I don’t know how.

Rating: Mature (rating will change in future chapters) Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply (see additional tags) Relationships: Ethos/Praxis (Starfighter), others to come in future chapters

Summary:  After becoming obsessed with a fearsome pirate captain, Marcus willingly becomes his captive. In a dance of deception, he rises through the ranks and realizes that neither his preconceptions or his first impressions of Captain Ethos were entirely accurate.

Unlike 95% of fandom as far as I can tell, I’ve managed to avoid the pirate fever of Our Flag Means Death thus far. Considering this, I can’t believe the thing that dragged me back to writing fic—hand recovery be damned—was a bloody pirate AU, but here we are. I even started a new Scrivner project for this bad boy. That’s the first time I’ve done that since the 2019 Summer Challenge. Don’t @ me over the fact that I’ve completed exactly zero of the stories I’ve used Scrivner to plan out thus far lol.

Writing a full chapter was challenging because every time I'd try to do a fight scene segment or bit of exposition, my brain just wanted to get back to the thirst. What about another paragraph of Praxis daydreaming vividly about Captain Ethos here? That makes sense, right? Why not take a break to write down some ideas for a spicy scene from a later chapter? Willing Captive Praxis took my brain captive and all I could think about was how best to describe the charismatic pirate captain. Sorry not sorry. This is even the most restrained chapter in that sense.

Also, if you’re looking for some great pirate-y background music, this chapter was powered in large part by listening to the album Set Sail for the Golden Age by Antti Martikainen.

Im on mha teachers bullshit I have two fics in mind lmaob

starting a fic recs list purely for myself because my toxic trait is exhaustively re reading my most beloved fics

-slamming bolt upright in a cold sweat- what do you mean verbal contracts cleo. what do you MEAN verbal contracts cleo. artists if you're doing commercial work you're A) charging much higher rates and B) making them SIGN A CONTRACT, right? right? you understand why that's VITAL, right? why having a written contract is VITAL for commercial work? you understand? you make them sign a written contract? please if you go looking in proper artist/graphic design circles i'm sure you can find a basic form that's legal in your locality and doesn't require you talk to a lawyer but if you're doing commercial work you're MAKING THEM SIGN A CONTRACT RIGHT--

Prompt 144

Danny regrets nothing. He regrets absolutely nothing at all. Okay so maybe he regrets things a little bit, but it’s hard to concentrate. It’s hard to think, he…

He’s never died a second time before. 

It’s… weird. His head hurts, his body too-small, not in a younger sense, but almost in a… feeling sense. His skin feels colder, and his hair has- it has bits of white in it now? And he’d already been able to use his ghost abilities even in his human form but it feels… easier now. 

He’s not overshadowing his own corpse- he doesn’t think he is? His head hurts… his everything ached actually, like he’d gotten electrocuted again even if he’s certain that wasn’t how he died.

Did- did someone throw his body into the sewers? 

Seriously, what the heck? Who would do that?! Urgh, that made him so mad- who just throws a corpse around, nevermind his corpse! That’s so rude! 

… 

Hello crocodile-man staring at him in slight horror, please ignore the blood covering the back of his head, the wound has healed, he will be out of your way once he can talk again- Wait, there’s no need to call for someone-

I’m so sorry for this blame the discord guys

Copia in Suspenders (Part 1 of a Series)

Tim Jr., Coffee Machine Extraordinaire

The Start (Edit: this not a prompt! I am writing this one shot! I'm just sharing the start here.)

Dick worried his lip between his teeth as he looked Tim over. His little brother was standing, zombie-like, in front of the Cave’s coffee machine.

Not that was unusual.

The thing was, Tim had been doing better. His dark circles had been fading, his snippy moments less often, his focus better, and he’d even been putting on some much needed weight. Dick had been so proud (as had Alfred and Bruce). But now the circles were darkening again and Tim was staring at the coffee machine like he used to— like it was his only salvation.

Jason stepped up to Dick’s side, joining him in the bird watching.

“Hey Timbit,” Jason said, breaking the silence of the moment. Trust Jason to get down to it.

“Hum?”

“What happened to your hand?”

Tim blinked down at his gauze wrapped hand as if he had forgotten about the injury. Not a good sign with Tim. Dick was betting on over 48 hours without proper sleep at this point.

“Oh.” Tim said, the exclamation was emotionless. “Tim Jr. Bit me.”

Dick and Jason exchanged looks. Who now?

“Um, did you get a pet, baby bird?” Dick gently asked.

“Hum?”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Who’s Tim Jr., Timberino.”

“Oh.” Tim said. The brothers waited impatiently for Tim’s brain to roll over. “My coffee maker. Little brat refused to make me any…”

“Okay, yep, alright. No patrol for you tonight Timtam.” Jason said with a clap of his hands.

altan isn't a violent person at his core it was just what other people have always seen him as because he's speerly, and for some reason the speerlies have a savage connotation when we have no proof that they were actually animals in the sense that other people keep describing them as. im sure that we only get the savage speerly stereotype because as a people, they were fundamentally different from the nikara and the mugenese. and since they were all (mostly) dead at the start of book one, who was going to negate all of these stereotypes? no one. (i could go on about how altan was slapped with the "last speerly" moniker when in reality he probably remembers very little about his culture and what speer was like before all of the war and the death but that's for another time <3)

even back in his days of sinegard altan isnt depicted as a particularly violent person, though he's placed in violent events. like in the fighting pits at night altan is pitted up against his peers who want to fight him at a chance at victory, to prove that they've won a battle against the last speerly and we have no idea if altan actually wants to fight them or if he's forced to (iirc it's highly suggested that irjah baits him into fighting by promising him opium if he wins, and he will, because he always does) (although that could've just been nezha being a dick) and even though altan shows no signs of violence or aggression (he's always depicted as calm, stoic, etc) he's always painted as something less than human, an animal simply because ??? he wins their fights? as if that's not something he's expected to do in the first place. ("how did he do that? isn't he human?" "he isn't, he's speerly" this quote. ARGHARAGH RABAN ILY BUT SHUT UPPP)

and back to the stereotypes of speerlies and why they're painted as rabid animals even though there's no proof that they are. the main thing i can think of rn is how the federation (+ the mugenese) think of them simultaneously as something divine and to be studied but also as these rabid beasts at the same time. like the federation soldiers are clearly afraid of fire / the speerlies (i have a separate hc that their culture has something to do with this but that is also for another time <3) shiro mentions how precious and important the speerlies are (and yet his people bombed altan's? ://) while taking every opportunity he can to pick altan apart. then people wonder why altan's vicious towards the federation and hates them with every fiber of his being and why he has so much pent-up anger within him and it's like, hello?? they took him captive when he was a child, and sent him to the laboratory with shiro where he would spend half of his life being cut open and dissected, injected with opium time and time again, forced to watch his people die off one by one without the knowledge that he was the last until after he'd been rescued. (this still gets me btw no im not in tears) and then even when he's out, his suffering isn't over, (it's never over lets be real) because he's shipped off to sinegard academy where he'll be surrounded by so many different conflicting stereotypes (the nikara think he's an animal because he's speerly but shiro thought he was amazing because he was speerly, because of his connection to the phoenix) and really, he's not violent, not at his core, but i cant imagine the inner turmoil altan went through his first few years out of the lab + his first year at sinegard where he was the only one who was different (and also fighting an opium addiction at the same time and people belittle him over this when it literally wasn't his fault)

like altan was not violent. he was calm and he had his moments of peace, but ultimately because of everything that had happened to him (cough. shiro u motherfucker), the violence was forced out of him and became all he knew ("chaghan said they trained you like a dog at the academy" ://) and he literally didn't know any better, he was failed by every single person who should have helped him. (never getting over this btw)

yin riga, a man who he trusted, sent him away to shiro. (will never not think of how much little five year old altan trusted riga and then. well.) jiang, who was supposed to help him with his connection to the phoenix, shunned him. irjah, who was his supposed caretaker, who only fed his opium addiction in order to control him, just like how shiro did, just like how the nikara did to the speerlies (parallels. yaaay.)

in the end altan trengsin wasn't a violent person, but it was all anyone wanted to see. it was all anyone would remember him by.

So uh... about that Lovecore Egon post I made three hours ago-

Original screencap below the cut!

So, it's not like I've posted ANYTHING regarding this, but add Oshi no Ko to the list of things I'm obsessed with. Surprise surprise, and now I have to ramble about SOMETHING in it. ANYTHING.

So I'm gonna ramble about something that came up with friends in discord.

Anybody ever think about how much more immensely tragic Gorou's death is when you think about how it must have seemed from Ai's perspective?

OnK speeds through this part of the story pretty quickly, shooting from 20 weeks to 40 weeks into Ai's pregnancy while only showing us a glimpse of what happens during this period, such as seeing Ai being accompanied by Gorou when she goes on a walk, with an inner monologue from Gorou about how he's promised to make sure her kids are delivered safely.

As such, we don't really have much insight into what their relationship or dynamic was like, but it's clear that at the very least, they got along well. Ultimately, the story isn't about this part of her life, and whatever happens here she ultimately moves past along with her kids. HOWEVER! We can reasonably assume that they had a friendly relationship, because...

Ai very specifically wanted him to be there. Ai Hoshino, a 16-year-old girl pregnant with twins, who has been failed by the majority of the adults in her life... goes "pout pout, it has to be you!" when he mentions that other doctors will be available if he isn't.

She implicitly asks him, the doctor who's sworn to make sure she has a healthy delivery and has been with her every step of the way since she got here, to be there. Remember, Ai is 16 here. She's all smiles, but as we know, she was just as much of a human being as everyone else. She is 16 and pregnant with TWINS. It's going to be the equivalent of pushing a watermelon through a bagel, TWICE. There's no way that she wasn't nervous underneath her perfectly-practiced smile.

The show makes a gag about Gorou going silent when asked what he would do if Ai asked him to date her, but let's be clear here, Gorou was by all means a very responsible and compassionate adult. He was obsessed with idols, specifically Ai, but he treats her with respect and remains professional about the whole thing, and we can be sure that he would've kept her secret. No matter what gags are made because of his idol obsession and the time he spent with Sarina, I think we can comfortably say that when push comes to shove, Gorou Amemiya tries to do the right thing at the end of the day.

Essentially, what I'm trying to say is... in this moment, Gorou was a trusted adult, someone who Ai felt comfortable around and therefore wanted to have there during this moment of immense stress.

...so imagine how it must have felt then, when she went into labor. OnK is pretty tasteful concerning what parts of that process is shown, giving us just a brief shot of her screaming her lungs out while surrounded by nurses... but think about it.

The person she implicitly wanted there at that moment to ensure she gives birth safely... left and never came back.

Just another person added to the pile of adults who abandoned her when she needed them, right? The fact that Ruby and Aqua were born safely must have been the only relief she had that night... but Gorou's body wasn't discovered at that time. By all means, he had just left the hospital and went missing without a word, and that's where the tragedy gets even worse.

Because the only reason Gorou wasn't there, was because he was dying. He chased after a person who was stalking Ai, someone who put her family in danger, and was killed. And what were his dying thoughts?

That he needs to get back. That he made a promise. That he has to make sure her kids are born safely.

Ultimately she moves past this. Her kids are born safely, and in the end it's not like adults failing her has been uncommon throughout her life. But god, it's hard not to think about how she must've felt in that moment, going through the agony and terror of literal childbirth, waiting and waiting for this one adult who promised to support her, for hours and hours... and he just never shows up.

Though I guess in one sense, he does show up... just not in a way anybody could've expected.

autistic friends how do you Not hate yourself for not being able to socialise normally. like I'm miserable right now and it's because I can't socialise normally, don't see how/if I'll ever find someone to marry and can't see the point in trying to befriend people because I always fail every time and simply annoy people; even my friends have got tired of having me hang around All The Time because i just Can't Socialise

not just autistic folks but I know this is very much related to autism for me

any advice or encouragemnet or prayers or what have you, appreciated

BLEACH x Inuyasha

Ichigo Kurosaki, a 15yo "human" whose normal life ends when a demon drags him into a cursed well. Instead of hitting the bottom of the well, Ichigo ends up 500 years in the past during Japan's violent Sengoku period with the demon's true target, a wish-granting jewel (Hōgyoku). After a battle with a revived demon accidentally causes the sacred jewel to shatter and awakens an asleep demon, Ichigo enlists the help of said human-friendly demon named Rukia to help him collect the shards and prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.

Trust me, they (mostly) know what they’re doing.TM