#DANG those two are TALL

[4ce-of-2pades-inkwell]

@cupheadocscasino @cupid-shortcake @mimuo-no @fizz-wizz-dizz

[donutz]

Sebastian Solace accidently meeting reader

Sebastian was looking for items resulted in seeing you

— Sebastian actually doesn't do that, he just comes across them and uses it for sales

Warnings: Non human reader; Reader is 11'4, taller than Sebastian!!; Reader has a small tail, that's hidden under there clothes; Reader isn't naked, you have clothes on yay!!; You have 4 extra eyes from being mixed with a spider; Bad words, again

Here's a body reference I drew, with a mouse!! ^_^ It's not that good but i tried my best ,^^ the tiny text says spider

“Ugh, these doors are so small”.. You thought.

You had to crouch through them, every. Single. Time. Why not bust out of a window? You looked at the wide glass to your left, thinking. Yeah why not.

Jumping through it, you realized that those were really weak windows. They might as well have been just the wall if they were really that weak! You would think that they were tempered at least.

You swim and swim, occasionally stopping to peer into the rooms. Sometimes you’d even knock on the windows to look at the squiddles. The other monsters never appeared, but those ones did.

After passing through many walls and windows, you look into another room. Seeing a tall humanoid like creature just sliding through.

Wait what.

You do a double take, not expecting another one to look like you.

Slightly swaying your legs, you move towards the glass. Putting your hands on it. You can only see the backside of him, looking him up and down. Just out of interest and curiosity.

He stops searching through the drawers and turns to his side, not seeing you. He moves to the next room, and you move right with him. It seems like he’s looking for items.

He looks at the window anddd.. Flinches back, with his palm facing you right in front of his chest. You hear his mumbled yell through the glass.

You wave.

As if you didn’t just startle him.

Smiling really wide, just no teeth showing, your small tail wagging.

You hear him curse. Uhm.. You move to the side and break the window with your fist,

“Oops” You say after putting your head through the hole.

Turning your head, you were going to say hello, but he was gone! You break through the window using your whole body, and fix it up with your… Powers!

“Come back”! You shout, crawling through the doors, each time you did, you saw him.

“GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME”!!

That wasn’t a very good first meeting, but it happened again. You saw him again. And again. And again. You know the drill by now yeah?

By the fourth time, he wasn’t phased.

Sigh, “Are you trying to get on my nerves or something”?

“How? I just want to see you”!

His face scrunches in confusion, “What”.

“I said I just wanted to see you! You’re only making yourself more mad with that temper of yours”.

His face fell monotone, ignoring you as he slithered through the doors.

You followed right behind him, or next to him. He didn’t want you behind him just in case you decided to do something dirty.

You observe him everytime he searches through the drawers, checks under them, and looks through the lockers.

While he was searching through a drawer, you asked a question.

“Why do you search for the items ‘n stuff”?

He closes the drawer, standing up. He turns around to face you.

“Why are you still here with me”?

“You didn’t answer my question”.

“You didn’t answer mine”.

You giggle, “You’re funny, Sebastian”.

He looks surprised that you even know his name, clenching his fists he yells out—

“HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME”?!

Now it’s your turn to look surprised. 

“From a certain shark”.

He scowls, ‘Dang it Eyefestation’.

“Anywho now that I answered yours, you answer mine”.

“You still didn’t answer my other question”.

“Then let’s take turns”.

You two stared at each other. Each stares having different meaning.

One with danger, confusion, and a small chance of fear.

The other with interest and sincerity.

One not being able to tell if it’s a mask.

The other being able to tell that One is scared.

“... Fine. It’s for my shop that I hold for the other players. Now what about you? Why are you still here with me”?

“Well it’s because I find you quite interesting really. I haven’t seen any other creature—”

‘Creature’?

“— Like you. You seem kinda on edge and I want to get to know you. Personally, I think you have a very kind heart”.

‘Kind heart? What the hell are you even saying’..

Your smile stays on your face, not once lingering. Your left hand gently grips your right wrist while both arms are behind your back. You sway side to side.

“Is your question answered Sebastian”?

“Don’t call me that”.

“Then what should I call you”?

“... Solace. Call me Solace”.

“Oh that’s a nice name. It kind of matches with your icy nature”.

Ughh. He verbally groaned. He slithered over to the next door, going through it, with you of course, following behind him.

Going through a few more doors, you ask—

“Can I see your shop”?

“Yeah fine, whatever. There’s no point since you probably don’t have any data anyways”.

“You use data as a currency? For what”?

“You ask—... Nevermind, yeah, I do. It’s so I could blackmail Urbanshade”.

He halfway turns his head to look at you, stopping.

“You’re not going to use that against me, a- are you”?

‘Shit’.

Your smile falters, realizing that he’s serious. And afraid.

“Of course not! I don’t even know what that is anyways”. You smile.

His mouth slightly opens, surprised.

“You- You’re not one of their experiments”?

“No! I was born like this! My parents were the experiments, but then I escaped”.

Sebastian didn’t say anything. How could you say that so— so happily?! A- And right in front of him too! You two just met h- how could—... How could you trust him so EASILY?!

After a bit of silence, you moved on.

“Anywayss!! I wanna see your shop! Show me”!

You walk ahead, leaving Sebastian standing there by himself baffled. Before he shakes his head and continues to move.

Eventually you two find his shop and you chill.

You see his documents on the table and question him, asking who’s documents are those. He tells you that they’re his.

“Can I buy em”?

“You got 1000 data”?

“I got my backstory”!

“... Sorry, data’s the only currency”.

“Oh man :(”

I read all of this and this seems like a quick read :(

[whereslynx]

maybe one of sad eyes. reader and him meet at a party, they talk and smoke etc get to know each other

a/n: thank you for requesting! i love this idea, i hope i did it justice!! p.s, i love writing requests so don’t be afraid to send some in. :)

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

The night was still young, and those who were at the Santos’ party made sure to not take it for granted. Under the soft glow of the moon, the party thrived, brimming with people who lived in the moment. There was a palpable sense that each moment of it was treasure, and the energy of the crowd reflected that.

Whilst the party pulsed with energy, drunken laughter and conversation rising above the blasting music, you stood against the wall in the backyard where everyone was dancing, nodding your head to the beat with a Corona in hand as you gazed into the crowd. Although you stood alone, you originally came to the party with your homegirl, Angelica, but once she got her hands on Mario, they were all up on each other. You didn’t mind though, you’d rather chill by yourself rather than see them get all sloppy.

Before another thought passed your mind, a voice pulled you out of it. “Dang, looking a bit lonely there, ma.” A man said over the music. You looked up at him, raising a brow in curiosity. He was tall, slim, cute, and was dressed in all black. ‘A Santo.’ You noted in your head. You’ve never talked to him before, but you’ve often seen him cruising with his homies around the streets.

“And you are?” You asked with a tilted head, earning an almost satisfied smile from him when you didn’t shy away. “They call me Sad Eye.” He said, raising his Modelo as if to cheers to a new connection. You laughed, “Alright, Sad Eye.” You raised your beer to meet his, a gentle clink came from the two bottles. His face seemed to light up at the sound of his name leaving your lips. He’d taken a liking to the way his name sounded natural to your tongue, leaving him to wonder if hearing you say his name would become a daily occurrence.

Sad Eye took a sip of his beer, his gaze studying you as if you were a book glued shut. Although your surroundings were filled with loud music, chatter, and the occasional beer bottle breaking, the silence between youse spoke volumes beyond that.

“You smoke?” He asked, his husky voice breaking the silence. “Shit, yeah. How’d you know?” You giggled, a slight tinge of interest glinting in your eyes. “Nah, just the way you’re at a Santos’ party and you’re still babysitting a bottle.” He teased, pointing to the untouched Corona in your hand. You swore you almost choked on air at his comment, rubbing the nape of your neck in slight embarrassment as a sheepish smile plastered itself onto your face. Sad Eyes lowly chuckled, “Shiiit, it’s cool, mami. I prefer smoking over drinking too.” he waved his hand in dismissal to his teasing, offering you a friendly smile. You couldn’t tell if it was because you’d been seeing everyone grind up on their vatos at the party, or if his smile really did stir something in the pit of your stomach. Damn these Santos and butterflies.

“I wanted to put this blunt to use anyways, just didn’t want to leave the party while it was still alive, you know?” He said, taking the blunt from behind his ear, “But, now that I have you, maybe you could keep my party alive. ¿Arre?” Sad Eye smugly smirked, anticipating your answer. An interested gaze coated your eyes. You had to admit it, he was goddamn smooth with his words and the offer seemed enticing— almost too good to pass up. Your gaze flickered to Angelica from afar who was making out with Mario, seemingly keeping herself busy enough for you to sneak away for a sesh.

“Alright, bet.” Striking him with a confident smile, “Fuck the party, let’s ditch.” You laughed, playfully snatching the blunt and moving past the crowd and through the house to the front yard, Sad Eye followed close behind you with a stupidly jolly grin. “Atta’ girl.” He cooed. Spooky and Joker couldn’t blame him for that smitten expression on his face as they watched youse pass by them, who wouldn’t want to smoke with a pretty girl like you?

You and Sad Eye found a spot on the curb in front of the house. The music and drunken howls was still slightly loud, but drowned out by the night’s melody filled with dogs barking in the distance and cicadas singing in the bushes.

With only the moonlight and street lights illuminating up the street for youse, you lit the blunt, taking a pull from it before passing it onto Sad Eye who sat next to you. “So,” you exhaled the smoke, “how come they call you Sad Eye? Is it cause you always be looking sad and shit?” You assumed with a little intent to tease. Sad Eye only chuckled, taking his own puff, “Hell nah. Shit, even I don’t know.” he mumbled to you, “Probably cause when I got jumped in, I was high as shit. Homies probably thought I was going through it, eyes low and everything.” Sad Eye laughed, the blunt in his hand.

“What about you? How come your vato be letting yo’ pretty ass go to a party alone, hm?” He pondered aloud, turning his head to you as he took another pull before handing it back to you. You stared back at him with furrowed brows, slightly flustered by his comment. The music from the backyard didn’t seem so loud anymore.

“What makes you think I got a man?” you snickered, “Ion’ got time for that.” you mumbled, bringing the blunt to your lips. Sad Eye’s narrowed gaze flickered to yours, both of youse feeling the high sink in. “For real?” He asked, “You don’t got time for a man, huh.” he smirked, his gaze wandering to the moon. You laughed, lightly hitting his shoulder, “What’s with the tone? I’m serious! I don’t got time to waste on a little boy.” You exclaimed with a grin. Sad Eye laughed with you, “So, even when a real man comes to you, you ain’t giving him a chance?” he softly nudged you with his shoulder, leaving you to think of your answer. You knew where he was getting at, but you just didn’t know if he was up for it.

“Shit, if a real man wants to come and show me what’s up. I’m gon’ let him.” You answered, your red-tinted eyes looking into his.

A silence filled with undeniable tension and anticipation filled the air, the cold air of the night seemingly had gotten hotter in the midst of the silence. Sad Eye nodded, not afraid to maintain the eye contact, “Consider tonight the start of a real man showing you what’s up.” he promised, his smoky voice cutting through the tension like a knife.

If the butterflies in your stomach from fifteen minutes ago were bothering you before, it was sure as hell bothering you now.

“I’m looking forward to it.” You challenged, handing him the blunt with a smug smirk.

[roseofhybrids]

mmmm knife feathers will try and remember to make a version comparing it to a bird wing later

In the meantime, here's the solver wing compared to the disassembly wing

Those feathers are so, so dang long

The longest (top most one in the drawing) is equal to, maybe even a little longer than the disassembly drones are tall. The "arm" section is then a little over 2/3 the length of that feather. Which would make the two wings together about 3 1/3 of the drone's height.

Did some math a little while back, that put N at around 5'9" (~175 cm). Which, if true, would make his wingspan (and this is a very rough estimate mind you) ~19'2" (~584 cm)

To put that in perspective, the average giraffe is 18 ft tall and the regulation height of a basketball hoop is 10 ft. So if one of them crawled up on a basketball hoop, the tip of their wings would be just shy of touching the ground.

That, and the fact that's a strong yet flexible metal, is what makes it such a good shield. Covers their entire body and can easily take a hit for feral solver drones. (Also great for long distance stabbing.)

Now, some maybe wondering: "If the one feather is longer than they are tall, how the heck does that fold into their back?".

Personally, I'd say that nanites are the simplest answer. We already know for a fact they have nanites because of the acid. So it's not too big of a stretch to say they also have nanites that assemble into their wings. (This can also double as an explanation for how they keep so many weapons in their arms)

[fortunekookie07]

Alright, this one is FINALLY ready. I hope you have your tissues ready. It's a looong one. I'm not exact, but it might be twice the length of the first part? I don't have a word count. Just a dang, that's a long scroll thing. Any whoodle here ya go!

@prettytemis @ellieevu @linxiajei17 @chryssikyu @potatosugar

****************************************************

Moment Forever Lost : Splintered Souls

"Who are you?" You ask, looking at the man in front of you. He is entirely unfamiliar, and he has this weird expression on his face as he stares back at you. It's almost... heartbreaking, soul shredding sorrow.

Your attention is diverted to the opening door. Several more people come in, none of them, you know. The male leading the group is tall, well built, and has mesmerizing gold green eyes. The prettiest hazel you can recall ever seeing. His name badge reads Zayne, and below that, it says Cardiology Head.

The Dr's behind him are from various departments in the hospital. Orthopedics, neurology, physical therapy, your head starts spinning, trying to remember what each Dr is there for.

The woman bringing up the rear of the group has a name badge that says Dr. Mia Evol Specialist. As far as you can recall, your Evol was never very strong or even remarkable. You write her off. She probably will be disappointed when she does her testing.

You focus your attention on Dr. Zayne as he asks you questions. Starting with your name and age. You have no trouble with those. "What happened to me? I can't really recall much. " You say when you've gotten your date wrong by five years. "You were in a traumatic accident and miraculously survived a building collapse." The dr says carefully, and you can tell he is leaving details out. Subtlety is clearly his weak point.

"These questions can wait. We need to run tests to see if you have recovered. Your body took a serious beating, but I believe you will be able to make a full recovery. " The neurologists say moving closer.

"We should get a full work up on her. We need blood draws, a CT scan, and x-rays. " You don't catch all of the things they say as they start conversing amongst themselves about who wants to run what test and when.

Your eyes go to the man in the corner of the room. Tired, is the word that comes to mind now. Looking him up and down you realize that he would be incredibly handsome if he had proper rest.

His white shirt is rumpled and you notice that the top two buttons were done wrong causing the whole shirt to look funny. You almost want to laugh at his silly appearance. A sense of familiarity comes to you as you stare at him longer.

He looks up then, having noticed your gaze. You stare back into his beautiful blue pink eyes and feel yourself falling into them. The longer you stare back at him the more you feel like you know this gaze. Something starts to surface in the back of your mind and you feel enchanted, like a spell has been cast over you.

A memory flashes by in the back of your mind. You just barely glimpse a sulky, pouting face and what you think is a school uniform. But it goes by too fast for you to grasp it. You stare at him harder, your brows furrowing in concentration. A slight ache starts in your head and you wince.

The little gesture is enough to shatter the spell like trance you were under and a nurse blocks your view of him as she unhook various equipment and they prepare to whisk you off for endless testing.

*******************************************************

Rafayel's mind was in endless chaos, he couldn't understand what had happened. He knew your tremor Evol was not strong. You'd told him that yourself many times since you'd gone to the Hunter Academy and tried to become a trainee.

He kept going back to the building collapse and the earthquake that had resulted in the aftermath.

Rafayel had thrown himself through the hole in the floor that had opened up when the supports could no longer take the shaking.

As he dove after you, he could see a glow forming all around you. A symbol appeared over your heart, one he knew all to well. It was incomplete but he still recognized it. He'd put it on his love's heart himself back in his first life as God of Tides.

His mind began racing. How could there be two girls with his mark? He'd confirmed its presence on her a long time ago. Why was it here now? He'd never sensed even a fraction of his power from you before.

Using his flames to boost his falling speed and get closer to you, his hadn't was reached out to you. It felt like time has stopped. The ground was so close and he was not gaining on you to close the distance.

With an anguished cry he summoned the flames and sent it to the ground below. If he couldn't catch you, then he'd would make it so you survived no matter what. He had to know why you had his mark and how it had come to you.

Like time was flowing again he watch you hit the ground. Tears were streaming from his eyes now. The sickening sound of you hitting the earth tore him in two.

Slowing his fall down, he landed lightly next to you and then reached out. He wished he couldn't tell how badly you were hurt. Blood was seeping through your hair and your nose was bleeding. Your breath was ragged and shallow. Like you couldn't get air.

Rafayel knew he shouldn't move you. Internal injuries could cause you to bleed to death, but he could also tell you needed immediate medical attention.

A lite thump behind him had Rafayel glancing around. He caught site of her running over. She had few injuries as well. Her black hair was cover in debris and dust. Shallow cute and nicks were scattered on her face and arms. If the thin lines of blood and tears to her sleeves were anything to go by.

She knelt by his side furiously tapping on her watch trying to get a signal. Glancing over your body and the extent of injuries she knee if help didn't come soon you were going to die.

"Come on, come on!" She said, frustration and worry lacing her tone. Finally the call connected and she immediately spit out the need for urgent medical help.

"A medical team has been dispatched to your location." Tara said without hesitation.

Anxious moments tick by and your breathing gets worse. It'd like your heart had been hooked up to a speaker. He's focusing ok so hard he can hear every shallow breath you take. He stops breathing the moment your heart mutters, skips a beat and then stops. His hands flutter, anxious at giving you CPR without knowing the extent of your injuries.

As if hearing your prayers, a light shines in the dark space and he hears voices calling out for survivors. She stands up and starts yelling, calling them this way.

Two paramedics and four fore fighters rush towards your location. Rafayel steps back and anxiously tells them that you aren't breathing. They get to work immediately. Hooking you up to the portable hear monitor and an IV to give fluids, pain medication, and then they start CPR. Placing a tube down your throat and then pumping air into your lugs.

They cut your shirt open, exposing your chest and feeling along your ribs and abdomen. "Her lung has collapsed were going to need a chest tube Stat. I'm not losing her!" The man says immediately opening the kit and getting to work.

"Got a pulse, get a c-collar and let's move her!" The unsteady beep of your heart on the machine has Rafayel taking a breath again. He hand realized he'd been holding it the whole time. Completely ignoring his lungs burning need for air. They strap you down to a long board and carefully lift you up.

For what seems like an eternity, Rafayel makes his way through the ruble. He's bringing up the rear of the group. Anxiety is eating away at him over your condition. Your heart has stopped once, it could happen again and they might not be able to get you back next time.

Using his injuries as an excuse, Rafayel manages to get a ride in the ambulance with you. The paramedics are hovering over you. Monitoring your vitals and body condition for even the slightest change. Then it happens, the heart monitor loses your heart and a long beep echos in his head as they spring into action. Preparing to do CPR, and manually pump air into your lungs

"Come on, you've got to fight for us. Don't give up now!" The guy who'd gotten you back the first time says to your still body as the heart monitor continues to let out the long beep.

Rafayel can't sit still he gets up. "Can I try something?" He asks but doesn't give them a chance to respond. He pushes his way between them and grasps your hand, squeezing tightly and then he's speaking, calling your name quietly.

"You can't leave me now, I haven't apologized for being the worst friend possible and not recognizing how important you are to me. Please don't go. You can hate me if you want. I deserve that, just don't leave me alone." Rafayel is tearing up, and the tears deips down his face and onto your chest right over your heart.

Suddenly the long beeping stops as the machine finds your heartbeat again. Very unsteady, but stronger than before. "Don't let go of her hand, right now you're her lifeline." The paramedic says as they cover you up to keep you warm. One of them keeps track of the heart monitor and then the same guy is turning to tend Rafayel's mild injuries.

The rest of the trip was a whirlwind to Rafayel. It didn't take long to get to the hospital and then you were rushed off for xrays.

A nurse bandages all his shallow injuries and then he manages to get it our of her what room you were taken to.

*******************************************************

The last test is finally done and you feel exhausted. Going in and out of different areas of the hospital has worn you out. Despite the fact that you were in a wheel chair or in your bed.

Due to not moving for just over two months, your legs have become pretty thin. The muscles deteriorated with out constant movement or walking.

Physical therapy is scheduled to start in two days if your xrays have cleared you. The skull fractures have healed well. Headaches were to be expected.

Finally younare back in your room and just as your had thought, that man is still there. It didn't look like he had really moved. Still sitting on that stiff looking couch.

The nurse hooked you back up to the machines and administered your evening medications and then helped you change into a clean gown. After all that was finally done, you were teetering on the realm of unconsciousness as the door closed.

Rustling had you slightly opening your eyes. He was standing up and moving closer to you. "Do you really not know who I am?" His tone sounds so defeated and his eyes have a faraway look to them. You hmmm before falling alseep, unable to keep your eyes open any longer.

Over the next few weeks, you have come to terms with the fact that in addition to missing fiver years there are significant gaps in your memory altogether. Rafayel, as he told you what his name was finally, hardly ever leaves your side. You're the one who leave this large room more than he does actually.

The day before, your physical therapist had even cleared you to walk without an aide. Though you aren't allowed to run yet, it shouldn't be long. You've even gained back some weight. Overall you look much healthier than you did when you first woke up.

There are several things that concern you though. Th dreams you have at night, you can never remember what they were about but you always feel like you've been on some fantastic adventure and you are almost certain Rafayel was in all of them.

Sometimes you even feel like this is the dream and what you can't remember is reality. Almost like you're disconnected from everything.

Unlike your initial prediction, Dr. Mia has not left the group of Dr's attending you. She has run numerous tests on your Evol and you can see that something is not quite right. She almost seems frustrated. Finally you ask her. She hesitates before asking the question. "Your Evol was tremors right?" You immediately focus on the use of was and you think the worst. Not everyone had Evol, and though yours was not strong it was definitely there. "Was?" You ask disheartened.

"No matter what test I rub on you the result is not tremor. It's Anhausen and your level is indeterminable." She sounded at her wits end. "It's possible to raise your level as you grow stronger and practice your skills. But I've never heard of anyone just having their Evol class change entirely. I didn't think it was even possible." She rambled off muttering.

After she left, you were consumed with thoughts. You wished you could talk to your mother. She had died just before you entered elementary. A car accident. The road had been slick with rain and her car had spun out of control.

You were only six when all you'd ever known was gone. Your father had never been in the picture and from what you'd learned from your mother's friends it had been a drunken night when she got you. With no family to turn to, you'd been sent to an orphanage.

That night as you dream wild visions come to life. A world under the sea, a pair of beautiful blue-pink eyes and a cocky smile seem to linger even as the dream changes.

*******************************************************

The next morning you wake up in a cold sweat and throw the blankets off of you sitting up in a rush. Your gasping for air and the room feels incredibly small. Like your trapped in some kind box.

Your hearts racing out of your chest and you feel like your soul has been split many times. You look around with wild eyes expecting to see those mad researchers come into the room to try their next experiment.

You really felt like you'd died several times as they played a game with your life. Only one person seemed even remotely concerned for your wellbeing. It wasn't much to you, after all, how important was some test subject that didn't even have a name? You'd only been referred to by a code of some sort. Subject 001 and Unicorn remained firmly rooted in your mind.

The door opens drawing you out of your still semi panicked state and fully back to reality. The dream all but forgotten as it moves to the back of your mind.

Rafayel is walking across the threshold and there's a small woman behind him. She's holding a small bouquet of large white chrysanthemums. How did she know your favorite flower? You wrack your brain trying to recall if you've ever met her and come up empty.

Something is gnawing at the back of your mind and you feel like you should know her. Her large brown eyes display her kind nature and friendly personality as they look you over. A smile is on her face as she meets your eyes. Turning to close the door behind her you can see that her dark brown hair is long and straight.

You feel a twinge of envy as you think that her hair would probably never have the audacity to misbehave on her like yours did. Heck you probably had bad bed head now.

"Hi!" She starts off brightly, turning up her smile. "Rafayel said that you had memory loss so I know you don't remember me, but we've met several times before. Rafayel is my good friend and he and I were there to rescue you the day your work building collapsed." Her words are careful and you feel like there is something that she isn't telling you, but you also feel like she is speaking in a manner to not upset or depress you so you decide to let it go for the moment.

"Rafayel told me that you were finally allowed to have visitors and that this was your favorite flower. I'm so glad you woke up. All of us at the Hunter's Association were worried for you. It was a terrible accident. It's incredibly fortunate there were no casualties. Oh I should probably reintroduce myself."

Her face blushes slightly in embaressment as she rubs her head shyly before giving her name.

You sit down on the bed and smile back at her. "Thank you for visiting, I'm sorry I can't remember you. Thank you for saving my life. The doctors told me some details about what happened. I would have died if you hadn't been there. I will be eternally greatful." You extend your hand to her and she lights up before taking it.

A shock goes through you as your palms touch and you jerk your hand back eyes widening slightly. You can tell she felt it to. As your eyes meet an image comes to your head. It's that woman, the one who was in your dreams. But she looks completely different, older, more relaxed. "What was that??" She says alarmed and no longer smiling. She saw something too, but clearly not the same thing.

She shivers hugging herself as if to chase away a bad memory. "Unicorn?" She mumbles very soflty but you still hear it. You gaze at her intently. Had she seen your dream? She shakes her head and then presents the bouquet to you after Rafayel touches her back and softly asks if she is alright.

You take the flowers, careful not to touch her hands again. She's smiling again. "I can't stay any longer, I have to go to work now. I just wanted to bring this to you. I hope you get to go home soon. Congratulations on your recovery!" She waves before turning from the room. "I'll walk you out." Rafayel says leaving behind her.

Once they're gone you mull over the image you'd seen. The woman, much older now. She had to know her. If you saw her just by touching. She must be real. There had to be more to this weird sensation you'd felt just by touching. Maybe it was all connected to the gaps in your memory, the way your Evol had changed, and your strange dreams.

*******************************************************

After another week had passed, the Dr's were finally ready to release you. For the first time in what felt like a century, you were going home. At first you were elated. No more testing, people constantly coming in and out of your room. No more endless medications. You could finally ditch that pushy physical therapist too! Even if there was still the matter of attending the outpatient therapy for two more weeks.

The best part at first had been getting out from underneath Rafayel's watchful eyes. He rarely left and even when he did, it wasn't for more than an hour. When the day had actually come and with it the impending separation you had this echo of loneliness. You had always lived alone. Ever since you had entered high school. Having him constantly around was nice.

When you found yourself standing in front of a door that was familiar and altogether alien you steeled your resolve and walked across the threshold. "Thanks for bringing me home and for staying by my side the whole time. I'm sorry I still can't remember you." You say turning to Rafayel. He only gives you that small smile as he hands over your bag.

"I'm just going to go to bed." You say after standing in the doorway in silence foe a few minutes. "Alright, get some rest. I'll check on you later." He moves forward, coming closer to you. Then his arms wrap around you as he pulls you into a tight hug.

After he's gone the silence is loud. Since waking up a few weeks ago, the constant sound of hospital machinery, and chatter outside your room has become familiar. Without all of that, it's like the silence is screaming, it makes you uneasy.

Bored from just sitting on the couch you flip on the TV to a random show and settle down. It's only with the added noise are you finally able to sleep.

When you wake up again, it's hard to tell just how much time has passed. Your body is stiff from not moving and you feel hungry, though the desire to alleviate any of those issues just isn't there.

A notification popping up in your phone finally has you moving. Of course it's just your phone telling you to charge it. Turning your attention to the notifications you see there are a lot of them. Going back for weeks.

There's texts, alerts, emails, and system notifications galore. Getting the charger and hooking it up, you start with the emails. Most of it is junk. The only things if relevance being bill notices and confirmation of payments. You frown in confusion, who was paying the bills while you were in a coma?

Moving on to the text messages. The conversation with Rafayel catches your eye. Desperate for a clue to your relationship you start reading.

Tears well in your eyes. How could he not tell you that you had been fighting and that you hadn't spoken for two weeks before your accident? The woman you had met, she was involved too. Why hadn't they said anything?

Feeling betrayed, you stop reading and throw your phone. It bounces off the bed and slides across the floor, stopping under the dresser. You flop down on your bed and curl up on your side. Any thoughts of eating having vanished from your mind.

Letting the feelings wash over you, you cry yourself to sleep again.

As your dreams wash over you, your mind seems to be going far away. Back to a time that your soul and heart remember, bit your mind has forgotten.

The next time you wake up, the feeling that you haven't moved for a long time set's off aches in your body. You can't bring yourself to relive your body's discomfort though.

The lingering image in your head is of deep, clear blue waters and a pair of striking blue pink eyes.

Then you hear it, the sound that has initially drawn you from your dreams. Slowly you sit up and look around the dark room. "What is that?" You ask trying to find the source of the noise. It sounds kind of like a whirring noise. Before you can locate it, the noise stops and silence falls again.

You stretch out your stiff limbs and get up. Your joints Crack with the movement as you do. As you are now fully awake and alert, your stomach let's out a snarl. The ache that follows behind convinces you to get some food.

Going into the kitchen and rummaging through the fridge and cabinets you soon end up with a little pile. Everything left is shelf stable. Looks like soup is the best you can do for now.

Before long you have the water boiling and are stiring the noodles as you wait for them to cook. Ramen is probably not enough, but lacking the desire to do much else you resign to the simple bowl of beef noodles.

After scooping it into a bowl you head to the couch and flip the TV on. You slowly sip away at the hot broth and slurp down the noodles as you watch the news. Wanderer attacks are at an all time low and experts are all trying to put their two cents in as to why this is.

You hardly care, less people are getting hurt and the Hunter's for once aren't being worked overtime. Setting the bowl on the table in front of you, you lean back with a yawn. It's silly for you to be so tired now after having slept twice since getting home, but your body is demanding rest and once again you drift off to sleep with dreams you can't remember much of.

*******************************************************

Rafayel looked at his phone with a mixture of annoyance and deep worry. It had been almost five days since he'd dropped you off at home, and not once had you picked up his calls or answered a text. At this point worry was taking a dominant lead in his mind.

If he were in Linkon, he would have just rushed over to your apartment to check up on you. However this was not the case.

An extremely important client of his and one of Thomas's investors had been trying to get Rafayel to appear at his art exhibit for years. Because Rafayel had ditched work and denied all gallery appearances and canceled his last two shows, he hadn't been able to say no. Thomas had threatened to quit, he'd even typed up his resignation and was prepared to submit it, he'd waved the official papers in Rafayel's face.

Having no choice, and not wanting to lose his good friend as his gallery manager, Rafayel flew to London to see the client. He'd had to leave right after dropping you off.

Rafayel's mood was absolutely sour as he watched reporters and guests walk through the gallery while he hid in a corner and sulked. Stupid Thimas and his stupid threats he though darkly as he glared at nothing in particular. Then his phone rang and he answered it without looking at the ID.

"Hello?" Your name tumbled from his lips and his heart sank when it wasn't you. "No, it's me. I didn't want to bother you while your working, but, maybe it's nothing. It's just, she hasn't gone to any of her physical therapy appointments. Zayne mentioned it to me when I was there for my checkup this afternoon. I'd go check on her, but I don't know her address. I'm kind of worried. She just came out of a coma too." Rafayel's heart froze with worry ad he rattled off your address and then begged her to go check on you.

"I'm on the next flight home. I'll be there in five hours." He said walking towards the client. This was the last day of his exhibit so surely he would be alright to let him leave if he said it was an emergency.

Thankfully the client was very understanding, seeing the look on Rafayel's face and hearing the concern as he quickly explained, had him feeling bad for the younger man. He placed his hand on Rafayel's shoulder and shook his hand. Thanking him for coming and wishing him a safe return home.

Rafayel had this foreboding feeling come over him, the same as the day you nearly died. His stomach clenched in knots as he begged the taxi driver to get him to the airport as fast as possible.

Whenever he had this feeling he knew something very bad was going to happen. He was begging to be wrong for once.

*******************************************************

Your eyes flickered open and you were confused about where you were. Where had Rafayel gone and what were you wearing? Confusion grew even more when you realized you also weren't in the sea. "Rafayel?" You called looking around the strange room.

Bzzzzzzzzz

The strange sound had you jumping. In your fright you tumbled to the floor, off your curled up position on the couch. With your fall, reality caught up to you.

Touching your aching head you mumbled "Thay felt so real, I can't believe I forgot it was a dream." As you went to stand, a wave of dizziness had you sinking back down. You felt so weak and the energy to stand just wasn't there. The dizziness grew and you felt your body surrendering to unconsciousness once more.

"S'mthins wrong." You manage to get our before blackness over takes your vision and you fall back into dreams.

*******************************************************

She stood outside your apartment hesitant. It was so late now. Almost three, but Rafayel had sounded so desperate. Finally she swallowed her indecision and rang the bell. It was so quiet out that she could hear the buzz echoing inside. Thankfully she was listening hard for sounds and she heard a soft thump.

Convinced that you needed help she opened the door with the emergency key card and rushed in. The landlord had been very understanding of your situation and trusted that because she was a Hunter she could be trusted and had given her the card.

She rushed past the doorway and into the livingroom. Spotting you on the floor, leaning onto the seat of the couch she rushed over and grasped your wrist, feeling for a pulse. Her blood went cold when she felt how weak it was.

Immediately calling for an ambulance as she checked you over for injuries. Finding none, she grabbed a blanket and covered you with it before lifting you onto the couch. You didn't wake from your sleep. Fear gripped her as your head just lulled back onto the cushion behind you.

Just as fear was taking over the sound of sirens shattered the quiet. Relief started to flood her as she quickly ran to the door and met the paramedics. She rattled off your name and age and approximate weight as the asked questions. She mentioned that you had recently been a coma patient and had been released a few days ago.

"Her heartbeat and blood pressure are dangerously low. We need to take her." The paramedic said packing away the machine. "Will you meet us there?" They asked and she noded before following them out and running to her bike.

Her heart was thumping with uneasiness. Ever since that day she had come to see you at the hospital, those horrific images plagued her dreams. What disturbed her the most was the face of her beloved grandmother. She was the focus of that vision. Ever since then she hadn't been able to shake the feeling of familiarity. That room was alien and she felt like she could describe it in complete detail. Down to every crack and the pick the exact shad of paint in the room.

Rafayel had spoken of you fondly many times over the years. Rafayel held you in high regard and you were very important to him. So she took you as important to her as well. Rafayel was her good friend, her soul mate that she couldn't have this time.

"Please be alright." She said aloud as she sped through the empty streets, almost chasing the ambulance.

She managed to reach the hospital just as the paramedics were unloading you. They were shouting to the waiting nurses. Your pulse was still far to slow and they'd had to resuscitate twice. Things were not looking good.

As she rushed over, one of the nurses stopped her. "Sorry miss, only family can follow. Please head to reception waiting area." Unable to change the nurses mind, she headed to the waiting area and paced.

After three hours of mindless waiting, a nurse finally came to talk to her. "Are you here for this patient?" She asked, looking up from her tablet.

Before she could respond Rafayel came dashing into the room. Out of breath, clothes disheveled and hair messy. He managed to get your name out between huffs. "She's awake now, but very weak. Her heart is giving out." The nurse said solemnly. Her face and expression showed very clearly that she was sad.

"What about a transplant?" Rafayel asked immediately, but the nurse only shook her head. "She is far to weak, she wouldn't make it off the table and the patient has expressed her desire not to undergo any surgeries.

"You can go see her now." She gestured to follow and lead them both down the hall. Rafayel hesitated outside your room. Trying to prepare himself for what awaited him on the other side of that door. A pat on his shoulder and he took a deep breath and opened the door.

His eyes went to you immediately. The slow beeping of the heart monitor tracking your far too slow heart rate, the sound of the oxygen tank giving you clean air. All of it made the reality of the situation painfully real.

His eyes finally went to your face, skin was far to pale and your eyes were lack luster. Walking closer, he stood at your bedside and just watched you. He said nothing for what seemed like hours.

Finally you spoke "I don't want to be here anymore." You said, voice raspy and quiet. Rafayel felt his heart squeeze painfully, the words were daggers, aimed straight at him.

"Take me up to the roof, I want to watch the sunrise one more time." The nurse wanted to protest that staying right where you were was vest for you, but something about your expression had her quieting down.

"I really shouldn't do this, but under the circumstances I'll help you." She got to work unhookijg the heart monitor, all the wires and needles that you had been connected to. Rafayel slid his arm under your knees and around you back lifting you up easily. Your head leaned against his shoulder as he turned and walked out the door.

Having spent weeks in the hospital before he did not need directions to the roof. He took the elevator up to the top floor and then walked up the short flight of stairs leading to the roof access. Adjusting his grip on you he pushed the door open. The sky was just beginning to lighten. Already showing signs of the sun's ascent. He walked over the the center and then sat down. Carefully settling you in his lap.

Finally you spoke again. "When were you going to tell me about our fights?" You asked in a calm voice as you looked at the sky. Rafayel hesitated before speaking. "I wanted things to go back to the way they were before. I wanted my best friend back." You shook your head and glanced at him once.

"What about the fact that I'm just a substitute for her?" Rafayel was confused that you were bringing her up now. "What do you mean?" Your body tensed getting ready to fight and argue but looking at Rafayel's genuine confusion, you relax again.

"I mean that I remember things I can't possibly know. Things that you said happened with her in your first life. Like I experienced them myself. I finally understand why I'm so attached to you. Why I could never let you go." Tears roll down your face as you speak.

"I hope I am never born again. Let this be my last existence." Your words are painful to hear but he can think of no rebuttal. He just sits there holding you and watching the sky.

The mark over your heart starts glowing again as the sun peeks over the horizon. "I never want to see you again." You say weakly. Tears are slowly rolling down your face and your body is feeling heavy. Sleep is calling, the comforting blackness is slowly seeping into your mind. Your head lulls back as your eyes slid closed. Your heart beats once more and then stops.

The silence is deafening, and Rafayel watches as his mark lifts away from you and then fizzles out, flying off in an almost untraceable red trail.

****************************************************

I know this is massively overdue. I had wanted to post this week's ago. I do apologize for the very belated update. I worked to pack it full of the angsty pain you guys crave.

[messier-47]

My Unkept Man

As a birthday gift to both myself and you guys, I took on the challenge of writing a little bit of a brand new WIP that's been in my head for months.

Synopsis? Uchiha Izuna is dead, Konoha is/has been buit up and Madara is still in the deep throws of depression. Hashirama, who'd lost all of his brothers years ago decides to gift Madara with something to help take his mind off his grief, a cat. This story was gonna be one of those "Super depressed MC gets a pet and has to make a new resolve to get better for his cat."

Then my brain went, "What if this story was in the POV of the cat?"

When next I see the Silly Man I shall kill him.

Yes, that is what I’ll do, for he has locked me in here without a way to get out and it is too small a place for me. Let me out!

“Shuuu-shuuu-shuuush,” the Silly Man says out of his stupid mouth, “Please don’t be so loud, I’ll let you out soon.”

He is stupid. Has forgotten that he had stuffed me into this crate but I have not forgotten, so I shall remind him often. Let me out this insufferable box!

The Silly Man continues to gibber, but is easily distracted by something else - a doorway has opened!

“What is it, Hashirama?” ‘tis another Man.

“Madara!” exclaims the Silly Man, “I have a gift for you, my friend!”

“Gift?” is questioned, “For what?”

Ignored. “Do you remember when you told me that you wanted a cat?”

“I didn’t say that. I distinctly remember saying that I didn’t want a dog or cat.”

“But that Uchiha have cats.”

“Yeah, as summons. What have you done, Hashirama?”

“I got you a cat!” The box was opened and a great light blinded me! In the seconds of weakness, the Silly Man took ahold of my ribs and lifted my into the air! “Look! Ain’t he cute?”

Let go of me! I used my back paws to kick and claw at the Man paws around my chest but the Silly Man catches and clutches me closer to his chest and face. I have little room to move and be free, and I let him know my ire.

“He looks feral,” the Men say among themselves, too stupid to understand any sophisticated speech. “And is that…a domesticated house cat? Not even a neko nin!”

“And he’s yours,” said the Silly Man, “I thought he’d be good for you.”

I bat at the Silly Man’s face, my sharp claws extended; release me!

He dodges my powerful strikes but I catch some of his overlong fur within my grasp. Ugh! Now it’s stuck to me!

“Ah, yes,” gibbered the other Man, “He seems so nice.”

“He’s not always like this,” said the Silly Man. He’s talking about me. I always know when Man talks about me in my presence. Let me down! “He’s just upset that I put him in a crate for so long. Back in you go.”

No! Unhand me you fool!

“Ah!” the Silly Man cries out in defeat as I successfully escape his grasp. There is a long curtain by the window, I climb it to freedom! A tall shelf becomes my respite, Man may be bigger than I but not as tall as I now. They’ll never get me from here!

“Dang it!” says the Silly Man, “You never behave!”

“I don’t know, Hashirama,” says the other Man, twisting his arms over his chest, “Seems to me he’s got the right idea.”

“Oh, don’t be like that,” the Silly Man whimpered, “I think you’ll grow to like him if given the chance. And he could help you!”

“Help me?”

The two blathered whilst I sat well above their heads, out of reach and in a superior position for any counter attack. Should the Silly Man reach for me with his soft, fleshy paws and naked arms, I shall shred him to pieces.

“It’s been little over half a year, my friend,” said the Silly Man, voice having lost its vigor, “I worry about you.”

“Didn’t know you were keeping track,” said the other Man, “and it’s been eight months, if you even cared enough to know.”

“Madara!”

The Silly Man sometimes wasn’t so silly.

The Silly Man is strong. He was dangerous. Foolish, to be sure, especially when in comparison to my greatness, but the Silly Man wasn’t someone to forget he had his own set of sheathed claws.

“I care,” he said.

It was an ambush! Vines of great strength caught and tangled me up as a spider does prey. I protest this loudly, for I am no prey!

“It’s been eight months and you’re still grieving,” said the Stupid Man as he would not release me! The vines carried me down from my vantage point. “You haven’t been taking care of yourself and…I thought that having a pet might cheer your spirits up.”

I am brought into the arms of the Stupid Man. I intend to eat his liver.

“You brought a feral cat to cheer me up?” the other Man questioned.

“He’s not feral,” said the Stupid Man with an absent wave of his hand, “He’s been in the family for years now, King of the Senju Compound. He’s just…spicy!”

“And you think I’ll grow to like him?”

“You’re both surprisingly similar,” said the Silly Man before dumping my entrapped body into the hands of the other Man. “I thought you’d either get along like a house on fire or the house would definitely be on fire.”

I looked at the other Man and disapproved of him. He was just so…unkept! The fur on his head was too long to manage with a tongue, puffed up fluffy but his face was the typical Man face kept naked.

I bat at his face.

He does not dodge my sharp claws, his instincts dull and weak. My claws do not scratch him as I am too close for a proper graze, but my paw pushes him away by the fatness of his cheek.

He grumbles, “Does this thing have a name or can I call him Little Bastard or Shiro-Oni?”

“Don’t be mean,” the Silly Man scolds. I do not listen to him because I refuse. “His name is Tobirama.”

“Tobi-? What a pretentious first name!”

“Better than calling him ‘Little Bastard’. Come on, at least try. I know you’ll come to like him!”

The Unkept Man looks me in the eye and I look back.

He is so very ugly and I tell him so.

“Yeah?” says the Unkept man, “Well I don’t like you either.”

His blood shall wet my claws.

“Ah! You little-!”

“No Madara! Not the desk again!”

The indignity that one such as I must endure! With fang and claw, I shall reap all their suffering henceforth!

[leveloneandup]

The 36-year-old Press, a two-time World Cup champion who just signed a one-year contract to stay with the club, began her pro career in Boca Raton, Florida. She played for magicJack, a club that lasted one season in the now defunct Women’s Professional Soccer league: “A lot of toxic and unprofessional things went down there; it was a ‘wow’ moment for me.”

From there she moved to Sweden, and she had a wonderful experience playing in the country’s top division, where her team shared a “dark, dingy” locker room with a boys’ team.

And then she was in Chicago, playing for the nascent NWSL’s Red Stars, on a Benedictine University’s football field in the suburbs. “You might have a coach today, your coach might not show up tomorrow, you’re playing on a college football turf for your games,” Press said. “You don’t have staff, you don’t have a GM, you don’t have a collective bargaining agreement, you don’t have an HR department. …

“All of the things that we didn’t have became a daily grind for me to try to convince often-male leadership that we needed,” said Press, who was among the U.S. Women’s National Team members who won equal pay. “To be told that I was demanding and be told that I was the squeaky wheel. It’s not easy to be a woman advocate. …

“[But] it is our duty, our responsibility and it’s something that brings us great joy, to make the game better for the future. And it has been a great burden, one that all of the work that we’ve done is so that the next generation doesn’t have to do the same.”

The beat goes on: “It’s like, yes, you care about the crest,” Press said. “Yes, you care about the city and the team and a sport. But there’s a larger thing that everyone’s fighting for, and I really feel that there’s a synergy between soccer and basketball particularly in the last few years in this country. In the W, they’re getting the respect and the coverage that is getting closer to what they deserve, and that’s really, really powerful and important thing for women’s soccer, too.”

Angel City raises the bar with upgraded training facility

THOUSAND OAKS — This is awesome! It’s about time.

This is so great! But what’s next?

That’s where we’re at with this women’s sports boom.

There’s a steady drumbeat of groundbreaking achievements: Just in the past few days, soccer star Naomi Girma agreed to move to English side Chelsea for a world-record women’s transfer fee of $1.1 million. In the WNBA, Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever announced plans to improve on their previous team-dedicated digs with a new $78 million training facility.

And Tuesday in Thousand Oaks, the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Angel City Performance Center, the largest dedicated training facility in the National Women’s Soccer League.

And as the beat goes on, it’s just hammering home many things at once: Yay, progress! But, wow, have women athletes had it tough. And, dang, there’s still so much more work to do. But, yes, let’s goooo – and let’s keep it going.

It’s a lot to digest, so it’s small wonder that veteran standouts Ali Riley and Christen Press got emotional Tuesday talking about their new workplace. Or that their teammates did too this week the first time they toured their new performance center, a reimagined facility on the upper crest of California Lutheran’s campus, space the Rams occupied for eight years before their move to Woodland Hills last summer.

Matt Wade, Angel City’s assistant general manager, recounted how the big reveal elicited screams and tears when players saw their spacious new locker room, where lockers are twice the size as those they used before in temporary trailers down the hillside.

And then there’s the film room, with a projector screen and stadium seating – no more tall people in the back so everyone can see the TV.

And the massive weight room! What was fit for one professional football team is fit for another.

Sean McVay’s old office? Kids space now, where children can safely play while their moms are at work nearby.

Also: a 5,400-square-foot gym, a medical treatment and hydrotherapy area. And, where the Rams used to practice, a full soccer pitch and adjoining half field.

It’s a clever remodel, functional and stylish; from floor to ceiling it’s in keeping with the club’s distinctive asphalt-and-sol rosa color scheme. A spokesman for the team didn’t want to reveal a price tag, but the L.A. Times’ report that it was in the multimillions seems right.

And it all means so, so much to players like Riley and Press, native Angelenos who have experienced about everything in their soccer lives.

The 36-year-old Press, a two-time World Cup champion who just signed a one-year contract to stay with the club, began her pro career in Boca Raton, Florida. She played for magicJack, a club that lasted one season in the now defunct Women’s Professional Soccer league: “A lot of toxic and unprofessional things went down there; it was a ‘wow’ moment for me.”

From there she moved to Sweden, and she had a wonderful experience playing in the country’s top division, where her team shared a “dark, dingy” locker room with a boys’ team.

And then she was in Chicago, playing for the nascent NWSL’s Red Stars, on a Benedictine University’s football field in the suburbs. “You might have a coach today, your coach might not show up tomorrow, you’re playing on a college football turf for your games,” Press said. “You don’t have staff, you don’t have a GM, you don’t have a collective bargaining agreement, you don’t have an HR department. …

“All of the things that we didn’t have became a daily grind for me to try to convince often-male leadership that we needed,” said Press, who was among the U.S. Women’s National Team members who won equal pay. “To be told that I was demanding and be told that I was the squeaky wheel. It’s not easy to be a woman advocate. …

“[But] it is our duty, our responsibility and it’s something that brings us great joy, to make the game better for the future. And it has been a great burden, one that all of the work that we’ve done is so that the next generation doesn’t have to do the same.”

The facility upgrade should help a club recruit and retain talent – and a permanent head coach, said new sporting director Mark Parsons, who insisted he won’t rush his search for the right replacement for Becki Tweed, who was ousted after Angel City went a disappointing 7-13-6 last season.

“It’s going to be very hard,” he said, “for people to not want to be in this environment.”

What’s an advantage should be the standard, said Willow Bay, who last July became a controlling owner of the club with her husband, Disney CEO Bob Iger.

“It sets the bar,” said Bay, the dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. “But it really should be the norm.”

Around the NWSL and the WNBA (ahem, @LASparks).

The beat goes on: “It’s like, yes, you care about the crest,” Press said. “Yes, you care about the city and the team and a sport. But there’s a larger thing that everyone’s fighting for, and I really feel that there’s a synergy between soccer and basketball particularly in the last few years in this country. In the W, they’re getting the respect and the coverage that is getting closer to what they deserve, and that’s really, really powerful and important thing for women’s soccer, too.”

[lfghughes]

Could you write something with Kirby Dach where the reader is kind of intimidated by him? Like he’s so tall and I just feel like him backing a girl up against a wall in a consensual and flirty/sexual tension filled way would be so attractive

a/n: kinda finally getting over the flu and this was the first time all week that i was able to form an actual fic

The cat and mouse game was fun in a way and for the past few months that was the game you and Kirby had been playing. You two had first met through your best friend Cole who happened to play on the same hockey team as Kirby. Since that first night you had met the flirting had only grown but neither of you ever broke that line that you were both so carefully tiptoeing on.

“So is Kirby coming to this party tonight?” You asked Cole as you helped him grab some of the drinks he had bought for the night. He looked over at you, raising an eyebrow. “Well most of the guys are and some of my other friends..” Cole took a deep pause as he eyed you carefully. “Why do you care about Kirby specifically?” He asked and then his jaw fell slightly “Wait please tell me you two…no.” immediately you shook your head at him.

“No! We haven’t anything. Just..Pals.” You shrugged and a look of horror grew on Coles face. “I’ll have a chat with him later.” That was even more horrifying of a thought. Even though you both flirted with each other and it was obvious there was an attraction there the last thing you wanted was for Cole to go talk to him about that.

You spent the remainder of setting up trying to convince your best friend otherwise but you had a feeling that he wasn’t going to listen to you. The party itself was fun, there were a few boys you recognized that had been friends with Cole for years and you also recognized a good chunk of his teammates. But your eyes searched for the one person you were looking for, disappointment filling your features when you didn’t see him.

“Looking for me?” A voice came from behind you, low enough to your ear and sending chills down your spine because you knew who it belonged to. You turned around a small smirk on your lips as you tilted your head up at Kirby. “Now why would I look for you? I heard that Coles cute friend from New Jersey is here, maybe I’m looking for him.” You shrugged and you saw an amused look grow on Kirbys face.

You don’t know at what point you both had walked into the corner of the room but you realized there was nowhere for you to go because you were backed up into a wall. Not that you were really complaining right now. Kirbys hand found your hip and if he wasn’t so dang tall you could have easily kissed him with how close he was. “Why are you still playing this game?” He asked and you chewed on your lower lip.

“What game?” You asked, knowing exactly what he was referring to but you wanted him to just say it. “This whole acting like you don’t want me to kiss you right now.” He leaned down just slightly, his lips definitely getting closer to the point where you could kiss him. “Because I know even if you don’t say it that you want to kiss me and not Jersey, wherever he is.” Couldn’t exactly argue with his point there.

“If you’re so sure of it then just kiss me.” You told him and with those words his head leaned down and when his lips were just mere inches from yours you heard a shout from across the room that was directed right at Kirby. “Dach! We need to talk.” You groaned at the sound of Cole’s voice and in his insistence of ruining your night. Kirby pulled away but a small smirk remained on his lips. “This isn’t done. I’m kissing you before the night ends.” And with those words he left, going over to Cole who looked like he was ready to have some serious words with his teammate.

[pianokantzart]

Rewatched the Mario Movie again. The beginning where the bros are in Brooklyn is so intriguing to me...like...why tf are they so short??

Since Luigi is the taller of the two, I compared his heights to others the most, like- are the tables in america usually at your elbows? Are the sinks that tall? Luigi passed a waitress whilst he was walking to Spike, she taller than him.

Not to mention Mario- the man jumped through a car window....how?? Spike lifted him up as if he was nothing. Either he's tall af or the bros are just short af.

I love it. Short Kings

Thank you for this! There are so many fan depictions of Luigi where he's tall and thin, but in actuality (or at least in the movie canon) he's pretty short and tubby? he's just not as short and tubby as his brother.

But gosh dang is the world big compared to those two.

Look at this: the kitchen sink goes up to their shoulders!

With Spike, it's definitely a situation of "unusually big man positioned next to an unusually small man," making for a borderline-comical size difference.

No wonder Luigi is so anxious, Spike is beefed out and freaking huge, even next to the average average New Yorker. Meanwhile the bros are dwarfed by their own vehicle. Mario is sitting up straight in this picture, and even then his head barely peeks above the steering wheel:

Bathroom sinks normally do NOT go up to your chest, not even in America. I'm 5'5 and my bathroom sink only goes to my hips. How small are these guys???

And let us never forget that Mario needs a footstool to just sit comfortably on the edge of his bed.

Short kings. Tiny, tiny little fellows. I love it.

[moss-and-mirth]

Updated Tumblr Bio for 2025

Hi all!

I am an extra tall hobbit and an average sized Canadian. I also make a spectacular goblin. Shires, grass, pipeweed, tea, rocks, moss and shiny things. Do you want tea? I probably just made tea.

To answer the most frequently asked question on this site - I've been into this kink for my entire life, basically. Started going to events at 21 and I'm 36 now. Do some math. I hate math. But I'm pretty active in the tickle community.

I'm into people of all genders, but I go 100% gay every second Wednesday.

Lately I've started to feel a bit old for Tumblr, but then I remember that I've been on here for 10+ years and I WAS HERE FIRST. 😝 That said, I'm really not too keen on interacting with people who have a significant age gap from me.

I do run a private tickling related discord server or two. You can DM me if you're interested in those. 👀

Beyond all these words, I am a lee leaning switch. As in, mostly a lee, but sometimes fond of switching for revenge. This kink is honestly the best there is and arguably the most fun.

I sometimes shoot lil contents for fun with my friends. You can find a post or two on here. Open to making new connections but friendship is always the baseline. Please don't just DM me to "talk tickling" or whatever the f that means. I don't RP but envy people who are good at it. To me, posting content and answering DMs are two different moods. My communication style is asynchronous. I'm a Millennial god dang it.

This blog is incredibly NSFW so obviously minors DNI and all that. I will block accounts that are ageless, minors and sometimes even anyone with 'teen' in their age. Because I can.

[onskepa]

Hiii! Would you like to make the sully family and tonowary family react to the first season of the tv show vikings? I think they would be intrigued by the human culture and life back then.

Hellooooooooooo~!! As a fellow Viking fan, I am so happy this was requested! Enjoy!

P.S: the winner of the polls of which style the theme is!

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

If I had a heart

“If I had a heart, I could love you

If I had a voice, I would sing

After the night when I wake up

I'll see what tomorrow brings…” 

Slukx was singing as she made a bracelet with a braid-like style. Enjoying the beautiful weather. Which was cloudy, gray skies and a high chance of rain. The perfect weather in her eyes. Singing the theme song of her beloved show. 

“Dangling feet from window frame

Will they ever ever reach the floor?” 

The thump of her heart beat being the beat to the song. Her voice is soothing and calm. Very beautiful to hear. 

“You sing pretty”

“AH! Dang it, you scared me!” 

“What was that song you were singing?” kiri asks. Hearing the lyrics made her curious about its meaning. Nothing like the human music she heard before. 

“Just a song from a show” slukx said casually. The girls were collecting some herbs that the tsahik needed. 

“Can you teach me…?” kiri asks a bit shyly. Slukx happily nodded. 

“Sure, there is actually two version, the english version and the norse version” 

Kiri’s ears twitch in interest. 

“Really? I want to learn both of them” 

“Þetta mun aldri enda því at ek vil meirr

Meirr, gef mér meirr, gef mér meirr

Þetta mun aldri enda því at ek vil meirr

Meirr, gef mér meirr, gef mér meirr” 

Mo’at and neytiri were looking at kiri very curiously as she began to sing in a language they had never heard of. It sounded oddly soothing, like the soft echoes in a cave. Or raining hitting the ground. Hauntingly beautiful. 

“Ma’ite, what is it you are singing?” Neytiri asks. Kiri stops and looks over at her mother and grandmother. 

“Oh, its a song slukx taught me. She was singing it herself when I heard it. It was so beautiful I asked her to teach me, "Kiri replies honestly. Kiri liked the sound of the other language. Somehow managed to pick it up better than her siblings. 

“I never heard those words before, is it even english?” mo’at asks. 

Kiri shakes her head, “no, it is another human language. Norse language, slukx taught me” 

Mo’at and neytiri look at each other before looking back at kiri, “can you take us to her?”

“Vikings” slukx said simply. 

“They were real people, their history is still shrouded in mystery but historians did their best to connect the dots in how they lived and their culture. Norse was their main language spoken, while only a few areas still speak it, the norse language is slowly dying. I'm sorry if you felt uncomfortable with me teaching Kiri the language.” 

Mo’at, neytiri, jake and their fellow metkayina brothers and sisters all heard slukx’s explanation. 

“The song, is the song part of the culture?” ronal asks. 

Kiri and her siblings looked slightly embarrassed, slukx having to explain herself as to not get them in trouble. 

“Not exactly, it is a song from a show called ‘Vikings’. Loosely based around the historical figures and the era it took place in. But the song does reflect the people and their ideals” slukx explained further. 

Mentioning the word ‘show’ was enough to peak everyone’s interest. 

“This show…….can we watch it?” tonowari asks. 

Slukx was ready to answer yes until she saw tuk. And so many intimate scenes appeared in her mind. 

“Ummmmm….sure, let me just……review it first” she hesitantly replied.

The scene opens to that of bloodshed and violence. One man stood tall as he was surrounded by his fellow brethren and fallen enemies. Crows surrounded the dark scene, all eyes on anything worth feasting. Death heavy as those who still fight, fight to their last breath. 

The man looked around, not uttering a word, his piercing blue eyes out shining the blood smearing on his face and body. He looks at another man, fighting the remaining enemy, slicing away until the opponent had fallen. 

“Oh boy…” tsireya mutters, slightly cringing and a bit disturbed at the very first scene of a new show. Blood isn't something she is afraid of, is it the cause of bleeding that scares her. 

“Even in the long past they fought?” Rotxo quietly asks slukx, she nods as she shares her popcorn with him. 

“Yes, however, this fight isn't about survival, it was about conquering” she replies smoothly. 

Everyone’s eyes glued at the screen as the opening began to start 

“If I had a heart,  I could love you…”

“Ragnar lothbrok…such an odd name” ronal mutters. 

“It almost sounds like Ragnarok,” slukx replies. All na’vi heads turned. 

“What is ragnarok?” tonowari asks. 

“You will know later” the girl says, gesturing everyone to focus on the screen to which they did. 

Ragnar was leaving his small farming village with his son Bjorn, as his wife Lagartha stayed behind with their oldest daughter, Gyda. Showing he is a family man who cares for his own. They make their journey to the main city, which looks more of a village. Many people wore interesting clothing, far different than the humans that wore today. 

And a lot of facial hair from men. 

By instinct, neytiri touched jake’s chin, enjoying his smooth skin under her finger tips. 

“No hair, perfect” neytiri says, jake grins at her, “would I look good with a beard?” he asks. 

Neytiri’s eyes widened slightly as she imagined her darling man with a big beard, worse if braided. Shaking her head, she kissed his jawline, “no, perfect as you are”. Jake chuckles and holds her even closer, enjoying it. 

The show goes on, showing Bjorn and Ragnar meeting Ragnar's older brother, rollo. Taller and having a much more relaxed personality. The three eat in what looks like a tavern. After some time bjorn was gone to do something else leaving the brothers to have a serious talk. 

“I believe there is a way, to go west” ragnar begins to say. A smile growing on his lips. 

“I have something that will change everything” 

Wrapped in cloth, ragnar reveals a wooden item. 

It was round with a pointed tip at the top, and a base at the bottom to balance it. Inside was rings. 

“It is a sun board,” he begins to explain. 

Rollo scoffs, already not believing in his younger brother. 

So, they get a bucket full of water, ragnar places the sun board on the surface while holding a candle. He explains how it works. By using the light from the candle, the pointed top’s shadow moves. 

Rollo follows but then pinches out the fire, “what if there is no sun?” he asks. 

Ragnar came prepared as he shows rollo a sun stone, holding it up on a cloudy day, with the stone you will find the sun. 

Rollo felt encouraged and inspired. His belief now is on his brother. A new land, and perhaps new treasures. 

“Why would this ‘west’ land be a myth? Surely they must know of other humans near them” ronal wonders. 

“In the old world, humans, wherever they are, believed they were alone in the world. Communication was nearly not common. Contacting other lands, especially across the seas. So many took risks in search and finding other lands with other people, "Slukx explains. 

“That is one of the main concepts of vikings before they expanded. To explore what more was out there. The need to find new places and what it could offer. Humans get bored” she went on. 

Neytiri rolled her eyes. “Boredom never leaves you humans” she says. 

“I'm afraid not, but what fun would there be if we just stayed put?” slukx speaks. She does have a point in neytiri’s mind. She leans closer to jake, her mate being on for just adventures back in their younger years. 

“Why don't you come in? I'm waiting” a voice said. 

Ragnar and bjorn enter a place where there are bones and other materials hanging, making rattling noises as they pass. A man wearing a black cloak was sitting, his lips black, his nails sharp, and his eyes, more so, lack thereof, are sewn shut. 

“Who is that?” mo’at asks, trying her best to hide her horror and disgust. 

“That is their shaman, a seer who holds a unique connection to their gods” slukx explains. 

“Their roles were very similar to the role of a tsahik” 

Ronal agrees and shakes her head as she stares at the seer. 

“We could never harm our own bodies like that, dont you compare slukx” mo’at hisses. 

Slukx raises her hands, “forgive me mo’at, ronal, but its the best I can explain. True you and other tsahik don't go to that extent but it was done to strengthen their connection. That their vision should be only the things their gods grants them” 

Mo’at understands but it still didnt settle her inner disgust. To know what humans will do to their own bodies even before technology was a thing, truly a horrifying thought. 

Ronal however lets her displeasure show. But she looks at her hands, yes her people do ink their skin but never taking away anything such as sight. To not see her world is a terrifying thought. 

As the seer explains what he sees, by the end, ragnar grabs the hand of the seer and licks the palm of it. 

“Eeeeeeewwwwwwwww” all the kids said in grossed out unison. 

“Floki, this is my son bjorn” ragnar introduces his son to his good friend, floki. 

“He is a silly man” tuk giggles, already liking this wacky man. 

“Looks like the type that would eat weed or shrooms” Jake comments. Slukx chuckles at that. 

“He does, doesn't he?” 

Floki goes on what tree would make good use for what, as ragnar states floki is  a boat maker. Clearly floki takes great pride in it. To demonstrate, floki observes the trees around him, letting the surroundings take in. And goes to one of the trees. Feeling its texture and smiling. 

“This one” he says. 

“Inside of this one are two almost perfect planks. They will curve like a woman's thighs to the back. When I split this tree, I will find them” and begin to cut. 

“Is women the other thing he is good at?” tonowari asks, not all too impressed with floki. No answer was given as it was clear as day.

“Hello bjorn, where are your parents?” rollo arrives at the family farm where the boy was carving a stick. 

“They are having se-some time together” bjorn answers, rather a bit odd. 

Jake notices it and looks over at slukx, who was already looking at him. 

“I had to make some edits to cover those ‘steamy’ moments” she answers. 

He nods and continues to watch the show.

The episodes go on, as Ragnar and his new crew journey out to the west. Almost losing hope when they finally reached a sandy beach and not so far up on a small hill was a small building. With axes, swords and shields they march towards up the building. 

At the same time, young monk Athlestan and his holy brothers and fathers all begin to shield themselves and pray for a god that neither the vikings nor the na’vi can understand. 

“Why do they not fight back?” tonowari wonders. He sees these half bald men all gather at a building called a ‘church’ and merely chant. 

“No arrows? No metal things?” neytiri also wonders. 

The vikings are prepared to kill yet these monks cower in fear. 

“They do not believe in violence, they do not crave bloodshed and merely desire peace” slukx tells. 

Neteyam turns to her, “do other humans also share those beliefs?” he asks. Slukx slight frowns. “Very few net, very few”

Tsireya took tuk with her as she could no longer witness the amount of bloodshed that was shown on screen. It wasnt something a child should witness. Kiri left as well not long after tsireya. Neteyam, lo’ak and ao’nung stayed to watch more. However lo’ak noticed that ao’nung had his eyes wide and looked very scared. 

“Dude, its a show. All of that is fake” lo’ak tries to comfort his frenemy. 

“The show lo’ak, is fake. But this is a reenactment of what happened thousands of years ago in human history. Like your songs and stories, this is how we tell our history” slukx mentions. 

Ao’nung turns to her, slightly scared, “y-you mean….?” 

“Humans are just as violent as they were back then. So, yes, this is in a way, real” 

Humans truly are scary. 

“Yeah I'm done” ao’nung walks away, having enough of the show. 

Further into the show, Athelstan sees his brothers hung like they were animals to skin. From a monk now turned slave, every pities him as he was now lesser than he was. Ragnorok gives him the option to be free if he so wishes, but everyone knows he wouldn't last long on his own. In a world that he knows so little of. 

Neytiri pities athelstan. To be forcefully taken from what you have known and into a place where they see you as a bug. To parade around like a thing, all while seeing your brethren dying right before your eyes. 

“Even amongst their own do they treat each other so terribly?” ronal asks. 

“For humans, not everyone sees each other the same. Some see themselves superior and feel that they hold the power to decide what others should and should not do” jake answers. 

Humans are really confusing and so complicated. 

“Is he going to fight their olo’eyktan? While still being injured?” neteyam reacts in shock as ragnar challenges the earl. 

“Well he isnt an olo’eyktan, he is an Earl” jake says without looking away at the screen. Tension clearly rising, wanting to see what happens next. 

“What is an earl?” neytiri wonders. She has heard of chief, commander, colonel, olo’eyktan, sergeant, but earl is new. 

Slukx, being a nerdy goof, let her mouth go on autopilot. 

“An earl is a a man born of nobility. He is above viscount but below a marquess, also way below a king” 

Everyone just looked at her in utter confusion. So she shortens it, “its someone who watches over his people”. 

And then everyone nodded in understanding. 

Next time they should watch royal family documentaries. Though, maybe or maybe not the na’vi would laugh at how stupidly complicated ranks are.

“Come on…come on….” jake mutters, obviously on ragnar's side as they all watch him begin his fight with Earl haraldson. Everyone leans forwards, not one blinking. Their tails swaying in anticipation. Swords swinging and clashing, grunts and groans. Blood is already leaking from their skins. 

They watch how ragnar started as a simple farmer, a man with big dreams to do more with his life. To enter a new world full of wonders and new possibilities. His dream and determination, his ambition for bigger things. Too big for the earls' liking. 

Tonowari, as leader, can tell that this earl haraldson felt envy and threatened by rangar. Many were switching sides and begin to follow the farmer. To follow someone that isnt the leader, that poses a threat. But tonowari knows, the threat isnt of losing to someone more worthy or anything, the threat is of losing power and control over the people. Something a leader should never do. 

“Perhaps its time he falls…” he mutters, seeing haraldson become weak in the fight. 

“And let a new one rise…” ronal finished for him. 

“But will the change be a good one?” lo’ak wonders. 

They all watched and cheered as the fight was done. Ragnar won, and all who surrounded them kneel to him as the new earl. Many were ready to swear their loyalty to him, as they knew he would make things better.

“So he is the leader now?” mo’at asks all of a sudden. 

Everyone was quick to turn around and see her getting comfy with a big bowl of fried teylu and popcorn. 

“When did you leave??” Ronal asks in a rather startled tone, not once did anyone hear mo’at get up or say she was coming back. 

“2 hours ago” mo’at answers simply as she offers the snacks to her family. Everyone just stares, slightly confused. She isn't one to just leave like that. Mo’at sees this and looks back at them, “what? Everyone seemed very interested so I did not say I was gone”. 

Mo’at knows she missed a good chunk of the show but doesn't mind. 

They all resume watching.

While it is not known how much time passes in the show, by hints the characters drop, some can guess a few months since Ragnar became the new earl. Athlestan has grown his hair and is wearing better clothes. The children have slightly gotten older. 

Neteyam doesn't know why but he likes the young boy, Bjorn. First born and takes care of his sister despite his age. He can somewhat relate, making sure his parents are on the same page of whatever they discuss while he grows. 

Lagertha welcomes her new position and aids those in need, especially the women. Neytir and ronal likes her, and seem themselves in Ragatha. 

Jake however, for some reason does not favor any characters. He sometimes questions their motives. One thing he is definitely sure of, his major dislike for Rollo. A man who has a hungry lust and is never satisfied with what he is given. 

“Now comes the big parts” slukx predicts, not really a prediction since she saw the show before. 

“Bye” lo’ak leaves along with neteyam. The time for sacrifices has come. And that part was both intriguing as it was terrifying. The temple, those who watch over the godly statues, the prayers and traditions. To begin learning of the olds gods, Thor, Odin, Freya, Loki. All of them. And how all demand something different. What lengths humans were willing to do for them. 

Something the na’vi can understand to a certain degree. 

But this was too much. Yes, risking their lives and willing to die is not anything new, but by the hands of your own? Such an inconceivable idea. 

“Their gods demand blood all the time?” tonowari asks, horror written in his eyes. Those poor animals. And those humans as well. Saying their goodbyes and never seeing them again. 

“Not always, only on certain occasions, like this one. They sacrifice for the future of fertility, health, prosperity, and good luck” slukx informs. 

“And do they answer?” mo’at asks. 

Slukx slightly shrugs, “if they are pleased with the sacrifices” 

“And….if they are not…?” ronal wonders. 

“Then the people better hope they can survive the next day” 

Reaching the last episode, Ragnar enters the home of Jarl borg, as emissary on behalf of king Horik. While Lagertha pleads to the seer, what is to come of her husband. While the seer has been shown plenty of times, his overall appearance is something mo’at nor ronal can get used to. 

And the ones to interprets eywa’s will and search for anything of signs, they dont mutilate their bodies to seek answers. 

If the seer was the one to damage his eyes. 

The two cant help but enjoy him wherever he is shown. Oddly satisfying, something they won't admit. 

As the episode goes on, there was one odd edit that was shown, aslaug appear and claimed ragnar's friends saw her bare, but did not show it. 

“Yeah I had to edit that part as well…” slukx rubs the back of her neck. It was tiring really, trying to make sure all intimate or risky parts were out so it can be safely watched by the kids. 

But neytiri, seeing that smirk from Ragnar, as he admires Aslaug's beauty. 

“He better not…” she slightly growls. 

“Better not what?” jake asks. 

“He better not betray lagertha. He mated her for life, did he not? Does he not love her?” 

Jake gently swings side to side with his love in his arms. “Easy baby, its merely a look. Its not that deep. Nothing wrong with admiring a woman's beauty” he tells. But neytiri quickly turned her neck to face him. 

“Do you admire another woman's beauty? When I am not around?” She challenges him. 

“No, you are the only beauty I see” Jake quickly answers. 

“That's what I thought” 

Slukx and mo’at sees this, “sheesh you two” 

A plague was growing in the village. Many people were being infected and spreading fast. Rough coughs, heavy sweating, dizzy vision, skin around the eyes darkening. Strength was depleting. Medicine from what was shown, is hardly doing anything. 

“And the seer? Can he do anything?” Tonowari looks as the people get weak, the mention of young children dying. 

“Shamans only see the vision of the gods, he is no healer” slukx answers. 

Many were dying, bodies already being burnt to prevent the plague from spreading. Mothers cry as they find their families dead. 

It was a horror to see. 

“Odin…. I give you this offering, hoping you find it pleasing” lagertha prays as she slices the neck of the poor lamb. 

However, it was for naught. 

“Oh no….” neytiri mutters, her voice shaky. 

Gyda was dead. Poor girl was innocent, out of everyone she has done no wrong. Yet their god has taken them. Before her was Thyri, another innocent child. Wed to an old man, whom she did not love. Dead, now that she may join her father and brothers into the afterlife. 

“The village dies but ragnar enjoys the pleasure of another woman” ronal rightful criticizes. 

“I am with your child” aslaug tells ragnar. 

“Oh shit…” jake says so bluntly. Neytiri pinches his ear. 

Perhaps admiring the beauty of another woman was not a good thing after all. 

As the last minutes of the final episode was in countdown, all was rising to what could happen next. 

“So what do you say Rollo? Are you with me?” Borg asks Rollo as they meet in secret. Is he going to betray his own brother” 

“Yes, I will fight with you against my brother” was the answer. 

“Why, why do families have to fight against each other?” neytiri asks, annoyed. Family is precious among the na’vi. Family is everything. 

“Blood doesn't mean anything to humans” jake tells her. He should know, while he loved his family, kin doesn't always stick together. 

From lagertha having to grieve of her miscarriage, then her daughter, and the loss of the people to the sickness. Bjorn sees his father be distracted by some lady and betray his mother. And Rollo gives into his selfishness. All too much is happening. A possible war is going to break out. And even more, a child on the way. It ends the episode with many possibilities. Credit roll and the show comes to an end.

“But why so many gods?” neytiri asks. Curious as she is, its a bit odd to remember many names. 

“And why haven't we heard of them?” she asks another question. Grace has taught her and others of what earth was like and what humans believed in. This was something no one has heard of. 

Slukx shoves some corn into her mouth, “because they died”. 

All na’vi turns to her, “died?” mo’at repeated. 

“As all the other gods” 

They begin to clean up their little setting as the show ends. Still, many questions linger. 

“So this odin, thor, all of them are gods. But many were seen worshiping this ‘jesus’ and their ‘lord’. How did they coexist?” tonowari asks. 

Slukx takes a moment to think about it, “huh, well to be honest, that is something many even today wonder. There were so many gods on Earth. Some fought, some got along, but all of them entirely? Not sure” 

“All other gods…” mo’at repeats. They only have Eywa, and Eywa is all they ever knew. 

“How many gods were there?” she asks. 

Jake this time answers, “too many” 

“And they are dead as you say?” 

Slukx nods, a hint of sadness in her eyes, “yes” 

They all stopped momentarily, more question they are eager to ask, but one they now want to know. 

“How did they die…?” mo’at asks. She just can't help herself. 

Jake now wonders too, he wasn't much of a religious man but then again, religion was already fading as he was growing up. 

Slukx turns around to look at everyone, her smile slightly bitter but not towards them. 

“How else? The humans killed them by abandoning them”

okie ngl, this took me a loooooooooooooooong time to finish, between watching the episodes, and life getting in the way. FINALLY!! its done! Yes there was a huge chunk that I skipped but then it be way longer than needed.

Either way!

So I hope you all like it! Tell me watchu think! until next time! see ya!

[dragonologist-writings]

Title: Between Light and Shadow Fandom: Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Rating: T Status: Complete (7/7) Main Characters: Knight-Commander Maebrys Tallflower, Greybor Ships: Maebrys/Greybor Additional Notes: Friends with Benefits, Opposites Attract, Aromantic Character Word Count: 8.4k Summary: She has her light, and he has his shadows, and rarely do their two perspectives align. But there’s safety to be found in the space between.

read first chapter below or here on ao3

It’s in spite of herself that Maebrys actually kind of likes Greybor.

‘Cause she’s got plenty reason not to. The man’s an assassin, for starters. No loyalty or faith in the Crusades to be found with that one, just contracts and coin. If the demons paid more, he’d just as likely be on their side right now. She can’t deny that fact sticks in her head like a burr she can’t pick out.

But- he’s not on the demon’s side. Fate has placed him on hers. And Maebrys has seen him throw himself at a monstrous creature with nothing but a dagger and a misplaced trust in the type of person who’d hire an assassin in the first place. She can’t help but admire the guts it takes to pull off something like that.

There’s also something about the way he accepts- expects, even!- that she’s got guts, too. When Maebrys first got to the city, half her time around “real” Crusaders was spent convincing them that a backwater halfling could stick her sword in a demon just as well as any knight-trained tall folk. It feels downright odd now, having those same Crusaders under her command, and sometimes she can’t help but wonder what they think of Iomedae’s decision to bless her with these powers.

But Greybor? Greybor doesn’t even blink before inviting her to ambush a whole dang dragon. And maybe that shouldn’t exhilarate her as much as it does, but there’s a thrill when they bring the beast down- and another when she shoots Greybor a smile and he responds with his own grin of satisfaction.

‘Cause he’s handsome, too, in a gruff, weathered sort of way. That also doesn’t hurt.

All together, Maebrys figures it’s no surprise when she asks him to stick around. She makes it official and everything: the contract, the bonus, the whole deal. His eyebrows raise at the payment Maebrys proposes, and he takes a moment to study her, as if expecting some trick.

“You don’t waste time haggling,” he finally says after a long puff off his pipe. “I appreciate that. It’s rare these days to find a client who knows high quality work when they see it. I’d be glad to take you on.”

“Not much point in haggling when the price is worth it,” Maebrys says, and ignores Woljif’s skeptical scoff from behind. “I’m looking forward to seeing what you can do.”

And maybe it’s impulsive of her, but what’s done is done, and Greybor comes back to Drezen with the rest of the party. Seelah doesn’t like it, but she doesn’t argue much- just gives Maebrys a warning look whenever she catches the halfling watching Greybor for a little too long.

Maebrys appreciates the concern- well, kind of- but Seelah has nothing to worry about. Greybor’s a professional, if nothing else, and Maebrys is his client. What’s more, Maebrys is the newly illustrious Knight-Commander, and Greybor is the practitioner of a rather dark trade.

So it doesn’t really matter that they have a pretty decent time whenever she joins him in the tavern for an the evening of drinking and swapping stories of past battles. It doesn’t matter that she likes the sound of his low voice and the way he looks in the tavern’s flickering firelight. It certainly doesn’t matter that more than once, she catches him looking back.

Maebrys knows a bad idea when she sees one, and she’s too responsible to chase it down.

…But that doesn’t mean she can’t enjoy view.

[cherrysurf]

AM LOVE LETTERS NOW PLAYING.. ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ DO I WANNA KNOW?

It was Friday night and you haven’t been out since before finals. Thank goodness for redbulls and doordash that came to save you during those horrible weeks. Your friends had invited you to a bar as a celebratory party for making it through finals “pass or fail” they said, they also said it was just supposed to be a chill night between the girls. So how did you end up having an eye staring contest with a cute stranger was unknown, he was tall gray hair gave big rockstar vibes but clearly wasn’t since you never heard of him and you’d be sure of if you did, “dang yn who’s been occupying that mind of yours right now” one of your friends said poking your head “it’s probably that guy that’s practically been eye fucking her this whole night” your other friend said snorting out of laughter which causes you to snap out of your mind “so what he’s cute guys” you say shrugging and laughing—

You end up leaving your friends to head to the bar from another drink which was your second of the night since you didn’t drink a lot, two drinks maxs always. As soon as you were about to close your tab for the night you get stopped by a long arm stretching out in front of you with a black card. “don’t worry doll i got it, a pretty girl should never pay for drinks” you hear a voice say behind you you turn around to find the man that you were looking at earlier or more specifically the one that couldn’t keep his eyes off you this whole time you’ve been there you laugh “you don’t have too it’s fine i can pay for it myself.” you say with a smile trying to be polite “i’m sure you can but it’s just the point i don’t like women i like to pay for things.” he says smirking as the bartender finished handing his card back to him “wow like already and you don’t even know my name?” you say questioning him “thanks for paying for my drinks though” you continue “nah don’t worry, what is your name though if you don’t mind me asking.” he says taking a seat by the bar and you follow him “yn, you” you say looking at him “semi, nice to meet you” he says smiling “nice to meet you too semi.” you say savoring his name like the drink in your hand, the rest of the few 15 minutes was filled with small conversations and laughs about the night you’ve both been having, and how your friends teased you about the whole “eye staring contest” before. “i’m sorry for that i just get nervous when approaching someone like yourself” he says with a hint of nervousness in his voice “huh kinda hard to believe you seem very confident”you said looking at him up and down “it’s true” he says laughing “i just fake it till i make it ya know” he adds on “i get that”you say, agreeing to swirling your drink with the straw. Just as you were about to say something you get a buzz from your phone “hey girl we’re leaving ya ready to go” from one of your friends you look up from your phone to face him “mmh i gotta go my girlfriends are leaving, it was nice meeting you semi, thank you for the drinks i appreciate it.” you say smiling “wait can i get your number before you leave?” he says standing up facing you with his phone out “yeah sure” you say smiling at him he hands you his phone and you put your number in and waving him goodbye as he watches you leave the bar.

taglist; @sahrii @twiishaa

[aclowntiny]

Puppy Love- Yunho x Female!Barista!Reader

I haven't forgotten about all my coffee shop stories 😁😁😁 Yunho in his ‘you like jazz?’ era

Word Count: 3536 | Coffee Shop, Fluff | Warnings: too dang fluffy 😝

Yunho’s dream had finally come true. A dog café had opened up within walking distance of work. What a time to be alive! What a lucky walk of the streets on his break, unsure how to spend his rare free time once he had it. Using it for an activity seemed simultaneously gratifying and overwhelming. Time to burn some energy off with some very good boys and girls instead! Some caffeine might also reverse-jitter him back into productivity…or at least into the right headspace to squeeze in an episode of that show he needed to finish.

Beneath an awning of striped lime green and white awaited the door to Leash Love Latte, the lovely windowed building decorated with paint-on art of joyous pups of all breeds, two of which held mugs and one of which was about to devour a bone-topped cupcake. Yunho couldn't help but smile as his eyes scanned the glass, jumping a bit at the noise when he opened the door, but the startlement easily fell into a laugh as he opened the security door once the front one was closed and was met with a barrage of dogs.

"Oh, hi," he giggled as one little papillon practically climbed up his leg, bending down to scoop her up into his arms. Flipping her collar tag, he saw it read 눈. A name meaning Snow made sense- she was a ball of pure white fluff after all.

Carrying her up to the counter, Yunho was met with the sight of an extremely nimble barista practically skating across the café floor to slide a pastry onto the counter and call out its owner’s name, then turn on her heels to catch a drink from the older man who held it out to her and repeat the process. Once that was done, she twirled around to face the counter.

“Sorry about that, just had an order to finish up,” she paused, taking a couple breaths and getting her hair back into place, smile never leaving her face, “oh, Nunie, are you making friends?” Her gaze had dropped to the sweet pup in Yunho’s arms, the nickname and her evident familiarity with the café dogs warming his heart.

“Yep," he agreed with a chuckle, holding her up a bit higher with fatherly pride despite their very recent meeting, "I think she'd have made a ladder of me if she could."

"Well, you are pretty tall," the girl joked.

"I guess that's true! So, what do you recommend here?"

She grinned. "Dog or drink?"

"Drink," Yunho responded, "I don't think I'll get away with any cheating today."

"How does a peanut butter mocha sound?"

"Great," he replied, "I've never had one before!"

Plucking a solid pink, paw-print-dotted mug from some unseen counter alcove, the barista grinned. "It's sort of my specialty."

"She's always trying to hock those!" The older man called out from deeper in the kitchen, offering a devilish grin.

"Hey! At least I have a specialty!" She called back, smiling when he shouted that she was a better barista than him and sliding the mug down the slick metal counter surface before turning back to Yunho. "Sorry, that's my uncle. He's a bit of a jokester. Your name?”

"Yunho. And that's ok. I can see how well you guys get along. So this is a family business, then?"

"Yep," she nodded, "everything I do, I try to do with my family."

Something about those simple words touched Yunho's heart, throwing its beat off even as he lowered himself into a bench, stroking his snowy new friend and laughing as a brown and white Jack Russel terrier and a little grey mutt with a folded ear scrambled up to fill his lap all the way. His gaze darted between them and the young lady behind the counter as she operated all the kitchenware with focused eyes and lightly smiling lips.

This place really was heaven.

~

"Here you go!"

Yunho's attention snapped up from the mutt, Sammy, to meet the eyes of the girl. He hadn't really paid attention to the color of them before, but the lime-and-pink shaded light dangling above his table must have somehow brought it out as she set his mug in front of him a respectable distance from the squirming dogs piled upon his lap.

"What was your name again?" Yunho blurted out before he could help it.

"(y/n)."

"(y/n)," he repeated with a smile, "wonderful. I just felt like I needed to have a name to go with the face."

Her eyes remained on him, though the smile on her face did not fade. Sammy licked at her sleeve, which only made it grow wider, her nose crinkling a bit. A wave of awkwardness crashed over Yunho.

"So, (y/n), you must really like peanut butter." That sounded much better in his head.

She just giggled. “I love it! I was eating a peanut butter cup when I got the idea for the drink.”

“That’s so cool! I have a friend who cooks and that seems hard, let alone designing something new, like I can’t even imagine.”

(y/n) waved a hand before reaching it back down to pet a fluffy spotted Australian shepherd that ran by her feet. “Oh, I bet you could come up with something,” she told him with a smile.

Yunho racked his brain, but beneath the tantalizing chocolate-peanut-butter-coffee-with-a-hint-of-espresso smell, the light of that obnoxiously cute lamp, the warm, wiggling puppy pile on his lap, and the faint, anticipatory flutter of the girl’s eyelashes, not much was floating up coherently. “I can’t think of anything that would be good in coffee,” he finally admitted.

“What about something that would be bad in coffee?”

“All my brain was giving me was fruit loops, so I’d say that.”

(y/n) gave a humored wince. “Ooh, yeah. Though that would make a good milk latte or shake! I could totally work with that!” And with that, she made another of her skate-like drifts across the shop, dodging three dogs darting at her feet as she fell back behind the counter, pulling out a couple appliances and taking notes like a mad scientist.

Well, that wasn’t too bad a response to fruit loops of all things. Patting Sammy, Yunho pulled his steaming mug to his lips, barely feeling the cup’s heat above that in his own sheepish cheeks.

~

A few days after his Leash Love Latte trip, Yunho was out for a walk to clear his head after a very early morning of choreography practice, having rinsed himself off and wanted nothing more than to get out into the sun and breeze, practically melting the industrial lighting out of his skin. Cleansing the sweat off had only been step one.

Veering off the paved walking trail, Yunho crossed over the inclination of a grassy green hill, wandering over the great emerald expanse and dodging the occasional frisbee. Ducking under one that was thrown high enough, even.

The small amount of skin exposed by his t-shirt warmed pleasantly in the moderate day's air as he passed an area surrounded by metal gating that bore a few tied-on signs. Within it, dogs of varying sizes tore across the grass, played tug-of-war, and ran to their owners with new friends in tow. As he got closer, he noticed that one of those owners had a haircut that looked quite familiar, a smile Yunho felt like he’d just been graced with.

It was (y/n)! Carefully undoing the safety gate with a deft motion of his fingers, he lifted the release and entered, immediately dodging dogs as he ran a hand through his hair hoping he’d straightened it. His other hand was already getting thoroughly sniffed, a few licks coming to it before he reclaimed it, giving a bulldog and a border collie some pats as he milled through the park. A mutt- maybe half terrier- ran up to him snuffling with a squeaky toy in its jaws, so Yunho threw it, laughing as it turned into a little spotted streak of lightning. Hopefully its owner was young. And then, turning on his heels, he faced you.

“Oh, hey, (y/n), right?” He leaned forward, resting a hand as casually as he could atop the bench a few feet from him, mock-guessing your name like it hadn’t made a few runs through his head of late. “Didn’t see you there. I’m-”

“Yunho from the café. Fruit loops guy.”

Fruit loops guy. “Yep, that’s me.” He put a hand to his chest. “Fruit loops guy.”

“I’ve been tinkering around with stuff and that idea is something that we might be adding to the menu if my uncle lets me!” She added, grinning as a pup Yunho recognized as Sammy ran up to her, leaning into her offered pets.

“Really? That’s great!”

“Yeah! Should I name it after you?”

“The Yunho? Might confuse some people-”

(y/n) chuckled, wrapping her arms around Sammy to pull him onto her lap. “Yunho, I was kidding.”

“Oh, right, yeah, I knew that. So, uh, taking Sammy to the dog park?”

“Yep,” she nodded, smiling, “I try to take all the adoptables out on an alternating schedule.”

“Oh,” Yunho tilted his head in thought, “the Leash Love Latte dogs are for adoption?”

“Indeed they are. The goal is people live them so much they want to take them home!”

“Guess then they’d really need a doggy bag,” he quipped.

(y/n)’s eyes widened as she burst out with a laugh. “Ok, that’s so perfect, mind if I steal that?”

“Be my guest.”

“I’ll try my best to credit you where I can. Hey, wanna play frisbee with Sammy? It’s practically as big as him, but he loves it.”

Was there even a question? “Of course! Come on, Sammy, let’s go!”

And with that, they both pushed off their respective bench seat and lean, jogging deeper into the park’s grass and dodging a fire hydrant in the ground as they took turns tossing the blue plastic disc (y/n) had ready in her backpack.

~

“Hey, remember the guy who inspired my fruit loops latte?” You called back into the kitchen as you refilled the coffee bean jars up front, dim evening lights of closing time filing Leash Love Latte.

“Tall fellow, right?” You uncle questioned in response.

"Yeah," you nodded, "him. If he comes back, I'm going to get him in the kitchen."

"In the kitchen?" Your uncle's voice raised both in incredulity and response to some barks from your café companions. "I thought you liked him."

"Oh, geez!" Plucking a not-so-wet grey washcloth from your counter, you lobbed it at your uncle and his jokes. "I do. You think I'd let any loser with a dazzling smile into my laboratory?"

The washcloth connected with your uncle's shoulder, breaking his face into a grin as he shook it into his hand and started wiping the kitchen surface with it. "Ugh, save the sappy crap for him, huh? What are you even going to make him do? A day of free labor?"

"No," you giggled, leaning on the shining metal of your counterspace, "I think he has better ideas than he gives himself credit for. I'm just going to let him try making whatever he wants."

"As long as you guys clean up after yourselves," your uncle teases you, giving you a fond smile.

"Of course we will," you reply with a joyous look of your own, anticipation coursing through you as you imagined all the things you could come up with on your quest for a new menu item...and maybe something else new for you.

~

"Get in the kitchen with you? Me?" Yunho looked at you with eyes wide, holding little Nun a bit tighter in his hands in startlement as if you'd suggested he set his pants on fire.

"Well, I wasn't exactly asking your invisible twin brother there," you teased, clicking the pen in your hand open, then closed again, as you glanced over his shoulder.

He turned his head that way too like there'd suddenly be someone there. There obviously was not. "Alright, point taken. You liked the cereal lattes that much, huh?"

That wasn't what I liked most, you wanted to say. You leaned a bit further out from behind the register. "Something like that. I think it would be fun! Don't you? We don't have to make something good, that'll just be a bonus!"

Yunho's smile returned as yours spread out, and he bent over and gently placed the little fluffball he'd been holding back on the floor, where she stood at his feet, sniffing Cherry, a black chihuahua. "I don't think it'll be fun, (y/n)..."

Your expression stiffened a bit, eyebrows raising to urge his trailed-off sentence on.

"I know it will be! Let's do it! As long as you're allowed to do this, of course."

And then you were smiling again, heart beating in anticipation. You were going to get this dog-loving man and his silly innocent brain in your life no matter what it took.

"Cleared with the boss man and all. Let's make something out of this dead workday!"

Yunho laughed at that, accepting the hand you held out, beckoning him into the sacred space behind the counter, aka your drink and treat lab.

"So," you grinned, folding both your hands under your chin, "wanna make a drink or bake something?"

"Why don't we bake?" Yunho replies, gaze breaking from yours in thought. "Hmm, what's a good dessert to go with a drink? Shortcake?"

"Like strawberry shortcake?"

"Yeah, but why is shortcake always strawberry? Why can't it be any other fruit?"

You shrugged, feeling your expression smugly egg him on. "Why can't it? What do you have in mind?"

"Have you ever seen those candied melons? What about melon shortcake? I bet no one's done that before," Yunho answered before pausing for a couple ticks of Leash Love Latte's dangly-tail dog-in-a-teacup wall clock, "or is that gross?"

Crossing further into the kitchen, you pulled open a silver cabinet and turned back to him. "Only one way to find out."

He shuffled into the kitchen beside you, bouncing on his heels. “Do you have a shortcake recipe?”

“I do indeed,” you said with a grin, taking an apron off the peg on the kitchen wall and handing it his way.

You set to work prepping and measuring the wet ingredients while Yunho took on the dry, the most prominent of which was the flour. Shortcake, you reminded him, wasn’t as sweet as a regular cake, so that seemingly small amount of sugar was in fact correct.

It all went nearly without a hitch, only a small chunk of butter plopping onto the silvery counter, which you quickly twirled around to wipe squeaky clean again. Yunho was doing great at sifting everything together, almost as if he’d done it before.

Well, until the last scoop of flour, that is. The last one hung just wrong, dropping from the measuring cup in Yunho’s hand and sliding down the edge of the mesh strainer, bursting in a cloud of curling pure white dust upon the counter, his apron, and even on the side of your pant leg.

"Oh my gosh, (y/n), I'm so sorry!" Yunho immediately exclaimed, holding his hands out like he didn't trust them anymore.

"Don't worry about it," you replied with a smile and a flippant gesture, "it won't be the first or the last time that happens in here. Besides, in Hallmark movies all things like this do is start a cheeky flour fight."

Yunho glanced down helplessly at his apron and the counter. "Wouldn't that just make it worse?"

"Oh, absolutely," you nod, "but if you just twirl it off your apron, you'll get a pretty cloud effect."

Expectation? A little shimmy. Reality? Yunho executing a perfect showman's leaping twirl, the move indeed enhanced by a puff surrounding him as the powder shook off of him and drifted down to the kitchen tile.

You might've been gaping, but it quickly faded into a smile as you drifted past him in search of a rolling pin. "Alright, so you're, like, an expert dancer, that's totally normal and not extremely cool."

"Oh, I'm no expert. I-I just dance for a living," he replied with a shy grin and darting gaze.

"I hate to break this to you," you leaned on the counter in front of him, rolling pin in hand and awe on your face, "but that makes you an expert. Certainly more than me. You should be there one of the many times I forget a step of the macarena."

Yunho's hands started drifting around in the general airspace above his shoulders, head, and hips. "Which part?"

All you could do was giggle and hold the rolling pin up in your hand, head shaking. "Have you ever kneaded and rolled dough before?" He had good dough hands. Certainly more proportional to the dough than yours!

~

"We did it, (y/n)! We made shortcake!" Practically floating above the tile, Yunho high-fived you after you set the tray down.

While your creation baked, the two of you had ditched your aprons and crossed the threshold back into adoptable territory to absolutely ruin all your kitchen-sanitary hands on the hurricane of dogs that surged after you, leaping into your arms like the sweetest of crests crashing onto your jean-clad knees.

This time you took Nun and Yunho had Mickey the Australian shepherd, who plopped right down on the café tile with his head in Yunho's now-seated lap. You held your fluffy ball of wonder close to your chest and she practically melted in, little black boba eyes fluttering contentedly shut.

Both of you whined how it was torture and apologized to the dogs as if it was a coordinated act as you waved and backed into the kitchen with four remorseful eyes on the adoptable crowd, and that was how the shortcake was procured.

Candying the watermelon went off without a hitch. Well, mostly. While a welcome strength boost to cut the honeydews, Yunho had you half giggling, half protectively extending an arm as he yelped at the bubbling sugar boiling in the pot. For that, you bid him mix the cream while you got the fruit ready.

More time with the adoptables as the candy set, and then you were stacking cake, cream, and shining, syrupy melon chunks into a light yellow-and-green treat topped with some melon balls and classic rosettes.

"It's beautiful," you congratulated Yunho with a wide smile.

"Better than the fruit loop latte idea?"

You just nodded as the sound of your business's door closing rang our behind you. "And here's our proof coming!" You clapped, rushing out of the kitchen in the bouncing dance of a barista on a mission. "Uncle, will you try our dessert please? Yunho and I worked really hard on it," you plead as you dragged your amused uncle into your workspace, one arm linked with his and the other gesturing with a flourish toward the lovely shortcake and your lovely fellow baker, who immediately bent his legs and struck an introductory pose at it himself.

"I can tell. This looks great, you two," your uncle told you, pride clear in his voice as much as on his face as he ruffled your hair with his free hand.

Wiggling gently out of your grip, he accepted the proffered fork from Yunho and reached over to dig into the plated treat you'd decorated on the counter, which of course you'd wiped down before he could see the mess you made. Didn't hurt to butter up the person trying your new innovation, right?

Your uncle's eyebrows shot up the moment the forkful of your shortcake entered his mouth, both you and Yunho leaping up as if watching the pinnacle of a photo-finish race.

"Well, how is it?" You burst out, practically wiggling under the suspense.

"Yes, sir," Yunho added, straightening the apron he'd put back on, "is it good enough to go on the menu?"

"It's very good, son," your uncle began, eliciting a loud cheer from you two and a resonant, stingingly strong high-five of elation to boot.

"But," he added, both of you inhaling at his next words, eyes not even leaving him when an audible, surely adorable play-wrestle broke out among the adoptables, "if you want this on the menu, there's one condition."

"Wh- what's that? Er, sir?" Yunho stiffened under your uncle's serious gaze.

Short-lived as it was; the expression soon melted into your beloved joker's smile of mischief. "You have to take my niece on a date."

"Uncle, I-" You began to protest, heat rising to your cheeks faster than any oven or milk steamer could preheat.

"Yes, sir," Yunho nodded, sparing you a quick glance and a small wave as if he'd forgotten you were there, "that's a much greater reward than the menu spot."

His smile turned almost into something you'd see on a lovesick cartoon, as if your heart hadn't flipped hard enough in the past few minutes or even from the first time he walked in and you saw him being gentle with the adoptables.

What could you say? Guess it was puppy love.

[shinysparklesapphires]

showtime precure!

chapter 14: Lyna's painting from the heart!

cw: mentions of irl organs (nothing graphic)

🎀: @baileypie-writes @harufallinwonderland @xryptik

"Reel wake up!"

"Huh- what?" Reel picked his head up from his desk and rubbed his eyes to see Amber and Lucia standing over him.

"Amber said she said Headmistress Debreux coming over here!" Lucia shook him to make sure he was awake.

Reel shot up, and rushed to the whiteboard and started acting like he was writing something down for class.

"Mr Rilu." He froze.

"Yes headmistress?" He turned his head nervously.

"I'm sorry I had to interrupt your class but I must ask Ms. Amaranthe a favor."

Everyone turned to Lyna.

"M-me?" Lyna asked surprised.

"Don't worry you're not in trouble, it's more of an...extra credit assignment," she cleared her throat, "I've been informed of your artistic talents by some of your upperclassmen in the art course, and they and I have made the decision to ask you to paint a mural for the school."

Lyna gasped.

"I'm honored Miss but-"

"Nonsense, the upperclassmen will help you with whatever you need, they've agreed to give you the supplies needed as well."

"But what am I supposed-"

"I must go, I have other matters to attend to," the headmistress walked off.

"Wow Lyna a whole mural? That's amazing!" Lucia clasped her hands together.

"Yeah I mean the entire school's gonna see it," Amber pulled her headphones off.

"Yeah but what do I paint?"

"Hmmm..." Reel sat back down on his desk, "Maybe all the things you like about the school."

"There are things to like about school?" Lucia looked at Reel unamused.

"I know it's insane but true," he leaned back against his chair.

"The things I like about school..."

Dominique was humming to herself as she brushed out Nosferatu's feathers.

"AUGHHHH!" The water pillar shot up, revealing Tragedy's silhouette.

"Eek!" Dominique shot up, causing Nosferatu to freak out and start running around the bandshell.

"DOMINIQUE!"

"h-hello Master Tragedy! Lovely day isn't it?" She stood straight up like a soilder.

"Where are the other two?"

"Oh Lacey and Nicolette? They're um-"

"I DONT HAVE TIME FOR THIS! LOOK HERE!"

the water swirled around, revealing Lyna standing in front of the giant wall in the courtyard waiting for something.

"The red one is on her own. Use this opportunity to prove to me that you aren't completely useless and can actually collect her ribbon this time!" She threw a coin from the pillar into Dominique's hands, "Don't disappoint me." The pillar collapsed.

Dominique gulped. Nosferatu had since calmed down and was lying down in a corner.

"Yes ma'am."

"You're Lyna right?" Lyna turned to see a tall boy standing in front of her holding a crate of art supplies.

"H-huh? Oh yeah that's me!" She chuckled nervously.

"Oh we've heard a lot about you! Me and Enid saw the set pieces you made for the winter ballet and we couldn't believe a freshman did all of those!" He set the box down and shook her hand rather roughly.

"Wait who's Enid?"

"Jac quit getting all up close and personal with her you're gonna scare her." A girl with long ginger hair tied up into two braids walked over with another crate.

"Oh, sorry!" He gently let go of her hand.

"Sorry about him, name's Enid. Me and Jac are both 4th years in the art course."

"H-hi..." Lyna waved nervously.

"But yeah your art is really impressive! I'm pretty jealous to be honest." She set the crate down and turned back to Lyna, "well we'll be over there if you need anything," she pointed to the cafeteria.

"Oh yeah I'm hungry as hell right now," Jac followed Enid into the cafeteria.

Lyna sighed, "Ok, all the things I like about school-um."

She had planned the sketch out fairly quickly but once she tried to transfer it to the wall it didn't quite look right.

"Dang it..." She tapped her paintbrush to her chin.

"Lyna!"

"Oh hey Vi," Lyna jumped back a little.

"Oh yeah Lucia told me about this! The headmistress asked you to make a mural right?"

"Y-yeah.."

"Well I'm sure whatever you come up with will be great!"

"That's the thing...I can't figure out how to make it feel...real yknow?"

Violet cocked her head to the side, "What do you mean?"

Lyna sighed, "I mean it's supposed to be all of the things I like about the school right? But what if everything I like about the school is something everyone else hates? Or what if the painting comes out looking awful??"

"Well it's your painting right? It's supposed to reflect how you feel not how everyone else feels right?" She pat Lyna's shoulder, "You're an amazing artist Lyna, you don't need to worry about how everyone else feels about your art because its yours." She smiled at her.

Lyna felt her face heat up.

"Thanks Vi."

"No problem!"

Suddenly Lyna felt something cold hit her face. She looked up and her heart almost stopped. A dark storm cloud had appeared and the rain had smudged whatever part of the painting that was finished, ruining it.

"No, no, no!" Lyna watched in horror as all her hard work went down the drain. She held her hands to her face and just started crying. What was the point anymore. All that work was gone in an instant.

"Lyna..." Violet wrapped her arms around her.

"It's fine," she sniffed and wiped her face, "I can just start over..."

"Oh boo hoo, you're all sad because of your lame ass painting?"

"Dominique!" The girls turned to see Dominique drenched in water, her makeup running down her face. She just stared at them blankly and held up her coin and threw it at the mural.

"Facade. Wreak your havoc."

"SAWWW!"

"Violet!"

"Right!"

"Precure, Rollback! Lights! Camera! Action!"

"Facade. Crush them."

"Saw!" Action dodged the attack.

"Action Grande-OOF!" the Facade shot a brick at Action sending her flying into the ground.

"Ow! Motherfucker my leg!"

Set grabbed her palate and summoned her lasso, "Set-" the lasso snapped in half.

"What? Why did it-"

"Are you seriously still all mopey about the mural? Look if it makes you feel any better I technically improved it-"

"SHUT UP!" Both Action and Dominique froze.

"I PUT TOO MANY FUCKING HOURS INTO THIS MURAL. NONE OF YOUR TACKY ASS LITTLE FACADES CAN COMPARE TO THE BEAUTY OF MY OWN HEART!"

"Damn, I didn't know you could yell that loud." Dominique yawned.

"SHUT IT!" Set summoned her palate again.

"Precure! Set Lasso...Net!"

"Saw?" The Facade got captured in a red web of light.

"Set! Action!" Showtime and Wright landed just in the nick of time.

"Let's go!" The girls put their hands together.

"Our hearts desires will destroy your evil! Precure! Roccoco Lovely....Shock!"

The light disappeared, leaving Dominique standing there in the rain. She fell to her knees and sobbed.

"Why..."

The cures turned to her.

"WHY ARE YOU ALL SO DAMN STUBBORN?! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST GIVE UP ALREADY?!" she screamed as her breathing got heavier.

"NOW TRAGEDY'S GONNA KILL ME AND ITS ALL YOUR FAULT!" she started sobbing harder, and it eventually turned into laughter. She clutched the ground as hard as she could.

"Why-"

"Dominique."

"Catwalk!" She looked up at the boy.

"Miss Tragedy is very displeased with your performance."

"Catwalk please tell her to give me just one more chance and I-"

The cures ran over to try and help but Catwalk blasted them away.

"Shush. This is a private matter." He turned back to Dominique, "Unfortunately you've used up all your chances so.." he shoved his hand into Dominique's chest and tore out her heart, turning it into a corrupted coin as she watched in terror.

"Oops."

Dominique reached her hand out for the coin but Catwalk moved his hand away, causing her body to disintegrate into dust, flying away with the storm's wind.

Wright covered her mouth as if she was about to throw up. Action looked like she was about to cry. Set just stood with a blank expression on her face.

"What? She wasn't doing her job properly, so she had to be punished. Farewell." He disappeared.

"Hrk!" Showtime covered her mouth.

"What the actual fuck just happened?!"

"I don't know."

"Where's Dominique? We were only out for a little while." Nicolette sat down on the bandshell steps.

"She was probably walking her goose or something I don't know." Lacey opened her compact mirror.

"Girls." The water pillar shot up again.

"Master Tragedy!"

"I've come to inform you that Dominique has been terminated from her job here."

Lacey froze.

"W-what do you mean terminated...?"

A small purple coin was thrown into her hands.

Nicolette felt her stomach drop.

"No way..."

"If you don't want to end up like her I suggest getting the ribbons without fail." The pillar disappeared.

"Honk!" Nosferatu ran up to hide behind Lacey's leg. She picked up the goose and cried.

Nicolette just stayed silent.

"Wow Lyna the finished mural looks great!" Jac stood with Enid admiring the finished painting.

"Thanks." Lyna was still shaken from what had happened. She did agree that she was proud of the mural. It was full of the the things she loved about the academy, the courses, her teachers, her friends.

"I knew I made the right decision choosing you for this job," the headmistress smiled. Lyna smiled back.

Back in the theater classroom everyone was silent. Even with Violet there everything felt gloomier than usual. Lucia was sitting with her head down, Reel was filling out some papers, and Amber just sat with her headphones on and her hands in her pockets.

"Guys I-"

"Lyna it's fine," Lucia picked her head up, "it's not your fault for what happened to Dominique."

"I know but I still feel guilty yknow?" She bit her lip.

"I'm sure we can save her, just like we saved everyone else's wishes." Amber beamed, though it was clear she was still pretty distraught.

Lyna smiled, "alright!"

[gabriel-xander]

Don't Forget

[Sans x Female!Reader]

21: Aren't You Sweet?

A/N: Just realized that 70% of this fan-fiction is going to be/has to be me finding new ways to make MC and Sans yapp to each other about stupid shit and/or serious shit because Undertale is all about exhausting the dialogue. Will I run out of things to make these characters talk about? Let’s go gambling find out!

♪────✿⁠(⁠✧◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕✧⁠)✿⁠────♪

Finding the little shop takes as long as Sans said it would. You didn’t mind it at all, you two managed to talk about useless things for that walk so it wasn’t boring. Sans tells you about the neighboring monsters, how they are, and the ones he’s most friendly with. And by that, he refers to the monsters who know his name and won’t tell him to fuck off politely.

“Really? But it seemed like those people at Grillby’s really liked you.” You furrow your brows.

He shrugs his shoulders, “eh, i’m a real hit or miss when it comes to makin’ friends. you wouldn’t believe how many of these guys hate puns.”

“Whaaat? But they’re always a rib-tickler!”

“right? they’re so humerus, too. i’m just an unappreciated master at my craft.”

“Dang, just like that one bitch who cut off his ear.”

“…who?”

“Vincent van Gogh. He was the guy of all time.”

“did you know him personally, or what?”

You sigh wistfully, “Man, I wish. I could’ve fixed him.”

“…” Sans’ smile strains, “i don’t think there’s much fixing a guy who willingly cut off his ear.”

“That’s what you think,” You smile, pointing at the building not too far ahead. “Hey, is that the shop?”

“yeah, yeah. that’s the one. huh, looks more rundown than i remembered.”

“Crap. You know, I’d totally step up as a hero to help reconstruct this place, and I meant to learn about it, but I just forgot to.”

“learn about what?”

“Carpeting.

“ah.” Sans nods, “there are monsters whose jobs are to do that stuff, anyway. besides, a human with a heart of gold-”

HOW DOES HE KNOW?!

“-and a pure soul? how original.”

Oh, wait. He was just teasing you with a prevalent phrase.

“Ah-ha ha, yeah… Uh, well you know, shouldn’t those kinds of stereotypes be welcomed? Or would you rather I have been a dick-ass human?”

“no, no. by all means, be that fairy-tale human we all know you can be. actually, if you can be like that one princess with glowing hair so we can have an artificial sun, that would be so great.”

You roll your eyes as you two stop in front of the store, “You see, I totally would, but I’m more interested in checking this place out.”

“great transition, bud,” Sans snorts a short laugh, opening the door first, “lady’s first.”

You give your thanks as you stroll in, taking in the sights of the small, cozy shop. It’s really familiar, probably because it looks like that bunny’s shop in the main area of Snowdin but just a little bit bigger. The lights are dimmer, but you appreciate it since it’s easier on the eyes. There aren’t any customers in here, however, there’s a monster man behind the register who catches your eye.

He’s pitch black everywhere, and small wisps of black smoke rise from his hair, reminding you of Grillby. Strangely, his facial features gave off a white outline that allowed you to see his expression very clearly. His shirt is green and unbuttoned, letting you see the white shirt underneath. He’s resting his cheek against his hand, reading a book on the counter without giving you two the time of day. His ears are interesting, vertical, and thick in a way you’ve never seen before. He looks tall, but then again monsters are proving to be larger than expected because of their inhumanity.

Hmm…

Inch resting.

This doesn’t look like the old lady Red Bird was talking about… This might just be another employee then. Sans gestures for you to go talk to the shadow monster, leaning against the door to wait for you. You nod at him and walk to the counter with a polite smile.

You put your hands on the counter and clear your throat, “Hello, there!”

The guy looks up and does a double take, widening his eyes at you. You think it’s supposed to be some kind of blush, but white, diagonal lines appear on his cheeks. Bro is so anime, you’re sure Alphys would love this guy.

“Uh, yes-Er-uh–” The monster clears his throat very violently, leaning back on his hand at an awkward angle. “-Yeah, whatever. Hi.”

…Okay… That happened.

“So, uh,” Oh, he’s still talking. “you’re not from Snowdin, right? Where uh, where you from?”

…Is… huh? Is what you think is happening happening right now?

You’re not sure how you feel about this if you’re completely honest. You see Sans from the corner of your eye, his smile is straining, and he looks just as confused as you do.

“Ah, I’m uh, I’m from uptown Snowdin? But I thought I should get out of my comfort zone when looking for a job.” You tell him.

“Oh, so you’re here to… apply…?”

You nod, “Yeah, speaking of which, I thought an older lady ran this place?”

The shadow monster nods in turn, “Yeah, yeah. My granny. She’s not here today, but I usually take care of the place even when she is here.”

“Oh, cool! So, I mean, how about it? Are you looking for some extra hands on Mondays and Tuesdays?”

The man pouts, “Just Mondays and Tuesdays…?”

You scrunch up your nose, “Is that a big problem-”

“-NO NO! Not at all! I-I mean, it’s slow here anyway, so you’d just be bored here if you stayed too long.” He widens his eyes, his strange blush deepening, “I-I forgot to introduce myself, sorry. I’m uh, I’m Pollux.”

Oh nice, like the star! You probably shouldn’t say anything though because this Pollux guy seems like he’ll latch onto any nice words you’ll say to him. He seems nice, but you don’t have the energy to entertain someone like that.

“It’s nice to meet you, Pollux. You can call me [Y/n].” You drum your fingers on the counter, “So… Uhm, would now be a good time for an interview, or do I need to fill out an application first, or-”

“Right, let me–I’ll be right back!”

Pollux closes his book (rip, he didn’t put in his bookmark first) and goes through the back door behind the counter in a hurry, accidentally slamming the door behind himself. You look back at Sans, that fucker hand his hand over his grin, shoulders shaking in an attempt to quiet his laughter.

How dare he laugh at your misery? It’s not your fault you can draw in bitches left and right, if anything he should feel sorry for you! Oh, to be cursed with Main Character energy.

“wow, that was pretty impressive,” Sans whispers loud enough for you to hear, “you really do attract all kinds of attention, huh?”

You groan in embarrassment, “You be quiet with that! Can’t you be sympathetic about this? Ugh, I wish Elliot was here, he could fix this.”

“who’s that? friend of yours?”

“Yeah, my best friend. We looked like a gay couple when we stood next to each other so we just scared away the hoes.” You sigh at his memory, “But alas, you don’t make us look like a gay couple. We look too hetero together.”

“…i thought we silently agreed to not bring those types of conversations outside the house.” Sans then realizes something, “wait, what do you mean gay couple?”

You can’t respond since Pollux comes back out at that moment. He’s holding a few papers and sets them down on the counter in front of you with an awkward smile. Glancing over it lets you know it’s pretty standard, but some of the things you might need help with from Sans since “Monster Family Type” is not something you know how to answer.

“We have another person working here Mondays through Thursdays so you’ll be seeing her, too. She’s uh… not very reliable.” Pollux’s expression twists into something unpleasant, “I hope you can get along with her. Hell knows that I can’t.”

You can’t help but grin, “Finally dropped that nonchalant act, huh? That’s good, I’d rather be friends with someone who’s true to themselves.”

That was the wrong thing to say.

Pollux blushes tenfold as he hides his face behind his hands. The strange smoke that rose from his hair intensified to his emotions. You almost want to sigh and scold yourself, but you’re not given a chance to do anything.

“Oh, o-okay! I–Uh! Yeah, no I-I was just uh, I was testing you! For-For your judge of character, yeah!” He lowers his hands and runs them through his hair, looking away from you with a bashful look, “You uhm, tha-that application can be done whenever. If… If you bring it by next Monday, you can probably start the same day, too.”

You nod along to his words, listening to him yapp while thinking about Grillby because the motherfucker is so fine.

The place here is so dead, but you’re not going to complain about having an easy job especially since Pollux is going to be easygoing enough to just hire you like that. He asks you a few more questions before you can tell he’s just trying to keep you around for a casual conversation. You feel so bad but you’re not really interested and you’ll have a chance to talk to him anyway another day.

“Well, I better get going,” You interrupt Pollux with a smile, “I have a few more errands to run and I kind of want to spend today at home after, so…”

His smile drops slightly but tries to cover it up just as fast, “Oh, yeah. Sor-Uh, I sho-I gotta do inventory anyway, so yeahhh. I’m pretty busy.”

“Cool! Don’t wanna get in your way then,” You nod, already beginning to walk back toward Sans, “Have a good day, Pollux. See you on Monday!”

He reaches his hand out to you before lowering it, “Yeah, I–Yeah, see ya…!”

“Let’s get going, Sans.”

“uh-huh.”

The skeleton, watching the whole time and thus understanding your desire to escape, already had the door open for you. You thank him as you walk out of the shop, sighing in relief when you hear the door close behind him.

“wow. that was… a show.” Sans snickers, “you sure about this place, [y/n]?”

“It should be fine, I think,” You shake your head, “Let’s get going. I meant it when I said I just wanna relax now.”

Well, he won’t argue with that. Dang, who knew you had that much game? You literally just walked in there and that guy was whipped! Sans recognizes that monster, too. Pollux is what the world categorizes as a “hidden boss” but he’s not actually a boss monster. As far as he’s aware, Toriel and Agore still stand as the only Boss Monsters in the underground. Anyway, he always knew Pollux was that type of person, but it’s still funny to witness every time. You should be safe working there, he knows Pollux isn’t the type to do anything since he’s all bite.

“So, I’ve been meaning to ask,” You start suddenly, “the first day I moved in with you guys, you and Papyrus mentioned someone named Undyne? You said she was an authoritative figure, too. Mind telling me about her?”

Ooh, it’d be good to actually tell you, so Sans does.

“he’s the head of the royal guard, paps trains with her pretty regularly. hm, what can i really say about her? she’s rough around the edges when you first meet her, but reliable to everyone around her. heh, you’d probably get along with her…”

You purposely fall for his words trailing off. Yes, you know this already but you need Sans to tell you first. “But…?”

“...but she’s probably the biggest hater towards humans like you. oh, ‘specially ‘cause you’re an adult? she’d take your soul in a heart-beat.” That pun was weak, but Sans didn’t like how bleak he sounded, “she doesn’t come around here often, but… you know.”

“Yeah… I do…”

Sans furrows his bonebrows, “hey, don’t sweat it, [y/n]. i promised toriel that i’d take care of you, and well… we’re friends now too, so i wanna make sure you’re okay too anyway. i’m sure my bro feels the same way.”

“That’s good. I-I hate being restricted, but I know that it means I really shouldn’t go places without you or Papyrus. Undyne seems pretty dangerous.”

“like i said, she doesn’t come here all that often. she mainly just stays in the waterfalls, which is just down the road from our place. so you can still go where you want on your own if you really want, just probably not that way.”

You smile weakly, “Ah, you know, if I’m being completely honest here… I’m not really in a hurry to leave Snowdin. I don’t want to die, Sans. Is… Is it bad that I don’t want my soul to be taken? Even though I know that my soul could be the key to help free you all. Is it bad that I don’t want to do it?”

Sans huffs a small laugh, his smile softening without him realizing. Damn, you know what? He doesn’t want you to get your soul taken, either. 

“No,” Sans says softly, “it’s not bad at all.”

Maybe that’s all you two need for now to come to a small understanding.

A/N: I'm scared that if I draw that npc monster that there's gonna be at least one person who's gonna say "i wont him in my mouth" and that's cool and all, but sans is already fighting for his spot in this fic against GRILLBY on Wattpad, Quotev, AND Ao3 and he's barely in this damn fic 😭

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