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mrghostrat · 2 months

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Hello and good morning/day/night :]

I was wondering, in BNF, we’ve gotten tiny little bits of information about the ‘Nice and Accurate Prophecies’ (not sure if that’s the correct title, sorry) book and TV series, if there was anything else you could tell us about it?

Character names, storylines, plots, any fun details you may have made up or otherwise, etc, etc.

I just think it’s sweet how interested both Aziraphale and Crowley are in the series, and if you might be as interested, if not more, in it too.

Thank you, and have a lovely Sunday. 🫶

this is it, my leash has snapped, i'm wild in the streets, thank u for asking; i'm gonna go be insufferable now

(hi @neil-gaiman if you see this, i think it's safe to read, but it does border on being fan fic. i'm writing a fic where crowley and aziraphale are an artist + writer in an online fandom, much like we are for good omens, and this is the fake story i've made for them to be fans of 💛)

The Nice and Accurate Prophecy

info dump of the fake 5 book series by Agnes Nutter (1985-1992) and its fake fandom:

The Nice and Accurate Prophecy

The Strange and Improbable Prophecy

The Vague and Perfidious Prophecy

The Tense and Harrowing Prophecy

The Faint and Ineffable Prophecy

a dramatic, layered story with a bizarre and unexpectedly lovable cast of characters, humour that hits you out of nowhere, and a lot of attitude from the narrator. a la Good Omens, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

fantasy/historical fantasy and mildly action & romance

a la good omens, a witch and a witchfinder become friends and help each other throughout history, despite being on opposite sides. they get closer as they fight against the immoral plays from their prospective sides (the witchfinder army and a demonic cult the witch was born into) that each lose sight of their core values in a bid to hold more power over the world.

the story is set primarily in a medieval fantasy era, but suddenly jumps to the present in the later books, catching everyone off guard and giving a whole new context to enjoy the story. the challenges they face parallel the earlier story but in a modern take with modern technological twists. the modern era is the late 80s, since that's when it was written.

the witch reincarnates, similar to doctor who, due to a high class black magic ritual they performed in their arrogant youth (which they were NOT supposed to have access to). they've had long lifetimes where they die of old age, and others where they've barely managed to live a year. their reincarnations aren't entirely random; they will reincarnate according to their growth and preferences as a person (a la Magical Boy's magical outfit generations), which includes fluctuation in gender identity. their pronouns fluctuate depending on each "face" they wear, but have canonically been a "they" before. the good side of the fandom (crowley & aziraphale) default to they/them as an overall rule. they do have a name, but they like to change that too, so the fandom almost exclusively calls them witch, or witchy.

the witchfinder also has a name, but the fandom have taken to calling him witchfinder to match the fact that witchy is called by their role. it also helps that a lot of the witchfinder narration refers to him by role instead of name. he is human, 30ish in appearance, but at the end of the first book, the witch fears to lose him and curses him with immortality against his knowledge to try and keep him safe.

witch is crowley-coded, witchfinder is aziraphale-coded. my to-do list includes an illustration of the two of them played by michael and david :') but i picture them being kind of like newt and anathema for the most part.

ship names include witch/finder, witchwitch, w² or witch², and witchfound.

at the start of the first book, they meet and become friends without knowing each other is a witch & finder. the witchfinder is a bit bumbly, like newt, and the witch is cool and suave but neurotic and insecure like many human au variations of crowley (major overcompensation vibes). witch is male at the start of the first book. their friendship is secure when witch finds out he's a witchfinder, so there's less "oh my god i'm friends with the enemy, is he going to kill me in my sleep?" and more "ah fuck, Lets Drink About This"

there's battles, horseback riding, camping out in dark woods, disappearing and losing each other for months at a time, and many missed connections as they try to work together against two common enemies, whilst keeping up the facade that they're on their respective team's sides.

there's charged chemistry in the first book, but it's more plot heavy. there's hints of shippy moments in the 2nd book that fall in between the plot. there's a Moment of almost confession in the 3rd book, and a non romantic kiss towards the end (we gotta, for neil). they're pretty much married in the 4th book, securely at each other's side, but never actually talk about it until the end, and there's a more explicitly stated shippy connection in the 5th book.

agnes herself is a total recluse who drops books out of nowhere then goes back to existing somewhere in the english countryside (people presume). she's happy to supply signed copies to fundraisers and conventions, and sometimes random bookshops across the country will be vandalised with genuine autographs on the inside covers. she's notoriously pedantic about being involved with adaptions behind the scenes, but she has no social media and isn't ~around~. she once did a talk when she was presented with an honorary doctorate, and did a single book signing when the first Prophecy book came out, but beyond that she keeps to herself.

there are a small handful of quotes from her in behind-the-scenes footage talking vaguely about character intensions and clarifying world building, but she likes to leave things up to interpretation like neil does. it's in these few snippets of interaction we've seen from her that she's steadfastly supportive of intersectionality and lgbt rights, like staring dead-eyed at an interviewer when they ask her a ridiculously heteronormative question about the characters (like "have you read my books?")

adaptions include:

(most adaptions start like the book, with a male witch at the beginning that turns into a female witch when they first regenerate. the early ones usually change the pacing by switching to a female actor by the time they realise witchfinder is a witchfinder, unlike in the book where he's male for this scene, and there's way less Charged™ chemistry between the m/m witch/finder.)

Feature Film: late 90s, kind of cheesy, but good spirited fantasy (a la Indiana Jones). focuses on the first book alone, with hints to a sequel that never happened.

Abandoned TV Pilot: early 2000s, a little too dramatic but still a good time (a la the Dungeons and Dragons 2000, ASOUE 2004). good source of gifs and Moments™ but the fandom is generally Fine with it being abandoned.

Stage Performance: late 2000s-early 2010s, a stellar stage adaption of the first book with elements of the 90s movie. f/m witch/finder the whole way through. one cast used m/m actors but it was a short run and only a handful of fans were lucky enough to catch or remember it. crowley would give his left arm (or someone's, anyway) to have experienced it, so a fan sent him some flip phone camera footage of it that he keeps on a harddrive in his safe.

HBO Streaming Series: late 2010s-present, high quality, highly revered, resurged the fandom's popularity and spread the series further overseas. made in america, but doesn't try to americanise the series. extremely respectful to the books, with easter eggs to the film, and is working its way through the entire book series (a la The Witcher netflix series). f/m witch/finder, but has had one episode that included some flash backs/montages of different witch faces. probably like 15 minutes total screentime of a male witch played by a ncuti gatwa level/style of actor, which the fandom has giffed, edited, and screencapped to oblivion.

Several bonus books: Agnes has written a few extra books (a la The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket and The Beatrice Letters), as well as curated some anthologies from other authors (a la A Study In Sherlock). there are a total of 3 anthologies so far, in which other authors have written stories about the characters in their own tellings. basically like canonised, published fan fiction, curated and authorised by agnes herself. There's also an unfinished graphic novel that retells the book series (a la The Adventure Zone comic), but has been WIP/unheard of since the 3rd book.

#ask a rat #fuck i lvoe this fucking fakedom #bnf au #i cannot get it out of my head #rat writes

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optiwashere · 8 months

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Please write your thoughts about the importance of Shadowheart for Shar/Selûne :D

I FEED on character analysis.

SO!!!! This got long as fuck and also morphed into what you asked + a general character interpretation.

I relied on a combination of 2nd, 3rd, and 5th edition D&D lore, R.A. Salvatore novels, and of course BG3 as sources. Shadowheart's characterization adds up the most coherently on the purely romance / "get her away from Shar" path, and that is what I'm using as a basis for this post. Even when you're playing an "evil" route, she behaves in ways that betray a lot of what I get into under the break. This post, however, is biased towards the "good" path of her personal quest for the sake of my sanity and a somewhat reasonable word count.

First, a preamble for people that are maybe less knowledgeable about Forgotten Realms lore.

One of the biggest characterizations of Shar and Selûne in the Forgotten Realms is that they are twin sides of the same thing: night. Night as an aesthetic is symbolic of, among other things: mysteries, being lost without guidance (such as in faith or purpose), and finding oneself when one reaches for the truth. I.e., reaching light from the moon, stars, or daybreak (which is itself a symbol as the natural conclusion of darkness being light for redemption following suffering, goodness defeating evil, finding faith, etc.)

Shar and Selûne are sisters that also share the Night domain in 3e, a sort of fulcrum they both work around — Shar as the "malevolent" darkness with Selûne as the "benevolent" night. There is even a recognized heresy called the Dark Moon heresy in both cults/religions that Shar and Selûne are actually the same goddess playing one gigantic trick on Faerûn (this comes from a 3.5e splatbook called Power of Faerûn) but it's been pushed time and time again that the two sisters are, in fact, two separate entities. But duality of divinity, and how worshipers interpret their god, is a theme we see played up a ton in BG3.

What we know about Shar is that she despises her sister. Loathes her. Not only does she loathe her, she tricked Selûne's followers during the Time of Troubles, about 140 years before BG3, into worshiping her instead of the Moonmaiden. The Time of Troubles was a period when gods walked the Realms, rather than tossing avatars around everywhere. This lead to the formation of a fanatical group of cultists that followed the real Selûne, called the Lunatics (I'm still proud of managing to reference them in a goddamn Explicit PWP fic)

Meanwhile, Selûne is seen as a calming force. She wars with her sister every single night, and does not like her one bit, but she does it as a means to protect others from her sister rather than as a spiteful game. She's not as omnipresent in people's lives, she is just a natural force to a lot of her followers.

How does any of this relate to Shadowheart? Spoiler stuff and the actual character analysis under the break.

We know that Shadowheart was a "chosen" of Selûne as a child, per her parents' dialogue under the House of Grief. However, it's important to note that most religions in Faerûn name potential clerics as "chosen" ones of gods and goddesses.

We know that, throughout the game, Shadowheart learns that she is being manipulated by the Lady of Loss to do acts that go against some sort of internalized moral code that Shadowheart has. We see her approval go up when you do good acts (as long as you ask for compensation, or if it's to help helpless people/animals) and we see her disapprove when you press her boundaries or act unjustly cruel. "Unjust" is left so vague because she does not behave at all according to how the vast majority of Sharrans behave. There are numerous other flags for approval/disapproval such as her enjoying playful chaos, or disliking when you're too trusting of other companions when you first meet them, but we'll focus on the first set I mentioned.

We also know that Shadowheart was continually subjected to memory erasure via the cult of Shar in Baldur's Gate. This gets mildly restored here and there via the tadpoles and Dame Aylin, but her memory is mostly gone. So this moral code is something ingrained in her somehow, because Sharrans don't have kindness training. There's another entire character analysis to be written about Viconia's role in this as it relates to her own character in Baldur's Gate 2, but let's ignore that for now.

In the cloister under the House of Grief, there is a note you can find that outlines the squad sent to find the artifact that protects everyone from the Absolute's domination. The squad has a leader, and it is not Shadowheart. She is listed as "healer" and the text before this explicitly states that the entire squad is expendable. None of them matter to Shar.

BUT!

Divine visitation by a goddess is incredibly rare. It usually only happens to high level clerics, which Shadowheart isn't really even at 12th-level, and to those that the goddess has an extreme, vested interest in. If you free the Nightsong/Dame Aylin instead of killing her, Shadowheart is wrenched out of the Material Plane and made to suffer for an indeterminate amount of time. That, plus literally meeting Shar in the conclusion to her personal question, is very odd given what we know about Shadowheart.

If we presume that Larian did their jobs, and I'm going to because I trust them, then there is an immediate dilemma presented here. Either Shadowheart matters to Shar (she is not expendable), or she is just another zealot (she is expendable.) There is no half-truth in that logic table that really works for Shar, she's an absurdly dogmatic goddess. See: literally any Sharran you encounter in BG3 that isn't Shadowheart. It's possible that the writer of the note didn't know what they were talking about, but I think that's a lazy out that doesn't hold water with the rest of the evidence.

So, which is it? This being the part where I'm mostly in interpretation territory, Shar views Shadowheart as the perfect puppet, a toy to needle at her sister, not because she is important at all as a person, but because she's a representation of Selûne that Shar can mold to suit her image as she did in the Time of Troubles. We hear that in the game when Shadowheart basically says that she was just a thing for Shar to use. She's beaten into (what Shar believes will be) submission for not becoming a Dark Justiciar, but it only serves to sever the tie between cleric and goddess.

Shadowheart is Shar's answering play to Selûne beating that trick from the Time of Troubles, and there will be another Shadowheart after her eventual death. Shadowheart is both incredibly important and utterly worthless to Shar in the same way that an abuser uses affection and trust to hurt their victims. Love bombs in the form of divine power, sending her on this important mission, and offering the title of Dark Justiciar are followed by pain when Shadowheart displeases her. As if, on a whim, all that supposed mutual respect could turn into non-consensual, extreme violence.

Shadowheart is an objectified opportunity for Shar to fuck with Selûne for the entirety of a single half-elf's lifespan (anywhere from 150-200 years) and nothing more. A plaything to discard when all is said and done after a microcosm of time where a goddess is concerned. Whatever Shadowheart thinks she's benefiting from with Shar, it's all a trick. It's a massive delusion with which she's been brainwashed into participating.

And deep down, deep deep way deep down, Shadowheart knows this even in Act One. She spouts random sayings and the sorts of 2edgy4me one-liners that you would expect from a somewhat goth-y, slightly sassy Stock Evil Cleric in a fantasy RPG. For a good portion of Act One, you wouldn't be wrong to assume she's extremely one note and a total zealot. That is, unless you know two things:

That Shar is a fucking menace in Faerûn, and nothing good ever comes naturally from her cult. Anyone that knows FR lore was probably like me when they first interacted with Shadowheart. I know I basically said, "What the fuck, you're not a Sharran lmao. Either Larian goofed hard, or something's fishy here."

That extraordinarily devout people tend not to babble in verse, prayer, and all that unless they are also trying to convince themselves to have more faith in a set of beliefs that they're not entirely sold on. This isn't 100% of the time, but it's something you see in people whose faith is not very strong. People who have ironclad faiths and hold consistent ideologies tend to rely more on personal interpretation of faith, for good or ill. You see this all over BG3 in the people that are more confident in their beliefs, as well. Isobel, Orin, and Z'rell are three wildly different angles on that, for example. It's really all over the game in the NPCs.

That second point is the more important one here. Shadowheart, in Act One, is constantly talking about her goddess. If she's not hiding the artifact from you, she's couching an event in concern over what Shar would think of how she behaved. Like she's still a scared child who doesn't know how to handle what's happening around her despite being completely capable in scenarios as hectic as melee combat with ogres. The difference shines bright as day if you play a follower of Selûne and push back on her beliefs, though you do of course get a lot of vitriol in the beginning. Even so, it's clear that Shadowheart knows something is off about Shar whenever confronted with actual Sharran activity/belief, but she's been brainwashed and abused so horrendously that she constantly tries to "correct" herself to appease her abuser.

Selûne, however, isn't really a "part" of Shadowheart's quest in the same way as Shar. The Moonmaiden is not an active participant, she is not a guiding hand or even a faint idea in Shadowheart's thought processes because of how intense the memory blending got for her. The most we ever really get of Selûne's opinion comes from external sources (pretty much entirely from Shadowheart's parents, Isobel, and Aylin when she's not PROCLAIMING DIVINE RIGHTS.) To the Moonmaiden, Shadowheart is really just another of her many, many children spread throughout the Realms. Yet, Shadowheart retains that sense of inherent goodness that Selûne instils in her followers.

Unlike the Lady of Loss, Selûne's indifference isn't hateful or spiteful at all. For Selûne, the ultimate goal of any of her followers is to find themselves. To illuminate who they are meant to be by moonlight. Two of her domains in 3rd edition are Protection and Travel, and in 5e she has Knowledge as well, while one of her "mantles" (the domain equivalent for psionics) is Freedom. She wants to give her followers the ability to freely tread whichever road will lead to self-actualization.

Selûne demands almost nothing of her own followers so long as they act according to the basic tenets of a traditionally Chaotic Good deity. She accepts flaws, faults, and failures in her clerics as much as she rewards strengths, virtues, and victories. There is no divine intervention from Selûne because she accepts Shadowheart intrinsically as long as Shadowheart finds herself. All it took for Selûne to take Shadowheart back after forty years of being a fanatical Sharran was saving one person, and trusting one of two people that we know she's let in for that forty years (the PC, as well as possibly Nocturne) — Selûne sees that she's an abuse victim at the heart of it all.

Side-note: Selûne's primary holy symbol is two eyes surrounded by stars. She is always a passive witness to her clerics' deeds. I don't think I need to get into that symbolism.

Whenever given the chance, Shadowheart values freedom incredibly highly. Even in someone she can take the entire game to warm up to, such as Lae'zel. Her dialogue after Lae'zel denounces Vlaakith speaks directly to this. It's seen repeatedly in her comments on other characters' personal quests such as Astarion, or Karlach, and with Lorroakan's intent on imprisoning Aylin in Act 3.

Once Shadowheart is pulled away from Shar's influence in the end of Act 2/early Act 3, she is... not a completely different person, but she is absolutely a calmer individual that also allows her emotions to surface more intensely. If you're romancing her by Act 2, she confesses that she wants to be with the PC (forever) IMMEDIATELY after being punished horrifically by Shar; she progresses the romance far faster once Shar is out of her brain; she cries, alone, in front of the PC if she chooses to listen to her parents and spare herself from Shar while also killing them. She's known this entire time that she's purposefully holding parts of herself back, and this is her immediate reaction to being set free.

Of course, it's a video game and things aren't always perfectly paced, especially considering the implementation of the Long Rest system. Much of this interpretation requires you to accept that.

After the small dialogue about Shar's intervention after the Gauntlet, the narrator comments that you're not sure if telling Shadowheart where her divine power now comes from will break her spirit forever. That's interesting, and it makes her almost manic change to "I have to be with this person forever" in the romance so utterly sad. Shadowheart is an almost textbook depiction of someone who struggles immensely with vulnerability and emotional openness due to childhood neglect and abuse. Even worse, she's been suffering that neglect and abuse for forty-plus years and she cannot remember what life was like before the time when she constantly yearned for the approval of her abuser. When she's set free and given the appropriate space to manage her feelings (all of the times she asks to be given space/asks the PC to respect her boundaries), support from friends and loved ones in the way Larian handled the camp crew's reactions to everyone's personal quests, and a purpose in life that extends beyond her abuser, she flourishes almost immediately.

To Selûne, Shadowheart is simply another person finding themselves in a world that's incredibly difficult to navigate. Under Shar's domination, Shadowheart will never be anything more than a useful puppet that dances happily whenever her goddess asks, pleased to be what she thinks is useful as she wears the false title of Dark Justiciar. With Selûne watching but not pushing, Shadowheart can be free of everything but her own choices, her own mistakes and victories. Her own person, freed from expectation.

P.S. "Breaking out of toxic thought patterns" is a common thread in the companion romances and quests. In a similar way to how Astarion uses sexuality to mask a part of himself in his romance, Shadowheart sees all this time she's spent holding herself back as an excuse to reverse course and accelerate ridiculously fast by comparison.

My point is, she is a U-Haul Lesbian.

#hey you can ask me things!#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 spoilers #bg3 spoilers #shadowheart #shadowheart analysis by yours truly #there is so much to analyze about viconia in bg3 as well #shadowheart's romance has some interesting mirrors to viconia's from bg2 #there is a phenotype for unsure sharrans and it comes back to “why do I trust this person so much?” and battling with that #it is - as they say - girl dinner #also shar should absolutely share the Twilight domain in 5e #and on a final note: if you ever want to know where my shadowheart kink headcanons come from hellllllllloooooooo this post #bc as sweet as she is goddamn that girl loves when you degrade people and she has a CONSISTENT interest in sadomasochist behavior

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jonathan-samuel-smith · 6 months

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Lord Jon and Prince Damian is a funny combination because just imagine Clark never managed to conquer all earth because magic and magic user, Talia basically built a huge kingdom to protect her people from the Lords and also accepts some others who are fleeing.

Years past and Jon has always been curious about that place and laughs when he faces Talia's youngest soldiers. He falls in love deeply hard about that boy with green eyes, then Jon starts to try to seduce that cute and smol boy (and Damian hates him deeply)

Just imagine:

Jon: *throws a body at his door like a cat*

Damian: ... Some guys bring flowers

Jon: I'm not 'some guy'

And also

J: "i've killed for you. how many other people can say that?"

D: "... Multiple, actually"

Basically: Lord Jon's love language is being annoying

Took me a while to figure out how I'd write the Super Lords, but eventually I was inspired by another work. I might write a sequel to this but we'll see. Fic under the cut.

Jon was scrolling on his phone, looking to find people talking negatively about him or his father so he could send them death threats. He could probably find them easily and make good on those threats, but then he'd have to get up, and he was comfortable where he was. He was getting a little peckish though, so he might run through a couple if he got up to eat.

His dad came into the room looking flawless. “Jon.”

“Hey dad, can you get me something to eat?”

“What? No. Get it yourself, or better yet, ask Kelex.”

“I thought you took away my voice commands after I killed the wrong general last week.”

“Oh, right. Have the knowledge crystals not taught you how to hack yet?”

Jon groaned ”I hate the knowledge crystals dad, they take so much time. I don't see the point in them.”

“The point is they would teach you how to solve problems, like how to reinstate your voice commands in Kelex’s code. Now get up, I have something important for you to do.”

Jon got up and stretched. “Oh I'm way hungrier than I thought. Hold that thought, Dad.”

“Jona–” Kal started sternly as a gust of wind blew past him. He could hear Jon ferociously consuming junk food from the pantry in superspeed. When he was done, he ran back up to his dad.

“Hey Dad, I'm back. What's up?”

“What do you know about Talia Al Ghul?”

“Oh that's easy. She's like, your archnemesis. Her family's got really strong magic so she can kill us if she gets close enough. She controls the last stronghold of human resistance. She's older than you so she's, what, a million?” He grinned cheekily “Just kidding, Dad. You don't look a day over 500.” He laughed. “Kidding! You should see the look on your face.”

“Jon, I'm being serious here.”

“‘kay.”

“She's just crowned her heir, Prince Damian. He's your age.”

“Oh?”

“He's an even more powerful mage than his mother, and trained in martial arts. He is a serious threat, one that needs to be neutralized.”

“Ok, but how am I gonna do that? You said he's more powerful than his mom, and you can't kill her.”

“He takes his group of soldiers into the Himalayas every month to train privately. I want you to ambush them.”

“Kill them, right? How do you want them dead?”

“Doesn't matter.”

“Alright. I'll be right back.”

Kal grabbed his arm and dug his fingers in hard enough to bruise. “You could die today, Jon. Take this seriously. Run away if you need to. You're no good to me dead.”

Jon nodded. “Got it.”

Jon flew to the mountains and looked for them with his heat vision. He found them fighting each other and flew down and started snapping the neck of the closest person to him. Unfortunately, this was slow enough to draw alarm from the other assassins, who all knew magical attacks. Still, Jon was quick and he fought dirty, letting out a deafening shout and causing an avalanche. The teens fought him with martial arts married with magic, sacrificing their lives so that the final assassin could defeat Jon and place him in magical bindings.

He spat blood. “You're lucky they can be brought back to life, or I wouldn't have spared yours.”

“I didn't ask you to. But thank you– not for sparing my life, but for beating me. I've never lost before. It was exhilarating! Can you do it again?”

The boy looked at him strangely. “What?”

Jon grinned manically. “You're a great fighter. I want you to defeat me again. And again and again until I get bored. What's your name? I never even lose to my dad.”

“... I am prince Damian Al Ghul.”

“Oh no way! I came here to kill you! Well, I'm not doing that anymore.”

“Clearly not.” Damian said, gesturing to the chains around him.

“Oh no, not cuz of that. I meant cuz like–” Jon cut himself off as Damian took off his mask and piercing green eyes met his own. “Wow, you're really pretty. I've never seen anyone as pretty as you in my whole life. Definitely not prettier. I think I was saying something?”

Damian blushed. “Tt. You were saying why you're not going to kill me.”

“I think I'm in love with you.”

“What?!” Damian squeaked.

“That was so cute! You're so cute! You're so small you look like you'd fit just right in my arms!”

“Go back to the ‘I love you’ part because I'm not understanding!” He shouted.

“I'll say it as many times as you want! I love you, I love you, iloveyouiloveyouiloveyoui–”

“Stop! You can't love me, you just met me, and your dad is superman!”

“Um, I'm pretty sure I can. Love at first sight is a thing, and I've known you for longer than that already.”

“So what, just because you think I'm pretty and I beat you for the first time, you're in love with me?”

“Is that not enough? Ok well, I really like the color of your eyes, and you're really powerful, and you make me feel so many feelings I have never felt before! Fear, excitement, curiosity, admiration, respect, awe, happiness, arousal–”

“Stop talking.”

“Whatever you want, gorgeous.”

“That's talking.”

“Oh, right. Sorry.”

“Still talking.”

“I don't know how you want me to stop talking if you keep talking to me. Oh but uh, don't stop, I like it.”

Damian facepalmed. “I'm taking you back to my mother.”

“Oh I hope she doesn't decide to kill me after you went through the trouble of sparing me, that would be really embarrassing for you.”

Damian was quiet for a few minutes. “...You've never felt curious? Or excited, or afraid or happy? Really?”

Jon shrugged. “Maybe once. But nowadays I'm always either bored or bloodthirsty. Except right now, I'm neither. You're the most interesting person I've ever met and I just killed 5 people. That's like, 1 more than I usually do in a day.”

Damian set his jaw hard. “Why do you kill so many people?”

“Why do you think, assassin Prince? To feel alive.”

“...Who do you usually kill?”

“Dissidents and criminals. My dad's okay if they're dissidents or criminals. There's not, like, a ton of those out there anymore, though, so I've taken to scrolling back really far on Twitter. Oh, and jaywalkers.”

“Tt. Typical.”

“Who do you usually kill?”

“Political enemies, soldiers, criminals.”

“I guess everyone's a political enemy when they're aligned with us and not you. That's a lot more people you can kill. I kinda wanna join your side now.”

“We don't kill frivolously.”

“Why not?”

“Because we value human life.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why? Why does your father care about order if not to preserve human life?”

Jon laughed. “My dad doesn't care about humans! He just wanted to tidy things up. He gets mad when I kill other people because it messes with his system. It's one of those dumb parent rules, like keeping your socks in the sock drawer, or cleaning the fortress on Sundays even though we have robot servants.”

“... You're completely insane.”

“Do you want me not to be?”

Damian furrowed his brow. “Why are you asking me that?”

“I want you to get what you want! You deserve to get anything you want, way more than my dad does. I bet you could with your magic! Cast a spell on me, make me sane for you. If you want that, I want it.”

“It's Jonathan, isn't it?”

“Yeah, or you can call me Jon. Or you know, whatever you want. Even if it's mean, I can take it.”

“...Jonathan. I don't want to take your agency away with my magic. That wouldn't be right.”

Jon shrugged against his chains. “If you say so, my prince.” Damian was quiet for a while, and Jon slipped free of his chains to help Damian cart back all of the bodies. “You should let me carry this.”

“What– Jon?! How did you escape my bindings?”

“Magic interacts completely unpredictably with me.”

“I don't– why are you even still here?”

“Why would I leave? It's not as if there's anything more interesting on TV. Twitter says all the shows are boring cuz of Dad. Well, you know, the dead side of Twitter. God do you know how perfect you look? From every angle?”

“Jon, I think you should just leave.”

“Well, my dad is expecting me home soon. What do you think I should tell him about you not being dead?”

“... Is he going to hurt you if you go back?”

Jon shrugged. “If I let him. Which I probably will, so I don't get grounded. But I might be grounded anyway since this meant a lot to him. If I don't get grounded, can I see you again?”

“It's best if you don't.”

“I'm going to be honest, I don't like that answer. If you want me to stay away you'll have to use your magic to harm me.”

“Tt. Do you have a death wish?”

“No. My biggest wish is for you to spar with me and win.”

“What if I lose?”

“Then we'll go again until you win.”

“...Hm. You're very… persistent.”

Jon grinned. “Thanks. Wow, it feels really good when you compliment me. Do it again.”

“Um… you have really unique eyes?”

Jon beamed. “This is great, keep going!”

Damian blushed. “I'd rather not.”

Jon pouted. “Pleeeeaaase? I'll do anything.”

“Will you go home?”

“Fine, yes, after… 3 more compliments. Then I'll go home, for now.”

“Tt. Your curls look very nice, your hair makes a nice contrast against your skin tone and you– ah… you… that is, you're very strong.”

“I already knew that last one.”

“I meant muscular.”

“That's not a compliment, that's just a fact.”

Damian’s ears burned. “...I like it. I like that about you. I like that you're muscular. It looks… visually appealing.”

“Oh, I'm definitely in love with you. I'd love to stay and compliment you back, but I said I'd leave, and I want you to trust me! If you ever need me, or just want me, all you have to do is call. I'll come.”

Jon flew back home. “Dad? I ambushed him, caused an avalanche, and killed his squad, but he still beat me.” Jon called out.

Kal walked out to see his son. “You look unharmed. Why did he let you go?”

“Honestly? I think I annoyed him too much. But I'm going back tomorrow.”

“I see… an ambush didn't work, so you'll have to gain his trust and then betray him. I was going to punish you but your tenacity and cunning deserve a reward, so it is simpler to do nothing.

“Oh, yeah, psh, that's totally why I want to go back. I totally want to murder him in cold blood. I mean, you know how much I love murder.”

Kal frowned. “I do know. It gets in the way of your studies. However, this time I approve.”

“‘kay. Thanks. See ya.” He went back to his room to watch Damian with his X-ray vision.

The next day, Jon went to Nanda Parbat and watched Damian from the sky, waiting until he was alone to approach him.

Damian’s hair was slicked back with sweat and he was flushed and panting.

“Prince Damian. You look somehow even more incredible than last time.”

“Spare me the mockery.”

“What? I'm not mocking you. The way your skin flushes and glistens is as enchanting as any of your spells, my lord.”

“Hn. You know most humans find sweat repulsive?”

“I'm only half human. Also, you smell great. Musky. Can I lick you?”

“Definitely not.” Jon pouted. “Do you want something?”

“Yeah. Can we spar?”

“After lunch. Would you like to dine with me?”

“Can I? Won't the servants see me?”

“I cook for myself.”

Jon gasped. “I get to try your cooking?! Yes!” He pumped his fist in the air.

Damian chuckled good naturedly.

Jon leaned against the island as Damian cooked. “What did your dad say about you failing to kill me?”

“Oh I told him I was going back today and he thought I meant that I was going to gain your trust to kill you.” Damian stiffened. “So I'm going to let him think that so I can spend more time with you.”

“Try this.” Damian said, handing Jon a spoonful of sauce. Jon tasted it.

“Hm, that's pretty good! I've never had this before.”

Damian tasted it himself and nodded. “It is good.”

Jon ate at his usual impatient pace and spent the rest of the meal talking at Damian.

“Alright, Superboy, follow me.”

“Anywhere.”

“Tt.” Damian led him to the training courtyard. “Here we are. Remember to be quiet.”

Jon rushed to tackle Damian but he predicted it and dodged, casting a spell to slow down Jon’s movements. It was a lot stronger than the spell Damian intended to cast, and he moved like a sloth. “Wow prince…” he began as Damian took his time pinning Jon to the ground and immobilizing him with a spell. The first spell wore off quicker than expected. “...Damian you're so fast! Oh, it's already over!” Jon giggled. “You did even better this time! I suppose it's to be expected since it wasn't an ambush. You're really impressive…” Jon sighed dreamily, looking up into Damian’s eyes with a lovestruck gaze.

Damian coughed and looked away. “...You wanted me to beat you. Did you go easy on me?”

“I can honestly say that didn't even occur to me. I don't know why I would do that. Would it have made you happy?”

“Hell no. It would have made me angry.”

Jon smiled. “I'd like to see you angry. Maybe I will next time. Though I don't know if you'd even notice, considering how well you beat me this time.”

Damian looked confused. “Why would you want me to be angry?”

Jon raised a brow. “‘Cause I wanna see how you look when you're angry. I've never seen it before. I wonder if it would make me angry, too. I never get angry anymore.”

“You're… impossible.”

Jon grinned toothily. “Is that a good thing?”

“... I haven't decided.” Damian got off of Jon, much to the younger teen’s disappointment, and did a nullification spell on Jon before helping him up. Jon smirked and flipped Damian over his shoulder as he stood, but Damian landed on his feet and cast a sleeping spell on Jon. He woke him up with a water spell, sitting on his chest.

“You got me again! I love you.”

“You're weird.”

“Is that bad?”

“I haven't decided.”

Jon smiled, crinkling his eyes. “Wanna go again?”

Damian laughed. “Sure. I've not even worked up a sweat yet.”

The next time he came to Nanda Parbat he threw down a corpse in front of Damian, face still splattered in blood.

Damian sighed. “Most guys bring flowers.”

“I'm not ‘most guys’”

“Who was he?”

“He criticized your looks so I killed him for you.”

“Jon, I don't care what anyone says about me.”

Jon's eyes flashed red. “I care that he said that. Now he can't say anything like it ever again. What do you think of my technique?”

“Messy, but efficient.”

Jon smiled “Thank you. Do you want to spar?”

“Jon it's 11:38 at night.”

“... Is that a problem?”

“I was sleeping.”

“Oh. Can I join you?”

“Tt. No. Go home.”

Jon pouted. Damian held firm.

“Okay. I'll miss you.”

“Tt. You say such embarrassing things. Goodnight.”

Jon smiled, then quickly leaned in to kiss Damian’s cheek. “Good night, my love.”

Damian slammed the door in his face.

It became somewhat of a pattern for Jon to ambush Damian when he went out on missions, and Damian learned to expect it. Jon was getting faster at killing Damian’s compliment.

“I killed them, so we can be alone!” Jon said cheerfully, gently touching Damian’s cheeks with his bloody fingers and looking at him adoringly.

“Jon. Keep your hands to yourself before I cut them off.” He said, drawing his rune-encrusted sword slightly out of the scabbard.

Jon pouted but removed his hands. “As you wish, my lord. So, what are you out here for today?”

“I was planning on retrieving a magical relic from a temple to the east of here, until you showed up. You’re like a gnat.”

“I can get it for you!”

“Tt, I’m sure you can’t, there are magical booby traps.”

Jon pouted. “I want to do this for you. Please?”

“Jon, I am certain that if you were deathly injured my mother would not permit me to put your body in the lazarus pit.”

“Not even if I died saving your life?”

“Likely not. I shouldn't even be talking to you, you are the enemy.”

Jon grinned. “I guess we both like to do whatever we want.”

“It is human nature to desire freedom.”

“Well yeah but I'm not human.”

“You are as human as you are kryptonian. I wonder, did your father have the same disregard for your mother as with the rest of humanity?”

“I dunno. I was cloned from her dead body and my dad. I never saw them interact. But I know he loved her, and I know he misses her. He's told me it's the only reason he puts up with me.”

“It does not sound like you are very close.”

“We aren't. But he's the only other kryptonian other than Kara Zor-el so y'know, he's important. Not as important as you, of course, but he was previously the most important person in my life.”

“We're here. Don't follow me.”

Jon floated after him. “But I wanna keep you safe! Let me carry you.”

“No– Jon, put me down!”

Jon grinned and flew Damian in. “What's it look like? I can look through the walls for you.”

“Unneeded, I have a map.”

Jon swiped the map from him and read it. “I have a great sense of direction, don't worry.”

“You are infuriating.”

“We cause strong emotions in each other~ how lovely. Okay, hold tight.”

Jon flew quickly down the halls, before being knocked into the wall by a magical hammer. Damian rolled off of him as Jon groaned in pain. “You idiot. Where are we?”

Jon grunted and pointed to their location on the map.

“I can’t even cast a healing spell on you as I have no idea how it will effect you.”

“Don't worry… I have super healing… so the side that hit the wall will be fine. The wall isn't magic, right?”

Damian checked. “Luckily for you, it is regular stone.”

Jon grinned. “Help me up? I wanna help you finish this.”

“It's a bad idea. We need to get you out of here.”

Jon shook his head. “I'm not going. I'll be right behind you. You can handle the magic traps, and I can fly in front of an arrow for you or something.”

“And what if it's a magical arrow?”

“I'll die for you. Did I not mention that?”

“Tt. You're dangerous to have around. But if you're not leaving…” Damian got out a rope and tied them together by their waists with a length of rope in between them. “Stick close to me.”

Jon floated to his feet. “Mkay. Let's go!”

Damian sighed and pulled along a floating Jon. He disabled the traps as they went until they reached the chamber with the artifact. Damian picked it up and the room shook with a deep voice.

“To get out of trouble, face your double. Return the staff to the rack and it will end the attack.”

Smoke billowed out of the air vents and coalesced into shadow versions of Jon and Damian. Damian sighed and took out his katana.

Jon and Damian fought back to back as their shadow versions worked independently. Damian took out his double and Jon defeated his own. The smoke dissipated and Jon cheered.

“We did it! That was awesome! They didn’t stand a chance against our teamwork! Imagine if you came in here with your whole squad! That would have been so much chaos, I really did you a favor by killing them.”

Damian growled and pressed his sword to Jon’s throat, backing him up against the wall. “No. Killing.”

“Mhn, so it's fine if you kill me but not if I kill your squad, who as we've previously established can come back to life whereas I will not?”

“I will kill you if I have to.”

“I would expect nothing less, my prince.” Jon smiled slightly. “So this is what you look like when you're angry. I love the intensity in your eyes.”

Damian narrowed his eyes. “Are you really trying to de-escalate the situation by flirting?”

Jon shook his head as much as he could. “Just saying what I think, my lord. And I think you look beautiful.”

Damian sighed and withdrew his blade. “You're an idiot.”

Jon smiled cheerily and let Damian drag him along by the rope still attached to his waist. Damian escorted Jon back to the entrance of the temple and cut the rope. “You need to stop killing my team every time I leave the palace. It makes me look incompetent.”

“Do you get in trouble?”

“Not exactly, no–”

“Then it's fine!”

Damian pinched the bridge of his nose. “Listen to me carefully. I am telling you that I want you to stop killing my team. Did you not say that I deserve to get what I want?”

“You're turning my words against me! I just want to be with you. Your assassins would never allow it. If I don't defeat them, I'll die.” Jon whined.

“Then learn non-lethal techniques of taking people down. Practice on those criminals or whatever.”

“You want me to… not kill a criminal?”

“Yes.”

“I can try… can I still be violent?”

“I would appreciate it if you did not scar my team too badly. But outside of that, you can be as brutal as you like as long as they do not die.”

“Okay. I will practice not killing and come back to you. Farewell, my prince.”

“Farewell, lord Jonathan.” Damian said as Jon lifted off into the sky, the cut rope rippling in the wind with his cape.

Jon stormed through the palace towards Damian, knocking people out of the way like flies. “Prince Damian! I came back, as I said I would.”

“Yes, I can see that. Are you here to kill more of my people? You know I cannot allow that, Lord Jonathan.”

Jon cocked his head. “Why would I do that? I don’t care about humans.”

Damian quirked a brow. “I am human.”

“You’re better than everyone else, though.”

“Is that so?”

Jon giggled. “Yeah, I think you could even kill me if you tried. That’s so hot. Look at you, not attacking me right now… so romantic...” Jon sighed.

Damian tutted. “I’m beginning to regret that.”

Jon giggled. “Some days I think I love you so much I'd just let you. Would you like me to do that? Or would you want a fight?” He came closer.

“What kind of question is that?”

“A genuine one. Oh… If I tried to kill you, I hope you’d try to kill me too… maybe we could die at the same time. If I am going to die, I want it to be by your hand. And no one else deserves to take your life away but me, and only if you asked me to.” He giggled, twirling his hair. “I really like having you around, so you would have to convince me first, or else I wouldn’t even let you kill yourself.” Jon hummed. “But I don’t see you convincing me that this world is so terrible as to deserve to be ridden of such beauty.” He stroked Damian’s cheek with a gloved hand, and Damian smacked it away. Jon sighed. “I love you.”

“You don’t know what love means. Your father never showed you.”

“I don’t? Well then, you’ll have to teach me. No one else will do.”

Damian tutted, before sighing as if greatly put upon and offering his ring for Jon to kiss. He did so gladly, kneeling at his feet.

“My prince.” Jon held Damian’s hand by the wrist and turned it over so he could nuzzle into his palm. Damian allowed it. Jon locked his violet eyes on Damian’s emerald ones. He kissed his fingertips one by one.

“You are so devoted to me. It’s perplexing.”

Jon kissed his wrist. “It’s simple; the whole earth should bow to you. You are perfection. Every moment you spend with me is pure gold; my greatest treasures.Or maybe it is that I can take anything in the world that I want, except for you. You are the only thing I could ever rightfully earn. The only goal worth pursuing. Everything was meaningless and dull until I met you, my Prince.”

Damian cupped his cheek. “And what if you got me? What then? Do you truly believe that to be love?”

“I would work to keep you and to serve you, to make you happy.” He smiled. “To annoy you, to pester you, to laugh with you, to see you cry. To hold you. To learn everything there is to know about you until you’ve changed so much that I have to learn you all over again.” He sniffed Damian’s wrist, at the cologne there, and deeper at all the smells that made up Damian. “Intoxicating.” Jon puffed out a laugh. “I don’t know what love is supposed to be like. Have I got it wrong? Do you think it matters? I ask out of curiosity, ‘cause even if it were really something completely morally unacceptable to you, I wouldn't care. It feels better than anything ever has. It’s what I live for.”

Damian’s lips parted in surprise. He schooled his features to ask his next question. “How many people have you killed since I last saw you?”

“None.” Jon smiled. “I’m learning, see? I can do better. I must be of some use to you, haven’t I?”

Damian got a strange look in his eye just then, and Jon became excited at the prospect of learning that expression. “Get up.”

Jon wilted. “Have I offended you, my Prince?”

Damian shook his head. “Stand up. Don’t. Float.”

Jon bowed his head obediently and stood up. Damian stepped close and put his hand on Jon’s shoulder, pulling him down into a slow and gentle kiss. Jon did not know his heart could race so fast. Damian pulled away with an unreadable look in his eye. “Alright, Jon. I accept. I will teach you how to love.”

Jon beamed. “Oh, this is so much better than murder.” He whispered.

Damian smirked. “It is, isn’t it? A lot of things are.” Damian took his hand off of Jon’s shoulder and put both behind his own back.

“Could you excuse me for just one moment? I feel the urge to go fly.”

Damian nodded, and Jon flew off, laughing brightly like a child.

Jon returned a moment later. “I love you! It feels so triumphant!” Jon gasped. “Does this mean we are dating? Boyfriends?!”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but yes. My mother will not be pleased.”

“I can kill her for you, if you wan’t.”

Damian glared at him. “No. No Killing.”

Jon looked at him for a long time. “Okay… Okay. But if someone tries to kill you, I won’t spare them. Even if you get mad at me. Even if you don’t believe my explanation. Even if you can take care of yourself. I promise, I won’t let you die.”

Damian scowled. “Just…kiss me, you idiot.”

Jon flew to his side in an instant, but was much more apprehensive about actually kissing him, so Damian grabbed his head and dragged their mouths together. Jon purred and pulled him closer. Damian nibbled on Jon’s bottom lip and he gasped. “Damian!”

“Yes?”

“You’ve done this before! And I can’t kill whoever you did it with!”

“You don’t have worry, they are already dead.”

“Woah, do you kill people instead of breaking up with them?”

“Tt, no. They betrayed me. I made an example of them.”

“Wow, I can’t imagine killing you if you betrayed me.”

“Hm. I can’t say it was pleasant, but— we are supposed to be kissing right now, Jonathan.” He pulled him in for a few more smooches.

“Is this part of learning how to love?” Jon asked dazedly.

“No, this is for me. I’m just glad I found a way to shut you up.”

“Dami! That’s–” More kissing. “That’s mean. I love it when you’re mean to me.”

They had their arms wrapped around each other by now. Damian rubbed between Jon’s shoulder blades. “You really shouldn’t.”

“Nobody is ever mean to me but you! How could I not like it? I love when you give me attention.”

“To have everyone afraid of you, your whole life… Let’s change that, hm? You are terrifying in the way that you move, talk, smile, laugh, and behave… But we should be able to change at least two of those.”

“Am I so scary, even to you?”

“No, not to me. You’re even… cute.”

“Isn’t that a bad thing?”

Damian furrowed his brow. “No, why would it be?”

“My father always told me to stop acting so cute, that it was distracting.”

“Everything about you is distracting. You’re currently distracting me from my work. I didn’t think you cared.”

Jon smiled. “You’re right, I don’t. And like I said, you can be mean to me, as long as you don’t ignore me. Well, even if you tried to ignore me, I’d cover your eyes until you had to acknowledge me. Or… maybe I could bite you, like Krypto used to do when I was little and I’d ignore him. Hm… come to think of it, you did just say I was distracting, I’m sure there are lots of ways I could get your attention. I like being distracting.”

Damian arched a brow. “Surely you’ll allow me to get my work done.”

“Well, that’s not ignoring me ‘cause you’re mad! So it’s fine. I can just watch you.”

“Do you watch me when you leave?”

Jon nodded. “And I strain my ears to listen. I love the sound of your voice, my prince.”

“Oh Jonathan, your life cannot only be me. I want you to stay in the palace so I can show you other things you might find meaningful.”

“Like what?”

“Friendship, learning to cook, making art. Things that are worthwhile because of the struggle. I think you will enjoy pottery.”

“What's so interesting about making pots? Plenty of people can do that.”

“They can do it because they put in the work, and they are better than you at it. Don't you want to impress me with an excellent piece of pottery?”

“You would like it if I gave you something I made?”

“Jon, the only person who can make the art that you would make is you. If you do not make it, it will never be known. You can give me something no one else can.”

“Who cares? Everyone will say they love it so I don't singe their eyebrows off…”

Damian arched a brow. “I won't.”

Jon blushed and smiled at Damian. “That's right, you're not afraid to tell me what you think. You're my equal.”

“I may even decide to encourage you with kisses.”

Jon rumbled a purr. “I love you. I'm going to make you the best pot ever.”

Damian kissed him again. “Good. I eagerly await it.”

#jondami #damijon #super lords #superlords au #superlords #supersons #super sons #damian wayne #damian al ghul wayne #jon kent #Jonathan Kent #ask answered #anon ask #fanfic #my fanfic #jon el #damian al ghul

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givemea-dam-break · 1 year

Text

like real people do (anthony lockwood x reader)

a/n: anthony bloody lockwood is hozier coded you cannot convince me otherwise!! i considered making this a locklyle fic, but i wasn't too sure. let me know if you guys want me to write a locklyle version lol. this is shorter than my usual, but i was listening to hozier and got inspired lmao

warnings: mentions of panic attacks gn reader

In the darkness, you can feel his fingers wrapped around yours and the faint pulse beating within them, steady and assuring. His hand is warm, and the knowledge that he is simply next to you, holding your hand so tenderly, is enough to soothe the horrible beating of your heart and the tightness of your throat.

He doesn't need to say anything. He's never needed to, for he understands the tornado that tore through your mind and stole the air from your lungs. Many nights have been spent in the reverse of this, with you holding him as he gasps and cries. It's a horrible situation to be in for both of you, but you've adapted. What else could you do?

So, as he so gently brushes the hair from your face, you breathe in the familiar scent of too-bitter tea as if it is the very thing keeping you alive.

"You're safe," he murmurs. "I'm here."

He is. He always has been. Ever since you met, he's been there, pulling you from the bad memories that have always clung to you. He's the reason why the nightmares are less frequent now, why you feel safe enough to sleep at night. But never once has he pushed to know what causes it all. And neither have you.

It's astounding how little you can know about a person, and how little they know about you, and yet still be their biggest source of solace.

Anthony Lockwood has been that for you for years, now. Ever since you moved to London, running from a past you feared you'd never escape, he has kept you safe, has comforted you whenever you've needed it without a single question. He's let you keep your secrets, and you've let him keep his, but you're both always there, waiting with a net to catch the broken pieces, and glue to put them back together.

You had never expected to find such a person in London. In all honesty, you came here only to run and hide, but you found him in the process, led by some string of fate. Everything you did in your first few days here led you to him as if some part of your subconscious knew he was waiting for someone to catch, someone to fall on.

Gently, he guides your head to his chest, where you let it rest as you listen to his heartbeat. With each strong pulse, you breathe in the scent of him and the promise of recuperation.

Wordlessly, his free hand rubs your back softly, and you find it easier to breathe now. It's as if with each brush of his hand, he reopens a part of your lungs.

"How are you feeling?" he asks quietly.

Your throat hurts and your voice is weak, but you say, "Better."

Not good. Not even okay. Just better. The world doesn't feel as though it is crashing on top of you now, nor does it feel like your lungs are being squeezed of every last vestigial of air they hold. You feel a little lighter, but your throat aches. Your chest hurts. Your skin feels strange and like it's not even yours. But you're better than before. It's an improvement.

He presses a gentle kiss on the back of your head. "Want some tea?"

"It's three in the morning."

"It's never stopped us before."

You can practically hear his smile. "Okay."

You're grateful that he brings you with him, that he doesn't leave you alone in the dark. No, he takes your hand so delicately as if he's worried it'll crumble if he holds it too hard, and he leads you quietly from the floor of the library down, down, down, to the kitchen.

He doesn't turn on the light, instead opting to open the fridge door and use that for light. Every so often, he shuts it and reopens it to prevent the little warning alarm inside from going off, but you appreciate it nonetheless. The big light would be far too blinding and disorientating. In no time, he's made both of you a cup of tea and sets the steaming mugs down atop the cluttered thinking cloth. Now, he shuts the fridge and opens the blinds.

It's summer, and although it's still the early hours of the morning, the sky is no longer an all-consuming inky black, but rather a dark navy that you know will get lighter. Pathetic fallacy, if you've ever seen it.

As Lockwood sips his tea, one of his hands always stays wrapped around yours as a reminder. He's here. You're not alone. Breathe. He's here.

There is no person you could ever be more grateful for than him. Throughout it all - the fall-outs you've had, the worst of your breakdowns, the worst of his - he has never left your side. He has always taken your hand in his and led you from the endless dark and into the slowly-rising sun.

You may not have been looking for him when you moved, but you'll always be glad that you found him.

And, so, as he kisses your forehead, the tip of your nose, your cheeks, your smile slowly returns. You're not perfect, nor is he, and your pasts have left you with more than you can handle, but he is slowly guiding you away from it all, as you are him. Like real people do.

#anthony lockwood x reader #lockwood x reader #lockwood and co x reader #lockwood and co fanfiction #lockwood and co #lockwood and co netflix #anthony lockwood #lucy carlyle #george karim #x reader #fanfiction #givemea-dam-break

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irritablepoe · 3 months

Note

favourite poe hcs??

:))))

oh anon i don't think you know what you've done

okay i'll list some headcanons and then i'll make a cut and list some further headcanons which contain spoilers for my fic that i haven't published yet, so they'll be major spoilers of what's to come!! you can decide if you wanna read them before ranpo finds these out hehe >:3

(if you don't read the fic that's irrelevant tho, enjoy the hcs ^^)

also pls note these are my personal hcs you ofc don't have to agree with them :3

ok first of all poe is absolutely unscareable, he could watch any horror movie and be deeply fascinated by it rather than afraid

exceptions are when there's a scene where many people talk over each other, he gets very overstimulated by that (also like in general not only in movies)

he can hear heartbeats more sensitively than a normal human being

he has relatives in america but doesn't talk to them a lot, especially since he isolated himself after ranpo defeated him

similar to irl poe i'd say his father left and his mother died when he was young leaving him and his siblings behind - they get adopted by their aunt & uncle, tho henry and poe move out quite quickly to get their own place

used to host big events in his mansion, he is very prideful of his deduction abilities after all and he's actually quite famous for solving multiple big crimes that got a lot of attention (like scandals and stuff)

(that's why he's so bummed out when ranpo defeats him too)

karl lingered outside his mansion before poe took him in; poe realised he was injured and took him to a vet; they bonded over that and karl just stayed bc poe got him food and was comfortable to sit on

always has candy for ranpo everywhere despite not being a big fan of candy

deals with dissociation and intrusive thoughts; has problems with idealization of people (see ranpo)

has been dealing with some sort of substance addiction in his time between his duel with ranpo and his revenge part

has issues with chronic pain bc of that as well

has a raccoon plushie for karl for when he's gone

loves writing with an actual quill but has been made fun of

has some odd knowledge about the human body that might or might not be concerning

hates swimming. i mean hates. loathes, in fact.

loves to rot away in bed and think while drifting in and out of consciousness (sameee)

is always cold (uses ranpo as a heater lol)

can solve basic code

loves bitter tasting things (tea, dark chocolate, strong coffee etc)

is insecure about his face + his body in general that's why he wears his hair like that and so many layers

ok now for the spoilers (if you don't want to read further than this, ty dear anon for letting me ramble about this and ty ty for reading :3)

i love the theory that an ability manifests as a kind of response to either trauma or a major change in their life, so - my theory or hc, whatever, is that poe wasn't an ability user before he met ranpo. obviously the first time they meet ranpo doesn't know about his ability and hasn't experienced it before. poe seems to find confidence in his ability and i think he'd have mentioned it before if he'd met ranpo in a setting that would also be in relation (in terms of mysteries and stuff) to it

i'm very sure or i'd like to think poe manifested his ability as a way of escapism but also as a way of determination (drawing people into his story i mean, you can't get further in being a successful detective writer than this ability yk)

also poe was a detective before they met, i'd guess he still wrote stuff but he switched almost completely once he was defeated by ranpo and barely solved any crimes anymore (maybe only over text or sth idk)

all this results ofc in a feeling of inferiority in poe who before ranpo came along was probably quite prideful - which leads me to believe he thinks of ranpo as a rival that has corrupted his mind but also as someone he is thankful for, which makes all of this wayyyy more complicated than it seems on the surface

poe thinks he's tied to ranpo and therefore cannot say no to him or pretend for long enough that he doesn't care; he actively puts himself in situations he doesn't like bc of ranpo and helps him when he really doesn't have to - he could just walk away. but he doesn't

he also exclusively uses his ability for or against ranpo, we've not seen him use it outside of it and tbh i don't think he's ever used it otherwise (except when it manifested, tho i don't know how it could've manifested tbh. like how do you find sth like this out?)

in my fic henry (his brother) knows at least a fraction of all this and asks for poe to get himself something unrelated to ranpo, which he does, which is why i think poe is also an artist, tho less skilled than in his writing but he finds fun in it

he keeps it a secret from ranpo (he will eventually open up tho)

yea. i think that's it for now, ty again anon and ty for everyone reading so far, i hope i'll not disappoint in putting this into the fic :D

#bsd #bsd poe #bsd ranpo #ranpoe #bsd headcanons

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nabateaprodigy · 8 months

Note

hello! can i ask for a dimitri x f!reader who is like cardia from code realize? basically, she has a gem embedded in her chest that causes her skin and blood to be poisonous (not her hair) so anything she touches melts away because of the poison. she has been isolated basically her whole life so is kinda clueless about social interactions and stuff.

also, her whole life she has been called a monster and told that she cannot love anyone. so, how would dimitri feel about that kind of person? how would he feel if he fell in love with her? what would he do to protect her? that kinda stuff!

sorry this is a little long, but thank you in advance!

- 🧊 anon

The Prince and His Maiden of Death

Series: Fire Emblem.

Character: Dimitri.

Genre: Angst/Comfort.

Proofread: Yes.

Reader: Female.

Notes: Cardia from Code Realize reminded me of an anime I'm a fan of. It's called The Duke of Death and His Maid! (Which is what I based the title of this fic on!) The way you described Cardia reminded me of the Duke so I had fun writing this! (I hope you don't mind that I based some things in this fic from the anime.)

Alone. That's something that you had been constantly reminded of from a very young age. You wanted nothing more than to make friends and play with other kids.

However, in the area you lived in it was common knowledge that a family had "A Maiden of Death" living with them and this hurt the name of your family.

You were supposed to be the next head of your house. However, your mother passed that responsible onto your sibling. If you ever wanted to be the head of the house or live with your family again you would "Have to get rid of that dreadful curse" as your mother put it.

Oh that's right you didn't live with your mother or any of your siblings. You had been living in a mansion deep in the woods anyway from anyone or anything. However, you did have someone with you your loyal butler.

You were thankful for him choosing to stay with you even knowing about your curse. You couldn't have asked for anyone more kind and loyal than him. That's how it had been for many years until you were a teenager.

It had just been you and him in that mansion so naturally you were very close with him. You didn't have much social interactions with anyone else your mother never even bothered to pay a visit or write a letter to you.

Your Butler wanted nothing more than to see you happy and make friends. So one day he suggested that you attend the Officers Academy. Naturally, you were against this idea of his.

There would be so many people around you who wouldn't want to accidentally touch someone and kill them. Not to mention you would have to be around and speak with other people. It's just something you wouldn't want to deal with so you were against doing it.

After some more discussion with your butler, you managed to strike a deal with him. You didn't have to stay for a while at least for some time to see how the experience would be for you. So you agreed to this and after some time you were on your way to enroll in the Officers Academy!

When you arrived you discussed with Archbishop Lady Rhea. She was understanding of your situation and would do anything she can to accommodate your stay at the Officers Academy. After that, you had been enrolled in the Blue Lions class.

You were extremely nervous, to say the least meeting so many new people at once. Lady Rhea had made your classmates aware of your condition. Just in case any of your classmates were overly friendly and wanted to hug you as a greeting.

Before you could even think of how you should greet your classmates you've already arrived in front of the classroom. 'There's no turning back now.' You thought you should just get this over with now. If you didn't like this you could return home but nothing wrong with giving something new a try right?

So you opened the door where all your classmates were waiting for you. You felt nervous with so many eyes on you all at managed to push that feeling back and introduced yourself. "Hello everyone it's nice to meet you I'm your new classmate my name is Y/N."

(Time skip brought to you by Ingrid bonking Sylvain on the head for flirting with every woman he sees.)

It had already been a few weeks since your arrival at the Officers Academy. To your surprise, you had been enjoying your time here. However, that was mostly thanks to one person in particular Dimitri.

Out of anyone you were most close with him and spent the most of your time as you could with him. He made you feel safe and you could truly be yourself when you were with Dimitri. Of course, you wanted nothing more than to hold his hand and hug him.

However thanks to your curse it made things like that impossible. But there was one thing you could do together that made you happy. That was Dimitri playing with and styling your hair. Dimitri was a man who didn't know his strength so even with just playing with your hair he was afraid he'd hurt you.

There was also the issue that well Dimitri didn't know how to style your hair in any way...However thanks to your friend Mercedes he was able to learn and style your hair. It's something you enjoyed as it was the closest you two could get physically.

He was someone you could easily open up with and talk to about how you truly felt. Whether that be about your curse or just how you were feeling that day. You couldn't be more happy to have someone like Dimitri in your life.

It was just another average day for you and Dimitri nothing special so far. However, that song changed as this would be the day that truly defined your love for Dimitri.

"Y/N I know for the longest time you lived in isolation because of the curse. For the fear of others hating you or yourself hurting others. However, with the time I've spent with you, I can see that you want nothing more than to be around others to have friends.

You are kind and caring considerate of others and how they feel. And for that, I love you Y/N more than you could ever know. Together let's find a way to break your curse when all is said and done. Will you rule over Faerghus by my side as Queen?"

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shirajellyfish · 9 months

Note

i am doing the sky cotl crying and faint expressions at you, how did you write such good fake coding stuff for 'i see you, sundrop!'

i am ✨struggling✨ for a y/n fic i'm writing OTL

(Eyeballs emoji. I want to read your fic.)

Mostly making up stuff with confidence, to be honest.

This is gonna be long, so I'll put the details under the cut. No spoilers, just a long post!

You only need a little tiny bit of tech knowledge to start making stuff up, and since Security Breach is set in a future with advanced technology it's easy to say "Well this isn't how things go irl, but maybe in the future it could work."

Use what you know! I love video game glitches and learning how they work, which made writing the "broken down bus" explanation easy and fun to write. Take what technical knowledge you do have and make up things you can see fitting in with what you know.

You'll also notice that I avoided things I don't know anything about. I don't know how to code, so there isn't really anything about the process or details of creating coding in my fic. It's usually glossed over, not described in detail.

Anything code-like in my fic is generally technician commands, which only have to sound technical. Since they're made for humans to enter and not for computers to follow line for line, they can be a little off from how actual coding works. You don't need to go over details you don't know about, if you don't want to.

And if you do want to despite not having the knowledge, there's always research! I didn't know how anti static mats work, so I googled it! (And then had to simplify that down for the fic, because some of the finer details were sorta boring and would have broken the flow of the scene. No one has called me out on it yet haha.) I also did a LOT of googling about electricity in the Live Wire chapter, and about batteries for Truce.

I didn't exactly understand everything I researched, it can get very complicated fast. But! As long as I understood enough of the surface level stuff, I could make up things based on that. Do it confidently enough and most people won't notice. I got a lot of really funny comments from people assuming I must have a lot of advanced tech knowledge, not realizing I was just making things up confidently.

Most importantly, write what is fun. The fastest way to get stuck is to try writing something that bores you. If it's unrealistic but FUN, write it anyway. As long as you stay consistent, it will make sense within your story. If it's realistic but boring, cut it! Leave it out entirely, or have another character handle it offscreen. Readers can feel your passion, if you're having fun writing it they'll have fun reading it.

The amount and type of technical stuff in your fic should depend entirely on what and how much technical stuff you personally enjoy writing. Really, that applies to every element. Make what you want, the way you want it.

I believe in you! Sundrop believes in you! Have fun!

#ask #i see you sundrop #A Sky and SB fan at the same time that's like a shiny pokemon wow #take everything I say with a grain of salt #I write funny jester fanfic on the internet I'm not like Stephen King or anything over here #Heck I'm not even Bamsara with like a really cool big fanfic #So if you think my advice is dumb then trust your heart #Really goes for anything you write #Just write the thing you like the way you like it

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buckybarnesss · 11 months

Note

Okay, so I am doing research for my fic and so I'm reading about nogitsune. So far, what I've read indicates that they do sometimes possess people BUT they prefer women because they tend to feed off of the life force of women. They also hide during the day, are afraid of swords and dogs, and are not necessarily always malevolent.

Kira and her mother, by definition, would be considered nogitsune because they are not in service to the goddess Inari.

Tangentially, it does seem that Allison should have been the target of the nogitsune since she is the preferred target. Stiles' weak emotional anchor either played a role in his possession, or he was targeted for a very specific reason (Derek and his dad would do anything to keep him alive, whereas Allison and Scott have weaker protectors.)

this is interesting, definitely. the show didn't really care about appropriate lore so lol.

i do remember how fandom theorized that allison was actually the nogitsune or there was a 2nd nogitsune especially after riddled where she didn't answer her phone when stiles was missing and was left that message in japanese.

you've got me writing meta on this now lol

the so called "darkness around the heart" that came from the proxy sacrifice made scott, allison and stiles the most attractive targets because they were participating in a ritual and left vulnerable

now i have a few ideas as to why stiles was chosen over allison and scott.

we can eliminate scott immediately though. he was left vulnerable but not for possession as he was never an option. he is already something magical. one cannot be a fox and a wolf.

when the cellar collapses during the freak magical storm jennifer created in lunar eclipse allison, isaac, melissa, chris and the sheriff are all right there under the nemeton. allison would've been an easy attractive choice.

however i think the nogistune booked it the hell outta there only to come upon stiles.

after the sacrifice scott went off with deucalion to confront jennifer, lydia went to the loft, allison and isaac went to find the nemeton together and stiles was all alone with the jeep.

where he crashes due to the storm and he was unconscious for an unknown amount of time. so not only was stiles vulnerable due to the proxy sacrifice creating a darkness in his heart but also that he has no mental defenses at that moment.

but was it just the nogitsune hitting the jackpot?

i'm not so sure.

that episode showed us that allison, scott and stiles were all around the nemeton the night of wolf moon.

(also the nogitsune was present when derek killed paige and it would have access to stiles knowing about it. how spicy. how interesting. i'm sure it tehehehe'd about it).

so why stiles and not allison?

allison doesn't have the access stiles does. she's a hunter which gives her fun toys but not full access to the sheriff. the nogitsune possessing stiles destabilized the entire police force by personally compromising the sheriff.

possessing stiles compromised both scott and derek. i cannot stress enough that if scott and derek are both freaking out than nothing gets achieved. sure scott would be useless if allison got possessed but derek would be like "that's sad. anyway." neither of them are willing to kill stiles. scott would rather die and derek would throw himself at anything rather than do that.

stiles knows shit about everyone. he's a smart and resourceful bastard child. the way stiles is the common vector for knowledge someone shouldn't have is high.

allison had a stronger anchor with isaac than stiles did with lydia AND allison and isaac remained together. isaac was literally holding up the ceiling to save everyone. lydia and stiles were separated. maybe if lydia had remained with him it would've helped.

everyone wanted to protect stiles. chris was reluctant to harm him despite the code. it's not that i think chris would be eager to harm or kill allison but i think he'd feel way more obligated to keep her from harming people and terrified of her being kate like. he'd feel responsible for allison doing harm in a way he doesn't for stiles. even peter wanted to help with stiles (whatever his own ends were). tbh i think the only person who wouldn't budge on allison would actually be scott.

and the 6th secret reason is if you believe that stiles is something.

it's interesting that the nemeton tried to warn stiles about the nogitsune and it tried to warn allison about kate being alive.

except allison died.

i think an allison possessed storyline could've been fun though.

#my blog #teen wolf #thoughts on teen wolf

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maglors-anion-gap · 10 months

Note

1, 11, and 13 from the nice asks, please?

[for this ask game]

A fanon characterization that you love:

I really enjoy fanon lalwen. She's not in the silm and she gets almost no exposition elsewhere so she really is the blorbo personality I invented. Lalwen the best friend of fingolfin, lalwen fingolfin's right hand man, lalwen the loud and the smiling, lalwen the lesbian -- idk I just really like how some folks have turned her into the big, gregarious lady, especially since most of tolkien's ladies fit different niches (tolkien would have exploded if he'd ever met a butch dyke, I don't think he'd know what to do with a woman like that). Otherwise, I like fanon maeglin a lot. Singly handedly fixed tfog for me so that I didn't have to avoidantly flip past chunks of it. Maeglin's canon behavior is obviously a real-world phenomenon (and the reason I had personal issues enjoying tfog) so there's value in analyzing that. But at least for me, it's been very nice to see people examine the interplay between low self-esteem and outward confidence, the trauma of adolescence and the adult responsibility of growth and recovery, inquisitive desire for greener grass and the feeling of freakishness or otherness. I think a lot of it takes themes present in the original but pares away some of tolkien's dated coding and the broader discomfort casual fans might want to avoid.

11. Recommend a fic with an unusual/original headcanon or characterisation that you loved:

I would recommend Half Mourning by @skyeventide! One, I love the idea of Maeglin having Dwarvish tattoos. There's so much depth there; that they'll fade and take a part of his identity with him, how distancing himself from the bad parts of his life has forcibly distanced him from the good or familiar parts as well. Two, Maeglin as a mirror for other people! Gaia has really masterfully captured something I didn't know I needed to see in Maeglin. He's usually written to be either charismatic and biting, or withdrawn and dejected (and to be clear, I enjoy both). But this fic kind of opened a third door: Maeglin who is whatever the situation requires, who has past associations and familiar customs but no real positive tether to his identity, the knowledge that he is not unwelcome but that he does not belong, that the easiest way to avoid scrutiny is to mimic the person in front of him. I felt very called out.

13. Recommend a fic (can be your own!) that features something you wish was written about more:

This is actually a series (sorry) but The Years Start Coming and They Don't Stop Coming by @i-am-a-lonely-visitor! I am very taken with Visitor's Celebhir (trans celebrian). I think a lot of folks (myself included) often write trans characters as having transitioned to their canon genders (for example, transmasculine maedhros is a staple of mine). And I love this, it's great! It's one way to explore. But I think for a while, at least what I saw, there was a bit of a stir across fandoms about best practice for writing trans characters (eughgghhh) and the Arbiters settled on "needs to match canon gender" and then enforced that vigorously. So personally, I love love love it when people take a canon character and say "I'm transing their gender the opposite direction." It requires you to analyze the character, pare them down to the characteristics about them that will never change (similar to the analysis required to set them in a wildly alternate universe) and then overlay on top of that the new characteristics of what it's like to be trans, how they interact with the world now, how that changes their character, etc. For example, Visitor's Celebhir has a certain tension with Galadriel that wouldn't exist in that manner for Celebrian. Very very tasty analysis going on. (I will be posting transfeminine caranthir soon - I say, having said this for the last three months). TL;DR: I think we should trans more characters, and if your first anxiety is "what if I'm transing them wrong??"/"I heard someone say you should never trans a character like this" you're probably *not* transing them wrong and it's going to be fine (and people love to beta so!)

#answering this was the fic game version of trying to clean my room #took me all day bc i kept getting distracted like oooh hey i forgot i bookmarked this -

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madaboutmunson · 11 months

Text

Again - Part 24 - The End

Part 1 | Part 23 | Full list of Again series links inc AO3 Link

Steddie fic where Steve and Eddie are in their mid 30's and everyone has sort of drifted apart

Notes: We made it! All the way to the end. A big thank you to everyone that makes it this far. I know there are thousands of other fics you could be reading, and I am honored you take the time out to read mine. This is the longest fic I've ever written, and I'm gonna miss writing these versions of the characters. I hope youve enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it and reading your thoughts on it :)

Taglist: @adaed5 @grtwdsmwhr @swimmingbirdrunningrock @mightbeasleep, @jewellthebooknerd, @fentiibratzz @rvllybllply2014

================================================

The next few weeks, they fall into a happy routine. Every day starts with a breakfast tray with two oat shakes and half of Steve’s meds. Eddie hated it at first, but the novelty of toppings made him grow to love them.

Depending on the day, Eddie either goes through the exercise routine with Steve or if he has to go to work, Wayne coaches him through it, occasionally taking part himself.

Then Steve checks in with the builders to see how Wayne’s mini ranch house is coming along further out on the land. Wayne never complains if anything is wrong or not to his original requests, but Steve has been busy deciphering the eyebrow and sigh slash grumble code with Eddie’s expert knowledge, and he’s almost got it down to a fine art.

The kids were to stay at Jenny and Val’s for a few more weeks, but Steve called them every day once they were home from school.

Their evenings always end the same way. Wayne bids them goodnight and goes back to the RV, then Eddie and Steve build their living room fort together, and Steve got the front seat tonight. So that means Eddie has TV control. He selects a music DVD and talks through the meanings behind the songs or some random factoids that Steve probably wouldn’t remember. Still, he could watch Eddie talk enthusiastically about mostly anything. The way his eyes widen and sparkle, they either stare intensely at the screen or Steve, his one hand always at Steve's chest, the other wildly gesticulating around. Maybe a cushion falls victim to it on occasion.

“You got any plans tomorrow, babe?” Eddie asks happily.

“Other than beating my exercise personal bests and kissing you….hmmm….nope,” Steve answers.

“Awww, Steve, do you have a lil’ crush on me?” Eddie jokes, fluttering his eyelashes and grabbing one of Steve’s hands in each of his own.

“I guess you could say that. I think you’re alright, you know? Kinda cute. Tolerable,” Steve teases and is immediately jostled from side to side by Eddie's knees.

“Kinda cute? Tolerable? Ooof, am I losing my charm? Do I need to revert to my nerdy ways and grow my hair out?” Eddie pretends to be devastated and flops forward on Steve’s shoulder in mock defeat.

“I love you, you stupid ass.” Steve laughs, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek and snuggling backwards into him more.

"You sure about that? Like one hundred per cent, sure? No take backsies? If destroyed still true forever?" Eddie mutters softly as he nuzzles against his cheek and ear. Steve turns slightly to look into his eyes.

"Yes." Steve answers with a gentle smile of adoration, "Of course. Without a shadow of a doubt. To the end of the universe and back. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, twenty-four hours a day. I absolutely, one hundred per cent adore you. I love you." Steve kisses him softly to seal his declaration, and this is where Eddie normally bundles him up in his arms somehow, and they kiss and melt into one another for hours until it's time to sleep.

But not tonight.

Tonight Eddie gets up and changes the DVD he puts on The Breakfast Club. Steve admires his tattooed topless form as he moves. He looks stronger still these days. Steve wonders if that is to do with Eddie falling into his exercise and eating regime. His jeans still slouch a little around his tiny waist, which Steve has also noted has developed a slight squidginess of content. Eddie complains about it, but Steve loves it. It means he's happy here. Eddie returns and sits back behind Steve as the film starts.

"It's good, you know," Eddie says happily as he reaches for his hands again, leans forward and wraps both sets of their arms around Steve again.

"What is? the movie?" Steve asks, a little confused.

Eddie laughs, "Well, like, everything, but specifically that you love me so much."

"Eddie, did you eat some special brownies today? You're talking in riddles. I love you every day. You love me every day. Why is it any different tonight?"

"Because otherwise, this would be silly of me" Their joined hands that had been draped around him go to Eddie's jeans pocket, and Steve can feel something gripped in their joined fingers, and it's lifted in front of his eyes a black box. Eddie's thumb flicks open the lid, and inside are two silver rings.

At first glance, they look like two plain silver bands, which is beautiful enough, but as Eddie twists the box for him, he begins to see their hammered texture. Steve uses his hand to lift the box when he notices the same word engraved on the inside of each "Aeternum".

"Hey, calm down, love. I don't want heart-monitor-Max’s spidey sense setting off wherever she is, bursting in here and kicking my ass," Eddie says with a smile in his voice, tapping their joined hands against the centre of Steve's chest delicately. Steve is so surprised he hasn't realised his heart rate has picked up, but he feels the deep thuds now. He feels Eddie's chest rise and fall against his back, and he attempts to match it to calm himself. "Don't worry. This isn't my proposal. You know, I'd never do something like that as quietly as this. This is…uh…a just-the-facts ring" Eddie lets out a soft laugh next to Steve's ear.

Steve wishes it was just the surprise making his heart pound, but it wasn't. It was fear. He's afraid he doesn't deserve this, not after what he did. "You're awful quiet with your words there, sweetheart," Eddie says with a hint of worry, and Steve shuts his eyes for a moment. Trying to compose himself.

"After what I did?" Steve asks, afraid to use too many words in case he ruins everything with another tearful display.

"Steve, please, not tonight," Eddie pleads glumly."We're done with all that. We're doing all the things we need to."

Steve deflates in Eddie's arms momentarily, "I'm sorry, Eddie. I'm trying."

Eddie clears his throat. "Well, technically, I got these before any of that happened. So, uh, I wanted to give you this before and after." Steve can hear the smile in his voice, and it's causing a twisted pain in him. He knows Eddie means well and wants to play pretend like it hadn't happened. Steve remembers Eddie sitting opposite him in the kitchen, how he told him he didn't deserve Steve's love, and if this was what he felt like at the time, Steve regrets not being more patient, but Eddie had tried for Steve, and so he must do the same now.

"Why didn't you get ones like your other rings?" Steve asks, and he feels Eddie snuggle up to him a little more, happy for his effort.

"I wanted something special. I wanted them to be like us. A mixture of moments of perfection and imperfection, but it's glaringly obvious they belong together," Eddie says with a hint of excitement. Steve untangles their fingers on both hands, leaving Eddie holding the box in his eye line, and finds the one finger of Eddie's that has no ring adorning it.

Steve carefully takes a ring out of the box and slides the ring onto Eddie's finger, then kisses the back of his hand. As he reaches for the other ring, Eddie softly bumps his fingers out of the way, takes Steve's hand in his, and puts the ring on for him. He kisses the back of Steve's hand and then his temple, "I'll love you for all eternity," Eddie whispers as he casts aside the box, weaves their fingers back together, and moves their hands back where they were.

"And I, you," Steve replies softly, unable to take his eyes off him. He amazed him. How could something that made so much sense right now have at one time seemed entirely impossible? At one time, he thought there was no way Eddie could love him back, and yet here they are wrapped up together, shacked up together, making promises until the end of time together, "So much, honey." He pauses, taking a few breaths, "I'm sorry, Eddie."

"How many times, Steve! Stop saying sorry." Eddie kisses him as if to swallow up his unwanted apologies.

"Oh, I'm not apologising for that," Steve says, getting to his feet and hoisting Eddie up with him, who looks puzzled but smiles all the same, especially when he finds himself wrapped up in Steve's arms, being gently swayed to some non-existent music, as Steve's gentle eyes gaze sleepily into his.

"No? Then what are you apologising for?" Eddie inquires. Though his voice is soft, his words trail away, completely distracted by what is happening between them.

"Because I'm impatient, honey, and because if I love you any more, I'm certain my heart would explode," Steve's eyes swim with fondness as they trail over Eddie's features, as he tilts his head to the side in adorable confusion, "Eddie?" Steve says softly.

"Yeah?" Eddie mutters as he leans against his love, their bodies pressed together so no glimmer of light can get between them.

"Eddie Munson. That's a nice name. You like it?" Steve asks softly, his mouth barely an inch for Eddie's. Their eyes have yet to glance away from one another.

Eddie laughs softly, "I don't mind it, I guess. You like yours, Steve Harrington?"

"I guess," Steve replies dreamily, a smile creeping over his face, "Edward Munson?" Steve asks again, making Eddie's smile stretch into a grin and giggle.

"Yes, Steven Harrington," he says, looking a little confused but happy regardless. Steve readjusts his arms so one wraps around Eddie's back, pulling him in close, and the other reaches up to cradle the back of his neck.

"Will you marry me?" Steve asks in a whisper. Even with knowing how deeply Eddie adores him, it is still a genuine question. Eddie's eyes sparkle as they well up, but they crease at the corners as his smile widens and he nods his head a few times.

"Yeah." Eddie answers, his voice cracking, "Yeah, I think I will." He beams and kisses Steve tenderly. Eddie tucks some of Steve's hair behind his ear as they part, "I love this for us, baby, but you know I can't let this be it, though, right?"

"I know." Steve smiles with understanding.

Over the next few weeks, it was a competition of who could propose to who in the grandest way, and each time they'd pretend to be nervous, even though they already knew the answer.

Eddie calls up a national radio station and gets them to prank Steve with a competition win just so he can propose to him live on air.

Steve hires a skywriter to propose to Eddie when he brings him his lunch at work.

Eddie interrupts a parent-teacher meeting and proposes to Steve playing his BC Rich Warlock through a portable amp, singing "Will you marry me?" to the tune of We Will Rock You. He even gets everyone else in the room to do the stomps and claps.

Steve buys a page in Rolling Stone magazine to propose to Eddie.

Eddie proposes right at the end of an elaborate scavenger hunt they put on after a massive party that everyone is invited to at their house. Steve declares him the winner after that one. Eddie claims his super secret prize when everyone else has gone home later that night.

With same-sex marriage still not legal in the state, they decided there was little point organising anything, but as far as they, their loved ones and anyone bothered enough to ask knew, They were as good as married, and they never referred to one another in conversation as anything less than Husband. If either of them got a hint that it bothered anyone they were talking to, they just talked about their husband more.

***************************************************************

Their first Halloween together is a full-blown production. With a blank cheque at his disposal, Eddie goes hog wild with the kids, making the whole place into a house of horrors. Eddie told everyone to keep it on the cartoony side of things and expressly forbade any jump scares or smoke machines in the house. He said it was tacky, and everyone did that. He didn't want their house to be the same as the next. But Steve knew he'd done it for him so he could enjoy everything without fear of flashbacks. Eddie even hooked up his guitar to play the theme tunes of the trick-or-treater's costumes. Steve dressed as Dr Van Helsing, and Eddie as the infamous Count Dracula. Morgan and Mackenzie opt for Princess Fiona and Shrek (sporting his prize-winning pie rosette), and after much aggressive and whiny persuasion from Corey, Wayne agrees to Agent Smith from The Matrix to complement his Neo outfit.

That night Steve mainly watches. He converses with other parents from the neighbourhood about school topics, but his eyes fall back to the same thing. Eddie. But a specific Eddie. An Eddie with his heart full of unbridled joy. Whether he was running around chasing after kids Corey's age with his fake plastic fangs bared, regaling a group of teens around a small fire pit with a story so terrifying an occasional audible squeal would ring out, or handing out the gift bags of full-size treats and toys with the hugest toothy smile on his face. But what absolutely kills Steve is the little witch, crying her eyes out in the middle of the lawn.

She must be around two or three, Steve guesses, clinging onto a little bucket full of candy, but she's looking around like she's lost something. She tugs on the back of Eddie's cape, and as he turns, he kneels. She takes a step back in fright. He takes out his fangs and shows her he is nothing to fear. He even wipes a finger across his makeup, showing her it's all pretend. She mimics him swiping her on her own finger across his face, and Eddie smiles gently at her, listening and nodding intently as the little girl talks. He asks her something, she nods, and he hoists her up onto his hip, cradling her to his side, and pointing and turning around, constantly checking in with her, making her giggle as she twists the curled ends of his hair in her fingers until a flustered woman runs up and thanks Eddie profusely. He just shrugs, waves them goodbye and pops his teeth back in.

"Everythin' ok, Sunny?" Wayne's deep drawl breaks Steve's focus.

"Yeah, just I dunno." Steve looks at the ground. His voice is a little sad, "Doesn't seem fair." he sighs, looking back at Eddie. Wayne's eyes follow his line of sight, and his mouth parts slightly, maybe in surprise. Perhaps his own sadness presents itself silently this way because Wayne doesn't have the right words for a change, "I just think he would have been great at it."

There is a beat of silence, "You asked him?"

Steve shakes his head, "No. Wanted to a bunch of times. Just can never quite figure out how." Wayne hums in understanding and pats Steve on the back, leaving him to look longingly at his husband as he thumbs at the only ring on his fingers. Eddie senses him as always, turns and gives him a gigantic grin, gesturing at the festivities around him, before blowing Steve a kiss, which he catches out of the air and puts in his pocket, making Eddie roll his eyes and laugh, before heading back to the next lot of trick or treaters.

***************************************************************

A month later, the house's energy is at a fever pitch. Tonight Steve had taken Eddie out. First, to the local premiere of The Fellowship of the Ring so that Eddie could watch it with a room full of people, but then surprises him when he asks if he wants to stay behind and watch it one more time, just the two of them. Of course, Eddie nearly spontaneously combusted on the spot, having no idea Steve had arranged a second surprise viewing for him. Steve doesn't think he'll ever forget how happy Eddie looked in that moment or how many times he'd clench his fists with excitement and then turn and kiss Steve, babbling happily about something he didn't quite catch the first time around.

He was so easy to fall for. Steve could do that every day over and over. Like breathing. Like he was built to do this. To love Eddie. Forever.

Steve doesn't usually make it through a standard-length film, let alone one of this length. Twice. Not without yawning or nearly falling asleep. But the second time around, he only partially watches the screen. Most of the time, he's watching his own blockbuster, a cast of one, Eddie. He watched his eyes with wrinkles at the corners, full to the brim with childlike wonder. Tapping Steve's hand when something comes up that is slightly different in the book, whispering the secret information to him. Even after it's over, Eddie is still full of energy, gushing about how things on screen were like they fell out of his mind, and that's when he sees it. Amid the chill winter wind, a family is dressed up like some of the characters in the movie. A wizard, an elf and held by both of them in the middle, as someone snaps a picture is a baby in a waistcoat and trousers, curls falling around their face, and for the first time tonight, Eddie's smile falls for a second, as he looks over at them, but as soon as he turns to Steve the smile is back again. He twists his ring around his finger, feeling over its texture.

Tonight, Steve was going to ask him.

***************************************************************

Steve turns over and opens his eyes. His bed covers have long since been thrown off in the heat. He runs his hand over the empty bed beside him, sighs, rolls over to stare at the ceiling, and checks the time. It's just gone three in the morning. He swings his legs over the side of the bed, steps into his slippers, decides it's much too hot to put on his robe, and picks up his water. He quietly pads downstairs, walks into a kitchen strewn with bottles, adds his water bottle to the mix, and smiles. He tip-toes to the lounge. The lights are set to their lowest dim, and he can hear a faint voice. He moves closer towards it, staying as silent as he possibly can. Steve's eyes find their target in the low light, Eddie’s topless form pacing around the living room, still softly muttering. He is oblivious to his presence, focusing on something else entirely. Unfortunately, Steve is so entranced by the scene he accidentally bumps into an end table, sending a plush bat rattling to the floor.

Eddie turns to him, whispering, "Not a ninja, Sweetheart". With his cover blown, Steve freely approaches, sweetly scoops in behind him, arms around his waist as he gently nuzzles into the side of his hair, but Eddie's hands don't find his.

"You gonna be much longer? Need anything?" Steve quietly asks next to his ear.

"Nah, I'm good, babe. Just had to find the right song. Seems to have settled things down." Eddie yawns, and Steve looks at his tired but unmistakably happy face. For a second, his eyes look up into Steve's, "Didn't think I'd ever be here, babe. I know things are a little different these days, but I love you just as much," he chuckles and looks down, "Even more some days, you know that, right?"

"Of course," Steve says, leaning over Eddie's shoulder to look down too. In his arms, a beautiful baby girl, a short set of dark ringlet curls adorn her head, her sweet round cheeks rosy from the heat, her long eyelashes rest on her skin as she slumbers sweetly against Eddie's chest, "I'll just bide my time and make her life hell when she's old enough to want to sleep in." Steve jokes and presses a soft sleepy kiss to Eddie's cheek, "What song was it tonight?"

"Through the Never," Eddie beams at Eowyn, "Are you collecting these songs or something?"

"Right now, she's stealing your sleep and my time with you, which I don't blame her for, but that doesn't mean when she hits, I dunno, thirteen and sleep becomes precious to her that her old Dads aren't gonna wake her up blaring a mix CD of all the songs that stole their own." Steve smiles.

"Wow, what happened to sweet old dad Steve?" Eddie jokes.

"I'm still as sweet as ever," Steve kisses Eddie's shoulder, "I'm just trying to arm myself. Wayne's been telling me all about what a cakewalk you were when you hit puberty," he says sarcastically. "And also…" Steve plants a trail of kisses along Eddie's shoulder and up his neck to his ear, "It's pretty lonely up there for sweet old dad Steve, you know?" He whispers playfully, squeezing Eddie's hips gently. "What do you say l go wash up the bottles, prep the next one, and tidy up here? You can get this little one back in her own very expensive custom-made upcycled Fender guitar cot that her Daddy absolutely had to have, and then you can get your sweet self back in ours, huh?" Steve pecks a kiss on his cheek, "And then I'm gonna slide in next to you, and we're gonna pass out on one another with exhaustion until her Royal Highness calls for us again."

"My god, Steve. You say the sexiest, most accurate things." Eddie laughs and kisses him on the cheek, "I love you."

"Love you too, honey."

***************************************************************

The house is chaos.

"Well, WHERE THE HELL IS IT???" Eddie screeches, jogging from room to room before he's stopped abruptly by the sudden appearance of the twins in the doorway.

"Daddy, which one of us do you think is taller?" Ozzy asks, scrunching up his freckled nose.

"Neither of you. You're the same height!" He pauses to look, "Almost exactly, in fact, now, if you'll excuse me, gentlemen, I have a vital ancient artefact to find."

"Can we help? We're good at finding things!" Ronnie looks up at him with his wide hazel eyes. Eddie eyes them suspiciously, crouches down and ruffles their hair.

"No, what I really need you to do is get your hats and sunglasses and the things you want to play with in the RV. Then use the bathroom and line up next to the door. Maybe help Beans get her things together, too,' Kay?" He smiles, gets back to his feet, and runs to the foot of the stairs, almost going flying over a suitcase that slides into his path, but he hurdles it at the last moment.

"Almost, Damn it!" Is a whispered voice, "Sorry, Eddie!" Corey calls out much louder with a slight laugh.

"You gotta be quicker than that, buddy. Line up in ten Cor’,'" Eddie says, shaking his head and laughing, before reaching the foot of the stairs and yelling up them through cupped hands, "Wyn, Morgan and Zee, line up in…nine minutes, and if you see my old iPod bring that with you, please!" He drops his hands, "Nearly there." He whispers to himself.

The front door swings open and in bursts, a Bermuda-shorted, Hawaiian-shirted, wayfarer-sporting Steve. "RV check all done, full tank of gas, road snacks stocked, we're good to go!" He grins.

"And the map?" Eddie looks at him wide-eyed.

"What map?" Steve tilts his head, and just before Mount Eddie erupts, he pulls it from his back pocket and wiggles it at him, "All ready for your plotting, my love. Oh, Jenny, Val, and Mariella are gonna meet us at the first scheduled stop, so if you find something before that, drop them a message way in advance. Jen is already gonna be sweltering in his heat in the third trimester, so please, no last-minute changes because otherwise, she might lose it entirely."

Eddie's tense shoulders drop, and he takes a minute to rush over, fling his arms around him for a kiss, and mutters into his collar, "This place is hell, babe. Full chaotic evil!"

"Wanna switch for a bit?" Steve offers, rubbing his hands over Eddie's back.

"I wanna say yes, but too much has happened in the thirty minutes you were gone, and I'm not sure I have the energy or time to go over the new storylines, babe," Eddie pouts.

"How about this? You sit here." Steve pulls a chair to the front door and guides him to it, "You supervise. Ok? That way, you get to take a breath and make sure I don't miss anything at the same time?" Eddie nods sweetly.

Steve picks up his megaphone from the doorway, and Eddie covers his ears, ready for the inevitable feedback when Steve switches it on, "Kids, cases, journey items at the door in…" he releases the button and looks at Eddie who checks his watch and holds up four fingers. Steve presses the button again and bellows through it. "Four minutes! Don't forget chargers, and to use the bathroom, we won't be making a stop for…" he turns to Eddie, who holds up two fingers, "Two hours. And may I remind you all that Uncle Dustin and Aunt Erica will eat all the ice cream if they get there before us. Uncle Jonathan wants to take a big group photo this year, so please make sure you have something suitable for that. I mean it, Corey! One non-heavy metal or unoffensive t-shirt wouldn't kill you." He clicks off the megaphone again, turns to Eddie excitedly grinning from ear to ear, and starts singing and dancing to his rendition of Madonna's Holiday.

Eddie smiles and shakes his head with a chuckle, "Why do we do this to ourselves every year?"

"Ah, I know this one…Because we love our friends and family?" Steve says with a grin, which immediately drops from his face into panic, and Eddie is out of his chair.

"Oh, what, Steve?! What is it? Dear gods, just one year where we leave on time," Eddie says, hands in his hair.

Steve looks horrified, "I um…I think…I kinda…yeah…I forgot Wayne at the gas station."

Eddie's eyes widen, "How did you even do that, Steve?!" He gasps frantically, pulling his phone from his pocket.

"He's just so quiet sometimes! I didn't mean to leave him. I was thinking about all the other hundred things I needed to check, honey!" Steve complains.

"You lost a full-grown man, babe. This is a new low for you." Eddie says, pacing as he holds the phone up to his ear.

The All along the Watchtower ringtone is coming from somewhere nearby, and they both frantically look around for it before Wayne's head appears around the door frame, "Bumped into Ms Monterello, she gave me a ride back, Sunny." He chuckles deeply, and Steve practically throws his arms around him.

"Oh, you've saved my bacon there, Pops" Steve smiles with relief, patting Wayne on the back.

Morgan and Zee appear at the door first, as always, "Do we have to do this every year?" Morgan complains with his much deeper voice, Zee hanging off his arm.

"Yeah, yeah, we do, actually, Mister fancy college pants, we do. Steve here has already lost a whole human, and we watch Home Alone every Christmas as a warning. This is why we do the lineup."

The kids fall in line, the count is correct, the humongous RV gets packed with people and luggage, and Morgan and Zee get in her car with the excess and Beans.

Steve does the final lock checks around the house with Eddie, and finally, they get into the front seats. Eddie opens the map in front of him, his little packet of different colour stars and flag stickers resting gently on top.

"Ok, guys, who got first dibs?" Eddie shouts, not looking up from his map but raising a hand with one finger extended upwards to retrieve the incoming CD from Corey. Eddie looks at it, "Ohhh, a classic from Cyborg. Nice!" And places it into the stereo.

"Everyone buckled in?" Steve shouts back and receives a chorus of Yeses. He picks up the walkie-talkie and presses the button, "Caboose! You all buckled up, tunes at the ready? Over."

"Yes! Let's go already!" Zee's impatient voice crackles out of the speaker.

“You didn’t say over. Over.” Steve says, confused.

“Dad, I swear….” there is a little whispering which Steve smugly knows is Morgan encouraging her to get on board, “Yes, we’re ready to go. Over!”

"Alright then, let's do this!" Steve says way too enthusiastically for the slow, gradual speed this great hulking vehicle leaves the driveway at.

Despite how crazy it is to organise and how far they have to drive to find a midpoint in the country to meet up with all their old friends from Hawkins that were now spread all over. Steve's heart is packed to the brim. He reaches one hand out to Eddie, who gives him his pinky finger as the rest of his hand is busy with stickers, as the heavy metal screams throughout the RV. He sighs happily to himself.

So yeah, Steve still loved being a Dad, but he also loved being a husband, an easy-going ex-husband, a best friend, a son-in-law, a future father-in-law, and a godfather. But more than anything, he loved the people around him that made him all those things.

#steddie #steddie fan fiction #eddie munson x steve harrington #steddie fan fic #steddiefanfiction #steddiefanfic #madaboutmunson #madaboutmunsonagain #eddie munson #steve harrington

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michaelmilkers · 2 years

Note

I'm sorry, I think you're mistaking "you are parroting the same rhetoric that conservatives wanting to ban queer content use and if you start censoring things they will push for censoring more and more, give them a hand and they'll take your arm" for "you are literally those conservatives, you personally want to ban queer content actually"

Wherever you stand on what fiction you think should be allowed (and please don't call fiction CSEM, that's a term reserved for material involving the exploitation - that's the E - of real children, applying it to fictional characters waters down the meaning and can lead to alarm fatigue like how accusing tumblr users of being pedophiles lost all meaning), all the best intentions will not stop people who do want to instate censorship like the Hays Code from taking a foot for every inch you cede. Once you concede that "censorship is good in some cases", they'll start pushing for more and more things to be counted under "in some cases".

To try and reduce this argument down to "Wow how dare you accuse me of wanting to ban queer content!" is to miss the point. At least address the actual argument - "I think people are exaggerating the risk of a slippery slope leading to conservative censorship" or "I think banning this type of content is more important than a 'what if' scenario that may or may not come up once we've banned it" or something

i was not calling fiction csem, i was directly referencing a post i saw, and the fact that tiffany g referenced CP explicitly. i know now that part wasnt clear but the post has already started spreading so i dont really know if theres a point in adding a disclaimer.

also, wrt fictional characters, the reason i stopped posting my stuff on ao3 is because i came across sexually explicit fanfics about irl minors, and when i emailed ao3 about it they said they draw no distinction between rpf and other fanfic and i should just blacklist and move on. there is also nothing in the ao3 TOS or guidelines limiting what images can be embedded in a fic, outside of what is illegal under new york law. so so someone could write a sexually explicit fic about an irl child, then embed a picture of that irl child next to graphic descriptions of them engaging in sex acts, and it would not be against TOS, as long as a copyright take down request wasnt submitted for the photograph. this is the primary reason why i take issue with ao3's mission of 'maximum inclusiveness', not because seeing fictional characters in certain situations squicks me out.

moving on, even if people were only accusing others of parroting rhetoric (they're not, i literally just now on my dash saw someone say tiffany g "tried to ban queer fic") that still holds no water if you actually break it down. the only similarities are in choice of language and the fact that the subject of children are involved. surprise, that happens sometimes! most people arguing for ao3 to change their policies are active in fandom, many of them have experience using ao3 and sites like it, many of them are queer, minors, abuse survivors, etc, they are in the same communities as you, and they disagree with you on how those communities should be conducted. that has nothing to do with conservatives wanting to retroactively erase lgbt people from public knowledge, or the hays code like you said. "children should be kept safe" or "content harming children shouldnt be allowed" are such broad statements that if you remove literally all other context, yeah, it sounds like people are saying the same thing.

see, i can do it too: when you (general you, not you specifically, anon asker) say minors shouldnt be allowed in certain fandom spaces, you are parroting conservative rhetoric that is used to argue against children being allowed at things like pride events and drag shows. fandom spaces are full of queer content, and you are denying minors access to that by making some spaces adult only. next thing you know minors wont be allowed to engage with queer fan content at all. (this is obviously completely made up and i dont agree with it, but this is the same kind of flimsy comparisons people are drawing)

and who is 'they' in this context? who is the 'they' that would push for more censorship if policies are changed? is ao3 run by conservatives who are only being kept at bay by everyone insisting the content policies shouldnt be changed? is there a huge population of conservatives in fandom spaces that somehow have more sway than everyone else and are just waiting to get their foot in the door? is there some kind of conservative governing body who have set their sites on ao3 (or even know what ao3 is) and are circling like vultures waiting to leap at the chance to turn the site into the next OAN? are the staff and volunteers at ao3 really so shit at their jobs that they would just let all of this happen?

you are making an incredibly flimsy comparison to a real world problem based on superficial similarities and then drawing the conclusion that, based on this incredibly flimsy comparison that you have convinced yourself is rock solid, the same consequences of that real world problem must also be a looming threat here, even though the context is entirely different, and the conditions for those consequences to actually happen simply are not there.

#long post #csa tw #ao3

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spacedykez · 1 year

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stares at you. do you have any tips on how to make a good lifesteal propaganda post (am struggling with how to format all the information)

okay. sorry it took me a bit to think of an answer to this but uh i will do my best to give advice??

Don't overcomplicate things. As tempting as it may be, avoid making references to things that you haven't directly explained, because that just ends up being confusing.

Keep things readable. I'm used to doing this for my fics, so I just translate that to the propaganda posts, but break things up into small paragraphs. Even if you have information that COULD be one paragraph, if it starts to get too long then add a paragraph break. Maybe this is just an ADHD thing but I find it easier to read things with lots of shorter paragraphs rather than fewer, longer ones.

You can type things very informally/casually if you'd like (no punctuation, numbers instead of letters, abbreviations like LOL, emojis, etc) but I would say it's generally a better idea to keep things a bit more formal (in terms of writing. I'm talking about formal vs informal writing, to be clear. Not like, being professional).

Know your audience. These posts are being written to get people into Lifesteal, and it's best to assume that your audience has no prior knowledge of Lifesteal*. It's probably safe to assume that they know the basics of what Minecraft is and what SMPS are, so don't waste time explaining that. But, for example, if you were going to mention Branzy and Clown's casino. Take a few sentences to explain what that is, because your audience probably won't know about it.

Pick out a few things you want people to know about your Lifestealer, and stick to that. Don't overwhelm your reader. For example, with Branzy, I wanted people to know three things. One: he does redstone. Two: he likes traps. Three: he isn't a fighter. So I briefly explained each of those things and gave a few videos/projects of him that best showcased those things.

Tell me why I would want to watch your lifestealer. All of this is great, but why do I care about this guy? Make me want to watch your guy.

Optional advice, and this is totally a personal preference, but I love when posts are color-coded. Right here in this post I've highlighted in green the main takeaways of each bullet point!! Also, I like to color in links, they just look neat. Again, this one isn't a neccessity but it's fun to do!!

This one's for my writer friends, and I don't think I'm going to be able to explain it very well, but I think propaganda posts work best when you write them in a friendly, welcoming tone. If you don't know what I mean, feel free to ignore this. But I like to write them as if I'm talking to a friend. "Hey, hi, I really like this thing, and here's why I like it, and here's why you should too! And here's how you can watch it! Look, I put it in a neat little list for you, isn't that exciting? I know, I love it too!" (this might be an adhd thing not sure lol)

*You do not have to explain the heart system. I have a post that will do that for you. It will be linked on the masterpost for this project (which is unfinished because not all the propaganda posts have been written).

Anyways, I hope some of this helps you!! Now get out there and show off your blorbos ^-^

#asks #anon-der the sea #moths lifesteal project

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thegreatlibraryfangirl · 2 years

Note

one hc that you will forever stand with for each character?

This has been sat here for far too long, I'm sorry.

Ok, so, really solid headcanons that I stand by. Hm.

A lot of these are whumpy!

Khalila: that after she burns her hands twice in one book (A&Q), she has trouble with the healing/scars. Also she has terrible long crampy periods. She works very hard at being a good, nice person (religion helps her), as she naturally has a quick, hot temper and is prone to getting frustrated at people (kind of understandable when you're a once in a generation genius but hey).

Dario: has anxiety. Also uses alcohol as pretty much his only emotional coping method. Also he has a weird collection of skills and knowledge (knife skills, secret spy code, knows that the Spanish court uses Obscurists and memory-altering drugs) which make me think he was unknowingly trained in spying as a child. Also he speaks Catalan, based purely on him mentioning Barcelona nostalgically at one point lol. He knows at least two sign languages, his native one and probably Greek (read my languages fic for more detail), and probably a 3rd, Spanish & Signed Spanish (that latter's not a language). I also really love headcanoning Dario as a trans man, but haven't figured out how to get it into a fic yet because face it, most of what I write is porn or angst.

Jess: is bi and doesn't know it yet in the books. I keep forgetting that this isn't actually canon. The sign language that Dario teaches him/that he displays with Alvaro is, imo, fingerspelling Catalan Sign Language.

Glain: is aromantic. Ok, that's kind of canon. Also, after all her canonical head injuries (one day I will make the list!!) that she suffers from a brain injury post-canon.

Thomas: is in love with Jess. I also forget this isn't canon tbh. I also have recently firmed up my headcanon about his leg injury at the end of S&I (which is sadly retconned along with lots of other stuff in S&P), which is that he dislocates his knee. This also heals badly and post-canon he sometimes walks with a cane. His love language is giving people presents (this is canon, come on).

Morgan: I adhere to the I&B version of how she discovered her powers (just before she would have come to the Library as a postulant anyway), not the S&I/S&P one which says she'd been on the run for years. I also think she's greyromantic and frankly, that in even questioning her relationship with Jess she's got more maturity and self-awareness than Jess' tendency to being a hopeless romantic. Related, because hey I like puberty being the power manifestation point, she got her first period late at 16. I like to think that if she hadn't been an Obscurist, she'd have been Lingua. Just because she deserves a unique interest.

Wolfe: his head was shaved in Rome. I could go on forever with whump here but I feel like as a fandom we all share lots of whumpy Wolfe headcanons tbh lol. Demiromantic just for his Nic, of course. I think that the house they live in was originally Santi's, while Wolfe moved straight from postulancy to living in the Lighthouse. Wolfe had probably never touched a kitchen in any way until he moved in with Santi.

Santi: Pre-Rome he was the one with the nightmares and PTSD from being a soldier for 20 years. Post-Rome he is suppressing everything Extremely Hard, including all the new symptoms from Wolfe's recovery period (it is not okay to strangle your student) let alone anything from canon itself, and is really very Not Ok.

and a couple of extras from some of my favourite side characters:

Alvaro Santiago: is very clearly a Spanish spy imo, with more than strictly ambassadorial skills.

Annis: was definitely in a sexual relationship with Keria and probably Eskander too.

#asking things #the great library #whump #hurt/comfort #the great library headcanons

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zozo-01 · 1 year

Text

I posted 3,772 times in 2022

That's 3,627 more posts than 2021!

1,431 posts created (38%)

2,341 posts reblogged (62%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@sri-rachaa

@taelonsamada

@starlitangels

@zozo-01

@ejunkiet

I tagged 3,283 of my posts in 2022

Only 13% of my posts had no tags

#this is zo speaking - 1,568 posts

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#♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️ - 920 posts

#dollsy ♥️ - 527 posts

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#sleepy ♥️ - 168 posts

#another lovely fic from a lovely personnnn - 140 posts

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#redacted asmr - 103 posts

Longest Tag: 98 characters

#you wonderful bean and im so glad you're posting again ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️ ive missed youuuu ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

My Top Posts in 2022:

recently i've been really obsessed with idea of darlin' and angel (romantically or platonically) cuddling

like, one day because [insert reason], darlin' has to stay over at david's house while he's away. eventually, both angel and darlin' get super tired an go to sleep.

in the middle of the night, angel is woken up by a scream from darlin's room and races to their room to see what's wrong.

once they get there, they realizes darlin' is physically ok, but they're suffering through a nightmare. they walk over to gently wake darlin' up and comfort them.

once it time for angel to leave, darlin' holds their arm and asks them to stay. angel agrees and crawls into the bed. they guide darlin's head to their chest and plays with their hair, letting darlin' cry if they need to. darlin' wraps their arms around angel and holds onto them like they're their lifeline.

just some wholesome cuddling for two characters who need it.

167 notes - Posted August 13, 2022

*clears throat* david has a bunch of different coloured pens and highlighters because he likes to colour code the shitttt out of his notes

170 notes - Posted September 15, 2022

Care To Join Me For A Dance, My Love?

Hey there! Some of you may have guessed by now that I am a sucker for royal balls. Now is the Monarchal Summit going to be a ball? Probably not. Will that stop me from writing about our favourite vampires and their partners at a ball? Fuckk no!

Anywho, already had fun writing for Darlin' at a ball once and I decided, 'hey, I'm gonna do it again.' So here is a more fluffy ball fic featuring our favourite Southern gentleman and his lovely Darlin'.

@dolls-circus and @sri-rachaa come and get your food!

Warnings: None (I know surprising for me.)

Darlin’ was used to this. They were used to having the eyes of everyone in the room focused on them. The stares happened when their family hosted parties. They happened whenever they walked late into a pack meeting, long before they had gotten with Quinn. It was always eyes filled with judgement, scrutinizing every action and word that was either said or wasn't said.

This was different. They felt the eyes of everyone in the ball, but there was no heat behind them. Instead, their gazes had admiration, awe and wonder. Who was this person and why are they here? Darlin’ was impressed with themselves. They had managed to capture the positive attention of all the Old Bloods in attendance.

But it didn’t make it any fucking easier for them to enter the ball.

Despite the admiration they received, one thing was for sure, they were still a wolf entering vampire territory. Not just any kind of vampires, Old Blood. (Old Blood like Quinn.) These are vampires that have been alive long before their great-grandparents were born. They have seen empires rise and fall, have more knowledge than Darlin’ could ever dream of, and as much as they hate to admit it, they can beat the absolute shit out of them. They were hesitant to walk in, in fear of angering the wrong person and having to answer for it.

‘Maybe I can turn back? Tell Sam that I felt sick and didn’t wanna come? Can I atleast not stand around like a fucking idiot and move?’

Before any more doubts entered their head, a pair of kind eyes caught theirs. From across the room, atop his golden throne, William was encouraging them to enter. They can already hear his voice in their head. “It’s alright little one, you’ll be safe here.” He didn’t have to say any words to make them feel at home. His presence was enough to have them feel like tonight was going to be alright. Fun even.

Darlin’ shook any remaining doubts, held their head up high and smiled. They remembered what their mother used to say when they were old enough to understand the undeserved judgements casted upon them.

“These aunties can smell your fear, my doll. You must smile, hold your head up high and let them know that you are not afraid of their words.”

‘Well these ain't aunties, but the same advice can be used against centuries old vampires who can kill me with a bite? Right mama?’

With their mother’s words echoing in their head, Darlin’ began to descend down the stairs into the main ballroom, eyes darting from person to person in search of a certain someone. Their eyes trying to find the silver eyes that they have grown to love.

‘Finding him would be so much goddamn easier if all of these stupid masks weren’t in the way. Fucking hell, where the fuck is he?’

Samuel Collins saw the sun set down the horizon and into the main ballroom.

They say to never look directly at the sun, but Sam decided that advice to be horsehit and glued his eyes onto his sunlight.

They look… there weren't words in the human language that could describe how beautiful Darlin’ looked walking down the stairs. Their confident stride and dazzling smile captured the eyes of everyone in the room. With every step they took, Sam heard most of the vampires' halt their breath in awe of his wolf. Had it been any other context, Sam would feel bothered, not jealous as some people would insist, with so many eyes on his Darlin’.

But how can he blame them when Darlin’ looked as enchanting as they did?

Somehow, a room full of vampires were put under a trance by a wolf.

His stubborn, reckless, lovely, beautiful, Darlin’ wolf.

“You know, instead of standing here with your mouth watering like a newborn, maybe you should go up to them and ask them to dance?” Vincent teased his best friend. He wore a cocky smirk to accompany his equally cocky comment. His partner lightly hit their lover on the chest and chastised him for his smart comment.

Sam turned to face the vampire prince with a smirk of his own. “Well I’m sure your partner here would love to hear about the look on your face when they walked into the room.” He couldn’t finish his description, one he so desperately wanted to tell, before Vincent slapped a hand over Sam’s mouth. Vincent stumbled over his words, trying to make a lie that he can use to maintain his pride.

Vincent’s partner covered their own mouth to muffle their laugh at sight of two normally dignified men fighting like children. “While I would love to hear about Loverboy gawking over me, you may want to help your mate Sam. It seems as though they have some unwanted attention.” The two men turn around to see an Old Blood noble talking to Darlin’. Not even a second later, Sam ran to his Darlin’ ‘safety,’ leaving behind the bemused vampire prince and his equally bemused partner.

“Oh he is so whipped for them.”

“Don’t tease him, you'd do the same for me, Loverboy.”

Sam ran through the crowd of nobles on the dancefloor. His masked silver, determined eyes locked onto the vampire that was talking to his Darlin’. ‘Thank the Lord for vamp speed.’ He stopped right behind Darlin’, who was blissfully unaware of their mate standing behind them.

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174 notes - Posted July 9, 2022

hi hello don't mind me

just thinking about darlin' having the habit to hide their laugh/smile and sam hating it because he wants to see their smile

just thinking about sam holding darlin's hands when they're together so that in the event he makes them laugh or smile, they can't use their hands to cover it

just thinking about darlin' hiding their face in their neck and sam gently cupping their face and moving it so he can bask in the sunlight that is their smile

231 notes - Posted August 2, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Four Times David Thought of Asking + The One Time Angel Did

*faceplants* Y'all I did ittt! Hello! Welcome to this behemoth of a fic! This was just me tryna break up the angst I was writing, but then I started thinking about David and his relationship with control and how Angel had a huge part in him easing up on said control. Add a little projecting onto David and thus, this turned into five stories in one mega-fic.

Thank you sooo much to @angel-bubbles for giving me some ideas! I really couldn't do this without your input! And tagging @bittersweet--chaos because they're a doll!

Warnings: Post-Inversion feelings and Depressive episode ->(Moment #3), Suggestive themes and Mentions of sex -> (Moment #4)

David Shaw was a man who valued control.

Every action must be premeditated and executed to perfection. Anything less would never be up to his standards. But he swears it's not a problem. If things don’t go his way, he won’t make a big deal out of it.

‘That is a fucking lie Shaw, you are the biggest control freak I’ve ever met.’

Ok, maybe he has some control issues.

There have been times in his life when David didn’t have a say in the situation. He didn’t have a say when either of his parents died, nor did he have a say when he was named Alpha at that young age. Both life experiences had caught him off-guard and left him scared, confused and hurt. A hurt that he refuses to let himself go through again. He will not let anything else blindside him.

Well, that didn’t exactly go to plan. Something did blindside him and that was when his future mate stalked him. Before anyone says otherwise, yes he fully believes that Angel was stalking him that night. That’s not the point though.

It will always baffle him how impulsive Angel can be with certain decisions. From asking him out that fateful night to moving in with him after less than a year of dating, he will never understand how they’re able to throw caution out the damn window.

‘It’s because I trust you, Davey! I have faith that you won’t hurt me. That’s why I can be carefree around you, and I hope you feel at ease around me too.’

Whether they knew it or not, his Angel succeeded. They somehow made the Alpha of the Shaw pack, known for his stoic nature and tense shoulders, relax. It’s a big ask considering who they’re dealing with, but like always, Angel did it effortlessly.

For once in his life, David was ok with not having control.

As he stared at the ring that adorned his finger, he realized that the moments where Angel made him let go are the reasons that they were the person he wanted to marry. He thinks back to those moments and the eventual proposal and wonders what the hell he did to deserve this.

Perhaps it was only when he finally put down the burden that rested on his shoulders that he was able to enjoy life.

It also helped that Angel made his life worth enjoying again.

Moment #1: They made him forget the unease of being in a car.

Over the years, David has developed some habits to cope with his unwariness in a car. His arms were stiff when holding the steering wheel, made sure his foot was hovering over the breaks, kept his eyes on the road at all times, and most importantly-

“Angel, for the millionth time, I do not want any music playing while I’m driving.”

One of the annoying things about David is that he refuses to let music play in the car while driving. He claims that he doesn’t want to be distracted on the road, but the pack notices the way his eyes glaze over and his voice slightly cracking. He would never say the full reason, but it would take a real dumbass to not figure that out.

“But Davey! It’s way too quiet and this is a damn road trip! If you won’t talk to me, then the least you can do is let me jam out,” Angel said while pouting. They crossed their arms and puffed out their chest to show that they’re annoyed, but honestly, David thought they looked cute sitting like that. Their adorableness didn’t negate the fact that he really didn’t want music to be playing right now.

David took in a shaky breath before continuing. “Angel, I know it’s boring without any sound, but I just-” Angel cut him off, “then I won’t play anything.”

What David didn’t know is that when he started speaking, his eyes had glazed over and his grip on the steering wheel tightened. ‘Maybe he was remembering something bad?’ Angel thought. They didn’t know. What they do know was that David needed this. And who were they to deny their boyfriend something he needs.

One thing about Angel that he loves was their ability to know when to push and when to stop. Of course, it has been a learning process for them both. But they were learning each other’s boundaries. And they were learning together.

“Thank you, Angel,” David sighed out, before focusing on the road again.

A few moments went by before Angel started humming a tune, one that David was familiar with. He let out a groan and if he wasn’t driving, he would have banged his head against the steering wheel.

“Oh, I’m sorry if the humming is bothering you. It’s just that it's a song that’s been in my brain and I have to hum it so it gets out, but I totally understand if you need me to stop and,” Angel kept on rambling and apologizing. The longer they were explaining themselves, the more out of breath they became.

David let one hand go on the steering wheel and held his Angel’s hand. “Look at me Angel, you’re ok just breathe with me.” Angel looked into David’s eyes and he swears that their eyes could only be compared to the moon. Once Angel's breathing calmed down, David explained why he became annoyed with humming.

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365 notes - Posted June 28, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #djisjdcisjf #dont mind meeee #and yes im gonna reread my own ballroom fic because its finals season and i am sawft <3333 #this is zo speaking

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