#it's my reality and i will pick and choose elements of time thanks

[the-cat-at-the-theatre-door]

I don't venture too often into human au territory, but I bestow upon thee living-in-my-head-rent-free faceclaims Kabir Bedi Asparagus and Indira Varma Jellylorum.

#i need you to understand that face claims for me exist in a vacuum and a bubble #which means like im talking kabir froms the 90s and early 2000s and Indira of right now #at near 50 #and it's like a leslie howard or john gielgud gus with a kamini kaushal as their mother #shut up jemi no on ca-i need u to understand the VISIONtm #honestly the main reason i don't venture into human au territory is because the visions that exist in my head #are hyper specific to me myself and i #extemporize back chat #it's my reality and i will pick and choose elements of time thanks

[navybrat817]

Librarian!Bucky Barnes! People aren’t really your forte; you’re not the best at verbal communication. It’s why you’ve always found solace in books. Your town librarian understands. You’re not sure how he came to be here, or who he was before, but the rumors don’t bother you. He leaves books for you in your check-out bin, notes written on post-it notes in the margins of the ones he knows will interest you. At last, someone who really understands.

😈

I adore this and hope you like what I came up with!

Prized Possession

Pairing: Dark Librarian!Bucky Barnes x Female Reader Summary: You're Bucky's rare treasure, his most prized possession. Word Count: Almost 1.5k Warnings: Explicit sexual content, Dubcon/Noncon elements (please do NOT read if that upsets you), drugging, kidnapping, cockwarming, mention of minor character death, dark elements, possessive behavior, displays of Stockholm Syndrome, librarian!Bucky Barnes (he’s a warning, okay?), A/N: Hey, lovelies! Here's my submission for @boxofbonesfic Monkey Paw Challenge. Congrats on 7k! Thank you to Nix for the GORGEOUS Bucky edit and @late-to-the-party-81 for the beautiful moodboard. Also thank you to @sgt-seabass for "prized possession". Not beta read and written on my phone, so any and all mistakes are my own. Banners by the talented @vase-of-lilies. Please follow @navybrat817-sideblog for new fics and notifications. Please reblog or comment as it means the world!

When you were little, you used to dream that you would one day fall in love with a handsome prince. All the books you read had the princesses being saved from their peril to live happily ever after. You wished for your prince to shield you from the darkness of the world and love you for who you are. Your parents eventually told you to get your nose out of the books and live in reality. It was a silly dream.

And dreams sometimes turned to nightmares. 

Bucky let out a sigh of happiness as he paused in his reading, reminding you of how good he felt to be surrounded by the heat of your wet pussy. One of his favorite ways to read to you was to have you seated on his hard cock, his lips against your ear as he spoke. It was a daily routine now and the dull ache between your legs was a sensation you had grown used to over time. He made sure of it. Everything began and ended with Bucky Barnes. 

Everything.

“Do you remember the day we met?” he asked, nuzzling the column of your throat as he rocked his hips up. 

“I do,” you whispered. 

Your life changed the moment you met him. A chance encounter with the handsome new librarian put you directly in his path. You hadn’t expected to bump into him while roaming the familiar shelves, clutching the small pile of books to your chest as he looked into your eyes. You had never seen such a brilliant shade of blue before. 

And you never would again.

“Is there something I can help you find?” 

“Y-You’re not Will,” you said, taking in his short, brown hair and strong jawline. He took up space between the shelves without meaning to with his muscular frame and you chided yourself for staring. 

The smile he gave you made you shrink back more. “No, I’m not. I’m actually his replacement. I’m Bucky.”

You said your name as he looked at you expectantly. You didn’t know Will planned to quit, but didn’t question it as Bucky helped you pick one more book. Instead of getting frustrated with your small nods and one or two word answers to his questions, he was careful to help choose the right story for you.

“Sorry,” you said as he helped you at the front desk, carefully looking over your library card.

“For what?” he asked, taking one more look before giving the card back and pushing the books toward you.

“Not saying much,” you answered, tucking them into your arms. Conveying messages through spoken word wasn't your strong suit, so you did your best to express it in other ways. A kind smile here and a friendly wave there, but it didn't always work. Books were comforting because they didn’t judge you.

“Nothing to apologize for, doll. I know not everyone is a chatterbox,” he swore, the small smile you gave in response making him grin. “Tell you what. Why don’t I leave a few books for you when those are due back so you don’t feel obligated to talk to me?” 

“Oh,” heat quickly rushed to your cheeks. “You don’t-”

“I don’t mind,” he promised. 

"Okay. Thanks,” you swore, giving him a tiny wave as you cradled the books with the other hand.

“See you soon, doll,” he smiled. 

You felt his eyes on you when you left and he hadn’t stopped watching you since.

“You had the most beautiful smile. It was endearing,” he explained, shutting the book and setting it aside.

You had heard whispers about Bucky since he took over at the library. Will had given no warning to quitting and no one even saw him leave town. Some say he killed him, but there was no proof. Others said that something wasn’t right in his mind after he served in the Army. You ignored the rumors. He mostly kept to himself and did a good job.

Maybe you should’ve listened.

“You were always nice to me.”

Whenever you saw Bucky around town, you gave him a small, awkward wave. He always waved back with a lopsided grin. You liked that he didn’t force you into interacting with him, but you found yourself drawn to him anyway. Who wouldn’t be drawn to a handsome, mysterious and kind man?

You should’ve questioned why you saw him around your street when he lived blocks away. Or why small things began to go missing from your place. You thought at the time that you were being forgetful. It was foolish to pretend.

“The world is a cruel place and I knew I had to protect you.”

Blaine was a bully who teased you relentlessly whenever he encountered you, knowing you wouldn't say anything back. It was usually a comment about your looks or how maybe you could you up if he fucked you. Bucky witnessed it once from a distance, but you rushed off before he could see if you were okay. It didn't bother you and you didn't want to trouble him. Blaine thought he found an easy target and nothing more.

He broke his neck in a freak accident two days later.

And Bucky left you a flower with a new stack of books.

“You wanted me. I know you did,” he grunted, thrusting up to make you keen. “You have no idea how many times I wanted to shove you against one the bookshelves and fuck you until you cried.”

You had a feeling it took a lot of restraint. There was always a dark look in his eyes in the moments he got close to you. A brush against your backside or a touch to your arm, but they somehow seemed innocent. 

There was nothing innocent about his intentions.

“You even kept all the notes I left you.” he sighed, tracing lazy circles along your clit as you whined.

Each time Bucky chose a book for you, he left a handwritten note. It was either a reason for why he chose the story or why he thought you’d like it. You appreciated that he chose romantic stories since most of the guys in town wanted nothing to do with you. Each one was special to you. He even asked you out on a date with a note.

They lined the wall across from you, along with photos Bucky had taken of you.

“My perfect doll. Never prying or asking questions,” he murmured, his teeth lightly nipping your soft flesh. “I knew I had to have you.”

Your first date was at his place, not wanting you pressured to go out in town. The romantic indoor picnic just for two felt personal and special. You didn’t remember much after having a drink of wine. But you knew you hadn’t been home since.

“I deserve you,” he lightly bit down again as he brought you closer to the edge, your legs trembling against his thick thighs. “My most prized possession.”

The missing items from your place were in the room, along with other things Bucky moved in. You weren’t sure how he gained access to your place. It was best not to ask. 

“Tell me you love me,” he urged, snapping his hips as you reached back to grip his hair. He groaned when you pulled on the short strands. “Now.”

“I love you, Bucky. I love you!” you cried. 

“Then come for me,” he demanded, pinching your swollen bundle of nerves.

A tear fell from your eye as you succumbed to pleasure, flooding his cock and lap with your release. He wrapped a hand around your throat to keep you still, his grip prolonging your orgasm. He knew your body, and had taken the time to explore it. And your cunt pulsed around him with the need to be filled.

“That’s my good girl,” he groaned, giving you what your body asked for after a few shallow thrusts, his seed coating your trembling walls.

“Yours,” you moaned because it was the truth.

Bucky breathed heavily against your shoulder as you head lolled to the side, but he refused to leave the haven of your body. “Let’s finish this chapter.”

“Okay,” you exhaled, seeping around his cock as he opened the book again. You stared off as he began to speak again, taking in the beauty of the prison he created for you. The four walls were spacious and fresh flowers brightened it up. And there was an endless supply of books.

“Look at this, doll,” he smiled as he held the open book in front of your face. “He wants to start a family. Doesn’t that sound nice?”

Another tear fell as you sadly smiled and nodded. You didn’t know if anyone was looking for you or if they even cared. And Bucky? He wasn’t the prince who rescued you from the tower. He put you in one to preserve you. His most prized possession.

Bucky’s happily ever after.

*****

I'd really like to explore more librarian!Bucky, soft, soft!dark or dark. What do we think? Thanks for reading!

#navybrat writes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x y/n #soft!dark bucky barnes x reader #dark!bucky barnes x reader #librarian!bucky barnes x reader #monkey paw challenge #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes au #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan x you #sebastian stan x female reader #dark fic #tw.dubcon

[ciaossu-imagines]

Hi love! I haven’t been online for a hot sec but the scream I SCRUMPT when I saw that Dogs: Bullets & Carnage was still available for the au prompts!!! I’m literally down for any headcanons and any AUs with the lovely characters because I don’t know anyone else that knows of it so I want to say pick your poison 😭😭 but if I must choose one for the event, maybe a coffee shop AU? The characters have been through too much I just need an AU where they get to experience soft cozy vibes instead of whatever’s going on in canon 🫶🏻

Thank you so much for your time and thoughtfulness in penning your work for us! Please feel free to pick any other available AU if it strikes your inspo more than this one. Tbh foaming at the mouth for any thoughts about our beloved stray dogs howling in the dark… 🤍

Okay, so I admit that this is no longer on my fandom list. It's been a while since I've revisiting the manga and there really wasn't much interest in it, so I did remove it. However, I love coffee shop/cafe au's, I do love this fandom, and I couldn't resist the opportunity to write this! Thank you so, so much for sending this in and, though they are late getting to you, I really hope you enjoy the headcanons!

In a very complete change of pace for me, I gotta say that I agree so hard with the asker for this one. This needed to be a soft, peaceful AU. Something very fluffy and very slice of life, and that's how I'd write it out as a story. There's no big over-arching plot, really, everything is very character-driven and there's no intrigue, no mystery, no real big angsty elements. Any angsty elements are there as backstory for some characters or are things happening in character's lives (because everyone has bad days and troubles, that's just reality) and they always find comfort and support among either the cafe's staff or the regular customers, as I do see everyone who frequents the café and those that work there really becoming a sort of surrogate family for each and every single one of these characters. The café is everyone's safe spot to land, even on the bad days, so the angst is very much mitigated and not used, since character and healing, growth, peace, bonds between people and found family would, again, really be the basis and focus of this story.

Now, I know Angelika really plays a large role overall in the manga but in this AU, her role is really that she was an adoptive mother to Heine, Giovanni, Lily, and now is an adoptive mother to Luki and Noki. She was, for all extents and purposes, a very abusive mother, physically and mentally, and Heine in particular blames her for the childhood death of his adoptive sister. Heine's had no contact with her for years and Giovanni's constant excuses and sticking up for her is the reason there's a large rift between the two men. Angelika really wants Heine back in her life, but she doesn't know where he relocated to or anything and she does try to use Giovanni to find out, which does become a major character plot point for Giovanni at one point. He's found Heine working at the café and because of other things that happen in the story, there's starting to be signs of a reconciliation between the two brothers, and in his first real step towards independence, Giovanni refuses to tell her where Heine is and pretends that he could never find him and starts to pull away from Angelika too, leaving her really largely written out of the story after that.

So, let's start with the café itself. It's not insanely popular to be honest. It's a small, slightly out of the way coffee-shop that serves small meals and baked treats but everyone who goes there tends to become a regular. Not only is the coffee actually the best around (the owner roasts the beans and creates the blends himself), and the food is superb, but there's just something slightly magical about the place. You walk in and automatically feel just…at home. Comfortable. Those who really have nowhere else to spend their days will find they can go in and spend the whole day there, even if all they order is a single coffee, without anyone getting upset, and that they'll always find a willing ear to talk to in either the staff themselves or the other patrons.

Above the café proper are four small studio apartments. Three of them are 'rented' to the cafe's full-time staff members. Honestly, the owner has a soft spot for people who are down on their luck, people with no real homes to go to or no real support systems in place. He takes each of the three full-time staff members in, gives them gainful employment and tells them that he'll take 10% of their paychecks off each pay in exchange for rent and they can live in one of the studio apartments. And honestly, I don't know why, maybe because it is such an oddly sweet idea, but I don't see him using much of that 10% for his own gain - it goes either back into the café itself or he uses it for the not too rare occasions when he'll show up at one of his staff's doors with either a meal, a bag of groceries, some piece of furniture he knows they'll need, sometimes a new piece of clothing. Yeah, some of it, like the clothing and furniture, might be second-hand, but it's all very appreciated.

And who is this owner I keep talking about? I really see Mihai as the owner of the café. He works there day to day just like everyone else and I really see him becoming a sort of surrogate father figure to not only his staff, but some of his regular customers. A well-meaning man, his past is largely unknown, though he admits to having lost a son and a lover at some point. Maybe that's why he's so keen on taking in 'strays', as the staff like to jokingly refer to themselves as.

While the café does make a modest profit, nobody quite knows where a lot of Mihai's money comes from. One of the staff members, Badou, helps with the bookkeeping, and he did notice that Mihai is not the full owner of the café. There's a silent partner who put up a good chunk of the investment in the place, someone named Ernst Rammsteiner. Nobody's ever seen him or heard his voice and they get no answers on that particular subject from Mihai and it becomes sort of a theory and running joke that maybe Mihai has mob connections or something and the shady co-owner is the head of a Mafia or other outlandish theories.

Who is Ernst Rammsteiner, in all honesty? Truth is, all the staff members do actually know him. The priest at a local church, everyone just knows him as 'Bishop'. He's the cafe's most frequent customer and becomes a friend to all the staff and a fair number of the customers. He doesn't insist on 'confession' being only a thing done inside the church walls…he'll hear confessions, or even people's worries and laments, sitting across from them at a café table just as well as he'll hear them sitting in a confession booth. His church is also very well known for hosting not only community dinners, where he'll hire the café to provide coffee, tea, and such for the meal, but for holding a number of weekly support groups. He also hires the café to cater these support groups, providing coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and pastries for the people who attend.

I really like the idea of these support groups actually being a fairly important thing in the story, because part of peace and happiness is finding healing, support, and growth. It's through catering and observing and learning about these support groups, maybe quietly observing one here or there, that a couple of the characters grow to feel comfortable enough, especially with the help of Bishop, with attending these groups. First Heine, and then Giovanni as well, attend a support group for those who suffered childhood abuse or trauma, and that group, along with the interactions at the café, are what really allow them to sort of heal some and start the steps towards mending their broken brotherhood, even if it's still slow-going. Badou and Naoto attends a grief support group for a while, where they sometimes even find Mihai himself, really learning how to heal after the death of important people in their lives (Badou's brother and Naoto's foster father).

Where did Bishop's money come from to support the café as he does? That's a secret not even Mihai knows…he just knows that, despite how long he's known the other man, Ernst remains an enigma, a complete mystery.

Now, I'll get into the staff members, but because I don't have as many ideas for some of the customers, I'll list the ones I do have.

In my mind, Daniella, Doug, and Mimi are all frequent customers with their own little struggles, lives, and things going on that affect the story here and there but not hugely overall.

Kiri is also a regular at the café and the owner of a really successful restaurant in the town. Everyone thinks there's something romantic going on between her and Mihai, as they spend a fair amount of time together and Kiri does a lot for the café. They both advertise each other's businesses, and the café has a thirty stamp coffee card where, once you fill it up with all thirty stamps (stamps given whenever you buy something), you get a free meal from Kiri's restaurant (menu selections limited). In much the same way, customers at Kiri's restaurant get a little 'free coffee' card valid for the café with their bills. It helps bring a lot of business for the café, to be honest, because most coffee lovers, as mentioned, tend to keep coming back once they've tasted the brew of the day.

Both Campanella and Magato are customers at the café. They both are surprised to see Naoto working there and, much like the others have people they refuse to serve, Naoto as first makes one of the others wait on them and refuses to leave the kitchen area until they're out of the café. Everyone knows there's something there in their past with Naoto, and I do see part of her story being really exploring that, her coming to terms with her pasts with these two and learning how to forgive, how to move forward, either in not speaking to them or in beginning to take the steps into having relationships with them again.

Me mentioning that each member of the staff seems to encounter someone that they just can't bring themselves to serve? That's Richter for Badou and Badou makes no secret of why. He blames the man for his brother's death…it's through the story, finding a new family, healing some of his grief, finding ways to continue in life, that Badou finds a way to at least forgive Richter. Not for the other man's sake, but for the sake of himself. It's when Badou has reached that point but also acknowledged that he wants Richter to play no part in his life that Mihai, encouraged by Ernst, accepts that Badou is in the best place he can be and bans Richter from the establishment.

As mentioned, Giovanni frequents the coffee shop. He stumbled across it randomly one day, he did not know Heine worked there. When I say Heine can't deal with him at first, I mean it. There was an actual physical brawl between the two that Mihai and Bishop had to break up before other customers called the police. Giovanni didn't get banned though and so he keeps coming back every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I think, in his own way, he really does care deeply about Heine and just kind of wants his brother back into his life while also still blaming Heine a little for Lily, because he's so deep into the FOG with his adoptive mother. However, even deep in the FOG, he never mentions the café to Angelika, and even though he's a good big brother to Luki and Noki, and they always ask to go with him on his running around, he never brings them to the café, steers clear of even taking them within a five block radius of it, simply because he doesn't want to risk them exposing Heine's location to Mother. And like mentioned, I think Giovanni starts to find friends, starts to find others who will listen, in the café itself and then in the support group and I think a large part of his character growth through the story would be him just taking steps to become an independent man outside of his family, along with the baby steps he and Heine make in becoming closer to each other and potentially having that brotherly relationship again.

Now, as you can imagine, the three full-time staff members, the ones who live above the café, work around there, really start to grow roots there, are Badou, Heine, and Naoto. Badou is the friendliest of the three of them and he's almost always running the till, doing a lot of the customer service work. His most annoying work habit? He takes frequent smoke breaks, but at the same time, it's during those smoke breaks that he really gets to learn and befriend a lot of the casual customers, turning them into regulars more often than not and really establishing bonds in the community.

Heine always wears gloves because he really can't stand to touch most people. I do think, throughout the story, we see him make some progress there, allowing select people to touch him or taking the gloves off around them. He's a very attractive man and is a draw for a lot of the heterosexual women who frequent the café but he never really does customer service work because he's also very, very bad at talking to people. He makes a little progress through the story but is definitely never going to be customer service material. Instead, he studies and learns quick and becomes the cafe's main barista, able to make even the most complicated of drinks.

Naoto works mainly in the kitchen, but is able to help out front whenever needed. She's quiet but really, the café would kind of fall apart without her, as it's only after she starts that people start to really rave about not just the coffee, but all the different treats and little meals they can get.

I like imagining Nill as a part-time staff member. She helps out Naoto a lot in the kitchen, as well as doing a lot of the cleaning. She's really shy and doesn't interact a lot with the customers, but the other staff kind of take her in, make her feel comfortable, and take care of her. Not a lot is known about her past, just that she lives in the church's rectory with Bishop.

#replies #dogs bullets and carnage #headcanons #au headcanons #coffee shop au #i write for this fandom so little that i hope these are all in character and make sense #but this was really fun to do up #definitely makes me want to push this reread ahead but if i keep interrupting rereads and watches i'll never finish nothing

[just-puddding]

So! I have decided to participate in @kakashiweek this year, way late but still!

Kakashi week day 1, Elemental/Library

"OVERDUE"

The library's bell rings, Eiko slowly turns her head upwards to squint at the newcomer but when she looks at the door there isn't anyone there

She frowns, softly muttering under her breath as she rummages for her glasses under the counter so she can take a better look, but there really isn't anyone.

How odd, Eiko thinks, thankful that her eyesight hadn't failed her badly enough that she'd missed an entire person, at least. Shrugging at the odd occurrence, she goes back to looking at the donations receipts– only for a flash of silver passing through her desk to call her attention back up.

Oh. Eiko realizes, leaning to look over the counter. It's the boy again.

She watches, a slight frown in her face as Kakashi once more begins walking through the endless sea of shelves of the library. This time the boy clearly has a goal in mind as he goes directly to the 'chakra' section, instead of walking around every single one in search of something that interests him.

A small smile forms in Eiko's face, the boy is one of their most common regulars– a lot of the books in this library have to do with basic level Shinobi skills and Most Shinobi Don't have the time to do leisure reading, so they will only seek out books for really important information– which is usually kept in the archives of the Hokage tower. So they don't get a lot of regulars, which makes Kakashi stand out

The thing that bothers her, though, is the type of book he picks. Last week was, if she's remembering correctly, poisons and antidotes and this week it'll probably be some form of chakra molding.

Once or twice every week he will come by, choose one, or more rarely a few, books and then return them in a few days– taking another one in its place. He always does both the drop in and the pick up at the same time, supposedly to limit their interactions.

A Shinobi in the making, she could easily tell, the boy didn't speak much and when she asked him about joining the academy the boy had explicitly confirmed it

"I'm already enrolled" he responded flatly, as if offended by Eiko's simple question "and I'll be graduating this year"

She smiled, readjusting her glasses as she stamped her approval to the borrowing of Hi-no-Kuni's fauna: a Shinobi's guide to hunting in the lands of fire "will you?"

The boy nodded sternly, evidently annoyed by her mild disbelief. If he did as he said, he might just be the youngest Shinobi ever since the academy was founded– he can't be older than six at the very most.

But the certainty in his face, as if he truly believed in what he was saying, coupled with the looming threat of war over their backs…

Eiko worries, not for the first time, for the future of Konoha's young.

It's a grim reality, Eiko knows, but it's the only thing that could have been expected. Seeing as the name he always signed was Kakashi Hatake.

Eiko doesn't know much about the white fang, but she does know enough to discern a child of his could only go on to become a Shinobi.

Well, that, And to know that he was absent most of the time. Not once had Kakashi come in accompanied and not once had she heard of him going back home to his father

As if hearing her thoughts, the boy appeared out of nowhere, placing a book over the counter with a heavy 'thump'

"Water chakra: the art of water jutsu" she read out loud, picking it up in her hands "learning chakra molding now, boy?"

He leveled her with an unamused look, "I'm learning a new chakra nature. My natural ones are earth and lighting but i thought–" Kakashi seems to catch himself in something, embarrassedly looking to the side and lifting his scarf to cover his face– even more than the mask already does "that it'd be useful" he finishes

The boy furrows his brow, sizing her up and down before asking "you never made Jounin?" Eiko sighed "quit before I could" not that she really wanted to, nothing good happens to jounin, really.

Eiko smiled, wondering what he actually wanted to say but not prying "and I'm sure it will be," she assured, handing the boy back the book and taking the returned one to stamp at the same time "I'll let you in on a secret– I used to be a Chunnin, way back when my body was still in one piece. I primarily used water-jutsu and it always did me right" except on the very mission she lost her leg, and Kaoru, but that's a whole different thing

Kakashi nods slowly at her, then safely tucks his book under his arm and takes off from the library

One day the boy who Eiko believed would be one of her longest lasting regular borrows a book, which one exactly Eiko can't even remember– she could just check, but it isn't important, anyways– and then doesn't come back for a month.

Then two, then three, at some point half a year has passed and Kakashi still hasn't come back with the book– Eiko honestly expects that she will never see him again, until she does.

It had been three years by now, The very sight makes Eiko adjust her glasses to confirm she was seeing right. It's the same fluffy silver hair, the same mask and the same bored stare– albeit now a little embarrassed.

She mutters something under her breath, quickly reaching for her borrowing documents and looking for his entry as Kakashi walks up to the counter.

He's taller now, kids his age grow fast, and he looks much more like a kid than an overgrown toddler than he did before– Eiko indiscriminately eyes his headband.

Wordlessly, not looking her in the eyes, Kakashi places the book on the counter and slides it to her. Eiko takes it, she scans over the book– nothing crazy, the history of Kunai production through the ages, and looks for its entry.

They remain in perfect silence while Eiko searches for her files, slowly takes out the forms and stamps it. She places it on the tray and turns to look at Kakashi, who's still embarrassedly eyeing the floor.

Eiko laughs airily "going to borrow a new one, boy?" Kakashi lifts his head up quickly, narrowing his eyes at her "you're not going to fine me? It expired years ago!"

Eiko laughs again, shaking her head and she thinks.

She thinks about the days following the borrowing of the book, Of catching winds of rumors, of going to confirm it by herself, Of stories of a man that couldn't live with the weight of the scorn and left his child by himself.

She just couldn't bring herself to get on his case, so she let it slide– not planning to search him down for it, Eiko knew she could have helped but, well, Eiko wasn't sure it was her place. But she can understand forgetting things in grief, and soon after she started hearing about his promotions. She figured he was too busy.

She remained smiling, the boy eyeing her distrusting, then he huffed and looked away again "thank you" he murmurs under his breath

"Why, you're very welcome! Feel free to borrow a new book, if you'd like, as long as you return that one on time"

He looked back at her, paused for a few seconds, Then wordlessly delved back into the library just like he used to back when he came here often.

They might just get back their little regular

#kakashi week 2023 #Kakashi Hatake #i really enjoy writing about a character from another's point of view #it's always fun to explore a character without actually being in their head ya know?

[daincrediblegg]

movie buff questions: any number with a 6 in it. <3

6. Favorite movie from the 90’s? Literally the first one I thought of was Hocus Pocus. So I'm going with that. It's goddamn incredible anyway.

16. Ever watched a movie just because you heard the effects were awesome? YES! Dawn of the Planet of The Apes. saw it in theaters like 10 times throughout the summer after graduating high school bc the theater was right down the block. shit is insane.

26. Best experience going to the movies Honestly the most recent was Everything Everywhere All At Once. My first viewing was on opening week and that was a PHENOMENAL audience to be a part of- especially recently. Also I will never forget the energy that was in the theater after The Grand Budapest Hotel. shit was awesome.

36. Movie quote you live by? lmao it's not from a movie but for years I had this quote up on my facebook page from Westworld "You can't play God without being aquainted with the Devil". Facts man. Thanks A-Hop.

46. Favorite cop film? Gonna go with Fargo on this one I think. Feels right.

56. Movie you completely nerd-out over every time it’s mentioned? Lord of the Rings. You will always get me with Lord of the Rings. No question. No doubt. I have so many lotr related facts and anecdotes and prop replicas.

60. Most visually stunning movie you’ve seen? God I can't choose. I really can't. so many movies are too beautiful I cannot pick just one. help me god.... OK 1917. that bitch has so much going for it.

61. A movie your parents introduced you to? lmao so many. kudos to them tho for taking me to Spirited Away at the ripe old age of baby.

62. Favorite genre? Gothic (clearly- and it's not the same as horror writ. large- there's a difference, even though many horror films overlap with gothic films as well and the whole horror genre literally owes everything to Gothic fiction but I digress)- also because there's lots of elements that go into gothic from other genres like romance and comedy that people tend to forget about- and I'll always take a good genre mix any day over just... one plain old thing? I like a Genre Ensemble if you will and Gothic covers that the best I think.

63. Least favorite genre? Hallmark Rom-coms. sitcoms in general. or reality tv shit or documentaries (lotta people say they're "unbiased" but the nature of perspective and subjectivity in film is bias. never as fully informative of facts as they purport to be and I can't stand the fuckin things. boring as sin).

64. Comedy movie that you didn’t find funny? First one I thought of was Bridesmaids. Deadass. I don't think a lot of mainstream comedies do humor very well anyway. Also fucking anything written by James Gunn that man literally only knows how to write one movie and it was guardians of the galaxy vol. 1 and literally everything he's done since has been copy-pasted from that script (and especially suicide squad. hate that move so much forever and always what a piece of shit).

65. Horror movie that didn’t scare you? Most don't??? not that bad anyway. Fucking M3gan was literally the most unscary shit I've ever seen recently tho. but then again I grew up on Child's Play like I'm immune to freaky doll shit.

66. Favorite remake of an old movie? ok but dicks out for the planet of the apes remakes. I'm so serious. Andy Serkis put his whole pussy into that monkey.

67. A movie that started a passion for you? um... this is kindof a hard question to answer because movies/shows made me want to persue writing/directing as a career. There have been a lot of them, and the more I see the more I want to do it, so the list is ongoing, but LOTR and Joker 2019 are the two biggest contributors that I can think of off the top of my head. LOTR bonus features are what I lived for and got me passionate about the actual filmmaking process and special effects and stuff, Joker is the one that solidified for me the career choice.

68. A movie that sparked an interesting conversation? in my household The Godfather will never not be the film that sparks interesting conversations- bc my dad worked with a guy that was up for the part of sollazzo, and he was on the books and getting payed and everything when Marlon Brando requested that a guy he knew play the part instead, so he got the boot. BUT!! since he was on the books there was a term in his contract that he get residuals anyway- and so he still does. he was at my parent's wedding and everything. crazy shit.

69. The main movie you remember from your childhood? my childhood was filled with them. Can't be specific about this one I'm afraid. Just trust me. Many.

MOVIE BUFF ASKS

#ask games #good talk team

[rafor]

Chapter 19 - Day 2 - The Glitch

The first day of “pre-training” was a whirlwind of new experiences and sensations. I wished I had more time to learn from Leo, but I was grateful for what he taught me. The next day, however, I noticed something odd: I had not eaten or drunk anything for two days, and I felt no hunger or thirst. I realized that maybe I was no longer a normal living being but something else. An entity, perhaps, or a hybrid. An entity that could bleed and touch, that was visible, and that was learning. Everything seemed convenient for me. I wanted to share this with Akira, but when I saw her again in the late morning, she had a companion. A young dragon who looked timid and scared. We exchanged a few words, but he did not introduce himself. He was a thirteen-year-old dragon without an element, or so Akira said. He had trouble distinguishing reality from his nightmares. She added that some dragons manifested their element later in life, but it was rare.

I did not see Leo that day. Instead, I was summoned to the castle that loomed over the city. A guard escorted me through the gates and into a building that amazed me. It was not a royal palace but an office complex. There were bureaucrats and clerks working in cubicles and meeting rooms. The guard led me to the highest and farthest room, where I met the most unusual dragon I had ever seen. She was pink. A bright, punchy pink that hurt my eyes. Her name was Aura Aetherius. They even called her the Ascended Guardian. She was the ruler of this kingdom and the only dragon known to have more than elemental powers.

She greeted me with a smile and said, “So you’re the Raphael that everyone is talking about, aren’t you?” I did not know who she meant by everyone, so I said, “I guess I am. I’m Raphael.” She asked me, “Nice to meet you. I’m Aura Aetherius. Do you have a surname too?” I tried to remember my surname from my previous life, but it was just not there. I said embarrassedly, “I don’t know. I just got my name. I’m sorry.” She said, “No problem. We can pick one for you. You’ll need it. How about Raphael Lightbringer? Or Raphael Human?” I did not like those suggestions, and I wondered why she cared so much about my surname. I said, “Can I think about it for a minute?” She said, “Sure, or you can look at this book. It has a list of names you can choose from.” That seemed ridiculous to me. You don’t pick your surname from a book! I racked my brain for my old surname and finally remembered it: “I think I’ll go with Raphael Martin. That was my old surname.” She pondered for a moment and said, “Martin? That’s an unusual surname. But since you’re an unusual case, I suppose we can allow it. Can you spell it for me?” And so I did: M-a-r-t-i-n.

She wrote it down on paper and signed it without even touching it. Then she put it aside, and it vanished into thin air. I gasped and said, “Where did it go?” She said, “It’s being processed. You’ll receive your official documents soon. Everyone in our kingdom has an ID card. You do know what an ID card is, right?” I said, "Yes, of course I do. I used to have two in my old world: one classified and one civilian. But they are gone now."

She said, “Well then, you’ll have one again soon enough. Signed by the Queen herself.” That’s when my heart stopped for a moment. She was the queen. No one had told me who I was meeting today. I said in shock, “You’re the Queen?” She looked at me with amusement and conjured a crown and some golden jewelry on her head and neck.

She said proudly, “That’s right, I’m the Queen. Some call me the Ascended Guardian too, because that’s what I am. Don’t let my appearance fool you. There’s no one older than me in this world.”

I did not know what to say to that. Then another question came to my mind: how did she know my age? She had not asked me that either.

I said cautiously, “You look very young for your age, then.” She chuckled and said, “Thank you for the compliment. You’re 25 years old, by the way. Exactly one hundredth of my age.”

I was stunned again by her revelation, especially by her ability to read mine.

I said incredulously, “You’re 2500 years old? How is that possible? How old is this world?” She said, “It’s possible because I’m a rare breed of dragon. Almost golden, but not quite. This world is ancient, my dear, but major changes have only happened recently. And according to the soothsayer who assigned you, something more interesting is about to happen soon. I can’t wait to see it.”

I was speechless. I tried to make a joke and said, “I’ll be ready for it.” She said, “Oh, I’m sure you will. But don’t get too excited. You haven’t seen mass exterminations yet. They are terrible, but necessary.”

That was the second time I heard that phrase. I had seen war and death in my old world, but not on that scale. I said quietly, “No, I haven’t.” She said, “But you have died yourself, haven’t you? So have I. More than once. We have something in common: we both got a second chance to live.” I said, “I suppose we do. It’s good to know I’m not alone.”

We did not talk much longer after that. Someone knocked on the door and handed us a letter. The Queen gave it to me and told me to open it. It was a pile of papers for me. They had my name, my signature somehow, and some basic information. There was a date of birth and a date of first appearance. The date of birth was 25 years ago, and the date of first appearance was two days ago. There was no month, only a day and a year.

I asked her, “Why is there no month here?” She said, “We don’t use months here. Only days. There used to be a system based on moons and seasons, but it’s obsolete now.” Amazed, I thanked her for the explanation.

She wished me good luck and told me I could continue with my mission. She said she supported me and that I could ask her anything if I needed help. I thanked her again and left her office.

The guard escorted me out of the castle and back to the city. The day was still young, but I felt lost and confused. I wandered around aimlessly, hoping to find someone to talk to, but no one paid attention to me. I was little and alone. Like a ghost. Like before.

#chapter #dragon #dragons #elements #fantasy #literature #mystery #story #poetry #adventure #the_glitch #the rise and fall of raphael

[youaremysunshine-court]

18, 12 and 1 for the writer asks :)

Thanks for the ask! :D

1. Where do you typically get your ideas?

- most of the time, it's because I talk to myself a lot and I'll say something really stupid out loud and then go hang the fuck on that's a great idea and then write it on my hand or something

12. What punctuation do you hate with a passion?

- my first instinct is to say I don't. But to be very honest, parentheses. They're an excellent tool for inserting something funny in the narrative voice, but you could over do it, or you could under do it, and I think only jrrt can actually overuse them without being obnoxious

18. What is your best advice for writing comedy scenes?

- honestly it depends based on what exactly you're writing, but I do have a few "rules" I follow

- ask yourself what's funniest in the narrative voice you've chosen (eg. 1st person condescension isn't really funny it just makes the character seem like an asshole unless they're really charismatic. On the other hand a 3rd person omniscient narrator being condescending is funny as hell imo)

- base it in reality - that is, think of a situation irl that made you laugh till you cried and pick apart what elements made it so funny (are they coming off an adrenaline rush and everything seems funny? Is it just a series of ridiculous happenings that have a domino effect? Is everyone in on the joke except for the character themself?)

- I also read a lot of humorous authors, and they all have different styles, so if you look at my styles you'd notice I try to model my comedic writing after ppl like pratchett and wodehouse very obviously. But you can choose any author you want for this, and copy copy copy (in spirit, don't plagiarise!) Until you find your own style and make it work for you.

- And finally, make yourself laugh! If you're giggling as you type and bouncing up and down, unable to stop finding yourself funny? That's probably a good sign.

Sorry, got a little long winded there! Thanks again for the ask♡

#blue asks #clearly i take giving advice very seriously lol #i camt help it its the mom friend in me #also imma put this in the tags becuase long post already but terry pratchett and douglas adams are kinda heavy handed w their humour iykwim #if youre looking for something more subtle then id recommend charles dickens who is master of poking fun at his characters subtly #or even shakespeare whos funny as anything once you get past the language #like ik i go for humour thats very pg wodehouse richmal crompton bc thats what i was influenced by #so being subtle isnt my style #but there are tons of authors who do subtextual humour well #idk idk im just rambling lol #fun questions tho! i really liked those

[godsleastfavoritewriter]

It Was Always You 

Relationship: Kate Bishop x Y/N

Summary: How you both came to realize you have and always will love each other.

Warning: Soppy love story you may need to read twice

"I met the amazing Kate Bishop when I was in 6th grade, and boy did I admire her. She was truly a character, even more than she is now. She was the first person to introduce themselves to me in the class, she rambled a lot about her favorite teachers, hobbies, and the best place to sit during lunch. Anyone could've told me that she was assigned to show me around and I would have believed them because she did not want me to do anything alone. I was happy to listen to her, conversations were always so exciting and fun with her. It wasn't until sophomore year of high school that I started to realize that I wanted to spend forever with her."

Kate closed your locker door only a few seconds after you just opened it. "What are you doing tonight?!" The raven-haired girl asked with excitement in her eyes. You sighed as you tried to open your locker again, although your heart was beating a mile a minute and the butterflies in your stomach made it hard for you to focus on the small numbers. "You couldn't have asked me that without closing my locker?" You jiggled the latch but it refused to budge, you simply sighed again while you pointed to your locker with your whole hand, looking at Kate the entire time. She smiled and laughed at you but gladly helped you open the locker you always had problems with. "Thank you and I am not doing anything. Although it is Friday so I might just clean the house." You simply stated as you put away your books you didn't need for the weekend. As you do so you can't help but glance at her toned legs. Just coming from the gym you could see her muscles as she leaned on the lockers. Sometimes you would imagine what her legs would feel like on your shou- "Great so you're coming home with me then." Her voice brought you back to reality as she said the simple sentence. You couldn't help but laugh at her bluntness. You closed your locker as you met her eyes again, "Fine but I get to spend the night AND choose the movie!" Her eyes lit up at the idea of a sleepover. You spent the night so often that you already had a few clothes that were left at Kates, practically being a mini wardrobe. "Deal! I do have archery soon though so you will have to sit through that again." The both of you smiled at each other as you locked arms and headed to her car.

"I often watched Kate during her archery lessons and practice. She truly was amazing. You could practically feel her confidence radiating off of her. It was also very rare that she missed her target, you could call her the world's best most amazing archer. It truly was amazing to watch her in her element. But although I knew I liked her, I didn't confess my feelings to her until after our senior year. It was the evening before I had to leave for out-of-state university."

It was warm in the treehouse you and kate sat in. Perfectly decorated with memories of the both of you spending many hours and days together. You both laughed as you two reminisced on memories you have made together. Kate sat next to you, crisscrossed as she laid her head on your shoulder, staring at the wall of photos. "I can't believe you are already moving. It seems too soon." Kate sighed. You laid your head on hers as you responded, "Yeah, tomorrow at 6 am. Way too early in the day to be able to function properly through the crowded airport." She giggled at your remark. You picked up your head to stare at her, "I have to tell you something." Kate crinkled her eyebrows together as picked her head up to meet your eyes, "You sound serious, what is it?" You took a deep breath in and out as you stared at the wall again, her stare becoming too much for you to bear. You started to fiddle with your hands as you tried to find the right words, "I have been wanting to tell you this for a while, but I never knew how to and to be completely honest I have felt this way for a while." You stopped to take a breath while you looked at her again, she grabbed your hand as she looked at you, "I am your best friend, you know you can tell me anything." As you took your hand back in the nervousness of how she might react you missed the sad look she gave you. "What I want to tell you is, I love you Kate, and I mean that in more than a friend way." Your heart was practically pounding out of your chest as you finished your sentence and looked at her. She was shocked, too stunned by your words to speak. Her silence made you nervous as tears were threatening to form, you took her silence as a sign that she does not feel the same way you do. You got up as you rushed out of the treehouse, "I knew I shouldn't have. I'm sorry, forget I ever said that." You ran back home. Refusing to answer your phone that seemed to never stop going off.

"As someone who is very talkative, it was strange for me to see her so shocked. She didn't say anything after I confessed my feelings to her and I was too scared to wait for her response. I immediately went home and got ready to leave the next morning. It didn't feel right that I didn't see her before I left in the morning, I felt terrible and like I lost a best friend. I didn't know what to do or say so I tried to ignore it. That was until I saw her again."

You woke up that morning, barely sleeping the night before from all the anxiety you felt. You hated feeling like Kate didn't want you, that she couldn't possibly love you. You said your goodbyes to your family before you started to find your way through the airport. Everything felt heavy as you were starting to leave the place you called home. You just wished you had Kate to talk to but you didn't want to bother her with your presence anymore after what happened. You tried to avoid thinking about it as you read during the entire plane ride. Nothing you did to entertain yourself was enough to get you to stop thinking about her. As you made your way through the campus, walking through different streets to get to where you needed to be, everything felt off and different. You weren't excited as you hoped to be. You got your key and directions to your dorm and slowly made your way there. as you got to your hallway you noticed someone standing with flowers in their hand. You thought to yourself, "I wish someone greeted me with flowers, preferably her but whatever." as you started looking for your number the person only got closer to you. It wasn't until you were standing right in front of them you realized who they were. "Kate? What are you doing here?! How did you even get here? Or even in HERE?!" You were completely shocked realizing it WAS her in front of your door. "I am here to see you, I got here on a plane, and some other students let me in." She said nonchalantly, a smug smile on her face as nudged the flowers and a gift in her hand. You stuttered as you grabbed the flowers from her. "Thank you, i-Uhm I guess. What are you doing here? with flowers?" Kate took a breath before she looked directly into your eyes," I love you too Y/N, I should have said it faster but when you said it first I was genuinely shocked that you felt the same way I did. I always assumed that you would never like me in that way but to be completely honest with you I am completely infatuated with you Y/N. I want to be able to watch you grow as a person, achieve every goal you set, and help you bounce back up when things seem difficult and to-" You cut her off with your finger touching her lips, quietly shushing her. Your smile was wider and cheesier than any other smile she has given you. "Thank you, Kate, I love you, so very deeply and I wouldn't want to love any other person besides you. Plus I think it is very impossible for me to love anyone else besides you." She smiled as she grabbed your face lightly, letting her face get closer to yours you both kissed each other softly. Gently as if to show just how much you care for one another. "I have wanted to do that since high school," Kate stated as she helped you open the door to your new dorm room. "Trust me, you don't know how many times I wanted to just kiss your face." You giggled as you brought your luggage into the room with you. Kate gasped as she held a small square box in her hands, opening it towards you. You stated at the two simple and delicate rings placed in the box. Kate grabbed one and took your hand. Placing the ring on your ring finger. "As proof that I will always love you and think about you. As a promise that I will always be yours." She kissed the ring that was gently placed on your finger. She then grabbed the second ring and handed it to you, "will you promise me too?" Kate smiled gently at you as you grabbed the ring, giggling softly. "As a promise that I will always be yours and always be your number one supporter." You placed the ring gently on her ring finger and kissed it gently, then kissed her as you both embraced each other.

"This time when I saw her it was in front of my new dorm door, with flowers and a gift in hand. I didn't know what was happening at first. It wasn't until she told me she loved me too that I fully understood that her silence wasn't a rejection, it was surprise and shock that I felt the same way she did. And that is how I met and married your mother, my best friend, and beautiful wife."

The kids in front of you giggled and pretended to gag as you finished the last line. "I thought Moma would have said it first!" one of the kiddos giggled as they referenced Kate as Moma. 

Kate simply giggled as she kissed your cheek, "Actually when she said that she loved me for the first time, I realized that it was always her that I loved. I simply just couldn't put the right words together to tell her."

#kate bishop x reader #kate bishop fanfic #kate bishop #kate bishop imagine #kate bishop fluff #kate bishop hawkeye #hawkeye series #hawkeye the series #kate bishop fanfiction #kate bishop wip #kate bishop headcanons

[smells-like-mettaton]

Tali’s Alphys-Centric Fic Rec List

I’ve been meaning to make this for a while!! All fics are oneshots unless marked as a series or with a chapter count.  Thanks to everyone who recced several of these to me on my 12am begging-for-alphys-fics post dfdksdl. These aren’t in any particular order. The “notes” section is my commentary about each fic. No fics are based on full AUs (ex. underswap, horrortale, etc). The only endgame Alphys ship included is Alphyne, though most of the fics listed are gen. Hope you can find something you enjoy here!

Extra Credit by FriedCatfish

Rating: G // Word count: 1,206 Summary: Undyne loses track of time watching anime. Set before the events of the game. Notes: Cute Alphyne oneshot! Short and sweet, very nice characterization

world comes pouring through by feralpheonix

Rating: G // Word count: 1,655 Summary: Alphys reunites with some old friends on the way home from taking care of business. Notes: 2nd person Alphys pov but it surprisingly works? A small moment with Alphys, Bratty, and Catty, which I literally NEVER see content for so it was really refreshing!! Takes place at/near the end of the pacifist route.

white lies to the dead by MiniNephthys

Rating: T // Word Count: 580 Summary: Alphys walks through Waterfall, talking to someone who's not there. Notes: Queen Alphys ending; Alphys “talks” to Undyne after she’s been killed. Hits me right in all the emotions ;;

Found Soul by LibraLibrary

Rating: T // Word Count: 1,331 Summary: Self-worth is a slippery, fleeting little devil, and the bastard flower that killed you isn't helping. Takes place during the final fight of the True Pacifist run, following Alphys from one purgatory to the next. Notes: Very angsty, definitely make sure you’re ready to handle Alphys’s suicidal thoughts, but a very good read! I love seeing the Lost Soul battle from her POV.

And I Feel Fine by Masu_Trout

Rating: T // Word Count: 1,685 Summary: The fallen human is human is fast approaching The Core, and Mettaton is ready to finally take the stage. Now, if only Alphys would stop worrying so much. Notes: Alphys & Mettaton friendship in the no mercy route, but manages to be surprisingly not depressing. Mettaton POV but definitely still deserves to be here. This fic does a great job of characterizing them both and it’s always great to see Alphys working in her element.

Experimentation by pickledragon

Rating: G // Word Count: 1,531 Summary: Alphys is, above all, a scientist. She may watch anime with religious fervor and make horrible Undernet shitposts in her free time, but she is good at her job. She knows what they say about her, behind her back. But when she stands there, time open before her, she resolves to collect data. Each experiment, intentional or not, brings new opportunities to change certain variables and observe others. Alphys is a scientist, after all. Notes: THIS FIC. it’s technically part of a series but it stands on its own (it’s the only one i’ve read by this author). EXCELLENT alphys characterization and writing style. Some Sans & Alphys friendship too which is always stellar. If you didn’t gather from the summary, it’s an alphys starts to remember resets fic.

Memory by Ash_yeet

Rating: T // Word Count: 19,962 // Chapters: 5/20 Summary: It's been two years since monsterkind have joined the humans on the surface, and Alphys is happier than she's ever been. But things can't stay great forever. She starts having nightmares, lapses in memory, flashbacks to things that have never happened. She hopes it will pass... sans is doing his best to adjust to life. When Alphys reaches out to him about her nightmares, he doesn't expect much. He quickly changes his tune. Someone is trying to come back. And they aren't what they used to be.sans and Alphys are trying to move on. But there's one thing they forgot: No matter how hard you try, you can't run from your past. Notes: I’ve only read chapter one so far, but it’s been really good! Looks like it’s going to involve Gaster in some way. Says it’s on short hiatus but was updated in April so doesn’t look abandoned.

Hot and Cold Blooded (Alphyne series) by perniciousLizard

Rating: varies by fic, usually G but a few T and one E // Word count: 36,516 // Works: 18/18 Summary: This series is a place to put all my Alphys/Undyne stories that aren't part of another series. Notes: this series has something for everyone; you can pick and choose which works to read. Most are feel-good fluff and humor, some hurt/comfort too. Some connect to the author’s Sansby series (which i also can’t recommend enough)

When Life Hands You Enantiomers by Kaesa

Rating: T // Word Count: 2,739 Summary: Alphys has a half-finished tile maze puzzle, reams of useless data, and a bunch of piranhas that can't tell the difference between lemon and orange scent. Sans has donuts. Notes: ONE OF MY VERY FAVORITES. Fun puns, science, alphys & sans friendship, piranhas, the opportunity to actually understand organic chemistry references,, it’s so good and fun

Friendshipping by AyuOhseki

Rating: G // Word Count: 4,564 Summary: Sans finds Alphys's secret Sans/Grillby RPF. This won't get weird or awkward or anything, we're sure. Notes: Hilarious Alphys narration, great characterization, it’s just so silly and warms my heart. I love terrible fanfic writer Alphys

social links by simplycarryon

Rating: G // Word Count: 2,525 Summary: Friendship's pretty neat, or so your video games and anime dictate. But you are not an anime protagonist, and you're not sure you know what friendship is any more. Notes: more solid sans & alphys friendship :D

See You Another Time by decamarks

Rating: T // Word Count: 18,500 // Chapters: 1/14 Summary: “Have you ever thought of a world where everything is exactly the same... Except you don’t exist? Everything functions perfectly without you.” Alphys spent a lot of time thinking about what it’d be like to start over. It wasn’t fair for someone like her to escape consequences. She knew that, yet the thought never left her mind—the thought that maybe, just maybe, she could get another chance; that she could abandon her life, her failures—everything—and start anew. But that would never happen. Sometimes, Alphys wondered. Would the world be better off without her? When unexplainable anomalies appear and begin to warp the world around her, Alphys discovers something she was never meant to know: the identity of the former Royal Scientist, and how he met his demise. Doctor W.D. Gaster vanished without a trace; he was erased from reality after an experiment ended in disgrace. Forgotten by the world, shattered across time and space—it’s like he never existed in the first place.And Alphys can’t imagine a better fate. Notes: This is a monster of a first chapter but definitely worth the read!! So much good stuff happening already. I’m a total wuss but I still love the cosmic/existential horror bits going on so far. Great Sans & alphys friendship and Undyne & alphys friendship so far.  All the amalgamates also feel incredibly well written. Can’t wait to see more of this one

(And here are a few of my own Alphys-centric fics as well)

Seventh Time’s the Charm by Taliax

Rating: G // Word Count: 1,519 // Chapters: 1/7 Summary: Six bad "dates" Alphys has been on, plus one that is actually pretty good. Notes: Alphys is my favorite and I love giving her a bad time. First chapter is a “date” she has with Sans. Next chapter which I have in progress is going to be Papyrus. (Alphyne is still endgame of course.) Set mostly before the events tof the game. Get ready for lots of second-hand embarrassment sdlfkjds

Support Character by Taliax

Rating: T // Word Count: 1,814 Summary: If Sans is determined to fight the human, Alphys is going to make sure he's prepared. Notes: Sans & Alphys no mercy route friendship, based on the headcanon that Alphys was the one to give Sans the powers/magic he uses to fight the human.

it's your best life (if it's the life that you're living right now) by Taliax

Rating: T // Word Count: 4,046 Summary: Through messages saved to Sans's phone, Queen Alphys gets a glimpse at lives that might have been.  With so many possibilities... how did this timeline go so wrong? Notes: Sans & Alphys friendship, Queen Alphys ending, mostly angst/hurt/comfort. I’m really proud of this one and it uses my main headcanon for how Sans knows about resets.

The Trans-Underground Alphys-Carrying, Match-Making Road Trip by Taliax

Rating: G // Word Count: 5,713 Summary: From her secret security camera, Alphys gets too invested in Sans's relationship with the voice behind the door.  This wouldn't be a problem if Mettaton didn't decide to take her ship into his own hands. Trying to catch up with a battery-powered robot is hard work, but telling the truth is even harder. Notes: This is a really silly fic with some hurt/comfort sprinkled in. Has some Soriel and Papyton in the background. Has some Alphys & Papyrus friendship as well which is always underrated in my opinion.

#alphys #fic rec list #tali rambles #safeutdr #undertale #long post

[oh-no-my-hand-slipped]

A new prompt for you! (Finally :3)

I'm picturing multiple couples or a family group (4+ adults) who share a cottage together in the middle of nowhere, living off the land. Winter is coming, bringing with it its chill winds and early dustings of snow. The people are hard at work every day, chopping wood and putting aside the last of the food for winter.

It's the worst possible time to get sick, yet someone does, coming down with a miserable, streaming cold and high fever. What do they do about it? How do the others respond?

Could have definite cottage core elements, or fantasy (since you're so good at writing that!) or contagion if you choose. Can't wait to see the results :)

It’s been so long since I’ve written a real, honest to god fic, so this will be my debut back into snzfucker favor!

Okay, okay, who to include in this house of contagion?

We need a soft healer boi that takes care of everyone before themselves, of course. A very strong, stoic, hardworking warrior with muscles of steel - but the same can’t be said for his immune system. A hyper comic relief (like if Scout from TF2 was in a fantasy setting) that insists he isn’t sick, but can’t keep back his sneezes long enough to prove his point. And, of course, a tall, thin scholar whose cold heart is only melted by his fever.

Adventurers packing it in for the winter and preparing for journeying in the spring, now only at most a few yards from each other and having shot immune systems from the exhausting work. Illness doesn’t have to travel far to infect…

Oh, this is gonna be good.

***********************

“Look look look! Otto, you’re not gonna believe this!”

Barlow skidded to a halt, almost tripping over his own two feet before regaining his balance. Otto chuckled.

“Alright, alright, que pasa? What is so exciting?”

Barlow fumbled with his cloak before pulling a shiny coin out of one of the pockets.

“I got this off a path when I was pickin’ berries! Must’ve been a merchant or something…”

Barlow’s eyes suddenly lit up.

“Or maybe a warrior! Ooh, or a knight! Definitely somebody with a cape.”

He flung the back of his cloak behind him and stood tall, crossing his arms with a self-satisfied grin. However, Barlow couldn’t keep the pose long - the frigid air made him close the thin burlap around himself again, shivering. Otto knitted their brow.

“You’re wearing your summer cloak,” they said, looking Barlow up and down. “You must be freezing, chiquito!”

Barlow waved his hand, as if batting away Otto’s concern.

“Don’t worry about it, doc. It’s gonna take more than a little wind to get me down.”

As if to prove a point, he spread out his arms and spun around, laughing at the many leaves he kicked up.

Otto would usually be charmed by the sprite’s antics, but their concern soon outweighed their amusement.

“Just make sure to change into your winter clothes soon, okay? I would hate for you to get sick.”

Barlow stopped spinning, coughing a bit as he caught his breath with chilly autumn air. His hot breath clouded around his face like smoke.

“Okay, okay,” he panted, “I’ll grab it when I go by the cottage. Forgot my basket anyway. See you around, doc.”

With a quick salute, Barlow ran off, cloak billowing behind him, still clenching the coin in a tight fist. Otto shook their head and sighed. They knew that Barlow just didn’t want them to worry - but that only made them worry more. The healer in them couldn’t help but notice red-tipped fingers, congested voices, and pallid complexions. Besides, with a harsh winter underway, a cold could very quickly rear its ugly head, turning into bronchitis, pneumonia, and even infect a person’s magic…

Otto took a deep breath. Their thoughts had run away with them - and now, more than ever, it was important to stay focused.

The doctor gathered up their scrolls, pulled their coat close, and started back to the cottage.

Perhaps a little tea would calm their nerves.

***************

“it’CHEW! CHEW!”

“Salud.”

“Ugh…thanks, doc. Snf!”

Otto looked up from his knitting to see Barlow rubbing his long, pointy ears with a pained look on his face.

“Do your ears hurt?”

Barlow put his hands in his lap. “No! Just, uh, a little itchy.”

Severin, who had been reading on the sofa across from Otto, hid a smirk behind the yellowed pages.

“Someone must be talking about you,” he drawled smugly. “Considering the way you conduct yourself, I’m not surprised.”

Instead of snapping back, Barlow still scratched at his ears. Severin slit his eyes and continued to read. He almost seemed disappointed.

“Could be thragweed,” Godric rumbled from a large wooden stool, rubbing his beard in thought, “but they usually shrivel up by the first frost. Didja see any three-leaved plants while you were out foragin’?”

Barlow shrugged, wincing as he rubbed harder. “Um…maybe?”

Otto frowned. “Be careful. You’ll hurt yourself if you keep scratching like that.”

“S-sorry, I…huh-hold on…”

Barlow buried himself in his cloak, with only his mop of red hair showing.

“hit’SHEW! Huh…it’TCHEW!”

The sprite continued to let out sneeze after sneeze, his wrinkled, pink nose only showing when he needed to come up for air. Otto got up from their chair, and they were soon holding him by the shoulders to keep him from knocking himself over.

Barlow finally finished, snuffling into his sleeve. He looked up at Otto with bleary eyes.

“Sorry, doc, I don’d dow whad’s gotten into be…”

Otto hushed him with a gentle pat, using their free hand to feel Barlow’s forehead. They clucked their tongue.

“Oh, mijo, you have a fever...”

Barlow’s breath caught, and he coughed into his shoulder. “Nah, I…I’b okay, Otto, really. I’ll be…snrk…fide in the morning. Just gotta sleep it off…”

Otto smiled gently. “Well, you’re right about one thing. A good night’s sleep is exactly what you need. And maybe a little salve for your poor ears…”

Their hand still on Barlow’s shoulder, Otto guided the sprite to his bedroom, mumbled protests and miserable sneezes trailing behind them.

***************

Barlow’s fever never grew very high - his burning ears and nose, however, kept him up for most of the night. By the time morning came, he was too exhausted to even feign health. Otto had to put him back to bed, which was only met with pitiful murmurings.

“‘M fide, doc, I…hetch’CHIIIEW!”

“Pobrecito! You sound even worse than yesterday…”

“C’mon, Otto, I…”

“I don’t want to see you out of bed today, okay, cariño? You need to rest.”

“Nngh…”

Otto and Severin split the foraging work, since their respective jobs were mostly planning and budgeting the winter ahead of them. Godric promised to keep a good eye on the patient, but that didn’t lessen the doctor’s worry any.

“I wonder how Barlow’s doing,” Otto murmured, probably for the umpteenth time since they’d begun their work.

Severin scrutinized his severely pricked thumb. “Children always carry around such nasty things. It’s a wonder he hasn’t caught the plague instead of a simple cold.”

Otto froze mid-pick, and Severin hurried to correct himself.

“Peace, my friend. It is just a cold, after all.

He grimaced.

“One I dearly hope he keeps to himself.”

They both continued to fill their baskets with berries, wiping the frost off their shiny, black skins. However, Otto’s mind continued to race.

I shouldn’t have left him. Godric only knows so much. What happens if his fever spikes? I’m a healer, I’m not supposed to leave the sick behind. Should I go back? I should go back. No, I promised Barlow I’d get his foraging done. But I can’t keep a promise if he’s dead. What if he’s already dead? What if Godric’s on his way right now to tell me? What if I’m already too late? How will we bury him, the ground is too hard. Otto, your friend has died and all you can think about is how to bury him. You must be the most selfish -

“Otto.”

Otto snapped back to reality to see Severin giving him a fierce side-eye.

“It’s only a cold.”

Otto took a deep breath. “Right. Gracias. I…I lost myself, didn’t I?”

The afternoon went by in a quiet fervor, both of them trying to fill their baskets before the sun went down. With Otto’s quick fingers and Severin’s thin ones, it was an easy job, and the managed to get back before it got too dark.

Otto wasn’t two steps through the door before they were at Godric’s heels, wringing their hands and stammering through the worries that had built up through the day.

“Are you sure…how…did he…should I…?”

The warrior just chuckled and put a gigantic, calloused hand on the their head.

“He’s on tha’ mend, doc, on the mend. Sneezin’ his head off, sure, but gettin’ better.”

As if on cue, two loud sneezes interrupted them from one of the bedrooms, followed by a mumbled curse and a few wet sniffles. Godric shook his head.

“Been like that all day, poor tyke. When he wasn’ dozin’ off, tha’ is.”

Severin took a few scrolls out of his dragon-scale satchel.

“I understand you have a more…pressing engagement. Why don’t I take the calculations tonight?”

But Otto was already on their way to Barlow’s bedside, medicine bag in tow. Severin only lifted his eyebrows and turned on his heel, setting up the many notes he had taken and a few quills on the oaken table.

“Besides,” he murmured to himself, “I don’t want to get near whatever affliction that sprite’s come down with.”

*************

Barlow was scratching at his drooping ears, which were now covered in a red, peeling rash. Otto gently pushed his hands back under the quilt.

“I know it itches, but you need to try not to scratch.”

The healer took a small glass container out of their bag, dipping two fingers into the greenish-gray ointment inside. They began to apply the salve to Barlow’s ears, taking care not to put on too much.

“Tell me when you need a break,” Otto said.

Barlow nodded, eyes squeezed shut. After a few minutes, his nostrils started to twitch, and he held up a hand.

“G-gudda…huh…!”

He jerked forward into his knees.

“hit’CHEW! hhhit’SHEW! Uh…hut’SHIEW!”

Barlow snuffled into the quilt, and Otto handed him a tissue.

“Salud.”

“Ugh…sorry, doc…”

Otto put the cork back into the glass bottle and set it on the bedside table.

“It’s alright - most sprites have the same reflex.”

“No, I beant…for…”

Barlow bit his lip, his ears drooping even lower.

“For geddin’ sick.”

Otto put a hand on the sprite’s back.

“Oh, mijo…”

“I-I didn’d mean to,” Barlow whimpered. “I…I should’ve god by coat like you told be to…and dow w-we’re - hic - gudda starve…”

Otto hushed him, pulling Barlow into an embrace and rocking him slowly back and forth.

“We will be fine, mijo,” they whispered, their voice soothing Barlow into a sniffle. “We will forage until you are better, and not a day before. That is what friends do. They protect each other, they take care of each other, and they love each other like family. And that is how I love you. Like my family.”

Barlow hiccuped, trying to speak through his tears.

“Shhh, mijo…it’s okay…”

Otto wrapped the quilt tighter around Barlow and laid him down, pushing hair damp with both tears and sweat out of his face. The sobs quieted, then dissolved into shaky breaths. Before Otto even made it through the doorway, they could hear small, congested snores coming from the pile of blankets.

*****************

Scritch scritch scritch…scriiiitch…

Harried quill scratching filled the air as Otto entered the living room, putting on their tweed coat and wool gloves. They stretched out their arms.

“Buenos días!”

Godric lifted his coffee mug as a greeting, his famous half-smile dancing over his lips.

“Well, aren’tcha bright as tha’ north star this mornin’!”

Otto beamed. Barlow had slept soundly through the night, and he was still fast asleep when they had checked on him. Not a sniffle or a sneeze came from that room.

“Severin, I was thinking we could pick up acorns today,” Otto thought aloud, buttoning their coat. “There is a beautiful place in the forest…”

Silence. The quill scratching only grew more manic. Otto glanced up.

Severin was hunched over the table, writing madly on several open scrolls, only pausing to move a few beads on his abacus. Otto went back to getting ready. Sometimes it took a while for Severin to answer if he was engrossed in his calculations. He would respond when he got to a stopping point.

After about fifteen minutes of fidgeting with their scarf, though, Otto tried again.

“From what I’ve seen, we should be ready for winter in a week, maybe less. All that’s left is the dried vegetables and a few more logs for firewood.”

Again, there was no answer. But now that Otto was a little closer, they could see why.

Severin’s eyes were inflamed and painful, as were his gaunt cheeks. His long, usually well-preened hair was matted against his forehead, with stray hairs sticking up this way and that. Thin shoulder blades came together with each labored breath. Long fingers shivered around a red quill, leaving stray marks on the parchment.

“Mi sombro,” Otto breathed.

The shadowling blinked, raising his head stiffly. Pools of sweat, shaken loose by the movement, streaked down their face.

“I…couldn’t sleep,” Severin croaked. “Have I…have I been awake…?”

Godric looked up from his mug, finally noticing the sorcerer’s state. “Stars above, lad! Ya look like hell frozen over!”

The shadowling stared straight ahead, his breath coming in ragged strains.

“Could someone…please put out the fireplace…?”

Otto clucked their tongue, putting their hands on either side of Severin’s neck. His dark eyes fluttered shut, as if with great relief.

“Mm…”

“Ay, tu cabeza,” Otto cooed, putting their hand on Severin’s forehead. “You’re burning up.”

Severin finally looked down at the doctor. His tense gaze was now dazed, vulnerable - even afraid.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said again, hoarsely.

Otto rubbed their thumb on Severin’s feverish cheek. “I know, cariño. I know.”

***************

It took a lot more doing to get Severin to bed than it did Barlow. Not only did he insist he was perfectly well, only warm from the unlit fireplace, but that he had seen terrifying visions outside the window.

“Their eyes, doctor…they stared into my very essence…a…a beast of some kind…we’ll be killed…”

“Shhh, my love. It’s only a nightmare from your fever. You will feel better soon.”

In the end, the only way Otto could leave the cottage was by taking a small talisman Severin had in his cloak. They weren’t superstitious, but Otto wanted to do anything they could to put the sick sorcerer at ease.

Now with one less healthy person in the group, Otto rushed to get the last of the supplies for the cold winter ahead. The first snowflakes were beginning to fall, which made finding acorns that much more difficult. Before the sun reached its peak, the ground was completely covered in a thin layer of snow. But, for once, Otto’s anxiety was an advantage.

They plowed through every task as if their life depended on it. Another of their friends falling ill had kicked their healer instinct into high gear; whenever they were fatigued or sore, all it took was a few words of the healing oath to get them going again.

“From the monsters of the cave, of the sea, of the heart,” they whispered while peeling wild wolf onions, “I shall protect and provide for those who cannot.”

As morning turned to afternoon, the light flurry of the morning became a bitter gale that howled through the trees like a hungry animal. The world was silent except for the frigid wind - all the creatures of the forest knew well enough that the winter ahead would not be kind to them.

But Otto knew nothing of this.

And so they marched forward.

It was quite past dark when Otto returned to the cottage. Much to their delight, a fire was flickering in the fireplace, and a wonderful, familiar smell lingered in the air - a mixture of tender meat and spices.

As Otto had hoped, there was a pot of stew left over the flames. The broth still bubbled with warmth, and the chicken and vegetables gave off a heavenly steam. Their stomach suddenly felt very hollow.

They hadn’t eaten all day, had they?

With raw fingers, the doctor tried their best to use the ladle, which was as big as their entire arm and weighed twice as much. Gripping the handle with both hands, they brought the brew to their lips, taking care not to burn their tongue.

A beautiful, soothing flavor poured down Otto’s throat. They leaned their head back and closed their eyes, making sure to drink up every last tasty morsel. It was a long time before the ladle was empty again.

Once they were finished, the healer felt a heaviness collect around their eyes. Finally, at long last, they could rest. The cottage was fast asleep - and now it was time for Otto to follow suit.

Sleep came upon Otto too quickly for them to retire to their own bed. Like a hound after a successful hunt, they crawled onto the sofa and curled into a ball, dead to the world before their head hit the soft cushions.

*******************

Otto wasn’t sure how long they slept. They remembered bits and pieces of dreams, of words, or memories - but mostly a comforting darkness that lulled them into a deep drowse.

When they finally awoke, the first thing they saw was the flitting of the fire. The flame had all but burned itself out during the night. Otto rolled over, stretching and sighing with satisfaction. That was the best they had slept in several days.

They indulged themselves in a large yawn and shifted off the sofa, cringing from cold stone against their bare feet.

The cottage was still silent with sleep - not a thing stirred but the creaks and groans of the wooden beams. A frigid wind had picked up outside, and bits of snow swirled in the air.

How cold Godric must be this morning, Otto thought as they padded towards the hallway. The warrior was always up and working by first light - quite before anyone else was awake - but came back inside to drink some hot coffee and see how the preparations were going. Godric made a strong cup of coffee. One could smell it and be ready for a new day; that’s usually all most could stand without sputtering.

Today, however, there was no earthy aroma of it brewing. All Otto could smell was a hint of the stew they had eaten the night before - the husk of a beautiful, delicious dream.

The doctor peeked his head into Barlow’s room. The sprite was laying on his stomach, eyes closed and breath soft. Though they had been feeling better for the past day or so, Barlow’s nose frequently ran away with him, and was still very pink and sensitive. His upright ear twitched ever so slightly, but there was no sign of him stirring any time soon.

Severin, on the other hand, had fared much worse. Despite the many wet rags coating almost every inch of his febrile body, his breathing was still heavy and labored, and his eyes darted under closed eyelids. Bite marks covered cracking lips. Otto made sure they made little noise as they tiptoed from the doorway. Severin needed all the rest he could get.

Otto turned from his patients, a familiar heaviness weighing upon their heart. Such misery in what was supposed to be a warm season of reaping and feasting.

Perhaps it came back with them from market, or from the many travelers that take the nearby road into town. With how hard everyone had been working, and how many nights were left unslept…

Otto massaged the bridge of their nose, dashing from one possibility to the next, feeling more and more ashamed by how little they prepared, how stupid they must have been, how utterly selfish! They had been so busy with preparations that they had barely noticed that their journeymates were wasting away!

They could have done something. This was all their fault, wasn’t it? How could they be a healer if they couldn’t even keep the ones they loved safe?

Otto was roused from their guilt by the sound of harsh coughing. They peeked their head into the past two rooms, fearing that one of them had been awakened by their footsteps. However, both of them were still out cold. Or out warm, in Severin’s case.

No, the coughing wasn’t coming from their rooms, Otto realized. It was coming from the third bedroom - the one that they and Godric shared.

The door creaked open as Otto shuffled inside, already knowing the worst was yet to come.

“Doc? Is tha’ you?”

Godric was sitting up in bed, quilt wrapped around him, his chest heaving with another hacking fit. His cheeks were flushed with effort and fever. Otto went to his bedside, their heart dropping into their stomach.

“Real nice ‘a this cold to leave the healer last, eh?” the warrior joked before laying back down with a quiet groan.

Otto pushed the hair off Godric’s neck and felt his lymph nodes, which were not only hot, but terribly swollen.

“I can chop those few pieces ‘a wood, an’ then I’ll-”

“You are not getting out of this bed,” Otto said sternly. Then, with a kinder tone, “I know you want to finish your work, but you are very sick. You shouldn’t be out in the snow.”

“But how-”

“I will take care of it, cariño. Just rest.”

Godric opened his mouth to say something else, but just coughed and covered himself up with his quilt.

“Take care of yerself, doc,” he said before Otto went to check on the others. “There isn’t anythin’ I can’t do after I’m back on m’feet.”

***************

Between taking care of three sick creatures and the final preparations, Otto ran themselves ragged over the next few days. None of their friends were particularly hard to take care of - especially after Severin’s fever broke - but the heaviness of their heart continued to weigh upon them.

With no other options, they threw themselves into work.

If they chopped enough wood for an extra week, they chopped enough wood for two extra weeks. The larder was more than full. Their fingers and hands and back and everything else was sore, but they couldn’t stop for long without feeling their guilt gnaw away at them.

One frigid morning, Otto had taken to the axe, splitting wood and putting them in the shed to keep them dry. They had run out of pre-cut trunks a long time ago, so they started cutting sticks in half for kindling. Out of the corner of their eye, mid-swing, they saw a figure marching through the snow - lifting their foot high before stomping it down again with a crunch.

After a few minutes, Otto could finally see a pair of long ears fluttering in the cold wind.

“Barlow!”

The sprite grinned as he approached Otto, holding up a steaming container of something in his mittened hands.

“I got soup!” he called out, trying to move faster in the deep snow. “Godric felt a lot better today, so he wanted to try somethin’ new. It’s real good! Even Severin ate a whole bowl of it, so you know it’s gotta be great.”

Barlow sat next to the chopping block, and patted a mound of snow next to him. Otto sat down, wincing as their sore muscles twinged.

“Godric says we’re all packed up for winter,” Barlow continued as he handed Otto the food. “And we’ll even have stuff to eat in the spring, too.”

Otto didn’t answer, but tucked into the soup, not even blowing it off before putting the spoon in their mouth. Barlow thought for a little bit, then spoke again.

“Doc, Godric told me that we got more than enough food and wood to last through the winter. If you wanna come inside, we’ve got a checker game goin’…”

Otto didn’t respond, but they had started to shiver from the cold. Barlow took of his coat and draped it around Otto’s shoulders.

“C’mon, let’s get back. Everybody’s waitin’ for us.”

Barlow took Otto by the hand and pulled them up, then led them back towards the cottage. Otto trailed behind like a quivering lamb, both exhausted and numb. They couldn’t think of much else than putting one foot in front of the other.

When the pair finally got back to the cottage, a warm, cozy scene awaited them. Severin was on the couch, doing needlepoint with half-open eyes and content look on his face. Godric was above the stove, stirring a pot and putting one seasoning or another into it. The fire was blazing in a lovely orange hue that painted the scene with a beautiful glow.

While Barlow went right inside and was greeted by the others, Otto stood in the doorway, weary eyes closed, soaking up the light and warmth as much as they could.

“Doctor?”

Severin was up now, his quiet wisdom regained. Before Otto could answer, the sorcerer started to remove their soaked outer layers with quick fingers.

“If Barlow didn’t bring you here,” Severin said, “you would have worked yourself to a frozen skeleton.”

Otto suddenly jerked his head to the side.

“het’TCH! TCH! TCH’UH!”

“Many blessings, doctor.”

Severin smiled and tilted his head.

“Many, many blessings.”

Otto sniffled, rubbing their nose with stiff fingers.

“Nngh…gracias. Just a little…heh…htch’CHU!”

“Aye, I don’ like tha’ sound of that,” Godric rumbled from the kitchen, turning his head to see the sickly healer.

Otto waved their hand. “Just a li-hih-ttle sdiffle…”

“One that is long overdue, I think,” Severin said, putting the last of their wet things away.

Otto was ushered in front of the fire, still at the mercy of his nose. With each sneeze came a chorus of blessings and, if need be, another handkerchief.

“That’s a real nasty cold, huh?” Barlow commented after a particularly forceful fit. “Even I didn’t sneeze that much.”

As the day came to a close, the group all gathered on the couch, listening to the wind howling outside and treating themselves to Godric’s famous roast and sweet apple tea. Otto didn’t eat very much, but the hot tea soothed their sore throat.

“Tank you for taking such good care of be,” Otto snuffled.

Godric chuckled. “Ya care so much about us, doc. It only makes sense that we’s care an awful lot about you, ‘specially when ya aren’t feelin’ well.”

“And after you tended so well to us, may I add,” Severin said, leaning his head back.

“Yeah!” Barlow agreed, not exactly as good with words as the others, but still just as thankful.

Otto, overcome, buried their face in Godric’s side and began to cry, letting out everything that they had felt in the past few days. They wanted to stop, they wanted to explain, but it was lost in desperate sobs and hiccuping. Godric held them closer to him while the others offered quiet support until the doctor quieted.

“There ya go,” Godric said, putting a large hand on Otto’s head. “It’s gonna be alright.”

Filled with comfort and warm food, Otto quickly dozed off, and the others weren’t far behind. The only sounds were the falling of fresh snow, the crackling of the fireplace, and the snores of deep, contented sleep.

And, as winter finally settled into Harbinger Woods, they all settled down for their long winter’s rest.

******************

Not only do I want to dedicate this to @perfectpaperbluebirds , who gave me the prompt, but also @sneezytomatosquish , who has been feeling emotionally and physically under the weather lately. That may have changed by the time this fic is finished, but I shall gift it to you anyway. You are one of my favorite creators, but I want to create something for you for a change. You deserve it.

Get well soon!

#snzfic #snz #snz kink #snzblr #snz things #snzario #snez kink #snezblr #snz art #snezario #snz scenario #whump #whump stuff #whump fic #whump prompt #whump writing #whumpblr #whump blog #emotional whump #whump drabble #whumpee

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Theitsa this is a big rant. I remember there was talk on this blog about paganism and modern worship of gods. In these two tik toks the guy speaks gold. As a N. African who tries to honour the old gods of my country, it feels so weird to see Western "witches" worship a list of gods and no actual connection to the cultures and practices they picked them up from. vm.tiktok(dot com)/ZMRSBkX6r/ and vm.tiktok(dot com)/ZMRSB8Mv4/ He brings up very good points. (part 1/?)

Mainly that many Americans do it for the aesthetic or the "omg so many cool gods for me to choose from!" and not out of cultural respect and deep knowledge.

As it's mentioned in the video, you can't be a pagan if you cherrypick 20 gods from 2-3 different religions (and if the syncretism of these gods or cultures never happened.) If the cultures were at war with each other (and thus their gods were on either side) it's unnatural to support both "sides". (But how would they know that? Most of them don't give a shit about history of the Mediterranean and the Middle East).

If you cherrypick 20 gods from 2-3 different religions/cultures then you are not exactly a "pagan", since historically groups of people considered pagans under one empire had each one their own set of gods. They didn't worship a Babylonian, a Norse and an Indian deity at the same time, I mean.

The man in the video says you can call yourself a polytheist in that case, but I would argue that even ancient polytheists were more consistent with deities, practices and culture than most people on the "community".

But their polytheism is a very superficial reconstruction. First of all because they don't even want to reconstruct it. They don't sacrifice bulls, they dont parade on the road on festive days, they don't visit the Pythia, they don't even have a clergy as a mediator as the ancient worshipers of these religions.

Don't get me started on people who never had any cultural relation to a country suddenly appointing themselves as clergy, without even being elected by anyone. Apparently each and every polytheist has a special connection to the deity and that grants them some authority to do rites themselves, to do temple worship at home. Who would have known that the next priest of Anubis would be Brandon from Ohio?

It's very strange that all these cultures still exist, and yet they hyperfixate on a certain aspect of their past - a past they don't know enough about to recreate! Worship any god you want but why are you reviving parts of a culture you never belonged to??? And in the hypothetical scenario you manage to do so, are you then re-developing the culture separately from its people? (And what happens if you need to incorporate elements from two or three cultures??)

Polytheism is more respectfully defined as worship + culture, but this is why modern reconstructed polytheism is a paradox. You can't recreate the culture! So much time has passed and so many cultural changes have taken place in the world that you are *bound* to be inaccurate when attempting reconstitution! You might as well create your own rules.

That's what a lot of people are doing, actually, and that's why they appear even more disconnected from the gods they worship. They strip them off many cultural elements, just to make them more palatable to their modern, western reality. They excuse this by saying "the gods are energy, they are not something specific, they are just interpretations of One thing". Well, according to who, Sarah? Your Christian background (and lack of research on opposing pantheons) is showing.

Yes they are not as material as we are, but, as you've said in this blog, the gods around the world are not "one". They are not interchangeable. They are not *one big vibe*. They don't have the same attributes or behaviours. And you can't separate them from their culture.

For me it's good to use some elements of ancient worship and read as many ancient texts as you can about the deity you worship. But don't speak about "reconstruction" when you've never lived the past or modern culture so long as to make it part of you.

They are even doing things which are not organic for their background and country they live in. Their mothers haven't covered their heads in a century or more, and suddenly they veil for a deity who doesn't even urges them to veil! It's modesty social rules from ancient empires they follow, not ecclesiastical canon. (Because they don't have one).

I cover my head but that has been a thousand years old tradition in my land and there was never a big historical gap in that part of our garment. I feel they choose veiling because it's a cool fashion choice from the ancient practices they are trying to "bring back to life". Hijabis are fighting for acceptance in western societies for part of their current (!) dresscode, and American witches veil because of women twenty centuries ago in other countries did it.

Yes, women covered their head in these countries for a long time after antiquity but these witches don't even know that. They only follow ancient trends. Ironically, Greek, Italian and Nordic women have stopped wearing headcovers altogether and even see headcovers as regression to extremely modest old fashion. So sometimes what the western witches are doing comes off as so tone deaf!

(Last part. Thanks for reading this and sorry for any grammar mistakes) ______________________ [END OF ASK]______________________

#I dont have anything to add so I leave it like this #after all these are the thoughts of another person and I kinda agree! #it's all very cut off #from the practices around the world #and very superficial as i also say xD #witches #witchtok #paganism #polytheism #answered

[meichenxi]

Hey, could I ask you how you do shadowing? Like the different ways you do it? You mentioned in your tag that shadowing is good and I'd love to hear how you do it! I do not attempt shadowing much so I don't really know what helps, etc. ToT (my studyblr is rigelmejo)

Hellooo! Thank you for the interesting question!

Tbh I think I do it fairly basically - I don’t use any particularly fancy software, but software like Language Learning with Netflix has certainly made it easier. There’s a whole video on how to get the most of it here: [on mobile, link didn't work - How to study Chinese with Netflix! by Chinese Zero To Hero] (I’d recommend checking out all of their videos actually, they’ve done a bunch of livestreams recently and they place a lot of emphasis on shadowing + the course they are trying to sell you is…actually phenomenally good)

(Also, I have to preface this by saying that I have been very lucky in terms of pronunciation: I learnt about 80% of my current vocabulary by ear without characters or pinyin. I have been in China for eight months in total, and while I didn’t speak Chinese for all of that, I was constantly soaking in info on natural sentence intonation. I still often don’t know officially what the tone of a vocabulary item is, especially if it changes tone like 教, 为 or 相, but I don’t get yelled at so I have definitely internalised a lot of those changes. I definitely would have more trouble with this if I hadn’t had that experience - my other areas are waaaay weaker because of this though- my reading SUCKS lmao and I can literally handwrite about ten characters)

Anyway. How I shadow:

1) Quite simply by playing the line, and repeating it with all the emotion it has!! I usually use Netflix or Viki for this. I try to do it as fast as possible, and if I can’t do the whole thing, I ‘chunk’ it: if I were doing the sentence 我们还不知道他会不会来, I would start from the end with 他会不会来, then 不知道他会不会来, and then the whole sentence. Notice that this isn’t breaking it down into words or even grammatical phrases, but intonational phrases: it would be perfectly sensible to just do 会不会来 without the 他 but realistically, since this is a question, it’s likely that a strong stress will be placed on the first 会, and you wouldn’t be able to replicate that without also included the more weakly stressed syllable before.

2) I locate (intentionally or subconsciously) the main locus of stress within the sentence, and I focus on that accordingly. Tones may become less extreme if they are not stressed, and may become more exaggerated if stressed. This is always a good exercise. I accompany this with physical actions - I throw my hands down, I sigh, I groan!

3) I put away the text, and don’t look at the tones or even my computer screen - more on this below.

4) Finally, when I think I’ve got it reasonably accurate, I’ll record them speaking the line into my phone with an appropriate pause for copying and play it back to myself at various points throughout the day.

5) I then go and find other words with the same tone contour to slot in, and copy it again. After that, I find words that are slightly different tonally and pop them in too.

6) I finally do fun things like hold a conversation with myself. This can be really simple phrases imbued with some kind of emotion - 这个女子到底是谁呀？为什么不认识我？应该是新手吧。You can do this either really informally, or very formally, or both - trying to speak in the latter way is very fun! So then it’d be idk something more like: 那位姑娘是何人，来自何处？This is fun because you can really slow down your speech and sound as elegant as you like!! (this will sound stilted if you do it for modern speech, but it’s a very fun exercise)

Choosing your media!!

1) Don’t use donghuas. Seriously. The voice actors usually speak at a ridiculous pace and not with the same range of ‘normal’ intonation

2) Your Chinese is definitely good enough to recognise when anyone is quoting poetry or speaking in a paricularly sexy literary way so, uh…don’t do that. That rules dramas like Nirvana in Fire OUT.

3) Modern dramas and reality TV shows CAN be great, but they can also be quite intimidatingly quick and almost too mushy at times. I’d recommend informal speech in guzhuang dramas more, because they have professional voice actors and extensive sound editing, meaning that although it might be fast and the vocabulary harder, it’s actually much more accessible and easier to copy. You don’t want to be stuck with the awfulness of 50% failed foreigner and 50% 12 year old boy who can’t enunciate properly!!

4) CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON WISELY. I try to find characters that speak in a dramatic, whiny or childish way. This is so important! There’s literally no use copying Lan Wangji unless you want to be able to have that particular cadence and tone of voice you get reciting poetry. Childish/whiny/dramatic characters on the other hand stress some words very strongly, and rush others together - this is great for hearing what actual real speech sounds like. Whininess wins. In The Untamed, characters like Wei Wuxian (not yllz!wwx but just…regular wwx), 一问三不知 Nie Huaisang, Jin Ling, and Jingyi are all great. Also Jiggy, who is just very extra constantly and speaks much slower as well, which really helps. In SHL characters like Gu Xiang are good.

5) CHOOSE YOUR VOICE WISELY! If you are really aiming to copy them 100% (which you should try at least sometimes), you want somebody with your pitch range to sound normal. I have a sort of party trick in Chinese that because I’ve spent so much time listening to women in guzhuang dramas I can change my voice and sound like a) a scheming concubine with honeyed words, or b) the voice of the Beijing metro. My teacher found it hysterically funny. But it’s not my natural voice, and if I speak like that for too long it hurts. The women usually are too high for me, and the big burly manly men too low - so I’d recommend finding a man with a higher voice, or an older woman (like some of the female characters in Nirvana in Fire). Again, sorry that this is mostly the Untamed (I’m just most familiar with it) but the voice actors for Wei Wuxian and some of the juniors (+jiggy) has a higher voice. Likewise Chengling in Word of Honour.

On intonation in general:

- The thing is that whilst shadowing is useful it requires prior ability in a whole bunch of other skills that you can train - it relies on your ability to accurately mimic pitch, emotion and other contrasts. Training this in ANY language, including your native one, will help your ability to do this in Chinese - so I’d recommend spending a fair amount of time practicing shadowing (or speaking just after somebody whilst listening to a string of text, like monolingual simultaneous interpreting) in your native language too. Any training copying accents or mimicking other people is going to similarly help, regardless of the language.

So, with that in mind, further tips:

1) Hum / try to copy the intonation without any words. What this does is force you to pay attention to what the intonation actually is, versus what you may think it should be.

2) Don’t look at the text! Do! Not! Look! At! The! Text! If you look at the characters or pinyin you’re telling yourself ‘ok this is a third tone here’ etc, but you want to override the part of your brain that has gotten into bad habits and is supremely self-confident in how you’re pronouncing the third tone, and actually just go straight back to mimicking.

3) Don’t be afraid to do it with vocabulary that is way beyond your level. Actually, I find this can sometimes be helpful, because you don’t have a prior idea about how a particular tone pair should be useful - and you don’t know which tone you should be producing.

4) Learn vocabulary by ear - listen to a vocab podcast or even make one yourself (I often do this; I record my daily Anki and listen back to it through headphones copying throughout the day - if you’re not confident in your pronunciation you can get Google Translate to do it). Similarly, pick unknown vocabulary out of a longer segment and remember it, trying to internalise the tones instead of figuring out which tone it is.

5) Find emotional sentences, and copy them with emotion. This is SO CRUCIAL!!! We remember things when we relate to them, and when we imbue them with emotion - and it also helps in hearing exactly how an angry second tone sounds, for instance.

6) When you’re copying, look up, and imagine you are having an actual conversation. Carry yourself with conviction and poise!! Really try to whine like wwx or slime like jgy. After a couple of turns copying them, try to turn off the audio and keep delivering it in the same manner.

7) Swap individual words out. Once you have a line properly figured out, swap a word or two that has a different tone pair, and focus on delivering it with the same pattern of stress.

8) Finally, practice doing this in your native language too!! It’s a skill that we don’t use often, and it can be trained. Some people are terrible at it at first go even in their native language, but you can work on it!

About intonation in general:

1) I think a lot of pronunciation problems with people sounding unnatural or stiff ultimately come down to a fundamental misunderstanding of what intonation looks like across different languages. In English we mark it by pitch: and we are so used to the rhetoric that Chinese has ‘tone’ and not ‘intonation’ that we try and focus on blindly copying every single word textbook perfect without listening to how it actually sounds.

2) Chinese does have intonation!!! Except that, unlike English, when you stress a word, the pitch doesn’t change, but the tone contour is exaggerated - basically the only time you will ever hear a full third tone is in isolated or very exaggerated speech. If you have a Chinese friend, get them to record a sentence like the English ‘I didn’t ask her to steal his rucksack’, and put stress on the different elements of it - I didn’t ask, I didn’t ask, I didn’t ask, and so on. Notice and copy how the tones change. When shadowing, you should always be paying attention to where the stress is in the sentence: when you speak by yourself, practicing saying a sentence neutrally, and then with stress on one component, the next, and so on. If it feels unnatural, it’s because you might not have practicised like this before - it’ll get better!

Hope that’s somewhat helpful / interesting!

- 梅晨曦

#chinese #chinese langblr #langblr #chinese studyblr #studyblr #learn chinese #study chinese #chinese vocab #lingblr #askies

[inhonoredglory]

The following commentary was written by @tenyai​, concept and storyboard artist for Hisirdoux Casperan on Wizards: Tales of Arcadia, in response to my meta on the closing scene of Wizards 107.Killahead Part 1 (link here):

Great analysis! You’re right on point!! I had the pleasure of boarding this scene and I’m so glad you picked up on a lot of the symbolism here. You’ll also notice Douxie, despite being told there is nothing that can be done, tells Jim that they will find a way to reverse his ailment.

It’s a huge part of who he is that even in this moment where he as to abide by Merlin’s orders he is still fighting for what he believes in, the need to fight relentlessly to save a life. He makes a promise he has full intention to keep, but it’s the very opposite of what Merlin would have done.

Other fun things to notice in this scene is the staging. You’ll notice Douxie is backed by the turning gears and green light of the Heart of Avalon. I staged him there because the chaotic spinning of the gears alluded to his chaotic turmoil emotionally and internally. And the green light symbolizes Merlin. Together the gears and the lighting are Merlin’s words and his way pressing down on Douxie’s soldiers and his conscience.

As contrast, Claire is backed by the square, rigid lines of the castle wall. She is rigid and is desperately pulling him towards what she believes is stability or something that can guarantee his survival. You’ll also notice directionality here. Left symbolizes staying in the past and going right means returning to the present. You’ll notice Claire pulls Jim leftward, and Douxie pulls him right.

But one key moment is the hand clasp (also the profile shot) where you are neither looking left (where Claire pulled him towards the past) nor are you looking right (at the Heart of Avalon). You look center, and this center symbolizes Douxie fighting for a third option. It is neither left (disruption of time, altered life by staying in the past) and it is neither right (returning to the present/certain doom). He is promising that he will help them find a way to save Jim, and to trust him.

That’s why that dialogue is specifically staged over those shots, and the hand clasp at that angle. In the boards, I actually had his bracer hand up, so you saw the blue light of his magic which was also symbolic of Douxie finding a third option, but they just had his right hand in the final (shucks!!! My symbolism!!).

If you also look closely at the composition you’ll also notice Claire and Jim are separated by the Bg elements, wall vs sky. And when Jim turns to tell Claire the news... You guessed it, he’s backed by the green rotating gears representative of Merlin. He is breaking to her the messed up reality that Merlin forewarned him of. 

Anywhere you see those gears and the green, it’s the weight of this decision pressing on the characters. And you already remarked on the end of the scene where Douxie takes accountability for his action. The staging there follows everything I just described as well, as does the lighting!!

Anyway, fun little tidbits for you! That was a super fun scene to craft, a lot of visual language and symbolism in there, all reinforcing and emphasizing the emotional state of the characters and their struggles :)

––––––––––

Teny, having the person behind the story telling me exactly the kind of symbolism she intended in a scene is just... absolute gold. I love symbolism and parallelism and how narrative, characterization, and meaning are all supported by every tool in the visual narrative box. And as a fan-turning-pro, I’m still learning a LOT and commentary like this helps me see just how much care and thought went into this show, and validates the gut reaction all us fans have had about how narratively masterful Wizards (and the TOA universe) really is.

Like the directional symbolism! That blew my mind! Cuz in the end, we have Douxie leading them rightward (to the future), through Merlin’s green light, but guided fundamentally by his own staff’s blue and thus his own conscience. Also I wonder if the stable arcs behind Doux in that last GIF are a mirror to the unstable ones of Merlin’s Heart of Avalon––a way of pointing out that although Douxie is following the pattern set by Merlin’s shifting moral compass, he’s still holding to Claire’s stability. Using Merlin’s magic, but with his more constant, noble morality. (And going off that, these arcs mirror each other by cascading upward in opposite directions––Merlin’s arcs rising to the right and to the future, and Doux’s rising to the left and to the past, or Claire’s moral standard.)

Also the fact that Merlin’s Avalon arcs rotate downward in such a way that they cut through/push down on Douxie’s head, with an especially high-contrast panel––Unlike when he’s making the promise, in which the Heart of Avalon fades just a tad into the background and doesn’t rotate down on him so much as around him. In framing Douxie against the Heart, the shots move from a Medium Full Shot to a Medium Closeup and finally to a Closeup when he makes the promise––making him slowly larger against Merlin’s Heart of Avalon, his own morality against Merlin’s philosophy. Exquisite combination of prop design, lighting, shots, and narrative symbolism.

And the lighting you mentioned!! Jim’s is red, Merlin’s green, Douxie's blue. Claire’s is purple, but here it’s also the natural, human light of the doorway she’s trying to draw Jim towards. And like you said, Jim choosing Merlin’s path puts him in the backdrop of the Heart of Avalon, bringing Claire into that moral space too. Now this sweet Jlaire moment is heightened by tension just knowing this symbolism!!!

I always loved the interplay of Merlin’s green magic with Douxie’s hair, and knowing your intentional purpose in clashing them makes me all the more excited for scenes like the one before Charlemagne destroys the staff, because the green in Doux’s hair is almost as strong as the blue––showing how much he doesn’t want to let go of Merlin, and how much his staff and his presence is overwhelming his own sense of self and confidence.

Thank you, Teny, for sharing your incredible thought process behind this pivotal scene and letting us know the kind of visual narrative techniques you’ve used to bring out the drama and poignancy of everyone involved. Your love for these characters and this show is truly inspiring. I’ve just started my animation degree at San Jose State University and interactions like yours inspires me to know that the kind of professional I want to be is out there making art, being a storyteller, nerding out, and being awesome. Thanks again!

all gifs are mine

#douxie #tales of arcadia #tales of arcadia wizards #tales of arcadia analysis #hisirdoux casperan #toa wizards #toa wizards spoilers #toa meta #toa wizards meta #tenyai #toa wizards symbolism #* #*mine #*mymeta #*mygifs #toa wizards analysis #analysis #tales of arcadia wizards analysis

[worstloki]

I'm sorry if there's any spelling mistakes in this. I only just thought of it and had to get it out of me before I exploded. So naturally I rushed here and it all came gushing out in one big wave. So here ya go. Enjoy some Infinoki! 😁

"No! Not like tha—! Oh my gods..."

Power grimaced at the mess he'd made, eggshell now in the mixing bowl with the rest of the ingredients. "Oops?"

Mind sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Okay, let's try this again, shall we? Crack the eggs gently," she told him, emphasizing strongly on the word 'gently' as Power seemed to not have the word in his vocabulary.

Power scowled, grabbing another bowl to start over. This was now the third batch of ingredients they'd wasted and they were starting to run out.

Space sat on the counter, absently swinging his legs that shifted being gas, liquid and solid with each swing. It was like the entity could never choose what element he wished to stay in, always needing to shift and change.

He was helping Time with the icing which Space kept insisting had to be sugary. Time disagreed with this, saying it couldn't be too sweet as he took the bowl and put it in the fridge so nothing could happen to it until the cake was ready.

Reality was looking through the cupboards, frowning to himself. "There's not enough candles in here."

"Just grab whatever is there," Mind told him. "Soul, we're gonna need more butter."

Soul nodded, heading to the fridge to grab more butter. Thank gods they always had plenty to spare. Though it couldn't be said the same for the amount of eggs now gone.

Power was much more careful this time around which was good because those were the last of the eggs. Power gave a triumphant grin at finally managing not to get eggshell all in the mix and Space gave him a thumbs up.

"I still don't understand why I can't just create a cake. It would be so much easier and less..." Reality gestured around the kitchen. "Messy."

Mind rolled her eyes, adding butter to the mix. "Because the whole point of making a cake is to actually make the cake, not just make one appear by altering reality."

"Same difference," Reality told her with a shrug as he dropped a bunch of different candles onto the kitchen bench beside Space.

"We're meant to do this without magic," Mind explained simply. "It shows that we put effort into it, that we care greatly for him and that we were willing to go through all the hard work."

"It's a cake," Power pointed out.

"Oh, hush you and get the flour," Mind scolded him lightly, waving the spoon she held in her hand in mock threat to smack him with it.

Space picked up the Candles beside him, tilting his head to the side. "I like this one."

Time glanced at the candle and frowned. "That's for a wedding, Space."

"Is it?" Space tilted his head to the other side, inspecting the little man and woman embracing. "I still like it though. We should put this one the cake."

Time wrinkled his nose. "We shall not."

Space looked as if he wanted to argue when Power shouted causing everyone to look at him in either shock or confusion at the panicked yell.

Reality burst out laughing at the sight of the purple entity covered head to toe in white flour. "Oh my gods! I know Mind said to get the flour but I don't think this is what she meant."

Power scowled down at the powder covering the floor. "Shut up, Reality."

"Oh lord, look at you though!" Reality looked close to wetting himself, clinging to the bench to keep from falling over. "Someone take a picture, please!"

Power growled. "Don't you dare!" He snapped at Space who was holding up that Midgardian device they all knew now was called a 'phone'. Space slowly lowered it, glancing at Mind who was shaking her head.

"Get another bag and be careful this time, please. We've already wasted enough time as it is," she said pointedly.

Time gave her a weird look at that. "What about me has been wasted exactly?"

"No, not—" Mind groaned, looking as if she wanted to bash her head against the kitchen counter. "Enough messing around. He's going to be up soon and we haven't even began to cook it yet."

They all nodded, understanding that they did, in fact, need to get this done before he woke and began to all work in a more or less faster and efficient pace.

It almost went to crap when Space put the mixing bowl on far too high, splattering half of it out of the bowl before Soul pulled out the plug so no more would get thrown about. But otherwise it worked out fairly well, managing to get it into a baking pan and into the oven.

They tried cleaning up the best they could while they waited it to bake and after roughly fourty minutes, Time took it out the oven, nearly dropping it because he'd forgotten that the baking pan would be hot. He managed to get it on the table though before blowing and shaking his hands in a sad attempt to sooth the burning pain spiking through them. Soul just grabbed his wrist and dragged him over to the sink to wash them under cool water.

Space got the icing from out the fridge, one green and another smaller amount gold and set them on the bench. Mind watched carefully as Power spread the green icing over the chocolate cake before writing down the words in gold icing herself.

They went through the candles but couldn't find anything that would work for the cake. There just weren't anough candles.

"Well," Soul said after a pause. "There's different colored candles of these small little ones? How about one each representing one of us?"

Mind smiled. "That's perfect."

Finally, it was done and just in time too as they heard footsteps coming down the hall. They all scrambled, standing in front of the cake and it was a wonder that Power didn't get set on fire by how close he stood to the cake in his attempt to hide it.

Loki came into the kitchen looking only half awake and wearing only black bedtime pants and a large fluffy green jumper that practically swallowed him. He glanced up at them all, eyebrows knitting together in obvious confusion as to why they were all up and in the kitchen so early in the morning. Normally none of them but Soul was ever officially up before nine. Power was never up after after eleven. It was his first clue that something was up.

Then he took in the kitchen, green eyes going comically wide. It was...a mess. It looked like a bomb had exploded. There was flour all over the floor, eggshells covering the bench and a section of the ground, the bin overflowing with discarded ingredients and milk dripping off the bench. What on Asgard had happened here?

Loki turned his gaze back to the six entities with a raised eyebrow. "I do hope there is a good reason for this?"

Mind couldn't help the fluff that colored her cheeks. "Uh, well...you see we—"

"We made a cake!" Space exclaimed excitedly, apparently no longer able to keep it contained anymore as he moved aside, the other's taking it as a queue to do the same, revealing the cake they'd made together. "It's for you!"

Loki stared at it for a long moment, green eyes going through a thousand different emotions at once. It was nearly impossible to catch them all at Loki looked at each of them. "For me?" He asked uncertainly.

Space nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! It's your birthday, remember? We thought we'd do something special and made you a cake together."

Loki looked at a lose of words, apparently unsure how to respond to that.

Mind bit her lip. "We know it's not much but we didn't use any magic to make it. As you can, um, probably tell," she said, glancing back at the kitchen. "We just wanted to do something to show that we'd do anything for you even without having our seiðr to do it."

Loki blinked rapidly, walking slowly over before looking at the words written in gold icing on the cake.

'Happy birthday to our favorite Mischief god.'

There was even a small icing symbol that looks much like Loki's helmet.

Loki felt tears threatening to appear and blinked his eyes even faster to keep them at bay. "I...this is...thank you."

A relieved smile broke out across the entities faces, Space practically pouncing on the spot before rushing forward and wrapping his smoky looking arms around Loki's waist. "So you like it?"

Loki smiled softly as he nodded, looking up at the other's. "I love it. It's gorgeous. I couldn't thank you enough. It's the most heartfelt gifts anyone has ever given me."

Then they were all rushing forward to embrace their favorite Mischief god.

And if Loki questioned why there was flour covering the kitchen floor, Space would definitely have the picture to show him of that story later.

And that's it! The Infinoki is finally all out of my system (for the now) so until next time!

BRO I— FUDJEJDJFJSKKFJJDJNWNEJFJWKASLKFIIWWJDJBCJDKWKWKDJF THIS IS SO CUTE

#I LOVE YOU #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #THANK YOU #I’ve literally got no words #they BAKED HIM A CAKE #POWER KEPT SMASHING THE EVGS #THE CANDLES #LOKI WEARING BLACK AND GREEN #SUPERB #FABULOUS #THE BEST #Infinoki #NOW IM GOING TO BE THINKING ABOUT INFINOKI #AND I CANT EVEN BE MAD #MIND MICROMANAGING THEM ALL TO KEEP THEM ON TRACK #SPACE SHIFTING BETWEEN STATES #DOMESTIC INFINITY STONES?!?!?!?!!!??? #BRO I LOVE YOU #SO MUCH #I am a simple being with simple needs #this satisfies all of them #😭😭😭