#kinda:)

[orphicrites]

From Vanessa's IG 🖤

[ittitria]

first three

and closeups

[towards-toramunda]

A short lil fic that I wanted to exist:

The desert waste surrounding the malleus key was quiet and violently red.

Tomorrow Bell’s Hells planned to break in, use the key, and, hopefully, fearfully, arrive on the ruddy surface of Ruidus. They didn’t know when their next true rest would come, not really. Now, however, all was still. The only sound a dull thrum emanating from the inner workings of the key, and all was shaded a deep red. The shifting rainbow of the leylines still in their continuous dance, unchanged from their emergence weeks ago.

It was the second watch of the night, Orym and Ashton. Orym may not have dark vision, but the malleus key’s red vibrancy colored every visible surface around for miles, and it was the clearest he could view the world at night since… ever. It was disquieting. If he could see others in the shifting sand, surely they could see the hells too.

He moved his focus to his friends. They were all clumped together, FCG and Fearne surrounding Chetney, Imogen back to back with Fearne and holding onto Laudna with so much gentleness it hurt his heart. He shifted his focus back out. He needed to protect them. No matter the cost.

“Hey” Ashton broke the silence.

“Yeah?” Orym looked up at Ashton, they had a scarf wrapped around their head to hide the flickering lights of their injury, and Ashton’s sight was locked in place on the malleus key.

“After all of this is over… lets all go back to Zephrah for a bit. Rest up.” Their voice was hard and steely, their gaze never shifting from the key ahead.

“Ash…” Orym’s looked to the ground at his feet “I don’t want to pl-“

“No. We’re gonna go in, do what we fucking came to do, and then we’re gonna go to Zephrah. We’re gonna see your mom.” Their hands were tense, picking at their cuticles, their left leg bouncing. “Shes gonna make us muffins. We’ll bring them to the roof and look at the sunset. All of us. Together.”

Orym could feel the pressure of tears beginning to form behind his eyes as he began staring at the malleus key with the same determination. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but…

“I’ll bring a bottle of mead” he grabbed Ashton’s hands with one of his to still them “theres a bee keeper in my neighborhood who makes the best elderberry mead in all of Tal’Dore.”

Both of them had their gaze locked on the bloody bridge ahead of them. Ashton squeezed Orym’s hand like a lifeline.

“That must be the guy your mom got the honey from” the wind was howling and stirring sand up around them.

“Yeah thats him.” The steady crackle of energy coming from the key added an electric feeling to the air.

“We’re gonna sit on the roof, and eat your mom’s muffins with honey, and drink mead, and do a round of what the fuck is up with that.” They could see the scattered skeleton of their former airship, now coated in dust, and scavenged for parts. What was meant to be destructive instead made useful.

“Yeah. Yeah, we’re gonna go to Zephrah together. We’re all gonna-“ tears began to fall down Orym’s cheeks.

Ashton bowed his neck and raised Orym’s hand up to meet their lips, placing a soft, dry kiss to the back of his hand.

“We’re gonna go to Zephrah.” Ashton’s gaze never once moved away from the malleus key. “We’re gonna go back to Zephrah.”

Link on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52884496

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[dayzone]

I never send asks but I wanted to say that autistic Kevin is also a favorite hc of mine. Would it be possible to get some of your own thoughts/ideas about it? Love all of your posts!!

yes !! absolutely i take any chance to talk about my hcs !! there’s not enough autistic kevin content, and i’m so glad u like my other content too !!

he was never diagnosed in the nest; he had trouble understanding certain cues and sometimes it felt like everyone expected him to know how to communicate a certain way he didn’t know how to, but PR training was engrained into him just as much as the correct grip on an exy stick was, so he tends to fall back on that

it doesn’t really concern him bc he’s not interested in talking to people and why should it matter ?? he only really needs to be good at exy

he always assumed that his special interest in exy and such was just a raven thing

exy was an easy special interest to have bc in the nest talking about exy was really the only type of talking encouraged

his special interest in history is where he kinda... faltered

at its core it seemed similar to his interest in exy but it wasn’t encouraged the same way exy was so he treats it a bit differently

he does infodump, but only to himself about history while he was in the nest; whenever he would read an article that was really interesting and made him kinda !! he would lock himself in his room, alone, and pace while talking to himself for a few hours to get it all out

the first time he infodumps at psu was about the trojans after a really great match they played; it was only andrew, nicky, and aaron in their dorm at the time

he’s kinda hesitant to really infodump about exy bc at first all of his teammates see him only as a stuck up exy obsessed bitch, and while it’s true somewhat, it definitely doesn’t encourage any of them to listen to him talk even more about exy

he gets more comfortable with infodumping to wymack first, telling him about a history project and a certain move jeremy knox pulled off the really should’ve been impossible and slowly but surely he gets comfortable with infodumping on the other foxes, one by one

Routine. he is Very into routine and coming up with a new one after leaving the nest was hell for him and everyone around him; this on top of his hand pushed him to shutdown for a while

whenever he has a meltdown kevin goes nonverbal and Cannot be touched; andrew and eventually wymack and neil are the only people he’ll let be around him while he’s like this. talking feels impossible for him and even the thought of someone touching him can make him writhe

this pertains more to some of my hcs about his anxiety, but whenever he’s overwhelmed he re-strings the mesh of his exy racquet over and over again until his mind quiets down and he stops full-body shaking

is very meh about food. most of his eating habits come from the nest but he Does Not Like certain textures

cooked carrots? mashed potatoes? cooked peas? if it is warm and mushy he will not eat it

he was “trained out of” most of his stims at the nest but as he gets more comfortable at psu he slowly lets himself stim around his teammates

it’s mostly small stuff; he rocks gently, likes to play with things in his hands to keep them moving, doesn’t really like to sit still. snaps his fingers sometimes when he’s aggravated. pulls on the mesh of his racquet, twists his fingers in the strings. has caught himself chewing on his shirt neck/sweatshirt strings on multiple occasions; andrew noticed, because he notices everything, but he doesn’t object when kevin steals his sweatshirts and ultimately chews on the strings

andrew once walked in on kevin laying on the dorm floor with a mountain of blankets on top of him and all kevin said was “good pressure” and gave andrew a thumbs up

andrew gets him a weighted blanket after that

kevin loves the blanket but nothing beats neil (or even occasionally matt or nicky in their last few years at psu when he’s more comfortable around the rest of the team) laying flat on top of him; he blushed Very Hard the first few times he asked them to do it (after the first time neil accidentally fell asleep on him and kevin realized how good the weight was) but eventually he became comfortable asking

is Bad at reading the room/other peoples emotions; wymack is Always confusing him even if he doesn’t try to, wymack is just... Trying His Best; andrew is normally pretty straightforward and tells it how it is so kevin takes solace in that. whenever people have been Too Much and he just feels frustrated and confused bc people were getting frustrated at him for not understanding even though they were the ones being confusing he either locks himself in the dorm room alone or finds andrew and just sits with him until he calms down

when kevin gets too caught up in his own head or is struggling with understanding a certain situation he goes to neil bc neil is brutally honest and will repeat the same thing as many times as it takes to stick without getting frustrated with kevin

betsy was the one to diagnose him; he didn’t take it badly, he did his own research and his biggest reaction was along the lines of relief and “oh that makes a lot of sense”; he likes knowing he isn’t the only one who feels similar to how he feels. in his pro years he makes sure it’s known that he’s autistic bc he knows it helps other neurodivergent kids in the world to have someone they can relate to. it’s also a big fuck you to all the commentators and press who doubted him only after he made it known that he was autistic; he’s very petty about it and likes to remind people that, yes, you can be the best striker in all of exy history and be autistic. it’s not that hard to understand.

okay !!!! these are just some of my autistic!kevin hcs !! i feel like this hc does Not get enough content :,) pls pls pls always feel free to chat with me about autistic kevin or really any aftg hcs !!!

[grubauer]

who had post malone and ryan kesler being besties on their 2021 bingo card?

certainly not me

[k-she-rambles]

More first person books for @modvinnie

(Love to get other people on the train recommending favorites)

The Great Gatsby (A 'classic')

Stargirl (YA)

Adeline Falling Star (middle grade/YA, adventure/coming-of-age, historical fiction)

The Hunger Games (series, YA, dystopia)

The Bone Man (middle grade, thriller/horror)

Losing Christina (series, difficult to find, thriller/horror)

Immanuel's Veins (thriller/horror, classical vampires)

As I lay dying (afair, alternating POV, this book is weird. A 'classic')

Bartleby the Scrivener (classic short story)

Outlander (genre-busting Historical Romance adventure series with magic and time travel, has popular Starz TV adaptation)

[loose-leaf-teacanons]

Ok but third-year team captain picks.

Everybody expects the captaincy to go to Kagami during the last year at Seirin, because he’s pretty much the face of the basketball club at this point. He’s got the presence and the “fuck yeah!!!” enthusiasm that motivates everybody, it seems like a given.

But he’s just so relieved when he’s passed over because seriously, he loves basketball and he’s been sort of getting used to senpai-ing Yagi and the walking attitude problem over there Asahina over the past year, but man he is so not the leadership guy. Or the strategy guy. Or the “herding a bunch of cats” guy.

So yeah. That torch thankfully passes him by and goes straight into the hands  of poor Furi, who looks ready to have a heart attack at the mere idea of being chosen, something is wrong here, surely Hyuuga-senpai was nominating some other Furihata–– *distressed fish noises*

He calms down somewhat when he remembers that vice captaincy is a thing and that it goes to Kuroko. Together they basically form one functional captain unit because Kuroko has the preternatural calm and Furihata exists in the visible light spectrum.

Kagami is proud as fuck that Kuroko’s finally getting some recognition of his own, though “recognition” is kinda relative when people keep mistaking Kagami for the team leader. Whatever, he’s more than happy to tell them how wrong they are.

Kaijou is home to a large-scale social experiment in third year as Kise more or less has to don the mantle of captain since he’s the only third-year starter remaining. (Don’t remind him, you can catch him staring wistfully at the empty gym after practice and dabbing at his eyes as it is).

Everyone who hears about it expects the basketball club to descend into complete chaos within the week because yes, Kise has charisma out the ears and is extremely good at getting things to go his way, but he’s also kind of a beautiful insane butterfly on most days.

Joke’s on them, though, because man oh man, you have not seen serious dedication until you’ve seen Kise busting his ass trying to fill the mighty big shoes left behind by his former senpai, trying to do them proud.

Nobody knows how he manages to balance being a third-year and modeling and captaincy (and a rumored Tokyo sweetheart because who else would he be texting all those heartmarks), but Kise lives for the challenge.

(You can totally tell when he’s channeling Kasamatsu, too, because his voice drops and his whole posture changes as he repeats advice he’s been given in the past and just up and perfect-copies some inspirational speeches ad verbatim because dammit, he’s a model, not a motivational speaker!)

Shuutoku is surprisingly safe in Takao’s scheming, mischievous hands.

Nobody seriously considered appointing Midorima because while he has been mellowing out some, he still has all the social graces of a wooden plank. Miyaji-senpai-the-Younger couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t try to bench a third of the team because their star sign decided to implode or they’re bad feng shui or they’re not wearing striped socks today or whatever.

He still backseat-captains whenever he deems any of Takao’s numerous character flaws too egregious to continue unhindered (nanodayo). Takao has long-since figured out that this is the Midorima version of genuine support.

Takao is actually pretty happy to dump organizational stuff on him because Midorima is nothing if not a cranky medical lexicon/human calculator/over-prepared contingency-plan-for-the-contingency-plan kind of guy. So he can go juggle the numbers while Takao goes to juggle all those impressionable first years~~~

(The considerably less impressionable second years quickly learn that when the captain says “I SAW THAT”, then yes, he really did see that, and if you want him to keep mum about your shameful secrets you’ll totally do whatever he tells you to, mmkay?)

Touou passes to Sakurai because come the hell on. Aomine can’t be trusted to be in charge of a paper bag, let alone actual humans.

(That’s no joke, by the way. When Sakurai was having a meltdown over being unworthy and inexperienced and trying to spontaneously combust from shame and despair in the middle of the gym floor, Momoi successfully persuaded him to accept the captaincy using this very method.

She left a paper bag beside Aomine on the bench and not twenty seconds after she left Aomine had blown it up balloon-style and smashed it in his palm. Then he tried to sweep the paper scraps under the bleachers.

“Now imagine a first year in place of that bag.”

“But Aomine-san wouldn’t–” And at Satsuki’s raised eyebrow, Sakurai had to pretty much abandon his futile defense of Aomine’s nonexistent honor and accept that he was the only thing standing between a bunch of innocent first-years and certain death.)

It’s okay, Momoi helps him out. A lot. They spend whole afternoons doing rote memorization drills about how “a captain is never sorry for anything”. (She handles all the actual emergencies, anyway, because Sakurai’s poor heart would combust from the stress otherwise).

Even Aomine sometimes goes around terrorizing the newcomers into respecting the captain OR ELSE *cracks knuckles* and calls it “helping”. (He’s really proud of himself for it, too, and everybody generously refrains from pointing out the irony of him giving kids shit for things like not cleaning up the gym properly when his first-year self couldn’t even be bothered to drag his own ass to practice on the regular.)

Some reserve player or second-year inherits Yosen.

Murasakibara is not pleased.

Not because he wanted the job (lol), but because "You’re not Murochin.”

Murasakibara points that out, very often and very sullenly, so poor, harassed Reserve Player-san assumes that’s some kind of criticism or mutiny in the making and tries to figure out how he’s supposed to fight some 2.10 meters of solid muscle for the captaincy help––!!!

That is, until he catches Murasakibara muttering "You’re not Murochin” to every poor shmuck who gets paired with him, and that’s when the lightbulb goes on.

He, Reserve Player-san, hasn’t just inherited the most cantankerous of the Miracle Monsters, oh no.

He has inherited the most cantankerous of the Miracle Monsters who has a massive SAD because he fucking misses their former captain so much he can’t go a day without mentioning it in the most ass-backwards way imaginable and I’m not getting paid enough to put up with this shit seriously how did Himuro-san /deal/???

I have no idea what Rakuzan will be doing because man, if the pressure in middle school was bad enough to make Akashi crack and grow an alter, how on Earth is he going to deal with being a third-year preparing for entrance into the topmostestest university in all of Japan (nothing else will do, after all) and being the fucking student council president (somehow???) AND running a basketball team.

Maybe he just grows another alter and figures out how to astral-project it into practice while the rest of him catches up on schoolwork and prep courses (you know he’ll be in ALL of those) and sleep.

In all seriousness, though, I hope Akashi’s more-or-less canonical Mayuzumi-stalking helps him gain some perspective. I’m pretty sure nobody can spend an extended period of time around a human salt pan and not stop giving certain fucks, themselves. Imo Akashi desperately needs to learn how to depressurize and let things go and fucking fail more, and actually give himself a chance to dissociate himself from his father’s absolute bizarro worldview.

So yes. If I wanna imagine a future where he’s not completely broken, he’ll step down, stay on as a regular player and dedicate his sudden spare time to figuring out the meaning of life. Also, stalking.