#i dont know which to use and will update when i see suggestions

[shigayokagayama]

incomplete list of weird/interesting manga-anime discrepancies

-you know the bit where they break into the girls highschool in episode 2? yea thats chapter 56. spliced into the middle of chapter 4. its supposed to go before the bit with the ghost family as a lead up to the mogami arc with mob starting to consider evil spirits as just as much “people” as living humans are. all things considered its kind of weird how well it fits its anime placement

-ritsu in the manga gets introduced in the same chapter as teru. you dont see mobs family at all for the first few chapters. infact i dont think his parents appear until like. chapter 25????? every interaction you see between mob and any of his family is completely made up for the anime

-in the manga during the claw arc instead of reigen sending them away all the lackeys just stood there awkwardly during the fight w the scars fdnjksndkjgnd

-mogami arc got GUTTED my god. the part where the fake psychics tried to murder minori got removed, shinras role in the arc got reduced to basically nothing, they move mogamiland ritsu to a bridge like 50 feet away instead of having him walk right over mob, mob only gets beat up like twice, the cat lives, the boxcutter bit is totally removed, the fight with the spirits is made a lot more abstract and less graphic. like im glad this one took the hit instead of the separation arc bc i cant imagine that arc ever being effective as one episode but wow.

-putting the “mob finding his family dead” thing at the end of the episode instead of in the middle of a chapter where it originally was was an objectively hilarious move

-rip the scene of teru outsmarting all three claw guys and saying “say old man have you ever been tortured before” unfortunately all scenes of teru being competent are not plot relevant and must die. also teru can make shadow clones

-hey remember those weird satellite people in claw keeping the viewer updated on where all the characters were in that infinite arc?

-mob with a gun.

-mob getting briefly knocked out while fighting toichiro and dimple possessing him then getting kicked out was replaced w toichiro just throwing him out the window or somethhing???

-toichiro saying that he only kept the super five around as spare batteries and draining serizawas power getting cut was a personal affront to me

-every single emotion mob cycled through in the anime got a 100% meter. the kid was super emotionally unstable in that fight

-that old man whos house they went to whos wraith made everyone asleep that they exorcised? yea they anime team made that up. they never went to his house in the manga, he just went to spirits and such for a shoulder massage

-manga reigen got 0 money for helping the yokai dude. it wasnt on the table. also most of the stuff he was saying was lifted from a video game serizawa played which he pointed out. also serizawa thought getting arrested was a type of spell

-takenakas general meanness was significantly toned down manga takenaka was a huge bitch

-in general the alien arc was a lot funnier in the manga? like the scene where reigen crashes they had reached a dead end on an extremely narrow path and were driving in reverse while tome and takenaka were screaming at each other in the back and inukawa was 5 seconds from snapping and killing everyone in the car. these might be my favorite pages in the entire manga they as so fucking funny

-originally when tome said she wouldnt keep climbing reigen suggested mob carry her with telekinesis (which horrified her) and mob said he was too motion sick to use his powers (obvious lie) but could carry her instead which got her to get up

-mezato asking mob to sign a t shirt for the psycho helmet cult in exchange for relationship advice got cut

-i cry every day that the sequence of ???% waking up didnt get animated it set a very different tone than the anime did. the anime was like. slow build up of dread. the manga was immediately bone deep horror i was literally sitting in my room yelling “WHAT???” over and over again at my computer as i clicked through it

-shigeo and mob conversation cut down significantly, all the references to the body improvement club being mob making a new self rather than embracing who he really is and being scared that all the friends hes made wouldnt like the real him removed </3

-the scene where reigen takes his shoes off is made a lot less somber and depressing. it feels less like “oh he knows hes going to die” and more like. triumphant? in the anime

-100% shigeo kageyama is an anime addition they added specifically to ruin my “the first time we see mob 100% is to fight dimple and the last time is to stop himself from fighting dimple” observation

-anime teru generally seems like hes in a better place than manga teru? manga teru seems very melancholy and like he doesn’t really know what to do with his life or his place in the world (which seems to put shigeo off) but anime teru is like wanna go shopping ^_^ *sips tea happily*

-manga shigeo deliberately threw the cake directly in reigens face and my fury over them making this ambiguous will last until i am dead

#maybe someday ill go through and do my simultaneous rewatch/reread #but for now take the ones i can presently remember #mp100 #mob psycho 100 #long post #pic

[mint-merriment]

things about the rhythm doctor act 5 update

just some stuff i noticed/liked abt act 5 !

note: this covers the new content added so there Will be spoilers! also i Just bought the game (despite knowing the prior levels through youtube hee hee) so this is from the perspective of someone playing seamlessly through the acts :)

misc pre-act-5 stuff:

i dont know if the 'simulated' option was there before, but it is very cool actually!

after playing 1-xn (act 4 boss), instead of the credits playing, paige suggests the intern take the day off. the screen fades to black and we are implied to have had a restful day before coming into work the day after and starting the cutscene with hailey and logan

from the steam page, i noticed that you have to play 2-1n in order to start act 5, so i purposefully didn't play 2-1n to see what they would do. (now that i think about it, this definitely is because the boss level uses the 'skip a beat' cue that is introduced in 2-1n's tutorial.) in order to let you know you need to know about skipped beats on svt patients, nicole blocks the doorway to the physiotherapy ward and asks you to go check on cole because he's got a bit of writers' block. it then cuts to 2-1n immediately so you can play it!

before you play 5-1, the ward takes the appearance of the field (which confused me a lil). after the level finishes, the illusion of the field dissipates to reveal the actual ward :0

5-1 & 5-1n:

in the level itself, the background sign counts your hits! other things are also displayed on the lights of that sign when its shown (such as the 'ready get set go' from the nurse, imitation of static during the rainy part, etc)

whenever you have to hit a "two" or "three" or etc, the lights that orbit the patient have that number of beams. nice visual cue there

the beat right before the cutscene where paige is startled awake by lucky, the ball is flung at the screen. even if you hit it perfectly, the animation that plays is lucky's early/late animation- ie, the one where his rotator cuff is tearing :(

speaking of. paige was sleeping/dozing off next to lucky to be startled awake in the first place, and throughout the level and after she notes that he might be feeling anxious

whenever you're cued for "four", lightning flashes in the background. this is just cool to me

in the second half of the level, the hospital ward actually glitches in and out! good foreshadowing for what the actual ward looks like on a first playthrough

5-1n actually starts with ian's hand as a fakeout- you might think he'll take the first few beats, but it immediately fades into the dream where our hand is taking the procedure, and transfers over to real life too

the miner actually has a single held beat in this level, with a unique running animation! foreshadowing his appearance in 5-3 intermission :)

"one slip, too late, three strikes, for me" I LOVE WHEN THE LYRICS COUNT!! AND ALSO IT COINCIDES WITH HOW MANY BEATS YOU HAVE TO HIT THAT TIME. (these lyrics also show up on the sign in the background!)

when logan says 'my hero would never hesitate to take his shot!', hailey joins in from the word hesitate. to me, it reads like he's said this a lot before and she knew what he was going to say, which is quite cute

the second chorus was from the trailer! which. is where they got it from probably lol.

5-2 & 5-2n:

5-2's tutorial has new tutorial music :0

the song itself is called lofi beats for patients to chill to, which is obviously a reference to 2-1 lol

speaking of 2-1, in the level proper, the part after the short cutscene between ian and paige includes that one piano part from it (specifically the part synced to the samurai's heart that ian is doing)!

ahh the classic 'i thought i was getting better so i went back to normal and made it worse' :(

i do like the snickety snick sound of the freeze cue! as well as the texture of the ice, it is very... cool B)

the tutorial (of 5-2n) shows the continuing friction between ian/paige vs edega, focusing on ian. edega is trying to push the rhythm doctor program to be something it's not really, which is just a tasty lore bit (i talk more about the story below)

...okay so 5-2n is sooooo hard for me, specifically me, but maybe also some of you. but it is a banger! and the burn/freeze beats are a very cool concept. (also the burn cue sounds very.. blacksmithy? it reminds me of that one forging minigame in patapon.)

the 'stage' thing is cool, introducing us to the individual concepts, before we get thrown off the deep end. very difficult, very fun. this level will haunt me.

i also liked the background ! oh yes and also: the mythical "5" cue :0

5-3:

5-3 is an intermission! one revolving around held beats haha, fittng for our second character- the miner! i liked the miner's reintroduction, and how his philosophy and views on life and his own health ended up greatly affecting lucky's viewpoint as well. as we see in the future!

the digging through bag to find things and multiple other random things being thrown out was very funny :)

samurai being at the other end of the bungee cord lmao

its nice that miner doesn't even know who lucky is, it makes their interaction a lot more genuine without the veil of 'fan' and 'guy who has fans' :) (even if it is a bit of a hit to lucky's ego oof)

i also really enjoyed the conversations overheard! cole not knowing anything about baseball players was funny, and mr and mrs stevenson reunion was so touching,,,(and also the birds hehe.) i love how they conveniently narrated it so that someone who isn't physically there can know almost exactly what's happening

this also really shows how much the hospital is a community of its own now actually. paige calling everyone over to see the reunion, even wondering where we, the intern finger, are. the doctors work very hard to make everyone's stay comfortable, and i'm glad that everyone's comfortable enough to be reaching out and finding this moment touching.

also speaking of which. its very funny and very in character that the reason mrs. stevenson wasn't moved to mr. stevenson's room earlier.. was that everyone involved forgot about it oops. at least the birds are there too!

annnd as evidenced by 5-x's pre-treatment notes, the miner's words seems to have really helped and affected lucky! good job!

(also. i got an s- on this the first time. dunno if you can get an s+)

5-x:

now. 5-x. the BIG ONE. god its so good but you already knew that

a preface for everything: the window movement is IMMACULATE. IMMACULATE I SAY.

the crunchy guitar chord coming in right as the screen pans up to the sunset-sky and the 'boss stage' fading in was PERFECTION. BY THE WAY.

i like the window moving like a clock! and sometimes, each tick actually ticks over to a different scene at a different time, with different people in the hall (but edega watching from that observation room at all times. unnerving)

the snapshots of people hanging out is also really nice, i like seeing that most have come to visit :) and also in multiple combinations! they are all hanging out :D

i cant get the blast beats perfectly, but i like the timing and occurrences of them- syncing really well with the lyrics/song!

"it'll never be a hundred percent. you have to make peace with that" this line hit me so hard. i have nothing else to say. its a good quote.

this scene is just good actually. it shows that the miner and lucky have spent enough time together, and when he responds to that quote with "i know... it's just..."? that speaks of understanding! and he was also spontaneously willing to share why he strives so hard, which lines up with all of his previous behaviors perfectly.

this cutscene also acts as a checkpoint; if you fail after it, restarting quickly returns you here! (during my initial playthrough i only failed twice, once before and once after)

SAMURAI COMING IN CLUTCH WITH THE "CAN YOU TEACH ME BASEBALL" thank you samurai you've done us all a great service

i really like how when the running sections start up again, everyone who was shown to have been roped in shows up in the next one (ie logan and hailey joining after the box of beans part)

also. the return of beans hopper! nicole's coffee throw being repurposed for baseball! cole and the samurai (who are of course friends since at Least 2-2n) texting each other! cole's "X" response before immediately after being shown running with the rest of them! (interestingly, nicole doesn't show up in the next running scene. maybe because she was designated as pitcher??)

also, lucky is running Behind everyone, the samurai is rolling/skating/thats his run animation apparently, hailey and logan are running together, and cole is running ahead of them all. fitting!

the team!! the people who were roped into this impromptu team include: samurai, logan, hailey, cole, nicole, lucia, hugh (farmer), miner, and the insomniac. thats... almost everyone lol. besides the birds, the stevensons, and the doctors

lucky's 3am thoughts were portrayed really well. imo, even though it doesn't seem like it, i believe that this game does mean something to lucky, though maybe this isn't realized until after the game. the virus kicks in here, and the screen movement is very intense here

glad they included him brushing this negative mindset in the morning to focus for the game though! late night thoughts can be very mean...

the lil graphic of the game playing out under lucky's heartbeat was really cute. glad they didn't go the 'intern, you must now treat Every Patient Here while they're playing' route (though that might be what is implied actually happened storywise rather than gameplaywise? through paige and ian's convo). ayo, hailey scored!

THE BALL BOUNCING AROUND THE SCREEN WAS SO GOOOOOD AUGHHHHH . fun fact the first time i saw it i was so entranced by the ball richocheting that i forgot i had to hit it. i think thats where i failed here lol. also, the parallels between the samurai and lucky here are quite thematic

ahhh lucky's final speech to the team! it resolves his feelings about his coach (whom, as we know, didn't think he could succeed in the role he wanted to play, but from whom lucky still sought validation from), and also helps him portray his own thoughts about his stepping away from baseball for a time to recover.

fun fact: if you fail between the game's start and the final speech, lucky expresses doubts about this being worth, but the players are still ready! they aren't backing down yet!

and of course. they win!! lucky refuses dr. edega's treatment, preferring to stay at the hospital for an extended period of time for his physical therapy :)

fun fact: i talked to the janitor after this (the janitor has some surprising insights actually) and while he was tempted to join the team, he ultimately didnt, instead deciding to cheer from the bleachers! thank you janitor

(also. this poor, poor local university team. they got beat by a cobbled-together team consisting of *checks notes* patients at a hospital who literally All have some sort of heart problem, ranging from some teenagers to people who have been doing hard labor or been incredibly sleep deprived for years. f on their part. but also a big name baseball player was coaching them, so that softens the blow haha. still tho. teenagers. thats gotta suck for them. lmao)

and! even though lucky hasn't been added to the credits (which perhaps the final release might change?), the roof where paige sings still has the net and baseballs strewn around :)

bonus 4-4n because it was also added:

spoiler: it was very cute. im glad they added it, it's very fitting!

the 'skip' cues were quite underutilized before, so im glad that they used them here (especially to signal that the characters were going to speak a short sentence, hehe)

NICOLE ACOUSTIC GUITAR!!! from all the way back in 2-4!! glad she's trying it out again :)

also its SO cute that she dusted off her skills because she was thinking about cole, perhaps wanting to make a song for him.

can't believe that when asked if they were thinking about playing for someone, neither cole nor nicole answered properly.

also. their hearts are beating in sync here. there is no one else to call the other heart's cues, the nurse is enough for both.

((sorry, i love act 2. they are so good.))

logan doesn't have heart eyes on hit, because hailey's out of town :(

leitmotifs!! i like the guitar from 1-2 coming back in for logan and hailey. and also the samurai's part threw in a bit of 1-1 too !

about the story+misc thoughts (this one is WAY more rambly):

this act is about lucky's struggle with his hospital stay, and also brings edega into the spotlight a bit more with the overarching story.

actually, this act is structured a lot like act 2 (which is. my favorite act actually)(all the times is SO GOOD OKAY) but only one person; it uses mostly two-beat rhythms, the first night level is a song with lyrics and the only lyric'd song before the boss, including an intermission, and a moving window final boss (with lyrics!). it also focuses on a singular (2 patients in act 2) patient's struggles for multiple levels, rather than multiple recurring patients for the levels, which i think really fleshes out said character a lot.

and i really like lucky's story! he was so impatient to get out, worrying about losing everything he had built for himself, but through the efforts of everyone at middlesea hospital, he realized that he could take it slow, that he won't suddenly be nothing if he takes the recommended amount of months to heal, and even if he steps away from the game. (i think his friendship with the miner was so good for him, im glad they brought the miner back)

as for the overarching plot, it brings the question of 'if the rhythm doctor treatment is really effective, does this make traditional medicine more obsolete?' and... the answer is actually no. in 2-4n, paige brings up that the rhythm doctor treatment only stops the symptoms, it doesn't treat the cause. and that's what she and ian are actually there for! (although paige does start to wonder if it'll ever get to the point where the rhythm treatment Can solve such things. shelve this for now)

we, the intern finger, are merely throwing a rope to a drowning person. paige and ian (more prominently paige bc ian is splitting his time working on the rhythm doctor program) are the ones actually pulling them back to safety- recovery takes time, and while some problems can be solved with a bit of rhythm defibrillation, Not All Of Them Can. in my mind, the ideal scenario is the rhythm doctor program supplementing a full hospital staff, but...

worryingly, edega doesn't seem to have picked this up, or if he has, he's deliberately ignoring it. as seen before and also in 5-1's tutorial, he's allowing the hospital to remain understaffed while pivoting towards the rhythm doctor program. he's pushing ian to make the rhythm doctor program do more things than what its meant to, as evidenced in the 5-2n tutorial, and in the pre- and post-5-x conversation. (and possibly more but those are the ones i remembered fastest.) ian has actually figured out what's causing the connectifia abortus (and what a shock that was, to learn that the program itself is dealing with inherent glitchiness), but edega making him work on other things is stopping him from being able to fix it. (ian also mentioned edega's plans for a 'miracle cure' which is. hm. worrying to say the least.) i am intrigued about the plan to distract edega long enough to let ian do his job tho...

also. edega's theme is very unsettling. make of that what you will.

if you're down here thank you for reading! tl;dr rhythm doctor act 5 update Good :)

#haha wow this was a long post :3 a REALLY long post O_o; #rhythm doctor #rhythm doctor act 5 #rhythm doctor spoilers #anyway. mayhaps i shall do this for the rest of the game. just little things yknow? buuut not right now (i have spent hours on this) #i was initially gonna put this in a single thing of bullet points with no breaks but alas. there's a 4000 character limit for a single list #hope this is coherent! #rhythm doctor tag

[hangmansgbaby]

Always Darling | 4 | J.Seresin

A F T E R A L L

Summary: The time has come for the elusive Uranium Mission. With Willow heading the mission, she has to make the tough decision of who she is trusting her life (and future with her daughter) with.

Pairings: Jake "Hangman" Seresin x OC!Willow "Vixen" Seresin, brief mentions of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell x OC Daughter!Willow "Vixen" Seresin and Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x OC God Sister!Willow "Vixen" Seresin

Warnings: none?

Note: Should I keep the series going after this? What would you like to see from this if I do continue it?

Apr 2024 note: I did end up updating this into an OC as I dont write my series as a reader insert anymore.

Word count: 5.3k

Masterlist | Always Darling Masterlist

Willow, Maverick, and Cyclone stood before the team. Willow convinced Cyclone to allow Maverick on the carrier. She knew she couldn’t make the decision without Mav’s input. 

"It's been an honor flying with you. Each one of you represents the best of the best. This is a very specific mission. This is a very specific mission. My choice is a reflection of that and nothing else."  Mav turns to Willow, motioning for her to step forward. “Vixen.”

Willow steps up as Cyclone speaks. “Choose your two foxtrot teams.”

"Payback and Fanboy," Willow announces. "Phoenix and Bob."

"Choose your wingman.”

The room was silent. Willow looks around the room, her gaze lands on her husband who nods, giving her all the strength she needs.

“Who are you going to choose as your wingman?” Jake asked.

Willow laid with her head on his chest, Jake running his fingers through her hair. “I’d much rather have you.” She sighs.

“I know, darlin.” Jake nods softly. “I think you should choose Rooster.” Willow sits up, turning to look at her husband. “I know, but Willow you gotta believe me when I say that if I trust anyone to prioritize you making it home to Elle, it's Rooster."

"Rooster." 

"The rest of you will stand by on the carrier for any reserve role that’s required. Dismissed." Cyclone looks to her knowingly as she nods in return. Everyone leaves the room but Willow, Hangman, and Rooster.

“You chose me? Why?” Rooster questioned.

“Jake suggested it.” Willow answers which shocked Bradley even more.

“I love Coyote, he’s my best friend. But I know, despite everything you two have been through, you won't let a kid lose their mom.” Jake says. “I’m trusting you Bradshaw, bring my wife home.”

Bradley nods before exiting without another word.

“I’m scared.” Willow says truthfully.

“Me too but,” Jake turns Willow to stand directly before him. “You are the best of the best, literally. You’ve successfully flown this course more than the rest of us.”

“It was one time.”

“And that one time proved that it’s doable.” Jake continues. “Now, go out there. Be the best team leader, do the mission and then come home. I will be right here waiting for you.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too darlin.” Jake pulls Willow into a quick kiss before guiding her out to briefing.

Crews scramble across the deck prepping the jets for take off.

"Dagger one, up and ready," Willow said through the comms.

"Dagger spare standing by," Hangman chimed.

"Dagger four, up and ready," Payback and Fanboy call.

"Dagger three, up and ready," Phoenix and Bob call in unison.

"Dagger two, up and ready," Rooster says after taking a deep breath.

One at the time the jets launch off the carrier, Willow head of the group. “Comanche, dagger one. Standby check in.” She calls once everyone is in the air.

“Comanche one one, set. Picture clean. Recommend dagger continue.”

“Copy. Daggers descending below radar.” She reports, leading everyone down. Everyone’s rapid breaths can be heard over comms, trying to keep their heart rates calm. “Here we go. Enemy territory up ahead. Feet dry in 60 seconds.” She takes a deep breath as the canyon comes into view “Comanche, dagger one. Picture.”

“Comanche. Picture clean. Decision is yours.”

“Copy.” Willow looks over her shoulders at the jets around her before making the call. “Dagger attack.” The tomahawks are launched and everyone watches as they fly overhead. “Daggers, assume attack formation. Daggers set. Proceeding to target.” She says as Phoenix moves in behind her, followed by Rooster and Payback. “Two minutes and 30 seconds in three, two, one, Mark.” She calls as she crosses the entrance to the canyon, starting her timer.

“Three Mark.” Phoenix starts hers.

“Two Mark.” Rooster calls.

“Four Mark.” Payback is the last to call, leading the tail end of the formation.

Willow starts leading them around the first curve, picking up speed as she clears it. “First SAM site overhead.”

“Looks like we’re clear on radar, Vix.” Phoenix reports when no SAMs are launched

“Let's not get our hopes up.”

“More SAMs! Three o’clock high!” Fanboy shouts. Rooster looks up, spotting the 3 more SAMs above him.

“We got two minutes to target.” Bob shouts.

“Copy.” Payback responds. “We’re a few seconds behind, Rooster. We got to move.”

“Thirty seconds to tomahawk impact on enemy airstrip.”

“Dagger, comanche. We’re picking up two bandits. Single group, two contacts.”

“Comanche, what’s their heading?” Phoenix questions.

“Bull’s-eye zero nine zero, fifty, tacked southwest.”

“They’re headed away from us. They don’t know we’re here.” Rooster calls.

“The second those tomahawks hit the air base, those bandits are gonna move to defend the target.” Willow deduces. “We have to get there before they do. Increase speed.” She directs.

“We got you, Vix. Don’t wait for me.”

“Bandits are switching course to defend the target.”

“Rooster, where are you?” Willow questions looking behind her.

“Come on, Rooster. Bandits inbound.” Payback shouts. “We got to make up time now. Let’s turn and burn.”

Willow beats heavily from the G’s maneuvering the course. “Heads up, Phoenix.” She calls as they come up on a bridge.

“Whoa!” Bob shouts as Phoenix clears the bridge.

“Guys, we’re falling behind. We really gotta move.” Fanboy calls.

“If we don’t increase our speed right now, those bandits are gonna be waiting for us when we reach the target.” Payback shouts.

“Talk to me, dad.” Willow hears Rooster mutter.

“Come on, Rooster, you can do it.” Willow encourages, keeping her own speed. “Remember what we were told growing up. Don’t think, just do.”

She doesn’t hear anything over comms until Payback’s voice comes through.

“Jesus, Rooster, not that fast!”

“That’s it, Roose, that’s it.” Willow sighs to herself. 

“All right, let’s go.” Rooster says as soon as Payback catches up, picking up speed again.

“Damn, Rooster, take it easy.” Fanboy shouts.

“Thirty seconds to target. Bob, check your laser.” Willow shouts.

“Air-to-ground check complete. Laser code verified, one six eight eight. Laser is a go!” Bob reports.

“Watch your heads.” Rooster calls as they reach the bridge.

“Holy shit!” Fanboy ducks in his seat.

“Shit!” Payback turns the jet to its side.

“Payback, you with me?” Rooster checks. 

“Right behind you.”

“Phoenix, stand by for pop-up strike.” Willow calls.

“Dagger three in position.” Phoenix’s voice rings through as they get closer to the mountain.

“Popping in three, two, one.” Immediately, the three are in their vertical climb.  As they reach the top, they invert on their way over before returning up right. “Get me eyes on that target, Bob!” Willow shouts. 

“Dagger three. Stand by, Vixen.” 

“Come on, Bob, come on.” Willow mutters as they get closer.

“Stand by. I’ve got it. Captured!” Bob shouts a s his laser locks. 

“Target acquired. Bombs away.” Willow says as she launches the missile beginning her climb out, Phoenix not far behind her.

“We’ve got impact! Check, direct hit! Direct hit!” Bob shouts as his vision clouds from the Gs.

“Dagger two, status.” Willow struggles to get out as the g-force increases.

“Almost there, Vixen. Almost there.” Rooster shouts as they invert into the dive down. “Fanboy, where’s my laser?”

“Rooster, there’s something wrong with this laser!” Fanboy tries to turn it but it goes haywire. “Shit! Dead eye, dead eye, dead eye!”

“Come on, guys, we’re running out of time. Get it online!” Rooster directs as they get closer.

“I’m trying!” 

“Come on, fanboy!” Payback shouts to his WSO.

“Nearly there! Nearly there!”

“Come on, fanboy, get it online.” Payback shouts as the target enters their sights. 

“There’s no time. I’m dropping blind.” Rooster shouts, getting his sights set on the target.

“Rooster, I got this!” Fanboy shouts, still trying to get his laser to focus. 

“No time. Pull up.”

“Wait!” Payback shouts.

“Bombs away! Bombs away!” Rooster and Payback begin the climb out while Fanboy focuses in on the target waiting for impact.

“Bull’s-eye, bull’s-eye, bull’s-eye!” They all hear through comms.

Willow can hear Jake’s cheers through the comms. “That's my girl! Woah!” She smiles softly as she flies up into the radar.

“We’re not out of this yet. Here it comes.” She says as a SAM sets off. “Radar warning! Smoke in the air. Phoenix, break right!”

“Emergency jettison. Dagger three defending.” Phoenix calls.

“Here comes another one!” Bob shouts as another sets off.

“Dagger one defending.” Willow shouts, launching her flares. “Rooster, status.” She calls as the missiles behind her go off on impact with the flares.

“Oh, my god.” Rooster gawks as a SAM goes off. “Smoke in the air! Smoke in the air!”

“Break right, Payback!” 

“Breaking right.”

“Oh, my god, here they come!” Fanboy shouts, looking over to see Rooster. “SAM on your six, Rooster!”

“Deploying countermeasures.” Rooster launches his flares, effectively blocking the missile. “Negative contact.”

“Dagger one defending.” Willow calls, maneuvering away from the missiles.

“Talk to me, Bob.”

“Break right, Phoenix! Break right!” Bob shouts turning to see Willow. “Vixen! Nine o’clock! Nine o’clock!”

“Rooster, two more on your six.” Willow shouts, dodging her own.

“Dagger two, defending.”

“Payback, SAM on your nose.”

“Dagger four defending.”

“Rooster, tally, seven o’clock!” 

“Talk to me, Bob!”

“On our six!” 

“Dagger two defending.”

“Phoenix, break right!”

“I see it!”

“Dagger one defending.” Willow shouts, launching her flares but nothing happens. “Shit, I’m out of flares!”

“Vixen, evade, evade!” Rooster shouts.

“I can’t shake ’em! They’re on me! They’re on me!” She shouts. Rooster slows his jet allowing Willow to fly under him as he launches flares, blocking the missiles that were after Willow but another missile comes out of no where, hitting the back of his jet.

“Rooster! No!”

“Dagger two is hit! I repeat, dagger two is hit!” Phoenix reports. “Rooster is down.”

“Dagger two, status.” Willow calls. “Status! Anyone see him? Does anyone see him?” Willow shouts. “Dagger two, come in!” 

“I didn’t see a parachute.” Payback calls, looking around him.

“We have to circle back.” Willow suggests.

“Comanche. Bandits inbound. Single group, hot. Recommend dagger flow south. One minute to intercept. All daggers flow to ecp. You have bandits headed for you.”

“What about Rooster?” Willow asks, the distraught in her voice clear to anyone who paid attention and Jake paid close attention to her.

“Dagger spare request permission to launch and fly air cover.” Hangman requests, prepping to get strapped in.

“Negative, spare.”

“Dagger, you are not to engage. Repeat, do not engage.” 

“Dagger one, return to carrier. Acknowledge.” Willow doesn’t respond. “Acknowledge.”

“Vixen, those bandits are closing. We can’t go back.” Phoenix calls, knowing exactly what her best friend is thinking.

“Vixen, he’s gone. Rooster’s gone.” Bob returns.

Down on the ground, Rooster wakes in the snow to see  an enemy helicopter coming for him. He quickly detaches the parachute from him before running in the opposite direction, looking for cover. The helicopter was quick to follow, immediately firing upon him. He dives over a fallen tree, pushing his back against it as the shots fired continue. The rapid fire stops but only long enough for the enemy to circle around and gain sights on Rooster but before they can fire upon him a missile lands, blowing the helicopter to bits. Rooster looks up and spots the jet that flies by. 

Willow spots Rooster on the ground, his bright red helmet sticking out against the snowy backdrop. She doesn’t spot the SAM that launches a missile at her until it's too late and it makes an impact on her jet.

“Oh, no, no.” Rooster watches as she ejects and runs in the directions that she drops.

“Dagger one is hit. Dagger one is hit.”

“Dagger one come in. Dagger one, do you copy? Dagger one come in.”

“Fuck!” Jake shouts, hitting the side of his jet.

Willow immediately begins stuffing her chute into the snow, trying to cover it up as Rooster runs up.

“You okay?”

“Yea, you–” Rooster cuts her off by shoving her into the snow. “What the hell was that for?!” She shouts as she stands.

“What are you doing here?” Bradley asks, throwing his helmet off as she does the same.

“What am I doing here?”

“You think I took a missile so you could be here? You’re supposed to be on the carrier! You’re supposed to go home to your daughter!” Bradley shouts at her.

“I saved your life!” She shouts.

“I saved your life. That's the point. What the hell were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t! Don’t think, just do remember? We’ve only been told that our whole lives!” Bradley sighs knowing he can’t fault her for that logic.

“It’s good to see you, Willow.”

“It's good to see you too. So what's the plan?”

“You’re telling me you essentially crashed your jet without a plan, team leader?”

“Did you crash your jet without a plan?” Willow raises a brow at him. Bradley doesn’t respond, just staring at her. “That’s what I thought. Come on.”

Willow leads him through the snow, using her compass to figure out where to go.

“So…”

“Bradshaw, do NOT do that awkward shit again.” Willow growls.

“I’m sorry I made your life so shitty.” He apologizes. Willow freezes. Had she actually heard him correctly? 

“Did you just–”

“Apologize for being a ‘spoiled ass little orphan’? Yea.”

“Holy shit. I never, ever thought I’d hear you say that. Especially after that first night here.” Willow turns back around to keep walking.

“Well you did. Look, I wasn’t trying to steal your dad. In fact, I’m glad Ice stepped up for you. At least one of us deserved to have some decency in our lives.” Bradley chuckles at a thought before speaking it. “Never thought decency would lead to Bagman getting married, let alone having a child.”

“He’s a lot different outside of all this. It's all just the ‘Hangman’ persona as I call it. He’s a great husband, and an even better father.” Willow says. “Maybe you could get to know the real him if we get home, play big brother?”

“Do I get to know Elle?”

“Baby steps, Rooster. You gotta earn all the trust before we let you be Uncle Rooster.” Willow laughs.

“I’ll take what I can get. So long as you two haven’t poisoned her brain into making me the bad guy.” Bradley chuckles.

“Nah, don’t worry. The brainwashing wouldn't go through her thick skull.” Willow laughs. “She got the stubborn gene from both sides.”

“Mav’s stubbornness mixed with Hangman’s? That's gotta be a pain.” Bradley laughs.

“Which is exactly why she’s a daddy’s girl. Jake caves so easily to her, she always gets her way with him.” Willow stops, pulling Bradley down into the snow near a drift. 

“What are you…?” Willow pulls out her single eye binocular, scoping out the enemy base they had blown up with the tomahawks.

“You can’t be serious.” Bradley sighs as the emergency sirens ring. Willow shrugs before getting up, jogging down the mountain side. When they reach the bottom, Willow hands him the binocular, pointing to the only remaining hanger with a jet still intact. “You’ve got to be shitting me. An F-14?”

“Dad shot down three MIGs in one back in the 80s.”

“But we’ve never flown one.” Bradley states.

“Speak for yourself. I did a 3 month detachment in one of them. Got 3 kills out of it.”

“We don’t even know if that bag of ass can fly.” Bradley tells her.

“Let’s find out.” Willow jumps up running out to the destroyed runway.

“Vix!” He whisper-shouts. “Okay.” He sighs before running to join her.

“There’s people everywhere, Vix.”

“Yea,” She looks around before making a decision. “Time to run.”

“Yea, run. Run.” 

Willow leads Rooster to the hanger, shaking out her hair as the run up beside the F-14, her military regulated bun already destroyed. She runs up to the control panel, flipping it on. “Once,” she turns to Rooster who was paying no attention. “Hey!” She slaps his arm and he turns around. “Once I give you the signal, you’re gonna flip this switch until the needle gets to 120. When the engine starts you gotta pull the pins and disconnect everything, okay?” Bradley nods and Willow turns back to the panel pressing the green button, everything roars to life. “Yes! Once I’m up, store the ladder.” She instructs, tying her hair into a low messy bun and pulling her helmet on.

Willow settles into the pilot's seat and sighs. “Okay, been a minute, huh?” She acknowledges everything's location before flipping a few switches and turning to give Bradley his sign. He nods, flipping the switch while Willow starts the left engine. Bradley runs around pulling everything off as she starts the right engine.

Bradley jumps on the wing and climbs into the back seat. “Oh my god. This thing is so old.”

“Alright.” Willow pulls off her gloves and accelerates the jet, moving out from the hanger. “Canopy?”

“Clear!” Bradley calls as the canopy drops down. Willow breaks in the middle of the taxiway, trying to think of their way out. “Both runways are cratered. How are we gonna get this museum piece in the air?” 

Willow chuckles as she gets an idea and brings the wings out.

Bradley leans against the canopy glass to see what she was doing. “Why are the wings coming out, Vix?” Willow doesn’t answer. “This is a taxiway, not a runway. This is a very short taxiway, Vix.”

“Hang on.” Willow says before setting the jet to full speed.

“Holy shit!”

“Come on, come on, come on. Needle’s alive. Come on.” She repeats, muttering to herself as they get closer to the water towers at the end of the taxiway.

“Vix?” 

“That’s it. Come on, come on! All right.” She says as the needle moves farther up the odometer.

“Willow!”

“Here we go.” She pulls back on the controls, guiding the F-14 into the air, narrowly missing the towers, only losing her front landing gear.

“Holy shit!” Rooster shouts again, closing his eyes. Once they had leveled out in the air, Rooster turns on his tracker, praying that the signal reaches the carrier.

When Phoenix and Payback landed their jets, Phoenix hopped out and immediately ran to where Jake was. He sat by the front wheel of his jett, knees pulled to his chest, willing himself not to cry.

“Hey, Hangman. Snap out of it.” Phoenix snaps next to his face, catching his attention.

“She's gone, isn’t she?”

“I refuse to believe that someone as stubborn as Vixen got taken out by a SAM.” Phoenix tries to cheer him up. “As soon as they send out search and rescue, they’re going to find her. I know it.”

“Hangman!” Coyote shouts, running onto the tarmac. “Get on comms dude.”

 Jake immediately climbs back into his jet, connecting to the comms.

“Sir, we’re receiving a signal from Rooster’s ESAT. But there seems to be a malfunction.” One of the comms technicians says.

“Overwatch reports an f-14 tomcat is airborne and on course for our position.”

“Yes!” Jake cheers. 

“What is it?”

“They’re airborne!” Jake shouts to everyone below him. “My girl is airborne in an F-14!”

“And we thought she was crazy for volunteering for that detachment.” Coyote laughs, elbowing Phoenix.

“That son of a bitch.” Phoenix laughs.

“Okay, Rooster, get us in touch with the boat.” Willow directs.

“I’m working on it.” Bradley flips a couple switches but nothing works. “Radio’s out. No radar. Everything’s dead back here. What do I do? Talk me through it.” 

“Okay, first the radio.” Willow tries to picture the backseat. “Throw the, uh… the uhf-2 circuit breaker. Try that.”

“There’s 300 breakers back here. Anything more specific?” Rooster questions.

“I don’t know. That was your dad’s department. Shouldn’t you be a natural at this kind of stuff?”

“I’ll figure it out.” Rooster grumbles, searching the breaks when he catches a glimpse of two fifth gen fighters below them. “Vixen, tally two, 5:00 low. What do we do?”

Willow looks over to see them before answering. “Okay, listen. Just be cool. If they knew who we were, we’d be dead already.”

“Well, here they come. What’s your plan?” 

“Just put your mask on. Remember, we’re on the same team. Just wave and smile.” Willow tells him. She looks over at the other pilot and waves before signaling that they had no comms.

“What’s that signal? What’s he saying?”

“No idea. I have no idea what he’s saying.” She responds to Rooster, signaling again about their lack of comms. The other pilot makes another gesture.

“What about that one? Any idea?”

“No, never seen that one either.” Willow glances behind them to see the second fighter move. “Oh, shit. His wing man is moving into weapons envelope. All right, listen up. When I tell you, you grab those rings above your head. That’s the ejection handle.” She informs Rooster.

“Can we outrun these guys?” He questions her.

“Not their missiles and guns.”

“Then it’s a dogfight.” Rooster says, almost encouraging.

“An F-14 against fifth-gen fighters?” She questions, trying to get Rooster to see there was no hope.

“It’s not the plane, it’s the pilot.” Rooster tells her. “You’d go after them if you were alone.”

“But I’m not alone, that's the problem.” Willow tells him. “It's one thing to risk your life, it's another to risk your’s and your back seater’s.”

“Come on, Vix. Don’t think. Just do.”

Willow takes a deep breath, contemplating her options before she jumps into action, maneuvering the jet between the two fighters, firing and damaging the first jet. “Tell me when you see smoke in the air.”

Bradley searches around them, waiting for the second fighter to launch a missile at them. ‘Smoke in the air! Smoke in the air!”

“Hang on.” Willow passes in front of the first fighter downing it.

“Yeah, Vixen! Splash one! Splash one!” Rooster looks behind them to see another missile. “Here comes another one.”

“Rooster, flares! Now, now, now!” Willow pulls off, free falling past the second fighter before falling in line with it. “Splitting the throttles. Coming around. Give me tone, give me tone.” 

“You got him, VIx! You got him!” Rooster calls as the missile lock chimes.

“Taking the shot. What the…” The fighter jet dodges the missile and somehow ends up behind the F-14, neither pilot aware of what kind of trick the fighter just pulled.

“Holy shit! What the fuck was that?” Rooster questions.

“Hang on. We gotta get low. The terrain will confuse his targeting system.” Willow shouts, dropping their altitude.

“Here he comes!” Rooster shouts, keeping an eye on the fighter. 

Willow maneuvers the canyon below with ease. “Talk to me, Rooster. Where is he?”

“He’s still on us!” He shouts. Suddenly the fighter jet fires on them. “We took a hit! We took a hit!” 

“Damn it!” Willow mutters, trying to shake the jet.

“Come on, Vix. Do some of that pilot shit.” 

“Brace yourself.” The opens the wings fully, pulling up to fly out of the canyon. She straightens out just as the fifth gen fighter flies past them.

“Holy shit.” Rooster shouts as they go zero Gs for a second.

“I got tone. Taking the shot.” Willow launches another missile but before it can make impact the fighter releases flares.

“Damn it!”

“Out of missiles. Switching to guns.”

“Come on, come on. You got him, Vix!” Bradley cheers as Willow lands a couple shots on the fighter. 

“It’s not over yet. One last chance. You can do this.” She says to herself as she preps to fire the last shots. “Come on, Vixen.” She fires on the fighter, taking out both engines. The pilot ejects just before the jet crashes into the land beside them.

“Yes! Splash two!” Bradley cheers. He flips a couple more switches and more things spring to life in the back seat. “Vix, I got the radio on.”

“Outstanding. Get us in touch with the boat, already.”

“Copy that.”

Suddenly alarms start blaring. “Oh, my god.”

Willow and Bradley start searching around them for the bogey but don’t see anything.

“Where the hell is this guy?”

“He’s on our nose.” Willow tries to fire the guns but gets nothing but clicking. “Damn it, we’re out of ammo.” She looks up to see the incoming jet fire a missile on them. “Smoke in the air! Rooster, flares!” Willow moves the jet into a barrel roll as Rooster launches the flares. “That was close.”

“We’re out of flares, Vix.” Willow glances behind them to see the jet turning around. “Shit, he’s already on us.” The fighter starts firing upon them and Willow deos her best to avoid taking any damage. “This is not good. We took another hit!”

“No, no, no, no, no!” Willow mumbles. 

“We can’t take much more of this!” Rooster shouts.

“We can’t outrun this guy. We got to eject!” Willow tells him.

“What?”

“We need altitude. Pull the ejection handles the second I tell you.”

“Vix, wait!”

“Rooster, there’s no other way. Eject, eject, eject!” She orders. When she doesn’t hear the release she calls out again. “Rooster, pull the handle! Eject!”

“It’s not working!” Rooster groans, tugging on the handles. “Vix!”

“I’m sorry.” Willow whispers to herself. “I’m so sorry.” She didn’t even know for sure who she was apologizing to. Bradley for getting him in this position, Her Uncle Goose and Aunt Carole for leading their only child to his death, Ellorie for taking her mother away from her, or to Jake for leaving him to raise Elle by himself. All she knew was that she wished everything had gone a different way as the fighter jet got missile lock on the F-14. 

Just as the jet launched its missile though, the jet and the missile blew. Both Willow and Bradley turn back to see an F-18 fly out from behind the cloud.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is your savior speaking.” Willow laughs as she lets out a deep breath, just happy to be alive. “Please fasten your seat belts, return your tray tables to their locked and upright positions and prepare for landing.”

“Hey, Hangman, you look good.” Rooster calls out.

“I am good, Rooster. I’m very good.” Jake laughs.

“Hey handsome.”

“Really think I was gonna let you leave me like this without a fight?” Jake asks, flying parallel with Willow.

“I knew you’d come for me.” She smiles at him through her mask.

“I’ll see you back on deck.” Jake chuckles before leading the F-14 back to the carrier, landing first.

“Vixen is downwind. No front landing gear. No tail hook. Pull the cable and raise the barricade.” Willow informs the tower.

As the flight crews work, Willow does a quick flyby to loop around, giving the crews more time, buzzing the tower in the process.

Suddenly, the F-14 takes a random drop in altitude.

“Please don’t tell me we lost an engine.” Bradley sighs.

“All right, I won’t tell you that.” Willow answers, laughing in the process. 

“Okay.” Bradley braces himself as Willow guides the jet to land through the net on deck.

The F-14 comes to a stop 50 feet from the edge and Willow takes a deep breath leaning back in her seat. “You good?” She asks Rooster.

“Yea. I’m good.” They pop the canopy and climb out to be greeted by all their friends. Phoenix runs up, pulling Willow into a tight hug, Payback, Bob, Fanboy, and Coyote not far behind her.

“Hey Phoenix, let a man see his wife will you?” Phoenix pulls back from the hug and Willow immediately jumps into Jake’s open arms. “Hey darlin.”

“I was worried I’d never see you again.” Willow tucks her head into his shoulder, legs wrapped around his waist. Jake held her as close as he could with their flight gear still on.

“I’m never gonna let anything happen to my best girl. Elle still needs her mama.”

“I love you, Jake Seresin.”

“I love you, Willow Seresin.” Willow pulls him into a deep, passionate kiss, kissing him like it's the last time. They only stop when their friends clear their throats. Jake sets Willow down and Bradley walks over.

“Chalked yourself another kill.” Bradley says to him.

“That makes two,” Jake smiles proudly. 

“Willow has five.” Phoenix says, ending Jake’s little celebration. “Makes her an Ace.”

“Did I ever mention my wife is a badass?” Jake laughs, pulling Willow into his side and kissing her temple.

Bradley, Maverick, and Willow had sat down to talk while the carrier made its way back home, working through all of their own issues with each other, the conversation ending in hugs and invites to Mav’s hanger being given out. 

When the carrier finally docked, Willow and Jake were the first off the boat to be greeted by Ellorie running towards them. Willow drops to her knee as Elle runs into her arms. Willow holds her daughter tight as Jake kneels down next to them, joining the hug to hold both his girls.

The Seresins held a small movie night at their home. Willow and Jake sat cuddled on the loveseat. Phoenix held a sleeping Elle, who fell asleep halfway through the movie, on the recliner. Bob, Payback, Fanboy, and Coyote were spread out across the couch and sectional and Rooster took residence on the floor by the sectional, all fast asleep. Jake took Elle from Phoenix’s arms, carrying his daughter to her bedroom. Willow sent Phoenix off to the guest bedroom and forced Rooster to move to the loveseat.

Willow walked down the hall to the master bedroom where Jake already lay.

“Hey darlin, ready for bed?”

“Yea.” Willow sighs, laying next to Jake as he wraps his arms around her. ‘I think I’m going to step back from flying.” She says calmly, barely loud enough for Jake to hear but he catches it. 

“What? Why?”

“Well not fully step back. They’re looking for new Top Gun instructors. And plus, the new position means I am more willing to consider that second child you’ve been wanting so badly.”

“Really?” Willow nods. Jake quickly flips their position to where he is on top of her. “You know, I seem to recall how many accidental tries it took to end up with Elle. Maybe we should practice a bit.”

“We have guests in the house, Jake.” She moans softly as he kisses her neck.

“Oh please, you got really good at being quiet the minute Elle started sleeping through the night.” Jake smiles against her skin, continuing his assault. “So what do you say, darlin? Time for baby number 2?”

Willow laughs, pulling Jake away from her neck. “You know I love you?”

“Always darlin.” Willow smiles.

“Alright.” Willow sighs laughing. “Let's get to work on baby number 2.”

“Hell yeah darlin!”

#top gun #top gun maverick #top gun x oc #jake seresin x oc #jake hangman seresin x oc #jake hangman x oc #jake seresin #jake hangman seresin #glen powell #hangman #rooster #bradley rooster bradshaw #miles teller #bradley bradshaw #tom cruise #pete mitchell #pete maverick mitchell #maverick #always darling js #gbaby always darling #hangmansgbaby #OC!Willow “Vixen” Seresin

[lustale]

Hello everyone! Thank you all for almost 50 followers!! :3c All activity has been on my main account @morguemaw, so if you want more direct content of Lusttale shoot me a ask about it!!!!

So, abit has changed over the few months and i have a update, coupled with info for all you new guys who found this blog!

1) AU is decided to be 16+. Its suggestive, no NSFW will be posted/shown as i want whatever content i MYSELF to post to be accessible to everyone within a comfortable range! There will be light sexual jokes, however if at any point it reaches too much, please tell me! I know the AU itself should obviously be considered a Explicit Rated AU, however i know there are people who enjoy the AU without the sexual aspects.

2) This AU is not a fan AU OR variant: This AU was made with the plan to 100% rewrite Underlust, i will explain below!!

Why the rewrite?:

I've loved Underlust since i joined the Undertale community, and others have too! However, the owner WAS involved and DID create content involving fontcest, a nazi Chara, Frans content, and was friends/mutuals with others who also created gross content like BlogTheGreatRogue and Lizherubones. This disgusted me and made alot of others feel the same. The AU was left off on a confusing as shit note, from the disgusting writing of Lust MTT to the messed up relationship between the brothers. I want to erase this the best i can. Alot of characters have also 0 content (Such as Lust Alphys) and although i will mostly focus on Sans/Papyrus/Frisk still, i WILL be creating content for mostly every character to again ensure the AU is fully fleshed out for as much enjoyment as possible.

Wheres the creator/owner?:

Awhile back, the owner, NSFWshamecave/Niel, left the internet and the AU for personal and mental reasons and bounced between owning and not owning the Au. They have since been MIA(Missing In Action) from the internet and AU, i doubt they will return or be involved at this point. The AU is considered fandom owned, which if you prefer that i support it, but do not interact with my blog as im basing everything on a rewritten POV with the entire intent to overhaul the AU without being too different or too similar.

What about the Underlust domain name?:

Lusttale CAN be called Underlust, BUT i prefer Lusttale to separate it as its alot easier, HOWEVER i have no issue with it being called Underlust! (Just still please credit/tag me, id love to see any content!)

What about fan AUs or others who make their own Variants?:

Keep going! I support these ten fold. Ive seen so many creative AUs overall, including a recent aroace one that has such adorable designs and is why i want to refresh myself and explain this blog to anyone new who might mistake me as a fan account. If you want to consider your variant a version/variant of my Rewritten AU, please tag me! Id love to see your AUs, your Varaints, EVERYTHING!!

HOWEVER. I do NOT support a single soul who ever uses my AU for Frans, Fontcest, or akin. Dont tag me OR interact with me, its public knowledge how the community feels about those, and im one of the many who don't like that content and wish for my AU to not be used in it. Self inserts, OC/Y/N x Lusttale, or etc is the same, id love to see it!!

What about Swaplust/Lustfell/AUs?:

Swaplust is also inactive: I have had my own interpretation of Swaplust since i found the AU when it was first made, Lustfell however i dont know, if its requested i will create something but i dont want to just claim every Lust AU out there. Not saying im claiming ownership of Swaplust, im saying that the Swaplust i want to make will be considered canon AU and it will be the ONLY Underlust AU i will ever claim, Swaplust has the same exact permissions. (Swaplust too had a very close Frans suggested ship, that is my reason for it)

To clarify if needed, im not forcing the view of me owning the AU onto every Underlust created content, im just saying if you yourself, the community, support what i do, i will continue, hence why i say tag me! I love to see it!

What about headcanons/outdated info like Sans being shorter?:

RN, Sans is the same size as Gaster Sans (i think 5' something?) however im fine with people drawing him short! ^^

Head-canons are also fully fine!!! Tell me any you think of, id love to hear. As long as you respect that i have my own plans, id be overjoyed to read whatever you guys think of or have.

So, to sum it up, Underlust has had a MIA owner since 2019/2020. Because of the history, and the way its loved, its a massive honor if i could step up and help give the community a AU with a solid backstory, solid characters with fleshed out personalities, and a structured plot that will replace something that was/is beloved. The best i can explain it, is my goal is to structure the AU but still keep support for the community as the AU was indeed considered Fandom Owned, again, you do not have to support me wanting to claim it, just do not bash me for it, as im absolutely not considering Lusttale a variant or AU, im considering Lusttale canon.

Questions are welcomed, if you have any concerns i can also explain! (Anon/Off Anon preferred so i can have it be public accessible incase others have the same questions)

#lustale #lusttale #underlust

[felonsmojis]

Inbox check? /nf

HELLO AND HAPPY NEW YEAR ANON! this is more of a general announcement but its also related to your ask i promise X3

it has been a while and we have a new Functioning drawing tablet, and since we want everyone to keep updated since weve gotten a ton of new followers we now have a google document listing requests!

to access the document you can click the link above or the one we've added in the pinned post! please use this as a reference for your requests so that we dont get duplicate asks :D

we will make something fun for our 2000 FOLLOWER MILESTONE (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) soon hopefully, but for now we'd just like to send our love and gratitude to everyone who continues to send asks and engage with the blog, it really helps us get out of a funk when it comes to this blog in particular and its so nice to know that people are just havin fun with our art!! youre all so very kind and lovely and a huge part of why we take such long breaks (besides life happening always) is because we often lack a lot of confidence with our art, so THANK YOUUU to everyone who is super niceys about it <333

our inbox past this point wont close ever just because its fun to see whats in demand, keep in mind if we deny your request its just not gonna happen unfortunately, but its not any shade usually its because we have no connection to a specified fandom or it could be too complicated. as an addendum we are more likely to do requests on the fandom list from our carrd, which has also been updated and can be found right here or on our pinned post!

please feel free send in suggestions for a 2000 follower (!!!) special event because i dont know what there is to do with emojis in particular lol

✧ dirk :3

#anon #questions #announcements #i mean its kind of an announcement

[trans-cuchulainn]

saw your post about reading a book in a medieval setting that didn't seem to mention christianity at all. i love medieval historical settings but i dont often find anything where the setting contributes meaningfully to the plot, or where daily life is faithfully represented to some degree. i know it's a high bar but name of the rose is the only really good one I've found. do you have any novels with medieval settings you do recommend?

i enjoyed the story of silence by alex myers for the medievalism of its setting. it is, as the title suggests, a retelling of a medieval text, so i would've been pretty damn disappointed if it didn't lean heavily into its medievalisms. in particular it makes a lot of use of the cultural christianity of the setting e.g. using paternosters to mark time, days being divided by services, knowing the time because of church bells, lodging with a religious order while travelling, etc -- all the things the other book i was talking about notably omitted (made more pronounced by the fact that i read the two one after the other)

could honestly not tell you how much i enjoyed the rest of it because my brain yeets every piece of information about a book from my mind as soon as i finish it lol. it left a fairly positive impression in my brain though.

there were a lot of medieval-set books that i read as a child which i enjoyed and which felt realistic to me then/when i've reread them, but i don't know how they'd hold up compared to modern research! e.g. i loved the load of unicorn by cynthia harnett, and rosemary sutcliff is always a good time

i don't know of many other recent publications (esp. adult fiction) that have a strongly medieval setting that aren't also a retelling of a medieval text though, but that is partly because i have avoided reading quite a lot of pseudomedieval books because so many of them have caused me suffering. i also don't read a lot of Pure Historical novels like your bernard cornwells or whatever, i'm not really into big chunky novels about real historical events, i want pacey genre fiction in a medieval setting if that makes sense. but probably there are some better-researched books in that genre for the purely medieval details

the book i was vagueing about was a "historical" romance novel that had clearly been a fantasy romance novel at some point earlier in its life (judging by the acknowledgments) which the author had retrospectively attempted to set in the fourteenth century with what seemed like almost zero research into what material culture and everyday life in the fourteenth century would be like, let alone how people would experience and express emotions

tbh it was massively disappointing because so many historical romance novelists put a shitton of research into their regency/victorian romance novels and i wish we could have a medieval romance novel that did the same instead of half-arsing it! or i wish that author had left their book as a fantasy romance novel so that i could have still enjoyed everything else about it :( alas. i will just continue to think resentful thoughts in the direction of that book whenever i see it in shops or in rec lists lol

oh ETA: it's ages since I read it but I remember Hild being pretty solid for early medieval vibes? and the sequel just came out so I will probably try to reread it at some point and give an updated opinion

#i would categorically not recommend it to medievalists but people who don't care at all about medieval history might enjoy it? i guess? #except it depends if their not-caring extends to pseudomedieval settings being uninteresting to them. hmm. #and no before anyone asks in the notes i will not be naming it #i don't tend to give titles of books i'm bitching about even though it is no longer a super new release as it was when i first posted about #it (whoops tag too long) #needless to say there are few enough books matching this description that you could probably figure it out with some strategic googling #answered #hechizoh

[hornsketch]

hey there! ive finally made an art blog! im going to try post more just… stuff, as usually i reserve my art posts for either special occaisions or specifically public-oriented works, and it kinda bums me out to not just have a place to dump my art anymore, so here you go!

(more details and helpful info below!)

who are you?

in hopes of providing some relevant lenses to view my work through, ill give some personal details here. if these lenses dont suit your interpretation of the work, thats alright! view as you please, though i do still think these will always be important context in said viewings.

my name is zelda (she/her) and im a queer jewish 20something who struggles quite a bit with illness both physical and mental.

ive always been kind of enthralled by impressionism and what it really means to use suggestion and spirit as a stronger tool than portrayal and form.

i have a particular draw to fantasy and magical aesthetics, especially the world-building within.

i am a serial overthinker, and tend to see alot of meaning and symbolism in things that plainly do not have them.

while yes i am jewish, my relation to faith is complicated. if you see me type “god” im using it in a turn of phrase with no meaning. if you see me type out “g-d” i am being religious. yes i know thats not how its supposed to work. its meaningful to me.

what will you post?

as previously mentioned, here im trying to make a concerted effort to post a broader variety of things with a wide selection in quality and topic, so unfortunately here the only real uniting theme is going to have to be that i made it. still! to help navigate the space, listed below will be a list of tags i will try to keep to, all of which this post will also be tagged as, since i know tumblr search can be finicky.

#the self and the other

these will be about me, my friends and loved ones, or possibly both

#differing mediums

these pertain to other works or universes, as well as fan content

#harsh tones

this is gonna be the rough stuff. topics will be tagged as needed.

#jaunty doodles

funny business. shenanigans, even.

#lesssfw

listen this blog is for a wide breadth of content, so please if you do not want to, or otherwise should not be seeing mild to moderate nsfw content (i dont rlly plan on posting straight up porn here) block this tag.

do you take commissions?

yeah, usually. im not really at the point where i have to close and open them for availability reasons, so shoot me a dm and ill usually be able to give you a response pretty quick on.

price tends to vary by project, and i always set $20 per hour of canvas time as my baseline, but generally simpler stuff like limited detail icons and emojis run in the $20-$30 range, while fully detailed halfbodies tend to run in the $40-$50 range, and fully done fullbodies range more $70-$80. aside from that, backgrounds are a little too context dependent to put a full price estimate on and extra characters can and will cost extra.

usually whatll happen is after laying out the basic price range we’ll talk, and ill thumbnail until we have smth we can agree on, and once weve got an idea of what were going for ill give an estimate that ill try to stick close to, barring any major changes or complications. from then on ill try to send updates whenever i work, and then when im relatively close to finished ill ask for the payment either through paypal or cashapp, after which ill send on the finished piece and any expected variations. in some cases, this may be changed, and payment may be done half at the start, and half when relatively close to completion.

#the self and the other #differing mediums #harsh tones #jaunty doodles #lesssfw #the amazing moving picture

[olreid]

hi! a while ago you made a post somewhat about how strongly disability changes the “self”; things and interests and activities that you conceive of of as core to your being become impossible and no longer can be, etc. it really stuck in my head as a concept which i hadn’t been able to fully wrap my head around previously, and i was wondering if you happen to know of any more lengthy readings on that concept? thanks!

hi i was trying to wait to answer this until i had the energy to do a look through my materials to see if i could find anything but im having a TERRIBLE health week and it's not looking like it'll happen anytime soon. so, short answer: i dont know of anything off the top of my head that i havent already recced here before (i do think the body in pain and zoe belinsky's essay deal with this but im assuming you already know about those).

i also recently read you only live twice: sex, death, and transition by chase joynt and mike hoolbloom, which is a book of letters between two men, one who is hiv+ and one who is trans, about the "second life" that happens after the symbolic death of near-fatal illness or transition. it wasn't so good that i would highly rec it or recommend buying it but it was relevant to this topic so maybe a pdf of that could be useful? similarly, the terrible we by cameron awkward-rich has some writing about this idea in the context of transition that i found useful. in general i know of more trans authors talking about this but maybe that's just a reflection of my reading habits!

another place you might look is in activist affordances by arseli dokumaci, which i think is a relatively recent release; she talks about shrinkage that disability and ableism produce, and although my impression is that she means more in the sense of shrinking access in the physical sense, it's possible that the discussion is more expansive. i literally have not read it yet so i cant say either way!

there r possibly some additional materials in my library or files that might be relevant but it would require more pointed research so i'm gonna just file this away and make a point to post/update you on anything i find related to this question when i eventually get around to it! and of course maybe someone else will have thoughts and can reply with a suggestion .

#asks #gideonthefirst #ill-made knight

[morningstar-warriors]

Game Eleven

Thoughts and Development

I started recording the sessions, we all play online so I figured, why not! It'd be easy to show folks what they missed if they couldn't make it, or look back on mechanical moments that felt flawed. Plus it's very easy to now find direct quotes from players which is cool!

Aside from this another large development is a new player, Button. He is playing a cat called Ashwind, and plans on making occasional appearances here and there. Button is helping me develop a new kind of Stoneteller, he's into playing Warlocks in D&D so he got me to thinking on how we could make a cat warlock that would make sense in the Warriors world. Right now we're going with a necromancer vibe for his cat, and I'm excited to update the Stoneteller post with our more fleshed out concept.

Present issues that I plan on tackling --

Ability Scores

These guys are kinda... Just there. I honestly don't know what to do with them, they feel irrelevant to how the game works at this time. I may go about adding them to dice rolls for skill checks, or scrapping them all together. In the original game, ability scores were actually meant to represent how much chips you had, but Bug and I didn't like this, it didn't feel very customizable when it came to knacks.

Skills and Dice

So there are 5 points you can have in each skill. I've been playing this in a way where, you add that to your dice roll. Which the standard role in my game is, a 2d6. So if you have 4 points in a skill, it's 2d6+4. Another test player group recommended to me that this could instead be a die pool, so it physically feels like you have more. Visual progression. Aside from dice, I realize game wise, I need to have a better grasp of the skills. Sometimes I feel like some things are... Missing from them? I still can't quite place it though. Like there are some things my dnd brain wishes there were rolls for, but I feel like if I keep refreshing my understanding of the skills that part of me would melt away. I don't think it's necessary to have a million skills, and its important in a cat game to feel like... A cat. An animal. So I think these skills are very important as is for now.

The Knack Problem

There are so so so many knacks. I'm not even sure if knacks are the route I'd like to go anymore. Or at the very least they need a lot of restructuring. I was suggested knacks that cost more chips should be higher level. Since at level 1, you dont have many chips to spare. I think thats wise. Alternatively I could give knacks the "At higher level" treatment, and state that certain actions you could take through the knack cost more/are more effective with the use of more chips. For now I don't know, I can also see the concept of knacks disappearing and becoming something else. I like the physicality of the chips though.

Misc Chips... BOOOOO

So these are dead to me. Way too confusing HAHA! I'm thinking so far everything starts off as a point buy. So you just get 5 chips, put them anywhere its up to you. but no holding onto empty chips, I feel like that just confuses people. My second test player group didnt get it at all and my first one is struggling with it as well. Third group I chose to ignore the idea aaaand that went way smoother lol.

Damage and Health

So I'm debating switching from a number based HP to concepts like Apocalypse or Monster of the Week, where you just have points of "Hurt" rather than a number that slowly dwindles. This would lead to a large restructure of many things I think, so I'm kinda nervous to tackle this right now, but considering my issues around ability scores and knacks, I think this is a necessary path to take. I'll start researching these games further and probably start making the changes once I feel satisfied with the remaining parts of V. 1 that need finishing. Which is Leveling, and the Leader Code.

Beginner and Child Friendliness

So a few times in here I mentioned some math. Adding the ability scores, dice pooling. These things were fun suggestions, but my test player groups also mentioned that the less math, the more player friendly. I know as a kid the idea of a game like D&D sounded fun, but making a character was a dreadfully boring behemoth. I know not all children are opposed to complex ideas and some adding and subtraction, but I do know that most people play role-playing games for the role-play. That's something I want to prioritize in my development. I will say I'm proud of how easy it seems for my test groups to make characters, and learn how to play. I'm glad my writing and guidance is competent.

#games #warrior cats adventure game

[chaudharis]

hey ! would YOU like to know more abt him? awesome because im gonna dump my design notes and lore notes for him here for funsies! i just wanted to make an info post for him! thank you for reading if you do!

its a bit of a long one btw, so apologies for thwt. i am very much open to ideas and suggestions for developing this little. interpretation? au? whatever you might call this. feel free to play around with him as u like hes not my oc :^] just a fun idea

DESIGN NOTES:

i want to make it clear most of the design stuff is bc i thought it was cool. then i bullshit my reasoning behind it. remember this.

i also dont know how exactly to organize this so smth more lore related might be in the design section and vise versa. i dont care enough to make this better

also design is still very subject to change because i enjoy constantly fiddling with things. fun! might update if its different enough.

uses mostly reds/purples to directly complement athetos's greens and blues. trace takes comfort in this, for the most part.

just a fun idea but i rhink its neat to have traces Not Human-ness be biological, to contrast with indras being entirely technological/robotic. adds to their parallels. (and both of them being physical at all is a parallel to hammond being fucking dead /j)

wonder why his mouth has those faint marks at the corners? because it can do this now!

why you might ask? i dont know. ask someone else. i thiught it was cool. the orange line on #3 is supposed to indicate where his mouth normally wouldve ended. so he has a wider mouth technically!

hes much more movement based now! since this also acts as a fun idea for what if in a future av game(s) we got gameplay that was even more abt the movement. so hes pretty good at parkour now. specifically climbing. ive been imagining he moves a lot like u do in celeste, except probably more stamina and faster climbing. less focus on dashing. but he can air dash too!

he has his gun i promise he has the gun i just dont like drawing it it sucks to draw

yea so he is covered in carapace, since ive had to scrap that with a different chatacter (if you know, you know) i get to put it on the same character but in a different direction. i can do whatever i want forever.

size comparison over his weird. tentacle things idk what ud call them exactly. they got bigger because i can do anything. also bc when i originally drew them i didnt look up a ref (i rarely use refs for charas and prefer to go off of memory unless i need to) and so i was like ok so thwyre big right? right. well turns out theyre not. but guess what. now they are. it is so awesome for him

for funsies i think trace can put stupid shit in his hair. its a tangled mess stuff will very easily stay in there. he hasnt brushed it in years man. he always forgets what he puts in there btw so its always a surprise for him

oh also his labcoat also is Different but i cant figure out what hed have that isnt already in av1. so imagine he does smth new WOW WOW SO COOL !

LORE NOTES:

this whole hashtag Look is either from the original bioflux mutation getting worse or a few different ones. i havent decided which one i wanna go with. either way this is a gradual change. it will get worse!

see i dont have much for What hes doing because i dont have any ideas for what the rusalki are doing now so thats very much up in the air. all i have rn is that hes helping them somehow. not of his own choice really.

has a very. Not Great relationship with the rusalki. hes incredibly bitter about his situation (lack of any real control) and so. well they arent besties. hes a lot more snarky and rude to them. which is fair i think how would you feel in a situation like that huh. not so great huh.

his best friend is oracca bc shes the only person who hasnt lied to him and has only been helpful and he loves to chill with her. she never speaks or does much of anything but thats fine with trace, he doesnt mind. likes to do the rubber duck thing with her (says thing out loud to pin point whats wrong with whatever hes working on). she also doesnt mind id like to think

hes. a little more aggressive but as a defense mechanism. hes in hostile territory all the time and under incredible stress all the time, can you blame him realky? stress can make people aggressive, it turns out. crazy.

also with this, i say hes more aggressive but hes just more all bark no bite. hes like this

but if you take like, anothwr step closer hes like this

see. hes still kind of a weenie dw. i understand

he really wants to be kinder again. but hes not in a situation where he can. this kills him

also! heavy unreality issues. this is what happens when you spend months if not years thinking ur living ur life as usual until it gets revealed actually you were in a dream simulation the whole time. unrelated but i think he hates the movie inception.

the unreality is still a massive issue but he copes with it by after so long just going "ok well ill just assume Everything is a dream no matter what because the opposite would be horrifying and i have no evidence that disproves this. but i can act like i dont think this on the off chance rhat it is real. but i know its not"

doesnt come up much at all because hes not ever around someone New but he is pretty self conscious about how he is now. i think hes also a very touch swnsory person so he develops lots of touch related tics. like when nervous he starts to pick at himself, runs hands through hair a lot, etc etc. very touchy. with the parts hes most self conscious abt.

massive identity issues, especially because of his distinct lack of humanity. how can he really be trace anymore if hes changed so much, etc etc. those questions. he can feel his connection to The Trace Identity sorta fading as he becomes his own kinda guy away from this but it fucking sucks for him. because if hes not trace then what is he. who is he. if you tell him athetos hed curl up and cry

speaking of curling up and crying, thats what hes kinda doing a lot internally. he really wants to go home man and for real this time he wont want to go back to sudra this time he promises. but also if he does go back he will be 100% convinced that isnt real. which is fair

if you ask him how long hes been there he'll tell you "a few months, i think." this is not true, he has been there for years doing somethinh, couldnt tell ya what tho!

Generally Not Doing Too Great On Many Levels But Hes Dealing With It

ok thats abt all i can think of atm? ill update this if needed. otherwise hi if you read this ur very kind and i appreciate that. it feels nice when people read my stuff. makes me feel good :^] i hope you feel good today too. today is a good day

#txt #trace #beast mode #my art #wheeeeee !!! wheeeeee

[lostinthewoods-kristoff]

the spy who loved me 2: electric boogaloo || mistoff || valentines au

In Kristoff and Mitte get sent on another mission which, after Mitte becomes jealous of Kristoff being used as a honeypot to get more intel on their mark, quickly becomes more about their relationship than the mission...

Notes: first of all this is NSFW so read at ur own discretion. second of all i know valentines was 3 months ago but i don't want to hear it. third of all this is a sequel to an old valentine's au which i now dont know if we ever posted bc i cant find it but the tldr is that childhood besties and super spy duo kristoff and mitte got sent on a mission, tensions were high, things got steamy... and they never spoke of it again. and that's waht you missed on glee!

@mighty-mitte

KRISTOFF

It had been a little while since he and Mitte had last worked together – not too long, not long enough for him to have forgotten the… events of that last mission, but long enough for things to feel disjointed. Like they were out of sync. It was a strange feeling. The two of them had never been out of sync before, things had never been strange between them. Kristoff kept wondering if maybe they should talk; maybe they should have a conversation about what happened. But he sat through the briefing, silent. And he sat in the car on the way to the hotel, silent. Only now that he was standing in front of the mirror, debating whether he should undo another button at the top of his shirt or not, that he was considering saying something.

Because presumably when you’d accomplished a mission and then slept with your partner/childhood friend it was normal to discuss things? Even if it was just a line or two, something about seeing where things go or letting things drop or…. Anything. Kristoff would take literally anything if it would help him figure out how he was supposed to act around Mitte. For the most part he was just trying to keep his mind off of memories of a similar hotel room with a similar non-descript bed and a similar Mitte, with her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist and–

Kristoff shook his head at himself, skin flushing pale pink. He had to get himself under control. Maybe talking about things would help. At this point, it couldn’t make them any worse.

He turned, looking at Mitte. “Feels kind of dumb that I’m the one that has to flirt, right? Kind of more your forte. I don’t even think I know how.”

Hm. That wasn’t what he meant to say at all.

But it was a genuine concern. Their mark for this evening, or his mark, anyways, was Eliza Goodfellow, the wife of an up-and-coming businessman who was quickly making a name for himself and definitely bringing weapons and stolen goods into the country and risking national security. Kristoff’s job, as given to him by his handler, was to try and charm Mrs. Goodfellow (who was apparently known for not being exactly faithful, which Kristoff thought made sense, ‘cause her husband didn’t seem like a nice guy at all) into giving them information on her husband’s whereabouts. By charming, they meant flirting, and Kristoff wasn’t good at flirting.

“I might scare her off,” He commented, head tilting as he considered the button situation again. He didn’t want to come on too strong. “Any tips?”

MITTE

Mitte could not believe they were here again. Arms dealer, hotel- a nicer one this time at least- and one goddamn bed. At least there was a refreshing twist; Kristoff all dressed up, ready to flirt for the information they needed. It was actually kind of nice to not be the honey pot for once. 

She was bugging Eliza's hotel room whilst Kristoff got the update on her husband, so Mitte got to wear jeans and think about security, instead of worrying about whether her dress was the right length, or if her hair was falling right. Almost every other guy they put her with suggested dangling her like pretty bait before they bothered to come up with anything smart. That was why she preferred being partnered with Kristoff, who didn’t look at her through the lens of how best he could use her, but how best he could work with her. Because they were friends. Best friends. Who had seen eachother naked. And hardly talked since. Well, hardly talked for how much usually talked, and frankly Mitte was surprised Kristoff's head hadn't exploded with the need to discuss their little tryst. Perhaps she should've taken mercy on him and brought it up, but she didn't want to upset the balance of their friendship any further, and she knew if the organization heard about what had happened they'd never work together again. 

But Mitte wasn't thinking about that right now, because the mission was what mattered, and Kristoff was nervous about his part. "If we had any indication she played for the right team, I'm sure I'd be the one getting all dolled up." She offered Kristoff a sympathetic smile over the top of the magazine she was pretending to read and let her eyes wander his appearance, assessing as much as appreciating. 

"You won't scare her off." She told him, stern but warm as she slipped off the bed to walk over and adjust his shirt collar, close enough to realize he'd put on cologne. He smelled good. "Tips… Tips…" Mitte cleared her throat and paid attention to his hair a moment, tussling it a bit with her fingers. "Don't let your words run away from you. Don't gesture too crazily, but don't stay too still. Smile. Hold eye contact." Which she had not done since she walked over here. Honestly she was tempted to ask if he'd rather a demonstration than an explanation, but that probably wouldn't end well. 

Finally, she looked up at Kristoff as she took a step back, considering that shirt button he'd been toying with. She thought he'd look better with it undone, but he wasn't trying to seduce her. Sadly. "You're better at this kind of thing when you don't think too much. Just let her do most of the talking while you try to steer the conversation. Keep your voice soft so she has to lean in, and a hand on her arm will work wonders." Mitte said, turning to rifle through their briefcase for earpieces. "if it sounds like you're really floundering I should be able to talk you through it, but I think you'll be fine.”

KRISTOFF

It wasn’t often that he was the one tasked with being the honeypot. To be honest he wasn’t sure he had ever been given that job before, not in all of his time as an agent– it was always Mitte. She was the one who went out there and batted her eyelashes and bit her lip and got all of the intel they needed, whilst Kristoff bugged hotel rooms and hacked into computers or tailed a mark. And it was no surprise as to why; Mitte was gorgeous. It was all too easy for an unsuspecting man to fall under her spell. Kristoff, on the other hand…

He swallowed thickly as Mitte’s hands reached for his collar, the brush of her knuckles against his neck enough to make him look up, focus on the sconce on the wall as he ran through the information he’d been given. Infiltration was nothing; he had done that before. Pretending to be a new hire at the office, or an international billionaire looking to do business, whatever it was, he had done it. He knew that you had to go in with as full a picture as you could, and then give absolutely nothing away. He was just worried, that was all. What if he slipped up? Screwed the whole thing over entirely?

He took a deep breath, looking down at her. Her eyes didn’t meet his, and he thought he was glad of it. He wasn’t really sure what he would do if they met. When she stepped away, heading for the case, he dropped his gaze to the floor. He ran a hand through his hair, and then glanced hastily in the mirror. He had made it look a little more tousled than he meant to, but never mind. Maybe that was a good thing?

“Well, I’m glad someone’s confident,” He said, taking the earpiece when it was offered to him. It was small, high tech; he slipped it into place with practiced ease, and checked once again in the mirror. It was invisible, unless you were really looking for it; no one but himself would know. “If anything happens, though, if you need any help… I mean, I’m sure you won’t, but.” He paused, blinking at her for a moment. “Just in case. I’ve got your back.”

MITTE 

She still knew all his twitches and tells so well, even with the distance that had stretched out between them. Kristoff wasn't the guy who reached out first to shake your hand, or bumped his knee against yours under the table. Being touched always surprised him, even when it was Mitte, who was probably more consistently hands on with him than most people.

(Once, way more hands on. Hands all over; pulling his hair, digging nails into his shoulders, running down the muscles of his chest. Christ, it had felt so good to see him lost to her touch like that. Even better to lose herself in his.) 

"You're always nervous right about now." Mitte pointed out to him, still going through the case for the bugs she would need and hoping her face hadn't turned beet red. If her voice came out a little strangled at least she could chalk that much up to her own nerves. God, what was wrong with her? It was just sex. They'd both had plenty of it. Hell, Mitte was more than familiar with the fine art of hooking up with a friend. 

Kristoff was more than that though. He was her partner, the guy in the chair watching the room and keeping her safe while she flirted for information, the only person she had a codeword with incase one of them was compromised, the only person who knew where to find her if everyone else thought she'd vanished. Kristoff was the one guy she’d always trusted, and it was an immense relief their slip up didn’t seem to have stopped them working together well, at least, but she could feel the tension of words unsaid. The question was whether it’d be better to air things out or lock the door tight on it all and hope for the best. “...And I know. I’ve got your back, too.” 

It was a friendship she couldn't afford to fuck up, which meant despite how good the sex had been, she was just going to have to stop thinking about it. Mitte leaned across enough to catch her face in the mirror and put the earpiece in, then turned properly to face Kristoff again. "They could've partnered me with someone else." She reminded him, "the chief knows you can handle this, Kristoff. You've got more game than you think." Mitte patted his arm and then moved past him to find her shoes, "worked on me, didn't it?" She cackled, even though the quip drove a bus right through her intention to not think about that night. Oh yeah, it worked alright. Thought if she remembered correctly- and how could she not, with how often it had played over in her head- she’d kissed him first. To be fair, she’d always been the first one to take the leap when they were involved in anything risky. 

Once Mitte had her trainers on and a backpack full of bugs slung over her shoulder she felt a lot more ready, bouncing on the balls of her feet and giving Kristoff’s seduction suit one last lookover. Honestly? She liked him a hell of a lot more in his post workout look, with his sweat making his already tight t-shirt cling to his abs while he poured half his water bottle over his head to cool off, but this was a nice look too. “Ready to turn on the charm?”

KRISTOFF

Kristoff almost choked on nothing at the comment, thrown out there like they had been regularly joking about the ending of their last mission since it had happened rather than furtively avoiding any mention of it at all. Once again he blushed, the link spreading right up to his ears this time and Kristoff loosened that button he’d been debating on, if only so he didn’t feel so claustrophobic. 

It was a good thing, right? That she was joking about it? That was what he and mitte did, they joked about things — they were friends. Best friends. Being with Mitte, whether it was hanging out or working or whatever, had always been as easy as breathing. And knowing Kristoff, knowing his track record, he was gonna ruin that eventually. He was very good at putting his foot in his mouth.

He knew he couldn’t go downstairs looking all flustered so he took a deep breath, ran a hand nervously through his hair which thankfully made it look kind of tousled and teased rather than messy, and gave Mitte a crooked half-smile. “As I’ll ever be.”

He headed for the door, sparing her one last glance before he was gone, heading to the elevators and then down to the ground floor, and into the bar.

The hotel was fancy, the type of place an arms dealer’s cheating wife would be spending the night. There was the low hum of chatter, tables of women in dresses more expensive than the suite they were staying in, men in suits so starched it looked like they could barely move. It was sort of depressing, honestly, but not the first glitzy affair he and Mitte had attended in the line of duty. He spotted their target across the room, sitting at the bar— he hadn’t expected her there, but he supposed it was a good spot to meet someone, if you were looking to.

“I’ve got eyes on Eliza,” he said in a low voice, enough for Mitte to hear in her earpiece, but no one else. “Heading over there now. Wish me luck.”

And with that he headed across the floor to the bar.

MITTE

On a scale of devious to diabolical, where would Mitte fall if she was to just… Skip talking about it, and start joking about it? Kristoff would play along. He’d splutter and he’d huff and then one day he’d crack a joke of his own and it’d become another chapter in the book of shit that happens when you’ve had the same best friend since you were ten and had done so much together now it was hard to tell exactly where the boundary was. Sometimes they made out when they got drunk, sometimes they stole food off each others’ plates, they spent Christmas together, they lived and breathed a job that required nothing less than absolute trust. 

So yeah, the boundary was… Well, flexible. They weren’t even drunk that night, but Kristoff had done a much better job of taking the edge off than whatever cheap little bottles of booze that minibar would’ve stocked. Thankgod there was an actual bar at this place. Still, sweeping what had happened under the rug felt a bit selfish, and Mitte was trying to be better about that, so she should at least ask if Kristoff wanted to discuss it. After the mission, obviously. Neither of them needed that kind of distraction right now. Once the Goodfellow’s were handled, there would be time.

They went their separate ways, and Mitte’s first objective was to find a maids cart, and a master key. This much at least was incredibly routine, even for her, and she could pick the lock of a utility closet in her sleep. “Go get ‘em tiger.” She said softly to Kristoff, glancing both ways down the corridor before slipping back out with the necessary key card and heading towards Eliza’s room.

The work she had to do was quiet, quick, and didn’t require more than one person. Still, she missed Kristoff’s presence, the way they’d silently orbited around each other, him effortlessly reaching for all the high up places she found it tricky to get to while she worked on the more fiddly hiding spots. As it was, this time around there was a lot of dragging the desk chair around the room and climbing on things that shouldn’t be climbed on. At least the furnishings were more structurally sound than the last hotel. (They’d have to go at it really hard to cause any damage here. Which they weren’t going to do. At all.)

“I’ll say this, these guys really know how to secure a clock to the wall.” Mitte huffed, mostly to fill the lonely quiet, “how’s things your end- is she swooning yet?” 

KRISTOFF

He did his best not to laugh. He had been there, done that. Trying to slip bugs inside of lampshades and into the soles of high heels and behind mirrors fixed to the wall. He knew it was, at the best of times, a ball ache. But he thought he would maybe rather be up there doing that than down here launching into… whatever this was.

This being walking up to the bar, striding across the room with as much nonchalance and casual grace that Kristoff could muster, which was a surprising amount. He didn’t seem like the type of person who could be graceful, but spy academy beat any clumsiness right out of you. He approached the bar, only one seat left — conveniently, right next to his mark.

“This seat taken?” He asked, drawing her attention from the drink in her hand.

Without any shame at all she looked him up, down, and over once more, and then smiled coyly. “What would you do if I said yes?”

He took a deep breath, looking up at the ornately painted ceiling for a moment. It was the type of thing Mitte would say; if it were Mitte he’d already have some kind of comeback. “Leave, I suppose,” he said after a moment. Eliza looked back at him, gaze curious, assessing. “Very disappointed.”

She smiled, a small, tucked-away sort of smile. Coy, honestly vaguely threatening. “Good thing it isn’t, then.” She nodded for him to sit; Kristoff took his cue. When the barman came over he ordered a martini, slipping the cash out of the inner pocket over his jacket over the bar. Eliza followed the movement of his hand with her eyes, and Kristoff pretended not to notice, mostly because he had no idea what to do about it just yet.

“And what brings a good looking guy on his own to this kind of bar on a Friday night?” She asked, leaning her head on her hand, elbow propped on the bar.

“Business,” Kristoff replied, smiling simply, hoping he looked as earnest as he could be. Not exactly a lie. He just couldn’t tell her what business.

She hummed, eyebrows arching. “So not pleasure, then?”

He really had not expected things to go this way this fast. He felt like he fumbled, reaching for his drink when the bartender slid the glass towards him. “Well, I…” 

MITTE

It was quite nice to feel like a real spy instead of a pretty doll put on display to distract the bad guy, honestly. Not that it felt that way every time, but the circuits her mind had to run to make sure she was sitting up straight and smiling and pushing her tits up just enough, and the way those guys could leer– god, the things they could say that she just had to giggle at, the way their fingers could dig in when they grabbed at her– well, she was always grateful for whatever quips Kristoff could make down the line to help stop her snapping them like a twig.

Thinking about all that did get her blood going enough that Mitte was finally able to wrench the clock free of its setting to slip a bug in the back before replacing it, and she snickered quietly at Eliza’s forward approach. It did sound like the way Mitte might challenge a man, though coming from Miss Goodfellow it just sounded like a woman not interested in wasting her time. That worked in their favor in the long run; she knew what she wanted and she’d answer slightly strange questions without too much forethought to get it. Kristoff was probably going to need some help, though. Upfront women tended to intimidate him- she would know.

Mitte resisted the urge to rib him about the drink choice- she could call him James Bond later, when he could afford to be distracted- and just listened, whistling through her teeth at Eliza’s continued no nonsense approach. “Stay cool, Casanova.” She hummed, “...Smile at her like you smile at me when you’ve caught me in a stupid lie, and tell her you’re a busy guy and pleasure wasn’t part of the plan, but since you’ve found her you might just have to make time for it.” At least, that was what Mitte would like to hear, that she was worth ruining plans for, so Eliza would probably be all over an ego boost like that.

She wasn’t going to think about whether or not it was a bad idea to imply to Kristoff that she thought the smug little smirk he sometimes threw her way when he won was sexy as all hell. It would be fine, he wasn’t the type to use his powers for evil. (He didn’t even know he had powers. Maybe after Eliza he’d realize.) “Tilt your head a bit… Check her out. And then ask her why she’s all alone, too. But pitch your voice kinda low, like when you’re doing your quiet and angry cop routine.” Secretly, she called it the Sexy and Pissed off cop routine, but absolutely no need to tell him that.

Hey Mitte, what’d you do with your Friday night? Ah, I talked my best friend through seducing an arms dealer's wife. God, she loved her job. She slipped a bug into the tissue box in the bathroom, “I shouldn’t be much longer.” 

KRISTOFF

There was no outward sign of him listening to Mitte’s chatter in his ear, he was too well trained for that, but he took in everything she said without questioning it for a second. Mitte wouldn’t get him into trouble, nor would she jeopardise the mission, and honestly? She was way better at this than he was, so if she had advice, he was going to take it. It was just a case of assembling all the information he’d been given and using it correctly, and he was good at that.

Quiet and angry cop routine– he was good at that, too. Or at least, it had never failed him yet. It also had never been used for seduction before but hey, there was a first time for everything. He gave a soft laugh, like it was amusing, just how forward she was, and directed that smile at his drink. The dumb part was, he played different characters all the time. Quiet angry cop, new guy who just started at the firm, bartender with a shoulder to cry on; being a spy was also a part-time acting job, and he had never worried about it before now. It was just like those other jobs – he just had to keep telling himself that. 

He looked up at Eliza, glad to find her still looking at him, waiting for an answer. That smile was still in place, a little crooked, amused, almost disbelieving, but hopefully charming. “I’m a very busy guy,” He said, parroting Mitte’s words back at Eliza. “Pleasure wasn’t exactly the plan, but..” He pursed his lips and tilted his head, just as directed. He thought he should maybe feel embarrassed, having Mitte in his ear, no doubt making fun of him up there whilst she bugged the room, but honestly? It was good to know he had back up. He made a deliberate show of looking her over, which served not only to make her smile, small and pleased with herself, but to give him more information, too. If she did a runner, he had a pretty good description of her. “I might just have to make time for it.”

He turned to his drink again – for the record, he hated martinis, but he was hoping the vodka might make him feel a little less self conscious. “But what about you?” He asked, looking back up at her again, turning a little to show she had his full attention. “What’s a woman like you doing here all alone?”

“A woman like me?” She asked, one eyebrow arching. Not offended, no – fishing for something, Kristoff assumed.

“C’mon,” He said, earning another smile from her, like they were old friends, having a laugh. “You don’t need me to tell you what you are.”

“It would still be nice to hear it,” She countered, sipping from the glass in her hand. 

“Alright,” He acquiesced, “What brings a good looking woman like you on her own to this kind of bar on a Friday night?”

She laughed, amused, so he did as well. She turned a little towards him in her seat, her own head tilting as she looked at him. She sighed deeply, dramatically, and said, “Looking for company, I suppose. A knight in shining armour, maybe.”

MITTE Quite suddenly, while listening to her sweet talk and imagining her batting her lashes at Kristoff, Mitte decided she hated Eliza Goodfellow. They dealt with a lot of terrible people every day, real nasty criminals who had done unimaginable shit– but Eliza Goodfellow was just a woman who didn’t care how her husband made his money as long as he had a lot of it, and didn’t care where he went as long as it gave her time to flirt with hot strangers at bars!

She shouldn’t be here, flirting with Kristoff. If she just wasn’t here, then it could be– well… It wouldn’t be anyone. If Eliza wasn’t here, then they wouldn’t be here either. Beyond that, getting too emotional over a target was a terrible idea, even if that emotion was hatred, so Mitte had to swallow it all down, but she could not suppress her displeased huff in response to Eliza’s fawning. She was about as subtle as a brick. “Tell her…” Actually, this wasn’t fun at all. But it was her job, so she could do it. “Tell her you don’t own a sword but you do know how to ride a horse.” Mitte frowned, listening to the two of them carry on whilst she did one final sweep of the room to make sure she hadn’t missed any good hiding spots. “And ask why her husband hasn’t swept her up to ride off with her into the sunset, if you think working him into the conversation so early would be okay.” Kristoff seemed to find his groove, which was good for the mission and Mitte refused to think about it beyond that, ignoring her own grimace as she passed the wardrobe mirror on her way back out.

Initially, she’d planned on just heading straight down to the bar to drag Kristoff out of whatever mess his flirting got him into, but something drove her back to their hotel room- two beds this time, because Mitte had personally promised violence if they pulled the same shit again- to dig through her suitcase, and pull out a nicer top. The one with the ditzy kind of floral print she liked, and a sweetheart neckline that always made Kristoff’s eyes drop for just a second. It was a nice bar, so looking like she’d thrown on whatever old thing was going to draw attention that she didn’t want to have. She was just trying to blend in a bit. “I’m on my way down.” Mitte told Kristoff as she stepped into the lift, “you get what we need yet?” 

KRISTOFF

“Well, I don’t have a sword, but I do know how to ride a horse. That good enough?”

It earned a laugh from Eliza, all breathy and coy and maybe she was acting, too. Or maybe she wasn’t — maybe Mitte’s advice was just that good. He couldn’t be sure, but he tried not to act surprised when Eliza leaned a little bit closer, reaching again for her drink. “Close enough.”

He chuckled, shuffling just a little closer himself, almost imperceptibly, but enough for the conversation to feel a little more intimate. Hopefully, anyways. He kept his voice low and soft, hoping he wasn’t about to ruin the entire thing when he said, “So, what? There’s no dashing husband coming to sweep you off your feet and carry you into the sunset?”

“Who said anything about a husband?” Eliza asked, her voice low and sultry, a small smirk on her lips.

Kristoff nodded to the hand she was leaning her head on. “Your ring.”

“Ah,” Eliza murmured. She shifted to set her hand on the bar, looking at the ring. It was a pretty sizeable rock — the guy was definitely rich. “Well, my husband would rather do business deals in Shanghai than take a vacation with his wife.” She tapped her fingers against the bar, looking at the ring for a long moment. Kristoff waited, not wanting to spook her. When she looked up again, she asked, “Does it bother you?”

He hoped Mitte was taking notes. Shanghai— they could look into his dealings, see who he’d done business with there, who might be looking to collaborate. They could be on a flight in a matter of hours. 

Eliza was still waiting for an answer. “No,” Kristoff said, shaking his head. 

Eliza smiled, her other hand shifting, settling on his thigh. “Good.” 

MITTE 

She wondered if Kristoff hated it too, hearing her flirt and giggle with targets. Maybe it was just that, no one really liked hearing lies. Yeah. But seriously, she knew it was useful for their mission and all, but was a stupid rich husband who hardly bothered you not enough? Call Mitte crazy, but it sounded like a decent set up, what did she have to go crawling all over guys like Kristoff for? 

And Mitte meant crawling in the most literal sense, when she walked into the bar and saw them sitting so close together, her hand on his thigh like they'd been flirting all night and not for five minutes. Still, they got Shanghai out of her, and that meant Eliza Goodfellow had fulfilled her purpose. 

She swiped a half finished cosmopolitan- shame she didn't have the patience to order her own and enjoy a few sips- and flagged down a passing waitress, who already had a few half empty glasses on her tray. Mitte pulled a couple of fifties from her purse- would she ever be so used to having money she stopped spending it stupidly?- and set one of them down on the tray, along with the glass. "See that blonde guy over there?" She asked quietly, head tipping towards Kristoff and the vile woman still leaning closer. (He wouldn't know how to stop her, how to end their interaction without a fuss. She had to do it.) "That's my boyfriend. If you happen to trip on your way past and spill these over the woman trying to sit in his lap, I'll give you the other fifty on my way out." 

Now see, Mitte knew hospitality staff. Even in a place like this they didn't make enough for how mad the job drove them. She'd happily pay £100 quid to watch Eliza suffer, and the waitress only had to make a simple mistake. 

So Mitte sat back to watch the scene play out, Eliza and Kristoff so close to each other, and then; Eliza rearing back in horror, screeching like a banshee about whatever stupid designer made her stupid dress. She sidled over, surreptitiously slipping the waitress that second fifty, and grabbing Kristoff's hand to pull him away before he could start fussing over her with napkins. Miss Goodfellow, so consumed with misplaced rage, barely noticed him leaving.

Mitte didn't speak until they were in the elevator again, alone, her tone the epitome of innocence. "I think that went well. Shame about Eliza's dress." 

KRISTOFF

Oh yeah, he had no idea how to extricate himself out of this one. He could do the classic, excuse himself and climb through the air vent in the bathroom, or maybe say he had to take a call and pull the fire alarm on his way out. He had options, he just had very little time to think about them, because Eliza’s hand was at his knee and then his thigh and inching ever higher—

And then it was gone, and he was leaning back, Eliza screaming about useless staff and dry cleaning bills. Kristoff looked down and realised he had faired a bit better, but not by much. His shirt was wet, sticking to his abdomen as Mitte grabbed his hand.

At first Kristoff looked up, wondering if he’d been made — but then he saw Mitte, or rather the back of her head as she made a beeline for the elevator — and felt an overwhelming wave of relief. He was fine and she was fine and they had their intel, and they were going. No shots fired, no covers blown.

He leaned back when the elevator door closed, back to the wall. “Never mind, I guess. Not like she can’t afford another one.” He paused, looking at Mitte for a moment. “You couldn’t think of another way to get me out of there?”

MITTE

She had not thought about Kristoff being in the splash zone. Now, Mitte had seen him in just about every state of undress, distress, and duress a person could be in, so this should not be a problem. And it wasn’t. Except she kept sneaking glances at his abs, and remembering how the muscles had twitched under her hands. Mitte swallowed thickly and turned to look in the mirror instead, fussing with her hair for no reason apart from needing something else to focus on. 

The truth was, yeah, there were plenty of ways to get Kristoff out of the bar, most of them cleaner and cheaper, things they’d done dozens of times before when she’d played the honeypot part. She shrugged, feigning indifference. “It was the first idea that came to me.” At least, she wasn’t lying, but Mitte knew that wasn’t really why she’d gone that route. Subtlety had never really been her style, anyway, so as far as she was concerned this was all very typical behavior, regardless of motive.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened, and Mitte made for their room without waiting or looking back. “So, Shanghai.” She said once they were back in their own space, flopping down onto one of the beds and staring at the ceiling. “Makes sense. A little predictable, but that works for us, I guess, means we stand a chance of finding…” 

Mitte made the mistake of glancing over at Kristoff, who had shucked the suit jacket and was unbuttoning the wet shirt, her sentence trailing off. “Um-” She blinked, and quickly wrenched her gaze back to the ceiling, clearing her throat. “Well, we stand a chance of him working with one of our old informants, right? Not super likely, but I could send out a few messages, see if anyone is down to talk to us.”

KRISTOFF

She was lying, he knew it. Her nonchalance was too forced, not quite right, and it caused a small crease to form between his brows as he frowned. They had much more efficient, much quieter ways of getting each other out of tricky spots like that. They were trained to do it — extraction and destruction were key parts of spy training. Getting yourself out of a situation with as minimal fuss as possible was just what they did, and yet Mitte had chosen to bribe a waitress. Presumably, anyways. Kristoff couldn’t see any waitress working in a place as fancy as that just tripping over nothing.

The doors opened and he stepped out after her, still frowning softly as he watched her walk back to the room. He looked both ways before he slipped inside, making sure no one was watching, and he locked the door once he was in.

He flung his jacket on the bed, untucking his shirt and working on the buttons. He’d have to get changed if they were going to get on a flight. Couldn’t go to the airport looking like he’d spent all of last night and today in a bar (and smelling like it, too). 

He let his shirt flop on a heap on the floor and reached for his duffel, looking for something to wear. “Why’d you do it?” He asked, ignoring her completely. He looked up at her, pausing his search for a clean shirt. “You don’t do the first thing that comes to you — you want to, but you’re trained better.” He knew her, too well. Mitte was impulsive but not dumb. “So why the tray of champagne?”

MITTE 

Yeah, alright. Kristoff's insight shouldn't have surprised her. The fact that he hadn't cottoned on to her reasoning was likely because he couldn't see his nose for his face. The day Kristoff Bjorgman realized he was as hot as he was smart would be a dangerous day for women everywhere. 

Even now he somehow managed to be oblivious, shirtless and huffing at her like he wasn't insanely distracting. It wasn't like she had any right to feel this way. Kristoff was just doing his job, and even if he hadn't been he was allowed to flirt with whoever he wanted. 

Just… Not while Mitte was listening. "Jeez, Kristoff. Allow a lady to have a little fun." She stood back up to get out her laptop, to see about starting to put out feelers in Shanghai, and to have something to hide her face behind. "We both know it would've taken you forever to get yourself out of there, and it's not like she didn't deserve a little karma." 

KRISTOFF

He snagged a t-shirt, plain black and nondescript, a spy’s best friend; they were going to need to blend in. He paused with it in his hand, watching as she went to the laptop. Evasive. And like he said, he knew Mitte to be impulsive, but he didn’t know her to be sloppy. And maybe she was right, it would have taken a while for him to get himself out of there, but he could’ve done it. Or Mitte could’ve done it, just in a subtler way. He frowned softly, wishing she would just talk to him, and then remembering that talking about important things wasn’t really something they did nowadays. If they talked about whatever this was then they might have to talk about their last mission and Kristoff didn’t even know where to begin with that–

He pulled the shirt over his head, crouching down again to begin shoving things into his duffel. Might as well get ready to leave – they would be gone sooner rather than later. He paused, looking up at Mitte, still focused on her laptop. It wasn’t– the two things couldn’t be related. Could they? If Mitte was hiding something then that was strange, but it wasn’t strange if she was hiding something because it was something they weren’t talking about…

Kristoff, having confused himself, shook his head. “I guess.” He said eventually, watching Mitte for a moment. “Though, y’know, I don’t appreciate you doubting my skills. I was starting to get the hang of it.” 

He was only joking – he was waiting for her to look up, grinning just a little.

MITTE 

To say her face felt hot wouldn't be accurate, rather, there was some fiery thing pulsing behind her eyes that she didn't really understand. Mitte liked being friends with Kristoff. It was easy, it almost always had been, so whatever silly ideas her brain was conjuring up now it could just bloody well stop. The last thing they needed was complications. 

Things were fine. Nothing needed to change, she just had to get a grip. (But things were already changing, weren't they? If she noticed him tugging on a t-shirt out of the corner of her eye and wanted to tell him to take it off again.) It wasn't like it mattered that she was feeling so nuts anyway, maybe Kristoff could fool the rest of the world but he couldn't fool her, and if he's ever felt this way watching her flirt with targets she would know about it. 

So, he dropped it, but then he picked up something just as bad. Mitte huffed, still hiding behind her screen. Work. She was meant to be working. Shanghai contacts. "...You did great, Kristoff." She told him, honest, if a touch bitter about admitting it. "Pat yourself on the back. Top notch flirting, she was eating out of your hand." Mitte reached for her hoodie and zipped it all the way up, feeling stupid she'd even bothered to change her top. What did she want from Kristoff, anyway? "Well we got her room bugged, so if he moves on from Shanghai we'll probably hear about it. It'll probably take our contacts a while to get back to us. We should just pack up and get going." 

KRISTOFF

She was teasing him, which was a good sign, but she wasn’t looking at him, which made him frown again. He hated feeling like things were off, like there was something standing in the middle of them. He hated to think that he had ruined his and Mitte’s friendship, that he continued to ruin it by not being able to talk about it, and risked ruining it further by keep thinking about it. It being the urge to kiss her, to throw that laptop out the window and ask if she remembered what they did last time they were in a hotel room together—

He pursed his lips, nodded. Right. They had a job to do. He had a job to do, he was a professional. He took a breath and then cast his gaze around the room, reaching for the last few bits and pieces that he needed. He swapped his dress shoes out for his boots and grabbed his jacket, ready to go. He didn’t exactly want to — he wanted to know why Mitte was so sullen. Was she regretting this? Working with him again? If she was, he wished she’d just tell him. If she left after this and never spoke to him again… he didn’t know what he’d do.

“I’ll call us a cab,” he said, lingering by the door. “You can check us out — I’ll meet you outside.”

MITTE 

What would he say? If Mitte came out with the ugly truth of it, her unreasonable possessiveness, would Kristoff even believe her? Would he care? Would he think she was being ridiculous? Just another of Mitte’s silly mood swings, another this is how it is and you just have to go with it. Kristoff had taken a lot of her absurdities in stride over the course of their friendship, every stupid whim and bit of self sabotage. Something would have to break the damn eventually, and Mitte would hate for it to be something she couldn’t even pin down a reasonable explanation for. 

So she kept her mouth shut, packed up her stuff, and checked them out of the hotel. 

They’d been on countless plane journeys, and depending on their individual moods their interactions ranged from driving each other up the wall, keeping each other entertained, and companionable silence. This… Was none of that. This was stony and awkward and Mitte nearly jumped out of her damn skin every time their elbows brushed on the shared armrest. 

She called their boss when they landed to get hotel details and give him a rundown of their plan, chattering away as Kristoff navigated the streets- still so busy, even at this time of night- to get them safely to where they were staying. Even annoyed at her as he must be- and she could practically feel it radiating off him- he directed her without comment, making sure she didn’t run into anyone or turn down the wrong street.

Being the booming center of business it was, their room here was even more upscale than the last place, all sleek and shiny, and Mitte wondered how many of the little liquor bottles she could snatch from the fridge before Kristoff said anything. “Okay… It’s pretty late, so, boss said we can just hole up in our room tonight doing research and hit the ground running with our search properly tomorrow.” 

KRISTOFF

Kristoff wasn’t quiet because he was annoyed or mad or anything like that — Kristoff was quiet because he was thinking. 

Alright so maybe he was overthinking, or maybe he was reading too hard between the lines but he just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Mitte was hiding something from him. And they never hid anything from each other, at least not until all this. Besides, he didn’t feel like he was really hiding anything. The way he had to look away sometimes when she was all dressed up ready for the mission, the way he had blushed when her hand had brushed his neck. He was a spy, he was good with secrets, but not when it came to Mitte.

She had seemed… normal, before they’d gone their separate ways. They’d had the same kind of banter they always did and then out of nowhere she was sullen and closed off and Kristoff didn’t know what had happened. Something, he supposed, between Mitte going to bug the room and coming down to join him in the bar. He could’ve gotten more intel probably, if he’d been left to it for a minute longer. Shanghai was a big place, maybe he could’ve narrowed it down, or gotten an idea of where he might be headed to next, but Mitte had swooped in pretty quickly and had shut everything down before—

Oh.

The lightbulb flicked on above Kristoff’s head somewhere over Russia. He glanced at Mitte out of the corner of his eye and said nothing, staring resolutely at the airplane seat in front of himself.

He was being stupid. He’d added two and two and gotten five. There was no way that Mitte— that she— he couldn’t even really articulate it. He pushed it to one side; he got them to their hotel and checked them into their room and was so decided that he wasn’t going to say anything at all until he was stood there, watching Mitte eye the mini bar.

He wanted to say okay, sounds good, but instead he said, “Were you— were you mad at her? Eliza?”

MITTE

She hated this. She was a talker! Especially to Kristoff, who she’d seen curled into himself in a corner in highschool and decided, yeah, I can probably fuck with that guy. Then he looked up, and he smiled at her, and for whatever reason Mitte decided to just… Talk to him. And he listened, and then suddenly they were friends. 

Before now she’d always known what to say to him. But now there was a stupid little voice in Mitte’s head, telling her to ruin some lady’s dress just because she put her hand on his leg, or to run her hand over his abs, or kiss him just to wipe the frown off his face. God, this was why friends didn’t sleep together, it didn’t just blur the line, it put all sorts of experiences in your head that you shouldn’t have. How was she supposed to be indifferent to someone else leaning in to kiss Kristoff, when she knew how good kissing him felt? 

Mad. Mitte sat with the word for a moment, eyes narrowed a bit at Kristoff, thinking. Was she mad? No, no, mad wasn’t the right word. Eliza was just doing what she probably did every night, cheating on her husband. Mitte didn’t care about any of those other guys. It bothered her because Kristoff was part of the equation.

…Ah. Oh god. Jealous? No. Maybe. That was ridiculous, she had no right. Kristoff was just doing his job. This worked. This was good, they worked better together than with other partners.  "No." Mitte said after a few beats of quiet, going about getting her laptop and shoving her bag under one of the beds, "no, I wasn't mad at her. You wanna listen to her room recording a while and see if she's said anything useful? I'll see if anyone got back in touch with us about her husband."

KRISTOFF

No, he didn’t want to listen to the room recording. He doubted Eliza was going to say anything too useful except for a lot of swearing and angry ranting about useless waitstaff, so he figured it could wait. They had time, and besides, it wasn’t like he’d be able to focus. Mitte wasn’t mad, fine. Which meant that there was really only one other thing it could be, as far fetched and ludicrous as the idea was.

“You were jealous of her.”

He said it so matter-of-factly that he almost startled himself. Listen, he could only work with the intel he had, and what he had was Mitte instructing him on how to flirt and then coming downstairs and seeing her good advice out to work and sending a waitress to ruin the mark’s dress. She wasn’t mad, and Kristoff honestly thought he might be kind of upset if she really doubted his ability to get himself out of a tricky situation that much—

“Right?” He asked, immediately doubting himself. But then, no— he couldn’t leave any room for doubt, or Mitte wouldn’t admit to anything. Stronger, he said, “I’m right, aren’t I?”

MITTE

Unfortunately, for as hapless as he could come across, Kristoff was really the brains behind the partnership. Mitte wasn't surprised when he figured it out so fast, and she tried not to react, but she could feel her face heating up. 

She couldn't say nothing. That was as good as admitting it anyway, and Kristoff sounded too adamant to be distracted. Mitte closed her eyes for a moment and heaved a soft sigh before looking at him over the top of the laptop, "...You don't have to tell me I'm being ridiculous. I already know." She glanced again at the minibar, and wondered what he was thinking. 

Alright, so the reason they'd never talked about what happened at the last hotel was because Mitte had never brought it up, and she knew that, but Kristoff… He'd never shown that kind of interest in her. Before or since. And even if he had, they both knew what a terrible idea it was. Messy and dangerous and easy to take advantage of. "You were doing your job. I just… didn't like hearing it. Or seeing it. I should've gotten you out of there quieter, I wasn't thinking. It won't happen again." It was stupid and dangerous and he'd have every right to decide to work with someone who wasn't going to cause that kind of fuss. Still, selfishly, Mitte wished he wouldn't. 

KRISTOFF

He looked at her for a long moment, watching Mitte as she looked everywhere but him. His gaze didn’t shift, and though he was listening to her it took him a second to actually register what it was she was saying. She hadn’t come out and said yes, but she wasn’t saying no — Mitte was stubborn enough that Kristoff knew she would never come out and say it outright so this was probably as good as it was going to get.

It won’t happen again. Why did she think he would be upset about it? She had to know how he felt about her. It wasn’t like he could hide it, though he tried his best to. His opinion most of the time was that Mitte was the smarter of the two of them but right now? 

He should just nod and say okay and let it go. They had a mission to complete, intel to gather. They knew their mark was in Shanghai but Shanghai was a big place, and they needed to try and narrow that down. 

He didn’t do that, though. He crossed the room in a few quick strides and took Mitte’s face in his hands, kissing her like it might be the last chance he got. More like making up for lost time, he supposed. How much could they have been doing this since the last mission they’d gone on?

He pulled away after a moment, one hand falling to her waist. He didn’t go too far, keeping her close as he looked down at her. “You’re an idiot.”

MITTE

She wanted to kick herself. Or jump out the window. Or run across the room and put her hand over Kristoff’s mouth before he could say anything that made this worse, tell him to just forget she’d even talked. How long would they be able to keep it up this time? If Mitte shut this down before it started and they returned to their own homes and their own lives with her uncertainty creating a rift all over again, would they find their way back to each-other a second time? The truth was, Mitte was pretty uninterested in life without Kristoff, and she’d take whatever he wanted to offer her. It might not be easy, but she’d be able to keep the jealousy under wraps, even if the feeling of it had settled in her gut like a lead weight.. She’d do practically anything to keep him. 

But then he was grabbing her and kissing her and kissing him back was easy. Like breathing. Mitte made a small noise of surprise, and all the tension she’d been carrying since before they even left for Shanghai melted off her shoulders. Her hands crept up Kristoff’s abs until her palms could settle on his chest, and she resisted the urge to twist the material of his shirt in her fists until it could be ripped off. 

For a moment after he pulled away, Mitte stared up at him with no clue what they were supposed to do next. They’d crossed this line before and they knew how it ended. But then her brain caught up to what he’d said, and she huffed. “I’m the idiot? Tch, it took you all the way to Shanghai to figure out what the issue was!” Nevermind that it had taken her just as long to name it. “And, may I point out, a smart man wouldn’t have called me an idiot right after kissing me, if he was hoping he’d get to do it again.” Though, she barely made a move to get out of Kristoff’s grip, only gently pushing her hands against his chest. 

KRISTOFF

“It was a calculated risk,” he argued with a grin, leaning down to kiss her again, a little softer this time but just as heated, the same desperation behind it. He knew she would let him— because she had been jealous. Because she didn’t want anyone else flirting with him, because she wanted him. The thought alone was enough to make him giddy. “You’re the idiot because I’ve liked you since— I don’t even know since when. And I suck at hiding it.” 

He did. He was obvious, at least he thought he was. Blushing when she touched him and finding excuses to be with her and a million other little things that gave away just how obsessed with her he was. He dropped his other hand to her waist, both hands sliding round to the small of her back so he could pull her closer again, even with her hands on his chest, pushing back a little. “We could listen to the room recording,” he said, looking down at her. “Or we could make up for lost time?”

MITTE

He kissed her again and Mitte didn’t move or protest, all but melting against him. She’d never had a lot of friends. Mitte’s temperament wasn’t exactly easy to handle, and she was picky to boot. Kristoff was the only person in her life who she had let stick around for so long. So when Kristoff said they were best friends, well, she took that and ran with it. She didn’t care if other people said they were too close, or they did things best friends didn’t do- Kristoff was the one she trusted, and he’d never kicked up a fuss that they were doing this or that wrong. But apparently he’d liked her for who knew how long, so of course he wouldn’t have an issue with that stuff! Stuff Mitte had never had an issue with either, admittedly. All the touching and the secrets between just them and how boring it was to do anything at all if they weren’t doing it together. 

Her blood hummed with satisfaction at having him so close, and really, her possessiveness wasn’t new. Whenever Kristoff worked well with another agent she managed to find at least some small and silly thing wrong with them, so that she could point it out to him, and maybe he wouldn’t work with them again. This of course was all under the guise of looking out for him, but maybe… Yeah, it was possible she’d been jealous this whole time. 

“Okay.” Mitte said softly, conceding to perhaps the only person she was happy to lose an argument against, her arms sliding further and up around his shoulders, bringing him closer. “Your poker face is better than you think. But…I’m the idiot.” And then they were kissing again, Mitte popping up on her tiptoes to be closer, to press their bodies together better, as her hands carded through Kristoff’s hair. 

KRISTOFF

He didn’t think it was just her, for the record. He was pretty stupid too. It had taken him a very long flight to figure out what was going on and even then he hadn’t been too sure of himself. But he was too busy kissing her to really think about telling her that — in fact, as her fingers ran through his hair he stopped thinking about anything, everything falling away except for Mitte’s hands and the heat of her body, pressing up against his own.

He reached down, hands slipping over the swell of her ass to grip the backs of her thighs, pulling her up so she could wrap her legs around his waist. He thought that was going to be easier than trying to stumble backwards towards the bed. He twisted, stepped towards it until he could lay her down onto it, kissing over her jaw and her neck as he shifted to hover over her. 

“Is this okay?” He asked, pausing once again to look at her. Wanting to be sure, before they took things too far, and did something else they couldn’t talk about in the morning.

MITTE

He liked her. He liked her, and he was kissing her, and Mitte’s head was spinning with ‘what if this’ ‘what if that’ scenarios. Things she didn’t want to think about right now– things that could wait. The present felt far more urgent than any of that, especially as Kristoff was scooping her up, and she was so familiar with the calluses of his palms she could practically feel them through her jeans. 

The pent up frustration that had driven their last encounter- at least, it had driven Mitte and she’d thought they were on the same page at the time, but now she was curious to know from Kristoff’s perspective- was missing, replaced with a desperation that felt more real. She’d barely registered they were going anywhere until the plush mattress was against her back, all her limbs tangled around Kristoff’s body, head tipping to the side to offer him more of her neck.

Is this okay. Mitte turned her head back to look at him, already a bit out of breath. She could say no. It would be a lie, but she could say it and Kristoff would stop and they could get back to work and this might never happen again. Maybe that was what should’ve happened last time. Once was an accident. Twice was a decision. “Actually, no.” Mitte’s brows furrowed, but the rest of her face couldn’t stay so composed, a smile already stealing her mouth as she gripped at the material of his shirt where it bunched a little around his shoulders, “this thing is really throwing me off. It’s gotta go.” 

KRISTOFF

For a second his brow creased, a small frown appearing. Of course if she meant it, if she didn’t want to do this that was fine, he would understand. They had to work together, and if this was going to complicate things, or it was going to ruin their friendship… he didn't want to make things difficult. Even though it felt easy — as easy as breathing, with Mitte.

But then she was tugging at his shirt and Kristoff rolled his eyes, breaking into a grin. He leaned down to press another kiss to her lips, feeling already like he’d gone too long without it before he sat back until he was kneeling, pulling his shirt up and over his head and away to one side. “This better?” He asked, eyebrows arched. He didn’t move back to lean over her, looking down at her instead, committing the sight of her beneath him to memory just in case.

MITTE

She was cackling at Kristoff’s response until he silenced her with his mouth, and her hands came up to cup his face for just a brief moment- a thankyou, for his sweetness, or for taking her seriously- before he was pulling away to take off the t-shirt. God, the things she’d thought about doing to those abs. Seriously, how did she miss it? How many people get distracted fantasising about their best friends’ abs? “Much better.” Mitte’s smile was satisfied as she reached out, though her arms weren’t quite long enough to touch him where he’d settled, so she surged up to kiss him again, her hands skating down his chest and over his abs. 

“I didn’t tell the waitress to spill the drinks on you, too.” She thought Kristoff might like her candidness, so she made the confession between little kisses peppered along his jaw, her arms circling his waist to map the muscles of his back. “I only told her to get Eliza. I think you looked better when the suit was wet, though.” Maybe that was just Mitte; she liked her men a bit dishevelled. 

KRISTOFF

He was glad when she rose up to meet him, kissing her hard enough to take his breath away when she pulled back. His stomach twitched under her touch, muscles tensing for a second before he relaxed, pushing her hair over her shoulder. 

“Yeah, I figured,” he murmured, bringing her close for another kiss, one hand on her neck, the other at the hem of her shirt, fiddling with the fabric between his fingers. He had figured both that she hadn’t meant for it to happen and that she had preferred it — she hadn’t been able to look at him, after all. He kissed her again, slipping his hand fully under her shirt, skirting over the soft skin of her stomach to the small of her back.

MITTE 

Kristoff was so reactive. It was unsurprising, because he always was, and yeah, she'd missed it. How? She spotted liars for a living! 

It was at this point Mitte remembered the bra she was wearing. Nothing wrong with it, yknow, definitely clean. But she'd been in work mode, so it was also definitely function over style, plain white, boring. Obviously the same had been true last time, and Kristoff would not care less. Still, it was a shame she wasn't wearing something sexier. Maybe next time. 

(Next time?) 

Mitte nipped at his bottom lip, "got me all figured out now, huh?" She hummed against Kristoff’s mouth, pushing gently on his shoulders so she could shift to straddle his lap. She leaned back enough to tug off her top and toss it away, then pressed into him again to kiss down his neck. 

KRISTOFF

He wished that was the truth. Mitte was the type that seemed all mysterious and aloof but she wasn’t, not really, not in the way everyone assumed she was. No, Mitte was a mystery in other ways. The intricacies of her heart were still something Kristoff couldn’t quite figure out, only chipping away at the first little bit of them today, and he’d needed a long haul flight and a taxi ride through Shanghai to get there. He didn’t have Mitte figured out at all.

“Trying to,” He replied, muffled against the newly exposed skin of her collarbone. He sucked a mark into the skin there, not one that would last for too long, fading by morning, probably, but long enough for him to feel proud of his work. He pressed a kiss over it, tilting his head up to catch her lips again, hands skirting over her ribs to grip onto her hips.

MITTE 

A soft moan escaped when he sucked at her skin, and for a moment Mitte thought of their training together, the smug look that would flash across Kristoff's face whenever he managed to leave a mark. She muffled a small laugh in his neck, then he was kissing her again and it stopped being funny, her hips rocking into his as he grabbed her. 

"I gave you the clues already.." Mitte reminded him, her fingers trailing lightly down his stomach  they hit the waistband of his jeans, "or did you think I'd somehow done research into how she liked to be flirted with?" 

KRISTOFF

Okay, Kristoff hadn’t actually thought of it that way.

At the time he was just working under the assumption that Mitte was being a good friend, and giving him the tools he needed to get the job done. Plus, he’d been so nervous he wouldn’t have even realised if she’d spelled it out for him. He wished he could say it was because he was focused on the job, but… no. Definitely nerves.

Now he tried to think about what she’d told him, and he tilted his head, eyes roaming over her slowly. When he spoke he did his best not to sound too strangled (difficult, with her hand in the waistband of his jeans), keeping his voice low and firm, that Sexy Pissed Off Cop voice — and yeah, he knew she called it that. Angela in Tech had told him once. “And here I thought you were just helping out a friend.”

MITTE

This wasn’t like last time. For Mitte, at least, it had been like scratching an itch. A way to deal with all her energy while they were stuck in that hotel room. What had it been for Kristoff? Had he been into her already back then, or did it start that night? She supposed it didn’t really matter, since they seemed to be on the same wavelength now. 

A little thrill chased down her spine when Kristoff dropped his voice, and Mitte found herself sitting up a bit straighter. Nothing called her to attention faster than that tone. Obviously most of the time when he used it there was an interrogation or the like going on, but now it was directed at her… Well, hopefully Kristoff would only use the power for good. “I was helping.” she promised, her face projecting a picture of perfect innocence, like she wasn’t toying with the button of his jeans. 

“I didn’t realise I’d hate hearing it until you’d already started flirting.” Mitte pouted and shook her head, “I don’t know how you do it, listen to me sweet talk targets all the time. You’ve never bribed a waitress to spill drinks on me.” 

KRISTOFF

Yeah alright so he couldn’t keep it up for long, the way she sat to attention making him smile against her skin, nose skimming her collarbone as his head dipped lower, kisses pressed over the curve of her breast. He huffed softly, trying to look as unamused as he could when he was met with her best innocent act, though that didn’t last long either. Couldn’t, not with her hands skirting around the waistband of his jeans.

He didn’t really know what to say to that, though. He would be a liar if he said it didn’t affect him. The slight pang of jealousy that he had for so long mistook for protectiveness, curdling in his stomach whilst some creep ran a hand over Mitte’s thigh or leaned in a little too close. He shifted to run his hands over her hips, dipping his head again. “You get used to it.” He said finally, his right hand lingering at her waist whilst the left ran up the length of her body, fingers skirting up and over her ribs to cup her breast, thumb rubbing over her nipple through the thin fabric. “Probably ruined that now, though. Maybe next time I’ll bribe the maitre d’ to pull the fire alarm.”

MITTE 

She was quite quickly becoming frustrated with how many clothes they both had on. Maybe it was her fault– she was always the leader when they did something reckless, Kristoff was probably letting her set the pace. Especially in this arena where he’d been waiting, she didn’t know how long, for her feelings to catch up with his. Had their feelings caught up? Mitte- she hadn’t really had time to think about hers too much, except to realise that they existed. Though he’d probably been denying them as much as he could, Kristoff must have a better idea of just how deep his feelings ran. All Mitte could say for sure right now was that she wanted more.

As much as she loathed the idea of getting used to seeing him in these situations- and she did very much, giving a displeased huff as he voiced it-  she knew Kristoff was right. They were going to have to get used to a lot. Seeing him get hurt– god, it had always been awful, but now? Mitte didn’t even want to think about it, actually, certainly not right now. Her body arched into the touch of his hand, head falling back as she hummed in pleasure. “Fuck, I’d like to see that.” She said, her voice a breathless laugh, picturing Kristoff all wound up over someone putting their hands on her. Mitte slid her hands up into his hair and got real close, until their mouths were almost touching, a coy smirk on her lips. “I bet it would be hot.” And then she kissed him, leaning back and pulling Kristoff with her until she’d collapsed back against the mattress, him hovering over her, so she could finally get at the zipper of his jeans properly and start pushing them down. “Off.” She demanded against his mouth when she’d moved them as far as she could reach, taking her hands off Kristoff long enough to start removing her own jeans. 

KRISTOFF

He went easily, more than happy to situate himself over her, too busy kissing her to even notice the change in position at first. He wasn’t going to argue — he shifted only so that he could get his jeans off and throw them blindly onto the floor, crumpled in a heap somewhere, probably. He wasn’t really thinking about that either, too focused on getting back to Mitte so he could help to wrangle her jeans down her legs, tossing them to one side as well once they were out the way. 

He settled again between her thighs, running his hands over the soft skin of them, up and over until he came to a stop at her hips, thumbs rubbing over the fabric of her panties. “It would be stupid,” he informed her in the same low voice, leaning down to kiss her again, slow and deep. He pulled back, kissing across her jaw, down her neck, a trail of kisses and gentle nips until his lips met the same material that his thumbs were still toying with. “We’d get in trouble.” He added, speaking the words into her skin.

MITTE 

They were going to have to play catch up in the morning, and Mitte didn’t care one bit. She hoped none of her contacts got back to her and Mr Goodfellow was the most impossible to find man in the world, so they had plenty of excuses to stay cooped up in a hotel in Shanghai, far away from their boss and their real lives. The two things that would put the biggest strain on this. Whatever this was. But of course, they were too good at their jobs, and they’d probably find the bloke by tomorrow afternoon. 

So, Mitte was just going to have to soak all this in right now, and it was easy to focus up, especially when Kristoff dropped his voice again. A shiver ran through her whole body when he spoke and Mitte opened her mouth, intent on saying something cheeky, but he stole her mouth first and her want to antagonise him crumbled under the intensity of their kiss. 

As he made his way down her body the only sounds Mitte managed to make were those of pleasure, soft little moans and catches of breath. Eventually though, her voice did come back. “Are you trying to discourage me?” She asked, voice a touch strangled, as one of her hands found its way into Kristoff’s hair again, "you know how I feel about trouble…"  Her hips shifted of their own accord, impatient for whatever he had in mind to do next, “wouldn’t you like to see me punished?” Mitte pushed up onto her elbows to look down at him, one brow arched. 

KRISTOFF

Yeah, he had expected exactly that reaction from her. He hid a smile in the skin of her stomach, looking up at her when she sat up a little. He could go for the innocent act, he supposed — he was good at playing dumb, usually because he was, in fact, pretty dumb — but it was so much more fun to see the way she reacted to that voice. It was meant to be gruff, intimidating. It was gruff and intimidating. She just liked that, he supposed.

“Sure,” he answered, shifting up a little so that he wasn’t resting on his elbows, hooking his fingers under the fabric of her panties so he could begin to tug them down her legs and out the way. “If I can do the punishing.”

Now that might have been his best performance yet— he didn’t even know where it had come from. Mildly embarrassed, mostly rolling with it, he kept his eyes down, hands running over the inside of her thighs until he could run his thumb along her slit, just brushing over her clit. “And anyways, I’d get in trouble too.” 

Mitte 

Yeah, Mitte did like gruff and intimidating. Kinda funny that she had ended up as one of the good guys, honestly. It was Kristoff that made all the difference. One of the only constants in her life, and one of the good guys through and through. Mitte’s moral compass had a polarity problem, Kristoff was the magnet that brought her back to true north every time she strayed. 

Hey, she didn’t need real bad guys if he could put on the voice and make her feel like she was melting into a puddle on their hotel bed. Mitte lifted her hips a little to help him with her underwear, her eyes going wide at what he said. Oh, yes please. She stared down at him, all hunger and anticipation, but her head lolled back when he finally touched her, pleasure shooting up her spine. 

"If this is how you punish me I'm gonna do something bad every day." Mitte moaned, one of her hands already twisted in the sheets. "Fine." Though she would have enjoyed him being jealous enough to cause a scene, she never liked getting Kristoff in trouble. "No more bribing waitstaff." She sighed, trying to wriggle closer to his teasing hands. 

KRISTOFF

This was so different to last time. Last time had been a flurry of clothes flying off, hands and mouths everywhere, no time for talking cause they were far too preoccupied— this was different. More intimate somehow, and Kristoff wanted to draw it out. He wanted to take his time. The way she moaned, her white knuckle grip on the sheets. He wanted to drink all of it in and commit it to memory, just in case.

He stifled a laugh against the inside of her thigh, the pad of his thumb rubbing slow, teasing circles over her clit, wanting to take his time but desperate to hear her make those sounds again. “I don’t think you mean that.” He said, if only because he knew her — Mitte had a habit of getting herself into trouble.

Deciding he had no more argument to make, he shifted, bringing his mouth down to replace his thumb, humming softly at the taste of her.

MITTE

He was so pretty. Mitte was staring down at Kristoff between her legs, his mouth pressed into her thigh, his blond hair falling into his eyes… And thought he was so pretty. She'd noticed before, obviously, but in this context it made something in the pit of her stomach feel funny. When had this happened? When had how she cared about him become this, and with such ease she hadn't even realised?

She was going to protest- to be surely or seductive, something about being a good girl, that might have tripped him up, but as she was watching him Kristoff dipped his head and the only noise Mitte managed to make was a strangled gasp.

"Kristoff." She moaned, needy and soft as she fell back into the mattress fully again, writhing and rocking her hips up into the pleasure of his mouth. One of Mitte’s hands slid down her body to tangle in his hair and she pulled gently, gauging how he'd like the encouragement.

KRISTOFF

The way she said his name was one thing, the kind of her voice making heat pool in his stomach, but he groaned as her hand slipped into his hair. The grip on her hips tightened just a little, not wanting to hold on too hard but wanting her to know that yeah, she could do more of that. Maybe things were a little less slapdash than they had been last time but that didn’t mean they had to be gentle, either. Not as far as he was concerned, anyways.

He lapped at her clit, tongue stroking small circles around it before he shifted a little, dipping his tongue inside of her just enough to properly taste her, humming low in his throat when he did. He didn’t linger, though, moving his mouth back to her clit so he could slip a finger inside of her instead, looking up so he could watch her as he did his best to make her moan like that again.

MITTE

Oh yeah, Kristoff liked that. Good to know that it hadn’t been an anomaly that first time. (Something that crossed her mind far more often than it should: the way he’d scooped Mitte up and slammed her back against the wall, like he just couldn’t contain himself.) Mitte’s fingers slid against his scalp and she pulled more firmly at his hair. 

Her toes curled as Kristoff pushed a finger inside her, and Mitte tried to be conscious of keeping her noise to a reasonable level, but they’d just have to hope that a classy joint like this had decent soundproofing. “More more more.” She asked- pleaded, maybe, perhaps whined- her hips grinding into his hand and mouth. 

While he teased, Mitte reached around her back with her free hand to unclasp her bra finally, letting go of Kristoff’s hair only long enough to pull the straps off both arms and toss it to the side. 

KRISTOFF

As nice as it was to hear her asking for it, he wasn’t going to make her beg. He slid a second finger inside of her alongside the first, crooking them just a little so he could find the spot that would make her forget all about how well soundproofed the room may or may not be. He couldn’t have cared less, really — if anything, it was good for their cover story.

He looked up again when her hand slid from his hair, already missing the feeling of her nails scratching across his scalp. He was easily distracted, though, his gaze following her bra as it was tossed across the room. Somehow, in his haste to get to where he was now, he had forgotten all about it. Stupid of him, really. Next time (because there would be a next time, there had to be, he was sure of it), he wouldn’t be so careless.

Especially not now, knowing what he had been missing. The urge to shift, to kiss his way back up her body until he could run his tongue over her breasts, take the sensitive flesh of her nipple into his mouth and roll his tongue over it just to see her reaction was kind of overwhelming. He did pull back just a little, though, when he saw the light glinting off the jewellery there. “Are those—“ he was a little breathless, and just a little bit at a loss for words, hair falling into his eyes. The rhythm of his fingers slowed but didn’t stop, pressing into her almost leisurely. “Yknow those piercings have gotta be a safety hazard.”

MITTE

She didn’t have the focus needed to stop the sharp, open mouthed cry of pleasure that Kristoff teased out of her so easily with his fingers, her hips bucking up into the sensation, chasing the feeling that was starting to make the muscles of her thighs shake. God, if he kept this up she’d be a boneless mess before they even fucked. 

Since getting them, she had experienced a range of reactions to the nipple piercings. Kristoff, out to break the mould as always, was the first person to call them a safety hazard.

Mitte managed to gather enough of her wits to huff, hauling herself back up onto her elbows. “If you can’t find something better to do with your mouth than talk about my tits being a safety hazard, I’m putting my clothes back on.” Mitte warned, though the threat was lacking any bite, breathless and wanton as she still was, her hips still rocking into Kristoff’s fingers, all the more maddening for the pace he had slowed to. She cocks a brow at him, a challenge. “Be normal, and tell me they’re sexy, or shut up.” It’s a facade which lasts all of a few seconds before the push of his hand has her head rolling back again. 

KRISTOFF

He knew that was an empty threat; there was no way she was putting her clothes back on, and no way he would let her do it anyhow. Alright, so he hasn’t really meant for that to be his only comment — but excuse him for having his brain short circuit when he learned about the piercings. Had she always had those? Surely not, cause he would’ve noticed, so when—?

His brain was still sparking out trying to comprehend it all so in the finish he gave up, focusing instead on the way her hips rolled into his hand, movements synchronising. 

“They’re sexy,” he informed her, because it was true, they were sexy, enough to hold his attention completely for a few seconds longer before his mouth found its way between her legs again.

MITTE

Now, she was rarely happy to admit defeat, but in this one instance, Mitte gladly conceded to Kristoff. His mouth, his hands, the way he gave her what she wanted. He could win every day of the week if this was her consolation prize. She gave up on the idea of coherent sentences, the warmth that had started to stir in her gut way back when Kristoff had kissed her bubbling all the way up until it was boiling, making her whole body arch and twist in whatever direction brought the most pleasure. Mitte’s hand reached down into his hair again, pulling and desperate as sensations built, her moans reaching a crescendo as she came undone, going very still for just a moment before collapsing back into the mattress, all but boneless and satisfied and panting.

Well, satisfied? Maybe not the right word. Sated temporarily, perhaps. Certainly not finished. The rush of adrenaline made her hands a little shaky, but Mitte pulled at Kristoff’s hair again with what strength she could gather, trying to drag him back up. “C’mere.” She said softly, a bit dazed and blinking up at the ceiling. “Kiss me.” 

KRISTOFF

The hand in his hair and the feeling of her clenching around him, coming undone around his fingers and under his tongue was almost too much. Another thing to try and commit to memory, though; he watched her as she fell apart and then waited for to come back again, pressing soft kisses to the inside of her thighs until he felt the tug on his hair.

He didn’t need to be told twice — he shifted up onto his knees so that he could hover over her, shelter her in with one hand by her head and the other skirting over the soft skin of her ribs. He was already hard and aching with wanting her but when he kissed her it was slow, deep, deliberately taking his time.

MITTE

She had a renewed appreciation for Kristoff’s ability to follow orders so well. Sometimes it was kind of a buzzkill, but she might never complain about it again after tonight. (Or if she did, he’d have to remind her how much she really liked it.) 

Mitte’s hands splayed out on his chest as they kissed, then slid around to his back, where her nails scratched lightly up and down. She hummed her pleasure against his mouth as the kiss slowed for both of them to take a breath, and smiled up at Kristoff, something soft and dreamy that became far cheekier as she spoke. “Can you guess what I want you to do to me next?” She asked, trying to pull him down more firmly on top of her while her hips arched up to grind against his, the hard length of him such a tease against her oversensitive skin that it made Mitte whimper. Her hands roamed down to his boxers, to start pushing them down.

KRISTOFF

The scratch of her nails over his skin made him shiver, the muscles of his back twitching, shifting under his skin. It was enough for him to catch his breath every now and again, pulling away for just a second before he would find himself being pulled back in again, drawn towards her, her lips. He kissed her slowly, almost lazily, as if they had all the time in the world.

They didn’t, of course, but the mission was the last thing on his mind right now. He gave a soft, strangled sounding moan when she rolled her hips up against his, letting her pull him close, firmer as he hovered over her. He knew exactly what she was wanting, and though he didn’t bat her hands away from the waistband of his boxers he didn’t help her either, nipping at her jawline instead. “I’ve got an idea,” he admitted, “but I’d still like it if you told me.”

MITTE

He kissed her and he kissed her and he kissed her and Mitte felt almost dizzy off of it. What would happen in the morning? She didn’t think she’d want to slip quietly out of bed to get dressed and start on their day’s work like last time. She didn’t think Kristoff would let her, either. Not after what had been admitted tonight. Her jealousy, his long held fondness. At least, he’d admitted it, and Mitte had danced around her own emotions as close to the words as she’d been able to get.

Kristoff’s desire to draw things out clearly extended beyond his kisses. Mitte made a frustrated sound in the back of her throat, already so thoroughly wound up and writhing. Maybe she had drawn things out long enough, herself. “I was jealous of her.” She said, all of it coming out in one rush of breath, one hand sliding all the way up to Kristoff’s chin to angle his face up to look at her, the smile she wore expectant, “and I want you to fuck me.” 

KRISTOFF

He liked the little frustrated sound that she made, grinning against her skin as he found a new spot to sink his teeth into. He knew he wouldn’t let it, he wouldn’t let this be the last time this happened, not after he had admitted to Mitte how he felt about it, but just in case it was the last time, he wanted to hear her say it. Another thing to commit to memory, just to be on the safe side. 

He went easily when she tilted his chin, his eyes finding that gentle smile and softening. He looked at her for a moment, just a few seconds though it felt like longer, before he leaned down to kiss her again, deep and slow. “Okay,” Was all he said, because it was all he could really manage, shifting backwards until he could pull his boxers off and throw them to one side, taking his hard cock in hand with a low hum.

MITTE

He was her person. That was what came to mind as Kristoff looked up at her. If that was selfish or possessive or over dramatic Mitte didn’t really care, because it was the truth, and they both spent so much of their time dealing in lies. No room for those here, with Kristoff finally shedding the last layer between them.

Mitte stared across at him, her gaze hungry. “Okay?” She repeated, shaking her head as she hauled herself up to reach for him, her arms winding around his neck, “if I didn’t have hard proof I’d be starting to think you weren’t too enthusiastic about the idea.” Mitte was smiling all coy as she shifted back onto the mattress, pulling Kristoff down with her again. It was a good thing she didn’t really want him to be good with other women.  

She kissed him, and in the brief gaps where their mouths parted, “actually- wait.” Mitte put her hands on his chest to push gently, rolling them over ‘till Kristoff’s back hit the mattress softly and she could straddle him. “Perfect.” That was a nice view, for sure, Kristoff with his pretty blonde hair framing his face so nicely, his whole focus on her. She sat up after trailing a few more kisses down his neck, her hands bracing on his chest so she could sink down slowly onto his cock, her head rolling back as she did. When their hips were flush again Mitte was still for a moment before starting to move, nails digging into his skin.

KRISTOFF

He wanted to say something funny about actions and how they speak larger than words, or maybe something about reading between the lines or maybe just anything at all that would make it seem like he wasn’t totally at a loss for words. The truth of it was, though, that Mitte was looking at him with those big, soft eyes, and for a second the desperate ache in his groin was secondary to the ache in his chest, his ribs feeling too tight against the beating of his heart.

He didn’t say anything in the end, only rolled his eyes and smiled like he couldn’t believe her bullshit and then, when she pulled him closer, he buried his face in the crook of her neck. His lips found the pulse point there, thrumming over his tongue, about to suck another mark into her pale skin when she pushed back.

Kristoff frowned, momentarily confused at why she was pushing back and not pulling closer but he went anyways, letting her manoeuvre them. As soon as he was on his back his hands found her waist, one reaching up higher, taking her breast in his hand and squeezing momentarily before he gave a soft, strangled sound. The feeling of her, warm, tight, and wet around him was enough for him to see stars for a moment. “Fuck, Mitte—“ he groaned, breath catching as she rolled her hips.

MITTE

It seemed impossible that she would have forgotten how good he felt, considering how often it had crossed her mind since the first time this happened, but memory really didn’t have the same impact. If Mitte ever really believed that just knowing what this felt like would be enough, being so desperate for him all over again- maybe moreso, even if it wasn’t quite as frantic- sure killed that delusion. She wanted to do this over and over until she knew every contented sound, every muscle twitch, everything about Kristoff in these moments, as well as she knew him in every other. 

“That’s more like it.” She panted when he spoke up again, every breath cut through with soft little whimpers. Mitte moved slowly at first to enjoy the sight of him underneath her, and study the ways pleasure washed over his  features when she tipped her hips just so at a certain angle, let her nails bite into his skin a little harder, trailed her hands up and down her own body. After a while she shifted to lean more of her weight against her hands, palms flat against Kristoff’s chest again, so she could move faster. “Tell me-” Mitte said soft and breathless, leaning down enough to kiss him, interrupting herself because he looked too damn good, “tell me you get jealous. Tell me what you want.”

(Her, obviously, and if he was too pleasure drunk to say anything else it would do, but she wanted to hear whatever would tumble out of his mouth when he wasn’t thinking.) 

KRISTOFF

For a second he didn’t say anything, caught off guard by the change of pace so much that it was all he could do to tip his head back against the cushions beneath him and groan, jaw slack. His hands gripped her hips, her sides, keeping her close to him as he kissed her back clumsily.

“Of course I— I’m always jealous.” He managed to get out, his voice sounding harsh and rasping even to his own ears. He couldn’t quite catch his breath, not with her nails digging into the skin of his chest and her walls clenching down around him as she ground her hips down against his. He wasn’t much of a talker, not really, but Mitte had a way of drawing it out of him.

“Want you,” he managed, reaching up so he could kiss her again, catching her mouth with his own. “Always you.”

MITTE 

Whatever problems came of this, it was worth it. The sight of Kristoff underneath her right now, the feeling of his fingers digging into her hips and his cock throbbing inside her, god, she’d betray everyone and everything she knew for this. Well. Not for the sex alone. But for him, yes. Which was exactly why romances between spies were very much discouraged, but Mitte had never been a stickler for the rules, official or unspoken.

Always he said, and for once she wasn’t terrified of that, of the unending expanse of always laid out ahead of them. “You’ve got me.” Mitte promised against his mouth, breathless as she trailed more kisses down Kristoff’s neck to leave a mark of her own against his collarbone. 

“Oh fuck, Kristoff, I’m…” Words were quickly abandoned as the steady rhythm of her hips started to stutter, and Mitte could do nothing but moan, her face buried in the crook of his neck as she came apart with a shudder. Her motions slowed while she caught her breath but she didn’t stop, pushing gently on Kristoff’s shoulders ‘till he was flat against the mattress again. She let her body melt into his and then she kissed him softly, hips still rocking as her hands slid into his hair. 

KRISTOFF

He looked up at her, his gaze a little hazy, to be honest. Still, he saw the look on her face, the expression she wore. Mitte was an incredibly good liar — they had to be, both of them, in their profession — but he could see through it. He had always seen her for who she really was, and right now she was genuine. She meant it; he had her. She was his. A moan escaped him when he felt her lips against his collarbone, knowing somewhere in the bad of his mind that she’d left a mark there, that he was hers just as much as she was his.

He held her tightly as she tipped over the edge again, coming with a shudder, tightening around his cock in a way that had him seeing stars for a moment. He was so close, about to tell her so but she had come back to him, catching his lips in a kiss so that all he could do was let out a strangle groan. He pulled back just a little way, not far at all, really, feeling her breath against his cheek as he panted into her jaw. His hands found her hips, fingers pressing tight into her skin as he held her close to him. The scratch of her fingernails against her scalp, the incessant rhythm of her hips— he came with her name on his lips, panted into her skin, the feel of her around him, on top of him, the scent of her, the only things he was aware of.

His hands slipped from her hips as he came back to himself, sliding up her sides, over her arms, her neck, to cradle her face. He kissed her again, slowly, tenderly, and pulled back to look at her. “You mean that.” It wasn’t a question. Just a statement; letting her know that he knew she meant it. “I’ve got you.”

MITTE She was boneless and breathless and warm, one forearm pressed heavily into the mattress by Kristoff’s head, doing just enough to hold her up so she could look down at him, all of her muscles burning and her head spinning. It was akin to the feeling after a good sparring match. Only if it had been with Kristoff, of course. No one else had ever matched her quite so well. 

It had been true for a long time, one of those things Mitte couldn’t dispute but had refused to acknowledge. He had her. She had said it without pausing to think, yes, but Mitte didn’t feel any less certain as the two of them finally stilled, sated. Kristoff had always been the one to inspire her most honest reactions, the waitress debacle was proof enough of that. The only concerns she had were centred around the agency, and what the reaction would be when this got out. Because it would, even if the two of them did everything in their power to keep a lid on it, and then what? Would they be split up? They did their best work together, neither of them would’ve even taken the job in the first place without the other. 

Kristoff was kissing her again, and Mitte decided it wasn’t worth worrying about. “Who else could ever?” She pointed out softly, relieved her face would already be too beet red for any blush to show through. That too, was true, though it did make the enormity of this whole thing harder to ignore. There was nobody else. “I suppose I don’t have to ask what you intend to do with me.” Her mouth tipped up in one corner in a lazy smirk, and she dipped her head to press a kiss at the base of Kristoff’s throat, settling with her head against his chest.

KRISTOFF

He ran his fingertips over her side as she looked down at him, feeling the racing over her heart as his hand brushed over her ribs. He smiled softly, maybe just a little bit smug. Who else could ever, she said, and maybe he had known it all along but it really was nice to hear her say it out loud.

When she settled against him he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her just a little bit closer. He kissed the top of her head, settling back so that his gaze was tipped up at the ceiling. It would be complicated. The agency would throw a fit, probably. They’d have to fight to go on missions together. But they could make it work; he was sure of that, at least.

“I have a few ideas,” he admitted, smiling to himself, since she couldn’t see it. “We should probably stop the bad guy first, though. Then at least we can say we’re still capable of doing our jobs.” 

MITTE

Bad guy. Right. They had a bad guy to catch, so they were gonna have to do that before they could do this again. Ugh. “Work sucks.” Mitte mumbled into his chest. Were they crazy for doing this? Were they crazy for not doing it sooner? Sometimes, these things really did have to hit you like a grand piano falling out of the sky in a cartoon. A glimpse of how she would feel if he chose someone else. 

“But you’re right.” She sighed, “that’s the first line in the book they’ll throw at us, so if we can handle this quickly it’ll be harder to stop us.” She frowned against Kristoff’s skin, her hands curling a bit tighter around him. “Not that they won’t keep trying.” Mitte wondered what the play was here, if they should out themselves immediately upon return or try to keep things under wraps until it inevitably spilled out. The latter afforded them the chance to sneak around which was fun, but the likelihood of a punishment- and not the sexy kind Kristoff had already claimed an interest in- was high. 

Mitte just… Didn’t want the outside world muscling in on whatever this was before they’d even had a chance to settle into it. But she supposed that was the sensible way to go about things, the proper way. Everyone would figure them out no matter what they did of course, and then it would begin, the comments and questions and bothersome nudges that Mitte truly hated. “...What are we gonna do?” She asked softly, not sure he’d have an answer but searching for something anyway, about more than the next couple of days.

KRISTOFF

Kristoff took a deep breath, casting his gaze to the ceiling for a moment as he thought, his thumb brushing backwards and forwards over Mitte’s skin gently. Of course the agency would hate it – they would never let the two of them work together again. There weren’t very many couples at the agency, mostly because it was a stupid, terrible idea. And Kristoff knew that it was; getting involved with your partner was the best way to make sure that you would eventually slip up, get emotional, give the enemy some leverage over you. And yet, he couldn’t quite bring himself to care.

“We review the audio you got from Goodfellow’s room,” He said, knowing it wasn’t what she meant. Still, in terms of next steps, that was what they had to do. “Figure out where exactly he is – he must have some kind of meeting set up out here. We intercept, we take him in. And we keep this,” He looked down at her, kissing the top of her head again. “To ourselves. Just for now. Everyone thinks we act like an old married couple anyways,” He added, smiling ruefully. “They probably won’t know anything’s different. We’ll tell them eventually, just… on our terms.”

MITTE

It was strange, how not strange this was. Even last time, when the frenzy had ended and the two of them had stayed tangled together, and Kristoff had been overthinking it so hard that Mitte had practically seen the steam coming out of his ears, she had not for a moment felt uncomfortable in his arms. Every soft brush of his hand now just helped work out the lingering tension in her muscles, and she could feel her eyelids starting to droop. 

“They’re going to have a field day when we eventually tell them…” Mitte sighed, leaning up enough to kiss him again, because there probably wouldn’t be a lot of time to do so tomorrow. Her thumb brushed gently across Kristoff’s cheek as she looked down at him, trying not to picture the teasing. It only meant she’d suffer twice, and she knew he’d be right by her side when it did all eventually have to come out. For Kristoff, she’d endure it. Hopefully without killing anyone. “We should get some sleep.” She said, pouting and surly, shifting some of her weight off Kristoff to snuggle into his side. “Promise I’ll still be in bed when you wake up this time.” Mitte pulled the duvet up around them, and gave him another last kiss, and then another for good measure. “Goodnight.” She murmured against his skin, tucking in real close before closing her eyes and finally letting sleep take her.

KRISTOFF

Yeah, they would have a field day, and it wasn’t just teasing and jokes that he was worried about. Kristoff and Mitte always worked together, and they were some of the best. If anyone could begin to doubt them they were going to do it, try to throw a spanner in the works to get the two of them stuck in an office or chasing petting criminals rather than taking the big jobs. The two of them had worked too hard to get to where they were for that to happen, which was part of the reason why Kristoff wanted to wait. So that they could make sure this was done on their own terms, to prove that it wasn’t going to change anything. They were a team, same as they always had been, just… even more so, now.

He smiled softly at the promise she gave him. He didn’t doubt her, either. He held her close, listening to her breathing go slow and even before he let sleep pull him under as well – they were going to need an early start in the morning.

#( t; the spy who loved me 2 ) #swynsmut #mistoff #another addition to the mcu #the mistoff cinematic universe #also the fact that we didnt rlly do anything like this this valentines ig means that swynlake did this just to fuck w them specifically #also i like to give kristoff just the tiniest amount of rizz in these aus #so that he wakes up feeling inadequate

[loreofthegayuma]

Lore/Mira/Fritz here and this is a personal side-blog!

Last Update: Mar. 11, 2024

System, SEAsian, and bodily 26. Follows from @loreofthefritz (main/dbz blog).

About:

This is a blog of us making text posts about issues, our life, or a little bit of both. There are also a lot of media we're obsessed with and a lot of things we find interesting.

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That most of us have a hard time verbalizing our thoughts because we don't use words on each other when we talk. Sometimes we experience a verbal shutdown; we won't be answering asks, DMs, and won't be talking in the tags. Please be patient when that happens, we will be back shortly. Even if you find us posting text-heavy content, it doesn't mean we're currently not experiencing a shutdown, sometimes we just post those that have been in the drafts a long time ago during this time.

Some of us write and we intend to post some of them here and the other things we create. However, please do enjoy our blog for the meantime!

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@loreofthefritz - main + dragon ball blog (don't follow this one unless you really like dragon ball). 《Fritz》

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[popculturebuffet]

Restocking the Buffet: Of Reporter Cats, More WBD Tomfoolery and Karate Kids

Hello all you happy people. So i've tried multiple times to find a consitent format to talk about stuff that's not this blogs normal structure (i.e. reviews of various media), trying to do just updates for the blog , smaller movie reviews, all kinds of things.

So instead i'm reintroducing restocking the buffet, what was intended to be how I did updates, but now is that plus whatever's on my head, as the shockingly massive popularity of my post railing against Warner Brothers discovery made me realize a lot of you LIKE my ranty stream of concious thoughts and opinons so there they are. Some are angry, some are less so, and some are just plain confused.. and starting off with the latter..

Warner Bros Discovery II: The Search for More Money WBD has thankfully been mostly quite these past few weeks, which is good. I barely can manage the stress of having anxiety and depression, I don't need a large major corporation essentially poking me with a stick and saying "Is this making it worse, is this making it worse, is this making it worse?".

There's still some news on that front. For starters their CFO was quoted in an article saying he really dosen't care about exclusivity just what makes them money.

With WBD having let Amazon stream The LOTR films in time for the Rings of Power which I dont' really care about. Do like the Peter Jackson OG Trilogy though, watched the second two in theaters and feel their excellent, still gotta read the books.

And honestly... it's the only time since the merger WBD has made sense in a way that dosen't make me want to shirtlessly chop down a tree to sooth my shattered Soul Ala Bill Murray. See he kinda has a point about JUST keeping a property or film to your service that isn't an original from said service just to make people buy the service. Sure i'm sure some people would've tuned into HBO Max just to watch the movies for it, but most fans that hardcore would just buy the films somewhere already or likely already have all the editions for these films and the animated films and know all the words to "Where there's a whip there's a way". There's no harm in letting two services hold the ring of power. Granted I do feel this is in part because WBD is run SOLEY on profit and not artistic integrity of any way shape or form, so it could be troublesome down the line, but two services having the same film dosen't really hurt them and hasn't. Hulu and HBO Max and Disney+ have shared films due to lingering lisecnding deals, but people will likely just watch the film on what they have avaliable. So I support this philosphy, I just want it in the hands of people who aren't using it to try and justify scraping content off the platform to have more money to swim in.

That said there was something horrible I found out as turns out there was a cameo for a kid with a fatal disease in Batgirl... whose parents now want her to be able to see it. Just when I thought it couldn't be worse.. jesus. Not much more to say but anything I can do to shame WBD more helps.

We also have the news that the Batman: Caped Crusader is getting shopped around. Sadly unlike Kevin Smith excellently suggested, Disney seems uintrested, but I did see this coming: Disney dosen't want brand confusion and also dosen't quite need it: They have a superhero show every few months, and almost every marvel cartoon ever, including two i'll talk about in a moment. That said the other names in the fight are interesting: Netflix, Amazon and Apple TV+. ANY of them would be able to give it a good home: Netflix is killing it in mature action animatoin and thus Batman would be right home, Amazon likewise, and Apple TV+ has exactly two animated properties (Central Park and the various Peanuts things) of note, so they could use this. And all of them still give WBD a fine and hardy fuck you, so i'm fine

FInally we have rumblings that Comcast may buy WBD. I'm. .iffy on it. Part of it is that one of their branches, Universal has been excessively shitty lately when it comes to YouTube and a certain channel (more on that later). Another is we really don't need more corpprate mega mergers. That said if it dosen't happen while i'm not thrilled about it, ti's still obviously better than the alternative and Peacock is finding it's footing, doing more day in date releases or next day releases than ever for it's tv shows, and is honestly doing better at the day and date streaming than HBO did, actually asking creators as far as I can tell with most seeming to be their decision or have their consent (If i'm wrong or missed one feel free to tell me) and while I still FULLY love and support seeing films theatrically, Streaming does make it easier to see some. Peacock also hasn't abandoned the 45 day window, which WBD did. I'm also okay with it if it happens as frankly at this point Discovery is selling warner for parts. The biggest danger of one of these mergers, as i've realized afte rsomeone called the disney fox merger and I realized, x-men getting to go to the mcu aside, they were right, is that a lot of projects might get canceled and reboots put in cryo. But given the current owner is canceling thigns, making shows unavaliable and generally being a dick, it's really no diffrent except those properties will likely come out of the box and they'll at least let full movies and stuff you know.. get released instead of trying to write it off for taxes. I don't WANT this merger, but it's sad when another megacorp rising is somehow a good alternative.

Disney+ Gets MOST of the Spider-Man!

Moving on from something infurating, we have some good suprising news; Spectacular Spider-Man and Spider-Man: The New Animated Series are coming to Disney+ in october!

This is also one of the omissions from the service that made some sense instead of just Disney going can't make me dont' wanna: Sony owned the rights to these two, and thus tried keeping them to Crackle and other services, and recently put Spectacular on netflix, likely as part of the two being friends now. Which is fine by me as it means I can watch Bullet Train again over and over when it comes to the service and watch the Invitation when it comes out and Watch Morbius out of morbid curosity without having to pay extra money to say keep Starz or buy a dvd that would curse my house. I'm happy to realize this deal exists even if finding it out via a failed vampire movie starring a Cult leader was the weridest way I coulda.

As for why this is a big deal it means that Disney+ is now ONE series away from having all the animated spider-man shows under one roof, two from having all of them (three if you count electric company, but I could see them just getting the rights to put just the spidey skits on there). The 60's and live action series are both missing for whatever reason. I geinely do not know, though I assume with the former it's the same kind of weird type of rights hurdles that have kept the 87 turtles from streaming (Which is frustrating if say, you've only saw a few episodes and would like to watch the one turtles series you haven't seen a good chunk of without paying money to own the series as you already own some of the dvds (Ponits to self).

I never honestly expected either series to come to D+, but i'm excited they are. Only season 1 of spectacular is, but I highly doubt it'll just one one for long and it could be a misprint for all we know.

So breaking both down for the unintiated: Spectacular is one of my faviorite superhero shows period. Granted I procastinate on those a LOT (as evidenced by the fact i'm horribly behind on doom patrol and haven't watched the much loved Harely Quinn), but it's still a classic to the genre, a clever reinvention of spidey's career that manages to take the same concept of pre-miles ultimate spidey (telling peter's early career with a modern bent) and do it even better, taking a page from the 616 and the Ultimate universe to craft something intresting well thought out and sadly short lived. It's also where Gwen Stacey being into science, something ASM codified and has kept with the character since, came from. I intend to fully review it someday, either as a season or in the various arcs wiseman cleverly packed in to make it easier to put on dvd. Check it out. It's a short binge and a worthy one. I also find it enjoyable two of Greg Weisman's two season classics (in gargoyles case one I need to see badly and yes there's a third but he wasn't involved so ... yeah two seasons), are on the same platform. Maybe we can get Gargoyles Meet the Spectacular Spider-Man Marvel? Eh Eh?

The New Animated series i'm less familiar with, having watched it once or twice when i'm younger, but is intresting enough that I want to check it out. NAS was based directly on the first Rami Film, being a sequel to it that takes it's own path.. and also actually turns Curt Conners into the lizard. Fancy that. Being the only spidey property based on one of the film series for now makes it something unique, a time capusle for the character and something fun to check out. It also has NPH as Peter, a great choice.

All this gives me the idea for a possible spider-man month at some point as he has tons of shows (and of course comics). Let me know if you think that's a good idea. I'd love to do it!

Real Dead Meat So we pivot next from some really good news to something that's been consitently frustrating, heartbreaking and obonoxious.

So as i've made no secret of i'm a huge fan of the Horror Review Channe Dead Meat. I've used their gifs..

And ocasionally used one or two of James catchphrases as a refrence.

In case your curious Dead Meat is a channel that has two primary series: The flagship Kill Count where the energetic, joyful and snarky James A Janeese breaks down a film, giving us analysis, cool behind the scenes information on the film, and lots and lots of jokes. It's sister show is the Dead Meat Podcast, where James and his Wife Chelsea (who runs said podcast) discuss horror films or subjects pertaning to the genre. Both shows are excellent and worth seeking out and some of my faviorite things to unwind to. I can't tell you how much i've watched certain kill counts. The counts ar einformative while still doing what the title says, and since his return from a hiatus (having his editor and now co-writer Zoran take over to review tremors and Chelsea also getting a shot with the american psycho films), has stepped it up in even the counting, with comparisons to other films that have been counted, the franchise and other fun stuff.

So naturally I was really amped when James decided to revisit one of my faviorite horror franchises and one he loves and appricates as much as I do Child's Play. James has as of last year (which is also when I found the channel ironically enough as I assumed it was just litterally counting kills. I feel bad I ddin't realize it wasn't sooner as I was missing something dope) started Re-Counting films he did in the first year or so of the series, as the early reviews didn't have the behind the scenes stuff or as much analysis of the films themselves, and he wants these films to get the proper treatment, Especailly Chucky and the due to be re-counted Scream as their two of his faviorites (and as we've established two of mine).

After the first two though thigns went from great, getting two counts a week... to REALLY fucking frustrating and horrible. As almost anyone who watches a content creator or has been one on youtube can tell you their copyright system sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms, being VERY slanted towards corprate intrests and making it a nightmare to run up that hill run up that building to refute claims. MAKING A CLAIM, is childlishly easy and more oftne than not automated. Fighting them can take weeks, and if their claimed it means no revune till it's resolved if it can be.

EVERY Child's Play and Chucky Film since has been claimed like this by the dickheads over at Universal. It's extra baffling because they parntnered with Shout Factory's Scream Factory imprint to do cool fancy new blu rays/4ks of Childs Play 2 and 3 and sent James those early so he could use them for the re-counts... and despite being endorsed iwth review copies this STILL fucking happens. Said counts are there to hype up Season 2 of Chucky, to ACTIVELY PROMOTE THESE FILMS NOT REPLACE THEM, and even when he dosen't like a film like CHild's Play 3 he still credits the good parts. Hell having the behind the scenes bits from the dvd means more people might buy these new versions.

The reason I feel the need to rant about this as thanks to twitter i've had to watch two creators I enjoy who as far as I can tell are some of the nicest people on the interent feel defeated and beaten down by a company whose bullying them for free promotion. And i'm not saying go scream at universal: as james himself said it's a big company: one hand likely dosen't know what the other is doing, to the point two diffrent hands made copyrights on some of the counts.

But I do want people to know about this, to watch these counts as they come out so their work pays off (You can find it just by googling dead meat), to help promote them since doing so for something they geninely love has caused them a lot of pain, and to get my rage out about this as it's likely going to be something James has to grapple with till the recounts are finished. It's not going to get much easier, so i'd like to send my best to a man who has done nothing but try to make people laugh, get them informed and hang off the bars in his new professionaly made set like a monkey, his just as warm and talented wife, and the whole dead meat crew. I'm sorry you guys have to put up with that. If your looking for a count to start with i'd recommend the Child's Play recount, which keeps a few jokes but mostly has a ton of great brand new jokes and content highly praising one of my faviorite horror films.

Seriously check these guys out, and hopefully this situation will get less obnoxious so james can get back to

As usual

Breaking Cat News

Finally I just wanted to gush about something else I like that isn't getting clubbed over the head: Breaking Cat News

BCN is a brilliant, decently long running and now as of the last few years Syndicated strip by Georgia Dunn, part of a wave in the last few years of brilliant new strips like Crabgrass and Rosebuds. I thought once in a while I could just spotlight what i'm reading righ tnow to help more people read it and full review it later.

As you can see BCN follows three (later 4 cats) who live in an apartment in a big pink house and report on the things that really matter like strange company, the leaves trying to kill us all every year, fuzzy new toilet covres making a great cat bed, horrible new cat food that's good for you, and that strange cat outside who won't go away, and MANY more.

It follows three good boys: Elvis, a cranky old siamese who flies into rages at the drop of a toy mousey, Puck, a kind, gentle good boy who while scared of company is the voice of reason of the trio, and Elvis, a white cat who can blend in with his surroundings and frequently runs around and breaks things and acts like h'es in the middle of a sugar high 80% of the time. They live in said house with The Woman, a kind and somewhat anxious nerd based on Georgia herself, The Man, an often annoyed by his cat children and somewhat snarky but still deeply kind and lovable husband to the Woman, and the boy and girl, the couple's children who the cats are ocasionally annoyed by but just as much doted on, especially by elvis who seems himself as more of a dad ot them than their actual dad. As you can tell the comic is mostly autobigoraphical, following various real incidents through our heroes eyes.

That isn't to say the world isn't deep as Dunn also incorpeates her upstairs neighbor, her best friend, and their various pets into the mix, giving the strip a decent sized continiutya nd a wide bench of supporting characters: We have Sir Figaro and Tabitha, the two spanish language reporters who live above our heroes, Tommy, a cat who at first annoys our heroes (patciually elvis) by showing up outside their window but later becomes their field reporter, Sophie, Tom's shyer artistic roomate, Beatrix, a cute kitten and former intern to the group living at a bookstore and serving as their fact checker and social media gal, Bert, the sometimes stoic patient barn cat who does their av, Baba Mouse, a cranky but wise old barn cat, The Robber Mice, a girl gang of Rodents, and most recently and adorably Goldie, a stray who heartbreakingly was simply left out by her family who moved without her and clearly didn't treat her well (As I found out recently 3/4 of the cats are rescues with Puck having had to be taken from his owner by a well meaning neighbor lest a leg infection kill him (and thus only having three legs, a detail i'm shocked I never noticed until it was pointed out to me) and Elvis being kept in a closet, catching a fever and sadi fever leaving him deaf. She quickly adapts, is warmly adopted and after a while becomes the station's investgative reporter. It's a fun, wonderful strip and I highly recommend it. Read it and thanks for reading this

#breaking cat news #hbo max #disney+ #dead meat #netflix #news #Youtube

[lesbianaglaya]

Hey, hope you're having a good day! which english translations of war and peace do you like best/think are interesting? hoping to finally get around to reading it this year and idk which one to pick up pls help :))

hi! currently struggling to write less than 15000 words on one aspect of 26 pages of w&p so. im doing. that. but it makes it a good time for this question!

so generally from my memory the pevear and volokhonsky, anthony briggs, louise and aylmer maude, and constance garnett translations are the most common ones. i know there are more but i do not. know stuff about them so theyre getting left out.

first to knock out one: the constance garnett translation was good when it came out in 1904 but now reads as very dry and clunky. its also not the most accurate to the russian text. would not recommend as your w&p introduction.

the maude translation was done during tolstoys life and by his close friends louise and aylmer maude. it received his approval, and is generally considered a very accurate translation! when i first approached it i was thrown off, but oxford world classics recently updated it (adding french back in, de-anglicizing the character names, etc) and that makes it much more approachable. Im currently using it (not the updated edition sadly) for reference as I write when i need to check something quickly and cant parse the russian text and it's really grown on me. if you have access to the updated version this could be a good choice!

pevear and volokhonsky is the one you generally see in book stores! they are a husband and wife translator team who became very popular after oprah recommended their translation of anna karenina. generally accurate to the text. people disagree over whether they deserve all the praise theyve gotten, and while i dont think their translation method is perfect Ive read many of their translations and find them very enjoyable and as mentioned accurate. their w&p is how i first read it, and now im kind of dedicating my life to it. so.

finally the fucking briggs translation. i hate the briggs translation. lots of people talk about how great the briggs translation is, how its so beautiful yayayayayaya. well i think it is bad. I personally do not think it is that much more "lyrical" than the p&v translation, and there were moments where I went and checked the russian text because there were some. liberal interpretations in the translation. my personal opinion aside, many people do love the briggs translation, and I think reading any translation of w&p is better than not reading it. i personally dont like this one and dont find it as accurate as maude or p&v but it is out there and is an option but my personal recommendation is to only go for this one if you cant get into maude or p&v.

so tl;dr i would suggest either the updated maude or p&v! its a great experience, and if you can read it with a friend or a group i think that makes it even better. good luck!

#gabby.txt #hope this helps!

[the-mesozoic-system]

Weird thing happened yesterday.

The system is going through a Lot of stuff right now and i might make an update post once weve figured out whats actually happened (or maybe fox will do an update as they are the memory holder/protector and will have most of the information anyway, although not all of it can be public obviously for system safety)

But anyway

Fox is the only one with full access to all the system memories, from childhood experiences to system members' past (ie fictives) and it's all stored in the library in our headspace, which only Fox has access to.

Last night we were talking through what happened with our boyfriend and he could see parts of the headspace, extremely accurately and could even draw out the room plan of the library room that fox is in the most, even details down to where the ladder was in the room, which Fox said they had moved to that exact spot eariler in the day.

Niragi then drew the outside of the library building, and he cant draw, but my bf could see it so accurately and could even work out the outside area of the library, even where the bushes, pathways and ponds are. He could also point out whereabouts the library is located in the headspace like a map.

We have all spoken about drawing out a map to help us all, as some places are inaccessible to other members and some are really hard to find as theyre far away form the main headspace areas, but my bf didn't even need a map to see everything?

He also suggested that we create a communal area close to where we come to front, to make switches and communication easier in the system, and so far its worked perfectly. However... as it was being created, my bf drew a diagram of what it looked like, without asking us what it was going to look like.

We created the Globe theatre, wider and with less floor levels, with a red carpet and red fold down cinema seats.

This is exactly what he drew in the diagram as it was being built in the headspace, without any prompting from any of us.

He could see where each of us involved in the conversation were stood within that room as the conversations were taking place. And even drew in the snack table we'd placed at the back of the room for the meeting.

I dont know how this works, maybe hes just gotten really used to us switching and describing where we are/where the places are within the headspace, but without any prompting or descriptions from us, has managed to make it almost perfectly accurate in everything and everywhere we were in the headspace last night.

And the library especially freaks me out because no one except Fox has been in there, and even where the ladder was to what colour and position the desk lamp was... and Fox was able to confirm everything to him when bf described it and showed the drawings to him.

Freaky, huh?

[xianyoon]

⤷ ying's teahouse rules!

good to see you, friend! i see you've got a lovely table for two – there's still a bit of waiting time left before we let you in, so do read through our teahouse rules! leaving a like allows us to know that you acknowledge these rules.

一 › while i am incredibly in love with writing! the unfortunate fact is that i'm still a student. sporadic updates, no writing schedule.

二 › i do not write n.sfw, but i cannot assure you that my blog will be completely free of suggestive things because i'm of age. minors, do not interact with my spicier posts. please block the tag [ # 一 ying's dreams ] to keep your consumption safe.

三 › dislike what i write, especially if it sounds a little ooc? that's okay! you do you. please disengage – any form of hate will be blocked.

四 › criticism is not welcome unless sought after – even if it's intended to be constructive. please do not send me constructive criticism unless i have specifically asked for it!

五 › i block liberally. sometimes i don't get good vibes from people and would prefer not to have those vibes on my dash !!!

六 › not all my posts will be writing related! i love the genshinblr community and it's people – most of the time, i do shitpost or have some very .. eye-opening, thought-provoking, ying-what-the-hell-did-you-just-post /neg posts.

七 › i am an !!! incredibly busy !! social work student !! which means that i may not always have time to check asks , especially after attachment shifts. i apologise for late replies :( please don't pester me or ask me why i haven't responded. i'm more likely to reply even later lololol

八 › i write for genshin mainly, but may branch to other fandoms if i ever feel like it !!! i'm a free bird! wheeee !!! i will list these fandoms if i ever branch.

九 › REQUESTS ARE CLOSED. please do not send any requests into my inbox!! thank you <3

十 › i post a lot of positivity posts when i feel like it ♡

十 一 › i am a christian. i do not speak of it to people who don't want to hear it , nor do i talk about it on my main blog !! i do not believe in forcing my beliefs onto anyone. if my religious choice is something you don't vibe with, that's okay! just please don't send hate about this :3

十二 › DO NOT ASK ME TO BE MUTUALS IN DMS, only asks. do not ask me to be mutuals if you're a minor. i do selective followbacks. i do not hardblock to break the mutual, i just unfollow.

十三 › please do not dm me ! do not pester me to respond to you. i don't respond to dms unless its from close mutuals. dms will not be checked regularly especially because i don't get notifications for it.

⤷ ying's dni and byf!

do read through my dni and byf !!! thank you for reading!

– basic dni criteria – -15/+45 ( can follow / like / reblog, just dont talk 2 me hehe ) – if you ship incest/pedo ships – if you disrespect religions. – if you send hate to others + engage in discourse lots – if you don't respect ships that you don't personally ship. – if you're going to disrespect my boundaries – minors who write smut / engage with nsfw – people who support minors who interact with nsfw  – i do not condone the sending of hate in any shape or form. if you agree with sending hate to people, regardless of the reason, please do not interact with me . – if you can't respect other people over your own feelings

#― adeptal navigation.