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fridayth13 · 2 months

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Could I request Zhongli reuniting with his wife after the two had a falling out 500 years ago?

crushed cor lapis.

↳ zhongli × gn!immortal!artist!reader

↳ part one, part two

↳ genre: soft angst at the beginning, but it's mostly bittersweet | wordcount: 1.6k | warnings: none

↳ notes: i ended up with less angst than i thought i would have. but i did want to explore the thought of time passage and fighting for people who are going to live forever, even if it's subtle; reader is immortal and implied to be an adeptus or a god, but the kind isn't very important; ive had an idea for zhongli and an artist reader for a long time so i tried to combine it i hope you don't mind; as with the gender. i did write with a fem!reader in mind as per the request but in the end, the gender didn't need to be specified for anything so i left it gender neutral; i tried to give reader a more divine disposition about them so the writing ended up really flowery, but in any case i hope you enjoy! i really did have fun writing this one

You were a painter.

In your old life, as you liked to call it, however, you were a god. Your domain of influence laid in artistry and beauty.

Or rather, that was what Morax used to tell you. Archons like him were the only beings in Teyvat with real domains of influence. But you wouldn't really stop him if that was his way of calling you pretty.

That was about five hundred years ago. Nowadays was a very different story.

You crushed the yellow berries in your mortar and pestle to turn into paint for tomorrow's commission.

You liked your job in Liyue Harbor. As quaint and.. human as it was, you thought there was divinity to be found in the painstaking recreation of the things around you. Though a painting couldn't rival a Kamera in terms of accuracy, you were certain it completely surpassed the device in most other things.

You slowed your movements, surveying the consistency of the paint and the color. That would probably do. You'd collected quite a lot, so you supposed it was time to head back. All you were really lacking earlier was yellow.

And so you trekked on home from the terraces, skipping over stumps of cor lapis and sunset-painted grass along your way.

As you finally reached your home in the harbor, the sun had fully gone down. The lanterns lit, casting the entire city in a soft, warm glow. The neighboring waters reflected the deep blue of the sky and the speckles of rust and gold adorning every building in sight.

You opened your door and you thought of Morax, wondering if he knew five hundred years ago what beauty would settle upon his previously war torn nation. Leaning on the doorframe, you watched over it for a while. Children playing, kites flying, dinner being prepared, laughter and joy running amok.

You don't like to think about him too much, or how his silence is present in every part of the city that was all him, despite having nothing to do with him any longer. No matter how much time had passed, you seemed stuck in the first night he decided not to apologize.

Still, five hundred years was a long time. Although it felt like the blink of an eye, even immortals had to move on eventually.

You gathered your materials inside and closed the door behind you.

—

The mountains may erode, but they will always be mountains.

You recalled his own words as you saw him again for the first time in five hundred years.

A human-sized Rex Lapis stood before you, hands behind his back, dressed to the nines, pristine, and put together, and perfect, and not at all like he ought to have seemed like at your first meeting in several centuries. Though at the very same time, you couldn't imagine him looking any other way.

You bitterly savored the way he avoided your eyes in front of his boss.

"So this is him!" She said. The lively Director Hu Tao of the local funeral parlor was Rex Lapis's boss. You tried not to laugh. "Our new consultant, Mr. Zhongli."

You set your canvas down onto its easel, then the bulk of your dyes and paints on the floor. You did this without averting your eyes, as if trying to burn him if he ever had the nerve to look back at you.

He did not. And to her credit, it seemed Hu Tao noticed it as well. So as not to make your client too uncomfortable, you decided to take a step towards them.

"Mr. Zhongli." You said. With the proximity you put between you, he had no choice but to look back at you. Not a lot changed about him in human form, but by far, his eyes were the most the same. Down to the hard, intense stare, and the set of his brows. You wondered how many other people in Liyue he'd enchanted with them while he was busy avoiding you.

"Mr. Zhongli?" You repeated, a little less amused. Though you somewhat enjoyed how stupefied he looked at your appearance, you'd endured his silence long enough. "My name is Y/N. It's an honor to meet you here."

This seemed to regain him his senses. That, or Hu Tao's suspicious back and forth glances between the two of you.

Zhongli cleared his throat.

"..The honor is mine."

Hu Tao nodded, seeming satisfied for now. She clapped her hands together in excitement, turning to you.

"Alright! I suppose I'll leave you to it then. I have complete faith that you'll be able to depict the poise and elegance of my esteemed consultant."

You gave her your best half smile.

"Well, I'll try."

"No need to be modest! I've seen your work before. You're one of, if not the best, painter in Liyue. Just ask Mr. Zhongli! He's been very taken with your paintings even before we first met. He speaks very highly of you."

You crossed your arms. "You don't say?"

Five hundred years or the blink of an eye, you could still see his embarrassment without him having to say a word.

—

Director Hu Tao had business to take care of for the funeral parlor, and so left with a flourish, and a "Make sure to get his good side!" as she ran off.

You both continued to speak as civilians for a little while. He sat down at a table on the porch, a steaming pot of tea on said table between you. Your face was obscured to him through the thick white canvas.

Avoiding conversation was easy, but not. Comfortable, but not. Natural, but not. It shouldn't have been. As such was the nature of a marriage to the Geo Archon, you supposed. Or rather, the current lack thereof. But even that was up in airs.

"How.. How have you been?"

Your responding glare was unseen to him, but he heard it in the vitreous tone of your reply.

"Fine." You said. "Something must've happened to you though. Your eloquence seems to have disappeared into thin air."

"..You are still upset. I see."

"In what world would I be upset, Mr. Zhongli?" Your use of his mortal name created a crease in his brow. You gently brushed over it on his painting.

"I didn't think you'd want to see me."

"You still could've asked." You muttered, momentarily leaning sideways to look him in the eye. "For someone so revered for his wisdom, your brain still seems to be as hard as rocks."

You caught his surprised expression as you turned back to the canvas. You didn't allow him another word.

"Honestly, who ghosts their own spouse after an argument like that? You'd think the best time would be after.. five hours. Five days. Maybe five weeks after. Not five centuries—"

You caught him mumble, "Well, it's not as if you tried to talk to me either."

"I didn't think I needed to. You made it very clear you wanted me to leave you to die in the Archon War all on your heroic lonesome."

When he didn't respond, you snuck a glance.

The sun's rays were at the precipice of turning gold in its descent into the sea. The glow smeared his porcelain cheeks in amber, his eyes in glitter, the metallic components of his suit in light. He looked like a monument. Tall, statuesque, and lonely. Almost like his mountainous true form. More beautiful than even his numerous statues across Liyue could capture. More than you could capture. Though you did certainly try.

Annoyed and angrily pining as you were, you still tried to get his eyes right. The little flecks of rust against gold. Like cuts of cor lapis crushed to shimmering powder in the Archon's hand. A man of his own making.

You looked at Zhongli as the golden hour faded, slowly turning dusky pink. His eyes swam in wistfulness as he stared out at the harbor. You couldn't help the dull twinge of sorrow deep in the pit of your stomach.

"I'm sorry."

You didn't know how to follow up. You weren't entirely sure what you were apologizing for. But it felt nice to hear it back from him.

When he finally looked back at you, you were tracing the rich scarlet of his eyeliner onto the canvas.

At some point, he turned on the lamp and set it down beside you while you worked on the finishing touches.

"You're better than I remember." He whispered like he thought you couldn't hear him.

You weren't sure what to say to that either. You just kept painting.

—

"This doesn't change anything. I'm still angry with you."

"Of course."

Zhongli never seemed to run out of tea. Despite not having brewed a new pot throughout your stay, the one on the table continued to steam, its aroma wafting leisurely throughout the room. When he offered you a cup after you left the canvas out to dry, you let yourself take it. You allowed him a calmer response when he spoke.

"This may upset you a bit more, but I am also somewhat bothered you never tried to talk to me."

"So we are at an impasse."

Of course, it did occur to you that you were both being hardheaded and moronic. But you were comforted by a few things.

"It would seem so." Zhongli nodded.

"Or maybe not." You quipped, glancing pointedly at an old painting on the wall. "You seem to have been stalking me, Mr. Zhongli."

"I think stalking might be a slight exaggeration."

"Oh, really."

Even as the mountains erode over the centuries, from the dust, they are fated to reform anew.

dividers from @clutteredfun

#mine #my writing #fics #requests #long post #genshin impact x reader #zhongli #gi zhongli #zhongli x reader #gi zhongli x reader #¡

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1000sunnygo · 22 days

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Law's artist side isn't talked about enough, so here's a smooth brain ramble.

He prefers abstract arts over realism. Unlike Kid who forms animal or skull figures with metals, Law creates strange 'sculptures' with his victim's bodies/belongings:

And, of course, the tattoos.

I like how all of his tattoos accentuate the shapes of his torso and arms, especially the joints and muscles. Combined they look like a single stylized drawing of human upper torso.

Seen theories that the tribal style could be a lost trend from Flevance (as seen on the arm of a miner in his flashback), but it could just be his personal style. That said, his upper arm's heart tattoos look similar.

(Something that artists probably noticed long ago but I'm only noticing recently: Law's upper arm's tattoos have been simplified over time. There used to be two spiral-like protrusions, but Oda has been omitting them in later arts)

The "DEATH" tattoos have a straightforward message. According to the Law novel, these were his first tattoos.

Speaking of death, ghosts and spirituality have been implicitly a theme for Law, especially during Dressrosa. Doflamingo referred to Law as Cora's 'vengeful ghost'. Law's (cursed) sword Kikoku's name means 'wailings of a restless ghost". Ironically, Law having a hidden name was also a tradition that related to dead people.

The orange jolly roger (red in the sail) could be many things, I think it's a stylized way of drawing the sun.

Sun symbols are everywhere in the One Piece world. Law's lower arm tattoos are different types of 'suns'. Law might've subconsciously carried those symbols from his hometown for their aesthetic appeal.

The tattoos on the back of his hands reminded me of the church lady's cross, which is slightly different from the cross seen at Kuma's church. It's possible that various faiths in One Piece world are interconnected, leading to a prophecy about the sun god and Dawn. Law, at the very least, believes in the will of D and his own fate being tied to a purpose.

The chest tattoo, clearly a tribute to Corazon, could have some elements of catholicism. Kikoku also has crosses all over its sheath. Originally this wasn't my observation, but Law seeing Cora as a sacred being makes a lot of sense.

Carving a heart at the dead center of his chest by creating small wounds - the process itself reminds of Cora doesn't it

The custom-made Dressrosa coat is another tribute to Corazon, but IMHO he designed it specifically for Doflamingo, as a mockery.

A cross and circle like dangling a pistol target for Doflamingo's shooting practice, with a grinning face copied from Doflamingo's own jolly roger, but it's Corazon. Like his brother has returned to face his pistol again. A vengeful ghost indeed

And boy did it work...

Doflamingo shot it until the mark was completely drenched and unrecognizable.

Assuming he draws for all of his clothes himself, here's this masterpiece:

Or maybe it's gifted by his crew mates. Either way, it's adorable.

Since he's a surgeon (and a comic nerd), he should be skilled at drawing human anatomy. How does he draw realistic arts? Does he doodle while taking notes?

We've seen his handwriting in punk hazard arc and it wasn't particularly stylized. Regardless, it'd be nice to take a proper peek at his notebook.

#law's design appreciation #lmao this tag lives on #I miss Law man #if there's any different interpretation please feel free to share them!#one piece #one piece meta #one piece theory #trafalgar law #trafalgar d. water law #donquixote doflamingo #donquixote rosinante #mine

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such-expensive-mistakes · 7 months

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Superpham AU (part 4)

Original prompt + parts 1-3

Masterpost

-----

It's not the most awkward dinner Lois has ever had, but only because she's dined with literal supervillains before.

Danny is poking at his Mongolian beef with his fork more than he's actually eating it. Lois can hardly blame him; it’s been a difficult few days for her and she’s not the one who just landed in a different dimension from the one she grew up in. But Danny certainly isn’t up to keeping conversation going.

Jon is making a valiant effort, but he seems distracted. He keeps shooting looks at Lois and Clark when he thinks they’re not looking, and while he recounts everything he and Damian got up to (not too much trouble, thankfully, although that wasn’t saying much), he’s less enthusiastic than he would normally be.

Clark keeps shooting Jon worried looks when he thinks Jon isn’t looking. Lois will have to ask him how that conversation went; it seems like it was rough on both of them.

Eventually, even Jon runs out of things to say, and the four of them sit around the table, eating their Chinese takeout in silence.

“So, Danny,” Lois finally says. “I don’t know how the dimension you grew up in differs from this one, but if you have any questions about anything, please ask one of us.”

“It’s not that different,” Danny says. “I mean, it is in some ways, but it’s still Earth, you know?”

Lois isn’t entirely certain she does, but this doesn’t seem to be the time to ask. Maybe when things are less fresh.

Jon has no such compunctions. “What’s the biggest difference?”

Danny looks thoughtful. “You guys have a lot of superheroes here,” he finally says.

“What kind of superheroes did your other world have?” Jon asks eagerly.

“We mostly didn’t,” Danny says. “I mean, I guess Phantom kind of counts. But that’s it.”

“That’s it?” Jon is clearly flabbergasted by this. Lois fights a smile, and she can see Clark doing the same thing. Jon has never known a world without the Justice League, but she and Clark can both remember when superheroes were much, much rarer.

“Most people probably wouldn’t even count Phantom,” Danny says. “The kids mostly did, but a lot of adults didn’t trust him because he was… because he wasn’t exactly human.”

Combined with what Danny said before about that interdimensional portal, this is painting a picture Lois really doesn’t like.

“There are folks like that everywhere, unfortunately,” Clark says. “And you can’t always change their minds. But I believe most people are better than that."

Judging by Danny's expression, he wasn't entirely convinced of that. Lois couldn't blame him; she has enough trouble seeing the good in people the way Clark did, and the other dimension sounds worse than hers in this regard.

Danny doesn’t seem inclined to talk about it any further. Silence lingers for just a beat too long before he speaks. “Oh, the sun’s yellow here. That’s different, too.”

-----

The front door slams, shaking the house, and Jon scrambles into the kitchen.

“Where’s Ma and Pa?” he demands.

Kon mentally says goodbye to his tentative plans for the day. Not that he minds hanging out with Jon, but he’s clearly upset about something. Kon’s good at a lot of things, but emotional conversations is not one of them.

“They’re in town for the day,” Kon says. “You’re lucky they didn’t hear you slam the door like that.”

“Did you know about Danny?” Jon demands.

“Who?”

“Dan-El.”

Clark texted a couple of days ago, telling Kon to call when he had time. Kon has been putting it off, knowing that Clark has better ways of getting in touch with him if there’s a real emergency. That’s starting to seem like a mistake.

He doesn’t answer Jon right away, which Jon seems to take as its own answer.

“Did everyone know but me?” Jon demands.

The thing is, Kon is pretty sure he's not supposed to know about Dan-El. Lois and Clark have never breathed a word about him in Kon's hearing.

He only knows because he spent an afternoon helping Ma go through some old boxes up in the attic and found a box of photos-- mostly of Clark as a kid, but some of Ma and Pa when they were younger.

"Oh goodness," Ma had said, when she'd notices what Kon was looking at. "I keep telling myself I'm going to organize those and put them in an album, but I never get around to it."

She'd sat down next to Kon and looked through the pictures with him, pointing out her favorites and telling stories to accompany them. ("And that one was from just after Clark's tenth birthday-- we had to get a new door because his strength was just coming in and he broke the old one.")

Then Kon had pulled out a photo of a toddler, sitting on the front porch with Pa. He'd thought it was a picture of Clark at first, but Pa's hair was considerably more gray than it was in the pictures from Clark's childhood, and Ma had just told him that the porch had been rebuilt and expanded after Clark broke the old one in tenth grade.

"Oh, that's Daniel," Ma said. She'd gently taken the photo from Kon's hand and ran a finger over not-Clark's face. "He was our first grandson-- Lois and Clark's oldest." She'd gone on to tell him the whole sad story.

There's a small headstone for Daniel Kent in the Smallville cemetery, right next to Pa's parents. Kon thinks it must have been Ma or Pa's idea; there was no body to bury and as far as he knows, Lois and Clark never visit it.

“I don’t think that’s it,” Kon says. “I think it’s just not something they talk about.” Jon doesn’t look convinced, so he adds, “They told you now, right?”

“Only after he showed up!”

“Wait, what?” Kon is starting to think he really should have replied to that message from Clark.

-----

Not for the first time, Clark wishes there was a handbook for this sort of thing. But oddly enough, parenting manuals generally don’t cover how to talk to your long-lost son about his alien heritage. He’s put this off long enough already; Danny had spent most of the previous day out with Lois, picking up all the necessities he didn’t have.

“So…” Danny says, kicking his feet a little. He’s sitting next to Clark on this skyscraper, his feet dangling over the edge. It makes Clark a little nervous, seeing how Danny can’t fly yet, but he also knows he’s fast enough to catch Danny if he were to fall.

"Lois said you're an alien?" The words are softened by the blatant curiosity in Danny's tone, and Clark remembers Lois recounting how excited Danny was to meet J'onn and to see space from the Watchtower.

It's a sentiment Clark can understand. He's traveled through space and met aliens both hostile and friendly. He regularly meets with his colleagues on an orbiting space station. And yet, seeing his adopted planet from space still fills him with awe.

"When I was born, my parents— my birth parents— already knew our planet, Krypton, was dying," Clark begins. It's not an easy story to tell, but the grief is old. Not gone, but distant. It's a place and a people he will never know except through stories and the archives in the Fortress— but those, at least, he can share. He tells Danny this, too, and promises to take him to the Fortress soon. It would be easier if Danny could fly, but he'll make it work.

"You should talk to Kara, too," Clark adds.

"Who's Kara?"

"My cousin. Right now she's in space, on a Justice League mission, but you'll meet her when she gets back. She was a teenager when Krypton was destroyed; she has firsthand memories." He’ll save explaining the part where she got caught in suspended animation for later; he’s dumped a lot of information on Danny already.

“You said something the other night about yellow sun radiation?” Danny asks.

“It’s what gives Kryptonians our power, here on Earth,” Clark says.

“And what powers are those, exactly?” Danny seems more hesitant than Clark would usually expect of a teenager finding out he’s going to develop superpowers— but then, they already know Danny grew up in a world where that sort of thing was feared and looked down upon.

“Enhanced sense, enhanced strength and speed, flight, invulnerability— there are others, but those are the main ones to expect.”

Danny nods thoughtfully.

#dcxdp #dpxdc #superpham au #fanfic #dc x dp fic #the continuity for the supers gives me a headache so I'm sticking with the origins I know best #slightly less angst this time #slightly more setup for Shenanigans

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cheesus-doodles · 6 months

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i wonder how izana is like if he had a s/o during the time when he was the black dragon leader

Red Dragonflies Masterlist | Masterlist

‎‎‎

i have actually answered this previously in these Relationship HCs ! and this is also the case in my red dragonflies AU, former gang leader reader is actually Izzy's s/o when he was the black dragon leader - have linked the masterlist up top cough

but because I like to rant, here are some more thoughts about yan black dragon-era Izzy and you, which can apply to both regular reader and gang leader reader!

Izana was probably already very unstable and jealous during his time as the 8th Gen Black Dragon leader, what with the entire situation between Shinichiro constantly talking about Mikey, and learning that the Black Dragon gang would go to said boy instead of him. Combined that with him having found you as an s/o, someone that Izana would see as his, something that he could finally own and keep to himself without having to share (unlike the whole situation with Shinichiro), no doubt that it wouldn't take long for Izana to swing into yandere tendencies, becoming extremely overbearing and overprotective over you.

‎

With you around, there is a very clear difference in Izana's mannerisms and general behavior. Almost a personality flip in fact, it's night and day how he acts in your presence and when you aren't present. After all, there's a certain way that Izana wants you to perceive him as, and then there's everything else - so this white-haired boy would be sure to carefully tailor and adjust how he acts around you to what he knows you like (to a certain degree of course). As long as you don't threaten the status quo, as long as you keep by his side and his side only, your precious Izzy is whoever you want him to be. Loving, kind, doting, he can almost seem to read your mind and predict your moods.

Knows how to make you feel better after a shitty day, knows what to say and what to do to get you falling heads over heels for him over and over. But don't let that fool you into thinking that you were beyond his manipulation, because nope, not a chance. If he even has the slightest doubt that you were drifting away from him, or worse, thinking of leaving him, expect for Izzy to start subtly tearing you down. He wouldn't sound any different from what he usually does, cooing, low, soft murmur, but the things that slip from his mouth; it pokes at your insecurities, stirs the doubts you have about yourself. Yes, you were the most beautiful person he had laid eyes on, but did you think that really extended to everyone? Surely, surely you know that only he can love you like this? You couldn't possibly survive away from his side the way you are, right?

In his mind, Izzy is only doing it because he loved you as much as he did - you were made for him, like he was made for you. He couldn't live without you, so even if he had to hurt you a little, it'll all be worth it. You'll see that it was all for you.

‎‎

Wouldn't be uncommon to see him roaring down streets, both city and mountain ones alike, on his motorbike with you clung to his back and with no specific destination in mind - just likes to spend time with you, brings you anywhere that you want to go. Besides, the delinquents in the city, be they Black Dragons or rival scum, know better than to stare at the two of you. Loves light, airy places, so be prepared to spend a lot of time just hanging out together on rooftops and mountains, somewhere where you can feel the breeze through your hair, where Izzy can get you all to himself. All your attention being on him is the best kind of date.

There's no such thing as privacy, period. He absolutely needs to know everything that happens in your life, and anything less would earn you a full tantrum and fit. Put simply, its either Izana is there, hovering next to you and keeping one violet eye on all your ongoings, and no doubt this baby boy has someone (cough Inupi cough) tagging you from a respectable distance when he isn't free. That is, on top of having unfettered access to everything on your phone; call logs, messages, photos. Nothing is secret from him, why would it be? What do you have to hide from your partner?

You don't go anywhere new without Izzy. Why do you have to? What were you hiding? Your future husband would be happy to take you anywhere you have to go: cafe, the new department store downtown, even festivals. So unless you were trying to hide something from him, why wouldn't you want him to go along? Don't you know how dangerous it is out there? What if you get jumped by a rival gang? Needless to say, keeping presents a secret from this boy isn't a walk in a park.

‎‎

Everything else that Izana doesn't think you would approve of seeing would be done out of your sight. He doesn't like having you see the darker side of your boyfriend, the one that deals with weapons and drugs, the one that beats people, both civilians and his own gang members alike for the mildest of perceived infringements against you. You were too soft, too delicate for that. What if you got scared off? What would he do if you became frightened of him?

Instead, all his rage, all his hatred, he poured into the Black Dragon gang, leading them down darker and darker paths. The entire world was scum as far as he was concerned, trash that he had to beat and flatten into perfection so you didn't have to foul your hands and feet.

Sure Izana couldn't keep Shinichiro to himself as much as he desperately wanted to, the first time he truly found family - the source of a lot of his anger and jealousy. He hated Mikey, and always will, for stealing his older brother. But you were perfection, divinity, and you filled the hole in his heart; you didn't have to see that side of him if you just stuck by his side and returned his love. You were the only thing giving stability to a very fragile Izzy, and god only knows what would happen to him if that stability ever left. Izana would give you the sun and the moon if you wanted them both, all he asked for in return was your loyalty.

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sometipsygnostalgic · 8 months

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Adventure Time new episodes

This is for "Destiny" and "Winter King". I am not making a big analysis, honestly I have no idea where the miniseries is heading, but here are a couple of points I want to make.

So, to start us off, this is obviously Snake on a Nokia phone... the controls for this thing were absolute garbage but it did the job. Is the snake eating little bunnies????

It's interesting that designer bags are the same in both worlds, but that makes sense because this is just another future version of a world Simon lived in.

When I first saw Jay, I assumed he was Finn's baby brother from the Farmworld universe - wouldn't the baby brother be about the correct age??? - but he's actually Finn's son!

Jay and Bonnie are a reference to the episode Puhoy! Their mother was most likely Roselinen. Our Finn had specific reasons for naming them Jay (Jake) and Bonnie (PB). Farmworld Finn named them that too but unless he knew a farmworld PB it's more of a reference than anything else.

Also... against all reason, Farmworld Jake is still alive! Barely!

Finn had a LOT OF KIDS and also his wife his dead. Damn, even in this world. Most of his kids have his or Rosalinen's hair colour but the boy on the right looks a lot like Hunter from the first episode.

Take that as you will...

Like in the original S5 episodes there are farmworld versions of some characters like Choose Goose, Starchy, and Wildberry Princess. So there was probably farmworld versions of most of his friends. We already saw what happened to this version's Simon and Marcy, who both died brutally.

The crown is in the giant crater because it was evaporated by the goddamn nuke. Incredible that any part of it survived, really.

The rest of this episode speaks for itself. It was a fun look at an alternate universe where Finn lived a very different life. His personality here is nothing like our Finn who is a lot more adventurous. Farmworld has taken its toll on our boy.

Onto Winter King...

This penguin boy doesn't seem to be 100% ice. It's possible that his beak was stuck on like a snowman, but it's also possible this is a transformed version of Gunther.

This Ice King's history is very similar to our Ice King's. Most changes were 100 years ago when he transferred the twisted madness to PB.

Can someone explain to me why there is a naked chicken here???? I do not like this at all

I checked out two designs that I thought this place might be referencing. It doesn't look like either but, eh.

Below is Candy Kingdom concept art from 2008.

Below is Candy island from Flapjack!

And below, ironically the most similar looking, is Candy Island from Bob's Burgers.

Some interesting things about this alternate Simon...

This young Marceline with the axe has implications for why this Simon might've turned "evil". Marceline either ran away from him after what he did to PB, or she died at some stage. He made an "Ice Marcy" to replace her.... Young and adorable, just she was when he was Simon. This seems to be his method for dealing with any problems.

His science in this room was interesting... it reminded me of Princess Bubblegum's technology, or the stuff that Simon and Betty were able to make when combining science and magic in the land of Ooo. Honestly I don't feel that he'd have been successful in duplicating the crown, but he was immediately willing to try.

The reason Simon doesn't remember Betty as his great love is because this was an important part of his madness. When he transferred his madness to PB, he also transferred his obsession with Betty.

This is why Candy Queen is so obsessed with kidnapping Ice King and Simon, it's the exact reason why Ice King used to kidnap her!

Also, 10 out of 10 to Hynden Walch in this episode. I was convinced there was a different voice actress for Candy Queen, but upon checking the credits, it really is her. You can recognise her singing well too.

This version of PB has a lot more mastery over her candy elemental magic. It's probably a result of being possessed by the Crown's madness for so a hundred years. You see her doing all sorts of crazy stuff as Candy Queen, though in that state her abilities are a lot more like Ice King's than they are like the insane PB from the Elements miniseries.

It's really funny that PB is like "I'm trying not to dwell on it" about the hundred years thing. AT is very casual like that. Though she's gonna be very sad when she realises Fionna and Cake ripped the faces off most of her candy people. Brutal scene.

And it's funny how she kissed Fionna. She just does that with all her knights. I wonder if there is a Finn in this universe? Ice Prince seemed to expect the Ice girls to save him...

I found it sweet that Ice King really wanted to save someone else he saw as being possessed by madness. It was entirely possible that CQ was just "like that", but he was right on the money, and it shows how he contrasts to his alternate self, who is actively benefitting from this situation even if he gets regularly kidnapped. And it's not like Fionna is doing anything that Finn didn't do to Ice King!

This scene was brutal. Funnily enough I watched Infinity Train book 3 with Kim last night, this reminds me of the moment THAT Simon-- Oh my God, does this always happen to characters named Simon?

Fionna removed the magic from the crown, so Simon aged rapidly, just like in the episode "Betty". Though this time it happened instantaneously rather than across 11 minutes.

I think this is the part where Fionna realises her rampage across the multiverse is genuinely hurting people.

It was VERY CUTE watching Gary Prince (holy shit that name) show off his little Candy Kingdom. There's a lot of elements of PB there, and it parallels how ultimately the Candy Kingdom was PB's own version of the cake - she made all these characters and made little stories for them, which we know from the show was her way of dealing with the world.

What was REMARKABLY FUCKED UP was the shots to Fionna murdering possessed versions of these beloved characters. I mean... they're PROBABLY all still alive, but they are very fucked up now.

I also enjoy how the Lemoncarbs - Tree Trunks calls them that!! - are both here and alive, and superior to Gary lol. And I think Jinx Monsoon's voice acting here fits a lot better than in episode 4 where they tried to do a straight imitation of Lemongrab.

I haven't said much about these two but you can see how they contrast - Marshall just Does things, while Gary procrastinates constantly. And Marshall's behaviour can seem reckless but Gary would've never taken that big step forward without his help. It's funny how Marshall can just call his mother to summon the Lemoncarbs in the middle of the night, and sweet how he'd do that to help Gary.

Then he listens to the autistic boy gush about his characters. Awww.

This world here is obviously a joke about the elusive Adventure Time Babies show that Muto was terrified he'd be asked to make. Hell it's possible he pitched this show to CN once or twice. But Baby Looney Tunes and Tiny Titans are both famous spinoffs of this ilk, and Craig of the Creek got a spinoff about Craig's baby sister.

Simon is still determined to become Ice King again but he wants to "do it right". I still think he's HORRIBLY MISGUIDED but he is starting to realise that, maybe, he is the best version of himself. He could've been a huge ding dong like Ice Prince.

Also Chan is going to be so sad if that's the only time we see Young Finn and Jake.

#adventure time #atimers #fionna and cake

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jennamoran · 3 months

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The Far Roofs: Systems

Hi!

Today I’m going to talk a little bit more about my forthcoming RPG, the Far Roofs. More specifically, I want to give a general overview of its game mechanics!

So the idea that first started the Far Roofs on the road to being its own game came out of me thinking a lot about what large projects feel like.

I was in one of those moods where I felt like the important thing in an RPG system was the parallel between that system and real-world experience. Where I felt like the key to art was always thinking about the end goal, or at least a local goal, as one did the work; and, the key to design was symmetry between the goals and methods, the means and ends.

I don't always feel that way, but it's how I work when I'm feeling both ambitious and technical.

So what I wanted to do was come up with an RPG mechanic that was really like the thing it was simulating:

Finding answers. Solving problems. Doing big things.

And it struck me that what that felt like, really, was a bit like ...

You get pieces over time. You wiggle them around. You try to fit them together. Sometimes, they fit together into larger pieces and then eventually a whole. Sometimes you just collect them and wiggle them around until suddenly there's an insight, an oh!, and you now know everything works.

The ideal thing to do here would probably be having a bag of widgets that can fit together in different ways---not as universally as Legos or whatever, but, like, gears and connectors and springs and motors and whatever. If I were going to be building a computer game I would probably think along those lines, anyway. You'd go to your screen of bits and bobs and move them around with your mouse until it hooked together into something that you liked.

... that's not really feasible for a tabletop RPG, though, at least, not with my typical financial resources. I could probably swing making that kind of thing, finding a 3d printing or woodworking partner or something to make the pieces, for the final kickstarter, but I don't have the resources to make a bunch of different physical object sets over time while I'm playtesting.

So the way I decided that I could implement this was by drawing letter tiles.

That I could do a system where you'd draw letter tiles ... not constantly, not specifically when you were working, but over time; in the moments, most of all, that could give you insight or progress.

Then, at some point, you'd have enough of them.

You'd see a word.

That word'd be your answer.

... not necessarily the word itself, but, like, what the word means to you and what the answer means to you, those would be the same.

The word would be a symbol for the answer that you've found, as a player and a character.

(The leftover letters would then stick around in your hand, bits of thought and experience that didn't directly lead to a solution there, but might help with something else later on.)

Anyway, I figured that this basic idea was feasible because, like, lots of people own Scrabble sets. Even if you don't, they're easier to find than sets of dice!

For a short indie game focused on just that this would probably have been enough of a mechanic all on its own. For a large release, though, the game needed more.

After thinking about it I decided that what it wanted was two more core resolution systems:

One, for stuff like, say ... kickstarter results ... where you're more interested in "how well did this do?" or "how good of an answer is this?" than in whether those results better fit AXLOTL or TEXTUAL. For this, I added cards, which you draw like letter tiles and combine into poker hands. A face card is probably enough for a baseline success, a pair of Kings would make the results rather exciting, and a royal flush result would smash records.

The other core system was for like ... everyday stuff. For starting a campfire or jumping a gap. That, by established RPG tradition, would use dice.

...

I guess technically it didn't have to; I mean, like, most of my games have been diceless, and in fact we've gotten to a point in the hobby where that's just "sort of unusual" instead of actually rare.

But, like, I like dice. I do. If I don't use them often, it's because I don't like the empty page of where to start in the first place building a bespoke diced system when I have so many good diceless systems right there.

... this time, though, I decided to just go for it.

The Dice System

So a long, long time ago I was working on a game called the Weapons of the Gods RPG. Eos Press had brought me in to do the setting, and somewhere in the middle of that endeavor, the game lost its system.

I only ever heard Eos' side of this, and these days I tend to take Eos' claims with a grain of salt ... but, my best guess is that all this stuff did happen, just, with a little more context that I don't and might not ever know?

Anyway, as best as I remember, the first writer they had doing their system quit midway through development. So they brought in a newer team to do the system, and halfway through that the team decided they'd have more fun using the system for their own game, and instead wrote up a quick alternate system for Weapons of the Gods to use.

This would have been fine if the alternate system were any good, but it was ... pretty obviously a quick kludge. It was ...

I think the best word for it would be "bad."

I don't even like the system they took away to be their own game, but at least I could believe that it was constructed with love. It was janky but like in a heartfelt way.

The replacement system was more the kind of thing where if you stepped in it you'd need a new pair of shoes.

It upset me.

It upset me, and so, full wroth, I decided to write a system to use for the game.

Now, I'd never done a diced system before at that point. My only solo game had been Nobilis. So I took a bunch of dice and started rolling them, to see ... like ... what the most fun way of reading them was.

Where I landed, ultimately, was looking for matches.

The core system for Weapons of the Gods was basically, roll some number of d10s, and if you got 3 4s, that was a 34. If you got 2 9s, that was a 29. If your best die was a 7 and you had no pairs at all, you got 1 7. 17.

It didn't have any really amazing statistical properties, but the act of rolling was fun. It was rhythmic, you know, you'd see 3 4s and putting them together into 34 was a tiny tiny dopamine shot at the cost of basically zero brain effort. It was pattern recognition, which the brain tends to enjoy.

I mean, obviously, it would pall in a few minutes if you just sat there rolling the dice for no reason ... but, as far as dice rolling goes, it was fun.

So when I went to do an optional diced system for the Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG, years later, to post here on tumblr ... I already knew what would make that roll fun. That is, rolling a handful of dice and looking for matches.

What about making it even more fun?

... well, critical results are fun, so what about adding them and aiming to have a lot of them, though still like rare enough to surprise?

It made sense to me to call no matches at all a critical failure, and a triple a critical success. So I started fiddling with dice pool size to get the numbers where I wanted them.

I'm reconstructing a bit at this point, but I imagine that I hit 6d10 and was like: "these are roughly the right odds, but this is one too many dice to look at quickly on the table, and I don't like that critical failure would be a bit more common than crit success."

So after some wrestling with things I wound up with a dice pool of 5d6, which is the dice pool I'm still using today.

If you roll 5d6, you'll probably get a pair. But now and then, you'll get a triple (or more!) My combinatorics is rusty, so I might have missed a case, but, like ... 17% of the time, triples, quadruples, or quintuples? And around 9% chance, for no matches at all?

I think I was probably looking for 15% and 10%, that those were likely my optimum, but ... well, 5d6 comes pretty close. Roughly 25% total was about as far as I thought I could push critical results while still having them feel kind or rare. Like ...

If I'm rolling a d20 in a D&D-like system, and if I'm going to succeed on an 18+, that's around when success is exciting, right? Maybe 17+, though that's pushing it? So we want to fall in the 15-20% range for a "special good roll." And people have been playing for a very long time now with the 5% chance of a "1" as a "special bad roll," and that seemed fine, so, like, 20-25% chance total is good.

And like ...

People talk a lot about Rolemaster crit fail tables in my vicinity, and complain about the whiff fests you see in some games where you keep rolling and rolling and nothing good or bad actually happens, and so I was naturally drawn to pushing crit failure odds a bit higher than you see in a d20-type game.

Now, one way people in indie circles tend to address "whiff fests" is by rethinking the whole dice-rolling ... paradigm ... so you never whiff; setting things up, in short, so that every roll means something, and every success and failure mean something too.

It's a leaner, richer way of doing things than you see in, say, D&D.

... I just didn't feel like it, here, because the whole point of things was to make dice rolling fun. I wanted people coming out of traditional games to be able to just pick up the dice and say "I'm rolling for this!" because the roll would be fun. Because consulting the dice oracle here, would be fun.

So in the end, that was the heart of it:

A 5d6 roll, focusing on the ease of counting matches and the high but not exorbitant frequency of special results.

But at the same time ...

I'm indie enough that I do really like rolls where, you know, every outcome is meaningful. Where you roll, and there's never a "whiff," just a set of possible meaningful outcomes.

A lot of the time, where I'm leaning into "rolls are fun, go ahead and roll," what it means to succeed, to fail, to crit, all that's up to the group, and sometimes it'll be unsatisfying. Other times, you'll crit succeed or crit fail and the GM will give you basically the exact same result as you'd have gotten on a regular success or failure, just, you know, jazzing up the description a bit with more narrative weight.

But I did manage to pull out about a third of the rolls you'll wind up actually making and assign strong mechanical and narrative weight to each outcome. Where what you were doing was well enough defined in the system that I could add some real meat to those crits, and even regular success and regular failure.

... though that's a story, I think, to be told some other time. ^_^

#the far roofs #jenna moran #rpgs

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seetangus · 5 months

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How about azula realizing she really likes the reader after they take a life-threatening injury for her?? Love me some angst

Fiery Care - Azula x Reader os

[masterlist]

Azula x gn reader, tw: blood, heavy injury

1.340 words, please tell me if you find any mistakes!

I hope I got the request right, enjoy :)

No-one had prepared you for this. Rocks were being thrown at you by an earthbender, accompanied by the combined magic of a waterbender, the treacherous, disgraced prince, some incompetent boy with a sword and the Avatar himself.

You had trained firebending a lot, because, even considering that you were born into them, one only got accepted in the upper circles of the fire nation if one was a good fighter, but normally you were kept far away from any actual, real fights by your family, as they valued you - or rather your appearance; they wouldn't want their "little prodigy" to enter the service under the fire lord with any "flaws" that originated from missteps in battles.

However, you had insisted on taking part in this battle for a very special reason.

< • ◇ • >

A few hours earlier:

Azula walked, or rather marched, through the courtyard, straight towards you. That was a very rare sight and an unnerving one too, as you had long been plagued by strong unrequited feelings towards the princess. You quickly arranged your armour to look even more orderly and clean than it already was, acting with a nervousness and anticipation that would have told anyone who saw you that it was not just, like with anyone else, fear, that Azula ignited in you, but also some much warmer feelings.

Well, it might have told anyone, but Azula wasn't anyone, was she?

Her two friends who always escorted her probably knew, but that was no matter to worry about as they seemed pretty reasonable and pitied you, because of your feelings, to a degree at which they didn't feel the need to worsen your emotional state anymore by telling Azula about your feelings.

Now Azula stopped pretty close in front of you - she could probably feel the heat your reddened face emitted, but she did not seem to care.

"Y/N. Our scouts have tracked down the Avatar. We will leave in a few minutes to confront him and his companions. Father says it would be a good first fight for you, but honestly I don't care wether you accompany us as it likely won't make any difference. So you can stay here if you want to."

With much more energy than fitting you immediately responded that there could be nothing more delightful for you than joining her in battle. Ty Lee grinned at you from behind Azula, making you blush even harder.

Azula seemed unimpressed at your enthusiasm, but you didn't care. What mattered was that you would be close to her - or at least closer to her than normally - for a little while.

Also, you should be able to convince your parents to let you go if you mentioned that the fire lord himself thought that it was a good idea.

< • ◇ • >

Well, maybe the reason you took part in the battle wasn't even that special. You wanted to impress Azula, that was about it. A pretty dumb thought, if you thought about it - she was more or less infallible, how was one, especially you, to impress her?

However, there was not much time to think about such matters, as the attacks coming from the people you were facing seemed to become faster by the second.

You dodged a fire bolt the filthy traitor prince sent towards you and melted a stone that flew towards you mid air, freeing you up for just one moment of looking around the battlefield.

The first thing you noticed was dramatic. A whip made from sharpened, magical water made its way to Azula and she, who was in any other moment completely aware of her surroundings, was just preparing to defend against an attack from the Avatar-boy - she could get killed by that whiplash!

From one moment to another, your brain was deactivated and your protection-instincts, and maybe a bit of love, took over: in an enormous leap you rushed over to Azula - for one moment, everything was red and pain, but soon relieving darkness enclosed you.

---

With an enormous wave of wind, the Avatar ripped two small trees out of the earth, throwing them at Azula. She laughed at that pathetic attempt to seize her, igniting the wood with such fire that only a drizzle of ashes arrived at her position. But that ominous rain not only consisted of the remains of the burned trees, but also of blood.

She quickly looked around herself to see from where the scarlet liquid could originate - the first thing she found was the origin of the terrible act: the waterbender-girl was retrieving a thread of water she had been bending for it to become sharp and deadly into the bottle she always carried around.

Continuing her search, she found, or rather stumbled upon you. You laid unconciously besides her feet, your shoulder bleeding furiously. Considering that you hadn't stood there a few moments ago and in which direction the whip had been flying, it did not take long for Azula to realise the whiplash had been meant for her.

Driven back by a continuously growing amount of fire nation soldiers, the Avatar and his partners fled the battlefield, giving Azula an oppertunity to lean down to you and inspect your barely breathing body further. The more she realised what had happened, the more irrational feelings rushed through her head.

Naturally, everyone would sacrifice themselves for her, right? She was Azula. She really should not feel bad for you, it had been your duty to save her. In fights, things like these happened. You had to live (or not, in some cases) with it.

Yet, she could not help telling the healers who soon arrived to be extra careful with you if they did not want to experience her wrath.

She also couldn't keep herself from waiting outside the healer's tent, anxiously expecting the moment you would leave it. You would leave it, after all. She demanded you did. There was simply no way you couldn't.

And, what was maybe the worst of all, your face did not want to leave her mind. The face she had seen so many times on the courtyard and that she had always taken for granted - and that had not lost any of its beauty even when tainted through your own dark blood.

Given the size of your wound the process of healing was a long and exhausting one, but each day Azulas hope of seeing you again grew with the increasingly positive reports of the healers she ordered them to bring her.

Quite a few times had Ty Lee told Azula, in a very subtle manner, that it was quite unusual for her to think about someone this much. To care about them, even. That it almost seemed as if she liked you.

Naturally, Azula refused to give such assumptions any credit. Romantic fantasies like this were for children, and she was the very confident princess of the fire nation, not some toddler, wasn't she?

Of course she had to admit that she valued your wellbeing a little bit more than everyone elses, but her liking you? How absurd. Ridiculous, even.

Anyways, the only thing she seemed to do the following days beside worrying about you was to emphasize that she did not in any way worry about you at all. Oh, she couldn't wait for the day you left the hospital so that she could ask you some serious questions about what you did to make her think about you.

When the day of your releasememt from the hospital came, though, any questions were quickly forgot. Alone the sight of your face made her see everything she could have ever asked for.

You too could not believe your luck when Azula was the first person to greet you after leaving the hospital; her inviting you to sit beside her at the royal dinner that evening exceeded all your dreams.

She stepped closer towards you, and your heart fluttered when you saw the same look in her eyes that you had been giving her for a long time.

#azula x reader #atla #atla x reader #azula #azula x y/n #atla azula #azula avatar #azula x gn reader #x reader #anon #avatar the last airbender

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howtofightwrite · 6 months

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I know DnD is not about realism but how accurate is having, say, your heavy armor wearing paladin have 10 dex or even negative dex? Where medieval knights built like The Rock or like The mountain? I’ve seen youtubers saying that you needed a lot of strength to be able to fight like a knight so women and smaller people couldn’t do it.

I think I know which YouTuber you're talking about, and you can pretty safely ignore them. Their personal misogyny takes priority over their (alleged) expertise when they're forming their arguments.

There's two logistical problems with the idea that you need someone like Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson to make up the bulk of your elite forces. The first problem is that they need to consume a frightening amount of food. This isn't as much of a problem in the modern era, when we have the capacity for truly staggering amounts of agricultural production. But, in a medieval society, with serfs responsible for most of the agriculture, the prospect of feeding each of your elite troops 10,000 calories a day would economically destroy most kingdoms. (And, yes, that is what Björnsson reports to consume on a daily basis. Other estimates place his dietary intake somewhere between 3600 and 8000.) And, to be clear, that is an absolutely absurd amount of food. But, if you want to build that kind of mass, you need a lot of energy, which means, a lot of food.

The second logistical problem is, there's only one of him. Okay, that's not literally true, The Mountain was portrayed by three separate actors, Conan Stevens, a professional wrestler, and Ian Whyte, a stunt actor who had previous appeared as a White Walker in the first season. But, Hafthor Bjornsson took over the role in the fourth season, and is probably who you're thinking of when you name drop the character.

Bjornsson is a member of the 2000 pound club, which include power lifters who can lift over 2000lbs combined between bench press, dead lift, and squats. Not many people ever get that far, and Bjornsson is one of the few individuals who can get into the 1000 pound club from a single lift.

Here's a fun name to know, Becca Swanson is also in the 2000 pound club. She credibly claims that she is the first woman to have achieved that, and I'm not sure if there are any other women in the 2000lb club, but it is achievable.

Now, here's the fun thing about all of this, because you're asking about D&D, and D&D players need to know exactly how much their character can lift. The calculation is (STR*30)lbs. (In the Player's handbook p174.) This also means if you have a real person, and you know how much they can lift in the real world, you can reverse engineer what their strength score would be in D&D.

It's 37.

If you wanted to convert Hafthor Bjornsson into D&D, his strength score would be 37.

Dude can fucking arm wrestle the Terrasque and easily win.

Putting that in perspective, it's a little ludicrous to say that if you want a viable martial character (fighters, paladins, barbarians, etc.), they need a Strength score of 37, when it's not normally possible for player characters to exceed 20 base strength. (If you're wondering, Becca would work out to have ~29 Strength. So, on par with most ancient dragons, and a few gods.)

So, there you have a man and woman who are both superhumanly strong according to D&D.

D&D and math have always had issues like this, and it pops up in a few different places here.

The basic concept that your ability to hit, and the amount of damage you deal is based on strength comes from a very, “schoolyard,” understanding of violence. It's okay to step back and abstract it out, where “strength,” is some amalgam of melee combat aptitude in addition to actual strength, but the idea that being stronger means you can hit harder with a sword or dagger doesn't make a lot of sense. It doesn't even make much sense with axes and maces (the force applied has more to do with the mass and velocity of the weapon, rather than the strength of its wielder.)

A paladin with negative DEX is dead. I don't mean that figuratively, and I do understand what you meant to say, but this rule is a little obscure in 5e. If any of a character's physical attributes (STR, DEX, CON) are reduced to zero, the character immediately dies. Ability draining effects used to be far more common, so the rule existed by itself, though, now it mostly shows up when you're looking at a monster with a physical ability draining attack.

What you probably meant was a negative DEX modifier, meaning your paladin is unusually clumsy. Outside the context of D&D, that would be an incredibly bad thing for a front line combatant. In the specific context of D&D, if they're in heavy armor, it doesn't really matter, if they're in medium, then it reverts to being “a bad thing. Specifically, the rules is that light and medium armor add your DEX modifier to your armor class. Medium armor caps this at +2, but it can go negative with either armor type. However, heavy armor in 5e ignores your DEX modifier entirely.

Now, here's the thing about D&D, its concept of armor is spectacularly weird. Unlike RPGs where armor reduces damage taken, either by subtracting a fixed amount from incoming damage or by reducing damage via a percentage, D&D's system is that your armor class grants you a chance to avoid being hit at all. (5% chance per point of AC, if you're wondering.) Narratively, this is often framed as taking a hit, but your armor turned the blade or something similar. This is because sometimes the enemy attack straight up misses, and that's (usually) determined by your dexterity. This is important, because the game is trying to balance two different power fantasies against each other.

On one side you have the players who want to roll in heavy plate armor, and soak all the hits, and on the other you have players who want to go with light armor, and dodge around enemy attacks. Realistically, that's not an option, but D&D permits it, and again, that's fine. The fantasy of lightly armored fighters makes a lot of sense. I'd even go so far as to say that the barbarian's unarmed defense bonus (where they add CON modifier to their DEX modifier while unarmored) is a really good change in 5e even if it does make no sense objectively. It contributes to the fantasy of this brutal fighter who runs around without armor slapping people silly with their weapons, and shrugging off damage because they're too stubborn to die. In (nearly all cases) the ability to deliver the player fantasy of a class is more important than a strict adherence to reality, and that's fine, that's the point, but the realism of D&D doesn't translate off the page in any meaningful way.

If you wanted a more, “realistic,” (and, yeah, that's incredibly loaded in this context), approach to armor for D&D, I'd say gate access based on your Constitution (or Constitution modifier). Sort of like how your equip load in Dark Souls is based on your Endurance attribute. Give armor and weapons a burden value, and if the combined burden on a character exceeds their CON, the character risks taking levels of Fatigue when they're fighting in heavier gear than they're conditioned to deal with. Maybe add a Conditioning feat or skill if you want to add some other attribute modifiers to the mix should you end up with your heavy armor fighters being underequipped. (Then again, I am one of those psychopaths who really liked the D20 Star Wars' vitality system.) So, ultimately, tinker with the balance until you find something you, and the people at your table, are happy with. Roleplayers who have more meaningful build choices tend to be happier, so long as they don't feel like they're being punished for having a character fantasy.

One of the more amusing descriptions I've read of medieval knights is that they were built like methheads. I can't fully vouch for that, because I'm not an expert on the physical appearance of medieval knights, but it's certainly credible. These guys were eating pretty well for the era, and engaged in a lot of physical activity. Depending on what they were doing, that could easily result in some fairly bulky guys, but it could also result in some wiry looking guys who hide their muscles. Just, knowing what I do about the human body, the answer was probably both, depending on their metabolism and diet. But the image of Sir Methhead, Knight of the Realm, and his implausibly clean teeth, still amuses me.

It's worth remembering that a lot of the times I've seen someone say, “they were built like athletes,” they'll drop an image of a bodybuilder. No. That's not what you would get. Bodybuilding is designed to create its own physique, one that doesn't occur unless you're abusing your body in some very specific (and unhealthy) ways. It's probably better to think of someone like a high-school football player. Bulky, but without the carved physiques of a Boris Vallejo painting. (If you don't know who that is, look up his art. It is a bit dated, but it's gorgeous.)

Alternately, if you do want your characters to look like those paintings, it is your fantasy, have fun.

-Starke

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#writing reference #writing advice #writing tips #starke answers #how to fight write #D&D #Game of Thrones #The Mountain #Hafthor Bjornsson #Yeah Dude's first name is Half-Thor #figure he earns it #I can't judge you for using Boris Vallejo art as your character tokens #I'm still using MTG card art for mine

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weirdly-specific-but-ok · 2 months

Text

the bafta livestream out of context: top 60 cursed quotes.

There is nothing more cursed than the livestream I just witnessed, and I made a summary post but now I'm just going to put in quotes by the worthy maggots in the stream with no context, because BELIEVE ME THE CONTEXT DIDN'T MAKE ANYTHING BETTER. The livestream chat was NOT A PLACE OF THE LORD.

I'm going to make the quotes that were by me a different colour. Please know that I am NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR A SINGLE QUOTE OTHER THAN THOSE. SO HERE'S THE TOP 60 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Barbenhimer awakened things in me ok

aroace people the most disturbingly sexual talkers on the planet fight me on this

WHO JUST GASPED

MICHAEL SHEENS BABY TALKING BARK BADK IM A DOG BARK WOOF

I feel so sorry for this woman. She's being so heartfelt and we're here thristing over a slinky that possessed a man

IRELAAAND PLEASE ADOPT ME AS YOUR OWN PLEASE TAKE ME TO THE LAND OF UNPRONOUNCABLE WORDS, GREEN FEILD, CATHOLISISM AND HOZIER PLEASE

the urge to go to france and misgender a croissant is real

Devastated the slutty knees have gone away

So many men nowadays are so submissive and breedable like thank you lord for these men thank you

witches and murder slime tutorial

speaking of royals did the bloke who ISN'T lizzy's husband but her son apparently die yet

Turtleneck Crowley is my gender.

WE COULD HAVE LEFT IT AS NOT SAFE FOR WORK WHY THE DRTAOLS ASMI

SAY AN BFUIL CEAD AGAM DUL GO DTÍ AN LEITHREAS AN WE'LL LET YOU THROUGJ

"Oompa loompa doopety dee, I really hated being in this movie" -Hugh grant probably

IF YOU'RE A CHILD AVERT YOUR EYES FROM THAT MESSAGE IM SORRY

i want the kilt back this a betrayal

if someone put me in a room with kilt!david tennant one of us is walking out of that room pregnant and its not gonna be me

a lot of these words are in the bible and none of them should be in that order you need jesus

Can we vote to make david wear that kilt back? Maybe make him do a twirl this time

You mean Bildaddy? 😏

Honey what make you think a dude who roamed around with prostitutes and got himself more holes for mankind won't be calling bildad bildaddy? [this was about jesus btw.]

FREE THE KNEE

Show us the knees!

AND YOU'RE COMING AFTER ME FOR MY BLOWJOB BANANA

He looks like those fancy chocolates. Imma take a bite outta him. Think you'll leak molten goo like them?

My brain isn't working, I read "bratty couch jr"

i'm sorry the what holes

FIND ME ON GOAD AND I WILL MAKE YOU PAY APPROPRIATELY

I genuinely thought it was a road typo and I thought you were threatening asmi with physical violence on the road

OHH FLOWER OF SCOTLAAAAAAND

Combine that with the unfortunate oranges and see what happens.

DEVASTATING NEWS I ATE UP ALL OF THEM SO I'VE BROUGHT A BLOWJOB BANANA INSTEAD

That reminded me of the army video where the guy was deepthroating a 7 inch banana without a hitch.

OMG THEY JUST FLASHED BACK & I GOT A GLIMPSE OF THAT KILT 🥵🥵🥵

thats why apollo had to deliver you at an illegal sushi restaurant

How long do you think it would take to get david naked from his chocolate man suit? Can we set a new speedrun category?

SUPERBOWL FOR TENNANTISTS

Big feelings about pants straps in the chat tonight

Last time i check yoire supposed to thank the lord gor his gifts

HEY GUYS ASMI'S FROM A PARALLEL UNIVERSE CONFIRMED

I just have a deep appreciation for ireland

Can you use suspenders as bondage gear? I mean it looks like it would be fine? I mean if you make the length a bit more they might be more comfortable than ropes. Just sayin

All i can think when i see him in the costume is the one specific ken and oppenhimer slash fic. Lord help me i can't be saved

GIVE MY LOVE TO THE LEPRECHAAAAAAAAAAAUNSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Like a giant orange slice on her one arm.

Stop hitting the lectern geez / what if its into that?

Men who wear suspenders are such losers like why do you need so much cloth to keep your pants up. Why dont you just wear a belt. Where do you live. What is your timezone. What are you office hours

what is this suspender shaming ari chappal for you

Aziraphales office hours are: fuck off

Put me ina room with a suspender wearing man and he shall have the same fate as kilttennant

MARIYADAM E ILLAI

It was titled "snake in my b***" It meant butt lmfao

CROWLEY AND LOKI MY GENDERFLUID ICONS

THE KNEES ARE BACK

THEKNEES GOD SAVE ME FROM THESE SINFUL THOUGHTS

What if slutshaming is my kink?

NOT THE BLOWJOB FACE NO

AT THIS POINT IF NEIL HASN'T UNFOLLOWED ME YET HE'S ASKING TO BE MENTALLY SCARRED IM SORRY

I am failing

Tagging the main culprits whose tumblr handles I know:

@thearoacemess @vitrilol @queermarzipan @good-usernames-were-taken

Cheers, maggots.

#good omens mascot #weirdly specific but ok #asmi #good omens #maggots #good omens fandom #crowley #bafta awards #bafta 2024 #bafta #suspenders #discord livestream #david tennant #michael sheen #barbenheimer #oppenheimer

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demonic0angel · 9 months

Text

God!Danny and Servant!Damian

Damian stared at the long hallway of various knickknacks and doohickeys. The ever-changing wallpaper was cracked and peeling, sticky with a green substance. Bizarrely shaped and decorated doors would occasionally peek out from the mountains of loot. The tables that lined the hallway were filled with books and books and many random objects. The hallway was illuminated with a combination of different things, candles and chandeliers and crackling TVs and lightbulbs lighting up the way. At the very end of the long hallway was a lone door, unmarked and conspicuous in its simplicity.

Once he walked through that door, he would be able to complete his wish.

Something to his side caught his eye. It was a small picture of a family, one with many unique characters.

It reminded Damian of his own.

It reminded him of his failures, his goals, and his desires.

Wiping away the liquid that welled in his eyes, he turned and glared at the door that seemed more and more like the light in the darkness as well as his own personal demise.

Damian grit his teeth and began to run.

————

It all started simply. It was an average day, a normal afternoon as Damian bickered with his siblings as always. He and Timothy were rubbing on each other's nerves, only instigated further by Jason who would gleefully laugh every now and then whenever he sparked the dying fire.

Dick sighed and said, "C'mon you two. Why can't you just get along?"

"It's because Damian knows that Tim is better than him at detective work." Jason said.

"Shut up, Todd!" Damian said as Timothy made a strange expression of both smugness and also exasperation. Despite knowing that Jason was deliberately goading them on, they still fell for it and walked right into another heated argument.

Dick only sighed further as his little siblings argued like children. The door to the command room opened with Batman sweeping in, Stephanie following him with a little skip to her step.

"Heya, everyone!" She greeted cheerfully while Batman flew past them to inspect the controls.

All of them were in a spaceship commandeered by the batfamily in a mission to inspect a small alien planet that had recently pinged itself on their radar. It was a dangerous new colony that had an ability to steal the memories of those that they had killed and use it to conquer new planets.

The batclan was currently in a mission to investigate if the rumors were true and to find any weaknesses.

"Father?" Damian asked, as he noticed Batman's tense body language. "What is the matter?"

".... Orphan hasn't come back from her stealth mission."

A ripple of dread went through the room. Timothy immediately sat down on a seat and began to pull up mission records. They updated it regularly as they went, and Cassandra had logged in for her mission a few days ago, but now she was several hours past her expected return. This was a bad sign, especially since it was only a reconnaissance mission, with little to no conflict and even if there was, Cassandra would've contacted them.

Something had gone very, very wrong.

Stephanie whispered, "No... she couldn't have been."

Jason gave a snort, although it was weak and filled with false bravado. "There's no way. She's probably trying to find some new information for us. She's stronger than that."

No one said anything.

His attempt at gathering hope failed.

"... fuck." Jason said quietly, as the worst of what could've happened finally sank its claws into his mind.

Everyone was aware that this current mission was one with high stakes. The alien race they were investigating was a dangerous one, and unknown at that. Although they expected danger, they hadn’t expected one of their own to actually get hurt.

Batman shook his head, a hand reaching out to clasp Jason's shoulder. "We'll find her and then we'll help her." He reassured him softly. It said a lot that Jason didn't shake off his touch.

A stone sank in Damian's stomach.

This was his first mission in outer space and he loathed how vulnerable he felt. In an effort to hide it, Damian scoffed to himself and straightened.

They all lifted their heads in unison, however, when a crash rang through the ship. Their gut instincts had alerted them to the danger a second beforehand, but it was still too late.

The light flickered off, inciting another gasp of panic. They all put on their masks to switch on their night vision.

Batman immediately pulled out several batarangs and said, "Dick, with me! The rest of you, stay here and be careful. We'll investigate."

"Fuck!" Jason screamed, louder. "Why am I not coming?!"

"I need you to protect your siblings!" Batman said before he ran off with Dick in tow.

"Grayson!" Damian couldn't help but yell. "Father, shouldn’t we stick together instead?!”

He couldn’t help the worry that stuck to his voice.

Dick swerved back before he could leave the control room and immediately pulled Damian into a hug. "Little Bat," he said softly. "Stay here and protect Stephanie and Tim, okay? They need it."

Damian wanted to protest at his reassurances, almost indignant at the idea that he possibly needed comfort, but he didn’t say a word as Dick stroked his back. Timothy didn't speak up either, completely silent. Damian knew that he was also feeling some sense of immense dread, their survival instincts giving them a premonition of danger and death.

Damian tried to hold his brother closer, eyes wide before Dick pulled away, pulling on a false smile.

"Be careful!" He screamed and then he left.

"This isn't good, this isn't good." Tim muttered as he furiously tapped on the keyboard to figure out what was going on. Everything was down, even their systems and now they just waited in the darkness for a signal of safety.

Jason cursed under his breath. "I should've been with them!" He muttered.

Damian pushed down his nausea and said, "Then let's go. With the computers down, there is no reason for us to stay here when we could go out and help them."

"Fuck, I'm going." Jason pulled out his guns and immediately began to load them with bullets.

"Dammit." Tim cursed and Stephanie pulled out her own bo staff and looked determinedly at them.

"Let's go." She said, and they all followed her as she left first.

They ran through the halls to get to the sector where the explosion had supposedly started. The air seemed stale and dark, and a distant 'ooh'ing noise like wind going through a hole disturbed them greatly. Damian wished he had his swords, but all he had was a bo staff and a few batarangs to protect himself.

His eyes searched the darkness. Stephanie and Timothy were next to each other, their shoulders almost bumping against each other's for comfort, while Jason trailed a little behind Damian, guns out and ready. Damian reassured himself that his family was safe. Cassandra was surely just fine and so would his father and Richard be. They would be okay.

They would all be okay.

There was another crash right in front of them and Stephanie screamed. Jason immediately shot into the dark, the bright flash of a gunshot illuminating the hall for a moment, showing just who came through the wall.

A grotesque monster with bulging, writhing black tentacles stared at them before the light faded. Jason relentlessly shot his bullets, but they seemed useless.

There was a short scuffle before a disturbing squelching noise.

Timothy gave a long, loud keen before his body blocked Damian's vision.

The last thing that Damian saw before Timothy was pulling him away was Stephanie's fallen body, a deep blackness covering her that would shine crimson red.

They ran.

The moment Damian was able to reconnect with his thoughts and surroundings, he pulled his hand out of Timothy's and said, "Brown! She's still back there!"

"No!" Timothy snapped, his voice sounding wrecked. "We have to run. I saw her. She's not coming back."

Jason cursed violently and they quickly skidded into the next hall, shutting the sealed doors for a moment.

"Fuck. It's them. They found Cassandra and took her memories." Jason said and Damian choked on his fear and shock.

Timothy shuddered visibly and then said, "I think they got Stephanie too."

Damian grimaced, hurt shooting through his chest like a bullet wound before he gasped.

"Father! And Richard! They—They went ahead of us!" It was almost instantaneous how both Jason and Timothy paled.

Jason smacked his hands over his eyes. "Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!!"

He took out his helmet and quickly put it on. "I'm going out. Maybe I can find them. Bruce is smart, he's probably still alive and I'll find them."

"You're not invincible, Todd." Damian snarled. "Let us come with you. If we die, we'll all die together."

"Like hell we will." Jason said curtly. "You little shits are gonna live because if another Robin dies, I'm...." He paused. He didn't know what to say.

None of them could find the words needed to comfort each other.

Damian's stomach dropped further into his feet, as if he was about to be sick.

Timothy reached out and grabbed onto Jason's sleeve. "Jason. You know it's a suicide mission. You can't go."

Jason reloaded his bullets and didn't say anything.

When he turned, Jason's helmet was still on his face as he stared at both Tim and Damian. Then he reached over to put a gloved hand on their heads and said, his voice crackling softly, "I gotta go, Robins. Protect each other. Be safe. I mean it."

His touch was heavy and warm, even through his glove. Damian stared at his akhi with wide, wet eyes.

Timothy screamed in shock and despair as Jason sealed that exit and then ran off. They heard the distant sounds of gunshots before they faded.

Timothy gasped for breath, tears flowing down his face but he quickly wiped them and then pulled on Damian's arms. "C'mon, Robin. It's up to us now. We have to get to the exit bay and hope that everyone else gets through this alive and back home."

No one voiced the fact that it would be near impossible.

As they ran, Timothy was furiously typing on his communicator. When they reached the ship bay, where extra spacecrafts were stationed and ready to fly, they found it blissfully empty.

Already suspicious, they snuck inside. Damian was almost irritated by the small gasps that left Timothy's throat but he understood, with the grief that seemed to eat through his stomach. After a moment, as they inched towards a spacecraft, Damian reached out to hold Timothy's hand and squeezed gently.

Timothy squeezed back and they both sped up to the spacecraft. They both worked together to open it up and get it ready for space travel when there was a distant roar.

Damian shuddered hard, goosebumps rising over his skin as he worked even faster, flicking on buttons and readying the controls and coordinates.

Timothy cursed and said, "Dammit. I can't message Earth."

Damian bit into his lip.

Nothing was going well. Where were their family?

Timothy handed Damian the communicator. For a moment, Damian just stared at it in confusion before he turned to Timothy with questioning eyes, his heart squeezing in his chest.

What was the meaning of this? Was Timothy possibly handing off their last chance of survival to him? For what reason?

"What is this for?" Damian snapped.

"Just hold it," Timothy said exhaustedly. "I need to go out and see if the exterior of the pod is functional for space travel. You stay here and stay inside while I go check outside."

"No! What if something happens and I am unable to stop it?" Damian said, his foot stomping once on the ground to emphasize his point.

Timothy didn't say anything as he started to walk down the ramp to the ground outside of the ship. Damian rushed forward to grab his hand and pull him back.

"Why must everyone sacrifice their lives?!" Damian shouted. "You don't need to do this! Let's just stick together!"

"Just shut up, Damian!"

"No! Let's leave now! I-I want to leave now!"

Timothy turned to him with a furious expression but whatever was on Damian's face made him pause. Then he pursed his lips together before pulling Damian in close.

They had never hugged before.

The closest they had ever been was whenever Damian lunged forward for a knife to Timothy's gut.

But this... this wasn't so bad. Damian's eyes burned with an urge to cry and he grabbed onto his brother's suit.

"We will be okay, Damian."

And just as he said that, he pushed Damian forward and through the aircraft as the aliens finally revealed themselves as well as the tentacle that now wiggled into Timothy's stomach.

It happened in an instant.

Damian couldn't even react as Timothy was impaled through his torso.

Blood spilled on the floor and through Timothy's mouth. Timothy coughed, more blood dripping down his chin. He inched forward as the tentacles seemed to pull him back. It was a slow thing, as Damian watched in frozen horror as Timothy moved towards him.

"Timothy!" He couldn't help but blurt it out. "You're going to be ripped in half, you imbecile!"

He took out a batarang, already formulating a plan to hopefully cut away the tentacle but then Timothy reached into his side pouch and took the access card out, slotting it into the card reader and smiling reassuringly at Damian as blood dripped from his lips and body.

"You'll be okay." He croaked, before a black blur shot out and impaled his skull, blood splattering over the doors as they quickly shut themselves.

The aircraft began to lift itself from the ground automatically as Damian screamed with rage and grief, his fist smacking into the door as he flew away. The last thing he saw before he sped off into space and back to earth was Timothy's limp body being dragged backwards.

Damian sank to his knees and didn't get up for a long time.

When he arrived back to Earth, it was useless.

Because Gotham was now gone.

————

Damian opened the door.

Inside was a wide, circular room with marble walls and floors. The ceiling was tall, and windows covered it, letting in golden light that lit up the room with an ethereal glow. In the middle of the room was a pool of water surrounding a tall tree on a little island.

Damian couldn't help the gulp of air that he took, rejuvenating him with a refreshing lightness like he was breathing in sunlight.

"Ah." A voice gasped softly. Damian whipped his head upwards and stared at a figure floating within the tree branches. "Hello."

This person wore white and black, their clothes all flowing around them. On their face was a deer skull, its horns stretching behind them as their white hair, strangely similar to Jason's unique white coloring, floated gently.

"Are you the God from the legends?" Damian asked, his voice sounding braver than he felt as the pressure of this being encased him.

"The legends? I suppose so. Do you have a wish, Damian al Ghul-Wayne?"

Damian flinched before his gaze hardened. "Yes. I would like to make a deal with you."

"I see." The god jumped off of the tree branch and floated in front of him. The air felt colder as they drifted closer to Damian. "What is your wish?"

"I want my family to live again."

The being paused. They tilted their head and then said, "Your family?"

"Yes." Damian paused and then clarified, "I want my entire family to be alive again. My father, all of my brothers, my sisters, my grandfather, and my extended family within Gotham."

"... a very big ask." The god murmured.

A chill rose within Damian and he said urgently, worried that his wish wouldn't be granted, "I am willing to do whatever it takes to have my wish granted. I can kill whoever you ask, I can offer my own body...! Anything, as long as my family is alive again."

The god tilted their head the other way. Then they said, "I see. Name your family."

Damian's breath hitched but before he did, he asked, "Will my wish be granted?"

"Yes."

Damian thrilled at that, before he paused. Then he asked carefully, "What is the price?"

The god turned to look at him. Their empty eye sockets, filled with a faint green glow, seemed to bore holes into his soul. "The price of the revival of your family is to sacrifice your life and eternity to me. You will offer your life, your death, and your eternity to me, for me to do whatever I wish."

Damian's breath stuttered. He paused, heart pounding as he debated with himself.

But who was he kidding?

There was no such question in the first place. Damian was not worth even an toe from his family. He wasn't even worth enough to even gaze upon their shoes.

Damian nodded firmly. "I agree to your deal. If I offer everything that I am to you, you will agree to revive my family as they once were?"

"They will be revived and reverted back to a time when they were once alive. They will be well and healthy, I assure you. With this deal, I can promise that they will live to old age."

Damian beamed. "Deal. My family's names are Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Richard Grayson, Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, and Timothy Drake."

The god seemed to give off an air of satisfaction. "Then, for the soul, eternity, and life and death of Damian al Ghul-Wayne, the aforementioned people will be revived and brought back to life."

They clapped their hands. "It's been done."

Damian couldn't tell if they were lying or not. Still, Damian was overjoyed at this piece of news. "Then... may I go see them?"

The god floated a bit in front of him. "No. You'll stay here, with me."

Damian paused, his stomach dropping and he wanted to smack himself for hoping. "I see. What will you have me do?"

Would they make Damian kill for them? Be a slave? Use his body? Would he have to sacrifice his body parts for them? Kidnap people? The possibilities were endless and although it made a bitter, sour taste go through his mouth, Damian did not dare complain.

The god seemed to be smiling as a broom appeared into existence in their hands. They handed it to Damian who grabbed it unsurely.

"Clean up."

————

And that was the beginning of how Damian became a servant of a lone God.

#dc x dp #dp x dc #danny phantom x dc #danny fenton #dp x dc crossover #dp au #damian al ghul #damian wayne #danny is a god #dcxdp #dpxdc #platonic dead serious #tw violence

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multi-fandom-things730 · 5 months

Text

Welcome to Burlesque

Summary: Y/N is a burlesque dancer who works at Taz’s club. She and his son Hook start developing feelings for each other as they navigate the complicated world of organized crime.

Warnings: mob au, guns, blood, injuries, fighting, cussing, violence, angst, fluff, Jack being a little traitor, club environment, burlesque club, creepy man not taking a hint, drinking

A/N: should I have been writing a speech for college today? Yes. Did I? No. I wrote this💀😂 this burlesque idea is a little thing I came up with while listening to the burlesque movie’s soundtrack😂 and I thought it would be something fun to combine with a mob au. There will be a part 2 to this, and I hope you all enjoy!!!!! 🤍And thank you as always to @99hook for helping me brainstorm and come up with different little ideas for this fic💛💛✨

Working at Taz's burlesque club was a dream come true to Y/N.

Was it a little bit shady? Yes.

Was she aware of the business the Senerchia family was in? It wasn't very hard to figure out being in the club as often as she was.

But did she care? She probably should have a lot more than she did. But she couldn't bring herself to.

Taz was undoubtedly one of the kindest men she'd ever met; at least to her anyway.

Maybe not to everyone else, but being one of the club’s most popular dancers had its perks.

The two ended up spending a lot of time together, as she performed almost every night. And Taz preferred conducting his business at the burlesque club to anywhere else.

He knew it was safe, and there were back rooms disguised as extra dressing rooms he used when business had to get a little messy.

Y/N knew it wasn't the most conventional dream to have, but she had wanted to be a burlesque dancer for years.

When Taz bought the business from the previous owner, Y/N watched as many of her coworkers left when they realized who their new owner really was.

She knew she probably should have gone with them, but she just wasn't willing to give up on her job.

She loved the club so much; she couldn't imagine working anywhere else.

And it may have also had a tiny bit to do with Taz's handsome son.

Y/N and Hook both remembered the first night they met vividly, and they knew they wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon.

Hook was sitting in a private booth in the corner next to his dad at the burlesque club.

Taz had bought it a few months ago, but he hadn't bothered to come by until tonight.

His dad was dealing with a customer who had put his hands on one of the dancers here, and wanted his men there to help him 'take care' of the problem.

Say what you wanted about Taz, but he and his people did not take that lightly.

The man showed up every Friday night, so they watched the performance while waiting for him to show his face.

Hook was itching for him to show up, ready to beat the disrespect out of the man's body.

But his mind was pulled away from the soon-to-come beat down when a song he vaguely recognized started playing.

It was an older song, but he couldn't quite put his finger on the name.

But when the curtains reopen, Taz laughs when he sees his son's eyes widen and he inhales sharply.

"That's Y/N" Taz informs with a smirk. "She's the most popular dancer here"

"She.. she's gorgeous" Hook mumbles.

Taz laughs and claps Hook on the shoulder. "Don't go getting too distracted, we have business to take care of tonight"

Hook clears his throat and nods, but his eyes quickly trail back to the woman on the stage.

His eyes scanned up and down her body as she sensuously moved across the stage, and her melodic voice floated around the room.

He was so enthralled by her that he didn't even notice when his father's men started shifting around the room.

It wasn't until Taz nudged his side that he snapped out of the trance Y/N had lulled him into.

Later that night, Y/N was sitting at the bar with a drink in her hand.

Her eyes stayed on the stage, watching her friends perform with a smile across her red lips.

"I recognized the first song you sang"

She spins around in her seat, and smiles at the handsome man who had spoken to her. "Yeah? Did you like it?"

"Mhm" he nods, and slides into the empty seat next to her. "But I can't remember the name of it"

"A guy what takes his time. Originally sung by Mae West" Y/N informs.

"You a big fan of her?" Hook asks.

"Very much so" Y/N replies with a grin. "She's such an icon"

"I have to admit, I'm unsure of who she is" Hook says with a sheepish grin.

"She's only one of the most famous sex symbols ever" Y/N says with a giggle. "She even was the first to say the quote 'Why don't you come up sometime and see me?' Rather scandalous for 1933"

"Extremely" Hook concurs with a chuckle, before sticking his hand out. "I'm Hook, but you can call me Tyler"

Y/N was caught off guard by that. Of course she knew who Hook was, but she had heard how he didn't let many people call him Tyler. She even heard a few stories of him beating people up who disrespected him by calling him his real name.

But weirdly, it caused butterflies in her stomach. She placed her hand into his and sent him a sweet smile. "I'm Y/N"

"It's a pleasure to meet you amore" He lifts her hand to place a kiss on her knuckles, and that combined with the Italian nickname had a bright blush flushing Y/N's cheeks.

"So" Y/N clears her throat before her face changes to a serious expression. "Is the problem taken care of?"

"What are you talking about?" Hook plays dumb, and if she wasn't already in the know she probably would have fallen for his charming smile.

"You know what I'm talking about" Y/N stares directly into his eyes, annoyance creeping into her gaze. "He comes here every Friday, and all the girls are scared. Taz told me it would be taken care of tonight. Was it not?"

Hook stares at her for a second, unsure of what to say. He couldn't believe she knew. Furthermore, he couldn't believe his dad was the one to tell her. And even further, why did she seem so fine with it?

Taz, who had been behind the bar checking inventory and eavesdropping on the two, decides to walk over and help his seemingly frozen son. "Good evening miele"

Y/N smiles at Taz, and leans over the bar to kiss his cheek. "Hello Taz. I was just asking Hook if the problem was dealt with, but for some reason he seems to be unable to answer me"

Taz chuckles. "Don't worry about him, he's not used to talking to such a vision. He was dealt with earlier tonight, during your performance actually"

Y/N chuckles. "Good"

"It's getting late, and you spend enough time in this club as is. Tyler, why don't you take Y/N home?" Taz proposes.

"No, that's okay. I don't want to impose" Y/N immediately replies.

"I don't mind at all" Hook finally speaks up. "I'd love to give you a ride"

"Then it's settled. Because there's no way I'm letting you walk home this late" Taz says sternly.

Y/N just smiles. "How'd you know I was walking today?"

"It's my job to be observant Y/N. And I heard you complaining about your car not starting" Taz answers. "So until that's fixed, you are getting a ride from someone. It's not safe to walk around here"

"Alright, just give me a few minutes to get my stuff" Y/N gives in. She stands from her seat and smiles up at Hook.

"Thanks Hoo.. Tyler" she corrects herself, and gives his arm a light squeeze as she walks by him.

Taz smirks over at his son, who is looking down at the bar in an attempt to hide his red cheeks. "Tyler? You just met her and she's already allowed to call you Tyler?"

Hook doesn't answer, which causes Taz to laugh.

"You know, she's a good girl. I think you would be good together" Taz says.

"Really?" Hook asks softly, looking up at his dad.

"Mhm" Taz hums. "But she's not like those other girls you go out with. You can't flash her a smile and she immediately agrees to go out with you. You're gonna have to put some work in. And it better be good, or I won't let you"

Hook chuckles. "You're not gonna let me?"

"No" Taz immediately answers firmly.

Then Y/N walks out with her bag. "I'm ready to go"

Taz walks out from behind the bar and gives her a hug. "Have a good night Y/N"

"You too Taz" she smiles as they pull away.

Hook walks over and takes her bag from her.

"Thanks" she says, and Hook just nods before placing his hand on the small of her back to guide her out of the building.

That next morning Y/N woke up to a surprise.

Y/N furrows her eyebrows, and stops making her coffee when she hears noise coming from her driveway.

She quickly grabs a jacket before walking outside to see what was going on.

But a smile spreads across her lips when she sees Hook in her driveway messing with her car. "Good morning handsome"

He looks up and flashes her a sheepish smile with red cheeks from her compliment. "Did I wake you?"

"No, I was already up" She answers. "What are you doing?"

"Fixing your car" he says with a proud grin. "I already figured out what's wrong with it. The battery's dead"

"Is that bad?" Y/N asks, not knowing much about cars.

Hook shakes his head. "It's an easy fix. I'm gonna jump-start it and it should be good as new"

"Well, thank you so much" Y/N smiles. "You didn't have to do all this, but I really appreciate it"

"It's not a problem" Hook brushes it off. "I'm glad to help"

"Come inside when you're done. I’ll make breakfast"

And she did. The two talked and laughed the entire time.

It started becoming a routine for them to have breakfast together.

At first, Hook left after breakfast. But then he started staying a little later. Then he started staying for lunch too. And by the time he stayed for lunch, he may as well have stayed long enough to drive her to the club for her shift, right?

Taz couldn't be more excited watching the two of them walk in together every night, including tonight.

As usual, they walked in right at 5:00, making the most of every minute.

"One of these days you're gonna get here at 5:01, and you're gonna be the one in trouble Tyler" Taz jokes, making the two laugh.

"Don't worry Taz, I'll make sure I'm always here on time. I can't let my favorite Senerchia down" she laughs, and walks over to pat his arm.

Hook pouts, but his lips turn up when she pecks his cheek as she passes him on the way to the dressing rooms.

"How's it going son?" Taz asks once Y/N’s out of sight.

"I think it's going good" Hook answers. "I can tell she's hesitant though"

Taz nods. "Just be patient. She's used to men playing her, just keep showing her you aren't like that"

Later that night Hook was sitting in a booth with his best friend, Jack Perry.

He was standing up and applauding as Y/N left the stage, but not before blowing a kiss towards him.

He pretends to catch it before sitting back down next to a snickering Jack. "What?"

"Nothing" Jack raises his hands in surrender. "I can just tell that you really like her"

"Yeah" Hook mumbles. "But I don't know if she likes me like that"

"You told me you spend time together everyday" Jack replies.

"We do" Hook shrugs. "But whenever I try to kiss her or hold her hand, she always pulls away"

"She's probably just nervous bro" Jack pats Hook's shoulder. "I mean, with her job, she's probably had to deal with a lot of scumbags"

Hook nods. "I know. My dad said the same thing"

But before either of them can say anything else Skye, one of the other dancers, walks over to the table. "Hey Hook. I'm sorry to bother you, but there’s this guy at the bar messing with Y/N. He won't leave her alone, and she said she could handle it, but he's not stopping"

Hook immediately stands up, and scans the bar.

He spots Y/N almost immediately, and the guy next to her who is way too close for his liking.

"Thanks" he says gruffly to Skye before taking off towards Y/N, Jack following close behind.

Hook walks over, and places himself in the space between them. "Hey amore"

He can see the relief on her face as he gently pushes her to stand behind him. "Hi Ty"

She holds onto his arm as Hook stares the guy down.

"Excuse me, we were talking" the guy rudely says, clearly not knowing who he was dealing with.

"It's best if you'd leave man" Jack says from his place next to Hook in an attempt to diffuse the situation.

Y/N knew that if looks could kill, that man would already be six feet under from the glare Hook was sending him. So she pulls on his arm, indicating she wants to leave. And he almost does, until the guy opens his mouth again.

"I just said we were talking" The guy repeats.

"You were talking" Hook snaps, pulling away from Y/N to step closer to him. "She wasn't"

"Oh yeah?" The guy stands up, making both Jack and Hook tense up, clearly ready for a fight.

"You got a fucking problem?" Hook demands.

"Ty, Ty let's just go" Y/N says, grabbing onto his arm again. "Please?"

"Yeah, just go" the guy taunts, and Y/N's eyes widen when he pushes Hook.

Chaos happens so quickly after that. Hook immediately pushes him back, and then his fist connects with the guy's jaw.

Jack joins in, and holds the guy still while Hook rains punches down on him.

"Tyler! Tyler stop!" Y/N yells as the bouncers run over and pull the three men apart.

Y/N latches onto Hook's arm as the bouncers drag the guy out.

"Are you two okay?!" She exclaims, quickly scanning them for injuries.

"I'm all good" Jack says. "I'm gonna head out, that was enough excitement for me for one night"

But as Hook wrapped his arms around Y/N to comfort her, he didn't realize what was going through Jack's head. Unbeknownst to Hook, he had just revealed to Jack his weak point.

Y/N headed to work later than normal a few days later. She wasn't supposed to work that day, but Skye was sick and Y/N offered to take her shift.

Hook had some business his father needed him to deal with, so he wasn't there to drive her.

Y/N was headed into the club when it happened.

All of a sudden she was grabbed from behind. She kicked and screamed as loud as she could as the men attempted to drag her into the trunk of their car.

She managed to scratch the hand of the one holding her mouth, causing him to let out a pained yell and loosen his grip.

And with her mouth free she screamed for help; she screamed for Hook.

Anthony, who was one of Hook's friends and Taz's men, heard a scream from his place at the door and ran outside.

Once the men saw Anthony running towards them with his gun out, they dropped Y/N and scrambled to get back in the car.

Y/N let out a yell when she fell onto the pavement and hit her head.

She was in a daze as she just laid there on the ground, watching as the car sped off and blood landed on the ground, dripping from her head.

Anthony kneeled next to her and pulled her into his arms. "Y/N? Hey, you're okay now. I got you"

She curled into his chest as he pulled his phone out and called Taz.

Less than ten seconds later every one of Taz's men in the club came running out with instructions to find the people who did this.

Then Taz himself ran over and kneeled next to them. "Hey hon"

"Hi Taz" she mumbles, sending him a weak smile in an attempt to assure him that she was okay.

He smiled back and brushed some hair out of her face. "You're gonna be just fine miele"

Anthony picks her up and carries her to Taz's car. He lays her down in the backseat before sliding in next to her.

Y/N was still a bit in and out as Anthony pressed a cloth against her bleeding head, but she heard Taz call Hook.

"Son, something's happened at the club"

"What do you mean? Are you and Y/N okay?" Hook asks urgently.

"Yes, we're all alright. But Y/N was hurt, son"

It was silent for a moment, but Y/N heard when Hook's breathing started getting heavier. "What happened?"

Y/N knew that tone. It was calm, too calm. She knew that he was furious, and it worried her that he would go out and try to find the people.

"I want you to come to the house before I tell you all the details"

"Why?!" Hook immediately snaps.

"Because I know you son" Taz replies firmly. "And the minute I give you any details you're going to go out and try to do something"

"Of course I am! Someone hurt Y/N! I am gonna hunt them dow-“

"I am not telling you a damn thing until you're at the house and that's final. Y/N will be there" Taz says with finality before hanging up the phone.

When Taz pulled into the driveway, Y/N was surprised. "You brought me to your house? I thought only the inside circle knows where you live"

But Taz just turns to smile at her. "That's right"

Y/N smiles after that, before sitting up with Anthony's help.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Y/N" Anthony says.

She just nods, and lets him pick her back up and carry her inside.

"Lay her down in the living room, I've got the doctor coming over" Taz tells Anthony, who nods and does as told.

Y/N thanks Anthony after he sits her on the couch, and he smiles and nods in return.

She looks around the room, and her eyes stop on a picture perched on the mantle. It was Hook and his dad when Hook was little. A smile grew on her lips as she stared at the photo.

"I love that picture too" Taz says as he walks into the room with a cup of water.

She thanks him for it as he sits down next to her.

"He hasn't been that carefree in a long time. I suppose that's my fault. Dragging him into this life" Taz sighs.

"No, I don't think it's your fault. He's told me how much he wants to be a part of it. I don't think you could have done anything to stop him" Y/N replies with a sympathetic smile.

Taz nods. "Thanks, hon"

It's then the door swings open and hurried footsteps echo through the house. "Y/N?!"

Y/N winces at his loud yell, and Taz stands up to meet Hook in the doorway. "Hey, her head is still hurting. No yelling, and be gentle with her"

Hook frantically nods before running over to her.

He kneeled in front of her and cupped her face between his warm hands.

Y/N leaned into his palm and closed her eyes. "I'm okay. Don't worry"

"You're not okay" Hook breathes out. "You don't have to lie"

"I'm okay now" she insists. "You're here now. I know nothing can happen to me"

Hook's lips turn upwards slightly, before he reaches up to pull her into a hug. "I was so worried"

"Don't be. I'm tough" Y/N replies.

Hook pulls away to press his forehead against hers. "Yes you are. My strong girl"

The two smile at each other, and sit like that for a moment. Hook was so thankful to be able to sit there and listen to her breathing while holding tightly onto her hands, reassuring him that she was okay.

Then Taz walks in with the doctor.

Hook sat next to her as the doctor cleaned up her cuts, and held her hand the entire time.

Meanwhile, out in the hallway, Taz was talking to his right-hand man; Tony Schiavone.

"I wanna find the people who did this" Taz says in a dangerous tone. "I want them found and brought to me; alive. Understood?"

"Yes" Schiavone nods. "Out of curiosity, what do you plan to do to them?"

Taz just smirks. "I think I'll let Tyler decide that"

Y/N woke up the next morning with a very sore body.

Every time she moved pain shot through her, and she had a terrible headache.

She slowly pulled herself into a sitting position, and took a second to brace herself before sliding off of the bed.

She looked to the bedside table for her phone, and smiles when she sees more than just the phone. There was medicine, a cup of water, a little bag of her favorite chips, and one of Hook's hoodies folded up.

She reached over and slipped on the hoodie, taking a moment to savor the smell of Hook's cologne that now swirled around her, before taking the medicine. Then she got out from under the extremely cozy blankets and left the bedroom.

She went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth and hair before venturing out into the hallways.

She felt a little awkward making her way around the Senerchia house- well, more like mansion. She was a guest and didn't know her way around very well, but she was really hungry.

She let out a quiet cheer when she found the kitchen, and walked over to the fridge and pantry to see what they had. Y/N pulled out the ingredients to make pancakes, bacon, and eggs. She knew Hook would probably freak out over her cooking after just being injured, but she wanted to do something nice for them.

For absolutely no reason, the Senerchia's had taken her in and accepted her as family. Taz had done so long before she ever even met Hook.

Many people would be angry that they had been attacked because of the Senerchia family, but Y/N wasn't. She knew the lifestyle they lived, and she made a choice to be in their lives anyway. She just wished Hook realized that too. Y/N knew Hook would beat himself up about it for months to come.

As everything was cooking, Y/N was trying to figure out how their coffee machine worked. But she was stumped.

"Something smells amazing" she turns around and smiles when Taz walks into the kitchen.

"Thank you. I hope you don't mind, I just wanted to do something nice for y'all" Y/N says.

"I appreciate it" Taz smiles back.

"I was trying to make you guys coffee too, but I can't figure out this machine" she laughs, making Taz laugh too.

"You've done more than enough this morning" Taz walks over to the pot and takes it from her hands. "Let me make the coffee at least"

"What a great team we make" Y/N grins, before heading back over to the stove.

"I assume you're feeling better this morning?" Taz asks.

"I don't feel great, but definitely better than last night" Y/N answers. "Got a splitting headache though"

"That'll clear up in a few days" Taz comforts.

Y/N nods. "Thank you for taking care of me last night"

"Hey, you're one of us now" Taz says. "You will be protected from here until forever"

Y/N couldn’t stop the bright smile that took over her face, until the next words that come from Taz. "Unless you decide you don't wanna be part of this life of course"

"What are you talking about?" Y/N immediately asks.

"I'm not gonna lie to you Y/N, most people don't make it long-term in this world. The danger, the not knowing if someone will make it back home, the threat of the cops, it's not an easy life to live. And I know Tyler hasn't asked you to officially be his girl yet, but I know he wants to. And when he does, I just want to make sure you know that you have options. This incident.. I can't guarantee it, or something worse, won't happen again. I wish I could but I can't. You know we're gonna do everything we can to make sure no one lays a pinky finger on you ever again, but.. if it all becomes too much for you, I need you to know that I can get you out. I can send you away, somewhere even Tyler won't know. You can get a fresh start away from all of this"

Y/N stares at Taz for a moment, letting his words settle, before she smiles softly. "Thank you so much Taz, but I won't be needing any of that. Ever. I'm here for the long haul as long as Tyler will have me"

Taz just smiles back, incredibly happy to have Y/N as a part of their family.

Now all he needed was for Hook to man up and confess his feelings to Y/N.

Taz knew he was scared; scared of the danger it would put Y/N in. But it seemed that the danger was already present. And seeing it first hand had shaken Hook. The original plan that night was for Hook to finally ask Y/N to be his girl. They told Y/N that Hook had something Taz needed him to do; when really he was out getting some gifts for her. He had dinner reservations at her favorite restaurant, and he was going to pick her up from the club early and take her out. But of course, the night did not end the way Hook had hoped.

Then Hook walks into the kitchen, and his eyes widen when he sees Y/N cooking. "Y/N! You don't need to be cooking, you need to be resting!"

Y/N just laughs as he puts his hands on her arms and guides her to sit down at the kitchen island. "I'm feeling okay Ty"

"No, you need to rest amore" Hook says, and leans down to kiss her on the forehead before taking her place at the stove.

Jack sighed from his seat at the burlesque club.

He watched as Y/N performed, the gears in his head turning rapidly.

His plan to kidnap her had failed, and he was actually kind of glad about it.

He had realized since that night a few things. And the biggest one was that Y/N is fiercely loyal to Hook and his family. Even after almost getting abducted she stuck by his side, perhaps closer than ever.

He realized if his plan had worked, she wouldn't have told him shit about Taz's operations.

Jack couldn't ask Hook; they were friends, but he'd realize what was up if Jack started poking around.

But anyone who was an enemy of the Senerchia may kidnap Hook's girl to try and get information to take them down.

But Y/N wouldn't crack, Jack was now sure of it.

So he decided on a new plan:

Psychological warfare.

He didn't need to take Y/N from Hook, he was gonna make her want to leave.

#aew #aew hook #aew hook x reader #hook aew x reader #hook x reader #hook imagine #hook aew #send hook #aew x reader #aew fanfiction

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gatorbites-imagines · 4 months

Note

Do you take omegaverse requests? If so, I'd like to request Moon Knight system/male beta reader, where Moon Knight's dynamic/scent changes based on whether it's Marc, Steven, or Jake in control of the body

Steven Grant, Marc Spector, and Jake Lockley x beta male reader

Headcanons

This is inspired a lot by my kinktober omegaverse prompt, so if things are similar, that’s probably why.

To keep things fun, let’s say Steven is an omega, Marc is a beta, and Jake is an alpha. You, being a beta, isn’t really affected by any of the changes in their scents and behavior for the most part.

Betas aren’t as troubled by scents, and doesn’t go into heat or rut. This doesn’t mean you don’t have a scent, or that you aren’t able to pick up your lovers’ scents and the changes in them. It just means you don’t get driven up a wall when Steven smells a little too sweet, or Jake gets a little too growly.

You can always tell who’s fronting depending on their scent. The base scent is the same, but Stevens has a sweeter tinge to it, mixed with books and the tea he loves the most.

Marcs scent is more neutral because of his beta status, but it still has his own personal touch to it, like his favorite gun oil, or his favorite drink or savory dish.

Jake, being an alpha, his scent has a deeper tinge, something akin to musk or something a little wilder, especially if he’s feeling agitated. He always has a slight metallic tinge to his scent, mixed with high quality leather.

You have your own scent too, something more neutral than Marcs as your scent doesn’t change as regularly as theirs do, something inoffensive, meaning it goes well with all three of their scents.

Theres regularly a muskier tinge to your scent from Jake scenting you or nibbling on your scent gland, be it on your neck or your wrist. He’s an alpha, and marking you as theirs always puts them all at ease, but Jake more than the other two.

You guys probably need more than one bedroom, mainly so Steven has a place to build a nest for whenever he needs it. He makes sure to stock it with things for the other two, in case they need somewhere to just relax and be away from the world.

I can imagine Steven fronting, only to take them to the nest and get comfortable, and then shove whoever needs the comfort to the front so they can take a well-deserved break in the nest.

Because their secondary natures are different in all three, their needs are a little all over the place for example, Steven wants you to leave bitemarks all over his neck and wrists. Marc is indifferent about it for the most part, but Jake is left antsy and is gonna leave larger and deeper bites on you for dominance reasons.

Not that you mind Jake biting you, Marc and Steven always wince a little at the number of bites littering your skin sometimes though. You know that it’s a way for Jake to show you that he loves you, so you don’t mind.

Steven will want to wear your scent, and so will Marc to an extent, but Jake wants you to wear his scent. It ends up with them wearing something you scented, as you wear something with Jakes, or their combined scents on.

Omega’s purr, Betas chuff, and Alphas rumble, so its always a little funny when they switch whenever you guys are cuddling. Because it’ll go from Stevens high pitched purr to Marcs softer chuffing, to Jakes deeper rumble.

They were probably scared in the beginning that you would leave them because of their situation, so when you accepted them with open arms, they were so relieved. It helped somewhat that you were a beta and didn’t feel more drawn to one partner over the other based on biology too.

Heats and Ruts were a little confusing in the beginning, since it was mostly Jake and Steven fronting during that time, their needs and scents clashing like crazy.

One moment Steven would be laying on his back and barring his neck, whimpering and whining for you to bite him and mark him. The next Jake would be rolling you onto your stomach and clamping his teeth down on the scruff of your neck as he snorts and growls.

When Marc fronts during heats and ruts he’s just uncomfortable and sweaty. He typically takes care of their needs, like showers, drinking water and eating. You guys just always end up cuddling and watching a movie or documentary on some streaming service.

You use the time with Marc to catch your breath, since you aren’t an omega or alpha, meaning it’s a little hard to keep up with your partners ever switching needs. But you guys make do, and they all love you very much for doing so.

When you guys become bonded, you’ll end up with three mating bites, one from each of them. From Jake its on the back of your neck, right where he scruffs you when in a rut. Marc bites it over your scent gland on the side of your neck, intertwining his beta scent with yours. Steven bites his on the other side of your neck, just below your scent gland in a more submissive area.

They’ll end up with three bites on their body too, one for each of them. Jakes bite is under their scent gland for the same reason Steven left his there on you. Stevens is right on top of their scent gland, and Marcs is the area between the neck and the muscle, below the scent gland since that one is bitten for Steven.

The start of the relationship is a little confusion, but after some trial and error, you guys figure it out well, and you are all happy with it all. Your biggest challenge is probably their heat and rut combo, but after a while you figure it out to a science.

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