I love the headcanon that none of the Bats are supers, but over time? Gotham is slowly messing them up, one by one.

Bruce smiles at Clark one day in the Cave, and his eyes reflect the light back like a wolf's

Jason suddenly has tiny fangs, but nobody has the nerve to mention it

Alfred literally doesn't die

Dick can jump higher and faster than ever before, but barely notices it

Tim is awake for three days straight and doesn't blink

They're all subtly, but noticeably different. Gotham-blessed, or cursed, or something in between.

I've been visualbly imagining Eddie just laying there in a lake for 2 days now it's just so fucking funny to think about.

(Referring to that one post that asked where Eddie was sleeping.)

tbh it's been a running gag within the confines of my Imaginings <3 and it Is so fucking funny you're so right <3

he's in ↓↓ the water ↓↓

#19.3 Unravel

It had been some time since Agni felt this nervous. Not even talking with Jinsung Ha recently had made him feel like this. He fiddled with the mask on his hand as he waited for Grace to come back. He had thought hard on how to deliver the news, but he knew that no matter how he phrased it, Grace would be upset. Velt nuzzled under his palm and Agni gave her a few pats, before deciding that she would be better inside her bowl in his lighthouse, just in case the shinsu acted up around Grace after he received the news.

Grace came back wearing the comfiest shirt and shorts Agni knew Grace liked to wear on lazy days. He joined him on the floor, and they ate dinner together. Agni always finished last, so while waiting for him to finish his meal, Grace told him about his day with Bam. Grace was intrigued by how much his way of thinking had changed, and how glad he was to be able to be by Bam's side when he was having a bad day. It reminded Agni of the hidden floor, when Grace faced his sworn enemy.

They left the used bowls on the coffee table and went to brush their teeth. Afterwards, they turned off the light and went upstairs to sit on their bed. Grace's curious gaze never left him, and Agni curled his feet nervously.

Grace was the one who broke the silence. "So…what is it?"

Agni's breath hitched. This was the part he dreaded most. "I talked with the crocodile earlier. Did you know that he could manipulate stone already?"

"Huh." Grace needed a few seconds to let the information sink in. "Didn't Rak learn it on the Hell train? How does he know it?"

"Turns out our crocodile also traveled back to the past like us. He found the young crocodile and taught him."

"What?!" Grace gasped, wide eyed. "That means our Rak is–!!"

"He's dead." Agni quickly snuffed out that hope. They had been in delusion for long enough; it was time that they faced the bitter truth. "He suffered a fatal injury from the explosion. He couldn't have lasted long without proper help." Agni omitted the actual cause for Rak's death, but still kept his words true. "I'm sorry."

"…Oh." Grace looked lost, just like Agni was. His lips parted a little, but they closed before any sound escaped.

Agni gently squeezed Grace's hand, encouraging and comforting as he let the silence stretch on, giving Grace some time to process the information.

"Agni…" Grace whispered, "do you think Hatz and Isu…?"

Agni bit his lip and avoided his gaze, as the nightmare of that day replayed in his mind. He witnessed Hatz get his arms ripped off when trying to protect him. He could still recall the clang of a sword hitting the floor, and Hatz's suppressed scream that gnawed deep at his guilt. He witnessed Isu get beheaded after being taken hostage, the memory of warm blood painting them both still vivid like it happened yesterday. 

Agni refused to acknowledge their possible deaths, because it felt like a nightmare that one day he could hopefully wake up from. He avoided the topic when Grace brought it up, so he wouldn't have to say it aloud and make it real. He had been so hard on himself, because he couldn't get rid of the feeling that he had failed Grace and everyone else involved.

Agni knew this had to change if he wanted to live better, now that they had gotten a second chance. So he swallowed down the lump in his throat that had built up over the years and asked mostly to himself; "What are the odds of their survival?"

"There's always a chance–"

"Grace." Agni looked him straight in the eye. "They were already severely injured before the explosion hit."

Grace fell silent and went still.

Agni felt a pang of guilt upon witnessing Grace's reaction. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap." Agni fiddled with his hands. He realized that he didn't know how much Grace knew of what happened. "My scar…do you know how I got it?"

"I…was told it was from the family heads' battle." Grace looked thoughtful. Agni knew he was trying to be careful with his words. "A stray attack?"

"It could have been worse." The memory of the scorching heat on his skin felt like it had only happened yesterday. He passed out right when he was about to heal Isu, and only found out later that he also lost sweetfish at that time. The days he spent recovering from the burn, to withstand the excruciating pain every second he was conscious, and finally coming to terms that it'd be a permanent scar, was one of the turning points that had changed him forever. Were Grace not there to care for him, he might have ended up destroying himself even more.

Agni hadn't realized he had his left hand clawing on his cheek until Grace pried his hand off and frowned, "You're doing it again."

"Maybe I should wear the mask…" Agni muttered to himself. After all, Grace gave it to him less so he could hide the scar but more to prevent him from unconsciously hurting himself. The only time he could safely take it off was when Grace was around.

Agni bit his lip nervously when Grace didn't reply. He no longer had the courage to look Grace in the eye that spoke so much concern, so he leaned close and rested his head on Grace's chest. "Rak, Isu, Hatz and Hwaryun were trying to get me out of that damned place. But we were caught while escaping, and…it was a bloodbath. I was…too occupied to react to the incoming heat. Rak shielded us from the explosion. And when I woke up…"

"They weren’t with you," Grace finished it for him after Agni trailed off a moment too long.

Agni nodded dazedly, "I've been telling myself that they're still alive, after a blow that could kill rankers. But…who am I kidding? I was lucky enough to survive with just this little–" Agni vaguely pointed to himself– "inconvenience."

Agni felt a hand gripping his arm, and he pulled away to see Grace looking at him with a pained expression. His eyes were glossy and his lips were pulled into a thin line. Trusting his instinct, Agni reached out to gently trace and cup Grace's cheek with his free hand.

"I'm sorry," Agni muttered. "I'm sorry, for not telling you sooner."

Agni silently witnessed tears that streamed down on his love's face. It was a bitter sight that Agni wished he'd never have to see again, that he had tried to avoid for so long by not telling him. He pulled Grace in and held him close to his chest, as if Agni was trying to gather his own crumbled heart back together.

Grace mumbled their late best friends' names as he held onto him tighter, shaking from each breath he took between sniffles.

Agni felt his own eyes sting with unshed tears. He remembered the years he spent climbing the tower together with his old team. Despite their banter being his source of headaches, Agni knew he too had come to acknowledge them as his cherished friends. Only when they were gone did Agni realize how much he'd miss having them around. Seeing the younger them didn't exactly close the gaping hole in his heart, but at least the emptiness was more filled.

Agni squeezed Grace tighter. "We have their younger selves with us now. We will protect them better this time."

Grace only nodded and sank further into his embrace. And Agni planted kisses on his hair, relishing the thought that after everything he had gone through, Grace was still a constant in his life. As long as he had him, everything would be okay.

When Grace started shaking again, Agni caressed his hair and hummed a comfort song they had known by heart. Still, it didn't make falling asleep any easier for Agni, especially not after admitting that his nightmare was very much real. However, as he had been through grief…this, too, would pass.

Masterlist

Previous

Next

Let me know your thoughts in the reblogs <3

☕ Buy me coffee ☕

Fallout New Vegas Lucky 38 Presidential Suite Sleeping Arrangement Headcanons:

I've been thinking about how the sleeping arrangement would work, since there are only three beds and six couches in the Lucky 38’s Presidential Suite.

Here’s what I imagine:

Veronica Santangelo and Rose of Sharon Cassidy:

In the smaller bedroom to the left, Veronica and Cass share this bed together. Veronica is used to sleeping close to someone since she grew up in a bunker. While Cass has slept in worse conditions while traveling for her caravan work. So neither mind sharing.

Sometimes sleeping next to Cass makes Veronica think of Christine.

If Cass is up late drinking or can’t sleep (she finds the Lucky 38 creepy) then she’ll drink until she's knocked out. Sleeping on one of the empty couches or while sitting at the kitchen table.

Lily Bowen:

Lily sleeps by herself on the bed next to Veronica and Cass'. Since she's too large to use a couch and takes up an entire bed by herself. Everyone has woken up before to Lily listening to the holotape of her grandchildren, but no one is ever bothered by it. Lily has also tucked everyone at least once into bed.

Craig Boone:

Boone ALWAYS sleeps on the couch. He’s used to sleeping in uncomfortable positions due to his NCR work, so he doesn’t mind. I think he'd also feel guilty taking a bed. Also, he doesn't want to share a bed with anyone else because the last person he did that with was Carla.

He usually likes the couch next to the pool table since it faces the Lucky 38's elevators. However, if Cass falls alseep there after drinking a little too much, then Boone will take a different couch.

Rex:

Rex changes where and who he sleeps every night, but whenever he sleeps with Boone it’s like this:

Raul Tejada, Arcade Gannon and My Courier Six:

Raul, Arcade and her all share the main big bedroom.

Usually Raul and Courier Six share the bed with ED-E (and sometimes Rex) in the middle. Raul will 100% play the arthritis and old man card.

Despite ghouls being described as gross/smelly, even Raul describes it "stink like a public toilet after Cinco de Mayo". Courier Six isn't bothered by it and doesn't mind sleeping next to him.

Actually, during the two years she worked as a courier she slept alone in many dangerous places. So, now being able to sleep next to someone makes her feel safe and happy.

Arcade usually takes the two couches and pushes them together. It's never comfortable, but he would rather do that than share a bed. His height makes sleeping on the couches difficult.

Arcade LMAO:

When Courier Six and Raul are gone he gets some of the BEST sleep in his life. The Presidential Suite beds are probably one of the few times in the Mojave he's found a bed that fits someone his height.

If Raul and Courier Six return late and Arcade is sleeping they'll just let him have the bed and sleep on the couches normally.

ED-E:

99% of the time ED-E is snuggling Courier Six. However if she's gone he'll either lay next to wherever Rex has settled, intentional sleep near Arcade to annoy him or just float by the elevator waiting for her return.

Courier Six snuggles ED-E like this:

an upside-down truth / a fallen star

I really don't like this writing class I'm taking

StarCraft 2's story- Good or garbage?

I'm kind of lurking in the discord of a new RTS that's running a kickstarter right now. I don't know how strongly I want to endorse that because while what they have in the can looks darn good in terms of mechanics and gameplay polish and the people involved seem generally cool, I don't think anything at all is really pinned down otherwise. At the very least though it looks very "I'll make my own StarCraft 2! With blackjack! And hookers!" and I'm down for a game with that flavor of mechanics doing well when made by anyone other than, you know, Blizzard.

It's impossible not to draw comparisons when a game is pretty nakedly marketing itself as "we want to divorce the things we like about this one game from the monsters who made it" of course, and so now I'm thinking about just how powerfully terrible the writing was in StarCraft 2, but I'm not going to go off about it in some poor people who I don't know even have a writer yet's forums. I'm gonna ramble about it on my blog.

Now there's two ways to look at this one. We can look at the story of this game on its own, in a vacuum, or we can look at it as a continuation of the story of StarCraft. It's terrible by either standard, but let's start by looking at it as a continuation first.

Now, I'm not going to jump in here and just slap you with a novella long list of all the flagrant plot holes, direct contradictions, and unrecognizable characters if you actually go through these beat for beat. I've done so in the past. Might have done so on this blog. I mean when StarCraft 2 came out I was absolutely insufferable to everyone around me shouting about these things. Like... I don't even know how you can drop so many balls like that. Maybe they were doing that thing where they didn't even glance at the source material and were just poking around some fan wiki populated with random crap from tie-in novels and comics by people who were just going off on their own things... I do always have to mention though that whether by intent or incompetence they seem to have totally dropped the expansion's story from the canon, at least before 2's expansions came along years later.

But no, I want to focus on just basic themes and character arcs here. So the original base game of StarCraft breaks its story into three arcs, each from the POV of a character from one of the three playable factions in the game. This isn't the greatest structure for maintaining narrative cohesion throughout, especially when one of those factions is the communal hive mind of a big swarm of space bugs who at the end of the day just want to eat everything. And if I'm being brutally honest, there isn't a whole lot to write home about in the back third either. They kinda slipped back into old habits there and it's kinda just the sort of stock fantasy story you tend to get with games. Decadent ancient space elf empire ignores a big obvious problem due to hubris and a frankly incompetent leader, turns out their ancient traditions and prejudices are total BS, go quest for some magic rocks, have your big grand final battle where the hero self-sacrifices to blow up the monsters.

That first third though, and some threads that carry through the rest, have some good stuff going on. We've got a newly appointed magistrate (the unseen unvoiced player) and marshall (Jimmy) on some backwoodsy wild west sort of planet. They're pretty young and idealistic. Space bugs attack, they try to help, trying to help gets them in trouble with their higher ups who don't really buy the seriousness of this space bug invasion. Desperate for anyone to help fight the good fight, they fall in with a fringe militant cult leader (Mengsk) and his right-hand gal (Kerrigan) who he busted out of some government psychic supersoldier program. Jimmy immediately crushes on her, she doesn't reciprocate.

The gang goes along with all of Mengsk's plans, overthrowing the government to gain control of their armies and psychic experimentation programs to deal with these space bugs, and the level of moral compromise this involves gradually ratchets up until everyone finds themselves complicit in Mengsk killing the whole civilian population of the capital by having Kerrigan set up a psychic murderbug attractor and nobody bother's to evacuate her afterwards.

The other two realize they made a really bad choice of who to throw in with, smash up some major military hardware in the process of bailing on Mengsk as he's setting himself up as dictator for life, and eventually throw their lot in with the protagonists in the third arc, just kinda helping out while they do the whole deal of defying the orders of the ancient space elf council, learning the magic arts of the misunderstood outcasts, flying a big spaceship into the main brain controlling the space bugs. Kerrigan meanwhile gets converted into a space bug/human hybrid super soldier which... honestly feels like it's setting stuff up for a big showdown that just kinda never happens.

Still, we've got characters, they've got arcs. Mostly we have Jimmy (and the silent player character) learning the hard way that long-established power structures tend to be too inflexible to be helpful, and you should never trust anyone openly seeking personal power because they will just exploit everyone around them. It all even roughly follows the classic 3 act structure (and I mean, there's literally 3 acts mapping to that too, just that act 2 is all shown from a villain's perspective). In other media, this is sort of just the bare minimum, but games rarely bother with characters growing, changing, or having real setbacks that make them question things along their way.

This was followed up with the expansion, Brood War, which mirrors that same structure. One long story arc for each of three playable factions. Space elves largely doing standard fantasy beats, middle third switching to a villainous POV so radically different the main narrative gets largely put on hold, and some really good stuff with threads stretching through the whole thing.

Here the villain interlude is that it turns out Earth in this setting is run by full-on fascists, they caught wind of everything going on in this region where there'd previously been a big rebellion, and swing back in to clamp down again. They don't interact with the actual protagonists much (generally, they see the space nazis sweeping in and run off to lay low), so we mostly just have them swooping in and quickly mopping up Mengsk's little newfound dictatorship, with the actual story being the relationship dynamic between the guy in charge (DuGalle), his right hand man he's known forever (Stukov), and a local rebel welcoming them with open arms (Duran). Long story short, Duran's actually a double agent and very gradually pits the other two against each other. DuGalle eventually has Duran kill Stukov thinking he stabbed him in the back, realizes that's dumb, ultimately fails at his whole invasion, and in the epilogue kills himself, which if you read the relevant bit of my FF14 summaries, you know is how I like my stories about clear nazi analogues to end.

In the main narrative though, we pick right back up from the big heroic sacrifice with the bummer of a reveal that killing the primary brain of the psychic space bug collective didn't really get the job done, because some of its secondary brains (refreshingly not a concept pulled out of nowhere, these were firmly established to serve the dual purposes of having clear military targets for a giant pile of bugs, and a way to actually have enough characters for dialog exchanges in that third of the story) are trying to put the band back together. In their current disorganized state though, Kerrigan is no longer a semi-autonomous corrupted bug minion, but totally has her free will and sense of self restored, while still being all chitinous and at least somewhat capable of commanding the other bugs.

So as the whole expansion plays out, and the perspective shifts from the space elves doing some real desperate migration and defense because the plan to save their home world from the big bug invasion ultimately failed, through the nazi invasion, and ultimately to the POV of the secondary bug-brain you'd previously played as who'd been buggified Kerrigan's baby sitter essentially, now forced into taking orders from her, we are mostly dealing with this big hanging question of whether she's really good and trustworthy again, or secretly still under bug control, or if she's good for now but any minute that hivemind could properly come back online and take her over again. And of course, Jimmy's all angsty and pining because he never got over that one-sided crush.

While there's plenty of red flags about her being trustworthy over the course of things, the narrative actually manages to play things close to the chest well enough for the ultimate reveal to be a pretty fun twist. She absolutely 100% is fundamentally herself again, it's just that for a series of mostly pretty well-justified reasons, she absolutely hates every other character in the story. Either they've been trying to kill her, they abused and manipulated her, or they've totally objectified her. Or they're nazis who just showed up, who you don't really need a personal reason to want to kill, but just for good measure they're trying to revive and mind control the central bug mind, so, yeah, that's a threat. So at the last minute the whole thing just reveals itself as a big elaborate revenge story with a fairly strongly gendered theme about being denied agency and being othered, where the actually quite clear-headed just ruthless girl wins.

And then, a decade later, we get StarCraft 2. And what's the main narrative of StarCraft 2? We spend the whole time focused on Jimmy, who has somehow gone from this young idealistic biker/space cowboy with thinning hair, talking like a hippie and bouncing around getting in way over his head trying to rescue people from space bugs by just lending a hand to whoever else seems interested in doing that and crushing on this girl Kerrigan who couldn't be clearer about not liking him back to uh... some sort of gruff jaded old former military general with a bunch of old war buddies, a drinking problem, and a full head of hair, cruising around on his big personal battleship saving various worlds from the big space bug threat pretty much singlehandedly, and hoping to rescue his love interest Kerrigan from space bug mind control, with the help of some kind of prophesied magic space rocks you can build a big totem out of. It even completely de-buggifies her in the end, leaving a helpless little naked girl to chivalrously scoop off the ground and carry to safety. P.S. She's white now.

This isn't like, "oh whoops, we forgot the main character lost one of his boots at the end of last season" nitpicking. This is doing complete 180s on the character arcs and backstories of the central characters here. Kerrigan not needing to be rescued from zerg corruption is the ENTIRE point of Brood War's story. Which also establishes there's no longer really a zerg threat of any sort beyond what she personally wants to tell her mindless bug pals to do. And really, even if you want to de-canonize all of that for whatever reason, tacking a "hero saves the girl" ending onto the story we had in the base game of the original StarCraft still just does not work. You're taking a story whose whole theme is "putting faith in the wrong sort of person has serious consequences" and then turning around and going "actually no it doesn't."

And you know, speaking of Mengsk, it's a much lesser point, but StarCraft 2 depicts him like he's some sort of grandiose emperor from some ancient dynasty. Big imperial palace, little silver spoon in his mouth prince of a son who wants to break from his family's legacy, the whole nine yards. Again, this both fundamentally misunderstands his part in the whole central narrative, and everything that happened to him in the expansion (where not very long at all after his big power grab the UED showed up and completely took him apart, and would have executed him but Kerrigan prolonged that to watch him squirm). And when did he have this kid of his? With who? And where is Jimmy getting all these war buddies? He didn't have'em at the start of things or he wouldn't have had to join up with Mengsk. And his war buddies from that war would just be the magistrate and the surviving protoss characters who act like they barely know him here.

So, no. This does not hold up at all as a continuation. How about if we just look at it in a vacuum then?

Nope, still bad. It leans heavily on a backstory we don't get to see. And I don't mean we're missing a ton of StarCraft 1 flashbacks. I mean, we have all these "old buddy" characters, especially Tychus, but we don't get into how they became friends or do anything to show how they still are, so there's no real emotional stakes to where that ends up going. We start with him drinking his life away in a bar over how he misses this apparent old girlfriend, but we never get into the history between them and even the depressed drinking never comes up again past that shot. We vaguely establish some bitter history with this Mengsk guy, but that never really leads anywhere at all. We just kinda have these various vague and generic handwaves at Standard Protagonist Backstory Stuff. Then we actually dive into things, and it's this very episodic affair where you just hop around from planet to planet either showing up to rescue people or showing up to collect a magic rock to help build the magic Toblerone that cures being half-space-bug. And I mean, I already covered how this sort of simplistic no tension, hero always wins, collect all the treasures for victory sort of narrative is the general baseline for game writing, but other people have been trying to move things forward the last couple decades and this is just sitting at the starting line with a princess to rescue.

Now to be fair, the original StarCraft absolutely also had questing around for magic rocks. The protoss have a totally magic rock based electrical grid, the overmind wanted to eat their special magic rocks to make them more vulnerable, the last protoss mission even had a big ancient temple that did an energy blast, but that one just killed all life on the planet outside of its immediate vicinity, which feels like a more grounded thing for an ancient alien artifact to do than... vaporize/purify space bugs and leave everything else alone. And it wasn't scattered in little bits everywhere.

And then of course there's the expansions to StarCraft 2... well the good thing here is they're so divorced from anything in the original game, and even from the base game of StarCraft 2 that you don't have to worry about them messing with the legacy. I mean, OK, Heart of the Swarm has this whole weird reset where we have Kerrigan mostly human again, just so she can go on a big spirit journey and bug herself up again, so that she's strong enough for her ultimate goal of... showing up to take down Mengsk... again. And you somehow end up with a zergified version of Stukov which... OK that's just the weirdest possible way to double back and recanonize that expansion. I'm not sure that Kerrigan and Stukov were ever even really aware of each other's existence, and he died to a bullet through the head in a military base with no zerg anywhere near it. I mean, unless you remember that Duran was a double agent working for Kerrigan. Except the thing there is if you know the plot of the secret epilogue mission you'd know he was ACTUALLY one of the secret ancient aliens who created both the protoss and the zerg just pretending to a horrible bug monster spy for Kerrigan, in turn pretending to be a normal human. And that's a pretty obscure detail I'd forgive someone for missing except that literally in the mission where you're playing as Zerg-Stukov, the whole reason you're playing as Zerg-Stukov is that Kerrigan is busy doing one of those things where the two wizards fire big energy blasts at each other like some kind of tug-of-war with weird phallic overtones, and the big energy phallus she's trying to squish back is FROM Duran, in his revealed-himself-to-be-that-whole-mess glory. They remembered one thing only to get it wrong basically.

But yeah, otherwise that one's just so wild a departure I don't even know what to say. There's just... named zerg characters? They're all like bug centaurs? Because we need people to talk to and they just totally forgot they had cerebrates to get around that problem? Instead of the ancient ancestral zerg being like, psychic ringworms gradually specializing their hosts over generations, here they're like... talking dinosaur puppies who steal each other's "essence" to get huge? Past a point there's so little resemblance to the source material that I can't even be mad. And then the protoss expansion just kinda decides that the whole casting the dark templar out of their society over irreconcilable religious differences is something they've actually done like... 3 or 4 times? So we've got the outcast invisible jedi and the outcast robots and the outcast Darth Vader wannabes with some sort of society-wide ordered queue where there's exactly one person directly ahead of everyone they're allowed to kill to move up in the world. Oh and we're claiming this one robot centaur is Fenix somehow. Despite Fenix being very dead, and this robot centaur neither having that goofy muppet-y orc voice nor the overwhelmingly positive attitude. And he also somehow doesn't notice that he's a robot centaur and not a guy in a life support pod inside a robot spider. They also expect us to believe this little naked twink turned into this pile of steroids and shoulderpads somehow:

Oh! I almost forgot but also there's this thing called the Khala and it's unambiguously this set of religious teachings defining a caste system and such... but then here someone watched Avatar so we're retconning that into some sort of psychic spiritual network you connect to through your hair. You don't plug your hair in though it's just like a wifi antenna. Also it only works if you're part of the main society that keeps throwing other people out none of these other people have hair wifi. Also like the entire deal here is that protoss just are not psychic, it's their one flaw. There's this whole thing with them representing physical perfection but being held back by being a bunch of very religious idiots, while the zerg are mentally perfect what with the hive mind but physically just, like, a ringworm, so the ultimate life form their creators really wanted to create requires the zerg to take over the protoss, or just going screw it and hybridizing the two in a lab. Again, this is one of those really obscure details, it only comes up in the weird backstory in the manual that doesn't even get touched on in the game outside the one secret mission in the expansion... but here we have the same scene both acknowledging that deep lore and totally contradicting it.

But yeah, taken as their own independent stories... well... what stories? Kerrigan wants to be a big buff bug lady so she can depose a jerk she already deposed, and she does that. There are no complications or twists along the way. "Artanis" has to go collect all the protoss the in-group don't count as people, because Satan got into their hair wifi and anyone who didn't just get a haircut turned evil. So he goes and does that. Again, no complications of any sort along the way. Also no real ideological conflicts.

The deal with the robot protoss is some idiots went "hey what if we took all of our greatest most celebrated heroes and we copied their minds into robots in their entirety" and then got super confused that they still, you know, want to be treated as people with rights and such and not just mindless robots. So, you know, simple fix there. Then the... actually just evil ones are... lead by John DeLancey. Everyone likes him. So, problem resolved? And the dark templar are already befriended from before, so nothing's needed there besides going to their homeworld to pick them up. Their uh.... home world everyone already evacuated to and then that was compromised and their leader was replaced with puppet and then everyone maybe died? But yeah they're fine.

So then after all the racism is solved forever by just... deciding not to do that anymore, Kerrigan jumps in some kind of magic pool to transform into a giant naked golden angel, and she does this to become the embodiment of purity of essence we apparently need (which also purges all zerg-ness I guess?) and... look there's no easy way to say this. It turns into Homestuck. That whole convoluted thing from Homestuck where there's this eternal cycle of universes being created by light and dark themed people teaming up to create the next one and in theory kind of operate as it's gods but not if they don't feel like it... we're just ripping all that off wholesale for this complete asspull of an ending. And then everyone shoots space satan in the face. He's a big squid. And then Kerrigan turns back into a normal human girl so she can go on a date with Jimmy. Oh and then there's a third expansion recycling the scrapped plot from that action game they were going to do back on the N64 or whatever but I learned how awful the company was before getting curious enough on that one.

It's just bad. Even by game writing standards, it's bad. And I didn't even get into how bad it is with women in particular. We've got the big doe-eyed scientist who needs to be rescued from the scary bugs and then oh no it turns out she got bit by a bug and now she's turning into one and has to be put down (and no, this has never been how that worked). Then we've got Kerrigan who aside from needing rescuing and purifying and coming out naked has this whole expansion to herself where in theory she's totally in charge and self-directing every decision, but every time you click anywhere the confirmation is just her getting all pouty and whiny? Like a toddler you're telling to put shoes on so you can go to the doctor or something? Like, is it just me? Is it the direction? Is it the voice filter? Was the actress just miserable in the recording booth?

Then she's got this little bug girl assistant who hangs down from the ceiling, kinda like the adjutant from the original StarCraft, but instead of being all detatched and robotic she's all uwu pwecious? And the protoss campaign just kinda keeps turning women into mouthpieces for Satan. It's... a whole thing.

So yeah, badly written stories all throughout, no matter how you slice it. No continuity, no consistency, no character arcs or tension, just be the big cool action hero, do some getting the band back together stuff, collect some magic rocks and ritual circles, purify this girl here with the big magic circle (3 times no less) and then whatever there's space Satan. It's a mess... did I even have a larger point with this?

Probably not, but it was entertaining I hope? Maybe throw a little cash my way?

Remembering a Ghostie match where he killed everyone but me and let me go

No thoughts, just Kiri trying to convince Fat Gum to put in a request to do a team up in Mexico and even asking his mom's family for help to pick one just so he could bring the Gum Agency on over and enjoy the sights there

It's... a very strange feeling to learn where your anger management issues stem from. "Oh, I have a tendency to bottle my negative emotions up for no reason and let molehills eventually fester into mountains. I wonder what that is." My mother, when I slightly raise my voice about an issue with her that bothers me: "Why are you getting so angry at me, I really feel like I don't deserve this! Lot of bad energy going on around here!"

thanks to doing a few rounds of akinator for winston billions at like 5am last night & the 80th question in one round being abt if your character is in love with someone, i turned to look at the camera like “no,” b/c idk whatever News winston knows of in the finale ep involves rian & while he could be keeping a more personal reaction to himself certainly, we aren’t informed about it, and it’s also a case of like, the material really not trying to touch on him Still crushing on her, such as that he may not actually be doing so, & such as that [who knows why they put that in in the first place if it didn’t matter at all] 

but like also then just moving back an episode at a time it’s like well episode eleven sure he doesn’t need to have like courtlily pledged himself to rian but it’s pretty bold to just hop up & go get laid w/a stranger b/c while your would’ve been Crush is drawing other ppl’s attention by singing, you’re looking elsewhere like oh hello =) & that goes for episode ten as well like really Something like here we are at this party & everyone desires rian carnally, Except winston apparently does not lmao, that point would’ve made a world of sense if they Had actually been the ones peacing out to find some narrative consistency, but ig like the hell with that, it’s nihilism no narrative times, in fact rian gets to stop being A Character X’D but anyways folks lol like winston’s really just like “hi gamers, remember how we were talking about my interest lately” (& everyone goes “die” about it like sorry guy) when it might otherwise be prime time to try to stick to rian or at least have a moment like the 5x05 soiree & make a vague pass about something. but it’s taylor’s turn for that, for some reason, why is what all they have happen after 6x08 even like, Conducive to their dynamic resolving to a better place much less apparently required for it lmfao; is this particular step of it just about taylor’s sort of own limitations in navigating their own life lol like happiness?? well i can only maybe get that through dating someone & i can only get That through work, maybe time to see if any positive feelings towards rian could be romantic interest, that’s my best shot....wherein at this point maybe winston sure can’t be hanging off of rian’s arm this evening b/c he has to be out of the way so Taylor & Rian Time can take precedence, which is possibly true re: the next two episodes / the last two episodes of the season lol, is he standing w/trading floor guys in the finale b/c they’re besties now or b/c rian needs to be separate b/c it’s more Taylor & Rian time, not goofing around ft winston’s involvement. But it can also be true that he’s more established as buddies w/tuk at least. like how yeah he may be pushed out of the way all three eps but he may also be more Over rian, bopping up at the party like what’s up? wanting me to die? oh okay bye. then next episode he’s arms out, going off & hooking up w/someone, still sitting & talking w/rian but she takes the opportunity to insult him & there’s no effort to remind us of the quant duo in the finale, just whatever taylor & rian have going on (being the only members of tmc) like both watsonian & doylean exclusion of winston lol

but also taking it back to episode four like, that felt to me like the clearest instance of like “btw remember winston Likes her” but even then it was like “Or Maybe he does simply really wanna hang out & be friends” and that could be the case lol like they sure are tantalizingly close to friendship for much of all this, and they Do go hang out outside of work due to connecting over a Personal Interest as would sorta be the case in this scenario of like “why don’t you take me camping & i’ll bring my honed spatial algorithm” like i’m not about to say he can’t have been that enthused about anticipating forming a genuine friendship, why wouldn’t he be, & it can be both that & a bit of [also remnants of a crush] motivation....and i mean not like we Know what all they got up to while doing media analysis together in ep ten like. yeah feasible that analysis is all they really got up to, could well be intensive, but it also seems feasible you know, there were interludes about other things, anyone have a meal together and/or unrelated conversation? anyone kiss or hook up? it’s a Hilarious(tm) aspect of like, all winston’s dynamics that there’s never any Real resolution like, even now it’s like well i guess riawin’s not truly completely certainly a non factor / possibility at this juncture, but that’s thanks to the fact that you know, characters aren’t regarding him as serious or important, we never get material wherein say, anyone has a real conversation with him that we get to see, or with anyone else About him, or say, their thoughts / feelings on their own relationship / dynamic with him, so in that way it remains this more Ambiguous Zone where you can fill in blanks / What If about what’s unexplored b/c like, sorry, if i was supposed to automatically sense & accept some Factual Premise that winston is a romantic / sexual nonentity & even too much of a joke to have a friend? first of all i did not, second of all you’re the ones telling us he has crushes & exes & is now just going off getting laid cuz he felt like it & is maybe already regular friends with tuk, so what do you want

but anyways you go “even episode burn rate may not Necessarily have been about winston having a crush vs him being aware of this Quant Duo emphasis that’s Been in place & wanting to get Hanging Out / more personal connection out of it” and really that’s like, the main instance all season of anything plausibly abt winston still having a crush on rian. episode one Introduces Them like remember the quant duo?? they’re a duo. remember how we made sure to have winston show up silently in the finale for a few shots of rian standing right beside him? like yes what of it. and then they go well who knows, but here’s episode two, little quant duo moment again. ep three, Really quant duo moments. ep four, this Maybe [remember winston has a crush] thing that might also just be about him trying to explore / extend this duoship Somehow that’s more ambiguous at least. ep five, god, quant duo, ep six, sure leans on the like “why’s rian want to trip him & take his lunch” thing but also we end on her smiling at him / looking to him like “[all this], am i right??” like. ep seven dear god the quant duo. even ep eight like hey they’re standing together, and then aproposly winston just kind of inexplicably vanishes and the ep becomes this combo of taylor & philip and taylor & rian (subset: rian & wags, apparently) material. and then frankly ep nine kind of counts too because it’s Something that for both quants this is the one episode they simply don’t show up for some reason. ok. then obviously the last quarter of the season moves focus to all that and the quant duo material becomes rian ditching winston after hanging w/him all episode, rian insulting winston, winston going :\ about waving through a window at whatever rian and taylor are up to, like genuinely probably his guess is about as good as anyone’s.

it’s also Something Or Other that “rian pwns winston” is a lot more explicit & repeated this season than “is this material based on winston particularly having a crush vs just liking rian more generally / hoping they’re friends?” like ep one she pwns him out of nowhere, prince jumps in too for no reason when he’s supposed to be trying to ingratiate himself to everyone And this is the sole exception we see to that. ep two, why’s she have to go “oh you cannot really surf ever” like why shouldn’t he. ep three, we get winston directly commenting on their dynamic, that rian has and does hurt him & he thinks she’s doing it on purpose (why wouldn’t he, & seems that she is, tf else is going on. and/or else she’s just really unconcerned abt the effect of [hurting him] even if that’s not her main motivation), oh but also people see them as a duo & they’re also operating as one / completely amicable sometimes, such as like 7 sec out from rian pwning him & him going “stop trying to hurt me” & her completely ignoring that. ep four, that she pwns him again but also kind of lets up on it b/c he thought she’d responded positively actually. ep five, for some reason there needs to be an aside from rian about how winston’s not like the vlogger guy or his followers, who aren’t like posited as Respected Parties by anyone anyways, but the only consistency here is foregone conclusion disdain for winston i guess. ep six like he can’t get his phone back lol it’s more indirect like, it’s a Practical Matter for rian & she’s not very concerned about him beyond that, & kind of like “oh right you have your own perspective here, forgot about that smh whatever though” like, not the friendliest, but then suddenly episode seven is like remarkably same wavelength same page Utterly Amicable where go figure, the only particular instance of disdain / dismissiveness towards winston comes from taylor, ep eight no disdain, ep nine they’re both gone, but ep ten & eleven both with giving him shit out of nowhere & for no reason when he’s trying to like, have a conversation, but apparently oh speedrunning personal bonding with taylor with conversations and hugs in there lol like well. discouraging perhaps b/c why wouldn’t it be.....like i totalled up what i’d consider to be like discrete instances of positive (amicable) vs negative (the dislike/disdain realm) moments from rian directed at winston & surprisingly it came out even by my interpretation & count, but it also is like....that shit isn’t weighted lol, distinct instances of rian directing a smile at winston vs going out of her way and verbally insulting him, the smiles have counterparts of shooting him more negative Looks but the verbal insults do not have counterparts of her like complimenting him or hyping him up or anything, so feels a bit uneven still. yet oh also she’s hung out with him outside work for personal reasons, yet oh also she’ll then turn on that shared interest to insult him And the interest he has in it like, violence on an nd wavelength there, that Sharedness of the interest as a point of connection, and for what. taylor’s making a seemingly not not romantic move here that rian rejects but is Still more personally interested in taylor than ever in other ways & sees them as like romantically desirable in theory, & apparently she’s also looking to get some but oops only in the [she’s not operating like She Is A Character Known To Us rather than “yep, this is someone who is a woman, could’ve been fan fave jean anne”] realm, but personal friendly connection with winston???? waste of time, hurt him for it, he doesn’t seem to be making a pass but apparently the abstract Potential of other ppl’s romantic &/or sexual capacities out here is something so motivating & relevant in general otherwise

where’d i even start this post. yeah like going “so where’d winston’s crush on rian end” and maybe it didn’t even make it into this season but really even the duoship was cruising along until ep ten demands rian partly be [Any Woman] suddenly & some Personal Something for taylor which kind of makes sense but idk why it’s not still more of the mentor / mentee business, was this the only way it could progress?? seems like a particularly shaky premise and like, So specific lmao. if that’s the only way to connect to rian Or taylor no wonder winston’s getting nowhere. haha no but really he’s up against the impossible situation where everyone else has negatively judged him & it’s all about the foregone conclusion of [everything about you sucks] (And punishing him for it / treating him worse than any particular individual does other people, certainly) that precludes connection and he can’t just unilaterally put in enough effort in the right ways so that he can create a good relationship b/w him and anyone else, but it Is all unilateral so far as we’ve seen....the tl;dr is like “why’d they do all that then” re: winston textually Liking rian at least in s5 there, but also truly it’s “why’d they do all that then” re: all the obvious emphasis & establishing of rian & winston As A Duo. would hardly be surprising if winston Was shifting more to actively pursuing friendship with tuk, who he interacts with & is interacted with as a friend, and to passively giving up on much of anything with rian, who has to like him at all in some way/s, but where their interactions are mostly on her terms & where she’ll give him shit spontaneously seemingly for her own entertainment, or because he’s like, responded to her / answered a question / provided info / talked abt something relevant to/of interest to them both / agreed with her, & who knows if she’s banked on his Liking her as a reason she’ll never have to like, consciously wonder abt whether she can hurt him enough he won’t be an amicable party towards her / someone she Can talk to at any time, apparently she doesn’t think about consequences (except that also she does, so whatever) & idk doesn’t seem to feel confident in knowing herself or what she wants or what she’s doing so it’s also just feasible idk she doesn’t know what she’s doing with this relationship / isn’t putting a world of Care And Consideration into it, we’ve hardly had a chance to see if winston hanging w/tuk rather than rian or rian & taylor is a pattern that’s been Shifted to rather than that he needed to be out of the way in Serious Finale Zone times & can now go back to mostly being around rian & being as game to talk to her in earnest at any time, seems utterly plausible b/c winston Has to, & Has, put up with anything forever b/c otherwise if the way ppl treated him like, lastingly affected him, he’d lose his panache & personality, or rather, stop expressing it around anyone here. and so far billions hasn’t really let winston have an arc, 5x05 through 5x07 looked the most like one but then after the hiatus it’s like, rian’s desk stuff is gone, her [trademark bi haircut] is grown out, the seeming Hurtling Towards Something just kind of flew out of frame b/c now it’s time to enter into the Rian & Taylor Serious Arc world & never look back......i said tl;dr before but Now tl;dr like what was making it clear winston has a crush about, was it an explanation for him getting over the rivalry immediately. but getting over it so what, they can be friends?? because what is That for, if they don’t get to do that either really, rather winston is determinedly amicable towards her up till now where Maybe he hangs out with tuk when possible as his new default, we can’t know, maybe he’s still just down to suffer forever b/c he does apparently have to do that, taylor hasn’t really given him anything since 5x05 (except the Back Pat the full season later) & he’ll still wear his tmc tee in ep one & doesn’t individually bring up any grievances w/them all season, even if we don’t know whether he’s less hyped about them at the end of the season at all, seems as matter of fact as ever like yep he’s taylor’s quant & he’s here for them, but, is he especially enthused abt anything here....yes, in 6x05, but nothing came of it. will anything come of Quant Duoship overall or was it just something else for rian to do before becoming taylor’s other bestie or something and only employee, will anything come of winston and tuk getting along completely successfully, will anything come of winston material and the fact that he’s actually a person any of these other characters could connect with. tl;dr winston

⤷❝Can't be Shared | Coriolanus Snow❞ˎˊ-

⇢☾Warning: NSFW | somnophilia, mentions of prostitution (Snow was going to 'share' you) cunnilingus, pinv sex, creampie, unprotected sex (wrap it dumbfucks), possessive af Snow, impact play (he slaps your thigh once), ruined orgasm (you do cum in the end) | lmk if I forgot anything!

⇢☾Pairing: young president! Coriolanus Snow x fem! Reader

⇢☾Summary: Snow was going to share you with the elite of the Capitol but changed his mind halfway through only to have his way with you and make you the First Lady of Panem

⇢☾A/N: hehe, the longest fic I have writing so far, hope y'all enjoy this and reblog ;)

<masterlist> < bc: @cafekitsune >

He thought he would be okay with it. He was sure he would be okay with it. But he wasn't. Snow's blood boiled when the rich elitist of the capitol had begun to touch you, whisper you praises, and whatnot. The only thing that was going in his mind was his, his, his.

When had he gotten so attached, he wasn't supposed to be. Letting them touch you, and play with you was a strategic decision to get them hooked and you weren't meant to be his Queen but something had changed. Something snapping in him when the Capitols’ richest eyed you like a meal.

His jaw was clenched and he cleared his throat, “I changed my mind.” He said, “I am not sharing after all.”

You are his. His property. His bird locked in his cage and now his Queen. He pulled you closer, away from prying hands. He glared, memorizing the face of any and everyone displeased, thinking of plans of how to dispose of them quickly because even if briefly they had touched you that was a sin. No one taints the Queen but a King.

He cordially finishes dinner, keeping in mind he was a president, a newly appointed one at that even if he wanted to he couldn't drag you into his room and have his way with you. But he wanted to. His free hand is on your thigh, gripping it hard enough to leave a small bruise. His hold gets tighter the more he has to smile pretty and act polite.

You hadn't said a word, you weren't sure what to say. You were ready to be shared, used, and then discarded. Snow had told you of this beforehand, but he had changed his mind and you were grateful.

Even as he marked you, made you whimper with his grip, giving your thigh a warning squeeze to be quiet. You were relieved that he decided not to share. You were his, you liked that you were his.

Dinner took longer than you would have preferred, but when it finally came to an end, Snow leaned into you and whispered, “Be on my bed wearing my shirt and nothing else, my bird.”

You didn't reply. You get up, walking into his room, heat choking your veins and making your pussy ache and wet. You close the door as you reach the master bedroom of the manor.

Going into his closet you picked on a red shirt, knowing that it would match your skin tone well. You had taken everything else off, your panties and previous clothes on the floor. You were in full display as you didn't even button up the shirt. Your breasts are exposed to the cold air making your nipples harden.

You sat on the bed, waiting for him to come. One minute bleeds into ten and you laid down on the bed. One hour turns to several and your eyes close up. Sleep catches up with you.

You woke up with a gasp. Sleep at the edge of your mind but your mouth lets out a moan wantonly as several things hit you at once.

One. Snow was here.

Two. Snow was between your thighs, his hands keeping your thighs wide and spread for him.

Three. His lips were on your clit, sucking it vigorously making you arch your back and wanting to flinch away from the intensity.

And you tried to move away, your bud sensitive more with pain than in pleasure. How long was Snow like this, sucking at your clit. Your pussy was now impossibly slick and throbbing, wanting to be filled.

A slap was delivered onto your thigh, a hitched moan leaving your lips because of the delicious pain. “Behave,” Snow sneers at you, his blue eyes looking ravenous, his face smeared with your arousal. This was Snow? You thought for a brief second. For once he felt like a man brought down to his knees by a woman instead of something untouched.

“Sorry,” you gasp out as he dives into your cunt. His tongue drew circles onto your clit as your cunt clenched around nothing. You never thought Snow would be sloppy at anything, you thought wrong because his breathing was loud, warn air of his pants grazing your sex. His stubble brushed against your sex as all of his attention was overstimulating your clit.

He finally lost interest as you cried out that you were close just by him playing with your clit for who knows how long. It hurt. It felt good. Perfect, delicious pleasure and pain. You were dizzy, your eyes glistening with unshed tears.

He leaves your clit alone, but his tongue finds its way to the rest of your pussy. His tongue traces your folds, your slit, and the inside of your walls. Leaving no parts of your cunt untouched by his mouth. He was licking every drop of your juices, all the while he made you wetter.

Your hands were fisted into the sheets, your hips subtly moving for friction. A notion that was stopped with a squeeze of his hand on your thigh. You were brought to your high, so close to the edge you would fall in a second as moans spilled from your lips.

Only for that to be snatched away as Snow moved away. You cry out, “No! Please!” But Snow merely raised an unamused eyebrow while his hand wiped his mouth. “Snow, please,” you whispered, feeling the heat and the high of your lost orgasm.

He lets out a scoff as he sees your desperate state. “My meal is finished,” he merely said. His hand takes off the red suit, the same color as your (his) shirt. His fingers unbutton his white shirt, revealing his toned physique. Those same hands now unzipped his pants, his boxer down to the floor revealing a hard cock. The well-rounded tip leaking pre-cum.

“But I am not done with you yet,” he muses, as he moves in closer. You were sitting up now and his hand was on your nape.

“I don't think I'll ever be done with you,” he whispers, the words sealing a promise of forever. “Don't be,” you whispered back, leaning to catch his lips. Your arms around his shoulders to pull him on top of you, to feel his weight, his skin against yours.

Primal instincts take over you both as you kiss. Desperate whimpers and deep groans could be heard and his teeth sank into your bottom lip. Making it bleed and making him suck your blood into his mouth. He pulls back with a gasp, his eyes wide, his lips swollen. His taste was of a dessert you couldn't name. Addictive and delicious.

His left hand was on your cheek, another still on your nape. His thumb brushes your cheek in a manner of caring. “You're the Queen of Panem now,” he announces, making your heart jump in surprise. “The First Lady of Panem.”

With that, he seals his words with a kiss. Soft and ravishing, his tongue explores your mouth. Your hand is in his hair, the blonde locks between your fingers as you kiss back with everything you have.

“You're mine,” he whispered, his lips brushing with yours, “My bird in a cage. My property.”

“I'll make sure everyone at Capitol knows it,” he said, his eyes looking at you with the ferality of an animal stripped to his bare instincts. “Is that understood, my bird?” He asked.

The answer couldn't be anything but yes. So you replied exactly that and he grins. He looked beautiful in that moment, his charms coming out making you even more needy.

You pulled him in for another kiss, his lips smiling against yours as both of your tongues tangled. His hand lowered itself and cupped your cunt. His fingers trace your entrance and you whimper into his mouth but he doesn't breach in.

He gathers your arousal on his digits, and he pulls back from the kiss to take the digits into his mouth. After sucking his fingers clean, he kisses you again, letting you taste yourself.

His hands pushed you down on the bed, your legs on his shoulder. He takes a deep breath, taking you in, his bird being such a pretty mess.

He placed a kiss on your thigh that was unbelievably soft that for a moment you didn't believe it was action done by Snow's lip but the harsh bite of his mouth marking the skin of your inner thigh proved otherwise.

He leaned down, his hand in your hand above your head. Your free hand dug into his shoulder, forming crescent marks that made him groan, a choked-off desperate sound that you wanted more of.

All the while he placed his cockhead right at your entrance. You gasp as you feel the tip slip inch by inch into your velvety warmth. You wondered if he was going so slow because he wanted you to adjust to his length. However, one look at his face told you were wrong. His blonde strands clinging to his forehead, his lips parted and letting out hot breaths all the while his eyes closed shut, his eyebrows furrowed as he buried his dick into your cunt with the slow pace.

The reason he was going slow was because he wasn't sure if he could last and fuck, that got into your head. Birds are little teasers and you were no different so you clenched around him. His length half pushed in and felt your pulsing cunt wrapping itself tighter around him.

His eyes fall open as he lets out a grunt of surprise and pleasure, “Fuck.” His icy eyes glare at you, “Don't.” Your pussy only clenched further in reply and his hold gets harder, pressing your hand into the mattress as he sank in completely without a warning. “Ah!” You let out in surprise, the stretch painfully perfect.

“Take it,” he whispered to you, his lip biting your earlobe before he dragged his mouth to the pulse of your neck to mark you up properly as his property. His hips now beginning to move, calculated and controlled just like every other action of Snow. Every thrust hits your g-spot relentlessly, making you gasp and moan, back arching in pleasure.

“Gentlemen make their women cum but you're not a woman. You're my property but I am merciful so cum. Cum on my cock untouched, my bird.” He groans into your ear as his pace gets faster, a tad bit of desperation creeping in as his hips slam into you without a care. You could only moan in reply, truth is you didn't need to be touched to cum. His cock, his skin against yours, his mouth sucking your neck, and placing love bites were enough. More than so.

The heat was already forming in your stomach, waiting to be released and spread all over your body. The final push hadn't come long after. As you and Snow shared a filthy open-mouthed kiss, he had thrust so hard and deep, a small bulge had formed, your cervix being kissed with his cockhead.

You cry his name and your pussy comes on his cock, milking his length with repeated squeezes. “That's it, my bird,” he praises as he continues to abuse your cunt with his dick. Your nerves are oversensitive making you whimper and teary-eyed. He found his release with a whimper, his hot cum filling your womb. He pulled out with a small gasp and you wanted him again.

His hand ran through his hair, pushing the sweaty strands up. “First lady of Panem,” he stated, looking at you and then your body, his cum falling out of your cunt.

“First Lady…” you whispered, in disbelief and for whatever may come in the future.

Speaking of therapy, I say, as though we're old friends, and you're not a stranger trapped in this metaphorical elevator with me and you can hear the suspension wires starting to fray.

I've been doing a lot of work recently that's focused on imposter syndrome and the feeling that no matter how well or how much I do, I'm not good enough. That I'm somehow tricking everyone into thinking my work is actually good.

Some days it's a minor niggle in my head that I can gentle and soothe with logic and affirmations. Or smother, depending on the mood. Other times it's loud and all-consuming and the mental anguish it causes me is so real I can feel it twitching in my muscles. This desperate fight-or-flight instinct with nowhere to go and nothing to fight but myself.

Anyway, because I'm several types of Mentally Unwell™, I was switching between workshop sheets ahead of next week. Filling in different forms. (Trying to get a good grade in therapy) And I got my "recognize your harmful ADHD coping mechanisms" worksheet mixed in with the "you're not actually lying to people, you just feel like you are because your brain is full of weasels" worksheet, and seeing them side by side made something go topsy turvy in my head, and I just had to sit and breathe for a couple of minutes until the urge to scream passed. Because it clicked, it all suddenly clicked.

The reason the imposter syndrome workshops and therapy sessions aren't sticking was because I do routinely trick people into thinking I'm someone I'm not.

Because I'm masking my ADHD for their convenience.

I've always known there was something wrong with me. My neurotypical peers made it abundantly clear I didn't fit in or was failing in some way I couldn't see nor remedy, no matter how hard I tried.

So I compressed myself into a workaholic box of hyper-competence in the hopes they'd stop noticing the flaws and exploit like me instead. And then subsequently lived with the daily fear that if they looked too close, they'd realize I'm a monumental fuck up with enough personal baggage to block the Suez Canal.

If you ever need someone to burn themselves to ashes for your comfort and convenience, I'm your gal.

Or I used to. Until I had a bit of a breakdown, and the rubber band holding my brain together snapped and pinged off into the stratosphere, never to be seen again.

Unfortunately, the trauma of living like that didn't also fuck off and instead left a gaping maw where my personality ought to be, so now I get to deal with that aftermath.

And it's that aftermath that's affecting the imposter syndrome shit. Because yes, I am hyper-competent and good at what I do-- but it doesn't feel real because that is how I mask.

And the truly frustrating thing is I am good at what I do. I am not pretending. I worked hard to be good at this. It just feels like I'm dicking around because 90% of my personality turns out to be trauma masquerading as humor in a trenchcoat, and having people genuinely like something weird I'm doing is so foreign my brain has decided it's just another form of masking.

I'm pretending to be a good author so people will think I'm a good author, and my brain thinks we are in Danger of being found out. We are in Danger, and writing is Dangerous because then people will know I'm Weird and not whatever palatable version I've presented myself as for their NT sensibilities.

Like the neurotic vampire with a raging praise kink wasn't an obvious giveaway.

Anyway. I got nothing else. Thanks for listening.

I'm going to go be very normal in another room and not stare into the abyss of my own soul for a bit.

I went to a restaurant with a friend yesterday and upon entering we saw these splendid blueberry tarts under bell jars on the counter and we made jokey small talk with the waitress like oh, people will fight over these if there's not enough for everyone, it'll tear families apart, are you making more later? and she said no, I'm afraid that's our entire stock for today, but there are 18 slices, it should be plenty! It was a small village restaurant with only one menu du jour so there weren't any other dessert options but they don't usually get that many customers—but then a couple of large groups arrived and most people noticed the tarts like we did, and went ohh blueberry tart, it's been a while, I can't wait, and it became clear that when we'd get to the end of our meal there would be winners and losers in the blueberry tart rush

But later as we were about to order dessert I wasn't hungry anymore and I was like well that's too bad but someone else will be glad to get 'my' slice of tart—and my friend said yeah, me :) You should order it anyway, I'll eat both! At first I thought she was joking, but no. I said, there's not enough for everyone, you can't take two, and she said, we were going to order two slices, what difference does it make? and I was baffled that she couldn't see the ethical difference between two people eating one slice of tart each vs. one person eating two, when there's a limited quantity of tart. I felt like we were in a simplistic social justice metaphor it was so obvious, but there was no changing her mind. When I said "it's just... not nice" she said "okay" with a shrug, and what can you say to that. She added, you don't know any of these people and I was like, why are we reverting to tribal dynamics in a non-apocalyptic setting, how would you feel if we'd arrived a bit later and seen others ordering two desserts knowing you'd get zero? And she said, I would think that's their right, and I felt kind of amazed.

I pointed out that if she didn't think it was a wee bit wrong, she wouldn't ask me to order her second piece as if it was for me, and she said yeah maybe we don't need to do that, there's no law preventing me from ordering two desserts. What about Kant's categorical imperative Okay I guess you're not breaking any laws by taking more than your fair share of a thing other people also want, just failing a kindergarten-level morality test. I felt embarrassed for sounding like an annoying preachy rigid person so I dropped the issue, and as she ate her two slices she'd smile at me every time we overheard someone order coffee without dessert—like "See? There'll be enough, no one will be deprived of tart because of me!" as if that cancelled the fact that she didn't care in the first place. I guess it was one of these tiny issues that can still significantly alter the way you perceive a person. I tried to tell myself not to be so bothered about this small thing but I was! so bothered. And I felt like writing a letter to some agony aunt like "should I end a friendship over irreconcilable blueberry tart ethics"

Choso being your best friend but you're secretly fucking his younger bro Yuuji

So much to work with here.

Pairing: Yuuji Itadori x Fem!Reader

Tags: nsfw, smut, quickie, sneaking around, jealousy, secret relationship, condom use, affirmation

A/N: Discovering that I really, really like writing for Yuuji.

No amount of good sex or dick could erase the guilt you felt when ever you and Yuuji had sex. You loved him, with all your heart but... he was your best friend's younger brother. How could something that started out feeling so wrong now be the feeling you couldn't do without for more than a week?

"You're thinking about him again aren't you?" Yuuji complained against your neck, his pink hair and equally pink ears being the only thing you saw when you looked at him. You could sense his jealousy in every thrust. More than that you saw in the way he looked at Choso when he'd greet you with a hug. Of course he didn't mean anything bad by it, but Yuuji was quite territorial for such a sweet guy.

"Sounds like someone's jealous of their big brother." He tried to say he wasn't but you knew he was, you knew he wished that he'd met you first, that he shared more classes with you, that he could be as openly affectionate with you as Choso was and not have to sneak quickies when his brother went to the supermarket. "Hey Yuuji, baby, look at me for a second."

There was a look of urgency and desperation in his eyes, not the fun-loving mirth you were used to seeing, "Wanna let everyone know how much I love you." Your heart swelled with love for him, you really couldn't ask for a better boyfriend. "Don't wanna stand by and watch him hang all over you like you're still single when you got me." And a more cutely possessive one.

"It's your cock inside of me." You clenched your pussy around him and didn't let go. Yuuji hissed, hips stuttering forward in a hurry, "You're the one who makes me feel good, all you. I love you Yuuji, no one else but you, understand that?"

He nodded, too overwhelmed to talk but every thrust told you how much he loved you, every kiss and every bite that you'd have to hide with your hoodie. You came while calling his name over and over, still trying to assure him that he was the one, the only one for you. The force at which he came almost broke the condom he was wearing, he needed to pull out fast. Lucky for him, the trashcan was right by his bed so he didn't make too much of a mess when he took it off and tied it up.

"Oh man. I'm gonna have to buy more of these soon." They definitely disappeared at a quicker pace now. "Choso actually asked me to lend him some the other day, I was so embaressed to say I needed all of them."

"I'll sneak some in next time." Sneaking condoms for your secret boyfriend. Your life sure took a funny turn ever since you met Yuuji, the best turn it's ever taken actually.

I have found inspiration to write :).

The flash for the fist time in forever stop moving. No twitching. NO moving his leg up and down. No running back and forward to the cafeteria for snacks. He was completely still with his jaw open looking past Batman who at the moment was giving the league members an overview of the missions that have been happening within the past month. Immediately everyone locked in, Flash not moving major red flag. Batman caught it first and proceeded to turn around in a split of a second and froze (caught of guard) this caused the other league members to slowly turn their heads and eyes away from starring at the Flash. And they couldn't believe their eyes.

Superman had his jaw dropped.

Flash was pointing and unable to form words the only sound escaping his mouth was vocals "aa" "ee" he was over all gobsmacked.

Not like the other leagues were fairing any better. It's just that their eyes could not make their brain correctly process what they were seeing. And what they were currently seeing was a teenager with white hair with a box of donuts and drinking something out of a coffee cup. Now this is the watchtower everyone has seen teenagers from various backgrounds to say the least enjoy their coffee and snacks. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that the teen wasn't one of theirs. Not that it really matters Batman.

What actually matters is that the kids outside. IN SPACE. How is he surviving. How isn't he dead? Is he an alien? Then why is the box of donuts from earth?

And the kid has the gull to smile sheepishly?????

---

Danny only wanted help. HE SWEARSS. And the Justice League wasn't helping after they had been spammed with calls for help against the Ghosts. Amity parkers think that the JL has banned them from making calls. So Danny decided if they won't come. He will go to them, but his parents did not raise a disrespectful child the Fentons maybe break tax laws and driving laws and overall all OSHA regulations. BUT THEY NEVER DISRESPECT (unless warranted) ANYBODY. And Danny wasn't about to misrepresent them. So he brought a box of donuts and his fathers homemade fudge in hopes to make some sort of slightly good impression.

So taking a breath in (as a force of habit) he knocked on the watchtowers window and didn't become intangible and go in until Wonder Woman nodded with her head yes.

Batman was side-eying WW, but Danny decided that Wonder Woman had more decision power in this instance.

So with the approval that he may come in Danny made himself (and everything else) intangible so he could enter. Once inside he realize that Jazz had been correct in telling him to at least know how he was going to approach the subject.

He placed the treats on the table and made a gesture that they could eat. He took a sip of his hot ecto and then he opened his mouth.

"Why are you guys hunting us down for sport? w-we are people too"

Danny said it in such a broken voice with teary eyes. He really should have practiced first.

The JL choked.