#I've had this hiding in my drafts for a week or two - Figured it was time to finish and post it~
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Incipient
incipient (adj.): the initial stage, beginning to develop, a bloom about to happen; commonly used for people when referring to the start of a new friendship, relationship; what could be.
pairing: joel miller x gn!reader
summary: you've had enough of joel putting the blame on you.
word count: ~ 2.4k(ish)
warnings: typical tlou violence and warnings, clickers, minor injury, the use of a machete and a gun, angst, fluff, swearing, a little bit of an age gap, spoliers for episode two, talk of handling grief, tbh joel deserves a warning for himself in general.
masterlist
a/n: okay so this has quite literally been haunting my drafts for the past two weeks, but i've been swamped with work, and the weather has been (not to be dramatic but) the worst it's been since i've moved here. also, you know that one edit of pedro? the one of him as agent whiskey? yeah, that one. it's been living rent free in my mind, meaning more pedro fics will be created. thank you for reading! <3
oh yeah, i almost forgot! don't repost my stories, because only people that bald early do that, and i bet you wouldn't like that too much, hmm?
credit to gif owner!!
Something had changed after Tess was gone. After sneaking out of the State House and watching it get blown to bits, something inside you had dampened. Sure, you and Tess weren't friends, but you both had helped each other out of some trouble here and there, and that's not even mentioning the problems you helped diffuse with Joel. But she was hellbent on making sure Ellie got to where she needed to be, and the least you could do would be to honour her last wish.
Ellie had tried to bring Tess up after you all escaped, but Joel quickly shut her down, turning to you before starting with his usual ways, closing up any emotions in regard to grief and shoving them away. But he didn't stop there, oh no. The only other outlet he knew of was anger, and he picked you to be on the receiving end.
You figured it was better you than Ellie, but it still didn't excuse his actions.
He was never overly kind to you, and you never expected him to be, but after Tess had gone and the weeks piled up, his fuse kept getting shorter and shorter.
You shouldn't have gone first into the abandoned building.
You should watch how much ammo you use.
If you had been thinking ahead, you would've known that there would have been infected in the area.
And though he was really getting on your nerves, you didn't speak up about it, because you figured it could be a lot worse. You were never that confrontational before the outbreak, and you were still trying to work on it. You got that he needed a way to handle his grief, but jesus christ this was becoming too much, and it was just a matter of time before you snapped.
The three of you had entered what looked to be the remnants of what used to be a garden center when you dealt it back to him. The old building had run rampant with the different plants that used to be properly contained inside, a jungle of green that grew once the roof caved in. You had all just narrowly avoided a group of runners and found solace in the building, but your guard remained up.
It was hard to maneuver through, the plants reclaiming every inch. Plus, you had no idea what could be hiding in the shadows that these photosynthesizing beings could produce.
"This is like a fucking maze." You whispered, making sure to keep your voice down.
"Did you guys ever watch that really old movie Jumanji?" Ellie said as she pushed back some leaves. Joel snorted at that, shaking his head. He was bringing up the back, everyone walking in a line to get to the other side.
You were in the front, carving a path as best as you could. You turned your head to look back at the other two with a small chuckle. "I really never know what you're going to say, El."
"Well, someone's gotta keep up the conversation, with Mr. grumpy back there always being so talkative."
Joel rolled his eyes. "We need to be careful, there's no time for--" A shriek filled everyone's ears, finishing his statement for him. A shriek that could only belong to one type of creature: a clicker.
It came from what sounded like the next room, meaning they weren't as alone as they suspected.
Eyes wide, you locked yours with Joel. He put a finger to his lips in a shushing motion before nodding to the machete in your hands that was helping you clear the path, the machete that coincidentally was caught in the middle of a thick stem. There was barely a walkway behind you all, and the runners were no doubt looming outside the entrance. You guys were caught in the middle of a real situation, one that didn't have a bright outcome at the end. Best case scenario, there was only one clicker ahead of you all, but you found that doubtful.
Joel had moved to the middle, maneuvering Ellie behind him. He put his hand over your own to help slowly remove the machete, which had more of an affect on you than you'd care to admit. Yeah, it was the end of times, but you were touch starved.
The clicker's calls knocked you out of your momentary daze, opting to instead take a deep, silent breath. Slowly you moved the weapon out of the green, and you had just relaxed your shoulders when you realized how desperate this situation really was. The machete had obscured part of your view before, but not even ten feet in front of you stood the source of your fear, moving and clicking, searching for some more to share the fungus with.
You had become used to managing your breathing tempo these days, but the haze that Joel had caused mixed with the dead slowly inching towards you had you, well, distracted to say the least. His hand hadn't left its grip around yours, if anything it had tightened around your own, which was something you were definitely going to bring up if you all made it out unscathed.
It didn't help that he was directly behind you. He was like a brick wall, not that you were complaining.
But the moment you knew that you were all toast was when he became aware of how close he was to you too. Because he straightened his back, just slightly, fixing his posture around you, and in that fraction of a second, his foot moved just little enough to kick a piece of debris.
The three of you held your breath, hoping that it wasn't enough to get the creature to turn your way.
There was a reason hope ran so little nowadays.
These sorts of situations always tended to play out in slow motion for you. It was as if every opportunity death took to look upon you, it wanted to make sure you were giving your full attention to it.
The clicker screamed and shot itself towards you, and without even realizing it you had pushed Joel back and sliced at it. "Get back!" you shouted backwards, pushing against the fungus that was trying to attack you. Its arm swiped at yours and caught skin, making you shout in pain. You pushed the machete deeper into it, the monster's force pushing you both back into the greenery. It was getting incredibly close, the smell of it invading your senses at an unpleasant rate, its jaw snapping at the air.
You closed your eyes, waiting for the inevitable.
But in the flash of an eye, the pressure was gone. The smell was gone, the creature was gone. Joel had grabbed the thing and pushed it into the open, where Ellie quickly shot it, making the dead drop to the ground once more.
Luck must have pitied you because no other shrieks followed it, meaning that there was only one around, for now at least.
"Holy shit, that was a close one." Ellie said, eyes wide. Joel rushed into the clearing, checking to make sure that there wouldn't be another one any time soon. Once he came back, he rushed over to you, looking you over for bite marks.
"I didn't get bit, Joel. Close to it though." You shook him off, bringing your injured arm up to your middle.
He heaved with what you first thought was adrenaline, but soon realized was anger. "What were you thinking?" He spit out, venom lacing his words.
Like you said earlier, you were getting tired of this. You had had enough. "What was I thinking?" You scoffed, shaking your head. "What were you thinking?" Your eyes shot daggers into his, ready for the metaphorical kettle to finally tip over. "This was not my fault! Shit, what is wrong with you?" You stepped closer to him, sizing him up. "If anything, you alarmed it of our presence, and jesus christ not everything is on me." Shoving past him into the open area, you clenched your jaw in anger. After all of that, he had the nerve--
"I'm not saying it is, but goddamnit if you had just waited to pull that giant ass knife out, we would've--" Another scoff cut him off.
"You find something every fucking time something goes wrong to pin on me, and frankly it's getting annoying. I've stood there and took it, but shit Joel, ever since Tess, you've had a stick so far up your ass that I could practically see it when you talked."
He shot a glare at you, and the ice in which he spoke with would remain with you for longer than you would like to admit. "You don't get to bring up Tess."
"Yes, I do! We should all be able to--just because you don't know how to grieve doesn't mean that we can't either." Clenching your good fist, you knew that you may have overstepped a line, but damn it he did not have to treat you two like this.
"You ain't have a single idea what I've grieved. I've--" he stopped short, his voice breaking ever so slightly. His teeth grit, jaw moving alongside it, and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, one filled with the weight of the people he's lost, and eventually he looked at you with a gaze slightly softer, which you were oddly suspicious of.
"Listen, I know that I've been a little...rougher since Tess."
Ellie chuckled a good distance behind him. "That's putting it vaguely."
"I just, fuck." He mumbles to himself, looking at his feet.
"What, Joel? I'm not going to deal with this if it continues, I'm not doing that to myself."
"Fucking hell, I care about you, okay?" His voice slightly raised, and the way his irises met yours, well it took your breath away. He was staring at you with a gleam in his eye that you've almost never seen--vulnerability. "I know I'm harsh sometimes, but goddammit I..." His eyes close, and you see his chest rise and lower. "...I don't know."
"That doesn't excuse your actions though. I care about you too, the both of you, but you don't see--" You voice fades as he starts pacing the area, mumbling to himself. You raise an eyebrow at him, looking to Ellie who shrugs in response. He's never acted like this before, and your gut drops at why he could be this vulnerable right now.
And then it hits you.
Only momentarily, but you need to ask right now or you won't be able to again. Maybe you were overthinking it, but there was only one reason why he could be acting so strange.
You hold your breath as you say it.
"Are you infected?"
That makes him stop in his tracks, hearing what you just said. Striding over to you, he shakes his head. "No, I ain't infected, I'm just not good at this."
Your shoulders slack in relief, your heart able to return to a semi-normal beat. Yeah, you two butted heads a good amount of the time, but he was the closest person in decades that you would admit you trusted.
He's still looking at the ground, so you decide to take a different approach now that the frightful question is out of the way.
"Good at what? Honey, you're scaring me." You speak gentler, tilting your head to try to meet his eyes. You've never called him an endearment before, much less honey, and you try to ignore the flutters in your chest that erupt at doing so. "You can talk to me, I'm here for you. Hell, we've known each other for how long now? I won't judge you." He had always been closed off, ever since you arrived to the QZ, but that seemed to catch his attention because he flicked his eyes to your injured arm briefly before meeting your gaze.
"Tess told me that I need to tell you eventually, and I just worry about you a lot, and I--" He placed a hand over your wound, studying it. "I care about you care about you, more than you know, and I'll work on the anger issues, I just worry about you, way more than I should."
And though you could read between the lines at what he was saying, you cupped his chin and asked anyways. Maybe it was a part of you being a little selfish, but you had just nearly been put into cardio arrest at thinking he might be infected, so you asked anyway.
"Are you saying you fancy me, Miller?"
He chuckled at that, rolling his eyes in amusement. "If you want to put it that way, then yes...I fancy you. I know you're a little younger than me, and that you already probably have someone waiting back at the QZ, but you're just-" he gulped. "-real important to me is all."
You smiled, leaning in a little closer to him. "Hey, it doesn't matter that you're a little older, and you of all people know damn well that I only had you, Tess, and a couple others back there. My heart has always been yours."
It looked like a weight had been physically lifted off of his shoulders too at your response, and you saw the ghost of a smile grace his features. He leaned in close, closer than he had ever done before, and his voice sounded like sweet whiskey, the good kind served pre-outbreak.
"Can I kiss you?"
"I'd thought you'd never ask."
And when his mouth met yours, it was like a piece of you that had been missing was found. Like a flower had been waiting for the right moment to bloom. It was a little messy, but that was alright given that it had been a while since either of you had probably done this.
A cough snapped you both out of the trance you were in. "Okay, lovebirds, I'm happy that you two are getting along again and all but can this--" she waved her knife in between you two from where she stood against the doorframe by the exit, a look of disgust on her face. "Wait until after we're all out of here? This place gives me the creeps."
A small laugh left you and him, and you broke apart. "She's right, we'd better get moving before anything else that may be in here finds us."
He had a smirk on his face, another look you hadn't really seen before. "Lead the way honey'"
Oh, you could get used to this.
#joel miller#the last of us#the last of us show#the last of us hbo#the last of us spoilers#joel miller x reader#joel miller x#joel miller x you#joel miller fanfiction#pedro pascal#the last of us part one#tlou#tlou fanfiction#tlou spoilers#tlou show
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Fic Stats Game
Rules: Give us the links to your fic with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the least words.
@jackdaw-sprite thanks for the tag! I enjoy both being tagged in shit and doing the tag games! Let's fuckin gooooo! All data is from AO3 and does not include Tumblr information, nor stories posted only to Tumblr.
Most Hits: broken trust and the wounds hidden behind
This one is actually my highest by a significant amount! At the time of this post, it's at 6,463 hits. My number two story is at 3,814
Jack wasn't meaning to snoop in his son's room when he found a box of medical supplies and a USB with a tag that said IF I DON'T COME HOME. Danny’s secrets revealed, Jack is desperate to earn his son’s trust, to earn the right to this secret he stumbled across. After almost two years of unknowingly hunting his son, is Danny's trust too broken to heal?
Second Most Kudos: by your grave (the monster we made)
This one is second for pretty much all stats!
Maddie knew Danny kept secrets, it was a topic they didn’t discuss. But when she sees scars she knows he couldn’t have, she knows she can’t keep pretending. She just needs to figure out those scars.
Third-Most Comments: the walls you hide behind (I saw the truth inside the real you)
I'm actually suprised by that one! It's only been coming out for the past two-ish weeks!
Jazz is tired of the ghosts, tired of her parents not doing enough, tired of Phantom's recklessness and her brother's persistent exhaustion. When she yells all of her frustration at her parents after nearly getting killed by a ghost, she gets sent to Vlad's mansion in Wisconsin for the weekend - where she's offered a chance. She could have the ability to fight back, protect her brother and her town. Jazz leaps at the prospect.
When she returns to Amity Park at the end of the weekend, it's with abilities and strength of her own, and she's fueled by anger and disdain.
And she's got her eyes, first, on Danny Phantom.
Fourth-Most Bookmarks: Welcome to Intro to Ghosts
Man I really should update that fic shouldn't I?
Sure, turning sixteen was supposed to be a big year regardless, but this was a little beyond what Danny had expected when he'd both been told he was now king and then asked to be a teacher for the Intro to Ghosts class while also being a junior in high school. Now he has to juggle a secret identity, being a superhero, doing centuries worth of old paperwork Pariah didn't do, his own schoolwork, AND his students/classmates schoolwork! This'll be fun. Or catastrophic. Hopefully fun.
Fifth-Most Words: healing the wounds we hid
This is the sequel to broken trust, mentioned earlier! It's actually going to be my second highest word count (it's full draft is roughly 38k, but for where I am in posting, it's at number 2!) Once it's posted by your grave (the monster we made) (also referenced earlier), will be the actual number five.
Least Words: fang u for ur help
At a paltry 345 words, this is the shortest fic I've posted to AO3. It's a silly like DannyMay thing bc the idea was funny and didn't need to be any more than it is.
Danny has fangs and questions.
DannyMay2023 Day 16: Fangs
Tags: GAH I HAVE NO IDEA WHO'S BEEN TAGGED AND WHO TO TAG. Ummmm. @scarletsaphire @lexosaurus @strawberrycamel, and anyone else who wants to!
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I kinda realised that Mr Komos' song, True Monster Heart follows the same beat as the Monster High Fright song, but the lyrics are like the corrupted version of the original.
Monster High Fright is about accepting
True Monster Heart is about rejecting
Kinda interesting when you think about it
AHHHHHH WHEN I SAW I GOT AN ASK RELATED TO THIS I FREAKED OUT DFGHNBGVFDSF TY FOR GIVING ME SOMETHING TO RAMBLE SOME MORE ABOUT ANON FOR REAL! (Also sorry for the late response, this post has been developing in my drafts for like at least a week now dfgfhng)
I absolutely agree with the conflicting messages between the two songs! I know the song focuses on the story of this universe's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the main verses, but the main focus of the song is that message of rejection of anything and everything human.
Also, because of the Jekyll/Hyde bits, it could represent the duality of where the story starts and ends in its interpretation of a "true monster heart." Instead of Mr. Hyde's human-ness making his heart "untrue," it was his utter rejection of & research into ridding himself of his Jekyll, as well as his hiding of the truth in the first place that caused him to be found out and exiled.
His heart being "untrue" had nothing to do with the fact he was half-human, because if it were, then Clawdeen and Komos's presence in and of itself within the school would've triggered its self-destruction. That was proven as a false interpretation by the story in the movie, so it's self-explanatory. A true monster heart is one of self-acceptance, despite one's flaws or differences. That's what Mr. Hyde, and Mr. Komos thereafter, had neglected to realize before Clawdeen proved the point.
Though, I've listened to both True Monster Heart and Fright Song a few times back-to-back, to try and get where you're thinking as far as the beat, but I don't hear it unfortunately (unless you meant the tempo of the song, then yes they do follow the same 120 beats per minute!).
The closest thing I can think of as far as melodic parallels between the songs is the chanting sections. The Fright Song chant is much quicker in the way it's sung compared to the chant in True Monster Heart, however. The whole of Fright Song's chant goes in 16 beats/4 measures, whereas True Monster Heart's chant takes twice as long at 32 beats/8 measures (I was a band/choir kid lol). It's mainly due to how the song kinda drags out the point, and it definitely feels like a nod to Fright Song for sure. Fright Song's chant is only there because 4/5 of the main ghouls were fearleaders, so it was sort of characterizing the cast before actually showing their characters in the webisodes.
---
Fun little headcanon/ramble that I forget if I ever mentioned about Fright Song, but with Holt Hyde being released in the 1st Signature wave with the rest of the the main ghouls and all, I think it was because he's intended to be the singer of the rap section before any subsequent content with the character was released (No offense but I don't think Holt DJs because he's a good singer sdfgbfds). This would line up with his current crush in canon with Frankie, as well as his former crush on Draculaura from either the diaries or books, maybe both? I forget. :'D Also I feel like Holt wouldn't hesitate to call Cleo vile immediately after saying she's charming either, he's very direct with his words. (I also interpret Jackson/Holt as bisexual because Deuce is included in the rap I DON'T CARE Y'ALL IT MAKES SENSE!)
Also I always interpreted the howl-like sound at the end of the rap as "Holt ran outta time/battery power for his music and transforms back to Jackson as it transitions to the rest of the song." It kinda works with how the beat kinda drops down with the howl, like a TV being shut off or something idk.
Ghoulia also debuted with Signature Wave 1 but she's only in like a second of the music video in the background, I figure it could've been budgetary reasons for the animation, to save on animating an extra character. Also I imagine flame-y hair wouldn't be very fun to animate in 2D, and Deuce's snakes moving on their own were bad enough I imagine to animate, so it begrudgingly checks out as to why Holt isn't in the animated bits with everyone else.
BUT I JUST WATCHED THE MUSIC VIDEO BECAUSE I WANTED TO FOR THE SAKE OF THIS POST AND THE GUY SINGING THE RAPPING BIT HAS, YOU GUESSED IT, A BRIGHT FRICKIN NEON RED LEATHER JACKET. He doesn't have the dual-toned shirt BUT IT'S WHITE AND THIS IS CLOSE ENOUGH FOR ME Y'ALL! XD
If any straws for these dumbasses can be found I SHALL GRASP THEM fr they're my blorbos :'D
#linposts#monster high: the movie#monster high#true monster heart#fright song#mr. komos#clawdeen wolf#g3 clawdeen#featuring a headcanon ramble for#jackson jekyll#holt hyde
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Being sick for the past week meant that I had nothing better to do today than lay in bed and refresh tumblr waiting for chapter 34, and seeing it at the very top of my dash was the highlight of my day! The wait was definitely worth it, my health for the duration notwithstanding lol
SPOILER WARNING FOR PAST CHAPTERS IDK HOW TO PUT READ MORES IN ASKS I'M SO SORRY
You made the right call taking the extra time to edit this doozy of a chapter—figuring out how to share Dale's exposition in a way that made sense and fit into the events of the story while maintaining tonal consistency must have been quite the process, between the restrictions of Sana's POV, regency genre conventions, and the story's (heh) natural climax being Dale's identity "reveal" followed by the wedding. I'm very curious if you currently have any ideas for how you're going to tackle this exposition in the novelization, or if you're inclined to handle it differently at all!
@weasellyferret
i hope you're feeling better! i'm so glad you enjoyed the new chapter!
i hav no idea if u can even put a read more in an ask anymore and i can't hide it now but my answer will be under the read more
thanks! i think some people really underestimate how helpful even self editing is to make things coherent, especially for a long chapter like this one that covered so much but also was literally just two ppl talking to each other (ppl lov to say they'll take any update, but lik, thats cuz they dont knooow lol and i dont just want it to b passable, i want it to b good).
with lore/backstory like this i also have to make sure it makes sense to readers who havent read any of it before nor know any of the even more info that I know because there's even more worldbuilding and dale backstory that wont end up in the story.
i'm glad u think i pulled it off to any degree because i was still pretty nervous when i was posting it that it did make sense, fit in the world, was followable, interesting but not just exposition monologue, etc
yeah, chapter 30 where they have the reveal convo is the primary climax of the story and that's also 'just talking' in a sense so its interesting to write this story in that sense lol
while i had the broad outline of the world and dale's backstory from the beginning (i did a little exercise where i sketched out a sort of Dale POV of chapter 6 to get into his mindset which was super helpful) as I wrote the story a lot more of that info became fully fleshed out/defined. so for the novelization, i'll probably try to work more of the info in earlier or have better allusions to it, which will make some of the info in chapter 34 more of a quick confirmation than the exposition itself
ie i might add a chapter with more detail on Sana researching with Dale's books that Bilmont smuggles and plant suspicions of what went wrong with the summoning; i might adjust the chapter after the attack to be more of a convo about the assassination that the grandparents interrupt where Sana can suspect more of Dale's past etc and generally spread out what i can so its more foreshadowed/natural - things like that
other aspects sort of have to be told to Sana because its POV limited, evn when it is updated to 3rd POV. i'll probably do a straight POV swap and minor edit ; then take a look at it as a whole, reassess things on my own, run those ideas by some writer friends/betas and get their thoughts, and finally my editors (who i used for DSM) are also very good with making sure worldbuilding fits in right and so their advice will be helpful - especially since they will only get the draft i giv them without knowing how it was and what changed etc
once chapter 35 is out (which i'm still writing because smut is a challenge to right and i write it more slowly than other things) i'll start slowly editing and passing along to betas the rest of the story (i've got thru chap 11 done and betas who only read those and who are chomping at the bit - u think u've had a long wait? lol) but it will be spring by the time i do any big edits/revisions and then i'll giv it to the editors, who i already lik, semi-lined up for that time period and idk how long they will take because its a long book and then i'll need to process their edits too so it'll be a lengthy process, but i hope everyone knows it will 100% b a novel and i hope they enjoy it!
now back to stabbing away at the smut writing ;)
#asks#writing asks#story asks#nothing's wrong with dale#worldbuilding#exposition#backstory#lore dump#editing#my process?#lol idk - i think i went on for too long#hope someone finds this interesting#especially u#weasellyferret
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The ophiophagous Basekhwa
My response to this week’s BestiaryPosting challenge from @maniculum
Jinhao shark fountain pen with fine, hooded nib, with Monteverde Raven Noir ink, over initial pencil sketch. Previously I've always used a mechanical pencil for the initial sketch, but this time I figured I'd try something more artsy, 5.6ml HB lead in a n e+m clutch pencil. Much less precise, but nicer for drafting. I figure it's a good indicator I've gotten more confident in my inking linework compared to when I started!
One thing I'm really finding with these challenges is that I'm really learning the value of a good reference. It seems obvious typing this out, but the way I think something should look (in context, particular animals) and the way it actually looks can be quite different (case in point, the legs on ruminants!).
Reasoning below the cut;
So first things first, this is one of the longer more detailed descriptions we've had so far. There were so many different types of behaviour described here that I knew I wanted to cover as many as possible. I initially considered dividing the picture into quarters, as I had with the Yaggzrok (with maybe a fancier border). Maybe I was inspired by the fancy tree in the picture from the bestiary last week, but as I also wanted to give more space to a slightly larger picture of the creature, I had the thought of doing some smaller viginettes showing the different behaviour, hence the finished composition...
"Basekhwas are the enemies of snakes; when they feel weighed down with weakness, they draw snakes from their holes with the breath of their noses and, overcoming the fatal nature of their venom, eat them and are restored."
I had to emphasise the nostrils once we had more of an idea of what manner of creature this was, my initial thought was to go with something like a tapir's snout, but once I did a little looking into horned animals, I just had to take the primary inspiration from saiga antelope...
"They have shown the value of the herb dittany, for after feeding on it, they shake out the arrows which have lodged in them. Basekhwas marvel at the sound of the pipes; their hearing is keen when their ears are pricked but they hear nothing when their ears are lowered."
"They have another characteristic, that after eating a snake they run to a spring and, drinking from it, shed their long coats and all signs of old age."
The buck in the top viginette has found itself a quiet spring to enjoy its snack. Note the shaggy coat compared to the animal that is the main focus of the drawing, and the couple of arrows sticking out if its rump! Why not kill two birds (snakes?) with one stone?
Speaking of which, it probably doesn't show due to the size of the drawing, but I did base the herb to the left of the critter in the viginette on Dictamnus albus (a completely different type of plant to Cretan dittany or American dittany), since I figured this was more likely to be the plant the authors were referring too. Interesting plant, possibly the 'burning bush' of biblical fame...
Obviously, needed to emphasise the ears, given its keen hearing.
"Basekhwas have this characteristic also, that they change their feeding-ground for love of another country, and in doing so, they support each other. When they cross great rivers or large long stretches of water, they place their head on the hindquarters of the Basekhwa in front and, following one on the other, do not feel impeded by their weight. When they find such places, they cross them quickly, to avoid sinking in the mire."
I gave it the a fuzzy rump to make it more comfy when they are resting their heads on eachother when crossing water (the right hand viginette - have a random water bird too!).
"Male Basekhwas, when it is time to rut, rage with the madness of lust. Female Basekhwas, although they may been inseminated earlier, do not conceive before the star Arcturus appears. They do not rear their young just anywhere but hide them with tender care, concealed deep in bushes or grass, and they make them stay out of sight with a tap of the hoof. When the young grow strong enough to take flight, the Basekhwas train them to run and to leap great distances. When Basekhwas hear the dogs barking, they move upwind taking their scent with them. They are scared rigid by everything, which makes them an easier mark for archers.
Of their horns, the right-hand one is better for medical purposes. If you want to frighten off snakes, you should burn either. If Basekhwas have few or no teeth, it shows that they are old. In order to tell their age, Alexander the Great ringed a number of Basekhwas; when they were recaptured a century later they showed no sign of old age. The offspring of the Basekhwa are called [redacted], from [redacted], because at a nod from their mother, they vanish from sight."
The 'burning the horns' thing is making me think there is some further association with this animal and dittany, again. I'm glad Alexander had time in his short life amidst all the conquering to do some zoological studies!
Given the differing qualities of the two horns, I figured it would add some visual interest if they were differnt sizes.
I wanted the main focus of the picture to be on a mother Basekhwa and her baby; she's ready to tap her hoof, and the baby is ready to disappear into the bush!
"The rennet of a young Basekhwa killed in its mother’s womb is a marvellous remedy against poisons. It is known that Basekhwas never grow feverish. For this reason ointments made from their marrow bring down sick men’s temperatures. We read that many men who have regularly eaten a small amount of Basekhwa meat since their early days have lived for a long time unaffected by fevers; but ultimately it fails them as a remedy if they are killed by a single blow."
Look, live as long as you like, it's not going to help if someone whacks you on the noggin in a tourney with a morningstar, is it? 😕
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Unfinished Friday (I was too late for WIP wednesday)
I had a draft for this but it's gone AUGH.
Basically I wanted to write a cute story where you give Danny a sandwich because you noticed he hasn't been eating.
What I wanted to say was that I began writing this as I first began playing DBD. I've now unlocked all the lore pages, and thing is I got to one tome where the way it started it just made me things fuuuuuuuuuck this sounds similar. Like it is and it isn't? If any of y'all have read his lore pages lmk if you see what I mean. Like the story doesn't go in the same direction and it's overall different, but the similarities did give me pause, and not gonna lie it kinda took the wind outta my sails to continue this. So this may be all there will be plus a tiny part I have half written, but idk. It was just a bit disheartening to because I don't even wanna walk the line of "ripoff" territory, but I already had this part written and I was really proud of the drama. Idk y'all tell me.
Anyway, here's the beginning of the sandwich story.
A little Something
Richard Thomas.
Two first names and twice the pain in my ass.
Danny had chosen the non-descript man because there really was not much there to begin with. He was a blank canvas. On the outside, Richard Thomas was the perfect empty vessel for the masses to insert themselves into the story. A mirror to the populace that tells them “It could be you.”
Great idea. Perfect idea. It’s what they want, they want to relate, they want to wear the victims shoes and feel comforted that it wasn’t them. It was just anybody off the street, so feel caution, but feel gratitude that it was someone else this time.
But little Bitchard Thomas, Danny found himself thinking, apparently had something that very much set him apart from the rest. An entire wriggling mass hiding under his squeaky clean skin. If he looked back, Danny thought that the clues were all there. For his exterior the two words Danny would use to describe him would be “plain” and “particular”. He was inoffensive, if not dull. Plain of looks, personality, and opinion. He ruffled no feathers, he had no hills to die on.
But he went about life, even in his most private moments, as if he was being watched. Yes, of course he was, but at this point Danny hasn’t made any contact and Bitchard had no reason to believe he was actually being watched.
By now, Danny had been watching the man for five weeks. By week one Danny figured out his daily routine, his preferred route to work and back, and how he spent time. Week two he was able to account for how he responds to deviation and the type of things that would mess with his routine. Week three went by like the first, and so did the fourth. Week five is when the bullshit began. It started with him going down to his basement late at night on Sunday. Danny didn’t see what he did there but he went in at 2am and didn’t come out until 5:33am. Whatever he did, he looked haggard by the end of it. The next day Danny decided to pay his little basement a visit and find the reason for his late night rendezvous.
After seeing little Bitchard off to work, Danny went about his investigation. He was annoyed because he already knew the house. He could walk through it blindfolded. Danny knew where he kept his sheets, where he put his birth certificate, and which drawer he kept his dirty magazines. He could give tours of this boring little bitch palace if he wanted to. But now, in his home again with a new sense of skepticism, it felt too plain. It’s not well kept, it’s pristine. It was lived-in in the way IKEA showrooms gave the impression of a very neat life lived in their implied walls.
Danny put himself at the entryway of the home. He turned around towards the door and closed his eyes. Danny inhaled deeply, held it for 8 seconds and quickly spun around for the length of his exhale. He opened his eyes and steadied himself as the entryway funhoused its way back to normal. He took a step forward.
Okay. Let’s walk the house for the first time again.
The first thing that Danny noticed as he took measured steps around the squat bungalow is that everything at the front of house was displayed. Every single thing was displayed just so, angled at either side to face the doorway. A subconscious invitation to look inside and see the perfect domestic display. Danny walked forward until he reached the inner hall that splintered the rest of the house. He spun around sharply on his heel and looked at the display from the back, towards the door. It was almost right, almost normal, but aware as he was now Danny saw just how hollow it was. A life did not cause the end tables to be shifted at a slight angle towards the door. Everyday motions did not tousle the stack of books into its perfectly unkempt spot. No, no, it was all wrong. Looking at it all together it looked like the inside of a TV. The shiny screen hiding the mess of wires that allowed it to function.
Danny continued on to the bedroom. This room had more signs of life, of actually living, but it was all so surface level. Rumpled sheets, dirty laundry abandoned halfway on the floor, at his desk a picture with friends and some drawings from his students.
He’s walked the houses of many varied people. Type A people, Type B people, minimalists, maximalists, the eco conscious, and the hungry consumer. They all lived differently, and their home was always a reflection of themselves. Their personalities lived in the idiosyncrasies of their dwellings, their tchotchkes, their mementos. This house had nothing. It was as if the furnishings were the decoration. Sure a handful of milquetoast prints that all seem to be variations on a theme dot the walls. There are small vases with fake flowers. Two plaques with generic homely quotes. Nothing identifiable to its homeowner, but giving the impression that it has a homeowner, like an open house.
It didn’t make sense. This guy definitely lived here, walked through these halls, and shit in these toilets. Yet for all of its evidence of a life lived, the house felt just as empty a vessel as Danny hoped Richard Thomas would be.
Alright that’s enough.
Danny made his way to the basement. In his prior walkthrough, the basement was far less intriguing than it was now. It was cold, damp, and littered with everything you would expect to be forgotten down here. There were some plastic boxes of old clothes, and a handful of outdoor Christmas decorations.There was a set of old wooden furniture bunched up in the back corner of the basement by the stairs. Next to it was a stacked upright workbench either bolted to the wall or built into it. Danny looked at the whole of the room. The placement of the furniture, packed awkwardly close in that far corner, felt at odds with the rest of the room. The basement was definitely spacious enough for the furniture set to be spaced out without taking up much room. In fact so much of the basement was empty. It’s not that the furniture looked out of place, but it didn’t make sense with how precise and evenly spaced out the rest of his belongings sat throughout the house. No, it doesn’t jump out at you. It’s some old shit. But there’s something so oddly human about the way it’s slapped against the wall. Something entirely at odds with the rest of the house.
An odd tugging feeling was inching its way up Danny’s spine, it wasn’t fear but it was equally potent. He approached the wooden furniture the way you might approach a cat you’d like to take. Cautious, observant, eager. Danny’s eyes raked over their lines and angles. There was a notch in the wall in the spot where the workbench met the wardrobe. It was small enough to be imperceptible at any distance that wasn’t intimate. Danny felt his eyes lock on the knick, it extended the line that united the furniture ever so slightly. He carved his gloved fingers into the crack, gripping the wardrobe from the raised trim at its top. A groan strained from his throat as he pulled the wardrobe out toward him an inch. He pulled it the rest of the way out by its side. A tickle of satisfaction made Danny give a short huff.
A discreet panel blended into the wall, negligible if not for the faint glint along its edge. Danny felt along the wall, placing light force along its inner perimeter until he heard a faint click. The small door eased open enough for Danny to be able to grab onto it and pull. The entry was cramped and looked like the open maw of a beast. It was a black hole. With more intrigue than trepidation, Danny made his way into the short passage into a black open space. Feeling along the wall, Danny felt a small panel and flicked a flat switch. The room blinked to life.
This was Richard Thomas. There was a squat couch to the right of the room with a few clothes cast about. Two doors faced him on the far wall. On the left close to one of the doors, a desk sat flush against the wall with a computer, several stacks of CDs and floppy disks. Danny went to examine it up close, the screen had a bar flashing but seemingly making no progress. Above it the screen read “Upload in progress. Do not power off or exit the program.” Danny went for the adjacent door to its right. Unlocked, no lock on the door at all. Doesn’t expect intrusion, cocky even by his measure. Smug little prick. As the room formed from the shadows Danny recognized what this room was instantly.
It was a darkroom.
Richard, Ricky… What have we got here? No photos out here for me? Making me work? I will find everything you’re hiding under that drab little skin. I’ll flay you alive if I have to… Well shit, I want to.
Looking through the drawers and cabinets in the darkroom, Danny only found various supplies for developing film. Danny turned to exit the room.
What kinds of people hide their hobbies? What kind of person hides their hobby this much?
Danny went to the door by the couch. No lock. Probably real pleased with himself. Opening it, he felt for the switch by the doorway and flipped it as if acting on instinct. Like Richard would, walking in. He was met with a four by four room with wall to wall cardboard file boxes. The room was exceptionally cold, biting.
The boxes had dates, some had dates and locations. April 1985, October 1990. The boxes reached up to his nose. His finger reached out to tap the date on the box closest to him. February 1988, Ft. Lauderdale. His hand reached into its open mouth. Pulling it out, it held the weight of, if not a large dog, maybe a small child. He popped the lid off and let it slide onto the floor. It was filled to the brim with envelopes large and small. Larger ones lay flat and the smaller ones sat stacked together in neat rows, some grouped together with large rubber bands.
Danny plucked an envelope from a bottom heavy stack, grouped awkwardly in a corner. He plucked the flap up from the throat. Negatives, two thick stacks. Danny slid one out and held it up to the light. Awkward arms, hard to fully make sense of it at first. Then he moved the negative up to illuminate the next frame. It was undeniable now.
Jesus fuck. This fucking-
#dead by daylight#danny johnson#ghostface dbd#danny johnson x reader#danny jed olsen johnson#ghostface x you#ghostface x reader#danny johnson x y/n#danny johnson smut#dbd ghostface#dead by deadlight#jed olsen#dbd ghostface x reader#ghostface fanfic#danny johnson fanfic
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(*cracks knuckles.* I found my balls.)
"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
You'd dreamt of stars as long as you could remember.
They glinted in the night sky, tiny points of cold, distant light, but when you dreamed you saw sundered galaxies churning, crashing like water over burning rifts of blackness, awash with radiant gas.
And you'd dreamt of war as long as you could grasp the concept.
You heard the stories from of the front lines, carried by word of mouth riding cargo ships, but when you slept, you saw the armies like hordes of insects, the spray of oceans of blood, as fire swept across the battlefields of distant planets and silenced them all.
You never spoke of it. Who would understand if you did? At best, you'd be branded a madwoman, at worst a heretic. So you kept your mouth shut, rose each day, met your daily quotas, and returned home when your work was done. The people of your hometown already thought you distant and strange, and a worse fate awaited you should they understand.
Absen IV had been an Agri-World before its seasonal storms made it more suitable for a layover port, and even then a distant one, frequented only by smugglers, explorers, and rogue traders. They never stayed for long, and Absen remained largely forgotten.
The Astra Millitarum recruited, both volunteers and by draft, from the planet. You lost two brothers to the meat grinder. They had graves in the backyard of your family home, though no bodies had been returned. You'd been told there was nothing left. It killed your father too, you'd suspected. The grief rolled off him, shed grey and noxious malaise, and it had stormed for weeks like the town had never seen.
Father understood. When you woke in the night, saw terror unfit for man, he held you gently. Explained that they weren't nightmares, that you couldn't speak of what you saw. Psyker children, those who could touch the Other, the Warp, were taken away and never returned, and it was better that no one knew. If he passed unoticed all these years, so could you.
It became harder, as you grew, to hide the latent effects of your connection to the Warp. When angered, lightbulbs around you erupted, rain poured from the sky when you wept, and more than once you'd caused destructive little pulsewaves in the field behind your home. You learned to school your emotions. Isolated yourself in the wake of Father's death, and prayed to the God Emperor you'd die unnoticed.
You did not go unnoticed.
The townsfolk noticed nothing, besides an unremarkable, lonely girl with a dead family, and you were one of many of those.
But something else did.
You were eleven, when you became aware of the Presence. It didn't exist physically, but most things didn't. Wary of Warp creatures, you attempted not to acknowledge it. And it simply watched. Attached itself to you like a shadow, until it grew a nature. It wasn't horrid, unnatural, wicked, like Father had warned you. It was warm, gentle, protective.
You accepted it, eventually. Your lone companion most days, in the now permanent absence of your brothers.
You brushed against it, psychically, and asked it if it had ever lost someone.
Loss like you couldn't fathom.
You were fifteen when it, he, spoke for the first time.
+You are extraordinary.+
What?
+Extraordinary.+
So you do speak.
+I do. Though I have not been able to, I've now gained the strength. I must thank you for that.+
You're welcome.
+Why do you remain here?+
This planet is my home.
+This is planet is beneath you. Surely you understand the kind of power you wield.+
Pfft. The power to have terrible nightmares, or the power to cause bad weather? I don't want it. It's a family curse, as far as I'm concerned. I want the Back Ships as far from me as they can get. Parasites. God-Emperor take them all to Hell.
+You would speak so poorly of the Emperor's servants?+
I'm no Sister, Warp-Thing. Considering your nature I figured we could keep this heresy between us.
The Presence laughed. His laugh was beautiful, like his voice. Deep, rich, warm and ambery. It could command, you had no doubt, but when you heard it echo in your mind, it was tender.
Your Father died when you were sixteen. You took all the tenderness he would give.
Your friendship continued to grow. An odd pair you made, but you were grateful for his company, and his knowledge. Father could teach you to ignore, and Father could teach you fear, but The Presence taught you so much more.
You became stronger, gained control over your power. You learned of the distant galaxy, gained context for your visions. They ranged not only the present, but the past.
I'm seeing the past?
+Yes. That was an ancient battle. It's impression lives forever in the Warp, which is why you may see it.+
When was it?
+The Heresy.+
I've seen the Heresy before. Once.
+Oh?+
I saw the Emperor fall. I thought that one must have been a dream, but now I think it may have been a memory.
+Show me.+
You rolled back your mind, reliving the vision. Horus, the Arch-Traitor, and the Emperor, glad in gleaming gold.
+A memory, little one.+
You felt emotion from him, a potent mix of grief and rage. The Warp was strange.
Why would I see this?
+Think of it no more. This darkness will consume you.+
You started to object, but felt an unvoiced, gentle, yet stern reprimand, and obeyed.
The Presence grew stronger. You could sense what once was a breeze in the Warp become a wind, then a storm. He wasn't feeding on you, but you often wondered what, exactly, you had befriended.
He evaded the question, always.
Are you a ghost?
+Define ghost.+
Are you a dead person?
+Yes and no. Define death.+
Ugh. You're frustrating.
+And you are adorably persistent.+
Tell me something! Anything, about yourself.
+I am your protector, teacher and friend. Do you need to know more?+
I'd like to.
He was silent, and you worried you'd angered him.
+Call me Neoth.+
The years rolled by, and you bloomed into young adulthood. You remained an outcast, but resented it less for the companion you had. You knew so much now, not only of the Warp but of history, worlds beyond your own. With Neoth, you journeyed to other planets, to Holy Terra itself, the cradle of your species, as it was in ancient times. You learned languages and science, and eagerly absorbed all he could teach you. He had become familiar to you like family. His strength had increased, and you now felt phantom hands on your arms and shoulders, guiding you as you practiced control and meditation. His hand in yours, as you flew through time and space, an embrace as you floated, free as birds, in the abyss.
Your life was strange. Heretical, you were sure. But it was peaceful.
Then the Emperor returned.
The news rang like a great bell across the Imperium of Man. Your God was awake, and as it had with the return of Guilliman years before, the great beast that was your species began to stir.
You knew before anyone else. You felt it one night, the burst of brilliant light whole star systems away, like it happened in your own chest. Power like nothing you'd known congealed together, and erupted. The Warp began to shake, and millions of voices began to scream.
Neoth!?
It took him a whole week to answer, he sounded tired.
+I'm here, khoshgelam, do not be afraid.+
What's happening?
+A great many things.+
They're saying we're in danger. I feel it. My planet is exposed, with everything going on. The Eye of Terror is stirring, spitting out Chaos. They're bearing down, and none of these people know how close they are. We're too close to the eye to be helped. It's luck we haven't already been attacked, and I've been blind to the danger.
+You will be alright.+
Not if the fleet in the Deprecor system falls.
+It already has.+
What?
+Do not be afraid.+
They'll be on us within days!
+Pack.+
I'm sorry?
+If there is anything precious to you, pack it. Prepare to leave. You will not be returning. I'm coming for you.+
There was a ghostly brush of lips against your own. Then he was gone.
(heehoo I have worms in my brain and Emperor x Reader has BEGUN)
-Long Anon
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Hi. It's really late where I'm at(it's one of Europe's capital cities, hence all the mistakes that's going to happen) and I just finished reading your essay on Gray and there is no coherent though left in my head, except reading it was such a blast. It also hurt me very badly and I cried at one point or two, but that's fine, that's how I know it's good stuff. I'd love nothing more than to have like an hour long conversation about all that you wrote, it's so interesting Nd thought-out. But it's late, my brain has been scorched completely and I had to bring out alcohol for section about mother. So I'll just let you know it's one of the cleveres, eloquent things I've ever read. This is my equivalent of that 6-hour long yt video on Victorious, only catering exactly to my needs. Also, bless your heart, I love knowing about this book but I couldn't bring myself to read it even at the gunpoint.
Thank you for reading it, I really appreciate it! I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about it lol
That book blows my mind, I know that everyone thinks that it's this like terrible whiny rockstar sex misogyny book but the amount of effort and skill that went into writing something that looked like it was that but wasnt but you only noticed if you managed to figure out like the insane 4D chess happening is just genuinely so insane it blows my mind.
i always knew there was something about it cuz on. on the first reading i was only like 14 but i picked up on the freud stuff which made me positive it was satire, and i thought a few other things about it were strange.
but i think in college when i started reading the sun also rises and tender is the night very closely the gears started to turn, i had severely lapsed in my fall out boy obsession for about four years while i was in college but i took this class called "americans in paris" where we read a lot of hemingway and fitzgerald and some other stuff and all i could think about was the book, and i remember reading tender is the night and it felt like i was reading petes book again even though i dont think pete cares about fitzgerald at all
and then i didnt really talk about this in the dissertation i just alluded to it because i didnt particularly want to include a 3 page accusation of a violation of journalistic ethics but i kind of blindly stumbled backwards into some of the stuff with his cowriter while writing the peteryan thing (and then more after the brent wilson thing). and i started to understand how the unreliable narration in the book worked because the articles were written the same way. and i was like ohhh okay and then i noticed the allusions and parentheses and it snowballed from there like that old Playstation game where you roll a ball around collecting garbage until it gets big enough to become a planet
I also know it was excessively niche and very excessively and intricately detailed to the point of being a bit ridiculous but i kind of wanted to respect the fact that its supposed to be a secret and hide the explanation of the book under a bunch of drivel about the drafting process that maybe 3 people on planet earth care about. i probably would have gotten 10-20x more clicks if i had just written about the roman a clef part but alas i have ethics
anyway i have a big dramatic work thing next week and then i am going to finish my cross stitch and listen to the beautiful and the damned on audiobook and try not to think about pete wentz. like at all. because im sick of him believe it or not. and id like to write an essay not about pete wentz. but then i will probably end up writing the verlaine/rimbaud thing
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Okay so, if you want to get into a newer Transformers series, the first ten episodes of Transformers Earthspark are on Paramount+, and the first episode ("Secret Legacy") is live on the Transformers YouTube Channel.
Much like Animated, it's set in a world where the Autobot/Decepticon war has already ended.
Unlike Animated, the war ended after Optimus destroyed the Space Bridge with the main Autobots and Decepticons on Earth, stranding them there in order to stop the war from ravaging Earth the same way it had Cybertron. Megatron had a change of heart for currently unknown reasons and agreed to a truce with the Autobots, and is now a mostly heroic figure (to the point that he's actually good friends with the human family's mom, in spite of her being a veteran of the war against him).
But the main focus of the plot is actually on the Malto family, who end up adopting two Terrans (Twitch and Thrash) a new subspecies of Transformers born on Earth after Robbie and Mo (the human Malto siblings) touch a weird rock in a glowing cave while hiding from killer robotic spiders. Now the family has to raise these two robotic children and hide them from GHOST (a government agency the mother happens to have been drafted into that is dedicated to fighting rogue Decepticons), while also solving the random problem of the week.
Uniquely for Transformers, most of the episodes so far have been Slice of Life, with the occasional Rogue Decepticon or evil plot.
Namely, the evil Dr. Mandroid (Note: Dr. Mandroid is not his actual name, one of the Terrans nicknamed him that and it stuck, to the point that EVERYONE who knows about him calls him Dr. Mandroid), wishes to rid the Earth of Transformers once and for all, hating the species with a burning passion and wishing to see their extinction, to the point that he even abducts and mind controls rogue Decepticons in order to make them fight for him. He also sees himself as the hero of the story, which just makes him even MORE dangerous because as a "good person" that must make EVERYTHING he does "right". At least, in his eyes.
Plus, not all Decepticons are okay with how the war ended, and several are carrying out their own plans (even if it's mostly just limited to petty crime).
And GHOST itself isn't exactly trustworthy either, as while they are working for the greater good, they're also working for the "greater good". If they learned about the Terrans, they'd just separate them from their human family. Not to experiment on them or anything, but just because GHOST has a very specific idea on how humans and Transformers should interact. While Optimus, Elita-1, and Megatron all technically work alongside GHOST, none of them trust the organization completely, ESPECIALLY not Megatron.
Basically: Mandroid and his Arachnomechs are the Black Arms, the Rogue Decepticons are the Eggman Empire, and GHOST is GUN.
I've only seen the first six episodes, but so far it's actually one of my favorite Transformers series, right up there with Beast Wars, Animated, and Prime.
Oh that sounds fucking fantastic actually
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What about Juleka vs. the Forces of the Universe💓
Ask me about my WIPs
I had a feeling someone would ask me about this one... 😅
If you haven't read it, here's the synopsis:
The course of true love never did run smooth… but when it concerns her brother and her friend, Juleka doesn’t care if the ride is bumpy or not. All that matters, as far as she’s concerned, is that they get there.
And if it means going up against all the forces of the universe? Well, she’d better have a wicked best woman dress at their wedding.
I promise you updates are coming!! I've been in a real funk with my writing lately, and I just haven't liked a lot of what I've written the past few weeks. But I am in the process of revising the next chapter, and all of the remaining chapters have at least partial drafts written! In the meantime, here's little sneak peek at what's to come (I don't think i've posted this part on tumblr yet)
She had meant to follow Marinette. After two akumas in one day —and Hearthunter had been nasty, but of course it had been, it was the Bourgeois —to say nothing of the total disaster Alya’s scheming had caused… she had figured Marinette wouldn’t want to be alone. But she had only turned her back for a minute! Just to make sure no one would see her sneaking off. But when she had turned around, Marinette was gone.
She had meant to follow Luka. She she had seen him pedalling his bike like his life depended on it, and she had had a feeling he would lead her straight to Marinette.
She really hadn’t meant to intrude on such an intimate and vulnerable moment.
But from the side street she had been hiding in, she had seen the wasps before Luka and Marinette. And in a Hawkmoth infested Paris—she didn’t care if it technically wasn’t an infestation if there was only one—she had learned to be wary of anything even remotely outside the ordinary.
And swarms of glowing yellow wasps definitely counted as outside the ordinary.
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Contract
Went back and forth on whether to post this, since it's from one of my novella drafts that I haven't touched in months but decided that this isn't going to make it into any of the final products (not in this form, at least). I love this one.
This takes place in a 'superhero' novella series I've been tossing around and was one of the first scenes I polished out after establishing for myself what the plot will look like.
Word count: 4844
Nothing too heavy in this one, but there are references to abuse/kidnapping and blackmail. A couple blood mentions.
The night shift wasn’t as exciting as Theo was led to believe. He asked for a solo position, but was denied. His case worker told him that in the fifteen years since his last job search, ‘solo’ was no longer an option for new hires, even for veterans in the industry.
The best they could do was a two-man outfit at a defunct airstrip on the edge of town. Only hobbyists still used the strip, but the guy who owned the property paid good money to keep permanent eyes on the place.
Mikhail flew in just to meet Theo and Cass, his new night guys, the afternoon before their first shift. He dazzled them with his landing on the strip, then gave an excited tour of the place. The grounds themselves weren’t very impressive, but Theo understood why he wanted them protected when he saw the rest of the facility.
Aside from the ground floor, the key-access elevator in the main building showed three sub-basements, as well as another, unlabeled button that required another key to use. They walked through the first two floors to get an idea of what they were protecting, and their new boss promised many opportunities to get to know him—and the many cars, planes, and other toys he had hidden beneath the strip—later.
That was only a week ago, full of quiet nights. He and Cass were getting to know each other well, and they were both looking forward to meeting the rest of the security team for an afternoon on the boss’s yacht the coming weekend.
“Gate 2 clear.”
The crackle of static preceded an acknowledgment on the other end of the line. He lowered his flashlight and continued toward the front of the hangar. He just had to check the third gate on the far side of the field and he could head back to the security office.
He was halfway around the building when a rattling sounded from the way he came, back toward the second gate. The distinctive rattling of a chain link fence had him doubling back at a light jog.
“Wait—I hear something. You got anything on gate 2?”
“Gate’s moving, but nothing’s there.” Cass hummed with a burst of static. “The wind, maybe?”
Before he could round the corner, Theo’s phone vibrated in his pocket. A poppy, loud ringtone followed, the one he’d set to override his other settings so he’d never miss his boss calling him.
Theo cursed. It was 3AM, why was he calling?
He paused at the corner and peeked around while he dug his phone out to answer.
“Hey, boss.” Theo stared at a shadowy figure on the other side of the fence. Nothing there, huh?
“Hey, bud!” The boss was just as high energy as ever, even in the middle of the night. “Just got word of a friend of mine coming in tonight, on foot. Let her in when she arrives.”
“A friend?”
Could that really be it? The figure shook the gate again and Cass asked him what was going on in his other ear.
“She’s had a rough night, nowhere else to go, all that. What kind of friend would I be to turn her away?”
“Yeah…” Theo was uncertain, but he nodded slowly. “Yes. Of course, I think she’s already here. I’ll let her in. Does she know where she’s going?”
A short laugh came from the other end.
“She’s very familiar with the compound. Thanks, bud.”
The line went dead and Theo finally left his hiding place behind the building. He reported to Cass what he’d been told, that everything is fine and he just needs to let the poor girl in.
“What girl?” Cass cut in in disbelief. “There’s no one there!”
But Theo was getting close to the gate and he watched the dark figure come into focus when he lifted his flashlight. The girl definitely looked like she’d been through the ringer.
She wore a uniform black tracksuit under a knee length overcoat, though the coat was barely holding together. Large gashes cut through the sleeves, and large circles of the body were simply missing. Dark, theatrical goggles hid her eyes, and more scrapes marred what little of her face he could see in the shadows.
“Hey, are you okay?” Theo shifted his grip on the flashlight so he could unlock the chains on the gate. “Mikhail said you had a rough night.”
She smiled thinly, just barely visible. “He would say that. I’ll be fine, though, I just need some sleep.”
“What the fuck.” Cass whispered in his ear.
Theo pulled the gate back and allowed her through. “He also said you’d know where to go. Do you need any help?”
She hesitated, then looked back through the gate. After some thought, she shook her head.
“Just make sure this gate is locked.” She started toward the back door of the main building, but looked back once again. Theo still couldn’t make out much of her face. “You shouldn’t come outside again until it’s light out.”
Theo straightened up, indignant. “We still have three more rounds, we have to—”
“It’s Theo, right?” she asked.
He nodded. She did the same.
“I look forward to getting to know you better, Theo, but you need to understand something about your new employer.” Her voice was quiet, almost too low to hear over the several yards distance between them. “He doesn’t care if you see the sun rise this morning. Stay inside until you do, just for today.”
She turned away and limped toward the building once again. He noticed only then that dark drops were left on the ground where she’d lingered.
He stared after her. Some friend she was.
Still, Theo followed instructions. He locked the chains back in place on the gate. Before he went back to the main building to meet with Cass, though, he pointed the flashlight out into the darkness.
Mikhail had impressed upon them how important it was to keep all of the lights in the exterior of the facility on—it was a recognized emergency landing site—but those lights were all on the other side of the main building. His beam stretched a good distance past the edge of the ambient light.
The light stopped suddenly 20 yards away. A wall of black cut clean across the road and let no light through. He watched long enough for it to jump forward another few feet before turning on his heel and sprinting for the same door the girl had disappeared through.
Mikhail may be wealthy enough to pay over median, but Theo was not paid enough to deal with whatever aberrant bullshit that was.
He locked the door behind him and intended to walk along the wall of the wide main room to make sure every window and door was securely locked. However, when he found the lock on the first window he checked smeared in blood, he looked around for the girl again.
She was across the room inspecting the hangar doors, her coat now discarded on the floor. It didn’t reveal much about her, though she was definitely younger than he originally thought. Sixteen, maybe.
He still walked along the wall to find the bloody evidence of her checking the doors ahead of him, and when he got closer he started to make out what she was saying.
“—like paper. If they really wanted to come in here, this is how they would do it.”
He noted blood dripping from the fingertips of her limp left arm, and another small pool was starting to form. When he got closer, she turned to regard him.
She still had those dark goggles on, and a ripped fabric mask bunched around her neck with the tight hood she already had pulled down. Her dark blonde hair was tied back and tucked down the back of her shirt. More blood caked the right side of her head and now-dried smears over the top half of her face, stark against her pale skin.
“It’s all locked down, nothing will get in,” she reported. “Just wait out the rest of your shift. I’ll brief you both tomorrow night.”
“What is that thing out there?” he asked.
She huffed a sigh. “A guard dog. I didn’t expect him to follow this far.”
The hangar door beside them rattled. Could have just been the wind, but that wall of darkness still lingered in Theo’s mind.
“An aberration?”
She stared at him. The door rattled again, harder this time, but she didn’t turn away. He couldn’t see her eyes, but her jaw was tight and concerned.
She reached up to take her goggles off. Clear, gray eyes met his.
“You should quit this job,” she said coldly. “If you’re worried about aberrations.”
Theo shook his head. This was the best opportunity he had. He couldn’t walk away because a little girl told him to. The work was easy, and his boss was kind, no matter what she had to say about the guy. He needed this money, didn’t know what he’d do without it.
“I can handle it.” He lied. “I need to know what it is to convince Cass not to go out there.”
The girl shrugged and brushed past him toward the elevator with an airy wave. “With your anomaly, you shouldn’t have much trouble.”
My…
Theo hadn’t even told his case worker about that. She told him that unless it would interfere with his work that there was no need to disclose, not for this position. He would never use it to… restrain someone? However she expected him to keep Cass inside, he wasn’t planning to.
He didn’t argue or try to follow, though. She was a friend of his boss and he didn’t want to risk his job. He’d figure out what to say and talk to her the next day, since she said she’d be there.
Instead, he stomped to the opposite side of the room to enter the security room. He ignored Cass, who immediately started up with questions, and went to watch the cameras.
The problem was, she wasn’t there on the camera pointed at the elevator.
“Theo—”
“Where’d she go?” he asked wildly. “Where is she?”
Cass stood wordlessly at the open door and pointed out at the girl who still stood next to the elevator, jabbing at the buttons. When the doors opened, she entered and turned back to face them.
She shook her hand in a casual salute as the doors closed her in.
Cass let the door to the security room close as well and joined Theo at the cameras. He was right from the start, she didn’t show up on them. They sat in silence until the light on the dashboard for the elevator turned off to signal she reached her destination.
“Who was that?” Cass asked quietly. “Where did she come from?”
“Mikhail said she was a friend.” He hesitated. “I think there was an aberration following her.”
Cass paled. “No way.”
“Didn’t you hear what she said?” Theo asked in disbelief. “She told us to stay inside until morning.”
“I’m not arguing with that.” Cass settled into his seat and looked at the cameras. “But, dude—I didn’t hear her say anything. I thought you were losing it until two seconds ago. Talking to yourself and shit.”
He wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen her missing from the cameras himself. Cass could have been messing with him, but the look on his face at the mention of an aberration… yeah, Theo didn’t want to go out there again either.
Cass made him explain exactly what happened between clearing gate 2 and returning to the security room several times, but neither of them could divine any more information out of the encounter.
Over the next couple hours, they didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Theo listened at the hangar doors a few times, but they didn’t so much as twitch again. For the most part, they took turns watching the cameras and patrolling the rest of the building. Theo took the time to wipe away the blood with some cleaning supplies he found in a supply closet.
As the sky outside lightened and the fear of the night passed, both Theo and Cass started to feel a little silly and poked fun at each other. A hurt teenager showed up, told a wild tale, and the two of them hid inside instead of doing their jobs.
Though Theo still couldn’t shake the feeling he had when he saw that dark wall move, that punch of fear to the gut.
At around 5:00, boredom got the better of them and they sat to play cribbage—more for Cass to teach Theo how to play than anything, as he hadn’t played in years. Cass kept a board in his bag and it seemed as good a way to pass the time as any. It was getting light outside, but there was still another hour before the sun was meant to rise.
At 5:30 sharp, the elevator chimed to signal the girl’s return. She emerged with two clipboards and an impassive look on her face.
She looked much more alert, and most evidence of harm was gone. The only hint was a slight limp and the faintest red color where fluorescent light hit the hair where blood had been just hours before.
She’d changed into a more casual t-shirt and jeans, which revealed a thin strip of metal padlocked around her neck.
She joined them at the fold-out table they’d set up next to the hangar doors.
“You’re almost good to go, I just have some paperwork for you.” She said, flipping through the paper clipped to the board on top with a raised eyebrow.
Theo reached up for it, but she held it away from him.
She regarded him warily. Cass also tried to reach up and she took a step back with a more serious expression.
“Once I hand you these,” she said slowly. “You won’t be able to change your mind. Even if you decide not to sign, you can’t go back to before you looked at them.”
Theo and Cass exchanged glances.
“What do you mean, we can’t go back?” Cass asked.
She averted her eyes.
“Casper, please come with me.” She gestured toward the security room. “I’ll go over your forms with you privately.”
The two men shared another look, but Cass did stand slowly and follow her with a self-conscious smile. “Please, call me Cass.”
How bizarre, Theo mused as the door closed behind them, to go through the onboarding song and dance with a teenager.
He’d done plenty of paperwork with his case worker before signing on, but she did tell him there could be more. It depends on the company, she said
He shook his head and started packing up the card game for Cass. The paperwork would likely take up the rest of their shift, no point in finishing the game.
“—listen to this bullshit!”
Theo looked up at the shout from the security room. Raised voices followed, but not loud enough to make out the words.
“Everything okay?” Theo called.
No response. The voices grew quieter until he could no longer hear them. After a moment of silence, Cass burst out of the room.
“Hang on, just listen!” The girl followed him out, though she stopped just a few feet from the security room when he snapped around.
“I’m not signing that damn thing,” he growled. “I’m going home.”
He headed straight for Theo with a stormy look on his face.
Theo stood to meet him.
“Cass—”
“Don’t.” He wouldn’t make eye contact while he gathered up his things. “Come on, let’s go.”
What exactly did the contract say?
He asked, but Cass just shook his head and shouldered his bag. Everyone stood still for a long moment, then Cass looked at him with real fear in his eyes.
“Please.” He shifted away, toward the door between hangars that would bring him closest to their parked cars outside. “Don’t go in there. They don’t have enough on me to—”
“Careful.” The girl warned from her place by the security room. “You did sign the NDA.”
“That NDA doesn’t mean shit, and you know it.” Cass snapped at her. “Whatever. I won’t be blackmailed like this.”
Blackmailed?
Cass gave Theo one more pleading look, then stormed out of the hangar. Theo followed, but by the time he got outside Cass had already started his beat up Honda.
He rolled down his window and shouted. “Give me a call if you want to get drinks, dude. I sure as hell won’t be seeing you at work.”
He drove off. Theo watched him go until the main gate closed behind him and his car disappeared into the surrounding hills.
And Theo was alone. With her.
“Well?”
He turned back to the hangar to find her standing in the doorway with one of the clipboards. She gave it a light wave in his direction, an obvious question.
For the first time, he let himself really think about it.
The job had been simple and quiet so far, up until that night. Mikhail had made many promises about living the high life, and with how much he was paying they weren’t empty. This girl had burst in, covered in blood, talking about a person that simply did not fit with the image of his boss in his mind.
How did he know that she was telling the truth, anyway?
But whatever Cass saw in those papers…
“Do I have to?” Theo asked. “Sign that paperwork, I mean. Can I just keep doing my job without signing it?”
She paused and really thought about it with an uncertain sound.
“Maybe…” she mused slowly. She cocked her head and Theo noticed a little bud in her ear. Her eyes went out of focus for a moment before she continued. “You would still have to sign an NDA. You wouldn’t be able to come to company functions—including this weekend’s mixer, I’m afraid.”
Disappointment soured Theo’s hope.
“For now, at least.” She passed the clipboard from one hand to another. “I’m sure your blind loyalty would be rewarded eventually. One way or another.”
That didn’t sit right with him either.
“What’s in there that’s so terrible, anyway?” he finally asked.
Her consideration ended and she offered him the clipboard, though too far a distance remained between them for him to take it. “I can’t tell you anything until you sign the NDA and read the file yourself. Personally, I wouldn’t.”
Her head tilted again—listening, Theo assumed, to a voice in her ear—and she shook her head with a light grimace. She didn’t expand on that, though.
His options were to look, leave, or settle for ignorance.
He thought back, pictured the day he landed the job. Fatima had been ecstatic to see him back at work. Shelly, his ex-wife, was happy for him too. She knew he would use the money to spoil their daughter every chance he got.
It was the image of Theodosia’s face, in the end, that made his mind up for him. Whatever was in that file, this job would give her the best future money could afford.
He closed the distance between them and took the clipboard. She held tight for a second and seemed to ask if he was sure with her eyes, but she no longer tried to convince him not to take it.
“Read and sign the first page before looking at anything else.”
And she let go.
He read over the NDA at the top of the stack, a single page telling him that if he broke confidentiality that he could expect termination and legal action to follow.
It read as pretty innocuous, other than one line.
It stated that, if the NDA was broken, all related documents in some file would no longer be considered confidential or inactionable. It didn’t flat out say that the file would be released, but it did imply that there would be nothing stopping them from releasing it if he broke the contract. He assumed that file was the rest of the paperwork underneath—the blackmail, as Cass called it.
He took the pen offered to him and signed it.
He flipped the page and stared.
The first real page was a long list of names and contact information. He recognized most of them, though not all. The first few were obvious—his girlfriend, ex-wife, and daughter. Then his elderly parents, and after a moment he recognized the name of their live-in nurse.
Previous coworkers, bosses, teachers, even the owner of the sandwich shop he used to get all of his lunches at. As he flipped through the first several pages, he started to think that it could be a list of every single person he had ever met.
He got to the end of the list and shuddered to a frozen stop when he flipped to the next section. The pen slipped from his hand in his haste to read it in full.
It was him. A dossier all about him. From a mugshot from his trial a decade ago to his preference for chips over fries, they had everything. Every questionable thing he’d done, every move he ever made. All previous addresses, his anomaly and speculation on what abilities his daughter might develop. His regular schedules, everything.
After he’d gone through and studied the file, he found a second contract at the end. It was simple, and it lined out exactly what would be expected of him. Keep doing his job and follow any order given by his ‘superiors’, whatever that means, without question.
He finally looked up at the girl, who hadn’t said a word the whole time he read. She just stood there, waiting. He remembered her flipping through the papers before and wondered if that had been his or Cass’s.
Cass had been angry, but Theo was more surprised than anything. There wasn’t anything in there that would ruin his life if it got out, his only major crime had been answered for years ago.
“Okay,” he said weakly. “I need you to walk through this with me. Why should I be scared of this file?”
She nodded gravely and gestured back inside. “You’re going to want to sit down, I’m sure.”
They returned to the fold-out chair in the hangar and the girl took the clipboard back. She pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket, unfolded it, and handed it to Theo.
It was a grainy, timestamped picture of him letting her into the compound. She was visible in this one, somehow.
“This is evidence that you are an accomplice in espionage and a known associate with an aberrant party.” She stopped Theo’s impending argument with a gently raised hand. “This will be added to your file, though that’s not the part that you should worry about.”
Aberrant.
He realized it before she could say it and he sat back in his chair to stare at her.
The names.
“People around those who disappoint your employer don’t tend to last very long,” she said carefully. “This is a list of people that he will keep safe for you, and a list of sticks for him to use against you if you ever misbehave.”
He didn’t move.
She watched him right back, waiting. She held a pen.
“Can I still leave?” he asked quietly.
“You’re free to do whatever you want, up until you sign.” She shrugged. “As long as you don’t tell anyone about any of this.”
“None of this would hold up in court.” It was a feeble attempt and he knew it. Even before she laughed bitterly, he knew.
“Does it matter?” She left the pen in the middle of the table and relaxed back into her chair. “Even if you make your report and tell everyone, will it stop him from killing your parents? Will it promise your daughter will still be there when you get home?”
His blood ran cold. He could make it happen that fast, with that little warning?
She kept a straight face and stared him down.
He had whittled his options down to: Go home, knowing a very bad man had all of this information, or sign the contract and promise so many people’s safety. If he followed orders and stayed in his boss’s good graces.
All he had to do was be the security guy, right?
“What happens if I walk away?”
The girl shrugged.
“Even with your anomaly, I doubt he’d put much effort into keeping you. You’d be a great candidate for head of security if you wanted the job, though he has the resources to keep looking if you leave.”
Head of security.
“You might have a little more luck than the current department head.” She almost laughed again, a sarcastic smile remaining. “Some of our assets have a hard time taking orders from me.”
Theo knew for sure that he didn’t want whatever position she had.
Whatever look he had on his face made her expression soften.
“Interim head of security,” she clarified. “My real job is very unique; you shouldn’t find yourself directly committing any felonies in your role.”
“Directly,” he echoed. “But I would be committing felonies.”
“Accessory, maybe.” She waived a hand dismissively. She did not address what she said earlier, about associating with an aberrant party. “His insurance files are awful, but he keeps just as much documentation to keep us all safe.”
She said that, but before he read the file she seemed very keen for him to walk away. Last night she had told him to quit. Now, she sang a different tune.
Then he noticed her eyes go out of focus again before she said one more thing.
“He takes very good care of us.”
Suddenly, Theo couldn’t breathe. Something was very wrong. Had she been wearing that bud last night, when she told him to quit? Was any of this from her or was she reading lines?
How many of her promises were real?
He stood. She didn’t.
“Look, I really appreciate the consideration.” He backed up a few steps toward the door. “I don’t think I can accept. It’s a good offer, but—”
“The pros don’t outweigh the cons, I get it.” she nodded, but froze in the middle of the motion.
Her eyes slowly widened. She sat, rigid, staring at Theo with vacant eyes. Slowly, she reached up a hand and removed the bud from her ear. She ran her fingertips along the ring of metal around her neck idly once it was out.
“So, I’m gonna, uh.” Theo resolutely turned his back on her and started walking. “I’m outta here. It was—well, it was definitely something meeting you, kid.”
He blinked, and she was standing in front of the door, her eyes hard and mouth in a thin line. She held the clipboard.
“I’m sorry.” All trace of humor and understanding was gone. “I need you to sign it. You need you to sign it.”
Theo stopped, leaving a wide space between them. That was a big change from ‘I get it’, and he told her so.
“You don’t understand. He’ll—” She shook her head slowly and her eyes flicked back and forth, searching in the ether for what, he couldn’t say. “I underestimated how much he wants you. I guess he really liked you, I—I don’t know. You can’t go.”
Warmth flickered in Theo’s gut, but he quashed it down. He wouldn’t use his abilities against a little girl. He didn’t care who she was or who she worked for.
“I’m going home to my family,” he said firmly, and started forward again.
“He’s going to take her!” she blurted, stopping him in his tracks again. “If you leave now, he’ll take that little girl, and—”
And what? he screamed silently. What will he do?
She smoothed herself over, straightened up. Her expression was blank now, cold.
“He’s going to make her like me.” Her voice matched her expression, hollow and matter-of-fact. “I can’t let him do that, so I cannot let you leave.”
Like her.
He looked at her, really taking her in for the first time. He had a full foot on her, and she stood resolute despite the fear he heard in her outburst. A collared little girl doing the dirty work for an aberration. An aberration herself, held at practical gunpoint by whatever he has to keep her in line.
Was she just like Theodosia, when she was young? A stick to use against someone who just wouldn’t listen? Another daughter he stole as punishment, to turn into a tool? An asset?
He imagined it, that collar shackled around his daughter’s neck instead.
Theo didn’t say a word. He held out his hand for the clipboard and ignored the soft, relieved sigh from her when she handed it over.
He signed the contract.
#anomalies & aberrations#writing#my writing#when i realized this likely wouldnt make it into the final draft i almost cried#but here it is i hope you like it#and who knows maybe a condensed version will make it in the end
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December 10: Nightmare Before Christmas
This whole weekend has felt like one long day. I have to go to work tomorrow. And more importantly, I have to get myself together over the next 6 days to leave for 2 weeks. I am legit not ready. I want a break but I'm scared to pack, scared to travel... I don't even know what I want, to be honest. Like, what would help me feel better. Break, structure, change of scenery, or none... nothing really feels like it works, probably because what would work is me doing the hard work of actually changing my habits over the long term. LOL.
Anyway, not to be depressing. I didn't do laundry as I was supposed to because it's been off and on raining all day but I did get some writing done. Not a lot, but one more Time Loop scene is down in draft form. Slowly but surely I am chipping away at the remaining two chapters.
Then in the evening, I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas--which counts as a Christmas movie, it is right there in the title. This film is so delightful. It's so detailed, and so fun. And it's really fast, just like really packed with stuff; absolutely no-filler, but very efficient story telling. I was sewing while watching but even so I still picked up on quite a few details I either hadn't seen or hadn't remembered, for example, Jack pulling back one of the trick-or-treater kids by his Devil's tail, which was very cute.
I've also decided that I think Sally is a witch. Her expertise in 'home' tasks like sewing, her potion-making, and especially her premonitions all just scream Witch Figure to me.
Another thing I appreciate in the movie is that Jack is likeable and fun as a protagonist but also still deeply flawed: self-centered and arrogant. He doesn't see that Christmas isn't for him to own. But he also does things like trust the trick-or-treaters with Santa Claus, presumably because he just assumes everyone will listen to him.
I think the introduction is interesting, too. They sing their song about Halloween and afterwards, they congratulate each other on Halloween being over. We don't really see them, though, like we see Santa, interacting with humans in the real world. I guess some parts of that sequence might be construed as happening outside Halloween Town but Jack's big dance number definitely isn't. I think I'd like to interpret this sequence, not as a Halloween metaphor as perhaps it was intended, but as something like a Halloween ritual. The ghosts, ghouls, goblins, and creatures of Halloween Town sing and dance and chant, and whatever makes Halloween....Halloween occurs in the real world. This also relates to the witch-coding going on around Sally, I think.
Anyway, if the movie had been a bit longer, I might have finished my Halloween blanket during it, but as it is I still have one more square to sew in and the rest of the ends to hide.
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» character development meme
Reblog, fill in with your own character’s information, and tag your friends!
TAGGED BY: Stolen from one of my other blogs
B A S I C S
Full name: Seraphina Mayuzumi / Fair (Takes on Zack’s last name as of late CC, 7 Proper)
Nickname: Sera, Seraphim, Kitten, Sunflower (both of the later two by Zack)
Age: 16 (at the start of CC), 23 (7 proper)
Birthday: March 29th
Ethnicity: Japanese
Gender: Female
Romantic orientation: Demiromanitc
Sexual orientation: Demisexual
Languages: English, Japanese
R E L A T I O N S H I P S
Parents: Takeshi Mayuzumi (father), Unnamed (mother)
Siblings: Ami Mayuzumi (older sister, deceased), Takeru Mayuzumi (older brother, deceased), Thurston Mayuzumi (older brother)
Significant other: Zack Fair ( @honorisen; Fiance)
Children: Shayan Fair ( @legacydriven )
P H Y S I C AL T R A I T S
Hair: Blonde; falls to about her waist
Eyes: Honey brown
Height: 5′3″
Weight: Won’t reveal; A bit underweight for the majority of her life, but later manages to attain a barely healthy weight and keep it there
Body build: Slim, frail-seeming, small
Q U E S T I O N T I M E
What would you say are your character’s strongest traits?
Her kindness and gentleness, loyalty, protectiveness, warmth, supportiveness, dedicaton
What would you say are your character’s weakest traits?
Can be emotional, inability to understand ‘normalcy’, frequently afraid, lack of strength in herself, self-critical
What is your character like when they’re in love?
Sera is soft and supportive, and gives her all to her partner. She thrives on seeing them happy and smiling, and supports them to kingdom come - She wants to see them succeed. She wants them to have all the reasons to he happy and smile, and will actively look for reasons to provide that to them. She’s softer, wants to be closer to them, gentler... It’s obvious she’s in love just by how she looks at them.
Sera doesn’t see a point in hiding it, though, and she’s more than happy to show she cares for them as well, albeit within reason - .she knows her limits and while she’s happy to scream it from he mountaintops, she knows sometimes keeping quiet is important and shows it in quieter ways, such as her ring tattoo in support of fiance Zack when she knows talking too much about their relationship could cause him trouble. She’s not going to hide it if she has no reason to, and will make it obvious he means the world to her, no matter how quietly it has to be done.
What kind of upbringing did your character have, and how did this affect them now?
Admittedly a horrible one. Raised in an abusive household, Sera didn’t know love and support outside of her siblings, Ami and Takeru, and losing hem when she was nine was crushing, especially when their loss came with learning just how much they’d done to keep her going and protect her. She knew little of the world outside her home until she was thrown out and forced to survive in it, still little more than a child - And even that wasn’t a time she cares to dwell on, full of its own nightmares and traumas.
Sera very much raised herself after the loss of Ami and Takeru, and as a result, she’s essentially the tale of the boy raised by wolves; she doesn’t understand how to be ‘properly’ social, has very little reading ability or schooling to her name, poor health and eating habits... Sera is a traumatized girl who deals with more than anyone should, but doesn’t allow herself to dwell on it, persay. She allows it to drive her and push her forward, but not towards deepening her depression and PTSD - She lets it drive her towards being kinder. She’s suffered enough for dozens, so why should anyone else have to? If she can lend a helpful hand, why shouldn’t she?
The only thing her life has done is drive her to change the world through kindness, seeking to improve it and eliminate the suffering and pain it holds. To break down those divides and unite everyone, and show all are equal. And if that means taking all that pain and putting it on her own shoulders... She’s already suffered, and she won’t let anyone else hurt the way she did.
She’s just going to do it with genleness.
What is their relationship with their family like?
Truthfully, she has no relationship currently with her birth family, and doesn’t want one. Her father is wicked and corrupt and spent her childhood hurting her before disowning her, her mother refused to stop it, her remaining brother is as wicked as their father - She sees no reason to have any contact with them, and actively avoids Thurston if they’re ever in the same place together, wanting as much distance between her and him as humanly possible. Her birth family are three of a very small handful of people she’s capable of hating, and boy howdy does she hate them.
Instead, she counts her friends and her fiance Zack’s family as her own, and her relationships with them are infinitely better. It’s a warm and supportive, loving bond she shares with them, and an even tighter one with Zack himself and their later son, Shayan. They’re her reason to keep going, and Shayan’s entrance into her life was the driving force she needed, even, to begin really taking care of herself, wanting to be in his life and see a better world for him to grow up in.
Her found family, Zack, and Shayan are he reason she continues to hold her head high and keep looking forward, and she loves them with everything in her, and hen some.
Is your character religious? What religion do they practice, if so?
She’s not really religious and doesn’t actively practice any religion in general, but she does believe in a few different gods, including Ifrit and Shiva (whom she considers to be gods, at the very least, and has yet to find anything that could counter that belief). In particular, she believes the most in Shiva and frequently references her name when angry or startled (EX. ‘Oh, Shiva-’ in lieu of ‘oh, god-’).
How does your character deal with mistakes?
Gently. Sera is the kind of person to be bothered by a mistake and try to make it right as soon as she realizes it’s been made, if at all possible, though particularly large mistakes may take her a little bit to try and rectify solely because she wants to make sure she’s not going to make it worse, first. At the very least, Sera wants to at least apologize for what she’s done, even if she can’t make it right, and does so relatively often to hopefully begin easing any hurts.
What kind of friendships does your character have?
Her friendships are oftentimes more akin to a famlial bond than anything else, but her friends are definitely people that mean quite a bit to her. The ones she has are people who genuinely care, people who are warm and supportive and tend to smile more than anything else. They’re genuine and that’s something the draws her to them - In a world that so often seeks to hurt, these are people who tend to be more honest and giving, and their very presense is comforting.
She, in turn, tries to be the same to them for a friendship that’s full of laughs, support, and warmth. They’re bonds that are treasured and can be leaned on when nothing else can, and ones that all parties involved can thrive.
Does your character forgive and forget or do they hold a grudge? Why?
For the most part, Sera tries to forgive and forget... But this is provided she’s also given a good reason to forget, too. Forgiveness comes more often than not, but forgetting is harder for more serious offenses - She can forgive someone for blowing up at her for the sixth time in a week, but it’s harder to forget after that many, for example. A fight with a friend may be forgiven, but it’s harder to forget when they may have said something worse than normal - But to her credit, though she may not always forget, she rarely holds it against them without a damn good reason; ex. being wary to put her trust back in someone after burning her three or four times in a row, just because she’s wary of it happening again at that point.
Holding a grudge is reserved for more serious offenses, like the one she holds against her birth family, those who’ve hurt her since then and caused her varying traumas, and folks like the company of Shinra. It’s also worth noting that outside of these select instances, ‘holding a grudge’ is more ‘being wary of being hurt’ than it is anything else, largely because she’s been hurt so often, she’s constantly afraid of it happening again on some level. Even so, she’s more prone to forgive and forget - There’s enough on her mind without constantly thinking back to something just to get riled up all over again!
How do they view the world they live in?
As something broken and divided, full of hurt and suffering with a core of love and light struggling to break through the shadows surrounding it. It’s hard not to see the nightmares of the world when her life’s been full of them, but at the same time, Sera’s no stranger to the world’s kindness, either - She’s alive because of that kindness. She’s seen it in the warm smiles of the people she meets in her travels, the welcoming strangers offering her a warm campfire to sit and joke around beside, the brightness of the children at the Leaf House Orphanage... There is a bright and warm core to the world, fighting to break free, and it just needs a little help in the form of a gentle nudge.
It can be a nightmare, but that is far from all it is, and Sera is dedicated to helping that core break through like it struggles to do. It’s there, she knows it - Every struggle is there for a reason. It has to be.
Does your character think with their head or with their heart?
Both, though it’s usually more her heart than her head. Sera is a woman driven by her heart and her emotions, and they often have more say than her head, especially when she lacks the life experience to understand something, be it because of a lack of proper schooling or simply because she’s never really been raised like most among others. But that’s not to say she’s not a logical person, either; she does have a habit of stopping and thinking before leaping, and would much rather find a more peaceful route through something than just throwing herself in if at all possible.
...She just happens to throw herself in in support of others anyway.
Is your character well-schooled? What sort of education did they have?
Absolutely not. Sera has very little in the way of schooling, and what she does have is a result of Ami and Takeru trying to teach her before their passing, as well as the people she’s met along the way teach her things here and there mixed with current friends and Zack trying to help by teaching what they can. She struggles to read, though her ability to is increasing little by little between her good friends Mako, Kunsel, and Zack’s aid, and might otherwise be on the level of perhaps a third grader otherwise. Anything above the most basic math is out of the question, she can’t tell you directions, struggles with reading analog clocks, still needs to count on her fingers a lot of the time... She’s trying, she promises, but it’s definitely slow going and she appreciates Mako being a teacher for a bunch of first graders when it comes to learning!
Finish this meme with whatever you want to tell us about your character!
Sera can’t cook. Never ask her to. She will quite literally blow up an entire kitchen and leave a hole in the wall at worst, and at best deliver to you a meal that probably blinks. Somehow, though, she can bake remarkable and delicious dishes and even she’s not sure how she manages to make a three tier death by chocolate cake, but can’t make oatmeal-
In all honesty, though, Sera’s kindness is absolutely genuine and she thrives on seeing others happy, no matter how much she believes she deserves none of it for herself. Her mentality towards herself is slowly changing and that’s greatly added to by her family’s role in her life/the addition of her son Shayan, but she wants nothing more than to see everyone around her thrive and everyone happy and living the best life they can possibly have! <3
TAGGING: Take it if you want, I nabbed i from one of my other blogs <3
#Dash Games TBT;#Colors Of Sakura [Headcanons]#TW: Abuse#TW: Death Mention#TW: Poor Health#TW: Trauma#If anyone needs anything else specific tagged just drop me a line <3#I've had this hiding in my drafts for a week or two - Figured it was time to finish and post it~
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17 & Pregnant
Tom Holland x Sister!Reader
Summary: The Holland brothers find out their teenage sister is pregnant.
Warnings: teenage pregnancy, not so supportive family at first, angst, fluff ending
Word Count: 2459
A/N: I've had this in my drafts for a while. I am starting to write again, but I am not taking requests at the moment. Hope y'all understand
MASTERLIST BUY ME A COFFEE
Two weeks ago, your mum took you to the doctor when you had been sick. You thought it was just a bug or something, but it turned out you were two months pregnant. You were terrified and your mum was upset, but she tried to comfort you. Only your mum and dad knew. You didn’t want to tell your brothers because you were terrified of their reactions.
Tom and Harry weren’t due to come home until Saturday, but they decided to show up a few days early. They thought since it was only 10 am, that they would stop by and see Nikki and Dom and maybe go to lunch with them. What they didn’t know was that Nikki had left to run more errands after dropping off your prenatal vitamins and Dom went to get tea with Sam and Paddy.
You were sleeping in since you stayed up late doing homework. You had decided that online school would be best for you this semester since you planned on traveling with Tom when he filmed his new movie and also going on the press tour.
Tom and Harry walked in and yelled out “hello” but got no response. They shrugged and went into the living room first to see if anyone was there. Tom watched Harry sit down and pull out his phone. He laughed as he walked into the kitchen to grab a drink before copying his younger brother. As Tom walked towards the cupboard, he saw a prescription sitting on the counter. Normally Tom wasn’t nosey, but something made him look at it.
Y/F/N Prenatal Vitamins
Tom looked at the bottle shocked. As he stood there letting his thoughts go from “Is y/n pregnant?” “Who is the father?” “How did this happen?”, Dom, Sam, Paddy, and Harry all walked into the kitchen. Dom noticed the sad but angry look on Tom’s face.
“You okay Tom?” Dom asked. Tom didn’t know that Dom knew so he dropped the bottle to hide it best he could.
“What?” Tom said, looking up. “Yeah, I’m good.” All three brothers looked at their eldest brother with concern. They all notice the change in tone with him. One thing they have learned since Tom became an actor, is to know when he’s acting.
“What do you have there?” Dom asked.
“Uh.” Tom looked down at the bottle. Even though he was upset about the chance of his little sister being pregnant at the age of 17, he still had the sibling code of not telling his parents. “Nothing.”
Sam and Harry looked at each other. Everyone hated that they could communicate without talking. Sam nodded and Harry jumped to take it from Tom’s hand. Harry read the prescription out loud and then looked up at Tom, shocked.
“What? What is this?” Harry asked, not wanting to believe it.
“Boys..” Dom sighed. All four of his sons turned their heads to him. Almost flinching when they thought he would get mad. “She wanted to tell you. She just hadn’t figured out how yet. And she wanted to tell you in person.”
“You knew?” Paddy asked.
“I’ve known since the day she found out. She’s terrified guys, but she’s also extremely excited.” Dom answered. “I know it’s not ideal, but we have to be there for her. You are all going to be uncles. You can be upset, but you need to let her know that no matter what, you are there for her.”
No one noticed you slipped into the room when Dom started his speech. You froze and all the color drained from your face when you heard what they were talking about. You wanted to say something. Speak up for yourself, but you couldn’t. So you stayed somewhat hidden and quiet to eavesdrop.
“How could this happen, Dad?” Tom asked. “She’s 17. She’s not ready to be a mum. She’s still a kid herself.”
“It happens. Things happen. You know that. You know if you are going to have sex, conceiving a child is a possibility.” Dom said.
“She should have been more careful,” Harry said angrily.
“Don’t say that, Harry,” Dom said with a short tone. He wasn’t going to have his sons blame his daughter for this. It takes two to tango and he honestly always thought this might happen with one of them. “You know as well as I do that things can happen and that you can be careful and the girl can get pregnant. Y/N says she used a condom. I believe her. Like I said, you can be upset, but support her.”
“Support her?” Paddy asked.
“Please don’t hate me.” You finally spoke up. All five pairs of eyes turned to you standing in the doorway. You had silent tears falling down your face. “I know I’m young. I know that if this gets out, it will be a bad look for Tom and Harry. I know Paddy will get crap at school from our friends. I know. I messed up. But I have to live with it and do the best I can do.”
You hear Harry scoff and walk out of the room. Tom looked at you for a while before saying he needed air. Paddy was livid. He already had trouble with people at school because of Tom and now he was going to get more because of her. It was always exhausting defending his siblings when people talked crap about them.
“Is this why you chose online school this semester?” Paddy asked angrily.
“No. I was supposed to go with Tom so he could train me to be his personal assistant since Harry is taking on more roles with the crew.” You answered honestly. Sam walked over to you and gave you a hug and a kiss to the temple. “I’m going to go calm Harry down. I promise I’ll be back. I’m not mad or disappointed in you. Love you.” Sam whispered in your ear before walking out.
“Who’s the dad?” Paddy asked as he moved to sit at the counter.
“Jeremy Stotts.” You said. “I’ve already told him. He signed a paper last week to give away his rights since he’s going to Boston for college on a soccer scholarship.” You started to cry more knowing this was going to be hard. “We went to a party and we got drunk. Just kinda happened.”
“Really? That jerkoff?” Paddy asked, shocked.
“Just happened.” You looked down. Dom stayed quiet knowing you and Paddy needed to talk this out. Plus he’s heard the story. Dom looked up and saw Tom hovering out of sight in the hallway outside the kitchen.
“I’m sorry Pads. I won’t let this get out. No one will have to know. Just please don’t hate me.” You said.
“I don’t hate you.” Paddy finally said. You looked up at him. “I’m just… I’m upset about the situation. You know how it is at school already.” You nodded and he continued, “I just don’t want to add to that. Give me some time to adjust to the news.”
You nodded your head at him, “Okay. I’m sorry again Paddy.”
“It’s okay. I love you. Just give me some time.” He said as he walked over to hug you and whispered in your ear, “Also you should totally name the little one after me, the best uncle.”
You laughed as did he. Dom smiled seeing that at least half of his sons were being open and understanding.
“I’m sorry dad.” You said as you looked over at him. “I didn’t want to start a civil war in the household.”
“Don’t worry about it. They’ll come around.” He smiled at you. “Go grab a quick shower and get dressed and I’ll take you to lunch. Sam wanted to try this new place a few blocks from the cafe.” You smiled at him before walking over to kiss his cheek and out of the room.
“Tom, you can come in here now,” Dom said.
“How can you be so calm about this? She’s only 17.” Tom said.
“I’m terrified and a little disappointed, but she’s my baby girl. She needs me. I’m not going to just kick her out.” Dom said to his eldest. Tom nodded his head in agreement.
“I just need to wrap my head around it. I’ll be back for dinner.” Tom said, giving his dad a sad smile and turning to walk out of the kitchen.
“It’s okay to feel how you are Tom. You’ll come around to the idea. You know you’ll love the little one.” Dom said. Tom smiled at his dad as he gave a small laugh in agreement.
Later that night after dinner, the family had decided on having a movie night. You got up and went to change into pajamas and to use the restroom. When you started walking back to the living room, you heard your family talking about you. It was all concerns you heard earlier. Instead of trying to continuously apologize for something that's already done, you decided to just go to your room.
After your family all agreed to help you with whatever you need, they all got excited. Tom talked about dressing the little one in Spider-Man outfits and carrying them down the red carpet. Harry and Nikki talked about teaching them about cameras. Dom was excited to teach them about comedy. Paddy was just excited about no longer being the baby in the family. Sam talked about teaching them to cook. Already picturing them standing on a small ladder.
Since you had left, you didn’t hear any of this. You felt it would be best to start looking for new housing. Maybe find an apartment and a job. You didn’t want to hold your family to your mistakes. Well, it wasn’t a mistake, a baby was never a mistake. You just didn’t want your family to have to deal with your responsibilities. As you were looking at apartments, you fell asleep.
Sam noticed you had been gone for a really long time and decided to go check on you. He knocked on your door and got no answer. He opened the door and saw you laying in front of your computer at your desk. He smiled at you. He picked you up bridal style and gently laid you on your bed. When he went back to your computer to shut it down, he noticed apartment listings. He looked over his shoulder at your sleeping body. He sighed knowing you were thinking of moving out and doing this on your own.
Sam walked downstairs and told the family what he saw. Sam said he would talk to you. Tom said he would be nearby since he still needed to talk to you.
The next morning when you woke up, you got dressed and walked to the kitchen for breakfast. You saw Sam cooking your favorite. Tom was at the counter texting on his phone.
“Morning.” You said sitting next to Tom and watching Sam.
“Morning,” Tom said, wrapping you in a hug. “How are you feeling? Need me to get you anything?”
“I’m good. Just want some of Sam’s food.” You said with a small laugh. Tom laughed and nodded his head in agreement.
“Y/N can I ask you something?” Sam asked as he plated your food. You nodded and thanked him. “Are you looking into moving out?” You looked up shocked.
“Uh..” you looked from Sam to Tom and back to Sam. “Yeah. I am. I just feel like I should. I need to be responsible. Taking care of myself and this little one is the most important thing to me. I can’t make mum and dad raise another child. I gotta do this.”
“Can I be honest with you?” Sam asked. You nodded. “Don’t move out just yet. Let us help you. Finish school and try to figure out what you want to do. Not everyone is lucky enough to have their family support them through this. Look for a place, but don’t be in a rush. Let us help you through this first year or two. That gives you time to save money so you can try to buy a house.”
You look at Sam shocked. You didn’t know how to respond. “If you don’t want to stay here, you can move into my place. I barely use it and when I do, I would love to help. Haz and Tuwaine are moving out soon. Gives you plenty of room.” Tom said.
“I don’t... I don’t know what to say.” You said truthfully. “Tom, I’m not going to move in. You don’t need the stress of a baby when you're home. You’re there to rest. But I’m so appreciative of the offer.”
He smiled at you, “offer stands if you change your mind.”
“And Sam, I don’t want to bother you or Paddy. Especially mum and dad.”
“You’re not bothering us. We love you. Family helps family. We are all excited to welcome another little Holland into the world.” Sam said.
You looked down and fidgeted with your hands. “Not everyone. I heard everyone last night. No one is going to come around to the idea. You are all disappointed in me. And I know I messed up, but I already love this baby and I’m going to do right by it.”
“We are all excited y/n/n.” Sam said as Tom agreed.
“Last night we were all planning the future. I’m already trying to figure out which red carpet event I want the little one to go with me to. We are going to be best friends.” Tom said. You laughed.
“I’m already looking for little cooking kits for toddlers so we can cook together. Paddy is planning on trouble so be prepared for that.” You all laughed. You heard a “hey” before you saw Paddy walk in.
“Just going to play some video games and maybe pull some pranks.” He said sheepishly.
“So, Y/N,” Sam said, “Let us help you. We love you and we are so happy and excited for you.”
You smiled and looked around at the rest of your family that walked in. You saw the support and love on all of their faces. You turned back to Sam. “I like your idea. Gives me time to figure things out. Plus I’m absolutely terrified. It’ll be good to have everyone’s help.”
Everyone smiled at you. It wasn’t conventional, but it was your new normal. You were lucky to have a supportive family. Your baby is going to have four amazing uncles and two amazing grandparents. You may be a single mum, but you weren’t alone in raising the small human being inside you.
#Tom Holland#tom holland imagines#tom holland fanfic#tom holland fanfiction#brother!tom holland x sister!reader#brother!tom holland#tom holland sister#tom holland x sister#tom holland x sister!reader#tom holland x reader#tom holland x holland!reader#holland!sister#holland!reader#tom holland rpf#y/n holland#tom holland x y/n#tom holland angst#tom holland au#tom holland one shot
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Hey Doe, I love your writing, it's so great! I'm not sure if you're into this so feel free to ignore should this squick you out, but I'd love to see how Kid, Katakuri, and Mihawk (no poly of course) would react to their s/o telling them they're becoming a father~ Thank youuuu
You know, I had this exact idea in my drafts for about a week, and other than Mihawk who I've added, it's exactly the characters you requested! You read my mind or something, lol. Please enjoy!!
WARNINGS: Pregnancy, if that's not your thing.
Fem reader
Charlotte Katakuri
You don't even get the words out before he's used his future sight to figure out what you're going to say. You're low-key kind of upset about it, but at least he's excited.
Is really eager and excited for you to have his kid. He's always wanted a family of his own, so this is essentially a dream come true for him. Tries to keep his cool, but you can see the way he's trying to hide a wide smile.
Is just generally in a really good mood all the time after that. Absolutely nothing could get him down.
He's not very worried about complications during pregnancy, because the Totto Land doctors are some of the most experienced when it comes to pregnancy (he has 84 siblings, so of course they'd have to be.)
Gets very protective of you, but not so much as to smother. Consults with the chefs to know what sort of foods is best for a developing baby and makes sure you have access to them.
Begins planning the baby's room way in advance, just because he can't help himself. Everything is donut-themed.
Honestly, takes so much of the load off of you. Helps with everything he can, and is a very doting partner while you are pregnant. Anything you need, he will provide, or figure out a way to provide it.
Eustass Kid
How could this happen? Obviously he knows how, you two fucked and things went from there, but...how???
He's a god damn pirate, how's he's supposed to be a dad? First emotion is just outrage, because how could he let himself do this to you? The New World was dangerous enough as it is, now he had to worry about his child?
Kid will outwardly appear pissed off, but he's honestly terrified. You'll be in a vulnerable state for 9 months, and the way of piracy was dangerous and unpredictable.
It takes Killer's words of reasoning to calm him down. That child was no safer on a World Government controlled island than it was with a group of strong and powerful pirates. Especially Kid's child.
Once Kid processes the reality and that there was no changing it now, he goes off for awhile alone until he can approach you again in a calm manner. He doesn't want to give you the wrong impression.
Will tell you that he'll do everything he can to makes things easier, but that you have to do what he says until you give birth, so he can ensure your safety. Will not take no for an answer.
Dracule Mihawk
He suspected as much when you stopped drinking wine with him every night, though didn't want to take away your moment of giving him the news. After all, his hunch could've been wrong.
Pleased to know he was right. He wasn't planning on having kids of his own anytime soon, but seeing as it's already in the process of happening, and there's no stopping it, he'll accept it and decide to look forward to it instead.
Very calm, but still gives you that charming, gentle smile that you don't get to see much from him.
You notice that he doesn't leave the castle as often, or for long periods of time like he used to. The WG can gtfo with their Warlord requests, because he ain't leaving you by yourself unless he absolutely can't avoid it.
The more you start to show, the more comfortable he becomes with the idea of being a father. He's already handled Perona and Zoro before, surely he can handle another child that's actually his flesh and blood.
When he realizes he'll have to baby-proof an entire castle, filled with metal door handles, sharp candle holders, suits of armor and old weapons...oh dear.
#eustass kid#kid#Charlotte katakuri#katakuri#mihawk#dracule mihawk#one piece#one piece hcs#one piece x reader#fem reader#request#ask#askbox#anon#kid x reader#Mihawk x reader#Katakuri x reader
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📝📝📝 Share 5 fics of yours that you feel best represents your writing style and talent (your resume so to speak), and then send this on to five writers who you adore 💖💖💖
hiii thank you for this ask! (whoops, it got lost in my drafts so it's been a while) ❤️ this is honestly so hard, i've written 60 fics!
Here are the five fics I picked (with some variety in length and rating)🥰:
you could call me babe for christmas ('tis the damn season) | 30.2k | T
"You could come with me," Buck blurts out, his own eyes going wide as he processes what he just said.
Eddie looks at him with his mouth hanging open, eyebrows slowly creasing into a frown and Buck's mind grapples for an explanation, even if the reason he said it is quite simple: he always feels safer with Eddie by his side.
"My parents want me to come to El Paso," Eddie says, and he looks like the words taste bitter in his mouth. "I'd love to get out of that, but I can't just leave Christopher with Abuela or Pepa while I run to Pennsylvania. Never mind that my parents would never accept it without a good reason."
"Christopher can come, of course."
OR: Buck and Eddie pretend to be dating as Buck takes the Diaz boys along to Hershey. Once there, things get a little out of hand, and Buck comes to a realization...
i just want something to hold on to (and a little of that human touch) | 3.7k | T | + the sequel!
So, yeah, he’s not really getting his fix when it comes to physical affection, but he thought it would be fine. Surely he could deal with that, right?
Except he can’t.
It’s not just the overwhelming sense of loneliness that coming home to an empty apartment after not having any privacy for months brings.
He hasn’t had a proper hug in weeks, all he’s been getting is small, accidental touches on the job, a slip of a hand here, a shoulder bump there. It makes his heart soar every time, but it can’t lift the weight that seems to have permanently settled in his stomach.
OR: Buck is touch starved, but decides to hide it, you know, like an idiot
all the reasons i'm not good enough | 4.3k | G
The last person he expected to be at his house this late at night is Maddie Buckley, but there she is. She's got Jee-Yun in a car seat, the little girl sleeping peacefully, and in her other hand is a bottle of red wine.
"I, uhm, I-," she starts, cutting herself off, and Eddie waits patiently as she searches for the right words. "The second most important people in our lives, well, my second and third, are out there risking their lives and I figured we could be terrified together."
baby come close (and expose my red lingerie) | 3.5k | E
The way Buck is pretty much, well, presenting himself, is not the biggest issue, though. No, it's the glimpse of what's underneath his uniform that Eddie catches when he stretches and his uniform t-shirt goes up just far enough for Eddie to see.
It's just a hint of lace, yesterday it was pink, the day before it was light blue. Today it's red, he thinks, though it’s too fast to really get a good look.
OR: Buck has some very interesting underwear and it's driving Eddie crazy
what a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you | 21.3k | E
Look, Buck is okay with stripping his way through college to survive. It's only for the two years his associate degree takes, anyway. And he likes the money, and the attention, and his colleagues are great.
But then Bobby had to go and hire Eddie Diaz, who swoops in and charms all the customers and starts stealing Bucks tips. So he has to deal with Eddie Diaz four nights a week, and then he goes home, and while he sleeps he dreams vivid images of large hands, strong biceps and an ass you could bounce a quarter off of.
OR: The AU where they're both strippers and Buck goes from "I hate this guy" to "Oh fuck, I think I'm in love with him"
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