#or like at least an announcement about it. or any kind of acknowledgment like i'm going crazy without them actually

[stabbingandorbeingstabbed]

i can't believe they did no press before or during tour and this whole time i was like Well maybe we'll get some clarity when it ends !! and the only thing that is clear is that gerard loves to hang out with that guy from fender

#i'm bad at WAITING i want the doc NOW #or like at least an announcement about it. or any kind of acknowledgment like i'm going crazy without them actually

[aquamarine-oceanfront]

Details about the Amazing Digital Circus pop-up shop in Japan (and the exclusive premiere of episode 2 associated with it)

This post's title kind of sums up the basics, but here's some background: in early March of this year, a Japanese company called InfoLens entered a licensing agreement with Glitch Productions to sell products based on The Amazing Digital Circus. The same press release also announced that they would open a pop-up store in Tokyo, which would operate from April 26th to May 12th. (If I'm not mistaken, InfoLens seems to specialize in these sorts of agreements - they've made similar deals and pop-up shops for everything from Apex Legends to Garten of Banban.) Around this time, they also started up an official Japanese Twitter account devoted to the series.

Close to a month later, they would announce more details about the shop, including what goods they would sell (a mixture of existing merchandise from Glitch's online store and newly-made ones) and plans for a second location in Osaka (running June 7-23). This also coincided with the first time Glitch Productions' main Twitter account publicly acknowledged any of this (as far as I know).

Not long after this came another announcement: they would be holding a raffle where the winners would attend the world premiere of the series' second episode on April 25th, the day before the Tokyo store opened to the public.

So how'd all this pan out? I'll elaborate below the jump, but here's a picture to set the scene:

(Source: Reika Ō, Japanese VA for Gangle and Zooble)

To start with, the Pop-Up Store itself has a number of things aside from merchandise - like the life-size Pomni statue seen above. (The design was the work of Zachary Preciado - it bears a resemblance to her AniMatez figure.)

There's also a corner decorated to look like Kaufmo's room, with a Ragatha (and, at least sometimes, Jax) cutout & oversized die (for sitting on). I believe it's meant to be used for photographs.

(Sources, from left to right: IshiiNaki and the official Japanese Amazing Digital Circus Twitter account)

Other decorations include curtains, TVs displaying promotional clips (seemingly just existing ones on Glitch's YouTube channel), a floating inflatable replica of Bubble, an equally inflatable kiddie pool holding a whole bunch of plushies for sale, and some giant pseudo-toy blocks. The following pictures collectively show all of these:

(Sources, from left to right: Soichiro Sugawara - Japanese VA of Caine & Jax - Shiori Honma - Japanese VA of Ragatha - and Columbo-san Games)

Also, while I'm not currently aware of any recordings of this, according to Arran (Pomni's Japanese VA), the store plays specially-recorded audio of Pomni and Caine. She also mentions "treasured materials" (秘蔵資料) as another point of interest, which segues into my next topic:

(Sources, from top to bottom: Reika Ō, Columbo-san Games again, Glitch Productions, and Shiori Honma)

Several photographs have a glass display in the background. Thus far, I haven't seen any closer pictures of it - given that there appears to be a "no photography/video recording" placard nearby, that'd explain why. The actual contents aren't especially clear - there's a picture of the main cast doing their bind poses at the back of the case, but the sheets of paper(?) underneath look like they could be concept art or something similar. I'm not sure. Hopefully this gets released later down the line.

With all that said, what about the advance screening? Well, as seen in Glitch's photos of the event, Kevin and Luke made a surprise appearance in person to talk about the series. While the attendees have been told not to reveal anything about the new episode until its wider release on May 3rd, one of them took notes on the experience as a personal reminder and revealed some interesting tidbits in the process. I'm not the best at Japanese, but here's my rough, sometimes rather loose translation of what they wrote:

★ The episode, as well as the announcements before and after it, were dubbed in Japanese. Furthermore, the announcement before the screening was recorded specifically for the occasion. Pretty wild.¹ ∙ Before the show: Caine + Pomni ∙ After the show: Jax ("Good to know it was just a dream"² - this elicited shrieks in the venue) ★ Before the main event began, they played the existing promo videos on a loop in both English & Japanese. ★ I expected the audience to be overwhelmingly female, but in reality there were quite a lot of men in attendance, too. ★ Kevin (the CEO) and Luke frequently said things in Japanese, like "arigatō (thank you)" and "surimasen (excuse me)." The one that made me laugh the most was Kevin saying "…Sō desu ne (Yes, indeed)… (thoughtful)" ★ The reason they held the screening in Japan was twofold: they wanted to help spread Western animation to the country & they simply love Japan. ★ Episode 2 really is good, but my brain hasn't fully processed it right now, so it's better not to get your hopes too high.³ 🥲✨✊

¹ Originally "やば" (yaba), which appears to be a variant of "やばい" (yabai). This word can mean many different things - literally "terrible" or "very bad," but also used as slang for "great" or "far-out" - and I felt that "wild" was a reasonably apt choice for this context. ² Another attendee's comments on Twitter reference this quote as well. ³ To be absolutely clear: this appears to be a warning against unreasonably high expectations (since the OP hadn't quite digested the episode at the time of writing), not discouraging getting hyped to any degree.

Another attendee had a shorter account of the experience, summed up in two tweets. (Again, please forgive me if there are any errors in these translations!)

I was chosen and went to the advance screening…! I definitely didn't expect there to be specially-recorded voice work and art (to remind people of their manners) before the show… Especially Jax's closing remarks: "'You all can leave through the exit. Ah, [but] that's none of my business." It was way too crazy, hearing the voices of the agonized nerds in the venue. It was great lol Two producers made a surprise trip to Japan and took part in a Q&A session. They said that Popee the Performer was one of the show's influences!

(It's worth noting that Gooseworx herself has mentioned Popee as an influence in the past before, specifically saying Jax and Gangle were respectively inspired by Popee and Kedamono - though, in both cases, she also mentioned that there was more to her characters than just resembling the latter two.)

To finish this post off, here's a couple more images (both posted on Twitter by Shiori Honma) I wanted to share:

Honma posts with her character's standee.

All five of the Japanese dub's primary voice actors, together with Pomni. (If I'm not mistaken, the tweet's text says none of them knew in advance that the screening of episode 2 would be in Japanese.)

#tadc #the amazing digital circus #amazing digital circus #digital circus #japan

[sashaforthewin]

Here, have a lil chunk of one of my hundreds of Stranger Things WIP ficlets I've been writing to avoid writing a long WIP...

-----

Eddie's not an idiot. Well, he's kind of an idiot, but he has basic pattern recognition skills, he can put two and two together. He knows the sudden and steadily increasing audience at the Hideout corresponds with Steve Harrington starting to come to their shows.

And if he needed a control to test his hypothesis, Steve was home sick tonight. Some of the audience had ditched before the set started, but most gave it a few songs to see if he would show before heading out. Corroded Coffin's fourth song was played to an empty room besides the regulars at the bar. Let me tell you, nothing knocks your ego back down to the ground floor like playing to the backs of three old bikers, two of which are named Carl, and one construction worker covered in brick dust. Even the bartender had turned on a little radio behind the bar and had some sort of sports announcer playing.

But, crowd or no crowd, they kept playing because practice is practice, no matter where or when you're playing. Eddie tried not to notice that there was zero acknowledgment when they finished besides the bartender turning up the radio. At least they could still pad out their pockets with their cut of the cover charge, since people still paid to get in initially, even if they skedaddled. It wasn't much but they could afford to go to the diner and still have a bit left over, so they did. 

Once they were sat at the corner booth with greasy plates of various breakfast foods in front of them, Gareth cleared his throat and tapped his coffee mug with a knife to get everyone's attention. It wasn't hard, they were all a bit down from the show, so they were not as loud as usual. 

"Okay, I think it's time to discuss a major restructuring of the band."

This got Eddie's attention. He knew something needed to change but he didn't think anyone else thought so.

"Eddie, is Steve Harrington musical at all? Can he sing or play any instruments?"

"What? Oh, huh, I actually don't know… He has shit taste in music, he likes dance pop, but I don't actually know if he can play or sing."

"Okay, well, find out. I'm not above putting him behind a keyboard and having it turned off. I think if we can get him shirtless we might even start selling out shows. Don't look at me like that, guys, we know people only come to our shows to ogle Harrington and try to shoot their shot with him whenever Robin leaves his side long enough. Think about how many people would actually start to pay attention to our music if they think it's coming from him! I know it seems shitty to get fans under false pretenses like that, but maybe some of them will start to actually dig the music."

They all sat there thinking and eating, mulling the idea over while they slurped up slimy eggs and crunched on overly buttered toast and burnt hash browns swimming in yellow grease. 

"It's not a terrible idea, it'll get more people to give our music a chance."

"More? It'll get anyone to give our music a chance!"

"One of the Carl's was tapping his foot," Jeff pointed out unhelpfully.

"He's always tapping his foot, dipshit, he's got the shakes."

"Still," he shrugged.

"Yeah, I can ask him," Eddie spoke over the bickering.

"Find out if he can play or sing first and then bring him to practice, maybe we can talk him into joining without outright saying it's for his looks, you know?" Gareth suggested.

"Yeah, fine," Eddie said. If Gareth wanted to try to backseat drive this thing, he could go ahead. Eddie was pretty sure Steve wouldn't want to be the eyecandy figurehead of a death metal band, but he would be glad to be proven wrong and not have to do any of the work to get it. 

And if he hated the idea, it wouldn't reflect badly on Eddie since Gareth was going to be the one to suggest it.

(Maybe there will be more later)

#steddie #stranger things fic

[akajustmerry]

would LOVE to hear more about your tabitha and naomi headcanons!!!

and yee shall receive !! idk these are probably silly n basic because we know SO LITTLE about both, but whatever it's free real estate!!

considering we meet tabs at the underground rich ppl party, its a fair bet she's probably a rich nepo baby like everyone else in succ, but she seems pretty chill about it. she's just vibing, wooing her hot rich peers.

tabs has the laidback vibe of old fuck off money. older than the roys or pierces, i think. probably in property or land which is why she has no interest in the Roy trust or the pierce's or politics. we know that makes her more attractive to rome but probably to naomi too. here's someone so rich they really are only in it for you!

i imagine naomi and tabs crossed paths and hooked up occasionally in the past, but grew closer during/after naomi's accident. naomi told ken in the show she was struggling cos of press, trust, trauma, addiction, etc, during that time. from what we see of tabs with roman, she is a pretty patient and understanding person, at least to a point (everyone has limits). i imagine after her accident, naomi would have appreciated having someone like tabs in her life who isn't after anything and is relatively non-judgemental and chill.

don't really count this as a headcanon cos it's just true but tabs and Naomi were hooking up that whole weekend at the Pierce estate. I know it's framed as the "Ken and Roman attempt to get Some" weekend but we know neither of them got any lmao but u know who did?? my gorls <3

for what it's worth I do think naomi and Tabs both genuinely liked kendall and roman. i don't think there were any ulterior motives on their parts. as we saw, neither naomi or tabs had any power or insight to sway the deal in any way. equally, tabs and naomi really gain nothing power-wise from dating these guys so u gotta assume it was genuine on some level. like they really just saw these human shaped messes of men and went "hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii <3" kinda very bisexual of them both really. I felt v represented by it I must say

i dooooo think in the immediate aftermath of naomi and Kendall break up, the next time she hooked up with tabs, they defs had a little "what IS wrong with them?" convo where they probs just showed each other roman and Kendall's lame texts, had a laugh, and then washed their hands of the roy boys

when it's announced tom is ceo of waystar, naomi calls tabs like, "isn't that literally the guy who swallowed his own load because you told him to 😂" and she's like yeah turns out he never stopped and idk they probably start dating seriously again after that.

after naomi gets her share of the money from the sale to the Waystar I like to think she uses it to start some overpriced rehab centres or something. eventually, her and tabs get engaged. nan pierce never acknowledges the relationship and passively refers to tabitha as a friend of the family, even at their wedding because she honestly seems like that kind of bitch.

honestly they probably just continue living cool beautiful bisexual women lives. maybe naomi has some rough patches here and there cos you know addiction isn't easy, but tabs is there for her. they just become this quietly classy wealthy lesbian couple who throw great parties with other philanthropic influential gays and closeted wealthy folks. I'm imagining something like what the kindness blind items say sandra bullock does with all the Hollywood lesbians gays.

shiv invites them both to her baby shower because they're honestly the closest thing she has to friends who are women after everything. they don't go though cos they assume shiv is just inviting them to mess with the boys. they send a very precocious expensive gift though like literal gold and silver baby cutlery or something

tabitha becomes like an insanely successful ghostwriter or something. idk why I just have the impression she's kinda been a wallflower in all these insane wealth spaces and eventually tells all those stories somehow

I feel like if I don't stop I'll just be writing fanfic so I'll stop but idc if it's just projection I jus love that there's 2 beautiful aloof bisexual women in this show and the only thing we really know about them for certain is that they were both way too good for the Roys <3

#naomi x tabitha #tabitha hayes #naomi pierce #succession

[what-if-queen-camilla]

Chapter 32

1st December 1995 - part 2

"After further testing has been undertaken and professionally evaluated in accordance with the latest and newest scientific research, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales cannot be excluded as and is therefore considered the biological father of Ms Theodora Elizabeth Anne Parker Bowles, born on 4th August 1987. This may not affect the line of succession in any way.", the official announcement from Buckingham Palace read and, somehow, Camilla felt dehumanised, not only on her own, but also on her daughter's behalf. It sounded like a random scientific discovery, completely disregarding the fact that all of this was about an innocent, eight-year-old child who's world had been turned upside down within the blink of an eye only just about a week ago.

"Don't worry, darling, that's just the official announcement.", Charles had tried to prepare her on the phone earlier that morning. "My statement will follow about five minutes later and Granny tells me she's got something to say as well…"

And, this time, the heir to the throne did, indeed, release a statement, breaking with all old traditions and values of "never complain, never explain", completely u-turning his attitude compared to the interview he had given one-and-half years ago, freely and proudly stating:

"I am delighted to officially acknowledge Ms Theodora as my daughter, happily taking on all rights and obligations that paternity brings about. Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles, Ms Theodora's mother, and I, have been knowing each other for over twenty years and she has been my best friend for almost two decades; she has always been the one person who understands, supports and encourages me when nobody else does; and, eventually, after both our marriages to other people had already broken down irrevocably, we realised that we were more than just friends, we fell in love and became a couple and our wonderful, sweet, little daughter is the most beautiful product of the greatest love of my life.

I know that not everybody in this country will approve of this, I am well aware that these revelation will undoubtedly cause controversy - but today I'm not only speaking to you as the future monarch of a country that needs to be guided into the 21st century - today I'm also speaking to you as a father, who loves all of his three wonderful children equally, as a man who just wants to be with the woman he loves - the one woman who's been my strength and stay through some really tough times, who's suffered all different sorts of scrutiny, judgement and humiliation - though the majority of you have never even met her. So, today, I'm kindly asking you - the people of the countries I have always loved so much and of which I - God willing - one day shall have the great honour to be King: have compassion. Together, let us follow the holy commandment of forgiveness, let us 'charity' be more than just a fine word; together, let us create a society in which nobody has to be afraid or feel ashamed or excluded because of whom they love.

As announced by the Palace Office earlier, this will not affect the line of succession in any way. But it will affect my life and those of the people I love, including all of you, but I trust that, together, we can find a way to cope with these things as best as possible, not only for my and my family’s own sake, but for everybody in our society who already is, or might one day find themselves in a similar situation. It might not be ideal, it's not what anyone ever would initially plan or wish for, but it's what happens, in the United Kingdom, across the Commonwealth and, eventually, the whole world. Last but not least, I'd once more like to appeal to your sympathy; sympathy for my three children, their respective mothers, and my partner's children from her first marriage. Be compassionate, be kind. Don't blame them. None of this is any of their fault. I can only hope this will not affect your trust in me and my connection to all of you across our beloved Commonwealth."

He closed his statement with "Your always loyal servant Charles"; he had recorded it himself, his soft, vulnerable voice only further underlining the pain he was feeling on behalf of everybody involved, and listening to him caused Camilla more than just a few tears: it had been broadcasted on the BBC, followed by "Everybody hurts" from R.E.M., (obviously, in order to create the most dramatic atmosphere imaginable), before the moderators started analysing it all "exclusively" in an "exclusive" special, where people from across the country were invited to join via telephone and share their thoughts and opinions; and to her very surprise, apart from a handful of negative comments, the majority of reactions were actually… positive. "I think it's a good move of him to be honest!", one person said, and another one agreed: "He's been very brave and we should appreciate that". Someone else added: "I've never heard him talking so passionately about anything or anyone. It must be real love, and who in their right mind could ever be against that?" And, eventually, before they closed the programme with Phil Collins' "Against all odds", somebody else concluded: "I think he'll be a good King! Just what our country needs." Camilla had been following it all on her own in the guest room at Annabel and Simon's house she was currently living in, only just accompanied by a Gin and Tonic and a few cigarettes to prevent herself from losing it completely; she couldn't deny that it'd done something to her, that she was touched, beyond moved, if she was honest, that she'd never loved him more and wanted nothing more than to fall into his arms, hold him tight and kiss him as if there was no tomorrow…

As if on command, somebody knocked on the door at that very moment. "Yes?", she asked, rushing over to open it. "Milla, here's… a visitor for you…", Annabel explained and, before she could've added something, the door flung open and Camilla was in Charles' arms. "Oh my God, darling!", she sobbed, almost forcefully pressing against him. "That was brilliant. You were brilliant!", she praised him with a teary voice, between desperate kisses and heartbreaking sobbing. "I love you, darling.", she whispered into his ear, a mixture of pride, adoration and lust in her voice. “I love you, too, darling,” Charles replied, his eyes full of love for Camilla. He could easily get lost in her bright blue eyes and her wonderful face, framed by her cheeky blonde curls. It had been quite some time since he’d last seen her so unbothered, almost happy and cheerful. Maybe, after a long, dark winter there’d finally be a wonderful spring and a warming summer for them, filled with sunshine and bees and happiness. Maybe, after all they’d gone through, their time was finally about to come. They both were surely hoping so.

#king charles #queen camilla #royal baby #royal family #fanfiction #fanfic

[vlion]

Could I please request poly blackbonnet x fem reader smut?

The Kraken, The Lighthouse, and The Siren (Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet/Female Reader)

Author’s Note*: Thank you so much for your request, I hope you enjoy! I traveled and then got COVID throughout the process of writing this so I apologize for the delay. I feel like I'm incapable of writing smut without plot, so hopefully the little backstory and build-up I included is cohesive and adds to the experience. I also see and love all the requests in my inbox (requests are still closed at this time), and I will get to work on them soon. Thanks again!

*I also wanted to say that I received some...interesting comments and messages when I announced this fic. I personally view Ed and Stede as bisexual, as I identify this way, and I find it comforting to believe that two of my favorite characters may identify the same way as I. Yes, this is technically a headcannon, and I acknowledge this, but I believe the way that each character is represented in ofmd is done so in a fluid manner, allowing for open discourse and creation around the topic. I felt the need to say this to respond indirectly to the messages I received, and I wanted to let you all know that I am constantly learning and listening to what each of you have to say. I am grateful to have built my own following in a corner of the internet where we can all be open and supportive of each other. Thank you all for being here, and I look forward to writing for you more!

Link to AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40400847

Content Warnings/General Themes: ⚠ 18+ content: by reading this you affirm you are over the age of 18 years or over the age of maturity as stated in your regional or local guidelines. AFAB! Female-Identifying Reader (female pronouns/terms of endearment used), Bi! Edward Teach/Blackbeard, Bi! Stede Bonnet, making out, love confessions, mentions of eating/refusing food, oral (male/female receiving), 'Captain' kink, spit kink, dom/sub undertones, very slight hurt/comfort, threesome, p-in-v smut, lots of swearing, choking

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 9,434 (oh my god)

It had all happened so fast.

You had been taken in as a stowaway aboard the Revenge by none other than the Gentleman Pirate, after he found you stranded at sea. Your previous captain and crew had nearly thrown you overboard after finding out your ‘secret identity’, muttering something about how it was bad luck to even have you on board in the first place. You felt rightfully frustrated at this policy–you had just as much right to be there as any of them, not to mention the fact that you had saved their asses countless times and sacrificed your own true identity for the sake of simply being on the ship.

Whatever, they were just sexist assholes; at least, that’s what the so-called ‘Blackbeard’ had said to you upon your arrival at your new home at sea. Both he and his ‘co-captain’–because apparently that was a thing–were quick to assure you that you were welcome on the Revenge, no matter your background. Stede had been the one to ensure that you were comfortable in your new surroundings, introducing you to the other crew and even setting aside some clothes for you to wear and letting you crash on his couch, as everything you had accumulated over the years was left behind on the other ship.

You were surprised at their kindness, as you had heard mixed rumors about each of them. Blackbeard–or Ed, as you now knew him as–certainly had a reputation that made you a bit hesitant to get close to him. The same was true for Stede as well, but for all the opposite reasons. While Ed was painted as some sort of relentless killer, Stede had been described as an amateur, who had paid his way to piracy. You now knew those things weren’t entirely true, and each of them amounted to much more than their reputations. And to be honest, you couldn’t help but feel drawn to the ways in which they prove those generalizations to be inaccurate. Seeing Blackbeard engage in crew bonding exercises, and Captain Bonnet order people around, never fails to make you smile. And turn you on. But that was a whole different story.

Recently, tensions had been high amongst the crew of the Revenge. With your previous crew still holding a grudge, as well as the English Crown constantly on all of your asses for, well, existing; nearly everyone was on edge. Even Stede, who was usually able to be a source of guidance and light during difficult situations, had confined himself to his room, trying to determine the best course of action. Seeing him like that, in such a state of panic and uncertainty, it made you want to do something–anything–to get him out of that headspace.

As Stede continued to isolate himself, you eventually shared your thoughts with Ed, and he agreed that something needed to be done. Over the course of a week or so, the two of you had gathered up supplies at various trading posts, and gained insight about a private island that had apparently been captured by a mutual friend of yours, who gladly allowed you entry–of course, after Ed had threatened the man in order to ensure that he wasn’t leading you and the rest of the crew into a trap. The man had insisted he was telling the truth and you had to believe him–especially after Ed had nearly broken the poor guy's wrist after pinning him against a wall over the course of the–very heated–conversation. It was hot as fuck.

Maybe that was why you let him kiss you the night you returned from your little escapade. Actually, it was more like an all-out makeout session, complete with lip-biting and the occasional gasp for air. You had been preparing to cook a feast that was sure to keep everyone well fed for however long you were to stay anchored at the island, and just as you left it to cook you were greeted with a hungry-looking Ed in the doorway of the galley. Of course, in the moment, you didn’t realize just what he was actually hungry for–even offering to cook him something to hold him over until dinner. The smug bastard had actually belly-laughed at that, refusing your offer but asking if he could kiss you instead, making heat flood to your cheeks.

How in the everloving fuck did you not pick up on Blackbeard trying to flirt with you? Regardless, you gave into his request, and that’s how you found yourself perched atop the counter with Ed between your legs, his hands wandering across the top half of your body as you lost yourself in his lips and soft touches.

You were pretty sure multiple crew members had walked in on the two of you, probably chatting among themselves about the scene they had–unknowingly–committed themselves to. It was quite a sight–you, the innocent stowaway, caged in by the big bad Blackbeard, his lips molding to yours while his leather-clad lower half pressed into your core.

Eventually, he was the one who broke the kiss, mumbling something about how he was needed on the upper deck, and with one final peck on the lips, he was off. You checked on the food and covered it, setting it aside for later. You took a portion of it out and tasted it, before placing a serving into a bowl just as you had done for the past couple nights.

During Stede’s ‘retreat’ of sorts, he had often neglected to eat, always offering some type of excuse or claiming that he was too busy. You were grateful, however, that Stede did eat when you brought him food. You always stayed with him when he ate, allowing him to share whatever thoughts had crossed his mind as of recently regardless of the fact that you generally saw him three times a day or more. You couldn’t help but feel protective of him, constantly checking on him and ensuring he was alright. One day in particular, when he clearly didn’t want anything to do with, well, anything, you laid with him and soothed him as best you could, holding his hand when he started overthinking and entering into a state of crisis, as well as sharing some stories from your childhood and listening to his.

Yeah, so basically, you had fallen for Stede. And now Ed, apparently, if your impromptu makeout session meant anything. Besides the reputation-based rumors you had heard upon boarding the ship, you had also heard that the two men may have been more than just friends. You observed firsthand the selfless way in which they seemed to care for each other, not to mention the lingering stares and small moments of intimacy they would share in passing. Cosmically, it all seemed right to you–like the three of you fit together. The only thing you wished was that you were included in their little…whatever they had going on. Stede and Ed were like two opposite ends of a spectrum, the Kraken and the Lighthouse, with you, the Siren, balancing them out in the middle–a perfect combination of rigidity and debonair.

It just made sense; which may have been why you shared your thoughts with Stede in the first place. You had shared a few drinks with him one night, trying to make him laugh despite all the things on his mind, and casually let it slip that you could see yourself with him and Ed. Both of you laughed off the idea, but part of you wished that he took your feelings to heart and perhaps even acted on them.

At least you had Ed–kind of; if you could count randomly making out in the kitchen as something.

You were drawn out of your thoughts as you approached the door to yours and Stede’s shared room, knocking in a pattern that Stede knew as yours.

“Come in!” You heard through the door, in Stede’s distinct inflection. You were glad to hear he still had the chipper, optimistic tone of voice you had come to love even when he was left to his own devices.

“How’s it going tonight, Captain?” You asked him, and he smiled at the term of authority-turned nickname you often used.

“Not too bad, but I certainly missed my favorite meal-delivery person–who also happens to be my roommate and personal chef!” He said, eyes warm as you approached him and handed him his dinner.

“Not to burst your bubble or anything, Stede, but today I cooked for everyone. I don’t think that makes me–”

“Yeah, I heard. Ed told me all about it.” He said, in a relatively serious and knowing tone.

Your eyes widened. Helping out on the upper deck, my ass, you thought, recalling the bullshit excuse Ed had given you earlier.

“Listen…Stede…what happened between me and Ed, it was a heat of the moment thing,” you started, carefully gauging his reaction as you went on. “I don’t even know if I have fully processed it myself, and I know I love spending time with you as well, and I heard the two of you are also kinda a thing-”

“Darling, I’m not mad. I was the one who told Ed to make a move in the first place.” He said, nonchalantly taking a bite of his meal.

Your brow furrowed as you took a moment to collect yourself. “Wait…seriously?” You cautiously sat down next to Stede as he continued to eat, who paused slightly to nod his head, confirming your suspicions.

He raised the fork he was using to eat and gestured towards you as he spoke once more. “Poor Ed couldn’t get you off his mind and came to me for advice and obviously because I have such a great track-record of relationships under my belt, I told him to do whatever felt right, which was apparently to corner you in the kitchen and make out like teenagers, if I heard him correctly?”

You snorted at the description he gave, realizing how accurate it truly was. You took a moment to lock eyes with Stede, finding comfort in the earnest and sincere look he had on his face. You reached out and placed a hand on his cheek, figuring that you should probably tell him how you felt if you already made it to–at least–second base with his other half.

“Stede, I…” You let your hand slide down to his shoulder, offering some pressure to work his tense muscles.

“Go on darling, I’m listening.” He offered, placing his dish out of the way so you could have his full attention.

“I really like you. Both of you. And, like, I think you know but also I didn’t know how this was going to work,” you said, gesturing between you, him, and an imaginary third-party. “Ed and I were planning something to cheer you up, and I think he caught on during all that and I honestly should have told you–”

Stede cut you off once again, this time with his lips on yours. Even though you had been affectionate with him before and more physically comfortable with him as you shared a room with him, you found yourself shocked at his sudden advance. You welcomed it, obviously, but you almost couldn’t believe that you were really kissing Stede.

As you deepened the kiss, you noticed his style of kissing was far more gentle and rhythmic than Ed’s more chaotic and sloppy method. Stede took the time to really feel the curve of your lips on his own, savoring the lingering taste of sugar and dough that had come as a result of you tasting the meal you had just prepared.

You moved to sit on his lap, straddling his thighs while he moved his lips to your neck and jaw. You gasped at the action, not expecting him to kiss you in those sensitive regions. You softly ran your hands along his shoulders and back, massaging and rubbing what you could reach. This was certainly a way to relieve some of his stress, that’s for sure.

Just as you started to get into a good rhythm, Stede pulled back, looking up at you with one of the most genuine smiles you had seen on him since he entered his funk.

“I would love to sit here and do this with you all night, my love, but we should rest up for tomorrow–we’ve got a big day ahead of us.”

You tilted your head to the side and furrowed your brow, curious as to what he was on about.

At your quizzical response, Stede continued. “We’re dropping anchor at the island tomorrow, remember?” You rolled your eyes at Ed’s lack of ability to keep his mouth shut. “Yeah, Ed let that slip too,” he continued, “...and…hopefully you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of suggesting that you, Ed, and I get our own private bungalow…if you catch my drift.” He said, waving his eyebrows at the last bit.

Yeah, you totally caught his drift. Now all you had to do was survive through the night and following day without going completely weak at the knees.

~

You awoke the next morning feeling literally better than ever. The ship was anchored at a lovely part of the island that allowed you to see white sand and clear water for miles, with a few living spaces and natural flora strewn about. Stede had woken you up with a kiss on the forehead, before letting you know he was going to scope out the island with Ed and a few others. You had taken your time in getting ready, dolling yourself up a bit to embrace the relaxing vibes.

As you made your way onto solid land–after greeting a rather cheerful Lucius and sharing a few words with Jim–you nearly tripped over your feet when your eyes locked onto the scene unfolding in front of you.

Stede and Ed were doing what you could only describe as ‘frolicking’ in the water along the beach. Your eyes immediately traveled to Ed’s bare chest, and the various tattoos that adorned his body. He hadn’t seen you yet, so luckily he couldn’t embarrass you about ogling over him just yet, but you couldn’t seem to take your eyes off of him in the meantime.

That is, until Stede came into view. He emerged from the water, looking like the culmination of every fantasy you had had about the seemingly innocent man. Unlike Ed, he had chosen to leave his white undershirt on, with the top buttons undone. The way his broad chest glistened in the sunlight with droplets of water and slightest hint of sweat, as well as how the transparency of the wet shirt allowed you to see his form, had you clenching your thighs together and swallowing the saliva that had unknowingly accumulated in your mouth.

Damn, they were hot. And come to think of it–you were too. The heat index had to be skyrocketing on this particular day, and the sun reflecting off the crashing waves did little to cool you. With another swallow for good measure, you began your descent down the sloped beach, leaving your shoes in the sand as you approached the two men in the water.

“Hello darling! We were just wondering when you might turn up,” Stede said, flashing his signature smile in your direction.

“Yeah, I was starting to think you blew us off to go hang out with Jim or some shit,” Ed added.

You rolled your eyes, stepping closer to the two men. “First of all, there is other important…business…that Jim can get up to on their own other than ‘hanging out’ with me, thank you very much,” you said, gesturing at the person in question to further what you were saying. “And second,” you continued, glancing between the two men, “I wanted to see what you two were up to.”

Ed pursed his lips and let out a huff. “Hmm, that’s funny.”

“What?” You shot back.

He turned to face you. “Nothing, I’m just trying to figure out where in that little speech of yours that you were going to explain why you were drooling over us a minute ago,” Ed said, with a cocky, shit-eating grin on his face.

Your eyes widened, and if Stede hadn’t been there as well you would have seriously considered slapping the look straight off of Ed’s face. Or kissing it off. Or both.

Stede moved to stand between you and the other man. “Now, now, Ed. Stop teasing Y/N! We’re supposed to be relaxing, remember?!” You couldn’t help but realize how much Stede looked like a father scolding his rambunctious child at that moment. Sometimes you forgot the man was a father outside of his life of piracy, and to be honest, you couldn’t help but find that rather–

Ed interrupted your thoughts. “Well Y/N certainly seems to be relaxing, if you know what I mean...”

You moved past Stede so that you were face to face with Ed. “Edward Teach, you are going to fucking GET IT!” You said, highlighting your statement with an–almost comically lackluster–splash.

Ed feigned surprise, using a hand to cover his open mouth. “Yeah? Don’t start something you aren’t going to finish, sweetheart,” he said, hesitating before doing anything in response. The action itself was kind of cute, but you weren’t in the mood for cute–you were out for blood.

“You should tell yourself that,” you said with a sly smile, before lunging towards him and splashing him a few times in rapid succession, noticing the way Stede seemed to be debating between running for the hills and stepping between the two of you once more. As Stede opted for a sort-of middle ground where he almost seemed to be supervising the two of you, Ed had begun splashing you in response, effectively soaking your upper half. Of course, you had opted to wear a blouse similar to the one Stede was currently wearing (as he had loaned it to you upon arrival), so you were certain the two men in front of you were getting quite the view of your form.

You closed your eyes as Ed’s splashes became too overwhelming, and you missed the way each of the men followed the curve of your body as you raised your hands above your head in surrender and said “that’s enough!”

With one final flick of water which earned him a look of annoyance from you, Ed halted his actions.

You lowered your arms and wiped any remaining water from your face and eyes, shaking your arms and upper body to try and dry what you could. Stede approached you at this point, his hand connecting with your cheek as he angled your head up so his eyes could meet yours.

“Did he go too hard on you?” He innocently asked, but you couldn’t help but laugh at the innuendo that the statement insinuated. Stede smiled in response, rubbing your cheek with his thumb. Of course, the sweet moment was interrupted by the grey-haired pirate who you nearly forgot was standing near you.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help but feel like I’m interrupting something here…” he said, and you were reminded that you hadn’t had the chance to tell him about the moment you shared with Stede the previous night. Your fears, however, were relieved by Stede chuckling and inviting Ed to join the two of you, which led you to assume that Stede had already filled him in.

You reached out for Ed as he approached you, stroking your hand up and down his toned arm when he was within reach. “For the record, I was only staring earlier because I enjoy seeing the mighty Blackbeard frolicking on the beach in my free time.”

He laughed a genuine laugh at that. “Sure, Y/N, you keep telling yourself that. Whatever you have to do to sleep at night.”

You glanced between him and Stede before speaking again. “Right…so about sleeping…” you broached, and once you received confused looks from each of them, you continued on. “Stede told me about our…uh…sleeping arrangements tonight…”

“And, let me guess, you can’t stop thinking about what’s to come?” Stede added, as if he was reading your mind.

You nodded, suddenly feeling a little flustered at both your close proximity to the two men as well as from the effects of the warm sun on your skin. You saw Ed smirk out of the corner of your eye at your admission, and then felt him walk up behind you and wrap his arms around your middle.

“Is this okay?” He asked, moving your hair to the side to reveal your neck.

“Of course,” you responded, locking eyes with Stede as Ed started kissing your neck and jaw. As you moved your head to the side to allow him better access, you locked eyes with Stede, who had moved to be directly in front of you. “Can I touch you?” You asked him, and were immediately met with him frantically nodding.

As Ed reached around to untuck the shirt you were wearing to access your skin underneath, you reached your own hands up to where Stede’s shirt had opened, and ran your fingers over his bare chest. You stroked your hands up and down, then used the collar of his shirt to pull him in for a kiss.

You moved to deepen the kiss, effectively sandwiching yourself between the two men, and you could sense the raw, primal desire each of the men had for you. You could also feel it in the way Stede’s kiss was all teeth and tongue, and how Ed’s tightening pants behind you rubbed against your ass.

You pulled away from Stede but continued your actions with your hands, turning your head to be in line with Ed’s ear. “When was the last time you had a proper fuck?” You asked him, kissing his earlobe as you waited for a response.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, sweetheart?” He nearly growled, accentuating his statement by gripping your hips tightly. “Do you think about me like that? Think about us, like that? Huh?”

You opened your mouth to respond but were cut off by an obscenely loud–and incredibly inconvenient–whistle from behind you. You, Ed, and Stede were off each other in an instant, heads whipping towards the source of the sound. What you weren’t prepared for, was to see nearly the entire crew of the Revenge making their way towards you.

Stede greeted his crew with a wave, making his way towards them and beckoning you over in the process.

Yeah, this was going to be a long day.

~

The night had fallen, as had your heart, after the events of the day. Besides the obligatory vacation and crew festivities that kept you busy, you couldn’t help but anxiously await the anticipated events of the night.

Stede and Ed had their fun with you nearly the entire day, mostly through lingering touches and hushed conversations, doing nothing to make the time spent with the crew pass any quicker. You had eventually called it quits as the sun began to set, excusing yourself as you headed towards your rather luxurious living quarters for the night, which is where you found yourself now.

You glanced up from where you were perched on perhaps the largest bed you had ever seen. From your position, you could see the gorgeous living room that had greeted you upon arrival, as well as the kitchen and stairs to the guest room. You assumed that you would be sleeping there tonight, but upon locating the bed that nearly swallowed you whole, you figured that you and your two companions could all fit here.

A knock at the front door had you up in an instant. The knock was accompanied by an “anybody home?” that was far too chipper to be anyone other than Stede.

You opened the door once you reached it, smiling upon realizing that Ed had tagged along with Stede. “Hey boys!” You greeted, backing up to allow them inside. What you didn’t anticipate, however, was for Ed to barge in before Stede and push you up against the nearest wall, his hands finding your hips while his lips found yours. It was a filthy kiss, clearly only initiated to bring about…something more. Something that you had been thinking about for the better part of your time with the captains of the Revenge.

You pulled back–much to Ed’s dismay–and immediately cradled his face as you began to speak, hearing Stede approach you from behind, similar to the position you found yourself in just hours ago.

“So…” you droned on, angling yourself so that you could get a look at both men.

“So…” Stede replied, smirking at your sudden bashfulness.

Ed grunted and gripped your hips, drawing your attention back to him. “Do you want this sweetheart?” He asked sweetly, genuine concern in his eyes. “Want us?” He added, before leaning back to gauge your reaction.

You looked between him and Stede with a smirk, before responding. “I’ve wanted this for longer than you could ever know.”

Stede raised an eyebrow at that. “Is that right?” He asked, smoothing a hand down your side and resting it on Ed’s hand. You were starting to get used to being sandwiched between the two men, especially when you caught the tender look shared between them as you let out a sigh of contentment and nodded.

“Care to share your thoughts with the class, Y/N?” Ed teased, his grip on your hips tightening.

You bit your lip and pulled away, their hands falling away from your body. “What if I showed you, instead?” You asked, reaching a hand out for each of them to take. Stede obliged, intertwining his fingers with yours and leading you towards the bedroom, while Ed settled for a slight slap on your ass and followed closely behind.

You were quick to push Stede onto the bed, straddling him while you helped him take off his–many–layers. You heard Ed doing the same behind you, and were greeted by him in just his leather pants, and you were not modest in the way you checked him out.

He opened his mouth to speak but you were quick to stop him. “Ed, I swear if you are about to ask me if I ‘like what I see’ I will literally make you sit and watch while me and Stede-”

He cut you off with a chuckle. “Woah. I was actually going to ask if you wanted to suck my dick, but now that I know that you’re into voyeurism, I might just take you up on that offer.”

Your face dropped and you rolled your eyes, and you were about to turn your attention back to a now shirtless Stede when you felt a strong grip on your chin. Ed angled your face to turn back towards his, his eyes now hooded and dark.

“Did you just fucking roll your eyes at me?” He questioned, and you felt your heart drop at his words. You had never seen Ed in what he and Stede referred to as ‘Blackbeard Mode,’ and now that it was fully on display you couldn’t help but feel a little scared…but also incredibly turned on.

The grip on your chin loosed, only for Ed to move it to your neck. “Answer me!” Ed demanded, which nearly sent you into a panic–a sexy, heart racing type of panic.

“Yeah, I did.” You mumbled under your breath.

Ed narrowed his eyes. “What was that?” He asked.

You cleared your throat as best you could given your current position, and felt Stede’s hands slide delicately up your back to relax you. You caved at their actions, softening as you let down your guard. “I did Ed, I’m sorry...” you replied, louder than your previous statement.

Ed removed his hand from your neck, stroking it down your cheek softly. “Don’t apologize, sweetheart–I’m just fuckin’ with you. You know I like the difficult ones.” At your confused look, he nodded towards the other man before adding, “just ask Stede. That man has the mouth of a sailor…pun fully intended,” he said with a wink, nearly making you roll your eyes again and defeat the entire purpose of…whatever the hell this was.

Instead, your eyes widened slightly at the new information, before turning back to Stede. “Is it true, Stede?” You asked, still slightly taken aback that the seemingly innocent blonde was something else entirely in bed.

He responded by pulling your hips towards him, and angling you so that your core could grind against his erection, leaning in so he could speak into your ear. “I guess you’ll have to find out, darling.” He said in a voice you nearly didn’t recognize, before continuing. “Also, that’s ‘Captain’ to you, missy.”

You pulled back and shared a look with Ed to see if Stede was serious or not, and when Ed didn’t roll his eyes or make a comment, you knew you were in for an interesting night.

You rolled your hips on Stede’s hardening cock, moaning at the feeling and the way his lips parted to do the same, before responding. “Alright Captain, you gonna show me what you’re made of, or keep teasing me all night?”

At that, Ed reached around your body and began removing your clothes, probably after realizing you still had on at least two more layers than they did. Stede busied himself with attacking your neck with his lips, continuing to grind you down in his lap while Ed did the same from behind you. You could feel your panties nearly soaking through at this point, your core throbbing for more attention.

As if he could read your mind, Ed pulled you away from Stede–not without a whine from you, of course–and sat you on the bed next to the blonde. You turned to face Stede, taking in how truly gorgeous the man is, prompting you to lean forward to kiss him, immediately opening your mouth to allow your tongues to collide. It was sloppy, drool threatening to spill out of your mouth and probably his too, but it was just what you needed at the moment. Oh, and certainly the hand that was slowly snaking its way into your pants currently.

You opened your eyes to try and get a better view of how the other man was touching you, but a firm hand came up to keep you focused on your kiss. “Focus on Stede for me, sweetheart,” Ed began, “I want to taste this sweet pussy and make you feel good.” You moaned, before he continued. “Can you let me do that for you, baby?”

You nodded frantically, parting your legs for him and allowing him to remove your pants. You could feel him playing with the waistband of your panties and he sunk down between your legs. As you felt his lips on your inner thighs and clothed center, you took the opportunity to stroke Stede’s inner thigh, feeling him tense slightly then relax into your touch. Just as you had done for Ed, Stede widened his legs, allowing you access into his trousers. You pulled back from your kiss with him, bringing your forehead to his as you longed for more of the closeness you had established with him.

You moved to continue your actions, stroking your hands along Stede’s lower stomach, halting when you felt Ed pull down your panties and quickly move to connect himself with your core. His lips were on your clit, sucking and kissing the swollen bud, as his fingers came up to find your soaken hole. He slowly slid two fingers into your pussy, setting a slow but steady pace as you braced yourself on Stede’s thighs.

Ed pulled back, his fingers fully replacing his mouth as he gauged your reaction to his actions thus far. “God…you’re so fucking soaked, Y/N. Do you want to make Stede feel good while I make you cum?”

You hesitated before responding, not because you were unsure of your answer but because his fingers were hitting all the right spots at the moment. His rough hands only added to the sensation, and you felt like you had to restrain yourself from fully getting off on his hand.

Stede picked up on your inability to form a response, and gripped your hands where they were resting on his thighs. He looked at Ed and there seemed to be a mutual understanding, and then Ed’s hands were off of you, gaining your attention.

You opened your mouth to protest, but Ed was already standing in front of Stede, offering the other man his fingers that had just been inside of you.

When you say that you nearly passed out from the scene that was unfolding in front of you, you were definitely not exaggerating. Stede leaned forward, gripping Ed’s hand at the wrist and guiding his fingers into his mouth. He wrapped his lips around the digits, tongue flicking out to taste your slick, and you literally had to cross your legs to keep from orgasming on the spot. To make matters worse, Stede opened his eyes and made eye contact with first Ed then you, and let out a moan, as though he was tasting his own personal cocktail of ambrosia.

Stede released Ed’s fingers, and you felt yourself being moved by Ed so that you were kneeling perpendicular to where Stede was sitting on the edge of the bed, with your head near his lap. Ed positioned himself behind you, and you missed the way he licked his lips and leaned down as you focused on Stede’s pleasure. Gingerly, you reached for Stede’s trousers and briefs once more, pulling them down enough to free his now throbbing cock. You looked up at Stede shyly, his eyebrows drawn together in concentration as he flashed you a soft smile before he spoke. “Go ahead, darling.”

To encourage you further, Ed took this opportunity to attack your pussy with his tongue. You were super glad he decided to shave his beard only a few days ago, as the slight burn of the stubble contrasted with his wet, soft tongue felt amazing in between your legs. Before you became overwhelmed with the sensation once again, you reached forward and took Stede’s cock in your hand. It barely fit in just one of your hands, which you discovered as you started to jerk off his shaft.

“Give me your hand, darling,” Stede said, and you obliged. “Good girl,” he added once you moved to comply. You kept one hand moving on his dick while you reached out your other one, which the man took and brought to his mouth. Just as Ed started eating you out like a starved man, Stede spit into your open hand, then guided it back down to join your other hand. The action itself was filthy in nature, making you buck your hips into Ed’s mouth and increase the rate at which you jerked Stede off. He gasped at the action, and you could feel him holding his hips back to resist rutting up into your hands.

“Fuck, that feels good,” Stede said, before adding, “Is Ed going to make you cum, sweetheart?” He leaned his head back slightly to toss some of his hair out of his face, before looking down at you for a response.

“Yes, shit, gonna cum soon–” You were cut off by a slap on your ass by Ed, causing you to jolt forward and come face to face with Stede’s cock. You better positioned yourself on Stede’s thighs, leaning forward to take the tip into your mouth. You could feel that Ed added his fingers back into your pussy somewhere during this process, and the familiar heat in your core ramping up as he continued his actions.

You removed one hand from Stede’s cock as you took him deeper into your mouth, using it to massage his balls. You could feel a combination of your spit and Stede’s precum sliding down his shaft to meet your hand, earning you a moan from the man above you. Upon hearing his sighs of pleasure, you let out one of your own, making Stede buck his hips and egging Ed’s attack on your pussy on further.

“Gonna cum, Y/N? With my face buried in your pussy, and your mouth around your Captain’s cock? Let it all go baby…” Ed said, and with that, you were seeing stars. You were glad you had Stede’s dick in your mouth, as the moans that threatened to slip out as you rode your high were–mostly–stifled.

Ed continued to lick and kiss your cunt as you came down, while Stede reluctantly pulled you off his cock. When you moved to take him back into your mouth, he reached out a hand to stop you, offering a merciful smile.

“Sorry, sweetheart, you’re just a little too good at that is all,” he explained with a grin, and you felt Ed move behind you.

“I’m assuming you enjoyed that, huh, sweetheart?” Ed said, kneeling next to you and giving you a kiss on the cheek. You couldn’t resist turning your head to kiss him on the mouth, tasting yourself on his tongue.

He pulled back before you could deepen the kiss too much, looking at you with hooded eyes, similar to the way he did earlier. “God…who would’ve guessed that sweet Y/N was this filthy…” He teased, hand coming up to grip your cheeks and open your mouth. “Stick out your tongue for me, yeah?”

You did what he asked without hesitation, face still in Ed’s grasp, and he spit into your mouth. He released his grip and watched as you swallowed, using your eagerness as a sign to continue on with the events of the night.

“So…” Ed began, “Stede and I were talking…”

“And we wanted to leave it up to you before we went any further.” Stede interjected, a look of concern on his face.

You looked between them for what felt like the hundredth time this evening, and could see the love they had to share staring straight back at you. You knew, even prior to what had already occurred, that if there was anyone you wanted to do something like…whatever this was with, it would be them. Not only had they been there for you at one of your darkest times, but they had become sources of empowerment and support in the relatively short amount of time you knew them. Which is why you were confident in what you moved to say next.

“Ed…” You began, cupping his cheek then turning to Stede and doing the same. “Stede…” Both men leaned into your touch and listened intently. “There’s literally no one I would rather be doing this with. Both of you heard my call, took me by the hand, and led me to where I am today.” Both of their faces softened at your confession, and you placed your hands back into your lap.

Ed cleared his throat, breaking the short silence. “So, uh…we gonna fuck or not?”

You moved to straddle him, giggling at his statement. “Isn’t that literally what we were just doing?” You asked, rolling your hips over his still clothed erection.

“You haven’t even seen the slightest of what I’m capable of.” He replied, the brooding look returning to his face. This time, however, you weren’t having it, and saw through his dark façade.

“Okay, Blackbeard.” You said, rolling your eyes at his statement for added effect. He did not like that.

With a slap to your ass–and a glare from Stede–Ed repositioned you to perch atop his leg, leaning down towards your ear. “Fuck, I love it when you call me that.” You nearly rolled your eyes again–of course he did. “Now be a good girl and get off on my leg, then we can give you what you really want.”

You did what he asked, but not without adding, “what I really want? You mean your love and devotion?”

Ed snorted at that, gripping your waist tighter and grinding you harder into his lap. “I think you need something to shut you up.” He said, grunting whenever you came in contact with his dick.

You raised an eyebrow at that and shared a look with Stede, who was watching this all unfold with an eager expression. He looked gorgeous from this angle, his hair all disheveled and his body on full display.

You halted the movement of your hips, hearing Ed let out a frustrated grunt. “I want both of you, so bad…” You said, matter-of-factly.

“How do you want us?” Stede asked, his concerned nature making itself known.

You felt yourself blush at the question, again not expecting something of such a suggestive nature falling out of Stede’s lips. That being said, he literally just revealed his apparent “Captain” kink to you so maybe you were too quick to judge what Stede was or wasn’t capable of saying.

Shaking yourself out of your thoughts, you focused on what exactly was being asked of you. You honestly wanted nothing more than for each of the men to pound you into the mattress of this probably far too nice and boutique bed of yours, but a part of you deep down really wanted Stede to be the first of the two to get to know you so intimately. After all, he had done so much to take care of you as you had done for him–it just felt right.

Once you made up your mind–after also reminding yourself that you have all night–you voiced your thoughts. “Stede, I want you…” you began, looking down at your core before flicking your eyes back to the other man. “And Ed, I–”

He caught your drift immediately and finished your statement. “You want me to fuck your mouth, is that right?”

“Fuck, yeah.” You responded, too horny to say something witty in response.

At that, Stede stood and allowed you to move up and lay with your head dangling off the bed, giving yourself a perfect view of Ed’s lower half. You reached out and gripped what you could of his waist, pulling him closer to you. You felt the bed dip as Stede hovered over you, feeling his hands go to your shirt to finally remove it.

“May I?” He asked–ever the gentleman. You nodded, and you helped him pull the article of clothing off of you. You could feel Ed shifting behind you, and if you could see him attempting to wiggle out of his tight pants you would have probably bursted out laughing. You were distracted, however, by Stede’s hesitation as his hands hovered over your bra. Your eyes met his, and you gave a slight nod, reaching for his hand with your own and guiding it to the point at which the garment was connected to your body. He tenderly removed it from you, allowing it to fall to the floor and reveal your upper half to him.

As Stede leaned down to caress your breasts, you turned your head to be greeted with Ed’s unconcealed dick. To say that he was big would be an understatement–the man was seriously packing. No wonder he walked around like he owned the place, with a dick like that–

“Open your mouth for me.” He said, drawing you out of your–borderline objectifying–thoughts. You complied, and the heavy tip of his dick was in your mouth in an instant. You could taste the small amount of precum that had collected, making your mouth water.

You moved to position yourself at a better angle, but were stopped by Ed’s firm hands near your neck. You looked up at him as well as you could with your head upside down, and the determined look on his face was enough to suggest that he wanted you to lie back and enjoy yourself while he took the reins.

You were more than happy to comply, and focused on the sensations Stede was providing while Ed ensured that you were in a comfortable position and continued to stroke the tip of his dick on your open tongue. Stede’s hands slowly moved down your chest and stroked your hips, his lips also ghosting kisses down your abdomen.

As you felt Stede’s hands approach your core, you opened your legs wider to accommodate his form between your legs and to give him better access. You felt him chuckle at your actions, his lips now dangerously close to where you wanted him most. Well, a certain part of him.

“Stede…” you whined, feeling Ed pull back slightly as you spoke. Stede looked up at you eagerly, stopping short and expecting you to continue. When you didn't, he shifted once more so he was level with your face.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart? Is everything alright?” He asked, already knowing the answer.

You nodded, his hand stroking your cheek as you gave him a pleading look. “I want you…”

He nuzzled your nose with his own and smiled, before replying. “Then it’s me you shall have.”

You moved again to accommodate his form, feeling him situate himself between your legs. He reached down and pumped his shaft a few times, sighing as his hand came in contact with his tender skin. You relaxed and leaned your head back once again, signaling that you were ready for them.

You closed your eyes, focusing on the sensations you were experiencing, missing the glance Stede and Ed shared above you. After sharing a nod, the two men were quick to spring into action.

You felt Stede enter you first, the drag of his shaft along your walls slowly stretching your hole and hitting all the right places inside of you. You clenched around his cock once he was fully seated inside of you, moaning as his fingers ghosted over your clit. “You like that, darling?” He asked, beginning to set a slow, yet steady pace.

“Fuck yes!” You responded, smirking at him before adding “Captain.”

He grunted at that, picking up the pace and in turn, rocking the bed you were perched on. You silently prayed that all of the other crew members had settled down and weren’t looking for either of their captains, because the scene currently unfolding would probably make even the most rugged pirate say a prayer; unless their name was ‘Stede’ or ‘Ed,’ apparently.

Speaking of the devil, Ed saw your moment of quiet contemplation as an opportunity to grip your jaw, angling you once more to better suit his needs. You smiled at him before sticking out your tongue, prompting him to smirk back then lean down and spit as he had before, this time using it as added slick as he guided his cock back into your mouth.

Stede’s gentle, yet determined thrusts, and Ed’s rough and messy use of your mouth combined in a perfect tango which had you reaching your peak in seconds.

Ed could see the way your body was convulsing and twisting, clenching on Stede’s cock and drooling on his own. “You fucking like that, Y/N?” He asked, his hips working his cock against your tongue and down your throat. You moaned around his cock in response, egging him on more.

With a light slap to your cheek, he continued. “Fuck yeah you do, ohmygod–we should’ve done this so much sooner..”

Stede glanced up at that, tossing his–now disheveled–blonde locks out of his face. “I was thinking the same thing,” he said, gently, prompting Ed to lean down and meet his lips. You saw the two men deepen the kiss above you, and in that moment, everything felt so right. You finally had the two men who took you in, cared for you, and allowed you to care for them in return right where you wanted them, and you fucking loved it. Your sweet, kind Stede, who never failed to be gentle with you even when he was at his lowest, was making you feel better than you ever imagined, while your edgy, yet kind-hearted Ed allowed you to treat him how he deserved. It was everything you had been searching for–your hidden treasure, and you had been led to them as a personal treasure of their own.

Stede’s thrusts eventually became more irregular, and you could feel his cock throbbing in your core, signaling that he was close. Ed had opted to glide his shaft on top of your wet mouth and tongue, using you like his own personal toy. It was messy–filthy even, but you fucking loved it. You especially loved it when Ed used his free hand to play with one of your breasts, using some drool that had collected around your mouth as slick to play with your hard bud. Stede brought a hand up as well and did the same and you thanked every deity you could think of for allowing your paths to cross.

Shockingly, it was Ed who voiced his thoughts first. “Fuck, Stede, Y/N, I’m close.”

Stede slowed his thrusts a bit–earning a whine from you–and took a moment to catch his breath. “Fuck, me too.” He sat back on his knees, leaving just his tip inside you, and glanced down at you. “How are you doing, sweetheart? Getting close?”

You nodded, and felt the coil in your stomach threatening to snap as Stede drew the tip of his cock out and around your slick hole and clit. “Wanna c-cum, for you. Both of you.”

“I know you do darling, but I’m afraid I can’t hold out for much longer…” Stede responded, gripping the base of his shaft to try and hold off his orgasm.

“I can…” Ed cockily replied, easing his dick out of your mouth.

You sat up, noticing how suddenly empty you felt as you did, and turned to look Ed in the eyes. “And what if I don’t believe you?” You asked with wild eyes, hoping he would take the bait.

“Why don’t you lie on your stomach and find out for yourself, slut?” He gritted back, and you could’ve lost it right then and there, but your anticipation for what he proposed outweighed your need to orgasm without him inside you.

“Ed!?” Stede chirped in, likely as an attempt to come to your defense. When he saw the smirk on your face and look of desire in your eyes, however, his own eyes widened a bit, and he understood that the term hadn’t entirely pissed you off–in fact, it had had the opposite effect.

Stede huffed before allowing you to follow Ed’s orders and reposition yourself. “And I thought I was into some interesting things…”

As Ed settled behind you after your position replicated what he had asked of you, you turned your head to follow Stede as he sat at the head of the bed in front of you, giggling at his admission. “What kinds of things, Captain?” You asked, sure to use his favorite nickname.

Stede rolled his eyes and fixed his hair before smiling down at you. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

You smiled, moving to respond once more, but were cut off by Ed entering you with no warning. Your soft pussy gripped him tight, wetness coating his throbbing shaft. He could feel that you were pretty well stretched from Stede, and didn’t take much time in working you up to a hard and fast rhythm that had you moaning.

Still, through the haze of horniness that had accumulated, you felt the urge to reach for the blonde-haired man in front of you, taking all of what you could of his member into your mouth. He gasped, not expecting you to do so as Ed was literally pounding you into the mattress, but welcomed it nonetheless.

Ed slapped your ass as he saw what you were doing to Stede, pinching and massaging it as he picked up his pace even more. “Look at you, Y/N, being split open by us. Fuck, you’re so good-”

“Such a good girl…” Stede continued after Ed became a moaning mess, making you clench down on Ed’s leaking cock. You took Stede’s slick cock deeper into your mouth, tears threatening to spill as you started properly sucking him off. You could taste the saltiness of his precum mixing with the saliva of your mouth, and looked up at him through your lashes as you felt one of his hands move to your throat. It was mainly to support your neck and to guide you where he needed you, but the slight pressure made your pussy throb and turned you on even more–if that’s even possible.

It turns out it was, because when Ed brought a hand down to your clit you were done for. You looked up at Stede with desperation in your eyes, and he knew immediately that you were rapidly approaching your peak.

“Shit, Ed, Y/N’s nearly there…” Stede announced, his tone suggesting that you were not alone in your predicament.

“Yeah? Gonna cum with us inside you?” Ed said, and you moaned around Stede’s cock as a response, fucking back into Ed as he hit your G-spot with every thrust. That, combined with the way he flicked at your clit and the delicious pressure of Stede’s cock on your tongue and hand on your throat finally sent you over the edge. You nearly collapsed as your orgasm rode through you, your hole gripping Ed tight and nearly all of your muscles convulsing in the process. It felt like heaven.

“Mmm, gripping me so tight…gonna cum…” Ed slurred, before gingerly pulling out and releasing on your hole and thighs.

Stede was not far behind, and you reached a hand up to stroke what you couldn’t fit in your mouth, causing him to thrust slowly as pleasure started to overcome his senses. “I’m so close, pretty girl,” he said, and you felt the bed shift behind you. You focused on licking and sucking all that you could, locking eyes with Stede as his breathing increased and cock started to leak more.

You felt his balls tighten as he continued to thrust, and just as he let go you felt a set of hands pull your hair back and stroke along your skin. You closed your eyes and swallowed all that he had to give, savoring the taste that was so distinctly Stede. You shamelessly moaned at the sensation, earning a chuckle from both men; prompting you to come back down to Earth. Stede carefully removed his spent shaft from your mouth, using a finger to wipe a bit of drool and his release from the corners of your mouth. He tucked himself back into his trousers and settled into the bed, gesturing for you to do the same. When you went to move and realized your hair was still pulled back, you turned to the side and were greeted with a grinning Ed who was now playing with your hair that was in his grip.

You cleared your throat to get his attention, but when his gaze remained on his fingers in your hair, you spoke. “You gonna play with that forever, or come cuddle?” You asked, cheekily.

He halted his action and removed his hands with a huff. “Fine…but only if I get to be the big spoon.”

You crawled into Stede’s arms speedily, positioning yourself with your back to him and arms open wide. “Well shit. Looks like that position has already been filled.”

Ed pouted, crossing his arms and taking in your inviting form, but ultimately sighing and laying in your arms. To egg him on more–something you started to enjoy more and more–you replicated his previous actions and began playing with his hair.

He turned around and narrowed his eyes before speaking. “I hate you.”

You kissed him on the temple, and raised one of Stede’s hands from around your waist to your lips and did the same. “Love you too.”

~

taglist: @conthesatanist

#blackbeard x reader #stede bonnet x reader #edward teach x reader #edward teach x stede bonnet #gentlebeard #blackbonnet #gentlebeard x reader #blackbonnet x reader

[neoyi]

Hoo boy, so how long before we get potential discourse on how this comic contradicts the established Crash Bandicoot timeline?

After all, Crash Purple/Spyro Orange had Ripto and Cortex meeting prior to Rumble ever being a spark in Toys for Bob's eyes.

I would say spin-off games in the series are kind of loose in terms of the canonical narrative, but Crash Bandicoot has kind of been an exception to that rule, in that characters first appearing in the forty billion racing spin-offs seem to return (Oxide) with implication that said spin-off happened, or the rest of the games supported extensive cutscenes and an actual plot that it stands to reason that they could all feasibly have happened canonically.

Rumble seem to follow in that; there's no plot to be found within the game, but these comics have served as nice bits of lore for us to chew on. There's not much to hone on, but would I not be a foolish student of Crashology to leave even the shallowest narrative uninterpreted? Unexamined? Left to rot in the sun like that?

I never bought the idea that Crash Bandicoot 4 was meant to be a thorough reboot of the franchise sans the OG Naughty Dog games, because there really wasn't much to contradict that latter games after Crash 4 still couldn't happen. Dingodile joining up with Crash's team (at the least, pragmatically, he seem to be a neutral force here driven by circumstances more than anything) might be the closest cutting off point since he's working for Cortex come Wrath of Cortex (Crash 4 never explains why he quit the ol' mad doctor's group, he just did for some reason), but now that Rumble's out, particularly with this comic, I'm now beginning to wonder if this is the creators' way of essentially wiping the slate as clean as they could and starting the franchise off from scratch.

And I think it needs it.

Oh, for sure, I'd argue it's yet another reworking of the franchise (Crash of the Titans kind of felt like one, even if, as far as I know since I never played it, they don't technically disown the timeline prior to its release) to revitalize and retool the poor series yet again, but this time, there's been a decade long gap - long enough for fans to lament what could have been, what we wished, and eventually, move on from it (well, some of us anyway.)

I was ready to call the franchise dead in the waters by, like, Year 8, wistful that they didn't get the send-off it deserved. Fact of the matter was, the last few games or so have just been a complicated, hot mess. Nobody seem to know what the hell they wanted to do with Crash the moment it fell out of Naughty Dog's hands. Not from lack of trying (and some developers did try), but it lingered around as either a pastiche of the OG game, a wacky-for-the-sake-of-wacky that varied in tolerance with its humor, or a sea of Dreamworkian pop cultural references - it was a mess. It was a HOT. MESS.

THIS comic, however, seem to signify that yes, come Crash 4: It's About Time, the whole ass franchise, after a decade of nothing, whih came after a decade of identity crisis, meant not only is this semi-reboot expected, but is downright necessary.

You could arguably just make A New Crash game that fittingly continues where it left off without acknowledging any of the past games, but with the assumption that it all happened, but ripping off that loaded, blood-chunked bandage for something visibly new, is probably the best this series, at this time, is going to get and ultimately needs.

Cut off the excess and start from where it was at its most simple, then slowly reintroduce the latter Crash elements. It does suck, if you are a fan of the latter-era Crash fans, to essentially be told after CTR that the rest of the games after is potentially no longer canon (Crash 4's announcer during the end credits certainly lampshades it, too.) This comic pretty heavily cements it, but man, it already does it so much better by introducing Ripto back into the Crashverse in just two pages of a comic versus an entire GBA game where he and Cortex... somehow share a universe and just... team up, I guess???

Of course Ripto crashes the party via a portal. Crash and Spyro's worlds are two vastly different places that sharing it together, while not impossible in the right hands, is tonally contradictory. Spyro's world is fantastical whimsy, Crash is sci-fi madness.

And it isn't like latter Crash characters cannot return. Crash 4's ending showed that absolutely CAN be the case.

Guys. GUYS. Nina's still here. Those two awful chicken announcers are still here.

The OG Crash games never really had the deepest stories, with only literal floating heads occasionally spouting the next motive. Having Crash 4 start from there WITH an elaborate narrative is probably the best starting point. There is no reason why any of the others cannot return in new, interesting roles while paying lip service to their older roles.

Setting aside complicated feelings on reboots notwithstanding, Crash Bandicoot really did needed a reset button, and if it means retooling the established canon in a metaphorical Crisis of Infinite Earths way, then so be it.

So yeah, the comic basically told us Crash Purple/Spyro Orange did not happen. And damn it, I think that's for the best.

On a final note, love this panel. For sake of gameplay, you're allowed to pick whichever character you want, but Rumble's lore seem to imply that villains stay on their end while, presumably, the heroes stay on their side. I guess Ripto serves as a third wheel who decided to muck things even further.

Also, I think Brio is saying Spyro's Japanese translated name, which is amazing cuz' anyone with basic Spyro trivia knowledge knows Ripto's name came from how the Japanese letters look when spelling out the purple dragon's name.

#crash bandicoot #spyro the dragon #neoyi talks #this has been the best Crash Bandicoot has EVER gotten in so long #I don't know how long this train will last but I will be a passenger for as long as they go this route and keep that consistency

[mccdreamys-writes]

smiles for miles – 26. silence is never silent

take me back to understand, we deep inside our hearts know, we don't make the wind blow. - The Common Linnets, We Don't Make The Wind Blow

N O V E M B E R   1 8 T H   2 0 1 1

Last week, I found myself back in the lecture hall, a place I hadn't visited in a while. I had skipped teaching last semester because work had consumed all my time. With cases piling up, there was no room for academic pursuits. But now, with things settling down a bit, I felt drawn back to the world of academia.

Work felt strangely quiet this week, an eerie calm hanging over everything. It was the kind of silence that made you feel like something big was about to happen. In law enforcement, calm moments like these often signaled that a storm was brewing, something significant waiting just around the corner.

It reminded me of a superstition in emergency rooms—the belief that saying "It's a quiet night" could jinx things and bring chaos. It was as if acknowledging the peace invited trouble. Similarly, the quietness at work hinted at trouble ahead, a reminder that in our line of work, calm moments were often followed by chaos.

As I neared the end of my lecture, ready to dive into the details of next week's lesson, my phone buzzed on the desk, snapping me out of my academic focus. A message from JJ popped up, short and ominous: "We have a case and it's a bad one."

Letting out a sigh, I wrapped up the class, hastily ending my presentation as I headed for the door. The weight of responsibility settled over me like a thick blanket as I hurried to my car. The urgency of the situation pushed me forward, a grim determination driving me towards the office.

As we gathered in the conference room, there was a palpable sense of shock and determination hanging in the air. The images on the screen painted a horrifying picture: three bodies hanging from tree branches, their mutilated torsos, hearts torn from their chests, and their dignity stripped away with their genitals exposed for all to see. The chilling inscription above the macabre images simply read, 'Washington D.C.'

Garcia's voice broke through the solemn silence, her tone tinged with a sense of urgency and concern. "We're staying home today," she announced firmly, her words carrying a weight that left no room for doubt.

With a solemn expression, Garcia introduced each victim: Elijah Benedict, Alan Damon, and Philip DeJong. Their names echoed in the room, a reminder of the lives lost in this brutal act of violence. Ranging in age from forty-three to fifty, they were now reduced to mere statistics in a tragic tableau.

Morgan's words broke the tension, voicing what everyone was thinking. "Someone's got a grudge," he stated firmly, the seriousness of the situation evident in his tone. "This feels personal."

Rossi cut through the silence with a question that hung heavily in the air. "When did these attacks happen?" he inquired urgently, his concern palpable.

Hotch, as authoritative as ever, provided a grim timeline. "The first victim, a week ago," he began, each word weighed down by the severity of the situation, "the second, three days ago, and the last one, this morning." His words lingered in the room, a stark reminder of the swift and methodical nature of the assaults.

Garcia, her fingers flying over the keyboard as she accessed the chilling details, added to the grim narrative. "They were all held captive for at least a day," she concluded, her voice trembling slightly as she relayed the extent of the victims' suffering. "But no more than two, because in all three cases we have colleagues who can confirm they were at work at least two days prior."

"Do we have any connections between them?" JJ's question drew everyone's attention to Garcia, the team's digital expert.

"They all had more than just a thing for women," Garcia replied, her fingers flying over the keyboard as she dug deeper into the digital archives. "I'm still combing through their backgrounds for more connections or useful info. I'll keep you posted if I find anything important."

Despite the heaviness of the case weighing on us, the day wore on without any major breakthroughs. We'd spoken with the victims' families and colleagues, but hadn't uncovered much. Still, the urgency of the situation hung in the air, reminding us that time was ticking and another abduction could happen at any moment.

As I stepped into the familiar embrace of our home, weariness clung to my every step, burdening my shoulders with its weight. But the sight that greeted me at the table instantly lifted my spirits—a home-cooked meal, lovingly prepared by Maile, awaited me. It was a silent testament to her thoughtfulness and understanding, a gesture made all the more special by the fact that I had given her a heads-up about my return time.

The delicious aroma that filled the air hinted that Maile hadn't been the chef behind tonight's dinner—a fact that both amused and touched me deeply. Cooking wasn't her forte, something she freely admitted and often joked about. Despite her occasional forays into the kitchen, she knew her limitations well.

I couldn't suppress a chuckle at the thought of her valiant attempts, knowing the likely outcome. There had been times when I couldn't resist sneaking a taste of her creations while her back was turned. Yet, the results always reaffirmed her self-awareness; her dishes consistently fell short of culinary excellence, sparing me from any further taste-testing adventures.

But even in her culinary missteps, there was a certain charm—a willingness to try, despite knowing the odds were against her. It was just another endearing aspect of her personality, one that I cherished dearly and wouldn't trade for anything in the world.

"Hey," she greeted me with a radiant smile as I trudged wearily through the doorway, my exhaustion palpable in every step. Without a moment's hesitation, she gracefully relieved me of my burdens, gently setting aside my bag, and enveloping me in a comforting embrace. In the sanctuary of her arms, I felt the weight of the day slowly lift, soothed by the rhythmic beat of her heart that seemed to echo my own.

"Thank you," I whispered gratefully, my voice a mere breath as I leaned into her embrace. "I needed that."

Her response was simple yet profound, spoken with genuine sincerity. "Anytime."

With a gentle nudge, she guided me toward the table, her touch a comforting caress against my weary frame. "Now, let's eat," she urged softly, her voice carrying a warmth that seeped into my bones. "Tell me all about your day, and then let's just relax together tonight. No agenda, no worries—just us, unwinding and being together."

Her words, infused with a sense of tranquility, promised an evening of solace away from the chaos of the outside world. As I settled into my seat, the enticing aroma of the meal she had prepared enveloped me, coaxing forth a sense of contentment and gratitude. It was in these simple moments, shared within the comforting embrace of our home, that I found sanctuary and peace amidst life's trials.

She made every hardship of the day worthwhile.

As evening draped its comforting embrace around us, we settled snugly onto the couch, cocooned in its warmth. My fingers wove delicate patterns through her hair, offering a gentle caress that sought to soothe her troubled mind. In the hush of the moment, I broached a question, my voice a mix of curiosity and care.

"Are you starting to remember things?" I asked softly, my words hanging in the air, stirring up a sense of unease within her.

"It's coming back in flashes," she confessed in a quiet voice, the weight of her inner conflict heavy in her words. "But I don't want to, Alex." Tears welled up in her eyes, reflecting the turmoil raging inside her, a silent testament to the overwhelming emotions threatening to overwhelm her.

With gentle care, I wiped away the tears from her cheeks, hoping for my touch to bring comfort to her raw emotions. Pulling her closer, I wrapped her in my embrace, our legs intertwined, my chest against her back, and my chin nestled in the curve of her neck.

My words flowed softly, like a soothing breeze in the night. "It's a good thing, Smiles," I murmured, my voice a gentle caress against her ear. "You need to process, and why not now? You're not alone. I am here."

"I am scared," she admitted, feeling the weight of her vulnerability in her words. "I don't want to be. I mean, I don't even have the right to. Look at what you're facing at work every day-"

Before she could finish her self-deprecating thoughts, I interrupted, my voice firm but kind. "Don't go there. Don't belittle your pain because you feel like someone else's is worse," I urged, my gaze locking with hers, unwavering in its intensity. "You can't feel their pain, and they can't feel yours. You have every right to be in pain."

I planted a gentle kiss on the back of her neck, my touch offering solace to the swirling turmoil in her mind. With a deep breath, she found the courage to open up about the memories that had started to come back to her.

"I remember hearing more voices," she admitted softly, squeezing her eyes shut as if trying to transport herself back to that time. "Not just James and Ira. Other voices, but I can't place them. At first, I thought they might be part of your team, but they're not. I can't remember how many there were, or if I even saw them. I just knew they were there."

I held her close, my warmth surrounding her like a shield, as I pressed another kiss to her temple, offering comfort and reassurance. Feeling my support, she continued, "There were at least two other men," her voice trembling with uncertainty and unease. Each word dredged up memories she'd buried deep down.

"That's good", I said with genuine admiration, a soft smile gracing my lips as I gazed at her. "You did good, baby."

N O V E M B E R 1 9 T H 2 0 1 1

As I stepped into the bustling bullpen, the familiar symphony of activity surrounded me—the rhythmic tapping of keyboards, the rustle of papers, and the murmur of voices blending into a harmonious cacophony. In the midst of this organized chaos, Hotch emerged like a captain navigating through turbulent waters, his purposeful stride signaling an imminent discussion. "Alex," he called out, his voice authoritative yet welcoming. "Can I have a word?"

His unexpected request sent a shiver of apprehension down my spine as I followed him to his office, my mind swirling with questions about the nature of our impending conversation. Despite my uncertainty, I complied, trailing behind him as we entered the sanctum of his private workspace. The soft click of the door closing behind us added a weight of seriousness to the atmosphere, intensifying the gravity of what was to come.

Seated across from each other, Hotch's usually composed demeanor was tinged with an unusual solemnity as he retrieved a file from his desk. A sense of foreboding settled over me, a knot tightening in the pit of my stomach. "We've identified the DNA found at the crime scene," he began, his words hanging heavy in the air like a dark cloud.

My exhaustion seemed to deepen as I struggled to comprehend the significance of his revelation. "And why are we discussing this privately?" I inquired cautiously, my mind racing to grasp the implications. "Why just you and me?"

Hotch's expression remained unreadable as he delivered the bombshell that left me reeling. "Because," he began, his voice steady, "it matches Maile's DNA."

A wave of disbelief washed over me, threatening to drown out all rational thought. Panic surged through me as the weight of his words settled in. "I should never have uttered those words," I berated myself silently, the casual remark I made earlier now haunting me with its unforeseen consequences.

#alex blake #criminal minds #spencer reid #aaron hotchner #penelope garcia #jennifer jareau #david rossi #derek morgan #bau team #criminal minds fandom #bau #dr alex blake #fxf #ssa blake #ssa hotchner #ssa reid #dr reid #ssa morgan #ssa rossi #ssa jareau #original character #alex blake x female character #alex blake x original character #alex blake x original female character #alex blake x fem!character #wlw #fic #fluff #angst

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

Hello! Do you think Yuzuru will appear in a bad light in the Javier documentary? (Or like in a shady way, that they don't say bad things about him outright, but just suggest it, and manipulate people with the "poor Javi" agenda...) Like, I don't know where you exactly stand with Javier, but my opinion shifted about him so hard after what he pulled last year in connection with the Olympics. He talked about Yuzu's fall as a "fs specialist", saying stuff like Yuzuru was overdaramtic, he fucked up the jump and just used the hole as an excuse (I'm paraphrasing, obviously, but he actually said this). I watched the original spanish too, ha absolutely was throwing shade at Yuzu. His previous actions seemed shady in this knew light too: he complained after Pyeongchang that he should have been second and Shoma was overscored (f ing not!), and right before the medal ceremony announcing that he will retire so that the whole thing would be about him, because he wasn't satisfied with 3rd... Calling in intverviews after retirement Yuzu an acquaintance, when they were supposed to be the biggest friends... I don't know, I think he was always just jealous of Yuzu and trying to use him for fame. He seems shady. His skating was OK (((not better than Shoma or Yuzu, comeon!...))), but he's a slimy dude, and more people should acknowledge it, I think. (Sorry, this turned into a rant more than a question...)

@anon I don't know if this is the kind of "answer" you were hoping for and ranting about something that is on your mind is fine with me, but in this case I don't share the view or adressed worry...

I don't think Yuzu will appear in a bad light in this. Why would he? First Javi isn't the one to create this he is the subject, so the narrative is created by the creator. And 2nd the focus of the documentary is Javi, not Yuzu and Javi's relationship, so what sense would it make to throw shade at other skaters who are included as compatriots and "friends"? I also question if Yuzu was really specifically interviewed for this documentary or if he is just included as part of Javi's story.

For starters I don't think there is any bad blood between Yuzu and Javi. They appeared happy alongside each other at FaoI and the backstage stuff doesn't show any bad mood. I just think they just don't have much in common nowadays apart from the sport and didn't meet much in the years after Javi's retirement.

I am actually quite neutral towards Javi. I liked his skating fair enough (I have seen him live and he was a very good skater who can emote and connect well with an audience) Javi appaeared to be a lot more on the socializing site in TCC, also appears to be outgoing and from the things I know he was going out with others from TCC. So his personality seems vastly different to Yuzu's.

About Yuzu's and Javi's "friendship": According to Javi and Yuzu himself Yuzu wasn't part of the group that went out for dinner after practice or who did much socializing with the other skaters. Yuzu himself said that his focus in Canada was always on training and he didn't go out just back and forth from training. So when I read that I thought that sharing the ice was the connection between Yuzu and Javi and this was their common ground where they shared mutual experiences and this brought them closer to each other. But imo their view on their friendship has been very different from each side. Imo for Javi Yuzu was always one of his skating friends, not THE best skating friend. I don't think there was bad blood in any way though and obviously both profited from one another skating wise and tbh it seems to have been enough for both of them. The narrative of the "best friends" was one that fans (and shippers) created and not one that Yuzu and Javi actually articulated as one at least not to my knowledge. They always showed respect to each other, showed happiness sharing the ice, they have been close as competitors but they were also rivals competing for the same goals and happened to have very different personalities, I am sure it wasn't always easy or always pleasant but it doesn't mean it was no friendship or fake.

(little sidenote about views on friendship: Let me just tell you from personal experience that some ppl call others friends far more easily than others. I call very few ppl friends and it's not meant negative towards anyone else if I don't count them it doesn't mean the relationship I have with them is fake, it's just that I view friendship differently than some others who call almost anyone they spend more time with friends. I don't mean to put Javi or Yuzu into any of these categories but my personal experience showed me that ppl expect different stuff from friends and as long as everyone is happy, what's the harm?

About Beijing: I don't like what Javi said about Yuzu and especially not how it came across. However I think that ppl were a lot overdramatic about Javi's comment with the hole at Beijing Olympics. Javi could have been a lot more diplomatic in his answer and it wasn't nice to accuse Yuzu of using the hole as an excuse and I am not sure why he voiced it like this. But I don't particularly think that Javi directly accused him of lying just that he thinks the hole was used as an excuse. (some may see it still as lying but I don't) I don't understand Spanish so I cannot say what words exactly Javi used and if ppl already formed an opinion it's hard to trust Fanyus translations of that matter. So as I didn't read anyone neutral it's hard to fully comprehend Javi's comment and to me most Spanish comments sound shady so I wouldn't judge that by the tone. My only explanation for Javi's words is that as a competitor himself he also dealt with holes in the ice his whole career just like every skater hence he thinks it's an excuse to use. He was asked for his opinion, he gave one. It doesn't mean anyone has to agree. Tbh this "cancel Javi culture" was getting on my nerves. And even if I do think Javi's comments were shady (from the stuff I know about it) I think it's not our place to judge if that has any influence on their relationship/friendship. We don't know what they talk about behind closed doors and to call him a fake friend after everything else nice he also said about Yuzu, also at Beijing, imo is far fetched for my liking.

As for Shoma and the Pyeongchang Olympics: The truth is that if the technical panel would have called Shoma's 4Loop as underrotated Javi would have won Silver. I can admit that as a Shoma fan though I do think that the placement was fine. But admittedly they could have switched places and it would have been fine with me too. So in a way him saying that he could have gotten Silver is not wrong, maybe a bit arrogant, but it's also honest...I also think you have to take into account the way he was asked about it. Both times I am aware of him saying he could have gotten silver the interviewer was very keen on receiving this particular answer with compliments and a way of asking where he couldn't quite say anything else. It's not like he brought it up himself.

As for the situation before the medal ceremony in Pyeongchang: At this point when they got the medals he wasn't aware of that judging "issues". I don't think he was unhappy with his medal in this moment or is unhappy overall. I would also give Javi the benefit of the doubt about him telling Yuzu he would retire in this moment. Emotions were high in this moment and I think he may just have realized they would share a podium for the last time. When Javi later spoke in a documentary about this moment he had tears in his eyes and was emotionally overwhelmed still. I don't think you could fake that. I think this situation is something we cannot fully understand as simple fans. Interpretating it as Javi grabbing for attention is far fetched. The attention at this moment was on all 3 of them, mostly on Yuzu, but each of them wrote history for their country that day. If all this situation was perceived at this moment as rivals sharing an emotional moment and the hugging as positive, when in Sochi or Vancouver the men podium did not show any kind of connection to each other on the contrary for example Plushenko was even outright disrespectful towards Lysacek by getting on the Gold spot first in 2010.

I don't know what Javi should be jealous of about Yuzu? That he got Olympic Gold and he didn't or that Yuzu won more medals? Hm...it doesn't appear to me like that at all. I don't think Javi used Yuzu for clout or fame in his career. Javi made himself a name in his home country and Yuzu is not that big of a name in Spain to attract more attention than Javi imo (skating is not a very popular sport in Spain). Also Javi made himself quite a name in the skating world by becoming multiple European and World Champion before Yuzu's name was on the scale of popularity it reached after Pyeongchang. Javi didn't post pics unnecessarily often with Yuzu on social media, I didn't see him talking about Yuzu more often except when he was asked. So I don't know how he can be viewed as using Yuzu for attention but I am also not aware of everything he said.

Overall I think you made a lot of negative assumptions because of the negative way you view Javi. I see that stuff you mentioned can be interpretated in that sense and I don't know the truth either, but I'd rather give ppl that I do not know personally the benefit of the doubt. We should be aware that the view you shared or I shared are only our interpretations with no proof of truth. We do not know Yuzu or Javi personally, we don't actually know what kind of relationship they had and there is the possibility it changed over the years, could also be that they have been friends and now grown apart, could be that Yuzu is aware of that "hole" comment and didn't mind, could be that he doesn't even know it. We can assume a lot of stuff...I like to stick to a more neutral or positive view on stuff. What does it do for me to think this negatively about a skater or a relationship that is none of my business to judge? Who cares about what we think about Javi and Yuzu, what matters is what they think about each other and how they perceive their relationship be it friendship or anything else.

And going back to the start if Yuzu would appear in a bad light in a documentary about Javi...it actually didn't even cross my mind that this would be a thing to worry about. The focus of that documentary is Javi's career, Yuzu will be part of it but not the center of the story. (maybe my own post made it sound like Yuzu is a focus but what I read about it, it's not a focus at all.) So I don't think you would have to worry about a negative impact on Yuzu.

___

Sorry for the wall of text, I was not sure if to post it bc it's actually not related to anything atm and I know answering would take quite a while, but maybe it makes a bit clearer on where I stand with my view on Javi. So I hope you can make use of my opinion in any way...

I also don't want to adress it again, but you may ask if any of my text was unclear. Javi is not really a skater on my radar much, but if I see Javi and Yuzu content I will share it. Also Pyeongchang was peak figure skating and it will remain my favorite Olympic podium.

#yuzuru hanyu #javier fernandez #replies #yuzu and javi #I really dropped out at a point of the javi discussion so maybe i don't know all the details 🤷‍♀️ #It's very unfortunate Yuzu had to hit that hole and how his last Olympics went but Javi is the least problem about it

[fakeosirian]

☕️ sinner arc?

O H B O Y

full disclosure i still have not done my note-taking s3 rewatch so i'm liable to misremember (or just not remember) things but i thiiiink i'm confident enough in this opinion to post. it's not supposed to be "discoursey" tho i'm focusing on my crits of this arc more than the compliments because that's what i've done more thinking about. thank you for enabling this and also i'm sorry because you've unleashed the beast <3

thesis statement: the sinner arc, as it is, is both totally natural and consistent with the narrative up to that point and also a HUGE break from the rest of the show tone-wise, craft-wise, and tbh emotionally to the point that i think that it was kiiiiiiiind of a mistake. or at least it's hindered by being the final arc of the show (not counting TOR). some of my sour grapes are just personal bias against certain kinds of "whittling down the cast" plots, but after thinking it over for a While, tbh it bothers me moreso because the things i would change are very simple and would make a world of difference craft-wise without really changing any of the major plot beats or undermining the good parts. (and thus it's disappointing to me that that's not what we got when i feel like the creative team already avoided those exact issues in earlier parts of the show...)

so ok. getting this out of the way: i may come off harsh on this arc because i find it very stressful to watch for personal reasons LMAO so i'll hand this to it: it's very good at getting the desired emotions out of me (extreme discomfort/despair), so if that's the only metric you're using to judge quality, there you go: it's good.

unfortunately it also makes me sad about the state of the characters in a way that...you could interpret as success? but this is the bit that, even accounting for my bias, i think is Not Good. let me explain:

s1 and s2 do an excellent job of manipulating implied perspective of scenes to put characters you're primed to dislike in slow-burn situations that at first exacerbate their flaws and then give them a shot at, not necessarily "redemption," but...imperfect mutual understanding. examples: victor perceived as literally murderous is revealed to be a victim (and later perpetrator) of a generational cycle of abuse; joy, as a victim of that cycle of abuse, lashes out and victimizes others; patricia, eddie, and jerome have more moments from their povs, so it's not quite as dramatic, but they experience a similar character arc as well.

on the flip side, you also get characters whose povs you get as your "main lens" (that can trick you into thinking youre viewing an objective pov) that have biases that become apparent as they interact with those "villainized" characters and react in ways inconsistent with the tone of the scene (thinking of nina and mara here primarily, but fabian also is a good example of this). that's how you get nina flipping out at the friends that SHE CURSED to the point that finally, FINALLY, she acknowledges that she's gone too far. (i should do a writeup on the curse arc and her behavior leading up to it because i think it's a fascinating commentary on the nature of being an "audience insert" that sort of gained sentience over time lol.) mara is self-explanatory here because she cannot help herself from cooking up the WORST possible response to a mundane relationship problem, and yet the tone of the scenes from her pov ends up being extremely sympathetic to her feelings (the way it's shot, edited, the music cues, etc.) in a way that fosters a really neat type of dissonance between text and subtext that doesn't signpost/announce itself until it's already Very There.

when these two different methods for handling character clash, as an audience, you're simultaneously told how to feel (those tonal cues i was talking about) but also left enough clues to change your mind (which i think the generally pro-joy tone of the discourse on this website is proof that people will do and is an intended potential experience of the show tbh). the moral/emotional result of that is a really neat commentary on subjectivity, how complicated reconciliation is, and how the only people too far gone to improve themselves are those who simply don't want to. the scene at the end of s2 with nina giving victor the tear makes me so emotional because it's an olive branch, an acknowledgment of the complicated nature of the situation and that victor has been a horrible person and made horrible choices in the past, but he does not have to keep doing that, and he does make the right choice when push comes to shove. same thing with joy in the senet arc (and i love that fabian is simultaneously the pov character and honestly the antagonist because of his inability to manage his emotions until the end), and honestly, same thing with patricia in early s1 re: her paranoia surrounding nina.

so what does this have to do with the sinners? well, they pretty much fly in the face of that entire writing philosophy on a fundamental, functional level, by design. considering "that philosophy" is just...earnest emotionally satisfying character writing in a story primarily driven by its characters and how they interact with one another over time...that's not great!

the leadup to a sinner capture is great. the afterwards is my issue. you take these characters who are in a narrative about not letting your flaws define you forever and you erase and overwrite their personality to be their singular greatest flaw, and then you reverse that and snatch away their memories to add insult to injury. that's not character regression (which is a completely legit avenue and is why the sinner captures are great in theory) -- it's anti-development, anti-human. it's certainly made worse by the fact that it's the show's final arc and thus the ex-sinners don't get a chance to process their experience on screen (needing that closure for myself is why i'm writing flat on your face lol), but even if it was addressed in the show in the best manner possible, it'd still feel cheap to me because it's agency-stripping and deeply cynical by design.

the thing is, this is deeply fixable. there's no singular way, but one i'm particularly interested in experimenting with is having the "sinner" be a sort of alter-ego that takes over in certain circumstances, subverting the conscious mind and leaving behind memory gaps and inconsistencies that lead the sinners to doubt themselves just as much as the other characters. it'd heighten the themes of misplaced trust that s3 is doing a lot of work with, and it would give the sinners a chance to still be their characters, have agency, continue to develop, and idk imagining a scenario where patricia or fabian is desperately begging someone to NOT trust them sounds fucking delicious to me. also other thing: it'd also fix something that's not really a "mistake" but just makes me sad, which is the fact that once a sinner is taken...that's pretty much it for their character as you know them for the rest of the show. like yeah, they're still there, but man, when the show was airing and fabian got taken, i straight up felt like he died, lol.

there's another issue that that proposed solution would sort of solve? but tbh is just another consequence of this type of plotline, which is: zero-sum game character development, or characters getting their quality/development sacrificed for the development of other characters. i do not like that patricia, easily one of the most complex and interesting characters on the show who goes back and forth between evolving and devolving as a person regularly in a way that feels sympathetic and consistent with her previous behavior and environment, has that progress torched and flattened for the sake of eddie's development. it's not necessarily poorly conceived or structured or illegitimate, but it's hella depressing for me to watch, personally. if it felt like she had more agency as a sinner (ie. the way sinners function being changed fundamentally), i wouldn't mind as much/it wouldn't feel like as much of a zero-sum sacrifice, but as it stands, her sinner capture and subsequent existence is completely centered on making eddie maximum miserable enough to move the plot forward. that's where i feel like i need to rewatch because that's certainly an uncharitable read, so that take is accompanied with a metric ton of salt!

that brings me to my other semi-gripe (less significant than the above but worth talking about): who specifically gets taken.

victor getting taken at all, but especially first, kinda rubs me the wrong way because following s2 where he was getting taken for a ride just as much as the kids were (if not more), its sad to see him flattened back into the caricature he was through the kids' pov in early-mid s1, except this time he's actually just like that. i do feel like taking victor is natural, though, so i'm not totally against him being a sinner/he's a character that i think can survive being made this sort of pseudo-"irredeemable" without being retroactively ruined because he's always been a tragic character. sweet, though should not have been taken, full stop, and i legit hate that as a writing choice.

when it comes to the kids, i understand the thinking behind taking old guard sibuna and it does appeal to me to have old vs new happening within the greater landscape of s3 and the show as a whole, but i think it's missing the trees for the forest a bit. it's too focused on the subtextual positioning rather than the material reality of what patricia, fabian, and alfie are feeling and doing as individuals -- not so much re: patricia and fabian (they were cruising for a bruising), but alfie. like idk alfie isn't always a saint but mara was right there. (jerome was right there. joy was right there. i dont necessarily think either of them would have made good sinners -- frankly they might have made me angrier actually and mara is PERFECT PERFECT IDEAL -- but they make more sense than alfie to me.)

re: fabian, his capture is easily the best scene of all the captures, despite the fact that it makes me physically ill (honestly because it makes me physically ill lol), and that's because it's founded in previous behavior (senet arc is basically the blueprint for the sinner arc in many, many ways) and exceptionally tragic to see as a result because you like him, but he's been off the rails lately. the thing is, i love him being messy, but i hate the permanence of the consequences, like all you need to do is have one (frankly deeply semantic) slipup of character, and boom, you're evil forever unless your bestie can clean up your mess. it's good writing, but the message it sends is nasty, which like i feel like i've probably said a million times in this post, is sort of the whole deal with the sinners.

tl;dr: the sinner arc is powerful emotionally, and i enjoy picking apart the effects it would have on the characters in fanfic (so i'm not full on pro-revisionism lol), but it's just too cynical for me to vibe with and enjoy watching. i love the rest of the show for how earnest and unwavering it is in its belief in people, so seeing it take that turn for the intensely cynical gut punch right at the end -- even if everything works out in the end -- will always be somewhat off-putting to me. i feel like there's more i want to say to further explain that, but i've already spun my wheels enough here, so i'll save it for a follow-up once i've finally cracked and done that deep-dive rewatch, lol.

tysm for asking!! <3

#house of anubis #hoa #is this discourse? idk i don't mean for it to be because again just in case it got lost in translation: i think there's a lot of merit to i #it was a huge gamble as a plotline and i respect it for the bravery but woof. WOOF #my writing #ill put it in that tag bc its like. basically a meta lol #answered

[yakool-foolio]

this is just a loser finding ways to partially vent but my story it's cringe, undeniably funny, and related to Danganronpa in ways So, uh yeah, if you want to read that'd be nice but if not I understand. When I say Danganronpa is the most impactful media I've ever consumed in my entire life I'm not joking.

I got into Danganronpa after GameGrumps played the first game in 2020, when they finished it I loved it so much I went on to watch someone else play Danganronpa 2. At the time my life was pretty awful, I was sort of becoming numb emotionally everything felt the same day after day, and it's stupid, but when Nagito Komaeda made me feel something after feeling so numb during that time I kind of got obsessed. It was so bad not only did I make myself so much lonelier, but I had to research hyper fixations to know I wasn't insane. So you could say Nagito caused me learning and acknowledging i'm autistic! Which sounds like a big impact until you hear the biggest one.

It was 2021 now, I was still obsessing over Nagito Komaeda and the fixation was so bad that I joined the fandom early before playing v3, Danganronpa on the Nintendo Switch was announced and I was eager and excited so I looked up a ton of reactions on Youtube. A day later Youtube recommended me a live stream, two guys were just joking and playing Danganronpa. My humor was changing but I knew that I laughed at their streams and videos so I stayed, I watched every stream I could and every video uploaded. Eventually I joined their Discord Server, I edit videos so after a while I asked the main owner of the channel for advice on videos and such, and then we bonded over some videos and songs like the v3 hated by life itself animation. After that I always thought of something to text to him every day, as a matter of fact we talked so much that I became behind on School because I'd be talking to him instead. After a while we started calling every day, and then we started face timing, and after that he had confessed to me. At the time I wasn't sure about my sexuality and I had repressed any attraction I felt for anyone out of "respect" So when he confessed to me I was able to think about it finally. It took me 3 days to think about my life and myself and I said yes and we started dating. We met in person 2 times, and dated for 2 years before he broke up with me a few months ago just because life has been hectic I suppose. The channel doesn't have any of its videos public anymore, the server is somehow barely alive for now despite one of the owners already leaving and the other just not talking much, and basically anything that came from all of it no one will know about other than the small group of mutuals that keep in touch and me making these. Most of those mutuals still don't even know that we ever dated. The channel is Emigc btw I think the only thing ever left public is someone reacting to a video he made on Danganronpa S.

anyway boohoo story sad ending but yeah that's how Nagito Komaeda helped me experience my first romantic love and know that i'm autistic, that's it. he's still funnily enough one of my favorite characters of all time i'm normal about him now at the very least Lmao. I finally got into Rain Code after the breakup since I got it for Christmas and it's stupid but it really does feel like the next step? if that makes sense? Danganronpa was the impact to my life, Rain Code is what I'm loving in the aftermath of what Danganronpa has done to my life. I honestly have loved Rain Code somehow even more than I loved Danganronpa, maybe not to the insane extent of Nagito though Lmao. Oh yeah, I also completely skipped over how Danganronpa helped me bond even more with my best friend who feels like a brother to me now but this is already long enough! I've just been making messages about what happened because those were the happiest years of my life and I miss it.

thanks for reading if you did

Goes to show that media really does have a grand effect on our daily lives. From my personal experience, I wouldn't have met any of my friend group, aptly named Ding Dong Bing Bong, without Danganronpa. Long story short, I started playing the first game after watching Game Grumps' playthrough of the 2nd game (and proceeded to spoil myself about the entire trilogy), and I did so in a Discord server. Someone ended up joining me during the start of the prologue, and we shared in voicing the characters. After a few days, another person joined, then another, then another. And now we're a tight huddle of ten after more than a year of playing games together!

It's interesting to hear how the Dangan series, Rain Code, and other media has affected other people as well. Meeting new people, discovering new things about ourselves, and watering our creative roots! Looking back on the moments can boost our spirits, too! I hope the future bodes well for you as you continue to enjoy your interests!

#i'll keep this on the down-low since it's the anon's personal story #if the anon wants me to delete this so its totally private i will respect their wishes #its cool to hear about the extensive histories people have with media they love #i have many stories of my own but ill save those for a rainy day #which could be any day really

[reyesbignaturals]

Wrote my first fic in a HOT minute with an OC I made specifically for the COD-verse and I love her very much and would love to talk about her much more in detail than is revealed about her in this blurb but here is some writing, I tried my best!

It's a Velikan fic that I'm gonna work on slowly that is intended to be incredibly slow-burn with a lot of hurt/comfort elements. I don't have a lot of free time in my personal life, so I have been just kind of writing as I can and it's been a nice stress relief to add pictures to my Pinterest board cause I've got this story in my head but I don't always have time to write all the stuff down!

But I tried to get some of the story, and character set up done here so idk let me know what to fix, I would like to get better at writing but also this is mostly for fun haha

Fluorescent lights buzzed inside the ceiling beams of the room, joining the sounds of wheels that squealed against the laminate floor and the occasional intercoms that would page a doctor in the infirmary.

The Shadow Company had come back from an operation gone bad with many operatives covered in blood, with some even missing extremities when they'd finally been airlifted back to the base's hospital. Fortunately, there had been no casualties under the medical wing's care so far, and the staff intended to keep it that way.

“Hey, Doc, your next patient is ready to see you over in Room 2,” a nurse, Adrian, called over from the nurse's station, looking over at the doctor in question with a strange look as she exited the previous patient's room.

The doctor gave a tired smile to Adrian and nodded her thanks to the blonde, too exhausted to question her staff's weird expression. She could just be seeing things, having been on her feet for the last 14 hours, trying to keep blood on the inside of people's bodies rather than outside of it.

She readjusted her reading glasses to sit atop her head as she moved over to Room 2, grabbing the chart that had been placed on the wall next to its door. Skimming over its contents, she was relieved to see that her day seemed to have come over its peak and was finally coming down to a more manageable pace; this man was being seen for a follow-up on some stitches he had received some weeks ago.

Something unique in this man's file caught her attention, though; the diagnosis of selective mutism with no other context was listed in medical history. She was curious how he managed to pass selection into the military in general, let alone get into a PMC, but she wasn't paid enough to ask questions such as that. It was going to be more important for her to find out how she was going to communicate with him about his healing status and any questions he may have.

Alexander Manos (operator name: Velikan), the file read.

With two knocks on the metal door, she announced her arrival and opened the door with one hand, the other still holding onto the clipboard as she entered the room.

“Alexander?” She prompted, looking up at what she could only describe as a giant heap of muscle and terrifying armor, trying not to make her initial shock obvious by her facial expression. The man had just come back from a deployment if she was to judge from the faint odor of gunpowder, man stink, and blood alone. His layers upon layers of tactical armor pads made his shoulders appear impossibly wide, and his mask gave the impression of a fearsome red tiger with its painted sabers outreached and ready to bite at any given opportunity.

There was a moment of silence where the two simply stared at each other before Alexander nodded hesitantly in acknowledgment to her question. The fact Kaja was unable to see his face made her uncomfortable given she wanted to be able to interpret his expressions at least if she wasn't able to hear him speak, but she wasn't about to argue with 250+ pounds of pure muscle over it.

“My name is Dr.Magnusson, I'm the new doctor here at Shadow Company. They've put you under my care after Dr.Fort was stationed elsewhere,” Kaja began awkwardly. Having done several dozen introductions over the last week had not made her any better at them.  Truthfully, she wished that she could just skip past them altogether.

Alexander made no indication that he was going to respond to her introduction, so Kaja continued without missing a beat, “It looks like you're being seen today to have your stitches in your arm checked on?”

He made no indication that he had heard anything she'd said, simply looking straight ahead at her. Or, she had to assume he was looking at her, since his mask was still on. If she didn't know better, Kaja would think he was ignoring her deliberately. 

“Are you being seen for your stitches today?” Kaja repeated, enunciating her words a little clearer, curious if she had mumbled them earlier by any chance.

Alexander simply shifted in the hospital chair, moving his head up to look at the ceiling for a moment as he let out an audible sigh of clear annoyance.

"Not deaf," he finally grunted out in a raspy, baritone voice.

“Sorry,” Kaja was taken aback that she had received a verbal response from him at all, “I just want to know the best way I can talk with you. Would a pen and paper help? Would you like to type it on your phone?” 

She was trying to think of solutions the best she could on the fly, knowing she still had other patients waiting to see her as well. Alexander’s head perked a bit once he heard her listing the options that she had listed, but he settled back into his chair quickly, crossing his arms.

A moment of silence fell between them before she continued, “I'll need to see your arm and make sure it's healing properly.”

She moved closer to him at a balanced pace, watching as his covered face came back down from eyeing the ceiling to stare at her again.

“Alexander, I want to help you. Can you help me do that?” Kaja asked softly, reaching her hand out to touch his arm where his stitches were.

He leaned away from her, angling his body off of the bed as if she had some contagious disease. He pulled the arm she was reaching for out of her range and straightened his posture in a clear attempt to intimidate her with his stature alone. 

Now, she was starting to lose her patience. She gripped the pen tightly to her clipboard in an attempt to calm herself down as she took another step towards Alexander and lowered her voice, so no wandering passerby could overhear.

“Hey, I know maybe this situation is hard for you for your reasons, but you are putting me in a really difficult position at the moment for other reasons. If you don't want to be here, I'm not going to make you stay. But it is my job as your doctor to try to help you, and I have seen too many people almost die today from infections. So, if your name comes across my operating table, and it's from your arm wound getting infected, do you know how tempted I'm going to be to just amputate it?”

Was it a professional way to talk to her patient? Not in any capacity, and she definitely would have been fired if anyone had heard about it. Did it seem to resonate with her patient? Enough for him to start removing his gear slowly to display his healing scar.

First, came his helmet. When she saw his face, she almost regretted threatening him with amputation. She had seen he was a few years her senior from his records, but his face certainly reflected it. Loose black waves swept back from his face and greased down from his helmet in an almost mullet-like fashion. He had a haircut she was almost certain would be considered out of regulation, but that wasn't something she was going to fuss over at the moment when he was finally complying with her wishes.

Next, she noticed the years of exhaustion in his eyes that manifested as dark purple circles beneath his dark brown eyes, like freshly watered graveyard dirt, cold and secretive. His expression didn't seem to waver from a neutral stare, despite her attempt to placate him with another gentle smile as thanks.

The silence continued while he continued removing his gear, the display almost comical with just how much he had had on in the first place. She'd never seen someone with so much padding, yet he was still so broad underneath it all, built like a concrete wall. Kaja wondered what his daily regimen for the past ten years had been for him to have been in that kind of shape.

 Once he had removed all of his padding, he was finally able to roll up his undershirt enough to reveal the scar Dr.Fort had previously sewn up along Alexander’s forearm.

“There’s nothing that can be done about it at this point," Kaja sighed with a tone of frustration as she looked up at the man with disapproval, "But, I can tell you didn’t let it heal completely before you went back to duty. It’s healed crooked in a few areas after you ripping back open. Do you see it, here and here?” Kaja attempted to point at the disfigured scar tissue on Alexander’s arms, but he seemed beyond disinterested in hearing about it as he turned away to stare at the wall. 

With a sigh, Kaja removed her hands from his arm and backed away from the patient’s table, giving him some personal space she could tell he would appreciate.

“So when I see you in here when you get hurt, and I tell you to rest, you’re going to go right back to the field, is that it?” Kaja asked in a deadpan tone as she crossed her arms and leaned against the handwashing counter.

Alexander did not respond, instead rolling his sleeve back down to cover his arm and placing his gear into an orderly pile that he would be able to carry once he was dismissed.

“No wonder Dr.Fort had to go,” Kaja teased with a smirk, “He had to leave for his sanity, huh?”

That quip got a small snort out of Alexander.

Being able to make him laugh made Kaja feel a little better about threatening him with amputation earlier, at least.

“Alright, well, Alexander, if you have no other complaints about your health, then you are released from my care for now, and you are free to check out at the nursing station at the front.”

Alexander wordlessly gathered his armored plates and gear into his arms, picked it up, and left the patient room. In any other circumstance, Kaja would have felt incredibly insulted (okay, maybe she still did, just a bit.) 

But, she did manage to get some kind of a reaction out of someone she could have been thoroughly convinced was an android up until the very end of the session, so she had to take her wins where she could get them. 

When she exited the room, she was immediately pulled off to the side by Adrian, the nurse who had called her to the room in the first place. The blonde woman had a look of plain guilt on her face as she held Kaja’s arms.

“I’m so sorry, the other doctor was busy, and Alexander was next in the queue, and I-”

“Adrian,” Kaja interrupted the nurse firmly, “What in the sweet hell are you talking about?”

“We all know Alexander can be really… difficult to handle, and we didn’t want you to have to deal with any of those kinds of cases with you still being so new. I just didn’t have a choice, but I’m still really sorry. Are you okay?” She asked, looking Kaja over, seemingly checking for injuries, much to Kaja’s concern.

“I’m fine,” Kaja laughed, trying to brush off the idea that she might need to be worried about the fact that she could be injured on the job here, “Honestly, I think he kind of warmed up to me at the end there.” 

Kaja stated the end with a smug grin, raising her eyebrows as Adrian’s jaw dropped in disbelief and Kaja simply shrugged.

Over at the nursing station, Alexander watched the display discreetly and rolled his eyes, snatching a single pink hard candy from the infirmary candy jar on his way out. As he walked out of the double doors, he unwrapped the sweet and popped the strawberry candy into his mouth with a satisfied hum. 

What a weird fucking doctor, he thought to himself. At least she's kind of entertaining. I guess I'll keep seeing her for now.

#modern warfare 2 #cod #mw3 #cod velikan #my writing #velikan #cod mw2 #call of duty #cod modern warfare

[jarredlharris]

Is this what having an existential crisis feels like?

Yesterday, I posted the following on a number of my social media sites:

I decided to write a post here instead of tweeting/posting about this because (1) I don't have to worry about breaking up what I want to say into smaller tweets/posts and (2) I can then just post a single link to each of my social media sites rather than reproducing the thread on each site.

As I think about it, I'm starting to think it might be more accurate to say I'm having an existential crisis over my online presence, whether I even want to continue it, and what I want it to be like. After all, it's something that has been building over quite some time. In fact, it probably goes farther back than what I'm going to discuss today.

A lot of it started to really come to a head as Twitter (I will never call it "X" even if Evil Big Bird threatens to delete my account if I don't stop calling it "Twitter") really began circling the drain. People not only started making exit plans, but began to execute them. Many friends and acquaintances have announced that they either do not feel safe remaining there or cannot in good conscience support the site by their continued presence. I have not joined them, but I understand and respect the decision they made.

To me, the most frustrating part of this, however, is that everyone's exit plans are different. Some of the people I follow now hang out on Blue Sky. Some are on Threads. Some are on Instagram. Some made one Discord server or another their home. Some came here to Tumblr. There's no longer a single place I can go to keep in touch with all these wonderful people who mean something to my life. And while I've tried to keep a presence at many of these places, it's stretching me thin and I don't think it's a sustainable course of action for me in the long run. So while I'd never ask any of these people to stay in a place they find too toxic and harmful just for my convenience, I'm most sad that the death of Twitter is turning into a veritable "Tower of Babel" moment.

In the long run, I'm just going to have to choose which sites I feel I can and should focus on and accept the reality that I'm going to have to say goodbye to some people -- or at least not remain quite as close to them as I might have been at one point. And choosing who to say goodbye to by nature of where I limit my own presence too also weighs on me. These are choices I'm not going to enjoy.

Add to this the fact that I'm feeling a bit lost for a direction for my continued online presence. I'm not sure what I want to talk about anymore. There are a growing number of days I'm not sure I have anything to talk about, if I'm being honest.

I don't feel that I"m a hugely creative person most days. I have a few great ideas. I think those some of those ideas are pretty important. For example, I think that my past discussions about changing our understanding of what it means to call someone or something "sacred" was incredible. (Though I'm also finding it's far from original to me.) I'm glad I did a couple Twitter threads and (I think three) YouTube videos on the subject.

But the idea that calling someone or something sacred is to acknowledge that it has inherent value that cannot be given or taken away is not exactly a complicated topic. I'm not sure I can say much about the topic that I haven't already said. And I'm not the kind of person who can just keep repeating myself (and that's what it would feel to me like I was doing at this point). I'd start to feel silly and talking just for the sake of saying something.

The one site I seem to still be going pretty well on -- and it's a somewhat new one for me -- is Quora. I seem to be doing okay there because I can answer questions. I particularly like answering theological questions. Mainly because like in so many places, the theological questions largely seem to focus on Christian theology (and certain specific "brands" of Christianity at that). I like answering those questions in a way that bring my Norse polytheistic views to the table, reminding people that there are other ways to tackle the "big questions" that even challenge some of the assumptions of (most notably evangelical) Christianity.

I haven't found much interest in that level of discourse on the social media sites. It's also one of the reasons that I've been drifting away from the deconstruction communities I've been involved in the past year or so. They're still mainly focused on theology from a Christian standpoint. That's fair, since a lot of people in those communities are still Christian and trying to figure out how to rescue their faith from the toxic theology they were originally stewed in. And even those who have no interest in remaining Christian tend to be only interested in theology insofar as it relates to processing the harm they received from that toxic theology.

I've considered just focusing on Quora for this reason, though I'm not convinced that's the right answer. And even there, I start to wonder if I'm doing anything worthwhile.

So that's my possible existential crisis. Thanks for listening.

#deconstruction #social media blues #online presence #second thoughts #reevalutating choices

[akookminsupporter]

am i the only one who feels like the tannies care less about the grammys now? which, to me at least, is a good thing... but also a frustrating and bad thing too. :/ i was catching up on a lot of older content since i haven't seen them yet, and they always talked about performing at the grammys. not win one. and they got to perform, not once, not twice, but three times! which is HUGE for an asian group since we know how the grammys (& kind of north america) treats/treated them in the past. and they were so happy and honored to be able to perform at the stage and they pulled off such an amazing performance!

to be honest, i knew they were not going to win a grammy, but i was still rooting for them until the end. i had that one little hope that maybe, MAYBE they could get it. when bang pd showed up before the red carpet, i honestly thought for a second that this is it. they are getting one. they did it. we did it. but then i had to remember what i was watching... and it was really disappointing. it was horrible watching yoongi's reaction when they announced the winners and it was even more horrible watching any grammy-related content afterwards. 1/2

so while it would have been amazing for them to get a grammy, i am happy knowing that (at least it seems to me) they care less about winning one. and please don't misunderstand, i'm not trying to say that winning was the only thing they cared about! i just feel like they learnt that the grammys are still very racist and xenophobic and that is one of the main (if not The main) reasons why they couldn't get it. i know winning one if the only thing they haven't done, and getting a grammy means that you as an artist is critically acclaimed, and that's why i still hope, that one day... one day they might be able to win one. and i would hope to be there, with them, to witness that.

2/2 but it passed. and since we all know how the grammys treated them, we were all like "yes, we are proud of them, fck the grammys for pulling this on them". because i feel like deep down we all knew that even if america is slowly adjusting, the grammys are still voted by old, white men who won't give them a chance. and i so desperately wanted them to understand that it is not their fault. it's not their fault that they didn't get a grammy. it's not because they didn't work hard enough. it's not because people didn't love or support them enough. it's out of their hands. and the way they talked about the grammys much later, especially during the proof promotion i think? i felt like they acknowledged and accepted 'why' they didn't get the grammy. and i feel like they moved past the need of getting one/wanting one. they wanted to perform. that's all they wanted to do for years, and they got to do that.

Hello anon, how are you? Okay, I'm going to organise the ask first because I think anon got it wrong. The second part that I'm quoting above is actually the second paragraph or that part is what starts the second part or the 2/2 message that anon sent, the paragraph that starts with "so while it would have been amazing…" is the last paragraph of the ask. The end of the ask. I hope I explained it well.

Now anon to comment a little bit on what you said. In general, I agree with you, bts is a band that first of all likes singing/rapping, the stage is really what matters to them and performing on a big stage in the west was one more goal they wanted to accomplish. I don't think anyone can deny, not even themselves, that they wanted to win that award but I don't think they needed to or thought they should. Winning a grammy would be the end of their adventure in the west so to speak, one more way of saying that they conquered the west but obviously it was not the only way.

I remember that when I saw the video reaction of them seeing that they were nominated for the second time I noticed that it was very different from the first one. More measured, more normal. They were grateful, there's no doubt about that, but I think at that point they understood much more about how things were. After the Grammys, they said it themselves that they didn't really mind not winning, that they wanted to do an amazing performance and they did and I know they were happy with that. No one likes to lose and BTS even less hahaha but I don't think they lost sleep over it. Few artists understand that what gives an artist validity is the number of people who listen to their music and go to their concerts, I think BTS knows that very well.

As for them knowing how things work in the industry in the west… I think Namjoon's Vlive in April confirmed it. They know. They definitely know.

Hopefully, bts in the future will win one of those awards, not because they need the validation of having one but because it's one of those awards that they don't have and they deserve to have it. Hopefully, the western industry, especially in the USA, will stop being afraid of songs in languages other than English, that's the first step.

#anon #ask #bts #rosie's opinion

[vixenninjaturtle]

VAMPIRIC LOVE Pt. 2

TMNT Raph 2016 x Fem. Reader

For @ashleighclark98

It's been about 4 months since you started working as Raphael's estate manager, and you've gotten into a rhythm/system of what you need to do. You even decided to make it your personal mission to befriend your grouchy Terrapin employer. Although your efforts were to know avail you are never the type to give up so easily. However there were a few times where you would bring Raphael's morning coffee, cleaning his office or even working in the garden You will catch a glimpse of Raph staring at you. But each time you will look away Which only made you More and more determined to get to Know him and become friends with him. Maybe even become something even more.

However, when your birthday rolls around something happened to where you start to second guess if you want to become friends with him at all. You are once again serving Rafael his morning coffee as well as his breakfast waiting for him to say happy birthday to you. Though you never did you; 'He probably has other things on his mind right now, he'll tell me later.' At least that's what you thought but later came and went and he still never said happy birthday to you. That is until later that evening, you're in the kitchen getting ready to prepare dinner when Raphael walks in.

"I'll be expecting a visitor in 10 minutes be prepared to greet them. " He announced to you

You pretended not to hear him and continue on preparing to cook dinner. You knew it was a bad idea, but considering how he never once said happy birthday to you all day or even gave it a thought, you wanted to teach him a lesson.

"Did you hear me? I said I'm expecting a visitor in 10 minutes." Raph repeated starting to get a little frustrated.

However you continue on to ignore him that is until he slammed his fist hard on the counter making you jump slightly.

"DO NOT MAKE ME REPEAT MYSELF!!! My visitor will be arriving in 10 minutes and I need you to be ready for the arrival!!!"

You try to not let his sudden outburst persuade you from showing him what it's like to be ignored. Then again you never heard him and yell like that and it kind of freaked you out a bit. Plus you could have sworn you saw his eyes glow red like bloodshot red.

"Fine! Go ahead and ignore me but you will greet my guests or there will be consequences." Raph warned firmly. "Nod your if you understand."

As much as you wanted to keep ignoring Lord Raphael, deep down you did not want to know what the consequences he had in mind were. So to keep the peace you're not in your head just to keep him from repeating himself anymore than he already has.

"Oh so she nods her head, but refuses to speak? Well whatever it is that's got your panties in a bunch I will not tolerate it any longer. If you're mad about the fact that I didn't say happy birthday to you get over it. I am not looking to make friends with you and we never will be friends. So you might as well accept it now be ready to receive my gas in 10 minutes. I do not want to hear any huffing and puffing or even complaints from you as you do it. You will do your job with silence compliance is that understood?"

United your head again hoping to get him to shut up and leave kitchen. Although you were happy that he knew that it was your birthday but nevertheless chose to still not say anything still infuriated you. Out of all the employers you worked for although some of them you really didn't like, they still had enough Hearts to acknowledge the workers birthday. Raphael on the other hand, he was really giving you a run for your money. You've met some really stubborn ass people in your life but he was a different type of stubborn. And now you know you had to work extra extra hard to get him to lower his defensive wall. Just as you were about to prepare for freshmen's for the expected guest both of you and Raph heard a loud bagging coming from the front door.

"Hmph... seems like my visitor is early, why / in go greet them and I will meet you at the West staircase." Raph said before leaving.

"Would it kill him to say please once in awhile when asking want to do something?" You mumbled to yourself as you roll your eyes and proceeded to go answer the door.

While you were walking towards the door, there was another banging. You sighed internally trying to walk as fast as you can. It seems as though Raph isn't the only one who needs to learn some manners. You answer the door to greet the guests, except instead you were met with a beastly like growl accompanied with sharp teeth like fangs and a pair of glowing red eyes. Before you realize what was happening or could even react, you were suddenly attacked flying across the room hitting your head against something hard and in addition fainted. Meanwhile, Raph was waiting for you and his guests by the West staircase when he heard that growl.

"What the hell? What was that? "? He asked himself. "Shit that can't be good"

Fearing the worse and without hesitation, Raphael and immediately ran to where he heard that growl. When he reached there, he felt his non-beating heart dropped his stomach seeing you passed out and be assailant hovering over you are lifeless body.

"I came here to see to Lord Raphael and I knew he had a human working for him but I never knew the human that was working for him will be this beautiful... Or this delicious looking." The assailant said as he inched closer to you.

Seen this infuriated Raph to where he felt his blood boiling his teeth grinding and every vein in his body was visible.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOIN?!?!" He screamed as he immediately punched the guy square in the face sending him flying. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO COME HERE TO TALK NOT ATTACK MY ASSISTANT!!!"

"Oh please even though I came here to talk to you you think I'm just going to ignore the fact that you have a beautiful walking blood bank here working for you? I'm surprised you haven't claimed her yet." The assailant laughed

Hearing this made Raphael even angrier than he already was. He growled even more then rushed the assailant pinning him hard against the door by the neck tightening his grip choking him.

"Now you listen to me you pathetic piece of shit and listen good. If you ever come near my home again and attack something that is MINE I will not hesitate to chop yer damn head off. You're lucky I'm sparing you now so I can tend to her wounds otherwise you'll be dead already. Not get the hell out before I change my mind."

Raph then released the assailant from his grip but not before leaving a mark on his face. This ends that he will face severe consequences for his actions. And as quickly as he came he assembly quickly left muttering to myself that he will be back. Without wasting another moment, Raphael ran back to you.

"Y/n... Y/n wake up are you all right?" Raph called out to you as he lifted you carefully gently caressing your cheek.

You slowly opened your eyes to see Rafael hovering you while holding you in his arms. Looking around you notice that the guy who attacked you was nowhere in sight. You tried to sit up but was suddenly met with a throbbing pain in your head.

"Lord Raphael?" You grunted. "What happened? Why does my head hurts so bad? And what happened to the guy who attacked me?"

You have so many questions running through your head that I only made the pain even worse you reached up to caress your head but felt something warm. You looked at your hand and noticed that there was blood. Raph noticed held your hand in his.

"Shhh shhhh relax don't move, you are attacked and it seems you got a pretty bad gash from when you hit your head. It's not deep but you're bleeding a lot." Raph reassured applying pressure on the wound. "And as for the assailant, don't worry he's gone he can never hurt you again."

.........

While Raphael continue to apply pressure to your room you couldn't help but stare at his tough but Angelic face. This is the first time you've seen him look so worried and it's about you. That's when you notice his beautiful green eyes, they had scared and worrying written all over them. Just as you were about to reach up to touch his you felt yourself slip out of consciousness again due to the amount of blood loss. Raphael saw what was happening in me we started to panic.

"Hey... Hey no no keep your eyes open! You need to stay awake!" Raphael demanded as he watch your eyes get heavier and heavier. "Come y / n don't fall asleep on me. You got to keep talking to me! Nag me about how I'm always locked up in my room or about how I always have a grumpy look on my face say something anything!... Please."

It wasn't long before a ref could hear your heartbeat getting slower and slower making him panic more to the point that he actually had tears in his eyes.

"Nonononono shit y/n you can't do this to me. FUCK! You can't leave me like this. Please my little firework please open your eyes." Raphael continue to beg as tears roll down his cheeks.

It was that moment that Rafael knew there was only one way to save you. Only thing was that he was hoping to keep you away from that life. He hoped he would never have to bring another human into his line of work or his world. Still in spite of what he wanted he had no other option. The only thing that really concerned him was saving your life. With his mind made up Raphael gently pulled you closer to his lips the skin of your neck exposed. And as gently as he possibly could he bared his fangs into your neck sucking her blood. He only hoped he was able to save you in time and hope that you could forgive him.

#teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt 2016 #reader #rapheal #female reader #vampire lover #bayverse turtles #my art #request

[syntethizinglove]

Announcing "Synthetizing Love"

I know I have more chances to actually finish a project if I tell people about, so I am officially announcing my very first game:

The sprites shown here won't be in the final game

I decided to create this game for the Yuri Game Jam 2023. I am an artist who loves drawing female characters, so I thought a yuri game would be a good start in creating visual novels. Not to mention that one of my original characters was the perfect fit for the genre, so I immediately made her the protagonist. It's also true, though, that this would be my first time getting into the yuri genre and I hope to be able to write a good story that will do this genre justice.

The game will be created using TyranoBuilder, since I'm no programmer, but I will write the story, design characters and UI and create sprites. For backgrounds and music, I will probably rely on free assets (I'm really bad at backgrounds but I may still try to create them if I have enough time).

Hannah, Chikara and Yvonne are my original characters, so they already have a set design and personality. (The drawings you see in the banner above, in fact, are from their reference sheets and won't be used in the game. I'm just using them as placeholders.) Nonetheless, I still want to create new outfits for this game. Any other character will need to be designed from scratch.

Work in progress. Trying to come up with new outfits.

HANNAH: main character; American. She's obessed with science and chemistry. Her greatest desire is becoming a renowed scientist.

CHIKARA: one of Hannah's best friends; Japanese. Always calm and collected. Her cold stare scares people, but in reality she has an extremely warm heart.

YVONNE: one of Hannah's best friends; French. Dreams of becoming a teacher loved and respected by all students. Loves to gossip.

LOVE INTERESTS: can't reveal anything for now, but my hope is to have three of them. The silhouettes in the banner above are temporary and may different from the final designs.

PROFESSOR PASCAL: University teacher. Hannah is his lab assistant and loves to make him angry.

MR. HYDE: Hannah's cat, adopted from the shelter~

More characters to come, maybe???

I'm currently writing the prologue and, although I have a general idea of where I want the story to go, I still need to figure out the middle part.

The premise of the game will slowly be revealed as the story progresses because Hannah herself beats around the bush and doesn't explicitly talk about it, since she refuses to acknowledge it. She likes women and she has never accepted it. Due to past events, she has buried everything deep into her heart and has lived her life like this, thinking the problem was solved.

Of course that's not how it works and her wounds, which have never had the chance to heal, have heavily influenced her life. In this game, she will learn to open her heart and accept herself thanks to a new love. What kind of "love" it will be, the player will decide.

Placeholders. Placeholders everywhere lol In this stage I am only adding in text and trying out the new software.

I'm not sure if I will be able to finish the entire game within the jam's timeframe, so I'm aiming for a working demo, at least.

My main goals for now are, more or less in order of importance:

Finish writing the prologue (I am currently at around 7k words, but who knows what more I will add or delete);

Input all the text in the engine;

Design all characters;

Draw all sprites and at least a decent amount of expressions;

Add all character animations and expression changes;

Work on at least one route, with a good and a bad ending.

Additional things that are still important, but don't have priority at the moment:

Find all the backgrounds I need;

Find some music.

This is all, for now. Writing will surely take a lot of time, so I'll probably write an update next week with the new word count. Unless I decide to take a break inbetween writing sessions and sketch some things, which means I'll be able to post an update sooner.

See you soon!

#game jam #game development #devlog #yuri #visual novel #yuri game