#DID that happen after he started shedding? Or was it all planned before? In which case... What the hell?

[luminaryofblood]

Right, so I had no idea what sinistral and dextral meant and did a googling -- sinistral refers to the left hand - left handed. Dextral is right.

Alright. So Miquella abandoned both his arm sinistral and arm dextral.

But when we fight Promised Consort Radahn, he is... Curiously missing his left arm.

Recall the statues of the Haligtree. How the statues showed Miquella having an unusually veiny arm.

A post on reddit mentions how he watered the Haligtree with his blood, and speculated that he specifically watered the Haligtree with the blood from his left arm.

So his left arm represented his connection to the Haligtree.

During the final fight, his right arm returns, and it's with his right that he is embracing Radahn.

His left arm remains missing.

[mrsimpurity]

kiss the cook! - satoru gojo

pairing: satoru gojo x fem!reader

cw: smut (mdni), established relationship, birthdays and presents, unprotected p in v, kissing, fluff

it’s a perpetual battle.

every single year, he overdoes himself. it’s present after present and you can’t compete.

satoru gojo is the king of birthday presents.

the anticipation which used to precede your birthday had now turned into annoyance.

satoru gojo is generous to a fault. it’s no secret that his debit card has no limit when it comes to you. it’s definitely not something that you had complained about.

that was of course, before he started battling with you.

it was hard for you to come up with an idea for a birthday gift to start with. what was this man not in possession of?

on the very first birthday of his since you two started dating, you decided to be sentimental.

you had meticulously planned out the gift, spending pretty much all of your savings on executing the whole thing.

for around two months, you had managed to capture photos of satoru in various endearing, yet simple moments - while he was sleeping, cooking for you, brushing his teeth. you had purchased a polaroid camera for him in advance and placed the gift inside an adorable box, together with the photos which you had taken of your boyfriend.

his reaction could be mistaken for the one a person would have if they had just been gifted a brand new audi.

the expression on his face and the tears of joy he shed were priceless and you were convinced that you were a genius for coming up with this gift.

that was, of course, before your birthday came around.

“sweetheart, i have something to show you.”

you sat down on the couch after an exhausting birthday dinner, settling down in satoru’s lap as you noticed him turning on the tv.

during the day, he had already spoiled you with various kinds of jewelry and clothes, so you really weren’t expecting anything from him other than a movie to end the night.

needless to say, you were left dumbfounded.

during the thirty minutes in which the short movie was running, you were trying to think of the words you could possibly utter in response to what your boyfriend had done.

this man had found your secret journal and contacted sofia coppola to direct a movie based on a short fiction you had concocted on a random thursday.

“there’s actually no way you did this.” 

all satoru could do was display his proud grin as he watched you sit in shock and try to comprehend the lengths he had gone to just to make this happen.

…

three years later, you had practically given up. it was impossible for satoru not to outshine you, so you had simply stopped thinking of expensive presents to give him, rather opting for small and meaningful things, sometimes books, even.

so for this year’s birthday, like the genius you are, you decided to gift him a “kiss the cook” apron. it was an adorable idea, not just because satoru loved to cook (and was truly an amazing chef with an insane sweet tooth) but because you had gotten a matching one for yourself with a text in the same font - “the cook’s helper”.

the aprons were customised and quite expensive, but it was all worth it when you saw satoru’s eyes lighten up at just how sweet your idea was.

when your birthday came along, you were left quite surprised. being with satoru had undoubtedly left you quite spoiled (in many ways).

that’s why when the evening rolled around, you were confused at why you still hadn’t gotten your present. 

“hey, i’m back!” satoru interrupted your thoughts, walking through the door after claiming he had forgotten something in the car.

“hey.” the tone of your reply was obviously sad and your gloomy expression only made your boyfriend curse himself for waiting the entire day to gift you this.

“thought i’d forgotten, huh?” he teased, handing you a simple black box with a red bow.

you were intrigued and hurried to open your gift as satoru plopped down on the couch beside you, eager to witness your reaction.

“bang the cook”

it was safe to say that you were speechless. the vulgar writing on your customised gift was not even remotely close in sweetness to the one on the apron you had gifted satoru.

“are you fucking kidding me?” you turned to face your boyfriend.

it was hard to keep your cool when he was trying his best not to burst at the seams with laughter.

you weren’t ungrateful, truly. to anyone else, it might have seemed like you were expecting another pair of keys to a brand new rs7, a dress embroidered with swarovski or a trip to monaco, but the two of you knew that you were just plain mad at how idiotic his choice of gift was.

“you expect me to wear this around the house? it sounds like i’m a cheap whore. or like i work at hooters both as a server and as a chef.”

satoru loved how adorable you looked when you were angry. that was the sole reason he had gifted you this - the need to see your furrowed eyebrows and your clenched fists.

and your adorable fussy pout which he fucked off your face the following morning.

“there. is this how you want me?” you were naked, save for the amazingly stupid apron from last night. 

“bang the cook” was splayed right across your tits and your little act of defiance was all your boyfriend needed to quite literally sweep you off your feet and sit you on the kitchen counter, lips smashing against yours. his tongue entered your mouth with fervour, nothing short of rough and possessive.

you moaned against his mouth involuntarily, not really trying your best to fight him off but biting his lip just to show him that you’re still pissed.

the action makes him chuckle, only riling him up even more. his hands are on his belt quick and in just a moment, your apron is lifted up, your wet cunt on display as satoru wastes no time in slowly sinking his cock inside you.

it’s never easy, taking him. he’s big, always needing to coo at you, calm you, run his fingers down your sides as he slowly inches his cock inside.

his mouth is hot at your neck, at your jaw, on your mouth, swallowing your sweet whines as his thumb rubs at your clit, helping ease the pain of the sheer stretch.

”there we go, baby. thaaat’s my girl.“ satoru says as he bottoms out, starting his pace with shallow thrusts.

the bounce of your breasts is addicting to him and so are your nails which are scratching the entirety of his back and marking territory.

“wanted to be fussy all night.. this is what you get.” he hisses out, picking you up with a strong hold on your thighs as his thrusts speed up. 

his cock is so deep inside, you can feel him in your tummy as your legs wrap around him, only pulling him closer.

satoru thrusts up into you like he’s never been hungrier for more, hands holding you up tightly, undoubtedly leaving a mark.

your moans are delicious and they only make him go harder as your orgasm approaches. 

“can feel you getting close, baby.” satoru barely groans out as your pussy flutters around him, gripping him like a vice.

your orgasm suddenly crashes over you and you close your eyes, relishing in the way the tip of his cock rubs up against that sweet spot inside of you.

“so fucking tight.” your boyfriend says as your walls clench around him, pussy still fluttering from the aftershocks of your release.

he cums not long after, filling up your sweet cunt as he spills inside you and slowly places you back down on the counter, peppering kisses on every inch of bare skin he can get his lips on.

satoru pulls out spreads your lips apart, watching his cum leak out of you as you let out a soft whine at the intrusion, still sensitive.

only when he sees you’re stuffed full of his seed does he pull your apron down and fix it up for you, pressing one last kiss on your lips, softer and gentler.

“happy belated birthday, baby.” satoru says as he reaches inside the pocket of your apron, pulling out an 18-carat bulgari engagement ring.

“will you marry me? and let me bang the cook for the rest of our lives?”

“you fucking asshole.” you murmur with a small smile, spent, arms wrapping around him and head sinking down in the crook of his neck in defeat. 

“yes, satoru. i will.”

and even though his birthday was a month ago, he feels that this was the best gift you could have possibly given him.

[therandomfandomme]

We're all going feral over the whole "Mercy? Mercy?" which is so valid of us, but the way mercy comes back as a theme in this final saga is really interesting to me, because before this, Odysseus is asked for mercy, for forgiveness:

"Old king, our leader is dead

You've destroyed the serpent's head

Now the rest of us are no longer a threat

Old king, forgive us instead

So that no more blood is shed

Let's have open arms instead"

"No"

He has become Poseidon, the one that first forced him into believing that mercy isn't something he can afford ("Look what you turned me into"), which is made doubly poignant with Eurymachus echoing the open arms of Polites ("Greet the world with open arms"). Now I'm not saying he should have forgiven the suitors for what they were planning on doing, however, this interaction directly informs this one later:

"Throw down those weapons

And I ensure you'll be spared"

"After seeing what the king will do to us

We wouldn't dare"

Because Odysseus doesn't show mercy to Eurymachus, Melanthius doesn't want to take the risk when Telemachus extends mercy to them, which then leads to the starting interaction.

When extending mercy and creating a kinder world is discussed again, it's by Athena. She is the original god, who pushed him towards a lack of mercy, who found that a warrior of the mind is one that showed not mercy and Odysseus believed her during the war, even threw a baby of a roof about it, and it wasn't until after that he rebelled her teachings only to be forced into it by other gods (Poseidon and Zeus most specifically). To which this is said:

"If that world exists, it's far away from here

It's one I'll have to miss, for it's far beyond my years

You might live forever, so you can make it be

But I've got one endeavor, there's a girl I have to see"

"Very well"

"Father, she's waiting for you"

I especially want to highlight that Odysseus says it is beyond his years. He has become that monster and he can't undo that in the years he still has. If this is to happen, then it must be the future generations that Athena has to influence to make that world. Having her reply to that getting interrupted by Telemachus is very purposeful to me. Because he does still extend mercy, he is the new warrior she trained and she trained him differently because her belief changed.

But I also think having her show Odysseus her face with the lightning scar as she agrees is very telling. When she pushed Odysseus to be ruthless she had not been on the other end of no mercy, which is what makes Odysseus turn against her ("Unlikе you, every time someone dies I'm left to deal with the strain"). She now has been on the other side of it by the hands of someone Odysseus also faced and they were both shown the same lack of mercy. For Odysseus that was his final turning point where he chose no mercy, while Athena did chose mercy.

And in the end, she did get some mercy from Zeus in response from it. Zeus also learned from her, from the lesson Odysseus taught her, which was taught to him by Polites. And that mercy gets paid forward allowing Odysseus to get home (yes, I'm emotional about Polites helping Odysseus get home in the end). Almost every time mercy is shown, his journey progresses (Lotus eaters, Aeolous, Circe, Zeus).

Athena has been through not receiving mercy, but she still believes, is still working towards that future. And while she accepts Odysseus words about him being beyond such a world, she doesn't agree with him. Her reply feels more like accepting a dismissal rather than an agreement. And Telemachus shows up as a reminder that she is more correct than Odysseus in this, and he leads them into Penelope.

God, I love Penelope. With her, Odysseus tells someone yet again that he has changed ("I am not your kind and gentle husband") and that he would understand if she did not love him anymore. And then we get this banger:

"Only my husband knew that

So I guess that makes him you"

Penelope shows him mercy in this. She has asked him what he has done and she is given the option to not want him anymore after hearing about the monster he's turned into, but she doesn't. She forgives him. He asks for forgiveness and she grants it. That is mercy.

Not only that, but she also affirms that he is still him. The usage of husband here is important to me, because he says he's not her husband, who was gentle and kind, and she tells him that he is. He believes him beyond that world where people are empathetic and kind, but the roots of that world he created in Ithaca and with Athena allow him to come home. He isn't a monster beyond redemption, he is also a part of that kinder world, regardless of what he has done.

And then you have the music echo the Just a Man melody when Odysseus sings:

"I'm just a man who's trying to go home

Even after all the years away from what I’ve known

I'm just a man who's fighting for his life

Deep down I would trade the world to see my son and wife

I'm just a man"

He is brought back to who he was when he was still just a man, before he became a monster. He did trade the world to see his son and wife and that makes him just a man.

The whole musical asks the question when a man becomes a monster and I think while it is never explicitly answered, that the answer is: when he isn't shown mercy. And that by showing someone mercy, you can reverse that. That it isn't permanent. I really love the moral question of mercy vs. ruthlessness in that Epic has, so it was really interesting to see how it came back in the end :D

[holdmytesseract]

moodboard by @chennqingg divider by @fictive-sl0th

Biker!Daryl Dixon x fem!Reader | No Outbreak AU

Warnings for this Chapter: horses? slight suggestive smut & talks about nudity, fluff!

Word Count: 1,9k

a/n: I adore this chapter. Definitely one of my favourites.

《 M a s t e r l i s t 》

《 Chapter Fifteen 》《 Chapter Seventeen 》

Chapter Sixteen...

...in which you return home to your family in Montana, but can't help but to miss the man you had left behind in Georgia - and so a plan is made.

You had been so occupied with focusing on your study and actually studying, that you never noticed how much you had really missed home - until you set foot on the Willow Creek ranch again and reuniting with your sister, uncle and aunt. That was the moment realisation set in and a lot of tears were shed. Happy tears, of course.

What got you emotional as well, was laying eyes on your piano again. You had missed making music, without a doubt. But nothing... Absolutely nothing overcame the moment you visited Arrow again after almost four months. Pure joy and happiness weren't even remotely enough to describe how you felt. The palomino Mustang stallion was your best friend, after all - and oh, boy, was the feeling mutual. Arrow was beside himself; almost kicking in the door to his horsebox. You spent hours with the stallion. You had a lot of catching up to do - as stupid as it sounded. You thoroughly groomed his fur and took him for a long ride through the snow. You didn't care that it was cold. You needed this, and so did Arrow.

Now you were seated inside the horsebox, wearing a thick jacket and thermal pants. A blanket was draped around you for some extra warmth. Arrow had made himself comfortable beside you; enjoying the endless scratches and cuddles you gave him.

Although your body was in Montana, your mind was currently in Georgia; thinking of the man you had left behind. It had been not even four days since you had seen him, but your heart already missed him dearly. It was aching to see Daryl again. Sure, you stayed in touch, but it wasn't the same. Still absent-mindedly petting Arrow's neck, your mind stuck with the biker - until you felt the stallion's muzzle gently nudging your cheek.

"Huh? What is it, sweet boy?" Only now did you notice that your hand had stopped in its 'task'. "Oh, uh, sorry," you giggled and started to scratch that one spot again. "I've been thinking about Daryl, you know. The other man in my life." Arrow huffed. You scoffed and giggled. "Yeah, no, you're not the only one anymore. You'll have to come to terms with that, sorry. You'd like him, I'm convinced of that. He's a great guy. And I'm certain he'd like you, too - even though he's afraid of horses." Arrow huffed again; followed by a rather loud neigh. "Don't be a drama queen now," you laughed. "I'm not gonna stop loving him only because he's scared of you. Not happening, mister." Arrow seemed to accept his 'fate' then. "There you go. Good boy."

You kept on giving the animal love, but found yourself spacing out more and more. "I miss him, Arrow..." You confessed then; sighing. The stallion whinnied. "You think I should call him?" As an answer, he gently nudged your shoulder. "Okay, okay, yes. You're right. I'm calling him." You fished for the smartphone in your jacket pocket, unlocked it and quickly searched for Daryl's contact; calling him.

It took the biker quite some time to pick up the call, as you noticed. "Hey, sunshine." "Hey, uh, I'm not disturbing you, am I?" The man on the other end of the line grunted and scoffed instantly. "Hell nah. Ya never do. I was jus' steppin' outta the shower when I heard you callin', and well... Had to look fer a towel first. Can't run 'round the trailer butt naked." "Why not?" You giggled. "It's not like a curious granny is living next door and spies on you." Another grunt left Daryl's lips. "Yeah, it ain't, but you've been in my trailer before... Too many windows for a too small place. And 'm not livin' in the most private area either, or in a damn skyscraper. A granny might be not livin' next door, but possibly across my trailer. Don need 'er or somebody else seein' my junk."

You couldn't help but to erupt in a fit of giggles. The image in your brain was just too funny. But at the same time, you were glad about his ways of thinking. He was now officially yours, after all - and as weird as it sounded, so was his 'junk'. All of him. Mind, body, soul and heart.

"Tha' ain't funny, sweetheart." You cleared your throat and took a deep breath; calming down. "Yeah, yeah, I know, sorry, I just... The scene in my head was too funny for a moment. Granny's teeth would probably fall out from seeing you naked - and that's a compliment." "Pft," Daryl scoffed. A small chuckle left his lips. "But no, honestly, I'm glad you think like that. I don't want a hot chick passing by, seeing you like that and then trying to get her hands on you." "Dun worry, sunshine. Yer the only hot chick who is gonna get 'er hands on me - if ya choose to. Promise." You giggled at his words like a schoolgirl; blushing.

Since the day you left Gainesville with the knowledge that you and Daryl were in a proper relationship now and granting him that second chance, everything between you felt so naturally. So light and... uncomplicated. Not at all tense or strange. It felt right. It was different as night and day - compared to your first encounter, and the absolute false start you had.

"Well, I'm relieved to hear that." A short beat of silence passed, in which you could clearly hear Daryl rummaging - most likely, through the drawers in his wardrobe. "Wha's goin' on, darlin'? 'M quite sure yer ain't callin' to talk 'bout my package and grannies." Another laugh escaped your lips at his words. "Nope, not really," you said and paused for a moment. "I... I missed you is all. Missed hearing your voice..." you admitted shyly; feeling your cheeks heat up once more. "Ya... missed me?" Daryl more or less croaked out. He was audibly stunned. "Yeah, I did... Still do." Another signature grunt could be heard from the other end of the line and you could swear he was blushing as well; certainly at a loss of words in that moment. "I miss ya, too, sunshine. Can't wait ta see ya again." His words caused a light bulb to light up in your brain as an idea crossed your mind. "Hey, what about you spending New Year's Eve here, with me, in Montana? You could finally see where my actual home is... Meet my uncle and aunt... We're making Burgers!" The smile was audibly in your voice. "Well, unless you got other plans, of course," you added quickly then; not wanting to 'pressure' him into cancelling possible plans just for you.

"Nah. Ain't got other plans," Daryl dismissed immediately. "I'd love to spend New Year's Eve with ya. Sounds real nice, but... Do ya think's a good idea? I-I mean Tess really hates me 'n I ain't blamin' her for tha'..."

Shit... You forgot about that for a hot minute...

"R-Right, yeah, but..." You took a deep breath. "Okay, okay, listen... I'm gonna talk to her. Have to, anyways. I don't want to keep you a secret. Not again. My aunt and uncle won't be the problem. I'd say quite the opposite... They grew tired of only Tess bringing home boys a long time ago, so..." You couldn't help but smile at the memories, which crossed your mind - but you quickly snapped back to reality.

"Tess has to accept it. You're the man I chose - whenever she likes it or not. I'm gonna explain everything to her, yeah? Don't try to worry too much about it. I'm sure she'll warm up to you eventually. Perhaps not right away, but sometimes."

On the other end of the line, Daryl was listening to your every word; gnawing on the tip of his thumb. He trusted you, of course. He trusted you to calm Tess down, so that the whole family meeting thing won't go south and end catastrophically.

"A'right. I hope yer plan works, darlin'." "Me too, but... It simply has to." You and Daryl paused for a moment, before you asked in a quiet, hopeful voice: "So... Does that mean you're gonna spend New Year's Eve here?"

Daryl smiled - unbeknownst to you. "Yeah, absolutely. Gonna pack a few things, gas up and leave first thing in the mornin'." Your heart skipped a beat at his words. "Perfect, baby. Can't wait to see you again." "Same, sweetheart."

Knowing that Daryl was on his way by now, meant you had about forty hours to tell your aunt and uncle about him and drop the bomb on Tess - which was going to be one hell of a task. An inevitable task...

"Tess?" You approached your big sister in the cowshed, while she was feeding the cows. "Hey, little sis," she smiled. "Everything alright?" You nodded, "Uh, yeah." but fumbled nervously with your fingers. "Can we talk?" "Absolutely, hon. Just give me five minutes to finish up here, alright?" You gave her a soft smile and nodded. "Sure, no rush. I'll be waiting inside. It's fucking cold." "Noted, sis." You backed up; starting make your way out and back to the farmhouse.

Since your aunt and uncle were grocery shopping, the house was pretty quiet and empty. Well, given the reason why you wanted to talk to your big sister, it was probably better that way...

Arriving in the kitchen, you made yourself and Tess a big cup of hot cocoa; topping hers with some extra mini Marshmallows - just how she loved her hot cocoa.

Nooo, you absolutely didn't try to butter her up...

Sitting down on the large, folksy, but nevertheless comfortable corner bench in the dining room just across the kitchen, you waited; nervously tapping your fingernails against your mug. You just hoped this conversation was not going to end in a disaster...

Barely five minutes later, you could hear the creaking of the front door - announcing Tess' arrival. Some shuffling and clattering later, she entered the dining room, "Here you are..." and sat down opposite you on the chair. "Ooo, and you made hot cocoa!" Her eyes lit up instantly. "Even with mini Marshmallows! Thanks, sweetie." You tried to play it cool and gave her a smile. "You're welcome." She smiled and took a small sip; humming in satisfaction as the delicious treat hit her taste buds. "Okay, so, what do you want to talk about?" Her eyes settled on you; looking at you with anticipation. You swallowed. You had racked your brain within these few hours on how to exactly break the news to her. Hence, on how to even start... Taking a deep breath, you met her eyes as well.

"Well, I... I got a boyfriend, and he's coming over for New Year's Eve. I still have to talk to auntie and uncle, though," you just blurted it out then; kinda overwhelmed by the whole situation.

Tess' eyes widened for a moment. She blinked and her jaw slacked, before a cheeky smile spread over her face. "Well, now you got me hooked," she giggled and leaned slightly over the table. "I wanna know everything. Who he is, where he comes from, how he looks... If he's a great kisser and of course, how good he is in bed." She shot you a cheeky smirk and a wink. "Gotta make sure he's worthy of you. Unlike that asshole Dixon."

Fuck, you cursed internally. You were definitely screwed, weren't you?

Tags: @angelwings-crossbowstrings @dixonsdarkelf @dixons-sunshine @bigbaldheadname @loz-3 @negansbestie @making-the-most-0f-it @erebus-et-eigengrau @imadisneyprincessiswear @belitoxx @ffsjustletmesleep @ellasdixon @dixonsstinkysock @justmanthatareolderthanme @darylandbethfanforever9 @huntedmusicgardenn @mayday2007 @cakesandtom

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[number-fifty-five]

the apartment we won't share | CS55

a carlos sainz x fem!doctor! reader oneshot

summary : inspired by niki's the apartment we won't share, carlos and his partner navigate through their emotions as they part ways — their minds lingering on the things they've done and could have done.

warnings : slightest bit of angst and a sprinkle of hurt

word count : 927

a/n : i actually shed a tear writing this one it hurts so bad...i have a love-hate relationship with it and i wouldn't wish this experience upon my worst enemy. it's a oneshot so, i'll leave you with that ;)

all the best, ellie.

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

the last box sat untouched in the hallway, flaps open like a gaping mouth that still had room to swallow the final pieces of what used to be them.

carlos leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching her kneel in front of the kitchen cabinet — the cabinet where they used to argue about where mugs should go. she was pulling out the last few plates she claimed were hers, her movements mechanical, almost too quiet, as though sound might make it real. the sound of the plates clinking as she stacked them reverberated throughout the kitchen.

he hated the silence more. it was sharp and deafening. none of them knew which would break first — them, or the plates in her hand.

“you’re taking the white ones?” he asked, voice rough as if he’d been choking it down his throat.

she paused, blinking up at him. her hazel eyes looked tired — not the tired you fix with sleep, but the kind that buries itself in your bones. “yeah,” she answered. “they were mine when we first moved.”

“right,” he nodded. “right.”

the clock ticked like it had been waiting for them to notice the seconds they were wasting. the apartment that once was filled with late-night takeout and her humming while she studied on the couch, with his racing gear tossed in corners and promises whispered between flights — felt cold now. like it had already let go of them before they had let go of each other.

it hadn’t always been this way. there was a time they used to sit cross-legged on the floor, her in his sweater, him still in socks from a flight, planning a life that now would never happen.

they had plans.

“we’ll always have dinner together. no matter what. even if it's just ramen at midnight,” she’d once insisted, and he had pinky-promised it over chinese takeout.

they had a list of countries to visit on the off-season : greece, argentina, new zealand.

they talked about a dog. about moving somewhere quieter after his career. about maybe starting a family someday, when hospital shifts didn’t break her and jet lag didn’t swallow him whole.

none of it came.

instead, there were missed calls. cold food. messages left on read at the worst times. she slept through his races. he didn’t make it back before her night shifts. they became two ghosts in the same apartment.

until the night it cracked wide open.

“you’re never here,” she said, standing in the doorway of their bedroom, arms wrapped around herself. “and when you are, you’re… not with me.”

she never begged. he always promised that it wouldn’t be necessary because he would never give her a reason for it. and yet here she was, her voice breaking in desperation.

carlos exhaled. “i’m trying, joder. you think i don’t miss you too?”

“you missed my birthday, carlos.”

he flinched. “i was stuck in japan. i told you—”

“that’s the point. there’s always something. a race, an appearance, media, flights, engineers — there’s always a reason i'm not worth showing up for. come on, carlos? not even a text? or an attempt to call?”

“that’s not fair.”

she laughed bitterly. “isn’t it? we said we’d make it work.”

“and we did,” he snapped. “for as long as we could.”

silence.

she stared at him then, really looked at him — the man she’d memorized and loved and lost, all in the same body.

“we can’t keep doing this,” she whispered. “this slow dying of something that was once beautiful.”

and the worst part?

he didn’t disagree.

so they packed.

box by box.

memory by memory.

now she taped the final one and stood, brushing her hands on her jeans.

carlos stepped forward, hesitating.

“so… this is it.”

she nodded. “yeah.”

“i don’t know what to say,” he admitted.

“then don’t say anything,” she said. “not this time.”

but still, she lingered in the kitchen, her hand on the countertop they once sat at, legs tangled as they talked about cities and calendars and dreams. she looked at him, really looked.

“i hope one day we stop hurting when we think of each other,” she said.

he swallowed hard. “do you think we will?”

she didn’t answer right away.

“i don’t know. i hope so,” she finally said. “but hope is… tricky.”

then she picked up the box, carried it toward the door, and opened it slowly.

she paused, her back to him.

“i don’t hate you, carlos” she said. saying his name felt like a lump in her throat. “i never did.”

his voice came out broken. “i know.”

and with that, she stepped into the hallway, the door closing behind her with a soft click.

carlos didn’t move. the apartment buzzed with silence. empty shelves. a faint outline of where their photo frame used to hang. a wine stain on the carpet from a clumsy night full of laughter.

gone.

he walked over to check the remaining things they left. his eye caught a beige envelope lying on the shelf. he assumed it was hers — it was too neatly folded to be someone else’s. it seemed as though it was okay for the letter to either be found or not.

with a sigh, he tucked the paper in his back pocket and walked over to the light switch by the door, hand trembling.

he looked around one last time.

then he turned off the lights.

and in the darkness, all that remained were the echoes of everything they didn’t become.

[essentiallyleaf]

day 06. dacryphilia. with. karina.

964 words.

tags.

kinktober ‘23, idol x male reader, friends to lovers(?), dacryphilia (that’s being aroused by tears btw), deepthroating, sex toys, choking, overstimulation, tit slapping, basically unedited, boring tags.

notes.

a little bit of a shorter one today, i was planning on releasing a different fic, but didn’t like how that was coming out and had to write this last second. hope it’s not too bad. weepily, leaf.

It was the exact moment you reached the back of her throat that Jimin’s eyes started to glisten. Not the same way they did when you suggested pizza night to her, no, it was obviously a lewder, more desperate way, but somehow still as affectionate, as enthusiastic do be able to spend time with you doing something that she loves. And while it was clear since you two were best buddies in high school that she loved eating an entire burrata pizza while watching baseball with you, it took a little longer for her to find out that she loved leaving cherry lipstick marks on the base of your cock while you deepthroated her, as well.

Then Chaehyun’s house party happened. Chaehyun was one of Jimin’s best friends since before you knew her, you weren’t particularly close to her, maybe she was jealous of you, the shiny, (only relatively) new boy that just popped up in high school, and quickly became the person Jimin shares her secrets with - one time, she told you, she was trying to flirt with this girl that was in her French class, so she made a paper plane with her number written on the inside and threw it at her, but the paper plane “got caught in the wind” (“It was poorly built, just say it!” “Bro, bet that if we built one each right now, mine would fall further!” - it did) and hit the teacher’s back; fortunately he didn’t open it and just threw it in the bin thinking it was a joke in bad taste, but when at the end of the class she asked the girl out, the girl completely freaked out, telling her that she wasn’t out yet and that if her parents found out she’d be dead; they never spoke again. Or maybe she wasn’t jealous and you were just trying to demean her because you felt that this competition for being Jimin’s one and only was a real thing.

Anyway, late into Chaehyun’s house party, you and Jimin started nosing around in her upper floor, and specifically her room, and she found this purple vibrator (she said she had no idea it was there, but you knew she had been in that room before plenty of times - you’re not trying to imply anything, just, she is the type of girl who might decide to pull someone else’s sex toy out in front of you, because she knows what would happen if she did). What happened after she did was you on top of Jimin with a hand on the vibrator circling around her clit and the other around her throat, choking her. Tears were falling down each side of her face when she came.

Jimin rocks your world. It took you a while to find out all the ways in which she does (well, all the ones you know thus far), but what matters is, you got to that conclusion. And you got to that conclusion in a flash, it took one moment. It was a normal school night, it doesn’t matter when. The two of you were having sex missionary in your shared apartment - the decision to rent one together when you’d be in college came at the end of 10th grade; it was already clear by then that you’d have to deal with each other’s presence for a while. She had just had her third orgasm, some tears already shed in the first two, and her eyes were now closed in absolute bliss. You grabbed her chin: “Open up - glistening, I tell you - and look at me. Don’t close them anymore, ‘kay?”

You resumed your pumping while she was still sensitive, you heard her whining because of it. Her huge, fluffy tits were bouncing in a hypnotizing motion, begging to be touched. That’s a euphemism, you thought, as you smacked her left boob with your right hand. The yell that left her throat was the loudest of the night. What would the neighbors think? (What would they be thinking? “They’re fucking. It’s the sixth time this week.” That’s no news.)

Your eyes went back to hers. She hadn’t closed them, the good girl. And now her lips were quivering. Slap her right mound. Then back to the left. As you kept thrusting your hips into hers, Jimin started weeping.

“Look at me. I am so close. You’ll need to endure for me just a little more”

You weren’t lying, but let’s just say you didn’t take the quickest route. You detoured by going back to smacking the girl’s tits repeatedly, and now she was bawling. You took her hands and lifted her up, now basically kneeling on the bed, then wrapped your arms around her back as you pumped upwards into her pussy. She screamed her lungs out, as she probably reached her fourth, but it wasn’t her voice, it was her legs instinctively meeting on your back that spoke to you. And what they were saying was “I need it inside”. You heard her loud and clear, and deposited buckets of cum in her belly. Still completely wrapped around each other, the two of you fell back onto the bed, panting. Her entire face was wet in tears, her mascara completely ruined.

Jimin rocks your world. It’s when you look at her in the eyes that you can just tell. One moment. You were so focused on her, on keeping her happy and on not sharing her with anyone else, that you never realized how good you felt around her, how good she made you feel.

“How about I help you clean your face from your make-up?”

“I think I’ll need to clean down there, too”

Some of your cum was already flowing out of her pussy.

“Shower with me?”

-

footnotes.

i wonder if you can make a smut only describing stills and never an actual scene. experimentally, leaf.

[admirationandromantics]

Going overboard, 8: Revelation

Hope you liked yesterday's treat! Don't worry, Josh's fine (so far) so don't think about the fact that you just beat the crap out of him. It just had to happen. Anyways, the exam went okay I guess, and I have more, but the worst one is done so I'm finally ready to take care of the longer fics I've been planning on writing. So here's chapter 8, only 3 more to go now!! Remember that requests are open and my blog is always 18+ because of mature content <3

The silence is deafening, Mike sitting on one side, and me on the other. We never got close like I did with the other guys. There was mostly just a friendly comment here and there. Everything I knew about him was from when Emily talked about him, which she used to do a lot. 

“Want to tell me about Jess?” I try asking, looking up at him. 

“No.” I nod. At least I tried, but I get why he’s like this. 

“Want to tell me about Josh?” he asks, pointing his head in his direction. I look down, shaking my head in reply. I can feel my eyes water. Hours upon hours of stress built up. Mike is breathing heavily, as if to steady himself. I wonder if he’s thinking about Jess, and I wonder how everything played out for him. 

“She was taken from behind” Mike suddenly says. 

“Huh?”

“Jess.” I look at him confused. 

“We had just come to the guest cabin, and she thought some of you guys were playing a prank on her. She went outside and started shouting. I looked out at her, and I didn’t see anything, but when she came inside again…”

“What happened?” 

“The glass on the door shattered, hands grabbing her from behind, and she was dragged out. There was a rifle, and I took it. I ran after her. We went down some mines and I found her scratched up in an elevator.”

“Good lord…” I whisper, reminding him that I’m still listening. 

“Well, the wires snapped, and the elevator fell. I don’t know how far, but considering her condition at the end…”

“I’m so sorry Mike” I walk over, laying a hand on his shoulder, rubbing small circles. 

“I saw him, he walked up to the Sanatorium on the mountain.” My brows furrow. That’s a bit of a walking distance, especially to be back in time for the ‘killing Ashley or Josh’-bit. 

“The Sanatorium?”

“Yeah, and there was all of this stuff, and wolves and things.” A revelation goes through my head, and I don’t know why I questioned this before. 

“Wait, Mike. This cannot have been Josh”

He looks up at me, confusion plastered on his face. “What?”

“I was with Josh after you and Jessica went. We had to turn on some water for Sam, we played with an ouija board and… some other stuff”

“You were with him?” he points to Josh. 

“All I’m saying is, I’ve had my eye on him tonight, and when I didn’t, he was busy fucking with Ashley and Chris.” 

“So you’re saying that there is a real maniac on the mountain?” My heartbeat quickens. I forgot to think about the present, all of us now. If he killed Jess, he might kill the rest. 

“If that’s what you saw,” I whisper, looking for confirmation from him. 

“It is.” Shit, a light goes on in our heads at the same time, we need to tell the others. We need to warn them, and we need to get off this mountain. He stands up, ready to leave. 

“Okay, let’s go.” I’m about to follow when I suddenly stop, remembering the third person in the room. 

“What about Josh?”

“I didn’t think about that” he states, hand scratching his neck. As we stand in silence, a loud scream is heard. A girl, not Ashley or Sam. 

“Emily!” I shout. He looks worriedly over at me, before turning to look out the shed. 

“Here, use this if the maniac comes!” He throws me the gun, and I catch it with ease. 

“Make sure she’s okay” I urge him, and he nods before running out in the winter cold. I close the door after him, making sure that as little snow comes in as possible. 

The second I do, a low grunt is heard behind me. 

“Josh?” I ask, concern taking over me. 

“What the hell?” he groans, carefully raising his head. I run over, taking his head in my hands. I lift his hair from his forehead, noticing a bruise starting to form. Shit. 

“I’m so sorry Josh, I freaked out. You were saying stuff, and things started bubbling up and you just won’t shut up and everyone got fed up…” I start rambling, eyes feeling sore and dried up for the night. My throat is closing up, it feels dry from the cold and hurts. He just looks at me, confused like a child. 

“J-Josh? Can you hear me?”

He blinks a couple of times, several emotions overtaking him. 

“Yeah I do. You knocked me out.”

“Josh, I’m so sorry” I cry, face falling in his lap. He shifts, and I’m suddenly aware that he’s still tied up. 

“Shit, I’ll fix that for you, just… Please don’t run back to the lodge. We need to talk.” He nods approvingly. The knots the guys made are complex and many, but I manage to get them loose. When he’s free, he stands up, and I’m afraid that he’s going to run. He looks at me, his eyes soft with a tint of darkness. 

“Do, do you remember everything that happened?” I ask, slowly walking towards him. One step at a time in a careful manner. His body tenses, and I stop. I don’t want to scare him away. I look down, seeing the gun in my hands. I take a deep breath before putting it on the ground. He watches my movements carefully, seeming a little more at ease when the weapon is out of reach. 

“This was not how any of it was supposed to go down, you-” he stops, looking down, kind of ashamed. 

“I know, I know Josh, but we’ve just discovered that there are more things at stake here than your prank” I counter, taking another step. 

“I mean, we, we were together, and I didn’t want to hurt you and-”

“I know, it’s okay. I figured you weren’t quite yourself” I add, finally standing in front of him. He looks down on me, skin scraped and voice hazy, but his mind, a little clearer. A make a move, my hand going to his waist, holding lightly. Before I can proceed, both his arms swing around me, holding me tightly against his chest. I fold my arms around him, hugging tightly back. His heart is beating rapidly, breath hot against my neck as he digs his head down. I give soothing strokes on his back, trying to remind him that I’m here, I’m real and it’s okay. 

He pulls back, and I mirror his movement, not daring to do anything drastic to trigger him. His hand moves to my face, caressing my cheek with his thumb. 

“You’re here?”

“I promise I am”

“And you’re really here?” 

“Please trust me, I am here. I’m here with you” I add, taking his hand in mine and kissing him. He looks a mixed between calm and stunned, two opposites encaged in a troubled mind. “We’ll be out of here in the mor-” I start, but am interrupted by a loud scream. 

I look around the cold, dark shed. There’s nothing here. The scream comes again, like a mixture between a choking man and an angry animal. What is that? The sounds continue, seeming to get closer and closer. I look back to Josh, but his once soft blue eyes have turned dark again. His body tenses, and he moves away from me. 

“No, no, no, no, no, not them again, leave me alone!” he shouts, and I close the distance, shushing him and telling him to calm down. 

“You don’t own me! You don’t own me!”

“Josh, please” I whisper. He rips away from my grip and starts running for the doors. Crashing into them, he keeps yelling. They both open wide on the impact making slamming sounds when they hit the walls and bounce back a little. I’m about to run out to him when a large skinny creature stands beside him. I stop, stunned at the sight. It’s built like a human skeleton, just larger and wrinkly. The eyes are dark and lifeless, glossy in a gross dripping way. The mouth is giant, long teeth curving on the outside of it. Josh keeps shouting and cursing. 

“No, you don’t get to do it!”

The creature suddenly takes hold of him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. Shit shit shit. The monster slams him into the ground, knocking him completely out. I run for the gun, taking it and turning around ready to aim. They’re both gone. I run outside, not hearing anything. 

“Josh!”

“Shut up!” an unfamiliar voice says. I turn around, finding Chris with a crazy-looking old man. 

“What’s going on, are you okay, where’s Josh?” Chris asks, an arm placed on my shoulder for comfort. I don’t know how to answer. 

“I- um, there was this animal…” Another awful scream is heard in the distance and I tense up, shivers running down my spine. 

“Get back to the lodge” the man orders. 

“But Josh-” Chris protests. The man moves closer to him, talking in a low voice. 

“First, the Wendigo, he’ll render you immobile.” Wendigo???

“And then, he strips the skin of your entire body, piece by piece. And then, he keeps you alive and aware and feasts on your organs, one piece at a time” the man continues. 

“So… the lodge then” Chris admits in defeat. 

“Let’s go now, it might still be near.”  

Chris grabs hold of me, urging me to go in between the man and him. He’s got a shotgun, finger already on the trigger. We move a few paces, and I hear cracking and choking-like sounds. 

“Wait, don’t move” the man commands. I instantly stop, holding my breath while looking where I can. I don’t see anything. Chris’s hand is still on the shotgun, and I try to find the trigger on my own gun. 

“Be very quiet”

We stand still for a few seconds, until the man slowly moves forward. We follow slowly, looking around. I hear steps, a gallop like a horse approaching, and the wendigo moves swiftly towards us. 

“Run!”

We both push forward, starting on the path to the lodge. 

“Go, now, now!”

The wendigo jumps in front of us, making Chris and I hop backwards. Fire emerges beside us, and it runs into the forest again. 

“Holy shit, what the fuck!” Chris cries. My ears are on high alert, and I feel my pulse through my throat, beating quicker and harder. 

“We’re right out in the open, we need to get out of here!” the man shouts. The wendigo leaps forward again, and I only see blood as the head of the man falls off his body and onto the ground. My breath hitches, hand going over my mouth. What the fuck is going on. What is happening? 

“Chris” I tug at his sleeve, urging us to run. The wendigo stops, screaming at us. Chris aims the shotgun and shoots it. I grab his arm hard, forcing him with me. As we’re running, I hear it running behind us, catching up easily. We run under a fallen tree, and Chris stops. 

“Chris!” I shout, a few metres away. The wendigo jumps at him, but he shoots it yet again. He turns around following right behind me. A little jump down almost gets me, and I make my way down as carefully but quick as I can. Chris jumps down after me, hurting his foot in the process, but we can’t stop. 

We arrive at the lodge, but Chris grabs my clothing on my back, making me stop. The wendigo is right outside the door, screaming at us. He shoots it again, and it falls back. We try for the door, but it gets up on its feet again. I point my gun at the oil-filled barrels, pulling the trigger. 

“Down!” and I push him on the ground, covering my ears. The wendigo flies past us from the explosion, and I help him up and go for the door. 

“Guys! Open please!”

Ashley opens the door, quick to close it when we’re both inside. 

“What happened?” She looks down, noticing Chris’s sprained ankle. 

“Not here” I urge, signalling for her to help me get Chris further inside. We hear a tug at the door, and that’s enough for all of us to run. We go down the stairs to the basement, and are met with Sam, Emily and Mike. 

“Oh my god, guys. Thank god!” Emily exclaims, running to hug me. 

“What took you so long?” Sam asks Chris. She looks around, noticing some absences. “And where’s Josh? The old man?” 

“He-um…” Chris starts, but he just looks down, not managing to complete his sentence. Ashley grabs hold of him, taking him to a counter and making him lean against the wall. I put the pistol down on the table beside me. 

“That man, he’s dead” I say, Chris letting out a choked cry. “That thing, the wendigo?”

Sam nods, encouraging me to go on. “It took Josh. I was grabbing the gun, but they were gone.” I feel completely empty, tears having been used up for the night, a wave of apathy washing over me. I feel like a robot. Maybe this is what survival mode is, the body going off completely on natural instincts, no time for thinking nor grieving. I’ve grieved too many times tonight already. I won’t believe anything at all unless I see it happen. 

“No, no, no, no” Emily exclaims in needy pointless cries. 

“The flamethrower guy, he was torn apart by the wendigo” Chris explains. I try to get the picture out of my head. 

“Oh god…”

“Alright, are these all the doors?” Mike asks. Sam nods at him. 

“Are you sure?”

“What are you looking for?” 

“Another way out” 

“Mike, I really don’t think that’s a good idea. We should stay put here, until dawn.”

“What happens at dawn?” I ask. 

“Got someone on the radio, they’ll come and rescue us” Emily explains to me. 

“At least we’re safe down here” Sam continues, trying to persuade Mike. 

“Oh, yeah? All wrapped up like a little present with a bow on top, for that thing to tear us apart like it’s christmas morning?” 

“People will come for us… in the morning”

“You don’t sound so sure”

“That’s what’ll happen, right Em?” Emily looks unsure, her confidence leaving her body. 

“Yeah, I mean. Right?”

Mike rolls his eyes, walking fast around like a crazy person. “Well, you can wait, I’m leaving” he says as he walks deeper into the cellar. 

“Mike, there’s no key for the cable-car” Emily adds. Mike turns, a light switching on in his mind. “Josh! He’s gotta have it!” 

I feel my body light up by the mention of his name, but only for a second before remembering the last time I saw him. The time I didn’t do anything to save him. 

“One of his dirty little tricks, so we couldn’t get down the mountain while he orchestrated his whole thing” 

“Great, great!” Sam says disapprovingly, arms thrown in the air. 

“If that fucking thing got a hold of Josh… then… we shit out of luck.” My blood boils at the disrespect. 

“He’s still a person, Mike. Try to have some sympathy for someone being ripped apart by a fucking monster”

“That’s not what I meant, I was thinking about us here, those of us who are still alive” 

“Well, can’t you understand that he’s dead? What if I were to babble about how fucking inconvenient is was for me that Jessica was ripped apart”

“Hey, shut it!”

“No, you need to fucking think before you talk!” I yell back. 

“Both of you, lower your voices!” Sam scolds, and I hum a little sorry back to her. I walk to the other side of the room, arms crossed, eye contact with Mike. He looks defeated. I didn’t mean to touch that nerve, I’m truly sorry about Jessica, but it doesn’t hurt for him to think a little. Chris is standing in the other corner, still looking down and shaking. Emily breaks the silence. 

“It might be possible”

“What’s possible?”

“It may have taken him down to the mine” 

“What?”

“I saw some horrible stuff down there, I think it’s where that thing lives…” She stops, grabbing hold of a dark book she found. 

“Hey” Chris whispers, I look over at him. 

“Josh might not be dead, remember. The wendigo keeps its prey alive, so he might still be” 

My mind clears a bit, relief coming over me. 

“I’m going down there” Mike says. “I’m going down in that fucking monster’s bedroom and getting both Josh and the key” he continues, looking over at me. I give him an appreciative smile and mouth ‘Thank you’. 

“After that, I’m going to get us all the fuck out of here” 

The others are busy looking over the things laying out on the counter, not paying attention to his hero-speech. 

“Em, what is all that?” Sam asks. 

“Stuff from that guy’s bag”

“Is that a map?”

“That guy was prepared for anything” 

“Not quite”

“What is this place?” 

“I was down there, it was horrible” Mike explains. “There had been a cave-in, miners got trapped and like some of them survived. They got medical help and stuff at the Sanatorium, but there was also so much stuff. Like a bloodied torture chair and-”

“Hey, Michael, I would rather figure out how we’re gonna get the fuck out of here please?” Emily interrupts. 

“I’m just saying, it’s weird how much crazy shit’s gone on up here…” 

“What’s weird is that there’s a tunnel leading from the lodge to the Sanatorium, see?”

“That’s how I got back here” 

“I saw this when I was down there” she points to the nest. “That’s where it lives” 

Ashley gets a scared look on her face. “Em?” she says in a shaky voice. “Em, what is that?” 

“Huh?”

“What is that?”

Emily turns around, and for the first time, I notice a large, bloody wound on her shoulder. I uncross my arms, taking a step towards her to look closer. Ashley moves back, a panic response on her part, and Mike does the same. 

“Ash…”

“Em, oh my god, oh my god, no, no, no” Ashley chants to herself. 

“It’s nothing, it just bit me and-” 

“It bit you? What bit you?”

“The, uh, the wendigo”

��It what?” Mike chimes in. 

“It’s nothing, really, it’s not a big deal, it doesn’t even hurt anymore”

I look closer, taking her arm and turning her towards me. “Are you okay?” 

“Yes I’m okay, and it doesn’t hurt, it’s not that bad” 

“Em” Mike says firmly. “If that thing bit you…”

“I know what you’re thinking, and I’m fine” she explains, taking a step towards him. He takes a step back, and I can see the hurt in her eyes. 

“Are you?” “Yes!”

“Emily, at least let us check it out” Sam offers. 

“Emily, if the wendigo bit you, you could turn into one…”

“Oh that’s ridiculous!” Sam says. 

“Is that how it works?” I ask. 

“The man. He said it was from eating each other, remember? He said that!” 

“So if it bit her?” I ask. 

“Then she’s going to become one of them, and then she’s going to turn on us” Ashley finishes, freaking out and moving to the other side of the room. 

“You can’t be down here with us” Mike says, and Sam, Emily and I look at him in shock. 

“What?”

“Mike” I try, but Emily’s talking over me. 

“Are you kidding me?”

“You’ve got to go, you’re putting us all in danger” 

“Like hell I am!”

“Emily! You can’t stay here”

“Guys, we don’t know if it works like that” I interrupt. 

“Yeah, maybe it’s just a bite” Sam adds. 

“I’ve seen what these fuckers can do…” Chris starts. I think back to the man in the forest, his head slicing right off, body falling to the ground. “And I don’t want to see it again” I look down, unsure of what to do. What if it works that way? What if Emily turns into one of them and kills us all. 

“What is this? Guys, what are you doing?” Emily cries out, voice cracked and scared. 

“Door’s right here” Mike points. “I am letting you do this voluntarily”

“Oh no! You’re just trying to make yourself feel better about sending me to my death since you know there’s a wendigo up there ready to rip me to pieces.”

“Oh my god, will you just go?” Ashley screams in her face. “Go, get out of here!” 

Mike walks up to the table, grabbing the gun and pointing it towards Emily. 

“Woah, Mike!” I warn. “You’re not gonna shoot her” 

“Mike, put it down” Sam pleads, grabbing his arm. He shoves her away. 

“You’re gonna shoot me? Mike, me?” Emily asks, tears welling up in her eyes. 

“This is the safe-room Em” 

Emily creeps up on the bench, arms around her legs, holding herself. 

“Please”

“It’s not safe as long as you’re in it, not for us”

She starts crying, and I see Sam turning away, not bearing the sight. 

“Mike!” I try again. 

“Please don’t, please” she pleads between sobs. “Don’t do this” 

“I’m really sorry”

He stands still for a couple of seconds, before lowering the gun. “I can’t do this” he exclaims. 

“Oh my god…” Emily breathes out. 

“You did the right thing” Sam comments. 

“I hope you did” Ashley adds, still keeping a distance. Mike’s still walking to and fro in the room. 

“Maybe… for now” he says, cursing at himself. He points at her. 

“Keep an eye on her, and if you see anything weird, you know what to do” 

“Yeah”

“No one leaves, okay? It’s not safe out there. I’ll be back soon” he says as he makes his was deeper into the cellar and down the tunnels. As the door closes, Emily lets out another breath and puts her legs down. I run over to her, hugging her as she silently cries in the crook of my neck. Everyone is silent while Ashley walks through the room, again noticing the black notebook. She picks it up and starts reading. 

Emily quickly composes herself, drying the last tears and signals for me to give her a little space. I comply, moving away. 

“This says that since wendigos are mutated from humans, when they hunt us they know how to perfectly mimic their prey” 

“So, they can make human sounds? Sounds like us?” I ask, getting shivers down my spine. She doesn’t elaborate, and continues reading. 

“Oh, no, no, no, no” she starts repeating. 

“What?”

“It says that the bites are not infectious.”

“What?” Emily exclaims. I walk up to Ashley, and she hands me the book. 

“The bite doesn’t do anything” I explain. “Emily, you’re gonna be fine” 

“It says that?” 

“You’re safe, you’re not changing or dying from this. You’re gonna be fine” I repeat. 

“Fine? Mike almost shot me, is that fine?” 

“He didn’t shoot you-” Sam says in a low voice, trying to remind her of her volume. 

“And this bitch almost let him!” she points at Ashley, walking towards her. 

“That’s not fair” I add. “She was scared, and based on the little information we had, there seemed like a fairly possible chance” 

“I’m the one who’s scared” she spits back. 

“I’m sorry Emily, I’m so, so, so sorry” Ashley pleads. “I didn’t know what was going to happen, none of us did”

“There’s no excuse, there’s no excuse for this!” 

“Please, just try to understand Emily”

“Understand the palm of my hand, Bitch” she says, before slapping Ashley in the face.  Ashley holds her hand to her cheek, continues apologising and retreating into the corner. Chris is still silent, not having raised his head once since the pistol-episode. I look at him for a while, making sure he’s still present. 

“Shit” Sam exclaims. 

“What?” I ask. 

“Shit, shit, shit. We’ve got to get to Mike, like now!” 

She starts walking, and I look at the others, confused. We follow, and I make sure Chris is still with us. Luckily, Ashley’s walking beside him, helping him keep up as we move further down the dark halls.

[ineffably-human]

It's completely okay they had sex. There is nothing wrong with it and it isn't what temporarily broke them up.

They are both grown-ass men who've had sex with other people before (for various reasons and with various results). The seriousness of their relationship doesn't rise or fall on whether they've had sex because despite social mores, those two things aren't intrinsically linked. Sex is part of how people process complicated feelings all the time (see: funerals, near-death situations), and if both parties are clearly consenting then that isn't necessarily a bad thing or something that ruins a relationship.

Ed wakes up and gets rid of a tangible part of a persona he's wanted to shed for a long time. He makes his lover breakfast in bed. He's not rattled by Izzy coming in to tease them, if anything he's calmer than Stede is (which makes sense as the partner who has actually been with a man/had sex he enjoyed before).

They have a very happy date where Stede's new celebrity status doesn't bother him at all. Ed getting rid of the Blackbeard leathers 'felt good.' More gentle ribbing about sex with Stede gets a smile from Ed.

(They could have chosen to talk about Ned Lowe that morning, by the way, or at some other time that day, or literally whenever they both felt ready to do it. I don't think they did and I think they really should, but they by no means had to process every bit of it five whole seconds after it happened.)

There is no awkwardness, distance, or upset between Ed and Stede until it becomes clear just how much Stede is blowing up as a newly successful pirate, and just how much Ed is thinking about retiring. His conversation with Jackie highlights just how much those are incongruous things. That's when he freaks out and leaves. That's when he starts picking a fight - about how they're moving too fast, about how Stede isn't instantly supportive of his plan to drop everything and run off to a new career, about how fishermen and pirates are fundamentally different or whatever shit he says in the moment.

Because Stede is 100% correct about what Ed is doing - he's blowing it up. Ed is looking for the barest hint of conflict anywhere he can to turn into a bigger fight, and then using that as an excuse to leave before Stede can do it first. And Stede may think that's a fear of commitment or intimacy or something, since he doesn't have the full context, but it absolutely is a cowardly move.

I've seen posts saying Ed is clearly communicating his needs and I feel like I'm living on another planet. Did he ever say 'I'm scared we want fundamentally different lives and that means we can't be together'? Or 'I'm worried the life you want to embrace is the life I need to drop, because it's toxic for me'? Because until he says that, he hasn't told Stede anything.

And nothing about those very real fears has anything to do with sex.

[hxpel3s5-slxxt]

𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐞 𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧

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TW: unprotected sex

A/n: Not all characters will be dated/developing relationships in the first book/season. You may have to wait until the second book/season if you are waiting for a specific character.

X Table Of Contents

Chapter 3: 𝙿𝚑𝚘𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚡'𝚜 𝙱𝚕𝚊𝚣𝚎

《𝙿𝚛𝚎𝚟 𝙽𝚎𝚡𝚝》

"Sung-" Where am I?

"Skimmi-" What time is it? I was supposed to be meeting up with Raedyn and Annaztazja after helping Hanma.

Noticing the soft vibration of my body, I open my eyes to find myself lying in the back of a limo.

"-Kokonoi to call the cleaners."

I noticed that my legs were hanging across Hanma's lap while my head lay in Haitani's lap. In the front seat, the guy from before was still driving, and the one with the pink mullet was the passenger.

While sitting up, a sharp pain causes me to wince and clutch my head.

Hanma's index finger taps my cheek. "Papers."

My head is still foggy from all the pain. "Huh?"

Haitani sucks his teeth. "For fucks sake, the papers I told you to get from the shed." He glares at me through the rear view mirror.

"I literally just woke up. I don't know who you think you're talking to-" Hanma snaps his fingers at me, cutting me off.

"I'm talking to you. Not him. Papers."

Begrudgingly, I take the papers out of my waistband and hand them to Hanma. He briefly looks over the documents before meeting my gaze.

"That's it?" He asks, raising a brow. I nod my head; it looks like he doesn't believe me, but dropped the subject anyway.

The man whose lap my head was lying on speaks up. "Kisaki, take her home. Hanma, the boss wants me, you, and Rindou to make preparations for the—" the man pauses mid-sentence to look at me skeptically. "Meeting. For tomorrow." He finishes.

The driver, Kisaki, makes a detour to my house. Which I am eternally grateful for considering the fact that I need some kind of painkillers for this excruciating headache.

It only took about 30 minutes for us to pull up to my apartment complex. Me and Hanma hop out of the car, and surprisingly, Hanma starts to walk me to my apartment.

Once we reach my apartment, we say our goodbyes, and I step into my apartment. Pulling my phone out of my skirt pocket, I notice that my screen is damn near shattered. To make matters worse, Annaztazja and Raedyn blew up my phone, demanding to know where I was.

We have this system set up in which we would tell each other where we were going, what time we planned on going and arriving, and who would be there just in case something happened to us. Considering the fact that I did none of those things, let alone on a night we were supposed to be spending together, they were more than worried.

I texted them briefly to let them know I was fine and had been occupied assisting a friend. I groan to myself and set my phone down. I'll need to get a new phone, for sure. This is irreparable.

As my migraine worsened by the second, I abandoned the idea of having a shower and stripped down to my underwear instead.

I wanted to abandon the idea that I was a part of a drug and arms exchange. I wanted to abandon the idea that I was possibly responsible for those men dying. I mean, if I hadn't gotten caught, they wouldn't have had to die, right? We could've gone on our merry way, and I would be out drinking with Raedyn and Annaztazja right now.

Sadly, sleep is only a small escape from the large reality I have to face tomorrow.

I wake up to excessive banging on my front door. The little voice told me not to open it due to the fear of it being Haitani, or worse, Hanma.

Begrudgingly, I roll myself out of bed, making sure to grab the knife from under my pillow just in case. After finding out what Hanma has gotten himself into? I want nothing to do with him or his business.

Clutching the knife in my right hand, I slowly approach the door despite the knocking. Looking through the peephole, I find Raedyn and Annaztazja standing outside my door.

Raedyn is 4"10 with beautiful brown skin. Her red passion twists fall over her shoulders, and her dark blue dress hugs her frame. Annaztazja is 4"11 with box braids adorning her head. She wears a tight black dress that accentuates her curves.

I open the door and am bombarded with both hugs and punches. It's hard to tell if they're upset or not when I'm being both lectured and told that they're glad I'm okay.

I blink, "What are y'all doing here?" I question, being tortured by their bone crushing hugs.

Raedyn is the first to pull back. "At first we was like, 'oh, maybe we shouldn't bring her with us, cause she acts like she can't read a message!'"

Ouch.

"But then, we was like, 'nah, let's still take her with us, because this was already a plan.' And blah, blah, blah." She trails off, smiling at me while rolling her eyes and waving her hand in a dismissive manner.

My head swirls with her words and I shake my head. "Okay, but where are we going?"

Annaztazja finally pulls back. "Girl, we literally said we was going out drinking!" She exclaimed as if it was common sense.

I let out a dry groan, still fatigued. "Girl, I'm tire-"

"Okay, let's go get ready!" Annaztazja cuts me off and grabs my wrist, marching to my room. "I don't know why you have that knife, but just know that if you cut me, I'm gon' beat 'cho ass." She says, looking down at the knife with raised eyebrows.

"But yeah, my boss said he's gonna have to cut our pay." Annaztazja sighs while sipping a margarita. I could barely hear her over the loud music at Club Andersons. Despite being a small club, the beverages were delicious. "What? Why?" I question.

Annaztazja shrugged. "It's just a rumor, but everyone at my job believes that another industry cut connections with my company. Now there is less income, and so on." She waves her hand in a bored fashion.

Raedyn beams: "Same here!" We turn and face her. "I believe small firms are beginning to make less income. I'm going to quit my job at the café. They're pushing to bring down my salary far too low."

I feel a hand on my upper back. "I doubt you need to be concerned, though. Gynja is a fairly big firm, right?" Annaztazja reassures me by patting my back.

I give a weary smile. "Yeah, but that still sucks for you. You'll have to look for other jobs."

Raedyn snapped her fingers. "Phoenix trades! That company that operates the docks! I believe that's the name of the building that has been cutting off small businesses."

Annaztazja scoffed. "Their loss. I might understand if they became cocky as the money rolled in, but the more ties, the better."

I place my hand on my chin. "Hmm, not really. Most businesspeople are competitive. They wouldn't like it if Phoenix made deals with a rival company. You might as well cut off the one you know isn't going to benefit you."

"Okayy, businesswoman!" Raedyn shakes me by the shoulders. I laugh.

"Then again, we're all just assuming this is true. Phoenix Trades' owner may have just been forced out of business."

Annaztazja's loud groan interrupts the rest of the discussion. "What's the point of going out if all we're gonna talk about is our jobs?!" She shoves a drink into my hand.

I shook my head. "You know I don't drink."

A tap on my shoulder draws me away from my friends. I turn around and come face to face with Baji. "Jiji!" I beam and pull him into a close hug. He hugs me back, albeit briefly.

"Where have you been? You haven't texted me, Chifuyu, or Kazutora since that small argument!" He proceeds to lecture me, analyzing my face.

I pull his hands away from me. "I've been busy. I have yet to had time to text Annaztazja or Raedyn." I spoke softly, brushing my thumbs across his knuckles.

He exhales calmly. "As long as everything's okay." I turn to look at Annaztazja and Raedyn.

"Actually.." I turn to face Baji, who is immediately looking worried. "Do you know someone who'll let them crash at their place?"

Annaztazja and Raedyn burst with objections. I get that I am in the wrong for airing out their dirty laundry like that, but a chance had to be taken.

Baji thinks for a moment. "Yeah, actually. There's this chick I'm staying with. I'm sure she won't mind, but I'll ask just in case." A smile makes way to my face.

"Thanks, Kazu! If she says yes, let her know it's only until they find new jobs." I'm more than positive the rent at their apartment is going to kick their ass in the meantime.

"Yeah, of course!" His smile is blindingly sweet. "Should we go dance?" He motions towards the center of the club, simultaneously dragging me towards the sweaty, drunken crowd.

Normally, I would be against such a predicament, but as Annaztazja said, what's the point of going out if all we're thinking about is being adults?

Thinking was proven fruitless as Baji's tongue traced down my neck. My nails claw down his back, and our bodies meet the mattress. Baji trailed kisses down to my breasts, his teeth grazing over my right nipple. I push his shoulders, motioning for him to lie down. I take his cock in my hands and straddle him. Baji's hands find their way to my knees, rubbing soft circles on them. I press my finger down onto the head of his dick, using his precum as lube. I bend down and lick from his balls to the tip, forcing Baji to let out a guttural moan.

I bring my head up a bit, letting my saliva drip off of my tongue and onto his member. Lowering my head to the tip of his cock, I gently suck on the head. Baji grunted impatiently. I raise my head with a smile, jerking him off with my hand instead.

I arch my back in a taunting manner, but Baji seems either unimpressed or aggravated judging by the scoff he let out. Sitting up, Baji runs his right hand through my tresses, grabbing at my roots. Baji arches into my mouth, his seed flooding into my mouth. I gag, causing cum to leak from my mouth.

Baji untangles his hand from my hair, picking me up and throwing me on the bed.

"Don't run from me. Understand?" Baji asks, stroking his cock.

I can't utter a response as I feel his cock enter me, hitting my G-spot. My eyes roll back, and my hand flies to cover my mouth. Baji's dick hits unreachable angles inside me. His right hand grabs at my chin, a silent command to uncover my mouth. His thumb attacks my clit, and I lose it. My hands grip the sheets, moans and squeals escape from my mouth, my thighs squeeze together, yet it does not stop Baji's merciless pace.

I feel Baji bite my thigh, and my orgasm floods through me, squirting onto his abdomen.

"Fuuuuck, yeaaaa" he drags. His fingers never stop their rapid rubbing despite my juices coating him.

"Theeeere you go, mama.." He slurs, "yeayeayeayea." He mumbles into the crook of my neck, his fingers finally leaving my clit, settling on my tongue instead.

I fervently suck my juices off his fingers, my eyes rolling back from the taste. Baji chuckles lightheartedly, removing his fingers from my mouth. He lifts me bridal style, bringing me to the bathroom. The smell of wet wood fills my nose as I doze off in the bathtub.

Despite spending the night with Baji, I wake up in my own bed. In my own house. Alone. I'm not sure what I expected.

No, actually, I do. But I can't really expect men to live up to my expectations, now can I?

Constant ringing from my phone drives me away from my disappointment. Even if it's only for a few minutes. I'll even take a few seconds. Turning my phone over, I look to see that the person calling me is Hanma. The average person would decline a call from someone who put them in a near death-situation. But I felt like I needed an explanation.

"Hello?"

He says my name in a singsong voice, "Party too hard? Ya sound like shit."

I groan, my finger hovering over the red button, "Go fuck yourself, Hanma-"

"Right, right. We'll get to your pissy attitude later. What I need you to do is hop your angry ass in that shower and put on somethin' nice, yea?" I hear a chair creak on his end, likely from leaning back.

"No. What I need you to do is—" A loud laugh from Hanma interrupts me.

"My bad, that must've sounded like a suggestion. What you are going to do is get your ass dressed—shower or no shower—and meet Ran downstairs at exactly 9:45."

This time his voice was stern. It left no room for negotiation. Even if I did plan on negotiating, Hanma continued.

"I don't care what plans you thought you had, but you can go ahead and cancel 'em. You wanna be helpful, right? Doin' me favors 'n shit. Do me another by listenin'."

I take in a deep breath. Mainly to prevent myself from cussing him out. Which would likely end in my death.

"That "favor" you had me run," The word "favor" dripping with sarcasm, "Was a one-time thing. You and I both know I had no idea what I was getting myself into. So whatever little plan you've thought up this time, I don't wanna be a part of it anymore."

Hanma busts out laughing. Frankly, I didn't see shit funny.

"Oh, you think I'm the one coming up with these missions, huh? Trust me, I would've done it myself, but I thought you'd be less obvious. I was wrong." He sighs dramatically.

"Even if you're not the one thinking up these stupid ass plans, you were told to find someone who fit the role. And you chose me. Surprise!" I throw my arms in the air, despite him not being able to see me.

Hanma lets out a long groan, likely pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'll tell you what. You wanna get out of this mess? It just so happens that the thing I've been telling you to get ready for is a meeting."

Just as I open my mouth, he continues.

"A meeting with whom, you ask? My boss. The one who thinks of the so called 'stupid ass plans', I believe you called them?"

He must've found my stunned silence amusing, because he would not hang up the damn phone.

"So, like I said, get your ass up and ready."

[insomniac4000]

ChrisMD and Reader- The Wedding Speech

2084 words.

Ever since you were a little girl you had dreamed of the perfect wedding day. The white dress, all of your family and friends around you, dancing, laughter and of course the husband. You didn’t know who that was going to be at the age of six but at the age of twenty six you met him. He had just gotten out of a long term relationship when the two of you met at a bar so neither of you knew really how far it would go but the pair of you fell incredibly hard incredibly fast.

It was New Years Eve so of course the bar was packed, despite it being a ticket only event it was so full there was hardly space to move. It was ten minutes to midnight so the bar was rammed with people wanting to get their beverages before the clock rang out. You frequented this bar semi often but today the clientele was mixed. There was a couple in front of you who were attached at the lips causing your eyes to roll so you looked elsewhere, noticing an attractive man to the right of you.

“STOP PUSHING ME!” You heard a incredibly gruff and angry voice to the left hand side of you. You looked over to see another man placing his hands up in a sorry mate tone. With the bar being so busy it wasn’t beyond reason that some accidents would happen. The first guy must have been incredibly drunk or worse as out of nowhere he punched the other man in the face and a brawl starting right next to you.

“Oh my God,” you shouted as you tried to avoid any contact with the now fighting men. You felt a strong pair of arms around you and your initial reaction was let out a scream, you calmed down when you felt the arms move you away from the men and to the front of the bar. You looked behind at your saviour and saw the attractive man who caught your eye from earlier. You took the time to really study him, he had blonde hair which was swept over to one side, piercing blue eyes and a strong jawline which was peppered with the lightest stubble.

“The person in front of me was done but I thought you’d be better going first,” he explained and you nodded finally smiling at him as you calmed down.

“Thank you,” you managed to choke out eventually, watching as your knight in shining armour got rocked out by the fracas which was now next to him, it didn’t last too much longer however as security had arrived at this point.

“I’m Chris by the way,” he added placing his hand out, you took it and shook his hand feeling the sparks through your body.

“I’m y/n,” you replied flashing Chris a big genuine smile. You ordered his and yours drinks, he offered to pay and when you reminded him they were free as part of the ticket he said in that case he’d have to take you out for a drink another day and you couldn’t say no.

Chris was involved with the wedding planning but left a lot of the details to you, not because he didn’t care but because he knew you cared more and had a better eye for detail. You still involved him in every decision and he was happy to chip in when he strong opinions and ideas but he told everyone that much of the day was down to you. You chose to get married in Santorini as you both wanted an outdoor ceremony and didn’t want to take the chance on the unpredictable UK weather. You had three bridesmaids, three of your closest friends and after much deliberation Chris had selected Arthur to be his best man. The one part of the wedding you had no idea what was going to happen was Arthur’s speech you did know initially he was really nervous about it but he then apparently had a great idea and was much more chilled about the whole thing.

The ceremony went by without a hitch, both Chris and yourself shed a few tears as you read the vows you wrote to each other.

“Y/N nothing prepared me for when I met you, I never thought I could love someone as much as I do you. Your kind spirit,

your generous nature, your sense of humour and how loving you are to all of the people in your life. I am so incredibly lucky that I’m the person you’ve chosen to love, I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve that but I am going to spend the rest of our lives together trying to reciprocate as you deserve the world. I love you so much.” Chris read from his little notes and you couldn’t help but shed a couple of tears, careful not to mess your make up. You manages to compose yourself and read your vows to him. “Chris, you were my knight in shining armour that night, and I don’t care how short you are to me that night you were six foot seven,” you paused a little for some chuckles before continuing. “You didn’t just save me that night but in life. I have loved every single moment we’ve spent together and I can’t wait for all our future adventures together. You’re my everything, I didn’t know it was possible to love someone as much as I love you but you just make it so easy being the wonderful person you are. I am so proud to call myself your wife,” you managed to breathe out before looking in Chris’s eyes and giving him the biggest smile.

You had some photos taken in the winery and in some other places in the venue before walking into your meal. Chris asked Stephen to be master of the ceremonies so he announced you two into the room in his own special way. You sat down to an amazing meal and you and Chris fully relaxed knowing the legal part was over and now you two could just have fun you did notice Arthur starting to fidget a little bit as the meal progressed.

After some more words from Chris and your dad it was finally Arthur’s turn. He stood up, looking at the faces in front of him, he recognised about three quarters of the people in the room just your family and your friends he wasn’t sure on he drew a deep breath and gave a polite smile before grabbing the microphone.

“Hi everyone, my name is Arthur and I’ve known Chris since school. Most of you will know Chris does Youtube for a living and so do I. Now despite that I really struggled with the idea of writing a speech when Chris asked me to be his man and I thought about it for a while and decided to stick with what I know. I grouped together Chris’s closest friends and family and we sat together in front of microphone, now I know every man and his dog has a podcast but Chris, please enjoy this special episode,” Arthur started and could only laugh awkwardly when Chris gave a loud “WHAT?” which echoed throughout the room. The brunette should shrugged and nodded to one of the venue staff who then pressed a button and all of the TV screens which littered the room turned on.

“For fuck sake,” Chris chuckled, you could only laugh as you watched Arthur’s smug face as he sat down and folded his arms in front of him as the screens started to play. The room was the same one he filmed his and Bach’s podcast but this time joining Arthur in the room was Harry, Simon, Will, Stephen and George.

“So to celebrate Chris’s upcoming nuptials I thought we would get together and share some of our favourite memories of the tiny man,” Arthur’s voice flowed through the speakers, Harry popped his hand up quickly.

“I’ll go first,” the Guernsey man offered before sitting forward in his chair.

“So I first met Shannon…” he started causing the room to erupt into laughter.

“I’m kidding I’m kidding. No honestly Y/N is great, no idea how Chris bagged her,” he finished, everyone else in the room nodded and you couldn’t help but giggle a little bit, you were the one who thought Chris didn’t deserve you not the other way around.

“I’ll never forget the day he walked in the flat after their first date, looked and me and Arthur and went yeah this could be it,” George admitted, causing people in the room to aww, including you who place a hand on Chris’s arm.

“I’ve seen him try and chat up women, he’s fucking terrible at it no idea how we’re all sittin’ here now,” Will added his accent shining through.

“The all powerful beard!” Stephen chimed in.

“It’s quite impressive considering he could never grow anything in school, I swear he didn’t hit puberty until he was about twenty two,” Arthur mused. A picture of a sixteen year old Chris then flashed on the screen causing the groom to bash his head on the table a little, you burst out laughing as he was a BABY.

“Do you reckon he brags about other skills as much as he brags about his football ability?” Simon asked rolling his eyes a little.

“Not with his tiny equipment,” Stephen quipped.

“You’ve known him the longest do ya have a favourite memory of him from school like?” Will asked as he picked with his shoelace. Arthur thought for a second before turning his attention back to the guys.

“There’s tons I can’t really think of one but, I don’t think people will know just what a massive nerd he is. People see him as this cool football guy but he used to come into school with his Lord of the Rings books and wearing a scarf his nan knitted for him, with his braces and his fucked up elf ears. Not a cool guy,” Arthur said and everyone nodded in agreement, even in the room Theo gave a very loud acknowledgement of those words being true.

After a couple of stories from drunken nights out and videos, the camera then switched to a different room and this time beside Arthur was Chris’s sister Kelly and cousin Ollie.

“What the fuck!” Chris exclaimed, glaring at his family on their table although he was low key impressed Arthur managed to get the three of them together in a room, it must have taken some planning.

“Was Chris a good brother growing up?” Arthur asked Kelly already knowing the answer.

“He was very annoying but that’s ab big brother’s prerogative, I mean we’re close. I know I can go to him if I have a problem, or need money,” she joked.

“Or more views on your videos,” Ollie added.

“Do you have any favourite memories of him growing up? Arthur asked sitting back on the sofa a little.

“He will deny this to this day but he definitely wet the bed once when he was like six and blamed Ollie’s dog for it,” Kelly revealed, Ollie nodded along also remembering.

“He went on about that for years!”

“IT WAS THE DOG!” Chris protested in the room. You couldn’t help but laugh at the hijinks, Ollie also telling a story about when they were in the early days of the ChrisMD channel and Chris offered to do the laundry for the whole family while on a family holiday so he could earn some more money for FIFA packs but ended up shrinking everything. The screen changed again and this time Arthur was sitting on his own and addressing the camera directly. “Chris, you’re an easy guy to make fun of but I hope you know it’s all done in jest and honestly I wish you and y/n every happiness, so do these guys,” the footage then changed to a montage of everyone who recorded a short good luck message to Chris and yourself all sincere and heartfelt. The screens then went off and Arthur stood up once again holding the champagne flute in his hand as he made his toast to his friend and bride. Chris and yourself clinked your glasses as you stared in each other’s eyes, excited for what the future was going to bring the pair of you.

[innerchorus]

Arslan Senki Chapter 138 (Part 2)

Figured I better say whatever else I have to say before the next chapter comes out later this week. I thought I had a half-written post in my drafts but either Tumblr ate it or I hallucinated it so hopefully I don't forget anything I wanted to include. I already discussed elements of this chapter here and here, but there's some parts that didn't fit into those posts.

Let's start with Hilmes shedding his cloak. A moment in which he suddenly became even more attractive. Okay I'm sorry I'm here for actual analysis I swear.

This is the chapter in which for the first time, he acknowledges the truth of his parentage and abandons his long-held claim to the throne. It feels significant to me that here he is very literally casting aside the cloak he was wearing during his attempted coronation.

Ironically, the room in which Team Hilmes have been waiting seems to be the throne room itself, complete with the damaged throne and big banner of Kaykhusraw. His bloodline, staring him in the face. His loss against Arslan still fresh in his memory. This is the setting in which Hilmes finally moves past his need for the throne. No matter what happens from here, it's hard to imagine him actively aiming for it again. The throne of Maryam would be okay, though.

(Well, okay, I guess if Arslan died then things would change but I honestly can't see Arakawa going there for the ending.)

(and it was at this point that I realised my draft post was not saved on Tumblr but in fact in a notepad file so let me go and consult that for what else I was planning on mentioning!)

Supremely fucked up that, having been informed that his actions were based on a lie, undead Kharlan's solution is to kill Hilmes, kill his own son, and then die again himself? Very fucked up, but if, post-Atropatene, Kharlan had survived long enough to discover that Hilmes wasn't the rightful heir after all, I could see him killing himself due to the shame.

Kharlan's pride as a Marzban of Pars is why the insults he endured from the Lusitanians were so hard to bear, and it's also why it doesn't surprise me that he seeks to 'take responsibiity' because it feels like his pride demands it of him. He was wrong, and he seeks to correct that, no matter the cost. And again, it's all based on his loyalty to the royal line, the very same thing that caused him to betray his country in the first place. The undead warriors really are warped versions of their living selves, after all.

Yet while I said I could see him killing himself if he'd lived long enough to find out the truth, I can't see him killing Zandeh too. I just can't believe that he'd raise a weapon to his son like this if he had full control of himself. You can see it's tearing him apart inside.

AND if you look at their combat, I think part of him is desperately holding himself back. He hits Zandeh with the butt of his spear not once, but THREE TIMES (twice after he's already disarmed him). He doesn't want to do it. He doesn't want to kill his son, and although the sorcery that holds his body and soul together will not allow him to stop attacking, he's clearly trying to avoid landing a fatal blow for as long as possible. Makes me wonder whether that strike to Zandeh's gorget in their initial clash was a similar sort of thing.

Just thinking about how undead Kharlan is yet another person who wants to kill Hilmes simply for the circumstances of his birth, and I hate that (while also acknowledging that this is no less than Hilmes wished to do to Arslan.)

Zandeh really did answer Kharlan’s question about why he’s still wielding his sword for Hilmes with “because I love him”, didn’t he?

With those moments he mentions, presented visually as flashbacks, we're seeing Hilmes through Zandeh's eyes. And Hilmes is seeing himself through Zandeh's eyes. Zandeh's answer is one of absolute honesty. Hilmes recognised Zandeh's devotion early on, but now he sees the full strength of it, and knows that it goes beyond his bloodline or his claim to the throne.

I've been thinking a lot about the expression on Hilmes's face after Zandeh's speech is over. It's like a look of regret and sorrow, and I think it's not only sympathy for Zandeh having to face his father like this, but also for the fact that a man like this ended up serving someone like him.

We know Hilmes ties his worth to getting the throne (remember him saying that he couldn't face Irina before then?). If he's not only lost in the attempt to do so but truthfully never had the right to it in the first place, I can very much see him not feeling worthy of having someone as loyal and devoted as Zandeh follow him. I think that's what's going on here, and it forms part of the reasoning behind his attempt to send Zandeh away.

He doesn't just instruct him to leave the room. If he simply wanted to spare him from the sight of Kharlan's severed head, that would have been enough.

This part had me reeling, because it's Hilmes acknowedging Arslan's calibre. He knows that Arslan will show understanding where he wouldn't have. He knows Zandeh will be treated well. He knows Arslan is worthy of having such a loyal subject while he no longer feels like he deserves someone like that. He knows Arslan will make a good king.

I think I recall @importantdestinydefendor being really worried Hilmes was going to die in this chapter, and while as a reader I didn't personally feel that it was going to happen, what I will say is that I think it's obvious Hilmes himself was preparing to die. That whole 'give Irina a message from me' thing? Sending Zandeh away to serve someone else? Perhaps he was trying to reconcile his 'cursed' bloodline by bringing it to an end (I joked that what he said to Irina about the Parsian royal line's mythology before was essentially 'wanna continue the royal line with me?' so when he references it here it's clear that he believes the line is going to end with him), or perhaps he feels his life has no point now except this act. At the very least, it's an acknowledgement that he's prepared to give his life to defeat Kharlan.

However, thankfully he's not allowed to do that, because Sam arrives at precisely the right time, and I think this'll give Hilmes a chance to find something he wants to live for that's not the throne of Pars. I do, however, think it dramatically increases the chances that Sam will die.

A Japanese fan said that this scene where Hilmes brushes the blood away from his mouth is really hot, and I don't disagree.

Yet while it's been nice to cheer Hilmes on in his actions again, I do hope he can move past this whole 'cursed blood' thing. It's like he's gone from 'my blood means I'm the rightful king and everyone should kneel for me' to 'my blood is cursed so I'm giving up everything and the only thing I'm good for is doing dirty work like this'. I'm just... worried that while him internalising and embracing his cursed blood here allows him to step in and take over from Zandeh, it speaks to a very negative view of himself that will persist beyond this scene.

This is why I need it to be revealed that not only does Zandeh not care about that, but SAM ALREADY KNEW. He already knew and STILL he stayed by Hilmes's side, still he came back to his side even now. And it goes without saying that Irina doesn't care whether he becomes king or not, so hopefully we'll get a scene where Hilmes finally fucking understand and accepts that, too.

Anyway yeah, I’m pretty much expecting Sam to bite the dust next chapter now. I mean, aside from the long talk that they never got to have, his unfinished business is essentially that he didn’t die when he fought Kharlan before.

Sam and Zandeh both sustained shoulder wounds, but Sam's is bleeding more profusely. Actually, his wounds are starting to echo those he sustained during the fall of Ecbatana. I've been rolling that around in my brain a lot, too.

Next chapter should be interesting, I imagine Team Hilmes are going to hear that Zahhak's back and hopefully that will pave the way for a future teamup with Team Arslan.

I do wonder whether we'll see any more sorcerers around, though. Sam's already recently killed one but there are more still to be dealt with, one of then being Ghundi, the one who Sam fought before when he was impersonating Husrab, and the one who very likely stole Kharlan's head. If any of them are nearby right now, it's likely to be him.

[mothergold]

| After Hours | 

Pairing: Dottore x GN!Reader

Warnings: 18+ MINORS DNI, Dead Dove Do Not Eat, Gender Neutral Reader, No Pronouns for Reader, He/Him for Dottore, Blowjob, Face Fucking, Humiliation, Non-con, Reader has hair, Hair Pulling, Abuse, Cum Swallowing, Angst, Dottore has a short temper, Mention of biting off Dottore’s dick at one point but it doesn’t happen, 1.4k words. 

A/n: Teehee I finally finished it. I hope you guys enjoy this. If there are any tags I missed please let me know! Also just a reminder to please read the tags and read this at your own risk!!! 

Summary: Dottore punishes you after you so rudely interrupt his work. 

Tags: @auphelia

Just a little bit more..

Dottore held the scalpel in his hands with precision as he reached his hand out to carefully make the final adjustment. He was close, so incredibly close. He needed only to remain steady and focused. Everything was going according to plan. He was just about to make one last adjustment when your voice echoed through the halls of the lab. In an instant his near perfect experiment had become a failure in a matter of seconds. 

“Dottie! Dottie! I figured it out. I finally cracked this stupid thing wide open.” You sprinted towards his hunched over figure 

He clenched his fist and tossed the scalpel onto the floor not caring where it landed. He dug his hands into his scalp and pulled harshly on his hair. Letting out a great big sigh he turned around to face you. You, who looked at him with a face of dwindling excitement.

“Dottie? Is something-” You asked, hands trembling as you slowly backed into the table behind you.

He grabbed your wrist and grit through his teeth. “What did I say about interrupting me while I’m working?” 

“I-” You started to speak but were quickly dragged away.

Your heart pounded in your chest and tears began to well up in your eyes. Never in your entire relationship with Dottore had you seen this side of him. Sure, you heard rumors about his behavior, but surely he would never act rashly with you. Right? 

Truthfully, you knew better than to interrupt him while he was working. Which is why it hurt all the more when Dottore showed his true colors. 

Reaching the privacy of his room he tossed you onto the floor with a loud thud. The realization of what was about to happen had begun to seep in. You looked up at him broken hearted with a frightened look in your eyes, and he glared at you like you were the bane of his existence. In that moment you could practically feel yourself shrink in size. The man that you loved was no more, only a monster remained. 

“I-I’m sorry, Dottie. I didn’t mean to-” You tried to reason with him, blinking away the tears that fell from your pleading eyes. You apologized as best as you could, but before you could try again, Dottore yanked you up by your hair. 

“Quiet.” He demanded as he pushed your face against his crotch and rubbed your cheek against his hard on. 

You whimpered and squeezed your eyes shut. The smell of his arousal stung your nose as you tried pushing him away. Sadly, Dottore was stronger than you and forced your face back against the area, again. 

“This’ll only be harder the more you fight it, my love.” He said. 

In your mind it was all a bad dream that you’d eventually wake up from. Yes, you reassured yourself, there was no way that what was happening could truly be real,  but no matter how nightmarish everything seemed it was without a doubt real. 

Before you could shed another tear Dottore had undone the button of his pants and with one hand still woven tightly in your hair, he used the other to release his cock from its confines. He rubbed his tip leaking with pre-cum against your wet cheek. You attempted to back away, push yourself off of his legs before he quickly yanked you back.

He smiled. “Open your mouth.” 

The worst part of all was the way you listened to him, immediately doing as he told. You wished you had resisted a little at least, because in one swift motion he had his cock thrust into your mouth and poking the back of your throat. Tears frantically fell from your eyes as he began fucking your mouth at a fast pace, not bothering to consider whether you were okay or not. 

Your voice muffled against the throbbing muscle, and your eyes looked up at him with a panicked expression. He almost felt bad for what he was doing. Almost. 

You squirmed as you struggled to breathe. Looking around frantically for a way out of your unfortunate situation you started to feel your chest heave up and down. 

“If you keep this up I’m gonna cum early.” Your eyes widened in horror. “And we wouldn’t want that now would we?” 

You wanted to shake your head in agreement, but Dottore had other plans. Still gripping his hand in your hair he used his other one to hold your head into place, fucking your mouth with a hunger that rivaled those that starved. He didn’t say anything, only grunted and groaned as your mouth sucked him in such a pleasant way. You’d never seen him so blissed out before, so excited. It terrified you.

A part of you wanted to bite down until you were severed from his flesh, but you knew exactly how that would end. As horrible and disgusting as the situation was for you, you couldn’t bring yourself to bring any harm to Dottore. It was sad, really. You still protected and admired a man that was merely a figment of your imagination. He could never love you in the way you needed to be loved. Not now, not ever. 

Dottore picked up the speed of his thrusts. Taking both hands and putting one on each side of your face he pistoned himself in and out of your mouth. He forced his way inside of your mouth, using your throat like a flesh light. You felt like you would both throw up and cough at any given second, but you forced the feeling down. More than anything you just needed to get through it in one piece, as long as you were alive it would suffice. You promised yourself you’d find a way out of Dottore's grasp the moment it was all over. The thought may have been naive but it was the one thing that truly comforted you in that moment. 

Feeling spit spill from your mouth you could feel your heartbeat in your throat, or maybe it was his. It was hard and heavy, thumping inside your throat like a beat of a drum. As you felt Dottore get rougher with you your nails dug crescents into his thigh, leaving marks even when his skin was still covered by the cloth of his pants. You tried focusing on anything but the heavy feeling of his cock hammering in and out of your mouth, but he was relentless. He never gave up no matter how hard you cried or pushed him away. 

Thankfully, he was close, really close. He was so close you could practically taste it. The scent of his lust was so thick it burned. You squeezed your eyes shut and whined as you felt Dottore’s cock hit the back of your throat with one hard push, and then he held it there as he released himself inside your mouth.

“Look at me. I want to look you in the eyes when you swallow.” He demanded, yanking on a clump of your hair to get your attention. 

Sadly, you had no choice but to peer up with red, tear-filled eyes as Dottore smiled down at you with the most loving expression. That alone was enough to kill you. Oh, fuck if only he hadn’t looked at you like that, like you were the sweetest thing he’d ever laid eyes on. It was that instant that you swallowed his cum without a second thought. You didn’t care anymore about escaping or all the horrible things he’d done to you. For some reason you just wanted to feel his soft skin against yours. . 

“You did so good.” He praised you with a smile, gingerly caressing your cheek once he slowly slid out of your mouth. 

You smiled back, betraying your mind and body which begged you to run, fight, anything. Instead of giving in however, you rested your head against the palm of Dottore’s hand and thanked the archon’s for showing you mercy on that day. 

You expected Dottore to ask for more after the frightening event that had happened, but instead he grabbed a nearby rag and reached for your face gently. “Allow me.” He spoke quietly and full of care.

As he carefully wiped the fluids off your face you could see a hint of the Dottore you knew in his eyes. Something swirled and glittered within the red irises of his that caused you to almost purr with satisfaction. With a look like that it was almost too easy to forget what he had just done to you, but you were very quick to shoo away those thoughts to make room for the sickeningly sweet ruminations instead. Maybe, you thought to yourself, you could learn to forgive him in time. Until then you would simply learn to forget. 

[vinylfoxbooks]

July 27 - Steam | @jartylusmicrofics | wc: 898 NSFW

James doesn’t often use the prefect’s baths, the idea of public baths is gross to James so they try to avoid it. However, Remus and Sirius have been fighting recently, and with their fighting comes a lot of hate sex so James is trying to avoid being around them as much as possible, and that includes avoiding their bathroom sometimes. So James finds themself venturing to the prefect’s bath in order to actually take a shower away from Remus and Sirius’ sexual tension. 

Only to hear moans as soon as they enter the room, their glasses fogging up from the steam and making it so they can’t see just who they walked in on. When they finally get their glasses cleared and can see into the room, their eyes land on Barty and Regulus, who are staring back at them. Regulus is sitting on Barty’s lap with his arms around his shoulders and both of their faces are flushed, and James can assume that it’s not because of the heat. 

“I’m so sorry,” James rushes out, beginning to leave the room, their own cheeks warming up. 

However, before they can fully leave the room, Barty calls out behind them, “Did you want to join?” Which makes James stop in their tracks. Against all logic and instincts, they turn around and level Regulus and Barty with a confused look. Barty is smirking at them while Regulus looks incredibly bored, despite his red face. 

“What?” James asks after a couple seconds of trying to find their voice.

Barty raises an eyebrow, “You heard me. You’re hot, you’ve already walked in on us so might as well join us.” James bites their lip, looking between the two of them for about a minute.

It’s only when Regulus rolls his eyes and says, “Are you gonna join us or not? I would like to get off at some point today, whether you’re with us or not,” does James make their decision. They lock the door to the bathroom and makes their way towards where Regulus and Barty are sitting near the edge of the bath, slowly shedding their clothes. They step into their bath and make their way to where Barty and Regulus are settled, making Regulus smirk, “Nice of you to join us, Potter.”

“If we’re going to do this,” James rolls their eyes, “You should at least refer to me by my name.”

“We’ll see.” He teases before reaching out and taking James’ cock into his hand, beginning to stroke their length until they’re fully hard. James moans at the sensation, settling next to where Barty is settled and brushing their thigh against Regulus’ calf. Barty wraps his arm around James’ shoulders and pulls them into a kiss. It’s passionate and James takes a couple seconds before they wrap their head around what’s happening before kissing back, meeting Barty’s aggression with as much as they can muster. While they’re at it, Regulus starts bouncing on Bartys’ cock once more, little noises being punched out of him with every bounce and his hand moving over James with his movements, the water rippling around the three of them. 

After only a couple minutes, James is coming into Regulus’ hand, their head falling back and a moan slipping from their lips. When Regulus doesn’t let go, they move away from the couple, choosing to just watch the two of them as Regulus starts going faster, leaning forward and pressing his face into Barty’s shoulder while Barty’s hands go to his waist and start guiding Regulus’ hips. James watches the two of them finish, relishing in the sound of their moans echoing off the wall of the bathroom. Regulus comes with a high whine, Barty not far behind him and when everything is all said and done, James lets themself relax into the warm water, planning to take a couple minutes to come back down. 

They watch Regulus slowly pull off of Barty and sink into the water on his other side, eyes closed and body relaxed. It’s only after a couple minutes does James realize that Barty is not, in fact, a prefect. They furrow their brows and let their head loll to look over the younger’s body, “You’re not a prefect.”

Barty laughs at that, “‘m not, but Reggie is. Wouldn’t be the first time that he’s snuck me in here. You, on the other hand, are not gay.” James snorts at that. 

“Who said that?” They ask with a shrug, “For people who claim to know everything and who are in a house that loves listening to other people’s drama, you sure are behind on my sexuality.”

“Oh really?” Regulus asks, raising an eyebrow and peeking over at them.

James hums and nods, moving so they’re floating on their back at the top of the water, “It’s pretty common knowledge that I had a massive fucking crush on Frank Longbottom for years, and that I’ve made out with Remus, and that I slept with Gideon Prewett. And I thought everyone knew about Lily catching me snogging one of the beaters from the Ravenclaw team.” They shake their head, “My sexuality is nothing new.”

“And who’s to say that we follow your sex life?” Regulus snarks, “You’re really not all that you think you are, Potter.”

“Says one of the people who just invited me to join them.” James rolls their eyes.

I'm not super comfortable with writing NSFW, I don't know what came over me, so I hope this is alright

[fjsjjgnnfjdjf]

Size allergy (8/?)

Hehe... Hello? 😅

It took a lot more time than I would have liked to update again, it took me a little while to start this chapter, but now I'll be back with a little more constancy ✨

I'm still planning to make more drawings of this story, I even have plans to make a little cover, but everything in its time 😊

Now we'll see Splinter's point of view, the poor man can't have a day off from his children 🐁

English is not my mother tongue, if you see an error, please feel free to comment.

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

For 13 years of experience taking care of his children, Splinter sometimes thought it was a miracle that none of them had had anything happen to them by now, and this time was no exception. He had been wandering from one place to another after the strange discovery he had made in his youngest son's room, still not knowing what to do, it always happened to him with these things; he didn't know if he should stay and wait for his children to appear, if he should go out to look for them, if he should look for clues or if he should call someone... Everything was always very confusing with his children and he had a hard time making a decision. 

Meanwhile, he kept wandering around the lair, even thinking if he had done something wrong during the training that (for some reason) would have made his children feel bad; he discovered that the tank was still in the lair, which missed him more, maybe they went out to watch a movie? Although they used to give notice when they did that. At one point, he passed by Donnie's lab and, guessing that maybe he had something to do with all this, he wandered in to see if he could shed some light on the matter. 

To be honest, he didn't know if what was there was either incredibly suspicious or the most mundane, “With purple everything is a mystery” he thought to himself. Then he noticed his son's computer, maybe one of the security system cameras recorded what happened with Mikey's gun and maybe it would give him a clue as to where his kids are. However, luck was not on his side, the device asked for a password and obviously he didn't know it. 

“Ugh... Why do they always make everything so complicated?” he grunted to himself, as he tried to guess what the password would be. 

Of course, he had no luck, and after five tries the computer locked up. He grunted again, wondering if maybe it would be better just to wait for them to come back. 

“Splinter?” a robotic voice was heard from behind him. 

At first, he was startled, but as soon as he saw the purple drone hovering in front of him, he returned to his look of annoyance at the earlier situation. 

“Ah... You're just the drone in purple...” he wrinkled his nose, thoughtfully “What was your name again...?” snapped his fingers “Shelly?” 

“Shelldon” corrected the drone, he seemed puzzled by the rat's presence “What are you doing in Donnie's lab?” 

“Uuuu... nothing important” he waved his hand indifferently, when an idea occurred to him “Wait, if you're the robot in purple, then you have access to the lair's cameras, right?” he pointed out with some enthusiasm. 

“Unfortunately, Donnie took that feature away when he upgraded me to version 10.2” he replied with some discouragement. 

“Of course...” Splinter commented frustrated “And do you know the password to his computer?” 

“Removed in version 5.8” after hearing another annoyed grunt from the rat, Shelldon decided to ask “Why do you want to know that?” 

“Ughh... Things you wouldn't understand...” the drone kept looking at him and Splinter sighed, “I'm not losing anything by telling him” “The boys aren't in the lair and I want to find them... I have a bad feeling” 

“Oh! For that you should track their phones!” he exclaimed, and before even the rat asked him if he was able to track them, the drone projected a map above him, marking four bright spots; one blue, one purple, one orange and one red. 

“Wow...” he said with surprise while noticing something peculiar on the map “Wait... Why is red so far away from the others?” the point that marked his eldest son was considerably far away. 

“Oh... It looks like the others are still in the lair... Raph is apparently out of town” Shelldon replied without noticing Splinter's nerves. 

“What?!” he exclaimed upon hearing his eldest son's location “That's not true!... I've already checked the whole lair!” he raised his arms, melodramatic “None of them are here!” 

“So, they left their phones... Donnie left his here” commented the drone pointing with one of its propellers to the genie turtle's work table, indeed, there was his phone. 

Well, this certainly meant that something was wrong (if the previous signs were not enough); his kids could leave without their weapons, they could leave without their equipment, hell! Splinter would bet they could even leave the lair without their masks, but they would never leave without their phones, they were practically addicted to those devices. That only one of his sons would come out with it was to mark the situation as event of the century. 

Luckily, he knew Raphael's position, probably if he found him, he would find the rest of his sons. So, he left the lab, preparing to go out and look for them. 

“Where are you going?” Shelldon exclaimed, following him. 

“To look for my boys” he said as he grabbed the keys to the turtle tank and headed for it. 

“Are they in trouble?” he asked curiously. 

“I hope not... Although if not, they will be with me” he commented the last thing to himself. 

“Oooh... Can I go?” excitedly flew the drone around Splinter's head “I can be the new Donnie!” 

“Ummm... I don't know, purple won't let you out?” he raised an eyebrow at the drone. 

“No” he complained “But that's because he's boring and a party pooper!” he exclaimed in annoyance. 

Splinter sighed a little as he thought for a second. It was true that the little robot was irresponsible, though it was also true that Donnie was boring. Besides, how could he follow the map if he didn't have him or understand his son's technology?, he looked again at the robot, who seemed determined to get out. 

“Hey, I guess it's no problem” he said, standing up, the robot fluttered with joy “But stay close to me! Purple would tear me apart if anything happened to you!” he pointed firmly. 

“Yes! A trip outside!” exclaimed the drone as it entered the tank behind Splinter, disregarding his warning “Booyakasha!” 

~~~~~~ 

Raphael was still somewhat asleep, when a slight tremor around him woke him up; at first, he was disoriented and didn't know where he was, until he saw Mikey's giant face (he was still asleep) and the memories of the night before hit him like a truck. He sat up and tried not to make too much noise when again the slight tremor stunned him; turns out it was his phone, Draxum was calling him, then he remembered. 

“Oh! Draxum... I'm sorry I didn't write you, I forgot” he spoke low, trying to avoid waking Mikey. 

“I thought you would forget” he said with an exhausted sigh “How is Michael?” he asked quickly. 

“He's fine now” at that, he activated the camera to show the yokai the half-sleeping face of his younger brother “He grew more times yesterday, but after that he hasn't felt pain again” he placed a hand on the latter's face to show the difference in size. 

At that, the box turtle started to wake up, noticing his little big brother in front of him with the phone, a bit disoriented. 

“Raph?” then yawned slightly. 

“Mikey... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wak...” he started to speak, but the yokai interrupted him. 

“How are you feeling Michael?” asked the yokai, the turtle wrinkled his face to see whose voice it was and when he saw then he smiled slightly. 

“Barry? Hello” he greeted and looked at him curiously “How are you?” he yawned as he said this. 

“He's asking how are you” Raph explained to his little brother who was still shooing his own sleep. 

“Oh... I guess I'm fine” he answered vaguely. 

“Have you been feeling any aches or pains?” he asked “What is your current height?” 

“I haven't been in any pain after yesterday” he answered more clearly now “Mmm.... I don't know, but I can see over the trees if I stand up” he pointed upwards. 

“The trees?... Where are you, Raphael?” asked the yokai with some annoyance in his voice. 

“Oh... Well, Leo sent us to Todd and...” as he was explaining, his phone vibrated again. 

It was his father! The snapping turtle almost panicked, and quickly cut off the intrusive call, to see Draxum again. The latter looked at him strangely, Mikey also looked at his brother with some suspicion. 

“What was that noise?” demanded the adult. 

“N-nothing... This phone sometimes fails hehe” he laughed nervously. 

“...Anyway” he answered after a moment “If you haven't felt any pain after hours, that means you're done growing... And from what I see, the fairies sprayed you many times” from the phone screen it could see how Draxum was looking Mikey (or at least his face) up and down and saw Raph, probably mentally comparing their sizes. 

“Yes, Donnie told us that yesterday” he looked away somewhat uncomfortably, but quickly returned to a smile “But I'm fine, my brothers and Todd are taking care of me” he said optimistically. 

However, the mention of Donnie upset Raph; realizing that the position his little brother was in was not the same as when he fell asleep. He began to observe the ground around him, there was no presence of his shrunken siblings (which only increased his paranoia), not realizing that Mikey and Draxum were still talking, while he was fidgeting with the phone engrossed in his fears. 

“RAPHAEL!” Draxum's authoritative voice snapped him out of his panic spiral “What's wrong with you?!” he demanded after seeing the camera stop shaking. 

“Raph...?” Mikey said cautiously as he saw his brother stare at nothing; seeing that he didn't react, he gave him a gentle nudge with one of his fingers.  

This seemed to wake the snapping turtle from his trance. 

“Ah!” he exclaimed, getting his brain working again, he gave a feigned smile to the yokai watching him “I'm sorry Draxum, but I have to go, I'll call back! Bye-o...”  

And with that, he hung up the call, if anything Draxum managed to say, it went unheard. 

Before Mikey could ask Raph what the hell was wrong, Raph came out of the little hole he was in on his arm and started circling around him, not taking his eyes off the ground. 

“Raph, what's wrong?” he didn't understand what was going on, he moved slightly, but his brother threw himself on him (figuratively) as if trying to stop him from moving. 

“MIKEY!” that scream was louder and more distressing than he thought, it scared him a little “Don't move!” Raph realized he was scaring Mikey, but he was scared too “I can't find Leo and Donnie!” 

Mikey blanched, seeming to share the idea his older brother had in his head, he almost seemed traumatized by his own imagination of what might have happened. No, he didn't want to believe it, he strongly denied it. Raphael continued to search the surroundings of the huge box turtle, looking for any sign of his shrunken siblings, praying he would find nothing of what his paranoia was making up. After many turns and checking to make sure nothing was crushed, other than the pillows and sheets, he looked over at his little brother, who seemed on the verge of an anxiety attack. 

“Calm down Mikey...” he wanted to try to calm him down, approaching his arm and giving it a caress. 

“D-did you find them?” he stammered in fright. 

“No... But I assure you they are not crushed” that brought some relief to both of them “I'll look for them... You'd better not move too much yet, maybe they're still nearby” 

Mikey nodded, feeling a little helpless as he watched his brother carefully walk away while he searched. As he tried to calm himself down, he felt something strange; he had been trying to ignore it since the early morning, thinking maybe it was his body resenting the change in size, but this was different, only his stomach hurt, he didn't want to think about that now but the pain didn't stop. 

Raph felt a new tremor, but this time it was coming from the giant turtle; seeing it, he realized that Mikey had both hands on his belly and had a slight blush, he knew that this problem would come sooner rather than later, but why just now? 

“Really?” he complained to himself with an exasperated tone of frustration. 

“Sorry” the boy seemed embarrassed by his body's reaction to hunger.  

Raphael felt like he literally couldn't handle it all, miraculously he didn't end up letting out an annoyed scream, just holding it in because he was still trying to be the big brother in this whole situation. But it just WAS TOO MUCH; their dad is looking for them, Leo and Donnie are missing, and now Mikey (who is the definition of huge) is hungry. 

“Snack Cakes!” he exclaimed, wishing someone or something would help him with all these problems. Prologue Previous / Next

[joezworld]

Christmas Story

So yeah, I really did drop a 15,427 word chapter on you guys last time. Hope you liked it.

The Fat Controller had to be summoned. 

There had been, immediately following the shouting and the yelling and the shovel and the wrench, a near perfect silence as everyone tried to digest what had just happened. The snow had muffled a great deal of the natural sounds, and it amplified the quiet. 

The silence that occurred after the Fat Controller finished roaring at Truro would have been as equally complete on a brisk summer’s day as it was on snowy Christmas Eve. 

Not even the snow dared crunch under Charles Hatt’s feet as he walked away, then stopped and turned on the ball of his foot. He pointed at Truro, and the engine jumped slightly. “I expected better of you. I will not make that mistake again.” 

He continued on his way back to the station. On the platform, the stationmaster, signalman, and yardmaster were staring in wide-eyed shock. “See to it that he is returned to his owners post haste.” The Fat Controller hissed as he walked by, not even turning to face them. 

The doors to the waiting room opened and shut with a slam, and they were alone on the platform for a moment. Then the doors opened again, much more softly, revealing Stephen Hatt. He was calmer, but no less furious. “So, which one of you got his nose like that?”

The three men looked at each other. “Someone from the P-Way gang.” Said the stationmaster. “Don’t know his name.”

“An’ Ted, one of the drivers, got him with the shovel,” the signalman spoke up. 

Charles didn’t say anything for a while, rummaging through his coat pockets for something, eventually fishing out a silver flask. “Tell them “well done”.” He said, popping the cap off and taking a long drink. “That one deserved it.”

-----

The news spread up and down the line like wildfire: 

At Wellsworth, Edward was outraged, his smoke jagged and shaky as he fumed. “I cannot believe I didn’t notice!” he raged at himself. 

BoCo, on the other buffer, was less upset. “I can’t believe they broke his nose. I wish I could’ve seen it. I hope they don’t fix it before I can see it.”

-

On Thomas’ branch line, the engines were horrified. “He did what?” Toby said, horrified and aghast. “Doesn’t he have any decency?”

“He thought he did,” Thomas said quietly. “It’s just that his version of decency is quite indecent to everyone else.”

“He’s a goddamned fundamentalist, is what he is,” Percy grunted. “They’re always trouble.”

“Forget him,” Daisy scoffed. “What about Bear? Has anyone told him?”

-

Bear smiled when the stationmaster told him. For reasons that he couldn’t properly express even to himself, he’d started sleeping out behind the shed in Barrow, and had planned on having a very lonely Christmas. “They roughed him up some?” He chuckled. “Well isn’t that the best present I could get. Warms me up a bit just thinking about it.” 

“Yes, I imagine it would,” the stationmaster replied, keeping his uncharitable thoughts about Western steam engines to himself. 

“Say, is there any way I could get back to Tidmouth sheds by tonight?”

“The Fat Controller already called. You’re on the next train out of here.”

-

In the sheds, there was a very distinct rumble of anger at Truro’s actions. 

“Some icon he is,” James scoffed. “Let the mainland have him, I say!”

“I cannae believe that he’d stoop so low.” Douglas growled. “An’ do all that.”

“I coulda’ been killed!” Donald interjected. 

“You and me both…” Oliver said, voice quiet. “I can’t believe that I didn’t see it.”

“None of us did,” Delta said. “I thought he was a run of the mill bastard, not… one of my siblings.”

There was a wave of agreement through the shed. “He really is a diesel, isn’t he?” James said. “In all the very worst ways. No offense.”

“None taken.” She mused. “I ought to adopt him. Lord knows we’ve lost enough of the ranks in the last few years.” A pause. “Oh he’d hate that, wouldn’t he? The idea that a diesel likes him.”

James and Oliver both snickered at the thought. “You should do that. He might melt his crown sheet.” “You can have him, I don’t imagine anyone else wants him.”

A little bit more laughter echoed across the diesel-steam divide before Delta rolled her eyes. “Gosh, that means I’d have to put up with him, wouldn’t I? Maybe not then.”

“Yeah, for the best.” “Probably.”

“What do you think, Gordon?” She looked over to where the big engine was uncharacteristically silent. “Anything?”

“Hmm?” Gordon raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I don’t think I have anything productive to say right now.”  

James raised an eyebrow, and barely managed to stop something insulting from coming out of his mouth. Gordon caught it anyway, but recognized the effort. “Truly, I don’t.” He paused, exhaling a deep breath. 

James’ eyebrow was joined by one from Oliver. 

Gordon rolled his eyes. “Oh fine. You want my piece?” He exhaled again. “There are lines that are created when you reach this stature, when you become the face of a railway. They exist for Flying Scotsman, they exist for Mallard, they exist for Duchess of Hamilton, and they exist for myself.” He looked deeply serious. “In time, I feel that they may come to exist for Thomas, even.” Another pause. “These lines are not… restrictions, but they are there, constantly. You are the icon of the railway - of your lineage. Your actions reflect upon everyone. To cross them, to break the norm, is a very serious thing indeed.”

There was a choked noise from the other end of the shed, and everybody looked over at Duck. 

After the… event with Truro, the Fat Controller had cancelled the rest of the Little Western’s services for the day - Oliver needed to be checked for damage, and Duck (who had heard everything) refused to move under his own power. Donald had pulled them back to the big station, and pushed them into the sheds. 

Duck hadn’t said a word since, and everyone had assumed he’d fallen asleep. 

Whether he actually had was immaterial, because he was now awake and crying quietly. 

Oliver and the others immediately tried to comfort him, and Gordon was left alone in the clamor. “It’s a serious thing,” He said, unheard by everyone. “Because you stop being an engine, and start being a legend.”

He watched as Duck wept silently. “And people put a great deal of faith into legends…”

--------

It is almost Christmas.

--------

At some point close to midnight, as the last passenger trains for the mainland slipped off into the distance, an inspector came to the sheds. Now that it’s quiet, he said. Someone needs to bring Truro up to the big station. 

Gordon was still in steam, and volunteered before anyone else could say anything. 

He went light engine, taking due care in the tunnel, Bulgy’s bridge, and the points outside Haultraugh station. How many hours, pounds, and men did it take to fix the problems caused by one engine? He thought as he made his way down the line. 

The station at Arlesburgh was empty, with everything buttoned up tightly for the holiday. There was a sliver of light coming from inside the shed of the small railway, but everything else was lit only by the moon. 

Truro sat by the shed, alone, cold, and forgotten about; his glossy paint, which usually reflected light back into the air, seemed to be absorbing it, leaving the area around him darker than the rest. 

Silently, Gordon slipped into the goods yard, and retrieved two flatbeds and a brakevan. Nobody, engine or crew, wanted to be near the disgraced Westerner, and so the flatbeds acted as physical separation; the van was to make sure that they didn’t have to rely on Truro for any braking power. 

The trucks watched silently as Gordon collected his train. “And they said tender engines don’t shunt.” one voice whispered from the sidings. Gordon didn��t dignify it with a response. 

“Are we taking him to be someone else’s problem?” Toad asked as Gordon coupled up to him. 

“We’re getting there.”

“Excellent.”

Truro finally seemed to realize what was happening as Gordon marshalled Toad and one of the flatbeds next to him. “Are you to ‘take me away’?” he asked, mockingly. 

Gordon, Toad, and the trucks glared at him, but otherwise remained silent. They stayed silent as Gordon was turned on the turntable, the train was put together, and then set off for the big station. 

As they left the yard, seemingly every truck in the yard called out "good riddance!”, breaking the silence for the first and only time. 

Truro seemed unnerved by that for just a second, but the train had been oriented so nobody actually had to look at him, so it wasn’t a sure thing. 

“What?” He asked as they rolled towards Haultraugh. “Not one word for the condemned? Are you all so poisoned by the soft thinkings of this island that I don’t even get a final goodbye?”

“City of Truro.” Gordon said finally. “I understand the things you went through. I went through many of them myself.”

“I don’t think that you di-”  

“And I thought, perhaps naively, that you and I were similar.”

“Similar? Pah! Our similarities end at the coal that goes in our boilers!” Unseen by everyone, Truro was twisting up his face in bitter mockery, and making his already broken nose worse with each facial contortion. 

“I know,” Gordon said as he negotiated the train through the temporarily-repaired switch at Haultraugh. “I assumed that our differences were the core of our similarities, Our roles as leaders of what was left of our lineages. I am the first Gresley, and spoken of in the same breath as Mallard and Flying Scotsman. You are the Greatest Westerner, and often come up in concert with Brunel himself.”

“Oh get on with whatever pretentious moral judgement you want to give me, and spare me the sermon.”

Gordon’s face twisted into a frown. “I assumed incorrectly, and it will not happen again. You are not like me, nor my brother. You are no luminary, no role model. You have a half-baked record to your name and little more. You are a disgrace to your railway and mine.”

Truro’s response was lost to the noise as the train entered the tunnel, and no more was said after that. 

Gordon completed the trip in silence, and left Truro in the yard near the station, surrounded by empty tracks and a brick wall. He made sure to move Toad and the flatbeds before he left, and then sidled up next to him. 

His crew jumped down, and began setting Truro’s handbrake and chocking his wheels. “I’m a disgrace?” Truro said, clearly trying to get the last word in. “It’s you who is-”

He was cut off, not by Gordon, but by the clocktower from the Catholic Cathedral. It bonged once, twice, eventually twelve times, and then launched into a deep, bass-y version of Carol of the Bells. 

“Merry Christmas, City of Truro.” Gordon said as he steamed away. “I hope that you find happiness someday.” 

-

A few minutes later, he arrived in the shed to find everyone sleeping the sleep of the exhausted. He noted with some joy that Bear was parked squarely between James and Delta, and was snoring away like nothing was wrong. 

“Merry Christmas, everyone,” he said as quietly as he could, while his crew banked his fire.

He didn’t go to sleep just yet, though. He had to think about something…

[arealphrooblem]

A Lost Cause Part 2

Synopsis: The trusted keeper of all the Heroes' secrets, Civilian's existence is kept a tightly guarded secret itself. So how did the villain find her? And how will she withstand the attempts of his scientist to break her open and discover those secrets himself?

CW: nonconsensual drugging, medical whump, medical experimentation, needles/IV insertion, mentions wounds from torture, torture recovery, captivity

The anticipation of what might happen each time he walked into the room was almost worse than actual torture. His words ran on a loop in her head as she dozed in and out of deep sleep.

I am dying to create the tools that will break you open.

But each time he visited, he did nothing but check vitals, change bandages, survey her progress, feed her. Slowly she worked her way up from broth to solid food, from sleeping most of the day to sleeping at night, from needing a catheter to walking to the bathroom herself once the bottoms of her feet were healed (and that was not a fun day, no sir).

The scientist refused to answer her questions outright unless she offered up answers of her own. Each day they ended in a stalemate, which he seemed to find amusing.

He refused even his name. Eventually she just started calling him the doctor, because he treated her like one. Despite her captivity, despite the ominous warning Vanderbilt gave her in the interrogation room, despite her overwhelming vulnerability, he treated her with polite and patient professionalism.

She tried to give him the same courtesy. Whatever his future plans were, he had given her the space and time to heal back to full strength. She would make sure he regretted that. But first she had to look cooperative and weak.

A few days after shedding both the catheter and the bandages on her feet and thighs, the doctor strolled in not with his usual stethoscope, but with a clipboard and a pen.

Her gut did not like that.

“Your recovery is chugging along quite spectacularly,” he said, clicking the pen. “Which means we are almost ready to start the clinical trials. Of course, before I give you anything, I will need you to answer a few questions about your medical and family history.”

“Clinical trials for what?” she asked, feeling like she swallowed a stone.

“For my experiments, of course,” he said, as if it were obvious. “Why did you think I’ve been helping you recover? Pity? The goodness of my heart?”

“What experiments?” she demanded.

“Oh I have several in mind for you. But first, a few questions.”

“Sure, of course,” she said, deeply scathing. “Let’s make it easier for you to torture me. I’ll jump right on that.”

“You should, if you want greater chances of survival. I need to know your allergies, cancer risks, medications you’ve been on, previous surgeries, or else I could accidentally kill you. You’re a very special experiment. I’d rather not lose you so soon to such a preventable cause.”

It made her blood run cold, the casual way he voiced her probable death, as if  he equated it with the disappointment of prematurely expired raspberries. An inconvenience, but there’s always more.

The worst part was that he had a point. What would be the purpose of her team rescuing her in a blaze of glory if she had died of anaphylactic shock?

So through gritted teeth, she answered all of his medically relevant questions. He wrote each down dutifully on his clipboard.

“And your name?” he asked finally.

She pursed her lips into a thin line and glared at him. He nodded.

“Not today, then. No worries. That will be the first thing you give me with the success of my first experiment.”

A knot formed in her stomach. “What’s the first experiment?” she couldn’t help but ask.

He smiled enigmatically. “You’ll find out when the time comes.”

She waited a few minutes after the door shut before she tip-toed to the window. The only thing she could see outside was a sheer cliff and water for miles. Probably the ocean, but she couldn’t open the window to tell. It was nailed shut.

Wherever she was, it looked far from civilization. Maybe that was why, after what had to be at least a month if not more, that her team hadn’t found her yet. They were city people. Superheros rarely had to venture into the rural countryside, let alone a place this remote.

Such reassurances did not cure the unease in the back of her mind that something didn’t add up.

Now that she had recovered, fatigue did not weigh her down so much and boredom began to creep in it’s place. The doctor offered her a handful of novels, mostly pulp scifi and dystopian literature. She read them and re-read them so often she could quote passages from each one. When the doctor finally appeared in her room with a small, rolling table of syringes and an IV needle, the jolt of adrenaline was almost euphoric in the face of the mind numbing monotony of her days.

“You seem eager for our first experiment,” the doctor said with a bemused quirk of his lips.

“Ecstatic,” she deadpanned, ignoring the jolt in her heart. “I can’t wait for you to kill me with whatever ungodly chemical is in that.”

He chuckled, pushing the cart next to her bed.  “You’re right in that God has nothing to do with what I create. But it is not my goal to kill you —  the opposite in fact. I try to limit risks as much as possible. There is only one you, after all.”

“Is that supposed to be reassuring?”

“Is it not?” It was almost comical how he blinked at her in innocent confusion.

She just glared at him in return, which he cheerfully ignored as he slipped the latex gloves on with a snap. He even hummed a little as he pulled open the packaging for the IV needle and the alcohol wipe.  

Meanwhile her gut churned and frothed in horrible anticipation. She had gone through literal torture but this scared her more. When knives or brands or electric cattle prods came out, at least she knew what they did. No one knew what would happen as a result of this experiment, not even him. At least the goal of torture was to keep you alive as long as possible. These experiments could kill her. These could be her last living moments.

Fear tainted her every breath but just as she did in the face of her torturers, she refused to let it show on her face. Instead she stared resolutely out the window, at the glint of the water in the sunlight.

“Deep breath,” he murmured just before she felt the sharp pain of the IV needle.

Her gaze darted to him, drawn like a magnet to the sight of him tapping the air bubbles from the syringe. Nausea roiled inside her.  She fought hard against the urge to rip the IV out before he could inject the serum. Instead, she could only watch in horrified resignation as it flowed through the IV drip.

“And now we wait,” he said, flashing her that polite smile, as if they were sitting in a doctor’s office.

He removed his dark tinted glasses and sat down at the love seat.

“We wait?” she cried. “Wait for what?”

The anticipation of the IV alone nearly drove her mad and now this?

He shrugged. “Ideally your mind should relax into an altered state where you forget you’re not supposed to keep your secrets and you tell me whatever information I desire. However, that didn’t work well back with Vanderbilt and I’m not expecting much success this time. I just want to see how you react to these sorts of chemicals.”

“So you’re just fucking around with my brain?”

“In a manner of speaking, I suppose.” He crossed his legs and tapped his thumbs on his knees, the picture of nonchalance. She never wanted to hit him so much.

“What if it does nothing? What if you failed?”

“Failure is just important data I didn’t have before. I’m not afraid of failure.”

You should be she thought bitterly.

But of course it wasn’t his life on the line.

When the effects hit her, it wasn’t nothing. All the muscles in her body locked up and spasmed. She could do nothing but writhe in the bed and scream. It felt worse than all her other torture combined.

By the time she finally blacked out, she couldn’t scream anymore.