#//can’t believe it’s been 5 years since the raid…

[sortofsoda]

Local graffiti artist & Alien time traveler at Area 51 raid (2019)

Jake the type of person to participate in the Area 51 Raid—Frank was sent there by the Secret Society fs.

Made this exact post awhile back but wanted to re-draw it again to experiment. Also it fits the Subsurf universe for some odd reason. Anywho BBYYEEEE 🛸🛸💨

[baiabay]

No Role Modelz (ATSV Black Cat Variant! Reader Insert)

Chapter 1: Scaredy-Cat

Prologue

Chapter 1: Current Chapter

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

^^links 2 chapters!! this story is also on ao3, wattpad, and quotev under the same name ! <33

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A/N: Spot is here!!

 Hey all! Okay so first things first thank you so much for all the support of the last chapter! It honestly means alot given that ive never written before lol. Alsoooo sorry for the radio-silence after the last release, i just graduated highschool! So yay for me :) also means that ill have much more time to write since its summer break for me now. Lastly,sorry if this chapter seemed kinda slow, I wanted to try to incorporate what this universes’ Felicia Hardys “canon events”(or what would be of her canon events) would look like in this chapter to set up a bit of backstory, as someone who doesn’t read the comics nor play the games, pls forgive any inaccuracies in Felicias lore as I am only going based off of wikipedia (plus in this story reader is a minor so I wanted to exclude the nsfw trauma that Felicia goes through in og story) I also wanted to find out a way how to integrate reader into the main plot which is why i decided to feature Spot in this chapter :D thanks again for the support and don’t forget that this chapter along with any future ones will be posted to ao3/tumblr under the same title!

P.S. Much more Spider-Miles/Black Cat interactions next chapter!!

Word Count: 1844

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You remembered it like it was yesterday.

Seven months ago, Brooklyn, New York.

Your father - The Black Cat’s face on every screen in the country, but most importantly yours.

BREAKING NEWS: WORLD-RENOWNED CAT BURGLAR CAUGHT IN THE ACT : IDENTITY SHOCKS THE NATION

…huh?

LIVE ON THE SCENE: ‘BLACK CAT’ REVEALED TO BE MULTI MILLIONAIRE WALTER HARDY AFTER RUN-IN WITH SPIDER-MAN

…no, this-

THIS JUST IN: CAT BURGLAR WALTER HARDY PRESUMED DEAD AT HEIST SCENE - POSSESSIONS TO BE TURNED IN TO OFFICIALS

This can’t be happening.

It was all too much at once. 

He never kept it secret from you. You knew about your father’s job.

You knew all about what he did. The planning, the heists, the reselling, he had done it for years. And you knew all about it.  But he had been doing this for years. Long enough to allow your family to live very comfortably. Long enough that you believed he would never be caught.

But yet there you were, all that you knew burned to the ground in a matter of minutes.

You remembered it like it was yesterday. Frantically packing everything you could into any bag you could find; clothes, money, pictures, weapons, anything - before they could take it away from you. 

And when they did, it was brutal. 

Live-streamed news coverage of men raiding your home, rummaging through your stuff- your father’s stuff- as if he never existed. 

Soon enough there were auctions. Bids, worth millions, on your father’s items, broadcasted across the nation, with drinks and music and finger foods - they made a fucking sport out of it. 

You remembered it like it was yesterday, the cheers in the street after the big-bad-black-cat was pronounced dead. The endless praise Spider-man received, that of which he took with a smile on his face. You had wished you could kill him.

You remembered it like it was yesterday, the day Peter Parker died.

You laughed.

.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .  

Seven months later, Brooklyn, New York.

Ugh.

Muscles aching, you stretched up in your bed, and groaned. Ruffling the bedhead out of your hair, you reluctantly trudged out of your mattress to open a window. Coincidentally, one of your many cats was perched perfectly on its sill, wide-eyed and tail flicking in your direction.

“...This whole heist stuff is really catching up to me, huh?”

The cat stared. You sighed. You really had to get yourself some friends.

Ever since your fathers passing, you’ve basically been on your own. Shortly after all his (and your) possessions were seized, you hopped around until you managed to find shelter in a shitty apartment on the west side of town. You, fueled purely by spite (with a tasteful teeny tiny dash of vengeance on the side), inherited the criminal persona of your father, along with his criminal tendencies, and took upon yourself the name of The Black Cat. 

All this time you’ve managed to keep your identity completely secret, not even your resellers knew who you were. That came with one major drawback though… you were extremely lonely.

Even with your frequent charity rounds around the community, noone really knew who you were. Even though Black Cat was nonviolent, the name was widely feared seemingly everywhere you went. Even with your days at school, the school you’ve been going to for months now, you made your way around the halls unnoticed. 

Speaking of school, you were late. 

Shit. 

Spending ample time dazing out your window, you’ve completely lost track of time. You disregarded your hair and rushed to pull on your uniform. Stumbling around your complex you hastily dumped too large of a portion of cat food into the automatic feeder, something you’re sure the cats will be grateful for. Shoving a few snacks into your bag, you simultaneously shuffled into your school shoes, proceeding to dash out the door. 

Sprinting down the stairs, nearly tripping once, twice, you whipped out your phone to check when the next bus route would arrive. 35 minutes.

Shitshitshit.

You paused, still in the stairwell, before turning to sprint in the opposite direction, towards the rooftop terrace. Creaking open the door, you checked to make sure noone else was up there before making your way towards the edge of the terrace. To anyone else but you, it would look like a young student was about to make an unfortunate decision and jump. And jump you did. 

You fell for a few seconds, relishing in the way your stomach dropped. You’d never get tired of that feeling. Seeing the ground get closer, you released your grappling hook and latched onto the nearest building. Pulling and releasing, you quickly fell into a swinging pattern, towards Brooklyn Visions. 

Hidden from the eyes of civilians, you swung yourself through the shadows. Everyone looked so small from up there, and for a brief second, you found power in your lonesome. In the corner of your eye you noticed what seemed to be a lanky white figure clumsily flying through the air. (You paid it no mind).

Dropping down into a dark alleyway much closer to campus, you continued your mad dash towards the main entrance. Winded, you finally made your way inside the building, a thin layer of sweat shined on your forehead. The hallways were empty, class must be in session. You took a few steps forward, making your way towards your classroom until being knocked over by a student, very evidently in a hurry. 

“Sorry! Sorry, I didn’t mean to-I’m just in a rush, I didn’t mean…”

The boy reached out his hand to help you up.

“Hey, it's no problem, I get it.”

You smiled, and took your hand in his. He hesitated for a moment, staring, brows furrowed at your now interlocked hands, before nodding and continuing his sprint down the hallways. 

You took in his disheveled appearance, his wonky tie, his half-tucked shirt, untied laces, dark eyes, curly hair, brown skin, sweaty palms…

Your thoughts were quickly interrupted with the shrill ringing of the school bell. Suddenly, the hallways flooded with students rushing towards their next classes, you decided to follow suit. 

On the other side of the hallway, Miles Morales lingered on how his spidey-sense flashed alarms in his head when his hand touched yours. Every nerve in his system telling him to run, fight, dodge, anything to get away from you-he couldn't put his finger on why. (He paid it no mind). Blaming it on nerves, Miles shoved his way through the packed hallways, dreading the meeting waiting for him in the guidance counselor's office. 

.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    

School was a bust, as always. Nothing new, you made your way through the rest of the day unnoticed. As always. But you didn’t have time to think about that right now.

At the moment, you were in the middle of going through numerous number-codes on a padlock blocking the vault door to an extremely expensive gemstone. You’ve been salivating over this stone for weeks now, planning out how and when exactly you would strike to get this thing in your hands. You could see it now, the headlines, the chaos, after some rando millionaire’s little rock was taken from him…

“Woah, hey, you’re new!”

You flinched, hard. Whipping around towards the source of this unusually chipper voice. You were met with… a cow? … Man?

You stared, hard. 

“Okay, hey. The ogling isn’t necessary… I just-”

The cowman’s sentence was cut short with a quick lash of your whip, that of which he caught…? Your whip seemed to phase right through a large black hole on his torso, the opposite end appearing in a similar black hole right behind you, the whips end striking your back. You cried out, hit with the full force of your lash.

Sinister giggles emerged from the spotted figure, pointed towards your pained form. You trembled, in shock. 

“It’s rude to interrupt.” 

Spot stepped slowly towards you, his…well, spots, whirring aggressively, pointedly. You were frozen on the ground. Staring up at him, your lips trembled open.

“What,” You coughed. Once, twice. “-what are you?”

The black and white figure straightened, only to then fold over into a dramatic, hilariously unthreatening pose. 

“You, can call me… The Sp-”

“Some sort of cow?” You snickered. It was now his turn to flinch, hard. 

“I am NOT a-” The cow cleared his throat. “I am not a cow…whydoeseveryonesaythat…I, am the most dangerous villain you’ve ever seen, The Spo-”

“I mean, what’s with that getup?” The grin on your face grew. “Is that… is that supposed to be a costume? Orrrr…” 

The Spot sighed, defeated. “...it’s skin.”

“It’s skin?” 

“Yes, yes, now I-”

You stood up, energy back and eyes crinkled. 

“Wow, that’s…hm, interesting…skin, that’s skin? Sorry, sorry-listen man, I uh, I really gotta get back to this, so if you don’t mind?”

Stepping backwards in offence, the spotted figure shook in anger before swinging out his arm, releasing numerous dark voids around the room. Hitting practically every surface, but one most importantly, landing on the vault door, separating you, from your stone.

“Ah-wait-”

Swiftly, The Spot weaved his way through his holes, limbs popping up and out around the room in a way you couldn’t even begin to reach for your whip. 

No way was he about to take it from you.

But take it, he did.

In what felt like seconds, the whole room was engulfed in black. Stumbling backwards, you fell through one of the voids, flailing ungracefully, swimming through nothing. 

It was hard to breathe. 

A shrill crackling terrorized your ears, and before you, appeared a very disheveled Spot, now fully black with white spots, facial dot whirring and trained on you.

Gem in hand. 

Panic.

You were panicking. The sound of blood thrummed in your ears as you squirmed around in nothingness. Fuck the rock, you just had to get out of here. 

A cold hand grabs your wrist, dragging you upwards, towards the crackling form. 

For the second time today, you were frozen.

“I am not a cow,”

The form spoke lowly.

“I am not some villain of the week”,

Frozen still, you did nothing but stare straight into his glare.

“I. Am. The Spot”.

Suddenly, you were dropped. For the second time today, your stomach dropped with you. Next thing you know you’re falling through another void, leading not into darkness, but through the city skyline. Seeing the ground get closer, you released your grappling hook and latched onto the nearest building. 

As soon as your feet reached a solid surface, your legs buckled. Heaving, you failed to process what just took place, heart pounding in your ears. 

“...the fuck was that?”

.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   

Miles received word of commotion taking place downtown, something to do with spots. He had hoped it wasn’t what he thought it was, and it was. It was, and was so much worse. 

Dark spots littered a large manor, maniacal cackling emerging from its center. In the corner of his eye a familiar masked figure hunched over, breathing rapidly, staring straight ahead at the mess of spots.

(He paid it some mind.)

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Ppl that asked me to tag them!(thxx 4 the support!)

@nightshxdex

@itszzmoon

@blackcat-kittyblogs

@vxxxb

<3

[lemon-natalia]

Nona the Ninth Reaction - John 5:18 

‘it was the first time anyone had ever done it’ imagine trying to explain the concept of how weird and fucked up necromancy would be pre-Resurrection to anyone in the Nine Houses, it would be very hard

M—’s relatable, if my co-worker developed a sudden case of necromancy i would need a shot of whisky as well. also P—’s (who is presumably Pyrrha) first reaction is to think that it’s a zombie apocalypse, thats insane

okay, so John explicitly states here that Ulysses and Titania are properly dead, just like Harrow’s puppeted parents, he doesn’t seem to have resurrected their souls. but then clearly everyone he did bring back to life at the Resurrection did, given the Nine Houses society … exists and isn’t made up of dead people without souls. so i imagine there’s one of two options here - either the Resurrection didn’t happen as everyone believes (very possible given this guy has been proven to be a lying liar who lies), or he does somehow end up figuring out proper resurrection

also M— and A— raided a graveyard to get more corpses to experiment on, holy shit. get yourself ride-or-die friends like these. or maybe don’t since in 10,000 years they’ll try to murder you via secret baby

i’m sorry, their next move was to livestream John resurrecting dead bodies??? also given how he singles the internet out here as a way to make a ‘big noise’ and not get hushed up/literally taken out by any authorities, it feels very intentional that he apparently made the decision to not bring it back when creating the whole ‘intergalactic empire’ thing

Coded message reads: ‘THE/TOWER’ so far. very mysterious, i can’t really think of anything it could be related to rn though

[hodgepodgequack]

Emio Demo 2: Electric Boogaloo

So it’s been more than 24 hours since I beat the second part of the demo (I hate that we have to wait 5 days for the next part man) and I have some thoughts.

First of all, I called it when I said that Kuze knows Utsugi from 18 years ago (I was wrong about her being the sibling of one of the female victims though). Instead her connection is through the disappearance of her brother Makoto (haha Danganronpa reference) and Utsugi was in charge of that. Must be tough to see the person who was supposed to bring her brother home (and failed) after a murder that reminds her of the og incident.

So let’s talk about Makoto first. According to the game, Junko had not come home for some reason so he went out to look for her. Junko comes back (clearly shaken) and Makoto is nowhere to be found. I wonder if she came home late because the OG killer was targeting her and M someone managed to find her in time, but something bad happens to him. What happens: Killer kills Makoto and for some reason threatens Junko to not be a snitch otherwise he would come after her. (Also possible he abducts him for some reason and tells J to not tell or she will never see him again)

why this stops the murders completely I don’t know, but it is possible the killer thought he might have been getting caught soon and that’s why he stopped. But if that was the case he could have silenced her permanently right then and there. Unless she sees the act occur, killer knows she’s there but doesn’t see her and makes a bluffing threat saying I know who you are and if you snitch it will bite you in the ass. Hence she survives and comes home scared.

Who did it: Now in order to keep someone silent you need to bribe (or as mentioned beforehand threaten) said person or make them believe that no matter what no one will believe them. Maybe the culprit is a cop. And Utsugi works with the police. Maybe J can’t bring herself to trust anyone in the force (again another reason why he joins because if you want the job done right, you have to do it yourself). And that would explain why she’s standoffish towards U because she still doesn’t trust him.

Another Observation: the game mentions it’s a possibility that Makoto was the original culprit (because the murders didn’t stop until he disappears). He was old enough to pull it off. But that means something would have to have happened to him. Did he run away and leave a note that only J saw? Or did she see him messing with bodies and he asks her to hide his body because he can’t live with the guilt anymore now that she saw him and he offs himself.

Game is also adamant that the mystery man who went missing after the first girls death may know something (was he an accomplice I don’t know) there’s not much info I can theorize about him right now.

Kamis age is still not revealed to us in this chapter. Very very sus. I wonder if he is Makoto and he just has amnesia. Him and J could both be adopted or step siblings. Only problem with this is that J should recognize him.

Additionally the game mentions Kami can’t have a gun because he is a terrible shot. I wonder if at some point you have to pick between him and J to raid a place and the gun makes a huge difference. Hell I wonder if knowing said info can influence the game (because it is completely optional dialogue)

Speaking of potential game mechanics: phones. During some point of my gameplay I used to phone to call everybody that was in my contacts. While playing through Ayumis section, she gets a call from the protagonist (whether or not this is scripted I don’t know) and she doesn’t pick up. There’s also an option at some point if you call the office to leave a voicemail (which I didn’t take, I’m curious to see if anyone else did). I wonder it this is going to be a serious mechanic that at some point you need to call XYZ at this time or something bad is going to happen to them, or if it’s a way for the game to gauge the players playstyle (just like they did in the Girl who Stands Behind).

Now I’m not done talking about the demo part 2, but I’m going to leave this post here for now because it’s getting long and I want to dedicate more time to Kamada and the Taxi Driver is separate posts. See you in a bit.

[juno-box]

Okay then! Moving onto your ideas for a fix-it time travel style fic for TWDG, do you have any concrete ideas so far of what you'd want to do with it? Who'd be going back in time, how drastically things would change, plot points, that sort of thing? If you don't mind sharing of course, I'd understand if a lot of that would be spoilers should you decide to actually write it.

Would you believe I’ve spent the better part of last night thinking of this very fic idea? I couldn’t land on WHO the heck would I send back.

I’d send them back as the age they were during that time, so Clem going back to S1 from S4 would be 8-years-old all over again but with the mind and knowledge of 16/17-year-old Clem.

Clementine would be an obvious choice, right? As a character from the start to finish, she could easily make the most change. Depending on what point she travels back from in the series, she could very well change a lot of things. For starts, Clem from any season after S1 could:

Not talk to the stranger over the walkie.

Knowing her folks are dead, and probably want to avoid Savannah all together.

Be aware about the St. John’s, not trust them and campaign for them not to go. But then comes the fact that she’s a child and possibly the only person who would take her seriously would be Lee. So that could be something she might not be able to fully change.

If she doesn’t or can’t stop the event of EP2, then there could be a chance that she can intervene on Ben’s deal with the bandits. She would have to keep an eye on him specific pay attention to him whenever he leaves the inn or is on watch, which she’ll have to do w/o raising any attention.

If she can do that, and convince Ben to listen to her, even if she’s just a kid, they might be able to warn the group and get out of dodge before the bandit’s raid begins, so they could leave for the road a few days early.

If that happens, Lilly’s meltdown might not happen. If Larry died during EP2, then she’d still be depressed and in mourning of course, but not paranoid since there’s not a conspiracy going around the group about betrayal. Meaning Carley/Doug might not get headshot.

This also means Katjaa & Duck survive for now, and thus Kenny doesn’t have his complete character arc in S2 if his whole family is alive, since that loss played a huge part in his arc.

That also means that Lilly might stick around longer, and we may not get a Delta!Lilly.

They still take the train, as Clem can’t do anything about the train being in the way.

But then Clem realizes the train rolls right through Savannah, and there’s no avoid it anymore.

But Clem knew not to listen to the Stranger, so her sneaking away to meet him only to be kidnapped possibly won’t happen.

Meaning… We don’t lose Lee, which would’ve been Number 1 on Clem’s list of things to fix.

If that happens, the group has no reason to leave the house, meaning Vernon and the cancer group can’t get the boat.

Speaking of the boat… it’s WAY too small for their group.

Lee, Clem, Kenny, Katjaa, Duck, Chuck (since our group is big, I doubt they’d let him die the way he did), Lilly, Carley/Doug, Ben, Christa & Omid? That’s 11 people on this boat meant for at most like… 4 or 5.

Cue the talks of changing their plans. And much to Kenny’s chagrin, Katjaa agrees.

The group decide to put a pin in the boat plan and mull over their next move. This is where Clem chimes in and says they should head for the country, and get out of the city ASAP.

At this point, Lee would be way more trusting of Clem’s intuition and agree, so would Christa. Katjaa, Lilly, Doug/Carley, Ben would agree with the majority, and Omid would pick whatever he thought was best for Christa and their unborn baby.

They gather their bearings and plan their route out of Savannah over the night. The next day they discover the boat’s gone. So, Kenny really has no choice but to agree with their plan.

I feel like once the group is out of Savannah, and Clem has time for, well, downtime, she’ll want to think about how she’ll get back the other important people in her life like AJ, Javi and his family, and the Ericsons kids (especially if she romanced Louis or Violet). She wants to see them again, albeit not in the same circumstances as before.

On the other hand, is would I send back Lee? Another start to finish character (at least for S1), Sending Lee back from the end of EP5, Lee could make changes as well, his only hold up would be protecting Clementine even more since she really is 8-years-old:

He’d probably train her earlier, like between EP1 and EP2.

EP2 is the hardest to change, because it’s a group choice. It would probably go down similar to that deleted scene of them voting, where Lee would vote against going but be out voted by everyone else.

He doesn’t trust the St. John’s in the slightest, and when he goes back with Mark to check the perimeter, he tells him keep his guard up and watch the trees. Since Mark’s a bit more attentive, Mark gets grazed by the arrow instead of full impaled, and the scene plays out the same.

They make it back and Mark’s still a bit injured but not remotely as bad as before, so he’s able to attended dinner without having to go through Brenda’s, ahem, “check-up”.

So, who’s for dinner then?

Mr. Parker! Mmm, barbequed band teacher-

Let’s for back a bit, during the hunt with Lee, Mark & Kenny. They find Ben, Travis & Mr. Parker.

They don’t cut him out in time, but this time Lee doesn’t try to hack his leg off, remembering last time how he still bled out and died by time they made it back.

Lee instead tells Mark and Kenny to grab the boys and go. Before they can protest, the walkers are coming in, not many, but enough.

Travis makes a go at Mark’s rifle, but Mark shoots him in the leg. So now they have to carry him back.

So, Ben and Travis live! And Mr. Parker… for now.

Hypothetically, let’s say the dairy boys got to Mr. P before the walkers did.

So, he’s for dinner.

Dinner scene plays out the same, but this time Parker takes Mark’s place.

The Larry in the locker moment plays out differently. Since Mark is there, he’d help Lilly revive Larry.

Unfortunately, leaving Lee to argue with Kenny about not killing Larry. He’s trying to prevent as many unnecessary deaths as possible.

I believe Kenny and Lee would actually tussle over this, but Kenny would lose.

And by some miracle, Larry would win. As in he’d live.

Rewinding to where Lee was investigating the farmhouse, in the cabinet he found the morphine and wire in, he’d also find nitroglycerin pills. Lee kept them on the chance the moment in the locker happened.

Rest of the scene plays out the same until they make it out the locker.

Lee meets Carley/Doug, Ben & Travis outside the barn.

Since Mark’s arm is still a bit injured, Lilly shoots Andy.

Fight goes the same. Lee spares Andy and leaves him to his fate.

Interesting change, when it comes to the Stranger’s car, Lee purposely tries to distract the group from hearing the car.

Unfortunately, Mark sees it.

Lee is adamant about not taking from it, and doesn’t give Kenny the keys.

This almost prompts another Kenny v. Lee fight, until Larry steps in and argues they need it since the dairy was an absolute bust.

Lee uses Clementine’s argument that it’s more than likely someone’s car, and they might not be far. Since he knows it’s the strangers, he’d mention it probably belonged to a family.

A dreaded vote, and it’s Lee, Clem and surprisingly Lilly vs. Kenny, Katjaa, Travis, Carley/Doug, Mark and Larry.

Outvoted, Larry snatched the keys from Lee and they pillage the car. Doug/Carley comes up to Lee with batteries for Clem’s walkie, but Lee takes them instead, saying they might need them for something important.

EP2-3, Lee is aware that at this point the bandits are going to attack the inn because of Ben’s deal. So, Lee decided to nip the bud and go to Ben directly. He’d say something along the lines of “Don’t talk anyone in the woods, especially bandits who claim to have his friend.”

Sprinkle in a little, “Or else” because Lee’s DEAD serious on nothing that happened in EP3 happening twice. And Lee’s threat worked…

For Ben, at least. Because the difference between this time and last was Ben’s deal with the bandits.

He didn’t account for Travis being made the same deal.

So, color Lee terrified when Lilly comes to Lee about missing supplies.

He didn’t think she’d be paranoid, now that her dad was still alive.

He knew everywhere to check by the back of his hand, the signaling system, the chalk, all of it.

First, he trucked it over to Ben and immediately called him off the RV. Ben climbs down and Lee lays into him (well, where only he and Ben could hear) and accuses him of being guilty.

Ben’s confused more than defensive, which throws Lee off. Ben asks is it about what he warned him about a week ago, and says he hasn’t seen or talked to anyone outside the inn after he warned him about the bandits, and is generally confused as to what Lee’s blaming him for.

Lee apologizes and leaves. He checks the grate and what’s in it. Meds, of course.

He brings it to Lilly. The motel gets held hostage, but this is different; when they get held hostage, Mark taps on the window Lilly would exit from and warm them before they eventually hear for themselves.

While Lilly tells Lee to stall them, Larry does something stupid. Stubborn as an idiot, he refuses to be held up like he just was a week ago and goes for one of the bandit’s guns, getting shot in the process, causing all hell to break loose.

Lilly leaves her vantage point and goes to get Larry while Mark takes her place, the group splits up like they did before.

Lilly manages to pull Larry behind cover and tries to save him, so Mark has to deal with the bandits and keeping enemies off of her while she’s distracted.

The fending off goes the same, each group gets inside the RV, Duck is still bitten.

Lilly has to leave Larry, so now freshly mourning, and losing the inn, Lee knows all hells about to break loose.

Lilly pins it on Carley if she’s there, or Ben if Doug’s there.

Lee would defend Ben, saying he thinks it was someone else, and for the first time asks Travis.

Travis gets immediately defensive, just as Ben did before. Lee knows he did it.

But Carley/Doug would tell Lee to lay off him. Lilly would believe Lee’s claim that it was Travis since he’s helped her before.

Travis pins it on Carley/Doug.

Ben defends Travis, getting hi back under the microscope.

RV hits a walker, they’ve got to stop. Everyone exits.

Lilly shoots Travis in the head.

…

Lee knew it was Travis. But even so, the act alone caused the group to vote to leave her behind.

Katjaa calls Lee up front and tell him Duck’s bit.

Lee is angry that he’s failing to stave people this time around.

The train scene goes the same, they meet Chuck, Duck and Katjaa die, but instead of training Clem, since he already trained her a bit more and cut her hair, he decides he should tell Clem the new plan for Savannah.

Chuck compliments Lee on teaching the girl to survive.

He tells her that even though Kenny’s deadest on finding a boat, he thinks their best bet is getting out of the city ASAP and making it to the countryside.

Clem wants to find her parents, but Lee tries to gently tell her that they’ve been gone for so long that the chances of them being there or alive are slim to none.

Clem hates that answer.

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Clem—”

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

Well, at least that radio won’t be a problem.

They meet Christa and Omid. The next morning, Lee is horrified to hear Clem’s radio go off.

She’d been talking to him again.

Again.

Kenny says he thought the thing was broken, to which Carley/Doug will admit they gave her batteries for it when she’d asked.

Without a second thought, Lee angrily chucked the radio out the train. He’d be damned if that bastard gets his hands on Clementine again.

The they get to Savannah. Molly tolls the bell, they make a break for it. Ben runs from Clem, Chuck saves her and gets split from the group.

They get to the house. And get inside, Doug/Carley keeps watch. Everything plays out the same. Clem goes to Crawford with them. Carley/Doug actually gets killed instead of Brie, however.

Lee saves Ben at the bell tower.

Since Ben isn’t guilty, Kenny has no ill will toward Ben, but also threatens that if he leaves Clem like that again he and Lee will tag team his ass. Ben gets the message quick.

Vernon still offers to take Clem. Lee knew it was coming but isn’t as mad as he was at the suggestion to give away his adoptive daughter. He still declines.

I should note that Clem has definitely notice her walkie’s missing, but Lee says she might’ve accidentally dropped it while they were one the train. She’s really sad about this, and a bit anxious.

Clem asks Lee if they’re going to get on the boat with Kenny. Lee says they might. Due to him trashing the walkie, cutting off all contact with the Stranger, they may be able to all get on the boat; He, Clem, Kenny, Christa, Omid and Ben.

Clem asks if they’ll have time to look for her parents, Lee tells her what he said on the train.

She cries and leaves the room.

Since the group is downstairs, Lee lets Clem have her space. She’s probably really upset with him.

He tries not to fall asleep, but dozes off for a bit.

Lee jolts awake when he realizes. He looks around and doesn’t see Clem near him before remembering she’s downstairs.

He turns and looks out the window, expecting to see Kenny working on the boat.

Instead, his blood runs cold as he sees Clementine, standing outside the fence, talking to someone beside a car.

A station wagon.

A station wagon that looked horribly identical to the one from the woods.

From the one that was parked in front of The Marsh House.

He could’ve sworn his heart stopped beating for a minute as she willfully climbed inside the backseat.

Lee booked it downstairs, nearly falling as he slammed through the backdoor as the car peeled off down the street. Lee runs out the back yard but is too late.

And that’s all I have for now! I spent a minuuuute conjuring this all up! Keep in mind, this is all a rough idea of what I could try, not definitive!

[astralbooks]

The Red Scholar’s Wake - Aliette de Bodard

Read: 13/11/2022 - 15/11/2022

Rating: 2/5

Rep: Vietnamese cast, sapphic protagonists, f/f relationship, queer side characters & queer normative world

CW: violence, on-page death, grief, references to rape (none occurs), discussed & referenced indentures/slavery including attempted selling of a child, referenced executions (none on page), imprisonment, previous toxic relationship, aphobia

Review:

I really wanted to like this book. However, the more I think about it, the more issues I have. 

I liked Rice Fish and Xích Si as characters. Rice Fish is a sentient spaceship and the recent widow of the titular Red Scholar, meaning she had become the de facto leader of the Red Banner, a collective of pirates which forms a part of a wider pirate society. Her position is a precarious one, and she’s convinced that her late wife’s death was the doing of the leader of another one of the pirate banners. She’s idealistic, and often conflates her idea of how pirate society should run with how it actually runs, and this is a big weakness of hers when it comes to the politics of it all, but she cares deeply about the people she’s suddenly become solely responsible for and never stops trying her best. I loved the descriptions of her humanoid avatar, which she usually manifests when she wants to have a conversation with somebody. The concept of someone’s hair gradually turning into nebulae and stars is so cool!

Xích Si is the sole survivor of a pirate attack. The harsh rules of her home means than unless she is explicitly ransomed back she’ll be accused of cooperating with the pirates and executed for it, and as a scavenger she’s nowhere near important enough to be ransomed. She can’t even risk contacting her young daughter because her daughter will be assumed to be involved with piracy and executed along with her, regardless of the fact that she’s six years old. Xích Si contrasts Rice Fish and provides her with a much needed reality check, that the norms of pirate society mean that most people are understandably terrified of them, and that when everybody they touch is forced to join, often in such a way that they’ll never be free, there isn’t anything fair about that.

I liked their eventual relationship! I did not like how it started. Their marriage of convenience didn’t make any sense. Rice Fish wanted to marry Xích Si because of her technological prowess, but Rice Fish at that point had hundreds if not thousands of banner people who were supposedly loyal to her and her late wife Huân, including some she considered to be personal friends, and I find it hard to believe that none of them were as skilled as the random prisoner they had in the brig after a random raid. I don’t see why Rice Fish couldn’t trust anyone else to look into her late wife’s death. Surely somebody already a part of the Red Banner would’ve been more willing to help her than someone who’d just had most people she knew brutally killed by the Red Banner? And then, despite both agreeing that their marriage would be purely a business transaction, they both immediately started acting as if they were in love with the other but no it could never be requited they simply could not let themselves feel this way. They’d known each other for about a day. The late Red Scholar, Huân, who Rice Fish had genuinely been in love with, had been dead for less than a week at this point. Xích Si had every reason to still be afraid of Rice Fish. I enjoy mutual pining as much as anyone else with taste, but the jump from ideologically opposed strangers to mutual pining happened way too quickly in my opinion. The in-between stage when they’re in the process of falling for each other is just as important for me, and that was missing here.

Both Rice Fish and Xích Si are parents, and I enjoyed reading about both of these relationships. Rice Fish’s relationship with her late wife’s son had been strained since many years before the story’s start, and the conversations they have throughout this book are some of the strongest scenes. Things are broken between them, perhaps irreparably, but they still love each other despite it all. In contrast, Xích Si has a very good relationship with her six year old and they love each other deeply. Although I did find the six year old acting kinda like a relationship therapist for Xích Si and Rice Fish at times to be a bit odd. She’s six. And she also only just met Rice Fish, so what does she know?

This book is part of a wider universe, which I didn’t know until I was already about 20% through and went searching for more information because I was so lost. Having read over the author’s website I’m now a lot clearer on the historical worldbuilding. It’s just that those weren’t the questions I had. Almost every single visual element is said to be in ‘overlay’ and there’s never any explanation as to what that actually means. And how does a sentient ship have parents and siblings who they are related to and who they grew up with when they’re AI ships? Are some of them not AI? Were they born/made as something other than an AI, and then had their minds uploaded? I realise that these questions and more are most likely answered in other books and novellas that are part of the Xuya universe. As a newcomer, it felt a little inaccessible.

Some things are just untranslatable. Throughout the whole book, the honorifics that the characters would be using for each other in Vietnamese are written out in English, which mostly works okay, except when it leads to the married couple calling each other ‘big sis’ and ‘lil sis’ all the time and even while they’re actively having sex. In my opinion, there would’ve been zero problem with the honorifics being written out in Vietnamese. They don’t work in English.

All of this was totalling up to making the book Fine. Not really objectionable, just not to my personal taste. But then we got onto the aphobia issue.

The world in this book is very queer. Nobody who’s mentioned to have a partner is heterosexual. I don’t recall there being any openly trans characters, but they wouldn’t feel out of place in the world. Also throughout the narration there were mentions of people who don’t experience romantic or sexual attraction existing, that these people were valid, and that Rice Fish and Xích Si just happened to not be in that category. I would’ve been happy with this. Delighted, even. As an arospec ace person who does enjoy reading romance with allo characters, the bare minimum I ask for is for sex and romance to not be treated like a universal necessity, and this was an excellent example of that. I was ready to point to this as an example of how to do it right. Unfortunately the final chapters of the book had to go and ruin it.

If the only openly asexual character in your novel is the antagonist who’s a bureaucrat who’s super gung ho about wiping out the leads and everyone like them purely due to her ideological opposition to them, then that feels uncomfortably close to the online ‘discourse’ from the last decade or so accusing asexual people of being inherently homophobic. Was this the author’s intention? I doubt it! I really doubt it! But we see how queer pirate society is, and we don’t get that same view into non-pirate society, and as an ace person it’s ringing alarm bells for me that the only ace character just happened to be an antagonist and especially this kind of antagonist.

This isn’t the biggest problem, however. The biggest problem with aspec characters is Huân, Rice Fish’s late wife.

The issue is that Huân was aromantic, and Rice Fish fell in love with her. Huân of course rejected her advances because she wasn’t interested in her like that. This, on its own, is fine. This happens. Sometimes people fall for someone with an incompatible orientation, and it sucks, but you get over it and move on. But that’s not what happened here! Instead of Huân telling Rice Fish that she wasn’t interested in romance, or that she just wasn’t attracted to Rice Fish, she told her that romance itself is always a recipe for disaster and that for a partnership to survive there always has to be no romance at all between the participants or it’s guaranteed to ruin everything. Rice Fish believed her, internalised this, and this belief legitimately traumatises her. It informs her approach to romantic relationships throughout the whole book, and the emotional climax of the book is her realisation that Huân had lied to her and that strong partnerships can contain romance, actually. Quick question. What the fuck. Huân is the only textually aromantic person in the whole book, and her aromanticism directly leads to the trauma of one of the lead characters. There was no need for this. Huân could’ve just not been romantically interested in Rice Fish specifically and the plot would’ve played out literally exactly the same. There was no need to specify that Huân wasn’t interested in romance in general. There are so few aromantic characters out there, and I cannot stress enough how much I do not appreciate that this is one of them. I’m even more disappointed that this isn’t even the first time I’ve read a queer book where the main character falls for an aromantic person and has an awful experience because of it due to that aromantic character choosing the course of action that would hurt the main character the most rather than handle the situation with an iota of sense. It feels deliberate. It feels targeted. It’s not acceptable.

Yes, real aromantic people can make bad decisions like this. Real aromantic people just like everybody else can be messy and can fuck up. But, crucially, Huân is NOT a real aromantic person and so doesn’t have agency of her own outside of the author. She was written that way. One day, when there’s a plethora of aromantic characters in fiction, a depiction like this won’t be a problem because there’ll be plenty of other characters whose aromanticism doesn’t directly lead to trauma for one of the story’s leads. We’re not at that point yet.

Again, was this what the author intended? I genuinely don’t think so. I think that it was just a poorly thought out throwaway line, with the intention of adding more aspec characters to the world without giving much thought to the implications of only having aspec characters in these roles. Sadly the result is a book that ends with a jolt of arophobia that sours the entire reading experience. I wouldn’t advise people to never read anything by this author, but I would advise caution around this one, especially for aspec readers.

The cover is gorgeous, though.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for providing me with an e-arc in return for an honest review.

[hotaru987-the-2nd]

Mr. Steal Yo Girl

Toman!Hanma Shuji x reader

word count: 6k

warnings: misogynistic, calling reader a ‘bitch’, fingering, squirting, oral (fem receiving), not a writing blog...just bored

DNI if a minor please! You will be insta blocked if you don’t have ages in bio! Or some indication you aren’t a minor. Please read this. First and only warning.

The smell of smoke, alcohol and overpriced cologne filled the air. The faint sound of the thumping base of whatever song was popular at the moment, shook the rooms of the VIP lounge situated in the back. Sitting in on one of the sofas, as though it were his personal throne was a large man who boasted more girth than height, smoking away on a cuban cigar as he threw his head back in a disgusting, bile inducing laugh. The numerous ‘yes men’ around him joined in his laughter, half probably in fear that if they didn’t then they’d find tonight being their last night alive. 

Why? That’s because they were sitting in front of a man who led one of the larger gangs here in Yokohama, Gotojiro Fujisawa. And he was a ruthless, vial and sickening man. A man who was just as quick to stick his dick into any woman that walked by as he was to gun down a man who happened to look at him the wrong way. He thought he was king, and no one could tell him otherwise. And what would a king be without his harem? If you asked Gotojiro, then a fucking joke.

Which is where you came in, his current favorite amongst his multitude of women. You had the “amazing” honor of accompanying him out tonight as his perfect little arm candy for him to flaunt to his lackies and anyone else who cared. But it’s not like it was new to you. For 5 years now, starting from when you were 18, you were used to being passed around from men to men. It was the life you were given after your parents sold you away in return for canceling out their debts. At first, of course, you hated it. Being passed from group to group as either a spoil of war, or as some type of bargaining chip. You lost count of how many “owners'' you had within your first year.

But then you realized it wasn’t all bad. As long as you kept them happy you got whatever you wanted. It was a hell of a lot better living in fear of some raid happening back home every day. And here, even if it was just your body, at least somebody saw you as valuable enough to be wanted. That’s more than you can say about your, barely there, parents. Still, of all of the people you had to spread your legs for, Gotojiro was the worst. He was violent with everyone, and he didn’t spare his fist from women either if they got on his nerves. On more than one occasion you’d seen him beat one of his women to death. And that was the least of his offenses. You won’t profess to being a saint, but with some of the shit you’d seen or heard him do, he was really a piece of shit even in the underworld. 

Wanna know the worst part? He didn’t even have the curtesy to be good at sex. It’s been almost a year since you’ve been his, and not ONCE had he made you cum on his own. Usually beforehand you had to edge yourself so it would be easier for him, otherwise you’d either have to fake one or rub one out after he rolled over and fell asleep. And his head game?

Non-existent. He’s quick to push you on your knees, but god forbid he return the favor. The stingy, ugly, good for nothing, stinky basta---

“Pffhahahah!!” Another round of laughter unfortunately pulled you back into your reality.

The one where you sat snuggly into the object of your disgust's side. In a tight revealing, red dress that hung so low on your chest that you could end up flashing everyone if you weren’t careful. The bottom reaching only to your midthigh and would roll up with every slight movement.  

“Those little brats aren’t fucking shit!” A cocky grin split across his face, his nose flaring and eyes shining in joy that could only be brought about by greed. “Can’t believe they got people shaken in their boots just from the name alone! They don’t even realize all the money I’m makin’ off’em!”

His eyes then dropped down to you, his one hand that had been around your waist, reaching up to grab your breast in view of everyone here. Ugh, you wanted to barf. But instead you let a saccharine moan leave your red lips and with practice ease made your eyes water. “Bet those little fuckers wouldn’t even know how to keep their own bitches in line. Isn’t that right? They would know what to do with a woman like you.”

You bit back the retort ‘neither do you’ instead nodding along. Playing the part of the dumb slut he expected of his women, throwing your arms around his neck in a plea for more.

“Look at you. So dumb for cock. Hahahahaha! Why don’t you tell everyone who’s cock it is that makes you so dumb.”

You giggled, fluttering your lashes up at him, “Of course it’s yours, sir. It always feels so good. Can I have it now?” Please say no. Please say no. Please say-

“Just a bitch in heat. Fine, I'm in a good mood.” 

Fuck. If you ever got out of this and back into normal society you would seriously consider taking up acting. Because you knew if you didn’t put on a good performance -especially now since he was about to fuck you in front of his underlings - you’d be as good as dead. Maybe you should just let him kill you. A thought that went just as quickly as it came. You weren’t scared of dying, but you’d be damned if you let this loser be the one to kill you.

But right before your Oscar worthy performance could begin, another one of his subordinates came rushing into the room. Face twisted in panic, and a fear that made you think the world was about to end. And the name that fell from his trembling lips caused his palpable fear to trickle down to every other person in the room.

That name? Hanma Shuji.

Anyone who was anyone knew his name and the gang he was associated with. A gang that made Gotojiro’s look like a group of kids waving their dicks around in the playground. Which you almost snorted sardonically as it was the very same group he was so happy to talk shit about only moments before. For you, you only heard his name when Gotojiro was cursing him out for always riding his ass on drug deals or when it was time to collect Toman’s cut of whatever deal they had. You heard he was pretty high up on Toman’s chain of command, but outside of that you never met him. 

Well, whoever this guy was it didn’t matter to you, but you were grateful if only that his appearance saved you from having to pretend to be a slut for some D-list dick. For now anyway. You schooled your expression from showing how relieved you were.

“Why is he here!?” Gotojiro bellowed, his face twisting with both fear and anger. He really gave meaning to the phrase ‘a face only a mother could love’. “I thought he wasn’t coming until next week!!”

“I-i’m not sure sir. But he’s right outside. He’ll be in any second!”

“Fuck!”

Ok, now you take it all back. Fuck this Hanma guy! Thanks to him you were going to have to jump through hoops with Gotojiro for the next few days! All you could do was pray that when his fist started swinging none of them would be aimed in your direction. The idea to get a head start on placating him lasted but a second before the man of the hour entered the room.

A hush fell over the room. One that prickled at your skin and left you on edge. Like you were starting only seconds before your death, and though you knew it was coming there was nothing you could do to stop it. It was terrifying. No one seemed to want to move or even breathe in that situation. Even Gotojiro was starting to sweat, his grip on your waist tightening to a painful degree.

Much like everyone else your eyes latched onto our (uninvited) guest, but unlike everyone else's your eyes didn’t hold that same level of fear. Yes, there was a level of danger about him that you had never seen or felt before on anyone you’ve ever met. But the main reason you couldn’t look away from him was because you just couldn’t believe that such a fine specimen of a man could exist. 

He came strolling in dressed up in a purple suit and a black and yellow tie that matched his stylish slick back hair that fell over the left side of his face. There was also a long golden earring on his left ear. Behind his circular rimmed glasses were a pair of lazy purple eyes, half-lidded in what you couldn’t tell as indifference or boredom. Possibly both. Even the way he walked was with a confidence and lazy swagger that would make anyone think twice about approaching him.

He was completely relaxed, almost like he didn’t just walk into another gang’s territory. And from the looks of it he was alone and without weapons.

With the way you were drilling holes into him like he was a cut of premium meat, it wasn’t surprising that after giving a quick scan of the room his eyes landed on yours. What did shock you was the way your gut almost collapsed on itself just from a single look. You had to hold back a gasp. His eyes were the most gorgeous shade of purple you’ve ever seen. It had your heart racing and pussy clenching from the rush of lewd thoughts that suddenly rushed through your head.

And since coming in the first sign of amusement touched his face with the raise of his brow, but was gone in the next blink. Did you perhaps catch his attention? Or was it because you hadn’t blinked since he walked in? Or maybe the drool from your open mouth…...fuck that was embarrassing.

But no one could blame you! After seeing Gotojiro every-damn-day how was anyone supposed to control themselves in front of a man like him!? Hanma only just sat down but in my head we’d already fucked about 4 times and in 3 different positions. You rubbed your thighs together in what you hoped as a discreet manner. But given the way that flash of amusement returned to his eyes much more clearly than before that was a failure. Unfortunately you didn’t hold his attention for long and he cut those spellbinding amethyst to Gotojiro.

Fucker didn’t deserve it.

“You know why I’m here. So don’t waste my time and I won’t waste yours.”

Shit...you were ready to come from his voice alone.

Their conversation passed through your ears without much thought on your part. Your focus was on the way his mouth moved as he spoke every syllable. The subtle way his lips would twitch, though whether it was from annoyance or amusement by the ignoramus he was currently conversing with you couldn’t tell. You were just trying to commit as much of him to memory so you could picture him the next time you stuffed your cunt with your fingers. Your thighs clenched just from the thought, when suddenly his eyes snapped over to you almost as though he knew you were thinking about him. Every hair and nerve ending tingled under his electrifying, half lidded stare. It was like you could already feel his hands crawling over your body and you squirmed, only just barely holding back a whorish whine. 

“Perhaps something can be arranged.”

Ok, now you were kicking yourself for not paying attention. What was he talking about? Why was he looking at you like that? Fuck it was hot in here?

Next to you Gotojiro seemed to perk up, and it was only now you noticed the sweat rolling down his flushed face. “Y-yes! Anything! I assure you losing our cooperation would only be disadvantageous for us both. I’m sure we can work something out.”

Even when he was begging he somehow made it sound like he was entitled. Probably thinking that he was just too important to whatever contract they had. It was only too funny how quick his tone changed when face-to-face with Toman. You saw the way Hanma’s eyes narrowed and grew ice cold as they slid back to Gotojiro. But while everyone else seemed to freeze from fear, you were trying to hide the way your pussy clenched with another embarrassing wave of slick that soaked into your panties.

“Make no mistake, I came here fully intending to plant a bullet into everyone here for even thinking of trying to cheat us.” That was probably the sexiest thing you ever heard anyone say. But you decided not to think too long about how it turned you on thinking about someone snuffing your current patron. “But I’m a sucker for a pretty face.” Again he looked at you, tongue passing over his lip, “And with a face that pretty, makes me wonder how pretty that pussy looks.”

The grin on his face was positively debauched, resonating so deeply inside of your womb that you gave a full bodied shiver. Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t hide just how much you were dying to hop on his dick, and from the sound of the conversation you might just get your chance. 

“H-heh, what? So you just want to fuck my bitch for the night?” Gotojiro guffawed tensely. Maybe in a ploy of false confidence. But his look soon fell when Hanma raised his brow.

“No, I want to fuck MY bitch.” He purposefully dragged his eyes along your body, completely ignoring the way Gotojiro’s arm pulled you closer to him. “That pretty thing sitting next to you is too good for someone like you. But I think I know a better place for her to be sitting.” He chuckled, leaning back cockily against the sofa, “And I think she agrees.”

He couldn’t be more right. You were nearly jumping out of your skin to sit on his lap that he had spread wide open to your hungry eyes. You also couldn’t help but catch the implication that he was looking to keep you for himself.

Now despite your current life as no more than a private prostitute for whoever owned you, you did like to think you still had some kind of self respect. And hearing people talking about you like you were just some object did leave a sour taste in your mouth, but when those same words were so silkily spun from Hanma’s lips, you found out quickly that any self respect you had was only as good as a handsome face.

“No way!” Gotojiro shouted, “I paid too much for her to just give her up over something like this! I’ll give you a night but that’s it!” 

“That’s not my problem.” Hanma didn’t even look back in Gotojiro’s direction, “Either you hand her over and maybe I’ll give you an extension on what you owe us. Or I kill you all...and I still take her. Either way is fine with me. But it would be nice if you saved me a dry cleaning bill.”

That shut him up real quick, and his grip that had been like a vice on your waist since Hanma walked in slackened in defeat. Something that Hanma didn’t miss. Grin growing wider and with two simple words had you fighting yourself from flying across the 5 feet separating you two and jumping into his lap.

“Come here.”

Your skin prickled from the shameless desire that burned behind his half-lidded gaze. How long has it been since you were looking forward to having sex with someone? Your heart was doing flips and heat settled in your gut only to collect in the ruined lace of your panties. Still, for as desperate as you felt, you managed to keep a little dignity. Moving as calmly and proudly as your excitement would allow you until you were standing between his widely spread legs.

Hip cocked out to the side and arms crossed under your chest - intentionally pushing the girls up his viewing pleasure - you raised a brow. “Now what?”

The most delicious smirk played across his face, one that made you swallow thickly and your mind stall for a second. “Hmm, how about you start with dropping those panties? Gotta see if that pussy is worth hearing Kisaki complaining about letting this guy go.”

Your first instinct was to say ‘yes sir’ and just do as he said but…it had been so long since you were this excited and you wanted to play a bit. Draw it out. But more importantly you wanted to give him something to work for—to chase. If he thought you were boring he might just tossed you out who knows where and you could end up either dead or with someone a lot worse. No, you wanted Hanma to get one look at what you had to offer and get hooked from the first taste. With that in mind you got a hold of yourself and forced your body to relax.

Gotojiro was the type to just want you to cater to him, and stroke his ego. Look at him like you can’t live without his cock, and he’d be happy. But Hanma looked like he liked a little bit of bite. Still you didn’t want to go too far and make him angry. 

So testing the waters a bit, you lifted your right leg and -heals and all- placed your foot on the sofa on the outside of his spread legs. In this position your already short dress couldn’t conceal what little modesty you had left. Rolling completely up to your waist and flashing everyone in the room with your lacy black. Hanma let out a low whistle and cocked a brow, unable to hide his toothy grin.

Seeing the lust in his eyes that were glued to the soaked fabric of your crotch. So wet with your slick it outlined your fat and juicy pussy lips clearly. Even your inner thighs glistened with your juices. Your eyes nearly rolled back when you saw his throat bob as he swallowed with what looked like a ravenous hunger. God you only hoped that unlike someone he gave head.

You cleared your throat, catching his eyes again and with a smirk said, “I was always told not to touch things that don’t belong to me and I’m not much of a rule breaker.” You let your lips spread into a sultry smirk, and lowered your voice into a more airy whisper, “I like being a good girl better.”

Hanma chuckled, “Plus 1 for manners.” Without hesitation his right hand wrapped around your ankle - a lot more gentle than you were expecting- but the first contact with him nearly had your knees buckling and another chuckle hazed from his lips. “Just how much of a good girl are you, I wonder.”

You hummed softly, enjoying the way his hand slowly moved up your thighs. Seemingly not in any hurry to get to their destination, but simply indulging in the softness of your skin as it gave under the strength of his long, calloused fingers. 

“Guess you’ll have to keep me to find out.” You thought maybe that would’ve been a bit too straight forward but Hanma just smirked, as his right hand continued to make its way up your knee, to your thigh and stopping at your hip. His thumb hooking under the thin waistband while his fingers shamelessly slipped into your underwater to cup your right ass cheek. His left hand soon followed.

You bit your bottom lip, chest heaving from your increasing pulse as he played with your ass. Roughly squeezing and rolling the fat there in his large palms. You gasped, almost losing your balance when he pulled your cheeks apart to an almost painful degree, before smushing them back together. He did this for a while until you felt your body growing warm and impatient for him to do more. You wanted his hands to touch you all over. Leave his marks everywhere on your body until there was no place left unclaimed.

“Not bad. Tell me, what’s a pretty thing like you doing with this crowd?” He withdrew his hands, and took to walking the fingers of his right hand up your inner thigh. His left fiddling with your underwear. 

You wanted to pout at the change of topic, but you saw the playful teasing in his eyes, telling you he saw through your desires and was dragging it out on purpose. So you held back, trying to feign the same calmness he had. You shrugged, “It’s a boring story. Sold to pay off a debt then spent my days passed around till I ended up—mn!”

“Poor thing. Must’ve been just terrible.” 

Maybe if this god of a man wasn’t finally sliding your panties down your legs - you did have to drop your leg back to the floor but Hanma hauled it back where it was soon after - you might have rolled your eyes at the mocking tone in his voice. But now your mind was too wrapped around the sudden draft you felt on your naked ass and cunt that he just revealed to the room.

Not that you cared about being watched, but it still made you feel a little shy about so many eyes watching you being put on display like this. But that sense of shame only made your arousal gush more. Honestly, you had forgotten there were other people in the room until you heard some of them gasp. 

“Fuck, just look at you. You’re fuckin’ soaked.” His grin widened when he saw how you squirmed. “Aren’t you embarrassed? Bet you were sitting there thinking all about how you wanted me to split this nasty pussy open with my cock.” He leaned in, and without breaking eye contact he breathed in the smell of your pussy—breathing deeply and groaning in rapturous delight. And a deep feeling of shame and arousal mixed inside of you, making your head spin and hips twitch in desperation. More. More. You needed more of this.

“Another point for you. Smell so fuckin good, baby. Can’t wait to get a taste of this cunt.” He licked his lips like he was eyeing the most delicious meal he’d ever seen in his life. The air was knocked from your lungs when his amorous gaze burned through to your very core with such greed and hunger that you felt yourself ready to fall to your knees and do whatever it was he wanted. “Think I need a better look. Mind giving me a hand. Mine are a little busy.”

The ‘busy’ he was talking about was how his hands gravitated back to playing with your ass, giving Gotojiro a front row seat to the way your puckered asshole stretched and twitched every time he forcefully spread your cheeks apart. But that was fine because you never moved so quickly to follow an order than you did just then. Idle hands shooting to your pussy and pulling the sticky lips apart with a wet squelch. Strands of your arousal webbed between your spread lips, dripping to the ground like a leaky faucet that just couldn’t be plugged.

The first touch, even if it was your own hands, to your cunt makes you whimper. Eyes wet with both frustration from just how long he was taking and from just how much you were craving for him to drink from the creamy juices seeping without end from your pussy. You even tried to push your hips forward but he only laughed at you. 

“Patience. I’m still checking the worth of my new product,” His teased mockingly, eyes moving back down, growing darker from the sight of your pulsating entrance, sucking desperately on the air around it. “Aren’t you just cute. This part here looks like it wants something.” He cooed mockingly and blew lightly on your cunt. You moaned. Entire body humming with want for some kind of satisfaction.

“It’s twitching like crazy down here. And your cute little clit is hard too. Go on. Touch it. Let me see how you like it.” 

You whined softly as your other hand came down to rub tiny circles around your clit. He wasn’t even watching your hands, but staring right into your eyes. Drinking in every single subtle twitch and change of expression. It was so much more intimate than anything you had experienced in--well ever-- and it made you feel more vulnerable than you had ever felt before. You blushed under the intense eye contact, dropping your eyes away, unable to stand it.

The sounds of his laughter made you blush more, “Cute. I didn’t take you for the shy type.” He looked down at your slick fingers playing with yourself, “Can’t say the same for down here. She’s crying so loudly for attention. Just listen--”

And all of a sudden the naughty sounds of your juices seemed to ring like thunder in the room. There wasn’t one person in the room unaffected, all of them sporting painful boners. And most of all Gotojiro who despite being just as affected was also seething red from anger. How dare Hanma come and take HIS woman away, play with you in front of him and to add insult to injury was pulling sounds and reactions from you he had never seen before. 

Though Hanma hadn’t looked away from you once since you strutted your sexy self into his arms, he was aware of the greedy and pathetic stares of those around him. Especially that of Gotojiro.

But really how could he? Before he came into the room he was half tempted to just start shooting without asking any questions. He was already pissed that he had to waste his rare free time to come down here. But the second he stepped into the room and saw you in the room, looking like you wished you were anywhere but here and in that tight little number, he wanted you for himself. And he knew by the way you were undressing him with your eyes and continuously shifting - thinking no one would notice - it would only be too easy to get what he wanted.

 “Tell me baby, bet you’ve never been this wet before have you?”

You shook your head, thighs trembling from just how much tension had built up inside of you. You wanted to let it go so badly, and that desire spurred your hand to move quicker. Eyes sliding closed as you readied yourself to get lost to the sensations of your slippery fingers working your clit. But Hanma wasn’t going to let that slide. “No-no don’t speed up, keep it slow...yeah, just like that…”

Again you whined but this time it was from frustration. He’s been teasing you this entire time. Face so close to your burning core you could feel every puff of air from his mouth. Eyeing you like he couldn’t wait to dive into your pussy and drink from you -- and really he couldn’t. But he wasn’t and that was driving you mad. So you pushed your hips closer trying to entice him to just give you what you wanted. What you craved.

“Haha, so desperate. You act like you’ve never gotten head before.” When you twitched he raised a brow, “You’re kidding?”

“Does that really matter?” Your impatience was getting to you. You just needed him to do something to you. You could feel the way your cunt twitched with every thundering beat of your heart, and just how drenched and sloppy your pussy hole became just from watching him sit there. 

“Tut, tut that’s a minus for tone.” 

You winced at the sternness that seeped into the playful sing-song tones of his voice. 

“Though you said you were a good girl.”

Before you could stop yourself you threw a glare his way. Hanma narrowed his eyes, looking more amused than annoyed. 

“Seems more like a brat to me. 

Still maybe it did the trick because suddenly he was pulling your hiked up leg over his shoulder. The sudden movement almost made you fall, but he caught you. And with only minimal awkwardness he maneuvered you so that both of your legs were on his shoulders, and you were laying on your back in his lap. The nape of your neck just barely knocking against his knees. If you relaxed your head you could just barely see Gotojiro but you didn’t care.

Your body was pulled like a wire, eyes blown wide and chest heaving as you stared without blinking at the way Hanma wrapped his arms around your thighs and settled his face near your quivering and slick pussy. It wasn’t his mouth but ‘sin’ that came up, circling tight little circles around your clit making you see stars.

It was such a simple touch but enough to have you arching, and nearly cumming right there. “Now how about answering my earlier question before you started mouthing off.”

With such sweet pleasure coursing through your body it took you a second to catch his meaning but you huffed, looking at his stupidly shit-eating grin as he lazily played with your clit. Fingers alternating between focusing on your clit to dragging down and rimming your pulsating entrance. Gathering your slick juices on his fingers to help his fingers glide along smoother before repeating the process. But with each return to your clit his touches became lighter and lighter until you could barely feel it and you were doing all you could to feel his touch.

Eyes wet with tears that rolled down the sides of your face, hips bucking wildly if it wasn’t for ‘punishment’ wrapped around your waist to keep them pinned to his chest. “I’m waiting.” He was enjoying watching you squirm and how you tried to find your words through the torture. He chuckled at how you tried to fight the haze of your desire to focus on what he was asking of you.

“Does he know how to take care of a pussy like this? It’s crying so pretty just from a little touching.” Hanma sighed as he scooped another generous amount of your slick, licking his lips at how the thick strands webbed between his fingers and rolled down his wrist. “Just look--” He brought his hand down to your face. With two fingers he rubbed his dirtied fingers over your lips before shoving them inside, forcing you to taste yourself. 

“Is it good?” Hanma dragged his fingers over your tongue and around your mouth making sure you got a good taste. Snickering at the drunk look on your face as your tongue ran over his fingers. “Must be.” He chuckled meanly as he pushed his fingers deeper into your mouth, “Look at you, so fucking selfish. Pussy looks so juicy, and delicious. Wanna suck on your little clit and fuck my tongue into your tight hole. Hmm~, don’t you want that too, baby? Want me to slurp up your messy cunt, hm?”

You nodded frantically, whining around his fingers that pressed rhythmic patterns against your tongue. Pressing and fondling the entire expanse of your tongue--eyes fluttering at the feeling of his long fingers reaching the very back of your tongue. If you had a gag reflex you might’ve heaved, but when his fingers continued further back and you still didn’t show much resistance, Hanma grinned wider.

“Now, answer my question. If you do, I’ll give you what you want.” 

The second he retracted his spit covered hand from your mouth you quickly complied.

“Ah-!! F-fuck no! He doesn’t! I have to suck off his ugly pecker and he doesn’t even think to return the favor! Shit he can’t even make me cum on his own! Please, please just eat me out! I haven’t cum in like a week. Want your tongue deep inside my pussy, please--Ahh! Oh yes--yes! So good--!”

It was heaven. Both of his hands gripped your thighs with a bruising strength, as he opened his mouth as wide as he could and gulped at the slick that pooled from your pussyhole. His tongue lashing like a man drinking his very last. Each delicious swipe of his tongue scooping more and more of your addicting taste into his mouth. And he moaned, eyes falling shut as he pushed his face deeper.

The moment Hanma saw those pair of pretty lips, glistening from your arousal he just knew that you’d taste fucking divine, and he wasn’t disappointed. His mind quickly spiraling, getting lost in your taste and unable to stop himself from working his tongue through the resistance of your entrance until it let him inside. He felt you squeeze around his tongue as he pushed in further, nose brushing against your clit, making you twitch against him.

A low growl left his lips when he felt your hands slip into his hair and press him closer. Your moans reaching pitches you never imagined you could reach. With every feel of his tongue against your sensitive cunt sent you careening further and further into ecstasy. He was brutal. Like an animal. There was no time for you to rest as he continued to assault you with his skillful tongue over and over and over. And it was perfect.

Hanma pulled away with a heavy sigh, chest heaving as he panted for air after being submerged in your sopping pussy. His fingers took up where his mouth left off, rubbing between your lips and dipping teasingly into your fluttering hole every time he reached it.. Dark eyes peering down at you hungrily, greedily watching your mouth fell open with a wail of his name just as he felt the wild twitching of your gushy walls around his fingers. “Haha, you came so quickly. How cute.” He pressed a kiss to your puffy clit and you jumped in his lap. “But I want to see you get even messier.” With a cruel light in his eyes he wrapped his lips around your clit and sucked harshly. 

You were still wrecked from your orgasm blindsiding you --not expecting it to come so quickly -- that when he continued you still hadn’t recovered. You huffed and puffed, hands finding his silky locks but now trying to push him away. “A-ahh wait-ohhh! I can’t, s’too m-much!” The world around you was filled with your tears, and all you knew was Hanma’s mouth. The sounds of him drinking, sucking and fingers squelching as they plunged into you in earnest now, were so lewd and loud that you were almost embarrassed that it was all coming from you.. 

Never had you felt this good in your life. You felt foolish for thinking that you could make this man addicted to you. Because as his mouth and tongue worked devilish magic against you, it was you who was falling into the quagmire that was Hanma.

“Hmm, just let it go, pretty,” He spoke into your pussy lips, smacking obnoxiously loudly as he tugged roughly at your red and puffy nub. “Gonna cum all over my tongue, yeah? Don’t be stingy.” He leaned back a bit to catch his breath. His chin, face and neck wet with your arousal all while his hazy eyes locked on the way your pussy sucked and tugged with every ruthless, and forceful thrust of his fingers. “Ohhh, just look atcha. Hahaha, gonna break my fingers clean off.” 

A third finger joined in, and your eyes rolled to the heavens feeling the drag of his powerful digits punishing that spot that had your toes curling and thighs spasming around his handsome face that curled into a cocky smirk, “There it is. Can’t wait to fill my pretty girl with my cum. Gonna stuff you so much you’ll be leaking for days. Like that, don't you?” The coo and smoothness in his voice would’ve had you swooning if you weren’t already. “I can see it now. Gonna be the prettiest little cumdump, for me….Fuck you’re tight.”

“Ahh! H-hanma! I’m gonna-oh fuck me I can’t-i can’t…! AH!!” You threw your head from side to side, and when you heard him suck in a breath before going back to your pussy, your entire body seized with a rush of euphoria you never felt before. Lights exploded behind your shut eyelids as you squirted explosively into Hanma’s waiting mouth. 

“That’s a pretty girl, told ya I could get ya to make a mess. Such a good girl.” He showered praises on your still spasming body, affectionately caressing around your hips and thighs. Still lapping away at your pussy, but in a gentle way that was meant to help bring your down from your high. But soon those kitten licks were even too much, and when you whined out his name he chuckled, continuing for a bit before sitting back against the chair and letting you rest.

Your legs were still draped over his shoulders, and his hair a mess thanks to your wandering hands. Yet despite this, with all the grace and refined movements of a gentleman he reached for his coat handkerchief and calmly cleaned his face of you sprayed juices. Though there was nothing he could do about the mess on his chest.

He sent a smirk at Gotojiro who had by now shriveled up in his seat from the humiliation of not only your words but now realizing just how fake your reactions were after seeing you with Hanma. Once he moved your body, still limp and trembling from the effects of your orgasm, into his arms he stood up. Giving an amused laugh when your arms wrapped around him and you buried your face into his neck. Kissing and biting his neck while whining and whimpering for him to make you cum again with his cock inside of you.

“Lucky you Gotojiro. She just bought you another week. I’ll see you then…Next time, I won’t be so nice.”

[tarosin]

the great adventures of y/n tommy tubbo jack and ranboo - how y/n made friends with everyone

this is an extra to the great adventures series

requested: yes/no

warnings: cursing

tommy

you were actually friends with tommy when he was streaming to a few viewers, and you even watched as his channel grew. eventually he asked you to mod for him, as he knew he could trust you and because had experience being a twitch mod. he was also the reason you began streaming. as for how you met, you were in the same classes as him in highschool, and since you were the ‘quiet’ person in the class, they sat tommy next to you. honestly, you hated him when you first met him and the feeling was mutual. you didn’t want to sit next to the rather loud teenager and he had no one to talk to anymore as his friends were on the other side of the room.

“do you ever talk?”

“heh?”

“i said do you ever talk...do you always do that”

“do what”

“that fucking HeH.”

“are you mocking me simons?”

“noooo why would i do that...”

“it’s y/n.”

“right, yeah, yeah, i totally knew that.”

“great now please leave me alone i’m trying to work.”

“loser.”

“the fuck did you just say?”

“nothing.”

it was that moment tommy decided he was going to make you just like him, and a few years later that’s exactly what he did. by year 11 you and tommy had grown extremely close. the last day of school arrived a lot earlier than expected, everyone was extremely stressed, no one knew what to expect or what was going to happen. you found yourself hanging around with tommy a lot more as you had no idea if you would both be going to the same college, in september you received a text message that made your night:

tommy: college sent out emails telling you if you were accepted go check

*2 minutes later*

tommy: well?

y/n: i got accepted

tommy: me too

y/n: call me right now

tommy: i’m about to stream..have you ever considered streaming?

y/n: absolutely not

tommy: make an account and stream after me i’ll raid you..make me mod you know how people can be

once college started up, you were slightly nervous the two of you would drift away from each other. however this was far from the case, although you both did different subjects and he was only in on wednesdays, the pair of you would hang out together a lot more. he would be in your streams and vice versa, you would either be in his tiktoks, or you would be the one filming them.

“y/n make a tiktok we can be mutuals.”

“please god no.”

you spent so much time at his house either talking about random things, playing whatever game you could find, or streaming. he dragged you to every meet up he went on, allowing you to meet people such as niki, phil, and, wilbur. you didn’t know this, but he would constantly bring you up in conversations with dream, which eventually lead to you joining the smp in october where you would later be able to meet the likes of jack, technoblade and jschlatt. the only person you didn’t seem to see on the server was his other friend tubbo.

ranboo

you had become friends with scott after being his first twitch mod and when he noticed you started streaming, he was extremely supportive, always raiding your stream once he ended his. today you found yourself bickering with scott because he wouldn’t let you in mcc despite the fact you were ‘the best minecraft player.’

“y/n, i watched you die in minecraft 7 times last night within 5 minutes.”

“oh i’m sorry mr perfect, let me in mcc.”

“no.”

“fine i’ll make my own.”

and that’s exactly what you did..well you tried your best.

you started your stream as soon as scott ended and had him call you on discord after explaining to your chat what you were about to do.

“scott final chance let me in mcc, i’ll settle for access to the practice server.”

“fine.”

“REALLY?!”

“absolutely not!”

“fuck you, ill be in it one day!”

you left the call telling chat you didn’t need that negative energy in your life.

you really have scott to thank for you making friends with ranboo, scott made a tweet explaining what you were doing on stream which caught ranboos eye.

Smajor1995: after not making it into mcc again my good friend @y/n has decided to take it upon themselves to make their own on stream!! ill also be in the stream (if they answer my calls) *twitch link*

ranboo joined your stream and was instantly met with you yelling at scott (again) to let you in mcc.

“IM YOUR TWITCH MOD!”

“i will ban you from mcc!”

“you don’t have the nerve... so he left the call this is bullshit watch me land this water bucket clutch down this ravine so we can find axolotls and build an army.”

*you died*

you pulled your hood over your face before sinking down your chair taking a deep breath.

“FUCK!”

you calmly got back up and looked into your camera.

“i was so close, so very close.. HEY CHAT SCOTT SENT ME A LINK TO THE SERVER!”

a few minutes later you were able to get onto the server, only to be kicked less than a minute later. the reason you were banned being ‘i watched you fail the water bucket clutch down a ravine.’

you continued your build on your server and just spent the rest of the stream talking about anything that crossed your mind, that was until you decided to copy ace race. once finished, you looked into your camera and pulled your microphone closer to you.

“so this is race ace, so scott doesn’t sue me, and basically it’s going to be this course, but i’m going to change a random section practice it every day, not tell anyone it changed. of course i’m going to tell my team we have to win, oh fuck i forgot scott was watching my stream..it’s okay he didn’t hear me he’s too busy planning how he can rig the next mcc.”

ranboo found himself enjoying your content and even noticed you in his chat multiple times.

“just a minute chat i’m just sending an important dm to my mods.”

that’s when you noticed chat paused for a minute after you sent a message, it confused you for a minute before realising ranboo made you a vip on his channel and you decided to do the same for him on your channel, from there you added each other on discord. the pair of you made friends extremely quickly, you were constantly part of his streams as you would call him on discord not realising that he was streaming.

“hi y/n, by the way i’m streaming”

“i just wanted to ask if you knew how to break into a house?”

“....why”

“i locked myself out by accident and my parents are asleep come help me.”

“you are in the uk.”

“okay? catch a flight.”

chat honestly loved you and your friendship with ranboo. the pair of you only met a few weeks ago and you were already acting as though you had known each other for years.

jack

you and jack met for the first time on the smp, which would have been fine, however you met during lore and your characters weren’t exactly the best of friends. once lore had ended, everyone said their goodbyes and left the call. a few moments later you received a discord message from jack asking if you were available to call any time soon. since you were back in lockdown, you had plenty of free time. you arranged a time and date a few days later you called jack, where you had your first proper interaction out of character.

“hello jack!!”

“oh hi y/n i just thought it may be a good idea to get to know each other, well you know considering we’re both on the dream smp.”

“yeah, yeah, i understand what you mean.”

the pair of you ended up getting along with each other, it was slightly awkward for the first 5 minutes of the call, but that was expected since you hadn’t really met jack before and were anxious to call him. however, after that the conversation started to flow and you found out the pair of you had a lot in common making it easy to come up with things to talk about. it ended up feeling as though you were catching up with a friend you hadn’t spoken to for a while.

“has anyone told you your accent is really strong.”

“so is yours, y/n, what the fuck is that supposed to mean.”

“it means your accent is strong, duh.”

jack asked if you’d like to stay in call and join him on the smp whilst he streamed, and you gladly accepted the offer as you really didn’t want to do your college work, and you were enjoying your time with him. a few minutes into the stream jack had killed you several times.

“JACK STOP KILLING ME!”

rather than answering you he just sat laughing. he then went on to attempt to mute him microphone, he failed. however he didn’t realise this, so you sat listening to his plan on how he was going to kill you again. this time you were prepared, you sent a message to tommy telling him to log on along with your location. few minutes later tommy was by your side and helped you kill jack several times for revenge.

“Y/N...TOMMY!!”

“you didn’t mute your mic, so i told tommy you were bullying me.”

“im gonna go...BYE JACK, BYE Y/N, ILL SEE YOU SOON!”

“i can’t believe you.”

“hey you’re the one who didn’t turn your mic off.”

“how did you know?”

“i had your stream on my other monitor.”

“ayeee you watch my streams?”

“...i’ve been a sub for 4 months.”

the two of you stayed chatting and playing for another hour. the pair of you were already so close and you had only met each other the other day. this was just the start of your friendship, soon enough you were in a laugh and the stream ends challenge on his stream, however due to lockdown rules this was done over discord leading to you accidentally leaving the call several times.

“and they’re gone again!”

*4 minutes later*

“SORRY JACK IM BACK!”

“stop leaving y/n!”

“oh i’m sorry, let me just go yell at my wifi to stop cutting out!”

a few seconds later you could be heard faintly in the background screaming at your wifi as it would continue to buffer. as soon as restrictions were over one of the first things you decided to do was go to jacks and stream a laugh you lose where there was a punishment if you were responsible for losing the last heart. however everything was apparently hilarious in person as you would constantly laugh, meaning you were responsible for losing the last heart.

“y/n give me your phone.”

“no.”

“you lost let me tweet from your account”

“fine..”

soon enough your fans and friends with your notifications on received this twitter notification

“y/n: jack is so cool and funny he is also really tall i am not”

tubbo

tubbo was actually the last person you met and made friends with, your community were convinced for some reason that you both didn’t like each other and that’s why the pair of you didn’t talk to each other. this was far from the case you were both waiting for the right time, tubbo was an extremely busy teenager and you didn’t want to interrupt him, and tubbo knew you were currently in a stressful position since you had recently joined the dream smp, also you were still meeting people so he didn’t want to stress you out. this doesn’t mean he didn’t want to be your friend, he actually asked tommy since he had been your friend for at least 4 years what would be the best way of getting to know you.

“mate they hated me when we first met, just talk to them or something. you could have met them the last time i went up to visit you, but they ended up not feeling too good and went back to the hotel room.”

“when are you next coming up?”

“how about next week, and i’ll bring y/n, i really don’t understand why you’re nervous tubbo, it’s y/n they wouldn’t hurt a fly..well hmm.”

“see you next week then!”

a week later tommy dragged you to the train station.

“uh tommy where are we going?”

“...on a train.”

“no way, really? oh my god!”

a few hours later you finally got off the train.

“ill go with my dad to check into the hotel room, do you want to come with us or?”

“i think i’ll go for a walk and stretch my legs.”

“right okay, meet you at the beach later”

you spent a few minutes walking around the beach picking up any rocks and shells that caught your eye, little did you know it would result in you meeting tubbo. once you finished putting your new collection in your pockets you noticed a small crowd of people walk up to someone asking for pictures assuming it was tommy you walked over to the boy, it wasn’t tommy it was in fact tubbo. at first you stayed silent not wanting to really cause attention to yourself. you only spoke up when some people started to make inappropriate comments towards him.

“oh sorry to be a pain guys me and tubbo have plans with tommy in a few minutes, we should go so we’re not late. bye guys.”

you smiled and waved as they walked away. you looked over to tubbo, you could tell he was still pretty anxious about what just happened and honestly if you was in his position, you would react the same way.

“we should probably move from here incase they come back and see you’re still here, are you okay?”

“im feeling better now it’s over..thank you”

“oh it’s no problem i’m, y/n btw.”

“wait you and tommy were still meant to be on the train.”

“the train was actually on time, tommy went to check into the hotel i wanted to stretch my legs, i also wanted to collect some rocks.”

“did you collect enough or did you want more?”

“im not going to say no if you wanna go collect some with me.”

the pair of you walked around keeping each other close incase the people from before returned. half an hour later, the pair of you sat on a bench close to the beach so you could show tubbo everything you decided to pick up, he ended up keeping a rock he liked to have as a memory. tubbo wrapped an arm around you as it was getting cold whilst you watched the sunset.

“tubbo i think tommy forgot about me.”

“you can spend the night at mine, i’ll send him a message to let him know.”

“are you sure?”

“of course!”

“this has to be the most unsafe thing either of us will ever do, we hardly know each other and now i’m staying at yours.”

tommy sent you a message explaining that he didn’t forget, there was a problem at the other hotel and they had to go find another one, but you’ll be fine to stay at tubbos for the night. the pair of you spent the entire night learning as much as you can about the other person. it had only been an evening but you already knew the pair of you would be great friends.

taglist:

@dumb-chaotic-bi-energy @uselesssapphickitten @l0ver0fj0y @etheriaaly @xx-smiley-xx @hawarun @kylobensgirl @cawcaw-pretty-thing @reverse-iak @renleicrashed @c1loudee

[sandbees]

15 Things the First Years Have Done

The first years, all combined together as a big group, have done the most chaotic stuff in the history in NRC. In the Headmaster’s desk, is a list of what the One Braincell Group has done. (In which little to no context is given)

As First Years of NRC, we pledge to not,

1. Throw Grim into the Savannaclaw pool. Or anyone, for that matter.

“How did you even manage to throw Leona into the pool?”

“Pure spite.”

“He spoke condescendingly to Yuu, he had to go.”

“I don’t agree with what they did, Leona was being Leona. But it was pretty funny.”

2. Play “How Many People Can Accidentally be Collard by Riddle?”

“I think Epel won that.”

“15 people.”

“Could’ve been 20 if Vil didn’t catch you.”

3. Test Yuu’s magic resistance

“How resistant are you, anyways?”

“I think Sebek’s lighting spell knocked them out.”

“Oh yeah, that hurt a lot. How many volts was that?”

“Volts?”

“Oh, we are going to test how many volts Sebek’s spell has later.”

4. Beat up your seniors

“To be fair, they dumped a bucket of water on Ace.”

“Wait - that was them?”

“Wait we weren’t supposed to say that-“

“It’s fine Ace, we took care of them, didn’t we?” :)

“Didn’t you and Deuce put them in the infirmary?”

“Didn’t they stop dumping water on Ace? Yes? So what’s the problem?”

5. Make vague threats that involve Malleus Draconia.

“Now that’s unfair, those threats were facts!”

“I still can not believe you manage to get Waka-sama’s favor.”

“Well, I’m his friend, of course he likes me.”

6. Start a food fight in Mostro Lounge, and then blame it on Floyd.

“But he did start it!”

“No, he really did. We just escalated it.”

“Haha, I remember hitting him with an apple. It was satisfying to see the smirk wiped off his face.” :)

7. Kidnap Ortho Shroud for the 50th time.

“Did Idia add that one? Because we technically didn’t kidnap Ortho.”

“It’s been, what? A week since we’ve invited Ortho over? We should invite him again.”

“Also it’s been 57 times we’ve taken Ortho, this list should be more accurate.”

8. Steal armor and weapons from Diasomnia, have Jack transform into a wolf, and “raid” Kalim’s treasure room.

“Pfft, remember the terror in everyone’s eyes? Hilarious.”

“I remember when I rode Jack like a steed, wielding Grim like a flamethrower.”

“Ah, to bad Jamil used Snake Whisper on us and kicked us out.”

9. Steal potions from Pomfiore and drink them from the bottle, competing against each other for “poison tolerance”.

“Ok, not our best idea.”

“Yeah that was deserved. Though Sebek won that one, didn’t he?”

“Fae are naturally strong against poisons! Besides, I must be resilient to them in case someone tries to poison Waka-sama’s food!”

10. Scream out song lyrics at 5 in the morning.

“I can’t believe we managed to do that.”

“Agreed. Especially since how far Ramshackle is from the other dorms.”

“Ah, the magic of the magic mirrors.”

11. Let Deuce “duke it out” on people harassing you. Tell a teacher.

“But asking a teacher is so repetitive. Besides, if Deuce beats them up they’ll never bother us again, unlike having a teacher lecture them.”

“Yeah, plus bad boy Deuce is h o t.”

“H-huh?!”

“Ew, gross. Stop being horny.”

12. Paint the roses Pink, Maroon, Wine Red, Carmine, Red Violet, OR ANY OTHER RED COLOR VARIANT THAT IS NOT A TRUE RED

“But we did follow the rules. It’s just that we ran out of traditional red paint.”

“Pffft, Riddle’s face turned as red as the roses when he saw what we did.”

“Ugggh, my only regret was that we did it before an Unbirthday party. He made us paint it an hour before.”

13. Sneak into Mostro Lounge, only to ask Jade if he has “the goods”

“It’s not my fault they assumed we were talking about drugs.”

“Yeah, I wanted to try out some of the wild mushrooms he found. I heard the wild plants around here are good.”

“Blegh, I can’t believe you dragged us into that. I don’t even like mushrooms.”

14. Mix your powers together. No, we do not want a repeat of the FIRE THUNDERSTORM INCIDENT.

“Hey! That was a complete accident.”

“No it wasn’t. You started it. You were egging on Grim and Sebek.”

“It’s not my fault that they attacked me.”

“Stupid human! You were the one to fan our magic!”

15. Stop creating plots that damage the school’s reputation.

“Ok, we have had a few scandals, but it’s not as bad as the dorm leader’s.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Ok, we may have done worse. But those were fixed before they got into the public!”

We have read the rules, and we agree to never do these things again.

Signed,

Ace Trappola

Deuce Spade

Jack Howl

Epel Felmier

Sebek Zigvolt

Yuu MC

(...Fingers Crossed...)

[evita-shelby]

Between the Shadow and the Soul

chapter 5

Gif by @twvstedsouls

When the police men raided the homes in Birmingham last November, Eva could do nothing except try to soothe her grandmother while two coppers turned everything inside out.  

It had been when she heard of Inspector Campbell, a man she’d already seen die by in a phone booth the moment he showed up in Small Heath. He had assumed she had stolen the guns because México was still at war and that must have been the reason her uncle took her to that meeting.  

Later that day when the Peaky Blinders asked her to take her grandmother’s photograph of the King to burn at the bonfire, she went. There she met Polly Gray, who then introduced her to the reporter, so the newspaper could have the words of a veteran of the great war and foreign woman who had left her country seeking safety printed side by side to shame the King.  

Eva had then told her about her family dying in the Revolution and in turn Polly told her of losing her children. One thing led to another and before they knew it Eva was telling Polly how she can’t read tea leaves and Polly was telling her how having her children taken away took her second sight. Polly Gray then became her first friend in Small Heath.  

Polly has always been kind to Eva and she’s glad to see nothing has changed. Part of Eva feared their friendship would change for the worse, but Polly remained mostly unchanged.  

“The universe has been sending me the strangest signals lately. Must be my brother Gabriel who’s watching over me.” Eva said as she quietly set the tea out. She preferred coffee, especially café con leche, but people in Europe drink tea, so she must adapt to it.  

She had told Polly at some point how Gabriel was her favorite brother. Felicidad was too old to really be a playmate unless they played dress up, Alan was always busy, if he wasn’t practicing for the next charreada he was helping papa at the docks or the office with Uncle Sebastian, so Gabriel and Eva naturally fell together.  

“What makes you think so?” Polly asked interested. Eva hardly talked about her family, it always hurt and half the time she ended up in tears. The first time she went to Polly’s house, she ended up crying so much Polly gave her a handkerchief. Eva had returned that handkerchief and embroidered little flowers on it as a thank you.  

“This morning as I was bringing in the milk an orange butterfly landed on my hand and in the next moment a dead rat fell from the roof next to me.” Eva smiled. Gabriel had accidentally kicked a dead rat from a roof nearly six years ago which ended with Eva dropping a basket full of eggs.

Eva had been just about to turn eighteen and Gabriel was a week away from turning twenty, first time they had laughed since their eldest sister, Felicidad, died in childbirth and their parents had died at the hands of the Americans in the Battle of Veracruz the year before. “I looked up, to see where the rat had fallen from, and instead I saw Gabriel leaning out the window laughing telling me to be happy. When I got back inside, I found my cards on the floor with the Two of Cups at the very top.”  

Two of cups meant a soulmate, or a perfect romantic partner when it’s a reading about love, and while Eva didn’t truly believe in the idea of soulmates anymore, part of her liked the idea of the infamous Thomas Shelby being hers. Like they were just meant to find each other.  

“You know when I first met you, I thought you would be perfect for him.” This was news to Eva, she was no stranger to matchmaking, but she had not seen Polly wanting to set her up with her nephews, least of all Thomas.  

“Had you told me that months ago, I would have said you were insane, Pol.” Eva jokes. Black Star Day would have ended so differently had Tommy never grown curious about her. “To think it just a month ago he asked my uncle for his blessing to take me to the Derby.”

“I was afraid that whatever you saw at the Derby had scared you off, I’m glad to see it didn’t.” Polly thanks her for the tea making sure they kept their noise to a minimum.  

Eva and Tommy had agreed to keep it between them, after all they were the ones defying fate, but Polly is the exception. “Sometimes my second sight will show me things that aren’t true just to fuck with my emotions.”  

“You felt the pain of heartbreak just as you realized you are in love with him.” Polly says with a knowing smile and Eva blushes. Even if the nuns at her school had practically beat her shyness out of her, nothing could really stop her from turning as red as a strawberry when talking about love. “I might not have the sight anymore, but I can read people, Eva.”  

Elizabeth Gray nee Shelby had been born with the second sight like Eva, something she inherited from her mother. Unlike Eva, Polly didn’t practice witchcraft ---although many witches would argue that the minor things Eva does doesn’t count--- and unlike Polly, Eva hasn’t lost her second sight to her own grief. The only way to bring it back is to have a near death experience, but Eva isn’t going to tell her that anytime soon.  

“A skill that hasn’t led you wrong. Tommy says he is over her, and I have decided that I will believe him.”  for now. Eva doesn’t need to say her name. Grace Burgess is a curse in Small Heath. Some said she was killed at the train station by the Inspector, but Eva had seen her shoot the man in the knee.  

“Tommy wouldn’t hurt you like that.” Polly assures her, as if she knew that unsaid ‘for now’. “Thomas Shelby is very stupid when it comes to love, but he is not the type to betray someone that way.”  

“I know, I told him love was making him stupid the day I warned him about Grace.” She admits. All people were made stupid by love, nothing blinds you to reality more than love.  

Which was why Tommy hadn’t believed her thus leading to the chain of events that culminated with Eva asking the universe for a sign that she and Tommy were meant to be and it responded in the most Gabriel-esque way it could. “And now many months later the Universe has told me I won’t find a better man than Thomas Shelby, whole thing would have sent me straight to Bedlam had I seen it coming.”  

The postman knocks on the door, loudly because he is new and still hasn’t figured out there is an elderly woman who panics at loud noises. “Speaking of Bedlam,” Eva mutters under her breath.  

She had already seen her rejection for her approval to become a British Subject ---because this pretentious country used the word subjects and not citizens--- thanks to the efforts of one Grace Burgess. Had Grace not said anything to the police about her father being wanted for murder, perhaps one Eva Smith Riley would not be facing possible deportation, a deportation that leads her to be executed for treason she did not commit.  

Unfortunately, there is only one other way to get a British citizenship.  

[glenncoco4]

Cake

A/N: In honor of the anniversary of the best tv couple ever in the history or television and frankly film. Also, a little deja vu from 3x22 and 6x01.

••••

The older woman scans through her schedule as the engaged pair admire the sample cakes in the display. She locks eyes with the brunette and can’t help the words that leave her lips. “You’re going to make a beautiful bride.”

She can feel the heat rise to her cheeks at the random complement. Then his voice fills the room and she can feel her fake fiancé’s/real life husband’s eyes on her.

“I agree.” And he does because she was definitely the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen as she walked towards him on that fateful March evening exactly 3 years ago today. His heart feels likes about to beat out of his chest when she turns to look up at him with that shy smile on her face. The exact same smile she had when they spent their first few moments alone as husband and wife right before their reception.

“You’re a lucky man.”

“Believe me, I know” His eyes sparkle as they stay connected with his love’s before turning back to the woman on the other side of the counter.

“So how long have you two been together?”

Kensi tries to gather her thoughts but her partner’s making it very hard for her to do so as his hand gently runs up and down her back in a soothing motion. “Well-“

“Unofficially, 9 years, 1 week and 5 days. Officially, 7 years, 3 months and 2 days.”

“Wow, that’s some memory you got there.”

“Can’t forget anything where she’s concerned.”

The agent can feel the heat rise to her cheeks, leaning into his side, playing her part as the blushing bride both for their cover and reality. She knows he loves her with everything he is but sometimes he can absolutely stun her in the most amazing ways.

A challenging look crosses the bakery owner’s face. “Okay then do you remember what she was wearing the first time you two met?”

“Black tank top, jeans, bag that goes across the shoulder, hair down…wavy.”

“Oh, he’s a keeper.” She looks at Kensi flashing her a smile with a hint of nostalgia set in her feature.

“Don’t I know it.”

“How about you, young lady?”

Her brow furrows in confusion at the sudden question directed at her. “What about me?”

“Do you remember what he was wearing?”

She lets out a nervous laugh looking between the two. “You don’t-there’s no way I can possibly remember that.” Turning from the older woman, Kensi turns to her partner. She can see he doesn’t buy it as he tries to bite back a smile. “White tee shirt, red shorts…black socks.”

“Y’all are too cute.”

“Mostly him.” She grins, meeting his eyes as she uses his line from a few years ago.

All of the sudden there’s a resounding crash coming from the back room.

“Oh, dear. I better go check that out.”

Once her back is turned the pair pull out their weapons. “Not so fast, Judith.”

The pair take their cover positions as the raid in the back takes place. Judith now sitting at a booth under their watchful gaze.

As they wait, Deeks looks from his wife to the owner. “Can I ask you a question?”

“I suppose. If I can ask you one in return.”

“Okay. Do you cook cheesecake or is it the same process as pudding?”

“You bake it, son.”

“See, I told you.” The blonde all but jumps in celebration as he flashes a grin at his partner.

“Now my turn.”

“Shoot.”

“Are you two really together?” She sees the looks they send one another and how they acted. She’s in trouble that’s for certain but it’s surprisingly the last thing that’s on her mind right now.

“We’ll according to my husband we have been for a lot longer than I thought.”

“Oh, please, Fern. You’ve been keeping count since the first time I flashed my winning smile at you.”

“More like trying to figure out how you talk so much without your lips falling off.”

“Ohhhh. Touché.”

“Touché.”

“Why? Why do you do this to me?”

“Because I love you and I know how much you hate it.”

A he can do is smile, shaking his head in amazement and imagining their banter as they sit on their front porch 40 years from now. This is forever.

[thebadgerclan]

Harry Potter Masterlist 2

FIRST MASTERLIST HERE

** indicates smut

Harry Potter x reader

Self-Critical- After a raid goes wrong, Harry finds solace in your arms and the bath...

Better**- Your plans got rained out, but you don’t mind...

Better Than Treacle**- Better than treacle, now that’s saying something...

Safe Now- When he’s with you, he knows he’s safe...

Secrecy- It has to stay between you, it just does...

On The Line- Harry won’t risk your life...

Wrong Order- Harry doesn’t regret last night at all...

Caught- Sex in your parents’ house isn’t a good idea...

Just Be Yourself- Harry gets some relationship advice from his godfather...

Under The Stars- A warm summer night under the stars...

My Baby- Sometimes, Harry needs to hear how much you love him...

In Time- It doesn’t feel real yet, but it will, in time...

Just Another Teenager- Harry’s just another teenager...

Pretty Damn Cool- Harry teaches you to cast a Patronus...

Hermione Granger x reader

SFW Alphabet

NSFW Alphabet**

Fred Weasley x reader

A Little Bit Of Fun**- Fred decided to have a little fun with you today...

Perfect**- There are so many words to describe your boyfriend...

Sweet- Complementary desserts and diamond rings...

George Weasley x reader

For Years- He’s waited for 2 years, he’ll love you for so many more...

Pay Attention- George can’t seem to pay attention at Order meetings...

SFW Alphabet

NSFW Alphabet**

Flying- You conquer your fear of flying...

Cat and Mouse- George thinks your costume is positively adorable...

Charlie Weasley x reader

Being Married To Charlie HCs

Charlie As A Dad HCs

Domestic Life w/ Charlie HCs

Dating Charlie HCs

Bill Weasley x reader

Being Married To Bill HCs

Smut HCs**

Yet**- You haven’t gone that far yet, but tonight, you will...

Oliver Wood x reader

Mo Leannan- Oliver’s training sessions run late...

The Alchemist- He’s not the best with words, but he’ll tell you how much he loves you every day...

Not A Beater- Oliver isn’t a beater, that’s for damn sure...

Not As Beautiful As You- Oliver takes you to a beautiful waterfall, but it’s not the most beautiful thing there...

Busy Week- You’ve both been so busy and you miss your boyfriend...

Victory**- You help Oliver celebrate after winning the Quidditch Cup...

Tom Riddle x reader

The Only Exception- Tom doesn’t care that you’re muggle born

The Dark Lord and His Dark Lady- While he sometimes doubts, you are his and he is yours...

Anniversary- Yours and Tom’s third anniversary...

Draco Malfoy x reader

A Different Side- Draco can let his walls down around you...

The Price Of Being A Malfoy- You’re everything his family isn’t...

Lucius Malfoy x reader

Real Love- Lucius truly loves you...

Regardless- Lucius doesn’t care what anyone else thinks...

No One Better- He thinks that after all he’s done, you deserve better...

Work Of Art- Your art is the most beautiful he’s ever seen...

Satisfied**- Lucius’ cock always leaves you satisfied...

Whenever You’re Ready- Lucius adores you in every single way, but he’ll wait until you’re ready...

Being Insecure About Small Breasts w/ Lucius**

Heal Your Broken Heart- Your heart’s been broken, but Lucius wants to fix it...

Sex w/ Lucius HCs**

Day Off**- Lucius takes a day off, and spend it teasing you...

Never Felt Like This- Lucius has never felt like this about anyone...

All Yours- Lucius gets jealous, even though you’re all his...

Star- Lucius never realized how famous you are...

I Am Yours- You’re disheartened when you find out that Lucius has mistresses, but he is yours and yours alone...

SFW Alphabet

Watch Yourself**- When you’re feeling down, Lucius shows you just how perfect you are...

NSFW Alphabet** 

Lucius w/ a Virgin Reader HCs**

Lucius Comforting a Sad Reader HCs

Jealous/Possessive Lucius HCs

Ruined News- His actions ruined your good news, not that he’d care at this point...

Kissing HCs

Lunch Break**- You visit Lucius on his lunch break...

Oral HCs**

Pretty Girl**- You like it when Lucius tells you how well you’re doing...

All Of You**- You’re ready to give Lucius all of you...

So Good**- His teasings fell so good, but you need more...

Body Worship HCs**

Lucius As A Soft Dom HCs**

Collar- Picking out your first collar...

Rules**- You broke a rule...

Newt Scamander x reader

Second Niffler- Newt and Phil see your form for the first time...

Never Felt Happier- Newt has never been happier than he is right now...

Sham- Newt will remind as many times as he has to: you are not a sham...

Always Protect You- Newt won’t let anyone or anything hurt you...

Not Always Innocent- Newt always assumes they’re innocent...

A Few Drinks- After a few drinks, Newt has to remind you that you’re together...

Still Like You More- Newt is afraid to take you into the case...

A Fire Burning In My Heart- You feel exactly what the lyrics say...

Trying To Tell You- All week, you’ve tried to tell him...

Racing Hearts- You make his heart race, and he makes yours race...

His Shirt**- Newt can’t resist you, seeing you in his shirt...

That Time Of The Month-Newt takes care of you during your period...

Take Care Of My Baby**- When Newt wakes up hard, you take care of him...

Pretty Kitty- Animagi take on traits of their forms, but Newt doesn’t know about yours...

Lonely- Newt’s been working constantly on his book...

Lost Niffler- A lost niffler leads to a new relationship...

Jealous of the Niffler- He knows it’s silly, but he’s still jealous...

Cedric Diggory x reader

I Know I’m In Love- Cedric had an amazing afternoon...

Make A Move- He knows how you feel, but he’s waiting for you to make the first move...

Back To Her- He was so scared he wouldn’t come back to you...

A Bit Nervous- Cedric’s a bit nervous to ask you to the Yule Ball...

Spicing Things Up**- It might not have been a very productive conversation, but you’ve certainly spiced things up...

Life After- You both dream of a life after the war...

Broom Cupboard- The Head Boy and Girl caught snogging...

NSFW Alphabet**

SFW Alphabet

Here (TW: ABUSE MENTIONS)- Your brother shows up at Hogwarts...

The Golden Boy’s First**- Cedric’s first time...

Neville Longbottom x reader

December Afternoons- A picnic in the snow...

Spin The Bottle- Fred and George introduce a muggle party game...

Soul Marks and Nifflers- He was afraid he’d never find you...

SFW Alphabet

NSFW Alphabet**

Staying In**- The two of you stay in today...

Lily Evans x reader

New Record**- You’ve never done 5 before...

Chilled- Quidditch in the cold...

Oral HCs**

Braids and Patroni- Lily braids your hair while you work on your homework...

Burnt**- You get a bit distracted while Lily’s baking...

Broken Hearts and Friendships- You won’t put her through that stress anymore...

SFW Alphabet

NSFW Alphabet**

James Potter x reader

Dating James HCs

Best/Worst Things About James HCs

Serious James HCs

Domestic Life w/ James HCs

Oral HCs**

Sirius Black x reader

The Man I Fell In Love With**- He’s changed, but he’s still the man you fell in love with...

Got It Bad- Though Gryffindor lost, Sirius is extraordinarily happy...

Home Safe- They both come home that night...

Her First Match- You wouldn’t miss this match for the world

Handsome- You see Sirius shirtless...

Distracted- Your thoughts are anywhere but the meeting...

Part 2: Puppy**- Sirius knows how to please you...

Oral HCs**

Want Him**- He wants you and you want him...

First Christmas After- His first Christmas as a free man...

Take Care Of You**- Sirius needs you to take care of him...

Jealous/Possessive HCs

Blankets- The heat’s out, but you don’t mind...

Sentenced- Halloween night in Godric’s Hollow...

Starlight- Sometimes, Sirius can’t believe he’s really home...

Padfoot’s Lament- Now he’s free, but you are gone...

A Nap, Interrupted**-  Sirius interrupts your nap, but you’re not upset...

My Idiot- Sirius thought it was a good idea to climb the Whomping Willow

Our House, Our Home- Your house doesn’t smell like home, which distresses your Omega...

Picking Out Your Baby’s Name w/ Sirius

Sirius Black Reacting To You Telling Him “I Don’t Date People Prettier Than Me”

Convince Me- He’ll spend the rest of his life convincing you he’s not a player if that’s what you want...

My Good Puppy**- Sirius’ behavior has earned him a reward...

All I Need- You don’t need dates or fancy dinners...

Seconds Away- Death was seconds away from both of you...

Face**- Sirius wants you to sit on his face...

1,095 Days- Three years, and this is how you’re repaid...

SFW Alphabet

A Hero’s Death- Sirius finds out what really happened to Regulus...

Return The Favor**- Sirius’ stamina is a bit low, but you don’t mind...

Can’t Hurt You Here- He doesn’t quite believe it yet, but nothing can hurt him here...

Different Scent- Sirius comes home, but your scent is different...

The Art of Distraction- Sirius is infinitely skilled in the art of distraction...

Hellscape- These raids are dangerous...

Brother’s Best Friend- Dating your brother’s best friend, what could go wrong?

Out In The Open- It’s all out in the open now...

Enjoy The View- You get a glimpse of your man fresh out of the shower...

Failed Exam- He’ll always be there to make you feel better...

Remus Lupin x reader 

Rough and Hard**- As it turns out, Remus isn’t always so tender...

Hurt (platonic)- When you’re hurt on a mission, Sirius jumps to a conclusion...

Vacation**- A week of relaxation...

Dating Remus HCs

Creatures Of The Night- You’ve known since you met...

Best/Worst Things About Remus HCs

Moony’s Needs**- Moony needs you...

Part 2: Pack- You’re part of his pack...

Domestic Life/ Kids w/ Remus HCs

Being Insecure About Small Breasts w/ Remus

Confident, Lycanthropy Accepting Remus HCs

Dating Remus Since 4ht Year & Being Couple Goals HCs

Oral HCs**

The Rest Of Your Life- Graduation’s almost here...

Getting Eaten Out From Behind HCs**

Mornings w/ Kids HCs

Tomorrow Isn’t Promised**- Tomorrow isn’t promised, but right now, you can push those thoughts aside...

Spanking In The Dorms/Prefect’s Bathroom HCs**

Sex At Hogwarts HCs**

Recuperation-Like every month, you care for your lover after the full...

My Forever- You’re his forever, he knows that for certain...

Honeymoon HCs

The Marauders Coming To Visit Your New Baby HCs

Her Big Bad Wolf- The annual Gryffindor Halloween Party...

The Healer’s Day Off- Every month, you take time off to care for you love...

Scents- Your scent changed, and Moony isn’t quite sure why...

Grind**- Remus finds you when you don’t show up for dinner...

The Forest- A trip into the forest gone wrong...

Mine Alone**- He’ll let him watch, but you’re his and his alone...

Pink- It happened with no words...

Nicknames- Remus discovers your new favorite nickname...

Panda In The Forest- This bear definitely doesn’t belong here, but Moony knows who it is...

Vulnerable**-Sometimes, Remus can let himself be vulnerable...

Transformation- Remus is suspicious of how much time you’re spending with Sirius...

Everything To Me- Remus’ insecurities get to him, but you remind him that he is everything to you...

After The Battle- Remus comes to you after the battle...

Your Kiss- The first kiss of many...

Provide For You- You have more than enough money to provide for him...

NSFW Alphabet**

Beautiful Body- After someone comments on your body, Remus helps you feel better...

SFW Alphabet

Months- Remus has liked you for months, but he’s shy...

Professor Lupin’s “Assistant”**- An evening spent between Professor Lupin and his “assistant”...

What You Want To Call Me**- Remus isn’t what you want to call him...

More Pregnant**- Remus know he can’t get you more pregnant, but at the moment, he doesn’t care...

Safe and Loved- After the full moon, Remus needs to feel protected...

Perfect Evening- Your dress might be ruined, but your evening is not...

Dangerous- Even something as simple as going to the store is dangerous now...

His Alpha’s Arms- Remus is overjoyed to be back in his Alpha’s arms...

Battle Scars- His scars are marks of strength...

Interrupted- Yours and Remus’ make out is interrupted...

Trading Jabs- It’s all in good fun...

Quiet Down- The office isn’t warded...

Severus Snape x reader

The Two Of Us- It’s been so long since you’ve had time together...

First Place- He knew you could do it...

Full Marks**- You’ll do anything to raise your grade...

So In Love With You- The rest of your lives is ahead of you...

Lioness- Severus didn’t want to go to the party, but you still find a way to help him enjoy himself...

After Everything- He deserves more than you can give, but you’re his nonetheless...

One Little Thing- Arguments happen, but it still hurts...

It Was You- You’ll always defend him, even in the past...

Good Boy**- Severus is many things, but above all, he is yours in many ways...

Cheetah and Bat- Seeing your Animagus inspires Severus to give it another try...

The Perfect Day- Any day is a perfect day when he’s with you...

Be Still**- Severus needs to grade these exams, but you’re both wanting each other...

Nerves**- While you’re both nervous, you both want this...

Different- Even though you just met, you can tell he’s different...

Ink- Severus never took you for the type to have tattoos...

Years Of Yearning- Severus is able to live through a book, years of yearning being somewhat satisfied...

Mistletoe**- Christmas break is finally here...

I Can’t Lose You- The world is dangerous, and he can’t lose you...

Hard- Severus helps you to relax when the world becomes a bit too much...

The Perfect Day- You plan a day out for your lover...

Sweet Affections- Severus loved being in your arms...

The Mark- He has to tell you...

Not Your Fault- He blames himself...

Figure It Out- After Dumbledore fell...

Midnight Patrols-You can’t sleep when he’s not here..

Mistake- The messenger of the prophecy...

Better Off- If this is how you’ll act, he’s better off without you..

Part 2: His Fragile Heart- He was wrong, and he wants you back

Fantasize**- Severus sees your classtime fantasies...

Severus Getting Married To An American Reader So He Can Vote Against Tr*mp HCs

A Life Without You (TW: SUICIDE)- He can’t live without you...

Those Three Little Words- You love each other more than anything, but you seldom say those three little words...

Being Insecure About Small Breasts w/ Severus

Good Grades**- Good grades pay off...

Coming Clean- At your graduation, secrets are revealed

Sex w/ Severus HCs**

Dating Severus and Being A Professor HCs

Kissing HCs

Oral HCs**

Happy Birthday, My Love- The morning of his birthday...

Not All That Bad- Severus shows you that Slytherin isn’t all that bad...

Pick You-You watch The Bachelor with Severus...

Deep Inside**- Severus won’t let you come until he’s deep inside you...

After Everything- After everything he’s done, you still want to be his, forever...

Jealous/Possessive HCs

They Won’t Know**- Severus wants you, and he doesn’t care who sees...

Severus With A Virgin Reader HCs**

The Best Addiction- You’re addicted to him, as he is to you...

See Your Worth- When you’re feeling inadequate, Severus shows you how much he loves you...

Only You- A night spent with your love...

Few Weaknesses- You discover one of Severus’ few weaknesses...

Protective HCs

Hold On For Me- In that moment, it was the only option...

The Most Beautiful Sound- The students mock your accent, but Severus adores it...

Feel The Same- Severus doesn’t want to ruin your friendship...

Never Hurt You (TW: PAST ABUSE)- You know he’ll never hurt you...

Wake Up Call**- You enjoy waking Severus up, between his legs, that is...

Prima Donna- Severus helps you relax after weeks of rehearsals...

The Great White Way- Severus’s jealousy flares seeing you on stage with another man...

Where You Go, I Go (TW: SUICIDE)- You’ll follow wherever he goes...

Beautiful, Gorgeous, Perfect- Severus knows that you feel insecure sometimes, and he knows how to make you feel better...

What Better Wat To Wake Up?**- Severus wakes you up in a very pleasant way...

New Toys**- Severus brings home some new toys...

Only Yours**- Severus makes sure you know you’re his...

Like This**- Severus wants you just like this...

The Letter- You never planned to send it...

Giving and Receiving**- Tonight, you’re both giving and receiving...

Craving Affection-You’re craving Severus’ affection, and he’s more than happy to give it to you...

Obscenely Affectionate**- Valentine’s Day, an excuse to be obscenely affectionate, an excuse which Severus willingly takes...

Your Grace**- Severus teaches you the wonders of the marriage bed...

Hufflepuff At Heart- You may not be a witch, but Severus knows you’re a badger

Restless- You’re on a mission for the Order, and Severus is worried...

Severus Comforting A Sad Reader HCs

Nothing Like Him- Part of him can’t believe you want to have kids with him...

Beauty In Everything- You find beauty in everything, even in things others don’t find beautiful...

Domestic Life w/ Sev HCs

New Style- You braid Severus’ hair...

Not A Dream- Though it feels like a dream, you assure him it isn’t...

Shooting Stars- Everyone wishes on shooting stars, but you already have everything you want...

Smile- It doesn’t matter how big or small it is, Severus will do anything to see you smile...

You’re Mine**- When Severus’ assistant gets a little too friendly, you remind your husband who he belongs to...

An Amazing Father- Severus is afraid of fatherhood, but you know you’ll be alright...

Pretty Little Prefect**- The monthly prefect’s meeting...

Such A Good Job**- You’ve done such a good job pleasuring yourself, Severus wants you to finish it...

Bath Bombs- Severus puts his own touch on muggle bath bombs...

Captivity- His worst nightmare was coming true...

No More- It was just too much...

Nesting- Your heat’s a few days away...

Keep No Secrets- Severus knows he has to tell you, but he’s terrified...

Lots of Practice- Severus has never kissed anyone before...

Happy Anniversary- Your second wedding anniversary with Severus...

Keep You Safe-You know Severus will keep you safe, especially from other Alphas...

Need To See Him- You need to see him, to make sure he’s alright...

All Mine**- When Lucius gets a little too friendly, Severus reminds you that you’re all his...

Be On Top**- Severus wants you to be on top for the first time...

Missed You**- After nearly a week in London, you return home...

Perfectly Fine- Severus takes care of you after a prank gone wrong, and feelings are revealed...

A Galaxy Far, Far Away- You introduce Severus to Star Wars...

Need You Here- After a nightmare, you need your husband by your side...

Long Weekend**- While you don’t make it to most of your plans, you and Severus still enjoy yourselves...

A Little Risky**-You and Severus have some fun at the Order meeting...

Snowball Fight-A snowball fight with your husband...

Finally Home- Your fiance returns home after a month and a half...

Unbothered**- Severus’ isn’t bothered by your period, he still wants to taste you...

NSFW Alphabet**

SFW Alphabet

My Perfect, Beautiful Man**- You give Severus some much needed praise and attention...

Never Cheat On You- Severus thinks you’re cheating, but he couldn’t be farther from the truth...

Slow, Tender, and Sensual**- Your first time with Severus is everything you wanted: slow, tender, and sensual...

The Only Woman I’ll Ever Love- Severus didn’t listen to her, you’re the only women he’ll ever love...

My Princess- For your birthday, Severus treats you like the princess you are...

Spare A Dance For Me- You help Severus teach the Slytherins to dance...

Validation**- Severus craves validation, and you’re more than willing to give it...

Hands**- You watch Severus while he brews.  Well, you watch his hands...

Sweet Spot**- Severus’ sweet spot makes him feel so good...

Grateful- One year after the battle...

Your Heart Is A Treasure- Severus won’t treat you like they did...

The Matron’s Assistant- You return to Hogwarts, and find more than just work...

Make A Bad Day Better- You always make bad days better...

Always Yours- It doesn’t matter what anyone says or does, you’re always his...

Throne**- Severus makes you feel like a queen, especially in bed...

Discipline- You’ve always been light on discipline with your daughter...

Don’t Give A Damn- You don’t give a damn that Severus is younger than you, but he’s still insecure...

Precipice**- Severus decides to play a little game with you... 

Not A Prank- He’s convinced it’s a prank by the Marauders...

Caught- The twins catch you and Severus in an intimate moment...

Nocturnal Conversations- Severus converses with you while you sleep-talk...

The Right Time- It just felt like the right time to ask...

With You- He never thought you could be happy with him...

Eyes On Me**- You want him to look at you when he comes...

My Vow To You- His vow to you trumps all others...

Show You How**- Severus teaches you how to suck his cock...

Bare Face- Severus sees you for the first time without makeup...

Let It Out- After someone shouts at you, Severus makes you feel better...

Denied**- Severus is needy, but you’re busy...

Perfectly Valid- Severus loves you just as  you are...

The Bigger Man- He needs to be the bigger man with Lupin...

Every Inch**- Severus wants to kiss every inch of you...

Every Part- You love every part of him, even the parts he doesn’t...

Get Away- A vacation with your family...

Still New- Your relationship is still so new, you can’t help but be a little flustered...

Entirely Real- You can’t believe that this is really happening...

Cared For- After the full moon, you just need to be cared for...

Little Tease**- Your choice of attire gets Severus a little riled up...

Argument/Making Up HCs

Severus as a Soft Dom HCs**

Too Good**- He just couldn’t hold back...

His Turn- You’ve cared for him, now it’s his turn to care for you...

Twice the Fun**- Severus’ new potion gives twice the fun...

Tail-End**- It might be the tail-end of your heat, but you’re still needing him...

Overwhelmed (platonic)- When things feel overwhelming, help comes from an unlikely person...

My Misstress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun- When Severus is assigned midnight patrol, you can’t sleep...

Have You Right Here- Your Alpha always knows how to make you feel better...

Severus Snape x reader x Remus Lupin

Now**- After your lovers tease you, you need them now

Punishments and Pleasure**- While the evening began in a punishment, it ended with immense pleasure...

Filled**- A morning in the library..

Waited For You**- You’ve been gone for two days, but your lovers waited for you...

Forgot The Charm**- The three of you seemed to have forgotten the silencing charm...

Remus Lupin x reader x Sirius Black

He’s Home- He’s home, and he needs you...

Life w/ Kids HCs

Happy Birthday- Remus and Sirius treat you on your birthday...

Their Job- They’re your alphas, it’s their job to take care of you...

Help You Feel Good**- Your lovers show you how to use your new toy...

His Beautiful Loves**- Remus loves to watch, but he also loves to join in...

Cuddles- You join your lovers on the couch...

How Do You Want Us?**- Remus fucks you while you fuck Sirius...

SFW Alphabet

Noisy Little Thing**- You need to be quiet, lest the whole Order hear...

Broken Collar- It was an accident, but you’re still very upset about it...

Severus Snape x reader x Lucius Malfoy

Impersonations- It’s all in good fun...

More Than Desperate**- After your lovers tease you all day, you’re more than desperate for them...

Insatiable**- You can’t get enough...

Needy**- Your period makes you horny, and your men certainly aren’t complaining...

Good Beta**- Your Beta takes care of you until your Alpha comes home...

Tonight**- Tonight, they will have them, and they will have you...

Full**- Both your men fill you up...

Feeling Needy**- Severus is feeling needy today...

Snuggles- After a long day, the three of you want to be close...

Fuck Waiting**- They can’t wait anymore, you look too sexy...

Overworked- When school take its toll, your lovers are there...

James Potter x reader x Remus Lupin

Sensual**- Slow, sweet, and sensual...

New Heights**- James and Remus take your pleasure to new heights...

Being Married To, Honeymoon, Sex w/, Twins w/ Remus and James HCs

Wedding HCs

A Future With Them- You can’t wait for the future

Yourself**- They want you to make yourself come...

Good Together**- Remus thinks you two look so good together...

Scars**- You show Remus just how perfect he is...

What Their Home Is Like HCs

Remus and James As Parents HCs

Cedric Diggory x reader x Harry Potter

Dating Cedric and Harry HCs

Cedric Diggory x reader x Hermione Granger

Domestic Life HCs

Sex HCs**

James Potter x reader x Lily Evans

First Heat**- Your first heat...

Harry Potter x Severus Snape

Through It All- Harry has been there through it all...

Paradise- Harry takes his husband away for a week...

Good Boy**- Severus loves being Harry’s good boy...

Slipped His Mind**- Severus forgets something important...

Unwavering- Harry’s support and love for his husband is unwavering...

My Perfect Boy**- When Severus is feeling insecure, his Daddy helps him see...

Much Better**- After a bad day, Harry helps Severus feel better...

James Potter x Lily Evans

James and Lily As Friends HCs

Everyone Can See- Everyone can see they’re falling for each other...

Sirius Black x Lily Evans

Sirius x Lily HCs

Other

Marauders x an Ilvermorny Transfer HCs

[obeymematches]

Hi! How about obey me boys + undateables(you can do just the main boys if that is too much) reacting to their 2-5 year daughters felling down from bed and crying while they were sleeping and mg is also not around

Thank u!! 😍😘😊

okay!! thank you for sending in a request <3

i'm a little confused though; who is sleeping, the kid or the dads..? have a feeling it's the kid but-

also i'm only doing the main boys because i'm a lil busy today <3 but if yall want me to i can add the rest later i had fun writing this kfkhg

((the she/her pronouns in this refer to the kid as requested))

Lucifer:

Ok great start in his case who was asleep doesn't even matter.

His dad instincts never sleep; you bet the kid isn't going to get injured by falling if he is close by. Slightly overprotective ngl but we are talking about very young kiddo here so

Catches the kid with style - a hand behind her back, little one wouldn't notice anything of it.

Picks her up in his arms to calm her down and get a little bit of extra loving.

Starts rocking her a little so maybe she can fall back asleep quickly. He's got this don't worry about them while you're away!

"It is okay [Kid's Name], I'm here. Do you want to go back to sleep? Let me get Bubbles for you."

Bubbles is the teddy

Mammon:

He might have fallen asleep with his kid sleeping on his chest oop-

Listen he was tired but also he really wants to spend time with her!!

Unfortunately his dad reflexes aren't as good as the elders', but Mammon still manages to get the kid before she hit her head.

Yes she be hanging by her leg but that doesn't matter in the end right

Gently pulls her back up and puts her back on the bed, this time besides him.

Gotcha princess. Ya were lucky I woke up, ya know that?

He has no intentions of falling back asleep but he isn't quite awake yet either.

Leviathan:

He, too, thought it would be fine to slip into a quick nap while baby is asleep. He did the quick daily bonuses in his game already and he felt just a bit too tired to get into a raid rn, you know

Wakes up to the thump of his daughter hitting the floor, so by the time she starts crying he is already awake.

Nononono- how could I let this happen- It's okay, it's okay, let me see-

So relieved when he doesn't notice any harm on the baby. Both of them got very scared over nothing. In the future he makes sure to get coffee any time you are away from home

Satan:

He is somewhere between being awake and asleep when he notices his kid slipping from bed

A book falls from his lap as he bolts to the other side of the bed to catch her

Manages to stop her the very last second, but he did it.

Don't scare me like that, [Kid's Name]. If you want another bedtime story just say so next time, ok?

Tickles her a little before he sets her down for another story. Yes the book that fell of before was a kid's book. That one story is the favorite of the kid and he has to read it every time. Often several times in a row. No wonder he gets a bit sleepy, he knows it word by word now.

Asmodeus:

He wasn't asleep but he wasn't quite paying attention, as he was busy leaving you voice mails about what happened during the day since you were gone

Very detailed stories about what the kid ate, when, how great potty training is going, etc. No she didn't wake up to his voice.

He almost drops his phone when he hears her crying-

Oh mY loRD [Kids' name], what happened?? Are you okay?? Show me where it hurts-

Gets so scared he calls you up immediately to get home and never leave him alone again. He can't do this after all, it was going so well but look at them now

Beelzebub:

He went on a quick trip to the kitchen when he hears crying. Must rush back, dropping everything.

Doesn't think anything serious happened but crying is still scary, you know

Blames himself so hard when he thinks about how easy this could have been avoided.

Shhhh beautiful, it's okay, it's okay- let's get a band-aid, come on.

Picks her up in his arms and doesn't put her down until you get home. That is the only way she can be now if you aren't around-

Rocks her gently so she falls asleep, but this time in a safe place

Yes he put a band-aid on her little forehead just in case. Placebo is great with kids this age

Belphegor:

If anyone, then he was sure fast asleep when the accident happened. He wakes up to his kid's loud cries, immediately making him turn into his demon form. Nobody messes with his kiddo-

Stares at his kid and around the room, not really understanding what is going on as he sees nobody else here-

Calms down so much when he realizes she just fell off the bed. Turns back into his human form instantly.

Come here baby, it's fine. Let me kiss it better. Better, right?

Oh so gently puts her back to bed after the forehead kiss, this time making sure he is between her and the edge of the bed. Can't believe he got so scared over nothing.

[kakairu-shrine]

Third Year Anniversary!!!

I can’t believe it’s already been three years since I posted my first fic to ao3 & started contributing to the fandom! It’s been such a wild ride, and so much has happened in that time; and sitting back and reflecting on it all now, I am really proud of how much I have accomplished.

Somehow, in the past 3 years, I have accumulated nearly 100 works on ao3, and am sitting at 454k words total; and that’s while modding the Kakairu Rocks forum, which I’ve been doing for about 2 years (now with 2 other amazing mods, @oneinist​ & @kaoruhana08), and running events like the KakaIru Valentine’s Week that passed in February, and the upcoming KakaIru Maze Challenge (which you can sign up for all of June!).

Before I looked at my stats today, I actually felt like I hadn’t been doing enough, and have been letting people down, because in the past 6 months especially, I’ve been struggling with a lot of irl things that have messed with my mental health & left me barely able to function; and as a result, I haven’t been able to put as much effort into my projects as usual, and haven’t felt like I’ve had much to contribute. But looking at the numbers now, it’s just insane how quickly all my bits & pieces have added up.

And I have you guys to thank for how much I’ve done. I always have ideas & am daydreaming about kakairu stuff, but without your support – your kudos, comments, shares, and everything else, I don’t think I would have the drive that I do. Your support keeps me going, and inspires me to do more; and I am really grateful for all of you. So thank you for your encouragement. I cannot wait to see where it leads me in this next year and beyond ❤️💕❤️💕❤️💕

If anyone is interested, I have prepared a selection of stats with some of my creations throughout the year, which you can go through under the cut!

If you want to know more about me or find more kakairu content, you can:

1. Check out my library of fics here on ao3

2. Follow me on Twitter

3. Join me in the Kakairu Rocks forum

4. DM me, or send me an ask!

The green numbers = my growth from the previous year!

Top 5 Fics in The Past Year by Kudos:

Waiting For You (9668 words): 270 kudos

Catkashi (20 468 words):  210 kudos

The Getaway (15 023 words): 174 kudos

Strung Out (4405 words): 148 kudos

Presents (10 290 words): 143 kudos

Top 5 Fics in The Past Year by Comment Threads:

The Getaway: 33 comment threads

The Rift (WIP at 19 880 words): 26 comment threads

Presents: 21 comment threads

Ransom: 16 comment threads

Waiting For You: 13 comment threads

Top 5 Fics in The Past Year by Bookmarks:

Waiting For You: 48 bookmarks

Catkashi: 39 bookmarks

The Getaway: 32 bookmarks

The Rift: 18 bookmarks

Presents: 15 bookmarks

My Top 5 Fics of The Past Year:

Catkashi

Presents

Waiting For You

The Getaway

Second Date (3471 words)

Total Fics:

Past Year: 46

All Time: 97

Most Liked Fic (best kudos-hits ratio): A New Home (2471 words)

Highest Subscribed Fic:

Past Year: The Rift, 23 subscriptions

All Time: Mine (23 393 words), 98 subscriptions

Longest Completed Fic:

Past Year: Catkashi (20 468 words)

All Time: The Final Raid (28,307 words)

Shortest Completed Fic:

18x drabbles

Shortest ficlet: Heaven (475 words)

Shortest fic: Okay Together (1013 words)

Fastest Chapter Fic to Complete: The Child (11 332 words). It was written in just 3 days! The Missing (20 612 words) is second, taking two & a half weeks to write!

What Am I Working On Now?

At the moment, I am hooked on my latest series, In A Land Far, Far Away.... It’s a Star Wars AU that I only intended to just write a oneshot for, but since sharing the fic, A New Home, I’ve had loads of ideas for the world; and I just want to continue writing about how Iruka & Naruto’s new lives are coming together, and how they’re adjusting to everything. I foresee a lot of found family & fluff in the future!

With the Maze Challenge coming up, I am really digging the Supernatural & Paranormal theme, so I will probably make myself a maze & participate in that, too; an in the meantime, I’m working on the rest of the event fic, Liberation, which is about vampire slayer Iruka being sent off to find Kakashi, who has gone missing during what should have been a simple mission... (you can read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here; and the other 2 parts will be released later).

I am also continuing on with my weekly drabbles/ ficlets, and I want to try & update one of my WIPs soon; but that may have to wait a bit since I’ve still got a fair bit to do this month with the Maze Challenge!

Once again, thank you for supporting me all this time! Your kudos, comments, and interest in my work means a lot to me, and inspires me to create even more.

I am grateful for you & your encouragement; and I cannot wait to share even more of my soul with you in this next year and beyond.

Thank you for sticking around! ❤️💕❤️💕❤️

[ruewrites]

Just a Taste

AO3

Ship: Solomon/Asmo

Word Count: 1643

Warnings: Blood

A/N: Happy Day 5 of Solodeus Week! I'm super happy with how this one turned out. I chose to use Vampire for my prompt. I have another idea with Vampire!Solomon that I might do at some point. But I hope you all enjoy this one!

Solomon has been chasing vampires for years. He can still remember the day he lost everything clear in his mind. He remembered the vampires raiding his village, he remembered hiding, the screams, the smoke, fire, the smell of death lingering in the air. But most of all, Solomon remembered the sense of shame he felt. As a grown man now, he knew that there was nothing he could do, but the guilt of his childhood still lingered. As he stared into the puddles of blood running down the street, he made a promise amongst the corpses: He would have his revenge.

He found himself within a hunters' coven and the rest was history.

Solomon was a successful hunter, a skilled hunter. He'd killed many and never let his target escape him. He'd never had a slip up.

Well…

Not until now that is.

"Hunter," the whine from the back of his cart dragged him out of sleep and back into the night. Could the beast not let him sleep? With a grumble he pulled back the curtain and walked into the back.

He was met with big, orange eyes staring up at him. Solomon had taken percasions. He was chained properly and Solomon had a blindfold on standby. He'd been good so far, he hadn't tried to hypnotize Solomon in a while now, so he rewarded the creature.

As long as he didn't pull any funny business.

This one hadn't been the one he was after, but Solomon figured if he had him, he'd be able to take him to his master.

"What?" Solomon asked, not bothering to hide any ounce of annoyance that lingered in his voice, "What do you want?"

The vampire pouted and shifted in an attempt to get more comfortable in his chains, "I'm hungry, and the chains you have me in are too tight. My donor hadn't fed me yet when you barged in."

Donor.

So he hadn't always been one of those night beasties.

"You can't hunt for yourself then? What type of vampire are you?" Though, Solomon supposed he should be thankful for that. The more he stared at his little prisoner, the more he noticed how pampered he looked.

The vampire scoffed, “Hunting is for the lesser. I’m my donor’s prized jewel. He told me himself.”

“And yet he left you alone to get captured,” Solomon cut in. He ignored the growl that came from the vampire, “But I suppose I could be nice and go out. Maybe I’ll find you a nice rat or a rabbit-”

The gag interrupted his thoughts, “Really? That sounds disgusting! How could you even think of such a terrible thing?"

"Well, I guess you can starve then beastie."

"My name is Asmodeus, and couldn't I have just a little from you?"

Solomon shot him a look. Really? The creature wanted to drink from him? Did he honestly believe that Solomon would allow such a thing? Well, from the pout he was receiving, there was a very good chance that Asmodeus did believe that. Solomom had never met a vampire that was so…

Spoiled.

"No," Solomon said, "No you cannot feed from me. I'm more surprised you even asked, ignoring the idea that you also thought I'd say yes."

"You won't have to say yes when my donor comes," Asmo scoffed, seeming surprised that Solomon even dared say no to him, "Because he'll give you to me and maybe more as a little apology for being late feeding me and coming home to me."

"He abandoned you," Solomon wasn't sure where it came from. The more he talked with the vampire, he realized that he wasn't the one that he'd been after. There was no way Asmodeus was the one terrorizing the town over when he didn't even hunt for himself.

"I was not abandoned."

"Really? Because the way I see it, he fled and left you to take the heat."

Solomon didn't even flinch when the vampire attempted to spring forward, the chains straining to hold him back, fangs bared. Solomon had struck a nerve. He knew he had.

"You'll see," he growled, "He's going to come back for me, and when he does you'll be sorry."

Solomon doubted that. And as he stared down at Asmodeus, he couldn't help but feel sorry for him. The vampire he’d been after left Asmo behind to take his place. Most likely he’d been hoping that Solomon wouldn’t take a second thought, that he wouldn’t notice that this vampire couldn’t fend for himself.

And as he watched Asmo thrash and scream from his chains, he could feel sympathy leaking into his heart.

***

Days passed by. Solomon should have been making Asmodeus' donor's job easy for him. He was still trying to track him down and in turn he was bringing Asmo closer to him, but the vampire kept slipping through his fingers. To his credit, Asmodeus had kept his confidence in his donor for the first week, but Solomon had watched doubt finally creep into his eyes. And as his doubts grew, so did his hunger.

Apparently Asmodeus hadn't been tempting enough as bait.

Solomon stepped into the back once more. He was dirty and tired. Collapsing onto the floor, he stared at Asmodeus who was curled up opposite to him. Wheels started turning in his head.

"You should just kill me now instead of letting me starve to death," his voice was weak, and Solomon swore he heard him sniffle, "You made your point. I wasn't as special to him as he said I was. I wasn't worth anything, even after I gave up everything."

Solomon moved closer, and Asmo didn't even attempt to get up.

"What are you waiting for Hunter? Aren't you going to finish me? Or do you wish to humiliate me further?"

Solomon didn't answer, instead his hands moved to the chains. Asmo didn't seem to notice they were being undone until they hit the ground with a thumb.

"No. But I do have a proposition for you," he said. Slowly Asmo propped himself up in order to listen, "Why don't you join me? You can't be on your own as you are, and I need to track down your donor."

Solomon could see the idea swirling around Asmo's mind. While the betrayal was sitting in Solomon didn't doubt that he still held some sort of feelings for his donor.

So, Solomon's fingers moved up and pulled down the collar of his shirt, "I'll let you feed."

Asmo's eyes widened and fixed on his neck, but he did stay in his spot.

"I'll feed you and take care of you in exchange for your help," Solomon continued, keeping his locked on Asmo, "But I'll need you to swear your loyalty to me."

For a moment, neither of them moved. Then, slowly, Asmo crawled over to him. He took his hand and looked up into Solomon's eyes, " I swear to you Hunter-"

"My name is Solomon."

Asmo nodded, "I swear to you Solomon that in exchange for my care and feeding that I will be and remain loyal to you, whatever it may be."

Solomon nodded and tugged down the collar of his shirt, "Good."

***

"Solomoooon!" Asmo tackled him as soon as he walked in the door.

"Hey hey! Careful Asmo, I'm not ready to feed you yet."

Living with a vampire had certainly been an adjustment, and Solomon couldn't tell any other vampire hunters about him.

He got used to the feeling of Asmo's fangs piercing his skin, but it still made a shudder run up his spine and a gasp escape his lips. That first night, Asmo had been quick to go for his neck, and Solomon wondered if he’d made a mistake as pain shot through him. Maybe Asmo would kill him right there, drain him of his blood. But he didn’t. He even licked the area after he was finished. At the time Solomon thought it was to catch anything he missed, but now he realized it was done to dull any remaining pain. Since then, Asmo tried to be more gentle. When they finished, Asmo would rest Solomon’s head in his lap, running his fingers through his hair and cooing gently to him. Sometimes he would even kiss Asmo’s forehead. He even started getting little snacks for Solomon for after. The more they went through their routine, the more Solomon found himself enjoying it. He felt closer to Asmo.

"I don't want to be fed, I want a kiss," Asmo pouted. Asmo usually asked for little affections, and Solomon did enjoy his reactions. They were sweet and made Solomon feel some sort of way.

"Remember we have work to do," Solomon murmured, leaning in close, "We're hot on the heels of the vampire who killed the duke."

Their lips met and Solomon relished in how Asmo held him and how his lips felt moving against his own, even as his fangs pierced him. When they pulled away, Asmo's tongue quickly darted out to lap up a little of the blood. But Solomon felt more running down the two pierce marks on his lips.

His cheeks went red as Asmo's index finger came up to wipe away some of the blood. Then he sucked on it.

"I know, it won't take me long to get ready," Asmo giggled, "I'll be back in just a second and ready for you." With that, he blew Solomon a kiss and disappeared.

Solomon covered his face and leaned against the wall.

What was he going to do with him?

Despite the thought, Solomon couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. Asmodeus had added something new into his life, something he enjoyed. His donor had made a mistake, he had lost a precious jewel. Solomon pushed himself off the wall and followed Asmo to where he’d disappeared.

[ceaderblocks]

Like Real People Do

A collab with @mine-sara-sp ! She drew the amazing art for this fic ♡ 

Iskall was in the middle of working on Sahara with Mumbo when he realized a very important, completely out-of-the-blue fact.

Iskall had been hanging around Mumbo for years before realizing they had never done a redstone grind together. Sure, they had gone End Busting and raided the Nether together, but they had never once strip mined for redstone.

“What a waste!” Iskall said out loud, slamming a shulker box down on the ground with much more force then required.

“What’s a waste?” Mumbo startled, looking at Iskall after his sudden outburst.

“You are!” Iskall gestured to Mumbo with both arms. The redstoner looked offended, and then a little hurt.

“Well, I think my skills are valuable and contribute greatly-“

“No, no, no no no,” Iskall cut him off. “You’re a magnet to redstone. You always seem to mine a bazillion shulker boxes-“

“It’s easy to find!”

“-and it’s a waste I haven’t gone mining with you. If we go together, you’ll do your weird redstone-attraction thing, and I’ll be set for the season! Plus, I need more for Sahara anyways.”

“... Do we need to go right now?”

“Yes,” Iskall said cheerfully, placing his hands on his hips. “I accidentally broke the last repeater I had when I slammed that shulker box down.”

Fifteen minutes later, Mumbo and Iskall found themselves underground in a long, hollow strip mine.

“Alright,” Iskall rubbed his hands together. “Let’s get mining! I’ll take the left side, you take the right.”

“What?” Mumbo asked, scrunching his nose in confusion. “Why?”

Iskall stared at Mumbo for a moment.

“So we can spread out and quicken out chances of finding redstone?” Iskall said, suddenly uncertain of his plan.

“Oh, well there’s a vein three blocks down and to the right,” Mumbo said, pointing in the general area he had just stated.

“Dude, what.”

“Can’t you feel it?” Mumbo asked.

“No! Oh my god, Mumbo,” Iskall squished his friend’s face between his hands. “How much redstone have you inhaled to get this superpower?”

“Well- I mean- well, you know,” Mumbo stuttered, gesturing wildly.

“Can you do this for other blocks?” Iskall asked, Mumbo’s face still in his hands.

Mumbo shook his head. “Just redstone.”

“That’s insane!” Iskall said with a laugh, dropping his hands. “You might want to get Xisuma to check that out, it doesn’t seem right.”

“Oh,” Mumbo said, his face falling. It was news to him that other hermits couldn’t detect redstone. Iskall said it was wrong, but Mumbo, from his first memory, could always sense redstone.

“It’s alright dude,” Iskall said, and threw an arm around Mumbo’s shoulder. “I don’t think it's an immediate health concern. Plus, we still have redstone to get!”

Iskall patted Mumbo’s chest with his free hand, spun away from him and pulled out his pickaxe in one smooth motion.

“Let’s get mining!”

Mumbo agreed nervously and directed Iskall where the nearest vein of redstone was.

That night, covered in redstone, Mumbo sat on the edge of his bed, staring at his red shulker box. It hummed with power, and Mumbo could see the faint outline of the redstone dust wrapped in a bag. He wondered why no one else could see it too.

——

Grian stood in front of Mumbo’s witch farm, humming to himself. He needed some goldstone (and gunpowder), and decided to borrow some while Mumbo was AFK. The problem was Mumbo was AFK inside the witch farm, which threw a very large wrench in Grian’s plan.

“I can sneak around while he’s AFK! It’ll be fiiine.” Grian said to himself. “It’s not like he’s awake.”

With his pep-talk out of the way, Grian opened the door to the farm. He immediately gave a small scream as he came face-to-face with Mumbo, staring directly at him.

“Oh!” Grian gave a nervous laugh. “Hey Mumbo! I was just coming to borrow some glowstone!”

Mumbo didn’t respond. In fact, he didn’t react at all. Grian frowned.

“Uh, hello? Mumbo?” The builder waved his hand in front of Mumbo’s face. The redstoner stared on, unblinking.

“Oh! You’re AFK? Who AFK’s with their eyes open?” Grian asked. Leaning forwards, he frowned.

“Don’t your eyes get dry?” Grian asked. “You really are AFK. I can basically see the loading screen in your brain.”

Grian scoffed, and stood back. Then he frowned, and leaned forwards. Now that he was looking, there was something in Mumbo’s eyes. It didn’t seem like a reflection, either. As Grian looked closer, he could see three circles ellipsing themselves, moving constantly to create a sphere shape.

“Huh, it kinda looks like a screensaver,” Grian said, tilting his head and leaning in closer to admire Mumbo’s eyes.

“Kinda like NPC rebooting...” Grian muttered. He was much too close, their noses almost touching when Mumbo suddenly blinked, the sphere shrinking and being replaced with a pupil. Grian shrieked and jumped back, but Mumbo didn’t respond for a moment, robotically blinking again before giving his head a small shake, emotion returning to his face.

“Grian!” He said. “What’re you doing- hey, are you okay? You look kind of pale.”

“Oh! I, uh,” Grian waved his hands around, trying to come up with an excuse why he had been nose-to-nose with Mumbo. “I was, uh, stealing glowstone?”

“Oh, you just had to ask.” Mumbo said, unfazed.

“Wait, do you not…” Grian paused. Mumbo had a terrible poker face, and would tease Grian mercilessly about this interaction. But he wasn’t. It was almost like he wasn’t aware it had happened, which was impossible.

NPC sometimes takes a few moments to reboot and never remembers the first 5 seconds of waking up. A rogue thought in Grian’s head provided.

But NPC was a machine, and Mumbo was not, and Grian was a little thrown off by the whole thing.

“Gri?” Mumbo asked, looking concerned.

“You know what? I just remembered I had some at home. Bye!” Grian said hurriedly, snatching rockets from his inventory and flying off.

“What in the world was that?” Grian asked himself, a large frown on his face and worry in his mind. “People don’t need to reboot.”

——

The more Grian thought about his interaction, the more concerned he became. He knew how robots acted, and Mumbo was not a robot. Uncapping his marker, Grian set to work writing everything down on his large whiteboard.

Robotic Traits. He wrote, underlining the title.

Robotic Movements

Rebooting when AFK or offline

Monotone or simple emotions

Overly polite

Grian paused, and added a smaller bullet point under the last.

(except when trying to kill me or take over the server)

He started on his next list, switching to a red marker and drawing an arrow from each robotic point to an explanation of why Mumbo Jumbo couldn’t possibly be a robot.

Mumbo Jumbo

Robotic Motions -> He’s just lanky and exhausted most of the time

Rebooting when AFK or offline -> dissociation(?)

Monotone or simple emotions -> mumbo is deadpan

Overly Polite -> ???

(except when trying to kill me or take over the server)

Grian sighed. His answers weren’t very convincing to anyone, let alone his own paranoia. He had been killed and kidnapped by both NPC Grian and Robot Grian in the past, and he couldn’t get Mumbo’s AFK loading icon out of his head. What if Mumbo wasn’t really a robot, but had been replaced by his own copy? What if this mechanical copy of his friend was trying to overtake the server? What had it done with the real Mumbo?

How long had the real Mumbo been gone for?

“Dude,” Iskall said, breaking Grian out of his spiraling thoughts. “What is… this?”

“It’s, uh,” Grian paused, trying to think of an explanation. “Well, I think Mumbo has been kidnapped and replaced by an evil machine counterpart.”

“...What?” Iskall said, letting out a nervous chuckle upon seeing how serious Grian was.

“No! Seriously!” Grian grabbed Iskall’s shoulders. “Listen, I’ve been replaced by robots many times in my past-”

“ You Have!?”

“-And I know what they act like! Seriously, Mumbo is always jerky and uncoordinated, just like Robot Grian. He’s suspiciously polite, almost like manners have been programmed into him! Plus I saw him wake up from AFK just a few hours ago, Iskall, it wasn’t natural. He rebooted.”

Iskall stared at him for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

“Well,” He finally settled on saying, gently removing Grian’s hands from his shoulders. “That certainly is a theory.”

“You don’t believe me?” Grian cried, wrapping his arms around his torso, clearly distressed.

“Woah, woah,” Iskall said, “It’s not that I don’t believe you! It would explain Mumbo’s weird redstone mining.”

“His what?”

“He can, like, see it through blocks. It was so strange. He could also feel it when it was deeper,” Iskall said, deep in thought. “It was very useful when we were mining it, but it was very odd.”

“Oh my god,” Grian muttered, and sat down on a nearby shulker box. “He’s a machine. Mumbo’s been replaced.”

“Oh Grian,” Iskall placed a comforting hand on Grian’s back. “Let’s not jump ahead, okay? Why don’t we get more information first?”

Grian brought his head from his hands and nodded in silent agreement. He just prayed that Mumbo wasn’t suffering like he had.

----

Embarrassingly enough, it took Mumbo almost a week to notice Grian’s silence and avoidance of him. No more Sahara meetings were called, and Grian often said the bare minimum to him. Uncomfortable, Mumbo brought it up to Iskall once while they worked on Sahara together.

“Hey Iskall?”

“Hmm?” his friend responded, chest deep in a shulker box.

“Is… Is Grian mad at me?”

Iskall’s head hit the top of the box, and he let out a short curse. “Why would you think that?”

“I feel like he’s been avoiding me. Since he swung by my witch farm last week, actually.” Mumbo said, frowning. If he said something that made Grian angry or uncomfortable, he wanted to apologize for it.

“Nah,” Iskall said with a lackluster shrug. If Mumbo had been paying attention he would’ve seen the sweat on Iskall’s brow. “I think he’s just busy.”

“Oh,” Mumbo said.

“Speaking of busy,” Iskall stood. “I’ve got to go grab more redstone. I’m out. See you in a bit!”

“Okay,”  Mumbo said, his friend flying off with a wave.

Biting his lip, Mumbo noticed Iskall left his Redstone shulker box. They had just gone redstone mining a week ago, had Iskall run out that quickly? Mumbo opened the shulker box (not that he needed to) but he hoped the red outline he could see around it would be wrong for once.

He inhaled sharply.

It was full.

Sighing, Mumbo closed it. He decided that instead of overthinking why his friends were suddenly ignoring him and lying to him, he’d work on redstone instead.

Redstone, at least, was easily fixable.

-----

Cleo stood in front of Sahara, her face scrunched in an unpleasant emotion. Something in the shopping district stunk, and she followed her nose to find out what. It had led her to the redstone part of Sahara, overwhelming her senses.

It wasn’t a stench that could be smelt by normal hermits. She knew it well, it was her own. It was the stench of magic overworking itself to keep something alive.

Whatever this magic was keeping alive, it was working very, very hard.

“Hello?” She called out. “Wow, you guys need an air freshener in this place- oh! Mumbo!”

“Hello, Cleo!” Mumbo said cheerfully.

Cleo smiled, watching the redstone-covered hermit approach. Then she frowned.

“Mumbo, you smell dead.” Cleo said. “Well, not dead. You smell... un-alive.”

“I- wow. I don’t know what to say.” Mumbo said with an awkward laugh.

Cleo leaned closer, taking an intense sniff. Mumbo leaned backwards, a little uncomfortable.

“Yeah. It’s you.” Cleo confirmed. “What’re you working on?”

“Oh, uh... redstone?” Mumbo said, gesturing to himself, very confused with the whole scenario. His usually neat suit was covered in redstone, the red dust already settled in his hair.

“Are Grian and Iskall here?” Cleo asked. Mumbo made a face at that.

“Uh, no, actually. I haven’t seen them in a while.”

“How long is a while?” Cleo asked, pushing past Mumbo and walking into the redstone circuitry.

“Oh, uh, maybe two weeks?” Mumbo said, frowning and fiddling with a ring on his finger.

“Huh,” Cleo said. “It’s because you need a shower.”

“Excuse me?” Mumbo said.

“Seriously, you smell like redstone and overheating code.”

“I showered this morning, thank you!” Mumbo said, a little angry.

“Then why,” Cleo turned and poked Mumbo in the chest, a small amount of redstone poofing off his suit. “Do you smell like an overheating machine?”

“I don’t-“ Mumbo stopped talking when Cleo took another long sniff.

“Mumbo, are you human?” She asked suddenly.

“What-“ Mumbo was furious. “Yes! Of course I am! God Cleo, what is wrong with you?”

Mumbo grabbed rockets from his inventory with much more aggression then they probably deserved. He lit one and flew off before Cleo could get another word in, and the Zombie watched him go, unbothered by his words.

“I guess I should see X,” Cleo muttered to herself, the scent lightening as Mumbo flew away.

——

NPC Grian usually kept to himself. He had a small plot of land that he had built outside the Hermit’s main map, not to be undiscovered, but to be peaceful. Hermits swinging by to say hello was not uncommon, and Grian came by every week or so to catch him up with whatever chaos had happened.

NPC was not surprised to hear a knock at his front door on a stormy, Thursday night. Grian often stayed when it stormed. He was a little surprised to see a soaked Mumbo standing at his door instead.

“Hello, Mumbo Jumbo.”

“Hey NPC.” Mumbo said, shivering slightly in the rain. “Can I stay here tonight?”

“Of course,” NPC said, stepping to the side and letting the redstoner in. As Mumbo passed, a line of stats popped into NPC’s view, as it did for all hermits.

Name: Mumbo Jumbo

Species: Machine

Level: 54

Health: 20/20

Staus: Online

Role: Player

“Thanks. Sorry for invading, I needed somewhere without any Hermits.” Mumbo apologized.

“I understand,” NPC said, handing Mumbo a blanket and a towel. Mumbo smiled appreciatively, taking the towel and scrunching his hair dry. The dark, normally neat locks fell around his face, highlighting how pale Mumbo actually was.

“Sometimes humans get a little overwhelming,” NPC smiled, and Mumbo paused, a confused look coming over his face. NPC waited for his response.

“Uh, yeah.” Mumbo finally settled on saying, removing his suit jacket. “I guess we can.”

We? NPC mentally filed away the way Mumbo had used that language.

“Would you like some tea?” NPC offered instead, guiding Mumbo to the couch.

“Oh, yes please.” Mumbo said, all but collapsing into the cushions. The large fireplace in front of him was flickering, the fire strong but not overpowering.

NPC didn’t say anything while he made two cups of camomile tea, letting the clinking of cups and the whisper of the fire fill the air. Mumbo seemed much more relaxed by the time NPC came in, wrapped in blankets and eyes half-lidded.

“Your tea,” NPC said, offering the mug. Mumbo reached to grab it. “Careful not to spill it, you’ll fry yourself.”

Mumbo paused, retracting his hands. “Fry?”

“Your circuits,” NPC said, as if it was common knowledge, and he shoved the mug into Mumbo’s hands.

“I don’t have circuits?” Mumbo said, thoroughly confused. “You sound like Cleo. She said I smelt like an overheating machine.”

NPC hummed at that, realizing a few things at once.

One:  Mumbo has been confronted by Zombie Cleo about his origin, and most likely ran away from that conversation if the knock at my door meant anything.

Two:  Mumbo’s friends are starting to realize he might not be human.

Three: Mumbo does not realize that he is not human.

Four: Mumbo Jumbo must be malfunctioning if he is unaware that he is a machine.

A reset should fix that problem.

“Mumbo,” NPC said and sat next to him. If Mumbo thought he was human, NPC would have to treat him like that. “What made Zombie Cleo think that?”

Mumbo scoffed. “She said that I smelt ‘un-alive’ and like a ‘machine’. And redstone! That one was probably true though. It’s just like Grian the other day! He came over to get glowstone while I was AFK, and when I woke up he was a few feet away and super flushed. He said something about rebooting, and then flew off before grabbing glowstone!”

NPC took the mug from Mumbo’s hands as the redstoner got more animated when speaking.

“Oh! And then Iskall! We went redstone mining and he said he couldn’t see the redstone under the blocks, but he must be able too, because he always has lots of redstone too! He acted the whole trip like he didn’t know where it was, which, frankly, it just rude. Now Grian and Iskall have been ignoring me!”

Mumbo huffed and sat back. NPC handed him his mug again, and Mumbo took a very long sip.

“Thank you, NPC.” Mumbo finally said after a minute. “For listening. And also the tea.”

“Of course,” NPC said with a gentle smile. “Can I suggest a solution?”

“You have one?” Mumbo said, thoroughly confused.

“Of course. You just need a reset.”

“Not you too! Now you’re talking to me with weird machine terms that I know you don’t use those with Grian!”

NPC frowned. It was worse than he thought.

“That is because Grian is not a machine.”

Mumbo stared at him a moment, before placing his mug down and standing abruptly.

“Thank you, NPC. I have to go.” Mumbo headed towards the door when a strong grip caught his wrist. NPC tightened it as Mumbo struggled against it.

“Mumbo, when you get to respawn, don’t restart right away.”

“NPC, let me go!”

“Listen to me,” NPC said. “Don’t respawn right away. Just wait until you feel ready.”

“I don’t control respawn!” Mumbo said, his voice rising in fear. He desperately tried to break NPC’s grip, but his exterior was not made of metal as the builder’s was.

“Good luck, Mumbo Jumbo.” NPC said, and summoned a sword into his hand.

“NPC, no-!”

< MumboJumbo was slain by NPC_Grian >

——

Mumbo reached the void and was filled with panic. Immediately he went to hit the large, looming ‘Respawn’ button out of muscle memory. Right as his fingers brushed the lettering, he stopped.

He stayed still and waited as if he expected some invisible force to push his hand on the button, but nothing happened.

He always thought he had to respawn immediately, but here he was, hand hovering over the option as time ticked on.

The other hermits just woke up in their beds, he was sure of that. He moved his hand from the looming button, and took a deep breath.

Something else to add to the list of odd things about himself.

NPC said he could wait until he felt better, right? Besides, he had a lot to think about. Iskall and Grian were ignoring him anyways, and he didn’t really want to see Cleo or NPC. He could just wait a few minutes and collect his thoughts. Nothing bad could possibly happen, he was already dead.

He’d just stay here for a while. Just enough to collect his thoughts. Then he’d go back.

Just a few minutes.

Just a few...

----

Xisuma had never felt so much anxiety in his life. Having been an Admin for ten or so years, he was pretty adept at solving all problems. Evil counterpart destroying the server? Xisuma could deal with it. Bugs and code problems? He could do it in his sleep.

A server player being killed and not respawning for two days despite there being no bugs and his code being perfect? Xisuma was out of luck.

“God damn it!” He swore, covering his face in his hands and inhaling sharply. The line of code he had run had failed to bring Mumbo back, the redstoner still being stuck in respawn void.

Mumbo had been quite a character in Xisuma’s last few weeks. Iskall had come first, worried about Mumbo’s health when the man could apparently sense redstone through solid blocks. A few days later Grian had swung by, babbling feverishly that Mumbo had been replaced by a robot and was up to nothing good.

Xisuma had brushed both off with a gentle smile and a ‘I’ll look into it, thanks for letting me know’.

He wasn’t able to ignore when Cleo walked through his door three days ago, claiming Mumbo smelt un-alive. This very much caught Xisuma’s attention, and he sat her down to get her to explain everything.

Only an hour later the death message had come across his screen.

< MumboJumbo was slain by NPC_Grian >

Grian whispered to Xisuma: See! Even NPC realized Mumbo was replaced! Or worse, NPC is orchestrating the entire thing. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Xisuma left a concerned Cleo, teleporting immediately to Mumbo’s spawn point, waiting anxiously for the redstoner to reappear.

He waited.

And waited.

Xisuma sent a message to Mumbo.

Waited some more.

And then realized something was very wrong, teleported to his base and started working on Mumbo’s code.

“Okay, another try. Then a break.” Xisuma muttered to himself. He had been awake for far too long, but he needed to figure out what was wrong for Mumbo not to respawn. He couldn’t have the other Hermits panicking if something was wrong with respawn.

A gentle knock at his door brought Xisuma out of his thoughts. Standing and stretching, Xisuma walked over to the door, and opened it to find NPC Grian. He immediately took a step back. Grian’s messages creeping in the back of his mind.

“NPC Grian! It’s... good to see you.” Xisuma smiled, trying to look friendly, forgetting for the most part his helmet didn’t show his mouth. “It’s been a while.”

“Indeed it has, Xisuma Void.” NPC said, as emotionless as always. “May I come in?”

“Oh! Actually it’s not really a good moment,” He muttered closing the door slightly.  “There’s just a huge mess, I’ve been-“

“Trying to bring Mumbo Jumbo back from respawn?” NPC interrupted.

“... Yes, actually.” Xisuma said, a little wary.

“There's no point in forcing him back.” NPC leaned in closer and patted Xisuma’s shoulder. “He’ll come back when he wants to.”

“Sorry,” Xisuma asked, confused. “But how do you know this?”

“Because he is like me.” NPC said. “If you need him back sooner, I can go get him.”

Xisuma decided to ignore the first part of NPC’s statement and the suspicions around him. He opened the door and let the robot come in. “Would you go get him? Everyone’s worried.”

“Of course. Set Mumbo Jumbo’s spawn point here-“ NPC put down two beds, and gestured to the bed on the right. “And I will set mine here. Then, kill me.”

Xisuma took a moment to fully digest the plan.

“And then what?”

“Well, then I will talk to Mumbo Jumbo and bring him back.”

“Oh,” Xisuma said, grateful for the apparently easy solution put before him. He was exhausted and decided that NPC was his best shot at this point even if there was the chance it might be a trap or something. If NPC tried to take over the server like Ex did he could deal with that later. He had already tried fixing every line of code of Mumbo’s, and he had nothing to lose.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, and I already set my respawn.” NPC said.

Xisuma nodded, and brought up Mumbo’s code again. He changed the respawn to the nearby bed, and then closed the menu, drawing out a sword.

“Are you ready?” Xisuma asked.

NPC nodded.

< NPC_Grian was slain by Xisumavoid >

--

Being dead wasn't so bad.

Well, he wasn't really dead right now. Dead in the overworld, maybe, but not dead here, even if it wasn't clear where here was.

Was it respawn void? It didn't really matter.

Strangely, Mumbo felt better and better the more he stayed there, suspended into nothing with the looming respawn button hovering not too far away from him.

It was odd, resting here. Mumbo felt as if he had taken the longest sleep. Compared to how he usually slept, it felt like he had never once truly rested in his life up until that point.

Mumbo felt rejuvenated, his mind sharp like he could go and rebuild all the machines in Sahara from the ground up in a week.

Strange how NPC was right apparently.

Just about respawn. Mumbo reminded himself.

There must be some other explanation for all the weird things going on. Regardless of all the strange things that had happened, he wasn't a machine.

Mumbo would have noticed, it's not like he was born a week ago.

The redstoner felt ready to go back to the server, even if he would have had to talk with Grian and Iskall about why they were avoiding him. Also talk with Cleo… Maybe she was just having a weird zombie flu? It’s the only reason Mumbo could come up with for why she was smelling weird stuff.

It’s okay, it was just a weird couple of weeks! It happens.

Mumbo looked at the button ready to press it. He reached out and - wait.

Didn't he use to have fingers and hands?

He would have blinked but he realized he didn't have any eyes that needed blinking. He didn't have a mouth to speak, ears to hear anything, arms or legs.

He should have been terrified, but strangely enough something very, very deep in his mind felt almost comfortable with this sudden realization.

Which, arguably, was the really terrifying part.

He was reduced to… nothing? No, he was still something. He wasn't sure what. He felt immense but not really, like he'd always been wearing something too tight and only now he could finally stretch out.

His body…

His body didn't fit what he actually was.

What was he?

He was human! Right? Right?!

This void was just messing with his head. It must be--

"Are you ready to come back yet?” A familiar monotone voice spoke.

--

Xisuma watched the beds with bated breath. A few minutes passed and panic filled his chest, quickly becoming overwhelming.

“Shit,” Xisuma said, pulling up the Admin menu again. Fingers hovering uselessly over the keyboard, Xisuma didn’t even know where to begin. Should he access NPC’s code first? Try and drag him back? But it hadn’t worked on Mumbo, and NPC was not a traditional player.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to enter any code, as NPC and Mumbo respawned on the bed. NPC sat up and gave Xisuma a emotionless thumbs up while Mumbo clutched his chest and rolled to his side, coughing.

“Mumbo!” Xisuma rushed to his side, rubbing his friends back.

“He’s alright,” NPC said. “It takes a moment to adjust back into a body. I go through it too after extended time in respawn. Being a machine forced into a flesh cage is very difficult sometimes.”

“I don’t…” Xisuma said, brain blanking after that information. “Okay, I’m going to ignore that. How do you spend so much time in respawn?”

“Machines are not affected the same way humans are.” NPC said.

“Shut up!” Mumbo wheezed, and pushed Xisuma away, stumbling from the bed. “I’m not a machine! Stop saying I am!”

“But you are.” NPC said, almost sounding confused.

“Okay,” Xisuma said, reaching towards Mumbo. “Regardless if you are, are you okay?”

“Regardless?” Mumbo squeaked, voice rising in anger. “Xisuma, you can’t be siding with them! Everyone has been treating me weird and now he says I'm a machine, and I’m not!”

“Mumbo-”

“No! There’s no proof! Everyone is just imagining things!”

NPC sighed, and brought up Mumbo’s code, displaying it for everyone to see.

Name: Mumbo Jumbo

Species: Machine

Level: 1

Health: 20/20

Staus: Online

Role: Player

“Okay, so, you get very different stats than me. ” Xisuma said. “But that doesn’t matter- It’s okay, Mumbo. Not everyone on the server is human. Hell, I’m barely human myself.”

“No,” Mumbo muttered to himself. “No! It’s not right!”

"Why can't it be that you're not hum-"

"Because I bleed!" Mumbo shouted. "I bleed and I cry and I get headaches and I get sick and all these stupid things that make me human!"

He tried to rub away some tears forming in his eyes as he continued shouting. "I can't just be a machine all of the sudden! It doesn't make any sense. I can’t be!"

There was silence, and for a moment no one knew what to say. The only sound was Mumbo's erratic breathing, muffled slightly by the hands covering his face.

Then NPC stepped over and patted Mumbo on the shoulder, which felt almost mocking.

"Silly! All those things only mean your body is human. Being a machine goes a little bit deeper."

Mumbo’s hands dropped, and the man looked exhausted.

“Mumbo,” Xisuma took a step closer, and Mumbo took a step back, hitting a wall. Uncertainty and confusion flitted across his face. “Please. Mumbo, not being human doesn’t lessen your worth. We still love you.”

There was a long silence, and finally Mumbo leaned against the wall, sliding to the ground and placing his head onto his knees. Xisuma sat beside him, hesitating for only a moment before pulling Mumbo into a side hug.

“I hate this.” Mumbo muttered.

“I know.” Xisuma said.

“It doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know.”

“I am human. I have a human body, NPC said so. I’m human.” Mumbo said, sounding unconvincing to even himself.

“It will be okay, Mumbo.” Xisuma said, praying that it would.

Mumbo said nothing, hoping with all his heart that tomorrow, when he woke up, it would be nothing but a feverish dream. That he had worked on redstone a little too hard for a little too long and had fallen into some strange lucid dream. Mumbo felt Xisuma rub his arm lightly, the up and down movements calming.

“It’ll be okay.” He said again.

Mumbo had no choice but to trust him.