#but i still need to come up with interesting stuff for that

[see-arcane]

Our good friend Jonathan Harker is getting ready to leave for his business trip, Mina Murray is picking out a new journal, Lucy Westenra is charming a gaggle of smitten suitors, Abraham van Helsing is wrapping up his lectures, and Castle Dracula is prepping the guest room for a very long stay.

Which must mean that Dracula Season is here again!

 ‘Dracula Season’ being a catchall term for the voracious reading, memeing, writing, illustrating, analyzing, and general fun-having that’s ensued since Matt Kirkland’s project, Dracula Daily, caught on with us back in 2022. The Substack had already been running before then, but it sparked a conflagration as time went on and readers old and new to Bram Stoker’s Dracula—the actual novel, not Coppola’s fanfiction—devoured it in a way that scratched an itch none of us knew we had. Stoker wrote the book in epistolary fashion, clumping sections together as needed for the pacing without perfect adherence to chronological order. Matt went ahead and put all the events in order and proceeded to set up a lovely chain of emails that delivered entries on those correlating dates.

This style of organization and pacing turned out to not only make the virtual book club that much easier to engage with, but left space in-between to stew on the story and relate with the characters themselves. Every day of waiting in the book feels weightier when you have to pace and sweat and worry in tandem with poor Jonathan trapped in the castle or Lucy wasting away or Mina running out the clock before she loses the fight for her own humanity. And while we sat with the story or the lulls between Dracula Seasons, some of us found ourselves craving more of that ghastly gothic horror goodness to the point that we figured:

“Well. Why don’t I make something?”

And then we did! Tons of creative works have been churned out in the wake of Dracula Daily’s high. I figured that while we’ve still got a bit of time to wait for May 3rd, we should check out all this new stuff in the meantime. (Plus a handful of neat stuff that just clicks with the Dracula itch overall.)

So, in the interest of Dracula Season pregaming, let’s take a look at…

FICTION

Blood of My Blood – A recent addition to the Dracula Bad Ending AU pile, and definitely one of the most harrowing and addictive group-produced narratives I’ve ever come across, Blood of My Blood is the dramatically gothic currently-WIP work of @ibrithir-was-here and @animate-mush’s devious design. Give or take a heap of other fascinated folks (hello!) adding ideas to put more Horror into the Horrors that our cast has to face. The premise:

The Transylvanian climax went fatally sour and the Harkers were forced to shelter with Dracula himself, including their half-vampire son, Quincey. Cut to two decades later, and Quincey finds himself out in modern London, smitten with Lu, adopted daughter of Arthur and Jack, and diving into certain bloodstained old documents that detail the real history of how his parents came to live in the castle. Said revelations coming not a moment too soon, as a storm is coming for him straight from the Carpathians…

Dracula Daily Sketch Collection – An array of illustrations that captures every entry beat by beat, the Dracula Daily Sketch Collection by Georgia Cook, alias @georgiacooked was dished out over the course of the last Dracula Season. Some of the most fun character designs out there.

Fanfiction Spotlight: BlueCatWriter – With a whopping 99 works devoted to the novel Dracula (so far, the number may have gone up since I blinked), @bluecatwriter is one of the most prolific and talented fanfiction scribblers out there. Romances, nightmares, and overlaps between the two seem to crop up the most, give or take a crossover. Seems fitting that those blue paw prints have contributed to BoMB too.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk – An ongoing comic in which all your favorite characters from the Classics section get together and tackle some perils ranging from the mundane to the monstrous. Started by the amazing @mayhemchicken and posted on @lxgentlefolkcomic, this series is a love letter to beloved Victorian era lit, with a spotlight on the two couples leading the League. Namely, the Harkers, ala Dracula, and the Nortons, ala Sherlock Holmes,’ “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Mina and Irene are the driving investigative and steering forces here, and still deeply in love with their likewise-infatuated husbands, just like in their canons! What a concept! Alan.

Without spoiling the full character list, just know there are going to be a ton of familiar faces roaming around before you finish reading the first arc. Said arc having conveniently wrapped up just a few days ago! Give the comic and its bonus silliness a look if you’re in the mood for a new comfort-adventure epic.

Re: Dracula – Probably the most well-known and incredible thing to come out of the initial Dracula Daily wave. This podcast is a full audio drama that follows the same format as the Substack, with episodes coming out in time with the entries themselves. And it has an unfairly cool soundtrack. They have a Tumblr with @re-dracula, a site and a Patreon to check out before the series kicks up again on May 3rd. (Also, keep an eye out for their next work, an audio drama in the same style with Carmilla.)

The Soldier and the Solicitor – Another treat from @ibrithir-was-here, this one involves a bit of time travel trouble. Quincey Harker has stumbled out of World War I and into the same dark forest where his father once fled for his life…then runs into the man himself, on that same night. Jonathan Harker, young and starved and lost, who has no choice but to trust this stranger while the Weird Sisters are at his heels…despite said stranger having no shadow. It’s a tasty emotional trek, already complete on Tumblr, but now it’s turning into a Webtoon. While Ibrithir is juggling a number of other stories, she’ll be redrawing spruced up versions of the comic and adding a few new scenes as things unfold.

Substack Stack – You know what’s better than one emailed-out public domain book club? A mountain of them. Just. So, so many of them. You’ll see that a lot of these are finished, but some are still ticking along. Either way, they’re all great picks if you’re craving some more old school lit to fill the void between undead emails.

Frankenstein Weekly – Frankenstein

Jekyll and Hyde Weekly – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Voyage of the Nautilus – Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Letters from Watson – Sherlock Holmes

The Invisible Mail – The Invisible Man

Letters from Bunny – E.W. Hornung’s short stories of the eponymous Bunny and Raffles

Letters Regarding Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster short stories, including the novel, Right Ho, Jeeves

…

……

………

…The Beetle Weekly – The Beetle (NOTE: Do Not Read This.)

The Vampyres – A novella I finally wrenched through the gears of self-publication as of March this year. Starring a petite but powerful paranormal cast, The Vampyres, centers on an unscrupulous undead fellow who finds that the revenants of the world are being mowed down by an entity known only as ‘Quinn Morse.’ Between trying to save his neck and figure out where the shadowy bastard came from, the Vampyre in question crosses paths with a new paramour and handy human shield in the form of a grieving Good Samaritan. He’s even polite enough to invite the Vampyre into his home while he’s in dire straits! Surely this will end well. All the info is available here and a little author site is over here.

What Manner of Man – This is the one made for everyone who started out hoping there’d be a real love story with our good friend Jonathan Harker and the Count when he was at his most charismatic. Where that sea of wonders dried up into a mire of horror, What Manner of Man by @stjohnstarling keeps things firmly on the romantic tracks. This Substack stars the letter-writing priest Father Victor E. Ardelian as he finds himself meeting with one enigmatic Lord Alistair Vane. It isn’t long before interest turns into intrigue and intrigue into undead intimacies.

The entire novel has been completed—along with multiple epilogues in the author’s Patreon, allowing readers to choose for themselves just how the uncanny romance plays out in the end—and the Substack now has a number of other gothic goodies piling up in the meantime.  

NONFICTION

Dracula Daily: A Unique Reading Experience: This one comes courtesy of @realwomenofgaming. It’s a short and sweet piece that amounts to a fun snapshot of the entire Dracula Daily ride. A cozy couple-minute read.

‘Dracula Daily’ is the One Substack You Need a Subscription To: Features my favorite Matt Kirkland interview. @mattkirkland, if you’re still floating around on here, thank you for dispatching our vampire newsletter again this year.

Dracula Daily is Tumblr’s hottest new book club: Alright, the ‘new’ part is worn out by now, but this one is still a delightful article to swing back around to. Two years on, this Polygon piece is a time capsule of those early months when people outside our bookworm bubble realized we were all happily receiving letters from our favorite classic gothic horror blorbos.  

“How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” – Princess Weekes, if you ever read this, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am sending oceans of love and millions of rewatches to your video essay. If you haven’t seen it yet, “How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” is one of the most refreshing and well-made breakdowns of both the title subject and numerous other issues that have proliferated in the public view of Dracula’s cast and plot as adaptations endlessly warp or outright bastardize the actual novel. An incredibly cathartic watch.  

Literary play gone viral: delight, intertextuality, and challenges to normative interpretations through the digital serialization of Dracula: A mouthful of a title for an even more elaborate article about the Dracula Daily phenomenon. This one is a full-on study that analyzes just what happened within the big bloodsucker book club surge and how its ‘wandering reading practices’ enriched the experience for participants.

 “The Undying Undead: An analysis of the Dracula Daily community for a theory of online community formation and interaction” – We have a thesis on here! Look at that! @sirangelothebestest’s MA thesis used our vampiric book club as the bones for a massive brick of an academic piece that definitely deserves a look.

…And I think I’ll go ahead and cap things here.

This isn’t everything I got recommended, but if I had squashed all of it in here, I think folks’ eyes would start to fall out of their head. I hope you can find something cool to comb through here. Or, if there’s something great I overlooked, tack it onto the list! We’ve got just two weeks to go until we’re off with Mr. Harker. Let’s enjoy our respite before those castle doors close behind us.

#time for Dracula Season pre-gaming :3 #thank you to everyone who sent in their suggestions! #dracula #dracula daily #re: dracula

[fishofthewoods]

I see a lot of people clowning on the people of Pelican Town for not repairing the community center themselves or clowning on Lewis for embezzling and. like. Those criticisms aren't entirely unfair. But I think instead of coming at it from a perspective of "why can't the townspeople do this" we should be asking "why and how can the farmer do this?"

Like. Think about it. The farmer arrives in Stardew Valley on the first day of spring. By the first day they're obviously different. By day five the spirits of the forest who haven't been seen by the townsfolk in years or generations are speaking to them. By the second week they've developed a rapport with the wizard that lives outside town.

In the spring they go foraging and find more than even Linus, who's spent so many years learning the ways of the valley. Maybe he knows, when he sees them walking back home. Maybe he looks at them and understands that they're different, chosen somehow.

In the summer they fish in the lakes and the ocean for hours on end, catching fish that even Willy's only ever heard of, fish that he thought were the stuff of legend. They pull up giants from the deep and mutated monstrosities from the sewers.

In the fall, their crops grow incredibly immense; pumpkins twice as tall as a person, big enough that someone could live inside. The farmer cuts it down with an axe without even batting an eye. Does Lewis wonder, when he checks the collection bin that night and finds it full to the brim with pumpkin flesh? What does he think? Does he even leave the money? Does he have the funds to pay the farmer millions of dollars for the massive amounts of wine they sell? Or is it someone--something--else entirely?

In the winter, the farmer delves into the mines. No one in Pelican Town has been down there in decades. No one in living memory has been to the bottom. The farmer gets there within the season. They return to the surface with stories of dwarven ruins and shadow people, stories they only tell to Vincent and Jas, whose retellings will be dismissed by the adults as flights of fancy. People walking by the entrance to the mines sometimes hear the farmer in there, speaking in a language no one can understand. Something speaks back.

The farmer speaks to the the wizard. They speak to the spirit of a bear inside a centuries-old stone. They speak to the shadow people and the dwarves, ancient enemies, and they try to mend the rift. They speak to the Junimos, ancient spirits of the forest and the river and the mountain. They taste the nectar of the stardrops and speak to the valley itself. They change Pelican Town, and they change the valley. Things are waking up.

And what does Evelyn think? She's the oldest person in the valley; she was here when the farmer's grandfather was young. (How old *is* she, anyway? She never seems to age. She doesn't remember the year she was born.) Does she see the farmer and think of their grandfather? Does she try to remember if he was like this too, strange and wild and given the gifts of the forest?

And does their grandfather haunt the valley? He haunts the farm, still there even after his death; his body died somewhere else, but his spirit could never stay away for long. Does Abigail, using her ouija board on a stormy night, almost drop the planchette when she realizes it's moving on its own? Does Shane, walking to work long before anyone else leaves their house, catch glimpses of a wispy figure floating through the town? Does the farmer know their grandfather came back to the place they both love so much?

Mr. Qi takes interest in the farmer. He's different, too; in a different way, maybe, but the principles are the same. They're both exceptional, and no matter what Qi says about it being hard work and dedication, they both know the truth: the world bends around the both of them, changing to fit their needs. Most people aren't visited by fairies or witches. Most people don't have meteorites crash in their yard. Most people couldn't chop down trees all day without a break or speak to bears and mice and frogs.

The farmer is different. The rules of the world don't work for them the way they work for everyone else. The farmer goes fishing and finds the stuff of fairy tales. The farmer goes mining and fights shadow beasts and flying snakes. The farmer looks at paths the townspeople walk every day and finds buried in the dirt relics of lost civilizations.

The farmer is a violent, irrepressible miracle, chosen by the valley and destined to return to it someday. Even if they'd never received the letter, they would've come home.

They always come home eventually.

#lich says shit #stardew valley #sorry for the stardew valley meta i'm just so obsessed with how FREAKY the farmer is. Like it's so fun #gonna write another long ass post about the farmer's bloodline specifically and. like. #why did their grandpa leave the valley?? why did their parents never go back?? #stardew valley farmer #sdv

[lady-raziel]

and alright, here's my last (let's hope) and boldest take yet. lots of people have been talking about the level of staff (around 25-ish people) at watcher, and whether downsizing that number could have been a potential avenue of reducing costs before just jumping to a subscription model. at first i was like yeah, i'm not sure that there needs to be 18 people involved in making a lets play. i was in the fucking trenches in the unus annus days and i'm still amazed how markiplier and ethan nestor managed to put out pretty well edited videos every day for a whole year with only a handful of editors and a couple people filming. what unus annus was trying to do and what watcher is trying to do are obviously pretty different, but the point is that you really don't need a whole crew of people to make lots of different types of content and do it well.

i still think there probably doesn't need to be a whole production crew involved with the creation of some of the simpler types of content watcher puts out. however, i don't think the size of the staff is the real problem. in fact, i think the staff of watcher probably should have been larger.

let me explain. if i begrudgingly go to one of my most detested websites (linkedin. *bleeegh*) and look up watcher, i can see that pretty much every person on staff is in a creative role of some sort by their own admission. at first glance, its like, oh, that makes sense. they're making creative products, it's natural that they should all be in creative roles. however, once you think about it for a little longer from a business perspective, that fact is really concerning.

after all, by watcher's own definition, this is a production studio. this is a company. So in this sea of creative roles, who's doing corporate planning? Who's managing finance? Who's doing payroll? Or brand outreach? Or human-freaking-resources??? you can hire outside groups for all this. i'm aware. but those services cost a lot of money to contract too. i'm just finding it concerning that there is pretty much no one on full time staff that is there to at least do some of this stuff. if watcher wants to be a big-boy company, that's fine, but that means you have to pay some people to be part of your company to do the not-fun business stuff like accounting. or resource management.

if they want to be a real company, they should actually have a lot more people on staff to deal with all the non-creative parts of running a company. even if they contract out most of it, you want at least a few people that are your people and don't actually work for someone else. that's how you don't get screwed over or end up in a contract you can't get out of.

which leads me to my last train of thought. like, as i go through the staff of watcher and look at what they do, it really seems like one of the ONLY people who's job it was to look at the business side of things WAS steven lim in his role as CEO. and thinking about that, i'm like god, can you imagine?? here's a guy who just wants to create cool stuff too but as one of the few people who has to think about the realities of Brand and the Business, HE has to be the one to burst the bubble. He as CEO has to say no to people and make decisions to make sure the company survives. In a group of creative people who just want to make things they're interested in, no expense spared, he was probably the guy who had to stay at least a little tethered to reality.

I'm not about to say that steven lim isn't to blame here. everyone involved in making the decisions that have led up to this point is part of this. but shit, it absolutely sucks to have to be the person at the end of the brainstorm session when everyone is coming up with their best ideas and to have to say "guys, i don't think any of these things are possible unless we make some big decisions."

is that what happened at watcher HQ? i don't know. at this point, with radio silence from everyone, speculation is all we've got. but if you follow the thread of a bunch of creatives striking out on their own to make their own business after being burned by their former employer, despite not knowing really how to run a business, and then only hiring fellow creative people and not other people who actually run business things... well, all of this starts to make slightly more sense in WHY none of watcher's actions make sense. everybody wants to stick it to the man and be their own boss with their own business, until it actually comes to the hard parts of doing that. at that point people start to realize, "oh, maybe some of the things that existed at my old job were there for a reason, actually."

all this is why lots of creatives striking out and starting their own businesses don't work in the end. they're thinking about in terms of creative products still, when they really need to be focusing more on the "business" part of the "creative business." it's sad. it sucks. it destroys a lot of good ideas and good people, because one person in every company like that has to be the one who thinks practically. could this have been avoided if watcher had been hiring people all along to manage this business and not just adding people to add to the creative output? maybe. even then it might not have been enough to curb other predictable impulses that led us down this path.

i feel bad for watcher, and i feel bad for the fandom. but i can't help but wonder if this was always the kind of situation we were going to end up in, and we just missed some of the warning signs because ALL of us were thinking, "well, that could never happen to us. we're different. not the Ghoul Boys."

#watcher #watcher tv #two stupidly long thinkpieces in one morning? wow! what a bargain! #just don't ask which of my responsibilities i'm ignoring by typing all this out

[toji-girl]

part two to this + mdni 18+ content + angst + steamy stuff + suggestive

Toji furrowed his eyebrows as the door widened to reveal Shiu, who stood there in a soft t-shirt and lounge pants like it was his place.

"Gumi! Hi, baby. Are you ok?" You asked, immediately dropping to your son's height, ignoring the two men staring at each other.

He nodded and turned around to grab the sacks filled with goodies, which in turn let Toji inside turning the air into something thicker with tension as you smiled softly looking at Megumi who looked back at you with a soft smile so much like yours.

"Thank you, you are so sweet." You cooed hugging him tightly not wanting to let go of him.

It sucked every time letting your son go for the week and waiting for him to come back home.

But you could admit it was nice to be able to sleep in during the weekday and to have time to yourself, however, sometimes you missed them so much you almost called Toji to come back for the night so you weren't alone and you three could be a family again.

You gestured Megumi to take the bags in the kitchen before turning your attention to Toji. "Is everything ok?" You asked again looking at him.

His attention was still on Shiu, who observed the entire situation silently. "He missed you, said you cry every night." He murmured, his eyes now shifting to you with a glint of sadness and understanding.

You furrowed your eyebrows thinking of Megumi hearing you, and it wasn't every night, but a lot of the times your bed felt too big for just you, and it felt...odd to be alone after being with Toji for so long.

Toji wanted nothing more than to scoop you in his arms and kiss away your turmoil. "Are you two fuckin'?" He blurted in a quiet tone, his eyes flickering with anger and a deep-seated jealousy at the thought of you with Shiu together.

"What the hell kind of question is that!? It doesn't matter if I am or not." You told him in a low tone rolling your eyes just in time for Megumi to come bounding back into his arms.

Toji took hold of his hand and looked down at him with a sad smile. It was clear he wanted to stay with you, and if he let him, then it would only serve to push them further apart.

He watched Megumi pull away for a second hug bidding you goodbye and goodnight as you helplessly let go of your baby who wasn't a baby anymore with his father who wasn't your husband anymore.

Shiu stepped closer to you, his hand coming up to your shoulder, giving it a small squeeze catching Toji's attention, as did your sniffling.

But he wasn't the man you wanted or needed anymore to help balm your hurt. However, that didn't stop him from turning around to brush a tear off your cheek before he left with Megumi.

Once it was just you and Shiu, you turned around and sobbed into his chest letting him wrap his arms around you gently. "I know."

Toji's question made your stomach twist with guilt even though you and Shiu never even kissed. He was just there for you in ways you needed, as a friend, nothing more, despite the feelings that grew between you both slowly.

You've known him just as long as you've known Toji. He was even at your wedding and now he was here comforting after your husband left with your son. "How dare Toji even ask us that?" You muttered when you pulled away from Shiu to head into the living room.

He followed after and sat next to you on the couch, the air shifted from tense to something more charged as you rested your head on his shoulder. "He's jealous and feels threatened that I'm here for you. Tomorrow is going to be interesting. Will you be okay tonight?" He asked with genuine worry in his voice as he held your hand.

Shiu was right.

Monday morning you found yourself at Toji's door knocking on the door quickly before you changed your mind. Megumi was at school so you would be alone with him, and you told yourself it was because you didn't want an audience but wanted that time with him as well.

"Everythin' ok?" Toji asked with a husky voice that was rough around the edges with sleep, the sound made you think about the mornings with him when he would wrap you in his arms not letting you go even when you giggled and tried to wiggle free he'd just hold you tighter.

You pushed your way inside your old shared home, the smells of baking cookies and dinners, and the sight of pictures still hanging up made your stomach twist. "Why would you ask if I was fucking Shiu? How is that any of your business?" You spat looking at him.

He leveled your look with a slow smirk that curled his lips, the scarred side lifted. "Mhm, you came all this way to ask me that? A phone call woulda worked darlin'." Toji shot back and walked into the kitchen.

It was obvious he knew you would follow him after shutting the door trying to come up with some excuse because he was right. "I'm not your darlin' anymore so stop calling me that and you don't ever answer your phone." You hissed and watched as he made coffee.

He didn't wear a shirt and you knew his skin was warm and he smelled good, his scent was something you'd never soon forget. You ached to lay your cheek on his back like old times but you also know you two aren't meant to be lovers in the way you want to be.

It hurt like hell to know you were his soulmate but your souls barely caressed one another, like two sheets in the wind before blowing away completely. However, you still wanted to fight for your relationship with him and to hold him and kiss him again and again.

"So are you fuckin' him or not then? If not you don't want to tell me because you're still in love with me and if you did then that means you moved on. Which is it?" Toji drawled when he turned around to look at you as he leaned against the counter knowing the answer.

Your mouth opened then closed as you stammered while rolling your eyes. "It's -"

"None of my business, I heard you sweetheart but it seems you ain't hearing me."

You watched as he pushed himself off the counter to invade your space blocking out the light from the kitchen sink making the room smaller and him that much bigger he backed you into the living room until you hit the armrest of the couch falling over onto the cushions with him towering above you with a dark chuckle. "You love me still."

It was the truth, you do love him and would always. However, the relationship felt at a standstill, and sex was the bandaid that never really fixed anything. He kneeled between your legs and leaned down until your breaths mingled together in a warm fan. "I love you too."

His lips barely brushed against yours making you ache as you gripped the couch cushions feeling your pussy drool and pulse around nothing. "We can't make this work Toji, we both know that."

"I know that I love you and I don't want any other woman, and I tried but as soon as they went to touch me I couldn't do it because they weren't you." He whispered staring deep into your eyes as he slid his arms under yours letting you fall to your back softly with a smirk.

Your heart hammered in your chest, his words and actions were so smooth it made you feel like a teenager kissing her crush for the first time. Butterflies took home in your belly as you stared back at him.

The idea of some other woman touching him made your skin crawl.

But when he said they weren't you, you leaned in and pressed your lips against his for the first time in a year. Everything felt like static as he kissed you back, his tongue sliding in your mouth to slowly stroke against yours igniting that fire deep inside you.

His chest was pressed against yours as you sunk into the couch more wrapping your arms around his neck and legs around his waist.

Just when you pulled away to tell him to undress you, your phone went off, your ringtone indicated it was the school, about Megumi.

The sound broke your focus as you scrambled out from under Toji to pull your phone out, answering it. "Hello, yes, this is his mother...he did what? Me and my husband are on the way." You told the sectary.

You hung up and sighed as you felt your shoulders hike up to your ears. You called Toji, your husband, which did not go unnoticed by him judging by the smirk on his lips that melted into something else.

"What happened with Megs?" He asked, standing quickly to pull his shirt on before the two of you could get in your car and to the school.

The ride was silent, minus the soft hum of the engine.

There weren't any words said until you both got in the office with a sullen Megumi who sat hunched over in his seat. "What in the world happened, baby? Are you ok?" You asked worriedly as you and Toji sat next to him.

Your son sat still and silent, not saying anything for a moment until he sighed. "A classmate said you two didn't love each other and made fun of me for it." Each word felt like a dagger as you struggled to maintain a neutral face.

"Oh, of course, we love each other...it's just different. How about tonight we have a family dinner? You two come over to my place?" You suggested rubbing Megumi's back gently looking over at Toji.

Toji nodded in agreement as he held your hand and ruffled his sons hair. "Did you hit him first?" He asked curiously.

"No."

You looked at Toji, then Megumi, as the principal came out, was ready to discuss the situation, which thankfully got resolved.

It seemed a teacher was nearby when the other student started in on a few more kids before moving on to Megumi giving him a hard time.

Later that night, you set your dining room table when an urgent knock on your door made your pulse jump. As you approached it, you looked in the peephole to see it covered by something.

Your door was locked and chained, which rattled with their next knock, the idea of them coming across Megumi and Toji made you sick with worry.

Quickly and quietly, you walked into the living room, grabbing your phone, calling Toji.

"Someone is at my door pounding on it, covering the peephole. Where are you two?" You asked worriedly as you sat on the couch after making sure you weren't visible from any windows.

It seemed that whoever it was was gone after a few more knocks.

"We just pulled into the parking lot. No one is here, I'll bring Megumi inside and look around." Toji told you, his tone serious.

Worry ate at you as you met Toji at the door. "Thank you so much, please hurry." You ached to kiss him. Instead, you squeezed his hand. before letting him go to check everything out.

Megumi immediately ran inside and into the living room as you waited for Toji by the door, leaving it cracked with the chain on to see.

As soon as you saw him, you let him inside, then shut and locked the door. "Would you spend the night, please?" You asked softly looking at him baring your vulnerability for him to see.

You both stood by your front door stepping closer together until you were in his arms feeling safer as you nuzzled into him. "How about we just go home? Someone saw me walking around and said the same thing happened to them last night, I ain't leavin' my wife and son here alone with someone doin' that." He told you leaving no room for a no.

"Wife? We seem to both have done that today..." You murmured melting into his arms when he hugged you closer to his body.

Toji chuckled and leaned in pressing his lips against yours. "You will forever be my wife. Now let's go home."

#toji x reader #jjk x reader #toji fushiguro x reader #toji x you #jjk x reader smut

[thekristen999]

Anytime the show needs a dramatic arc, or a bad guy, they do a pretty good job of going back through past seasons and plucking out a person.

We're going on four years, but I still think it would be interesting if Eddie crossed paths with the fight promoter from the street fighting arc.

We have no idea if his whole operation was shut down after Eddie called the cops and they started an investigation. Did the guy lose a ton of money?

Does he see Eddie at a scene and just....hatches plans.

Or what about the guy he almost killed? I bet Eddie's face is burned into memory. The other fighter guy is still struggling with hard times, and he sees the dude who not only sent him to a hospital that racked up a big medical bill, but maybe cost him a bet that was his 'ticket' out of a jam?

How dare this guy be walking around happy as a clam after he kicked bone cartilage into his freaking sinus cavity-- that still gives him hell to this day.

Give me Eddie targeted by a big bad...and the team racing to figure out who put Eddie in the hospital. Could you imagine the emotion??

Athena tracking the baddie down, Bobby right there with her. Bobby who has a fiery side when you hurt one of his family.

We finally see the team work together when they discover Eddie in his crashed car or crumpled mess at his home. Hen and Chim pulling out all the stops to save his life.

Buck at his bedside! The freaking will reveal...

Come on Tim, it's here for taking. You love this stuff!

#eddie diaz #buddie #911 on abc #evan buckley

[goldfishontheceiling]

"Alastor is just using Rosie" NUH UH whips out the list

1. He is capable of making friends, as seen with Mimzy. So it's not that hard to believe that he can have another friend if one (cough cough MIMZY cough) just comes around when she needs something. Mimzy doesn't even benefit him in anyway, yet he doesn't cut her off, which shows he can make friends.

2. Aside from the cannibals in ep7, what else could he get from her? I mean she does recommend him deals sometimes, but anyone can do that. If his true goal was control over the cannibals then their bond would feel a lot more shallow, like ep1-ep5ish with Charlie.

3. If Alastor was using Rosie for deal recommendations (since she gives him "prime pickings for a deal to be made"), then why not just do so with a mutalistic relationship instead of having to form that bond?

4. He bleat like a fawn. If he was acting, he wouldn't let himself lose composure for an act.

5. They both kinda get close to eachother in a way they don't with anyone else. SHE PICKS HIM UP AND SPINS HIM AROUND AND HE DOESN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT. Sure, he hugged Mimzy, but if she ever did that? She would most likely be dead.

6. If anyone else openly/jokingly insulted Alastor, he would go all scary demon ahhhhhhhh. But Rosie? Perfectly fine.

7. The way he talks to Rosie is different to the way he talks to Charlie. With Charlie he's a little bitch sometimes (oh Charlie you look an absolute mess!) and he kinda takes every chance he can to be a little bitch while still being nice and showing he's important.

8. Rosie knows things about Alastor that he hasn't even figured out (I know your an ace in the hole!), and for Rosie to know these things, that would require Alastor to open up about himself, which he doesn't like doing because "must be mysterious radio deer man." Even to Charlie, who he does have a bond with, SHE STILL JUST THINKS OF HIM AS "MYSTERIOUS RADIO DEER MAN"

9. Hating someone together is one of the easiest ways to start a friendship, especially in hell, where people hating each other is really common (Susan? Susan)

10. If he truly was manipulating all of his friends, he's a sinner, he still has a humanish mind. Humans crave bonds with other people as part of their instincts. And you could just get fake ones, but if you're the manipulator in that situation you'll know it's all fake and it won't leave you fufilled. Which is why having one or two genuine friends (Rosie/Mimzy) would have to be a requirement.

11. He has manipulated other Overlords in the past, like Vox. But with Vox, they would realistically never get along. Same with Vaggie, Angel Dust, etc, he just wouldn't be able to form a true bond with/a very strong both with those people. So yes, he's manipulating/has manipulated them. Rosie on the other hand? They're both cannibals from similar time periods, with similar interests, and they hate the same people.

12. Rosie is smart. She easily reads Charlie, a stranger, like a book. And if she's known Alastor for years (which she most likely has), she knows how to read him past that stupid permanent smile. So even if he was manipulating her, she would know.

13. He HATES Susan, and Vox, and probably some other people I can't think of off the top of my head. He can't stand them. So if he hated Rosie? He wouldn't be able to fake a bond like the one they have.

14. His pupils dilate around Rosie, which is a sign that you like/love whatever it is that you are looking at

Look at these

COMPARED TO THESE

AND IT ONLY HAPPENS WHEN IT'S JUST THEM TWO

15. Rosie agrees with him when he says that Charlie is "filled with potential that I could guide," so she knows that he's using her for that kinda stuff. With that moment it shows that she understands that Alastor is helping Charlie with her dream in exchange. I swear I had more thoughts on this one but then I got distracted with finding screenshots for 14-

Bonus reason that's more silly then reason: THAT DANCE IN READY FOR THIS IS TOO COORDINATED THEY HAD TO HAVE PRACTICED IT

#i had to hold myself back from going full autism mode #because if i didn't this post would just be a giant wall of capital letters #anyway tag time #hazbin hotel #alastor hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel alastor #hazbin alastor #alastor hazbin #rosie hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel rosie #hazbin rosie #rosie hazbin #alastor and rosie #platonic radiorose #qpr radiorose #radiorose #rosie and alastor #idk what else to tag

[forgeofthenine]

How do the bachelors react to insects and spiders? I mean sure, they'd probably be able to take them outside or just squash them, but ever since Farkas Skyrim, dude with the strength of a God said he's disgusted by and scared of spiders, I keep thinking about these sort of things. Like yes, they can kill them, but I feel like Rolan at the very least would make the crying cat meme face the entire time in disgust.

The bachelors (+Rugan) reacting to creepy crawlies

Dammon

Dammon never notices when spiders are hanging around, possibly because he has more than a few in his forge

Despite keeping it nice and clean and outside forge is still a perfect place for spiders to hang out

Should you need someone to take a spider outside for you, Dammon is your man

He just cups it in his hands, no thoughts as to if it's venomous

The type to tease you by holding out the spider and watching you try to get away from him

There is one type of bug that Dammon isn't keen on at all, though

Praying mantises

He can't explain why, but they creep him out

Maybe it's the head eating after copulation stuff, maybe it's the way they seem to look into your soul

Dammon squeals every time one touches him

Zevlor

This brave paladin is equally relaxed around insects for the most part

Bugs or beetles aren't enough to scare him, and he's always willing to help you

Zevlor is a true gentleman and is always available to remove any creepy crawlies that are bothering you

He likes using a cup and paper to trap them before moving them outside

He's also happy to tell the kids interesting things about some of the odd insects the refugees come across

The one bug he absolutely will not touch is a centipede

And a millipede, too

Nothing needs that many legs, in Zevlors mind

You can visibly see how he pales at the mere sight of the little pests

Sorry, you'll need to deal with them yourself

Rolan

Rolan hates bugs

Hates them with a passion

There is no way this man is carefully carrying a bug outside for you because his first reaction is to squish it

He makes a face every time he sees a spider and it's all scrunched up and funny

If you laugh at him Rolan will tell you to 'deal with the damned thing yourself'

He still relies on Cal or Lia to help remove spiders from Ramaziths Tower

The one bug he not only stands, but also quite likes, is the dragonfly

Rolan thinks they're both fascinating and quite beautiful, particularly those with jewel colours

He probably gets himself a dragonfly brooch at some point

Rugan

This man talks big game

He can take on anything, he's manly as hell

But, he disappears whenever you point out a spider

Big manly man Rugan HATES spiders

He doesn't particularly like other bugs but he can live with them

Spiders are the absolute worst, in his opinion

He's willing to fight an owlbear, weaponless, in a dark cave but removing a spider is just a step too far for him

If you end up doing it yourself he's quite blasé about it all, feigning disinterest in the whole situation

However, if both of you hate spiders then you're screwed, I'm sorry

Rugan just can't get past those eight, spindly legs and half a dozen eyes

#bri answers #can you tell dammons my favourite? #or that i dont really like bugs lmao #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 x reader #bg3 x reader #bg3 dammon #baldurs gate 3 dammon #dammon x reader #bg3 zevlor #baldurs gate 3 zevlor #zevlor x reader #bg3 rolan #baldurs gate 3 rolan #rolan x reader #bg3 rugan #baldurs gate 3 rugan #rugan x reader

[foxaftershocks]

I saw you were asking for prompts for lars pinfield and was wondering if you were interested in writing something where the reader is the oldest spengler kid(like 10-12 years older than phoebe) and she works with lars and its obvious to Lucky and Trevor that there's something going on between the reader and Lars but neither will admit it. This got so long, sorry.

No need to apologise. It wasn't that long at all. It could have been even longer lol

“Oi, Pinfield.”

Lars looked up as you sauntered over, hand in your back jean pocket. His eyes swept up your body, lingering a moment longer than was appropriate. Coming to rest against the bench, one hip cocked, you smirked down at him.

“You’ve got something of mine,” you said.

“Do I?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Yup. You’re nothing but a common thief,” you replied.

“I think I’m rather uncommon, thank you very much,” he said, looking back to the wiring he was working on.

“Are you gonna give it back or do I have to plan a heist to reclaim my property?” you asked.

“Depends on what it is,” he said with a small shrug.

He glanced up at you from under eyelashes, lips pulling up at the corner. You lent closer, placing one hand flat on the bench in front of him. His chin tilted up towards you, blue eyes sparkling from behind glass.

“You’ve taken my soldering iron you bastard,” you said.

“Company property,” he replied, pursing his lips, “you have no claim on it.”

“Check the bottom,” you said, a hint of smugness entering your expression.

He sighed, picking up the soldering iron he’d been using only moments before. Your name was scrawled there, practically carved into the metal. His lips pursed again and you felt the need to bite down on your lower lip, holding back your laughter. Your shoulders shook once he looked at you, raised eyebrow saying everything you needed to hear.

“Hand it over, nerd,” you said, holding out a hand expectantly.

When he didn’t, you reached forward, trying to snatch it from him. Warm arms caught you, pinning your arms to your side, Lars’ face was so close to yours and as his head dipped you had the irrational thought he was about to kiss you. Your cheeks heated, a flush of warmth making you want to lean into him too.

“Possession is nine tenths the law,” he murmured, “and as far as I can tell, I’m in possession of it.”

You struggled against his hold, surprised when his arms tightened. You were practically pressed up against his body, his warmth seeping into your body. For such a scrawny man, he was so solid, strong enough to keep you from breaking away. Your giggles were soft, even to your own ears, and while this wasn’t what you’d been expecting, you never turned away from when Lars turned playful, despite how few and far between it was.

His chuckle was soft in your ear, holding you in place as you tried to get free. Caught against him you could smell the copper of the wiring and the laundry detergent clinging to his shirt. You pressed your face to his chest, trying to stifle your laughter but couldn’t. He froze for just a moment before he melted, his hold almost turning into an embrace.

“What’s this?”

You peeked around Lars, finding your younger brother staring at the two of you, a look of confusion and disgust mingling on his face. Pulling away, you put space between the two of you, feeling like a teenager caught by your parents with your boyfriend. A chill settled over you and you snatched the soldering iron from the bench, forgotten in your struggle with Lars.

“Lars is a rotten thief,” you said.

“Yes because I hug all the criminals I come across,” he said, his dry sarcasm only making your cheeks heat further.

“We weren’t hugging. I was… being restrained,” you said, struggling to find the words.

You couldn’t even look at the taller man, still standing so close to you. If you did, you were going to die of embarrassment.

“Right, well, now I’ve got this I’m going to…” You indicated over your shoulder with your thumb, “stop stealing my stuff.”

“Company property,” he muttered just loud enough for you to hear.

You didn’t acknowledge him as you slunk back to your own work.

Some time passed and you could still feel the ghost of his arms around your body, pinning your arms, his warmth still burnt into your brain. It left you feeling breathless, barely able to concentrate on your work. Which was increasingly becoming a problem with him. You were so distracted by him.

“So.”

You startled, so lost in thought you hadn’t heard your brother approach. He slid onto the stool beside you, resting his elbows on the bench. You ignored him, using the soldering iron you’d stolen back from Lars.

“What’s going on with you and the nerd?” he asked.

“No idea what you’re talking about,” you replied.

“Really? You looked pretty close earlier,” he said.

“You mean like you and Lucky?” You shot him a look, watching his shift uncomfortably in his seat, “because I’m pretty sure you say nothing is going on there too.”

While you let him struggle with the conundrum you’d put him in, you went back to your work. You’d lost enough time thinking about Lars and had to make it up.

A steaming mug was slid in front of you and when you looked up blue eyes were looking down to you. Curling a hand around it, your lips quirked up.

“Chocolate or crips?” Lars asked.

“Chocolate,” you replied.

“Too bad. I only have crisps,” he said, tossing a packet on the table in front of you.

“Duble bluff, I love potato chips,” you said, opening the bag of chips, offering him a grin.

“Hoover,” he chastised but there was fondness there. You basked in it, the little private smile you seemed to draw out in him.

“Since when do you drink tea?” Trevor asked, reminding you he was still there.

“A while now,” you replied.

“You don’t even like tea,” he said.

“Sure I do,” you countered.

You took a sip from the mug as if to prove your point. It was still too hot, burning your tongue. You kept your wince inside, giving your younger brother a pointed look. Lars snorted at your shoulder, stealing one of your potato chips before leaving you, hand squeezing your shoulder as he took his leave.

Usually he’d sit with you as you drank your tea and disappointment swooped in your stomach. Clearly he wasn’t interested in sitting with your brother as well. A spike of resentment at his continued presence was a surprise to you.

“You’re only pretending to like tea,” Trevor hissed.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” you snapped back.

“You want to impress him,” he said.

“I doubt drinking tea is what would impress him,” you said, taking another of the hot drink in your hands.

“So you have thought about it?” he was quick to ask.

“Don’t you have someone else to annoy?” you asked, “Lucky perhaps.”

“You don’t want to talk about it,” he said, as if it was a gotcha moment.

“How about you ask Lars about it? I’m sure that will go well,” you said with a roll of your eyes.

“Good idea.”

He hopped off the stool and you were grateful to be left alone. Especially since you knew Lars wouldn’t stand for having your friendship questioned by your baby brother. Sarcasm and wit were his weapons and you knew your brother would be eviscerated.

When you took your mug into the kitchen to wash up you found Lars already there, head bowed and faucet running. You snuck up behind him on tip toes, keeping as quiet as possible.

“Boo,” you whispered, right in his ear.

He jumped, whirling around towards you, a clatter of a dropped mug in the sink. Wet hands landed on your waist and for a moment you weren’t sure if he was going to shove you away or pull you closer. His brow furrowed as he looked down at you, hands tightening on you.

“Easily scared there, Pinfield?” you asked, lips pulling up into a smirk.

“You’re a terror,” he said but there was no fire behind it.

The way he was looking at you was making your heart flutter. The softness in his eyes, the small smile on his lips, the warmth of his palms seeping through your cotton t-shirt. Your teeth sunk into your lip and it looked as if his eyes darted down to it, darkening for a moment.

“What’s going on in here?”

You jerked out of his hold, wet patches showing through on your shirt. Lucky was leaning on the doorframe, arms crossed, raised eyebrow. Once again heat rose in your cheeks and you had to turn away, hip checking Lars out of the way from the sink. He plucked the mug from your hand, manoeuvring you out of the way again.

“Crickets,” Lucky said, sauntering in.

“Because there’s nothing to say,” Lars said, slow to begin washing the mug he’d brought you.

“Looked like something was going on,” she said.

You rolled your eyes, shoulder brushing against his as you shifted your weight from one foot to the other. His head twitched in your direction but his eyes were trained on the mug in his hands.

“Yeah, this is convincing,” she said.

“Nothing was going on,” Lars said, voice a touch harsh.

You looked down, not wanting anyone to see the disappointment you felt at his words. You knew you’d been saying the same thing to Trevor but it sounded so much worse in his voice. Especially when the outline of his hands were still on your shirt.

“And you’re sticking to that story, are you?”

His shoulder brushed yours again and when you looked towards him, blue eyes were already looking back to you. You couldn’t read the expression on his face but you could take the mug in his hand, fingers brushing together. You placed it on the drying rack.

“Mm hm,” Lucky hummed.

“I’m not having this discussion again,” you said to her, “ask Trevor. I’m sure he’ll enjoy spilling the details to you.”

You stalked out of the room, not sure how you felt. A mix of emotions were going through your brain and all you knew was that you wanted Lars to follow you. Sometimes it felt like you always wanted him around.

“Seems as if people around here don’t have enough work to do if they’re talking about us.”

Lars had followed you. You pressed your lips together to keep the smile from spreading over your face. You’d walked into one of the deserted parts of the lab, not wanting to have to school your features with your emotions. Now the walls felt closer having him just behind you.

“They’re meddling,” you said, turning to look at him.

He was closer than you’d been expecting, barely a step behind you. You had to tilt your head up to look him in the eye. He lent towards you, almost hunching his shoulders to be closer.

“They have no right to do that,” he said and you couldn’t tell if he was upset.

“Yeah, I mean, this is between us. Like, our relationship is no one’s business. We’re friend so they don’t need to get involved. It’s not comment worthy,” you said, not quite sure what you were trying to say.

“Exactly. There’s nothing odd about us being friends,” he said.

You stepped back, leaning against the wall. In the isolation of the corner, it felt as if the rest of the world was so far away. It was easy to forget other people existed and somehow that made it worse. Talking about being friends with the man who haunted your thoughts made your stomach roil.

“Fuck it,” he muttered to himself.

He took the step towards you. Something in his eyes burned and you felt your breath catch when he looked down at you. Chin tilted down, staring straight at you, your entire body heated. If he was looking to make you burst into flames, he was going about it the right way. You looked up at him, lips parted as you waited for him to do more.

Swooping down, he claimed your lips in a searing kiss. You gasped, hands reaching up, grasping at him. His hands were back on your waist, pressing you against the wall as his body came to rest against yours. His tongue swept along your bottom lip before he sucked it into his mouth. You moaned, fingers burying themselves in blond curls, arching against him.

He groaned into your mouth, and when his tongue brushed against yours, your nerve endings sang. You shuddered, tugging on his curls until his leg slipped between yours and his teeth sunk into your bottom lip. His hands were holding you tight enough to leave bruises and you were sinking into him.

The rest of the world didn’t exist. You lost yourself in him. It was hot, the way he kissed you like you were the very breath he needed to live. Pressed so close together, there was no space between your bodies, nothing stopping you from feeling every taut line pressed to your every curve.

“Do you know how long I’ve wanted this?” he asked, lips trailing down your neck, whispered into your skin.

“Bet I can beat you on that,” you sighed, pressing him closer to you.

“The first time I saw you,” he mumbled, “you walked in here, so beautiful, and I’ve wanted to kiss you since.”

“No,” you said, pushing him away far enough so you could look at him properly.

“No?” He sounded so confused.

“Because that’s how long I’ve wanted to kiss you,” you said, already wanting to kiss him again. He was so gorgeous with his molten eyes and his kiss stung lips and his flushed cheeks.

“You mean we’ve wasted months not doing this?” he asked.

“Plenty of time to make up for it,” you replied, flashing him another smirk.

“I hope you realise I’ve fallen for you,” he said, head tipping forward until his forehead rested against yours.

“Snap,” you said, “because I’ve fallen for you too.”

This time when his lips pressed to yours they were softer, sweeter. You sighed into his mouth, melting from the care he was showing you.

“Ew.”

Typical for your brother to interrupt your sweet moment.

“Go away, Trevor,” you shouted before kissing Lars again.

“You’re both such liars,” he said.

“Leave now or you’ll see something you really don’t want to,” Lars called out.

Footsteps retreated fast and you giggled, falling forward, face resting against his chest. laughter rumbled in his own chest, arms sliding around you in a hug.

“I think you’ve scarred him,” you said, muffled against his chest.

“Serves him right for all the questions he’s been asking,” he muttered.

You looked up into his face, relieved at the smile tugging up the corners of his mouth. The way he looked at you was so soft, like he couldn’t quite believe he was there.

“He was right though,” you said, “something was going on between us.”

“I suppose it was,” he replied.

And when you kissed him again, it definitely felt like something was going on between the two of you.

#lars pinfield x reader #lars pinfield imagine #lars pinfield

[gay-dorito-dust]

doing grocery shopping with the batboys

Could you write something fun and fluff please?

is one of my favorite activities.

I love what you write so much. My favorites are Dickie bird and Jay bird.

Don’t know whether this is fun or fluff as you’d wanted it (kinda went on a personal rant in Jason’s a little bit but I don’t regret it) but I still hope you enjoy it not the less. Also thank you for enjoying my Jason/ Dick stuff! 🫶🦦🐿️

Dick:

You go in for certain things that you need and come out with way more then you probably should. (And most of it isn’t what you actually needed)

Half of the stuff you get is mainly what Dick thinks Hayley might like and she ends up only liking 50% of it…the ‘daddy’s little girl’ doggy shirt was pushing it tbh.

Dick tends to wander off when your shopping together that when you went to ask him a question, only to notice that he was gone, you sigh and say;

‘Dick?’

A few isles over you heard a faint ‘yes honey?’

He was in the pet section. again.

You’d have to remind him that you were only there for specific things and nothing else, but Dick would always try to persuade you into allowing him to get something was wasn’t on the list at all, by battering his eyelids at you and saying ‘pretty please.’

You naturally can’t say no to you pretty boy who acts like a man child when shopping, especially if you’re the one who’s paying.

The shopping list you made might as well have been thrown in the bin with how often you come home, only to be reminded that you barely got 25% of the stuff on the shopping list thanks to Dick’s impulsiveness.

However Dick would only use this as an excuse to go shopping again later on in the week/month and do it all over again without remorse.

Also Dick is way too polite to tell people blocking the isle to move, he wants to, he really does but all he does is breathe in deeply and plaster on a smile before soldering on.

Jason:

Grocery shopping wasn’t a favourite of Jason’s but if he were to do it, he’d rather do it with you because he got to be a little goofy with it.

And by that I mean him getting a little affectionate and pinching your backside and you snacking his bicep and scolding him for being inappropriate in the frozen food section.

‘I’m not doing anything chipmunk.’ He’d defend himself as you glare him.

‘I’m sure as shit there isn’t a perverted ghost here that pinches people’s backsides for fun. Now pack it in.’ You hissed as you rubbed your ass in hopes of soothing the sharp pain you felt seconds ago.

‘Sorry sweetheart.’ He’d chuckle as he kisses your cheek in apology.

You couldn’t help but smile as you could never truly stay mad at your sweet Jason, not unless he was staining your carpets with blood from a night out on patrol, but that was neither here nor there.

Other than that Jason would take the trolley from your hand and storm the store with a determination to get the fuck out as fast as possible.

His long ass strides tend to leave you behind in some random isle somewhere. So to combat this from being a reoccurring thing, Jason would just grabs your hand and puts on the trolley before putting his own on top; Now you were being dragged instead of getting left behind in somewhere with people blocking the fucking isle.

How sweet of him.

(If you’re one of these ppl, go fuck yourself bc what the fuck is so interesting that you have to block the ENTIRE FUCKING ISLE? MOVE!)

Speaking of people blocking the isle, it’s Jason’s biggest pet peeve because WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY TAKING SO MUCH FUCKING SPACE?! FUCKING MOVE YOU LAZY BASTARDS!

He will fucking glare at anyone who even dares to lean over his trolley to get something and when you tell him about how obvious he was being, he’d only response to this was: ‘they’re privileged with the use of a voice, they should fucking use it sometime.’

You’re basically there to calm him down before he bulldozes some poor bastard by guiding him to a lesser crowed isle and get some junk food for later as a reward, followed by your magical cuddles and kisses.

Jason hates shopping but with you it was made just that little bit enduring, only a little bit…he still wants to fight the young couple who wouldn’t fucking move in that one isle and honestly you don’t blame him as you would gladly join him.

#dc imagine #dc x reader #dc x you #dc fanfic #dc fic #dc comics x reader #dc x y/n #dc fanfiction #jason todd imagines #jason todd imagine #jason todd fluff #jason todd x reader #dick grayson x y/n #dick grayson x you #dick grayson imagine #dick grayson imagines #dick grayson x reader #dick grayson fluff #nightwing x y/n #nightwing x you #nightwing x reader #nightwing fluff #nightwing imagines #nightwing imagine #red hood x you #red hood imagine #red hood x reader #red hood imagines

[houseofevanbuckley]

hc that Buck will keep Tommy company while he works on his machinery and Tommy watches documentaries with Buck 💕

Buck visiting Tommy and complaining about his car making a weird noise and having to bring it to the mechanic for the 3rd time in as many months.

His jeep is getting a bit old now but it’s filled with memories and he refuses to change it.

Tommy who go trained on various vehicles throughout his life. A neighbor teaching him when he was a teenager. Training at the army. Training at the fire academy and then flying academy.

He’s been tinkering in various machineries for years and he’s not going to let a simple jeep best him. Buck is happy to let Tommy look at it, it will save him some money he could use otherwise. Like for a date maybe.

The issue tho? It’s that Tommy has working clothes, and by working clothes I mean an old pair of jeans, covered in old oil stains, a white tank top which is clean but has old stains that dried, but still quite white, and some heavy boots in case something fall on his feet. It happened before and Tommy learned from it.

Buck never thought jeans would drive him insane, but the way it curves around Tommy’s thighs? The way a black stains is just under his left cheek like he rubbed himself there to clean his hand, actually Buck can even divine the form of fingers on that stains and it’s calling to him.

To forget about the heat pooling inside him he gets close to the car and Tommy who just opened it and moving things around and just watch, until he says “you know, my dad never taught me anything about cars. Is it weird?”

And Tommy just goes “you wanna learn?” With a soft smile, just offering, no judgement whatever Buck decides

And so Tommy work and talk during the whole process, he knows Buck loves knowledge, trivia, information and Tommy is more than happy to info dump his boyfriend for once.

Once Tommy fix what the issue was, it was just regular stuff but a mechanic would have either ignore it so Buck would come back and spend more or spend only like 30 minutes on it to fix it since it was quite simple.

They get clean together, Tommy getting his regulars clothes back on him while Buck has to change bc he got some stains on him even just while looking but it doesn’t care about it. The price was more than worth paying.

And then they go on Tommy’s couch, Buck still doesn’t have one but he doesn’t need one anymore, not when Tommy’s so comfy. Tommy who pick up the remote while Buck get some snack ready for them and he goes through the channels until he reaches National Geographic and it’s the opening for a new documentary about volcanoes and he gets distracted from the tv when Buck comes back with their drink so he doesn’t change the channel and then see how Buck is already entranced by it even 3 minutes after the opening, and he’s gonna ask if Buck want to watch it when Buck goes “did you know that the biggest volcano in on mars?”

And Tommy knows he doesn’t have to ask anymore, he just hums while picking some food off the coffee table and listen to every facts from Buck and watches him get so animated as they watch it

Buck even going against what the narrator is saying and being right about it when the narrator a few minutes later elaborate more which goes toward what Buck was saying and Tommy is just so smitten by his clever boy. Kissing him on his temple and pulling him against his side while Buck keep randomly shoutings facts and going on his phone to assess the veracity of what the narrator is talking about.

They spend their evening like that, documentaries replacing one an other, Buck leaning against him and talking freely for hours, showing Tommy how interesting the world can be.

#bucktommy #evan buckley #evan buck buckely #tommy kinard #buck x tommy #tommy x buck #911 abc #tevan #evan buck buckley #buck and tommy #tommybuck #evan x tommy #anon games #anon ask #headcanon #ficlet #Tommy couldn’t love him more #Tommy watching how Buck’s brain work and being so smitten he’s thinking about getting some scientific magazine delivered #he just want to enjoy Buck’s brilliant brilliant brain #and Buck want to see Tommy’s calloused hands work #see his fingers touching and working; creating things and repairing them #competency kink

[the-modern-typewriter]

Hello this is a question that came about from watching the new Fallout TV show and a character named Maximus. He’s a relatively neutral character and his arc is very wonderful coming from a writer and big book reader but I noticed that the average viewer doesn’t understand his character and actually hates him… my question is as an author is it okay to make your story more digestible to people who lack perception since it’s the general audience for mainstream media and how do you do that without losing your story? Idk this was probably too complex and a stupid question 💔

Not a stupid question! There are no stupid questions.

Going to unpack this a bit though. (I haven't seen the show.) First some general points, but then some advice on balancing complexity in a story.

So. Some things to get out of the way:

You don't know what the average viewer is thinking. Just because their opinion on a character is different to yours, doesn't mean they lack perception. Do we sometimes have an issue with critical thinking in the modern age? Yes. But we also live in an age where people bring a vast array of different insights and experiences into the stories they read/watch. 99% of the time a story doesn't have just one right interpretation, especially if it is a more complex narrative.

You CAN try to write a story that is more digestible to a general audience, but if you do have concerns about the media literacy of the general population, focusing on providing unchallenging stories is not the fix to that. People learn through engaging with interesting work and having discussions about them - e.g. when they are given the opportunity to. Perception, like anything, is a skill trained with practice. No one's born with it. There's no inherent us/them that can't be changed.

Will you be happy and fulfilled as a writer writing stories that you feel are dumbed or watered down? I know I wouldn't end up writing the versions of stories that I want. Similarly, you probably won't then attract the readers/audience that most resonate with your ideas, because you don't give them the chance.

Generally speaking, people hate being talked down to. As a reader/lover of stories, if I thought a writer was talking down to me and thought I was an idiot who couldn't understand the themes/plot, I wouldn't want to have anything to do with their stuff. It's a horrible feeling, isn't it? It's like being written off before you even leave the gate.

Okay, now some advice: Amazing children's books are a great example of stories that are simplified to appeal and meet the audience where they are at, without losing the richness that makes them resonate and engage readers/audience. However, there are adult examples too. They share some qualities.

These often have:

Clear structure (there are a myriad story structures that you can use to make a story hit beats the reader expects and create a sense of satisfaction, while still giving you room to play.)

High concept story idea/plot (so, stories that can be explained/pitched in a line. E.g. children are forced to fight in televised death matches (Hunger Games), a famous author is imprisoned by a dangerous fan who doesn't approve of his new work (Misery), 'it's jaws in outer space!'). These stories have simple premises that often have wide-appeal, but the stories themselves can be complex.

Engaging main character(s) with a clear goal/agenda. They don't have to all be morally pure, but for an easy win, your character should be likeable/easy to root for. In a children's book, e.g. at the simplest level, these are often also high concept. (E.g. a mouse wants to be heard so is convinced it needs a lion's roar to be loved - The Lion Inside by Rachel Bright)

There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. Game of Thrones was phenomenally popular, for example, but I don't think it's an easy to sink into world/simple set of characters.

Watering down an existing story to fit a different target audience is often not going to lead you to write the best story. This is because it's like trying to fit a triangle into a circle, or make a banana bread into a savoury scone. However, there are plenty of stories with mass-appeal that offer readers a variety of different levels to engage with them, so it is very possible to write a brilliant story with mass appeal. But you work from the foundations up, not from the finished product down.

I hope this helps!

#writing advice #writing talk #writing tips #creative writing #fiction writing #writing #on writing

[gender-trash]

I would be very interested in hearing the museum design rant

by popular demand: Guy That Took One (1) Museum Studies Class Focused On Science Museums Rants About Art Museums. thank u for coming please have a seat

so. background. the concept of the "science museum" grew out of 1) the wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosities), also known as "hey check out all this weird cool shit i have", and 2) academic collections of natural history specimens (usually taxidermied) -- pre-photography these were super important for biological research (see also). early science museums usually grew out of university collections or bequests of some guy's Weird Shit Collection or both, and were focused on utility to researchers rather than educational value to the layperson (picture a room just, full of taxidermy birds with little labels on them and not a lot of curation outside that). eventually i guess they figured they could make more on admission by aiming for a mass audience? or maybe it was the cultural influence of all the world's fairs and shit (many of which also caused science museums to exist), which were aimed at a mass audience. or maybe it was because the research function became much more divorced from the museum function over time. i dunno. ANYWAY, science and technology museums nowadays have basically zero research function; the exhibits are designed more or less solely for educating the layperson (and very frequently the layperson is assumed to be a child, which does honestly irritate me, as an adult who likes to go to science museums). the collections are still there in case someone does need some DNA from one of the preserved bird skins, but items from the collections that are exhibited typically exist in service of the exhibit's conceptual message, rather than the other way around.

meanwhile at art museums they kind of haven't moved on from the "here is my pile of weird shit" paradigm, except it's "here is my pile of Fine Art". as far as i can tell, the thing that curators (and donors!) care about above all is The Collection. what artists are represented in The Collection? rich fucks derive personal prestige from donating their shit to The Collection. in big art museums usually something like 3-5% of the collection is ever on exhibit -- and sometimes they rotate stuff from the vault in and out, but let's be real, only a fraction of an art museum's square footage is temporary exhibits. they're not going to take the scream off display when it's like the only reason anyone who's not a giant nerd ever visits the norwegian national museum of art. most of the stuff in the vault just sits in the vault forever. like -- art museum curators, my dudes, do you think the general public gives a SINGLE FUCK what's in The Collection that isn't on display? no!! but i guarantee you it will never occur, ever, to an art museum curator that they could print-to-scale high-res images of artworks that are NOT in The Collection in order to contextualize the art in an exhibit, because items that are not in The Collection functionally do not exist to them. (and of course there's the deaccessioning discourse -- tumblr collectively has some level of awareness that repatriation is A Whole Kettle of Worms but even just garden-variety selling off parts of The Collection is a huge hairy fucking deal. check out deaccessioning and its discontents; it's a banger read if you're into This Kind Of Thing.)

with the contents of The Collection foregrounded like this, what you wind up with is art museum exhibits where the exhibit's message is kind of downstream of what shit you've got in the collection. often the message is just "here is some art from [century] [location]", or, if someone felt like doing a little exhibit design one fine morning, "here is some art from [century] [location] which is interesting for [reason]". the displays are SOOOOO bad by science museum standards -- if you're lucky you get a little explanatory placard in tiny font relating the art to an art movement or to its historical context or to the artist's career. if you're unlucky you get artist name, date, and medium. fucker most of the people who visit your museum know Jack Shit about art history why are you doing them dirty like this

(if you don't get it you're just not Cultured enough. fuck you, we're the art museum!)

i think i've talked about this before on this blog but the best-exhibited art exhibit i've ever been to was actually at the boston museum of science, in this traveling leonardo da vinci exhibit where they'd done a bunch of historical reconstructions of inventions out of his notebooks, and that was the main Thing, but also they had a whole little exhibit devoted to the mona lisa. obviously they didn't even have the real fucking mona lisa, but they went into a lot of detail on like -- here's some X-ray and UV photos of it, and here's how art experts interpret them. here's a (photo of a) contemporary study of the finished painting, which we've cleaned the yellowed varnish off of, so you can see what the colors looked like before the varnish yellowed. here's why we can't clean the varnish off the actual painting (da vinci used multiple varnish layers and thinned paints to translucency with varnish to create the illusion of depth, which means we now can't remove the yellowed varnish without stripping paint).

even if you don't go into that level of depth about every painting (and how could you? there absolutely wouldn't be space), you could at least talk a little about, like, pigment availability -- pigment availability is an INCREDIBLY useful lens for looking at historical paintings and, unbelievably, never once have i seen an art museum exhibit discuss it (and i've been to a lot of art museums). you know how medieval european religious paintings often have funky skin tones? THEY HADN'T INVENTED CADMIUM PIGMENTS YET. for red pigments you had like... red ochre (a muted earth-based pigment, like all ochres and umbers), vermilion (ESPENSIVE), alizarin crimson (aka madder -- this is one of my favorite reds, but it's cool-toned and NOT good for mixing most skintones), carmine/cochineal (ALSO ESPENSIVE, and purple-ish so you wouldn't want to use it for skintones anyway), red lead/minium (cheaper than vermilion), indian red/various other iron oxide reds, and apparently fucking realgar? sure. whatever. what the hell was i talking about.

oh yeah -- anyway, i'd kill for an art exhibit that's just, like, one or two oil paintings from each century for six centuries, with sample palettes of the pigments they used. but no! if an art museum curator has to put in any level of effort beyond writing up a little placard and maybe a room-level text block, they'll literally keel over and die. dude, every piece of art was made in a material context for a social purpose! it's completely deranged to divorce it from its material context and only mention the social purpose insofar as it matters to art history the field. for god's sake half the time the placard doesn't even tell you if the thing was a commission or not. there's a lot to be said about edo period woodblock prints and mass culture driven by the growing merchant class! the met has a fuckton of edo period prints; they could get a hell of an exhibit out of that!

or, tying back to an earlier thread -- the detroit institute of arts has got a solid like eight picasso paintings. when i went, they were kind of just... hanging out in a room. fuck it, let's make this an exhibit! picasso's an artist who pretty famously had Periods, right? why don't you group the paintings by period, and if you've only got one or two (or even zero!) from a particular period, pad it out with some decent life-size prints so i can compare them and get a better sense for the overarching similarities? and then arrange them all in a timeline, with little summaries of what each Period was ~about~? that'd teach me a hell of a lot more about picasso -- but you'd have to admit you don't have Every Cool Painting Ever in The Collection, which is illegalé.

also thinking about the mit museum temporary exhibit i saw briefly (sorry, i was only there for like 10 minutes because i arrived early for a meeting and didn't get a chance to go through it super thoroughly) of a bunch of ship technical drawings from the Hart nautical collection. if you handed this shit to an art museum curator they'd just stick it on the wall and tell you to stand around and look at it until you Understood. so anyway the mit museum had this enormous room-sized diorama of various hull shapes and how they sat in the water and their benefits and drawbacks, placed below the relevant technical drawings.

tbh i think the main problem is that art museum people and science museum people are completely different sets of people, trained in completely different curatorial traditions. it would not occur to an art museum curator to do anything like this because they're probably from the ~art world~ -- maybe they have experience working at an art gallery, or working as an art buyer for a rich collector, neither of which is in any way pedagogical. nobody thinks an exhibit of historical clothing should work like a clothing store but it's fine when it's art, i guess?

also the experience of going to an art museum is pretty user-hostile, i have to say. there's never enough benches, and if you want a backrest, fuck you. fuck you if going up stairs is painful; use our shitty elevator in the corner that we begrudgingly have for wheelchair accessibility, if you can find it. fuck you if you can't see very well, and need to be closer to the art. fuck you if you need to hydrate or eat food regularly; go to our stupid little overpriced cafeteria, and fuck you if we don't actually sell any food you can eat. (obviously you don't want someone accidentally spilling a smoothie on the art, but there's no reason you couldn't provide little Safe For Eating Rooms where people could just duck in and monch a protein bar, except that then you couldn't sell them a $30 salad at the cafe.) fuck you if you're overwhelmed by noise in echoing rooms with hard surfaces and a lot of people in them. fuck you if you are TOO SHORT and so our overhead illumination generates BRIGHT REFLECTIONS ON THE SHINY VARNISH. we're the art museum! we don't give a shit!!!

#so anyway i love going to art museums-- #the trashcan speaks #long post

[kateisprettyodd]

Discussing Watcher again lmao

Okay, now that a couple of days have passed and emotions aren't running high anymore - I wanna talk about the situation, the backlash, their potential response and everything else once again (with somewhat of a refreshed POV lmao).

I haven't changed my mind about this move whatsoever since the moment I heard about it. I'm an international fan, and through the very kind Tumblr user who is organizing a subscription match-up between fans through Email - I think it was @prettyghoul- someone was thankfully willing to reach out to me and share their account. So the money issue isn't a problem for me, sure, but WAIT - the website isn't international, I don't know if it's gonna be made available in my 'insignificant' Eastern European country (lmao), so a whole slew of issues arise that aren't money related (but of course, someone else would be paying, so I can't really speak on that issue on that person's behalf).

Secondly, people who are defending Watcher on here and on other social media - I understand you, I get you, but to be perfectly honest some of you are cherry-picking the information you present and are somehow blind to their intentions, either on purpose or genuinely. I don't understand how people can't see that making this move is so incredibly selfish. That's the best and frankly only way to describe it. And no, it's not because creatives don't deserve to be paid for the work that they do, and it's not because we are ENTITLED to receiving free content on YouTube (which is the main narrative being pushed by defenders on here) - but it's because their ambitions do not line up with the audience-based shows they have been creating. They have incredible creative abilities and true passion for creating shows which are "much higher-quality than other YouTube shows" (simply not true but I digress), but nothing will ever change the fact that they started on YouTube, that their main audience was cultivated on YouTube, the place they have come to despise because of the limitations to THEIR creative work, such as appealing to advertisers and whatever else they mentioned in the video. This I can understand, YouTube's algorithm sucks and advertisers are also horrible, as well as the fact that 'unappealing' yet passionate shows don't do well - this can all take a hit on their creativity and their passion for YouTube. I understand. But they have to weigh these cons against the pros, and they clearly did a horrible job of that. YouTube allows them to increase their relatability and their marketability if you play by the rules, YouTube allows them to connect with other creators WHICH SOME OF THEIR SHOWS LITERALLY depend on, YouTube allows them things like the discover page and the trending page where new audiences can find your stuff once you expand your reach to appeal to different demographics and interest groups, YouTube Membership is a thing if you need income, whatever. I understand that they don't want to play by the rules, but if your audience is gone then who are you making these shows for??? When your main venture is paid, even if it is 'only' 5.99 a month (lmao again), other options where they can make revenue immediately close up, since they can't really justify them. Why does their Patreon still exist??? What was the purpose of PodWatcher??? How are shows like Are You Scared? and Too Many Spirits going to survive on a streamer, shows which are based on that exact YouTube vibe of low-production two dudes chilling and laughing. Why are they considering their shows TV-caliber? Puppet History and Mystery Files are certainly NOT TV-quality and they are the second- and third-most popular.

Which is what brings me to my next point - how this all seems Ghost Files and Travel Season centered. No one can convince me that most of their expenses are not going to these two shows right now. Ryan said it himself, a season of Ghost Files takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to make, which is fine and I commend him for that effort. I don't even have to tell you why Travel Season also may have cost them a lot of money - which is also fine and I understand the appeal of it. But why not try a different approach? A season of Ghost Files doesn't necessarily have to come out every year, they could space out their budget, spend time churning out Too Many Spirits and Are You Scared (also shows that perform quite well), update their Patreon to look more Mythical Society-esque, do a merch drop (I have seen so many people asking for box-sets of their shows, and I can guarantee people would have paid A LOT of money to get a Puppet History karaoke thing on Patreon or WHEREVER)... Just generally diversify their income??? And space out these GIANT, extremely expensive shows, generally pace themselves and take it easy?

Now, they won't be able to expand their reach EVEN IF they bring new personalities onto the streamer. No one new will hear about them, and if they do, why would they pay for something they've never heard of before? There is no algorithm to cater to the masses which recommends their videos to new people. People who were here from the BFU days are disilluisoned and probably won't pay. They legitimately sacrificed their audience for money to fuel their creative ambitions, but their creative ambitions don't have an outlet anymore.

TO BE CONTINUED as this is too long already

#watcher #ryan bergara #shane madej #steven lim #ghost files #mystery files #watcher entertainment #are you scared #puppet history #too many spirits #travel season

[quillsandblades]

A Levihan fic based on the post by @devoteurheartlh

(I think I took the hand-holding too far)

With Us, it's Simple

‘C’mon Levi!’ Hange’s excited shout rises above the hubbub of the crowd, and he rolls his eyes. When will shitty glasses learn to behave in public? She sprints in the room as if she’s in a fucking amusement park and not her boss’s party. But maybe he can let it slide just this time as her boss also happens to be their best friend, Erwin. In an interesting turn of events, she ended up working for him almost two years ago and bringing the three of them together for the first time since their graduation. Levi was glad it worked out like that, he’d missed Erwin. 

Four-eyes shouts something about wanting to introduce him to all her colleagues and he internally groans. Why did he even agree to come with her in the first place? 

Without giving him a chance to backtrack, she seizes his hand and pushes him into the chatting crowd. He feels her hand wrap around the base of his palm, her fingers brace over his wrist, in a way he’s learnt that she’s feeling excited because her grip is tight but not too tight, like she’s carelessly letting her excitement seep into her actions. She drags him, he follows helplessly. Just like he has for almost ten years now. 

She stops in front of a sleepy looking dark-haired woman and introduces her as, ‘This is Pieck! We’re best buddies, Levi!’

He smacks her head, ‘Oi! Aren’t we best buddies?’

She laughs and leans into his shoulder, ‘Oh Levi, you’re jealous?’

‘Shut up. Why the hell would I be jealous?’ And he turns to walk away but she’s still holding his hand and yanks him back just as quickly. 

‘Don’t worry shorty,’ she winks at him. ‘No one’s taking your place. It’s special.’ 

And he feels irrationally warm at those words. But he doesn’t let himself mull over it; it’s simply one of the things Hange does and he’s come to accept the fact over the years that his body has a weird way to respond to her little statements and gestures. 

Pieck gives them a charming smile and her eyes flit to their connected hands, ‘So you’re Hange’s boyfriend?’ 

She drops his hand and barks out a laugh, ‘What even made you think that? We’re just friends, silly.’  

‘Really?’ Pieck arches a brow.

‘Yeah,’ Levi confirms. ‘For ten years now.’ 

The woman hums in a way that screams she would beg to differ, but if Hange notices she doesn’t dwell on it and Levi follows suit. Both women continue to talk and Levi throws in his own comments when Pieck mentions how challenging it is to work alongside Hange Zoe. She knows nothing. He’s been going through her shit for far longer, at this point he can actually consider himself an expert in Hange’s behavior and mood. And that’s saying something because according to everyone, she’s too damn unpredictable to be figured out, and whenever he hears that Levi allows himself a tiny whisper of a smile as he has her almost completely figured out. Almost completely meaning ninety eight percent. He’s still working on that two percent.

Soon Hange’s dragging him away once more, but her fingers now curl hesitantly around his in a manner that says she’s stuck over something in her mind. He jerks her back, ‘What?’ he asks. 

She gets him without needing much words, shrugs off the thoughtful look from her face and straightens her shoulders. ‘Nothing.’ 

She turns around and leads him to more people. 

The night progresses in more or less the same way, laughter tinkles and glasses of champagne clink, soft lighting of the room morphs around them.  Almost every person they come across mistakes them for a couple. They brush it off, they’re used to it. 

Erwin meets up with them soon. 

‘So, how’s the host doing?’ Hange asks, jabbing an elbow into his crisp suit. 

He chuckles and hands over some drinks to them from a waiter passing by. They sit and talk, about everything and anything and stuff friends talk about. 

‘I see you two haven’t broken the tradition,’ Erwin comments after a bit. 

‘Huh?’ Hange throws him a questioning look. 

‘Still going to gatherings as “platonic dates”?’ he makes air quotes at that, an expression that seems too uncharacteristic of him. To the outside eye at least, they both have known Erwin long enough to guarantee that the man has some unexpected sides. ‘When am I gonna see a real couple here?’

‘Oh come on, Erwin!’ Hange snickers. ‘Not you too. You should know, of all people, that we’re just really close friends. I mean, I’m the same with you and Mike.’ 

‘I don’t see you asking me out for parties. But you’ve been doing that with Levi since we were in high school.’  

‘Exactly,’ she points out. ‘He’s used to it. Besides,’ she nudges him playfully, ‘he’s more fun.’

Levi rolls his eyes. Erwin gives him a long, calculating look and he responds with his trademark bored stare. Sure his words made sense but Hange was right, there wasn’t anything like that between them. 

(He chooses to conveniently ignore all the instances when he felt his heart hammer in an odd way, or color rise to his cheeks, or had this weird, warm and giddy feeling in the presence of four-eyes that said he would be happy to stay with her, in whatever place they were together, forever)

‘You know I believe when we’re in love with someone, we try to read into all the miniscule actions, expressions and words of that person,’ Erwin sips his drink. ‘We learn them by heart, like a language. To the point we even know what a certain flick of their brow means.’ 

Levi is silent. Staring into the swirling gold in his glass. 

‘Are you implying something?’ He speaks up without looking at him. 

‘I think I’m in love,’ he replies softly. ‘You remember Marie? I met her again.’ 

Hange’s eyes widen, ‘Oooh, really?’ 

She sits by the edge of her seat, bouncing lightly, all excitement. Marie was another friend from High School. Erwin falling in love is new, so Levi pushes aside any doubtful thoughts to focus on their words. 

‘It turned out we live across from one another,’ Erwin is saying. ‘And she was just too eager to catch up when we met.’ 

Hange’s marveling at the way life throws people back at each other and giggling while thinking about how she can make Marie fall for Erwin. He laughs at her ridiculous plans and Levi feels a tug at his own lips as she chortles. 

While she continues to ramble, Erwin shoots him another look. One that says his previous words were certainly meant for him. Levi just looks away and drowns his glass of champagne. 

Erwin excuses himself after a while as he spots some people. Hange jumps up immediately, ‘Let’s dance.’ 

‘Hell no.’

‘Don’t be a grump Levi,’ she sings out and clamps her hand around his, insistent. She tugs, he resists. She tugs again and soon he’s out of his seat and they’re moving between bodies and Hange’s laughter is loud in his ears and her cheeks are red, a red that he wants to lean forward and brush his thumb over. She’s moving with the beats and urging him to do the same. He halfheartedly mirrors her and she snorts. 

Then the music shifts, gentle melodies twist through the air. 

And Hange pulls him close with the lull of the song. Her smile is radiant. Her forehead leans against his and she grabs both of his hands. Their eyes fall shut. Her thumbs rest softly around his own, the rest of her fingers encircle his knuckles in a gentle, unperturbed hold. 

She’s happy, he concludes. 

He knows it from the way her fingers press into his skin and wrap around his hand. He’s come to learn it all with time. 

She hums along as they sway, lost in the rhythm of their hearts. He feels her getting closer and snaking an arm around his waist. He pulls back his face and looks at her. 

Levi is pretty sure he doesn’t need glasses. Last he checked, his eye site was perfectly fine. So he doesn’t really understand why the lights, the colors and people seem to have blurred out around him and the only thing he can focus on is Hange’s face which holds an odd expression. 

She’s not quite smiling, not frowning either. It’s like her eyes are hanging between confusion and revelation. He can see the rapid color gathering in her cheeks. Her lips part to shape words she has yet to say, and Levi feels a knot of anticipation wind in his gut. Thoughts hang at the tip of her tongue but she hesitates ever-so-slightly. Then she says, 

‘Do you know Axolotls can regrow their limbs.’  

Levi blinks. 

He knows that’s the last thing she was gonna say. She’s no longer gazing at him, instead she guides them around other couples dancing. 

‘So can starfish,’ Levi grunts at her. 

She chuckles, ‘Yeah, but Axolotls are cuter. I wanna study their regeneration process once I’m done with my current project.’ 

Levi hums. There’s still something hanging between them, almost tangible. 

‘You know there are possibilities to enhance human tissue healing or regeneration through such studies. There’s a lot to discover in this direction.’

‘I’m sure you’ll end up finding some weird shit or other.’ 

‘D’you think Erwin will allow me to bring in live specimens to the lab?’ 

He shrugs, ‘Only if he thinks it’s worth it.’ 

He cuts off her next words by suddenly twirling her around, and maybe she’s had a lot to drink so she loses her footing and stumbles backward without warning, brown eyes wide. 

Instinctively, he leans to steady her, arm around her back. Their torsos crash against each other and he finds his face inches away from hers. She looks startled, mouth half open and glasses sitting low on her nose. Her face gets a deeper shade of red, or maybe it’s just the light playing upon her cheeks. He can feel the thrum of her heart in his chest. 

‘Hange . . .’ he murmurs, not sure what he longs to say. 

Her eyes glide over his features. She opens her mouth, ‘I . . . I—uh—’

She slips out of his grasp and crashes to the floor as someone bumps into them. 

‘Oi!’

‘Sorry!’ the man calls out over his shoulder. 

But Hange’s already standing up, dusting herself and moving in the other direction, ‘Sorry I—I think I need a glass of water,’ she mumbles hastily, and all but runs away from him. He sighs and makes his way to a quieter corner. 

‘Hello there, young man,’ a voice beside him makes him turn. An elegantly dressed, elderly lady is sitting on a sofa— probably someone’s mother. She smiles at him, ‘Hope you don’t mind asking me, but how long have you been married?’ 

‘Married?’

She nods, ‘Ah you see, I was just a tad bit awed at seeing how true love can be found even today. You were dancing with your wife just now, right? You both seem very fond of each other.’ 

He finds it hard to say it around the gentle look she gives him, but he pushes the words out anyhow, ‘We’re not married.’ 

‘Oh,’ her face falls. Then she smiles again. ‘But still very much in love, yes? I can see that at least, and I tell you my eyes never lied in the matter of hearts.’ 

Levi swallows, not knowing what to make of this. But that’s when he spots Hange in the distance. A tall blonde man is talking to her, but even from far away Levi can see how her posture is tense. He excuses himself and rushes to her side. 

‘. . . was thinking it would be a delight,’ the blonde was saying. He wore round glasses and his beard took almost half of his face. 

Hange replied something distractedly. 

‘Oi, where were you?’ he comes to stand beside her and lightly smacks her shoulder. 

‘Levi,’ she breathes it out almost like an exhale of relief. Then points at the Beard, ‘This is Zeke, we work in the same department. Zeke, meet Levi.’ 

Zeke offers him a neutral smile, eyes piercing into him. He nods in return. 

‘I’ve been looking for you for quite some time, Hange,’ the blonde turns his attention towards her. ‘I was starting to think you wouldn’t show up.’ 

Hange laughs out a fake sound, ‘I would never miss Erwin’s party.’ 

‘Of course,’ he smiles widely and his gaze travels over her from head to toe. Her hand creeps out to Levi, fingers lacing through his, pressing the tips hard into his flesh. 

She’s anxious. 

‘You look gorgeous tonight,’ The Beard murmurs. ‘Would you spare a dance for me?’ 

‘Um actually I—’ the pressure on his hand increases, a silent plea. 

‘We’re sorry,’ Levi cuts in, not sounding sorry at all. ‘But Hange needed some air after all the dancing. We’re just heading out.’ 

Zeke considers them for a moment, noticing their hands

‘So you’re dating?’ he asks. 

Before Hange can speak, Levi answers, ‘Yeah.’ His tone is rough, as if challenging him. 

When no one says a word, Levi pulls her towards the entrance and they step out into the cool night air. The noises from the inside grow muffled as they both settle on a wooden bench. There’s a wide garden spread in front of them, coloured dark in the shades of the twinkling night. Above them the stars gleam in the sleeping sky. 

Hange leans against his shoulder, ‘Thanks.’ 

‘That asshole works with you?’

‘Yeah, but he’ll be changing departments soon. He’s been trying to ask me out for so long, but honestly speaking, I don’t like his intentions. Plus, he holds some perpetual grudge against Erwin,’ she speaks quietly. 

‘You rejected him then?’

‘Yeah. but I guess he just doesn’t understand the meaning of no.’ 

They fall into silence. A breeze lifts his hair and Hange’s fringe tickles his neck. 

‘Everyone thought we were a couple today,’ She whispers. 

‘Not for the first time.’ 

‘It makes me think, Levi. Why don’t people say the same about me and Erwin or Mike, or you and Petra or Nanaba. We’re all close friends aren’t we?’ 

She faces him, still resting against his side. They’re in close proximity once more, closer than friends should be, but it doesn’t seem to bother either of them. His heart feels simultaneously restless and content—a phenomenon he associates with the presence of Hange Zoe alone. 

‘So you think we’re something more than friends?’ he asks.

‘Everyone says so.’ 

‘Everyone’s opinion doesn’t define what we really are.’

‘No,’ she agrees. ‘It doesn’t.’ 

Then she fully turns to him and he reads in her eyes, a question. He gives the affirmative—and really that’s just how simple it is for them, how simple they are. Clicking wordlessly into place like pieces of a puzzle.  

She tilts forward and their mouths connect in a perfect symphony as their eyes flutter close. He feels her press her lips softly to his own but with a certain pressure, takes a moment to note their chapped surface from the parts where she’s always pulling at them and the lines that map out their contours. She’s kissing him lightly, her movements unsure, almost shy. He can feel her joyful giddiness though, and the telltale lift of her lips curling into the smallest, most softest smile and he—

He just thinks he’ll let it happen for a while. He’ll get plenty of more chances to read into the press of her lips on his and translate what each kiss represents. Learn how she’ll kiss him when she’s sad, or when she’s happy or angry or any other thing. 

For now, he’s at peace with knowing that she loves him. 

She tells him that herself: in the way she holds him close, in the way she laughs against his mouth, and how she touches him. 

And he knows because he has her figured out already. 

#levihan #levi ackerman #hange zoe #my writing #levihan fanfiction #ao3 #attack on titan #inspiration is tempting

[nauticalnova]

heyy I saw your requests were open! Can i requset the typical crewel father figure stuff? If not that's totally okay! Lots of fluff with a gn!reader or a AFAB reader :3

Note : This did turn into a lil bit of angst, as in it made me cry while writing it. I'm sorry. It will happen again. A little cw for Crewel being judgy about everyone and everything. Enjoy!

☆ He's in full denial

☆ Doesn't want kids, never has, never will.

☆ At the same time though, he's parental towards you

☆ He still claims that he's only doing his part as a teacher (ignore the designer jacket he's draping over your shoulders)

☆ I think it'll take a long long time for him to warm up to being an actual figure for you.

☆ Maybe he'll do the whole push and pull thing, where he'll get really close with you, head pats, telling you he's proud of you, only to be kinda cold the next day. (I can't resist angst I'm sorry ;-;)

☆ He's of course been seen as a father figure by students before, but this is the first time he's seen a student as anything more.

☆ Not to say that he doesn't care for his students; no, he's quite close with a lot of them.

☆ Usually though, that's where the relationship went. He guides them, nurtures them, and wants to see them succeed.

☆ Parenthood is something entirely different. He understands this, he knows that it's an entirely different challenge all together.

☆ Parenting is to put the child before yourself, to care so much that it almost hurts, to have your very being tied to this child, helpless and alone without the proper guidance and knowing you have to be the one to guide them. (I'm getting carried away omg)

☆ Anyway, all that aside he'll start accepting that he sees you as a child probably after Azul's overblot.

☆ Seeing students in danger isn't exactly uncommon in a magic academy, so he's used to wrangling precarious pups to deal with any and all situations. He's learned to be calm and level headed in situations as required.

☆ That 'calm in a crisis' behavior doesn't last when you're involved though.

☆ After seeing you go through way, way too much, yet again, the reality of the situation finally clicks in.

☆ You're a kid, fully alone, no parent to call, no adult to help, nothing in a unfamiliar, terrifying situation.

☆ He decides to do the mature thing (unlike some people crowley) and thinks about how he actually views you instead of running away from his feelings for the 200th time.

☆ And now you have a dad that bitches about your possible love interests.

☆ He's supportive about your decisions, to be fair. He doesn't beat the boys away with sticks and stuff like that.

☆ That doesn't stop him from being judgy.

☆ "Hm...interesting choice"

☆ Literally mean girls you into good decisions

☆ Does have a tendency to be a little mean about fashion

☆ "Are you sure about...that? No no, it looks fine... As long as you like it"

☆ (oh n o I'm turning him into my mom)

☆ Overall, he's a good parent. He understands what needs a child has, and meets them fairly well.

☆ He's fairy loose with his parenting. You're allowed a lot of freedom, because he trusts that you can take care of yourself, and know when to come to him.

☆ This does mean he expects a lot from you. There's a level of maturity he expects, and he'll be disappointed if you don't meet that.

☆ He does learn to let up after a while though. He might know a lot about what parenting entails, but of course, theory and practice are two different things.

☆ Gift giving? Gift giving. Any hobby you have is 100% supplemented by him.

☆ And if that hobby is fashion? Yeah, there are a few days where the two of you don't see the sun.

☆ In the end, both of you are adjusting a lot. It takes a little while for him to figure out what you need, and what he has to do, but in the end, he does his best. And that's what counts, more than anything.

#twst x reader #platonic twst x reader #divus crewel x reader #platonic crewel x reader

[sapphicseasapphire]

I LOVE UR LIL REAPER DUDE HES SO COOL AND PRETTY AND POGGERS I ADORE HIM SO MUCH!!! He deserves to have the best bonding experience with his train,,

JUST. IM NOT OVER THE SYMBOLISM OF LIKE,,, he does the usual transporting of people and goods, but taking that to the next level and also assisting in the transport of spirits and souls to their next adventure has me SO SOFT like,, this boy is helping everyone he can get to where they need to be!

I do have a few questions aside from my gushing, though! Uh first of all, I'd have to ask, when did he die? It's alright if it's not shared yet for lore reasons or if you just haven't decided yet, but it's interesting to me! Was he always able to see spirits? Was Zelda a one time deal, or is he only able to see her for his adventure because he'd already died and become a reaper?

ALSO!!! Does his normal body get rest when his spirit does reaping stuff? Or is it just completely unrestful "sleep" and he'd need to rest normally afterward to recover? Or would it be like, his body is recovered but his spirit is still tired? Is there some sort of gap between the two?

SORRY THIS ASK IS ALL OVER THE PLACE I DONT DO THIS VERY OFTEN i just once again wanna say thank u for adding spirit tracks and,, yeah! hes so very poggers and im very excited to see his dynamics with everyone!

Hi! I’m so glad that you like the Little Guy! I’m quite fond of him as well haha!

To answer your questions:

Spirit died pretty early into his adventure. He doesn’t remember the exact moment, but do you remember in like- the opening sequence of Spirit Tracks? When Byrne attacks Alfonzo and then hits Link SO HARD. Sends him FLYING. And we don’t see him get up until after Zelda’s spirit is removed from her body. That’s when he died. That hit killed him. And that’s when he started being able to see spirits. (That’s why he was able to see Zelda)

Secondly, he kind of rests while he’s reaping. You kind of got it already- his body is able to sleep but his mind is still active. He’s actively doing his job, which is labor, but it’s not physical. His sleep schedule is almost as messed up as Sky’s haha! He appears to be unconscious more often than not, but the only time he’s truly resting is when his soul is still within his body.

I hope this answers your questions? I love Spirit and I’m glad to have him in my au! There will definitely be more Spirit related content coming soon!!

#the legend of zelda #chain as cryptids au #i answered question #cryptid lore #cryptid spirit #links meet au