#they're just trying to play half the time

[bigification]

Step Daddy

"You really need to get over your stepdad man." My friend tells me, concerned.

"Look, I'll try this one last thing and if it doesn't work then I'll give it up." I respond. "Did you bring the sunglasses?"

"Yes, but just remember he's like 25 years older than you. He's probably not going to be into you, even after this." He says as he hands me a pair of old pilot shades.

I told him I could let it go, but I can't. I'm just putting all my eggs into this basket, the sunglasses. Apparently they're supposed to transform someone who wears them mentally and physically to match my type. He already is my type, but I guess I wouldn't mind him bulking up a bit and growing some hair. It would be sexy if he got more charming, but he's already charming as it is. I guess there's only one way to find out.

I wait on the living room couch watching tv. He always gets home from work at the same time, so I know he'll be here any minute. I sit and stare at my reflection in the glasses. Am I really ready to change this man's life so drastically. My friend said no one else would take notice of the change, so it'll be like nothing happened. As I'm thinking over it, I hear the roar of his engine from the driveway. I try to calm down, but I can feel my body vibrate from the nerves. The door flies open.

"Hey buddy, hows it goin?" He asks me with his hot southern accent.

"Not bad. By the way, I found these sunglasses lying around, and assumed they were yours." I try to play it cool as I lie to his face.

"Oh, thanks. But these aren't mine." He responds.

"Well you might as well keep em, they don't fit me anyway." I try to convince him to take them without seeming too pushy.

"Well alright, thanks kid." He swipes the glasses and throws them on.

That was easier than I thought. As soon as he put them on, he stopped moving. His jaw slacked as if there was not a thought running through his mind. It started slow, his button up started to look a little bit tighter. His once flat chest started to push against his shirt and the shape of a belly started to show. Then it started to speed up. His chest started to pulse, growing in size with each one. They grew until the button on his collar popped off, then another button popped, then another and another. His juicy pecs flopped down after being released from his shirt. His stomach was next. His midsection widened and his stomach grew into a respectable beer belly, straining against his shirt. It wasn't long before more buttons began to pop, until his shirt was completely open. His arms also looked like they doubled in size, filling out his sleeves with thick muscles.

Next his legs start to look like they're gonna burst out of his dress pants. I can hear the rips ripple through his pants as his thighs grow inside of them. His ass fills out all the space in his pants and proceeds to rip open his fly and snap his belt in half. I can tell his underwear is barely staying in one piece as a large bulge formed in between his legs.

Finally his face begins to change. His once skinny face fills out with fat, giving him a rounder look. I can see that hair is falling out of his hat until he is left completely bald under there. Though in return his clean shaven face grows a bushy beard. But the hair doesn't stop there. It continues down his chest and to his belly, and presumably the rest of his body. He finally regains control of his body. He sighs as he stretched out his arms and cracks his knuckles before looking right at me.

"Come here, son." He says in a deep buttery voice.

A shock travels through my spine as I think he might know what I've done to him.

"What'd I say boy!" He raises his voice.

I jump a bit before I walk closer to him. I realize how imposing he is up close. He must have gotten taller because he seems well over six feet tall now, and at least 250 pounds.

"Daddy had a stressful day, why don't you help him release some tension." He says as he pushes me to my knees.

I blush, this is everything I wanted from this, it just happened so much faster than I thought.

"Don't be shy, boy. This will be our little secret." He says as he pulls his underwear down.

#male tf #masculine #fat tf #hairy #reality change #muscle tf #male transformation

[dr3amofagame]

thinking about c!dream earlier on in the server just makes me sad man. like, c!dream has never been a perfect character. he's always been flawed, always been a bit of an asshole, always had control issues. but also he knew that. he tried to work on that. he and tommy were friends, despite being flawed people with their own issues that would bump into conflicts because of the ways that they differed. c!dream tried, god, he tried; he wasn't even on the server, when the drug van happened, and walked into a place with someone who was practically a stranger to him building a wall and calling for war and having turned half the people dream knew against him, apparently, for no reason that he could've known at the time, and he had looked straight at tommy and tubbo and asked if that was what they really wanted when wilbur told them that there was no such thing as dual citizenship. he tells tommy when he has to sell a disc for spirit's leather even though tommy had surrendered the discs to him at the end of the revolution because he knows it'll matter to him. he and tommy truce, multiple times, and c!dream gets tangled into conflicts that literally don't involve him repeatedly and gets targeted Because He's Dream repeatedly and he plays along with that trivia contest and he gives gifts to fundy and tommy after terrorizing them a little for fun and he plays along with the dreamon thing and he keeps getting pulled into fights that weren't his but tries to make them a little more fair when they get him involved. he fucks around with tommy and they have fun, they're friends, and when he and wilbur look like they're in danger dream is one of the first to find them and lend them real, practical, valuable aid. he calls himself "Big D" in that book and he tells the man that wrote him as a tyrant that he doesn't want to be a villain in the story anymore. he asks tommy if he's okay, and watches that kid's back when he walks alone and unarmed into manberg, and fights with him at the battle of the lake and all of that is thrown back in his face as being a lie. half the intial community structures that exist were built by him; the community house, the nether portal and hub, the prime path. during a time where every other piece of leverage got burned or killed (rip the casualties of the pet war), dream was kind of known for being one that could be fairly traded with, that would minimize permanent damage. the kills in the final control room were originally to strip lmanburg of their gear, which he had kept in a chest so it could be returned to them after the war.

like no c!dream isn't perfect at the beginning of the server. yes he's kind of a jerk sometimes, kind of an asshole sometimes, kind of neurotic most of the time. but god dammit like c!dream does try to mitigate the worst of his control issues, when they flare up early on; the initial disc war ends with tommy getting his discs back as well as a stack of diamonds, in exchange for a netherite chestplate. he's a flawed character and he's still someone pretty friendly on the whole to most of the server, he's also kind of just known for being a little weird. he gives gifts randomly. he fixed creeper holes, and houses, and went along with bits. like whatever im a c!drolo c!dream woobifier and i admit it lol but for as much evil as he ends up doing, pretty damn consistently early on, he's . friendly? kind? funny? helpful? their neighbor. their friend. c!dream isn't just some stranger that flew off the handle; he's someone they knew and lived with who had his actions taken in bad faith because the goddamn story said so and kept fucking trying anyway until he believed the lie too. like he was just a guy!! a guy they knew and lived with!!! like my god

#this is not coherent but #alsjdfaks;jf;j #like maybe i sound deranged when i say this but he was literally just a good dude #not a perfect person definitely an asshole sometimes and how violence and such gets redefined when you look back #makes this all a bit messier considering people kind of killed each other a lot back then bc respawns meant nothing #but. he was literally like. like he was just a normal guy who actually tried pretty damn hard to be good to the people he cared about #and SPOILER ALERT !!! HE KIND OF CARED ABT MOST OF THE PEOPLE ON THE SERVER AT THAT POINT

[paper-mario-wiki]

Do you react to the projectile or do you just sorta know "they're gonna shoot a rocket about now" and then airblast?

I assume it's at least somewhat distance dependent.

a bit of both! i play with projectile weapons plenty, so i know the general timings in things from the reload time for each, as well as the what the reaction time tends to be from the people who wield them.

that said, when you are within pissing distance of the person who you know is about to shoot you, it becomes less about reaction and more about prediction. that one is highly dependent on your game sense and your ability to roughly gauge the skill level of the enemy player.

if it's the kind of person who will panic fire, i win because i know how fast the rockets come out. if they try to bait an airblast out of me i spray them down with the flame (or flare if they're already burning) until they're dead or forced into responding in some way, which usually takes less than half a second.

of course, i don't have it perfect and i miss PLENTY of reflects, but ive come to a point where i hit them more often than i dont. that makes me very happy!

#reply #tf2 #pyro

[tokyo-debunkers-headcanons]

is it possible to request da vagastrom ghouls + jin and luca and their reactions when someone makes their s/o cry (preferably romantic if that’s okie) i would really love to see ur ideas on this!

Ooooh! I love this one! Thank you for sending in a request!

ALAN MIDO

Alan is VERY protective of his partner. It doesn't matter if they could kick his ass in a fight, he is protective. The second he catches wind of his MC crying for ANY reason, he drops his tools and goes RUNNING to them (like my mans is SPRINTING).

He first and foremost makes sure that MC is physically okay before getting to what happenedm He's not the best at comfort so he starts by using his size and reputation to get info from any witnesses.

It actually manages to work somehow and as soon as he gets his hands on the jackass who made them cry. Its straight to the pit to make an example of them.

When the two of them are alone at last. He does his best to try and comfort them, but like I said he's not the best with that stuff. So the best is an awkward hug, a listening ear, and him trying very hard to find and play a YouTube video to make them feel better....but very they have to help him with it.

SHOHEI HAIZONO "SHO"

He heard from Leo that MC was caught crying while he was cooking and for once, he quickly made sure that there was no chance of a fire, and stops in the middle of his cooking to go find MC.

Sho, on the other side of things, kicks ass before anything else. He's dragging the dumbass to the pit and kicks the shit out of him. Sho doesn't hold back like Alan does. It was an clear win from the get go, so the Sho betters in the pit were taking candy from babies.

After wiping the floor with the dipshit, he runs back to MC, gently taking their hands and lead them right back to the Vagastrom kitchen. He sets aside whatever he was cooking beforehand and asked what they wanted to eat.

He won't take no for an answer, and it doesn't matter if he doesn't have the ingredients. He will take them out on Bonnie to get their mind off of things. When he has everything he needs, he'll make whatever they want to eat.

If they want they want to, he'll even try his hand at baking. With their help of course, but he's more of a cook than a baker. Anything to help his MC feel better

LEO KUROSAGI

Oh HELL no! They're done. Absolutely destroyed. No not physically, Leo doesn't fight.

But word gets around quickly, especially on the social medias but Leo waits for MC to come to him. In the meantime, he finds as much dirt as possible on whoever the hell was there.

He's looking at security cams, wickchat posts, tiktoks, etc. It takes him at MOST half an hour to find who fucked up. And another half hour to find out some pretty juicy dirt on whoever it is.

He used an alt account to leak said juicy dirt by the time MC came to him. When they do, he lets MC cuddle up to him and doomscroll tiktok with him, filtering out anything about what happened and focusing on animal and funny tiktoks.

JIN KAMURAI

This is another who would wait for MC to come to him. But if they take too long he's sending either a text or Tohma to go bring them to him

He actually sends Tohma to get details on what happened as soon as he can. Tohma being Tohma, gets all the details that Jin needs.

Jin looks for things he can use to make that person's life a living hell. Assuming they're a student, he uses his connections to get them all the way down to probation.

And te thing about Jin is, his lasts. He makes an example of this person for MONTHS or at least as long as he can get away with it.

As for what he does with MC when they're crying. I think he takes them to his room and puts down the tough guy act for once. He'll give them a little forehead kiss and talks all nice and quiet with reassuring words, but just this once. (That a bald faced lie, he's just too stubborn to admit he's soft for his partner)

#tokyo debunker #frostheim #jin kamurai #lucas errant #headcanons #luca #Vagastrom #alan mido #shohei haizono #sho #leo kurosagi

[pokelolmc]

One of my new favourite Hazbin Hotel fic AUs is this weird crossover niche of "Alastor is/was a character from another fandom, before he snapped and became who he is today" AUs, eg. "Harry Potter becomes Alastor", and one random "Tim Drake becomes Alastor" fic I found on AO3. Because I find it interesting to try and figure out how to meld the other character's backstory, powers or personality with his.

And that inevitably led my traitorous brain to the idea of "Danny Fenton becomes Alastor" (because now DP and DC are forever associated in my lizard brain, curse you Phandom!).

Which is just...the weirdest thing ever, because they're just so different—like, how the fuck do you set up Danny to become Alastor, of all people?! It feels like the most unfitting character to do this with...

And that's exactly what my brain has decided to see it as a challenge.

Added caveat: this is an AU!Danny specifically from a generic angsty dissection fic scenario, where he's been traumatised by his parents and fucked over by the world (and he has no healthy way to cope)—then he's sent back in time, lost and completely alone

-Danny falls through a natural portal to 1900's Louisiana with no way back (something something, Clockwork's-out-of-the-picture, something something)

-Alastor being a mama's boy? Danny gets taken in by a loving mother figure after getting lost in time—a kind woman familiar with the supernatural who accepts his ghost half right off the bat. He sees her as his family. After a year or so, though, she dies. He spirals again. He dyes his hair brown and starts wearing glasses when he runs away to New Orleans to change himself and cover his tracks.

-Alastor feels like an interesting name for Danny to choose because it means "the avenger", and can also mean "defender of the people" (a meaning more apparent in the Scottish version "Alasdair/Alastair"), but could also have a negative connotation of "persecutor"; the character symbolism writes itself

-the normally tech-savvy Danny who finds old-timey stuff boring would be forced to find something to entertain himself in the 1900's. So he gravitates towards radio, with it being the closest thing he's got to modern tech. Give him several years or so to grow attached to it and enjoy the idea of working in it. He goes from fantasising of radio comms at NASA to a public radio host, playing with all the fancy knobs and dials.

-his ghost half is the reason Alastor's powers/magic in Hell is green

(also I heard someone say the typical human!Alastor design has the "Timmy Turner hairstyle", which I can't unsee now. And it's Danny's hairstyle too. Because we know how well Butch Hartman and originality mix. Male protagonist? There's only one hairstyle for that!)

-he becomes a serial killer because he's snapped over the years after all the shit that's happened to him; he's developed a bitter, cynical and self-aggrandised ego and thirst for justice and revenge, and he's all alone with no one to keep him out of the dark echo chamber leading to villainy

-a serial killer with ghost powers plays cat-and-mouse with cops, and never leaves a trace; before he starts killing, he's already made deals with and intimidated the ghosts that come to New Orleans through other natural portals (it's a portal hotspot) under a new ghostly persona. He has both sides of the city fearing or respecting his power. Every ghost who goes to New Orleans knows whose territory it is. They just never link the ghost and human together. He becomes like an even worse Plasmius. It sets him up for Overlord stuff in Hell from the getgo

-the cannibalism was a...happy accident. On a whim, he decided one guy's crime was too insufferable to die without torment, so he took the guy back and...tortured him the way his ol' folks knew best. He starts cutting people open as if trying to relive what his parents did to him, but from the other end—as the person with all the power. Taste-testing what he cut up came incidentally, but he decided he didn't mind it and made it a routine.

I can imagine a villain!Danny with more narcissistic tendencies, but my main trouble is where the overblown confidence and charming/manipulative skills come from. After all, Danny's pretty socially awkward. How exactly does he grow into that?

#danny phantom #danny fenton #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel alastor #crossover au #cw: murder and cannibalism #but I mean it's Alastor what did you expect?

[normal-newt]

Wildlife rescue organisations here have very intense politics. Like, if you criticize any organisations’ practices you can end up being “locked out” of even unpaid positions in all of them. Which is why this is going safely under a username and not anywhere near my actual one. But it’s so frustrating watching everyone making the same mistakes over and over again.

So some baby animal can’t be released, and it’s decided that they will be used as an education/ ambassador animal. Because of this, they don’t need to be raised to avoid humans. But some people think that this means they should be treated like human children. One organisation literally started splitting up captive-born joeys from wild but un-release-able kangaroos specifically to raise so that when they grew up they would “think they were human”. And for the first year or two it goes great. They want to snuggle with everyone who will look at them, they play with people, and they are just unbearably cute. And people aww about it and say that they really do think they’re human. 

When they start to reach sexual maturity, they start “acting up”. People get kicked and scratched and they start to realise that their “child” isn’t acting so snuggly anymore, and they get angry. And the kangaroos have no fucking idea why, because they can’t know that they’re play wrestling is strong enough to hurt us. Because it turns out they don’t think they’re human, but they certainly seem to think we’re kangaroos.

And by the time they’re old enough to start fighting for real, it’s already too late to do anything about it. You can’t let visitors anywhere near them for safety reasons. 90% of the staff and volunteers won’t go in to clean the enclosures, and a lot of them still blame the animals. Some animals are so risky to work with that feeding them takes two people in the enclosure and one person acting as a “spotter”. There is no PPE for this, so people end up using plastic buckets as shields.

Anyway I’m mostly just yelling at the void, but if anyone reading this was wondering why a lot of zoos and wildlife rescues don’t cuddle the baby animals. it’s because of this sort of thing. There are a lot of really good ways to make sure baby animals feel comfortable and safe, but handling them too much usually either scares them, or means that they could seriously injure someone down the track.

It’s also why so many people who’ve worked with animals are so strongly against people owning certain types of exotic pets. If someone is telling you not to get a pet serval or kangaroo or whatever else people are keeping in their living rooms, there’s a good chance they’re trying to stop you getting mauled.

#What does being kicked by a kangaroo feel like? #Slightly less enjoyable than being hit by a cyclist #just to be clear the kangaroos aren't bad #they're just trying to play half the time #but they're so strong that even playing can become dangerous #animal welfare #animal cruelty #exotic pets #wildlife rehab

[jils-things]

i went wandering off in my pokespe gallery and had to relieve how wonderful this scene played out. no kidding

please dont read the tags i got emotional there /lh

#the.plot felt a bit confusing to me admittedly but oras did so well in trying to make franticshipping incredibly satisfactory since #at the end of rs we couldn't really tell if they settled with each others feelings yet (APPARENTLY NOT BECAUSE THEY'RE PRIDEFUL AND DUMB/JJ) #but at least sapphire still had some thoughts about it but i was kinda mad WHY DIDNT RUBY GIVE HIS HALF OF THE FEELINGS PROPERLY!!! #WELL THIS HAPPENED WHERE HE OPENLY CONFESSES ABOUT HOW MUCH HE CARES ABOUT HER AND THE WHOLE WORLD CELEBRATED #in r/s they were constantly separated from each other by WILL BECAUSE they despise each other so much #in oras - after confessing - it literally ACHES for ruby to not see her like take a fucking shot everytime he says wheres sapphire???? #THEY WERE ALWAYS AWAY FROL EACH OTHER HERE AND HE FEELS SO GUILTY FOR EVERY TIME SAPPHIRE GETS HARMED #FOR EXAMPLE; FIGHTING WITH ZINNIA AND FALLING OFF THE ROCKET - LOSING HER VOICE - RUBY HOLDING THE SECRET FROM SAPPHIRE BY PROMISING STEVEN #LITERALLY EVERUTHING SHE DOES MAKES HIM FEEL ALL THE MORE GUILTY AND HE CANT EVEN TELL HER STRAIGHT HES SORRY BECAUSE THEY'RE LITERALLY #FUCKING AWAY FROM EACH OTHRHADHDHRHSBRBDBSHSHSHE #AND WHEN THEY FINALLU MEET UP VIA TROPIUS AND RAYQUAZA SHE TELLS HIM TO SHUT UP AND HOLD HIS EMOTIONS FOR NOW. THAT'S HOW DESPERATE HE WAS #TO SEE EHR AGAIN AHAHAHAHTDTHHGG IM SO INSANEEE #AND AT THIS MOMENT HE ALMOST EMOTIONALLY CONFESSES WITH TEARS HE DOESNT WANT TO LEAVE HER AGAIN BECAUSE WORST COMES TO WORST HE'LL NEVER SEE #HER IF HE TRIES TO SAVE THE WORLD BY HIMSELF FROM THE METEORRRRRR AKAAJAHAAJ #AND THATS WHY HE INVITES HER TO SAVE THE WORLD TOGETHER AS CORNY AS IT SOUNDS BUT ITS BECAUSE IF HE'LL DIE HE WANTS TO DIE WITH HER AAAHSGDV #AND SAPPHIRE'S REACTION WAS FAINTING WHICH TBH WAS A COMEDIC MOMENT FOR SUCH AN IMPACTFUL DIALOG FROM HIM BUT AJDHSJHDS MAKES ME HAPPY #y'all don't even get me started how this plays out when stevaide is in here DON'T EVEN #~ rambling #i just woke up and i chose violence (franticshipping) #pokespe hours

[oceandiagonale]

you know what I’ll post these doodles here too about the secret isekai romance fantasy au that lives in my head that I can’t draw but I think about a lot

#oceandi speaks #the secretary's third life #technically this is still gene I guess but it's not actually him #just like gahhhhh I want him to be a little guy who has a few good friends in town and runs his bookstore so well and tries to stay out of #trouble and he's friends with the knights but one day he's discovered to be the long-lost prince of the kingdom and is whisked away to #parties and balls and nobles trying to use him as a puppet to gain favor with the current monarchy #but the current king's family is on to the fact that his half-sister and the knights are planning to overthrow them #they're the true heirs to the kingdom but they want to dismantle the system so the current king summons monsters and destroys a bunch of #places like gene's little shop and that's all the setup to the original story done #but the great magician turns back time and gene has a chance to prove himself as the prince earlier to give the rebels the upper hand #in the meantime all the normal tropes are also playing out like truck-kun (mandatory) and marriage letters and spies and fairs and stuff #tag rambling #listen listen I read romance isekais when I'm really stressed about the world (so - daily) but I want them to be queer :( #not just 'oh I'm disguised as a man' and not just 'the main character thinks people are gay but she's wrong and that's why it's funny' :(

[antirepurp]

new headcanon unlocked: while blaze can use the sol emeralds to freely travel between the sol and chaos dimensions, sonic and gang haven't figure out how to use the chaos emeralds to do the same thing, and the only time it happened in rush adventure neither of them had the time to get to the bottom of the specifics

#soda offers you a can #lore drabbles #i'd imagine that it's a similar case to pokemon ruby and sapphire being the same game #but if you replace the last half of one game's rom with the other and try to play it you corrupt a bunch of shit #ergo the emeralds have the same powers but they're structured in different ways #and while you can use them to perform generally the same tasks (sonic/blaze can go super with either set imo) #doing something more specific with them like time travel or dimension hopping is more intricate and easy to fuck up #something something you gotta find the right frequencies and there's just so many of them #that it's way easier for blaze to visit the gang than the other way around lmao

[youssefguedira]

Yusuf is there when Nicolò enters the old temple, not a vision of him, no portal behind him that will take him somewhere Nicolò cannot follow yet again before he has the chance to reach him, just Yusuf. He's alone, his head tilted upwards and eyes closed, illuminated by the shafts of sunlight that fall through the cracked ceiling. The sight of him - here and safe and whole, finally, after everything Nicolo's fought through to reach him - takes his breath away.

"Nico," Yusuf says, and opens his eyes to look at him. He smiles, and he's still Nicolò’s Yusuf, even after everything that's happened.

Nicolò can't wait another second, then, sheaths his sword at his back and walks up the stone steps towards him. Yusuf's smile widens, and then he's stepping into Nicolò's already open arms, laughing. "I missed you."

"Missed you too," Nicolò says. He kisses Yusuf's temple, holds him close. "So much, Yusuf, you have no idea-"

Yusuf leans back, cupping Nicolò's face in one hand. "I know. It's okay. I'm here."

But Nicolò knows him well enough to know something's wrong. "What is it?"

"It's not over, yet." Yusuf steps out of Nicolò's arms and back a few steps, leaving him cold. "There's so much more you don't know yet, but we're running out of time. He will return, soon, and we're not ready."

"Tell me what I need to do," Nicolò says immediately. He can't bear the idea of Yusuf disappearing again, not now when he's finally here, when every other time Nicolò has tried to reach him he's been a second too late. "Anything, and I'll do it, whatever it is. Just tell me what you need."

Yusuf smiles again, sad. "It's not you, Nico. We need more time. And I can buy it, but-" He cuts himself off.

"Then I'll help you."

Yusuf shakes his head. "You don't understand. For this to work, I need to reform the seal, and I can only do that by" - there are tears in his eyes, now, and dread running down Nicolò's spine - "by sealing myself away along with it."

Nicolò realises just a moment too late what that means. "Yusuf-"

"If I seal myself here, in the past," Yusuf continues, "when you return to our time, it will be just strong enough to hold. You will have the time you need to finish this. And once all this is over, the seal can be broken in our time."

"I can't," Nicolò says. "There has to be another way. This can't be it."

"It's the only choice we have," Yusuf says. "I cannot - this was always my path, Nicolò."

She's manipulating you, Andromache had said, the goddess. She's using Yusuf to make you do what she wants, can't you see? If Nicolò hadn't understood then, he does now - neither of them ever had a choice in this. Yusuf was chosen because Nicolò would follow him anywhere, and Nicolò was chosen for the same reason.

Nicolò realises something else then. "If you seal yourself here, you'll be trapped for thousands of years."

"I'll be asleep," Yusuf says, soft. "It'll be like the blink of an eye. So when this is all over, you'll have to come wake me up." He smiles, then, even through his tears. "Just like old times, no?"

And before Nicolò can say anything else, the air around him begins to glow gold, condensing around Yusuf, who tilts his head back and closes his eyes, and Nicolò cannot move, frozen in place by something beyond his control. All he can do is watch as the light gathers around Yusuf, blindingly bright, until Nicolò cannot see him anymore. Whatever's holding him releases, and he runs towards Yusuf even though the light hurts his eyes, and just as he reaches out the light fades.

Before him is what looks like a crystal, tinged orange, clear enough that he can see Yusuf inside, his eyes closed. He looks like he's just sleeping, like this is one of the mornings Nicolò had had to wake him but had paused for a moment just to watch him.

Nicolò lifts his hand to the crystal. It's freezing cold when he touches it. Yet again, he's too late.

"I'll come back for you," he tells Yusuf, even though he knows Yusuf can't hear him. "I swear it. I'll finish this, and I'll come back for you." His voice is trembling, but he can't let himself break down now, not when there's still work to be done. The faster he finishes his task, the sooner he can wake Yusuf.

(Nile is the first to ask when he returns through the gate, waiting for him with Andy, Quynh and Sebastien nearby. "Where's Yusuf?" she asks, looking behind him - the plan had always been that Nicolò would bring Yusuf back with him, after all.

Nicolò can't bring himself to say it out loud.)

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

It feels like an age before Nicolò returns to the temple, now in the present. It's over, finally - the five of them have sealed the demon king away for good. The others are outside.

The crystal is overgrown with vines, now, just like their old favourite meeting place on the island where all of this had started. Its surface is scratched and clouded with age, but Nicolò can still make out Yusuf inside it, looking exactly as he had when Nicolò left him in the past. He hates to think of the crystal here, alone, for so much time.

There's a glowing mark on the crystal's surface that hadn't been there before. Nicolò approaches it carefully and places his hand over the mark.

Almost immediately, glowing cracks begin to grow from where his hand touches the crystal, spreading across the whole thing until it's glowing as brightly as it had when it was formed, but he can't look away. When the light dies down, Yusuf hovers in the air for just a moment before whatever spell had held him there finally breaks, and he collapses, but Nicolò is there to catch him, sinking to his knees and cradling him close. He doesn't move for a moment, and Nicolò is terrified, because what if something had gone wrong-

Yusuf gasps awake, his eyes fluttering open. He looks around frantically before catching sight of Nicolò above him, who nearly sobs with relief, holding him impossibly closer.

"Nicolò?" Yusuf whispers, his voice hoarse. Nicolò nods, unable to speak just yet, blinking back his tears and brushing Yusuf's curls away from where they've fallen into his eyes.

Then Yusuf asks, "Did I oversleep?" and Nicolò has to laugh even though it comes out sounding more like a sob, kisses his forehead and smiles. "It's over, then?"

"It's over," Nicolò confirms, and then, "I love you."

Yusuf sits up and wraps his arms around Nicolò's neck, buries his face in Nicolò's shoulder and holds on tightly. "I love you too."

(When they return, Nile is the first to them, hugs Yusuf so tightly he laughs, and then it's Sebastien's turn, then Andromache and Quynh both.

They choose to stay on the surface, all six of them. And neither Yusuf or Nicolò are the same people anymore - sometimes Nicolò wakes screaming, sometimes Yusuf gets a distant look in his eyes and it takes a worryingly long time for him to come back to himself. Sometimes there are things Yusuf still can't tell Nicolò, and vice versa.

They make it work, though. They find a quiet place in the woods, far away from the temple and any danger, and they're safe, and happy, and together.

It's all Nicolò's ever wanted, really.)

#neon writes #posting this separately in an attempt to unbury it a little #the old guard #kaysanova #ANYWAY guess whos playing skyward sword. thats right folks this is ANOTHER different zelda au #ive condensed the entire thing into this because im not going to write much else for it #but. the plot: #nicolo and yusuf are childhood rivals-to-friends-to-lovers. at the time when Shit Goes Down they're coming up to the point where they have #to pass a specific test to become soldiers/knights/whatever. the wing ceremony if youre a zelda fan but theyre both participating. anyway #they both win (andromache and quynh are two years ahead of them nile and booker are the year below but they're all like. adults. not 17) #anyway they win and go on some kind of flight around the clouds because the kicker is that this takes place on a sky island and they get #around by riding giant birds i love ss. anyway while they're flying around (victory lap or something) yusuf mentions weird dreams he's been #having. then a giant tornado appears things happen yusuf falls below the cloud barrier separating the land from the sky nicolo is thrown #from his bird. wakes up explains this to andy who is like Well Shit. cue epic quest to find yusuf who has some destiny shit to do #gods and all that. its not important #but theyre trying to defeat an evil demon king before he comes back. merrick with horns can be the visual for that. nicolo spends half of #his time chasing after yusuf who always has to leave before they can talk. maybe quynh isnt with them on sky island and is the one guiding #yusuf instead i dont know anyway eventually nicolo has to do some hero stuff and all that. and this happens when theyre running out of time #as a kind of last resort. but then nicolo nile booker andy quynh defeat The Evil and rescue yusuf and its all good #the plot of this isnt very well thought out. i just thought about that scene with zelda and then about them and had to make this about it #enjoy #the reference to yusuf oversleeping is bc there's a bit in skyward sword abt link always sleeping in and then having to wake zelda and it #causes me 10 psychic damage so i had to adapt it here. that line is the whole reason this fic exists

[coveredinsweetpea]

I am this 🤏 close to giving up medicine and my dream to practice neurology, just so I can go into IT, get a remote job and move somewhere in the mountains where a 4 bedroom house with a big ass yard costs just about as much as a one bedroom apartment in the city I currently live in. Fuck it. Give me 5 dogs, clean air and no fucking traffic. No neighbours?? Fuck it, I want it NOW 😠

#god i fucking hate big cities #everything's expensive #the traffic sucks like you can't get anywhere #the medical system is fucked and corrupt literally nepotism at its finest #none of my friends that finished their residency have found a job bc guess what someone's son is 3rd year in medschool and they're saving #the spot for him #the air isn't breathable 5 months a year #i live in the capital and half the time there's no hot water or heating #my parents can't stand each other #my roommate is intrusive and abusive and if i try to defend myself she plays the anxiety card #my best friend moved to a different country #god #fuck #i don't think I've ever felt this bad #i just wanna leave #like i dont have anyone to talk to no one to count on bc everyone has their own problems #and i literally just can't take it anymore #I WANNA LEAVE #i sacrificed 6 years of my life for that medical degree but I'd throw it out the window if i knew i could make it somehow without it #im sorry #i just have no one to talk to #just ignore me #if you read this far and you're one of the anons that sent in a request pls know im not ignoring you #im just 🥴🥴 not ok rn

[unproduciblesmackdown]

billions(tm): it's incredible how we just provide a little snippet of material designed to be "guy we all want to push down the stairs immediately somehow" and through this amazing acting alchemy it becomes gold. electric. magnificent. we can't get enough so we will just keep writing this loser character and the actor will somehow keep bringing the dazzling transmutation through his ability

actor will roland: [is aware autistic people are real]

#this is at least half humorous in several ways lmao but also like fr... #winston billions #will roland has pretty much said he is aware that autistic people real. and not [ppl's utterly off the walls assumptions abt what Defines #Autism or what an Autistic Person is like and how you would Know] #i don't think that Billions(tm) would be very much better at that than re: say; taylor's being nonbinary (surprisingly alright yet. u kno) #quant kid 2 could've been anyone but writing Winston is like so certainly the common deal of the inadvertently autistic character #drawing from all the autistic people allistic ppl encounter all thee time without being aware & deciding they're annoying / jerks / too #weird to live too pathetic to die / grating nerds / Funnily Odd in a way you deign to merely raise an eyebrow or scrunch your face at.... #so on so forth. ''oh you know Those People we all know who are just Like That'' #and deciding they must be ''just like that'' b/c they're either too arrogantly rude &/or clueless / Unaware to be neurotypically superior #also do not get me wrong lmao big old proponent of Did You Know That? Actors Act. Now You Know #so of course yes will's acting is off the shits i mean here i am am i right. and he is using it when he is acting. #the acting talent Is off the shits. the tiniest moments they give him & he CRUSHES KILLS it really is amazing i'm not waving it off at all #cue twitter randos so betrayed when kelly aucoin is not dollar bill & is like ''yes in my acting job i'm playing this fuckin asshole'' #meanwhile i'm still following the interviewer who a) asked will anything abt billions b) talked abt the immediate striking intro of will's #as quant kid 2 And the immediate draw of / effervescent dynamic between winston & taylor. Someone Who Gets It #anyway it's like will can fathom that actually the people who are Always ''acting wrong'' w/their bad grating vibes no matter what they do #are not always Those People(tm) who We all know & loathe right....thee magic of knowing winston can be someone fully earnest #and of course always actually trying; & having perfectly comprehensible wants & needs. damn how's he doing that #bringing a certain je ne sais quoi to this Insufferable Loser Nerd material! so we don't mess with the process. #i.e. we will only ever let his role get dunked on forever b/c sure can't fathom anything else anyways. our Correct characters could never.. #only tuk; adjacent in wrong nerd loserdom; can be his friend. rian who is correct but zany with it can be his abusive friend

[gamingofkenna]

Oxenfree 2 spoilers, re the 'final choice'

I played the whole game in a solid 7 hour chunk yesterday and I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it, and I'll have to do another playthrough when I can, because there's so much of the way the characters are that seems based on your choices so I wanna see what happens when I make other choices

but I'm seeing that a lot of people let Olivia go through the portal at the end, and that everyone who didn't is saying those who did are monsters for letting this grief-stricken teenager kill herself

and. i don't think there is a 'right' choice at the end there in most circumstances. but i did let Olivia take the radio, because as awful as it felt I just kept thinking that I couldn't do that to Rex

especially since we just had a ghost moment of Rex telling Riley she has to keep fighting, even though she's going to keep failing? to follow that up with 'or you can just kill yourself now to save these kids'? like it is a horrible thing to do to Olivia but it's a horrible thing to do to Rex too?

honestly, based on my playthrough, the 'right' thing seems to be Jacob going through the portal. few players forced him to because apparently the only way for him to do it is if you force him - I didn't even let him come on the island with me. I saw the prompt that I could stop him and immediately knew that if I didn't he would die. Riley kept seeing visions of her future but Jacob never did. Jacob kept talking to me about how he feels he never did anything important in life, how he likes just chilling in his hometown, how he doesn't have any grand ambition but also wants to do something important and meaningful

when that prompt popped up I thought 'if I go to that island I'm getting sucked into this loop too and I'm not coming back; Jacob doesn't deserve that' and I made him stay. I'm curious now if there's a specific dialogue tree that leads to Jacob deciding, at the end, that him going through that portal and saving everyone by doing what he's always been doing is his way of being a hero. but that wasn't the option i'd been given. instead I had two suicidal people, who both had their whole lives in front of them

#oxenfree #oxenfree lost signals #ultimately i think where I'm at now is... the ending kind of felt. forced? in a way that didn't feel entirely believable? #like oh we can just save everyone now except for whoever goes through the portal to sacrifice themself? #how does that make sense honestly? isn't that basically what alex was trying to do in game 1? #like they were just trying to find some way for there to be an impossible decision for the player at the end #even though the how and why of that impossible decision didn't strictly line up #but i only found like half of the letters and im sure theres a ton more lore stuff to uncover #the weird cult stuff also didn't make any sense to me during play?? #i was LAUGHING when we went into the community center and jake was like 'wait this is just... boring astrology stuff??' #like YEAH BUD! thats what ive been saying this whole game!! #every time you or anyone else has been like ooh creepy cult stuff this whole time ive been 'like WHAT' #theres NOTHING to this 'cult' they're KIDS playing with an aesthetic! thats literally it my guy!! #like im still not sure if we were supposed to ever be creeped out by the kids at any point during the game #or if the POINT was 'oh they sound weird but they're just stupid kids' #it does seem very much that thats the theme of the game tho lol #'this sounds big and important and scary but its just idiot kids who dont know what theyre doing puffing their chests'

[neuroticboyfriend]

im never going to get quality healthcare am i

#im just going to keep decaying and get shucked around from specialist to specialist #and they all do the same fucking thing. next to nothing. #they blame it on my anxiety or my weight #they dont give me the time of fucking day. ive had appointments that didnt even last THREE MINTUES #they'll run a test or two and very rarely do a procedure #and when that yields jack shit they dump me saying there's nothing they can do #and they apologize and say they're so sorry and they wish they could do more #I DONT WANT YOUR APOLOGIES I WANT YOU TO FUCKING TREAT ME INSTEAD OF HALF ASSING THIS SHIT #YOU WENT TO MEDICAL SCHOOL FOR HOW LONG?? YOU CANT THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE TO DO? BUT IM THE BAD GUY FOR PLAYING DR GOOGLE? #i've SPENT HOURS TRYING TO FIGUREOUT WHATS WRONG WITH ME #YOU HAVENT EVEN SPENT ONE #FUCK YOU holy SHIT #youre just going to leave me to suffer and die. cant wait to live a totally unfulfilling life. never get the chance to live. #i know the life i want and i cant fucking have it. it's nigh impossible #i just want to be happy. but how can i be happy when almost no one takes care of me #julian rants #vent

[aliennooboo]

Saturday morning breakfast in our home:

Me: *infodumping about the making of The Lord of the Rings films*

Bf: *infodumping about the crash bars of motorcycles*

Good morning everyone 😂

#nonsims #nuka.txt #this is what you get when you put autism and adhd in the same household #honestly breakfast is the most chaotic part of the day here 😂 #when we have guests over they're like WTF IS GOING ON when it's breakfast time #there's lots of tea and infodumping and playing with cats and everyone trying to make breakfast but getting distracted #we got up at 8 am and now it's 2 and a half hours later and we only just finished eating our toast #EATING TOAST DOES NOT TAKE THIS LONG SO WTF HAVE WE BEEN DOING 😂

[welcometogrouchland]

I'm on hiatus from thinking for the next while. Discursive and analytical fandom practices I love you so so much you are in everything I do, including the silliest of headcanons and comics but FUCK I am not equipped to think about. Anything right now

#ramblings of a lunatic #tbh my art muscles are exhausted too so i think I'm just gonna. be a bottom feeder for a little while. #like a deep sea creature letting plankton drift into it's mouth on the ocean floor yknow #hard to do when half your dash is about stuff u are not a part of and the other half is abt the fandom that's in hiatus #and approaching it's finale (and the end of a show should NOT be the end of a fandom it should NOT but. i know how these things play out) #and i can't just rewatch the episodes bc I've literally seen them too many times now #and watching them is like. oh hey episode! blink. it's over #bc everything is MEMORIZED AT THIS POINT #the obvious answer would be to go watch something else rn but i keep TRYING AND IT'S NOT WORKING. I ONLY WANT THE SPRINTEREST RN #but i also don't if that makes sense. i want the spinterest to be new but also comforting and different but also the same #aka i want a new episode to release bc i dislike the quiet fandom during hiatus BUT i don't want it to air bc then the show is over #so I'm just kinda. sitting here. frustrated #sitting on all my art and text posts bc I'm in a funk rn and none of them feel Right™ #bc (CIRCLING BACK AROUND TO THE ACTUAL BODY OF THIS POST) they're all my usual hc/analytical fair #but i like to always have a good sense of character when i make those but those require REWATCHES FOR ME and i CAN'T REWATCH #BC OF ALL THE ABOVE THINGS I MENTIONED #oh man. i feel a bit better writing it down though. getting it out there somewhere in a semi-articulate way #I'm not done with my current hyperfixation- far from it depending on how the show ends- I'm just pre-bummed about the finale #and how it's gonna impact the fan environment that normally supplements my own fan activities like rewatches fanart etc #ohhhh my god that felt good to explain #it's to no one in particular but it felt good. this talking about your feelings shit actually works man #anyway please pray for me that i go to sleep some time tonight bc i slept for 5 hours in the middle of the day #after staying up the previous night #and i do not wanna throw my sleep schedule too far outta wack #(i think..i need to watch more movies? less commitment than series but distract me for a good bit. send reqs ig!)