#(aside from little attempts to try to be nice to them again spam more or less completely disowned them in public)

[thebigshotman]

What's your relationship with the Addisons, Miss Cordelia? Has Spamton ever spoken of them around you, or does he prefer to keep that part of him separate from work?

*Addisons? The Addisons, even. Goodness…

Cordelia is sipping on a refill of the Butler Juice, her eyes going wide at this particular line of questioning. As if this is the first time she’s heard of Spamton’s Addison family, because it is. The puzzled-ness clear in her voice as her lips purse, thinking out loud.

*Spam…doesn’t like talking about his past. The most he tells me was that he was no one, an “Email guy just doing little errands here and there”, and now, he’s someone. If he was part of a larger group of Addisons before he came here, this is the first I’m hearing of them…

Considering the tone of their words, though, he most likely is part of a larger group. Is she hurt? God no, it’s not like he’s cheating on her. But she does wish he didn’t hide that from her, and that she was told more than broad strokes. Although she doesn’t like talking about her past either.

*So I suppose the answer to your question is he keeps them separate from his work. Far away from me, at least…what must they be like…?

*Actually, while I have you here, Mysterious Voice…can you tell me a little about them? I’m…quite curious about them now, now that I know they exist…

Curiosity never killed the cat so far, after all.

[strawberriesinbloom]

horns

Satan/Reader

Summary: Another prank by Satan goes horribly wrong. Luckily, you’re there to help with the clean up.

Word Count: 2708

This is a tickle fic btw 

~~~

You lounged on Satan's bed idly reading a random book that you had plucked from one of his many shelves. You had to shove a pile of books aside just to make room for your legs to fully stretch out, but other than that, you made yourself right at home. Though cluttered, his bedroom was a nice, quiet place to spend some time without the rest of the brothers hot on your tail. You lingered here often, whether to get homework help or to flirt with a certain blond demon (sometimes at the same time). More often than not, though, you found yourself hanging out in his room by your lonesome, like now. 

You had managed to get a quarter of the way through the novel while waiting for Satan to get back. The story wasn't particularly interesting–a human and a fairy fall in love and drama happens, blah, blah, blah, but it beat scrolling through Asmodeus' current photo spam on Devilgram. 

The human and fairy had just met when Satan opened the door with an angry grunt. He was dressed in a plain T-shirt and sweatpants–a tad more casual than his usual attire. His hair was damp and slick with tiny water droplets. You watched one trickle down his jaw and land on the towel that casually hung around his neck. 

Without glancing at the page number, you closed the book and sat up. Hands folded neatly in your lap, you asked, "Did you manage to get all of the gum out?"

Satan shut the door with a barely noticeable jolt. The thud that followed was the exact opposite: a loud slam. He blinked silently for a moment but didn't question why you were in his room. You usually shot him a quick text before coming, but you decided not to this time. "It wasn't gum," he scowled, glancing down at the book you were reading with a slight eyebrow raise, "It was a potion Solomon had created for me. It turns solid when in contact with demon skin." He stayed on the other side of the room and crossed his arms.

"If it's pink, sticky, and gets everywhere, then it's gum," you answered, which earned a curt head shake from Satan, "but you didn't answer my question: did you get all of it out?" Although he seemed fairly clean for the most part, you had seen the aftermath firsthand. There was gu–er, pink, sticky substance–absolutely everywhere. 

He turned his head away. For a moment, you thought that was all he was going to answer with until he transformed into his demon form. In a blink of an eye, two horns and a tail sprouted from within. Although you've been living among demons for quite some time now, you were still in awe whenever you saw them change into their true selves. New powers, strength, and abilities…it was more than your measly human brain could comprehend. 

However, this time you were a little underwhelmed. The gunk clung onto Satan's horns like glue. Bits of black peaked out underneath the pink and tiny pieces hung off like string cheese. It was apparent that he had attempted to scrub some of the stuff off, but it wasn't particularly effective.

You snickered.

Satan's face flushed a bright red. "Don't laugh," He crossed his arms with a tiny scoff.

"Sorry, sorry," you snickered again, "but that's what you get for trying to prank Lucifer without me."

"How was I supposed to know that my plan would backfire like that?"

"You would have known if you told me," you said, "because then I would have told you that Lucifer charmed himself with a reversal spell." You bit your tongue to stop yourself from laughing at the memory of Satan's face when the potion he had thrown at Lucifer hovered in the air for a good second before splashing back on him. 

Satan frowned, "Oh, just be quiet."

Other than his horns, it looked like he managed to get everything else off. His hair was no longer the tangled, sticky mess that it had been earlier, and you could actually see his skin now. Even his tail was spotless, which was odd. “At least your tail looks clean,” you pointed out. Like always, it wrapped around his right leg, as though he was afraid that the spikes would hurt someone else. If Satan could scrub everything off of his sharp tail, then why did he leave his horns like that? 

He glanced at his tail before squinting at you. You supposed that he was wondering how you were going to tease him next. “Yeah,” he said, “it’s just my horns that are like that.” He kept his arms defensively crossed.

You asked, “Why couldn’t you clean it off your horns?” Satan’s tail coiled tighter around his leg.

“I don’t know. I just…” he suddenly became very interested in one of the fallen books on the floor, “...couldn’t get it off.”

You stood up and pointed to the edge of his bed, "Come on Satan." When he didn't move, you said, "Sit here." You tapped his mattress. 

"Why are you asking me this?" He asked with an overblown eye roll. He walked over but remained standing.

"Just give me a second," you held up your index fingers and darted out of the room. 

In a few minutes, you came back lugging a bucket of soapy water and a scrubbing brush in tow. The water splashed around the bucket with every step, threatening to spill out. You kept your grip on the handle until you dropped it on the floor next to Satan, who was now diligently sitting where you had pointed. You raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on it.

Satan pursed his lips when he saw the bucket. "What are you going to do?" He asked, glancing warily at the brush held loosely in your hand.

"I'm going to help you clean that gum off your horns," you dipped the brush in the water and swirled it around, "Think of it as an apology for laughing at you."

"Oh, no, that's entirely not necessary," Satan spoke faster than usual, "I can just do it myself–"

"Nonsense," you interrupted him with a jerk of your wrist, flicking the excess water off of the brush, "I like helping you out."

Satan stared at you, then at the brush, and then back at you. You couldn't pin down the expression on his face, only that it seemed uncertain. He tugged on one end of his towel so both ends were at equal lengths again. After a good second of silence, Satan bowed his head and spoke.

"Uh, could you repeat that?" He had muttered so quietly that you would have assumed he had simply cleared his throat if it weren't for the fact that you two were in a conversation.

"I said go ahead," Satan spoke up, "Just be quick, alright? I have somewhere to be this afternoon."

You were tempted to ask what his plans were, but you kept quiet. Seeing how Satan had so many connections within and outside of the Devildom, chances were that you would have no idea what he was doing or who he was going with. It was better not to ask. "I will," you answered as you positioned yourself closer to Satan. You were going to try to be gentle, too, considering how hesitant he seemed earlier. You didn't want to hurt him or anything. 

Then again, he was a demon and you were just a meddlesome human. You probably weren't going to harm an all-powerful immortal creature from hell, but you still wanted to remain cautious. 

You held the brush an inch over Satan's head. You had never cleaned a demon's horns before, so you didn't know where to begin. It didn't help that his horns were inverted, making it a little difficult to squeeze under that curved part. You held the brush at another angle to visualize how you'd go about this. In hindsight, you probably should have thought about how you were going to clean Satan's horns before jumping straight into it. 

"Aren't you going to start?" Satan asked without having the decency to turn his head and look at you. He kept his gaze tilted downward at a stack of books that were on his ‘To read’ list. That stack only got bigger and bigger every time you saw it. They were always new books, too. You had never seen that same novel in that pile two days in a row. 

You couldn't let yourself get distracted so easily. You nodded your head, "Yeah, yeah, sorry about that. I'll get started." You lightly gripped the underside of his jaw with your other hand for support. The tips of your fingers dipped as he swallowed. 

You hummed absentmindedly as you got to work. Starting at the base of his right horn, you began to scrub away at what you were now completely certain was gum. It was already relatively clean, so you assumed Satan had started there before giving up. There were a few stray globs still stuck that came off within a few soft rubs. You squinted. How odd. 

Satan's skin was beginning to feel hot, and you chalked it up to him being flustered from your proximity. He was the type of guy to pretend that he doesn't get embarrassed easily, and for the most part, he played it well. However, there were a few times when you caught him completely red-faced after some of your bolder flirting attempts. It was cute.

One slightly hardened wad of gum lay stuck against the upper part of his horn. A few light brushes weren't going to cut it.  You tightened your grip against his cheek as you started to put some more elbow grease into it. Satan's entire body went rigid while you scrubbed. A few small bubbles of soap floated in the air from where you targeted that specific piece of gum. 

You stuck your tongue out. You weren't sure whether to congratulate Solomon for making such an effectively dastardly potion or to yell at him for making your life so difficult. You made a mental note to do both the next time you saw him. 

Eventually, you managed to get that stubborn wad off. Taking a small break, you dipped the brush back in the bucket. When you looked back up, you paused. 

"Uh?" You frowned, "Are you okay?"

As expected, Satan was blushing, but he seemed a little worse for wear. He sat hunched over with his hands pressed firmly in between his knees. His cheeks were puffed out in a grimace. 

"I'm fine," he huffed, "Continue." He flipped his hand in your direction.

You straightened up your back. "Are you sure? You look like you're…" you tapped the back of the brush against the tip of his horn, causing Satan to jump, "...in pain…?"

"As I said, I'm fine. Just get it over with."

You hesitated, not completely sure whether to believe him. However, you didn't want to leave him looking like he was on the wrong end of Asmodeus' beauty experiments. "Alright, but I'll be gentle this time. Okay?" You said. Satan's only reply was a weak grunt. 

You lightly brushed against the side of Satan's horn, where the gum was thinning out. It took a little longer to get it off, but you were making progress. Every so often, Satan would flinch, but he didn't comment on it, so neither did you. After a minute or two, you were starting to get the hang of things. You had started scrubbing the underside of his horn when Satan made a small sound that sounded suspiciously like…

"Satan, are you laughing?" You placed your hands on your hips. 

He pressed the back of his wrist firmly against his lips. "No," he stammered, "Why would you think th-ahaha!" Satan ducked his head away from where you had dragged the bristles of the brush across the long end of his horn. He jerked his head around to stare at you bug-eyed.

"You're ticklish."

"You caught me by surprise!"

"I never knew demon horns could be…" your voice petered out as you reached over to scratch at one of the grooves.

Satan immediately burst into uncharacteristically bright giggles, "Ehehehe, st-stop ihihit!" He swiped at your wrist and forcefully pried it off of him. 

You unceremoniously dropped the brush in the bucket. Some of the water splashed out and onto the floor, but you paid it no mind. "But it's so cute," you said. With that hand now free, you reached out to scitter your fingers against his other horn. 

He yelped, "Dohohon't–!" He grabbed your other hand and held your hands down. You tried to break free, but all he did was readjust his grip so that both of your wrists were pressed together in one hand. 

"Hey!" You exclaimed, struggling some more, "Let me go!"

"No, you're just going to–to–" Satan's cheeks flushed a bright, fiery red. His lips snapped shut, unable to finish his sentence. He had always denied it fervently whenever you brought it up, but Satan was the type to blush easily.

You paused for a moment before chuckling softly, "I'm not going to tickle you, anymore. Promise." Satan sputtered at that word before letting go of your hands. He turned to the side, away from you. He tried to hold his head up high, but any bit of dignity he had left was squashed by his pout. Free from his grasp, you stretched out your wrists, twisting them around in semi-circles. "But," you continued, stretching out the word, "what about your horns? They're still a little…" you trailed off, pointing at the gunk that was still caked in between the grooves. Thanks to you, there was a lot less now, but you weren't sure if Satan could take any more of the scrubbing required to get the rest off.

A look of 'Ah…right' flashed across Satan's face. He gingerly reached up to poke the tip of one of his horns. Some of the pink stuff came off at the touch, sticking to his index finger. He examined it closely before attempting to flick it off with his thumb. When it hardly moved, Satan tried again. When that didn't work, he sighed and wiped it against his pant leg.

You reached into the bucket and fished around for the brush that had completely submerged in the water. You cringed when the back of your hand brushed against something soft and squishy, but you were able to find the brush. You grabbed it by the handle and dried off the excess water with the hem of your shirt. "You can do it yourself if you want," you said, waving the brush back and forth in front of him.

He laughed sheepishly, "No, no, you can do it. I–"

The corners of your lips ticked up into a mischievous smile, "You like it when I do it, don't you?"

He jumped back in his seat and sputtered, "No!" He cupped the back of his head. His hair was almost completely dry at this point. "What makes you say that?" Now his ears were turning a lovely shade of pink. He refused to glance in your direction. You supposed you hit the nail on the head.

You snickered and muffled the sound with the back of your hand. "Just a hunch," you said. Without waiting for a response, you continued, "I'll be quick. Just try to stay still." You began to scrub at the back of his horns, where most of the gunk had accumulated. 

Satan gripped the edges of the mattress, pulling at the blanket. He squeaked as you brushed against the sides. He clamped his hand over his mouth to prevent himself from making any more embarrassing sounds. You lingered at that spot a little longer than necessary just to watch him squirm a little. It wasn’t until you started to scrap the gum stuck on the pointy tips of his horns that Satan jerked his head out of the way and cackled. “Wahahait–” he swatted at your hands,  and you took a step back. 

This was going to take a while.

[qingxintea]

➼ chongyun || hiraeth

tw: mention of knives (no violence), kidnapping, explosion _______

you angled your camera to catch your face and upper body correctly and adjusted your blinds for the correct lighting. you put thin pieces of yellow and pink paper over your lamp to give off a sunset lighting sort of aesthetic in your minimalist room. your tiny cacao tree sat in the corner of your room, setting some sort of simple beach vibe.

then, you began to stream.

you watched as majority of your followers came to view as you sat in your rolly gaming chair. the greetings came rushing in and you noticed two of your friends had came along too, xingqiu and chongyun.

"hey gang, it's kingexplosionmurder here with your weekly sunday stream," you smiled and watched as comments came in asking you to notice them. beginning to select randomly, you flicked a short strand of hair behind your ear. "you have been noticed, yourlocalsugardaddy," you blessed them. and you swore you chose randomly.

on the other side of the screen, chongyun's face slightly flushed before eating his popsicle again. yes, that was his username, selected by xingqiu after the guhua heir was somehow able to trick him into selecting so. the situation must've been that he accidentally consumed some jueyun chili's, that was also xingqiu's doing.

he watched you smile as you explained your schedule for this stream, when he noticed you suddenly began laughing. it sounded genuine, he wanted to believe it was genuine, but there was a trace of disappointment in it. he observed your face, noticing you were looking at the chat box. "i agree too, scarymoose."

scarymoose: this streamer's kinda dog shit ngl 😐

by instinct, his fingers grazed over the keyboard as he analyzed the tone. this kid wasn't joking around with himself, he was really out to bring you down. he exhaled, shaking his head, wondering how you would deal in the situation.

yourlocalsugardaddy: miss karen this isn't yelp 🙄

he wasn't content with that yet, things could've gone onto more serious matters, but he knew you liked to keep your chat clean and peaceful. you went to the farther extents to keep that from happening, agreeing with rude comments yourself as a said joke, but actually have it sometimes harming you.

so chongyun tried his best to keep you happy.

redrumreaper: yo moose chill 😳

he recognized his friend xingqiu also trying to calm the situation as you just laughed it off and attempted to continue, sooner enough just beginning to ignore all his comments. some other viewers came up to your defense but in all honesty, you wanted to move on.

"s-so, i found some silk flowers outside of wangshuu inn yesterday, aren't they pretty?" you took a tiny bouquet of the said silk flowers and presented it to your viewers, holding it next to your cheek. the pink tone of the flowers matched the color of your cheeks and made for a nice picture. chongyun would've screenshotted it, but he respected your privacy.

yourlocaldumba$$: yes they're so pretty we love you 😍

13lue13erry: yes ong ong 💕 thiccer than my granny

Straw13erry: don't bring madame ping into this 💀💀

colino: are you sure it's alright to take from someone's legally owned property ?? much less from their garden

Straw13erry: u mean ur neighbors don't harvest ur flowers every day? 🙄 privilege spoke 🤚

yourlocalsugardaddy: vv pretty 😳

redrumreaper: simp 💀

you slightly choked over on your side and xingqiu calling chongyun a simp, for you. quickly clearing your throat, you regained your composure. your viewers could see that your cheeks had been dusted with a darker shade now.

13lue13erry: 👀

Straw13erry: 👀

yourlocaldumba$$: 👀

redrumreaper: 👀

sireluck: 💀

bazinga: 👀

dandelionn: 👀

poetichoe: 👀

"okay- anyways," you pushed that aside, watching the chain of 👀's coming in. you weren't too sure at what they were referring to, but just assumed that they were interested in xingqiu exposing chongyun. but, there was no way chongyun really felt like that, right? it was just a friendly compliment from what you believed. "just a tiny flex but y'all guys, i am so cracked at apex, not gonna lie. for all the new followers out there," you randomly commented. 'and to change the subject.'

"actually, you know what? fuck the schedule, let's go to trolling little eight year old kids posting selfies on instagram. due to certain reasons i'm just not gonna be blurring their usernames out, but please don't spam these people, i don't wanna be cancelled 💗" you sweetly smiled as you pulled up instagram and started streaming on your phone.

of course your sus notifications ruined it 🤡🤡

because xingqiu took advantage of the situation, sending messages to your discord. nothing mentioning your romantic life because he knew better than that, but just trolling. 'HEY GANG. ITS ME, TONY, AND TODAY WE'RE GONNA SEE IF IM FASTER THAN THIS MOUSE TRAP.' 'TURNS OUT, I AM NOT FASTER THAN THIS MOUSE TRAP.' 'AN UPDATE, IT HURTS. ALRIGHT. BYE GUYS.' you tried hard to contain your laughter, but certain giggles came out in the end, giggles that made chongyun's heart flutter.

xingqiu just kept spamming without a stop, to the point that you accidentally clicked into the notification instead of someone's username on a selfie post. so now everyone could see your group chat with xingqiu, chongyun, and a few other viewers that were actually your other friends.

13lue13erry: oh no 🤡

Straw13erry: 🗿

yourlocaldumba$$: HAHAHAHA WE'RE EXPOSED 🤡👌

just water support boy 😔: image.png

oh my god he's sending chongyun catboy edits. you made this concerning noise, glad no one really seemed to know who chongyun really was on twitch. you went back to instagram, beginning to dm a random kid, ignoring the situation that had just happened.

chongyun choked, slight heat running to his cheeks. what the fuck was xingqiu doing- how did he even get those pictures? maybe it was that one time xingqiu forced him to go to a furry con, but how did he ever get the time to photograph these? he nervously fidgeted and played with his fingers.

13lue13erry: 🤡

Straw13erry: 🤡

yourlocaldumba$$: 🤡

redrumreaper: 🤡

<— oraoraoraor

kingexplosionmurder: chav check

oraoraoraor: what

kingexplosionmurder: chav: check 😹😹

oraoraoraor: bruh

oraoraoraor: who tf are you

kingexplosionmurder: hope you like baddies cause i'm bad at everything 💗

oraoraoraor: bruh ok i'm blocking

kingexplosionmurder: stop dming me

oraoraoraor: 😐

kingexplosionmurder: stop dming me

oraoraoraor: wtf

kingexplosionmurder: stop dming me

oraoraoraor: wait wait UR that one twitch streamer?

kingexplosionmurder: stop dming me

oraoraoraor: ig ur fans gonna be so disappointed in you

kingexplosionmurder: stop dming me

oraoraoraor: hahaha wtf i'm gonna post this and tag you

kingexplosionmurder: stop dming me

afterwards you sent a barrage of really cursed images and left the person on read when they tried to complain and get a reaction out of you. you chuckled, extremely satisfied with yourself. this is what your viewers followed you for. you went on hunting for another user, "GO Y/N GO" filling up your chat.

you were just about to dm this other kid until you heard a ring from your doorbell. "oh what the fuck, i didn't invite anyone. but you know what, i'll pull something up to entertain y'all guys while i'm afk." searching on youtube, you typed in 'banana fish ep. 1' and clicked on the longest video you saw. then you got up from your chair, making your way to the front door.

you didn't mute yourself before because you thought there was really no need to, and you underestimated your mic sensitivity. god did you wish that you could go back and time and do just that.

twisting the doorknob, you opened your door and was met with... a certain, someone.

someone that you recognized and has caused you so much pain, and it was all so fun and games before they had to come along. "bruh. aight what you here for fam?" you played it super chill, though you were really sick and tired of this person's shit.

"(y/n). we need to talk," her stern voice made you flinch as you just stared straight into her eyes. you simply nodded your head and crossed your arms, shifting your weight onto your right leg. "we're thinking of taking you back home."

your froze, your breath hitching as you just stood there, waiting for her to go on. clenching your fists and looking down, you stayed silent for a little moment and questioned, "...why?"

"well, you have a stable income source, right?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips. "you can finally be of use to us," she clasped her hands together, a bright smile on her face. your finger twitched, awaiting an explanation. "you're a streamer, yeah? so you can be a useful asset to our family name."

"...you only want me to come back so i can make you all seem... good?"

and here you thought, just for a second, that you would be accepted back into the place where you really belonged. your shoulders slumped, as small tears began to well up in your eyes. "and for our profitable gain of course, it would be a shame to not acquire that from you."

you composed yourself and looked up. "im afraid my profit can only cover for one person, and it would be myself that i focus to make a suitable and independent living out of. you've kicked me out ever since i've graduated from college and had me fend for myself, now inviting me back once i have a stable job?" you breathed, fiddling with the sleeves of your black hoodie.

"oh, not inviting, dear. taking."

confused by her words, you let your guard down as she suddenly pushed a warm cloth over your mouth as you let out a constrained scream. you tried to break free of her grasp, reaching for the switchblade in your pocket, but the drowsing chemicals from the cloth took control of you and you felt disoriented. "you... bitch..."

your head hit the floor.

》●✿ time ● skip ✿●

silence.

thats all you heard when you awoke.

pure, unfiltered silence that overwhelmed you as you were completely lost. what was happening?

you tried turning to the other side of your childhood bed, the moon casting light shadows into your 'room'. there was a rope around your wrists you noticed, so you brought them up to your lips and starting gnawing on them until it broke apart. (guys we feral its not a furry instinct ok?/ ??  ?)

the material had irritated your skin, but you put that aside for now. escape- thats what you really needed to do. it was fairly dark, but you didn't have a good estimate of time. the analog clock was broken and set to a different time that displayed 11AM. you sat up, your fingers running along the frame of the window next to you.

for a moment, you stopped, thoughts rushing into your head. what if you could start a whole other life here where things could finally be peaceful, what if you didn't have to feel so isolated anymore, what if you could- ...

no. (y/n), get yourself together. what has happened will anyways stay there, and there is no healing scars. ...still, you couldn't shake off the feeling of missing this home so much when you had an amazing childhood, though full of fake actors who had manipulated you.

opening all the cabinets silently, you grabbed things that you assumed would come to your aid. a tiny backpack, which you then stuffed with other things around it. a first aid kit, a spare knife just in case, along with a clean oversized sweater and a couple dollar bills. all that, along with a compass.

you turned towards your window, stepping on your bed.

pushing open the sides of your window, your stepped on, the brown coldness of the frame coming in contact with your feet. you shivered just a little bit before stopping to think. what would you do once you were out of here? you barely knew your way here. and not to mention, your devices were still left at your other house, so there was no way of contact.

...

did your stream ever end? even if it did, had you muted yourself before leaving? no, you didn't, and you could remember in precise detail. someone out there, anyone, would be willing to help, right? you couldn't possibly be here forever, not when you're basically blown up all over your socials?

your friends, yes, your friends! xingqiu and chongyun were watching the stream and had made obvious interaction in doing so, and they'd be willing to protect you. if they just had a lead...

but... what lead was there? all they heard was the woman's voice and, that was probably it, wasn't it? only a voice with no other clear features that could identify her. it looked like you were doing this on your own.

you came in contact with the blades of grass tickling your feet and conveniently found a pair of sneakers outside. it definitely wasn't yours, and it smelled like the scent of your old room. most likely, it belonged to someone from inside your house, lavender and mint, but who inside there was in the age range to wear modern day sneakers..?

brushing that question aside, you unhesitatingly laced them on and they were just a bit too big, but you could manage.

you breathed, inhaling the freedom intertwined air, a much needed factor of bringing you back to your lost sense of happiness. then, the fear struck you once again, because you needed to improvise now. you needed to run, but which direction? you barely knew this place at all.

you dug around your pocket for the compass you had and it was pointing east. you remember that stepping out of your house was facing west, so you were going the right way... but who knows how messy the path was? it couldn't have been an exact pathway, but going directly ahead was your simplest option.

you heard a pair of footsteps coming from inside the house, probably a few seconds away to opening the door. you sucked in your breath and ran, ran as far as your legs could take you. your intimidating speed and played into your advantage, and taking one last look, you saw the lights on, before continuing.

a few minutes into it, you felt some elemental energy. it was a sense you learned to develop since you were young, giving you the upper hand in a variety of situations. you followed the trail of glowing lines, the air starting to get colder and colder. you shuddered, the crisp coldness nipping at your skin.

you sat below a tree, taking your backpack off your shoulder and took out the oversized sweater. you put it on over your black tee and light blue skinny jeans, its nostalgic aroma filling your sense of smell.

it was... warm.

it shouldn't be warm.

the warmth proved as a sign that someone had worn it before, but this size was from what you knew, too small to fit the woman you came across again, and you absolutely did not recall any other beings within the house. it was a small household.

suddenly, you remembered what she said.

we're thinking of taking you back home. you can finally be of use to us.

plural. you should've noticed it before and you shook your head, slightly disappointed in yourself. you didn't remember any other birth siblings. could it be the fact that during the time, they had, in a way, replaced you?

you sat up, then suddenly went drowsy. your eyelids were getting heavy as your back hit the same tree. ah, that clever bitch. you chuckled to yourself, but still unsatisfied how this was gonna end. reaching inside your pocket, you grabbed a bomb that a little kid gave you, and threw it as far as you could. it wasn't as far as you hoped, but it was exceptionally far considered your sleepy state.

in a few couple seconds or so, it was going to explode. you did that to divert the attention of her and slowly ran as far as you could. a few seconds in, you gave in, hoping that your efforts were enough. 》●✿ perspective ● shift ✿●

chongyun heard an explosion.

he raised his head in the direction smoke was coming from, and made a run for it, then stopping to think. no, you're smarter than this. he gathered his shit together and remembered that one day klee gave you a bomb. he deducted that you had used it as a diversion, and began to search around the area.

and finally, he came across your sleeping body. to ensure your living state, he crouched down and let two fingers travel across your neck, searching for a pulse, and was relieved when he found one, pulsing at a normal rate.

he then carried you on his back, picking up the pace since he deducted someone was out for you, would you need a distraction. he remembered some details of the woman, she had ended your stream with your sleeping form in her hands, a dirty smirk coming across her lips. she had dark hair with some natural highlights, but that was all he saw because the rest was concealed by a cloak.

a few minutes, maybe half an hour later, you began to stir. chongyun decided that he ventured far enough to liyue and slowed down for your comfort. he wanted you to get some well deserved rest. but slowly, you woke up, but only the tiniest movement was made. your eyes were still droopy and you wanted to return to sleep.

but the sight of pastel blue hair kept you from doing so.

you felt the familiar silk coming in contact with your arms as he kept on trudging forward at a more consistent and smooth pace. "..chongyun?" you muttered out weakly, earning a small smile from the male. he hummed in response, continuing forward.

your mind was cloudy, unable to interpret the language of the world. but softly, words effortlessly escaped your lips, "... did i do the right... thing?" blinking multiple times, you awaited his answer.

"yes, yes you did," his soft voice reached your ears, making you smile a bit. you nuzzled deeper into his shoulder, clinging onto him tighter, unwilling to let go.

"thank you," you whispered.

he chuckled a bit before responding, "anything for you."

_____

bro ending is a little off because i'm wrote this at 2:53AM and so my brain has went ⬇️⬇️ also i'm just hungry

copy and pasted from my wattpad,, @ppeachtea_

[justjessame]

Starting Over Chapter 12

“Brooke?”  I shook my head when I heard Connie’s voice on the other end, the sounds of cartoons playing in the background told me she was home.  “Are you alright?”  The worry in her voice made me feel guilty for not calling more often, or checking in at least.  

“I’m fine, worrywart.”  I settled into my spot on the couch, smiling as I caught a whiff of Bucky’s scent.  “I -”  I took a deep breath and bit my lip.  “I’m sorry I haven’t -”

Connie shushed me.  “Stop,” I closed my mouth, worried that she was going to tell me that she didn’t have time for fairweather friends and that she had a family to take care of now.  “You don’t have to explain anything to me, Brooke.”  It felt like my heart restarted.  “I can’t imagine how you must have felt coming back.”  I heard a rustling in the background and then the noise that had sounded like cartoons went away and it got quiet.  “Sorry about that, Bryn wanted to watch Tangled again.”

I smiled, my goddaughter, or she would have been if I’d been here to do the honors was three years old.  “Tangled is a good one.”  I was happy that Connie was willing to talk to me, that she was willing to make time, even if I’d pushed her away.  “Is that her favorite?”  

Connie laughed and I was happy to hear that it was as familiar to me as my own.  “She likes all of the princesses.  Joey is thinking we’re going to have to push up the trip to Disney by a year.”  I was grinning at the thought of Joey Amoruso playing girl daddy through the Magic Kingdom.  “Don’t worry, I made sure she got to see Beauty and the Beast, too.”  That got a laugh out of me.

“I can’t help loving Belle,” I argued, and listened to her snort.  “How’s your mom?”  Connie worked at her mom’s beauty salon, she’d started as soon as she was tall enough to reach around a customer’s head into the sink to wash their hair and after high school didn’t blink about going straight into cosmetology school.  

“You know Mertle,” her mom’s name was Ismerelda, but some hard of hearing old lady had misheard it once and called her ‘Mertle’ to our forever hilarity.  I laughed.  “She makes me do Mrs. McGillicutty’s hair now, every damn week, just because she got tired of doing the same style over and over.”  I remembered Mrs. McGillicutty, she was a sweet lady, but a little dotty.  “Today was my half day, Bryn’s preschool runs a half day every other day.”

“Who keeps her on the off days?”  I got up to grab a drink and listened as Connie told me all about the nightmares of finding childcare, even with an extended family like hers.  Falling back into the type of conversation that two friends have, if one had gone away for a while.  I grabbed a glass of water and my eyes landed on the flowers that Bucky brought me, a smile finding its home on my lips again, I sat down at the table and talked to Connie while I pulled the vase closer and played with the petals.  

Before we said our goodbyes, a good hour and a half after we’d started talking, Connie finally asked the question that I knew she had to have been burning with since she saw my name appear on her phone screen.  

“Not that I don’t LOVE hearing from you, Brooke, but what brought this on?  Why now?”  I’d wandered back to the living room, curling into the chair that Bucky sat in, letting the residual scent of him cradle me.  

“I met someone,” she squealed, causing a tiny mimic to happen from the background and I chuckled.  Good God, she had a mini me.  “You’d know him, actually -” I bit my lip.  “EVERYONE knows him or knows of him.”  I squinted, shit, should I tell anyone?  

“Tell me EVERYTHING.”  But then I heard a male voice, Joey her husband.  “Shit, the conquering man returns.”  I snorted.  “You are NOT off the hook, Brooke.  I expect details and a NAME.”  I promised she’d get both and then we said goodnight.  

I’d missed a text while I was on with Connie.  Another attempt at a selfie, this time it had part of another person that I found out was supposed to be Sam when I read the accompanying text message.  “See UR cuter.”  I was grinning, but the next message made me sigh.  “Stuck w/ Sam. :(“ 

Sad face emoji indeed, I thought.  Contemplating what type of reply I could send to a 106 year old without pushing him away or over a cliff, I went back to the kitchen where his flowers were still holding tight.  Thinking about how creative I felt like getting, I found the largest bloom, went to the bathroom and brushed out my hair. I tried to remember what the women from Bucky’s younger days might have done to look tempting.  Dramatic eye, red lip, then putting the flower behind my ear I hoped like hell that I didn’t look completely ridiculous before clicking off a shot and sending it.  

“Too bad. Sam’s a lucky guy. :*”  

I was washing off my work and thinking about reheating some more leftovers for dinner when my phone chirped.  Glancing down I was left smiling by his answer.

“No, I am.”  

Dinner, a shower, then bed.  Well, after a LONG staring contest in the mirror where I did my own personal pre-bedtime mantra.  It was rote, and I did it with the same vigor that I’d done it with every other time.  And I was just as certain that it would work as well.  

Without Bucky, I had my bed remade and I was settled back on my pillows.  The soft blue glow of the television had been a nice addition, so I flipped it on.  Turning the volume down so it was the same murmur that was soft enough to not keep me awake, I hoped it would work as a surrogate for the anchor that Bucky’s presence seemed to be.

The flashes came red, blue, unnameable colors. The feelings of pain and suffering, darkness and terror creeping closer and trying to pull me back.  I still couldn’t see what caused it, where the pain came from, what was so terrifying that I felt trapped by it.  What or who was trying to drag me back to wherever I’d been was still as unknown as it had been when Thanos snapped his gold encased fingers and after the Blip the answers were still unavailable.  I didn’t feel as pinned down or as in danger or being yanked away from home, so I was still tethered to reality.  I just had to wait through it, to survive the feelings that I couldn’t figure out, until the flashes of colors came to let me know the end was coming and I was waking up - coming home again.

I woke to a text from Connie.  

“It’s McGillcutty’s day. Come visit me. PLEASE.”  I shook my head at the plea, but it wasn’t like I had plans or a job to get to.  I hoped she knew I wasn’t planning on spilling ALL while she was cutting hair and styling the neighborhood ladies, because I hadn’t been gone so long that I’d forgotten how fast gossip travelled.  

“Fine.” I hit send.  I got ready and grabbed some toast and a bottle of water.  My bag with a book, my earbuds and a charger for my phone, just in case, and I was out the door and heading to Connie’s mom’s salon.  

I was at the salon by the time both slices of my toast were finished and most of my water was gone.  Tossing the napkin I’d wrapped my breakfast in in the trash when I walked in, I almost missed the hush that fell over the entire room when I entered.  Almost.  Shit.  Standing up I realized that all eyes were on me.  Great.

“Brooke!” Connie beckoned to me from her station at the back of the shop, one she’d picked out when she was still washing hair.  “Put your eyes back in your heads,” she rolled her eyes.  “It’s JUST Brooke.”  I shook my head, only Connie would try to brush off the fact that I just walked into the neighborhood hen coop after steering clear of it for a full six months, and I looked five years younger than I SHOULD.  

Her mom grinned at me and called out a “looking good, Brookie” as I passed, getting a little red added to my cheeks, but aside from that Connie had shamed most of the clucking hens into at least pretending that they weren’t amazed by the very sight of me.  I made it to Connie’s station and found that she’d prepared for my visit by grabbing one of the waiting area chairs and brought it back so I wasn’t stuck leaning against the wall or counter.

Plopping down, I watched as she went about styling Mrs. McGillicutty’s hair.  After I’d said a polite hello to the elderly woman, of course.  It was almost mesmerizing, watching Connie wrap each curler with the blue washed thinning hair of the bird thin woman.  And as she wrapped she talked.  

“You remember how Tawny and Sam were planning on getting married the year after we did, right?”  I told her I did, and she snorted.  “Yeah, that went south so quick.”  I heard Margaret Andrews pipe up from two chairs down that it wasn’t all that surprising.  

“They were on again and off again so much growing up, I’m surprised either of their mamas let them make that much of a plan.” She offered up.  I bit my lip, the hen house was raring to go.  

Connie’s eyes met mine and I could see them sparkling with mirth.  And we were off, the mission seemed to be to get me back in the swing of things and she’d brought the troops.

I got another ‘selfie’ in the middle of my visit with Connie and I glanced at it and bit my lip.  It was marginally better.  Bucky was at least visible and discernible this time.  I couldn’t tell where he was, but the message wasn’t optimistic about my odds of seeing him soon.  

“Baltimore w/Sam.”

A sigh escaped and Connie glanced up from where she was cutting Kelly Taggert’s hair.  Since Kelly was someone who wasn’t exactly in our sphere prior to leaving school, much less before the Snap, Connie held her curiosity at bay.  Too bad Kelly didn’t get the memo.

“Bad news, Brookie?”  I glanced up, thinking about reminding Kelly that very few people had the privilege to call me that, and she most definitely wasn’t one of them, but held back.  This was Connie’s place of business after all.  

“Not really.  Just spam.”  Fuck it, why give her any grist for the mill?  Connie could smell my bull from a mile away, but Kelly didn’t know me from Adam.  

“I hate that, there should be a way to input a block for those automatically -” and she was off.  I grinned at my phone as I typed a reply to Bucky. 

A selfie was out of the question, not with this crowd.  “I’m socializing. Willingly.”  

Kelly was still telling everyone, because her voice could pound a nail into a wall it was so fucking loud and annoying, all her ideas for dealing with spam texts, emails, telemarketing calls and on and on.  I almost felt bad about setting her loose.  Until my phone chirped and I got another selfie from Bucky looking shocked in answer to my text.  

Tucking my phone away, I set back and let Kelly rant until Connie finished her hair.  

I stayed until closing and it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be.  Connie told me that her sister-in-law was keeping Bryn after preschool, and we had some time to just relax and chat.  I had a feeling she made those specific plans after we talked on the phone, she was just that freaking curious.  

She grabbed two cans of soda from the breakroom and plopped into the swivel seat her customers usually sat in while she played fairy hair godmother.   “Spill.”  I rolled my eyes as I cracked open my can.  

“You only invited me to hang out today to ply me for information about my personal life, didn’t you?”  I squinted over the top of the can as I took my first drink.  She grinned and nodded, not the least bit shamed.  Swallowing, I dramatically sighed.  “Fine.” I couldn’t stop the smile that started growing at the thought of Bucky.  “Do you remember when Mom and Dad took us to the Smithsonian?”  

She was staring at me like I was crazy and didn’t know where I was going to go with the trip down memory lane, but she nodded as she opened her own drink.  “Yeah, we were like ten.”  

I bit my lip.  “We were,” it had been a fun trip, just Connie, me and my parents.  For Connie who had siblings and me as an only child - we both had a blast.  “We went to the Captain America exhibit.” 

“God we went to ALL of the exhibits it felt like, your dad was gaga over the Air and Space one -” she stopped, suddenly HEARING what I said.  “Wait, the -”  Her eyes met mine and went wide.  “NO.”  

“I bumped into him,” my hand went to my chest, still a little bit tender.  “He’s - he’s amazing.”  

Connie leaned forward and looked almost exactly like she had when we were 15 years old and I told her that Todd Garrison kissed me behind the bleachers during the pep rally.  Wide eyed and excited, she bit her lip.  “Is he -” she looked like she couldn’t quite decide what to ask first.  “Tell me EVERYTHING.”  So I did, within limits, sort of. 

[themonotonysyndrome]

Our Intertwine Dream

Another oneshot about Papa Lilia and Malleus with their human teenage son, Silver! I think I’m gonna turn this and the previous oneshot into a series while I’m still having fun writing ‘em and yeah, even if it’s a little late, I wanted to do something to celebrate Silver’s birthday. 

-

“Such a fair and gentle child you are. Quiet too.”

“...”

“My, my what a big yawn that was! Is it nap time already?”

“...”

“...How curious.”

“There you are, grandmother. Lilia said that it’s Silver’s feeding time now.” 

“Oh dear. The little one went out like a candle’s flame. Poor thing must be tired from playing.”

“Silver just woke up three hours ago.”

“Is that so? Say, Malleus dear, how about you and that Fae of yours stay in the castle for a couple more days. I would like to... investigate something.” 

“As you wish, grandmother...”

-

Silver wakes up when he heard his phone vibrated. Blinking a couple of time, he then rubs his crusty eyelids blearily before pushing himself up from the soft bed and sigh deeply. Dawn has made way for bright, morning rays to creep into his room despite the thick curtains.

When his phone on the bedside table vibrate again, Silver snatch it to check his text messages. 

Like any other day, Lilia’s attempt to wake him up for classes is by spamming his phone with a series of pictures that he find interesting or funny. Before, the Fae used to called his phone and sometimes even break through the door when he quickly realised that Silver would actively ignore the calls, but the few success that Lilia managed to get him out of the bed, Silver still ended up sleeping with his face planted inside a bowl of cereal. In the end, practically every one in Diasomnia knew that Silver will wake up whenever he can and the teaching staff of the school allows a little leeway because of his conditions. 

Today, Lilia is spamming his phone with pictures of Savanaclaws’ First Years students chasing each other on the field. Behind them, the sun made its slow ascension to the sky. 

Silver threw his phone on the bed and begin to get ready for the day. If he hurries, he can still make it to breakfast. Freshly showered and donning his uniform, he quickly check that he has his phone, magic crystal and wallet before leaving the dorm. The younger students loitering about the hallway and common room greet him good morning as he head towards the cafeteria.  “Who was that?” “That’s Silver-senpai. A Second Year student. He’s the one I told you about last week. You know, the senior that tutored me and the guys for History of Magic?” “The one that took a nap halfway?”

“Oh, Silver-senpai is always like that. I heard that he can sleep anywhere! But he’s really good at History of Magic though. I even got an A for my test!” 

Silver lets out a yawn as the conversation fades behind him. He had tried his best to stay awake during that tutoring session but the table looked as soft as his bed and before he knew it, the words on his text book look like worms and he blacked out. 

It was nice for the First Years to called Lilia when he was knocked out though. 

Today, the halls of Night Raven College are relatively peaceful. Friends huddled at the courtyard, taking pictures and laughing amongst themselves. A couple of Scarabia students are mingling with two Ignihyde seniors with their laptops out; probably a tutoring session. A Pomefiore student is humming to himself as he pick fresh flowers near the water fountain and a pair of Heartslabyul and Octavinelle students are playing cards; most likely UNO because one of the Heartslabyul student suddenly shrieked, “WHY DON’T I HAVE ANY GREEN!? YOU GUYS ARE CHEATING!” 

“Oh! Good morning, Silver-senpai!” Yuu suddenly greeted Silver just as he was about to enter the cafeteria. Behind the younger boy, he could smell fresh baked breads and strong black coffee wafting in the air. The smell is so strong that it’s probably enough to keep him awake for a whole day. “It’s rare to see you up so early!”

“I managed to wake up on time for once.” Silver reply with a shrug. “Might as well catch up on some classes that I’m lagging behind.” Sebek would scold his ears off if he caught Silver slacking in class, ever. Something about bringing shame and disgrace to Malleus and Lilia and honestly, Silver tends to tune out whenever Sebek started to rant about how great his parents are. 

“That sounds like a great idea Silver-senpai! I’m sure you’ll do well.” Yuu said with a cheer. For some reason, the boy is completely alone; no Grim or those two First Year Heartslabyul students that constantly flank his sides. Unaware of Silver’s musing, Yuu continue, “Anyway, I just saw Lilia-senpai and the others at the table near the hot drink section.” 

“Oh. Thanks. Guess I’ll see you around - ” Silver begins but then Yuu’s eyes suddenly blow wide and before Silver could ask what’s wrong, Yuu hurriedly interrupts him. 

“Ok, nice talking to you Silver-senpai, gotta go to class now! If anyone asks, I’m not here, ok? Bye-bye!” Yuu then ran off without even looking at him. Leaving Silver to stand alone awkwardly in front of the cafeteria’s entrance. 

“Well... that was something - ”

“Oh? If it isn’t Silver-san.”

“What a rare sight to see Jellyfish-san floating in the morning!”

The Leech brothers are smiling widely when Silver slowly turn around. It didn’t escape his notice that, Azul is not with them. Floyd tilts his head - rows of sharp teeth pokes out - and ask, “Say... you don’t happen to see our cute Shrimp-kun, have you?” 

“No.” Silver easily fibbed. Whatever is going on with the Leech brothers and Yuu (and probably Azul) is none of his concern. He decided to leave the twins be when they stare at him with an odd expression; as if trying to decide whether he’s lying or not. True to Yuu’s words, Silver easily spotted Lilia and the rest of their group when he zooms in on the drinks table. Sebek is furiously muttering to himself as he reads a textbook; pages constantly flipping. Lilia is checking his phone with a content smile and beside him, Malleus is diligently cutting his veggie omelette into small pieces. Plates of cold cut fruits, bread and pancakes along with juices and a cup of coffee for Lilia are spread on the table. 

The three of them occupy the large dining table despite how crowded the cafeteria is. 

“Good morning.” Silver greeted the group before taking a seat beside Sebek.

“Silver! You’re awake! Did Mr.Trein’s cat pictures woke you up?” Lilia teases. He tucks away the phone to cupped his face and grin lazily at him. 

“Had a weird dream.” Silver reply and made sure to thank Malleus when the Fae handed him the cut up omelette and a tall glass of orange juice before resuming his own breakfast. He waste no time and dig in. 

“Oh? What was it about?” 

“The face is a bit fuzzy but I was sitting on someone’s lap at a... garden, I think. She had a nice voice.” He said after sipping on his OJ. “It ended when I heard Malleus-sama’s voice.” 

Sebek jerk his head away from the textbook at that. Before he could demand what Silver meant, Lilia interjects with a hum. 

“That sounds too... normal to be a dream. More like a - ”

“A memory.”

Malleus put aside his napkin when the three of them turn their attention to him. He stares at Silver with a thoughtful expression. “It was a summer morning. I came to the garden when Lilia told me that you were with grandmother for the day.” 

Sebek is now in sheer awe - like usual when it’s anything related to Malleus - while Silver’s cheeks are dusted red as Lilia laugh, clutching his stomach in delight. “I remember that summer! It was Silver’s first time visiting the Castle of Thorns. You were such an adorable little one that Malleus’ grandmother insisted that we extended our stay.” Lilia then sigh fondly. “That was a nice summer...” 

And... there Lilia goes, off reminiscing Silver’s childhood. Silver quickly put a stop to it with an embarrassed cough. Lilia merely teases him some more in retaliation. Breakfast continues on until Sebek suggest they head to their respective classes now. Lilia and Malleus had P.E, Sebek went to join a crowd of First Year students drifting upstairs to the second floor; leaving Silver with his Alchemy class. 

He allows himself to be pull along by a couple of his classmates when they notice him rounding the corner. Silver finds it easy to join their conversation since it was about homework and soon enough, they chatted their way to the classroom. 

Mid conversation, Silver yawns. When he rub his watery eyes, something bright red accompany by a smile flash pass him. So quick and sudden, almost like a ribbon - 

“Silver-san?” One of his classmates call out when they notice that Silver had suddenly stop walking with them. “Is something wrong?” 

Silver blink; realise that he had automatically whip around to catch that flash of red but after looking at his sides, students in familiar uniform are mingling around him. No one stood out of the ordinary. 

“Just thought I saw something...” Silver slowly admits. There’s something nibbling at the back of his mind but it refuses to surface despite how hard Silver tries to remember. 

Classes passed through the day without a hitch. Silver finds himself staying awake for all of them that a surprised teacher even commented about it. When homeworks are done with enough time to spare before dinner, he wonder what the others are doing right now. Putting away his books and pencil case into his bookbag, Silver left his room for the dorm’s lounge. Usually Sebek is there around this time and they would bicker and wait for Lilia and Malleus to show up so they could have dinner together. 

But when he reaches the ground floor, Silver is surprise that Sebek is nowhere in sight. Perhaps he’s with his other group of friends? 

He looks around the lounge thinking that Sebek might be hiding behind the book shelves or something, yet only some Third Year students are relaxing on the couch; talking quietly amongst themselves. From the foot of the stairs, a few students walk down behind him. 

“ - did you see Vil-senpai’s new MagiCam post?” 

“The one on tips for short hairstyles? Oh! Is that why you tied up your hair differently after P.E?” 

“What do you think? I’m digging this new look!” 

“Well... at least people know that you actually have eyes now.” 

“Wa - did my bangs really covered my face that badly!? Why did no tell me before?!?”

The chatters gradually fade into background noises when Silver caught an unusual scent lingering behind him; a scent that makes him heady and eyes drowsy, almost instantly. It carries a subtle smell of smokey cedarwood, and blooming tuberoses that remind Silver of hot, creamy crème brûlée that melts on your tongue. 

But the magnetic scent immediately vanishes the moment Silver turn around to chase after it, frantically searching which student wore the cologne. 

“There you are, human! Don’t you know that you’re keeping Malleus-sama and Lilia-sama waiting!?” 

“Sebek?” 

Sebek appear at the entrance of their dorm wearing an unamused expression, hands firmly on his hips. When did he arrive? 

He roll his eyes when Silver continue to stare at him in stupor. “Well? Are you coming or not?” 

Silver shut his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose. Shaking his head once, it took a while for him orientate himself. “Right. Let’s go.” 

Sebek didn’t question his terse’s reply as they walk towards the cafeteria, thinking that the Second Year student is in one of his moods again. He did throw an odd glance whenever Silver turn around as if he’s looking for someone or something. 

Later when the night grows long and the Diasomnia dorm is silent, Silver lies wide awake; staring listlessly at his bedroom ceiling in the dark. Scrolling through his phone did nothing to tire him out nor did reading boring textbooks help. 

Although, Flyod’s weird MagiCam post of him in a selfie with a happy Jade sitting prim and proper on Azul’s bed and Yuu’s black hair poking from underneath the duvet in the background was... something.

With a huff, Silver twist and turn underneath the duvet before closing his eyes in hopes that he could finally settle in for the night. 

Time seem to creep on before exhaustion claims him and Silver finally falls asleep. 

When he open his eyes, Silver found himself sitting on a picnic blanket. Soft morning rays shine through the tall tree above him. He notices small, bite-size food that are for children are laid out for him on a paper plate. A picnic basket is put aside near the tree’s roots, lacqured boxes of food were placed on the centre of the blanket and an uncapped thermos of hot tea is ready for anyone who wants to drink. 

He also notice that he was sitting on someone’s lap. 

“Oh? Are you finally hungry?” Silver tips his head back to see Lilia smiling down at him. His arms move around his small body to encase Silver in a hug. It was then he realise that he’s in a child’s body. 

“Here. Want some apples? It’s yummy!” Lilia coo as he tries to entice Silver to eat the sliced fruit by wagging it in front of him. 

“Maybe we should try some oranges again?” Malleus suggest, awkwardly holding a whole, round orange in one hand as he inspect it with uncertain, knitted eyebrows. 

“I rather not have him throw them at my hair again, Malleus.” Lilia sighs and put down the sliced apple when he no longer had Silver’s attention. 

As the Faes discuss on how to get him to eat, Silver understand that he’s reliving one of his childhood memories. Sure enough, he could easily spot the castle that belongs to Malleus’ grandmother looming behind the sea of trees.

This is the first time that Silver is consciously aware that he’s dreaming. It feels so surreal being able to coherently think like an adult but posses the speech capability of a seven year old. He grunts and whine to show his displeasure when it’s beginning to feel too warm in Lilia’s embrace. 

“Alright, alright, little man. Stop squirming for a moment...” Lilia neated Silver’s little clothes before finally release him onto the soft grass so he could play. “There! Hopefully you’re tire yourself out until you actually want lunch.” 

“...Is feeding a human child always this difficult?” Malleus couldn’t help but ask when he watch Silver wobble around, looking at everything and anything. 

“You know what? I don’t know.” Lilia admits though he didn’t sound all that concern. He knows that Silver will eat when his little tummy rumble soon enough. “I heard that some kids from a human village can be fussy when it comes to food. Silver might be one of those type.” He hums and tap his chin as he recalls their last meal time. “Then again, I heard that human kids loathe vegetables but Silver enjoyed eating your salad during dinner.” 

The Faes continue to talk while occasionaly keep an eye out on little Silver who is critically inspecting a wild patch of daisies. 

Back to Silver, he internally wonders why he’s reliving this particular memory. He tries to remember what else this memory entail when something pull him away from the flowers. 

That strange scent - cedarwood and crème brûlée - slips around him, thoroughly capture his attention in an instant and deafen him from Lilia and Malleus’s conversation. It envelopes his world that even the sunlight starts to dim when his eyes grows heavy. 

And before he realises it, Silver’s little legs begin to carry him towards the forest. Where the scent seem to be. 

The deeper Silver travese into the forest, the world around him begin to grow dark, as if the tall trees are blocking out the sun. Even the crickets and chirping birds are silenced the longer he walk and yet, he still couldn’t find the scource of that smell! 

“...er?”

Silver pauses. What was that? It sounded like - 

“...ver?”

He wanted to turn around, to move his arms but no matter how hard he tries, Silver stands there, frozen stiff as a statue. 

“...Silver?”

The scent is slightly stronger now. It smells so sweet, so comforting as if beckoning him forward and his legs begin to move again. 

A hand shoot out from the dark to gently grab his shoulder from behind. A familiar voice chimes in, “There you are Silver! I was beginning to worry, little one.” It’s Lilia. It’s Papa. His touch is like an anchor, bringing him back to a sense of safety and familiarity that Silver could sob in relief. “Come on now; it’s time to wake up, love.” 

At that moment, Silver jerks up; eyes wide awake and his heart racing. His room is so bright and warm that he had to squint his eyes a little to adjust his vision when he notice a silhouette that vaguely resemble Lilia sitting on his bed.

“Hang on, let me draw the curtains.” When the room is a little darken, Silver rubs his weary eyes and find that it’s indeed Lilia; his coat uniform and cap drape over the bed. For some reason, he’s studying Silver with a complicated expression; lips pursed and eyebrows knitted in worry. 

“W-What? Silver croak, hating how parched his throat feels. 

“How are you feeling?” Lilia asks immediately. He hovers close to Silver, cupping his clammy face with bare hands as he checks for... something. 

Silver lets the question sinks in for moment. “...Tired.” He admits with a sigh. His heart finally calms down when he leans into Lilia’s touch, eyes heavy but this time, he just wants to bask in Lilia’s warmth. 

Lilia bits his lower lip and slowly withdraw his hands before taking a sit on the bed. “What was the last thing that you did? Did you drunk any funny potion before bed?” 

“What? The last thing I did?” Silver repeated, a little lost but answer him nonetheless, “After dinner, I couldn’t sleep so I tried to bored myself by reading and when that didn’t work, I went to bed. I managed to fell sleep soon enough.” He explains and uneasiness churns in the pit of his stomach when Lilia still look at him strangely. 

He had never seen Lilia wear such expression before. 

“Silver... you’ve been asleep for four days.” 

The ancient Fae’s tentative announcement made Silver’s heart drop like a heavy lead. “...What?” 

“Calm down. Hey, can you look at me, Silver?” Lilia’s voice drops to soothing when he sees the far off look in Silver’s eyes. He holds both of the teenager’s hands when he heard Silver’s breath hitches. He continue to grip on them even when Silver meets his gaze. “It’s alright; you’re awake now and that’s what important. Can you remember if you’ve been dreaming or...”

“We were having a picnic back when I was a child. It’s somewhere behind the Witch’s castle - ”

“I remember that.” Lilia assure him calmly. He only spoke like that to Silver whenever he was spooked but it’s been years since the Fae spoke in such tone now that he’s all grown up. “You were such a curious child. You insist on wanting to pick wild flowers when we’re supposed to have lunch.” 

Wait - 

“...What happened next?”

“You plucked a bunch of daisies and gave them to me and Malleus; dirt and all. You looked so proud despite that you made a mess on the picnic blanket that I scooped you into my arms and we cuddled until you tried to gnaw on my hair.” Lilia laughs softly. “You were so attracted to my hair because of the colours that I had to buy you a black and pink teddy bear for you to obssessed on. Do you remember that?”

No. Silver doesn’t remember any of that... 

And that frightens him.  

“Silver? Talk to me; what are you thinking about?” Lilia pleads when instead of a flustered Silver like he’s hoping, his son in all but blood pales. 

Despite the warm morning, chill runs down Silver’s spine when he said in a detached tone, “I... I think I had a nightmare, but... I can’t remember of what.”

[marauder-level-chaos]

In A World Like That Ch. 3

Magnus and Alec have been pushed into their TWI roles by a meddling demon who feeds on their happiness. It puts them in a deep sleep and the only way to get out there is to find each other in TWI and fall in love. If they can do that, they will automatically fall out of the magical slumber the demon has placed them under. Otherwise, they fall into an eternal sleep. It’s upto Malec to find their way back to each other. It is set after the TWI episode in the show, so they have met each other once already. Here is the masterlist. My AO3: malecplusotherthings

A/N: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WRITING PARTNER AND ONE OF THE BEST PEOPLE I HAVE MET ON THIS @thatwinchestergirl67. EVERYBODY GO AND SPAM HER WITH BIRTHDAY WISHES.

Warnings: swearing, TWI characters, angst obviously, some fluff, slight show divergence, suggestive dialogue

Magnus could not stop thinking about the incidents that had occurred at the Institute the night before. He woke up, hoping it had all just been a bad dream. Upon realising that he had in fact frozen and run out on what was probably his only shot with Alexander, he buried his face in his pillow and let out a muffled scream. Great fucking job, Magnus. Trying his best to ignore his thoughts about the piercing blue eyes that he was falling for, he lifted himself off his bed and attempted to get dressed for the day. He set aside a large pot of coffee and began to make himself breakfast. He was thankful that it was a Sunday because he definitely did not have the mental capacity to be at work with Alexander on his mind. Well, he will probably never want to see you again so at least you can’t make a fool out of yourself in front of him twice. Magnus’ attention was soon diverted from his thoughts and his food when his phone began to ring.

“Cat, I know you want me to get coffee with your friends but today is my only day off and I’d much rather stay in.” Magnus complained over the phone.

“Well, I’m not Cat, but I would absolutely love to go grab a coffee with you.” Oh, no. Magnus knew that voice. It was Alec’s.

“Oh um hi, Alexander. I was expecting a call from a friend. I’m sorry.” Magnus heard Alec chuckle on the other end.

“It’s alright, Mags.” Mags?  “I just wanted a chance to talk to you.”

“Oh. You wanna come over later today? I can text you my address.” Magnus said without thinking. He had no idea where this confidence was coming from, but after last night, he was thankful.

“Sounds perfect. I will see you then, sweetheart.” Magnus could most definitely see Alec smirking behind the phone. Did I just invite this man on a date? In a state of extreme panic, he called Catarina, hoping she would pick up. As soon as she did, he screamed.

“Magnus, what have you done now?”

“Alexander.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I mean I didn’t do Alexander….but I may have accidentally asked him out.”

“How do you accidentally ask somebody out? No, wait. I changed my mind. I don’t wanna know.” Cat sighed. “Look, if you’re having second thoughts, just tell him. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“That’s the thing. I need your help to prepare for the date, not to cancel it.” He could hear Catarina’s voice perk up.

“I may not fully approve of Alec, but I have been waiting to hear you say those words for a very long time. I will be right over.”

Catarina came by almost instantly and made a bee-line for Magnus’ closet. After much deliberation, she pulled out a pair of dark purple pants that Magnus didn’t even know he had and a simple lilac sweater. Catarina had paired them together so effortlessly as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. But to her credit, the outfit she had put together was, in fact, better than possibly anything Magnus had ever worn before. Maybe he should dress like this more often.

“Now for your hair.” Catarina said, putting some sort of gel on his head. Magnus could have sworn that he saw some glitter in there. After what felt like hours, Magnus’ look was complete. He had to admit that he looked better than he ever had before. He smiled, looking at himself in the mirror. He gave Catarina a quick hug.

“Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, Magnus.” She warned as she left. Magnus looked over to his watch. Alec would be here any minute. Magnus swiftly hid all the trash under his bed and cleared the dining table. He rushed to the door as he heard the bell go off. You don’t waste any time, do you, Alexander? As Magnus opened the door, he was greeted by a smiling Alec. He was dressed in a comfortable black hoodie and black jeans. In his hands were takeout containers. Magnus couldn’t understand what it was but this casual outfit made him look more handsome than any of his branded clothes ever could. Magnus smiled a little to himself. Alec made his way over to the dining table and set down the food.

“You look really nice, Magnus. Were you going somewhere?” Oh no, this isn’t really a date, is it?

“Uh, yeah.” He could have sworn he saw Alec’s face fell. Did he want me to dress up for him? Magnus quickly dismissed the thought.

“Magnus, look, I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have flirted with you like that. Clearly, it’s not something you are into. It’s just that I’ve never felt this way about anyone. I know I have a reputation of being some sort of a heartbreaker but you, Magnus, have unlocked something in me. Something so new but so fucking exciting.” Magnus stood their speechless, unsure of what he should say. He grabbed a chair and sat opposite Alexander.

“You know I had a plan for my life. I thought I knew what I was doing. But then you came along and threw me off. You confuse me, Alexander. It’s not that I don’t like you flirting with me. It’s just that I’m not sure I’m ready for it. I’m...I’m sorry, Alexander.” Magnus regretted saying those words but between all his work, he certainly didn’t have time for a relationship. And Alec didn’t deserve that. Alec deserved to be with somebody who could make time for him. Somebody who could make him happy.

“I don’t expect you to feel what I feel. I know you’re confused. So am I. But I just want you to know that I will be here if you ever need me.” Alec got up and dusted his hoodie. “Have a good day, Magnus.”

***

Alec woke up early the next morning but stayed in his bed, thinking about the events that had occurred the night before. He could help but feel guilty for putting Magnus on the spot like that. He sighed as he sat straight up and pulled out a piece of paper from the table at the side of his bed. On that paper, in neat and elegant cursive, was the name Magnus Bane. Under that was a phone number, which Alec assumed was Magnus’. Magnus had dropped this behind himself when he rushed out of the Institute the night before. Alec took a deep breath to calm his nerves, picked up the phone and dialed the number. Normally, Alec never felt nervous about calling somebody. Or guilty about flirting with them. He always believed that if somebody didn’t want him, that was their fault. But Magnus had changed all of that. His intense golden eyes made Alec feel so many different things all at once. As he sat daydreaming about those cat-like orbs, he almost didn’t notice when Magnus had picked up the phone.

“Cat, I know you want me to get coffee with your friends but today is my only day off and I’d much rather stay in.” Magnus said before Alec even had the chance to open his mouth.

“Well, I’m not Cat, but I would absolutely love to go grab a coffee with you.” Alec smiled like a thirteen year old school-girl, knowing Magnus won’t be able to see him.

“Oh um hi, Alexander. I was expecting a call from a friend. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s alright, Mags. I just wanted a chance to talk to you.” And also I fucking miss you.

“Oh. You wanna come over later today? I can text you my address.” That caught Alec off guard. He wasn’t expecting Magnus to be forward.

“Sounds perfect. I will see you then, sweetheart.” He replied, trying not to let the excitement in his voice betray his feelings. He lifted himself off the bed and headed to get himself some breakfast and get dressed for the day.

When Alec came out of the shower, he was dressed in an extremely casual outfit - black hoodie and jeans. His hair was a wet sloppy mess, constantly falling in his face.

“You know you should lock your door.” A voice came from behind Alec, causing him to jump. He turned to find his best friend, Simon, grinning at him.

“What the fuck, Si? You can’t just barge into my room like that. I could’ve been...indecent.” Alec said, trying to find the right choice of words.

“I would have been okay with that.”

“Simon! You are committed to my little sister. Why do I need to keep reminding you of that?”

“Not my fault you Lightwoods are so painfully beautiful all the time. Also, Magnus texted you. Said to come over in like an hour.” Simon said, waving Alec’s phone in his face. Alec lunged forward to grab it out of Simon’s hands.

“Don’t touch my things.” He mumbled as he made his way out the door.

Before Alec made his way to Magnus’ he stopped over at a sushi bar. He figured both him and Magnus could use some lunch while they were there. It’s still not a date, Alec. He picked up the food and went over to Magnus’ place. As he climbed the stairs that led to the apartment, he realised that he was still in his hoodie and jeans, not having had the time to change into something with a bit more of a flair. Using the front camera on his phone, he fixed his hair as best he could. He steadied himself and rang the bell.

When Magnus opened the door, Alec’s jaw dropped to the floor. He was dressed in a beautiful purple themed outfit, with glitter in his hair. Alec had never seen Magnus dressed in such a manner. While he absolutely enjoyed a dorky Magnus in his big black glasses, this was certainly a welcome change.

“You look really nice, Magnus. Were you going somewhere?” Alec asked as he set the food down on Magnus’ table.

“Uh, yeah.” Alec’s face fell. But why are you upset, Alec? You knew this wasn’t a date.

“Magnus, look, I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have flirted with you like that. Clearly, it’s not something you are into. It’s just that I’ve never felt this way about anyone. I know I have a reputation of being some sort of a heartbreaker but you, Magnus, have unlocked something in me. Something so new but so fucking exciting.” Alec blurted out, instinctively. The silence he received made him even more anxious. He tried to search Magnus’ face for some kind of response.

“You know I had a plan for my life. I thought I knew what I was doing. But then you came along and threw me off. You confuse me, Alexander. It’s not that I don’t like you flirting with me. It’s just that I’m not sure I’m ready for it. I’m...I’m sorry, Alexander.” Why the fuck does this hurt so much? Alec tried to suppress his feelings. He tried to fight the pain that seemed to have settled in his chest. Alec cared about Magnus. Perhaps more than he would care to admit. He wanted Magnus to be happy. He knew better than to try to coerce Magnus into something he didn’t want.

“I don’t expect you to feel what I feel. I know you’re confused. So am I. But I just want you to know that I will be here if you ever need me. Have a good day, Magnus.”

Malec Taglist (please let me know if you want to be added or removed):

@thatwinchestergirl67 @quickbright @julialightbane @bestieswithmydarkthoughts @plaggherondale

[artificialqueens]

Worlds Collide, Chapter 5.1 (Biadore/Witney) - Albatross

AN: Well…this got long. Enough that it has to be posted in at least two parts and even after all these months, its still not entirely written. But hopefully I’ll have the second part finished and posted soon. Until then, thanks for staying with me 💜

Adore was like a breath of fresh air.

She brought a sort of lightness and laughter to Bianca’s life, not unlike how Shangela and Courtney did. She was always there with a beaming smile and a word of encouragement whenever Bianca needed it. And whatever she said, she meant, Bianca realized soon enough. She wasn’t one for subtleties, if she liked or disliked something, she had no problem saying it. If she thought one of the outfits Bianca was working on was absolutely hideous, she’d let her know. Always with a joke or teasing grin to follow soon after, but she was honest and Bianca appreciated that.

More than she ever thought she would.

It was nice not to have to guess so much or try to investigate via her powers. No, she only tried going into Adore’s mind twice and the mental spam she was bombarded with was quite enough, thank you very much. But whatever Adore was feeling at any given moment was fairly obvious, at least to her. She liked that simplicity.

And it wasn’t long before Bianca realized that Adore idolized her. She hung on Bianca’s every word, whether it be theater talk, related to schoolwork, or even just chatting about some TV show. She listened as though every syllable was the most interesting thing in the world and admittedly, Bianca loved that feeling.

It was a nice little ego boost.

As for Adore, it was hard not to look up to Bianca. She seemed so self-assured and confident. Calm and collected. People relied on her…why wouldn’t Adore want to be around someone like that? That wasn’t to say that people didn’t rely on Adore as well but at times she felt more like a pack mule than someone that actually contributed anything of value. Oftentimes she was asked to teleport to retrieve things or drop them off somewhere. An errand girl basically. But people respected Bianca’s opinions and that was what Adore admired most.

And, despite how emphatically Bianca denied it, she was kind. More than she ever liked to let on. It was a quiet, subtle kindness or buffered by extremely sarcastic comments but it was there all the same. Adore would see it in the way that Bianca would work extra hours to get an outfit just right to make a cast member happy, how she’d sometimes cover for other stage workers’ mistakes, when she’d lend out her notes without a second thought to a total stranger, and in the way she always tolerated Adore’s presence.

Adore knew she could be a bit too enthusiastic, too moody, even too combative at times. But Bianca was patient with her. She understood what Adore was feeling and let her express that. And she’d always try to help or talk to her whenever she could. Sometimes Adore just needed a sounding board and Bianca allowed that.

It was nice to feel like someone understood her.

Whenever Adore needed to get out of her head for a while, Bianca was always there to suggest an activity. Sometimes she let Adore help design her sketches, other times she taught Adore simple sewing techniques, but her latest proposal encouraged Adore to pick up an old pastime.

Instead of letting things fester, Bianca suggested trying her hand at writing lyrics again. She hadn’t written anything since moving to the school, at least not seriously, but once she began, it was like finding a lost piece of herself. It turned out to be more cathartic than she remembered.

Sure, her first attempts were a bit rough in the beginning but as she reviewed and revised, it all began to flow together. It felt as natural as a breeze whistling through the trees or a fish swimming in the cool creek water.

Before long, Bianca even supplied her with a notebook she picked up specially for her. It was filled with unlined pages and absolutely perfect for Adore’s dramatically slanting handwriting and tendency to scribble along the borders. Bianca even decorated the cover before giving it to her. 

The moment Adore saw it and flipped through the blank pages, she knew it was perfect. Her heart fluttered in her chest as she beamed brightly at Bianca and gave her a very grateful, “Thanks!”

The pair grew closer and closer, enough that it was a rare sight not to see them together after classes had ended for the day. Oftentimes Adore could be found backstage with Bianca (along with Courtney) or the two would visit the greenhouse and even more frequently, they’d spend long hours talking into the night in Bianca’s room. Sure, others joined them as well but Adore always stayed the longest. Not that Bianca minded.

She was glad to have found Adore. She valued her as much as she had Shangela and Courtney.

The day she realized that, she felt odd about it. She hadn’t expected someone to become so important to her so soon…not after she was still getting over Shangela. But here Adore was; now one of her closest friends and in only a few months…almost as quickly as she and Shangela had connected with each other.

But Adore did have that way about her. She drew Bianca in and made her curious. Made her want to see Adore happy.

It felt good to care about someone like that again and to have the sentiment returned.

For the first time in a long while, Bianca felt normal again.

******

It was another typical afternoon for the pair; Bianca working on the latest batch of adjustments for the musical’s costumes and Adore sitting on the old, beaten couch, hunched over her notebook. Usually when she was like this, she was rapidly scribbling away notes, filling up the page with rough drafts and hasty edits. Today however, her pen was mostly still, aside from the occasional impatient tapping.

Her expression was distant and confused as she lost herself inside her own head. She was clearly mulling over something, but as to what, Bianca had no clue. When she had to walk over towards the rack of clothes nearest Adore, Bianca snuck a quick peek over her shoulder. There were a lot of scribbles and a lot of crossing out but very little of anything that looked usable. Even that much Bianca could see.

Writer’s block again, she thought with a soft, sympathetic smile.

Adore was so withdrawn in her headspace she hadn’t even realized Bianca was standing next to her. The playful ruffling of her hair took her by surprise.

“Whatcha thinking about so hard, hun?” Bianca asked with a teasing grin. Adore’s hand quickly flew up to bat hers away. She took a short sidestep to rifle through the rack of clothes but she still kept a careful eye over her shoulder.

“I just…I can’t get it to sound right,” Adore complained, flopping backwards into the cushions. “Like, I know what I want to say but I just…can’t find the right words.”

Bianca let out a noise of understanding and thought for a moment. Pulling out the next piece she wanted to work on, she suggested, “Why not just take a break then? Fussing over it’s doing no good. Maybe just take a step back and work on something else for a while? Might help.”

“I’m gonna have to,” Adore conceded in a grumble. “It’s going nowhere right now.”

She shifted her weight as Bianca walked back to her work station. She kept it surprisingly organized considering how often she moved things around or laid them out for later. Adore marveled at how efficient she was. She always seemed to be a step (or three) ahead in everything she did. It was amazing.

Adore mused over the fact that she had never seen Bianca unprepared for any situation she encountered, no matter how sudden. She always seemed to know exactly what people wanted, even if they themselves didn’t know just yet. Then another thought struck her entirely…they’d known each other for months and Adore still had no idea what Bianca’s power was.

Actually, she wasn’t sure if anyone knew.

No one ever talked about it as far as she could remember. For most students, they’d mention it or demonstrate their power sooner or later. Some actively showed it off or had a practical use for it, like Courtney and Shangela repairing the school’s landscaping or working in the greenhouse…even Adore would often teleport whenever she felt the need to.

But not once was she aware of ever hearing Bianca talking about her power or using it…she was rather curious now…and it would provide something else to think about that didn’t involve stressing over this latest song.

“Hey, B.”

“Yeah, baby?”

Adore’s lips curled into a small smile when she heard the pet name. Bianca loved to pepper them in, she never really bothered for most anyone else, bar Courtney, and it made her feel kinda special. Pushing that thought aside for now, Adore asked, “What’s your power anyway? You’ve never told me.”

“You never asked,” Bianca replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Never thought about it.”

Bianca laughed in spite of trying to wrestle with the fabric to sit right on the mannequin. “All these months and now you’re curious?”

“Yeah,” Adore said, now sitting up properly to watch her friend work.

Sparing a quick glance in Adore’s direction as she carefully maneuvered the garment into its proper position, Bianca asked, “Is this just a distraction or-?”

“I wanna know,” Adore assured her, a warm smile resting on her lips as her eyes lit up with sincerity. “But if you don’t wanna talk about it, I-”

“It’s fine.”

Huh, Adore thought, She almost looked like she was throwing her voice when she said that.

But she knew that was wrong. She was just so tired and distracted from this writer’s block that she was seeing things.

So she waited another few seconds for Bianca to continue speaking but when nothing came, she asked, “So are you gonna tell me?”

Bianca blinked in confusion for a moment, cocking her head to the side as she stared at Adore from the other side of the mannequin. “I just showed you,” she said calmly.

“What?” Adore exclaimed. “I missed it! Do it again.”

Bianca rolled her eyes, placed her hands on her hips, and said “Fine.” Adore heard her say it. But nothing seemed to happen. Bianca didn’t budge an inch nor did it seem like anything else in the room was immediately affected.

Adore continued to watch her friend expectantly, waiting for any sign of her powers activating, but nothing caught her attention. She even darted her eyes around the room in case there was a hint elsewhere but she saw nothing. “Did you do it?” she asked again.

“Oh my god,” Bianca grumbled.

Marching away from the mannequin, she strode up to Adore, tilted her chin up so they were looking each other directly in the eye, and said, “Watch me.”

Adore did. Intently. It was hard not to look at her, especially when she was so close. But what did Bianca want her to watch? Her eyes? No, they were the same warm, chocolatey brown they’d always been. Nothing unusual there.

Her lips?

They were still coated in that beautiful, perfect shade of burgundy lip matte as earlier. They hadn’t even so much as twitched-“Oh!”

“Get it?” Bianca asked with a smirk, now stepping back. Her lips definitely had not moved when she said that. But all the same, Adore could hear her clear as day.

“So you…you can go into people’s minds?” she clarified.

“Yeah,” Bianca replied casually, heading back to her work station to resume her adjustments to the outfit.

Adore lit up with the information. All at once she had a million questions to ask and blurted them as soon as she thought of them, “Like everyone, all at once? One at a time? What’s it like? How far away do you have to be? Can you-”

“Hold on, just calm down,” Bianca laughed, “One question at a time, alright?”

Adore gave her an apologetic smile and took a moment to reign in her thoughts. Certain things she knew she wanted to ask right away so that seemed to be the best place to begin. “Okay, so…can you go into everyone’s mind?”

“Yeah, for some people there’s a bit of resistance getting in but I haven’t had anyone stop me yet.”

Huh, Adore thought to herself. Wonder what she means by resistance? Mm. But she quickly moved onto her next biggest question, “Is it, like, all the time with everyone or-”

“It’s one at a time,” Bianca explained patiently, “and only when I want to. Otherwise, all you fuckers would have driven me crazy by now. Well, more than you do already.”

Adore flipped her off with a wide, toothy grin. Of course Bianca would make a joke out of it but there was probably a good bit of truth to what she said. She could only imagine how draining it would be to hear everyone’s inner thoughts at all hours of the day. It’d be enough to drive anyone batty in just a week. Leaning forward in her seat, Adore continued, “So do you have to be real close to them or can you do it from anywhere?” Then lighting up with a deep interest, she asked, “Could you pick someone from town and read their mind from here?”

Laughing, Bianca shook her head and continued moving her hands deftly along the garment. As she marked certain areas with her brightly colored pins, she stated, “There is a limit. No more than a few feet away is best. Then I don’t have to do as much work to keep the connection going…” She paused for a moment to concentrate on pinning the hem but soon resumed what she was saying. “But I’ve gotten it up to a few hundred feet before. The connection usually breaks by then cause it’s too hard to maintain it and try to dig through their memories at the same time…but it’s possible, I guess.”

Adore nodded absently and mused to herself for a moment. She watched as Bianca pulled the outfit back off the mannequin and set it on the only clear space at her work table. She was threading her sewing machine with the proper color and filling her bobbin when Adore thought to finally ask, “What’s it like in there?”

Bianca turned away from her machine to look Adore in the eye, she knew sooner or later this question was likely to come. Almost everyone asked once they knew about her powers. She still had yet to find an answer she really liked. But here was another chance to try. “Well…that’s a bit hard to answer.” Her fingers drummed across her thigh as she explained in a carefully slow manner, “Everyone’s different. It really depends on their personality and thought process, I guess. Take Raven, for example, her memories are always very straightforward but they’re all flat at first. Like the scenery we use for the stage…But once I spend more time in there, the emotions she connects to each memory starts to come out and everything gets more depth. Then I can try to figure out the meaning behind everything.”

Adore nodded like she was hanging off every word and she probably was. Bianca’s lips curled into a small smile as she offered another example. “Katya, on the other hand, is totally different from that. She’s like one of those flip books for animation. The kind where you turn the pages really fast to make the picture move? Except for her, each page can have a detail be just a little altered or it can be totally and completely different. Like changing from a bouncing ball to a bright green elephant and then back again. It just depends on what she’s thinking about and how much.”

“Have you gone into Courtney’s mind?” Adore suddenly asked.

“Yeah. Hers is like…playing hopscotch and running a marathon at the same time. Each thought is like a single block and sometimes it goes in a straight line, skipping from one thought to the next, but then out of nowhere, you have to make a mile long side jump. And if she’s really thinking about something? It’s like trying to run a 5k in under a minute. It’s exhausting,” she grumbled.

“Oh, that’s so cool! What about Alaska?”

“Haven’t gone into hers.”

“Laganja?”

Bianca made a face at the suggestion, “Hell no!”

“Shangela?”

The name struck her like a slap upside the head. A very familiar ache began to rear its ugly head as she said, “Um…it’s like a spiderweb.” Before Adore could even think to ask for a better explanation, Bianca tried to move on with, “But yours is-”

“You’ve gone into mine?”

Adore’s expression was hard to read but Bianca didn’t take much notice. Waving her hand, she said dismissively, “Only twice. Yours is kinda like visiting a spam page without an ad-blocker. Like everything is calm at first but then a bunch of random ads start popping up all around you can’t close out of them. Or sometimes they close out on their own, it just kinda depends on what you’re thinking about, I guess. Like there’s the main thought you’re trying to focus on and then all these other little thoughts bubble out from certain parts, like if a word or something reminds you of anything else, that becomes a pop up and stays there for a while until you move onto another thought. But now picture that times 10. That’s what your brain is like for me.”

“Huh.”

Adore sat silently, still watching Bianca with that strange look. It was a bit unsettling, actually. Enough that Bianca was shifting in her seat. Perhaps she shouldn’t have mentioned that after all?

There was a loaded pause until Adore finally forced back a tense swallow to ask, “B, you said you’ve only gone into my mind twice right?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

Shrugging, Bianca simply stated, “Just to see what it’s like really.” And that was the truth, plain as it was.

She gave Bianca another odd look as she cocked her head to the side and asked, “You don’t…always go into people’s minds whenever you feel like it, do you?”

“No, not unless there’s something I want to know.”

Adore shifted in her seat, gave a soft ‘Okay,’ and picked up her notebook again. At first Bianca had hoped she finally broke through her writer’s block and turned back to resume her work. But after a few minutes with only the sound of Adore’s pen tapping on the page and the hum of the sewing machine, it was very apparent that that was not the case.

Bianca just couldn’t shake the feeling that she had said something wrong. She only answered Adore’s questions, right?

But maybe she did say more than she ought to…

Stepping away from her station, she took a seat next to Adore. When she didn’t stop the drumming of her pen or fingers, Bianca called her attention with, “Hey. Adore, look at me.” Reluctantly, Adore did so but not without darting her eyes away once or twice. Softly, Bianca asked, “You’re freaked out by this, aren’t you?”

Adore tried to play it off, but it was true. At first she hadn’t thought much of Bianca going into other people’s minds but after learning Bianca had gone into hers? That changed things. She tried to reason with herself that Bianca wasn’t always in there looking for all her private thoughts and feelings but she couldn’t shake that feeling of violation and vulnerability. After all, she wasn’t even sure just what Bianca did in there…or what she now knew. 

Scooting in closer, Bianca urged her again to look in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Adore. I shouldn’t have gone in there without letting you know first. But I promise, I wasn’t looking for anything while I was there. I was just curious at how your mind worked. I didn’t touch or manipulate anything, honest.” Her tone radiated sincerity as she vowed, “And I swear I’m not going into your mind anymore, okay?”

“Really?” Adore gave a cautious smile. 

“Really,” Bianca assured her. Though Adore would never admit it, that smile of Bianca’s pushed aside most of her fear. Even more so when it became accompanied by a teasing, “Besides, it’s not that interesting in there anyway.”

“Bitch!”

******

After learning about Bianca’s powers, it took a few days for Adore to feel totally comfortable again. Even though Bianca assured her she wouldn’t go into her mind again, Adore still felt a constant paranoia lurking in the back of her mind every time they were together. Usually it was a small amount, easily pushed away, but other times, like when writing lyrics, her thoughts would be consumed with wondering if Bianca would break her promise. What if she was reading the lyrics right now? What if she saw what was inspiring them? What if-No!

Bianca promised.

Adore had to have faith in that. After all, Bianca’s never lied to her before. Adore could trust her.

But no matter how often she repeated that, there was always that tiny fear that Bianca would let curiosity get the better of her again, go into Adore’s mind while she was writing, and see all of her most private thoughts. Thoughts that she didn’t quite dare say to Bianca, at least not yet.

She was still confused by them and that had carried over into her writing. Normally, she’d work out the confusion while working on the song. She’d put all of her jumbled thoughts onto paper and reorganize them into something that made sense. It gave her clarity on the situation, whatever it was. But not this time.

No matter how many times she tried writing it down, it just didn’t seem to make sense. She just didn’t understand how she felt about Bianca.

She liked her, sure. Admired her, felt close to her. But was there more?

She thought there might be. In fact, she was pretty sure she did but she had her doubts from time to time. She blamed it on Bianca.

She just left her feeling so confused sometimes. Sure, they’d flirt a little and Bianca always used pet names and teased her and talked to her about everything…but how does Bianca actually feel about her?

Adore couldn’t help but wonder…and oftentimes that wondering took her a little too far into her own daydreams.

She’d replay all the instances of them laying together on the couch or bed, just watching TV or talking. Adore would usually curl into her and Bianca would absently toy with her hair, joking that she needed a touch up with the dye or should take a comb to it again. There was never any bite to what she said, only something to make them both laugh. Then Adore would think about what would happen if just one day she leant up to kiss Bianca or if Bianca tried to kiss her. She’d muse over every detail of what that kiss would feel like, what they’d do during it, where it would go from there. Recently, she’d been imagining it going quite far but then she’d snap back to reality with a very guilty conscience as she realized that Bianca was right there.

And now that Adore knew Bianca could read her mind whenever she wanted, those thoughts didn’t feel so private and safe any more. She tried her best not to think about them or anything even remotely connected to her daydreams but of course, her mind always decided to go into overdrive and pull up those memories at the worst possible times. Namely, whenever they spent time together. 

During class, Adore felt safe enough to think about them, just a little. Surely Bianca was too far away and focused on her own classes to read anyone’s mind…but then when they had lunch together or she visited Bianca backstage or went to the greenhouse or hung out in the dormitories?

All these little inconspicuous things Bianca did would just remind her of her daydreams and flood her thoughts with these stupid feelings and questions and wondering. It was no surprise she had writer’s block, she could barely think, let alone write something coherent.

Bianca picked up on the frustration pretty quickly. She had hoped that it would pass in a few days but between the defeated groans as she wrote and the sudden skittishness whenever Bianca would come close, it was hard to ignore. Bianca was so used to Adore slipping away into her own little thought bubble as she worked on her lyrics. It made for a comfortable silence as both of them did their own thing while backstage. But now Adore seemed hyper aware of everything and guiltily hid or tore out pages from her notebook.

By the time this behavior had carried over into the following week, Bianca couldn’t help but think it all circled back to her revealing her powers. She’d seen this behavior before; people would learn that she could read minds and then avoid her like the plague or worse; stay with her but always treat her with suspicion. It hurt…especially because it was coming from Adore this time.

Before long Bianca resolved to talk with her. She just couldn’t bear to let this go on any longer and risk losing this friendship.

“Hey, Adore, can we talk for a minute?” Bianca asked one afternoon.

Adore looked startled. She’d been staring at her notebook once again and trying to work on anything that wasn’t related to Bianca. She’d made some progress but it was slower than she’d like. But just when the pace looked to be picking up, that was when Bianca asked to speak with her. She tried to act casual but her mind was going a mile a minute as she wondered what Bianca wanted to say.

“Sure.”

Taking a seat next to her, ignoring the jab she felt in her heart as Adore shifted uncomfortably, Bianca continued, “I wanted to talk about the other day again. When I told you about my powers.” Adore nodded her head guiltily. “It made things weird, didn’t it?”

Adore visibly faltered. She stared up at Bianca like a deer caught in headlights as she tried to think of a way to explain all of her conflicting emotions. She wanted to be honest but she didn’t want to hurt Bianca’s feelings, at least no more than she had to. Taking pity on her, Bianca offered a consoling smile and gently pointed out, “Adore, I can tell when you’re bothered. You don’t really hide things that well, hun.”

Another wave of guilt washed over Adore’s face. She really was caught with no way out. The best thing to do was just be totally honest, she figured. “Okay, yeah. It…I mean-”

“Hey, I get it,” Bianca said, “I know it’s weird and hard to get used to.” Scooting closer, she laid a cautious hand over Adore’s and reiterated, “But I made a promise to you and I swear I’m gonna keep that. I’m not going into your mind again.”

They looked at each other for the longest time; Adore lost in thought and Bianca studying her friend for any sign of how she was feeling. Bianca just hoped she looked and sounded as sincere as she felt. She really did want to do her best to keep that promise. But all of it would mean nothing if Adore was still uncomfortable around her.

After a loaded pause, Adore finally spoke again, “Can I ask you about something, too?”

“Of course.”

“When you went in there, when was that?”

Not exactly what Bianca was expecting but she’d gladly answer any question she could. Thinking hard, trying to recollect the events as accurately as possible, Bianca mused, “Um…the first time was a few days after we met, maybe two weeks?”

Adore nodded, then probed a little further, “And the second?”

“Mm…I think that was almost three months ago now…during one of our lunch periods when you started following me down here. During school hours, I mean.”

Adore was silent for a few seconds, clearly still turning things over in her mind. Bianca felt a vague curiosity as to why Adore was so interested in when but she supposed Adore had her reasons. She wasn’t going to push it. 

There was an inquiring tilt to Adore’s head as she asked, “Why then?”

“Well…the first time I went into your mind, it was when Courtney, Alaska and a few others were hanging out with us too. I didn’t really know what to expect and got bombarded right away with a bunch of spam in there.” Bianca smiled at the memory for a moment before admitting, “I couldn’t follow any of it even if I tried and got out almost immediately…Then when we started hanging out alone, I got curious what your mind would be like then. You were helping me organize some of the outfits that day and seemed distracted so I thought, ‘why not take another look?’”

“Was it different?”

“A bit. It was more calm but you still had that pop up thing going on,” Bianca tried to explain, “This time I could follow some of it. I remember the outfits reminded you of some horrible movie you had to watch as a kid. But that was as far as I went with it.”

“Okay.” Her voice was calm. It almost sounded flat.

It was weird to hear that from Adore; usually there was some kind of overarching emotion in her tone, whether it be good or bad. Hearing her sound like this just felt…wrong. But she wasn’t angry or rushing from the room so it couldn’t have been all bad, right?

Very cautiously, Bianca asked, “Are we good?”

She held her breath, waiting for some kind of answer, and nearly sighed with relief when Adore cracked a smile and replied, “Yeah.”

All the nerves Bianca had built up finally began to relax away and soon she was returning a grin of her own. Figuring now was as good as any for a change of subject, she noted, “While I’m thinking about it, did you want to go into town next month? The 28th?…Just us.”

“Sure,” Adore beamed, even laughing just a little as she asked, “Why the 28th though?”

“It’s move-in day,” Bianca groaned, “The campus is gonna be crazy for a while. Figured we’d have more fun in town.”

Adore’s eyes danced with delight as thoughts of an afternoon truly alone with Bianca filled her mind. She could hardly keep her excitement contained as she answered, “Yeah, it sounds great!”

******

Things finally went back to normal and by the time their afternoon outing came around, they were as close as ever. Going into the city, if only for a few hours, had been wonderfully relaxing. They could forget about everything for a while and just enjoy each other’s company. Bianca already had a few places in mind she wanted to visit with Adore; a charming little outdoor cafe for lunch, a hobby shop they could easily wander and get lost in, some window shopping at the boutiques. Adore even suggested a few places of her own.

It was a shame when they had to return to campus.

But neither of them could stop smiling for the rest of the day, especially when recounting to their friends all the fun they had together. It was the perfect trip to end their school break with. Next week classes would begin again and it’d be right back to endless amounts of homework for the foreseeable future.

Strangely enough, that wasn’t the last exciting thing they heard that week.

About two days after the latest batch of students moved in, Courtney was out wandering the school grounds. Somehow she managed to stumble upon a hidden grove full of plants that most certainly came from another world. She and Shangela organized an effort with some of the other plant elementals to retrieve the foreign plants and bring them back to the greenhouse to study. Even Adore got roped in to help transport some of the larger samples. Her powers made easy work of moving them across the campus in record time. But again, she couldn’t help feeling like some kind of pack mule.

Only Bianca was able to break her out of her peevish mood with an offer to buy her dinner (pizza delivery from the town in this case) and a quick joke that she needed a shower. It was as she was changing into a fresh set of clothes that Adore noted once again that Bianca always seemed to have a soft spot for her. After all, she wasn’t offering to buy pizza for Shangela or Courtney and they certainly had more work to do than her.

She couldn’t help but feel special that she was given extra consideration and she had to wonder what, if anything, it might mean. There was no denying there was a certain warmth that spread throughout her chest at the thought. Even the way Bianca smiled at her as she wandered into her room left her heart fluttering. The entire time they talked that night, it felt like they were the only two people in the world. Bianca’s attention was focused solely on her for a change and…it was nice. Great, even.

The way her eyes would sparkle when she teased Adore or how loudly she laughed every time Adore made a joke. The way they would lean into each other as they huddled around her laptop to watch a movie…it just felt very…right.

******

With the discovery of the intermittent portal and cataloging all of the new plants, Courtney’s visits to the theater department dramatically declined. That wasn’t to say she never hung out with her friends, they often could be found together in the dorms late at night or on the weekends, but the afternoons backstage seemed to be reserved strictly for Bianca and Adore now. Every so often, they’d wander to the greenhouse or Courtney would appear backstage for an hour or so of chatting, but the time spent together as a group had noticeably decreased. 

Adore was surprisingly fine with that.

She loved having the chance to spend more alone time with Bianca. Their conversations were always entertaining. But one thing Adore noticed the most with Courtney’s absence was Bianca’s flirting. Pet names were always a given but lately there seemed to be more to it. It was more frequent but also seemed…more serious?

Earlier, Bianca would restrain herself to just a few comments here and there. Nothing that pushed the limits too much and Adore always responded in kind. In fact, most times she’d push the envelope just a bit further and would work out an amused laugh from Bianca. Then they’d both back off and talk about something else…but now, Bianca was taking it one step further. Testing the boundaries more. Their banter always seemed to have a suggestive undertone to it, the kind that left Adore’s head feeling swimmy and giddy as she tried to keep up.

It was exciting and had her heart racing in her chest.

Just maybe, she thought, Bianca feels the same as her?

Maybe now that Courtney isn’t here to dilute their conversations, Bianca feels more comfortable flirting with her? Maybe she’s trying to figure out if Adore is serious too?

Every day, these questions would pop up in her mind. She tried to work them out through her writing but the lyrics always ended up sounding confused or turned into something embarrassingly sappy and romantic. She was frustrated that she didn’t have any more answers but admittedly, she still loved this sense of wonder and the blissful daze she often found herself caught in.

She was happy, she realized. Even if she didn’t know for certain yet, she just felt so sure. The signs were all there when she looked. It was only a matter of time before one of them broke and secretly, she couldn’t wait to see which of them it would be.

******

The next semester had begun without much incident and the pair quickly found themselves resuming normal after-school activities; Bianca focused on creating costumes, accessories and props for the next production while Adore helped out with small tasks or focused on her own thing or even just skipped out if she had other things to do. It was comfortable and all too familiar. Like returning back to a favorite beach or playground as a kid after being away all winter.

They’d chat the afternoons away until Bianca had finished her work and then they’d usually pick up Courtney from the greenhouse and head back to the dormitories to hang out with the rest of their friends. With the start of the new semester also came the introduction of new friends, including one Willam Belli.

Before Bianca had a chance to properly meet the new arrival, she had already heard stories about the fire elemental. The first occurrence came from Courtney of all people; she had just met Willam by chance earlier that day and thought the meeting was important enough to mention to Bianca. Perhaps because Willam was Alaska’s new roommate?

Bianca brushed off the news and instead reminded Courtney of why she was visiting the greenhouse in the first place; some rare flowers she had collected from another world were finally blooming and Bianca ‘just had to come see them’. Courtney’s reasoning, not hers.

The next instance caught her attention though. It seems Willam has a little quirk of huffing out fire whenever she feels like it. Caught some students by surprise…or that might’ve been because she almost lit some girl’s hair on fire.

Then Raja even mentioned the girl, albeit very briefly. She had met Willam while smoking behind the gym. Talked to her for a few minutes before leaving to hang out with her new roommate and Raven. 

Now Bianca was interested. 

If Raja made it a point to tell Bianca about this new student, she must be interesting. And it wasn’t long after that, that Bianca and Willam were finally introduced. The meeting went well enough and they seemed to get along. Willam had the same sense of humor as her so that was always a plus. Bianca thought little more about this until Courtney mentioned Willam again…and again…and again.

Willam was entertaining, Bianca did have to admit, but Courtney was utterly fascinated with her. Her eyes lit up with interest whenever they were together or Courtney would make sure to recount every new story she had heard from or about Willam whenever she and Bianca saw one another. It offered a change from her gushing over whatever new plant species she catalogued but there was a limit to how much Bianca could take of all this. Before long she was sharing a long-suffering look with Adore whenever the subject of Willam ever came up.

It didn’t take a genius nor even a quick jaunt into Courtney’s mind to recognize her infatuation. But it did raise Bianca’s curiosity about Willam. The pair never really spent one on one time together, not like her and Courtney did and certainly not her and Adore. Bianca couldn’t help but wonder how Willam felt in all this. She certainly loved to tease Courtney at every chance during lunch but when the topic of hanging out after classes came up, she always seemed to avoid committing herself to anything like that.

It left Bianca wondering. Did she find Courtney too eager? Was she genuinely just busy with other things? Or maybe there was something else going on?

Bianca resolved to find the answer and luckily it didn’t take too long before she got her chance to go into Willam’s mind. She wanted to time it carefully; she waited until Alaska had brought up hanging out after classes in the common room, probably watch a movie or two. ‘They could even paint their nails together!’ she exclaimed.

 Willam merely shrugged and replied, “Maybe.”

It was here Bianca took her chance. With little more than a push, she found herself inside Willam’s mind. It was like a perfect scene of the cafeteria (from her point of view) but as Bianca looked around she saw the oddest little pockets of other thoughts hiding in the background. They played like little movies on a constant loop, sometimes only appearing briefly, others lasting for several moments and some never left. But strangely they didn’t seem to be memories, or at least not all of them. Some displayed scenes that Bianca was sure had not happened, like Willam’s napkin suddenly catching fire and spreading over the table, her fingers sparking and singeing Alaska’s clothes…sitting in the rec room and knocking over a vial of nail polish…making a mess of her paint job on someone’s nails…burning a handprint into one of the couches.

No, none of those seemed real. Bianca was sure if they had happened, the news would have spread all over the school by now. It all seemed to be Willam’s expectations or even fears of what she might do. All accidents, Bianca noticed…and then it made sense. That’s exactly what they were; her worst fears of what might happen. She was scared of doing something embarrassing or having her powers act up.

At that point Bianca quickly took her leave from Willam’s mind. She was beginning to feel something not all together pleasant…Sympathy, perhaps? It left her feeling weird so she decided it was best not to dwell on it. But she had her answer, or part of it. She hadn’t really learned how Courtney plays a part in this, if she does at all, but she did come to understand why Willam usually remained vague when commenting on group plans. She probably had to argue with herself on whether or not it’d be a good idea all the way up to when it came time to commit. And Bianca didn’t really blame her for that. If Willam thought she might accidentally hurt someone, it was no wonder she would try to avoid them whenever she felt her control slipping.

After that day, Bianca didn’t really feel a need to go back into Willam’s mind to dig around any more. As weeks passed, she had her suspicions as to how she truly felt about Courtney. Willam’s powers seemed to be very in-tune with her emotions. When she was relaxed and enjoying herself, there never really seemed to be a problem. But once she started feeling annoyed, anxious, or even over-excited, then little sparks or licks of fire might start to appear. And it didn’t take long to notice she often felt that way around Courtney.

With Bianca, the two could exchange friendly jabs for hours on end. Willam would always end up laughing (an ugly, infectious sound that managed to leave Bianca cracking up too) but never did she really get offended by anything that was said. She brushed it off and remained calm and collected. It was almost the same with Alaska, though sometimes there would be an annoyed huff or two complimented by a short burst of fire whenever Alaska would bring up training after school. But aside from that, Willam seemed to feel fine.

With Courtney however…that was another story. Willam tried to tease her like she did with the others but Courtney was far from being a pushover and just taking the playful jabs. She’d engage just as enthusiastically with Willam and though her comments were never quite as pointed as Bianca’s, they did seem to get under Willam’s skin more easily. Then she’d just shoot off one of her ‘innocent’ smiles and bat her lashes and in a few seconds, Willam’s mood might sour or fingers might begin to spark.

She didn’t seem to know quite what to do once Courtney really started fighting back. Her voice might jump a little higher, she might get a little more defensive and then before she realized it, she’d make a joke that went a bit too far. Then Courtney would get annoyed, then Willam, Bianca’s eyes would roll, Adore would find something else to focus her attention on and then someone might step in and try to play peace-keeper. Usually Alaska, sometimes Raja or Shangela. It was a never ending cycle, really.

Courtney just always seemed to put her on edge but Bianca never noticed Willam pulling away, not seriously at least. Within a few hours all would be right again and the pattern would repeat. It was exhausting, really.

Anyone with half a brain could see they cared for each other, but whether it was like Courtney and Bianca’s relationship, one of friendly bickering or more like Shangela and Alyssa’s, flirty teasing and play-fighting, well…Bianca had her guess…as did most others. But the question of it and when the pair might eventually explore their feelings…Bianca decided very early on that she was not going to get involved. No, she had her own mess of a love life and certainly didn’t need drama from someone else’s spilling over. Not while she could help it.

[nikyri-art]

After so long the first “chapter” is finally here! :’D This will hopefuly be a short illustrated novel series. The story takes place before the events of Borderlands 3. I would never be able to make this without the help of my sweet friend @border-spam who provided my with so much support, great ideas, inspiration and with her help to rewrite this. Actually it’s kind of colaboration of me, my man and her. Since my man helped with rewriting too. Huge Thanks to them because without them editing it, I would never post it. <3  . . . Usually, this would have been resolved in just a few minutes. Having a team of his own technicians to take care of streaming issues was surely one of his greatest ideas. He still has to check up on them directly every so often, mostly for his own assurance that everything is running smoothly, but today, what should have been a quick check in was taking longer because some idiot meat sack follower had damaged some streaming equipment. Because of that dumbass, Troy has been left trying to get this tech repaired and the stream online before Tyreen loses her patience with the delay. Luckily, one of his most trusted editors was around to help him with cable replacement.

Troy sits in front of the monitor array, nervous as time ticks on, bouncing his leg while impatiently watching the little symbol on the monitor in front of him, waiting for it to signal the connection is back ON. His ECHO’s screen next to him updates with new pings so quickly it’s constantly lit, that’s how often his Godly sister is messaging him, and each new blip and ping from the echo makes him even more frustrated.. but he tries his absolute best to keep it inside, and not to aim his inner anger at the girl that has offered him help.

She’s the one currently sat under the desk beneath him, expertly fixing the cables running under it. A hugely welcome help, considering he’d never be able to fit under it to try himself.

Tinkers are best for these kind of repairs, smaller hands able to quickly handle finicky tech, able to get into places he can’t because of his height. His editor isn’t exactly a Tink, but you could easily mistake her as one due to her small size.

Just as he feels himself ready to snap, Tyreen’s constant pings and the delay on the stream causing his frustration to reach boiling point, a victorious laugh erupts from her under the desk. “AH-HA! YESSS!”

The symbol on the monitor finally turns green, and his scowl shifts into a genuine smile. “Helllll yeah, we are live baby!” His left arm quickly works the keyboard, testing the stream tech and getting it set up, until a gentle tap on his knee breaks his concentration.

“Umm, it’s not like I don’t enjoy the fabulous view from between your legs… but could you please let me out?” Her soft voice pleads from under the table.

He smirks, and pushes his chair back just enough to make her think she is free, but instead hunches down, looking under at her with his trademark shit-eating grin.

“I don’t know Ari, can I? Honestly, I really like you being down the-” he is interrupted as his face is gently pushed away by a really small hand. As soon as he shifts backwards, she crawls out and dusts off her jeans while giving her God a playful smile.

Any other cultist would pay with their life for daring to touch the God King like this, but she’s somehow special to him. Maybe it could even be called a friendship of some kind. Or at least, that’s how he sees their whole relationship. They’ve worked together almost every day for three years, and as the years passed he’s found himself talking to her, enjoying her company, choosing to be around her..  but Troy is too busy running the cult to have time for real friendships, and the only people he spends any time with besides his sister are the people in his editing team.

It’s a rare thing for him to find someone like her, someone who isn’t just a bloodthirsty idiot screeching psychotically. Someone who actually has enough brain cells to have a real conversation. That what drew him to his little friend over time. She does, of course, respect him as a God, but she does treat him.. differently. Something that feels almost like those fleeting nice moments he shares with Tyreen sometimes, facades forgotten every once in a while. His God King persona really dislikes that this woman dares to treat him like anything less than a deity, but the lonely man inside of him secretly wishes she’d do it more. It’s a kind of closeness he craves desperately.

He returns the grin and stands up, ready to leave. “Nice! Now we can finally start the stream!”. His Echo lights up one more showing Tyreen’s name again, and he curses under his breath and picks it up, bracing himself to answer the onslaught of messages. While he begins to text his sister, he notices his friend silently standing to his side, staring. Staring at his chest, to be exact. Staring so intensively she’s paused in her tracks and not left yet.

Many people stare at Troy, and for many reasons. Cultists stare in adoration and respect, the “civilised” assholes he spends unwanted time around stare in disgust, but she’s staring in a different way, and that’s why it’s sparked so much curiosity in him.

She doesn’t notice he’s completely aware of her awe as he breaks the silence. “Heh, I know it’s really hard not to get a good eyeful sweetie, but don’t forget to blink every once in a while.” he purrs.

Again, just as before, his attempt to fluster her doesn’t work. Maybe that is why he enjoys being near her so much, she isn’t as easily controlled as everyone else, and he’s noticed over time that she actually does have a couple of similar tricks as his up her sleeves as well.

She looks up at him and he’s almost insulted by her perfectly controlled expression, feigning complete boredom, like his last line hadn’t even landed. “I wasn’t staring, I was wondering.”

“Where.. did you even get those tattoos?”

Now she really has his attention. “The guys who tattoo the psychos are really terrible at it, but yours look actually, well, professional.” His ECHO keeps beeping and flickering, frantically alerting him that he should have left and been on stream, but this little rascal just hit a real sweet spot, and there is no way he’s going to leave right now.

The urge to smile was too strong, and he lets out a soft laugh as she continues to look up at him, so confident and relaxed in his presence despite being barely taller than his navel. Even without realising it, she just appreciated his work. He’s the artist behind the iconic Calypso tattoo on his chest. It was a long process he’d taken his time with after coming to loath the shitty arm tattoos he got from some jackhole years ago. He’d stopped trusting others to tattoo him and taken up the craft himself. The skull on his shoulder was the only older one that looked at remotely decent even before the siren tattoos burned right through it, and he was grateful the rest had been burned through badly over time.

He puts his hand around his hip and pushes his coat aside, leaning back to stretch the taught lines of muscle across his inked abdomen and chest to give her a better look.

“Well that’s because they were done by a professional, not some scumfuck idiot. Why so curious about it anyway, sweets?” He croons, enjoying the way she shifts on her feet slightly.  “You fancy on gracing that little body with some art yourself? Maybe something to honor and please your God?”

Using this moment to her advantage, she dares to take a step nearer to him to get a better look at the tattoos. From a closer look, it’s clear that it’s been a while since he’d gotten them, the ink slightly faded against his warm coffee toned skin. The most interesting design is of course the skull that’s hidden behind the hanging chains around his neck, and she wants a better look at it.

Pushing her boundaries yet again, she slowly reaches towards them and carefully shifts them out of the way, gently brushing her fingers against his skin in the process. It would be easy to miss how his breath hitches a little when she touched him, or how goosebumps blossom across his chest, but she was way to close to not notice. He glares intensely at the top of her head, glare burning right through her, and even though she doesn’t look at him, she feels it.

When she finally lifts her head to look into his sapphire eyes, she swears she notices a hint of blush on his cheeks above the wolfish grin. Against her will, the corners of her mouth turn up into a smile. God King Calypso is a very interesting mess of a man once you start to see past the act he plays for most people. Though he is extremely confident and intimidating on the outside, she’s started to suspect that inside hides a shy little boy. Even still, regardless of those slightly red cheeks, he never loses that aura of danger, and she’s nervously aware that she is playing with fire right now..

Why is he so proud of this tattoo? She’s only seen him act like this around something he’s responsible for. Maybe it’s the skull and the rest of the design… He is the creator of almost all of the propaganda art the COV uses, so it wouldn’t really be surprising if he had designed his own tattoos, would it? She crosses her arms in front of her chest and perks an eyebrow as she considers how to respond.

“Yeah… I would love to get some nice tattoos as well, but I don’t trust any of those psychotic bastards to get remotely close to me, let alone touch me…”

“Maaaybe the artist that tattooed you could give me a hand and help me out with mine?“

It’s not a secret that the God King despises bandits. They are below him, and many of the bastards had been killed just for getting too close to his liking. The only reason her and the Tinkers aren’t ever reduced to steaming piles of viscera for daring to interact with him is because they are useful, smart. Of course he wouldn’t let any of those bandit idiots do this tattoo… which means the person tattooing him has to be someone at least modestly sane, someone she could trust. Thats exactly what she’s looking for, since avoiding bandits in general is the best decision regardless.

She notices how much her last question has pleased him… His smug smile grows unnaturally wide, the amount of teeth starting to show is giving her a bad feeling in her guts, and she swallows nervously before be finally replies.

“You want the artist to help out with yours? Oh surrrre I can.” he rumbles triumphantly, and she feels her stomach drop as she realises what’s just happened.

“Finding the right canvas for my art is never easy, but I’m very interested in working on yours.” Her eyes widen further as he leans down to her so that predatory grin fills her vision, just so he can enjoy her surprise from up close.

Now she finally understands why he was so pleased. So eager to discuss this. So happy to play along. Not only did he design his tattoos, he tattooed them as well.

This wasn’t what she wanted at all. It was fine to chat with him about some tech or shared interested when he was in a good mood, but the God King was still a power she did not want to play with. She could get burned, badly, even when she knows he doesn’t hurt anyone from his team as long as they are obedient and respectful.

She desperately tries to get out of this fast. “Ah.. um.. well.. I didn’t really decide on any design yet, I really need to get that right first!” Convincing as that sounds, he navigates around it instantly, too clever to let her slip out of his grasp so easily.

“Oh no problem, I can design something great for you, that wouldn’t be a problem at all.” She swears his eyes are burning through her as her cheeks redden. “Oh, um, I was actually thinking about getting a piercing first, for a start?” his smile grows wider. “After all these years spent here, I don’t even have my ears pierced. The holes grew back together, maybe that would be a good start..”

This is exactly why she doesn’t like being alone with him. He’s so good with words, twisting situations to his own benefit. A sly snake, he does anything he can to get what he wants, and he always gets what he wants…

The ECHO in his hand beeps again, giving her a moment of hope, but he ignores it completely, all attention on the shaking woman he’s got trapped in his coils.

“Well lucky you! I’m really experienced with both tattoos AND piercings!” Now it really is too late, he has her trapped, cornered by her own words. He’d picked up on her twisting and changing her opinions just to try and get out of this, and made sure he was a step ahead of her each time.

“Come to my workshop tomorrow morning the same time you normally start work, we can… hmm…  map out some ideas together.”

“See you later Ari.”

A cocky wink later and he finally leaves the room, leaving the poor girl standing there hopeless….

[lucastheunlucky]

Glance Over || Luke&Jared

Location: Yum!Pizzeria Time: Sunday, 7/26/20 early morning, @themidnightfarmer TWs: Mentions of gun violence, emotional abuse Summary: Jared stops over to help Luke clean up the shop early and hang out for a bit, but Luke gets a phone calls he’s been expecting.

Lucas will be haunted by the ten pockets and olive conversation with Jared for the rest of his damn life. But listen, he loved this dude. Jared could do anything stupid and Lucas would probably feed into it. The fact Lucas had been able to open up about Gotch and they both got to talk about their species while rock climbing had been a huge relief to Luke. Him and Miles shared a difference of opinion on revealing that information, but he wanted to trust the people closest to him. Luke knew he was an exceptional liar, but he didn’t want to be one with his friends and family anymore. He wanted to be honest and open, to feel vulnerability in a better way than he ever felt in the past. Miles said continuously since he’s been back that he ‘wanted this all over’ and Lucas' mind constantly told him, ‘then go with him’. Proving he was still not to be trusted with things involving Gotch. 

But after the funeral for Charlie, and the dreams he’s been having involving victory. He really had to wonder what he would do. But he brushed those thoughts aside, and pulled out a small water gun and tossed it towards Jared, taking another out and started immediately attacking his friend while he opened the pizzeria. “Didn’t expect that did you!” Luke’s playful side surfaced to drag a little fun into a mundane thing like cleaning windows.

Jared was increasingly at ease now that the secrets were out. He could relax and not worry about saying the wrong thing to Luke. And it was definitely a relief. Increasingly, he found himself wanting to hang around the other. Luke was fun, very good company, and felt very safe to be around. This is how friends should always feel, Jared had decided. 

Reflex was the only thing that saved the nymph from dropping to the ground in an attempt to catch the water gun. He barely caught the object but was slow on the uptake of the action. His shirt got very thoroughly soaked in the first few seconds before his brain could catch up and he could retaliate. “Woah hey THAT’S NOT FAIR.” he whinged ducking away from his friend and trying to hide comically behind a trash can. Hand raised from behind the can squirting water inaccurately in the general direction of Luke in the hopes of getting him back. But Jared was laughing, soaked or not, they were both kids at heart.

“Not fair is right, this is a battle!” Lucas laughed richly, and leaned up against the doorway and took cover just inside it. He took mild pity on the other, but not enough to give notice, Lucas still used all the water in his gun quickly. It was Sunday, and a lazy one at that, there wasn’t really anyone on the streets, and if they were, Lucas would just give them a shrug. “Hm, I’m out,” he peaked around towards the trash can. “Truce already Jared? I actually brought these out to clean the window in a more fun way.” He placed a bucket of suds on the ground, knowing he was fully exposed and would get thoroughly shot up. “Take pity on me!” He joked, and started to clean the window. “I’m sensitive, and can’t take you bullying me.” Lucas continued to tease and joke. 

Luke tried for a truce, but Jared kept on spraying his own gun randomly, without looking over the top of the trash can, just moving his hand in the hopes that he’d get the other. As soon as Luke said he was out, Jared peaked over and emptied his last two sprays into his side before emerging. “You started it.” Jared laughed, tossing the water gun into the open bucket trying for one last splash on Luke before they started to do something else. The nymph bumped his elbow into Luke and snorted “I’m sure you’ll live, little bit of water right?” he teases before stooping down to refill his gun, not for a renewed attack and instead to actually use it for helping to clean the windows. As he dunked the gun back into the bucket he looked up. “So, what’s the special going to be today? And do I get a complimentary poll of olives for helping?”

“I always start it,” Lucas admitted with a laugh, using the large sponge to suds up the window well so Jared could shoot it off. They were both decently tall though, so reaching the highest parts weren’t too difficult. “Special is for my friend Adam this week, so its got the olives, onions, special sauce, and you can get it also with some anchovies if you want it more salty. I bought a fresh batch this week and they smelled good when I fried them up. Nice and crispy too, so the crunch is nice with the soft textures.” Lucas stepped away to let Jared spray the window, not that he cared at all about getting wet like Jared had pointed out. Making chores fun was always better than simply doing them alone. Lucas’ phone vibrated in his back pocket, and he ignored it. “Dude, its not a ‘pool’ its a ‘poll’, two different things nerd.” The phone stopped and immediately vibrated again. 

“You do, you’re the bully here.” Jared poked his tongue out at Luke as he said this. “You know me bud, I’ll eat anything you give me. But only if you don’t make me share.” A heavy pout was directed towards Luke at this jokingly. Jared even went as far as to risk altering his eye colour a little by glamour to make it a little more effective. The pout dissolved into a laugh easily within the next few seconds however, water gun in hand it was hard to hold up the act for long. “Hey, I want what I want. If you can’t provide me with my own olive pool then maybe I should find a new Pizza place huh?” Jared teased glancing at the sound of a phone going off, and patting his jeans pockets to check it wasn’t his own. “I got the window, grab your phone bud.” 

“It’s probably just a spam call or something, no one needs me this early on a Sunday,” Lucas hated that this phone was interrupting their fun, but at Jared’s insistence, he wiped his damp fingers on his jeans and fished it out. The moment he saw it though it clicked off, and immediately called again. A bad feeling settled in his stomach, one that made the hairs on the back of his neck rise, and the long, deep scar on his arm ache. He didn’t know the number, but the insistence had his instincts flaring. The phone stopped ringing again, and called again. He closed his eyes, and clicked the call, bringing it to his ear. 

“Ignorin’ me?” The voice on the end drawled out. A southern lazy sound that made the man sound like he was still tucked in bed. Lucas swallowed, but couldn’t speak. “Fine, heard someone wasn’t in town anymore who had been protecting you. But also hadn’t realized you formed a decently sized pack in White Crest.” A laugh, and Lucas’ hands shook, he leaned against the window to keep himself steady, and palmed his face with a release of held breath he didn’t realize he had inhaled and kept inside.

The nymph took over the sponge, and had his back to Luke as he got in about the top corners of the next window over. Jared was oblivious to the mood that had taken over his friend, obliviously humming quietly to himself as he washed away a small spider web from the frame. The moment shattered however when he heard the shaky breath being released from Luke over his shoulder. There was also the soft thunk of Luke's body slumping into the window. 

Jared dropped the sponge into the bucket again and turned with an awkward smile, unsure what was going on. But what he found behind him sent his mind racing. With careful hands he reached out to catch Lukes attention. Jared mouthed to the other, trying to ask who was on the phone, what had happened. But he wasn’t very sure he was getting anywhere. Settling a steadying hand on Luke's shoulder, Jared motioned for the phone. Asking audibly this time. “Who is it? What’s wrong?”

Lucas had his eyes covered with his hand, the darkness not as pitch as he wished for it was a beautiful sunny day. Disappointment etched away at Lucas, towards himself. He had told everyone who knew that he was ready for this, and though physically he always was, it was like a leash bound around his neck the second he heard his voice. An invisible muzzle that could so easily tug him in the direction he wanted. Luke didn’t know how to stop it from happening. Every time, outside these moments he felt confident, but now, he only felt scared. 

Jared’s voice came through the fog, and when Luke peeled his hand away and his friend came into his sights it was the strangest thing. The world that was blurred came back into focus and for the first time in years, he wasn’t alone when he called. Luke’s eyes were wide in surprise at this revelation, but the fear of it was  consuming on his expression. He pulled the phone down and hung it up. Only a second and it rang again. The vibrating sound loud to his sensitive ears. “It’s him--” he managed to say. “The one after me. I don’t know what to say. How to set anything up. All the stuff I planned with my pack, and my head is just blank.” The phone vibrated, and vibrated. 

The explanation made Jared’s heart race. He was calling, the threat was very much real. Jared kept his hand steady on Luke's shoulder and started to think aloud. Maybe it would help, maybe it wouldn’t. But at the moment they needed to figure out what to do. First of all, staying on the street was likely safer than going somewhere out of sight. Eyewitnesses were everything when you were being threatened. Anyone on the street might be able to at some point down the line back them up. And so Jared squared his shoulders but offered Luke a soft and open expression.

“Did you have a plan for this? Were you ready? Is there a step to take that we need to do?” The nymph left no space for Luke to tell him to butt out. He was here now. He was going to do all he could. The blond paused and then held his hand out. “I’ll answer it?” Would that make it better? Jared wasn’t sure. But even talking to his tormentor sounded like a truly awful idea at the moment for Luke.

“They are torn,” Luke said honestly. “Some want to have him arrested, others want to…��� He didn’t know if he should put ‘kill him’ into direct words. “Set up a trap for him. I didn’t think he’d call already.” He said instead. The phone vibrated and vibrated, and clicked off only to call again. This was such a bad idea, ignoring him. When Jared held his hand out Lucas’ entire soul left his body. “No! Are you crazy? No. No--” he repeated a few more times, and squeezed his eyes closed for a second before answering the phone on speaker. Jared’s presence was literally everything right now. Lucas’ mind was clearing up and suddenly anger came to life as smoldering coals in his gut.

“Who’s there with you?” Gotch asked in instant inquiry when the phone picked up. A lazy sound, calm without a hint of anger or any frustration.

“No one, are you in town?” Lucas barely got out. 

“Blonde hair, tall-- does he work at the pizzeria too?” Gotch spoke close to the receiver of the phone to the point a scruff of beard caught on the edge of it making a scratching sound. Lucas immediately, and with strength, flipped their positions and pressed Jared against the window, putting his back to the road, and facing him to block him entirely from sight. It’s always been a drive by. The flashed frantic sound of gunfire, and every instinct in him was terrorfied he’d hear it right now. But nothing happened, yet. Just the quiet of the street. 

“Turn around,” Gotch said and Lucas hung up again. His heart was racing and his features were wolfish, the bones in his face shifted subtly, eyes a molten gold, and his chest stretched under his shirt as a low growl rumbled in his chest. “Don’t let him see your face,” Lucas said roughly between them. “Please--” he half begged Jared, cause he knew his friend could contain bravery. “There is a back exit in the pizzeria, please run.” 

Okay so the options were not as neatly laid out as Jared would have liked. But in situations like the one they found themselves in, the options tended to change on a dime. The nymph withdrew his asking hand when Luke shut him down. But was glad that -when he answered again- at least Jared could hear what was being said. 

One moment the two of them were standing as if they always took tense calls in the middle of the street, and the next Jared stumbled to a stop, with Lucas blocking his view of the street. But surely that didn’t matter, surely Luke was the one being threatened here. This was backwards in the nymphs eyes. Standing on his toes he tried to look over Lukes shoulder. This guy was nearby, he was close. So surely they’d be able to see him as well.

But the fight left him when Lucas’ voice gained a tone he’d never heard before. Concern flashed across Jared's face, blue eyes making contact with the new hue that had taken over the usual brown of the werewolves. “No.” The answer was simple. And Jared only had a single moment to be apologetic about it before he gripped Luke's arm and, using all his fae strength to fight against it, moved Luke's arm so that they were standing side by side. Not looking for Gotch in the street, and not showing his face openly, but he wasn’t going to go. “You’re coming with me.”

“Why?” Luke asked immediately, and hated himself for it. Why didn’t they understand how awful and dangerous this was? That his friends and family always stood there when he asked and begged them not too. There was a reason profoundly known to Lucas, but reason couldn’t always be obtained in these direct situations involving this hunter. Too much time hearing what would happen to those he cared about if he didn’t comply, and even a visual of that young wolf Charlie that they just buried after her face was half blown off because of him. It wasn’t possible to understand the cruelty, to gauge when a line was crossed and it turned into that direction. 

Lucas’ chest was rising quickly. Still expecting gun fire, or the patter of feet as hired help would move around and surround them. But still nothing presented that he expected, and so he turned around. Bracing his arm and shoulder to still keep Jared’s face out of view, and looked at the stopped truck behind him. Sitting there just looking was Gotch, looking worn, and more gray, but his eyes were very different. The shirt was tied off just under the shoulder, a few people were in the bed of the truck, all with concealed weapons. Gotch just looked at them, and then waved them to move, and the truck started driving away, the men in the back bed laughed, even waved towards them as a taunt. 

All of his body half shifted, and the rumble in his chest ached as he transformed more. Stretching his shirt, and claws pointed out in blackness, and his mouth crowded in fangs, the skin along his face splitting in tracks of blood as it shifted the bones in his jaw to accommodate. Hair raced over his arms, and down his legs. He was about to run after it, Gotch knew he would-- and Lucas didn’t realize it as he was about to launch off into a full run. 

“Because doing things alone is stupid.” Jared knew Luke hadn’t wanted an answer, he was well aware that it was more of a frustrated and scared noise than the actual word. But he answered anyway, it was all he could do. He didn’t know the full extent of the trouble, he knew the minimum at best. But the nymph wasn’t scared of something bad happening, not to himself at least. He was worried for his friend over everything else. 

Jared didn’t turn to look. Instead he watched Luke. The slightest shift of terror and Jared wasn’t above doing something completely drastic. His ears were sensitive, to mirror the increased hearing range of some of his charges, so he heard the click of the ignition, and the jeers of men as they passed by. But still Jared did not take his eyes off Lucas. Not even to identify the terroriser for who he was.

The shift perhaps should have been shocking or even terrifying to watch. But the nymph was practically born to take all manners of terrifying things in his stride. Instead of recoiling like another might, Jared reached out and drew Luke in. He turned the wolf, and tried to catch his eye. “Inside. Please?” He requested of the other. “We have to figure out what to do.”

Inside. That one word barely made it through him, as the truck drove away, the scent of exhaust lingering. He was wound up, like a coil or a spring, and there was a feral second where he was considering thrashing Jared through the window without a care and chase after them. But Lucas realized quickly that this situation would have been different if it had been set up how Gotch wanted. The hunter didn’t know him and Jared were friends again, that he wasn’t as alone as in the past.

“Fuck-- dammit,” he quickly darted down the steps and out of the street, knowing it was early but still transforming on the fucking street. His mind was racing, and he wanted to break something. “Dammit!” he resisted destroying his clean shop, and instead dropped down into a squat and gripped his head tightly. Trying to calm down. 

The nymph stood, calm in the face of the danger he was being presented as Luke decided whether to take the instruction or do something a little bit more drastic. Jared waited, just like he waited when he’d gained yet another distrusting creature on his farm. You treat them with respect, with the patience they need. But you don’t bend to their will. If Luke wanted to go, he could. But when he did, he’d recognize that it was against logic, and it was directly against Jared.

The blond sucked in a sharp breath when Lucas hurried inside. He took a moment to himself to finally glance back in the direction the truck had driven, before following inside with a more shaky step than before. The nymph walked to Luke and mirrored his position close to the ground and knocked their knees together. The effect this whole situation was having on Luke was incredibly heartbreaking to watch. So Jared steeled himself. “So, how do we rid the world of a coward like Gotch?”

Lucas glanced up. “We kill him.”

[whalohs]

i’m back with meta. 

( and then immediately i hecked up the tags, so deleting and reposting. sorry for the spam! )

let’s look at caleb and jester’s relationship, as mainly a retrospective of where it started. i’m also going to talk about where it has gone since, and how the heck we got here. not particularly shippy unless you ship it already (in which case i hope you enjoy the ship meta), and ready to discuss anything as long as you’re respectful about it.

as always, general disclaimer: for me, it’s more interesting for me to think “[character] would do this because [actions]”, rather than “[character] would do this because [player preferences]”. i can’t claim to know the critical role cast, and i think it does a disservice to their characters if i try to bring them in like that. a weird distinction, i know, but i always think it’s important to mention! i try to distance my meta from the cast, and take the character’s actions by their own merit. 

anyway.

for all we joke about how ridiculous jester is or how much caleb was ready to run from the mighty nein, it’s hard to deny these two had a really, really rough start. jester was everything caleb didn’t want in a person, and caleb was someone jester never... really had experience with. 

lemme explain, first with caleb’s perspective: caleb is running from trent & the cerberus assembly. the last thing he wanted was to be noticed or seen, let alone get his name out there in any way shape or form - and yet here comes the most silly, obnoxious, ready-to-turn-the-world-upside-down tiefling he has ever met, and he met molly at the same time. 

naturally, he hates it. but it runs a deeper than having to travel with someone who doesn’t give a shit about discretion when caleb is discretion personified. i think when we dislike someone, it’s because we see parts of ourselves reflected in them; not necessarily all bad, but parts we have lost, never had, or don’t want to acknowledge. 

it’s important to note that while caleb and jester are very different, there are parts that are shockingly similar; caleb started as a very hopeful, bright, and confident young man at the time he entered the assembly, not unlike where jester started in their adventures ( now is a different story, and i’ll get to that later ). they are both stubborn in their ideals and put a lot of faith in the people they care about ( caleb with nott, jester with the traveler, marion, and fjord ). 

i would not be surprised if caleb sees a little bit of his younger self in jester. but the conflict occurs where he sees his younger self as a very flawed, terrible individual, while jester is not... that. he simultaneously wants to protect her from becoming jaded (as anyone with experience tends to want to), while also knowing she could make very awful mistakes (like he did) if left alone. 

that said! jester is the way she is because she was able to foster her positivity, her hopes, and her ideals in a way that didn’t come and bite her in the ass. so it’s not “jester is caleb pre-development”, and more “jester and caleb are two different results due to different experiences from similar individuals”. unfortunately, caleb can’t think like that with the experiences he’s had, hence all of this.  

i think that it’ll make more sense from jester’s perspective: jester’s living conditions weren’t perfect by any means, but they weren’t exactly trauma central, either. she had loving, kind people in her life that allowed her to develop by encouraging what she enjoyed, as opposed to molding her a specific way. again! she was able to grow the strong parts of her personality - her hopes, her positivity, her confidence - in a way that didn’t come and bite her in the ass. she doesn’t regret anything that she did, because she has never had a reason to.

you could say that she doesn’t have enough experience to see the negative consequences of her actions, and i both agree and disagree. experience doesn’t always equate to hardships; while failure is an important part of learning, it is not the only way you learn. caleb is not necessarily more experienced because he suffered negative consequences, but because he experienced more types of consequences.

that said, she is sorely lacking in some experiences! primarily in dealing with people with different wants and opinions than her. having a loving, encouraging, but ultimately sheltered environment likely means she got to have a lot of things her way. and we see a lot of that at the start of the campaign. 

so the simplest way to say is: jester has never really had someone who dislikes her for who she is. she has never sat through a level of conflict resolution her and caleb needed, and so in an attempt to do things in the way that made the most sense for her, basically got off on the worst foot. 

and so, you know, this goes on for a while. start of campaign two is hilariously turbulent for the both of them. caleb makes nice because he sees the benefit of someone like jester in a party (and not much else), and jester isn’t going to treat caleb any differently than she does anyone else. hence, friction. 

then the money conversation / argument / caleb-smears-mud-on-his-face-out-of-spite happens. which i think really was a bigger turning point than we originally thought it would be (because the nature of the fight wasn’t too serious), mostly because caleb took forever to warm up to the party (disclaimer: i love caleb). 

it’s interesting because it’s the one of the first times we actually see... any actual conflict involving jester. most people brush jester off as the quirky weirdo at first, and doesn’t take her opinions as seriously as others. that makes sense, and jester is fine with that! but that’s what makes caleb’s reaction to jester basically saying she grew up spoiled really fascinating. 

he’s furious, and rightfully so. and caleb back then was keen on making sure he didn’t attract any attention, that unless she really struck a nerve he was just gonna nod and not think about it. but as we saw -- that’s not how it happened. i think he especially felt stung because he tried to help, because she had been distressed, but all of it backfired terribly. 

so they fight. they’re upset at each other. caleb smears mud on his face then walks away and i think it hits jester on the head that oh, what she said without thinking really did upset someone, when she hadn’t meant to necessarily make them uncomfortable. 

jester, for the limited social experiences she has, is a very empathetic person. it doesn’t take a lot from her to understand why he would have been upset by what she said, once she cares enough to consider it.

the remainder is a gradual, but noticeable change to where we are now; while it’s outdated and my opinions on details have changed, i did write a shorter meta on caleb and jester on an earlier episode point. i think the bulk of it stands true, though, so feel free to read that and then come back!

spoilers: they’re destroying me now.

a few things i did want to add: i think a lot about how out of all of the nein, the main people who notice jester’s slowly dwindling confidence are caleb and caduceus (beau, nott, and fjord notice it too, just in a slightly different way; and yasha is.... bring ashley back 2k19). caduceus pretty much has 3 million in insight so i’ll touch on that later, but fitting caleb in here is interesting!

mostly because he likely, again, experienced that dwindling confidence in finding his place in life, just in a more drastic way than jester; he pretty much hit rock bottom at the start of the campaign! he’s definitely projecting a little, but a lot of relationships are built on people projecting parts of themselves to others; it’s the easiest way to relate to another person. 

as an aside: it really is cool, and speaks to his development a ton, that caleb’s motives for helping the party have become a lot more altruistic than when i wrote the post above. he cares about them now, very, very deeply, and i have a lot of thoughts on why! this just isn’t the post for ‘em; maybe next time.

how he comforts her has changed too. before it was a lot of [ throw frumpkin at her and hope it fixes the problem ]; his attempts at bringing the party together were definitely more material in nature, compared to now.

it’s also really, really good to see jester slowly starting to see the “imperfections” in caleb ( the ones that caleb sees, anyway ), and accept them wholeheartedly. again! she is an extremely empathetic person, and once they understood each other it became a lot easier for her to actually provide the support he needed. 

it’s the subtle things; less jokes at his expense, and more ridiculous things in general. sharing porn with him because she thinks he’ll like it. and, a surplus of optimism about her outlook on life that seems to affect the top row a ton. 

they’re all in love with her. i can tell. that’s okay, jester has two hands and a tail ( i had to ). 

so, where are we now? it’s obvious enough to say that they’re friends, good friends at that! they care about each other a lot! caleb makes the softest faces at jester and jester grins so happily at him and they really do have a good thing going. 

i think the biggest change in caleb is that he trusts her enough to rely on her for things outside of her abilities. i think a lot about the conversation they had recently after talking to the scourger, and how caleb let himself be comforted by jester instead of denying her attempts completely. it speaks to the level of emotional vulnerability he is comfortable showing to the group now. 

that said: i definitely consider jester to be the group baseline for caleb. liam has mentioned multiple times that out of all of the nein, jester is the one person who he doesn’t want to share his past with. which, again, given the juxtaposition in their upbringing, makes a lot of sense! 

but the fact that he’s willing to be vulnerable with someone he didn’t want to be vulnerable is huge. the fact that he doesn’t see her optimism and ridiculousness as a weakness for the group, and instead looks to use them as strengths (how they use polymorph is a huge example) is very different than beginning-of-campaign caleb.

the biggest change in jester is that her worldview has expanded to understand what caleb needs, and how that might be different than what she needs. it wasn’t as huge strides for jester as it was for caleb, but i think that makes sense! a lot of jester’s development is internal, and reflects a lot about what she thinks of herself, whereas caleb’s development has been very external, and how he is beginning to view the people around him ( and allowing himself to be viewed ). 

but still! it’s huge! jester has two decades of solving problems a certain way, and being told that that way was all that she needed; but her ability to listen, comfort, and provide insight in ways that others in the group can’t thanks to her unique world view really helped shaped the types of conversations she had with him. 

a really, really simple way to say this is that jester started taking caleb a lot more seriously. which i think is hilarious, because you’d think that’d be more fitting for caleb’s thoughts on jester. but once she started reaching out to him to understand, the tone of their relationship changed. it seems less caleb-indulges-jester-on-nonsense and two equals who indulge each other on ridiculous nonsense, if that makes sense? 

oh that said: i do attribute a lot of caleb’s relationship changes with the party to the fact that he went through a lot of external development. definitely not the place for that here, maybe i’ll come back to it some day.

well i’m back and surprising no one i wrote like 2k words on critical role so welcome back, me. i’m rusty and rambly and i may have written things here that aren’t as poignant as i wish it was, so please forgive me if anything seems off!

[aelaer]

Do you know any good fanfics that star Tony, Stephen and Peter? If you do can you please recommend them to me? Thanks!

I just ended up typing this on my phone's notes app. I still can't believe how primitive the tumblr app is. Thank goodness for copy/paste.

So I have a confession, nonny: I'm not terribly fond of the IronDad & SpiderSon relationship in fics largely because the majority of the stories just whump Peter and I'm not really fond of Peter whump. I think it might be his age, but I've also never been a fan of whumping the cinnamon roll character in any fandom I've been in.

And that's basically what a ton of the stories who star both Peter and Tony are. I'd actually like some recommendations of these two that have little to no Peter whump to better endear me to the genre. And how about a story where Peter has to save Tony instead? I'd love to see that. But yeah, too much Peter whump and where the hell are all the Stephen whumpers I'm going to cry.

Also, if the story is not IronStrange, Stephen tends to be poorly characterized (way too cold). Even if it IS IronStrange, Stephen still tends to be really poorly written in like 70% of them - OOC in several ways. A lot of authors who write him don't seem to get his nuances and he's mostly played for laughs or as a heavy hitter if anyone hurt Tony or Peter, and it's just too bland for me. That, along with my hyper-critical, uh, criticism of how minor characters are portrayed leave few recommendations from me in this particular genre of stories.

But I spent the last few days (thank goodness for the notes app) going through the tags to see what I could find/remember reading and there are a few that I enjoyed. I have quibbles of various sorts with all of them but I can set that aside for the most part and enjoy them for what they are.

Anyway, there's a wide way I can answer your question, nonny, as it's quite open to interpretation. If you're looking for the Supreme Family trope, I've found the tag and organized it by kudos. Most are ironstrange with this tag.

It's honestly not a trope that I prefer in my MCU fiction and I avoid most stories with it (as well as for other reasons), but here are two under that tag that I did enjoy:

Sunrise in Exile by Ragdoll

I've only read to 17 IIRC (it's a really really really long fic with mega chapters) but up to that chapter at least it's presented a very nuanced look at Tony that's very different and yet feels completely in character. Stephen and Peter are completely on point. The originality and world building thus far are magnificent. And as of Chapter 17 the other characters in the background seem to be written true to their characters, which is more important to me than any ship. When side characters are written poorly, it reflects on how the main characters are written and just throws me out of a story. Definitely my favorite fic that uses this tag that I could find in a quick search. Very strong writer, very original story.

Hold Me Still by lantia4ever

More Stephen and Tony with background Peter, but he's talked about a lot. And I'm a sucker for Stephen whump so that basically boosts this one lmao. It's a fun story with a premise I haven't seen before either, so kudos to the author for that bit of creativity.

From there, I looked at the Peter Parker & Stephen Strange tag for stories that also had Tony Stark and got this list, again organized by kudos.

The Courtship of Peter Parker's Father (Figures) by flyingonfeatherlesswings

Another IronStrange, but it's sweet and I do like this author. And Peter's not overly childish which is what kills Peter for me in a lot of fanfiction, as if these writers have never actually interacted with a teenage boy before. Which I appreciate. Yeah, I'm not the best person for your question... I'm quite critical of how Peter is written lmao. But yeah, this is a nice bit of fluff.

We're Not There Yet by Isnt_it_pretty_to_think_so

Stars Peter and Tony mostly, but Stephen is there and portrayed a bit differently than he usually is in these sort of fics. Gen too so something different. Good pacing, and a good original idea.

turn back the clock (and I'll try again in the morning) by madasthesea

Again mostly a Peter and Tony story, but Peter's character is executed very well here and it's a great twist on the concept. Stephen is a bit cold for my tastes and it would be nice if he were more 3D but it's still a good story. I adore how Ross is made a villain in one instance because Ross is a flaming asshole and not enough people remember that.

Now if someone could take this concept in this story and do that to Stephen, I'd be really really appreciative. Not sure how'd it all work out but a spell to just increase the suffering of the repeated day is such a great bit of angst that I need in my life.

The End of Infinity by FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls

Also stars Loki along with those three. Very very long, certainly original. Most people will like this story. I wish she'd gone drpepperony instead of Pepper with an OC (if Stephen had to be romanced - I'd have preferred he hadn't) but that's more personal preferences than anything. Doesn't change the fact that it's very original and certainly stars all three in various capacities. There's places I could critique it like any of these stories but for such a young writer she's done very well and improved immensely in her storytelling time in fandom in a short amount of time. I look forward into seeing where her writing journey takes her - I think she'll go far.

Dysfunctional: A Strange Encounter by ApolloLoki97

A true Avengers as Family rebuild after Civil War in the first two stories, and you meet Stephen in this one. Great characterization of everyone. Overall this is a fantastic series if you like Peter and the Avengers in general, but it's in this story that Stephen properly shows. Which is why it's my favorite.

Let’s Try This Again by peterparkr

I just discovered this one. A tragic comedy. A comedic tragedy. Basically Stephen and Peter fix the last fight in Endgame. It takes over 10,000 words of attempts to do so. Their sanity goes a bit. The story is unique and really a dark comedy at its core. Also happy ending.

To Lose, Nonetheless by VisionaryGalaxy

Ahhhhhh I'm a sucker for sacrificial!Stephen. Another IronStrange with a dose of whump for Peter and Stephen. (I really want her to continue her kidnapping fic but I also didn't want to actually spam her inbox like I threatened to so I just silently pine for it now. If someone here is good friends with her though I'd be obliged if you poke her on behalf of my pining. This is a bad fic review. Just go read it).

And this one was under neither tag but I remembered it existed.

Just Another Day in New York by dragonnan

Tony has more of a side role here. But what we have is lovely Peter and Stephen interaction. And a spoonful of Stephen whump just to sweeten it. So yeah of course I like it.

I don't know if this was what you were looking for, nonny, but I hope it's something.

Now if Stephen can become as popular as the other two after his movie comes out I'd be a very happy clam.

[pixeldreqms]

september 2018 

there's an estimated forty days left of filming and already, ian's dreading the end. he's been trying harder to enjoy the little moments, and not just be miserable because he knows they won't last forever. it's hard, but he's trying. he's almost never as happy as he is when he's with these people, his fellow losers, and he doesn't want to waste the time he has left with them.

forty days.

probably closer to thirty nine now since it's past midnight. one more day down. but that's something he's not letting himself linger on. instead, his eyes settle on kennedy who is getting his ass kicked in a video game but is still laughing so loud that the sound is filling the entire basement of the rented house. he focuses on that sound and can't help but smile. he focuses on it and he swears every sad thought in his head floats away, just like that.

he accepted earlier in the summer that his feelings for kenny weren't as platonic as he had originally thought. but in his defense, he was only twelve when they first met. he had a lot of figuring out to do.

he's figured it out now.

he loves all his friends, strongly and deeply, and he's a little co-dependent with more than a couple of them. if he goes a day without talking to evan, he genuinely misses him. he goes out of his way to visit the burgess' at every given chance. each member of the cast has expressed annoyance with the way he spams the group chat while they're all asleep. he's entirely convinced he needs june to survive. and he feels all that with kenny, too, so it took him some time to realize just how much more he felt. and how he felt things for him that went well beyond the things he felt for everyone else he loved.

he doesn't get an overwhelming urge to lean in and kiss any of his other friends when they get too close, for starters. that was a big tip off for ian.

kenny jokingly winked at him once and he felt like someone had lit him on fire.

he constantly found himself shoving others aside just to stand by him in group photos or to sit by him on a couch during a movie.

his own behavior should have been a giveaway right away, but he's not exactly very experienced in that area. not in just dating, but even with liking people. he's only really had one real crush before, and he'd been twelve. and he'd never liked one of his guy friends before either - but he'd accepted that fact easily. given how many male tv characters he'd been infatuated with over the years, and his long-standing secret harry styles obsession that started back when he was ten years old, he'd always suspected he wasn't totally straight. he still hasn't slapped a label on himself yet, but he doesn't think he needs to know for sure what he is to know that he definitely has feelings for kenny.

feelings that are so intense that sometimes he can't even think about anything else. feelings that are so all-consuming that all he wants to talk about 24/7 is kenny and he has to force himself, multiple times a day, to shut up about him or else he'll give himself away or let too much slip. and he knows better than to say anything, to kenny, or to anyone.

but god he wants to.

he's kept this feeling bottled up for months now, though it feels like so much longer, and sometimes he feel like he's gonna burst from how bad he wants to talk about it. his journal only has so many pages he can wax poetic about kenny onto, and he's sure even the inanimate object is sick of hearing about his crush. he needs a pair of real ears. and maybe someone to tell him he's not stupid or crazy for falling for his best friend. because boy oh boy does he feel like he is sometimes.

evan's loud hooping and hollering covers up the sound of kenny's laughter, and ian rolls his eyes but can't help but grin in amusement. his victory had been predicted since mid-game, but evan was still celebrating like he'd done something impressive.

in an attempt to show kenny support, ian raises his arm and gives evan and his win a thumbs down. "booooooo."

he gets two middle fingers raised at him for his efforts. he thinks that's all he's getting in return for voicing his disapproval, until evan drops the controller and comes flying past the gaming area, past the couch, and leaping onto ian where he's sprawled across a huge bean bag chair.

"hey, i wanted to play the winner!" jeremy shouts from the couch in front of the tv, where the other four teenagers had been sat, partially watching the game, partially on their phones, mostly having their own conversations.

ian easily could have squeezed in with them, but he couldn't resist a good bean bag. plus, he was closer to the little mini bar area that this place had. the bar itself wasn't stocked with alcohol, not that ian cares or jeremy's mom would have let them drink anyway, but she kept the shelves and mini fridge stocked. ian likes being close to the snacks.

"well i'm over here now!" evan yells back. the loud volume right in ian's ear makes him wince. "play the loser. kenny, that's you. you're the loser."

ian shoves evan off of him and onto the floor. "dick."

"no," evan says, rejecting his removal from the chair. "move your ass."

"no." but he does it anyway. he can't move much or else he'd be on the floor, because yes it's a big seat, but they're both months away from being sixteen and are not the same small twelve year olds they'd been when they first met. they've hit massive growth spurts since then. sharing small spaces isn't as easy as it once was, but it doesn't stop them from trying. evan ends up with one of his legs completely over ian's and their shoulders pressed together. ian lets it happen, but he's still mildly annoyed about it. "wow, this is so comfortable. i'm so glad you came all the way over here to dig your elbow into my stomach. feels great."

"are you saying you don't want to sit with me, you a**hole?" evan asks.

evan's elbow digs deeper into his side and ian's pretty sure it's on purpose. he grimaces and shifts as much as he can but still doesn't move out of the seat.

"that's literally exactly what i'm saying, yeah. you stink."

the bickering continues, because it never really ends with them. there's an almost constant flow of jokes and jabs between them. but for as much as they give each other sh*t, him and evan have definitely had their fair share of genuine moments between them. anytime ian has an anxiety attack in a group setting, evan's one of a few who knows how to calm him. ian's called him crying about his family or about wanting to go home more than once. there was also the time on set during their first movie together where after an intense, emotional scene, they'd both cried and hugged each other until they got it out of their system. sometimes his relationship with evan reminds him of his relationship with his sister, and the way they can pick and pick at each other, but at the end of the day, they'd die for one another.

it's just really fun to insult each other, so they do it often.

eventually, after evan shouts at ian to eat an ass, they're informed they're being too loud.

anna, the only girl in a group of boys, shushes them with so much aggression that it terrifies ian a little. she puts up with so much nonsense every time she hangs out with them, he's just waiting for the day she finally snaps. he knows he doesn't want it to be his fault, so he does as he's told and shushes.

"they're all haters," evan mutters.

ian nods. "they wanna be us so bad."

and just like that, they're on the same team again.

ian feels a vibration against his leg and realizes his phone's fallen under his thigh. as he digs it out, he sees evan's own attention has momentarily returned to the game on the tv just as the loading screen transitions back into gameplay, so he feels less bad about checking it. reading kenny's name on his screen, he visibly lights up, grinning at the text.

'if he's being a dick, come escape and play me next,' kenny has written.

ian quickly types back. 'he's not, but i might anyway. wanna be next to kick your ass.'

he glances across the room, but he can't see kenny at all where he's sitting on the floor in front of the couch, so he has no idea if he's grinning as big as ian is just from seeing a new text from him. he can't imagine he is, but it's still a nice thought. as soon as the round on the tv ends and the loading screen is back up, kenny starts typing.

'I THINK I'M WINNING THIS TIME.'

ian's smile widens, his cheeks sore from it, but he doesn't get a chance to start replying before -

"is it a meme?" evan asks, neck craning to look. ian clicks back to his homescreen quickly.

"is what a meme?"

evan slumps back a little once ian drops his phone to his lap. "whatever you were staring at like that."

"no, or - yeah." he answers, then changes his answer when he realizes he can't tell him what he was actually grinning at.

he wasn't as subtle as he had hoped.

"you lookin' at something nasty?" evan asks. "you fvcking freak?"

ian blinks, then deadpans, "yes. i'm looking at something nasty while surrounded by my friends. with you practically in my lap. you caught me."

"thought so. looking like a blushing school girl over here." that one's a little too close to home considering he feels like a smitten school girl every time he sees or talks to kenny, so ian shoves evan for it. he almost rolls over the edge of the seat but gets a palm on the ground to steady himself. "come on. seriously. what was it? what's so secret?"

"fvck, you're nosy."

"invested in your life," evan corrects him.

"nosy," ian insists.

evan gives him a look, a raised brow and a silent dude, come on, tell me, and ian takes a breath.

he reminds himself there's a reason he's kept this secret so under wraps. as much as he wants to scream from the rooftop how much he likes kenny, the risk of him finding out isn't worth it. he'd ruin not only their friendship, but probably the entire group. they'd never be able to all be together. not with kenny inevitably being weirded out by ian's crush, and ian being too mortified to be around him anymore. the rest of filming would be a nightmare. getting through press and the promotion would be torture. he'd lose his favorite person.

nothing good could possibly come from people knowing.  

then, he reminds himself this is evan. they may thrive off of giving each other sh*t, but he can trust him. he's never let him down before. not when it mattered. if there's anyone he can tell and trust they won't screw him over by letting it slip, he feels like it's evan.

if for no other reason than he'd suffer, too. not just because ian would never forgive him, but he'd hate it if the group dynamic was thrown out of wack, too.

evan feels like a safe place to finally be honest.

so he exhales, and speaks.

"it was a - i was looking at something from - it's a someone."

a bit of a rocky start, but he got where he was trying to go after a few attempts.

"you have a someone?" evan asks, seeming mildly offended that this isn't information he was already privy to. "someone i don't know about?"

"i don't really have someone," ian tells him. "i just... want to. i want to be with them."

"who is she?"

"it's..." ian's voice is barely a whisper at this point. "it's not a girl..."

the silence that follows is the longest, most anxiety inducing silence ian has ever experienced. it can't be more than twenty seconds, probably not even that long, before evan speaks again but it feels like a lifetime. he doesn't know why he's so nervous about the reaction to this. he knows evan well enough to know he won't care, but people can be surprising in the worst ways sometimes. and he's never done this before. he's pretty sure his sister has an inkling, but he's never come out and admitted it to her. this is the first time he's having the actual conversation and god it's fvcking terrifying. he kind of wants to cry suddenly but he's really holding himself together.

even while fearing and preparing himself for the worst, he mostly expects evan to react with some generic but kind sentiment. a that's okay with me, dude or an i love and accept you, pal.

that's not what he gets.

after a moment, evan's brow furrows, his head tilts just slightly, and he asks, as sincere as can be, "man, is it me?"

it's just what ian needs to hear to ease his tension. he throws his head back and lets out a cackle. the ache in his stomach is no longer due to nerves, but from how hard he's laughing. "absolutely fvcking -" he has to stop, pausing as he got through another fit of laughter. "oh, absolutely fvcking not."

a tear rolls down his cheek and he flicks it away as he finally starts to calm down. then he gets a good look at how unamused evan looks and it sets him off again.

"okay, it's not me, i got it!" evan says in a hushed whisper, just loud enough to be heard over the sound of ian's own laughter. "who is it then?"

the nerves are back, suddenly. and again, he doesn't even know why. he wants this. he wants to be able to talk to someone about his feelings. he wants evan to know. but his palms are still sweating.

"you can't tell him," ian says softly. "i'll literally strangle you. you have to swear."

"i swear," he assures him. "so it's someone i know?"

he's pretty sure evan knows everyone ian knows. even his few remaining guy friends from back home, evan's met. but he doesn't remind him of that now, just nods and confirms. "yeah. it's someone you know."

"who? i'm not gonna tell, ian."

nervously, he glances towards the couch, just to make sure the game was still being played and their entire group of friends hadn't turned around to stare and listen to his confession. all he sees are the backs of heads, and he can hear everyone's laughter mixed with anna's muffled trash talk as she has a go at the game. no one's paying attention to him except for evan.

for some reason, he's having a hard time looking at him. the hardest part is already over, he tells himself, just spit his name out. but he's also telling himself that it's not too late and he can keep this secret to himself. evan would be annoyed about the cliffhanger, but ian could deal with that easier than he could deal with other possible outcomes of telling him.

no. he's doing this.

suck it the fvck up.

with his eyes on the back of the couch, in the smallest voice possible, he admits, "kenny."

he doesn't know what evan's initial reaction is, because it takes a few seconds for him to finally meet his eyes again, but when he does look at him again, his face isn't easy to read. he doesn't look shocked, exactly - and really, given that ian is arguably closest to kenny and evan out of everyone, it probably wasn't the most surprising name he could have said. if anything, he looks... confused?

"you're not gonna tell him, are you?" ian asks, misreading the look as inner turmoil about not wanting to keep a secret from their other best friend.

that's not at all what it is.

"no, i said i'm not," evan huffs. "but, why the fvck is it not me?"

"i'm - i'm sorry?" ian says, because what else does he say to that? "are you offended that i don't have a crush on you?"

"am i not cute?"

"evan, this isn't how people are supposed to react to sh*t like this -"

"i just can't believe out of everyone - kenny." he whispers it, at least. "and not me? really?"

"i'd love it if you weren't so fvcking weird about this."

"i'm not being weird! it being me just would have made sense, is all i'm saying."

ian squints. "and it being kenny doesn't make sense?"

evan sighs, falling back into the chair a little. "yeah, i guess it does. it does."

"just to make sure - " ian says, putting a hand up. "you don't - i mean, you're not upset because you like - "

"ew, don't even say it. i don't like you."

it's ian's turn to sigh and lean back into the seat. "okay, cool. you're just... fvcking weird. that's good to know."

there's a moment of silence and ian just breathes. he did it. he did it and nothing's changed, nothing world shattering happened. he feels like a weight's been lifted, just by telling one person. it feels really good. even if it didn't go how he'd have imagined it to. still good.

"knew it couldn't have been a meme you were looking at," evan says a minute later. "the memes you send are never that funny."

ian scoffs. "fvck you. i send the funniest memes."

"willow sends the funniest memes."

"you're gonna go to hell for saying sh*t like that. lying is a fcking sin."

"is it?"

ian pauses.

"... i'm not sure. i think so. did neither of us go to church growing up? that kind of explains a lot."

there's an angry cry from the front of the room that draws their attention. anna curses, followed by kenny laughing. once again, ian smiles at the sound.

the laughter, not the cursing.

"did kenny actually win?!" evan shouts over to the rest of the group.

kenny and anna stand up as the other three perk up on the couch to look over at the two in the bean bag.

"i've been winning!" kenny calls back.

jeremy chimes in. "he's on a winning streak!"

"more like a cheating streak," anna mumbles.

"he's beaten everyone except evan," jeremy says.

"ahem!" evan waves a hand, gesturing to ian. "not everyone except evan. let ian at him."

ian tries to suppress his grin. he'd been so worried about the bad outcomes of telling evan, but he hadn't considered all the good reasons. like evan helping him get closer to kenny. even just in little ways, like playing video games. maybe this was a better idea than he thought.

he meets kenny's eyes and when kenny smiles at him, he can't hide his own anymore.

"ian?" kenny asks. "you want the winner?"

evan nudges ian in the side, winking at him as they make eye contact and calling out to kenny, "yeah, he does."

on second thought, he might end up regretting it.

[youngksbass]

What else could I do?

♥ Young K x Reader 

♥ Warnings: gangs, mentions of drugs, mentions of blood/violence, angst, swearing, illness, hospitals

♥ Word Count: 2,033

♥ Part: 3 of ? (Part 1) (Part 2)

♥ A/N: Unedited but I haven’t posted a part of this series in so long I just wanted to get it up for you all! 💖

You woke up to a familiar beeping and an overwhelming feeling of numbness, the feeling of floating through nothingness that was familiar with a dose of morphine, and you sighed in annoyance as you began to groggily rub your eyes to wake them.

“Ah, you’re awake!” You heard a familiar quiet deep voice comment as the shy boy you met a long while ago at school appeared in your vision. “I’m glad you’re okay, I found you passing out in the hall and didn’t know what to do..so I brought you here but they didn’t have any emergency contacts, so I thought I’d stay and make sure you were alright-“ “Thank you.” You cut in before he continued, you were slightly overwhelmed with his rambling with your current drugged up state, and your speech was slightly slurred compared to usual. “Thanks for the help, you didn’t have to do this.” You restated, seeing as how your first statement of gratitude was a bit tense. “No problem (y/n), I’m just glad you’re okay.” The brunette stated with a small grin, he was now moved to the chair by your bedside so he could speak with you more easily. “Thanks, uh I never got your name?” You state, trying to remember if he had ever mentioned it, he very well could have because you can barely compute anything right now. “Sorry, I'm Dowoon.” The kind brunette replied scratching the back of his neck in slight embarrassment. “Nice to officially meet you then, and thanks again.” You tried to focus your attention on him and the conversation but it was still proving difficult in your current state. You laid back again on the cot, closing your eyes to try and ease the frustration that was slowly building due to your current situation. “Are you in pain again?” Dowoon’s deep voice cuts in concerned at your movement. “Nah, how long ago did they give me the morphine for pain?” You asked opening your eyes again and trying to see the state of the IV next to you and the current level of fluids to guess how long you’ve been in the hospital. “They injected it maybe…” He glanced at his watch but a small disappointed frown fell upon his face, "well I’m not sure how long ago really.” Dowoon admitted and you just laid in silence again for a moment, “But it’s 1pm right now.” You sat up even more abruptly, startling the brunette with your rushed movement. "I’ve been in here overnight?!” You ask now clearly beginning to panic, you begin to pull your cover aside and reach to begin stripping the many wires from your arm. Dowoon grabs your wrist stopping you, you then look at him with a challenging glance, he looks aside because of your intense gaze and clears his throat. You really want to shove him aside and free your wrist from his grasp, rip out the annoying IV, and get the hell out of here. However, you noticed you were still feeling the morphine and you admitted defeat, laying back down once more on the uncomfortable cot. “Don’t worry the doctors will clear things up with your boss and family, but you need to stay in the bed.” Dowoon interjects, letting you calm down and letting go of your wrist when you give up your effort. That’s when you realize the boys were probably wondering why you weren’t at the meet up last night. “Shit could you pass me my phone?” You ask him, noticing your belongings in the corner of the white walled hospital room. He nodded and did as asked, you began to scroll through the messages that had blown up your phone, your battery percent significantly lower due to the missed calls and spam of texts. From Hajoon: Big sis you missed the meeting with the customers!! Jaehyung made sure it was all good but where are you?.. From Jaehyung: I hope you are taking time to rest and… From Hajoon: What the hell is going on?! You aren’t answering any of us and aren’t at home!!... From Woosung: Where are you? Are you okay? Call me asap.. These were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the mass of texts filling your screen, you tried to make your way through all of them to see if all the meetings with the customers went well- Ring ring.You were interrupted by Dowoon answering his own cellphone.“Hey-“ He was cut off by what seemed to be a loud voice on the other side of the line. “I’m sorry-“ He was cut off once again, “Listen I have a reason! I’m at the hospital-“ You heard a loud ‘what' shouted through the phone, “I’m at the hospital right now but it’s oka-“ before he could even finish the other person hung up and he looked down at his cellphone showing the call had ended with a defeated huff. “Aish.. He hung up on me.” Dowoon stated slightly annoyed, though it seemed like he was used to this from whoever he had been speaking to. “If your family is worried you’re welcome to leave, you’ve already done so much.” You stated with a reassuring smile. “Shouldn’t I wait until one of your family members comes though? I don’t want you to be left alone here.” “You don’t have to it’s alright.” “Well I’ll feel better if I do.” You gave him a slightly confused look, why did he care you weren’t even good friends or anything. You weren’t used to people you didn’t know being so kind to you, let alone caring for you like this. “Well if that’s the case I suppose it’s alright if you stay…” You muttered as you began to send a text to Woosung about your whereabouts. You didn’t want to make a scene so it would be best if only he came to help you discharge from the hospital and head home, the other boys would cause chaos even with their good intentions. You and Dowoon sat in intermittent silence, chatting on and off about studies and such for a little while. He seemed like a nice person, maybe you would become good friends moving forward. As you were about to explain something someone burst through the door cutting you off mid-sentence. “Where were you?! What the hell is going on?” You just started at the figure who’s hand still held the knob of the door he just flung open so abruptly, the purple hair causing every sense of anxiety in your aching body to shoot through the roof. Dowoon let out a big sigh as the purple haired boy slammed the door shut and stood with crossed arms now looking between you and Dowoon. “Explain." “Everything is fine, you didn’t have to come.” The brunette stated with an exasperated look. “I thought something had happened to you, all you said was that you were in the hospital.” The purple haired boy responded in slight annoyance, focusing all his attention now to Dowoon. “Because you cut me off on the phone, you didn’t let me finish explaining.” Dowoon was looking him dead in the face with an irritated glance, this seemed to be a common occurrence, he most likely had to deal with the purple haired boy’s slight hot-headedness and the antics caused by it often. “(Y/n) passed out outside of class and I had to bring her here to make sure she was okay.” Now both the boys looked to you, the purple haired boy now walking up closer towards your cot with crossed arms. His piercing gaze met yours for a moment, you stared back unfazed by the attempted intimidation. “She seems fine now, lets go.” The purple haired boy broke from your gaze and turned towards Dowoon nodding his head towards the door. “Hey! There’s no rush-“ Dowoon responded in slight confusion at the purple haired boys behavior. It seemed like the purple haired boy was ready to drag Dowoon out the door in an instant. “It’s okay if you need to leave Dowoon, thanks again for bringing me here.” You interjected with a smile, trying to ease the tension between him and his friend. Before the purple haired boy could add in an irritating comment to you and Dowoon’s interaction the door swung open once more, this time revealing an out-of-breath Woosung. “What happened?! Are you okay?!” He nearly shouted rushing over to you. “I’m fine, sorry for being off the grid for a bit.” At this he leaned a hand on the guardrail of your cot, letting out a deep sigh and pushing his hair from his face as he regained his breath. Before you could continue he turned to notice the other two in the room, and he immediately clenched a fist. “What are you doing here?” Woosung questioned in a calm manner to mask the rising anger within, looked to the purple haired boy. Immediately the purple haired boy approached Woosung with an intimidating air, this only made you more concerned as Woosung was starting to really show his rage. “What’s it to you?” The purple haired boy huffed, at this Dowoon grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “Young K, stop.” He stated in a hushed but worried manner, realizing the situation that could very quickly escalate. Now you knew the purple haired boys name, and it was your turn to cut in. “Young K, I don’t know why you’re acting like this or why you attacked my boys that other night. We aren’t your enemy.” You stated in an intense tone that immediately commanded the room. Woosung now became the one to worry as he turned to you, whispering your nickname in a warning tone in his concern of what could happen next. “How are you not? You came into our territory without permission to do deals. That innately takes away our customers.” Young K replied now nearing your cot in an attempt to intimidate once more, he really liked to use that as a tactic. Woosung immediately stepped closer to your side in a defensive manner, you gently pushed him back and kept your attention on Young K. Unlike this other gang leader you could keep a calm demeanor in almost all situations, something he could definitely learn to keep from useless situations like fights. “We aren’t selling to any of your customers. You can ask each of them if you don’t believe me.” You replied bluntly at his accusation. “And we don’t ever intend to sell to your customers,” you added as his face changed to one of slight shock and confusion, “so we are not, and will never be, your enemy.” Young K seemed caught off guard at this, and Dowoon even seemed a little surprised. “In fact, I would propose that we could even work together in the future if you desired.” You suggested earning a questioning glance from Young K and Dowoon. At this Woosung turned to you with a loud, “What?!” Ignoring this, you continued to speak to Young K and Dowoon. “We aren’t dealing the same stuff, and if we are both covering territory together without worrying about each others whereabouts it will make everyone’s lives much easier.” You state simply, “You’re welcome to discuss it with your group and let me know if you want to take up the offer.” “(Y/n) we’ve never done something like this before, besides we might not want to get mixed up with whatever they’re selling.” Woosung interjects in utter shock at your actions. You dismiss him once again as Young K turns towards the door with a scoff at your proposition. “Think about it, Young K, no good comes from us fighting,” is all you are able to say before Young K heads out the door with one final glance towards you and Woosung. Dowoon quickly follows after him with a rushed goodbye. Woosung has now turned towards you with an expectant gaze, and now you realize what you may have just proposed. If all went through, your whole operation would have to change, but maybe this change would be for the greater good. At least, that’s what you hope.

[babykpopsweets]

Mafia!exo reaction to their wife (arranged marriage) getting a threat

Unedited sorry! Again I didn’t want you guys to wait 50 years just for me to proofread this.

Xiumin-

You had just got done grocery shopping when Xiumin called you. He told you to hurry on down to his place before anything bad could happen to you. He was only your husband by law and arranged marriage but you guys didn’t hate each other. More so you guys felt as if you were just friends. Eventually this ‘friendship’ would turn into love. However that’s a WHOLE other story. You took the bag and started walking to your guys shared mansion. That’s where Xiumin would be waiting for you.

On your travel there you got a message. You took a quick glance at the name and it was unknown. They must’ve got the wrong number... you thought until they sent another message with your name on it. It was hard to understand what they meant to be real but you knew it was some type of threat. You rushed on home then and showed Xiumin first thing. His reaction was to stay calm and border up the mansion. He called his men and told them to put you guys on lockdown for the next week. Not for his safety but for yours. For the next week, Xiumin would stay at your side at all times, except when you had to go the bathroom of course. Then on the third day, his men brought a man hiding in the bushes, with weapons to the both of you guys. You saw the death glare on Xiumins face as he slowly walked to the intruder.

“Well well well, look what we have here. Y/n could you excuse us for a minute? I need to talk to this fine gentleman here.” Xiumin gave you a evily gleeful grin as he patted the man’s shoulder.

Suho-

You two weren’t really the best of friends. Neither were you good friends. More like frenmies who got married because they were forced to do so. Your families were actually rivals at one point. Until they set aside their problems to join forces and become the strongest mafia currently. Of course you and Suho were the victims to this deal. The past was still stuck with Suho strongly. While you didn’t really care since you can’t make a future with only focusing on the past. Seeing you act like this got Suho a little suspicious of your family and their real intentions.

You can imagine that he was really cold with you. He would never open up to you until you somehow proved you had no wrong intentions with him nor his family. When you got the note slipped into your house as mail, you were truly scared. Whoever wrote this didn’t have the whole gang as a target just you. Suho found this really weird and didn’t believe it. Up till the moment an unknown person tried to kidnap you the next day. He immediately without hesitation shot the dude dead.

Suho felt horrible because he didn’t believe the letter was real when it truly was. What if he wasn’t with you at the moment the person tried to kidnap you? What if the person were to hurt you far worst at a more unexpected time?

“I am really sorry Y/N for not having enough faith in you. You could’ve gotten killed because of how ignorant I was being. It won’t happen again.”

Lay-

You and lay didn’t hate each other. You guys actually enjoyed having to be around each other. So you guys would go around town together a lot. You would also have mini dates but nothing special.

Lay had brought you to a café just to hang out and chat for a bit. After both you guys finished your drinks you started getting ready to leave. While you were walking out though, Lay decided to use the bathroom. The moment Lay disappeared a man walked up to you. He slid a note in your jacket. Of course you weren’t dumb enough to just let him leave.

“Ay. What are you doing?” He asked while trying to take your hand off his wrist.

“What did you just slip in my pocket. Hm?” You asked and then he yanked you foward to him.

“Why? Baby girl can’t read?” He replied with another question as he stroked your hair.

Luckily you busied him long enough for Lay to come back. Lay walked over to you with stern eyes fixed on both of you. He reached in your pocket and read it. Without thinking twice he took out his gun and shot him in the leg.

“Yah! You should be grateful that I didn’t kill you right here right now. Sadly too many witnesses. Since I spared your life, you must tell whoever wrote this letter to back off or else they are dead.” Lay yelled at him in his face.

Taking your hand in his, he dragged you both away from the man. A small smile appeared on your face. You’ve never seen Lay so protective over you before.

“Thanks...” you said softly as your heart sped up.

“No one can talk to my wife like that.” He answered back while pulling you into a hug.

Baekhyun-

This was a weird threat. Unlike all of the threats given to Baekhyun this one was in person? No one would ever have the guts to challenge Baekhyun nor his significant other face to face. Especially if it was in a threatening manner. You and Baekhyun developed feelings for each other after restless days of working together. You’d grow to actually find love intrest in one another. Thus becoming a real couple without even realizing this was all arranged.

You were both attending an extremely important event. It only included EXO, BTS, BLACKPINK, and another gang that was still fairly new to the scene. No one knew of them besides the fact that they were known to have short tempers. Baekhyun always needed to make sure that a new gang was always on some what of a good term with EXO; with this they could maybe milk some money, resources, or even reinforcments out of them when need be. Baek was a very cool guy so he was very confident that he wouldn’t have a single trouble making them get on the same side.

He walked up to the leader of the gang with your arms locked with his.

“Greetings. I am leader of my own mafia, EXO. And I don’t think we’ve met before. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Byun Baekhyun one of the most powerful leaders currently. This is Y/N she is my-“ Baekhyun was rudely interrupted by the man making his blood boil.

He hated being disrespected a lot. But not as much as when someone disrespects you.

“wow she looks like a little weak b****. This is as good as you can do for being so powerful? Hilarious. She can considered herself dead. I’ll take her “out” for you and then you get to find a better woman. Deal?” The other guy complained with disgust.

These were words filled with venom and they sure as hell were fighting words to Baekhyun. With a snap of his fingers ten men came running in and beating the guy up. Another 20 made sure no one could mingle in.

“Dirty scum bag can burn in hell. My Y/N is beautiful and gorgeous worthless d*******”

Chen-

He actually got to pick who he wanted to be his wife. Just you didn’t have a say in it. So he loved you but you only liked him. Like a little crush but you barely knew the dude. That doesn’t change the fact you are married now though. Once news of your guys marriage came out it spread like wildfire. Other mafia gangs seeing it as a useful thing to use against him.

The week after your marriage you got at least 10 death threats. Although you were under high security you still felt... scared? Not just because it’s threatening to kill you but also because it would effect your family. They were currently with Chen’s family so they were being finacially well supported. If you were to die, would they just cut your family off? Leave them shivering on the streets? Or help them get money on their own? It was a bunch of unanswered questions that you wished you wouldn’t have to think of.

One day the threats stopped coming. You questioned whether they really did stop coming or somebody just gave up giving them to you all the time. Either way as long as you didn’t have to see those awful words again you were okay. Much to your surprise though an hour or two later Chen comes home. Covered in blood. Completely. You aren’t a stupid person to not know what he did. You knew what he did and who he did it to.

“Are-are you okay?” You asked while helping him undress.

“Let’s just say you won’t be getting death threats for awhile.”

Chanyeol-

Chanyeol wasn’t necessarily upset about your guys marriage. He just wish he had more time to get to know you before hand. Especially since he needed to break your hard outer shell so he can get you to trust him. He was your newly wedded husband. The thing was though there was a girl apart of his mafia that was clearly obssesed with. It scared you because she was strong and skilled with many different weapons. Or in other words she could kill you for “taking her man” or something. But in reality this marriage was really just a way to signify alliance between his gang and your gang.

This whole marriage wasn’t in your hands at all; it was in your parents and Chanyeol’s. It’s clear he didn’t mind marrying you because he just said yes when they asked without needing any description or anything. So it shouldn’t really be you that random girl should be mad at. If anything it was Chanyeol.

Just a week after the official marriage, that girl kept spamming your phone with not-so-nice things. The next week the not-so-nice texts turned into real life threats. She even tried to shoot you once but forgot to load the gun before hand. It got to the point where Chanyeol said enough was enough. He ordered his men to get that random girl out of this country. They put her in a jail stationed in the USA for attempt murder.

“Don’t worry about her anymore! She was just crazy anyway...”

D.O-

Kyungsoo had a hard time understanding why anyone would want to hurt you. Besides the obvious fact that you guys were married. You were really sweet to him even though you HATED that you were forced to marry someone. But it was kind of a relief for you when you actually met Kyungsoo. He wasn’t like all the other men you were almost in an arranged marriage with. He was sweet and caring once he was off the clock. It didn’t take long before real feelings started budding into your relationship.

It really hurt his heart just thinking about how someone wants to take you away from this world. Take you away from your family. And sadly take you away from him. Kyungsoo was baffled for a day. Then he took action against it because if he just lets people threaten you it’ll make him seem like he doesn’t care for you to protect you. Which was a whole lie; he cared about you more then anyone in this gang. You were his wife after all. Once they had finally tracked down where the threats arose from he would invade the place. By the end of it he made sure that no one was to ever drag his personal life into his business.

“How cruel can people be? You haven’t even done anything at all! I will make sure they get what’s coming to them.”

Kai-

It was already a year into your marriage and everything was going well so far. No other gang knew that you were married to Kai let alone they didn’t even know you existed! This is how Kai liked it though. You weren’t involved in his business life and that was 1000% a good thing. But somehow the new year came around and you were found out by every gang. Neither of you knew how. You were practically trapped like a little mouse inside his mansion to ensure your safety.

The sudden break of news leads Kai to believe someone on his own gang must’ve revealed secrets to another mafia group for money. Oh boy, how much Kai wish this wasn’t true and something else just slipped up. However it was proven by his other members that a certain person in their gang did in fact put your life at steak for some drugs. Those words were enough to make Kai’s blood boil with rage. He trusted his men and he trusted them to protect the love of his life. Without a second to think, he ordered his men to go fetch the filthy traitor.

He couldn’t catch the member right now cause his number one priority was definitely you. If he left you alone for even a second anything could happen. Kai tightened your freedom even more then it already was and the security guarding you when he can’t. He left for an hour and told the guards to keep a keen eye on you at all times while he went out to take care of somethings. Little did you know he was about to be covered in the blood of the man who decided it was okay to betray him and put your life at high risk.

Sehun-

Your family had suggested that Sehun’s family should celebrate with them for a successful alliance. They agreed without much thought and forced Sehun to come along since your successful relationship was what they were celebrating. When he arrived there, he was excited to see you in such a beautiful outfit. Sehun has a huge crush on you but now that you guys are married it kind of makes things a little awkward. Especially for him because he doesn’t know if you like him back or you are just doing this for the benefit of your family.

Sehun wasn’t planning on talking to you the whole party unless you sparked conversation first. Since you knew this forced marriage wasn’t his fault you weren’t going to treat him like dirt. Much to his surprise you come to him first and started simple conversation. After that you two were basically inseparable the rest of the party. Until one of the men on his side of the gang came up to you and practically threatened to kill you right in front of Sehun. It didn’t even take a second before he whipped out his gun and shot the mans leg. The man fell to the ground grunting in pain. Sehun didn’t even look at him he just whispered to his bodyguard to “take him out”.

“I am so sorry about that. People are really crazy these days :/. Anyway what were you saying”

~~~~~

Sorry if this took awhile! I tried my best but it was still a bit hard. Now all you guys have to wait for is sf9 reaction, admin Rubz story, bts thingy, and masterlist!!!!! Please stay tuned. ❤️

-admin Jamz

[hoenn-hakase]

TPP Flora Sky Summary Day 3

Bits of weirdness aside, yesterday had been pretty chill outside of our meeting Team Aqua, or at least a single grunt, who seemed very adamant about obtaining a PokeDex. Having returned that to Wally, we’re hanging out in Turzoro City for our next big gym match! Ah now, it’s a new day and a new grind! Because where we last saw our host, Hannah was doing some dedicated planning and training in preparing for her match against Wattson after changing out some teammates. I’m gonna miss Watchog and Comma but especially Bowza. RIP ;o;

We begin the day with Hannah going against Wattson for a purposeful blackout since the Voices were more intent on the PC than healing the team. She immediately goes back to challenge him for the first time with her new and improved team only to get DEMORALIZED by having him one-shot her first Pokemon (Ninjask) and when she switched in for Shedinja to spam some Double Team, he also switched in for an Emolga with Aerial Ace making both the attack and all her hard work on raising Nincada to Shedinja a total waste. At least… for this match. His flying rodent then goes on to basically DESTROY the rest of her team in a feat of fury. Egads! How did A.A. do this with only a weaksauce pair of Pokemon???

In shock at the loss, Hannah goes RIGHT BACK TO HIM with basically the same results. Okay, Voices…. What now? Well given their determination to get to the PC, that is exactly the first place they go. We immediately deposit Bitty the Ninjask and head for the desert to find us a Gound-Type. However, Hannah gets distracted by realizing that not too far from the desert is a whole new area she hasn’t discovered yet and heads over the ledge into Route P and eventually wanders her way into the ~mysterious~ Hippowdon Temple. 8O

There doesn’t actually seem to be anything to this place, but it does eventually dump her back into the desert of Route J where she finally catches her a Trapinch! Emerald Veterans are internally screaming and cracking up. Turns out the cave entrance was just a taste of what’s to come as she sees at the other end of this desert alcove is the REAL Hippowdon Temple! An ancient and massive looking structure of stonework sitting hidden away by the edges of the mountains and sandstorms that surround it. She goes inside to find the place eerily well lit for a potentially long since abandoned building and walks up to the altar which is lit by nearby torches and guarded by equally ancient statues that look down on her. Strangely, the offering in place seems to be… an escape rope? What’s so special about that? As soon as she picks it up though THE FLOOR DROPS OUT FROM UNDER HER AND CASTS HER INTO THE ABYSS! At least she managed to get the Escape Rope into her bag so it wasn’t a total waste XD

Waking up in the darkness, Hannah pulls out her lanturn to cast a small bubble of light. It sure would be nice to have Comma right now though… She checks her PokeNav to see that while there’s no signal to call anyone, the map app is still working. Despite the place having teleporters it seems she is most definitely still on Route J. Okay… time to go exploring then… She finds her way to a teleporter that warps her into another treasure room, and leery as she is after the last one, she goes up to investigate as it’s the only possible means to proceed. Sure enough! As soon as she picks up the Red Shard… Nothing happens! Cool! We spend quite a lot of time poking around on the PokeDex and Hannah zooms in on her map to find out that this temple isn’t even listed (spoopy D8 ) before heading back to the teleporter which… spits her out at the entrance. Okaaay???

Well since she got kicked out by the temple itself, Hannah decides she’s had enough adventure for one day and heads back to Route P for some serious Badger Hunting! 8D

After finally blacking out and going back to town, we head straight for the PC and while I could explain, I couldn’t do better than this XDD

Hannah is so disgusted with US, she runs and runs and runs and doesn’t stop running until she gets stopped by Gabby & Ty, NEWS NEWS NEWS folk extraordinaires! Ty brings up that Hanna looks like a really tough trainer and wonders if she’d be willing to show off for them with the camera rolling. …. Now really isn’t a good time, but y’know what? Sure. Beating up someone sure would make her feel better right about now! Despite having only Miss Tea and Aga (and an unconscious Penguin), the small team does pretty well in… Losing. Ah well, back at the Pokemon Center, we head up to the PC, casually grab Shedinja out of “timeout”, and head for the desert to restock our lack of Ground-types.

Okay, not that it’s important, but it’s pretty funny. There’s this hill in the Route J desert that requires the Mach Bike to get up to get on top of the cliffs that surround it. Last time we came across this thing, Hannah actually had a blackout trying to climb that hill and she’d tried to scale it every time she passed it to no avail before the Voices gave up and moved on or she passed out. We FINALLY got up there this time just to find an Ultra Ball as the only noticeable thing of interest. Worth it. XD

Now back to the desert, we continue with The Grind in preparation for the gym but we also catch a Gible! Tiny dragon named AAAAAAAAAT! Also we catch a Gligar named AAAAABBNNB. I think I shall call them… Ninat (9 As and a T?) and Abner less someone has an actual nickname that was used OR they do something to earn a name otherwise. ^ w ^

We head into the fields of Route L where we try to talk to the Azurill Gang, but alas. This isn’t Blazed Glazed, so Hannah has no idea what their beef is. At least she can still continue training her newest members in the nearby grass where we have Aga the Ralts become Aga the Kirlia! 8D

Unable to coordinate enough to heal, Hannah just goes to Wattson for a new black eye and heads out to The Grind once more.

Despite getting dark out, Hannah decides in all her desert wanderings to head BACK to the Hippowdon Temple to see how she and her new teammates will fare before getting kicked out again. Heading back to the Red Shard chamber, we find one of the memorialized Hippowdon to catch for ourselves before coming across a very angry mummy who decided she’d rather destroy herself by cursing Ninat than join our ranks. Smart move, Cofagrigus. Smart move. XD Seems there’s really nothing more to see here, so we head on back to town to heal and take our Grind to the mountains of Route P.

At long last WE CAN AFFORD THE SAFARI ZONE! There’s a lot to see around here, but most importantly, we find a fat man in a Rest House who tells Hannah that once she gets the Turzoro City Badge, he’ll give her a reward. Oooh reward! All the more motivation to kick Wattson’s butt now!

But not before he gives us a THROUGH butt kicking himself as Hannah decides she’s sick of training and plows her way bullheaded against him AT LEAST 8 times in a row. She takes a breather outside the Pokemon Center when she gets a call from Lao, the Ninja Boy from Dark Cave! In actuality he called to vent to her about getting bested by a Wingull, though I’m sure she was glad to do some venting of her own. After a few more attempts at Wattson (gaining the team quite a few levels actually) I wonder if she was actually trying to learn from him or still failing to destroy him. Either way, she did come close a few times and headed for the fields to the north of town for the big finish!

Miss Tea evolved into Linoone and learned Mud Sport! Ninat evolved into Gabite! 8O

I have lost track, but I believe we are up to ROUND 18 against Wattson, but this time we’re back to playing for keeps and not points. Putting Ninat in front, the match is on as our dragon OBLITERATES EVERYTHING WITH DRAGON RAGE! Oh, except Lanturn cause we ran out. XD But even then, it was the slow death of Ninat using Sand Tomb and Sand Attack while Wattson could do nothing but keep throwing potions at Lanturn to stall us out. And failing. The old man isn’t mad though and is actually pleasantly surprised as he bursts into laughter at just… SO MUCH HOW??? How did it take us this long to do that? How did he mess up so badly to get SWEPT after how good he’d been doing? At the very least, seeing Hannah’s tenacity and determination in finally besting him at his own game. We won the Dynamo Badge! \ O / We can now use Strength outside of battle! And we got TM34 Shock Wave! And Wattson’s number!~ Vohiyo …. Wait D8

Wattson says he swells with optimism to see a young trainer like Hannah as there’s hope for the future in these kids. Good luck, little one, it’s time to head north! Erm, after we go claim our prize from the Safari Zone that is. PAY UP, FAT MAN! WHAT IS IT~? It’s HM04 STRENGTH! \o/ We can now get through SEVERAL of the passages we’ve seen before including Dark Cave and Mt. Fullmoon! But since we’re here, let’s get to Badger Hunting!

Back in town we run into a woman who claims to be a master of making PokeBlocks and asks if Hannah would like to learn. Hannah just waved her off that she don’t really need any lessons. The woman warns her she shouldn’t try to do everything on her own though before sending us on our way.

We head out for Route K and slip into the caves that bear no name. It is right here at the entrance that perhaps Hannah was struck by a strange curiosity or maybe it just happened. Either way, she was told how the Dynamo Badge made her Pokemon faster, but what about her? After slipping through the cave entrance, she FOR SOME REASON ended up scaling the walls and walking the ceiling D8

Getting back to scaling the mountain path normally, Hannah makes her way through the pouring rain to come across the quaint little town of Habutest! Habutest Town may be small, but it’s got a lovely little outdoor Marketplace she had to look but not touch due to being flat broke. On the upside, one of the merchants tells her about how many of the folks around here love ~Secret Power~ and if she can prove she’s found out what that means, he’ll make a deal with her. … Intriguing. Definitely keep that in mind.

Healing up at the Pokemon Center, Hannah continues to explore when she comes across an old sailor who calls himself Mr. April. Mr. April is having a very big problem since it seems a great heap of debris has ended up in front of his house. He’s too old to be dealing with this, but perhaps if Hannah could use Strength AND Rock Smash she could clear it out? Certainly! It’s show time for Abner and Miss Tea as we display their destructive power and get to work! Mr. April is so stoked about her helping him, he wants to reward her! … But how? He doesn’t really have much to offer, but he does have a Lapras that could take her out to a snow covered island. Wouldn’t that be a wonder for her to see? 8D <3 Actually, while she should be careful of the strange old man who doesn’t speak good English, she’s far too curious about this mystical place, so she agrees!

Off we go, to the beach! To the Lapras! Speeding along Route M! Route N! And FINALLY we land on the icy shores of Searound City! He tells her to “find her pleasure at here” and decides to wait with his Pokemon while she goes exploring. See? No worries!

The main hub of Searound City seems to be nice though, paved streets filled with snowmen among the snowfall. She finds one building that seems to have some, uh…. Oh look it’s more people who look like that odd thug she fought for Wally’s PokeDex. She hasn’t checkpointed in town yet, and since her only means to get here was Mr. April, it’d be best not to risk a battle and get stranded. Hannah just as quietly heads back to the streets where she runs into a woman who invites her into her home for warmth and tells her a bit of a secret. That building Hannah just came out of? That’s the entrance to the Underground, a tunnel that connects to the island to Charpos City! Say… didn’t Wally say that’s where he’s originally from? What does Team Aqua have against this kid??? Suspicions and protectiveness rising, Hannah feels something rising up in her again. Envy thanks the woman for the information and heads back out into the snow…

Envy stealthily sneaks into a few other places to see about getting information on the situation as to why the Underground is being closed off by these goons and eventually finds the Pokemon Center. Great! But before going back for those Aqua Grunts just yet, we head to the Gym to perhaps warn the Gym Leader of what’s going on. (Or maybe he just wants to kick Leader’s butt for not doing anything. Or for teh lulls. There’s no telling with this host. XD ) No surprise, the gym happens to be Ice themed, complete with the slick floor, large icy pillars, and a general frosty haze that hangs over the place. What IS surprising though, is the place seems to be surprisingly…. Empty.

Envy makes it through the sliding puzzle though to find a back door to the place that leads into yet another puzzle. Cool gimmick but shouldn’t there be someone guarding the place? Trainers? The Gym Guide? Someone? HELLOO...o…? We make our way deeper into the freezer when we start to find a series of ladders in this increasingly surreal building when suddenly A TRAINER! Envy really has no issue with the girl, but it seems we’ve found the REAL challenge to this place! Just about the time the Gym Leader is in sight ah….oops?

Hannah manages to shake it off though and storms up to Pryce (gee, who saw that coming? kappa ) who says that he doesn’t want to hear WHY she is here. Let their swords Pokemon do the talking! …. Blackout.

Well we learned a few things. 1) You’re a bit of a jerk in this game, aren’t ya, buddy? XD 2) NO FAIR, OLD MAN, WE WEREN’T READY! >O 3) Curious if he knew or had anything to do with the blip we suffered just before meeting him. Let’s try this again!

Making our way back to Pryce, Penguin the Prinplup seems to share in Hannah’s fury as he tears down the first two Pokemon with Metal Claw before being whittled down through team effort. In comes the Shedinja who, despite not getting to show very well in the last gym, goes on to (slowly) wreck the remaining team members with Fury Swipes and Wonder Guarding everything! We won the Icy Badge which lets us use Cut outside of battle! Eat it, old man! >O Pryce admits his luck seems to have run out when faced with such a trainer like Hannah and gives her TM49 Iceberg! With that display of ferocity he says surely she’ll become the Chapion. … Whatever that is.

Does it mean “Ninja Master of Butt Whoop”? Because that is exactly what Hannah is going to continue to do. With Pryce being NO HELP AT ALL, she follows her senses (or Us really) straight to the Oceanic Museum where Team Aqua is everywhere and in need of some pants kicking. Hannah carefully manages to avoid fighting anyone though as she makes her way to the upper level where she finds a woman looking only slightly different from the other Team Aqua members. Shelly musing to herself how after stealing these blueprints to the Submarine Explorer, Team Aqua will be able to reach Kyogre! Hannah may not know what that means, but NINJA SNEAK ATTACK!

Shelly is shocked to have someone come in on her like this and receives help as a pair of Aqua Grunts bursts in on the scene to attack Hannah instead! Miss Tea quickly comes to Hannah’s defense against the first man, but the team struggles to get passed the next! Just when she could get some air, Shelly herself decides to attack and has her Sharpedo rip into Aga leaving only Ninat left! RELEASE. DRAGON. FURY! (Not gonna lie, that actually had me worried) Shelly is again in shock to find herself defeated and Hannah practically dancing with Ninat for his saving them. But celebrations are all too soon as even MORE Team Aqua members show up, this time with a man in all black and a gold chain. Clearly the leader of these vagrants, which he fully admits in introducing himself as Archie, head of Team Aqua. He doesn’t feel like fighting a mere child and explains to her that Team Aqua are sea loving people. She’s clearly not with Team Magma, so why does she want to go picking fights with them? All life needs water, all water returns to the sea. And by working to expand the seas, surely Hannah must see they are part of a noble endeavor! …….. ….. ….. …. … Bah, maybe she’s too young to understand. All the more reason not to fight her. Seriously, fellow Aqua, she’s a CHILD. However, he does warn her that this is no game they’re playing. If she should come after them again, there will be actual consequences. Shelly can argue with him all she wants on the way home about how this girl is a serious threat, and no child to be taken lightly, but for now they all just disappear. Leaving Hannah all the more confused, angry, scared, and determined that whatever it is they’re planning, it can’t be good.

We go to heal up and restock our Poke Balls (and buy the whole team cake or something, that was way too close for comfort) before heading to the Underground to continue onward. After doing a bit of jump exercises on the couches, Hannah gets jumped but Ninja Boy Jaiden who, I assume mistook her for an Aqua due to her all blue outfit and bandana. XD The other trainers of the Underground at least seem friendly in the usual sense of attacking as is custom of two trainers meeting. The Underground is a bit of a maze, but we manage to get through all the trainers in sight, including the ones guarding HM01 Air Cutter and at last enter Charpos Island! 8O … That we can’t actually enter due to the entrance / exit to the Underground being so overgrown, it needs Cut to escape. Dang, Aqua, how long were you barricading the place???

Surely we missed something though, and Hanna heads on back into the Underground to fight more trainers, find more dropped items, and talk to an old man who can’t get enough of the gorgeous weather outside. Hannah could just about slap herself to realize that Air Cutter is the same as Cut in this region. For all her exploring, seems Flora still has a lot to learn about…

Charpos City is a gorgeous, yet tropical island that seems such a far cry from Snowround it’s hard to believe they’re so close together. We head on into the first large gaudy building in sight and discover the Pokemon Fan Club where the Chairman explains to Hannah about the wonders of the Contest scene! Eh, maybe someday, but for now she’s just gonna stock up on Poke Balls and heal. As we get to exploring the rest of the town, Hannah also stumbles across Wally’s house and gets to meet his parents. Wally isn’t home at the moment, but it’s still nice to always meet some of his friends considering, due to his sickly nature, he doesn’t have many. But, his dad says, the boy sure has been doing a lot better since they moved to this beautiful place. We also find the Bike Shop 2 where the questionably mobster the shop owner points out that if Hannah already has the Mach Bike, then he’ll just take that off her hands and give her an Acro Bike. Sound good? Uh… Sure!

We end the day off by aimlessly wandering the place and just taking in the sights. The cliffs looking out to sea, running in the waves, raiding the fridge of EVERY house we enter, and of course playing with the settings on the outdoor PC with the clock and lottery segments. Is all good and calm and relaxing after the LOOOONG day our Host has had. <3

[hydrus]

Version 437

windows

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exe

macOS

app

linux

tar.gz

I had a good week mostly fixing bugs and optimising. It will take a couple of seconds to update this week.

all misc this week

I reduced a heap of UI lag on clients that have pages with a lot of collected (like 'collect by creator') media. If you often have five or ten thousand files collected and you noticed your client was getting choppy just when running some downloaders, I hope this improves things. Let me know how you get on!

I started real work on multiple local file services. Most of it is boring behind the scenes stuff, but as part of it, I overhauled the trash system this week. A heap of logic is improved, it is ready for more than one 'my files' service, and now hydrus remembers when files are deleted. Delete timestamps have never been recorded clientside, and unfortunately we cannot recover old information retroactively, but it is stored for all deletes from now on. Whenever the client wants to say 'this file was deleted', it should now have 'at an unknown time' or a nicer '3 days ago' suffix.

A second neat thing with the improved deleted files storage is I hope in the nearish future to let you search deleted files. This is a rare, clever query, like 'all known files', but there will be some kind of button you can press to flip your 'my files' or 'all local files' search to go through what has ever been removed from them. 'system:file service' will get similar improvements.

To reduce confusion, I renamed some hydrus network concepts across the program. The 'access key' (secret password for account), 'account key' (account identifier), and 'registration key' (one time token to create an account) are now known as 'access key' (i.e. no change), 'account id', and 'registration token'. There is more work to do here, particularly improving server setup and account management workflows to suit the user (rather than my technical ease), so I will keep at it.

In a related topic, the PTR is updating its accounts. The public account is moving more towards a 'read-only' account, and accounts that can upload siblings and parents (and perhaps tag petitions, eventually) will be individual to you and freely auto-creatable in manage services. This is mostly an attempt to make janitorial decisions easier and more accurate, since at the moment everything on that side is merged due to the shared account. Permissions have not been used much in hydrus network yet, and the workflows and user notifications here are bad and buggy. Please bear with me as I iron out the problems and make it all nicer to use.

full list

misc:

hydrus now keeps a track of when files were deleted! this information has never been recorded clientside, and it is sadly not retroactively recoverable, but it is stored for all deletes from now on. on occasion, when hydrus says 'this was deleted from xxx', it will now have 'at an unknown time' or a nice '3 days ago' string attached. it will take a few seconds to update this week as the new table data is created

the 'trash' panel on review services now has an 'undelete all' button

fixed a typo error in manage services when auto-creating a service account when more than one type of account can be created

the thread watcher page now sorts the status column secondarily by next check time (previously, equal status would sort alphabetically by subject as a fallback secondary sort)

I have renamed some network concepts across the program. before we had access keys, account keys, and registration keys--now we have access keys (secret password for account), account ids (identifier for account that jannies may need), and registration tokens (one-time token used to create a new account). I hope this reduces some confusion

reduced some overhead when fetching media results for a search, and when refreshing their tags on major content updates

fixed a 'no such table: mem.temp_int_hash_id_1'-style database error state that could persist for 30 seconds or more after certain rare rollbacks

fixed the FlipFlip link html in the client api help

fingers crossed, I fixed that bad Applications shortcut in the new macOS release

fixed a couple more instances of 'pulsing' progress gauges. now they should be blank

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more efficient updates in sessions with collected media:

several updates this week should reduce client UI lag when the session contains any pages with a lot of collected media, particularly when you are also running several downloaders (which spam all sorts of content updates across the client):

the content update pipeline now tests collections for their files before content processing, and now filters down to process just the updates in a group that apply

collections' post-content-update internal data regeneration routine now has more options for fine regen (e.g. no need for tags recalc if the update was 'archive file'), ignores updates for urls and notes (for which it maintains no summary), and only falls back to 'just regen everything' on file location changes

the 'selection tags' taglist now retains intelligent memory of its previous selection through collect/uncollect events, which reduces collect/uncollect lag on well-tagged files significantly

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boring multiple local file services stuff:

I cleaned a bunch of old hardcoded references to 'my files' and related code. it is not very interesting, but there are a few hundred references to clean up and convert to a system that supports 1-to-n local services, and this week I started hacking away, mostly presentation stuff, labels on menus and so on

your 'my files' now has a separate deletion record to the 'all local files' domain. its count shows in 'review services', and for the moment will just be 'all local files' plus the count in trash, but this will become more important when you can have multiple 'my files'

behind the scenes re-jiggering means that the deletion record now records deletion time and original import time. delete and undelete transitions are neater as a result

logically, files are now generally no longer moved to the trash nor undeleted from there, they instead fall there when they are in 'all local files' but no longer in any local domain, and are undeleted back to a specific service. a bunch of awkwardness is cleaned up, and import/delete/undelete content updates are regeared and ready for multiple local file services

a whole bunch of little things have been fixed and changed behind the scenes. I cleaned file service code in general as I went. examples of little things fixed:

- a 'delete and do not keep a deletion record' action now correctly does not change the cached number of deleted files as reported in review services

- the 'clear deletion record and try again' 'remove from trash' component now uses a unified and improved and UI-updating 'untrash' database action, with correct service count changes and UI-side status changes

- the 'clear deletion record and try again' action on downloader import queues now handles mixes of actually deleted files and files just in trash more neatly

- in the very odd situation that you are looking at a non-local file on 'all known files' and it is then imported using 'archive on import', its thumbnail and metadata now fade in correctly as archived

added some unit tests to test the new file delete/undelete transitions

cleaned up a bunch of hacky old db SELECT code

next week

Next week is a 'medium size' job week. I would like to try putting some time into the ancient image rendering pipeline and related systems like previous/next file prefetch. The basic media viewer has been jank and bad at zooming for too long. I am not sure I can make it beautiful, but I will try to clean some things up.

Otherwise, I am afraid I have fallen behind on some messages and other administrative work. It would be nice to put some time aside to catch up on replies, clean up my immediate todo lists, and triage some priority lists, but we'll have to see. I have had trouble recently doing anything but slinging out code.