#STILL baffled by the water thing btw. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thelittleliars · 3 months

Text

Surprise

Natasha Romanoff x fem!Reader

Warnings: fighting, being drunk, mention of homophobia, mention of deceased parents, angst with a happy end

Words: 3.5k

Summary: You wanted to surprise your girlfriend but instead you were the one that got surprised.

A/N: Here it is: the Angst with a happy ending one shot as the majority of you voted for! Btw I did not proof read it so be aware.

Flying wasn't your thing; sitting for hours in a thing that is high in the air with nothing to do but to sleep, eat, watch or read something. And airplane was a capsule of boredom to you, that was why you'd never fly unless you had to. Unfortunately you had to fly for your job since it required you to fly overseas from time to time. This time you had a 15 hour flight back home, itching to not only to see your girlfriend Natasha but also to surprise her, your supposed flight was scheduled for only three days later and when you were given the go to fly back earlier you took the chance and told her nothing about it. You hadn't seen her in weeks so you were extra excited to see her again.

The uber stopped in front of your apartment complex, as you got your things out of the trunk you thanked them for the pleasant ride and wished them a good day. You were quick to arrive at your door, the apartment was one on the top floors, before unlocking it with the your key. The smile on your face vanished when you saw Natasha standing there with three people you had never met before. Your mood became a little sour as you didn't like that your surprise didn't go as you had planned. "Who are you?" You asked confused as nobody including your girlfriend made a move to introduce each other.

They stared at you with critical eyes, sizing you up and down as if you were a criminal or some other threat. The younger woman with blonde hair spoke up first. "Her family." Your heart stilled for a second thinking of meeting her family like this wasn't great but you dismissed everything quickly because you remembered that her family was dead. "No, that can't be. Her family died when she was young." You looked confused at Nat, then back at those strangers again. When nobody responded you got a bit anxious, Natasha wouldn't have lied about that right?

The man spoke up next, bringing you out of your head of spiraling thoughts. "Who are you?" But before you could answer that question happily, the other woman gave her thoughts to the situation. "She's most likely the roommate Natasha always talked about." Roommate. You whirled your head towards your red headed lover, looking baffled at her already guilty expression, pain appeared in your heart and you swore that nothing cut you as deep as the statement along with her silence and facial expression. You pursed your lips to hide how much she hurt you, it would be too embarrassing to throw a fit in front of her family. Natasha opened her mouth but before she got to speak you jumped in. "I just had a 15 hour flight and all I wanna do is take a shower and maybe a nap afterwards. I guess I see y'all later." You said to all of them before you fetched your suitcase and disappeared into the actual guest room that the two of you had for emergencies.

In the shower you sat down and let the water fall onto you. You overthought everything you thought you knew. It was obvious that it was her family, she lied about her parent dying. Why would she do that? And if she lied about that what else did she lie about? Evidently about your relationship. The roommate Natasha constantly talked about.. That statement hurt immensely. You couldn't understand why were a roommate, not even a very good friend no, just a fucking roommate. It made you angry, especially because you loved that woman deeply and it made you wonder if she actually loved you. You also deliberate about if you could ever forgive her about this betrayal.

After the long shower, your phone started ringing the second your t-shirt hit you body. It was strange for someone to call you at this hour but when you saw it was your friend Wanda you answered without a question. You couldn't get a hello out because she was talking fast. "Open your door, there's a surprise for you!" The excitement in her voice was refreshing after all the work talk you had done overseas for days. "Wands, I don't like surprises."

"I know and I'm sorry to do this to you but this one's really worth it. Please believe me and don't hang up!" You tried to put all the faith you had left in her and walked out of the guest room as held your phone against your ear. "I won't hang up don't worry." While you passed by the open kitchen-living room to get to the door, you felt the red head's and her family's intense eyes on you. You ignore them as you opened the door and there she stood, the great Wanda Maximoff with some tickets in her hands. She practically shoved them into your hands. Only then did you hang up the phone and looked at what the tickets were. Your eyes widen in shock before you threw yourself at Wanda, hugging her happily. Natasha jealously was seething so she decided to speak. "What is your ex doing here?"

You turned around smiling at her but not as bright as you had been a second before, you still waved the tickets with joy telling her what the tickets were for. "She got me tickets for a sold out Hayley Kiyoko show!!" Natasha knew how much that meant for you since you had never seen her live even though you had tickets for three concerts at one point. You hated it so much that your job always came in between the dates, making you sell your concert tickets of the singer that was your first crush and gay awakening. This whole situation gave Natasha another pang of jealousy, she should have been the one giving you the tickets, not your damn ex.

"The lesbian Jesus?" The blonde woman whose name you still don't know asked. You nodded and saw her face breaking into a proud expression. "Since when do you know that?" Natasha asked her sister in almost an insulting tone. "Kate Bishop, where else?" After Nat narrowed her eyes the blonde explained further with a shrug. "She told me that I need to widen my horizon in pop culture." At that you turned your attention back to Wanda, minding your own business while picking up your conversation again. "I- I'm.. thank you for the tickets Wands. I truly don't know how to thank you." She smiled at your overwhelmed but giddy state. "You could take me with you?" She joked as she also pointed to the tickets. You agreed to her idea incredibly fast, maybe a bit too fast considering that you had a girlfriend you usually asked and took with you to concerts. But in that split of a moment you didn't give a shit about asking her to go with you, going with your ex sounded way better. "It - it's tomorrow already. Wait, hold on. How'd you even know that I'd be back by then?"

"Oh yeah about that.. I might have talked with Josh." She smiled sheepishly. Josh was a mutual friend but also your co-worker. But you'd never have thought that Josh would talk about your (early) return. Especially since you told him you wanted to surprise everyone. "Are you lovebirds actually coming in or stay in the doorway all night?" Alexei teased you both, you didn't how how to feel about that. You were still together with his daughter and him teasing or shipping you with your ex was beyond something you thought you'd experience. The frown on Natasha face was something you didn't miss and you actually had to bite your tongue before saying something you'd regret. To your luck, because you knew biting your tongue wouldn't help for long, your lover pipped in. "They are ex-girlfriends and not lovebirds." She stated hard. Her father continued to reason with his daughter. "Doesn't have to mean anything Tasha bear. How often did your mother and I break up and got back together hmm?"

You ignored their conversation once again, turning to the red head that stood still in the doorway you told her to wait for you. "Let me switch pants and then we go get a drink somewhere yeah? That way we can catch up and they can continue having family time uninterrupted." Natasha wanted to interject, deny you going out with Wanda when she desperately wanted to explain herself but she feared that stopping you would dig her grave with you only deeper so she let you go. When you were about to leave, Yelena and Alexei teased you both a last time. You felt a bit bad for Natasha but it all were also a part of consequences of her actions. "Don't come home too late." Was the only thing she told you. You still heard Yelena's such a mom and Alexei's don't be a cockblocker Natasha through the door.

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

You were passed out in Wanda's arms as she carried you bridal style towards your apartment. It wasn't planned that you drank this much alcohol, but once you got a taste of it you just couldn't stop, it numbed your feelings and problems that you badly wanted to forget. Natasha was at the door quick, relieved when she saw you in Wanda's arms, she lead you both towards your bedroom watching how your ex put you on the bed gently.

"Thank you for bringing her home." She commented. The other woman only nodded before leaving fairly quickly, not wanting to be there in case you woke up which she knew was unlikely but didn't want it risk it anyways. Hungover you was something she did not want to witness ever again.

The next morning was rather midday by the time you woke up. You walked into the bathroom first, quickly peeing and splashing some water on your face before wandering to the kitchen, there you saw Natasha sitting at her kitchen counter with a coffee in one hand and her phone in the other hand. "Morning." You hummed grumpily, acknowledging her without actually talking to her. She huffed before she tried to talk to you again. "Y/N I-" Natasha started but you cut her off immediately. "I don't wanna talk."

"But I really-" Her next attempt to talk got quickly cut off by you again. "I SAID I DONT WANT TO TALK NATASHA!" You didn't yell, you simply rose your voice a bit to get your point across. She shut up afterwards. "Gosh just give me space before you ruin my day. I still have a concert to attend to." Your words and the situation cut her deep, it hurt to know this side of you - that she was the reason for bringing this out of you and inflicting (you) pain. She never wanted any of this.

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

After the incredible amazing concert you dragged Wanda into a bar to get some well deserved fries and drinks. It didn't last long until you spilled your relationship problems and some evil thoughts you had in your head. The cruelest one was to text Nat asking her if she'd give you permission to kiss another girl during Hayley's performance of Girls Like Girls. You'd never cheat but the itch to get back at her in some way for betraying you was big.

"I know you want to hurt Natasha back a bit because of what she did but is it really worth it? Wouldn't that just truly ruin your relationship?" Wanda was concerned about your state of mind and what you might would do. She knew how rash you were in doing something when you got hurt by someone close to you. "It's hardly a relationship if it's build on lies." You stated without any emotion in your voice and expression. This only showed her that her worries were valid. "Maybe she had a good reason for it." The red head tried so hard to see the positive but of course with your mood, nothing was getting to you.

"I can't think of a single good reason of why she'd lie about her parents passing. I also came up short when I thought of a reason of her hiding our relationship. Like I'd have understood if it were the same situation as it was in our relationship, when you were a baby gay with parents who oftentimes said homophobic remarks and you being afraid to come out. But her father and sister teased us lovebirds and it seemed very genuine, they weren't homophobic." At the mention of Wanda's past, she felt the need to voice her thoughts. "I still feel like they stopped with the remarks after catching Pietro watching gay porn." You gave her a tiny sad smile. "Well either way, at least you had the decency to tell your family that we were not only very good but also very close friends. I'm just a roommate to them."

"I'm sorry." She said it genuine, without any pity or whatsoever. You nodded but also sighed at her apology. "Not your fault Wanda. Don't apologize for something that's out of reach." It was quiet between the two of you for a long moment, eating and drinking to make it less awkward before you asked her if you could crash at her place. "Of course, you're always welcome." Later, right before you went to sleep, you texted your girlfriend that you'd stay at Wanda's for the night.

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

When you got home the next day, Natasha was nowhere to be found, it gave you enough time to ponder if you should simply break up with her and get all your things with you, it would have been a coward move on your part and you were already cowardly enough by staging away from her the night before. You quickly changed into a new set of clothes the grabbing your headphones and went into the kitchen, getting out ingredients from the cabinets to bake something, you still needed to distract yourself before facing Natasha.

The second she entered the apartment and heard movements she knew were only yours, she stopped dead in her tracks as she wasn't expecting you to the apartment yet. She thought that you were staying at Wanda's for a while longer but since you weren't she took the chance to finally talk to you and explain herself. You were startled by the tap on your shoulder, you hadn't heard her come back with the headphones on yours ears blasting angry rock-metal music. Pausing the music and taking the headphones from your ears, you turned around to face Natasha, she had messy hair with dark circles and bags underneath her eyes. It told you that she had a sleepless night.

"I don't want to talk." You told her simply because it irritated you that she disrupted your baking time. She groaned in frustration. "But I need to talk. Y/N I want to fix my mistakes, I want to fix us." She was desperate, you heard it in her voice, but that still didn't change your mind. "Maybe the magnitude of your mistakes are too big to fix." The words you said left her stunned. With the little courage she had left she asked you the important question. "Are you breaking up with me?"

"Not yet." It came out weak, nearly matching the weak tone of the question Natasha asked second before. A bit of relieve flooded her system but she was still tense m, fearing your answer to her next question. "What's holding you back?" You weren't sure if you wanted to let her know your reasons but you ended up opening anyways. "My gut and my trust in you."

The silence that followed was nearly deafening, the redheaded woman simply was at loss of words because it felt wrong for you to still have trust in her. "I haven't shattered your trust yet?"

"Hard to believe right? Despite all your lies I still trust you.. even if it's on a thin thread." There was another couple of minutes of silence before she finally could apologize without you cutting her off. "Then let me apologize because I really have to apologize for how the other day went down. I'm sorry for lying about my parents and that I lied to them about our relationship. I didn't mean to hurt you but I did and now I have to own it up." She started before moving to sit down on a chair. "It's true that my parents died at a young age. Who you saw was my foster family, we didn't always get along which resulted in me distancing myself from them for a decade. It wasn't until we were a year deep into a relationship that we started to have contact again."

"But why lie to them about us? Your father and sister seemed pretty open about homosexuals." You asked, still confused about certain things that needed to be cleared up.

"My plan was to ease them in telling how I'm not only queer but more so a lesbian. Last time I really knew them they were homophobic so I was surprised by their remarks. I hadn't met them in person for so long, I guess they changed a lot during that time." You took your hands in hers. It was a small gesture of you supporting her in quietness. "I'm sorry detka. I should have told you a long time ago about my foster family. And also that I told them you were my roommate."

"I just don't get it. Why tell them we're roommates and not friends?" It was the question that plagued your mind. She bit her lips then shaking her head and looking everywhere but at you. "It wouldn't have been believable. I always ruined all my friendships." You squeezed her hands in hope she'd look at you again and she did even if it was only for a few seconds. "Is there anything else you lied about?"

Her eyes rose to yours, this time you could see her bare soul laying out for you. She removed her hands from yours before answered honest. "Uhh.. my job?" It was barely a second that passed by before you shrieked out her full name. "Natalia Alianovna Romanova!" She squeezed her eyes shut as her name fell from your lips like you called her satan, then she fumbled with her hands until they found yours again. With an honest look in her eyes she apologizes again. "Y/N I'm really sorry okay."

"Sorry doesn't make it better! Natasha you do realize how fucked up this is right? Especially because we talk about work at dinner every other day. Gosh." You felt sick to your stomach when you thought back at the countless of conversations you had. "If-if you're not a secretary then what exactly do you do?"

"I'm actually a SHIELD agent." She leaned closer to you when she noticed your lack of response. When you did reply it made Natasha even more nervous, anxious even, she feared that you decide to break up with her right then and there. "A SHIELD agent?" You repeated calmly, a bit too calm for your girlfriend's liking, a calm person is always one to fear during a fight, they most likely are already done with everything. "A SHIELD agent." Natasha confirmed.

"Were you going to tell me?"

"At some point." You nodded then removed your hands from hers all while you were telling her you needed to go back to baking, you turned around finished your cupcakes. Natasha stood there awkwardly, not knowing what else to tell you or where to go. When the first batch of cupcakes were done you held one in between your fingers, you walked straight up to the redhead with no expression on your face, her heart pounded so wildly that it felt like she was going to die. "As much as I hate you right now, I'm still completely and utterly in love with you." You offered her the cupcake that she gladly accepted with a small smile. "I might be an idiot for even attempting to forgive you but I can honestly see us having a great and long future together."

"I want that. The long and great future with you, I mean." She looked down and smiled shyly

"Good. But it can only happen if you won't lie to me anymore Nat. I'd rather be hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie."

"Okay."

"Okay?" She nodded. "Good. Now come here and give me a kiss."

"Can I eat my cupcake first?" She asked with a twinkle in her eyes. You shook your heard, told her 'no' before you grabbed her head and kissed her like there was no tomorrow.

#natasha romanoff x reader #black widow x reader #natasha romanoff #black widow #natasha romanoff x you #black widow x you #natasha romanoff x fem!reader #black widow x fem!reader #natasha romanoff x female reader #black widow x female reader

464 notes · View notes

modernsuperhero · 1 month

Text

Btw ages ago I came up with a Scarian au where Scar is of course the mayor of a lovely city. He's quite wealthy too - before his venture into politics he designed the very successful Scarland theme park, which rejuvenated the city's economy and boosted his own pockets too. He's very active in the community and generally beloved by the people.

He is also secretly HotGuy, the city's vigilante superhero, using his wealth from Scarland and his connections as mayor to try to untangle the mess of corruption and organized crime throughout the city! And also like, saving cats from atop trees and things if he happens to come across those too. The city however has recently become host to a deathly parasite, the lethally beautiful Mother Spore. Because she's an independent villain, HotGuy has no way to anticipate her attacks and just has to drop everything when she starts to try to take over another city block or something.

However, HotGuy is not the only person running around the city with a mask and a dream! There's one character who's known just as much for his menace as for his heroism: Poultry Man! Poultry Man may not be a villain, but far be it from him to veer away from pranks or minor shoplifting. HotGuy has chased him down after catching him egging buildings or nicking treats he didn't pay for, but he's also shown up to help HotGuy pull survivors out of the water when there was a terrible bridge collapse, or help break up fights that start to get too violent.

And then, of course, there's the final masked figure in HotGuy's career: his sidekick, CuteGuy! He simply appeared one day, kitted out in military grade weapons and body armor spray-painted pink and white, complete with frills and bows and bullets, asking how he can help. HotGuy is skilled at combat and firing his bow, but CuteGuy is on another level. For some reason, he follows HotGuy's every command to a T, never taking the lead despite obviously having extensive experience. Despite his compliance, he refuses to discuss his past or identity.

Somehow, though, none of these three characters are ever in the same place. If Mother Spore is ravaging a street, Poultry Man doesn't make a peep, and CuteGuy never comes to HotGuy's aid. Poultry Man always gets away with his pilfered knickknacks before CuteGuy arrives, and so on and so forth. And you see, Scar is no fool. He knows all three's secret identities - or rather, identity.

[More under cut]

It is none other than one of Scar's long-time friends and neighbor: Grian.

Grian has known Scar since his dreams for Scarland were nothing more than doodles in his teenage sketchbook. He adores knitting, baking, and taking his cats (however unwillingly) on walks outside. Scar moved into the mayoral home when he was elected, but he still owns his old house right next door to Grian's. Grian is a cheery architect who proudly boasts about being Scar's friend.

And Scar has no doubt in his mind he is also secretly terrorizing the innocent people around him, and that he has both attempted to kill, protect, and annoy Scar as HotGuy on countless occasions.

...Okay, he doesn't know WHY Grian is doing that, or... how, but it HAS to be him! He swears all of their voices are the same, and even with the different masks on they all look exactly like him! And, he's never seen any two of them in one place! Scar is sure Grian's innocent civilian facade is nothing more than that.

It also explains some things: Mother Spore's flirtatious remarks whenever they fight, Poultry Man's annoying cackling when he leads Scar on another chase across town, and CuteGuy's insistence on keeping him alive and following him like a shadow.

Grian and Scar used to be close. But as Scar's life got more complicated, he had less and less time to spend with his friends.

As baffling as it is, Scar is certain that while he was gone Grian became a supervillain of epic proportions, and he's probably only just begun toying with HotGuy and the rest of the city for his own amusement.

...

The truth is Scar is completely wrong!

Grian, Mother Spore, Poultry Man, and CuteGuy are, legitimately, four different people (or entities, looking at Mother Spore) who have never met.

Or, well, that depends on your definition of "met". :)

55 notes · View notes

galaxyhanart · 22 days

Note

HI IM HYPERFIXATING ON THE CABINET MAN AU I HABE QWESTIONS

1: How does Garm fit into everything? Does he see Jay? If so, what does he think about him?

2: Does Jay have top surgery scars? 👀

3: Since Kai is pretty untrustworthy sometimes when meeting new people, what does he think of Jay at first?

4: WHY IS JAY SO HECKIN CUTE AAAHHHH (more of a statement more then anything)

5: Do you mind if I take some inspiration from this AU for my Ninjago inspired story? (Like a whole "og gang finds a guy who has powers and they take him in" kinda thing)

6: What do Scott and Racer 7 (I think that's her name) think of Jay?

Drink some water and take care of yourself bestie, love your art! 🤲❤ (Btw here's my cat)

WAHHHHH THIS IS SO SWEET AAH THANK YOU!!!!!!

Sensei Garm is dead by the time Jay arrives in the picture, so when SoG comes along he's pretty confused. He doesn't have a personal connection to Garmadon like the rest of the group does, so he's actually the one with his head screwed on the most about taking him out and being wary of him. Overall though it's pretty much the same as how canon Jay acts about Garmadon. Meanwhile Garmadon's just kind of baffled that Jay exists at all since he was missing for so long

2. Yes he does! They stay after the game but they're not yellow anymore they're average scar colors

3. Kai and Jay have a lot of tension throughout the whole AU! Their dynamic is so interesting to me and I like to explore it in the au. Kai is SUPER distrustful of Jay and they take a while to warm up to each other. On the flip side, something that happens that absolutely SHATTERS Jay's trust in Kai for a while. Their relationship is super important to me so I'm excited to develop it more!!

4. WAHHHHH THAT'S SO SWEET THANK YOUUUU HEHHEHE i love drawing him all the time he rotates in my brain

5. OH MY GOD YES FEEL FREE???? I think the idea that one of the core ninja are missing are SO FASCINATING to play with and changes the character dynamics so much

6. Scott and Jay are super close!! Jay often goes to Scott for advice and help with things, even outside the game! They remain very close :D Racer 7 and Jay didn't interact much inside the game but they both respect each other and Racer 7 is super grateful to Jay for helping everyone leave the game

THIS ASK IS SO SO SWEET I've been staying super hydrated and your cat is SO ADORABLE AAAAAA

I haven't been able to work on the au for a bit now but it means the world to me that people still like it!! Now that I'm getting used to having a job and the college burnout is waning I'm stepping back into fanart and stuff so 👀 I have a sideblog @spinjitsuburst where I post just ninjago stuff and i've talked about Cabinet Man there too if you want any more content!!

#ninjago #lego ninjago #cabinet man au #jay #jay walker #prime empire #galaxyhantalks #ask

23 notes · View notes

just-a-dinosaur-i-guess · 5 months

Note

tell about ur aus,,, go on

HELLO TY FOR THIS ASK

i have so fucking many aus so i'll ramble about a few

my latest one takes inspiration from this post and it's basically, dazai takes in atsushi and the akutagawa siblings, but realizing he can't really find a job to support all of them at once, he decides to go and (try to) reopen odasaku's favorite curry place. there are a few issues.

he is Not a great cook

atsushi can only make chazuke

aku and gin don't know how to cook

the place is kind of a mess

so eventually he goes and calls up chuuya and he's like "hey, you know how to cook, can you help me" problem is, chuuya's pissed at him bc THIS is when he calls him again and it's not an explanation of why he left, not a "sorry for blowing up ur car", not any of that, it's just another favor. so his immediate response is "fuck you, no" and dazai has to nag him into coming and helping, this being via taking some random pm member for hostage and specifically requesting that chuuya come pick him up

chuuya does indeed arrive, but he also breaks dazai's nose, so dazai ends up vaguely explaining with an ice pack on his face lmfao. this bit is what i have planned most vividly and is hopefully? gonna be a fic i publish. but also, later, ranpo ends up at the curry place and is like "damn you live like this" and dazai replies just kinda, "either order or get out" but ranpo offers him a better job (that being working at the ada), and while he hesitantly agrees, it's only a part time thing for the first bit. also although i haven't decided yet i think he might also end up finding kyouka before the pm gets to her and tachihara before the hunting dogs find him bc i am weak to 1. found family 2. BIG found families.

chuuya is absolutely fucking baffled when he runs into dazai during an ada job, btw.

"i thought you ran a fucking curry shop" "i do that too" "?? what the fuck" "it's called being a PART TIMER chibi" "i'm gonna break your nose again"

anyway next au!!

cowboy au (btw, they still have abilities) where nathaniel is a travellng priest looking for a doctor to cure margaret who's deathly sick, and he hasn't really been having any luck (he's been searching for months to no avail), and eventually at this one town it's like.. it's late at night, nathaniel's thirsty, he heads to the bar to get some water. nikolai promptly swaps their drinks, nathaniel drinks something really strong and passes the fuck out, wakes up to being in an inn room (with noteably less money) and storms the hell out of the building just to find nikolai petting his horse and acting all innocent about doing anything. nathaniel just tries to leave, nikolai follows, and they travel like that for a bit (occasionally trying to kill each other) before they get the third member of their dysfunctional little party

do you remember that one kid fyodor killed?

this little guy (karma), is a pickpocket who steals nathaniel's bible in the hopes of selling it to get food. the two find him, both kinda realize his situation and while nathaniel is about to point him in the direction of the town's local church nikolai goes "fuck that" and just straight up kidnaps him, and they keep traveling. nathaniel and nikolai are mutually, regrettably, falling for one another, but this just manifests as more murder attempts, to the point that one night, nathaniel tries to strangle nikolai, nikolai wakes up and strangles him back, and when nathaniel passes out he fucking dreams about nikolai and is HORRIFIED. things only get worse and gayer from there and i also think they go on a train at some point.

karma's enjoying the horse rides at least, and there's some other characters that show up though tbh idk who besides this one dazai scene and gin at one point

okay this other au is shorter, but basically: ada kajii. this is built off of SO many headcanons, but essentially kajii's backstory is just the lemon short story. except that kajii never found lemons, bc instead kunikida (his old friend/school friend that fell out of contact with him) reaches out, they become friends again, and so when kunikida joins the ada, so does kajii. kajii works as a clerk bc, like, he doesn't. know he has an ability. Oh Boy Does He Get A Surprise during dead apple

okay i was gonna talk about my eternal winter au but that would be an essay /lh

SO instead!! shiburan au, an au i never. properly named beyond that it's a shibusawa x ranpo focused au. also co owned with my bestie @feralshadowdemon <33

basically, yokohama is a smaller, calmer seaside town, no abilities or anything. shibusawa moves in, working at the pet shop across the street from this coffee shop that's connected to a bookstore. the coffee shop is run by (most of) the ada, and the bookstore is run by yokomizo; mushitaro and poe work there. the members of the ada who work at the coffee shop are fukuzawa (he owns it), ranpo, kunikida, and yosano. dazai is fukuzawa's newest adopted kid, and ran away from home. (he was living with mori (and elise) before) yosano Understands his situation, having done the same years before.

ranpo starts going over to the pet shop a lot, both bc he's running errands (fukuzawa owns three cats) and bc he likes talking to shibusawa. they eventually exchange phone numbers and start texting. in the background of this, btw, is soukoku: they had a messy breakup years ago, they act like they don't like each other, etc etc normal skk things. the flags are a biker gang who are alive and well here, and chuuya hangs out with them a lot. dazai is a bit jealous of them, ranpo knows this, and so when chuuya starts volunteering at the pet shop, ranpo brings dazai along on an errand run so the two run into each other again. they start talking again, slowly bonding again by virtue of wingmaning shiburan

also misc details

dazai and aku are just. they are just friends here :)

aku and tachi are friends!! also higugin is real

the akutagawa siblings live with hirotsu

fukuchi is the hunting dogs' dad; except for tetchou, who's jouno's boyfriend. he has stricter parents.

fukuchi here is a retired military veteran AND ex movie star. his movies are awful /aff

shibusawa has a pet cornsnake named draconia

odango is engaged here but oda travels a lot so they haven't got married yet

ango works in an office in the big city, but he visits dazai sometimes. they are friends

bramcraft is married, they adopted aya

kyouka and kenji also live with fukuzawa!! twincoded tbh

kyouka has narcolepsy

there is so much more but i have been writing this post for an hour SO just shoot me (another) ask if you're curious :D

and yeah that's some of my aus!! i have a masterpost of all of them slowly being built in my drafts hehe

#my bsd aus #my aus #bsd aus #bsd au #i have so many. ty for sending this ask i LOVE rambling ab my aus #i think i can tag this with ships. i do mention them idk #skk #soukoku #i hope i didnt make any typos #dino answers #bsd #gonna be honest a lot of the shiburan au was less throwing concepts around and more an r.p thread so it's hard to summarize sorry lol #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #nikonathan #shiburan #operationtimeguard

27 notes · View notes

reverie-starlight · 1 year

Note

um not me realizing that I’ve never sent in a request 😭

ok so hear me out

Paper rings feels like such a Kuroo song like it’s just so fun and cute. but like particularly

“In the winter in the icy outdoor pool

When you jumped in first, i went in too

I’m with you even if it makes me blue”

bc it’s just so silly and makes me giggle

you can do whatever you please with this, but the thought has been plaguing my mind for days now😭

much love 💕

I LOVE YOU FOR THIS OMFG <333

AND YOU'RE SO RIGHT BECAUSE??? IT IS SO KUROO.

(forgive me for making this less of a formal fic and more of a fluffy ramble, I'm a bit over excited rn so this will definitely be all over the place but I hope you enjoy it anyway!!)

this is all under the pretense that it's university/pre-timeskip!kuroo but still timeskip!kuroo and gn!reader btw

(also just a disclaimer, please don't jump into a freezing pool if you have alcohol in your system, this is purely for entertainment purposes, okay thanks <3)

ANYWAY!!!

you're at a party with him sometime during your university days- just a house party, no one's really outside talking or blasting music for the neighborhood to hear, but the pool is still uncovered for some reason.

and let's be real, I don't think kuroo is much of a hardcore party person (he'll go to parties and have fun but he's not the type to go every weekend or whatever, maybe like one or two every few months) which the party is probably hosted by, like, bokuto or one of his old teammates.

so obviously that means you're sleeping over so you can let loose and have fun.

you both mostly keep to yourselves at the party, sipping your drinks and snickering at all the antics happening around you both. it's nice to just be with him and not have to worry about anything for a night.

but when the last people have gone and you guys are getting ready for bed in the guest room of the house? he stares out the window overlooking the backyard and proposes an idea that truly has you questioning his sanity.

"you want to what now?" you ask him incredulously.

he just grins at you and grabs your hand, sneaking you back downstairs as quietly as possible. you thank every higher power you could think of that the party host was a known heavy sleeper, especially when he's had a few, because your boyfriend is stumbling as he tries to guide you down the stairs in the dark, giggling the whole time. the alcohol was mostly out of his system by now, and yours, thanks to the water you both got down in between drinks.

honestly, you can't help but follow him outside when he strips his shirt and jumps into the pool.

"shit! it's cold!" he calls from the water.

you snort and shake your head fondly. "it's december, dumbass. the pool shouldn't even be open."

"come in with me!" he says, but you're already removing your sweater and jumping in to join him.

you squeal as the water hits your skin, and you can already see your nails turning a bit blue. "not for long though, okay? don't want us to get sick. plus you've had drinks tonight, we should move to the shallow end just in case."

he nods in agreement and follows you closer to where your feet could touch the bottom. he wraps his arms around your torso and rests his head on your forehead. you stay like that for a while and then decide that it's way too cold to stay in any longer, so you get out and head back inside.

"well, babe, was it worth it?"

he blushes and heads into the bathroom on the main floor, grabbing a clean towel to dry his hair, tossing you a second one. "alright, I'll admit- it wasn't my best plan, but hey, now we can say we've gone skinny dipping?"

"tetsu, my love, that was not skinny dipping," you snort, wrapping yourself in the towel and then slipping your sweater back on. it baffled you sometimes how he was clueless about some things but knowledgeable with others.

he looks confused as he follows you back up the stairs to the guest room. "then what's skinny dipping?"

you fully laugh while plugging in the electric heater and grabbing the extra blankets the host left on the dresser. "that'll be another night's adventure. right now let's focus on warming back up, baby."

he grumbles a little about how he could just look it up if you weren't going to tell him, but digressed and changed into a warmer set of sleep clothes. neither of you wanted to run the risk of freezing in the middle of the night, after all.

after all that, you still weren't really tired yet, so you sat on the bed in front of the heater and your boyfriend sat at the dresser, busying himself with some paper.

soon enough he was standing in front of you, holding a paper ring out to you with a proud, boyish grin on his face. "I made this for you," he stated.

you smiled and put your phone down, letting him slide his creation onto your ring finger. "hmm, so does this mean we're engaged now?" you teased.

he chuckled and scooted you both under the covers, laying down with you and caressing your cheek. you'd both agreed that you wanted to get married some day, but not until you were both done with your degrees. still, that didn't stop either of you from joking around about it... or faking proposals in restaurants for free dessert.

"not yet, babe, but soon. we'll finish school first, then maybe I'll tell you about the ring I've been eyeing for months now. I think you'll like it. just need to save up for it now."

you knocked your forehead against his and smiled softly. "you know I don't need a ring," you held up your hand. "hell, you could reuse this as my engagement ring later on and I'd still be ecstatic."

he kissed your nose before resting his face in the crook of your neck. "I know, sweetheart, and I appreciate that. but trust me- you're getting a ring. a damn nice one, too, exactly what you deserve." he leans in and leaves quick pecks all over your face. "and my baby deserves nothing but the best."

you giggle and try to push him away. "okay, okay, I get it!" he finally leaves you be and stares into your eyes for a minute.

"I love you."

"I love you too," you smile back at him and press a kiss against his lips.

satisfied, he turns around and shuts the lamp off, wishing you a goodnight and throwing an arm around your waist.

not even five minutes later, he shifts and groans out "it's so hot in here now!"

yeah, the pool definitely wasn't the best idea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm sorry this took literally FOREVER, but I'm happy with how it turned out!! and I'm happy to finally have new writing out after a million years lol

if it's a bit choppy in some places, just note that I'm only just getting back into the swing of writing again, it's been weeks and I'm rusty.

#kuroo x reader fluff #kuroo x reader #kuroo fluff #kuroo tetsuro x reader #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu x reader fluff #haikyuu x reader

83 notes · View notes

joesalw · 7 months

Note

brazilian here. i wanna say that, beofre i saw that anon ask talking about swifties worried about taylor’s rep, i didn’t see anybody saying it was taylor’s fault or something similar. HOWEVER. i just read what taylor wrote on her instagram story and it’s baffling. the last thing she ever thought would happen, yet when swifties were (rightfully so, i’ll give them that) ‘fighting’ with scalpers that were buying dozens of tickets to resell for absurdly expensive amounts of money, they (the swifties) were tagging taylor and taylornation and they didn’t say a word. at the moment some swifties were saying that taylor didn’t care, and i agree with them in this situa.

there’s a video of taylor throwing a water bottle to the fans, and while i do appreciate her concern, it’s not enough. she’s taylor swift, she could ask the company (tickets 4 fun) to let people bring their water bottles, she could say ‘i won’t perform in these conditions’ (the company closed the gaps in the structure of the stadium so ‘outsiders’ wouldn’t be able to see/hear, and this made it worse to endure the extreme heat brazil’s going through right now), she could have at least said the name of Ana Clara.

some politicians already stated measures will be taken. but, as someone that’s not exactly a swiftie, but is going to one of her shows here in brazil, i expected a lot more. and again, this isn’t her fault, but she has the power to do something. she could at least have made a better statement.

(also: there weren’t enough people in the medical tents, not enough firefighters, water bottles cost R$10,00 — it’s EXTREMELY expensive —, and the medical staff said some people that were getting sick because of the heat should take some kind of sedative medication — as if people were just anxious because of the show, not because it’s the most extreme heat wave with thermal sensation of ~60°C (which is a lot for ANY region of brazil))

overall just a disaster to get more money out of the fans.

btw this isn’t really anti taylor, i just wanted to clarify things for people that may not know what’s going on here in brazil.

In her ig story Taylor stated that the fan passed away before the show, but it actually happened during cruel summer. Idk if that wrong statement was put out to clear her image or what but it's weird. The stadium was already heated enough but they still didn’t change the script and the stage flames were blazed on, for which like thousands of people needed medical support. They also closed the air vents of the stadium so that fans won't be able to see the show without purchasing the tickets. Like all of these unethical acts happened and it caused someone's life to maximize their profit, and taylor still didn’t acknowledge the management's fault or didn’t call out the event organizer. I think she's heartbroken but at the end of the day she will fly on her private jet just to spend a weekend in nyc and provide her fair share of impact in global warming.

#anti taylor swift #anti swifties #swifties dni

18 notes · View notes

ratcatcher0325 · 1 year

Text

A Fraction of Justice (Chapter #27)

Happy March everyone!

Chapter #27. Natalie discovers why Alexander has summoned her home so quickly.

Previous: Chapter #26

Next: Chapter #28

Word Count: 5,700 Read Time: Approx. 44 mins

CW: adult language, angst

Tag list: @gatlily @patrocolus3 @beautifulunknowntrash @titan-god-420 @andraimeide @themarlo @cup-o-chai @lucentbliss @raccoontoaster @tolsizedlove @not-a-space-alien , @thegodmother007 , @honey-olive , @bittykimmy13 , @aceouttatime , @imvenusasaboy , @liminaldaze , @windshield-patent , @joxter-coded , @rosella35 , @narrans , @rubeau-art , @littlescaryinternetguy , @jae-from-discord , @kitn-underfoot , @secretly-small @writing-forever , @iinogongju , @tales-of-aestus-deactivated2023 , @itsgothgirlthyme , @make-me-giant , @reborrowing , @whatthisfemsheplikes

Btw, DM me if you wanna be added to the tag list!

___________________________________

A Fraction of Justice

Chapter #27: A Balm for the Mind

[Natalie’s POV]

I tore across my living room, ducked through the kitchen and raced down the short hallway to my bedroom door, before thrusting it open and practically tripping on the corner of my dresser, I finally managed to shove the bathroom door aside. As I pushed at the barrier separating me from the tiny man in my sink, I couldn’t help but feel a catch in my throat as fear trickled down my spine.

“A-Alexander? Are you there? Are you hurt? Are you okay? What was the big emergency? What do you need??” The words were pouring out of my mouth like a dam bursting forth, uncontrollable and overwhelming.

As I whipped around the corner, I heard him before I laid eyes on him. He didn’t miss a beat and the second I started shouting, he matched me with equal fervor, although the poor thing could never hope to match me in volume, “It’s about time, Natalie! Where were you??” That’s when my panicked gaze locked on to those familiar, tiny, blue eyes. There he was perfectly safe; this little life wading in the shallow pool of water in my sink basin. His left knee was bent, and tucked into his chest. His hair was wet, the roots darker than normal, as his locks stuck to his skull in an unkempt way, falling in tendrils into his eyes. He seemed… perfectly fine.

There was no blood, no scene of chaos, no cat, no disturbance of any kind, “Alexander what the fuck?? Is this your sick attempt at a joke?? I almost killed like three people just to get back—“

He cut me off with a hurried gesture before placing his index finger over his lips, and pointing at the ceiling with his other hand. His eyes followed the trajectory of the point. Was this part of the joke? Was he trying to scare me? I opened my mouth to demand an answer when he hurriedly shushed me. I stood there, baffled, utterly confused and beginning to get pretty ticked off, when it happened.

The sound was instantly recognizable: sharp, piercing, blunt. It was the chirp of the smoke detector begging for a battery swap. The disturbance made Alexander’s shoulders twitch as he immediately recoiled, groaning, as if at the end of his rope.

“…. Okay? Is, is that it?” Surely there was something I was missing here.

He leaned forward, rippling the water around him as he raised his brows, an utterly incredulous look on his face, “What do you mean ‘is that it’?? Do you have ears?? It’s grating! Did you not get my texts??—“ he was off on a tangent, but I couldn’t help the steam rising in my ears.

“Alexander!” That was a bit more forceful than I’d intended. He shut up, but flames still burned behind his eyes, “You made me lose my goddamn mind and literally almost murder someone, not to mention the copious traffic violations or the fact that my car is blocking a one way alley right now, because you had to listen to a mildly annoying sound for a few minutes??”

“First of all, Natalie, it started going off almost the moment you left. I’ve been suffering for nearly an hour at this point. Additionally, for both our sakes, I was attempting memory recall in regards to the vet, but that became instantaneously impossible the moment that godforsaken machine started its repetitive screech. I’ve got a splitting headache, I’m dehydrated, the water’s bone-chillingly cold and you forgot to give me any medication before you left on your oh-so-important errands so I am in rather significant pain. So please, please tell me, at the very least, you got the 9 volt battery I asked for and that you’ll save my auditory receptors from any more damage today.”

The poor little man had to shout over every one of those piercing chirps. I furrowed my brow and pouted my lip, “Oh! Oh you poor thing! I didn’t realize! Forty five whole minutes of pure agony, huh?” I placed my hand over my heart in mock concern. He was so absorbed in his own pity party he didn’t even realize I was being sarcastic.

“Yes! Yes!! It was truly awful. I sent an array of messages with detailed instructions…”

“And on top of all that, the water’s all cold and you weren’t even able to relax…”

“Precisely! I’m so glad you see it— wait—“ his eyes narrowed as he folded his arms over his chest, “You’re making fun of me aren’t you?”

“The little scholar cracks the case!” I shouldered the door frame, sporting a self-satisfied smile.

The little man rolled his eyes, leaning his back against the sink basin, “Natalie, please, you’ve put me through enough. Don’t pour salt in the wound.”

“I’ve put you—?? Little bastard, how many times do I have to emphasize I almost ran over a little old lady to get back here just for you to be a whiny bitch about a minor inconvenience?!”

“Well you don’t have to be so hyperbolic about it! You’re embarrassing yourself—”

I couldn’t help but raise my brow, “I genuinely wonder, sometimes, wether you can hear yourself speak…”

He sighed, catching my gaze, “The alarm… please. I’m about to jump out of my skin. And… well, I can’t exactly get it myself…” he broke eye contact and craned his neck to the ceiling far above his little frame.

“I should let it chirp all night. All it would take is a pair of earplugs and I’d be blissfully unaware.”

If looks could kill…

For someone who could barely wrap himself around my thumb, he could serve up quite the threatening glare. We locked off for a while, neither of us giving ground.

Finally, I shook my head. Who was I kidding? I let my shoulders drop from my ears. I couldn’t say no to him. If anyone was wrapped up, it was me around his tiny finger. You’re lucky I like you, little nightmare.

I approached the sink, he was still stiff and skeptical, unsure if he’d won this battle. I dipped my hand into the water, which, in his defense, was rather cold, “Come here… let’s get you warmed up…” My thumb moved to cover his chest, while my fingers curled around his back. He opened his mouth to speak, resisting my grip with tiny but determined hands, “… and I’ll get the alarm, just give me a second. I can’t do two things at once…” his lips pressed into a thin line at that. At least he finally shut up for just a second!

The pads of my fingers squeezed around his shivering torso, as I lifted him easily into the air. He gripped the pad of my thumb, wet hair in his eyes. I quickly met the left side of his body with my opposite hand, clutching a washcloth. He hadn’t quite managed a full on thank you, but I heard a little murmur of delight escape his lips when the warmth of my hands and the towel started to thaw him out. I couldn’t help it, even after he’d just pissed me off five seconds ago, I couldn’t keep myself from brushing his hair aside with the tip of my thumb. He could feel my gaze on him and the touch caught his attention enough to look up at me.

At almost the same instant that his clear, blue irises locked with my golden-green ones, his little face flushed with color and he suddenly seemed to find the countertop far beneath his feet to be a significantly more interesting subject to stare at. I, too, felt my temperature rise as I was compelled to work on the alarm and let the little man be by himself for a moment. He said not a word and neither did I. Setting him down in a bundle of fabric on the counter, I clamored up, one foot on the lip of the bathtub, the other on the closed lid of the toilet, “You happy, Your Majesty? I’m finally completing your Royal decree!” I shouted over a chirp which was now very much in my ear and made my head buzz.

He leaned forward, his left shoulder exposed, his palm flat against the cool surface of the countertop. He was watching me intently, “Are you sure that’s the safest way to do that?” Was that concern I heard in his tiny voice?

“Ahh, sure, I’ve done it like this a bunch of times. I don’t own a step-stool and I’m never gonna manage to fit a chair in here so… this is fine…” I turned my attention to fidgeting with the grey plastic circle with its blinking LED light and awful noise making. I managed to pull it from the ceiling with an easy twist and pinch on each side, but as I went to shift my weight to jump down, my foot pressed into the rounded curve of the bathtub, slipped, and I lost my balance.

“Natalie!” A little bundle of fabric jerked forward, arm outstretched. In the next heartbeat, I caught myself, gripping the counter in front of me and stopping my fall. We locked eyes for a moment before I hopped down.

When my feet returned to steady ground, I ripped the dead battery from the inner compartment of the smoke detector. During this, he’d settled back down, his good leg dangling over the cliff’s edge that was the lip of the counter. I placed the now, thankfully, silent hunk of plastic beside the sink and kneeled down, resting my chin in my hands, gazing at the back of a tiny, wet mess of blonde hair. After a few moments of silence, he turned over his shoulder, irritated, “What???”

“Don’t play dumb with me… you know what…”

He immediately turned away again, running fingers through his wet locks, “I don’t know what you’re talking about…” he practically mumbled into the fabric. I slid my finger across his sternum, hooking his chin and pulling his face towards me. He was flushed bright pink. I melted a little.

“What was that? You have to speak up…” he shoved at my finger, shaking his head and trying his damndest to hide his blush, I continued, a smile blossoming across my face, “You were worried about me! You give a shit, don’t you? All this stone cold bullshit? It’s an act and I’ve finally caught you red handed. You do have a heart in there after all….” I prodded his little chest, he rocked back and immediately batted at my finger, his brow furrowing and his lips tightening as he snarled. I was unfazed, I had him right where I wanted him, “You actually cared! It was all over your face! You, like, reached out and everything! Little cold-hearted grumpy man cares about this big dumb human!”

“I was not! I… I don’t! Well, I mean— You just frightened me, is all, I-I thought you were going to fall right on top of me!”

*****

She wasn’t letting go of this easily was she? How irritatingly predictable. Humans. They never could resist a chance to tease us if they got the opportunity, it seemed. Her gaze was inescapable, those warm, golden eyes sparkling with mischief. My face and chest felt hot… she beamed as she took in another breath, no doubt to continue this relentless game, when there was a sudden commotion outside.

The sound of a car horn blaring in long, irritating bursts and the voice of a human male shouting something incomprehensible but no doubt, angry, ricocheted through the walls.

“Shit! My car! I’m blocking someone in… hold on, I’ll be right back, okay? Dry yourself off. I’ve got something for you when I come back… even though you kinda don’t deserve it now for being a dramatic little dick a few minutes ago…” She rose as she spoke, crossing the cavern of space between the counter and the threshold in the blink of an eye.

“I was not—“ she disappeared beyond the threshold, paying my response no mind. I heard the jangle of keys being snatched up, as I shouted as loudly as I was capable, “Don’t call me a dick! It’s neither accurate nor sophisticated!” Her footsteps faded down the hall. Alone again.

I sat for a few moments in the blissfully quiet bathroom, my left leg bouncing against the counter’s edge. My better judgment told me not to lean too far over the edge. The drop was much too dangerous for me. I busied myself with wiping the beads of water from my skin. Some so big, I could pick them up in my hands and they’d keep their shape. I squeezed the moisture from my hair and had just about freed my right leg from the suffocating mess of cling wrap it was trapped in, when the tranquil quiet of this cramped, yet cavernous bathroom was broken.

I heard the slam of a car door, sounds of a man’s voice, then, a woman’s, even more argumentative and certainly louder than him. I cracked a smile. What a strange creature that human was. Next was the sound of car tires on gravel, then another honk and I swear I could hear “Fuck you, asshole!” In an enraged female voice. As the sounds of the quick-lived altercation faded from earshot, I pulled the cloth around myself, keenly aware of my nudity in this chilly bathroom. She’d plucked me up, with a sort of familiar nonchalance of picking up a toothbrush or a favorite pencil.

I found myself wondering for the very first time just what she thought of me. What kept her looking after me? I half expected any other human would have tossed me out a long time ago. Why hadn’t she given up? Maybe something really was psychologically wrong with her. It wouldn’t be a giant leap. It would certainly explain her wildly oscillating emotionality.

She’d said she had something for me, right before she left. I couldn’t imagine what that might be. I prayed to nothing in particular that it wasn’t another godforsaken polyester glittery nightmare shirt. Or some similar humiliation. I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to sink my teeth as hard as I could into the softest part of her flesh I could find if that were the case.

Still, it wasn’t possible her errands had been on my behalf, was it? Surely not. I remembered back to the first time I’d stood on this counter, stripped naked, shivering and soaked from a bath, and she’d insisted I wear that unicorn covered tie-dye embarrassment. She’d balked at my request for respectable clothes, then. Now that I thought about it, she hadn’t seemed keen to spend money on me at all. Well, that was out of the question.

So, food then? If so, the timing was right, I was half starved and in need of a round of medication. No more time to ponder, however, because the sounds of a door opening and slamming told me she’d soon stand before me to carry me to the next unknown adventure.

“… Son of a fucking bitch!” Yes, that was Natalie alright, always such… sophisticated… language. I heard the sound of something settling on a surface just outside the door and then there she was, standing…. Well, more like towering, before me. I leaned back on my elbow to see her better, as she blustered, “That guy was such a fucking asshole…” a palm came to rest a few inches from my left side.

“Well, you were committing a traffic violation, weren’t you?? I think he had some justification for responding in a negative—“

“Nope. No. Shut your face. Shut it right now. I’m trying to do something nice for you, don’t say another word or I’ll change my mind.” She hovered a finger over my chest, I scowled, but, nevertheless acquiesced to her desires. I went silent and pressed my lips into a thin line. I never took kindly to being told what to do, but I understood after the smoke detector debacle, I could stand to give her a little ground. She suddenly sighed, as if she’d been holding her breath, “Oh my god! I can’t believe that actually worked! Guilt tripping can really be an effective tool when dealing with an Alexander; noted!”

I rolled my eyes as heavily as I could while her fingers pressed gently into my back and she lifted me off the counter. She balanced my injured leg along the length of her pinky as her thumb pressed the fabric of the washcloth against my sternum. I had to give her credit, she was getting quite good at handling me gently. She hardly ever gave me whiplash from moving me too quickly or bruised my skin with too much pressure between her fingers. My heart didn’t drop to my stomach every time her hands came near. What a relief to my cardiovascular system.

I peered up, seeking some sort of hint as to what was coming next in those bright eyes. I loathed surprises. If a human told you they had a surprise for you, it was often some fresh form of humiliation or torture for their own pathetic amusement. And yet, despite the instinctual alarm bell ringing at the base of my skull, some other part of me dared to believe this was something good. Not a smart move to set yourself up for disappointment, Alexander. Yet, even as I chastised my own train of thought, a glimmer of hope remained. Maybe, just this once, I’d accrued enough karmic positivity or whatever forces of the universe were out there, to get something good coming back to me.

Gingerly, she sat me down on her dresser as she leaned back on the corner of her bed, directly across from me. To my left was some sort of plastic shopping bag, looking bulky and misshapen from the contents inside. I returned my gaze to her eyes, questioning, curious. She beamed down at me, clearly excited, “Okay, okay. Close your eyes—“

“Why? This isn’t some sort of payback for earlier is it?” I crossed my arms.

“No! Just… c’mon just close your eyes!” She groaned and rolled her own.

“I don’t know—“

“Dammit, little man! Let me have this! I’m trying to make this fun,” she leaned in, her chin resting on the silky, wood grain, her fingers closing in to sweep my hair from my face and rest lightly on my exposed, bare shoulder. I felt the heat rising in my chest again, just as it had earlier when she’d held me, “No more grumpy Alexander. Please? Let’s have a good day, okay? You deserve something nice. After all you’ve been through. Trust me. Will you trust me for five seconds?”

I swallowed. She was being genuine, I could tell. She’d gone out of her way, for me? “F-fine. Okay. Yes.” She broke into another sparkling grin, her eyes alight with the giddiness of a child. Her enthusiasm was infectious, I was suddenly abuzz with anticipation.

“Well?” She seemed rather impatient.

“Well, what??” I jumped, wondering if I’d stared at her just a bit too long. Before I had a chance to comprehend the situation further, the pad of an index finger was coming straight for my face, with all its unique swirls on the pad coming into crystal clear focus before blurring as she swiped down from my brow, along the bridge of my nose.

“Close your damn eyes, Alexander!” She giggled, exasperated.

Her touch tickled and warmed me at the same time. It was about the width of my whole head, after all, “Right! Yes! S-sorry.” I sealed my eyes shut as I listened to the rustle of plastic and crinkle of… paper? It sounded like she was unwrapping something.

My heart thrummed against my chest. I didn’t want to come across as some naive little fool, but… I’d never exactly been given presents like this before. Certainly, I’d been given clothing and some necessities but not without earning them first. I’d never been given something for nothing. There was a clatter of the mystery item settling on the dresser top. Something hard, and lightweight, just to my left.

“Ta-da! You can look now…”

When I opened my eyes, I saw two pieces of furniture before me. Closest was a cherry stained, swivel desk chair, with curved armrests and an upholstered seat made of rich, green leather, and just beyond that, a desk, stained the same, with gold pulls on the drawers. I couldn’t quite see the desktop from my downward angle on the floor. But these were unlike any furniture items I’d ever seen: these were scaled to me. I blinked rapidly, swiveling my head between these two objects and the hazel irises that were trained on me. My brow twitched and furrowed.

“Well? What do you think?” She was hungry for my response, her face flushed, eyes wide.

I couldn’t help but shrink back, “You can’t be serious. These… they can’t be for me…”

“You see any other little scholars standing at about five inches around here? Cuz I don’t…” she made ridiculous motions of peering around the room with her outstretched hand shielding her brow.

I couldn’t help cracking a smile before shaking my head, “N-Natalie…”

She wouldn’t even let me finish, before leaning down, “Here, you want a closer look? Come here, test it out for yourself. Let’s see if it gets the Little Nightmare seal of approval. Can I pick you up?”

I nodded slightly, a little dazed as her fingers wrapped around my middle and I found myself settling into the chair. My spine went board-straight as I breathlessly slid my hand across the upholstered, leather surface of the desk. It had a small embossed inlay of diamonds that gave it a beautiful oscillating pattern in the center.

In spite of myself, I felt my throat suddenly tighten as my brow furrowed deeply. I gripped the edge of the desk with all might, staring daggers into its surface until my shoulders started to tremble.

She shuffled close, her left palm cupping around where I sat, “Alexander? Hey…. Hey, what's wrong? Do you hate it? Did I do something wrong? You don’t have to like it, you can be honest with me…”

As I turned to face her, my image of those eyes clouded with worry, was obscured almost entirely with tears I couldn’t hold back, despite my best efforts, “I… I’ve never… I’ve never sat in a chair… before…”

“Oh, sweetheart…”

“It’s beautiful, Natalie. It’s absolutely beautiful. Thank you. Deeply, truly, thank you. I can really have this?” I’m embarrassed to say my lip trembled.

She smiled as her own eyes grew misty, “Again, do you see any other little men around here to compete with? Let me know if you do… maybe the next one I bring home will be sweeter!”

“I keep you line, that’s more practical than being sweet! You’ll appreciate me in the long run.” I took the much needed reprieve from the heavy moment to quickly wipe my eyes and shake off my emotions. She laughed at that, and groaned.

“You’re nothing if not true to your brand, huh? Well, listen, you can’t get all emotional about every one of these things, cuz I still have a whole bag of goodies for you. If you cry, then I’ll cry and then we will be here all night.” I ran my fingers along the polished wood of the arm rests, tracing its curvature, but what she said broke me from my trance and made me whip my gaze upwards.

“Wait.. there’s more??” I was genuinely baffled.

“Ha! Straight out of an informercial!” She stood to fetch something else from the bag as she spoke.

“An info-what?”

“How the fuck do you know how hydrogen peroxide reacts to tissue but you don’t know what an informercial is?”

I shrugged, “I can’t know everything! I’d become far too powerful for humankind to handle!”

“Little Nightmare, you’re already too much for humankind to handle, that’s why you got stuck with me. I think I must’ve sinned a lot in a past life or something. Okay, what’s next? Ahh, here we go…” she made a sort of trumpet fanfare with her lips before ripping away paper and placing another furniture item down, this time to my right. My heart skipped a beat as I took it in: a bed. It had a simple enough wooden frame and a garish pattern of red and blue flowers dotting the comforter, but it was a proper bed, nonetheless. I could let the eyesore go for now. Wheeling myself over to its edge, careful to keep the heel of my injured leg upright, I hopped from the seat of the chair to the mattress in one fell swoop, still clutching the towel around my otherwise naked body and reclined back, luxuriously.

“I bet you’re delighted. Now you can finally get some sleep in peace without some giant bitch hovering over you or touching you all the time. I know, it’s a dream come true. You’re welcome.” She propped her head up on her hand as she smiled teasingly.

“Natalie, you and I both know this will not deter you from swooping in unnecessarily close to my personal space at all times. I get no reprieve whatsoever.”

“You poor thing. You’re truly in hell, aren’t you? Is it comfortable?”

“Yes, actually. I’d assumed it’d be filled with lumps of polyester judging by the hideous covers, but it’s surprisingly firm and supportive.” Oops, I hadn’t meant to be entirely honest with her…. My mistake.

“Awww, I thought the flowers were cute… oh well. I can sew you something else you like better, later…” for a petulant human, she took my criticism surprisingly well. During the next few minutes she pulled out all sorts of other gifts: a mirror, a wardrobe, towels, my very own toothbrush, a razor, other hygiene products in impressively detailed bottles with fully printed labels that imitated their human counterparts perfectly. I felt a swelling my chest as she showed me item after item. She’d gone above and beyond. I felt utterly spoiled.

Finally, she revealed the last piece to this extraordinary puzzle was new clothes. I could’ve jumped for joy, except, of course, I’d never degrade myself to such a degree. The moment she told me, I could already feel the smart cut of tailored slacks, the comfortable embrace of a woolen waistcoat beneath a fine suit jacket, my collar buttoned all the way and adorned with a perfectly presented tie. I loved the elegance of a fine set of gentleman’s clothes. It may have been the one thing the old man and I could agree on. After all this time of wearing that humiliating smock, which barely managed to cover my manhood, I absolutely craved the comfort and security of three layers of sophisticated fashion. She’d instructed me to close my eyes once again, which I did without resistance, this time. As I sat on the edge of the bed, my right leg propped up in the desk chair, I could feel the heat and movement of her fingers as she presumably placed my new wardrobe next to me on the bedspread. I was beside myself with glee, I couldn’t wait to see what wonderful clothes were lying in wait.

Then, I opened my eyes.

Oh.

What surrounded me were clothes small enough to fit me, yes, but they weren’t at all what I was expecting. I spotted one pair of baggy slacks and and an uninspired sky blue button down but beyond that, it looked like sweatpants, t-shirts and hoodies galore.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” Her voice, up above, made me jump.

“Nothing! Nothing at all! They’re— great. Thank you.” I wore a perhaps too-eager smile.

“Oh, c’mon. You’re not getting away with that, little mister. You’re a terrible liar. What’s the problem?” Natalie had no interest in playing games, it seemed.

“It’s fine, really… it’s just…” I tried my best to sell my non-existent enthusiasm.

“It’s just?? What??”

“… I’m just used to something more… sophisticated. I’m most comfortable in a suit. I wore a suit everyday, before…”

She burst out laughing, my face burned hot, “Alexander… you’ve got one working leg at the moment and you’re just going to be sitting around the house for the foreseeable future. What in the flying fuck do you need a full on suit for?”

“You asked! Don’t complain when you get the answer you demanded! Besides, I don’t judge you for dressing in a monotonous variety of barely socially acceptable forms of pajamas everyday, don’t judge me for wanting a little elegance in my appearance! Despite how you found me, I’ve been known to maintain meticulous grooming. Unlike you, I get a sense of pride out of being put together. I just haven’t had much luck of it since you decided it would be just hilarious to dress me up like one of your dolls. I apologize if I’m looking for a bit more class than that nightmare you put me through.”

She threw her hands up, “Jesus fucking Christ, I get it. Well you’ll just have to suffer through wearing this trash until I can afford to get His Majesty what he truly deserves. Mea Fucking culpa. Can you at least languish in these rags for peasants long enough for me to go cook you dinner, Your Highness?”

My stomach dropped. I felt awful. Here she’d done all these wonderful things for me and I’d turned around and coldly insulted her. I swallowed the lump in my throat, “Natalie…”

“No no, save it. You’re right, as always. I got what I asked for.”

“Natalie, please…” I opened my arms wide, beckoning for her. She hesitated, her mouth turned down, her lips tense. I gestured again, “Give me your hand?” She threw her gaze askance and offered me her outstretched fingers. Landing on my good leg, I threw myself off the bed and embraced her pointer finger with both arms, bouncing and wobbling on my left foot as my little weight shifted her hand slightly. She hadn’t expected that, clearly, “I was a dick just now. A terrible, selfish, disgusting, unwashed, detestable, overly dramatic dick—“

A ghost of a smile played on her lips as I craned my neck upwards to catch her gaze, “Ew…” she muttered. I continued, unperturbed.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I said. I’m extraordinarily grateful for all of this. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” With that I laid my cheek on the side of her finger, flashing my eyes up at her through my lashes.

She scrunched her nose, cheeks turning pink, “Stop it! Stop being all cute when I’m mad at you! It’s not fair. You can’t cut me to the fucking quick and then bat those pretty blue eyes at me and have me right back. That’s manipulative! You’re a little master of manipulation, you know that, you little devious bastard??”

Normally, I’d take issue with being called cute, but right now it was working in my favor, “Thank you, sincerely, for everything.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. I’m on to you. Put some clothes on and I’ll see you in a minute.” She was smiling, at least a little, now, and that made my shoulders relax. With that, she gingerly lifted me under my arms and placed me back on the edge of the bed, “Oh, wait. You’ll need some help with that leg won’t you?” My inability to bend it would make it impossible to put on underwear or pants, without assistance, “Oh relax, don’t get all huffy, I’m not going to dress you, or anything, here…” In one swift movement, she eased open a shallow center drawer in her dresser and produced a pair of tweezers, just about the length of my leg. They were a perfect grappling arm to extend my reach, “Okay, now I’m outta here. Try to behave yourself for the next 30 minutes, please? I can’t take any more Alexandering all over the place today. You’ve frayed my nerves to their absolute breaking point.” I nodded in earnest, as she stood and headed for the kitchen. I thought about thanking her again, but by the time I got the courage to speak she was already gone behind the partially closed door.

I sat in silence for a moment, looking over the bounty of things that were now mine. My chest swelled. Before I got too emotionally compromised, I turned my attention to getting dressed.

Since my right leg couldn’t bend, I pinched the right side of a pair of navy boxer briefs between the two metal clamps, and held the far end of the tweezers under my arm, this allowed me to reach and slide my ankle through the garment without risking injury. It was the perfect solution and I was deeply relieved to be able to do it myself. I deeply loathed being dressed by clumsy human fingers and it had happened far too often with the overly condescending nurses in the old man’s final years, Thank you, Natalie, for keeping my dignity in tact.

With the aide of the tweezers, I managed to adorn myself with underwear and a pair of unsophisticated charcoal grey sweatpants with only minor strain. I looked about myself, weighing my meager options and decided on a similarly gray hoodie, sighing and sliding it on. Despite the all too casual feel and fit of the fabric, it was nice to finally be covered again. Feeling another pang of guilt for even thinking along those lines, I scooted myself over to the mirror with the aide of the desk chair on wheels. Maybe I’d look better than I felt. Maybe it wasn’t so bad.

Gripping onto the beveled wooden edge at the base of the mirror, I stood, with imperfect balance as I came face to face with my own reflection.

What I saw staring back at me made my breath catch: printed across the chest of the hoodie in crimson lettering were the words Harvard Law, complete with the shield-like crest of red and gold.

My heart beat faster as tears welled in my eyes. She’d bought me an actual Harvard Law sweatshirt? I clutched a fistful of fabric. Natalie, you’re not so bad after all, are you?

With newfound determination to be less of a dramatic dick (a characterization I still wasn’t convinced was at all applicable) I awaited her return, reclining comfortably on my new bed. Perhaps shutting my eyes for just moment wouldn’t hurt either…. It’d been a rather exhausting day, for both of us, after all.

#do you think Alexander’s emergency was an actual emergency?#look at him learning how to be #they grow and then instantly fall back into the same habit so fast #giant/tiny #g/t #g/t community #g/t writing #g/t related #size difference #g/t angst #gt #g/t fluff #a fraction of justice #oc:alexander #oc: natalie

71 notes · View notes

alexilulu · 6 months

Text

GAMES I PLAYED OF THE YEAR 2023, #1

(Next: #2)

OR: How I Was Let Down By AAA Dogshit

Razzies Award for Most Baffling Game of 2023 Winner: Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix, Creative Business Unit III)

Or: The Aristocrats, by Way of D & D (the Game of Thrones TV writers, not the tabletop roleplaying game)

Playing Final Fantasy 16 was an exercise that began as farce, then kind of morphed into tragedy, for me. This might be because of how I played it (my girlfriend played until the first Kupka fight, stopped playing when she saw the volume of sidequests that spawned after that, and I played the rest), or how thoroughly I felt that the game was doing something that was making me thoroughly depressed to see go where it did.

I think mostly I was hoping that the AAA, ultimate budget and engine that they gave CBU3 to run and play with, the indulgence from corporate masters to let them experiment and make something new that still rings with the Final Fantasy name, gave me Final Fantasy 14 with better skin shaders and shit.

I didn’t go into it expecting much on the politics; the magical underclass is ruinously powerful (they literally control the means of production with their bodies, villages are reliant on them for water because they don’t dig wells anymore) and simultaneously reviled, beaten and ultimately killed by their own power via crystallization. The world is divided by kingdoms…that all have agreed to a central banking standard that a merchant’s guild set and not a single one of them is doing wild debasement to? The planet’s dying, Cloud, but everyone’s way more focused on watching gay Bahamut cross cocks with Odin twice and then leave in the skies over another pointless battle?

All of which is out the window by the time Titan’s dead in the ground, btw. The plight of the Branded is wholly forgotten the moment the plot really wants to be about the world-ending god who wants Clive’s body, and doing things about free will and predestination without even a look back at how those themes play into the abject chattel slavery that a significant portion of the world lives under.

But somehow, it’s bizarre, disappointing and ultimately confused middle to final third aren’t really my biggest problem with the game, even if the finale was quarter-baked and vaguely infuriating. I can accept a fully vibes-based plot, even when it has pretensions towards a grand scale of movement and war (they really brought in a historian into the plot after the timeskip so they can pretend they have any cohesive idea of geopolitics going on outside of when you show up and the world starts ending somewhere immediately). I can even except the ‘fuck yeah humanity’ ass boring ending that’s supposed to make you feel like you read a fairy tale about the hero who saved everyone.

The combat brutally, terminally killed any semblance of care I could ever show for this game by the time I had all the eikons unlocked.

See, this is a thing that’s been a long time coming for final fantasy, ever since the first 13 game, when they introduced the idea of stagger and magic/physical damage, the idea of a high-damage state you put the enemy in and extend the duration of by applying elemental weaknesses that allows you to hammer them with physical damage. This was how FF13 worked and was designed around the 13-style turn-based ATB system, stacking up multiple moves on a bar, and it’s a little bit of how FF15 worked by way of Kingdom Hearts with a teleport button, but by FF16 the plot is lost completely.

You put enemies into stagger…by hitting them with anything. You get elemental-themed bursts you can intersperse between your sword strikes by learning a very basic one-two rhythm that speeds it up (because magic abilities do more stagger than physical damage, natch), and you have big flashy super abilities that are on a cooldown and are based on your eikons equipped. So you’ve got a pretty easy one-two of hitting them with basic combos and using your specials to tip them over the edge…

But wait. Your specials are also your biggest routes to high damage in the game. That’s where the big bad Phoenix wing swing is, one of the most simply effective damage moves in the game that isn’t Literally Gigaflare Beaming Their Ass. Do you want to use that for stagger…Or do you want to clear the fight in less than 20 minutes?

The stagger mechanic in 16 perfectly recreates the feeling of being in a DPS window in Final Fantasy 14 (for the luckily uninitiated, this is when you would all pop your party buffs at the same time, so that you all benefit maximally from damage amps and do your highest potency skills during to maximize your damage for the 20 or so seconds it happens during), to the point where it feels like they did it on purpose.

So, you get them in stagger, and the dance of holding R2 and cycling through your special abilities begins. You can have 6 of them at a time, so there’s a real flair to chaining them together, and it can feel great to just go through your rotation perfectly and end the stagger window with some light chain comboing for good measure. It even pops your damage up at the end so you can be like yeah! I did that much damage! I’ll only need to do that 3 more times to finish fighting this interminably slow dragon!

It’s fucking boring. It has the feeling of feeling good. It’s a little dopamine hit for you to just optimally nail things down, but there’s literally nothing to it. It doesn’t feel like anything. The rhythm to hit so that you get a full 8 hit combo of sword and burst attacks numbs the senses. The extraordinarily forgiving dodge that rewards precision with bonus stagger damage on your next hit feels like a single Skittle thrown into my mouth for doing a trick right.

I think that might be where I’ve landed on the game. Final Fantasy 16 doesn’t feel like anything. A moodboard of a video game, designed to death by a team that didn’t know any other way to make a game than to make more of what they made before (CBU3 are the primary minds behind Final Fantasy 14 before they split to work on 16 around 2020, with various parts of the team cycling in and out of Final Fantasy 14 in the ensuing years). Final Fantasy 16 is Final Fantasy 14 wearing Game of Thrones’ skin.

I do mean that somewhat literally; Non-primary cutscenes are shot and directed in the precise manner that Final Fantasy 14 non-voiced cutscenes are produced, down to the angle of the camera above the player model and the semi-canned animations that you will see a hundred times throughout the story. It feels uncanny, especially after they stated directly that during development that they specifically abandoned plans for a PS4 version that would ‘not limit the team’s ambitions’. It feels like the scope was crushed down to something they could complete in the 3-4 years they had afforded themselves for development.

Ultimately, it feels like a game that was built inside a box. I keep seeing all the ways they wanted to produce something grand, but I can feel how shoddy the set the actors are standing on really is. Final Fantasy 16: the off-Broadway production, coming soon to your Playstation Five Home Entertainment Console.

#Alexis Plays Games 2023

7 notes · View notes

daincrediblegg · 2 months

Note

Two questions: top 5 things that the Inexperienced Jared Observer should watch him in

Which Terror ep would you rate as Thee best and why?

OOOH HO HO AND I SHALL ANSWER WITH GUSTO Ok. Barring the obvious three choices (i.e. Foundation, The Terror, and Chernobyl, which are really the biggest powerhouses of Jared's acting abilities to date, and then the tier two shows: Carnival Row, Mad Men (it is a very good show overall but if you're there just for jared it takes a while to get to him and it takes a LONG time to get over him), and The Crown), these are my recommendations:

Certain Women His part in this movie is very short, but honestly. it really shows how much this man can do with such a little character, really proving the "no small parts only small actors" adage that folks like to throw around. I still think about him a lot. really showed such a range with so little and it baffles me to this day. Also it's an anthologized narrative and his part and also Lily Gladstone's role in it (her first film role ever btw) as being a horse lesbian with Kristen Stewart really makes it worth the watch a lot more than some of the other bit part things I've seen him in.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows I genuinely think he's my favorite Moriarty of all time. Full stop. he's just such a wicked delight, and it will forever make me curse Guy Ritchie for only giving him bit parts in some of his other films. absolutely criminal.

The Devil's Violinist @prismatica-the-strange and I absolutely did not go into this film expecting it to be as good as it is. we thought it was gonna be a flop. that Jared Harris was gonna play the devil and we'd have a laugh and that would be that. Incorrect. Turns out the guy playing Paganini is actually a bonafide child prodigy violinist and he blows a LOT of the musician biopic performances out of the water because he REALLY DO BE PLAYING THAT VIOLIN LIKE THAT. Oh and also Jared plays his manager who is literally the devil and he has a pincer beard. and he's a sarcastic little shit and he's just a delight.

Two of Us This was genuinely the first film that made Jared a lifelong stand-out name to me at age fourteen. iykyk. He also fulfilled every McLennon shipper's dreams with this movie by kissing Aidan Quinn full on the lips. So if you want an explanation of why he queer codes a lot of his roles, this is it.

It's really hard to choose between The Beast Must Die, The Quiet Ones, and the 2015 Poltergeist remake, so I suppose I'm gonna go with The Beast Must Die because he's a saucy little asshole and he absolutely looks the prettiest in that. But that's the bitch of it with : this man has made a career of making himself a highlight no matter what kind of bit part you throw at him, so like honestly anything in his filmography is worth watching. But yeah he's so pretty in the beast must die. That's all I got. As for the second question... man why can't I choose all of em? why??? 😭😭😭 I can't pit all these bad bitch episodes against each other at any given moment in time man. I love this show too much. I simply cannot choose. it's all so good. I would like to say it's ep 5 for the way jared acts drunkenly (best drunken performance I've ever seen in my entire life), but then I think about him on the gunwale with blanky talking about the reindeer and laughing and how much Jared literally changed from the script to make that moment so goddamn endearing and human. but then I also remember the moment blanky leaves him like??? DUDE. I can't. I cannot choose. my favorite episode is the whole show.

#ask games #jared harris

5 notes · View notes

ask-the-clergy-bc · 2 years

Note

How would the Meliora and era 4 ghouls react to a S/O who is an EMT/firefighter.

(Love your writing BTW. Its amazing!)

(Omg, thank you so much!! <3)

I wrote that the reader does both, hope this is ok!!

Era 3 + 4 Ghouls with an EMT/Firefighter S/O

Omega: As the current strongest healing ghoul in the entire clergy, it's actually really nice for him to be with you. It's very hard having the stress of so many relying on you all the time! You really get the pressure of having to help others with dire consequences if you don't. You both are so proud of the other, and help each other on the tough days!

Alpha: Alpha actually thought when you said fire fighter you meant you fight fire style! Pit fighting is a fire ghoul past time in Hell, and one of the most important sports there. So imagine his surprise when you clarified WHAT you do! You've actually found him to be an infinite well of wisdom when it comes to advice in your work! He IS the head fire ghoul after all! Jokes he's going to show up and steal your job!

Water: More interested in the fire fighter part of your job. SPECIFICALLY how your truck and the hoses work. Human contraptions still baffle him in the best way! A single water ghoul could probably summon enough water to stop a decent sized fire by themselves... but that hose is too interesting. He has asked you multiple times if you can bring one home for him to try!

Earth: Despite being a mischievous brat, even to you, he's lowkey worried whenever you go to work. Not just for fire fighting but for being an EMT too. He doesn't hate humans, but he knows they can be just as violent and dangerous as a ghoul- especially when injured or scared. He feels the best when you can text him to let him know you are alive. Always gives you a big hug when you're home but INSISTS it's not because he was worried!

Air: Humans are such fascinating creatures, and he almost finds a scholarly curiosity in your work. You have to remember he's not only centuries old but comes from Hell where these things are tribe efforts. Seeing how humans make entire careers based around a specific job has always been almost amusing to him. Regardless, he thinks you are very compassionate to want to help strangers all of the time.

Swiss: All of the jokes, every time your work comes up. Thinks your jobs are cool but he can't help himself! Swiss will do things like casually ask if he should start a fire to get your attention. Or dramatically call out that he needs medical help because his heart is giving out by how AMAZING you are!! When you aren't around? Brags about you constantly.

Mountain: Has pointed out that your jobs make you like an Aether and Fire ghoul, and that's very intriguing to him. When you first started courting he asked you so many questions about both of your jobs. What did you like about it? Was it scary for you? Do you often have to perform improvised medical treatment? When people ask him about you, you always blush because he always says," Oh- they save lives for a living." Made you emotional the first time he said it.

Cirrus: Very impressed and supports you being in such a risky field of work. Not many have the ability to do something so stressful, draining, but highly rewarding when you can help. She often asks you what keeps you going back to the work? Not to doubt you, but Cirrus loves hearing about your passion in helping. You weren't sure how she really felt about your job as it sometimes feels like she doesn't acknowledge it... but you've heard her brag about you before.

Cumulus: The keyboardist thinks you are so brave for what you do! Often makes sure that when you come home you are relaxed, well fed, and getting rest. She tends to assume that you are always on the go and tense for when you are getting your next emergency call. Cumulus tends to forget that humans are tenacious and have been doing this kind of work for a long time. But she means well!

Rain: Very proud of you but often worries. Not just for the danger you put yourself in but for the long hours you work. Humans just aren't resilient like ghouls! Rain does small things for you at home to help you. Like always making sure your work boots are unlaced and in a place you can reach in an emergency. Or slipping water elemental charms into your pockets for extra protection against fire. He's also concerned about your mental wellbeing from it but that's why he's there to support you!

Ember/Sodo: Thinks you're a total badass and will brag about you to everyone who will listen (and brag to everyone who won't anyway!) Will share your accomplishments and use them to showcase how cool you are. "My S/O just put out a giant building fire! What does YOUR s/o do???" Like Alpha, gives you so much advice on how to handle and contain fire. Will hype you up before your shift every time. "Go kick some ass!! or... save some ass!! "

Aether: Like Omega, knows the very daunting pressure of having a job you can't afford to make mistakes with. Besides the band, Aether is the second strongest healer in the clergy and has a lot of responsibility. He actually admires you so much for being in a similar positon. The fact that you actively sought out doing these jobs to help others when you weren't obligated? Absolutely touches his heart. Aether thinks you are just wonderful for it!

Bonus Special!!: Thinks you are so intriguing as a person. He's always curious of WHAT exactly makes a person live so selflessly and wanting to help others. Always happy to ask you about your day... you also don't know it but he has some of his power around you. To help keep you more safe. You only noticed when fire didn't feel as dangerous or you always felt overly calm when helping an injured person...

32 notes · View notes

chalkythetalkie · 1 year

Note

for the fic asks, BTS but you can choose the fic lol

BTS: I’ll write a DVD commentary about my personal favorite passage from [that fic]

This is from my most recent one, sex karma:

Ogata arrives at the coffee shop with a few minutes to spare, but Yuusaku is already there. He seems to have been waiting for a while, if the amount of twisted and torn paper napkins littering the table is any indicator. [this is a nervous tic i personally have and wanted to bestow upon yuusaku for no reason]

He thought he’d forgotten what Yuusaku's face looks like, but it all comes back to him in an instant. Yuusaku looks the same as he did before Ogata scared him off for good over 5 years ago – the same lively eyes inherited from his mother, the same handsome, boyish face. [i started working on this sequel wayyy before the Yuusaku Face Reveal, so the original draft mentions Yuusaku having the patented Hanazawa Bracket Eyebrows lol. It was a popular headcanon at the time!] The only thing that's different this time around is his hair, which had been completely obscured in the streams – his current neat side part suits him better than the buzz cut he was sporting years ago, Ogata thinks.

However, he looks like shit today – probably from lack of sleep. His eyes are bloodshot, the skin around them rubbed raw as if he’s been crying for hours. He sees Ogata approaching and immediately sits up straighter, looking up at him with a mix of relief and apprehension.

Ogata's never seen Yuusaku like this before. In public, he's always been the perfect picture of the ideal son. Even during the streams, where he let another side of himself turn loose, Yuusaku still kept this general sense of good-naturedness about him.

It seems that the stress of the situation had been enough to peel back that façade. [if you're wondering how horrible Yuusaku's night was, exactly, he made a panicked Reddit post at 2am telling his story and asking for advice from total strangers online but got his post removed from the subreddit bc everyone thought it was bait. all the while trying to frantically call Ogata and picturing himself being disowned by their dad]

“Brother,” Yuusaku says in a tight voice. Ogata can't help grinning as he takes the seat across from him.

“Yuusaku,” he replies nonchalant, reaching for the menu propped up in the middle of the table. Yuusaku visibly freezes when their hands almost touch, remaining tense until Ogata grabs the menu and opens it. “You want to order anything?”

Yuusaku stares at him as if he's gone insane. “Huh?”

“it’s only polite, after all. You did ruin this table's napkin supply, the least you could do is order something.”

Yuusaku looks down at his hands, his surprised expression betraying the fact he hadn’t even realized he'd emptied the napkin dispenser with his fidgeting. [i also do this] He tries to gather the ruined, crumpled bits of paper scattered on the table, but the resulting pile is even more pathetic than a scattered mess. [yes i've also done this]

Ogata skims the menu and calls a waitress over to their table. “Here, I'd like a piece of chocolate cake and an expresso,” he says. She jots down his order while discreetly side-eyeing Ogata's flustered table companion. “Don't you want anything, little brother?”

Yuusaku stares at him wide-eyed, like he's just been punched in the face. [that's the moment when yuusaku's peepee starts to harden btw] He manages to stutter out “w-water, please,” and holds his breath until the slightly baffled waitress leaves. [i didn't actually picture any particular GK character making a cameo as this waitress, but i invite readers to picture the one they personally think would be the funniest]

Ogata is having the time of his life – it’s about time a Hanazawa feels a fraction of the stress he and his mother went through all those years ago.

“Does anyone else know?” Yuusaku sighs, slumping his ridiculously broad shoulders.

“No. Just me.”

“Oh... OK,” Yuusaku blinks, seems to relax a little. “Then what... what do you want, broth—Hyakunosuke?”

“Straight to the point, huh? Didn't think you had it in you.” Ogata sets his elbows on the table and leans closer to Yuusaku. “But then again, you're a smart kid, right? Father made sure to enrol you in the best schools, and then in the best university... Surely an education befitting of the sole Hanazawa heir.” [i really like the bitterness in Ogata's voice here tbh. this is my favorite scene in the whole fic bc i honestly think i did a really good job at the dialogue]

The waitress returns to the table and Ogata leans back to let her set down the beautifully decorated slice of cake, his expresso and Yuusaku's bottled water. She glances at the small pile of ruined napkins and barely contains a sigh before going back to her post by the counter.

“What would the old man say, I wonder,” Ogata continues, “if he found out that the perfect son he’s invested so much time and money into spends his nights showing his ass to degenerates online?” [he wouldn't even get to say anything, bc the sheer stress of hearing the news would've made Mr. Hanazawa pop a brain aneurysm and die immediately]

Ogata takes a sip of his coffee, entertained by the sight of Yuusaku's face being drained of all colour.

“I... I'll do anything you want, Hyakunosuke!” Yuusaku whispers hurriedly. His eyes are welling up with fresh tears – God, how embarrassing is it, seeing a grown man lose his composure in public? “If you keep this secret... Please, I'll do anything.”

“Anything is quite broad, isn't it?” Ogata eats a forkful of cake, savouring the rich sweetness of it and the distress he's managed to cause in Yuusaku. “Anything implies limitlessness. Would you really do anything to keep me quiet?”

“I would!” Ogata raises an eyebrow at his lack of hesitation. “You... You don't know how father is. How he could get if he knew. “ [i headcanon Koujirou as a very emotionally abusive dad, even to (or especially to!) Yuusaku. Like, Ogata might think that Yuusaku got it easy bc blah blah blah blessed child, and in a way he did! but being raised to be a perfect person who always pleases others WILL fuck you up]

He has an idea of how Koujiro Hanazawa could get when his perfect, legitimate family life is disturbed by something (or someone) as scandalous as this. It wouldn’t be a good reaction, that’s for sure. [massive understatement lol]

“It's a deal, then? You'll do anything I want?”

Another sip of coffee as he watches Yuusaku’s throat swallow a silent sob.

“Yes... Anything.”

“I have the whole thing screenshotted, you know,” Ogata grins. “So don't even think that deleting everything will ever get you out of this.”

Yuusaku nods automatically, and after a beat he blushes violently, as if he’s suddenly realizing what the whole thing entails. Ogata wonders if he isn't dizzy already, what with all his blood flushing in and out of his face so quickly. [not pictured: in and out of his dick, too]

He continues to eat his piece of cake leisurely, letting the uncomfortable silence stretch until Yuusaku is squirming in his seat. He looks like he wants to say something, but Ogata doesn't intend to make it too easy for him. He's already been pampered enough in this life. [i just knowww that Ogata has thought Deeply/fantasised about blackmailing Yuusaku to his advantage before. The whole cake bit was mentally rehearsed for years]

“... H-How much did you watch—”

“—you want a bite? This cake is really good,” Ogata bluntly interrupts, pointing at his plate. Yuusaku’s lips tighten, but he eventually gives a hesitant nod. With how nervous he’s looking, it’s safe to assume he didn't eat anything before their meeting. He must be starving.

He makes for the fork, but Ogata pulls it out of his reach at the last second. Yuusaku looks confused as Ogata carves a piece of cake and points the fork at him.

“Open up.”

Yuusaku freezes, looking into Ogata's face, searching for a way out of this. There isn't one. [Yuusaku's boner coming back with a Vengeance at this exact moment]

“B-Brother—”

“Don’t be difficult,” Ogata says coldly.

Yuusaku hesitates for a moment longer, eyes darting from side to side as he checks if any of the coffee shop's other customers are looking at them. [they aren't. but the waitress is] Finally, he leans forward and bashfully lets Ogata feed him the cake.

“Delicious, isn't it?” Ogata purrs. Yuusaku nods, chewing carefully. Ogata carves another forkful, and Yuusaku takes his second bite with a bit less hesitation. [yuusaku strikes me as the kind of guy who has major sweet tooth]

It's funny, how he seems to have acclimated to the idea of following Ogata's whims so quickly. Such a natural-born doormat.

“Well, then, let's go,” Ogata says. He rises from his chair and Yuusaku looks up at him, dumbfounded. “You'll pay the bill, right?”

“W-What? Where are we going?” he gets up, a bit unsteady on his feet. Ogata’s eyes don't miss how Yuusaku’s hands unconsciously reach down to tug his sweater in place, over his belt. [boner CONFIRMED]

“We've got some shopping to do.” [i was originally going to detail the excruciating shopping torture in its own scene, but i thought better and realized i had already gotten my point across lol]

#asks #fics by me #YuuO #long post #like SUPER long i'm sorry it's the full scene

8 notes · View notes