#CHECK OUT OTHER SOURCES I am going to sleep soon lmao

[ingo-ingoing-ingone]

idk if y'all have seen about the old pokemon game design stuff leaking, like beta mons, concept art/character pages, and design inspiration, but inb4 anything submas, just know these are BETA CONCEPTS AND IDEAS and aren't canon! Take what you want, yeet what you don't, don't treat it as solid fact bc it never made it to the game.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

👀 SICK WHUMP MEME TIME? SICK WHUMP MEME TIME!

lullaby and-or drooping eyelids for lewthur? but! a reverse of the typical prompt and have Artie caring for Lew instead? (I swing wildly between him having a horrible and amazing singing voice depending on the day lmao)

HELL YEAH (source)

i do have some vague hcs for how arthur's voice sounds (other than the stammer i mean) sooooo

--

Lewis was feeling awful, to put it mildly.

He'd been sick since last night, and had been sleeping on and off all day when he could, but he was still tired, the bone-deep kind of exhaustion that only really comes with being under the weather. Add on to that the headache, sore throat and chills that were still happening even in his warmest pajamas and with blankets piled high, and he was just ready to go back to sleep and skip to when he (hopefully) was feeling at least a little better.

Unfortunately, his body was not on board with the plan. He wasn't exactly sure how long he'd been lying here in the dark – and he didn't feel like moving enough to check the clock, either – but it felt like it had been hours, and he just couldn't fall asleep. Focusing on it was, unsurprisingly, not helping matters. He just quietly prayed that maybe Arthur, who he assumed was still up, unless it was even later than he thought, would come by and bring him a book or something. Or at least some water.

As if on cue, the door cracked open to let a little light through, and then Arthur stuck his head in.

"Hey, Lew, y'need anything?" he asked. He was keeping his voice quiet, which also made the slight rasp to it more pronounced.

Lewis sat up slightly with a soft I'm-awake hum, blinking a lot to try to focus on him. His eyes very much did not want to stay open. "Water would be nice," he answered, wincing internally at how hoarse he sounded. Even worse than Arthur, for once.

"S-sure," was the answer, and then he disappeared for a moment, coming back with a full glass.

Lewis dragged the blankets with him as he sat all the way up, somewhat reluctantly, and took a drink. Then he handed the glass back to Arthur, who put it on the nightstand.

"Anything else?"

Lewis had a short moment of internal debate, and then reached out and snagged Arthur's hand as he was leaning away. "Yeah.. stay here?"

"...Are you... s-sure?"

"Mhm." He tugged his wrist a little. Now that he'd thought of it, he really didn't want to be alone, in the dark, silently waiting to please fall asleep, again. It would be nice to have someone else here. Also, Arthur was warm, and he wanted something warm to lean against.

Arthur only hesitated a moment before relenting, and easing down under the covers next to him. He settled leaning on the headboard slightly, so Lewis could have his head half on the pillow and half against his chest.

It was nice, and a lot warmer and more comfortable than he'd been before... but it still wasn't perfect. And the boredom and why am I not asleep yet was setting in again. But he didn't want to try to keep up a conversation...

As if reading his mind, Arthur started to hum, bringing one hand down to card through his hair. Soon, the humming turned into proper singing, and Lewis was too tired to focus on the individual words, but the sound flowed and reverberated through him, washing away all the sick feelings with it.

Arthur's singing voice wasn't technically good – he wasn't tone-deaf, but the slight rasp to his voice and cracks when he pushed it too far stayed when he sang, and his range was too high for it to sound nice. But it was genuine, and relaxing, and there was something about it that always made Lewis relax, no matter what was going on. Though, he reflected, that was probably less an intrinsic quality of the voice itself and more about who it belonged to.

With his head on Arthur's chest, he could feel the reverberations against his cheek, and it somehow made him feel even more exhausted. Before long, he could feel himself finally drifting away, the tune melting into nothing.

[spectovrs]

so this is specifically dedicated to the amazing @sigyncevans cause shes in love with stevie and cause we wanted a crossover between verch x steve and ivonne x charles. so yea here you go, i hope you'll like it lmao

side note: before every part there's a title of a song that matches this part's vibe :D also, as you'll probably see, I'm a Swiftie and NBHD stan <3

warnings: mentions of war, canon level violence, some swears, apart of that none - pure fluff

word count:

hope you enjoy <3

I'M GONNA UPDATE THIS LATER THIS IS NOT THE WHOLE STORY

------------------------- "Paper rings"

"Verch, hey Verch wake up, the sun has already risen!"

"And what do you want me to do, photosynthesis?" Verch asked Steve who tried to wake her up

"Hey, you don't need to be aggressive" said Steve with a little smirk "I just want to eat breakfast with my beautiful girlfriend"

"As you should tho" she yawned "wait a second I'm coming"

Steve gave her this heart eyes look which always made her heart melt. He took a few steps back so she had more space to get up. He looked at her as she stretched her arms, grabbed a hoodie and made her bed. When she was done he took her hand and together they went downstairs to the kitchen.

"What do you wanna eat?" Steve asked

"Anything babe" Verch responded "you cook so good, everything you make is great" she added.

"Okay,, it's cereal then" he said

"Not very ambitious but I love it" she laughed "thanks Stevie"

"Really it's my pleasure" Steve chuckled and started preparing the food.

Verch brought the bowls and cereal while Steve was finding milk. Few minuted later they had everything finished. Together they sat at the table, chatting happily, appreciating the fact that they had each other. They both knew damn right that they were so lucky that they met and that they had someone to share everything with, to talk about everything, sometimes cry to. They loved each other, there was no doubt about that.

----------------------------- "London boy"

Charles opened his eyes slowly and blinked as the sun hit him right in the face. He moved his head and now he was facing her. Ivonne. She was still sleeping, breathing quietly, hugging him very thighly for a sleeping person. Suddenly she yawned and started blinking just like Charles did. She scrunched her nose a little.

"I love your cute nose scrunch" Charles said "it reminds me of Edith" /fyi Edith is a cat Charles and Ivonne adopted/

"Since when I'm compared to our cat Charlie?" Ivonne asked with overdramatic tone.

"Since we got her. You remember when we first saw her? She had exact same look on her face as you had" he laughed "still, I think you look adorable"

"Thanks I guess" she yawned again "I'm hungry" she added.

"This was so random darling" Charles put her hair behind her ear "but same, so maybe let's go and eat something"

"Good idea" she sat on the bed and rubbed her face "this sun is attacking me" she complained as she covered her eyes with her hand.

"You're right" Charles said and rolled out of bed. He immediately stood up, offered Ivonne his hand ("will you take my hand ma'am?") and dancing with her to the melody they together sang he guided her to the kitchen.

-------------------------- "Play with fire"

"So, did you like the movie?" Steve asked as they went out of the cinema.

"Yes of course! My favourite part was when all heroes went into the sunshine in the end. So emotional" Verch said, tearing up a little bit "If I was in a movie I would end it exact same way" she added.

Steve nodded and smiled at her softly. For some time they remained silent as they both imagined their perfect endings.

"You know what?" Verch asked "It's not about going to a certain place. It's about who you go there with" she stopped for a second. "In my perfect ending, I go into the sunshine with you and all our friends. We're all happy cause we know that we did everything we could to leave this world better than we arrived in it"

"It's a beautiful ending" Steve imagined it in his head "I would love it to be real" he added. "It can be real if we try hard enough" Verch smiled hopefully "I want to try Steve. For you, for all of us" "Me too darling, me too" he kissed her cheek gently "I love you Verch and I always will"

Suddenly they heard a high pitched sound, as if someone vey angry tried to tear all metal around them into pieces. Verch curled up in pain, covering her ears. Steve immediately pulled her closed and hugged her so the noise was less painful.

"What the hell is that?" Verch asked with pain in her voice

"I have no idea" Steve replied, at same time trying to find the source of sound. He looked up to the sky... and saw a man in a strange looking suit, long cape and a helmet who was floating in the air and basically... worked like a big magnet. All metal from the street, which was cars, phones, street lamps, wires etc were flying in this man's direction and creating some kind of field around him.

"Maybe we should do something about this?" Verch yelled as noise was getting louder.

"Yeah you're right" Steve yelled back "luckily I have my shield with me"

"Wait Stev-" Verch tried to warn him but he didn't hear her. Steve threw the shield at the man and yeah of course shield didn't come back cause.. it was metal.

"What the hell Steve, this man rules metal and you throw your METAL shield at him?!"

"Yes, maybe this was not the best idea" Steve said with a bit of shame in his voice "plan B then, run"

They both started running away from the metal ruler. There was noone here, all other people ran away much earlier. Suddenly they saw a white light before them. The light was growing fast and it formed a circle. It looked like a... portal. They stopped like 100 meters away from the circle. They saw a silhouette coming out of the portal. Woman, dark hair, blue eyes, something about 25 years, in a black suit with white stripes forming "X" on her chest. She looked serious yet her view had something comforting in it. She saw them standing and gestured to the portal.

"Come on Steve, take Verch to the portal" how did she know their names? "quick, it's mot safe for you here" she rushed them. Steve, still in shock, took Verch's hand and ran with her to the portal. Last thing they saw before portal closed was that the woman's hands were glowing just like Wanda's but not red. Left white and right black.

------------------------ "Little dark age"

They ran onto a lawn. Very big lawn to be honest. Somewhere in front of them they noticed huge, old-looking mansion.

"Where the hell are we?" Verch was a little scared " and how this girl knew our names, who was she and who was this magnet man?"

"Well, I can answer all your questions, if you let me" they heard a calm voice. They looked around to find the talking person but there was noone in their sight.

"Uhm, who are we talking to?" Steve asked also worried

"I'm Charles. Charles Xavier. And I'm sorry I am in your minds but I didn't know if I can fully trust you" said the voice.

"Wait- you're in our heads?" Verch asked now absolutely frightened

"I'm sorry, but I had to check" Charles replied "wait a minute, I'm already near to you" he added. As soon as he finished the sentence, they saw him walking down the lawn. Tall, blue eyed and dark haired just like the woman who they've met before. He stopped few meters away from them and looked at them for a second. Finally Steve asked the question both him and Verch wanted to ask.

"This woman who opened the portal... you know her?"

"Yes, her name is Ivonne. She sensed that you're in trouble and immediately got herself in the middle of a multidimensional hole. But, here she comes" Charles said and, in fact the portal opened again and woman, or Ivonne as they just learned, appeared again.

"And how did it go?" Charles asked her "what did you do with him? I hope you didn't kill him"

"Oh no, of course not, stupid" she said with a cocky smile "the Avengers showed up and bet his ass"

"The Avengers?" Steve and Verch gasped

"Yeah, the Avengers" Ivonne said "not that they introduced themselves" she winked at Charles and laughed

"Ivonne's a telepath, just like me" Charles explained "we can read people's minds"

"So this is how you knew our names right?" Verch turned to Ivonne

"Yep" the girl replied "I know, it's wasn't really good but I didn't have time to explain"

"It's okay" Verch chuckled "thank you for saving us tho" she added

"No problem and you're welcome" Ivonne smiled "and I love your hair Verch. It looks great"

"Thank you" Verch smiled at her "I love your suit"

"Now thank you" Ivonne smiled back "well, I guess you're hungry, maybe you want to come in and eat something?" she asked

"Great idea" Charles joined in "Verch, Steve what do you think?"

"Sounds great" Steve said

"Yeah same" Verch responded

"Okay, Ivonne, can you guide us?" Charles asked

"Of course, this way" Ivonne started walking to the mansion and the rest followed her.

--------------------- "Meet me at our spot"

"So, how did you know we're in trouble?" Verch asked when everyone finished eating.

"I'm not sure, but it's possible that something or someone broke the reality and that it's possible to travel between different universes" Ivonne said and Charles nodded

"We think someone was at the end of time and did something that consequented into forming a multiverse" Charles added.

"So this guy, this wielding metal one, was from different universe?" Steve was completely shocked

"Yes, specifically for OUR universe" Charles replied "his name is Erik, also known as Magneto. He is... was my friend. I don't think I know him anymore" Charles saddened "anyway, he probably didn't intentionally go into your verse. He just got himself into a hole between a parallel verse, which we found out to be your verse aka Avengers Verse. In shorter version we call it AVerse"

"Wait, so now everyone can travel between universes?" Verch was clearly very interested in the topic.

"Not everyone, just people with powers to bend reality, for example me, or people who just got themselves into a colliding verses like Erik" Ivonne answered.

"Wow.. this must be so cool to have powers like yours" Verch smiled sadly "I don't have any superpowers, I'm just... like everyone"

"No, you're definitely not like everyone" Charles tried to cheer her up.

"Yes, he's right" Steve hugged her "you're unusually intelligent, smart, charming... you're the one and only" he added

"I'm sure you have powers but just don't know it yet" Ivonne smiled "you'll figure it out someday. Maybe faster than you think"

"Thank you guys" Verch gave them a soft smile "but if you'll excuse me, can we go to sleep now? I'm horribly tired and I'd love to get some rest"

"Now that you say it I feel sleepy too" Ivonne yawned.

"Great, I'll show you a room" Charles stood up from the table "one bed or two?"

"One of course" Steve winked at Verch

"Oh I understand" Charles looked at Ivonne "we have same thing going on"

"Oh God, can you stop flexing with it" look on Ivonne's face told that this is not the first time she had to deal with this "he literally tells that to every single couple we meet. "Hi, I'm Charles and this is Ivonne, hey did you know she's my girlfriend? Oh well she is, yeah we sleep in the same bed" and it goes and goes and goes and it never ends"

Verch chuckled but Charles looked like someone just punched him in the face.

"I didn't know it bothers you that much darling" he said looking in Ivonne's eyes

"Well, no it doesn't, I just like messing with you" she gave him a filtry smile "alrighty then, Verch, Steve come on, I'm gonna show you your room"

"Goodnight" Charles said as they were going up the stairs. They said goobe to him too and followed Ivonne who was already upstairs. They walked through the corridor to its end and Ivonne opened the door before them.

"I hope you'll like the room" she pointed at door on the right side of the room "here's a bathroom, I think towels are already there, if you'll need anything just focus on it, Charles or I will hear you" she checked again if everything was on its place "goodnight and see you tomorrow"

"Bye" Verch said "sweet dreams"

Ivonne closed the door behind her. Verch went to the shower and Steve waited for her outside the bathroom. When she finished, she walked out so Steve could wash himself too. She jumped on the bed. It was very comfy and soft. She wrapped herself up into the blanket. She didn't even know when she fell asleep.

------------------------- "Don't blame me"

"We can't leave it like that Charles" Ivonne confronted him "waiting won't give us more time and you know it. Do you want our world to be taken over again?"

"No, I just think we should know more about the problem before we start doing something about it" his voice was calm but his eyes were saying different thing.

"We already know what the problem is: the multiverse" Ivonne bit her lip "we don't have time Charles. Erik went to AVerse, what if someone bad from AVerse will arrive in our world? Avengers don't have telepaths in their squad and we don't know how to fight their bad guys"

"You're right, but still, we don't know if the multiverse is actually the problem. Maybe we misunderstood something or maybe only the two verses collided. We don't know it and, till we will not be absolutely sure, it's not wise to take any actions. Also we don't know what caused the break of reality so we don't know how to patch it up"

"You're just scared" Ivonne let out a little snort "you're scared of doing anything about it"

"No, I'm scared about YOU doing anything about it" Charles looked her in the eyes

"Why? I think I can handle my powers, you yourself said it"

"It's not about your powers, I just... I just don't want you to be hurt" did his eyes fill with tears or was it just the light? "you suffered enough Vonnie. I don't want to see you in pain again"

Ivonne moved closed to him and hugged him delicately. "I don't want you to be hurt too Charles" she whispered "you mean everything to me, never forget that". She missed him softly and rest her head on his shoulder.

"I love you so much Vonnie"

------------------------ "Sweater weather"

Verch woke up in the middle of the night from a nightmare. She didn't remember everything but she saw light, felt pain and... she had some kind of powers? It was beautiful and terrifying at same time. She tried to calm her mind but she only stressed herself even more. She heard quiet knock on the door. They opened and Verch saw Ivonne standing on the corridor.

"Hey Verch" Ivonne said quietly trying not to wake up Steve "is everything okay? I heard your mind and I wanted to find out. You sounded very... terrified"

"I'm fine, totally, just had a nightmare. It's nothing really, I'm sorry I woke you up" Verch felt really bad for waking her up "I'm really fine" she added

"You sure about that? It's okay, I couldn't sleep anyway" Ivonne smiled calmly "if you want to talk, I'm here"

"Uhh it's just that.. this nightmare.. it felt so real. I felt pain, my pain, and saw light coming from me, and I'm scared cause I don't fucking know what that means"

"Do you need a hug? Sometimes it's the best way to help"

"Yeah thanks"

Ivonne walked to her and hugged her softly

"I can help you fall asleep if you need it"

"Do you think I really have superpowers?" Verch asked after some time.

"Yes, actually, now when you had this dream I'm sure about it" Ivonne hugged her a little thither "they will appear really soon in my opinion"

"Thanks Ivonne" Verch smiled "I could use your help going back too sleep if it's okay"

"Of course"

Verch watched her as she rised her right hand and touched her scalp. Her mind went blank and she fell asleep with no dreams.

------------------------- "Leaving tonight"

Next day, Verch and Steve woke up and went downstairs. They met Charles who clearly didn't sleep well, dark circles under his eyes told them everything.

"Woah, you look like you didn't sleep at all" Steve asked him, raising his brows.

"I didn't actually" Charles yawned "it was a very bad night. Ivonne didn't sleep too"

"Oh my god what happened, I hope it wasn't our fault" Verch really didn't want to be a problem.

"No of course not, it's just... our world is not perfect and... I don't know if I can tell you that actually. I have to ask her first, wait a second" Charles touched his head like Ivonne did when she came to help Verch. He looked like he's contacting someone without words. "Alright, she's okay with it. Well, I am from a family that loved me and stuff but Ivonne isn't. Her parents never accepted her powers and basically threw her out of the house. She was fifteen at the time. She used her powers to get food, water and have a place to sleep. She was still studying and decided to go to university. Oxford specifically. That's where I met her. She was very closed and didn't trust me at first but after some time she told me everything about her past and about her being a telepath. When I was assembling the team I asked her if she wanted to join. She said yes. She was mostly doing a spy job and she was really good at it. But once we lost contact with her. She was sent to New York to find a well known scientist, who we thought might be in danger. She arrived there but suddenly she disappeared. We tried everything to contact her again but her mind was gone too. I was so worried about her that I went to NY to find her. She was in fact captured by CIA and investigated. They asked her about our team but she didn't tell them anything so they became more brutal. I somehow managed to break her out but she already was totally terrified. She has photographic memory. She remembers every single detail of the investigation. How she was tortured and stuff. She has nightmares. Every single night. But sometimes, it's worse, like today. Panic attacks for sure. Its hard to calm her down and it takes me whole night sometimes"

"This is awful, how is she feeling now?" Verch and Steve felt sorry for her "is there any way to help her?"

"I'm afraid not" Charles smiled sadly "but thank you. Now, would you like to eat something?"

"Yeah, sure"

"Okay, come on, let's prepare breakfast"

-------------------- "Call it what you want"

It was afternoon, Steve was training with his shield in the garden (Ivonne gave it back to him after Avengers bet up Erik). He thought about everything: about the danger multiverse created, about how he was in parallel universe now, about how are Avengers doing without him and about... Verch. She seemed a lot more serious last days and he didn't know if it was because of everything they went through recently or because of something she didn't want to tell him. She clearly had a secret and Steve was okay with it, he just didn't want her to go through this alone. He loved her and wouldnt sleep well knowing he ignored her problems and didn't do something to help. He threw his shield again, it bounced off the trees and came back to him. He threw it harder. And harder and harder. He catched the shield and sat on the grass, covering his head in his hands.

"Steve?"

He immediately recognised this voice. Verch.

"You alright?" Verch asked again.

"Yes sweetheart, I'm fine. Just a little tired" he tried not to sound weird. He didn't want her to worry about him.

"Steve. Don't lie to me, I see something isn't right" Verch didn't let him trick her "you can tell me everything, you know it"

"I just worry about you Verchie. You are more serious now, you laugh less, you don't seem happy, I mean you don't have to be happy all the time but I just feel something is wrong"

Verch went silent for a few seconds. When she finally spoke her voice was shaking.

"I feel like I have a power inside me. It awakened some time ago. And it scares me. I don't know if I will control it, what if I hurt someone? I... don't know anymore who I really am. I don't know what these powers even are" her eyes filled with tears. Steve hugged her and stroked her hair softly as she cried in his arms.

"I'm afraid Steve, I don't want to hurt anyone"

"You won't sweetie and don't be afraid, I will always be here with you, I promise"

"Thank you Stevie"

"I love you Verchie"

--------------------------- "Best friend"

Verch didn't remember next few days well, it all blurred into fear, sleep, eating and wandering around the mansion. Ivonne was feeling better, Verch talked to her a lot, she was checking up on her very often which Ivonne appreciated. The two grew up closer, Verch started to think that she finally has a friend other than Steve. She couldn't call the Avengers her real friends cause they didn't talk much. She saw them sometimes when they were coming to her house to pick up Steve. They were all cool, dangerous and... had superpowers. Were better than average people. It scared her a bit and always made her feel a little anxious. Did she say everything right? Didn't she annoy any of them? Maybe they didn't like what she did or said and now she made new enemies? Steve always told her that they like her and that she did everything right but she didn't really believe him. One small part of her always doubted that.

So she really appreciated Ivonne. She felt like she had someone who doesn't judge her, who genuinely likes her and who won't turn their back on her once she disagrees with them. Ivonne felt same way but, as she had in her character, didn't tell Verch about that. Ivonne's one and only real friend, apart from Verch, was Charles. He always was there for her, understood her so well and never left her side. She always thought about him as a very good friend but deep inside she knew that he's something more. "Idiot in love" she called herself out one day.

Now, that she had Verch, she was damn sure that she finally has a best girl friend who will always stand with her.

And Verch thought same about her.

------------------------- "Flawless"

Charles called them all to his office telling them that they must think about a plan. So, the four was now sitting on comfy armchairs brainstorming how to end the multiverse. For now, noone had any ideas.

"My brain hurts" Steve complained "I'm not used to this much thinking about complicated stuff"

"Same" Ivonne rubbed her eyes "even tho I am a MSc in genetics"

"I need a break" Verch let her head fall on the back of her armchair "this shit is tiring, all these... dangers, oh my god they are just-" she yawned

"Yeah I think we need a break" Charles also seemed sleepy "wanna go outside or have a nap here?"

"Move Xavier, I'm coming" Ivonne stood up and three fast steps later she was on his lap.

"Steve, you move too" Verch followed her friend's example, sat down next to Steve and cuddled into him.

"I'll take as a "we wanna take a nap here"" Charles chuckled and started playing with Ivonne's hair.

Steve pulled Verch closer and watched her for a second as she fell asleep.

"How did you confess to Verch?" Charles suddenly asked him.

"What? Oh, I invited her to the cinema then we went to a tower, she loves night views from high places, and I just... told her. Kinda basic but I couldn't think of anything better to be honest. She liked me back so anything would work anyway. But there was also one situation, we were at the Avengers Tower at a party. We danced a lot and I told her that I love her for the first time and we kissed.. all Avengers saw it so it was kinda awkward" he laughed quietly "and you?"

"Well, it was more complicated" Charles chuckled again "Ivonne's a telepath so if she wanted to, she could've known the truth immediately. But I wanted to tell her myself and I did. It was in the middle of a battle, she was injured. I took her away from the battlefield, tried to cheer her up and it just... happened. She was first girl I ever kissed"

"Wow now that's elite" Steve couldn't help laughing a bit "what was your friends' reaction to you two dating?"

"Raven said she wasn't surprised, Hank said that he knew it all along, Erik didn't care, only Peter and Alex were totally shocked and didn't stop joking about it since then" Charles made a face that let Steve know that he doesn't like Peter and Alex's jokes "oh, and Logan said that it's really nice to hear that we're happy and stuff, only one normal person really"

"Well my friends were supportive, at least most of them. Nat was totally in heaven when I told her, she told me she shipped us from the beginning, Tony joked about it but he was genuinely happy for us, Clint said that he will take care of our kids when we have them, Vision as he has in habit, was VERY much like Tony but nicer, Thor said that he can arrange us a nice wedding in Asgard and Bruce... well Bruce was in shock but in a nice shock I mean he was happy but shocked"

"I would love to meet your friends"

"And I'd love to meet yours"

------------------------- "Softcore"

So, after some more talks they came out with a plan. It was simple: find The Avengers and maybe some X-Men and make a team out of that. They weren't sure if it will work and if anyone would be interested but they thought they should do it anyway. In worst case they would just end up alone and fight without any help.

They all started training, each one different. Steve trained with his shield, mostly ran around an obstacle course Ivonne made for him. Verch trained sword fighting as she was great in it and it was useful. Ivonne trained her powers in other obstacle course which also included using knifes. Charles just walked around the town trying to confuse people.

After two weeks they were ready. They suited up and walked out on the lawn.

"Alright, yall ready?" Ivonne asked them "I'm opening the portal"

They watched her as she moved her hands in some kind of circle and then pushed it forward. Portal opened.

"Welcome to the Avengers reality" she said with some fear in her voice "everyone remembers who they need to find?"

Everyone remembered so they went through the portal. They appeared in New York, near the Avengers Tower.

"Good luck" Verch said "see you soon"

Steve walked down the street to the Tower, Verch caught a bus to Louisiana, Ivonne quickly found out which way she should go and Charles turned back and went to the city centre.

------------------------- "Stargazing"

Steve was standing before the Tower. He took a deep breath and opened the door. He took a lift to highest floor. The lift stopped and he got out. He was home.

His best friends were here but who should he talk to first? Who would believe him? Sam was in his house, Bucky also was away and Scott... well he didn't know but he definitely was not here. Suddenly the idea flashed in his head. Thor! He would believe him if he wasn't in Asgard. Steve went to the living room, expecting at least one of his friends to be there. He was right but the person chilling on the sofa wasn't Thor.

"Steve! You're back" Clint shouted as he saw Steve coming "where have you been mate?!"

"Oh you wouldn't believe me" Steve hugged his friend "I was in alternate reality"

"For real?! Oh God this is amazing!" Clint looked now like a puppy whom you offered a walk "how does it look like, are the people nice, do I exist there, are there superheroes, is there McDonald-"

"Clint please don't ask me this much questions in one minute, my brain aches" Steve laughed "it's pretty much like ours, but there are no Avengers, their superheroes are called X-Men"

"Did you meet them?" Clints eyes shone like two stars from excitement

"Yes, to be honest I lived with two of them in one house for three weeks. They're really nice" Steve tried to calm Clint down

"What superpowers do they have?" Clint couldn't stop asking

"They're both telepaths but one has also powers pretty much like Wanda's"

"What are their names and can I meet them?"

"They are Charles and Ivonne and no, you cannot you HAVE TO. We need your help to patch the multiversal mess up"

"OH. MY. GOD IM GONNA TRAVEL TO ANOTHER UNIVERSE" Clint yelled so loud that he woke up Tony

"Why are you yelling Clint" Tony asked with a sleepy voice "Oh hey Steve, I thought you died"

"Hello Tony, no I'm not dead" Steve was not surprised with Tony's joke "Clint you tell him, I'm gonna find and informate the rest"

"Of course Cap" Clint saluted as Steve walked to the kitchen. Steve heard Clint happily explain everything to Tony and Tony sobbing cause he didn't understand anything from Clint's babbling.

"At least they didn't change" Steve whispered to himself.

---------------------------------

Verch got out of the bus and looked around. She was in Louisiana and she needed to find one person. From what Steve told her and she knew herself she figured out that she needs to go to the forest so she did. Few minutes later she walked onto a lawn. She saw a nice looking house and two kids playing outside of it.

"Hey boys" she smiled at them "can you tell me if Sam Wilson lives here?"

"Yup, he does" the taller one answered "should I ask him to come here?"

"Yes, thank you" Verch answered. Boys went to the house and she waited outside. After a minute Sam walked out of the house.

"Oh my, Verch! Hi its been a while" he smiled and hugged her "it's so nice to see you"

"Back at you Birdie" Verch hugged him back

"So what is going on? I know that you want something from me, what happened?"

"Multiverse. Steve, I and our new friends are assembling the team to fix the problem"

"Let me guess, your new friends are not from our world"

"How did you- okay nevermind. Yes they are, and they will help us a lot. When we get everyone from our universe we gonna find heroes from theirs"

"Who do you have for now?"

"Me, Steve, Clint for sure, maybe Nat and Bruce, Thor, Tony if he will not laugh at Steve and you"

"Nice team, what about Wanda and Vision?"

"We don't know where to find them. But we will ask Doctor Strange if he wants to join"

"Oh that's great, are you gonna ask Bucky? I personally think he would be very useful"

"Right, we have that covered tho. One of our new friends is going to ask him"

"Is he or she a good fighter? Just in case Bucky gets,, you know scared"

"She's a telepath"

"Well then I think she will handle him. Also, I'm in. I wanna be in the team"

"Thanks Sam"

------------------------------

Ivonne stopped before a bar. She felt persistence of Bucky Barnes inside it. Thanks to everything Steve told her about him, he was easy to find. But, she was a telepath so everyone was easy to find for her.

She entered the bar and quickly located Barnes. He was sitting in the darkest corner, alone. She took her chance and sat at other side of his table.

"What do you want" he asked her, his voice sounded a bit russian.

"I want your help, James" she used his first name cause she didn't know if she can call him Bucky.

"Wow I see youre informed" he sounded chill but she felt his thoughts - his head was flashing red lights

"Not to worry James, I'm not your enemy, i don't want to hurt you. I'm Ivonne Xavier, Steve Rogers sent me" she thought it won't be a good idea to reveal her powers till she won't fully trust him

"So that's how you knew my name" he finally raised his head and looked at her. His eyes were nearly same color to Charles'.

"Yeah. Stev- WE need your help. Multiverse emerged and we need everyone we can get help from to fix it. You are on the list"

"We? Who do you mean?"

"Me, Steve, Verch and my fiancé. Also the entire world and probably the whole multiverse"

"Wait.. you're not from our universe are you? No, don't answer, if you were you would've been recruited by the Avengers long time ago. You clearly have superpowers"

"How did you know?"

"When you entered the bar, door opened but you didn't use your arm for this. Yes, you raised your hand but none of your muscles moved when you opened the door. Small detail, I think noone spotted it except me"

"Wow you have nice sight. Anyway, do you wanna join our funky team?"

"Give me time to think about it" he thought about something for a second "come back in two hours. I'll tell you what I decided"

"Sure. See you in two hours then" she stood up and left with a thought that James is definitely hiding something, but she didn't know what. Yet.

----------------------------------

177A Bleeker Street. Charles read the address and looked at the building he had in front of him. He was at the right place. He knew it not only because the address was right but also because he sensed someone very powerful inside of the building. Probably Doctor Strange. Now he needed to convince Sorcerer Supreme to help him.

He took a deep breath and opened the door. He was in a big hall, before him there were huge stairs. He raised his hand to his head and "scanned" the area upstairs. Nothing.

"Well, you're a telepath. Nice gift" Charles heard a voice on his right. He moved around and saw a tall, dark haired man in a long, red cloak.

"You're Doctor Strange right? Steve Rogers sent me, we need your help"

"Yes, it's me. And what do you need help with? Multiverse, maybe?"

"Exactly. So you already know something about it"

"Yes, it is in fact a multiverse, and I suppose you are from a parallel universe, am I right?"

"You are. Anyway, would you help us fix the problem? You would help a lot, cause we don't know much about realities, universes and stuff like that"

"Let me think.. yeah I think I can help you. In fact, I was actually gonna start looking for a solution for the multiverse issue and I've already collected some clues"

"That's great! When do we start?"

-------------------------------

[saeyoungchoismaid]

Lucky Charms | chp. 2

Pairing: Satan x f!reader  Genre: fantasy au  Warnings: none Word Count: 2.1k Summary: The huntress goes after the magical, elegant creature that she discovered the day before. What will she find? Chapter: 2/?  A/N: Y’all I actually did research on the history of the bathtub at 5 am without going to sleep yet lmao. And yeah I figured out what the first tub was like and whatnot lmao

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Lucky Charms Masterlist

After winning and passing the Hunting Games, you decided to go home. Watching the people who lost and will be separated from their friends, family, and everyone they’ve grown up around made you feel sick. 

You couldn’t even bring yourself to think about the people that didn’t even return. 

You ignore everyone’s cheers and laughter on their walk to the tavern, your stomach grumbling from lack of food. It’s kind of hard to eat when you're trying to find a way to keep your life intact. 

Your walk home was long, your legs and feet working against you as they cry out in agony. As soon as you reach your cabin, you almost collapse from exhaustion. You make sure to eat something though, an apple, to at least give yourself some nutrition. 

You barely finish it before you pass out, remaining asleep until late morning the next day. Once you wake up, you feel your stomach rumbling, demanding for more food. Guess that’s what woke you up. 

After making yourself breakfast, quite a late breakfast, you go to the watering hole. You gather enough water for a bath, walking back and forth from your cabin to the well with a bucket until you’ve gathered enough. 

You pour the water in the bucket into the container above the fire in your backyard just by your door. You watch as the water eventually starts to bubble, letting you know it’s time to move it. You then start the transporting process all over again. You move the water from over the fire to the tub. You know already by the time you get all of the water into the tub, it’s not scorching anymore. You let out a sigh as you slip out of your clothes and then slide into the tub. 

You sigh again when your body is submerged in the water, feeling the heat pull a lot of tension from you. You close your eyes, trying to relax into the water. You have to quickly open them though, finding the crying and heart broken competitors behind your lids. You also got a glimpse of what might have happened to the ones who didn’t return. 

You sigh and run your hands over your face, massaging your temples after rubbing at your eyes for a moment. You just need to relax. Don’t think about it. It’s not your problem. Relax. 

You take a deep breath and let it go, trying to let your mind wander to pure and innocent things. That’s when you think of the unicorn, the very definition of pure and innocent. It was following you, was it not? But for how long? And why?

Well, it was there when you had the run-in with the ogre. You saw it and then it saved you. After you ran away, you saw it again at that pond. It must have followed you there. 

But the question is why. Why help you? Why save you? Why reveal itself at all? Humans killed their species to extinction. At least, that’s what everyone thinks. It must know that. Or maybe it’s just the way of life in its eyes because there’s more of them? Maybe it was young when the others died? 

With these thoughts, you sit up in the tub. You quickly scrub yourself clean before getting out, making a note to yourself to get rid of the water later. You dry yourself off and get dressed into fresh, clean clothes. After that, you start getting ready. 

Ready for your journey to track down the, maybe last, unicorn. 

You pack food that won’t spoil quickly, fresh clothes, clean water, weapons of all kinds, a journal, a quill, and ink. Once everything is either in your pack or on your personnel, you make your way into your yard. There, you slip through the same split in the fence you did yesterday. 

The trip is much shorter to get to where you originally were yesterday, seeing as how you know where you’re heading now. You make sure to avoid the ogre’s area, not wanting to risk another run-in. 

You stay around those woods though, looking for another flash of white just like your first glimpse of the majestic creature. After hanging out in the woods for a couple hours with no luck, you decide to move on. 

The other place you saw it was at the pond, so maybe it’d be there again. 

You eat some fruit as you walk, taking in the landscape now that you actually have the time to enjoy it. Sometimes you forget just how beautiful the scenery is where you live. You had a friend when you were younger who moved away from here. You still write each other letters to this day. They tell you about how they live with sand and prickly plants. They always tell you they miss the tall trees and creeks that surround your village. 

It’s hard to imagine leaving this place. You grew up here. Forests and woodland creatures are all you know. Everything else is just a tale or something you’ve read in a book. You’d never tell anyone but you’ve thought about traveling beyond what the maps show. 

Your mind pauses its fantasies when you reach the same pond as yesterday. You walk towards the water and go to your knees, dropping your bag off your shoulders before wetting your hands and running them over your warm forehead and cheeks. You then splash the cool water onto your face, helping you to remove the sweat and grime. 

You use your shirt to wipe the water away, closing your eyes to listen to the gentle ripple of the water and the sounds of nature. While you’re doing this though, something in the back of your mind wills you to open your eyes. Your brows furrow before doing so and you gasp when you see it.

The unicorn. 

It’s standing across the pond again. This time though, instead of being on the ground by the water on the other side again, it’s standing on the edge of a rocky hill beyond where it was standing yesterday. You gasp again and quickly stand, staring up at it from your position. You slowly bend down to pick up your things, just as slowly siding your bag back on. 

When you start to walk around the pond to get closer to it though, it takes this as its time to exit. “Wait! Please!” you call out to it, swiftly starting to run after it. It effortlessly hops along the rocks to get higher up, making you huff as you watch it. You quickly reach the bottom of the hill and take a deep breath before starting to climb your way up the rocks. 

It’s not getting away from you that easily again. 

Once you’re a couple feet off the ground, you look up to find that the unicorn has already disappeared. You curse and climb faster, completely disregarding your safety. 

You apparently do that a lot. 

Luckily for you this time, nothing happens. 

You climb to the top with zero grace and find yourself jealous of how graceful the unicorn is. You look around at the top as you regain your breath, seeing that the unicorn is nowhere in sight. You shake your head and look over the edge you just climbed, surprised and impressed with the skill that it took. 

As you’re looking down, you notice tracks right beside you. You smile victoriously as you briskly, but quietly, start to follow them. You wondered why you or no one else has ever seen the unicorn’s tracks before. Did it leave them on purpose? 

You can’t help but to laugh a bit at your ridiculous question. As if the unicorn could control something like that. Maybe others have seen them but just assumed it was a wild horse? I mean, that’s basically what this is. A wild horse with a horn. 

After what feels like an eternity of walking, you eventually start to hear rushing water. You think it’s a creek until you get closer. 

It’s a waterfall. 

You smile at this, finding yourself growing excited. There aren’t that many waterfalls around your village. On hot days, a lot of villagers like to go to the creeks or whatever water source they can find. You included. You normally go to more secluded ones that are a bit farther away. 

This waterfall is definitely far away from your village. It’s no wonder you don’t know about this one. Momentarily forgetting about the unicorn, you run in the direction of where the water is pouring down from high above to meet the still water below. You smile when you break the trees to a clearing, all the breath leaving you at the sight. 

It is literally breathtaking. 

You quickly run to the edge of the rippling water and take off your bag to drop it to the ground. With that off, your clothes soon follow it. You’re all alone out here and all this traveling has you burning up. Once your chemise is dropped onto your bag with the rest of your clothes, you let one foot into the water. You giggle at the difference of temperature, small goosebumps rising on your skin. 

Before you can chicken out, you quickly run into the water before submerging yourself in the cool substance. You reemerge with a laugh, moving your hair out of your face. This water is definitely cooler than you thought it’d be but it feels amazing on your heated skin. 

You swim around for a bit before going under the waterfall to let the water rush over you. When you move back for air, you notice that there is a cave behind it. You make a note to yourself to check it out later when you’re done swimming. After probably hours of swimming, you start floating to give your body a break. You stare up at the swaying trees and swirling clouds in the sky, trying to look for shapes and figures in the clouds. You then register you’ve never been this relaxed in a long time. Before you even realize it, your eyes are slipping closed. You wish nothing more than to be able to sleep but you’d rather not drown today. 

Some time later, who knows exactly how long, something wet starts to hit your face. You open your eyes and see that the sun is gone along with the white puffy clouds. Taking their place is dark, gloomy clouds and little droplets starting to fall from the sky. 

You sigh as you swim to the shore, grabbing your now wet clothes. You head for the waterfall, knowing it’s going to be hard to get back to your village without the sun as your guide, and it’s not exactly easy walking through a storm. You sling your bag over your shoulder and bundle your clothes into your arm as you run towards the waterfall.

Someone in your village was once struck by a zap of light from the sky. Everyone started saying he was a bad man who was punished by the gods. You aren’t sure what to believe at this point. 

You grin as you briskly climb the short distance to the cave, happily crawling in. You sigh in relief, wondering how you got so lucky to have come across this cave earlier. You look at the pointed rocks a bit aways from the entrance and decide to hang your clothes from them to get them to dry out. Who knows how long this rain will last. You look in your bag and find that your clothes in there are also wet. You groan and do the same with them, wrapping your arms around your torso when you’re done. 

It’s honestly freeing to be completely naked like this. 

You sit by the entrance and listen to the waterfall, sometimes putting your feet into the water. You sit there for hours, looking to the sides of the waterfall to find that it’s still pouring. Without meaning to, you fall asleep right there on the edge with your feet dangling off. 

After hours and hours of being asleep, you’re awakened by some weird urge to open your eyes. It’s weird since you’re asleep and dreaming. It just feels like something you should do in your dream at first. But then, the idea becomes more prominent. 

You groan as you slowly start to wake up, bringing your hands to your eyes to scrub the sleep out of them. When you open them though, you're met with something that you never thought in a million years would appear before you. 

A naked man hovering over you. 

┍━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━┑

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[darkpoisonouslove]

Winx Club Season 8 Thoughts Part 1

Here I am! The latest season of Winx. Can’t believe I made it here (especially after I sped through seasons 6 and 7). I am kinda excited about this because I am finally getting to watch the second part (I have seen the first one) and I think that after season 7, it really can’t get that much worse. Also, I am now used to the idea of the art style even if I still despise it completely and passionately. So let’s do this!

8x01:

- Who thought this art style was a good idea? And why did they have to bring the band back? That was so unnecessary. But at least the song in the opening isn’t bad.

- So... Bloom is the main vocalist but they just leave Musa to write all the songs? Didn’t think that could get more unfair and yet it did. Also, love how they changed the art style but Stella is still acting as immature as she has since season 4.

- Kiko is actually being acknowledged in the second minute? Please, tell me that will last after the lumens.

- Oh, wow, the plot is already starting? I am actually pleasantly surprised. Took them only two minutes.

- Ugh, not Obscurum! Pleaaaaaase!

- Lumenia is the star that lights Solaria? Does that mean it is the first sun of Solaria? Okay... That’s actually kinda cool.

- Oh, great! The one with all the info has amnesia! But actually, that might be a good idea because not everything is convenient for damn once! Edit: And Timmy and Tecna are back to being inventors! *happy sob*

- How is a scare supposed to trigger memories? By inducing a flashback of traumatic events? That’s cool but fear can also cause memory blockages. So idk about that. Lmao @ Kiko with that hammer, though. You might have the right idea, Kiko. We’ll come back to you once Twinkly gets annoying.

- The dissonance between the maturity of the Specialists’ voices and their FUCKING FACES! It is unbearable!

- Oh, Kiko is hitting on Twinkly? XD Jk. He just wants to cheer her up and it’s actually really cute. Almost makes up for them totally ruining his design.

- Not a song number! I am forewarning everyone that I will be skipping all of those.

- Omg! A scene of the Specialists talking? About their own stuff?!??! And them messing around with each other (read: mocking each other (and especially Nex)). We haven’t had that since... season 4? It was sorely missed, THANK YOU!

- Riven is back!

- And Knut is back! But wtf is up with Griselda’s voice? Also, how did they change her design the least, yet still totally ruined it? I cannot comprehend that! Lmao at her gestures at Knut, though!

- The memories of Twinkly actually looked pretty scary and traumatic. I can’t believe I am saying this but this season is doing a decent job so far and even more than that.

- Dammit, why do I have to suffer Butterflix again?

- I was gonna say that that was quick but the thing actually reappeared. That’s... pretty nice. Could be used to such a great advantage! And it was actually Stella’s spell that worked and not Bloom’s? They gave up on their obsession with Bloom to make this make sense? Um, yes, please?

- Okay, stealing starlight sounds like a rocking plan as soon as they explain well why the hell that is the goal here.

- Yeah, Stella, you are so damn cautious! Girl, you’re almost as impulsive as Bloom. (But XD @ “Caution is our middle name... More of a nickname, really”)

8x02:

- Twinkly: Where am I? Me: At Alfea. Shut up!

- Why does this show have such an aversion to letting Kiko sleep in peace, dammit?!

- Flora has a plant that takes care of other plants? Omg, that is so cool! And we’re finally seeing her care for the plants in her room again! This season is already better than seasons 6 and 7 combined.

- Stella could just use magic to shrink down that enormous suitcase.

- Omg, they’re spending time with their boyfriends again instead of just screeching at them for no reason whatsoever? Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Why are Winx mad that the Specialists didn’t tell them about Riven? What would it have changed? They still would have been shocked. And why the hell is Musa yelling at Riven? They broke up! He doesn’t owe her a schedule of his every waking moment! I hate this reaction.

- Why... are the outfits gonna let them travel in space? I mean, can you imagine how cool they could have looked in spacesuits?

- Wow, that’s a lot of pink. But that IS the Winx aesthetic to differer from the aesthetic shown in you-know-what.

- Why is the queen ruler of all the stars and not just of Lumenia? Otherwise, the star lore is pretty cool. I have to say that the whole thing with the rivers reminds of the Underworld a lot which is an interesting parallel to dwell on.

- Stella is pretty amazing in this already indeed!

- Oh, the crystal monsters. I remember those. They were really annoying. And I am not a fan of the upcoming transformation upgrade.

- Did the Specialists follow them there? Not the most unshady thing they’ve done but at least they’re helping. Also, I would like to point Netflix’ attention to the way their weapons look! Take a close look!

- OH MY GOD! Someone had a smart idea here! They are actually handling themselves even though their powers aren’t all that effective! Riven is saving Musa and being awesome! This is good enough to make me cry, wtf?

- Ooh, damn! Love the way Valtor’s mark showed up and how actually bothered by it they acted! That was cool and really created a good atmosphere!

- They saved the river AND they actually talked about the sneaking around in a (mostly) mature manner? And they resolved the conflict? RIVEN IS COMMUNICATING?????? This season is a fucking treat so far! Except for Musa being a goddamn primadonna!

- Valtor’s new design is also pretty close to his original one and yet... just NOT. IT!

- Cosmix time. Okay, the visuals are actually quite pretty (I especially love the fact that they look transparent at first; I have a feeling there’s a nice symbolism to this but I’ll have to think about it a bit more). The song isn’t bad either but it’s a little repetitive,

- They probably could have done better with the name than “star yummies” but it isn’t quite so bad. I mean, we’ve seen worse and this is pretty minor considering that they’re doing pretty well with almost everything else (so far and I hope I am not jinxing this).

8x03:

- Okay, the name sounds dumb but it’s accurate.

- I have to say that I saw the twist with Obscurum coming even if I was only clicking through the episodes when I first watched this but now I want to see if it was foreshadowed. Him saying he wants to rule Lumenia still isn’t enough foreshadowing but it does raise the question of why Lumenia specifically so it’s headed in the right direction at least.

- Nice move, Stella! And, omg, did Flora just use something that’s not vines? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am getting really hyped up over here.

- They’re thinking! They’re actually instantly adapting to the problems that they are facing! Man, this is even better than season 1! HOW? Not that I care. Just don’t let it stop!

- So Valtor is actually using starlight to buff himself on a magical level? And in season 1 they said that starlight was the purest source of magic (4kids). Is this... continuity between the first and the latest season??????? I am literally tearing up over here because I never believed this moment would come but it has and it is beautiful!

- Not a fan of the Valtor and Obscurum dynamic because it is just... a big no again, just like his working relationship with the Trix (except I can’t decide if this is worse because Obscurum is afraid or if s3 was worse because Valtor was leading the Trix on about *gags* you know (don’t make me say it)). Love the castle in the stars, though! So cool (even if it is also so very impractical).

- Man, Twinkly really is just a stand-in for the pixies, isn’t she? Same bravery and complete and utter uselessness balance.

- Stella is fucking shining and I am loving it! But did Obscurum just say “erase them”? You mean... this has actual stakes? And Bloom’s projection of the Dragon Fire makes sense because Cosmix is light-based? Musa is using an attack that basically acts like an earthquake except without the damage aka... safe for usage? I am going to pass out from happiness. Like, you don’t even know.

- THEY ACTUALLY LOST?????? And they are not giving up but... coming up with a plan???? That is smart??????????????????? I am in love with this season for now.

- They powered the core! And that will now cause Valtor to make a shift in his strategy! This season is actually dynamic! Goddamit, yes!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

-  Obscurum to Valtor: “Something more intimate? You, me...” ... Why is he hitting on him? Bleh. But damn! The trap dimension has so much potential!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Oh, song time. Goodie. Why is Obscurum acting like he has the dancing plague? And, for fuck’s sake, why am I getting Christian Grey vibes from Valtor? Ugh! *shudders* Please, no! But he is actually taking Winx seriously and coming up with countermeasures? Um, yes, I will take that!

- Ugh, why are they having classes again?! I hate that part!

- Sky, you know where they were! But I actually kinda like the change to have Bloom be the one that doesn’t have time for dating instead of having her sulking over Sky being a prince and having royal duties the whole time.

- What do you mean that Griselda doesn’t know what is going on? This is not Griselda!

- Tecna, watch what you’re putting in your damn potion! I know Musa fucked up but you could have checked what she handed you!

- Aww, Tecna throwing a dance party to cheer Musa up was so cute! And look at Stella dragging all that luggage up the stairs on her own! She is precious (and devoted to fashion but this time in a not so annoying manner... so far.)

8x04:

- Dammit, why is Obscurum the first thing I see?

- Okay, it’s pretty cute how excited Bloom is. And all the rest of Winx helping Sky while at the same time judging him for not being better for Bloom and putting more effort in it. This is just the dynamic! I love it!

- Musical food? What the hell, Musa?! But lmao at the Sky and Flora moment there. And Musa and Layla’s reaction to his words. But he was right. Flora was the only one being useful.

- What picnic under the stars? There are no stars! It’s the middle of the day!

- Oh, why the drama now? Bloom also forgot their date in the previous episode because of her mission. Sky is doing the exact same rn! Hypocrisy much?

- “Your Great Malevolence” and “Your Vileness”? I don’t like Obscurum but his decorum is amusing at the very least.

- But if a star has to be attacked before it will alert them that they need to go there, they won’t be one step ahead of Valtor. They might be able to catch up with him but they are still one step behind him.

- A moving star. That was actually a cool idea although I am not sure how the hell that is supposed to work.

- Why have those lumens never heard of music? But damn, I am actually happy that they made the band plot relevant (for all of 3 seconds). At least make it have some purpose.

- At least Bloom actually also supported Sky while attacking him. She is literally the definition of mixed signals here but that’s better than her just being plain mad.

- Can they use the music to capture the star yummies in a trance? That would be nice and it would justify having the band in this season.

- Stella is having the time for a selfie while actually being super effective and handling that part of the mess on her own? Yes, please! Where was that in the previous seasons?!

- The thief is not “trying” to attack. He is attacking! But damn, Brandon made some good moves there! Are you telling me that we actually get to see the Specialists doing their own missions again plus a really cute parallel between Brandon and Stella? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it!

- They’re being pulled in a black hole? Holy shit! This season is actually getting intense! And it makes sense? I am shooketh! Can Stella save them with her light, though?

- Oh, nvm! They’re gonna do it together. Eh, that still works I guess.

- The Specialists were really working as a team here and I have missed seeing that so much! It’s great to have the show acknowledge them again. It could have only been better if they didn’t look like first graders.

8x05:

- Oh, now the whole starship is being pulled into the black hole? That is actually cool! They are maintaining the tension for more than three seconds and they are showing how things actually function? Well, there’s a big surprise.

- I am glad that they are actually solving this but why couldn’t Stella generate stardust herself? She is the fairy of the sun, the moon and the stars. It would have been really interesting to see her do that and this season’s theme is right up her alley.

- Valtor’s failure is kinda amusing. But I feel a little bad about Obscurum because he literally has to walk on eggshells around Valtor. No one should have to be put through anxiety like that.

- Ooh, zero gravity plus invisibility device? That is so cool!

- I wish Bloom and Sky would have talked about their little drama with the surprise, especially because there was no need for it since the delay actually helped make things even better and much more romantic. And I am also not all that sold on the Beauty and the Beast vibes I am getting from this.

- Why is Musa acting like that again? Riven is trying to be supportive and take interest in her music. I know that he ran away but obviously something happened.

- Good thing that Riven is being competent while the rest are busy partying. He did pretty well considering that he just intercepted a planned heist and he wasn’t prepared.

- Aren’t you supposed to drift in space instead of fall as if there’s gravity?

- I am a little done with the ship being threatened yet again because it can’t move without the stupid core but I really want to see how Winx are gonna save it now that the ruby is stolen.

- Maybe if they try something else other than generic blasts they may be able to defeat it.

- Valtor was the one that summoned the black hole? And he is getting low on magic juice? That kinda makes sense now that he doesn’t have Dragon Fire anymore.

- O-kay. That strategy was semi logical. Not the best they have done but it could have been worse.

- Selfish? He is trying to save a whole planet! It wasn’t like he was stealing it for the money! No, I get it that his actions weren’t okay but Musa is being a bitch to everyone. And what she just said to Riven. She is refusing to give him a second chance but is acting like she’s the one who is making all the compromises here!

8x06:

- Why wouldn’t he be allowed on Eridia? Oh, he really fucked up the core.

- Oh, shut the fuck up, Orion! It is your fault it didn’t work because you were the one who broke the core and now it can’t hold the light!

- Flora is really rooting (whoops) for abandoning the core. Nice one! How the fuck does she think to save the plants without fucking light?!?!?!?!

- Can I throw Orion in the black hole? HE is the one who fucked the whole thing up because he didn’t know what he was doing and now he is yelling at them that they don’t have a plan! Even though they agreed to help him instead of throwing him in jail!

- At least Valtor is adapting to the situation on the go and coming up with new strategies. But Orion is such a fool. He is desperate but why didn’t he consider the question of why the hell Valtor would care? Obviously he has beef with Winx which puts him at the not-so-trustworthy column.

- Man, Riven is right. Orion is a damn actor and very good at playing them. That isn’t his problem, of course, but the Winx’. I just wish Musa would think instead of pout the whole time.

- Shut up about the goddamn plants, Flora! You can’t save them in any longterm way without fixing the core of the planet first!

- DO NOT make “starsome” a thing. It sounds ridiculous. It doesn’t even make sense!

- Riven is actually discussing how he feels with the other Specialists? And they’re having fun (even if it is at his expense)? Why does Musa refuse to see how much he’s changed? I hate the way they are just trying to make more stupid drama!

- You do not look like big lumens to me but okay. Twinkly has a serious crush on her friend, doesn’t she?

- Yes, we all know that Tecna is a genius. And that is why she doesn’t become pray to stupid love drama when there is no reason for any!

- How the hell was Stella supposed to know if it will actually be safer? She said it looked safer! There is a difference! Also, they are only now wondering why Orion left them on their own!

- Now you guys are screwed! But wtf, why did Tecna just covere her eyes instead of... trying to do something like the rational person that she actually is! And you have to love how they only had Flora and Stella arguing so that they will have to come together to save the rest giving the illusion that they are actually undergoing some development. But hey! An episode without a musical number!

8x07:

- What is this now? Are they trying to make us sympathize with Orion by showing some remorse on his part? It is not working!

- They made Obscurum a cheerleader? He seems to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, though he is not exactly a prisoner or hostage of Valtor’s. But still. There is some kind of similar vibes.

- Cool! They revealed that the star yummies are actually corrupted lumens. That was a pretty clever idea, not gonna lie. And it is totally on brand for Valtor which is also great.

- Well, I don’t see you, lumens, fixing the fucking core yourselves so you might wanna start appreciating the fact that they’re trying! They didn’t know the core was broken and wouldn’t hold the Cosmix light!

- And how do you plan on saving them, Orion? You have no idea what you’re up against and you just betrayed the only people that cared about helping you!

- Why is Twinkly not being corrupted like all the other lumens? They are different in some way that was never explained but it was already implied that the corruption works on ALL of the lumens! So what gives? Except obvious plot convenience, of course.

- So Flora actually tried something else and didn’t go for the vines at all? I am shocked... but appreciative!

- Why aren’t the plants answering? Are they too dead for words? But that spell was actually pretty cool! They made a little sun that also has nature powers added to it to shine on all of the plants at once! That was so clever and actually pretty creative! I love it!

- The nature defeating technology theme is a little misplaced I would say considering the way they fix the problem with the broken cores of the stars later on.

- Wait! Winx were transformed when the robot caught them. Why did they have to transform again and when did the transformations disappear?

- They didn’t actually fight the thing! So far their powers have been used very little for actual battle and a lot more in creative ways to restore the balance of the stars. That actually makes a lot of sense since that was what the Cosmix was for! I like it!

- Did they just make a magical sun out of Stella’s powers by boosting her energy? This was awesome!

- Why did they think Orion was the one that changed the lumens? They know that Valtor is the one working with Obscurum and commanding them! That was such a stupid guess and for what? To give Obscurum some kind of “witty” line for his entrance?

- Orion does have cool inventions but for being a genius creator he is being a fucking dumbass! Oh, now you want to be “united” with them. After you almost got them killed and your planet fucked over big time.

- Musa is gonna give Orion a third chance but she’s gonna keep being a bitch to Riven, huh?

- Wizgiz’ redesign is giving me nightmares. Why is he teaching them something that they have been doing literally since season 2 and just did not three minutes ago?!?!?!?! And why are Knut and Kiko painting the yard pink? Really? Just so that Winx can show what they have learned even though they’ve known it for about seven years now?!?!?!?!

- Submarine star? That sounds rocking. But wait, they are using Sirenix in the next ep? Why don’t I remember that? I have watched this... I think. Yes, I have. I remember the stupidity and Nex and Layla having a moment. So why don’t I remember Sirenix?

8x08:

- I thought Valtor was on the scene and then it turned out he was just in an illusion. *sigh* And why can’t he just go himself? He is not doing anything this season. Just sitting on his ass and bossing Obscurum around. It’s just... not Valtor at all. And what’s this obsession with fucking up Andros every goddamn time he shows up?

- Aww, Winx are being so adorable and supportive! Nex, too, though that is OOC. But I can’t understand why Layla didn’t just pick up the phone and tell Nex that she needs him to stop calling so that she can focus. What is so hard about that?

- I like this version of Stella’s fashion obsession. It feels a lot more natural and isn’t overtaking the whole group and the show.

- Well, they didn’t ruin Theredor and Niobe’s designs! That’s something. And Ligea looks pretty much the same as well. I don’t understand why they felt the need to fuck up Winx and the Specialists’ designs but okay.

- Why are they making Layla unable to remember three sentences? She can do much more than that and she has always been the most capable one of Winx and an exemplary princess.

- Oh, so they already mentioned that the queen’s brother disappeared exactly when Valtor showed up (How tf does she even know that? The flashback that was shown later plus the fact that no one seemed to know Valtor was back before Winx saw his mark in 8x02 contradict that.). That and Obscurum saying he wants to rule Lumenia plus Valtor’s obvious knack for corrupting and changing everyone that’s working for him, spill it all out.

- Pretty sure no one at that party cares about Twinkly but whatevs. As long as she isn’t on screen to be annoying.

- Nex transformation time!

- Sirenix is back (never has that ever happened before) and I hate the redesign even more than the original. Didn’t think it was possible. They have also fucked up the transformation sequence and made it more boring. Nice move!

- Why is Layla refusing to talk? Coming forth about her feelings is gonna make it better. I like that Nex is actually being sensitive here even if he never naturally changed to become like that and they are just writing him wildly OOC. But he was so much of an asshole that I prefer this tbh.

- How the fuck do Sirenix powers have no effect on “a creature of darkness”? They went on the Sirenix Quest to defeat Tritanus who was definitely a creature of darkness! The writers don’t even know what they’re saying anymore. At least they left Winx handling the shark even if their powers aren’t working on it. If they’d sent Nex after it and Winx after Obscurum, it would have been too convenient.

- I like the fact that they managed when their magic was useless against the enemy. At least the writers are being a little more creative in the battles by making them rely more on strategy rather than on their powers. I can accept generic blasts and beams if the idea is that that makes their magic so useless that they need to find a creative solution.

- Nex is rooting for teamwork? He really has changed. I just wish they would have shown that instead of just jumping the gun like that.

8x09:

- Why didn’t they try trapping the star yummies in a morphix net? Or something that Tecna made with her magic? Or figured out a way to close the portals that let the star yummies come and go?

- They’re gonna make THAT a problem? Breathing underwater without Sirenix? Not like Layla has been able to breathe underwater continuously throughout seasons 2-5 without the need for Sirenix. AND she also taught the others how to perform the spell. This is such a non-problem.

- They also changed the Sirenix spells, didn’t they?

- They have been in tougher predicaments. I hate how they keep making Layla despair without a reason because she has always had a damn fighting spirit.

- Oh, look! It’s the anemone stupidity. And how is Stella supposed to wake up when she is under the influence of the anemone sting? You could try a spell if you want to wake her up, Flora!

- You’d think the lumens of Andros would know their fucking princess!!!!!

- What was the big idea with rushing out of the cave if Layla didn’t have a plan? Also, she was the one that figured out the anemones attacked when they were provoked, yet she kept attacking. Stop fucking attacking them! It’s only making things worse! Jeez, it’s not so hard to figure out that you shouldn’t antagonize them.

- So the Andros lumens sing but the Peripla ones have never heard of the existence of music? Pretty damn solid. Also, they just sang the same melody the whole time even after Layla asked them for something extra beautiful.

- How the hell did she fill the morphix with air? Did she pull all the water out in the morphix shielding and only left the oxygen atoms inside to make up oxygen molecules? This somehow doesn’t seem normal but anyway.

- So what unspelled the shark? The light of Gorgol? The living star? The starfish star? They are really starting to fuck up this season.

- Love how they never said how many years old Andros is becoming!

- Why did they make the trap dimension look like a pinball machine? What was up with that? And why did Gravity Falls do it so much better?

8x10:

- So now Alfea is having an anniversary as well? And why the fuck is Twinkly only asking now about the meaning of anniversary when they already were at the anniversary party on Andros? And they really made “starsome” a recurring slang? I hate it.

- Why is Faragonda letting the students organize the anniversary? Also, not a fan of how these latest seasons are making Griselda and Faragonda look not so fond of each other. They definitely felt a lot more in sync in the first seasons.

- Lmao, love how Winx are roasting themselves. But I cannot believe that no one has said anything about Helia’s ugliest haircut... yet. They couldn’t have possibly fucked it up more after the season 4 disaster and they somehow did! Fucking spectacular! And why is Riven wearing a scarf? When the fuck have you seen Riven with a scarf? This is ridiculous!

- Love the way Flora and Helia just decided that they will be matchmakers now! But I do think that they should first try figuring out why Musa can’t forgive Riven before deciding she will trust him.

- Why didn’t Twinkly just sit on Riven’s shoulder instead of plopping herself down right on top of the controls? The zero gravity dancing was actually pretty cute but Musa could have tried just dancing with Riven. Or at least they could have said something about why she feels like she can’t even dance with him (because she feels him unfamiliar anymore or something).

- Hypsos looks so very familiar but I can’t place it. Reminds a little of Amentia’s kingdom tbh.

- I cannot believe that the Twinkly and Lumila storyline will actually have a bearing on the real plot. How did they manage? Though, I suppose I should be happy about that.

- Turning a constellation into an actual monster was a damn good idea! Although, the writers sort of implied that Valtor has the power level of a god which has not been supported by the narrative. He was such a stronger villain in season 3.

- So... what did they do? Did they send the Hydra through the portal that the star yummies use? I actually remember it being a bigger threat and harder to defeat. Is this really the end?

- Oh, look! They can reverse the star yummy corruption with the power of love! Cut to the wedding (of Twinkly and Lumila).

- I said wedding, not a fucking concert!

- Musa, I don’t even know you anymore! Since when doesn’t she want to be the center of attention! She was literally mad at him because he hadn’t called aka paid her attention! Besides, she’s a singer (which you couldn’t fucking guess from the fact that Bloom is the goddamn vocalist!). What do you mean that he exposed her? Those are just some outlined images projected! She is a lot more exposed when she sings on stage! This is so goddamn stupid! Season 2 Musa would never.

- And why are they making Flora and Helia fuck up their own sync over Musa and Riven? They should just not meddle and keep their own relationship in harmony!

8x11:

- I am so glad we’re getting rid of Obscurum soon. I have had it with him! “Go undercover as one of [Winx]”? What the actual fuck?!

- Why is the trap dimension a goddamn gaming universe? They are truly wasting its potential! And why not just shove Winx in there?!

- Flora and Helia have never had a disagreement before? Come again? And now she’s saying they never even had different opinions on anything? That is so totally healthy, you know. And the implication that that is how a relationship should be. Wow! Fucking spectacular move!

- Just don’t make Winx fight over the Flora and Helia situation! And that was a perfect example of why they don’t need to agree on everything.

- At first I agreed with the opinion I have seen floating around that the emogix are too specific but this is the Magic Dimension. They have teleportation. What is so hard to believe that they have code that can quickly animate specific actions with pre-coded visual parameters about every separate object in the animation?

- I want to see Griselda react to that fireworks explosion!

- That was the big talk? At least they said that disagreements are not inherently bad but still. This was just a damn non-closure to a damn non-problem.

- Well, Obscurum’s plan isn’t so bad but Winx have already not been welcomed by lumens. It isn’t so original.

- Why are Knut and Kiko coming along all of a sudden? Oh, that’s right! Because those lumens are ogres like Knut. How convenient!

- I don’t know what’s so hard to understand about the fact that the lumens obviously believe that Winx have come to steal their treasure and that is why they’re attacking them.

- Tecna needed an analysis to tell that the lumens think they’re enemies and want to steal their treasure? They said that! REPEATEDLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Was the core broken accidentally or on purpose? I missed that part but I don’t think that Valtor has caught on to the fact that breaking the cores will make it much harder for Winx to save the stars. Also, why did he never try to steal the Cosmix light that the Winx put in the dark cores? That would have been an interesting plan!

- Well, Convenient Knut is being awfully convenient! As was planned.

- So now the crystal is actually gonna serve as a core? Wow, what a cop-out.

- You’re telling me that Obscurum was actually the one that thought of the idea of breaking the cores on purpose? This season is really doing Valtor dirty. I just... I can’t watch. Why do they have to be like that?

- Also, he’s only now figuring out he needs to get rid of Bloom? He had that figured out at the beginning of season 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8x12:

- A wishing star that hasn’t been seen in almost a 1000 years? And he needs Cosmix to get near? How is enhancing his powers going to get him closer to the star if the problem is his darkness? What, is Cosmix gonna conceal his dark powers? Somehow, that doesn’t make sense. But damn, at least this thing is protected from dark powers so that malevolent wishes won’t be made.

- Bloom has her priorities in check and Sky comes third? After Vanessa and the mission? That is a nice change of pace, actually.

- Why doesn’t Bloom just use her goddamn magic?! It would have been so much easier! It’s hers! It’s not like she is forbidden to use it.

- Lmao, Obscurum is acting as if Valtor actually cares about him. And he thinks he’s evil? Wow, that’s cute.

- Is it me or does Vanessa look so much thinner than she used to? Not a fan of that.

- You’re telling me Bloom never made an album for her parents before? But I love the fact that they are sharing and Bloom tells them that she loves home more than anything. That was actually something that the show could have used about 4 seasons ago.

- Why do the Earth lumens look like Roman soldiers?

- Anyone else feel like the transformation of the star yummies into bigger entities is legit based on Pokemon evolution? It really operates the exact same way Pokemon evolution does.

- They’re mentioning the queen’s brother again? In what is not foreshadowing but a plainly obvious non-twist.

- Musa is really disgusted by the star yummies? They actually look pretty cute and fluffy to me. Kinda cuter than the lumens even. Not to mention that they can face monsters and whatnot but they can’t make themselves touch the star yummies? Some Guardian Fairies you are!

- Valtor feels like a nervous teenager about to introduce himself to his crush. What the hell were they thinking?

- I like the designs of the dark giants where the writings on them are concerned. They look like rune rings around their torsos and arms and I actually love the idea of that.

- The scene with Bloom and her parents was pretty good. I love the way she compartmentalized the situation and managed to be on all the fronts she needed to be on even if she had to ask for backup to do it. It was awesome!

- Valtor finally decided to show the fuck up! Halfway through the season! Love how Stella is sassing him! A little surprised that he knows her name, though.

- I don’t think that hugging that last form of star yummy evolution is gonna work. Might be a too big concentration of corrupted lumens in order for the hug thing to work.

- Goblin yummies? Oh, no. Stargoyles. Wow. Okay.

- I love the dilemma that Valtor presented! Bloom really can’t be in two places at the same time! I would be very interested (as I was the first time) if I didn’t know how this ended... aka in disappointment.

8x13:

- Backstory time! What the hell do you mean that Valtor’s life force was drifting through the universe? For years? After the Dragon Fire - that literally made up his whole being - was extinguished? And how the hell was he brought back with the power of the stars? Wtf?

- Bloom, it’s really not that hard to figure out that Obscurum is the queen’s brother! I guessed that the first time I watched this and I didn’t even know she had a brother because I had been clicking through the episodes!

- If Obscurum really thinks that being Valtor’s minion is better than being in the shadow of his sister, then she must have fucked up big time! And I mean, really big time!

- So the artificial cores are not supposed to be that small? That is just a prototype.

- I have a question - how fast do the Specialists’ ships travel for example? Because Twinkly says that she’s traveling at the speed of light but I doubt that the tech can go so fast. Aka my train of thought was what if there are planets in the Magic Dimension that are so far from one another that the people can never meet because the tech doesn’t travel fast enough? Since that seems to be the common method of transportation rather than teleportation which could totes solve that problem.

- I really wish someone other than Sky would be protecting Mike and Vanessa. And wasn’t Valtor saying that only he can stop the Stargoyles? “Cause the Specialists just got rid of all of them. At least the dark giants truly seem to be unstoppable.

- I was so hyped when Bloom said she’d give Cosmix to Valtor! It would have been so interesting to see how they would defeat him if he had Cosmix as well. But they just had Cosmix reject him? Because it has sentience apparently? That was such a fucking cop-out! Just commit to your best ideas goddammit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Why is Twinkly getting the artificial core to the Specialists instead of the other Winx? They need it inside the sun! Not on the surface of the Earth.

- Wtf? Didn’t Bloom send Twinkly towards the Earth? She is inside the Sun! What was that maneuvering?!

- So the dark giants would have been defeated when the sun was fixed anyway? Meaning that Bloom could have chosen to go help Winx and that would have solved the dilemma aka there was no actual dilemma, except she didn’t know that? Man, what a bummer!

- Poor Vanessa. Had her birthday almost completely ruined!

- Wasn’t the queen supposed to be powerless? But that moment was so emotional there! And I love the fact that she acted as an example to the lumens to have them freeing the star yummies and helping them change back. Does that mean that the part with the stars is over for this season, though?

- Not a goddamn concert again! Come on! Dedicate the song to your mom, at the very least!!!!!

- Where is Valtor? This doesn’t look like the castle amongst the stars. What happened? Oh, and you’re telling me he has no more magical energy?

- What the hell do you mean that the Trix have power like the power of the Winx? Icy’s power is literally an opposite of Bloom’s!!!!! What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I have been so confused about this ever since I first watched it over a year ago! But at least the Trix were imprisoned separately this time. Someone in this goddamn universe finally had a smart idea!

Part 2 is here.

[allforhader]

Dream a Little Dream of Me

Bill Hader x (F) Reader

Requested By: @designersophisticate

Warnings: Langauge

[ e/c : eye color]

Having those second thoughts after years of a commitment you thought was going to last until you’re buried six feet under...yeah. As much as that is dark. I never thought I’d feel this way about someone again.

“Hey, Y/N did you see that TMZ article?”

“Kristen the fact that you’re saying TMZ, I’m already disinterested”

“Well yeah. But if it’s about you, shouldn’t you read it?”

“What’s so interesting about my life that’s got TMZ all over it?” Y/N laughs at the thought because besides being a married successful actor, what interesting thing can they get?

“As much as TMZ isn’t the best source the fans should look at, this stuff can still hurt actors” Kristen states showing Y/N the article off her phone.

Y/F/N Y/L/N seen with Bill Hader without their significant others��Is there something there?

Y/N gave it a neutral look before handing Kristen her phone back. “Textbook rumor, hell. It was probably a teen that wrote that”

“Are you going to tell Bill or have him find out himself?”

“Knowing him and media, I’m gonna have to tell him” Y/N laughs before pulling up the article on her phone and sending it to Bill.

Bill: Wow. Haha, that’s a textbook rumor

Y/N: Thats what I told Kristen lol

Bill: So...You’re already in New York for SNL Saturday right?

Y/N: Right?

Bill: You want to grab drinks? Night before of course

Before Y/N can say anything more she stops herself from replying when her husband texted her. A smile formed on her face loving that he did but there’s so much more to it...

Evan: Hey baby!

Evan: Hope New York ain’t that humid like it is here. Honestly if it weren’t for our careers, we would totally be in a colder state. Can’t stand the heat

Evan: but yknow. LA is home lol

Evan: Speaking of LA, TMZ made a ridiculous article lmao. If I didn’t know already that you and Bill are just friends, I’d be worried. But again...It’s TMZ

Evan: Anyway! I love you

Y/N: I love you too

Bill frowns seeing she hasn’t responded and feels like he’s come on a little strong when...it’s just drinks.

“Hey, you gotta get going or you’ll miss your flight” Maggie smiles handing Bill his coat before he left.

He of course kisses his wife goodbye, but the lingering feeling in his chest grew.

When Bill was in the air he decided to shoot a text to Y/N indicating that he invited their friends but Y/N didn’t receive it. Reception and everything. But—

Y/N: I’d love to

was sent before Bill’s when his plane landed and he didn’t realize until it sent.

Bill: I invited Kate, Kenan, Fred, and Kristen...John is a maybe and Seth isn’t going to be in town.

“Shit. Should’ve—-fuck” Bill frowns waiting in baggage claim when Fred scared the man out of the blue. Even if Bill did know he was his ride.

Y/N sat in her hotel room staring at the text for a minute before checking the time and suddenly getting a semi crazy idea.

Y/N: You told me the other day you got a late flight...wondering if you want to order in some room service at my hotel room. If you’re not tired

Bill: Fred picked me up from the airport if you don’t mind him tagging along

Y/N: More the merrier :)

More the merrier...

After arrival and ordering in, Fred and Bill had already started to argued with each other about true crimes as Y/N sat back watching the two go back and forth. She laughs as she drinks her wine.

“So does it always end with her snapping?”

“No but when she snaps-“

“She snaps”

“Okay” Y/N laughs setting down her glass as Bill couldn’t help but smile enjoying her laugh.

“Well. I’m gonna get some sleep. I’ll see you two tomorrow” Fred got up giving Bill a look before leaving the two alone.

“Damn and I was just starting to enjoy your talk about true crime. I’m more into medical dramas”

“Like Grey’s?”

“Oh definitely Grey’s” Y/N smiles laughing as Bill moves himself beside her on the bed leaning against the headboard. “Did you even start it when I recommended it to you?”

“Okay I got up to season...eight and that is a shitton of Drama for me to handle”

“And yet you watch Snapped like it’s something you can’t live without”

“Ok ok...Snapped. Is the greatest show that I don’t even have a valid reason to explain why I like it so much.” Bill states looking over at Y/N as he...found himself lost in a thought.

Can’t really say the thought hasn’t crossed my mind. What if my life would’ve been different if I met Y/N before I got married? It clearly would’ve been different but would life have gone the same route as it is now...I’m lucky. Fuck. Lucky she’s in my life as it is...just

Friday rehearsals went by fast, Bill got a kick out of watching Y/N take off the liquid latex off her eyebrows. He laughs as he hands her the makeup wipes to get off the residue. Y/N rolls her eyes flicking Bill in the forehead for laughing at her.

“Y/N, John is looking for you. Wants to run lines again” Fred smiles watching Y/N clean up a bit before going to find John.

“Didn’t John leave before the rest of us?”

“Yeah but I wanted a minute to ask you”

“Ask me what?”

“I don’t know. Guess I’m stalling” Fred wasn’t stalling, he honestly wanted to be nosey asking if anything more happened when he was gone. He didn’t think exactly that. But the thought did cross his mind. “Uh. So about drinks tonight. That’s still down?”

“You really has to ask without Y/N present? Yeah it’s still down” Bill laughs patting Fred’s back before grabbing his things.

Soon the gang was hitting the bar late and really just enjoying each other’s time. Fred handed Kristen and Y/N their drinks as Kenan handed Kate and Bill theirs.

“You owe new a game of darts Fred”

“You are so on” Fred laughs at Kenan as he immediately got up from the booth.

“So Y/N, how’s your life in LA?” Kate smiles. “I have a role down there and wanted to know if there’s anything worth it”

“Well if you’ve in LA as long as I have, it’s pretty much worth seeing everything. When you have the time of course” Y/N smiles taking a sip of her wine catching Bill’s gaze on her which instantly made him look away.

“None of us have been in LA as long as you have. Literally. The phrase that “no one is from LA” is true when it comes to you” Kristen smiles watching Y/N shrug. “What’s stopping you from leaving?”

“Yeah, and don’t say career. Because you can easily live here and become a full on regular for SNL. Also get a few gigs here” Kate states as Y/N rolls her eyes smiling.

“I would do anything to get out of LA...but yknow. My husband is the reason.”

“God I hate that” Bill says out of the blue catching all three of them staring at him as he quickly downs his scotch. “Um. Y’know. If they really love and support you. You can do anything. But if they don’t...”

“They aren’t the one for yeah” John cuts in sliding into the booth beside Y/N. “Sorry for coming late. Had to get a few last minute ideas run by Lorne”

“You’re all good. But Kenan and Fred have beat you to the dart board”

“Shit. I call winner, re-fills?” John asks catching a nod from everyone but Y/N. “Want a new drink or?”

“Or...I’m gonna walk back to my hotel. Not feeling that great”

“Already? Damn...well at least get drinks with me when I’m in LA?”

“Of course Kate, see you guys tomorrow” Y/N smiles grabbing her coat and leaving the booth.

Bill watches her go giving John a look as he shrugs pointing with his eyes. He immediately got up going to catch up with her. She wasn’t far...but he hesitated for a second.

“They aren’t the one for yeah” Thanks John. I’ll be thinking about that for the rest of my life. Or well...the rest of my marriage.

Y/N froze when she heard fast movement behind her indicating the short run Bill made. She looks at him confused as he gave her a concerned look.

“We...are in the same hotel. Want to walk with me?”

“Yeah..I do” Bill states catching a very light tint of pink growing on Y/N’s cheeks as she quickly looked away. “Um. Are you only leaving because of what I said?” he asks as they started walking side by side.

Yes. Because...well what am I supposed to say to you? I can’t live to you. You’re one of my best friends. Someone I can be honest with. But you...make my mind go blank for a good minute. Forgetting that I’m married. Married to someone I’m just trying to make it work with at this point...I love Evan don’t get me wrong...but god what would I do—

“Uh. Can I lie saying it didn’t bug me?”

“So it bugged you”

“Little bit”

“I’m sorry” Bill frowns wishing he didn’t say it at all or let his emotions be a factor in it all.

“Be honest with me?”

“Always”

“Are you and Maggie okay? Because there....um. Must’ve been more to it personally than the obvious” But what’s the obvious? That I’m in love with you? Shit.

“Well, she loves me. I love her. But...the feeling is mutual. We haven’t talked about it entirely but when...the spark dies. It dies” Bill said bluntly making Y/N think too hard about what he just said. She didn’t want to feel bad, a part of her felt differently. “We really just yknow what to get everything in order before officially”

“Yeah no...I get it. Well. Yeah I do. I get it” Y/N frowns before flinching to the sudden boom.

Bill looks at Y/N freak a tad to the boom which was the sound of thunder. It’s not New York without one day of rain. Let alone lightening. He instantly wraps his arm around her out of instinct directing her under an awning.

“Should’ve...taken a cab”

“Mm. We can make it. If you trust me out in the rain”

“If we get electrocuted. It’s God hating me” Fuck.

I trust him.

I know she trusts me.

He wouldn’t have said that...if there wasn’t something.

She doesn’t like talking about Evan. Could there...

There’s something else

Fuck. Be true.

I’m...Ive been....

After all these years...I can’t just call her a friend.

“Fuck. Even in a jacket I’m soaking....fuck” Y/N was shaking but not because of the rain. Being afraid of thunder is a completely different story that she didn’t have the time to explain, when her mind is wondering.

“Come on...you should get out of the wet clothes” Bill says as he rests his hand on her cheek catching her gaze. Her beautiful e/c eyes looking up at him catching a whole other feeling.

After getting out of her wet clothes, Y/N opens her hotel room door looking up at a very distressed Bill. She frowns letting him in and once the door closed, he turned back to her taking her face into his hands kissing her.

I shouldn’t have done that.

...mutual

Fuck

Y/N shortly after pushed Bill off giving him a worried look before suddenly laughing and breaking down into tears. I’m sorry.

“Y/N—“

“I-...God. You have no idea Bill Hader. No fucking idea”

“What do you mean?” Bill frowns trying to comfort her but Y/N retracted herself.

“I feel so out of place here. Like. God. You drive me insane! And I don’t mean in a negative way. It’s never in a negative way. I’m just—-terrified!” Y/N laughs as she choked up on her tears. “I’m...I’ve been in love with you ever since we got close. But I’m married—you’re married—-and adultery is a fucking....sin? Hell I’m not religious but it is! Like Bill don’t get me wrong” She states resting her hands on his chest looking up at him as he continued to have a worried look. “I...I want to be with you. But I can’t...can’t do that to Evan.”

Bill watches her continue to cry as he takes in a deep breath before exhaling and resting his hands on her cheeks making her look at her. “It’s terrifying...falling in love again...especially to someone who has already locked that down. You’re...not alone in that boat. And I....I don’t want to give you an ultimatum or whatever the right word is called but...”

But?

“I’m willing to wait until the end of my lifetime to be with you. I know the next chapter in my life and my wife is on the same page. But the one after that...I’m willing to wait forever if I have to. If it means being with you. I’m not going to force you Y/N. You mean the world to me, but I don’t want to hurt you for eternity by forcing you”

And that’s that. He said that and Y/N took it to heart. Knowing exactly the next thing she does.

Is her choice.

The two haven’t seen each other in six months the after that SNL night, let alone talk to each other. Bill got a divorce, and he has set time for himself until he got a role at the end of that six month period heading straight for New York. Pretty common place for movies to be shot but he didn’t want to go anywhere crazy at that moment. Stepping onto set first day meeting the people you’ll be working with for months wasn’t a hard thing to do, but being handed a physical script that has the character list within it. Bill took his seat at the table read opening the script and reading-

“Hey Hader” Y/N smiles sitting beside him setting down her copy of the script and her tea. “It’s been a while”

“It has...you cut your hair” Bill smiles admiring the new look of hers. Y/N shot him a smile before elbowing him.

“Working out for Barry still Huh?” Y/N smiles catching a laugh as Bill nods crossing his arms. “You’re perfect no matter what. Y’know that right?”

“I do, do you?”

“Of course” Y/N smiles as the two straighten up when it got time for the actual read.

Afterward...

“You have a ride?”

“Rental”

“Oh shit. Hold on. Did you pay for a hotel room yet?” Y/N asks confusing the fuck out of Bill as she laughs at the confused look. “Just answer it Bill”

“Not yet. I just got in to be honest”

“Stay with me then” Y/N smiles. “I live in a loft on 408 Greenwich Street...it’s not that far and I have plenty of room”

“Lead the way?” Bill tosses her his keys as Y/N smiles nodding.

She’s...still the same happy girl when he first met her. Even if they both been through a lot the past six months. A lot has changed but the one thing Bill worried about...hasn’t changed. Because she doesn’t want their relationship to change until...then

Bill looks out into the street from her loft’s window. It’s not that bad of a neighborhood. Makes him wonder if it’s ever crazy loud at night or if it’s safe. He wants her to be safe.

“So, how long have you been here?”

“Uh. A month. But I put a down payment two months ago. It’s nice right? Not too big. Not too small. Just right...” Y/N smiles walking over standing beside him. “How are you? How’s everything in LA?”

“I’m good. Everything is good” Bill smiles. “And you? Evan?”

“Well, the decision wasn’t mutual. But it brought more things to light. So...Yknow. It was a matter of time” Y/N shrugs. “But hey. We are finalizing it. He’s still in LA and I’m here. Kinda...starting over. Turning a new leaf” she laughs at how that can sound but he understood. He understood completely.

“So, I know...the wound is still fresh. But baby steps huh?”

“Yeah” Y/N smiles taking his hand into hers feeling him gently squeeze. “Baby steps”

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #308

“you don’t need treats, and you don’t need tricks, and you don’t need me.”

Middle name? Marie. Or Marie Catherine, if we're technical, but as someone who loooong left Catholicism and never even agreed with many aspects of it in the first place, I don't like to include it. If you're confused, there's a ceremony called Confirmation, and while I honestly don't even remember the details of it, you adopt the name of a saint you want to stand for, kinda. I chose Catherine just because I liked the name outta my other options. Democrat/republican/other? I classify myself as Independent because I really don't relate well enough to either, but I do know I'm becoming more and more liberal with time. Do you dress according to your mood? My mood? No. I dress with what I feel like wearing at that time, but my actual mood has nothing to do with it. Are you good at doing hair/make up? No. Are you always worried or stressed about something? 24/7, my friend. Can you swim? Yeah. Are you afraid of needles? I don't like them, but I'm not afraid of them. How many kids do you want? Zero. Long/short nails? I keep mine short. Do you like wearing hats? No. Does mall Santa Clauses or Easter bunnies freak you out? Nah, I loved seeing Santa as a kid. :') Would you consider yourself clumsy? I am RIDICULOUSLY clumsy. Do you like when a guy picks you up in his arms? In concept, but I ain't easy to pick up anymore lmao. Do you like hairless cats? I do!! Females, anyway, for... obvious reasons lol. Not having fur makes some things waaay too ~obvious~ otherwise. I would love a sphynx. Do you like the color yellow? No; it's actually one of my most disliked colors. Have you ever seen a cat have a hairball? Yeah. Have you ever had a tooth pulled? Not by a dentist, no, just by myself as a kid when I was losing my baby teeth. When someone says don’t look do you look? It depends on why they're telling me to not look. Have you ever played spin the bottle? No. If you had to name three important details about you, what would you say? I'm a very emotional person, I need a lot of "me" time, and to be aware of my social anxiety so not every interaction I have is perceived as just a dumpster fire. What are your three biggest insecurities? My creativity, my goddamn body, and my lack of social skills. If you could write anonymous letters to three people, who would you send it to and what would you say? Ummm. I can only think of people I miss and don't WANT to be anonymous... Favorite photo of yourself? A senior prom picture I don't have anymore. I looked so, so happy and fuck my low self-esteem, gorgeous. Who are you disappointed with right now? I'm like, permanently disappointed in myself lol. Would you date an 18-year-old at the age you are now? No. My minimum is 21. What question do you hate to answer? "Are you a virgin?" because it's just a confusing answer. It doesn't sound like one at all, but trust me on this. The subject of sex just makes me uncomfortable anyway, so even if I was confident in the answer, I wouldn't want to talk about it. What’s your most listened to song? I don't have a way of actually finding that out, but I'd say I've been listening to "ULTRAnumb" by Blue Stahli quite a lot lately. If you were a performing artist, what would you title your first album? I mean, I don't know. It would depend on what was going on in my life and head at the time. If someone told you you could give one person a present and your budget was unlimited–what present would you get and for whom? A nice car for Mom. She's had the same shitty car for yeeeeeaaaaarrrrrssssss now because she just can't afford a new one; hell, this one was free. A dance friend hit a deer, so the front of the car is messed up, and she bought a new one, but because the car itself was still functional, she gave it to my mom. Mom is so loved at the studio. The car just has various issues by this point, like trouble starting, accelerating, it's bumpy, etc., so it's way past time for a new one. Do you like licorice? NOOOOOOOOOO that's a big 'ole "ew." Have you ever visited your country’s capital city? No, but I've seen it from a distance when riding up to NY. When was the last time you were outdoors for over an hour? WOW. I couldn't even try to guess. What is the shortest amount of time you’ve lived somewhere? The house I was born into. I actually don't know how long Mom and Dad lived there, but I was only in that house as a very little baby. I have zero memories of it. What’s your favorite kind of mint? (Peppermint/wintergreen/spearmint/etc.) ... There's a difference? lol I guess peppermint? What was the last thing to frustrate you? I wanted to draw yesterday, but I didn't know what to draw to even get started. Have you ever been to a bachelor or bachelorette party? No. Did any of your family members serve in WWII? I don't believe so? Well... maybe my grampa did? I don't remember. What’s your favorite kind of salad? Gimme an Olive Garden salad and I will deadass eat the whole bowl. Are you more realistic or idealistic? I'd say I'm more realistic with most things. Are you currently borrowing something from someone? No. Is anyone currently borrowing anything from you? No. What is your last name’s heritage/country of origin? Ireland. When did you last buy a new pair of shoes? What kind? I got new flipflops a year or so back because my old Rainbows were so worn out and blackened my feet. Have you ever experienced culture shock while traveling? If so, where? No. Are you able to see the stars at night where you live? I actually haven't checked since moving here. We're in the suburbs though, so it's questionable. Do you include your middle initial in your signature? Not unless it's required, usually. I think. When's the last time I physically signed anything, anyway? What brand of computer do you have? It's an Acer Nitro. What operating system does that computer run? Windows 10. What’s the oldest piece of clothing that you still own and wear? I don't really know, given how much my weight has fluctuated. Went drastically up, went down, now it's back up. .-. I still own a handful of shirts I want to "shrink back into" from late HS and early college times, but yeah, I don't know if I'll actually achieve that. Is the area in which you live flat, hilly, or mountainous? Flat as my ass. What is your significant other or best friend’s ring tone? No one on my phone has a "special" ringtone. Where do you keep your hair brush? There's a comb I use in a drawer in the bathroom. Which pair of shoes have you owned the longest? Multiple pairs of Converse, also from high school. When’s the last time you were sick at the same time as someone else? I'm very happy to say I don't even recall the last time I was sick. My immune system is the fuckin GOAT. What did you have for breakfast this morning? A pb&j. We've got very little rn, but thankfully Mom's picking up our Wal-Mart order today. Last time you were in pain? If I'm standing, you can bet my legs hurt, so. What color is your mom’s hair? It's growing back totally gray now. Is that also your hair color? Well, no, I'm only 25. Do you watch any daily vloggers on YouTube? Who? No. I watch people who vlog occasionally, but not regularly. It's gotta be people I'm very into to really be interested in vlogs. What room of your house do you usually do your surveys in? Sigh, I'm always in my bedroom. Really hoping Mom and I muster up the motivation to clean up the extra room soon to turn it into my "dayroom" or "office," if you will. What do you put on your tacos? I hate tacos. What is your favorite stuffed animal and where did you get it? I have a bittersweet connection to the adorable plush meerkat Jason gave me for Valentine's our first year together; I always slept with it when we were together by apart, and for a year or so after the breakup. It was a source of comfort for me, so I'm really fond of it. Fella's fur is so worn out and matted down with age and lots of love. He's on my dresser now, towards the front of all my plushies. Last thing you hung up on your wall? My Illidan poster, I believe. Do you have a full length mirror? Yeah, on the back of my door. Is it currently raining? No, finally. It's been raining for like a fuckin week, it seems like. It's finally a clear day. It's nice to hear birds outside. Does anyone you live with talk in their sleep? Does this happen often? I'M the one doing the talking/screaming in my sleep. Thanks, nightmares. When was the last time you cried, or felt tearful? I'm not positive, but I know I had a pretty rough PTSD night not too long ago where I teared up. Did you wake up with a song stuck in your head today? What was it? Ohhh yes; I've been listening to Mother Mother's "Ghosting" on repeat because it's jammed up there. When was the last time you used moisturiser or lotion of some kind? Not too long ago on my hands. They get dry this time of year, and besides, I wash my hands a lot nowadays especially. What was the last thing you owned, that was accidentally broken or damaged? Were you able to get it fixed? My laptop, and yes. Tell me about the last dream you recall having. Was it weird, amusing, etc. So this is pretty wild. I know I had a nightmare last night, but I don't remember it; the night before, however, I had a nightmare about a possibly rabid and ginormous rat (I mean like, smaller dog sized) in the house and trying to bite me. It was SUPER weird, because I was actually afraid of it, yet I absolutely adore rats in real life. What was the last video you watched on YouTube? I've really gotten into John Wolfe (a let's player) lately, and I'm going through his The Evil Within playthrough. Do your parents use any social media at all? My mom has a Facebook, and hilariously, Dad has a Snapchat to talk with my sister Nicole. He has no clue what he's doing with it and it's adorable, haha. Mom also has a Twitter, but she doesn't use it. Is there anyone in your life who regularly asks how your day has been? Regularly, no. I've always been that person, especially in the WoW guild I'm in. I'm very close and comfortable with them and ask how everyone's doing any time I log on. Lovely people who give me some social interaction every day. Tell me something positive about the day you've had. It's still early, but once again, it's pretty and bright outside. Why do you prefer Facebook over MySpace, because I know you do? Ha, you'd be incorrect. MySpace was more personal, so I actually preferred it. But it's obviously long-dead, so I just settle with Facebook. Have you read the Pretty Little Liars series? No. My sister looooves it, though. What product do you use to moisturize your lips? I don't remember, actually... It's in my purse somewhere. When did you start using Xanga? I never have. Be honest, do you judge people on their appearance? Judge, I don't think so. I can make assumptions like everyone else, but I'm not gonna think someone is beneath me just by their attire. Do you know anyone who does not like The Beatles? Me. At least, most songs. "Hey Jude" is good, but everyone agrees with that, haha. Did you have a friend in middle school that you’re now enemies with in high school? I'm long since out of HS. I had a middle school friend who I disconnected with following a fight in high school, but we weren't "enemies," and we reunited our senior year anyway. Aaaaand we're not friends anymore once again lmao. What is one thing you hope your children don’t inherit from you? If I hypothetically wanted kids, God knows I'd hope they wouldn't have my psychological issues. Do you think you’ll be married in 10 years? It'd be nice, anyway. What type of foundation do you wear? None. Who’s the most controlling person you know? Someone I'm no longer friends with, partially because of this. Do males look good in skinny jeans? Yep. Are you for or against guyliner? Ugggghhhhh guyliner makes me weak in the knees. How many jobs have you had? Where do you currently work? Three; nowhere. Who did you last hit? Um, nobody??? What way of self-care do you enjoy the most and what feels more like an obligation? I enjoy my alone time on the computer as the best self-care, especially after being social all day; I don't, however, enjoy the act of performing hygiene care. I still do it, it's just not fun. The feeling afterwards is great, though. Have you ever tried specific diet plans or fads? What made you do it and how did it turn out for you? I was briefly using NutriSystem, which didn't work for me. I hated too much of the food. More recently I stuck with flexible dieting and calorie counting for a while, but I drifted from it when I still lost no fucking weight in like a month. I want to get back to it, though... oh, and intermittent fasting. I don't think it really worked for me yet again, even though I did it correctly, but that and the aforementioned flexible dieting is all I feel like I can handle. I guess I just have to give it longer. Do you know anyone who has been directly affected by COVID-19 e.g. testing positive, losing a loved one, or their job due to the pandemic? Too many people I know have had it or had someone they loved die because of it. Take this shit seriously. Is there a kind of music you only prefer listening to during specific type of activities that you otherwise wouldn’t enjoy under normal circumstances (e.g. EDM while doing sports or instrumental music while studying, etc.)? No; I have to actually enjoy the music. If you had to start a YouTube channel and motivations/skills/resources/any other inhibiting factors weren’t an issue, what would it be about? Either animal (preferrably reptiles) education or let's plays, ig. Has anything ever happened to you that if you told someone about, they would think you’re making it up? I don't believe so. What travel destination or popular spot have you been to that you found overrated? What about a lesser known place that you thought was a hidden gem? I really don't know; I haven't traveled nearly enough for this.

[chazz-anova]

My official Far Cry 5 fanfic!

Alrighty everyone! After a LONG time, I’ve finally finished the first section of this fic and I am so excited to start posting it everywhere lmao, so please feel free to leave your comments in the replies I’d love to hear what people think! Now without further ado; here’s chapter 1!

Veronica glanced lazily at the clock, which read 3:28am. She'd gotten off work about 4 hours earlier, but couldn't seem to lull herself to sleep no matter how many drinks she had or smoke breaks she took. Lately, the young sheriff's deputy had felt unsettled, like she was stuck in a rut. Ice clinked in her Crown Royal glass as she raised it to her lips, finishing it with a swig. "What's wrong with me Olive?" She asked the calico cat that padded silently into the room. The cat replied with a dainty mew and climbed into Veronica's lap. While petting her companion, she glanced around her modest townhome. 

It was a tastefully furnished two story home with a balcony and a neighborhood pool. She sat on a powder blue couch that was joined by an armchair off to the side. The TV screen in front of her read 'Are you there? Press X to continue" Answering the question aloud, she muttered "Sometimes I wonder if I am still here" She lifted Olive off her lap and replaced her with an engraved silver tray, a baggie of weed, and a Cherry Dynamite flavoured Swisher. She may be a deputy, but some vices she was reluctant to give up. 

A few moments later- Veronica stepped out onto her balcony, blunt in hand. She slowly took in the familiar scenery, living right on the outskirts of Hope County afforded her one of the best views. The Whitetail Mountains towered over the town beyond, the neon lights of various restaurants and gas stations glowing upwards and framing the tall peaks in a surreal glow. Her gaze turned up to the stars, dazzling like diamonds on the velvet black sky. As she lit up and the lighter illuminated her balcony, the atmosphere shifted a degree 'Everything will be different soon.' The thought flew through her mind without warning, and she shivered as though possessed. "Jeez..." She murmured and took a long drag of the sweet smoke, shaking her head and praying for rest to come quickly, after this she’d go and try to lay in her bed until sleep overtook her finally. 

Running. Feet pounding the ground. Lungs shriveled and screaming for a full breath. Tears welled up in Veronica's eyes as she wind cut at her skin. In front of her, millions of faceless souls reached their hands out; grasping for her as she ran, seemingly suspended between them and what she ran from. The group was insistently whispering "Help. Help us." Veronica turned around, slowing a fraction. Behind her there was a plume of green smoke billowing out of an unseen source, threatening to take her mind and steal her heart if she got too close. The entities in front of her were murmuring "Please help us" "We need you". With each  pleading moan their voices grew; louder and louder until their words were a guttural, rasping cacophony of screams. And just as suddenly as they appeared, they were gone and replaced by deafening silence. The air seemed to be holding its breath, and Veronica turned to see the smoke gone as well, leaving her alone in the blackness. 

Upon waking, Veronica gasped and clutched her heart, which was fighting to escape her chest with each beat. “Fuck!” She exclaimed and looked around her room. In the darkness she saw everything was normal, her desk and computer stood in front of her and no one occupied the chair in the corner to her relief. She took her phone from the nightstand and saw that it was only 6:20am. “Man, screw this.” She burrowed back under the black covers and pulled them over her head. 

The next time she awoke- gentle sunlight streamed in through the half open curtains and her eyes fluttered open. Checking her phone, it was now 10:42am, and relief filled her. Looking underneath the time she saw a message from her co-worker and good friend, Joey Hudson. It read “Come to your shift ready for some bull today!” Veronica sighed, typing out her response “Always do!” 

Soon enough, Olive jumped onto her bed and sat, giving her an impatient look. “Alright you little beast, I’ll get up.” She smiled at her furry friend and swung her feet over the side, striding into the kitchen and grabbing the cat food while also setting her coffee pot to brew.

In about 20 minutes- she was sitting on her balcony with a hot cup of mostly cream and sugar with a little coffee, and a quickly rolled joint. ‘Please let today go by quickly...:’ she prayed to no one in particular. Her work outfit looked creased from not being washed recently, and she knew Sheriff Whitehorse would have something to say about that. ‘After this joint I should probably get going.’ V thought, looking through the balcony windows at the clock. 

Veronica stepped into the grey/white walled sheriff’s office; seeing Nancy at the front desk on the phone, examining her long nails disinterestedly. She gave her a quick wave before heading back to Sheriff Earl Whitehorse’s office, where a commotion could be heard. 

“I don’t care how scared of him all you backwoods hicks are, where I’m from we get shit done!” An aggressive man declared, venom dripping from his words. ‘This must be the aforementioned bullshit Hudson mentioned.’ Veronica sighed before pasting a professional smile over her frown and stepping into the room. “You’ve got no right to just come in here like-” Hudson’s confident voice was absorbed by the same angry voice that had started the yelling, “Oh I’ve got every right missy. Know why? Because I’m a federal marshal, and what I say goes.” The tension in the air was malleable. Between Hudson glaring daggers at the stranger and Whitehorse’s dejected look, Ronnie knew she had just walked into a shitstorm. “Woah, let’s take it down a notch okay?” She said, directed at the man in front of her. He was of a bulkier build, and his stance said he was used to having things his way or the highway. “Oh great, another dumbass deputy to deal with! Sheriff, get your team and your shit together.” The man pushed past Veronica and Joey, shouldering his way out of the room. “Nice to meet you too!” The youngest deputy called before turning back to Hudson and Whitehorse. “So, who pissed in his cheerios?” 

Hudson just shook her head angrily, as Whitehorse replied grimly “Joseph Seed.”

“That pastor who’s been causing trouble in Hope County?” 

“That’s the one. He’s formed some kind of militia and is kidnapping folks… I’d get yourselves ready, because as soon as the judge fills that warrant we’re all going to pick him up.” 

V met his words with an incredulous look, retorting “He’s bad enough that we all get to join Captain Sunshine there on a simple warrant like that? I mean, every time we’ve had to deal with him and his followers it’s never seemed that severe.” Hudson spoke up, pulling her phone from her pocket and presenting a video “Look for yourself. Someone sent this in a couple days ago.” 

Grainy footage showed a tall, shirtless man in aviators preaching to a flock of similarly dressed people. The video zoomed in on the man’s chilling blue eyes; and the camera suddenly fell to the ground, showing the owner of the device being dragged forward and put on his knees before the preacher. In a casual manner he reached forward and placed his thumbs against the man’s eyes, pressing while his victim’s screams grew louder and more pained. Soon the man fell to the ground, and Joseph flicked the blood from his hands as though it were water. Veronica’s eyebrows raised in surprise as the scene was cut off and a new image appeared on the screen.

The recording was now taking place outside. There was a sizable wooden stage and Joseph stood in the center, a large curtain obscuring what was on a stand behind him. “My children, we must repent for our sins!” Joseph called while pulling the curtain down with some flourish. Veronica gasped in shock upon seeing the man from before who’d had his eyes crushed. He was lifted up onto a wooden pole, his eyes had been replaced by a white flower in each eye socket. Looking down his body- it was clear someone  had mutilated his chest cavity as well, carving out space for a bouquet of the same flowers.  On both sides of his head antlers had been impaled into his skull, where dried blood decorated the base of each antler in grotesque detail. 

When the video finally faded to black, Veronica handed the phone back to Joey. “Wow, I’m glad I didn’t have anything heavy for breakfast.” She deadpanned, shaking her head. “This is a mistake, we need more people.” Whitehorse murmured and walked out of the room with an exasperated look. “Old man’s taking this real hard… I think he saw something real messed up on the last call out to Joseph’s compound.” Hudson looked after him with worry clear on her face. The other deputy nodded, unable to clear the images from the video from her mind. “Even though he’s clearly an ass, maybe the Marshal is right and we’ll just go snatch him up real quick.” 

“Hopefully..” Hudson murmured and left the office as well, leaving Veronica alone. 

The rest of the day- Marshal Cameron Burke holed up in a back office making heated phone calls, trying to find a judge to sign his warrant. V spent most of the day riding with another deputy, Staci Pratt. Veronica couldn’t stand Pratt, so every call they went on was a chore. However, the shift was finally drawing to a close as the pair pulled up once more at the station. 

As soon as they walked in the door, Burke was on them. “You two, I suggest getting some rest tonight, because I found a judge. Once I’ve gathered everything I need, we’ll be flying out to Joseph’s compound.” Veronica checked the clock in the lobby, nodding “Well it’s 9 now, when are we leaving?” The Marshal sighed, as though responding was a chore, “We leave when I call and tell you we’re leaving.” V narrowed her eyes while crossing her arms, “You know, I’m not sure what your problem is, but don’t talk to me like that. You’re an adult, not a petty child, act like it.” The federal marshal was shocked someone had stood up to him, and unsure what to say. Seizing the opportunity to make her escape before her mouth got her into more trouble, Ronnie rushed past the man, shaking her head. ‘What an asshole!’ She thought as she punched numbers into the timeclock, hurrying out of the building without further incident.

About 20 minutes later, Veronica was speeding down the winding country roads in her beat up Mazda Miata. The roads were entirely empty, save for a deer she saw on the side of the road while taking the next turn. Upon rounding the corner- a large flare of light and an earth-shaking explosion caused her to slam on the brakes. “What the hell…” She peered out of the window. “Guess I should go check on that.. being an officer of the law and all…” Her murmured words were enveloped by another explosion, causing her to jump. Some days the job of a deputy wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. 

Ronnie had finally reached the area where the explosions had been coming from, after breaking several traffic laws to get there. Stepping out of the car, she drew her gun and took a preliminary look around the clearing. There were almost cartoon-worthy scorch marks on the ground that had wiped away any sense of greenery on the ground, but no one seemed to be around. V kept the gun at her side and started her sweep of the area. Right as she was going to start heading back to her car to report this to the station, she heard someone walking through the woods to her left. “Note to self, don’t light the fuse before you’re ready to have it blow up..” She heard someone mutter to themselves before she yelled “Freeze! Who are you and what’re you doing here?” A man of medium build walked out of the treeline, holding his hands in the classic ‘I surrender’ style. He wore a green sweatshirt, and a matching ballcap. “Charlemange Victor Boshaw at your service ma’am, I apologise for the bother-” 

“You describe an explosion as a ‘bother’?” Veronica interrupted, gun staying trained on him. 

“Well yeah. It sure bothered me that it exploded.” 

“May I ask what you were exploding?” 

“So my totally awesome cousin Hurk gave me some dynamite that he made himself, and of course being a good buddy I told him I would try it out! Well, silly me I didn’t realise that Hurk only knows how to make short-fused dynamite! So when I went to light it, it exploded preemptively so that’s why there’s those scorch marks… ma’am.” 

Veronica cocked her head to the side, giving the man an incredulous look, “Would you be offended if I said that was the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard?” He thought about it for a moment before responding sincerely “Nope.” The deputy nodded, saying “Well I appreciate the honesty! Unfortunately, I’ve gotta call the station for this one.” She fished her badge from her pocket. The man crossed his arms, asking “Well what exactly are the charges?” 

“Uhm… detonation of an explosive device and illegal possession for one.” 

“I supposed I can’t argue with that.” He said amiably, watching Veronica reach for her radio off the utility belt she still hadn’t removed after work. 

The pair sat on the curb together, one handcuffed one not. “So you’re the Sharky Boshaw?” Ronnie asked, giving him a mischievous smile. Sharky grinned and shrugged modestly “The one and only!” 

“You’re a legend around the station, I’m surprised I haven’t seen you before! Out of curiosity… why choose this spot for blowing shit up?” 

“Well I was actually on my way to the store when I saw this spot and thought to myself ‘That would be a good field to set off some fireworks’. Then I remembered Hurk had put his stuff in my backseat, and that dynamite is just a less pretty firework, so here we are!” 

When his story was finished, V gave him a look that was part amused, part withering glance. “I can’t tell if you’re joking.” He shrugged with a lackadaisical smile. Before either of them could continue the conversation, a light brown Crown Vic pulled up and the sirens on the roof let out a quick whoop before one of the night shift deputies stepped out. “Hey Veronica! Boshaw, the backseat’s ready for you!” He said, helping Sharky stand and turn towards the car. Veronica stood with him, and gave a curt nod to her coworker, “Thanks for coming out, Sam.” 

Finally after that detour, V was almost home. It was a relatively long drive back and forth, but she didn’t mind it. Working with Sheriff Whitehorse was worth it since she’d known him almost half of her life. Veronica and her mom had moved to Hope County when she was only 12, her mom found work as an officer and then an office administrator for Earl until Nancy came along and gave her mom the chance to take her pension, and start a new job as a conservation officer at a small national park nearby called Polebridge. 

The actual sheriff’s office was in Missoula, about two hours away from Hope County, making Veronica’s drive home take about an hour since she lived practically in between the two. 

 Keeping her eyes on the road, she dug one-handed through her purse for her phone. Once it was in hand she said “Hey Google, call Mom.” and a soft chirp came from the device, processing the demand before dialing. Three rings in- a cheery voice answered. “Hey sweetie!” 

“Hey, mom, I just had a question?”

“Sure what’s up?”

She paused, rethinking her request for a moment. In that second, her nightmare from last night danced through her thoughts and her mind was made up. “Oh um, well I’m going out on a warrant tonight, and I was wondering if you could watch Olive for me? It’s probably nothing, I just had a weird feeling.” 

“Of course! I’d love to see my grandkitty! I’m glad you know when to listen to your gut.” 

“Well I learned from the best! I just got home now, can I pack her up and head over?”

“That’s fine! I’ll be here for a bit. Can I plan on you staying for dinner?”

“Uh… yeah that’ll work, I don’t have any plans. I’ll see you soon, love you!” 

“Love you too!” 

The line disconnected with a click as Veronica pulled into her driveway and stepped out of the car, fetching her keys from the caribinger she kept it on. As she approached the door, she heard insistent meowing on the other side. “I’m comin’…” She chuckled and pushed the door open to reveal Olive, who immediately rushed to hug her legs as she stepped over the threshold. “Hey monster, ready to see grandma?” She asked in a baby voice and grinned at her, reaching down to pick her up. As soon as she did- the cat clambered up to her shoulder and balanced precariously “Why are you like this?” She joked, removing her before making her way to the hallway closet and pulling out the cat carrier and a half-full bag of cat food.

Once she’d put a few more odds and ends into an overnight bag, she took out her decorative, pink bong and loaded a bowl. The water bubbled and pure white smoke filled the center chamber as she lit the greenery in the bowl. After coughing her lungs up for a few moments she set the glass piece on the table and stood up, “Okay, now we can go!” She declared and bundled Olive and all her things into the Miata. 

In a quick 15 minutes- the two of them pulled up in front of her mom’s. It was a tidy ranch style home, painted robin’s egg blue with crisp white shutters. V knocked on the door, Olive’s carrier in one hand. 

Her mom answered the door with a sweet smile on her features, immediately wrapping the deputy in a tight hug, “Hi Ronnie!” She exclaimed before pulling back. “Hi mom!” She responded and stepped through the door, setting Olive down. Sarah Rook looked like an older version of Veronica except her hair was a chestnut brown as opposed to V’s dirty blonde; they shared aquamarine eyes and a light spattering of freckles.

The younger woman pulled the zipped and freed the hyper cat, who immediately jumped from containment to survey her surroundings. “Someone’s impatient!” Her mom chuckled and watched the cat sprint off into the hallway. “She takes after me I guess.” Veronica smiled and inhaled deeply, “Is that steaks and mac and cheese I smell?” 

“Well I thought I’d at least fatten you up before you leave tonight.” Her mom said and ushered her into the dining room. There was a round white table there that was joined by a tall china cabinet filled with memorabilia. The places had already been set, two red and white checkered table mats sat across from each other at the corresponding seats and the silverware was laid out neatly. “Sounds good to me, I’m starving!” Veronica took a seat and watched her mom buzzing about the kitchen as she put the finishing touches on their meals. 

Once everything was done, the table was filled with food. A bowl of salad in the middle, with a basket of rolls to the side. Their plates were adorned with juicy t-bone steaks, mac and cheese, and potato salad. “I knew there was a reason I hadn’t put you in a nursing home…” V joked as she savored a bite of the rare steak, just how she liked it. Her mother scoffed, and took a sip of water, “As if you could.” They both shared a smile and then turned to see Olive padding into the room, her head in the air as she scented the air. “What a brat.” Veronica said as she jumped up on the table expectantly. “You did say she took after you!” Her mom retorted, picking up the naughty cat and setting her on the floor. “So, what’s this warrant you’re going on?”

“Mom, you know I’m not supposed to divulge any details...”

“Oh please, I used to be in the game, and still kind of am. I worked for Whitehorse long before you did, I don’t think I need to be counted as a citizen.” She said, rolling her eyes. Veronica looked uneasy as she considered it for a moment, then relented; “It’s some doomsday cult leader… Joseph Seed. Something about him really freaked me out.” She confessed, almost hanging her head. Being freaked out was not the norm for this deputy. “Why’s that?” 

“I think it’s just his ability to brainwash all of these people… anyone who can do that has too much power. Also Earl is scared of him, which is weird. He’s usually so gungho about catching the bad guys, but he doesn’t even want to go on this warrant.” 

“That’s certainly odd. I’ve never seen that man back down, there must be something seriously bad going on.” Her mom looked off, her brow furrowed in deep thought. “Hopefully this mission will just be in and out. That way I can get back to my baby!” She said the last part in a higher pitch, directing it at the cat, who was sitting in the window behind them. “I hope so too sweetie. People like him are the reason I’ve got a bunker.” Ronnie smirked, saying “Yeah you and everyone else in Hope County, it seems like.” 

“It never hurts to be prepared!” 

“I guess so.” She relented, standing and grabbing their dirty dishes. 

After all the dishes were cleaned and hugs were shared, Veronica stretched and glanced at the clock which showed 10:45pm. “Man how’d it get so late so fast?” She mused and stroked Olive’s soft little head. “Hopefully a late dinner won’t give you any nightmares.” Her mother thought out loud and wrapped Veronica in another suffocating hug. “It was nice having dinner with you baby, I love you!” She smooched Ronnie on the cheek before pulling away and giving her a loving grin. “I had a good time, and the steaks were amazing. Thanks for having me over, I love you too!” She returned the kiss on the cheek and put her hand on the doorknob. As she stepped out her mother wished her luck on the warrant later, and then she was in her car once more. 

20 minutes later, V was brushing her teeth, staring at herself in the mirror wearing a simple black night dress that fell to her thighs and was fringed with lace at the bottom. Long day… who knows when that asshole Burke is gonna call me.’ She thought, spitting out the toothpaste and wiping her mouth with the back of her arm.  As she flopped into bed, the black sheets felt cold without Olive’s presence, but she felt it was for the best. It was 11:11pm as she glanced at the clock. “Make a wish…” She murmured while her eyes shut, the feeling of a full stomach lulling her to sleep. 

A blaring ringing tore through the dark silence in Veronica’s bedroom. It was her phone, blasing her generic android ringtone. Her eyes snapped open and she grasped for her phone, having to blink the bleariness away before seeing that it was Hudson calling her. She looked at the clock for the second time that night to see only two hours had passed, making it around 1am. She slid the green answer icon across the screen and answered, her voice thick with annoyance, “Hello?” Instead of Joey’s pleasant voice, she was met with Marshal Cameron Burke’s gruff one, “Rook, get your ass up and get dressed. We’re executing this warrant now.” 

“Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“Yeah, time to arrest that asshole Joseph Seed.” Burke practically shouted, and then Veronica was met with a dial tone. She scoffed, pulling the phone from her ear to look at it and see only her lock screen, a photo of Olive in a taco costume. “Guess I’m getting ready.” She grumbled and turned on the lamp sitting on her nightstand. The light flooded every corner of the room, forcing V to squint as she flipped the covers off and walked over to a chair in the corner of the room that was covered with clothes and blankets. She snatched her green work button up before finding a tank top and some jeans. On top of her dresser, she eyed her jewelry box and plucked out a rose gold heart-shaped locket with a matching chain. It was engraved ‘To Veronica, Love nana’ Once she was dressed, she buckled her utility belt and hurried down the stairs to the front door. 

Something forced her to stop and take a look at the open plan townhome. All was calm and nothing stirred in the living room, yet she felt eerie as she left. Almost like she was abandoning her castle. She shook her head, shaking the thought off and stepping through the door to lock it. As she was walking to the car she pulled out her wallet from her back pocket, it was a replica of the one used in Pulp Fiction that said ‘BAD MOTHERFUCKER’ on the side. She opened the zippered secret pocket, pulling out a faded scrap of paper. On it was written ‘Good luck on your first day! -Mom’. She’d slipped her that on her first day at the sheriff’s department. At the time, V had laughed and said “I’m not a kid!” But stowed it away nonetheless as a good luck charm. A sudden, bone-chilling breeze whipped across the land, forcing a shiver to wrack her body. Veronica stepped into her car, feeling like this was going to be a long night. 

The deputy’s hands clenched the steering wheel- frustration written all over her features. She’d already been to the station only to get redirected to some field by Nancy, who was the only one not joining this adventure. Apparently the sheriff had asked her to come in and man the scanner, just in case things got out of hand and they needed to call reinforcements. Ronnie shook her head as she saw Hudson, Whitehorse, Pratt, and Burke standing in front of a matte black helicopter that had a badge on the side. Upon walking up to join them, Veronica called “Well this is fancy!” Staci stepped up next to the marshal, exclaiming “Yeah, the feds decided to help us out on this one!” He clapped Burke on the shoulder- earning him a heated glare. “Anyways… everyone pile in. Hudson, you’re flying us.” The grumpy man got to the point, motioning everyone into the copter. 

In no time they were in the air, flying to Joseph’s Compound on an island in the middle of Hope County. Veronica looked at the screen of the gps in the front, searching for the time. She found that it was 2:37am, and asked “So what exactly is the benefit of going to get him so late?” Cameron replied- his voice dripping with unearned confidence “The benefit, Rook, is catching him by surprise.” As Ronnie was about to speak up, Pratt cut in with, “You don’t catch men like Joseph Seed off guard.” 

At that moment Joey spoke up, “Crossing the Henbane now.” Everyone looked out of the wide windows, only to catch sight of a perfect rendition of Joseph Seed’s face captured forever in stone in way of a towering monolith. “Crazy motherfucker…” Burke murmured, his gaze held by the monument. “Jesus Christ.. we’re officially in peggie country.” Hudson shook her head before looking back to the skies. “You know, they call this Angel’s Peak. It’s a holy place for them.” Pratt said, sounding almost wistful.

“How much longer?” Cameron asked. 

“Just long enough for you to change your mind so we can turn this bird around.” Whitehorse insisted. “You want me to ignore a federal warrant, sheriff?” Burke scoffed.

“No sir, I want you to understand the reality of this situation. Joseph Seed… he’s not a man to be fucked with. We’ve had a few run ins with him before and it hasn’t always gone our way. Sometimes.. sometimes it’s better to just leave well enough alone.” 

Burke scoffed, lifting up the warrant. “Yeah, well we have laws for a reason; and Joseph Seed’s gonna learn that.” Instead of replying to that, the sheriff radioed Nancy to make sure she was still there, and told her that if she didn’t hear from them in 15 minutes to call backup. V looked down and saw a white church surrounded by other smaller buildings, she was mystified. The whole situation didn’t even seem real. ‘Maybe it’s just because it’s late and I haven’t gotten any good rest lately.’ She thought, trying to comfort herself. Somehow it didn’t help. 

“So what’s with calling them ‘peggies’? I’ve never heard anyone at the station call them that.” Veronica asked, hoping to lighten the mood. “Project Eden’s Gate. P. E. G. It’s what the locals call them.” Earl explained. Somehow she knew he was trying to distract himself as well. 

As they got closer, it was obvious there were people everywhere. “So much for taking him by surprise.” She muttered, shaking her head and thinking ‘I could be asleep right now.’ The helicopter jerked slightly as it landed on the ground, the blades whirling to a stop. All of them exited the bird, taking in their surroundings. Peggies surrounded them on all sides and the compound had as many as 12 buildings; dorms, a barn, and various other houses. The cult members regarded them suspiciously, casting daggers their ways and muttering insults. Ronnie looked to her left as they walked down the main path, there was a man wielding a flamethrower and keeping a pire of fire sufficiently lit. “They don’t fuck around…” V commented, her brow furrowed. 

The group made their way into a fenced corridor topped with an arch that said ‘Church of Eden’s Gate’ with the cross adorning the center. As they walked, a creaking then metal clanging could be heard behind them, causing Veronica to whip around only to witness them closing the gate behind them. “Why are they closing the gate?” Joey asked, looking to her partners for answers but receiving nothing. They approached the door to the church and could hear a choir of members singing a hymn as Whitehorse motioned for them to hold up. “Going in there, we do this my way, quietly.” He said sternly, mainly for Burke’s benefit. Cameron smirked and put a hand on Earl’s shoulder, “Relax sheriff. You’re about to get your name in the papers.” Veronica couldn’t help but shake her head, something was wrong here. 

As the white double doors swung inward, V took in the scene and was enthralled. Joseph was standing at the front of the church delivering a sermon, “Something is coming… you can feel it can’t you? We are creeping towards the edge, and there will be a reckoning. Because we know what happens next; they will come for us… to take from us. Take our guns, take our freedom, take our faith. We will not let them!” The church patrons were captured by his presence, hanging on every word. 

The deputy, marshal, and sheriff made their way to the platform Joseph stood on. White candles surrounded him, casting a holy glow on his features. “We will not let their greed, their morality, or their depravity hurt us anymore!” The preacher’s voice grew as Marshal Burke reached him and held the paper warrant aloft. Whitehorse murmured “Goddammit…” and Cameron said forcefully “Joseph Seed, we have here a warrant for your arrest, under suspicion of kidnapping with intent to harm. I’m gonna need you to step down with your hands where I can see them, and come with us.” Veronica noticed three figures she hadn’t seen practically melting out of the shadows to stand behind The Father.

“Here they are, the locusts in our garden. They’ve come to take me from you, to destroy all we’ve built!” The peggies started to converge around Joseph, their voices joining together as they objected. He parted through them, his calm demeanor quieting their shouts. “We knew they would come. This is what we’ve prepared for. Go…” He sent them off and came to stand in front of the pews, raising his hands up. “I saw the lamb of the first seal and I heard the noise as if of thunder as one of four beasts sang ‘Come, see’-”

Cameron cut him off, “Step forward!” Joseph stepped closer- undertered from preaching, “And I saw and behold, it was a white horse... and Hell followed with him.” He finished while looking from Earl to Ronnie and finally holding out his hands, a worn brown rosary dangled from his wrist. “Rook, cuff this son of a bitch.” Burke growled. 

V stepped forward, about to pull out her cuffs when the people behind him caught her eye once more. She recognised them to be his family. From right to left; there was a gruff looking man with scar tissue climbing up his side, next to him a beautiful young woman wearing no shoes and a lacey, floral dress. Veronica’s gaze lingered on her a moment before she took in the last figure- a tall man wearing an expensive looking duster. His piercing stare found hers and she felt as though he was seeing straight into her soul. Ice filled her veins and she froze in place, suddenly feeling like a gazelle who had just realised the lion was upon her but only when it was already too late. There was so much animosity in the man’s eyes, like he hated her for even thinking of taking his brother. 

“Earth to Veronica.” Burke’s annoyed voice snapped her from the trance she was in, causing her to shiver before finally producing the cuffs. The metal clinked around Joseph’s small wrists, and right as she was about to secure the second ring, he turned his hand to grip her wrist tightly and V looked into his eyes. “God will not let you take me.” He said calmly without an ounce of doubt. “Good thing God doesn’t get to decide in the end.” She retorted before shaking off his hand and slapping the final cuff on with a resounding click.  

As they walked out the church doors with Joseph in cuffs, armed peggies started to surround them. “Back up!” Hudson yelled, taking lead. Burke pushed a woman down when she got too close, and the crowd became more riled up, closing in as they walked to the helicopter. Soon, they started throwing rocks at the group and screaming, trying to defend their Father. The whole time Joseph stayed eerily silent, even as they were getting into the copter. Pratt fired off a few warning shots to the cultists that were trying to mob the vehicle, Veronica and Burke pushed a few of them from the copter as they gained height, yet the peggies continued trying to swarm them.

One of the cultists did something, because the helicopter went into a tailspin, and the engine sputtered. Joseph looked skyward and began singing Amazing Grace, his tone calm despite the chaos. They made impact with a tree, then another and everyone but Joseph was screaming, their lives flashing before their eyes. Upon impact, the whole world cut out and everything was black.

Veronica’s eyes opened, and the world spun in streamers of color. Nancy’s frantic voice could be heard over the ringing in her ears, she was yelling into the helicopter’s headphones. She looked around and saw Burke across from her, dangling by his seatbelt, Earl was next to him, doubled over; and Joey was to her right. She tried to take in a deep breath and sputtered on thick smoke that was no doubt coming from the engine. Before V could swing forward and grab the headset to alert Nancy, she was pushed lightly back into her seat by a battered Joseph Seed. He smiled at her softly, grabbing the headset on his own while maintaining eye contact. “I told you that God wouldn’t let you take me…” He murmured soothingly. “We’ll see about that…” Veronica persisted. He shook his head and spoke into the headset mic, “Dispatch? Everything is just fine here. Call no one.” Veronica scoffed, ‘Surely Nancy will know something is wrong-’ The thought began to cross her mind before she heard her last hope’s response: “Yes, Father. Praise be to you.” Her mouth dropped open in shock and horror, watching the man she came to apprehend smirk before whispering “No one is coming to save you.” 

He climbed from the wreckage and met a handful of his flock, reassuring them in a hushed tone. V started to struggle against her seatbelt, which was stuck fast. “Fuck, fuck, fuck..” She muttered and beat at the clip. Her companions began to wake and she turned to see Joseph standing on the hood of a car, his hands raised as he delivered an impromptu sermon, “The first seal is broken… now we must take what we need, for this world will be no more. We must stop all those that stand in our way- including these harbingers of doom. Begin the reaping!” He screamed the last sentence into the night air, his followers cheering. 

They swarmed the copter for the second time that night, Veronica, Joey, and the others squirmed trying to get free. Hudson freed herself finally, only to be savagely pulled from the wreckage kicking and screaming. “Joey!” Veronica yelled, reaching after her only to just miss her hand. More peggies ran over and were about to reach in, when a ring of flames surrounded them instead. “Fuck!” V exclaimed, pulling frantically at her seatbelt. Burke was able to free himself and dash out of the small opening in the wall of fire. Heat was searing her skin and desperation made her claw at the restraint harder and harder, finally the belt snapped and she tumbled forward to what used to be the roof of the vehicle. Ronnie caught herself just barely and found herself sprinting away into the foreboding woods. 

Branches whipped at her face, scratching her cheeks and forcing her to hold her hands out in front of her. Not far behind, the men who hunted her yelled, “She’s escaping! Grab her!” Emotions overwhelmed her; panic, fear, anger, confusion. “Goddammit give me a break!” She huffed, breath ragged from sprinting. She spotted a soft light in the distance, a campfire. V ducked behind a thick tree trunk- whipping her head around in both directions wildly, adrenaline and fear coursing through her. The angry voices were distant enough for her to turn and survey the campsite. 

There were two lawn chairs on either side of the fire, and a cabin beyond that. One of the cultists patrolled the perimeter, both hands on his handgun. She caught sight of a sizable branch in front of the fire, and knew what she had to do. Ronnie crept forward on the balls of her feet, trying to avoid any stray twigs as she made her way to the branch. Finally she was there, taking the worn wood in her hands and feeling the weight of it. ‘This should do..’ She thought with a grim look. The deputy continued forward, waiting for just the right moment to slip behind the guard. Veronica gripped the bat harder and was about to swing when the guard turned around, surprise on his features. She wasted no time slamming the branch down on his head with a crack as he turned his gun towards her. The first blow slowed him- and for good measure she delivered the finishing blow. Through the branch, she could feel his skull give and an initial spray of blood shot from the wound, flecking V’s face in red freckles. She gasped and looked down to see his body twitch twice more before stilling, his heart steadily pumping out his life force.

Veronica felt cold as she watched the light drain from his eyes, shock starting to take over. She’d never actually killed anyone before. The world faded back piece by piece as she grabbed the man’s gun, and more screams came from the woods. She had to keep moving. A small drop off into the woods was her escape, and she crouched in the ferns on the woodland floor. There was another fire in the distance, and her enemies were scouring the area for her and Burke. 

Suddenly- her radio crackled, causing her to jump and grab it from her belt to muffle the speaker. “Hello? Hello.. it’s Burke… I think I lost them.. I see a trailer ahead across a bridge and I’m going to try to get inside. If anyone is still alive, if anyone is out there...” The signal was lost and it cut out. “Well I guess that’s where I’m going.” V sighed, and started slowly making her way through the woods. She passed the second fire, narrowly avoiding detection by two guards standing there. From there, she ascended a small hill that led to the bridge the marshal had mentioned. It creaked as she took to the wooden planks, practically crawling her way to the other end. When she got there, a white trailer with a green roof stoof in front of her. There were steps leading up to the back door which she pushed open cautiously, eyes darting side to side straining to catch any movement in the darkened abode. 

As soon as she cleared the door Burke was to her left, hands out and ready to attack. Veronica grabbed his arms, stopping him in midair before he regonised her. “Oh my god, Rook… you’re alive!” He cried with relief. “Yeah, no thanks to you, asshole. You left me to die back there!” She scoffed, glaring daggers at him. “I… It was just fight or flight, I was-” He struggled to defend himself.

“It doesn’t matter. Whitehorse told you this was a bad idea, this is your fault no matter what you have to say.” Ronnie cut him off, pointing an accusatory finger at him. When he had no retort she continued, “Now we have to find a way out of this shit show, and to rescue the others. Did you have a plan?” Burke sighed, walking further into the trailer, motioning for her to follow. The walls were wood panelled, and words were scratched into most of the walls; ‘The Father’, ‘Walk the path’, along with other mantras and bible verses. Pictures were also posted all over the spots that had no words. They all depicted the members of the Seed family in various poses and situations. One such picture was a framed portrait of all of them, Cameron grabbed this and stared into their eyes. He looked haunted. 

“The plan is to put all of these fuckers in jail. No matter what it takes.” He gathered himself before tossing it on the table and going to point out of one of the front windows. “To get out of here, I was thinking I could try to hotwire that truck, unless the keys are in it. It’s probably only a couple hours back to Missoula, then we’re gonna come back here with the National fucking Guard, and take care of these lunatics.” 

“Fine, let’s just get out of here before-” Veronica was cut off by a shot ringing out, and one of the windows behind her shattering into a spray of glass. “They’re in there!” Screamed a man, and more shots were fired at the trailer. “These guys just don’t give up!” She exclaimed, exasperated. Burke took shelter against one of the walls, pulling out his gun to fend off the attackers. V scanned the room and found a gun mounted on the wall, she grabbed it and cocked it before crouching under the shattered window, sitting up to aim outside. There were four peggies firing at them. She took aim at the first, shooting him square in the chest and knocking him to the ground. Burke took out one on the other side then turned to say “Cover me! I’m gonna go get that truck started!” Veronica nodded curtly before turning to shoot out the window twice more. 

Even more cultists were arriving at the scene and taking up arms, it seemed almost hopeless. V fired shot after shot, taking out as many as she could until she finally heard the sweet roar of an engine, and Cameron shouted for her to join him in the truck. “Finally, fuck!” She gasped, dashing from the trailer and ripping open the door to the vehicle. “Let’s fucking go!” He yelled while she slammed the door and immediately leaned out of the window to shoot at the peggies behind them. Burke careened down the simple dirt road, Veronica shooting at their enemies as they approached a chain link fence and busted through the gate with no problem, then they were crossing a bridge to the main road. 

Burke was gasping, close to panic, while V just felt numb. ‘Shock must be setting in, great.’ She thought distantly. “God, I had no idea Rook. I didn’t know how bad it was, how right Whitehorse was… I wish we’d never served that warrant.” He rambled, glancing between the deputy and the road. “It’s too late for wishes, Burke… they’ve got the road blocked!” She exclaimed at the sight before her; peggies had their trucks and sawhorses blocking off the next section of street. She lifted her gun once more, shooting at them while Cameron swerved wildly to avoid the obstacles. One of the cultists to their right set off a flare, letting the rest of them know where they were. 

The pair crashed through another barricade, and Ronnie kept shooting at the people pursuing them that were in an identical looking truck. “We aren’t losing them marshal!” She shouted. “Alright, I guess we gotta try something else.” He huffed before taking the truck off road, almost going airborne as they crashed through a wooden fence. Blinding headlights were blazing behind them as more and more peggies joined the chase. Veronica happened to glance in the bed, and spotted some red sticks. “Oh fuck yeah.” She chuckled, reaching out of the window and grabbing a stick before producing her simple purple lighter that had miraculously stayed in her pocket. She lit the fuse on the dynamite, squinting her eyes as the cord came to life and the flame hissed. V chucked it at one of the trucks behind them, causing a loud boom and fire bloomed from the wreckage. “Shit! That’s pretty satisfying.” She commented, turning to Burke who still looked too scared to be impressed. 

After lighting a couple more sticks and tossing them out, causing some major chaos, they found themselves about to go under an overpass. Right before they passed underneath, a sleek white plane flew out of the clouds and began shooting at them, hitting some green crates on the side of the road only for them to explode. Keying into this as they finally passed under the bridge, she fired quickly at the crates scattered around an upcoming roadblock, sending people flying in every direction. “A plane, are you kidding me?” Burke yelled and pounded a fist against the wheel.

A gargantuan bridge waited on the other side of the roadblock, there was a sign mounted near the top that read ‘Henbane River Bridge’. As they raced across, Cameron took a deep breath before saying “Home free, after this we are home free!” Veronica wasn’t so sure as more planes swooped overhead, and suddenly a high-pitched whistling could be heard getting closer and closer, before V yelled “Bomb!!” and orange flames whooshed across the bridge, enveloping their truck and sending them tumbling into the river below. 

The vehicle was in a freefall with chunks of concrete, the river’s waters rushing up to meet them. Neither of them had time to say anything before they made impact. Veronica was incapacitated for a moment and when her eyes opened they were underwater, trapped once again. She saw Burke across from her pounding on the window, shattering it on his third try and swimming up to the top, leaving her to drown. Ronnie gathered together her last bits of energy, slamming her elbow into the passenger side window until it finally broke, and she maneuvered her way from the descending car. Her arms flailed as her lungs screamed, daring her to take a breath before breaching the surface, and then it went black. 

Not too long later, her eyes snapped open and she grasped at the wet silt underneath her, she was on the shore. On the bridge there were countless flashlights casted down upon the water, looking for her. She heard Marshal Burke yelling off in the distance, and saw a group of peggies pulling him away as he shouted “I am a federal marshal! You can’t do this!” Veronica tried to get the will to get up and run, knowing she was next; but her muscles screamed with exhaustion and wouldn’t cooperate. She was able to lift herself to crawl maybe a foot before collapsing once more, staring up at the sky and trying to accept that this was the end. 

A figure came into her field of vision and the barrel of a shotgun was dangerously close to her head, she didn’t even have the energy to protest as the person lifted her over their shoulder with a grunt, and began carrying her through the woods. Her vision faded in and out, allowing her to see them pass by a radio tower and then a cabin, only to walk down some metal stairs. Then she could fight no more; and everything went black. 

[miximax-hell]

Happy Goku Day, everyone!!

I checked and, miraculously, I still have followers on this blog. In fact, I’ve gained some since the last time I posted, for some reason! I’m not going to question it, though. Just... bless. But, hey, long time no see! As usual!

This time, I’m going back to my roots. The first drawings I posted on this blog were meant to show my love towards original Raimon, and it’s never a bad time to remind you all that I still adore these kids. Especially now that my friend @dust-monsters-under-my-bed​ has reminded me of them. Go check her art, btw! She’s not very active on Tumblr, but you can find her art on Twitter right here: https://twitter.com/rachelmonart

Anyway, she’s watching Inazuma Eleven for the first time and she’s made me think again about how much love these kids deserve, BECAUSE THEY SURE GOT NONE FROM HINO. DAMN YOU, HINO. So, today, let’s talk about the one and only IE character whose feet are classified as mass destruction weapons, who decided to borrow power from someone who will make you all question me, my logic and my tastes: Yamhan (or, as he is known in the west, Tiencha), THE FUSION OF YAMCHA AND TENSHINHAN FROM DRAGON BALL.

Introducing ShoYamHan! More on him under the cut.

So, first of all, how have you all been? I suppose many of you, like myself, are being told to stay at home to fight this situation. I salute all of you who do your best to stay safe and not help spread anything. It’s a very necessary fight, even if it can be boring at times. Many of us have friends or relatives fighting on the frontline, though (unless you yourself are the doctor or nurse friend!), and we hopefully know that staying at home is a small price to pay.

As for me, I got a job in December and lost it last month, so... yeah. It’s not been great. Still, something I’ve been working hard on for a while should be released soon and that’s so exciting! MY NAME WILL FINALLY BE ON SOMETHING’S CREDITS AND I CAN’T WAIT FOR IT TO BE UP.

But, anyway, back to business!

Rachel suggested I talk about the reasons behind this particular miximax, and considering it makes for a perfect parallel with my first posts, where I talked about the reasons behind Max’s and Kageno’s miximaxes, I’m all up for it! But, this time, I will have to do something new: explain WHO THE HECK YAMHAN IS. So let’s start with a picture of this handsome devil.

As most of you hopefully know, this project is about miximaxing Inazuma characters with video game characters. No anime, movies or anything else. Only and exclusively video games. Dragon Ball has probably spawned all those things, but it started as a manga, so you’d be right to think it most definitely does not qualify for this project. And, indeed, Dragon Ball doesn't. What DOES qualify, however, are Dragon Ball characters exclusive, or first introduced, in a video game. And that’s exactly the case we’re dealing with here!

Growing up, I loved Dragon Ball games. Even before I watched the show properly, in fact! I would go to my friend’s house, who was a fan of the show, and we'd play the Dragon Ball Budokai games nonstop with absolutely zero regrets. Those were some great times. And once I came to know the source material, the game that blew my mind the most was Dragon Ball Budokai 2. Was it the best one? Not necessarily. Is it my favourite? Not by a long shot. Still, it was the most creative! Most games follow the story of DBZ, which, obviously, is always the same. But Budokai 2 wasn’t afraid to do new things. Its story mode resembled a tabletop game and it was more than happy to deviate from the source material in some really fun ways; most notably, with exclusive fusions.

Budokai 2 introduced us all to Yamhan, the fusion of Yamcha and Tenshinhan, two long forgotten characters in the series, as they (and especially poor Yamcha) didn’t do anything especially relevant past... well, past the original Dragon Ball. As a champion of the unloved, that blew my mind. There were other fun things in Budokai 2, but what fascinated me and stayed in my thoughts for years to come was Yamhan. It was just such a cool concept. Two underdogs who had fallen into obscurity fusing to create a much greater warrior!

Of course, Yamhan isn’t the only videogame exclusive characters in Dragon Ball. He isn’t the first, nor the last. Yamhan isn’t the strongest, nor the weakest. But I haven’t played FighterZ nor Fusions (yet), nor pretty much any game that wasn’t on PS2 or GBA. And even if I had, I doubt Android 21 or any of the HUNDREDS of combinations available in Fusions would captivate me and my imagination as much as Yamhan did back in the day. Yamhan was a fusion, which is something that has always fascinated me to begin with. I MEAN, THIS ENTIRE BLOG IS ABOUT FUSING CHARACTERS, SO I THINK IT’S PRETTY OBVIOUS LMAO But he wasn’t just one among hundreds. He was this very specific, never-seen-before, cool as heck and usable fusion. Like, wow. That was wild for me. Sign me up, man.

But, you know, I try not to let that sway me too much. Of course, I wouldn’t likely pick a character I hate for a miximax, but, still, my preferences aren’t everything. And choosing Yamhan begs a question that I have already alluded to: if Yamhan isn’t the strongest game-exclusive DB character out there, then, why him? Well, the answer to that is related to the biggest problem posed by the sheer concept of miximaxing with a Dragon Ball character:

Power escalation.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Goku is, pretty much, the strongest character that has ever played the lead in any manga, and one of the strongest fictional characters ever, period. By the end of the Dragon Ball Super anime, he has EXCEEDED THE POWER OF MANY LITERAL GODS AND IS (or has been) A CANDIDATE TO BECOME ONE. You may prefer One Piece, or Naruto, or anything else, but few things reach the astronomical, reality-bending scope of Dragon Ball. Not to say DB is the best series--I’m just saying that it’s so out of control at this point (and I love it). But, of course, the stronger Goku is, the stronger the villains need to be, and Goku ends up becoming EVEN stronger than said villains. Rinse and repeat dozens of times until you can make an entire universe disappear by raising your hand.

Now, imagine applying that out-of-this-world power escalation to a context where the power balance isn’t so outrageous. For example, Inazuma Eleven.

Goku wriggling in his sleep is more powerful than Zeus, and an accidental sneeze would smash all of Ixal Fleet to smithereens. Do you see what this would do to the balance? It would ruin it completely, as anyone who miximaxed with Goku would be immediately a one-person army able to defeat ANY opponent--and if the opponent were to be EVEN GREATER than Goku, well, the rest simply wouldn’t stand a chance. Ever. Remember: the point of this project isn’t to create perfect and unbeatable players, and I’m not trying to prioritize anyone or make them noticeably stronger than anyone else just because I happen to like X more than Y. That completely ruins the tension and the fun (and my attempts to create justice in this unfair universe). The point is to come up with a balanced team full of players with strong points, but with flaws, too, that complement each other when they play together against stronger enemies.

So, if we go with Dragon Ball, and I love Dragon Ball WAY too much to not include it in this project in some way, we have to be careful and avoid overdoing it. Balance is key. And now that you know why I didn’t just choose the fusion between Beerus and Whis or something crazy like that, I’ll move on to explain what makes Yamhan a very interesting option. I SWEAR THERE ARE SOME ACTUAL REASONS.

First of all, the very concept. You know, Yamcha and Tenshinhan fused to created Yamhan, and now, Shourin is fusing with a fusion. That’s just... hecking cool. I won’t lie--my preferences towards Yamhan didn’t tip the scales towards making this happen, but my preferences towards FUSIONCEPTION totally did. XD But there’s more, thankfully.

From the very beginning, I knew I wanted a fighting game character to miximax with Shourin because it fits his theme best. I’m not big on fighting games, though, so it was quite tough. Especially because just any fighting game wouldn’t do it. Shourin is a martial artist. As I mentioned at the very beginning of this post, his feet are his weapons. His entire body is a weapon, really. If I were to suddenly miximax him with some character who wields a sword or an axe, for example, it would be a complete disservice to Shourin. Original Raimon members don’t have much going on for themselves, and I’m going to cut or ignore the ONE thing that makes one of them special? Not in a zillion years. Shourin needs to fight with his body. That, of course, cuts many characters already: pretty much the entire roster of Soul Calibur, many members of Mortal Kombat, many from games like Skullgirls (which I still want to try to represent here in the future, because @lumaga worked on it and it makes me happy just because of that), etc. For a very long time, I considered someone like Ryu, from Street Fighter, but then it hit me: I have never played Street Fighter and I don’t want to include him just because I know what a Hadouken is. It’d be... cheap. And fake. Thankfully, as I also mentioned earlier, I played LOTS of Budokai back in the day and I am an actual fan, so I don’t have to pretend to know what the heck I’m talking about. XD And, thankfully, most of the characters in DB games fight with their bare fists and legs, so they perfectly fit my needs. Yamhan is, of course, no exception.

Now comes my favourite reason to choose Yamhan and not, well, literally any other DB game-exclusive character. And that reason is style.

Remember that power escalation thing I mentioned earlier? Well, it’s epic, but it comes with a big disadvantage: power ends up becoming much more important than skill. Early Dragon Ball was very focused on fighting styles. There was an ongoing feud between the Turtle School and the Crane School, who taught different martial arts to fight in different ways, and there was a big plot involving which one was superior. It wasn’t just about who was strongest, but about who fought better. With time, that disappeared, though. Even though battles became flashier, aerial and more spectacular, they were much more indistinct. Sure, there were gimmicks like “heh, I have a tail and I will sometimes hit you with it,” or “I will try to hit your face with the palm of my hand instead of my fist for some unspecified reason,” but that isn’t... much. You just see very fast people avoiding equally as fast punches to the face. And Goku, the main character, only shows some style when he adopts a fighting pose BEFORE fighting. Once the punches start flying, it’s all a race to see who can hit the other the hardest in the gut to make them spit blood. Cool nonetheless, but still.

Ironically, though, it’s two of the least relevant characters who never really lost those styles that made them unique when they were first introduced to the series. And those are, of course, Yamcha and Tenshinhan.

Yamcha joins the Turtle School and learns techniques as classic as the Kamehameha, but he had his own style way before that, based on attacking and tearing enemies apart like a wolf would. This is best represented by his signature move, the Rougafuufuuken or Wolf Fang Fist. He never drops this style, but instead builds up on it through his training to make it even fiercer.

Tenshinhan has different things going for himself. First of all, he is a hybrid between a human being and a civilization known as the Three-Eyed People, which grants him powers such as growing extra arms from his back or dividing in 4. Not just moving so fast that it looks like there’s four of him, but ACTUALLY dividing into 4 separate bodies. In terms of skills, he was a Crane School student, but when he realised the wrong of his master’s doings, he decided to start training and developing on his own. Basically, a path that mirrors Yamcha’s, but both lead to unique fighting styles unlike anyone else’s in this universe. And, most importantly, none of them depend on appendixes that are always there, like the aforementioned tail, so they totally work for us here!

Shourin is a proper martial artist. He wouldn’t want to make himself crazy strong as much as he would like to refine his technique and learn new moves and tricks. Martial arts are about discipline, self-control, skill and protection. He would take a cool-ass combo based on a wolf’s moves over earth-shattering strength any day of the week, hence why the fact that these two have so many techniques to offer is so appealing.

Finally, and probably least, is the design idea that immediately came to my mind when I thought of a miximax between Shourin and Yamhan. Historically, I have had to work with characters like Fudou, who are usually mostly bald and they miximax with someone with hair, thus making for some very... difficult things to figure out. But the idea of miximaxing Shourin, who is mostly bald, with Yamhan, who is ALSO mostly bald, was just golden and too good to ignore. And the fact that Yamhan has three eyes GIVES ME AN EXCUSE TO ADD A THIRD CROSS-SHAPED EYE ON SHOURIN’S FOREHEAD. IF A MIXIMAX BETWEEN BALD PEOPLE WAS GOLDEN, THIS IS OUTRIGHT PLATINUM.

Shourin would've probably looked a lot less like a joke if he had had hair covering his entire head or if I had at least given him proper eyes... but that would no longer be the Shourin I love. Not to mention that it’s very likely that Shourin willingly shaves his head to begin with (even if the ponytail ain’t doing him any favours--but that’s just Inazuma logic, so let’s not look too much into it), just like Tenshinhan or Krillin do, so he would probably be happier to keep that, uh, advantage. Relative advantage, but still.

As a side note, though, we can’t forget the balance. When Yamcha and Tenshinhan fuse, they undoubtedly become the strongest human being in the DB universe, overcoming the one who is usually strongest: Krillin. A fusion is always greater than its parts individually, and Yamcha and Tenshinhan aren’t so far away from Krillin to begin with, so that’s not even a question. Regardless, they still don’t have that overwhelming and surreal strength from other characters, so we still don’t get into absolutely OP territory. Yamhan is strong enough to provide Shourin with a power that can make a real difference without completely putting him above everyone else.

Sadly, Yamhan doesn’t really have a backstory, as he’s a game-exclusive character that, honestly, was probably only there for a laugh. That means there is no deep connection between them. We can, however, make obvious connections between Shourin, an aspiring martial artist whose dream, as stated in IE2, was to study at Manyuuji (Kogure’s school) for their focus on martial arts, and is now trying to become stronger to protect what he loves, and two skilled warriors who have been training nonstop under different masters and on their own for basically their entire lives to keep becoming stronger and more skilled in order to defend what’s precious to them and, simply, to be the best version of themselves they can be. Upon seeing such dedicated warriors and artists, Shourin would undoubtedly want to learn from them and, if necessary, borrow their strength too.

Or he might just fanboy and ask for their autographs, honestly. I sure as heck want Yamcha’s. And his baseball card.

[an-annyeoing-writer]

vampire!Xiumin x Reader: feeding habits.

Wordcount: 1 989

For @banaani-mins! It didn’t exactly go as the prompt said, but hope you enjoy nonetheless lmao

It was the sound of knocking to your door that woke you up from the nap.

You moved slowly; your limbs were a tad sore and you felt like you’ll fall back asleep if you don’t get a coffee ASAP. Although you knew it won’t work for long; you’ve been exhausted these days, but it’s not like you could help it. It’s alright, you can pull through, you’ll finish the college and then find a stable job and you won’t have to sell your health off anymore. 

You glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and panicked instantly, and when the knocking echoed again, you shot up, running to the door, almost losing balance in the hallway, but getting there and opening the door quickly.

“Sorry, sorry! I was taking a nap and lost track of time” you explained yourself, before the man standing in front of you could even say anything.

Minseok tilted his head to the side, smiling politely.

“It’s alright” he announced calmly and you let out a sigh.

Even though the deal between the two of you was completely business-like at first, you found yourselves getting closer to each other as the time passed. Relationships like these often created friendships, if both parts were willing, of course; in the world where vampires lived among humans, there was nothing weird in it anymore. Although the deal wasn’t exactly legal, it was the most convenient for vampires, and for you – a college student – it was an easy way to get money to pay your tuition and rent a small flat.

“You don’t look too good today” Minseok spoke, once you invited him in. You only shrugged, as if there was nothing weird in it.

“I just didn’t sleep much lately. And doing groceries is a hassle” you murmured. “Want something to drink?” you asked, peeking into the kitchen; vampires could still eat or drink normal things, which made it only easier for them to accommodate.

“Well, yeah, I pretty much came here for that” he answered, amused, at which you only facepalmed, amazed with your own stupidity. “Your bedroom?”

“Yeah, make yourself at home, I’ll only grab some coffee.”

A few minutes later, coming into your room, you felt a bit better; even though you felt that the coffee you drank would make your body shake soon, especially with the smaller amount of blood in your veins. You learned to make the coffee weaker, but today you really didn’t feel well.

But then, you knew that if he noticed, he’d make it a big deal.

“What’s wrong?”

It was obvious you wouldn’t be able to hide much from him, though.

He sat on your bed, playing with your plushie; he had a habit of placing it on his stomach first thing after sitting there. For some reason, once you became more casual with each other, Minseok took a huge liking in your flat and the lifestyle, always asking you about your studies or what you were doing in your free time. It’s as if it was oriental thing for him, in a way – and it was, a vampire’s life was quite different, it was focused on different things, and his own apartment, as you came to find out not too long ago, was also way different than what people usually have. Despite the place being fairly spacious, his kitchen was small and unused, but scarily clean, as every other surface in the whole apartment.

You crossed your arms, using one of your hands to scratch your neck.

“I’m alright, just tired” you announced, sitting next to him. “How have you been these days?”

Minseok shrugged.

“Pretty busy, things were hectic at work.”

“You look tired.”

“I’ll be alright if I feed, it’s no big deal” he assured you.

“Go ahead then” you smiled, extending your hand in his direction. Minseok usually fed from your wrist, the same spot every time.

“You sure you can handle it?”

You nodded, using your other hand to rest your chin on, your elbow resting on your knee in a pose that could indicate boredom.

The man’s eyes didn’t leave yours, but you just let your eyelids drop, relaxing your muscles.

The pain you felt was plesantly familiar. It almost felt pleasant, your body experienced it so many times before that it didn’t bother you at all; you didn’t even flinch. 

Warmth spread all over your body. Even despite loosing blood, a vampire’s bite had that ultimate effect, and the comfort of apathy enveloped you, making the intrusiveness of the injury almost completely blank.

And then, you felt like you were flying.

* * * 

“.../n]. [F/n]!”

The sound of your name appeared somewhere far away, ripping through the darkness that surrounded you. But you pushed it away, easing yourself back into the sweet silence, as convenient as it was comfortable.

Something moved around you, pressing into your senses, waking up your numb limbs, pulling you out of this pleasurable state with more and more intensity, and you had no choice but to give in, a small sigh escaping your lips at the first indication that you, in fact, were not dead yet.

Your eyes fluttered open and the first thing you saw was Minseok’s face; a very, very worried face.

You gulped, staring back at him for a few painfully long moments.

And then you shut your eyes closed again.

Please, please, go away, yes, I lied to you, yes, I’m sorry, please, don’t be mad at m-

“[F/n].”

You breathed in shakily, and then forced your eyes open once more, your face – expressing the highest guilt as Minseok sighed deeply, shaking his head.

“You alright?”

You sat up; you were lying in your bed all along, you noted, and Minseok was sitting next to you, probably hovering above your unconscious frame until now, panicking his head off over the fact you fainted while feeding; it’s never happened before, he’d never took much enough from you to pass out, maybe feel dizzy for a few minutes, maybe needing a nap to recover, but it’d never been this bad.

He watched as you leaned against the cushions, breathing heavily. You still felt weak, and you didn’t even try to attempt to stand up. You didn’t really want to pass out again.

You slowly recovered. Being handed a bottle of water, you drank some of it, but it almost ended falling out of your grasp, that was when Minseok took it away and placed on the nightstand.

But once he assumed that you were in a relatively communicative shape, he cleared his throat and you glanced up, only to quickly look down again.

You messed up.

“You forgot my rules?”

You awkwardly scratched your arm, looking for a response for a few seconds, but no sensible words were there to assist you, and you pursed your lips, still avoiding the eye contact.

“I saw the marks” he spoke. “What am I supposed to do with you?”

Of course he saw. How long could you try to hide from him that you were selling your blood off to someone else, too? It only happened two times before; both were after the last time Minseok fed from you. But you just lost the small job your had, and feeding one vampire definitely didn’t provide you with enough money to live. 

But Minseok had his rules. You established that the day you started the deal: you were not to let anyone else bite you. It was sensible; vampires that fed off God knows whom, could carry a variety of diseases that went from one to another. Minseok didn’t want to catch anything, for the sake of other people he fed on; he always made sure everyone’s healthy.

“He was clean, I checked” you announced quietly. The fact that you did, in fact, go as far as to check the vampire, meant you weren’t as irresponsible as he thought at first. Or that, at the very least, you sincerely didn’t mean any harm to him or any other people he fed from. 

Minseok sighed yet again, and you’ve never wanted this badly to shrink into yourself.

“It’s not only about that, you know it.”

“Are you mad at me?” You finally raised your eyes.

“Yes.” You stared down again, wrapping arms around yourself. “But I’m also worried. And disappointed, that you didn’t tell me about it. Why did you do that? You can barely handle me alone, your blood isn’t an infinite source, you know?”

He tried to speak calmly, but his voice shook with emotions he tried to conceal. 

“I lost job” you said simply, and you were sure that it was enough to explain everything.

And it must have, because Minseok only let out yet another of his sighs, rubbing his eyes tiredly. You supposed he didn’t get as much blood as he needed – he probably panicked when you fainted. 

“Is that why you didn’t do the groceries?”

You nodded, defeated.

Minseok looked pretty done at this point; like a parent who just found out their kid spent last months hiding a sandwich under the bed, and said sandwich already started to grow life and convened its own government.

“Why didn’t you just tell me? I could have helped you out.”

You let out a dry laughter.

“I wouldn’t expect you to do that, Minseok. You don’t owe me anything.”

“I literally owe you your health.”

You reached to brush your hair with your fingers, bending your knees and leaning your chin on them.

“You already pay me enough” you said. “I’m thankful for that… You don’t owe me anything more.”

“You don’t understand, do you?”

His eyes bore through you, glistening with a red, dangerous hue for a brief moment before regaining their original color. 

“I can’t just stand here and watch you kill yourself as if your blood was all I care about. And even if it was, I need you alive and well to feed. So accept at least this. If it means I’ll have to go do your groceries or make payments to your college myself, I’ll do it, even though I’d rather just help you find a new job. So stop acting as if you don’t see that there’s something more than just mere business between the two of us. Because to me, it seems like a friendship.”

Your breath hitched at his words and you stared at him with your eyes wide. Although you’d known about it for a while before, there was still a string of doubt, something that didn’t allow you to put your full trust in him. 

“I’m sorry” your voice broke and you sniffled. The amount of emotion you felt at the moment started to flow out of you despite your exhaustion, and you wept quietly.

Minseok sighed, taking your wrist and gently pulling you into his chest. His arms wrapped themselves around your fragile frame, and he pet your head, as though you were a hurt animal, or a child that needed comfort. And for a few moments, none of you spoke, as he let you calm down, probably thinking himself what he wants to do with you.

“Shh, it’ll be alright” he whispered, finally pulling away and placing both hands on your shoulders. He’d never been the type to take any sort of offense lightly, and respect in a relationship was the most important thing to him. Yet, here he was, thoughtful and forgiving, easing you into a solution. “Just promise me to never do it again. And not lie to me. I’ll help you. But I need you to trust me, [F/n].”

Out of no other choice, you nodded.

Minseok smiled.

It was alright, you thought. The second chance you were given, would definitely help you out of your trouble. You’d become a better, stronger person, and your friendship would improve as well.

And maybe, one day, turn into something more.

Please, reblog if you enjoyed!

Check out my masterlist for more!

[imagethat]

Final Goodbye | Vergil x Kitsune!Reader

Alright! So this one reads like an absolute novel lmao I like writing while laying in bed. It helps me relax and fall asleep. I don’t post everything, but I wanted to post this. It’s a part two to my Kitsune!Reader drabble.

Something was festering inside you, as the nights grew longer during the winter, so too did your slumber. Each dream becoming more infatuating than the last, lulling you deeper and deeper into your once home. You knew this realm was not of your own creation, it had echoes of familiarity mixed in with the confusion. You already discerned its owner. Why they felt the need to drag this on was an ever evasive answer. You continued still, trying to reach the heart of this world. Before you could reach your destination, an alarm woke you up and you were pulled aggressively back into reality. An annoyed growl escaped you as you sat up in your bed. You’d have to be more cunning if you wished to speak with your nightly captor. The fact you hadn’t yet only adding more to your irritation. You peeled yourself from under the sheets and went downstairs. Dante puffed some air out of his chest before leaning forwards. “Whoah, someones on the warpath.” He commented. Was your irritability really that visible? “Not today Dante.” You warned while placing a hand on your forehead. Vergil quirked a brow. “You’ve been sleeping in rather late, are you alright?” He asked. The only reply he got was a half baked ‘Fine’ from your back as you went into the kitchen to get some food. Dante's eyes scanned over his brother curiously as he leaned back in his chair with crossed arms. Vergil knew something he didn’t, and wasn’t making any moves to tell him either. You returned from the kitchen, only to march past the twins without a word and return to your room. Once inside, you ate the cereal you had poured for yourself while packing for the day. Once ready you went downstairs. “Where are you going?” To your surprise, Vergil asked rather than Dante. “To attend to some business.” You replied, not giving any more of an explanation before heading out the front door.

It would start snowing soon, the sky was dark enough and a horrible chill dampened your bones. You checked Red Grave, making sure all the hexes you had placed remained in tact. Not only because they marked your territory, but because they acted as a ward. To your disappointment, some were broken. That was to be expected though, since another had come into your space. All at once the world gave way beneath your feet as you tumbled into darkness. The sound of your heart beat heavy in your ears with the depth and percussion of a full orchestra. You hit something on your fall and then once more. Your eyes shot open as you jolted forwards, those hits having been something shaking you. The dreams grasp was becoming so tight that you could not discern reality from it. Your eyes darted all around the park, not remembering the sheet of white that veiled it. Vergil was standing beside you, examining you quietly. “You’ve been gone for a whole day.” He commented. You paused… A whole day? Had the dream taken you for that long? It certainly didn’t feel like it had been that long. You didn’t remember moving to this bench either. Before you could question the man beside you, a sharp stinging burned your head. A loud noise rang and you had to cover your ears. You felt weak as you collapsed to the ground while your vision went blurry. Vergil was saying something, but you couldn’t tell what. “Dream…. Snare….. Run…” You tried to warn, your words almost failing you. When you awoke you realized you had finished your fall. But the world hadn’t gotten any lighter. You couldn’t make anything out in the dark despite your demon blood. There was whispering from all directions. You stood up and cautiously searched through the dark with your hands until you found a wall. Then you followed that until you saw the soft glow of light. You could feel it’s presence more clearly now. As you dashed towards it, you broke from the darkness into a cleaning underneath a beautiful never ending sky. Sitting across the clearing from you was your brother who would be the eldest had you not been born. The clearing was reminiscent of where you fought both Vergil and Nero originally. It was to taunt you. “It has been too long, sister.” He mused quietly. You nodded softly. “That is has been, how disrespectful of you to play such pranks on your sister.” You replied. He seemed displeased with your response and flicked his tail. “I would argue that if anyones been disrespectful, it’s you. Have you forgotten your teachings?” He questioned. “I have not, but father lied to us. Humans aren’t the only source of consumption for us.” You answered with a determined look. “That may be true, but why stay with them? They are beneath us, and to even share the same space with them…” He pierced his lips before glaring at you. “You aren’t suited to be the head of the family, return the key to me.” He demanded. When you came of age and proved your worth to your parents they gave you a key. Every dream realm was attached to an item, and the one handed down in your particular lineage was a gold embellished key. “It is mine, I owe you nothing.” You replied, already feeling the tension surrounding you both. This wasn’t going to end well for one of you.

Vergil had carried you back in the snow to Devil May Cry. Dante didn’t think much of it at first, but when he saw the way your veins seemed to be darkened he knew something was wrong. “There is another.” Vergil said before his brother could ask what happened. “So how do we wake y/n up then?” Dante asked. Vergil and you had grown pretty close during the time you agreed to stay at Devil May Cry. That included sharing your knowledge with him. “Only the one who created the snare can release her. By their will or by death.” He replied. Dante seemed to think for a moment before nodding. “Well, it’s nothing we can’t handle.” He said with a teasing smirk. “As long as I’m gettin paid at the end that is.” He added and Vergil scoffed at his brother quietly. They called Lady and Trish to stay with your resting body then headed off.

The fight was long, your brother enjoying every moment of proving his superiority. The world would glitch, and apparitions of your friends would appear in his place. It took everything in you to keep swinging when it happened. He had only dug so deep into your memory thus far. “They have made you weak! Yield sister! Join us once more!” He yelled at you. For a moment you internally stopped and pondered why you were fighting so hard to stay with your new found company when you had been so eager to never see their faces again just a few months ago. In that moment of weakness, not only did he strike you but he delved deeper into your mind. Summing forth your true feelings and more twisted visions of the people who truly matter to you. Your brother sneered loudly, striking you with force you didn’t know was possible. He looked down at you with hateful eyes. “I thought you’d have more respect for father, if you should walk amongst humans you should at least keep his most basic of rules in mind. But it’s true isn’t it!?” He demanded as you pounced back to avoid an attack. You bared your teeth. “What do you speak of!? Have you gone mad! I know my place! I am the head of this family!” You shot back. “We shall see.” He replied while lunging forwards. The action was so unpredictably sudden that it caught you off guard. He lifted you from the ground by your throat. You tried to claw at his arm and halfway to his face you saw him shift to an aplirition. In that moment, you couldn’t strike. Even if you knew it was your brother inside your head tricking you. You gave into your fate as he plunged a blade through your stomach. You were dropped to the floor unceremoniously afterwords. Vergil, or rather your brother standing above you. His eyes boring into your weekend ones. “So it is true… Such a pitiful heir to the family.” He commented. The next few moments were rushed. You heard yelling and gunfire. You opened your eyes as you felt someone lift you. You were being cradled. Through your blurry vision you could see his white hair. But you couldn’t tell if it was a fake figure meant to torment you or actually him. You let your weight fall dead against him.

When you came to this time around, you were in Devil May Cry. Thick familiar gauze was wrapped around your waist. Lady rushed over when she saw you rise to check your status. “Where…. Vergil…” you forced out in a dazed tone. “Where is Vergil?” You asked. Lady looked up at Trish. “Still in the dream.” The blonde haired woman said. “No…” you whispered, fear overtaking you. “They’re still alive… but…” Trish added. She was unsure of their status. You shifted onto your elbows, finally realizing what heavy fabric rested on you. It was Vergil’s coat. He had wrapped it around you when he carried you back from the park. Even such a simple act of courtesy was odd from him and should be taken to heart. You bit your lip as you pulled it against your chest. “I have to go back!” You urged and the two looked at each other. “L-listen… I care for them just as much as you do, but you’re not in any state to fight… Plus, it’s Dante. I’m sure they’ll be fine.” Lady tried to reassure you, but her efforts were in vain. You pleaded to her with your eyes. She finally gave in with a sigh. “Trish and I will go if it will make you feel better.” She offered and you nodded your head no. “I have to go with.” You demanded. Trish crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Why?” She asked. You were taken aback. Assuming the answer would be obvious. But it wasn’t as clear as you initially thought. You took a moment to assess why you so desperately needed to go, seeming somewhat baffled by the answer. So… Your brother was right… You quietly hugged Vergil’s coat to your chest as if doing so would somehow reassure you or make things better. You had grown soft in your time within this realm. Most of all though, you broke the most enforced rule your parents taught you. Warm tears spilled down your cheeks. You didn’t know if he’d ever return your feelings or if it was possible to go on being friends after coming to this realization. Worry overtook you, wondering if you would even get the chance to see him again. You had always known he was more comfortable in your presence, never seeming bothered by your antics. He enjoyed when you two would visit your realm so he could borrow books or discuss your kinds traditions. You squeezed his coat in your hands, never having realized all these things until now. You had been willfully ignorant of them. Lady did her best to comfort you, but her condolences fell on deaf ears. They did nothing to help you from your thoughts. All at once, you could feel the heavyweight in your pocket. The one thing in this situation you had. The source of all your pride, the prize of all those hard years spent in training. You couldn’t bare the thought of letting it go. It meant more than anything else in this world. But so too did your friends. Perhaps you were a glutton, one of the cardinal sins. And this would be your punishment. You rose up so quickly that it startled Lady. You knew what had to be done, even if it felt as though someone was crushing your heart.

You returned to the moonlit grove. The battle had taken its toll on the surrounding flora. All three seemed roughed up to a certain extent, but Dante and Vergil were worse for wear. When you entered the clearing, all fighting stopped. A force pushing the twins to the ground as you brother seathed his blade. “It is good to see you’ve returned sister. While I doubt you’ve come to your senses. It is not too late for you to return to us, though your former status can never be repaired.” He offered his hand out to you but could see the hesitation in your eyes. You pulled the key out of your pocket with a somber look on your face. Flipping it in your hands a few times. You had to breath in deeply just to speak. “I see… if you will not honor your ancestors then give me the key.” He said. Dante didn’t know what the key was or the significance of it, but he could tell you were attached to it. “Don’t listen to him.” Vergil spoke out, leaning against his blade. “Yeah, we got this.” Dante added. The one thing the twins shared was their stubbornness. Another wave forced them down and Dante groaned in pain. You sniffled softly, squeezing the key in your hand softly. Knowing it would be the last time you ever held it. You internally said your farewells to your family before chucking the key across the clearing to your brother. He caught it without the slightest bit of hesitation and looked it over before turning his attention to you. He nodded softly. “Thank you… I’m glad you came to your senses, but after the decision you have made… You cannot return here.” He said his voice got softer at the end. It was possible he felt bad for you, but he held his pride higher than you did yours. “Should you foolishly return here, you will be killed on sight. A heavy bounty is now placed on your head.” He added. Your eyes dropped to the ground, understanding the ramifications of the events that just occurred. You didn’t need his reperminds to know of your exile. Once he could tell you knew the extent of your punishment, he left. You fell to your knees, forgetting of Dante and Vergil as all the plants in the clearing started to wither. The tree leaves ashened and fell from their branches. The moon slowly faded from sight and you were left in the dark. Even the world was rejecting you.

Devil May Cry slowly came into view as you were returned to reality. Trish and Lady instantly rushed over to Dante and Vergil. Vergil shrugged them off, asking for your assistance upstairs. You agreed with a soft nod of your head. Lady could tell that you two both needed to be alone. Vergil knew best how to comfort you. Once upstairs, Vergil removed his vest and took a seat while you grabbed a first aid kit from the bathroom. You carefully started applying disinfectant to his cuts, a particularly bad slice cutting across his shoulders and back. You knew he wasn’t careless, he must have been taken by surprise when he rushed in to check on you. It made you feel guilty. “How does that feel?” You asked as you started to wrap soms gauze around his shoulder. “Fine.” He replied, seeming preoccupied with thoughts of his own. “You should have told us originally what was going on. We could have helped.” He said in an authoritative tone. You muttered I know quitely, not in the mood to be even further punished. He quietly acknowledged that with a nod. “…I'm… I’m sorry.” He said softly once you were finished patching him up. “I know… that key meant a lot to you.” He admitted. If he was honest, he felt somewhat at fault since he rushed in. When he saw you on the ground he disregarded his care for the enemy. He had to question why he did that. Vergil was usually so calm and composed. “It’s fine, I’m just glad you and Dante are both okay.” You mused in a somber tone while taking a seat across from him. “Would it be possible to retrieve the key? Or possible to make a world of your own?” He asked, trying to find a solution. His brain always functioned on the basis of logic. You shifted so your back faced him and pulled up your shirt so it showed your back. A mark had started appearing in the center, and was growing darker. It was such a hideous thing. “It marks my fate… I am forsworn…” You replied. Vergil reached out his hand and placed it on top of your new mark. You didn’t flinch or make a move to pull away as he traced its delicate lines. “Now that I’m branded with it everyone in that realm, realms like it, and the realm itself will know of my exile.” You added, breathing out slowly. As if even the thought if it was painful. When he pulled away you let your shirt drop. You turned to face him again, noticing Vergil had picked up the Yamato and was carefully untying the decorative string that garnered the seath. He took one of your hands and began wrapping the ornamental leather around it. After a few more moments he was finished. It started on your upper arm, crossed down in a x formation, wrapped around your wrist, then connected to a design he had made around your fingers. He let his hands rest against yours. “Perhaps if you cannot return, consider this as a key to this realm then.” He said. He wasn’t the best at being emotionally sensitive, but you could tell he was trying his best. “I will.” You nodded softly before scotting in closer so you could wrap your arms gently around his shoulders. There was a brief moment between Vergil hugging you back where he hesitated. Things like this were new to him, even if he had been in the human world for awhile. More so than the physical contact, he was coming to terms with something inside himself. You felt his arms get a little bit tighter around you, but you didn’t mind. This moment was nice, and was what you needed after all that had happened. You couldn’t return home, but you would never forget where you came from. Now this was your home. “If you would join me tomorrow, that would be greatly appreciated. I have something I’d like to show you.” His voice was barely above a whisper, but you could hear him loud as day because of how close you two were. You nodded before hiding your face in his shoulder. You didn’t know it, but he was smiling.

[gamerwoo]

Taeyong: Dominant

@neverknewgrey2016 asked: Okay, I know NCT requests aren’t open rn, BUT, in case you open them later while I’m asleep, (b/c i have to get to bed for school) you know what to do. Taeyong. I’ll let you choose his mate (b/c if I was gonna pick it was gonna be a female either human or other alpha, but I don’t want anyone to be upset it’s another female so if you had one set in mind, i give you reins) ANYWAY, I am just hyped for it... not the point, i love you and i am going to sleep now ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Characters: Taeyong x female reader (featuring NCT)

Genre/warnings: werewolf au, kinda enemies to lovers???, angst, very slight crack at the beginning, smut (dom/sub themes, slight degradation, mirror sex, kind of hate fucking tbh lmao, sub!Taeyong)

Word count: 4,768

Summary: You’re a werewolf hunter. You’re ruthless, cold, and trained to kill. Taeyong is the alpha of one of the largest werewolf packs. He’s quick, smart, and incredibly strong. Despite all that, he can’t help that he imprints on the one person trained to kill him, and you can’t help that you can’t deny the feeling, either -- but it doesn’t mean you won’t have a little fun with it.

a/n: Star came up with this idea completely and it made me w e a k 

Renjun stared down at their captive, a puzzled look on his face as he considered where to go from here. He couldn’t just let a werewolf hunter kill one of his brothers -- even if Jaemin was incredibly oblivious to it -- but he also couldn’t kill you because he just couldn’t bring himself to kill anybody. But he had to figure something out before Winwin got home -- Jeno would probably help if he found out, but the less people that knew, the better.

So far, the only people in the pack that were aware of the captive hunter were Renjun, Jaemin, Haechan, and Hendery. The four werewolves were there when everything happened, and they all helped in tying up the hunter and bringing them to Renjun’s apartment that he shared with Jaemin, Jeno, and Winwin. But they couldn’t keep the hunter there forever, so they were trying to come up with a new plan.

“Well,” Haechan began with a soft sigh, tilting his head to one side as he looked at the angry and thrashing hunter on the floor, “I know Mark’s home, but if we can sneak her past him, nobody will ever know.”

“We have to be positive that Mark won’t see, because he’s absolutely going to tell somebody,” Jaemin nodded.

“Maybe we should tell somebody...” Hendery shrugged, his voice quiet. “It’s not like we did anything wrong.”

“We literally took a werewolf hunter captive,” Renjun reminded him, as if the angry noises around the gag in the hunter’s mouth wasn’t enough. “Do you know what that means?”

“More hunters will come looking,” Jaemin said with a sigh, looking away from the hunter on the floor to his brothers. “Which means we really have to figure out what to do -- fast.”

“That’s why we should tell somebody,” Hendery insisted. “Taeyong-hyung will know what to do -- or Kun at the very least!”

“Both of them will have all our asses,” Renjun stated sharply. He chewed the inside of his cheek as he thought of what to do next before he was calling orders like an alpha. “Jaemin and Hendery, help me with her. Donghyuk, do you think you can make sure there’s no way Mark will see us come in?”

Haechan’s smile was almost evil as walked toward the door, “I got it.”

All you could do was sit on the floor before the remaining three werewolves, thrashing against the hardwood floor.

-

With Mark out of the way (”how did you knock Mark out?” “I was told to take care of him, nobody told me how to do it.”), the three werewolves were free to move you from Renjun’s apartment, to Haechan’s. Making sure nobody heard them moving through the hall and up two floors was a little hard, but they managed.

“Johnny will be too worked up over Nina visiting in a few day to pay attention, and Yuta will assume somebody’s just in the bathroom if the door is locked,” Haechan smiled proudly once you were set in the bathtub. “We’ll be fine.”

“What do we do with...these?” Jaemin asked, holding up the box of weapons they’d gotten off of you.

Renjun groaned, “Who gave Jaemin the weapons?”

“Better than giving them to you,” Haechan scoffed as the four boys exited the bathroom, making sure to keep the door locked on their way out.

And that was when you started to try to escape.

-

Taeyong had been hearing the same weird noises all damn evening. Ever since he got home, all he could heard was banging and groaning -- and not the sexual kind. He was starting to think he should go in search of the source, but he wasn’t sure if it was one of the other occupants of the building that he wasn’t as familiar with.

Then again, it was his own pack that typically caused the odd shenanigans.

“What the fuck is coming from Johnny’s apartment?” Doyoung asked as he walked through the front door, closing it a little too hard with his annoyance.

Taeyong gave him a quizzical look, “How do you know it’s Johnny’s?”

“Oh, I thought Nina showed up early,” Jungwoo said with a shrug from where he was doing his homework at the coffee table.

“That doesn’t sound like Nina,” Doyoung told him.

Jungwoo only let out a little huff, “How am I supposed to remember what she sounds like? I only met her for five minutes last year.”

“Look, it doesn’t matter,” Taeyong said, trying to stop the conversation before Doyoung and Jungwoo started bickering about Jungwoo’s lack of knowledge of Johnny’s mate. “I’ll go check it out, alright?”

So the alpha left the apartment, going up the stairs to where Johnny, Yuta, Haechan, and Mark all lived together. He was pretty much expecting the usual antics from them -- probably Haechan doing some dumb prank on Mark -- but as he got closer to the apartment, he had the urge to both rush into the room but also to retreat as far away as possible. Despite the hairs standing up on the back of his neck at whatever it was in there that he could sense, he also smelled the sweetest scent he’d ever smelled in his life.

Either way, he assumed it was best that he called in some backup.

After a quick text to the groupchat, Taeyong was being accompanied by Kun, Ten, Doyoung, Jungwoo, and Yangyang -- the latter just wanted to tag along. Unfortunately for the four that had found and captured you, none of them were paying attention to their phones to see that Taeyong intended on searching the apartment that you were stored away in.

Taeyong used the spare key to get in, looking around and sniffing cautiously. Even Yangyang who was the youngest among them whined at the odd sense of danger coming from the apartment.

“Should we split up?” Ten asked. “Some of us search the bedrooms, and the others search the kitchen, living room, and bathroom?”

Taeyong sniffed the air carefully, trying to follow the sweet smell in the air -- everybody else smelled a stranger, but they had all originally thought maybe it was somebody in a neighboring apartment that had visitors or something.

“No,” he shook his head as he started to make his way to the bathroom, “follow me.”

The group made their way to the bathroom door. Seeing the light on, Taeyong tried the door only to see that it was locked. Without hesitation, Taeyong got his ID card from his wallet and slid it into the door in an attempt to get the lock out. When he finally did get the door open, he froze where he was.

You stared at the six werewolves from where you were face-down on the bathroom floor, your hands still tied behind you and your ankles still taped together. You knew you were less than intimidating like this, and you knew you had no way to protect yourself if these new werewolves intended to attack.

All eyes suddenly shifted to red as low growls filled the room -- all except one. Taeyong just stared at you with his golden eyes, his mouth slightly agape as he tried to make sense of the storm of contradicting feelings inside of him. He knew he was supposed to fear you, and yet, he only wanted to get closer and help you. He had completely forgotten about his pack behind him until Ten suddenly lunged forward at you.

Taeyong grabbed him by the back of his shirt just in time, yanking him back.

“Take Yangyang and get him out of here,” Taeyong instructed. “Jungwoo, you bring him home.”

“Hyung, what’re you doing?” Ten wondered, not understanding how the alpha could not only be so calm, but didn’t suddenly get defensive in the presence of a werewolf hunter.

Taeyong just shook his head, “Just go do it. Yangyang might get hurt.”

It was partly a lie, but he was still worried about the youngest of their small group being around a werewolf hunter -- even if you were tied up and without any weapons. 

As Jungwoo led Yangyang out of the apartment, Taeyong cautiously walked forward, hands up slightly to show his surrender. You watched him carefully, eyes narrowed as he took slow steps toward you.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he promised, his tone soft. “I’m just going to help you off the floor, okay?”

Of course, you felt the pull as soon as he did. Immediately after your eyes landed on him, you felt what he did but at a lesser extent -- you still felt it, nonetheless. You knew what had happened, and you also knew it meant this pack probably wasn’t letting you go anytime soon. If you had the choice, you’d tell the wolf to fuck off and just let him die while you went back to your group. You’d already lost one of yours to a werewolf -- he’d imprinted on her, and she was still his mate to this day -- and you didn’t plan on having the same fate. Your group still resented her -- although, you weren’t too sure about Zuho’s feelings toward her anymore.

Where the werewolf’s hands touched you, it felt like tiny sparks of warmth coursing through you. You cursed your body for enjoying his touch when your brain kept telling you it was wrong.

Once you were upright, the wolf just seemed to stare at you, his hands still gripping your arms.

“Hyung?” one of them finally spoke up, clearing his throat. “What do we do with her?”

He didn’t even look back at them when he answered, his eyes never leaving you, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of her.”

-

Of course it was the alpha. Why wouldn’t your mate be the fucking alpha, right? 

This alpha didn’t come across as an alpha to you. You knew he was the alpha because even you could sense it, but honestly, you thought maybe the one with black hair that kept bickering with the innocent-looking should’ve been the alpha because he just had that aura about him. Then again, you figured there might’ve been more to the pack than just the ones that you met since they kept talking about so many people over the five days you were kept as captive.

Speaking of which, you didn’t feel like a captive -- at least, not when the alpha was around. You were constantly being watched in the apartment he lived in but he -- you remembered his name was Taeyong but you couldn’t really keep up with anybody else’s names -- seemed to treat you more like a guest than anything else. The rest of the pack that he had keep an eye on you clearly didn’t like you, but it made you feel smug more than anything else.

“Hey, Doyoung--”

“Bye.”

You watched with a smirk as Doyoung immediately pushed passed Taeyong as the alpha walked through the door, going straight out the way Taeyong came.

Taeyong spun around, watching Doyoung go, “What’s wrong?”

“She’s pissing me off!” he huffed before he slammed the door shut.

Taeyong turned back to look at you, but all you did was shrug and keep your cocky smirk on your face. You got bored so what else were you supposed to do? Annoying the werewolves might’ve become your new favorite thing to do.

But as much as you liked seeing the older wolves get pissed off -- the tiny, sassy one even almost slapped you once -- you needed a plan to get home. You had somewhat of an idea but you knew it was a long shot. But considering you were always being watched without any of your weapons, you didn’t think you could just get yourself free and climb out the window. Without your weapons, you had no surefire way to beat any of the wolves.

Taeyong let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. He really had no idea what to do with you but he didn’t want to let you go. It wasn’t just because he was afraid you’d never come back to him, but he knew you’d be a threat to his pack. You’d probably come back with more hunters and he wasn’t going to let anybody in his pack get hurt -- even if that meant keeping you captive like a caged animal. He at least was making sure you were comfortable, and that was enough to ease his conscience -- mostly.

“C’mon,” he nodded his head toward the hallway where his bedroom was, “it’s bedtime.”

“It’s like, 7 o’clock,” you scoffed. “I’m not going to sleep.”

“You don’t have to sleep but you have to stay in my room with me,” he sighed as he walked over to get you. “You know this already so don’t act like--”

“Don’t touch me,” you growled as he reached his hand out to grip your upper arm.

He pulled his hand away, lifting his hands in the air in surrender, “_____...”

Something about the fact that Taeyong -- despite looking absolutely exhausted -- still wasn’t mad at you, was making you mad. Why didn’t he ever lash out? Why didn’t he yell at you or manhandle you despite your warnings? Why did he only show kindness and patience? What kind of alpha was this guy?

You opened your mouth, ready to tell Taeyong he could take his bedtime and shove it up his ass, but you didn’t even get a sound out before there was a knock at the door. Before Taeyong could even say anything, it was opened, the tiny one with a big mouth strolling in like he owned the place.

“So what did that demon lady do to Doyoung that made him so--” he stopped when he noticed you, blocked behind Taeyong’s body. “Oh, it’s here.”

You frowned, glaring over at the wolf, “Fuck off.”

“I’m not scared of you, princess,” he sneered. “I’ll kick your ass into last year.”

“Ten, that’s enough,” Taeyong scolded.

“I’d like to see you try,” you scoffed, ignoring the alpha.

“_____, you quit it, too,” he frowned.

Ten raised an eyebrow, “Don’t tempt me.”

Your selective hearing decided to only hear “tempt me” so you stood up on the couch, ready to lunge at Ten. But as soon as you were in the air, arms stretched out to claw at the wolf, you were caught by something solid, making you huff.

“I said to stop,” Taeyong stated, sounding like a stern father as he held you over his shoulder. “Ten, go home.”

“But she--”

“Go home!” he told him again, walking straight down the hallway toward his bedroom.

You were kicking and yelling the entire way to Taeyong’s bedroom. You demanded he put you down, punching his back as your legs kicked to get free. But Taeyong was much stronger than you and easily kept you in place with one arm, not putting you down until he’d shut and locked the door, keeping the key safely hidden away so you couldn’t get to it.

You huffed, flipping your hair out of your face once your feet were back on the floor, “I told you not to touch me!”

“You lunged at Ten,” was all he said, not really paying much attention as he took off his shirt to get ready to sleep. 

And he still didn’t sound angry.

“How are you so calm?!” you finally burst.

Taeyong turned to look at you, his torso bare but he didn’t seem to be bothered by it as he chuckled, “What?”

“You haven’t got angry with me all fucking week and all I’ve done is try to make you hate me so you’ll leave me alone!” you exclaimed, tossing your hands in the air. “Why the fuck can’t you just hate me?”

He just shrugged, “Because I could never hate you.”

“I tried to kill somebody in your pack, I’ve harassed all of them, and I tried to fight one of them a second ago, and you don’t hate me?” you scoffed. “You’re the alpha, why can’t you act like one?!”

“I’ve kept you away from the younger ones and the irresponsible ones, and nobody’s died yet. I’d say that’s responsible of me.”

Your blood was boiling. He really just didn’t give a shit what you did to him or his pack, did he? But you wanted him angry. You wanted him to hate you so much that fate would just give up and assign him a new mate -- it probably didn’t work like that but damnit, you were still trying to be that awful.

You lifted your hand, wanting to see if just straight up slapping him would do anything, but he caught your wrist with ease. He wasn’t even looking at you anymore, his still brown eyes wandering around the room as he looked for his pajamas, humming softly to himself.

Furious was an understatement. You hated Taeyong. You hated that he was a werewolf and that he’d imprinted on you. You hated that despite all that, you still felt something in your heart because of the pull, and you hated that he was godlike as he stood in front of you shirtless. 

Taeyong was well aware that you didn’t like him. He knew you were his enemy and he knew you were sticking by that despite the imprinting pull but he didn’t really mind. He figured with kindness, you’d come around overtime. He just had to practice patience with you, which he did pretty easily even though the rest of his pack clearly did not.

But because he knew you disliked him, he was surprised when he felt you grip his jaw and force his head toward you before pressing your lips hard against his. 

But he also wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip away from him.

He released your wrist, his hands going to your waist as your hands tangled in his hair. You’d backed him up until his back hit the door with a thud. He wasn’t sure why you were suddenly doing this but he couldn’t say he didn’t like it, especially when your hips started rolling into his. He let out a soft moan, your teeth tugging on his bottom lip.

“Maybe I should show you how to be an alpha,” you said in a low, sultry tone.

Your hands moved down to grip his shoulders. You spun the two of you around before you shoved him over to the bed. He landed on his back on the mattress, holding himself up with his forearms as you stalked over to him, taking off your shirt and shoving your tight pants as you went. His eyes raked down your body that was now only clad in a bra and your underwear as the brown began to melt away, being replaced by red.

You climbed onto the bed, straddling his hips before leaning down to hungrily kiss his lips again. Your hips ground down into him, your thin panties not doing much as a barrier between the erection growing in his jeans and your center. His hands were moving all over your body, leaving trails of fire in their wake that you didn’t even want to feel so it only fueled your anger-induced arousal even further.

Taeyong’s fingers easily unclipped your bra, sliding it down your arms and tossing it wherever. His hands massaged your breasts, feeling a sense of pride when he managed to pull a quiet moan from your lips. He tried to make it louder, thrusting up into you suddenly.

Your hands went to his hips, pinning them down, “No, you’re listening to me right now. Got it?”

Despite his instincts to be the dominant one, he nodded. There was no way he was going to mess this up, even if it meant having to keep his instincts in check. Plus, being dominated by you sounded pretty nice to him.

It wasn’t long until you were both completely naked, articles of clothing scattered across the floor. You had sat up with your hands on Taeyong’s chest, your nails digging into his skin and pulling growls from his chest as you teased his cock by rutting against it, letting the shaft move through your folds but not actually putting it inside you like he so desperately wanted. Still, he held onto your hips and moaned out your name, his head falling back.

“Look at you,” you breathed out, your own skin covered in a thin layer of sweat already, “submitting to your enemy. What kind of werewolf are you? Let alone an alpha.”

All Taeyong could manage was a whimper of “please” in response.

You smirked, slowing down the already slow pace of your hips, “Please what? You can’t even use your words properly?”

“Please ride me, _____,” he groaned.

You scoffed, raising your hips away from him and making him let out a whine.

“Any other alpha wouldn’t ask,” you told him, “they’d just take it. You really are too soft, aren’t you?”

But Taeyong didn’t want to just take it. He wanted you to want to give it to him -- even if it meant begging all night.

You pointed to the head of the bed, “Sit up against the headboard.”

Taeyong did as told immediately, scrambling backwards. He let his back rest against the headboard, his legs stretched out in front of him. You glanced over your shoulder at the two panels of the closet door that were made up of mirrors, smirking at your idea.

“If you want me to ride you so badly,” you began as you crawled over to him, straddling him again but this time, facing away from him and looking at the mirrors, “then you’re going to watch it all happen. And if you take your eyes off that mirror, you won’t like the consequences. Got it, wolf?”

Taeyong nodded obediently, his hands finding your waist.

You held the base of his cock, lining it up with your center before you slowly slid down, letting out an involuntary moan at the feeling. You’d had sex before but somehow none of that felt as good as this simple action, and that only made you more angry that this stupid alpha wolf was just so perfect. But he only seemed so perfect to you because you were literally made for him.

Fate really hated you.

Taeyong let out a whimper, his fingers gripping your skin harder. You could feel his thighs tremble when you’d finally gone all the way down on him as he tried to resist the urge to buck up into you. 

You placed your hands on his thighs and slowly lifted yourself up before going back down. Taeyong let out a strangled moan, his eyes locked on the mirror like you told him. From the way his eyes cast downward, you knew he was looking at where he disappeared inside you. You could feel the growl from his chest vibrating against your back.

You set a steady pace with Taeyong letting you do whatever you wanted. He kept his hands on your hips -- he’d tried to let them wander but you sharply told him to keep them there or you’d stop -- and let out moans and growls.

You clenched around him when you’d angled yourself to hit a new spot, causing Taeyong to whimper your name.

“Not such a big bad wolf now, are you?” you smirked, continuing to bounce on his length.

“You feel so good,” he moaned, his head falling back into the headboard.

You reached around his neck, gripping the hair on the back of his head and forcing him to look up again, glaring at him in the mirror, “What did I tell you? Watch.”

You leaned back to give him a better view of his length disappearing inside of you. Even you were biting your lip as you watched, soft moans falling from your lips. Your other hand traveled down your body to rub your clit, chasing the high that was quickly building.

“For an alpha,” you began in a breathy tone between moans and curses, “you sure take orders pretty well. You sure you’re not a beta, wolf?”

Taeyong’s eyes flashed up to the reflection of yours, letting out a low, warning growl.

You smirked, eyebrows raising, “Oh, not so shy and submissive now? What’re you gonna do about it?”

Not wanting to risk you suddenly stopping when he was so close, Taeyong averted his eyes from yours. You exhaled in what was some sort of half-assed laugh, moving your hips quicker.

“That’s what I thought.”

Taeyong whined, his claws scratching pink marks into your skin, “P-please...”

“Please what?” you asked in a teasing tone. “Do you want to cum?”

He nodded, another moan leaving his throat.

“Too bad. You have to wait until I do.”

Taeyong groaned. Every instinct inside him was screaming to flip you over and fuck you into the mattress but he was doing his best to resist. But if he had to be teased like this any longer, he was pretty sure he was going to snap.

He was too caught up in trying to hold himself back that he didn’t realize you were cumming until you clenched around him and dropped your head back onto his shoulder. He shuddered at the feeling of your walls closing in on him, biting his lip to hold himself back as you continued to bounce on him and ride out your orgasm. While your eyes were closed, he took the time to appreciate your blissed-out face and how beautiful you looked with your features scrunched up in pleasure.

Normally, you would’ve gotten off of Taeyong and just had him finish himself off -- that was your original idea. But you were on cloud nine in that moment and all you could think about was Taeyong -- fuck, you even moaned out his name as you came. So all you said was, “Fuck, cum for me,” and he did.

Taeyong came with a high moan of your name, filling you with his warm release. He disregarded every rule of yours, fucking up into you until he was empty and until tears were pricking your eyes from overstimulation. But you let him because -- now that you were back to your sound mindset -- you knew this would be over soon.

Once he came down from his high, you lifted yourself off of him. Taeyong reached out for you, thinking that you’d be okay with him cuddling you. You went to protest until you realized he was laying you down and covering you up with him without restraining you. If he cuddled you, he didn’t feel the need to keep you restrained in case you escaped, so you let him do it, deciding to go to bed as quickly as you could.

“Goodnight, _____,” he murmured, pressing a soft kiss to your bare shoulder.

“Night,” you replied simply, closing your eyes but making sure not to fall asleep.

-

Taeyong awoke to sunlight peeking through the windows, yawning with a groan. He sat up and stretched his arms above his head before he looked to his right to wake you.

He froze.

Not only were you not in bed, but your clothes were gone from the floor. He didn’t even sense you in the apartment anymore.

Quickly, he threw on some sweatpants and went out to the living room where his roommates were eating breakfast together -- along with Renjun and Xiaojun who were sitting on the floor behind the coffee table.

“Morning, hyung,” Jungwoo smiled warmly.

“Have any of you seen _____?” Taeyong asked breathlessly.

All eyes snapped to him, two pairs looking very angry.

“You let her go?” Taeil demanded.

“No!”

“So you lost her?” Doyoung asked.

“No!”

“Then what happened?” Taeil quizzed, raising his eyebrows as he waited for the answer.

But as Taeyong thought about it, he realized that you had tricked him. It was your plan to distract him and then get out, and he’d fallen for it. But he was too embarrassed to tell them that.

Still, all he could do was smile and chuckle, shaking his head. Nobody understood why he reacted that way, and he didn’t explain as he walked back to his room. He didn’t care if he’d have to find you again. The chase would be half the fun. And when he caught you, he’d make sure to get back at you and never let you go.

[pisati]

I’ll admit, it’s sometimes a little hard to know where I stand with you. I do take your reassurances at face value, of course, and I know I often need reminding. but I also try to remember that you’ve been through a hell of a lot emotionally. I only know what you’ve told me; I don’t have your lived experiences. there’s a lot that you’ve gone through that I don’t even know about, and you don’t have to tell me about it-- it’s enough to know it happened. I can’t expect you to be as open about emotion as I am, or even able to feel things like I do (and I’ve been pretty dulled myself). maybe I’ve been reading you wrong at times; it’s hard to, especially through text. but I can hear it in your voice sometimes, I think. something flat. could be exhaustion, could be everything. of course I forgive your lacking in reciprocal effort; I appreciate all that you do give me. I know you’re trying, and you’re trying because you want to, not because you think I expect you to. it’s not easy. but you know as well as I do that shrugging everything off and staying in the emotionless void isn’t healthy for you.

from what I can at least guess about you, you’re a genuinely kind and caring person who has had a lot of his emotional innocence, so to speak, torn from him. you’re right: your emotion isn’t worthless. but that’s something you have to internalize yourself. I’ve been in similar dark places, but I don’t think it’s near to the degree you have. not that pain is a competition; it’s not. I just know that I can’t fully understand the things you’ve been feeling, or... not feeling. regardless, I know you know it’s not healthy and you want to move forward from it, and I’m glad to be there for you while you work through it. that’s a kindness I think anyone dealing with trauma deserves. I also very much appreciate that we can have both silly and serious conversations; even just following my blog you already know more about me than a lot of my irl friends. you’ve become someone I also care very much about and I don’t like seeing you in pain-- though of course it’s not my place to do more than I can, or more than you want me to. I’d still like to be there for you regardless. 

---

anywho! travel plans. like I said, most of the issue is logistics. I’m looking at potential flights and I think a reasonable roundtrip is about 9 days; including 2 for travel, that’s a full week for adventuring. I’m flexible, of course, but I’m not the one with a job, lol. I don’t know what airlines would be best (though I did just find a flight on Icelandair, one 55m stop in Keflavik, July 10-19, for $1100 roundtrip), so if you wanna help out with searching you’re more than welcome to take a look yourself. I’d prefer shorter layovers if possible; none of those 27h total trips, lmao. nothing’s direct from Dulles unfortunately, but it is a major international hub, like JFK, so often I’ll be able to find flights to other major destinations from here. which is gr8, because it’s literally a 10-15 minute drive from my house. we have two other major airports here: Reagan national and BWI. personally I prefer Dulles because it’s closer, but if you can find a cheaper and/or direct flight out of the other ones, I’ll find a way to get there lol.

I’m going to be in PA for farm jam from, likely, July 3-7th. I’ll have to see how I feel about what day I’m coming home. I may or may not want to stay til the 8th. but anyway I don’t want to leave on an international flight *too* soon after I get home. I’ll have to drive 4 hours home after spending 4 days camping in the woods on a farm, unpack from camping, and then pack again, and I only have so much energy. I’ve done it before (got back from Iceland and drove to PA the next morning), but it’s not terribly fun. I think if I can make myself come home on the 7th, or at least early on the 8th, I can leave the 10th at the earliest. I’m going to look at July 10-19 as my reference, since that’s also one of the cheapest roundtrips that I can find (for some reason wednesdays are cheaper traveling days?), but those days might change a little. I’ll let you know if I decide on something for sure, but if you want to look up Airbnbs (or if you can find cheaper flights, lmao), you’re welcome to use the 10-19th as a general reference point as well.

I have no qualms about Airbnbs. it would be easier booking-wise to get the flight and hotel together, but I’m cool with having a little place out of the city for the week. the genuine experience, as you say, lol. the coast would be lovely, but I’ll take whatever you find that you like! I’ll leave that to your expertise. are we splitting the cost for that, or.. how do you want to do that? 

as far as itinerary, I’m down for everything. I got real excited about that owl sanctuary, lol. anything with animals is great with me. can we see highland cattle too?? I do know I’m gonna want to check out one or two of the record stores in Glasgow; I think that’s my new Travel Thing, lol. going to a city, checking out the record stores. gotta bring records home. that’s my kinda souvenir. everything else, I’m down for too! I love learning about history, seeing old churches and castles, historical sites, all that jazz. I love the sound of that island too! I totally get what you mean about not doing all the typically touristy stuff. I mean, I live just outside Washington DC. I know the tourist traps are a waste of time and money and they’re not the ~real experience~. I love the sound of not taking the beaten path, though. and how often do you have a personal local tour guide? lmao

the only worries I have, really, are my energy levels and my traveling anxiety. neither of those are your responsibility, but they do affect me literally every time I travel, even if I think they won’t.

the anxiety has its roots in my emetophobia, for sure. for some reason my brain feels like the worst thing that could possibly happen is me getting sick while I’m traveling, and then of course I get nervous about it, and what accompanies the nervousness? nausea. shit writes itself. I know it happens, I’m very conscious of it, but that doesn’t stop it. I’ll bring klonopin as a security blanket, likely won’t need it, but mostly what helps is just, like, making sure I eat something, lol. I don’t tend to eat much when I travel anyway, but not eating tends to make the problem worse and I need something in my stomach, obviously. being distracted helps too. something to focus on, someplace to go or see. I’ll let you know how I’m feeling, though, so don’t worry about needing to check in on me. I’m not a nervous wreck all the time.

then there’s the energy levels. I have no earthly way of knowing what they’re going to be like in July. right now I don’t have much energy to do much of anything, but sometimes, especially if I’m subconsciously nervous, I won’t have an off switch. and sometimes I say “not a lot of energy” but I push myself anyway and surprise myself. it’s incredibly hard to predict my day-to-day now, without the traveling nerves, and it’ll be almost impossible to predict from now if something in my medical future changes. so, basically, it’s something to keep in mind but nothing to control for.

I’m pretty low-energy in general, but I can walk a good bit, so don’t worry about pushing me! I’ll let you know what I can handle. it’s probably safe to put one big thing in a day, 2-3 tops if they don’t have much travel time between them. better to leave time open to fit in more things anyway than to over-book and not be able to get to them all. I never know what my sleep’s going to be like, but I can almost guarantee it’s going to be terrible. it usually is when I travel. this also isn’t your responsibility, so don’t let me wreck your sleep schedule for when you have to get back to work, lol. I’m fine staying up late by myself if I’ve got wifi or if I bring a book or something; I can’t expect you to have the same crazy erratic sleep schedule as traveling-me. I’ll let you know if something is or isn’t okay, what I’m up for, all that good stuff. so I’d say definitely plan in all the stuff you want to do plus a few record shops, but leave some wiggle room for late starts, fitting more things in, or the possibility that I might not be able to get to everything in a day. not saying I’ll be struggling that hard, but wiggle room is always good so no one is disappointed lol

anyways I have no worries that it’ll be a great trip 😊literally everything you mentioned sounds wonderful, and I’m already excited! I do worry slightly that we still barely know each other and have never spoken face to face, lol. but I’m sure that’ll happen in due time before July. it’s one thing to meet an internet stranger in your city, but in another country? as a solo female traveler that does make me nervous. I like to think I have a pretty decent sense of the kind of person you are, but you really never know. it’ll certainly help ease my mind to get to know you better over the course of the next few months.

also... I don’t want to alarm you and I’m probably not supposed to tell you at all, but I’d rather be upfront about it. the background check I’m currently undergoing for my [future] job requires me to inform them of every non-US citizen I have “close and continuing contact” with. you and I weren’t talking yet when I filled out the background check form, but I do have to keep them updated or risk losing my chance at the job. they won’t do anything with the information I give them; everyone has friends and family in other countries, and the US doesn’t have any beef with Scotland that I’m aware of, lol. but I will need to give them basic information, especially if I’m leaving the country to visit. I would have to do it even if I weren’t planning on visiting and we kept talking, but this seems like an appropriate time to bring it up, lol. this is standard procedure for federal background checks here; literally everyone trying to get a cleared job has to do it. the form itself is open-source, the PDF is the top result on google, and I can send it to you so you can see exactly what they ask me to provide, if you’d like. I’m not going to ask you for more information than what you’ve given me, and they do take “I don’t know” as an answer. if it’s not okay with you at all, though, then we’ve got some major problems.

soooooo with that out of the way, lmao

if I think of anything else I’m sure I’ll bring it up when I think of it. the only question I might have right now is what should I bring, besides the essentials? a book, maybe. a crochet thing? perhaps? laptop? (probably no on that one, though, right?) uhhhh power adapters? the electrical plugs are definitely different there, yeah? any american things I can pack into a suitcase that you’d like me to bring? lol

speaking of american things. I’ve already got a small list of little things I could pack into a box and ship out there and I think you’ll like them!! how do you feel about sweets? I’m not talking junk food per se, like all the ridiculous candies we have here. just sweet in general? and I know you said not spicy, but how about seasoning? what kinds of seasonings do you like and dislike?

I’ll start looking into flights more seriously soon, as long as you’re okay with the background thing. I can’t give you too many details about all that, mostly because I don’t have them, but we can absolutely talk about it if it’s a concern. 

so, yes. let me know when you have time to talk and we can start planning 💕

[violetnpurple]

Hello My Lovely Amazingly Cute Anon!! <3

Don’t apologize. I’m sorry I’m responding late, but I wanted to make sure I could respond to everything you said and give u a good and thoughtful response even if it took me awhile. I also honestly am so honored that you feel safe venting to me, idk what I’ve done or said to deserve that but I am really glad that you feel this way :D

I just first what to say that I’m no therapist. I’m 23 yrs old and i barely know what I’m doing with my life, lol. I will try to give you advice to the best of my ability but please, if you can, find someone you really trust in your life to talk to about this. if you don’t thats fine, try to see if you can see a therapist. I have one (after lots of encouragement from those around me) and it was one of the best choices I made. You said you’re 16 so I know it will probably be hard for you to find one if your mother (or parents) aren’t up for it. But if you can get them to help you find someone to talk to that would be great! If they’re being difficult, I’d say try to look for people outside your family, preferably trust-worthy adults, that you think you can talk to and who can help you.

(and i’ll just stop counting at this point, this is going to be long lol) I can really relate to a lot of your problems, Anon. I’m pretty plus sized. It started happening in high school and since then I’ve just gained more weight🤷🏿. Another parallel is that my mother has always been the one person in my life (bedsides myself) to bring up my weight. Constantly. She always framed it as her desire to “be honest with me” and “tell me the truth because no one else would and she loved me”, but that did nothing to curb the sting of her comments. Her favorite thing to talk about a couple years ago was how the “whole family was fat according to our doctor” so it was necessary we all went on diets. I’m so sorry that your family’s teasing has driven you to starving yourself. That’s seriously not okay. Especially your mother. She really should be your main source of comfort. Someone you could rely on! I hope she can become that person for you one day soon.

I’ll start by answering your main question: No. I do not think you need to loose weight. In my mind, fuck your entire family. Especially your mom. Lol I know those are basically fighting words, but I mean it. She’s been no help in this. As your mother she should be supporting you with school and helping you figure out what your dreams and goals are for life. Teaching you how to survive the real world, for when the time comes. Not giving you constant anxiety about your weight and looks. This is terrible parenting. I’m sure she has her positive traits, but for this situation, I’m not endeared to her. Also, the fact that you followed up your question by saying you did not want to be skinny tells me all I need to know. If you don’t want to loose weight, YOU. DON’T. HAVE. TO. I can’t stress this enough. i know you’re getting shit from your family, but if YOU don’t want to loose weight, that you don’t have to. Fuck everyone else. It’s your damned body. You have to live with it for the rest of your life. ITS NOBODY’S DAMN BUSINESS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO WITH IT. if you like the weight you’re at, stick with it. if you want to loose 10 pounds (in a healthy way, with some exercise) but your mom says to loose 50, tell her to take a fucking hike!! (actually, please don’t, because she might throw you out or something and I don’t want to be responsible for that but u get my drift lol) Your curves are beautiful, I don’t need to see you to know this. You’re literally 16 and honestly you’re body is going to keep changing anyways. Don’t put more stress on it by starving yourself. You’re growing!! Your body needs food and nourishment. Your body cares about you and loves you and want to keep you alive. Your heart keeps beating in an effort to keep you going, BECAUSE IT LOVES YOU. Repay your body by feeding it, by feeding yourself. By loving yourself. EAT WHAT YOU WANT. I know I’m rambling, but I want you to get my point.

As for your pain everywhere I REALLY want you to see a doctor, darling. Like, as soon as possible. that doesn’t sound comfortable or fun. your body could be sending you signs for something. Please, please try to get an appointment with whoever you see for check-ups or things like that. Explain to them what you’ve told me about the pain everywhere. And if you feel comfortable with this doctor (and you don’t think they’ll tell your mom or someone else you don’t want to know about your mental health) I’d tell them about how you’ve been feeling. My only worry is that you’re a minor so if your doctor is worried he might go to your mom. But some doctors can be forced to keep silent and just help you, I’m just not sure what is needed for that to happen. At minimum please talk to them about your full body pain.

And to address your belief that you’re ugly or would get uglier if you lost weight, that’s BS sweetheart. You’re a lovely person. Don’t ask how I know, I have magic so I just know these things💖💖. I really hope some day that your family will realize this as well.

I can see that a part of you does love your body, Please hold on tight to that. Hold on to it like your life depends on it. Remember to be kind to yourself and please don’t kill yourself. I know you might think that no one will miss you but I will, I can promise you that. You have your entire life ahead of you. Think about the future and what it holds. And if that’s not helpful, try to think of the little things in life that make u happy. even the tiniest thing can help you see that it is worth it to live another day. If it helps and you want to, you can send me anon messages on days you’re really sad about whatever you want. You can also message me, I am very open to that. Though I have to be very honest, I work a lot so I can’t always answer messages immediately, but I will do my best. Please try to eat 2 meals a day, minimum. When it a good day, try 2 meals with a snack or even 3 meals. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!!! Start out small if that makes u feel better but try after awhile to eat a bit more. like i said before you’re growing. Give your body what it needs. Fuck everyone else, THEY’RE NOT YOU. You’re you. Your body loves you and wants what’s best for you. Treat it right by feeding yourself and being kind to yourself physically and mentally. I know its not easy, but I know you can do it, sweetheart. Just try one step at a time. I’ll try to be here for you if you need anything I can give.

I’m actually so close to tears writing this because to be so honest with you anon I’ve also been having trouble with food and my desire to eat. I’ve told no one about this except you (and now all of my followers, lol) but reading your message has made me think really hard about the huge difference between how I treat myself and how i treat everyone else. I won’t go into detail too much because I’d just end up writing a novel and keep you up all night reading about my issues lmao. We don’t want that. I’m just thinking about how I whole heartedly want you to feel comfortable in your body. How I really want you to have a healthy relationship with food and your family. These are all things I’ve been denying myself for a long time and I’d be a hypocrite to demand that of you and not myself. I really don’t want to make this ask about me, but I just want you to know that you’re seriously not alone, I promise. What I ask of you I’ll be asking of myself. From now own I’ll do my best to be as kind to myself, as I try to be to others. :D

I love you!!!!! Don’t forget that!!! I’m sending you a care package filled with hugs and kisses and magic so you can sleep and have no bad dreams!!!! ILYYYY!!!

[ferluccia]

Figure Skating Injuries 101

Hi, there! I’m Andie and I’m here to talk about skating injuries with you.

After nearly a year seeing both writers and artists in the Yuri on Ice fandom portraying figure skating injuries the wrong way I’ve decided to write this quick guide to explain why scenes like these are not a result of skating:

I’m an artistic roller skater on the intermediate level, I’ve been skating for a year now and won gold in Seniors (Intemediate Level) in the local internal artistic roller skating championship. I’ve ice skated a couple of times before but I’ve never taken proper classes since there’s no ice rink in my city. 

While I’m talking about ways to treat most common accidents I am by no means a specialist on the matter. If you hurt yourself skating you should tell your coach and, in serious cases, go to a hospital to have your injuries properly treated.

If you have any questions regarding this topic I’ll be more than happy to help!

Most serious injuries happen outside of the rinks. All skaters I know have broken limbs while doing things completely unrelated to skating. That’s because one of the first lessons skaters learn when they begin is how to fall in order not to hurt themselves (too much, at least). 

When skating, your instinct is to keep your head as far from the floor/ice as possible, hence why a skater learns to fall on their knees/butt and hands. It takes some time, but after a couple of accident your body learns (the hard way) how to fall properly and you leave with maybe a bruise or two.

The best way to avoid serious injuries is to take time to properly warm-up off and on skates, not overpractice and, if possible, always practice under the supervision of a coach or instructor. Proper and suitable equipment is of extreme importance to your health and comfort! 

Next, I’m going to share some injuries experiences from me and my fellow rink mates. 

COMMON INJURIES IN FIGURE SKATING:

Impact pain. This is not really an injury, but if you fall too hard you will get sore (and if you do jumps after a bad fall that pain will bother you quite a bit). It can happen anywhere though your butt is the most likely place to get sore without actual bruises. 

How to treat: REST. Seriously. Don’t exercise for the day and take some Advil.  How long does it take to heal? A couple of days, no more than that. Worst case scenario: You broke something. If the pain is too severe, you should go to a hospital as soon as possible.

Muscle strains are a part of skating. Legs and groin are the most common places to strain since it’s where a skater focuses their strength when jumping. In rare cases those can result in muscle tears, requiring specific treatment.

How to treat: Rest and painkillers do the trick if your case is not serious. Hot water bags are very useful to help the pain go away. How long does it take to heal? Depending on the strain it can take a full week to recover, but usually it takes no longer than three days.  Worst case scenario: You tore a muscle. You’ll probably need physiotherapy. 

Bruises. Every figure skater has at least one at all times and they usually don’t go more than a week without a new bruise. Of all injuries, bruises are the most insignificant, though they’ll look worse than they feel in most cases. 

Common places for bruises: hips (most painful), knees, thighs, and butt (least painful). How to treat: There are creams that help treat and reduce bruises. Hot water bags will be your best friend. How long does it take to heal? About a week, though the larger the bruise, the longer it takes to heal (my worst bruise took about 4 months to fully disappear). Worst case scenario: You get a bone bruise. This happens when you manage to hit your bone through all the skin, fat and muscle. If this is the case (like, your bruise is getting a nice, fancy shade of purple and growing bizarrely hot) you should probably go to a hospital. 

Wrist injuries, especially spraining, happen quite often. Skaters instinctively put out their arms to brace themselves for the impact so they don’t dive head-first, which sometimes can result in an awkward impact on the wrists. Wrist injuries can range from a mild sprain (some pain, possibly a bruise and some weird clicking noises as you try to move it) to a fracture (and if that’s the case you will know). 

How to treat: Ice and rest. Don’t practice for at least a couple of days and take painkillers.  How long does it take to heal? I’d say four days if you haven’t broken it. You should be moving your wrist just fine in a couple of days. Worst case scenario: Ligament tear, fracture. 

Knee injuries and contusions. More often than not, knee injuries are minor, though they always need to be treated carefully. They can be a result of a simple, awkward fall as well as from repetitive impact. A hard blow can seriously injure a skater’s kneecap. The twisting force used for jumps and spins can also put a lot of stress on the knees if the skater is not using appropriate techniques. 

How to treat: If it’s just pain, avoiding exercising.  How long does it take to heal? Up to three days. If it persists, see a doctor and talk to your coach about it.  Worst case scenario: Ligament tears, injuries to the meniscus.

Hip contusions are definitely painful but the least of a skater’s problems. They can happen from repetitive impact, awkward falls and even incorrect posture.

How to treat: Rest and painkillers. How long does it take to heal? If it’s a minor case, less than a week.  Worst case scenario: An acute injury that would require surgery. 

Ankle sprains usually happen during off skates warm-ups, especially when training jumps. As a skater, your right ankle (your landing ankle) is doomed to be fucked.

How to treat: Ice and rest. Avoid walking, if possible. How long does it take to heal: Less than a week. Worst case scenario: Fracture or ligament tear.

Back pain happens when a skater puts a lot of stress on their back, sometimes form figures, sometimes form inadequate posture. Biellmanns are gorgeous, but they have a price.

How to treat: Rest is your best option. In case of chronic back pain from skating, you should see a doctor. How long does it take to heal: Three days, usually. Worst case scenario: Stress fracture, lumbar disc injury, slippage of a backbone.

NOT SO COMMON INJURIES (some are kinda scary):

Elbow injuries. If a skater falls on their elbow it’s usually because they didn’t have enough time to put out their arms and brace for impact. All the impact goes straight to the bone, basically. It hurts like a bitch. Elbow injuries can also happen when a skater falls really hard on their hands. 

How to treat: When I fell on my elbow I iced it a lot.  How long does it take to heal? It took me a week and I couldn’t stretch my arm properly for the first two days.  Worst case scenario: Exposed fracture. Congratulations.

Chest impact is a very serious thing. You can break a rib, puncture your lung, bite your tongue, break a tooth, raw your nipples, all that jazz. I once failed the entrance for an axel and didn’t have time to process I was falling and I ended up diving chest first on the floor right in front of my instructor.  It pushes your air out of your lungs. It’s really scary.

How to treat: Stop skating and rest. If you can’t breathe, go to an emergency immediately. How long does it take to heal? Chest impact often spreads the pain to your back, as if it wasn’t bad enough as it is. In that case, I’d say it takes about a week to disappear. Worst case scenario: Lung puncture, rib fracture, internal organ damage.

Head impact is also another serious injury that requires immediate action. Your instinct is to always avoid hitting head-first on the floor, so when you hit your head on the floor is terrifying. On worst case scenarios, concussions may happen, and so a skater should be hurried to a hospital. I haven’t witnessed it happening, but one of my friends hit her head while doing a double flip and had to go to the hospital (nothing serious happened but honestly, be careful). 

How to treat: If it wasn’t anything serious, ice and painkillers will help soothe the pain. It can be very uncomfortable to sleep. How long does it take to heal? No idea, buddy.  Worst case scenario: You die.

So now that we have all of that out of the way I’m going to explain why blisters, cuts, and bruises on your feet are not a result of skating.  

Like previously mentioned in this post, proper equipment for skating is one of the most important things a skater needs in order to train effectively. The main equipment is, with no doubt, figure skating boots. Skating boots the support system, and a proper fit helps prevent injuries as well as improve performance.

Blisters form when boots don't fit properly. When a skater wears boots a size too small or socks that are too thick for skating, blisters can appear. Professional skaters, especially competitive skaters will never wear a boot that has not been properly fit for skating, let alone if they’re uncomfortable (honestly, try doing a waltz jump with boots one size too small for you). 

On the other hand, boots that are too large cause problems as well. Skaters try to compensate the extra room by lacing boots too tightly (cutting circulation), clenching their toes (causing foot cramps) and even using space fillers that keeps weight too far forward over skates during advanced maneuvers, which can possibly lead to lace bite. (source)

So if you are writing a skater getting blisters from skating on a regular basis you might want to check that. Unless they’re breaking new boots, using borrowed skates or wearing bad socks, it’s most likely that they’re not getting blisters on their feet. 

And cuts and bruises? From skating? I don’t know what you’re doing, but you’re definitely doing something wrong. That just doesn’t happen. 

Let me share a personal story: I performed my exhibition with a broken toenail (I kicked a chair by accident a day before my competition lmao) and I felt nothing. Skating boots, when properly fit, are as comfortable as flip-flops. Again, you might want to rethink that if you’ve been writing/drawing cuts and bruises.

The most serious problem that affects me and all skaters I know are smelly boots and the occasional callous. But nothing like blisters/cuts/bruises.

But what, then, caused Yuuri to have those nasty cuts that bled through his socks?

Ballet.

Yuuri does ballet, guys. Ballet is famous for wrecking your feet. Those nasty bruises are not from skating but from dancing. Friction inside his boots from landing jumps might have led his injuries to bleed, but they were most definitely not the cause of those.

Dancers’ feet are nasty. Especially ballet dancers’ feet. If you only skate chances are you’ll never get injuries on your feet as long as you’re wearing an appropriate boot size. If you want to write a dramatic scene with Yuuri, or Victor, or Yuri crying about how their feet hurt, you might want to do so after a ballet session. 

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

In case you want to read more about boot-related injuries Edea Skates sponsors a research on foot injuries caused by wearing wrong sized boots. I also found this master’s research on figure skating boots and impact from jumps. I could go on but if you want more readings please feel free to contact me!

[usagingy]

Send me numbers..

Wait, these are actually hella cute questions.”

Source: bambwie

— 1. Who was the last person you held hands with? A friend from uni. There’s nothing romantic between us, was just for fun.

2. Are you outgoing or shy? Shy. As. Frick.

3. Who are you looking forward to seeing? My niece. She’s precious!

4. Are you easy to get along with? I honestly don’t know. I guess so?

5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you? Pretty sure they would, yeah.

6. What kind of people are you attracted to? Usually people who are really easy to talk to and who are very kind and sweethearted (is that a word?)

7. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now? HaHaHaHahaHAAHhahaAHAhaha!!... No

8. Who from the opposite gender is on your mind? A good friend from high school. I just have platonic feelings for her, but I still miss her.

9. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable? Depends on how detailed the conversation is. If it’s not super detailed, then no, it doesn’t make me uncomfortable.

10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with? Probably the friend from high school I mentioned in #8.

11. What does the most recent text that you sent say? “I was just confused” (boring, I know)

12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now? 

Nine Point Eight - Mili

Candy Store - Heathers: The Musical

Here Comes A Thought - Steven Universe

Family Party - Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

Holding Out For A Hero - Bonnie Tyler

13. Do you like it when people play with your hair? If they’re really gentle with it, then yes. But when people get rough with it then I hate it.

14. Do you believe in luck and miracles? I guess so, I’m not sure tbh.

15. What good thing happened this summer? This “summer” only just started, so I can’t really say much, but I hung out with my brother and his friends.

16. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? I can’t answer this because I’ve never kissed anyone.

17. Do you think there is life on other planets? I don’t see why it couldn’t be possible. There are a lot of planets out there, so it would make sense if at least one sustained life on it.

18. Do you still talk to your first crush? Yeah, it’s cool, yo.

19. Do you like bubble baths? Ooh, I haven’t had one in so long, I can’t remember if I do.

20. Do you like your neighbors? I don’t even know my neighbors lmao

21. What are you bad habits? I procrastinate, I take too long to get ready, I am sometimes too open, I pry a bit too much, etc, etc.

22. Where would you like to travel? Germany, I guess, they have really good chocolate.

23. Do you have trust issues? Yep, trust issues with myself.

24. Favorite part of your daily routine? Going to bed.

25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with? Excluding more inappropriate areas, my upper body, specifically the front part.

26. What do you do when you wake up? Sit there for a while, ponder life, check my phone if it’s not dead, then get up and do the same thing while standing up.

27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker? I don’t really wish my skin was different, but if I had to choose one I’d say darker cuz I’m pale af.

28. Who are you most comfortable around? Hmmm, I guess I’d have to say I’m most comfortable around that one friend I mentioned in #8 again.

29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up? Considering I don’t have any ex’s, no, they have not.

30. Do you ever want to get married? Yepppppppp

31. Is your hair long enough for a pony tail? Currently it is possible; however, I’m getting my hair cut soon, so it probably won’t be long enough in a little while.

32. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with? None of them. I’m ace.

33. Spell your name with your chin. I’m not even gonna try this right now.

34. Do you play sports? What sports? Nope, what’re sports?

35. Would you rather live without TV or music? Without TV; music is too precious.

36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them? Several times, yo. I don’t know how to talk to people about that kind of thing.

37. What do you say during awkward silences? Usually nothing. Jk, I will often ask how someone else is doing, but it goes back to awkward silence again really quickly.

38. Describe your dream girl/guy? I’m not sure I really have a super ideal fantasy for a dream guy/girl, but I guess I’ll go for it. Generally I’m attracted to guys who are really soft and kind, usually significantly taller than me, usually with little to no facial hair, and most frequently they have dark hair and dark eyes. Generally girls that I find attractive are around my height, not usually much shorter than me. Usually they have dark hair and dark eyes, are very sweet, but also can be very assertive and driven. For anyone, I’d like to have similar interests, of course, because that makes it easier to have conversations. Also, the main reason I’m attracted to people of certain heights is just because of how it feels to hug people of those heights. (Sorry, this was a long one)

39. What are your favorite stores to shop in? GAMESTOP. Just game stores in general, and also the Pokémon stores in Japan.

40. What do you want to do after high school? I’ve already graduated high school and I still don’t know what I want to do after high school. I’m going to uni, originally for computer engineering, but now for theatre and electronic media performance.

41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance? Not everyone, I guess. I think it’s more on a case by case basis, depending on the severity of the offense.

42. If you’re being extremely quiet what does it mean? Depends. Being quiet could mean that I’m uncomfortable (usually with strangers), comfortable (usually with close friends), thinking deeply about random shiznit, or just don’t know what to say.

43. Do you smile at strangers? Depends on how I’m feeling. I usually don’t look at other people because I don’t want them to think that I’m being creepy towards them.

44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean? Outer space; the bottom of the ocean is terrifying.

45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning? Usually the need for food, but sometimes the need for cleanliness.

46. What are you paranoid about? Way too many things to list here, so I’ll list a few. Abandonment, rejection, the feeling that there is a hole in my clothes, the feeling that people are watching and judging everything I do, the feeling that I’m going to unintentionally hurt people or things, etc.

47. Have you ever been high? Nope.

48. Have you ever been drunk? Nope.

49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about? Not that I can think of.

50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore? Brown with yellow letters.

51. Ever wished you were someone else? Too often, yes.

52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself? I’d like to get rid of my envy and jealousy.

53. Favourite makeup brand? Don’t have one.

54. Favourite store? Pokémon store.

55. Favourite blog? Don’t have one.

56. Favourite colour? YELLOW

57. Favourite food? Curry rice with creamy crab croquettes.

58. Last thing you ate? Beef curry rice.

59. First thing you ate this morning? Haven’t eaten yet, but it’ll probably be Life cereal.

60. Ever won a competition? For what? Won a couple Pokémon tournaments. One made me a gym leader for a League, another got me a New 3DS XL.

61. Been suspended/expelled? For what? Nope.

62. Been arrested? For what? Nope.

63. Ever been in love? Yepppp

64. Tell us the story of your first kiss? And this is where I’d put the story of my first kiss. IF I HAD ONE.

65. Are you hungry right now? Yessssss

66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends? Considering I don’t really have many tumblr friends (I think?) I like my real friends more.

67. Facebook or Twitter? Facebook

68. Twitter or Tumblr? Tumblr

69. Are you watching tv right now? Nope

70. Names of your bestfriends? Jay, Natz, Xixi, Frances, Aleigha, Kirbs, Dani, Hunter, Marissa, (the list goes on and on, I can’t decide on just a few best friends)

71. Craving something? What? Takoyaki!

72. What colour are your towels? Brown

72. How many pillows do you sleep with? Two (2)

73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals? I used to, but since ya mentioned it, I might start doing it again.

74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have? At least 20, question mark???

75. Favourite animal? Tie between monkeys, foxes, and rabbits.

76. What colour is your underwear? Idk, it changes everyday.

77. Chocolate or Vanilla? Depends on the quality. Usually vanilla since too much chocolate gives me a stomach ache.

78. Favourite ice cream flavour? Strawberry banana, but since it’s really uncommon I usually settle for mint chocolate chip.

79. What colour shirt are you wearing? Yellow

80. What colour pants? Blue

81. Favourite tv show? Steven Universe

82. Favourite movie? Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2? I haven’t seen either, I’m trash

84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street? Same as above

85. Favourite character from Mean Girls? Same as above above

86. Favourite character from Finding Nemo? Dory

87. First person you talked to today? Friend staying at my house

88. Last person you talked to today? Friend staying at my house

89. Name a person you hate? I don’t think I hate anyone, that’s a really strong word.

90. Name a person you love? Kaia (my niece)

91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now? Nope

92. In a fight with someone? Not right now, I think? If I am, I’ve forgotten.

93. How many sweatpants do you have? Quite a lot, but I don’t wear them.

94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have? Too many, probs over 15, but I only regularly wear two of them.

95. Last movie you watched? Psycho-Pass: The Movie

96. Favourite actress? Emma Watson

97. Favourite actor? Does John Mulaney count?

98. Do you tan a lot? I straight up burn, so nope

99. Have any pets? Nope

100. How are you feeling? Neutral in general

101. Do you type fast? Depending on the situation.

102. Do you regret anything from your past? Toooooo muchhh

103. Can you spell well? Sometimes

104. Do you miss anyone from your past? Lotsa old friends.

105. Ever been to a bonfire party? Yeah, not really a fan of them.

106. Ever broken someone’s heart? I think maybe once or twice? I don’t know about many people liking me.

107. Have you ever been on a horse? Yeah, but it was when I was super young so I don’t remember what it was like.

108. What should you be doing? Probably applying for scholarships.

109. Is something irritating you right now? Only my intrusive thoughts, but that’s all the time.

110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt? Pretty much every time I’ve liked someone, yeah.

111. Do you have trust issues? I think this was answered already, but yes.

112. Who was the last person you cried in front of? The last person I cried full out in front of was my mom, but I have had a couple tears run down my face when in the dorms at uni.

113. What was your childhood nickname? Gingerbread, Gingersnaps

114. Have you ever been out of your province/state? Yep yep

115. Do you play the Wii? Yesssssss

116. Are you listening to music right now? No, but I should be.

117. Do you like chicken noodle soup? Hell yeah

118. Do you like Chinese food? Hell yeah!

119. Favourite book? Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

120. Are you afraid of the dark? Yes, but only if I’m unfamiliar with the area.

121. Are you mean? I don’t know? Sometimes

122. Is cheating ever okay? Nope. Never. Absolutely not. If you cheat, I have big problems with you.

123. Can you keep white shoes clean? I probably couldn’t lol

124. Do you believe in love at first sight? Not really? But it depends. I’d say it’s possible upon the first meeting, but not by just seeing the person. I think truly falling in love with someone purely based on their appearance is rather shallow and difficult to do.

125. Do you believe in true love? Kinda? I don’t really believe that there’s one specific person that you’re destined to be with, but I do believe that people can develop a strong enough connection with each other that it could be considered true love.

126. Are you currently bored? Somewhat, but it’s rare for me to not be somewhat bored.

127. What makes you happy? Long hugs with people I care about, snuggles, some video games and anime, having deep conversations with friends.

128. Would you change your name? I don’t know what I’d change it to, so no.

129. What your zodiac sign? Libra

130. Do you like subway? Yeah

131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do? If I like them back, then try to make a relationship work out I guess. If not, I try my best to let them down gently and comfort them if possible.

132. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with? I think this was answered before as well, but friend mentioned in #8.

133. Favourite lyrics right now? The entirety of Here Comes A Thought.

134. Can you count to one million? Yeah? I’m not sure what this question is supposed to mean.

135. Dumbest lie you ever told? “Yeah, I’ve done my homework *has homework on computer screen*”

136. Do you sleep with your doors open or closed? Closed. Open feels too insecure.

137. How tall are you? 5′ 7″

138. Curly or Straight hair? Straight

139. Brunette or Blonde? Brunette(?) I don’t know what this is asking, but I find dark hair attractive.

140. Summer or Winter? Winterrrrrr. No bugs and no sunburn.

141. Night or Day? Night, it makes it feel like emotions are heightened.

142. Favourite month? Never thought about this, but I guess February.

143. Are you a vegetarian? Nah, I like chicken too much.

144. Dark, milk or white chocolate? Milk chocolate. Dark chocolate is too rich and makes my stomach hurt. White chocolate has a flavor that I think does best at complimenting other things, like fruit. Individually I like milk best because it’s flavorful, but not too rich.

145. Tea or Coffee? Coffee, but only if it has a lot of sweetness mixed with the bitterness.

146. Was today a good day? Today has barely started, but it seems like it’ll be a decent day.

147. Mars or Snickers? Snickers

148. What’s your favourite quote? "My vibe is like, hey you could probably pour soup in my lap and I'll apologize to you." -- John Mulaney

149. Do you believe in ghosts? No? Idk, I don’t think about that stuff.

150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page? “The recommended dietary intake of potassium ranges from 500 mg to 700 mg per day for infants between 6 and 12 months.”