#where it fucking hates something after its been repeated too many times

[liquid-geodes]

Hi tumblr why is my dash header upside down against my will just to promote a TV show I have blocked

#even when i have things blacklisted i STILL cant avoid them #thanks staff for forcing s*ranger t*ings directly into my face all the time i hate you #i hate you so much please put it back #i dont have anything against that show because ive never seen it #however the amount of times ive literally been forced to look at it against my will has made my brain do the thing #where it fucking hates something after its been repeated too many times #and if i have to keep looking at this show im literally going to kill a man #its the mental illness for sure doing this but that being said maybe this shouldnt happen #i think maybe i should get to choose what fandoms are being blasted into my eyeballs at any given time #and the fact that i CANT because staff is doing this on purpose acrod the entire website is... not great #i should be allowed to make every single tumblr user look at MY very specific piece of media that not everyone likes too #yknow. since we're just fucking doing that now #god why do so many things trigger these responses in my brain i hate living like this #remember when this happened to me with zelda? even my own favorite things arent immune #anyway this has turned into a tangent but whatever its 4am and this is my blog #get your media away from me i dont want it #also incredibly inconvenient trying to read things when theyre upside down #accessibility loss. the person who already struggles to read words in order has to read upside down text now :( #this website is killing me and the only reason im still here is because of my mutuals fuck literally everything else about tumblr #i hate it here... god do i hate it here

[brainworms-all-night-long]

You know around the end of season 2 I just let my head run with situations about Sonic, despite knowing Nine is his enemy now, still not letting him come to any harm at the hands of anyone from the shatterverse, and I thought I was stretching it too far, that there was noooo way the show would do something like that.

But lo and behold exactly that happened and I've been losing it since whenever thinking abt it!!

Just, the last episode in particular.

Back where it all began Sonic and Nine, fighting in the workshop, Sonic on the defensive, Nine on the offensive. But this time he was way less composed, attacks wild and running on pure instinct and blind rage. He's fed up with Sonic to the point he doesn't even bother with acknowledging the other noticed the palm trees, he doesn't realize that sonic finaly undertsnds. It's simply too late for that, Nine doesn't care anymore, he just wants him to fucking shut up, to stop spouting lies, to stop trying to trick him into compliance. Because that's all Sonic's been doing up until this point really(from Nine's pov anyway), trick and betray him, beat him, and then feign softness just to repeat the cycle again, sowly chipping at his sanity. And there's only so much of that a literal child can take. (Yea I just get fucking run over by a truck when this realization hits. That's a god damn KID going mad with the powers of gods)

Then their fight gets rudely interuppted by a wall exploding and in comes everyone ever, lead by Shadow resident vibchecker of twin tailed foxes the hedgehog.

They want to hurt him, oh boy its written all over their faces, and Nine definitely finds that scene painfully familiar.

Hes has been caught off guard, cornered and outnumbered, exhausted from the constant usage of the prism and also from the emotional strain Sonic kept putting him through.

Than he's made aware of how much damage he's actually caused during his rampage and all fight immiditely leaves him, because there's nothing left to fight for. He destroyed it all, he lost.

Nine's alone, defensless, with no way to escape and at the mercy of people who hate him. Something he lived through way too many times, not even that many years ago.

Except unlike all those times in the past, Sonic was there to defend and protect him. He brought Nine back down to earth and gave him one last chance, even after no one else would.

Despite everything Nine did, despite how angry and desperate Sonic got, he always held out hope for Nine, always stepped in when someone pushed the fight on the fox way too much(looking at you Renegade). Because he was the only other person that knew and cared about what Nine went through, because he finnaly understood the core motivation behind Nine's actions, and because he wanted to set things right between them once and for all.

Looking like Tails or not, cosmic truth or not, that's a child that needed to be shown love above all else, that much Sonic knew and held by.

#sonic prime #Every scene where Nine and Sonic talk is just sooo much to pick apart there!! #Ahaha I'm finally composed enough to analyze the scenes!!! #And late also #Everyone's already analyzed everything most likely x) #i rewatched the last episode way too many times #just #this scrubs my brain in such a right way #anywaY NORMAL ABOUT THEM #miles nine prower #nine the fox #sonic the hedgehog #prime sonic #sonic and nine #sonic prime spoilers #sonic prime season 3

[superblysubpar]

Leather & Lace: Ch. 01

Leather and Lace Masterlist

A/N: I’m so happy you’re here. I’ve been holding this close to my heart & finally decided it was time to share it. Please see the masterlist for overall series warning, but this chapter is slow and simple - a touch angsty. Let me know what you think! And to my lovely ladies (you know who you are), I’m not sure what I did to deserve you all, but I’m so grateful for you. Thanks for making me laugh harder than I have in a long time & for talking me into sharing this (& more). Special thanks to @boomhauer for taking on the role of putting up with my excessive use of the word and, bad grammar, and tendency to over italicize - I owe you big time friend.

2.4k words

Side A | Track 01: “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman

There’s a reason there are so many songs about young love, lost innocence, fleeting moments, and growing up.

A reason those songs usually involved leaving someone behind or being the one who was left. 

Several reasons that hundreds of people are able to connect to a lyric about watching that person or that town disappear in your rearview mirror as you vowed to never look back again. 

The reasons, the songs, the people who relate to them, all center around one thing - small towns.

And small towns fucking suck.

The songs, the movies, the people - they want you to believe in small town America. They want you to think it’s peaceful, that it’s bliss. Not a single soul is unhappy - the town and all within it are thriving. You’re supposed to feel safe, enjoy knowing your neighbors, and learn how to bake pies to submit to county fairs like your mom did and her mom did. It’s all shoved down your throat from the minute you’re born in that ‘too big’ city hospital. Barely a day old and you’re already being told it’s better this way as you're shuffled back home to where you’re supposed to belong.

When you’re younger, you don’t understand it all yet. You like that everyone in your class knows each other and everyone gets invited to every birthday party. You like waving to your mailman at the grocery store and seeing your teacher at the movie theater. You love that all of the moms know each other and gossip, because that means when yours picks you up to go home after a sleepover you have at least another hour together while they all talk.

But as the years go by, it all starts to change. Suddenly, your class doesn’t like each other, you’re not all invited to the parties, people stop dressing up for Halloween because it’s not “cool” anymore. Your best friends start talking about boys, clothes aren’t just clothes - they’re a status, and liking certain music or movies makes you either a freak or a god. 

Someone snaps their fingers and it’s a bloodbath to rise up in social status. There’s a hierarchy, a food chain, and it’s every man for himself. You start to see that it was all an illusion. The moms who you swore were the best of friends are the first to let you in on the secret of the false happiness of the town and its people. 

Their long winded doorway and grocery store gossip filled conversations you once tuned out, now ring in your ears too loud. They fake smiles and pleasantries until one leaves the herd, the pack descending on them with nasty remarks and the first of many rumor fueled flames is lit. No longer the close friendships you once dreamed of having yourself, but relationships formed from gossip and jealousy and hate that their offspring seemed doomed to inherit.

Like a movie playing on the big screen, you watch it happen right before your eyes. Your once tight knit group of friends turning on each other for something as simple as eating a slice of pizza at lunch instead of a salad. They’re glossing lips and curling eyelashes, and talking about basketball player boyfriends. Plans for their futures suddenly centered around boys you’d grown up with, dreams of weddings, kids, and staying in that same town repeating it all over again with a new generation. 

They've got to be shitting you, right? 

You’re not an idiot though. You see how the people you once called friends are suddenly freaks - shunned by the kings and queens of the school. And you’re not proud of it, but you play along. You wear the outfits, the bright blue eyeshadow, you make fun of people who are slightly different from the status quo. 

High School is a balance beam, a high wire, a jump out of an airplane but you don’t all have the parachute or net to catch you. It’s all a bunch of bullshit, a massive and giant labyrinth of contradictions and riddles designed to make you sink or swim. Lean or turn the wrong way one time, and it’s game over.

You can’t answer too many questions in class and look like a nerd, but obviously you have to keep up your grades because you can’t be seen as a slacker or dropout - what would people think? You can’t like art or band or theater too much, you can be an athlete but they’d prefer it if you just cheered for them. Be a good girl, get good grades, and dote on whatever king of Hawkins belongs to the letterman jacket you currently have slung around your shoulders. 

And the school stuff isn’t even the worst part. The extracurriculars are where things started to get really complicated. Only the freaks, losers, and dropouts smoke weed and drink. Oh, but you’re not gonna have even a sip or one hit at the party? Who are you, Mother Theresea? You go to church, so you’re a saint, right? Only on her knees for Jesus? Boys will be lining up to see if they can make the angel dip into her sinful ways. Trapped on the receiving end of a double edged sword - a prude if you don’t do anything and a slut if you do. 

You walk the line for four years, sticking to the status quo and you coast. Never in the background and never in the spotlight, miraculously making it through what’s supposedly the best years of your life fairly unscathed. It’s not all rainbows and perfectly pressed pleated skirts though, and you need out. You pack up what little you can consider truly your own possessions two days after graduation, ready to head towards the city. You’re going to watch that shitty little town disappear in your rearview mirror and you’re not going to look back, not even for a second. 

Your “friends” think you've lost it. Your parents worry and remind you you can always come back. You hope your little brother is proud of you - he’s the only reason you do risk a glance in the rearview mirror. You see him standing in the driveway, waving a sad arm in the air, his misfit friends all standing by him. He'll be okay. He'll see how good you do outside of that town and maybe he'll be inspired and get out too. 

Chicago is dirty, loud, fast and wonderful. It’s nothing like you thought it’d be and everything you dreamed about. You’re poor and surviving off of Seven-Eleven slurpees, but you’re living.

People are different in the city. Unique and vibrant and filled with life. They’re not settling for normalcy. They’re pushing themselves and boundaries. Told to be different and stand out - speak up instead of being seen and not heard. 

School is completely different too. No one to tell you that you can’t like both an art class and a science class. A gift from the universe, you’re sure, when your assigned lab partner offers you a joint one day, where he casually offers up the information that his cousin is his dealer and his mom runs a local Sunday school - like that’s normal everywhere. And maybe it is, maybe the awful small town is ancient history. You embrace the new normal and you ask if his cousin can hook you up too and if the church has a choir you can join. 

The next four years are long, and not at all perfect, but they’re your years and no one else’s. You’re writing your own story and figuring things out for yourself. Your parents and brother call and visit frequently and you manage to avoid returning home as much as possible - visits only extending for no more than two days, and staying put inside your childhood home. The happenstance lab partner talk ends you up in a job teaching at a local church when you’re not in class. Falling in love with the kids, you pursue a career in teaching, dreaming of a future where you’re helping to shape the minds of the next generations. 

Graduation, your own apartment, a job teaching art to middle school - the dreams, the life you couldn’t have even imagined, unfolding before you like you’re living the best part of a movie. It all seems too good to be true.

And maybe it was. 

Maybe it was some sort of childhood naivety clinging to you. Hopes and dreams were just that - and somehow you had gotten caught up in yours. You should have realized that life is not always a happy ending. It is filled with an immeasurable amount of curve balls, running uphill both ways, grief, and unexpected life altering moments. It’s unpredictable and unfair and ready to blindside you at a moment’s notice. 

"Fuck!"

The loaf of bread you’ve been carrying falls into an icy puddle at the curb. You jump to grab it, but it's too late. A car rolls right over it, honking like it's your fault and you flip them off.

You know it’s stupid to cry over a loaf of bread, over a stranger honking at you, and besides, your tears will only freeze to your eyelashes. So you try to keep them at bay as you quickly walk the remaining block to your apartment, arms pulling your coat closer to ward off any harsh wind that manages to sneak through and chill your body.

You rip the pink past due notice from your door as you rush inside, dumping your bags on the floor and kick the excuse of a coffee table that's just a sheet over two cardboard boxes as you pass it. You don’t even bother turning on the lights because you know you couldn’t afford last month’s electricity bill, which means you certainly can’t afford this month’s. 

You knew you weren't going to make it much longer and the tears you had managed to hold in now wet your lashes as they threatened to finally fall.

The shrill ring of your phone pulls you out of your self pity and wallowing. You knew it was your little brother, calling you at this time every Sunday night. You had managed to keep it all to yourself for almost six months, not having it in you to tell them all, to tell him that you had failed. That you needed to return home. 

You knew it was time though and you picked it up on the last ring, "Hello?"

Your brother is screaming into the line and you start to panic, "What? What's going on?" Your mind starts racing back to a few years ago when all the crazy shit went down with the mall and the earthquake - your family luckily safe with you in Chicago for both events. Why they insisted on returning to that shitty town even after all of that was beyond you.  

"I got into NYU!"

You fall back against your wall, the tears falling down your still thawing cheeks. A mixture of grieving the loss of your own innocence and celebration of his still thriving one. You clutch the phone tighter and wish you could hug him through it, wrapping the cord around your fingers you choke out, “I’m so proud of you buddy. That’s amazing. Congrats.”

He's breathless and laughing, "Will you come home to celebrate? Longer than the two days you had planned for Christmas? Please?"

You cradle the phone between your ear and neck and grab a spoon to get your dinner of peanut butter started.

You look up at the ceiling and try not to cry harder. You can’t tell him, but you have to. You take a deep breath as his voice falls to that wobble that only little brothers know. The one they perfect before their first words so they can hit you right where it hurts and make you swear to yourself to never let the sound leave their mouth again if you can help it.

"Y/N? Please?" he asks quietly.

You sniffle and form some sort of courage to tell him you’re a failure, "How ‘bout I do you one better and I come home for the rest of your senior year?"

"What?" 

You rip it off like a bandaid that’s been left on too long, wincing through it as you blurt out, "I got laid off at the end of last year."

"But you're the art teacher! How can they just-"

You interrupt him before you start crying harder and he can go off on a rant, “Buddy, I know, listen, it’s a long story. I’ll tell you all about it over some pizza while we watch The Breakfast Club, okay?”

He’s silent for what feels like forever when he finally asks, “Can we get pineapple on the pizza?”

You laugh through the remaining tears and nod, leaning your forehead against the wall, “You bet. I’ll see you soon, okay?”

When you hang up, you look around your dark apartment. The place that once was your oasis, your dream, now an expensive responsibility and weight on your shoulders. You’d sold most of your furniture already, and so you start packing your few remaining belongings that same night. 

In the next two days you sell what you can, enough to barely make your final rent payment and you hand your landlord your key as the first snow of the year drifts down lazily around you. You turn and take one final polaroid of the city - wanting to remember it this way, before climbing into your rusting and falling apart car and closing your door on it all. 

As you make the drive out of the city, your eyes fill with tears in the rearview mirror. It was never supposed to be like this. This wasn’t the town that was supposed to disappear in the mirror. These weren’t the people you were supposed to be leaving. As the wheels of the car take you further and further away, you turn the volume of your mixtape up as loud as it can go, drowning out the thoughts of your failures, your disappointments, your crushed dreams. You wipe the tears from your cheeks as you sing along loudly.

“...I got no plans, I ain’t going nowhere. So take your fast car and keep on driving. So I remember when we were driving, driving in your car - speed so fast I felt like I was drunk. City lights lay out before us and your arm felt nice wrapped round my shoulders. And I, I had a feeling that I belonged. I-I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone…”

🖤 Thanks again for being here - any interaction is so appreciated & I’d love to know what you thought about it! If you’re able, please consider reblogging to help get my work seen.  tag list: @christalcake @loveshotzz @myobmaya @sweetsweetjellybean

#eddie munson #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x femreader #eddie munson fic #eddie munson series #strangerthings fanfic

[onyourowndaisymae]

obey me brothers as taylor swift fans pt. 1

what's their favorite album? their favorite songs? are they a vocal fan or is taylor a guilty pleasure of theirs?

characters included: Lucifer, Mammon, and Leviathan

i have. so many thoughts on this. i had to expel this from my brain before it drove me nuts. part 2 will include the younger brothers. i will probably make a part 3 with the dateables once i think on it a little longer. my credentials: i've been a swiftie since the debut/fearless era, so i know my shit. obey me swifties rise up

content warning: very brief discussions of death

Lucifer: The Evermore Fan

let it be known that this is not his fault.

lucifer really only listens to his beloved classical vinyl records. he's not one to keep up with musicians, especially not musicians from the human world.

he spent one afternoon retrieving asmodeus from a coffee shop in town. it was a quaint little establishment known for incorporating touches from both the human and celestial realms into its theming. the cozy, bookish sitting area wasn't exactly where he expected his flamboyant younger brother to be, but to each their own.

an unfamiliar song from the human world played over the speakers of the coffee house. a low, pleasant female voice drifted through the murmurs of the coffee shop. lucifer didn't stick around for very long-- he only a small snippet of the music that day. then why was he still thinking about it more than a week later?

he couldn't get that damn song. out. of. his. head.

he's tapping his pen against his desk to the rhythm. the snippet of the lyrics he caught is playing on repeat while he does the laundry. it's driving him absolutely fucking nuts.

through a few nonchalant questions and some digging in his free time, he finally got the name of the song and the artist (note: it was willow). with a bit more finagling, he finally got his hands on a vinyl for the deluxe version of evermore.

he finds an evening where all of his brothers are out of the house, pours himself a glass of demonus, and puts the vinyl on. at the very least, even if he hates it, he can at least purge the song from his head that'd been lingering for the past few weeks.

... it's a much better record than he expected.

something about the combination of the earthy instrumentals and the artist's heavenly alto really soothes the soul.

the evermore vinyl becomes one of his favorites-- one that he keeps stashed at the back of a cabinet, of course. he had no interest in hearing any questions his brothers might have if they happened to find it in his office.

the complexities of the melodies and the poetic lyrics speak to him. he has a particular fondness for marjorie-- a song about losing a loved one and carrying them with you as you continue on in life. i don't feel the need to spell out why he likes this one in particular.

evermore is an album lucifer never thought he'd find, nor did he believe he'd enjoy. but now it's become a good record to turn to when he's alone and has a free night to himself. he might not know much about the artist (she is a human world musician, after all, and he's much too busy to keep up with human culture), but he holds such fondness for this soothing autumn-y record.

favorite songs: champagne problems, marjorie, evermore (feat. bon iver)

Mammon: The Reputation Fan

mammon, like his brother asmo, prides himself on keeping in touch with all the latest trends that pass through the devildom. after the exchange program began, a renewed interest in human pop culture took roots in RAD.

very few pieces actually stuck, but mammon took it upon himself to get cozy with all that lame human stuff. he has a lame human back at home, y'know? what kind of friend would he be if he didn't at least know a little about what's popular up above? so he spends a free afternoon digging through the newspaper's recent post on devilgram about what humans supposedly like.

... taylor swift, huh? well, mammon isn't going to deny that she's hot. especially in that sparkly black leotard on stage... what, is that like, a tour or something? is she popular enough to tour? this is... the reputation tour. huh. seems interesting enough.

what started as interest through thirst quickly became interest in earnest as he watched some of the tour performances. he's like a crow, drawn in by flashy lights and sparkles. this little endeavor, originally meant to take no more than an hour or two, ate up the rest of his night.

suddenly it's 2am on a thursday night-- he's supposed to be asleep, yet here he is, deeply entrenched in the reputation lore. what a jerk that kanye guy is, interrupting her on stage like that! then to lie about her on social media with that fake phone call-- oohh! he's pissed! mammon ends up more mad about the taylor drama than taylor herself. it's been years. people have moved on (another day, another drama, drama). not him, though (all he thinks about is karma).

we all know that mammon, despite all appearances, is a massive simp. so it makes sense that he would really like an album full of love songs. reputation is an album about falling in love at your lowest, about someone finding you broken and loving you through it all. he's a sucker for that sort of messaging.

this obsession-- stanship, fan behavior, whatever you'd like to call it-- is, of course, private. he's a cool, slick casanova. unfortunately for taylor, she doesn't quite mesh with that image. no worries, though. their connection is strong, even if it is kept just between them. (she's his ruri-chan)

reputation holds a special place in his heart because it's the moment when taylor finally finds her one true love (which he found through his intensive research) and accepts being the fear and happiness that comes along with it-- what? no! he's not crying! there's just... dust in his eye! yeah! dust in his eye, and new year's day just happens to be playing, coincidentally, totally unrelated--

so his interest might have started out surface-level. he might have been drawn in by flashing lights and glitter (plus the appeal of understand the human's culture better than his brothers), but by the end of it all, mammon is a certified swiftie. not that he'd ever admit it, though.

favorite songs: don't blame me, king of my heart, call it what you want

Leviathan: The Fearless Fan

... hear me out. i'm well aware this is sort of an odd choice, but i stand by it.

leviathan doesn't really... date. like at all. he's very content fixating on his 2D waifus and distancing himself from normie stuff. and that's all fine and good. but those times when he lifts his head up from his game to see his brothers getting close with others, while he locks himself in his room and shuts everyone out? it stings a little.

you remember that old rudolph movie, the one with the little blonde elf dentist? specifically, his line "you can't fire me, i quit!" in one of the songs? i promise i have a point here

i feel like levi has that sort of complex about love. i think there's a hopeless romantic somewhere deep in there, buried under all the layers of deflection he uses to keep everyone out.

all of this to say: he loves old taylor swift music.

taylor's early works revolve around the highs and lows of young love, woven together in fantastical stories that cast a rose-colored light. levi lives vicariously through this music.

it actually fits him well because he can experience the complex emotions of love packed into a three minute song, all from the comfort of his room and without fear of rejection!

that being said: if anyone were to catch him jamming out to taylor swift in his bedroom, he'd end it all right then and there.

he's very careful to hide this interest from his brothers. anime? video games? sure, they can understand that. but girly, lovey-dovey taylor swift? they'd never let him hear the end of it!

make no mistake, though-- he is a diehard fan. he watches her live performances on deviltube. he knows all her biggest hits. he'd have merch if any of it was subtle.

fearless is his favorite album because it throws itself into being hopelessly, passionately, clumsily in love. he admires how unashamed it is to be so, y'know... normie. cringe, in his eyes. vulnerability? yikes!

he likes the love songs best. sure, there are plenty of good breakup songs on fearless, but he's here to imagine himself lost in young love, not getting dumped. he likes the idea of romantic tension, of dancing in the rain, of friends finally becoming lovers after secretly pining for one another for ages-- especially that last one. he hopes one day he might get caught in a friends-to-lovers plot and fall in love with someone he knows like the back of his hand.

levi knows he is a simple hopeless romantic. but when he plugs his headphones in and turns on taylor's music, he feels, just for a moment, like maybe the pursuit of romance isn't so hopeless after all.

favorite songs: fearless, love story, you belong with me

[psst... yeah, you. did you want a link to the spotify playlist? here it is. it already has the songs for part 2 on there, so beware of spoilers for the next post!]

#obey me (taylor's version) #this took for fucking ever #but i think we're once again approaching magnum opus territory #i have so many thoughts #and feelings #i could go on all day #obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me levi #obey me leviathan #otome #taylor swift #obey me swifties hit my fuckin line

[randaccidents]

I wonder why Soul doesn't ever stop events in the loop from happening? Like, if he remembers the loops, he should remember the events. And if he remembers the events, he could stop the more serious ones like our dearly named Juno Incident. So why doesn't he?

One reason I've seen flying around is that its set in stone always. That one way or another someone will shoot a gun. That ones fun, but its also pretty limited by true time loop variants of HMS typically. Also I have a personal distaste for deterministic worldviews lmao I want them to have some free will.

A second one I've seen flying about is that putting off certain events results in worse ones. Like if Heart doesn't shoot at the Sun with a gun, something worse will happen during the loop to make up for it. This one's also fun to play with but uhhhh tends to be really really deep into torture porn territory if done wrong.

Third one is pretty limited to Souls deep in the loop soup. Tried and true "He's just given up it repeats anyways even if he changes things". I like this one. Very nihilistic. Typical for Souls that have been Through the Horrors for thousands of loops and are now just Going Through The Motions.

I've also seen some analysis that claim that Soul ALSO forgets the exact events of the loop after a certain point in the album. He only remembers their existence, and not the events contained inside. This one, very fun, very rarely used, truly people need to get on this train more you could so easily make him blame himself for not remembering what might happen and being unable to stop it. So much Soul angst potential.

Anyways that was a really long way to lead into what I think is why. I commit the Unholy Combination of "fuck it multiple". Ehhh people who read my fics might have seen me describe it a couple of times already.

Basically I think that he starts of only remembering the existence of the loops, ala option 3 mentioned above. But as events happen he Remembers every looped version of it happening post-event. Not before it happens, not as its happening, after its already happened and nothing can be changed, and suddenly he can remember the times upon times that the same event has happened before. Also entirely viable in a "the loop is just a loop of mental health" versions where time does not truly go backwards.

So much space for Soul angst potential. He doesn't know its coming so its a surprise every single time and the reaction is his natural first reaction. He remembers after and hates that he didn't know early enough to stop it. He knows every slightly different way an event has gone. As the loops pile up so do the number of memories he regains each time and isn't that just fodder for Soul being Too Tired the longer a loop drags? Weight of the world, weight of ever-increasing memories.

(ALSO as a side point please play more with the "The brain is not made to hold this many memories" concept please please it is so easy to make him Tired and Old and Nihilistic and not doing anything anymore, but way more fun to have him actively fight that mindset and try so hard to stay optimistic. The optimistic one especially is so fun.)

#rand.writ #rant.hc #cccc #chonnys charming chaos compendium #cj soul #rambles #idk was just thinking about the different versions I have seen #and how it differs greatly from the idea I formed slightly before I found where the community was hiding #cause I genuinely feel that the loop is a metaphor for mental health? #so some things like “the bullet hit” or “Soul blinds Heart” doesnt work in my interpretation and forces me to work around them #and one of these is “how much does Soul remember” #and no one. really has a good answer for that? the answer is always “everything”

[dark-elf-writes]

*long blink at kakashi/naruto hate*

———

I keep imagining it being ingrained in Naruto to desperately ignore his more feral instincts because no one ever reacted well to them before.

The caretakers at the orphanage would slap him even as their scents spiked with fear. The hokage would grow still and tense for a long drawn out minute as old eyes visibly calculated his threat level and the ever- present chakra signatures around them coiled in response. The drunks stumbling home from the bar near his apartment would flinch back before going red in the face and shoving him to the ground to kick at his thin ribs. Iruka would shift in discomfort and twitch whenever a growl leaked into his voice. [random guys name] would get angry on the rare occasion he slipped up and tell him he's lucky any alpha wanted such a fucked up omega at all.

And Naruto didn't want to lose this with Kakashi, whatever it was. He felt warmth curl in his chest as it so rarely did and satisfaction grow heavy in his mind like never before.

All he had to do to keep it was act like a good omega. One that didn't growl, snap their teeth, collect weapons like candy, lay traps in defense of their home, or patrol the boarders of the territory like he so desperately wanted to. That was too “Alpha.” No, instead he'd be obedient and act as he should.

And for a while he succeeds. His teeth remain tucked behind closed lips, as they always are in the village, and his voice slightly above typical volumes to hide its growling undertone when at a more comfortable level. His nails stay short and transparent instead of long and black. But then he fucks up.

Kakashi summons the whole pack for the first time since he's been there. There's the sounds of clicking nails against hardwood and tails thumping against the ground, forming an odd symphony that just feels right. It starts off with Pakkun and kakashi introducing him to the rest of the pack but eventually derails into rapid barks and growls that he follows intently. The teasing, the play fights, and the gentle mocking all make him melt into the couch with a soft smile on his face. It was nice. Comfortable.

But then kakashi asks him something and he responds without thought. The sudden silence makes him look up from where he was focused on a hidden trap that's been bugging him for days with it's over complicated design (more likely to fail when it has so many moving parts).

Kakashi repeats what he said and Naruto responds with no small amount of confusion. Kakashi wasn't usually one to repeat things for no reason so why would he-oh. He hadn't asked in any human dialect had he? Naruto hadn't even answered in one. Fuck.

He couldn't help the way his muscles tensed and his body went still. It always did when faced with the ones he cares for. Kakashi was an alpha and he was allowed to growl. Naruto very much was not. He didn't think the Alpha would hurt him for his screw up like he deserved, he was too nice for that. But maybe, he would just kick him out?

Kakashi stood up. Oh. Yelling it was then.

———

*idk how to end it but all fluff and prob some heavy petting*

Them both speaking some form of canine is just *chef’s kiss*

———

Kakashi reached out to him, and Naruto for the first time in weeks flinched back away from him. The hand fell away, but Kakashi didn’t seem to mind instead letting out a soft, soothing sound deep in his chest that made Naruto want to whine.

‘Safe,’ He said, ‘you are safe with me.’

And Naruto wanted to believe. Wanted to trust. It was Kakashi after all. Kakashi who was always so kind, so understanding. Who never wavered when he saw Naruto flash his fangs when he laughed or so much as stumbled over the sudden increase of traps around his (their?) house as Naruto’s instincts screamed at him to protect.

Kakashi who was like no one Naruto had ever known.

He whined back, fearwantconfusion in the sound.

Again that soothing grumble came. Safe safe safe.

Naruto lunged forward before his mind could catch up with him, slamming into Kakashi’s chest with enough force that anyone else would have ended up sprawled across the floor. Kakashi, however, caught him and pulled him close to his chest as he sank to his knees. Letting Naruto tuck his face into his neck where even with the high neck of his shirt the Omega could tuck his face closer to the smell of content alpha and allow himself to go boneless in the strong arms that held him.

Safe. Kakashi.

(He had never let Naruto this close to his throat. Not with the blond’s fangs that could had cut through flesh better than any blade.

Kakashi guided Naruto’s head closer to his throat willingly. Unafraid. Pressed his own fangs against Naruto’s skin in laughing smiles that always made him feel warm deep in his core.)

Another whine spilled from his lips, this time filled with enough want that Kakashi’s hands shifted from guiding to grounding. One sliding to back of his neck while the other slid to grip his hip, dragging him further into Kakashi’s lap. An answering grumble do desire when Naruto was pressed against him completely made the blond tremble against him.

In the other room (when had the ninken left?) there was a thud followed by warning growls in seven other voices.

The moment shattered.

Naruto dropped his head to Kakashi’s chest, yipping his amusement, while the man let his head fall back and let his own growl of frustration slip free.

The ninken slinked back into the room, Bisuke with his head and tail low, refusing to meet their eyes. Naruto’s yips dissolved into human laughter and both of Kakashi’s arms wrapped around his waist to keep Naruto from falling off of his lap with the force of his giggles.

Safe. Home. Pack.

Everything Naruto had ever wanted.

(Later the sight of Kakashi scolding the pack who all had their heads hung low for snooping on them in a private moment would send Naruto into a fresh round of yipping laughs, and Kakashi would decide maybe being interrupted right as things were starting to get interesting wasn’t all bad if his little fox was comfortable enough to laugh like that…)

#the elf talks #naruto #omega Naruto #the ninken: wingmen and cock blocks in equal measure #they were eavesdropping to make sure kakashi didn’t fuck it up and Bisuke got so excited he forgot to keep the chakra flow to his paws #and fell #poor kakashi gets cock blocked at every turn for A While

[problematicfactive]

hi. im a dahmer factive. im here to talk about halloween. sorry if this ask is too mean or too blunt. i just don't have a place to put it.

i hate people who dress up as me for halloween. it feels gross to me. it feels disgusting, and to go out on a holiday that involves candy and kids dressed as a real serial killer fucks me up so bad. you never know where people who are affected by these things will be. you never know if theres someone related to a victim out there and yet they parade around dressed as me as if its a sick joke.

it just makes me so mad the lack of respect some people have.

- dahmer.

It depends sometimes I think. I have a friend who just happens to be blonde and wear glasses. He wanted to be a prisoner for Halloween.

I did make an attempt to warn him "Hey, people are going to think you're Dahmer" but he'd already gotten the costume so there wasn't really a lot that could be done for him. After thatit was just a point of assumption. Someone would ask him "what did you go to jail for" and occasionally the answer would be murder. I think the other answer he said he would give was arson but. To the people he answered murder, it's very plausible that they went on to think he was trying to be Dahmer. And you could argue that maybe it's that kids job to draw a separation if he knew he could get confused with Dahmer. I'd argue that it's Halloween and if a kid wants to say he went to prison for murder he should be able to. It's kind of on you to not make assumptions about people

Last year (I was not allowed to front) the host was on a quest to take as many pictures with as many people as possible. We got one with a guy. Just some dirty blonce white guy with that was a prisoner. I don't even think he even had glasses. The host was later told "that's Jeffrey Dahmer" and now that kid is like memorialized in most of our friends minds as the guy that was Jeffrey dahmer for Halloween that one year. But was he really or were we just making assumptions?

Of course, that's just the people you make assumptions on and I'm sure there are people who are loud about it. I've never met one though.

Ted asked me the other day how I felt about people being us for Halloween and I told him I'd never seen anyone dressed as him, but I never really answered the question. And I guess my answer is I don't think those people can be blamed. Between Dahmer, My Friend Dahmer, Dahmer: Monster - The Story or whatever it's called, and every single other story people have made to capitalize on Dahmer, the life of Jeffrey Dahmer had been rinsed, repeated, and shoved in people's faces over and over again.

I don't think the people who dress as Dahmer do so with intent of harming the victims or their families. I think they see him as this. Popular character. They don't have enough of a grasp on whats going on around them to see how people even today are still hurt by dahmer. Or any of those other serial killers that media companies have just turned into money makers.

I read something from a victims family member. She's tired of the adaptation after adaptation of Dahmer. She's tired of reliving her truama every time a new Dahmer story comes out. At this point, these adaptations aren't spreading awareness, they're grasping for money. They've almost normalized showcasement of serial killers through that, not just Dahmer, all of them. These halloween kids. They're just a product of that.

I think, in my opinion, I don't mind too much what people dress up as, I don't want to police that. But there is undoubtedly a lot of disrespect in costumes like these. These kids don't really realize the affects of what they're doing and that's where I blame the people who are writing these books and publishing these movies. They need to stop, they've done enough. And do say that as an introject of a serial killer formed from a movie just like those ones. I like that movie cause I like to see myself.

I'd rather it didn't exist and I didn't exist then have to putthe families through the truama they go through.

That's my opinion on it, it's still totally valid to not like those people and yk, you could say "well, other people who saw dahmer know better so these ones should too" and that's true. But there's always gonna be someone. Had that most recent dahmer show not released though, I don't think a lot of people would recognize someone being Jeffrey Dahmer.

People might confuse someone being Gacy for a clown. But if a new movie about Gacy came out and got Dahmer popularity, people might start confusing EVERY clown for Gacy.

Its a shitty circumstance to be in,definitely, especially if you're introjected from him. Hopefully by next year there won't be any more dahmer hype

#askers experience

[ohii-san]

yes tell us about eihiyo!!!!!

folds hands okay so . to me it's very fundamental that you keep in mind eichi and hiyori were childhood friends and they've known each other likely longer than keito has known eichi and i DON'T KNOW WHY THEY KEEP FUCKING DISREGARDING IT I HATE AKIRA anyway . i'll put it under the cut i know i am very rambly

edit; i hit the image limit i am not normal

so starting with checkmate which is translated by dreamwidth user shivalries but i have a screenshot of the wiki here no i don't how the fuck am i supposed to find it it's so far back in my gallery oh my god OH I GOT IT

it's like never stated when eihiyo meets but it's Obviously fairly young because of the way they refer to each other . i have insane bias so i put them as like toddler friends but realistically they may have met shortly before nagisa came into the tomoe family, since it's stated that the foundation is falling as of ! era meaning they were far more likely to have met years prior in its peak .

SO . let's look at what eichi says here . he says he's similar to hiyori by admitting it would be like looking at himself, and this is a sentiment they both repeat in other stories; i haven't read altered but i am so sure it probably echoes this . he also knows hiyori well enough to understand that they're not particularly amicable, nor is hiyori someone who's easy to deal with when he doesn't fancy it . additionally, in pretty mission, we get these interactions;

it's very likely the two of them attended social gatherings for high society families, which would also perhaps be where hiyori could vaguely know the himemiya family from aside from word of mouth ( it's established in a hiyori side story from ! that he has met tori before, but i believe tori says it was during his time with exfine ? )

we also get to see, in altered, that eichi is more than capable of courtesy and awareness of hiyori's false behaviors . he also says here that they've known each other a long time 🧐 fascinating . okay then . so they mutually understand one another and can't lie to each other ? sounds like something people in a FORMER RELATIONSHIP WOULD SAY !!!!!!! congrats to eichi for being the most divorced nineteen year old in the world

moving on . sorry for the poor image quality i combined two screenshots so i could add the altered one since i NEED people to see it

moving onto summer live which ummm was done by kotofucius ( a long inactive tl :( hope they're okay ) right here, but i have screenshots from the wiki saved so it's what you get lol ❤️ anyway hiyori states it's been a long time since he's seen eichi, and we know this is after the war so we can assume hiyori and eichi more or less fell out after hiyori transferred to reimei . tsumugi states ( in a story i can't recall ? may be ss ) that he keeps in contact with hiyori and nagisa, and that ibara ( <- i believe he says "that kid" or something though, referring to nagisa's roommate and partner, who is ibara ) has helped nagisa grow as a person etc etc so Why did hiyori ghost eichi 🧐 but it's easy enough to understand .

i accidentally grabbed so many screenshots but wonder game gives us a decent glimpse into their dynamic too .

i put them all side by side on mobile to save space a little but the gist of this is that eichi is . very .. aware ? of hiyori's personality and mannerisms, and feels comfortable calling them out . hiyori is someone who canonically wears a facade so imo it's very interesting that eichi calls his bluffs, points out his flaws, etc without much thought at all . they're obviously close and well acquainted no matter how much they appear to hate one another .

we see it later in summer live too, he advises hokuto almost nonstop for the trickstar/eve meeting because he understands hiyori and grasps quite well that he's difficult when he wants to be, which is exactly how he ends up acting with hokuto; really the only reason they get through that meeting is eichi's guidance and hokuto getting pissed off enough to get hiyori to respect him . a tiny bit .

also, in wonder game again, we get to see the fact that hiyori is eventually dedicated to eichi's cause despite hating him . in my opinion this is hiyori deflecting; i believe they're actually much closer than either of them admit in ! era stories ( which is Basically all i've referenced so far ), and their !! banter is definitely meant to be read as far more playful

hiyori acknowledges eichi's dedication and seems to admire it, and also shut up look at what hiyori says in summer live you will not believe this shit

?!?!?!?!?! BUT YOU PERFORM WITH EICHI AND WORK ALONGSIDE HIM . YOU DON'T HATE HIM YOU BIG BITCH BABY JESUS CHRIST !!!! ohhh my god they're so insufferable okay . i'm running out of intelligent thought but i hope you now understand that eichi and hiyori do definitely respect one another, they work well together, i believe hiyori had a crush on eichi as a child and they ( like reichi ) have insane divorced energy . their fights in !! are much more tame compared to them outright saying "i hate you" HAHAH . going back to that second pretty mission screenshot ( as i said at the top, i hit the image limit ), you can definitely read it in a way more amicable teasing kind of way . i would also like to give a shoutout to this white brim moment where hiyori smacks eichi for pretending to die and traumatizing tori . real exes behavior idk personally i wouldn't assault people i wasn't close with HAHAH i also want to mention *this* white brim moment where eichi says that hiyori has been a maid, presumably worn a maid dress also ( for him ?!?!? ) before . it's probably a reference to them playing as children but i am losing my goddamn mind at the idea of like 15/16 year olds eihiyo fucking around and making a bet which ends with hiyori serving eichi .

okay i need to shut up this has been so much please read white brim ( i haven't even read it in full ) and wonder game THANK YOU FOR LISTENING PLEASE SEE MY VISION I SPENT AN HOUR TYPING ALL OF THIS AND GATHERING SCREENSHOTS

#fan letters #glitter-penned journal #enstars #ensemble stars #hiyori tomoe #eichi tenshouin #eihiyo

[frosty-the-killer-doll]

for the shippy ask game, can you rant about a possible poly relationship of the Snow System and how Khione would fit and work with Caitlin and Frost, really anything you have to say about that whole dynamic as a romantic or partly romantic relationship? and possibly maybe perhaps if you can also rant about Barrisco and your thoughts on it? i hope it's okay to ask these!

it's always okay my darling

Due to being simple and going tunnel vision when its abt the OTP, I've never actually thought about Khione joining Killersnow, but I fucking love the idea!

Now, obvi, I am living in a timeline where Khione's existence doesn't precede any death nor need any mechanical malfunction. SO SO SO in my head, Frost survived her time as Hellfrost and the battle with Earth-Prime's Deathstorm. But, but, but, Frost practically became a vacuum for all the energy of every soul Deathstorm got. All that energy melded and molded so much that it depleted Frost's own, making her sick (similar to Caitlin's cold that Carla helped her with) until suddenly, the energy came together and manifested as a completely new alter!

That's my alternative Khione origin story, anyway. And y'all KNOW i <3 killersnow more when they share a bod, so the split never happened in my world, so now there's three girlies in one form!

(also: M*rk Bl*ine does not exist within this world. Maybe he was never born, maybe he died in a horrible accident that was slow and painful and bloody. Either way, he doesn't know them and has no relationship with Frost or friendship with Khione or partnership with Caitlin.)

Caitlin has been down the discovering-an-alter road before, right? And last time, she didn't exactly treat Frost well. Frost didn't treat her well, either. At the start, they were selfish and hateful and scared and desperate. Caitlin doesn't want to repeat her past mistakes, and welcomes Khione as gracefully as she can manage with her shock.

Frost, though? She's jealous. Jealous that Khione gets on Caitlin's good side so early, after Frost had to spend so many years fighting for a right to their own body. Jealous that Khione immediately gets all the trust and niceties and respect that Frost was denied over and over again. So she acts out. Starting fights with Caitlin over little things, freezing Khione out, trying desperately to convince everyone that Khione cannot be trusted due to being the after effect of Deathstorm Prime.

Khione is just kinda trying to figure out existence, tryingg to get used to walking, trying to burn everyone's names to memory. She mostly is too focused on figuring things out to notice that Frost doesn't like her.

what I'm saying is: Snowkhione friends to lovers and Khionefrost one-sided enemies to lovers!

WHEN the Snow System makes up and Frost communicates her feelings in a healthy way, though-

Now, Khione is basically exactly in Frost's old shoes, metaphorically speaking. Maybe literally speaking bc she doesn't know her own style yet. She doesn't know her name, she doesn't know who she is, or what she is, or if she likes cheese fries. Just like how Frost never had a birthday party until she was an adult and only found out her favorite ice cream flavor a few years ago. So they get close really quick, once Frost gets over the unfairness of it all. Frost becomes a life coach to Khione, like Ralph passed the torch to her, and she inspires and encourages Khione to take risks and have her own adventures and do whatever the fuck she wants, to decide what she likes. So Khione takes Frost's old name.

And now it's Caitlin who's jealous. And Caitlin tries to repress that, per usual, but it comes out in bursts like water charging through cracks in a dam. So Caitlin and Khione find something that interests them both: botany. Khione has a deep, special interest in anything to do with life itself, especially the elements, and Caitlin knows a lot about the human body due to being a doctor and having a fascination with plants in high school c; i mean, she knew everything about mistletoe on the fucking spot, so it's really not even a meta joke that Caitlin may really like plants

So the Snow System makes up again, and the two keep deepening their friendships with Khione, and sometimes when Khione is just barely co-con with the both of them she can feel how much love Frost and Caitlin have for each other, how much Frost adores making Caitlin laugh, how much Caitlin likes the shine in their eyes that Frost gives them... how differently colored their relationship is compared to how they are with Khione.

And now Khione's jealous.

And that has never happened before.

So she very bluntly asks the two people she knows the best about jealousy and how to cope with crushes and what romance even is and how do you go about getting a girlfriend and what if you think you like your best friends and she very blatantly tells them that she is trying to cope with wanting to be with them.

She doesn't say it like she expects the feelings to be returned, or that she's flirting, or anything. She just innocently admits her feelings and asks their advice on it. And that is the cutest, most respectful, most genuine thing they have ever fucking seen. And now Killersnow realize that some of the jealousy they felt was because they were worried that Khione would steal their girlfriend. And now they realize that nobody has to steal anybody. Thus... the ot3 is born.

Khione and the bad bitches she pulled by being autistic.

OKAY BARRISCO TIME

u cannot tell me these two men have not had gay sex. they are fast friends and uKNOW barry hasn't had many friends in his life. his best friend is a girl he's in love with and they've always been insanely physically affectionate very casually. i don't think barry... really knows that society imposes this, like, boundary when it comes to immense physical affecgion? yknow what i'm talking about? like some people think its gay to kiss the homies on the cheek or hold your guy friend's hand or wipe food off his lips. and barry's only close friend was a girl he loved that loved him. there's appearantly a boundary between the physical affection u can give a friend and the affection u can give a lover and barry never got the memo.

so barry's out here, constantly touching cisco and holding him and going in for fakeout jokey kisses as he's always done with iris. and cisco believes that b has been purposefully flirting with him for MONTHS. so the next time barry goes in for a joke kiss that he plans on pulling away from, cisco does not pull back. cisco thinks it's real. and he kisses barry allen right there and then.

and then he sees the surprise on barry's face and the realization crashes down on him and suddenly he has to get out of here but barry is the fucking flash and his thoughts run faster than cisco's and barry realizes that hey, he always wanted the fake kisses with iris to be real, and hey, he doesn't feel any different with cisco. he wants it to be real, too.

so barry grabs cisco w super speed and suddenly cisco realizes that he is making out with the flash. and there's still tears of humiliation on cisco's face but barry wipes them off. and then they're at cisco's apartment and then barry is vibrating and holy shit linda did not undersell how good that feels, and boom, gay sex time

i hope these were sufficient 🫡 send me asks for this ship game!

#me on my way to use overly familiar terms of endearment on my mutuals 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️ #arrowverse polycule au #frosty answers #barrisco #barriscowest #killersnow #snowkhione #frostkhione #khionesnowfrost #? #snow posting

[animereaderinsertwriter]

Prologue - Next - Series Masterlist - Series Playlist

Pairing: Dabi x Reader

Rating: Explicit

Tags/Warnings: fantasy au, violence, smut, angst, fluff, non-major character death, pregnancy, dub con/fuck or die but only kinda?, enemies to lovers, there's an arranged betrothal somewhere in there that eventually goes away, spoilers for dabi's identity

ao3 link here

"And it came to pass in those bleak days following the Empire's conquest that (Y/N), daughter-heir to the Hand of Cerridwen, came into her birthright. Long had she waited for the goddess's claiming, first as orphaned novice, then as soldier-healer… but after some twenty odd years of watching and waiting for the signs, it seemed only too little and too late that the goddess called and claimed her— for the war was lost, and she a young  woman engaged to be married as a peaceweaver for the Clans."

—Balthazar the Wise, On the Age of Unrest 

The courtyard was sunny and bright. Trees swayed in the breeze, the dancing of their leaves creating a quiet rustle that felt almost like the shuffle of a waltz. Though the springtime air still held a slight chill, the cold had lost all its bitterness to winter's leaving; once more, the world felt ready to shift and change in ways it had not for many months, and after a season of war and strife, peace and springtime (however hard-won) were welcome.

"Are you sure about this?" Todoroki Shoto asked, his brows drawing together to form a deep crease in the center. "It feels like we've only just gotten everything settled, and now you're leaving."

(Y/N) smiled gently, bringing a hand up to rest on his cheek. On that hand— her left one— shone a ring of precious metal, binding them together in promise. 

"The Summit will be fine without me for a few weeks," she told him quietly, brushing a lock of hair behind his ear. "Besides, I'm not sure when an opportunity like this will come around again for me. Once we're married, I—"

(Y/N) stopped herself and looked away, embarrassed by what she might have said. Shoto, too, averted his gaze, but grabbed her chilled hand in his warm one, bringing it to rest on the warmer side of his chest. 

"The last thing I want to do is take away your freedom," he told her, the sincerity in his voice almost painful. "If there were another way—"

(Y/N) stopped him with a look. If there had been another way, they would have taken it. This match was something neither of them had wanted, but what both of them must endure; the Clans had lost the war, too driven by greed and ambition to unite against the threat of the Empire, and now they were paying the price for peace until the time for war would come again. It was the way of things, and (Y/N) had accepted it. There were worse fates than being married, after all, and (Y/N) couldn't have chosen a better man herself even if there had been a choice.

Change, the trees seemed to whisper, the wind winding through the groves of aspen. Change, change, change. 

"In all things, we must endure," (Y/N) said, ruefully quoting the platitude, "And in enduring, all things are made precious."

Shoto frowned. He hated that platitude almost as much as his father loved repeating it, and (Y/N) knew it.

"Promise me that you'll be safe on the journey," he implored, bringing both her hands to his lips. "No taking back-roads or shortcuts through the forest, and no preaching at bandits. I want you to go to whatever edge of the world you please and come back again as quickly as possible."

(Y/N) laughed. "I'll walk where I please and preach at whom I please, as you say. I'm the goddess incarnate, and if Cerridwen chooses a pack of wolves to be my flock, then I will be their shepherdess."

Shoto huffed, displeased. The sun shone brightly on his two-tone eyes, irradiating silver and cerulean with the brilliant golden rays of noon-time.

"I can't protect you out there," he said, his thumb brushing the tender skin of her hand. "Soul of the goddess or not, your flesh is mortal, and I know— I know— that you can take care of yourself, but I'm worried that— well, that— the League is getting more and more violent and unpredictable, and with Black Dabi razing villages, I can't help but worry that…"

Shoto looked at her, his expression pained, and (Y/N) sighed as one of his hands moved to trace one of the scars on her shoulder. 

"Shoto," she began gently, her shoulder scar suddenly aching as though the wound had been reopened, "These are our people we're talking about. They need reassurance, guidance— they need me. Death comes for us all, and one day, whether from old age or a bandit's sword, I will die. When I do, I never want it to be said that I wasn't where I was needed when I needed to be there. I always go to bless the Beltane festivals— I did during wartime, and I will now."

Shoto smiled ruefully. 

"I need you," he retorted half-playfully. "Can't I order you to stay?"

"You can try," (Y/N) grinned, "But you would have an easier time catching the wind in a net."

Shoto chuckled then, and opened his arms; (Y/N) went into the warmth of them happily and let her betrothed embrace her. 

"I promise to come back to you," (Y/N) said into his skin. "In one form or another, I will come back. Is that good enough for you, Todoroki Shoto?"

"Of course," he replied, holding her tightly. "Of course. It's more than enough."

In that moment, (Y/N) closed her eyes, and she was profoundly grateful that she would one day have this man for a husband; more so than that, however, she was inexplicably glad that she would never love him. If she loved him, it would be too hard to leave, too hard to be both Hand of the goddess and wife to a man. To choose between love and one's own nature, one's own purpose, would rend her heart and soul. 

"If I let go, you're going to walk away, and I won't see you for at least three months," Shoto said into her hair. "If I keep you here, you'll hate me forever and find a way to leave anyway for spite. A man just can't win with you."

"It's good that you've learned that before marriage," (Y/N) laughed, pulling away so that she could see his face. "It would be dreadfully hard to train you otherwise."

Shoto shook his head with a small, sad smile.

"Go, go," he told her, releasing her entirely. "Get out of here before I change my mind."

"Goodbye, Shoto," said (Y/N), shouldering her pack with a grin. "I'll be back before you know it.”

With that, she turned her back on the Todoroki Clan home and set her feet out on the road. Where those feet would take her, the goddess only knew— but whatever the path held, (Y/N) was ready and willing to accept and endure it.

Goddess, keep my heart still singing, my feet on the path, and my mind on the journey, she prayed silently, refusing to turn back to look at what she was leaving behind. My will is thy will, and I accept all that is asked of me. 

#dabi #dabi x reader #mybigbangacademia #touya x reader #mha x reader #bnha x reader #dabi smut #dabi x y/n #touya x y/n #fantasy au #enemies to lovers #a suitable match (to start a fire)

[cheiyunn]

Kimisute main story [１部 ] Part 6

Side: GYROAXIA

[Sharehouse]

Reon: What’re you reading Miyuki-san? Something important?

Miyuki: Its an article about GENESIS TRAX

Reon: Isn’t GENESIS TRAX…

Ryo: It’s about the label Nayuta’s dad is affiliated with right?

Reon: Gah–! Ryo-san keep it down ! shhh!

Miyuki: …Well Nayuta isn’t even here right now so do ya need to be so uptight and cautious anyway?

Reon: If we’re all noisy when we think he’s not here, there’s a chance he’ll overhear us when we least expect it!

Ryo: Ever since Reon got Nayuta all mad, you’ve been on your toes all the time now~

Reon: …talk about rubbing salt on a wound, Ryo-san! …well you’re right but still…

Miyuki: I mean, he did snap pretty hard at the person who said we should copy SYANA after all

Miyuki: Even I thought that regardless of how fussy and self-centered Nayuta is, that was crossing the line…

Reon: I wonder what happened with that him…

Miyuki: Hm? What happened as in…?

Reon: Cause it’s Nayuta we’re talking about? To feel that much anger and rejection towards his actual parents make you wonder what happened

Ryo: Reon, are you really that curious?

Reon: Eh? Are you guys on the opposite end?

Miyuki: Hm… I’m more of ‘I don’t get it but whatever’ I guess

Miyuki: At least just knowing that ‘That thing’ causes Nayuta to lash out is enough for me?

Ryo: Me too

Ryo: Rather than being concerned about why that bright star was created, it's more important to keep it’s shine clear and not clouded

Miyuki: Plus doesn’t he hate it when we get all nosy?

Miyuki: If he finds out that we’ve been snooping ‘round here and there….

Reon: …uwah, I don’t even want to think about it

Miyuki: You get it?

Ryo: Even if that star was clouded, it doesn’t hide the fact that there is that star

Ryo: The stars are always shining, and we need to protect it. So the people down below can see it.

Ryo: That role is probably also my atonement. The reason I came here to Earth…

Miyuki: …we don’t need to react right?

Reon: First one to react loses…!

Ryo: You two think the same right?

Miyuki/Reon: Totally!

.

[Dreadnought Music office]

Mashu: I’ll get to the point. How is Asahi.

Kenta: …in honesty, not very well

Kenta: Since the news of SYANA’s vocalist Iryuu Koga’s return, he’s been extremely agitated

Mashu: I see

Kenta: To see him get that nervous just with news, if the time comes where we need to meet him directly…

Mashu: Are you worried?

Kenta: Obviously. If Nayuta isn’t able to sing what are we supposed to do

Mashu: However, he can’t keep avoiding the issue either 

Mashu: …this is a hurdle for the future

Kenta: For Nayuta..?

Mashu: For everyone.

Mashu: Your practice time is nearing, it's best you get going.

Mashu: I also have a separate meeting to attend to

Kenta: …I understand. Excuse me.

.

[Studio]

Nayuta: CUT IT!

Reon: …hah….hah…! What now…!

Nayuta: Fuck. This isn’t enough to compete with him… more, something more…

Miyuki: My bad, Nayuta. I was a bit off on this one

Nayuta: It's not just Sakaigawa. Everyone was. From the top…

Reon: How many times are you gonna make us repeat the intro..!

Nayuta: CLAM IT! STOP COMPLAINING AND GET IT TOGETHER !

Reon: YOU’RE THE ONE WHO KEEPS COMPLAINING !?

Kenta: Reon stop. …. Nayuta, its best to take a quick break

Nayuta: …tch!

.

--[Door opens]--

???: Pardon my intrusion.

Nayuta: y-you’re… !?

Kenta: Iryuu Koga..!? why… why are you… here…

Iryuu: Does it still bother you? Just when, will you be able to bring something that’ll entertain me. I’m waiting, kiddo.

Nayuta: ….!!

#fromargonavis #gyroaxia

[apocalypticavolition]

Tears of the Kingdom Thoughts

Well I've spent the last couple weeks playing this game non-stop so I might as well share my thoughts about it with internet strangers to justify my ignoring my Hobbit Reread (sorry Tolkien!). I just beat the game, so this post will have SPOILERS, so please run away if that's not what you're into.

My feelings on every Legend of Zelda game that comes out are pretty much the same: I don't understand how something this perfect can be this flawed. Tears of the Kingdom manages to be no different. In so many ways, it completely eclipses its predecessor. In others, it happily repeats the same mistakes - or introduces new ones.

Consider Great Sky Island. On the one hand, it's much more successful as a tutorial - where Great Plateau does stuff like teaching you to use trees as bridges (a skill you will never need again), Great Sky Island's tips are all directly relevant to the game you'll be playing in the future. However, where the Plateau is a wide open sandbox (which matches the game you'll be playing), the Sky Island is a linear path, with each shrine completed in a set order. Now, that's not too bad in the grand scheme of things. The game does open up completely after you leave the tutorial - to the point where a shocking number of people missed out on getting the Paraglider entirely, as it's no longer given to you on your way out the door. Whoops!

That said, the new powers are way better. Ultrahand is a shorter range Magnesis but for everything and it's got rotation (I recently started replaying BotW and have nearly hurt Link several times trying to rotate things). Fusion addresses the weapon durability system to a degree, but only a degree. I never minded durability so I'm super happy but I suspect that those of you who hated it will stay unhappy. Ascend is a totally new concept that provides way more travel options (though frankly the game has too many of those anyway). Recall is way more broken than Stasis, but I gotta say... I miss being able to fuck up my enemies. Bombs and ice platforms being consumables is way more balanced but man do I miss them being free. Well, bombs anyway. Cryonis was a total joke of a rune and I don't miss it.

After doing the obligatory starting shrines and Goddess Statue visit, the game begins in earnest. Both games expect you to make a lonely walk to a semi-close community, though TotK's is a much shorter journey, and both towns involve a Sheikah lady giving you further instructions while a bunch of hapless villagers make requests like "Cook for me, chosen hero of the goddesses". TotK though really ups the weird horniness; my selling items rhythm had the shopkeeper in Lookout Landing groaning like I was pounding her into next week. The Great Fairies were bad enough, guys! Oh, and they're back too and just like BotW, the only way to have armor worth a damn is for Link to be sexually assaulted repeatedly.

But anyway, just like last game it soon becomes clear that you have the following overall quests: gather a ragtag team of losers from the furthest corners of Hyrule and collect a bunch of memories. At least this time there's no amnesia involved, and it turns out there's one more loser than last time around. A new set of exciting natural disasters are provided too: Hebra is now under even stronger blizzard conditions than before, Gerudo Desert has an unending sandstorm that's brought insect zombies with it, the Lanayru Reservoir has become covered in pollution, and crack cocaine has been introduced to the Goron community. Oh and there's an unending thunderstorm in Faron but we've already had that in the desert so *shrug*.

Sadly, Hyrule itself isn't too much different otherwise. Hyrule Field's army of demonic spiders has been replaced with pleasant lakes and ten thousand rocks have crashed to the surface of the earth. Caves have opened up everywhere and wells have reopened. Floating islands dot the sky and abyssal maws leading to the depths of the underworld dot everything else. The noonday sun sits in the southern sky instead of the northern one, causing all the shadows to be backward from what you're used to so that your unfamiliarity with everything is increased.

Caves? Caves are great, and wells are basically caves. But the Depths are... well they're there. A complete mirroring of Hyrule's surface sounds fun but it's just a place to cram extra bosses, amiibo armor, and ten thousand generic Yiga forts. Once you've done the two side quest chains that involve the place, the only reason to go back is to grind out more battery power.

Yep, battery power. An entirely new feature here are the Zonai devices you can assemble into functioning vehicles, war machines, or crude simulacra of naked men with fire-jizzing dicks. Exploration has never been so easy, and my god that's genuinely impressive when you think about how easy it already was in BotW. The concept is great, but honestly I never felt obligated to use it beyond the basics or what was provided for free on the scene, and there's a few devices that feel extraneous. The system would be relatively successful despite this in my opinion, except for one fatal flaw: the wing device has the longevity of a mayfly and about the same range. Dreams of flying from island to island, exploring the heavens, dashed with the realization that I couldn't even get from Death Mountain's peak to the closest archipelago. When attaching a steering stick to two fans is a better flight solution, something's gone horribly wrong.

But lemme circle back to the regional phenomenon. At first, things are much improved: sure, you have the same, "find a loser outside the dungeon to help you get into the dungeon, then interact with a bunch of crap until the local boss shows up for the slaughter and the local ghost gives you its seal of approval", but all the details are so much better. Getting to each dungeon is an impressive gauntlet. Your buddy sticks around to help you (except I wish Yunobo had stayed behind because that asswipe kept knocking me out of minecarts). The bosses have variety instead of being variations on a theme and they're kinda tricky to boot! The dungeons themselves have theming and aesthetics and if it weren't for the Water Temple they'd be competently executed to boot. But sadly, the Water Temple is basically an easy shrine.

And then things go downhill because the little idiots you've recruited don't go away. Sure you can banish them, but they're effective crowd control so it's a little depressing to just cut them entirely. Some of them have utility; Tulin is basically a "Press X to be wherever you want to be" button and he headshots everything sooner or later. Riju lights up the darkness. Mineru is your own personal mecha. Sidon... tries really hard. Yunobo is present, especially when you're trying to pick up a Bomb Flower or two, but not when you might want to use him in combat. All of them are exactly this way: constantly activating as I try to collect my spoils and constantly being on the other side of the fight whenever they'd actually be useful. The controls here are atrocious.

The controls for this game are painful. The sages all activate from the same button that already has uses. Throwing things or fusing them to arrows involves using a shitty menu that you have to scroll through one by one or hope the stuff you have is close to the top (and usually it is, but sometimes it's not and you scroll through 50 things before you get what you want). In theory you need to hold the L button to change powers and tap it to use them, but in practice it's a tangled morass wherein if you had the camera as your power you'll end up taking a picture no matter what and if you try to use Ultrahand you'll end up somehow choosing to open the map. Why is the map on the power wheel? It's a complete waste of an option! Who tested this? What video games have they played before, and were any of them not on a cell phone????

Oh, and as awesome a huge game as this is, it's too fucking huge. The sky islands are copy-pasted. There's too many mini-bosses for the little variety that there is. There's twenty trillion caves to find and fifty-six quadrillion Koroks and thirty googol things to take photos of. All the cool armor is easy to find and six of the most practical pieces of it are completely unhinted at, locked away somewhere. You need to spend like 25,000 rupees to get all the upgrades! It's a completionist's nightmare and I'm a completionist.

And yet. The shrines that aren't automatic blessings for finding them (and there's way too many of these) are all wonderful, especially the Proving Grounds. The side adventures are 59 hits and 1 Hestu-sized miss. The new enemies are all perfect additions to the series. The labyrinths have been expanded and are glorious places to explore. There's more coliseums, there's pirate ships, you can infiltrate the Yiga Clan to learn their secret technique, you can crucify Koroks!

Once again we have a game that I really, really liked and couldn't put down, and once again all I can think is that it's crazy Nintendo couldn't fix the little things that seem to grow into such huge issues.

#legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #totk spoilers

[abyssal-cryptid]

Even more Tears of the Kingdom thoughts (SPOILERS)

I cant figure out how long after Calamity this game is set. It's got to be at least some years, everyone else has changed but Link and Zelda

Link and Zelda have lived this time together in Link's house in Hateno <<33

Their Well holds Zelda's secret room

Also yes every well in this game has something so my favorite thing rn is just jumping into wells

Zelda had a school built to Hateno because she loves kids

I hate how so many people in this game who should know who Link is dont know him

You mean to tell Ive been living in Hateno for years and no one recognises me

Zelda is still referred to as princess which implies she hasnt allowed herself to be crowned queen

Ive spent like three hours just strolling in Hateno

I did get the camera and my enjoyment of the game has increased tenfold

HATENO TECH LAB HAS A RUINED GUARDIAN I REPEAT HATENO HAS A GUARDIAN REMAIN

Im so excited I missed seeing these everywhere

Purah's room has drawings of them and the divine beasts

You can just pick up the koroks who need to be reunited w their friends with ultrahand and carry them wherever they want to go. They also roll down hills

Me @ the forbidden ruins in Kakariko: "Let me in, let me innnn"

SIDON HAS A FIANCE

IM SO DISTRAUGHT

THEY SAW US SHIP LINK AND SIDON AND WENT "none of that here is his gf"

HUDSON HAS A DAUGHTER <<33

This game has cheese. I can die happy now

I am taking the elevator up every time I see a falling rock

Went to Akkala Citadel Ruins. Was looking at the views. SUDDENLY EVERYTHING GOES RED AND HANDS ARE CHASING ME WHAT THE FUCK

The way they dont let my boy have his long hair out on any fits is criminal. Could have tweaked the armor sets that much

Why is Zelda appearing everywhere and being an evil menace??? Zelda tf is going on w you?? Arent you supposed to be in the past

They looked at me, specifically, loving side quests more than my life and going "we have to give them more" and this is a good day

There's a golden horse???

Also I heard Yunobo is a dick in this??? Not my boy :(

I go to the Zora tower and there is a man nearly dead

ALSO OH MY GOD WHY DID ZELDA ATTACK KING DOREPHAN

Man was dying (Lets hope this doesnt age poorly because I dont think I could handle it)

So its been like five years at least since BOTW ended and like. Why does no one remember me and also where did all these new people come from that didnt exist here couple years ago?? Where were yall?? Having tea??

Kilton has a little brother <3

I should get back to the "first" main questline as in the Rito are dying in a blizzard but there's pretty flowers and mayoral elections

Did I already mention they did not nerf bows? They didnt and I love that, archers for life

Also I lost Hestu again and I need more inventory

I am afraid to venture into the Korok Forest

Stables are so fun. You get points from first visit, staying the night, registering horses etc AND THEY GIVE YOU REWARDS

I got the Traveler's Gear for General (my baby boy horse)

I found Big Horse and named him Babylon

Also saved this one guy stuck in a cave

Starting to get to a point where enemies drop 15-30 fuse power parts and life is getting easier

Ive activated like 20 shrines since I last did a bunch. I havent done them because what if I have to build vehicles (bad)

I miss cryonis

Havent done much in the sky tbh

I want my champions tunic. I however dont feel like going to the castle

Where the fuck is Ganondorf

I could always see him in BOTW I dont like this

I am kind of disappointed they didnt change the looks of old armor sets. HOWEVER. Cece's hat is all Im going to say. I wonder if I can wear that to Gerudo town

Im still a one shot to so many things

The Zora are dying (their water is turning into mud)

Gorons have malice pink eyes so dont trust theyre doing too well either

Barbarian armor fits so well with Link's messy long hair

Im still kind of shocked that the sheikah tech is just gone

How do I get into Hateno tech lab

Some of yall are actually building vehicles? Im avoiding that like the plague

Still salty about Sidon

I get taken for a little while and he gets engaged

His fiance did refer to Sidon as "my best friend"

The quote went "Im Prince Sidon's... oh forgive me. I am your best friend's fiancee"

She us cute but still

ALSO THEY MOVED MIPHA'S STATUE TO THE TOP OF PLOYMUS MOUNTAIN

THE ZORA'S DOMAIN STATUE IS NOW OF LINK AND SIDON

Why cant I marry him

Sidon carries Mipha's trident now (sobs)

When you meet him he goes "Its good to see you my friend" so happily

"By the way... I hope you know that I am truly happy to see you again after such a long time apart, my dearest friend"

I sobbed

He loves us so much

Just go visit him

Sidon wont marry me and Sonia and Rauru are married, cant a man find some love in Hyrule

#tears of the kingdom #legend of zelda #spoilers

[yanderederere]

He is not who I thought he was at all.

The mask has finally dropped and the true face is revealed… looking back I can see how much I just wanted to deny the truth about him. I refused to see him any other way because I was still afraid to see him in any other way than how I wanted him to be or who I thought he was from all the little things he lied to me about in order to be seen under a different light.

Our relationship was never what I thought it was - at all. And he’s right, I let myself go too much that I can’t fully blame him for the way he’s treated me. But that ties into me wanting to test how much he really loved or didn’t love me; see I think real love is giving someone the power to hurt you and them not taking advantage of that. And he did every single time. If that doesn’t speak for itself then I don’t know what does. Then the way he looks at me now, with nothing behind his eyes. Only hate and resentment. He’s literally been trying to tell me this whole time what he’s really like but I just refused to listen to him. How much he’s willing to take advantage of those closest to him, the selfishness, deceit, betrayal and lack of consideration - I mean I wish this all weren’t true because I loved him so much, I wanted him to do better not just for us but for himself I don’t want him to lose the people closest to him and I can see that’s the way things will go if he keeps doing the same shit, I believed in him even when I shouldn’t have, I was faithful to him when he made me look foolish to every other women he led on. I can’t even be bothered typing anymore, I’ve written about this so many times but it’s over now.

I just don’t wanna feel this pain anymore. Its difficult to put into words but right now I’ve never felt more alone, especially after realising what’s behind the whole illusion of our relationship, the little lies that amount to so much more than I thought, everything. I really am sorry for everything I’ve done to him I couldn’t see past my own pain and it hurts to know that it ain’t the same with him - he didn’t love me enough to still care about me through it all. But I should’ve known this, that’s the fucked up part. I did know but I was so easily lead away from believing that. I thought I knew but I was wrong. From the very beginning, I should’ve ran when I had the chance. We fell too fast in love I think. So wrapped up in the thrill/high of it that we lost all sense.

Feels so much worse to admit that as fucked up as we’ve been, I only wanted to love and be loved by him. That’s the underlying cause that I wish he was able to see without me needing to tell him. But I’m asking for something he cannot give me so why didn’t he just let me go from the beginning when he initially knew. I don’t know why I’d be so stupid in expecting decency from someone who has no empathy or compassion for anyone else but themself. But not only does he shield others from the truth of his motives, he shields himself, I realised recently that even when I confront him with the truth he can’t face it and I know he sees that as an attack but it’s not, I just know that living a lie will keep anyone in the same cycle repeating the same mistakes and never developing as a person. But trying to force that on someone is pointless. It’s like that saying, “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink it.”

I bet he’s imagined me as someone else while we have sex, I mean he’s been wanting other women while we were together - never content with what he had as it just wasn’t good enough so yeah. Imagine wanting someone who wants everyone else but you. Pathetic. See now I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t even live with myself. All because someone wanted to compare me to every other woman around me that now I do the same everywhere I go and that’s the worst thing that haunts me about everything because I never used to care about comparing myself at all, I was happy with the way I was and I thought he was too but that wasn’t the case at all. I know he looks at me thinking I’m not attractive and what not and it’s no wonder why, I mean what’d he expect after comparing me to other women and if he truly loved me it wouldn’t even matter. But I knew he never truly loved me from the beginning he was only in it for what he could get from me, constant sex and good sex too so I guess that’s enough motivation for some, but I know I play a part in that. I guess sex was the only way to feel intimacy in our relationship when he couldn’t provide it in any other way.

Now I can’t see him in any way other than your typical male in this generation, always looking for the next best thing and letting other women know that he’d be interested in them regardless of us.

I wish I could tell him why I want the truth why I need it to move on and finally let go; not knowing only leads me to overthink the worst things possible, it’s like trying to figure out a jigsaw puzzle by making your own pieces and trying to get them to look like the completed picture on the box without being able to see that image clearly. So you’re pretty much trying to match with a distorted image. At least if I know the painful truth I can hurt from just that in its entirety rather than the millions of thoughts I end up creating in my head. But this is too vulnerable for me to discuss with him, he’ll just use it against me as a weapon because ‘I’ve used his shit against him’, the only reason I did that (which deep down I hated) was because of how hurt I was by him bringing that into our relationship and hurting me in just about the same way, or at least what it would’ve lead to had I not picked up on it.

There isn’t much more I haven’t said or thought a hundred times over. I just want my life to be done.

[devilsurvivor-2-recordbreaker]

So I Played Devil May Cry 1

So Devil May Cry, everyone knows the story from a point of view long after it began and only shortly after the series had concluded. The start of it with  the first on ps2, the let down and crunched timed Devil May Cry 2, the series savior and reestablisher Devil May Cry 3, then Devil may Cry  4 and the reboot (DMC Devil may Cry) people hated because of character assassination made in the new canon, and the return return to form with the highly anticipated and highly praised Devil May Cry.

But something always has to start from somewhere. Devil May Cry 1 was just that. Being that legend and history goes that when the teams at capcom were working on how to make a resident evil game for the playstation 2, they ended up with a far more action-focused and far more distinct product. Add some reference some classic literature and poetry like the Divine Poetry and mix in the pathos and gloom of the story with just the right amount of comedy in and you got yourself something very, very special.

However compared to it’s future installments DMC 1 is quiet bold as it is tame with it’s gameplay. Later installments make you a small tank filled to the brim with weapons you can swap on the fly but in DMC 1 you only really have 3, including your starting sword. You only get a handful of abilities and the style swapping system hasn’t even been installed as that only came around during DMC 3 and became a staple of the series then after. Here Dante can only use one gun and one weapon at a time too, meaning you have to constantly swap your weapons through the menu and back out.

This makes for a pretty laid back approach to combat as the majority of enemies always feel intimidating but always like you know what your doing once you get a hang of how weapons and guns combo into each other.

Story and dialogue are also pretty tame too. Nothing too special outside of boss encounter dialogue. You really can feel the resident evil design philosophy from when it was first being constructed. The large castle on the island somewhere lost in the ocean filled with demons and who knows what else. Puzzles by baker’s dozen as Dante moves from small subsections of rooms to another solving abstract builtin puzzles. If it wasn’t for the structure and pacing of the missions you probably feel like you were just playing a resident evil game, wandering from one sight to another to solve puzzles, kill baddies, slay a big baddie and do it all again until you destroy the biggest baddie which threatens the outside world.

Spoilers ahead, nothing as much as story but more as in the design of the game so be warned.

My only complaint would have to be the last two missions of the twenty two in the game. Yeah you heard me- 22 big ones. Really a good four of them go by so quick that they function more like loading screens or transitions between missions than actually missions of their own. Plus the final three were the final boss extravaganza which I have to warn was exhausting to try and beat. No Spoilers but I will be discussing their design so again this is your warning.

Mission 20′s boss is just the same boss you’ve been fighting for the past four stages. Like no joke it just sucks. Only because its a ‘do a thing to reveal its weakness and then attack and wait repeat this until its dead’ but the there are so many factors that make it so exhausting. The cramp space, the little wiggle room, more than the previous fights with it.

Mission 21 is just another intermission level to get you where you need to be.

And then there’s Mission 22. Oh boy

Its a shoot’em up with werid controls. The second half has so many mechanics you are not aware of that youll be doing it wrong for like half an hour only to realize you can attack regularly and with the special devil trigger you have in this fight has extended reach and finally beat him only to relize that now you have to do a ‘get the fuck out of here right fucking now’ moment where your running alover the place to escape before everything blows up. and then you have another kingdom hearts 2 Alladin World carpet ride mini-game where you have to avoid debree so you can make it out safely. Its a bitter end but my god is the rest of the game just way better by comparison.

Still a good game though so yeah I liked it very much.

#devil may cry #videogame review

[kittymaine]

The Farmer’s Market

// Summary: Cloud hates shopping with Zack, but going to the farmer's market together was something they would have to do eventually.

This was written for the Slice of Clack challenge. The theme was intimacy and the specific prompt was routine.

Since Cloud and Zack don't have a lot of canon time together, I'm setting most of these entries in some vague universe where Cloud and Zack met under different circumstances, Zack doesn't die and Midgar doesn't get destroyed. //

“I hate shopping with you,” Cloud mumbled as Zack put a bag of five soft fuzzy peaches into the mesh bag Cloud had over his shoulder.

“What?” Zack asked, his head popping up, his expression oblivious and happy. He hadn’t heard what Cloud had said, but it was probably for the best. Cloud didn’t really want to fight or hurt Zack’s feelings, but he needed to express his frustration somehow.

“We only need tomatoes,” Cloud said instead of repeating himself.

“But these are so ripe!” Zack exclaimed. To demonstrate, he dug in the bag, tilting Cloud toward him by pulling too hard on the bag. Cloud grunted and stumbled a little as he righted himself. Zack shoved a peach under his nose and Cloud frowned down at it. It was fragrant, a sweet soft smell that easily blocked out the rest of the strong food smells of the outside market they were in. “Maribel says it’s a final day sale. It’s such a deal!” Zack enthused.

Cloud ignored Zack and instead leaned around Zack to look at the old woman at the produce stand directly behind him. She grinned and waved at him. There were people standing around waiting impatiently to buy something from her, but she was ignoring all of them to watch Zack and Cloud. All the people at the market loved Zack and the old women especially liked to shade Cloud whenever he braved the market for fresh food. He could imagine all the sideways comments he would get if he didn’t let Zack keep his stupid peaches.

“Fine. Whatever,” Cloud grunted, looking away.

“Awesome! You’ll love them!” Zack enthused. Cloud didn’t have to be looking at him to hear the grin in his voice. But, he sort of wished he had been watching when Zack grabbed the bag again and almost toppled him as he shoved the peach back into its own plastic bag with the other peaches.

Cloud had only meant to get some whitefish, tomatoes and garlic to make broiled fish for dinner that night. Cloud had mentioned that he was going to run to the market in Sector 5 to grab some fresh ingredients and Zack’s whole face had lit up. Cloud had regretted it. It wasn’t an invitation for Zack to come with him, but he couldn’t very well tell him to fuck off after he had gotten so excited about it.

Zack worked at Leaf House now that he was officially retired from beating down monsters on the regular and often went into the market on Fridays to get lunch. Thus, why so many of the vendors knew and liked him so much. Cloud had wrongly assumed he had already gone to the market that day for lunch and wouldn’t be interested in going back out.

“Aren’t you going to buy tomatoes from Maribel?” Cloud asked, referencing the old woman Zack had just bought the peaches from. Zack had gone back to looking at other stands excitedly. Zack had told Cloud he was going to buy tomatoes when he first approached the produce stand. It was the last thing they needed and then they could get out of there. The train ride back to Sector 7 wasn’t long, but it wasn’t short either. Cloud was hoping to get dinner done before dark, but that wouldn’t happen if they didn’t finish their shopping soon. Besides all of that, it was hot and humid outside in the open air market, cooking meat and baking bread not helping to lower the temperature. Cloud was starting to sweat through his thin dark t-shirt.

“Don’t tell Maribel, but her tomatoes aren’t all that hot. Leo, however,” Zack whispered conspiratorial, leaning in close and taking Cloud by the upper arm.

Cloud fought back a blush and looked away again. It was stupid that he could be both pissed at Zack and flustered by him at the same time. It was possibly even more embarrassing to know that Zack was unaware that he was causing either reaction from Cloud.

Zack led Cloud down the row of haphazardly thrown together stands. They passed bakery stands, more produce, deli stands, handicrafts, second hand clothes and eventually stopped at a small pop up cafe with a chalkboard written up with different caffeine concoctions.

“I don’t think they have tomatoes,” Cloud said drily.

“Annette and Frankie have great coffee!” Zack enthused, like that answered the unsaid criticism Cloud had leveled at him.

A dark skinned man with a friendly face behind thick glasses approached at Zack’s loud declaration.

“Zack!” he exclaimed. “What can I get for you?” he asked, wiping his hands off on a hand towel tucked into the tie of his apron.

“I’ll have a mocha cappuccino with extra whipped cream and chocolate syrup and my friend here will have an americano,” Zack ordered easily.

Cloud noticed the man behind the counter give him a curious look before turning around to start working on their orders. Cloud assumed this was probably because Zack ordered for him. Cloud secretly appreciated Zack doing that. He knew he wasn’t the most friendly of guys and any human interaction he could be spared stopped him from eventually offending someone. Still, he didn’t need more of the market vendors digging into his personal life or rather digging into Zack’s personal life and finding him.

Casting around, Cloud tried to find a nearby stand selling tomatoes so he could buy some himself and save them some time finding Leo’s stand, whoever he was. Luckily for him, Zack was chatting with Frankie the coffee guy while he bustled around making their orders, so Cloud was able to quietly slip away.

There, two stands down and behind them, Cloud saw a produce stand with boxes filled to the brim with little grape tomatoes sitting prominently between bunches of asparagus and bags of crispy lettuce. With a quick glance at Zack to make sure he was still occupied, Cloud stepped away and weaved between other shoppers down to the produce stand.

There was a young girl, probably no older than sixteen with long straight hair pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of her neck with a stained apron tied over a plain t-shirt and ripped jeans. She noticed Cloud’s determined trajectory for their stand and was already standing at attention when he stopped in front of her.

“Just one box of tomatoes, please,” Cloud said, already digging in his back pocket for his wallet.

“Sure thing! 20 gil please,” she said. “Do you want me to bag one up? Is there a particular box you like?” she asked, her hand hovering over the box closest to her.

“No bag. Whatever box is fine,” Cloud said, pulling the gil out of his wallet and handing it over.

The young woman took his money and grabbed the box of tomatoes she had been reaching for and handed it to him. He carefully sat it on the bottom of his bag so hopefully they would mostly stay in their box on the trip home.

“Thanks,” Cloud said belatedly, remembering at the last moment to be polite.

The young lady nodded, but she was already moving away to the next customer so it was a distracted acknowledgement. Cloud sighed in relief. He much preferred interactions like that than the chatty way that Zack dealt with everyone.

Cloud had only just turned back toward the coffee stand when Zack appeared before him, making him jump back in surprise. He closed his eyes in disappointment with himself and took a deep breath to calm his hammering heart. For being so big, Zack could move like a panther sometimes.

“Aw, you bought tomatoes!” Zack complained, frowning down at Cloud. “Leo will be so disappointed.”

“Just tell him we were in a rush,” Cloud sighed.

Zack’s mouth twisted into a dissatisfied moue, but he didn’t say anything. He just handed Cloud his coffee and then took a lick at the whipped cream piled high on top of his own coffee.

“Thanks,” Cloud said gratefully before taking a big swallow of the scorching hot bitter coffee. He turned and started to walk toward the north end of the market, leading them back toward the train station.

“We don’t need anything else?” Zack asked in a tone verging on whining, trailing behind.

“No, I told you,” Cloud said, trying to hold back some of his frustration. “Just a few things for dinner.”

Zack hummed, a sound Cloud interpreted as Zack thinking that Cloud was wrong in some way, but Cloud ignored it. Zack just wanted to stay and chat with everyone. Cloud knew he enjoyed all the people and the fresh food, still such a novelty under the plate, people like Frankie who were showing their passion for little things like coffee or pot holders, trying to make a little extra money after work.

The rest of their walk back to the train station was pretty quiet. Once they got out of the press of the market, the alleys winding back to the station were mostly empty. Here and there a few old men sat playing cards or on their stoop reading weathered paper backs.

The smell of roasting meat and hot food assaulted them as they got to the station, all the food vendors in full swing hoping to entice people getting off of work to stop at their stand for dinner. Cloud saw Zack looking longingly at the smoked pork stand, but Zack didn’t ask to get any. Cloud would have killed him if he did. They had maybe been together too long to still have dates, but Cloud liked their standing engagement. Every Friday they would take turns making dinner before heading down to Seventh Heaven to spend the rest of the evening with everyone else. It was one of the few things that was steady in Cloud’s life and he treasured it.

Their timing was good and almost as soon as they stepped onto the platform, the train heading west pulled into the station. The train was almost empty, most everyone already off of work, so Cloud and Zack were able to find seats near the front of the train to sit down.

Cloud settled his bag between his feet, bracing it there so the garlic and tomatoes wouldn’t roll away.

They sat in silence for a while, shoulder to shoulder, thigh to thigh, staring out the far window as the underside of the plate flew by.

“Are you angry at me?” Zack asked quietly, tilting his head down and toward Cloud to get a better look at his face.

Cloud’s eyebrows twitched down, but otherwise his face remained impassive. He crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’m not angry,” Cloud replied after thinking about it for a moment. “It’s just hard for me to shop with you.”

Cloud stopped there and frowned out the window. It felt silly how irritated he had been now that they were on the train heading home. This was just how Zack was and he loved Zack, he loved how effusive and friendly he was, he loved that he got along so well with everyone, he admired him. He really had so many things that Cloud did not in the personality department and Cloud normally considered all of those things assets he was proud that Zack possessed.

Zack nudged Cloud’s shoulder to get him to look at him. Zack was frowning, confused.

“What about it is hard?” he asked.

“Just-” Cloud started, then stopped, rubbing a hand over his face. “I just want to get in and out, you know. Just get the ingredients and go home. The more time we waste shopping is less time we get to spend together.

Zack frowned, a small furrow appearing between his brows. “But, we were together. Going shopping together is spending time together,” he protested.

“Together but not alone together,” Cloud rejoined with an irritated shrug of his shoulders.

They stared at one another, Zack still frowning and Cloud steadily frowning harder back at him until a lightbulb seemed to go off for Zack and his mouth melted into a small circle of understanding. Which then turned into a small pleased smile that somehow made Cloud feel even more irritated before he sat back in his chair.

Zack smiled at the ceiling of the train car while Cloud frowned down at the bag between his face, struggling not to let his shoulders come up around his ears. He could imagine what Zack was thinking to himself, and none of it was flattering. Still, Cloud knew from experience it was better to just be blunt with what he was thinking, especially with Zack.

“You’re really cute, you know,” Zack said after smiling at the side of Cloud’s head for a while.

“Shut up,” Cloud said back sharply.

“I forget that you’re  shy ,” Zack sang the last word and Cloud elbowed him hard in the side which only succeeded in pushing a happy laugh out of him. “You want me all to yourself,” Zack declared happily between laughs.

“Only so I can strangle you with no witnesses,” Cloud grumbled, twisting away so he didn’t have to watch Zack enjoy himself so thoroughly at his expense.

“Aw, it’s okay, little buddy!” Zack enthused. “It’s sweet! I’ll keep in mind not to intrude on our alone time, okay?” Zack nudged Cloud a little and he turned to look over his shoulder at him with a frown. Zack’s eyes were warm and friendly, his smile soft and fond.

With an explosive sigh, Cloud slumped back into his seat.

“See that you don’t,” he said flatly, surprising another pleased laugh from Zack.

“Yes, sir!” Zack said with a mocking salute.

The tension was broken and the rest of the train ride back to sector 7 was pleasant with both of them making small talk to pass the time. Zack at one point stole the tomatoes from the market bag, juggling them before Cloud threatened him with an early death if he didn’t stop.

The fish turned out as good as it was the last time Cloud had used the same recipe and the crowd at Seventh Heaven was as welcoming as it always was.

That night, Cloud and Zack returned home to their tiny apartment, pleasantly buzzed, leaning into each other as they stumbled through the door. Their dishes were still in the sink and would be waiting there in the morning for them to regret not doing them the night before. Their bed was soft and comfortable when they tumbled into it and their sleep was deep and untroubled when they found it.

#ff7 #clack #cloud/zack #fanfiction #domestic fluff #kittywrites