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#look at me posting cm it's been so long <3
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SPENCER REID in RED LIGHT CRIMINAL MINDS (2005-)
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retroellie · 4 days
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Loud
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Summary: After being dragged to a small town for a case, spencer found himself littering the town with his moans because he couldn't keep quiet.
A/N: I actually hate this, but i wanted to post something. Work has been killing me (literally) Anyways, miss yall <3
Warnings: NSFW, riding, dirty talk, praise, normal CM stuff
Word count: 3.9K
Spencer Reid was vocal in anything he did whether it be profiling, chess, books, statistics... you name it and he can talk your ear off about it. So this didn't come as a surprise to you when he was extremely vocal and loud in bed. He would whimper and whine until his noises were bouncing off the walls, consuming every single quiet corner. He couldn't help it, it was so hard to focus on anything when his cock was deep inside of you. It did not help that you tried your hardest to get these noises out of him, it fed the huge ego that you had developed since having sex with him.
Spencer had been shamed his entire life for how talkative and loud he was, so he assumed his loud whimpers weren't an exception. He tried so desperately to keep quiet, he would bite his lips till they bled, shove his face into your skin until it turned red, he would strain himself so hard so no noise could sneak past his lips. You hated the fact, that Spencer tried so hard to keep his noises in. You wanted him to enjoy himself, you wanted him to be comfortable with everything you were doing with and to him. You didn't want him to feel like he had to hide, ever.
To be completely honest, you had grown to enjoy his high-pitched whimpers filling the room. It was your favorite song, your favorite melody to play as you rode him into the sun. You would constantly reassure him that you loved those noises, you would even sometimes punish him if he tried to hide them. One time you even got so frustrated with his shyness that you edged him for 2 hours, teasing him with your pussy until all he could do was babble... suddenly a 187 IQ went straight down to 60.
As much as you loved his loud moans and would usually encourage them! This was neither the place nor time to be letting them flow out of his mouth freely...
A case had dragged the team all the way to a small town in Alaska, a population of less than 300 people. It was a quiet town, made on top of hunting and farming. There was only one motel, the townspeople were more than happy for you and the team stayed in it. They were actually more eager to get you checked into the motel, they had all been so tired of this person killing their loved ones.
It was a small motel, with only 4 rooms and 2 shared bathrooms between the team. You couldn't complain though, it was beautiful and quiet... quiet, something Spencer wasn't being at the moment. Something along the long trip here had gotten you excited, basically bursting at the seams as you were immediately on top of Spencer as soon as you stepped foot into the room.
Both of your clothes had been scattered around the small room floor, things knocked over from tables, the bed already looked slept in as you rode Spencer roughly. There was already so much noise that echoed through the room, between Spencer's moans, the sound of slapping skin and the headboard being rocked into the wall. You prayed that the others didn't hear, but it was a small and old motel... The walls were thin. You were going at an animalistic pace, trying to get both of you guys off in a quick round so you wouldn't disturb the rest of the motel for long and hoping it was quick enough to be able to be written off as "old cabin" sounds. You knew Spencer wouldn't last too much longer, due to his high pitched whimpering and beet red face. He started off good, his moans stayed below a whisper but his cock started grazing the spongy part deep inside you... he couldn't hold back.
"Shhh..." You shushed, putting a hand over his mouth as his eyes fluttered closed. "gotta be quiet honey... Morgan and Garcia are quite literally 5 inches away from us."
Spencer moaned into your hand, digging his nails into your thighs. He couldn't make out most of your words, his hearing going in and out as you spoke to him. He threw his head back, your hand falling from his mouth as he obeyed you and quieted his moans.
"72 inches...." Spencer huffed out, squeezing his eyes shut as his cock twitched inside of you. He was so extremely close to the edge that he could taste it.
"What?" You asked. Your words barely above a whisper as your confusion took over your mind.
Spencer let out a few more moans, gripping tightly onto your thighs they started turning red and will probably leave a bruise in the morning. Your confusion led you to slow your movements, causing a whimper from spencer to rise from his chest. He sounded whiney, almost pathetic as he pouted that your movements had slowed. Spencer squirmed underneath you, taking in a breath as he found the words to explain himself.
"Garcia and m-morgan are actually 72 inches from us..." He stuttered, moving his hips up to meet you as your confusion still filled your head.
You didn't really even want to know how he figured that out, especially since the only time you guys had been in this room is now... and Spencer didn't have enough time to scope the room before you were on him. Spencer's mind worked in mysterious ways, it was the main reason why you were riding him now. His mind was amazing to you, his knowledge of literally anything was so impressive that it felt so amazing that only you could make him a dumb, moaning mess. Spencer looked up at you as you furrowed your brows, a face that he saw often because everyone was confused about why he knew anything he knew.
"I took the square footage of the building, divided it into 4 rooms, and then..." Spencer couldn't finish because, with a swift move of your hand, you took your underwear that had been hanging off one of your ankles and showed it in his mouth to silence him.
He looked up at you with big eyes, his surprise taking over his face as you leaned down to be face to face with him. He bit down on your panties as you drove your pussy down on him, a couple of hard thrust almost pushing him over the edge.
"It doesn't matter..." You hissed, watching his eyes snap shut as you brought him closer and closer to the edge. "Either way, they can hear you... the entire cabin can hear you. Do you really want our coworker to know how much of a whiny brat you actually are?"
Spencer whimpered softly, the taste of your juices making his back arch into you and his hips thrust widely. Your dominance leaked from every pore of your body, only causing Spencer to moan louder. You were getting frustrated with him, his moans bouncing off the walls as the sound of your hips hitting his was still echoing through the cabin. However, there was a slight bit of excitement that coursed through your body. Everyone hearing how easily you can break down the boy wonder, everyone knowing that you were the only one who can reduce a 187 iq down to 0 with just one swift move of your hips.
"can't... gonna..." He tried to get his words out through your underwear that was stuffed into his mouth. He was shaking now, frustrated with his inability to speak but also your slowed movements. You chuckled softly, brushing his hair from his face before pecking his cheek.
"Gonna what?" You asked, mocking his inability to form a single sentence. "Gonna cum huh? Gonna cum in me like a good boy?"
Spencer whined softly, your praise ripping his self-control away from him. He could no longer control his loud moans or his hips snapping back into yours. You leaned back from him, sitting straight as you placed your hands on his chest. You prepared yourself to go faster, preparing yourself to push you both off that edge. You lifted yourself and then snapped your hips back down over and over again, watching as Spencer bit harder down on your underwear with each thrust. Your nails dug into his chest, your own moans escaping your mouth as you sloppily thrust into him. It took only seconds for you both to be cumming, your liquids soaking the bed beneath you.
You shoved your face into the sheets next to Spencer, moaning loudly into them as you were too embarrassed for your own moans to be heard. Your body spasmed out, not able to stop your hips from fucking yourself through your orgasm. Spencer had been doing no better than you had. He had left his body and went to cloud nine, your underwear now soaked with his drool as his body tensed. His nails were still dug so deeply into your hips, small moon-shaped crescents were becoming present now. It was a fast but lovely type of pleasure, it was there and then it wasn't.
Your body shook, hands placed into Spencer's hair as you left sloppy kisses on his neck appraisingly. Spencer was coming back into his body as you did so, each kiss sent him further down within himself until he was there and he was present with you.
"Did so good for my love..." You spoke, continuing your kisses on his neck. Spencer and neck kisses were like a puppy to a treat, his favorite way of getting praised. "Always so good for me. How'd I get so lucky huh?"
Spencer couldn't help his blush, he loved the praise and it had caused his cock to twitch once more. You rubbed his cheek softly, leaving a small little love bite down his neck. He definitely was going to scold you for that decision in the morning but as of right now, you did not care. All you cared about was the fact that you were deeply fucked for spencer, you just fucked him in a small town, with a serial killer on the loose, while your coworkers were 72 exact inches away. How fucked can someone be for another person?
"Not lucky..." Spencer whispered out, his voice raspy. Your panties had been taken out of his mouth, laying by his head as he tried to catch his breath. "Just really nice boobs." He joked.
You chuckled softly, pecking his neck one last time before sitting up. You were still straddling him, feeling as his cock was starting to get hard again. The way your sweat-drenched chest looked while on top of him had his cock standing to attention, his exhaustion soon melting away and turning to excitement. You would have loved to go a couple more rounds, fucking spencer till he cried and than passing out in his arms was one of your favorite before-bed activities. However, this was not the time or place to go multiple rounds.
You looked around the room, looking for anything in your close proximity to clean you both up with. Spencer took this time to sit up, wrapping his arms around you to keep you in place as he started to work his own soft kisses down your neck. The feeling felt heavenly, his hardening cock beginning to brush against your clit as his mouth worked wonders on your soft spots. You could feel yourself slowly start to melt into his kisses, moaning softly when he nibbled at your collar bone.
Spencer was kind of messy and dumb when he was horny, he didn't have much common sense when it came to it. All he cared about was how good it felt, how the inside of your walls would clench around him until he felt he would go crazy if he didn't cum deep within you. So as of right now, his mind was not in the place yours was. He wasn't thinking about the serial killer on the loose or your team being only inches from you, all he was thinking was you and how he wanted to be inside you once more.
If you weren't in your "FBI profiler" mode then you would have caved in the moment he started kissing your neck, but you were and you knew one round was enough for right now. You didn't want to disturb the motel more than you already had, knowing that Morgan was definitely going to be teasing the both of you in the morning. You just wanted to save you both the embarrassment of it all, even if Spencer was the one making all the noise.
"I gotta take a shower." You said simply, reaching up to grab his face in your hands. He looked up at you, eyes glossed over with lust as he looked at you like you were a goddess. That look alone was going to really make this much more hard than it already was. You left softly little kisses along his face, the only thing you could do without losing complete control over what your vagina did.
"Can I come too?" He said innocently, his lip coming to rest between his teeth.
You wanted to say yes, so desperately wanted to let him come with you. But you knew better. You knew that every time you took a shower with spencer he some how had your face shoved against the cold wall as he fucked you roughly. Spencer didn't like the germs that came with sex, so he let loose when he fucked you in the shower. It was never an innocent "I'm going to help you get clean" shower, it was always a shower that still came out dirty. You sighed softly, brushing your hand through his hair as you knew the one single word that was going to come out of your mouth was going to break his little heart.
"No." You stated simply.
"What! why?" He pouted, looking like a literal child as he did so.
You smirked softly, hoping off his lap as you made your way to your closet. You were still naked, with only a flimsy button-up over your shoulders. Spencer thought you had been teasing him, watching your thighs glisten with his cum as it dripped out of you. He wanted more, he craved more and you were completely denying him of a need. Spencer knew in the morning he was going to regret this entire decision, he wasn't dumb. He knew he would cringe at the fact he was so loud, that Morgan would probably cook him for this one. But he didn't care, all he could focus on was his now very hard cock.
"Because..." You mocked him, bending down to grab your pajama pants that somehow made their way onto the floor when you threw your bags down. You weren't worried about where they would land, you were too worried about the fastest way to get Spencer's cock in you. "Showers always end with sex and since you can't keep quiet... you will not be joining me."
You took a washrag from the desk, assuming that the motel staff put them there for your stay, and wiped his cum off the insides of your thighs. Spencer pouted some more, letting out huffs and promises that he'll be quiet and blah blah blah. You didn't hear much of it though, trying to clean yourself up as best as you could before going over to Spencer and doing the same thing. He was still pouting when you wiped your own juices off his cock, making sure to get his lower stomach as you did so.
This was definitely a punishment, it was so much fun hearing spencer begging to fuck you and get all high-pitched when he didn't get his way. When he was all cleaned up, you quietly collected your things as he listed the reason for you to let him get in the shower with him, your favorite one being "You made a mess out of me! I need to get cleaned up too!". You knew his intention was not to get clean in that shower, you knew he'd somehow end up inside of you. You were stronger-willed than him however, you begged and he would cave almost instantly but it was not the same for you. You couldn't tell if you were good at not giving in or if Spencer was bad at begging.
"You will live my love." You smirked, collecting your things in a small shower bag before making your way to him. You bent down to peck his lips softly, taking his face in your hands as you did so. "One shower without me will not kill you."
Spencer tried to make the kiss deeper, trying to make it so you just couldn't say no to the hard passionate kiss he had created. You again were much stronger than that, pulling away with a smirk as he whimpered at the loss of your lips. Spencer sighed softly, he couldn't stand your self-control sometimes. You grabbed buttoned up the long button up shirt, making your way to the door.
"There's still an unsub on the loose, so it might kill me." He pouted out, watching you walk away. You couldn't help but laugh loudly at his words, shaking your head as you did so.
"Alright well, don't die I guess." You joked back, opening the door to your hotel room. Spencer ripped the sheets over him as he was still sitting on the bed, cock out and everything. "cause then you wouldn't ever get to fuck me ever again."
You fake pouted, watching as he rolled his eyes as you mocked him. You stepped outside the room, closing the door as you did so. You swear he was going to be the death of you, his sassiness and sex drive was going to one day make it impossible for you to even utter the words "no" to him. But for tonight, you were going to take a nice hot shower without your boyfriend's cock deep inside of you... although that did sound nice.
-
You made your way down the steps to the old motel, files in your hand as Spencer followed closely behind you. There was a new break in the case, a new suspect that the town's sheriff had put together with the help of your profile. This caused hotch to call your cell phone at 4 am, telling you that you needed to be at the police station in 20 minutes. You debated on getting up this morning, wanting nothing more than to sleep off the side effects of an overwhelming orgasm. Your thighs were sore and your legs were still slightly shaking. Spencer wasn't doing any better, for he had to go to bed with a hard cock.
He woke up extremely needy this morning, but he couldn't do anything about it due to the fact you both were rushed out of your hotel room to come and once again go over the details of the profile. You found yourself being extremely irritated with the day already, you should've just caved in and let spencer fuck you... maybe this mood you were in could have been avoided if you didn't avoid the orgasm. You debated on if you and spencer could get in a quickie in before you arrived at the station, but most of the drive there was spent going over case details and you actually did care about catching this fucker.
You both arrived a bit late, the team had already begun talking about the suspect and Morgan even went in to interview him. As soon as you two had stepped foot into the room, the team had stopped what they were doing and their eyes landed on you both. Even Hotch had begun looking and if Hotch looks then you know it's bad. Spencer was completely clueless about it, he was never much for picking up on social cues, but you knew. Spencer sat down with a smile, saying "good morning" before digging right into the new case file.
"Good morning indeed, pretty boy." Morgan teased, causing the rest to snicker.
'Oh god, it's already starting' you thought to yourself, hoping that you could at least get a moment of peace before they started throwing their jokes at the two of you. You rolled your eyes, sitting down at a chair next to Spencer as you sat your stuff down on the table. You were not prepared for today, even on 3 cups of coffee you could not handle this. Spencer squinted his eyes at the team, again not really picking up on their reason for laughing.
"Did y'all sleep well?" Morgan added, hoping at least Spencer would fall right into his trap... and he did.
"Yeah, we slept as good as you could in a 60-year-old bed," Spencer said back, his statement not even an overstatement. Those beds were around 60 years old and they sounded like it when you fucked in them.
You just kept your head down, not wanting the attention on you even though it was. Spencer was lucky that he was clueless, not understanding that you are quite literally the butt of the joke. Spencer's words caused a slight reaction in them all, they all knew you did a lot more than sleeping in that 60 year old bed... they all heard it. You could tell they all could, even Rossi who was the very last door in the hall could hear you.
"I know I didn't sleep too well..." Emily added in, looking over at Morgan as she smirked softly. "I kept hearing what sounded like a grunting goat?"
There it was, Spencer's confusion turned to embarrassment as she said those words. He suddenly sunk into his chair, feeling exposed as he now knew he was the butt of the joke.
"No, it was more of an owl who hasn't gone through puberty yet." Garcia joined in, causing everyone to laugh as you and Spencer both grew red.
Hotch was even laughing softly, his eyes peeling away from the file as he looked at you both through his eyebrows. You knew this was going to be a long trip... excruciatingly long and you knew this was only the beginning of the teasing and the jokes. Morgan had now started to make high pitched moaning sounds and Garcia would do it back to him, sounding completely ridiculous but honestly pretty close to what Spencer sounded like... you couldn't hide your laugh as they did them.
"Alright, alright..." You finally said, your face now on fire as you tried to redirect their focus on the case. "I'm sorry you guys are all not getting any... but we really have to focus on the case right now." You joked back, wanting the attention off of you now.
Spencer looked over at you, silently thanking you for attempting to get them to stop. They all continued to laugh, however, laughing even harder at your words. Your embarrassment slightly dissolved as you realized how stupid this entire thing was. You felt stupid for being embarrassed at how good you fuck your boyfriend, how he wasn't able to control his moans when he was with you. Your embarrassment turned to an ego as you looked at it like that.
"Y/N is right..." Hotch joined in, looking back down at his file. "But y/n, If you and Spencer keep me up until 2 am again... you're fired." 
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creativesaturn · 2 months
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hey!! i absolutely love your writing style, and i have notifications specifically on so i don’t miss when you post :) i had an idea that literally just came to me but i don’t really have any plot to go with it 😭
so basically, any cm character (maybe hotch, emily or spence?) walking in on the reader drawing said character & the reader gets really embarrassed and tries to put it away, but the character actually really likes the drawing and asks to keep it and just something wholesome idk 😭🫶
absolutely don’t feel pressured to write this, just had an idea and thought i’d share <3
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Summary: Hotch finds out about your drawing hobby.
Genre: Fluff
Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x gn!reader
Warnings: None!
Word Count: 515
a/n: sorry this took so long to post! I wanted to scrap it and redo it but I decided not to. That's really sweet of you thank you so much!!! hope you enjoy 💞💞
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Aaron knocked on your hotel door, not once, but twice.
You were too busy listening to music that filled your sense of hearing, and completely focusing on the pencil in your hand.
For the past few days you've been struggling to find something to draw. It was one of your hobbies that you genuinely enjoyed, but it was always hard finding motivation.
But today, on the jet. You burned the image of Aaron sitting by the window during the sunset, just so you could draw it later. It was a sight for sore eyes. You didn't care if he could notice you staring, you needed to keep every detail engraved in your mind.
So--as soon as you step foot in your hotel room, you knew exactly what you were going to do.
"y/n?" Aaron's voice startling you as he stood inches behind you.
You quickly turned around, looking up at the tall man. You pulled your headphones out your ears; mouth agape unsure what to say.
He glances behind you to see what had your attention, his face had an expression you couldn't quite make out. So, you thought of the worst.
You quickly turned back, taking the piece of paper to turn over and hide.
"Is that me?" He asked, voice soft as he spoke.
"Uhm--Yeah.. Yeah, it-it is.." You stumbled over your own words, "It's totally stupid though, 's not even done yet." You mumbled, your voice so low he was unsure if he heard you.
"It's not stupid," He retorted, reaching for the paper. You quickly pulled back, watching his eyes as they widened.
"Let me see."
"No.."
"Please?"
You looked down at your hands, sighing as you slowly handed him the paper. You fidgeted with your fingers as you looked anywhere but his eyes, afraid of what you'll see in his expression.
"You're very good with details," He complimented you. "Where'd you learn how to do this?" He asked sincerely, looking up from the drawing to look at your face.
"Just something I learned over the years," You shrugged. "I get bored a lot." You looked up at him, profiling his reaction.
He had a soft smile, his eyebrows raised as if he was impressed and you swore his eyes glistened.
"Can I keep it?" Aaron asked.
"You--You want to keep it?" You asked, shocked at the question.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" He chuckled, bringing the page down to his side to show he had his attention on you.
"Because.. I don't know..." You shrugged, unable to hide the smile that he gave you.
"The team is waiting for us, by the way." Aaron laughed, seeing the bright pink that danced across your face.
"Okay." You nodded, making your exit out of the hotel.
Not many people knew you drew, at least well. When you'd tell people they expect stick figures and doodles you'd find on the side of a middle schoolers test. And every time they'd notice, it was always the same expression. It never failed to bring you joy and validation from others compliments.
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reposts and comments are appreciated <3
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kaiser1ns · 3 months
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𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶 𝘀𝗲𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗼 𝘅 𝗳𝗲𝗺!𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿
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╹synopsis :: your vampire boyfriend is hungry for human blood, so you let him have yours.
╹contents :: fem!reader, fluff, vampire nagi is the only correct answer, maybe this is going to be miniseries with vampire boyfriend nagi who knows
╹notes :: nagi with the new theme, also sorry for the inactivity, i will try to post when I have more free time ! anyway hope you enjoy <3
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Nagi had been feeling exhausted lately, his fangs aching and his eyes constantly drawn to the pulsing veins of the humans around him. He tried his best to have self-control and to resist the urge to feed on them, but it was becoming tough for the vampire boy when the sweet aroma of blood was perking on every corner.
His girlfriend, Y/N, had noticed the change in his behavior; he stayed quieter than usual, but when it was nighttime and they were outside, he started drooling at the sight of so many people, so much prey. And she knew better than anyone that he was hungry for human blood and not animal blood from the plastic packet he gets on a regular basis.
One night, as they cuddled on the couch watching a movie, Nagi's hunger became too much to bear. "Y/N, I can't take it anymore," he whispered, his breath on her neck as she got goosebumps. "I need blood, human blood."
She hesitated for a moment, knowing the risks of allowing a vampire to feed from her, but she loved him so much that she could risk her own health just for him to be fed well.
"Sei" she said softly, turning to look at him. "You can feed from me. Just be careful, please"
His eyes lit up as he sank his fangs into Y/N's neck, and she let out a slight groan from the sudden pain. His hand held her head to be in a more comfortable position for him to feed, and the other warped around her waist to keep her in place. The sensation was overwhelming, and he drank deeply, savoring the taste of her blood. Sweet, it was so sweet that he couldn't get enough, it was the best human blood he had tasted in so long, but he had to stop eventually. When Seishiro was done, he pulled away, licking his lips and looking directly into her eyes with so much adoration "Thank you," he said, his hunger finally sated. "You're the best girlfriend ever."
“Everything for you, Sei” she said, kissing him on the cheek and, wiping the rest of the blood from his mouth. “Now how am I supposed to cover the two big dots you left on my neck?”
Uh oh, he hadn't thought about it “I can make more bites, tell people it was a very big mosquito” and with that, he earned to be met with a pillow in his face “Yeah, a 190 cm tall mosquito with white hair and fangs, they will definitely believe me.”
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©2024 kaiser1ns do not copy, repost or modify my work.
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coral-melon · 5 months
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Heya!! CM! (Get it your user!)
Its 🍓 again :3
Would you be able to write imagine/hc thingys how they would react to seeing your human form for the first time when you go to the human world with them! Im thinking along the flustered fluff/ possibility suggestive thoughts about mc =^=
Any of the brothers/dateables u want! But if your looking for specific just mammon & levi as personal preference :3
(AFAB preferred but No description of gender js cool too :3 )
Aghhh sorry this is worded so weird I’m not the best leaving suggestions i feel too askyy ;^;
Your writing is lovely and i can’t wait to see more!!
- 🍓
Hello again -🍓! Love the ‘CM’ nickname! And by all means, ask whatever you want and however much you want! I’ll always make the time to write any requests~
Also sorry for taking so long; I really wasn’t too sure how to write this, and I’m sorry but I kinda tweaked it and lil bit.. ^^’ I was going to make everyone but I ended up only doing Mammon cuz I thought it would’ve been a very long post. BUT! I can most definitely make separate posts for each of the brothers if that’s something you and others want!
A and as always, if it sucks just lemme know! Constructive criticism is always welcome >;)
Cotton Surprise
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Obey me! Mammon x Sheep!MC
Genre: Fluff, crack/shenanigans, slightly suggestive
What’s it about?: Seeing your human form for the first time!
Not that many but They/them pronounce; mainly AFAB
A throwback to Lesson 19 from the original game but tweaked it as well
Edit: ((There were minor changes cuz someone made a comment that pointed out to me how maybe some people didn’t understand what I was telling. Totally my fault ^^’🙏))
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None of them ever understood why you turned into a sheep. It happened as soon as you first arrived to Devildom. But the more time they spent with you, they got used to it — some even forgetting you’re a human all together.
One day, most of the Brothers were sitting together in the living room. It was mostly quiet until Asmo brought the question: “Hey, What do you guys think MC looks like if they weren’t a sheep?”
It left them a bit dumbfounded that they hadn’t even thought about it. They got so used to you being a sheep so it kinda just slipped their mind. It also got them to start bickering a ton of what they thought you’d look like.
— “What’s with all the commotion?” A voice interrupts their conversation. Lucifer walks in with you in his hand, talk about perfect timing!
— “We were just talking about what MC looks like if they were in their human form.” Beel explains.
— “Oh right.. none of you have seen them.” Lucifer remarked, chuckling softly under his breath.
— “What does that mean?” Satan says with already irritation in his voice.
— “Well, it’s only right that I know what MC looks like. I was the one who picked them, after all.”
This got many of them heated! Jealous that Lucifer was pretty much the only one that knows. Mammon, Levi and Asmo were whining about how that’s not fair, Satan was gritting his teeth, and Beel along with Belphie just sat quietly watching the scene. They quieted down once you said, “I could just describe what I look like, y’know.”
All of them gathered around like a bunch of kindergartners getting ready to listen to a story book. They payed such close attention to every detail you said and tried to visualize it in their head to the best of their ability. It only made them even more eager to see you for themselves.
And it didn’t happen until the very last moments before you had to go back to the human realm..
… With a true loves kiss! >;D
Cliché, I know. - -’
Mammon
After dipping the House of Lamentation, he ends up in who knows where but more importantly, away from Levi. After he was done huffing for air, both of you start laughing from the absolute fun of stupidity you guys had. You couldn’t help but think about how odd it must’ve look from someone else’s perspective.
You two eventually eased off and took the time to catch your breaths. And then realize the beautiful view you guys have of Devildom. He sits you down gently on the thick stone fences while he rests his body on it. There was a short, soothing silence between the both of you — a soft, cool breeze blowing while you watching the city lights together. Mammon eventually brakes the silence and says,
“Y’know what? It’s always fun whenever you’re around.. I’m always smilin’ and laughin’ when we’re together. There’s never a dull moment..” he says softly; when you look up at him, he’s not looking at you but can tell he has a blush decorating his cheeks.
You smile at him warmly, before looking down at your tiny trotters. You were a sheep till the very end.. you had fun, but you can’t help but get a little sad thinking about it. Like just now, you would’ve been able to run away with him instead of being carried like a pillow.
“W-Who needs the human world, eh? You don’t gotta go back! I want you right here in Devildom, I want you here with me, all the time..!” Mammon looked straight at you, you perked up at him once he said that. He looked at you as if you were the greatest treasure he’s ever had. He wasn’t kidding around, such an unusually serious and determined face…, you felt butterflies in your stomach.
There was a silence again, you looked at him with in awe eyes. He slowly leans in, you leaning slightly forward.. letting whatever was going to happen, happen. Until finally, his lips reached you.
☁︎ —Poof— ☁︎
Light clouds suddenly surrounds you, Mammon was completely taken aback; and then he just freezes. When the clouds disperse, it revealed you.
You felt.. different. Blinked a couple of times before you looked down again. And to you completely surprise, the troopers you looked at but merely a few seconds ago were replaced with hands! You touched your face, your hair, your legs.. they were all back! You give a yell for joy, your curse has been broken! But then you also realize how you didn’t have any clothes on… you looked at mammon — who had his face completely red and eyes glued on you, completely frozen in place. Which made you freeze for a moment.
(Him)→ ╭( ⸝⸝๐_๐)╮ (○□○) ←(you)
— “AAAAAAAHHH!!!”
— “AAAAAAAHHH!!!”
You tried to cover yourself to the best of your ability; but first of all, you can’t really cover much. Second, he already saw everything! Both of you were very flustered, embarrassed, and still shocked by what just happened. You weren’t a sheep anymore! What’s up with that?!
Thankfully, Mammon at some point finally snaps out of it and covers you with his uniform’s blazer. You grip onto it tightly and covering yourself to the best of you ability. You mutter him a ‘Thank you’ under your breath. But both of you were still quite frantic, looking at each other with wide eyes while huffing to calm you nerves.
“Aha! …Found you!” A voice suddenly says from a short distance. It was Levi!
“Oh shit..”
“Mammon, Give me back my moneeey!!”
“Yikes! Time to go!” He says, lifting you up into his arms and making a run for it. And man did he run! He probably ran faster than when he was being chased by Lucifer. Levi didn’t see it coming’.
You were in a daze, you’ve been carried by him countless times.. but today you felt like a princess that’s been swooped by Prince Charming — a very peculiar one, but still charming.
He — at some point — stops running and hid in whatever corner he thought was good enough so that Levi wouldn’t find you two. With his back to the wall, he collapses to the ground. With you still in his arms but making sure you didn’t fall. You can’t help but laugh and pull him into a tight hug.
Mammon felt like his face was going to explode any second now, he just couldn’t believe that he was holding the actual you — and naked at that! But whatever was going through his head completely perished once he heard your lovely laugh. You were so happy.. embracing him with all your new found excitement. It felt like it was only the two of you in the whole word, so nothing else mattered.
“You broke my curse, Mammon!” You say. When I say this guy’s ego got inflated, I mean it. He felt like nothing could stop him now. That’s right! The great Mammon just did that! No one else!
He takes a closer look at you face; he always kept in mind all of the details you said that day, but you looked way better than what he had imagined. He couldn’t believe his eyes…
You suddenly pull him in and give him a passionate kiss; and oof, was he over the moon! After that one, he starts feeling greedy. Just one kiss isn’t enough..!
—☁︎
Later on, he bought you a few clothes since, of course, you didn’t have any. And decide to go back home.
When he went back to the House of Lamentation, he wanted nothing more than to just sneak in without his brothers knowing. But much to his dismay, Levi was already waiting for him at the gates. And when he realizes that the person he’s holding is you, he goes hysterical and now the rest of his brothers know..
“Oi, that’s enough! Step aside! Can’t ya see MC needs to get to their room??”
He’s always looked out for you.. from beginning to end. You felt like you were falling in love with him all over again. It was hard to believe that life here was coming to an end.. You want to make the most of it before having to go back home. But at the moment, you just wanted time to stay still, just for a moment..
End
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I had a lot of fun writing this! So tysm for requesting it -🍓. Tho again, I’m sorry for not really completing what you asked for.. I still hope I was able to put a smile on your face! Take care~
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rainydayathogwarts · 1 year
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I love the sound of that Spencer Reid fic, having that 180 in the readers emotions would be great to read
Our clouded ray of sunshine - Spencer Reid
IM SO SORRY THIS TOOK ME SO LONG TO POST ITS BEEN HALF WRITTEN FOR A MONTH AND IVE ONLY JUST GOTTEN AROUND TO FINISHING IT.
Also, this is only my second cm fic and I really want to get into it more so feel free to put in a request!! For now, I’m only going to write for Emily, Spencer and Hotch :))
In my head this is around season 3 where everyone is still a bit innocent but Rossi isn’t in this one, sorry..
@fuckbananas03 @deceased-badger @jinx-it commented for B and a few of you guys told me in my asks as well, so votes decided, Spencer Reid everyone!!
Summary: In which the reader is the sunshine of the BAU, but the team finds her having a breakdown in the parking lot after a case.
wc: 1.8k
Warnings: Mentions of murder/blood, the typical cm violence stuff, panic attack.
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“I bring coffee!” You exclaim, walking into the break room the precinct let the team work in. Everyone’s eyes trail up, tired smiles forming onto their faces, as you go around the room, giving your teammates what could possibly be their last ounce of happiness. “And for you doctor.” You murmur, fishing for something in your pocket. “Extra sugar because I don’t think I’ve seen you so bitter before.” Spencer smiles, kindly taking the sugar packets from you as the others bubble with tired giggles.
“Anything new?” You ask, looking up at just about anyone who was willing to make eye contact with you. A file drops next to your coffee, which you decide to take a last sip of before opening what would inevitably be another file filled with disturbing images. “There’s another body.” Hotch says as you take a look at the images, and for a second, your heart drops. You take a sharp intake of breath, looking at whatever left can be seen of the victim. “It hasn’t been two days since the last victim. Either he’s panicking or he’s getting brave.” You say, though your eyes never leave the image of the victim. 
She looked similar to someone you’d seen. Perhaps too similar. She had the face, the body of someone you looked at every morning in the mirror. Someone you looked at through the reflection of the glass cabinets in the small BAU kitchens while you waited for your coffee. She was you. She was you, but she was cold and bloody and, well, dead.
“...he’s getting sloppy.” is all  you catch from Derek and you nod, as though reassuring yourself. “I have a sick feeling I should have had lunch before this.” You grin sheepishly and Derek shakes his head, mirroring the grimace on your face.
“I’m going to go back to the scene of the crime. Prentiss, come with me. Morgan and Jureau, please inform the family. Reid, L/N, you stay here, see if you find anything we didn’t catch. Keep in touch.” Almost unanimously, the four of them stood up, papers moving across the table and small exchanges being shared as the room emptied out, leaving you and Spencer alone.  “Just you and me this time, pretty boy.” Even though Spencer doesn’t look up from his work, taking the file from you, you can see the corner of his mouth involuntarily tugging back into the smallest of smiles.
Truthfully, Spencer worried for you. He had watched carefully as your face dropped for the quickest moment, before your eyebrows were furrowing and you were analysing the unsub’s change of M.O. For the smallest of seconds, he had seen your eyes widen, a glossy layer of fright covering them, your nostrils flaring and lips pursing in fear and recognition. 
But you would be okay. You would be okay because you were their ray of sunshine. It was you who found the sorrow felt in others and looked to lighten their mood. You would be fine because not one day came where you’d walk into the bullpen without a grin on your face and it was scientifically proven that smiling - even though you’re not happy - boosts your serotonin levels. Or at least Spencer had read.
Though no matter how hard Spencer tried to believe in that, he knew he would eventually be proven wrong at least sooner or later. So for the rest of the case, all the way until the unsub was in handcuffs, that’s what he looked out for, though he was unsuccessful. “Everything alright?” Hotch finally asked him on the jet. In a room full of profilers, someone was bound to realise that something was off with the two of you. 
Spencer didn’t look away from you, who had taken a seat away from everyone else, though he had kept your usual space next to him free. “She’s not. Or she won’t be.” The Unit Chief followed Spencer’s eyes to where you threw your head back on the headrest and let out a deep sigh. “She saw herself in the victim, which doesn’t necessarily help someone in this field of work. And she got scared, I think.” Hotch took the liberty to occupy the space facing Spencer, though he stayed silent for a moment, observing the agent as he worried about one of his closest friends. “Agent L/N is one of our emotionally strongest agents. Whatever it is she’s going through she’s going to push through it. Whether that’s alone, or by asking for help from someone.” Hotch intently looked at Spencer who broke eye contact within an instant and willed himself to open the book in his laps, though all he could do was stare at the page he was on. 
“You know what I think?” Emily starts, another cup of searing coffee in her hands. “I think we should all go out and celebrate tonight.” Derek and JJ make sounds of agreement and Hotch gives in, admitting he could use a late dinner since he has nowhere to be. “You know I wish I could but I’m just absolutely exhausted.” You start, “And I probably need to replace the flowers I have at home. They’ve probably wilted by now.” 
“Of course Ms. Little Sunshine keeps fresh flowers at home.” Derek retorts. “Yeah, I think I’ll pass tonight too.” Spencer says, making eye contact with you for the first time since you had boarded the jet. His eyebrows furrowed slightly when you averted your gaze over to Hotch, waiting for a cue to make your way out of the jet, which he freely handed over to you as he stood up, grabbing his go-bag and making his way out. “Meet in the parking in 15, we’ll sort transport.”
You followed his lead, deciding you’d rather avoid any questions or bribes from your teammates, ignoring Spencer’s hustle to reach you before anyone else, as he inevitably dropped the book he was reading on the jet. Instead of following Hotch up the building you waited for the elevator to go down to the parking where you stuffed your go bag in the back of your car.
You’d have to remember it tomorrow.
Oh god, tomorrow. Tomorrow you’d have to wake up and drive your car here where you’d have to work another case as though nothing happened. As though for a second you didn’t think it was you in that image, practically dismembered from what the murderous, rapist, serial killer had done to the body. The body that could have been yours. The body that could be yours in the future if you aren’t careful while working in the field or just going about with your day to day life.
Fuck. 
And it’s not like you’d been kidnapped before like Reid had so truly, you were being utterly ridiculous. You inhaled deeply, head falling against the car, hands tightly clutching the handle to the door. Pull it and you’d be safe.  You’d be far enough. But your mouth dried and as you licked your lips you realised you couldn’t breathe. Your heart pounded in your chest and hands shook as you frantically tried to pull the handle back. There was no use. Tears flooded your eyes, rapidly falling down your cheeks as you started to go dizzy, your vision before you blurring. And you were flying - or rather falling, your legs giving out from underneath you, hands still tightly clutching the door handle and you were on your knees. A crying mess on your knees with your head between your arms in the middle of the parking lot, completely oblivious of your teammates pinching each other to make sure they weren’t hallucinating.
“Is that-” started Emily, looking at Derek who stood beside her, quietly nodding. "I- should we?" The silence finished the question without Emily needing to finish it, though there was no evident answer to it. They'd all been in your position at some point. A crying, sobbing, hyperventilating mess with nightmares waiting to happen that would never leave your mind.
"Leave her." All heads flashed towards Spencer, eyes tearing away from you. "You guys go on, I'll get her home." No one moved apart from Garcia who was itching to get to you and give you a big hug, though that was possibly the last thing you needed at the moment. "You hear Reid, let's go." Hotch complied, his gaze trailing to Reid's, hoping to catch his eye. When he did, he nodded at him, as though apologising for not having taken any action. The boy would either hold a grudge, flashbacks of his own torn hope for a sliver of help from anyone pumping in his blood as he needed to watch one of his closest friends experience the trapped feeling of being preyed on by an invincible predator, an unstoppable force. Or he'd just ignore him until Hotch became right; that you'd get through it and heal whether it be with his help or not. Then he'd apologise to him for his behaviour and claim that he was worried for his friend.
Once the entire team was in the car, and they drove away, Spencer started to rethink his approach. Would he scare you if he just walked over? Would you be too caught up in your own mind to realise he was there by the time he got to you?
Fuck it.
His friend needed help.
He walked over, the sound of your desperate attempts to take a deep breath becoming increasingly louder as he approached you. He could see the subtle way your fingers, still tightly wrapped around the door handle twitched upwards and how your ankled rolled uncomfortably at being on your knees for so long. He mimicked your position, kneeling down next to you, an arm hesitantly coming up to rub your back.
"Y/N? It's Spencer. I'm going to take your hand okay? And... And I'm going to put it on my chest and you're going to follow my breathing okay?" He followed his own instructions, steadying himself to breathe in and out slowly, watching closely as your body loosened its tight grip on itself to allow him full control over your sanity. Slowly, your hand still on his chest, you started to follow the movement of his chest with your own. The first breath came with a tremble in your stomach, quickly followed by a loud hiccup that shook the entire parking lot. With time, you gathered the stability to look up at your car, your second hand coming down to rest in your lap as soundless tears streamed down your face.
"We should get you home." Spencer started, a hesitant hand brushing your hair away from your face, but when you looked at him, leaping into his arms and wrapping your hands around his shoulders, his face flushed darkly, and he assumed you would be spending some more time in the dark parking lot.
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oysterdelite · 2 months
Note
oh my god,,,? you’re genuinely so handsome holy shit??? i think it made all of your posts even hotter because,, you’re my type when it comes to physical appearance too agdjfhshd;;;; saw your post about wanting to pin a pretty boy down and make him cry—all I can say in response is please please please?? i always feel shame for it but the idea of being held down is so <3333 yk? and I’m not technically Tall™️ but I’m 5’6” and I’m pretty sure you mentioned that you’re shorter than that ? (bad memory rn brain is hazy <3) and god. the idea of being pinned down and feeling helpless while knowing you’re strong enough to do it, especially if you’re shorter than me, is so,,, <3333
just wanted to pop in and say that. brain is in a haze rn but I keep scrolling through your text posts and it’s got me all needy (probably also thanks to my T lol)
-anon <3!!
Hi!! Sorry I’m very faded rn (been a few weeks sober and took my fly high dose 2nite lol). And yes, I’m about 5’0 (I think it’s like 165 cm??? Lemme look it up ok no I meant 155 cm yeah) so you’re just tall enough for me to climb you and fold you in half :] I think it would be fun too, pinning you down and fucking you until you whimper and beg. Maybe I’d just keep going for fun, see how long it takes for you to get overstimulated
Anyway thank uuuuu sorry I’m gone feel free to dm me before my dick stops working (/j do whatever ur comfy with luv uuuu)
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marquisegallery · 2 months
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This took me. So long. To finish. I had hoped to finish it sometime in February, but now here we are. :u
Anyways! Much like the Devil Theory headcanons post I did a long while ago, this is a headcanons post for DOT EXE! All frickin' 8 of them!! Suffice to say this is going to be incredibly long, so keep that in mind before you jump into the Read More. You have been warned!! :P
(Also much like with Devil Theory, some of this might be based on stuff in the game, but a lot of it will just be "I personally think this would be neat!!")
There are going to be very many sections here, so I'm splitting them up to keep things organized and easier to follow. :u
The Overall Crew:
First and foremost, names! Plus heights, because I finally decided on heights for the individual members now :P
2 = Twoson (172 cm / 5’ 8")
4 = Fourside (173 cm / 5’ 8")
5 = Cinco (186 cm / 6’ 1")
8 = 8-ball (192 cm / 6’ 4")
9 = Neun (182 cm / 6’)
10 = Jūrō (178 cm / 5’ 10")
14 = Quatorze (196 cm / 6’ 5")
And then the cue ball member is just… Cueball, lol. He is 190 cm / 6’ 3". I was originally going to make him more-or-less the median height of the crew, but changed my mind later.
I know the 10 and 14 members found in the code aren't "official" members, especially since they seem to be just extra palettes for a potential playable 8-ball. But you know what, I made characters out of them anyways!! :P
Starting off with DOT EXE in general:
As mentioned in the game, they’re a group of full-cyber writers and breakdancers!! They also have a bit of a reputation as hackers, though truthfully it’s only some of them, specifically 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco. They’re the ones who came up with the name too, they just wanted something computer-y. It was originally just the three of them, and the others joined over time. In order, Quatorze and Jūrō were asked by 8-ball to join, then Twoson and Fourside asked to join after they went full-cyber, and then Cueball was the last to join.
Their writer aliases/street names are of course based on the billiard number shown on their screen faces. Which person gets which number was originally based on the actual number of letters in their real given name, but that doesn’t apply to Cueball, Twoson, or Fourside.
They have a reputation of being pretentious and stuck-up assholes (though at least not violent assholes like Devil Theory). They basically look down on most other crews as noobs, about the only writers they respect are DJ Cyber, Felix, and eventually BRC in general after the end of the game.
Of the current big crews in New Amsterdam, they’ve been operating the longest (with varying number of members of course), for about 2 decades at this point! However, them being an actual “big name” crew has only really happened in the past couple of years. They mostly stick to their own territory in Millennium Mall.
On that note! They literally own the mall. All of it. They collect rent from the various stores and companies operating in the mall. They keep the rent super low for local businesses so they can afford to compete with the big brands (especially huge international ones) that set up shop here. Meanwhile, said big brands are charged like five times more in rent. Of course, they’re never actually told that’s the case! Those companies even assume it must be the same for everyone else in the mall. The way DOT EXE spin it to them is along the lines of, “C’mon, don’t you want the prestige of having a store in the one and only Millennium Mall?!” Basically I imagine the Millennium Mall is a huge deal in that way, hence why the big companies don’t suspect anything’s off. :P
So yeah, DOT EXE make money that way. Even after taking out whatever has to be used for proper maintenance of the mall itself, for the most part they end up with a lot more than any of them need (especially since, being full-cyber, they don’t have to worry about food and stuff, just electricity and occasional maintenance/repairs). A lot of the money is saved for emergencies and fun stuff (like hobbies), and then they donate the rest to local charities.
The local businesses are aware of DOT EXE being the owners of the mall, and honestly don’t mind them being writers either! DOT EXE are also more reliable than the police when it comes to asking for help with a problem. In the case of shoplifters in particular, DOT EXE don’t even really punish the thieves, they’ll pay for whatever was stolen and ask if they need additional help (like if they only stole because they didn’t have a job and need help, etc).
The crew hate that the police can intervene at the mall, especially with the helicopters and walking tanks, not to mention the police tube things. They’ve tried to complain to the local government about it, but have been shot down every time. Now they will at the least sabotage the tubes and turrets whenever they can.
The mall is so big that there’s basically a huge solar panel farm on top. Whatever electricity doesn’t get used up by the mall ends up redirected to other parts of New Amsterdam that need it.
There’s also a whole community greenhouse up there! A rather illegal one actually, with New Amsterdam (currently) having some very strict regulations on larger-scale gardens and such (given there’s only one tree in the actual game, and it’s been dug up from Old Amsterdam). DOT EXE do not give a fuck about that clearly, and keep it operational. Especially since it’s a great source of food for a lot of people! DOT EXE managed to hack the local government offices to give the mall’s greenhouse an “official exception”, so the police have to (very begrudgingly) leave it be. Half the crew like the greenhouse since it’s such a great benefit for others, and the other half like it because they know it annoys the cops.
Their hideout is a small part of the mall that’s been sort of sectioned off just for them. Basically behind some pulled-down grates, a bunch of the stores behind said grates have been converted into rooms for them, and is collectively their hideout! There is an actual part of the mall in the game that looks like this, see below:
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The rooms of the hideout are as follows: a main meeting/living room area (which also has a disused kitchen, since they don’t need to eat), a main rec area with a ton of custom arcade cabinets and hacked game consoles, a storage room, and then 4 personal rooms for the members, shared between a few of them. One for Cinco and Neun, another for Twoson and Fourside, another for Jūrō and Quatorze, and the last for 8-ball and Cueball. Though since 8-ball was killed, it’s been Cueball’s room by himself.
So yeah, they all live there, whereas pretty much every other crew has their hideout but then individual members (usually) live elsewhere.
They actually aren’t all the same age as the Oldheads, it’s just a cover so people don’t try and figure out any personal info about them. Specific ages/age ranges will be mentioned in individual sections, but really only 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco are around the Oldheads’ ages. Quatorze and Jūrō are actually a good chunk older than them, while Cueball, Twoson, and Fourside are all much younger.
Cueball in particular will always hide his real age, since part of it is related to how he went full-cyber. He will lie to most people and saying he's around the same age as 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco. He hates the pity he gets from people otherwise (more on this later!!).
Twoson and Foruside don't lie about their ages when asked, but would just say they were inspired by 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco to go full-cyber to keep being good dancers and writers. Meanwhile, Quatorze and Jūrō are pretty honest about why they actually did it (again, more on this later!!).
Their voice, outfits, and billiard screens are also covers for their identities!
For the voice, the idea is that there's a "default" voice all the DOT EXE folks use in public, but they still have their own voices based on how they sound from before going full-cyber (Twoson and Fourside are technically exceptions to this, but yeah, more on that later). Their actual voices are only used when they’re going around as “civilians” rather than writers, or otherwise in private at their hideout.
The tracksuits are basically just their costumes, similar to the costumes the other crews wear. So they do wear clothes besides the tracksuits. Sure, they don't really need to, but they like to! Especially when they're not out doing writer stuff, makes it easier for the cops to not suspect something. Each of them has their own personal style, which will be noted in the individual sections!
The screen face can be changed to different images. When they're out and about as "civilians", they tend to change their screens to sort of robotic faces, kinda similar to what non-screen cyberheads have. Those specific faces will be shown in the individual characters’ sections, with their "DOT EXE face" on the left and their individual faces on the right.
Combined with the difference in clothing and voices, it does a good job of actually hiding who they are from the cops!
Note that Cueball is an exception on the voice and screen thing, but I’ll get into that more in his section!
They are all gamers to some degree, otherwise why else would they have a rec room with so many games? They each have their own favorite genres, but overall play a wide variety of them. They’ll play by themselves or with each other depending on the game. The whole crew can get pretty competitive about high scores too, especially on the arcade cabinets!
They also each have their own hobbies outside of gaming, but again, another thing to mention in their own sections.
They all have the capability to communicate wirelessly like computers and phones, i.e. send messages directly to one another instead of to their phones. However, they don’t do that anymore. Mainly because the one time they tried to use it more often, Twoson, Fourside, and Cueball spammed so many memes to Neun that it caused him to crash. Hence why they still rely on text and calls like full-flesh writers, though some of them still do direct wireless messages to one another sometimes. Basically equivalent to whispering to someone so other people don’t hear them.
As full-cyber people, they all have sensors all over their bodies which can act the same as nerves. Detecting damage/pain, temperature, pressure/being touched, and even textures to a degree. The only difference is that these can be turned on or off, or even set to varying “levels” of sensing in between. Usually they turn down the pain/temperature detecting part of the sensors while they’re out (especially while doing writer stuff; basically just detecting damage/temperature without causing actual pain to them). They only turn them fully back on once they’re safe at their hideout.
🎱5️⃣9️⃣
8-ball, Cinco, and Neun in general:
They are basically the only ones that went full-cyber to be able to dance better for the most part, though they also did it to be able to get better as writers. None of them were particularly good at either of those before then, though they all clearly wanted to improve at it.
All three of them met and became friends via a transhumanism forum online, hence them going full-cyber together. The actual process is finished up around their 30s or 40s, and they're in their 60s by the time of the game.
Cinco is from Honduras and Neun is from Germany (or so he claims...). Meanwhile 8-ball was born and raised in New Amsterdam, though his father (who he shares with Cueball) had long since moved away to somewhere in the United States.
Both Neun and Cinco did writer stuff in their respective home cities, but 8-ball talked to them a lot about the writer scene in New Amsterdam, especially a lot of the big name writers at the time. That influenced all of them to want to get better at being writers, no matter what.
Once Neun and Cinco moved to New Amsterdam, 8-ball and them formed DOT EXE! They were all full-cyber by then, and practiced together to improve their skills, eventually becoming fairly big names like the other crews.
All three of them act (or acted in 8-ball’s case) as the IT people for the whole mall.
Them getting into hacking and computer stuff mostly started after they all went full-cyber, especially since all their augmentations made it a hell of a lot easier to do.
All three of them love rhythm games, but also have other genres they particularly like. They had rhythm game competitions between the three of them, and even with 8-ball gone, Neun and Cinco still do that from time to time.
On that note, yeah, in my ideas/AU/whatever you want to call it, 8-ball’s death is very much permanent. See this post with some further details on why that is, in particular how, just because his mind’s been digitized, doesn’t mean it’d be any easier to recover.
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8-ball specifically:
8-ball refers to Cueball as his bro in the game, and I like to think they’re actual brothers and not just brothers-in-a-friend-way. For my headcanons, they’re actually half-brothers, but refer to each other as brothers anyways. 8-ball is the older of the two!
He’s a bit egotistical. Just a bit.
Kind of a daredevil too, compared to the others. He was like that before going full-cyber, but then after the conversion, being “effectively” invincible just made him more reckless. Dangerous stunts! Tagging more and more high up heaven spots! Getting heat up just to be able to fight the police! So on and so forth.
He is the one who designed the team’s graffiti in-universe, hence why their small tag is more related to him that the team overall. Like I said, bit of an ego on this guy!
He is the one who managed to get ownership of the whole mall, and then just splits the management and collected rent with the others. He actually managed to win ownership of the mall in a (very) risky game of poker. And he didn’t just made that up to sound cool, Cinco and Neun were actually there to witness it!
For his normal fashion style as a civilian, basically he just focuses on looking “cool”, in particular with cool jackets. This usually means jean jackets or leather biker jackets. Also tends to wear jean pants, and shirts with cool designs on them. Which is often stuff like sharks, wolves, dragons, volcanoes, lighting bolts, tornadoes, etc. Also cool shoes of course!
For his personal favorite video game genre, he likes playing shooters, but moreso arcade style shooters and SHMUPs instead of FPSs. Still kinda ironic, given what happened to him…
Real name Frederik Visser. He mainly got into transhumanism just because he thought it was cool, and eventually took it seriously and ended up on the forum where he met Neun and Cinco.
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Cinco specifically:
From Cueball’s point of view, he’s the fun uncle!
Fluent in Spanish, speaks it with a Honduran accent. Sometimes uses Spanish words when talking casually, usually terms of endearment for others. Or insults/swears, because he finds it more satisfying to do so in Spanish, lol
Knows a ton of jokes, including puns, in several languages.
A charming guy, very outgoing and friendly with just about everyone!
Also a “he has your back when you need it” kind of pal to DOT EXE in general, but especially 8-ball and Neun. After 8-ball died, he got a bit more protective of Cueball too.
For his fashion style, he likes wearing patterned button-down shirts and sports shorts. For the shirts, of course that includes what’s called Hawaiian shirts, but really anything that has some sort of fancy/detailed patterned will catch his eye. Also tends to wear sandals/flipflops, or crocs.
He really likes racing games, also sports games in general!
Cinco was a bit of a jock type before going full-cyber on that note, playing a lot of sports back then too. He tried to get into various professional sports but never got very far. He’s good at whatever he plays, but evidently just not one of the best for it. Also doesn’t help that he never tried focusing on one particular sport at a time, to the point where he stretched himself thin after a while.
Occasionally plays basketball with the Franks, he’s actually good pals with them because of it!
Likes sports and muscle cars, though mostly driving them and not the maintenance part. He may or may not participate in drag races using stolen cars. Not that it’s hard to steal a car in New Amsterdam, there’s a lot of rich people with “smart” cars who don’t change the default passwords…
Real name César Hugo Raúl Garcia-Flores. On both sides of his family there’s histories of genetic illnesses, and after a certain point he was starting to show some early signs of them. This of course started affecting his health, and with his focus on sports and also wanting to get better as a writer/dancer, he ended up on the transhumanism forum to hopefully find a way to handle all that.
He genuinely didn’t intended to go full-cyber, just wanted to look into “less intensive” cybernetics. However, becoming friends with 8-ball and Neun and going over what they were planning themselves basically led Cinco to decide, “You know what? Might as well go all the way with this myself!”
A note on his full name, if people ask about it: he’ll say his parents couldn’t decide between the two middle names, and just gave him both. Meanwhile, neither parent was backing down about giving him one family name or the other, so they decided to just hyphenate it. But then they had an argument over the order (Garcia-Flores or Flores-Garcia), so they flipped a coin on it… that all being said, Cinco always says this like it’s another joke, so no one’s entirely sure if it’s the real story or not.
He had a boyfriend before going full-cyber. They broke up because of him hiding the fact he was planning to go full-cyber at all. Then again, them breaking up over that was inevitable anyways, because said boyfriend was the type of person to see cybernetics (especially full-cyber stuff) as something unnatural and disgusting. By the time of the game, Cinco has long since gotten over it (for the most part).
May or may not end up dating Escher, hee hee
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Neun specifically:
From Cueball’s point of view, he’s basically the stern uncle lol
Has a bit of a “neutral” accent when speaking in his actual voice. It’s clear he’s hiding whatever his “real” accent is supposed to be, but no one knows what he naturally sounds like, not even 8-ball and Cinco. His voice gets shockingly deep when he’s angry, which is very rare.
Fluent in German and Spanish, having grown up speaking both languages. Claims to be from Germany. Though, he’s only ever spoken Spanish with Cinco in private “for some reason”...
… The reason being that he’s actually Argentinian (of German descent, hence him learning that language) and very much has the accent when speaking Spanish. Cinco clocked him as such when listening to him speak Spanish one time. Neun doesn’t want people to know that about him, so he’s sworn Cinco to never speak of it to anyone, even 8-ball. More on why later...
When in public, he basically puts up a front and acts the same kind of “dudebro” kind of way the rest of the members act. Outside of that, overall he’s a very serious and kinda cold guy, but he does genuinely care about his friends (and eventually the rest of the crew, though it took him a while to get there).
Between him, 8-ball, and Cinco, Neun is basically the “friend in charge of the one collective brain cell” kind of guy. It’s also why he’s second-in-command of DOT EXE, becoming the leader once 8-ball is killed.
Also the crew’s accountant, mostly in charge of sorting out collecting rent from the businesses in the mall. He gives a lot of leeway for local businesses if they’re late on rent, but gives no such mercy to the bigger brands in the mall.
Likes to stay organized. He will pick up after the others if they leave a mess, but will also complain and berate them while doing so.
Not exactly a fan of jokes or pranks. He dislikes puns in particular and finds them genuinely annoying (not in a “Damn it, I wish I thought of that myself!!” kind of way). He makes an exception for Cinco’s jokes, but mostly out of politeness as a friend. And even then it’s not like Neun will laugh, he’ll just politely stay quiet and shake his head.
For his normal fashion outside of the tracksuits, well, Neun can be described as looking like a stereotypical nerd. This means collar shirts and khaki pants, lol
Neun likes playing RPGs and strategy games, though he’s very old school and picky about what he plays. If it doesn’t have some sort of hard mode, at the very least a hard mode that can be modded in, he won’t bother with it. Just as an example, he likes playing Pokemon games but only with modded super hard modes and with Smogon-style strategies and team builds.
Claims his real name is Sebastian Jäger. He was originally just on the transhumanism forum out of curiosity, not really taking it seriously. However, at one point he had a mid-life crisis related to mortality, especially after having to deal with a string of family deaths around the same time. With him wanting to be a better writer and breakdancer, at that point he felt like he had limited time to even live at all, let alone enough time to improve at either of those.
Hence why he started being more active on the forum and looking into full-cyber conversion in particular, and that eventually led to him becoming friends with 8-ball and Cinco. He’ll never admit to this though.
He’ll also never admit that he accidentally crossed the wrong people on his journey to both go full-cyber and move to New Amsterdam. He’s convinced they’re still looking for him, even if the chances are incredibly slim. Thus why he’s hiding at least part of his origins...
His actual real name is Sebastián Montero, but again, he’s basically in hiding right now. "Jäger" was apparently the family name of an ancestor of his.
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Quatorze and Jūrō in general:
Quatorze is French, and Jūrō is of Japanese descent, both born and raised in France. Both can of course speak French, with their real speaking voices having a Parisian French accent. Jūrō is also fluent in Japanese.
They were both big time writers in their youth, with stories about them being what inspired 8-ball to become a writer in the first place! Then him talking about them to Cinco and Neun is what collectively pushed all three of them to want to get better at being writers.
They are a married couple and still consider themselves married as wife and husband, even after going full-cyber together (technically they are considered legally dead and thus no longer married, but screw the laws man).
On that note, surprise, Quatorze is actually a woman! Thanks to the default voice for the crew and the tracksuits, everyone just assumes she’s a man without hearing her real voice. That’s intentional, I’ll get into it a bit more in her specific section.
They are very, very loving to each other. Think Gomez and Morticia Addams, just without a morbid humor angle. Jūrō basically praises and is encouraging of everything Quatorze does, and Quatorze love to compliment him for anything he does too. Though sometimes it does get on her nerves, and he apologizes when she asks him to dial it back a bit. But also they have the mushiest pet names for each other.
They are both willing to kill and be killed for the sake of their spouse, but of course each of them would prefer that the other not going that far.
They see 8-ball, Cinco, and Neun as their peers. Meanwhile, both of them dote on Cueball, Twoson, and Fourside like their actual kids/grandkids. Cueball finds it annoying but secretly likes it, meanwhile Twoson and Fourside outright call them Granny and Granpy respectively.
Real names Marie-Madeleine Lucille Perrault, and Maximilien Théodore Perrault, respectively. Their backstory of how they went full-cyber is connected, so I’ll just go over it here: Tragically, in their 70s, Quatorze got cancer at some point, a kind that was unfortunately very hard to treat. She had the option to go full-cyber instead of continuing risky treatment just to potentially die due to being weakened by said treatment. And her husband Jūrō also went full-cyber to be able to stay with her!
Unfortunately, their kids were not happy with that. For some of them, there was confusion about how inheritance would work (eventually finding out that Quatorze and Jūrō would be considered legally dead anyways, so it was “fine”). For others, it’s moreso that they had already accepted that their mom will die, only for her to choose to keep living in the most “selfish” and “unnatural” way possible.
Suffice to say, Quatorze and Jūrō have not spoken to their kids since then, and they haven’t seen their grandkids since then either. They’re more torn up about not seeing their grandkids (they weren’t exactly happy with their kids fighting over inheritance and criticizing their parents’ decision on how to keep living). For the most part they’ve come to accept they’ll never see them again, but Jūrō is secretly holding onto hope they might see their grandkids again someday…
After the two of them went full-cyber, sometime later 8-ball reached out to them, having heard about what happened to them. He was basically like, "Hey you guys were big inspirations to us as writers! Wanna join our new full-cyber crew??" (at that point it was just him, Cinco, and Neun). They responded, "Well, we're not sure how to spend our retirement now, so sure! :)" So by the time of the game’s events, they’re in their 80s.
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Quatorze specifically:
She’s basically the team mom! Very caring towards everyone in the crew, but also more than willing to put her foot down to get them to behave when needed.
Before going full-cyber, she was an actress. Her pretending to be a man when out and about as a writer is mainly to hide her identity. She was fairly famous at her peak, so even with her being “legally” dead, she doesn’t want people to find and bother her, especially not any overzealous fans. She does look back on her past work with fondness though, some of her favorite roles was getting to play as hammy, over-the-top villains in cartoons, animated movies, and live action movies.
Though as an actress, her pretending to be a man while in public as DOT EXE (including using the default voice the same as the others) is also just another role for her. She finds it a lot of fun!
She knits, as well as crocheting, weaving, and other crafts involving threads and such. She will knit you a sweater/scarf/hat if you ask politely!
For her civilian fashion, she likes wearing sweaters and long skirts. Sometimes she wears sundresses with a nice sunhat during the summer months, even if it’s not really necessary as a full-cyber person. She has fancier dresses she wears for date nights with Jūrō.
Her favorite kinds of video games are puzzle games and ‘slow’ platformers, mainly things along the lines of Klonoa, Kirby, Mario, and Banjo-Kazooie.
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Jūrō specifically:
He’s basically the team dad! Very supportive of his crew mates. He leaves being the “stern parent” to Quatorze though, especially since Jūrō tends to be too soft on someone if they messed up or started issues with the rest of the crew. It was the same when they were full-flesh with their kids and grandkids, he’s mainly just afraid of seeming too “mean”.
Unfortunately he can’t do dad jokes, but at least Cinco has that covered, lol
He worked as an accountant, but didn’t like the work very much. He was able to be a stay-at-home dad once Quartorze’s acting career really took off!
He likes to garden, and he’s the one that works the most on the mall’s greenhouse.
For his civilian fashion, usually wears nice pants (like the kind for suits) + long button-down shirts. Also wears sweater vests that his wife makes for him! He has full suits and waistcoats for date nights with Quatorze.
His favorite kinds of video games are life sim games, such as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley (“If only growing plants were this easy in real life!”). He also likes idle games, especially ones that don’t demand his attention too much.
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Twoson and Fourside in general:
Yes, their names are references to the Earthbound towns of the same name. They picked out their own billiard numbers to specifically make that reference, lol
Twoson is agender (they/he) and Fourside is nonbinary (also they/he). Note that they were like this long before going full-cyber, since some people may assume it happened because of the transition.
For their voices, they actually only use their real voices when they’re alone together in private, and no one else knows what they “really” sound like. When out as civilians or in private with their crewmates, they use different synthesized voices from the one used for DOT EXE. Their specific synthesized voices will be noted in their individual sections.
For their civilian screen faces, these two will actually change them to express certain emotions, usually with very anime-esque stuff (eye shines, exaggerated evil grins, etc). Other members will just keep their faces static and express themselves through their voice and hand/body movement.
They are both pranksters, they love to cause mischief and mayhem! Not even their own crewmates are safe.
They get along with Cueball in a sort of sibling way. Sometimes getting along great, other times being at each others’ throats (i.e. Cueball vs. Twoson and Fourside, the two of them are deep friends and have never really fought each other).
Jūrō has taught both of them Japanese. He insisted on it after hearing them talk (or rather, trying to talk) in Japanese once, they were really horrible at it before his lessons. They both also know a bit of Spanish from Cinco.
Between the two of them, they have a huge anime and manga collection! I will mention some of their individual favorite genres for that in their respective sections.
They make video games! Just as a hobby, so all the games they make are free. Said games are mostly in the form of super hard ROM Hacks, or weird/eccentric/trippy games (think along the lines of Yume Nikki, OFF, Hylics, Space Funeral, Goblet Grotto, LSD Dream Emulator, etc.). Neither of them can code very well, so they usually convince/force Cueball into helping them with their various projects. What they provide for said projects themselves is mostly the ideas (both of them), music (Twoson specifically), and art assets (Fourside specifically).
Suffice to say, the games they make are not ones that any of the other DOT EXE members normally play. Neun has played some of the ROM hacks they’ve made for RPGs though, mostly because of the ridiculous challenges they put in.
They both have similar tastes in music, usually stuff that is fairly “eccentric” compared to mainstream music. Basically along the lines of Caravan Palace, Will Wood, Lemon Demon, Jack Stauber, GHOST and Pals, Vane, and R.I.P.. Also enjoy a lot of Vocaloid and Synthysizer V songs, especially the more creepy and macabre stuff.
On that note, they’ve definitely hijacked the mall’s sound systems to play their favorite songs as pranks on people more than once.
They both really like horror games. With poorly made ones, they only play them to riff on them and make fun of their game design. They may or may not have a YouTube channel dedicated to this. They may or may not also do streams as vTubers on that note…
Honestly they like horror content in general. Movies, novels, games, anime, manga, comics, TV shows, art… they’d probably get along great with Daishō!
Real names are Beau Driessen and Robin Zaal respectively. Like with Quatorze and Jūrō, Twoson and Fourside’s backstories are connected. Twoson was severely injured in what was ruled an “accident”, to the point of only having two options: go full-cyber, or just stay bedridden for the rest of their life. Meanwhile, Fourside went full-cyber in order to bury their old identity, after having taken care of the people who caused the “accident”. Both of them going full-cyber happened in their late 20s, they're both about 35 now.
They were both writers before going full-cyber, and the “accident” was caused by some rivals they had to deal with. After the conversion, they heard about DOT EXE as a full-cyber crew, and decided to join up with them.
They are very protective of one another. Fourside in particular will get very vicious against anyone who tries to hurt Twoson, even if it’s another DOT EXE member.
They’re also the type to use insults to show affection to each other, “You nerd!”, “You’re such a dork!”, etc. Towards anyone else, it’s genuine insults.
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Twoson specifically:
The voice they use when going around as a civilian is an androgynous synthesized voice that’s a bit on the higher side.
Twoson is the nicer of the two, for what it’s worth, but still tends to be obnoxious at times. They also like to be fakely sweet sometimes, especially when trying to get a favor out of someone else.
For fashion, Twoson likes wearing a jean vest covered in a ton of buttons. They also like to wear skirts over cargo capris, tie-dye shirts, chokers/collars, and headbands which have been modified to fit over their head.
They like to do craft stuff sometimes, like origami, needle felting, papercraft, and clay sculptures. They also make the buttons and tie-dye shirts that both themself and Fourside wear.
They make music! The best way to describe it is very weird and also sometimes creepy. Basically ranging from quirky digital/midi music, to dreamy but still unnerving drones and tones, to Silent Hill 1 industrial scary noises.
Besides horror video games, they really like dating sims and visual novels. They have a whole menagerie of what they call their fictional spouses.
Twoson likes the magical girl genre in particular for anime and manga. They actually really hate shows like Puella Magi Madoka Magica that try to subvert the genre or otherwise do an intentionally “edgy” take on it. A lot of magical girl series already have dark themes anyways!
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Fourside specifically:
The voice they use when going around as a civilian is an androgynous synthesized voice that’s a bit on the lower side.
Fourside is the meaner of the two, for what it’s worth. They’re more quick to genuinely insult people and use a lot of sarcasm. However, they will be respectful when it counts, usually only for other DOT EXE members.
For fashion, Fourside also likes wearing a jean vest with tons of buttons and tie-dye shirts, like Twoson does. They also wear a skirt over skinny jeans, lots of bracelets, and beanies that Quatorze has made for them.
On that note, Quatorze made some of the thread/string bracelets that Fourside wears, and she showed them how to make bracelets on their own too. So the rest are the ones Fourside made! You can tell which ones were from when they first started out, and which ones are more recent and thus better quality. They’ve also made some of the collars/chokers that Twoson wears.
Fourside does digital art in the form of 3D models and complex MS Paint stuff. They mainly do this just to make weird stuff and put it out their for people to enjoy. A lot of it is very abstract and weird, with a sort of “old-school Internet” vibe a la ENA/Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou/Disillusion ST/Hylics/etc.
Besides horror video games, they really love beat ‘em ups and fighting games! Do not challenge them to some of the big ones (Street Fighter, Tekken, Smash Bros, etc.) unless you want to lose.
Fourside has no particular favorite genre for anime/manga, but tends to like series that end up categorized as shōnen. Also really enjoys superhero tokusatsu shows and movies (i.e. stuff like Super Sentai/Power Rangers, Kamen Rider, Ultraman, etc).
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Cueball
He’s the lovable goofball basically. Lots of joking around and teasing people, especially his friends! That’s basically how he shows affection a lot of the time.
Though he’s also fiercely loyal to his friends and crew. Mostly because despite being friendly and outgoing, he doesn’t exactly have a lot of friends outside of DOT EXE. Eventually that changes once he joins BRC, but he still cares about and hangs out with his old crewmates.
He’s from the United States, and 8-ball helped him with moving to New Amsterdam.
He loves cats! Before he went full-cyber, he was very allergic to cats and wasn’t allowed to have any because of that. After going full-cyber, he eventually realized he didn’t have to worry about allergies anymore. And so he set out to adopt ALL the cats, lol. It got bad enough to be a hoarding situation, and the rest of DOT EXE at the time (8-ball, Cinco, and Neun, this being before any of the other and Cueball himself joining) had to step in for an intervention. They got the cats rehomed or put in adoption centers/cat shelters, and Cueball decided to just volunteer at those shelters to help out. A much better situation for everyone involved, especially the cats!
Cueball owns a ton of blankets and pillows, and likes to make his own pillow forts and stuff in his room for Extra Comfort. Also sometimes throws them in a clothes dryer to make them warm. With the thing about body sensors for full-cyber people I mentioned earlier, Cueball is of course the one that takes full advantage of the sensors whenever he can!
Quatorze has made whole blankets for Cueball. He doesn’t like to admit it, but he does appreciate those blankets, they’re very comfy.
His favorite kinds of video games are action, action-adventure, and search action (a.k.a “Metroidvania”).
Cueball hates his real voice for the most part, and he’s the only one who will keep using the default DOT EXE voice even when alone with the rest of the crew. They do know what he sounded like before he used that default voice (he only started using it all the time after he joined DOT EXE), but it’s been so long that most of them have forgotten it by now.
When it comes to fashion, Cueball’s “style” is more about comfort than anything else. Hoodies! Sweatpants! Sweaters! Oversized t-shirts! Comfy socks! Super comfy sneakers! Sometimes various winter hats if he can find any that will fit over his head lol. He has a ton of stuff that Quartoze has made for him, though he feels embarrassed to actually wear them outside of the hideout.
As mentioned previously, he doesn’t bother changing his screen face to a different one from his billiards face. Though he will change the red triangle in the middle to different emojis or reaction images/gifs for expressions. Or otherwise to mess with people.
So Cueball is the only one who doesn't bother with the voice changing nor face changing. The only thing different is his clothes. If a cop suspects he's the same Cueball from DOT EXE, he basically goes, "Oh? You think I look like a criminal just because I'm full-cyber too? Prejudice much?!" and that actually gets them to back down most of the time lol
He used to do programming and other computer related tasks (including messing with servers and hardware) as a job after going full-cyber and before eventually joining DOT EXE. He’s still good at those things too! But at least now he keeps up with those more as a hobby, which he honestly prefers. He thus tends to refuse to help with the IT stuff for the mall, he’s sick of doing that kind of thing for work.
He wanted in on the crew mostly because he was sick of feeling “left behind” by everyone else whenever they’d go out to do writer stuff. By the time he joined, Quatorze, Jūrō, Twoson, and Fourside had already become part of the crew.
He’s the only DOT EXE member with no prior experience as a writer (especially before going full-cyber), and so he’s had to put in a lot of practice with the rest of the crew. Due to his lack of skills, he was only really allowed to join because his older brother 8-ball let him join, and even then only after Cueball begged him about it a lot.
On that note, and as mentioned in 8-ball’s section, Cueball and 8-ball are specifically half-brothers. They cared about each other, and 8-ball very much tried to help out his little brother whenever he could. Back when the two of them were still full-flesh, they weren’t too close, but at least kept in touch via email and sometimes actual postcards despite the age difference between them. Mostly 8-ball wanted to be sure Cueball had another adult he could turn to if he was in trouble, because he knows how their dad is.
After moving to New Amsterdam, they did get a little closer as brothers. Cueball has a lot of admiration for his older brother because of his writer activities, though sometimes Cueball would be annoyed or even hate 8-ball for (in his eyes) “babying” him when 8-ball was just trying to keep him safe. Eventually, sometime after 8-ball died, Cueball mostly just regrets not really knowing 8-ball that well in the end.
Cueball starts trying to get into rhythm games after 8-ball’s death, and he even tries to join in on the rhythm game competitions with Cinco and Neun. He’s getting pretty good at it!
He does a lot of pranks with Twoson and Fourside. Also prank wars between the three of them! Neun makes a point to have plans outside of New Amsterdam for the weeks surrounding April Fools Day, while the rest of the crew just roll with it.
Besides Twoson and Fourside, Cueball gets along fairly well with Cinco, Jūrō, and Quatorze. For the last one, he has accidentally called her mom once, and he had her swear to never tell anyone else what happened.
He’s dating Bō! Cueball is really big on physical touch as a show of affection. He is thus incredibly cuddly and big on handholding and hugs! He also cuts back on the jokes and teasing just for Bō (for the most part).
He used to do a lot of cooking and baking before he went full-cyber. Once he started dating Bō, he actually go back into cooking to be able to cook stuff for his boyfriend! He still remembers all of the recipes he tried out, plus reads up on new ones to try. Unfortunately, due to of course having no sense of taste now, he has to either use recipes that don’t need tasting in between steps, stick with recipes that he already knows Bō likes, or otherwise make sure Bō is around for taste-testing.
Bō is the only one who knows what Cueball’s real voice sounds like, and even then Cueball only uses it when they’re alone together in private.
Real name Ernesto Alberto Visser. Cueball got Covid when he was about 15. The resulting long Covid was bad enough that, in his early 20s, he decided to just go full-cyber instead of continuing to suffer. His older brother 8-ball helped him out with that. At first it was just helping him move to New Amsterdam to get better medical treatment (and to get away from their dad and Cueball’s mom for that matter) once Cueball turned 18. Eventually that lead to helping Cueball with going full-cyber once the treatments proved ineffective. He did so sometime after 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco went full-cyber themselves. Cueball is about 43 during the time of the game.
Cueball originally had plans to become a chef or at least a baker, but when he got sick, part of the problems from his Covid infection was that his sense of taste got completely messed up. He was originally going to do programming as a hobby thing. But once he went full-cyber, he did programming as a full time job since he didn’t have anything else going for him, until eventually joining DOT EXE many years later.
Because of why he went full-cyber, he is distrustful of doctors (due to both the quack doctors his parents forced him to see to pretend that his Covid symptoms “weren’t that bad”, and the actual doctors later on who knew how serious his condition was but couldn’t do much for him anyways). He insists on accompanying his full-flesh friends to their doctor appointments to make sure they’re safe!!
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thebestofoneshots · 9 months
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hey luvv!! can i please request a romantic matchup for marauders era :) ? you don't have to rush it, take your time in writing! 🪽💕🌸🤍
i'm a capricorn, infp, and an asexual sapphic. though i don't mind being matched up with a man because i'm sapphic and not lesbian :) maybe you can match me both with a girl and a boy hehehh
i'm 173 cm, i have brown long hair (with bangs) and brown eyes. i love doing skincare/just taking care of my body. i love the colour pink! i'm quite girly and feminine. my clothing style is basically this fashion brand called ozlana. i love wearing pearl jewelleries. i feel prettiest when i do my hair well. i also love barbie fashion! i'd love to be a fashion designer and have my own fashion boutique one day.
i'm a good listener and i can understand people well. i consider myself as open minded. i'm a huge feminist (gender equality and really just social equality in general 🫶) and i resent people that makes fun of others for being excited over something they love. i love reading (preferably english classics). i love the wizard of oz a lot. i would love someone who respects women and a gentleman.
i consider myself as quite smart :) (don't wanna be too self indulgent tho). my hobbies are reading, stargazing, and making dresses/clothing. i love plants and flowers <3 i also love fruits! my favs are strawberry, grapes, and blueberry. i enjoy baking too! love making french desserts recipes. i'm scared of being a failure. my biggest fear actually. so i tend to push myself as hard as i can to ace what i want.
i think that's all!! don't wanna make this too long. if you don't want to write this then i totally understand 🌸🤍💕🪽🫧
If you want to participate in "TBOS' 400 Followers Celebration" too, you can look at this post for all the options of prompts you can choose form &lt;3
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☆ Star: send a short description of yourself and I’ll tell you who I ship you with!
Chasing Butterflies
Pairing: James x Lily x reader Prompt: The story of how you ended up dating James and Lily. Word count: 1.5 k Warnings: None, (bit angsty / what feels like unrequited love but actually isn't).
Hey beatiful! I ship you with Lily and James! The first time you saw Lily, you thought she was the prettiest girl you’d seen in the world. She was wearing this beautiful flowery pink dress and looked so in awe of everything around her that you couldn't help but stare. Having been born into a magical family, it was interesting to see it from a different perspective. You were just about to approach her when she said hi to a disagreeable-looking boy that stared down at you as you took a step forward, which deterred you from doing so. Instead, you scurried away inside the train. That’s where you met James Potter and Peter Petegrew.
James was a very well-spoken boy who saw you wandering the train by yourself and invited you to sit along with him and his friend. He had been the one to introduce you to Peter and had also bought a bunch of treats for everyone once the Trolley Witch came around. James had been so nice to you that day that you felt like a princess. When both of you were put in the same house, you became close. James was always really, really nice to you, and you liked that about him, especially compared to the way his friends treated you - Sirius always trying to flirt and Peter being so awkward all the time. You also became close with Remus, and he would lend some of his muggle books, and you would borrow some magical ones to him. It became a habit, and Sirius would call you both nerds for it. You didn’t mind it all that much; you knew it was all playful banter.
In 5th year, when you discovered your passion for making clothes, the first person you told was Lily. You politely asked her if you could design a dress for her, and she felt honored. Once you handed her the dress, she instantly put it on, and it fit her like a glove. That weekend, when you went to Hogsmeade, she wore the dress, and even though you thought she looked absolutely lovely, you couldn’t help but feel a pit in your stomach whenever you realized people were staring at her. It was as if you didn’t want them to look, and their staring was affecting you somehow.
“That sounds an awful lot like jealousy to me,” Remus had told you. You gasped in that moment, but the more you thought about it, the more it made sense. Maybe you didn’t just like Lily as a friend. Maybe you liked, like her. Romantically liked her. And it made you feel miserable because you were very aware, like pretty much the entire school, that James was absolutely hung up on her.
At Marlenes’s party, organized by Mary a year later, someone had the brilliant idea of playing spin the bottle. When Lily had to kiss Marlene, she didn’t budge, which made you both jealous but also a little curious. Could that mean Lily was interested in girls too?
You, in turn, had to kiss James, and even if he was your friend, you had to admit he was a really good kisser. You were both panting a little when you separated and awkwardly went back to your places in the circle. From that day on, James stuck to you like gum, following you around and carrying your books and bag a lot more often than he did before. And even if you appreciated how nice he was, making you feel like a princess again, you were also bothered because you felt like you were his second choice, his consolation prize after he gave up on chasing after Lily.
“I’m not a pity prize, James!” You told him one day as he tried to hold your hand.
He looked at you, hurt in his face. “I’d never see you as one, kitten. I thought you knew.”
You looked at him taken aback. “What about Lily?”
He averted your gaze. “She… She’s like a star. Unreachable.”
“And I am within reach, right?” You continued, a little angry still.
“That’s not what I…”
“James, I like her too!” You somehow blurted out.
He looked at you in shock, eyes wide open as you told him the truth. “You like–" he started, confused "–like I do?”
You looked to the side and nodded. “Yes! Like you do.”
“And you don’t like boys like that?”
“I… I wouldn’t say that either…”
“Then what’s the issue?” He said, reaching for your hand again. You stared at him with a frown, thinking of pulling your hand away. But his hand was warm, and just as James always did, it made you feel nice too.
Both you and James started to spend a lot more time together since then. People would find him sitting beside you at dinner and in some classes. He made sure to always keep some kind of contact with you, whether it was holding your hand, having his arm over your shoulder, or a hand on your waist. You actually grew to like it; you felt appreciated and loved. Maybe you really weren’t a second choice to him, maybe he really had chosen you over Lily.
But then it was Halloween, and somehow you convinced him to dress as Ken while you'd dress up as Barbie. You designed both of your outfits, and he even hung out with you while you were sewing and adding beads and glitter to both of your costumes. Even Peter was helping you with the costumes, since you’d promised to help him with his. You were all sitting in the common room, and you were on the floor, sitting between James’ legs and resting your head on his chest as you sewed some details onto a coat when Lily walked in.
You smiled and waved at her, but she just looked at the two of you, looking hurt, and stormed out. “What’s with her?” Peter asked with a shrug. You and James looked at each other with a frown and nodded, both getting up and chasing after her.
“Lily!” You shouted as she picked up the pace.
“I’ll take a short cut,” James told you. “We’ll intercept her.”
Soon enough, James was blocking Lily from the front, and you stopped her from behind. “Hey! Lils, stop running, will you?” You told her, breath a little ragged, as she tried to walk past you. Her eyes started to water, and you looked at her concerned, placing both hands on her shoulders. “Hey love, what’s wrong?” You asked.
She started to cry then, and your heart broke. Whatever you had done, you were sure to never ever do it again; you could not bear to see her cry. James looked as mortified as you did.
“Evans,” he said, not daring to place a hand on her, like you already had. “What’s wrong, darling?” He asked softly.
“I… I don’t know… I…” She started between sobs. “I just, I suddenly felt so angry at the two of you being together like that. I just… I didn’t…. I’m an asshole.” She said as she placed her hands over her face to hide it from the two of you.
Realization hit you like a truck. “You like James,” you said dryly. James looked shocked at the two of you. “You’re jealous.” You said with a bitter laugh. “I’ll leave you to talk,” you said as you started to leave.
Lily finally raised her head from her hand and shook her head, you couldn't be more wrong. She grabbed your arm. "I wasn't jealous of you!" You turned surprised. "I wanted to be James!" You looked at the two of them, shocked. James looked so confused in that moment; if it hadn't been for the situation, you would've loved to capture that expression in a picture. "Or rather, there, like… in between the two."
You looked at her even more shocked. "Does that mean you like… both me and–"
"–Me?" James finished.
Lily just looked at the two of you in desperation. "See? I AM an asshole!"
You shook your head and exchanged a glance with James. He nodded, and the two of you embraced Lily in a tight hug. You buried your head on Lily’s shoulder, relishing in the smell of her signature lavender perfume, while James wrapped his long arms around the two of you, drawing you both towards his chest. From that moment on, the three of you somehow started dating each other. Lily was the perfect companion; she understood and related to all of your girly needs, gifting you a pearl necklace on your birthday and wearing all the dresses you made for her. James always cared for the two of you like you were goddesses, giving you the best cuddles in the world and enjoying all the desserts you prepared for him. He was absolutely obsessed with the way you baked. You were so happy together; you almost couldn’t believe it was real. But it was, and it was beautiful.
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A/N: Hey sweetie! I really hope you enjoy this little ship (it totally got out hand and ended up being a mini ficlet, but I hope you like it); also I really hope all the cuddling doesn't bother you &lt;3
Much Love, Lilly xx
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masterwords · 4 months
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something worth fighting for
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Summary: Emily's ready to call it quits, Hotch and Morgan already have, and then a party at Rossi's changes everything.
Pairing: Hotch/Morgan
Words: ~7k
Warnings: hotch's ear injury (canon - 7x24 explosion), gunshot, vomiting, pain medication
Read on AO3: something worth fighting for
Notes: I humbly submit my work to the CM Holiday Gift Exchange (@cmgiftexchange), a gift for @hosseinis. I wrote almost 30k words for this exchange scattered between 4 different stories before this one became the keeper. I was incredibly fortunate to be matched to you, to be able to create a gift for you, but as happy as I was...it became almost impossible to decide among all the things I wanted to make for you! The other 3 stories were a lot darker, didn't feel much like holiday gifts, but they'll still be posted at some point probably soon because they were all solid stories. You inspired me to write a LOT of words this month my friend. Thank you for loving hotchgan and for being fun to talk to! Merry Crimbus! (Read under the cut or on AO3)
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“Do you ever think about what might have happened if we had done for you what you and JJ did for me?”
Hotch frowned and laced his fingers together in his lap. His hands were cold in spite of them currently being in Georgia. The heat outside was well matched by the air conditioning blowing into the cabin of the jet. He would have preferred not to have it on but the team liked it chilly. They still had an hour before anyone would begin trickling onto the jet, but he’d been surprised to find Emily boarding early. Only about fifteen minutes behind him. She was normally one of the last, stretching the time to the very last moment. He’d been anticipating a nice long period of quiet, a head start on the pile of paperwork he had to complete to shut the door on this case. Not today.
It was his own fault. He’d invited her to come to him when she had a bad day, and those seemed to be coming harder and faster lately. He found her in his office, texting, even once at his door with an apologetic bottle of wine. That night ended up with her drinking the whole thing and him calling her a cab because she refused to sleep on his couch. She wouldn’t look him in the eye for two full days after that because she was worried they’d done something they shouldn’t have while he repeatedly assured her that he hadn’t had a drop of the wine and they’d remained respectable distances from one another the whole night.
“How so?” he asked, his voice a little breathless. She didn’t often bring his situation into the mix. No one ever really dared to talk about Haley, about Foyet, it was like a field full of buried unmarked landmines. They’d all more or less decided to pretend it never happened, everyone but Dave and Derek anyway. JJ had offered support once or twice but she didn’t ask questions, didn’t pry. It was easier for all of them to ignore it.
“If we had decided to fake your death, put you into WITSEC with Haley and Jack. Send you off to some boring old place where you could be a teacher or something. Do you ever wonder how that would have played out?”
“Why would I be a teacher?” he asked, a little offended by the implication that he was dull. She smiled warily.
“Fine, you could be something more exciting. A lion tamer in the circus. Anything you want. Do you ever wonder?”
“No,” he replied truthfully. Painfully. He couldn’t allow himself to wander down the path of what if, it hurt too much. Knowing that there were paths he could have taken that would have kept Haley alive was enough to bring him to his knees, the weight of it too much to bear. It wasn’t that he didn’t know it anyway, there were plenty of choices he had at one time that would have led to Jack not losing his mother. There were better outcomes, maybe, but there were also worse.
Emily hummed, a noise he was sure she had picked up right from him, spending too much time together. Especially lately, because she couldn’t talk to the team about any of this. Sure, she had JJ, but when she looked at JJ she only saw the pain she’d gone through and how hard it has been for her to mend what was broken...the rest of them were still grappling with it. How could she tell them she wasn’t happy? That she might want out? Hotch was the only one she thought could take it, or even worse, understand.
“Why?” He knew why, he’d known it for a while now, but it was still his job to ask. To get her to do the talking. She needed to open up and get something off of her chest. He hated to do this, to slip into his negotiator role, but it worked. It was for her benefit.
“Oh, I don’t know,” she started quietly. “I guess I’m having a hard time being myself again. I spent enough time being someone else so completely, coming to terms with Emily Prentiss dying...this is harder than I thought it would be. Living this life again. And I guess I wondered if you thought you would too. If we’d gotten Foyet and Haley lived, if you got your family back. Could you go from being Joe Schmo in the middle of nowhere...Utah or Wyoming or something...could you be Aaron Hotchner again? Could you just forget dying and pretend it never happened?”
“I would have to try,” he said rather matter-of-factly, but he knew it wasn’t so simple. “It would have been a very different circumstance, though. My situation and yours were not the same.”
“No, yeah, I know...I know…good people, innocent people still died because of me though. I can’t help thinking that I should have stayed dead to honor their sacrifices.”
“Emily.”
“No, don’t Emily me. Look, I tried to buy a house and put down roots. I called my mom and had dinner with her...but I can’t...I can’t fix this. Look at the trouble I’ve caused. I see Spencer still not sure he can trust you guys. I see what happened to you and Derek. I did that, Hotch. I did that.”
“No,” he replied sadly. His voice cracked before he finished his thought and he shook his head, waiting for it to come back. “I did that.”
“Not without my help,” she added timidly. “You two would probably have gotten married, adopted some babies, maybe. White picket fence, two car garage...you guys had it all and what you did for me…I guess I’m not sure it was worth it, in the end. Because look at me now. Look at me thriving.” That last part, as emotionally wrecked as she was, dripped in sarcasm. His chest ached.
“How can I help?”
She scoffed at him and rolled her eyes dramatically. She hadn’t let go of the sarcasm, it was her last line of defense, but her voice was shockingly vulnerable and sincere. It broke his heart. “Tell me it was worth it?”
“It was worth it.”
“You’re going to have to do better...come on. Don’t insult me. You were a Federal Prosecutor, you can lie better than that if you’re not going to tell me the truth.”
“You want the truth?” He glanced down at his watch to make sure they still had time. That he wouldn’t be in the middle of a vulnerable monologue when the team started boarding the jet. That was the last thing he needed. He had a few minutes to safely get it off of his chest. “There are aspects of what happened that I would go back and change if I could. Hindsight is a gift and a curse. But I wouldn’t take it all back. I would do it for you again in a heartbeat, even if it went exactly the same again. No matter the blow-back on me, protecting you was worth it.”
She blinked rapidly, tears clinging to the mascara she’d just put on. That wasn’t what she’d expected and she hated him a little for it. For the cruelty in his honesty. She couldn’t reciprocate that kind of shredded, gaping wound of vulnerability for him no matter how she wanted to. “You jerk.”
“I’m sorry,” he spoke quietly, reaching into his pocket and procuring a small square of silk with his initials stitched in delicate thread along the hem. He offered her the handkerchief without hesitation, waiting for her to make fun of him for it. For being so old fashioned that he carried an old hanky around with him. She didn’t, though, she just looked at him, blinked the tears from her lashes and dabbed at her under eyes with his pale silk gift. He was such a relic, she’d always thought, but a beautiful one. He wasn’t meant for this time. He wasn’t meant for many of the things he did. Everyone thought he was so tough, unbreakable, harsh and ruthless but she knew the truth: he was none of those things. He was certainly good at putting up his shields and playing the game, but he was one of the gentlest, softest most broken men she’d ever met in her life. She wanted to protect him with every last breath in her body, he was such a fool sometimes. But she couldn’t protect him, not from himself or anyone else.
“No,” she whispered finally, sniffling. “I’m sorry. I don’t...I need to suck it up, huh? Get on with it. Shit or get off the pot.”
“You don’t need to do anything you’re not ready for.”
“Says the guy that came back to work a month after getting stabbed nine times.”
He frowned and shrugged helplessly. “I didn’t know what else to do with myself. In retrospect, coming back so soon did more harm than good. I can’t go back, and I can’t wonder what might have been different had I...waited.” The way he said that last word made her squirm. Years later and he was still living with the crushing guilt, the lasting pain both physical and emotional. It struck her that this thing that had been burying her alive for a couple of months had been doing the same to him for years and it made her feel sick. He hadn’t healed he’d just hidden it beneath layers of life. It was mean of her, she knew it, but as she looked at him she knew...she didn’t want to become him, and that was exactly where she was headed if she didn’t get out now.
He’d given her all the answer she needed just by allowing her to see the truth of his existence. It was a cautionary tale.
“Thanks Hotch,” she said finally, knowing they had to wrap it up. He’d checked his watch twice since he opened up. The team were going to board soon and the last thing she wanted to do was be crying when they walked on. She wasn’t ready to tell them yet that she was thinking about leaving. She could see it in Hotch’s eyes, he knew. She didn’t have to say those words. The fact that she was thinking so hard about this was enough for both of them. “This is gross, by the way. There’s a reason Kleenex exists.”
“My grandmother made them for me.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“It’s clean,” he added a little defensively. “I do wash them.”
“Yeah. Sure. It’s all fine then.” She handed him back the wet silk and watched as he stuffed it into the pocket of his pants without thinking twice. “God. Do you have more of those on hand?”
“The clean ones are in my breast pocket, the soiled ones are in the pants pocket. I told you, I do wash them Emily.”
She scrunched up her nose in disgust. “You look good for ninety, you know that?”
He considered a reply, but decided it wasn’t worth it and settled for a long suffering sigh instead before turning back to his paperwork. His mind wasn’t in it anymore, now he could think only of one thing – Emily was going to leave. And probably soon. How would they survive that a second time?
(x)
The explosion that blew out the bank, crumbling concrete and shattering glass was unexpected. It rocked the ground beneath his feet as he dove behind the police car door, heart hammering in his chest so hard and so loud he thought it might actually break his ribs. Derek was in there. JJ was in there. Emily was in there. Dammit. He felt his ear pop, the sudden high-pitched screaming sound piercing his skull even after he covered his ears with shaking hands and squeezed his eyes shut. The pain was instant, the pressure behind his eyes building to a crescendo and for a whole ten seconds that felt like eternity he thought for sure his head was going to explode. There were tears in his eyes when he opened them again and he swiped at them with ash caked fingers, failing to notice for a moment the blood on his palm. His ear was bleeding.
Again.
He’d been on top of the PTSD, for the most part. Once the Bureau appointed therapist pointed it out to him and gave him some exercises to maintain his composure in situations he knew were going to be troubling to him, he’d been on top of it. “Mild,” she called it. When his palms got sweaty and his heart dropped into his stomach, when he felt sick and angry and vulnerable...it didn’t feel mild, but who was he to argue with her? She saw this kind of thing all the time. And he’d been close enough to explosions since that night in New York, had managed to work his way through them without incident, but now seeing the blood...being in the middle of the street...hearing sirens wailing and watching flames flicker...he wasn’t exactly right there again, it wasn’t a flashback, it was just that same sick feeling. Different but the same.
Except this time he had his whole team, and half a city’s worth of cops to look out for. He had civilians and hostages to worry about. The safety of hundreds of people rested on his shoulders and his fucking ear was bleeding down the side of his jaw. Will had been inside that building with the unsubs. He didn’t have time to walk himself through all of the steps as his stomach twisted in painful knots, as the bile rose in his throat. Not now, so he just stood up and shouldered his way through the reeling cops with one hand over his bleeding ear to keep the offending noise out of his head, at least a little. God it hurt.
“Dave!” He called, rushing toward his colleague. He was breathing through his nose, deep harsh breaths to stave off the nausea that was increasing in intensity. “Have you seen any of them?” He didn’t need to use names, Dave knew exactly who he meant.
“There,” Dave pointed at Derek and JJ on the ground with various members of the SWAT team they’d been charging in with. Emily had been ahead of them, she wasn’t in the group but she couldn’t have gotten far. He watched as Derek began to sit up, followed by JJ and then some of SWAT. They were all confused, coming to, but seemed okay. He turned to Dave, refusing to allow personal feelings to get their claws in. Not only did they have no place here right now, but he wasn’t welcome to them any longer. Derek was not his to care for in any way more significant than as colleagues, and as colleagues, what Derek really needed was for Hotch to take complete control of the chaos. Get them all out of this mess.
“Dave,” he began, setting his jaw and trying to regain his composure. His head was a grenade and the pin was barely holding on. Dave raised his hand and shook his head before Hotch had a chance to continue.
“You go get that ear looked at,” he said adamantly. “I’ll go find Erin and we’ll be waiting for you.”
Hotch wanted to argue that he was fine, but his the pressure in his head must have been visible to Dave because he wasn’t having any of it. “Okay,” he agreed. “I’m not sitting this one out, but I’ll go get cleaned up.”
“I’ll take it.”
(x)
Finding Derek in the alley, pinned against a dumpster with a man’s hands around his throat, Hotch didn’t even think. He wasn’t going to bother announcing himself, he wasn’t going to bother negotiating. This was one of those times where he simply couldn’t abide the protocols and procedures – this man allowed Will to be hurt, used him, put Henry in danger and was now trying to kill Derek. He had no trouble at all justifying the shot he was about to take.
And when Matthew Downs dropped at Derek’s feet, when the blood sprayed against Derek’s cheek and the dumpster and pooled on the ground, he felt no remorse. He simply stood with his gun still aimed, breathing heavily, his ear screaming louder than ever. He was going to be sick. That knowledge rumbled through him with the force of a freight train as his stomach twisted with the pain of the gun shot, but the look on Derek’s face, the look of pure gratitude and relief and maybe something else…it made him feel better as he dropped to his knees and dry heaved a few times. Derek hurried over to him and placed a hand between his shoulders, instinctively rubbing up and down over the vest. Even if Hotch couldn’t feel it, he knew Derek was there.
“Hotch?”
“I’m okay,” he gasped, glad that nothing was actually coming up. You have to eat in order to have anything to expel and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had anything but coffee. Dinner the night before? Maybe? “Go. Find Will. I’ll be right behind you.”
Derek did as he was told without arguing, but took one last moment to glance back as he stepped out of the alley. He knew better than to go back, knew better than to ask what was wrong. He could do that later.
(x)
How Dave managed to put together a wedding on such short notice was beyond any of them, but Hotch knew better than most what money could do to trump time. Enough zeroes on a check and you could get anything (and anyone) you wanted. So, mere days after being shot and chained to a bomb, Will was ready to take JJ's hand in marriage and Hotch...well he was just trying to gather the courage to show up.
Jessica was smoothing his sweater over his shoulders and smiling at how soft he looked in it while he grumbled about every minute detail.
“You’re still not sure you should go,” she said, turning him toward her. He shrugged.
“I think everyone would have more fun if I didn’t go.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Considering what I put everyone through this past year…”
“Stop it. Right now, stop it.”
His shoulders slumped pitifully and she almost felt bad for snapping at him, but not quite. He deserved it. He could be so stupid sometimes she just couldn’t stand it.
“You didn’t do anything maliciously. You were trying to help, and sometimes that means getting it wrong...it isn’t as if you had all the time in the world to consider repercussions. You had to make a split second decision. Maybe it was right, maybe it was wrong, but Emily is alive and your team is intact and isn’t that what you were going for?”
“Not everyone is intact.”
“Derek’s going to come back. He loves you so much. He still does. You don’t wake up at the crack of dawn and show up to babysit a kid so his dad can go do some stupid triathlon if you don’t still care.”
“I didn’t tell him I’d asked Dave.”
“Of course. You assumed that breaking up meant that you had to find someone new to watch him, that’s reasonable. And he assumed that he’d made the commitment and he had to honor it. Also reasonable. Of course, if you two were better at communicating…”
“I know.”
“My point being, he still loves you. And Jack. I think he just needs time. You have plenty of time.”
He slumped down on the couch and put his head in his hands, breathing in deep. Once, twice. Filling his lungs, pausing, exhaling. His head hurt, hadn’t stopped hurting since the explosion. He had an MRI in the morning, an MRI he should have scheduled sooner but he thought it would go away. He hadn’t been as close to this explosion this time, it shouldn’t have been so bad, but then there was the gunshot and the noise from the scene and the pain in his head had been like a hot knife slicing through his brain like a Thanksgiving turkey ever since.
“How about you take one of your nuclear pills and I’ll be your designated driver?” Jess offered, crouching before him with her hands on his knees. “Come on. Take one and you might actually enjoy the wedding. You know I love crashing weddings.”
“You have a date tonight,” he countered miserably before lying back and throwing his arm over his eyes, resting his head against the cushion to try and take some of the pressure off. She huffed at him, that irritated little puffing noise she made that meant she thought he was a complete idiot without actually saying the words.
“I can reschedule. Anita will understand.”
“Anita? The nurse?”
Not just any nurse. The nurse who had cared for him when he was in the Urgent Care sick as a dog a few months back. The nurse whose sarcasm was biting and her smile was enchanting. The nurse with a head full of silver hair she claimed was due entirely to the stress of her job.
“That’s the one.”
“You got a date while I was sick? That’s low, even for you.”
“She’s pretty. And she said I was a saint for dealing with you. How can I resist such compliments?”
He groaned miserably. “I was sick.”
“You were. Very sick, really. But her point still stands. You’re a pain in the ass and I’ve been putting up with it for decades. I deserve to get a little something for my trouble once in a while.”
“Is she nice?”
“Very,” Jessica replied with a smile, her fingers scratching at his scalp mindlessly as she settled in on the couch beside him. He’d always liked his head being scratched but even more when it hurt. “She’s smart and charming and sweet, too. She has great taste in restaurants, but she drinks sweet white wine so I guess she’s not perfect.”
“Not many are.” His shoulders relaxed as she scraped her nails over his scalp. It didn’t exactly do anything to the pain itself but he found it easier to ignore, at least marginally. “You could bring her,” he offered quietly. “To the wedding. If you want.”
“I don’t think she’s ready to meet the whole family,” Jessica said with a smile.
“She’s already met me. Everyone else is easy.”
“Good point. I’ll ask her. Does that mean you’re going to take the meds like a good boy?”
“I don’t think I can go if I don’t.”
“Look at you, making good choices.” He didn’t want to take the pill; it made him goofy. It made him feel lightheaded and dizzy, made him say things without thinking first. Made him cry over silly things, like Disney movies and finding crayons crunched in the couch cushions. The pill really didn’t do much except make him forget how bad his head hurt. Which he knew was ultimately the goal, but the tradeoff didn’t always seem worth it. He didn’t like the way it made him feel like a different person.
“Here,” Jess said, extending the pill and a glass of water to him after rummaging around through the medicine cabinet for a moment. He was always pushing it to the back like he was ashamed of it. “Anita said she’d love to come as long as there’s an open bar. I told her that David Rossi never skimps on the booze and do you know what she said?”
“She’s a big fan of his books,” he deadpanned and she let out a barking laugh that hurt his head.
“Exactly. Said she couldn’t believe I was just casually inviting her to David Rossi’s mansion for a wedding hours before the wedding and what was she going to wear.”
“She doesn’t need to worry,” he said quietly, sipping at the water. “She could come in scrubs if she wanted. No one would hold it against her.”
“Did you learn nothing from being married to Haley all those years?”
He hummed, admitting defeat. “I think the answer to that should be obvious.”
“Point taken. I’m going to go home and find a dress, you lay here and rest. Let that pill do it’s thing. We’ll be by to pick you guys up in an hour.”
(x)
The party was bigger than Hotch had imagined it would be on such short notice. More people milling around, many faces he recognized and some he didn’t. They were a little late, maybe it was fashionable, maybe it was rude, he couldn’t be trusted to tell the difference in his fuzzy state.
“Aaron,” Dave said, pulling him in for a hug. “How are you?”
Hotch never know how to answer that question truthfully, so he rarely did. “Good,” he replied, smiling. The smile wasn’t even forced, at least. But Dave knew anyway.
“Liar.”
“I’m okay, Dave.”
“You get that ear looked at?”
“I have an appointment in the morning for an MRI. It’s giving me some trouble but I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“You keep me posted. In the meantime, why don’t you introduce me to your guests?”
Hotch smiled a little sheepishly and stepped out of the way to let Jessica and Anita be greeted by their host. Jack was standing beside Hotch, still in his shy phase even if he did know everyone here. “You know Haley’s sister Jessica,” Hotch said, waiting a moment before continuing. “And this is her date Anita.”
“Anita,” Dave said, kissing her hand with all of that charm he had at his disposal, holding nothing back. Hotch watched, blinking slowly, doing everything a little slowly. “How did the two of you meet?”
“She brought him to the Urgent Care with a pretty bad case of strep throat,” Anita replied casually. “By the time they left he had antibiotics and a doctor’s note to stay home from work and I had a pretty girl’s phone number.”
“I remember that, it’s hard to get him to miss any work,” Dave said, eyeing Hotch. “It’s been a couple of months now.”
Emily approached Hotch as Dave took Jessica and Anita by the arm, one on each side, to show them around the house and the party. To get them drinks and push them out on to the dance floor. He insisted that his live band not go to waste, and they still had some time to kill before the bride was ready to walk down the aisle. The look on her face was sad, unbearably so, and he knew he wasn’t up for the conversation she looked ready to have. Ready or not, he had to try.
“Do you want to talk?” he asked when she sighed more than spoke her hello. She looked distressed, sad, heartbroken really.
“No, not here,” she said quietly. “But soon. Tomorrow maybe. Okay?”
“Tomorrow,” he repeated. “I have an appointment early in the morning, we can meet for coffee afterward.”
“It’s a date,” she replied, forcing a smile. Derek watched the interaction from across the room, his drink in hand. He knew she was leaving, and he missed her already. It was crushing him, and he knew it would crush Hotch too. After everything they’d done, he felt for the man. His world had come crashing down when Emily died, but he knew Hotch’s hadn’t ever stopped. Everything just kept stacking up – from Emily’s death to her new life, Pakistan and Emily coming back and the Senate Hearing Committee, his team being scrutinized, the trip to Chicago for Derek’s cousin that was made more awkward by his family’s knowledge that the two of them had broken up. His aunt Yvonne had tried to push them back together and only made it worse for them in the end. And his mother...his mother was angry at him. “He didn’t lie to hurt you,” she’d scolded first by phone and then later in person, in Desiree’s hospital room of all places. “He lied to protect you. I seem to recall you pulling the same stunt on us, your family and we still love you.” But he still lied, and it was hard to put that trust back in place. It just wasn’t that easy. He was trying so damn hard.
Showing up and watching Jack for him so he could go do his race, showing up at 4am only to find Dave already there...it had been an olive branch opportunity, but he couldn’t do it when he saw Dave. Because that meant Hotch didn’t believe he would still honor his commitment, it meant Hotch really believed it was over. At least that’s what he told himself when he entered the apartment anyway, because how could he leave when Jack’s eyes lit up? When Jack hugged him and said he missed him? “I miss you too, kiddo,” he’d said and Dave asked him to stay, invited him to have some of the scrambled eggs he was cooking up while Hotch thanked them both and rushed out the door. It wouldn’t take both of them to watch Jack but he couldn’t leave the kid. It gave him an excuse to throw Jack up on his shoulders, to cheer Hotch on, and it surprised him when he called him baby as he approached the finish line. He detected amusement from Dave beside him but the rest of the team were so wrapped up in their own morning drama that they didn’t say a word.
He watched Hotch make his way through the party as he danced with Penelope, as he danced with Emily and even Reid. The music was upbeat and fun, easy for dancing and forgetting the weight of the last few days. The last few months. When he saw Will talking to Rossi, waiting for his bride, he couldn’t help being a little jealous even if he was happy for them. He thought it would be him next. He really thought he and Hotch had it all, too. Did Will care that JJ lied to him about Emily? Of course it wasn’t exactly the same, Will didn’t know Emily like that, he didn’t stick his hands in her blood, hold her while she waited for the ambulance, look into her eyes and watch the light fade. But he still didn’t know she’d lived. JJ kept it from him, too.
Finally Hotch, in his customary rounds, came to Derek near the drinks. “Hey,” Derek said, reaching out to catch him by the elbow like he was just going to walk by. He probably was. He’d almost gone out of his way to respect Derek’s request for space, gone so far overboard that it felt like he’d been the one dumped and not the other way around. “How’re you doing?”
“I’m okay,” Hotch replied quietly, barely audible over the DJ’s dance music. He was blaring something by ABBA that had Jessica and Anita out on the floor having a blast. “You?”
“Same.”
The conversation stalled predictably. They couldn’t talk to one another anymore. “Where are you sitting?” Derek asked casually. Hotch shrugged.
“Wherever Jack tells me we’re sitting I suppose.”
At that Derek smiled. “Well, we’d better find some seats huh? Looks like things are getting serious.”
As it ended up, the seats Jack chose put them right beside Derek and Penelope. Hotch���s knee bumped Derek’s as he took his seat and tried to make himself smaller so he didn’t block anyone’s view, so he didn’t take up too much space. Nothing ever had the kind of leg room he needed.
The wedding was fast, short and sweet, to the point. JJ looked beautiful and Will looked so happy Hotch could hardly stand it. He cried, not at all surprised by the display of emotion. He knew it was going to happen the minute he swallowed that damn pill. At least he wasn’t alone, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when he glance around. Not even Derek beside him could contain the tears in his eyes.
What he hadn’t expected was to find Derek’s hand circling his, dragging it into his lap and letting it rest there against his thigh. They didn’t look at each other, but that connection made Hotch’s heart nearly burst in his chest. He froze, staring straight ahead a little too intently, breath painfully tight and burning in his lungs. Derek squeezed his hand and his vision narrowed to pinpricks, splotches of color flashing over the scene.
When JJ and Will kissed, Derek squeezed his hand again and then let it go. They didn’t talk, Derek just got up and took Penelope to the dance floor at the invitation of the DJ, swaying along with her. Hotch watched from beside Jack and Henry as everyone made their way back out there.
“Hotch?” Emily asked, coming up beside him quietly. He hadn’t realized she wasn’t out there, but now her hand was extended to him with a sheepish smile. “You can’t sit this one out. It’s the law I think.”
“Sure I can,” he replied, but he took her hand and led her to the dance floor anyway, holding her gently as they settled into the foxy. She looked up at him with wide eyes and a grin.
“You actually know how to dance,” she said. “Of course you do. Why am I surprised that the guy who carries silk hankies can ballroom dance?”
“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me, Emily.”
“Yeah...well...there are a lot of things you don’t know about me, too, y'know…”
That made him laugh, a light lead in to giving her a gentle twirl and a dip. Derek glanced at them as he swayed with Penelope.
“He’s really good,” Penelope whispered in Derek’s ear. “Did he ever take you dancing?”
Derek nodded, closing his eyes. “Yeah. He did.”
“You should go cut in. I saw what you did back there…”
“I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”
“What is it going to take?”
“I don’t know mama. I don’t know. I never broke up with someone I was still in love with before.”
“Is Emily leaving us?” The way she changed course made him stiffen up and she could hardly contain her emotion at that. She knew just by that alone. “She is. Why?”
“You’ll have to ask her yourself.”
And all at once she was dragging them across the dance floor, cutting in on Hotch and Emily’s dance. He wasn’t sure if it was calculated or not, but he thought it probably was. She was like that. She didn’t even ask before peeling Emily away from Hotch, before taking her hand and moving them away. Emily glanced at Hotch apologetically and shrugged, not bothering to fight back.
“Well,” Derek said quietly, extending his hand to Hotch. “You want to take me for a spin? It’s been a while, I’m a little rusty. I’ll try to keep up.”
“I’m sure you still have it,” Hotch said, taking Derek’s hand and pressing in close. Derek smelled good, sweet like cigar smoke and cinnamon and bourbon. He began leading, stepping in time with the music and wasn’t surprised when Derek fell into step easily. “If I stumble, I’m sorry,” he added quietly, his mouth unbearably close to Derek’s ear. “I had to take some medication and it makes me a little loopy.”
“What for?” Derek asked, hardly caring whether Hotch stumbled over his feet.
“The explosion at the bank re-injured my ear. I’m sure it’s fine but it does hurt quite a lot.”
“You get it looked at?”
“I have an MRI in the morning.”
Derek smiled and nodded, realizing that they had fallen into perfect sync with one another almost effortlessly. Like no time had passed. Talking felt forced but it was getting easier the further in they went.
“Do you need me to take Jack to school?”
“Jessica said she could,” Hotch replied. Derek nodded.
“I know she will, but she’s getting herself pretty good and liquored up…”
“She was supposed to be my designated driver.”
“Yeah. I’ll drive you guys home, I’m not in the mood to drink tonight anyway. Had a bourbon with Rossi and Will to take the taste out of those nasty cigars he gave us, but otherwise I’ve been sipping soda water with lime.”
“You don’t need to do that. I think Anita has been drinking Sprite. She works in the morning.”
“Hotch…” Derek said, leaning back just far enough that they could lock eyes. “I’m not just offering to drive you home because I think you need a ride. I’m really trying here…”
“Oh.”
“Oh? I mean if you don’t want me to...if you’ve moved on…”
“No. I...no. That isn’t it.”
“Okay, so what is it?”
Hotch let out a small sigh and pursed his lips. “You asked for space, and I gave it to you. But in Chicago...it felt like you were finished. The way you behaved led me to believe your need for space had become something more. That you had come to a decision and that we had no future.”
“You really think I’d do that and not talk to you?”
“I don’t know, Derek. I have no right to expect anything of you anymore.”
“So you’re good just letting it die? You’re not gonna fight for it?”
“Derek, what do you want from me? You said you couldn’t trust me, that you needed space...when you ask me for space, I am going to give it to you. Did you really want me to fight?”
“No, but I didn’t think it would be so damn easy to let go of either.”
“It hasn’t been easy. Has it looked easy? Is that really what you think?”
“Well it hasn’t exactly looked hard.”
Hotch was on the verge of tears, maybe angry tears at this point, he didn’t know. He had almost no control over that and wasn’t going to expend any energy trying to. “I think you’re the only one who can’t see it.”
Derek didn’t like the sound of that, mostly because it hurt. It was probably true. He’d been doing his best not to pay any attention to Hotch, because paying attention hurt and made him want to go back to him and he knew he wasn’t ready for it. Because he felt like he shouldn’t be. He shouldn’t just be okay with Hotch lying to him, should he? Even if he’d done the same damn thing to his family over his cousin? And they forgave him because she was back in their lives, they forgave him because his motivation was for good. Wasn’t Hotch’s too? It wasn’t like he did it for his own gain. Every time he got close, something pulled him away.
“Maybe I am,” he admitted finally. “Hotch. I love you. I never stopped, I hope you know that. But I just don’t know how to forget what happened.”
“I would never ask you to forget.”
Of course Hotch would say that. Just be willing to keep a relationship up when he’s at an automatic deficit. Spend forever trying to make up for his failures.
“I hope for your forgiveness,” Hotch added quietly, almost too quietly for Derek to hear. “But I wouldn’t expect you to forget.”
“It can’t happen again.”
“I can’t make that kind of promise, Derek. I think you know that. There was no way I could have predicted being in that situation before and I can’t know something won’t arise again, but if there is any way around it, I will take it. I can do better than I have done at including you and sharing the burden. I can do better at including you in the hard decisions. I can do better.”
“You can, or you will?”
Hotch smirked at that, at the wording only they would pick apart. “I will.”
“Good enough,” Derek said, finally, taking the lead from Hotch for a moment. Remembering his own feet, his own rhythm. He’d missed this feeling, their bodies moving like one, the smell of Hotch. It was soft and clean, cotton and sunshine, he never wore more than deodorant and maybe some aftershave that lingered. He swayed his hips, stepping back and then forward, upping the tempo with the music. Hotch never missed a step even if he did look a little pale, a little light on his feet. Derek wanted to spin him, to twirl and dip him but he thought that might be pressing his luck. Instead he leaned in and kissed him, stealing his breath. “I don’t want space anymore. I want this.”
“Me too.”
From the bar, while she waited for her new drink, Emily smiled and watched Hotch and Derek. She couldn’t help it. “All it took was me leaving,” she said quietly and Penelope let out the wet sob she’d been holding back for two songs now.
“No,” she wailed, pulling Emily into a teary hug. “No no no.”
“It’s okay Pen. It’s for the best. We all need it. A fresh start for everyone. We can’t go back to the way it was before and it only hurt everyone to try...this is good. I promise.”
“Why doesn’t it feel good?”
“Because goodbyes are hard, even if they’re necessary. But look at that...look at them…look at Hotch and Derek...and JJ and Will...don’t cry over me.”
“Can I come visit you?”
“Of course.”
“Right away. I’ll help you move in. We can shop for furniture and explore your new neighborhood and find the best place for um…fish and chips...you eat the fish I’ll eat the chips…”
“Yes,” Emily smiled, holding Penelope’s hand tight. “To all of it. Yes. I’d love that.”
“Good! Now, come dance with me. Because I need to soak up as much Emily Prentiss as I possibly can tonight…”
“Anything for you, Penelope.”
"Ahhh," Penelope gushed, squeezing Emily's hand. "You are so right."
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arcadekitten · 7 months
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kind of spoilers forc cemetary mary in the art??
hi !!! ive only recently started playing your games myself but ive watched a playthrough of its not me its my basement and i loved it and i only got around to playing your games (hfsh and cm so far) for myself just about a week ago and i!!! am obsessed with them!! i love the way you write your characters and how unique they all are and i just think youre really talented and you really inspire me as both an artist and a writer! :D
ive been meaning to post fanart of your silly guys but ive been scared 😢 but imm going to send a little doodle here i did of reggie and twyla traditionally.. also i do plan on drawing ur characters more but im not sure if i should tag you in the posts or not 😓 ANYWAY im very sorry this is so long i just admire you very much andd yah thats it!!!
idk what this is i just wanted to draw them :3 i imagine twy caught mary talking to reginald at the library or something!!! OKAY THATS ACTUALLY IT THANK YOU FOR READING ALL OF THIS IF YOU DID AND thank you for your wonderful games <3
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Oh goodness this is the sweetest thing!! Thank you so very very much, I'm so happy to hear you enjoy the games, and am happy that they can feel inspirational!! ♡ It truly is the highest compliment!
You should totally post your fanart!! If it looks anything like this then I know all of it is GORGEOUS!! This is so adorable and I really love it along with your sweet message, thank you so much again! ♡ ♡ ♡
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reidingrainbow · 1 day
Text
momentarily breaking out of my absence to participate in this month's cm fic challenge by @imagining-in-the-margins :3
i've had a wip cooking for over a year and even though it's still not done, i'd like to at least post this first chapter for the prompt!
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Night Changes
[ Rated M for minors keep out ] 4038 words | moreid, mostly case-fic?
CW: trans male pregnancy (specifically spencer), nausea/emeto warning, canon typical violence, mentions of homophobia
summary: morgan and reid find out they're expecting in a... less than ideal fashion
Friday nights are always a treasured time for Spencer and Derek. After a long week at work, all they can think of is coming home to one of their apartments and falling into each other. It usually entails a delivery from their favorite local restaurant, a cheesy television show, and Clooney sitting at their feet waiting for them to drop something for him or curled up on the sofa with them. 
But other nights, nights like this, they need a little extra time to themselves. Nights like this involve Clooney being nowhere to be seen, some movie they’ve seen a thousand times, and maybe a glass of wine.
The only sounds to be heard in the room are the low drone of the television and Spencer’s soft gasps, his little hitches of breath and whimpers as Derek’s lips lave over his neck and collarbone. Derek eases the thinner man out of his lap and lays him back on the couch, his lips slowly traveling down his chest and abdomen and stopping to nip at his sharp hipbones. Spencer whines and attempts to buck his hips up into the touch, but Derek effortlessly keeps him in place with one hand. The other busies itself with unbuttoning Spencer’s pants, fingers moving deftly while he captures Spencer’s lips in a passionate kiss. Derek’s fingers slip inside Spencer’s boxers, inching closer to his throbbing–
On the kitchen counter, their phones chime in unison. 
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Spencer mutters, forehead still pressed to Derek’s. Above him, his boyfriend chuckles and presses an apologetic kiss to his lips before crawling off of him. They redress themselves and make an honest attempt to not look like they’d just been called into work in the middle of what was almost sex, but in the back of Spencer’s mind he knows they’ll probably figure it out anyway. He shimmies his binder back on and tucks in his shirt. While he buttons his pants back up, he notices that they definitely feel more snug than they did the week prior. He thought he’d been imagining things when he began to struggle closing his pants over the past few weeks, but now his growing waistline is undeniable. He sucks in his stomach to button the closure and lets out the breath as a sigh. “I think I need to lay off the take-out,” he says to Derek, following him into the kitchen to find his cardigan.
“Oh yeah?” Derek says, already at the door putting his shoes back on. “You and me both, pretty boy. I’m not sure how much longer we can eat like we’re in our twenties.” He pats his stomach for emphasis, as if he doesn’t have the world’s most glorious set of abs hidden beneath his silk button down.
Spencer huffs a laugh and buttons his cardigan back up. “Maybe I should cook more.” He pads over to the door in his mismatched socks, where Derek is holding his bag for him.
Derek smirks. “So we can live off of ramen? I’ll take my chances with Thai every night.”
“I can cook more than ramen,” Spencer insists. “Rossi taught us how to make his spaghetti and you even said yourself I did a really good job.” With his shoes on, he takes his bag from Derek’s waiting hands and follows him out to the driveway.
“I thought we were gonna stop eating like college students! Can you make anything that isn’t pasta based?” Derek says as they climb into his car. Spencer scrunches his face up and shakes his head as they buckle in. “That’s alright, next time we go visit my family my mom might be able to teach us a little somethin’.”
Spencer smiles. “Sounds like a plan.”
Spencer and Derek step out of the elevator for the second time that day, only two hours after leaving for the night (precisely two hours, thirteen minutes, and forty-five seconds, but who’s counting) and enter the bullpen to meet the rest of the team, where JJ is lamenting about her similarly ruined evening. Derek makes a quip about “dusting off the cobwebs” that earns him a swat on the arm from Penelope, and soon enough the team is called up to begin the briefing.
Any lingering thoughts of the evening’s earlier activities are thoroughly squashed within the first 60 seconds of the round table meeting. Spencer blames the crime scene photos, the images of the deep, cross-hatched cuts on the victims’ backs, for the wave of nausea that washes over him and sends a shiver down his spine. He flips through the rest of the file in hopes that averting his eyes will untangle the knot in his stomach. It doesn’t. He breathes deeply through his nose, trying his best to stay focused on the details of the case.
He drops a hand below the table and lets it flap at his side; he needs to stim through the feeling but the thought of calling attention to himself is only serving to make the sickly feeling even worse. He manages to make it through the meeting without incident and no one seems to have noticed anything was off about him. Some part of him, distantly, wonders if anyone would check on him if they did notice. He squashes the thought before it can fester.
The meeting can’t be over soon enough.  As soon as Spencer stands, his body suddenly feels infinitely heavier. Exhaustion has crept up on him and taken him by surprise. He brews another cup of coffee before they take off in hopes of making himself feel slightly less like a zombie.
The coffee does, in Spencer’s professional opinion, absolutely fuckall. He finds himself drifting off during their second debriefing, trying in vain to fight off sleep but his eyelids feeling heavy regardless. Aaron gives them their assignments for when they land and suggests that Spencer lie down. Spencer opens his mouth to insist he’s fine, he can just make more coffee, but before he can manage any words he’s overtaken by a yawn. Defeated, he retreats to the couch at the back of the plane. He refuses to lie down, insisting he’s not that tired. When he closes his eyes and leans back, it’s just to rest them for a moment.
“-ise and shine, pretty boy, we gotta get movin’,” comes a voice above him, Derek’s. Spencer wakes slowly, scowling up at Derek while he comes back to himself. He’s fully lying down, not sitting up like he remembers, and there’s a pillow under his head and a blanket draped over him. “Come on Reid, don’t make me carry you.”
Spencer sits up, finding he doesn’t actually feel better after his nap; he feels worse, actually, like finally sleeping made him realize how much he still needed to sleep. He reaches a hand up to Derek and he takes it, pulling him off of the couch and onto his feet. He ruffles Spencer’s hair, smiling fondly when he sleepily attempts to bat his hand away. “Let’s get to the hotel, you can snore in my ear all night.”
Derek starts moving and Spencer quickly grabs his bag and follows after him. “I do not snore,” he insists. He hears the older man chuckle in front of him. “I don’t!” It only serves to make Derek laugh harder; he definitely doesn’t mind the teasing, then, if it means he can hear his love’s laugh.
“You do, but only when you’re exhausted,” Derek says. “What’s got you so tired?”
Spencer shrugs and follows him to pick up their luggage. “I’m really not sure, it just snuck up on me. I was fine all day, even earlier tonight,” Spencer flushes a little, despite his exhaustion. “I even had coffee and still almost conked out during the meeting.” Derek hums in acknowledgement, patting him on the back and letting his touch linger, only for a moment, before he turns to head to the waiting SUVs. Spencer sighs, longing for the warmth of his hands on him again, before following after him. The faster they reach the hotel, the sooner he can rest in his arms.
-
Spencer wakes up the next morning still feeling absolutely wiped of energy, despite spending the night snoring in Derek’s ear as predicted. He trudges through the morning, only just alert enough to be coherent but nowhere near his usual self. The trip to the local bar is helpful, at least, and provides some useful insight into the town and its residents.
When Spencer and Derek arrive at the police station, Spencer briefly greets the sheriff before hightailing it to the coffeemaker. This time the coffee does help, if only a little, and soon Spencer can feel the fog lifting from his brain. Within no time he’s back to his usual self, putting his 20,000 words per minute to use going through all of the case files and relaying any useful information back to the team. They hit a stride in their investigation, working for a few hours and making good progress.
Spencer feels his stomach lurch, feels a shiver run up his spine, and he blanches. Oh God, he thinks, please not here, not now. These waves of nausea have come and gone sporadically for the past few weeks, but this is the closest he’s felt to actually throwing up. The thought of it makes him anxious, which in turn makes him more nauseous, which worsens the anxiety, effectively locking him into a hellish negative feedback loop.
He mentally cycles through everything he’s had to eat today to figure out what could possibly be disagreeing with him this strongly. He comes up empty, recalling only the two cups of coffee he had right there in the station.
(He wonders, then, if he should have taken up Derek’s offer and taken a few bites of the granola bar he’d had for breakfast. The train of thought is quickly derailed by his disgust at the thought of biting into someone else’s half eaten food, and it does nothing to quell his nausea.)
Whatever it was, it isn’t sitting well now. Spencer peels off his cardigan in an attempt to stop sweating, but to no avail. His stomach lurches again, dangerously, and he shoots up out of his seat. He barely mumbles out a “Need some air,” to the rest of the team before he bolts out of the police station. He distantly hears a familiar set of footsteps falling in behind him, but he doesn’t pay it any mind until he’s outside. He takes a deep breath of fresh air, one hand cradling his sensitive stomach and the other flapping nervously at his side.
“Everything alright, Spencer?” Derek asks, laying a hand on the small of Spencer’s back. Spencer isn’t facing him but he doesn’t need to to know those thick eyebrows are drawn up in concern, eyes soft in the way they always are when they’re on him. His hand is warm, large, easily spans over his lower back. He’s rubbing a gentle circle and oh- that feels good, Spencer hadn’t even noticed how much his back hurt.
Spencer swallows thickly and nods. “Yeah, I’m alright. Just felt a bit nauseous for a minute there, I didn’t want to puke in the bullpen and those bathrooms…” He wrinkles his nose in disgust. “ I’d rather take my chances out here.” He turns and gives Derek a small smile. Derek returns it with a grin of his own and Spencer wishes more than anything they weren’t on duty so he could lean over and kiss him.
“I told you, you should’ve had a bite of breakfast,” Derek says, his grin never fading. “You can’t run on coffee alone, pretty boy, you need actual food.”
Spencer rolls his eyes, laughing despite himself. He turns to fully face Derek, the other man’s hand sliding from his back to loosely hold his hip. “You wanna test that theory?”
“No, I just want you to eat something,” Derek teases. “Maybe your body is trying to tell you something.”
“Like what?”
“That you should stop being so hardheaded,” There’s no bite behind it, and Derek brings the hand on Spencer’s waist up to gently pat his cheek. Spencer instinctively leans into his gentle touch, only barely, before the door to the station slams open behind them. Derek stiffens and rips his hand off of Spencer like he’s been burned and Spencer himself takes an almost comically large step backwards, far enough that he slams into the railing behind him, and shoves his hands into his pockets. Officer Vicky, overenthusiastic and perky and so, so nosey, looks up at them expectantly from the doorway.
“Everythin’ alright out here, agents?” she asks, her voice clipped. Her eyes dart up and down their bodies quickly, trying to catch them out. This isn’t their first time in the bible belt and it won’t be the last; they know how to snap their masks back on quickly, instantly switching back to coworkers whose closeness falls well within plausible deniability. 
“We’re fine, thank you,” Derek says, returning the officer’s plastered on smile with one of his own. “We’ll be back inside in a minute.” Over his shoulder, Spencer presses his lips into a line and gives a small nod.
Officer Vicky takes the hint (for once) and heads back inside. Derek and Spencer sigh in unison, then chuckle a little. 
“You sure you’re alright, sweetness?” Derek asks, once more because he can’t help it.
“I’m fine, really, don’t worry about me. I’ll even try to eat lunch today,” Spencer replies. Seeming satisfied with that answer, Derek relaxes and they head back inside. 
They take their seats at the table, Spencer’s being on the table, and dive back into the case files. “Alright, where were we?”
-
Spencer likes to pride himself on his excellent planning skills. He goes through every step of the operation, analyzes every possibility, tries to think of everything that could possibly go wrong.
He does not, however, consider the possibility of being shot in the neck tonight.
It’s funny, he thinks, how he always knows that someday, something horrible could happen to him on the job. It has, in fact, quite often. Being kidnapped and drugged, watching his girlfriend die in front of him, being infected with anthrax. These things happen; hazards of the job. And yet, every time something does happen to him, he’s blindsided by it.
He’s not thinking any of that, though. He’s not thinking much of anything as he crumples to the ground. Distantly, over a whistling kettle and the gunfire and the ringing in his ears, he hears Derek scream his name. Hands are on him, whose hands, he knows these hands. Before he can identify them, he’s propped up into a sitting position. Everything is blurring together – all the sounds, his vision is dark around the edges. Someone is holding his neck, Alex is there. She’s telling him to keep his eyes open, which is very unfair, because he’s never wanted to close them more in his life. She’s telling Ethan to stay with her… Ethan? That can’t be right, he could’ve sworn his name is Spencer. Who is Ethan? Spencer is cold… and tired…so tired. He closes his eyes.
When he opens them again, he’s staring right into the sun. No… it’s a light. He’s in an ambulance. The sirens…  They remind him of the tea kettle noise he heard earlier.
“What?”
It’s Derek’s voice, coming from his left. Spencer’s hand reaches toward him before his eyes follow. “Do you hear it?” he slurs, his tongue feeling too heavy in his mouth to form the words. He’s dizzy, and everything is far too loud, and he’s about to close his eyes again when Derek grabs his hand and holds it tight. Spencer squeezes back, weakly, but it eases the concerned crease of Derek’s brow minutely.
“Spe-Reid.” Derek says, catching himself. Last names only while in the field. “Reid, you gotta stay with me, eyes on me-” The EMT says something that catches Derek’s attention, but he quickly redirects it back to Spencer. “That’s good, stay with me.”
Spencer closes his eyes.
When he opens them, he’s in a hospital bed surrounded by figurines and Alex and Penelope are there, making an honest attempt at pretending they haven’t been staring at him.
To say the rest of the night is a whirlwind would be an extreme disservice to the word “whirlwind.” Spencer doesn’t know the probability of being shot twice in one night by two different people, and he could almost definitely calculate it if he wasn’t so tired. He’s been up all night; between being stirred awake for check-ins every hour and the multiple attempted murders, he hasn’t had much of a chance to do more than doze off.
Penelope has stepped out of the room, stating that she needs water and the room still smells like gunpowder and she desperately needs to be where the gunpowder smell is not, leaving Spencer and Derek alone for the first time since that morning.
Spencer shifts over in the bed, motioning for Derek to come join him. The older man lowers the guardrail on his side of the bed and climbs in. Spencer immediately turns to face him, slotting his body up against Derek’s like they’ve done countless times. Derek’s strong arms wrap around him, one hand coming up to stroke Spencer’s hair while the other remains free for Spencer to hold, interlocking their fingers and resting their hands in the space between their chests. They don’t share words, as they often do when they cuddle, but instead opt to silently enjoy each other’s presence. Both men are worn out, exhaustion seeping into their bones, and this little moment between them is enough. The calm quiet, Derek’s warmth, the sound of his heartbeat… it’s enough to nearly allow Spencer to sleep properly.
“Knock knock,” comes a voice from the door, in time with the actual knocks on the glass door. Spencer’s doctor – his real doctor – is standing in the doorway, clipboard in her hand. “I’m so sorry to interrupt you guys, but I need to check in with you after that whole fiasco.” 
Spencer reluctantly pulls away to allow Derek to slip out of the bed and give the doctor room to work. She works quickly, taking his blood pressure and checking his breathing, and as soon as she’s completed her examination she moves out of the way so Derek can take his seat on the bed with Spencer.
“Alright,” she says, thumbing through his chart. “Everything looks good, I’m glad you weren’t hurt.” She moves to leave but turns back to Spencer. “Did I have a chance to go over your bloodwork with you after the surgery?”
Spencer shakes his head and Derek glances between him and the doctor, thick eyebrows upturned with concern. “No, you didn’t go over it with me… are my levels abnormal?”
“There’s nothing urgently wrong, aside from your incredibly low iron. Try to get more iron into your diet, you’re in danger of becoming anemic – but that’s not what I wanted to bring up with you.” She switches her attention to Derek, where he’s perched on the end of the bed, looking more anxious by the second. “Are you his partner?” Derek nods, and she turns her attention back to Spencer.
“Doctor Reid, are you aware that you’re pregnant?”
A beat. Another beat. A beat, that’s actually Spencer’s heart coming to a complete stop, scientific improbabilities be damned. “I-” He’s having every possible thought at once, he’s sure of it. “The-” Derek whips his head to look at him, expression unreadable. Spencer’s face is surely cycling through expressions at random, like the five stages of grief in roulette. “I’m…” His heart is pounding in his ears, he’s never felt every emotion at once before and it’s all so much. “Baby?” is what his brain finally settles on as a response. 
Spencer barely processes that he’s moving, slowly sitting up and reaching a hand towards the doctor. “May I see my chart?” He asks, his throat suddenly going dry. She nods and hands him the folder. He flips it open and Derek leans over to read along with him. He quickly gives up, however, because he can’t keep up with Spencer’s speed reading. Spencer’s finger moves across the page, his lips mouthing along with his reading. He soon finds what he’s looking for and freezes.
Pregnancy Test – Positive. 60-62 days [9 weeks]
Spencer blinks at the paper. Blinks again, like what he’s looking at will change. “Nine weeks?” He asks quietly. He’s not sure who exactly he’s talking to. Is he really so disconnected from himself, obsessed with his job, that he didn’t notice anything was off? For over two months?
The doctor nods, keeping her expression neutral in line with their reactions. Spencer hands the folder over to her and she slips it into the pocket at the end of the bed. “I’ll leave you two to discuss this privately. You should be ready for discharge soon, a nurse will come by later with some forms for you.” She leaves, and Spencer barely processes it. His mind had stopped moving the moment he was given the news.
Spencer is distantly aware of Derek reaching out to him, taking his hands in his own. They cling to each other like a lifeline because, in this moment, all they really have is each other. Spencer’s whole body feels numb, and he’s sure his face is reflecting it, but when he looks at Derek… he still can’t tell how he feels. He looks… scared. That look in his eye, a look of fear and uncertainty, it looks out of place on him.
Derek takes a shuddering breath. “What are we–” He’s cut off by his phone ringing, his work ringtone. He sighs, suddenly looking so, so tired, and reluctantly lets go of Spencer’s hands to check it. “It’s JJ… I don’t have to go, I can stay here with you. They’ll be okay without me.”
Spencer opens his mouth to reply and finds nothing comes out, no matter how hard he tries. 
[It’s okay,] he signs. [Go, the team needs you.]
Spencer briefly wonders why, even now, he can’t say “please stay, I need you” just this once. He chooses not to examine it.
Derek sighs, looking down at his still ringing phone. “Alright, pretty boy. I’ll be back soon, I promise. We’ll talk about this tomorrow, after we’ve both had some good rest.” He stands up, leaning over to place a kiss on Spencer’s forehead, then his nose, then his lips. Spencer’s whole body visibly relaxes, and he presses his hand, middle and ring fingers touching his palm and his remaining fingers up, into Derek’s chest. “I love you too,” Derek murmurs against his lips. He pulls away, and Spencer watches his demeanor switch from that of his doting boyfriend back to the FBI agent.
Penelope returns right as Derek is leaving, and Spencer must do a much worse job at hiding the fact that he’s having a crisis, because she is immediately at his side asking him what’s wrong. To be fair, his inability to mask has caused countless uncomfortable situations in his life, but nothing prepared him for the sheer panic that fills his body while trying to come up with a believable lie to tell the only person who always manages to see through his excuses (who simultaneously cannot keep a secret for more than a few hours). Penelope must pick up on his shift in mood, however, because she stops questioning him and takes her seat next to the bed. Spencer crosses his arms over his stomach and curls in on himself, facing away from her. 
Penelope watches Spencer, all furrowed brows and bitten fingernails and nervous energy, and sighs. She knows prying will just agitate him, but she’s getting stressed out just watching him stare into the middle distance and chew on his fingers, not unlike his mother. She’s not sure how to make him feel better, which she hates, because making people feel better is, like, her whole thing.
Maybe more jell-o will help.
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4 years, 40 facts about me loving napo... let's go 🏃🏻‍♀️
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...or as @leonscape called it, 40 "Mopoleon" facts?! (picrew link)
the date of our "anniversary", June 19th, is one day after the date of the battle of Waterloo 💀
both our given names are of Italian origin
we're both leo zodiac signs
our birthdays are 8 days apart, in the same month
he's my first otome route ever played
i've only played his route once, in July 2019
i've never seen his dramatic ending
my first impression of him on a teaser tweet of ikevamp EN was that he looks like an asshole, and I didn't like his looks either...
my falling for him was utterly illogical as despite these thoughts I put him on my phone wallpaper a few days later (still before the release of ikevamp EN)
as of right now ao3 says he appears in 59 of my posted works: the total number of fics I have published with him is higher as a few of those are stand-alones in a multichapter fic (napoleon bday prompts 2019 +9, yumeweek 2020 +5, mini requests +4, headcanons +11 ) ...he appears in about 1/3 of all my fics!
we share a hobby of reading biographies! the official ikevamp character sheets state it as his hobby
our height difference is 18 cm
the @xxsycamore blog exists solely because of him, as well as my passion for writing - I started this blog because I wanted to express my love in some kind of creative way, as previously (and for the longest time) I thought my medium would be art instead of writing
despite that, my first ever posted fic is not with him but with Arthur!
I've always loved languages but he had influence over my choice of learning especially french in uni. It's hell but I don't regret it at all
I have a playlist with sleepy-themed songs for him 🥺
birds are my favorite animals (any kind) and he has a pet eagle!!
our mbti personality types are a so-called perfect match! infp + enfj
I don't like black-haired, blue-eyed men because of him, it was my type before him too! (not many such ikemens around but I have a handful of faves like that from other media)
as the fictional napoleon bonaparte is light years away from the historical figure, I thought I wouldn't be interested in learning about him - until I ended up reading multiple books on him, the thickest of which 680 pages... while I don't mix the two in my head, the napoleonic era history (+ russian empire history) is still pretty cool to know imo!
there's hardly any writer around here who hasn't received a napoleon request from me at least once... I'm so sorry...
it is implied in the game that napo has kissed boys (they were taking turns waking him up and they all know of his habit......) which gives me enough reason to headcanon him as bi....like me 🥺
I really suck at completing the bday creation challenges I host for him, as last year I did 0 prompts and the year before that 2....but in 2019 I did 10!
I love making bday gifts. I love birthdays. I don't have the exact number but last year a lot of characters received a bday fic from me but not napo 💀 partly because I was shadowbanned back then!
the only real tradition I have when it comes to his bday is to make homemade crepes since it's his favorite food! but my favorite part is eating them...
I still haven't watched the movie "Napoleon & Me"...
I don't have much napo merch, but I do have the Naplushieon doll which is plenty
I was still in highschool (11th grade) when I fell for him 🥺🥺🥺 it feels like ages ago
I love the song written for the ikevamp stage play and sung by his voice actor Nobunaga Shimazaki, "Lucida", so much you can even find it and play it on my blog... recently some kind soul uploaded the whole version on youtube (I've been waiting for so long....) and I haven't been the same since
my dream napo merch is the clothes hanger with his neck and face so that I can hang my silly little sundresses on him (I'm going to make it on my own actually, just watch)
after having so many random fic ideas for him that will never see the light of day, I accepted the facts at last and now I feel so much better and more chill
I'm currently working on fanart series where I try to post one tablet-drawn art of him every month... I have trouble keeping them simple as desired sometimes but I'm having lots of fun while learning (I still consider myself fairly new to drawing with my tablet)
once I wrote a death anniversary fic for napo!
the best napo song i've discovered so far is Wings by Su!YoON!
I don't know. anything. about his sequel. i just know the cgs. not that is hard to avoid spoilers LMAO
my most favorite napo cg is the 5th bday one (where they're in a field of roses) (it was on my phone's background for a very long time)
my most favorite napo card...that's a trick question but I think the one that is on the left banner in my blog (desktop view)
yes, yes I do want to go to Corsica one day what about it. I have a lot of other dream trip destinations too!
yes, I do love Napoleon cake (It's a russian recipe) (it was my bday cake in 2020)... but so do I love a whole lot of other cakes...!
Fact number 40 is that I love Napoleon a normal amount 😇 nono listen!! I do talk a lot about him, and here I tried compilating facts that are not too cheesy: believe it or not there are days I don't think about him, ok! I never pressure myself to get all the event bonus stories, or to always have a fic ready for him... in a world where im a worrywart about anything and everything, he's my safe place? my chill place? And if I begin to think about the gigantic mass of things surrounding him that are exactly aligning with what I love, with what comforts me, with what traits im looking for in a person, i'm going to get dizzy. So let's end this here with me saying, ily so much Napoleon 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 im such a nunuche sometimes but im your nunuche ‼️‼️
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arichaa · 26 days
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My Demon Slayer oc
Hi, so I made this oc, but just so you know, I'm not an artist so that's why it's average
I wanted to do this for a long time, I had little ideas for a cute oc so here I am, humbly putting this here
Sorry if y'all have been waiting for a oneshot involving the literal Akaza, I didn't have any ideas anymore. Now, I might have an idea and there will be a post. But Idk when. And don't worry it's just this time that I'm doing something different, I'll continue to do Akaza content☻
I know I said that already but it's not a masterpiece but you know what? idc. idc anymore
And sorry if the headcanons don't make sense huhihjviveekevhhahahhahahhhaha AHHAHAHAHAHAHАННАННАНa
The Appearance
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Family Name: Ha
First Name: Ariana (not the grande one🤨)
Gender: Female
Age: 20
Birth date: July 3rd
Height: 161 cm/ 5ft3
Weight: 55kg/ 121 lb
Occupation: Hashira
The Breathing Style
Light Breathing (6 forms)
光の呼吸 (Hikari no Kokyū)
☆Fruit of Enlightenment☆
☆Shower of Sparks☆
☆Reflection of the Stars☆
☆Depth's Glow☆
☆Gleam of Hope☆
☆First Sunrays of Dawn☆
the light breathing is derived from the thunder breathing
The Sword
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her father, a passionnate weapon collector, travelled the world to collect them. he found a foreign sword he liked and left it to his daughter upon his death. she was inspired by this sword and created hers based on it.
the star represents the 6 forms of her breathing style
attached to her back with that grey thing around her torso
The Crow
I didn't draw it because I estimate that it is unnecessary since he looks like a regular crow. But he has a little red bracelet around his cute foot just so people know it's Ariana's. And his name is Revali (iykyk)
The headcanons
she is strong and she knows it (probably because of her breathing style? demons are creatures of the night, so the light contrasts, idk)
only child
has too much love to give
touch starved
would never refuse a hug
respects rules (never late, never enter homes with empty hands when invited, etc.)
easily shocked when someone doesn't have the same manners as her or doesn't show the same respect
would probably be against Nezuko being spared and would want Tanjiro to be punished
is embarrassed when she deals with attractive people
is literally so cute
so overly respectful to demons it sounds like she's making fun of them
example: "excuse me, sorry to come unnannouced... I am Ha Ariana, the Light Hashira, and I'm here to take your life!" all that with a sorry smile. Not because she has to kill them, but because she came in their home without knocking
encounter with Akaza : Why don't you become a demon? "Thank you for your offer, but my Hashira status prevents me from even considering it."
she flees from the fight if she knows she ain't winning sh*t, like the jjk characters (would only happen against The big 3 and Muzan chan) no bc if she know she's gonna lose why bother?
Like that woman would even announce it like "you're too strong, I'm off" (don't worry, if someone is in danger she'll flee with them)
encounter with Akaza 2:
Akaza: A woman?
Ariana: Uppermoon 3?
🏃‍♀️"I’m out!"🏃‍♂️
Personality and Traits
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Okay, I almost forgot, but like I said, I'm no artist, so for the body base, I used 8asaki's oc for it (instagram). Hope it's not too much trouble♡
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fourseasonsfigs · 3 months
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Building Block Figs - Armory
Following up on the recent sets of building block figs I've been posting, comes one of my absolute favorites!
As I mentioned with the earlier fig sets (Building Block Figs - Beautiful Fight Scene in the Middle of the Lake (Part One, Two, and Coda); Basking in the Sun, Catching Light, and Two Devils), I missed these sets when they first came out, so I've had to pick them all up on Xianyu. With the exception of this set! This one I couldn't get on Xianyu, despite my best efforts. I have only seen it for sale exactly once, and when I tried to buy it, it turned out the listing was only up to draw traffic, and the seller just had one other (vaguely related) set. I was resigned to just keep watching and searching for it and hoping for the best, which was a real pity, because just from the small sales picture I really, really had to have it.
Thankfully! Qilin, the merch wrangler extraordinaire (@88Qilin on Twitter), had bought this set way back in the day, and when she heard I was on the search for more of these sets, was kind enough to check in with me to see if I needed it. AND BOY DID I. She immediately sent it off, and it arrived in record time! She even included some wonderful little extras, that I took a picture of immediately, but for some reason can no longer find. I'll take another pic and add it! In the meantime, I'll add a placeholder:
[Qilin's extra goodies pic goes here]
I was so excited to get this set, I can't even tell you. I feel super, super lucky.
(Fun fact, Qilin is the reason I originally found out about fan made figs in the first place! I saw her post on Twitter (also way back in the day) about the New Year's series of 6 figs, and I absolutely had to have them. I had just reactivated my long-dormant Twitter account to keep up with the fandom, and I was super nervous to message her, thinking she would be like, "who is this total rando messaging me out of nowhere?!" But no, she was super nice, and very helpful, and it was entirely thanks to her I was able to buy the whole set. A minor miracle at the time, trust me, considering how green I was at navigating Weidian back then. If you ever want to buy figs directly, definitely check out her pinned post walkthrough on her Twitter page, it's invaluable information.)
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The set came sealed and as usual, in a plain box. Inside there was the same set up as the other sets in this series - a double bagged bag of bricks, the card with the QR code for the online 3-D instructions, and a handy little tool to separate bricks.
The full name of this set is Lao Wen Sacrificed his Life to Save Ah Xu. It measures 8.0 x 5.6 x 12.1 cm, and is rated 10 hours to complete. The "hours to complete" ratings have been extremely accurate to date. But, I was determined to get this set done over this holiday weekend, so hoped that my prior experience on these would serve me well to get it done in record time. So I timed myself!
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Here I am getting ready to start. Not a lot of colors, which is typical for these sets. Not too bad looking, huh? You'll notice that unlike the other sets, I didn't carefully pre-sort out all the pieces by size and shape. I simply sorted by color and left them in big piles like this, in a bid to shave off even more time. I was a bit curious if it would be faster to hunt-and-peck through each pile for the right bricks, or if sorting them was about the same. Given that it took about an hour to sort through the larger sets, I decided to roll the dice here.
The directions informed me there were 184 steps in this set. Not too bad! I sat down, put on my headphones, cranked up some music, and got started.
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I finished the first little block just as fast as could be. I was flying! I was so proud of myself. It was a holiday weekend, the morning was bright and sunny, and I was having a grand old time.
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The next step was to add a second base square in, and then a third and fourth. I added in the second base and kept on flying through it. And then...I ran out of a white brick in the largest size.
Which is kind of impossible. Each of these sets has extras of all the bricks - quite a few, actually. So I searched through the white pile a couple extra times, and sat there and wondered what was going on. As you know, I have lots of spare bricks from the previous sets, so it would be easy enough to pull the right one out, but this shouldn't be happening.
So I was like, wait a minute. I looked back at the phone directions for the step I was on, and said, hold on, I don’t see the character 白 for white anywhere. Uh oh. I Google Translated the characters that were there and sure enough, 透明 meant transparent.
I had just been going off the colors on the phone screen, and I mean, come on! The bricks looked white! If you scroll up and look at it, don't you think so too?
Anyway.
So, I pulled off all the white bricks, and replaced them with transparent bricks, and hey, what do you know, I had plenty of them.
Alright, alright, so this happens when you don't speak the language. Never fear, I'm back on track!
Dear friends, I was not back on track.
Sometime in all this confusion, I had spun around my little base square around, so when I attached it to the other base squares, I started filling in the top bricks the wrong way around. Luckily, I realized what I was doing after a few steps in, and I didn't have to totally reassemble it like I did with the Not White But Transparent Brick Debacle of early 2024. I just gently disconnected the base squares from each other, turned them around, and kept going.
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So! I finished the first layer 1 hour, 46 minutes in. This, of course, includes the one major mistake and the one minor mistake. It's pretty big, isn't it? The other fig sets only had max 2 base squares, so I was pretty excited to see how nice and big this was. The transparent bricks look nice, huh?
I took a bit of a break. Made a little bit of lunch, tidied up a bit, and then came back excited to tackle the next round.
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I was paying attention to the names of the brick colors at this point, believe me.
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I finished the next layer 2 hours and 54 minutes in. Pretty cool looking, isn't it? It looks like some kind of disk in an alien language. I must admit when I got here, I was both quite happy and also a little concerned. Only layer 2? Still 138 layers to go, and it's been about 3 hours?
Well, no big deal if it took me longer, really. I was having a good time, and there was no actual rush. I will say that at this point, my finger tips were certainly feeling the constant pressing and snapping of the bricks. They had actually toughened up back when I was doing set after set after set, but it had been some time, and my fingertips were back to their usual soft selves.
Luckily for my fingers, I had errands to run and other things to do, so my sore little fingertips got a needed break.
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The next morning, I was up and back at it!
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The third layer was starting to look like the actual base of the platform from the show. I was pretty excited to finish this layer, I have to say. I took little breaks here and there, but I was pretty determined to make some real progress.
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By that evening, I had gotten pretty far. I stopped here at 6 hours and 3 minutes.
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I was inordinately pleased by getting to this step. I could see the robes carefully spread out here, just like the show, and their hands out there. There was also a little bit of white where I was starting Lao Wen's new hair color.
You can tell the passage of time by how the light keeps changing in each of these pictures! I always end with the bricks for the step I'm on laid out in front of me, so I always know where I am when I pick the set back up. My memory is just too bad otherwise, I'll forget what I'm doing.
Well, 3-day holiday weekends don't last forever, so I woke up this morning determined to finish this. There was a little bit of race against the clock today, since I had appointments I had to take care of, and I needed to have enough light left to take final pictures. So, I sat down, and started going as fast as I could.
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At 7 hours and 6 minutes, I had built up the bodies, and was on to the heads. I hurried through my afternoon errands and got back around 3:10 pm. The sun sets here around 4:20, so I didn't have much time. Tomorrow I get on a plane, so it really was up against the clock! I didn't even put my headphones on this time, I just sat down and focused.
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But, it turns out that I didn't need that much time. 45 minutes later, I was done!
Total hours clocked in at 7 hours and 51 minutes. I will tell you, I was indeed flying through this set - all those other fig sets that I made mistakes on definitely helped me. I knew what I was doing, and I went fast. If this had been my first set, or even my second (ok, let's be real, even my third), it would 100% have taken me at least the full 10 hours. It also helped that other than Big Error 1 and Small Error 1, I didn't make any other mistakes.
You can see how many bricks are left (which is why I knew something was up when I ran out of that white brick earlier). I will say that not pre-sorting the bricks is definitely the way to go - it's pretty easy to pick out the right ones, and certainly saves a lot of time just organizing them into piles.
Alright! Let's do some beauty shots, shall we? As you know, the light wasn't super great, but it was good enough!
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Oops, I see I need to press down a little on Lao Wen's head to get the bricks firmly squeezed together. I'll admit my aching fingertips were not pressing down super hard at this point!
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I really love the 3-D effect of the icicles ringing the platform. This set is just fantastic!
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It's a little hard to see A-Xu's luxurious mane of hair here with the black on black, but it's quite nice.
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Lao Wen's closed eyes! Please also note the little white underlayer on his robes here at his neck. So cute.
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This is a nice angle to see A-Xu's married hair bun (minus one hairpin, of course) and Lao Wen's loop of hair.
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This angle is the coup de grâce of this whole set for me. For the longest time, I thought the single bricks was his eyes and the marks down his cheeks were tears, but in reality I think the larger bricks are his eyes, and the smaller bricks are his eyebrows going up in shock and horror. But all I can see are (non canonically accurate) tears free flowing down his cheeks!
I did waste several minutes at the point I was building this just contemplating his face, and I was THIS close to subbing in the light blue for to make tears after all, because (sorry A-Xu) I find it delightfully hilarious. Little Lego tears! I can't even. But, I decided to go with the actual design for this so you could see it (and go back and replace them afterwards).
Ahem. Anyway. This is also a beautiful shot to see Lao Wen's long white hair draping over his shoulders.
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More of the snow and icicles all the way around. It looks great.
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Seriously, don't you think they look like tears? Right, anyway. This actually isn't a bad angle to admire the modeling on the clothing.
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And we're back around. The modeling really is beautiful on this, with their robes carefully spread out behind them and to the sides of them.
Time for some closeups:
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Aww, Lao Wen.
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Aww, A-Xu, honey.
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The bottoms-up angle was really hard to get on this set, since the base was so large.
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The top down angle looks great I think. This is actually the first time that I'm noticing they have the scroll underneath them.
Honestly, I'm so impressed with this set. With only 9 colors, and some very basic building block shapes, they did a gorgeous job rendering this scene.
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With my last picture, in the last of my fading light, here's my two sets of armory figs re-enacting this scene. The closest set is actually from the New Year's set of of 6 that Qilin helped me buy back in the day, so this really is full circle!
I couldn't quite get my camera to focus on both sets, but you can see the relative size difference at least. It's a big set!
Alright, these are the last of these sets for a while - there's two more sets of two single figures each, but I have not been able to locate them on Xianyu either. I'm ok with it though - this is the last of the big scene sets, and one I really, really wanted. The others are nice but not quite as special as the sets.
Thanks for the figthusiasts friends that have accompanied me on these building block fig posts! They're all quite long, so I appreciate you reading all my thoughts and experiences with these. I absolutely love them - they were a ton of fun, and I only wish I had more! I'd love to enact out the entire series with building block scenes - can you imagine?
Material: Plastic building blocks
Fig Count: 520
Scene Count: 37
Rating: Pure love
[link to the Master Post Index]
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consolecadet · 7 months
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please note that I do not ask for advice anywhere in this post. do not send me advice I did not ask for it
Said yes to going to a queer wrestling thing in Boston in a month. Watched some wrestling videos online to see whether I needed to cancel or start making a flashback contingency plan or whatever. It was surprisingly ok.
Some observations:
Clips from a local league in Worcester were A Problem sometime last year or the year before. I find myself wondering whether 2022’s urgent threat of paraplegia was so much worse than Little Miss Chokes You For Fun that my memories of her feel comparatively less terrifying. I quit therapy and Wellbutrin between then and now, so it’s not like I was working on it with a professional.
Wrestling is so horny. Like…athletic men hitting each other until they bleed and collapse from exhaustion, but also there are pre-negotiated rules and you can tell that they’re collaborating with each other to entertain an audience? That’s just BDSM porn without visible genitals. I will take a heaping scoop, thank you. I’m mad that I’ve been opting out/unable to participate for so long. (These are the fights I watched, if you would like to share in the experience: 1. tokyvideo.com/es/video/jon-moxley-vs-will-ospreay-windy-city-riot-2022. 2. tokyvideo.com/es/video/cm-punk-vs-mjf-dog-collar-match-revolution-2022) (Yes, I did find these from Tumblr wrestling gifs I remembered going viral for seeming whumpy and gay. I assume they’re not representativeof the entire genre. I don’t think I would find Randy Savage particularly appealing.)
I have no idea how straight men are experiencing this or what they are getting out of it. I would kind of like to watch it with them to find out.
As someone whose normal, non-exaggerated facial expressions and body movements have been referred to as exaggerated or theatrical, I feel…weirdly seen.
As someone who’s used his upper body to drag himself across a floor/the bed because his legs were kinda jacked up, I also feel weirdly seen.
I really (ha) felt like I had done all the intellectual processing of the martial arts thing that I could (HA) and thought that all that was left was to decondition my responses to various physical stimuli (HA HA). I’ve already noticed a thing I hadn’t thought of before, which is “If she was constantly ignoring the rules because it amused her to torture me, why did I never do the same to her?” I spent my teens fantasizing about revenge, but it was about making her understand how much she hurt me, not about putting her in a headlock and refusing to stop when she tapped out. You could interpret this as noble, or you could interpret it as [Jenny-Holzer-BY-YOUR-RESPONSE-TO-DANGER.jpg].
I should revisit that sf short I wrote about revenge through body-sharing.
I think if the wrestlers were twelve-year-old girls I would be much more upset.
Is this…sports? Am I enjoying sports? This feels about as much like sports as the demolition derby I went to or the, uh, hot pepper eating contests I have been known to watch on YouTube. Which is not to say that it’s not sports, just that it’s not team sports.
Does this mean I would like NASCAR?????
This experience was so un-horrible that I’m very curious what else is fine now. I think watching IRL wrestling will be fine (fun?!) if the outfits are a little silly and I’m not close enough to smell the pong of sweaty shin guards.
I am only willing to go because 1. I have been in the mood to try stupid shit as long as it won't physically injure me, 2. KC is coming with me, and 3. I already wanted to become better friends with the guy who invited us and then he looked into seating accommodations for the event unprompted, which is easily one of the top five things you can do to earn my trust and respect.
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