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#Got several commission to share
bookrat · 8 months
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Dilong bust available for $350
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re-lmayer · 1 month
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i've found myself in a bad situation. the tl;dr is i have to move, but i can't afford to. i'm a disabled student and just do not have the funds required to rent a truck, hire movers, and cover deposits. so, i'm offering various services on my kofi, but if you don't need those you can also donate there or via paypal. my cashapp and venmo are both erinshelley91 if you'd like to donate on those platforms (i couldn't figure out how to link to those)
if you can't afford to commission me or to donate, reblogging this post and sharing my twitter thread is a free way to help me out and is so appreciated!
more context and stuff under the cut, i just don't want to make a long post on ppl's dashboards
my landlord has been cheating on his husband, and their relationship is rocky. he also has a massive spending addiction according to his husband. his spending addiction is making him not want to perform the actual duties of a landlord, because investment costs are cutting into his shopping spree funds
ex, he is illegally not fixing a leak in the shower of the upstairs tenants, and claims the costs are more than their rent. he told them to "figure it out, or get the fuck out." (verbatim.) he also told me it would be cheaper for him to not have tenants at all bc his utility bills would be smaller. he then left it to ME to inform another tenant to leave (then gaslit me and denied it in front of his husband when his husband questioned it)
in his words, we have 90 days to leave. i am disabled and a full time student and have been living on my fafsa returns, and the last job i had made one of my disabilities worse to the point i've had intensive physical therapy (several hours several times a week) and am likely going to have to undergo surgery
i'm also mi/nd, so even on a good day i'm not very well equipped to handle things, and the recent stress has also caused my therapist to see me several times a week in lieu of institutionalization
all that said, i'm not in a good spot physically or mentally, hence the best i can do right now is offer some of my skills on kofi
i'm currently working with my state's vocational rehab to try and find a suitable job until i can get my degree, but even then i simply would not be able to afford the costs of a sudden move in the timeframe i've got to work with
UPDATE MARCH 25, 2024: i want to invest in a scooter to do gig work like doordash. this will let me work at my own pace, and earn towards the move myself, then i'll have some more independence to continue doing that after as well
they require 50cc or under, which means i could get a scooter for under $1,000. i'd also need to cover fees to renew my license (i let it lapse since i haven't had a vehicle), get a helmet, and get insurance (roughly $100 annually)
i also made some amazon wishlists for folks who would like to help but prefer to know exactly where their money's going. i have one for housewarming stuff here, and one for necessities here
update as of april 5: my cat peed on my bed, and since it's a memory foam mattress it soaked all the way through and ruined it
update as of april 7: she did it again. this time there's blood in it
update as of april 14: i still haven't been able to take her to the vet, but i've been trying to do at home remedies
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bomberqueen17 · 3 months
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RIP to the OG
Alas! Broadway star and legend Chita Rivera has died aged 91.
My cat is named for her, and it's a funny story I feel I should share. See, in 2007 or so, Dude was working for the local alt-newsweekly (remember those?) and during the time he was there, Chita Rivera was scheduled to come to Buffalo for a show. The theatre editor was so excited about this that he insisted on having a 52-week countdown on the theatre page, which annoyed the graphic design department enormously because that page otherwise had a static header.
But it became a running joke. "ONLY FORTY-NINE WEEKS UNTIL CHITA RIVERA!"
The theatre editor was so excited he commissioned a mural of her to be painted on his dining room wall.
I'm not sure how this came about, but somehow she was offered and accepted an invitation to come to his house to dine on the night she was in town. I cannot imagine painting someone on my dining room wall and then inviting her over, but I also have never been the theatre editor in an alt-newsweekly; there are many things I have not experienced in life.
In the midst of this, that's when Dude and I got our kitten. It was like-- of course we had to name her Chita. So we did. But not just Chita. She's Chita Rivera, which confuses the vet enormously, because neither of us have the last name Rivera. "She's not related to us," Dude explained patiently to the vet receptionist, who did not find this enlightening.
Anyway-- she was apparently a wonderful guest to dinner, the show she came to do was delightful, it all went swimmingly. She apparently was not at all disconcerted by the mural of herself, which I suppose if I were a legend I might also not find that disconcerting.
And while she was there, she told them her margarita recipe. I have made this recipe on several occasions and please serve it over a lot of ice because it will kill you otherwise. It is refreshing and actually really delightful to drink. It does not taste as strong as it is. It is incredibly strong.
Lo: The Chita Margarita, in memory of the realest of them all.
Take 1 can of limeade concentrate and empty it into a pitcher. Refill the empty can with tequila, and add that to the pitcher. Now refill the empty can with cheap beer-- Corona will do, something pale-- and add that to the pitcher.
Voila! No, this cannot be scaled down. Please serve it over ice.
Rest in peace, legend!
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ane-doodles · 3 months
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A little help please
update: we did it!!! (you can read in my reblogs)
Greetings
I'm not one to write or tell things about my life here, but I'm here to ask for a little help.
To explain myself, I would have to tell you that the computer I currently work with art and comics is not mine, it belongs to a friend of my father who lent it to him during the pandemic (2020) so that he could work from home and I would have a place to do my University's homework. It's not a super-cool computer but it got us out of trouble back then.
It's been a while since then, but last year my dad has mentioned the idea of ​​returning it soon. The problem with that is that if he does then I won't have anywhere to draw or work or study.
My current job as a graphic designer and illustrator from home depends entirely on this computer, which in itself is not very good…
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The monitor burns my eyes after a certain time, the memory and processor is limited so it does not support several programs, it does not have a graphics card and even the mouse has started to fail recently.
This is why I come here to ask for a little help… I have a goal of approximately $400 to buy a new computer (including a good monitor, but not a keyboard or mouse). The budget is not fixed due to the constant changes in the country's economy that make it difficult to save in the long term. But if we get over that line I admit it would be something great…
I am willing to work on commissions to reach the goal, I plan to organize my time between work and studies for that. Unfortunately I am in the process of writing my thesis so sometimes it will take time, but if you are willing to wait I promise to put all my heart into my drawings.
I'll be doing special commissions, some discounts, YCH, adoptables and maybe giveaways… Whatever comes to my mind at the moment, so stay tuned.
Donations are also highly appreciated!! If you do I will give you a huge hug.
And that would be all. For now you can check my pinned post to see my commissions, or check my Kofi page directly and check if they are open. If you don't have the opportunity to contribute monetarily, don't worry, sharing this post is also a great help.
I hope you have a beautiful day/afternoon/night :)
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This is your brain on fraud apologetics
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In 1998, two Stanford students published a paper in Computer Networks entitled “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” in which they wrote, “Advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of consumers.”
https://research.google/pubs/pub334/
If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security
The co-authors were Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin, and the “large-scale hypertextual web search-engine” they were describing was their new project, which they called “Google.” They were 100% correct — prescient, even!
On Wednesday night, a friend came over to watch some TV with us. We ordered out. We got scammed. We searched for a great local Thai place we like called Kiin and clicked a sponsored link for a Wix site called “Kiinthaila.com.” We should have clicked the third link down (kiinthaiburbank.com).
We got scammed. The Wix site was a lookalike for Kiin Thai, which marked up their prices by 15% and relayed the order to our local, mom-and-pop, one-branch restaurant. The restaurant knew it, too — they called us and told us they were canceling the order, and said we could still come get our food, but we’d have to call Amex to reverse the charge.
As it turned out, the scammers double-billed us for our order. I called Amex, who advised us to call back in a couple days when the charge posted to cancel it — in other words, they were treating it as a regular customer dispute, and not a systemic, widespread fraud (there’s no way this scammer is just doing this for one restaurant).
In the grand scheme of things, this is a minor hassle, but boy, it’s haunting to watch the quarter-century old prophecy of Brin and Page coming true. Search Google for carpenters, plumbers, gas-stations, locksmiths, concert tickets, entry visas, jobs at the US Post Office or (not making this up) tech support for Google products, and the top result will be a paid ad for a scam. Sometimes it’s several of the top ads.
This kind of “intermediation” business is actually revered in business-schools. As Douglas Rushkoff has written, the modern business wisdom reveres “going meta” — not doing anything useful, but rather, creating a chokepoint between people who do useful things and people who want to pay for those things, and squatting there, collecting rent:
https://rushkoff.medium.com/going-meta-d42c6a09225e
It’s the ultimate passive income/rise and grind side-hustle: It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to discover a whole festering nest of creeps on Tiktok talking about how they pay Mechanical Turks to produce these lookalike sites at scale.
This mindset is so pervasive that people running companies with billions in revenue and massive hoards of venture capital run exactly the same scam. During lockdown, companies like Doordash, Grubhub and Uber Eats stood up predatory lookalike websites for local restaurants, without their consent, and played monster-in-the-middle, tricking diners into ordering through them:
https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/19/we-are-beautiful/#man-in-the-middle
These delivery app companies were playing a classic enshittification game: first they directed surpluses to customers to lock them in (heavily discounting food), then they directed surplus to restaurants (preferential search results, free delivery, low commissions) — then, having locked in both consumers and producers, they harvested the surplus for themselves.
Today, delivery apps charge massive premiums to both eaters and restaurants, load up every order with junk fees, and clone the most successful restaurants out of ghost kitchens — shipping containers in parking lots crammed with low-waged workers cranking out orders for 15 different fake “virtual restaurants”:
https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/01/autophagic-buckeyes/#subsidized-autophagia
Delivery apps speedran the enshittification cycle, but Google took a slower path to get there. The company has locked in billions of users (e.g. by paying billions to be the default search on Safari and Firefox and using legal bullying to block third party Android device-makers from pre-installing browsers other than Chrome). For years, it’s been leveraging our lock-in to prey on small businesses, getting them to set up Google Business Profiles.
These profiles are supposed to help Google distinguish between real sellers and scammers. But Kiin Thai has a Google Business Profile, and searching for “kiin thai burbank” brings up a “Knowledge Panel” with the correct website address — on a page that is headed with a link to a scam website for the same business. Google, in other words, has everything it needs to flag lookalike sites and confirm them with their registered owners. It would cost Google money to do this — engineer-time to build and maintain the system, content moderator time to manually check flagged listings, and lost ad-revenue from scammers — but letting the scams flourish makes Google money, at the expense of Google users and Google business customers.
Now, Google has an answer for this: they tell merchants who are being impersonated by ad-buying scammers that all they need to do is outbid them for the top ad-spot. This is a common approach — Amazon has a $31b/year “ad business” that’s mostly its own platform sellers bidding against each other to show you fake results for your query. The first five screens of Amazon search results are 50% ads:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola
This is “going meta,” so naturally, Meta is doing it too: Facebook and Instagram have announced a $12/month “verification” badge that will let you report impersonation and tweak the algorithm to make it more likely that the posts you make are shown to the people who explicitly asked to see them:
https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/2/21/23609375/meta-verified-twitter-blue-checkmark-badge-instagram-facebook
The corollary of this, of course, is that if you don’t pay, they won’t police your impersonators, and they won’t show your posts to the people who asked to see them. This is pure enshittification — the surplus from users and business customers is harvested for the benefit of the platform owners:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys
The idea that merchants should master the platforms as a means of keeping us safe from their impersonators is a hollow joke. For one thing, the rules change all the time, as the platforms endlessly twiddle the knobs that determine what gets shown to whom:
https://doctorow.medium.com/twiddler-1b5c9690cce6
And they refuse to tell anyone what the rules are, because if they told you what the rules were, you’d be able to bypass them. Content moderation is the only infosec domain where “security through obscurity” doesn’t get laughed out of the room:
https://doctorow.medium.com/como-is-infosec-307f87004563
Worse: the one thing the platforms do hunt down and exterminate with extreme prejudice is anything that users or business-customers use to twiddle back — add-ons and plugins and jailbreaks that override their poor choices with better ones:
https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/29/23378541/the-og-app-instagram-clone-pulled-from-app-store
As I was submitting complaints about the fake Kiin scam-site (and Amex’s handling of my fraud call) to the FTC, the California Attorney General, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and Wix, I wrote a little Twitter thread about what a gross scam this is:
https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1628948906657878016
The thread got more than two million reads and got picked up by Hacker News and other sites. While most of the responses evinced solidarity and frustration and recounted similar incidents in other domains, a significant plurality of the replies were scam apologetics — messages from people who wanted to explain why this wasn’t a problem after all.
The most common of these was victim-blaming: “you should have used an adblocker” or “never click the sponsored link.” Of course, I do use an ad-blocker — but this order was placed with a mobile browser, after an absentminded query into the Google search-box permanently placed on the home screen, which opens results in Chrome (where I don’t have an ad-blocker, so I can see material behind an ad-blocker-blocker), not Firefox (which does have an ad-blocker).
Now, I also have a PiHole on my home LAN, which blocks most ads even in a default browser — but earlier this day, I’d been on a public wifi network that was erroneously blocking a website (the always excellent superpunch.net) so I’d turned my wifi off, which meant the connection came over my phone’s 5G connection, bypassing the PiHole:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/28/shut-yer-pi-hole/
“Don’t click a sponsored link” — well, the irony here is that if you habitually use a browser with an ad-blocker, and you backstop it with a PiHole, you never see sponsored links, so it’s easy to miss the tiny “Sponsored” notification beside the search result. That goes double if you’re relaxing with a dinner guest on the sofa and ordering dinner while chatting.
There’s a name for this kind of security failure: the Swiss Cheese Model. We all have multiple defenses (in my case: foreknowledge of Google’s ad-scam problem, an ad-blocker in my browser, LAN-wide ad sinkholing). We also have multiple vulnerabilities (in my case: forgetting I was on 5G, being distracted by conversation, using a mobile device with a permanent insecure search bar on the homescreen, and being so accustomed to ad-blocked results that I got out of the habit of checking whether a result was an ad).
If you think you aren’t vulnerable to scams, you’re wrong — and your confidence in your invulnerability actually increases your risk. This isn’t the first time I’ve been scammed, and it won’t be the last — and every time, it’s been a Swiss Cheese failure, where all the holes in all my defenses lined up for a brief instant and left me vulnerable:
https://locusmag.com/2010/05/cory-doctorow-persistence-pays-parasites/
Other apologetics: “just call the restaurant rather than using its website.” Look, I know the people who say this don’t think I have a time-machine I can use to travel back to the 1980s and retrieve a Yellow Pages, but it’s hard not to snark at them, just the same. Scammers don’t just set up fake websites for your local businesses — they staff them with fake call-centers, too. The same search that takes you to a fake website will also take you to a fake phone number.
Finally, there’s “What do you expect Google to do? They can’t possibly detect this kind of scam.” But they can. Indeed, they are better situated to discover these scams than anyone else, because they have their business profiles, with verified contact information for the merchants being impersonated. When they get an ad that seems to be for the same business but to a different website, they could interrupt the ad process to confirm it with their verified contact info.
Instead, they choose to avoid the expense, and pocket the ad revenue. If a company promises to “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” I think we have the right to demand these kinds of basic countermeasures:
https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/our-approach/
The same goes for Amex: when a merchant is scamming customers, they shouldn’t treat complaints as “chargebacks” — they should treat them as reports of a crime in progress. Amex has the bird’s eye view of their transaction flow and when a customer reports a scam, they can backtrack it to see if the same scammer is doing this with other merchants — but the credit card companies make money by not chasing down fraud:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/mastercard-visa-fraud
Wix also has platform-scale analytics that they could use to detect and interdict this kind of fraud — when a scammer creates a hundred lookalike websites for restaurants and uses Wix’s merchant services to process payments for them, that could trigger human review — but it didn’t.
Where do all of these apologetics come from? Why are people so eager to leap to the defense of scammers and their adtech and fintech enablers? Why is there such an impulse to victim-blame?
I think it’s fear: in their hearts, people — especially techies — know that they, too, are vulnerable to these ripoffs, but they don’t want to admit it. They want to convince themselves that the person who got scammed made an easily avoidable mistake, and that they themselves will never make a similar mistake.
This is doubly true for readerships on tech-heavy forums like Twitter or (especially) Hacker News. These readers know just how many vulnerabilities there are — how many holes are in their Swiss cheese — and they are also overexposed to rise-and-grind/passive income rhetoric.
This produces a powerful cognitive dissonance: “If all the ‘entrepreneurs’ I worship are just laying traps for the unwary, and if I am sometimes unwary, then I’m cheering on the authors of my future enduring misery.” The only way to resolve this dissonance — short of re-evaluating your view of platform capitalism or questioning your own immunity to scams — is to blame the victim.
The median Hacker News reader has to somehow resolve the tension between “just install an adblocker” and “Chrome’s extension sandbox is a dumpster fire and it’s basically impossible to know whether any add-on you install can steal every keystroke and all your other data”:
https://mattfrisbie.substack.com/p/spy-chrome-extension
In my Twitter thread, I called this “the worst of all possible timelines.” Everything we do is mediated by gigantic, surveillant monopolists that spy on us comprehensively from asshole to appetite — but none of them, not a 20th century payment giant nor a 21st century search giant — can bestir itself to use that data to keep us safe from scams.
Next Thu (Mar 2) I'll be in Brussels for Antitrust, Regulation and the Political Economy, along with a who's-who of European and US trustbusters. It's livestreamed, and both in-person and virtual attendance are free:
https://www.brusselsconference.com/registration
On Fri (Mar 3), I'll be in Graz for the Elevate Festival:
https://elevate.at/diskurs/programm/event/e23doctorow/
[Image ID: A modified version of Hieronymus Bosch's painting 'The Conjurer,' which depicts a scam artist playing a shell-game for a group of gawking rubes. The image has been modified so that the scam artist's table has a Google logo and the pea he is triumphantly holding aloft bears the 'Sponsored' wordmark that appears alongside Google search results.]
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witch-hazels-musings · 3 months
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a gesture
Warning -> fluff | reader gets a blister on their foot, genshin men notice and provide respite from the discomfort | pre-relationship (it's silly, and dumb, but let me have this)
Includes: Diluc, Xiao
Character X GN Reader (adventure guild reader*) | Anthology
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A-N: I was planning on writing for a few more characters, but I'm a bit slow in my genshin right now, plus I *should* be resting ... 人(_ _*)
Diluc
"Be right there!" you shouted over the calls echoing in the hall. Your hand dropped from your lips and back to the stack of rolled papers in your arms. The guild was busier than normal. Perhaps it was because of the snow fading from the streets, or the warmer wind blowing in from the south. Being surrounded by the lake meant damper and colder winters, but you didn't mind.
You loved the snow.
What you didn't love was returning to restrictive shoes now that the cobblestone streets were less barred by ice. You missed your warm fur-lined boots.
"Hey, got a few more requests for you to review," you told one of the auditors as you leaned onto the polished wood counter that separated you from the workers just inside. You tapped the toe of your shoe on the floor to force room between your heel and the leather rubbing against it. "Oh, and this came from Alfry." You reached into your pocket and handed a folded, sealed letter to the attendant.
After waiting for several minutes, and shifting from one foot to the other - relief waning and waxing - you made your way outside toward the Kiosk near the front of Mondstadt. It took a while, you were particularly slow on the stone steps of the city since each one put added pressure on your heels. You could feel a blister on the horizon.
Katheryne greeted you with a wave when she saw you.
She was, without a doubt, one of your favorite people. She didn't lock you in long, uninteresting conversations about her life outside of work. She just thanked you for the updated commissions and let you be on your way. You wished everyone was like Katheryne.
It wasn't that you hated talking to people. You just preferred to get your work done and found it distracting to get lost in small talk about the weather. But you learned to be pleasant and control your drifting eyes that willed your soul to be anywhere but there.
When you approached the Guild, someone called you over and explained you were being requested in one of the assessment rooms. A room used by evaluators and requestors to work out the details of a commission. You weren't an evaluator - so who could possibly be asking for you?
You imagined several scenarios except for this one. The one where Diluc Ragnvindr was standing on the other side of the door, waiting for - you. In fact, you were so unprepared, taken aback, that you rechecked the room number.
It was odd to see Diluc outside of his normal patterns. The man was routine. Days spent at Angels Share, days absent from the city while he tended to his estate at the Dawn Winery. You had several run-ins with him over the years since his reappearance, but they were always in public spaces. Fleeting, nervous moments when you'd gather the courage to ask him for a drink while he worked or make polite - short - conversation when he dropped it off. You didn't even know he knew you worked at the Adventurers Guild.
"Sir Ragnvindr, is something - how can I help you?" you asked as you stepped inside the room and let the heavy door close behind you.
"Have I pulled you away from your work?"
"Yes," you said but caught yourself, "No. I mean, yes, but it's alright. Are you alright?" The thought crossed your mind that perhaps something had happened. An issue at the Winery or the tavern, maybe he thought you were the best person to help him? Not sure why. But you did know a lot of adventurers.
"I am well. Please," he gestured to the table and chairs beside him. Crossing the room, you noticed a tall, decorative bag on the corner of the table. The top was knotted by someone with experience. Diluc placed his hand on the table, and you stopped a few feet from him. He looked -- odd. Out of sorts even.
"Did you need something from the Guild? I'm not sure if anyone told you, but I'm not an evaluator, but I can find someone who can assist you in building a commission report."
"I do not require one. I am ..." he clenched his jaw and fumbled. "Please, sit," he repeated, gesturing to the chair slightly pulled out beside you.
Confused, you took a seat.
You considered yourself a rational person, a relatively calm person. One that could keep their head in most situations, but when the man you could hardly look at long enough to breathe knelt in front of you, lifted your calf, and began to untie your shoe, you yelped so loud it startled him.
"Dilu- I mean, Sir Ragnvindr, what are you doing!?" You reached for his arm but pulled back at the last second. A war raged inside your mind - one billowing urge shouted to push him away so you could steady your fluttering heart, and the other shrieked, terrified of making contact out of fear he'd know the truths of your unsettled heart.
"These are uncomfortable, are they not?"
You glanced at your shoes. "I mean - yes, but you don't have to worry about it. Please," you begged, fingers hovering above his hand, body fighting the will to rip free from his grasp. "Sir Ragn-"
"Diluc," he interrupted and looked up at you, "I much prefer when you call me Diluc."
You didn't know how to respond, didn't know how to react, so you just sat frozen while he carefully removed your shoes and tended to the wounds they had caused.
His touch was warm. Violently warm. It was like heat seeped from every bit of him. Tendrils of flames licked across his brow, his cheeks, his jawline. You were so close you could smell the earth and trapped dust from the melting snow trapped in his clothes.
He placed the bandage across your foot and carefully wrapped it until it was secure.
"T-Thank you," you mumbled. You were stuck between being embarrassed by what was happening and being smitten by it. You were in a haze. Your eyes could barely focus on his hands as he worked, barely noticing the stick he placed beside your right foot. The medicine he applied had soothed the soft burn of the blister.
He stood and a wave of his scent washed over you. It took a moment for you to catch your breath, but when you did, you reached for your shoes that he had placed on the table.
"I'll repay you for the treatment."
"No need," he replied as he tugged at the decorative cloth bag. His back blocked you from what was inside. You worked on stretching the laces of your shoes so you could slip them over your foot. Just as you were about to place them on, Diluc returned and stalled your actions, taking the shoe from you and returning it to the table. He easily held your calf and slipped on another shoe. A flat, wide one that wouldn't rub against you the way your own had. "How does it fit?" he asked as he carefully slid it over your heel and adjusted it until it was on completely.
The shoe was elegant, beautiful. Something you would only dream of buying - most of your clothes were from sales and take-bins of neighbors doing their yearly cleaning. These were --
"Wait - did you buy these?"
"I did. But I was unaware of your size. If these are not satisfactory, I purchased several others which may be more suitable for you," he explained and that's when you noticed the stack of boxes now exposed from the cloth bag. Two boxes were placed to the side, another still in it, while the last was open, the lid placed at an angle as if forgotten.
"You bought," you paused, disbelief pulling in your brows, "multiple pairs?"
"It seemed better to purchase multiple than to guess. Though I could have inquired from you directly," he trailed off as if the thought had only just crossed his mind.
But only one crossed yours, "Why?"
He looked up at you, still kneeling and preparing your other foot to accept your new shoes' partner, "I notice you. You would be unable to work in this state."
"Noticed me?"
"Yes. Besides, I couldn't rightfully ... never mind."
"What," you blurted, hanging on his every word.
He glanced at you and then looked back at your feet. There was a pause, a heavy pause in the air. "To see you in discomfort. It - It did not sit well with me."
You sat in silence as he ensured the shoes fit, as he laced them, and made sure they wouldn't irritate the bandage. You held your tongue and swallowed the pounding pressure in your chest when he lifted you from the chair and made sure you could stand before he let go.
You breathed him in while he stood before you.
"I will be at Angel's Share tonight. I can set aside some time for you, should you find yourself-"
"Okay," you blurted again, followed it up with an embarrassed sorry. It made him laugh, and you snatch the lurching urge to jump on him.
"Until then," he hummed, a smile tugging at his lips. "Do not rush in the meantime. I have already given my recommendations to the guild to allow you rest, though I do not imagine you'll heed it."
Diluc packed up the bag and bid you farewell, lingering his voice on the sound of your name, his eyes on your warm face. He slipped out of the room and left you in disbelief in a pair of beautiful crimson shoes.
--
Xiao
Why did you decide to wear these shoes?
You thought at least twenty times as you trudged down the path. As you hiked over the mountain passes that had seen better days in their time. A giant bolder blocked you a few paces back and you were still brushing yourself off from the unprepared scramble; you found a tear in your clothes and groaned.
For an adventurer, you got off pretty lucky. Only taking the low-priced requests. Ones left for running between towns, helping clear out someone's back room, or helping with a shipment. You weren't interested in the daring adventures that some in the guild would take, snatch up before you even had a chance to read the whole thing. And you certainly weren't about to follow in the footsteps of that strange traveler who - for a while - was accused of killing the Liyue Archon. (You still had your suspicions).
Nope, you were complacent, content with the simple jobs that helped you keep the lights on and splurge on the things that caught your eye. One of which was currently on your feet and digging into the skin uncomfortably. You hopped on one foot and shoved your finger inside the edge of the shoe in the hopes of stretching out the tight leather.
The top of the path crept over the horizon and you picked up the pace to reach it. You adored cresting the hill and seeing the harbor stretch across the bay, how the tall mountainside loomed above her - a watchful guardian, a shield and protector. You sighed and adjusted the pack on your back. The road into the harbor wasn't long, but it was steep, and you prepared yourself for a rough descent with your aching feet.
Every step slowed you down. Each one more uncomfortable than the last. You thought about taking off your shoes but didn't want to catch the disapproving glares that came from Liyue's citizens. So, you pushed forward.
A plume of green and black smoke enveloped you. You would have shouted but you were used to the sensation and how it obscured your view. Months ago you stumbled upon the smoke's owner in a field. He seemed injured so you went to check on him only to learn he was fine, and rather unappreciative of your concern - actually, he was irritatingly annoyed that you had distracted him from his lay-about.
"Hello, little Xia--woah!" Instead of appearing near you like he had before, you were suddenly floating in the green smoke. It whipped through your hair, tugged at your loose clothes, and bit at your skin. You felt like you were falling, and then you were - into the arms of the Adeptus who normally kept his respectful distance from you.
When your eyes adjusted to the return of light, you twisted to look at him, one arm draped over his shoulders as if he had placed it there.
"What are you-?" The words caught in your throat. Confusion, surprise, and bashful bewilderment tickled your cheeks and stole your ability to speak. Your face was inches from him. Closer than it ever had been before.
"You're injured," he spoke softly, matter-of-factly, his eyes drifting to your feet. You could already see the broken skin around your heel.
"It's nothing. Just my shoes," you explained as you stared at your own feet as if that explanation meant anything to him.
"Hold on," he said as he held you to him and the two of you disappeared into a puff of ethereal phthalo.
--
Xiao placed you on the small stool you had left out on the balcony the night before. He was careful to not let you crash into it. His strength - despite his size - was easy to sense as he eased you onto it and waited for you to settle.
"Thanks," you hummed, stealing a peek at his eyes. Eyes the shade of ginkgo trees in fall, eyes that held eons of history and centuries of sadness. Xiao didn't speak much, but his searching and timid eyes quenched your thirst for his voice.
He lifted your leg and you covered your mouth to avoid making a noise. Before you could ask him a question, he withdrew into his haze and was gone. You sat motionless for only a few seconds, and contemplated entering your house as you, in a daze, took off your shoes but when you rose to leave, Xiao reappeared holding a small container.
"For your injury. It's important to - take care of yourself," he mumbled the last part of his sentence as he held the container out to you. Averting eyes, open fingers unmoving, waiting for you to take it.
Your fingertips brushed his skin. "Did you get this for me?" He crossed his arms and didn't answer but his actions still made your chest warm and lips pull into a giddy smile.
"Don't dally," he scolded and threw you a sharp stare, "Or you'll be left with a scar."
"Oh right." You nodded and uncapped the container. The salve held a potent medicinal scent. "You don't have to stay," you added, a little sad at the thought of him leaving but recognizing that he didn't enjoy the sights and sounds of the city. His avoidance one of the many secrets locked in the amber of his soul.
"I'll wait."
You opened your mouth to protest but he turned his back to you, crossed his arms. Watched, observed. Protective.
"Thank you, Xiao," you whispered and chuckled at the grunt that floated toward you from the Adeptus statue standing near the corner of your balcony.
--
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heizours · 2 years
Text
WOUNDED SCARS
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summary. seeing you severely injured and badly hurt after doing a commission (requested)
tags. gn! reader, grammatical mistakes may occur
cw. usage of call signs, many mentions of blood / bleeding, mentions of (reader) collapsing and getting hit, hostage tendencies, mentions / thoughts of reader dying, mentions of torture / possible murder, slight possessive behavior, (reader) was refered as a glass in itto's part
feat. itto, diluc, xiao, aether, pantalone
note. reader doesn’t get hurt from a commission but an enemy of the fatui in pantalone’s part
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ITTO.
He freaks out, freaks out too much that he isn't even bothered that he's making a whole scene because of it.
His usual playful and jolly persona will disappear in an instant, and for once he holds a concern and serious expression on his face.
Any person that would be passing by him will have their guard up, because it’s one of the first times they have seen the oni, so serious which is rare to see from him.
According to Shinobu, the reason you were late and wouldn’t be able to attend the date he had arranged for you at the moment, was you just came back from a commission which unexpectedly gave you major injuries and was the reason you were at the edge of losing too much blood.
As she continued to inform him of your whereabouts and your condition, the dread feeling in his stomach continued to drop, that he had to stop shinobu from continuing further, as just hearing from her that you got hurt already does a big damage to him.
What more if he sees you, with his own eyes?
After Genta told him where you're currently resting, he didn't waste a second going to you as he practically ditches everything in his way.
I hope you don’t mind a clingy oni next to your side because, do you expect the arataki itto to leave you after this? The answer was evident that it’s a no, he will stay with you until you have finally recovered from the current events and not even you could stop himself from doing so.
He would be very protective of you, afraid that you will leave his sight any second, like he's some sort of guard dog. Every person that's going to talk to you will have to be 6 feet away whether they like it or not, and if they get too close from his liking? Perhaps, you better grab his arm before he pounces on them .
He tries to hide the fact that he is worried about you and would instead tease you with playful remarks to make you smile or laugh, but on the matter of how he takes care of you gently like you're a piece of glass says a lot more than he is.
Once he sees it with his own eyes that you’re recovering, you would have to convinced him to stop the act of scaring and driving away the people who goes near you, as you assure him that they don’t mean any harm and are different from the ones who had attacked you.
Itto sheepishly apologized for being a little overbearing during the time you were recovering after being scolded by you, while embarrassingly stuttering out that he just doesn’t want you to experience the same scenario again.
If you ever try to do another commission again, then i hope you're also expecting for Itto to join you and he will not take a rejection as an answer.
"Hey babe where are ya going? Huh go where? Let me go with you! What me? worried? Psh, Of course I’m worried!”
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DILUC.
He freezes the moment a caretaker from the winery entered his office in a distressed state, to tell him that you're currently being treated in the bedroom the both of you shared.
The atmosphere in the room completely drops. He could feel the anger already bubbling inside him which is directly not at you but to the culprits who even dared to do this to you.
What would the citizens react if they find out that the darknight hero they shower with praises, failed to protect that one person that is important to him?
The caretaker explained that after successfully completing a commission, you had unexpectedly met a bunch of fatui agents on your way who took noticed that you were Diluc's siginificant other, and knowing that your lover has a rocky relationship with them, they decided or tried to take you with them, which resulted of you getting minor injuries from them that was still enough to leave you bleeding.
If the caretakes wasn't outside of the winery while visiting the vineyard, you could have collapsed before you could have reached the door.
Every word that leaves from them, continues to fuel the bitter taste in his mouth, as his fingers continued to dig into the fabric of his gloves from clenching his fist too tight. It seems that time has stopped all around him, as he could feel the sharp intake of his breath shaking before standing up from the chair he was sitting, not even caring if it had dropped to the ground.
He wasted no time running and slamming the door open, which startled the maids who were tending to your wounds, and you who was instructed to lay down while they do the rest of the work.
Noticing that the two of you needed some privacy, the maids left the room without a word and closed the door, leaving Diluc still frozen in his position.
He stood there as he scanned your inflicted body who was displayed in front of him, and back to your face who would let out a pain wince when the wounds that were dabbed would inflict a discomfort on you, while multiple thoughts were racing through his mind.
How could he be this careless? would he lose you too? after giving in once again to love, will this be the consequences he’ll have to suffer?
Every step he took, he could feel them dropping to the ground but who is he to care about it at the moment? Your words of assurance that you’re okay, falls deaf on his ears as he refuses to believe that you are.
He knows you too well, that no matter how much you convince him that you're okay, it wasn't the same. His beloved, his only exception in all the seven nations is in pain because of his carelessness.
He sat at the side of the bed you're in and hesitantly wrapped his arms around you, enveloping you in a hug, placing a gentle hand on the back of you're head.
No words were spoken as his warmth continued to envelope the both you, and as every second is passing by, he never intended to let you go, as if he was scared that you will disappear just like the wind.
He closed his eyes in relief, dropping his head on your shoulder and didn't even noticed he had shed a tear from his eye.
He swears in the name of the archons, that after all this fiasco is over he would do everything in his power to punish those scums who had disgracefully did this to you, and there’s no escaping from it.
"..Beloved, how are you feeling? You’re safe here, don’t worry. I won’t let them harm you again, not on my watch"
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XIAO.
The grip he has on his polearm tightens that it could potentially be broken after being informed by Smiley that Verr Goldet is treating you in one of the spare rooms of the inn.
The chef explained that you came back bleeding from a commission which caused a great shock when the boss of the inn had caught sight of you.
The bleeding couldn’t be stopped so verr goldet had to fetch a first aid before ushering you to follow her, while instructing the chef who was currently off from his duties to look for Xiao and inform him of your condition.
The yaksha has to physically restrain himself from crashing the polearm in his hands as Smiley continued to tell him that a group of treasure horders tried to rob you after doing the commission and if you didn't have enough strength to fight them off, you could have also been brought as a hostage.
Numeral possibilities began to cloud his mind, and it was not helping that they were all made out of negativity, as he was losing every ounce of his patience left from going on a search for that hoarders that tried to take advantage of you in your vulnerable state.
How could this happen? he was always there to be your protector, a vow that he swore to himself whenever you’re in danger, so why did this happen? 
Why didn’t you call his name? at that time, were you thinking that it will be your last breath? is that why? because you didn’t want him to experience holding your lifeless body in his arms?
He didn’t even waste a single second teleporting to your door after the chef gave him the go-signal to visit you, and just to his luck it was the same exact moment that Verr Goldet had left the room with multiple cottons that has patches of blood on it, on the first aid in her hands.
Verr Goldet could see the evident concern and worry on Xiao's face which was a rare behavior from him, so to ease his worries the lady approached him and informed the yaksha that your wounds are already patched up. It might take some time for some of the injuries to heal, so the least thing he could do right now is to monitor the said wounds, if it's causing you further discomfort.
It didn't take too long for the lady of the Inn to fled from the scene, leaving Xiao on his own who still didn't dare to enter the room, as he was too afraid to touch you that even a single finger could be the continuous cause of your pain.
He hesitantly slid the door to open, and there found you buried in the blanket of the futon as the yaksha freezes in his position, cautiously checking if the sound he was making is disturbing you. The steady circulation of your breathing could be seen from the corner of his eye, but it wasn't enough to ease his worries.
Knowing that he had mastered the ability of staying quiet, he soon finds himself standing over your figure, while carefully searching for any expression on your face to tell him if one of the wounds are acting up to give you any displeasure.
After monitoring that you were doing okay at the moment, the heavy weight that he has been carrying on his shoulders were lifted up, as Xiao let out a shaky sigh of relief and his knees gave up on the floor beside the futon you’re laying on.
Words are not enough to describe how terrified he was and how his world stopped moving for a moment after the words had reached his ears that you were hurt, that he could have almost lost you then and there if not for your strong will to go back home to him.
He’s no stranger to loss, he had experienced this same feeling many years ago after losing his known family because of the karmic debt, but for some reason he was saved by the geo archon himself, and up until now he continued to question that why of all people, why was he saved from his suffering? what is his purpose?
Xiao was engrossed by the thoughts that are plaguing his mind, not until he turned back to look at your sleeping form just to check if you’re peace isn’t being interrupted, and at that moment, that exact time, there was the answer he has been looking for, it was right in front of him all this time.
It was you, you were the answer. He was born to meet you, he was saved to protect you and he was saved to love you.
Xiao lifted his hand to caress your face, and you subconsciously reacted to it, as you leaned your face into his hand, and as much as he wants to search for the treasure hoarders that even dared to scratch the only person he puts effort in, he doesn’t pay attention to it at the moment since he prefers to not be separated with you for a second, fearing that your condition will get worse if he leaves your side.
It was a naive move for this hoarders, who even thought that they would not be punished because of their actions, and it was also naive of them to think that there is nobody who’s brave enough to face them. However, all those pride and bravery will be gone in an instant, once xiao has set his eyes on them.
For now, they may move freely wherever they please but the moment he could put his emotions and mind in peace after seeing a good progress from your recovery, he would not hesitate to tear every inch of teyvat looking for the hoarders.
“..Please, call my name next time. No matter how many times you call it, I will always be a second earlier to it”
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AETHER.
The panic flashes through his eyes, as he tried to keep his emotions and thoughts in check, but failed to do so because he couldn’t bear to see you suffer any longer.
The both of you were just trying to finish the last commission for the day by finishing this hilichurl camp near springvale, and because you didn’t pay much attention to your surroundings, you didn’t notice the mitachurl making its way towards you.
It was even too late for aether to notice or at least warn you, that it intentionally hit you on the head with its shield, causing you to collapse on the spot because of the impact.
Only then that the blond was aware of your situation when he heard the panicked screams from paimon, as she desperately flew towards you and tried to wake you up while the creature continues to advance near the both of you.
At that moment, Aether's whole body was paralyzed from the shock and fear that had struck him, as he tried to scream your name, but nothing came out of it. the words were stuck in his throat and all he could do was desperately watch the scene in front of him.
He’s not one to lose his composure completely, but all it took for him to lose it was the mitachurl continuing to take advantage of your vulnerable state as his tiny companion never once left you, and instead hid on the side of your neck as she was on the verge of tears because of your unconsciousness.
In a flash, the said creature was put to rest in aether’s hands as his anger had gotten way ahead of him. He was shaking, and the sword in his hand dropped to the ground creating a clattering sound as he grits in teeth in frustration for carelessly letting that creature harm you.
Mondstadt’s honorary knight? What's the point of holding a title like this, and being showered by constant encouragements from the citizens, when he couldn’t even protect his lover? 
Whispering thoughts of discouragement began to torment his mind, as they began to chant that he isn’t strong enough, that he’s the reason why you’re in this state, that- all those voices vanished in an instant with Paimon's desperate voice overpowering them.
The little mascot was shaking his shoulders vigorously with tear stains on the corner of her eyes, as she shouted at him that they need to bring you to the cathedral now where barbara could help you, and that there wasn’t anytime to waste.
Aether’s feet moved in auto-pilot as he carried you to ride on his back, gripping your legs firmly before making a run for it, while ignoring to catch his breath with paimon flying by his side. screw everything, the only thing racing through his mind right now, is to get you help and the treatment you need.
He can’t lose you, not when he already got separated from his twin
The knights that were on duty to stand guard at the gates of the city, didn’t hesitate to sprang into action after seeing their honorary knight’s desperate and distressed state. The other went to fetch the healers and barbara, while the other assisted by making way for the three of you, as the citizens in mondstadt were left to witness the scene with confused yet terrified expressions.
The blond arrived at the cathedral as he continued to ignore the burning feeling in his lungs, too engrossed and desperate for you to be treated immediately instead.
As Barbara and a knight assisted the both of you to enter the establishment, Aether fell on his knees with a loud thud as the traveler took deep heavy breathes from running while looking at your disappearing form entering the doors of the cathedral.
Before the hydro vision wielder could follow your unconscious body that was being carried by the knight, she felt a desperate hand tugging her back and when she turned to look at the culprit, there she saw Aether on his knees, a few droplets of his tears threatening to fall from the corner of his eye, as the hopelessness in his voice begged her to do everything she could do, to heal and save you.
The deaconess couldn’t help but feel bad for her dear friend, as she patted his shoulder to assure him that you will be alright, and you would recover in no time because you’re in good hands. thus, those were the last words Aether had heard before Barbara turned her back on him, as she proceeded to prepare to heal you with the abilities she has got.
Aether didn’t dared to move from his position despite hearing the pleas and protests from the other knights who had caught wind of the situation, as the only thing swimming in his mind right now, is you and your safety. It continued to be like that, until someone had to at least bring him something to seat on if he’s planning to be waiting for the process to be finished.
He was a complete mess which was something rare to be seen from Paimon's perspective, and despite the aching feeling that the both of them continued to feel, the little mascot still didn’t hesitate to throw in a few words of moral support to the traveler.
Sooner or later, the sound of the doors of the cathedral caught Aether's attention, which caused the blond to stand up from his seat, who was impatiently awaiting for barbara’s response if the process had gone well or could have gone worse, but after seeing the successful and relief look painted on the deaconess’ face, all the big weight that his whole body was carrying have been lifted as if he could breathe again.
It didn’t take too long for aether to enter the cathedral’s infirmary, as he was granted by barbara’s full permission to do so, who had taken pity for the blond and yourself.
As he quietly opened the door, he saw you still in a deep slumber as barbara informed him that you will need to take some nap at the moment, since the hit from the shield was a bit harder than intended.
He gently seated on the side of your bed, watching the fall and rise of your chest, as he scans the bandages that were carefully wrapped around your head, were the bruise was located. he was about to reluctantly touch it but backed up the last minute, as he was too terrified to unintentionally hurt you even more and worse, could interrupt your rest.
Aether held your hands with his, as he placed a chaste kiss on top of it while caressing it gently as he could. the blond soon closed his eyes in relief, letting himself shed the tears he has been holding back for a while now.
If he was only aware of what’s happening around him then this should have never happened, but you’re still here, breathing and alive for him, isn’t it?
Aether may have committed the mistake of not being able to protect you, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to commit the same mistake again, because he’s going to make sure that not even a single finger would harm you, never again.
“Seeing you like this....because of me— it breaks my heart. Rest assured, I won’t let you experience the same thing again”
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PANTALONE.
His smile falters the moment the fatui agents from his divison, entered his office in a nervous and cautious state, to inform him that an enemy of the organization had ambushed you, after knowing that you were the harbinger’s significant other.
The temperature in his room completely drops, as he demanded them to let him see the clearer picture, and no it wasn’t the tone of his voice that made the agents start to shake in their boots, it was also not the pen that he was holding for signing the papers in front of him, that he had snapped in an instant after your name had left their mouth, but it was the continuous smile that he continues to wear, like he isn’t even affected at all.
But behind the facade he puts up for the public, do not be betrayed by his expressions, because deep down he’s actually more affected than you think, and just the thought of someone even daring to touch his precious gem, and leaving their trace on you had made him more livid than he had imagine.
The fatui agents began to push at each other on who should open their mouth, knowing that pantalone doesn’t like to wait especially if it’s about you on the line. The longer they continue to argue who should do it, the shorter the regrator’s patience is running thin from their childish shenanigans.
He absolutely doesn’t have the time for this, as countless thoughts began to stir up in his mind. what if you’re looking for his comfort and assurance right now? what if you’re injuries aren’t being treated yet? what if you think that he doesn’t care at all? what if he loses you before he could even see your condition?
Pantalone clicked his tongue in annoyance and frustration as he raised his voice at them, clearly demanding an explanation before the bubbling anger bursts inside him, which only happens during once a blue moon. His voice alone stopped the dispute between the agents in front of him, as one of them finally decided to took the bait and explain the situation to the harbinger.
Every word that leaves from the agent continued to fuel Pantalone's anger and bloodthirst that was a rare sight to see from him, as he could feel his knuckles underneath the exquisite gloves he wore, started turning white from the pressure of clenching his fist, while trying to put up with the forced smile up on his face.
How dare this people touch you? how dare they even consider that going for his lover, is a great idea? how dare they think they could get away with this?
There’s nothing more than he wants to do about this low lives but to capture and torture them right away, but knowing that you’re probably shaken up and is in need of his presence right now, he decided to set aside those thoughts for now.
As soon as the agent’s explanation had come to an end, the current of the air around the room was completely tense and suffocative, that even the fatui agents standing in front of Pantalone could feel the weighing pressure.
The beat was quiet for a few moments before the man tried to calmly spoke, as he desperately tries to calm himself down from the burning wrath that is boiling inside him, while trying to make his instructions clear to them.
A few minutes has passed by after the confrontation when the fatui agents didn’t wasted a millisecond bringing the ninth to where you are right now, and each step he takes continues to increase the uneasiness pooling inside of him, which was not a common emotion he always show.
The journey to where you’re being assisted and treated at the moment, didn’t take much time as pantalone soon finds himself standing in front of your door, while the agents left him to do some “business” the man gave them before leaving his office.
Pantalone raised his hand which was oddly shaking and reached the door knob to open it slowly, only to find you in a terrified and panicked state, while the healers around you tried to ease your worries, which are what they were doing until all of them stood up professionally before politely exiting the room after seeing the regrator behind the door.
A wave of confusion hits you when they all left the room immediately one by one, until you turned your back and found your lover staring right into your soul, with an unknown emotion painted on his face. Pantalone's posture was too tense, as his eyes carefully and closely dart over you, while looking for the said injuries that the suspect had gave you before looking back at your face.
He took a step towards you, looking for any signs if you don’t want him to go further, but after seeing the encouraging look on your face, he took hurried steps, until he was kneeling in front of you while clasping his hands with yours.
Pantalone touched the side of your face with the back of his hand, as the tear stains in your eyes could still be seen, before he cups your face into his hands as he gently demanded if you have any idea who did this to you, and if you remember at least one of them, but after shaking your head and barely whispering that you just don’t want him to leave you right now, he decided to not question it any further.
He stood up from the floor and soon sat beside you, as he swiftly grabbed your waist and putted you on his lap, as he gave you the opportunity of letting you burry your head on his chest, while his arms enveloped around you like a protective shield before putting a desperate kiss on the top of your head.
Pantalone couldn’t help but to wrap his arms around you tighter but not tight enough to make you uncomfortable as you peacefully lay in his arms. All the stress and headache that he was feeling, were all gone after bringing you back in his open arms, as if you were his only medicine that could genuinely calm him done in this land.
As for the said enemy who was the main cause why you’re in this condition, he would let them run away for now, giving them the chance to think that the fatui would not be able to find them. But let it be a reminder, that once he had gathered the intel that he needs before capturing them, he would not give them a chance to even breathe the same air as you.
In the name of his majesty’s Tsaritsa, he would not let this same scenario happen again, he would not let you be harmed again, he would not let the only thing, that’s keeping him in check be taken away from him by some low lives and for those people who are responsible for this, would be met with a severe punishment from him.
And no, he doesn’t care if the expensive and ravishing clothes he’s wearing would be tainted by their blood, he’s not the wealthiest out of the harbingers isn’t it? He could easily replaced those with a chunk of cash.
They may have thought that they could escape from someone as him, but their judgement was wrong when they will soon find themselves trap in a cage like a helpless bird, once they are in his control and territory.
One thing's for sure, and that is they should have known better than to underestimate Pantalone’s wrath.
“Shh my treasure, it’s okay. I’m here, and I don’t plan to leave any sooner. Would you like anything while you’re on bed rest?”
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colubrina · 3 months
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idk if you have a TikTok or if you keep up with the HP fandom over there; but apparently manacled by SenLinYu was posted on Amazon for purchase (not by the author). It’s since been removed but was up for more than a couple days. And there were individuals on TikTok that just didnt understand why others were getting so upset. Like let’s disregard the fact that someone other than the original author profiting off this work, but I actually saw people that were very firm in the belief that they could sell fanfic. Whether that be through book binds, cases like this, or commissions/Patreon. I’m an elder gen Z, and I remember coming into the fanfiction spaces pretty early on maybe like 07-08?? I think I was 9-10 reading HP fics on fanfiction.net and very vividly remember everyone being super specific about “this is not my sandbox, I’m just playing around” or “If you recognize anything, it doesn’t belong to me”. So I’m always surprised by people that really don’t see a problem with it. I’ve even seen people claim that it will either fall within the limits of fair use or that it would be a PR nightmare for someone to go after someone. I guess I was 1.) just wanting to rant about how shortsighted I think it was to someone that was around in fanfic space before 2015 and 2.) get thoughts from an author that I feel like has had several popular/successful fics in the fandom.
Yeah, I've got a TikTok. I never post anything, but I try to share anything people make that's nice about my old fics. I always have this half-assed feeling like I should make things but I don't. (https://www.tiktok.com/@colubrina_)
2. Congrats to Senlinyu on her book deal - very cool!
3. And yeah, I saw that people were doing that, and I wish I was surprised but I'm not. There's always been a not-insignificant part of the dramione fandom that sees the fics as 'belonging to the fandom.' They will post them on sites where the author doesn't want them. They will host PDFs online even when you directly ask them not to. They will rehost fics authors have taken down, orphaning them on AO3 so they can't be stopped. They don't see it as stealing because they see the fics as public property. It was probably just a matter of time before they started trying to host them on Amazon. It's frustrating for sure, but it does feel a bit like 'here we go again.' It certainly doesn't fall under fair use, and I think Manacled might be one of the very few fics that will have a legal department eager to keep it offline so the publisher can make their money from it, but other people will be less fortunate. Fic has become enough of a part of the ecosystem it's not at any kind of risk as an artform. But, yeah, it sucks. Be nice to your authors. Respect their wishes. Don't do this shit.
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befemininenow · 1 year
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Deep inside, you know your inner gender is feminine. After years of being trapped inside, you are finally euphoric seeing yourself in the mirror. Don’t be afraid! Come out as trans and become the woman inside you!
Here is the last remake caption, and it’s my first one that I uploaded: https://www.tumblr.com/befemininenow/692788633928957952/let-your-feminine-side-loose-feminize-yourself?source=share
This picture has been used in various captions for several years and the original source has been difficult to track. I gave this pic my own twist when I started making captions, but I still had enough time to track down the original. It turns out that the picture I used was an edit that got lost through time. The original picture is actually from a DeviantArt commission made by user kittymellow (formerly rockangel150), a TG transformation creator I followed years back!
https://www.deviantart.com/kittymellow/art/Becoming-Cynthia-679430478
Now you know who was the one behind the pic. When it comes to “forced feminization”, I’m more of a TG transformation type. However, my favorite TG transformation posts were the ones where the transformed girl not only still has their memories prior, but embraces their feminine self. This one pic shows how the person in the dress looks themselves in the mirror and feels euphoric. It’s nice to see euphoric TG art where the character feels comfortable being in the right gender without being subject to mind control or humiliation.
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bohbee · 1 year
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Genshin characters reacting to GN reader falling asleep.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Masterlist
Characters: Aether, Albedo, Diluc, Kaeya, Venti.
Warnings: Drunk (y/n)[Diluc], scared kaeya?, spoilers for some characters.
Notes: I have literally never used Tumblr before, but I am going to attempt
:)
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Aether (& paimon ig lmao)
You and Aether had just completed several commissions, and now the two of you were sitting underneath a tree just outside of Liyue Harbor. A small breeze hit as Paimon spoke aloud "Man today sure was rough, Paimon thinks we deserved more than we got!" The small floating human stomped in the air, causing Aether to laugh. He went to respond, but a thump on his shoulder stopped him from doing so. His golden eyes looked down at his arm only to find you, his beautiful lover slumped over. Your eyes were closed, and your mouth slightly agape.
The blonde male smiled softly and kissed your forehead, "Let's go to the Baiju Guesthouse. It seems like those commissions exhausted them." He said with a soft giggle to Paimon, his arms carefully scooping you up bridal style as he headed to the inn.
Aethers floating companion opened to door for the two of you. He walked over to the bed, carefully placing you on the mattress and covering you with the blanket. He would then crawl in beside you, holding your body close, giving a soft kiss to your cheek.
(Paimon got lonely in the other bed and flew over and sprawled over the two of you)
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Albedo
The heavy sharp sounds of the cold wind of Dragonspine could be heard from the entrance of the cave. You were Albedos assistant and lover, of course. The two of you were up late sorting through papers to find the results for a very old test. "Dear, do you think we had let Sucrose lend it? I am fairly certain she might know where it is." the blonde male asked. However, he did not get a response, causing him to turn around confused. "Dear-" he cut himself off at the sight of you, papers sprawled around the desk, your head laying on your arm, as your body slightly shivered.
He let out a rare smile and walked over to you, savoring the moment. He took off his coat and laid it on your shoulders, giving you a chaste kiss on your neck. "Sleep well, I love you dear" he said softly.
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Diluc
Whenever Diluc would take a shift at the Tavern, you would always go with him. Sitting near him while he worked diligently, it wasn't often you would get drunk.... However, tonight was surely an exception. Venti, Kaeya, and Rosaria had sat around you laughing and drinking. And thus, here we are. The Tavern was loud. Laughter and clanking could be heard on both floors.
Diluc huffed and turned his head to his beautiful lover. Your cheek was smushed as your head laid on Kaeyas shoulder. The red-haired brother knew you were his, but it irked him to see his lover on the blue haired male. Kaeya smirked at his brothers scowl, "Don't worry 'luc, they're all yours." he said waving his free arm around.
Once the Tavern closed, he softly grabbed you, hoisting you on his back as he walked towards his winery. He smiled softly as you mumbled something in your sleep, "What am I gonna do with you, my love?"
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Kaeya
The blue-haired captain of the Knights of Favonius often worked late, leaving you alone at your shared home. However, you would always stay awake and waited for him to make sure he would come back safe. Though tonight was a very long night, keys could be heard jingling the doornob. The door opened, revealing an exhausted cyro user, who luckily had a day off tomorrow. His brow raised up high as he realized his lover wasn't their to greet him, panic settled it. Yeah, he probably should've thought it through, but he wasn't in the right mind for that. Kaeya raced around the house, his thoughts jumbling around, thinking his past had finally caught up to him, taking the one thing he cherished most. However, his fearful thinking came to an end as he saw your gorgeous face pressed against your book, you slow breaths softly moving the pages.
He breathed out heavily, moving your chair ever so slightly. He carefully picked you up and walked towards your room, causing you to grumble a bit. "Shh now darling, I'm here I'm here."
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Venti
It wasn't often that the loud couple was seen separated, but Venti had duties as an Archon. Today, he had left to see his long-time friend Dvalin. You walked around Mondstat quickly getting bored without your loud bard around, so you decided to fix that, and you walked over to Windrise.
The sun set as Venti finished his hangout. He said a quick goodbye and headed over to his city of Mondstat. However, he knew you weren't there, the winds guided him to his beloved. Venti let out an "ehe" as he saw you curled up at the base of his statue. He walked up to you and laid his head on your lap, interlacing his fingers with yours. His beautiful eyes stared at your precious face. "Sleep well, my windblume." he said before closing his eyes.
♡♡♡♡♡♡
Okay I hope that was atleast alright? I'll probably do a part two in like 30 minutes
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the--rebel--fae · 2 months
Note
Hello! I saw you were taking requests for Hazbin characters? If you could, do you mind writing a one-shot for Vox and a fem!reader who has hacking as a hobby and sometimes uses the knowledge to slightly screw with the TV man when he's not giving her enough attention?
A/N: I'd be delighted to write this, my friend! Especially since it's Vox! I adore the TV man and the idea of him having a hacker girlfriend? That's genius! I hope you enjoy it!
Pairing: Vox x Reader
TW: None! Just silliness and fluff!
Word Count: 332
Pay attention To Me!
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You were bored. No other way to put it. You considered going down to Velvette’s floor and seeing if she needed help with anything, but you didn’t exactly want to be roped into being her temporary model like you usually end up being every time you go there. And there was no way in hell you were going anywhere near Val. You may be Vox’s girlfriend and Val was surprisingly ok with that, but you couldn’t stand the moth. Especially with how he treated his “Stars” specifically Angel Dust. 
So. your boyfriend was all that was left. One problem though, you went down to his monitor room earlier to spend time with him, but he said he was busy with his work and couldn’t spend time with you at the time. But he would come up to your shared suite and spend time with you after he was done. 
That was three hours ago. 
Safe to say you wanted your boyfriend’s company and he was going to give it to you whether he was busy or not. You got up from the big plush couch you were sprawled across and went over to your laptop. 
Grinning to yourself, you powered the device up and dove into Vox’s business network. You couldn’t help the small chuckle as you slipped through the defenses so easily. You tried to tell him that he needed to strengthen his security, maybe now he’ll not only learn to pay more attention to you, but he’ll let you actually go in and strengthen his network. 
“Alright, my love. Think of this as a little payback for ignoring me the whole day.” You let out a giggle as you sent one of the newest most annoying earworm tunes to completely replace each screen in his monitor room. 
You put your hands behind your head and grinned as wide as the cheshire cat. “And three…two…one…”
You phone buzzed and you glanced down at it with a chuckle.
Vox: My monitor room. Now.
Hope you enjoyed the story! I know I had a lot of fun with this. Feel free to request again!
And if you guys want even more stories--like maybe your own personalized several-page long one-shots or even a multi-chap fic take a look at my Etsy Shop! I do commissions! I even have listings for Hazbin Hotel!
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Okay, now that the blog finally got unflagged, I can share this! Massive thanks to @benjimatorarts for accepting this commission– I'm delighted with how it turned out! It's nice to have a sort of "cover" for this AU, especially since it's been ruling my life for the past month.
For those who don't know, this AU is predicated on the theory that Niffty is actually a former overlord who Alastor somehow drove into insanity. The story is based around the question: "What if he did the same to Vox?" Developing this AU has been an ongoing collaborative effort between myself and several lovely frequent contributors, and I've really enjoyed what we've put together so far! We mostly focus on Vox's relationship with the Vees in the aftermath of the event and the psychological/emotional fallout thereof, as well as Alastor's reappearance seven years later, when he summons Vox to join him at the hotel. It's honestly been a ton of fun to work on and I think we've gotten some really good angst/black comedy out of it!
But yeah, enough pitching– thank you again to @benjimatorarts for the piece!
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wallfl0wer-babe · 9 months
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Interesting Solution (Keigo x AFABReader) 18+
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18+ CONTENT MINORS DO NOT INTERACT
Content Warning- Unprotected sex, filmed sex, praise, dirty talk, creampie, rough sex, squirting
Synopsis: After a video of you and Hawks having sex is leaked Keigo decides that the best way to respond is to make and post a video yourselves.
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You took a deep breath to calm your nerves as you checked your appearance in the mirror, admiring the way the lacy red lingerie hugged your curves so perfectly.
When Keigo had first proposed the idea to film and upload a porn video of the two of you, you had thought the stress from the scandal had finally gotten to him. The two of you had spent the past several days avoiding going out into public after someone had somehow gotten footage of the two of your having sex in his office and uploaded it to several porn sites. The Commission had gotten it taken down as soon as they learned about it, the problem was every time it was got taken down it would immediately be re-uploaded and the user who uploaded it was untraceable. It was certainly not the way you had wanted your relationship with Keigo to be made public.
The original video was leaked for the sole purpose of humiliating the both of you, so here you and Keigo were proving their failure by filming a video of your own. Despite Keigo's constant reassurance you were still a bit nervous about the repercussions, which led you to fighting against anxiety and insecurities in the bathroom.
"You doing ok in there, pretty bird?" Keigo asked through the door, with a small knock to announce he was coming in. He whistled at your appearance, admiring the way the lingerie complimented your body. "Damn you look sexy~" He said, wrapping his arms around you from behind.
"You ready?" The look of hesitation the flashed across your face had him tilting your head back to meet his gaze. "We don't have to do this, you know?" His concern and tenderness allowed you to shake away your worries. "I'm fine, I'm just a little nervous is all." He raised his eyebrow. "You sure?" You gave him a soft smile and kissed his chin, the stubble tickling your lips. "I'm sure, besides I'd hate to be the one to ruin this cocky bastard image you've created for yourself." Keigo laughed and scooped you into his arms, carrying you over to your shared bed. "The world wouldn't be able to cope with such a tragedy." He cut off your laugh with a passionate kiss, pinning your body to the bed.
After a few minutes of the kiss, which left your lips bruised, Keigo finally pulled away to give the both of you a chance to breath. "You do realize we're not filming yet?" You teased, earning a smirk and quick peck from him. "I'll let you have that one for free since you dressed up all pretty for me." You rolled your eyes with a huff, your eyes trailing over every camera in the room. "It's just so we can get several different angles, though I'm sure you'll look sexy in every one of them." He said, ignoring your questioning gaze. "I think you're a little too prepared for someone who just came up with the idea yesterday." Keigo's feathers briefly flittered at your statement, something he instinctually did whenever he was nervous.
"Whatever, just turn the cameras on so we can fuck already." You whined, too horny to care about the details. "So needy" Keigo laughed, crawling over you and activating the camera's with a remote. Keigo immediately captured your lips in another passionate kiss, flipping the two of you over so you were the one on top.
Pushing your thong to the side he rubbed his fingers between your pussy lips. "Such a wet pussy, so ready to ride my dick~" Keigo delivered a light slap to ass, his cock twitching at the way the fat jiggled against the palm of his hand. "Take these off for me." He demanded, tugging at the thong and unclipping the bra. He watched with lust clouded eyes as you removed the lingerie, eagerly shoving down his boxers to release his throbbing cock as you did. "Fuck look at you sexy girl, ready for me to impale you on this thick cock?~" You responded with a shy nod only to receive a rough slap on your bare ass. "Answer me properly, do you want me to stuff that tight cunt?" You whimpered, biting back the embarrassment. "Please Hawks~ I need your cock so bad, please fill up my slutty pussy and pump it full with your cum~" Keigo groaned, pulling your hips to hover over his meaty raw cock. "That's it sexy girl, take this fat cock like the slut you are!" You shrieked as he forced you down onto his entire girthy shaft, filling you just like you had begged for. He grunted at the way your pussy swallowed his inches, the plush walls wrapping snugly around his sizable dick.
After taking a brief moment to let you adjust to considerable size Keigo started to buck into you with powerful and aggressive thrusts. "Fuck, I love this tight cunt, god it milks my cock perfectly-Oh fuck!" You began to bounce on his cock, meeting his harsh thrusts that hammered at your cervix and stimulated all the sweet spots that left you seeing stars.
Keigo began to massage your sensitive nub, hissing as you dragged your nails down his chest because of the unexpected extra stimulation. "God, baby bird, the way your pussy is devouring my cock is driving me insane-shit!" Your pussy fluttered around his cock, at the feeling of him lightly pinching your clit. "Haw... ah Hawwkkss...plea..pleaasseee ahh~" You were teetering on the edge of your climax, ecstasy just barely out of reach. "Does my slutty girl need to cum?" Keigo teased, pulling his thumb away from your swollen nub. Your eyes watered from the loss of the stimulation, desperate for release. "Don't cry baby bird, I'll give you what you need."
He used one of his feathers to stroke your clit, pulling and squeezing your perky nipples between his rough fingers. You tossed your head back at the sensation, your eyes rolling back into your skull as pleasure raked over your body. "That's it pretty bird squirt all over this cock~" Your body shuddered in ecstasy as your fluids coated Keigo's abs. "Oh fuck, that's it sexy...shit I'm gonna stuff this cunt so good~"
His harsh pace turned animalistic, rutting into you frantically, overtaken with the need to flood your tight pussy with his seed. In your fucked out state, still panting and recovering from orgasm, you grabbed onto his wings for purchase. Keigo let out a string of groans, tightly gripping onto your hips as he held you down on his twitching cock, the bulbous head pressing into your bruised and sore cervix while his strong grip prevented you from moving away. He nuzzled into you neck as he emptied his heavy load inside you, letting out a chirp of satisfaction at the way your greedy pussy swallowed his cum. "Shit pretty bird, take that cum...oh fuck that wombs just stuffed with my seed ain't she? Shiiittt!~" With one final shallow thrust he pulled his softening cock out of your sensitive pussy, stuffing the creamy cum the dribbled from it back in with his fingers.
Tired and cock drunk you collapsed on his chest, watching him fumble for the camera's remote through hooded eyes. He rubbed your back and captured your lips in a sloppy and passionate kiss.
After coming down from his high he walked over to the bathroom and filled the tub with water, pouring in some of your favorite bath salts. After the bath was ready he carried your sweaty and worn out body over to it and gently laid you inside with a kiss to your forehead and the back of your hand. "You relax pretty bird, I'll take care of the rest." You hummed in response, sinking into the warm water and inhaling the scent of the bath salts. Keigo smiled before returning to the bedroom and pulling out his computer.
By the time your had finished your bath and walked out wrapped in a fluffy towel he had already edited the video and uploaded it to several porn sites and was now replacing the sheets and blankets for the bed. You gave him a soft kiss on the cheek as thanks and slipped on a pair of panties, throwing one of Keigo's shirts over your head before joining him in the freshly made bed. "You enjoy your bath pretty bird?" You hummed, snuggling into his bare chest while he wrapped a muscled arm around your body. Thinking of a way to convince you to do more videos in the future.
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Dabi desperately fisted his cock to the video Hawks had uploaded titled 'Enjoy The Show Bastards. When he had leaked a video of you and Hawks fucking he had no idea this would be the outcome, but he certainly wasn't complaining. He may not have succeeded in humiliating you and Hawks, but at least he got some new fap material out of it. He was tempted to release another porn video of the two of you in hopes it would have the same erotic results.
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quirkless-accident · 9 months
Note
Danny secretly reforming LoV
(aka there are benefits of having 2 forms and being an underground hero/ spy other than flushing out human trafficking rings)
Danny is a secret powerhouse.
Sure, he's got the powers and personality for his daytime endeavors, but that's always been Phantom.
Fenton, however, is a different story.
He's got a few useful powers, and he's been asked on several occasions to work with some underground heroes that he just ended up being some sort of a double agent. Phantom is daylight, Fenton is nighttime, and neither are getting any kind of sleep.
Tonight, he gets a tip from about a bar.
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Meeting the League of Villains like this was not something he had mentally prepared himself for, but due to his general experiences he's able to school his expressions pretty well.
He's advertised his quirk to his contact as a general enhancer. His senses and strength are different enough from his more physical ghost powers for this to be a solid play, and keeping these particular cards close to his chest has gotten out of more than a couple scrapes. So when he walks into the bar owned by the League, he stands a bit taller, quirks his head a bit more, sniffs the air, and narrows his eyes at everybody.
He's a big guy. He got his father's genetics when it came to height, and he comes up to a respectable 6'7", and with his many years of training and hero work, he's bulked out quite a bit. All this to say is, even Fenton is a formidable foe. In the lion's den, he's gotta show that he's not one to be messed with.
"Name's Yokai," Danny tells them. "I heard you might be looking for new members?"
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It goes well enough. Danny proves he can bring his own natural talents to the table, and lies through his teeth enough to convince them he's fully on their side. And though he didn't lie about hating the government and the Commission, it's still a pretty solid performance.
There's a weird energy around Kurogiri that sends a cold shiver down his spine. It's enough to clock that there isn't something completely human going on, but not enough to actually activate his ghost sense, which in and of itself is a relief. He has no idea how he would explain that when it's not a part of his known quirks.
Instead, he talks with Spinner first.
He's a stoic kinda guy who seems to be higher up in the ranks due to his ability to keep up with Shigaraki in various video games. He doesn't say much, but when he does speak it's practiced, calculated, as if one wrong word will get him thrown out. Danny knows it's something he's probably had to deal with his entire life. Not everybody is so accepting of mutation quirks that are as drastic as Spinner's.
He's also one of Stain's followers, which will either make things incredibly complicated, or a little easier on him.
Toga is, too, and it looks like Dabi has his own plans. The League for him just seems to be a way to enact them without much getting in his way.
He shares hobby with Spinner and gossips with Toga while they do each other's hair. While he can't let her feed on him for obvious reasons, every time he visits them he makes sure to bring a bag with him that he steals from a random hospital.
With Magne they talk about different parenting tactics, because while neither of them technically are, they're close enough. Danny's got Elle and Magne has this colorful crew to look after. They also talk about sexuality and gender, and Danny has had no discomfort in showing her the twin scars on his chest.
If they hug it out after that particularly emotional conversation, well, everybody is smart enough to keep their mouths shut.
With Mr. Compress, he's more of a theatrical kind of guy. Danny brushes up on his Shakespeare, giving a million thanks to Mr. Lancer as he does so, so he can converse with the man. Danny shows him a few complicated card tricks that make Compress chuckle at him as if he's a child, but Danny doesn't find himself minding one bit.
He goes through the whole League like that, more or less. He doesn't know when this became less of an information-gathering mission and more of a gentle-reformation one instead, but he can't say the results aren't there. They all look a bit more relaxed and at ease. Danny finds himself wanting to take care of them.
He of all people understands what it's like being different. Growing up quirkless and then struggling after his accident, he's never quite fit in. Unfit for regular society, not human enough or ghost enough to properly be in either world. He finds that most of the League have the mindset they'd of because of how society has treated them. And while their actions haven't been okay, he can't say he doesn't understand. If he had had a worse support system he probably would have ended up just like them.
Kurogiri is the one he doesn't hang out with much. Not because of any particular reason. He's usually busy cleaning, or breaking up fights, or setting up meetings or off doing who knows what. Because of his fast travel ability he's constantly running errands for everybody.
But when he does take a moment and slow down, he and Danny share some tea together. Or rather, Danny drinks tea in Kurogiri's quiet comfort. His motivations seem more protective than they are malicious, and that's something that Danny understands all too well. Even if the one he's protecting is a mislead murderer.
Because of their naturally ghostly nature, the two can communicate seamlessly without words. There's this underlying current of emotions that only they're aware of, and Danny's not sure if Kurogiri really even notices. Having not been around ectoplasm or ghosts in general, it can be hard to put a name to what this weird emotional feedback loop is. But Danny's got plenty of experience under his belt to realize that it's ghost related.
With this feedback loop and Kurogiri's general vibe, he eventually figures it out. It takes him a long time, but once he learned it was possible, the answer seemed obvious.
Two souls forcibly inhabiting one body, and neither one of them are in true control. He's not really sure how it was done, and he's not sure how to fix it without completely blowing his cover. Going in and separating the parasite from the host wouldn't be too much trouble with his overshadowing ability, but it's not something he can just do in the presence of the League.
He sips his tea instead.
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There's something familiar about the name Shigaraki but Danny can't for the life of him place it. Maybe it's because he raided the USJ during a training exercise in a desperate attempt to kill All Might. Maybe it's because he's the leader and figurehead of the League. But it's more than that, isn't it?
He just can't figure it out.
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Months go by like this. Danny brings them things like medical supplies, gloves for Shigaraki, books for Compress, some high end burn cream for Dabi to prolong the effects of his quirk. He takes care of them, and in turn they trust him with information. Not enough to really do anything with it, but sometimes they tell him about a drop that happened, or a supply run they're hitting. A man named Sensei is mentioned more often than not, and he has to wonder if they've told this guy about Danny as much as they've told Danny about Sensei.
He's more than a little intrigued by this mysterious boogieman, and more concerned by the second about the mental toll he's taken on Shigaraki.
It's obvious the kid-because that's what he is to an immortal like Danny-didn't have a nice childhood. With a quirk like his, he probably had a rough awakening. His parents either didn't accept it or they were killed, or maybe they abandoned him. Either way, the clear malicious intent Sensei has with Shigaraki rubs Danny the wrong way, but he's not sure how to broach the subject without setting him off, and tipping everybody off that he's not really who he says he is.
It all comes to a head when Danny is invited to meet this Sensei character. He goes through Kurogiri's portal somewhere in the middle of the pack, with Shigaraki leading the charge. They enter into this large, cavernous room with giant Nomu test tubes lining the walls. In the very back, sitting on a high chair above the reason of them, was a man that just had an overwhelming sense of wrong. Hooked up to dozens of machines, Danny could tell that this man was more powerful than most of the S-Tier villains and ghosts he's fought. And judging from the weird energy that's similar to Kurogiri's, with an underlying current of maliciousness, it's not a surprising realization to Danny that this person should be dead.
"Ah, the famous Yokai," the villain drawls. Danny narrows his eyes as he feels a prodding sensation in the back of his mind, and firmly puts up all of his mental defenses. He's been mind controlled enough to know what it feels like, and he's not about to let some boogieman get the advantage on him.
"Ah, it seems like your heightened senses are good for more than just surveillance," the man says.
"It's a fun little party trick," Danny replies, trying his best to keep the edge out of his voice. Judging from the side eye that Dabi gives him, it's obvious he doesn't do a very good job of it.
The League up to this point has always been pretty laid back. Dabi especially usually has this aloof vibe he puts off, but all of them seem to be on high alert now. Backs are straight and their attention is forcibly stolen by the man in the chair.
"It's not very often that my young pupil finds someone worth his interest."
The nagging feeling in the back of his head is back, a more forceful prodding this time, and Danny closes his eyes to focus on blocking the intruder out. When he opens them again, there's a distinct chill in the air, and everyone has taken a step back from him.
He doesn't need to look in a mirror to know that his eyes are a ghostly green.
Fuck.
"You should be dead," Danny tells Sensei. His voice has this unearthly echo too it, laired in a way that tells everybody he's got just as much power as the man sitting in front of them. There's a sense of danger coming from from him, but it's directed at Sensei. His protective aura washes over the League, wanting to keep them from this battle for their own safety.
He takes a deep breath in, and lets his transformation take place. As he does so, it's like a little piece to the puzzle has unlocked itself.
Years ago-nearly a hundred years ago now-Clockwork had told Danny about a man named Shigaraki. About how he's cheated death time and time again, and how he will continue to do so. Danny had asked if he needed to go and stop him, and Clockwork had said it wasn't the right time.
With the man right in front of him, Danny can't think of a better opportunity.
The League steps back and braces for battle, and as much as Danny understands, it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.
"I'm sorry for lying to you all," he tells them. "But for what it's worth, I truly do consider you to be friends."
Without anymore fanfare, Danny launches himself at All for One.
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It's a long battle that takes down most of this mysterious warehouse they're in, as well as several of the nomus.
Danny pulls himself out of the rubble, stumbling as he does so. he's heavily injured, and ectoplasm is leaking out of him at an alarming rate, but dying is quite possibly the least of his worries.
During the fight, the League had tried to help, but it seems as though All for One wanted Danny to himself. He had protected them from AfO for as long as he could, but in the end Kurogiri was forced to take everyone away.
They would never trust him again. They would never want to be around him again. Danny should be okay with that because they're villains and he's a hero but he knows deep down that it's far more complicated than the black and white world most people want to believe in. Just because they're villains doesn't mean they're inherently bad people.
All for One is gone. Died and ended, with no hopes of ever coming back as a ghost, but in doing so he pushed away his friends. This little family he's found himself in.
There are helicopters and news anchors and paramedics and whatnot, and it's all too loud, too much, and it nearly overwhelms him.
So he disappears.
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He doesn't want to go home to his lonely apartment so he doesn't. He can't call anybody or tell anybody because this is off the record and confidential to the nth level. So he goes to the one safe place he can think of.
Floating into the bar, he's not surprised to see it abandoned. Everything is still there, left behind by the previous owners, but nobody's there to greet him like usual.
It's fine. Danny expected this.
He didn't expect the ache in his core to come with it though.
He goes through the motions of hunting down a half decent first aid kit and gets to work, dumping alcohol on his wounds and sewing them up with practiced precision.
He's about halfway through with a particularly nasty gash on his arm when Kurogiri's portal opens in the middle of the bar, and the League steps out.
They look pissed, and Danny can't blame them. If he were them, he'd be pissed too. But now that his secret is out, he can finally do something he's been itching to do for months.
He ties off the stitches and wipes it down with a relatively clean rag before stepping up to Kurogiri. Everybody tenses, but with a nod from Kurogiri, they don't attack.
Danny transforms once more, and places his hands inside of Kurogiri's chest.
With his experience, it only takes a couple of minutes to separate the two. He pulls this purple, pulsing blob out of the host, and without anything to feed on, it dissipates.
Who's left is a man with clouds for hair and a bandage over his nose.
"i-I'm me again," he says, almost in awe.
"Took me a while to figure it out since I was undercover, but I figured that might help you out. Having a parasite forcibly put into your body like that can't exactly be good for your health."
"Thank you. Name's Oboro Shirakumo. Legally dead, I guess."
"Well, that makes two of us, I suppose."
"What do you mean? You're a daylight hero at the top of the charts, there's no way you're dead!"
Danny gives Toga a small, sad smile.
"Phantom is a daylight hero. Fenton, though...He's been legally dead for nearly a hundred years."
It takes a while to explain the accident and his growing up quirkless, but in the end, the League doesn't kill him. Maybe because they know it won't do them much good. But by the time he's done, he gives them an opportunity.
"Listen, I know things are complicated now, but...I've got a big house with more than enough rooms for everybody if you need a place to stay."
Wordlessly, the League looks to Shigaraki, who mulls over it for quite some time before shrugging.
"As long as it's better than this dump."
Danny can't help but give a relieved grin.
"Let's go home, then."
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mrs-snape5984 · 25 days
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“Take my mind and take my pain…”
“Like an empty bottle takes the rain. And heal, heal, heal….” (“Heal” by Tom Odell)
Nighttime is my favourite time of the day. Being surrounded by this natural darkness and silence (not in the way, in which I have to “mute” the world all day long by shutting the blinds and wearing noise cancelling headphones to avoid being overstimulated) makes me feel…safe. Almost content.
In some nights, I’m even strong enough to leave my room, so I can sit outside on my balcony, enjoying a fresh breeze on my face. The world is silent, there’s no car on the streets and all I see, is the Moselle glistening in the moonlight in front of me. Finally feeling human again…
During the phases of my crashes, I can’t even step outside to my balcony. Sometimes I’m desperate enough to crawl outside, when my legs are refusing to do their goddamn job even with the help of my cane! In these moments, I’m glad to be alone…without any witnesses to my humiliation.
Last night was a lost night. I passed out…again. It scares me to hell that these moments are happening more often nowadays. All I know, is that I sat down on my bed…crying from exhaustion and pain. And hours later, when I’m coming back to consciousness, I’m still in the same sitting position. There are proofs in my room, that my children must have been here…proofs like a drawing lying next to me on my bed…a plushie sitting on my coffee table, watching over me. And I know that my kids will tell me, that I didn’t wake up…no matter what they tried to do.
Yesterday a friend of mine wanted to visit me in order to enjoy a cup of tea with me in the darkness of my room. I was so excited to see her…to have someone here for a little while…to feel less lonely for a moment. My body ached so badly and my exhaustion felt like a truck, who was parking on me…so I passed out whilst I was waiting for my friend to come over. When I came back to senses, there were several text messages and several calls from her. She was upset, that I didn’t hear the doorbell, both of my phones and her knocking on the door. So, after a while, she left…and all what’s left for me is a feeling of being a total failure…a pathetic shadow of myself.
There’s still no cure for ME/CFS…and no one knows, if there’d ever be one. All I can do, is trying different things, and yet…nothing helped me. With each new crash I’m falling deeper into the void of darkness and despair. Each new crash takes its toll on me…takes a piece of me away! I’m so afraid of losing myself completely!
When I commissioned my friend @sleepybradipo for this meaningful piece of art, I begged him to make the trust between Severus and Julia - but also their despair - palpable. They’re searching for a way to heal Jules…to cure her body and her soul. Maybe the answer lies in the Dark Arts…who knows? These lovers will try anything possible in order to save her…just like I wished to be saved.
Ivano, when I got the idea for this project, I just knew, that you would be the best artist to make my dream come true. Your tender style makes my heart swell with so much love and gratitude. I adore your work and the dedication to all these marvellous details in this artwork…it’s everything, I hoped to see, when I described my idea to you. Thank you for helping me to soothe my troubled heart and mind with your beautiful art and your kind words. I’m beyond grateful that I met you here, my friend. You’re truly a blessing to me. Thank you for everything. 🥹
Oh, and please take my apologies for this chaotically worded post. My disease seems to rob the next piece of me by stealing my ability to create vivid images with my phrases (I already mentioned that in my last post).
I’m sharing my nocturnal view with you. Feel free to enjoy the Moselle at night.
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🖤Severus & Julia🖤
🖤Sevy & Jules🖤
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vampucci · 4 months
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MUTUAL AID + ART COMMISSIONS
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Latasha is a 17 year old kid who recently got a place to stay through a housing program after being homeless for several years. Within the last two months she’s had the cops called on her for going in a gym to get out of the cold, gotten pneumonia, been diagnosed with severe asthma, gone to the ER twice, found out she was on the hook for the previous tenant’s unpaid electrical bill, and she’s had to pay out of pocket for expensive medication to survive multiple times. She recently had to evacuate her apartment building because the heating was off during a winter storm, and then when her case manager made complaints, the landlord filed a restraining order against her and Latasha was evicted. She was unable to get her stuff back before being placed in her new unit.
She has absolutely nothing and has been struggling through a terrible commute to work with no bed to sleep on. I’ve been donating everything I can but I’m broke so there’s nothing I can do to help her out, and she has no family or friends in the area.
So donate to her venmo @latashasmith63112 to get a fun picture from me!!! 😎
I mostly do single-character illustration (so stuff like OCs, DnD characters, your special guy), but I can and will draw anything within reason—just ask. For OCs I’d like some form of reference.
Any donation below $25 will be more sketchy, may be B&W or have a few colors. Opt for a bust for slightly more detail, full body for less.
Any donation of $25 or more can have color, more detail, simple shading and/or a partial background.
Any donation of $50 or more or so you can request more complicated color & shading, multiple characters, and/or a full environment.
Any donation of $100 or more can have all that and be more complex and detailed. I can paint it. I’ll do whatever. I would paint horses for this much. It’ll take a bit longer the more you want from me though.
You’re free to negotiate! These are very loose guidelines because I’m happy to be flexible if it encourages you to donate, so if you want something and only have so much to give, ask me anyway.
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For more examples check out my tag. (I can also draw women, I promise)
I rarely take commissions, so there’s currently no limit to how many I’ll take on. I will keep you updated with your expected timeline (smaller donations will take less time).
Just send me a screenshot showing that you donated! (I will also check with Latasha to verify that she got it.) Donate to: latashasmith63112
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You can send me a Tumblr message with your screenshot or email me at [email protected]. My Discord is vampucci. I’ll usually respond within about a day. If you don’t have venmo let me know and I’ll work something out.
(If for whatever reason you don’t care about the art, feel free to just send her money. I will be grateful forever if you do, or if you share the post. She’s a really sweet, thoughtful kid and any help she can receive that brings her joy and relief in an unimaginably cruel world is something truly special. Thanks!)
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