#// 'whoever can eat the most and survive gets the child'

[lwjsbedtime]

Please consider: SY transmigrates into LBH

SY transmigrates into PIDW as a small orphan child. The streets he live on aren't kind - they're filthy, there's no food, and the other little brats are more than willing to beat each other for scraps. It's brutal! More than any modern man can bear! Please system, take him back to his nice, air-conditioned apartment!

System: Error. User 002's request denied. 😄🎉🎉

SY sighs. He can already tell this is going to suck.

Starving, and with little else to do, he sets off for CQMS. As SY sees it, becoming a disciple or sect servant is currently the best chance he has for survival. At least if he gets accepted, he'll be given something to eat, and maybe even see the protagonist LBH! Of course, he'll have to run for it before the Abyss arc begins - no use staying around just to be killed off. But until then, a meal is a meal! He'll do whatever it takes!

…SY never wants to see another hole ever again! He'd had the good luck to arrive at the mountain gate during the middle of CQMS' disciple selections, but the glee he'd felt over that had soon been carved out of him. For hours, he'd been digging in the dirt, tunneling deeper and deeper with the skinniest fucking arms ever to grace mankind! And all for a dumpling, and a bedroll?! No thanks! SY quits!

...

...SY cannot get out of the hole he's made. Somehow, he'd dug much deeper than head height, and his malnourished arms haven't the strength to pull him back up. SY wants to cry. He might as well have dug out his own grave!

The sun's heat is sweltering now, and SY squints as he gazes up at the sky far, far above.

"...Shit."

SY is going to die. He hasn't even really lived yet, and he's going to die! Again!

He's about to lay down in acceptance of his fate, when a hand reaches into the hole to draw him out of it - like a knight in shining armour pulling him to freedom, or a mother cat dangling its kitten by the scruff of its neck.

In any case, SY looks up with watery eyes at the person who'd saved him. It's an older cultivator - one of the peak lords? Whoever the man is, he's surely the most divine of immortal masters. The most heavenly of gods! Thank you, kind shizun! Your grace in accepting this poor, weak millennial will not be forgotten!

----

…SQQ has no idea what's up with this kid, staring at him with starry eyes, but it's...acceptable. Much better than open scorn, at least. He can mould awe into loyalty. Scorn could only be met with discipline.

SQQ asks for the child's name.

"Shen Yuan! And Shizun…?"

SQQ blinks. An orphan named Shen? What a coincidence. "This master is known as SQQ."

He squints at the child. He can't have the little brat running around, drawing attention to his name and less than proper upbringing. That could invite scrutiny as to SQQ's origins, and SQQ is not revisiting the nightmare of his childhood for anyone.

"Whatever gutter you crawled out of, you will never mention it to anyone, understood?"

He glares at SY until the boy nods timidly, those freakishly bright eyes shining with tears. SQQ sneers at the display. Weak. Pathetic. Like a stupid little sheep.

"Come," he orders, starting to stride off without waiting for reply.

"Y-yes!"

SQQ leads his new disciple back to Qing Jing Peak, and has MF show the filthy little wretch the baths. Once he's clean, he can be put to use.

----

SY is horrified. He takes it back! He doesn't want any food, and he doesn't want to be seen with SQQ! He's grateful for the opportunity, but really, he has to go. If he stays on Qing Jing Peak, LBH will turn him into a popsicle alongside his asshole shizun!

But...is SQQ really all that bad? SY wants to slap himself for thinking it - this is the man that beat and maimed the protagonist, after all! It's just, Shizun seems fairly...normal? Not what he'd expected of a trash tier villain at all.

Sure, SQQ is prickly, and kind of an ass, and he gets really weird if anyone startles him, but he's not evil evil. In fact, excluding his at this point hypothetical treatment of LBH, he's practically lax regarding punishments. SQQ simply doesn't care that much, unless something affects his peak's image, or his preferred tea time. It's all immaterial to him - he has better things to do.

Seriously, the way the novel painted it, SY expected to be beaten bloody for even the slightest infraction. In reality, misbehaviour on QJP usually lands a disciple running laps, or doubling their amount of chores for the month.

...Truthfully, SY's starting to think his shizun's bark is worse than his bite, not that he'd ever say that to SQQ's face. Trust Airplane to mess up such broad strokes of characterisation in his shitty, third rate novel!

However, that's not to say SQQ is all kindness and roses. He's not. He's rude, and abrasive, and he has hit SY - after SY rushed up to a Heart Eyed Purring Snake and nearly got himself killed for his efforts. It wasn't fun exactly, but it was in hindsight - kind of - deserved. Still, it hurt and SY was mad about it for quite a while, until he realised LQG's disciples get beaten worse and with more frequency than anyone on QJP.

Anyway, the point is SY sort of enjoys mooching off CQMS, but he really doesn't want to be here when LBH appears and SQQ inevitably devolves into a raging lunatic. Sorry, Shizun! Your disciple is grateful for your care, but he's also a coward! Best of luck in the afterlife!

But, then SY thinks…perhaps if he befriends LBH, everything will be well? If he sucks up to the little demon emperor well enough, then surely the big demon emperor will spare him when he razes his home to the ground? Plus...SY still thinks it would be cool to meet the protagonist, if only once...

He decides to stay. Just for a little while longer.

----

SQQ finds the new child tolerable.

"Trash," he murmurs, flipping the page of the terrible novel Xiao Hua slipped him the last time he'd visited the Warm Red Pavilion girls. Really, what kind of emperor would disguise himself to seduce a woman? There were already 400 wives waiting for him at home!

"Shizun?"

The voice comes from beside his ear, far closer than he'd prefer to allow. SQQ turns to glare at the obnoxious little brat it came from, but his ire slides over SY like water off a duck's back.

"What are you reading?" the boy asks.

SQQ places the book facedown on the table.

"Did I ask you to speak?"

SY blinks up at him with those stupid, pretty eyes of his. SQQ bites back the urge to scoff.

"Don't look so airheaded," he snaps. "And mind your business. Do you even know what happens to boys who can't keep to thems-?"

He cuts off with a snarl. He shouldn't mention it. Why should he care what happens to pretty, naive children who speak out of turn? SY isn't like NYY. He'll soon grow into less of an obvious target. And he isn't an urchin to be stolen away anymore, either. No, SY has clothes and food and a roof over his head - all for free. He's practically spoiled.

SQQ hates spoiled little brats.

He flicks open his fan to hide his expression - whatever his face had done has that stupid boy looking alarmed.

"Sorry, Shizun," the boy replies. "I'll go get lunch then?"

SQQ huffs. "See that you do."

And the dumb little sheep scurries off to do just that. SQQ's fan slams back down upon his reading desk.

"Idiot creature."

SY is too submissive for his own good. It'll get him hurt one day. See if SQQ helps him then!

----

Later, when SY returns to clean away SQQ's dishes, he happens to discover the book the man was reading left out in the main room. Curious, he scans the room for signs of his shizun's presence, then carefully flips open the first page. He begins to read.

...

"What the hell? What is this knock-off trash?! Emperor Luo Bingge?!! Is there an Airplane in this world, too?!!"

SY is so disgusted, he doesn't notice sly eyes watching him from around the silk screen.

It serves that little brat right for being curious.

----

SY waits years for LBH to show up, but for some reason, he never does. Which is weird, because his system keeps tallying up protagonist satisfaction points! Largely, when SY interacts with Shizun, for some reason...

SY sighs. At least that means he's alive out there somewhere. Hopefully, very, very far away from CQMS. SY may be a big fan of LBH, but he doesn't really want his home destroyed - especially since Shizun only just had a new kitchen installed. Most of the work maintaining it has fallen to SY, due to his excellent (system approved) cooking.

Honestly, SY finds it much more relaxing than he'd expected. When he first transmigrated, he'd thought it was some sort of messed up joke to grant him culinary prowess without also granting him food to eat. Definitely not the kind of skill you'd attribute to some skinny little street rat (or anyone who'd previously poisoned themselves to death).

But now, he's grown into the art. It's fun. Chopping things relieves stress. Boiling things relieves stress.

...

If anyone messes with his spice organisation ONE MORE GODDAMN TIME, he's going to practise his knife skills on them.

...

...SY may or may not be getting anxious. He's started stress baking batch after batch of choc chip cookies everyday. No one can eat that many cookies! SY isn't even certain this universe is meant to have cookies.

"Binghe," he sighs, pulling out today's fourth batch from the poor, overworked oven. "Please come soon. This old man's nerves can't take it."

----

SQQ, passing by the kitchen: TF is Binghe? Why is SY waiting for them? SY is my stupid disciple. I own him! 😡

SY later finds a snapped fan left outside the kitchen door. How it came to be there is a mystery, but as he recognises it as Shizun's he supposes he should have it fixed...

For a while after returning it, SQQ refuses to use any other.

"They're ugly," he says, gesturing with his prized fan. "Put them away."

SY quirks a brow. Are they really all that bad? He can't tell.

"Of course, Shizun."

----

SY does his best to productively fill the time while waiting for LBH's arrival. So far, he's dutifully cultivated a core, sneaked into the Lingxi Caves alongside Shizun to prevent him from murdering his shidi (only to find no murder going on, but a violent qi deviation on LQG's part - seriously Airplane?!!), and even fought one of SHL's dumb underlings when she thought to attack his sect.

And yet, still no Binghe!

At this point, SY is resigned to reach the Immortal Alliance Conference before the protagonist shows up - something he's not looking forward to at all. He doesn't want to compete in the stupid hunt. He's a no name NPC. He'll be lucky to survive!

...

And yet, the conference soon arrives.

"Don't die," his shizun kindly instructs, rapping him on the head with his fan. "I won't have you making QJP look bad."

SY sighs. "...Yes, Shizun."

As if he'd do it on purpose! SQQ, you have the face of an angel, but you're so cruel! 😭

----

Halfway through the main competition, SY is really starting to sweat. Where on earth is LBH? He has to be somewhere, because the system keeps. Yelling. At. Him. to make sure the protagonist ends up inside the Endless Abyss. As if SY wants anything to do with that! LBH would crawl back out and kill him!

System: Quest 'The Endless Abyss and Endless Hatred, a Sky Filled with Crystal Frost and Tears of Blood' must be completed or User account will be terminated. 😄😄

SY scoffs.

"Better that, than waiting for LBH to exact his revenge!"

He resolves to ignore the system until the end of the conference - he's not a chauffeur! LBH can find his way into the Abyss himself if it's so necessary!

...

Then, predictably, everything goes to hell. The ground is rumbling, ripping apart beneath SY's feet. To his left, a pile of corpses is swallowed by the ominous fissure splitting through the earth.

Across the field, SY can see SQQ calling to him.

"Shen Yuan! Come here this instant!"

His shizun's eyes are wide with something SY hasn't ever seen on his face before - fear? Constipation? But why-?

Suddenly, the earth below SY's feet crumbles. Caught unawares, his legs buckle beneath him.

For a moment, SY is scrambling over air, his feet sliding over loose dirt and bits of rubble in a frantic effort to steady himself.

Then...

...He falls.

As the wind is knocked out of him by the monstrously solid ground of the Endless Abyss, the system's voice chimes inside his head.

[Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations! User 002 has completed 'The Endless Abyss and Endless Hatred, a Sky Filled with Crystal Frost and Tears of Blood'. LUO BINGHE enters THE ENDLESS ABYSS! 🎉🎉🎉]

And SY suddenly has the most horrifying realisation of both his lives. 

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN 'LUO BINGHE'?!!"

----

Not shown:

» SY being convinced Meng Mo is a vivid hallucination right up until the Abyss.

» SY taming every monster in said Abyss with his wifely allure.

» The system having to threaten SY with death to get him to claim his empire. He doesn't want it! Ruling is too much effort! Where's a Shizun when you need him? 😭 SQQ loves ordering people around! He'd be great at this stuff!

» SQQ and YQY patching up their relationship while SY is in the abyss. SQQ needs to vent his grief anger on someone, and it might as well be Qi-ge. YQY is so happy he could cry.

» Upon returning to the human realm, SY finds dealing with every single harem member tedious (seriously, he spent years in fear of looking at them wrong!), and creates a council to wrangle any marriage offers instead. If he wanted to be whipped, he'd ask his shizun for it, thank you very much! If he wanted to be verbally humiliated, he would also go to Shizun! If he wanted sex, well...SQQ apparently knows a lot about that, right?

(SQQ does not know a lot about that, thank you very much.)

Meanwhile:

QQQ: Your disciple's been turning down all his marriage prospects.

SQQ: 🙄 ...And? How does this affect me?

QQQ: He keeps telling them their wiles are nothing compared to the great immortal SQQ, and he'd rather have you instead. 

SQQ: 😳 Impertinent child! I'll teach him to spout nonsense! 😡

SQQ storms into SY's palace and demands to speak with him.

SY: Shizun! 😄 How are you-?

SQQ: How dare you sully this master's reputation!

SY: Ah... I can't help being a demon, though?

SQQ: Who cares about demons?! Half the jianghu thinks we're intimate!

SY: !!!

SQQ: Therefore, I'm staying here to dissuade such nonsense! And to ensure you don't run this supposed 'empire' into the ground. Have chambers prepared for me. Appropriate ones!

SY: Ahaha... 😅 Yes, Shizun.

SQQ: 😠

It takes another three years of 'co ruling' (really, it's SQQ with all the power. SY has no head for politics) the empire before either SY or SQQ come to terms with any possible…feelings they might have regarding one another. Do they act on them? Absolutely not. Neither of them would be caught dead experiencing emotions in the presence of others!

(SQH has to orchestrate a wife plot into existence to save everyone's sanity.)

» Eventually, word spreads that the emperor and his heavenly demon consort take in any women in need and help solve their issues without asking anything in return (except to please leave SY alone!). Naturally, they're quite popular amongst the female population of the empire.

» SJ has the WRP girls relocated to the palace. Not to keep an eye on his husband! SY is so simpleminded, he would never think to betray him. However, there's only so many times you can walk in on strange women pawing up your trembling little sheep of a husband before it. is. enough.

» The WRP girls adore SY. He's so fun to dress up and bully!

» LMY becomes a prolific (and rich!) author. 😏

----

SQQ: is a walking red flag.🚩🚩🚩

SY: That's kind of hot, actually. He's just misunderstood.

SQH: Bro, he abuses children!

SY: Is it really abuse if you like it tho?

SQH: 😳 ...Bro...

[genshinluvr]

Burning Desire

Pairings: Various Genshin Men x Isekai'd!Reader

Summary: You and the men are exploring the Chasm to search for the flower dubbed the Scent of Spring. A rare flower that is the last of its kind. While trying to pull the flower from the cracks in the wall, the flower sprays a strange powder all over you. When the flower sprays powder all over you, you end up inhaling a large amount of it.

Note: Welcome to a new smut series by yours truly, me! Thanks to the requester, there is a new smut series where every man gets their own smut fic and the readers get to choose who's starting the smut series and who will be next after the previous character! This request was sent in before the harem had 25 people, therefore I am making it into a new smut series other than Crave. There will be a poll per chapter and whoever gets the most votes will be the one to start off the smut, and whoever is voted the most after that character the started the smut fic (for example: Aether), will be the next chapter. Instead of making the reader drink an aphrodisiac, I decided to have the reader inhale it. Anyway! I don't post anywhere else but on Tumblr (Genshinluvr) and on AO3 (Aaliah_exo).

Warnings: No smut in this part (darn), but there are some implications of sex and masturbation. Reader inhales a large amount of sex pollen/aphrodisiac.

Word Count: 9.2k

Burning Desire "chapters"/routes: [1], [2], [3], [4]

You have recently decided to work for the Adventurer’s Guild! Kind of. The Akademiya and the Adventurer’s Guild decide to team up and let the Akademiya students explore around and take on an adventurer’s task. You are tasked to investigate the Chasm and find a mysterious flower that went extinct thousands of years ago. Rumor has it that there is only one flower that managed to survive the extinction, and you are on a mission to find that flower.

When you informed your twenty-five boyfriends about your task in the Chasm, they were hesitant to let you go to the Chasm. Not because they didn’t trust you but because it’s the Chasm, and many things can go wrong down there. Plus, it’s hard to tell whether the air conditions are safe down there or not. Hence why miners would go into the Chasm with finches in the cage— to test whether the air quality is good down there or not. At least, that’s what you can recall. 

“Why the Chasm? Why not somewhere else that isn’t dangerous, like the Chasm?” Aether asks, leaning back in his seat while gazing at you worriedly.

Al Haitham chews on the inside of his cheek, his eyebrows furrowing. “Did they assign you the Chasm?”

You shake your head. “I chose to go to the Chasm! There’s this rare— I’m not sure if I should call it rare— flower in the Chasm. It’s the only flower that managed to survive while its fellow species went extinct. Because botany is what I specialize in, I want to find this flower, bring it back to the Akademiya, and have it studied,” you explain.

“And you want to go to the Chasm alone?” Tighnari asks, staring at you with wide eyes.

You quickly protest, “No, no! I’m not! I was hoping you all would go to the Chasm with me and keep me company!” You say, fiddling with your thumbs.

The corners of Childe’s lips quirk up after hearing your response. Childe gets up from his seat and walks over to you. Childe wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you to his chest, and caresses your face in front of the other men around you two. You and Childe hear collective scoffs and groans from the men.

Childe has a shit-eating grin on his face. “Do you all hear that? My precious snookums wants me to keep them company to the Chasm!” Childe exclaims dramatically, resting his cheek on your head while rocking you back and forth.

“You mean us, Harbinger. [Y/N] wants us to join them in the Chasm while they search for this mysterious flower for their Akademiya research,” Diluc interjects, rolling his eyes.

Childe rolls his eyes and mouths “whatever” to himself while suffocating you in his arms. It wasn’t hard to convince the others to join you in the Chasm while you searched for this flower. And now, here you are, walking through the Chasm with your beloved boyfriends following behind.

Your professors at the Akademiya have been raving about this mysterious flower when you were a new student at the Akademiya. Despite the professors raving about the flower, they were afraid of going to the Chasm to search for the flower, which is a bit ironic because most Akademiya scholars would risk it all for their research and experiments. 

The flower is dubbed the “Scent of Spring,” and you’re not entirely sure why the flower is called that when none of these scholars have gotten close enough to the flower to smell it. While the scholars at the Akademiya have some knowledge of the flower, the knowledge did not help you and the men find this flower. You only know what it looks like.

You hold the sketched image of the “Scent of Spring” in your hands. “It looks like an apple blossom! And the colors are supposed to be a gradient of light steel blue and a medium slate blue,” you murmur, stroking your chin.

“It’s dark down here. How are we supposed to find this mysterious flower in a place like this?” Kaveh asks, squinting to search the darkness ahead of you all.

You shrug, following behind Albedo (who has the Lumenstone Adjuvant). “I’m not sure! It should be somewhere in the Chasm, but my professors and the other scholars weren’t clear on where the flower can be found,” you sigh.

“Sounds like they don’t know what they’re talking about. What if they led you on a goose chase, and they’re watching our every move to get what they wanted?” Cyno asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

Oh, dear archons. You sure hope the Akademiya scholars aren’t leading you on a wild goose chase. This is part of your assignment and research project. You will be disappointed if you go through all that trouble just to find out the flower doesn’t exist or the scholars already have it.

Albedo hums thoughtfully, shining the Lumenstone Adjuvant in another direction in the cave. “I don’t think a couple of scholars are capable of doing that. But if they attempt to do that, we won’t let it happen,” Albedo murmurs.

“How does a flower thrive in an environment like the Chasm? It’s underground, away from sunlight. There’s no way a flower can survive without sunlight,” Scaramouche interjects, kicking a pebble across the cave.

“Well, there are plenty of plants that can grow without sunlight, Scaramouche. I find it strange that a flower can survive in an environment like the Chasm. We can barely breathe in some areas of the Chasm,” you mutter, propping your hands on your hips before looking back at the sketched image of the flower. 

The area all of you are in is dark and wet. It’s disgusting, but the air is breathable compared to other areas of the Chasm you all explored a while ago. It’s kind of a win. The sound of water dripping from the ceiling in the cave is all you can hear. As you and the twenty-five men continue to walk further into the cave, the sound of the waterfall running gradually becomes louder.

Venti points forward. “Maybe the flower survived in the Chasm because of this stream that is connected to the waterfall!” Venti theorizes, skipping ahead of the group.

You stop in your tracks and think about what Venti had just said. He’s not wrong. While the air in the Chasm is unbreathable in some areas, there is a source of running water in the Chasm that could be keeping the flower alive. You and the men progress into the cave, the waterfall getting louder and louder the more you all approach the end of the cave.

“Are there any other descriptions given about the flower other than its color? Does it glow in the dark? Is there a strong scent?” Heizou trails off, looking around the cave to search for the flower.

You shake your head. “My professors didn’t give me any further details about the flower other than it being dubbed the Scent of Spring,” you say dramatically.

“And what does the scent of spring supposed to smell like? Spring?” Itto asks, making a “pfft” sound and walking over to where you stand and props his arm on your head, using you as a personal stand. 

You shrug your shoulders and move Itto’s arm off your head. “That, I do not know! However, I think that means we should start sniffing flowers,” you say, pulling out your flashlight and begin searching for this rare flower your professors and the scholars in the botany department have been raving about for who knows how long. 

You believe once you have given the scholars the flower, they will try to find a way to bring back the population of the extinct flower. Though, you wonder if they will continue to revive their population if the flower ends up being dangerous to inhale or be around. Now that you think about it, there are dangerous plants throughout Teyvat that are used for experiments to create new medicine or cure for diseases.

“Once you find the flower, what are you going to do with it?” Ayato asks, his eyes landing on the giant mushroom in the Chasm.

The giant mushroom in the Chasm illuminated the area. You shine the flashlight around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the flower the Akademiya scholars have been talking about nonstop. You hum and prop your hand on your hip, thinking about what you will be doing with the flower once you find it.

“I’m going to give it to the Akademiya, but I want Albedo and the others to get some research done on it. It wouldn’t be fair if I find something rare and immediately hand it off to the scholars at the Akademiya,” you say.

Dottore smiles and throws his arms around your shoulders. “It’s sweet how you’re putting us ahead of the scholars,” Dottore coos, pinching your cheek with a cheeky grin on his face.

“Since this is for [Y/N]’s assignment, let’s not distract them any more than we already are. They need to focus and find the flower,” says Baizhu, crossing his arms over his chest.

You mouthed a “thank you” to Baizhu before proceeding on your search for the flower. Everyone is scattered around the cave, searching for the Scent of Spring. You’re not sure why it's dubbed the Scent of Spring because surely the people would have known what it smells like if they come across it. But because the flower is in the Chasm and no one has gone near it, you find it hard to believe that the flower smells like spring. Plus, what does spring smell like other than flowers? Every flower has its own unique scent.

After searching for about fifteen minutes, you see a medium-sized flower between the cracks in the wall. The flower is sticking out, and it’s shaped like an apple blossom and has the same color gradient that was written down on the piece of paper in your hand. The sound of your gasp alerted the men, and they all ran toward where you were standing.

Kaeya points at the flower. “Is that the flower you’ve been searching for?” Kaeya asks, inspecting the flower from a safe distance.

You nod slowly. “I believe it is! It’s shaped like an apple blossom, it has the same color gradient written on the paper, and it’s the only flower in this area,” you murmur, reaching forward and touching the petals. “It’s really soft, too,” you add.

“Now that we found it, how should we extract the flower from the area without damaging it?” Asks Thoma, tilting his head to the side and scanning the flower in front of you.

You pull a glass case from your bag and place it on the ground, putting on rubber gloves and preparing to take the flower out from where it’s residing. There’s no guarantee you’ll be able to pull the Scent of Spring out of the cracks without damaging it. It’ll be ironic if it dies the minute you pull it out from the cracks, even though it survived for thousands of years while its own kind went extinct.

When you tug on it, you notice the stem is quite thick, almost as wide as a branch. Not only was it sturdy, but you noticed there was some powdery substance on the flower itself. Even though you know little to nothing about this particular flower, you know that most flowers in Teyvat do not have a powdery coating on top of the petals. You rub the powder between your gloved thumb and index finger, testing its consistency.

“That’s odd. I’ve never seen a flower that has this powdery coating on it,” you murmur, leaning your face closer to the flower to inspect it.

“Does it smell like the Scent of Spring?” Kazuha asks, watching you examine the flower closely.

You shrugged your shoulders and gave a whiff of the flower. After whiffing the flower, you have concluded that the flower has no scent at all. Therefore whoever named the flower needs to rename it because it doesn’t smell like spring, nor does it smell like anything at all. It does have a hint of an earthy smell, but that could be coming from the rocks and the dirt it’s planted in. 

You shake your head. “There’s no scent. The Akademiya scholars will need to rename it because it has no fragrance at all,” you say, proceeding to gently grab it by the stem, lightly tugging on it.

When you tug on it lightly, it does not budge. Not even a little bit. You furrow your eyebrows and pull on the flower harder. The harder you pull on the flower, the more you realize the flower isn’t going to be budging anytime soon. Before you know it, the flower sprays the powder all over you. You freeze and release the flower, blinking at the men, who look at you worriedly. 

You breathe in the powder, feeling the powder inhaled through your nose. You coughed and began hacking, punching your chest, doubling over while in a coughing fit. Gorou panics and runs toward you, only for you to shake your head frantically and gesture for him and others not to come any closer.

Gorou whimpers, looking at the others worriedly. “[Y/N], are you okay?” Gorou asks softly.

You calm down after a few minutes and take a deep breath, wincing when you feel the powder in your throat and lungs. You take deep gulps of air and straighten up, looking over at the flower. The flower no longer has a powdery coating on its petals, which was strange because it made you assume the flower never had any powder coating in the first place. What was that thing that coated the flower? Unless it was the flower that spits the powder at you as a defense mechanism?

You stroke your chin. “How strange,” You mutter.

Xiao scoffs. “Yeah, no kidding. You were hacking your lungs up a few minutes ago, and now you’re acting like everything’s okay?” Xiao asks, propping his hands on his hips while narrowing his eyes at you.

You clear your throat, swallowing your saliva. You wince and rub your throat, sniffing the air lightly. You can still feel the powdery substance in your nose, lungs, and throat. It feels awful. It’s almost as if you purposefully inhaled cinnamon or breathed in cinnamon. Your nose begins to itch, making you take your rubber gloves off and rub your nose, hoping to get rid of the itchiness in your nostrils.

Zhongli approaches you and places a hand on your shoulder. “Dearest, are you alright?” Zhongli asks softly.

You wave Zhongli off and nod, but you don’t brush his hands away from you. “Yeah! I’m fine! Totally fine!” You say, giving the men a strained smile.

Before any of the men could speak up, you squeeze your eyes shut and sneeze into your elbow. You quickly act like nothing has happened. The men stare at you, and you stare right back at them. You cough into your elbow to clear your throat. You can still feel the powder lingering in your nose, lungs, and throat. You look over at the flower, and you still don’t see any of the powder coatings that you have inhaled. Whatever the powder was, you only hope it’s not a drug that will negatively impact you and your health. Just when Tighnari was about to open his mouth to say something, you sneezed again.

You rub your nose and groan. “Oh my gosh. I can still feel the stupid powder,” you groused.

“We should head back to the abode and get you checked out,” Dainsleif says, now standing beside you.

“What about the flower? It wouldn’t budge when I tried to get it,” you mutter, pointing over at the flower that looks delicate.

Pierro sighs and closes his eyes. “We’ll get it for you,” he says, looking over at Capitano and nodding.

Capitano walks toward the flower wedged between the cracks in the wall. Capitano grabs the flower by the stem and begins to lightly tug on the flower to see how stuck it is in the gaps.

“Okay, but please be care—” 

Capitano grunts and rips the flower from the wall; the flower is still intact and in good shape. Somehow. You look at Capitano blankly, who turns toward you and holds the flower out to you. You, Dainsleif, and Zhongli stare at the flower in Capitano’s hand.

“The flower was firmly planted in the cracks. You need to put more force when you pull the flower out from where it was planted,” Capitano says gruffly.

You grab the flower from Capitano’s hand and place the flower in the glass case. The flower is beautiful, but you’re upset the flower sprayed the powdery substance at you. And now you have to get checked up to see if the powder has any effects on you, your lungs, your nose, and your throat. Other than the lingering feeling of inhaling the powder, you feel fine. You close the glass case and put it back in your backpack, putting the bag on and rubbing your nose with the palm of your hand.

Pantalone looks at you worriedly. “Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t feel strange, do you?” Pantalone asks.

You shake your head. “I’m feeling okay so far! But, we should get to the abode quick. I need to find a safe place to store the flower, then shower to wash this,” you gestured to your body, “off.” 

Tighnari, Albedo, Baizhu, and Dottore walk up to you. Albedo, Tighnari, and Dottore pull out cotton swabs and begin to swipe at the powder on your body and put it in a glass test tube. You blink at the men and watch them pocket the test tube, acting like nothing has happened.

You shake your head with a deep exhale. “I’m assuming you’re all going to put it under the microscope to see what the powder actually is?” You ask.

Albedo nods and adjusts his glove. “We’re also going to run some tests on it to see what the powder is made of,” replies Albedo.

You and the men start walking back to the surface of the Chasm. You made sure the men walked ahead of you while you walked behind them. You don’t want to risk the men inhaling the powder while you walk in front of them, and a gust of wind blows the powder to their faces, making them inhale it. Upon arriving at the abode, you take your shoes off and rub your nose. Your nose is still itching, your throat no longer feels weird, but you can feel the powder lingering in your lungs.

“Are we going to the lab, or are we going to the infirmary for my check-up?” You ask, scratching the back of your head. 

Other than wondering where you need to go for the check-up, you really want to take a shower and wash the remaining powder off your clothes, hair, and body. The powder got everywhere (it covered you from head to toe, pretty much), and it bothered you.

Tighnari hums and taps his chin. “That’s a good question,” Tighnari hums, tapping his foot on the ground.

“Wait! I’m going to take a shower first, then we can start with the check-up,” You said.

You turn around and quickly walk up the stairs to your bedroom. While you are showering, you scrub every nook and cranny with a loofa lathered in a sakura blossom-scented shower gel. You want to make sure to scrub and wash away the powder sprayed at you. 

You might have to dispose of the clothes you wore to the Chasm. You don’t want the powder to be lingering around or spread on other things in the abode (like the men’s clothes). So far, you’re not feeling anything from the powder. The only thing it’s doing to you is making you cough and sneeze occasionally.

You changed into clean undergarments and clothes. You wrap your hair in a towel and submerge your clothes in the water to make sure the powder dissolves into the water. You continue with your skincare routine, making sure to scrub your face for a long time with cleanser. 

After your skincare, you walk to your bathtub and drain the water, wringing your clothes dry once the water is completely drained. Once the clothes are wrung, you toss them into a trash bag and take them downstairs, your hair still dripping wet from your shower. You open the trash can and throw the trash bag into it, ignoring the looks the men are giving you.

You clear your throat and turn to the others with a smile on your face. “I’m ready for my check-up now! Do we go to the infirmary, or are we going to get it done in the lab?” You ask.

“Why did you throw your clothes away?” Baizhu asks, pointing at the stainless steel trash bin.

You shrug your shoulders. “I’m throwing them away just to be safe. I soaked them in the bathtub and wrung them dry, but I’m not risking anything!” You huff, propping your hands on your hips.

Dottore approaches you and wraps his arms over your shoulders. “We’ll be conducting a simple check-up on you in the lab. You haven’t been showing any medical emergencies since we returned to the abode. So, I believe we’ll be doing it in the lab,” Dottore explains, turning to look at Tighnari, Albedo, and Baizhu, who nod in agreement. 

You and the twenty-five men walk to the laboratory in the basement of the estate. You sit on the closest chair and wait for one of the four men (Albedo, Baizhu, Dottore, and Tighnari) to start the check-up. While Baizhu’s checking up on your eyes, throat, breathing, and your heart, the other men ask you various questions.

“Did you feel strange when you breathed in the powder?” Ayato asks.

“Not really,” you shake your head, “other than coughing and sneezing because of the powder, I feel alright. Although I did feel the powder going into my throat and lungs when it sprayed on me.”

Dainsleif furrows his eyebrows and watches you closely. “Can you still feel it?” Dainsleif asks.

You take a deep breath, only for your breath to get caught in your throat halfway, making you cough. You wince and nod to Dainsleif’s question. “I can still feel it, but not as much as I could earlier,” you croak.

“Here, drink this,” Childe says as he hands you a cup of water. 

You give Childe a grateful smile and grab the cup from his hands before gulping the water. After a few more questions from the men, Baizhu concludes that you’re healthy and there’s nothing wrong. But Baizhu did advise you to keep a close eye on your health and body in case anything changes overnight or over the next few days. That is something you don’t mind doing, and you’re planning on doing it anyway.

You look at the flower in the display case in the laboratory. It’s in great condition. Nothing is torn or crushed, thankfully. You get up from your seat and walk toward the display glass. As much as you want to start your research on the flower, your breathing in the powder is already too much for you to deal with. Especially when you have coughing or sneezing fits every now and then. 

Kaeya notices the look on your face while you examine the flower. “Oh, no. You’re not conducting any experiments or research right now, bunny. What you need to do is rest,” says Kaeya, crossing his arms over his chest.

You pucker your lips. “I know, Kaeya! I just wanted to make sure the flower is in good condition! After all, Capitano did rip the flower from the cracks,” you say, looking over at the tall man.

Capitano shrugs. “You attempted to be gentle with the flower, and it wouldn’t budge. Therefore, I took it into my own hands and got you the flower you need for your research,” replies Capitano.

You turn toward the flower and continue where you left off. The powder. The flower didn’t produce the powder again, making you wonder if the powder was only temporary or if it’ll make the powdery coating again if the flower was still in the cracks. Even if the flower did produce that powder as a defense mechanism from predators or (in your and the Akademiya’s case) people who want to take the flower from its habitat, the flower did not create any more powder after it sprayed you the first time.

Pierro raises an eyebrow at you. “What’s on your mind, little one?” Pierro asks.

You press your lips into a thin line and shake your head. “Way too much, that’s for sure,” you sigh.

“I think you should take a break for today! We returned to the abode from the Chasm not too long ago. It’s been a long day for all of us, and you should spend the day with us relaxing and doing nothing!” Itto proclaims, pulling you to his chest and patting your damp hair.

You snort and let yourself melt in Itto’s arms. “Alright, I’ll take up on your offer,” you say, reaching up and tapping on Itto’s nose lightly.

Itto scrunches his nose and rubs the tip of his nose against yours. You giggle and wrap your arms around his waist, pressing a kiss on his cheek. Itto lifts you up and carries you out of the laboratory with the other men following behind. Some were muttering about how Itto is hogging you for himself and how it’s not fair for everyone else. It’s Childe that’s muttering about it, the others were giving Itto silent glares and looks of disapproval. Itto collapses on the couch with you in his arms, wrapping both his arms and legs around you while smirking at the others that groan loudly.

Diluc rolls his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose while shaking his head. “Itto, can you not hog [Y/N] for yourself?” Diluc asks, frowning at the Oni clinging to you.

Itto gives Diluc a cheeky grin and shakes his head, tightening his arms and legs around you while you lay on Itto’s chest limply. After almost a year of dating these men (holy shit, has it been nearly a year?), you have decided not to fight off their affections and clinginess unless you want them to become even clingier. Therefore you have accepted your fate and let these men smother you with love and affection.

Xiao pulls out his polearm and looks over at Diluc from the corner of his eyes. “Do you want me to do something about it?” Asks Xiao.

Diluc shakes his head, continuing to narrow his eyes at Itto. Itto ignores the look almost everyone is giving him by burying his face into your neck and closing his eyes. You and the men lounge around the living room for the rest of the day. You and Thoma end up making pizza for everyone to eat— you and Thoma made a lot of pizza since everyone has a big appetite. Once the pizza was done cooking, you all dined in the living room with your pizzas, catching up with what had happened at work and school (since you’re an Akademiya student).

The day soon winds down, and everyone has finished their pizzas and is scattered around the living area of the estate. Since Itto decides to hog your attention, the others have decided to do it back to him by doing the same. You were passed around from man to man to snuggle with them. Each time Itto tries to snuggle with you, you’re taken away from his grasp by another man, leaving Itto to pout and complain to the others.

You’re now lying on Pantalone’s chest, slowly dozing off. After consuming about five slices of pizza, you feel really full and really sleepy. Pantalone is reading a book while combing his fingers through your hair, lulling you to sleep. Just when you’re about to fall asleep, you feel someone press their hands against your forehead. You crack your eyes open and see Al Haitham and Kaveh standing in front of you, bending down to examine you.

Kaveh smiles at you, brushing your hair away from your face. “Sorry to disturb your nap. We were just checking up on you,” Kaveh says softly.

Al Haitham lightly smacks Kaveh’s hand away from your face before caressing your face. “How are you doing? Do you feel off in any way, or do you feel okay?

Kaveh scowls at Kaveh, crossing his arms over his chest. You rub your eyes sleepily, continuing to lie on Pantalone’s chest. You stare at the ground, trying to process what’s going on. How do you feel? Well, for starters, you shouldn’t have eaten too many pizzas because now you’re feeling exhausted because of the number of carbs you’ve eaten.

“I’m tired. I’m also very full,” you grumble, yawning. “I shouldn’t have taken up on Itto’s offer of having a pizza-eating competition. Now I feel like I’m pregnant,” you mumble, rubbing your tummy.

“And you beat Itto in the pizza-eating competition. I’m surprised he stopped after four slices of pizza,” Venti interjects, propping his hands on his hips.

You nod. “Me too! And he’s very competitive, and yet he stopped eating after four slices,” you grumble, looking over at Itto, who gives you a sheepish look.

Cyno hums and strokes his chin, glancing at Itto and then over at you. “I guess he didn’t want a pizza-of it anymore,” Cyno commented, shrugging his shoulders.

Everyone around Cyno groans and gives him a side-eye. You snort and shake your head, burying your face into Pantalone’s chest. Whenever Cyno sees an opportunity to crack a lame joke, he will take it. You feel something stir inside you, making you freeze in Pantalone’s arms, making him look down at you curiously. 

Pantalone scratches your head gently. “What’s wrong?” Pantalone murmurs, tilting his head to the side to get a better look at your face.

“I don’t know. I feel something strange,” you mutter, sitting up and straddling Pantalone’s lap. “I can’t really explain it. Health-wise, I’m fine. Physically, I am fine as well.” You tap your chin before rubbing your face. 

Maybe it’s the effects of eating five slices of pizza, but you don’t think that could be it exactly. What you are going to do is go to bed and take a nap because the sleepiness is catching up to you at full speed. You get off of Pantalone’s lap and rub your eyes, yawning and stretching your arms in the air.

“I am going to bed now. It’s been a long day, and I think sleep is what I need,” you said, rubbing the back of your neck before glancing over at the clock.

Scaramouche gets up from his seat and walks over to where you’re standing. “I’ll take you to your room if that’s okay with you,” Scaramouche offers, holding his arm out for you to take.

“Yeah, sure! I don’t mind!” You say, linking your arms with Scaramouche.

Heizou holds his hands up to stop you and Scaramouche from leaving. “You’re just going to leave us all without a goodnight kiss?” Heizou teases, pouting at you while batting his eyelashes at you.

You roll your eyes playfully and snort. “Ah, I see! How could I forget about our bedtime rituals?” You ask, unlinking your arms around Scaramouche’s arm.

The bedtime routine for you is to bid each man goodnight with hugs, kisses, or both depending on the man. Usually, it would take a while for you to bid everyone goodnight because one man wouldn’t want to hand you over to the next person because he wanted to hold onto you longer— which is where you are currently at: stuck in Zhongli’s arms and his refusal to hand you over to Thoma.

You poke Zhongli’s biceps. “Zhongli, I need to bid Thoma goodnight before going to bed. He’s the last person,” you pout, repeatedly poking him.

Zhongli tightens his grip around you with a sigh. Zhongli leans down to your ear, pressing his lips on your ear. “Must I let you go? How about you stay with me for the night?” Zhongli murmurs, closing his eyes.

“Hey! If I can’t have [Y/N] sleep in my room tonight, then no one can!” Aether complains loudly, plopping down on the couch with his arms crossed over his torso. 

You reach toward Thoma. Thoma grabs your hands and pulls you toward him, attempting to pull you from Zhongli’s grasp. Zhongli tightens his grip around you and narrows his eyes at Thoma, who is struggling to release you from the former archon’s grasp.

Thoma laughs breathlessly. “Come on, Zhongli! I’m only going to be bidding [Y/N] goodnight! It’s not like I’ll be stealing them from you for the night,” Thoma rolls his eyes playfully. 

Zhongli rests his chin on your shoulders. “Then you can just say goodnight to my dearest and call it a day,” he huffs, burying his face into your neck.

The men watch Zhongli and Thoma plays tug-of-war with you for the next five minutes. You end up breaking the tug-of-war by batting at the two men like a cat. You give Zhongli a look before slowly walking toward Thoma, wrapping your arms around his waist and narrowing your eyes at Zhongli, who narrows his eyes in return.

“Who knew the God of Contracts is clingy,” Kazuha chuckles, shaking his head.

Gorou leans toward Kazuha and whispers, “I don’t think I would want to be Zhongli’s competition. He’s more possessive over [Y/N] than we all are.”

To be fair, all of the men are possessive over you. And you gotta admit, you love it when the men are possessive over you. Who wouldn’t be? Imagine having twenty-five attractive men wrapped around your finger, and they’re willing to rip an arm off of someone if they (the person that isn’t in the harem) touch you? Despite you loving the men’s possessiveness over you, you did set a boundary they cannot cross, and they respect those boundaries of yours. Plus, they may be possessive over you, but they’re not overly possessive to the point where you cannot talk to anyone that’s not them, nor do they prevent you from doing things you love and going outside the abode.

You unwrap your arms around Thoma and walk toward the stairs. “Okay, goodnight!” You said, waving at the men and running up the stairs to your bedroom.

The next day, you’re rudely awoken from your sleep by the feeling of throbbing between your legs and your body being overheated. You look around your bedroom sleepily and panting. You sit and toss your blanket off your body. Your body is covered in a thin layer of sweat, nearly soaking through your clothes. You’re not entirely sure if your menstrual cycle is close or not because you’re feeling unbelievably horny.

You end up taking a shower to wake up and cool your overheated body. And now here you are, sitting in the bathtub, letting cold water rain down on you while you try to find a way to relieve this feeling between your legs. You’re not a prude. You’ve masturbated to relieve yourself before. But this feeling is stronger, and it's unavoidable. Therefore, that is what you did in the shower for the next fifteen minutes— trying to relieve yourself and soothe the aching between your legs. Did it work? No, it did not work at all.

After your failed attempts of trying to relieve yourself, you step out of the bathroom. The only bright side is that you’re not covered in sweat like how you were when you first woke up. Well, rudely awoken from your sleep, to be more specific. You’re tempted to go back to bed and sleep the horniness away, but you know it won’t be going away any time soon. Your thoughts are interrupted by someone knocking at your bedroom door.

“Who is it?” You ask, slowly walking to the door.

“Oh, good! You’re awake! Are you ready for your check-up today?” You hear Tighnari ask.

You sigh in relief. A check-up, right! That’s what you need right now so you can know what’s going on with your body. 

You grab the door handle and open the door. “Is the check-up going to be now, or will it be after breakfast?” You ask.

Albedo shrugs. “Whichever is good to you. We can give you a check-up before breakfast if that’s what you prefer,” replies Albedo.

“Can we do it now? I’m not feeling well, and I don’t think the check-up should be delayed any longer,” you said, leaning your head against the door frame with a shaky sigh.

Tighnari and Albedo look at you worriedly before taking you to the laboratory in the basement of the estate. While escorting you to the laboratory, the three of you walk past the other men. They greeted you, but you were busy telling Albedo and Tighnari the issue to acknowledge them. The men ended up following you, Tighnari, and Albedo to the lab.

In the laboratory, you’re sitting at the examination table. Baizhu takes your temperature while Dottore presses the back of his hand against your forehead. You’re very warm, almost like you’re running a fever despite feeling healthy. Unless you count the heat coursing through your veins and bubbling inside your guts to be unhealthy.

“Let me make this clear: you woke up feeling like you’re a dog in heat, and you were covered in a thin layer of sweat,” Scaramouche says, leaning against the wall.

You nod hesitantly and narrow your eyes at Scaramouche’s comment. “That is correct. Although I wish you didn’t include the ‘dog in heat’ part,” you reply, fidgeting in your seat.

Itto looks at you quizzically. “Are you sure you didn’t wake up from a wet dream? It happened to me before, and you know how that ended,” Itto says, wiggling his eyebrows at you.

You do; you do know how it ended. It ended with Itto using you like a cocksleeve for almost three hours. That man is an Oni. Therefore you’re not surprised that he can go on for that long. Heck, he could go on longer if he wanted to, but seeing how worn out you were, he decided to stop at the three-hour mark. You couldn’t walk for the next few days, and you made Itto carry you around the estate as punishment. Then again, it’s not like Itto was forced to do it. He offered to carry you around, and you accepted his offer.

Ayato rolls his eyes after hearing Itto’s comment. “You did not need to mention that at all, Itto. You could’ve stopped at the question,” Ayato mutters, crossing his arms over his chest with a sharp huff of breath.

You think about it for a minute. It’s possible that you could have woken up from a wet dream, but usually, you remember your dreams. If you did have a wet dream, you wonder what it’s about because it made you feel like, according to Scaramouche, a dog in heat. Maybe it is a wet dream, but the heat inside your core and the throbbing between your legs feels unbearable. You’re trying to keep yourself together and not fall apart in front of the men. 

“Are you guys sure it’s not the powder that is causing [Y/N]’s body to act this way?” Thoma asks, looking at you worriedly.

Your eyes widen, and you nod, pointing at Thoma. “Yeah! What he said! It’s most likely the powder from the flower that’s causing me to feel this way!” You exclaim.

Kaveh hums and looks at the flower sitting in the glass case. “Since you, Dottore, Baizhu, Albedo, and Tighnari have yet to experiment or study the plant and powder, I’m not entirely sure if that’s something we can automatically confirm to be the reason why you’re feeling this way,” Kaveh comments, tapping on his chin.

“Then what else could be affecting [Y/N] this way? They didn’t eat anything weird, and I’m sure it’s not a wet dream Itto claims it to be,” Al Haitham interjects, narrowing his eyes at Kaveh.

You run your fingers through your hair with a frustrated sigh. You know it’s the flower that’s making you feel this way. You’re the only one that got sprayed by this flower, and you inhaled large gulps of this mysterious powder. Days before going to the Chasm, you felt fine. You didn’t feel like a dog in heat. There’s no pit of fire in your core that is raging days prior to going to the Chasm.

You rub your temples with a frustrated sigh. “Is there a way for me to…. Stop this feeling? Or at least put it on hold, or make it less torturous?” You ask.

Archons, this is so frustrating. How else are you supposed to calm this heat in your gut? It’s driving you insane, and you want it to stop. It feels like you have a fire pit in your core, burning wildly, inextinguishable.

“The best we could tell you is to masturbate, but I’m assuming you already did it,” Dottore says, raising an eyebrow at you, the corner of his lips quirking up.

You huff and look away, your face becoming hot under his and the other men’s gaze. “So much for helping,” you mutter. “It’s gotten to the point where it starts to hurt a little bit,” you add, swinging your feet back and forth.

“Maybe whatever you’re feeling will go away as the day progresses. I think the best thing Dottore, Baizhu, Albedo, and Tighnari could do is give you medication,” Cyno comments, looking over at Baizhu, who walks up to you and hands you a small pill.

“This should help ease the pain you’re feeling. If the pain worsens, or if the feeling you’re experiencing right now progresses, please let us know,” Baizhu instructs, stroking your hair.

You grab the cup from Gorou’s hand and swallow the pill. After swallowing the pill, you and the men walked back upstairs and got ready for breakfast. The medication sort of eased the pain, but it did not quell the heat in your core.

You tried your best to ignore it, but the heat is hard to ignore because of how strong it is. Once you have finished breakfast, you excuse yourself and retreat back to your bedroom. The feeling of needing to be relieved died down for about four hours. It’s still there, but it’s not as bad as when you first woke up. You’re able to take a peaceful nap without being rudely woken up by the intense throbbing between your legs.

While you’re napping in your bedroom, the men are in the laboratory, trying to figure out what the powder could be. The flower does not have the powder on it, even if it's been almost twenty-four hours since you and the men have taken it from the Chasm. Dainsleif stares at the flower intently, chewing on the inside of his cheek.

“I find it strange how the flower had powder on it before we discovered it. What’s even more strange is how the flower didn’t produce any more of the powder,” Dainsleif mutters.

Childe shrugs. “Maybe the reason why the flower didn’t produce any more of that powder is that we ripped it from the roots,” Childe suggests, stroking his chin while pacing back and forth in the laboratory.

Diluc looks over at Dottore, Albedo, Tighnari, and Baizhu. The four men are conducting experiments on the powder that is sprayed all over you. The flower continues to sit in its case, untouched. Diluc runs his fingers through his red hair and sighs.

“A Mora for your thought?” Kaeya asks, standing beside the wine tycoon. 

Diluc pinches the space between his eyebrows and sighs for the umpteenth time. “It bothers me that we can’t find a way to help [Y/N]. It’s affecting them so much that they had to request to take medication to ease the pain,” Diluc replies. 

Aether and Heizou approach Kaeya and Diluc.

“If it’s something we’re suspecting, then there might be a way to help them ease the pain,” says Heizou, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

Xiao narrows his eyes at Heizou from across the room. “Why are you so calm about this? Do you not care that [Y/N] is suffering?” Xiao demands, pushing himself off the wall and walking toward Heizou and Aether.

Xiao is now standing in front of both Aether and Heizou, his arms crossing over his chest while he glares at Heizou, who blinks at him calmly. Aether laughs nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, and Aether pats Xiao’s shoulders. Xiao doesn’t flinch. Instead, he continues to stare at Heizou with a small glare.

“I think Heizou is trying his best to remain calm. We won’t be able to find the solution to [Y/N]’s suffering if we’re all panicking and hovering over them constantly,” Aether explains.

Over at the table where the four men are conducting the research, Venti trots up to the four men and peek over their shoulders with curiosity. Albedo is looking at the powder from under the microscope, and they’re all wearing masks to prevent themselves from inhaling the powder.

“I highly suggest you wear a mask when you’re entering our area. It’s not safe if you’re with us unprotected,” says Albedo, handing a surgical mask to Venti.

Venti shrugs his shoulders and puts the mask on over his face before gazing at the four men curiously. “So! Do you guys know what the powder is?” Venti asks.

“They’ve been inspecting the powder for a while now. It can take some more time for them to figure out what it really is,” Pantalone hollers from across the room.

Gorou hums and plops down on the loveseat in the laboratory, resting his elbow on the armrest. “Do you guys think the flower produced that powder, or did someone else put the powder on it so it can prevent people from taking the flower from the Chasm?” Gorou asks while his ears twitching with worry.

Capitano nods. “It’s possible that someone could cover the flower with the powder. If it is true, then we’re going to need to find out who it is,” Capitano answers, leaning in his seat.

Kazuha sighs and leans his head back, closing his eyes. “How long will it be until we get the results back?” Kazuha asks, turning his head in the four men’s direction.

Dottore slowly looks away from the test tube and takes his mask off before approaching where the others are gathered in the lab. It’s been almost an hour since you retreated to your bedroom to get some sleep. Therefore, it has been nearly an hour since he, Albedo, Baizhu, and Tighnari have been working closely to find out what the powder is made of and what it does to the human body.

“It shouldn’t be taking longer than two hours if there are four knowledgeable people working together to get the results,” Pierro mutters, his eyes scanning the laboratory with disinterest. 

Kaveh sighs loudly, leaning against the wall with his head tilting forward. “And how much longer is that? I feel like we’ve been down here for way too long,” Kaveh complains aloud.

Al Haitham rolls his eyes at Kaveh. “Can you not complain for the day? All you do is complain about the littlest things, Kaveh,” Al Haitham says, shooting a glare in Kaveh’s direction.

Kaveh scoffs and is about to retort when the other three men begin muttering to themselves. Everyone looks in their direction and slowly approaches them, stopping three feet away from where Albedo, Tighnari, and Baizhu are standing.

Heizou looks at the three men curiously. “Did you guys get the results?” Heizou asks, raising his eyebrows at them.

Tighnari, Albedo, and Baizhu look at each other worriedly. The three men nod and take their gloves off, tossing them into the trash bin. They all give each other looks as if they’re mentally debating with each other to see who’s going to announce the results to everyone in the laboratory.

“We should’ve known what it was in the first place,” Tighnari sighs, slapping his forehead with a deep frown.

Aether looks at them anxiously. “What are you guys implying?” Aether asks, clenching and unclenching his fist.

“The powder that sprayed all over [Y/N] is a—”

Gorou and Tighnari perk up suddenly, their eyes widening, their pupils dilated. Back to your room, you wake up, and the medicine has either worn off or it wasn’t strong enough to diffuse the heat in your core. You kneel on your bed, curling up into a ball and groaning and whimpering. The aching between your legs has grown immensely. You feel your underwear becoming damp. Your wetness dampens through not only your underwear but also your sleep shorts.

You roll off your bed, bumping into your nightstand. The water pitcher and glass cup tumble off the nightstand, shattering into millions of pieces. You groan and fall to your knees, hugging your lower abdomen and whimpering softly. You didn’t know whether you wanted to clean the mess off your bedroom floor or continue to writhe in pain on the floor.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” you chanted, pressing your hot and sweaty forehead against the wooden floor of your bedroom.

The heat in your core feels like a cramp. It hurts a lot, and you don’t think there’s any medication downstairs that can ease the pain. Not even masturbation can quell the pit of fire in your core. It hurts too much, and the ache seems to only grow even more.

Ayato sighs. “Well, go on! What is it?” Ayato asks, raising his eyebrows at Baizhu.

Baizhu sighs. “The powder that sprayed all over [Y/N] is an aphrodisiac. It’s sex pollen,” Baizhu says.

Cyno raises his eyebrows at Tighnari and Gorou. “Why are you guys acting that way?” Cyno asks.

“We need to check on [Y/N] immediately,” Gorou orders.

Everyone runs back upstairs to the estate and toward your bedroom. You lay on the ground, curled up in a ball, your sweat getting on the floor of your room. At this point, your clothes are drenched in sweat, and your underwear is completely soaked through. You want to feel humiliated, but you’re too hot and bothered to even feel a pinch of embarrassment. 

Loud sets of footsteps and chatter are coming up from the stairs. Your eyes widen, and you quickly get off the ground and crawl to the door to barricade the door with your body. The door handle jiggles. You quickly reach for the door handle and lock it to prevent anyone from coming into your room.

Childe curses under his breath. “Snookums? Are you okay?” Childe asks, banging on the door lightly.

You let out a shaky breath. “I’m fine, Childe.” You whisper, leaning your head against the door. 

“No. You’re not fine. We found out what you accidentally inhaled back at the Chasm,” Diluc replies, pushing Childe away from the door.

You sigh and press your lips into a thin line, fanning your overheated body with your sweat-soaked t-shirt. You’re tempted to strip off all your clothes, but the painful ache between your legs and the heat in your core is making it hard for you to do anything besides remain sitting where you’re at.

“You inhaled a large amount of aphrodisiac. We’re not sure whether the flower produced the aphrodisiac or if someone purposefully covered the flower with it to prevent people from taking the flower,” Capitano replies, leaning against the door frame.

You let out a breathless laugh. “That makes sense. No wonder I feel like a dog in heat,” you croak, closing your eyes and resting your head on the door.

“Please, let us in. We can find a way to help you with what you’re going through,” Kazuha pleads.

You shake your head, knowing the men won’t see it. As much as you want the feeling to go away, you can’t have the men be involved. You would rather ride it out and wait for it to disappear from your system.

You swallow the dry lump in your throat. “It hurts so much, but I don’t want any of you to get involved. Let me ride it out, and I’ll be fine,” you whisper.

Dottore sighs and rubs his forehead. “That’s the problem, [Y/N]. The only time the aphrodisiac will wear off is if you do something about it, not ride it out alone,” Dottore explains.

You curl your toes, run your fingers through your hair and start to pull at the roots. Your breathing is labored, your chest is heaving, you feel so hot, and you want it all to go away. 

“I don’t want to force any of you to help me with my issue,” you mutter, wiping your sweaty neck with the back of your hand.

You wince when you feel that the back of your hand is also sweaty. You’re so hot. Not even the cool air in your bedroom can cool you down. Heck, you think if the men were to leave you in Dragonspine, the sheer cold wouldn’t bother you one bit.

Dainsleif sighs and close his eyes. “You’re not forcing us to do anything, sweetheart. We want to help you, and seeing you suffer is the last thing we want you to go through,” Dainsleif replies, trying to open your bedroom door, only to no avail. 

“We? All of you are going to take turns rearranging my insides, or is it going to be one person that does it?” You mutter, wiping the sweat from your eyebrows with the collar of your shirt.

Xiao looks at the men from the corner of his eyes. “I would prefer to have you for myself. I don’t like sharing,” Xiao states.

Itto perks up after hearing Xiao’s response. “Yeah! Me too! If there’s someone that can help you ride through this wave of sex pollen, it’s the one and Oni!” Itto says, pointing at himself with his thumb.

You laugh nervously, rubbing your neck. “I don’t know how long this aphrodisiac is going to be in my system, but for now, I think one person should suffice,” you murmur.

“Do you have a preference in mind? Immortals? People with furry ears? Old people? People with eyepatches and masks?” Venti trails off, looking at the men around him.

You shake your head. “No, I don’t have a preference. If I did, I wouldn’t be dating all of you now, would I?” you mutter, closing your eyes.

“Alright! Now that’s settled, we’ll send in someone! Just open the door, and whoever is chosen will step into your room to help you with your problem,” you hear Heizou say.

“Okay,” you mumble.

You unlock your bedroom door and slowly crawl away from the door. Everything is silent, other than the faint sound of your panting. You hug your knees to your chest, digging your fingernails into your calves. You watch the doorknob slowly turn, and the door cracks open.

Note: DUN, DUN, DUNNNN! Who could it be!? Ready to choose who's going to be the first one to get their smut in this new smut series? Click [HERE] for the poll for whichever character you want to be the first one to get their smut! As the story progresses, the men who already have their fics will be removed from the poll and previous polls will be closed. As for new characters, they will be added, but they will get their smut if they get the most votes. If no one gets voted, then I will choose and my close friends/mods in my discord server get to choose their favorite Genshin man to go after my choice [that is if people don't vote] ✨ Anyway, to my new and/or returning readers, please keep in mind that I ONLY post on my Tumblr (Genshinluvr) and my AO3 (Aaliah_exo)! Nowhere else except Tumblr and AO3!

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[bombasticsalt]

Arcane and systemic issues aka why Jinx isn't the biggest problem for Arcane's characters

So this post is mainly based on this comment I saw on some random reaction video that said Jinx was the biggest problem in Arcane's universe and why they are wrong. Did we watch the same show? Of course you can root for whoever you want to but I don't feel like you can say people of the undercity revolting are the main problem.

See the thing is Jinx wouldn't have been created as she is if it weren't for her being born on the wrong side of town. I've seen people say Mylo created Jinx or Vi created Jinx but the thing is that arcanes society as it is created Jinx. Often when people talk about powder I see people say that she's only a kid and of course she's bad at stuff, but I think the bigger issue isn't that Powder is bad at stuff it's that she shouldn't have to be good at making bombs, or fighting, or parkour. Powder was a child, a sensitive child at that she's not less talented than any other normal child but, she's surrounded by other kids who have had to have thick skin and have been forced to survive on their wits. Of course, compared to Mylo, Claggor, and Vi she's the weak link because she's the only one in that group who doesn't have something she excells in. Powder has the talent of a child because she is a child who shouldn't have been forced to be at anything other than a childs level. Vi has always been a fighter from what we've seen and that's something that helps her but not every kid is like that, not every kid is a natural leader and they shouldn't have to be they're children it's their job to learn. But for kids like Mylo they don't see it that way all they can see is that everybody else is good at something except for Powder. Mylo makes Powder feel bad for not being good at anything, for jinxing every job because in his eyes she should be up to Zaun's standards. Even though the kids in Zaun shouldn't have to be tough, by normal standards Powder is a smart child but by the undercity's standards she's a weak link. It's not that Powder is bad at everything or a Jinx she's just a child who wasn't born equipped for the world she was brought in.

One of the things I love about arcane is how much content they give us outside of the canon show especially, the enemy music video. Scene's that stick with me are when Powder see's these two people fighting and she has this sad little face it's so heartbreaking, and when she does her little finger gun thing with enforcers. Which brings me to my next point, the undercity is ultimately stuck in a cycle of violence. Doesn't it say something that Silco's best idea of how to control the undercity is to introduce a highly addictive and dangerous drug that grants ordinary people the chance to be strong and retaliate. Most of the enforcers don't care about justice and are more focused on keeping people in the undercity than keeping peace. When you're raised around violence for that long it becomes all you know, hell what made Powder get into wanting to make bombs in the first place. As long as Jinx has been alive the enforcers and topside has been the enemy who has repeatedly said let them eat cake to the undercity's struggles. In fact the entire undercity is full of Jinx's, people who crave violence and chaos who begin to have an unstoppable rage against topside. Jinx is the person who had the guts to look topside in the face and declare war, a revolution to cut off Marie Antoinette's head. Of course in that moment for Jinx it probably was not a statement it was an act of hate, an act of passion, an act of rebirth.

Jinx is a symbol because of her defiance (killing the counselors) but somebody was going to have to do it eventually. Jinx is every top-siders worst stereotype about people from the undercity personified, but of course she is she's a mentally unstable person raised in a society that would rather pretend she does not exist rather than stopping this cycle of poverty and insanity. Of course she's a stereotype in a government that's done barely anything to support her or her sister. And the thing is it was never about Jinx, well it is but not really. Jinx is a name for the monster, a face to make the people raise their pitchforks and burn the entire coven. Jinx is the image not the movement. The biggest issue with the undercity isn't that the people are naturally disturbed it's that they're trapped in an endless cycle of suffering that ultimately leads to mentally unwell people.

Classism is such a big subject when it comes to arcane that I feel as if some fans refuse to acknowledge in a way that says something other than "oh yeah the under city is poor how sad". So many people talk about how you shouldn't compare trauma but it's objectively clear how class effects how people handle trauma. One of the biggest examples is Powder and Vi's parents death vs Caitlyn's mom dying. A line that sticks with me is during the first episode of season two when Vi says she watched the enforcers kill her parents and that Caitlyn has no idea how that feels then Caitlyn says she does because she's sounds so genuine when she says this but she doesn't at all. When Jinx killed Caitlyn's mom she was allowed to hate Jinx, allowed to hate the people of the undercity and nobody ever tries to justify her mother's death. Vi doesn't have that luxury she can't afford to not like the enforcers, she's not allowed to not like them because "they're a symbol of justice" sure they killed her parents but these are the supposed good guys! Vi isn't allowed to express her grief for her parents because the same people who killed them are the same people supposed to protect them, she can't afford to not like people from top side because "they're the good guys the civilized one's among a sea of beasts" sure they made mistakes and sure those mistakes get people from the undercity killed but still "We're the good guys"

Caitlyn claims that Vi can show people that not all of Zaun supports Jinx which feels wrong especially since Jinx shot that rocket with absolutely nobody supporting her. People supported Silco and that they should fight but in that moment that killed Cait's mom it was only Jinx. Yet for Caitlyn it's not Us vs Jinx, it's Us vs The undercity, she even tells Vi that she thought Vi was on their side. Not the side of justice the side of piltover because all it took for Caitlyn to hate the undercity was one bad person. That's what it took to make her see these people as inhumane and lesser than the people of piltover. Caitlyn and Jinx are parallels and I think the only difference between them that isn't just class is that; somebody gave a name to Powder's monster.

[madomens]

The people have spoken… Here’s part one of my apocalypse mini series🫶🏼🫶🏼

word count: idk it’s a long one

TW: Death, Typical zombie apocalypse gore

MDNI‼️‼️ 18+

You knew when the world went to shit that all hope was gone. After all, who can you call during a zombie apocalypse when there’s no reception and the closest person to you is 45 minutes away? They’re probably all dead anyways.

With a deep sigh, you grab your backpack with only the essentials (water, food, medicine, bandages, and of course weapons), and leave out of your shelter in the only place not crowded with those.. things. For a couple weeks now, you’ve been staying in an abandoned cabin free from zombies, other people, and animals. Minus the occasional mice. Plus it had a fireplace and a few old books to read. This is honestly the longest time you’ve actually gotten to spend in one place without being ran off by fucked up dead people trying to eat you or assholes trying to steal your shit.

Throwing your (hair color) hair up into a tight bun, so nothing and no one can get a chance to grab it and pull you down, you get the final touches in making sure everything is secure before walking out the door to either hunt or find another place not already torn apart by other survivors.

In the few weeks of you being here, you’ve searched every few days to try to keep up with supplies, but the farther out you have to travel, the more dead things there are and after all, there is only one of you. The nearest grocery store to the cabin is around a thirty minute walk and you and whoever else has found it, has pretty much cleared it out. The craziest part about it, no one wanted the dasani water even in an apocalypse. You took it anyway.

After twenty minutes of wandering in the woods and killing a few stray zombies in the way, you finally find the road. Making sure to grip your knife in your cloth covered hand tightly, you look both ways and continue straight until you come across a store you haven’t seen yet. The outside is covered in vines and from the looks of it, the gas pumps exploded sometime during all this, somehow not destroying the entire store with them.

You walk up to the boarded up door and bang on it one time to make sure nothing jumps out at you and after not hearing any rustling, you cautiously enter the gas station. You think you would get used to the smell of rotting bodies after four years of being around them but no, you still gag every time you come in contact with the horrid scent. Covering your nose but still holding on to the knife in your other hand, you slowly start making your way around the place, making sure to check every single shelf on the way to the back.

“Great,” you mumble to yourself, throwing a box of crackers that were obviously eaten by rats or other small animals. Making your way to the back, you spot a few packs of cigarettes that are completely unopened. During the apocalypse, no one is judging you for picking up a hobby that may kill you eventually. Hell, you risk dying every time you close your eyes so who really cares?

Finally coming into view, the cause of the awful decaying smell shows itself in the form of a half eaten wolf and a rotting corpse. Approaching the corpse slowly and shoving its head with your foot, it startles you as it tries lunging for you but ultimately failing due to only having the upper half of a body. You jump back slightly but manage to plunge the knife into its head, sending it to its final resting place.

No one really knows how this whole thing started, but it started quickly, killing over half the population in just a weeks time. Somehow you survived, but you like to think that having to survive all those years as a child in a toxic household really helped. All you really had to do was learn how to work a knife, and of course have a stomach to be able to stab someone in the head. You know they aren’t people anymore but.. they still look like people for the most part.

Searching through the back of the store looking for overlooked supplies or weapons, theres a sudden thump back at the front. Quickly dropping low enough to crawl behind the counter to get a good look at who or what could have made the sudden noise. At this point, you’d take a dead person as opposed to a living one. At least the dead one’s dont have the conscience that normal people do. It’s just their nature to want to kill you.

“Dude. I told you to watch your step,” a harsh whisper sounds from near the entrance to the store.

“Sorry,” another slightly higher pitched voice rings out.

You don’t dare move from your spot, not knowing these people or what they want, most of the time it’s definitely nothing good. You can hear their footsteps lightly crunching the glass beneath their feet as they walk around, probably doing the same as you and scavenging. Haha sorry guys there’s nothing here.

“Folio,” the first voice sounds out quietly, “check the back.”

With that, you grip your knife tighter than before and sit back against the clerks counter, heart beating a million times a minute. Why couldn’t they have just been a dead one?

As the guy, Folio you assume, rounds the corner and makes direct eye contact with you, he pulls a pistol and seeing how you’re actually alive, puts it up like he has a gun on HIM.

“Woah woah woah, we aren’t going to hurt you,” he says. “See? Look.” He puts his gun on the counter just as the other guy walks around to see what the commotion is about.

You don’t know these guys and you can’t trust them as far as you can throw them. He probably has another weapon in his pocket ready to come out as soon as you put your knife down. You stare him in the eyes, and slowly look over the other, taller guy who has another gun pointed directly at you.

“Who are you?” You ask. You’ve been living around here for a few weeks now and haven’t run into as much as one person yet.

“I’m Nick. This is Noa-”

“Shut up dude what the fuck,” the other guy interupts.

Nick was much shorter than the other guy, but you can’t deny they are both handsome in their own ways. Both wearing all black and sporting the same type of pistol, you could bet they don’t stay far from here. Where is all their gear? Why aren’t they covered in dirt and blood like you are? Did they have a place?

“No, shut up. Who knows what these guys want.” You think to yourself.

“Who are you?” The taller one asks slowly, walking around to stand next to his friend. “Where did you come from?”

He is not letting up on getting that damn gun out of your face.

“Why don’t you put the gun down and I’ll tell you,” you reply, heart still going crazy.

He lets out a deep chuckle and holds his hands up like Nick did when he first dropped his gun. “You gonna take both of us down with a knife, princess?”

You let out a sigh of defeat, knowing they could take you out in a matter of seconds, and place your knife back in its holster.

“Y/N.” You respond dryly, trying to slowly back away. “Look I don’t have anything and I’ve already checked the place so if you can just leave me alone, that would be great.”

Nick looks at the other guy with a confused expression and back to you. “No, we don't want to take your shit. We just weren’t expecting another living person to be in this dump,” he motions around the store.

The taller guy has yet to unsquint his eyes, as if trying his best to intimidate you.

You smirk at him and look towards Nick, him with a small smile on his face. Kind of makes it hard not to trust him right?

Feeling a bit more confident now that they haven’t tried anything, you speak up again.

“You gonna tell me your name now pretty boy? Or you just gonna keep staring at me like I’m a threat to you?”

“Noah.” He states dryly. Jesus, who pissed in this guys cheerios?

“Well, Noah, care to tell me where you guys are coming from? And why it looks like you’ve just showered?” You raise an eyebrow.

You suddenly feel a bit uneasy not having showered in weeks, just bathing in the creek nearest the cabin every so often. These guys have something you want. “Play nice,” you think to yourself.

It’s his turn to smirk now as he looks you up and down, taking in your bloodied and overall dirty appearance. “Close,” is all he musters.

You sigh and look at Nick again, tired of the short, dry answers Noah keeps giving you.

“Care to tell me where you’re from?” You ask him and he looks at Noah for permission. Noah shakes his head no and Nick looks back down at the floor. “Great. I see who's in charge here,” you cross your arms.

A loud bang rings throughout the store and all three of you quickly grab your weapons and kneel down behind the counter, peaking out to see what the sound is.

“Stay here,” Noah says, slowly creeping out from behind the counter as you and Nick are locked and loaded, ready for whatever.

A short minute passes and Noah comes back behind the counter with a scared look on his face. Much different than the brooding look he’s had for the last twenty minutes.

“What is it?” You start to panic a bit.

“Theres a horde of them outside the door. What direction did you come from?” He looks at you and whispers.

Fuck. Please tell me I’m not stuck here with these two guys.

“Um- I uh- east. You?”

“East. They must have come from a different direction,” he sighs looking at Folio, who hasn’t stopped shaking since he heard the word “horde”.

“How many?” Nick finally speaks up.

“Too many. We would all three die if we tried to go out there right now.”

You couldn’t help but mentally kick yourself for stopping at this run down ass gas station. You should have kept walking but no, a few packs of cigarettes and half a box of rat infested saltines is all it takes apparently.

The slight bumps into the front and side of the building are more than enough confirmation of the horde outside. Slight moans can be heard periodically as you, Nick, and Noah try your best to be quiet.

“This is a really bad time I know but I have to pee,” Nick whispers.

“For fucks sake can you wait?” You whisper back to him. Noah sits to the left of you gripping a knife you didn’t notice he had until now.

Nick nods a quick yes and the three of you go back to watching and waiting for this dreadful horde to pass.

A few strays make their way into a broken part of the window on the far side and you quickly take all three of them out by yourself and return to your spot between the two guys you just met.

After an hour, and many quiet trips to the back so Nick can pee, the noises of the horde finally dissipate and Noah once again, goes to peek out of the front door.

He comes back, looking a bit more relieved and nods ‘yes’ letting Nick know it’s finally passed the gas station.

You and Nick both let out a sigh of relief as you pull a water bottle out of your backpack. Noticing Nick’s gaze at your freshly opened water, you hand it to him and pull out another to offer Noah, who hastily grabs it and sips it.

“You guys don’t bring supplies with you when you go somewhere?” You ask, taking the water from Noah and drinking some of it.

“We didn’t need to today, I told you we stay close,” Noah replies.

“Maybe you could come back with us. You have some pretty sick knife skills the way you handled those three dead guys,” Nick says between sips of his water.

You glance at Noah who seems to be waiting for an answer from you, surprisingly not declining Nick’s offer to you.

“Is it just you two?” You squint, thinking about the terrible things they could possibly want to do to you if you come back with them.

“There’s three more of us. Don’t worry, they aren’t going to hurt you if you don’t try to hurt them,” Noah says as if reading your mind.

Please let the other three be women. It would be so stupid of you to say yes to them. Remember what happened the last time you trusted someone enough to go back to shelter with them.

“On one condition. You tell me where we’re going, and we have to stop at the cabin I’ve been staying in.” You finally agree against your better judgment.

“That’s two conditions. But fine. The mall just down the road is where we stay.” Noah responds.

The mall? You were there not even a week ago and it was overrun with those things. How the hell are they coming in and out?

“That place is overrun, there’s no way that’s where you stay,” you say, now more suspicious as ever.

“Not anymore. We had a pretty large group and we cleared most of it out. That’s why we’re down to five of us now. It isn’t completely clear but we have living quarters along with food and water, oh and electricity in some spots.” Nick added.

“Wait so you guys can shower?” You start to get excited about the thought of having running water and shit to do.

Noah nods his head yes and looks out the door to make sure it’s clear and says “we should really get going. It’ll be dark in about an hour and I am not trying to be out past dark again.”

“Right,” you say as the three of you grab the things you brought and head out to shelter.

“We can come back to the cabin you’re staying at tomorrow but I’m not risking it right now.”

Noah slowly exits the gas station with you and Nick following suit.

“Well obviously.”

Divider from hereeeee

chapter 2 hereee

lmk if yall want to see more of apocalyptic bad omens 👀

i didn’t really proof read it so don’t mind any mistakes 🫶🏼🫶🏼

[philosophicalparadox]

Itachi is a Weird Kid(tm)

These need to exit my tired brain so I am releasing the wild, naked baby plot bunnies upon ye:

Some of these points are paragraphs because that’s just my style, but this one’s not super long (for me 😅) so I’ll leave it no-cut.

He is more fond of plants and birds than people. That he’s an introvert surprises nobody but it’s worth mentioning.

He doesn’t know how to have a “normal”conversation with normal people; he’s been so conditioned by his Shinobi centric/Child soldier life that he literally doesn’t know how to talk to civilians at their level, so to speak. An ordinary conversation about ordinary, every day things is either boring and meaningless, or completely lost on him in most cases.

He is somewhat accidentally piscivarian/ predominantly vegetarian. This is more an observation of canon than a HC. His character/data sheet does mention that he’s fond of vegetables, particularly crunchy ones like cabbage and peppers, and utterly hates red meat, but we do see him eating fish and I don’t think he’d be opposed to chicken or eggs either, whatever that would make him. (I could go on and on about how this, among other things, queer codes tf out of him, but I will refrain)

To that effect, he has absolutely stellar foraging skills, particularly with regards to edible and medicinal plants. He could survive on his own for quite some time if he needed to, and I suspect he did for a while before joining the Akatsuki.

Many of Itachi’s “weaknesses” in fact make him more dangerous, not less — that is to say, they make him unpredictable. To whit, in my opinion, his weaknesses are:

Small Children (protective brother instinct, or maybe a paternal one) — these will give him pause in most situations, but lord help whoever thinks it’s a good idea to try using that against him. He will do anything he can to avoid hurting or killing a child, but that does not work out to mean they make good leverage — he’s much too clever and knows how to put on a show to fake his opponents out a little too well. He’s not necessarily afraid to frighten a child either if it means they live to see another day, though if it can be avoided all the better. But what makes it dangerous is that his whole disposition changes when there’s children involved. If you don’t know him well one might not notice, but it’s a palpable change, a charged kind of energy he doesn’t typically have otherwise — an opponents threat level to him personally ceases to matter quite as much as their relative threat to the child. One of the few situations in which he might go out of his way to start a fight with a civilian or other typical non-combatant.

His Stress Response: Itachi is not someone who ever had the option to flee in most cases as a child. So he’s developed a Freeze-Fight pipeline. When confronted with something that scares him, he will, situationally, freeze, first — not bad for a Shinobi, really, as freezing makes one less noticeable and might give one time to assess. Given the option, he would like to do that, but in the event he can not, whether because the opponent is moving or the situation is overwhelming or too stressful, he will immediately switch to Fight. Good when you’re being attacked. Not so good when the PTSD flashbacks get you or a nightmare wakes you up ready to throw hands. The real danger of the Freeze-Fight pipeline is that it presents the illusion that his Threshold of Tolerance is higher than it actually is; He can therefore seem very, explosively unpredictable when he’s under extreme stress. If he’s actually terrified, you will not typically know it until he is so scared he lashes out. And the lash-out/freak out might seem disproportionate as a result of whatever is going on in his head.

6. He is surprisingly invisible. Despite being an Uchiha, despite having a widely known name, despite having fairly wide ranging reputation, he can be very effective as an undercover agent because he just… blends in. He’s not loud. He’s not aggressive. He’s not very noticeable at all, especially without his cloak. Adding to this, I personally believe in making him at least partially abide by his name, and thus posit that he has an unusual gift for the use of Henge, despite canon not mentioning it. It would be all too suitable for someone named after a shape-shifter to be skilled in the art of transforming himself into not only other people, but animals as well (which is supposedly the hardest kind of Henge to accomplish consistently).

7. He is…basically a cat, lol. Is borderline obsessively clean, keeps things tidy, doesn’t like being touched without permission, is moody as all hell, and very…demanding, in his own quiet way. Communicates with his body language more than one would assume, in that if he’s there, he’s there for a reason. Example being if he wanted to comfort someone— rather than making a fuss over them he’d probably just offer his company by moving closer, paralleling, etc. giving them space to bring it up or set it down. He never had much personal freedom as a kid, so he tries to be generous with others and not pry into their business unless he really needs to. He also communicates with his body in other ways related to staging — where he is in proximity to others — by drifting closer to those he trusts and keeping away from those he does not, I.e if he were traveling with a contractor or other akatsuki members in addition to his own partner, he may drift toward Kisame and stay next to him as opposed to trying to be in any particular position within the group.

8. This one’s more focused on other characters perception of him, but he is Weird in that for all his nasty reputation and abilities, he’s very demure and non-confrontational. He would rather not use his powers if he doesn’t strictly need to, and with regards to wayward animals he’s quite gentle, when he can afford to be.

9. On that note: his crows are his family damn near. He inherited these crows from Shisui, so they mean a good deal to him on the whole, although he will sacrifice them if he has to. But this is something he does with deep regret and respect, and the crows are just smart enough to sort of understand. They love him, he is their flock friend, and they will defend him/look after him of their own volition to the best of their ability. He could use his sharingan to trick them, and will if he must, but crows are much too clever to make a habit of it; it’s better for everyone if he goes out of his way to be their friend. Crows are a very difficult familiar/summons to have, because they’re insanely smart for an animal and they communicate with each other much like people do. You’ve no choice but to carefully cultivate your relationship with them, because if they decide they don’t like you, they will never let you forget it. They’re perfect for someone who is meticulous and kind like Itachi. You can not be mean or careless to a crow and expect them to forgive you.

I’m sure I’ll think of more, but until then Enjoy.

And please, Anti people of any flavor, don’t even bother. I won’t play those games.

[despairs-memorial]

Alright, to start this out, I'm not sure if there's a source book at talks about Japan in World of Darkness. There's a Samurai varient of Clan Venture I can't remember the name of in one version of Vampire, but I can't find anything on Japan itself, so I get to play with setting a bit, and if there IS info on it in some source, no there isn't. Leave me be.

Gundham Tanaka

This is up for debate depending on if you want to go with his persona or who he is thematically speaking, but Gundham, in my interpretation of the lore and his character, is firmly in clan gangrel who may or may not masquerade as a member of clan tremere if he's trying to be sneaky or just doesn't want to deal with who he is speaking to. Clan tremere are the blood sorcerer vampire clan that were created when Tremere, the antitribu or creator of the bloodline, did a ritual to gain immortality and diablerized Saulot, the antediluvian (which means before the flood, and this is referring to the biblical flood) of clan Salubri who was most beloved and thus made clan tremere outcasts and one of the youngest clans to exist. Gangrel are also outcasts, but for reasons that they are just more animalistic or have a stronger connection to animals than they do to more "human" kindred. Gangrel can talk to animals and even become animals, but it's less of a furry thing and more of a this fucker turned into a wolf and is about to eat your liver thing.

Due to just how gangrel embrace, turn, potential members of the clan, it would be easy for them to track down and get Gundham when tending to night animals. Like, okay, how they do it is that they sneak up and attack the potential childe, and they leave them to fend for themself. If they survive, they are welcomed into the world of the masquerade, and if not, ...well, they're dead.

Gundham, in particular, would likely remain independent, and he'll have a haven that doubles as an animal shelter to keep himself and his animals safe.

He doesn't particularly have a prey of choice and just goes with whoever he can sneak up on and get blood or vitae on without worrying about them exposing him for a creature of the night, but it is likely he'll prefer to get it from blood banks rather than getting it fresh.

If he does have a ghoul to go to, it will be someone he knows he can trust with his animals as that's more important to him personally.

While he doesn't frequent Elysiums (neutral grounds that are primarily aligned with the Camerilla), he'll go to them when needed either for information about his kind or in case there is a hunter in the area looking for their kind.

Werewolves (yes, those are canon in world of darkness, so are phantoms, witches, and fey. this is a source that has vampiric skinheads that are the fucked up love child between blood sorcerers and shapeshifting torture technicians from eastern europe, not much is off the table) don't really bother him. I'd say he has a neutral, if not sometimes tense, understanding with them and simply stays out of their territory or even aids them at times.

He is looking for his sire to diablerize them as while he has adapted to his new unlife, he is resentful of having to live this way. Though, if he goes through with it is yet to be seen.

He does gain a huge interest in Gehenna and the book of nod. Likely, he'll be pretty much the head scholar of it in Japan or at least one of the more notable ones.

Ultimately, he finds his happiness most in simply being safe in his haven with his animals, and his relationship with other kindred can be rather tense. At the same time, he is aware he needs them for his survival, and he has formed some alliances to keep himself safe.

Mondo Oowada

Mondo being a brujah is like stating that the sun is hot. It's a no brainer. The brujah are a clan of rebels, and while the anarch movement was originally created by clan gangrel, they are the primary force behind it in modern nights, if my understanding is correct, and since Smiling Jack who is a former pirate from the 1300s and now an LA based biker is one of the more famed Brujah, I'd say not making Mondo this is a crime, and if you fight me on this, I will win.

More than likely, his drive to keep up the gang is what caught the attention of a member of the clan, and that is what convinced them to embrace him into the masquerade. It was more than likely a Brujah allied with the anarchs rather than the camerilla, too.

His haven is the hideout where the Crazy Diamonds meet up. Whether he is the leader or not is up for debate, but he does keep it up.

More than likely he was encouraged to embrace the ones that were closest to him, but he likely hasn't turned them all into vampires, probably only Takemichi, at the very least, or at least turned Takemichi into his ghoul with him getting turned and leading the gang after he gets old enough or he needs to move on for whatever reason.

The baron of the kanto region, but if Japan even has a camerilla fraction and thus princes and thus a need for the anarch equivalent of a prince is up for debate. I'm saying yes though just to make the terminology much easier for me.

His prey of choice are rival gang leaders, though he does take quite a bit from blood banks whenever he is in a more peaceful time.

Likely still does wood work, but for the most part, there really isn't a need for him to try and build a career out of it. He might though, just for the fun of it and for a cover.

His own feelings towards the revolt and what that means for him now are rather mixed. On one hand, he does see the need fo r a change in the system the more that he learns about it, but on the other, he isn't entirely sure if he wants to dedicate the rest of his unlife to this cause that he doesn't have many personal stakes it. It's more out of a sense of loyalty to the other brujah that he makes any moves in it at all.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru

Okay, hear me out: also brujah. I know I just got done saying that that is the clan of rebels, but my mindset is that the one that turned him was really into his strong dedication to his own morals and wanted to see what would happen. The other clan that works for him is the Banu Haqim, but I think that's boring. Because yes, they are the clan that judges based on their personal creeds, the process of their embrace is rather long as the initiate is, preferably, put in an apprenticeship, but not always, and they are drawn to people with obsessive personalities like Kiyotaka. Does clan banu haqim fit him? Yes, like a glove. He would even get poison blood blades and a bane that would test him. ...fuck, I talked myself out of brujah with this, never mind.

Likely his embrace would happen in connection to his grandfather's downfall. Like, they would be keeping an eye on him due to how much of an affect the mortal world has on the masquerade and kindred anyway, but my thing is that they saw Kiyotaka's potential and have kept tabs on him for quite some time.

A part of the camerilla, no arguing with me on this. I highly doubt that he would join the anarchs with how he is and the sabbat are just... blatantly evil? If you want to attribute morality to all of this. Anyway....

Presuming that there are princes in each prefecture in Japan, he is likely the sheriff of his, and he ensures that the masquerade is upheld with the upmost care.

Most of his blood comes from those that he has to hunt either for the sake of the camerilla or from blood banks. He is very careful to ensure that he is fed before performing his duties due to the clan bane of the banu haqim making the blood of the judged basically mana from the heavens for these guys, and makes it hard for them to stop drinking their blood.

To make sure that he doesn't kill his targets unnecessarily, he has another vampire with him at all times while out, either at a distance or right next to him, usually a brujah.

Rantaro Amami

Problematic as it is... I gotta say clan ravnos for him. Ravnos was a clan that was built on racist romani stereotypes, at the same time, and partially to fix this, there was an event that wiped most of them out... so... that was.... great [very sarcastic]. Nowadays, it's used for as a clan of daredevils, with only their clan bane really reflecting the problematic past as the bane is that you can't sleep in the same location more than once within seven days or their blood will explode with the sun. This is due to a battle with their antitribu that involved orbital sun lasers fired by witches.... I think. It's insane.

Likely he came across them in his travels, and he managed to charm them with talks of his travels and his exploits in different countries.

Uses his network to try to find his sisters, and with how many more eyes that he has now, he has a higher chance of finding them.

To work around his clan bane, he finds working with the camerilla, moving from elysium to elysium to avoid the sun or using their other resources when he can to be more beneficial than to remain independent.

He has no particular victim that he prefers to feed on when he does feed from kine instead of getting blood bags, but he is careful to make sure that it doesn't violate the masquerade.

Due to his traveling, he doesn't really worry too much about his clan bane, but just in case, he makes sure that he's pretty far from the last place he slept when traveling.

Likely doesn't have any ghouls but he does probably know a few.

Sayaka Maizono

There are only two viable choices for her: toreador and daughter of cacophony, and one of them are singers, so take a wild guess which one I'm giving her. There's also the matter that the DoC are related to malkavians who are kind of, sort of, depends on who you're asking psychic? Like DoC don't have access to the network, and the malkavian influences only really come into play when they get lost in the fugue and become banshees, but I'll take this and move on.

More than likely, she accepted the embrace due to the fear of growing too old and losing her dream, but also just so she could keep performing for people for eternity. It does give her an enchanting voice that can literally entrance people, so there's that.

Alright, this is going to be callous, but I can't see her turning her best friends, but I can see her turning them into ghouls. I can't explain it other than that being a vampire for all eternity and forcing them to give up their lives for this dream doesn't seem like her style. Maybe if they asked to do this with her then yeah, but otherwise, fuck no.

Camerilla based, and a part of that is that A) she likes the attention that toreadors give her, and B) they can help ensure that she doesn't break the masquerade while she is still performing (the lack of reflection is a very specific clan bane).

She has a preferred elysium where she enjoys performing when she has some time outside of her idol duties.

While her fans are accepting that her meet and greets are now indoors and nights only, there are some that are suspect of her, another benefit of staying with the camerilla is that these rumors are kept in check by the nosferatu managing online boards mentioning her.

Sonia Nevermind

I was torn on Ventrue or Lasombra for her. On one hand, clan Ventrue's compulsion to have no one tell her what to do doesn't fit her, but on the other hand, Lasombra's (general) disregard for weakness makes her kindness and compassion for her people to be an undesirable trait for their embrace. All right, so look at banes and compulsions. The compulsion of Ventrue is arrogance meaning that if an order is not followed then it calls for a penalty until said order is followed, and the bane is that they can only have very specific types of blood that they can eat... ingest... whatever. For lasombra, the clan compulsion is ruthlessness meaning that they will stop at nothing to succeed and will not accept failure, and the bane has varients: one makes it so they can't see their reflection and the other makes it so they are callous to humanity. Looking at abilities, they both have skills that make people obey and make them strong, ventrue have the ability to draw people to them while lasombra have shadow magic powers...

This is a difficult choice, though ultimately, I'm going with Ventrue. I can flavor it a little to work with her. Would she be jealous of Lasombra and Tremere, yes. Could Tremere also work? Not really, but I'm glad that I asked and answered this.

Due to her clan bane, she can only drink blood from the people of Novoselic. While she is in Japan, her primary attendants are ghouls that have agreed to give her their blood as their eternal princess.

She was turned by one of her nobles who she realized hadn't aged since she was a young girl, but due a grave mistake, she was allowed to diablorize him thus taking away his grasp on her as her sire.

Novoselic, as a whole, is safe for the camerilla and their forces.

All right, there are two schools of thought for her vampirism affecting her position as the ruler of Novoselic: A) everyone in Novoselic is aware and while there are more attempts to kill her the majority of the country is cool with it or B) she lessens the powers of the throne by faking her death, and as they switch to a legislative democracy, she watches from the shadows to ensure they are working towards a good future or completely fucked off to Japan. I have not decided which is better yet.

She would likely be very interested in researching everything she can about kindred society and the history of vampirism. While in Japan, she would end up becoming the Ventrue Primogen of Japan unless in a verse where Togami is also a vampire, then we gotta talk about this.

[girldragongizzard]

Chapter 1: A Megnificent camping trip

I’m thinking of a title for a book I’m going to write someday. Hey, maybe you’re reading it right now! 

If you are, please know that that title is supposed to be ironic and sarcastically self deprecating.

Because, instead of magnificent, I’m Megnificent. And that totally changes the meaning of the word, and this is totally the most teenager thing I’ve thought to myself in decades.

I’m utterly Megnificent, and I’m stuck in the mountains, and I don’t have survival skills.

I’m watching the tiny speck of a helicopter recede over what I assume is the western horizon. From the birdsong I’ve heard, I’m guessing it’s morning, and the sun is behind me. But also, I just know. I can feel North and South as if they are slopes in the fabric of spacetime, and I feel like I have a sense of which is which. 

And that helicopter, which I hope to one day destroy, almost certainly brought me here.

The sky that it’s flying through is mostly clear, except for a sickly brown haze, and a column of billowing smoke coming from the south side of a mountain the vehicle is flying past, off near the horizon. One of the Summer's forest fires.

The mountain I’m on is basically a big grassy dome surrounded by taller, pointier mountains. I’m on the western slope of it, and I’m looking out over a valley full of grasses and flowers. And I don’t see any wildlife around me except for the bugs that are flying around everywhere. The bugs aren’t very thick, though. Not like how I remember them the last time I went camping in a place like this, way back in high school. The birds I heard must be laying low or around the curve of the mountain and out of sight.

They’re especially laying low after I shouted my challenging cry at that helicopter in rage.

And now I’m alone.

And I’m hungry.

The only experience I have with this kind of situation is a survival unit I had in third grade, three camping trips up into the Pasayten Wilderness with my extended family when I wasn’t much older, and two episodes of Man v.s. Wild that I watched ten years ago.

And all of that was geared toward educating and accommodating human beings. Not a dragon.

I’m a dragon.

A city dragon.

I don’t do this sort of thing.

I need to get back home.

The advice I got in third grade was find shelter as close to where you got lost as possible, find water, stay put, and make yourself as visible as possible. But the advice I got from TV was to find water, find food, and keep moving toward civilization. But those two bits of contradictory advice were given to a human child and an audience of human adults, and humans are endurance hunters, evolved to out endure their prey.

Also, humans can’t fly.

I am, I’m guessing, an ambush predator that flies. I digest my food slowly, and I need to rest right after eating to get it started well. I need to conserve my energy for short bursts that I use, mostly, to catch seagulls to eat and to scare away other dragons. Though, I’ve decided to work on preventing the need for that second one, and there are no seagulls out here.

And the last thing I ate was three pounds of minced chuck on Monday night. It digested fast and gave me a lot of energy, and didn’t result in me puking up a ball of indigestible material I couldn’t recognize.

And now I’m hungry again, and I think I need to find something to eat and then fly west.

I can’t afford to exert myself much while hungry, and no one is going to be looking for me.

On the other hand, I have this fucking tracker threaded through a damn hole in my left horn, and so I’m being watched. So, if I do follow that helicopter, whoever did this will turn around and intercept me.

On the gripping hand? I don’t have a gripping hand and that’s a weird reference most people aren’t going to get.

In my mouth, then – the third consideration that I’m really focused on – most mountains within a day’s car drive of where I live are all generally to the East, and that helicopter is going to land somewhere where there is fuel. I don’t know its range and I don’t know mine. But I can guess that my home is westward, and that following the helicopter will get me closer. However, in this day and age, if I’m still in Washington State, I can’t be more than a day or two of flight away from a restaurant or convenience store or gas station that I might be able to see from the air. I think.

Considering the lack of snow, I’m probably not in Alaska or Canada, I’m guessing. And the area looks vaguely familiar.

I think that I might actually be back in the Pasayten Wilderness.

If they wanted to rehome me but keep me in a climate that is close to what I’m used to so as not to kill me, but in a wilderness area away from people, staying at the same latitude makes a certain amount of sense. So they probably just took me directly east.

Ridiculous.

There is so much that is ridiculous about this.

To review. On the one claw, I need to eat and get back home. On the other, they’re tracking me. In my mouth, though, I’m pretty sure I know just where they dropped me and how to find food I can eat.

It’s mid morning, and to get food I need to fly, and I’m on a mountain. What a great place to start!

I’m way more down on myself than I sound like, I’m sure. I’m leaving out my worst thoughts because I’m actively ignoring them. Partly because I know those kinds of thoughts can be deadly out here. Partly because I’m a fucking dragon, and while I might be domesticated or something like that, I know I can hunt. I’ve done it.

And largely because those assholes drilled a hole through my horn without my consent, and I’m more angry at them than at myself.

I’m still Megnificent, though, for all that means.

Let’s take off and maybe change the meaning of that word a little.

—

I’m flying higher than I’ve ever been and I’m having a crisis.

Below me is the mountain I woke up on. I’ve discovered that it is sort of a crescent ridge, with a shallow slope on the west and south sides of it, and three deep depressions in the middle northeast of it, each with some water at the bottom. One pool of which is large enough I’m going to call it a lake instead of a pond. It’s the southernmost one.

And flying around that lake on the east side of the ridge I woke up on, in the morning sun, is a freaking bald eagle.

I’m pretty sure it’s looking for fish in the lake.

I’m higher than it and it has not noticed me. I’ve been up here for a while, nice and quiet, riding thermals, and it took off from a roost and started circling that lake, looking delicious to my instincts.

But it’s a bald eagle.

Last time I checked, I’m a citizen of the United States and I am not allowed, by law, to eat that.

I think.

I am so hungry, but I really shouldn’t eat the bald eagle.

—

Once I’m soaring, flying around feels a lot like resting, to be honest. It’s almost like my wing-joints can lock into place, and the effort to keep them extended is minimal. And the summer sun keeps me alert and ready to dive at any prey I deem worthy of eating.

If I go too high, there’s a wind that blows me eastward, which I do not want. So, every time I start getting buffeted by that, I drop and head a little further West. But I’m mostly circling right now looking for food and thinking.

I’ve allowed myself to do this into the midafternoon, hoping to catch better thermals and also to maybe find some wild food I can eat to sustain me. But, it’s looking like I’m going to have to get some water soon instead.

I can backtrack a little to my mountain and the lake there.

Or, I’ve gotten high enough I caught glimpses through the western mountains of a huge, long lake running north and south, with the south end right at the base of the mountain that's on fire. And I’m guessing that’s Ross Lake, and there might be people camping there.

I mean, there might be people camping anywhere around here. It’s early September and not a bad time for it if you don’t have kids. But Ross Lake is more dense with campsites, and has roads going to it.

If course, that fire makes it less likely.

On the northwest side of the burning mountain, there’ll be Ross dam, and campsites on the roads, and higher likelihood of finding a tool that can be used to get this tracking tag off of me. If I’m remembering and guessing correctly. If the rangers let anyone camp there right now.

And I think I can make that by the end of the day.

The fire looks like it’s spreading south, not north, and there's the whole bulk of the mountain between it and the lake.

It's worth a shot 

I’m starting to think, based on my flying time and circling, that I maybe could have made it all the way back home if I’d started out that direction first thing.

But I think I want this tracker off before I do that.

—

It’s getting near dusk when I make it to the southern tip of the big long lake, and there’s a dam, and a couple campsites with lights in them. A fire and a camper, I think.

And my eye catches a large, squat looking bird flying between trees below me.

Without thinking or planning, I drop.

It’s not a bald eagle.

The startled and anguished cry of a great horned owl followed by the furious flapping of dragon trying to avoid an abrupt landing must be an odd thing to human ears. I cannot imagine a time in my life before my metamorphosis that I’ve heard anything like it.

The owl’s neck is broken an instant after I slam into it mid air, and I’m not going to bother to describe my process of eating it, because you don’t need to know how awful it is. There are plenty of nature documentaries out there with video footage of crocodiles, alligators, and birds eating other birds, and that’s close enough.

I’m saving my memories of the sensations of it for when I need to appall and horrify someone I don’t like much.

And I’m really hoping there aren’t any three or four year olds camping with mommy and daddy around to have heard or even seen me do that.

I expect that in the half dark of dusk in the wooded mountains, that that would be beyond nightmare inducing.

—

I’m sorry, let’s review.

I was born in 1974, and nothing seemed to fit me. I didn’t like who or what I was, and I was confused about life until at nine years old I saw a movie about cartoon dragons and realized that I must be a dragon stuck in the body of a human boy. Only, I wasn’t a boy, either.

And up until a week and a half ago, I thought that that was my lot in life, regardless of what happened. I didn’t grow out of it. I just buckled down and tried to learn everything I could about dragons while attempting to survive in the ways of my local humans.

And that took its toll, and I was never really able to work, and I ended up on SSI with a couple of disabilities, chronic fatigue and C-PTSD. And then I managed to land a HUD sponsored living situation in the Magnolia Apartments in my home town of Fairport, Washington.

Which is where I was when I awoke on the morning of Saturday, August 24, to find my body mysteriously transformed into the visage of my dreams. Literally. Every detail of it has been familiar to me, if somehow also new, because it matches who and what I am.

And the people I knew, acquaintances who I’d hoped to one day call friends, all bafflingly recognized me even more easily and accepted me into their lives.

It was quite lovely, if bewildering, for three days, until, after my Tuesday counseling appointment, I was attacked in my own apartment, through the wall, by Joel.

Joel is a dragon who I was calling Whitman for a while, because he makes a sound that I’d describe as a “yawp”. And he looks like a cross between a vampire bat, a hippo, and a velociraptor, with the mouth of the hippo, the ears and wings of the bat, and the tail of the raptor. He’s actually a sympathetic guy, but it took us a while to iron that out.

We’re still not on friendly terms.

But, in fighting Joel, I found my challenge cry, which I then started using in the morning like a bird. And the other dragons of Fairport, one or two in each neighborhood surrounding me, answered back!

And that’s how I found out that I wasn’t remotely alone in my metamorphosis.

Somewhere in there, I met and befriended a delightful autistic enby named Chapman with a special interest in dragons and a surprising secret. Chapman almost immediately teamed up with my lovely neighbor, Rhoda, to support me in navigating my new social life as a city dragon amongst other city dragons.

But despite their help, it became a serious mess really quick. Probably because I kept screwing up and making a bloody, violent, and extremely loud nuisance of myself and my neighboring dragons.

I was trying to do things right. I was following my intuition, or instincts, and aiming for a draconic diplomacy. But that doesn’t go over very well with a hundred thousand neighboring humans.

And even though I seemed to have made inroads and plans with Mayor Lynn Chisholm, who’s daughter turned out to be a dragon, too, I also got the attention of the richest land owner in the county, Daniel Säure. And it’s old Dan who is the one that I’m sure owns that surplus Coast Guard helicopter, and the company that runs it.

The last time I encountered the police on poor terms, just after interviewing the mayor, they were armed with tranquilizer darts and working with that chopper, which has Wildlife Management markings on it. A company called Equisetum Wildlife.

And it was they who tranqued me in my sleep and flew me out here, I’m sure of it.

And I’m pretty sure that drilling a fucking hole through my horn is not best practices when it comes to tagging wild animals.

For one, I’m not a wild animal. I’m a domesticated dragon with a social security number and a disability case file. I live in a symbiotic relationship with humans and many of them treat me like one of their own. I even use AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) on a tablet to talk to them. I drink coffee that I buy with my money.

But also, that weakens the horn, and I use that horn. It increases the chance that it will break, right through that hole, and I’ll lose the tracker then. Though that’s not how I want it to go.

I like my horns.

I’m pretty sure they put it there because they didn’t know what else to do, though. I can get to any part of my body with my teeth, except for the back of my head. And I can get to the back of my head with two sets of claws (my foreclaws and my wing claws). They improvised, and I hate it.

So that probably gives you an idea of why I’m in the mood I’m in while I’m swallowing that owl whole.

Did I ever mention that I can breath and even make noise while I’ve got something halfway swallowed?

I don’t think I did.

Well, I can.

I don’t bother with the sounds, because it comes out muffled and unimpressive. But it’s really handy to be able to breathe that way.

Probably not a good idea to try to breath fire, though. Fire doesn’t come out my nose, ever. It’s always a mouth thing for me.

This seems like an oversite in evolutionary design, but no one’s actually overseeing draconic evolution that we know of. Except maybe us dragons ourselves.

And that's yet another thing.

Chapman’s secret, which I’ve promised not to tell anyone, is that sie awoke and went through hir own kind of invisible metamorphosis years before us dragons did. And, along with anyone like hir, sie can perform something that sie calls hir “art”. Which is basically magic, as far as I’m concerned. And I can sense it whenever sie does it near enough to me.

And one of the things that Chapman’s art revealed is that I’m parthenogenetic. I can harvest and store DNA from a variety of donor vertebrates, usually from their spermatozoa but maybe even from their ovum if I can get them safely, and then mix and match without a single mate of my own bioform if I don’t want one. And in that process, I can bear a clutch of eggs full of baby egg producing dragons of various and varying chimerical traits.

And that’s presumably why every dragon is so wildly different.

Out there, somewhere, is probably a dragon who can breathe fire, or something, through their nose. But it’s not me.

Fortunately, no one interrupts my meal.

—

Owl and a couple small river rocks in my crop, I approach the camper. It’s most likely to have the tools I want, and its lights are still on.

To make sure I’m not startling its occupants, I’m occasionally saying the most soothing words I know, of the thirteen I’ve learned to imitate with my syrinx. I don’t have my tablet, so communication is going to be a bear.

“Meg,” my name. And then, “Okay,” and “Peace.” And I repeat those in alternating patterns as I near the vehicle.

In immediate retrospect I probably should have just exclaimed, “Shit,” which I learned in the voice of a young man named Caleb. It might have garnered more sympathy, instead of sounding unbelievably creepy.

Have you ever seen that Farside comic with the deer dressed up as a hunter and saying, “Howdy! The vacuum bag is hot today! Howdy!”? Yeah. That.

The door of the camper slams open and I find myself staring down the double barrels of a gun right into the eyes of a grizzled man who suddenly finds he can’t move a muscle, not even his trigger finger, because he’s locked eyes with a dragon.

And then I say, “Shit.”

“Harold?” I hear from inside the camper. “Are you OK? What is it?”

[xxxevilfilms]

The Osaka Bowl | Chapter 6

Info: A dirty fic collection featuring Asuka getting acquainted with some of the Tekken studs and a few gals. Viewer discretion is advised, a lot of these get a little icky.

Summary: After the war between G-Corp and the Tekken Force destroys Tokyo, Hwoarang and Asuka find themselves in an unlikely partnership as they try to survive in war-torn Japan as thieving drifters.

Warnings: Breeding Kink, Implied Teen Pregnancy

Run With Me | Asuka Kazama x Hwoarang

Ao3 Link

Asuka's cheek is smooshed into Hwoarang's back, hair whipping in the wind as dirt and bugs hit the goggles he gave her. She frowns when a bot fly smashes into her left eyeshield and wipes it off on the back of his jacket out of reflex, denim already stained red and brown with blood and motor oil. From a distance, she sees a potential pit stop, a chance for food, and lightly beats her fist on his back to alert him.

“Yeah, yeah,” He responds. “I see it.”

Asuka smiles and remains patient, belly craving ponzu potato chips.

He drives off the freeway and turns into the direction of the pit stop. It's an abandoned gas station, bombed to hell, but still standing. Asuka thinks it stinks of old gasoline and burned shrapnel.

“What do you want?” Hwoarang parks along the curb.

“I want chips.” Asuka lifts the goggles on her face and sets it on her head. “Ponzu... Honey butter if they don't have ‘em.”

“You'll get what I can find, how ‘bout that?” He puts down his kickstand and hops off.

“No downstairs kisses then,” She sticks out her tongue. 

“Liar,” He pokes her nose. Asuka simpers at the touch. “Whatever you want, I'll be back.”

Asuka watches him leave, eyes following the swerve of his rear. She giggles before settling back onto his bike, gaze now focused on the clouds in the sky, floating like cotton along a great blue sea.

She recalls a time when she was no different than a cloud carried by the breeze, wind in her hair, going wherever life took her so long as it was somewhere. Such a life seems so long ago, so distant, and yet it’s barely been a year since she began living like this. She supposes she couldn't complain; she was alive at least, healthier than most people she's seen. She got away from Osaka with only a few scrapes, a broken arm, and a burn on her right shoulder; folks like her father weren't so lucky. He passed away the same night she escaped, orphaning her. She aimlessly wandered what remained of the city until Hwoarang showed up, looking for the man who started this war, but instead took pity on a little girl who bore his name.

Asuka sighs, belly suddenly hurting. If it weren't for him Hwoarang wouldn't have found her, but she can't help but feel resentful of him, whoever he is.

“I wish I was a cloud...”

Asuka watches her clouds and keeps an eye out for fellow drifters until Hwoarang walks out of the store. In his hands were Asuka’s snacks as well as some candies and lukewarm drinks. Asuka bounds off the motorcycle to retrieve her chips and whatever else Hwoarang had.

“Thank you~” Suddenly her belly didn’t hurt anymore.

“Of course,” He shoves what he doesn’t wanna carry in his bag before cracking open a can of beer. “You really love those things, huh? You've been eating them like crazy.”

“I just like ‘em, I guess.” She shrugs and tears the bag open, unwilling to elaborate. “Let’s sit down.”

Hwoarang pops a squat on the sidewalk as he sips at his beer. Asuka follows suit and sits between his legs, munching her chips like a starving child as she stares at the highway. As always, it's quiet save for the sound of a very distant air raid siren. Asuka thinks it’s a good thing; the last time they saw another human, she almost got robbed and things didn’t end too well for him when Hwoarang intervened.

“There should be a motel about twenty miles that way.” Hwoarang points to the right. A plume of smoke rises from the horizon. “We’ll bunker down there for a few days.”

“Are we still going to Okinawa?”

“For now.” He drinks again. “Not crawling with G-Corp goons.”

“Sucks that we can't go to Hokkaido anymore...”

“Fuckin’ Zaibatsu...” 

“Well, I guess it's no big deal...” She swallows a lump of chewed up potatoes. “I always wanted to work on my tan...”

“Look sexy with one,” He laughs. “Ever think about dyeing your hair, too?”

“Uhh... Kinda?” She twirls a chocolate-brown lock. “I always loved highlights more. I think blonde would look cute on me~”

“You’d make a cute beach bunny.”

“Heeentai...”

Hwoarang sniggers, causing Asuka to do the same. 

Hokkaido, their initial destination, was safe up until a week ago; when G-Corp troops seized control of it from the government. Rumour has it that Okinawa was safe, one of the last prefectures spared from martial law and Tekken Force control. The American naval base did a great job securing the area it seemed and have been shipping refugees to foreign countries for safety. Hwoarang had plans to get them to a ship that would take them to South Korea so they could stay with Hwoarang's former master.

“We should go,” He scoots away from her to stand up. “Before something happens.”

“Haaaai,” Asuka does the same and skips to the motorcycle. “Do you think your master will like me?”

“We share a type, he’ll like you fine.” He climbs one and waits for Asuka to cling on to him. “He loves big tits.”

“Dirty old man...” Asuka smirks as she grabs the decorated goggles resting on her head, finger smoothing over a Sanrio sticker. “C’mon, I'm getting tired.”

“Yes ma'am,”

Hwoarang starts the bike and drives off, making a beeline down the highway.

It's nearly nighttime when they check into the motel, a shabby, cheap little room that was just barely clean enough for their comfort. Too tired to complain, the couple shower and settle in for the night and try to relax, or at least Hwoarang does. He's lying in bed watching TV with a smoke in his mouth while Asuka stands naked in a dusty mirror, examining her figure. She smooths her hands down big breasts and wide hips as she glares at her stomach, an area of concern she's recently been agonizing over.

Hwoarang notices her behavior but doesn't complain.

“Man, you gotta big ass.” He blurts out.

Asuka scoffs. “It'd probably be smaller if I wasn't so fat...”

“The hell are you talking about?” He raises a brow. “Ya look fine to me.”

“I think I'm gaining weight...” She complains as she touches her stomach. “I dunno... Feels like my belly is getting bigger.”

“Not gonna stop me from fucking you.” He ashes his cigarette in an empty beer can. “You're getting curves, so what?”

“Fachan...” Asuka whines. “It's not about that...”

“Then what is it?”

Asuka has her concerns, knows that they're not putting in an effort to have safer sex. It was very easy to blame the junk food that she's been gorging on lately, but she knew better than to do that.

“I haven't had my period in a while...”

Hwoarang is quiet, but she can see him in the mirror, eyes dancing between his cigarette and her figure as he puts two and two together.

“So...” He sits up. “You knocked up?”

“I...I could be, I don't...” She turns to him, fiddles with her fingers. “Would you be mad?”

“I'm not mad. Just means we should get to Okinawa sooner than we thought.” He then looks at her. “You'd wanna keep it, yeah?”

“If I could.” She walks back to bed and sits on the foot of it. “Are you sure you're not mad?”

“Can't get mad at nature, baby,” He finally puts his tab out in the can. “I hate condoms, you can't get on a pill, was gonna happen eventually.”

Asuka is silent for a time, a sudden fear welling in her heart.

“When we reach South Korea... You’re not dumping me with your master, are you?” She asks. “To go find...him?”

She feels two big arms pull her into a crushing hug. Asuka grunts but accepts his touch gratefully.

“Don't be so fucking stupid.” He growls. “You're pregnant. Whatever beef I have with that asshole is second to you.” He holds her tighter. “I'm not abandoning you.”

Asuka closes her eyes and breathes in his scent, content with his answer. 

“Thank you...” She sighs.

“I'm not leaving you, doll,” He kisses her hair. “Only pussy in the world I can count on right now.”

“Even when I'm fat and pregnant, you wanna fuck me?”

“I'd rather you be fat than skinny. Skinny bitches got nothing to grab.” He places his hand on her swelling stomach and squeezes lightly. “Got a body like a coke bottle already, can't imagine how fat your tits and ass are gonna get with a baby in you.” He then touches the meat of her backside and smacks it playfully. Asuka shudders in response. “You're gonna be a sexy little mama.”

“F-Fachan,” Asuka giggles at his enthusiasm, suddenly feeling happier about their situation than she did before. “I didn't know you'd be that excited about it~”

“It's a pretty hot thought,” Hwoarang cups her breasts, holds them up against Asuka's chest to flick dusty nipples with his fingers. “Nice big fat milky tits,” He pinches them, pulls them taut to make her whine. “Gonna make it hurt real good when I suck on them.”

“Y-You’re into that, huh?”

“I guess I am,” He's bouncing her tits in his hands now, entranced by jiggling flesh and rippling skin. “Wouldn't have enough to feed the damn brat once I'm done with you.”

“Ah… I don't want you taking that much,” She plays into the fantasy, arching her back to get him to do more to her. “What am I gonna feed him when–!”

Hwoarang takes her to the bed, gives her a devious look when he climbs on top of her.

“Guess you're bottle feeding then because I ain't sharing, not when they're this fucking big,” Hwoarang holds her tits together, lips pulled into a tight smirk when he opens his mouth. “This fucking perfect.”

Asuka sucks in a breath, both tits suddenly taken into Hwoarang's mouth. He rolls his tongue up and over fading areola and stiff nipples as wandering hands knead and toy with her breasts. Hwoarang refuses to break eye contact with her, watching her eyelids flutter like butterfly wings as he pretends to take milk from her. He sucks about as hard as she imagines he would if she were actually pregnant, belly big and full with their child as he wrestles her into the bed, humping a rigid cock into her pussy as he drank his fill of her. Her breasts would be so sore and tender after he's done with her, littered with bright red teeth marks and hickeys that Hwoarang would love to kiss and lick at as he bounced her in his lap. It's so lurid and so, so dirty to think about but she can't help it and neither can he.

“Fuck...” Hwoarang spits out her breasts, tongue now swirling around a swollen nipple. “You taste so fuckin sweet, baby girl...”

“You're greedy, Fachan...” Asuka mewls, thrusting her hips against his chest. “You're gonna milk me dry~”

“Oh baby,” He kisses along the curve of her tit while his hand moves down, down to where she needs him the most. “That's never gonna happen if I'm around.”

“W-Why--” Asuka gasps, suddenly plunged by two fingers that aggressively pump her cunt. “Ah, Fachan, why’s that...?”

“Cuz this won't be the last one,” He meets her gaze as he scales her figure. “I'll keep fuckin’ you, fuckin’ this pretty pussy,” A twist and a drag over her g-spot gets her wincing. “Knocking you up, making you a mommy,” Another finger, they go deeper this time, as far as they can reach. “Watching this fat belly get fatter...” He wriggles them up and down, side to side, bringing strings of slick with him with each pump of his hand. “Until you can't give me any, when I'm good and fuckin’ ready to stop.”

“Hwoarang...” Asuka's eyes cross, pussy close to coming, but she doesn't want it, not yet. “Please, Hwoarang, fuck me, hurry...”

“Yeah? You want this dick?” He kneels between her legs, grinning like a devil as he holds a foot-long, uncut cock above her sex. It's rock hard and framed by shocks of dark wiry hair. “Want me to breed you again, baby doll? Give you another one?”

“Yes, yes,” She wraps her legs around his waist, licks her lips. “Fuck me, fuck another baby in me, daddy. I need it...”

“Oh yeah, I hear you, baby...” Hwoarang holds her hips still, teeth chewing into his lip as he angles himself. “I hear you loud and clear.”

Asuka nearly cries when Hwoarang pushes in, slides against her walls, filling her with a girth that measures his wrist. It's so big, so fucking thick; she should feel grateful that such a mighty, hefty thing bred her so well, made her fit to be a mommy.

“So tight, fucking hell...” Hwoarang is slow, yet thoughtful once he fucks her, savoring the hold she had on his shaft, balls tightly drawn as they bounce against her ass. “Got me so fuckin’ horny for you, Asu, holy fuck...” He narrows his eyes, slaps his hand on her hip like a slut. “Gonna make you cum on my cock, make this cunt squirt,” He focuses on her breasts again. Hanging low on her body, sagging ever so slightly from rapid endowment, Hwoarang makes them bounce and jiggle, ripple and wobble along a slender chest by fucking her faster than he did before. Asuka yips and holds onto Hwoarang's sides, crying and gibbering like their unborn child would do. He smacks her again and then lifts her thighs to use it like a toy, treating it like a means to an end. He's gonna knock her up again, and if she isn't knocked up, he'll just top her off, finish the job and fuck her every day with his stud cock until she's finally with child.

“Love how hot, how sweet this little pussy is...” His hips knock her pelvis, pinking her skin, ass smacked red from swollen balls. “Want me to come that bad? This slutty pussy can't get enough of it?”

“Please, daddy, please knock me up...” She cries, holds her bouncing tits to pinch her nipples. “Fuck me, make me a mommy, I want it so bad...!”

“Fuck yes, baby, lemme beat it up...” Hwoarang topples over, forces her legs against his shoulders so he can pound down into her hole, folding her in half. Asuka wheezes but doesn't complain, too out of her mind from sex and attention to talk back. “Lemme beat this little pussy up...” He sacrifices speed for power, skin spanking skin as he hammers the flat end of his cock into her womb one thrust at a time. He holds her tight and smothers her with his breath when he kisses her. It's enough to make Asuka come, come so hard that she soils Hwoarang in sweet hot cunt juice. He practically bathes his cock in it, shoving his face into her neck when the thrum in his loins get too much to take.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck...!” He's so noisy when he's fucking her. Asuka loves it. “Take it baby, take it...!” She feels warmth, delicious warmth that blooms in her quim and ends at her womb. Asuka moans while Hwoarang pants, rocking his cock into her hole to wring out his balls. 

“Fachaaan... You gave me so much...” Asuka clutches his shoulders, kisses his chin and neck. “Such a manly, studly cock~”

“All for you, baby,” He huffs, wipes the sweat off his brow. “I'd do anything for you, I don't give a shit what it is.” He kisses her deeply then, thumb steadying her chin so he could cover her in love bites. “Fuck it, get pregnant, baby, make me a daddy...” A lingering peck filled with spit that he leaves on her lips makes her shiver. “Be such a cute, sexy little mama.”

Asuka revels in Hwoarang's words, delighted by his excitement, by his dedication to her. She can only pray that his master has room for three.

[newnevermind-sanity]

been slowly putting together in my head some important points about my interpretation of Ghost. Ramble under the cut.

They were the one to lead the other vessels that survived death through the crack in the wall. (See my previous post about the Original Lord of Shades) Their goal was not only freedom from that dark, quiet place; it was also to find the sibling that the Pale King beckoned. At the time, Ghost heard the Pale King's voice calling their sibling, and thought it as some sort of trick to lure the sibling away from the rest because the door slammed shut right afterwards.

After they gained their freedom, they went out into the wastes with their siblings, all in search of adventure and freedom. Some do die out there, but Ghost makes a name for themselves as a Courier. Unfortunately, the wastes eat at their first memories, especially the traumatizing ones, and they begin to forget the reason they left that place, or even what it was. They don't have a name, and so just went with whatever peopled called them. (Most of the time it was The Knight because of what they looked like. They take up the name Ghost after Hornet calls them that a few times as they liked the name more.)

When THK calls out, every living sibling hears it. They might have forgotten where they came from, but that call jostles their memory. They have forgotten something very important and have to answer that call. When they come to the Black Egg Temple, more of the memory resurfaces. They don't know why, but they have to save whoever's inside.

Ghost is the last living vessel to make it back to Hallownest. Some die on the way there, and as we know, many die within its borders. Ghost just so happened to get there last due to sheer distance travelled. They experience the same thing when they arrive at the Black Egg Temple, but they can also almost hear their sibling crying in pain at this point. Ghost still doesn't really know who they are, but they want to save them. They feel like they have to do something and very soon to save them.

Ghost's in a weird place in terms of development. They have lots of knowledge of the wastes and some of the people that live out there, and someone kindly taught them how to read and write. They were taught very basic socialization skills and some signs, but for the most part they wandered place to place, absorbing as much information as they could by watching people. They never did eat or really gain much soul, so they never grew and are stuck in that tiny body. Hell, they don't even know if they can grow (They find out they can much later after ascending.) Emotionally, they are very much a child. They don't know how to handle strong emotions and will lash out in anger, and jump for joy. These emotions aren't really that strong either until Ghost suddenly had something to lose and the memories start to come back. Later Ghost describes it as being stuck somewhere between a child and adult, with many skills underdeveloped.

Ghost is also a fucking moron when it comes to self preservation. I'm sure they've given everyone a heart attack at some point because they just pick the most straightforward way to get any job done or go somewhere, and usually it's the most dangerous way. This is not helped at all when they ascend, as since they're a god and can just come back whenever, (they can only be truly killed by a powerful light) they'll happily take the plunge off of anything or take hits for people. That's not to say they don't feel pain, they absolutely do. They just either ignore it or play it off until they can't anymore.

Ghost was just blindly exploring until they met Hornet. Until that point, they were just looking around for some way to maybe break into the egg or to help people or to try and find useful things. It's the first Hornet encounter where they start to feel that something is amiss. They see the dead vessel and take the cloak off, as you always do when you find a dead bug with something useful in the wastes, but this time they feel... sad. They don't know why yet, but they feel a twist in their guts seeing them, something they never felt outside. You don't have time to feel bad. It's a part of life out there. This one however was somehow different. They realize later what it is.

As they explore, bits and pieces start to come back to them. They fight to earn the Mantis Lord's respect, something common in the wastes, and make their way into the city. It's there that sense of grief started to grow and grow, until they find Hornet once more. Looking up at the statue of The Hollow Knight: there's a flicker of memory. Something about the horns, something about the way they stand, their general shape... They know this knight. They somehow know them, but why? It's about now Ghost really slows down and starts to look in every nook and cranny to find an answer.

They were scared as hell when the Dreamers locked them in, but is grateful the Seer got them out. As the Seer granted more clarity, Ghost revisited anywhere and everywhere they could to try and put the pieces together as to who they are. It comes to a head in Kingdom's Edge, and they proved just how determined they are when they beat Hornet and claim the King's Brand.

This fuels them all the way to the end. The more they find, the more they dig up, the more they remember, the more they want to try and save their lost sibling by any means. The more people they meet, and the more they lose, the more they want to kill the Radiance for the horrible fate she's wrought upon the world. Raw determination and willpower propels them forward, until they find a certain Troupe.

Ghost is more than happy to take the child into their care. When they find out the purpose, that just makes them more determined to see it through, as Grimm proved to be a friend and Ghost would help him continue with his mortal part of life. In this version, Grimm also gives more insight into the Radiance, as she's his sister, and tells Ghost that he did hear rumor of the Godseekers making their way here.

Thus begins the pantheons. With Grimm's words and their own knowledge, they piece together that they could battle the Radiance here, instead of having to go through their weakened sibling first and almost certainly killing them in the process. They climb and climb, and refuse to give up until she's dead.

Once ascended, they are a swirl of rage and hatred, as killing the Radiance wasn't nearly enough to satisfy the need for revenge their heart. They kill the Godseekers, and any who manage to flee the dream are hunted down all the way to Dirtmouth. The temper tantrum nearly killed everyone, but Hollow's presence manages to calm the new Lord of Shades and stops a catastrophe.

As the Lord of Shades, Ghost has a lot to learn. They still act like a kid, don't tend to speak formally and is stiff when they do, but they're going to do their best to help. They admit often that they're not a ruler, they just want a place to call home. They want a place where they could all heal and be together.

As for how they see their birth parents: nothing but hatred and scorn for them both, being honest. The White Lady called them just 'her spawn' and insinuated that Ghost take Holly's place. (Something they knew was a bad idea already.) And they loathe the line No Cost Too Great with all of their being. They will never be like him, that much they swore to themselves.

They love their siblings with all of their heart, and do their best to show it every day. They form good bonds throughout their journey, and they only get better the more Ghost learns, grows, and matures. Even still, they're still the mischievous scamp that ran all over Hallownest, turned it upside down, and became god just to save someone. They're definitely the most animated and happy out of the three, and is definitely the one that gets into the most trouble, much to the dismay of both Hollow and Hornet.

[irbcallmefynn]

Tell us about your characters!

Ok this'll be fun! And very, very long.

Fynn's Dad was a blacksmith. Made weapons for whoever had money. Just so happens the army of hell has a lot of money. He had a one-off fling with a demoness, and was promptly executed. Fynn spent most of his childhood in hell, being taught Demon Magic. He was not, however, taught how to control his emotions or his hunger. Basically, if you make him upset, he'll probably eat you (and not in the vore way, like contort your body into a milkshake eat you). He magicked his mouth out of existence at a wizard convention after a freak accident involving a slight mispronunciation (the demon words for "target" and "area" are very similar, as are "directed" and "indirect"), so he's excommunicated from Wizard Society™. He can't verbally speak anymore, so he uses a mix of telepathy and "air text" to communicate (that's why his dialogue has no speech bubble). He eats by simultaneously teleporting food into his stomach and macerating it.

Nauno was, as a child, abandoned by his parents, who believed they wouldn't be able to survive, as he's rather small and weak compared to their peers. He was adopted by a band of thieves, who raised him to aid in theft (small stature, light feet, and dark feathers makes for easy breaking and entering). This led Nauno to develop Kleptomania, and even after running away (turns out a band of thieves does not make for effective parents of an Avali, their needs were not being adequately met), he continued stealing and exploiting their feminine appearance to lure in wealthy men to pickpocket.

Coincidentally, Fynn and Nauno both met Euphi at the same time in a bar (Drunk guys have a fascinating taste, and make for easy pickpocketing targets, Euphi was just kinda there). They struck up conversation, and eventually realized all three of them are fucked up in some way (Fynn for being half demon and a literal man-eater with no mouth, Nauno for being a Kleptomaniac femboy with a body count higher than they are, and Euphi for somehow finding both of these guys adorable). Fynn saw value in Nauno for bringing in victims, Nauno saw value in Fynn for dealing with misogynists (which have been problematic for them in the past), it was only natural they'd want to cooperate! Euphi was very lonely, and these were the first two in a long time she's ever felt anything special with, so they all agreed that living together would benefit everyone involved. You can call this Polycule formed!

Considering Fynn was homeless (no job, and nobody wants to rent out a place to someone who will eat them) and Nauno was also homeless (on the run from both the police and his adoptive family), Euphi was more than happy to welcome both of them into her life. She also doesn't have a job (not sure why), but heart found an abandoned house on the outskirts of The City (that's the name; The City City, located in Country). They were able to renovate the place to a livable state through a mix of stolen goods and demon energy-based electrical appliances, and now live there as a happy polycule of Murder, Prostitution, Theft, and Willful ignorance.

With this new life setup, they've also been trying to actually help each other become better at fitting in with society. Fynn never really figured out what love is, Nauno never got a formal education, and Euphi's just kinda odd. Heart does make a decent teacher for Nauno (better than nothing, at least), and Nauno's trying their best to help Fynn grasp what love is (all he can really follow is that he loves the taste of human, and loves having people that actually like him).

Euphi honestly treats Fynn and Nauno better than Heart-self, and borderline babies these two "grown" men. She lets them get away with damn near anything, only being concerned when the law could get involved. They can be a handful at times, especially when Nauno lures one of their victims home, but heart would never dare tell them to stop!

Ok... I think that's all I've got for right now. That was a lot... gave me something to do during lunch, at least!

[ask-the-artist-lily]

{INFO ABOUT THE CHARACTERS}

· · ─────── ·♡· ─────── · ·

Lily Willson

{Personilty}

Lily is an artist who sees the world in her own social way that she would express it with her art. She is a sweet and kind hearted persona in general yet tend to be oblivious and reckless at time. She dose not have the best social skills or cues so her ways to interact with other may be unique.

{Story}

->Read Here<-

{Traits}

WIP

{Facts}

Lily has Prosopagnosia (aka face blindness) so she tend to draw portraits of ppl she met to remember how they look like yet she is able to remember in certain level the faces of those who close to her such as her brother

She shit her mom and killed her :)

Kinda has a bad sense of direction and can get lost easily

Poor memory

Her right eye is blind

Self neglecting, she tend to forget to eat/drink/sleep and most of the basic things she has to do to survive in a daily routine but no worries her brother is here to help her remember and she recently try her best to remember to do them!

She has insomnia due to night terrors but starting to recover and actually get good amount of sleep — Yippee!

She has both ADHD and Autism… baby.. hold gently🥺/j

Idk why but this girl can just go against the law of nature so uhh~ don’t get surprised if she broke the fourth wall, k?!👍

Her love language is physical affection 🫶

She has a whole art studio in the manor somehow where she spend her time there the most!

She has a lot of stocking collection with multiple colours and patterns!

Even tho she do wear hair metal rings accessories I may not draw them as often so just imagine her sometimes she wear them sometimes not

She keeps a sketchbook with her when going outside to draw whatever and whoever she lay eyes upon and may draw you a lil gift while at it

For some reason she sometimes like to have ppl draw on her sketch book to get to know them better and also study their personality through their art style while talking to them

She to this day keeps all the painted estra eggs Rosalyn had given her💕

She likes to draw on anything and anyone and especially on her brother lol

Has a gun :D!

So child like when around her brother

· · ─────── ·♡· ─────── · ·

Gabriel Willson

{Personality}

Despite appearing as strict and cold at first, when talking to him you would immediately realise he is such a caring person who is calm and collected and with a strong mother like nature towards everyone and especially his little sister. He tend to be more down to earth and logical yet he would not mind to mess around as well when he feel like it and only around those who he is comfortable with… He may get a bit too worried and paranoid at times tho~

{Story}

->READ HERE<-

{Traits}

WIP

{Facts}

About his Grandmother, the way she passed away is because she got a heart attack while trying her best to stop Gabriel’s biological father from harming him in which left Gabriel with a lot of guilt about it.

Due to his Parents abuse and how they used to hit him with a stick a lot behind his legs, there is some scars on his legs, not so noticeable now but if you take a closer look you can see them.

Despite everything, Gabriel dose not truly hate his parents yet he also dose not like them and of course would not forgive them for what they put himself through but he understands they also victims much like him and grew up in a strict household when they were young but sadly they ended up becoming much like their abuser. Even tho he still sometimes wonder if he should contact them after so long even after he faked his own death…

Gabriel holds a lot of guilt even when a lot of them were never his fault, he always feel as the oldest he should be responsible for a lot of things and when something bad happen he would assume is because he wasn’t strong or responsible enough.

His left eye had been removed all together so he doesn’t have any eye under his eyepatch but.

He has an eye glass that he sometimes wears but not too often and honestly he kinda forgot about it.

Has autism too (yay autism siblings!)

Would train a lot out in the garden

His top scars look like wings :D! (Also I know mostly that top surgery was not a thing back in 18th but I kinda forgot and tbh who care? Let my boy have top surgery!)

He let Lily draw over his top scars and overall all of his body while he do the same to her at time as a way to bond together in a silly way

The mother of the group honestly, among all my OCs he is the one who make sure they all stay in line and not get themselves in trouble.

Really likes cute thing and may get cute aggression but would not show it when people are around lol

He stop being religious after he started his new life and even tho he no longer Christian he still believe there is a god out there so he is agnostic despite all the religious trauma he went through.

Really care and love kids

Aside from fencing his hubby tend to go from cooking to writing poems

He has a really good singing voice that he used to be the lead in the choir in the church

Can be a bit of a teaser~

His Love language is throwing actions and physical affection.

Quite flexible

He kinda knows how to draw a little bit thanks to Lily but still not the best out there

Wouldn’t hesitate to kick your ass if you are a threat to him or his sister 🫶

Has a one of those “pick a god and pray” stares lol

Idk why but there is this joke me and Joe has about “The Gabriel Rizz” and I feel like mentioning it lol

[katarina-writes-about-jesus]

My thoughts on IVF

Live I've written before, I have made a baby with IVF and donor sperm. I understand that that sounds foreign to many Christians. Perhaps even the ones who can get over the same-sex relationships. This is my take on that.

The idea that I've heard from Christians is that it's unnatural, doctors produce many embryos that are then discarded, destroyed, killed etc. Even healthy embryos that could have become babies.

I still don't believe it's a sin because I believe what the bible say. In the Book of Jeremiah, The Lord says:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you."

I don't believe that there is a single human being walking on earth that God didn't create. My son isn't outside creation or God's love and Grace. God is still in charge of who gets to be born and who dies. He even caused a virgin to conceive after all.

Simply, all the children made from IVF, God has a plan for them too. God isn't surprised. He isn't shocked. He knows that his humans are smart at inventing things. He made us this way. And he knew we would invent IVF.

The reason I needed IVF was because I have endometriosis that has ripped my fallopian tubes apart. They are so full of scar tissue that no eggs will go through. I don't have endometriosis because God doesn't want me to be fertile but probably because of my old sinful behavior (eating too much, not taking care of my body etc) so not an act of God.

We used donor sperm which I don't see an issue with either. Sure, it can be problematic if the child doesn't get the information that he/she was made with donor sperm or that the donor didn't give consent. In the Bible there are different ways people make a family, just look at Abraham who had a child with Hagar and not just his wife and during biblical times many patriarchs would have more than one wife or use a surrogate to produce an heir. Not that that justifies it. I'm not of the thought that parenthood is a human's highest calling (praising God and serving God is the highest calling). God knows that most of us have the biological drive to have children anyway. And this drive I had, and have, and I fought to have my son and God gave him to me just when I needed him the most.

That's one of the other reasons I'm spiritually and morally okay with it. I feel that God is with me. God was with me through all of it.

In the Book of Romans we read:

"But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin."

Without my faith I wouldn't manage to be a mom to my IVF -made, sperm-donated son. He isn't a sin.

Practices that I find sinful or problematic:

With that there are IVF practices that I find problematic and even sinful.

I'm pro-life and I believe that life starts at conception. Not to the point where I believe that the embryos in the petri dish can feel pain. But the healthy embryos are still worthy of our respect. I don't believe in destroying these. At my clinic they are destroyed after five years or when the woman becomes 45 years of age. I understand that there are women who have maybe 11 healthy embryos. I don't know what to do with these either. I don't have any more eggs or embryos "in the freezer" so I don't need to worry about this but I believe you can donate healthy embryos to couples who don't manage to make their own OR maybe if you harvest many eggs don't fertilize more than you are planning to use.

Another practice I find abhorrent is the option to donate the embryos for research. I don't want to know what that entails.

The workers at my clinic said they almost cried when they had to dispose of healthy embryos because they know how hard it is to produce a good embryo. I've gone through IVF a couple of times. My son is the only time I've managed. One little embryo that survived the entire way.

[system-of-a-feather]

Honestly writing this out also really made me remember and realize just how much of our childhood was chronically drenched in psychological warfare between children and towards parents solely to survive because the environment and atmosphere our parents AND my oldest sister set up for us was very "eat or be eaten" and "only enough resources for one" so me and my middle sibling used to really have to do what was necessary to secure the basic needs resources that were essentially treated as limited.

And its not like I didn't know this, but that was a very XIV specific topic because XIV was first and foremost split to really play that game against my middle sister originally and cause it was a XIV thing, I don't think non-XIV parts really processed that fully

But I feel like the sheer amount of active psychological abuse that everyone was flinging at eachother in our family was just really fucking insane. My oldest sister was the most fucking insane about it, but like... I dealt it, my middle sister dealt it, we all couldn't actually fight eachother and we weren't motivated to - our family just went straight for the social and psychological attacks and went to try to get other kids disowned / kicked out / hated and ostracized so that the competition for resources would be permanently secured and its just

INSANE to think about especially with how normalized the "oh yeah me and my middle sister used to actively play manipulative games with little regard for who it hurt to gain control over our parents and make sure our needs got met" and that shit got REALLY fucking bad sometimes cause like we literally would sometimes intentionally rapidly escalate a situation to overwhelm our parents until they were just desperate to get someone to de-escalate / let the house calm down at all and then it was just a large game of "who can make this situation look like the other person was the worst one of the two" because at THAT point, whoever lost would be remembered as the "problem child" for that instance

Like FUCK man was our household fucking HOSTILE as shit

I literally forget my middle sister used to be "one of my worst abusers" in a previous opinion and understanding of our trauma cause she was like yeah, the most overt but like??? She was honestly just trying to survive in a family that pit us against each other like we were in a dog fighting ring. Her and I really did iron that out and make our apologies and acknowledgements after like 8 years of us trying to make things better and what not and failing miserably and now shes like... honestly pretty awesome to have in my life.

So its really fucking WILD thinking about how shit our childhood was and how horribly we got along in the past

God my family generally becoming so much healthier and so much more relaxed, understanding, and just supportive and normal about things is SUCH a wild thing after growing up how I did and being told they're all hostile and all that shit

Like my dad that used to be "ugh gross men are becoming so effeminate" and literally startle response to seeing men touching eachother

And today, in the chat with my middle sister who I have since tag teamed with to push the GAY agenda onto our family w/ my mom who is now a SUPER fan of being a SUPER ally drops this:

And I'm just really fucking pleasantly surprised. Yes there are things that if we posted it to tumblr dot com people would be offended or what not, but like I honest to god literally something I never thought hed get anything past "confused and a little uncomfortable personally but don't care otherwise" because 1) old 2) asian 3) very soft vaguely catholic 4) struggles with empathy and communication due to being autistic and 5) literally has glass in his brain and missed out on a lot of science education

And dude over here is now just going

"Yeah I think they're gay and TBH husbands are better partners than wives ngl"

Like god damn what the hell Imma kill my oldest sister for trying to get me into the negative isolated hell hole life she lives in cause holy shit I never thought or could even FATHOM my family being a quarter as positive of an aspect in my life as it is now and I absolutely would have never been able to if I hadn't REALLY just chopped that parasite off and challenged basically everything I was spoon fed like holy shit

I'm proud of my family cause like DAMN did that toxic hellhole do SUCH a collective 180

(this is btw very light hearted play conversation with my mom and dad, i can tell but XD)

[firstbeachgoblin]

Hey! I hope you’re well, can i request an imagine where reader is Embry’s imprint and they haven’t seen eachother in months because reader has a life she can’t just drop for him but she comes back when the pack is blowing up her phone ? Thank youu and don’t worry if you don’t write it, it’s fine!

Thank you for the request! It took a Long time But It's now complete with a total whopping 5k words!! Any way I hope you enjoy the fic.

I put it under the cut because it's so long but it's my brain baby at the moment lo.

Returning to you.

Embry Call x Reader

5058 words

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most of my life has been spent in the Forks area so getting to travel to Europe for six months to see the art and culture was a dream come true. The past four months I’ve been travelling through Europe, starting in Greece and ending my trip in the Irish countryside.

The old art and architecture filled me with a joy that I could not get anywhere else in the world. The smells, sounds and sights all played their own part into the experience. I got to see the moon rise over Mount Olympus, the David by Michelangelo in the Vatican, tour through the Louvre, drink wine on the beaches of France and so much more. I’ve been living my best life.

It's been a dream to see the world, I've met so many new people and tried so much food. I’ve enjoyed every minute of my trip, but there was a part of me that longed for the beaches of La Push.

That part is Embry. Embry Call. My boyfriend, my pal, my love and my light. To me Embry is my everything and to him I’m his everything. That is one thing that has been made perfectly clear the past four months I’ve been away. Every day he’s told me he misses me and I know he means it, I’ve been told not just by him but also the rest of the pack.

Everyday I’ve woken up to ‘Good morning I miss you.” Sometimes he phones to tell me that he feels like he might die if I’m away for any longer. I always chuckle and tell him he will survive, it’s not like I’m going away forever; but that's what he feels like it is. This usually earns me a long winded whine from the other end of the line.

My phone buzzed against the smooth surface of the bedside table while Embry’s face flashed across my screen signalling that he’s calling. A smile graces my lips as I pick up the phone to be greeted with his loving voice.

“Hi (y/n)!! I miss you so much.” sadness was laced in his usual cheery greeting, it hurt my heart to be away from him but I would never trade this experience for anything. I’ve been planning this for years and I wasn’t going to pass up cheap plane tickets.

He filled me in on the pack's shenanigans, complaining about how they keep teasing him for being glued to his phone awaiting any updates I would send him. The later it got the heavier my eyelids seemed to feel, my speech started to slur with exhaustion of time zones while Embry continued to become more energetic with each passing minute.

“Em. . .” A yawn interrupted me mid sentence, a low whine emanated from the phone as he knew I would want to get to bed to have the energy for the long trip I’ll embark on tomorrow for Ireland, which is my last stop. I’d be spending the remaining two months of my trip in the lush countryside.

“I think I should get to sleep, I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow.” I mumbled into the phone.

“But (y/n)!” he dragged out. I knew he wanted to talk longer but I physically cannot do it. Even though Embry and I don’t live together officially yet, we’d talk into the early morning till one of us fell asleep.

“But (y/n) what?” I dragged out the ‘a’ matching his whine.

“I miss you and want you to come home.” I could hear him pause over line before he continued.

“Besides, sleeping isn’t the same without you.”

I ran my hand through my hair gently tugging on the roots easing the tension that’s built up over my trip. As much fun as I’ve had, he does have a point. Sleeping just isn’t the same without Em. My nights have been spent restless in beds that aren’t mine without the comforting touch of my boyfriend; but that doesn’t mean I can just drop everything and go back home.

“Em you know I can’t just pack everything and go home. . .” I looked at the painting that hung over the tv that sat opposite of my bed. A puppy-like whimper fell from his lips when he spoke again, his voice cracked like he was going to cry. It broke my heart hearing him upset.

“I-I know I just really miss you.”

“I know Embry I miss you too, but it’s only two more months then I’ll be home.”

We chatted for ten more minutes before I fell asleep on the phone. As much as I missed falling asleep in his warm embrace I can’t just fly back home, not yet at least.

The blaring of my alarm woke me from my slumber. The clock face read 6:02 a.m. taking everything within myself to peel back the blankets that encased me in their warm grip. I patted through the bed sheets to find my phone only to knock it onto the floor in the process.

My lock screen adorned a photo of Embry with icing smudged across his face from his birthday party but a swamp of text messages from the pack covered my favourite photo of him. Five texts from Leah, seven from Jake, nine texts from Paul, 12 texts and two missed calls from Sam and a whole group chat titled ��(y/n) come home.’

The group chat kept pinging with the members of the pack who were still awake discussing the logistics of flying out to Ireland to take me back home. Was Embry really causing that much strife in the pack for them to create a group chat? Knowing him, it couldn’t be too far from the truth.

Leah and I call once a week to check in and make sure the other is doing okay since I left. It’s one of my favourite parts of the week being able to have a one on one with someone sensible. Every week she fills me in on Embry begrudgingly, she does it because she knows it makes me happy which I appreciate.

Reading through her texts she didn’t say much in regards to Em’s behaviour the only message relating to him was “come get your man child please, he’s getting snot on the floor.”

I listened through Sam’s voice mails which were begging me to come home, he informed me that once Em knew I was asleep he started moping around Emily’s house again for the fourth consecutive night in a row. This was news to me.

The texts entailed that Embry was becoming a pain on patrol and that Paul ‘couldn’t take another minute of the incessant whining.’ I told them the same thing I told Embry; I’m not dropping everything and rushing back home to sooth the wails of a love sick boy. There isn’t much I can do from across the ocean anyway.

I stretched my body and headed towards the bathroom to brush my teeth and shower before I had to leave for the airport.

I packed the few remaining things I left out to prepare for the flight and headed my way to the lobby to check out. I enjoyed travelling but I wasn’t going to miss sleeping in hotels and hostels.

Two weeks have passed since I touched down in Ireland and to say I’ve been having the time of my life is an understatement; I’ve been having a ball living my best life.

The land was capped in a luscious emerald green sea of grass that waved in the wind, the roads were lined with hand built stone walls that marked the division of farmers fields.

Sheep and cattle grazed in pastures, and old castles dotted the countryside. It was gorgeous. It was a view that I wanted to see again, a view I want to see with Embry.

It felt like time was flying by between sight seeing, trail hiking, museum tours and calls with Embry and Leah. It has already been a month. I had one more month before I was to jet set back to the U.S. and see my Embry.

One more month before I was back in La Push surrounded by the scent of sea water and trees with the looming threat of rain constantly overhead except in the summer. For two months of the year La Push was bright and sunny with the expected summer storms that happened.

I had fallen asleep on the phone with Embry again when I realized my phone was lost in the sea of sheets as it buzzed with an incoming phone call.

I couldn’t find it until the call had gone to voicemail and my phone landed on the ground when I gave up and ripped the blankets off of the bed but whoever called must have felt it was really important. Picking up my phone the most unflattering photo of Jacob was plastered on the screen, his name in white.

“Hello?” I asked groggily into the phone, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I looked over at the clock which said in bold red numbers 1 am.

“Hey (y/n)! You sound like you just woke up.” I heard him chortle from the other end.

“That’s because I just woke up Jake, it’s one in the morning.” a yawn escaped my lips, I know I’ll have a rough time getting over jet lag when I go home.

He occupied twenty minutes with idle chatter and borderline interrogation about all the sights I’ve seen before I asked him why he was calling me so early in the morning

“Embry has spent the week at my house, you need to come home there’s nothing we can do anymore to occupy him till you return.” He sighed, Jake knows I want to finish my trip but we made a deal that I would come home early if there were absolutely no options left to keep Embry from sending the pack into hysterics.

I knew he was buttering me up for something.

“Are you sure you can’t figure something out? It’s just another month!”

“Another month of him eating my cereal and getting dirt on me from my dad!”

I snorted with laughter at the fact that Billy was telling Embry every embarrassing detail from his childhood.

“Jake please just let me think about it okay?” I sighed, flopping back into my hollowed cave of blankets and sheets.

“Okay, I’ll let you think about it but don’t think I won’t be telling Sam.” he warned.

We laughed together and he wished me a good night before hanging up the phone, before I slipped back into slumber I sent Jake one more text.

‘You wake me up at one in the morning again and it’s over for you.’ in which he responded with ‘Oh no I’m so scared lol.’

I reached over to the bedside table and plugged my phone in before the sweet embrace of warmth and slumber took over my senses.

The next three days I was bombarded with texts from Paul whining about the wolf mind link and how every patrol shift he had with Embry was spent tuning out his constant thoughts of me.

Standing in the shower with hot water running over my skin soothing my tense muscles I heard my phone buzz against the granite countertop. I rolled my eyes and continued to bask in the endless hotel hot water.

As bad as staying in hotels could be, the hot water made up for the early breakfast and sheets that were tucked in a little too tightly.

I had shampoo in my hair when my phone started buzzing again, this time with a call. I grumbled under the stream of water washing away the soap before it could get in my eyes; whoever's calling can wait.

I moved on to conditioning my hair, letting it sit while I wash the rest of my body with a lightly scented lavender soap.

I refused to use the complimentary soap because it dried out my skin and the lotion just left me feeling sticky instead of moisturized.

Watching the soap run down the drain my phone rang again, I clenched my fists, who could possibly be calling me now? I still refused to get out of my steamy heaven to answer my phone.

My gut told me that whoever was calling wouldn’t let up until I answered. I washed out the conditioner from my hair and wrapped it in a towel.

The mirror was coated in a layer of steam, the tiles were cool against my feet. I wrapped the plush towel around my body, mopping up the droplets of water that remained.

My phone started vibrating with rapid fire text messages from the pack’s group chat they made a month ago. I sighed, picking it up to sift through the messages. I read a message from Jared telling me he’d pay me to return.

The pack always made me laugh, together they’re a walking sitcom. There is never a dull moment with them, someone always had something witty or sarcastic to say.

I checked to see who had called me and it turned out it was Sam, I listened to his voice mails and immediately phoned him back.

As soon as I hit the call button it only rang for half a second before he picked up.

“Thank you for calling back, I thought I’d have to call two more times.” he chuckled.

“Well I was in the middle of a shower, can’t really take a call there.” I moved through the room with my phone pressed between my shoulder and cheek. Stopping at my suitcase to pick out what I was going to wear for the day.

“I’m going to be frank with you, I need you to come home. . .” I let out a huff before he continued.

“Embry needs you badly, he’s just a pile of mush on the floor now. It’s a chore to get him up to go on patrol. Please?”

“Fine, I’ll see what I can do Sam, I’ll try to book a flight for the earliest date I can find.” I knew I was giving in but from what they were telling me and the constant texts were getting to be difficult to manage.

“Thank you, when you get back I’ll buy you take out for a month okay?”

“I hate that you know what my weakness is.” I laughed through the phone, a month of free take out? Hell yeah. It made the prospect of going back a little brighter since I wasn’t going to complete the rest of my trip.

I wasn’t losing out on too much though, I had seen and done everything that I wanted. It wouldn’t be too bad to go home early.

We talked for a couple more minutes before parting ways, I threw my phone on the bed and watched it bounce a couple times before turning my attention back to getting dressed. Since I had a flight to book it was okay to spend the rest of the day lounging in pj’s.

The soft fabric of my pj’s brushed against my skin as I jumped into bed with my computer in hand, and now it was time to book a flight back home. Maybe text Paul and tell him he can quit complaining as well.

I woke up the next morning with my flight booked for take off in the afternoon and my daily good morning text from Embry. I felt a little sad to be leaving such a beautiful country but the trees, ocean and Embry all called my name.

Pacing through the room I grabbed the comfiest set of clothes I packed for my return flight back to Seattle, I had enough time to sleep on the plane to be conscious enough for the three and a half hour drive back to La Push.

I was set for a long day ahead of me but it was going to be worth it in the end, seeing the bright and happy face of my boyfriend, getting to hug him and kiss him again.

I made one last check of the room before I gathered my clothes and toiletry kit and made my way into the bathroom to shower before my long flight. As I was stepping into the shower my phone pinged from the counter with a text from Sam.

“Have you booked that flight yet?” it read.

“Yeah I’m due for take off at 1. I should be back in La Push some time tomorrow!”

My fingers brushed the cool surface of the counter top as I put my phone back and got into the shower, hot water immediately running down my back; this time my phone wasn’t being blown up by a desperate wolf pack trying to get my attention.

I can’t sit in the shower for hours on end this time, I have a flight to catch and a boy to surprise. Embry was currently still under the impression that I would be coming home in two weeks. Boy would he be in for a surprise.

The residual steam wafted out of the bathroom while I brushed my teeth revealing my towel wrapped body and hair in the mirror behind the skin. I checked the time and noted that I had two hours to check out, make my way to the airport, and check into my flight back home. Two more hours before I could smell the trees and ocean, two more hours before I could see my friends and hug Embry.

The time managed to move by in a blur by the time I was shutting the trunk of the yellow cab that was going to drop me off at the airport. I got into the back seat and the driver peeled away from the hotel front onto the winding roads.

“Aye where are you headin’?” The driver inquired in a thick Irish accent.

One thing I noticed in my stay here was that the accent changed in every town or village I passed through. It added to the charm

“Well, I’m on my way home after spending six months in Europe.” My eyes scanned over the green hills that rushed past in a blur.

“My favourite places I’ve been have definitely been Ireland and Greece.” I smiled towards him.

The lines around his eyes crinkled with the smile that graced his face at the mention of Ireland.

“Well that’s good to hear innit? Glad you’ve enjoyed your stay. We welcome ya with open arms if you return.”

We held a light conversation until we arrived in front of the drop off area for passengers, thanked him and grabbed my bags before heading into the crowded lobby.

The front of the terminal was metal and glass that reached towards the heavens with automatic doors gaping open like a mouth. Inside was a dull white with light grey floor which my shoes clicked against with each step.

It was packed with people like a can of sardines, I weaved my way through the masses towards the check in desk which thankfully only had a short line to get through.

Under the mix of fluorescents and natural light the desk lady’s bags that donned under her eyes glared with visible exhaustion from the mass amounts of people that swarmed the terminal.

Despite her clear drowsiness she still greeted me with a warm smile and a soft hello.

I grabbed my ticket and thanked her then turned and pushed myself through to the security check, dropped my luggage off and took a seat to wait for the boarding call for my flight.

As I waited grey clouds started to fill the sky blocking out the little sun that was once shining in its place.

My eyes grew heavier by each minute that passed, waiting could be hard, but waiting in an airport where there’s no sense of time is worse. So I distracted myself by people watching.

A lady was bouncing her baby, the old man across from me was snoring. A businessman paced back and forth speaking urgently into his phone, a family chatted excitedly for their family trip to the Canary Islands.

I pulled my eyes away from them as the call for my flight rang out over the crowded terminal, grabbing my suitcase and making my way towards the gate.

Excitement filled my every step as the anticipation grew and bubbled inside me. I gave the greeting flight attendant a small smile and made my way to my seat, for being last minute I managed to get a window seat.

We sat on the tarmac for twenty minutes before taking off and before I knew it the seat belt light pinged off and I was fast asleep jet setting my way back to America, back to my home.

I couldn’t tell what time it was when I woke up but the clock on the tv screen said 2 a.m. and that we’re due to arrive in an hour. I sat up in my seat and gazed out the window into the starry night sky.

Energy started to course through me as I watched the arrival time tick closer and closer. A light rain misted down over Seattle as I left the Seatac terminal and made my way through the maze of cars in the night that was made darker by the rain.

I spotted my blue Subaru and popped the trunk so my interior and seats wouldn’t get wet. It had been a long six months since I last sat in my driver's seat, the wheel almost felt foreign in my hands as I turned the key and listened to the engine roar to life.

I drove through the winding roads of the city to the Seattle-Bainbridge Ferry to take the 45 minute ride into Bainbridge and headed North to get on the 101 then turn onto 110 which would take me back into the heart of La Push.

The closer I got to Forks the brighter the sky became; well as bright as it could be on a gloomy day. The clouds became painted in the glow of purple and pink as the sun rose over the horizon, the rain had let up and left me with an overcast sky for the remainder of the drive back.

Since I slept virtually the entire flight back I didn’t feel the weight of exhaustion at all, but surely when I arrived back in the arms of Embry I knew I’d hit the wall with sleep deprivation.

As I barreled through the corridor of trees I passed the signature ‘welcome to Forks’ sign and turned right onto the 110, twenty minutes to home. I was so close but my soul felt like it was light years away.

The clock on my radio told me that it was currently 6:45, the pinks and purples that coated the sky faded away to the typical grey that fills my senses with delight. Sea salt and washed up kelp started to seep into the air that circulated into my car making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

Closer to Beach Drive I got the stronger the smell of the ocean became. The turn signal clicked as I turned onto the road that gave way to Sam and Emily’s house so they could take me over to Embry’s in the off chance that he happened to be awake at this hour.

It’s highly unlikely that he would be up at this hour but it’s not something I could be one hundred percent positive about. I stepped out of my car and turned around to see Emily running as fast as she possibly could towards me with open arms and a huge smile plastered across her face.

Dropping my bags I dashed across their lawn into her embrace.

“Oh (y/n)! I missed you so much, you must be so tired.” She released me from her hug and settled her hands on my shoulders giving them a gentle squeeze.

“I missed you too Emily, I knew I’d be tired but not this tired.” I chuckled while wiping at my under eyes in a feeble attempt to wipe away the exhaustion.

She put her hand on my lower back and led me inside for the awaiting cup of tea while Sam moved my bags into his truck.

The warmth of their home embraced me, the comfort of their kitchen was familiar. The only thing missing was the rowdy group of boys that made up the pack who usually occupied every available seat in the home.

I took a seat at the kitchen table where three cups of tea sat waiting, I should have expected a q and a when I returned. Wrapping my hands around the mug the warmth that radiated from it filled my hands.

Emily took a seat beside me and Sam entered through the door and sat adjacent to both of us.

“So how was the trip?” We sat around their table chatting until our cups were empty and filed out of the house into the early morning air.

“Emily and I will drive your car back to your place after I drop you off at Embry’s, the kid’s been sleeping in my living room more often than I’d appreciate.” Sam’s eyes crinkled with a smile, I knew he was joking but at the same time there was truth to his words; and honestly I couldn’t blame him.

“Thank you for putting up with him while I was gone, I owe you guys one and you owe me take out for a month.” He rolled his eyes and ruffled my hair turning into the Call's driveway. Embry’s mom had already left for work leaving him to his own devices; which meant he would sleep in as late as his heart desired.

We got out of Sam’s truck and he dropped my bags on the doorstep. I turned and gave him a quick hug and a thank you before sticking my key into the lock.

The door creaked open and I dragged my suitcases to a stop in their front entry way and shut it behind me.

My shoes landed on the floor with a soft thud and I gingerly walked up the stairs to ensure I wasn’t too noisy while making sure to avoid the one squeaky stair.

I got to the top of the stairs and hung a left down their light beige hallway that gave way to the oak door that guarded Embry’s room. His soft snores filtered through the door, it’s door knob was cool in my hand. Making an audible click with the turn of my wrist.

Dark mahogany brown hair peaked up from beneath the sheet that tucked Embry’s body out of view. One pillow was on the floor while the other was tucked firmly between his cheek and arm, I smiled at the sight of my sleeping boyfriend which filled my every inch with the utmost joy.

My sock covered feet pressed into the carpeted flooring with each step I took towards his bed making sure to step over the piles of dirty clothes that were scattered around the room.

The sun filtered through the gaps in the window blinds casting pools of golden light on the floor and along his walls causing the crystal prism that hung above his closet to sweep dashes of colour across his walls.

I pulled back the grey top sheet to reveal his peaceful face and I swear my heart was going to burst with the amount of love that I feel for him. His hair was tousled in every direction and a cow lick stuck straight up on the left side of his head.

My hands ran over his hair, smoothing it out while I whispered his name. Embry groaned a bit and rolled over, I whispered his name a little bit louder and moved my hands from his hair to his shoulders running them along his arms finally waking him from his slumber.

“Hi Em!” I gushed out as his brown eyes opened and focused on me. His face split with his toothy smile and his arms shot around me, pulling me down into his chest.

“Do you know how much I missed you?” Embry mumbled into my hair.

“I figured a lot with the amount of texts I got from the pack.” I reached up brushing the hair from his face.

“You can never leave me for that long again. . .I didn’t know what to do without you here.” He ran his hands through my hair placing a gentle kiss upon the top of my head.

“I was so worried about you. I couldn’t protect you and make sure you were safe.”

“Well next time I’ll make sure you can come, then you don’t have to worry.” Craning my neck up I placed a kiss upon his lips which were still a bit swollen from slumber.

“The important thing is that I returned safe and in one piece. The other important thing is I get to spoil you with the gifts I brought back!”

His laugh filled the room sending vibrations through my body.

“Hey! That’s my job to spoil you, not the other way around.” He ruffled my hair causing us both to laugh. I peeled off my socks and wiggled my way under his blanket.

“I think it’s time we catch up on six months worth of cuddling.” I poked a finger into his side.

“Yeah I think that’s a good idea, you owe me for being gone so long.”

“What? I came back early!” His hands made their way under my shirt to rest on the bare skin of my back sending waves of heat through my body from being pressed into him. Oh how I missed my heater.

“Yeah, by like what? Two weeks?” his silky voice chuckled out.

“I missed you Embry.” I told him, placing a kiss on his exposed shoulder.

“I missed you too. Now let's go back to sleep, you look tired.” He said to me as he rested his chin atop my head and pulling me closer.

[beels-burger-babe]

The Day Out

GN!MC Summary: MC and Solomon spend the day out enjoying the wonders of the Devildom. The problem with this? They never told the seven Lords of Hell that they’d be gone for the day.  TW: Torture (Not to the MC or the bros tho), Injuries, Murder (Again, just an unimportant Background Character) When the Wise King Solomon asks you out of nowhere if you would like to spend a day exploring the Devildom with him, some hesitancy is to be expected. We’re talking about an ancient wizard who is notoriously sketchy in every way and who seems to always have some kind of personal agenda that he uses for everything.  But the fact in the matter was that you had just survived and grueling two weeks of exams at RAD, and the stress of always being passed around between the demon brothers to partake in their various schemes and problems was really starting to wear on you.  So a day out, relaxing, and finally getting to explore Devildom in its entirety, regardless of the company, actually sounded pretty good.  Solomon had asked you to meet him outside of the House of Lamentation just before dawn. He stood there now, looking as collected and secretive as ever, with a satchel strapped over his shoulder.  “Ready to go and enjoy the company of another human?”  “More than ever! What’s with the bag?”  The wizard shrugged held out his arm to you. “I thought I might collect a few potion ingredients if I happen to spot any. The Devildom is home to a number of special rarities after all, and it would be horrible not to take advantage of my time down here to collect some of them.” That was fair. You took Solomon’s arm and allowed him to pull you close to his side before the two of you took off onto a trail in the woods. 

*** Later that morning  Mammon frowned as he approached his human’s room. You hadn’t been at breakfast, and he hadn’t heard from you all morning. This was weird. More than weird, it was worrying. It seemed like ever since you had arrived in the Devildom, the second born had a hard time getting you to leave his side, and sure it was annoying at first, but he had come to appreciate the warm presence that you exuded and found himself feeling strangely cold without you there.  He knocked on the door. “MC! Ya gonna missed breakfast! Wake up, ya lazy bones. Just because it’s the weekend, doesn't mean ya get to hold up in ya room all day like Levi!” He smirked at his own insult and waited for your inevitable retort.  Instead, he was met with silence.  Mammon’s frown made a quick reappearance. “Oi! Don’t go ignoring the Great Mammon! Beel’s gonna eat you’re share and I don’t wanna hear ya complainin’ that you’re hungry all day. Now wake up!”  Again, silence.  He growled quietly to himself in frustration as a knot of concern began to tighten in his stomach. “MC, open the door and get over here or I’m comin’ myself! This ain’t funny, human!” When he was once again met with no response, the demon cursed under his breath and went to open the door; to his surprise, it was unlocked. He threw the door open and glared inside the room. “That’s it human! Up and at it! I’ll drag ya down to the dining room mysel-” He cut himself off as he noticed the room was empty. “MC?” Mammon looked around, noting your unmade bed and window being propped slightly open. He chuckled worriedly and began to look around a little more frantically. “Ha. Ha. Very funny. What? Ya plannin’ to jump and scare me? Ain’t gonna work, so ya might as well come out now. Seriously, MC. This ain’t funny.” The knot pulled tighter as he realized he was talking to himself. He began to search every nook and cranny of the room, hoping to Diavolo that maybe you were just really dedicated to this prank and was still hiding, but paled as he realized you were nowhere to be found. “Shit!” He cursed aloud and sprinted to the dining room where the rest of the brothers still sat.  “MC is missing!”  *** You gasped and ran ahead of Solomon as the two of you walked through the forest. You crouched down and looked at a patch of glowing blue mushrooms, eyes wide with awe. “It’s so beautiful,” you gasped and glanced over your shoulder. “I can’t believe I’ve been in the Devildom for nearly a year and never came out here.”  Solomon chuckled at your child-like wonder. “The forest can be quite dangerous to those who don’t know what to look out for. For example, those beautiful glowing mushrooms?” he gestured to the fungus in front you, “Those are called the Ardentes Mushrooms. They explode on contact and create a poisonus gas.”  You’re eyes widened as you quickly scrambled back from it. “What?! Why didn’t you tell me that before I got close?”  The wizard shrugged and put a hand on your waist to pull you close to his side, as he handed you a cloth. “Like you said, you’ve been here for nearly a year and haven’t seen much because those demons have gotten quite protective of you. I thought you might enjoy observing and learning about the wilds of the Devildom. Put the cloth over your mouth and nose, and watch.”  You did as instructed. Solomon smirked before putting a cloth mask over his own face. With one hand holding you close to him, a safe distance from the mushrooms, Solomon picked up a long stick and gently poked one of the fungus.  With a small poof it quickly became engulfed in azure flames aned small glowing flecks danced and sparkled in the air around you. You held back a gasp from behind the cloth as you watched in amazement, and Solomon simply stood there holding and watching you.  *** The Seven Avatars of Sin stood in the lounge anxiously. They had searched the entire House of Lamentation inch by inch and there was no sign of the human that had been entrusted under their protection.  Lucifer sighed and leaned against the table. “If they’re not in the manor, we have to consider other possibilities. Has anyone had any luck reaching them?” He looked over at Levi, “Could you potentially trace their D.D.D. if we aren’t able to reach them?”  Levi solemnly shook his head and placed the mentioned device on the table. “Found it in their room,” he ran a hand over his face in frustration. “They know better than to go out without their phone! This isn’t like them!”  “Maybe they didn’t go willingly.” All attention snapped over to Satan, who was looking at the D.D.D thoughtfully with a hand on his chin.  Mammon paled as his hands gripped tightly onto the chair in front of him. “Y-Ya mean ya think someone took them?”  The aura in the room darkened as Satan nodded. “Levi’s right. They know better than to leave without one of us and even if they had to, they would at the very least take their D.D.D. They may be reckless sometimes, but they’ve been more careful about their safety ever since-” he paused and glanced at Belphegore before clearing his throat. “But that’s besides the point. Their window was unlocked and open as well. A demon could’ve very easily gotten in through there and took them while we were all asleep.”  Asmo let out a dramatic gasp and threw himself onto Beelzebub’s arm. “Oh the poor dear! They must’ve been so frightened being taken advantage of like that!” Beel looked down at Asmodeus both disturbed by his brother’s antics, but also distraught by his words.  Belphie rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. “But there wasn’t any signs of foul play in the room. No signs of struggle.”  Satan hummed in thought. “MC is a human with no particular means of defense. They’re weak enough awake,” a spark of wrath flared behind Satan’s eyes as he clenched his jaw. “I imagine that asleep, they wouldn’t even have the chance to become fully conscious before a demon, even a lesser demon, could knock them out.”  Lucifer growled lowly. “We’ll find whoever did this, get MC back, and make the perpetrators responsible for this regret their very existence.”  In that moment, the brothers had never appeared more frightening or demonic, as the room filled with eyes glowing with the promise of death, snarls of anger at the knowledge that someone dared to touch what belonged to them. In that moment, they truly were the Lords of the Devildom. Satan grinned a wide, murderous grin, “It seems, for once, we agree, Big Brother.”  *** You peacefully continued to gather the flowers and mushrooms that Solomon had pointed out to you and verified were “safe for human contact” as the mid day sun beamed lazily through the tree branches of the forest.  You quietly hummed to yourself and glanced occasionally over at Solomon who was collecting some of the more dangerous samples to observe later on.  You smiled at the wizard. It wasn’t often you got to see him so relaxed. It seemed like every time you saw him, he was prepared for at least ten different scenarios and was weaving the strings of manipulation before his victim could even blink.  But out here, where there were no prying eyes and no other tasks to follow, Solomon looked open and the most human that you’ve ever seen him.  “You really like it out here, huh?”  He glanced back at you with a raised eyebrow, and made quick work of putting his current sample into a storage bottle. “And how did you come to that conclusion?”  You rolled your eyes and went back to picking mushrooms as you spoke. “I just mean that you seem so calm and...loose out here. Like you’ve finally dropped that act that you always put on and are finally allowed to be yourself.”  Solomon was silent as he looked at you with a strange glint in his eyes. As after a moment or two, he smirked and chuckled softly as he looked away. “For a human with no magical talents, I have to applaud your skills of observation. I think I can understand how it was you, and only you, that was able to see through the brothers as you have.”  You shrugged and attempted to hide the blush dusting over your cheeks. “It’s nothing. I just want to-”  You cut yourself off as a low growl fills the air not far from you. You slowly look up to see what appears to be a mix of a bear, a rat, and a skeleton, standing only a few meters from you. It’s beady red eyes were glaring directly at you. Your breath caught in your throat as you froze, “S-Solomon?”  “MC, listen very carefully. What’s in front of you is an Iacis Rat. They are extremely hostile, and considering their hibernation period has just ended, I imagine they are very hungry. I need you to back up very slowly and carefully. Avert your eyes, and hunch low to seem unthreatening. Keep it in your peripheral vision,” his voice was low and calm but firm with a sense of urgency. You took a shaky breath and slowly began to do as Solomon instructed. You got five steps in before you heard something snap beneath your foot.  The giant rat let out a horrendous roar that you could feel vibrate in your bones as it suddenly swiped at you. Your cry of pain pierced the air as it sliced open your arm and threw you back several feet. Another snap; only this time it was the fragile bones in your other arm breaking, not a stick.  You could hear Solomon shouting a series of spells, before he quickly scooped you up and began to run. You whimpered as he picked you up and jostled your arm. “We’ll get that taken care of in a minute MC, for now, we need to run.” You glance over his shoulder and see the rat surrounded by a series of warding walls and swatting at a few crackling balls of arcane energy that prodded at it and flew around its head.  The two of you managed to get away. You found yourself sitting on near a cliff, panting heavily as you looked out on a view of all the Devildom, with the sun just beginning to set. It would’ve been beautiful if you weren’t bleeding and in pain.  Solomon crouched beside you and inspected the gash on your arm and your broken bones the moment he had deemed that you were both safe once more. After a few silent moments of observation, he had set up a small fire and began to brew some kind of potion. You watched closely as he worked, and within an few, agony filled minutes the wizard was holding out a small cup to you.  “I am so sorry you got injured. In all honesty, I had forgotten about the Icais Rats post-hibernation season, and foolishly believed that we would be safe today,” He sighed and shook his head. “Regardless, this potion should heal all the injuries on your person. Though I should warn you, this will hurt...quite a lot actually. You can hold my hand during the process if you’d like.”  You took a shaky breath and took his hand into yours. The wizard smiled softly at you and pressed a kiss to your fingers before handing you the potion. “Whenever you’re ready.”  You eyed the red liquid in the cup before bringing it to your lips. Before you could change your mind you quickly downed the potion and squeezed tightly onto Solomon’s hand.  You tensed waiting for the pain to kick in... but nothing happened.  You frowned and looked over at Solomon. “I don’t feel any worse than I did before. Are you sure this thing-”  You were cut off as a fiery hot pain suddenly shot down both your arms and your head began to throb. Your loud piercing scream could be heard all throughout the forest as the pain began to overwhelm you.  Solomon pulled you into his lap, and held you tightly with one hand as the other ran his fingers through your hair. “I know,” he whispered softly through your screams. “It’ll be over soon. Just a couple minutes. You can do this MC. It’ll be alright.”  You sobbed as waves of pain hit you over and over again, until a sudden cool, sweet, numbness began to trickle over you. A gasp escaped from you as you stilled in Solomon’s arms.  The wizard chuckled, “Growing back your bones isn’t very fun. I’m sorry you had to go through that. You should be feeling better now.”  You looked down at your arms, and sure enough, the gash on your arm was gone with no sign of it having ever existed and the bones in your other arm had mended. You sniffed and wiped away the tears that had begun to appear in your eyes and looked over to Solomon. “Can you take me back to the House now? I think I’d like to take a nap.”  He smiled sadly at you. “Of course.”  *** A loud agonized scream rang off the walls of the House of Lamentation, causing Belphegore and Satan to grin. Their victim hung by their hands, chained to a wall while they slowly carved into its flesh.  “You know neither of us are exactly known for a patience...” Belphie drawled as he slowly brought a claw down across the lower demon’s chest. “So this is your last chance; Tell us where MC is.” The demon sobbed openly as it shook it’s head. “I’m telling you! I don’t know where they are! I swear! Please, let me go! Please, I don’t know anything!”  Satan tsked as he polished a knife and approached the demon. “Really? Because I know for a fact that you have been following them around and watching them at RAD lately,” he points the knife against the demon’s throat. “You wanted them, didn’t you? You were figuring out their routine so that you could take them for yourself. Admit it!”  The poor demon sobbed even louder as it’s body trembled. “No! I admit, I-I was following them around! But not because I wanted to- to- kidnap them or anything! I swear! I-” the demon’s face turned red, “I find them attractive and I-I was trying to work up the nerve to talk to them! That’s all!” It made eye contact with Satan, it’s expression pained and desperate. “Surely you guys understand that! I-I mean all of you brothers like them, right? That’s why you’re always following them-”  The demon didn’t get a chance to finish before Belphegore growled and snapped the demon’s neck. Satan rose an eyebrow at his younger brother, causing Belphie to shrug in response. “He didn’t have anything we needed, and was just babbling. It was annoying.”  Satan rolled his eyes and looked back at Lucifer, who stood in the back of the room, going over stacks of papers, maps, and occasionally checking his D.D.D. “Another dead end.”  The eldest brother scowled and crossed something out on a piece of paper. “Right. That’s it for possibilities at RAD then. We should start with the list of possible suspects from The Fall and the people Mammon’s indebted to then. They’ll be harder to get a hold of, but some of them would definitely have a strong motive.” Just as he finished, the House doors swung open and Mammon and Levi came marching in with the angels in tow. “We got them,” Mammon stated the obvious as he unnecessarily pushed the two in front of him. “They’d just gotten back from RAD. We haven’t told them anything yet.”  Simeon gasped at the sight of the tortured demon still hanging dead on the wall in front of them, and quickly drew Luke against him, hiding the younger angel from the sight. He glared over at Lucifer. “What is the meaning of all of this?”  Lucifer ignored the question and frowned when he noticed there was only two out of the three exchange students. “Where’s Solomon?”  “Chihuahua says that he’s been gone all day gathering ingredients for some potion. Based off of the stuff missing from his room, and the feed from the security cameras, it checks out,” Levi explained.  “Luke is not a chihuahua!” Simeon loudly defended, surprising all the demons in the room, as the little angel hugged himself closer to Simeon. The elder celestial scowled at everyone. “Now will someone please explain to us exactly what is going on and why you all are acting like a bunch of mindless, feral, demons, when we all know you are more intelligent and civilized than that!” Lucifer gave him a flat look as he crossed his arms over his chest. He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut of by a hiss of pain as a sharp, agonizing, burn suddenly swiped over his upper right arm. Not too long after, an even stronger twinge filled his entire left arm. A quick look around the room told him that his brothers were feeling the same thing; meaning this could only be one thing: MC was hurt.  Mammon snarled as he grabbed the front of Simeon’s robes. “Look, we ain’t got time to mess around. MC’s been taken, and is currently being hurt. That’s all ya need to know. What we need to know is if you got any ideas in that feathery, “holier-than-thou”, brain of yours who might’a took them or where they are! If ya can’t help us, than ya useless, and you can just get the hell outta our way while we actually do something about it!”  Simeon’s eyes widened as he felt Luke stiffen against him. The elder angel glanced over Mammon to Lucifer, “MC is missing? For how long?”  The second-born growled and harshly shoved the angel away from him. “Did ya not hear anything I just said?! We ain’t got time for stupid questions! Now do ya know where they are or not?!” The angel opened his mouth to speak, when Lucifer’s ring tone suddenly cut him off. The demon quickly snatched it up and put the call on speaker. “Asmo, report. Any sign?”  “Beel and I didn’t have any luck downtown, so we were headed back to House. We were passing the woods, when Beel... Beel thinks he’s picked up the scent of MC’s blood. We’re following it now.” Simeon shivered as he felt the demonic power in the room quadruple in strength and could practically feel it’s energy crackling in the air around them. Mammon’s face paled, as the second-born cursed and rushed towards the door. Satan, Leviathan, and Belphegore weren’t far behind him; all four brothers were already shifted into their demon forms. Lucifer’s expression became absolutely murderous as he swung his cloak over his shoulders and moved past the angels to follow his brothers. “Keep track of the scent, and describe to me where you are. We’re all coming to-”  Suddenly, all the brothers cried out in shock and pain, some of the younger ones even stumbling from it, as their bodies felt as though they had been filled with white-hot needles. Even more painful, however, was the distant, familiar, scream that could be heard on the other side of the phone call.  “Th-that’s MC,” Beel grunted out through the pain. As suddenly as it came, the pain vanished as was replaced with a chilling, numbness that filled the demon’s with dread as the screams also ended.  Levi froze and looked around at his brothers. “D-Does that mean...Are they?”  Satan swallowed thickly and shook his head, but there was a hint of uncertainty and fear in his eyes. “No. If they were dead, we’d feel the pacts break. We’d know. R-Right, Lucifer?”  The first born merely scowled and charged forward, leading the group towards the woods. “Let’s go find Beel and Asmo. We’re getting our human back now.”  *** Solomon kept an arm wrapped around you as the two of you slowly made yourr way back down the trail to get home. He watched you carefully, keeping an eye out for any unexpected side-effects of the potion. “You’re sure you’re alright then?”  You smiled weakly at him and nodded. “Yeah. Only side effect I’ve noticed is it’s made me quite tired. Other than that, I’m all better now, thanks to you.” You looked out at the trail ahead of you, “I’m sorry our day had to end on such a bad note.”  The wizard waved a hand in dismissal. “Non-sense. It wasn’t something neither of us could control. Though perhaps I should’ve been more cautious before taking you out here,” he chuckled in thought. “Imagine what the brothers would say if I returned you beaten and broken from a giant rat attack.”  You laughed and shook your head. “I doubt Lucifer would let me leave the House again! If I got hurt, it would be damaging to the program after all.”  Solomon frowned at your words. “Do you truly think that is the only reason why he, or any of the others for that matter, would care if you get injured?”  You shrugged and notably avoided the wizard’s gaze. “What other reason would they have for caring for me? Their the Demon Lords of the Devildom. I’m just MC. A defenseless human with no magical powers and nothing that makes them special.” Solomon stopped walking and grabbed you by the shoulders. He looked down at you with his stern silver eyes as though he was attempting to see straight into your soul. “You are MC. A descendent of the Angel Lilith, Master of all seven of the Avatars of Sin, and one of the kindest most observant individuals I have ever had the great fortune of knowing. You are not just some defenseless human, MC. You are special; and I know the brothers see that too.”  You’re heart fluttered in your chest at his words, as a light warmth filled your chest. You opened your mouth to respond, when suddenly the calm forest air was filled with the sound of the Icais Rat’s roar and several battle cries. The two of you frowned and glanced at each other before cautiously making your way towards the commotion.  There, in the middle of the same field you had been attacked in earlier, was all seven of the demon brothers, decked out in their demon forms, as they viciously brutalized the wild beast, that looked as though it had been killed within the first hit.  Your eyes widened at the sight as you took several panicked steps closer to them. “Woah! Guys! Stop! What are you doing?!”   You flinched back as you were suddenly being looked at by seven sets of manic eyes gleaming with danger. Solomon came up behind you and placed a hand on your shoulder, he began to quietly whisper the beginning of a protection incantation. You gulped and held up your hands defensively. “Easy boys. It’s just me. It’s MC.”  Asmodeus was the first one to fall out of whatever daze the brothers all seemed to be under. His demon form instantly dropped as tears lined his eyes. “MC!!!” He sprinted over to you and was about to pounce, but found himself smacking into an invisible wall as Solomon threw his hand up. The demon rubbed his nose and gaped over at the wizard in shock and betrayal. “Solomon?! You’re the one that took MC?!” The vicious hue that surrounded the brothers while they were attacking quickly returned as they set their sights on the wizard. Lucifer growled, his eyes remaining fixed on the hand that the wizard kept on your shoulder. “I knew we couldn’t trust him. Solomon, we demand that you let MC go, now.”  Your eyes widened as the demons began to surround you in a notably offensive position. You could feel Solomon’s hand tighten on your shoulder as he glared at them. “Not until you all calm down enough, that I feel that I can lower these protective walls without MC being maimed to death.”  Levi squawked in offense. “Us hurt them?! You’re the one that kidnapped and tortured them!!!”  “Wait what?!” You and Solomon exclaimed in sync.  You shoved Solomon’s hand off your shoulder and stood between the wizard and the demons. “Alright, everyone calm down for a minute. I think there’s been a big misunderstanding. Why do you think that Solomon kidnapped and tortured me? That’s insane!”  Satan eyed you analytically. “He’s probably given them a potion to manipulate their memories to make them think they’ve come willingly and have them be more submissive,” a few growls filled the air from the statement.  Mammon moved as close to you as he could with the invisible wall still up, and looked at you desperately. “MC, you’ve been drugged. But we’re gonna get ya home! Solomon broke in through your window this mornin’ and took ya from us. We know that he’s hurt ya, but we’re not gonna let him hurt ya any more,” his eyes hardened as they shifted to Solomon. “That’s a promise.”  Solomon sighed and shook his head. “I didn’t do any of that! Earlier this week, I invited MC to accompany me today as I gathered ingredients to give them a chance to see more of the Devildom. They agreed and came with me this morning.”  You nodded and held up a bag of mushrooms as proof. “Exactly. We’ve just been out here exploring the woods all day. That’s all.”  Belphegore raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Then how come you didn’t tell us, or leave a note? Why was your window open and your phone left behind?”  You’re eyes widened as you felt your stomach drop in realization. “Oh, boys, I am so sorry. I completely forgot! We left so early that I was a bit out of it, and I must have forgotten to make a note. I figured there wouldn’t be any reception in the woods, and I had Solomon there with me for protection, so I didn’t take my phone. I promise this really is just a misunderstanding.”  Belphie’s eyes narrowed, clearly still not fully buying the story. “And the window?”  You chuckled and scratched the back of your neck. “It was hot last night. I opened it too cool off. I must have forgotten to close it too,” you could feel guilt course through your heart as the brothers all glanced at each other with caution and uncertainty. “I’m really sorry guys. I promise I’m okay. Really!”  Beel growled lowly as he moved closer to you. “Then what about the blood that we found in the woods? What about the pain we felt you go through? I know that was real! You were hurt MC! Solomon hurt you!” his voice dropped dangerously low on the last line as his eyes began to glow once more and he punched the invisible wall; trying to break it down by sheer force to get to you.  You flinched back, as you realized just how bad this must have seemed to all of them. “We weren’t careful, and we were surprised by that Iacis Rat that you found. It scratched my arm and threw me causing me to break my other arm. Once we got away, Solomon gave me a healing potion, that unfortunately has a pretty painful process,” you looked at Beel sympathetically. “I’m alright, see?” you moved your arms around, and took off your coat to show the undamaged skin on your arms. “No injuries. Just a plain, old, healthy, MC.” You sighed and looked over at the others. “I am so so sorry for worrying you all. I swear I didn’t mean to. If I get Solomon to lower the wall so that I can hug you, do you promise not to attack him?”  There was a notable hesitance in their response as they eyed the two of you and seemed to exchange a silent conversation between one another, before one by one, they all dropped their demon forms.  Taking that as confirmation, Solomon dropped the warding walls, and within moments you were engulfed by the arms of six of the brothers.  “Stupid human” Mammon grumbled and he held you tightly to his chest, “What were ya thinkin’?”  “Don’t ever pull that normie crap again, okay?” Levi nuzzled his face into your hair, blushing deeply. “I-I missed a raid because of you!”  “You’re not allowed to do stuff like that. You had Beel all upset. You know I don’t like it when Beel’s upset.” Belphie muttered, causing Beel to wrap his arms around the group of you tighter.  “You really had us all worried MC,” the gentle giant whispered. “We...We thought you had gotten killed or something. Thought that we lost you.”  “Urgh! All this stress has been terrible for my skin!” Asmodeus complained as he pulled away from the group hug. “You owe me a full spa day, darling. I don’t wait want to hear any arguing about it either, because it’s happening. It’s the least you can do after everything you put us through.”  Satan pulled away in front of you and frowned as he flicked your nose, like an owner would to a misbehaving dog. “Your actions today were reckless. You know the dangers of the Devildom. You should’ve told us where you were going and took your D.D.D with you. Do I need to remind you of just how wrong today could’ve gone even with Solomon by your side?”  Lucifer, standing away from you looked down at you with a carefully drafted gaze of indifference. “We’ll need to make sure that what happened today does not happen again, and ensure that you don’t ‘forget’ basic Devildom safety once more. There will be consequences that we will discuss once we get home. Am I clear?”  Strong waves of guilt, shame, and regret washed over you as each of the brothers spoke. You shivered at Lucifer’s words, and his tone which promised that these consequences would not be pleasant, and nodded in response.  “Good. Let’s get you back home then, shall we?”  As you were to be lead back down the forest path in Levi, Mammon, and Beel’s arms, you glanced over your shoulder and waved at a notably concerned Solomon. “Bye Solomon! Thanks for taking me out today. Next time, we’ll both make the proper preparations and have an even better day, yeah?”  Solomon smiled softly at you and nodded. “That’d be lovely MC. It was great being able to spend the day with just the two of us.” The moment you weren’t looking, the brothers all snapped their glares back at Solomon, causing the wizard to flinch back. The message was clear: he would not be taking you for a day out ever again.  ***This was meant to be just a funny little drabble, but I accidentally went a teeny bit serious with it...woops. Oh well, hope you all enjoyed it! Thanks for reading! Love, B 🐝***

[clareguilty]

The Naked Thing

Hello! I was dying without air conditioning a few weeks ago and decided to make it Mando Smut Mandalorian/f!reader Rating: Explicit | No Warnings Word Count: ~2900

The Crest falls out of hyperspace too soon, and you go flying. Curling around Grogu in your arms, you twist in midair so that your back hits the console to avoid crushing him. A lever digs into your spine, and you curse loudly. That’s going to bruise. Oh well. What’s another?

“What the kriff, Mando?” you snarl. Grogu seems unbothered, blinking at you and probably learning way too many swear words for a child of his size.

Mando pulls himself off the control grid with a pained groan, helmet swiveling as he takes in the damage.

“The good news,” he begins after a moment, “is that we lost them.”

That is good news, you agree. You were lucky that the army of bounty hunters and ex-imps hadn’t kept track of you. If you had shaken them off your trail, then that would earn you a head start to a safer system.

“The bad news is that they shot out our hyperdrive.”

“Dank Farrik,” you curse again, then glance at Grogu. Maybe you should watch your mouth more?

“...And our temperature regulator and our heat shields.”

You decide that it is an appropriate time for as much foul language as you please.

“What does that mean?” you ask. You hadn’t grown up around ships -- spent the last dozen years on the same dead-end planet until Mando picked you up. The most you were good for was turning a knob or flipping a switch here and there. Usually you just kept an eye on Grogu while Mando did all the piloting and bounty hunting and whatnot.

“We’ll have to travel sublight, but we can’t land planet side because without the heat shields any atmosphere worth a damn would burn us up. Our only option is a New Republic Outpost. We’ll be able to land there, and we’ll be safe while they repair the Crest. I’ll chart us a course and let you know how long it should be.”

“You know,” you snap, “we wouldn’t be in this mess if you weren’t so scared of droids. If we had an astromech on board, then we could get the hyperdrive repaired without having to crawl our asses through deep space in the hopes that whoever picks us up doesn’t want us dead.”

Mando doesn’t say anything. You don’t know if your words meant anything at all to him because you can’t see shit behind his helmet. Huffing, you take Grogu down to the hold. Not long after, the engines fire up again.

It takes a few minutes to set in, but its quick enough to be noticeable. The ship is getting hotter. Like… unbearably warm.

You fill a canteen with water and make sure that you and Grogu are both hydrated. After a little bit of digging, you manage to find a portable air circulator. You and Grogu sit directly in front of the current, doing your best to keep cool.

Mando comes down after a little while, he cocks his helmet when he sees you.

“It’s hot,” you whine.

“The temperature regulator is shot too. We don’t have a way too cool the ship down or shield the heat of the engines.”

You sigh. “How long until we can get repairs?”

“34 hours. Will the kid be okay for that long?”

Grogu hasn’t outwardly complained about the heat, mostly just sitting in front of the circulator with his eyes closed and ears flapping, but you’ve been worried as well. “He’s kind of… amphibious,” you frown. “I’ll get him a basin of water to sit in and put him in the fresher with the circulator. That should keep him cooled off.”

Mando nods. “Thank you. Will you be okay?”

You shrug. There’s not much you can do. As long as you stay hydrated then you should be able to last 34 hours.

“Thank you,” he says again.

“For what?” All you’ve done is curse at him and berate him for not having an astromech droid.

“For looking out for him back there. You saved all of us with that droid popper. And the move with the cannon was impressive.”

You aren’t expecting genuine praise from Mando. It always felt as though you were dead weight to him. Through all the planets you’ve been on -- and been chased off of -- you’ve always felt useless.You can’t fly, you’re not the best shot, you can barely take care of his kid. It means a lot that he doesn’t actually hate you. 

“I’m starting to get the hang of this,” you grin. You had never considered yourself a hero or adventurer, but you had commandeered a cannon and shot down three imperial fighters.

“I’ll be up in the cockpit if you need anything. Just knock.” And he’s gone.

‘Knock’ means that Mando is probably going to take his helmet and armor off, which means you also get a few hours of total privacy. You set Grogu up in the fresher with a basin of water and the circulator -- though it pains you to give up the weak, artificial breeze.

It’s only gotten hotter, and your already filthy clothes are starting to became unbearable. You had gotten splashed with gore and grime and who knows what in your escape, and it wasn’t pairing well with the heat onboard.

Stripping out of your clothes, you sprawl naked on the metal floor. It’s dusty, but slightly cool, and you plaster as much of your skin to the durasteel as you can manage.

Time passes with you systematically rolling across the floor of the hold to try and keep from baking. It’s bearable only because you know there will be an end. As long as the ship keeps chugging along towards the space outpost, then you will be saved.

The hatch to the cockpit opens, and you leap to your feet. Mando clambers down, jumping when he sees you.

“You’re naked,” he raises his hands -- his bare hands -- and backs against the ladder.

“You’re naked.” you point.

��I have a helmet and pants on,” he says. But that’s all he has on. His chest and arms are bare, and it’s more skin than you’ve ever seen before on the man.

“I’ve never seen you out of your armor. That has got to be more scandalous than me being naked.”

You must have made a point, because Mando doesn’t respond. Instead, you both just kind of… stand there. You can’t tear your eyes away from his chest and from the angle his helmet is pointed it seems he’s having a similar issue.

“Did you, uh, need anything?” you finally manage to ask. Your mouth is dry, and you take another uncoordinated drink from the canteen, shivering as some of the water spills down your chest.

Mando coughs. “I just wanted to make sure the kid is okay.”

“Oh,” you turn to open the fresher door just a crack. You had checked on him just a few minutes ago, and he still seems fine. After a moment of pause, Mando comes up behind you and you can feel the heat of his skin against your back.

Grogu is asleep, curled up just in front of the circulator and the basin of water so that the cool air blows over him. The fresher is several degrees cooler than the rest of the ship, and while it feels amazing, you don’t want to let the heat in.

“I’m going to go back up now,” Mando says quickly, and then he’s gone through the hatch once again.

You resume your circuit of laying on the floor, but it feels like the ship is only getting hotter.

That’s when you take to banging on the hatch to the cockpit. “Mando, I’m going to kick your ass! You had better get us to that outpost or find a way too cool this ship down! I spent years on Tatooine, and this is the hottest I have ever been in my entire life!”

“I can cut the engines to stop generating any heat, but then we’ll just be coasting through empty space and we’ll never make it to the outpost.”

You huff. “At this point you should just freeze me in carbonite.”

Mando does not freeze you in carbonite, but you do eventually make it to the New Republic outpost. They give the three of you a small dorm and Mando arranges for the Razor Crest to be repaired. You don’t have any credits between you, so you wonder what he offers in exchange.

You toss your gear into the room and head out to get food for everyone. You always enjoy being in New Republic space. No one is out to murder you or imprison you. The officers are usually nicer. Everyone likes the Skywalkers.

A friendly droid loads you up with several plates of food, and you stop to check out the holonet broadcasts on your way back. Things in this corner of the galaxy are a little hectic -- something you just witnessed firsthand -- but its less gloomy than it used to be.

Mando is sitting on the lower bunk when you get back. He’s back in his full armor, but you can read his posture pretty well. Grogu is playing in the corner, levitating some rocks you had found for him a few planets back. You set the tray down, fully intending to take your portion and eat out in the hall or in one of the communal sitting rooms. Before you can even turn away, Mando has already grabbed a plate of food and tugged his helmet off.

“WOAH,” you raise your hands in front of your face, ducking your head before you can see too much. Curly hair. Tan skin. Moustache. If there is one thing you’ve learned, it’s that Mando doesn’t let anyone see him without his helmet. It’s a cultural thing, and you respect that. “What is with you being naked today?”

Your eyes are open, but very pointedly looking at a wall nowhere near him. He shifts for a moment, and you wait for some kind of explanation.

“Look,” he finally begins, “we’ve been through a lot together at this point. I’ve traveled with you longer than anyone since I was a foundling with the watch. You’ve saved my life as well as Grogu’s many times, and we just survived one hell of a fight. Not to mention, I saw, um, all of you today. I figure it’s only fair.”

You’re touched. It’s an honor that Mando trusts you enough to remove his helmet. For as long as you have been travelling together, you’ve assumed that you care for him far more than he cares for you. “You don’t have to,” you say. “I don’t want you to feel obligated.”

“I trust you,” he repeats.

You turn to face him. His eyes are so soft. Tired and kind and the warmest brown. He stares at you, taking you in for the first time with his own eyes and not the visor in his helmet. It’s unreasonably intimate considering he was staring at you naked with the helmet on just 16 hours before.

“Has anyone ever told you you’re kind of cute?” you laugh and look away, smoothing your hands over your pants. There’s food in front of you, and you use that as a welcome distraction.

“I’ve never trusted anyone enough before now to see me.”

How can he just say things like that? You try to drown the rapid beating of your heart behind some kind of bitter vegetable.

Mando begins to eat as well, slowly and unsurely. He picks at a few different dishes before finally speaking again. “You’ve, uh- I mean… you’re beautiful as well.”

You laugh loudly at that. It’s so shy. This man had seen you overheated and completely naked lying on the floor of his ship. You roll your eyes and shoot him a wink. “Something you like in particular?”

Mando chokes, coughing for a minute before chugging down half a glass of green jelly juice. He finally regains his composure, but his voice is rough when he speaks again. “I’d say the best view was from behind.”

It’s the last thing you expect from him. He’s so shy and reserved and has always backed down from your defensive teasing. It’s a moment before you can pull yourself together. Still, you aren’t sure what to say. Instead, you cram some shredded raw crustacean in your mouth and hope you aren’t too flushed.

Mando offers to take the trays back. The dorm bathroom has a shower with running water and you intend to take full advantage. Grogu rolls a rock at your feet as you head into the bathroom, and you lightly kick it back to him. “Are you tired of putting up with us yet? You’ve been a baby longer than I’ve been alive. I bet we seem like idiots to you.”

Grogu, predictably, says nothing. He makes a raspberry noise with his lips and plops down into a sit.

The shower is one of the greatest gifts you’ve ever enjoyed in life. Hot water, high pressure, steam and soap. You take your time washing up and letting the jets work out all of the kinks in your muscles.

When you slide the stall door aside, Mando is standing at the sink. Helmetless. Shirtless.

He jumps slightly, staring at the floor as you step out of the shower. 

“We have got to stop doing this naked thing,” you say. It doesn’t actually bother you. You like that Mando trusts you, and you’ve never been shy about being naked around others, but he’s too attractive and it drives you nuts.

“I rather enjoy it,” he manages to pull his gaze from the floor to shoot you a wink. Your pulse speeds up.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish, Mando,” you step forward. You’re still steaming from the shower and dripping wet. He’s never been this cheeky before, and you kind of enjoy it.

His gaze darkens, eyebrows rasing. He reaches out to grab your waist, pulling you in and pinning you against the sink. You gasp at the feeling of his skin on yours, leaning back as he crowds you against the basin.

“Grogu is napping,” he whispers.

“I think the shower will fit both of us,” you breathe.

He’s already working at the buckle of his pants, toeing out of his boots. You drag him back into the shower with you. The jets hit his back, and he melts a little. You wrap your hand around his cock, and he looks like he may collapse. His eyes flutter shut, one of his hands slamming against the wall by your head.

You lean in to brush your lips over his skin as you stroke his cock. You’d never even seen this man’s face before today, and now you’re kissing your way over his jaw and down his neck. His other hand grabs your ass, kneading the flesh and pulling you closer so your hips brush his.

Your thumb swipes over the tip of his cock, and he shudders. It happens so fast, you didn’t know he had spun you around until your cheek is against the shower wall. His hands are glue to your hips, digging into your ass and pulling you to him so he can grind his cock against your slick skin.

“Please,” you whine. You haven’t had sex with anyone since you began travelling with Mando, and opportunities to get yourself off come few and far between with three of you on the Crest. You’re desperately horny, and you’ve wanted to fuck this man since you found him in that godforsaken desert.

He lines himself up and drives his hips forward, sinking into you with one solid thrust. You bite your forearm to muffle your moans, panting as you try to get used to the sudden stretch.

“You good?” he asks, leaning forward to kiss your cheek. 

“Move,” you say, demanding but desperate.

It takes a moment to find leverage in the tiny -- smaller than you first assumed -- shower stall, but Mando begins to fuck you at a steady pace. You reach down to rub your clit, clenching around him. You’re going to finish quicker than you’re used to -- probably because you’ve been turned on since you saw Mando shirtless on the crest.

From the way Mando’s hips twitch and his rhythm falters, you guess that he’s close to coming as well.

His hands are everywhere. Your hips, your ass, trailing over your stomach and and reaching up to squeeze your breasts. His fingers brush your throat and you nearly come from the touch alone. He feels the way you tighten around his cock and places a hand on your neck, squeezing your jaw between his thumb and forefinger.

You come so hard your knees give out and your vision goes white. Mando keeps you from collapsing in a bruised heap on the shower floor by simply continuing to fuck you until he comes as well.

It’s not a lot of space, so you’re slumped together under the spray of the water. You manage to wipe yourself clean in a few swipes and stagger back out so Mando can actually wash up. He’s much quicker than you were, and he’s out of the shower by the time you’ve finished rubbing scented moisturizer over your skin. The New Republic sure knew how to treat their guests.

“I think we should definitely keep doing the naked thing,” he grins.