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literallyzooble · 1 month

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The Amazing Digital Marching Band: Beta Designs

WHAT THE HEEEEELLLLLLL OH MY GAWD NO WAYAYAYAYAYAY

Hi hello hi!! I finally got around to designing some beta layouts for my Digital Circus AU! Please tell me what you think and reblog if you can! If I continue to expand upon this AU, I might just make its own blog for it! Just depends when and if I have time :)

Okay under the cut is me infodumping about each design so feel free to like skip allat if you don’t want to read it

Gangle: Color Guard -I wanted to still follow Gangle’s ribbon motif in her design, this is probably the most personalized outfit out of all of them. -The ribbon the makes up her body now continues down and spirals around her legs, sort of to make a “skeleton” of a dress. -I added a bit more flare to her arms, adding extra ribbons that don’t act as limbs, and more as sleeves or decoration. -The bow on her head kind of just ties it all together, again fitting with the ribbon motif that I was going for. -In terms of the first point, the reason why I say “personalized” is that I’m still not sure what I’m going for in terms of outfits. I don’t know if I want them all to be uniform and the same, like a true marching band (in this case, I would have to change Gangle’s outfit), or if I’d like each uniform to have more of a personal style to it (in this case I would keep Gangle’s outfit, and change uniforms to echo the original character’s designs (i.e. changing Ragatha’s uniform to be a bit more dress like).

Pomni: Drum Major -I’m still deciding on the hat, I wanted to try to make a shako with a jester hat motif, but I’ll have to work it out over time. -Her uniform borrows from modern marching uniforms (Stanbury for inspiration) and circus jester clothes (hence the fringe around the waist). -Gloves are the same size as her original gloves, except they’re white. -Pants are classic bibber pants, shoes are classic marching shoes (both black).

Zooble: Snare (Battery) -One of their antennae is a snare stick. I came up with this gimmick that Zooble basically pulls out sticks from everywhere: their head, their arm, their leg, they always have a spare. -I decided to give Zooble two wings for stability, since you don’t want to be tilted to one side while marching, especially for battery. -Their right (looking at the drawing it’s their left) arm has this mechanism where you can easily insert sticks, it’s sort of like one of those things that can extend your pencil when it’s short? It uses the same logic. -I kinda went the craziest on Zooble’s design because I am so normal about them (I am not) -I CHOSE ZOOBLE AS A SNARE BEFORE GOOSE SAID THAT THEY PLAY DRUMS MY BRAIN IS MASSIVE

Ragatha: Flute -Adding on from what I yapped about in Gangle’s tidbit, I had this idea to make the uniforms a bit more personalized to each character, for example giving Ragatha’s uniform a bit more of a “dress” look to math her original design. Of course, this conflicted with my knowledge of marching bands and why everyone has such similar uniforms, so to go with the dress-like design or not, as well as personalizing each of the character’s designs more, is still up in the air. -Woodwinds have gloves that have the fingertips cut off, so their fingers can be more technical. Ragatha’s gloves are black. -The woodwind and brass uniforms are mostly the same, the shakos (color wise) are the only things that differentiate the two. -Classic marching bibber and shoes. -Yes I am self projecting by making Ragatha a flute and BEFORE YOU GO SAYING “erm achchually Ragatha plays Cello-“ FIRSTLY there are no cellos in marching band and SECONDLY within this AU she plays flute for marching season and play cello in the orchestra for concert season :)

Jax: Trumpet -His ears go inside his shako, I’m just too lazy to edit/erase them. -Brass have gloves that have no alterations made to them. Jax’s gloves are also black. -Classic marching bibber and shoes. -Jax gives me “typical crackhead trumpet” energy and I don’t know why. Anyways there’s my reason for putting him on trumpet.

Kinger: Bass Drum And Gong (Pit/Auxiliary) -I want Kinger in this AU to give “How TF Did I Get Dragged Into This” Vibes -Pit percussion members don’t wear shakos, which is sort of cool so we can still recognize the chess piece form. -Since Kinger doesn’t have any legs, his “marching bibber” is more of just a black skirt that surrounds his body. -Pit percussion members don’t wear gloves. Which is a problem. Because Kinger is always wearing gloves. And I do not want to draw whatever is underneath those gloves. Scawy.

Stay tuned for more!! Maybe!! In the near future??? ALSO ALL SHIPS ARE ALLOWED!!! YOU MAY SHIP WHOEVER WITH WHOMEVER!!! AS LONG AS YOU’RE NOT A CREEP!!! YAHOO!!!

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fishrights69 · 1 year

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My Top 5 GARBAGE fish that suck

Here we go again. After receiving a very high ammount of notes!! (61 UwU) on the last fish list, here's another top 5 no one asked for. I've tried to use the reasoning of ''all fish are good'' but let's be honest, we'd be better off without these. 5. Monkfish🙏

So these things are weird as hell. Their ugliness alone landed them on this list. Not only are they ugly as shit, but they're also mean motherfuckers that eat basically anything. They like to cover themselves in mud and just chill there until something crosses their path which imo is fucking lazy. Some people do eat them as a delicacy apparently(ew?). Props to them for getting over the looks. Ugly/10 5/10 for laziness 4.Hairy Frog Fish💇‍♀️

If you wonder wtf are you looking at, this fish is the living embodiment of that feeling you get when you find hair in your food. This girlie loves to swallow as it's mouth can open to make space for fish almost twice her size so don't go sitting too close 💦 Still, it doesn't take away from the fact that she looks like a mistake. 4/10 appearance 8/10 for the deep throating skills 3. Goblin Shark 👺

First of all, these sharks look like if someone designed a fish based on a child's drawing of a shark. Instead of going the terrifying route and choosing one of these pictures, I opted for a derpy yet still creepy photo. Besides being quite good at ambushing prey, these dudes still tend to eat man made garbage which further argues their position on ''the garbage fish top5™''. They also are basically living fossils since they're old af and most of their body is atrophied. 3/10 appearance 6/10 for still living so long despite everything.

2.Bony-Eared Assfish🍑

This fish is for all ass obsessed fuckers. Grilling this baby and enjoying it counts as eating ass. Some cool facts about him: -The bony-eared assfish has the smallest brain-to-body weight ratio out of all vertebrates. -Assfish are soft and flabby with a light skeleton (so like a real ass) As for personality, they are not what I'd call assholes. They are quite sluggish as they prefer to sort of flap around with short bursts of energy instead of swim. They don't do much besides that which makes them a very underwhelming fish despite the sexy name :( Apparently they were given this name to make up for how utterly boring they are. 2/10 appearance 1/10 Interest in them or what they are good for (spoiler, nothing)

If you're a fish enthusiast, you probably know what's coming at nr.1 🥁 🥁 1. Ocean Sunfish☀️

There are far, faar too many reasons for this fish to be on the first spot. Not only are they the dumbest fish in the whole world, but they also are not good swimmers AT ALL (wtf is with these poorly designed fish who cannot swim??). Scientists are still perplexed at how this fish continues to stay alive. If you want more shitty facts about them, here's a link to a very famous post trashing these bitches. BUT, I have my very own reason to hate the sunfish. One cursed morning, I decided to go get educated about animals and visit Naturalis, a museum in Leiden, The Netherlands. I was having a blast looking at all the beautiful animals showcased, along with the cool facts and atmosphere. I excitedly get to the aquatic creatures floor and mesmerised, I try to take in all the beauty. At the long corridor nearing the exit, I look around admiring the fish that were displayed. Thinking I had seen it all, I move further when I turn a corner and out of nowhere.. . . . . . . . BAM

this GIANT motherfucker, hidden in a corner makes it's presence known. I'm not kidding when I say this thing is huge. Here's a picture of the replica from another angle for size reference. As you can guess, I was legit extremely spooked and actually screamed. :( 0/10 appearence 0/10 fuck this thing. useless and it gave me a heart attack

BONUS: I'm sorry but I think I've tortured myself and you enough, so to make up for it, here's a cute fishy instead: (take him)

Alright thanks for reading and follow for more fish content. Suggest me some more top5's I could do, be it fish related, or whatever your mind decides to curse me with. Still need to cleanse yours eyes? My top 5 coolest fish

#my most hated fish #fish #fish that are NOT friends #marine life #things that make me unhappy #top5 #ocean #aquatic life #fishblr #fish tag #animals #animal enemies

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frostbitebakery · 1 month

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I'm so in love with all of your art. My favorites have to be Codywan, Cody and Obi-Wan separately, and your cursed series art.

May I ask how you came up with the idea for the cursed commanders and Boba Fett series?

Ahhhh this message was the best way to wake up! Thank youuuu 💜💜💜

The Unlucky Ones, my beloveds! That one started like all the others: I went “lmao wouldn’t it be cool” and then it grew into a monster of a concept and venus flytrapping @adiduck in the process.

TUO started because for Halloween I had already Eldritched Obi-Wan so it was Cody’s turn.

I love character design. I like to play around with the given themes or throw them into the ocean and do my own thing. So every time for character designs it really does start out like, “I want to draw that character in these clothes”. There’s no plan. That always happens along the way.

For TUO!Cody I wanted him scary but still being Cody. I thought about typical Halloween things and went with skeletons. Mainly because of the white armor and I thought how cool it would look if the armor was shaped like bones. But I didn’t want the armor to look scary, I wanted him to look scary (and badass) (and like a sexy bastard). While looking for bone refs, I saw enough skulls in different positions. Some of them looked like they were screaming, howling. And I thought, duuuuuuuuude. Duuuuuuude. A skeleton projection rising out of Cody and growing taller and lifting its arms and rushing forward with a scream while Cody stands there like 😎??? YES. LET’S DO THAT.

So the concept of the Curse was born.

It always starts as a visually appealing concept. I try to make sense of my decisions later.

For the other Commanders I thought about how to apply the Cody concept art on them. I didn’t want to copy paste the armor design. But I also wanted them to visually belong together in the same verse.

The designs should be distinct and representative of each character. Even if some details seem questionable at first glance, I always want them to make sense in context. So I add snippets to basically explain myself.

Wolffe’s armor in canon went from red to grey in grief and is rather neat with stenciled designs. For TUO!Wolffe I wanted to up that grief given what Wolffe goes through in TUO. The grey canon design turned into rotten fabric and veils. Which turned Wolffe into a banshee-inspired design. The armor design is reminiscent of those fluttering torn fabrics that indicate a tragedy happened here and the grief is ever present. Going with the banshee and with how I deformed Cody’s face, Wolffe got a deformed jaw (think The Mummy when the corpse screams) which he hides behind a bandana.

Adi suggested beauty in decay for Bly. So he’s got flowers growing out of him. And I desperately needed a reason for him to tell Aayla “General, hold my flower”.

Fox has a deformed back which is only known so far to Adi and me. He started with the little white tufts of hair bc I love that on him and wanted it for TUO!Fox. By then it was already established that their hair goes white with each death. So that meant if I wanted the Fox ears, Fox had to have died twice already. Things like that were the reasons the backstory avalanched into a monster. And suddenly you go from “aww, the white hair looks like ears so cute!!” to “actually Cody killed his brother in training because how the Curse was genetically modified and added to the Commanders makes them go into a berserker state” to “the non-command class clones have instated containment protocols for when a command clone goes berserk”.

Now Ponds. Ponds had to survive. I’m not spoiling his whole story but his character design was inspired by “rising like a phoenix out of the ashes”. So his armor has bird bones and wing bone structures. And with how he looks, his backstory makes perfect sense and is heartbreaking.

Boba was a request by a dear friend. He’s not cursed in TUO canon but my friend loves the design so much she asked if I couldn’t do a Boba design. So I did.

#frost replies #that got LONG #but man #TUO my beloved #TUO is the perfect example #of how I add details #and make them make sense later

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starhvney · 28 days

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hello! :D

could you write for sasha and reader hanging out and sasha reads her palm or gives her a tea reading? something fluffy please! it's okay if you don't want to, thank you for reading my request anyway! <3 your writing is literally so amazing :D

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐓

𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: mystreet platonic sasha & fem!reader, also ft. gene and zenix

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: feeling bored and crowded at a party, you and sasha escape to the back porch

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐒: fluff, sasha being cool asf, you two are the cool main character besties in an indie film with two stupid boy roommates, it’s great

𝐂𝐖: use of alcohol, you two are at a house party

𝐀/𝐍: i know i added a party subplot here but once i started writing i just went for it lol. hopefully you still like the scenario! i also know nothing about palm reading or anything like that so sorry for any inaccuracies^^;

𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

the sound of talking and loud music muffles as you and sasha step out on the back porch, breathing in the fresh, cool night air. the dim lighting through the windows and the singular light over the door cast a warm glow on the two of you. sasha stretches and takes another drink out of her solo cup, before hoisting herself to sit up on the thick wooden railing.

“the people here are kind of lame, i thought zenix said this was gonna be fun.” she says in her monotonous voice, the sound of her deeper voice a calm relief from all of the shouts inside.

you join her and perch yourself next to her, taking a swig of your own drink and wrinkling your nose at the sting of the alcohol. sasha scoffs out an amused laugh at your reaction, a fond look on her face.

“yeah,” you strain out, before clearing your throat. “there’s a lack of uh… depth in personality around here.”

she nods, a knowing sparkle in her eyes. for a moment you two enjoy the distant noise of crickets and the occasional car passing, before sasha turns her attention back to you. she reaches out a pale, black polished hand in your direction.

“let me see your hand.” she says, lightly wiggling her fingers out for you to take.

as you place your hand over hers, she turns it palm up and leans forward, her fingers lightly tracing along the creases in your hand. her rings shine against the porch light, drawing your attention to the different designs. some had cool-toned gems embedded into the metal, while a few were shaped into skeleton hands or spiders. your eyes drift back up, noticing the long wispy white strands of hair falling in front of her face. dark eyeshadow sparkles and frames her deep violet eyes that squint and focus down at your hand.

“i learned how to palm read for fun in high school,” she explains, sensing your curiosity as her thin eyebrows pinch together in concentration. “but… it’s been a while since i’ve done it and i'm a bit tipsy, so let’s see how this goes.”

you laugh lightly at her explanation, patiently waiting as she trails a fingernail along your palm.

“this is your lifeline… it goes down and splits off here… if i remember correctly that means you’ll be busy with your career in the future… but it’s also faint so you know how to preserve your energy.” she observes slowly, humming in thought. "that's good."

“hm… this one across your hand is… there’s a slight wave to it, which means you have an open-minded and different approach to life and issues than others.”

you hum and nod along, taking another sip of your drink and tilting your head as you listen.

“you have a super deep heart line, which means you will have long-lasting relationships. and this line right here is far and parallel to this line, meaning—i think…—that you’re more independent and don’t rely on outside influences.”

piercing loud laughter hits your ears abruptly, making the two of you flinch as four obnoxious partygoers stumble into your peaceful space. they glance at the two of you with confused and annoyed looks, as if they were offended by your presence. they stumble down into the backyard, one of them falling face-first into the weedy grass below. you glance back at sasha, who is already looking at you with a deadpan expression.

“wanna find gene and zenix?” she asks, before hopping off the railing and leaning in to whisper to you. “let’s take some alcohol and get out of here.”

you nod in response, to which she keeps her hold on your hand to guide you back into the loud house. bodies bump into you, and sasha tugs you closer to her as she walks. you see a familiar head of black hair sticking higher in the crowd. sasha pulls him along with you, dragging both of you to a less crowded space.

“the fu-? oh hey, ladies.” gene stumbles along beside you, clearly a bit more intoxicated than the two of you.

sasha stops out of a pathway, hunching the three of you together. “we were gonna get some alcohol and take off, you coming?”

gene raises his eyebrow, looking around before nodding with a smirk. “yeah, i figured you two wouldn’t care much for this either. only reason i’m tolerating these people is because i’m three double shots in.”

sasha raises an unimpressed eyebrow. “we’ve been here an hour and you’re three double shots in?”

“hell yeah, tequila.” he nods, his eyes drooping in satisfaction.

“whatever, why don’t you grab a bottle and we’ll find zenix.”

“what about me?” a familiar voice cuts over your meeting, as the last piece to your quartet little friend group.

“these people are boring, let’s go, man.” gene throws his arm over zenix’s shoulder, causing the curly-headed brunette to pout, his piercing tugging on his lip.

“yeah i know, i thought cooler people would show up.”

“it’s fine, you can make it up to us by grabbing us some drinks to go and meeting us out front.” sasha smirks, tugging you along by your arm out the front door.

you can hear zenix scoff before he’s drowned out by the noise, but you’re positive he’s already making his way to the kitchen with gene.

the moon bounces off sasha’s hair, the soft layers reflecting back into your eyes. she turns, looking satisfied that she was able to round up your other two friends so quickly.

“that might be a new record of finding the two of them and getting them to agree.” you note, earning a rare laugh from the girl.

“i know, what was that, like two minutes?”

you two walk further into the empty street, the buzzing of the alcohol slightly beginning to wear off as you realize you hadn’t taken a sip in a while. you look down at your empty hands with a frown.

“i left my drink.”

“here,” she hands you hers. “we’re about to get some more anyways.”

“thanks,” you swig the rest of it down, drinking from the other side of sasha’s dark lipstick stains on the cup.“i didn’t know you knew how to palm read, though.”

she kicks a pebble down the road, a content look in her eyes as she sways in place next to you. one arm of her arms laces around your waist as the two of you mindlessly walk and spin under a lone buzzing street light.

“yeah… i also learned a bit about tea reading, i can show you sometime back at the house.”

“ooh, yeah, if you wanna.”

“duh.” she says with a humored smile in her tone. ”hanging out with you is way cooler than any of those dorks inside.”

“even zenix and gene?” you laugh.

“oh yeah, we’re the coolest.”

“package secured! let’s go!” zenix and gene walk out of the house, pulling out not one but two bottles from their t-shirts.

“i kinda wanna go to our spot in the park,” zenix leads the way, walking down the street with bottle in hand. “from back then.”

“alright, it’s not far.” gene lazily agrees, taking a sip and passing the bottle to sasha.

you and sasha keep your arms linked around the other, walking along after them while squinting up to see if you could find any constellations.

“shadow knights reunion?”

“zenix, we are not the shadow knights anymore.”

“ugh, whatever!”

©starhvney, 2024. please do not steal or repost my works as your own.

#aphmau #aphmau mystreet #mystreet x reader #x reader #mystreet #aphmau sasha #mystreet sasha #aphmau gene #mystreet gene #aphmau zenix #mystreet zenix

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x-emeraldsky-x · 4 months

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Sasuke wandered confusedly through the hall, loud chatter and excited squeals ringing in his ears as he passed booths filled with merchandise; all with crowded lines waiting for a chance to at least see what was being offered.

His eyes narrowed as he searched for the bright blonde hair of the friend that annoyed him into coming in the first place, but amongst fans covered in merch and with hair that was dyed to match the musicians, he was no where to be seen. Sasuke scoffed. Naruto begged him to come to support a friend of his, and he didn't even choose to show? What a loser.

Sasuke pressed on, scanning past the branded shirts and faces covered in paint. "XO" was printed everywhere on every thing, it slowly started to become a blur of colours.

Purple, red and pink spotlights lit every room in the stadium, music from the band blasting from the speakers, every song was instrumental to tease the fans flooding in as the concert time grew closer. Sasuke's head spun with all of the stimulus.

Suddenly a strong arm wrapped around his shoulder, a familiar burst of laughter relaxed him just enough. He actually decided to show, hm? Could have come on time. Loser.

"Whatdya think, Sasuke?! This place is packed!- oh, I got you some freebies too. I figured you'd get lost, 'tebayo"

Sasuke scoffed, taking the bag from Naruto. It was similar to one of the showbags you'd get as a child, but featured a near gruesome image instead of a typical cartoon character. A skeleton covered in branches and cherry blossoms, it was posed like it was praying. He preferred the cuter stuff, the stuff that wouldn't give him nightmares.

"My friend drew that, yknow! She designs a lot of the merch stuff for the band. Oh! Also! You hear that drumming? That's her too! Oh, oh! And-"

Naruto continued to rant while dragging Sasuke off, assumingly to where they'd sit for the show. Naruto said something about VIP tickets and being close to the action a few days ago, so they'd be able to see and hear everything the best. A perk of being "The Lead Singers Best Friend and Little Brother Figure" he said.

The hallway leading to the entrance was just as packed as the room with the booths. Black shirts with a symbol of "XO" interlocking printed in crimson, similar ones with a purple moon cycle on the front, one fan even had their own shirt with a design drawn with bleach. Whoever this friend of Naruto's was, they were very good at drawing a crowd.

Naruto flashed a card to the bouncer minding the doors, and much to everyone's disgust and rage, they were let in just a few minutes early.

With no need to be mindful of others, Naruto raced down to their seats, while Sasuke paid closer attention to the scenery. The room was lit only at the seats, the stage was shrouded in darkness, the leg of a mic stand could hardly be seen poking out from under the curtain. Even if he squinted, there wasn't much to behold.

When he reached his friend, he looked at their slightly separated seats. Two more bags sat at their legs, each with unique designs. More freebies, he guessed.

Naruto jumped into his seat and urged Sasuke to join him. Sasuke sighed. Despite being nineteen, almost twenty, Naruto still acted like a complete child. How can someone with a drivers licence, fully capable of purchasing alcohol and cigarettes, be this obnoxious and shameless? He sat without argument, though.

Before he knew it, the doors opened and fans started pouring in. Sasuke glanced behind him out of curiosity; every seat was filled, and everyone was restless in their seats with excitement. Amongst them all, though, was the last person he'd expect to see there. Nara Shikamaru, a former classmate of theirs, was sitting in a signed jacket with an unfamilar glisten in his eyes.

"He's a massive simp for the guitarist," Naruto whispered, catching where Sasuke's eyes sat. "He fought off like, three guys for that jacket."

Sasuke snorted and shook his head, turning his attention to the stage when the lights shut off.

The stadium grew silent, the lack of light felt like a void. Sasuke's arms started forming goosebumps from the atmosphere.

A soft beat settled in through the speakers, the sound of the curtain reeling back made people inch closer to the edge of their seats. A hooded figure walked up to centre stage, bringing their arms up above their head and forming an 'X' with their arms in sync with the spotlight shining on them. Bright red illuminated the figure, revealing a punk-eqsue outfit with belts being a consistent theme, but their face remained unknown. They started a hard beat by stomping their boot on the stage, which was followed by fans clapping to it.

A second figure joined the first, cloaked much the same, but their guitar adding a much different silhouette. They pulled it off their back and lifted it up, the body of the guitar facing to the ceiling. The lights turned off and a purple LED light was shon onto it, revealing a fluorescent purple circle on the back. Together, their symbols formed 'XO'.

After a moment, music started pouring from the speakers around the stadium and a clear spotlight lit the stage, allowing full sight to the audience. They dropped their symbols and pulled the cloaks off in unison.

'O' was clearly the older of the two. A tall woman with lightly tanned skin, features sharp and almost deadly. Her hair was dry, parted quite messily into four parts, part of her bangs nearly covering her right eye. 'X' seemed much more friendly, smiling wide to the whole crowd. From the looks of it, she had no instrument. She lacked a mic on her earpiece as well.

The two women were dressed with a theme, both with their own symbolism. 'X' wore a red jacket with two crosses on her arms and black gloves. The small belts around her thighs were wrapped unevenly. Two on one, three on the other. 'O' was much similar, although her jacket was black, made from a thick leather and had purple moons running down the sleeves. Her jeans were ripped at the knees and her boots were covered in the same belts.

Sasuke furrowed his brows and squinted, focusing on the finer details of the first part of the band. Her hair was a familiar shade of pink, thick and clearly unconditioned, and her eyes were a deep emerald green. He swore he knew her, but he couldn't put the name to the face.

She pulled a microphone from a pouch on her hip, spinning it in her hand while more music kicked in. She raised her fist and everyone focused on her.

"Good evening Konoha!! How's everyone feeling tonight!?"

The audience roared in respose, Sasuke needing to take a moment to cover his ears. He glanced over to Naruto who sat unfazed. He too was focused on the woman in red. She must be the friend he always talked about.

"That's great to hear! Are you all ready to go?!"

Another roar came, but Sasuke took focus to her speech.

"Hell yeah!! That's what I like to hear! First things first though... Temari, sound check!"

Her voice was familiar too. Deeper than most women Sasuke had met, and rougher too, as if she'd had a broken nose before. However, there was a softness to it. A kindness. It almost sounded like...

"On it, Sakura."

Sasuke didn't hear the next sounds to come. He leaned back in his chair, staring blankly in the direction of the stage. Sakura? Haruno Sakura? That's her?!

Temari smiled at her partner, flipping the guitar so the strings faced their fans and pulled the strap above her head. The body was painted a shiny black with purple lightning like strikes going across it, a job clearly done at home, but not by her. She pulled a pick from her jacket and struck the cords, the sound alone made the floor shake, and the following cheer broke Sasuke out of his trance.

"All right!!! Sounds good! Lets get this show started, shall we?!"

The two women backed up to the middle of the stage, the lights dimming to prepare for their first song. A cold silence filled the room, the speakers dying down as sound technicians prepared the track, Sasuke squinted to take in more features.

Despite the darkness, the white of her teeth shone through. She smiled with a joy she never had during their highschool years together. Her academics were her highest priority, fitness came next, and lastly was her crushes. She'd always smile wide when her test scores were high, or she had scored big during extracurricular sports, but nothing compared to this.

A warm spotlight hit them as the music began, Temari's guitar the only live instrument. It was an up beat rhythm, vaguely following the rock genre they were going for. Sakura nodded and loosely danced as she found the rhythm in herself, her voice powerfully hitting the mic when she started to sing, although it was more of a rap than anything else.

Sasuke stared with his mouth hung loosely open. Sakura's energy grew with the song, her movements becoming sharper and more pronounced as she found moves to her words, her hair and jacket adding secondary motion that flowed so smoothly with her body. Sasuke's legs grew weak, sinking into his chair as he watched as closely as his eyes could. It was mesmerising.

Sakura's eyes danced over the audience. Her smile grew when she saw her close people in the crowd, Sasuke could only see Naruto, but he was certain someone like Sakura would have a lot of friends. Her eyes moved from left to right, eventually meeting his at the centre.

Her smile fell, but her voice didn't. Sasuke couldn't tell if it was disbelief, disappointment or disgust, but Sakura didn't stop her performance. She focused her gaze to the wall, finishing the song before meeting his eyes again.

He felt his cheeks begin to burn under her gaze. The soft shimmer in her eyes, the gentle curl of her lips... it had been many years since she looked at him like that. Sasuke missed it dearly, her eyes filled with adoration and love. He felt like a complete fool for rejecting her love once.

Their eyes locked for what felt like hours. Sasuke's focus never once leaving her eyes or her smile, even when she turned away. She was still working, afterall. Sasuke would have to wait, and he would wait an eternity just to have her look at him once more.

The second song began to play through the speakers, fans cheering and shouting as they recognised what it was, and although Sasuke was clueless, he was just as excited to hear it.

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cranberrymoons · 8 months

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spooky scary skeletons

prompt: "I'd still know you." notes: happy spooky season!!!! i went in.... an entirely different direction with this than most people 😭

Steve inhales sharply as he rounds a corner, clinging tightly to the back of Robin’s shirt to make sure he doesn’t lose her on the path. It helps that Eddie’s bracketed up behind him too, one hand holding him tight by the hip as they make their way through the damp hallway, and Steve –

He hears a rustle to his left, and his head snaps over, eyes wide in the dim room as his pulse climbs up the back of his throat to thrum in the roof of his mouth. There’s a pair of eyes on him somewhere, he’s sure of it. He can feel the awareness of it creeping up his spine, cold and prickling, but it’s too dark in here, everything too obscured by fog and mist and –

Another sound on his right, and he jumps, crashing back against Eddie’s chest and dragging Robin with him. She lets out a surprised squawk, which draws the attention of the evil clown that had been lurking, ominous and obstructed, in the corner.

It starts toward them, dragging the blade of a chainsaw on the ground as it goes, and Steve – without even meaning to or thinking about it, swings.

The clown dodges out of the way with a shout, and Steve feels Eddie catch him around the waist, holding him back with a breath of laughter in his ear.

“Whoa!” the clown yells, voice muffled from under the mountain of latex demon makeup glued to its face. “Watch the face, dude.”

Steve, heart in his throat, freezes. Robin’s laughing now too, and Steve blinks, trying hard to see through the darkness. His brain's halfway there, and he frowns in confusion even as his pulse continues to race, and –

“Dustin?”

The clown takes another step back.

“What?” it asks. “I mean…” It clears its throat, dropping back into an evil voice. “Who dares enter my –”

“Henderson, if that’s you under there, I swear to –” He forces himself to take a deep breath. “What the hell, man?”

Clown-Dustin holds out his hands, chainsaw and all. His posture slumps.

“How did you know it was me?”

“Because most evil clowns don’t call people ‘dude’,” Steve says. “Besides, I’d still know you even if you hadn’t immediately broken character.”

“You literally didn’t until I did, though,” Dustin says. “So.”

Steve opens his mouth to respond, then closes it, then – Eddie’s petting soothing circles into his hip where he’s still got him around the waist, and he tries hard to focus his attention there instead of on the overwhelming need to take another swing at the stupid clown and his stupid clown face.

“Were you waiting there for us this whole time?” Eddie asks. “Not cool, man.”

“What?” Dustin asks. He looks around. “No, this is my job.”

Robin makes a face. “Since when do you have a job?”

“Since three weeks ago when this haunted house opened?” Dustin says, as if it’s obvious – which. Okay. “Now can you please go away? There’s more people coming up behind you. You’re going to blow my cover.”

And Steve is tempted to stick around just to keep giving him a hard time, but also… a chain-creaking sound effect groans overhead, and there's an ominous red glow looming in his periphery, and he really really wants to get the fuck out of here.

“Fine,” he says. "But I’m kicking your ass for this later.”

[also on ao3]

#stwgdailyprompt #steve harrington #eddie munson #dustin henderson #robin buckley #stranger things #my fic #discord drabble #dustin and his dads #steddie

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use-your-telescope · 6 months

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When Everything's Made to be Broken - Chapter 3: I'm Still Not Sure What I Stand For

Summary: Theo makes a decision. The Avengers meet a prospective new member.

Author's Notes: Hey look, it's the chapter that has the first snippet I posted back in like, February! This song is split between two chapters, otherwise it would be a 10k chapter... next chapter (again, already written!) will likely come on Saturday, 10/28.

If you enjoy, please reblog!! I'm a lil' blog (less than 100 followers, haha) and reblogs really help me out <3

Content Warnings: None!

Word Count: 3,957

Read on AO3 | When Everything's Made to be Broken Masterlist

Song: Some Nights - fun.

Some nights, I stay up cashing in my bad luck Some nights, I call it a draw Some nights, I wish that my lips could build a castle Some nights, I wish they'd just fall off But I still wake up, I still see your ghost Oh, Lord, I'm still not sure what I stand for, oh What do I stand for? What do I stand for? Most nights, I don't know anymore

If there was anything Theo could count on, it was that her cousin Max would inevitably disapprove of almost all of Theo’s life choices.

“Are you insane ?” The tenor of her cousin’s voice blared through the speaker, furious about the news she shared. “Seriously Leenie, you know you’re insane, right?”

“Sometimes, that’s all I have to give me comfort.” Theo drawled, cradling her phone between her ear and her shoulder as she packed her apartment up. “Max, don’t you get it? They’re alive - this is our chance!”

“No, no, no –” he retorted, “things are perfectly fine right now! There is no reason for us to go digging up the skeletons we buried -”

“Why are you so upset about this?” She said, rolling her eyes. “You literally have nothing to lose - if this works, we get our lives back. If this doesn’t work, we will stay here and nothing changes!”

“I have nothing–” A strangled groan came from the other side of the phone. “You are impossible, Leenie! What are the others going to think? What’s Mémère going to think? You’re putting all of us at risk–”

“Mémère has been pestering me to help with the shadow creature problem anyways,” Theo interrupted, “and might I remind you that between the two of us, I’m the one who has the authority to make this sort of decision.”

“I can’t – I can’t believe you,” Max sputtered; Theo could picture him walking around his house, flailing his arms in exasperation as she refused to back down on her plan. “After everything we sacrificed to get here, you’re going to risk ruining it for them?”

“They’re my family, you asshole,” Theo snapped, “and until two nights ago, I thought they were dead. I thought I would never see them again, and I would never see my home again, but now there’s a possibility I can have my life back! So yes, I am willing to risk everything!” Staring at the half-filled boxes around her, Theo sighed; a pang of nostalgia surged through her chest at the thought of seeing the constellations that filled her childhood in something other than her dreams. “Max, they can put an end to all of this - don’t you want to go home?”

For years, Theo had dreams where she experienced the world through her sister’s perspective, but until she found out her sister was alive Theo assumed that was all they were: dreams. Her mind playing tricks on her, making her feel connected to people who hadn’t walked the earth in a long time. It wasn’t hard to rationalize - lots of people dreamt about loved ones after they passed.

However, if it was true - if they were really alive… Maybe they weren’t just dreams. Maybe she was still connected with them and seeing what they saw. Maybe her sister was staring at the skies like they used to, remembering the tales she told Theo when they’d sneak out late at night to escape the times when it all felt like too much.

Even if Theo had seen the world through Rae’s eyes, she wondered what Rae looked like after all the time that had passed. Was she still as lean as Theo remembered, with sharp cheeks and piercing amethyst eyes that saw through everything? Was her nose still hooked ever-so-slightly?

A shaky exhale came through the other end of the phone.

“This is our home now, Leens -” Max softened his tone, “I know you miss them, but even if it’s true that they are alive, how do you know they aren’t choosing to stay there? How do you know they would even want to help? Or that it would work?”

“Max, there’s no reason to believe they wouldn’t try to find me again - they’re my family ,” Theo protested, pinching the bridge of her nose with irritation at Max’s very blatant disapproval of her decision. “Look, I get it - after all this time it’s scary to think about the possibility that we gave up hope when they were still alive and we resigned ourselves to being refugees. But wouldn’t you rather know for sure than sit here wondering what if ?”

Theo continued haphazardly tossing items into boxes - she had to have everything ready for moving into the tower. Movers would be coming in a week, and she would have to say farewell to the brownstone she’d called home for so long.

The thought of leaving her little borough was tough to swallow - what would she do when she couldn’t stop into the bodega on her way home from work and tease Carlos about the girl who kept coming in to buy stuff just to talk to him? There was no way the Avengers ever went to bodegas when they needed something, much less talked to normal people. It seemed like they were locked up in their tower whenever they weren’t making appearances or going on flashy missions. They probably had cleaning staff and a chef that they interacted with, but beyond the staff it was difficult to imagine the Avengers living normal lives and running their own errands.

God, if Tony Stark was as obnoxious and boisterous as he seemed, being locked in a tower with him would absolutely result in Theo committing murder…

Maybe she shouldn’t have agreed to this.

But if it meant she could be reunited with her family, if they could finally go home and rebuild… Maybe she could hold off on murdering the Avengers’ sugar daddy.

“I can’t stop you from doing this, can I?”

Max’s voice snapped Theo back to the present.

“No, you can’t.” Theo shook her head, adjusting how she cradled the phone so she could tape a box closed. “I gave SHIELD my terms today and they accepted. Whether you like it or not, I’m going. You’re second in command while I’m gone - you know that, right?”

“Fucking insane,” Max muttered, “This is fucking insane.”

“Yeah, I heard you the first thirty times.” Theo replied, rolling her eyes yet again.

“Fine, fine! I will try to keep Mémère in line and make sure shit doesn’t implode,” Max relented, “You have to tell the council though - I do not condone this whatsoever.”

Fuck, Theo forgot about the council.

“Chill out - I’m sure Mémère already told them.”

Well, she was assuming, but they’d find out one way or another. After all, there was going to be a press conference to announce her new role upon completion of SHIELD’s onboarding process, so it wasn’t like it was going to be a secret.

Max’s frustration meant the conversation didn’t last much longer; then again, it wasn’t like there was much else for the two to discuss. If anything, she was a bit relieved to be done talking to him, even if he was family.

The moment Max was no longer on the phone, Theo let out an exhausted sigh.

Maybe Max was right - maybe she was getting caught up in this for nothing. Maybe she wouldn’t get to them in time. Maybe it was actually a lie after all. Maybe this would re-open old wounds. Maybe she would be killed before finding anything. Maybe…

Wings flapping brought Theo’s attention to her open window. A pair of black, beady eyes stared at her, iridescent feathers shimmering in the light from Theo’s apartment.

Not a crow - too big to be a crow. The beak wasn’t like a crow’s, and the feathers around it were far more pronounced.

Definitely a raven.

Ravens weren’t common in urban areas, and seeing one on its own?

Well, if that wasn’t a sign, she didn’t know what was.

This is it, boys, this is warWhat are we waiting for?Why don't we break the rules already?I was never one to believe the hypeSave that for the black and whiteTry twice as hard, and I'm half as likedBut here they come again to jack my style

“Dr. Theolene Amaris,” Nick Fury’s voice rang out in the meeting room as a picture of a lithe woman appeared on screen. “ - also known as the Silver Shadow, the Celestial Phantom, and the Cursed Moon.”

It was only a few hours earlier that everyone was notified of the mandatory briefing, which was described as “urgent.”

Moments before, Loki found himself pondering the nature of the briefing while everyone packed into a bright conference room. In front of each Avenger, a manila file folder sat prepared for them with information related to the subject in question.The faces of his team members shifted as they developed their first impressions on the subject of their briefing, her likeness blown up on the screen at the front of the room.

Despite exceeding the capacity of the space, Loki managed to secure his usual seat in the back, conveniently located near the door for an easy escape. It was a habit that lingered from his earlier days in the tower, but having an easy escape from what were normally tedious meetings was still a benefit that Loki took advantage of more often than not. Even better, there was an empty seat next to him, lessening the otherwise inevitable sense of claustrophobia that would have eventually reared its ugly head.

She really didn’t look like much. The only noteworthy feature in her appearance was the thick mane of silver hair that tumbled down her back, stopping just above her waist. Otherwise, she appeared to be like any other Midgardian: clad in all-black, a beanie atop her head with black sunglasses obscuring her features as she walked down the street. If Loki passed her in real life, there was no way he’d offer her a second glance, or even a first.

With that in mind, it was safe to assume that in this first image, she was practicing urban camouflage – blending in with her surroundings by altering her appearance and attire to mimic those around her. The less attention she drew to herself, the easier it would be to slip in and out unnoticed; it also created an additional challenge if anyone sought to locate her. As someone who’d had plenty of experience with stealth, Loki already had an idea of what her skill sets may include.

Stark studied the first image of her, brow furrowed as he spoke up. “Hell of a name, but she doesn’t look like much. What’s her doctorate in? Bad poetry? Sad music? Scaring parents?”

“Emergency Medicine.” Fury glared at Stark while Agent Hill changed the display to a second photograph. “Assuming she isn’t a serious threat is both the first and last mistake you’ll make about her.”

The second image must have been captured in combat. She crouched down as though she just landed from a maneuver, the obsidian hood of a frayed cloak masking the top half of her face as she held a black longsword composed entirely of what appeared to be magic in one hand. Her other hand radiated with darkness as it touched the ground, ready to launch some kind of spell. Blood smeared across her jawline, a scowl across her lips as a pair of corpses lay in the background. Unlike the first photo, now he could see a scar that ran down past the bottom of her lip, almost giving her the appearance of a permanently split lip. A second scar cut through the outside edge of her eyebrow, angling out towards her temple.

One detail piqued his interest: of all the realms that Loki had visited, he did not recognize where she was. He had to give it to Fury – this picture certainly made her appear far more intimidating.

“She specializes in shadow magic—“

The room erupted as all the Avengers fired off questions at the director.

“Shadow magic? Wait, is she the one behind those shadow beast-things we’ve been fighting lately?”

“What does she want?”

“Is she working for Dr. Doom?”

“Did HYDRA give her those powers?”

“What kind of villain studies emergency medicine?”

“Maybe this will help explain things.” Agent Hill tapped a screen as the image before them went to a video.

Loki had seen this video before - it was nearly impossible to miss, having been plastered all across the news for weeks. A Midgardian woman single-handedly eliminated an entire swarm of the shadowy monsters that had plagued New York City recently, all while in a subway car. Somehow, no one knew who she was or the methods used to exterminate the pests. It was obvious from the video that it was magic of some kind, though it was different from any magic Loki had ever encountered in his life and it did not resemble anything he had ever studied. Though he hadn’t admitted it to anyone, he was curious to meet this Midgardian and learn her abilities for himself.

Of course, that was assuming she was Midgardian. There were many species who appeared to be Midgardian, though biologically they were different. Usually, it was easy for Loki to sense if someone was Aesir, Midgardian, or otherwise; however, no indication that she was anything extraterrestrial revealed itself to him.

No, this woman must have been Midgardian.

“That’s her?” Romanoff inquired, arching a perfectly groomed brow at Hill.

“Wait wait wait , I thought she was the bad guy, but she’s killing the shadowy monsters here…” Wilson said, gawking at the screen. “Unless she’s really crazy and likes killing her own, this doesn’t make sense.”

“I’m telling you, if she’s the big bad and studied Emergency Medicine, she’s definitely got a screw loose,” Barnes said, “and that’s coming from the guy with a vibranium arm.”

“This incident was weeks ago - how is it that we are just now learning of her identity?” Rhodes interjected.

“She is not our enemy,” Agent Hill finally explained, raising her voice over the incessant chatter. “She has agreed to help the Avengers find the root cause of the shadow creature problem and exterminate the beasts.”

Stunned silence permeated the room. The ticking of the clock above Fury’s perpetual scowl only emphasized the blaring lack of sound.

Loki could count on one hand the number of times he had ever witnessed total silence from the group; to see the group go from so animated to so silent nearly gave him whiplash.

“She’s joining the Avengers?” Stark’s disbelief was painted all over his face. “Emo queen Rapunzel is joining the Avengers?”

“Not exactly,” Agent Carter said, “She is coming on board specifically to help with the shadow creatures.”

“If she’s so powerful, why isn’t she already a part of the Avengers?” Banner asked, leaning in as he met Fury’s glare.

“This is a temporary arrangement.” Fury crossed his arms. “We struck a deal with her.”

“So she comes in and helps with the shadow creatures, and then what - she just disappears?” Captain Rogers pressed, “Don’t you think someone with expertise in shadow magic should be kept under close watch?”

“You’d be a fool to think she hasn’t been on SHIELD’s radar for a long time.” Fury crossed his arms and glowered at the group. “She turned down past offers to join the Avengers. Your mission is to convince her to stay.”

“Convince her to stay?” Romanoff shot Fury a wary glance, while others regarded the director as though he grew another head.

“Assuming all goes well, we want her to remain on the team after the shadow creatures are eliminated,” Agent Hill explained. “She is highly adept in both physical and magical combat, and she has expertise in stealth operations. She fills in some key areas of the team that have been lacking, while her versatility allows her to fit into a variety of smaller teams with ease. However, we need you to convince her to stay.”

“Dr. Amaris cut her teeth in a different realm,” Fury added. “She has trained with threats far more powerful than what we have encountered here on earth, and fought to survive in far worse scenarios. Her experiences and insight would be invaluable in our operations.”

“Okay, but if you had to strike a deal with her, that still raises some questions…” Banner hesitated, raising an eyebrow at Fury. “It makes it sound like she wasn’t exactly keen to help protect the world.”

“Her skills are far too valuable to not be utilized.” Fury glared at Banner. “What I was going to say before someone interrupted my briefing is that she is also an incredibly powerful healer.“

“How do we know we can trust her?” Wilson asked. “I’m no wizard, but shadow magic sounds like trouble at best.”

Barton agreed. “Besides, Nat has us covered in stealth.”

“You know how to make a woman feel appreciated.” Romanoff coyly winked at Barton.

While Loki wasn’t one to regularly agree with Wilson, for once he made a good point: this was something Loki was unfamiliar with, and at the very least it sounded dubious.

“Because if I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead.”

Every head in the room snapped towards the entrance, eyes wider than dinner plates as they gawked at the source of the voice.

Leaning against the closed conference room door was the subject of their briefing. In real life, Theolene Amaris was smaller than Loki expected - not short by any means, as she appeared to be slightly taller than Maximoff and Romanoff; she was probably the average height for a Midgardian woman. However, she was lanky, with elongated limbs and a slight figure. She carried her head high with relaxed posture, one leg crossed in front of the other as she leaned on the doorframe with hands loosely tucked in her pockets. She didn’t seem to be intimidated by the strong personalities in front of her, even as she crashed their briefing.

Dr. Amaris sauntered into the room, eyes scanning over each of the Avengers with a smirk on her face. When she reached Loki she paused, quirking her head to the side as the curl of her lips increased. “Looks like one of us might need to change.”

At first, Loki was perplexed by her remark. Upon a second glance, it became obvious. They both wore almost identical outfits: black button-up shirts with the sleeves rolled to the elbows, tucked into tailored black trousers that showed a bit of ankle, and black Oxford shoes.

He couldn’t help the snort that escaped him, a smile creeping across his own features as he allowed his shoulders to relax.

It was unusual for someone to make him laugh, especially on a first encounter. And to shock the Avengers in such a way? Well, he certainly was intrigued.

“It seems we have similar tastes in apparel,” Loki commented coolly, wondering about the nature of her remark.

Just then, Theo pulled a hand out of her pocket and snapped her fingers, instantly changing her outfit into a pair of ripped black jeans, a faded gray shirt emblazoned with some sort of sigil and the word “Queen,” and a pair of black sneakers.

Loki could feel the magic pouring off of her - while she was no god, it was apparent to him that Fury wasn’t kidding when he said she was much more powerful than she let on.

“There, that’s better.” She dropped into the seat beside Loki, leaning back and kicking her feet up onto the table before sticking out one hand. “You must be Loki?”

“Indeed, and you must be Dr. Amaris.” Loki offered a wry grin, shaking her hand with a firm grip. “A fellow sorcerer, I see.”

“You could say that,” She winked, returning the gesture with a firm grip. “Call me Theo. Dr. Amaris is what my residents call me.”

From the opposite side of Theo, Thor beamed at the sight of his brother being surprisingly friendly to the Avengers’ newest addition.

It took every ounce of self-restraint for Loki to prevent himself from rolling his eyes at his older brother. “Pleasure to meet you, Theo.”

“Don’t get any funny ideas with Rapunzel here, Reindeer Games.” Stark warned, apparently having already settled on a nickname for the newest team member.

Loki’s attention diverted to Stark, sending invisible daggers at the man. Even though they had come a long way from the distrust present when Loki first joined the team, there were certainly still moments where Stark got on his nerves.

This time it was Theo’s turn to snort.

“Rapunzel? That’s the best nickname you’ve got, Tin Man?” Theo cocked one eyebrow at the billionaire as she laughed, brushing a piece of hair over her shoulder. “I may have long hair, but good luck with trying to lock me up in this tower.”

“Watch out, or I might invent something so I can–”

“-- Then again, you named your AI system FRIDAY, so I shouldn’t be surprised,” She continued, unfazed by Stark’s threat. “Seriously, what the hell kind of name is that?”

“Says the person named Theolene...”

“First of all, I just told you - I go by Theo, not Theolene. Second, I can’t help it that my mother has terrible taste in names. Third, Loki’s helmet has horns, not reindeer antlers. For a genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist , you should know the difference.” Theo turned to the other Avengers. “And while I’m correcting people, I don’t specialize in shadow magic. I specialize in celestial magic, of which shadow magic is a subset. Dr. Doom is a joke, HYDRA wishes they gave me these powers, and my refusal to become an Avenger has nothing to do with a lack of desire to protect people, it’s because I don’t want to spend my time playing superhero when I can be more useful as a doctor. Although whichever one of you suggested I had a screw loose - Bucky, I believe? - was probably right. At least, my cousin would agree with you. He’s pissed that I agreed to this.”

For the second time in mere minutes, the entirety of the Avengers were stunned into silence. If there were two words that best described the collective response, “utter bewilderment” would be Loki’s choice.

“Wait a minute—“ Wilson blurted out, “How long have you been listening to our briefing? Have you been here this whole time?”

“Long enough to know you are just as skeptical of me as I am of you. It’s nothing personal, I know - I would be skeptical of me too! still, this has been enlightening.” Theo rose to her feet, gliding back to the entrance. She spun around, bowing with a dramatic flourish while flashing a cheshire grin at the crowd. “See you next Monday for your press conference!”

With a flick of her wrist, a series of black runes appeared all over her arms, flowing down her limbs like a stream of water. When they reached her fingertips, they rose into the air and evolved, surrounding her until she was obscured from view; in a flash of white, she disappeared, leaving nothing but a faint shimmer. The entire process took at most a few seconds, but the effect lingered far longer.

It was a finale to the encounter that was almost as dramatic as her introduction.

If Loki’s instincts were correct, she was just getting started.

And that's alright (That's alright) I found a martyr in my bed tonight She stops my bones from wondering Just who I, who, I, who I am Oh, who am I? Mmm, mmm...

#loki #loki fanfiction #loki fanfic #loki odinson #loki x ofc fanfiction #loki smut #(eventually)#slow burn #loki fic #friends to lovers #longfic #wemtbb #when everything's made to be broken

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pixiestein · 9 months

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my first meowlody & purrsephone designs vs my second designs

i usually don’t like to post my drawings but idk i just rlly enjoy the progress btwn these two designs. im gonna explain my thought processes but im sooo sleepy so bear with me & my rambling or scroll on if u want :3

at first i thought- they’re tuxedo cats, it would be cool to incorporate tuxedo jackets into their outfits! but yeah, i couldn’t figure out how to integrate fancy suit jackets into the casual styles that i wanted for them. maybe i’ll do a formal design w tuxes later but it’s jus not working for this one. most of my version of monster high is based mainly on gen 1 with aspects of gen 3 & ofc my own thoughts. so that’s what i’m going for here. i love meowlodys hair buns in g3 so i wanted both of them to have buns, one up & one down. g3 also inspired the doc martin style boots & using the yarn as shoelaces. i wanted to keep the stripy hair from g1, as well as have them wear the same skirt in different colours like in g1. & ofc the tuxedo jackets styled differently w different tops. as for the tops themselves idk…purrsephones was a bit thrown together based on the tuxedo theme, but for meowlody i knew i wanted a mock neck bodysuit, which didn’t work well w the tux look bc there wasn’t room for a tie. so i gave her a bolo tie type thing w yarn but ehhh. it doesn’t look right. i also knew i wanted each girl to have a different cat toy accessory, & a feather toy seemed like a good choice but i couldn’t think of another. so purrsephone ended up with those like, tube thingies that have holes for cats to play in? those weird things? she has one of those as an arm cuff & at the top of her boots. yeah idk why i thought that would look good. but anyway, i wanted more yarn in the outfits so i gave them yarn belts but it just looked weird!! i made the ball of yarn the belt buckle but it looks so clunky right there in the middle of the waist. they also needed to share more of their colours to look more cohesive w each other.

so for the second design i put the ‘ball’ part of the belt on the side so that the string is hanging down around the hips. & i thoughtit was important for the belt yarn to match the shoelace yarn bc it looks wrong for ver1 meowlody to have orange yarn in her belt & tie but black+red yarn on her shoes.

i eventually decided the structure of their outfits would be bodysuit + partial skirt with different clothes on their limbs. they have silver bands throughout both of them (main belts, boots, meowlodys collar & purrsephones bracelets) each band having studs that match their respective yarn colours. again, i wanted them to accessorize with different cat toys, but looking at the g3 designs i remembered about bells! duh. so i gave meowlody little bells-on her collar, earring, & hanging from her belt- because meowlody is the more mischievous sister & generally when a cat is too mischievous they put a bell on their collar to make it harder for them to hunt. idk why that’s what i thought of but it’s funny to think her parents made her wear bells bc she kept sneaking up on ppl & scaring them or smth 😭😭 meowlody is the softer sister so she got the feathers :P on her belt & earring.

they each have a silver earring & a fish skeleton earring, meowlodys black & purrsephones white. the soles of their shoes also have the design of ribs on the sides, which would extend with the rest of the fish skeleton on the bottom of the boot. the soles are opposite colours to the fish earrings & match their hair, with meowlodys white & purrsephones black, so the very top of their heads match the bottom of their feet. the toes of the shoes also have the shape of the top of a cats head. the fish imagery is also in the centre of purrsephones mock neck bodysuit, with a zipper down the fish spine.

as for the main pieces, both wear short bodysuits. purrsephones is a sleeveless high neck, with her arms covered by detached arm sleeves. meowlodys is a scoop neck with a high neck long sleeve shrug overtop leaving just a bit of space btwn the bottom of the shrug & top of the bodysuit. purrsephones bodysuit is orange with her sleeves & tights being white with black stripes. this is reversed in meowlody, who has a black bodysuit with white stripes with orange sleeves & tights. so their bodysuits+sleeves+tights are different but balanced. one has patterned bodysuit & solid coloured limbs, while the other has solid coloured bodysuit with patterned limbs. i try to avoid using a lot of patterns, bc i find too many patterns esp when they’re close together is just annoying to my eyes & makes everything look super busy. i think one of my mistakes with ver1 was not using any patterns though. i think the mirrored stripe patterns on ver2 are one of the things that rlly brings it together, both individually & as a pair.

+ just extra thoughts, ik their official designs have white stripes on their limbs, but i wanted them to look like real tuxedo cats, whose white patches are usually on the tips of their paws, tip of their tail, & the centre of the face extending down their chest. so those are the markings i gave them even tho it’s hard to see w their feet being covered & most of their hands being covered. also just wanna say!!!!! i just love designing monster high characters!!!! i’ve been doing it most of my life & it’s so incredibly important to me!!!!! that’s why i don’t usually share them lol, it feels like sharing part of my soul. but it brings me so much joy even tho my hand hurts & im sleepy, i rlly need to get better at digital art so that i can post drawings that don’t get ruined by my shitty phone camera😭😭 speaking of which here’s a terrible terrible guy who interrupted the photos:

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kozachenko · 5 months

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I RETURN BEARING DOODLES OF ZE KEIK!

Hello again! :D I felt like drawing Keiki because I had nothing else to do and I also wanted to draw Keiki again because C R E A T E !

{Artists Note}:

So I had some ideas bouncing around for how I wanted to draw Keiki, and the first time I went with a more robotic look that was inspired by BoTW. I also wanted an excuse to try out some stuff with collages, and so I used an 1800s drawing of a skeleton to put this together. I added a face and a head just for fun, but tbh I wasn't 100% happy with it even though I did like how it looked. I might wanna save the BoTW inspired parts for a future Okina design as I think the constellation motiffe some BoTW Sheikah stuff has fits her more (and I have adopted the headcanon that she has prosthetics, I love it so much).

Like ok, context for this is headcanons. So as I mentioned in my post about Eirin, I wanted to play around with the visual idea of gods in Touhou being very much related to what they're gods of.

So at first with Keiki I tried just making her look like a haniwa herself, but I ended up not going with that as I like the idea of her being distinguishable from the Haniwa she creates. So instead, I ended up going with a more cyberpunk aesthetic for her, inspired in part by Cyberpunk Edgerunners (no spoilers plz, I haven't finished it yet). It's also the reason why I did an alternative cyberpunk outfit for her (inspired by a dress I found on Pinterest).

I feel like the hardest things about drawing Keiki are her dress and hair bandanna. In the image above with her normal outfit, I had a lot of struggle with the sleeves, and I couldn't really get her hair bandanna right. In the faces I drew of her I had a slightly easier time, but still, it's hard to get it to look right. However in the alt design I gave her I somehow managed to make it look right??? Don't know what I did there but I actually like how it looks, so I'll keep what I did there in mind for the next time I draw her.

Speaking of her alt design, it was actually a lot of fun for me to do. I imagine that's her more "official" outfit, don't know what she'd where it for but I mainly drew it on her because i had a cool idea ok?

Also, on the day I drew her initial face render, I had watched Serial Experiments Lain and I think those vibes bled into the sketch version. Upon further inspection of the rendered and coloured version it kinda lost that but it's more to try out a different brush for my style.

Also also, I experimented with giving her earrings! Which didn't make it to the final cut, but still wanted to try it out! This also came as a learning experience on what makes Keiki look like Keiki... it's the hair bandanna, every time she doesn't have it, she doesn't look like herself.

To end it off, I think the unhinged Keiki face I drew for her expressions (since everyone I've been drawing recently has kinda all been lookin like varitations of this face -> (o _ o) gonna need to draw more expressions period actually, need practice on that) is now my favourite unhinged Keiki face I've ever drawn LOL. Expect more Keiki sketches in the future because I do love drawing my beloved blue haired blorbo.

#touhou project #art #fanart #touhou fanart #touhou 17 #keiki haniyasushin #doodles #art dump #long post #concept art #alt design

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gammagoop · 6 months

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here’s a kind-of-masterpost of the notes for my Last Life Fantasy AU !! i will add more to this in the future, but here’s what i’ve got now:

(its long so just click the read more)

General world notes:

Not really kingdoms since theres less than 20 people total but the various alliances do have castles/towers/homes of similar grandeur

There are fantastical creatures, but theyre not as common as normal animals, and none that the players come across are too extremely dangerous.

^ Except for the Wither! In which the Wither is a horrible decaying demonbeast that’s summoned by Grian

^ I’m thinking the typical Minecraft hostile mobs are replaced with things like kobolds and big rodents and . skeletons which ig are still the same

The Boogeyman is genuinely believed to be a curse in this world. No one quite knows where it comes from, but speculation ranges from ghosts to old magic to divine punishment

^ Those cursed by the Boogeyman become snappier, more on edge. There are no physical changes other than being visibly more tense, but it’s very hard to spot if you don’t know how to look for it

^ It’s also popularly believed that the curse will subtly enhance one’s strength and magical power, but also make them more vulnerable to attack

I haven’t decided if the members still have multiple lives, or if its more of an injury thing. I’m leaning toward the latter, in which someone is grievously injured in the place of dying (at least until the final death) because that also leaves room for life-giving to become healing magic. Perhaps one can only heal so many times before they become aggressive and combative in place of a red life? And different people are more or less vulnerable to that insanity

When I describe a person or group as ‘magical’ I mean that they can use magic at will. Any person can use magic if reading a spell that was written by a magic-user, but only some members can use magic without that. <— italics bc its important

^ The most common spells used by non-magic people are healing-related

^ Those with magical ability manifest it through instinct and will, rather than word-for-word spellcasting

Non-magic users can also use magical items, which are items enchanted by a magic user to perform a specific spell (ex. Scar’s crystals)

Fairy Fort/Shadow Alliance:

General:

Fae people. Generally humanoid-looking, if not for their pointed ears and shimmery skin. They have whimsical and nonpowerful magics

Primarily within a magically protected circle of dense trees, which is later burned down by Cleo after she’s betrayed

visually they are kind of 4 seasons coded… Lizzie being Spring, Bigb being Winter, Ren being Fall, and Cleo being Summer

Lizzie:

The strongest magic user of the group. Even so, she doesn’t use it to hurt people directly, more just for evasion and negotiation

BigB:

The boogeyman curse puts him much more on-edge than he normally is. He would have never thought he would kill a teammate, but the jitters and the pressure really got to him

Ren:

Can communicate with animals at a low level (not full conversations, just notions of instincts) due to his magical ties to dogs

Fiercely protective of Lizzie

^ Drawing on myths of fae: maybe he was once a dog himself but was transformed into a person by Lizzie?

Cleo:

Not quite a zombie but has ties to the dead. Generally just a green-skinned fae creature, but her injuries leave more prominent marks

The river over which they were betrayed is said to be cursed with Cleo’s blood

Team BEST:

General:

A team of knights who serve no crown. They serve each other and themselves, a tight but troubled group

This group has no magic users, but are the strongest in non-magical combat

They live in a castle which was once painted white, but has since faced some decay

They ride horses

Bdubs:

Doesn’t like to keep his helmet visor down because it obscures his vision. The visor gets torn off when he gets to his red life

Etho:

Wears a different style of armor from the rest of the team, both due to his own independence and his different fighting style

He prefers ranged combat to melee, meaning his armor is lighter and easier to move in

Skizz:

In the leadership role of this team, but by his own admission he’s not really their leader. He more just organizes plans and makes sure that everyone is on the same page

Highest in ‘rank’ and thus gets fancier armor. It’s not really stronger than any of his teammates’ but he gets a big feather on his helmet and a cape and some cool designs engraved in his armor :D

Tango:

Wears goggles instead of a helmet since he dabbles more in traps than combat. Pretty bad at melee anyway

Nonhuman but humanoid. Likely some infernal species? Not necessarily demonic, but he’s tied to heat and fire

Is more adept at performing spells as a non-magic user and therefore is always called on to heal Bdubs when he goes crazy (thanklessly)

Scottage/GGG:

General:

Wealthy in resources. Not magic users, but have access to various spells and magical items

More reserved than the other teams

Very skilled at less chaotic combat

Small but extravagant (artsy) castle

Pearl:

More combative than Scott

I gotta work the axolotls in somehow but I’m not quite sure how yet…

Scott:

Enjoys wearing more fancy outfits (cloak, gold accessories) but still relatively protected

Cleo:

Happily taken in my Pearl and Scott after leaving the fairy fort, wears much more armor then

Wears less extravagant accessories than Pearl or Scott

Magic Mountain:

General:

The most powerful magic users on the server (due to being wizards)

Not necessarily a team since they don’t work together much, but they have a wizard solidarity with each other

Live separately on the same mountain. Scar lives in a small-ish cobbly tower with lots of trinkets and hidden compartments. Joel lives in a cabin-like house within a small alcove in the mountain

Joel:

Visually more warlockish, but has no patron and therefore is a wizard. Uses his magic more directly and more aggressively than Scar– just replace all his traps in canon with spells (that mostly went wrong)

Not a very accurate magic user, but when he hits he hits hard

Evidence toward the theory that the Boogeyman curse makes you both more powerful and more volatile

Scar:

Rarely uses his magic directly, instead imbues his crystals with (often weak) spells for fun and profit

Is more of an accurate spellcaster than Joel is, but almost always uses his magic for selling and trading rather than attacking. He’s not great at combative spells anyway

Jellie as his familiar…………………thinkin about it

Southlands:

General:

Artisans and philosophers. Not as wealthy in resources as GGG, but they have a good amount at their disposal

^ Haughty A-HA!!!!!

Mostly unmagical, but it’s possible that Grian and Jimmy have some weak or dormant powers

Live in towers, similar to canon but more structural

Mumbo:

Artificer, proficient in small machines and automated farms

Martyn:

Philosopher who speculates on the nature of their world

Impulse:

Similar skills to Mumbo, but plays more of a diplomatic/negotiation role within the team

Builds larger farms and machines than Mumbo does

Jimmy:

Has a more peasant-ish outfit than his teammates

Proficient at building small devices like clocks and spyglasses

Grian:

More combative than his teammates

Astronomer, not as focused on that study as his teammates are on theirs

#last life fantasy au #life series #last life #masontalking #yay!#mcyt

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cuckoo-on-a-string · 1 year

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Hello, Mr. Monster (Three. Shadow)

Summary: Eros and Psyche retelling with soulmate!AU elements. Morpheus x oc/female reader

Master List

Chapter Track: "Dream State (Dark Day)" by Son Lux

18+ (violence, swearing throughout, referenced child murder)

TAGGING: Tag lists break my posts, BUT I reply to comments the day of new chapters, so you'll get a personal update every time you stop to chat. ;)

A/N: Very short chapter this time. Mental health is quietly shitting itself and making writing difficult. Thank you all for your patience.

3: Shadow

The Not Deer smelled blood.

It smelled her blood, sweet with sand, ripe with magic. And this time, unlike all the others before, she had not escaped – and she was alone.

Teeth aching to close on her living flesh, thirsty for the hot blood flecked with its master’s power, it screamed.

She’d fallen too far inside her little moving fortress, and it couldn’t reach her. It could see, though. It could smell. And wasn’t it wonderful? Fresh red bloomed on her face, filling the night with the scent of the hunt.

If it could get through the window or beat down the door, it could have her. Finally. Eat her all up and lick the fluids off the carpet, crunch her bones and chew the soft fat of her pretty brain. Then sleep off a full belly under a pile of last year’s lacy, skeleton leaves, as it did after every good feeding. It caught children who left the path and slipped just beyond their parents’ sight, drunk men daring the dark on a summer’s night, anyone foolish enough to put too much faith in their own skills under the trees when the sun went down. In a hundred years, there had been many.

But she would be the best meal, and the last, because word already spread that the lord was returned, and soon the Not Deer would be missed. Urgency fueled its attack, but its antlers caught on the window frame, and though its legs stretched too long for a deer, its hooves couldn’t strike the valley between the seats.

It rammed the van, furious. Grey foam frothed from its lips, turning the forest floor black with rot where it dripped.

“What are you doing?”

A century was not long enough to forget its master’s voice, and as it heard the whisper of eons at its back, shock froze over delight.

It stalked the dark long enough to recognize prey. It was not a deer, but it froze like one now with fate ringing in its ears. The hunter waited as the Not Deer came to rapid terms with its renewed vulnerability, and the nightmare turned, clicking, to face the Nightmare King.

The Not Deer did not have words. That was not how it had been made. But the king didn’t ask his question in search of an answer.

The Not Deer was meant to hunt in dreams, to threaten and rip at hunters who killed too many, to remind those without caution what they had to fear. But it feasted on living mortals instead. The Corinthian introduced him to the fantasy, made the cut in the nightmare’s mind that festered into fantasy, and when it had the chance, it left the Dreaming to hunt.

It consumed a young dreamer who’d left his bed to catch frogs under the full moon, and the boy had tasted well. So, the Not Deer found new dreamers to eat, glutting itself on muscle and marrow. Until it smelled her. Then it ate others in frustration, because nothing smelled as good as the one with his maker’s name scratched in her heart, glowing gold, drawing him like a new lamb’s bleats or a dying rabbit’s shriek.

The King of Nightmares simply looked at it and understood. He’d already known. He must have. It was in his nature as it was in the Not Deer’s to admire screams.

“You have betrayed your purpose.” The king spoke softly, and the Not Deer bowed, the tattered flesh on its antlers dragging along the dirt. “And you have chosen most dangerous prey.”

Dangerous not because of herself, for all her tricks. Dangerous as the mate of a greater monster, a jealous king with dominion over every night terror and the things night terrors feared.

Eyes darker than any shadow, hard and unforgiving as obsidian, the king stalked nearer. The Not Deer didn’t move. It had witnessed the Endless’s wrath, had seen others of its kind unmade, and knew it was too late to flee.

A low grown and the chime of shifting glass disturbed the dead quiet of the forest, and the Not Deer wondered if the king’s mate would wake. It hoped. She cared for the weaker ones, the creatures of the Dreaming that did not bite into the waking world as the Not Deer had. Even though it hunted her, hurt her, she may show mercy, may ask for it.

But she slept on, disturbed by other nightmares in the Dreaming, and the king’s frown grew deeper. His attention splintered between worlds, and just as her dreaming had led him to the threat in one world, her distress in the other called him home.

Perhaps he would forget. Perhaps the Not Deer may escape to find more dreamers and keep itself as itself.

Even as it began to imagine what it could chase, kill, taste with more days of freedom, the Nightmare King’s eye turned back to it, and he lifted one long arm to spin the Not Deer back to sand.

“I am needed elsewhere. I have not the time to return the tortures you are owed.”

It bucked while it still had legs, roaring and clicking as body, senses, and mind fell grain by grain. If it thought its master would return, it would never have dared. It did not want to disappear. It wanted, it wanted…

“And yet.” The king stooped to take a handful of the witch’s salt from the circle she’d made around her vehicle, and he sifted it between his fingers, thoughtful as the ash stained his fingertips. “Since it was her pain and fear you stole –” he lifted his hand above the half-formed Not Deer and let it rain down “– let her repay it.”

The black salt caught inside the nightmare and burned like it never had before. It wasn’t discomfort. It wasn’t an unpleasant, stinging shock. It was agony without end, and the Not Deer abandoned any idea of survival or escape in an instant.

It needed to be unmade. To stop. To forget.

Its lord did not lift his hand, and the legless, heaving beast of horror whined in desperation.

“Perhaps this taste of her power will satisfy you.”

If it had words, it would beg.

The Nightmare King’s attention had already shifted back to the Dreaming, however, and he paused only long enough for his shadow to swallow the wailing thing before moving on to where his mate’s dreaming mind called for help.

Then all the Not Deer knew was the darkness and its pain within it. Her scent twisted through the sand, and soon it summoned no hunger, no greed, only unbridled terror it could not escape. Not even when it tore itself apart.

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

In the Dreaming, the Nightmare King pulled her from the nightmares and held her in his hands for the first time, negotiating an opportunity to soothe her, to feel the places in their souls where they met, so she might understand…

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

She woke with something damp between her legs and glass studding her palm.

Spears of light poked through the forest canopy, glinting sharp through her eyes, into the sensitive spaces behind them, burning her retinas from the inside out. Rainbows danced in the broken window, reflecting in the shattered diamonds over the floor. The driver’s seat. Her clothes. She decided to wait before trying to move, get her senses together, give her head time to steady before she did anything stupid. Like grating herself like Parmesan cheese on the remains of her window.

She closed her eyes for a minute. Breathed.

Something was off.

Her mouth was dry as cotton, and her tongue did nothing to help her equally dry lips as she pulled it over the broken, peeling skin.

Damn.

She felt…

Confused.

Hurt from her encounter with the Not Deer, but also well rested. Lighter almost. Like she suddenly had more attention, more energy, even though she had glass in her hair and a situation she strongly suspected may lead to a UTI if not immediately addressed. Which of course led to the question of what the hell she and the monster had really done in her sleep, if it was just the wettest dream of her life or if she ought to be running for Plan B. She didn’t think he’d go that far without asking, not after he so carefully sought permission. And wasn’t that a hell of a thing?

Sought permission. Honored it. Soothed her and held in a way her waking mind struggled to grasp. The concepts melted in her thoughts like ice as she woke, dripping away in cool streams of sensation and memory.

He’d been grand, and big, and frightening, but he didn’t use his power to crush her, as she’d expected.

After so many years anticipating the worst, she wasn’t sure what to do with this reality. Where things hadn’t gone tits up. With a creature beyond a god who assumed he had boundaries before she even drew them. Where the worst hadn’t happened.

Her monster had made a riddle of himself for her to solve. She’d need time to come to terms with that. With him. After a lifetime of the darkest expectations… well.

Getting up, though. That came first.

She shifted, wary of the bad, bad glitter threatening an unplanned trip to an urgent care as she picked the best spots to plant her elbows.

Rolling onto her knees, she tried to crawl forward, but something snagged her foot, and she finally noticed the pull of a grip around her ankle. Her heart didn’t skip a beat. Her breathing didn’t stutter. None of the normal, horrified reactions burst from trembling lips and teary eyes.

She knew that hand.

Looking towards the passenger seat, she saw the desiccated arm vanishing into the shadows under the pilot chair. Dead skin flaked away from crusty patches of old blood, and misty black shadows curled within, ready to turn into nightmare claws to terrorize small children.

The fingers squeezed, questioning.

“I’m alright, Jeff.” She reached down to pat him, glad to find something as expected and faithful as the needy nightmare worrying after her wellbeing. “It’s okay. Not Deer still lurking outside?”

Two quick squeezes – No.

“Good.”

The bastard must’ve given up when Jeff arrived. Never did like an audience, and Jeff could be a real pain in the ass if he wanted to be. Pretty literally.

As far as she knew, Jeff was only the arm. Maybe he had a few more inky swaths of darkness he kept tucked under low furniture, but he never manifested anything past a bicep. He didn’t speak with words, only by touch, and they’d learned to communicate by squeeze ages ago.

Once upon a time, he’d been the first nightmare to find her, and on the last night she had a family, he’d clung to her leg like a shackle – warning her, begging her not to follow her curious ears to the raised voices outside her door. Ever since, even though he had terrible timing, she never doubted his intentions.

The touches in her dream with Morpheus told her a lot of other things she wasn’t fully prepared to analyze.

She hadn’t had a fucking cup of coffee yet. She couldn’t be expected to contemplate the single greatest threat to her continued freedom before caffeination. Simply unreasonable. Inhumane.

So, she shoved it out of her mind – again – and climbed out of the mess. Her first aid kit was in the back, under the narrow bunk where she usually slept. She popped the plastic case open with her back to the sliding door, the Not Deer’s dent poking into her peripheral vision as a grim reminder of the previous night.

Another nearly.

She had a strange relationship with death. Dozens of near misses over the years made the sickening adrenaline rush and following crash routine. Some people could schedule their periods in their planners. Some days it felt like mortal peril penciled itself into hers. She was afraid, but too often, and she’d lost the technique of it.

As she plucked a few stubborn bits of glass from her hands, cleaned the tiny holes they left behind, and bandaged everything up, Jeff made himself useful. He swept up the fragments he could reach in long sweeps, pulling it all into the fathomless darkness of his home under the pilot seat. When he’d cleared that side of the van, he withdrew and manifested on the driver’s side. He reached up to pluck shards from the cushions, and his fingers spidered along the carpet, seeking little dangers he could remove from her world. In the time she took cleaning herself up and shaking the glass out of her hair outside, the nightmare cleared the interior of debris.

“Thank you, Jeff,” she said as she hauled herself into the driver’s seat.

She caught her own eye in the rearview mirror. She caught her first look at the bloody goose egg over her left brow, too. Could be worse, though the swelling might get some attention she didn’t want. Rusty red flakes peeled away from the trails leading into her hair, and she tentatively poked the edge of the swelling. Like running her tongue over a canker sore – she just couldn’t help herself, even though she knew how it would end.

Yup.

It hurt.

She groaned, dropping back against the headrest. Fan-fucking-tastic. The scratch needed cleaning and antiseptic, which meant a stop at the nearest convenience store with a bathroom. Nothing like scaring some gas station clerks first thing in the morning.

At least gas stations had coffee.

Fresh air breathed through the broken window, washing the smell of fear and blood out of the van. She took in as much as she could.

She needed to go, but she wasn’t sure where, and going never got her very far without a destination. Her pockets had bottoms, and she’d hit the seams fast if she didn’t budget gas money.

Where should she head? What did she need?

Out of sight, Jeff softly grasped her left ankle. He hadn’t been so clingy in ages, and she wondered what the little nightmare knew that she didn’t. It wasn’t like he was a great conversationalist. Their talks took creative shortcuts – yes/no taps, Morse code, even a Ouija board once or twice – but they still chewed up time she wasn’t sure she had, and even when well-equipped, Jeff wasn’t chatty. He couldn’t help her work through this chaos.

Oh.

And there was her answer.

Help.

People.

She needed people. Folks to talk with, to lend her an ear and a shoulder to cry on. Someone to distract her, friends who knew her and would keep her safe from rogue nightmares like the Not Deer – maybe even help her pick apart her feelings over the star-eyed Endless and his… attention.

People. Friends. Plural.

Checking the date on her phone, she did some quick math and determined where her favorite group of miscreants might be found. Hadn’t they sent her a text? A few weeks ago? She’d been so consumed with the pull across the ocean to the Burgess estate she barely read it. No time or attraction. Now, though – different story.

Destination in mind, she put on her sunglasses to protect her eyes from the inevitable wind through the open window and turned the key. The van grumbled to life. Bouncing over the rough little road she’d called home for a few nights, she smiled to herself. Happy in the moment, alive with a little purpose and a goal to chase, on her way to friendly faces.

Only after speeding an hour down the highway did she realize what felt so off – the pain in her chest had eased.

Next chapter: Link

#Morpheus x reader #morpheus x oc #dream of the endless x reader #sandman x reader #hello mr. monster #morpheus x original character

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cassieuncaged · 5 months

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WIP Wednesday on a Monday

Hey everyone! So I’m officially back from my hiatus and decided to start a WIP tag chain early since I’ve got some new/different things I’m working on (including old stories I’ve neglected for more than year). Anyways, my current focus is on Baldur’s Gate, Fallout 4, Far Cry 4, and Mortal Kombat.

Also, thanks for the tag, @bardic-inspo , to share some of my writing 🤗

No pressure tags: @emotionalcadaver, @socially-awkward-skeleton, @captastra, @firstaidspray, @snowyarts, @reriart, @elfinbloodbag, @euryalex @adelaidedrubman, @chadillacboseman, @inafieldofdaisies, @carlosoliveiraa, @spacestephh, @galaxycunt, @unholymilf, @quantum-lover, @voidika, @illiana-mystery, @imwithyoutiltheendofthelinebucky and anyone else who wants to share writing, drawing etc. If it’s not your thing please ignore, but I wanted to go on a tagging spree since I’ve finally returned to this hellsite! Honestly really excited to see what everyone is working on :)

King of War - Chapter 2 (Pagan Min x OC)

TW: dictators, mentions of war, non-explicit injuries, language, etc.

Her head throbs as eyes slowly open, the blur of the vibrant world quickly coming into view. A flamboyant man sits across from her, picking at food she doesn’t recognize. Though the stranger in his teal suit isn’t what captivates her. No, it’s the panoramic view of the Himalayas, seemingly stretching to the ends of the planet from wherever they’re nestled.

“Good!” a booming baritone startles her, heavily accented as the man addresses her. Meg knows all too well who he is but hopes that it’s an intricate illusion or this whole ordeal is a dream. “You’re awake.”

“Barely,” she’s groggy, trying to ignore the pain radiating at the back of her skull and reaching for the knife kept holstered in her boots. Instead, he eyes widen to saucers as she realizes that her clothing has been changed as she sports a silk cheongsam dress with matching shoes. She nods bitterly. “You’ve taken my things.”

“Sorry,” he examines his finger nails before meeting her gaze, “I don’t like the idea of my guests being armed.”

“What decent dictator would?” she forces out a dark chuckle, hoping he’ll bury a bullet in her brain and end this nightmare. Instead, a brow arches quizzically.”

“King,” Pagan corrects her tersely, “It’ll do you well to remember that, Meg.”

“How do-”

“Please,” he laughs deeply, genuinely entertained by her confusion, “One of the biggest tech innovators from Silicon Valley disappears and just happens to reappear in my country. You think I wouldn’t know who you were?”

“What do you want?” she spits with all the vitriol she can muster, feeling the tension of sore muscles in her face. Nothing is said as he steeples his hands, mouth splitting into a mischievous grin, but he doesn’t need to say it because she already knows.

Everything.

Exploration - Chapter 1 of 2 (Astarion x OC)

TW: slightly suggestive, allusions to past trauma, dissociation, language, etc.

Memories were complicated, often tainting how one viewed many facets of present life.

At least that was how Astarion regarded his own. Two hundred years had soured his outlook on many things as life was slowly reclaimed. Autonomy, individuality, sex. All were concepts he’d attempted to relearn in the months after the brain fell yet struggled with greatly.

He was grateful to not navigate the unknowns alone, his sorceress lover still firmly planted by his side. Ilwyn was understanding in many ways others wouldn’t be, a flower emerging from the muddiness of her own past trauma. Not to mention how young she was for an elf, still learning many things about herself.

“I’ll be right here, my sweet star.”

She’d cooed into his ear one night after a particularly bad nightmare had destroyed his trance. Her body was warm, the scent of honeysuckle permeating her skin and bed clothes after a soothing bath. No one had ever held him like that, soothing and sweet until his rigid body began to relax against her. To be loved was to be seen, or so he had learned.

Wynnie was endlessly patient and understanding, allowing him to make choices for himself and to allow space when it was needed. Sometimes, the vampire spawn needed to clear his head, to feel the cool kiss of night tickle his cheeks and tousle his curls. If blood still pulsed beneath his skin. He was positive he’d be red as the fruit of a sun melon. How their innocent touches quickly became heated, motions filled with unbridled passion. How he felt himself drift away as Ilwyn lay spread out in nothing but slinky small clothes, her hand drifting to his breeches…

He deigned to be filled thoughts of his lover, to drown in her visage for hours, molding her body against in his own in a passionate exchange, kissing and licking and nipping. Yet, the young elf carefully rolled them over so he lay with his back upon the down feathered mattress. Dismounting herself, Wynnie rubbed firm circles into a broad shoulder as Astarion’s ashen brows knit in confusion.

They were together, melding into one another so naturally and deliciously. Yet allowing ruby eyes to shutter once had transported him into the hallows of the Szarr palace, stretched across crushed satin as sure lips collided with curve of a stranger’s neck. A blonde woman, a man with bronzed skin, it never mattered who was shared that damned bed.

Sex was a means to an end. Always.

Ghoulish Intentions - Chapter 1 (John Hancock x OC)

TW: none! (other than radiation i suppose!)

A gnarled arm stretches across the mattress as the ghoul wakes. Sunlight spills into the room, Daphne’s room. Though Hancock is shocked to find she isn’t plastered to his side, likely having awoken early to tend to mutfruit and tato sapling’s. Sanctuary is teeming with residents now, cul-de-sac walled in like a cookie cutter Goodneighbor. Yet, she enjoys playing her part in all sanctions of the town: agriculture, defense, even entrepreneurship.

But he’s happy that his mayoral duties are paused momentarily, enjoying life after the Institute’s fall. Besides, he rather likes watching his other half scuttle about under the sun that gently freckles soft skin beneath the fumes of radiation that never completely dissipate. Then he hears the rattle of an old storm door, booted feet clomping forward as he begins to dress.

“Hey, handsome.” Blonde hair hidden by the trifold hat that matches his own, Daphne rests her head against the doorjamb. “Nick’s back with a new job. Sounds like we’ve got a job playing detective again.”

“Taking names and kicking some ass involved?” he rasps out a chuckle, enjoying how the loving gaze that falls upon him like a spotlight.

“Likely, at least with Piper and Cait tagging along with us and the gumshoe.” She stifles a yawn, adjusting her general’s garb.

“Well how and the hell could I say no to that?” a grin spreads across his scarred face, inky eyes sparkling beneath dawn’s light. “When do we leave?”

Uneasy Alliance - Chapter 3 (Cassie Cage x OC)

TW: rampant sexual tension, language, etc.

“A truce?” Lavender eyes are unblinking, sharp jaw set hard as steel. “What the hell are talking about?”

Blue eyes rolled dramatically as Commander Cage strode into the meager set up. Her mouth, however, was shut for the longest amount of time since they’d met. Of course, when the turncoat actually wanted to hear the proposition. Instead, the blonde turned gracefully on the toe of her boot, not unlike a ballerina.

Under the right circumstances, Nyx could even imagine herself slipping her a phone number hastily scrawled across a sticky note. Right now, she had to resist the urge to cave Cassie’s skull in.

“Nice place you got here,” a quick nod of her head sent those pink aviators gracefully falling upon that round little nose, “Suppose you’ll be plastering some Echo and the Bunnymen posters up while you watch Eraserhead.”

“What’s your dorm look like, Barbie? Bubblegum pink with a closet full of Betsey Johnson rejects?” Nyx shot back without missing a beat, enjoying how Cage junior was bristling beneath the quick retort. It was clearly a long time since she’d had someone to engage in verbal sparring.

“Point taken,” Cassie grits, arms crossed tightly across her uniform. “You want to hear what I’ve got up my sleeve or not.”

Mirroring her stance, the pallid woman responded with a sharp:

“I’m listening.”

#wips #wip wednesday #on a monday #tag games

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subject-044 · 5 months

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Hi hello I absolutely adore your band AU!! I was wondering if you have any thoughts on the band's appearances, like clothes/hair dye/etc.? Especially given you've mentioned things past highschool

I rlly rlly want to draw these dorks practising together and want to stay true to your ideas :3

Hello I saw this just before I was going to go to sleep and then laid awake Thinking About It for the next 30 minutes so here I am!

Under the cut because there's a LOT!!

Richie

He layers just as badly as in canon

So in my head it goes:

Long sleeved stripey T-shirt

then a graphic short tee on top (which eventually becomes a band T-shirt nearer then end of senior year when Steph joins the band! (And when I design the logo lmao))

THEN a zip up hoode

I'm not done

Then a leather jacket he found at a garage sale (it's slightly too big for him normally so it fits over everything else.)

Ripped jeans + belt chains

He has one of those goth belts with all the metal eyelets in it

Boots!! He has loads of different coloured laces he wears each day!!

And ofc he has his blue hair

He has his ears pierced too- he has these skeleton studs and they're all he wears.

Oh and the green and black bracelet Max eventually makes when he becomes the band's friend. It's tied onto his belt loops every morning.

Peter

Pretty similar to canon in my head

He takes off his suspenders and bowtie when they practice though (he feels safe then)

His hair is longer! He wears it in a man bun because it made him feel more masc before he came out to everyone (in middle school)

When he felt more comfortable (and after he came out) he decided to keep his hair long and the man bun just kind of stuck

He gets an undercut maybe? I can't decide in whether that's good or not.

He had LOADS of ear piercings (industrial, tragus, three on each lobe, conch, helix) but he's too scared to get facial ones somehow

He wears dangly earrings in his main lobe piercing

After he makes friends with Steph and stops wearing his suspenders+bowtie altogether he unbuttons and untucks his shirt during practice.

(Steph almost passes out the first time he does this. She can see his collar bones. Victorian woman seeing ankle for the first time core)

Richie clips a short chain onto his belt loops "So we match!"

His yellow and orange bracelet becomes his hairband- you can't usually see it unless you're looking for it/it's in a ponytail

Ruth

Ruth was actually so so difficult for me to decide

Her normal style just goes so hard yknow?

I think she starts wearing Docs like Richie

But she just has rainbow laces and that's it she doesn't change them

She gets a leather jacket too and paints the band logo on (badly)

The band tee she'll wear but it'll be over-sized and half tucked in

Logo front and back babey!!

I don't know what else for Ruth so if you have any ideas please feel free to use them

Her blue and white bracelet is just on her wrist like a normal person lmao

Steph

Nose piercing Nose piercing!! She has a little ring

Her style is already SO SO good for the band AU!!!

She has fingerless leather gloves

She also has tattoos methinks

The beginnings of a rose + thorns sleeve on her left arm

And a shitty stick and poke star on her right wrist (over her veins) she got when she was 16- it's started to fade so she gets other stars tattooed on her wrist around it (one for each band member?)

She's the one who commissions an artist to design the logo, and gets t-shirts made for each of them!!

She, and Ruth both get the logo put on leather jackets. Steph's is proper vintage and is more of a biker jacket though.

She tries to convince Richie and Peter to get ones too, but Richie doesn't want to damage his jacket and Peter refuses to wear one at all (he won't wear the shirt either)

(She catches him using it as a sleep shirt. She teases him about it for weeks)

She cuts her band top into a crop top but she doesn't always wear it.

She dyes the tips of her hair red for while

But it fades into pink weirdly quick

So she dyes it back to her normal ombre

Steph's pink bracelet hangs from a hole made in one of her drumsticks. Her bracelet was made first (Max cried when he saw it)

Max

Max isn't technically part of the band

But he is their #1 fan forever and ever

So he has a shirt too that he wears to all of their (eventual) gigs!! The logo is a bit faded/damaged and washed out because he keeps washing it the wrong way

He has a scar in his eyebrow from when Steph punched him after she first joins the band (this kickstarts his redemption.) (Punchstarts?)

And he has his purple and yellow bracelet around his wrist!

I still haven't figured out how to fit Grace into this AU at all. I do HC that she thinks all music other than Christian Music is Of The Devil™ and she plays the flute but that's about it honestly... One of these days I'll figure something out

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