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scoonsalicious · 16 days

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7.1 Major

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader

Summary: Lily McIntyre, trainer for new SHIELD recruits at the Avengers Tower, has been in love with her best friend, Bucky Barnes, from the moment she met him. She's been content with her role of the #1 girl in Bucky's life, even if it means she has to sabotage a romantic relationship or two. It'll be worth it when he realizes that they're meant for each other, right? There's just one small problem: Lily McIntire never expected Bucky Barnes to fall for You.

Warnings: (For this part only; see Story Masterlist for general Warnings) Language, discussion of feelings, nudity, mentions of some sexy stuff.

Word Count: 3.2k

Previously On...: Idk; it's been so long. Who can even remember? Just kidding-- Bucky blew off his plans for a 'friend-date' with Lily to talk to you about what happened that morning.

A/N: And we're back!

Hi, besties! I confess to not getting as much writing done as I had hoped on my break-- cursed writer's block! Then, last night, I ended up scrapping most of the writing I did do and started over, lol. However, I've got a bit of a back log again, and a four day weekend starting tonight, and now that I feel reinvigorated with the story, we'll be able to resume our regularly scheduled program!

If you ever feel so inclined to support my work, hop on over to buy me a coffee; it's much appreciated! <3

NOTE! The tag list is a fickle bitch, so I'm not really going to be dealing with it anymore. If you want to be notified when new story parts drop, please follow @scoonsaliciousupdates

Thank you to all those who have been reading; if you like what you've read, likes, comments, and reblogs give me life, and I truly appreciate them, and you!

You pulled up to the destination Bucky had sent you as dusk was falling. Langston Park. A weird spot for dinner, you thought, but you’d double-checked the location with Bucky, and he’d assured you that you were in the right place.

Glancing at your map, you noticed that the pin he’d sent you was a little ways up a trail. You parked your truck and double checked your bag to make sure you had your pepper spray at the ready– not that you were afraid that Bucky was going to harm you– just that, a woman alone in the woods at dusk? You could never be too careful. It actually went against your better judgment to go in there at all, but you trusted that Bucky wouldn’t lead you into danger.

If I do come across something unexpected, you thought to yourself, please let it be the bear.

You cautiously made your way up the trail, using the nearly useless flashlight feature on your phone to keep yourself from tripping over anything. It was difficult adjusting your eyesight from the bright light of the map you were following on your phone screen to the darkness gathering around you. After you’d been walking for about fifteen or so minutes, you had to turn left to go off-trail, cutting off your access to the dwindling daylight even more. You gently pushed branches of leaves aside as you made your way through the woods, until you noticed a soft, orange glow coming from up ahead of you.

When you broke through the tree line, your breath caught in your throat. The pin Bucky had sent you had led you to a small clearing nestled along a stream, with a melodious waterfall cascading down into a pool that held a handful of floating lanterns. The entire clearing was lit with hanging lanterns that gently swayed from the branches of the surrounding trees, washing the entire space with low, warm light. Spread out on the ground was a large blanket with some throw pillows, extra blankets, and a picnic hamper. And in the center of the clearing, crouched Bucky. He’d appeared to have just finished setting up his phone to stream some soft music. The entire tableau was the most romantic thing you’d ever seen.

“Hey,” you called softly as you turned your flashlight off, dropped your phone into your bag, and made your way into the clearing.

Bucky stood and turned to face you, a wide smile spreading across his face. “Major, hi,” he breathed. “Thank you so much for coming.”

“Did you do all this for me?” you asked in awe as you looked around, taking in your surroundings. You could feel a lump form in the back of your throat, and you had to actively tell yourself not to cry. No one had ever done anything so absolutely romantic for you in your entire life. Not once had Connor ever made a fraction of the effort Bucky had made tonight.

Bucky’s face took on a look of panic. “Is it too much?” he asked, nervously glancing around as though he were trying to judge it anew through your eyes to see what you might find wrong with it.

You smiled, reaching for his hand to offer a squeeze of reassurance. “It’s lovely,” you said. “No one has ever done something so amazing for me, Bucky. Thank you.”

Bucky visibly relaxed at your words. “Figured I owed you something special, to make up for this morning.” He motioned to the blanket, guiding you to sit down with him. “I brought dinner,” he said, opening up the basket. Inside were several subs, a couple of bottles of lemonade, and a few bags of chips. “Sweet onion teriyaki chicken with cucumbers, extra pickles, and red wine vinegar,” Bucky said, handing you a sandwich. You held the sandwich to you for a moment, your chest filling with warmth at the fact that he’d remembered your offhand comment about your favorite sandwich.

You put the wrapped sub down on the blanket in front of you. “Could we talk before we eat?” you asked him. “I’ve got some things I want to clear up first.”

Bucky swallowed and nodded, putting down the sandwich he had gotten for himself and looked up at you through his lashes. “Go ahead, sugar,” he said.

You took a breath. “I get why you didn’t tell Lily about me,” you said slowly. “It’s new, and we’re not even really anything. So, what’s there to tell her, really? Plus, she and I didn’t really have the best first impressions of one another, so that part, I understand. What I don’t get is why you felt you needed to lie about being out on a date at all.” Bucky opened his mouth to say something, but you weren’t finished.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how many calls I got toward the end of my marriage that went just like the one you had with Lily last night. All the times Connor assured me he was just “out with the boys,” when, in reality, he was with his mistress. So, I guess, hearing you tell Lily you were with Sam for a ‘guys’ night’ was kind of triggering.” You sighed, heaving your shoulders. “I need to know, and I need you to be honest with me: Is there something going on between the two of you? Is that why you felt the need to lie to her about being out with me?”

Bucky shook his head vehemently and made a face of mild disgust. “Major, no– there’s never been anything between us,” he said. “I won’t lie, Lily is very important to me– as a friend– she was the first new one I made in almost eighty years, and she stuck by me when I was going through a really difficult time in my life, when I really hadn’t given her much of a reason to, but in terms of anything romantic, or sexual? Never.”

You tilted your head, considering his words. He seemed sincere, though if you had been a good judge of when a man you had feelings for was lying to your face, your marriage to Connor would probably only have been a fraction as long as it was.

“Alright,” you said, choosing in the moment to believe him, “so, if you’re as close as you say, and there’s nothing romantic between the two of you, it makes it even stranger that you lied to her about being out on a date last night.”

Bucky looked down, toying with a loose thread on the blanket you both sat on. “At the time,” he said, not looking up at you, “not telling her the truth seemed like a good idea. It didn’t really cross my mind that I was lying… more like ‘just not telling her the truth yet.’ I was really looking forward to seeing you again, doll,” he told you, his eyes now rising to meet yours, “ and telling Lil… well, it felt like I was needlessly complicating things."

You let out an exasperated sigh. “None of that explains to me the why behind it, Bucky,” you said. “Why would telling your best friend complicate things?

“I just didn’t want her getting involved in our business before the two of us even knew what our business was,” he said, as if that made everything clear.

“But, shouldn’t your best friend knowing your business be, I dunno, a good thing?” you asked him in frustration, wanting to reach out and shake him. You felt like you were going around in circles. “Shouldn’t she be happy for you?”

“Of course!” he exclaimed. “Of course she’ll be happy for me. It’s just…” He heaved a heavy sigh. “Lily’s always had… opinions about every girl I’ve ever dated, and she’s never made it a point of keeping them to herself. I mean, most of the time, she ends up being spot on, and the relationship flops, but this…” he moved to place his hand over yours where it rested on the blanket, “with you? I wanted to enjoy it before she makes those opinions known.”

You turned your hand over and squeezed his. The full truth of the situation had clicked into place for you at his words, and the realization brought both intense clarity and an all too familiar heartache. “All my life, I’ve been… impulsive,” you told him. “I jump head first into things, without thinking about the consequences. It’s how I got into the Army, ended up with Connor, hell, even how I started my business. Sometimes it works out, but…” you heaved a sigh, “usually it tends to blow up spectacularly in my face. I don’t want this to blow up in my face, Bucky.”

The confusion in Bucky’s face as he took in your words was evident. “What are you saying, doll?” he asked.

You took a moment, considering your next words carefully. “I… I really like you,” you began as a wide grin broke out across his face. “Probably more than I should for a person I just met a few days ago, but the truth of it is, I’ve seen this story play out before, and I’m not sure I could handle opening my heart to you, only to have you leave me for the best friend you swore I’d never have to worry about.”

Bucky took both your hands in his own, a look of desperation crossing his face. “Sugar,” he said, then cleared his throat. “Major. I don’t know how many other ways I can tell you that I just don’t see Lily that way,” he said. “Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any dame the way I see you. You’ve got me feeling all kinds of ways I’ve never felt before.”

His words were sweet, and you felt your heart soften, but you had to remind yourself: you’d heard words just like it before. “Look,” you said, pulling your hands away from his, “maybe you don’t , but it seems pretty obvious, even as an outsider, that her feelings for you are stronger than just friendship. I don’t want to lose my heart to you if you’re going to realize that you belong with someone you’ve known for years, instead of a one-night stand that went on for too long.”

Bucky reeled back as if you’d slapped him and closed his eyes in a grimace. “That is never,” he began, a pained expression clouding his handsome face, “ever all that you could be to me, Major.” When he opened them again, his eyes were boring into yours, the blue gone cobalt in the growing night. “I’m not going to wake up one day and decide I want to be with Lily. I’ve had four years in close proximity with her for those feelings to develop, and they never have. I honestly can’t see why that would change, especially now that I’ve met you.”

God, you wanted to believe him, but you’d already played this role and it had nearly destroyed you, despite how nonchalantly you acted about it. “Does she know that, Bucky? Because, to be completely honest with you, on the night we met, both Nat and Wanda advised me not to get involved with you, because of her.”

His face blanched at the admission. “What?! Why would they say that?”

“They warned me,” you clarified, hoping that you weren’t betraying any trust with your new friends and only feeling mildly bad that you were divulging Lily’s secret, “that Lily wasn’t a ‘girl’s girl;’ she was a ‘Bucky’s girl,’ only, you didn’t know it.”

“But she–” he spluttered, “she– we– she never– she’s never said anything. She’s never acted…” He was at a loss for words, and you could tell that the information had genuinely taken him by surprise. Despite what Lily may feel for him, it didn’t seem like he ever suspected it.

“Maybe I should leave you to think that over,” you said, making motions to start standing up. “Thanks for the sandwich.” Before you could even get your legs under you, though, Bucky reached out a hand and grabbed your wrist.

“Wait!” he exclaimed, gently tugging you back down to the blanket. “Why are you leaving?”

You shrugged, confused. “I figured you’d want some time,” you told him. “Decide what you want to do about her feelings.”

Bucky looked at you like you were crazy. “Doll, in what world do any feelings Lily may have about me concern how I feel about you?”

“I just assumed…” you began, but he interrupted you.

“Assumed what? That just because she’s got a crush on me, I’m gonna ignore this thing between you and I? That I’m gonna develop feelings for her, outta nowhere, I might add, and just forget all about you?”

You shrugged your shoulders sheepishly. “Yeah, actually,” you said.

“You idiot,” Bucky said, shaking his head with a gentle smile and a soft laugh. He put a hand behind your head and pulled you forward until your foreheads were leaning together. “I sincerely mean this when I tell you I don’t give a fuck about Lily’s feelings,” he said.

You both widened your eyes at the perceived callousness of the statement.

“Fuck,” Bucky backpedaled, backing his head away from yours a little “that came out soundin’ awful, and definitely not how I meant it.” He ran a hand nervously through his hair. “Of course I care about her feelings– she’s my friend– I just mean… shit. Just, obviously, I feel bad if me not reciprocatin’ hurts her, but there’s nothin’ I can really do for it, y’know? Because it doesn’t change my feelings, and it’s not gonna change my feelings.

And shit, you believed him.

“You know what?” Bucky said, as if an idea had suddenly come to him. “Here.” He reached under the collar of his shirt and pulled out his military dog tags. Lifting them over his head, he slowly draped them around your neck.

“Bucky,” you said, fingering the embossed metal, “what…?”

“Think of it this way,” he said, “you, of all people, know what these tags mean to a soldier. Since I came outta cryo, came back to myself, not a single person has worn them, ‘cept for me. I’ve had girlfriends ask– hell, Lily’s asked– but it never felt right.” He brushed a strand of hair back from where it had fallen into your face when you’d looked down at the tags. “But with you, it feels right. So, if you’re afraid that I’m gonna up and decide that I’d rather be with Lily, or fuck, anyone else but you, I want you to look at those tags and remember that you’re the one I’m picking, Major.”

You swallowed. You did know what those tags meant. Commitment. Trust. An unbreakable bond. Wordlessly, you reached around to the back of your neck, unclasping the chain that rested against your skin.

Bucky watched your motions carefully. “Yeah,” he said, licking his lips nervously, “that was probably me moving too fast, huh? I get it– you don’t have to wear them if—”

“Shut up,” you said gently, as you removed your own dog tags from around your neck and fastened them around his. “I don’t need to wear two sets, and your neck looked so lonely without one.”

Bucky held up one of the tags so that he could examine it, and you caught the moment he registered your name and information catching the candlelight.

“Sugar,” he said, his voice cracking on the nickname.

“You’re not the only one making a choice, Bucky,” you assured him.

He leaned in closer, taking your lips with his own, the kiss filled with the fire you’d come to associate with him, and only him.

When you pulled apart, he rested his forehead against yours, and you could make out the glassy sheen of unshed tears in his eyes. “This is perfect. Thank you.”

You admired the way they hung from his neck for a moment, and were overcome with the sudden urge to touch them. You placed a hand over the dog tags, your name, now resting over his pounding heart. Bucky cupped his own hand over yours, pressing it against his chest.

“These look awfully handsome on you, Sergeant,” you told him with a soft smile. Bucky let out a low groan and you looked up at him, eyes questioning. “What is it?” you asked him.

Bucky’s face turned bashful and he shook his head. “Nuh uh,” he said. “Forget it.”

Oh, you weren’t going to have any of that. “Come on, Bucky,” you said, playfully poking him in his rock hard stomach. “You can tell me anything. I’m wearing your tags now,” you added in a singsong voice. “We’re practically going steady.”

Bucky’s gaze on you darkened, and he tugged at his lip with his teeth. “Okay then, if you’re sure you really wanna know.” You mirrored him, biting your lip and nodded eagerly. Of course you wanted to know what was going through his head to cause him to make such sexy sounds. “Just imagining what you’d look like wearing nothing but the tags, sugar,” he responded, his voice a low, husky whisper. “Bet it’d be the prettiest thing I ever saw.”

Well, if you weren’t going to take that as an invitation. Raising an eyebrow in his direction, you got up so that you were standing before him. Bucky moved forward, as if he were going to follow you up, a question ready on his lips, but you leaned down and gently pushed him back to the blanket, so he was propping himself up on his elbows.

Not once breaking eye contact, you slid your hands to the hem of your shirt, slowly dragging it up, over your head before tossing it to the side. Next, you toed off your shoes while you worked the buttons of your jean shorts, letting them slide down your thighs until you were standing in just your balconette and panties. You didn’t even care that you were in the middle of a public park and you were undressing for a man. All that mattered was that you were undressing for this man, and in the moment, you were willing to do almost anything he asked of you.

Bucky’s eyes roamed your body from head to toe and back again, but you weren’t finished. He’d said ‘nothing but the tags,’ after all. Reaching behind your back, you skillfully unhooked your bra, but didn’t pull it off, instead letting it sit on your chest while you slowly shimmined your panties down your thighs and kicking them off to join the rest of your discarded clothes. Bucky’s breath hitched as he took in your near nakedness, and you almost giggled at the visible tenting taking place in his jeans.

Clutching the bra to your chest, as if you were shy, you slowly got down on your knees and crawled up Bucky’s thighs. Finally, you let the bra fall away, and Bucky’s wide eyes never left your breasts as he licked his lips. You palmed him through the fabric of his pants.

“I believe I once said something about wanting this down my throat,” you told him with a wicked smile.

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bingbongsupremacy · 29 days

Text

Lonely Pt. 2

Pairing: Stranger Things x reader Zombie Apocalypse AU

Warnings:

Series Summary: A few days after the zombie apocolypse took over Hawkins you lost everyone. Once you finally run out of supplies, you're forced to venture out into the town, hoping not to run into anyone and make it to safety alive. Unfortunately, life doesn't always go how you want it.

Part Summary: You've arrived in some sort of community. Will the leader let you stay?

*Not Proof Read*

This Fic does not mention body type, weight, race, gender, etc. If I happened to mess up and add a pronoun or anything that could define the readers appearance, please let me know so I can fix it. Ty!

ABC List Stranger Things Master List

Pt. 1 Pt. 2

*****

" Where are we? "

The sun is almost completely gone. What's left of the light faintly lights up the inside of the van from the front windows.

" We're-" Eddie begins before Steve interrupts him.

" We can't tell you that. Not yet. "

I get the feeling he doesn't like me very much.

Eddie looks over at the man, letting out a small sigh in the process. " And I thought I was the dramatic one. What the fuck dude, just tell them. "

Steve lets out an annoyed huff. " Think, dude. What if they've got a group? What if they bring back an army that wipes everyone out at our base? "

" I don't have a group. " I try to reassure the man.

Steve doesn't budge. " I'm sorry, I just don't trust you yet. "

" Don't worry, mister Sunshine isn't always this friendly. " Eddie tries to break the tension with humor. " You should see him on poker night. "

" We're here. Eddie, bring 'em in. " Steve orders while the van pulls to a halt.

A faint buzz of noise fills my ears from outside of the van. Where are we?

Steve gets out of the van, leaving me and Eddie inside. Eddie helps me stand up and we patiently wait by the van doors.

The van doors swing open revealing Steve and an older man.

I think I recognize him...

" Sherriff? "

The man's brows furrow. " Are you from Hawkins? "

I nod. " Y-yeah. "

Sherriff Hopper nods at Eddie who leads me out of the van. " Bring 'em inside. "

We follow the sheriff down the road and I'm finally able to take in my surroundings.

Old businesses and buildings make up a long row eventually stopping at a large wall. People watch us as we pass, muttering amongst themselves curiously. Dogs roam the streets, some with collars and some without. Children run through the streets, loud laughter following behind them.

It's a community. God I missed this. I didn't think I'd ever see this again.

I'm led to a tall building, something I assume is the makeshift town hall. Multiple horses tied to the buildings railings stand around outside.

As we step inside I'm hit with a gust of cold wing. AC.

" Fuck, I missed air conditioning. " I let out a sigh of contentment. I close my eyes in and try to soak in the feeling.

Eddie chuckles. " AC is just the tip of the ice berg. "

What do they have here?

The sheriff leads us to an office. He sits behind a desk, folding his hands while he waits for us to close the door. " Who are you? "

Ouch. I thought he'd remember me. So much for small-town life.

" Y/N L/N. " I reply. I shift my hands slightly, uncomfortable under his scrutinizing gaze.

" Do you have a group? "

I shake my head. I hope they let me stay here. I fucking hate it out there alone. " No. I've been on my own for years. "

" How are you alive? " Eddie asks curiously. " We thought Hawkins was completely wiped out by the virus. How did you make it? "

" I hid in a house until I ran out of supplies. I went out to look for stuff, maybe make my way out of the state to see if I could find anyone else. I didn't know there were so many hordes on Main Street or I would've never done down there. "

" How many people have you killed? " Steve's voice is cold, distrusting. His gaze is sharp. It sends shivers down my spine.

" W-what? I've never killed anyone. I swear, I don't even know how to use a fucking gun! " I turn back to the sheriff. " Besides, I've been alone. Who the fuck would I kill? "

" Did you search 'em for weapons? " Sherriff Hopper asks Eddie and Steve.

" Just found this. " Steve sets my knife on Sherriff Hoppers' desk. " Otherwise, they're clean. "

" What is this place? " I ask.

" This is our community. It's called The Quarry. " Eddie informs as he takes a seat in one of the chairs across from the Sherriff.

" How do you guys have electricity? I thought everything went down when the virus hit. " I ask, very confused to how everything is working.

" We were able to turn on a power plant nearby thanks to some of the engineers who survived. " Hopper pulls out a knife. He cuts the zip tie around my wrist. " You can stay here on the condition that you pull your weight. We have multiple jobs that need positions filled if you're interested. If not, I'll have my boys here take you out a few miles from here and let you go. Your choice. "

" I want to stay here. " I say immediately. " I'll work. I don't care what I do. I just...I can't be out there alone anymore. " I tenderly touch the red lines that popped up from the zip ties on my wrist.

" Hop, I don't know- " Steve begins.

Sherriff Hopper shakes his head. " Steve, have they done anything to make you suspicious of them? "

Steve doesn't respond.

" We give chances here. You know this. " The sheriff turns to me. " You'll need to be checked for bites before we give you a room. Eddie here will give you a tour tomorrow and we can find you a position to work. "

I smile at the older man. " Thank you so much. "

He nods, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. " Eddie, Take her to Joyce for a check-up and then show her to the boarding house. "

Eddie nods. " You got it, Hop. " He opens the office door and we leave the sheriff and Steve behind. " Let's go find Joyce. "

I wonder why Steve hates me?

++++++++

I'm having a hard time figuring out what ship I want in this. What are you guys thinking? Originally this was going to be an Eddie Munson fic but I think I could turn it into an enemies-to-lovers thing with Steve. Or should I attempt a love triangle situation? What do you guys want?

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n0v4t33z · 16 days

Text

What Would Have Been?

Pairings: Former Assassin Choi San X Assassin Female Reader

Genre: Angst, Assassin AU, One Shot

Word Count: 1.2k

Tags/Warnings: For Mature Audiences, Mentions Death

@newworldnet

Minors Do Not Interact

Author's Note 💌: Hope you guys enjoy this one shot! I couldn't get this scene out of my head so I had to write it! Also, yes some of the terms I used were John Wick references! I've been wanting to work on an assassin au for the longest so depending how things go I may or may not make it a short series idk yet not sure. This isn't edited so I'll fix it later. Again, please be kind! - N 🌙

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It had been years since I last saw San, which was also the last time I worked with him. Back then I had the biggest crush on him, so much so I'd make up any excuse just to talk to him which led to us becoming close. Out of fear for me accidentally ruining our friendship because of my feelings I gaslit myself into isolation, completely disappearing from everyone’s radar including his.

Now years later I'm standing outside of his small taekwondo school hoping he tells me where I can find the Grim Reaper. When I open the door I immediately notice small children no more than 8 years old practicing, they seemed so happy and excited to be there. I quietly look around and immediately see San, he hasn't changed at all. His taekwondo uniform makes his wide shoulders seem even bigger than they are and his black belt definitely made his waist look so small. He was always known to be well proportioned. His dimpled smile being as warm as the sun's embrace causing me to unconsciously swallow hesitantly, is he even going to remember me? Is he going to be upset when he sees me?

Just then while he was helping a student work on his posture I notice a little girl with short hair who runs over to San and let him know that someone has come into his establishment. He scans the room until our eyes meet, a look of visible shock paints his features. I give him a small smile whilst walking in his direction, he leans over and tells his assistant something most likely to keep watch of the class. Once he's done with that he walks up to me, his face lights up the closer he gets “y/n…What brings you here?”

I give him a pained smile “I need to talk to you. It's about the high table.” San’s expression grows dark and leads me to a small office behind the big mirrors the class uses to practice. There was trophies, some medals and a few pictures, it seemed like some of his past students and his family. He's married, with a child. A little girl. My heart sinks into my stomach causing me to let out a silent sigh lowering my gaze onto the floor. There goes My chance. He pulls a chair out for me then proceeds to sit on his side of the desk. “So..” San awkwardly breaks the silence making me glance up at him and meet his eyes, his expression still not fully comprehending it was indeed me in front of him.

“The high table summoned me. The thing is I’m not going to go through with it as they’re insisting I kill Rogue and I’m not going to do that, that man taught me so much as a rookie assassin. He’s like a father to me, the issue is I don’t know where he is. I need to warn him the High Table is going after him.” San clasps his hands together in front of his mouth, elbows resting on the desk whilst his eyes being the only thing visible from my angle. His golden wedding ring glinting in the fluorescent light. He goes on to stay silent for a moment until he finally says “You know i’m not associated with that stuff anymore...”

I understandably nod “I know, I see you’ve got a beautiful family now..” I glance back at the photo of San, his wife and daughter instantly rendering me silent from the huge knot in my throat. I could have had that chance had I not run away from my feelings. San looks back at the photo and looks back at me, his voice lowering “I don’t understand why you came here then.” I tightly hold onto my sleeve trying not to get emotional. I think he hates me now.

“I’m asking you to tell me where I can find the Grim Reaper, he knows where Rogue is…Please, I’m going to end this. I have to, the High Table has marked me an excommunicado. I’m basically marked for death. I’ve got nothing to lose now..” San swallows hard, his gaze turns into a sad one “y/n..” The knot in my throat gets tighter, making breathing extremely hard. So I look at the wall behind San unable to continue looking at him. “Do me that one favor before I die, please?"

We both sit in silence for a few moments until San finally speaks “South side of Seoul… the soup kitchen.” I slowly nod “Okay, thanks..” I get up and walk towards the door, before I’m even able to make it he grabs onto my arm “y/n, wait..” Hesitantly I turn in his direction, tears brimming in my eyes “Yeah?” He lowers his face to meet my eyes “Why did you disappear? Where’d you go?”

I bite the inside of my lip to keep it from quivering and instead tears run down my cheeks “I disappeared because I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. I'd rather you think I was dead than to come into terms with my feelings.” He gives me a confused blink then the saddened expression grows on him “What do you mean come into terms with your feelings?”

I sniffle and shake my head “It’s not important anymore, you’ve got a happy family now. So pretend I never said anything.” San grabs both my shoulders and squeezes them “Please tell me.. You can’t just drop that on me and not tell me. It’s been years since I’ve seen you..” I squeeze my eyes shut and look down not wanting to meet his eyes anymore, those beautiful brown eyes. At least I can say I saw them one last time before i'm gone. “I can’t, I’m so sorry..” He lifts my chin with his finger “Please.. At least do me this favor before you go. I deserve to know why my friend disappeared.” I hesitantly open my eyes again only to see a worried expression and for a moment I can’t bring myself to say anything out of pure embarrassment because what’s the point? Nothing will change.

“I’m in love with you San. I always have been, I always will be. I’m sorry I wasn’t brave enough to face my feelings and tell you how I feel, instead I hurt you.” San stares at me for a bit, becoming increasingly embarrassed of the potential rejection I stutter ”I-I’ll get going, again I’m sorry.” I pull away from his grasp leaving a shocked San watching me until he says “You know, I liked you too..” I come to a halt facing away from San, my breath hitches and I cover my mouth to keep me from breaking down into full sobs. I did this to myself, my fear of rejection screwed me over. “y/n?”

He reaches over to rest his hand on my shoulder, his warm hand gently squeezing it trying to comfort me. “Were you afraid that I didn’t feel the same way?” I quietly nod my eyes blurring with tears again. He carefully approaches me and pulls me into a hug gently cradling the back my head. Hesitantly I hug him back, my tears spilling onto his white taekwondo uniform. "I'm sorry I never gave you that reassurance, and that because of me you led a life of loneliness." I bury my face in his chest feeling his other hand gently pat my back.

I stay in his arms for a little bit until I finally pull away and respond “Thank you for everything, I’ll be going now.” San reaches for my hand and holds it tightly "You remember that blood oath we took years ago? Call me if you need me, i'll be there. I promise." The knot in my throat renders me silent again where as I only manage to hum in response. As I walk away a broken woman, I realize how my fears defined my life and took something from me that I yearned for. A loving husband and a small happy family. That fear instead turned me into an on the run excommunicated former assassin who was destined to be alone.

•································•································•

Please reblog if you liked it! 🔁

If I catch anyone plagiarizing my work just be warned I don't play with that kind of stuff so don't try me.

#ateez angst #ateez imagine #ateez x reader #choi san x reader #ateez fanfiction #park seonghwa x reader #kim hongjoong x reader #kang yeosang x reader #jeong yunho x reader #choi jongho x reader #jung wooyoung x reader #song mingi x reader #assassin au #newworldnet

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robotnik-mun · 6 months

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Once again, it is time for that rare moment where I talk about Deltarune instead of Sonic stuff. And today, I've decided to talk about one of the many mysteries of the setting.

Namely... what did Asgore DO?

One of the constants kept over from Undertale in Deltarune was the sad reality that Asgore is still divorced from Toriel, and their post-divorce relationship is... less than ideal, with Asgore desperately trying to get back into Toriel's good graces and Toriel being none-too-thrilled about it. And its pretty clear that whatever happened in the divorce, it's taken a pretty bad toll on Asgore. It's implied he doesn't have visitation rights, and no longer lives in the same house as Tori, instead living in his flower shop. And his present state of living is just... almost too depressing for words.

So yeah, things are not looking great for ol' Asgore. But that does beg the question- what happened THIS time? Recall that in Undertale, Toriel's hostility to Asgore was predicated on both him murdering six children as well as basically getting everyone's hopes up for who-knows-how-long rather than taking one soul and going straight to business after escaping the Underground. How justified she is is going to be the subject of endless debate, now and forever, but at the core of things in Undertale its pretty clear that this hostility comes from some VERY grim circumstances.

Given the more comparatively mundane nature of Hometown and the Light World, its pretty clear that whatever circumstances led to Toriel and Asgore divorcing couldn't be anywhere near as horrible as what happened in Undertale. There's no fantastic circumstance here- Monsters live on the surface as humans do (that we know of), and while Asgore is not exactly held in high regard by Hometown these days, he none the less leads a free, if somewhat depressing life.

So again, what happened here? Why is it that Asgore is still divorced?

As it stands, with everything else, we only got two chapters to go by, and as such we need to work with a LOT of contextual clues to try and piece together even a vague idea of how things reached this point.

And believe it or not, one the key bits of insight we have? Is none other than Rudy Holiday.

Rudy is established as having been friends with Toriel and Asgore in college, and is all but stated to have been Asgore's best man at their wedding, and even in the present is still close to the both of them even though they are no longer together. Out of all the people we talk to in Hometown, Rudy is the one with the most positive stuff to say about Asgore, and Asgore recipricates this by visiting Rudy in the hospital daily, with new flowers for each visit. And while we don't witness it for ourselves, it is revealed that Toriel ALSO visits Rudy and is implicitly close to him as well, with Rudy even suspecting that Kris' visit was done at Toriel's prompting (and sadly probably WOULD be if we weren't using them as a meat-puppet).

This might not seem like such a big deal, but I feel it reveals something very crucial about what might have happened, if only in the abstract. It tells me that whatever happened? While it was serious enough to prompt the divorce and cause Toriel to no longer love Asgore, it WASN'T bad enough that Rudy doesn't think ill of Asgore, or enough to cause Toriel to no longer wish to associate with Asgore or Rudy with her. He bears no malice to anyone in the Dreemurr family, and this is an important detail, because it would seem extremely improbable that things between the three of them would be this hunky-dory if Asgore really did do something legitimately terrible.

Which, admittedly, isn't impossible... but it does feel unlikely, under the circumstances we presently see.

Given the way Dark Worlds reflect something of Lightners, some have suggested that maybe the Card Kingdom just as easily reflects something of Kris as it does Susie. While King mirrors Susie's earlier statements, one cannot help but notice that King is an enormous, pseudo-mammalian king with a hefty build, almost like a warped mirror of Asgore. And that comparison becomes all the more concerning when you consider how, as we go on, its revealed that Kris was once a very mischievous little kid... one can imagine that, perhaps, Kris was very much like Lancer, once upon a time. And if that's the case, then maybe it’s not a coincidence that King threatened both Lancer AND Kris directly.

It's a tempting thought... and oh, the warped implications it would carry, given that in Chapter Two its revealed that King wasn't going to go through with his threat and actually CARES about Lancer, despite earlier evidence to the contrary? Now THAT would imply some ugly-ass things about Kris' thoughts and feelings about their father. Or Susie's, if you believe the Card Kingdom is primarily 'meant' for her. It does make an eerie amount of sense, does it not?

Only... not quite. It’s tempting to think Asgore might have done something to Kris in a moment of weakness, but honestly? I really, really doubt it. Because let's face it, if Asgore had hurt or done something out line with Kris? It's incredibly doubtful that Toriel would ever allow Kris to get anywhere NEAR Asgore, and Rudy likewise would probably have little to do with Asgore over something like that. Oh, sure, friends will stick with friends, but that feels like something not even Rudy could overlook. And then there's the whole 'Eggs-Husband' incident...

... God that was painful. Like, kudos to Toby Fox, I don't think I've EVER felt that kind of secondhand embarrassment from a piece of media ever. It really was just a masterpiece of utter and complete failure. Still, it's important in helping to frame where everyone stands in this divorce, because while Toriel does try to get away from Asgore as fast as possible after his disastrous attempt at punnery (and who could blame her?), she none the less is willing to hear him out when he wants to talk about Asriel's return (possibly about the divorce itself).

It's important to note that, again, context is key here. Earlier in Chapter 1 its established that Asgore keeps sending Toriel flowers, which inevitably wind up in the trash, and likewise she rebuffs his deeply ill-conceived attempt to re-connect with her at Sans' store. But from what we see so far, it may not necessarily be that Toriel hates Asgore, so much that he refuses to get a clue about where they stand and persists in these self-sabotaging attempts to curry her favor. While the problem might be rooted in whatever happened in the past, it’s pretty clear that a BIG part of that is due to Asgore's present behavior. How do we know this? Because she still hears him out when he ISN'T trying to get into her good graces.

I feel that if Asgore had done something to Kris, or done something REALLY bad? Then he wouldn't even get that much. As it stands we don't know enough to say for sure, and all we can do is look at how people act and try and come up with some idea of things, but I'm willing to bet that while Asgore made some kind of serious misstep? He didn't do something unforgivable... just something severe enough that it would justify Toriel leaving him, with his refusal to let go simply making things that much worse over time given that its clear Tori CAN be civil with him. He just makes it difficult due to his overbearing and embarassing behavior... again, we can only infer things, but I do feel like a large part of Toriel's hostility stems from Asgore's inability to back off more than anything else, even the events that caused the divorce.

I can of course, be wrong, about all of this. We have only two chapters and nothing else to go by. But there is one last piece of this puzzle that I think offers an even better insight into why things happened as they happened- the reveal that Asgore used to be the chief of Homedown's police department, and that he was made to step down under unknown circumstances, hence why Undyne, a rookie, is now Hometown's police chief. We don't know what happened yet, but whatever did happen? Kris doesn't like to read about it, keeping Us from seeing what happened. It could be because they don't want us prying into their family's business just in general, but there's also a really good chance that it may be simple guilt that keeps them from reading the rest of that article.

And from here, we can paint a pretty compelling picture of what may have happened. As we know, Dess Holiday, Rudy's oldest daughter and Asriel's childhood best friend, went missing under mysterious circumstances. Dess' mother is mayor of Hometown, and its strongly hinted that whatever happened, DEss is now trapped somewhere in the Dark World (or worse), and other hints seem to indicate that Kris might in fact be aware of this, and its hinted that this event may have occurred near the mysterious bunker in the forest that Kris is explicitly afraid of. More interestingly, schoolmates Snowy and Monster Kid seem to be aware of this fact as well, which brings some interesting implications of itself.

Either way, with these details we can imagine a very probable chain of events for how things went down- Kris and Dess did something or the other at the Bunker, which led to Dess possibly being whisked away to the Dark World. Asgore, as police chief, is tasked with finding Dess. His inability to find Dess leads to him being fired by her mother, the mayor, and this would probably lead to the personal troubles at home that would lead to him eventually being divorced from Toriel and living on his own. This seems to be the general consensus among fan-interpretations, and honestly? It seems pretty probable that this, or something like this, is how the divorce went down... and maybe why Kris is the way Kris is, in the present.

There is however an interesting little wrinkle in this formula, though out of everything I mentioned, this one is possibly the longest shot. Earlier in the game when we explore Asgore's store, we find a very terse note from his landlord telling him point blank that he has a month to pay the rent, even suggesting he start selling the flowers rather than giving them away. All that we know about this landlord is that their first initial is "C". So, where does the long shot come in? There is a possibility that "C" is none other than Mayor Holiday, Rudy's wife and Dess' mother, and previously Asgore's boss. What evidence do we have to suggest this? Mayor Holiday is described as being very good at her job while also not being great with people, and is evidently very driven and intimidating, so much so that Noelle is actively afraid of her. The way the note is written is not very formal, nor is it very sociable either... and there are more than a few Christmas related terms that start with "C". A lot of the fandom seems to have settled on "Carol".

Again, this could be a long shot, one built entirely by conjecture. But if this "C" is indeed mayor holiday? That's where the wrinkle comes in. Because if Mayor Holiday is willing to give Asgore a business and overlook past failures to pay the rent, then it may be that his leaving the force wasn't JUST because of his failing to find Dess... or rather, if Mayor Holiday had any part of it, it actually wasn't out of personal anger at him failing to find her daughter. If "C" is Mayor Holiday, then in this context it means that whatever (probably negative) feelings she has towards Asgore, they're not enough to stop her from trying to help him get back on his feet. You might argue that if she IS involved in his flower shop venture it might be more due to Rudy than her, but then if Rudy has this much sway over her, she wouldn't have fired Asgore for not being able to find Dess.

Granted, there's always the 'Dying Wish' factor, though we don't know how long Rudy's been sick...

But still- firing someone for a personal reason would be a VERY bad breach of ethics, and from what we've seen (or haven't) of the mayor so far is that whatever her personality flaws, she isn't actually corrupt or anything. Hometown is so peaceful and orderly that the police force isn't really regarded as necessary! Quite the accomplishment... and firing Asgore for personally failing her would be the kind of conflict of interest that could jeopardize those accomplishments, understandable as it might be in this instance.

So, what would this imply for Asgore and his leaving the force? I believe that while Dess vanishing was the catalyst for everything, it wasn't the direct cause of Asgore losing everything. I imagine that failing to find Dess for an undetermined amount of time weighed heavily on Asgore, given that this is his best friend's daughter, a daughter who is the best friend of Asriel at that.

My hypothesis, as such? Is that Asgore's failing to find Dess slowly ate away at him, and that this caused things at home to get tense, before his eventual desperation led him to do something he shouldn't have, thus leading to him being removed from the force, and leading to further troubles at home, culminating in him saying or doing SOMETHING that led Toriel to divorce him.

I don't have any authority to definitively suggest what it might have been. But I DO feel confident that if Dess' disappearance had anything to do with Asgore's dismissal from the force? It wasn't as simple as the mayor being angry with him and removing him due to that anger, but because of something Asgore himself did in reaction to his own failure at finding Dess, and that this in turn led to whatever would happen to cause his divorce from Toriel. I believe this, because while Asgore has fallen on very hard times, the worst of what he's going through is due to his own poor choices that we can see, and however pitiful his current state, he isn't alienated/exiled from the people in his life. And if he had done something REALLY bad? I don't think that would be the case.

Of course, I can be wrong. Heck, I probably am. We only got two games to go by, and as such virtually everything I say is ultimately just conjecture, some a bit more supported by game text, and some less. But whatever the reality is? I'm VERY confident that Asgore didn't do anything evil... but it was still enough to cost him everything. Given the themes going on in the light world, it'd make sense that rather than anything big or dramatic, the truth just turned out to be something simple, unglamorous, and quietly sad.

Just like in real life, a lot of the time.

#Deltarune #Asgore Dreemurr #Dess Holiday #Kris Dreemurr #Mayor Holiday #Rudy Holiday #Toriel

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mcchipisfried · 1 month

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I'm watching Hannibal for the first time and I'm not gonna lie I had my doubts. (Currently on Seaon 2 Episode 11)

(ALSO SPOLIERS BELOW though I think I'm the last person on tumblr who HASN'T seen Hannibal)

My forefathers forgive me, I had doubts. So so many doubts. I wanted to go into this show decimating everyone's reasoning that Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham would work as a couple (romantic or otherwise). I wanted to be fed a story about murder, deception, manipulation, betrayal, and maybe even a little but of cannibalism. And don't get me wrong I have gotten this, but I've also been fed a romantic comedy.

I went into this show not wanting to find reasons to want these two together, I wanted to think "Oh the people of tumblr probably pieced a bunch of subtext together and I probably will as well but it'll hardly be anything that I could write about to my friends who haven't seen the show"

I was so fucking wrong.

Really it should have been the moment where Alana and Hannibal were having a ✨️moment✨️ while Will and Margot were also having a ✨️moment✨️ so the way the whole scene played was very. Well. Not what you would expect from a guy that should have every reason to shoot Hannibal on sight. The fucking framing and cinematography got me to send a 3 minute long vm at 2 am to my friend who really doesn't care about Hannibal.

Or maybe it should have been every single time tweddle dee and tweddle dum are even remotely alone together and decide to start eye fucking each other while also making death threats.

But no what got me was when Alana described what was done to Freddie Lounds' body the second time around as a demonstration of a courtship (best way I can phrase it without just explaining the plot that led us here)

Really, its such a small moment.

But the way the two idiots are standing there looking at each other and Alana shouldn't have been as funny as it was nor should it have instantly reminded me of an early 2000's movie where the couple is secretly dating because they just can't help it and some third party, maybe even one the main couples friends discovers them while trying to NOT make it a Big Deal™ because they are in public except y'know, this is happening over the body that Person A burned to a crisp and sent rolling in a wheelchair while Person B got said body after the funeral and made it into an effigy.

Anyways TLDR: I thought the Hannibal x Will stuff was all very insignificant subtext but actually it was just text and it was screaming. I would also like to thank my film, cinematography, scriptwriting, lighting, and storytelling college classes because as it turns out you did do something for me. You made me realize that whatever is happening between Hannibal and Will is not platonic and I will be consulting AO3 to further expand my understanding of these characters as soon as I finish watching the show.

Also yes I know at some point someone says Hannibal is in love with Will. But now I'm starting to believe that.

#hannibal #hannigram #what actually is this show #like holy shit #someone reccomend me fics #please #the actors are phenomenal btw #cannibalism CAN be romantic #hannibal lecter #will graham #hannibal loves will

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m-jelly · 9 days

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jelly jelly~! can i request grocery/mall shopping with vampire levi? like you show him what things you like to see and/or buy, and he also shows you the stuff/section that he likes to browse through? just getting to know more abt each other 🥹♡♡♡

@ladycheesington <3

Quality time

Levi x fem!reader

Modern AU, vampire Levi, human reader, soulmates, mates, couple, fluff, date day, romance.

Now that you are all his, Levi wants to take you shopping to have a little fun. Levi spoils you, gets you anything you want, and then shows you some of the places he likes.

@ladycheesington @levisbrat25 @nyxiieluna @li-anne @galactict3a

@youre-ackermine @thebobaprincess @2moth-anon2 @cypidity

@nbinairyn @bts-spnlvr12 @darkstarlight82 @emilyyyy-08

@levistealeaf @notgoodforlife @demonic-bird @searriously

Watching Levi, your vampire lover, drive his car was incredibly beautiful. The way his hands gripped the wheel just sent a shiver through your spine, it was incredible. For someone who had lived for hundreds of years, he had not been left behind with technology. You couldn't believe you met this darkly handsome vampire in a club, he took you home and made you, his.

Levi reached over and took your hand before lifting it up and kissing it. "Are you okay?"

You gazed at him with a sparkle in your eyes. "Yes."

He smiled against your skin. "Does my princess want all my attention?"

"Yes."

He chucked and kissed your hand again. "Don't worry, I'll be parking soon." He turned the wheel as he saw a spot. "Be a good girl and wait for me."

You whined as he let go of your hand. "Okay..."

He moved the car and parked up in the right spot. "There, now I'll pay for parking on my phone and I'm all yours."

You leaned over and started kissing his shoulder. "Hurry."

He tapped away on his phone before slipping it into his pocket. "Okay, stay there princess and I'll get the door."

You nodded then watched him walk to your side and open the door. "Thank you, Levi."

He took your hand and helped out of his car. "Now, stay close to me." He showered your hand with kisses. "No letting go of my hand, okay? I have to keep you safe?"

You entwined your fingers with his and walked. "If I do wander off, you'll find me by our blood bond."

"You're right, but I want to keep you close."

You cuddled up to him. "I love you."

He kissed the top of your head. "I love you too."

The two of you moved around the different shops just exploring things, but nothing really took your fancy. It also seemed like Levi couldn't see anything he wanted either, it all seemed the same and rather boring. So, the two of you left the shopping centre and went to the shops lining the unique town and found some old places with wonderful things inside.

Levi led you to an old bookshop. "Ah, what a perfect place. I love reading. Shall we look?"

You nodded. "Please!"

"Grab anything you want in there too, okay? I'm buying."

"Thank you, that's so sweet of you."

He kissed you before releasing your hand. "Stay where I can see you okay?"

"Got it."

"You're so cute that someone might snatch you up."

You giggled and snuck off. "Okay!"

He gazed at the book in the old creaking shop. He grabbed a few books, some about tea, others about romance and a few horror stories. He hugged the books close to his chest and searched for you. He spied you looking at a book and felt his heart swell with love, you were just beautiful and cute beyond words could describe. Levi has been captivated by you since the day he laid eyes on you and he knew he would forever feel this way.

You glanced over at Levi causing your normal blank face to light up with joy. "Levi."

He walked right up to you. "You find what you want princess?"

You hugged your books tightly. "I did! I found some things I've never heard of before."

He eyed the books. "Good choices. I would love to read these after you're done."

"I want to read yours after you're done."

He leaned closer and kissed you. "Of course."

You nibbled your lip and whispered. "Levi?"

He smiled and whispered your name back. "What is it?"

You leaned closer and continued whispering. "Is this shop run by a vampire?"

He nodded. "It is. That exciting?"

You squeaked as you bounced up and down. "Yes."

He hummed a laugh. "You're adorable. Let's go pay." He reached over. "Books please."

You handed them over to him. "Are you sure?"

"I'm buying this all." He trudged over to the counter and chatted to the owner. He pulled you closer as he spoke with the man. Levi smiled down at you. "Right, princess? You're my forever."

Your eyes sparkled with a deep love. "Yes, and you're mine."

He kissed your forehead. "I hope every kiss I give you gets through to your heart and soul, I want you to deeply know my love."

You whined a little. "I can feel it, it's strong."

He grabbed the bag of books, thanked the owner and walked out with you. "Do you want a cuddly toy? I know you like cuddly toys."

"Please, if you don't mind."

"I don't. I love seeing what you love."

You lowered your head a little. "Levi?"

He glanced down at you. "Yes, princess?"

You hummed. "Do you know how much I love you?"

He stopped in a little path just out of view of others. "Princess."

You sniffed a bit. "You make me feel so deeply loved and I feel like I'm failing you in letting you know how much I love you and you mean to me. You changed my life in just one night. You have showered me with such deep and passionate love, it's so deeply moving." You whined a bit. "I just...I don't know how to react sometimes, I'm lost for words." You sighed. "I guess what I'm saying is, I want you to feel as deeply loved as you make me."

He placed the bag down before cupping your face. "My darling, what terrible sorrow you experience. I can assure you, that you make me feel so deeply loved that I feel breathless. You adore me so much that I am always on your mind. You are so dedicated to me and my happiness that it does worry me a little." He chuckled as you pouted. "It's cute and now you're being cuter with your pout." He kissed you. "Your love for me is so sweet, kind, gentle, delicate, caring, adoring and thoughtful. I know with every drop of blood in me and every inch of my soul that you love me. I love you." He nuzzled his nose against yours. "You spoil me too much."

"Says the man who is buying me many books and a cuddly toy."

He hummed. "If I had my way I would ban cuddly toys because the only thing you should be cuddling is me."

You patted his chest. "Possessive."

"I am because I know you are one of a kind and this love we have I never ever want to let go. We are forever."

You smiled softly. "We are."

He kissed you again before shying. "Now, let's get that cuddly toy."

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mostlysignssomeportents · 9 months

Text

Saturday linkdump, part the sixth

On September 12 at 7pm, I'll be at Toronto's Another Story Bookshop with my new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

On September 14, I'm hosting the EFF Awards in San Francisco.

I usually write this blog 5-6 days/week, but every now and again, I take a break, and when I do, I get massive link backlogs of stuff I want to write about, but lack the time to address in depth. When that happens, I turn my Saturday edition into a linkdump. Today, I present the sixth in the series – here's the other five:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

Why was I offline and away from my blog? I went to the dirt rave. Yes, I was one of the 70,000+ people stuck in the mud at this year's Burning Man, and when I emailed my editor at the New York Times to say I might be late on the op-ed I was working on, she asked me to write about what this year's mud crisis meant:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/opinion/burning-man-flood-playa-climate-change.html

tl;dr:

Bad weather is normal at Burning Man (it's a feature, not a bug);

Mostly burners leapt to the occasion, which is what people almost always do in disaster situations;

This is the second Burning Man heavy weather year in a row;

The climate emergency is tipping the Black Rock Desert from "extremely challenging" to "impossible";

This isn't the last event, place and tradition that will have to be radically reconsidered in light of the climate emergency;

But now I'm home, in my hammock, with all the laundry done – just in time to leave again. I'm about to head back to my hometown of Toronto for a book launch. The Internet Con, my latest nonfiction (from Verso Books) came out last week, and I'll be appearing at Another Story Bookshop on Tuesday:

https://anotherstory.ca/events/29283

Internet Con is a "Big Tech disassembly manual." It explains how Big Tech got so big (lax anti-monopoly enforcement, which led to regulatory capture, which let Big Tech abuse our privacy, labor rights, and consumer rights), and how we can use interoperability so it's no longer Too Big to Fail, nor Too Big to Jail:

https://www.versobooks.com/products/3035-the-internet-con

You can read a long excerpt from the book in Wired, which lays out some of the shovel-ready legislative, regulatory and technical proposals that are the book's main purpose:

https://www.wired.com/story/the-internet-con-cory-doctorow-book-excerpt/

You can also hear me read the whole introduction and first chapter of the audiobook on my podcast:

https://craphound.com/internetcon/2023/08/01/the-internet-con-how-to-seize-the-means-of-computation-audiobook-outtake/

That comes from the audiobook, a DRM-free, independent edition that I financed, produced and narrated myself. You can get the audiobook everywhere except Audible, Apple Books, and Audiobooks.com, all of which have mandatory DRM policies. You can also get it direct from me:

https://transactions.sendowl.com/products/78992826/DEA0CE12/purchase

The DRM-free ebook is available everywhere ebooks are sold (Kobo, Kindle, Nook, etc), as well as in my own DRM-free ebook store:

https://transactions.sendowl.com/products/78992801/9C4FC2B8/purchase

Verso's books are sold in bookstores around the world; you can support your local bookseller by buying it through Bookshop:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-internet-con-how-to-seize-the-means-of-computation-cory-doctorow/18771891?ean=9781804291245

If you'd like a signed copy, there's stock at Book Soup:

https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245

Now, it was inevitable that I would do a book event for Internet Con in Toronto – I've never had a bad event there, and I love my hometown – but the timing of this event was driven by a non-book-related factor. Talking Heads is appearing together at TIFF, to support the re-release of Stop Making Sense, the greatest concert film in human history:

https://pluralistic.net/StopMakingSense

People often ask me what my favorite book is, and I always tell them that you should never trust people who have one favorite book, as it inevitably turns out to be The Bible, The Fountainhead, or Mein Kampf. But while I don't have a favorite book, I have a clear and unambiguous favorite band.

If I was forced to listen to no music other than Talking Heads for the rest of my life, I would be perfectly happy. Ecstatic, even. Throw in David Byrne, Tom Tom Club and Casual Gods and I probably wouldn't even notice anything missing.

There's a running joke among my Burning Man campmates that whenever I'm in charge of the music, I'm just shuffling Talking Heads rarities, and whenever someone puts on anything else, I demand to know which Talking Heads album it came from. Which is all to say: I have tickets for the Talking Heads event at TIFF and I could *not be more excited.*

Continuing on the Canadian theme, one of the annual highlights of Canadian media is the Massey Lectures, a series of public lectures given around the country and rebroadcast on CBC. These are always great, but recent years have been superb – Ron Deibert's 2020 series was unmissable:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/10/dark-matter/#citizenlab

This year's Masseys are shaping up to be the GOAT. They're presented by Astra Taylor, an activist rock-and-roller turned documentary filmmaker who is one of the founders of the Debt Collective, fighting for student debt cancellation. Everything Astra does is amazing and her profile on CBC Ideas gives some background on the role that unschooling played in making her the powerful activist she is today:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/astra-taylor-interview-2023-massey-lecturer-1.6959320

There's no question that things are messed up right now, but Astra and people like her shine out like beacons of hope. 17 years ago, self-described "democracy nut" Tom Stites gave one of the seminal lectures on the role news media play in democracy:

http://citmedia.org/blog/2006/07/03/guest-posting-is-media-performance-democracys-critical-issue/

17 years later – and from his perch as editor at the essential International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – Stites presents us a long-overdue, extremely pertinent followup: "Building Civic Energy is the Goal, Not Saving Old News Business Models":

https://banyanproject.coop/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Hope-College-speech-for-Banyan-website-1.pdf

Stites's intervention is extremely timely, because policymakers all over the world have made the mistake of thinking that Big Tech is stealing the news media's content, which is absolutely untrue. It is good, actually, to index news stories and let people discuss, quote from and link to news stories. News you're not allowed to talk about isn't news, it's a secret.

But Big Tech is stealing from news. They're not stealing content – they're stealing money. The Google/Apple duopoly rakes 30% off every subscription payment collected in an app. The Google/Meta duopoly rakes 51% out of every ad-dollar (and maintain that death-grip through creepy, privacy-invading surveillance ads). Meta and Twitter hold social media subscribers hostage, forcing publishers to pay to reach their own subscribers.

We don't want the news to be Big Tech's partners – we need them to be Big Tech's watchdogs. "Link taxes" and other profit-sharing arrangements between the media and tech cut against the civic energy Stites wants to build.

(You can read more about this – along with policy prescriptions for halting Big Tech's rent-extraction from the news – in "Saving the News From Big Tech," my EFF white-paper:)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

If your spirits are lifted by stories of principled activists achieving important – and improbable – victories, you could do worse than to attend the EFF Awards on in San Francisco Sept 14 (I'm the emcee). This year, we're honoring Alexandra Elbakyan for her founding of Sci-Hub, the Library Freedom Project and the Signal Foundation:

https://www.eff.org/awards/effawards/2023

In more activist news: Mozilla produced a startling and astoundingly good – if demoralizing – report on the state of digital privacy and security in the automotive sector:

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

Entitled, "It’s Official: Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy," the report reveals just how absolutely terrible the automotive sector is when it comes to privacy practices, collecting (and selling) (and giving away) information about your sex life, your geneology, your genetic characteristics, and your smell (no, seriously).

Their recommendations for which new car you should buy boil down to "don't buy a new car." I have been urging consumer research groups to release a report like this for a decade. There are whole categories of gadgets – like, say, "smart speakers" – that are unsafe at any speed. At a certain point, reviewers need to have the guts to say that every manufacturer in an entire sector is a dumpster fire and they should all be dragged in front of a firing squad – or at least a Congressional committee.

Cars, after all, are nightmares of privacy invasion and rent-extraction, the source of autoenshittification on a massive scale, a mobile form of technofeudalism:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

The fact that cars score so badly on privacy is especially ironic given the campaign Big Car waged against the 2020 Massachusetts Right to Repair ballot initiative, in which car manufacturers held themselves out as the defenders of driver privacy from unscrupulous third parties who couldn't be trusted to handle the vast troves of data your car collects with every hour that God sends:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

This is a familiar refrain: monopolists often claim that any check on their absolute authority over their users will expose those users to privacy risks. Apple has run a global ad-campaign claiming this, and while Apple does prevent Facebook from spying on iPhone owners, they also secretly spy on those customers in exactly the same way that Facebook used to, and lie about it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

It turns out that giant companies just aren't good proxies for their customers' interests, and that the power they amass through monopolization shouldn't be counted on as a source of user safety. Monopolists won't reliably defend user privacy – that job belongs to democratically accountable regulators. That's an argument I developed in detail with Bennett Cyphers in our EFF white-paper "Privacy Without Monopoly":

https://www.eff.org/wp/interoperability-and-privacy

That is, rather than getting privacy by "voting with your wallet," you need to get it by voting with your ballot. "The market" is an election that you vote in with dollars, which means that the people with the most dollars always win. When there are zero cars on the market that are safe to drive, you can't vote with your wallet by buying a good one.

On a related subject, the DOJ Antitrust Division has brought the most important tech anti-monopoly case of the century, charging Google with monopolizing search:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/technology/modern-internet-first-monopoly-trial-us-google-dominance.html

Part of the DOJ case turns on the fact that Google goes to extraordinary lengths to keep you from every trying another search engine, paying out more than $45 billion every year to be the default search on every device, program and service you might use. In other words, Google spends entire Twitter's worth of dollars every year, lighting it on fire to keep you from finding out about rivals.

Google argues that this is fine, actually, because these are only defaults, and users can dig through their settings to change their search engine. Sure, Google – and the first 20 search results you serve are only defaults, and it wouldn't matter if you were ordered to put them ten screens down, because users could always scroll to see them.

But search defaults aren't the only way that Google locks in searchers – and then harms us by invading our privacy. Google's ubiquitous Chrome browser ties Google's search to Google's invasive, nonconsensual, total surveillance. Chrome turned 15 this year and Google made a huge PR splash out of the anniversary:

https://blog.google/products/chrome/google-chrome-new-features-redesign-2023/

But all that puffery conspicuously failed to mention that Google had quietly rolled out its long-discredited, new surveillance technology, FLOC, which it pretended to kill in 2021:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/22/ihor-kolomoisky/#not-that-competition

FLOC is back, rebranded as the Topics API: this is a system for spying on you so advertisers can target you. Google is spinning this as a privacy improvement because it might someday replace "third party cookies," one of the creepiest web surveillance systems.

But as Ron Amadeo writes for Ars Technica, Chrome is the last major browser to support third party cookies – both Safari and Firefox block them by default. So Google is basically saying, "We are going to improve your privacy by changing how we spy on you, even though all our competitors don't do this kind of spying at all":

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/googles-widely-opposed-ad-platform-the-privacy-sandbox-launches-in-chrome/

This kind of gaslighting, where Google pisses in all our mouths and tells us it's raining, is the hallmark of a decrepit, arrogant, crapulent monopolist that needs to be shattered in the courts. Kudos to the DoJ for doing the people's business here – and kudos to DoJ antitrust boss Jonathan Kanter for promising that he will not go into corporate law when he finishes his stint in government.

The DoJ isn't the only public agency that's serving the American people. The FCC just announced proceedings to force cybersecurity labels for "smart" devices:

https://www.fcc.gov/consumer-governmental-affairs/fcc-proposes-cybersecurity-labeling-program-smart-devices

This is long overdue, and it's a welcome action from the FCC, which was hamstrung for years because cowardly Democratic senators joined with homophobic, libelous Republicans in blocking confirmation hearings for the amazing Gigi Sohn:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/15/useful-idiotsuseful-idiots/#unrequited-love

After years of abuse, Sohn bowed out. Now, Anna Gomez has been confirmed to fill that fifth FCC chair, turning the FCC into a fully operational battle station:

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/senate-votes-approve-anna-gomez-5th-fcc-commissioner

The fact that there's all this great stuff going on in the administrative branch is easy to lose sight of amidst the circus of federal electoral politics, in which Donald Trump has retained his role as ringmaster and chief distractor.

Thankfully, we have expert Pantsless Emperor skewerers like Ruben Bolling around – his latest Tom the Dancing Bug revives his brilliant Calvin and Hobbes-inspired Trump gag:

https://boingboing.net/2023/09/06/tom-the-dancing-bug-a-calvinesque-and-hobbesian-look-at-taking-a-mug-shot.html

Well, that's me signing off for the weekend – I've got to pack for my flight to Toronto. If you're looking for more weekend fun, check out the trailer for Fractured Veil, the video game my old pal Chris DiBona has been working on for seven years and which is heading for Steam early access next month:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjNd3QQnENU

Just watch it. I mean. Wow.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/09/nein-nein/#everything-is-miscellaneous

Image: Roel Schroeven (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/roelschroeven/45413895

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

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saruman-the-silly · 10 months

Text

A tender moment

something sweet :)

tags: sodo x gn!reader, hurt/comfort, tried to make it very fluffy

word count: 739

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You had been in a relationship with Sodo for over a year now, and while the whole relationship was the best thing that's ever happened to you, you were a bit worried about Sodo. He rarely spoke about how he's feeling, always just focusing on you and your needs.

Once, you tried to gently ask about his thoughts and feelings but he brushed you off. Which led to you pushing him to talk too hard one time, and you had a really bad fight because of it.

It had been a week and he still wasn't talking to you. Now you were super worried about him, but decided to find him after their practice for the upcoming tour. You headed back to your work in the library, hoping time would go by quicker this time.

After 2 hours, you were finally done sorting the giant pile of books back to the shelves, and you ran off to find Sodo. But when you arrived at the practice room, there was only Swiss and Phantom left.

"Hey, have you guys seen Sodo anywhere?" You asked, trying to sound calm. Swiss and Phantom looked at each other, looking a bit worried. "He left practice early, I thought he would've told you," Phantom frowned. Swiss studied your face for a minute and asked: "Is everything okay with you two? Sodo has been a mighty pain in the ass this week."

You sighed, rubbed your hands over your tired eyes and replied: "Well.. not exactly, we had a pretty bad fight because I tried to get him to open up about his feelings."

Swiss frowned and opened his mouth but you interrupted him. "Yes I know I know, he doesn't like talking about his feelings but the moment got too heated and I was too harsh but he has not talked to me, like actually in a few weeks about how he is and I'm just worried it's because of me or because something happene-" You started to ramble, and Phantom laid a hand on your shoulder, calming you down.

"Usually Sodo hangs around the garden after practice, I think you should look there first." Swiss said, smiling a bit sadly. You nodded and ran off to find your boyfriend.

When you got to the gardens, there was no sight of Sodo anywhere. But you could sense his presence.

"Sodo?" You called. "Darling, I'm so sorry, I never meant to push you so hard, I was just worried about your well-being," You said, while walking towards the pond. You kneeled down on the ground, and sat by the oak tree beside the small pond. You heard some leaves rustling, and a small thud followed by footsteps. You turned around and saw Sodo walking to you, looking like he had been crying.

You smiled at him and patted the ground next to you. He sat down, hugging his legs to his chest. You took his hand gently and said: "Darling, I can't apologize enough for my actions. I made you feel unsafe which was never my intention." You squeezed his hand gently, and to your surprise, he squeezed back. Sodo sighed quietly.

"I know you never meant to hurt me, and I'm sorry I've been acting like such an ass. I just have a hard time dealing with all the stuff in my head and it tends to get overwhelming sometimes." You smiled sadly, and took both of his hands in yours, and rubbed them comfortingly.

"It's okay to feel overwhelmed, I get that. I just don't want you to bottle all that stuff inside your gorgeus little head, because then it will hurt like hell." You looked at the pond, before smiling at him.

"I'll help you light the fire when it's threatening to burn out, and I'll help you open the windows, when it gets a little too stuffy in there, okay?" Sodo smiled timidly at that, squeezing your hand.

"Gotta warn you, sometimes it stinks real bad in there." He joked, poking at his temple. You let out a giggle at that, making him smile. You leaned your head on his shoulder and whispered: "I want to be safe with me. I can't promise that I'll be the perfect partner but I will make sure that you don't forget how much you are loved." Sodo smiled, wrapping an arm around your waist and pressing a kiss to your hair.

"I love you."

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

thanks for reading you lovelies <3 hope you have a nice day/night/whatever time it is for you

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genshingorlsrevengeance · 2 years

Text

(Persona 5) Ann, Makoto, and Haru reaction to S/O's Palace/Shadow/Treasure

Quoth the Akihiko: "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS"

Playing Royal on my Switch has made me in a very Persona mood so happy to oblige!

I know a lot of writers in the P5 community has done this topic, but hopefully this will still be a good read for you guys!

Post Edit A/N: Wow, Ann got an all star-treatment unintentionally. Well this is awkward since her part is the size of a freakin' essay versus Makoto and Haru. I hope Ann fans will be happy lmao

Ann didn't know what to say when she discovered S/O had a Palace. Her mind was going through so many emotions as she stared at the Metanav app. S/O had been distant sure, but she never would have suspected their troubles ran this deep.

She first investigates the Palace by herself, only staying near the entrance. After looking around as much as she could from the exterior, Ann went to find Akira.

After the group unanimously agrees to infiltrate and help Ann, she remains completely serious, her light-hearted quips and positivity being completely absent during the heist.

While she is grateful for their help, in all honesty she wishes she could have infiltrated alone. This was far too personal to involve the entire group.

Regardless, nothing could be done about it now. She would just have to grit her teeth and bare it. At least that's what Ann told herself.

Palace Infiltration

Akira led Ann, Ryuji, and Morgana down the hallways of the Palace.

Peeking around the corner, he only saw one shadow.

(Akira) "Oracle, is there anyone else in the vicinity?"

(Futaba's Voice) "Hm...No, the room's empty, barring the one there."

(Ryuji) "Ready on your word, Joker."

(Morgana) "Panther, you good?"

(Ann) "...Yeah."

Akira nodded and the four crept closer to the room, realizing the hallway was slowly turning something akin to a bedroom.

What stuck out the most was that it looked normal, just a regular bedroom.

And now they got closer, the shadow they saw wasn't a shadow at all.

It was Ann. Or what appeared to be a S/O's cognitive Ann.

(Akira) "Oracle, you're positive no one is nearby?"

(Futaba) "Affirmative, Joker."

Ryuji and Morgana turned to Ann, who was still shocked to see herself.

In hindsight, maybe she shouldn't have been.

(Akira) "Panther, I'll leave this decision to you. What do you want to do?"

(Ann) "I...I want to talk to her, see what she knows."

Everyone nodded and let Ann go first.

The three of them stood back, ready to jump into the fray in case talks go south.

The Congitive Ann's eyes widened when they saw the group approach, jumping back in surpise.

(Cognitive Ann) "OH MY GOD, who are you guys?!"

(Ann) "W-We're not here to hurt you, please calm down!"

The first thing Ann noticed was just how normal she looked. There wasn't any exaggerated clothing, it was just her in her casual clothes.

The second thing was how she spoke. It sounded...pretty much just how she was in real life too.

(Cognitive Ann) "Those masks...Wait, are you guys the Phantom Thieves?!"

Ann looked back to Akira who was nodding in response.

(Ann) "...Yeah, we are."

(Cognitive Ann) "Ohmigosh, I am SUCH a big fan! You guys helped me and so many others when you brought Kamoshida to justice!"

It seemed like S/O wasn't aware that Ann was actually part of the Phantom Thieves.

It was unsettling to the group how normal the Cognitive Ann was acting. What was the catch?

(Ann) "We're glad to have helped."

(Cognitive Ann) "That being said, what are you guys doing here? Don't the Phantom Thieves just fight bad guys?"

(Ann) "We're not here to fight. Just ask a couple questions about S/O is all."

(Cognitive Ann) "S/O? What do they have to do with this? H-Have they done something wrong?!"

(Ann) "No! Of course not!"

Her voice started to shake a little, making Ryuji step in.

(Ryuji) "Sorry, what my friend here is wanting to say is we want to help them. You mind if we ask you some stuff?"

(Cognitive Ann) "If it'll help, sure thing."

Ryuji put a comforting hand on Ann's shoulder.

She gently brushed it off, but nodded in affirmation.

(Ann) "Thanks, Skull...So, what is this place?"

(Cognitive Ann) "Uh, I think it's some kind of cell."

(Ann) "Cell?"

(Cognitive Ann) "Yeah, it keeps me from interacting with S/O. Something about 'not wanting to get me involved' or...something."

This wasn't making any sense. Usually cognitions of other people were hostile as soon as they saw the Phantom Thieves. This cognition of herself was startlingly accurate.

Which made the next thing she said hurt all the more.

(Cognitive Ann) "Oh, I remember what they said to me now. They wanted me to stay happy and said I didn't deserve to be dragged down into their troubles."

(Morgana) "That's why this version of Ann is so normal. It's like she's a haven they wanted to keep safe."

(Ann) "..."

S/O had come with Ann to help Shiho. encourage her during her Model shoots, and listened intently as Ann complained about whatever.

They had always been there for Ann. Never once have they brought up their own troubles.

(Ann) "Why would S/O do that...?"

(Cognitive Ann) "It's stupid, right?"

(Everyone) ?!

(Cognitive Ann) "I told S/O so many times that they can come to me if they ever needed help. Instead, they go and try to keep me out of it. I swear, if I get out of here, I'm gonna give them a nice long talk!"

Ann couldn't help but chuckle.

That's exactly what she would have said under normal circumstances.

(Ann) "I know you will. And, one last thing. What do you think of S/O?"

(Cognitive Ann) "I think S/O is an idiot for letting this happen, bottling all their troubles up."

Ryuji, Akira, and Morgana were taken aback.

Ann was less so, as she couldn't help but agree.

(Ann) "Yeah, that sounds about right."

(Cognitive Ann) "But...They know I love them. I guess they were afraid I wouldn't if they told me."

It amazed Ann as much as it hurt how they kept her intact and didn't see her through rose tinted glasses.

If they could see her like this, why didn't they do the same for themselves?

(Ann) "We'll get S/O to you. You have our word."

After speaking to her cognitive self, she's filled with more determination than ever.

Shadow Fight

The Phantom Thieves after searching throughout the Palace and sending the calling card realized what the Treasure was this entire time.

It was the Cognitive Ann.

Taking her away from the group and ready to fight, Ann steps forward to try and reason with her S/O.

(Ann) "S/O! Please, we don't have to fight!"

(Shadow S/O) "You will NOT take her and drag her down to my level! I don't deserve it-"

(Ann) "Bullshit, you know Ann would say otherwise! We're not letting you go down on this self wallowing pity party anymore!"

(S/O) "The Phantom Thieves should be focusing on someone else, not me! Why the hell do you care?!"

Ann reached for her mask and pulled it off, Carmen being summoned right behind her.

(Ann) "BECAUSE I CARE ABOUT YOU, YOU IDIOT!"

(Futaba) "Energy levels rising, get ready for a fight!"

(Akira) "Panther!"

(Ann) "Right...Let's do this!"

At first, she doubted herself if she could fight her S/O's shadow.

But now, any doubts she had rocketed away.

If she had to beat the sense back into them, then so be it.

...

Treasure

S/O's shadow turned back to normal as they knelt on the ground, defeated.

Ann stepped forward, her mask still off as the other Phantom Thieves stood back to let her handle this.

The Cognitive Ann stood with the real Ann, letting her do the talking.

(Ann) "S/O...You should have just told me..."

(S/O) "I see that now...I'm so sorry, Ann."

She shook her head as she hugged them.

(Ann) "Don't apologize. Just...promise me you'll talk when you're ready."

(S/O) "I promise."

They slowly disappeared into blue light, with the Cognitive Ann glowing.

(Cognitive Ann) "So, the real treasure was me all along? Psh, talk about cheesey!"

Both Ann's had tears in their eyes, the real one wiping it off.

(Ann) "I know right? But...I'm glad we were able to help S/O out in the end."

(Cognitive Ann) "Yeah...Hah, to imagine that I was a Phantom Thief. We make the outfit rock, by the way."

As she began to disappear, the Cognitive Ann put her hand into the real Ann's palm.

(Cognitive Ann) "Make sure to show S/O this, okay? And thank you guys too."

She waved goodbye to the Phantom Thieves as she slowly faded away into a bright object into Ann's hands.

Ann smiled as she put the object in her pocket.

...It felt like she was forgetting something.

KABOOM!

...Oh god that's right, the Palace Collapse.

(Akira) "Time to go, MONA!"

Mona quickly transformed into the bus as everyone jumped in.

When they all escaped back into the real world, everyone took a deep breath.

Ann reached into her pocket and everyone looked to see what the treasure was.

It was a picture of her and S/O, smiling and eating some dessert stand in Shibuya.

You couldn't even tell S/O was hiding anything in the picture. The two of them together looked so happy.

Ann has the original photo in her phone, but seeing it take a physical form felt...different somehow.

(Ann) "Thank you guys so much for helping me."

As she wiped away the tears, everyone else smiled too.

(Akira) "Of course. We're here for you."

(Ryuji) "Make sure you go easy on S/O, alright?"

(Ann) "Right."

After seeing everyone off, Ann took a deep breath as she pulled up her IM's.

Ann: Hey, busy?

S/O: No, what's up?

Ann: Mind if we meet up somewhere? I want to talk.

S/O: Sure. I actually wanted to talk to you about something too.

Ann: Cool! Let's meet at the Park.

Taking another look at the photo, she couldn't help but smile.

This was their treasure?

No, if she learned anything from their Palace, Ann was their treasure.

Makoto was saddened, but not surprised by her S/O having a Palace.

If Sae could have one, and someone like Futaba used to have one, who's to say her S/O couldn't?

She sits on the information for a day or two, not sure what to do. Should she go by herself, or should she ask the others?

After all this wasn't an evil CEO or abusive celebrity. It was her S/O.

Makoto couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible for a palace forming. Was she too harsh on them, or was she not there for them enough?

She calms herself down, there's only one way to find out.

Makoto: Is everyone free at the moment?

Akira: Here.

Futaba: yo >:3

Ryuji: Wassup?

Ann: Something wrong?

Haru: I am.

Yusuke: I happen to be free, yes.

Shadow Fight

The Phantom Thieves found the treasure and secured their escape route.

What the treasure actually was however, no one could tell. It was locked inside a small vault.

But, S/O intercepted them, predictably.

(Shadow S/O) "You thieves think you can just steal from me?! Whatever happened to punishing people who deserved it?!"

Makoto steps forth as her fists clench, ripping off her mask.

(Makoto) "This isn't a punishment, this is an intervention S/O!"

(Shadow S/O) "Makoto?!"

(Makoto) "If you refuse to see yourself the way I see you, then I'll just have to show you!"

Johanna appears underneath her as she revs the engines, the other Phantom Thieves joining in the fight.

She doesn't hesitate to fight her S/O's shadow.

She was going to make them listen, no matter what.

Treasure

When the fight was over, Makoto left her mask off as she knelt down with S/O, taking their hand into hers.

(S/O) "...I never thought I was good enough to be with you."

Makoto didn't say anything, only squeezing their hand tighter.

(S/O) "I'm not smart enough, I don't have anything special about me compared to everyone else you could have been with I'm...I'm not important enough to be part of your life, with everything you have to keep in mind."

(Makoto) "You're wrong. You've always been important to me. Now, and always."

She gave them a tight hug as they smiled, slowly fading into a blue light.

The vault Akira was carrying began to fade away as well, letting a small round object fall into his hands.

Knowing the moment wouldn't last, she turned around and turned to Mona.

(Makoto) "Get us out of here, the Palace is going to come down any second!"

Leaving before things got out of hand, everyone got out with their breaths and heart rate still normal, surprisingly.

(Makoto) "Akira, may I see what the Treasure is?"

Akira nodded and gave it back to her, everyone politely giving her some space.

(Makoto) "T-This is...!"

It was a small Buchimaru keychain Makoto had given to them.

Makoto gave it to them as a birthday gift, wanting it to be something from the heart.

So she gave them something that she held onto as a kid for so long, as a way to remember her.

She had a bittersweet smile as she held tightly onto the keychain.

(Makoto) "I cannot begin to thank you all enough for today."

(Ann) "Come on, senpai. It's the least we can do!"

(Haru) "Yeah, if you need us again, please let us know anytime!"

(Makoto) "That won't be necessary, at least for now. I'll handle things from here."

Getting her phone out, she texted S/O without hesitation.

Makoto: I know this is sudden, but I would like to visit you, if that is alright.

S/O: Oh, sure. But is everything okay?

Makoto: It is. Don't worry, you're not in trouble. I just wanted to tell you something I've been meaning to for a while.

She puts the keychain in her pocket as she makes her way to the train station.

Haru's hands tremble when the Metanav pings back a result when she types in her S/O's name.

Every instinct in her roars at her to go find her S/O right now and hold them tightly.

But she knows that won't help.

She knows the method that will, but Haru is afraid.

After what happened with her father, she couldn't go through the loss of a third person she loved again.

Haru brings it up to Akira when she calms down. The Phantom Thieves gather almost instantly and are ready to help her on the same day.

They're even more determined to help than before. It may not have been their fault Okumura died, but they refuse to let Haru suffer anymore than she already has.

Haru adjusts her hat and mask as she walks with the vanguard into S/O's palace.

She's going to get to the bottom of this, no matter what.

Throughout the Palace, she is fighting with such ferocity that many shadows are stunned with fear.

Even her teammates take a step back every now and then.

Shadow Fight

Stealing the treasure was no easy task.

It was a massive tube containing some sort of plant, though it was alive and actively snapping at them.

When S/O's shadow, got in the way, Haru did not hesitate to step forward and remove her mask before S/O could say something and a fight would break out.

She gently held her hat as she stood in front of the group.

(Yusuke) "Noir!"

(Haru) "Please...Let me handle this."

(Shadow S/O) "H-...Haru?"

(Haru) "I can't imagine the pain you must be going through right now. How...alone you feel."

(Shadow S/O) "Why...why are you here?!"

Haru didn't raise her voice, instead calmly speaking.

(Haru) "Because I want to tell you, you're not alone! We're here for you...I'm here for you! So please, tell me why! Why didn't you come to me?"

The tears in her eyes made S/O stand down, much to everyone's shock.

(Shadow S/O) "You told me yourself, so many people want to use you just for your money. None of them care for you like the way I do! That's why... I can't go to you, Haru."

They looked down in shame, everyone sensing their will to fight going away, Haru stepping closer.

(Shadow S/O) "You've already gone through so much these past few months. Your father, the company, everything...I shouldn't be adding even more on top of your worries. You deserve so much better than that."

(Haru) "..."

Everyone was anxious seeing Haru getting so close to S/O's shadow, but she simply held out her hand with nothing to fear.

(Haru) "May I hold your hand, just for a moment?"

S/O's shadow stared at her for a moment before obliging, letting her hold them.

She kissed the tips of their fingers before looking back at them.

(Haru) "Thank you for thinking of me. It makes me so happy to know that you care."

Slowly embracing them, S/O's shadow was taken slightly aback.

(Haru) "I know you'd never do anything to hurt me on purpose. But, that's why I'm hurting right now. You can't sacrifice your own well being just for me. You deserve to be happy, too."

She stepped back and put her hat back on.

(Haru) "I want you to rely on me, just as much as I rely on you."

Treasure

S/O's Shadow looked down, away from Haru for a moment before nodding.

(Shadow S/O) "...Okay. I don't know if I can make it work, but-"

(Haru) "I know it will."

As they slowly faded away, they turned to the rest of the Phantom Thieves.

(Shadow S/O) "Please take care of her too, okay?"

They disappeared, and Haru took a deep breath.

(Haru) "Let's go."

Everyone left the Palace as it collapsed, making it out to the real world.

(Haru) "Thank you all so much for-"

(Ryuji) "OWOWOWOW! SHIT THAT HURT!"

(Morgana) "Ryuji, really?-HOLY CRAP!"

Ryuji held in his hands a small potted cactus. That somehow fit in his pockets.

Haru gasped when she saw that was the treasure.

In the rooftop garden at Shujin, she grew a small cactus for S/O to keep.

She remembered telling them that it was a little gift, something they grew together to represent their relationship.

She wanted to give them a particular flower that symbolized love better, the cactus was something very easy for them to take care of.

Haru managed to hold back her tears as she took the cactus into her hands.

(Haru) "My apologies for making you hold the treasure. In hindsight, maybe I should have."

(Ryuji) "Owowow...D-Don't worry about it. Good job today, made S/O back down without a fight."

(Haru) "As much as I could and would have fought S/O's Shadow, I'm glad it didn't have to come to it today. I should probably be going, thank you all again! But first, let me make sure nothings stuck to you, Sakamoto."

After ensuring there was no injury, Haru brought up her phone as she held the potted cactus in the other hand.

Haru: If you are free, can you come to my place? I wish to give you something.

S/O: Sure, I'll be over in an hour. Is it alright for me to come, aren't you busy?

Haru: For you, I can make the time.

#persona 5 x reader #persona 5 imagines #persona 5 headcanons #ann takamaki x reader #makoto niijima x reader #haru okumura x reader #ann takamaki #makoto niijima #haru okumura #akira kurusu #ryuji sakamoto #morgana #futaba sakura

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soaps-mohawk · 1 month

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Hii! I love your COD fic so much. I’m just beginning my own writing journey, and was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing what your outlining/writing process is like? ^^

Hi!! Hello!! Thank you!!! 💚 Aww, best of luck on your journey!! Writing is so hard but it can be so fulfilling at the same time!!

Hehe yeah, so I don't usually really do outlines for fics. I just kind of get a general idea of what I want to happen, and in the case of fics that follow plotlines of shows directly how the character/reader is going to fit into those events, and then just start writing what comes to me when it comes to me 😅 that's led to some fics getting quite out of hand, though, in the past.

I think CRCB is the first fic I've actually like physically laid things out as far as chapters and what I want to happen in them (which has changed about 10 times since I started around chapter 3). So yeah, I just kind of lay out how many chapters and what I want to happen in each chapter. I don't come up with everything that happens in the chapter right away. More filler type stuff I kind of just write as I go depending on what fits the vibe of the chapter. Sometimes things change a lot, and that's okay. My original outline had like 25 chapters and then the fic would be done and, well, as you can see we're nowhere near that now lol.

As far as the writing process, I just kind of take the outline and lay out what's going to happen in the chapter by section and then start writing. Sometimes I start at the beginning of the chapter and sometimes I start in the middle. Quite a few I've written the last scene first and then just kind of jumped around as inspiration came. I've found that's helped a lot with writer's block and motivation, as I can just kind of go where the words are flowing in the chapter and not have to worry about getting a certain section done before I write the next.

I also do a first draft where I can just lay out a basic description of something that happens if I get stuck and move on. If the words aren't flowing, drop a quick little summary of what happens in that scene and then move on and come back to it when you edit. Sometimes the first draft is just a super basic walk through of what happens and then I go back a second time and add in all the fluff and details. That can be really good if you're going to write smut scenes. Just get down the basics and then go through and add everything else later. Same with dialogue. Just write the lines and then go back and add in details, other things happening in the scene.

Your first draft does NOT have to be the final product. Sometimes it is. Sometimes the words are flowing and you can put out a masterpiece with just some light editing needed. Sometimes it takes two or three tries before you're happy with it. That happens to me a lot. Some chapters are basically first drafts with a little grammar/syntax editing. Others (like chapter 10) I wrote up, sat on it for two days, read it through and was unhappy with it, so I went back and added in like over 1,000 words of fluff and details.

So yeah. Take your time, sleep on things if you're not happy with them, don't be afraid to change things and jump around while you're writing. I know a lot of writers struggle with wanting to be linear in their writing and write a fic or chapter start to finish. You don't have to. Jumping around while writing has saved me so much stress.

I hope this helps, and best of luck with your writing. The best way to get good at it and figure out what works for you is just to write. Practice, practice, practice. It's taken me well over a decade to get to this point where I've figured out what works best for me and I'm still learning to this day.

#answered #writing advice

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rosenallies · 2 months

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my job has been stressing me out to no end so… perhaps a plane and nymphia office au prompt where one of them is anxious because of their work? thank you angel 🥰

same bestie same <3

——

“Hey,” Jane said, hardly looking up from her computer when Nymphia walked into her cubicle, leaning against the wall.

"Hey," Nymphia replied simply, irritation inching into her voice, making Jane look up.

"What's wrong?"

Nymphia crossed her arms. "Are you really asking me that? Jane, it's Friday."

"It is," Jane trailed off, failing to see what Nymphia seemingly was hinting at.

"Friday, the 3rd."

It hit Jane just then, Friday the 3rd, that meant it was their 3 month anniversary. After dancing around one another and their feelings for so long, they took to celebrating monthly because both were over the moon with the fact that they were now an official item. But Jane had forgotten, so wrapped up in her work this week.

"Oh god," she muttered, tears pricking at her eyes, "I'm so sorry, I forgot about dinner. I've just been so-"

"Stressed?" Nymphia sighed, sitting on the desk next to her, grabbing her hand and squeezing gently.

"That's an understatement," Jane huffed, hiding her face in her hands.

"Hey," Nymphia whispered, gently removing her hands from her face, "Come on, pack up your stuff. We'll go back to mine."

"But dinner-we had reservations."

Nymphia tucked a strand of hair behind Jane's ear. "It's okay. Just let me take care of you. If that's okay?"

"You want to take care of me?"

"Of course I do, why wouldn't I?"

Jane shrugged. "Well, I ruined our date night."

"It's okay, I forgive you, now come on, I'll even let you use my good bath bombs."

Helping Jane pack, Nymphia then led her by the hand to her car so Jane didn’t have to take the train back home.

Nymphia drove in a comfortable silence, content with listening to Jane hum softly to the radio.

Once they were inside her apartment, Nymphoa turned all of her attention toward Jane, yanking her to the bedroom and nudging off her blazer.

“I didn’t know that’s what you meant when you said you wanted to take care of me,” Jane chuckled, but Nymphia noticed the tiredness in her eyes.

“Not at all what I meant, Janey,” she replied, bopping Jane on the nose, “bath first, yeah?”

Jane hummed, nodding her head slowly, imagining the bliss that was to come. Nymphia’s apartment had an impressive bathtub, perfect for soaking for hours.

“Which bath bomb do you want?”

“How about one of the pink ones with the rose petals? It smells so nice.”

“Perfect, let me go start the water and then I’ll help you undress. Stay here.”

As odd as it felt to be doted over like this, Jane felt herself fall into it and relaxing, letting Nymphi strip her of her work outfit in the most tender and loving way possible. Jane had never been undressed in a way other than sexually, but she found herself melting internally as Nymphia unbuttoned each of her buttons on her blouse then slipped it off her shoulders, the rest of her clothes following until she was nude and being guided to the bathroom where the tub was already almost full, warmth emanating from it.

Nymphia dropped the bath bomb in and watched as the water turned pink around it. She lit a few candles and dimmed the lights before she deemed the setting perfect.

“Alright, in you go,” she said, grabbing Jane by the hand and helping her in.

The warm water enveloped Jane in a calm sense of bliss. She sighed as her muscles relaxed and for the first time in a week, her mind thought of something other than work.

Nymphia smiled, admiring Jane as she relaxed. “Alright, Janey, I’m going to go order dinner and tidy up, just yell when you’re done, okay?”

She was about to walk away, but Jane grabbed her hand, pulling her back. “Wait-“

“Did I forget something?”

“I-“ Jane hesitated, “I want you.”

Feeling her heart melt, Nymphia sat on the side of the tub. “You want me to stay with you?”

Jane shook her head. “No, I mean yes, but I want-I want you to get in with me. If you want.”

There was something sweet and vulnerable to her voice that Nymphia couldn’t say no to, even if she wanted to. She stripped herself down to nothing and climbed into the tub, resting against Jane’s chest.

Jane immediately wrapped her arms around Nymphia’s middle, nuzzling her nose in her neck and kissing her there gently. “Thank you,” she whispered into her ear.

#I’m sorry this is awful writers block got me gal #planymphia office au #prompt request

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factorialsotherfandoms · 5 months

Text

xcom au, nothing especially anything, set in Cellbit's first few days with the group.

Cellbit is sat on the floor of the command room, an old books of crossword puzzles in hand. He has meticulously copied across the chart, not wanting to steal one of the few leisure items from the rest of the crew, and is filling it in. This one comes in French - not a language he knows well, but he is puzzling his way through.

He is just filling in 14A when a vaguely familiar someone ducks down before him. The green jumpsuit tells him little, except that the man isn't wearing it up - no, the sleeves are tied around his waist, the back bunched up, revealing the tank top beneath. For some reason he wears a hat even in here, an emerald hanging off it.

And then, perhaps more obvious, are the great black wings which fold awkwardly behind him. They're hybrid wings, that much Cellbit is sure of, but they do not fold particularly well.

He looks a bit strange.

They're all a bit strange here.

They're all a bit scarred here, too.

"Cellbit, right?" the man perches on the balls of his feet, elbows to his knees and rests his head on his hands.

"Yes?" Cellbit replies. "I'm sorry, I think I forgot you."

"No worries," he's flashed a grin. "You've got a lot of people to keep up to, I bet? I'm Philza. I remember."

Dragged from one matter to another, it takes Cellbit a few moments to put the pieces together. There was definitely gossip about this man, shared in hushed whispers and watching him interact with the others.

Philza Minecraft, Angel of Death, scourge of the Federation. Vanished alongside his partner in crime years ago, becoming little more than a fable.

One living on their ship, trusted to lead and advise though claiming no official role higher than squad captain.

"Angel?" he asks, because how can he not? "Death's Angel."

Philza's smile grows thin, "I swapped my sword for a medkit years ago. You're better off asking one of the others if it's murder you need - Jaiden's pretty hot at it these days."

Jaiden? Cellbit will bare that in mind.

"Sorry," he says, because he knows they all have pasts he would rather not come up - if Brazilian affairs were half as televised as those in English-speaking countries... Well, with Philza's past Cellbit could perhaps be proud, but parts of his own are better left untouched. "Did you need something?"

He's only been here three days; he cannot imagine anyone trusts him with much.

"Kinda," Philza tilts his head to the side a bit, eyes narrowing and looking all the birdier for it. "I'm told you like paperwork? And decoding shit?"

Cellbit blinks - once, twice, and "yes?"

Philza perks up again, "great! Because I've got a weird shit archive dating back about twenty five years that might want someone to look at them. I've been doing my best, but I am a fucking dumbass and cannot make heads or tails of it."

"Archive?" Cellbit can /feel/ his ears perk up at that - his control of the damned things having been lost in years of having them forcibly pinned away. "What sort?"

"Bit of this, bit of that," Philza shrugs. "Copies of mission records, newspaper clippings, shit the Theory Bros were looking into before the war... Weird crap Aypierre and Tubbo are done with, intercepted audio recordings, spy reports, random crap people picked up on missions... Photos. So many photos. Missing persons reports. That sort of stuff."

It sounds like a treasure trove.

It also sounds like it's going to be a nightmare to get into a usable state.

Fuck, if it's just been shoved in a storage room...

"Sure," Cellbit tries to hide both his excitement and his fear both. "I'm not busy."

"Great," Philza hops back onto his feet. "Because I am. I just found a few minutes to show you; Tubbo needs extra hands to test something, you know how it is with engineer types?"

And, yes, Cellbit does.

---

He is led through the ship to a tucked away room, down near the engines. Philza pushes open the door, and shows him inside.

With a flick of the lights... It's not as bad as Cellbit had assumed. Shelves with assorted objects line the left wall, a series of large, metal cupboards beneath them. Everything is fixed into place with metal strips and bolts - even the filing cabinets, all of which also lock. There's a chart on the wall with packs of coloured paper beneath, each colour representing a different research topic.

There are also cotton gloves - proper cotton gloves for working with documents! -

"While I was sorting," Philza says, already moving over to a cabinet. "I found a lot of this shit is related to more than one topic. Couldn't keep it separated by research field like the old archivist had been trying to, just a fucking dumbass idea. So, left to right, oldest to newest. I start filling a new cabinet from the bottom, so it stays better balanced. Anything paper goes in there - the folders are numbered to their order, please put them back right - objects in the shelves. Coloured sticky labels are where I think shit's related, but honestly you'll want to check it."

Cellbit is already peering over Philza shoulder, and into the drawer he opened. It's one of the pre-war old ones - pretty empty, but there's still a few pieces in there.

He grabs a folder and leafs through, marveling at the organisation, and just how well kept the records are - even at twenty four years old, the newspaper clippings are still perfectly legible and the paper at no risk of falling apart.

It's a missing person's report, one marked with the colour-tag as being unresolved. He's not surprised - if it had been it wouldn't be here - but it's not pleasant news.

And, tucked in with it is a series of printed out forum posts, ones discussing the article.

"It's not much," Philza shrugs. "But I try keep it organised, at least. Knew someone would want it some day."

"No, no," Cellbit puts everything back and slowly closes the door. "This is great! I was expecting worse. Can I see that one?"

He points at a random cabinet, somewhere near the middle.

Philza doesn't open it, he grabs a set of keys from one of to desks, and tosses them over.

"These are yours," he says. "So's the desk - mine's over there, though it's mostly used to dump unsorted shit on. Have fun with it all."

"You're leaving?" Cellbit asks. "Me here. With all these records. And the keys. Alone."

"Yeah?" Philza shrugs.

"I've been here three days. How do you just...?"

"Cellbit," Philza says. "Everyone higher than me in this damned organistion trusts you with their lives. Hell, I do too - I know you were feeding us that info. Not everyone does, but..." a shrug "I file the paperwork, you know? Can't solve it, but I can store the damned things. I've seen what you do, Cellbit - you've saved my ass more times than I can count. May as well give you the paperwork, fuck knows I don't know what to do with it."

"I have?" and Cellbit... Cellbit knows his info was good, but to hear it is...

"You sent the Order to Fit," Philza says. "I used my connection to him to get the Order to bail Missa out - my closest friends, I owe you. The warning of the shift in Thin Man biology? Saved our asses on the field. The base locations? The guard rotations? The info on treating laser wounds? There's not a person on this ship who doesn't owe you their life, Cellbit - what the fuck is some paperwork to that?"

"They would have managed," Cellbit says, already unlocking a drawer and flicking though one of the files inside.

This one is much fuller, and he spots photographs - ones taken by Philza, the backs read, showing off the areas where significant things happened.

"But we didn't have to," Philza replies. "Just.. Enjoy yourself, alright? I've left my notes where I could think of something, but I doubt it's worth shit."

"No, no, this is good," he puts the file back and grabs another. "Just needs an index."

"Indexing's all set up on your laptop," Philza taps on it, and only now does Cellbit spot the old piece of tech on the desk. "Tubbo refitted her."

"You indexed this," Cellbit looks at all the shelves, remembers this man leads missions, gives advice on running the Order - hell, he even runs it himself, when the others are indisposed - constantly being asked for aid and giving it... "It must have taken you ages."

"I was sorting through it all anyway, putting it all in date order and tagging the relevant queries and that," Philza shrugs. "Wasn't that much more work. Hour or two here and there over fifteen months or so?"

It's dedication. Cellbit nearly drops a file as the airship moves sharply, and in making sure everything in intact he misses Philza's escape.

Damn it. Well, if he has questions, he can ask later.

The index though...

Cellbit goes to the laptop, pulling it open and waiting for it to boot. There's a couple of things on there - Philza's desk has a full computer and printer, but Cellbit's new laptop has an external hard drive - but he ignores them for opening the index.

He expected just a list of reference numbers and which tags - maybe location, if he was lucky.

Instead.. Full database, all linked up. Reference numbers, tags, and locatgion, yes, but also summaries of the contents, a list of directly related items such as commentaries or other articles about the same event, a column for Philza's notes and one for Cellbit's, the locations of the originals if not stored in the archive...

Cellbit has killed for far, far less than this. And it's just... been handed to him? By someone saying it isn't much?

He doesn't quite get it, but...

He picks a mystery - something small for now. Opens up something to take notes on, and goes to collect the relevant files.

Soon enough he's absorbed so deep that he doesn't even notice Felps not-so-sneaking up behind him until he's already being hugged and told off for missing dinner - for vanishing all over again.

#qsmp x xcom #qsmp fanfic #qsmp philza #qsmp cellbit #i forgot to put this one on the vote list so take it quick-written and take it now lol #there's more of the two of them later in the series if I ever get to writing it #but for now... just this #happy cellbit!!! he's got an archive!!!#even if neither of them think what they did was actually as valuable as it was #cellbit'll work it out. phil... not so much

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