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curtsiesandmuses · 2 months

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ao3 is fucking me up so i’ll post here for the time being. please share with the credits only!!

fandom: hbo succession

ship: roman roy x gerri kellman

themes: it was supposed to be a five times fic but we lower it to three and dont ask questions. precanon + s2 + postcanon. gerri’s practically doing roman character analysis and roman is a slime puppy

It’s 2AM when that happens for the first time — or, at least, that’s how she recalls it an abyss of ten years later. A crazy day filled with Baird’s relatives, hyperactive five graders and “Happy Birthday” pop-tarts was soon to be over, with girls in their beds and Baird hopefully deep in his sleep, and Gerri is cherishing her moment. Any crazy management malfunctions consisting of sleepless nights and Logan throwing laptops at the wall could never stress her out as much as kids birthdays did, but for all she knew she did okay. This one wasn’t a total disaster. Was about time she’d take her mascara off, finish that martini (or what’s left of it), and head to sleep.

Obviously, that’s when the phone rings. How could it not. Gerri takes a long sip and makes up her very own mental kill list, — she will flip Kendall off, she will give Frank a minute to try and talk some sense and flip him off eventually, she will flip Karl off.

”Roman Roy mobile”, her screen confidently says. Gerri likes to think that’s where the problems started.

Roman has always struck her as some twisted middle ground, if that fuckery of a family could ever produce a middle ground. He wasn’t the second Ken, being all over Waystar sniffing cocaine off the executive floor. He wasn’t totally estranged in a different career field (or most literally a field) like Shiv or Connor. Roman was… there, technically. Middle son, various boarding schools, now constantly flying back and forth from California and being a pain in Frank’s ass. Pretty eccentric around the studio. Never missed a corporate retreat. Most information Gerri had on Roman Roy would fit in a nice dry portfolio.

Heavy caged breathing, almost loud enough to disturb the speakers, would not. Sobbing — is he sobbing?

“Gerri. Did they, did I even get the fucking number right? Did they tell you? Are you, like, there yet? You going at all?”

She can physically feel a freezing blow down her spine. He was surely sobbing. Did the old man have a stroke overnight?

“I’m home, Roman. What’s going on?” She tries to balance out the world’s stiffiest question with some softness, too much to her liking, but to no avail.

“Fuck. Fuck! Because I’m dragging my ass all the way from the fucking La-la-land to some hospital, I don’t have the slightest clue where the fuck that’d be, and they didn’t even tell you, and Shiv’s in France for all I know, probably eating a lobster and blowing the cruises dingbat. And dad’s gonna go mental. A great fucking night. They didn’t tell you?”

The shook in his voice is real, and Gerri wishes to believe it’s from the rush: dealing with her own emotions is enough of a challenge, figuring out emotions of a twenty-something nepobaby sounding so broken something sinks down in her ribcage, while knowing so little, is cruel.

“Gerri. Is he, like. Dying?”

Yet, she tries. She puts the glass back on the kitchen sink with a loud, dull noise, she goes for her jacket and the door keys. This fucking job, Gerri thinks. And this fucking family.

“No one is dying, alright? I’ll check on the hospital address and will get back to you. I’ll see you there, Roman.”

Surely it was Kendall. Kendall used a bunch and drove his car into an ice cream stand somewhere around Upper Side; smashed the hood, passed out thanks to the airbag and the weight of his own stupidity; the Hosseini kid company didn’t help much. Karolina gets ahold of the situation an hour later, and that’s how Gerri finds out he got away with few broken bones and that the car was apparently Logan’s (a wild and unfortunate combination of factors, if you ask her, but at least Roman’s concerns didn’t live up to be real).

Gerri walks down a hallway and it’s as messy as hospital hallways get: nurses here and there, Shiv’s nervous voice soaking through Karolina’s firm grab (she’s on speakerphone for God knows what reasons), Frank on his phone. She steps into one of the most depressing waiting rooms she’s ever seen and there’s Roman.

Roman is sitting on the floor, head pressed against a couch, eyes closed. An hour isn’t long enough to fall asleep like that, is it? She’s still quiet when sitting down on that very couch. He moves an inch and rests his head against her knee in dead silence.

Not exactly corporate ethics.

“I told you it’s gonna be alright.”

“Yeah, well. He’s one dumb motherfucker.”

The kid’s a mess, after all. Gerri freezes but gives him a moment, — silence, a hand on his forehead, bit of nothing and everything, — and moves out of the picture right before it turns weird.

Gerri is reading through an impressive pile of emails when her phone buzzes. And it buzzes some more.

Roman’s been on the trainee programme for three days.

“Roman. What is it?” No deep breaths could help her get through that bullshit, but oh well. Gerri puts him on speaker and tries real hard to concentrate on the legal department’s claims.

“I will literally unalive myself. Not even joking. You have no idea how many rape victims kill themselves per year and this is worse, because that’s mind rape. They have a chainsaw going through my fucking head.”

“You don’t how many rape victims kill themselves per year. How’s that my problem anyway?”

“Yeah, let me think, Professor Fucking Evil. For starters, you sent me.” Roman sounds like he’s about to howl. Gerri hides a smile in her palm and looks around at the office, lights from her lamp playing on glassy walls, her daughters’ framed picture by the computer. Good god, she must look stupid. Nothing about the thing was normal, but Roman Roy had a free pass to everything not-so-normal, and she was genuinely confused at the borders of professionalism and playfulness.

Not unamused though.

“It’s for the better. The outlook back in here is highly positive, Logan’s content, Frank is ecstatic. If I were you I’d strategically choose less whining, more working. Yeah, soldier?”

“Okay, whatever, Herr Gerr. One quality picture would’ve bo-o-o-oosted my work efficiency, just saying.” The line between recent despair in his voice and cat-like audacity is way too blurred.

“Oh, fuck you.”

***

There’s beeps. Some more. Gerri sees him through the matte glass door, back hunched, a red shirt she recognizes from a lifetime before; he doesn’t hang up and stares at the screen. She waits for a split second before hanging up.

Honestly, she’s thankful for not seeing his face.

Gerri thought walking inside is hard but approaching the bar is painful. Roman is gazing at his vodka tonic like there’s some serious answers at the bottom, she breathes in one more and thinks about that nightmare of a company, the work that’s to be done, the way Kendall popped his stitches in that room, the way he stomped all over her twenty five years of work, — not something Gerri would easily forgive, — and the way there’s no saving for these kids. If there was, is it right to drown it in a fucking vodka tonic?

“Hey, rockstar”.

“Hey, molewoman”. A chalk-on-the-board voice. Gerri hesitates for another moment and puts both of her hands over his shoulders.

They stay for a while like that.

#succession #succession fanfic #romangerri #romangerri prompt #romangerri fic #one shot #roman roy #gerri kellman #succposting #i love them to DEATH

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canadianlucifer · 2 months

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I just wanna give my two cents on AI since everyone is talking about it again and honestly, AI has a lot of good uses!

AI is what powers characters in video games, it's able to analyze large amounts of data for healthcare or finances, it's able to improve translation of languages, and a lot more. When used properly, AI has plenty of benefits!

The problem is generative AI using content stolen from those who did not consent.

Generating visual art based off artist who work hard to produce their art, singers and voice actors who train their voices being made to sing or say something they didn't, and famous personalities as chatbots. That is what is terrible. It's not only stealing work away from them but trivializing it too.

AI is completely unregulated right now, anyone can use it to do just about anything, and it's completely unethical. What we need is regulations, rules against what can and cannot be made with AI. Ways to differentiate AI generated content from real work a real person put effort into.

I'll be honest and say it proudly: I use AI very often! Synthesizer V is a program I use to make music, like Vocaloid, and it makes use of AI. The difference between SynthV and some "make spongebob sing old town road!" program is:

Everyone who's voice is involved were paid to have it be used

Worked directly with the developers and consented to their voice being recorded for this purpose

And it requires significant effort and practice on the part of the end user to produce something.

I've been practising for ages and I'm nowhere near decent because the AI implemented in it isn't some crutch, it's something that allows for more human creativity! The AI helps make the voice sound more how I want it, but can also convert say, an english voice into spanish! Voice banks usually only come in one language, maybe two, and if you want a song where the vocalist switches languages for a few words or maybe you can't afford to buy another voice bank in a different language or maybe you just really like one's voice over another, it's as simple as flipping a switch! Cross lingual synthesis isn't perfect of course, but it's a lot better than struggling to twist phonemes from one language into another. And that feature is thanks to ethical AI!

AI isn't completely good or completely bad, it's a broad and complex topic. AI generating soulless "art"? Objectively bad. AI assisting artists reach new heights? Very good! Honestly I think the biggest problem is labelling everything that is AI as AI. It's vague and doesn't accurately describe what it does. Artificial intelligence, when I think of it, is a computer that is able to form it's own thoughts separate from any training data. That obviously doesn't exist yet, and what we currently call AI is nothing more than a complex algorithm.

I'm no expert in AI, I haven't got the slightest clue how it works, but I hesitate to denounce all AI when it does have many positives to it. Many negatives too, but everything is some shade of grey.

In short: get explicit consent from artists and compensate them.

#a bit of a mess but i just wanted to get my thoughts on the matter out there

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nellie-elizabeth · 5 months

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Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder (2023 Special 2)

Well, that was about as perfect an episode of this TV show I've ever seen, if I'm being super honest!

Cons:

Hmm. Difficult to say. There were maybe a few things where I would have wished for more, like just an extra dash of something we already got. Like, the clues that the words were a countdown, and the robot was moving to initiate something? I guess the evidence was right there, but I think the counting down bit would have been more satisfying if there had been some way that it was possible for me to suss that out on my own before the Doctor realized it. Like what if there were numbers on a door somewhere and the Doctor does say one of the numbers out loud at some point because he figured out the translation, and it's the number six or something, and then later when we hear it, you might be able to grasp that you've heard that word before? Just a few more breadcrumbs to make the moment when the truth comes out feel really satisfying.

Pros:

But that really is the nitpickiest of nitpicks, like I said, this was... an astonishingly good episode of Doctor Who. I'm sure if you go back and read some of my other reviews, you'll be able to tell that for a long time now, like, a really long time now, this show has been something of a habit I'm keeping up, rather than something that sparks a ton of joy. I've enjoyed plenty of individual episodes, I've felt some measure of connection to various characters, but... it's nostalgia, for me. It's something I'm doing because, I don't know, it's Doctor Who and I've been watching for so long!

But this? Now, I don't want to speak too soon, but this might just be an Episode of All Time for me. It really was so very, very good.

First you've got the great mix of tones. There were ridiculous silly humor bits, like the thing at the beginning with Isaac Newton, and "mavity" that kept recurring throughout. There was the body horror with the "nothings" that took on Donna and the Doctor's shapes, there was the standard horror-movie-esque potential for jump scares as our heroes are running around in the tunnels in the bowels of this ship. There's the relationship drama, the building stress between the Doctor and Donna, and their deep affection underneath that all. There's the extremely fun and also terrifying horror trope of not being able to tell an imposter from the real item, and I thought it was done SO well here. There was the mystery to solve, there were emotional character beats... and it was all there, balanced together so, so well.

I feel like the thing I most want to talk about is how well the Doctor and Donna know each other, but to list examples of that would be just to read off the whole script. I was astonished, heartbroken, moved beyond imagining, by the moment when one of the two Doctors says "you think you're stupid?" to Donna, and both Donnas say that of course they do, and the Doctor says "well, that's very Donna." There's so much there, so much history, unspoken and unknown and unknowable, it's not something they need to discuss. The fact that the Doctor and Donna have just the slightest edge on their imposters because they understand the inherent contradictions of human nature is such a cool idea, and paired with how well they really know each other, it makes for compelling TV!

And the scene I know everybody is going to be talking about, I have to talk about it too: the Doctor opening up about his guilt and grief over what he's learned about his origins and the universe, and then saying, in that shaky little voice, "Donna is that you?" The imposter says "yeah," and the Doctor takes a step forward: "all these years, I've missed you..." Later, when we see the Doctor having a breakdown and screaming and kicking at the wall of the tunnel, it's such a beautifully heartbreaking moment because you know what he's screaming about is that he actually did it, he actually managed to open up to someone, and then it wasn't even real. OUCH!

The scene at the end in the TARDIS carries this on too. It's so brave of the Doctor to broach the subject, and to admit, albeit obliquely, that he's been through some really horrible things and he is very much not okay. Donna doesn't have the knowledge in her head anymore to force him to confront things more directly, but the Doctor does still do the work of reaching out to a friend, however slightly.

The friendship between these two, the chemistry between them as performers, is really something special. I like how in these first two of the three specials, we have a couple of moments lamp-shading the fact that the Doctor is a different guy than he was the last time he and Donna had seen each other. He's more demonstrative, more open about expressing his feelings. He even cops to finding Isaac Newton hot, and then seems a bit surprised at himself for being so open about feeling attraction.

And the fact that we get the Doctor grasping Donna's hand, placing a kiss to it, or their big, demonstrative hugs, or the Doctor kissing Donna on top of her head in relief at having her back... it was so beautiful, and so simple, the way they could play in the comedy space but also so well in the utterly sincere.

I also want to compliment the set design of this episode. It was simple in some ways, it looks like plenty of other sci-fi-y, spaceship type sets I've seen before, but I loved the way we got to see into the bowels of the ship, explore all those little tunnels, and then also the way the walls moved around, the reconfiguration of the ship into a bomb as time passed. Such a cool concept!

And, suffice to say, the lead in to next week's episode was adorable as well, with the Doctor reuniting with Wilf. Another moment where the Doctor is more demonstrative and emotional than we remember him being in the past. Something is going terribly wrong, but we'll have to wait until the third and final David Tennant special to find out what! I heard that this was the last filmed performance for the actor playing Wilf, who has since died, and I just want to say that he did a wonderful job and gave me all the feelings of nostalgia thinking about his time on the show previously. I hope he's happy knowing how much joy he brought to so many Doctor Who fans.

I could really go on. This is the first episode of Doctor Who I have seen in literal years, probably over half a decade, that I actually see myself wanting to revisit again and again.

9.5/10

#review #doctor who #doctor who review

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lilac-5ky · 2 years

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A birthday wish (Kamui x Fem!Reader)

A/N: If any of you have paid attention to my blog, then by this point you must have noticed all about how Kamui is my cherished sinnamon roll. Despite having tons of requests piled up, I could not in good faith skip on his birthday, I just had to write something about him, even if it didn't come out perfect or ideal! Still, I tried my best and without any further ado, Happy Birthday to one of my favorite and cutest characters of Gintama. Happy Birthday Kamui! 🎉

Warning: IT DOES GET A BIT NSFW BUT ONLY MENTIONS OF IT. NO ACTUAL SMUT.

Plot: It's Kamui's birthday and you decide to show him how birthdays are spent in Earth.

bright ray of sunshine. just look at him. so pure and innocent, about to murder some bitches and OKAY I'LL STOP

“Y/N, I’m home!” Kamui’s cheerful tone greeted you the second he pushed the door open.

It had been so long since he’d last visited you in Edo, always chasing after the next big thrill, an opponent who’d excite him. He rarely had time for you these days, but on days like this, one should always spend time with the people close to them. Kamui may not be an earthling like you. Even so, spending such a day together with him was important to you, considering it was his birthday, the first birthday you’d be celebrating with him as his significant other.

You didn’t have much time to prepare for this, considering you only found out about your boyfriend’s birthday through Abuto’s daily ramblings. If it wasn’t for him, you wouldn’t have the slightest clue about what today meant for Kamui. As much as he loved to talk about his fights and his journeys, to your dismay, he never really talked about his past or himself. From his family background to his innermost thoughts, even after a year of dating him, there was so much you didn’t know about him.

Still, no matter how much time it took for him to open up, you’d be waiting for him. Besides, you were the one he had chosen, a mere earth weakling that had captured his interest, and hopefully, heart. Perhaps you wouldn’t be able to get him to share certain things with you just yet, but as his partner, the least you could do was help him have an enjoyable time during his birthday.

“Y/N, I said I’m hoooome!” He said again with a louder voice as he searched through the rooms for you.

Once you managed to light the final candle of the cake, you hurried outside of the kitchen with the platter resting your hands. You had no idea what kind of cake he’d enjoy, but, Kamui had never been a particularly picky eater. The boy was keen to Edo’s cuisine and would probably enjoy whatever it was that you served him, as long as it was made from you and wasn’t completely inedible.

“Oh, there you are-” Kamui waved, but before he could finish his sentence, his eyes fell on the cake.

“Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Kamui, Happy Birthday to you!” You sung, offering the platter closer for him to blow the candles. However, rather than doing that, he found himself looking at you with a puzzled expression.

“That was a rather nice tune, Y/N. This cake also look delicious but… what is the meaning of these torches on top of it?” Kamui asked, pointing at the candles with his index.

What? He was kidding right? There is no way he didn’t know what to do, right?

“These aren’t torches, they are candles, and this isn’t just a cake, it’s a birthday cake! When it’s your birthday, you get a special cake with lit candles on top. If you make a wish while blowing them, your wish will come true. Now hurry up, before they melt!”

He still appeared to be intrigued, but decided to go along with your whim anyways, leaning closer to the cake before blowing all of the candles at once.

“Blowing on candles to grant wishes… humans are far more fascinating than I thought.” He exclaimed, a winsome smile on his lips as he dipped a finger into the cake. Once he got a considerable amount of cream, he brought it to his lips, a delighted hum following after he had licked it clean. “Your culinary skills keep improving, Y/N!” He praised you, repeating the same motion, while you held the platter still for him.

Kamui seemed to be content with eating the dessert bite after bite, using his bare fingers to scoop it up. You were looking at him, part of you happy that he seemed to enjoy it so much, while another part of you kept wondering whether you should offer him a plate or something. It wasn’t really surprising for him eating with such gluttony, but even so, it wasn’t what normal people were supposed to do. But, then again, Kamui never belonged to the 'normal people' category to begin with, and so, you let it slide.

“Would you like some?” He asked, offering his finger to you.

Before you could say or do a thing, he pressed it against your lips, smearing cream all over you. He gave you no choice, and so, reluctantly, you opened up, taking his finger inside your mouth. Kamui pushed it about halfway in, giving you room to twirl your tongue around it so that you could taste it properly. He was right, you had really outdone yourself this time.

“Isn’t it really good?” He asked, tilting his head in amusement.

You nodded, as you kept sucking it clean. Yet only after he pushed his finger deeper in your mouth, did you realize how perhaps his intentions weren’t as innocent as his smile was. Widening your eyes, a gasp escaped your now parted lips as you tried to push his finger out with your tongue. The boy tilted his head back, your reaction inducing a hearty chuckle from him. How could he be taunting you this shamelessly?

“I thought so.” Kamui retrieved his finger, oblivious to the glares you were shooting his way.

While you tried your best to come up with a reason as to why you shouldn't throw the cake to his face - the number one reason being that you'd rather not infuriate someone who could break your entire body with a single movement-, Kamui kept picking onto the cake, until nothing but the mere platter remained. Once he was done, you excused yourself to the kitchen, all the while attempting to calm your nerves down.

“My, don’t run off like that! I have more questions you know.” Kamui pouted, following you to the kitchen.

“ Questions? Like what?”

“Like… what other things do earthlings do on their birthday?” He asked, propping himself on top of the counter, his eyes on you the entire time.

“Hmm… Other than cake, usually you spend them with the people close to you. Your family and friends gather up and they bring you gifts and then you celebrate together. But you can also go out, restaurants and stores tend to give freebies on your birthday.”

“I see…” He exclaimed, his smile dropping from his lips ever so slightly at the mention of the word 'family'.

“Kamui, haven’t you celebrated your birthdays with anyone before?”

Your question caught him by surprise. Usually, you wouldn’t be as daring, however seeing his blue eyes darken, you couldn’t help but wonder why. Even if he wasn’t on great terms with his family, surely he would have some fond memories from his childhood, right?

He took a minute to reply, contemplating to himself, before flashing a rather forceful smile at you.

“I wouldn't say I have. Yato have no need to celebrate reaching another year closer to their death. If you spent every day on the battlefield claiming lives like we do, it would also be some sort of birthday, don’t you think? Your opponents might fall, but you get to live another day, each day becoming stronger than the day before. Now that is something worth celebrating.”

Well… you couldn’t exactly argue with his logic. When he brought it up like this, birthdays sounded rather grim. It wasn’t even surprising for him to have such a dark approach, even when the topic of discussion was something as joyous as birthdays. But… despite his ever sunny disposition, upbeat tone and cheerful smiles, you could tell that he was being far from honest with you. Still, that was enough for now, pressuring him would do no good. You were far from satisfied with his answer, but all you could do was nod, forcing a sympathetic smile for his sake.

“But, Y/N, you mentioned something about gifts, right? So where is it?”

“Where is what?”

“My gift, of course.”

His gift… His gift!?! You had barely managed to buy the ingredients needed for the cake. Buying a gift for him had completely slipped your mind! If only Abuto had told you faster, if only Kamui had told you, if only you were a psychic. Now he’d be so disappointed and all because of your forgetfulness. Good job, Y/N, you had totally blew it.

“I… there is no gift.” You admitted in defeat. “Abuto only told me about your birthday yesterday, I didn’t have enough time… I’m so sorry, Kamui.” Unable to face him, you lowered your head before him.

“In that case,” He paused, jumping onto the floor. Taking a couple of steps, he walked closer to you, a mirthful grin across his lips. “How about you become my gift for the day, Y/N?”

At once, you looked up at him, feeling heat rise up your cheeks. He couldn’t possibly mean that you…? Surely, he’d never been subtle when it came to you getting down and dirty, but to be demanding such a thing all of a sudden was too much, even for him. But then again, it was your fault that you hadn’t been able to get him a proper birthday present in the first place. You had to pay for your mistake and if that’s what it took, then perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad.

“I accept…” You spoke in a raspy voice, batting your eyelashes as your fingers hitched up to the hem of your kimono, pushing the fabric off your shoulder.

“We should get going then! I’m really curious to find what those freebies you mentioned are all about. I’ll entrust you with it, so make sure to show me all of the things you earthlings do on birthdays.”

His words managed to surprise you once again. You felt so ashamed! To even think that he had such a pure goal in mind, yet there you were, about to throw yourself at him.

“Perhaps you wanna get changed first? Do you need help with this?” He asked you, momentarily glancing down at your bare skin. Maybe your thoughts weren’t too far fetched, after all.

Once Kamui understood that you had no intention of doing so, he let you drag him outside of the door, the two of you leaving your apartment before things escalated any further.

There were only a few things Kamui loved more than fighting, and most of the time, one could round those things up to a proper meal. Or two. Or even three. It didn’t matter how the boy had finished the entire birthday cake in one go. Kamui was still a Yato, and as a Yato, his appetite remained ever insatiable. Taking him out for lunch, would probably resonate more with him than anything else would, and so, you made up your mind.

Your first destination for the day was the local food market. At this time of the day —near afternoon— there weren’t many stalls left open, but luckily, everyone seemed willing to appease you the second you mentioned that it was your boyfriend’s birthday. Perhaps, his infectious smile was enough to convince them, you thought to yourself. Despite his nature as a tenacious fighter, a descendant of one of the strongest clans in the universe, Kamui’s youthful appearance seemed to be working in his favor. Even the stingiest store owners bent to his will, quick to give the two of you everything he asked for, while returning the smile. Part of you found the whole endeavor hilarious, but you kept this to yourself. Kamui seemed to be enjoying himself, and that’s all that mattered.

After visiting the third vendor, you had pretty much given up on eating, the different tastes causing a ruckus in your stomach. Much to his appreciation, you did hand your portion over to him, only contributing to his ever increasing haul. From free dango to free yakisoba, at the end of your stroll, Kamui seemed rather pleased by the loot the two of you had accumulated. If you were to be honest, this felt more like a trick or treat than an actual birthday time.

While strolling, Kamui held onto the bags, allowing you to briefly explain what each of the delicacies were. Some, he’d had tried before, while others were entirely new flavors to him. Despite that, his reactions remained all the same, his smile never dropping from his face while devoured the contents of each bag. Had it been anyone else, you might have found yourself disgusted by their eating habits, but when it came to watching Kamui’s cheeks puff up with every bite, all the sounds he was making upon tasting each of his treats, you couldn’t help but squeal to yourself. He looked so endearing to you like that.

“As expected, Y/N, you didn’t disappoint. Whenever I visit Edo, I wish I could stay longer.” He muttered once he had finished eating.

“For me, or for the food?” You asked, chuckling at his exclamation.

“Who said I don’t consider you a treat?” The way he so earnestly said that, was enough to make your heart skip a beat at the sudden compliment, making you feel as if you had placed a finger into a socket.

Even when you were having an internal melt down, Kamui kept on walking forward, not minding your reaction. You silently followed behind him, until eventually his steps came to an halt. He was looking at something very intently, and once you reached him, you could tell why; the object he was looking at was a photo booth.

“What is this thing?” He asked, a curious expression on his face as he leaned his head. As far as you were aware, he shouldn’t have seen or done such a thing before, and that was exactly why the two of you running into one of these was ideal! At least, he wouldn't be able to argue about never having celebrated a birthday afterwards, not when there'd be proof.

“This is what we’ll do next! It’s called a photo booth, you can take pictures inside of it and sometimes, there are also props included. It’s so much fun!” You said, masking your intentions with excitement.

Kamui still seem a bit puzzled, but curiosity ended up getting the best of him. He made his way inside without asking any more questions, you following him shortly after.

There wasn’t much room for the two of you to sit comfortably inside the booth, yet that would do, for now. Inside, you found a basket full of hair pieces, masks and other accessories hanging from below the screen. Kamui let you be the one to handle things, observing your every move in awe, just like a child would. You went through the entire basket, looking to find the perfect props, until your eyes landed on a pair of cat ears and you came up with the perfect idea.

“Here, put these on!” You urged him, handing him the ears along with a paw stick for him to hold. He didn’t seem too sure about it, but went along with it anyways, his curiosity turning to amusement as he held onto them.

“I didn’t know humans enjoyed doing planet Catnip cosplay. I hear their King can barely get it up, or at least that's what Abuto says. He does seem to have an extensive knowledge when it comes to genitalia.” Kamui admitted, looking at his reflection in the screen and then at you. His inappropriate comments would have made you roll your eyes, but at the time, you couldn’t focus on anything other than the way he looked. To think that someone as strong and fearful as him would look this cute!

"Did you even know that they are supposed to look like thorns?" He went on, adjusting the ears until they fit just right.

“I guess so?” You replied as you tried your best to push the image of an old cat man's limp dick off your brain. Even if you didn't want to think about it, the more he kept talking about such things, the harder it was for you to focus on putting your own cat ears on.

Once you were set, you placed a couple of coins into the machine, selecting the correct picture format, before finally leaning back towards him. The countdown on the screen begun and before you could explain anything to the boy, you threw one arm around his shoulder, pulling him closer to you. Flashing a smile for the camera, you held your own paw in front of it, urging him to follow suit and then…

Snap!

The whole thing was over in mere seconds, and soon, the two of you had left the props along with the booth behind, patiently waiting outside for the pictures to be printed. You had ordered two copies of each picture, in the rare event Kamui wanted to commemorate that day as well.

It didn't take long for them to be ready, and once they were, you were more than satisfied with the result. As expected, his natural smily expression was enough to illuminate every image, while the cat ears only added to his boyish charm. This was the first time you were taking a picture of him and truthfully, it couldn’t have turned out any more perfect than that.

After looking at them for a while on your own, he pitched in, gleeful exclaims as he went through all of them one by one.

“This is yours, by the way. I got two copies just in case.”

Although he hesitated for a moment, Kamui ended up accepting, grabbing his own copy from your hands. Taking a final look at it, he smiled to himself, before stuffing it inside his jacket. Once that was over and dealt with, the two of you went back to strolling through the streets of Edo, aimlessly walking side by side, until Kamui suddenly stopped in the middle of a street.

“I have celebrated my birthdays before, but it’s nothing worth remembering. That’s fine by me. But, today, I had so much fun, Y/N. The land of Samurai keeps surprising me with every visit and so do you. That’s why, my wish was to spend next year’s birthday with you too.”

His sudden declaration caught you off guard. You had suspected as much, birthdays weren’t an Edo exclusive concept, and he seemed rather uncomfortable earlier. Making sure he would at least have some happy memories on this day with you, was all you wanted to do. However, when you realized that he had revealed his birthday wish to you, a part of you couldn’t help but panic.

“You aren’t supposed to share your birthday wish with others! Now it won’t come true!”

“Oh, is that so?” Kamui asked, entertained by your expression. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t know, after all, you were the one who had forgotten to mention this one tiny detail.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. I never believed in wishes, anyways. Who has the time to sit around waiting for things to happen instead of making them happen on their own? So… don’t worry about it. As long as you are mine, I’ll make it so that every birthday is celebrated with you.”

His words felt comforting to hear. Knowing Kamui, you knew that there was no way he’d let anything stand in the way of his wants. Superstition or not, there was no doubt in your heart, the two of you would get to spend together many more birthdays to come.

“So, what now?”

“Is there anything you’d like to do?”

By the time you were done with your little food expedition and the photos, the sun had disappeared from the sky, a mellow purple shade sprawling past the clouds. Soon, it’d get dark, and while there were many night activities you could engage into, perhaps it’d be wiser to let him dictate the rest of the evening, birthday boy and everything.

“There is still room for dessert.” He said in a rather serious tone, one you wouldn't expect from him.

“But you ate so much birthday cake and then all the stuff at the market-”

Kamui shushed you by grabbing your wrist, forcing your body along with your thoughts to an halt. Holding onto it, he took a couple of steps closer until he was standing right in front of you, his bright blue eyes peering into yours. Rather than talking, he kept looking at you for a bit, his gaze traveling down to your lips and then up to your eyes. Even though he didn’t say a thing, you could feel his demand as he kept pressing harder onto your wrist, his thumb merely rubbing circles across your skin in a surprisingly gentle manner. The contradiction in his movements was enough to send shivers up your spine, your body turning stiff to his touch. That was such an unexpected turn of events.

For him to be acting like this, it certainly wasn’t a first. Throughout the day he had managed to tease you on more than one occasions- be it mostly due to his obliviousness-,however this time, there was something different. Perhaps it was the way mischief was clouding his otherwise innocent smile, or maybe, it was because of the way he looked at you, a set of blue flames that burned with silent desire. Whatever the case was, Kamui had managed to capture you entirely, be it your body or mind, your entire attention falling to him and him only.

“Wouldn’t you agree that saving your favorite dessert for last, is what makes every day more exciting?”

You were about to ask him what he meant, when he brought your hand closer to his face, his parted lips ghosting over your knuckles before, finally, planting a soft kiss on top of them. Even then, he kept his eyes glued to yours, making sure that you were watching his every movement.

“It’s been too long since I last feasted on your body, Y/N. So long that I can’t help but wonder, how much sweeter you must have gotten.” Kamui said once he let go of your hand completely, each word of his firing warning signals in your brain.

He wasn't wrong, it had been a rather long time since you'd last been intimate with one another, but even so, you were still in public! You were still standing in the middle of the street were kids played 'kick the can' and elderly people had their evening strolls. What would they say if he heard him talk like that?

“So what do you think? Shall we go back, or are there more things earthlings do on their birthdays for me to see ?” As if snapping out of a trance, he squinted his eyes, his typical elated expression returning back to his face.

Without awaiting your answer, Kamui went back to walking, acting as if he hadn’t just talked all about how he wanted you to spread your legs for him. But then again, that was Kamui for you, a man who could ask you to go down on him with the same ease he’d ask for an extra scoop of ice cream or even kill an enemy. There was no filter to his personality or words, a fact that if anything, added to his charm.

After all this time of dating him, you could never break free from this charm of his, merely tagging along behind the boy no matter what he did or said, as if you were utterly bewitched. Even now, your mind failed to pay attention to what he was talking about, while you followed in his tracks, too busy to concentrate on anything other than depicting all the inappropriate scenes that were sure to follow, should the two of you reach your apartment.

Perhaps failing to buy a birthday gift for him, had worked in your favor, after all.

A/N: Hopefully this didn't turn out horrible. My brain is mush, just like reader-chan, I only realized what day it was this morning and I had to push everything to the side, coming in for the last minute clutch. Still worth, and that's all for today!

*goes back to simping for Shinsuke*

#yato kamui #kamui yato #kamui gintama #kamui birthday #kamui x reader #yato kamui x reader #gintama oneshot #gintama fanfiction #gintama imagine #kamui oneshot #kamui fanfiction #kamui imagine

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causeitsagame · 9 months

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I've finalized all of my fangan base designs (...I think) and look, the most important part of the entire height reference chart:

She's short.

I love being able to see my kids in front of me ❤️😭 (I'm going to murder so many of you in unspeakably horrific ways)

Everyone behind the cut, with a brief bit about their design + role!

This is uhhhh nothing that will be playable any time soon, but I'm aiming for an honest-to-god full (fan) game experience. :) First trial has eighteen different truth bullets, this protag has her own unique mechanic, I'm building things out in Unity, etc. etc. etc.

I am GOING FOR IT, because setting a high creative bar and forcing yourself to push yourself is how development happens!

I'm moving from left to right and including the name/talent/MTBI in text below for readability. I included the MBTI here because I tied each one of them to an MBTI archetype as a fun self challenge (hey, sixteen people!) and so you can look to see who you match up with.

Every single talent is plot-relevant by the end of the game, at minimum. Many are plot-critical. I didn't want anyone to feel like wasted space.

Emi (Tailor, INFJ) - Sweet and humble, she's the type to just wear a standard school uniform. She focuses on assisting others, so she's always got her equipment ready if someone needs something mended.

Akari (Actress, ENFJ) - THE BEARER OF THE AHOGE. Famous ever since she started as a child star, she's always had every life decision made for her by her agent or stage parents. Sounds like you need some character development, girl!

Minata (Gardener, INFP) - Shows off detailed scientific knowledge more suited for a "Botanist" title, but he goes by Gardener for a reason. Practical and kind, he's the type to show up in a working outfit.

Hana (Cinematographer, ISFP) - Has earned awards for her work, yet currently struggles to get attached to new films. Design-wise, her formal presentation is her trying to compensate for that career struggle and look older. Girl should be on LinkedIn, she wants to N E T W O R K.

Momoko (???, ENTP) - Picture a walking pair of 🖕🏼🖕🏼. But. Like. A funny one. Don't worry, girl; as a ???, you're plot-important! You're sure to stick around! (Ignore the muffled Rantaro voice.) I actually had a very specific inspiration for her look, but it's a spoiler for why she's actually there and what her identity ends up being.

Maeko (Director, ISTP) - Three movie-related talents, by now. Is that plot-relevant? An artifact of me being near the Hollywood Sign? MAYBE BOTH? (It's both.) Anyway, Maeko is willing to Commit to the Bit of whatever she's working on, hence showing up in that old-fashioned director's outfit. She knows how the whole Ultimates thing works.

Shin (Statistician, INTJ) - My MBTI sign. :) As a kid, Shin decided that the mathematician in Jurassic Park was totally cool. That ended up steering him toward ear spikes and hair streaks instead of sweater vests. Still gotta have glasses, though.

Riko (Astronomer, INTP) - Riko is clueless about basically everything besides star maps, including "how to act like a normal teenager" or "how to stand comfortably." She gets a generic uniform (with constellation tights) because she wouldn't have the slightest clue where to start, otherwise.

Moriaki (Salesman, ESFP) - Heya pal 👉🏼👉🏼 Thanks for stopping by for a chat 👉🏼👉🏼 I definitely won't make any deals I can't handle 👉🏼👉🏼 KHAKIS 👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼

Ayame (Journalist, ENTJ) - I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say that an investigative journalist is a good fit as one of the hard carries in trials. She zips around to stories on her motorcycle, hence the boots, jacket, and sunglasses :)

Satoru (Historian, ISTJ) - What an asshole. (He has my favorite of everyone's FTEs.)

Hiro (Fire Fighter, ESTJ) - A fire fighter. Literally named Hiro. His existence as a character is NOT. SUBTLE. Add in his first aid training, and you have someone too good to be true. (Maybe...?)

Katori (Beach Volleyball, ENFP) - Obviously, this design had to exist if I'm trying to respect many (but not all) of the tropes. Laid-back, optimistic, and totally into manifesting positive outcomes. She's basically an insta influencer who found herself in a killing game.

Katsuro (Rock Climbing, ESTP) - HIS SISTER WAS THE ONE TO PROPOSE THESE DUMBASS THEMED OUTFITS, FYI.

Ren (Bodyguard, ESFJ) - You might be big as hell, but that doesn't look like much of a bodyguard outfit, bro 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

Daichi (Outdoorsman, ISFJ) - A second huge dude! BREAKING THE MOLD. (Actually, you might have noticed that there are four pretty ripped dudes, and that is in fact plot-relevant at multiple points. It's not only me going 'thirst traps for both sides.' Anyway.) I'd loosely planned out his outfit (flannel shirt, timberland boots, etc.), but I also wanted to involve a school uniform somehow. The only way he could fit into one: ripping his blazer's arms off to turn it into a vest.

SO, there they are. :) I'm tens of thousands of words into this fangan script, have all the trials, evidence, major plot beats, and the ending mapped out, and a 100+ CC0-license 3D objects + locations plus several hundred sound effect files stockpiled. It's happening! Slowly. But it's happening! I will try my very best to make a fun, engaging game.

#fangan stuff

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zawazawanightmares · 2 years

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Zoey & Nikku

You, Zoey (Left 4 Dead), are connected to Nikku [FNF] Your partner doesn't mind all ages or 18+ roleplay Your partner has a starter. Type /starter or tap here to see it.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): /starter

Nikku [FNF]: alt: https://i.imgur.com/6tlov6F.jpg regular: https://i.imgur.com/U5LNeTB.jpg she's a voice mimic. super chill and laid-back. isn't always mimicking voices though. you don't need to know anything about nikku to roleplay with her. i'm not just exclusively down for fnf roleplays. i like doing out-of-universe junk too. i also like other settings. seriously, feel free to just go ahead and start in character, i'm down for whatever.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): Hey!

Nikku [FNF]: Sup?

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): What are you doing, get over here!

Nikku [FNF]: "--Wait, what? What's up?" Nikku walked up to Zoey, looking around confusedly.

Nikku [FNF]: "Something...wrong?"

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): Zoey pulled Nikku roughly by the arm into a corner, looking around it to check for the Infected. "Looks like this area is clear then." She faced Nikku with a frown. "Who are you? Are you a survivor?"

Nikku [FNF]: Pulled into the corner, she awkwardly stares at Zoey, before looking out, seeing a ton of zombies she'd somehow never noticed before now. "Ohhhh. Yeah, you could say that." She glanced back to Zoey. "I didn't know all this was going on, though."

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "So much for it being clear...and what do you mean you didn't know this was going on?! Ugh!" She took her hand, dragging her into a nearby room. "Come on..." She closed the door behind them, sealing it with a lock.

Nikku [FNF]: "I'm serious, I didn't!" She insisted, getting dragged into a room. She brushes her sleeve off. "I just got here, actually. I might be...a little blind, but I really had no clue. What caused all of that, anyway?"

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "Blind? Well, that explains...actually, it really doesn't." Zoey kept her glare. "I'll talk to you about anything but first thing's first: are you Infected?"

Nikku [FNF]: Nikku casually lifts her arms, stares at her hands...then looks down her body. "...Probably not." She looked to Zoey and shrugged. "I didn't get bitten, if that helps. --Well, actually, a mosquito bit me, but...you know what I mean."

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "Oh come on..." Zoey facepalmed before dragging her hand off. "Listen, this is going to make me the creepier one in this situation but...I'm going to need you to strip."

Nikku [FNF]: "Strip?" She blinked. "...Oh, right, to check for bites. Sure, just don't touch anything." Nikku pulls off her jacket, followed by her shorts, stripping down to just her underwear. https://i.imgur.com/fgI0yYc.png Her skin luckily doesn't have even the slightest blemish.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): Zoey was deeply ashamed to find herself blushing. If she wasn't a creep before, she sure was now. "Alright...you can get dressed again. The infection...I heard that it was a leak from the military or something..."

Nikku [FNF]: "Uh huh." Nikku put her clothing back on, leaving her shorts unzipped. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Weird how the people best equipped to deal with junk like this also really suck at containing it, huh?"

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "You're telling me." She stuck her hand out. "I'm Zoey. I got separated from my group and I'm trying to find my way back to them."

Nikku [FNF]: "Name's Nikku. I'm from faaaaar far away." She shakes Zoey's hand. "...You know what the military's current protocol is? They gonna nuke this place? And how far's it spread?"

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "I've been away from the nearest radio for days so...maybe? And this thing is spread far...I don't think there's a single area of this country without at least a few infected in it."

Nikku [FNF]: "Wow. I can't imagine the borders are easy to get through, either. You try any?"

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "There's one we can sneak around but..."

Nikku [FNF]: "But? Come on, surely it's better than sitting here and being holed up around a bunch of corpses." She jams her hands into her pockets.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "...Have you heard of...The Witches?"

Nikku [FNF]: "The...witches? Of the west, right?"

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "No...they're special infected that mostly sob in a corner. But when they see you or hear you...god, they're so fast...and they can kill you on the spot. And they take forever to kill."

Nikku [FNF]: "Whoa. I'm...glad you told me about that. I think I saw one of those on the way here. I almost walked up and called her a little bitch." She snickered.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "Don't...god, don't do that." She groaned. "There's four of them near the clearest border and I hear these ones are even worse than the "normal" ones."

Nikku [FNF]: "Don't worry, I won't. Now that I know, at least." She idly looks around the room while listening. "Really? How can you get worse than instant death?"

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "The thing about these Witches...they leave their victims alive...but when we find them, it's like they're on valium or something because they look blissed out but totally out of it."

Nikku [FNF]: "...I mean, that doesn't sound that bad to me. I doubt we'd even need guns. Do those people at least recover?"

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "I don't know. I mean, I have only two other guys in my group so we don't really do follow-ups."

Nikku [FNF]: "Eh. C'mon, it can't be that bad, I wanna go take a look."

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "Have a loo---I'll take you to the border but don't alert them, got it?!" She demanded.

Nikku [FNF]: "Alright, alright, chill." She gestured a pushing motion with her hands. "I wasn't thinking of bothering them. ...Not intentionally, at least."

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "Ugh..." She led her out and, with a lot of scouting, some firing and a lot of hiding, she brought her close to the border. Where the now-abandoned wall was set up, the two could indeed spot several Witches. Instead of being emanicated, raggedy crone like beasts, they instead looked inhumanly pale with jagged teeth...and full lips...and rather buxom... "The hell...?" Zoey said in disbelief.

Nikku [FNF]: Nikku peeked at the witches, pausing for a moment. "Whoa...wait, do they all look like that?" She glanced to Zoey. "The one I saw was like, anorexic. If it even was a witch..."

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "They not supposed to..." She found herself checking out one with a hole in the back of her shorts before shaking her head. "Let's go." She took Nikku's hand and made a quiet beeline for the border.

Nikku [FNF]: Grabbing Zoey's hand and nodding, she stood up and started running alongside her. "Oh, yeah, this is a piece of...piece o...ah, sh...achoo!" Nikku suddenly sneezes.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): The Witches all suddenly turned their heads in their direction, causing Zoey to freeze and groan as they slowly closed in. "Fuck..."

Nikku [FNF]: Nikku froze up, her eyes widening as much as they could, staring at the witches as she watches them approach. "Uh...oops. That's...uh...my bad." She rubbed the back of her head, looking to Zoey. "...Soooo...there anything you wanted to do or say in life before we probably maybe die?"

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "...Get behind me and run. I'll cover." Zoey took out her handgun and aimed...only for a Witch to zoom up and slice it in half with her nails. Before Zoey could react, the Witch slashed up her stomach and chest, not cutting the skin but absolutely shredding her clothes. "What the...?!"

Nikku [FNF]: "Get behind you? Nuh-uh, if we die, were dying together." She grabbed Zoey's shoulder and insisted. Once the witch ran up and began slashing wildly at her, she let go and stepped back. "--Whoa, shit, okay, nevermind, I like living!" Too startled to react, she doesn't even notice Zoey's actually completely unharmed...just getting undressed.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "If you like living so much, run before they---!" She was cut off when a Witch forcibly grabbed her chin and turned her face towards her, giving a deep kiss to a horrified Zoey. Her breath wasn't great but definitely not what you'd expect a zombie's to taste like, making Zoey actually moaned as their tongues met. Another knelt behind Zoey to pull down her pants while the other two were unaccounted for, although there was definitely a presence behind Nikku...

Nikku [FNF]: "Alright, I'm out, see you in the afterlife I guess!" Nikku didn't even hesitate as she turned around and prepared to run away from the scene.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): She ran right into a blanked-faced Super Witch. This one was taller than the others so Nikku was directly in between her breasts. Far from offended, a sultry groan escaped the Infected lips as she slowly and delicately traced a sharp finger nail down Nikku back and butt, not breaking the skin but slowly stripping her from behind.

Nikku [FNF]: She flinched as she bumped into this massive pair of tits, stepping back and looking up at said super witch, staring. Totally frozen, Nikku doesn't move out of fear of being attacked, only to feel her clothing getting pulled off by the witch. "What the f...?" Nikku whispered to herself.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): Nikku got no mercy as a fourth Witch immediately knelt behind her, dragging a wet tongue through her folds behind her, the Witch's face firmly planted in her cheeks. The Super Witch looked down at her with a stoic if slightly ravenous expression, pressing one of her nipples to Nikku's face as if expecting her to suck it.

Nikku [FNF]: "Huoah..." Nikku's eyes squinted as she felt the fourth witch run a tongue across her now-exposed folds from behind. For how lithe Nikku was, she had a surprisingly plump ass. "N-nngh...why are they.." She trails off, only to have the super witch's nipple shoved into her face. "--Mmf!" Her eyes crossed as she looked down at the super witch's massive breast. Just a few seconds of hesitation was all she needed to decide to take said nipple into her mouth. "Hnnf..." She groaned, muffled. Maybe if she does what they want, she'll live...?

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): The Super Witch petted her hair, obvious moans of pleasure being heard from Zoey in the background as the fourth Witch kept lapping at Nikku's pussy. She eventually moved onto licking her ass itself, both Witches savoring all they could get from their "prey".

Nikku [FNF]: Her eyes narrowed and rolled up from the witch lapping at her pussy from behind, Nikku continuing to suck on the Super Witch's breast, encouraged further from the petting. All she could think was...these were zombies?

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): After a bit, the Super Witch turned Nikku around, gently putting her on the ground to face Zoey as the fourth Witch moved to suck on and lick her ear. Zoey was engaged with in a make-out section with a now-naked Witch as another sucked her neck and rubbed her gushing pussy. It was clear she had already came several times.

Nikku [FNF]: "Nnn...g-ghuah..." She exhaled as she popped off of the Super Witch's breast, getting on all fours almost willingly, now able to see the kind of...torture? Zoey was receiving. "A-ah...Zoey, what...the f-fuck is up with these things...!?" She asks between breaths, clenching one of her fists as she uses an arm to hold herself up off the ground.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "I dunno...but, I think I know why we found the survivors like that..." Zoey said as one Witch lifted her leg to press her pussy against hers. "Come here..." She asked Nikku with a blushing expression as the Super Witch nudged Nikku closer to her, lifting both of her legs up in a wheelbarrow fashion.

Nikku [FNF]: "Shit...n-now it makes sense..." Nikku stuttered, tensing up. "Hah...aah...?" She moaned out, somewhat confused as she's nudged closer, her legs lifted up into the air. "W-wha..." Too shocked to even respond or move, Nikku simply gazed into Zoey's eyes.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): Zoey leaned over to kiss Nikku, pushing her tongue in her mouth as the Witch behind her began to grind. Meanwhile, the Super Witch grinded itself against Nikku more roughly, its larger clit sliding in between Nikku's folds.

Nikku [FNF]: Nikku's eyes nearly closed as Zoey's lips met hers, causing her to softly moan, beginning to make out with her. "Mhhn..." Just as this was happening, she felt the Super Witch begin to grind her pussy against Nikku's. "N-nnmmf...~" Nikku helplessly moans, getting scissored.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): Zoey wrapped her tongue with Nikku's, enjoying her taste only to break the kiss a few minutes later. "I'm close...!" She whined to Nikku as the Witches behind them moaned louder and louder.

Nikku [FNF]: Eventually, Zoey pulls away to cry out, leaving Nikku leaning forward slightly, desperate for more. "Aaahhh...haah...f-fuck...m-me too...!" She moaned out herself, grabbing Zoey's hands, locking their fingers together.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): Zoey held hers back tightly as she came against the Witch's pussy, looking into Nikku's eyes with a gaze of total euphoria as she felt pleasure that she had given up on feeling since the first day of the infection.

Nikku [FNF]: Nikku pants heavily as the Super Witch behind her grinds her clit deeply into Nikku's pussy, causing her to drool. "Aahhh...~" Nikku let out one more moan, tensing up as she cums, coating the Super Witch's clit with her juices. "Hnnn...nhuah...!~"

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): The Witches lied them on the ground near each other, their hands still intertwined. The other two Witches got to work licking up the juices from their pussies. "H-hey...still wanna make a go for the border?" A dazed Zoey asked Nikku.

Nikku [FNF]: Nikku now laid flat on the ground beside Zoey, her mouth hanging open and her eyes narrowed as the two leftover witches eagerly lapped at their pussies. "A-aah...hah...n-nah, I think...I'm gonna let the girls finish up, first..." She huffs, faintly grinning.

Zoey (Left 4 Dead): "I guess we can at least see what they taste like...down there...return the favor?" Zoey asked as the other Witch turned her head to kiss her again, the Super Witch looming over Nikku to do the same to her.

Nikku [FNF]: "Ah...yeah, y-you're right..." Nikku smiled at Zoey, giggling a bit. "Maybe they'll even...become our guards, or something." Nikku subconsciously lifts her head, allowing the Super Witch to kiss her any way she saw fit.

You left the chat

#zoey #nikku #srp

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pascalsummers · 2 years

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Silver Linings (Castiel x Male Reader)

Summary: Your day just keeps getting worse but there's at least one good thing about it. A/N: This is my first time writing for Supernatural. All of my knowledge of the show comes from fanfictions, YouTube clips, and a Destiel Deep Dive YouTube playlist. So if characters seem a little OOC that is why. Hope you enjoy it!

You were having what was possibly the worst day of your entire life. Your day started off with your alarm not going off. When you realized you were going to be late for work you rushed to get ready, skipping parts of your daily routine just to hopefully make it on time. When you did get to work however your boss was not pleased in the slightest. You knew your boss was going through a bad divorce and was more irritable than normal. Seeing as you were late today it seemed he decided to take it out on you. He fired you on the spot and told you to leave now or he would have security escort you. If that wasn't enough you learned a good friend of yours had just become another causality in your town's recent deaths. You almost threw up what little food you had eaten at the sight of her chest ripped open. Then on your way home, you ended up getting knocked over by a runaway dog making you fall into a puddle of mud. The owner just gave you a quick sorry before rushing after the dog. So suffice to say you were pretty sure the world was out to get you for some sick reason you couldn't decipher. What did brighten your day, however, was the ice cream shop you would pass on your way home from work. The shop owner was a very kind man and made the best ice cream you ever had in your life. Without a second thought, you walked to the shop in the hope of ending the day on a possible good note. As you entered the store you could feel the customer's eye's on you but you couldn't blame them. Your clothes alone probably raised some eyebrows. No telling how the rest of you looks right about now. "Y/N! What can I get for you today?" Mr. Barton gave you a quick look but thankfully didn't question it. you tried to give him your best smile but you were one hundred percent sure it didn't reach your eyes. "Whatever you have would be nice." Mr. Barton didn't waste any time making something to lift your spirits. It didn't take long before the man returned with a bowl full of ice cream. It was the standard chocolate and vanilla but it was like the holy grail to you at this point. You gave the man a genuine smile this time as you grabbed the treat from him. Quickly giving him the appropriate amount of money before walking off. As you walked back to the exit you decided to have a taste before leaving. With a smile on your face, you took a big spoonful of ice cream and brought it to your lips. Only for two kids who were arguing over who got to play with which toy first bumped into you. You felt as though time had slowed down as you watched your ice cream collide with the ground. You didn't know how long you stood there staring at the mess but you didn't care. Your day had been a constant downward spiral since you woke up. You were late for work because your alarm just couldn't work that day. Got fired from your job because your boss couldn't handle his emotions properly. Learned someone close to you had just died from something the town still had no clue about but you doubt it was a wolf. Then got knocked into a puddle of mud because some people couldn't keep their dog on a leash! Then you were shown a possible reprieve from the madness of the day only for that to be snatched right out of your hands. You wanted to scream. Wanted to punch something. Wanted to curl up in your bed and cry for who knows how long- "Here." The deepness of that voice startled you out of your thoughts. Slowly you turned your head to see who had spoken to you. The first thing you noticed about the man was his deep blue eyes that seemed to look directly into your soul. You tried your hardest not to think about how handsome the man was. "W-What?" You wanted to slap yourself for sounding so dumb. The man raised his hand higher to show you the bowl of ice cream he had. "You dropped yours. I didn't want any ice cream but my friends forced me to take it. So I'm giving mine to you." He had sounded very matter-of-fact about the whole situation but you recognized the gesture for what it was. Gently you took the offered treat before clearing your throat. "Oh.

Thank you, Mr...?" "Agent Stills." He fumbles slightly with the badge but manages. "Y/N L/N. Sorry, you must be busy and I'm wasting your time-" "No apologies are necessary. I was the one who chose to engage in conversation with you." You nodded your head as you tried to figure out what to do now. You didn't exactly want to go home right now. Try as you might you couldn't help but find the Agent in front of you very good looking. Even now you were wondering how his morning voice sounded and yeah you were already falling for this man. What you were about to do seemed stupid even to you but you had a rough day so you deserved this. You gave the man a small smile. "Well I should be going now but it was nice meeting you... I live on the edge of town. In the house with the ugly yellow paint on it. Maybe you could come down when you're not busy?" Agent Stills stared at you for a long moment before recognition filled his eyes. "Oh." Slowly he nodded his head. "I will keep that in mind." Well, that was better than outright rejection. Beggars can't be choosers as they say. With that, you gave the man one final wave before making your way to the exit. Was inviting a man you just met and barely know to your house a bad idea? Yes definitely. Do you regret the decision? Not at all. Having some company tonight, even if it's just awkward conversation on your living room couch, was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Beside. What's the worse that could happen?

#castiel x male reader #supernatural x male reader #supernatural #male reader #x male reader

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andypantsx3 · 3 years

Text

subtle | shouto todoroki/reader

pairing: Todoroki Shouto / Reader

status: complete

length: 2,171 words

summary: Someone leaves chocolates on your desk. You're determined to track down the sender, certain it's a mistake, and Shouto Todoroki makes himself as unhelpful as possible.

tags: romance, reader-insert, fluff, valentine’s day

warnings: aged up characters (no smut though!!)

There was a box on your desk.

There was a box on your desk, and the sight of it was enough to instantly set you on edge.

The box looked normal enough, if a little fancy, maybe. Its lacquered top glinted brightly under the fluorescent office lighting, its smooth, polished sides waterfalling into the soft matte of your desktop underneath. You weren’t close enough to read the inscription, but you could just make out some elegant, curling script inlaid into the top of the box, possibly the name of whichever company had produced it.

The box looked very normal, in fact. Only, you knew it wasn’t. Boxes didn’t just show up in the middle of the Todoroki Hero Agency, a campus swimming with pros and armed with layers of security so deep it took even you--Shouto Todoroki’s manager--fifteen full minutes to get through screening every morning. It was something very much like being a prison guard at Tartarus.

So either this box meant the agency was dealing with a security breach the likes of which had scarcely been seen before, or someone had mistaken your desk for somebody else’s.

Which, considering it was Valentine’s Day, made a lot more sense.

Buoyed by the realization it wasn't a security risk, you crept closer, peering at the box, and the script resolved itself into the name of the extremely fancy chocolatier in Hiroo district that you made a point of drooling over every time you had to make a house call on Shouto. Their prices were literally insane, so you had never let yourself wander inside, unwilling to shell out an entire week’s pay for a tiny set of chocolates. Even if they did look absolutely fucking unbelievable from the window.

Your mouth watered.

That confirmed it--this was a Valentine's gift, and it was definitely a mistake. For the briefest of seconds, you’d wondered if maybe you had gotten obligatory office friendship chocolates, but this was too much. Some poor, love-sodden flop had gone out, spent their week’s pay on someone they were clearly very serious about, and then proceeded to fuck the entire thing up by plonking their gift straight onto your desk instead of their intended’s.

You frowned, quickly checking the box over for some kind of clue as to who had left it. There was no note included, nothing even mildly helpful that would give you the slightest hint of the person who'd left it here. Which left you with the question of how to return the box to the sender without knowing who they were, or how to pass it on to whoever they’d really meant it for.

You drew your bottom lip between your teeth, staring hard at the surface of the box like you could crack its code if only you glared hard enough. The box stared back at you, unhelpfully silent.

You were still skewering the box with your gaze some minutes later, determined to unravel its secrets, when a deep voice murmured from your doorway.

“You look puzzled."

You startled, whipping around to find Shouto propping up the wall, looking as unfairly handsome as usual. He was watching you intently, those heterochromatic eyes fastened to your face in that careful way he had, the one that always made you feel too warm and slightly unfocused. As usual, it was all you could do to remind yourself that you were a professional and he was something solidly between a friend and a coworker, and no matter how cute and attentive he was, you shouldn't get any ideas.

This morning, he was dressed in his hero uniform, tall and broad-shouldered, his distinctive hair only a little ruffled from his early patrol. It wasn’t often someone tried something in the districts he watched over anymore, probably too nervous to find themselves on the wrong end of the number four hero’s temper. You knew from the reports you received to your phone that the only trouble he’d encountered this morning was a pack of amorous school girls purposely misusing their quirks to draw his attention.

Thirty minutes ago, in fact, you’d almost spit out your coffee laughing at a photo of him looking wildly uncomfortable as he attempted to ice down some girl’s lava quirk with his right hand while fighting off her unfathomably enormous bouquet with his left. It was only right that he should suffer once a year, when every other day he got to stalk about as handsome as you please, oblivious to the effects his appearance had on every breathing person within a five mile radius.

You gave him an absent nod, gaze drawn back to the box on your desk.

“Somebody accidentally left something in here,” you told him, gesturing to it. “I’m trying to figure out how to track down who it was, or who it was meant for.”

Shouto made a small noise in the back of his throat, almost like a cough, and it was enough to startle you into looking up at him again.

“What?” you asked, peering at him. Was he coming down with something? It wasn't often he got sick, but when he did, he usually attempted to hide it and needed to be steamrolled into taking time off. You looked him over, trying to assess whether or not you needed to start badgering him now.

Shouto gazed back at you evenly, his expression deceptively bland. “...You think it’s not for you.”

You felt yourself blink at him, surprised by the comment and struggling to discern his meaning. What did he mean, you think it’s not for you? “Of course it’s not for me, Shouto, it’s from Grégoire Chardin.”

You knew he’d know the place, considering he lived in the same fancy rich people neighborhood as the chocolatier, but Shouto looked unimpressed.

“Why should that mean it’s not for you?” he asked, his tone dry.

The remark caught you off guard, as his comments sometimes did, and you bit down something like a smile. Bless his sweet, oblivious, rich boy heart. Either he overestimated your appeal to his agency staff, or he really did not understand the concepts of cost and return on investment.

“It’s expensive, it’s not something you would give someone as obligatory chocolates,” you explained, watching as a white eyebrow went up. His expression sharpened into something you couldn’t read well.

“It could be a secret admirer,” he said.

You stared blankly back at him, absolutely floored by the idea.

He thought you had a secret admirer? The idea sent an excited thrill all the way down to your toes, but you quickly squashed the feeling. So far, you'd never been on the receiving end of any furtive but romantic gestures, and you really didn't get any interested vibes from anyone in the office, no lingering glances or excuses to spend more time with you. The person who paid you the most amount of attention was Shouto, which was to be expected, considering how closely you worked together. And obviously he wasn't interested, he was just happy to stand in your doorway spouting wild conspiracies about his agency staffers like they were completely reasonable things to say.

“I don’t have a secret admirer,” you told him.

Shouto’s mouth pressed into a thin line and he took an intent step forward into your office. “Is the point of a secret admirer not to be exactly that--secret? How can you be sure?”

You couldn’t help it--you gaped at him, your face going weirdly warm. Okay, was he--was he serious? You obviously weren’t the most unfortunate creature on earth, and you even had your good days, but nobody in their right mind was going to attempt anything with you when there were girls like Nejire Hado and Ibara Shiozaki roaming the hallways of his agency. Even several of the analysts and most of the support crew had you beat out in terms of appeal--literally bless this man for his obvious indifference to your appearance.

“I, uh--thanks for your confidence in me,” you said, fighting down a laugh. “But I assure you, it definitely wasn’t meant for me. I just have to figure out who left it and who they meant it for.”

Shouto shifted impatiently, like he was waiting for something.

“You’re so certain,” he said, sounding frustrated.

“Of course I am,” you waved at him vaguely. It was actually super cute that he thought you could net yourself a dude who was willing to shell out Grégoire Chardin dollars, but you were just wasting time now, lingering over the least important part of this entire affair. “Listen, Shouto. I know sometimes men talk in the locker rooms. If you--if you hear anything, will you let me know? I just want to return it, it looks way too good sitting here.”

It was actually taking all your willpower not to open it and avail yourself of Japan’s finest chocolate, considering you would never have another opportunity like this again. Maybe you should just pretend it was for you....Really, no one could fault you for opening something left in your own office. But...no. No, you knew better.

Shouto appeared indifferent to your internal struggle. He watched you for a long moment, his features impassive. “Under one condition,” he finally allowed.

You cocked an ear to show you were listening, rifling around with the paperwork on your desk to distract yourself from the chocolate. You were strong, a good person. You had willpower like steel. You did not need to eat it, no no no.

“If no one comes looking for it by the end of the day, you will open it,” he said, moving closer.

You glanced up at him, shocked. “Shouto, this is someone else’s gift,” you hissed. “I can’t just open it.”

He placed a large palm down on your desk, leaning over you slightly. “That is my bargain.”

“You want me to steal somebody’s shit in your own agency,” you accused him. You tried not to pay attention to how close he had gotten, how straight his nose was up close, the way his eyes seemed brighter and his mouth pulled into a pout almost too pretty for a man.

The rest of his expression slipped into something like annoyance, matching his pout. “If no one comes for it, then it must be evident that it was meant for you.”

You suppressed a derisive laugh. Now was not the time to get shirty with your own boss, especially when his delusions were kind of sweet. It was honestly just short of a miracle that a man who looked like Shouto did could possibly think anyone on earth would have a thing for you, regardless of his own tastes.

“What if they’re just too shy to ask for it back?” you asked, watching those heterochromatic eyes flick over you curiously.

“If it’s as expensive as you say, someone will come looking,” he said. Which was actually kind of annoyingly reasonable.

A smirk flitted across his maddeningly perfect face when you failed to come up with another argument. He had a point, and he knew it.

You let out a gusty sigh. “Fine, but only because I’m certain someone will come looking for it. Please be subtle when you’re gathering info, okay? I'm sure this is embarrassing for whoever made this mistake.”

Shouto looked almost offended. “I am perfectly capable of being subtle,” he intoned in his deep voice.

This time, you did laugh. He was quiet, maybe, very perceptive, and unobtrusive when he wanted to be, but no one had ever accused the man of possessing tact. “Yeah, okay. Just, try to channel more subtlety than you think you need, okay? No one else but the sender needs to know about the mix up.”

There was a moment of silence, and then Shouto was leaning over you more fully, eyes glittering strangely as his clean, fresh scent met your nose. You froze in your chair, brain going horrifyingly vacant as he leaned impossibly nearer. What the fuck was he doing?

“It will be like I’m not even asking,” Shouto promised, his voice light. “Not asking anyone at all.”

You tried to scrape your thoughts back into something resembling order, but the effort was all but futile. You needed to get him out of your space stat before you embarrassed yourself.

”Okay, then it’s a deal,” you said quickly. “Now go...flambé a villain or something.”

Shouto lingered for a long moment, his mouth curling a little at the corner, like he was being let in on a secret you couldn’t hear. His eyes brushed over you, almost like a physical touch. And then he was gone, pulling open the door to your office, looking annoyingly pleased with himself.

“You will see,” he said by way of farewell. “You will find out how subtle I can be.”

You stared at him in confusion, but he didn’t explain himself. He just smirked, and closed the door behind himself.

#todoroki shouto x reader #todoroki x reader #todoroki shouto #bnha #bnha fanfic #bnha x reader #boku no hero academia #shouto todoroki x reader

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creweemmaeec11 · 3 years

Text

A Drastic Distraction

So, after writing my sleep paralysis short, I was jokingly thinking about how I could make anything cute. My brain immediately went to "kidnapping!" And well, guys... I made kidnapping cute without anything like Stockholm syndrome. How do I do this xD

"How could you do this!?" The hero snapped, hissing, "I thought we'd become- well..."

"What?" The villain taunted, smiling an unusually gentle smile considering the circumstances. They were leaning on a crate in front of the hero, "friends?"

"Yes!" The hero snapped, chains rattling as they tugged on their wrists that where attached to the wall, before huffing in irritation, "well, maybe not friends but- just- at least on better terms the this!"

"I told you this was a last resort. You know I'm not going to hurt you, just hold you for an hour or two,"

"Right, right, of course, do you even know what today is?"

"The day of a deal in which I need to keep you out of?"

The hero scowered, glaring, "You are such an arrogant prick,"

The villain hummed in what could have been mistaken for agreement.

"Seriously! You didn't need to chain me up, and you know that! So why did you do it anyway? Just for fun? Enjoy the sight of me chained up?"

"And if I do?" The villain asked, resting their head in their hand and raising an eyebrow.

"You disgust me," the hero hissed. They should have known they'd been played all along.

"I don't trust you," the villain explained.

"Just last week we were working together. How can you say that?"

""I trust you not to stab me in the back" is not the same as "I trust you not to try and stop me" especially when it comes to, ya know... evil deals, and... all that..." they trailed off.

The hero narrowed their eyes. Villain's behavior today was all over the place and so out of character, at least for the villain they'd come to know! (and love)

"Trust is trust, at least for most people,"

"I'm not most people,"

"Oh I know!" The hero gestured with the chains on their wrist, "These have been a great reminder!" They replied, voice harsh and cold. The hero could have sworn they saw the villain flinch.

For the next hour and a half, the hero tried everything they could think of to get a reaction out of the villain. Saying anything from taunting, rude, sarcastic, even *mean* just to try and get *anything* from them, just the slightest clue they could use to crack the rest of the façade and figure out what was going on. Why was the villain acting like this?

But it was as if the more the hero said, the more the villain seemed to shrink in on themselves. Look defeated, or, gods almost *ashamed*, yet they still didn't let *anything* slip the hero could actually *use*.

They mostly seemed to reply with some small hum or chuckle under their breath. The other half when the hero even got responses at all, they would either just agree with what the hero had said, or simply ask another question. It was infuriating.

Suddenly the villains phone went off, and whatever was on the screen made them sigh in relief.

"Looks like that's your freedom card fruit bat,"

Fruit bat, a nickname the villain had come up with after leaning the hero had night vision, only adding the "fruit" part after catching the hero eating strawberries on the job. (Despite the fact strawberries weren't even *fruit*, a point the two often went back and forth about- but)

"No. No,no,no I'm revoking whatever right you had to call me that after this stunt. You said yourself we weren't friends, which are the people I tend to save fun nicknames for," the hero hissed.

This time, a look of hurt definitely came to the villain's face, shoulders sagging. Still, they didn't say anything, which didn't make any sense!

The villain was not someone to let others walk all over them, especially without at least saying *something!*

Normally, if someone disrespected the villain, that person would be *lucky* if they *only* got a snarky comment. And yet, the hero had been continually disrespectful for close to two hours! Yet they were still being let go, with no consequences!

"Right..."

The villain hit a button on the panel, and the warehouse door lifted as the cuffs on the hero's wrists clicked open.

"Have a good rest of your day," the villain said sarcastically, which felt like the most in character tone the hero had heard yet today, before backing up to stand in front of the heavy metal sliding door that went to the rest of the facility.

"Are you just asking for me to punch you in the face?" The hero snapped, clenching their fists.

They were shocked to see the villain hold up their hands in a peaceful gesture. What the *hell* was going on here!?

"No, no, theres no need for that, besides, I wouldn't want to rough you up too much on your birthday,"

The hero froze, eyes wide and confused. The villain claimed they didn't know what today was! The hero hadn't told them!

"What...? But you...?" The hero stumbled, thrown off, voice coming out softer then intended in their confusion, "You said-"

"Happy birthday, by the way," the villain replied, voice so neutral it was infuriating. It wasn't so flat and monotone it sounded mocking, nor was there enough tone to decipher any emotion! It was just calm, even and- unhelpful!

Before the hero could say anything, the villain gestured toward their arm.

The hero looked down, shocked to see a thin band of silver around their wrist they hand noticed. They raised their arm, realizing it was a silver bracelet. Upon further inspection, the hero noticed the small silver bat charm dangling from it.

When had that gotten there? The only time the hero could think of was when the villain was first clicking their cuffs on, but... had this been on their arm the whole time?

The hero looked up again, hoping to get some sort of- *any*- explanation for this, only to see the heavy metal door click and latch shut, with the villain no where to be seen.

This was going to be a long and confusing walk home. Long, because of course the warehouse the villain decided to use this time was on the other side of town. Confusing, because the hero had absolutely no clue what to make of this.

Was the bracelet meant to be some backwards way of apologizing? Had the villain *known* they were going to need to kidnap the hero on their birthday, and this was their weird way of saying sorry? That didn't make any sense either, because the villain had been very insistent this was a last resort option, spur of the moment kind of deal. So then how did they have the bracelet ready to go?

The hero wasn't sure the villain would have just gotten them a birthday gift regularly, would they? Before today they would have found it easier to believe.

Finally, after a nearly 40 minute walk, the hero arrived back at their house.

Their head was spinning. Should they have stayed and tried to get answers out of the villain before just going home?

The hero had been inspecting the bracelet for almost the entire walk home, and it was like the more they looked the prettier it got. It was just a silver band with a simple repetitively carved spiraling pattern, but it was *beautiful* despite it's simplicity. The bat charm was also intricately carved. It was a solid silver, with two gemstone eyes. The hero's favourite colour at that.

Their mind was still reeling with questions as they entered their place and flicked on the light-

"SURPRISE!"

Cheers and confetti and streamers and smiling friends *everywhere*.

The hero's stomach plummeted as the finial piece of the puzzle clicked into place, the villain-

"Guys!" The hero laughed, putting on their best smile. They knew how to act in front of a crowd, "What even- you didn't need to do this!"

The hero looked around the room, full of familiar faces, until their eyes landed on the one person they wanted- no, *needed*- to talk to.

The villain was leaned against the farthest back wall, hidden within the shadow cast by a nearby bookshelf. They had a drink of wine in one hand, the other in their pocket, some attempt at casualness. Their eyes met, and the villain immediately glanced away, pushing off the wall and heading to the kitchen.

Their sidekick, and the most likely mastermind behind this surprise, the hero assumed, was at the front of the crowd.

"Of course we did! You do so much for this city! We figured this was the least we could do to say thank you! Even if I had to arrange a little... distraction to keep you occupied this morning," they laughed.

The hero laughed, putting forth a big smile. A stark contrast to the seed of dread that was quickly growing to a pit of horror in their stomach.

Quickly getting swarmed by the crowd of friends, they played along, doing their rounds to greet and thank everyone who came.

Until finally, the hero managed to slip away into the kitchen.

As soon as they got to the doorway, they could see the villain leaning on the farthest wall, one leg crossed over the other, arms crossed over their chest, and what looked like a fresh glass of wine balanced between their fingers. The second the villain noticed them, they pointedly looked away, taking another sip of their wine.

The hero took a few steps in, so they weren't just lingering by the doorway.

"There was no deal happening for you today," the hero stated.

"No, there was, I never lied," the villain replied, causing the hero to look at them in confusion. Had they misunderstood?

"I told you, and I quote: "Today's the day of a deal in which I need to keep you out of," the villain recounted, smirking, "I just didn't finish my sentence, which was "out of your house,""

The hero blinked. Despite the villains smirk, their voice lacked it's normal edge; bravado, liveliness. They sounded defeated.

The hero gave a small laugh, "clever,"

"I also wasn't lying when I said it was a last resort. Apparently your sidekicks other plan fell through,"

"Ah..."

"I'd like it known though, I did tell them it was a bad idea,"

The hero gave a hum of agreement.

There was a beat of awkward silence.

"Look, about the things I said-"

The hero was cut off by a scoffing laugh from the villain, who shook their head, "Don't. Theres no need. Nothing I don't deserve,"

"That's not true," the hero said firmly, "and neither were the things I said,"

"Just because you no longer feel the same doesn't equate to you not meaning it in the moment,"

"You're right," the hero agreed, taking another step closer, "So it's a good thing I didn't mean it in the moment either,"

The villain just gave them an unimpressed look.

"You were acting so out of character! It made no sense! I was trying to provoke you into giving me some response that I could work with to figure out what was going on,"

The villain blinked as the hero took another step forward, standing right infront of the villain now.

"I was hoping that if I could just crack the shell, I'd be able to start reasoning with you; get the old you back,"

"That "old me" is still a criminal", the villain reminded as they stood up off the wall, "So what are you trying to say, hero? It's-"

Suddenly the villain found themselves back against the wall they had just stood up from, only this time they had been pushed against it by the firm hand that lay flat on their chest. They barely registered the fact the hero had plucked the glass of wine out of their hand and set it on the table next to them, or how close the hero was suddenly standing. "What-"

They were cut off yet again, only this time it was with a kiss.

It was soft and gentle but the message of *shut up* was clear enough as well.

After a moment, the hero pulled back, "*That's* what I'm trying to say, doofus," the hero smirked softly, "and say a thank you as well, for helping with the party but also for the gift,"

"I- yes, well- just... happy to help," The villain stumbled, blushing. They noticed the hero was still wearing their bracelet, "I'm glad you like it,"

"I love it,"

"Um, speaking of the- uh, the bracelet," the villain stuttered, struggling to focus on anything other the the fact the hero was so close they were almost flush against them and- *the hero **kissed** them!!*

They reached into their pocket, pulling out a very small, square envelope.

The hero opened it, watching a small strawberry charm fall into their palm.

"I forgot to put it on earlier but, I thought it fit with the bat,"

The hero smirked as they clipped it on, "despite the fact it's a berry, not a fruit?"

The villain shrugged, "Well, that's if I'm even allowed to call you fruit bat anymore," they asked, looking at the hero hopefully.

The hero made a disapproving face, scrunching their nose, "eh, I dunno..."

A look of hurt flashed across the villains face, before the hero's expression shifted to a smirk, "I think I'd prefer you call me "yours"",

The villain smirked, "mmm, "my fruit bat" does have a good ring to it doesn't it?"

The hero just rolled their eyes before leaning in for another kiss.

Outside the kitchen, the hero's sidekick gave a silent fist pump.

MASTER TAGLIST

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#hero x villain #villain x hero #snippet #heros and villains #hero x villain snippet #ficlet

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danses-with-dogmeat · 3 years

Note

could you do the anxious tics prompt with fo3 and new vegas companions? sorry, i think i’ve asked you to add characters a lot but i just really love your writing ^^”

FO3 and FONV Romanced! Companions react to Lone's/Six's Anxiety Tics

Here you are, my love. Please never feel bad about requesting more people! It's honestly what I live for, and I loooooove making content for the FO3 and NV folks, since I feel like there's a lot less written about them in general 😊

So thank you so much for the ask!

Here is the prompt with FO4 Companions!

FO3

Butch:

The flash of large red-framed letters had caught Butch’s attention as the pair stood waiting to speak to Doc Church outside his clinic in Megaton. “Whatcha got there, babe?” he had asked, before realizing that it was, in fact, exactly what he had thought. Lone blushed as they looked up at him, hiding behind the pages of their comic book. “You really kept that? After all these years?” They had nodded to him, explaining that it was a sort of security blanket for them, that they could always count on reading the same story, seeing the same happy ending each time they looked between the pages, each time they felt uncertainty or stress, they could count on Grognak to see them through it. He grinned whenever he saw them with it, often curling up beside them, or leaning his head on their shoulder to try and read along with them. In these cases, Lone had to read the pages slower than they normally would, reading the same comic book over and over for the last 10 years means you can skim through it pretty quickly, but they don’t really seem to mind. Now they get to watch as this person that they care so much for enjoys the comic book they relied on and adored for so long.

Charon:

The ghoul was curious about Lone’s tendency to nap directly after dealing with stressful situations, but he decided not to voice any inquiries. His companion would explain themself if they wanted him to know more. One day, they did. Lone had thanked him for always looking after them while they rested off their anxiety, and mentioned that it was something they couldn’t help. Charon had nodded at them, acknowledging their gratitude, before his blue eyes had narrowed in his effort to process the rest of what they had said. It seemed strange to him, sleeping off nerves... Wouldn’t that make it more difficult to sleep? He decided that the logic of it didn’t really matter, whatever it was that caused it, he would look after his partner as they took the time to rest. Soon enough, they would beckon for him to join them, leaning against his shoulder or laying their head in his lap as he kept watch over them. A scarred hand would come to run softly through their hair, or graze lightly over their arm as they dreamed away their anxieties alongside their watchful partner.

Clover:

Lone wasn't quite sure why, but it seemed to them that Clover was always so handsy whenever they became anxious. They had to admit, they didn't necessarily mind it, but she always seemed to get frisky at the most inopportune times. Meanwhile, Clover just can't seem to figure out why Lone is always casting hints her way in the middle of stressful situations. She gets it, she totally is picking up what Lone is putting down every time they draw their bottom lip between their teeth and gnaw away so suggestively, but do they really have to do that right now?! Once Clover finds out it's just Lone's way of coping with their anxiety, she feels sort of foolish… but that doesn't stop her from getting a little turned on whenever Lone does it, even though the timing is usually inconvenient for both of them. But after the trouble and stress has passed, Lone will certainly need to blow off some steam, right? If that’s the case, Clover is more than ready for it.

Cross:

Cross often noticed when Lone had trouble focusing, she tends not to miss a thing, especially when it comes to her Lone. When she sees her partner struggling to keep their attention trained on the person speaking to them, she usually will step in and ask if the person can speak to her companion again at a later time. Her direct and clear way of speaking is a relief for Lone when they are experiencing tension, as their listening becomes almost ineffective when they are being spoken to during times of high stress or anxiety. Paladin Cross understands this, and pays particular attention to speak slowly and with great care in these times. Due to her affinity for speaking this way normally, she and Lone tend to never have issues with communication; which evidently, tends to keep Lone from becoming anxious when they’re around their partner.

Fawkes:

Within his first couple weeks of traveling alongside Lone, the mutant noticed their need to constantly snack. When he decided to inquire about it, and they hesitantly explained their habit to stress eat, he wasn’t sure he understood it, but he knew that he had his own ways of dealing with his nerves, which came in the form of wringing his hands whenever he became anxious. So, if this is how Lone deals with it, he will accept it without question. It wasn’t until one fateful day, when Lone had realized they were completely out of snacking material and they were on the brink of a breakdown, that they realized Fawkes had taken their words to heart, as he reached out a large hand, filled to the brim with an assortment of their favorite snacks from one of his pockets. All this time they thought he only kept ammunition in there, turns out, their partner always had a well-stocked stash of their anxiety-repellent hidden away for cases just like these. They smiled coyly as they took a box of snack cakes, and a tin of crisps, settling down beside Fawkes as he lightly ran his hand up and down their back as they leaned into him, their breathing already beginning to return to normal with each passing moment.

Jericho:

The ex-raider always thought it was a little annoying, the way his companion would stutter at him every time something got dicey, or when they had to deal with some sort of verbal confrontation. It was painful to watch, and when he brought it up to them, and they stuttered back an embarrassed response, he realized it was well out of their control. It would still bug him, and he might make an off-handed comment about it every once in a while, but the more he saw that those comments weren’t funny to his partner, the more they glared at him as he laughed at his own rude jokes, he decided he should refrain from such talk. Lone hadn’t developed a thick skin like most wastelanders he was used to, and certainly not like most raiders; and he would have to constantly remind himself of that. After his realization, he wouldn’t say a word about their stutter again, and God help anyone who did. You mention his partner’s stutter, you’ll probably have one too by the time he’s done with you. If you still even have a tongue, that is.

FONV:

Arcade:

The doctor almost flinched at the feeling of Six’s fingers wrapping around his thumb the first time they did it, but he managed to keep his composure and simply utter a sarcastic comment in response to their sudden action. But when their stress passed, and they explained that it was a tic of theirs that they had trouble controlling, he immediately understood. Not only was he a doctor (so you know, he has pretty extensive knowledge regarding things of this nature) but he’s also had his own lovely tangles with anxiety in the past, and can’t really blame Six for their habit (despite the fact that he has absolutely no tics of his own to deal with). However, his understanding of it doesn’t mean he isn’t going to make some sort of humorous comment on the action whenever it occurs. At Six’s annoyed expression he says that he is simply trying to lighten the mood a bit, maybe distract them with his humorous musings. Six thinks he must not have a clue that he exercises his own coping mechanism (ahem, sarcasm) whenever their gesture makes him uncomfortable, so they end up trying to keep themself from grasping onto his thumb to the best of their abilities. But, to be honest, they’re relieved when Arcade begins reaching over his hand to them in times of stress, his eyes avoiding theirs, and his comments going unuttered, but his thumb extending outward to allow easy access nonetheless. This gesture usually results in a kiss on the cheek for the doctor when his partner has gotten through their bout of stress.

Boone:

He had noticed it when he first met the courier, the way they couldn't look him in the eye. Boone hadn't been sure if it was just him, considering his constant need to wear sunglasses and his somewhat stoic demeanor, or if it was the way they were with everyone, but either way, he didn’t mind in the slightest. When he found that it was a result of their anxiety, he simply nodded to them in understanding, and the pair went on their way. The sniper honestly wasn’t big on direct eye contact himself, another boon of wearing sunglasses was being able to keep your eyes trained wherever you liked, and so people tended not to notice his own habit of avoiding eye contact with them. He threw the idea out to Six one night, and soon enough the pair wore matching sunglasses nearly all the time. And though, as he said, he didn’t mind Six’s habit one bit, the knowledge that they only looked people in the eye when they felt completely comfortable and at ease with them made it all the more special when they did decide to look into his eyes when the pair was talking, or sharing a tender moment. In those little instances, Boone liked to study the details of his partner’s eyes, committing their warm and vibrant glow to memory, paying distinct attention to their unique shape, and the way their pupils dilated as they gazed back at him. He only wondered if they noticed his eyes doing the same in return as he took in the details of the one he loved.

Cass:

The caravaner always tends to offer some form of alcohol to Six whenever she sees their leg shaking in such a way. Cass is familiar with the side effects of withdrawal when she sees them, and she'll try to help her partner to the nearest drink as soon as she can. When Six finally asks her about why it is that she offers alcohol to them when they’re feeling stressed, mentioning that it maaaaaay not be the most healthy coping mechanism for anxiety, she is a bit confused. They were anxious!? Strange, she only tends to shake like that when she hasn't had a drink in a while. With the knowledge that it’s a nervous tic of theirs, Cass uses it to her advantage to better tell when her partner needs to take a load off, or blow off some steam. At the sight of their leg thrumming away, she’ll give their thigh a pat to get their attention, and then ask if there’s anything she can do to help them. As luck would have it, a stiff drink does tend to give Six the time to calm their nerves, so that trend isn’t completely abandoned once Cass has found out the truth about Six’s habit.

Raul:

"What's the matter, boss? Can’t find the right word? Lo siento, mi corazón, English isn't my best language, but I can try and help if you want." Raul is… confused at first. Whenever Six snaps their fingers, he can't seem to figure out if they're trying to find the right word to say, or if they happen to be looking for something, maybe they're trying to keep time, or make a beat? Maybe they’re counting something, trying to remember a phrase? Once they tell him it’s just a nervous tic they have, Raul looks a little embarrassed at the fact that he didn’t assume this earlier on. The ghoul tries not to pay much attention to his partner’s habit, since he knows it must make them a little self conscious when people point it out, but sometimes he can't help but snap along, trying to make a little song to go along with their own improvised rhythm. When Six does finally notice his contribution, Raul just likes to wink at them in response, flashing a playful little smile as they blush in embarrassment at the fact that he caught them doing their nervous tic.

Veronica:

When Veronica noticed that her partner had pierced ears, she was ecstatic. Ecstatic, and jealous. She always wanted to pierce her ears, to find or make her own pretty little earrings to decorate herself with, but alas, ear piercings were certainly not within the limits of Brotherhood dress and decorum. Given her interest in them, it’s no surprise that she noticed the way Six twisted the backs between their fingers, twiddling the bits of jewelry absent-mindedly whenever they became stressed or nervous. Often times, Veronica would reach a hand out to gently pry their fingers from their earring, pulling their hand to her lips so she could give it a small kiss before bringing it to settle somewhere else, to keep them from damaging the little bits of jewelry in their ears that she envied so much.

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words-for-holland · 3 years

Text

Always Yours

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Summary: Sometimes dating a celebrity is hard...but Tom & Y/N have always said no matter what happens they could get through anything. Some angst but a lot of fluff.

A/N: So sorry for leaving yall hanging! Life is just crazy right now and this blog needs a lot of TLC tbh!! Also ehh I def dont think this was my best work but enjoy?

“Oof” Y/N lets out as she plops on to her boyfriend who was lying comfortable on the couch. Tom groaned at the impact with a cheeky smile on his face, his arms instantly wrapping around Y/N’s frame.

“Y’know..there are empty seats right there.” The soft brown-eyed boy gestured with the flick of his thick head as Y/N raises her eyes looking down at him, pretending to be slightly offended.

“Oh I see how it is then. It’s cool...Ill just cuddle with Tessa instead. I know she would welcome me with open arms instead of—” As she slowly starts getting off his chest, Tom is quick to pull her back in, securing her with his strong arms. “No baby, I was just kidding. I want you right here, and Im never letting you go.” he pleas.

The only thing Y/N could manage was letting out a fit of giggles into his chest, a sound that Tom adored and would do absolutely anything to hear every minute of every day. They stay like this for a while enjoying the feeling of each other as they both run their hands into each others hair, the feeling of their chests moving up and down, the subtle thumps of their heartbeats, and the little slips of adoration that came out of their mouths. It was peaceful. A moment that nobody could really take a way because it was theirs.

Y/N casually pulls up her phone, and scrolls through Twitter when she noticed a particular tweet on her timeline. Her eyebrows furrow, as she read the 160 character message.

Why Tom Holland Should Be With Aaliyah Cole and Dump Y/N: A Thread.

She knew it wasnt a good idea to open up the thread. She knew very well that everything within the shallow string of tweets would be a complete waste of her time because it was made up by fans who just wanted to satisfy their fantasy of shipping Tom with his co-star. Who can blame them? They always had great chemistry, but it was part of the job and thats all it would ever be.

“You’re awfully quiet.” Tom murmurs, as he places soft kisses at the crown of her head. “Whats going on?” She was lucky her phone was facing away from Tom, quickly closing the app and pretending to be on one of her many tabs in Safari.

“Mmm..nothing.” Y/N lies softly, a tight-lipped smiled plastered on her face.

“Absolute bullocks. Youre not a very good liar.” He chuckles. “Tell me darling. Whats on your mind?”

Y/N rolls her eyes in response. She’s heard that comment one too many times in her life from everyone shes known. After not giving it much thought, she gives in, sighing heavily. “Dont judge me for what Im about to say.”

“Mmm...I think it might depend on wha— Ow” Tom reacts as he playfully rubs the side of his chest that Y/N hit. “Okay too soon for jokes. Go on.”

Again, Y/N sighs as she props herself up. “Its just ... well a lot of your fans keeps talking about wanting you to get with Aaliyah.” She looks down trying not to make eye contact with Tom, who she’d imagine was looking at her with annoyance.

Tom rolls his eyes at the ridiculousness. Not so much at Y/N but the fact that some of his fans just didnt want to accept the fact that he was happy with Y/N. If it had to come from his mouth to stop the stupid rumors and give his girlfriend peace, then hed gladly yell it from the rooftops for everyone to hear. “Thats it Im making a statement about it.”

Y/N’s eyes widen in fear, scrambling to prevent him from grabbing his phone on the table next him. “No no no no.” She repeatedly declines. “You’ll only make it worse.”

“Darling, Im not going to stand here and watch you get all insecure because of their delusional ship.”

“Yeah well Im not gonna be the reason your fans hate me because Im getting in the way of your friendship with Aaliyah Cole.” She fires back.

Tom was ready to open his mouth only to be cut off once again. “And you know better. That is how your fans will always see it.”

“Okay, are you done?” He calmly asked, cautiously observing her. Rarely did Y/N ever get worked up about anything, but when she had her tangents, Tom always made sure she got off everything she needed to say before he becomes her voice of reason.

“Yeah, I guess.” she says feeling defeated. “Look its whatever and Im tired, can we just let this go and forget this whole conversation even happened?”

Tom was unconvinced, but didnt want to push her further. So reluctantly, he gave in and wrapped his arms around Y/N as they both tried to lull themselves to sleep.

***

Y/N wasnt sure how she ended up in the Tube. It was strange how the lights flickered off the rusted tile floor. The train was no where to be seen, but off to the side of the railroads was pitch black, she could hardly see beyond. To her right she noticed herself standing in the corner of the room, and to her surprise Aaliyah was there. Her milk chocolate kissed skin, and fashionably long frizzy hair dropped down past her shoulders. Her figure long and poised, as she wore a rain jacket and sweats. An outfit only she could pull off and make it look like she was a model for Vogue. Aasliyah smiles brightly at Y/N.

“Hey Y/N.” She says cheerfully as a genuine friend would.

To Y/N’s surprise she greeted her back in the same tone. “Hey Aaliyah...uhh whats going on?” Y/N wasnt sure if she wanted the answer of how they both ended up in the Tube or if she truly wanted to know how her day went.

“Well Im getting ready to present at the Oscars.” She replies, a smile plastered as if she was so excited about it, almost too excited like she was keeping a secret.

“Really? Oh my god, that’s amazing! Im so proud of you Aaliyah! Who are you taking?”

Aaliyah pauses for a few moment looking back and forth, making sure no one else was around. “Okay can you keep a secret?” She whispered.

Y/N nods her head slowly, not having the slightest clue of what was going on. “Im taking Tom. I think he really likes me, and well...I like him too! Do you think maybe I should ask him when we go?” Aaliyah asked genuinely. It was almost like she had no recollection of Y/N and Tom being a couple. “I think we would look good together. Everyone is already making rumors and ships about us.”

Y/N backs aways lowly only to bump into a broad figure. As she turns around she sees Tom, emotionless and almost sad. “Y/N.” He speaks out. “I dont think this is going to work out. Im leaving you.”

Y/N’s heart quickens, and her breaths become shorter as she tries to find a way to run. Running and running into the darkness, until all she could hear was Tom’s faint voice calling out her name.

***

“Y/N! Y/N! Baby wake up please.” Tom cries as he gently shakes his girlfriend from her disturbed sleep.

Quickly Y/N opens her eyes and clutches on to Toms hoodie firmly. Back home, and in Toms arms. It was a dream was all she thought. A sigh of relief escaping from her mouth.

“Darling...” he speaks softly, worried about his girlfriend. “Are you okay?”

Y/N looks up at him and nods frantically. “Mmm..bad dream.”

“Yeah it seemed like it. You were so frightened...I was scared. What happened?” He’s looking at her, trying to read her saddened eyes, wanting to desperately understand what scared her so he could make it all go away for her.

Y/N looks down at her fiddling hands, as she sits on the couch. “I uhh...” she lets out a chuckle, thinking of the ridiculousness of it all. “I uhh...dreamed about Aaliyah going to the oscars and saying how she loved you and how you two are perfect for each other. When I turned around I saw you but you werent happy and said you were leaving me.”

Tom doesnt say a word, all he could think about was how sorry he felt to put Y/N in this position. Though both of them knew, It wasnt Toms fault, or anyone’s for that matter. Feelings are feelings and that was okay. No human being was ever born perfect and without insecurities.

Y/N always tried to be a good sport with situations like this knowing every shippers theory and evidence were hardly ever true, but at some point there was only so much she could take before it all came out like an oil spill. Maybe it was a sign that she wasnt good enough to be with Tom if half of his fanbase thought this way as well.

Tom cradled her into his arms again, holding her tightly and kissing the top of her head. “Darling, I know youre still doubting yourself about all of this, but please believe me when I tell you that I love you so so much and no matter what happens...Im always yours.” He whispers gently in her ear. “It was only a dream and these ridiculous rumors and theories are just that. No one woman in the world could ever make me feel the way I feel for you.”

Y/N blinks softly, as she stares into space. Afraid and in a weird way ashamed, its funny how something so small and so minimal could affect her self-esteem so greatly. Tom gently brings her head up, so her eyes can meet his. He rolls his thumb on the bottom of her soft lips. “Hey, I love you.” Tom smiles.

Time stopped for the both of them the moment Y/N looked into his eyes, she felt safe. All the bad words and thoughts slowly disappear. Tom was right, none of the things that anyone said about their relationship mattered. She knew Tom loved her, and how much she truly loved him. Isnt that enough? Of course not. It was more than enough. A smile slowly forming on Y/N’s face. “Theres that smile I love so much.” He comments.

“Im sorry, for being such a —”

“No. Its okay. You have a right to feel the way you did.” He picks up her hand and leaves a gentle kiss.

“I love you so much Tom.” She says pressing her lips to his. “I dont deserve you.”

“Darling, its me that doesnt deserve you. Im always yours.” Tom proclaims as he kisses her back.

#tom holland #tom holland imagine #tom holland x reader #peter parker #peter parker imagine #peter parker x reader

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utilitycaster · 3 years

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Hello I would love to hear you thoughts on Caduceus and his arc. Clay is the only character who’s story has made me cry genuine tears (when he got his fam back) and I feel like his nuances and the changes he goes through tend to be overlooked a lot, exactly because of how quietly they happen.

Of course!

So as Taliesin said a few times and as I've pointed out, Caduceus (and Molly for that matter) was intended to be a static character. Obviously this is an impossibility in D&D because things happen and you cannot control it and moreover I am sure Taliesin is aware of this, so it's more that the intent was to have a character who did not feel they needed to change, possibly in contrast with Percy, who absolutely felt he needed to change. A self-proclaimed static character still needs a reason to be static: Molly's philosophy was, as notably stated on talks, "Life's short...do something to a bagel" and more generally the lack of need for change came from this sort of aimless and benevolent-when-convenient hedonism. Caduceus, on the other hand, is secure in his purpose. He has known who he was supposed to be for his whole life, and he embraces it, and sees no reason to change, until he absolutely has to, and even then he is deeply reluctant.

Caduceus is about what happens when your comfort zone and guiding principles themselves fold in on each other and are like "hey. expand us or else."

I think a lot of people have rightfully noted that from his appearance through the Xhorhas arc, Caduceus sees the rest of the Nein as mourners, and that's within his comfort zone. Sure, there are some moral quandaries at the docks of Nicodranas, but he's able to get through that (in part because he's in the Mighty Nein but isn't personally stealing the ship, in part because of Jester's talk with him). I think it's also worth noting that while Caduceus is extremely insightful he is not superhuman (super firbolgian?) in that regard; it is the insight borne of being someone who is there for mourners and so he has a good eye for emotions, less so for motivations, and a lot of the Nein's motivations early on escape him.

The first wave of big changes happen in Bazzoxan and the immediate aftermath. First, Fjord confides in him and asks for advice - and Caduceus is used to giving advice but I'm not sure he's ever had to offer religious practice advice, as the people he would have interacted with would have either been the sketchy people of Shady Creek Run, or else people already faithful enough to seek the Blooming Grove. And second, the party finds itself directionless for a time; there is no pressing business or better ideas and he cannot hide his own mission behind someone else's, so he voices his recommendation that they come clean to the Bright Queen, and then they go to the kiln.

Caduceus's relationship with Fjord I think is useful to bring up in a sense of contrast, in that Caduceus is incredibly good at helping Fjord through a crisis, because Caduceus is trained for crisis - but it gets much hazier once Fjord is out of said crisis and as it turns out has a very different relationship with the Wildmother, and I think this comes up to an extent when they talk in Rexxentrum. I think Caduceus, for all his talk of nature's violence, struggles with the concept of nature being malevolent or having goals - it just is. Whereas Fjord is much more comfortable with the idea of nature perhaps being a force that is itself a threat, or deceptive, and more generally with the idea of nature as somewhat unknowable and full of mysteries. I don't think Caduceus's personal view of nature ever changes, but I think his ability to process that he doesn't have the answers even in the areas within his comfort zone improves, and this is something of an inflection point with regards to him acknowledging new perspectives on his own comfort zone.

It's also a little before this that we see Caduceus reveal vulnerability for the first real time since his panic attack on the boat right after they stole it, when he confides in The Gentleman. Some of this is a calculated social move, to be fair, but it's a notable step forward.

That said it takes a while to change and he spends a few days post-Rexxentrum doing anything to avoid facing his own mission. It's worth noting that Caduceus is a cleric of the same level as Jester, and could have cast sending before the party ever met up with him, and he never did. So they go to Beau's father and Isharnai first, putting it off as long as he can.

Caduceus's scenes with his family sort of snap all of the above into place, in that his parents are glad he's spent some time in the world and are completely accepting of his desire to keep going for a time. I'm honestly not sure, myself, why he does this because I don't think it's metagaming (ie, it's not Taliesin going 'I can't make a third character') but I think there are multiple valid interpretations. Caduceus's role, as the one who stays at home, is ultimately a self-imposed one.

He sort of mulls on that for the next while, sort of uncomfortably internalizing differing perspectives on deities with the Artagan reveal/Rumblecusp and additionally processing his own deeper relationship with the Wildmother, with multiple visions, and maybe even the fact that nature constantly wants to murder him.

Then we get to Eiselcross and that's when it all hits. I think as soon as he sees the corrupted trees he gets a sense of the scale, that this corruption is not just unnatural but it is ancient and has been a threat for a long time and that staving it off at the Blooming Grove is not getting at the unknown, underlying source (which he probably knew deep down, but as discussed above he does not really love to admit those things to himself). And he realizes that he might need to be the one not just to commit but to initiate violence, as the person with no emotional ties to Lucien via Molly; he finds himself bending his own moral rules for the greater good more; and I think this is when he realizes either that he needs to change, or perhaps that he's been changing quietly and slowly the whole time and has just been terrified to admit it.

The last night at the Blooming Grove before the final push into Aeor is another good look at Caduceus, who, like a number of characters in this campaign, is so very much defined by his ongoing and important familial relationships. We get a brief but heartbreaking glimpse at the state he was in prior to the Nein showing up in the garden, and how he was trying to induce something, anything, to give him direction because he didn't trust himself to leave without that assurance; and his admission, finally, to someone else of that change, that he never wanted to be the person to go on an adventure, that he still has very mixed feelings about it, but that this is his responsibility. And it's that which allows him to confidently say, on Cognouza, that it's time to end this shit.

In short (Clue the Movie voice: too late) Caduceus's arc is someone who has always believed in his sacred, literally god-given responsibility into which he was born, and struggles against the fact that said sacred responsibility ends up being quite different than what he expected but ultimately is able to accept it, and his reward is that he can return to the responsibility he initially embraced, having grown in ways he could not have otherwise.

Now, I think part of why Caduceus's arc gets overlooked is twofold. The first reason is that background arcs are, well, background, and it's quiet and subtle and highly internal and hard to turn into big dramatic moments, which, as a person whose favorite C1 character is Vex, I understand, but also those arcs are the best.

The second, and this is going to sound even more "I appreciate the muppets on a much deeper level than you" than the first, is that I feel a lot of people who considered Caduceus their favorite character did lean into the myth of "superfirbolgian" insight when the fact always was that Caduceus had no interest in the political; did not make Trent quake in his wizard robes in the slightest as was confirmed in the finale; and ultimately wanted most of all to return to his home.

It's a very true and very unique choice and if I may [note: I am writing this so I do what I want] I think a lot of people did not understand Caduceus in that they felt his ending was unhappy for him, and some of this is that people had really stupid takes on the party splitting at the end. I have mixed feelings on the true universality of the Campbellian Monomyth and even more mixed feelings on everyone giving Dan Harmon tons of credit for merely rephrasing it but despite that, Caduceus's arc fits it perfectly (and very literally): comfort zone -> need arises -> unfamiliar situation -> adaptation -> gets what he wants -> at a price -> returns to comfort -> having changed.

#caduceus clay #critical role #long post #me writing this: oh actually c2 was about self-imposed expectations and the various ways they are removed #me writing that previous tag: I should write about that but not tonight i need to like. do things before bed.#also me writing this: should also write about the ongoing familial relationships because i think that's related

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space-city-traffic · 3 years

Text

yet again im back on my bullshit so... (gazes with mixed feelings at the TV show Firefly) i could fix him.

my extremely long thoughts about my Own Personal Good Version of Firefly (with plenty of spoilers for the show and the movie) under the cut:

things that are getting axed first thing no question:

out with the whole “let’s add in a thin veneer of Chinese cultural aesthetics out of context for ~flavor~” deal. just no.

instead, let’s hire some actors from a bunch of different cultures and work with them to figure out how their characters would bring those cultures into space with them!! and also hopefully bring some experiences with immigration/alienation/travel into it, since the Whole Core of Firefly is about how humanity always brings our doomed and silly and stubborn and unique warmth with us even into the cold void where nothing is familiar or homey in the slightest.

let’s respect our sex worker character shall we?

i do appreciate that Inara’s work as a companion is described as legitimate and well respected in the show. however please stop having your captain and hero call her a wh*re every five seconds against her clearly expressed wishes and portraying this as just a totally acceptable thing

let’s be more respectful of our characters of color and also have some more diversity, shall we?

others have put it better than me but yeah, the way Zoe and Book are treated is very uncomfy, and the rest of the show is depressingly monochromatic. come on let’s do better.

stop the weird confederacy hat tips

again others have pointed these out with much more thoroughness than I could, but the names of some characters and locations, as well as some of the language used to describe the browncoats, has uncomfortably confederate vibes. instead i propose we very Clearly tip our hats to the Alliance equaling space capitalism instead! you can’t go wrong with space capitalism as a villain.

don’t! make! the! psychotic! character! violent!

listen i love River Tam with my whole heart. but you should absolutely not portray your only character with psychosis as violent because of that psychosis!!!!!!! and yeah, a huge part of her character is that her brain got fucked up by the alliance and so she hallucinates and is also a super ninja. but like. she doesn’t need to be a super ninja for her character to work, okay? the crew does not need to be scared of her for her character to work, okay??? more on this later bc it would take a lot of care and nuance to make her character work but i really think it can be done

things we are absolutely keeping:

found family tropes my fucking beloved

this should be self evident. this is why the show is as appealing as it is despite its flaws, at least in my eyes.

malcolm reynolds, the knight in dusty armor

there’s something so appealing to me about what Mal stands for. because at his core is this ridiculous, silly, stubborn, doomed devotion to what he thinks is important and right, a romantic idealism thinly covered by cynical cowboy platitudes that he thinks make his bleeding heart totally invisible. and he is so obvious and entirely incorrect. bless. this is a man who will do anything for his family, who charges into swordfights to defend his friend from a man who wants to turn her into an object despite having no clue how to hold a sword. at his worst, he starts brawls in bars just for the martyr’s thrill of being persecuted for supporting the right; at his best, he inspires downright religious belief from his crew because he represents a romantic and chivalrous and doomed dedication to the right thing over any practical concerns. and then he throws a “selfish” quip over it with 100% confidence that everyone fell for his clever distraction and believes him to be a dirtbag. he’s oblivious and ridiculous and god he makes me want to be a better person because he’s just so goddamned sincere. stupid, but sincere. 10/10 himbo. <3

Mal and Inara ultraslowburn friends to enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to friends to lovers to friends to...

there’s nothing i love more than a ship that’s just two people who know each other way too well, and they’re each the only one who knows the other well enough to call them out on their bullshit. the way Mal and Inara interact in the show sometimes makes me uncomfy but like. the core of their relationship has to stay.

space western aesthetic

i need the cows on a spaceship scene to stay like i need air okay

that sweet sweet religious shit

mal, who lost his faith in gd and a whole lot else during the war. who lost his faith in himself, and now feels he has to hide the part of him that still wants to be good, because he knows he can’t be anymore, and he feels like it’s embarrassing for a guy like him to want something so unattainable. who takes a preacher on board, and the preacher has lost something, too. the preacher has his own past, and his own questions. but not questions like the observant neurodivergent girl, the one who wants to interact with and understand this thing that’s so important to him, but it just doesn’t click with how her brain works and she feels like something needs to be fixed, either the Bible or herself. and Mal takes care of them all, and slowly, he begins to find gd again, not in a prayer but in humanity. humanity doesn’t need to be fixed, like the alliance thinks. the shining imperfect strawberry sweetness of it in his family’s smiles is something to be worshiped and served and devoted to. and he finds he has something to believe in again. (and his crew find that he’s given them someone to believe in, too. and maybe suddenly he’s a saint.)

and finally, my brilliant ideas as to what i would like to add:

TRANS WOMAN KAYLEE RIGHTS

listen her femininity is so important to me okay? it’s so thrilled about everything that’s pretty, from dresses to the spaceship’s electric innards, and it’s so non-traditional and grease stained until it’s not and it’s pink and ruffly and twirly, and she never sees any of it as a contradiction, because none of it contradicts, it’s all just her! her gender is warmth and love and prettiness, feeling pretty and appreciating the pretty and making her friends’ days pretty too.

i want us to find out she’s trans in that episode with the ball, and i want us to find out alongside Mal who just never asked or never realized. Kaylee gasps and squeals at the dress in the shop window and Mal makes an off handed, ill considered comment, and then... someone yanks him aside and hisses a few very significant words in his ear. and suddenly he remembers what the blue white and pink she painted all over the engine room means, and he knows he has something to make right. so he buys her that dress himself and lets her know just how pretty she looks, and when he walks into that ball with her displayed on his arm like something precious, he looks the proudest out of any man there. and she notices. for a few seconds, of course, until there’s chocolate, and ‘nara, and a chandelier—and some horrible girls, but she’s used to that, until—suddenly, she finds her people. a group of old men who light up when she jokes about compression coils and whack presumptuous boys who ask her to dance. they adopt her as a treasured granddaughter, and Mal is beaming at her like a proud dad, and she finds that one of her new elderly friends gazes a little too long at her bracelet, and so she gives it to xem and teaches xem a few new words, and... it’s a good day, huh? it’s a really good day. (of course, then the captain has to go and punch somebody in the face, but it was a real nice party up until then.)

also she and Simon are both transhet t4t im correct and you know it

time for a better River Tam

the first thing we’ve established is that this version of her is not unpredictably violent and the crew is not scared of her!!!! it makes no sense to take a kid who’s primarily brilliant, experiment on her brain, give her telepathic powers....... and tack on the fact that she also has super strength and speed and dexterity and what not, AND say that they programmed her to be super violent. no! no. not only is that extremely harmful rep, that’s also just stupid.

instead!! my version of River is in fact not terrifying to the crew, but is actually the one they feel safest around. River has always been totally blunt, she was one of those kids you could tell realllllly early was autistic, and she doesn’t like being disengenous at all. so you can always trust her to tell the truth and not play weird passive aggressive games or have any hidden agenda, which makes her just a really chill person to be around. also, one of her longtime special interests is music and dance, so whether or not she’s nonverbal on a given day, there will always be some sort of beautiful sound when she’s around. she does have the singing voice of a dying crow unfortunately but that’s ok bc Simon’s is even worse and they’re both incredibly competitive so you’ll at least get free entertainment out of the affair.

my version of River does have psychosis and hallucinations because of the trauma of the experiments, and they are really troubling to her. she and Simon work together to find ways to cope and meds that help, and it’s a process, but there are some things that help.

the only thing she gained from the academy was the ability to hear people’s thoughts and sense the future a little bit. and yeah, that led to her picking up a few spooky secrets at the beginning, which, yikes. and for a while, it was hard to figure out which voices were real and which were hallucinations. but around her friends, she always feels safe to ask “did you just think about triple cheese burritos or was that just a me thing?”, and they’ll always tell her the truth no matter how embarrassing their thoughts are, bc it’s important to all of them to respect her and help her sort accurately through what’s reality and what’s not. and bit by bit, she gets better and better at figuring out what kinds of things tend to be telepathy and what kinds of things tend to be psychosis, and that each one feels a little different. and because of the trust and respect and support of her found family she’s able to do that in a safe environment!!!

trans man Simon rights

listen i wanted to keep him as just a side note on Kaylee’s list but he is my son and he’s important to my heart so here goes

out on the outer rim where Kaylee’s from, gender ain’t much of a big deal, there’s an individualistic quality to life out there, and so if the trail you blaze is the trail of a woman or a man or neither or both, that’s respected even in the rare cases where it’s not outright encouraged. but in the inner planets, where competition and connections and public faces and family names are everything, you have to be what’s expected of you to survive. you can’t change your brand, you can’t be anything other than what your family planned for you since before you were born, it’s incredibly hard to survive in such a hyper competitive environment, and so your very identity becomes just a tool in how to market yourself for better success.

needless to say Simon (just as autistic as his little sister and also very trans) fuckin hated it there. but he was very good at it. correction: he was very good at his very specific field of STEM, good enough to where people stopped talking about how cute he looked in bows and started talking about how impressive his work was from a very young age. and his work had no gender. he could be whatever he wanted to in equations. so that was where he could express himself, and gd, he got so much praise for it, he never wanted to stop.

not until he discovered that his sister needed him, and ran away, and needed a disguise, and realized... suddenly, every stifling rule and prying eye was a million miles away. he was freefloating, freefalling, with none of the charted paths he’d been following all his life... so you know what? fuck it. he’s always enjoyed the name Simon. and since it’s not on any legal records, it’ll make him just that much more untraceable.

and on Serenity, starting over with new people who never knew him before his transition feels like an unbelievable blessing that just dropped right into his lap. he has to keep up the secrecy, he has to make sure they never find out who he used to be, because gd, it’s so nice when they look at him and say his name right, and he doesn’t know if he can handle losing that, not when it’s so new and so important to the person he’s finally becoming. but then one day, the unthinkable happens, the wanted posters for his arrest have an old name on them, they’re looking for the Tam sisters, and... nothing changes. the crew of Serenity could not give even a tenth of a percent of a fuck, and it doesn’t seem like they even know they’re supposed to. huh. that’s new. Simon could get used to that, he thinks.

i’m sure there’s more i could add, but it’s 4:30 in the morning now, so if more occurs to me, ill simply add it in a reblog tomorrow. if you’ve read down this far, i am in love with you. please let me know your Better Firefly ideas, too, bc im always down to yell about this show!!!

#firefly #Serenity #in which i choke out joss whedon with my bare hands and rescue his characters and give them better homes #ollies fix it series #malcolm reynolds #ollies personal good firefly canon

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alloftheimaginesblog · 3 years

Text

So, I Like This Girl... {Peter Parker x Plus Size Reader}

Plot: You always thought you were the ‘fat friend’ but Peter thinks you’re more the ‘out of his league love interest’.

Characters: Peter Parker x Plus Size Female Identifying Reader

Part of my Plus Size Reader x Character series!

The day started off as normal, meeting Ned on the bus and catching up with Peter in the hallways. Peter gave you that goofy smile that always made you smile back. You, Peter and Ned had been friends forever and over the last few months, you began to see Peter as more than simply a friend. He was awkward and silly and could make you laugh so easily, he always treated you so good; you couldn’t not have a crush on him.

The day got weird when Peter was sitting beside you in Math class telling you that he liked this girl. Your heart sunk as he told you. Oh how you wanted to be this girl that he was referencing. He spoke about her so highly, “So, I like this girl... She’s gorgeous and really, really funny. She’s got this lovely smile and this funny laugh that’s so adorable.”

Peter glanced at you nervously as he spoke, he was only describing yourself, but you didn’t realise. You were too caught up in the jealousy that Peter liked someone that you barely listened to what he was really saying to you.

“Maybe you should ask her on a date.” Your voice was slightly snide as you said it to him.

Peter frowned, “I don’t know if she’d like to...” He left it open, wanting you to tell him yourself whether you’d like that but again, you hadn’t the slightest clue that he was talking about you.

“You’ll have to ask her, Peter. Not me.” He went to speak when you shushed him, “I’m trying to listen. We’ve got a test soon.”

Peter sighed heavily, realising that he hadn’t been obvious enough. He wished that he could come out and just say that he liked you but he was too worried about your reaction. You’d been friends for years and he didn’t want to risk that or make you feel uncomfortable. You sighed as you began scribbling notes down, you wished that you were the one that he liked but you thought that he was talking about MJ. MJ... she was gorgeous, so effortlessly pretty and you... well, you thought of yourself as the fat friend. You were heavier than most of the girls in your year, you didn’t think you were pretty enough, skinny enough or simply just good enough for Peter to like you.

Peter would try again later.

He decided to try again at lunch when you were waiting in line with him, “You really gotta help me with this girl,” he sighed, glancing at you, “I can’t stop thinking about her.”

You clenched your jaw as you moved forwards in the line, “Uh huh.” Peter could tell something was wrong but he just didn’t know what.

Peter continued as you collected your lunch, “She’s my friend, you know, and I’ve liked her for a while and I finally want to tell her.”

You took a deep breath trying to calm your jealousy. You honestly never knew you were a jealous person until right now. Your hands gripped your lunch tray tightly as you walked back to your table with Peter.

“She likes all the same stuff as I do,” he continued, glancing hopefully that you’d finally realise.

You’d had enough though and slammed your lunch tray onto the table, causing a few people to look at you, “Peter, I don’t care about your stupid crush! Go tell her and stop upsetting me!”

“I’m trying to tell her!” Peter exclaimed quietly, glancing around to make sure no one was still looking, “I’m trying to tell you!”

“What do you mean ‘tell me’?” You hissed, “I’ve heard about her all damn day and it’s killing me because I want to be the girl you’re talking about!”

“You are the girl I’m talking about!”

“I-” you stopped, the reality of his words sinking it, “What?!”

Peter sighed, “I couldn’t come out and just tell you so I thought if I spoke about you to yourself, you’d obviously click on at some point.”

“Peter, that was a stupid idea!” You found yourself laughing, “You mean to tell me that I’ve been getting jealous over myself?”

Peter chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck, “Yeah, I suppose you have been... Does- Does that mean you like me too?”

You nodded, “Of course I like you.”

“Who did you think I was talking about?”

You shrugged, “MJ. I didn’t believe it possible that you could like someone like me.”

“Someone like you?”

“Fat,” you shrugged, looking down at your lunch, “I’m not good enough to be with you. I’m not pretty enough or skinny enough or-”

“Stop,” Peter’s voice was strong, “(y/n), since I met you, I’ve had a massive crush on you. Ask Ned, I go on about you all the time. I think you’re one of the most beautiful, prettiest girls I’ve ever seen. You’re funny and kind and you are so gorgeous. You say ‘fat’ as though it’s the worst thing in the world, you say it like weighing more means you’re not worthy of love and affection which is a load of crap!”

You stared with wide eyes at him as he ranted passionately to you.

“You deserve love and affection and you deserve to feel beautiful because you are! You’re more than good enough! What do you mean you’re not good enough for me? I’m not good enough for you! You’re way out my league! (y/n), I like you a lot, isn’t that alone enough?”

You nodded, a stupid smile on your face, “Yeah... Are you sure you were talking about me all day?”

Peter smiled, “Yeah... It’s always been you... What would you say to going on a date with me this Saturday?”

“Why wait until Saturday?” You asked, “Why not tonight after school?”

#plus size series #peter parker x y/n #peter parker x plus size reader #peter parker x reader #peter parker x you #plus side reader #reader insert #avengers #avengers reader insert #marvel #marvel reader insert #spider-man #one shot #os #avengers one shot #peter parker one shot

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