#add a couple months on top of that for safety
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Solace
I finished my Reader x Rengoku fic! it’s also on Ao3, but here it is if you prefer to read it here!
(Rengoku x AFAB reader, canon divergent- Akaza doesn’t show up at the end of Mugen Train and Rengoku returns home to you. Mainly smut and fluff.)
Minors DNI
Kyojuro is never quiet when coming home from missions.
In combat, the man moves with stealth and graceful speed which could put even the sneakiest alley cat to shame. But returning in the dim light before dawn, excited and elated simply to be back with you, he bounds toward you with a broad, effusive grin.
“I’m back!” he declares, as though his footsteps didn’t just shake you from the bed.
But you can’t find it within yourself to be annoyed at him for waking you. Ever.
It doesn’t matter that it’s hours before you’re due to rise, or that he and his crow probably woke the whole village on their return. Before you know it, your smile is mirroring his, and you’re crushed to him, not knowing who closed the space between you first. You breathe in the scent of battle and dwindling smoke, and the familiar comforting warmth of him.
Your fingers press to his back, sliding up towards his shoulders, your heart squeezing with the relief that he’s home. He won the battle. He survived.
Strong, sturdy, and real beneath your hands. And yours, entirely.
You could cry; the lump in your throat dangerously close to choking you, but tears would only make him worry. So you press your face to his chest, letting him hold you, rocking you from side to side as he rests his cheek on the top of your head.
You breathe in his scent again and let out a sigh. "Do you want to go and tell Senjuro and your father you're back? Senjuro was so worried."
"In a little while," he says, tightening his hold on you. "My father usually wakes after sunrise."
You can't help but smile. He’s all yours, at least for a while.
“How was it?” you ask, muffled in his embrace.
“Hm?”
You pull your face away to let your voice carry to him fully. “How was the mission? The demon on the train?”
“Ah. Good.” He smiles, raising a battle-hardened hand to gently stroke your cheek. The intensity in his fiery gaze softens as he acclimates to the safety of your shared home. “We prevailed. But it took far too long.”
“Agreed. You were gone for more than two months.” You lean into his touch. And, knowing thanks to his hashira stamina, it’s likely untrue, you add, “You must be exhausted. We could go back to bed for a while?”
He chuckles softly, catching the meaning behind your seemingly innocent words. “I should clean up first. I’m sure I smell less than—”
His sentence dies against your lips as you pull him to you, unable to delay what you’ve been craving for months. And after a muffled chuckle of surprise, he reciprocates the kiss.
Kyojuro kisses like he fights; with every damn fiber of his being, burning you up as he drives you backward, pressing you to the wooden frame of the door and pinning you to it with his body. At once, you’re lost to the world, and all that matters is his lips, his fingers tangled in your hair, and his muscled thigh pressing between yours. Your body reacts to him so quickly you become lightheaded; heat pooling everywhere he touches.
Yours. He’s yours. And he’s home.
A sigh escapes you as he takes your hand in his, and pins your wrist to the door frame above your head.
You could list a thousand reasons you love this man, and one of them is the way he can snap in an instant from dazzling light and exuberant warmth, to an altogether more blistering, primal sort of flame. And you have always reveled in that blaze.
You slide down a couple of inches, pressing your core to the sturdy length of his thigh as you tug his lower lip between your teeth. A quiet groan escapes him, those gold and crimson eyes of his half-lidded as he drops his hand to the opening of your robe.
Kyojuro can– and has– spent all night undressing you and letting your excitement build before granting you release after release. And every time you’ve basked in that drawn out pleasure, trusting him entirely as you do, that the delay will be more than worth the reward. But not tonight. Not after two lonely months of nothing but your hands on your cunt, and gasping his name into the pillow.
“Kyojuro,” you whisper, parting the robe yourself until your breasts are exposed. “Please.”
“You’re so eager this morning,” he says, keeping his breath and voice so level you’d almost think your exposed skin wasn’t affecting him.
“I missed you.”
“I missed you too.” His lips part as he cups your breast, stroking a calloused thumb over your nipple. “If I’m honest, I spent a lot of time thinking about you. About this.”
Pride and pleasure blossom in your chest and snatch your breath, earning you a chuckle. He drops his hand lower, dipping it between the pillowy softness of your thighs.
Where it stays.
Firmly.
“Patience, Little Flame,” he tells you as he takes his thigh from between yours, leaving your pussy aching and wanting. “Let me clean up. I want to be the best I can be for you.”
God, this man. Even after being denied you by duty, he still relishes every second with you, drawing it out and savoring it. You may as well weigh less than a feather as he scoops you into his arms, putting his strength and training to use as he whisks you away to the wisteria-guarded private hot spring at the back of your house; another perk of living with a hashira.
He sets you on the wooden boards at the side of the steaming water, stepping away to leave nothing but the cool morning air to caress your burning skin.
“Let me bathe first,” he tells you, unfastening the cape from his shoulders and folding it carefully beside you.
You’re about to protest that he doesn’t have to; you’ll gladly take him smelling of smoke and spattered with demon blood, but Kyojuro is ever the gentleman. And besides, as his strong fingers begin to work open the buttons on his corps uniform, any protest you can conjure simply collides with your pounding heart and withdraws, defeated.
Because as beautiful as Kyojuro is in his uniform, covered entirely and bursting with pride, he’s somehow even more beautiful out of it. His body is sculpted by discipline, battle, and a love for food; strong, sturdy, soft and firm all at once. Every scar and bruise which marks his skin has no doubt served as a lesson; a reminder of how he could have reacted faster, fought better, improved somehow (and it’s Kyojuro, so of course, next time he will).
The sun breaks over the horizon, casting beams of golden light through the wisteria blossoms as he sets his uniform neatly on top of the cape beside you.
“Are you getting in?” he asks, stepping into the water until it reaches his hips. He turns to face you. “Or are you content with watching me?”
Your face prickles, surely as red as the tips of his hair as he grins and waits for your response. And thank God for the wisteria, hiding you from prying eyes as you sit, bare chested and flustered on the warm, smooth wood, fighting the urge to put your hand between your thighs and finish what you started against the door frame.
He seems to sense it too, his gaze dropping lower, to the epicenter of your aching desire. And for the first time since he got home, you notice his breath hitching in his throat as he wades toward you, placing his wet hands at either side of your knees and pushing them together, pressing a kiss to the seam of your thighs.
His eyelids close as he rests his forehead on your lap, his breath hot against your skin as your mouth becomes dry with anticipation and need. But he simply stays there, breathing you in, and, if he’s feeling at all the way you are right now, torturing you both.
Placing a hand on the back of his head you let it sink into soft golden hair and stroke down the back of his neck, enamored with the way he melts against you as you do.
“There were moments…” He’s quiet when he speaks, so quiet it worries you.
He turns his head to the side, eyes still closed as he rests his cheek against the pillow of your thighs, still holding them together.
“Moments?” you say, hoping to clarify. Your hand delves lower, into the firm valley between his shoulder blades. The corner of his mouth rises into a contented smile. You can spend every waking moment touching Kyojuro and he will never get tired of it. Fortunately, neither will you.
“Moments during the mission… when I was afraid I would not make it back to you this time.”
“Oh—” You snap your lips shut, pressing your unoccupied hand to them to ensure their silence. A weight in your chest presses against your ribs; the agonizing knowledge that this man you adore with every cell in your body feared for his life.
You can’t tell him that you imagine that very thing every time the kasugai crow summons him. Every time you awaken to find he didn’t return while you slept. Every time the sun rises and stains the morning sky red.
And no matter how blissful the time you spend together, no matter how bound to his soul you find yours, the fact will always remain that demon slayers rarely live long lives. To love a hashira, is to welcome death to loom above your happiness.
But you know Kyojuro well enough to know there’s nothing you can say to make him quit the corps. You'd have as much success telling him to walk away from you, or asking the moon to come down from the sky. Nothing can quell those twin flames burning in his heart; one for you, the other his duty to lend his strength to those who need it. Even in a world without demons, he would find some way to fight to protect the helpless.
“I believe in you,” you say, truthfully. Even if your heart torments you with thoughts that one day his crow will return without him, you have never doubted his strength or indomitable spirit. “No matter what happens, I want you to know that. You’re stronger than anyone I’ve ever known.”
"Thank you," he says, with heart-shattering sincerity.
In an instant his hands are on the boards beside your thighs, his arms taut and arrow-straight beneath him as he lifts himself partway out of the water until his lips are level with yours.
"I should be thanking you," you tease, hoping to lighten the mood and help him forget the fear. "You're putting on such a pretty show for me."
Loud laughter bursts from him, and God, it feels so good to see him happy and carefree. It warms your heart to know that you can give him that solace, this man who fights and faces death for people who don’t even know he exists.
“I need you,” he says with a smile, leaning into you and snatching your breath with a kiss before drawing back. “ Your belief, your strength, your warmth. I need you. In every way.”
You can't stand it anymore. Cupping his jaw in your palm you lean closer, bringing your lips tantalizingly close. "Hurry up and bathe, Kyojuro. I'll make certain those needs are met."
He laughs again, although this time quieter, holding your gaze as he lowers himself back into the water. “Beloved, when have I ever allowed you to meet my needs without ensuring yours are satisfied first?”
His touch sparks embers across your skin as his strong fingers skate between your thighs, finally allowing you to part them. You spread wide for him, letting him see you fully, knowing that you’re already wet, glistening with need.
“Mm,” he sighs hungrily, moistening his lips with the tip of his tongue.
He draws closer as you fight for breath, running your fingers through his fiery mane as you lean back and angle your hips toward him.
The wisteria blooms sway in the breeze as your skin pebbles.
Kyojuro begins as he always does, by kissing a path along your inner thighs, snatching the air from your lungs as your anticipation builds. He nuzzles the soft flesh of your pussy with the tip of his nose, and when his lips finally reach your core, he tastes you slowly, eyes closed and face perfectly serene. And he savors you.
He drags his tongue over your tingling flesh, tasting every bit of you and sighing softly as you gasp and buck your hips beneath him.
But soon, any semblance of hashira discipline crumbles as he grows drunk on you. His hands skate over your thighs, hooking behind your knees to lift your legs onto his broad shoulders. And you know you’re done for.
Kyojuro relishes you like you’re his last meal, his tongue voraciously lapping your clit until your fingers in his hair curl into fists.
Afterall, he never knows when he’ll be called away from you. So he makes it count.
It’s no secret the flame hashira loves to eat, and being his favorite meal is pleasure like you've never known. You gasp as he presses his tongue to your entrance, licking a stripe through your labia to your clit, before surrounding it with the wet heat of his eager mouth. His tongue flutters against you; insatiable, skilled, and hellbent on driving you to climax.
"Kyojuro!" You cry out as your trembling legs wrap around his back, holding him to you.
That earns you an appreciative groan before the wet sound of his mouth on you fills the air once more. Your back arches as he pushes a thick finger into you, stroking you inside as he continues to devour your cunt.
His gentle moans vibrate against your clit as he licks and licks, and he whispers a reverent, "Delicious."
His approval drives you wild, lifting your hips to grind your pussy against his face as shivers of pleasure roll through you, driving you closer and closer to the peak of ecstasy.
“M–more…” you whimper.
Far be it from him to deny you.
You gasp as he slides another finger into you, his other hand spreading your folds so he can lick you harder, deeper, while sucking your clit as though it sustains him.
You come undone with a cry, legs trembling against his back as your fists unfurl to press his face into your pussy. You know he adores this, when your control fully snaps and he knows he has done well, that eager mouth still working you. He groans as your pussy throbs and pulses against his tongue, squeezing his fingers as they continue to pump into you, emerging only so he can put them into his mouth and taste you again.
“Umai,” he whispers, smiling as you lay shattered and delirious with pleasure beside the hot spring.
You chuckle as you ride the ebbing waves of your orgasm, vaguely aware of the flame hashira climbing out of the water and wrapping you in his arms. Before you know it you're inside, lying on the bed.
"Are you ready, Little Flame, or do you need more time to recover?"
You shake your head, gazing at him as he positions himself between your thighs. His broad, muscled chest is flushed pink with a combination of warm water and arousal.
He'll wait as long as it takes if you need it, but there's no denying his excitement. He holds his cock firmly in his strong, scarred hand, gently sliding his thumb through beads of clear precum weeping from the slit. He shivers as he gazes down at your semi-naked body, teeth tugging his lower lip.
God, there's so much you want to do to this man, but if the world is kind, you'll have time for that later. Right now you need his cock inside you. You need simple intimacy, his body against yours.
"Now," you tell him. "I need you now."
You gasp as he slides his dick between your folds, coating it in your slick wetness before teasing your entrance with his tip. And when he enters you, there's no resistance; you're already so wet and ready for him. His back arches as you take him all, your bodies slotting together as though you were made with each other in mind.
For every hour Kyojuro has spent studying flame breathing, he's dedicated the same to studying you. He’s noted your reactions every time you’ve been together this way, memorizing exactly where to touch you, the speed you like best, the pressure, the intensity. When Kyojuro fucks you, it's an art form, and he’ll spend all day dedicated to it if you let him.
That's when it becomes apparent that those muscles aren't just for show. The control he has over his body is almost supernatural, rolling his hips against you, making sure that with every stroke your pleasure builds so that all that's left for you to do is...
"Breathe," he tells you, as if he isn't the one driving the air from your lungs.
But you try, for him. You try your damned hardest, fingers pressed to his shoulders as you pull in a breath.
"That's it," he sighs against your ear. "Good. So good."
Your face grows hotter. "Is it good for... ohh God."
Kyojuro’s lips part around a silent gasp as he pushes deep into you and your body shivers beneath him. Sparks of pleasure shoot through your lower belly as he thrusts. Your grip on his shoulders slides to his broad chest and around his back, pulling him to you. He yields to you without resistance, closing the space between you until his body is flush with yours; hot and heavy, pressing you into the mattress as he kisses your throat.
"Is it good for you?" You continue, not because there’s any doubt, but because his praise and approval only adds to your pleasure.
He knows it too. "So good, Little Flame. You're taking me so well."
You could spend eternity with Kyojuro and never stop craving him.
Basking in the soft warmth of your cunt, his throat flexes as he parts his lips around a desperate whimper, his breath hot against your throat as he grinds his hips against yours. Tingling heat builds between your thighs as he pumps his cock into you, arching forward to suck your nipple between his lips, strumming it with his tongue.
And you know too well he’s holding back. Kyojuro won’t come like this; he’ll have you on top bouncing on his cock when he’s good and ready for that. No, this is for you, and it doesn’t matter how long it takes; the hashira’s stamina is apparently limitless. But his cool is most definitely crumbling. And when he gets excited he gets loud. Every thrust is punctuated by a desperate moan, the feral sound of it making your toes curl.
“So warm, and wet for me,” he practically growls into your ear as he grinds his hips against your clit. ”I was away for too long. I wanted you so badly. I couldn’t take care of you like I wanted to, but I’m making up for it now, aren’t I?”
You cry out in pleasure as his movements become deeper and more urgent, “Yes.”
“My Little Flame,” he whispers. “All mine.”
Your second orgasm spills through you like molten iron as you cling to him, riding the waves of your release.
“That’s it,” he whispers as you shiver beneath him. “Oh, god, that’s it, that’s it. That’s my girl.”
This man. This man and his damned mouth. You’re no sooner back on earth than you’re craving him again, pushing against the firm wall of his chest and angling your hips to roll onto him. He picks up on your cue immediately, pulling his cock out of you and flipping the pair of you over.
“Are you sure?” he asks, his breath coming in short, sharp pants just for a moment or two before he reins it back. “I can keep making you come until you’re fully satisfied.”
“I am satisfied. And I want you to come,” you tell him, lowering yourself onto his dick. Your head tilts back involuntarily as you take him once more.
As you start to ride him, his amber eyes are trained on you, awestruck as his hands grip your hips, not guiding your pace (he's completely at your mercy in that regard) but holding on to you as though he's afraid you'll somehow slip away from him.
You may not be able to fight away the demons which threaten to hurt him or the horrors those eyes have witnessed. You may not be able to expunge every worry and burden from his life like you want to. But you can give him this. You can give him solace in simple pleasure.
And, if you’re honest, there’s something about watching this man melt beneath you. There’s nothing like seeing your powerful, indomitable warrior reduced to a whimpering wreck as he loses himself in you. It’s a power which only serves to heighten your pleasure.
"I thought about this every night," you tell him. "About riding you like this and watching you come undone."
His throat flexes as he swallows, his gaze following the movement of your chest as you bounce on his cock. There's no doubt he's enjoying the view, but it's impossible to resist doubling over to kiss him, letting him moan against your lips as you slowly rock on top of him. Your heart squeezes with the knowledge that you’re making him feel good, that right now, he’s content and safe and gasping with pleasure because of you.
This is one of the few times Kyojuro is lost for words, but words are unnecessary. You know how good it feels from the pink tinge on his cheeks and blossoming over his chest, from the way he loses the battle to keep his eyes open, closing them and throwing his head back to moan as his fingers dig into your hips. You know he’s close from the way he arches his back, lifting his hips so he can thrust into you as his grip on control slips entirely.
You know all this because he is yours.
“I’m going to come–” he whimpers, his golden irises barely more than a sliver beneath his heavy eyelids. His breath blows hot and hard against your skin as his body undulates beneath you.
When he comes, it’s with a cry, thrusting up into you so hard it forces the air from your lungs, his grip on your hips so tight it will surely leave bruises. And you ride him throughout, driving him into over-stimulation as the sounds of his pleasure fill the room. All that power, all that strength and firm muscle quivers beneath you but you know him well enough to know not to stop.
You ride him as he bares his teeth. “Yes. That’s it. One more,” he whispers, taking your hands in his and pulling you down to his lips. “I know you have one more for me.”
He places his hand between you, sliding it down your body until his fingers brush your clit, sliding through the warm concoction of his spend and your wetness. He teases your swollen flesh, the blush on his cheeks growing darker still as you continue to grind against his overstimulated cock. Your legs burn, your pussy aches. But God, you need this, you need him. It doesn't matter that you’re spent and more than satisfied. You need more, more, more, the two of you trying desperately to claw all the pleasure you can from a world which demands so much sacrifice.
Your orgasm tears through you quickly, your exhausted body giving you just enough pleasure to earn rest for both of you.
He holds you. His lips are cool against your burning cheeks, showering you with gentle kisses as his hands stroke lazy paths along your back.
You lie atop him, ear pressed to his chest as his heart beats against you; steady, constant, and yours. There’s so much you need to tell him, and he already knows all of it. You love him, you missed him, you hope his kasugai crow never calls. You hope that one day you’ll see that golden hair of his turn silver and that his smile will never fade as he reminisces about the days gone by where he fought for humanity; days which will seem like an absurd dream.
But none of it needs to be said.
“You’re home,” you say instead, your voice so soft you doubt he heard it.
But he chuckles gently, coiling your hair around his fingers as he sighs contentedly. “I am.”
#rengoku x reader#kyojuro rengoku x reader#rengoku fanfic#rengoku smut#i did it#rengoku x y/n#rengoku x you#kyojuro x reader#kyojuro x y/n#kyojuro x you
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I just feel like we should talk more about how fucked up it is that Batman sees Jason's death as his greatest failure even though in every possible way Steph's death was a way bigger failure on his part.
Batman took an untrained child as Robin out of spite in order to hold her safety hostage for the purpose of manipulating another child. During that time, he constantly and cruelly antagonized her instead of training and mentoring her. And unsurprisingly a couple months later she died in the suit.
The failures that led to Steph's death were much more numerous and much more egregious than the failures that led to Jason's death.
And just to add a final fail topping to a fail sundae he doesn't even acknowledge any of this. Where is Steph's creepy and fucked up memorial?
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Hope you're having a good day/night! I come with a request if you want to write it (if not then that's cool!) What about a Charles Smith x reader where it's like 2 or three months after leaving with him to help the Wapiti people and reader finds out shes pregnant, and is super worried to tell him because of everything going on, of course he finds out though.
a promising future
☆ thank you for requesting! i love charles so much and i had fun writing this, i hope you enjoy reading <3 !!
warnings - pregnancy ( lmk if i'm missing any ! )
w/c - 1.8k
it had been nearly three months since the downfall of the van der linde gang. you and charles had decided to stay up north with the wapiti people and help them get to safety, rather than go back to beaver hollow. this gang had meant a lot to you, and the fact that it was falling apart was hard for you. you were close to so many members, including a couple who had unfortunately already passed away. you knew it was inevitable, but you had decided you’d rather not see the absolute end, so you stayed with charles. he was all you needed anyways, he was the love of your life, and he meant everything to you.
you and charles helped rains fall and the wapiti people pack up and move up north to canada, helping them get away from colonel favours and the army, in hopes of giving them as much freedom and peace as possible. you were happy to help, rains fall and his people were nothing but kind to you, and they deserved the best they could get. however with the stress of helping them out, you started to feel sick, and oh so exhausted. it’s just stress. i’m not resting enough. i haven’t been drinking enough water. you tried to convince yourself. deep down you knew that wasn’t true, but you didn’t want to add any more stress to you or charles’ life.
you and charles hadn’t exactly been careful when you’d slept together recently. you hadn’t had much time to yourselves, so you took advantage of every moment alone, which resulted in neither of you caring about where he finished. you had been around when abigail was pregnant with jack, and you had a lot of the same symptoms she did back then. there was no doubt in your mind that you were pregnant, and you were terrified.
you wanted to tell charles, you really did, but with everything going on these past few months you could never find a good time. you figured the last thing he needed right now was to be told that he was going to be a father, that you had a baby on the way. you knew that normally, under any other circumstances he’d be happy. but now he was working day and night, doing what he could to help the tribe get settled, helping with the sick, and getting them what they needed. you didn’t want him to worry about you and your baby on top of that.
you knew charles had noticed you were out of sorts, of course he had. he was very observant when it came to you especially, and you caught him looking at you worriedly here and there over the past few weeks. he knew you’d come to him when you were ready to talk, so he didn’t pry.
you were lost in your thoughts, helping with the laundry with some other tribe members. you heard someone come up behind you and rest their hand on your shoulder, you knew immediately who it was. he brushed your hair to the side, kissing your neck gently. you leaned into his touch, humming happily.
“hi charles” you said with a smile.
“hi, my love,” he said, placing another soft kiss to your jaw. “i was going to go out and hunt and get something for dinner, i was wondering if you’d like to come with me?”
you smile, and nod. “yeah sure, i’m just about finished with laundry anyways.” you wrung the water out of the shirt you were washing, laying it out on a rock to dry. standing up, you wiped your hands on your skirt and turned around to face charles, grabbing his hand as he led you to your horses.
“have you found any good hunting spots around here yet?” you say, patting taima gently and making your way over to your own horse, tightening his saddle and giving him a sugar cube.
“i found one decent spot close to here that had a bunch of deer, other than that i haven’t had much time to hunt.” he made sure taima’s saddle was secure and mounted her, waiting for you to do the same.
you hummed in response, mounting your own horse and riding beside charles out of the tribe’s current camp.
the ride was quiet, but not awkward. there was a lot of comfortable silence between the two of you, which you never minded. he led you a short while away from camp to a grassy clearing next to a thick grove of trees, where you saw a herd of deer lazily grazing.
he held his finger up to his lips, motioning you to be quiet so you didn’t scare away the deer. you nodded, slowly and quietly getting off your horse and drawing your bow from your saddle bag, charles doing the same.
you crouched down next to him, stealthily making your way closer to the deer. you got close enough that you’d be able to land a good shot, but still far enough away that you wouldn’t scare the herd. you both drew your bows, aiming at different deer. charles landed a clean shot, and while yours wasn’t as clean you both managed to take down the two deer with just one arrow each.
charles looked over at you with a smile, “nice work as always, my love.” he grabbed one of your hands, kissing the back of it gently.
“i could say the same to you.” you said with a smile.
you both stand up, making your way over to the deer, slinging the one you killed over the back of your horse and securing it. usually a quick hunt such as this wasn’t too tiring, but you were quickly starting to feel exhausted. you watched as charles secured his deer on taima’s rump. he then made his way over to you, looking into your eyes deeply, as if he could read all your thoughts.
“are you feeling okay? i know we’ve had a lot going on but you seem... distracted?” he took your hands in his.
you took a deep breath. you needed to tell him. he deserved to know. god, how do you even tell someone this? would he be upset? would he be excited? your mind was racing, your hands shaking in his. you started to tear up, your anxiety taking over.
“hey, hey, it’s okay.” he pulled you in for a hug, running his hand up and down your back comfortingly.
you rested your head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, trying to collect yourself and your thoughts. charles didn’t press further, he just continued to hold you until you were ready to talk.
you took another deep breath and took a step back, looking him in the eyes. tell him. he looked worried. tell him. he continued to run his hand up and down your back comfortingly. tell. him.
“i’m pregnant.”
he stiffened slightly, his eyes going wide. “really?” he looked you up and down slowly. “you’re actually…?”
you nodded, looking away from him and at some random spot in the dirt. “yes. i’m sorry, charles.” you said quietly.
“sorry? my love, why are you sorry? this is great news!” he replied immediately, his hands moving to cup your face gently.
“we’ve had so much going on lately… i was worried that you’d be upset because we’ve been so stressed between everything that’s happened between the gang and the tribe...” you rambled, pausing for a moment. “you’re happy then?” you looked back at him, your eyes starting filling with tears once again, this time happy ones.
“of course i’m happy. sure we’ve been busy, but i love you, and i’m more than excited to start a family with you. in fact i’ve been wanting to start a family with you, and now that we’re out of the gang, we don’t have as much to worry about. no more bounties on our heads and pinkertons breathing down our necks.” he grinned. “and i have to be honest, i suspected you might be pregnant, but i hadn’t had an opportunity to talk to you about it.” he chuckled, wiping a stray tear that slipped down your cheek. he looked you in the eyes, then leaned down to place a soft kiss on your lips.
he wasn’t upset at all. he wants this, he wants a family. he’s happy. you kissed him back, wrapping your arms behind his neck.
you let out a sob as you pulled away, tears flowing down your cheeks. “i’m so glad.” you laughed, relieved. of course he was happy, why wouldn’t he be?
you giggled as he peppered kisses across your face, kissing away your tears. he pulled you in for another kiss on the lips, soft, sweet, and passionate. you didn’t pull away until you were both out of breath, resting your forehead against his.
“i love you.” you sighed.
“i love you so much.” you stayed like that for a moment before he reached into his satchel and pulled out a little envelope excitedly. “i almost forgot to tell you, i got us a place. it’s not much as of right now, but i’ll fix it up real nice for us. for our family.” he showed you the deed, which confirmed his statement.
you grinned, kissing him again. “oh charles, this is wonderful, thank you. thank you so much. how did you even afford this?”
“i’ve been saving as much as i can from all the jobs we used to go on while we were in the gang. it wasn’t much at first, but it added up.” he smiled. “we’ll still help out the tribe, of course, but i thought it was about time we got a place of our own. i want our baby to live a better life then we have, and i’ll do anything to make that happen, you hear?” he grabbed your chin gently. “i’ll do anything to make you and our baby happy, because if you’re happy, im happy.” he pulled you in for a hug, kissing the top of your head gently.
you stayed like that for a while, the rest of the world around you forgotten. for all you cared it was just you and charles in that moment. eventually as the sun started to sink below the trees, you decided it was time to head back to camp, lest the spoils of your hunt go to waste. you mounted your horses and made your way back to camp together, happier then you had been in a while. for once your future looked promising, and you were more than happy to be spending it with charles, and eventually your baby.
#rdr2#red dead redemption 2#red dead redemption fanfic#charles smith#charles smith x reader#pursuedbyamemory writes
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Werewolf breeding Pt 2
Werewolf x Reader Werewolf x Y/N
Warning: Breeding, Slight Dub-con (maybe), Creampie, Rough sex,
He pushed forward, entering her slowly, allowing her time to adjust to his incredible size.
Y/N bit her lip, trying not to cry out from the pain, but also savoring the indescribable sensations coursing through her body. This was no ordinary coupling - it was a dance of fire and ice, a collision of two worlds. The alpha wolf didn't seem to notice or care about her discomfort, instead focusing solely on his own needs.
She closed her eyes, trying to block out everything except the feelings pulsing through her body. Every part of her ached, yearning for release. The wolf's movements grew faster, harder, and more demanding. He grabbed her hips roughly, pulling her closer to him, and then released her suddenly, making her wobble on her knees. He seized her shoulders, forcing her back onto her haunches, and mounted her again.
His hips bucked wildly, thrusting into her repeatedly, driving her closer to the edge. Y/N felt tears welling up in her eyes, and despite the agonizing pain she felt buried beneath layers of intense pleasure, she wanted to continue. No matter the cost, she wouldn't stop. And finally, when it became too much, when her very soul threatened to tear apart at the seams, her body convulsed in a glorious, uncontrollable orgasm.
The alpha wolf followed suit shortly after, letting loose a triumphant howl that shook the ancient rocks surrounding them. For a brief moment, the cave resounded with the duet of their ecstatic cries, celebrating the union of two distinct species.
But amidst the tumultuous joy, Y/N realized that this mating was wrong, terribly wrong. Deep within her heart, she recognized the gravity of the situation – she had become pregnant with the wolf's offspring. But it was already too late. The deed had been done, and there was no turning back.
Overcome with emotion, Y/N wept silently as the alpha wolf rested beside her, his eyes still brimming with pride and affection. They remained entangled in each other's arms, sharing the weight of their forbidden love.
Throughout the night, Y/N struggled with the idea of carrying the wolf's pup within her womb. Yet, she refused to leave the cave until morning approached. Unable to find answers within herself, she sought comfort in the alpha's touch, hoping that perhaps he might understand her concerns better.
Later that evening, as moonlight streamed through cracks in the cave ceiling, painting shadows upon the couple's nude forms, the alpha broke away from her embrace and turned toward her.
Gathering her close, he whispered tender words of reassurance into her ear, promising to protect her and their unborn child.
Despite her misgivings, Y/N found solace in the knowledge that she wasn't alone anymore. There was someone who cared for her and their future offspring, someone who would stand by her side come what may.
Time passed quickly, and soon eight months had gone by since their first encounter. During those months, Y/N had grown accustomed to living among werewolves, learning their ways and adapting to their harsh life. Although she often wondered whether she should have stayed amongst her people, she couldn't deny the connection she felt with the alpha.
One day, Y/N decided to venture outside the safety of the cave to explore the lands beyond.
She knew the risks involved, but she yearned for freedom and autonomy more than anything else. Carefully selecting her attire — consisting mainly of tight leather trousers that showcased her curves, paired with a snug top that revealed enough cleavage to tantalize any passerby — she confidently strode forth into the unknown territory.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you wanna be tagged in smut post put your username in to this form and I'll add you to the tag list
#smut#monster#monster smut#smut writing#werewolf#werewolves#nudity#x reader#reader insert#werewolf x reader#x y/n#y/n#werewolf x y/n
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Intruder
Iwaizumi x Reader
Summary- Watching scary movies with Iwaizumi freaks you out more than you'd like to admit
TW: Like a baby gore scene. It's not even gore, but a scary movie is described.
Angst is in this as well.
You watched the movie through your fingertips. Only opening them wide enough to catch a few scenes now and then. Iwaizumi who sat next to you is loving every second. The jerk doesn't even seem phased by the gory scenes of a friend group that's currently getting slaughtered at a summer camp.
Peeking through your fingers once more ad you hear the screams have died down you believe you're safe and the worst is over.
"You scared?" an amused voice comes from beside you.
"No." Yes. Why did he insist on watching this movie? There was nothing happy about this. Nothing that left you giddy when the two main characters finally got together after painfully pining for one another the entire movie. Nothing in this movie made you laugh so hard your ribs hurt, you just didn't get it, but you have to stay true to your promise Haji always sits through whatever chic flick you turn on, no matter how sappy.
"I think you're lying." he takes another try at getting to admit how scared you really are.
"Am not." To add emphasis to your point, you scoot away from him and the safety of his arms. Dragging your fluffy blanket and the skittles packet with you.
He just chuckles "Okay since your so brave I better not see you trying to creep back over here"
"Not gonna" to show you're done with the conversation you turn your attention back to the TV.
The movie is almost over so you think you are in the clear and won't be needing Hajis comfort for the rest of the movie anyway. The main character just settled into her new apartment and it's a couple months post-summer camp. She's narrating how her life has been and how she misses her friends. When she turns off the lights and starts heading for bed, you start mentally preparing for the end credits to roll, but before you can finish preparing the camera swivels to a new angle that reveals the window behind the lead for a brief moment. Just for a second, you catch the killer silhouette once more before the window smashed open. You snatch your cat up (despite her disgruntled groan) and pull her in close so you have something to help your pounding heart. The lead screams before twisting her body around in time for the killer to be on top of her and once again using his knife to cut and rip the last victim that escaped him before. The killer turns slowly to make eye contact with the camera breaking the fourth wall. Finally, the end credits roll.
You turn to look at Iwa and he's already staring back at you smugly with how you're clenched up. You release your cat who scurries away and finds a new spot to glare at you from across the room. She cleans herself as if she was trying to tell you 'How dare you touch me".
"Not scared, huh?" He brings up again
"Like I said, I wasn't I just saw my opportunity to hold bug, and I took it. It's not every day she'll let me hold her," You gesture to your cat across the room.
"Uh-huh. Whelp I guess it's time for bed." He stands up throwing his arms above his head yawning "I have to be up early tomorrow the team is getting to the gym around 6 to squeeze in extra practice time," He sets his own glass of water on the counter before he starts down the hall.
"I'll be there in a second" you call after him. You fold your blanket up and neatly rest it on the backrest of the couch. Before finishing your glass of water and placing it on the kitchen counter next to Iwa’s. Starting towards Your shared bedroom with Iwa something in your chest stops you from heading to bed without double-checking the front door lock. Reaching the front door you're glad you checked because it was indeed unlocked. Seeing the now secure and locked door puts you at ease, allowing you to turn and head for bed.
Finally reaching the bed you take off your socks and crawl in. Being petty you don't immediately curl up next to Haji like you normally would. A respectable amount of space lies between you two. Not realizing how tired you were you close your eyes and drift off.
***
A crash coming from down the hall wakes you.
Holding your breath so you can strain your ears for any more noise that you might catch. You seem to be the only one out of the two of you who is startled because Haji is still sound asleep beside you. So, you're left alone to try to figure out what the sound was. Did you remember to lock the ground-floor window? Why would it even matter? A locked window does nothing to someone who just breaks through it. Your ears heard differently though whatever broke wasn't the glass of a window it was worse. Whatever broke came from inside the house.
Realizing this throws your brain into thinking a million different things a minute. Going through all the possibilities you settle on the back patio door. Was that one locked? the front door wasn't locked so why didn't you check the back, stupid, stupid, stupid. A second crash coming from the same place down the hall interrupts your thoughts from scolding yourself. Hearing this makes you turn to do the only thing you know to do at this moment.
"Haji, Haji!" You whisper yell. This doesn't cause him to stir, so you try again.
"Haji!" You shake him and slap his arm. If someone was in the house, you only had minutes before they found the bedroom you currently resided in.
"Hmm?" he mumbles through his pillow.
"Th-There were two crashes and I-I think there's someone in the house" You always make fun of the really corny movies when people keep on dropping their keys. Thinking it's so unrealistic, but being in a situation like this where your blood is pumping so fast that it renders your ability to speak. You don't want to imagine what it would be like to try to unlock a door under this type of stress.
Hearing the panic in your voice causes Iwa to come to his senses. He's immediately up and in danger mode.
"Where?"
"Down the hall, I think from the kitchen"
He stands from the bed before exiting the room he grabs his old baseball bat from his closet. Creaking the door open he sticks his head out and looks down the hall. You see him fully step out and creep down the hallway.
All you could hear was your heart in your ears. It was pulsing in your neck, out of your temples, and hammering in your chest. It felt like hours, but it really couldn't have been more than a minute gone by waiting. Waiting for what? A scream, another crash, but nothing comes just silence. someone pushed the door again opening slightly wider than before so you know something stirred it. In a flash, something is on your chest. Ready to scream your brain processes what it is. It's just Bug your twerp of a cat.
The door is pushed open one last time and Haji comes through. Your heart sores with relief. He stores his bat back in his closet.
"Bug just knocked our water glasses off of the counter," He says simply
Finally, the hammering in your chest slows, and you let out the air you've been holding in for so long.
Haji rounds the bed one more time and swings his legs back into the covers scratching Bug behind her ear one final time before she jumps off your chest and runs again.
Finally, alone he speaks again "You were scared." He tilts his head at you.
"Yes, okay I was terrified okay." You admit not even caring anymore. That experience surely gave you a few grey hairs. Giving up whatever grudge you had earlier you scotched closer basking in the warmth that was Hajis arms. You don't understand why you were so stubborn to admit earlier that you were scared. Being held like this is nice. It's especially nice now knowing that Haji has a man mode. Where he will defend the house. It was really hot to see it in action.
Snuggling closer, you can finally close your eyes and rest.
"Scardy cat" He grumbles one that time before you playfully slap him on the chest and he chuckles.
You have the feeling you're forgetting something, but the two blood-rushing experiences you went through tonight have you waving that feeling off and ignoring it.
You wish you hadn't though.
It turns out the back patio door really was unlocked. Allowing the nights intruders inside.
Feedback and requests are always appreciated! <3
A/n: Not really sure if I am in love with this ending, but I wanted a not-so-happy ending so this is what I pieced together
#iwaizumi x reader#iwaizumi x y/n#iwaizumi x you#iwaizumi oneshot#hq iwaizumi#iwaizumi drabble#iwaizumi haikyuu#iwaizumi hajime#iwaizumi hajime x reader#a teeny bit of angst
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Okay my sweet, light-hearted little headcanons about Carmy time
He has fallen asleep anywhere and everywhere because he may not sleep well at all, but he’s not really one to ly awake staring at the ceiling
He’s doing something, whether that be watching tv, cleaning his floors, drawing, etc. until he passes out wherever he was doing it
Why not add joint pain to the constant malaise he has going on
In terms of ages, I hc Carmy as 27, Sugar as 34, and Mikey would be 43
So when Sugar’s born, Mikey’s 9, and when Carmy’s born, Mikey’s 16 and Sugar’s 7
Mikey lived with his mom for a good few years after he turned 18 and had to move back for a couple months once or twice
When he did move out, he still lived super close and came over every Sunday to keep making his braciole
Carmy thought Mikey was the coolest person in the world for years and years, and he never quite shook the want for Mikey to think he was cool back
He’s sleepwalked on and off since he started elementary school
The first time it happened, Mikey was up drinking and hanging out with Richie, and Carmy just walked over and stood in front of them
He didn’t move for a while so they started stacking pretzels on his head
They got pretty far but eventually laughed so hard they woke him up
A couple years ago, Carmy finally started doing research when it started getting more frequent, and he bought a child safety lock to put on his bedroom door
He only did it when he had a string of them until he started sleep cooking
He’s a sex-neutral asexual and either generally queer or straight when it comes to romantic attraction
He uses he/him but doesn’t mind it when people use they
I would read an extraordinary amount of fics with him and Syd as queer platonic partners or even just platonic roomies
I’d probably put Syd as aroace, ace lesbian, or lesbian, and Carmy is her platonic life partner, they are besties for the resties
Syd moving in with Carm and actually getting some decor in his lifeless little apartment
They hug, they lay in each other’s laps and watch tv, Syd braids the top section of Carmy’s hair back
They also deal with Carmy’s nightmares and several mental illnesses, and Syd never ever taking a break from actively cooking and making things and messing up her hands, and they take care of each other when dealing with their endless stomach issues
They’re a team of cool cooking powerhouses, forever and always
In relation to them being besties and Syd braiding his hair back, he decides he wants to learn how to do it himself
Whenever he’s had longer hair, he either gelled it back, threw it in a ponytail, or didn’t do anything with it, so he has very little experience here
She lets him practice doing her teeny tiny braids, and he eventually gets the hang of it
Braiding becomes a new hyperfixation for him, he’s determined to be good at it, and he gets fidgety as hell during his smoke breaks because in theory, he’d have time to braid someone’s hair which he desperately wants to do, but in practice, everyone would be too busy and he’d be too embarrassed to ask anyway
After a lot of trial and error, he finally figures out how to braid his own hair back
So if he can get it how he wants it (for this perfectionist? Very rarely) he’ll come to work with it like that
At some point, his obsession overtakes his embarrassment and instead of taking a smoke break, he braids Sugar’s hair, and during family, she braids his, which she hasn’t done since he was maybe five and refusing to get haircuts
And that’s all I have at the moment, but my brain is so full of him!!
#carmy berzatto#carmen berzatto#the bear#the bear fx#smoking tw#headcanon#asexual#qpr#qpr headcanon#roommates#hyperfixation#sydney amadu#sugar berzatto#natalie berzatto#michael berzatto#mikey berzatto#sleepwalking#richie jerimovich
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i want to say something i’ve been thinking about for a while and figured this would be a good forum for it since a lot of people are discussing how they feel about how Jungkook has changed during this solo era. I think this is something that I thought I was struggling with alone but its starting to look like its not the case based on everything I’ve read outside of Twitter/X (that’s a whole new world these days, unfortunately).
I think what a lot of us are experiencing with Jungkook is really tied to the parasocial relationship we have with BTS, as well as cognitive dissonance. Since I became an army, Jungkook is the member I’ve least been able to connect with at an emotional level, after Tae. Ironically, we have a lot of things in common, including our intense adoration for Jimin. Despite that, I have always thought of him as someone kind, talented, passionate, and ambitious. None of those things have changed so, why is it so difficult for me to be interested or engaged with any of the things he’s doing nowadays? He is obviously the most active member right now, and everytime I go on twitter there is a lot of content and a lot of people reacting to that content. 80% of the time I feel annoyed by this and then I get this very guilty feeling of “why do I feel this way?”
I don’t know if others are like this but in my experience the more I am exposed to something I’m not that interested in the more I start to resent it. Unfortunately, I think that’s been the case with JK since every time I go online in army spaces I just see things about him and not Jimin (who is obviously my bias lol). When you add the whole pseudo bad boy schtick on top (something I’m 100% turned off by) then it starts to become really annoying to engage with his content and all of the overwhelmingly positive (i.e. horny) reactions to it all the time (on army twt that is).
Additionally, my “attraction” for BTS really was based on this perception that they are men that provide this sense of safety, unlike most other men. Their music wasnt fixated on “getting” women or bragging about them, in fact the whole opposite, there was this profound feeling of appreciation of women, among the other topics theyve discussed in the past like mental health. So now, that I’m being spoonfed this music that is exactly what I don’t like from any male artist, then there’s this sort of subconscious feeling of betrayal.
I feel like most of us are trying to convince ourselves to look past everything he’s putting out because he’s someone we’ve admired a lot. But honestly that just puts a lot of pressure on him when instead that we probably need to do is just not engage with things we’re not interested in. I know that’s exactly what I would do with any other artist so the fact that I’m trying to force him to fit into the box of “things I like” when he doesnt anymore is kind of unfair to him too.
There are many reasons that justify why he is choosing to act like this now. I’m a couple months older than he is and I’m also struggling to figure out who I really am and what I want to do with my life. I think its fine for JK to go through this journey and I get why he would need to make these mistakes in order to actually mature. I’ve just realized that the best thing for me to do is distance myself from it without feeling like a solo or an anti just bc I don’t resonate with what he’s putting out and am not interested in engaging with that all the time.
Anon, I love your mind and I think you hit the nail on the head here. In fact, you even helped me realize a few things that have been bugging me ever since Seven was released.
Firstly this: "He is obviously the most active member right now, and everytime I go on twitter there is a lot of content and a lot of people reacting to that content. 80% of the time I feel annoyed by this and then I get this very guilty feeling of “why do I feel this way?” - I have been asking myself this question for months now and you just gave me the answer.
The fact it, that while other members' debut and eras lasted a month or two at most and then sort of died down, I feel like I've been bombarded with Jungkook's content for months now, even during Tae's release. Even since Seven came out, JK is continuously everywhere - Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and almost all the posts I ever see anymore are of him, despite me also biasing Jimin. As you said, since I also don't have any interest in this "pseudo bad boy schtick", but was basically forced to consume both it and "the overwhelmingly positive (i.e. horny) reactions to it" all the time, it became tiring and annoying to me as well.
On top of that, as you wrote, BTS was a safe place for me , too. As a female presenting person, I am so tired of listening to music and consuming content about men “getting” women or bragging about them" (brilliantly said). I really felt safe and secure with BTS, as artists who respect, understand and value not just women, but all genders, and by extenstion I felt safe in the fandom. But the fandom itself changed with the release of Seven. It was never as horny, deranged or overly sexualizing, as it is now. For example, I feel like I have been literally followed everywhere by comments about "champagne confetti" and "Jungkook is a confirmer head pusher".
For me, the type of music JK does now is truly exactly what I don't like listening to from other male artists and the fact that it was coming from a member of BTS, was jarring to me. Rather than it being a "light playful shock", it really was more of "a subconscious feeling of betrayal", as you put it, and I am only now realizing it.
I am not a person to make myself try to like something I don't, but since it was Jungkook doing this music, I still subconsciously have been feeling guilty for not supporting him. Even though I don't actively force myself to listen to it, there is still this urge in me to do it, because this is BTS and I have always supported them, and yet I can't seem to do it, which adds more to my guilt and frustration.
I think these feeling really are due to our parasocial relationship with BTS and Jungkook, who for some of us have been an important part of our lives for years. But honestly, as you said, this truly isn't fair to Jungkook as an individual and an artist. Firstly, this despite JK being a part of BTS, this isn't BTS music. This is Jungkook as a solo individual artist. Whatever reason he had to want to choose this path for his career, it is his right and prerogative. It is time some of us, including me, to accept that the Jungkook we see now and his music, are simply not for us anymore and to distance ourselves from it. Even though I am a heterosexual person , exactly at the age to not mind songs with such adult themes, I actually feel too old for this type of music now. It is maybe best suited for someone in their early 20s, than in their 30s. It simply isn't for me.
We should let go of the guilt for not being able to support Jungkook the way we are used to doing for years with BTS and simply let him live they way he wants to. For his own peace, but above all, for ours.
When BTS reunite again some day, we will have our safe place again.
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Borrowed Time | One
Summary: On her first day, Crystal learns about the reason why she was called to help Maverick on the mission, which leads them to a much needed talk.
Warnings: cursing
Word Count: 2k
Author's Note: I promised me I was going to post this only after I had everything ready but I have no self control. So here we are, hope you all enjoy it. Special thanks to @zablife for being a constant supporter of this story.
◄ SERIES MASTERLIST | NEXT CHAPTER ►
If there was one thing that Crystal hated was being disrespected, yet, being her father’s daughter and choosing to be in the military made her more than used to it. That’s why she ignored the buzz when arriving at the base. Some people greeted her, some did their best to avoid letting her know they’ve seen her. Nothing new.
An ensign is waiting for her at the entrance to escort her to Admiral Simpson’s office. When they arrive there, he opens the door for her to enter. Inside she found Maverick standing in front of the desk where both Admiral Simpson and Admiral Bates were sitting.
She salutes them, taking the spot beside Maverick, as appointed by Cyclone.
“Lieutenant Commander Kazansky,” Cyclone says.
“Admiral Simpson, sir.”
“Do you know why you’re here?” He asks.
“Commander Madden briefed me, sir.”
He nodded, focusing on Maverick and something inside you said that shit was about to hit the fan.
“The hard deck is 5,000 feet above ground level.” Cyclone started. “A parameter is set not just for the safety of our pilots, but for the safety of their aircraft. 5,000 feet is not just a rule. It is a law, as immutable as gravity.” He exclaimed.
Crystal had been working in the base for a while now under the supervision of Commander Madden. When her superior explained to her that Admiral Simpson had personally requested her to participate on this mission she had been confused.
Of course she knew that Maverick was there, they hadn't seen each other but her father had told her about it. Besides that, there was the gossip about Pete “Maverick” Mitchel being back at the Top Gun program as a flight instructor again.
Now she understood that Cyclone wanted her to watch over Pete. The only problem was that Crystal knew him well enough to know he would always find a way to bend the rules, many times with her father’s aid. Her being there would do little to tame him.
“The hard deck will be much lower for the mission, sir,” Maverick says.
“And it will not change without my approval!” Cyclone exclaimed energetically. “Especially not in the middle of an exercise.” He added. “And that cobra maneuver of yours? That could’ve got all three of you killed. I never want to see that shit again.”
Things were worse than she expected. Maverick was a teacher for only a couple of days before getting himself into trouble—with another Admiral, may she add. Maybe that was the reason why he only lasted two months as an instructor at Top Gun back in the day, after both he and Ice graduated.
“What exactly do you suppose you were teaching, Captain?” Warlock asks, looking at Maverick.
“That as good as they are, sir, they still have something to learn.”
“You are talking about the best fighter pilots on the planet, Captain.” Cyclone objects.
“And they’ve been told that their entire career, while they’ve been dropping bombs from a high altitude with little to no dogfighting,” Maverick says. “The parameters of this mission call for something they have never encountered.”
“And you agree with that, Icebreaker?” Cyclone turns his attention to Crystal.
“With all due respect, sir, when you believe that you are the best that is, you also believe that there’s nothing you can’t do. You lose track of your limits, of your weaknesses.” Crystal pondered. “This mission will push them beyond anything they know and, although I don’t know them personally, they would need to know that there’s always something that you’ve never done, something you have yet to learn.”
Cyclone seems to take her words in for a minute.
“Okay.” He agreed, focusing on Maverick. “You have less than three weeks to teach them how to fight as a team and how to strike the target.”
“And how to come home.” Maverick cuts in, making Warlock look at Cyclone that visibly gets uncomfortable. “And how to come home, sir.”
Cyclone sighs, leaning back on his chair, his next words are solemn.
“Every mission has its risks. These pilots accept that.”
“I don’t, sir.”
Looking down at her feet, Crystal reflects on a few things: what was at stake at this mission, both Cyclone’s and Maverick’s responsibility, the life of these pilots… It was too much. She understood where Cyclone’s motivation came from—protecting the country; but she also understood Maverick’s motivation, she understood the place he was coming from.
“Lieutenant Commander Kazansky will accompany you in every class from this day on. She’ll assist you and also prepare in case she is needed on this mission.”
Crystal’s eyes widened as the unknown information and exchanged a look with Warlock before Cyclone continued,
“There will be a problem for you to perform your task considering your connection with Captain Mitchel?” He directed the question at Crystal.
“No, sir.”
“Good.” He said, exchanging a look with Warlock before focusing on Maverick once more. “Every morning, from this day forward, you will brief us on your instructional plans in writing. And nothing will change without my express approval.” He orders
“Including the hard deck, sir?” Maverick asks.
Fuck.
“Especially the hard deck, Captain.” Admiral Simpson emphasizes.
When Mav puts the folder on the desk, in front of Cyclone, you have to fight the urge to smile—Crystal could bet a limb that that was a request to lower the hard deck.
“Sir.”
“What is this?” Cyclone asks, not touching the folder.
“It’s a request to lower the hard deck, sir, to practice a low-level bombing run per the mission parameters.”
Crystal could tell that Cyclone wanted to ground Pete then and there. She was even more sure that the only reason he didn’t do that was her father. That’s why she was more than surprised when he sighed and granted his permission, dismissing them.
“You could learn a thing or two about timing, Captain.” Warlock says as the three walk down the corridor to exit the building.
Once they’re out of the other officers at the parking lot, Mav is quick to engulf her in a tight hug.
“You were the last person I thought that Admiral Simpson would request as my babysitter.
“I’m not a babysitter.” Crystal protests.
“Yes, you are and we both know that.”
She rolls her eyes, saying, “I think he forgot the part of why I am in the Navy in the first place was you and not my father.”
He held Crystal at arm's length so he could take her in.
“Please, don’t tell me that I’ve grown since the last time you saw me.” she jokes.
“Okay.” He agrees with a smile. “I won’t.”
“Breaking hard deck on training, are we?” She raises a brow at him
Maverick scoffs.
“Let me guess, there’s more to it than just wanting to piss off Cyclone while you make your students learn something?” She asks, recognizing the discomfort in his posture.
He studies her for a second before asking. “Do you have a moment?”
They end up at the backyard of one of the military houses provided by the Navy for their personnel. It was quiet and almost cozy as he offered her a mug of coffee and sat beside her in the steps leading to the kitchen.
“Okay, spill.” Crystal says, taking a sip of her drink, watching as he takes the seat opposite from her.
“This mission… Is more than they can handle.” He sighs.
“You don’t know that.” She says.
“They’re not ready.” He insists.
“Okay, there’s more here than you’re giving me, what is it?” She asks, wanting to confirm her suspicions.
And then he tells her. About the project, how he pissed off Admiral Cain and how Ice got him to come back to Top Gun.
“There’s more than that.” She insists. “It’s Bradley, isn't it?” Crystal asks, making him look at her. “Yeah, I did my homework, I know who he is.”
Goose’s kid. She remembered him from when they were young and the kid was joined by the hip with Maverick. Crystal used to be jealous of him, it was like she was forced to share her godfather just like she had to share everything with her brother. If it wasn’t for the photo her father has of him from his graduation and the one from his profile, she wouldn’t have been able to recognize him.
She comments on the matter with an almost shy smile playing on her lips, trying to lighten the mood. “Used to be jealous of him because of it.”
Mav chuckles, “Always competitive.”
“I’m sorry?” Crystal feigns hurt. “I grew up with an older brother and military men all around me, what did you expect?”
Taking a sip of her drink she continues “Why is he mad at you, in the first place?”
Maverick sighs. “I pulled his papers from the naval academy.”
“You did what?” Crystal chokes.
“I know, I know.” Pete looks down in shame.
“God, ‘m not surprised that he is mad at you.” Crystal says. “I would too. That must have set him back years in his career.”
“Carole didn’t want him to fly.” He says. “He doesn’t know that.”
“His mother?” Crystal asks.
“Yeah.”
“I see.” She thinks for a moment. “You remember how mom never wanted me to go to the academy. Dad never said anything but even though he is happy now, I’ve always had the feeling that he also didn’t want that for me. But they let me, because it was my choice, not theirs.”
Maverick looks at her and says, “I know. I know.”
“Look, I know you must have him as a son, that you tried to fill this hole for him after what happened with Goose, but choosing what was best for him wasn’t your place, neither was Carole's.”
“He wasn’t ready.” Maverick says.
“You should’ve trusted him regardless.” Crystal exclaimed, voice a notch higher. “We have to learn from our mistakes because there will always be a time where nobody will be there to soften the blow.”
“Are we talking about Rooster or me?” Maverick asks with a raised brow.
“Both of you.” Crystal smiles. “Look, I know how much you love flying and that you will do whatever it takes to continue doing it but… Dad won’t always be here to be there for you. As you won’t always be there for Rooster.” She takes a deep breath. “It’s all the same for both of you—making your own choices and learning from your mistakes.”
She pauses, exhales loudly, taking a deep breath before continuing, “Look what trying to control his life got you. He still pursued enlisting and he ended up a fighter pilot, even though you tried to stop him.” Crystal looks at him and almost pities the way her godfather looks. “And you probably lost so much. Both of you. Graduation, conversations that you should’ve had, heartbreaks, bonding over the joys and pains that being a pilot is… I remember that dad had to step up and be there for him at his graduation, and although I know he was happy and it must have been an honor, all things considered, it should’ve been you. You’re probably the closest thing to a father that he has.”
Maverick doesn’t fight her or try to defend himself, his gaze fixed on the mug in his hands. He seemed to think for a second before a smile appeared on his lips.
“When did you get so wise?”
“That is all mom.” Crystal answers, making them both laugh. Knowing that he needed a moment of his own to think about what they just talked about, she changes the subject. “Any warnings you might want to give me for tomorrow?”
“Did you do your homework?” Maverick asks, a grim on his lips.
“Yes, yes I did.” She says. “You have some very interesting pilots there.”
“Welcome to the jungle.” Maverick jokes, making her chuckle.
Crystal couldn’t wait.
◄ SERIES MASTERLIST | NEXT CHAPTER ►
#bradley bradshaw#bradley rooster bradshaw#bradley bradshaw x oc#bradley rooster bradshaw x oc#bradley bradshaw x reader#bradley rooster bradshaw x reader#bradley bradshaw imagine#bradley rooster bradshaw imagine#bradley bradshaw fic#bradley rooster bradshaw fic#top gun: maverick fanfic#top gun: maverick imagine#amysteryspot#mystery writings
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hullo! I LOVE the idea of the Harrington’s being a safe house for borrowers! Could you go into that AU a little more??
This is such a late reply I’m so sorry but here’s a little bit more!
So, the Harrington household is pretty big. It’s a huge house. That coupled with the fact that it often has low human traffic but lots of food means a good place for borrowers to live. There’s already four families living there, consisting of the Wheelers, the Hendersons, the Sinclairs, and the Hopper-Byers.
Around the time season one takes place in the canon, Steve has a run in with the party. I’m still not sure what this encounter would exactly look like, but the kids are all out being stupid kids and get caught. Steve is still a popular kid in this AU, but he’s not a bad person. He’s highly confused, there’s a group of tiny kids on his counter, but he doesn’t keep them and let’s them all run back into the walls. To him, it was a fever dream.
Even though the kids try to keep the encounter a secret, Joyce and Hopper learn what happened. Hopper instantly goes to grounding all of them, but Joyce decided to try and brave it and thank Steve. She also has parental instincts like no other and knows Steve’s parents aren’t the best to him. She may be much smaller than him but that’s not going to stop her. Steve once again is caught off guard but he’s starting to realize that, holy shit, there really were tiny people living in his walls.
Months pass with these encounters between the two parties becoming more frequent and more friendly. Steve has stopped hosting parties for the safety of his newfound housemates and is slowly finding that, wow, Joyce is probably more of a mom to him than his actual mom and he’s somehow adopted a bunch of kids. Since his parent are almost never home, he decided to add a few new things to his house to make it more safe and open to his housemates. He’ll occasionally see someone walking along the borrower-sized catwalks he installed near the top of the walls and smile. Seeing someone outside of the walls slowly becomes more and more frequent.
Borrowers may be small and not have a lot of access to quick means of communication, but that doesn’t stop the words from getting around that there’s a safe place for borrowers in Hawkins. New borrowers begin to show up, asking for refuge and safety. He consults with everyone and they come to an agreement that the house is definitely big enough for a whole colony to fit and live peacefully. No one gets turned away.
There are times when things get rough. His parents do ask about the catwalks once they find out about them, and Steve ends up adopting a cat to cover that up. He makes sure the cat is borrower-friendly though, and Mrs. Henderson seems to love it. At some point, legitimate borrower hunters show up in town and try to target him and his new family. That is luckily stopped but it leaves everyone in the household on edge for a long while afterwards.
By the end of this AU, Steve is adopted by Joyce and Hopper, he himself has basically adopted the party and treats them as his younger siblings, his platonic soulmate Robin knows about his crazy household and is just as protective of it as him, and Eddie joins the picture after being saved from an animal attack. One big happy family!
#my asks#stranger things g/t#Harrington Household AU#g/t#giant/tiny#gt#g/t community#gt community#giant tiny community#giant#tiny
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Health logistics stuff under the cut
Sooo my psychiatrist (where I get my sick leave slips) would like me to get into some sort of psychosomatic clinic, or if I don't want that, at least would like me to do some sort of ambulant psychotherapy. I definitely don't want to do the former because I don't see how that would NOT crush what little bit of energy I still have.
You see, I like being able to dress myself, make myself meals, get myself some tea or water when needed, get groceries like once a week etc etc, and I also like being able to do a little bit of creative work for a little bit of extra cash here and there, and care for my pets myself, even though all of those things juuuust barely are what I can manage on my own. But I CAN still manage that on my own somehow.
Now if you add anything on top of that, even just a little chill birthday party with closest family or a doc or vet appointment, the scales already begin to tip and I need to adjust my routine to get lots of extra rest for a couple days. Or extra weeks if it's bad.
That said, to be thrown into a whole new environment with all the unfamiliar stimuli that would need extra processing from the brain, completely different routines that don't take into account the pacing needs of someone with ME/CFS, potential logistics issues if you can walk only short distances for limited amounts per day with breaks in between for like 3 hours, also with it's new people - especially medical personnel which may or may not know what ME/CFS is and thus may or may not know what pacing in that context means plus the potential catastrophic consequences of pushing such a patient over what they're able to do, which thus may or may not result in having to get into arguments with them about my safety - I honestly don't see me benefitting at all from such an arrangement. So I'll refuse that however I can. It's simply not an option. I want to continue being able to care for myself as much as possible.
That leaves me with normal ambulant psychotherapy. Which in theory? I don't mind doing it, I'm actually having fun exploring myself and working on myself to get better at life, so from that point of view - sure, bring it on! But even that is difficult for me to do, because even back when I was much better than I'm now this was already taking a toll on me if it was every week. Every 2 weeks was better, but still hard to do. And then there's the question of how do I even get there regularly? I definitely can't pay for taxis each week 😂 but I also can't use public transport because I'd need to walk further than I'm able to without worsening my symptoms. Now usually my sister drives me to appointments, or at least she used to. But now her working schedule changed and she doesn't have the time anymore to drive me somewhere each week (not to mention, she has her own life lol). I do have that scooter mobility aid, but that's not reliable enough because it's not weatherproof 🙄 it's only made for dry days lol and I paid for that thing on my own so if it breaks I'm simply fucked (and idk if I'm physically even able to use it for longer distances in the first place - never got to try that out because never had the spoons left; works great on short distances if the weather allows though).
So what does that leave me with? Idk tbh. At the end of the month I have another appointment at the psychiatrist, but it's a substitute doc again I think, so idk how helpful they can be. We'll see, I guess. 🤷
Then there's the question of: cognitive behavioral therapy or depth psychological therapy? Which would be better in my case (ignoring the logistics issues)?
#idek why they want me to do this in the first place if they themselves think it might be#ME/CFS#although they def don't seem to understand the implications of that from what they told before#that such psychotherapy or even a clinic 'won't hurt in any case'#but I think they absolutely can hurt if you have PEM/PENE and I absolutely do have that#tbh I just hope everything will get sorted out in a way that leaves me able to do what little I'm currently able to do#anything less and I not only would have to rehome all of my pets which I obv don't want#especially since they're all seniors already#but in case I'm not able to care for myself anymore what then?#who will take care of me??#idk man#I don't even want to think about that#health#fingers crossed it all works out#🥲🤞
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182 Days of TPN - Day 96
Chapter 96: “Welcome Home”
Due to seeing all the other poachers lying dead on the ground, I don’t think it clicked in my mind the first time reading this chapter that Leuvis wasn’t actually there, but it made a whole lot of sense as to why his body was indeed missing once ch171 was released. The hint that he was still alive was plainly obvious here yet my dumb self still managed to get caught off guard witnessing him return during the final arcs.
Bunker dad deserves so much praise for racing all the way back home to the shelter in just one day. Literally ran non-stop, keeping away from all wild demons chasing him with Emma on his back.
And what an eventful six days it’s been for them.. from the dangerous trip to GP, to Emma getting snatched by poachers, which resulted in Ray going feral as he and Yuugo eventually follow her into the hunting ground where she’s been saving children’s lives left and right until she’s recruited by the GP resistance to partake in a master plan to destroy the place, then eventually taken even further underground where she and Lucas learn more about WM/GP/Lambda/Seven Walls/etc, before preparing for the big battle that actually happens way sooner than originally intended where she and everyone else fight for their damn lives, killing some poachers and scoring some major injuries in the process til Ray and Yuugo finally arrive as much needed backup, though our girl eventually gets stabbed yet continues to fight til Leuvis is defeated, only then does she proceed to totally collapse, but Emma and everyone else still receive enough medical attention to escape GP before it blows up. All that happens in just six days. Was it necessary to give a short version on the last couple arcs? No, but am I still salty over how the second season thought it was a good idea to leave all that out? 100%. Anyways, it’s nice to see all the escapees again. I missed them.
As intimidating and applause worthy as this moment is for Gilda, it’s not exactly the smartest thing since you can’t really blow up the shelter when you and your whole family is still inside, ya know? I do love how it takes Yuugo a brief moment to register what’s happening and how much trouble he could’ve easily been in. He’s been through a very hectic last couple days, I can’t blame him for not remembering her threat right away.
Thankfully any confusion and worry are momentarily pushed aside as they all come together to help save Emma’s life. Again, I dunno exactly how Ray knows such information regarding his family, but if anyone is gonna be a reliable and knowledgeable cheat code, then it’s gonna be him. And I love that for him, just as much as Don and Dominic stepping up with no hesitation. They’re all such good boys. Farewell to the GP outfit as well. It shall be greatly missed.
Kudos to this random lad for suggesting a guard swap because my poor boy has clearly not been getting any sleep with how worried he is over Emma’s condition. Three weeks is a hella long time to be away from someone who’s always been at your side throughout your entire life. Add in the uncertainty of whether she’s be okay or not makes it so much more stressful.
I don’t remember many double spread pages off the top of my head, but this one has gotta be one of my favorites! From the absolutely precious RE moment, to everyone’s tears of joy, their big smiles and the joy and relief they feel in seeing Emma wake up after a good month. Everything here is beyond wholesome!! It also shows us some of the resistance members like Oliver, Zack, Pepe and Sonya who finally managed to recover. Can’t forget about the tiny detail of Emma’s name on the pillow either.
The way she doesn’t question anything about herself or what happened upon first waking up, instead being solely concerned about everyone else’s safety more than anything else.
A long-awaited apology even though he’s so shy admitting it. Lucas probably finds Yuugo’s softer side entertaining to watch the way he’s glancing over too.
I don’t care how long it’s been, I’m still gonna use two u’s for his name. It’s also adorable how the younger kids drew many pictures for Emma while she was asleep to help make her feel better.
Poor girl is completely dumbfounded she’s been asleep for so long. Then we got Ray proving once again why he’s best boy. Now, Sandy’s injuries I can understand, since he lost an eye and got thrashed around by Nous quite a bit, but was Paula really injured that badly to the point where she can’t move? Sure, a spear was thrown at her with great force, but didn’t it just hit her shoulder? And there was a tiny panel of her last chapter where she was getting helped up to move as everyone was preparing to leave GP, but ah whatever. It just surprises me that Emma manages to get herself walking around shortly after waking up despite the brutal injury she received. Still cute that the younger kids drew pictures of Sandy and Paula as well.
Favorite panel/moment:
When Ray realizes how many children Emma helped during her short time at GP, not only because the defeated the poachers and escaped, but from the hunt the day before the battle as well. They all wish she has a swift recovery so they can thank her properly once they arrive home and it’s so sweet how much they all care for her already.
And look at that smile of his! Aaahhh!! He is so damn proud of Emma for everything she’s accomplished.
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Hello!
I’m currently working on a reader x Rengoku fanfic. It’s the first fanfic I’ve ever written. I’m excited and scared!
I know I’m so late to the party, but I hope people enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.
I’m forcing myself to put at least a snippet here, and if all goes well, I’ll post it to Ao3
(Rengoku x AFAB reader, canon divergent (Akaza didn’t show up at the end of Mugen Train), fluff and smut)
***
Kyojuro is never quiet when coming home from missions.
In combat, the man moves with stealth and graceful speed which could put even the sneakiest alley cat to shame. But returning in the dim morning light, excited and elated simply to be back home, he bounds toward you with an apologetic grin.
“I’m back!” he declares, as though his footsteps didn’t just shake you from the bed.
But you can’t find it within yourself to be annoyed at him for waking you. Ever.
It doesn’t matter that it’s hours before you’re due to rise, or that he and his crow probably woke the whole damn village on their return. Before you know it, your smile is mirroring his, and you’re crushed to him, not knowing who closed the space between you first. You breathe in the scent of battle, dwindling smoke, and the comfort of him.
Your fingers press to his back, sliding up towards his shoulders, your heart squeezing with the relief that he’s home. He won the battle. He survived.
Strong, sturdy, and real beneath your hands. And yours, entirely.
You could cry; the lump in your throat is dangerously close to choking you, but tears would only make him worry. So you press your face to his chest, letting him hold you, rocking you from side to side as he rests his cheek on the top of your head.
You sigh, breathing him in. "Do you want to go and tell Senjuro and your father you're back? Senjuro was so worried."
"In a little while," he says, tightening his hold on you. "He usually wakes after sunrise."
You can't help but smile.
“How was it?” you ask, muffled in his embrace.
“Hm?”
You pull your face away to let your voice carry to him. “How was the mission? The demon on the train?”
“Ah. Good.” He smiles, raising a battle-hardened hand to gently stroke your cheek. The intensity in his fiery gaze softens as he acclimates to the safety of your shared home. “We prevailed. But it took too long.”
“Agreed. You were gone for two months.” You lean into his touch. And, knowing due to his hashira stamina, it’s likely untrue, you add, “You must be exhausted. We could go back to bed for a while?”
He chuckles softly, catching the meaning behind your seemingly innocent words. “I should clean up first. I’m sure I smell less than—”
His sentence dies against your lips as you pull him to you, unable to delay what you’ve been craving for months. And after a muffled gasp of surprise, he reciprocates the kiss.
Kyojuro kisses like he fights; with every damn fiber of his being, burning you up as he drives you backward, pressing you to the wooden frame of the door and pinning you to it with his body. At once, you’re lost to the world, and all that matters is his lips, his fingers tangled in your hair, and his muscled thigh pressing between yours. Your body reacts to him so quickly you become lightheaded; heat pooling everywhere he touches.
Yours. He’s yours. And he’s home.
A sigh escapes you as he takes your hand in his, and pins your wrist to the door frame above your head.
You could list a thousand reasons you love this man; one of them being the way he can snap in an instant from dazzling light and exuberant warmth, to an altogether more blistering, primal sort of flame. And you have always reveled in that blaze.
You slide down a couple of inches, pressing your core to the sturdy length of his thigh as you tug his lower lip between your teeth. A quiet groan escapes him, those gold and crimson eyes of his half-lidded as he drops his hand to the opening of your robe.
Kyojuro can (and has) spent all night undressing you and letting your excitement build before granting you release after release. And every time you’ve basked in that drawn out pleasure, trusting him entirely as you do, that the delay will be more than worth the reward, but not tonight. Not after two lonely months of nothing but your hands on your cunt, and gasping his name into the pillow.
To be continued...
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So if y'all remember a couple months back when I had to deal with wasps at a site for work, I had to face my fears again today. But worse. Because the wasp nest is huge and can't be reached/sprayed and the wasps at that site are confirmed violent - they have stung before.
But a coworker is out on bereavement leave, and I said I would cover his sites while he was gone, so I went to the hell wasp site to do stuff.
I cried and had a panic attack and ran to my car for safety multiple times. But I did it. I faced something that legitimately terrifies me not because I had to but to help out a coworker. And I avoided getting stung, which I'm very happy about, because my allergies have been horrible lately and I'd hate to add another potential allergen on top of it.
And I'm telling you all this because my coworkers and boss won't appreciate how difficult and momentous this was for me. But y'all will.
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b[Image ID: The first image is a screenshot from the ending of Kingdom Hearts III, showing Isa, Lea, Roxas, and Xion sitting atop the clock tower in Twilight Town, eating sea salt ice cream together and raising it in greeting to their other friends. Roxas is wearing his outfit from the prologue of Kingdom Hearts 2, and Isa, Lea, and Xion finally wearing clothes that aren’t black leather trenchcoats marking them as members of Organization XIII. For Xion, this is her first non-trenchcoat outfit ever. (Isa and Lea were previously depicted in civilian clothes in Birth By Sleep, where they were teenagers.)
The second image shows an amigurumi of Xion in her outfit from this scene, a black blouse with ruffled sleeves and a belt, a short white pleated skirt, and dark brown boots that go up to mid-calf with laces crossing the lighter brown cuffs on top. The amigurumi has light blue safety eyes, and a v-shaped smile embroidered in black yarn. She is sitting on the side of a light fixture, with her legs bent off the side, in front of a box of Cheez-Its. This picture was taken of the amigurumi as originally made in about March 2019.
The third image shows the same amigurumi with some minor modifications. Her face has been modified, as shown in the fourth image, there is now a dark gray square buckle marking her belt, and her boots now have laces running up the tongue, bows tied at the final laces across her cuffs, and two pairs of silver studded buckles.
The fourth image shows a closeup of the amigurumi’s face, showing a small smile embroidered in black embroidery floss, and an embroidered black eyebrow over her left eye, the right portion of her forehead being covered by her bangs.
The fifth image shows the Xion amigurumi, next to a matching Lea amigurumi, sitting atop a jewelry box. Lea is posed so that his left leg is raised slightly off the jewelry box, while his other leg dangles off the edge. Xion sits neatly with her legs dangling off the edge of the box. Both of them have their right arms raised, waving at the viewer. End ID]
Alright, this took a moment to break down in full and get the pictures I wanted for her, but here she is! My KH3 Xion amigurumi, now slightly spiffed up! (Lea will get his own post.)
This gets a LOT more in-depth under the cut, as I break down what I did, and also precisely why her outfit is fantastic but this project was a labor of deepest, deepest love.
First, some technical specs. She’s about ten inches tall all told, and has wire inside to make her posable, as you can see. My original design for her took... eh, a couple months? I started almost as soon as we finished Kingdom Hearts 3. This is actually my second Xion amigurumi - my first was a lot smaller, my first attempt at doing something this ambitious without a pattern, and made in winter 2018 before she finally had a non-cult outfit. (So, yes, I finished one and then almost immediately started a second.) This refurbishing took about three days, and most of that involved my subpar embroidery skills.
I was proud of her before, to be clear - she’s some of my most ambitious work, especially given I’d only been crocheting for about a year and change when I made her, and I went to a LOT of effort getting screenshots of the two scenes it appears in from the ending cutscene. Which are both lit in sunset, making properly gauging the colors difficult. I realized after the fact that I’d missed the buckles on her shoes (as opposed to the laces, which I deliberately simplified,) and figured I’d add them later. Then when I started seriously working on Lea about a year later in summer 2020, I made a couple more detailed additions to his face (He kind of needs eyebrows with that widow’s peak, where the size of Xion’s bangs when crocheted meant I could get away without,) and they’re likely to be details I continue adding for the rest of the set now that I’ve cleared up enough of the tendonitis I got MAKING Lea. So I wanted my favorite character to stand up to her friends.
(In case you’re wondering: Hypermobility plus tendonitis plus not having a hypermobility-trained PT when you first realize you have tendonitis equals ‘having tendonitis for two years because the PT exercises you were given were working the wrong muscles’. Whoops. Good news is that has since been sorted.)
Let’s start with the new work first. The changes to Xion’s face are pretty straightforward - cut off the old smile, spent like an hour deciding what the best expression and placement for her new smile was, added an eyebrow. I don’t really need a new photo for that.
The bulk of it goes in the shoes, anyway.
[Image ID: A closeup of the Xion amigurumi’s boots, showing they are dark brown with lighter brown cuffs, black laces going up to the cuffs with bows tied between them, and two pairs of silver buckles across the bridge of each shoe. The lower buckle of each pair is smaller than the upper buckle. End ID]
I’m not particularly good at tying knots by default - my shoes are all slip-ons or buckled with Velcro, and my embroidery skills are pretty limited because I struggle to do any of the ornamental knots even though they’d be VERY useful for me. So instead of actually tying the embroidery off into bows, which seemed kind of risky, I figured out how to tie a handcuff knot, tightened it enough to serve the purpose, and then sewed them on VERY thoroughly. It looks a bit messy, and it probably is still not the most sturdy method here, but it should serve my purpose and it’d be relatively easy to remake and resew if need be.
I put A LOT of work into getting those crosses straight. Especially across the cuffs, which isn’t even visible anymore with the bows sewn on, but hey. I know I did it.
[Image ID: Closeup of Xion’s boots from the clock tower scene, showing the laces, cuffs, and that the studs on the upper buckles are larger than the studs on the lower set. End ID]
Like I said, I knew I’d missed some kind of braiding or the like on Xion’s boots a while ago. The wikis didn’t have great images, so I checked Youtube for the reMind version of the ending and screenshotted them myself.
Yeah, that’s not braiding. Those are studded buckles. ASYMMETRICALLY studded buckles.
This is far from the worst ‘this outfit is gorgeous but shouldn’t be made in crochet’ moment, compared to things that I had to deal with in the original design (and Lea, we’ll get into HIM later,) but it is definitely a pain. Especially since, with the scale of the doll as she is, I couldn’t simply embroider the smaller studs on - the stitches are too big for that. So instead, I took my three-strand, medium weight acrylic silver yarn, unraveled it, crocheted with the individual unraveled strands, and hoped desperately that it would maintain structural integrity long enough to sew them to the boots, especially because I have a habit of leaving too long a tail to sew on because I misjudge how long everything will need. But this worked! Yay. They’re not strictly accurate, but they do give the same detailing the buckle studs do, and it’s about the closest I can come given the scale of the doll and the work I’d already done - to make her entire body properly scaled, the boots are in the same medium-weight yarn as the one I had for her skintone, since they are her feet, and that means the stitches are a certain size as well. Besides, I’m about to get into the main details of her outfit, or:
Why Xion’s KH3 Ending Look is GORGEOUS, But A Nightmare To Crochet.
For those of you who don’t crochet, there are a couple things to keep in mind for this.
First, crochet stitches are inherently different from knitting. By default, they tend to have a stiffer structure than knitting. This makes it the more popular craft choice for amigurumi, since it’s easy to make three-dimensional, rounded shapes that hold their shape in crochet. For example, a doll’s head or body - Xion’s head and torso are all one piece, with the arms and legs stitched on separately and the outfit crocheted overtop her main body. (The skirt is actually attached to the main structure of her torso, not just sewn on. I’ll get into that later.) Or that boot shape. What this doesn’t do well is drapery, like say... pleats. It’s also pretty iffy on ruffles, though scalloped shell patterns aren’t that bad. So you know, two of the most distinctive aspects of this outfit texturally are things that the medium isn’t very suited to.
The second thing is that while you can have some VERY elaborate stitch structures and varieties with crochet - just look up granny squares or crocheted lace - allowing for some interesting textural detailing, black yarn tends to eat ALL detail. It just doesn’t show. Not on crochet, at least, and certainly not with the medium-sized yarn weight I was using to match the size of the skintone yarn. (You can find black yarn at pretty much all sizes in any craft store without issue. Finding shades of beige or brown can be harder, especially in smaller sizes.)
Xion’s blouse, of course, is black details on black panels on black. You can’t embroider the buttons on, because it’s black. The belt buckle, once I checked, is also black. Everything’s black. And tragically, my plan for the buttons when I was first crocheting her (using very small safety eyes, which would be shiny) failed because anything small enough to work was too small to stay in the stitches. I added some textural details where I could, but they don’t show up at a distance. So since I was already going to rework her a bit to add a smile and the shoe buckles, I decided I’d add a dark gray belt buckle as well just to add a little visual variety to the blouse, even if it’s probably inaccurate, strictly speaking.
[Image ID: The first image is a closeup of Xion in a later scene from the ending, showing her kneeling on a beach. Image is focused on her blouse, showing details like the size of the sleeve ruffles (very small), the collar and paneling, two lines of six buttons each running above and below the belt, and the belt buckle, which is almost certainly black. I chose to ignore this because literally no other details would show up.
The second image is a closeup on the Xion amigurumi’s blouse, taken when I originally finished her, showing that she has a collar, a closer look at the ruffles, and black raised sections marking both the central plackett of her blouse and the belt. These are not very visible from a distance, as seen in that second image way back at the beginning.
The third image shows the blouse again, now with a dark gray buckle embroidered on, as well as the white pleated skirt. End ID]
The collar exists - it’s even sewn on - but not very visible, because black. I think I just added them in by working into the side of the blouse, which was a separate piece from the head, torso, and skirt. The plackett and belt are both lines of surface crocheted black, in different directions for each. Embroidering the belt buckle was all about placement. It still took me like half an hour to place it in a way I was happy with it, but it’s straightforward.
I actually didn’t make a note at the time how I made the ruffles, but I’m fairly confident it’s the same technique described here by Shiny Happy World - Single crochet increased enough per round to make a ruffled edge. The end ruffles are still proportionately bigger than the in-game outfit, but I don’t think it’s POSSIBLE to make them smaller at this scale. Plus, I’m happy with it.
And then there’s the skirt. Like I said before, it’s actually part of the main body - I’d have to check my notes to be sure, but I’m pretty confident Xion’s body was made from the bottom up, with a white section at the beginning and then switching to tan in a row where I worked back loops only where the skirt would begin. When I was ready to make the skirt, I then attached white yarn to the front loops and searched for a method to crochet pleats.
I will note once again that crocheting pleats is REALLY difficult, and shoutout to this tutorial by Sick Lil Monkeys and this tutorial from Tales of Butterflies detailing two techniques - the first technique is identical to the previous link’s, but the extra pictures helped a lot. The end result is a skirt that’s successfully pleated and holds its shape even while Xion does what she is meant to do - sit atop tall things with her friends. The particular design makes dolls that are pretty top-heavy, though, so getting that effect tends to require something behind her to brace. (Don’t be fooled by that picture - Xion has the obvious box backing her up, but Lea is also being braced by a small plush keychain. It’s just that his posture is already compensating for his MASSIVE hair.)
At some point I really need to make some little sea salt ice creams for everyone. Probably once I finish the set - I’m thinking I break back into the dollmaking with Namine (who I wanted to make anyway, as she deserves love and friends and ice cream, and who is by FAR the easiest of the group to crochet,) and then I think it will finally be Roxas’s turn. (Unless I put him off a bit longer to do Ahiru as Princess Tutu, since I already have the yarn for that after stumbling on a PERFECT shade of pink for the underskirt. But I’ve kept the trio un-reunited for quite a while.)
MAN that outfit’s gonna be tricky, though. And the hair spikes.
I have yarn picked out so I CAN eventually do Isa but he will absolutely be last of the five. He knows what he’s done.
#Kingdom Hearts#crochet#amigurumi#Xion kh#Xion#kh xion#Xion kingdom hearts#Kingdom Hearts III#crafting with Regalli#long post#seriously under the cut it is LONG and DETAILED#the Lea post will be 50% breakdown of what I did#50% detailing the breakdown I had MAKING that damn thing#the hair spikes. the plaid. HIS FUCKING PANTS.#for another day#but I couldn't resist taking a photo of them together#Twilight Town amigurumi#Twilight Town Amigurumi: Xion Edition
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A look back on 2022
I will typically do a blog article at the end of the year talking about all the paintings I did in the year and my plans for the following year. Since this is my first year on Tumblr I thought I would post it here as well for anyone who cares to read my drivel.
2022 was a hell of a year. I completed 19 pet portrait paintings on canvas, 8 pet portrait ornaments, and 4 original paintings (with plans to make at least one more before the year is over!) The ornaments are something new which I added a few months ago, and thought it was a nice addition to my pet portrait offerings. I am already booked into April of 2023 for portraits! I did my very first chameleon commissioned painting, thanks to my sponsorship of the wonderful Chameleon Forums, and already have two more scheduled for next year, which I am eager to paint. I created a wonderful original painting of a capybara which has become my most popular work of this year, as well as a box turtle, another red fox, and a polar bear.
The natural color style really seems to have taken off this year, with almost half of the 19 customers requesting that style. This is a deviation from my typical style, which is using bright colors on both the pets and the backgrounds. A couple of years ago, my most frequent customer requested that I paint some of her portraits with more natural colors with colorful backgrounds, and I thought it was a nice change. After doing a few of these I decided to add it to my choices for customers in the hopes that maybe it would encourage more sales of portraits. Maybe not all customers want bright rainbow colors but like my style anyway. In 2020 I did two portraits like this, and again in 2021. But this year for some reason about half of the customers wanted that style, so I think it was a good decision to add the style choice.
Etsy Store News
My Etsy Store has been doing very well this year. I changed my blanket printer, and the new blankets are much thicker and softer than the old ones. They also offer two sided printing, which is spectacular, and was an often requested option from my customers! I also added 15oz accent mugs to the 11oz listings, and added some more color options. I added several new holographic sticker designs, including the infamous capybara, gecko, peacock, panda, tiger, and mandalas. I added die-cut magnets, which are cut out to the shape of the animal. There are cool new ceramic ornaments as well, most of which are available in circle and heart shaped. Garden Flags seem to be a popular product, and make great gifts! I added a few wall tapestries as well, and will add more with time. I also have three cool holographic art prints which have a crystal shard effect. This was a unique find a few months ago when I saw another artist selling these prints, and I found the company that makes them and got a few to start.
The Upending of the Normal
This year has been a never-ending shit show for artists all over the internet. I myself have not been immune to the shit storm this year. Personally, I have had to close down two long standing accounts, move my website, and deal with the Twitter fallout by opening two new social media accounts. It honestly feels like the entire internet just collectively took a massive shit on artists this year, and I am so tired of it.
New Webhost
First, my website. I have had a website in some form since 1996 when it was hosted by Geocities. In 2000 I created my own hosted website with my own domain name. My site had gone through countless iterations in the past 22 years, from self-taught HTML, to plug-and-play templates, to a Wordpress site. Websites have changed a lot since the early days, and it is hard to keep up with all the changes. I have always been on top of security and safety, and am very careful with how my website is set up. That being said, my former webhost was constantly sending me emails saying that I was over limits, which is impossible, as this site is tiny and uses very few resources. They refused to help me diagnose the problem, so after 22 years I jumped ship to another webhost and could not be happier. It was a hard decision at first, but I am glad I left.
Closing Zazzle Store
Next, I had to close my Zazzle store permanently. I have had that shop since the early days of 2008, and was one of the mass-exodus from CafePress at the time. I have generally been extremely happy with the site and their products. But I can no longer recommend them to any of my artist friends. They have made a series of changes over the years which has really hurt artists and designers on that site, and I almost left in 2020 when they made changes that really impacted the quality of the site. They implemented banner ads for one, which make the site look like a trashy scam site and additionally steer customers away from buying products on the site. Not to mention most of the ads were for actual scam and illegal sites! They introduced collaborations and custom backgrounds, which took away a huge portion of the original designers income from that sale. They also had an issue with products continuing to be allowed to be purchased if the product was a customized one, even if the original product had been deleted.
But the straw that broke the camel's back was the removal of the watermark, the increased size of the preview images by almost double, and the implementation of allowing customers to download a full resolution digital copy of the artwork. The changes basically enable thieves to take designs from the site wholesale. I already have tons of problems with copyright infringement, I don't need to compound it. Not to mention the major lawsuit that Zazzle is facing in regards to possibly illegally obtaining the fonts they use in their product design tools.
So I made the difficult decision to close my store earlier this year. Which really sucks because it actually made me a decent amount of money, their products were great and unique, and their design editor was unparalleled.
Closing my DeviantArt and Artstation Accounts
I have been with DeviantArt since 2006. While they have made changes which have upset the artist community, none compares to the bullshit they puled last month. Not only are they doing nothing to stop the massive influx of AI art on their platform, they are encouraging it by having their own in house AI "art" generator called Dream Up which uses the controversial LAION-5B database that StableDiffusion and other platforms use. This database scraped the internet of 2.3 BILLION copyrighted images without artists consent to train their algorithm, which means the database is highly unethical and rife with theft. Due to this, I abandoned my DeviantArt site and just left up my links.
At the time of writing this article, ArtStation is pulling similar shenanigans, so I have closed that account as well. They have made it explicitly clear in their terms of service that they support AI "art", and will not ban it from the site. They are also shutting off comments of artists who are protesting. And apparently earlier this year they were also deleting posts about supporting Ukraine from their site. So I am done with them now too.
Social Media
I will not get into the Twitter issue here, since it has been discussed ad nauseum for the past several months and I am honestly tired of hearing about it. I hear worse and worse news about it every day. I honestly don't want to leave Twitter because it has been a major factor in driving traffic to my Etsy store, especially since Pinterest took a dump 2 years ago and stopped working for me. But will leave if the dumpster fire gets more severe. It will not be a big loss to me.
So in preparation for that, I have opened two new accounts: Tumblr and Mastodon. I actually had a Tumblr account many years ago, but closed it due to inactivity. Mastodon is very new to me, and so far I have liked the experience. I am stretched kind of thin right now so I think that is enough social sites for the time being.
Reopening TeePublic
I reopened my TeePublic store after it was closed for a year and a half. I originally closed it since I was not getting many sales. Also I really dislike the interface for uploading new art. It is cumbersome, and tedious, and the inability to select different files for each product means that I had to upload new "designs" for different products, meaning a lot of duplications in my store. But since I closed my Zazzle store I needed to make up for the loss of income so I thought I would give it another shot. So far it seems to be doing ok.
Conclusion and Hopes for Next Year
My plans for next year are to basically continue what I am doing already. This year saw so many changes as it is, and I am not really antsy for any other major changes at the moment. I will be actively making spaces in my schedule for original art, which has become a very important part of my portfolio. I will continue to offer portraits, and as always improve my skills and hone my style.
I will be monitoring my Society6 store this upcoming year. It may be on the chopping block if it fails to turn around. I do not have plans to open any more e-commerce stores next year. Instead I will be focusing on driving traffic to my existing stores, as well as adding products and new designs to my Etsy store.
And that is all. Hope everyone has a great new year!
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How Does a Waterproof Electric Cargo Bike Work?
If you are looking for a waterproof electric cargo bike, you have probably come across a couple different models. But you are probably wondering how a cargo bike works. Well, let us help you choose the best one for your family! Here are some of the things to consider before buying a waterproof electric cargo bike.
First, you must decide if you need to use a child bike seat or a cargo bike. A child bike seat is a great option for children between 12 months and four years. The child seat should be installed in the rear part of the bike. If the child is older, then you should have a passenger handlebar. Lastly, make sure to add extra accessories to your bike, like a cargo rack, panniers, and wheel covers. You can also get guards for little feet, which are great if you plan to ride on the road with your kids.
Safety and Security
In addition to safety and security, you must also invest in quality locks. A waterproof electric cargo bike is more susceptible to theft, so make sure you get a high-quality lock for it. Also, you must buy a good insurance cover, or a special one for cargo bikes. In addition to ensuring your bike is secure, you must also take care of its maintenance. In addition to the proper locks, it is crucial to keep the cargo bike in good condition and protect it from theft.
History
A cargo bike has a richhistory. Its design dates back to 1877. In 1877, the inventors of this bike, James Starley, designed three different models of carrier bikes. The first two were wooden and very functional, and soon after, iron versions were invented. The first cargo bike models were not equipped with gears or other features. They had a large wooden box placed on top of the horizontal front axle, which hinged with the main frame. Regardless of the materials used to build the cargo bikes, they still had a long history.
Models of Waterproof Electric Cargo Bikes
If you decide to purchase a waterproof electric cargo bike, it is important to choose a high-quality model with a high torque motor and a long range.Electric bikesmay also have a higher range and look cleaner than their mechanical counterparts. You should also consider the type of motor that will be installed on the bike. Some cargo bikes can be retrofitted with motors - a great option if you don't have the technical know-how to install the motor yourself.
Other Choice
In addition to waterproof electric cargo bikes, pedelecs are another option. Known ase-assist bikes, these bicycles have electric motors that assist the rider. When pedaling, an electric motor kicks in and the electric motor cuts out when freewheeling, or reaching the legal limit. You can even ride with a cargo bike with two people! These bicycles will help you get around the city without stressing out your back!
#ebikeadventures#ebikeshop#city ebike#ebikelife#ebike#e bike market#ebikestyle#best ebike mountain bike#smabike#electricbikes#bikeoffroad#bikelover#bmx#road bike#electric bike#bikers#mountain bike#biker babe#led light for bike#bike#bikeshop#bicycle#roadbike#mtb#cycling#cycle
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