

Candid Camera

I 100% love this opening conversation. It’s a weakness of mine in shows and movies: the candid conversation. Just seeing characters interacting with each other, not saying or doing anything to drive the plot forward...it’s great. I wish more media would write things like this. This way, we get a glimpse of the character’s personalities, in both the things they say and how they interact with one another.

Speaking of…

- -

A Bit Awkward

Acxa: I never has a creature companion, but one of my partners, Narti, was bonded to an immortal can't named Kova. That cat gave her the ability to experience the world. 

So far so good...

Acxa: Until Lotor killed Narti and we had to abandon the animal on our destroyed ship so we could escape without being tracked.

Oh...ok. Yikes, lol?

To be honest...I wasn’t expecting her to be quite so awkward. But then I remember that we haven’t seen much of her when she wasn’t antagonizing the team.

And thus I reiterate: I love candid conversations like this.

Later, we get an awkward reprisal.

Leifsdottir: It would appear the mood at this table has become rather awkward. Most likely due to your Galra lineage.

Oh look...there’s two of them.

Tag yourself! I’m James.

Do scenes like this get to anyone else? It’s like seeing two aspects of my social awkwardness given form. 

- - -

Let Me Love You

I love watching friendships happen. 

Acxa: I know you have little trust for me, but your constant presence is tiresome.

How cute…

I meant it when I said watching her was like seeing my own brand of awkward. I don’t know how many potential friends I’ve scared off by being like this. The only friends I have now are the ones that have the patience of saints. 

I’m grateful to them. 

As I’m sure Acxa is to Veronica, even if we never really see it.

Also, this right here?

Veronica: Honestly, I just wanted to get to know you.

Acxa: By sneaking up on me at a firing range?

Veronica: I didn’t sneak up on you.

Acxa: Only because I’m always aware of my surroundings.

Really now?

*Marcia Brady voice* Sure, Acxa.

- - - -

Sword Play

I’ve been thinking about this one for a bit.

It starts with Keith pulling his signature move

After, Lance says this:

Lance: Huh, good job, Keith. I mean, I was just about to do that, too, but that’s cool.

What was he about to do?

The cool “throw your sword, totally disarming yourself” move, of course!

Keith is annoyed, not confused. This means that he knows that Lance has a sword. We never get to see that moment in the show...which is why I had to write it myself. Check my “voltron fanfic” tag, “fic: study it out” tag,  or the first comment on this post for the fic link.

I’m also on AO3 with the same user name.

..yeah, that’s a self plug. I’m not ashamed.

- - - - - 

The Bad and The Ugly

This is probably what’s really kept me dragging my feet on this for so long. 

So, the real story of this episode is that Ezor has left Zethrid cause she’s a total rage-filled maniac, and she wants nothing to do with that life anymore.

Zethrid, being a total rage-filled maniac, fails to engage in introspection, and blames Keith for this. For some reason.

She tries to kill Keith while Acxa tries to talk her down. End the end, she’s only stopped when Veronica, Acxa’s new best friend, shoots her.

It’s fine, though. Ezor comes back to her, willing to forgive her for...things.

Roll credits.

…..does that seem right? It certainly didn’t to a lot of people.

Me included.

The idea is that Ezor was, narratively, dead. The idea continues that the backlash from having

1. Some of the gay rep being a villain pair, and 

2. One in that pair being killed off, 

scared them into retconning Ezor’s death, hastilty re-recording lines and adding shoddy animation to “fix” it. 

I’m not at this point here to point fingers and blame persons for this supposed change. I just want to talk about why I think that it was changed.

It’s mostly because of this, at first:

Zethrid: Now you will feel what I felt.

Some argued that she was saying this to Shiro, who was, ya know...there. But she’s saying it to Acxa. 

Here:

Ezor: She’s always been sweet on that one with the flippity hair.

You just know they’ve teased Acxa about this before. And that’s the thing.

Zethrid believes that Acxa is in love with Keith, and that’s why she’s going to kill him, so that she feels the same grief that she feels. 

Ya know..cause she loved Ezor, and Ezor’s dead now.

I can’t pinpoint what all has been changed, when it was changed, or how. 

But am I supposed to believe that Zethrid would take a break up this badly? Am I supposed to believe that Ezor, having left Zethrid because of her rage and anger, would watch her try to kill someone over said break up...and then take her back?

Nah. I don’t.

And it’s not that I want Ezor to be dead. I want the story to make sense.

There’s other evidence, visually.

Ezor here is unfinished. The lines are uneven and the shadows on her are almost non existent. Maybe it wouldn’t have looked so bad had she not been placed next to Acxa, who was always in this scene. But as it is, she’s very flat. 

This continues into the next episode.

Veronica: Zethrid and the Olkari have escaped their cells.

Only two indicators are shown. An argument could be made that they didn’t consider Ezor a threat.

But add to all this the fact that Ezor’s one spoken line ended up being a pitched up clip of Allura saying “no”, while Zethrid’s response of “trust me” was taken from S7...it’s all too much.

However, at the same time, I don’t want to dwell on this. It’s conspiracy and conjecture at this point. We’ll never know what really happened. There will never be a director's cut. They’ll never release extra footage. This is what we got.

In any case, the fact remains that the whole thing was jarring and seemed very out of place. The writing and story hasn't been the greatest to this point, but this marked the episode where the plot began to lose me. From this point on, I spend an inordinate amount of time watching and thinking “...um??”

It’s a bad feeling.

Also, Shiro? Baby?

Any thoughts?

...fair enough.

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

In Summary:

This episode started out wonderfully before it crashed and burned. The opening character interactions gave way to questionable character motivations.

If, as suspected, this plot point was changed because of outside pressure...well…

It’s an odd thing for it to happen during production like this. In my years, I’ve never really seen it happen like this before. There’s no way to fix something like this without the end result looking sloppy.

Also, as someone that creates stories, I don’t have a great feeling about this. There’s this idea now that if something isn’t perfect, you must shout it down until someone changes it, or make the thing go away completely. 

I personally would have felt better if they’d stood by the story they’d created. After the fact, we can talk about things gone wrong, the mistakes that were made, and how the story might’ve been made better, all in retrospect.

To do anything else, in my opinion, shows a lack of integrity.*

*but what is integrity when there’s corporations and money involved, really?

Next up: 

Yeah...so….this is where we’re going with this?

#second look review #voltron #voltron legendary defender #acxa #keith #voltron keith #keith kogane #lance #voltron lance #lance mcclain #zethrid #ezor #long post

[levyfiles]

helloooo!!!! since you are my fave blog about shyan content, i must ask: what are your favorite fics???

AHhh! I–OK well, Lately I’ve been finding more and more fics that fill my heart right up with every gorgeous headcanon there is, but If we’re talking all-time favourites, I have finally compiled a List from the moment I started reading shyan fic in 2018 of fics that have ruined my life; all of them here in no particular order.

Be All My Sins Remembered by spoopyy

Summary: In every lifetime, they find each other.

Review: This fic manages to take you on a long journey through what feels like a series of AUs and they all weave in and out of the wealth of their relationship with some vivid descriptions of the historical settings their journey takes them through. As someone who grew up reading Anne Rice’s epics through historical events, this fic is right up my alley. A vampire Shane passing through the wave of human society’s climb searching for a reincarnated Ryan again and again, trying to hold on to him and keep him through great tragedies and timeframes that just don’t let them be together. This was one of the first fics I read when I was only a lurker and to be quite honest, I need to give this one a nice re-read, maybe for the book club which would be loads of fun. Either way, 10/10. Would be Hurt in the heart again.

Perfect Fit by @beaniegara

Summary: There’s a legend that says anyone able to take all of statue Shane’s cock will summon the god to the mortal realm. Given the statue’s excessive size, no one has ever succeeded to prove or disprove the story.Until Ryan that is.

Review: Listen. You wanna talk actual fandom legends. This fic is one of them and it pulls out all the stops on being delicious and evocative. Also features one of my favourite incarnations of size queen bergara. Good stuff and you’re really rooting for Ryan in this lol. 

Everything’s Weird and We’re Always in Danger by the beethechange

Summary: Ryan perches on the edge of the bed, an indistinct shape that Shane can only just make out in the dark, so he turns the lamp back on. He wants to see Ryan’s face, wants to know that he is alright. Ryan’s cheeks are damp, his hands fisted in the hideous flowered duvet.

“It won’t go away,” Ryan says miserably. “I’ve been like this since we got here, basically, and it won’t fucking—”

“Ah,” Shane says. “Well, you know, sometimes fear…adrenaline…they can affect people. Physically.” He waves his hands indistinctly crotchward. “It’s a, a scientifically known phenomenon.” Shane feels a little better staying in the realm of scientifically known phenomena.

Review: Word of advice. You see a fic is authored by beethechange, run don’t walk because you’re absolutely always going to be treated to the best of banter, the best of prose, chemistry, organic execution and feels right up the bottom end of your heart. This fic, this changed everything I thought I knew I wanted out of a bed-sharing fic. It’s got a little bit of two treats here. You got a sex-pollen-esque situation mixed with bed-sharing and holy fucking damn that is more than you think you deserve, but read this because you do deserve the best of the best. The build up, the dialogue, the surprisingly hilarity of it, the hotness woah, and The Aftermath. When you think you know what you’re in for, you’re wrong and you’re most pleasantly surprised. Get this fic in your life and honestly? while you’re at it, you could do a clean sweep of every fic in her list of works and while my less than adequate reading time management may still be short on some of her most well-recommended pieces, I have an adamant faith that Bee doesn’t disappoint. Go get y’all juice.

Maelstrom by thewindupbird

Summary: Here’s the thing about driving halfway across the country to see someone. You can’t really deny, after that, that you’re pretty much head over heels for them.

Review: Listen. One morning on a day off, I just laid in bed and read this– all 40k+ words– while lying there clutching my pillows, hurting and loving every moment of it. The descriptions of Americana, the slow steady metronome rhythm of Ryan’s feelings as frightened and helpless as they feel when you’re relating deeply to them juxtaposed with the deep-seated struggle of understanding what it is to be with someone you love so much but your mental health is burning quiet holes in your ability to express it in a way that can be understand. Ryan’s fierce determination, breaking through the silence of their non communication is really Everything to me in this fic. i think I really left my heart in the scene in Shane’s parents kitchen. That finished me. Read this fic and understand the deep relief you get when you’ve finished a fight with someone you fiercely care about and they understand you and you understand them and it’s OK; it’s gonna be all right. Augh. 

A Burial on Box Hill by InkStainsOnMyHands

Summary: The Celtics believed that the yew flower symbolized both immortality and death. Meanwhile, for centuries, the buxus flower was seen as a symbol for safe passage into the afterlife.

Or,Shane and Ryan were never the same after investigating the Black Forest of Germany alone.

Review: Let me just quote my bookmark comment here. Usually I flee from tragedy like a cat spotting a cucumber but the brevity and the prose dragged me in and now I’m a functioning mess. Bless this fic. Oh my god it’s short and reads like one of those quick horror stories you’ll read to your friends just as the scary stories are transitioning from the urban legends to the ones that feel real. Big warning for main character death but still read it if you appreciate a good story told.

Body Farming by shiphitsthefan

Summary: Failed suppressants and a surprise heat: the worst of cliches, and here Ryan stands, living the trope on location with the alpha he’s hopelessly in love with. Even worse, they’re spending the night in the famous Bell Witch Cave, completely alone and with no way to contact the outside world.

Ryan knows he can survive and keep his preheat a secret, as long as Shane will stop being so protective and concerned. After all, it’s not like Shane wants to bond with him.

Right?

Review: Now judging from the reactions of many people I’ve spoken to, big heavy ABO kink is not popular here but guys, GUYS. This one. Let this one in I promise it is not what you think it is. The dynamic is organic and the worst side of the trope is subverted in all the best ways and lord help us, the smut is hot, like swelteringly smoking. It’ll stay with you. 

Believer by cellard00rs

Summary: Some demons and otherworldly creatures love climbing up the power ladder. Shane is not one of these. He likes where he is (thank you very much) and has no interest in moving up. All he wants is to give his friend Ryan a nice birthday gift. So, naturally, everything goes to hell.

Review: This fic is another fandom legend. When I think demon!Shane. It’s this and one other one that always pops right into my mind. This was my first exposure to the bureaucracy meets the supernatural!Shane trope and I was sold from the get-go. The Shane in this fic is everything I imagine a demon!Shane is and his ginger care for Ryan, the concept of their bond and how even though Shane is a demon and responsible for keeping the supernatural a firm secret from Ryan and the rest of the world, his skepticism is relayed through his status as a demon. I want to talk more about it but I think so much of the enjoyment comes from the surprises as the plot unfurls. 

Heartbeat by quackers

Summary: So the guy Ryan sits next to at work is a vampire. That’s no big deal, right?

Review: I could talk your literal ear off about this fic. Vampires, man. I love the trope; you don’t know me as a person if you don’t know this at least. And this fic kept me fed all damn year. It was a readable garden. If there is one thing I can guarantee about quackers’ work, it’s that their world-building is a festival of detail. The realms and alternate universes they work with while still managing to keep Shane and Ryan’s voices so familiar and real is a talent not attributed to your everyday author. This fic propelled me into wanting to write more and more because quackers makes stories so much fun! Reading their work is, to me, not unlike the feeling I got when I was younger and finding series that speak to my need to escape this crummy existence, made me want to believe in fun spicy things like a vampire that lived through centuries, cynical but still searching, navigating a world where people are still people, adjusting to differences and prejudices, finding comfort in a guy that understands that and more. I’ve talked about this fic in more than a few different posts so I’d just be reiterating a lot of things I loved about the more historical aspects of Shane’s journey, the way Ryan is so firmly curious and inventive in ways to connect with Shane. Look, even if vampires aren’t your thing, I can promise that if you visit quackers list of work, you will find something for your supernatural-lovin’ palate that speaks to a gentler side of your own curiosity about monsters and the jocks that love them. lol.

I’ll Crawl Home by carrieonfighting

Summary: “Shane was almost unnerved by how quickly he’d settled into this body, this name, this life - his friendship with Ryan was the most time he’d spent with any human before, and yet the man fascinated him.”

Review: This is the second fic I think of when someone says the words ‘demon!Shane’ to me because ohhhh my word, this fic is a masterpiece. I really am hard pressed to find anything better than the feeling I get when I think of demon!Shane headcanons interwoven with the irl Buzzfeed reality and the idea of the Ryan as we know him being protected and watched and loved so deeply by a demon that found him so long ago and wanted nothing but to protect him. I feel an almost vicious glee reliving that moment when Ryan and Shane are on goatman’s bridge and man, I just really love canonical fic mixed with a slight twist. The writing in this makes it work so well with lines that still haunt my heart and soul like “Ryan liked popcorn. So did the demon. Genuinely, not just out of a desire to please the human – he liked the way it crunched between his vessel’s teeth. There were some aspects of taking a corporeal form that were…nice; laughing, coffee, feeling warm. Ryan made him laugh.” FUCK! The beautiful agony of it, watching the demon fall in love with Ryan through the eyes of his vessel. Just stark with pain and unspoken, well-written angst and pain with a perfect ending, I wouldn’t change for anything. I love this for us as a fandom and will always love that author crafted this piece and shared it with us. (Also every time I hear Work Song by Hozier, I think of this fic again and sigh).

Like I said at the beginning, thanks to @skepticbeliever-bookclub I’ve been discovering and re-discovering some fics I hadn’t had the chance to read and or have never even heard of before and my bookmarks list is growing with each new week. So if you get through this list and need more in your life, here you go. Every fic in my bookmarks deserves the community’s attention. If I can just make one special request of you guys? If you do happen to click any of these and enjoy what you read, please take the time and tell the author what you loved about it. It really changes the game out here for fanworks and fan-creators like you wouldn’t even believe and the people who shared these works with us worked hard to make the stories what they are and put a great deal of emotional investment in sharing it. Share more than your silence in return. 

Hope you find something you like here, nonnybabe.. 

#shyan fic #shyan #skeptic believer #recs #love tag #Anonybae

[salaciouscrumpet]

Whumptober Day 16

Whumptober Day 16 Prompt: “Pinned Down”

This is, I think, the “whumpiest” of my ficlets so far, and it goes to some pretty dark places. I’d like to remind my readers that these ficlets aren’t canon to my actual series (although references to past experiences do refer to things that have happened to my characters canonically, like Luke’s childhood or how he came to join the Alliance), this is essentially just fanfiction of my own writing (which, whoa, vain!). Thought experiments, not things that have happened prior to the novel’s start or are going to happen in-world.

This ficlet is exposition-heavy and long, and while it is not about the abuse that Luke suffered as a child -- I am unlikely to ever write graphically about that; it’s enough that I know, in broad scope, what happened and how it affected him -- it is definitely impacted by that abuse and his mind definitely makes the connections.

This ficlet also ends on a dark note. It was getting long -- 7 pages! -- and I think I dealt with the prompt enough to end it where I did. There are a few other Whumptober prompts that will spin off of this, so remember: not canon, and not the end.

CW: References to childhood sexual abuse. Again, this is not what the ficlet is about, and at no point is it ever described graphically, but it has an impact on how things play out. Also, trigger warnings for brief internalized homophobia, humiliation (which is a personal squick of mine), non-graphic non-con and a whole heap of victim self-blaming. This fic is about vampires, not rape, but the connections are there and that could be triggering for some readers.

Characters: Luke, Kate

Growing up, Luke had always heard about his family’s great legacy, about how they were descended from the bravest and most powerful Knights of the Seelie Court down through centuries of carefully-preserved breeding. (The details of which probably involved some branches of the family tree that looped back around on each other, but of course nobody talked about that.) Nobody outright said the Knights of Oberon and their Incarnate lineage were better than everybody else, but it was heavily implied. That was one of the reasons the Scions had broken off from the greater Knighthood: because the Knighthood was supposed to be a punishment, a penance for opening the rifts that enabled monsters to enter the world – or some such, the legends were all rather vague after a few centuries. The Knights weren’t supposed to see themselves as better, but they did. They were warriors, protectors, guardians of the just and the righteous, the stalwart defense against a world of monstrosities and abominations. (That their ancestors had let into the world. That was an important part that the Order often conveniently overlooked.) 

And in a lot of ways, the Knights were better than other people. They were stronger, faster, more resilient. Their bodies could take more damage and healed from that damage more quickly. Some of that was inherent, a result of their Incarnate, Fae-descended bloodline. Some of it was the result of the vows they swore when they formally joined the Order. The end result was the same in that there were legitimate reasons for the Knights of Oberon to see themselves as being above regular humans, even those who were also Fae-blooded. (And certainly above anyone who was demon-blooded, which was the lowest of the low, obviously. One doesn’t mate with monsters. The fact that very few humans did so willingly was neither here nor there, so far as the Knighthood was concerned.) It’s not that they thought they were better. It’s just that they were better. 

However, one way in which the Knights of Oberon – and indeed, all Incarnate, regardless of sworn oaths – were just the same as regular-blooded humans was when it came to vampires. 

More specifically, when it came to a vampire’s bite. 

Vampires didn’t survive as a species by leaving behind a trail of drained, anguished-looking corpses. Perhaps they did so back in the early days, when humans lived in smaller settlements and the nights were darker and scarier, but over the centuries they evolved just like everything else. And like a lot of creatures, vampires evolved to suit their surroundings. They could hide their monstrous appearances underneath a human veneer and they could mask their predatory behaviour behind more pleasurable endeavours. There were always slip-ups, of course, especially with younger, newer vampires who didn’t know their own strength (or the strength of their hunger), but overall it was far easier and safer to leave a partner feeling weak and limp after a bout of enthusiastic lovemaking than it was to leave a victim drained dead in a ditch somewhere. To that end, the bite of a vampire was pleasurable, particularly when the vampire fed from or near an erogenous zone. The victim came away with some bruises in the form of hickeys, the vampire came away well-fed, and both parties were quite satisfied – even if the human had no idea what really happened to them. 

Growing up it was never something Luke heard spoken about. It wasn’t until he was a teenager, when he and his peers started learning about more illicit activities, and the topic of vampires and their bites would come up. Then someone would smirk or give a knowing wink, and huddled together at night on their bunk beds after lights-out they would speak in hushed voices about what it might be like to be fed on by a vampire. That it was said to feel good – orgasmic, even, and then Luke had had to go and find a dictionary to learn what that meant (and the resulting discovery, and the realization that he was already ahead of his peers in that respect – albeit not by choice – had left him feeling sick and dirty). It wasn’t something you were supposed to look for, of course. Vampires weren’t, strictly speaking, the enemy unless they did something to attract human attention, like killing a bunch of people or leaving huge puddles of blood everywhere, but they certainly weren’t friends, either. But if you got into a fight with a vampire, and it bit you, and it felt good … well, that was hardly your fault, right? (Then you could justify killing it afterwards, and you got two rewards out of it: what some people said was the best orgasm of your life, and what was, to a Knight, the more just reward in the form of a dead monster that was obviously a threat to others.) 

Luke had sort of skipped over that stage of teenaged prurient interest. When the other boys had talked about sex he had feigned interest and tried to tune them out. He didn’t want to share that his own experiences had started much earlier than theirs (and with a man, which was somehow so much worse). He didn’t want to talk about it. And if that meant his friends thought he was a prude, or frigid, well, that was okay. It was better than them knowing the truth. 

So while Luke knew, in theory, about vampires and their bite, it wasn’t something he had much experience with or interest in. There was a nest of vampires in town, but they were considered respectable. They ran businesses, brought a significant amount of money into town, and supported initiatives that benefited the community. They were normal citizens. They didn’t just go out and attack random people, they cultivated their herd, took care of their herd. They had willing donors, or at least people they fed from that they didn’t kill who kept coming back for more. (Luke had also heard that the bite of a vampire was addictive to some people, but he didn’t know whether or not that was true. People could become addicted to a lot of things, so … maybe? Maybe, to some people, being fed on by a vampire was a lot like wine, or chocolate, or playing the slots. Some people could handle it and knew their limits, others couldn’t and didn’t.) The local nest weren’t the sort of vampires that the Knights would be called in to deal with, and it wasn’t until he joined the Alliance that he had any interactions with the local vampires at all – and those interactions were purely diplomatic, since the Alliance had formal ties with all the supernatural creatures in town. (Except, ironically, the Knights of Oberon: because Luke was officially the only Knight who was connected to the Alliance, and he wasn’t technically a Knight.) The Alliance supported all the supernatural creatures, not just the ones the Knights deemed acceptable. 

He’d grown up being told that, as an Incarnate who was a part of this great and mystical legacy, he was better than all the humans around him. When it came to vampires, however, he was as disappointingly weak as any Average Joe off the street – with one exception, and that was something else the Knights hadn’t ever really talked about: 

To a vampire, the Knights of Oberon were like the finest champagne or a mountain of pure uncut heroin. Whether it was the allure of danger or there really was something special in the Knight’s blood, the end result was that their blood was to vampires like catnip was to cats. 

This was … information Luke could’ve used earlier. 

These vampires were not the nest the Alliance had introduced him to. Rogue vampires were rare, but not unheard of, although in tight-knit communities like theirs they were usually caught and dealt with by the local nest long before they became an issue the Knights or the Alliance needed to address. These ones were a small rogue pack, maybe five in total, and they had swarmed the old cabin like ants at a picnic. Luke and Kate had been out patrolling in the woods, in a stretch of forest they’d been through hundreds of times before, when they’d been attacked out of nowhere and quickly, surprisingly overpowered. 

And now Luke knew three things for certain: 

1. The Knights of Oberon were wrong: they weren’t any better than regular humans.

2. His horny schoolmates had been right: the bite of a vampire was orgasmic.

3. The local vampire Monarchs were going to be pissed off if they ever found out about these rogues. 

As he lay on the rotting floorboards of an ancient and decrepit cabin long thought abandoned, Luke was rapidly become aware of another unwelcome piece of knowledge: He wasn’t nearly as strong as he thought he was. 

Physically, yeah, he knew his own strength. It wasn’t a match for a hungry vampire, but on the whole it was definitely above-average and generally pretty great. Mentally, though? He was nowhere near strong enough to handle this. 

Because the thing of it was, he wasn’t a horny teenager curious about the seedy underbelly of the supernatural world. He was a man with a troubled past, and that past included being taken advantage of as a child. It included someone he trusted holding him down and taking from him, and that experience had marked him, had left him every bit as scarred as the burns down his arm or the tiny incisions along his inner thighs that only two other people in the world had ever seen before. It included being weak, and helpless, and feeling every bit as vulnerable and scared as he felt right now with a monster pinning him to the floor, its fangs lodged in his neck. 

Nor did Luke think he was strong enough to hear Kate’s screams from somewhere nearby, because the other thing he had learned as a child was that demons and demon-blooded humans – like Kate – did not experience pleasure from a vampire’s bite. Generally speaking, vampires didn’t even like feeding from the demon-blooded, because they were said to taste bad (as were vampires themselves, which was one reason why Knight archivists theorized that vampires were in some way demonic as well). It was considered beneath vampires to feed from demons and their ilk, and that was supposedly why they didn’t taste as pleasant as humans, and why there was no reason for the demon-blooded to find the bite pleasurable. Instead, it was painful. Judging from Kate’s screams – and Luke could count on one hand the number of times he had heard Kate scream, and still have fingers left over – it was incredibly painful. 

The vampires weren’t even drinking Kate’s blood. They were biting her, and draining her, but they spat the blood out again: onto the floor, out into the woods, even back out onto Luke and Kate. Her blood wasn’t worth the taking, they were simply using the act of feeding to hurt her. To kill her. 

Between Kate’s agony and his own tortured pleasure, Luke was pretty sure he was going to snap. The vampires weren’t going to kill him, his mind was going to crack wide open and he was going to go stark raving mad. 

The sun was out and the vampires had gone to ground for the day. Their absence didn’t mean a break for Luke and Kate, however: the vampires had a pair of humans, a man and a woman, who saw to their needs during the day. Both were pale and stringy and put Luke in mind of the hard-core drug users he’d seen on occasion, the strung-out junkies looking for their next fix, and under normal circumstances he could have overpowered both of them together with one hand behind his back. While playing Candy Crush on his phone and eating a sandwich. These weren’t normal circumstances, however, and both Luke and Kate were chained to the ground and weak and injured from blood loss. The vampires had given their thralls enough of their blood to give them extra strength, as well; not enough that they would have been a match for their two captives, but more than enough to handle them when sick and weakened. 

In the beginning Kate had been all fire and spit, hurling curses and threats and fighting like the hellcat she was until the vampires had beaten her down and subdued her. Now she was barely conscious, glazed eyes staring sightlessly into nothing, her voice completely gone from screaming. To Luke’s own great shame he’d been far more useless: the instant one of the vampires bit him his body had gone limp and lax, and the flood of unwanted pleasure, combined with the sensation of being pinned to the ground, had triggered unpleasant memories that left him snared and helpless. He was suddenly ten years old again, trapped alone in his dark bedroom with a monster a hundred times worse than any he had read about as part of his supernatural studies, and nobody – not his father, not his mother, not any of his most trusted teachers and mentors – was going to come and rescue him. He was small and helpless and weak, and the worst part was that it was his body that betrayed him in the end, because the vampires, just like Martin Sleswick, could force his body to react however they wanted him to. 

“Please,” he called out, his voice barely stronger than Kate’s. His lips were dry and chapped, and he could taste blood on his tongue. Laid out as he was on his back on the hardwood floor, his entire world had become the rotting ceiling above him, the wispy lines of sunlight that filtered through cracks in the cabin’s walls, and the feeling of Kate’s hand, cold and limp in his own. They’d grabbed on to each other when the vampires had started feeding, and their desperation had amused the monsters so much that they’d let them continue holding on. At first Luke had felt Kate’s struggles, the way her fingers had clenched down hard on his own, but now there was nothing. He hadn’t let go, however. He was afraid that if he did let go she would be lost – they both would. “Please.” 

One of the thralls – the man, who spent his time sitting on a milk crate, smoking cigarettes and making lewd promises he hadn’t yet decided to follow up on – let out a harsh bark of laughter. Of the two of them, he seemed the most amused by what the vampires were doing to their captives, like the torture Luke and Kate were going through was being done purely for his entertainment. 

“What?” he snapped out, launching himself up off the milk crate to come and stand over Luke. He was too short and skinny to pull off an intimidating stance, but it was clear that was what he was aiming for. “What do you want now, your lordship? Shall I fetch the servants to shine your shoes? Would your lordship like another pillow?” 

“I just …” Luke thought hard, but his mind was in scrambles. He could barely remember what day it was or how long he and Kate had been missing. He’d tried keeping track of the time – he’d long had a body clock trained into him and could usually guess the hour without giving it much thought, but the only concept of time he had was night, when the vampires were back, and day, when they were gone. 

The first day, when the vampires left and it was just him and Kate with the two thralls, he’d tried convincing the humans to unchain them both, to let them go free. It had been pointless, of course: they were called thralls for a reason. Whether they served the vampires out of love or duty or fear or some combination of all three, the man and woman weren’t going to set their victims free, not even when Luke promised them safety within the Alliance. Eventually he’d tried asking for food or water – the two thralls seemed to have an interminable source of junk food, which was all they ate – but had been refused. He’d even tried asking just to be led somewhere so that he could relieve himself in some semblance of privacy, but even that had been denied, with the man sneering and laughing at him when Luke had inevitably been forced to wet himself where he lay. It was disgusting and humiliating and contributed to his ever-increasing sense of shame and desperation. 

“Just let her go,” he said at last, aware of the pleading note in his voice. If he could have gone to his knees in front of the two thralls he would have done so, but chained supine as he was the best he could do was to put as much sincerity and hope in his weakened voice as he could manage. “Please. You can … They can do whatever they want to me. Whatever they want. Anything they want, I’ll do it, just please, please let her go.” 

He meant it, too. Whatever the vampires wanted, whatever the thralls wanted, he was willing to do it if it just meant Kate got to go free. If they wanted him to grovel, to bend down and lick their boots clean, he’d do it. They could drain him until they took the last drop of his blood and if it just meant Kate was safe and alive, he’d die happy. 

This time it was the woman who scoffed, letting out a series of high-pitched giggles that were like nails on a chalkboard to Luke’s ears. 

“Her?” she exclaimed, between the laughs. She didn’t bother to get up, but remained seated cross-legged on the floor, a half-eaten bag of cool ranch Doritos in front of her. She ate each chip like a little mouse, nibbling delicately until it was gone. Luke didn’t know if she was eating that way to torture him – he couldn’t help but watch her – or if that was simply the way she normally ate. “They’re not going to let her go. She killed Derek. They’re gonna make her pay for that.” 

Derek. That had been the vampire’s name, then, the man Kate had killed when the vampires had swarmed them. It had been a lucky shot, just as another vampire had taken her down. The two of them had been too overwhelmed, they hadn’t seen the attack coming. Luke didn’t actually want to know the vampires’ names; that made them people instead of just monsters. It was funny, though: he’d never much cared for the name ‘Derek,’ there had been a bully by that name back when he was in elementary school. He had been Luke’s parents’ friends’ son and Luke had been forced to spend more time than he would have liked with the kid, in the way that the children of your parents’ friends were, for the sake of convenience and proximity, automatically assumed to be your friends. The Derek Luke had known had died shortly after taking his vows, his death made memorable solely because of the cause: a late-night traffic accident, his car spun out on an icy road. It was unusual for the Knights of Oberon to die in random accidents. Their deaths were usually more deliberate than that. 

“Besides,” the man said, moving to stand next to Kate. He kicked her in the side with the toe of his boot; she barely reacted, nothing more than a flutter of eyelashes and her fingers spasming within Luke’s grasp. “It’s not like she’s gonna get far on her own. What, you think we’re gonna carry her out of here? Drop her off at emerg? Just ‘cause you said please?” He snorted, crouching down beside Kate and grabbing her chin with one hand to turn her face towards him. “Shame. Saw the way she fought. Bet she was a demon in the sack.” 

The man paused for a moment, then burst out laughing as he suddenly realized his own inadvertent pun. He and the woman both knew who and what Luke and Kate were, that Luke was a Knight of Oberon and that Kate was one of the fomoir. It was why the vampires had wanted them, or at least, why they had wanted Luke. According to the one who had bit him first, they’d never had a Knight before and wanted to know if the stories were true, about how delicious they were. From what Luke had learned in supernatural studies the Knights didn’t taste any different from any other human aside from the demon-blooded, despite their long-held belief in their own superiority. He’d been taught it was just an old wives’ tale that the Knights of Oberon tasted better (when it was mentioned at all, which was rarely), or that feeding from them was in some way superior, simply because of the challenge of bringing a Knight down. 

Of course, it hadn’t been difficult for these vampires to bring Luke down at all. Kate had been the one who’d fought. He’d swooned like a maiden in a fairy tale. 

Fresh shame flooded through Luke, heightened by the sudden burning in his eyes that signalled the threat of tears. He was not going to cry in front of these assholes. He may have let Charlie convince him over the years that, contrary to everything Luke had been taught, it was perfectly acceptable for men to cry, but there was still a large part of him that believed it to be a sign of weakness. He’d already proven himself weak, he wasn’t going to compound it by breaking down like a child. 

And that was what he felt like: a child. Worse, he felt like the child he’d been, helpless against the greater strength of a monster. All the years of growth and training and experience meant nothing when pitted against creatures that knew how to use your body against you and who delighted in doing so. 

He wanted to be like Kate, vicious and strong and ferocious even when brought down low. And normally Luke thought he was like that. He’d been a fighter all his life. He’d fought and killed bigger and badder monsters than a handful of vampires. He’d been tortured and abandoned and had come out the other side stronger and better for it, and yet this? This experience? It was like nothing he’d ever been trained for. No one had ever warned him that vampires could use his own body’s sensations against him so easily. No one had ever said that all it would take was one bite for him to roll over and show his belly. Or maybe no one had ever told him because they hadn’t thought it would be necessary, because Knights of Oberon weren’t supposed to respond the way he did – that he only folded because he was corruptible, because he’d been conditioned to like it, that his childhood experiences had broken something fundamental within him and left him weak and wanting. Maybe, despite all the reassurances Charlie and Kate had given him over the years, Sleswick really had destroyed something within him and as a result Luke had failed, was failing, couldn’t seem to stop failing. 

And now he and Kate were going to die. Kate was going to die – because Luke was weak.

#whumptober2019 #day 16 #prompt no. 16 #original fiction #cw in author's note