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#there's definitely an element of. i think it's a really bad idea to put your identity and self worth on romance in general
matryosika · 5 months
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Untitled #9
Wordcount — 1,618 words
Includes — Fem!reader, mentions of contraceptives, unprotected vaginal sex. Dubcon elements (but it is all explained in detail), mentions/fantasies of creampies, use of petnames (baby).
Author's note — Just a little something! I've had this thought for a while now, and I wanted to put it out there. Despite the dubcon elements of it, I really picture both parties being super into it with full consent —for this, the male character just puts up a fight because he considers things risky, but deep down he wants it just as bad. With that in mind, read this if you have no problem whatsoever with some dubcon. If it's not your cup of tea, just scroll!
Just thinking about a forced creampie with Chan.
He had been pretty vocal about how badly he wants to fuck you raw and come inside you, but the overly-reasonable, almost persecutory part of him doesn't let him get loose. Whenever he thinks about coming inside of you, he can't help but also overthink everything that could go wrong.
“Maybe I just need a little push, you know?” He told you right after you asked him what was stopping him from fulfilling his fantasies. “I tend to get too into my head, maybe I should just- I don't know, go for it in the heat of the moment”.
But even in the heat of the moment, Chan holds back. The amount of self-control he has is crazy, so as much as he wishes to get loose, he never manages to do so on his own.
You come up with a plan, but you first make sure that he is on the same page as you —that he wants this just as much as you. So you ask him just that, and the response you get is enough for you to proceed.
“I think about it at least twice a day,” Chan confessed. “I mean, not a day goes by without me thinking about how pretty your pussy would look leaking with my cum”.
So you start off slow —first, you convince him to fuck you without a condom, fully raw. He pulls out every fucking time, much against his lust's will, but you don't mind. At least not when you can now feel every inch of him, every thickness of his veins and the warmth of his bulge. And now, he gets to feel you too —like fully feel you. From your soft walls squeezing his dick, to the sticky arousal that drips out of you.
It doesn't take long for him to get addicted to that feeling, though —despite him “wanting to take things slow”, he soon becomes obsessed and the idea of using a condom ever again is discarded by Chan himself.
So it all starts off with fucking you raw, and it eventually ends up one night with you offering that much needed push to finally allow himself go.
You're on top of him, straddling his lap while his cock reaches the deepest spots inside your pussy. You can feel him twitching inside of you, and if that isn't enough confirmation that he is seconds away from coming, the grimaces of pain and pleasure along with the veins popping on his temple and neck definitely are.
His hands are bruising your hips pretty bad while he guides your movements on top of him —roughly grinding yourself against him, squeezing your walls to provide him with the stimulation he needs to come.
“Just like that,” he groans biting down his lower lip with furrowed eyebrows and eyes closed shut, “come on, fuck yourself on my cock just like that. Make me come”.
Coincidentally, you're trying to do just that. So when he bents his legs against the mattress, and his hands try to push your body away from his, you don't stop.
“Baby,” he groans out your name, whincing in pain the longer he tries to hold his orgasm back, “'m gonna- fuck, I'm close”.
You lean down over his body, placing chaste kisses along his jaw and neck, “give it to me, Chan”.
He squeezes his eyes shut, just as his body stiffens underneath yours, “move, baby”.
“Inside,” you whimper, shaking your head into the crook of his neck. “Come inside”.
Chan's back arches a little, just as he struggles to maneuver your body, but it's all useless —he doesn't have the strength to push you away, and he doesn't want to.
“No, baby,” Chan hisses, gripping your hips as rough as he can. “I can't- please, let me pull out”.
“Come on, Chan,” you plead into his ear, biting his earlobe while your walls clench around his girth, “I know you want to”.
He lets out a painful, exasperated groan in an attempt to hold back the pent up tension between his legs —you can see he is really trying his best not to come.
“Please,” you leave one last wet kiss on his neck before straightening up your body, going from grinding against his cock to fully bouncing on it, “please, come inside me. I need it”.
Chan swears he is going to lose his mind. Between the feeling of your cunt clenching around him, the sight of your pretty body bouncing on top of his, and the lewd words and moans that are leaving your lips, Chan is sure he isn't going to last any longer.
“Let me pull out,” he tells you once again, with no intention of ever wanting you to stop. At this point, Chan still puts up a fight because he doesn't want to give in too easily. But honestly, he is not interested in winning that fight whatsoever, “'m gonna come, baby”.
You press your hands against his chest and increase the pace of your movements, forcing his body underneath yours while caging it with your legs on each side of his body.
His face is flushed, and the painful grimaces and groans he lets out can only warn you that he might not resist any longer.
“Come for me,” you insist, digging your nails on the flesh of his chest, “please, fill me up”.
At one point, he just gives in to his dirtiest fantasies and carnal pleasures. Who is he to deny himself? You're begging for something that only he can give you, and he fucking will.
So the painful moans turn into primal ones, instictual and animalistic. He opens his eyes and stare at you, his hands going from your hips to your neck, choking you ever so slightly as you ride him to his high.
Not only that, but his hips start fucking into yours from underneath —if he is going to come inside you, he is going to have it his way. Meaning he is going to be the one in control, not you.
Your whole body trembles at the unexpected thrusts, and it doesn't take you long to feel a warm, almost hot sensation filling you up.
“You wanted me to come inside you?” He asks through gritted teeth, snapping his hips against yours while your whole body goes limp. Chan hugs you tightly in place, preventing his dick from sliding out of you, “you better not fucking waste it, then”.
He milks himself inside you with each thrust, letting out deep grunts of pleasure in between.
“Chan,” you gasp when you feel his cum oozing out of your pussy and around his cock, all while he is inside you, “fuck”.
Even after a few seconds, he feels he isn't done yet —he is still throbbing and pulsating inside your walls, and he just can't stop shooting his cum into you. This is the first time he comes like this, and it is as painful as it is pleasurable.
“It's dripping out of me,” you murmur when he finally slows down, looking down to where your bodies connect —it's messy, but neither of you can begin to care. At least not when it feels this good to be filled.
Chan lets out a deep exhale, his chest moving frantically as he tries to catch his breath. He feels defeated, and weak, but at the same time he can't wrap his head about how good it fucking felt to finally let go, to be able to fuck you full of his cum until it dripped out of your tight hole.
So much so, that the idea of pulling out and coming anywhere else it's just not an option any more.
And just like he got addicted to fucking you raw, he might be addicted to stuff you full of his cum now too.
He just needed a little push.
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ladytabletop · 6 months
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Lady Tabletop's Primer for Getting into Tabletop Roleplaying Game Design Philosophy
Sam Dunnewold over at the Dice Exploder podcast has posed a fun question to his discord server: where would you tell people to start if they wanted to know more about TTRPGs and design?
First and foremost, I'd tell people to start with @jdragsky's article about Systems of Relation.
With the benefit of hindsight, I can now understand that the games we played on the playground were identical in nature to the tabletop RPGs I would grow up to play and help design.
Next, check out Thomas Manuel's analysis of the Axes of Game Design over on the Indie RPG Newsletter.
So the basic exercise is trying to figure out the standard axes or spectrums on which every game can fit. The idea is for these axes to be as descriptive and objective as possible.
Thirdly (and lastly for the purposes of this blog - it's entry-level, not comprehensive), check out this reddit thread about lonely fun.
The Lonely Fun is all of the stuff you do as a part of your hobby away from the table, in any way you might engage. For D&D 5e players, this is usually building complicated and elaborate characters on the page, pouring over the books for new races and subclasses, figuring out fun new combinations, and carefully crafting characters.
Read those? Now check out BALIKBAYAN: Returning Home by @temporalhiccup
Will we be able to outrun our Masters and those who hunt us down? Can we use our magic to bring about the rebirth of the city and all Elementals? ill this be our RECKONING or our HOMECOMING? That’s what we play to find out.
Why I make these particular recommendations below the cut.
All of these recommendations are hopefully all entry-level. I tried to stay away from any essays, blogs, or articles that reference game movements you may not have heard of or that require tons of reading before you can even read my recommendations. Some do have links to other stuff, and if you're enjoying the writing, definitely go down those rabbit holes! These are a tiny, tiny portion of my "TTRPG Homework" folder where I save essays, podcasts, etc that have helped me in my own game design journey. I'm always happy to share more, just ask!
The essay on Systems of Relation put into words something I had been thinking about the more I got into indie games/design: I've been playing my whole life, and ttrpgs are just another piece of that. I think it's crucial to break out of the framework of people trying to define play and games into neat little categories. Will I ever write a game as good as the ones I played in the backyard with my siblings? Probably not, but I'd like to find out.
Now that I've told you to stop trying to categorize games, we have an article about trying to categorize games. But I do like Thomas's assessment and examples of using game design axes. I think as designers it's important to figure out the things the game is trying to do and communicate, so that we can make sure it does those things well.
Lastly, I know 5e gets a bad rap (and it's gotten it from me, too!). But the concept of lonely fun has stuck in my craw since I first saw this thread. It's why some people prefer to GM (and therefore why GM-less games might not work for some people). Not all games are going to have lonely fun, but the ones that do are still going to appeal to people! This thread was key for me in terms of considering that no game is for everyone, and it shouldn't try to be, and also helped contextualize the enjoyment I get from the occasional high-prep game.
Balikbayan as a recommendation was a no-brainer for me. I'm not going to say it's the most elegant or tight of Rae's work, but it's the one with the most heart for me. The story this game wants you to tell is so clear, and as an introduction to "Belonging Outside Belonging" as a system/concept/design philosophy. This game really sings in its character concepts and emotional play.
If you've read this far, congratulations! I've been enjoying the DE podcast (even when I don't agree with some of the takes) and the discord has been a cool (if at times intimidating) place to hang out. I've had a hell of a game design journey this year and I'm so excited to keep learning, and to see what media other folks participating in this blog carnival recommend!
To sign off: my best advice to designers, especially those starting out can be boiled down to three things:
When in doubt, simplify or make it silly
The two cakes theory is your best friend - game design is not a competition
Not everything has to be finished. Not every part of the creative process is fun. Find the balance between these two truths (you're going to have to do that every day).
Best,
LT
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sheydgarden · 3 months
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How do you feel about jewish supernatural creatures being portrayed in media? Is it okay if done correctly, since it is a closed religion? I'm really curious, especially since you obviously know so much about them.
I also want to say that I love your art! And I love being able to learn more about these creatures.
thank you for the kind words, i appreciate it!
i have to say i'm confused by the question, or possibly its framing - i'm not sure what Judaism being a "closed religion" has to do with portraying creatures from folklore in media. "closed religion" is a term people generally seem to use when they're talking about not appropriating the actual religious/cultural practices of a (usually contextually marginalized) religion that you don't belong to. recently i've seen some pushback against the term "closed practice/religion" for Judaism, as it's not literally true. yes, Judaism is for Jews, but anyone can convert to Judaism - it's just that it's a whole process that involves a lot of learning & then being accepted by a Jewish community. to my knowledge, "closed practice" as a term grew out of the pagan/neo-pagan community anyway & was used to describe any religion whose symbols, deities & practices weren't socially considered fair game for use in your own personal spiritual practice - i have a lot of thoughts on this odd sort of "restaurant view" of religion & culture, where some things are at a free-for-all buffet so you can just take what you want (who put them there?) while other things are only served at certain tables by reservation (is anyone else ever invited?), but that's a whole other post.
i'm assuming you're asking how i feel about non-Jewish people portraying creatures from Jewish folklore in various kinds of media, & the answer is that it totally depends on the thing & how it's done? i definitely don't subscribe to the idea that creators should never step outside their own experience/culture. i do think portraying (elements of) other cultures is something that should be done carefully & sensitively, ideally with input from members of that culture! unfortunately, it is very, very easy for creators to unintentionally fall into antisemitic tropes & stereotypes, because those ideas are so old & so pervasive, especially when it comes to monsters & other supernatural creatures (Jews having been literally demonized by Christian culture for centuries). i think if you're not Jewish, then making sensitive, educated work about Jewish monsters is probably hard mode, but that isn't to say it can't be done. i can think of plenty of bad examples off the top of my head, but i'm sure i could come up with some good ones too if given the time.
of course, this is all just my opinion, & should not be taken as a ruling on what's "okay"! other Jews will agree & disagree with me, which is fine & good. :)
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kathaynesart · 1 year
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What do you take from the Rise movie’s “This isn’t about me,” message? *It’d be interesting to see this become a Tumblr thread cause I’d love to see what others think too.
That's... an important line to decipher. Deep enough to mean so many things but vague enough to be easily taken out of context. I have a lot to say about it, but I'll keep it under the cut to save others the trouble.
TLDR: Future Leo's a dum dum hypocrite
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I think... when Leo used the line in the future timeline. He was trying to remind Casey of the harsh reality that they existed in. That this was a world where they sometimes had to set aside their personal wants for the greater good. It's for that reason that Leo was able to ask Mikey to do the unthinkable and sacrifice himself in turn.
What I find fascinating about the movie, is that it both supports and counters this message. It tries to find that healthy middle ground, between present Leo's narcissistic attitude in the beginning and the downright sacrifice he's willing to make by the end. Because him sacrificing himself was NOT the happy ending. And while we get that "ending" for only a moment. We can see that method doesn't feel right either.
In that way, I don't think "it's not about me" isn't actually the "message" of the movie as some might assume at first glance. Merely a gentle reminder to check yourself before you wreck yourself. Because technically, yes, "it's not about me" does apply to many aspects of life. We can get so caught up in our own worries and concerns and perspectives and it just... muddles reality in a way. We need to see how our actions and words affect others and understand that there's so much more out there than our own little bubbles. But we also should understand our own worth within the big tapestry of life and be willing to fight for the things that matter to us.
That's why I think the actual message of the story isn't "it's not about me." It's about balance. It's about the knowing look Leo and Raph share in the end and the fact that Mikey was able to achieve the true, best ending with his brother's help to save Leo, because they know that the world may mean more in the long run, but they mean the world to each other, and I think it's really important to understand.
But that's just my long-winded opinion on the subject and there’s plenty of other interpretations I think I can totally get behind as well. It will be an element within Replica but let's also remember that Future Leo is kind of hypocrite with this line. He's says "It's not about me" but that's coming from someone who the entire resistance has centered around as its leader. He's probably a little tired of the idolization by now and does not like the idea that he's somehow more important than others. I think that's where that line really stems from for Leo. It's obvious that Casey isn't just talking about his importance as a leader, but Leo with the same line is asking him to set those feelings aside even if he is one of the most important people in Casey's life.
And then Leo turns around and throws one of the most important people in his life through the portal. A damn hypocrite (/positive)
EDIT: I was sort of ending it on a silly note but @dandylovesturtles added such a great point that I haven’t been able to put into words but feel in my heart when it comes to future Leo and definitely something I want to show with the healing process he’s been going through in Replica: and that’s the “not all about you” sometimes just means that bad things happen but you can’t just blame yourself for it, and it’s not some cosmic attack for your mistakes. The world did not come to an end because of Leo’s mistake, even if he might have once felt like that. What’s more it means you can’t put the whole world on your shoulder or always try to fix things on your own like how Leo tried to after Raph’s capture. It’s ok to seek the aid and support and ideas of others your trust. It really lines up so well with a lot of the events in the film.
Thank you @dandylovesturtles and everyone else’s amazing comments! I want to hear all of them and take notes.
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salty-croissants · 5 months
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your work is really incredible 🥰 if you're not too busy, how about bullfrog and rayman/ramon getting sick and reader taking care of them?
Thank you for the request ! 
This is such an adorable scenario , I love the idea of the reader taking care of the boys , very wholesome stuff :,) ❤️
Hope this turned out okay !
Details : use of gender neutral reader ;
established relationships ; 
presence of slightly suggestive elements at the end , but other than that no warnings needed
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Bullfrog 💚
Knowing just how much he cares about those around him , I imagine Bullfrog is going to try to ignore the fact that he is sick , doing his best to carry on like usual with his routine and his missions …
But he didn’t consider the fact that you know him better than anyone , so you were quickly able to figure out that he wasn’t feeling at his best . 
< Okay Bullfrog , what’s wrong ? You’ve been looking really tired today … >
< Non non , nothing is wrong , my love … please don’t worry about me , I’m going to be just fine .
It’s … just a little headache . >
< Still , I really think you should get some rest . Come on sweetie . > 
< y/n , wait I - >
He knows that there is nothing he can do to convince you not to take care of him , and honestly he can’t say he’s unhappy .
The first thing you do is making sure he has everything he could need : 
a warm blanket ? Something warm to drink ? You’re on your way to immediately fetch what might help Bullfrog to feel better . 
In the meantime , he just watches you from the bed you’ve made him lay down on , shacking his head in front of your eagerness to help him …
< Mon amour , there is no reason to do all this , it’s not that bad … >
< I know you don’t want anyone to worry about you , but I’ll be honest , this doesn’t look like “a little headache” : you’ve been pushing yourself too hard lately , so I want to be there for you the same way you’re always there for me . 
You deserve to be cared about , love … more than you might think . >
Your sincere words just have a way of putting Bullfrog at ease , and if he wasn’t sick I assure you that he would drown you with kisses and affection right now .
If he knows there is something important you need to do , Bullfrog will definitely insist that you go deal with it before spending the rest of the day with him : 
he really doesn’t want to get you in trouble by having you stay by his side for too long …
< But sweetie , what if you suddenly need me when I’m away ? Then I won’t be able to know ! > 
< y/n , mon cher , I assure you that I can take care
of myself .
Besides , if you finish that up beforehand we’ll be able to spend time together more comfortably . > 
< Yeah , but … hmm , I don’t know … > 
< Trust me , I’m going to be just fine , you’ve already done so much for me … 
Now would be a good time to get going , I’ll be waiting for you right here . > 
< *sigh* … alright , but please be careful : you should probably lay down for a while longer , get some sleep if you can … 
Oh - you should also remember to drink some tea or some water to stay hydrated , and - > 
< Hehe … don’t you worry , I will take care of
myself .
Thank you for caring so much about me sweetheart … I’ll be looking forward to spend some more time with you again when you get back ~ > 
After you’re done with everything you had scheduled for the day , the next hours are all going to be spent next to Bullfrog , just the two of you cuddling and enjoying each other’s warmth .
It’s not long before he is completely relaxed , something that happens only when he’s with you , and that’s when he’ll start whispering sweet nothings in your ear : you may not be able to fully understand all of them , but hearing him speak so softly to you is just so sweet … it’s enough to make you forget about all the terrible things going on outside for a little while , only leaving this precious moment of intimacy .
< Did I tell you how much I love you today … ? >
< You did , but … tell me anyway ~ >
< Heh , vous êtes merveilleux , y/n … je t'aime de tout mon coeur , you really do mean everything to me … >
< Easy , honey … just close your eyes , you really need to get some sleep . >
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Rayman 🧡
As someone who overworks himself very , very often , it’s not unusual for Rayman to get sick … however , now that he has a loving partner by his side things have changed … for the better : 
no matter what he says , you will get him to stop what he’s doing and take a break , and there is no way to argue about this . 
< Please y/n … I gotta study the script for the next show , it’s important … the Board of Directors said - > 
< Well , I think the Board of Directors would agree that letting you perform while you’re too exhausted to say a single word would be very counterproductive .
You can’t ignore your health like this , Ray … it’s not good for you , at all . > 
< *sigh* … >
< You can get back to the script when you feel a bit better .
Can … you do that for me , love ? > 
< Heh … now how could I say no to that ?
You really put me in a trap , sweetheart ~ > 
Rayman would be very grateful if you stayed with him while he recovers , not only because he loves spending time with you but also because your presence helps him to suppress the urge to get up and continue working despite his sickness …
< Heyy , I see you over there … lay back down ! > 
< Ah damn - I was really close this time … > 
< Not on my watch : I’m your Rest Guardian , and you better believe I won’t let you escape from me , darling ~ >
< Pfft -
I just … I love you so much y/n ~ > 
He loves it when you sit next to him , talking to him about how your day went and telling him all about your interests …
Your voice is like music to his ears , it brings him a feeling of peace and tranquility that he desperately needs given all the stress he has to deal with daily : 
Rayman honestly thinks that he wouldn’t be able to feel better without you … and he doesn’t only refer to his current condition .
If you decide to lay in bed with him and shower him with sweet little kisses ? 
This man will absolutely melt . 
< Don’t worry , I’ll take care of you … I’ll always be here to take care of you … >
< y/n … god , I can’t believe you’re actually real .
You’re amazing … I don’t know what I’d do without you . > 
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Ramon 🖤
Okay , so now that the two of you are wanted by pretty much all of Eden’s allies for the murder of the Board of Directors , Ramon has grown to care less and less about his health , too worried about hiding and keeping you safe …
That’s something that you won’t allow tough , so whenever he gets sick you take care of him just like you did before : without giving him any chance to argue about it .
< Why are you making such a big deal out of this ?
I told you already , I’m fine . > 
< You … aren’t , tough . > 
< Yeah ? And how do you know that ? >
< Because I’ve been with you long enough to know when you’re sick … and also when you’re not telling the truth about it . 
Please , Ram , let me be there for you … I don’t want you to neglect yourself like this … > 
< … heh … put me in a trap again , I see . >
Ramon is grateful for your kindness and love , and even though he doesn’t always makes things easy he really wants you to be there with him … 
He … doesn’t really have anyone else . 
Ramon definitely takes way longer to become less tensed , constantly worried about someone sneaking up on you two out of nowhere , and since he really does need some rest to recover one thing you do that always helps him calm down is holding him in your arms and gently caress his hair : 
it works surprisingly well , and after a few minutes he already looks more at ease .
He needs to feel you next to him to make sure you’re okay and nothing bad happened to you , so trust me when I say that after he gets a hold of you Ramon isn’t going to let you go that easily …
< Sweetie , come on , I just need to go and get some more water for you … > 
< Mmh … 5 more minutes . >
< But you said that 5 minutes ago … > 
< You’re right … 10 minutes then ~ >
< Come onnn ~ >
Ramon still loves it when you kiss him while he’s in bed with you , just like you did in the past when he was still hosting his show , and sometimes he might even surprise you with passionate displays of affection out of nowhere .
< Hey now , you … mm … said you were going to sleep soon … > 
< Yeah yeah , I’ll sleep love , don’t worry …
I just wanted to repay you for everything you’ve done for me today … I think you deserve something nice , don’t you ? ~ > 
< Heh , alright … just a few more minutes then … > 
< Couldn’t ask for more … ~ >
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bella-rose29 · 7 months
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Idiot ~ Anthony Lockwood x f!reader
Requested by anon:
Hii I want to request Anthony Lockwood×fem!reader, with childhood bestfriends to rivals to lovers with the miscommunication trope, but also a happy ending with both of them being together. So the plot could be like, they were childhood best friends but then when Anthony's family died he later wanted to start the business, but she thought that he was out of his mind because she was scared about him being in danger, but he thought she just didn't think he can handle it so they got into an argument and she left. After that, they started hating each, later she joined Fittes as an agent, so he was even more angry. So they became rivals in the ghost hunting business. Then they got put on a mission later, and idk she gets injured and his like "who did this to you," but they're still enemies, even though the whole time there is sexual tension between them. This request is super chaotic, so just make your own plot with these elements, I guess. I'm not good at describing plots, I will be happy with whatever you write, but please let them have a happy ending and be together. Also, could you try to make this as long as you can because there aren't as many Lockwood fics as there should be.
I might have changed some bits a lil bit and probably spent way too long talking about their childhood, but hopefully this lives up to your expectations anon! (Please let me know if it doesn't though)
Word count: 9.5k exactly (holy shit this is insane i had way too much fun with this)
Warnings: swearing, violence, fighting, descriptions of injury, mentions and descriptions of Lockwood's family dying/being dead, major spoilers for the books (and the show), some stuff probably doesn't make sense (like at all), i might also have misremembered and made up some things but we'll go with it, Lockwood is actually kind of a dick for some of this oops, he gets better i promise, hospitals, mentions of being on morphine (for the pain), references to Lockwood being depressed, they're idiots in love.
Tag list: @anathemaloren, @augustisintheair, @avdiobliss, @dangelnleif, @el-de-phi, @karensirkobabes, @mitskiswift99, @mrsklockwood, @mrsyixingunicorn10, @ran23sblog, @superpositvecloudshipper, @t2sh0, @taygrls, @tournesol77, @wandamaximoffbae, @wordsarelife
As always, let me know here if you'd like to be added or removed from the tag list!
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It was nearly 3am and Y/n L/n had had enough.
She was exhausted, weary, worn out, and pretty much any other synonym for the word 'tired', and she just wanted to go to bed, but Anthony Lockwood had other ideas.
"Give it here, come on!"
Y/n groaned, then half-heartedly chucked the bits of paper at her best friend from where she was lying on the floor of his living room. Jessica laughed, despite also losing to the 5 year old boy at Monopoly, and shook her head at his greedy smile as he counted the money. How he had ever managed to get the two of them to agree to play with him, Y/n didn't know, especially since she'd not really been paying attention when the rules were explained. But then she saw how happy he was at the idea of playing with the two girls, and Y/n knew she could never make her best friend sad.
She did really want to go to bed though.
Jessica Lockwood appeared to notice Y/n's droopy eyes, and quietly spoke to her brother, stifling a laugh at his pout when she told him they should probably stop.
"But we aren't done yet!"
"I know, Anthony, but you've definitely got the most money, I'm sure of it. You're going to win no matter what, so I think we should let Y/n/n go to sleep, yeah?"
"Oh..." he'd noticed his friend's demeanour now, and felt immediately bad for making her stay awake. "Alright then. Y/n/n?"
"Mmm?"
"You ready to go to bed? 'Cause Jess says I won, so I reckon we can go up now."
"Mkay," she murmured, too sleepy to answer in proper words. Going up to bed was a haze, and she only really woke up when she stubbed her toe at the bottom of the stairs (Anthony hadn't told her that was there, despite saying he'd guide her). She was sure she brushed her teeth, Jessica would have checked, and they were all already in their pyjamas, but the only other thing she remembered before dropping off completely was seeing Anthony's face on the pillow next to her, already snoring lightly.
~~~
Y/n couldn't remember most of Anthony's sixth birthday now, what with all the memories that came in between, but she did remember his joy at receiving her present.
He'd spent the majority of the morning since Y/n and her family went next door gloating about how he was finally six, and now he was old enough to do so much more than Y/n (who was still five). She'd rolled her eyes, laughing when he did victory dances all around the house, and laughing even harder when he fell over while doing one of the previously mentioned dances.
They'd run away and hidden in his room in the attic after collecting plates of cake, and Y/n made sure to pick up her carefully wrapped present on the way up. He'd noticed immediately that she was carrying it, of course, he was far too observant to miss it, and had demanded that she let him open it right then and there. Initially she'd refused, feeling shy and worried that he wouldn't like it, but he'd given her one of his secret smiles, one of the ones reserved specifically for her, and said "Please?" so sweetly she caved.
He placed the cake to the side, then spent a good minute unwrapping the gift, being oh so gentle with the paper in fear of breaking it. When he saw the item inside, his smile burst out, bright and blinding, and Y/n felt her own smile form on her face, pleased at his reaction.
"Do you like it?" Nerves were still coursing through her, but they left her body when he raised his head and met her eyes.
"I love it, Y/n/n," he whispered, lifting the picture frame all the way out of the wrapping. She'd convinced her parents to print the photo off, and then spent hours making a frame that would fit it perfectly, complete with lolly sticks and stickers, trying to make the best gift for the best friend she'd ever had.
The photo was the two of them the previous Christmas, bundled up in ridiculous festive jumpers and sat in front of the Lockwood family tree in the hallway, presents surrounding them. Their parents had insisted on a photo before they ruined the area with rubbish everywhere, and the two of them could barely contain their excitement. There was a slight blur to them, a testament to their energy, but their smiles were so wide and they were hugging so tightly Y/n knew it was the perfect photo to give him.
"Where did you even get this? I thought your mum hid the camera?"
Y/n giggled at his comically wide eyes. "I just asked her, silly. I did have to do some chores but I didn't mind, it was worth it."
She barely had time to move her plate of cake out of the way (she hadn't eaten any in the last few minutes, far too focused on Anthony's reaction) when he surged forward, bringing his arms around her in a crushing hug.
"Thank you," he said, although it was muffled since his head was pressed into her shoulder.
"Anything for you, Ant, anytime."
They stayed there for a while, just hugging on his bed and revelling in each others' presence, both knowing that Y/n had meant her words.
~~~
When Anthony had to fight his parents' ghosts, Y/n had cried.
He was crying too, since he'd seen them die less than a day ago and now he had to keep them dead, but seeing her best friend in so much pain had made Y/n cry harder.
Anthony was trying to push back the tears so that he could see, so that he could fight, and Y/n hated that he was doing this on his own.
She had been kept in her room by her parents, the adults being too scared for their daughter's safety to let her go and help Anthony, and she was watching him through her bedroom window. Despite the tears streaming down her face and the sobs racking her body, she could tell he was crying (or trying not to) because of the way he was hunched into himself, as if by making himself smaller he could make everything stop. His body was shaking too, heaving with silent cries as he fought off the two ghosts in front of him. Why they were in his back garden, Y/n wasn't sure, since they'd died on the road in an explosion a few minutes drive away, but she was only six, and didn't understand much anyway.
She wasn't sure how long she sat there, perched on the window seat with her gaze fixed on the boy next door, but she knew that it was far past her bedtime when he finally stopped them, and she woke up with her face stuck to the window, tear stains on her cheeks.
Realising it was light again, Y/n hurried to get dressed, tearing down the stairs and into the house next to them, knocking rapidly on the front door. It swung open a few moments later, revealing Jessica, who smiled sadly at the small girl in front of her and waved Y/n in.
"He's in his room," she said quietly, voice raw from crying.
Y/n nearly tripped countless times climbing the many stairs, and by the time she'd made it to the attic she was out of breath. Pushing his door open, and going up the last few steps (seriously, why were there so many steps?) she froze at the top when she saw him curled up under his bedsheets, shaking with near-silent cries.
"Anthony?"
She heard him sniff, the sound gross and snotty, and then he turned his body around to face her, and Y/n felt her heart break in her chest.
He clearly hadn't slept all night, eyes red from crying and lack of sleep, and he was struggling to keep back the fresh tears that threatened to break through.
"Oh, Ant."
Y/n rushed to the bed, climbing to sit next to him and pulling his head into her lap, brushing her fingers through his hair.
They sat like that for hours, long after Jessica brought up some toast for the two of them, and even when Y/n's back hurt from the headboard and her legs were numb from having his weight on them, she didn't stop stroking his hair, soothing him silently.
When he finally sat up, wiping his eyes and blowing his nose (Y/n made a mental note to put her clothes in the wash as soon as she got back home), she pulled him back in for a hug, both of them sat up this time.
"Thank you, Y/n/n."
She remembered the last time they'd done this, hugged on his bed while he thanked her, but this time it wasn't happy.
"Anything, Ant. Anytime."
~~~
"Ant, don't be stupid!" Y/n giggled, watching him climb the tree.
"I'm gonna get you an apple," he shouted, smiling down at her. "You're gonna love it, I promise!"
He'd just been reaching out for one, bright red and shining, when they'd heard a crash from inside his house, followed by a scream. They'd frozen where they stood, Y/n on the ground and Anthony in the tree, and then suddenly they snapped into action, scrambling to get inside and find Jessica.
They tore up the stairs (somehow Anthony had caught up to her, despite having been up the tree), and he pushed open her bedroom door just in time to see the ghost.
"NO!"
He moved before Y/n did, grabbing a spare rapier from the dresser and moving to fight, hoping to save his sister.
Y/n moved, but backwards, taking a step back out onto the landing, her hand on her mouth.
"Anthony."
He had pushed the ghost back, and was picking up a net.
"Anthony."
He had thrown the net over the broken pot, wrapping it up securely.
"Anthony," she said, eyes fixed on the bed.
"What?" His eyes were wide with terror as he turned to look at her, evidently scared that she was in danger, but when he followed her finger that pointed to the bed, he choked.
"No," he croaked hoarsely, and Y/n felt terrible for making him realise. "Jessica? Jessica please wake up. Jessica. Jessica, this isn't funny. Jessica, please. Jessica."
He kept on like that, repeating her name and asking her to wake up, but Y/n knew that she wouldn't. She moved again then, over to where he stood, rapier hanging limply in his hand. It had only been three years ago he'd lost his parents, why did he have to lose someone else that he loved? Pulling him into her, she let him sob into her shoulder (difficult, given his growth spurt).
Y/n knew at that point that she wouldn't ever leave him.
~~~
"You what?!"
"I'm starting training," Anthony replied, not looking up from where he stood at the kitchen counter, buttering toast.
"But... but why?"
"Because," he shrugged. When he didn't expand on it, Y/n sighed.
She was worried about him.
He'd been vacant, hollow, since Jessica's death, and although he tried to smile and make everybody think that he was doing just fine, Y/n knew her best friend better than that. She saw the bags under his eyes, the lack of joy and mischief that used to reside in his gaze.
"Because what, Anthony?"
"Look, I'll be fine. This guy called Nigel is gonna train me, and then I'll be an agent, and I can keep you safe."
"I can keep myself safe, idiot," Y/n huffed indignantly, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair.
"I know, I just want to be extra sure that you'll be okay. And everyone else."
"We're nine, Anthony. You went to a funeral a week ago and already you're talking to agents?"
"Yes. I'd like it if you came with me, obviously, but if you don't that's fine too. I'm doing this anyway, with or without you."
That hurt.
They always did everything together, so why was he talking like this?
"Fine. I'll talk to my parents. You need protecting too, dummy."
She'd broached the subject that night at dinner, expecting them to say no.
"Are you sure you want to do this, darling?"
"Yep," she said, stabbing some peas with her fork.
Her parents shared a look.
"Alright. Just promise us you'll be careful, and you'll pay attention in your training, yeah?"
Surprise made Y/n jolt, sending peas skidding across the table. "I can go?"
"Yes, but you have to promise us-"
"I promise!" Her parents chuckled, shaking their heads in a way that reminded Y/n of Monopoly and a late night.
~~~
Training was horrible.
Everybody was mean to her, just because she couldn't run as fast as the others, or move as quickly with a rapier.
"Look at her, she's gonna die within minutes!"
"Nah, she'll never make it that long. On the plus side, if she's in our group we only have to run faster than her!"
"Won't be too difficult!"
Y/n scowled at the whispers, making her way over to Anthony. She huffed, plopping down on the bench next to him and glaring at the girls.
"What's up with you?"
"They're being mean about me. Saying I'll be useless in the field."
"Aw, Y/n/n, they're stupid if they think that. You'll be amazing, I'm sure." He nudged her shoulder with his, smile working its way onto his face. Y/n couldn't help but smile back; his was too infectious. "You'll prove them wrong, I'm sure of it."
After that day, Y/n worked ten times as hard on the practical elements, a new intensity coming into her training with the other agents. She sparred against Anthony when they got home, blunt rapiers clashing in her back garden while her parents cooked dinner.
Within a month, she could beat pretty much everyone she trained with, the only exception being Anthony. He'd shown a skill with the rapier from the very beginning, and his long body made him graceful in a fight. She'd nearly beaten him a few times, but then he'd had a fire light in his eyes and he'd push her back, focus deadly as he forgot everything but the fight. She grew scared in those moments, and had stopped trying to beat him, afraid that he'd forget who she was and hurt her.
~~~
When they were fourteen, Y/n broke her promise and walked out on Anthony Lockwood.
He'd started a business, his own goddamn agency, in his own goddamn house, and he'd wanted her to work with him. She barely recognised the boy that stood in front of her the day he asked her; he was a shell of the best friend she used to have. He was vacant still, and she just wanted Anthony Lockwood back.
"Please? It'll be so much better if we're working together! You can come and live here, and your parents are still next door so you're not too far away, and we'll go on cases together, and it'll be great!"
Y/n had shaken her head, fear creeping up her spine. He'd grown a death wish recently, and although he vehemently denied it, she'd seen how he didn't seem to care about his personal safety when on cases led by the trainers.
"Anthony, you can't do this, please. You're gonna get hurt," she pleaded, hoping he'd come to his senses. If he wasn't so broken, she'd say yes, gladly, and work with him as they had always planned they would. But he was broken, and this job could destroy him.
"What, do you think I can't do it?" His brow furrowed in confusion, and Y/n could practically feel his guard start to go up.
He'd never done that with her before.
"It's not that, I just don't want you getting hurt. You're my best friend, Ant, and I don't wanna lose you."
"You won't lose me," he'd raised his voice slightly, pushing off of the kitchen counter as he got defensive. "You've seen me," he swept an arm out, referencing the training missions. "I'm the best agent they've got, and we both know it. I won't get hurt. I'm too good for that."
Y/n scoffed. "Do you hear yourself, Anthony? Do you realise how arrogant you sound? Because that's gonna get you killed." She'd raised her voice too, to match his, and she jabbed a finger into his chest.
"Arrogant? You think I'm arrogant? I thought we were 'best friends'?"
"Why did you say it like that?"
"What?"
"'Best friends', like we're not. You did little finger quotes like it was sarcastic."
"You always do this! Make something out of nothing!"
"What?" Her eyes narrowed. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"You tell me! You're the one saying I'm gonna get killed when I'm the most skilled agent we know! Why can't you just trust me?!"
"Because you will, Anthony! You will get yourself killed, and I can't let that happen! You can't start a company, just join Fittes, or Rotwell!"
"Fittes? Rotwell? I'd rather eat my own foot than join one of them! You just think I'm not capable of any of this, don't you? You think, that because my family is dead, I can't do this, because I should be grieving instead. Well I have grieved, and if you don't want to stay, then you can leave. I don't want you here if you're gonna keep being like this. Come back when you've sorted your attitude out." He turned his back, busying himself with making a cup of tea.
Y/n stared at him, mouth open in shock and tears threatening to fall.
"Prick. You're the one that needs to sort your attitude, not me."
She left then, grabbing her bag from the chair and scribbling a 'fuck you, Lockwood' onto the paper cloth on the table.
~~~
A year later, Y/n was working a job, and was actually somewhat happy.
She'd joined Fittes after her argument with Lockwood (she stubbornly refused to call him 'Anthony' until he'd apologised to her), and had been put in Quill Kipps' team. He was nice enough, arrogant and conceited at times, but Y/n put that down to his failing Senses and the stress of being team leader, since he was alright the rest of the time. He was more like an overworked teacher on a school trip with a bunch of primary school kids, and the bags under his eyes really added to the image.
It was a minor threat, Type One ghost that was giving an old lady the creeps, but they'd been waylaid on their way back to Fittes by a group of ghosts in the park, and two figures struggling to fight them all. There had to have been around twenty to thirty ghosts (all Type Ones, but they were angry), and when Kipps wondered aloud who would be so daft as to take them on, Y/n sighed, knowing exactly who would do it.
The Fittes team had jumped in, using the remainder of their flares and energy to help, and Y/n found the source, securing it quickly and efficiently. Mass graves were never fun, and this one wasn't much better. Spreading the silver net over the area, Y/n stood, careful not to jostle it.
"We don't need Fittes coming in, thanks, we were perfectly fine on our own."
"Sure," Kipps snorted. "Because being completely surrounded by ghosts and nearly dying is being perfectly fine. Give it a rest, Tony. Go back to your house and leave the agent work to the professionals, yeah?" Y/n rolled her eyes as she got closer, but she couldn't help but agree with what her leader was saying.
Anthony Lockwood looked terrible.
She had no idea who the other boy was (although he did look vaguely familiar), but he at least didn't look like he was on death's door.
"Y/n?"
She raised her eyebrows (she still couldn't figure out how to raise just the one, despite practicing for hours).
"Lockwood."
He flinched, almost imperceptibly, but she knew him too well to miss it. Nobody else noticed.
"Why are you... Are you working for Fittes?"
"Yes." He wasn't getting more out of her, not until he apologised. Kipps was looking between the two of them, as was the other boy with Lockwood, both clearly confused.
"How do you know each other?" Kipps asked.
"We were-"
"We were neighbours. Didn't talk much outside of that." Her tone was bland, and her face nonchalant, and she turned to leave. "Has somebody called DEPRAC?" Ned nodded, waving the radio in his hand.
"Said they'd be two minutes. Should be here in a minute."
"Perfect. Can we get that tea now, Kipps?"
He hesitated, obviously still unsure about what was going on. "Sure. We'll drop the other Source off first though, yeah?"
They left, and although Y/n could feel Lockwood's stare on her back, she didn't turn around.
~~~
It was a month later that Y/n saw Lockwood again, and it was almost the same situation. Her team had been patrolling the streets, making sure the area was secure, when they'd seen magnesium flares going off. They'd rushed in, and Y/n had scoffed when she caught sight of the long black coat and flashy moves.
"Outta the way, Tony!"
The Fittes team had made quick work of the Type Two, bagging the Source and claiming the reward. Y/n felt a little bad about the money, but at the same time Lockwood needed to learn how to get control over the situations he put himself in if he wanted to keep the reward. He seemed to take on the cases that were ridiculously out of his reach, and if Y/n was speaking to him she'd guess that he was trying to prove a point.
She and her team were warming up in a cafe afterwards, one of the late night ones that opened specifically for agents, when Lockwood and his coworker walked in. The pair breezed past, and when the other boy had smiled apologetically at them and given Y/n a little wave, she remembered who he was.
"George! Wait, it is George, isn't it?"
"Uh, yeah," he scratched the back of his head, and adjusted his glasses on his face. "I wasn't sure you remembered me, to be honest."
"I knew I'd seen you before, it just took me a bit to remember where from. Also it was dark the last two times we saw each other, so that won't have helped. Anyway, how are you?"
They chatted for a while, George shifting the piles of paper he had in his arms.
"Do you need to put those down?" she asked after he readjusted them for what seemed like the millionth time.
"I should probably get over to Lockwood, actually. I'm pretty sure he's burning holes in my jumper right now."
"Oh, he's glaring at me, don't worry."
"Why would he be glaring at you? You're lovely," he questioned, confused. "I thought you were just neighbours anyway?"
"Yeah. We had an argument a while back. He was a knob."
"Oh. Yeah, I can see that he would be." George nodded in understanding. "I should definitely go and join him though. We've got all this to get through," he held up the papers slightly, and Y/n smiled up at him.
"Well good luck, George. See you soon?"
"Probably the next time you save us. Lockwood has a death wish apparently. Doesn't let me research for long enough," he complained, shaking his head as he turned and left. Y/n had been right. Lockwood was being reckless, and he'd get himself, and quite possibly George, killed.
She and her team were just finishing up, with Kipps paying the bill and her other teammates standing with him at the till, when Lockwood came over. Y/n had stepped outside, breathing in the cold night air, and when she heard the door she instinctively turned to look, expecting her coworkers.
"Oh. It's you."
"C'mon. Don't be like that, Y/n."
She snorted. "You know you're proving me right, right? You keep throwing yourself into situations you can't win in, and you're going to get yourself killed."
"I'm not proving you right," he started, frown forming on his face. He'd had another growth spurt, she realised. He'd stepped closer to her, out of the way of the cafe door so that other agents could enter, and now he towered over her.
"Yes, you are. Stop being a dick, Lockwood, and realise that you're going to get yourself seriously hurt someday."
"Since when was I Lockwood to you?"
"You know when."
"True. Lovely message, by the way. Great parting gift."
"Yeah, well you were being an asshole, and it felt fitting to write 'fuck you'."
He muttered something under his breath, too quiet for her to hear.
"Excuse me?"
"I said, 'Yeah, I bet you'd like to'," he repeated, louder this time, meeting her eyes with a smug smile on his face.
"Grow up, Lockwood."
"That's not a denial."
Y/n turned to him, looking him dead in the eyes. "Yes it is." She tried to sound threatening, but that was difficult when he was nearly a whole head taller than her. She was saved by her team coming out of the cafe, and she shoved her hands in her pockets, hunching her shoulders against the chill.
"You alright, Y/n?" Kipps asked, concern for his colleague appearing on his face.
"Yeah, fine. Let's go."
~~~
Those meetings kept happening, and it was beginning to frustrate Y/n.
Lockwood had started being more flirty, as if he actually enjoyed getting on her nerves, and the past year had been exhausting.
It was the same every time.
Y/n's Fittes team would be patrolling, or coming back from a job, or heading to a job, when they'd see two figures, or their flares, or hear their shouts, fighting an incessant number of ghosts. The group would jump in, joining the fight, and somehow Y/n and Lockwood ended up next to each other. She was certain he engineered it that way specifically so that he could irritate her with his comments, and that just irritated her even more. What he said was always the same thing, too.
"Do you come here often?"
"We have to stop meeting like this."
"What are you doing after this?"
When she told him to shut up and focus on the job, he'd ignore her, or answer with something just as bad.
"Make me."
"I'll stop talking if you join me later."
Both of those were said with smug smirks and winks, and Y/n went home to her crappy flat close to the Fittes building (she couldn't stand being near him after the argument) every night wondering what the hell had happened to her old best friend.
The last case had been particularly annoying.
The same routine had occurred, but this time there were three of them.
Y/n was surprised to see the girl, but as soon as she saw her fighting she decided that she liked her. She was feisty, and from what Y/n could tell, didn't take any of Lockwood's shit. She looked like the sort of person Y/n would be friends with, or at least get along with, like with George (they had limited contact outside of saving them).
But then the Fittes team had helped, and Lockwood hadn't come near Y/n.
She was glad in some ways, it meant she didn't have his incessant flirting in her ear, and she was glad, until she looked to see where he'd gone.
He was side by side with the girl, and they fought together like they'd been doing it their whole lives. For some reason it annoyed Y/n, despite the fact she'd sworn to block out any feelings for Lockwood other than annoyance and hate, and she grumbled the rest of the night. Kipps picked up on it, and questioned her.
"What's up with you? Surely you'd be happy that Tony left you alone?"
"Yeah, I am. It's something else, don't worry."
"Alright... well, don't let it get to you too much, yeah? We need you focusing on missions, you're too good at what you do."
Y/n nodded, flushing slightly at the compliment.
They made it to the cafe just as Lockwood and Co did, and Y/n bristled at seeing the three of them laughing together.
Well, at seeing Lockwood and the girl laughing together.
George she was just happy to see, he was always nice to her back when he worked at Fittes, and when they passed each other in the Archives or finished jobs together, and she didn't think she could ever be mad at him.
Lockwood and his new colleague, however, she could justify.
"Oh, hi!"
Ugh, she was nice. That made disliking her even harder.
"Hi," Y/n forced a smile, hoping it didn't look too fake.
"I'm Lucy," she said, coming closer to Y/n as the two of them trailed behind the others.
"Y/n. How long you been working with him then?"
"Uh, about a week? Do you... do you not like Lockwood or something?"
"What makes you say that?"
"You just... said 'him' like you wanted to rip his head off."
"Oh. Well, that's one thing I wanna do to him."
Apparently Lockwood tuned in to their conversation at that specific moment, because he turned around, smirk already in place.
"What are the other things you want to do to me, Y/n? I'd love to find out later. My place or yours?"
Y/n scoffed, pushing past him to join her teammates. Behind her she heard a thump, followed by a small "Ow!" Assuming that Lucy had hit him, Y/n smiled, and started liking the girl again. Maybe she wasn't as bad as she originally thought.
~~~
It had been nearly two years since Y/n had first met Lucy, and her second impression of the girl had stuck.
They'd saved Lockwood and Co far too many times since the girls had first met, but Y/n didn't mind. She enjoyed seeing Lucy and George (and Lockwood, but she wouldn't tell anyone that), and if getting involved and having to suffer Lockwood's chatter meant that the three of them lived another day, Y/n would gladly take that sacrifice.
Y/n and Lucy met up regularly in the down time that they both shared, either at Y/n's flat, or in a cafe or shop somewhere. Sometimes George came along, having snuck out under the pretence that he was researching at the Archives, and the three of them had lengthy chats about pretty much anything. Lockwood came up in conversation a lot, of course, given he was something they all had in common, but Y/n always steered away from the subject.
Tonight, however, she wasn't getting let off the hook.
"Why do you always do that?" Lucy asked, stuffing a chip in her mouth. They were sat on the floor of Y/n's tiny kitchen, take away boxes of food in front of them.
"Do what?"
"Whenever Lockwood gets mentioned you start talking about other things. Why do you do that?"
Y/n shrugged, eating some of her own food. "'Cause he's a knob and I don't want to think about him more than I have to?"
"He's always flirting with you though, and you always flirt back."
"Thanks for the observation, George. And I do not flirt back!"
"Oh you totally do, like earlier, right, he was saying something about how your uniform really compliments your complexion or something, and you look really good in it, and you said, wait, George, you take over, I need a drink," Lucy spoke.
"You said 'thanks, I look better without it', and winked at him. I had to physically push him out of the way of a ghost because he was stood staring at you like an idiot."
"He always looks like an idiot," Y/n mumbled, cheeks going red.
"George is right, he's actually gonna end up hurting himself if you two don't get on with it soon."
"He's at risk of death anyway! And get on with what?"
"Snogging," Lucy said, at the same time George said "Making out."
Y/n stared at her friends, hand pausing halfway to her mouth, chip in between her fingers. "What?!"
"Seriously, there's so much tension I could slice it with my rapier. Just stick your tongue in his mouth already."
"Lucy!"
The girl just shrugged. "We are seventeen, you know that right? I know people who've shagged at seventeen. I'm honestly surprised the two of you haven't yet, which is why you need to get on with it."
"That would be... no, that's too weird."
"Why is it weird? He's your old neighbour, you had an argument about something petty probably, and now he's flirting with you 'cause he's realised how hot you are. If he doesn't kiss you I will, just so I can say I kissed the hottest girl I know."
"Aw, thanks Luce. I'd rather kiss you than him, to be honest."
"The bar is low. He's punching."
"Definitely. You alright George?"
"I don't understand girls," he replied, having been quiet the last few minutes while Y/n and Lucy went back and forth. "What did you argue about, anyway? Because you've held a grudge against him for at least three years now and I have never known why."
"Was it petty?"
"No, Lucy, it wasn't petty." Y/n sighed, taking a break from eating. "He... We were fourteen, just finished all of our training, and he told me he wanted to start his agency."
"That is kinda petty though."
"Lemme finish. I don't know how much he's told you about his family," she paused, looking at the other two.
"Not much, but we know they're all dead."
"Yeah, and he showed us Jessica's room."
Y/n raised her eyebrows. He'd kept that room stubbornly locked since she'd died.
"Right. Well, a week after her funeral, he told me he wanted to start training to be an agent. We were nine, and he was definitely not okay at all. Anyway, we did it, and then like I said, when we'd finished, he told me he wanted to start an agency in his house and he wanted me to join him. He was still not himself, and I was just worried that he was going to end up killing himself. Hell, he'd almost hurt me a few times in training. We were the top two in our academy, so we ended up fighting together a lot. But he'd get... intense. Focused. But not in a good way. It was like... he saw anyone he was up against as a ghost, and he wanted revenge for what had happened with his family. We argued about the agency. I told him something about how if he did it he'd just end up hurt, because I knew him and I knew that he wouldn't think he had anything to live for. He took that to mean that I thought he was incapable, and he told me to leave and that I could come back when I'd fixed my attitude."
The three of them sat in silence for a few minutes, Y/n staring at her take away box in her lap, George and Lucy absorbing everything she'd told them.
"Fuck," Lucy finally said, breaking the quiet.
"Yeah."
"Wait, so you weren't just neighbours?" George asked. "You must have been closer than that if you knew him so well."
"Best friends. We're the same age, and our parents had lived next to each other since before we were born. Just made sense really that we were friends."
"Does he know? That you were worried about him?" Lucy questioned.
"Probably not. Should have guessed it though, given how close we were. I mean, he's seen me ugly cry at funerals, and they weren't even my relatives, they were his."
"Maybe you should talk to him? I know, I know, he needs to apologise for being a knob, but you were fourteen. I mean, it's three years on and he's still the mental age of a five year old, but talking might help?"
"Anyway, Lockwood's hopeless when it comes to women. Completely clueless," George added.
"How would you know?" Y/n frowned, not liking the way her heart clenched at the idea of Lockwood talking to other girls.
"Because he hasn't done anything about you, and you're probably the most amazing girl that's ever going to get a chance with in his life. Maybe he's intimidated by you."
"He's not getting a chance. Not like that. Don't look at me like that, Luce. If I don't kiss him that means I'm kissing you."
"Oh, alright then. I'm fine if you don't wanna make up with him," she replied, cheeky smile appearing on her face.
They left the topic alone after that, moving on to other subjects, but Y/n couldn't help but think about the boy with a death wish.
~~~
It was only a week after her evening with George and Lucy that Y/n had to help save Lockwood again (it was so ridiculous she was almost entirely convinced he came unprepared just so that he could see her).
"Miss me, darling?"
"In your dreams, Lockwood," she shouted back at him, dodging a Type Two. She gritted her teeth as she hit the ground, jagged rocks digging in and pain shooting through her side. Rolling, she stood again, panicking for a moment when she realised she'd dropped her rapier.
"Here you go, darling," Lockwood said, appearing out of nowhere with her rapier. "Do I get a reward for returning your belongings?"
"Yeah, you do, actually," she replied, getting close enough to him she could feel his breath on her face. "You get to not be stabbed by me. Duck." He did, almost immediately, and Y/n threw a flare at the Spectre behind him. Lockwood popped back up, somehow still smiling despite the utter carnage surrounding them.
"If I got hurt, would you visit me in hospital?"
"Yeah, to finish you off."
He laughed, and Y/n turned away so he couldn't see the blush rising on her face at the sound. As she did so, she caught a glimpse of something that definitely wasn't dead rummaging around where she had thought the Source for the cluster was.
Relic men.
"Lockwood?"
"Yes, my love?"
"Relic men, over by the Source. What are we gonna do about them?" She hadn't taken her eyes off of the two figures that were crouched by the oak tree, afraid that if she moved her gaze they would run off. When Lockwood only cursed, she panicked, wondering what was wrong. Normally by now he would have charged in to the fight, all guns blazing. Why wasn't he doing that now? Had he suddenly realised that she was right? Because this was really terrible timing if he had. "Lockwood?" Her voice had gone up in pitch, fear making it quiver. Relic men were nasty, and a lot harder to deal with than ghosts. Ghosts she'd been trained for.
"We're surrounded by them. They're blocking all reasonable exits."
"Shit. Okay. What about unreasonable exits?"
"What?"
"You said they're blocking all reasonable exits, yeah? So what about the unreasonable ones? Could we get out anywhere else?"
"Uh... there's a gap in the fence over there," he pointed. "But that would mean letting them have the Source. It's too powerful, we can't let that happen."
"Ugh, okay, hang on. Go and tell the others, just in case they haven't noticed."
"What about you?"
"I'm keeping an eye on these two, make sure they don't get away. I'll try and get closer, but there's a lot of Type Ones in the way."
"You'll be okay?"
"If I die you can take me on a date."
"That's... what? That doesn't make sense."
"Take it or leave it, Lockwood. Get a move on."
He left, casting a last look over his shoulder at her before disappearing into the night to find the others. Y/n felt unease creep up her spine, and she gripped her rapier tighter, her other hand hovering over the remaining flares in her belt. The relic men were still digging, and a few of the ghosts had noticed the disturbance now, moving over. Y/n frowned, a thought occurring to her.
Relic men waited until the ghosts were gone.
So what were they doing here, now? Why endanger themselves? Before she could think on it further, she felt the air shift behind her and ducked to the left just as a fist appeared in the space her head was in mere seconds ago.
Shit.
She pulled herself back up, readjusting her grip on the rapier and taking a quick glance over to the tree. Seeing the two relic men still there, Y/n whipped back around, ducking again just in time to miss the next punch. The man pulled out a knife, the edges jagged, and a wicked grin came over his face. Y/n gulped, then parried his attacks. He was relentless, swinging and then swinging again immediately after, never letting up on her. It was all she could do to keep her arm upright and strong enough to block him, and the ache in her side from hitting the ground earlier was turning into a throb that wracked her body with pain. The relic man noticed the weakness, and his grin grew wider, broken teeth showing. He became even more frantic in his attacks, and Y/n felt herself stumbling backwards over the grass. The floor was uneven, and she tripped, crashing onto her back. She got her rapier up in time to hold off the relic man's knife that had carved a path through the air to cut through her head, but he was stronger than her, and his blade was edging closer to her face. He was only using the one hand, and Y/n realised a split-second too late that his other hand was reaching for his belt, where a second knife was strapped. Her eyes widened in recognition briefly right before he plunged the blade into her side, and she let out a scream.
The pain was all-consuming, and it took everything in her to keep her rapier up, the shockwaves coursing through her body. She took a hazy note of the fact that he hadn't pulled it out yet, which was good, but her vision was blurry, which was not so good. At least if the knife was still inside her body then she wasn't losing too much blood. Her grip weakened, and she saw the other knife jolt towards her face before it disappeared, the man being flung backwards into the bushes in a flash of light. Lucy appeared, hair wild and filled with leaves, her own rapier in hand. She crouched down, pressing a hand to Y/n's cheek and checking if she was okay.
"Threw a flare at him, should knock him out for a while. LOCKWOOD! HURRY UP! Sorry, I told him to get his ass over here just now, but he's stuck with some ghosts, and they're-"
"Lucy?"
"Yeah?" Her voice was hopeful, glad that her friend was conscious enough to speak.
"Please stop talking."
"Y/N!"
She winced at the shout, and Lucy moved over to make room for Lockwood. Y/n rolled her eyes at the cuts on his face, and the gash on his arm. "You can't help yourself, can you? Gotta throw yourself into danger headfirst."
"Shut up. Can you sit?"
"Did you just tell me to shut up? Anthony Lockwood, do not tell me to shut up when I could be dying."
"Y/n, please, don't do this. Can you sit?" His voice was insistent, desperation seeping into his expression, and his glare was convincing enough that she tried to sit up. The pain in her side was too much though, and she ended up half-slumped against a tree. "Who did this? Y/n? Who did this to you?" His tone was lower now, with something dangerous in the background.
"Lucy hit him with a flare. He's over there somewhere." She waved in the general direction she'd seen him disappear in. "Anthony, where are you going?" He froze, looking down at her from where he now stood. The full moon was behind him, and he looked otherworldly in the silver light.
"Lucy will stay with you, okay? Just hang on. I'll be back in a minute. Don't die on me now, Y/n/n." He softened a little at the last part, trying to convey a million emotions in a few words.
"Wait, I'm staying here?"
"Yes, Lucy." And with that he left, stalking in the direction Y/n had pointed him in.
"You alright?"
"Brilliant, thanks Luce," Y/n replied, and then she promptly passed out.
~~~
A soft beeping woke Y/n up, and the harsh light above her and the sterile smell in the air immediately told her that she was in a hospital.
That didn't explain the warmth in her left hand though.
Blinking as she adjusted to the bright light, she turned her head to the left, and had she not been drugged up on painkillers she would have reacted much more quickly and jerked away.
But she was drugged up on painkillers, so instead she just stared at the boy asleep in the chair next to her bed.
Anthony looked peaceful when he slept, he always had, but he didn't look particularly comfortable right now. His right hand was holding her left, and he'd managed to pull one of his long legs up onto the chair, bracing his forehead on his knee while his left arm dangled off the side of the armrest. Yeah, he couldn't be comfortable like that. She squeezed his hand lightly, but he didn't wake. A nurse came in, and upon seeing Y/n awake, smiled.
"Your boyfriend must love you a lot. He hasn't left your side since you came in. Rode in the ambulance with you too, which he wasn't meant to. Paramedics said he was very insistent and needed treating anyway, so they let him. He's been really worried about you." Y/n was on too much morphine to fully comprehend what was going on, and her brain had stopped working properly at the word 'boyfriend' anyway.
"Oh," was all she said, and the nurse smiled, going through her checkups. Y/n drifted in and out of consciousness for half an hour before Anthony woke up.
He blinked a few times, just as she had, stretching like a cat, long limbs going everywhere but never removing his hand from hers. His grip only tightened, and when he saw her watching him with a small smile on her face, he returned it.
"You're awake."
"No, I'm dead," she deadpanned. "Obviously I'm awake, idiot. If I died I'd have to go on a date with you."
He frowned. "Would that really be so bad?"
"Yeah. You should be going on a date with me, not the other way around."
He laughed lightly, more an amused exhale than anything else. "You are so drugged up right now."
"Yep," she replied, popping the 'p'. His thumb was stroking across her hand, and Y/n wondered if he knew he was doing it.
~~~
"Ugh, do I have to live at yours? What's wrong with my house?"
"You live on the fifth floor and there aren't any lifts. You were also specifically told not to climb too many stairs."
"Yeah, but your house has almost as many stairs as my apartment building, so what's the difference?"
"The difference is that I can look after you here, because I live here. Don't touch that, it's still healing, and- ow!"
"Oh shit, sorry. It looks healed."
"Yeah, well you're not the only one that got stabbed, alright? Here, let me get the door."
Anthony sprung up the last step, fishing the keys out of his coat pocket and unlocking the door. Y/n followed behind, wincing when the movement up the stairs put pressure on her wound. She'd been in hospital for two weeks once she'd woken up, and had been told to stay at home until she was properly healed. Anthony had taken on the role of carer immediately, and the nurses had all mentioned (multiple times) what a good and loving boyfriend he was, looking after Y/n the way he was, despite his own injuries.
Neither of them had denied it.
Once inside 35 Portland Row, Y/n took a look around, and was surprised to see that it had barely changed in the last three years.
"Right. Tea? I think George has just put the kettle on."
"Anthony?"
"Yeah?" His smile was tentative, clearly not wanting to scare her off when she'd just started calling him by his first name again.
"Please don't make me sleep on the sofa. Because that looks like the same one your parents got when we were four and I remember how uncomfortable that one is." She pointed to the sofa in question, and he shook his head.
"No, you're not sleeping there. What sort of a boyfriend would I be if I let that happen?" he joked, and Y/n felt her heart flutter at the idea. "You can sleep in my bed, alright? It's only one flight of stairs, which will hurt, but it'll be good for you to get the exercise in, make sure you're healing properly."
Y/n frowned. "Where are you sleeping if I'm in your bed?" She half expected him to say that he'd be right next to her, but he smiled softly again.
"Sofa. No, don't look at me like that, I've slept in worse places."
"What worse places? Ant, you've got to look after yourself! God, you're gonna give me a heart attack one of these days."
She started making her way up the stairs, huffing from the effort. She was tired, despite having spent just over two weeks lying down, and it was already late in the evening.
"It doesn't matter, alright? Just... let's just get you to bed, okay?"
"You're sleeping in a bed, and that's that."
"You are so stubborn sometimes."
"So are you!" She made it to the half landing, and hobbled over to the door she remembered being Anthony's. "You still in here?" At his nod, she pushed the door open, going over to the bed and sitting on the edge. "Seriously, this bed is big enough for the both of us. I'm not letting you sleep on the sofa, Ant. It's super uncomfortable."
"Won't that be... I don't know. Won't that be weird?"
"Why would it be weird?"
"Because we haven't... we're not... you don't like me and I'm scared you're going to murder me in my sleep."
"You... what? Uh... okay. I'm not gonna murder you in your sleep, Ant. One, that's completely dishonourable. I would do it while you were awake so that you could look into the eyes of your killer. Two, I do like you, I just also need you to apologise. For what you said."
"You want me to apologise? I was just defending myself, because I was hurt by what you said. You made out like I wasn't capable and that stung, because you'd always been my biggest supporter."
"Oh for fuck's sake, Anthony. I wasn't saying that at all. I was worried about you because you weren't yourself after Jess died. You were... I don't know. You weren't you, and it freaked me out when you said you were starting an agency, because it's a crazy thing to do! You sort of became a shell of my best friend, and disappeared, and I was worried that you would die and I would lose you because you wouldn't care about living anymore. I know that you are perfectly capable of fighting, and you're one of the best swordsmen I've ever met, but you're an emotional wreck, Ant."
He was quiet for a bit, staring into space as he thought about her words. Y/n sighed, lying down on the covers and closing her eyes.
"I'm sorry." She felt the bed dip next to her as he sat down. "I'm sorry. I said some horrible things to you and you had every right to leave. I don't have an excuse for what I said, and if you want to leave tomorrow morning then I'll help you move into your flat again. But I just... I'm sorry, Y/n/n."
Y/n sighed again. "I don't want to go. I've missed it here," she admitted. "And yeah, you were an idiot and an arse, but you're my idiot, alright? You have a lot of grovelling to do as well." He nodded rapidly, and a secret smile spread on his face, one of the ones he showed her and nobody else.
"Your idiot?"
"Yes, Anthony. My idiot." They smiled at each other, soft and gentle. A thought occurred to Y/n, and her brow furrowed. "What happened after I passed out in the park? All I remember is you looking murderous and asking who stabbed me."
"Oh, right." Anthony looked away, blush creeping up his neck.
"What happened?"
"He's not coming after you again, if that helps. Or anyone. DEPRAC completely purified the area."
Y/n gaped at him. "You killed him?"
Anthony shrugged. "He hurt you, badly, and you could have been killed. If Lucy had been a second later..." He trailed off, eyes clouding over slightly.
"Ant?" Y/n pushed herself up into a sitting position, wincing at the stab of pain that shot through her in protest.
"Hmm?" he turned to look at her, and his eyes went wide when she slid an arm up around his neck.
"Lucy and George think that we need to make out."
"They, uh... they what?"
"They think that we need to make out."
He swallowed thickly, eyes flickering between hers, trying to figure out what was going on. When he spoke, it was in a hoarse whisper.
"What do you think?"
"I think we should listen to them. They're normally right about things. What about you?"
"Uh... okay?"
Y/n hesitated, suddenly unsure.
"Ant, do you want to? Because if you don't that's totally fine, I just assumed that you felt the same as me, and we were both fine with the hospital thinking that we're dating, and I genuinely really like you, and I probably love you-" she was cut off by his lips on hers, slightly chapped but still soft.
"I do want to, I'm just hopeless around girls, especially the ones I've loved since I was about ten." He'd barely pulled away, his nose brushing the side of hers, breath fanning over her lips.
"George was right about that too, then," she murmured, kissing him again. "He said you were hopeless with women."
"Thank god. I thought he knew I've been in love with you for years."
"Oh you're in love now, are you?"
"Started about seven years ago, but sure." He pushed forward again, bringing a hand up to cup her cheek as he kissed her softly and slowly.
"Is that why you flirted with me?"
Anthony flushed, nodding slightly. "In my defence I am completely hopeless with pretty girls, and I wanted to know if there was any chance of you sharing my feelings."
Y/n kissed him again, short and sweet. "I love you, Anthony Lockwood. Just look after yourself more, yeah?"
"I love you too," he replied. Y/n prodded him in the side.
"And?"
"And I'll look after myself more," he said, smiling. "Anything for you, anytime."
They kissed again, for longer this time, exploring each other and being mindful of their injuries, and Y/n thought she could happily spend eternity wrapped up in his arms
"You're definitely not sleeping on the sofa," she said when they paused for air a while later.
"If you say so," he smirked, wiggling his eyebrows. She smacked a hand against his chest, face going red at his implication.
"Not like that, idiot."
"Your idiot," he smiled, pure joy on his face as he pecked her lips.
"My idiot," she replied, mirroring his grin.
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if you ever watched house the medical drama TV show, know that dr house mean and rude to everyone and very insensitive.
season 3 episode 4 about a severely autistic nonverbal boy with behavioral issues and no way to functionally communicate
of course have bad aspects. filmed in 2006. have bad ABA elements and bad PECS and drills and doctors not knowing how to handle nonverbal autistic boy w behavioral issues. definitely not down playing that. (and some other bad things in the subplot not related to the boy)
but dr house out of all people. is one that actually figured out how to communicate with him.
in this post i talk about how house’s interaction w the boy demonstrates how to connect with nonverbal nonspeaking autistics (despite the “he won’t understand”), presuming competence, the nuance of autism parents, and functional communication. i use the show to go beyond the plot and talk about wider (level 1 speaking) autism community issues.
so even if you not interested in the TV show House. still hope you can read.
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“nobody knew how to speak ‘autistic.’ “
procedure need anesthesia mask thingie. and kid screaming and no one can put mask on him and make him stay, everyone trying to hold him down. house came in made insensitive remarks as always, but modeled to kid what to do. house put the anesthesia mask on him and breathed for bit for kid to see until he stopped screaming, then put it on kid, then put on himself, then on kid who successfully went under anesthesia.
which was so important. meant so much to me. because kid so unfamiliar don’t know what people are doing to him, probably no one explain, may or may not understand what happening. everyone so impatient and don’t know how to get on his level, and so many people restrain him so of course want fight back. but house was only one who considered what the kid needs what he is feeling. house mirrored it showed him what will happen what to do to kid in a way he will understand. he was even gentle. he smiled a little.
yes house used rude monkey metaphor to explain reasoning. but does that to every patient nonverbal autistic or not. so really, for house he didn’t treat the patient any differently.
afterwards. house even critiques dr cameron’s construction of “normal” in a somewhat intersectional, race conscious way. and don’t pity the child at all. resisting the idea of institutionalization.
See, skinny, socially-privileged white people get to draw this neat little circle. Everyone inside the circle is normal. Everyone outside the circle should be beaten, broken and reset, so they can be brought into the circle. Failing that, they should be institutionalized, or worse, pitied.
So, it's wrong to feel sorry for this little boy? Why would you feel sorry for someone who gets to opt out of the inane courteous formalities, which are utterly meaningless, insincere, and therefore, degrading? This kid doesn't have to pretend to be interested in your back pain, or your excretions, or your grandma's itchy place. Can you imagine how liberating it would be to live a life free of all the mind-numbing social niceties? I don't pity this kid.
I envy him.
when the medical team was suspecting that parents slip kid alcohol to calm him down (which turned out to not true), house breaks down why martyr parents becomes martyr parents:
How would you know that? The kid can't talk. Why do you think I took this case? He's not going to give away the ending. They quit their jobs for him. Yes, they are everything you'd want in a parent. Unfortunately, their kid is nothing you'd want. When a baby is born, it's perfect. Little fingers, little toes, plump, perfect, pink, and brimming with unbridled potential. Then it's downhill. Some hills steeper than others. Parents get off on their kids' accomplishments. ...They'll annoy you with trophy rooms and report cards. Hell, they'll even show you a purple cow and tell what a keen eye for color their kid has. But this kid, he doesn't smile, he doesn't hug them, he doesn't laugh. His parents get nothing but the right to brag that their kid picked orange juice out of a lineup. So you figure they slip the kid a mickey so they don't have to deal.
i think show parents in dynamic way too. lots of ableism, for sure. the bad coercive compliance drill kind of ABA tactics, for example.
but fully shows how hard it is to raise a “severely” nonverbal autistic kid with behavioral issues and no functional communication. as much as autistic community like to deny it, it is hard. it is a lot of work. and recognizing and acknowledging that it is a lot of work whether because of inherent autism as a disorder or because lack of societal support, acknowledging this fact alone doesn’t make a parent a martyr parent, an autism parent. i think this is where the (level 1 speaking late diagnosed) autistic community get wrong.
the parents are desperate. they do bad things. they don’t mean to do harm to the kid, they think they’re doing what’s right for their kid. but they still do bad things. and they care for the kid, they celebrate the kid’s achievements, yes sometimes misguided but they want to do good. there is nuance to this. the parents aren’t vile. they aren’t evil evil ableist want to force their kid to be neurotypical against all odds regardless of well-being. most autism parents are more nuanced like this. the level 1 speaking autism community need to listen, too.
and the show ended with. as the family is leaving, the autistic boy voluntarily goes towards dr house. and hands him his video game console (like a switch but not a switch idk), something that is a part of his routine that he melts down when interrupted when grabbed, that he probably very attached to. he gave it to house. and looked at house for a long time.
yes, the eye contact part can be seen as the show over valuing eye contact. but. the bigger impact is the fact that. the show showed the boy connected with house. whether it is thanking him, feel safe with him, we don’t know because the boy have no functional communication. but the boy formed connection with house, and expressed the connection in his own nonverbal way. no “thank you,” no hugs, no conventional way, but the boy’s communication in his own unique nonverbal autistic way. looking at his parents’ reactions, this is incredibly rare, probably even first time, and the parents are crying.
and house was able to diagnose the kid because he actually listened to all forms of communication. he didn’t dismiss the kid’s repeated drawings as meaningless. he didn’t dismiss the PECS image the kid picked in response to his question as meaningless and incompetent even though it was not the image/answer he was initially suspecting. and both things were crucial to the correct diagnosis. if house didn’t listen to them, the kid would have died. house listened to all forms of communication. he assumed competence. he assumed the kid was trying to communicate something, he didn’t chalk the kid’s behaviors as meaningless. despite the “he won’t understand you” “it would work” etc throughout the episode.
but. also want to say. these forms of communication, albeit need to be listened to, is still not functional communication. and functional communication is important and should strive towards for a reason.
another thing the (level 1 speaking) autistic community get wrong is saying nonverbal nonspeaking autistics can communicate same way/as effectively as speaking autistics. that only person to blame is evil evil ableist people not listening to their behaviors. if only they listen!
but more nuanced than that. many many ways to decipher the kid’s repeated drawing, for example. house got it right. he assumed that drawing has connection to the kid’s medical symptoms, and that it is a worm parasite. there can be million other interpretation even if you take kid seriously. i thought it was a ocean wave, for example. thought the kid like waves like beaches like ocean.
if the kid had functional communication—and by functional communication, i don’t mean speech, altho that can be a form of it, i include robust AAC—he could have communicated. in words (spoken/typed/written). what he was experiencing. what he was seeing in his eyes, the swiggly worms he was seeing. and the diagnosis would have arrived sinner. been put through less danger. and if house wasn’t there and another another was there and the doctor didn’t pay attention to the kid and dismissed the kid, the kid would have died because he didn’t have functional communication to tell people what he was experiencing.
it’s not as easy as “just listen!!” and chalking everyone who don’t exactly understand the nonspeaker as ableist.
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Text
Carpe Noctem 29
Warnings: dark elements, noncon, age gap, gaslighting, manipulation, violence, blood, other dark elements. Proceed with caution. (short!reader)
Note: Please let me know what you think as it helps me a lot with ideas and I love interacting with you all.
Part of The Club AU
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“I should go,” you get up as Cole comes back in the back office, “I’m so sorry about today–”
“Go? Where?” He asks as he stands in the door. “Back to that maniac?”
“Well, I…” you swallow and let out an exasperated sigh, “yeah, I have to–”
“You don’t have to,” he insists, “you shouldn’t. Someone that angry can be pretty dangerous.”
“I know, it’s just–” you have no argument, no excuse, just the truth, “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
“You don’t?” He wonders.
You shake your head and grab your jacket from the rack, “I’ll be fine. I’m sure he’s calmed down. I shouldn’t have lied–”
“But you did. For a reason. If that’s how he reacts… you never mentioned a boyfriend,” Cole shifts on his soles.
“Boyfriend?” You almost laugh, “no, not exactly.”
“It’s complicated, got it,” he nods, “well, you were wrong, you know?”
“About what?” You take your pure of a lower hook on the rack.
“That you don’t have anywhere to go. I’m just putting it out there,” he raises a hand to rub the stubble along his jaw, “if you need somewhere to stay, er, my parents’ could spare a guest room.”
“Oh, Cole, no, I couldn’t. That’s too much. I’d hate to impose on your family like that.”
“Uh, you definitely wouldn’t be. My mom would love to meet you,” he lets himself smile, “I brought home some of the extra treats and she loved them. She’s a baker too.”
“That’s— that’s sweet,” you shrug and look away, “I just don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“I wouldn’t suggest it if it wasn’t,” he insists, “but I really don’t feel great about you going back to a man like that. I’m big enough to defend myself, but you…”
You know he’s right. This isn’t the first time you’ve seen Lloyd get violent and just like with Johnny, it’s only inevitable that it turns on you. You’re not exactly excited to go back to that house.
“All my stuff…” you begin, arguing with yourself as much as him.
“My ma has some stuff she can lend you for the night,” he offers, “as long as you don’t mind flannel. And I’m sure you could use a nice warm meal.”
“Cole,” you rub along your jaw evasively as you look away, “I just… I feel so bad about putting you out. Your parents too.”
“You’re not. You know, I think you surround yourself with the wrong people. The sort that make kindness seem like a debt to be paid back. You don’t owe me anything. I’m just being decent, like anyone should,” He turns his hands out. “But if you say no, I’m not letting you walk out of her without my phone number. And you have to promise to call me if anything goes bad.”
You frown and look at your feet. Lloyd could use the night to cool off just as much as you. You cross your arms then force them straight. He’s entirely right. You’re letting all those others people who bargain courtesy like currency colour your doubts. Why should you begrudge him the action of others when he’s only ever been nice?
“Did you ask your parents? I don’t want to be a surprise,” you chew your lip.
He smiles, “I texted ma but I’ll give a call before we go. Trust me, you’re more than welcome.”
The drive is longer than you expect, but not. You should’ve figured that the farm would be out in the country. At the same time, you never factored in the time it must take Cole to commute each day. It whittles another ounce of appreciation out of you. He seems too kind for his own good.
That generosity sees you in his passenger seat. You left your car behind at the cafe to save you gas and the trouble of driving. You didn’t fight too hard. You want to be in one place and still.
He steers down a long dirt road and as the moon disappears behind a thicket of trees, the land turns desolate. Your chest sinks just a little but as the silver light breaks free again, you let out a breath of relief. Ahead you see the yellow windows of the farmhouse and dark colossus of the barn not far behind it.
Cole pulls up behind a big red truck and shifts into park. The motor cranks slightly before he turns it off. You can’t help but wonder how someone like him came to own a cafe in the city. Maybe after so long in the rural desert, the urban sprawl must be alluring chaotic.
He gets out first before you muster your strength. He comes around, startling you as he opens the door for you. You thank him, the gentlemanly gesture almost jarring. You’re so unused to kindness, it unsettles you. That should tell you something. It’s a ringing cry for change.
“Are you sure…” you begin the same question you’ve asked every five minutes for the last hour.
“Sure,” he interjects firmly, “really, ma always cooks too much and my sister’s off finding herself. Again. She’ll be happy to have you around.”
You nod and climb up the wide porch steps beside him. He pulls back the screen door and waves you in ahead of him. A fragrant aroma draws you in; roast beef and roasted veggies. The homey glow embraces you, welcoming you without a word.
“Here,” he tugs on the back of your jacket, “I’ll get this.”
He hangs his own coat as you undo yours and hand it over. He puts it over his own then beckons you on. Hesitantly, you follow his direction, walking down a walnut trimmed hallway to a dining room decorated in faded florals and pine.
“Ethan,” a woman calls through before she appears in the doorway across from you, a large dimpled glass dish in her hands, “oh! I thought you were your father– eee! This must be her.”
She rushes to the table and sets the steaming dish on a potholder. She still has her oven gloves as she sweeps around the room, “Beverly,” she introduces herself, pulling you into a hug, “I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Uh,” you gulp as she squeezes you, only releasing you as Cole clears his throat. “I’ve heard a lot about you too.”
“Really?” She nearly squeals, keeping you at arm’s length, “he didn’t say you were so pretty.”
Your eyes round and you let out a nervous giggle. Cole groans under his breath and brushes his hand over his sandy hair. It’s kind of cute when your own parents were never so excited to see you.
“Thanks, that’s too sweet,” you smile, “erm, thanks for having me.”
“Oh, of course, of course,” she titters as she lets you go, “Cole always had a soft spot for those in need.” She turns to him and touches where his cheekbone is still red from his scuffle with Lloyd, “and look at him, my knight in shining armor. How many times do I have to tell you not to fight? You never were very good at it.”
“Ma,” he urges her away from him, “I’m fine.”
A ding chimes from the kitchen and she springs back, “oh, that’s the dumplings.”
She spins and hurries off, leaving you off balance. You slowly face Cole and put your hands on your hips, “so how much did you tell her?”
“As much as I know,” he rubs his neck sheepishly, “I’m sorry. I didn’t want her to freak out when she saw my face and– it wasn’t anything that makes you look bad.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about. I don’t want to be a charity case,” you cross your arms.
“Trust me, you’re far from it,” he assures you, “really. I want you here.”
You don’t know what to say. You don’t trust your own judgment. Whether he means it or not, it hardly matters. You’re just grateful to have a night away from it all. Some time might be just what Lloyd needs to grow some common sense.
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avatarmerida · 10 months
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So on twitter the other day, @rebeccaartsy mentioned she was thinking about how different things would be if Hunter was there from the beginning and it really got my mind moving.
So like my totally self indulgent headcanon or whatever,is that Hunter in season one is spending his time hunting wild witches and no one really takes him seriously so the whole time he’s trying to prove himself by trying to capture the most famous wild witch, Eda. But I like to think he doesn’t have a very strong artificial staff at this point and isn’t seen as much of a threat. He’s also either not the Golden Guard yet or just wears normal scout stuff to draw less attention. So he is always setting traps and stuff and Luz meets him and his vibe is like an annoying neighbor kid. He just gets roped into the occasional adventure because he’s there and just when he's starting to question life in the coven he gets promoted to coven head and he works even harder to be taken seriously.
Because I love how Hunter and Willow meet so much where they see the true version of each other right away in a way no one else has, I imagine their first meeting is still outside Luz and everything. Like, Hunter is messing with something plant related (maybe making a trap or liking for a rare plant to help Belos, idk) and gets tangled in some aggressive vines and Willow finds him and helps him. But the vines are from like a really complicated plant that requires extreme patience and talent and he’s like even Terra would have trouble with it and while his spitting facts Willow just untangles him effortlessly. She’s just like “boop! You’re good :)” and at first he’s worried she’s gonna tell someone or blackmail him but she’s just “no prob yo.” But she’s also very impressed that he found the plant that he did, cause they're super elusive and he’s like uhhh thanks.
So he offers to walk her to where she’s going and they start talking and he’s info dumping things on plant magic and they’re vibing and he realizes no one has ever let him talk so much before. And she likes talking to him. Then he realizes exactly where they are and before he can make an excuse to leave, Luz comes out to greet Willow and when she sees Hunter she groans. And they dive into their sibling banter slinging shots back and forth and Willow just stands there thinking like “huh, this is the guy who’s always annoying her? He’s not that bad.”
And so it’s just like a little bit where he’s always like “ugh you guys are the worst! But not you Willow, you’re great obvi.” Like he has no idea anyone would ever think she’s weak because he still met her in her element and she just thinks he’s a dork. But the crushing doesn't really start until Understanding Willow because I love that episode and I say so:
“Gus, listen,” said Hunter, as he walked through the open door of the Owl House. “Obviously, there is much I can’t divulge but upon consideration I am willing to grant you an interview for your class. The Emperor’s Coven values education, and so I could definitely offer you information on our selection process which I’m sure your teachers will find impressive and- why is Willow upside down?”
“Oh, Amity set Willow’s mind on fire and now she’s losing all her memories,” said Luz with a nervous chuckle. “But uh, what’s up with you?”
“What?” He said running over to her side and helping her sit correctly on the couch. “Is she okay?”
“Don’t worry blondie, we’re gonna get these knuckleheads in there to set things right,” said Eda. “Or at least less wrong.”
“You’re gonna entrust Willow’s mind in the hands of… them?” Said Hunter in disdain as he glared at Luz and Amity who honestly couldn’t argue with him. “They were the ones who put her in this situation in the first place! Not to mention, this location isn’t zoned for a spell of that caliber and as a member of the Emperor’s Coven I could-.”
“Listen, do you want it done soon or do you want it done legally?” Asked Eda. “Cause by the time we get the permits to do it your way Goldie, there won’t be any of Willow’s memories left to save.”
“Very well then,” said Hunter, pretending as though it was a hard decision. “I’ll allow it. Just… be careful with her.”
“Alright then,” said Eda. “Lemme whip up something to put her to sleep. She’s not gonna wanna be awake for this.”
“Oh look, the prince is here,” giggled Willow, leaning on Hunter’s shoulder for support as she noticed his presence for the first time. “Helloooo, your highness.”
“Uh, hi,” he said, not expecting her to be this close to him. “A-re you oka-.”
“Shhh,” she said, putting her finger to his lips, whispering as though it was the most serious thing on earth. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
“What?” he said despite his lips being smushed, hanging on to her words with concern.
She took a deep breath. “You have beautiful eyes.” She whispered with intensity.
His face turned bright crimson as he tried to laugh, assuming it must be a joke of some sort. But Willow’s voice didn’t carry the disdain most jokes at Hunter’s expense carried. She wasn’t in her right mind, but maybe that didn’t mean she wasn’t serious.
“Oh uh… thank you?” He said, clearing his throat. “So uh so do you?”
“Hmmm,” she giggled then hiccuped, squinting at him and then leaning in closer as though she couldn’t quite see something. “Do they make you wear that mask because you're so handsome all the time?”
“What?”
“Woo, you could cut something with that jaw ouch,” she said, her voice low and playful before erupting into another sea of giggles.
“I uh, I don’t think that’s-.”
“Nap time!” Said Eda, and Willow instantly fell asleep, leaning forward onto Hunter’s shoulder. He was unprepared to say the least, but tentatively put an arm around her to keep her steady, his eyes wide as his movements were careful.
“Alright coven boy, you keep Princess Planter comfy while I tell these two how to keep things from getting worse,” instructed Eda, pointing to Luz and Amity.
“Yeah sure okay,” replied Hunter, barely listening. Eda was telling Luz and Amity something but all Hunter could hear was the gentle sound of Willow snoring, her breathing slow and deep and peaceful. He has never been so close to her, he could see every delicate freckle that decorated her face. Her glasses were askew so he carefully removed them, because it just seemed like the thing to do. Her mind was on fire, the least he could do was make her more comfortable.
He watched as her eyes shifted behind her eyelids as she… dreamed? Would she think this was all a dream? She would mumble things occasionally, hopefully that meant something good? She just looked so-
“Hey Hunter, you want in on this?” Asked Gus.
“Huh?” He looked up quickly as though he was being accused of something. He hadn’t been listening. Hadn’t he been tasked with monitoring her? Is that what Eda said or had he just done it naturally? “Sorry, what?”
“King and Eda are competing to be the subject of my interview,” repeated Gus. “You want in?”
Hunter had forgotten all about being the subject of Gus’ report as he became engrossed in watching Willow sleep. Was that creepy? He didn’t mean it to be. He just felt… protective. He felt responsible. He could never fall asleep like this with anyone unless he trusted them completely. He had never fallen asleep around anyone. And he knew Willow did not have a choice in the matter but he wanted to be worthy of her trust anyway.
“Uh, no thanks maybe next time,” he said, uncharacteristically soft. “Someone should keep an eye on Willow.”
“Eh, she’s not going anywhere goldie,” said Eda as a twinkle entered her eye. “Buuuut when she does wake up, she’s probably gonna be hungry. Having the essence of your inner being threatened really takes alot out of you.”
“Oh yeah, sure,” said Hunter, looking at her in wonder. She seemed to be doing fine, but no doubt there would be brutal side effects. “Should I-.”
“Snacks! Snacks! Snacks!” chanted King.
“Oh yeah, uh I guess I could… do that,” he said softly. He wasn’t sure why he was being quiet, no one else was. But his usual tone didn’t seem fitting now. Normally, he would not take orders (or even suggestions) from civilians but if it was for Willow then it didn’t feel like succumbing to rank. It felt like helping. It felt purposeful. He carefully removed himself from Willow’s presence, mourning the loss of warmth for only a moment, and placed her comfortably on the couch. As he made his way to the kitchen, his eyes were glued to her until it was impossible to continue. Eda,King, and Gus were too occupied in their debate to notice.
---
Willow was going to be fine, she had to be. Everyone would be acting more worried if she wasn’t, right? She had always been strong and capable, he knew her mind couldn’t be much different. He turned his focus from concern into purpose. He wouldn’t admit it to the others, but he was thankful for the distraction. He felt foolish just sitting there not being able to do anything for her. He had never actually made something before, but how hard could it be? He had studied under the head of the Potions coven, how different was baking from that?
As he looked through Eda’s cupboards, Willow’s words echoed in his ears. Well, not all of them. There was one in particular, occupied by the way the ends of her mouth turned up as she said it that made his stomach flip.
Handsome.
No one had ever called him that before, not even ironically. Did she really think that? Why did he care so much if she did? Why, suddenly, did he want so much for her to?
Was it really suddenly though?
Ugh! Why hadn’t he said something cooler? He wasn’t sure she’d even remember saying it, but if she did he didn’t want his surprised reaction to prevent her from possibly repeating herself! He had never had issue thinking of clever retorts (though, to be fair he did do a fair deal of practicing in his bedroom mirror each night) and they often fell into a comfortable conversation. But sometimes she would say something a certain way or look at him too long and it would throw him off. Not in a bad way, no nothing at all like that, just… unexpected. She laughed at the jokes people would roll their eyes at or ask him to continue where normally he was cut off and all the little things just kept adding and piling up until Hunter didn’t know how he was supposed to carry them. She was so many little things, like the way she tilted her head when she asked him a silly question or how her glasses would slide off her edge of her knows when she got excited or the way she would stand close to him and sometimes their hands would brush like she didn’t care if they-
Focus! He thought, taking ingredients from the cabinets. There wasn’t much and what there was seemed to have no organizational system but he could resolve that after he figured out what to whip up. Something simple, something to show Willow he wanted to help. He didn’t know her well enough to enter her mind with Luz and Amity, but secretly he hoped he was getting there.
---
He managed to make something that resembled cookies, the smell filled the kitchen and it surprisingly wasn't an awful smell?. He remembered Willow mentioned once she was eager to get home as her father had made some and they were waiting for her. Truthfully, Hunter had never tasted a cookie but he had seen them when he walked by the bakery in town and knew the basics of their structure. Surely if he had taken a wrong turn the smell would reflect that, right? He imagined the look on Willow’s face when she saw his creation, and maybe even liked it. The flipped feeling returned to his stomach and spread through his whole chest like a wild fire when the potential look of delight on her face graced his mind.
In his efforts, he had made quite the mess. But he couldn’t help but feel pride as he quickly plated his creation, eager to return to Willow’s side. He didn’t think too much into this, he was always excited to see Willow. He tried not to think too much into that, chalking it up to the fact that she was interesting and a good listener and funny and smart and pretty and-
The point was she didn’t find him totally annoying, so why shouldn’t he enjoy her company?
And if she happened to think he was a little handsome then, well, that wasn’t the worst thing.
As he set the cookies to cool, he heard a sudden commotion from the next room. He quickly ran to see the cause, hoping it was a good sign. There was a bright flash and then he heard Luz and Amity. He stood back a moment, trying to deduce their tone before he heard Willow speak. Her voice was horse and soft, but he could tell she was back to normal. Good, he thought, feeling as though he could finally breathe again. She’s okay, she’s okay.
He went to greet her but before he could leave the kitchen, he was stopped by Luz. Before he could offer a snarky question as to what exactly she thought she was doing, she looked at him with wide, concerned eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, furrowing his brow. He tried to looked past her to see what was going on. “Is she okay? Did something happen to-?”
“Willow’s fine.” she assured him, putting her arm up to stop him. “There was just some… complications.”
“What complications? Was she hurt? Does she need-?”
“No no, nothing like that but um there were some memories… we couldn’t save,” said Luz carefully.
“Like what? Did she forget something for a test she has? Because I can always-.”
“No, no uh there were more… recent memories,” Luz tried to figure out the nicest way to say this. ”Hunter, I’m sorry but we were still figuring out how things worked and it all happened so fast but… Willow doesn’t remember you.”
“What?” He felt something shatter.
“I’m so sorry, but hey, it’s an easy fix! Right? We can just introduce you now!”
“Yeah, uh I guess…” he said, looking at his current state. He had thrown on an old apron and was covered in flour, his hair a mess. This night was already so chaotic, it hardly seemed like a time Willow would want to meet someone new.
And then it dawned on Hunter: he had a second chance at a first impression.
Their first meeting had been… interesting. If you count hanging upside down by your ankle until a girl who took a wrong turn stumbles upon you helps untangle you interesting. Hunter did. But he had been so grumpy and flustered, and he wouldn’t have been had he only known who exactly had come to his rescue. She didn’t seem to care or be bothered by it, but he had come to value her opinion and he’d like to start again on the best foot possible. He had a chance for her to see him exactly as he wanted to be seen from the beginning and it felt like a chance he needed to seize.
His mind made up, he looked around for a way out before the human could return with Willow. Quickly, he climbed out the window and landed in a bush, He ducked beneath the window and pressed his back againythe wall as he heard Willow and Luz enter the kitchen,
“Huh, where did he go?” he heard Luz wonder.
“Who was this again?” Willow asked, her voice still raspy as though she was utterly exhausted.
“Uh, it’s kinda hard to explain,” Luz admitted. “But, he’ll be around again. I know he really wants to meet you!”
“Okay,” said Willow, uncertain. “If you say so.”
He couldn't help but think about the chill that went up his spine when she looked into his eyes. He didn’t understand exactly what it was but he knew it wasn’t nothing. He wanted Willow to know a better version of him. He cared what she thought. When she met him this time, he wanted it to be a meeting worth remembering.
—-
And so for the rest of the series up until ASIAS he’s trying to work up the nerve to meet Willow again as Hunter. Just when he’s ready, he gets promoted to coven bead and that’s when I’m also promoting him to Golden Guard or maybe like Golden Guard full time. So now he has more on his plate and he gets a more advanced staff and now he’s a real threat. But of course because he’s a loser and can’t stay away from her so they do interact when he’s the Golden Guard and he has that masked confidence. He’s still getting to know her so he’ll like run into her in the market or something and flirt but didn’t realize it’s flirting and he’s planning the perfect way to “re-meet.” The whole time Willow is like bugging because there’s something so familiar about him but she doesn’t know what and the others don’t tell her because they’re like still figuring out his deal. So when he does come to Hexside during ASIAS it’s much more thought through and intentional and feelings have already been caught.
Anyway sorry for a long pointless post but that’s just been on my mind k thanks bye.
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blazehedgehog · 3 months
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Let's assume Metal Sonic has some degree of personal agency. Do you think he has any attachment to Robotnik as his creator? Like they potentially made amends after Heroes? Would he share Sage's sentiment about being "siblings" in a sense?
I think to some degree the canonical Metal Sonic has a very primitive idea of what a "relationship" looks like and is. I think some elements of Sonic's personality leak through as a natural product of the data Metal Sonic contains, but Metal himself doesn't always understand how or why his programming comes to those results. The data is very complex and analyzing its own processes takes resources away from the rest of his computational systems, something he doesn't often spare.
I imagine Eggman probably gave him some kind of boost to whatever he considers "loyalty", or at least tried to, so Metal has some inherent appreciation of his creator. But again, it's the kind of thing he doesn't really understand -- it comes from somewhere, but it doesn't come from him. It's a programming directive, something that adjusts the data as it executes, so if Metal Sonic feels anything at all, he can probably feel like he's being pushed and pulled internally.
The Sonic part of his personality is like "Eggman is bad and must be stopped" and Eggman's programming is trying to override that with "Eggman is your creator and you must be loyal to him." Metal Sonic himself sits somewhere in the middle of those two.
Presumably Eggman's censors win out in the end, but Eggman also strikes me as a guy who thinks "80% is good enough." That last 20% is where the hardest work is, it's where all the smallest, most pointless fringes are, and there's too much other stuff that needs to be done, after all.
So Metal Sonic still occasionally receives a valid "Sonic Thought." And he doesn't really know what to do with it, because so much of his programming has been rewired to block that. Part of his programming is definitely "error correction", so mostly it gets discarded without examination, but maybe it doesn't always. And that's how we end up with weird situations like Metal Overlord; Metal Sonic is acting on his "Eggman must be stopped" but it's getting filtered and redirected through all of this Eggman propaganda programming. So Metal Sonic stops Eggman by trying to replace Eggman.
After Sonic Heroes, I imagine Eggman "punished" Metal Sonic by increasing his filtering, censoring, and redirection programming. Like if Metal Sonic is 80% "good enough" now, I imagine before Sonic Heroes he was probably 70% or even 60%. Good enough that Metal Sonic did not immediately try to fight Eggman on activation, basically. But, obviously, Metal Sonic was just playing a longer game.
Eggman would see the whole incident as a programming bug and would simply seek to reinforce his control and suppress more of Sonic's natural tendencies. But again, never 100%. He'd probably see 100% as some impossible number. Metal Sonic is probably running on some neural network type code, something deliberately made to be unpredictable on some level, so plugging all of the personality "holes" isn't something that can be realistically done because the range of output is too vast. Plus, blocking them all starts to negate the benefits of having Metal operate on a copy of Sonic's brain in the first place. You need that wiggle room.
So in most cases I think Metal Sonic understands and acts upon an intrinsic loyalty to Eggman, which Eggman himself put there as part of Metal's programming. But it's possible (difficult, but possible) to poke and prod to get him to question that loyalty and himself.
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klorophile · 1 month
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Arcane and food
There is a subject that’s been turning and turning around my head for quite some time now and that I really wanted to analyze because it’s just a detail and yet it gives me Feels Of Beautiful *o*, and it is: food in Arcane. But bear with me because we’re going to take detours that might be unexpected? (I want to mention air jails and pomegranates)
So, I’m not gonna teach you anything when I say: food is important. In real life obviously, but in fiction too. What I have in mind here: in real life you can’t survive without food, so it’s something that you do everyday, so it is a very mundane and daily thing… which is precisely why, in fiction, it can be very absent (the heroes have to save the world/prove themselves/find their identity/solve a big mystery/… = better things to do than what we do in our daily lives because it is a story to get us out of our everyday lives) or on the contrary very meaningful (ex: In The Lion King, Simba is a carnivorous lion but he accepts to get used to eating bugs when he meets Timon and Pumbaa and decides to live with them, it’s a symbol of him leaving his lion life behind).
Also, in the classical tragedies, there is the rule of grandeur: the main characters have to be princesses and kings and never your common citizen. And princesses and kings will not be shown doing stuff like peeing or eating in this genre, because it is too down to earth for the beauty that’s being displayed.
So, eating = down to earth, concerns your everyday living people ; not eating = what people that are more akin to queens and deities will do, celestial. And that’s a distinction that I really feel in Arcane…
Vi
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Vi eats (like a pig) when she gets out of prison, and she very much says it: « we’re here because I’m hungry ». When she eats, she eats. She puts fuel into her stomach and that’s it, it’s a very earthy and mundane thing, it’s not a metaphor like tobacco can be (tobacco = power in the Undercity). Vi just eats like we all do and that’s it. 
…Or is it? Well, at least that’s what she says to Caitlyn. Caitlyn was following Vi in hope of being led to important clues, and she gets pissed when she sees Vi stopping for food, because that is definitely not what Caitlyn got into the Undercity for… Because Caitlyn, as a Topsider, is not hungry. She had breakfast this morning, she will have dinner tonight, it’s whatever, her needs are met and she doesn’t need to think about it, and the viewer doesn’t have to think about it. But Vi is the opposite: As a prisoner, her needs depended on the decisions of the people in charge of her prison. She most probably didn’t get to choose what when or how, and most probably got the minimum and a look of disdain with it. In my head, I really like to make this cute comparison: you know how pet owners take their animals, like a dog for exemple, and they lift them above the ground when they have been naughty, and it’s « no, you’re in air jail now ‘cause you’ve been a bad dog so as a consequence you’re not allowed to dog anymore for a fitting amount of time » and it’s not a slap and not a hug and not a game, and the dog is just up confused with her legs dangling straight like IIII° <oh no what now? and they can’t do anything because air is not their element, the ground is, proven by the fact that they have all of four legs which is a lot of legs when you think about it and all of them want to touch the earth, so quadrupeds are like very ground dependent I guess. So the idea of air jail is that the pet can’t do anything and all that’s left is thinking about their existence and the choices they made and how it led them into not being able to choose anything anymore, and to be at the total mercy of their air jailer who happen to have only two legs that need to touch the ground, and two damned other that can remove you from your daily fulfilling life. And I might put a little too much thoughts into what’s basically cute a meme, but I think that is what is behind the air jail, and that is why it is so funny and cute when you do that to your pet (I’ve only seen it done with love), but yeah here is the thing: that is exactly what Stillwater is, but without the funny and loving part.
All of that detour to say that when Vi was in prison, she was basically in air jail. She wasn’t ‘just imprisoned’, she was removed from existence, and that aspect is accentuated by the fact that a) the prison is called “still water”, as in ‘you’re not allowed to move anymore’, b) it’s on an island that’s removed from both Piltover and the Undercity, and also: c) the time-skip.
The time-skip is very meaningful, because it makes us feel like everything was stopped and stuck from the moment Marcus took Vi away to the moment Caitlyn found an interested reason to get Vi out. We don’t get to see Vi in prison because it is literally a time out. It’s not her life she’s living during this time skip, it’s just her being removed for years and having no control over it.
When she gets out, she eats because it’s an earthy thing, and she was in the air all this time. She reclaims, not even her life, but just a life. This is why it is very important that we see her eat, because it shows us how she feels like she can finally move around and have an impact on the world. She is back.
At first she says to Caitlyn that she brought them here simply so that she could eat, basically to express to her that she is not going to just be used yet again by a Piltie, no, she’s here to reclaim something too and Caitlyn doesn’t have a choice in letting her have that or not, because Vi, as someone who grew up in the Undercity, is more adequate for this quest. 
And then she gets the tip from Jericho.
Food is connection, both to the place and the people. Vi eats because that’s what you do when you get home.
And she does it like a pig because she knows that’s not what a Piltie does, and she’s definitely not here to please Pilties.
Silco
Silco does not eat. He is a “kingpin”, he is very close to a classical tragedy figure (I mean… Agamemnon and Iphigenia… That’s his conflict). But he also has a mug painted by Jinx on his desk, with a lid and all, for coffee and stuff. But we don’t see him use it (sadly). He only drinks alcohol, which is akin to tobacco: not necessary to live, on the contrary, especially for tobacco which feels the lungs with noxious smoke when there is already so much suffocating people in the Undercity; when a character takes to it, it’s a symbol of being rich and/or powerful in the Undercity. 
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So, with the painted by Jinx mug, the earthy thing is here, but Silco decides to not be seen using it. It’s here and not here. And that’s because it’s precisely Silco’s story: It’s him trying to be all but a deity, the founder of Zaun, and fatherhood creeping up on him whether he wants it or not, to the point of him choosing to be a dad with a child instead of a divinity at the head of a city. He doesn’t want to be earthy, because to bring a city towards its independence you probably need to be more than human, but he is earthy and human in the end.
Jayce (and Powder)
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In episode 1, Jayce had left two sandwiches on his desk next to his dangerous forbidden work. It has tomatoes and lettuce, it's fresh. It’s a sign of how easy he has it at this time, because he can just leave food around his work, food is not precious, he doesn’t need to eat it right away. Then Powder comes into the room, and she’s starving, so her eyes light up to what is a random sandwich to Jayce, but an out of ordinary meal for her. 
And Powder eats, because at this time of the story she is just a child playing around. She is being earthy. She is not concerned by all the stakes yet, she lives the life of a human (we can't exactly say the same about Jinx, who is more akin to a spirit).
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There is also very much a thing to say about how Jayce puts his stuff on his desk, and then Powder/Jinx takes it for herself. She did the same with Hextech. (Though, I note that Powder took a bite from the sandwich and didn’t say anything to the others, she didn’t share. While we can argue that her stealing Hextech is helping Zaun, she’s kind of sharing the power with her community. And I’m just here wondering…: Why didn’t Powder share the food? What does this mean about her? Was this done intentionally to say that she’s always been on the selfish side?)
Caitlyn
Caitlyn is nicknamed “Cupcake”. We don’t see her eat, but we see her being called the food. I see it as a way to make us feel how rich and privileged she is, and how Vi feels that and tries to make Caitlyn feels that too. I mean, of course “Cupcake” is a sweet nickname, and the most important meaning is that Vi likes Caitlyn (and also that it can be a reference to one of Caitlyn’s abilities in LoL), but still, a cupcake is a cupcake: a frivolous pastry. A cupcake is not food you get to survive, it’s something you can go without but you get it because it’s yummy. It’s superfluous, but someone from Piltover can afford them regularly. And Caitlyn is beyond that, she is the cupcake. She is a symbol of being rich. And people in the Undercity would want to eat her, but also Vi wants her for other reasons now…
Powder 2
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In the « Enemy » clip, Powder plays with her food but does not eat it. She is distracted, and to me it feels like another sign of her being meant to turn into Jinx, a character straight from a tragedy. Something more akin to a deity or spirit of rebellion rather than a little sister. (The clip is all about the seeds of Jinx in Powder, which is why I feel like it is relevant to analyze that scene as one too.)
*big sigh*... Jinx
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In the last episode, Jinx brings a cupcake to the table, with the gemstone she stole on top of it. And omg does it bear meanings.
First of all, there is the fact that there is only one cupcake when she invited 3 guests (Vi, Caitlyn, Silco), along with her two brothers who are always with her, maybe we can even count Vander since she did put a plate for him, and herself. With seven people and only one cupcake, we have to wonder: who is going to have the cake? This brings so much tension to the scene: all the people around the table, and only one prize that they have to fight over… And the twist is that no one wants the same thing (Vi wants Powder, Silco wants Jinx, Caitlyn wants the gemstone), and yet they can’t share anything.
Second, the fact that it is a cupcake. Of course it’s a cupcake. Because Vi calls Caitlyn "Cupcake", and it’s all about Jinx wanting Vi to choose her, her zaunite little sister, over her shining new topsider enforcer of a girlfriend. To Jinx, Caitlyn “Cupcake” is a big problem, and that is why she is going to put it on the table.
Third, she put the gemstone on top of the icing. And, visually, that’s what immediately tells us that the stakes are very high, and that we’re very much talking about both the past (the gemstone that killed Jinx and Vi's family) and the future (the key to 'progress' stolen on Progress Day), what we can keep from before and what’s going to have to happen next from that. Also, it feels very irreverent that Jinx puts the symbol of progress on a cute pastry. She is not scared of dirtying what is both a treasure, leverage, power, a weapon, … The gemstone is so much, and Jinx puts it into cream because she can. Because she wants to question it. Because she wants to be the one who decides what is going to happen with the gem. She makes a display of how this moment is a turning point, and how she is the one who is going to decide where we’re going from here. Basically, what is so scary about that episode is how much power Jinx has into her hands, next to how emotional and affected she is by every single word and eye twitch she gets from her guests.
Also, I might be seeing too much into it, maybe, but I still think that the reference is relevant: the cupcake with a gemstone on it is a pomegranate.
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It does look like it: the gemstone is visually akin to a blue pomegranate berry, and it is on a cupcake that serves as the husk of an actual pomegranate that holds its berries. With the differences that in Jinx’s tea party the cupcake is the less important because it’s edible while the stakes are less about who is going to get food and more about who is going to leave with the gem of power, while in the pomegranate mythology it’s straight about whether you eat it or not, so the berries are the most important because they are edible (Persephone). 
Also, in ancient Greek mythology, the pomegranate is related to death. It’s “the fruit of the dead”. And for Jinx, those magical stones are definitely all about death, since that is what she killed all her family with, whole family that she invited at her table. There is just this vibe around her gemstone crowned cupcake that I feel is the same around the pomegranates in mythology. It’s all about death, choosing to eat, staying underground (Persephone spending time in the underworld, Jinx shooting to make the Undercity an independent Zaun, Vi choosing Topside if we refer to her LoL affiliation). It's all very much about choosing underground/aboveground, and staying with the dead or not.
And the gemstone is only one berry while there are always several in the pomegranate, but I would say that that’s precisely because what is at stake with the tea party is choosing a person over another (Vi choosing between Jinx and Caitlyn, Jinx choosing between Silco and Vi, Jinx choosing to be Jinx or Powder) in a case where one choice has to exclude the other. So it’s a pomegranate with only one grain, and that is what makes us go even more « oh no… », because it's all about choosing, and we know that the ending cannot not be a tragedy for at least one character (joke’s on us, it ends up being a tragedy for absolutely everyone ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ).
TLDR: Arcane is a tragedy, Vi tries to get out of it by eating greasy food with her fingers while Silco says he’d never do that while doing that, and then Jinx puts one single pomegranate cupcake on a table with seven people around it and waits for them to fight for it, but they all bicker about other stuff than the food she baked herself, so she judges that no one is deserving of it and she destroys the world as a logic consequence. Arcane is all about how easy yet complicated it is to eat.
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dark-elf-writes · 5 months
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Okay so imma info dump about the old KHR/BNHA of mine cause I saw a recent ask and went: OH YEAH I DID THAT. Sorry you can ignore that but wanted to put forward a bit for you.
Okay so after seeing the whole Bakugou is a storm thing it made me think of how I said Izuku had to break their bond because it became parasitic in my au. And then when Bakugou learns about flames he’s angry that Izuku broke the bond cause he lost a lot of power with his flames.
And now my head is going: Bakugou gets angry Shouto becomes the storm in your AU and keeps trying to get Izuku to change his mind and it dramatic. Like ‘oh shit we need to involve Nezu’ dramatic
Wait I love this and if you’re chill with me running with the idea I could definitely see that happening in this au
Bakugou and Izuku bonding at a young age without realizing it. Their flames reaching out for each other without either of them knowing and their bond solidifying as they grow.
Then Izuku gets diagnosed as quirkless and everything changes.
The bond is no longer a source of comfort. No longer a summer storm that protected and sheltered Izuku but a monsoon determined to tear him apart. But Izuku hangs onto that bond unconsciously for years, not wanting to be alone.
Then Bakugou destroys his notebook. Then he tells him to jump off of a roof. Then Izuku almost dies and no one cares. Then Izuku saves Bakugou and gets yelled at for it.
And standing there with sludge rattling in his lungs and grime and blood caked around his nails, Izuku feels something break.
It isn’t until later that he understands what it was. Isnt until Dino and Tsuna sit him down and explain flames and skies and harmony that he really sees. Isnt until he harmonizes with Shouto that he’s thankful rather than guilty he had unknowingly broken that bond.
Reborn steps between Izuku and Bakugou’s tirade, gun held casually in his hand like he wasn’t facing down one of the strongest quirks Izuku knew of. Like even with all of his power Bakugou Katsuki couldn’t do anything that would come close to scaring Reborn.
“Nezu.” Reborn’s voice was low. Hard. Izuku jumped when he realized the principal had just appeared out of nowhere like he had been summoned by his name. “You handle it or I will.”
It sounded like a threat.
Izuku was entirely certain no one other than Reborn would like what would happen if he handled it.
(Dino had laughed during that talk, had tipped his head to the window where his men lingered and to the door where Izuku could all but feel Tsuna’s guardians taking turns “casually” walking by. “It’s in an element’s nature to want to protect a sky. Even one they aren’t bonded to. I’ve heard a few when they fight that urge it can get… bad.”)
“I will handle it,” Nezu promises.
Izuku doesn’t breathe until Kacchan had been lead away. When he does, he chokes on the sob crawling its way up his throat.
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roe-and-memory · 2 months
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i think that cruz is kinda tall, right, and natalie is a little shorter. not by much but just by Enough that she has to stand on her tiptoes to be eye-to-eye with cruz - or, to kiss cruz
i ALSO feel like cruz woule be the type to be very proud and open about it . what flag do i want on my car beside my name? the lesbian one. her firesuit has the flag beside the piston cup logo on her arm and shes literally an Icon EVERWHERE.
natalie, on the other hand, is a little more discreet - but not by a lot. she wears shirts with cruz’s car and name on them, she wears cruz’s shirts in General, and she focuses maybe a little Too much on the extremely impressive stats of her girlfriend, much to chick hicks dismay
chick isn’t homophobic, but cruz is the “adoptive” daughter of lightning mcqueen . his most Rivalled ever. natalie will go out of her way to waste chicks time on purpose out of Spite by either hanging out on pit road with her off microphone and press pass, or just straight up telling him Give me a Second i need to kiss my gf and wish her good luck. fuck off chick dicks
and he cant be MAD because that would make him look bad . he is The piston cup winner of All Time. right. but he will angrily brush past lightning on pit road and lightning just grins because ooooohhhhh someones mad (get his ass cruz and natalie)
but also dont imagine natalie never really learning how to cook, she’d always been more interested in school and stats - piston cup fan when she was a kid too, obsessed with the idea of working the jobs of darrell and bob - whereas cruz grew up in a house of tradition and culture, where she learned to cook almost everything under the sun . so DEFINITELY dont imagine an intense weather delayed race, the two of them in cruz’s motorhome hiding from the elements And the press, rain pounding against the windows and gentle sounds of people talking and laughing drifting through the paper thin walls, and theyre Baking. cruz is gently guiding natalie through it, standing behind her with her hands over nats, doing the swift cutting motions and everything..
“you know you dont have to help me do everything, right? you could always tell me the instructions.” natalie tells her with a lighthearted, joking tone
“what fun is that?! we’re baking together, i like being able to do this. plus, its cold in here and youre warm, its a win-win situation!”
natalie throws her head back and laughs, “cant really argue with that, can i?”
baking sort of goes to shit, they abandon all of the ingredients still on the counter and end up putting on a movie on the tv in cruz’s room, just cuddling up together in her bed and falling asleep to whatever film they’d half-agreed on watching together
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A/N: And here’s part two! Hope you all enjoy!
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- Let me just tell you, I have some opinions when it comes to Steve. He doesn’t get a lot of screen time, doesn’t get a lot of the spotlight, which means I get to mold him to whatever I want to! So! I say that Steve’s great with a shy S/O, it just takes him a while to get used to your meek and mild personality. He’s sort of loud and outgoing, gotta be heard over loud engines and keep up with Sodapop, but I think he’d benefit from having you around. You’d calm him down when he gets too hype, he’d hype you up when you need a cheerleader. Loves to hold your hand in crowds, keep you close to his hip when you go out. You don’t like crowds, he likes showing you off, it’s a win-win situation for the both of you! You’re happy, he’s happy, everyone is good to go. I don’t think it takes him long to introduce you to the boys? It goes back to that whole showing-you-off thing, he likes to brag about you so he’d introduce you, slow enough not to freak you out, but soon enough that the boys are familiar with you.
- Dating someone shy is one of the best things for Two-Bit. He needs someone to rein him in at times, be that soft voice of reason and calm presence beside him. That being said, Two-Bit’s going to do everything he can to try and “help” you break out of your shell. He’ll take you to parties, bring you around the boys all the time and push your boundaries just enough to try and get you to be more outgoing. He likes to have his hands on you and he’s kinda loud so sometimes you guys get a lot more attention than you’d like to have. Sometimes these efforts backfire on him, and you get mad, but when he smiles that crooked little smile and tips his head just so, how can you really stay mad at him? He brings you around the boys all the time though. You first met them as soon as you started dating. If you can handle Two, you can handle the rest of the boys, trust me on that one, sweetheart.
- I say Tim’s good with a S/O and for the sake of this blog’s canon, that means Tim’s good with his shy S/O. He’s loud when he wants to be I think, but I generally see Tim as sort of laid-back and quiet. I don’t see him being loud and obnoxious. King of under his breath insults, if you’re catching my drift. With you though? Oh, Tim eats that right up. You’re cute and docile to his rough exterior and I think he’d really love that. He has no problem talking for you if you want him to, or putting himself between you and whatever you don’t want to interact with. Somebody won’t leave you alone? Tim steps in and promptly tells them to get lost. The boys in his gang keep trying to get you to join in their tomfoolery? Tim’s making up an excuse about how he wants to keep you to himself tonight and pulls you tighter to his side. So…maybe that last one wasn’t really an excuse…but you love it anyway. Also cause I almost forgot it, Tim would probably wait a while before introducing you to the boys because they’re sort of loud and wild (at least my version of his gang), and even though they have good hearts, Tim’s not too keen on the idea of possibly scaring you off.
- Curly Shepard, my beloved little boy, he’s gonna be so good and so bad if you’re shy. He’s got his brother’s protective streak with Two-Bit determination to get you out of your shell. Curly will punch anyone who refuses to leave you alone and then will also beg and plead and whine until you agree to go to a party with him. At the party, you don’t have to leave his side though! You can just hold his hand and stick with him, following him because you’re definitely out of your element. But, fear not, babe, Curly won’t make you stay at the party all night long. You’ve just gotta hang around for a while so he can catch up with everybody and boast about how great you are. No need to talk, no need to socialize, Curly will sing your praises all night long and compliment you endlessly. He thinks the blush on your face when he slips his hands into your pockets or kisses you in front of his friends is the cutest thing ever. Curly would tell his friends about you? But it takes a while to convince you to meet them. He wants to show you off. The second you guys started dating, officially dating, Curly was so ready to show you off. But Curly knows you’re shy and would wait for you to feel comfortable. He would still whine and complain and beg though, so just a heads up on that!
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woman-of-balnain · 1 year
Text
Corruption Part 1/3 (Alpha Rick x Omega Reader)
Masterlist | AO3 Ver. | Next Part (Coming Soon)
Pairing: Rick Grimes/Fem!Reader
Request: Alpha Rick x Omega Reader….reader was sheltered and doesn’t really understand heats/ruts/presentations as their parents were religious extremists who refused to discuss anything so “unseemly”…let’s say they’re a late bloomer so they could be early 20s at the youngest, so age-gap…anyway, reader has to learn not only how to survive the zombie apocalypse but about presentations too. And there’s something about Rick’s scent that is just making them crazy and one day their heat comes and Rick has to guide them through…what do ya think?
A/N for Anon: Okay, so this may be far less plot than you were hoping for! I tried to write it but I worried about how innocent I was making the reader. Please let me know if you want a sort of prologue to this chapter (another anon ask is fine!) and exactly how innocent and clueless she can be and I will gladly write it!
Also, I'm not sure if I should have Rick cumming inside later and if he should claim her or not. Please let me know if you have a preference and I will accommodate it. And I'm so sorry this ended up becoming 3 parts instead of 1 but the idea just kept expanding. You really gave me the plot bunnies with this request and I love you for it haha
A/N:
I tried to keep Reader’s religious background ambiguous so you can picture it as anything, but I didn’t grow up religious so I’m sorry if I blatantly messed that up without realizing 😅
This is set in the prison era but it's kinda ambiguous as to when. I just figured that was still early enough after the outbreak for Reader to only just run out of suppressants if she had a bit of a stash of them, plus it gives them more opportunities for privacy compared to the quarry, the farm or being on the road.
I've messed with the prison a bit though. Since warden's usually had their own house on site in older prisons, I've got it so the warden in this one had their own quarters, which the group has agreed to keep reserved for heat/ruts cycles.
I'm also obsessed with Rick's lips rn and sorry, but the gifs are gonna reflect that lmao
Some notes on the a/b/o elements in this one:
Alphas and Omegas are fairly rare. Most people are just betas, making Reader's lack of knowledge about presentations etc more believable
She was put on suppressants as soon as she presented and has never experienced a real heat (just minor symptoms after first presenting)
Suppressants completely suppress your heat and are also considered to be sort of a taboo and unethical in this story due to how they mess with an omega's hormones etc.
Warnings: A/B/O dynamics (including non-traditional), dominant Rick, sheltered Reader, virgin Reader, female Reader, Rick is experienced and the Reader definitely isn't, considerable age gap (Rick is 38, Reader is 21), masturbation, Reader masturbating while Rick watches, oral sex (female receiving), heat/rut cycles, no knots, Rick with an innocence kink.
Don't like, don't read.
Word Count: 5,472
Dividers by: @newlips + @cafekitsune
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Rick turned over for what felt like the hundredth time in the small, single bed of his cell. He couldn’t sleep; his whole body felt restless as traces of your scent continuously tempted him. He knew your heat was coming now and it only tortured him even more than your presence usually did.
Omegas were already so rare – more so than alphas – and to meet one after the fall of civilization felt like even more of an anomaly. But then there was also the fact that you were so damn innocent.
Your presentations meant that he’d been drawn to you from the moment he first picked up on your scent, but as he got to know you, it quickly developed into attraction. It was bad enough that you were so much younger than him – 21, compared to his 38… – but you were also just so sweet and pure, that he felt dirty just thinking about you in any kind of lustful way, yet he also couldn’t help it.
The way you looked at him with so much trust, and how tantalizingly your scent wrapped around him… all Rick wanted to do was see your eyes filled with lust that was directed at him, or to pick up on the traces of desire in your scent as he thrust into you over and over and elicited endless moans from your tempting lips. Your innocence drove him crazy, but Rick told himself that you didn’t see him that way and he tried to stamp down his inappropriate thoughts.
His conversation with you a few days ago only solidified the fact that Rick shouldn’t be thinking about you in any way that wasn’t platonic. You had come to him with an empty pill bottle, saying you’d run out about a week previously and could the group look for more.
Rick had already known about your sheltered, strict and fanatically religious upbringing, but realizing that your parents had put you on suppressants and left you mostly in the dark about your presentation made him rightfully angry. This would be your first actual heat and Rick wasn’t sure how you would handle it, especially after being on suppressants for 5 years, considering the way they messed with an omega’s hormones.
He was brought out of his thoughts as he heard a pained whimper escape you from the cell you slept in, the one directly across from his. It made him realize that your heat must already be starting. Rick debated with himself for a moment, unsure if he should give into his instincts or not.
Because he knew that he didn’t just want to comfort you, he wanted to completely take away all of the pain and discomfort he knew you were feeling and give your body the kind of sexual gratification it was so clearly craving after your natural biological instincts and hormones had been suppressed for so many years.
When he heard another pained but muffled cry escape your lips, Rick knew he couldn’t resist any longer. So, he climbed out of bed and headed for your cell, determined to at least help you in some way.
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You squeezed your legs together as tightly as you possibly could, but it didn’t help. You were hot all over, sweat covering your body and your clothes scratching irritably at your skin. It didn’t help that Rick’s scent seemed to wrap itself all around you. You thought you’d found it irresistible before, but now that seemed like nothing because you were barely holding yourself back from going into his cell.
What you would do if you actually found yourself there, you didn’t know. All you knew was the undeniable need you felt to be near him. Your mind seemed to be losing a battle against your body and it left you a little fearful.
You remembered your mother calling you an ‘omega’ shortly after your sixteenth birthday. You could recall the way you felt hot and irritated, but your parents had put you on those pills that made it all seem to wash away and never come back – until now, at least. You also remembered the countless times your parents told you to stay away from alphas.
You’d somehow just instinctively known that Rick was an alpha the moment you’d met him. And while your parents’ words rang through your head, they were gone by the time you met him and now so were the pills. All that was left was this never-ending feeling of heat and the desire to be near him that you felt (but didn’t quite understand).
You’d always had a sensitive sense of smell, but Rick’s scent was irresistible. It filled you with such a mix of emotions, like comfort, protection and happiness. But you also found it sinfully alluring, and it left you feeling slightly ashamed whenever you caught traces of it and you became filled with scandalous desires.
As your thoughts on him lingered, your body seemed to respond and the desperate, aching heat between your legs increased. You curled your hand into a fist, raising it to your mouth and bit down onto your fingers in an attempt to stifle the sound of pure, unrestrained need that left your lips.
“Rick…” you found yourself moaning out, half in shame and half in desperation.
Then you caught his scent getting stronger and you recognized that he was coming closer to you. The realization caused you to feel conflicted between a sense of relief and mortification. Your mother’s words seemed to repeat like a mantra in your head, telling you that the kinds of feelings you held for Rick (especially in that moment) were sinful and wrong.
But when he reached the doorway of your cell and his scent wrapped around you completely, all that you could think was how it felt right for him to be there. You tilted your head to look up at him and the heat inside you only swelled more intensely when you realized that he wasn’t wearing anything except his boxers and a plain, white t-shirt.
“Rick,” you whined out again, a little louder this time and completely yearning for him.
“Hey, it’s okay ‘mega,” he said gently, coming to the side of your bed and bending down to look at you properly. “It’s not that bad yet.”
Not that bad? You thought to yourself incredulously. I feel like I’m burning alive from the inside.
“I…” you whimpered, completely unaccustomed to all the different things you were feeling. “I can’t…”
Rick looked away from you briefly, seeming caught up in his thoughts, like he was internally debating something. But then his gaze met yours again and he looked like he’d made a decision.
“C’mere, ‘mega,” he murmured, reaching out to you.
His touch only seemed to make the fire within you blaze even hotter, as his hand fell to your shoulder. Rick either didn’t notice or didn’t mind, wrapping his arm around you until he was able to help you up. He carefully led you out of your cell and towards the locked door that marked the exit of the cell block.
“Where are we going?” You asked.
“The warden’s rooms,” Rick replied. “It’s not far.”
You remained silent then, feeling only a little scared as you exited the safety of the cell block. But as he promised, you arrived there quickly enough. You only gave yourself a brief moment to look around, realizing that the warden of the prison must have lived there, since there was a bed.
“We’re keeping this room for when you’re in heat and I’m in my rut.”
You wondered what on earth a rut was. You’d only just begun to understand the fact that your body would be going into heat now that you were no longer taking the pills.
“You can stay here,” Rick continued. “Until it’s over. You’ll be safe in here, I promise.”
“Wait!” You exclaimed hurriedly. “You’re… you’re not going to leave me in here, are you?”
Rick looked at you with a strange expression, one you couldn’t quite decipher.
“Y/N…” his tongue darted out to briefly lick his bottom lip and it just made you feel even more heated. “I can’t stay here.”
“Why not?”
You didn’t realize how much you were tempting him with that question. In your mind, you just didn’t want to be left alone and you definitely didn’t want to be without the comfort his scent was giving you.
“You want me to?” Rick asked with a hint of trepidation.
“Please,” you practically begged him.
Unbeknownst to you, Rick was extremely conflicted. There you were, pleading with him to stay, but he was aware that you probably didn’t really know what you were asking. He knew that he should just walk away, but a deeper and darker part of his mind suggested that he could stay and help you through it.
He didn’t have to touch you… he could just guide you and make sure you weren’t alone. He ignored the more reasonable side of him which pointed out the fact that he would eventually lose his self-control. Hell, that was already slipping away as he made his decision.
“Okay…” Rick agreed. “But stay here for a few minutes. I’ll get some food, water… so you have everything you need.”
You just nodded, not minding just so long as he did come back. Rick gave you one last lingering look before leaving and once he did, you sat down on the edge of the bed to wait for him. But with each second that he was gone, your body seemed to get worse. That insatiable feeling between your legs seemed to be aching for Rick and the way his scent lingered in the room but wasn’t strong enough only made it more unbearable.
A thick fog seemed to cloud your mind and your inhibitions started to fade. Your hand seemed to move of its own accord, falling to the top of your right thigh and then sliding down between your legs. You’d touched yourself before, trying to forget your shame in the dark of night, stifling the quiet sounds that left your mouth in your old bedroom and finding a small sense of devious relief.
Maybe you could do it again now. Maybe it would satiate your wicked body until he got back, and you felt his scent wrap around you again… At the thought of Rick, your resolve wavered, and your hand disappeared under the waistband of your sleep shorts. They barely covered anything, and you’d felt slightly embarrassed to wear them at first, but now you were glad that they didn’t restrict you too much.
You let yourself lay back with a quiet moan as your fingers came into contact with your folds and all thoughts of it being wrong fled your mind as your body sang with happiness and relief. You let yourself think of Rick, imagining him while you touched yourself and felt wetness beginning to pool beneath your fingers.
You wondered how it would feel to have him touch you like this. Those long fingers giving you sinful pleasure while his deep voice with that southern lilt murmured dirty things into your ear. It made you squirm because everything you’d ever been taught told you how wrong it was to imagine him like that, while your body seemed to whisper seductively to you, pointing out that it felt so unbelievably good, so what did it matter?
You were so caught up in the pleasure you were giving yourself and the thoughts your mind conjured up of Rick, that you didn’t even notice the door opening back up. When his scent filled the room once again, you just became even more lost in the depths of your unholy desires, never once stopping to think that it meant he was back, and you needed to stop.
“Fuck…”
Your eyes snapped open, and you froze in horror. Rick was standing in the doorway, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. You became absolutely mortified, realizing how uncomfortable he must have been, seeing you like that. The fog seemed to clear as rationality entered your mind again. You pulled your hand out from your shorts at a rapid speed and blushed deeply.
“I’m so sorry,” you covered your face with your hands in complete and utter embarrassment.
Rick didn’t say anything, but you heard the door shut and the sound of footsteps approaching you. Then he was gently pulling your hands away so that you would look at him.
“You don’t have to be sorry, ‘mega,” he assured you. “It’s normal.”
You just stared at him, not really believing his words.
“It’s your heat,” Rick continued. “You don’t have to feel ashamed by it.”
He seemed to read you easily, and knowing about your sheltered upbringing likely helped him to ascertain the conflict of emotions within you. His close proximity didn’t help, as the intensity of his scent seemed to just make your symptoms unbearable again.
“I can’t stand it…” you admitted, squirming slightly. “I feel like I’m on fire.”
Rick just nodded, understanding. Then one of his hands fell to your left thigh, resting on the space just above your knee. You watched as he swallowed thickly, the action causing the protruding bump of his Adam’s apple to bob slightly. His pupils dilated as his thumb rubbed lightly against your skin and when he spoke you thought you might actually become consumed by that internal fiery feeling.
“You wanna touch yourself?” He asked lowly, voice husky and thick with lust.
He was so blatant about it – something you couldn’t bear to be. You just nodded ever so slightly, stuck between feeling embarrassed and just wanting to know what you should do.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Rick told you. “If that’s what you need, then you shouldn’t hold back.”
“I don’t want you to leave though…”
Your desire to have him close outweighed your need for release in that moment. As if in reaction to your words, Rick’s hand squeezed down slightly on your thigh and his tongue darted out once again to lick his bottom lip.
“I don’t have to…” he suggested ever so softly. “I can stay.”
The idea made your heart skip a beat and once again you were torn between what you’d always been taught to believe, and what your body was telling you, which was to just follow your instincts. Rick seemed to sense your hesitation and when he brought his other hand down to settle on your right thigh as well, you let out an involuntary sound which betrayed your carnal need for him.
A small smile curved up at the corners of his lips, and now with one hand on each of your thighs, he stroked his fingers lightly up and down them.
“Do you want me to?” Rick asked.
“Yes…” you replied quietly, with only the slightest hint of hesitation left.
“Tell me what you need, ‘mega,” he coaxed you. “You want these off?”
His fingers tugged lightly at the bottom of your shorts, and you just nodded, unable to tear your gaze away from his, as his eyes darkened even further. Rick brought his fingers up to the waistband of your shorts then and pulled down on them until they began sliding down your legs.
A mix of excitement and anxiety swirled through you because, oh… you shouldn’t be doing this, but you couldn’t find it within you to want to stop. When those immodestly tiny shorts had been gotten rid of, Rick’s gaze fell to the place between your thighs, now only covered by your cotton panties.
“Those too?” He asked, forcing his gaze back up to yours.
You hesitated, unsure if you were ready to completely expose yourself to him yet. But the fluids that had gathered between your folds as you’d touched yourself had only built up even more and it was slightly uncomfortable. So, you nodded again, and Rick was quick to hook his fingers under the elastic and pull them down too. Your panties had barely reached your thighs when he paused, drinking in the sight of your now unprotected pussy.
“Fuck, ‘mega,” Rick groaned. “You’re beautiful.”
Your cheeks heated, as the compliment was directed at such a sinful part of your body. But to hear him praise any part of you made you almost dizzy with happiness. He tugged them down the rest of the way, leaving your lower body completely exposed to him. Then, Rick spread your legs further and licked his bottom lip again. You wondered if he knew how much your heated skin grew worse every time he did it and if he was purposefully trying to torment you.
“You’re so wet…” Rick breathed out and you felt his fingers twitch against your thigh. “Go on, ‘mega… touch yourself.”
It was so dirty, the way he said it and you knew you shouldn’t have been letting him witness such a thing. But you were burning up inside again and your body didn’t seem to care about the beliefs that had been imprinted into your mind. Your hand moved without you really thinking about it once again and when you touched your dripping folds, you let out another sound of desire.
“That’s it, baby,” Rick moaned, barely holding himself back.
He was so close to you; it should have made you feel ashamed, but it only left you more desperate to touch yourself. Rick’s grip on your thighs tightened slightly as he tried to keep himself in check. You were driving him to the edge of his sanity, exploring yourself right in front of him. Rick wanted to instruct you to spread your folds a little more, so he could see more of your perfect pussy, but he reminded himself that this wasn’t about him. He knew that you only wanted him there because of your heat, so he reminded himself to just guide you where you needed it, like he’d told himself he would. But the urge to just reach out and replace your fingers with his own, or maybe with his mouth… it was overwhelming him.
You took in how heated Rick’s eyes were as they remained fixated on the way you pleasured yourself. Your eyelids became heavy as you watched him watching you, wondering if he really was as captivated by the sight as he seemed to be. Your fingers rubbed over your clit, making the desire swirl rapidly through you, increasing with every little movement you made to stimulate yourself further.
“That feel good, ‘mega?” Rick asked, bringing his gaze to yours and catching the way you were staring at him.
“Yes…” you admitted with just a little bit of shame.
“You can close your eyes, baby,” he suggested. “Think of whatever gets you over the edge.”
You just shook your head, because the only thing that would send you towards release was right in front of you and the real thing was better than anything you could imagine in your head.
“It’s okay,” Rick tried to assure you, thinking you were just too shy. “Your heat is a natural part of being an omega. You should enjoy it.”
You averted your gaze from his as your cheeks became heated again.
“I… I’m fine just… just looking at you…”
You blushed furiously, not knowing what had come over you to be able to admit that out loud.
“Omega,” Rick practically growled out, his fingers digging into the skin of your thighs.
You worried that you’d possibly upset him with the admission and frantically met his gaze again as your movements halted.
“I’m sorry!” You found yourself saying again. “I… I shouldn’t have said that…”
“You don’t need to be sorry,” he calmed you. “It’s just your heat… it’ll make you want an alpha and I’m the only one around. It’s okay.”
You frowned and didn’t really consider your words before you spoke them.
“It’s not that…” you admitted shyly. 
Rick’s gaze pierced into yours, silently urging you to continue.
“I know it’s inappropriate but…” you tried to finish what you’d been about to say but found yourself faltering again.
“Have you already touched yourself while thinkin’ about me?”
You avoided his gaze again, looking off to the side self-consciously. Would he condemn you if he knew the truth? But then you felt his fingers begin to caress your inner thighs, slowly moving upwards and you realized that in the fog of that heated feeling you were still experiencing, he was still kneeling down between them.
What use was it to feel embarrassed over words of admission when you were completely exposed in front of him? You went to try and squeeze your legs shut as humiliation washed over you, but Rick’s grip was too strong, and he kept you right as you were – and exactly how he wanted you to remain.
“Answer me, omega,” he demanded.
You just nodded yet again, unable to even form the simple word ‘yes’ as you remained the subject of his intense gaze.
“Do you want me to touch you, instead?” Rick prompted, his fingers continuing their torturously slow ascent up your thighs. “Tell me what you want baby, don’t be shy.”
The fact that he seemed to be encouraging your sinful desires rather than judging you for them, only spurred you on.
“Yes…” you admitted softly. “I want you to.”
“Fuck,” he cursed again. “You’re so sweet, ‘mega.”
“Sweet?” You questioned out loud, feeling like the farthest thing from that as your upbringing made you feel dirty for your shameful desires.
“Yeah,” Rick breathed out. “I bet you taste sweet too.”
Oh, that made your pussy squeeze down with anticipation and you didn’t even really comprehend what he meant, but some secret and hidden part of your body seemed to respond and understand that it was something wickedly good. Rick just smiled deviously as your body squirmed a little and his fingers finally made contact with your wet folds. You let out a restrained sound of desire at his touch, but he seemed to disapprove.
“Don’t do that,” Rick gently admonished you. “I wanna hear every little sound you make, omega.”
Before you could nod or say any words of understanding, Rick pressed down onto your clit with his thumb and the only response you could give was a deep and shameless moan.
“That’s it, baby,” he praised. “Don’t hold back.”
He continued to tease you, rubbing circles over the sensitive nub and it was so different to when you had dared to touch yourself in the past. It was more pleasurable, because now you were no longer in control. It only made it even better that the man you desired in every sinful way possible was the one doing it to you. More moans left you, escaping your lips freely now and your pussy squeezed again as Rick’s fingers moved down to gather up some of the generous amount of slick still pooling between your legs.  
“I’ve thought about you too,” he admitted lowly, continuing his perfect ministrations. “You’ve got no idea how much you drive me crazy, ‘mega.”
The revelation both stunned you and left you feeling overcome with happiness. Did he feel the same way you did? In truth, you weren’t entirely sure how you felt, because this was all so new to you. All you knew was that you felt drawn to him and even though it had started with his scent, it didn’t end there.
“Let me taste you baby,” Rick requested.
You still weren’t entirely sure what that meant but you were very eager to find out.
“Okay…” you moaned out as his thumb pressed down on your clit.
“You ever had a man eat you out before?” He asked with a devilish grin, like he already knew the answer.
“No…”
“What about touching you?” Rick continued. “Like this.”
He teased the sensitive nub further with his fingers, emphasizing what he meant.
“No, you’re the first…”
“Fuck baby… I’m the first one to see you like this?”
“Yes,” you admitted softly. “Rick… isn’t this wrong?”
Your inhibitions came back slightly at the reminder that he was the first man to ever see you so exposed and you remembered why that was.
“No, sweetheart,” he assured you. “Get that stuff outta your head. Lie down and let me take care of you.”
You hesitated just briefly before doing as he said and relaxing back onto the bed. You trusted him, enough to even forsake everything you’d ever been taught. And as you felt Rick shift between your legs and move closer until his warm breath met your dripping wet and exposed folds, you allowed yourself to forget it all too and just completely focus on him.
Then you were moaning so loud, you wondered if it was actually more of a scream as his lips enclosed over your clit. Your fingers curled into the sheets beneath you and your hips started to move up on their own. Rick pushed them back down with his hand though and kept a tight grip on you, holding your hips steady.
“Oh…” you breathed out, all rational thought leaving your mind as you focused on just feeling.
You had never felt so good before, and you didn’t care if it was a sin or anything like that. Your only concern was Rick and everything he was doing to you, everything he was making you feel and how right it all seemed. The tip of his tongue flicked over your clit, pushing up the hooded part and teasing the sensitive nub underneath. His lips sucked down around it and his fingers tested your entrance further down, noticing just how tight you were.
Waves of desire were spreading through your body, and it was almost too much, because you’d never experienced anything like it, or anything so intense. The coarse hair of his short beard tickled at your skin and even provided extra stimulation around your clit, where it sat around his lips.
His fingers pushed slightly inside of you, and it was a little shocking, because you’d never dared to explore yourself like that. Your pussy seemed to automatically clamp down around them, and Rick pulled them back out, apparently thinking better of it for now. Instead, he let his lips travel down from your clit and to the tight hole of your entrance, deciding to test you with something softer.
The tip of Rick’s nose rubbed against your clit and then he actually breathed you in, before letting out a deep moan as though he liked the scent of you there. That seemed so incredibly naughty to you, but your body’s only response was to produce more slick in anticipation of what else he would do to you.
“Ahh…” you moaned out uncontrollably as his tongue pushed into your pussy. “Rick…”
He let out his own moan in response, the sound vibrating through your core sensually. And then he was giving languid strokes of his tongue inside you, pushing you further towards the threshold of your desires. It was soft and pleasant, not feeling intrusive as he tested the tightness of your inner walls.
Rick was completely lost in his lust for you, feeling addicted to the way you were coming undone. A good girl, raised with strict religious morals, now a moaning and sticky mess beneath him, completely at the mercy of his touch. It was exactly how he wanted you to stay, receptive to him and eager for more.
Your scent was so lasciviously tempting to him, and especially with his nose being buried near the scent gland at your pussy. It made him crave every part of you and it was hard to hold himself back. He wanted to bury his cock (still trapped within his boxers and achingly hard) deep inside your pussy. But Rick knew he had to be patient and wait until you were ready, not just physically but also mentally.
Maybe it was a form of corruption, as he peeled away the layers of your innocence, but he couldn’t find it in him to care anymore. He wanted you to be his, in every possible way, just like he wanted to not just be the first, but also the only one to ever know you like this.
Your body felt like it was ascending to some high and just out of reach peak, and as Rick’s nose rubbed against your clit and his tongue thrust into your core, you felt yourself edging ever closer. When he pulled his tongue out of you and licked slowly up your slit until he reached your sensitive nub again, you felt the first ripple course through you.
But then his lips were wrapping around your clit, and he sucked down hard, just the tip of his tongue flicking over the little bundle of nerves. You cried out in shameless ecstasy, all inhibitions thrown to the wind as your body both tensed and seemed to also be overcome with euphoric release.
Your legs shook, with Rick’s head still buried between them and his mouth continuing to overwhelm you with stimulation. He licked and sucked as your entire body seemed to spasm. Your eyes squeezed shut and your mind became blank for a moment. The sensations you were feeling were new and powerful and so wickedly pleasurable. It was strange, but even with the intensity of it all, you still found yourself already wanting to chase that feeling again as your body began to settle.
The raging fire within you also seemed to calm down and your mind cleared slightly. Rick’s tongue slowed in its movements against you and then he was pulling back to look at you. His tongue flicked out again to lick his lips clean of the traces of your slick which had been left there. It was so wicked to think of him tasting you like that, but you found that you liked it.
Rick’s lips curved up into a salacious grin and he got up, moving to trap your body beneath his. You met his gaze, looking up at him with a mixture of awe and slight bashfulness. He reached out to let his fingers gently grip your chin and then his thumb was brushing along your lower lip.
“You’ve got no idea, do you ‘mega?” He asked you lowly.
Your brows furrowed in confusion, only confirming his observation.
“That’s what makes you so damned perfect. You have no idea what you do to me, because you’re not even doin’ it on purpose.”
His thumb pressed down harder against your bottom lip, and you let out a quiet moan. He was right; you were still not fully comprehending all the things he was making you feel, let alone how you were making him feel.
“You tell me now, omega,” Rick continued. “Your mind’s clearer after that, I know it is. You tell me if you want me to leave, because if you don’t do it now, I won’t be able to hold back later. When your heat fully hits you, I won’t be able to walk away, so make a decision now.”
The thought of him leaving made you feel panicked. You didn’t want to imagine experiencing this alone and he had already made it so much more bearable than you feared it could have been. When Rick explained your heat to you a few days ago, it left you filled with anxiety and trepidation. Now that he’d touched you, made you unravel until you reached the height of elation… there was no way your own fingers could compare.
You didn’t care that you’d always been taught that this entire thing must be a complete sin. Rick told you it was natural, that it was a part of you, and he knew in ways your parents would never understand. He was like you, even if he was slightly different. It was like he was the other half that could complete you and help you get through the confusing experience that still lay before you.
There was still some trepidation within you, because you were so inexperienced and unknowledgeable in general, let alone compared with Rick. But he had been so patient and had taken care of you so far. The answer to his request seemed obvious to you.
“Please stay,” you asked of him softly.
Rick didn’t try to talk you out of it or remind you that there was no going back. Instead, his eyes darkened with unrestrained desire and he leaned closer to you.
“Okay, ‘mega,” he murmured. “If that’s what you want.”
You just nodded and then he closed the distance, pressing his lips to yours like you had just made a vow to one another and you were now sealing it with a kiss.
_
A/N: I'd really appreciate feedback on this one. Part 2 will involve some more exploration for the Reader with Rick before having her first time with him. Part 3 will involve Rick's rut hitting and be my usual alpha rut scenario, but with a bit of a different feel to it as Rick tries to control himself with the Reader, since she is still very new to so many of the things going on.
_
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mindelectricdemofour · 2 months
Text
i don't get heart heavy
March 12: Loveless / AU (college AU)
Prompts: @mcyt-aro-week // ao3 Link: i don't get heart heavy // Title: Heart Heavy - Mother Mother
The room looked plain, drab even. Skizz could already see Tango’s pierced gaze. The only decorations were stringed lights, not even fairy lights, hanging from wall to wall. They weren't even on. 
A plant pot laid on the shared table, drying out. But none of that mattered to Skizz.
His eyes were locked onto the flag sticking out of the plant pot. A small green and white one. His eyes widened.
“This won't do. We'll have to bring in decorations, fix up the walls… Maybe bring in a fan or two… I can make one in a day or so, no issue...”
Skizz let Tango trail off with his new plans for their dorm. They'd arrived late in the afternoon, and the other person who seemed to be sharing the dorm with them was out. 
But elements of their presence remained. One specific element.
“-Skizz, are you even listening?” Tango seemed to finally notice Skizz’s absence. He turned, just slightly, to look over him. Skizz finally pulled away.
“Sorry it's just-” Skizz put his arm up to his head, brushing hair out of his face as if embarrassed. He felt his face heat up.
Tango glanced between him and the flag. “Oh. That's your one, right?”
Skizz hesitated before nodding. “Yeah…” He had no idea why he was so nervous about this, him and Tango had had so many conversations about their sexualities, why was he suddenly so anxious?
“...I think we keep that decoration then.” Skizz internally thanked whatever braincell that he and Tango shared, that Tango didn't keep pushing. His friend knew him so well.
Tango kept rambling on about decorations and eventually it became dark with not even a sight of their roommate.
Skizz clicked the jug on, prepared to make some noodles for them. He hesitated, glancing back to the flag before adding some extra. Just in case their new roommate came back. He wouldn't want to make a bad impression. 
And plus, if they didn't come home, him and Tango could share the leftovers on the couch tomorrow while watching bad robotics competitions.
Halfway through Skizz's cooking, the door creaked. His head snapped up.
His new roommate wore a dusty blue sweater and a few rings. His hair was curly black and stretched down his face to his goatee. He had dark skin, mottled with scars as well as socks on. No shoes, only socks. 
Skizz liked this guy already.
“Oh hey-” His voice was awkward. Unsure. “I wasn't sure anyone else was moving in, I would have shown you the place.”
“No need,” Skizz smiled before turning back to his pan. “The uni isn't really open with anything are they?”
That got him a laugh. He could hear ruffling from the door. “What are you making?” 
The conversation was lighthearted, almost fun. “Noodles. I've got enough here if you'd like some, but you'll have to be okay with soy sauce and chili.”
Their roommate laughed once again. “I'd never turn that down. I'm BigB, by the way.”
He was right next to Skizz, observing him cook. He seemed relaxed. 
But that didn't stop Skizz's heart pounding like a rabbits.
Did he ask about it?
“My name is Skizz-” His voice was tilted, slightly off centre. 
If he didn't ask now, he'd never get the courage to. “I like - I like the flag you've got on the table.” Great. Just vague enough to make it awkward.
“Yeah it's mine.” Skizz finally looked over at BigB, who was still talking in that slightly awkward conversational tone. He didn't seem to take it as an attack or anything, which Skizz had feared he'd do, (if someone asked him about his sexuality he'd definitely get defensive.)
Instead he seemed open about it. Casual. Relaxed. Everything Skizz hoped to be.
“I think your noodles are burning…”
Right. “Right!” Skizz turned back to the pan, tossing them around through the water. In fact, some had burnt, BigB was right. Skizz frowned, but didn't remove them. He could live with some burnt noodles. It hadn't killed him yet. 
BigB was starting to walk away. It was now or never. “I've got the same flag.” Casual. Nonchalant. That's how Skizz was trying to act. Exactly how BigB was.
He stared down at the pan, hearing BigB stop. Maybe it was nothing, maybe it meant nothing that their was another aromantic here. Maybe he was placing too much faith in the idea of solidarity. His eyes didn't leave the pan, even as BigB stepped closer.
“Wow… So you're also…” For once BigB looked thrown off guard. Skizz finally chanced a glance at him. His eyes were wide, “-thats so cool. So we're both aro, thats- that's really sweet-”
Skizz felt his tension lift at that. At BigB's approval. He'd feared rejection, annoyance or maybe even confusion, despite none of those being likely. Skizz felt himself smile. “Yeah… It's nice to have someone else who's aro around here. I- I thought I was the only one.”
It was such a stereotypical statement and made Skizz cringe. But BigB was nodding. “Absolutely. It's such a relief to know you aren't alone, I feel you.”
Skizz continued smiling even as BigB walked away to introduce himself to Tango. It was such a welcome surprise that he thought any second he might wake up from this dream. But even as he dished out their meals and spoke with BigB about their courses, everything stayed.
And later down the line, Tango had brought a giant heart decoration for the room, painting them the same colours as the flag and declaring their dorm as ‘the heart foundation.’
It were pretty unsightly due to its size, but both Skizz and BigB agreed the dorm didn't look as drab as it had at the start of the month.
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