#then i realised it'd be more about what she did/didn't do most

[masschase]

7 and 8 for casey and B for you! i’m really curious about the creator question bc i know you’ve said before you used to not “get” OCs so i’m wondering how creating casey and the others changed things for you

I kept the first two short, I really did! But the last one was too interesting! 🤭

Uncommon asks for OCs and their creators

7. What triggers nostalgia for them, most often? Do they enjoy that feeling?

It kind of depends. She doesn't feel much childhood nostalgia in a positive way. But there are glimpses. When she stole Phoebe's pecan pie recipe and recreated it on the ship, that was about the closest she got to childhood nostalgia for some time. Being wrapped up warm, too.

I think what triggers the most nostalgia though is just talking about Stilwater with Shaundi, Johnny, Pierce and to some extent, Ben. Like they'll make a little joke and it brings her back. It's unsurprising that her most positive nostalgia is tied up in her friends.

8. What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child?

Anything that would ruin her mom's "keeping up appearances" vibe. Stop getting dirty, stop being loud, stop mentioning anything that might make people think we're struggling.

Stop getting distracted. Stop questioning things so much. Stop staring into space. Stop talking *about* space.

Accept your place in Stilwater.

B) What inspired you to create them? (&how did making OCs change your view of OCs?)

Ooh so I guess I didn't think I was 'creating' Casey at all. I just had a story in my head that fit Matt and The Boss. The Boss, in this instance, being my SRIV Boss I'd played as 8-9 years previously (parts of this story were cooking for a while). Their dynamic in canon must have captured me in some capacity when I first played, so when I had this story in my head I guess I remembered their dynamic and I was like yeah, that really fits them.

I already had the look (my in-game Boss with some minor adaptions), a good chunk of the life events from SR1 onwards, the voice (and associated voice lines), the attitude. I felt like her personality was already almost tangible to me by playing.

Appearance wise yeahhhh okay admittedly she looks a little like me when I first played the game. I was in the "just make the custom character look like you" phase. Hence the colourful dip dye in my head even if it wasn't in the game 😅 this is why she'll always be like way younger in my heart than my hc too. I never intended to a. get as into the game as i did, b. ship her with anyone or c. make any kind of fan content, but here we are I guess.

Her age pretty much comes from the youngest I felt I could make her and still have her plausibly act as the Boss does in SR1. Like I'm not going to sit here and pretend I didn't know who I was shipping her with when I decided her birth year(the day itself was purely for plot reasons). I was actually pretty surprised Matt was that young when I first found out but that's another post entirely 🤣

Anyway, I used anything I could use about Playa's personality (both from what I remembered and the wiki) to build up a picture, but that in turn led to more questions. When you're working with as much canon as possible you actually have a lot to throw in and explain. Why does she like Jane Austen so much? Why is she secretive about her past? Why was she so quiet at the start?

I also knew I had to come up with a name because while I intended to keep the Boss's name secret for most of it, I knew from the start there was going to be a pretty major reveal around it. My main criteria were that it be one generally seen as gender neutral to tie in with SR1, not mine, but still one I still really liked. One of my friends actually went by the nickname Casey bc one of our mutual friends just started calling him that- it's nothing like his actual name and he doesn't use it anymore.

I can't remember if I looked up and that game jumped out or if it popped into my head, but I really liked it, and when I found out it can be short for Cassandra I was set because I love Greek mythology names. I seem to recall I did worry people would think I was misspelling Cassie/Cassy but I liked it too much to let that stop me. If I knew I was going to be posting about her on tumblr, I might have picked a name that wasn't similar to my own, or once it was already decided, I maybe should have picked a different name to use for myself within the fandom but at the same time that would really confuse me 🤣

Obviously throughout the course of writing I did start to think about what had led her to that point; the before, between and unseen during games. Her family especially, I felt I needed to actually think about. Then along the way I just kind of came to points where I had to go "Oh, OK, what's her favourite dessert?" "What were her hobbies before the Saints? "How does she deal with the crushing weight of multiple deaths on her conscience?". You know, cute shit like that.

Point is, one day I turned around and there was a fully formed OC staring me in the face. She crept up on me. That's when I gave up on things like not mentioning her appearance and I threw things back in before I posted. I'm not usually that oblivious to things like that but given the way I started off the whole thing it just kind of happened.

Which brings me neatly to the other question. I did actually write fanfic years ago, and it was usually shippy, often smutty, but it was always canon x canon. I was never possessed to make an OC. I think I had one for some TWEWY RP that never got off the ground but I would never have used them in my writing for example.

I admit, I guess I associated them with self-insertion and wish fulfilment, which I'm not being judgy about if that's anyone's thing. It's just that it wouldn't be something that would appeal to me as a reader. The most I would use an OC for back then would be a one-off mention of a background character.

But when writing Out of Time I came to the point where I needed a few minor filler characters, still didn't count them as OCs. From there it was a natural progression to OCs with a more prominent role, I think Jenny was the first. There were story arcs that worked with them that just wouldn't otherwise, Mori is the best example of this, I love the layers of story his character adds. Idk if it's evident but he's my favourite non-Boss OC because he's just so important. 😀

Around the same time I was kind of accepting I had OCs, I started lurking on tumblr and I absolutely fell in love with some of the Boss designs here. I still didn't quite see them as OCs until I saw people tagging them as such and then I was like... oh. 🙃

Now... I love any and all Saints Row OCs. Love them. People's creativity never ceases to amaze me. But I'll always have a soft spot for Bosses.

#i have a headache that might be a migraine so i'm posting this then disappearing again :( #i just hope it's still coherent tbh but then i always end up hoping that #original boss did used to have a tiny moustache. i was mostly immune to the 2010s moustache trend #but not entirely. #in my heart her birthday is like 15th March 95/96 bc i cannot let go of my ides of march idea. not by a long shot. #at first for question 8 i thought of what her mom would hate most #then i realised it'd be more about what she did/didn't do most #anyway both works #casey as an oc developed for me the same way her love for matt did for her: over a long period of time and against our will 🤣 #saints row #sr boss: casey clark #asks #thanks for the ask!

[pearlzier]

⭒ㅤ𓈒ㅤׂ 🐾 ★

pairing : carmen berzatto x fem!reader

summary : carm is fucking flabbergasted to hear you've never had a proper valentine's day, let alone a special meal. so he has to rectify it as soon as possible.

word count : 2.28k

tags: the bear, jeremy allen white, fluff, valentine's day, carmen berzatto, carmy berzatto, established relationship, awkward carm <3, BEST MAN EVER.

a/n: got this idea from @aliaugustaa, i thought it was so cute so i just had to do it :3 who needs an irl valentines when u have ur little chef man, making sure u know u deserve the best amiright.

it all started when carmen had overheard you, syd and tina talking. he'd been in his office, trying to get some work done with the door slightly ajar, considering the air conditioning in the room was shit, when the three of you had struck up a conversation. he hadn't paid much attention to it. he occasionally tuned into the sound of your voice, of course, but the details of the words you were saying remained mostly lost on him.

until he heard the mention of ‘valentine's day’ come from tina. fuck. if he had to be honest, it'd been years since he'd last.. celebrated? valentine's day? before you, he didn't actually have any reason to do anything for it. carmen avoided the day like the plague, actually, with the bare minimum being done in terms of heart themed menu times. but even he knew that you would've been expecting a valentine's gift from him, right? you two had been dating for what, nearly a year now, so he had to think of something.

that started his panic in terms of what he was going to get you. he had no fucking clue. but what took him out even more was your words, as you leant against the counter with your notepad: “valentine's day is so overrated,” okay.. “i haven't had a valentine since i was like, fifteen, and i'm perfectly fine.”

perfectly fine.

his blue eyes darted quickly to the calendar on his desk, fixing onto ‘february 14th’ almost instantly. he can't bite back a smile at the heart you'd drawn around the date, with ‘v-day’ scrawled messily on it. but all the cuteness aside, he had.. one week. he didn't need to do anything amazing for you, no, considering you did think the holiday was overrated, however he felt there was an unsworn duty for him to prove to you that you were special, and deserved the best.

he sorted the week that he had left into phases. there were four phases, all of them intricately, messily, planned to ensure you'd have a great day. and he'd managed to do all of it right under your nose.

of the four phases, first came the easiest one. slowly easing you into the idea of valentine's day. you weren't stupid, no, you were quiet observant and god knows you would've picked up on any new behaviours from your boyfriend, so he had to try to integrate the day of love into work first.

convincing everyone to mention valentine's day, not obsessively, but repetitively to try get it into your routine wasn't difficult. it was a restaurant, for god's sake, of course they'd have some sort of valentine's menu, right?

so he got marcus to start making some particularly love themed desserts — “uh, sure. don't mind it.” you hadn't seemed to pay much attention to the ginormous order of cupid stickers out back, which worked heavily in his favour.

“yo, cousin, don't worry. she'll be walkin’ ‘round with the whole ass arrow by the time i'm done,” — richie was just as eager to get you in a lovey-dovey mood, with his passing comments about how eva was a total bachelorette and that all the kids in her class were gonna be throwing presents onto her desk.

there was no way to tell whether that was true or not. no one really asked.

“hey, cool, i'm feeling it,” — tina was also happy to help, being overly lovey with you around the restaurant. it was quite unlike her, but still, you didn't mind the affection. little hugs, forehead kisses from dear aunt tina weren't that bad.

“she's gonna realise that we're going overboard,” — syd was the most reluctant. she'd have much rather told you about what they were doing, as opposed to keeping it a secret. however carm was good at convincing her, and it was for a good cause too. so, she let it slide, pushing the valentine's agenda with little doodles of cupids or hearts on her menu designs. you liked them.

so that was phase one done. pretty simple, if carmy says so himself. and you didn't mention anything about it. perfect. he felt a little weird keeping something from you, but, of course, it was a good cause, right?

with phase one completed, he had to move onto phase two. this one was probably his second favourite of all of them. bringing valentine's into the house. valentine's day was all about love. he loves you, of course. it was the reason why he was doing all of this in the first place. so he thought the best way to do this phase was to get you in the mood.

you were very clearly confused by the romcom that was playing on the tv screen when he ushered you into the living room, but you didn't ask many questions considering how tired you were. “carm,” you began, brow furrowing, before you shrugged, moving over to settle on the couch. tilting your head over to the direction of the kitchen, your eyes found carmy bringing over the chinese takeout. it'd been a while since you two had indulged in it, but he knew full well it was your favourite. “you're the best,” his smug little smile told you a lot, but not about his little scheme and its phases.

“i know, babe,” he hums, bringing over the tray and settling it onto the coffee table. carmen shuffled over, settling onto the couch beside you, gently lifting your box onto your lap before he took his own. it wasn't unlike him to take care of you like this, but there was something more tender in how he was helping you. sweet, yes, but it was making you a tad bit suspicious. “you okay?” he asked softly, voice gentle and low, as a small little smile played on his lips.

“mhm,” you nodded, just snuggling beside him with the takeout box in your grasp. you two usually didn't watch romcoms, usually finding a good drama or sitcom however you didn't mind it. this one in particular was quite good.

and besides, carmen having his arm slung around your waist as you two ate was a perfect feeling. so despite your suspicions, you let him have this moment without asking him.

that was phase two done. not too shabby, really. richie and, actually, literally everyone in the bear was a tad bit sick of carmen's rambling about how amazing you were. they literally all knew it, since you were their colleague, but god, could this man talk.

the third phase was one that carmy realised perhaps should've come earlier. it was just getting you things that you liked, without you realising. which was harder than it sounded, considering carmen was shit at keeping things from you, and you were usually the one who looked at orders to the apartment. so he needed the help of his sister, natalie. she was so eager to help that it was a little overwhelming. “so what do they like anyway?” natalie asked as she pushed the cart beside carmen, eyes flickering over to his in curiosity. “bear?”

he was uh, stressing. he loved you so much, and—well, “god, sugar, i love her—” he ran a hand through his curls, eyes widening as soon as he saw the giant valentine's day display in the store. a quiet groan slipped past his lips and he bit his knuckles for a moment, glancing desperately over at his sister. “peach deserves the fuckin’ world, y'know? just wan’ make it special for her,” the pity, and adoration, in natalie's gaze softened her eyes immediately and she gave him a quick pat on the back.

“right,” it was her personal mission now to ensure that you and her brother had a perfect day on valentine's. she was sure of it. a small little grin played on her lips as she ushered him over to the display, and she leant against the cart. “okay, what would she like? something lovey? sentimental?”

“don't fuckin’ know,” carmen muttered under his breath, rubbing his temple as he looked over the many valentine's themed things available. holy shit, this was harder than he thought. he knew you so well and yet, what you'd like evaded him.

“okay, well,” natalie picks up a random white teddy bear, brows raising in question as she offers it to her brother. he grabs at it, squeezes it perhaps a little too hard out of frustration but slowly relaxes his tight grip on it. “okay, that one's going in.”

the shopping trip continued like this, with natalie suggesting things that she thought you might like, with carmy giving his wordless responses. it was kind of therapeutic for nat, to be fair. and carmen was getting the stuff he needed for you. he'd have to thank natalie after, considering soon after he was done with phase three, he was into the final phase. the actual valentine's gift.

this was probably his favourite part. of course, carmen was a chef by nature. so he knew a valentine's dinner was in order. he was sort of sick of hearing anything related to the saint, however he could relax with this part. he'd made sure that syd would keep you out of the apartment for at least three hours. having even gone to the lengths of giving money for you guys to spend, he was clearly working hard. he knew your palette, so well in fact, that he didn't even think twice about what he was preparing.

from what you loved to eat, to what you despised, carmen knew it all. and he wanted to spoil you in terms of what he made, so he also gave sydney strict instructions that the two of you weren't allowed to get any food. hey, he wanted you to have enough room to eat.

he'd planned everything immaculately, of course, but when he heard you and syd at the door, he almost panicked. the table was laid out perfectly, all of your favourite foods available. a flush filled his cheeks at the thoughts of richie's previous words: “shit, cousin’, you a fuckin’ simp,” rang through his head and he scratched the back of his neck nervously, sitting at the table.

“thanks, syd,” your voice called from down the hall at the door, your smile evident in your voice. it made the butterflies in his stomach flutter, and he shifted where he sat. “m'back, carm!” you were making your way down the hall now, nearing the living room where you assumed he'd be. he was not. “carm—?”

your brow furrowed, since he'd have mentioned he'd be out if he was going to be. “carm,” you hummed as you wandered into the dining room area, not looking into the room until you did, and your lips parted into an expression of shock. “holy shit.”

you're surprised you didn't burst into literal tears seeing carmen sat at the table, wide blue eyes lifting to yours from the table cloth. his cheeks were rosey, a sheepish expression adorning his lips. “fuck, this is dumb,” he got up, scratching the back of his neck once more, “i know you don't—oh, shit, peach—”

his eyes widened as you barelled into him, wrapping your arms around his frame as his hands slid over your lower back. biting his bottom lip, he lifted a hand to your face, just to see your expression. “oh my god, carm,” tears threatened to spill from your eyes, bottom lip trembling. carmen's expression only softener, and grew a tad bit guilty.

“oh, no, baby, don't cry,” his thumb stroked over your jaw, brow furrowing. carmen soon pressed a peck to your forehead, his hand cupping your lower back and bringing you into his body. “can't eat ‘n’ cry at the same time,” he soothed with a soft chuckle whilst he cradled the back of your head.

“so this is what you were doin’?” your mumbly words come all soft, watery, glossy eyes lifting up to his as you frown. you may be about to cry, sure, but it's for a good reason. “all this time? oh my god, is it because of what i said to syd and tina?”

a sheepish nod followed, his hands brushing away your tears gently. he smiled, nuzzling your nose with his own as he brushed his lips with yours, squeezing you tight against his chest. “uh-huh,” he muttered, “didn't notice earlier?”

“nuh-uh,” god, you felt kinda dumb for not realising. but also glad you didn't, since you wouldn't be as overjoyed as you are right now. you squeeze tight around his waist once more before you drag him back into sitting down. hey, you were hungry considering his little scheme. “god, carm,” you bite your bottom lip, looking over all the food. not to mention the valentine's themes decorations.

“so everyone was in on it?” you lean against the table, watching as carmen dished out your plate for you, his blue eyes lingering on the food before they lifted to yours when he heard your question. he gives a little nod, pushing your plate towards you. then, he pours you a glass of wine, all smiles. “god, that's why—oh my god!”

giddy, absolutely giddy, would describe you right now. over the fucking moon.

“and when you and nat went out? you guys never go out, holy shit,” you grabbed your fork, leaning against the table with a little smile. that smile soon became the biggest grin he'd ever seen. “babe, this is too much,” you frowned, gaze all fond.

“wait till you see the gifts,” he mumbled around a spoonful of pasta, avoiding your gaze and focusing on his plate.

“carmen!”

#carmen berzatto #the bear #the carmy brainrot prevails #carmen berzatto imagine #carmen berzatto x reader #carmy berzatto #carmy berzatto x reader #the bear fx #the bear x reader #the bear imagines #carmy berzatto imagine #jeremy allen white x reader #jeremy allen white #jeremy allen white imagine #jeremy allen white imagines #carmen berzatto fluff #carmen berzatto smut #carmen berzatto imagines #carmy berzatto smut #valentines day

[deakyjoe]

Somebody’s Watching Me Part 2

Pairing: Simon “Ghost” Riley x Reader (she/her pronouns used, reader is implied British and given backstory)

Category: I still don’t know but it’s coming together

Summary: On a night out with your friends, you’re pleasantly surprised to run into your secret observer.

Warnings: flirting (Ghost and reader getting some action, they deserve it), mentions of war/death, talks of scars, alcohol consumption, Ghost being normal AND weird, the mask is off again, Ghost doing domestic things almost (socialisation in a pub), sexual references, family issues, reader’s friends are intense, British terminology/slang, swearing/cursing, dialogue heavy, minute Soap slander (I love him but couldn’t resist)

Word Count: 5.5k (longer than part 1)

A/N: After the love I got for part 1, I decided to continue so Simon is still my babygirl. Please remember that if Simon feels out of character, that’s the point of this story. It’s him when he’s not being Ghost but being forced to mix aspects of his life at home and his life at work - the work aspects being reader. Also he’s going out of his comfort zone to please the sergeant (you) because he likes you but just hasn’t really realised it yet. Not entirely sure I’m as pleased with this part as I was with the first but we’re posting anyway!

Part 1 available here.

Part 3 available here.

It took weeks before your friends finally managed to convince you to join them on a night out. You'd been putting it off for a number of reasons. One being that the thought of socialising in a crowded environment had you wanting to gouge your eyes out as you'd grown used to little to no company. Another being that you genuinely thought it'd be overwhelming and you might have a panic attack.

But after they'd assured you that they'd look after you and you could all leave if it got to be too much, you relented and organised a time and place with them. Just your local pub on a Wednesday night. You'd decided on a Wednesday as you hoped it wouldn't be too crowded and that your friends might need a pick-me-up in the middle of their work weeks. They agreed quickly with the idea.

And honestly it'd been nice for the most part. You'd arrived early, you swear active duty had made you so time efficient that you spent almost no time at all getting ready, and sat down at a table in the corner, out of sights of the most of the rest of the pub. The only thing in direct eye line was the bar itself which would come in handy when you needed to go up and order drinks.

Your friends all slowly arrived, none of them being too late, and gave you big greetings as they hadn't seen you in "forever" they claimed. You returned hugs and kisses and prepared yourself for a night of bombarding questions and retelling of war stories.

A couple of your girlfriends were bought drinks by guys at the bar and you watched on in amusement as they giggled about it together. They assured you that someone would probably buy you a drink if you asked but you waved them off saying you didn't care, which you didn't.

You listened intently as they all told you what was happening with their lives - work, significant others, kids, families, pets, parties, weddings, funerals, birthdays, anything and everything you could possibly imagine. A note of envy settled in your stomach at one point but it went away quickly when you told yourself you were being silly.

Telling them about your life was slightly more complicated. You had to skirt around some of the details of your job as it was classified and would probably horrify them if they knew what you truly did. You gushed about some of the amazing people you'd met and mentioned casually that you'd actually bumped into your lieutenant in the supermarket. They all absorbed it with wide eyes of wonder and amazement, each of them having at least one question to ask.

"So, wait, you can actually shoot a gun?"

"Does it bother you having to bunk with a bunch of blokes?"

“What’s said country like?”

"Are any of them fit?"

"Isn't it tiring?"

"How long until you go back?"

"Met anyone you fancy?"

"Hang on, you have to share a communal bathroom?"

Yes, it's alright, not really, they're okay, very, not sure, oh my god, yeah.

They never really seemed satisfied with your answers and always wanted you to elaborate. Which you did if possible.

Overall, it was nice. There was no sense of impending doom or a weird feeling in your stomach about the whole thing. You let your guard down just enough for once to attempt to have a good time. Which you did. You laughed, you chatted, you drank, it was good.

Until the bar tender came over with a drink that looked exactly like what you usually ordered.

And when he placed it in front of you, you wanted to throw up.

"Fella at the bar bought this for you."

This was it. The moment in the night that you looked forward to the least and the moment your friends had been encouraging the most. They insisted that you needed to "put yourself out there more" and “try to get laid at some point”. You were "too uptight" as they put it. Little did they know that you weren't really interested in a quick shag or even a relationship with anyone at the moment. And rejecting someone was always awful. Every time they asked why and having to explain that your job made romantic entanglements extremely hard made things awkward.

"Ooh, this is so exciting!" One of your friends squealed beside you, frantically searching the bar for the culprit. "Which one?"

“Blond one.”

Oh.

"Tall."

My.

"Scars on his face."

God.

Your eyes shot towards the bar and immediately landed on him. Of course he was already looking your way with his drink raised to you.

"Shit." You cursed, silently letting out a sigh of relief that it wasn't someone you'd have to reject but all the more anxious because it was him. A part of you was very excited to see him though.

"What is it? Do you know him?" Another friend asked you.

"He's my lieutenant. Fuck." You stood from your seat, grabbing the drink.

"The one from the shops?"

"Yeah. I'll be back in a minute, guys. I'm just gonna go say hi." You explained, slowly making your way towards Ghost.

"Take your time!"

You hadn't seen your lieutenant since he'd gone over to your place for tea. It was a weird experience. Weirder than the shops. You'd had a couple cups of tea each, shared his packet of chocolate digestive biscuits, which he'd kindly offered to you, chatted a little more and then he'd left. You didn't exchange phone numbers or even offer to see each other again. He didn't because he probably didn't want to and you didn't because you thought he probably wouldn't want to. So you'd gone your separate ways and that was that.

As you got closer to him, you wished you hadn't had so much to drink. You weren't drunk but you weren’t sober either. Kind of just bordering the edges between being buzzed and tipsy.

"Simon."

He turned so his body was facing yours, his large frame consumed the stool he was sitting on. Intimidating and alluring all at once. "Sergeant."

"You really should start calling me by my name." You sighed, stopping to stand in front of him.

"I like calling you sergeant."

"And I liked calling you lieutenant." You shot back, taking a sip of your drink despite your head screaming at you not to.

"Bet you like calling me Simon more."

Your eyes widened at his statement. He wasn't wrong but you wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that. "Thanks for the drink, by the way."

"It's no problem. Thought I owed you for the bourbon."

You hummed in agreement but said nothing.

"Friends of yours?" He nodded towards your table where all of them were watching the two of you interact intently.

"Uh, yeah. First night out since being home so..." You shrugged.

"Having fun?"

"I was." You regretted your words immediately, knowing that you’d been insensitive.

"Ruined it, did I?" He asked but it wasn't malicious.

"No. Just... unexpected."

He nodded. "So, which one's your boyfriend?"

You were surprised at the question. Last time he'd enquired about your personal life it hadn't gone so well.

"You live alone?"

"Yeah. Used to have a hamster but he died a few months back."

He blinked at you and said nothing so you rushed off to make tea, desperately trying to come up with a new topic to talk about when you got back to him.

"That's presumptuous of you, lieutenant."

"Just making conversation with you, sergeant." The return of dropping rank had you tingling inside. Might have just been the alcohol though.

You huffed. "None of them."

"Girlfriend then?"

You shook your head. "Nope."

"Sorry soul you're torturing with your affection couldn't make it then? What a shame." His eyes narrowed, you presumed he was joking.

"I'll ignore that insult. I'm single." Setting your drink on the surface of the bar, you leant your hip against the side but not before taking a step closer to him.

"Lucky for the world then that you're not burdening anyone with yourself."

"Jesus, Simon." You laughed out of shock, struck with his bluntness.

"Had to be said."

"Huh, you really are a charmer." You flashed him a glimpse of your teeth in a small smile, brows raising on the last word of your sentence.

"I try my best.” Pause. “Why are you single?"

"Because my affection is a burden apparently." Repeating his own words back to him seemed better than explaining your depressing void of no romance in your life because of your job. But maybe he’d understand.

"I'm serious."

"Why do you care?"

Simon didn’t strike you as the kind of person who gave a shit about the love lives of people he worked with. So why did he seem so interested in yours?

He didn't answer straight away and when he did, it seemed rehearsed. "You're my sergeant, part of my team. It's my role to care."

"To make sure I stay alive. Not to inquire about my love life." You were properly frowning at him now.

Ghost raised his hands in surrender. "Sorry I asked."

With a sigh, you relented. "The job."

"Go on…"

"Makes it difficult. The job makes it difficult to date. Especially civilians." You added the last bit on with clenched teeth. It didn’t really matter. Civilians were not on your romantic radar.

"Would you want to date a civilian?"

He saw straight through you.

"No, not really."

"Hmm."

You wanted to avoid discussing the topic any further so asked a question to change the subject. "What're you drinking?"

"Scotch that Soap recommended."

"And?"

He swished the glass around, the ice clinking against the side. "Utter shite."

"Figures." You took a long look at his drink. “You drink it on the rocks.”

“Tastes better cold. Less shit.”

“That your second glass?”

"Monitoring my alcohol intake, sergeant?” He asked and you shook your head as he looked you up and down. “You gonna take a seat or just stand there all day?"

"I'm supposed to be going back to my friends." You gestured weakly over your shoulder with your thumb, kind of forgetting they’d still been there until that moment.

His eyes flickered between the table and you. "Think we both know that isn't happening any time soon."

You hated how he saw straight through you. "Do we?"

"We do. Take a seat, sergeant." He nodded towards the stool next to him.

You stood up straighter, making a point to look directly into his eyes. "I like being eye level with you."

His foot hooked around the back of your legs and tugged you closer to him. "Think you'll find that I've still got a couple inches on you."

Your skin flushed hot, he was so close to you. You reached out and tapped his chest a couple times before realising what you were doing and removed your hand. "Think you'll find that you've had a bit too much to drink, sir."

"Simon. Thought we'd established that you can call me Simon." He leant back a little bit, relaxing in his seat. “And thought we agreed that you weren’t monitoring my alcohol intake.”

"Sorry." You squeaked.

"Sorry who?"

With a smile, you looked up at him through your lashes. You already knew what you were going to say. "Sorry... Lieutenant Riley."

He smiled. Actually smiled. It was small but it was unmistakable. "Brat."

He was beautiful when he smiled. He was always beautiful but when Simon Riley smiled… he was radiant.

You lit up at the smile but glowered at the insult. "Simon!"

"It's true." He shrugged, taking another mouthful of his drink and wincing at the taste.

"I'm stubborn. Not a brat."

"Believe me, I know you're stubborn. You've almost died like twelve times because you're stubborn. Had to save you every time." He shook his head as if it were a grievance to him.

"Could've left me behind."

"Couldn't do that. I'm your lieutenant, remember? My role is to keep you alive."

"I'm sure Price would let it slide if you had good enough reason." You thought about your Captain and wondered if he'd let you die for a good enough cause. Probably. But you held no resentment towards that fact.

Simon's head tilted to the side as he watched you think. "Don't think he'd accept brat as a reason, hm?"

You raised a finger to correct him. "Stubborn. Not a brat."

"Definitely a brat."

"Stop calling me that." You whined.

"That was the brattiest thing you've ever said. In the brattiest voice." He glared down at you. "You whined."

"You're such a dickhead, Simon." You scoffed but it was clear you were holding back a smile.

"And you're a brat. Guess we're even."

"Okay, I'm going back to my friends. To get away from this targeted attack." You paused. "Unless you want to join."

"I'll pass."

"I guessed. Do you have any friends? Maybe you could use the socialisation." You offered, wondering whether the man ever spoke to anyone when he was home or if he completely isolated himself from the rest of the world.

"Don't have friends for a reason."

That answered that for you.

"And what's that?"

"Ask too many personal questions."

He had a valid point. People did ask too many personal questions and you could understand why someone like Simon wouldn't like that.

"They wouldn't. My friends. They know we tend to be... private."

"You're a sergeant and I'm a lieutenant. Neither of us are privates." He paused to let the joke settle in. "A little army humour."

"I got it. That was good." You beamed at him, eyes crinkling in the corners at his quip.

"How much do they know of what we do?" He nodded in the direction of your friends.

You thought it over for a moment. "Very little. They know more about my teammates than anything else. Even that is limited."

He stiffened at that. "What do they know of me?"

"My quiet lieutenant with no face. Until recently." You let your eyes roam his features, taking all of him in. He was remarkable to look at really. But you'd never voice that to him.

"Hmm."

"There's more but I won't divulge with you." It was a partial joke to mess with him a little. There was some truth behind it however. You may or may not have gushed about your lieutenant to your friends. But that was nothing really. Just friendly appreciation for the man who outranked you.

"That makes me nervous."

Playing with him was too easy and too fun. "You should be."

"I'm reconsidering sitting with you and your friends now." He frowned but wasn't completely serious.

That surprised you. "You were going to?"

"Maybe." He drank more of the Scotch and trembled. "Christ, this stuff is fucking disgusting."

"Order a bourbon, something you know you actually like." You sighed. "Please do. If they're too much we can leave."

"We?" He was always questioning we.

You rolled your eyes at him. "It's always we. Teammates, y'know?"

A level of unsureness settled over his face. "I know."

"Get used to a lot of we then."

"Don't plan on seeing you again after this." The admittance stung but you weren't going to let that stop you.

"I'm sure you thought that last time as well. But here we are. Are you stalking me?" There was a hint of genuineness in the question. There was no way this second chance encounter was pure coincidence.

He shook his head, waving the bar tender over and ordering a bourbon like you'd suggested. "You're too boring for that."

"You have such a way with words. Really know how to make a lady feel special." You said dryly.

"It's a gift." He scratched at the side of his nose, absentmindedly trailing a finger over one of his scars in the process.

"They wouldn't say anything, y'know? Or stare. If you're worried about that. I've come home with my fair share of scars over the years. They understand." You pulled the neckline of your shirt to the side to show off an old bullet wound that had scarred over on your collar bone.

Simon's eyes lingered on the mark on your skin but you couldn't quite read his expression. "People always stare."

"I don't."

"No, you don't." He hesitated. "Okay then."

"Wait, really?" You perked up.

"Yes, really. Quickly. Before I change my mind, sergeant." He rose from his seat, grabbing his drink and gesturing for you to go first.

You gazed up at him. It really was easy to forget just how big he was. "Quick question first?"

He didn't seem keen. "Go ahead."

"How long were you here watching me before you sent the drink over?" You really needed to know, to see how out of it you were.

"Not long." Lie.

Your brow furrowed. "How long, Simon?"

"About forty minutes."

Your eyes widened. You didn't expect it to have been that long. "Fort- Jesus. And I didn't notice you?"

He brushed you off with a small shrug. "You were having fun. Guard was down."

"Still."

"Don't dwell on it. I was just going to leave and not let you know I was here." His eyes moved away from you, the opposite side of his eye contact problem showing.

You ducked to the side to meet his gaze again. "Why didn't you?"

He shrugged again.

You offered him a small slip of affection, just the tiniest thing. "I'm glad you didn't."

He grunted in reply, which was more than you were expecting. So, you just gestured for him to follow you towards the table of your friends where you stopped short a couple feet away. You sent a quick glance over your shoulder to make sure that Simon was still, in fact, there and hadn't pulled a Ghost and disappeared. But he was still standing there watching you when you checked. Which meant it was time for introductions... which you sucked at.

"Everybody, this is Simon. My lieutenant. Simon this is... everybody." You frowned at the crowded table in front of you. "You'll pick up names. It's alright that he joins us, yeah?"

“Of course.”

"Yeah."

"Oh, my god, yes."

"Take a seat, mate."

"Where you from, Simon?"

"Manchester."

"Ugh, he's a Manc! Moving on!"

You laughed as you squeezed into the booth with Simon next to you, trying not to touch him too much. "What did I miss? What are we talking about?"

"My husband is cheating on me." One of your friends announced dramatically.

Your eyes widened at the confession. "What? Really?"

"I suspect he is." She pouted, slumping forward onto the table.

"As if. He worships the ground you walk on. As he should. What makes you think he's cheating?" You debated whether this was a good topic to be talking about with your lieutenant sat right there. But then you figured that Simon needed some friends. And what was a better way to make friends than through some old-fashioned gossip?

"Late nights as work. Going to the gym a lot. He's not getting any fitter either."

You winced. "Ah, well that is quite damning."

"Yeah. I'm trying to build up the courage to just ask him about it."

"Yeah, confront him. If he's cheating then come to me. I know how to use a gun and hide a body." You winked at her.

"Sergeant." Simon's warning tone came from beside you.

"I'm kidding, lieutenant." You looked to your friend again and mouthed. "I'm not."

Another one of your friends spoke up, leaning on the table on his elbows. "God, you guys are so formal. Even during leave."

"We don't have to be. He refuses to call me anything other than sergeant. I think it's because he secretly doesn't know my name." You nudged Simon with your elbow and then, realising what you'd done, pulled back quickly. Maybe taking a break from the drink would be a good idea for a while.

"Not true." Ghost shook his head slowly.

"So you claim. Yet you've yet to refer to me as anything other than sergeant."

"It's fun watching you squirm thinking you have to be on your best behaviour all the time." He sent you a sly smirk, his eyes squinting just the tiniest bit.

Your jaw dropped. "I'm asking Price to reassign me. This is bullying."

"Wouldn't let Price do it." He countered, leaning in dangerously close.

"Who's Price?"

The both of you pulled back at the question and answered simultaneously. "Captain."

"Ah, okay. The one with the mutton chops, right?" One friend offered.

You nodded. "Right."

Simon huffed. "That's what you told them about Price?"

"It's his best feature."

"Christ, woman." He groaned, rubbing a hand across his face.

"Ooh, woman's a new one."

A friend volunteered in your defence. "To be fair, she's not allowed to tell us much. She usually gives us one identifying feature of every person she tells us about. So we can keep up."

"I'm assuming Soap is the fact that he's Scottish."

"Scottish with Mohawk. He gets two."

"What's Gaz?"

"Baby of the team."

"Fitting. Me?"

You stayed silent.

"What is it?"

You shook your head. "Can't say. Classified."

"Sergeant." His voice was harsh, demanding.

But you weren’t going to give in. "Lieutenant."

"I won't be insulted." His voice dropped to its familiar bored tone, as if trying to force the idea that it wouldn’t bother him.

That’s not what concerned you however. "Don't think you would be."

"Then why can't you tell me?”

"Just can't." Stellar reasoning, well done.

"I could ask them." He tilted his head in the direction of your friends, who were all watching you completely enraptured.

You didn’t back down, stare hardening at him. "Go ahead."

"Fine." He turned to the table. "What's my identifying feature?"

There was a moment of silence before someone gave in and admitted it. Traitors. "You don't have one."

There was a split second of delay before he replied. "She doesn't talk about me then?"

"Quite the opposite actually." One of your friends giggled.

Another stepped in. "Talks about you sooo much that you don't need an identifying feature. Just know who her lieutenant is."

"Besides, apparently you usually wear a mask. You have no features."

A raised finger of a counterpoint. "Arguably, the mask is the feature."

Ghost turned to you, almost smug. "You talk about me, sergeant?"

"Don't flatter yourself, Simon. You're good at what you do. I can appreciate that." You sniffed, rolling your shoulders back to force yourself to relax.

"Out loud? With your friends?"

You shot him an irritated look. "Get over yourself."

"Didn't say anything."

You clicked your tongue against the roof of your mouth. "I know what you're thinking."

"I'm sure you do." He exhaled deeply, glancing away from you towards his drink.

Your own gaze moved back towards everyone else around the table. "Moving on! What else is happening with you guys?"

"Saw your parents a couple days ago. They said they didn't know you were home."

Well, that wasn’t the jollier topic you hoped to move on to.

A fake smile automatically set itself on your face at the mention of your family. "Fuck. What did you say?"

"Lied for you and said you only just got back. Might want to call them."

"I will do that. At some point.” Lie, lie, lie.

"Mhm, your sister had another baby as well. That's what? The fourth niece or nephew you haven't met?" There was a note of condescension in your friend’s voice.

You shrugged, knowing you had a decent enough reason. If your job counted as decent. "I've been busy. And it's only the second."

"We're not judging. Your parents might be though."

"Well, that's lovely to know." You slouched down in your seat. The relationship with your parents was… touchy, to say the least. Desperately seeking their approval for years had left the bond with them strained. And you being away from home so often definitely hadn’t helped the rockiness of it all.

"Also they seem convinced that you've met a military man and are going to come home engaged or married..."

Your face scrunched in disgust. "Oh, ew. What the fuck?"

Simon elbowed you harshly in the ribs. "We're not that bad."

"Share a bunk with Soap and come back to me on that." You snapped back. Your fellow sergeant was a snorer who regularly farted in his sleep. He was like your brother but man did you hate having to sleep in close proximity to him.

"Fair point.” He grumbled back to you. “But why are they under that impression?"

"They know I don't date civilians."

"Or anyone." One of your friends mumbled in her drink.

"Thank you.” You sent her a sarcastic smile. “So they think I'm after a man in uniform."

"Aren't you?" The same friend asked.

You closed your eyes and clenched your jaw. "In... theory."

"Not in practice though." She carried on, loving the way you were squirming.

"We know not in practice, okay? Doesn't need to be said aloud.” You spared a glance at the man beside you before adding a harsh whisper. “Especially in front of my lieutenant."

"I'm sure Simon is loving this."

"It comes with the job. Family troubles and no love life." He offered some of your words back to you from earlier, shrugging. You were glad of the support from him, even if it was only your own thoughts.

"You got any friends for her Simon? Anyone on the team you think she'd be good with?"

He shook his head. "Nah, not good enough for her."

Wait, what? Not good enough? For you? Since when did he have such a high opinion of you?

A friend of yours cooed. "That's sweet. If it helps, she's great in the sack."

You choked on the mouthful of drink you were taking, slamming your glass back down. "And how exactly would you know that?!"

"I shared a house with you in uni, babes. I remember all those guys coming out of your room with dazed smiles looking as if they'd just had the time of their life." She grinned at you slyly.

Eyes wide. Jaw dropped. Heart racing. "Oh, my god. Please shut up."

"You asked."

"I didn't need such a detailed answer!” You were ignored.

"Although you may be quite rusty at the moment. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

You covered your face with your hands. "For the love of everything that is good in this world, please be quiet."

"I'm just saying. We're all friends here, aren't we?" She laughed, mainly gesturing towards your higher up.

"He's my lieutenant!"

"Wait, Simon, are you single?"

You cut in before it could go any further. "Nope! Okay! So... sister? Baby. Parents? Delusional. What else?"

Everyone around the table chuckled at your reaction but moved on anyway, much to your relief.

"They're hoping you’re home for Christmas this year."

Your hand tightened around your drink. "I hope I'm not."

"Thought you'd say that."

Paying little attention to what your friend actually said, you mumbled to yourself. "That's fucking ridiculous of them. What the actual fuck?"

"We said the same." Mumbled loud enough for them to overhear apparently.

Simon looked confused. "What's the issue there?"

You failed to answer so someone else did for you. "They uninvited her to Christmas three years ago. Hasn't been back since."

"Why would they do that?"

"Didn't approve of her lifestyle."

He turned to you. "Your... lifestyle?"

"Murderer daughter." You bit back, bitterly.

His body tightened with tension. "You're not a murderer."

"Tell them that." You snorted. "Why do they want me home now?"

"Beats us.” Your friends said in weird unison.

"Wish they'd make their mind up over whether they want to disown me or not. It's exhausting trying to keep up."

The table laughed at that. Simon did not. But did he laugh at anything?

“I’m gonna get another drink. Want one?” He looked down at you, pointing vaguely at your almost empty glass.

“Uhh… sure. Thanks.” You smiled at him, which he obviously didn’t return. After briefly asking everyone else if they wanted anything, which they declined, he stalked off in the direction of the bar.

Once he was a few paces away, one of your friends practically launched herself halfway across the table and lowered her voice to a hushed whisper. "He's gorgeous, babes."

You decided to play coy. "You think?"

"You don't?" Her brow was raised in disbelieving accusation.

The coy act was dropped pretty quickly. "Oh, I know he is. Just didn't think you would."

"Well, I do. And he’s definitely your type, absolutely perfect for you. Plus he so likes you."

You scoffed. "No, he doesn't."

"He fancies the pants off of you!" She insisted.

You didn’t buy it. "I can guarantee that he does not."

"He can't take his eyes off you!"

"He has a staring problem." You shrugged, it was true.

"Yeah, the problem is that he can't stop staring at you."

You thought about it. Yeah, he stared at you a lot. But he stared at everything. Didn't mean he stared at you with... feelings or whatever your friends were implying. Just that he had a staring problem.

"Lieutenant Simon Riley does not like me." It was a finalised statement, one that you believed wholeheartedly.

"Open your eyes, babes. He likes you."

"Do you like him?"

Avoid answering. "Not allowed to like him. He's my lieutenant."

"That doesn't answer our question."

Shit.

"Maybe a little." You pinched your fingers together, there was no point lying to them, and shook your head. "Doesn't matter anyway."

"Why?"

"Because, say he did like me, he'd never admit it. And I'm not going to push him into anything. I'm just glad he's talking to me and accepting my attempt at us being friends." That was true. You were loving how he wasn’t completely rejecting your friendship. He maybe wasn’t embracing it but he wasn’t pushing you away either.

"That's so sad, babes."

"Cheers.” You deadpanned. “It can't happen anyway."

"Why not?"

"Relationships aren't allowed. Makes us a liability. My captain would reassign one of us as soon as he caught wind of it. And it would be me." The thought of Price reassigning you was horrid. You loved your team more than anything.

"Simon said he wouldn't let your captain reassign you."

That was true, he did. "He was joking... I think."

"I don't think he was. That man stares at you like he's ready to eat you. It's like listening to Hungry Eyes by Eric Carmen in real life!"

Groan. "You watched Dirty Dancing again, didn't you?"

"Yes, but that's not the point. The point is that Simon looks at you with hungry eyes. And don't judge my love for Dirty Dancing." Two of your friends nodded in agreement with her.

"I'm not. I'm judging your favourite song choice when Love Is Strange by Mickey and Sylvia is clearly the superior song on the soundtrack." You said as you downed the last bit of your drink, thankful Simon was bringing you another one. Your mouth was dry and the initial buzz was wearing off. You’d need more alcohol if this interrogation was going to continue despite it probably not being the best idea.

"Blasphemy!” She declared before quietening herself. “Oop, we gotta be quiet now because he's coming back over. Simon!"

He froze in his tracks, a glass clasped in each large hand. "Yes?"

"Can you settle a debate for us?"

You froze too, wide-eyed. They weren't going to ask about him staring at you, were they?

"Sure...?"

You smiled at his unsure tone. Big, scary man who got shot at for a living was terrified of answering a little question.

"You've seen Dirty Dancing, yeah?"

You relaxed.

"I have."

Surprising.

"Which is a better song? Hungry Eyes or Love Is Strange?"

"Oh, I... uh-"

"Leave the poor man alone." You laughed despite being a little curious about his music taste.

"I always liked She's Like the Wind."

That shocked you to your core. "Patrick Swayze fan?"

"Used to have a mullet just like his." He placed your drink in front of you. "Here you go. You look surprised."

"I always am when you don't disappear. And when you admit to being a Patrick Swayze fan." You snorted, taking the drink from him.

"Learn to have a little faith, Sarge." He sighed as he sat down next to you again, an inch closer than before you were sure.

A burning feeling settled in your chest at the nickname. Sure, it was only a shortened version of your rank, and a common one at that, but it was something. Not sergeant. Not woman. Sarge. You decided to let it slide to see if he’d ever do it again of his own accord.

"Your name's Ghost for a reason." You sing-songed, the image of his mask flashing through your mind.

"I'll give you that. But remember, Simon here."

"Still weird."

"Still Simon."

You chewed the inside of your bottom lip before asking your next question. "Patrick Swayze?"

"He was blond."

"Like you, you mean?"

Hesitation. "Yeah."

You hummed and thought about him with a mullet. What an odd thing to admit to you. But you’d never complain. If Simon was willing to offer you little tidbits of silly information about himself, then you were going to absorb every single one and treasure them forever.

A/N: Simon with a mullet as a teen because he wanted to be Patrick Swayze when he grew up is canon to me now.

#simon ghost riley x reader #simon ghost riley x you #simon riley x reader #simon riley x you #ghost riley x reader #ghost riley x you #ghost x reader #ghost x you #simon ghost riley #simon riley #ghost #simon ghost riley fanfiction #ghost riley #ghost riley fanfiction #simon riley fanfiction #call of duty #modern warfare #modern warfare 2 #ej’s fics #ej’s writing

[rubra-wav]

Main Hazbin Hotel cast x fallen angel reader who wants to cut off their wings (drabble - hc format)

Req by: @lightmoon99

A/N: I fucking love fallen angel angst type content, it's my bread and butter. I hope I was able to do it some justice <3

Cw: SFW, decapitation, a bit angsty, platonic, cannibalism, Gn!Reader

-

When you had fallen from heaven to hell, your hate for your more angelic attributes that had already existed before the fall only deepened.

You hated the sensation of the weight that signified your wings were, in fact, still there even when your halo had been taken when the exterminators had left you to die here.

You hated that you had to feel the pain of your attempt to hide them under cloaks and baggy clothes with ropes pinning them to your back.

When you came to the hazbin hotel, you were open from the get-go with Charlie, hoping she would sympathise being the daughter of a fallen angel herself.

It of course didn't take long for others in the hotel to find out you are a fallen angel, however it did take longer for them to find out simultaneously during a group exercise that you wanted to discard any and all heavenly reminders of what you used to be.

Charlie

- She's horrified when you bring out your wings in a flourish and say such a thing while gesturing to them.

- It's not too surprising considering you hide them practically all the time, but it still fills her with a sense of grief for you to think such a thing.

- She immediately tries to shut it down, telling you that you shouldn't hurt yourself and should be proud you have such gorgeous wings!

- Would apologise and go silent when she realises how badly she's messed up in saying that seeing your expression.

- Only continues speaking to dissuade some of the poor ideas coming from others in the group.

- She'd probably try to think up ways to make it up to you after the meeting.

- Probably tries to suggest doing some trauma work type things? She doesn't know a lot about that kind of thing, but she could get some books on it to try!

- Actually ends up learning a bit about trauma treatment stuff outside of the awful pop culture live love laugh stuff she's on about most of the time.

- Ends up helping out with you coping a bit better in the end due to that.

- Keeps trying but fails to do anything to dissuade certain members of the hotel to stop encouraging you to remove your wings, however.

Vaggie

- She's stung as a wingless fallen angel herself that you'd want to do such a thing.

- But she also understands all the same why you'd feel that way.

- Would respond in a way that's understanding, but ultimately awkward and clunky due to how she is normally.

- Made worse due to her own angst about it.

- Afterwards, she would probably try to have a private chat to you about it since it's clear you're struggling and logically she's gonna probably be the one most understanding.

- May even reveal she's a fallen too if you're close to try and give you a feeling of comradery in a pretty bleak way.

- She's got basically the opposite of what you've got, but it'd still be bonding and mutual support.

- Would be emotionally supporting you and encouraging you to try work through the trauma rather than harming / cutting off your wings.

- What the hotel doesn't have is a doctor, so you'd be screwed if you decapitated a part of yourself.

- She doesn't want you to feel inclined towards taking up certain members' offers either.

- She knows that the others are not going to stop with their bullshit so she actively tries to educate you on what they are up to really and all the risks that come with.

Angel

- When he first hears it, he cringes very noticeably despite his usual persona.

- The definition of 'that's rough, buddy.'

- He feels terrible for you that you'd feel such a way, but he also has absolutely no clue how to express it at all.

- Probably would be the type to try distract you from the bad by having fun, so he'd be trying to get you to hang out with him and either go to parties or go on various shenanigans.

- He's not good at emotionally comforting people at all, so he's awkward as hell and at loss when it gets particularly bad for you.

- But he's always there to try do activities with you to take your mind off of it.

- And he also needs it as well honestly. It's nice having someone who's also feeling shitty so you can mutually drag each other out to do things rather than wallowing in bs and feeling worse and worse.

- Probably calls out Cherry as well because she's always good at cheering him up.

- He knows quite a few people from a lot of different walks of life, so chances are he could get you in contact with someone who'd be able to perform removal surgery if after everything you still want it done.

- No strings attached as well with his assistance, unlike Alastor.

Husk

- He'd not really react at all initially outside of maybe raising his brows at your comment.

- Obviously, it's bad, but he just prefers to play his cards to his chest with how he truly feels about things.

- Would be actively being bitter as fuck at most of the other residents suggesting stupid shit though in a way that's honestly protective.

- Basically shuts all of them down one by one, calling them out on their crap.

- When Alastor points out how he 'seems to care awfully much about you' Husk scoffs and tells him to fuck off.

- Shuts up for the rest of the group part of the interaction.

- Afterwards though, he'd have a private conversation with you and actually gives you some good advice.

- Tells you that you should do whatever the hell you want but also to not let the opinions and thoughts others dictate that.

- If you want to do that, it's really your decision, and nobody has any right to try to tell you what you should do with your own wings.

- Doesn't really share his own opinion on what he thinks you should do because it's asinine and would be hypocritical to what he's encouraging.

- Just encourages you to think for yourself rather than just going with what the idiots and asshole are trying to fill your head with.

- And if you do decide to get them removed? Make sure to be safe with it.

Sir Pentious

- He very obviously feels bad for you. He shows it all over his face but also has no clue how to express it properly.

- So, naturally, he automatically goes to propose a practical solution to the problem.

- "I can do that for you, my fallen friend! I have experience with my creations, so I should be able to attemp-"

- He doesn't even get to finish his sentence before he's very rudely interrupted by Husk and told to fuck off with that shitty idea.

- Visibly deflates when he's told he's not a doctor and is just some inventor wannabe.

- He'd shut up for the rest of the meeting, moping and glaring between Husk and Alastor.

- But afterwards, he's approaching you saying he would try his best to do it if you asked.

- Would go and start researching how to do the procedure and starts meticulously learning about how to properly do it.

- Whether you decide on him doing the procedure or not, he wants to be ready just in case.

- He has no idea how to emotionally provide for you properly in this situation, so he's doing what he does best and is working practically. He's all open to any way he can be of assistance, however.

- Absolutely asked his eggs for advice on what to do and got nowhere.

Alastor

- Person number 2 who receives a resounding 'shut up' message via Husk.

- His eyes absolutely light up when you say you want to remove your wings, grin widening as he takes on a sweet tone that does not match his intentions at all.

- "Well, that could certainly be arranged, darling."

- Asks if you'd like to make a deal for your wings in exchange for something you want from him. He'd take you to someone skilled enough to do the operation.

- He wants a meal that is heavenly in a completely different kinda way.

- It's not every day you get to eat angel wings. And it wasn't like you wanted them, and he sure did.

- Even if you're friends, he wants to win the rare delicacy competition he has going with Rosie. If he bought some skilfully cooked dish with your wings in it, he'd win without a shadow of a doubt.

- It's not like he'd be lying about getting them removed, either. Just his intentions for volunteering to do so.

- Shuts up about it after the first mention of it and being called out by Husk, going on about something different after.

- But he's already plotting out what he can do to get what he wants.

- Would actively be sabotaging Pentious the whole time he's studying how to do the procedure as well. Those wings are going to be his, and he will not be the second choice when you (in his mind at least) inevitably come to him for assistance.

- He won't actively make your misery worse, but he will act as a passive influence urging you towards his goal.

Niffty

- Would also say she can remove your wings.

- But, would then proceed to try and do just that without even allowing you to process what she's said.

- Gets caught thrashing around like a madwoman in mid-air by Vaggie who saw it coming from a mile away.

- Wants to get your wings taxidermied and framed because she thinks they would make an excellent decorative piece in the hotel.

- Would then need to be kept in sight at all times away from you as she would be repeatedly trying again and again to destroy the cloaks you wear to hide your wings to get to them.

- Already had been collecting your feathers for several months and had already sorted those into a freaky art piece.

- So she's more than ready for a more substantial specimen.

- Was the one to actually expose you as being an angel in the first place - unintentionally by mentioning the giant feathers she'd found in your trash.

- Would probably be placated if you gave her more feather tbh. She thinks your wings and feathers are just wonderful.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel x reader #hazbin hotel x you #hazbin hotel charlie x reader #vaggie x reader #hazbin hotel vaggie #hazbin hotel charlie #hazbin hotel angel dust #hazbin hotel angel dust x reader #hazbin hotel husk #hazbin hotel husk x reader #hazbin hotel alastor #hazbin hotel alastor x reader #alastor x reader #pentious x reader #sir pentious headcanons #sir pentious x reader #alastor headcanons #vaggie headcanons #charlie headcanons #husk headcanons #angel dust headcanons #hazbin hotel niffty #niffty x reader #niffty headcanons

[cxlbybrock]

Colby Brock x Reader

Hey guys, this is my first story on Tumblr, I hope you enjoy! Feel free to leave any requests in the comments!

Colby broke up with you a couple years ago, you moved away and moved on. Now, two years after the break up, you return to LA with a new love and a new feisty attitude. Your best friend (let's call her Ash for the sake of simplicity) invites you to a party to welcome you back, she invites Sam but is it only Sam who shows up?

CW: cussing, cheating(?), no smut but a lot of talking about sex and sexual references, teasing, jealousy, 18+ only please

Unpacking was an obvious bore, you had some help from Theo, your boyfriend of one year and your best friend. Now, after a couple years you're returning to LA, a place with too many memories. Both good and bad. You're an influencer, popular for fashion and modelling content, LA is a big centre for pretty much everything. Why would you leave? We'll get into that later.

Ash's phone buzzes on the table, bringing you out from your trance.

"Make sure you get your best outfits out for tonight, Y/N." Ash teases. You roll your eyes, a sarcastic sigh escaping your lips.

"What did you do now?" You raise your eyebrow mockingly, hands on your hips.

"Just make sure you're fucking ready!" Ash's excited voice almost makes it hard for you to keep up with this annoyed facade.

"whose ready for what?" You feel hands snake around your waist and breath ghosts your neck. Ordinarily, it'd send goosebumps up your spine, make your heart race or even your cheeks flush. Not today. You put it off as the stress of moving into a new apartment but lying to yourself is still lying.

"You guys are going to be ready, dress nice later and meet me at my house around 9 o'clock." Ash smirks devilishly. Her demeanor is troublesome and worrying you, if you know your best friend you know she's planning something. Ash's plans are always stupidly insane.

Pulling out your phone, your eyes widen.

"it's already 7:30! Be at your house for 9?! I will not have enough time to get ready!" You scramble away from Theo, he pecks your cheek and you go with Ash to get ready at her place instead. She insisted in fact that Theo show up later and you guys have some 'girl time'.

Plonking yourself down on her bed, her personality switches. Serious; an emotion that she rarely displays.

"Right, I'm not overstepping here or anything but Theo... Do you actually like him?" She asks, if anything your best friend is honest but at this moment you're wishing she wasn't so observant.

"yes, of course." You scoff, lying. Although, is it a lie if you don't currently realise that it isn't true? Either way, she isn't accepting this answer.

"girl, he's literally the most vanilla boring man I have ever seen. He's blonde, wears the same clothes every day and likes boring shit. If he was a spice, he'd be flour. He's so different—"

"—different than what?" You bite back, interrupting Ash. She's unfazed, she's never cared about sharing her opinion and the sad thing is, she isn't wrong.

"than your other boyfriends. I mean, is the sex even exciting? When you were dating Colby, you used to call me everyday and rave about him so much that I even liked him. But Theo... I couldn't tell you one fact about Theo, he's more bland than rice." Honesty, but the sort you'd take the wrong way if it wasn't so true.

Once again, you knew deep down that she was right. You're dating a pretty boy, sure. But he was more like a shell, he wasn't necessarily strong willed and to be honest you didn't even know if he had any long term goals. The conversation continued and before you knew it, the time rolled around and Ash was giving you a blindfold as she led you along.

You decided on a low cut shirt, a pleated skirt and some fishnets (among other accessories). The tips of your black hair tickled your lower back as you walked downstairs.

"why are you wearing all black?" A voice asks, as you remove your blindfold you realise it's Theo.

"I thought it'd look sexy." You shrug, unbothered.

"you look like a weird goth." Theo says pointedly, this bothered you and you could tell you would make a scene but you bit your tongue and pressed on but you were still pissed off.

Many influencers and friends show up to the party, it's incredible and everyone's having a good time and it's nice to have the opportunity to introduce your friends to your boyfriend.

"Hey, Sam's here!" Ash yells over the music, you and Theo step away from the party to greet Sam, a very good old friend of yours. As you approach the front door, there's not one but two people. Sam ... And he brought Colby. Fuck.

You see Colby's eyes scan over your outfit, your curves, his eyes linger on your thighs and your cleavage and it makes your whole body hot. You bite your lip, it's a nervous tic but you can tell Colby thinks it's intentional.

Then, his eyes fall on your boyfriend and he smirks. He barely glances his way before his eyes pierce yours again.

"Y/N! Hey! Welcome back to LA, it's so good to see you again!" Sam smiles warmly and pulls you into a hug, you hug him back and smile brightly in return.

"hey Sam, I missed you so much." You reply before stepping away. "Sam, this is my boyfriend, Theo." You introduce your boyfriend and step aside so he can talk to Sam but he just gives him a weird look and mutters "hi."

"Theo..." You hear Colby whisper, snickering. Stepping forward, he gives you a look that could make any woman fold like a deck chair. "Hey, it's good to see you. You look sexy by the way." He smirks, he knows what he's doing and he's trying to get your boyfriend fired up.

You hit his arm and give him a futile warning look. Much to your dismay though, your boyfriend is unfazed by Colby. As toxic as it sounds, a reaction would've been nice, a little jealousy is hot sometimes.

"Wow... Is your boyfriend a cardboard cutout or something? Did you forget the voice box when you found him on the side of the road?" Colby teases you further and you glare at your ex.

"Colby..." You warn him again and he holds his hands up defensively. However, your boyfriend still doesn't care and it's really bothering you now. He has no spice to him, just like Ash said and the more you look, the more you see it.

Sam diffuses the situation although Colby is really making it his mission to get under Theo's skin.

The night continues without much drama, you're thankful but of course you couldn't have an easy ride. You veer off to grab yourself a drink, leaving Theo behind because honestly even you're getting bored of him now. He won't even dance with you, it's like he doesn't care about you at all.

You flick the bottle cap off the Smirnoff, you consider pouring it into a glass but you decide to just drink it straight out the bottle, it might make the night more bearable.

"woah, steady. I know your man has no personality but it's not like the alcohol is gonna give him any." You turn to the voice, Colby. Only now, can you really take in his appearance. All black, of course. But his rings, his chains, his tattoos... Fuck he looks so sexy— no, no he looks utterly repulsive... What is your brain doing? Your body is going against you and you're so frustrated.

"My man has plenty, thank you." You bite back, irritated. His proximity wasn't something you thought about until one step pinned you to the counter, his hands on either side of you.

"come on, he probably doesn't even last five seconds... No wait, I bet you guys haven't even gotten there yet." Colby reads your expressions and a sinister smirk spreads across his lips "wait he hasn't fucked you yet? Damn it's worse than I thought." His finger traces the hem of your shirt down to your cleavage, it makes your heart race as you try your best to pay as little attention to Colby or how your body responds to him.

"colby, move. You broke up with me, remember?" You glare at him, although let's be real that isn't what you want to do and honestly if you were still single it'd be a different story.

His fingers tug at your fishnets and you feel the cold metal of his rings touch your thighs. You intake a shaky breath and it's hard to keep your composure. "Oh, come on. You don't want me to go away, this is probably the most revved up you've felt in a year..." Colby smirks and leans into your ear, he tucks your hair behind it and you feel his breath ghosting your ear. "I mean... When you touch yourself, I bet you're still thinking about the way I used to do it to you."

Your heart races, goosebumps cover your body. If you don't admit it, it doesn't mean it isn't really happening and right now every fibre in your body wants Colby to bend you over that countertop and give you something you've been missing for the last two years but you keep up your walls.

"don't flatter yourself. It's been years, I've moved on." You bite but every time you bite, he bites harder.

Blue eyes bore into yours as he slides his hand up your thigh towards your skirt, your breath hitches. "Colby I'm in a relationship now, we can't." You want to sound strong but your voice falters, you don't want him to stop and he knows it.

"but you want to." He says pointedly. "Break up with him, I don't understand why you're with him." Colby speaks his mind but with his hands caressing your thighs, honestly it's hard to form a real sentence.

"He's nice." You say, feeling bad that the only thing you could think of was a basic, boring ass word.

"nice... You know why nice guys always finish last?" Colby asks, you shake your head and he smirks like a Cheshire cat "it's because their girlfriends never finish at all." His hands find your ass and he plays with the fishnets around it. "But don't worry..." He squeezes your ass and your fingers grip onto the countertop, you're almost under his spell "... I can always finish you off..." He whispers into your ear, his hands crawl up your body and it sends shivers up your spine.

Before anything in you can respond, the door to the kitchen flies open and your eyes widen.

Let me know if you guys want part two!

#colby brock #sam and colby #sam golbach #colby brock fanfic #colby brock smut #fanfiction #fanfic

[abbysdruidess]

˜”°•.˜”°• headcanons about you and abby's wedding - modern au •°”˜.•°”˜

wc: 1.1k

warnings: wedding w modern au(obvs), crying, tooth rotting fluff, allusions to sex, no use of y/n

a/n: lmk what you guys think of this one and whether you'd like more of reader and Abby in this universe! don't hesitate to send any requests<33

this is sort of on theme with a previous fic where abby proposes to you, this one can be read as a standalone though:))

❦ after the proposal, you guys hurrying too much to get the wedding off the road and on the rails- you're still extremely proud and giddy to call each other your fianceé, and you've sent about 100 pictures of your wedding ring to everyone.

❦ it isn't until one night where you're having dinner over at jerry's that he brings up the wedding preparations and you're like oh shit, you two kinda need to haul ass and start sending invites.

❦ you decided on a small affair, only your immediate families and close friends over. I imagine that in the insistence of your future brother in law Lev you sent out RSVP invitations that were ocean themed with cute little sharkies on the front that say in a vast ocean of people we found each other(💀). A lot of people found them pretty funny though, and Lev was pretty excited about them.

❦ on par with the beach theme of your engagement, you decided to have the wedding on a beautiful beach resort in the beginning of June-not too hot, not too cold;)-with the ceremony and the reception on the shore.

❦ of course, you couldn't leave out the bachelorette party! You and Abby travel to Vegas with your respective friend groups for a weekend of clubbing and partying in general. And lets be fr, someone from either of two groups ends up getting lost and you have to recover him Hangover style. Thank God you didn't arrange for it the day before the wedding.

❦ the days before the upcoming event are mostly a blur, both of you making last minute arrangements about the food, the flowers, the music. Your gown with the final adjustments is delivered and you have to hide it in a fridge box in the basement so Abby won't take a peek.

❦ "But baaabe, I just wanna see what it looks like! You know this stuff about bad luck isn't actually legit." "I know, but it will be more exciting to see the final look at the wedding. I promise you."

❦ finally the big day is here! And let me just say, as a very emotionally constipated person, you'd probably be a little teary eyed all day long. When you put on your gown and look at yourself in the mirror and realise that holy shit, I'm about to marry the love of my life, my Abigail, she wants to spend the rest of her life with me. And this just hits you all at once and a few tears run down your chin.

❦ if you have any wedding traditions from your culture that you'd like to honour, Abby would be 100% down for it. It makes her feel closer to you, and part of the new family she's going to be in. She also really likes listening to its origins and what it's supposed to represent. In my country, we do this thing where the wedding squad writes all their names down in the couples' shoes and by the end of the night whoever's name is the most smudged is the one who's going to get married first. Let's be real, if they did this, it'd probably Manny whose name had almost disappeared and he'd freak the fuck out.

❦ once you're ready to walk down the aisle, and you glance at Abby you let out a small ᵍᵃˢᵖ at the sight, with Abby dressed to the nines and a glowing expression on her beautiful face. Her mouth also formed a little O at the sight of you, ready to become her wife, looking so so happy and a slightly teary eyed.

❦ during the actual ceremony, you two keep stealing glances at each other, smiling kinda goofily like :]. You two are goobers fr.

❦ for the vows, I think the game establishes that Abby is a big bookworm, so she chooses something perhaps from Emily Bronte or Jane Austen. Of course this isn't the entirety of what she wrote, she just finds it more accurate to express her love for you through someone's else perfectly adept words.

❦ once the reception kicks in, you're carefully wiping tears from your eyes so you don't smudge your makeup, and take some photos with the wedding party on the beach. You're accepting everyone's congratulations for your newlywed status, and settling down to prepare for your first dance.

❦ you had decided on dancing to Por Una Gabeza, and had actually rehearsed the slow tango a couple times so your movements are synchronised. By the end of the dance, you're in each other's arms, cheek to cheek simply enjoying the moment.

❦ by the time you've finished you meal, the party is in full swing, and you join in for a few dances until you decide on a cake break and allow Yara to be Abby's dancing partner. By the way, your wedding cake? Exquisite, chocolate ice cream with strawberry.

❦ I also imagine you guys doing the whole tossing the bouquet thing and -surprise surprise!-it ends up on Manny's lap on accident. He almost leaves.

❦ by the night, you're both clinging to each other, ready to resume your lives as Mrs and Mrs, and also ready to break into the bridal bed. Seriously, you can feel Abby's fingers feeling up your thigh and she's been whispering the things she wants to do to you all night. By 2 in the morning you're home, very much exhausted by the preparations and the emotional high, but also very ready to let Abby peak what's under your bridal gown.

❦ for wedding gifts to each other? She hands you two tickets for some exotic island you guys always talked about going, and make it your honeymoon. You get her an antique vinyl record player, because she had always been going about getting something to listen music to while cooking. Needless to say you both love each other's gifts:D

❦ a week or so after the ceremony you receive the photographs, and Abby makes it her duty to hand them on every corner of the house. Seriously, at some point, you could see a photo of you two in your field of vision pretty much about everywhere.

❦ her favourite one remains in her desk, one where you two are about to leave, sweaty and drunk, the camera capturing your musky faces as you sit on her lap clinging for dear life. It's so sweet and endearing, and it reminds her why she married you in the first place.

#abby anderson x reader #abby anderson x y/n #abby anderson x you #abby the last of us #abby tlou #abby x fem!reader #abby anderson x female reader #abby anderson tlou2 #abby anderson headcanons #abby anderson fic

[thisisjustmefangirling]

Merlin rewatch : 2x09 "The lady of the lake"

Freya must have been so cold wearing these rags…

Gaius, your acceptance/resignation towards people being sold for a price if they have magic freaks me out.

As if Merlin was going to let a defenseless looking girl stay in that cage… Especially someone with magic. He feels empathy for them.

Is that the first time we're seeing the Rising sun tavern ?

Oh Merlin is using so many spells in a few minutes, I'm loving it…

"Here, I thought you might be cold."

"I just saw you and… It could have been me, in that cage".

WHY is Merlin not stealing from the kitchens instead of bringing Arthur a rotten apple and a stale piece of bread ? The NERVE ?! I wouldn't have given this to anyone, even less my BOSS, a PRINCE.

Arthur's indignation : "I am fighting fit!"

I think this is where we're getting started with the fatphobic jokes…

Arthur has scratches/scars on his chest ? Where did he get that ?

Merlin giving Arthur "Sire" because he knows he fucked up…

Oh Freya was a druid ?

Merlin !!!! How did you not realise that that bathwater was BOILING and could COOK ARTHUR TO DEATH ?

"You need to warn them, Sire. The girl is dangerous. My informer told me she was cursed."

"How so ?"

"He didn't know. But he said even the druids were frightened of her. They cast her out of their camp."

So Freya is an outcast. Just like Merlin, in some way. Merlin is so powerful it'd be easy to be afraid of him once he's mature enough. He's not part of the druids. Neither is Freya.

Add butter to that bread and cheese and you get un jambon-beurre haha.

"Believe me, it's fit for a prince" hahaha no shit Merlin !

"He knows but I'm not sure he understands". => Merlin about Gaius knowing about Merlin's magic.

"Magic is not a curse. It can be a gift!" Oh baby in 1x01 you feared you were a monster ?

Merlin is lying to Gaius' face and his very inquisitive eyes…

Merlin stealing Arthur's food is supposed to be a joke, okay, but I'm not sure I like it now. Arthur is being deprived of a good breakfast and lunch. He'll be cranky come evening. Give him food.

"Merlin is my servant, he has my absolute trust. If you have a problem with him, you come to me. Do you understand ?"

This line is doing things to my heart, oh la la…

The fact that Arthur doesn't question Merlin AT ALL about his strange behaviour, they just bicker about the stolen sausages and Arthur's weight and then Merlin just… leaves. And goes straight to see Freya.

"I scare most people away" Freya you deserve better…

"You can't always trust people."

"I know. That's why I left home."

Merlin :/ Babe <3

Let it be remembered that Merlin can make flowers appear, but not food.

"With you, I can just be who I am. We don't have to hide anything. I don't have to worry."

"Being different is nothing to be scared of".

AND THAT SINGLE TEAR ROLLING DOWN HIS CHEEK !

Awww Merlin behaving like a lovesick puppy <3

This is the first time Merlin even THINKS about leaving Camelot. He's known Freya for two days. He's just really desperate to be known for who he really is, and to be free…

Moths and woodworms : the "reasons" why Merlin is snooping into closets and bedside tables he should not be touching at all.

"Running an errand for Gaius" : excuse number 1 for weird shit and secret missions Merlin is doing.

Arthur not giving a fuck about Merlin possibly crossdressing for fun in his spare time : "As long as you do a decent day's work, Merlin, that's all I care about. […] What a man does in his spare time is completely up to him". And then the compliment : "colour suits you Merlin".

This is day three now.

"We can leave tonight, as soon as it gets dark, and we can be together".

Horses, blankets and food and they won't need more. A second kiss, and goodbye. Freya doesn't have the heart to tell him.

"There was a time when you thought twice about lying to me".

Yet Merlin said "Of course not!" which such an air of sincerity… Oh yeah, he's turning into a really good liar…

Mais Gaius t'es tellement une grosse balance, t'es là à lécher les pompes d'UTHER au lieu de régler le problème avec Merlin !

"You can never understand. Do you know how it feels to be a monster? To be afraid of who you are ?"

"Freya is very different from you. She's dangerous."

Oh I didn't remember Arthur saw her in her human form ! Lol he's just there blinking as she's turning into a bastet…

I can't freaking believe Arthur's guards and knights are running away while Arthur is trying to fight the bastet !

MERLIN ! You almost crushed Arthur to death !

He's petting her head ???

OH is Freya a rape survivor, forced to kill people by the mother of her rapist ? That's so fucked up…

"Please go."

"No. I'm not leaving you here".

The PARALLELS with Arthur's dying moments !

"One day, Merlin, I will repay you. I promise". Okay but do we actually see that happen in the next seasons ? I don't remember her.

What I do remember from years ago is directors saying that Colin held that level of intensity and sadness for hours in the rain for those lake scenes.

It's the first time he has to light a funeral pyre for a friend and it sadly won't be the last…

That last scene with Arthur always gets to me. Arthur might be oblivious to a lot of things but he pays attention to Merlin more than Merlin might think, I'd say.

"Something's been upsetting you, hasn't it ?"

Arthur has seen Merlin doing the weirdest things in the past four days or so : stealing his food, calling him fat, giving him stale food to eat, stealing a dress, being accused of hiding a druid… And he doesn't accuse Merlin of anything himself. He thinks "Oh, Merlin has been upset. I must find out why. Maybe it's because of me." and then he sort of apologises and when words fail him, he uses action to make Merlin smile again. Because seeing Merlin smile, as we'll learn in the next seasons ("I haven't seen you smile in the past three days") is important to Arthur. Because he cares. Another thing that gets to me is that when Merlin is sitting upset doing his chores, Arthur usually comes to sit next to him, at his eye level, or even UNDER his eye level sometimes. Yet, a Prince should never be sitting at a lower level than a servant or any lesser noble. He gives himself the look of a listener, and he's bad with words and feelings (because of his father's shitty education) but he TRIES.

Last episode was Arthur centric, with Arthur showing his most intimate thoughts and feelings to/in front of Merlin : his grief and guilt about his mother's death, his rage at the idea that his father was responsible for her death, that he was a hypocrite and a liar... This episode was Merlin centric. I wonder what next episode will be like.

This episode was really good at exploring Merlin's feelings about his magic, his identity as a warlock, his sense of loneliness at the heart of Camelot. Gaius cares about him but is still loyal to Uther, and Merlin is not sure Gaius really understands him and what it's like to be a warlock. Arthur... Merlin cares about Arthur and Arthur cares about him, but Merlin knows that he could end up in a cage just like Freya. And I think a part of him might resent Arthur for it. Or at least, at the end of the episode, he's tired of his chores... But no wonder. Your crush is killed by your soulmate, and you still have to show up at work the next day and shine his boots ?

#bbc merlin #merlin rewatch #the lady of the lake #freya #Youtube

[bonzos-number-1-fan]

TMAGP 12 Thoughts: Nostalgia Bait

I have no real preamble on this one. I think it was a fun, straight forward, episode without too too much to really sink out not-soft teeth into here. Also please laugh at that subtitle, I'm very proud of it.

Spoilers for episode 12 below the cut.

A lot of office stuff here it feels like. Not a huge amount to really say on it as like with the rest of this episode it's more building on stuff we've already seen than it is adding new things to the show. Which is obviously not a bad thing but it's fairly straightforward. Celia and Sam are going on a date, which is cute, and Alice is very obviously jealous, which is also cute.

"You wouldn't be tempted?" "No" [bzzt]. Uh huh.

So first things first for the incident, this episode took places on 09/03/2024. 09/03/2024 is the date the incident in episode 10, Saturday Night, was filed. So everything that went down here was the same night that Gwen gave Bonzo the instructions and presumably he just killed whoever had their name in their. We don't really know who that was as of yet. Of the known characters I said it'd likely be Klaus but this was someone new. They're only identified as "Baz" in the episode, assuming the first victim was the main target, and we don't know any Bazs, Basils, or Barrys AFAIK. But if that's someone Gwen would know I think that only leaves two or three people it could be. I think most people will think Baz is a Bouchard or some other family member. I think it's possible that it's either someone on the corporate ladder that Lena eliminates as a show of "this is what it takes to move up in this company". There has been a lot of focus on Gwen's naivety in that area after all. The last main option I see is that it could just be someone fairly "random". Not someone Gwen is necessarily connected to but just some form of threat. Gwen "knows" them more in a general sense of "you know what I'm sending him to do, eliminate a threat". Hard to say just from the incident alone. The lunchbox and theme tune are "real" too, which is fun.

Outside of that not a load to say but it was a fun episode and it's nice to see Bonzo doing Bonzo things. It's really interesting that he appears to have either two "forms" or that he's got some sort of mental manipulation abilities. When Gwen saw Bonzo, despite being aware of him from TV, she reacted with abject horror. The party guests didn't. So either Bonzo didn't look like his current self or he's able to manipulate people's perception of him. Both would account for the reactions he got. Just a guy in a Bonzo suit. Not a sweaty meaty monster.

After that we just see Gwen horrified by the case. Which is an understandable reaction but I don't think its an elucidating one. I wouldn't say how she reacts shows anything beyond terrifying realisation about what the OIAR is. Her brief conversation with Alice also leans in that direction. So if it's a family member it doesn't look like one who's loss is felt as an immediate gut punch.

The only other comment I have on this is how refreshingly different Bonzo is being treated as a primary monster in this show. Unlike in TMA which did a lot of slow build up, small appearances, and things like that we've gotten two episodes very close together where he shows up and is a large focal point of the episode.

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

Incident/CAT#R#DPHW Master Sheet

DPHW Theory: 4728 all seems pretty reasonably for what we saw. Death and Helplessness were not major thematic factors but Pain and Weird very much were.

CAT# Theory: 1.

R# Theory: B is totally in line with my ideas on this.

Header talk: Mascot (Kids) -/- Frenzy is what I have been waiting for. Sweet repetition. Sweet, sweet repetition. Episode 10, Saturday Night, was CAT1RB2275 - Mascot (Kids) -/- Murder. An identical Section (Subsection) with a different Crosslink.

This largely confirms that Crosslinks impact DPHW gradings. It doesn't say much about how these things are calculated but I'd wager it's something like Section (Subsection) gets a rating that is then modified by a Crosslink. Rather than all those combinations being in the book. It's not exactly useful information but does give more clarity on the role of the Crosslinks. With both cases having the same CAT#R# it's impossible to say at the moment whether that can be changed by the Crosslink.

#the magnus protocol #tmagp #tmagp theory #tmagp speculation #klaus = kl4-u5

[every-aj-needs-an-angel]

Part 5 of the Steddie Vegas AU!! So sorry it's a week late

Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 3 -- Part 4

Steve had just finished packing up the backpack with everything they'd need for a trip to the desert when the phone rang. At first, he assumed it'd be Robin getting antsy about how late it was getting (not that it was late at all) so he just answers with a snarky "What?"

It isn't until he hears his mother's haughty huff that all the colour drains out of his face. 

"Steven, that is no way to answer the telephone! We raised you better than that," he can hear the disappointment dripping from her tone, but all he can think is, you didn't raise me at all!

"Mother. My apologies, I assumed you were Bobbie," he responds flatly.

"Oh, so that's his name," she snarked. Huh? Oh, for fuck's sake!

"No," Steve's quick to respond, trying to keep a hold of his temper, "I meant Robin, you know, my best friend!" His mother really should know that, but unsurprisingly Steve's life isn't important to her unless it's affecting her social standing, "Eddie is my husband, was that not clarified in the announcement?" he sniped, trying and failing to keep the bite out of it.

His mother sighed heavily, "You know I don't touch newspapers, darling," she drawled, "The ink stains my nails," she adds disdainfully. He can practically see her dusting the imaginary particles from her fingertips; she never was one to touch anything dirty. "We only heard because Sam mentioned it. Apparently our son doesn't bother to update us on his poor life choices any more," she bemoaned, with a quick succession of tuts for good measure. Sam was their lawyer, best friend, golf buddy, fuck buddy, probably, Steve didn't know, and he didn't want to.

The only poor choice I've made was answering this call!

Steve bit his tongue, holding in the lecture he wanted to unleash, like he always did, "Okay, well I have to go, I'm running late," he lied, "I'll come and see you both when I get home," he assured, even though they both knew he wouldn't.

"Okay, darling, call Sam, he'll finish the paperwork," she insisted, hanging up on him without waiting for a response.

Call Sam! Fuck you!

Resisting the urge to throw the phone at the wall, he kicked the bed with the side of his foot instead, growling in frustration. Part of him wanted them to leave him alone for good, part of him just wanted them to care, and the rest of him wanted him to stop caring what they thought. He sighed heavily, closing his eyes and counting to ten in his mind, this was Robin’s day, he could deal with his parental complications later. He flung the backpack over his shoulder, hooking the dressing gown over his arm and checked his hair in the mirror as he left the room, trying to leave the conversation and the frustration behind him. 

But it didn’t work, he could still feel the anger deep in his bones that meant he couldn't help stomping up the staircase. He hated how she always managed to rile him up, but what he hated most was how he let her. Normally, one of her phone calls would come with a two-day sulk, hiding in his room and moping in bed like a sullen teenager. Normally he could call for Robin through the wall, and she’d come and lay with him, rest her head on his chest while he ranted, but he couldn't do that right now, but that didn’t stop him needing her. And honestly, he felt like he kinda needed Eddie too. He wanted his arms around his waist and his hair tickling his face, and he wanted to go back to the contented peace he'd felt earlier watching Eddie and Robin talk.

Finally making it back upstairs, he knocked on the suite door, Chrissy let him in with a welcoming smile before wandering off into her bedroom. A quick glance was all it took for him to realise that the girls were waiting for him alone, he wandered further into the room putting the dressing gown down on the back of the sofa as Robin came out of Chrissy's room, handing him his wallet that he'd left in his jeans on Eddie's floor.

"What's up?" she asked, barely even glancing at him before wrapping her arms tightly around him, pressing her cheek firmly against his chest.

"She called back," Steve muttered, tucking his chin over the top of her head, pulling her closer.

"Must've got around the club," Robin reasoned, tightening her grip, rubbing his back soothingly. 

Steve adored her so much. He didn’t know how she had the patience with him because she never said anything. No matter how many times he let them do this to him, she was always just there for him, and the thing was he knew if the roles were reversed he wouldn’t be able to hold his tongue. He knew he’d be telling her to stop speaking to them, to stop letting them get to her because they both believed in cutting toxic people out, but she’d been the same way about Billy. She had obviously hated him, but she’d never said a bad word against him, never told Steve to leave him, she had always just sat and listened. She had always been his rock.

He just hummed in response, he didn't really want to think about it any more, they'd ruined enough of his holiday already. He kissed her on the top of her head, squeezing her once before releasing her.

Robin placed her hands on his cheeks, smiling affectionately as she squished his face, making him chuckle, before letting go with a gentle pat; circling him to rummage around in the backpack for her sunglasses that she'd left behind on the desk in their room. 

Steve glanced around, watching as the girls pottered, "Where's Eddie?"

Robin shrugged, "Downstairs," she muttered, zipping the backpack back up, "He said something about a surprise," she added, aiming for nonchalance and missing by miles, turning on her heel and striding out the front door without another word. 

Chrissy gathered her handbag and sunglasses, following her out and holding the door open, waiting for Steve to join them. He pulled the backpack tighter over his shoulder and pushed off the sofa with an amused huff, following them out and letting the door swing shut behind him. 

He gave Chrissy a warm smile when she linked her arm through his as they wandered down the hall together side-by-side. Robin was already at the end of the corridor waiting for the lift, still pressing the down button when they caught her up. 

A reaction like that from anyone else he would think was weird, but Steve knew Robin too well, he knew that her lack of elaboration just meant that she was in on whatever the surprise was and had been sworn to secrecy. Claudia had organised a surprise birthday party for him once, and Robin's head had nearly exploded. 

When she'd been told about the surprise baby shower for Jenny in the office, she'd told him that she just found it easier to not speak around someone she was keeping something from, just to make sure she didn't blurt out the secret by accident. Except sometimes in life you can't avoid speaking to people, so then she'd have to do that, carefully regulated wording, precise and to the point.

Except what she never seemed to realise was just how stark the contrast was between her ability to witter endlessly and her careful wording and requisite silence. Jenny had been convinced Robin had fallen out with her, the added hormones didn't help, but she'd ended up wailing in the bathroom and Robin had had to spill the secret, so Jenny would stop crying and begging to know what she'd done wrong.

The first time he'd called her out for her silence and one word answers, she’d been her convinced he was a mind reader. They hadn't known each other long, they'd been neighbours for a few months but had only started to become friends when he and Billy were on a slow path to breaking up. She used to check in on him after one of their epic screaming matches, when Billy would throw whatever was closest, punch walls and slam the front door with a "fuck you!" She'd come over with Kleenex, chocolate and ice cream and sit with him on the couch, make him laugh and help him clean up and fix whatever Billy had broken. 

But then about three days after his final breakup with Billy, her great aunt died. Obviously, he'd noticed her unexpected silence when she'd spent the previous two days talking his ear off to keep him distracted. She was shocked when he'd asked what was wrong and wouldn't take “nothing” for an answer. It wasn't that she was upset about the death, she just hadn't wanted Steve fussing over her when he was still feeling “emotionally fragile”.

Normally if she was quiet he'd try to wheedle it out of her, it was easier than dealing with how anxious it made her to keep something to herself, but she didn't seem too agitated and if it lasted more than ten minutes, he'd figured it out, but for now she seemed to be fine. 

Although if he and Eddie decided to continue to see each other in Indy, he decided to just give him a heads-up to not involve her in future secret keeping, lest her head implode.

The elevator was taking a while to arrive, leaving the three of them standing in unnerving silence. Robin continuously anxiously pressing the down button. Even Chrissy was abnormally quiet, she seemed jittery, she'd let go of his arm and was switching between picking her nails and swishing side to side, her skirt swooshing around her legs.

Steve was about to ask what was wrong when the ding of the lift arriving interrupted him, Chrissy letting out a relieved sigh and stomping inside as soon as the doors opened. He gave Robin a what's up with her look, but Robin just shrugged with a look of her own that said, beats me. Robin followed her in, smoothing her outfit and hair in the mirror, pulling lip balm out of her pocket and putting on copious amounts as an excuse to look busy.

The doors slid shut behind Steve. He gave Chris his most reassuring smile, and she smiled back, but he could tell it was false. Her smile always reached her eyes, even when she was exhauster, but this time it just didn't. He was about to ask if everything was alright, he was worried something was really wrong, when she inadvertently interrupted him, bursting out, "Hey Steve!"

Her loudness seemed to surprise them both equally, Steve's eyebrows flying into his hairline. Chrissy just seeming to regret speaking at all, like she wished she could swallow the word back down. He tried his hardest to stay calm, hummed a questioning "hmm?" afraid actual words might spook her. He didn't even care if this was a shovel talk, he just wanted her to know she was in a safe space, that she could talk to him no matter what.

She spent a few seconds looking at him, really looking, like she was trying to see into his soul. He tried his hardest to be patient, tried not to squirm under her scrutiny, tried to stop his heart from beating out of his chest, but he kinda wished she’d just get it over with. She hesitated, let out another deep breath and ploughed ahead, "You do know your hair looks the same?" she murmured tenderly.

What?

That wasn't at all what he'd expected to come out of her mouth at all. Somehow it felt worse than if she'd said "If you hurt my best friend, I'll bury you so deep, not even the worms in the earth would be able to find you!" because it'd hurt like a motherfucker when Max had said that to him (as though he'd been the town heartbreaker) but a jab about his hair wasn't what he'd prepared for.

And okay, it wasn't a jab per se. In fact, it wasn't a jab at all, but it didn't stop it feeling that way. It felt like she'd just slapped him across the face, and he's no idea why it feels that way whenever anyone even mentions his hair. Because he knows that's all it is, it's just hair and in the grand scheme of things it isn't important, but he was The Hair!

It's who he was long before he was a king, long before he was a captain. He was defined by it, it was how his peers showed him respect, and his father had never been so proud of him as when that was who he was. When he was awake two hours before he should’ve been to make sure it looked perfect, that he looked perfect, even though he was secretly wearing his mother's concealer to hide the bags under his eyes.

Robin huffed and rolled her eyes hard, "Oh my god, don't get him started!" she grouched, still not looking at either of them.

The look of hurt on his face must have told Chrissy all she needed to know. Just like the way she huffed and flapped her hands frantically, in the same way El did when she was struggling to express herself, told Steve she wasn't trying to upset him. Not that it stopped him from instinctively combing his fingers protectively through his hair.

Chrissy visibly composed herself, taking a deep breath, putting her hands gently on his shoulders and looking up at him with kind eyes. "I didn't mean anything bad by it. It's just, your hair looked nice this morning, and it still looks nice now," she clarified, except he wasn't any clearer on what she was trying to say.

He knew his hair never looked nice in the morning, that was why he'd spent so many years of his life sleep-deprived, but she seemed insistent and there was no malice or devilry in her eyes, she was imploring him to understand like she could push the thoughts from her mind into his if only she stared hard enough and it might've worked this morning, but his mother calling had scrambled his head, it was like he reverted back to his old self whenever they wormed their way into his life.

She flicked her gaze over to Robin over his shoulder, not that she was paying either of them any attention, but when Chrissy looked back at him, she looked so sad it damn near broke his heart. She sighed heavily, and when her lip wobbled slightly he was worried she was about to cry, "My mom… she used to have me obsess over my appearance, too. So I get it. I'm just saying, y'know?" she muttered.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh, Chrissy!

Suddenly what she'd been trying to say made a lot more sense.

My parents cared more about how I looked than about me, too.

Steve sighed deeply, holding her gaze as a shared upbringing, a shared pain, passed between them. When she leaned up wrapping her arms around his neck, he automatically wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, tucking his chin over her shoulder, trying to offer her some comfort, trying to let her know he heard her, that he appreciated what she'd just told him.

He didn't know her well, but she deserved so much more than that, as he squeezed her tighter he felt the overwhelming need to protect her, to put himself between her and the world, to go back in time and put himself between her and her mother, to give her the found family who loved her unconditionally that his teenage self had been lucky enough to find.

"Thanks, Sugar," he mumbled in her ear, kissing the top of her head before letting her go.

Robin, of course, had no idea what they were talking about or the emotional moment they'd just shared. She had great parents, and he was so glad for it, he wouldn't wish his kind of parents on anyone, especially not his best friend. She just stomped off as soon as the doors swung open, disappearing into the lobby and expecting that they'd follow, ranting, "He's always been this way! Guy's looked like a Greek God since I met him. Could be dragged through a hedge backwards and still never need to change a damn thing. Doesn't stop him primping, making us late for everything-"

Steve glanced at the clock above the reception desk as he followed the girls outside, "It's barely 10," he interrupted sullenly, rolling his eyes.

"Irrelevant, my point is- holy fuck!"

Holy fuck, indeed! 

Eddie, hair in a bun, in aviators and shorts! Resting on the bonnet of the most gorgeous car Steve had ever laid his eyes on. Oh my god! He wanted to take a picture to make it into a calendar, just twelve months of casual Eddie and a Cadillac! "Jesus Christ, is that a Cadillac?" Steve asked, needing confirmation of the facts his brain had only just caught up with.

Eddie grinned dazzlingly, whipping his sunglasses off his face, "A yellow-beige, 1984 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, to be precise," he apprised smugly.

Circling the car, Steve couldn't quite believe his eyes. This was his dream car, he'd had a picture of this exact car on his bedroom wall since forever, he'd removed it from an old calendar he'd been given in his teens. He'd fallen in love with it immediately and kept the picture with him, just in the hope that maybe one day… 

Knowing now why Robin was trying so hard to keep quiet, just endeared him all the more, he pulled her into his side, kissing her on the head. She'd clearly told Eddie all about it, but somehow Eddie had made it materialize. "No way!" Steve muttered in disbelief.

"Yes way!" Eddie exclaimed, pulling the keys from his pocket and letting them dangle in the air, his eyes were so soft even though his smile was slightly smug, like a magician who'd pulled the rabbit out of the hat.

Chrissy groaned, swishing her skirt again anxiously, "Eds, you know I love you, but I don't think I'm comfortable with you being behind the wheel of a convertible," she sounded genuinely concerned, but Eddie was quick to ease her.

He finally got up off the car circling around Chris and Robin, "Don't worry, My Little Dove, I'm like Santa I just used my sources to bring unadulterated joy to our very own Motorhead," he said exuberantly, kissing his best friend loudly on the cheek.

And Steve was listening to Eddie, but he didn't really hear him, so when he suddenly appeared in front of Steve with the keys held aloft between them and said "Stevie's got her! Doncha, Big Boy!" simultaneously dropping the keys into Steve's hand and waggling his eyebrows alluringly, it still didn't really sink in.

Steve looked down at the keys in his hands, "I get to..." he uttered disbelievingly because the thought that he'd get to drive this car was short-circuiting his brain. 

That was before the thought hit him that Eddie had done this for him, for no other reason than to make him happy. People had done things for Steve before, but other than his found family, it'd always been to make up for something. His parents bought him extravagant gifts to make up for missing birthdays and Christmases, Nancy brought him homemade cakes when they fought (that it turned out Holly and Karen had made, and she took credit for) and Billy would bring him flowers whenever he "worked away" (also known as cheating on Steve).

But this beautiful creation, this angel, this miracle of a human being, had teamed up with his best friend to make one of his dreams come true. To make him smile for no other reason than because he wanted to make him happy, and Steve just couldn't quite believe his luck.

And then Eddie, eyes unbelievably soft, said, "All yours, my love," his cheeks pinkening and his eyes immediately going wide as his words had sunk in. And Steve couldn't have that because he would be so lucky to be Eddie's love.

He wasn't sure how sober-Eddie felt about public displays of affection, so he beamed sweetly at him, trying to convey all he was feeling, tenderly cupping his jaw and kissing him firmly on the cheek, letting his affection shine through when he leaned away to smile at him. 

It was Chrissy squealing and jumping up and down, clapping excitedly and Robin's fake gagging that broke them out of their moment, Eddie hiding adorably behind his hand, as he headed around to the passenger side clambering into the car, trying and failing to hide the blush on his cheeks. Steve folded the front seat forward, holding out a hand to help the girls to climb in the back, Chrissy using his outstretched hand for support, squeezing Eddie on the shoulder and asking "Whose car is this anyway?"

"Char's buddy, Todd," Eddie replied, as Robin clambered into the back using Steve's head for balance, ruffling his hair as she landed in the backseat with an impish grin.

Resisting the childish urge to vault over the car door, Steve handed Robin the backpack and readjusted the seat, clambering in after them. A feeling of awe sweeping over him as he saw all the mechanisms up close that he was going to get to touch and use to power the car he spent years dreaming about. "Forget Todd, Steve's her daddy now!" he muttered as he turned the key in the ignition, hearing the car purr to life and the roar of their laughter and feeling like he could explode with happiness. 

He was all but caressing the steering wheel when a car honking behind them reminded him that they needed to get going, not just sit outside the hotel all day. Adjusting the seat and the mirrors, he found he couldn't look directly at Eddie as he adjusted the mirror on his side, he knew if he did that they’d never get anywhere because between the outfit, the bun, the gorgeous smile on his face and the Herculean effort to make his dream come true Steve just couldn't keep his thoughts straight.

He wanted to grab Eddie by the hand and take him back upstairs to show him just how grateful he was for this, he also wanted to take Eddie to the nearest studio to get him started on making his own dreams come true, and he wanted to take Eddie home and move him in and carpool with him and go on road trips just like this one. But this was Robin's day, no matter how much Eddie had managed to make it feel like his day too.

He caught a glimpse of the girls in the backseat, Chrissy now had a scarf wrapped around her hair and her sunglasses perched on her nose, she looked like a movie star. And Robin looked adorable with her hair pulled into a tiny ponytail sticking out of the back of his high school baseball cap. They were both back to their normal selves now, their anxiety seemed to have dissipated completely, both grinning widely, chatting and laughing together as though the last twenty minutes hadn't happened.

Sneaking a cheeky glance at Eddie, he caught him watching the two of them in the wing mirror with such a fond expression, Steve felt like his heart might beat right through his chest; the horn honking again was the only thing that stopped him from leaning across the seat to kiss him senseless.

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

Grinning mischievously, Steve revved the engine playfully, the growl of the engine sounding just how he'd always imagined it would, getting to fully appreciate the way Eddie's attention snapped back to him, as he laughed brightly and rolled his eyes fondly. Steve couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so joyous as he shifted into gear and set off into the mid-morning traffic.

Part 6

Tag list @estrellami-1 @gregre369 @adhdsummer @nerdfighteratheart @anaibis @hbyrde36 @dolphincliffs @marinarasarah @deadflowercollector @lunabookworm @a-couchpotato feel free to lmk if you want removing 💖

#apologies again for my terrible grammar and all the tense changes. i have proof read it so many times i can't even see them anymore #steddie vegas au #steddie au #steddie #background buckingham #platonic stobin #platonic hellcheer #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #chrissy cunningham #steve's pov #aj writes

[rebouks]

Since Somnium is over, I figured a good ol' ramble was in order for anyone who might be interested.. ⚆_⚆

I thought it'd be fun to go over a few things I've wanted to talk about in more detail, as well as answer some questions you guys had and maybe to spill some bts tea?! We'll see...

Why does Oscar seem to bring out the best in the people around him?

A loaded question, and one that changes depending on the person in question; but to put it simply, he's relatable. The perfect acquaintance, Oscar's brash but not judgemental, he's easy-going, open enough, and to be perfectly honest, he doesn't give a shit what near strangers think about him. He doesn't lie to impress you, act differently or tiptoe around your opinions; he tells it how it is and he is what he is, like it or not. Perfectly flawed, self-assured (but also not..) and intelligent, he has no qualms about confronting you with your own flaws, but he's subtle about it, casual, intrigued even. He's on a quest to do better, so I think his determination can be infectious. He's not obnoxious about it though, if anything, his own struggles make him more approachable; anyone who spends even a small amount of time with him can easily tell that he's just as busy trying to pick up the pieces of his own life as well. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.. right?

Why did Cookie stick around, despite what Oscar put her through?

Alexa, play Hopelessly Devoted to You... Honestly, Courtney's relationship with Oscar hasn't always been the healthiest. Abandoned, neglected and failed by the system as a child, she's always been obsessed by the idea of a perfect family; and to her, Oscar was it. She fully believes that he's her soulmate, and she fully believes in him too. It would've been easy for Cookie to become bitter and cautious, but that's just not her. She's spontaneous, kind-hearted and deeply believes there's some good in everyone; perhaps naively so... Majorly infatuated with Oscar's energy and the life they could have together, she rarely doubted him, even if everyone around her was screaming otherwise. Part of the reason Oscar fell so hard for her in the first place was because she was the only person who really saw him for who he was and actively encouraged him to be that person. Sure, she didn't expect the journey to be quite so.. eventful, but she still knew he'd get there one day, and she wanted to be with him for that, no matter the cost.

What made Wyatt change his mind?

A tough question, to be honest. Wyatt's well aware that his perception of life has been warped by the world he was brought up in; but never before did he think to question it. His focus for most of his existence has been to impress his father; but after realising just how close Oscar had gotten to toppling that house of cards, he began to wonder.. why? If Arturo's empire collapsed beneath him, would Wyatt still want to impress him? He realised the answer was no. He realised he didn't care about his father as a person, he didn't care about his brother, nor about the success, or the money, so what was the point? It didn't help that Arturo seemed so enamoured with Oscar either, but despite how it may have seemed, Wyatt didn't blame Oscar. Instead, he decided he'd rather get revenge on the father that failed him. Courtney got under his skin too, not because he was particularly jealous of Oscar, but because she was the first person he could remember that actually wanted to talk to him.. just because. Maybe it wasn't the real him, and maybe she was just being nice, but it still struck a cord. Wyatt's least favourite thing about himself is how he reacts without thinking; or if he does, his mind usually jumps to "what's the most fucked up thing I can do to cause chaos here..?" He doesn't want to be like that though, and he doesn't understand why he isn't immediately repulsed by those thoughts. He's spent a good chunk of time trying to figure out why he's like that. When he found out Courtney was pregnant he actually felt bad. He clung onto that feeling like his life depended on it; a shred of raw emotion in a sea of hate. Maybe he wasn't who he thought he was after all? In the end, I think he realised he didn't want to be the villain anymore, and Oscar presented the perfect opportunity to act on that feeling...

Why didn't Wyatt, among others, end up in prison?

To keep it somewhat simple, I'll stick to three main reasons; timing, the lack of evidence, and Norma/Eugene knowing when to pick their battles. Arturo confronting Oscar and co. actually ended up doing them a favour. Though it might've played out differently if he hadn't taken that bullet to the head, so thanks Leah! Kian ended up in prison only because he stuck around and confessed, if he was smart like everyone else and left town/laid low, he probably would've been fine. Because (hi, timing!) by the time Norma/Eugene really honed in on Arturo's little empire, it'd already fallen apart. They'd questioned Spencer 'til they were blue in the face (to give him a tiny bit of credit, he's loyal and smart.. spilling anything about Arturo wouldn't have done him any favours, nor would it have kept him out of prison.. or made him feel too great about himself, so he kept quiet) Kaden, Joey, Wyatt and Darien all left town, and Oscar n' co. were busy being all "boring" and shit. They knew what they were dealing with though, hence putting eyes on the boys, but it didn't amount to anything; and although they knew that Oscar n' co. were involved, they had no hard evidence.. "so and so said he did this" or "we know they were involved but we can't back it up with any hard evidence" doesn't hold up well in court. No one was willing to rat on anyone else, no one was up to no good, half of them were missing; it was clear to them (after many, many years in the business) that no one was coming to take over, and that business wasn't about to continue as usual under a new "leader". So instead, they picked their battles; shutting down the drug smuggling operations abroad, and tackling the likely still operating trafficking ring. Also, Norma really believes in people, despite her career choice. She's more than willing to trust her gut and give the good folk the benefit of the doubt. She can tell a bad apple from the bunch, and the boys weren't it.

As an author's side note, I always knew I didn't want Bruno to end up in prison again, which is half the reason Wyatt isn't in prison either. Their parallels are pretty strong (except personality ofc) as Cookie pointed out! So, either they both went to jail, or neither of 'em did. I chose the latter, just because..

Q&A time!

Was Leah's end caused by her inner contradictions?

Hm, I think Leah met her end due to apathy, the belief that justice would eventually run it's course with or without her, and a morbid sense of.. just wanting to see what would happen? She could've left if she really wanted to, and although she still felt loyal enough to Kian not to help the boys, she kinda wanted to see them succeed from the side-lines, despite the risk. Depressed and suicidal, Leah didn't care what happened to her. I didn't really plan another ending for her tbh, but if she didn't die she would've stuck around, maybe visited the boys now n' then, maybe even Kian. She would've forever felt empty and unable to move on though I think, so maybe she's better off...

Did I ever want to give Ivan & Matilda another chance?

Aha! Honestly, no.. I think like Tilda, I felt it'd run it's course. We didn't see ofc, but the pair had been on again off again for years so it's probably the millionth time they've broken up lmaoo.. I like to think they both realised they just weren't meant to be :')

Did I ever think about killing Courtney off again?

Sometimes, but I think Oscar would've been so broken and idk if he would've succeeded otherwise, which was the whole point of the story I suppose.

What would an unhappy ending for Somnium look like?

Well, I guess Cookie would be dead.. Oscar would still be heavily addicted to various substances/estranged from his family. Ivan would've died, Bruno would be in prison, Leah would still be stuck with Kian, Wyatt would never have regained his tiny amount of humanity, Artie n' co. would've somehow gotten away with everything or put the blame on someone else and be sunning it up in Sulani or wherever... It doesn't bear thinking about really, does it? ◉_◉

Did I ever plan on killing Bruno?

I briefly considered him getting shot by Arturo instead of Ivan and his dying as a result of that, buuut.. I don't think his death would've affected much (despite Ivan being heartbroken ofc) or furthered the plot in any way, so I didn't see the point.

What happened to the workers of Lucie's?

Those who didn't really know much would've probably been like, ffs I gotta find another gig now? LAME! But most of 'em have just moved on, counting themselves lucky they weren't "chosen".

Will we see Rickey & Pat again?

Maybe. It's a shame they lost touch, but I wanted to show a clear fork in the road for Oscar and what he gave up by sticking around/falling down the rabbit hole. To be fair as well, Rickey & Oscar never had much in common other than a love of computers and the amount of drugs they could consume in one sitting. Sometimes best friends drift apart, y'know? And that's okay!

Did I think about redeeming Arturo? Would he have let the boys go, if they'd asked?

Yes and.. maybe. He was genuinely fond of Oscar, and he thought of Bruno as a son in his own way too. The guy had taken him under his wing over a decade ago, he was gutted when he found out B was in on it. Artie wanted to kill him though, and he was going to.. and if Leah didn't kill him, we would've seen that he couldn't actually pull the trigger :') It was too late for him, but he would've considered taking the fall for his boys, like he said he would. Although.. Riona might've killed him or gone on her own rampage at that point so maybe it's a good thing he died after all LOL

What's Bruno's story?

It's a short story, to be honest. Directionless and troubled, he fell into the wrong crowd after his school years; winding up in prison following an "armed" robbery gone wrong. He met even worse types inside, and upon leaving, was taken under Arturo's wing.

What was it about Bruno that finally caused Ivan to accept his sexuality?

Nothing in particular, I don't think. Ivan had known he was bi since high school, but he'd never really developed strong feelings for another man. He figured he was just "kinda bi" and mostly liked women, which suited him fine; his father's homophobia left him feeling ashamed about that side of himself, so it was "natural" for him to ignore it. Except it wasn't, and he fell in love :')

Did Oscar tell Ivan/Bruno about Wyatt's visit?

Nope, him and Cookie have kept that to themselves. They might bring it up if anyone asks, but he's gone now, so what's the point in stressing them about it?

Who was supposed to die but lived/live but die?

Well, y'all know I barely plan shit so nothing was set in stone lmaooo.. Ivan was supposed to die though tbh, but I kinda thought that Oscar didn't deserve to be punished anymore (for being the reason Ivan stayed) and I'd grown attached to him, so I let the dice decide for me as a "last chance" type thing. Arturo wasn't always supposed to die either... Idk this question is hard to answer cos I never planned anything out properly ahahakdjksj

Was the wedding (and Robin) the original end game or did that evolve through character growth?

Um I had no end game until the end sdkjsdkj.. but I knew I wanted Oscar to have a happy ending, and that him n' Cookie would end up together too. Robin was a happy accident thanks to wicked whims, but I knew they'd end up having lots of kiddos and although the timing was bad for poor Cookie, in terms of their ages/the timeline for my future plans, it worked well so I just went with it. It took me a long time to figure out what the end would be, but as ever, I naturally came to the conclusion along with the story. Everyone got a bit of a wrap up arc in the last chapter, which I think set the stage for a happy ending quite nicely.

What three characters do I consider the most evil/irredeemable?

Riona. Not a maternal bone in her body; she's cold, calculating and headstrong, she'll mow down anyone in her way without a second thought, and she'll enjoy it. Kian. I know we all kinda felt sorry for him in the end but make no mistake, he's a selfish man, undeserving of such sympathy! He may not have wanted to take over the family business, but he didn't see anything wrong with it, nor was he glad it was over. When shit hit the fan, all he could think about was that he didn't want to go to prison, he didn't consider anyone else's situation or how they might feel, not even Leah. The only reason he handed himself over was because he didn't want to deal with the guilt of ignoring Leah's last wish, not because he actually thought it was the right thing to do. Killing Riona wasn't even for Leah's sake either, he did that because she goaded him, because she insulted him. Last of all, he didn't give up Wyatt because he didn't want to deal with his wrath once he found out, not because he feels particularly loyal to him; I actually think he probably dislikes Wyatt even more now. He's an entitled asshole of a daddy's boy, basically. Ashton. His only regret is that he got caught, he doesn't care about the people who've suffered due to his actions, nor will he ever change. All he cares about is power and money. He comes across as friendly and amenable, but only if you're useful to him, or he owes you something. Prison will not affect his morals in the slightest.. in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he's already running some kind of protection ring in there by now.

What planned romances were discarded/which romantic pairings too you by surprise?

The beauty of my complete disregard for planning is that these guys tend to half write themselves lmaooo.. Rhys & Tommy took me by surprise tbh, but they kept gravitating toward each other behind the scenes and even started flirting by themselves so I was like.. okay! Similarly with Bruno/Ivan to be honest. I always had in mind that Bruno would develop a bit of a thing for Ivan but I didn't necessarily plan it as mutually romantic to begin with, more that he'd just be quite protective of Ivan, or that he'd be an unrequited love. As Ivan began working on himself though, it became clear to me that he was much more comfortable with himself, which led to his openness in actually considering more than a friendship between the two. Though I did think it was a bit of a shame him and Mia weren't compatible for a while, but they make better besties anyway. I also considered Ivan ending up with his one night stand, Jessie; but he was already in love with Bruno at that point and she didn't seem interested so.. no. I briefly wanted Courtney to end up with someone else for a while, someone who was "perfect" but didn't have the same spark as Oscar. I realised that she didn't need that to come to the conclusion that he was "it" for her though, so I scrapped the idea.

Phew.. if you read all that you deserve a whole tray of cookies! 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

It's super fun to delve into this kinda stuff though, so feel free to ask more questions if you want! Now that I've got my main ramblings out of the way, I'd like to work on another rambly post outlining my plans/ideas for the future so.. that'll be coming soon-ish, life permitting! I'm kinda bummed that Somnium is over but I'm suuuper glad the big plot stuff is out of the way, I've been having fun setting up a new save and thinking up a vague direction I want to go in. It makes me sad not being able to share any of it yet though, so I wanna get an announcement out asap! That way I can get the opening "scenes" out of the way and be able to share bloopers n' such again!

As a treat for reading this far, the name of my new "story not story" will be: Forever In Between 🤭 I really hope there's no other stories on here called that tho kdskjdk

#ramblings #i mean like.. major ramblings too lmaooooo #sdkjsk #extra #whew #i've been meaning to do this for a while and it was fun!! #ty to anyone who asked me questions ily very much #<33333333

[caliginousarchitect]

the KHR cats edition entries inspired by @bonesetblues‘ KHR/BNHA crossover fic “curiosity kills the cat (but satisfaction brings it back)” continue. It's the Arcobaleno this time (finally)! Reborn Black medium hair thing. Adult Reborn's drawn with such ludicrously long gangly limbs that we went with some oriental breedtype legs. In the end we couldn't decide between yellow eyes and near-black (which is technically biologically possible but there's only one recorded instance that I know of and they didn't reach adulthood) so both are here. By far he was the most difficult to work out a pose for, he did NOT want to cooperate. Also, curly ear hairs because his curly sideburns needed to be included somehow. I was thinking at the start, either something very small so it'd seem more whacky when he ended up somewhere he shouldn't be, or something quite large, so I also tried throwing a little hint of maine coon flavour in there, but it's not very evident at the end of it I don't think. The fic author's thought for Reborn was Savannah Cat, but I looked at that and went, nah, for reasons explained later on.

Fon Another black medium hair, with some rusting. He seems the sort to spend plenty enough time outdoors during the day for it. I didn't realise before this that Fon has brown eyes, actually. Oriental cat breedtype.

Colonnello Ough the pose, easy, very cooperative. The colour?? not so much. KHR does have characters with realistic blonde hair, but Colonnello is not one of them He has Anime Blond, aka, Yellow. So, Shorthair Black Golden with high ticking, and low-medium white spotting.

Lal Mirch And yet another solid black. Longhair. Her pose was also a tricky one, we knew the vibe of what we wanted, but the actual doing of it was hard. Trying to do her scar was also hard because there just aren't any very good references for it (especially since the anime basically just. turned it into... a tattoo?). Gave her a bunch of white hairs from little scars and some around the face scar. Darkish orange-copper eyes was about as close as we could get to her anime... pink... ish? reddish? eye colour.

Verde Dark blue classic tabby shorthair with low white spotting and blue-grey eyes (teeeechnically probably not very likely since he's not a Point colouration, but they are Possible and the only way to match Verde's canon grey. Why does he have grey eyes, the one time you get an anime character with anime colour hair and he DOESN'T have matching eyes, honestly). The expression was the hard part here, mostly. Trying to get any balance of smug/pideful and annoyed scientist and intrigued at situation? Hard. How is he meant to do a proper science with paws. He cannot hold a pen to write and keyboards are not designed for paws. He needs to make an invention to facilitate this.

Skull Another difficult one to pose, trying to get the bluster and also the fear. Chocolate shorthair with ghost markings and blue eyes. Open mouths from any angle other than side-on are haaaaaard.

Uni Blue/cream charcoal torbie bengal kitten! And here's the main reason we didn't want to do savannah cat Reborn- Uni is an actual hybrid, although we don't actually know her f-generation (... would you call it that, in humans-and-related-species?) from Sepira, but we can guess she was within 10 or so generations. Very low cream, but it is there. Bonuses: Reborn (yellow eye version), Verde (anime colour version), Skull (anime colour version) (and Viper/Mammon is not here becasue they're with the Varia)

#cats #katekyo hitman reborn #khr #bonesetblues #character design #ficart #fanfic art #digital art #our art #cktc(bsbib)

[jezmmart]

Chamomile Comic Trivia #31

#159 - Notice

It's Sam! I wish I had written down more about my decision to add her, although at this point I'm fairly sure I wasn't certain she was going to become a main character - in fact it was RIGHT around the week this posted that I began work on the first proper cover art for the series which of course did not include her.

Her design was based off this old one-off pin-up girl art from 2017, technically making her the first ever major Chamomile Comic character to exist, sort of.

She was named after Sam Lloyd, likely known for his portrayal of Ted the Lawyer from Scrubs. The news of his death had recently broken and I had just recently begun listening to Fake Doctors, Real Friends, the Scrubs rewatch podcast, as my go-to background entertainment when colouring the comic specifically each week. It still is now, albeit intermittently since they don't always produce an episode each week and I no longer have a backlog to catch up on. Now granted, I don't love the podcast as much as I used to - can be a bit cringey at times as these two hollywood actors chat about utterly unrelatable anecdotes from their lives - but it's overall been enjoyable and it'll be weird to find something new to accompany my colouring if it does come to an end or stops being enjoyable once they permanently pivot into... whatever they plan to do after they run out of Scrubs episodes. It's been part of my colouring process for the comic for longer than it hasn't been now, haha. So... yeah it felt right to honour that connection to my comic with Sam's name, on top of the fact that Scrubs is just straight-up one of my favourite TV shows and Ted was always a character that gave me big laughs.

Of course... I realised after that I'd introduced yet another character to the comic ending in "-a"! ...But whatever, it's a common thing. Not so long ago I had 5 co-workers simultaneously whose names also ended in -a, lol.

The decision to have had her always be around simply came from not having any strong ideas to introduce her and preferring the idea that at least some of the cast already knew her. The gag's been done before, but I thought it'd be extra funny to introduce her with a scene in which she is specifically announcing her departure from being a regular face in Cammie's life, which typically would mean the same for the audience in most works with actually established characters.

Final little bonus note - in panel 1, Cammie once again is entering with a handful of steaming coffee.

#160 - Official

I didn't really mean for it to be so small it's barely legible at web size, but the little sign on the panic alarm button behind the till says "Real emergencies only Cammie!", in reference to #50.

#161 - Before

All that Scrubs talk regarding Sam is kinda fitting, because they did the "this character was always here!" gag there too. For their one, they edited her in on various memorable shots and pretended the main character didn't notice her being present, here I obviously extended the frame on the end of several punchline panels from previous comics.

Here's a gif that shows the original panels compared to the new ones, showing both the new and old art isolated as well so you can see exactly what I drew to extend the older panels which naturally weren't drawn originally knowing that I would one day be extending them!

The second of the three Sam flashbacks is just a nice little bridging one, but it did take me a while to decide for sure which way around I wanted the first and third flashback panel. For the first: while there's been a little bit of mild bad language in the comic once the seal was broken here, Sam's "bitch" is the first time such language has appeared so it amused me to place it in a scene that has already happened long ago just barely outside of the audience's perspective. For the third: the joke is of course that the reveal of Sam's additional dialogue is particularly adding nothing to the scene whatsoever - like, as if Cammie making a fool of herself would even be remark-worthy at this point. I felt both these two goofs had a good punch to them in their own way so yeah, I remember being conflicted over whether I had chosen the funniest possible flow of these three gags.

Of course, the final joke of this one, in case it wasn't obvious (I could see it being subtle for some), is that Mimi's whole running gag is she's a side character who also has existed in the comic for long before her first on-screen appearance, yet Cammie never remembers her.

#162 - New

The art and dialogue structure of the first two panels here is identical to #160. I think it being a time-saver on my workload for the week was definitely a factor - for whatever reason I needed it at the time - but I also remember going for something with that choice beyond just that... But I can't for the life of me remember what. I don't think the parallel between the two comics adds anything reading them back now.

Anyway here's Newt! I really thought at the time that he was going to be as significant an addition as Sam, and I did come up with the idea of introducing a regular male character at the time I chose to bring Sam in, with Sam's introduction - and exit - being an amusing way to introduce a surprise new character.

...Then I proceeded to never really get any super strong story ideas for him lol. More detail on that in a second. I haven't forgotten him though, frustrates me that he keeps getting sidelined!

#163 - Training

Standard behind-the-scenes retail frustration humour here. I can neither confirm nor deny how much is based on my current employment. A little detail of authenticity/flavour is that they're watching a DVD intended for widescreen on an old non-widescreen TV that's clearly been in their staff room for at least a decade. Such was the case for my painful training videos too! (It's all online now as of a few years into when I started, so some progress has been made I guess).

#164 - Huh

It's not made clear yet, but the new status quo that Sam is a receptionist at a primary school is established here - the coloured hanging letter signage on the wall that is too perspective'd to read says "WELCOME TO OUR SCHOOL".

I chose this as a job for her based simply on the fact that my Mum has often worked in school offices for most of my life. She wasn't a receptionist but it was the sort of job where I have some... vague enough memories of the "behind-the-scenes" enough to draw something along those lines when I needed to show Sam at work.

Getting back to Newt, obviously the goof here is that Cammie is just being a sore loser about her friend leaving and Newt is about the most cool-sounding interesting person you could imagine meeting. Unfortunately that involved specifically coming up with fun sounding stuff that are not super common to do or know people that do, so despite the super interesting combo of cave-diving, stand-up and polyamory these are all things I feel like I'd have to do thorough research on to represent in the actual comic accurately... which is something I'd like to do but, time is finite and I have so much pre-existing experience with being a silly nonsense person. Would you believe it, there's another character in the comic for whom that experience lends itself very well!!

Speaking of whom, the first appearance of the bell on the door in Repeat 1 Records was only a month after Cammie got the job. She works fast!

[Trivia Archive | Browse from most recent]

#jezmm #chamomile comic trivia #art insight

[robotslenderman]

Aside from Sullivan, are any of your other vampires from the Sabbat/Formerly Sabbat?

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO THE VYKOSOVICHES~!

Introducing: Grigori Verenich. As a Russian scholar in Oxford he was Embraced by Sascha Vykos for his research skills, and discarded when no longer useful. Needless to say, he was one of the lucky ones, but his experiences with them fucked him up nonetheless. He poured his time into learning blood magic and was often mistaken for Tremere, which he delighted in because he knew it'd piss off Sascha, but also not enough for them to actually destroy him over it.

I don't know much about his time between then and meeting Norman, but he met Norm in the roaring twenties in Boston. Norm was almost ready to graduate medical school to become a doctor, and he was also a boxer. When Grigori Embraced him Norm took one look at the Sabbat and went "holy shit fuck THIS" and noped out. Grigori stalked him for a few decades because he didn't really know what else to do with this kid that actually has morals, and their relationship was pretty tense. Norm basically divorced himself as much from his Tzimisce heritage as he could. Much like how Grisha was frequently mistaken for Tremere, Norm was usually assumed to be a Gangrel.

Their relationship was healed by having a baby, believe it or not -- in 1980s New York City Grigori met Anastasia Petrova Sokolova, who was an exceptional artist and sculptor at an art school. Grigori went to Norm "hey, you're a good anatomist but you're shit at Vicissitude, check out who I met who'd be awesome at it" and introduced them. Norm quickly realised that no matter what his opinion was over the matter that Grisha was going to Embrace her, so he agreed to stick around to watch over her, at least for a while, and ended up agreeing to do the deed himself.

Nastasya ended up being the counterbalance in the relationship and Norm and Grigori got along a lot better with her influence. She was, however, largely sheltered from the majority of the Sabbat, and is shit at playing politics. They do take her to Sabbat events but keep her away from the edgelordy stuff; Grisha knows that Norm wouldn't stand for it, and thinks they're a bunch of tryhards anyway.

The three of them lived together long after Nastasya was supposed to be released. They do not have a vinculum, but do not need to. They mostly see themselves as Noddists who are "true Sabbat" and haven't lost sight of the underlying founding principles of the Sabbat that eventually got taken over by edgelords and sadists -- they adhere to the main beliefs of being anti-establishment and anti-Antediluvians, and also varying levels of vampire supremacy.

These nights they live in Staten Island in New York City. They mostly ignored the Battle of New York (though Grisha did participate a bit). They have a treaty with the local Camarilla (which Hellene would sooner die than admit the existence of) and a good relationship with the local Anarchs, too. In exchange for certain stipulations, including Nastasya's services as a Vicissitudist, the Camarilla don't kick them out of NYC. The Anarchs also leave them alone because Grisha has played the three of them up as being the only thing holding the Camarilla back, and absolutely leans hard on the "childe of Vykos" thing, using his blood magic skills and Nastasya's Vicissitude to give the three of them a far more terrifying reputation than they deserve. They had no idea Callihan was blood bound, but when he gets replaced by someone who seems to have the exact same ideas they definitely do get suspicious about it...

Despite their reputation, these nights the three of them are super chill and laid back and tend to just fuck around in their house leeching off Nastasya, lmao. Grigori breaks into the Tremere Chantry for fun to borrow their books (it's not stealing if he gives them back), which drives Aisling Sturbridge apeshit. Norm, on the other hand, spends most of his time in his Gangrel identity hanging out with Anarchs. Nastasya is the only one of the three of them who is actually actively working, lmao. Norm and Grigori just stuck their money in investments decades ago; the three of them are "don't have to keep track of how much money I have" kind of wealthy. They have friends in all sects. After a while, post-Dracon, Sascha even starts mentoring Nastasya in Vicissitude.

#VTM #the Vykosoviches #Anastasia Normanovna Vykosovich #Norman Cosgrove #Grigori Verenich #I need to actually sort out Grigori's full name bc Russians have a family name and a patronymic

[maskthesimp]

Okay, so I played Resident Lover

Cass' route. Duh.

[MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD SO MOVE THE FUCK ON!!]

AND I GOT THE BAD ENDING 💀 Or one of them

I assume there's a few bad endings and a few good ones for each route. I got the one where we get blood spilt on us, and she uses me as a sacrifice (or is implied to cuz the game ends when she pins me against a wall after getting that crazy look in her eye and talking about a fourth sacrifice for the ritual)

Here's the thing, though. I'm afraid of upsetting people. So, of course I ignored the fucking shadow and decided to get on with the show instead CUZ I FIGURED IF I INVESTIGATED THE SHADOW, IT'D DELAY THE SHOW AND PISS HER OFF!! BUT NO!!

TIP IF YOU WANNA GET A GOOD ENDING FOR CASS, INVESTIGATE THE DAMN SHADOW BEFORE THE PERFORMANCE!! UGH!! SORRY I THOUGHT OF YOUR FEELINGS, BABE, I DIDN'T REALISE EMPATHY FOR YOUR INTERESRS AND WELLBEING WOULD RESULT IN MY DEATH 🙄

It's fucking fine I reloaded the game and investigated, then told her what I saw and shit turned out fine and she fucked me in her dressing room >_> I'll take it but that music and the art of her going all crazy-eyed saying she was gonna basically kill me is gonna leave some trauma, babes, I'm ngl

Istg I genuinely was unsettled and freaked out over it. The music does a lot for the game, and the composer(s) did a great job at making me piss myself in fear. Made me feel genuine anxiety and fear. Also, because I couldn't do anything about it, it made it so much harder to watch. Feels like Subnautica without the water. Or sea creatures. Or space ship. Or anything except the overwhelming sense of "you fucked up" that I get when I hear the music after getting drenched in blood, or the "approaching ecological dead-zone" message. It's the same vibe that makes me wanna cry from anxiety, and I applaud any game that evokes that reaction from me.

I'll definitely play through the other routes, probably Belas mostly, and I'll try to get some other results from Cass' route. I didn't investigate the 3rd floor because it pissed her off when I did it, so I reloaded it (don't judge, I'm a people pleaser) and chose to wait for her. Idk what other endings can come from her route. I know I can reject her and stuff, but I don't wanna. That's my wife motherfucker.

I'm most interested in Bela and Cass' routes in this. I like Daniela, but she's not as interesting as I kinda hoped she'd be. I like skater girls, but for Dani, she's too chill. I like the switch in making Cass more of a momma's girl and making Bela more argumentative with Alcina. Whereas in RE8, that'd be the opposite with them.

Cass is the rash child not doing what Alcina wants, and Bela has to pick up the slack and suck up to mother (or at least that's the vibe we got from the lore). And Dani is just...Dani. She's chaos incarnate. But I like the switch of having Cass now be the one who decided to follow in her mother's footsteps, whilst Bela is apparently arguing with her so much.

Btw, I'd adore if there was a mutli-romance option. I'd fall head over heels so easy XDD speaking of, is there any way to meet Bela in Cass' route? She never showed in my playthrough outside of a name drop from her sisters. I've seen screenshots of Bela and Cass in Y/Ns dorm together, I'm not sure what route it's from.

Overall, I'd say I had a lot of fun. I liked the stakes, I liked the romance. Some character depictions could've been better, but maybe they would be if I play again and choose Dani's option during a later playthrough. Maybe I just didn't get enough of a look at her character. Will definitely play again :3

#self ship #self shipping #self shipper #resident lover #resident lover spoilers #cassandra dimitrescu #resident lover cassandra #dimitrescu sisters

[palettepainter]

How does the rest of the Electric Mayhem feel about Anastasia's pets? I'm sure Dr. Teeth loves them as much as he did as a kid, and I can guess Zoot's opinion on Betty Spaghetti (Animal: Zoot big baby XD), but what about Janice, Floyd, Lips and Animal? I bet Animal loves Betty, cause he seems to like snakes.

Sorry it took me forever to get to this, originally wanted to draw a response but as life does things have gotten busy for me so prolly gonna have to do those drawings another time

You're right that Teeth loves his Grammy's pets and they're all fond of him, I imagine the band and Teeth prolly went up to see Anastasia in Louisiana and that's how they meet her pets

I hc Floyd is a bit of an animal magnet without realising (sort of a joke on the fact he's bff's with a guy literally named Animal), he's basically got a disney princess affect on animals and is totally oblivious to it until he realises he's got like a small following of critters behind him. The pets probably love him the most next to Teeth, and Floyd is most of the time chill with them, but he's a bit unnerved with Spike sometimes, he'll offer three, slow, awkward pats to her snout while looking away

Janice is also an animal lover, she doesn't care what pet you've got she will pet it. She's likely the one whose the least surprised at seeing Spike, a literal gator, lounging on the sofa like a dog. I imagine Trinket would love Janice mostly for the shiny crystals she always carries around but the others would all be chill

Trinket LOVES lips - lemurs groom themselves and each other, and while Trinket is the only lemur Anastasia has Trinket has developed a habit of "grooming" Anastasia's and Teeth's hair. With how thick and fluffy Lips's hair is Trinket would be awestruck. Since Lips's is one of the more relaxed members of the band Gertrude probably sits with him the most when they visit

Zoot probably didn't even realise Spike was a gator till someone reminded him for the third time. As you guessed he is terrified of Betty, despite Betty being basically as docile as a mole. Before Anastasia adopted Betty she belonged to a snake charmer, so she ends up being put in a trance by Zoot's saxaphone and occasionally Lip's trumpet, but the affects are stronger when Zoot plays - I think it'd be funny if Betty liked Zoot and doesn't realise he's scared witless by her. 9 times out of 10 I imagine Betty gets away with slithering up to Zoot while he's napping, and it's not until he wakes up and blinks a few times does he realise the yellow blanket besides him is in fact a snake

And all the pets are terrified of Animal, even Spike (Spike: *hissing behind Teeth at Animal* Teeth: Spike you're an apex predator what are YOU scared of?!-). Animal desperately wants to be friends with them but all his attempts at friendship end up with him being pecked, scratched or hissed at (sometimes chased). Betty luvs him, they're besties

#Muppets #Anastasia #Teeth #Floyd Pepper #Janice #Lips #Zoot #Animal #The Electric Mayhem

[mx-piggy]

who do you suspect the most this season on the Afterparty?

oh god i'm so indecisive about this, not to mention it took a very slight spoiler/hint for me to even consider Yasper as a suspect in season one, and even then it wasn't until the final moments leading up to the reveal that i realised that it had to be him lmao.

i feel like everyone's a suspect still at this point, which is a cop-out answer for sure, but i'm not intelligent enough to come up with my own theory, so i'm relying a lot on the redditors.

my main theory is that more than one person is involved this season. who? i can't say for sure, but there are certain combinations that i've definitely considered. i think that it'll be someone whose episode is from the first half of the season and someone who is from the last half of the season.

i feel like i still can't rule out Grace or Hannah yet because it makes too much sense that one of them was involved. i want them both to be innocent and to run off into the sunset together, but part of me still thinks one of them did it. that said, from a storytelling point of view, i don't know if the writers would go with such obvious culprits? if the devil's trumpet really is the murder weapon, i feel like it'd be too obvious for Hannah to have poisoned Edgar because she's into macabre horticulture, if that makes sense. then again, there are a lot of theories that the devil's trumpet is a red herring. as for Grace, i feel like the suspicion she's been held with since the beginning could rule her out as a suspect. the ending of Sebastian's episode made them look deliberately suspicious, but, like many people, i think maybe the thing they didn't tell Aniq and Danner is that they were together on the night of Edgar's murder, and/or that they were planning on running away together or something like that. so, i think the fact that they both look so suspicious means they didn't do it?? maybe?? then again, maybe this is a double bluff on the writers' part. god, i'm not intelligent enough for this show. if Grace did it, i think it's likely she was in cahoots with Hannah or Travis, and if Hannah did it, she was in cahoots with Grace, Sebastian or possibly Travis. Maybe Ulysses as well?

once again, i also think Sebastian is still kind of suspicious, but i don't know if the writers would use someone with a similar motive to Yasper again. then again, the writers have gone out of their way to make him look suspicious in earlier episodes, so this makes him look a little less suspicious, if that makes sense? if he was involved in the murder, i think it's likely that he might have done it with Travis or Isabel, or possibly Hannah.

i'm also a little suspicious of Travis after reading some reddit theories. people have noticed that he dumbed himself down a little in his episode compared to how he's portrayed in Sebastian's episode, which is kind of odd given he's supposed to be a self-aggrandising reddit sleuth. if it was him, it'd make sense because he'd feel like he knows how to cover up a murder. if it was him, like i've said before, i feel like it would have been with Sebastian, Grace or Hannah.

i've seen some theories that Edgar was doing something to mess with Isabel's mental state, such as gaslighting or drugging her. that said, i don't think i'm overly suspicious of her just yet (as always with this show, i'm prepared to eat my words). it seems like she does have an issue of some kind with her mental state- some have suggested dementia- so i don't think the writers would go down the route of 'the very mentally unwell person did the murder' if this actually is the case for Isabel because it's kind of insensitive.

i really don't know what to make of Zoe and Grace's family nor Isabel yet, so i'm hoping i'll be able to make a better judgement once some of their episodes are released. i think that Feng, Vivian and Ulysses might just look so suspicious because of a possible family secret they're all hiding, rather than the fact that they did a murder. of the three of them, Ulysses is probably the most suspicious and the most probable of Zoe's relatives i can see as having committed the murder. part of me thinks that the writers wouldn't have any of Zoe's family be involved in the murder because it'd be something that would personally affect Zoe and Aniq too much. then again, they've made a point to say that Aniq needs to stop looking at his 'job' as proving Grace and her family's innocence, so maybe it was them? i could see the writers possibly going down the route of it being accidental if Zoe's family is involved. but, again, i'm prepared to suspect Zoe's family if i hear any convincing theories.

to summarise, i am not intelligent enough for this show and i will be pleasantly shocked by whoever the killer(s) is/are revealed to be. this is a sentiment i rarely hold but in this case: thank god for reddit, or i'd be even more clueless.

(also, to anyone who sees this, i need to hear people's Afterparty theories so feel free to comment, rb or DM me)

#the afterparty #the afterparty spoilers