#Getting a lot of “No because BLANK” as well as “Yes because BLANK” answers with it

[celtrist]

Those in Louisiana who are native speakers of French generally either speak Louisiana French (aka Cajun French) or Louisiana Creole. In the early 1920s, the state govt. prohibited Louisiana public schools from teaching in French, and students were often punished for speaking Cajun French or Creole in the classroom. As a result, many Cajun and Creole people who grew up during that time didn’t pass down the Cajun and Creole French language to their children, and they instead only taught their kids English.

(This is what happened in my own family, so although I’m ethnically Cajun, I’m sort of learning Cajun French from scratch, since I grew up not really knowing any of the language, with the exception of the words sha and do-do.) Kirby Jambon on YouTube is a great resource if you’re interested in learning more about the Cajun French language and culture. There’s also Rouganou on YouTube, who has made some pretty good videos on Louisiana Creole.

I could also talk a bit about other aspects of Cajun and Creole culture, like the large Catholic population and the cuisine (yay crawfish boils!), but I suspect that info won’t be super useful to you if you’re trying to use it to write a character who is, from what I know of the source material, a cannibalistic demon man. (Well. I guess there’s always a possibility that Alastor puts a bit of Tony Chachere’s or Slap Ya Mama on the people he eats and then like. Experiences Catholic guilt about it. That’s what I do with fettuccine alfredo.)

Huh, okay. I've been receiving some back-and-forth stuff on the subject but, relatively speaking, most people have been sure about there being some form of French speaking/dialect.

Though, like you said, it would be uncommon during the 20s and 30s. There is a chance for the character to speak/learn it as he was in his 30s-40s when he died in 33.

Definitely for the most part I've been getting that he'd speak a variation of French due to being for Orleans, but him speaking metropolitan French wouldn't be horribly inaccurate for him to speak? Cajun French was pointed out to me as something that WOULD be unlikely though as it's something more from outside the city of Orleans than in it (which again, I think checks out with previous discussions I've had on the subject!).

There's definitely been mixed responses: some people saying he would speak cajun French, some say he wouldn't, some say he'd speak international French, others say he wouldn't, and so on. So I'm sort of quickly realizing information on the topic is a bit inconsistent, more than likely not helped by the French variations (Louisiana, Creole, and maybe Cajun?) being more on the side of dead languages and perhaps not the best documented. So at best, we have first-hand accounts with families as even web searches can be a bit inconsistent as well either to themselves or with people who've had families live in Orleans and the like.

[seresinhangmanjake]

Could we please get Feyd x reader where they have an arranged marriage with feyd and the House Harkonnen expects her to be replused by him . But instead reader is completely obsessed with him and finds him so hot because he is lol and he can do no wrong. LOVE YOUR FEYD STORIES 💌

Unexpected

Feyd-Rautha x Reader

Notes/Warnings: None, i think. I mean, arranged marriages? That's not really a warning though. Anyway, i fear this kind of sucks. My writing has been messed up lately. Hopefully, you guys still enjoy it anyway.

Words: 2100

Feyd-Rautha Masterlist / Main Masterlist / Tag list

They’ve been chattering for what has felt like hours—going on about dresses and parties, servant boys they find particularly interesting—and at some point, your mind could no longer take the dull droning, and so you drifted onto thoughts of him. 

You know everything about him, read everything about his family. You saw his face in an updated textbook about the Great Houses, drawn in what you hope is a perfect likeness, because if it is, then he’s absolutely stunning. You’ve never seen anything like the Harkonnens, but then again, they look like no one else. They’re wholly unique and you want everything to do with them—well, specifically, everything to do with Feyd-Rautha. 

“I can’t believe they’re marrying you off to him,” one of your friends—the daughter of House Wallach—says.

You snap out of your thoughts, wondering when the conversation turned toward you and your soon-to-be husband. You hum in question, needing more time to provide an answer that won’t induce raised brows and dropped jaws. 

“Yes,” the other says—Duke Leto’s daughter, whose bedroom balcony you’re currently sitting on. “How can they do that to you? You’re their only daughter and they are giving you to a murderous House.”

“We’re all murderous Houses,” you quickly say, and from receiving the blank stares you’d hoped to avoid, raise your teacup to your lips to hide your blush. You take a sip, then continue. “What I mean is, history states we’ve all dealt with bloody hands. That’s how our families are where they are.”

“Well, the rest of us don’t kill anymore. Our families are praised, worshipped.”

“So are the Harkonnens.”

“Out of fear,” Wallach reminds you. “The Baron is vile, as if you don’t know, and he trained Feyd-Rautha to be just as insane.”

Insane. That word has been used a lot lately. Your mother shouts it at your father for his willing agreement with the Baron. Your servants whisper it amongst themselves when they think you cannot hear them. That boy is insane, they say. She’s doomed, they say. But you don’t see it that way. You’re not scared of Feyd-Rautha. You’ll admit you don’t so much care for the Baron, but that’s because you’ve heard of his treatment of your future husband.

People claim Feyd-Rautha’s a lapdog—you don’t believe that. From what you’ve learned, you see no puppy in Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. You see a lion on the prowl, biding his time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike from below. You see a man hunting his dinner. You hope upon meeting, he gobbles you up as well. 

“Aren’t you terrified?” Atreides asks. “Don’t you think about your first night with him?”

You certainly do. Another sip of tea hides another blush. “I’m not worried.”

Wallach blows out a huff of breath. “Maybe you’re as insane as he is.”

Yes, you think maybe you are. 

—

Your mother struggles to hand you over. You’re the one who has to pry her gripping fingers from your arm so you can step forward and bow to the Baron. When you rise, you sneak a peek at Feyd-Rautha just to his uncle’s right. He’s as beautiful as his picture depicted. His eyes are just as glazed over with steel as you imagined. He looks at you, and the steel melts ever so slightly. His brow pinches. He swallows hard. 

“I trust my daughter will be well taken care of,” your father says, a puff expanding his chest. It makes him look no more menacing than he is. 

The Baron chuckles. “In the hands of my nephew, you can expect no less.”

You know it’s a lie. One corner of Feyd-Rautha’s lips quirks upward. He has plans for you—good. You like plans. You have plans of your own. 

He steps down the staircase that has held him above you and your family and takes your hand in his. He presses his lips to your knuckles. Your blood zings throughout your veins. If this is all it takes for you to feel this way, you can’t imagine what more will do to you. The thought of his lips in new places, his tongue in new places, makes your eyelids flutter. 

“My Lady,” he says. His voice is intoxicatingly low. 

“My Lord,” you say back to him. 

When you smile at him, the smirk drops from his face and his head jerks back. Cold, blue eyes scan your features for falsities, as if you wear a mask he can remove to reveal a frown. He watches that frown fall into place only when your mother comes up behind you. 

“Oh, my sweet daughter,” she cries, whipping your body around so she can properly hug you goodbye. “Don’t let them change you,” she whispers in your ear. “You’re too lovely for them.”

“I’ll be fine,” you tell her. You’ll be more than fine. This is the most excited you’ve been in years. And you knew it would be. That’s what he brings out of you…already. 

—

He likes you. Well, he likes you in a way—he likes the look of you—but it’s hard to say if he likes the rest of you yet. He sneaks glances where he can, but he doesn’t often allow you to be in his presence for long. He removes you from his training sessions when you peek in to watch. He leaves once you join for dinner, which you’re less than a fan of, considering it leaves you to his brother and uncle’s company. He does not come find you to say goodnight. 

Don’t you have better things to do, he’s often snipped at you when he finds you close by. You’ve assumed he means in preparation for the wedding in a week, but you told your new servants and planners to do whatever they want. You don’t care what the damn wedding will look like. You don’t care what you’ll look like. You just want him. You want to be around him. Watch him fight. Watch his muscles tense and shift and strain in the war of death. You want to see his body shine with sweat and his eyes harden with a murderous glare. But he won’t let you.

The closest you’ve been able to get to what you want is by sitting in the stands of the arena, where you have to observe his skills from a decent distance. And while it is wildly exciting to see the man you’re going to marry covered in the blood of enemies, you wish you could be closer. You wish you were close enough so he could grin at you as men’s bodies fall off of his blade. You wish he wanted you close to him because it’s killing you to be so far away. 

After days, you still don’t understand the separation. You figured your smiles at him would be enough to get the message across that if he likes you in any sense of the word, then he should be going for you as much as you would him if he’d permit it, but no. He keeps his space between you. Unfortunately for him, you’re sick of it. 

—

“I’m tired of you avoiding me,” you call as you chase after him down the darkened hallway. You’d been waiting outside his training room for hours, hoping his keen senses couldn't pick up your unsteady breathing as you prepared yourself for this exact confrontation. 

His steps stutter at your words and he pauses. He turns on his heel, and with narrowed eyes, advances on you. His form towers over yours, and in any other situation, you might detest the abuse of power, but here, now, you feel a sharp thrill. You try not to let his lack of shirt affect what more you intend to say, but it’s hard. You’re already swallowing saliva. You’re core is already throbbing. 

“Do you have a moment?” you ask.

Feyd’s muscles tighten and bulge as his arms cross over his chest. He huffs. “I don’t understand you. You’re like a little rodent, you know,” he says. “Following me around as if I drop crumbs for you.”

A lump catches in your throat. He hasn’t spoken much to you since your arrival on Giedi Prime, and you know cruelty runs through the Harkonnen bloodline, but you didn’t know he could cut so deeply with words. “I’m not a rodent.”

“You’re as annoying as one.”

“Because I want to be around you?” you ask. “Because I like you–”

His arms fall away from his chest and your head flinches back from the finger pointed at your nose. “You do not like me,” he snaps.

His voice, though low, bounces off the walls of the hall, an echoey repeating of those words that you almost can’t believe you’re having to hear. You’ve not given any indication that what you’re telling him could possibly be a lie, so you don’t see how he could come to that conclusion. Unless there are whispers in his ear. 

“Yes, I do,” you say. “I’m marrying you. I want to marry you.”

“You are not supposed to want that,” he spits.

“Well, I do!” you spit back. 

“Then you don’t make sense!”

You don’t know what that means, so you just stand there, staring at one another as you wait for him to explain further. He doesn’t, and you tire of the waiting, so instead, you take a risk by stepping closer, and with cautious fingers, you raise your hand to his chest. Your palm plants firmly against his skin, and then you feel it. His heart beating rapidly. For a second you think it’s from the training. But then you look up at him, at how his jaw clenches and how he struggles to meet your eyes. And now you understand.

“I like what you are,” you tell him. “I like that you’re strong. I don’t care that you kill. I don’t care that you crave the feeling it gives you.”

“You should care,” he says, still avoiding your gaze. “You’re meant to be a precious little Lady. That’s what I was promised.”

“And that is what you wanted for a wife?” He doesn’t give you an answer. “I’m sorry if you’re disappointed–” he snorts, irritating you further. “I’m sorry if that ruins whatever fun you intended to have with me. I know the Baron has been eager to see what you’ll do to me once we’re married.”

His head swivels back to yours. “He found enjoyment from the idea that you’d be repulsed by me,” he says. “And so did I. So you shouldn’t feel so comfortable.” He latches his fingers to your wrist and jerks your hand away from his body. His hand leaves yours. It falls back to your side and you instantly feel a chill without him. It won’t do. You see a glimpse of your marriage—a loneliness, a cold side of your bed. He begins to turn away from you. 

“You don’t now?”

He stops. “What?”

“You said you did find enjoyment in it,” you repeat. “Do you still?”

You can see his teeth grinding with the shifting of his jaw as he contemplates continuing this conversation. “They said you wouldn’t like me,” he finally tells you. 

“But I do,” you say. “I read about you. I liked you before I met you.”

He groans. His hand runs down his face. He steps back to you, an iciness penetrating your stare. “I had plans for you. Ones you weren’t going to enjoy.”

A smirk curls your lips. “I had plans for you, too. Ones I fully intended to enjoy.”

He sucks in a breath, his chest puffing. His eyes narrow as if searching for your lies. 

Without another thought, you reach up again and, placing your palms on his cheeks, raise onto your toes to press your lips to his. It might be idiotic of you. It might be the stupidest move you could make. He might gut you for the act, marriage alliance be damned. But the only interest you have is in getting your point across. 

His lips are soft—probably one of the few soft spots on him—and they taste of salt from the sweat of his training. He’s frozen for a few agonizing beats, but then nails are digging into the skin of your hips, the fabric of your dress doing nothing to keep the sharp sting at bay. Lips move in tune with yours. You’re pushed backward. You hit the wall, trapped between hard surfaces of stone and body. 

You ache for the man you’ve felt you’ve known for longer than you have. You ache for the heat of him. You knew it would feel like this. 

When the kiss breaks, you smile. “You’ll like me,” you tell him. “I promise.”

He sighs in defeat and says, “I know.”

[midasriku]

THE PROPOSAL ᯓ★ (PREVIEW!)

An exclusive first look into the first instalment in the ‘love from the 2000s’ series, coming to a screen near you! stay tuned!

PAIRING • assistant!haechan x boss!reader

SYNOPSIS • When you, a high-powered book editor, face deportation, you somehow convince your mildly annoying and very much attractive assistant Haechan to marry you in a fake green card marriage. To prove the relationship is real, you both go the mile. The two of you visit his family in Jeju, where unexpected complications, pestering relatives, old secrets and real feelings arise. Will you both make it out with a legal marriage? Or will you have to kiss your sweet life, and everyone in it, goodbye? Stay tuned to find out!

The trip to the district office after work to sort out your affairs went a lot worse than you had initially predicted. After cutting the line (which Haechan gave you an earful for, though you know he cuts the line when getting your lattes every morning), you were then escorted into a district officer’s private room, where he proceeded to question you about your legitimate relationship. He was certain you were lying and tried coaxing Haechan to tell him the truth, judging from his blank expression and constant fidgeting he did the entire time you both were in there. 

Questions upon questions were asked. And you, being as calm and collected as you could be, answered each one with a lie so precise, it had Haechan wondering if you were a conwoman in your past life. 

The district officer turned to your assistant, noticing him adjusting his tie every five minutes since entering the room, and told him to be truthful. Never mind that his boss could potentially be deported in doing so, he never liked you anyway. He never liked the way you told him to dress better the first time you met him. He never liked the way you’d give him all the carrots off your plate, despite him hating carrots as well. He never liked the way you’d fall asleep on his shoulder during long car rides, causing his shoulder to get stiff because he couldn’t move. Or didn’t have the heart to, never knowing why. 

“The truth is, Officer,” Haechan started in a timid and gentle voice. He looked like he was about to cry, or maybe blow up. You couldn’t tell. “The truth is…”

You started getting nervous. Sure, you thought Haechan was going to listen to you. But you also had a part of you, the part that still had reason, that worried he would come to realise the gravity of the situation and throw you under the bus. You looked at him, a slightly pleading look evident on your features. 

He felt your gaze and turned to look at you. He noticed the little scar on your left eye when the two of you got in a minor car accident a year ago. Suddenly, he felt his matching one on the right grow warm. 

“The truth is we’re just two people who weren’t supposed to fall in love. But we did,” he said. A breath you didn’t know you were holding escaped you, and you went back to a neutral expression. He had used the line you fed your bosses earlier today, which made you smile. A genuine one you hid behind your hand, feigning a yawn.

The district officer didn’t look at all convinced, but nodded along anyway. “I assume your families know about this?” he asked. 

You started shaking your head. “No, my parents are dead,” you laughed dryly. “His, however, are not,” you pointed to Haechan, and he nodded. “Oh yeah, they are very much alive. Actually, we were gonna tell them over the weekend,” he said. You recall him telling you earlier this morning about his grandmother’s 90th birthday celebration. 

“Yes, it’s Granny’s 90th birthday. The whole shindig. It’ll be great,” you tried adding on, making it as believable as possible. The officer squinted his eyes and leaned forward in question. 

“And where exactly does Granny live?” he asked you. You blundered, not knowing at all where Haechan’s family lived. “They, um,” you faced your assistant, who was holding in a laugh beside you. “They…live,” you threw your hands up in a huff and gestured to the man beside you. “Why am I doing all the talking? This is your family, baby, why don’t you tell him?” 

The pet name that left your mouth had to have been in the top ten most outrageous things you’ve said. And you’ve said a lot of outrageous things in the three years that he’s known you. Haechan blinked at you with pink lips tied with a smile. 

“Jeju,” he said, not looking away from you. 

It was like the air in your lungs was punched out with a single word. Jeju? In all your time living in Seoul, you had never been to Jeju. Had Haechan mentioned he was from there?

He turned back to the officer in front of him, grinning with a Cheshire-cat-like smile. 

“We’re going to Jeju,”

a/n: WE ARE LOCKED TF IN RIGHT NOW BESTIES

ᝰ.ᐟ taglist open!: @ball-312 @luvhaeli @nctubatu @enhalovie @ilovejungwonandhaechan @eumppapasmom @sundamariis @tiazennie @kongjjen

[pimpnchips]

Needed Me 2

Part 2

Natasha x Wife!Reader

Warnings: angst, slight smut, blow!job, slightly mean!

nat.

Summary: heated arguments with Natasha

Authors Note: I’m sorry it took me so fucking long to finish this, I'm okay! but I had major writers block and I wanted to make it good for you guys. I also wanted to put the daughter in here more.

Lena swung her head in your direction, "Mommy I want this one," she whined. The rack of stuffed animals sat on display as your daughter complained about how much she wanted the pink bunny.

"No baby, you remember what mama said."

Last night, Natasha talked to lena about behaving properly. Now that she's getting older you can't keep babying her and supplying all her wants after a tantrum or fit.

So Natasha decided on no extra things outside of the store list for a month so she can learn that you won't be able to get everything she asks for even if she decides on throwing a fit.

"Lena, no means no," scowls natasha. Carrying Mateo in his car seat with her left hand, "Pick her up detka — let's go."

You couldn't help but bite your lip at Natasha's authority

Seeing her do what she does best turned you on in so many ways you couldn't explain. You couldn't stay upset with her no matter how hard you 'tried'.

Heading to your shared bedroom last night, Natasha had a way with her words, instead of hate sex you made love.

You missed her warmth and her touch but there's nothing you miss more than how sexy she looked taking care of her family.

Yes, your wife is a lot of things but you know how deeply she cares for the three of you and if you didn't.. you wouldn't have taken her back.

-

You sighed in frustration, "I'm not trying to upset you baby"

"I never said you did," she muttered, gathering the clothes and putting them into the drawer across from you.

Which was a lie, you knew she was upset because you disagreed with her thoughts of not putting lena into school right now.

You brushed your fingers through her red hair trying your best to comfort her, "I understand there's a risk baby but I want her to have a normal child hood"

Natasha chuckles in disbelief,

"You understand nothing."

You scoff, "Natasha? She's my kid too so what don't I understand?" You started walking across the other side of the room away from her.

"Please, humor me." You sat down in the chair next to the open window, your hands slapping your knee as you sat down.

A blank stare on her face caused you to raise an eyebrow, bouncing your leg impatiently waiting for an answer.

It wasn't surprising that you and Natasha got into an argument today, it was always bound to happen. Sooner or later.

"You do shit like this all the time," she mumbles under her breath, trying to make it hard for you to hear.

"Are you fucking kidding me, Natasha?"

Your wife clutches the shirt in hand, more frustration clouding her eyes as she stares at you. She clearly didn't have an explanation, only acting on impulse.

"Am I the one who forged our divorce? If anybody does stupid shit it's you not me." You protest, rubbing your fingers on your temple.

But there's something about crawling under Natasha's skin that pumps you up. Toying with her is what got you here, having two of her kids and married to her for seven years.

She ignores your directed comment, "There's too many risks."

"She's not attending school and that's final," Natasha grumbled, her head was filled with your nagging comments.

"Nat -" you tried to reason with her.

"Don't" She growls, snapping her eyes up at you.

Your mouth clicks shut, "Sorry," you mumble. She knows how well you respond when she gets pissed off.

Sometimes you can't believe the effect Natasha has on you.

She knows your weaknesses and has no problem showing her mastery over you. Something you craved over the past few months, something a certain someone couldn't give you.

You haven't told Natasha, you figured if she ever found out a another woman came around the house, she'll probably kill the girl.

She's too possessive of you to share you with anyone else. It'll tear her ego down, make her seem like she doesn't have control anymore.

—

"What do you know about banana bread, bunny?" Natasha laughs, hearing your daughter talk about how much she loved the taste of the dessert at the dinner table.

Lena giggles with a wide smile, "Miss Maximoff always makes some for me and mommy" she grins, picking up her last nugget eating it innocently.

Fear was written across your faces as you avoided contact with your wife. Natasha furrows her eyebrows at you, mouthing something you couldn't quite pick up on.

You stood up, "Let's put you to bed baby."

Natasha stared daggers at you, continuing to watch you walk away but you tried your best to not turn around.

The anticipation of waiting for you to get back sent nat over the edge causing her to throw everything off her desk.

"Fuck!" she screamed.

You heard nat scream through the door as your hand hovered over the door nob. You took a short breath to get yourself together before entering.

The door shut behind you, Natasha turned around instantly averting all of her attention to you.

"Natasha"

Before you could finish your sentence, she already had her hand wrapped around your neck causing you to inhale shakily, "Please baby."

Your wife clenched her jaw, staring into your eyes making you feel small under her grasp.

"Did she fuck you?" For a moment you saw her eyes darken, her hands starting to grip tighter forcing you to answer her question with a quivering voice, "No"

She released her hand, slamming it on the wall beside you, "Don't fucking lie to me!"

Your eyes welled up with tears and your body shook at the sudden movement she made. You and Wanda didn't have anything special she was nice but she was too nice for you.

You needed something stronger, you wanted Natasha hence why you never went further than a kiss on the cheek. But in this moment something clicked in you.

You needed her.

You looked up at the red head, moving down onto your knees. You wanted Natasha to know that you were hers and no one else's.

"Get up," she gritted.

Ignoring her statement you unbuttoned her pants pulling it lower until her underwear came off. Her dick sprung free ready to be sucked by you.

After a long pause, she moved forward grabbing your head forcing her cock into your mouth. Your tongue sliding along her length as you bobbed your head up and down. She groaned, holding onto the wall, "She could never fill you up like this" she said between pants.

You locked eyes with your wife who was watching you with pure lust in her gaze. Natasha cleared her throat, cock twitching from her own thoughts.

"You don't deserve my cock, detka."

She smiles at the whimpers that escaped you. Her hips started to move and you moaned.

"You shouldn't be sucking dick like a slutty little whore"

Tearing your gaze away from the cock, which was dripping with pre cum, you stared straight into her piercing orbs.

"We didn't have sex, Natty." You whispered, voice mildly hoarse already.

Natasha's face was flushed, cock weeping precum still.

She hadn't realized how close she was to coming until you stopped. "I know.you wouldn't do that to me," was all she uttered as you moved to take her again.

Natasha groaned, every word dying on her lips as your mouth was back on her cock. "Oh...just like that detka... fuck your mouth takes me so well..." You glanced upwards, watching her throat bob as she tilted her head completely back. A low, husky moan left her lips as you swallowed.

The sound of your daughter's voice from down the hall made you pull back. Saliva and cum dripping down your face as Natasha groaned at the sight, painting your face with her milk-white cum.

She forced your mouth open with her hand, releasing the rest of her cum into your mouth. Seeing you drop to your knees for her and pleasing her needs without asking made her proud. It made her thirst for you more.

You quickly got off your knees in a hurry, rolling your eyes at your crazed wife for making a mess of your face while trying to get up.

"Put your dick in your pants before your daughter comes in here" you whispered by her ear, a demanding tone that surprised natasha.

Quickly walking to the bathroom to clean your face, the sound of your daughter's voice getting closer to the room startled Natasha as she buckled up her pants.

"Mama, where's mommy? I can't sleep" Her hair was all over her head, fingers rubbing her tired eyes.

You shouted from the bathroom, "Mommy's coming baby!"

You threw your face towel down, walking out of the bathroom being met with Natasha sitting on the bed with the little girl tracing her tattoos, her head on her mama's chest.

Lena looked up with a smile making your heartmelt at the sight. "Why was mama screaming earlier?" She questioned, tilting her head.

Natasha bursted into laughter, you quickly sent her a pointed look causing her to quiet down. You sighed at your daughters question, "Nothing love, I was helping her with something"

Lena was even more confused than before, it was written all over her face but she shrugged her shoulders letting it go.

Nat smiled at her confusions, leaning down to kiss the temple of her head.

You smiled at the interaction it made you realize no matter the fights or arguments you and Natasha will have she'll forever be here to love you and the kids.

And you'll always love Natasha.

Even if that meant you needed her more than she needed you.

Needed Me

Tags:

@starfire1008@viosblog112@dvrkhcld@ciao00000111 @ddreader04@twentyonetornmyheart @pancakefan7529@widowstingsposts @rosea-reginae @coxlong

[threebea]

Rewatched Return of the Jedi and forgot how Han and Leia's romance sets up what unselfish love looks like to compare with in the prequels and also gives us context why love can be dangerous for a Jedi.

(Note: this isn't an!dala bashing I like an!dala)

With Han! (Yes! Han the non-Force sensitive.)

Han, we must remember has been out of the loop because of his Carbonite freezing, but even so he wakes up to: someone who loves you. Before that he had Leia declaring: I love you!

He gets very clear signs from Leia that she is in love with him. Like. Very clear out loud signs. In the Ewok village when they reunite they hug.

But he's still jealous of Luke.

So when he finds Leia crying after Luke says he's leaving to face Vader and that he's Leia's brother, his first reaction is jealousy. He gets mad when she refuses to tell him what's wrong. He accuses her of being able to tell Luke but not him, implying obviously she thinks Luke is more important to her.

His fear she doesn't love him back makes him angry.

You can see how it could lead to hate, this kind of situation. Hating Luke and Leia two people he adores because he thinks they're together, which would lead to him suffering unable to let go of his feelings for Leia and Leia suffering from his anger as well. He could destroy all their relationships with his anger, and he's just a normal non-Force sensitive guy.

And Luke and Leia aren't even a thing. He's just assuming! He's letting his emotions control him.

He's about to stomp away with a: bitter forget it! As she sobs.

But he stops! He stops giving into his negative emotions and he goes back to comfort her without demanding answers. He holds her because he loves her. He lets go of his negative emotions and possessive jealous feeling. His love is stronger than his fear.

Then on Endor he point blank asks her if she loves Luke. She answers Yes, not realizing unlike the Skywalkers he didn't get the memo from the Force about the family stuff.

And he is disappointed, but he says he'll step aside. He loves Leia and he's willing to let her go for her happiness.

That's what romantic love without possessive attachment looks like. He loves her. He puts his own initial negative emotions aside.

-

I always wondered why as a kid this was the romance I liked out of all other movie romances. (Usually I hated romance in things.)

At first I thought it was because there's not a lot of emphasis on it, but now I realised when Han has all the opportunities to do the classic Alpha Male stuff, he doesn't. In other movies he would have walked away and let her cry by herself to make drama. Have the stakes higher. They'd get together in the end but it would be after Han does something heroic and Leia throws herself at him or something. Which would make Leia a prize even though she never had to be.

But Return of the Jedi cuts through it. Han comes back, holds her even though she might not love him. That's incredibly powerful. That moment he holds her and apologizes and lets her cry and is there for her despite his jealously. Even now it's pretty refreshing considering the archetype people associate Han with.

And Han doesn't heroically save Leia to win her. They get held up. She has her gun ready to blast their attackers. They smile at each other. That's the moment he says the words I love you out loud. When she is about to save them.

It's obviously contrasted with Anakin and Padme.

Once again it is very clear how Padme feels. They both verbally reinforce their love for each other.

But Anakin isn't thinking of what Padme would want or asking what she would want. Through out the movie he's obsessed with the idea of her death. Letting himself be corrupted and ultimately killing people so that he doesn't have to feel losing her. Unlike Han, he puts his negative emotions and possession of her above his love for her.

And just like Return of the Jedi is different for Han coming back and holding her, Revenge of the Sith is different because usually movies emphasis all-consuming love as a good thing. Love so strong you would do anything to save them is shown as being selfish in RotS because Anakin does it. He does anything and everything. He makes himself unrecognizable.

He will stop at nothing to keep her. And then the moment he thinks Padme herself is the one trying to take herself away from him. When he thinks she's chosen the other side or Obi-Wan or however you interpret the moment and not him, he doesn't let her go. He doesn't love her enough to see her happy, he attacks her. That's what attachment does. It isn't about the love he truly feels for her, it's about the fear of losing her. His negative emotions ruling him. He lashes out and hurts the person he's supposed to be saving because it was about him, not about her. She became a prop. An icon of his fear of loss.

He wasn't acting on his love when he joins Sidious, he was acting on his fear. It is a selfish moment and ends in everyone suffering.

I can see why there was supposed to be more of a love triangle with them and Obi-Wan in the earlier concepts just to heighten the contrast with Leia and Han.

Han accepts that Leia chooses Luke (even though she didn't). He says he'll let her go to be happy.

Anakin accuses Obi-Wan of turning Padme against him (even though he hasn't). He attacks her when he thinks she's going to leave him.

Anakin's love by itself has never been the problem. It's what love so easily can become if darker emotions are controlling you. The Jedi forbid these kind of relationships because of the powers they hold and how easily love can turn to fear, anger, hatred, and suffering. And because they have powers most do not, how devastating that can be. Jedi learn emotional regulation so they don't get overwhelmed and hurt people. Palpatine made an effort to chip away at those teachings by using Anakin's trauma against him and encouraging him to dig into his negative emotions. That he's right for indulging in them and that it's human and normal to do so.

Sidious tries to do this with Luke. He's taking Luke's love for his friends and emotions and trying to get him to strike him. Use his fear to put him on the path to the Darkside. To give into his hatred and violence.

Then Luke remembers the cave. Killing Vader would be to kill himself, just as Anakin had once done. Winning the fight would be losing his soul.

He lets go of his fear for his friends and his hatred for Sidious and he refuses to fight. He sees the only way forward is love. That when Yoda said he must face Darth Vader before he can be a Jedi this is what he meant. In facing Vader he is facing his own darkness.

This is all to say the Jedi teaching doesn't only apply to Jedi. (I mean it's based on real world practices it's not just fantasy nonsense). But it makes sense that it's very important for Jedi.

This is also why I prefer the release viewing order. It gives a lot more context to the prequels that can get lost in the shuffle. Rather than trying to make prequel concepts fit for the OT, OT concepts are actually being expanded on in the PT. Looking at it the other way around is working backwards from the true starting point.

Tl;dr: Han shows what love without attachment looks like.

Thanks for coming to my blorbo talks.

As always YMMV.

[zoeys-ksbd-fan-blog]

Y'know, when I first read this chapter. It didn't make much sense to me. The biggest question looming over everything is "why does Jadis do any of this".

Its clever, at first read you don't think about it because you literally get the answer point blank. There is no reason.

But that's stupid. Jadis may be omniscient but we aren't. The reason why Jadis does what she does is to break Allison.

Its pretty clever writing. Jadis is the most intelligent being in the universe. And she lies. She lies to Allison over and over.

There is a very strong theme of 'will' throughout the comic. Allison before BOI had a lot of will. But also a lot of other shit. Allison would never beat Chakravartin as the person she used to be (and yes I know 'beating' isn't the point but I'm skipping over that). Jadis needed to destroy Allison. Break her down to "nothing". And then let her choose the path of mutilation and let it consume her.

And small tangent, but maybe this will allow her to wield the Maybe sword? But that begs the question, is loosing a loved one and being shown the shape of existence as bad as what Maya went through? I suppose we will see.

Allison became stronger and more refined because of what Jadis did to her (show her the shape of existence) as well as what Allison inflicted on herself.

The path to royalty is the fools step. And continuing to fight even after knowing it doesn't matter? Sounds pretty stupid to me. And that's the point.

[romanczukowsky]

What I Forgot About Us

Pairing: Fred x Reader

Summary: After a tense rivalry, an unexpected kiss sparks a complicated and tender connection between two people.

Content Warnings: Slow Burn / Pre-Smut / Soft smut / Romance / Public-ish setting (Hospital Wings) / Warmth & intimacy

I woke up with a heavy, throbbing pain in my head. White light surrounded me from every side — the walls, the lamps, the sparse furniture — so bright it almost hurt my senses. Through the fog of confusion, I tried to remember where I was and what had happened, but my mind was completely blank.

I lay on the hospital bed, my eyelids barely open, hearing only the soft rustle of footsteps in the corridor.

Suddenly, the door opened slowly, and I saw him — Fred Weasley, carrying a bouquet of small red flowers, as if hastily picked in a rush. The stems were broken, and the flowers tangled, like someone had tried to capture the beauty of nature but hadn’t quite succeeded.

In his eyes flickered a mix of emotions: fear that I might never wake up, anxiety over what I might say or think, the heavy weight of guilt, and relief that I had finally opened my eyes.

Fred entered slowly, hunched over, head bowed, as if carrying the weight of the world. He avoided looking at me directly, nervously glancing between the bouquet and me.

“Hi,” he mumbled quietly, as if even saying hello was an effort. “Do you feel okay? Do you remember what happened?”

I blinked, searching for memories, but nothing came.

“No,” I answered honestly.

His eyes darkened for a moment, and a brief shadow of pain crossed his face. He swallowed hard and ran a hand through his hair. “Well, uh… that’s okay,” he said, voice quieter, more careful. “You don’t need to worry about it right now.”

I wanted to press him, ask what had happened, but the way he looked at me — with something close to sorrow, maybe even protectiveness — made me hesitate.

“Is this for me?”

He took a small step closer and offered me the bouquet. “Yes... for you,” he said, forcing a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Because… um... well. Because we’re together... Remember?”

I studied him, confusion swirling in my chest. “Together?” I repeated softly, uncertain.

Fred’s smile faltered, but he nodded firmly. “Yeah. Together.” His voice was steady but tinged with something like desperation — like he was hoping I’d believe him, or maybe hoping to convince himself.

Fred sat down on the chair beside the bed, never taking his eyes off me, as if he was afraid I might disappear again—or that he might lose me for good.

"I... I just... wanted to see you," he began hesitantly, as if every syllable cost him great effort.

I tried to find the truth in his eyes—but at the same time, I saw a care there that was hard to ignore.

"We’ve been spending a lot of time together lately," he said quietly. "And I wanted to bring you these flowers." His hand holding the bouquet trembled slightly.

"So... we’re... together?" I repeated, trying to get used to the new words, as if hoping to recall a memory that should be there somewhere.

"Yes," he confirmed with a warm, though slightly tense smile.

My heart felt warmer, even though I was still lost.

With each passing minute, the tension between us began to give way to a growing ease. Fred slowly shed the weight he’d clearly been carrying since he entered the room. His gaze softened, and the smile that appeared on his face became more natural.

After about an hour, he even started sharing funny stories — about pranks, about mishaps during training. His voice grew lighter, and a spark of mischief twinkled in his eyes.

I laughed quietly, though the headache still lingered, but it didn’t matter anymore. What mattered most was the relief of not being alone — that Fred was there beside me, and that his presence had the power to soothe everything — even my lost memories.

I could feel something new forming between us — as if every gesture, every word brought us closer, and I slowly began to trust that I could rely on him. He wasn’t here just as someone who brought flowers, but as someone who truly cared about me.

Just as the atmosphere between us was softening, the door creaked open again and a nurse stepped inside, her voice polite but firm.

“Mr. Weasley, visiting hours are over. It’s time to leave now.”

Fred stood up slowly, his shoulders stiffening. He glanced down at me, then turned to leave, mumbling a quick, “Well… see you later,” as if wanting to get out of there fast.

But I reached out, grabbing his arm gently.

“Wait — hello? We’re a couple, remember? At least give me a proper kiss before you go.”

Fred froze for a moment, then looked back at me with a mix of hesitation and awkwardness. He leaned down and pressed a quick, dry kiss to my cheek — not soft or tender, more like the polite peck you give to an aunt at a family gathering.

He muttered something under his breath, then turned and left the room.

Night had long since fallen, and I was sitting on the bed, staring at the bouquet of flowers Fred had brought me. Their red petals gently trembled in the moonlight, and the scent filled the quiet hospital room. It felt strange to think about all of this and yet not remember the moments we had spent together before.

Only memories from the past buzzed in my mind — those difficult times when I couldn’t get along with them. How Fred was always teasing me without stopping, sneaking dungbombs into our dormitory, competing with me at every chance to prove he was better. His jokes weren’t directed at me, but rather against me, which made it seem strange that anything could have connected us.

But I couldn’t admit that I liked standing up to him. I wasn’t innocent either. Now, with some distance, I wondered how from all those clashes and wounds something more had grown — something that was now beginning to gently bloom.

I felt a bit silly, but I couldn’t deny that despite everything, I felt there was something between us — something that, even after forgetting and pain, was starting to come back.

The next morning, sunlight poured through the window, warmer and softer than the day before. I felt a little better — my head still throbbed with a dull ache, but it was no longer foggy. It felt sharper, more real. Almost like a sign that reality was beginning to return to me.

The hospital wing door creaked softly, and Fred stepped inside — this time not with caution or guilt, but with a newfound confidence that made me instinctively sit up straighter in bed.

His hair was slightly tousled, as if he’d run up the stairs, and a bright smile lit up his face the moment he crossed the threshold. There was something so… charismatic about him. He carried that mischievous energy that was impossible to ignore.

He pulled a chair close to my bed and dropped into it with a dramatic sigh, as if he owned the room.

"Morning, sleeping beauty," he said with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t help smiling. "You’re in a good mood today."

He shrugged casually. "Well, you’re not moaning or hexing me, so I figured I’d enjoy it while it lasts."

I snorted, shaking my head. “That’s not a very boyfriend-like thing to say.”

He grinned, leaning back in the chair with his arms crossed behind his head. “You’d hate it if I started acting like a proper boyfriend. Admit it.”

I couldn’t help laughing. There was something ridiculously easy about being around him today. Like we’d done this a hundred times. Like we’d always fit.

It made something twist in my chest — not unpleasantly. Just... curiously.

After a moment, I tilted my head and studied him, more serious this time. “Fred?”

“Yeah?”

“Did we… stop fighting before we got together?”

He blinked, as if caught off guard. “What?”

“I mean…” I shrugged, suddenly unsure. “I only remember how we used to argue all the time. You drove me mad. I can’t imagine how we ever got from that to this.”

His smile faltered just a fraction. “Maybe we realized somewhere in the chaos that we liked the fight.”

We ended up talking for almost the entire day — but it wasn’t like yesterday. It was different this time. Lighter. As if the tension that had hovered between us before had quietly slipped away with the morning sun. We talked without pressure, laughing more than overthinking.

We played cards, and Fred — at every possible opportunity — tried to prove he was better. Normally, I’d dive into the challenge without hesitation, unwilling to let him win. But today… my head still throbbed with a dull ache behind my temples, so I let it go. Let him have his victory.

He threw a few cutting jokes my way too — the kind that used to sting, a little mean-spirited, not entirely funny. Not so long ago, I would’ve snapped back without thinking. But this time, I just gave him a crooked smile and rolled my eyes. If we were “together,” maybe one less argument wouldn’t hurt.

As evening settled in, the same nurse came back with the same look on her face and the same line: “Time’s up, Mr. Weasley.”

Fred stood from the chair more slowly than yesterday, though he didn’t seem tense. He turned to face me, and I looked back at him — maybe with a hint of quiet expectation in my eyes.

This time, I didn’t have to remind him about the goodbye kiss.

He leaned down and kissed me — not on the cheek, but close to my lips. A soft, brief touch. A little longer than a casual “see you.” Warm, but still shy. Like he was still testing the waters.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” he said quietly before turning and walking out.

I was left there with a quickened heartbeat and questions I didn’t yet know how to name.

The next day passed in slow, aching silence.

No footsteps approached my door. No laughter in the hallway. No nurse popping her head in with news, no friends bringing sweets or stolen homework notes. Just me, alone, watching the same square of light shift across the floor as the sun moved.

Fred didn’t come.

Not in the morning, not in the afternoon.

And as the clock struck into the evening, something heavy settled over me — a dull throb of disappointment that I didn’t want to name.

Maybe he had changed his mind. I tried to read. I tried to nap. But the room felt colder than usual — the sheets scratchier, the flowers he brought starting to wilt at the edges.

And then, just when I had given up —

The door creaked open.

Softly. Carefully. Like a secret slipping in through the dark.

Fred.

Hair windswept, cheeks flushed, eyes scanning the room as if afraid to find it empty. He closed the door behind him and exhaled — as if just seeing me eased some invisible weight he’d carried all day.

“I had to sneak past Madam Pomfrey,” he whispered. “She nearly caught me on the stairs.”

I blinked at him from my pillow, still stunned.

“You didn’t come,” I said, voice quieter than I meant.

“I know,” he replied, his voice tight with apology. “I wanted to. All day. But…” He hesitated, stepping closer. “Stuff came up. And I couldn’t stay away any longer.”

He sat on the edge of my bed, closer than usual. Our eyes met — and all the loneliness of the day cracked in me like glass under pressure.

Fred sat beside me on the bed, shoulders hunched slightly as if still cautious, still hiding from the rules he had just broken to see me.

We started talking in half-whispers, like kids sneaking around past curfew.

He leaned closer.

"Everyone's talking about the next Quidditch match," he murmured, his voice barely audible. "Jordan thinks Gryffindor’s going to destroy Slytherin."

“What?” I asked, stifling a laugh. “Say that again?”

“I said,” he replied, grinning faintly, “Gryffindor’s going to—”

But instead of repeating it normally, he shifted — sliding a bit closer, until I could feel the warmth of him along my arm. Then he brought his lips to my ear.

“…absolutely crush them,” he whispered, breath soft and ticklish against my skin.

A shiver slid down my spine. It wasn’t just the whisper — it was the way his lips barely grazed the shell of my ear, the way the sound seemed to wrap itself around my neck and settle low in my belly.

He kept going, telling me meaningless little things — who got detention, who accidentally hexed themselves, how boring Transfiguration was without me — but I barely heard the words. His voice was all I could focus on: warm, textured, brushing against my nerves like silk.

Before I knew what I was doing, I turned my face and kissed him.

He stiffened slightly, surprised. “What—what was that?” he whispered, blinking.

“We’re together, right?” I said, bolder than I felt.

I pulled him in again, fingers curling into the front of his sweater.

We kissed slowly at first, each movement tentative, as if discovering a new language spoken only by our lips.

Fred’s hand found my waist.

“Someone’s going to hear us,” he murmured between kisses. “If we’re not quiet—”

“I don’t care,” I breathed, tugging him fully onto the bed.

He didn’t resist.

As our foreheads touched, my heart raced—not just from excitement but from the growing desire inside me.

Fred kissed me with increasing confidence, as if every movement was an answer to what we both needed. His hands rested on my hips, and I allowed myself to be bold—I started to shift slightly on him, wanting to be as close as possible, as if this moment could last forever.

“Are you okay? Does anything hurt?” he asked softly.

I smiled at him and shook my head. “No, nothing hurts. Quite the opposite—I feel better when you’re close.”

My fingers tangled in his hair, and my breath quickened, but everything stayed quiet—as if the world had hushed, leaving only us. Each kiss grew more passionate, more certain, yet full of tenderness.

I slowly settled onto him, feeling the warmth of his body beneath the thin fabric of my pajamas. A soft moan escaped my lips as his hand slid gently under the material, touching the skin that burned beneath his fingertips. His eyes held admiration and care, making sure I was alright.

Our bodies pressed closer, every touch sending waves of pleasure rippling through me. In barely audible whispers, on the edge of hearing, we spoke each other’s names—intimate confessions belonging only to us.

We moved as one—slowly, deliberately—losing ourselves in the quiet harmony of closeness. Our whispered names floated between us, barely audible—a secret language shared in the dark.

His fingers tightened slightly around my hips, drawing me closer until no space remained. I felt his quickened breath as our bodies pressed together, his touch sending waves of heat through me. Every subtle movement, every gentle caress spoke louder than words.

I whispered his name again, voice trembling with need and something softer that transcended the physical. His eyes met mine, dark and intense, full of everything unsaid.

Slowly, carefully, as he reached his peak, he slid me off his thighs onto the bed, never breaking that fierce, tender gaze. His hands never left me, tracing paths that made my skin burn in the most beautiful way. I felt myself falling—falling into him, into us—without fear.

The world outside turned into nothingness. All that existed was the quiet rhythm of our hearts beating in unison, the softness of his lips on mine, and the electric charge of being completely close.

The next morning, I woke up feeling the warmth of Fred’s body pressed softly against mine.

“Good morning,” he whispered, leaning in to kiss me deeply.

We stayed like that for a while, wrapped up in each other, until the sound of approaching footsteps made Fred tense.

“I’ve got to sneak out,” he pressed one last lingering kiss to my lips and promised with a wink, “I’ll come see you again.”

All day long, my thoughts kept drifting back to Fred and our moments together. It felt surreal — how we had gone from being enemies to something more, like a real couple straight out of a story about forbidden love.

Then, after three days since I woke up, my best friend finally visited me. “I'm so glad you're finally awake!” she exclaimed with relief in her eyes.

“Yes, I've been awake for three days now!” - I said, somewhat surprised. “Why didn't you come earlier?”

She looked a little uncomfortable, biting her lip. “Y/N, you were in a coma for over a month. I came every day, but Madam Pomfrey said she’d let me know when you woke up."

"More than a month?"

„Yeah. This morning I spoke to her again and she said that she did not tell me because you supposedly had a visitor… um... Fred."

She leaned closer, lowering her voice to a whisper, as if the walls themselves could hear her. “I was hoping Fred would apologize to you.”

She said he was the reason you ended up like this. And we … We kept teasing each other. At one point it even got to hand-to-hand.

I blinked, suddenly feeling the weight of the memory pressing down on me.

She told me „Fred said you were impossible, and that if you wanted to prove you were better than him, you should catch whatever he threw at you.”

My friend’s eyes widened, the next words slipping out almost like a gasp: “And when you did… you crashed into the Whomping Willow.”

I swallowed hard, a knot tightening in my throat.

Somehow, despite everything my friend was saying, my mind felt like it was spinning in a fog. Her words reached me, but they felt distant—like echoes in a cavern I couldn’t quite grasp.

The last three days… the moments with Fred, the laughter, the closeness—it all seemed like a fragile dream slipping through my fingers.

She kept talking, but all I could hear was the buzzing in my head, drowning out reality. It was hard to believe that beneath all the teasing and fights, something real had ever existed between us.

My heart raced, caught between confusion and a reluctant hope I wasn’t ready to face.

(If you haven’t read it, you should definitely check it out. part II.)

[maroonshirt81]

waaaaait! what's dummy!drunk carcar? 👀 would you post a snippet from there as well? 🙏

ok you picked the one I have only about 1,5k on, but I'm quite happy with it so far, so there you go! Inspired by a post that went around a while ago with Osc looking completely sloshed, someone's hand around his waist.

---

He maneuvered Oscar’s boneless body through two sliding doors until they stood outside on the terrace, the summer evening breeze brushing soothingly against their skin. Oscar made no attempt to free himself from Carlos’s arm. He probably needed the support. His head tilted as he looked around with slow, confused blinks. “Is your laptop out here?” he asked. “Oh my god!” Carlos took the empty champagne flute from Oscar’s hand and set it down on a mosaic table, then rounded on his hammered colleague. “You do realise that old creep’s hand was basically kneading your ass, right?” Oscar gave him wide eyes – at least as wide as they would go in his state, which wasn’t very wide at all. “Oh, no, he was just being a little overly friendly,” he waved it off with a shrug. “You know. American.” “Yeah? Is that so? Do Americans usually stick their tongues in your ear at professional functions?” Oscar, unbelievably, giggled like Carlos had just made a joke and didn’t even follow up on it. Instead, he slowly sank down to the tiled floor, his side dragging against Carlos’s. Apparently, the groaning like a dying animal wasn’t limited to getting up – it made an appearance even when he was sitting– or rather, lying down on the ground. “What are you doing?” Carlos asked, incredulous. “Head’s spinning a bit,” Oscar said, eyes closed. “Yes, no shit. Are you going to throw up?” Oscar snorted, opening one crinkly eye to peek up at Carlos. “From what?” he asked. “I didn’t drink any alcohol. I’m at work! I only had that funny, sparkly orange juice.” “You mean the mimosas?” Carlos groaned, dragging his hand down his face. “Oscar! How many?” Oscar gave him a blank look, then visibly blanched. “Why do they have mimosas at a fancy gala?” he whined, instead of answering Carlos’s question. “Aren’t they for brunch and stuff?” “Yes, but what kind of clientele do you think the parents of our students are? They made sure to have everyone’s favorite drink on hand!” Oscar mumbled something unintelligible which Carlos was 90% sure was “They are pretty good…” and Carlos shook his head, pulling his phone from his pocket. “I’m calling you an Uber,” he said, resolute. Oscar didn’t even try to argue. He folded his hands over his belly and closed his eyes, face relaxed and content, very unlike his usual expression of mild constipation. The nearest Uber was still a while out. They were on a secluded hilltop overlooking the ocean – an ideal setting for a whodunit, and Carlos could only hope Oscar didn’t drop dead and leave him as the prime suspect – miles away from the city. “Don’t fall asleep now!” he warned, nudging Oscar with his foot. “I won’t carry your drunk ass all the way to the parking lot!” “Hm yes, because you couldn’t,” Oscar murmured, clearly half-asleep. Of course he’s out of it enough to let some randy retiree grope him in the middle of a gala and not even register the violation – but God forbid he miss a chance to throw shade at Carlos. “I teach sports,” Carlos reminded him, offended despite himself. “I’m fit! Of course I could carry you!” “Really?” Oscar cracked open his eyes again, squinting up at him through the terrace lights. He looked Carlos up and down, then smiled. In a soft voice, he said, “Prove it?” And honestly, Carlos would not have. He would not have fallen for it – if it weren’t for that soft voice and that stupid, froggy smile, a reminder of just how utterly wasted Oscar was. He would have laughed in his face and said, “You wish,” and then abandoned him on the terrace floor while he found Lando to dump the responsibility on. Instead, he crouched down and hooked his arms under Oscar’s armpits.

[darkst4lker]

taste. // thranduil

thranduil oropherion x fem!reader

plot: two weeks and a half ago, thranduil and (y/n) had a messy break up. now, he appears at your friend arwen's birthday party with his ex girlfriend by his side and you decide that if he wants to play that game, you would play it too.

tw: (mdni) modern!au, it's mainly lovers to enemies to lovers but there will be mentions of smut, angst, thranduil behaves like an asshole, misogyny, use of drugs and and alcohol, good ending (?, i changed a lot of things from the lore!!, everyone is like 20-27 here but legolas wasn't even born yet here. YES there's a moment where starts playing lover you should've come over by jeff buckley!!. low caps on purpose.

notes: english is NOT my first language. i'm sorry if there's any mistake. also this is the first time i publish something i write here!!

“(y/n)” tauriel spoke. you and her were helping arwen to decorate her house for her birthday party that same night, yet you were visibly sad for your break up with thranduil. “(y/n), are you okay?”

you weren't okay.

it was the middle of winter. arwen's living room was one of the most comfortables and warm places on earth, in fact all of her house was like that. it was one of the places where you felt more safe than anywhere in the world but today her house felt deadly cold to you.

maybe the problem wasn't arwen's home itself but the fact that your soul was freezing since the day thranduil's deadly words stabbed your heart like a poisoned knife.

“i don't love you anymore, (y/n).”

fucker. you had spent two years together.

in fact, you and thranduil never fought, never argued, never insulted each other while you were together. yet, the day he left you like that, completely out of the blue, you insulted him so much he probably thought that all his family line would be cursed forever.

he said horrible things too, it wasn't just you. but you may had gone too far when you threw an antique vase that belonged to his family for years through the window of his apartment.

in your defense, he was the last person you thought that would leave you.

of course arwen's house felt cold, the whole world felt cold actually. how could anything feel good in this earth when you weren't in thranduil's arms?

you took a deep breath.

it took you a moment to answer to tauriel's question because the vestiges of the last discussion you had with thranduil were fresh in your mind like if it had happened a second ago. you tried to dismiss the storm of memories flooding your mind and you looked at tauriel.

“yeah, im sorry i went blank for a minute.” you answered while hanging up some balloons in the wall. you tried to fake a smile but your tired eyes revealed your sorrows.

“that's it. im tired of seeing her like this, im going to kill him” aragorn said, leaving his spot next to arwen in the kitchen where they were preparing all the food for the party to get his coat, but arwen stopped him right away.

“stop, you're not helping her. we need to stay here by her side.” arwen came out of the kitchen, after aragorn. her calm voice sent chills down your spine.

aragorn crossed his arms and left his coat alone while he sat in a chair facing you.

you sat on the sofa and arwen sat besides you. the decorations were ready and now you didn't had anything else to distract you from the heartbreak im your chest.

“everything is going to be okay, sweetie. i'm sorry you'll have to see him tonight, bard insisted a lot for me to invite him.” arwen words comforted you and then she hugged you softly. aragorn looked annoyed while he leant against the wall and tauriel stood beside him. “sooner or later he will realize what he's missing.”

“better be sooner because i can't believe he hurted (y/n) like this when a month ago he was talking about fucking marrying her.” aragorn said clearly angry. “i know he's my friend and all but... i can't believe that he really did that.”

“well love can be like that sometimes, i guess.” you answered, trying to keep yourself together. “it comes and it goes.”

“yeah right, but is never just like that (y/n).” tauriel voice was calm but she did seem irritated. “i don't understand why on earth he would do that. it doesn't even makes sense.”

“it doesn't matter if it makes sense or not, guys.” you were clearly about to cry but you held it. “what is done is done and we can't go back in time, and neither can thranduil. i will survive this shit.” everyone tried to smile at you while you spoke but you didn't sounded as convinced as you wanted.

yet, you were true. you couldn't go back in time and in fact, the hours passed swiftly and now the night welcomed the birthday party everyone was waiting for.

you got showered and prepared directly in arwen's home. you had brought your outfit and now your body was inside a stunning and tight scarlet dress.

the black heels that you were in made your outfit more mysterious and in your neck there was a lovely silver necklace with a ruby pendant that arwen had let you borrow for the night.

with a little bit of perfume and red lipstick on, you left arwen's room and joined tauriel's side on the party. there wasn't much people yet, a couple university friends from years ago, the boy tauriel always spoke about: kili and his brother fili, gimli, aragorn of course and like five more people.

it wasn't full yet but arwen's home was quite big so the amount of people wasn't going to be a problem.

thranduil by the other hand, he surely was going to be one.

tauriel and you talked for a while, spending time together before she went to dance with her almost-boyfriend, kili.

you really liked kili for your friend, he seemed like a sweet guy. you really hoped they would end up being together and you wished in the deepest places of your heart that he didn't ended up breaking your friend heart.

like certain person did to you.

you drank a little from the bottle of wine aragorn gave you before rushing to dance with arwen and more people started to appear.

the fear of seeing thranduil that night was disappearing by every sip you gave to the wine and soon you even thought that maybe he wasn't even going to come.

a couple hours later, the house was full of people everywhere, it was 11pm, the party had just started hours ago and when you thought you were free from certain blonde, you saw probably the worst thing you could see with alcohol in your system.

thranduil entered the party with a beautiful blonde girl by his side. they both had their hands enterwined and the girl was giggling while they talked. you instantly felt a rush of rage invade your whole body to the point you believed that your brain was on the verge of exploding.

thranduil had a formal black shirt, leaving two buttons unbottoned and revealing his neck, a little sigh escaped from your lips at the heavenlt sight.

and there it was her.

she looked like a goddes pulled out from a fairytale, making your insecurities corrode your guts like a sickness. the tears threatened to fall off your eyes as you watched their entrance from the another side of the room, and the worst was that you recognized her from old pictures thranduil had in his house. that was his ex girlfriend, now actual (you supposed).

when you thought the horror was over, thranduil looked at you from the distance like if he had some kind of radar attached to him that warned him about everytime you looked at his direction.

his ocean blue eyes met yours. it felt like a boat crashing in the middle of a sea infested with mermaids.

his stare was as intoxicating and addictive as always were. the feelings accumulated in your throat like stones and you got scared for a moment before breaking eye contact with him. it lasted just a second, but it felt like a lifetime passed while your eyes met his.

then you quickly took a sip of your bottle of wine, trying to not give him the pleasure of seeing you rush to the bathroom to cry. for what it felt like hours, you had to see him dance with his new girl and you imagined that you were the one dancing with him, kissing him, touching him.

it was unbelieveable. he literally had replaced you.

how could he? why would he?

those questions pierced your heart like swords, like his words did days ago.

“it was just a pause, a distraction. i needed someone to heal what my past relatonship had broken in me and i already did. you served me well and i will always be grateful.”

you 'served him well'? really? what the fuck does he thinks he is? a king?

his words had melted in your ears like a rotten peach. the sweetness of his low voice mixed with a hint of gall flooding every sentence he said.

you understood now what he meant when he said he healed.

by the other hand, thranduil was breathing heavily.

his hands were on his new girlfriend's waist and sometimes he planted soft kisses on her face. yet, he couldn't fully enjoy anything of it. thranduil regretted all his actions, and much more, how he couldn't save your relationship.

he felt like an idiot. all of his thoughts were on you, every kiss he gave her, every look, every loving gesture, he desired it all went to you instead.

thranduil was deeply conflicted, though. even if he knew how wrong he were when you two broke up, he also was quite offended with the things you said.

it felt like a torture, probably the most horrible one on earth and the weight of his actions were killing him more slowly that he would ever wanted to.

thranduil didn't told you his real motives for leaving you, he thought it would only make it worse for both of you. but after leaving, all of his actions felt meaningless now that he didn't had you.

he was proud, and stubborn though. and watching how you left your seat in wich you were obviously staring at him to sit next to bard made his heart ache terribly.

in your mind, bard seemed like an obvious solution: he was hot, he was your friend and long before you started going out with thranduil he and you had spent a couple of nights together. bard obviously recieved your presence with open arms.

"(y/n), sweetheart." bard calm voice welcomed you as you approached the couch where he was drinking a beer. you noticed he had a blunt on the other hand. "you look beautiful as always."

"hi, bard. long time no-see" you took the seat next to him, everyone were dancing and the fact that he was also a very close friend of thranduil made the whole idea of making out with him so much better.

there was a brief moment of silence, but it wasn't uncomfortable. the music was peaceful now, tempting every couple to slow dance.

"do yo want some?" he offered you the pot, and you took it while nodding.

as you smoke, bard looks at you with his classic lovely and reassuring smile, only this time he seemed quite drunk and clearly high.

you were a little drunk yourself too.

"i think i needed that, thank you." you give him back the blunt, and he leaves it in the ashtray. after, he looks at you with curiousity.

"are you-" he started to say but you interrupt him.

"yes i am in fact okay, thank you for asking though." the question had you completely exhausted. you rolled your eyes and stared at him right at his, starting to feel the mix of pot and the alcohol making you a little dizzy. "i came to see if we could make out for a while, i don't care if it's your fault he is here, i don't care about him, i don't care about anything. please, help me forget everything for a second like in the old times. please." your voice sounded a little desperate but the truth it was that you were.

the pain in your heart was begging and pleading to be released, to be cured even if it was for a brief moment. it felt like a bomb ticking on your chest that could explode at any moment and bard seemed to notice it.

a soft smile appeared on his face as he spoke. "you do seem to care, sweetie." the nickname made your heart ache a little, all his nicknames did. thranduil used to call you loving names all the time but the last time you two spoke he called you plainly by your name.

you asked yourself if he also was calling her those sweet names too.

your mouth opened to answer bard but the words didn't came out as the heart ache was ripping apart your body from the insides. bard saw your change of expression, knowing you needed help to get the words out of your chest. you did care after all.

bard puffed, trying not to sound melancholic and grabbed your hand softly. “im sorry, love. i know why you're asking me this and you can be sure i understand it, but thranduil made me promise i wouldn't touch you and i don't want to be in the middle of this break up.” as always, he was a pacifist. bard put his hand on your shoulder and pulled you into a hug. your sight started to get blurry from tears. “it will pass.”

his words echoed in your mind calming every part of you like a balm.

“it will pass.”

you spent what it felt like hours in bard's arms, cying silently. he held you, proving that even if he was thranduil's friend, he was still your friend also. it was a beautiful gesture, and made your soul heal for a while.

yet, an specific sentence of his words lingered in your mind leaving a poison trail on your thoughts: “thranduil made me promise i wouldn't touch you.” why on earth thranduil would care if you fucked bard? what was his problem?

after a moment, you broke the hug and faced bard a little bit ashamed by the way you tried to approach him at first and how you broke down instantly at him reading your feelings like a book. after wiping your tears, you looked at him. your face was swollen from crying but your expression tried to remain calm.

“im sorry i tried to-...” you started, but he cutted you off.

“it doesn't matter, love. it's okay.” bard said, giving you a reassuring stroke on your hand.

a sigh escaped from your lips and then you felt hungry, as you hadn't eat anything in the whole night.

“i will go to the kitchen to get something to eat, i'll be back in a sec.” your voice was trembling at every word but bard smiled at you and nodded, giving you a soft pat on the head before you stood up.

he surely knew how to treat a heartbroken person.

the way to the kitchen was silent, at least for you. the music was still loud but your head was even louder.

your hands placed themselves on the refrigerator door and the familiar soft cold wind welcomed you.

arwen never cared if you took food from her fridge, so you guessed that she probably wouldn't mind if you took an apple. then you closed it, not wanting to be tempted to eat something more and empty the whole refrigerator, leaving your friend having to buy more things tomorrow.

as you ate the apple you remembered how thranduil had cooked you an apple cake one time. it was probably one of the few times he ever baked anything sweet yet the cake resulted to be absolutely perfect.

then you cursed yourself, if you wanted to forget why did he keep coming back in every single little thing you did?

it was like every detail of him was craved deeply onto your heart with no intention of leaving you soon and it hurted more than you could stand.

“you must be (y/n)” a sweet voice called you from behind, and when you turned you saw her.

it was probably one of the most beautiful women you'd ever seen. blue eyes, blonde hair and soft lips.

you fully understood why thranduil would ever leave you for her. she was surely beautiful like if she were some kind of angel.

“yes, i am.” the words left your mouth with shyness. she had a smirk on her face, and looked at you while your teeth catched another bite from the apple.

“it's surely nice to meet you.” she answered, but her voice was almost cynical. there was a weird tone of passive aggressiveness behind it but you were probably too high to catch up.

then it became so obvious you couldn't avoid it.

“thran spoke a lot about you.” she continued, getting closer to you. “but i'm sure that he will soon stop.” then she walked some more steps to your direction and you placed the apple on the counter, swallowing hard.

you didn't realized that you probably had a sad look on your face until she spoke again.

“oh, don't put on that face.” she said, chuckling. there was a mocking subtone on her words. “thran will forget you quickly.” her words felt like a sting through your chest. “you surely don't seem as beautiful nor interesting as everyone said, and i will clearly erase you from his heart.”

you were about to answer, but then you saw thranduil appear behind her like if he were searching for her, and it was too much for you to handle. it was too humilliating to see him watching how his girlfriend completely destroyed you.

your steps were fast as you left the kitchen clearly at the verge of tears. the bathroom was the first door you saw as you almost ran out of the room.

the door felt heavy against your hands but it was nothing you couldn't handle. the first instinct you had was sit on the floor, knees against your chest and finally letting it all out.

you didn't cared if anyone heard you. the heartbreak was a weight in your chest that you needed to purge the fastest way possible, even if thranduil mocked you with his girlfriend outside, even of everyone only felt pity for you, even if the world ended tomorrow.

the pain needed to come out.

and as you finally gave yourself permission to cry, the bathroom door started to open.

you almost didn't noticed, as the sounds were minimum but what you did noticed was the cologne thranduil always wore.

your stare didn't raised to face him, and he closed the door.

“what on earth are you doing?” his voice sounded like a dagger through your heart, and then you looked at him from the ground.

“i didn't asked you to come here.” your answer was harsh. “you're clearly having a lot of fun with all of this.”

“i don't care about what you think, (y/n).” you felt like your name was cursed on his lips. thranduil's voice was serious. “i asked you a question.”

you got angry instantly. how dared he to even ask something like that?

as you stood up to face him properly, your face swollen from tears and by looking him in the eyes you noticed he was probably high too. yet the weed nor the alcohol were clouding his senses that much.

his eyes were like an ocean, and you were drowning in it. quickly and deeply.

“i don't know what on earth do you want me to answer. i literally don't know.” you said, clearly irritated with his attitude and your voice trembling with fury. “what the fuck do you want me to say?”

“don't talk to me like that” he answered harshly. memories of your last fight came to you like a storm. “i asked you why are you crying in the bathroom like a pathetic little girl” thranduil said. “you were clearly capable of defending yourself two weeks ago”

instantly, you understood he was talking about the fight.

“and you were the same imbecile you're being now.” the answered came from your lips almost drowning you in venom and thranduil's expression became more cold than before if that was even possible. “it didn't occur to you, that maybe and just maybe, i don't want to fight for a man like you in the middle of my friend birthday party?”

“a man like me?” he sounded almost offended, and took a step closer to you, his head over yours and his serious eyes looking down at you. “you were dying for a man like me not even a month ago”

and you were still dying for him.

as thranduil was much taller than you, after the break up you discovered that arguing with him was one of the most intimidating things you'd ever done.

yet you faced him with bravery, not letting him ruin the last pieces you had from your broken heart.

“well i don't want to anymore.” you said and he got more closer, his chest almost touching yours.

“and what kind of man do you want then? you want a man like bard?” thranduil asked and he sounded annoyed, his face was stoic but the subtone of his words betrayed his feelings.

he sounded jealous, and he clearly was.

“and what is your problem if i do?” you bited back, pushing his buttons. “maybe he'll treat me way much better than you, in fact, i'm pretty sure he wouldn't replace or use me « to heal » in the first place.” you avoided his eyes while you spoke, not wanting your look to give away the fact that you didn't wanted to be with anyone else than thranduil.

thranduil let out an irritated puff, then his hand went straight to your face, grabbing it tightly, forcing you to look at him.

“then go date him, (y/n).” he said, his voice becoming rough. “that's really what you want?” thranduil asked.

you didn't answered, as you became nervous. yet your hands went to his chest, trying to push him out but it was useless.

thranduil was visibly angry and an irritated chuckle left his lips.

“but i don't think you want that, do you love?” he said, not really expecting you to say anything, cause he already knew the answer. “actually, if i remember correctly, less than a month ago you were in my bed whimpering for me.”

thranduil calling you « love » again made your heart skip a beat as the rest of his words burned your skin like a wildfire.

“why are you throwing a tantrum, thranduil?” you asked, annoyed. he was completely delusional if he thought you wouldn't fire back. “isn't your new girlfriend enough for you that you have to come looking for me like a little puppy?” every word you said felt like if you were digging your own grave, but you didn't cared at all. thranduil's grip on your face became harder.

the next thing that happened was probably the last thing you expected.

thranduil kissed you fiercely, like a unleashed beast. it was agressive, but you played along.

it was like drinking from an oasis in the middle of the dessert, and you answered him with the same obsessive hunger. you broke the kiss briefly to push him almost violently against the bathroom door, and then you were the one to attack his mouth to shut him up before he could say anything.

a slow song started to sound loudly in the house, making the contact more passionate.

« maybe i'm too young, to keep good love from going wrong »

thranduil went from kissing you like an animal to kiss you tenderly, his hand releasing your face to caress your head. he subtely guided you to the floor, where he sat with his back against the door and you placed yourself in his lap, straddling him.

minutes passed, his lips tasted like if you were drinking napalm making your loins burn, and your blood rushed quickly to your cheeks. both of his hands placed themselves on your hips, pulling you closer as his tongue asked you permission to enter your mouth.

« so 'll wait for you, love, and I'll burn. will I ever see your sweet return? »

you open your mouth and let him do as he please, and thranduil takes the opportunity, introducing his tongue. then, the kiss abandoned its sweet nature to become an agressive fight between the both of you, again. your hands move to his hair, making it messy.

thranduil wastes no time and one of his hands moves to your neck, making a little bit of pressure, while kissing you.

the kiss is broken up by the need to take a little bit of air, and you both look at eachother in the eyes, his hand not leaving its place.

« it's never over, all my blood for the sweetness of her laughter »

“i hate you” you say agitated, your lips swollen from the past interaction.

he chuckled, breathing heavily. “i hate you too.”

« it's never over, she is the tear that hangs inside my soul forever »

and then he pulled you to kiss you again, roughly. his left hand went under your dress, caressing your thigh and the other made presure on your neck and made you sigh in between the kiss. thranduil smiled as you kept kissing eachother hungrily, now moving his hand closer to the sweet spot between your legs.

you made sure to kiss him hard, and bited his lip with delicacy as he moved your underwear to the side, thinking that if you were lucky, his girlfriend would taste you too when she kissed him.

thranduil touched you freely, like he still loved you. you whined against his mouth, and he broke the kiss.

“you still want to go out with bard?” he asked, releasing your neck to make you look at him by grabbing your chin. his other hand was between your legs, playing with you and making you sigh again.

« lover, you should've come over, 'cause it's not too late »

there was a brief silence as you tried to hold yourself together to give him an answer.

“n-no.” you said. “do you love her?” the sudden question came from your lips in an agitated whimper as you looked him in the eyes. for some reason you felt he almost rewarded you by moving his hand faster against you, making you gasp.

“no.” thranduil finally asnwered only for you to kiss him again. you grabbed both sides of his face, and his right hand caressed your hair softly.

and then your little make out session was terribly interrupted by loud and violent knocks on the door. you both stood up quickly, like children being caught doing a mischief.

he made you a sign to keep quiet and spoke.

“yes?” thranduil said, calmly.

“babe, is that you?” you rolled your eyes at the sound of his girlfriend's voice. thranduil noticed and a little mischievous smile appeared on his lips.

“yes, it's me. give me five minutes.” he answered, his voice was too calm for the events that unfolded just moments before.

thranduil then pressed you against the wall, next to the door so the door could cover your presence while he went out. you wondered if his new girlfriend was really that stupid to not notice her, but you quickly thought that if thranduil was doing this he probably believed too that she was indeed stupid.

you admired how he always knew how to manage all the situations, but something in your chest ached when he gave you another kiss before whispering a soft « i love you » and opening the door, leaving you shocked.

he loved you. thranduil really loved you.

“im here, love.” thranduil said to her, covering your presence with the door and showing his girlfriend that no one was in the bathroom with him. at least to her eyes.

“the party is ending, thran. we should go.” she said. oh you loathed her, and a part of you hated thranduil for leaving you for her. you wanted him to say no, to stay with you, but he didn't.

“okay. let's go.” he answered, and exited the bathroom, leaving you alone but forgetting to turn off the light.

you walked to the mirror, saw your messy make up, the frustrated look on your face after being interrupted and your lips subtly swollen from the kisses and you laughed.

you fucking laughed.

you laughed because, no matter what she could say or do to compete with you, you've already won. he didn't loved her, he was yours. and you hoped; no, you knew, that everytime she kissed him, she would have to taste you too.

and to think you didn't intended to fight over him on the first place, but now the game was on.

I REALLY HOPE YOU LIKED THIS!! it was super hard for me to finish this, and i plan to do a part 2 so stay tuned <3

[librarycards]

based on someone elses recent ask (and apologies if you've answered something like this before): do you have any tips for exercising and picking up the skill of being able to parse and make sense of academic language, especially for those of us who can't be in a formal academic setting? thx!!!

yes! the most important way to get yourself ready to parse academic texts is practicing close-reading & critical reading of any kind. you can do this with novels, nonfiction, popular articles/news, poems, and so on.

try printing out or having a paper version with you. read once without annotating. read again with a highlighter/pencil, and make it your goal to find the thesis and sub-arguments of the text. if you're looking at a creative work, substitute thesis for primary themes and motifs. then look for supporting evidence, imagery, and/or other details in the text that help further that argument.

on your next read-through, focus not only on the text but on what surrounds the text: where is this printed, who published it, who is the author, what are their credentials? when was it published, in what country, under what sociopolitical conditions? take some notes on how this may have influenced the text itself, particularly if you're reading an article funded by a specific entity/entities. if an article has citations/external links, check those out too. this is a good exercise in media literacy more broadly, but it will also help you better understand the argument a text is making.

all of this can happen before you open up an academic article, or an article you consider to have challenging, dense, or otherwise unfamiliar language. you do this for the same reason you train shorter distances before running a marathon - you get your body used to something so that when the time comes, you can go all-out. when you get to the dense peer-reviewed article, use this same three-step method, but take the piece one or two sentences at a time. try decoding and rephrasing a text sentence-by-sentence; if a word is used in an unfamiliar way, take a break and use google scholar to find other texts using that word. for example, if an economics paper is using the word "materialism," it's useful to find other (likely marxist) economists using and discussing the word, because it will mean something distinctly different from its colloquial usage of "having a lot of stuff."

I also recommend using command+F in longer papers especially, as well as reading the abstract and conclusion before reading the middle of the paper. you do this for the same reason that it's good to read a book in your native language before trying it in your L2, 3, 4, etc.: you already know the shape of the story, and now get to focus your energy on filling in the blanks. search (especially in humanities texts) for terms like "i argue," "drawing on" (for the texts it's in conversation with), "first," (this can get you to a roadmap of the text/arguments, usually at the end of the introduction), and, of course, "in sum/in conclusion". in a scientific or social scientific text especially, words like "evidence," "results," "limitations," and "implications" can also get you to vital information.

my last piece of advice is this: don't expect an academic text -- or any text, tbh -- to be a one-and-done thing. there are papers i first read as a teen, then read in undergrad, then read in grad school, and now cite in my scholarly work, that i am still returning to, asking questions of, being confused about, and googling terms in. learning is a process that we have the honor of engaging in with scholarship old and new, and often, the writing style in which work is presented is actually vital to that learning process. give yourself over to the unfamiliar language and take your time, annotate liberally (leftistly), and prepare to read other works "around" the one you're interested in to get a fuller picture of what you're reading. and if you can, do it with other people!!!!

A few texts we did this with in high school that were helpful in my learning:

Virginia Woolf - A Room of One's Own

Toni Morrison - Beloved

Frederick Douglass - What to the Slave is the Fourth of July

Dion, Berscheid, and Walster - What is Beautiful Is Good

Jonathan Swift - A Modest Proposal

Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart

[satorusugurugurl]

HIHI is this for the summer Drabble thing? If yes can I choose the hiking with Choso and like I dunno kinda maybe perhaps exhibition kink? I LOVE UR WORK SO DAMN MUCH I ALWAYS CHECK UR STUFF KEEP GOING UR AMAZING ❤️❤️❤️

-Kirby

What a View!

Summary: Marie’s Summer Fest prompt: Hiking

Pairing: Choso Kamo x AFAB!Reader

Warnings: exhibitionism, smut, outdoor sex, unprotected sex, creampie

Word Count: 1,598

A/N: sjndjdjfjdn thank you so much! Ugh you guys are so sweet to me I love you!!! I hope I can keep putting out stuff for you guys to enjoy! On that note! we only have one more prompt to post and then we are finished with my 2K follower celebration! These props were a lot of fun and I hope you guys enjoyed them as much as I did! Love your guys!

“Oh my god.” you granted to yourself as you climbed higher up the mountain you and Cho had decided to climb on your day off. “What the hell was I thinking?”

“You said you wanted to be one with nature. I tried to warn you that you would regret this decision, but you told me you needed to find your Zen.”

It was barely eight-thirty in the morning, the sun wasn’t even at its highest, and yet you were already sweating. “Yeah, well, the next time I tell you, I need to find my Zen. Give me a phone and watch some sensory videos for a baby or something. Would be an easier way to find instead of climbing a mountain!” Choso chuckled, looking back at you with a gentle smile; he hadn’t even managed to break his sweat yet; then again, he does more intensive training than you do.

“Come on, it'll be okay. We’re almost to the top!”

“Mmm,” you grumbled as you continued, climbing up the hilltop to overlook the beautiful mountainside you had chosen to hike.

When you finally reached the top, you watched your boyfriend’s eyes sparkle as he overlooked the sea of trees roaming over the mountains you were surrounded by. That smile on his face, with the far-off look in his eyes, made you realize that maybe this was worth all the sweating. So perhaps you would have to make this an activity the two of you would do occasionally.

“It's beautiful up here.”

“Yeah, but it’s fucking hot. After we rest for a bit, can we start climbing down? I'm starting to get hungry, and before we even think about going to eat, I want to take a shower first.”

“Yeah, of co—agh! What are you doing?!” When your sweet, loving boyfriend glanced back over to you, and he saw that your tank top had been lifted, wiping at the sweat dripping down your face. Leaving you in nothing but your shorts like that left your sports bra on full display for anybody to see.

You were so pretty. Your skin was flawless, your breasts were smashed together, and the confinements of your bra made Choso’s pants tighten. You were so cute and perfect in his eyes. Seeing you like that made him glance around protectively for any peering eyes.

“I’m wiping sweat off my face?” you asked point-blank as if it were the most obvious answer.

“I-I know that, but why are you lifting your shirt? Someone could see you!”

“Cho there is no one up here.” you motion around you to emphasize your point. “I think we’re good.” You take note of the way his hands dart down to cover up his crotch. His cheeks are flushed, and his eyes nervously glance around for any other souls that could be up there with you, watching you. “Oh—“ you bite your bottom lip, smirking at how he shrinks in on himself. “Unless you like the idea of that.”

Choso blinks, whiling towards you in shock. “Wh-What?! I—” His dark eyes darted down towards the crotch, his pants not even bothering to be coy about it, painfully obvious. “M-Maybe a little—?”

“Yeah?”

Choso, once you do nothing more than climb the mountain and crawl under a rock. You must be disgusted with his arousal at the idea of being intimate out in the open like this. He wouldn’t blame you if you were because the more he looked at your body, the more he wanted to take you right there out in the open.

“Choso~” your sweet singsong voice had his attention darting towards you, finding your tank top and sports bra pushed up, revealing your perfect breast to him.

“H-Honey!” he yelled, rushing to pull your bra back down. You snatched his wrist with your hand as he reached for it, preventing him from readjusting your clothes. “Honey?”

“I want you, Cho~ right now.”

Choso wasn't sure what happened or how it happened so fast. One second, he was standing a good five feet away from you, and the next, your hands were pressed against the tree in front of you, the bark of it dug into the palms of your hands, scratching the surface of your skin. Your boyfriend watched your head fall forward leg, shaking as he gripped your hips, slamming into you.

“M-Mmm—nngh—mm!!”! You moan softly, digging your teeth into your bottom lip as the sound of Choso’s ball sopping your ass off the trees just off the trail he dragged you down.

“Mmm—good girl.” Choso praised his hands, reaching up, groping your breasts that bounced with each hard thrust. His fingers kneaded at them, holding them gently. “You keep squeezing me. It feels so good!”

“Ahn fuck Cho!” you did your best to keep your voice down, but you were finding that extremely difficult with how good the drag of his cock inside your pussy felt.

“Fucck, oh fuck this is so hot I need—” a twig snapped somewhere in the distance, causing you both to freeze up momentarily in shock.

“Baby, maybe we should stop—mmphm!” You cried out as Choso’s hand clamped over your mouth, his cock throbbing inside of you as he began slamming into you, his lips moving over your neck as he softly grunted and whined against your neck.

You had just been teasing him in the beginning! Choso was the type of person that was easy to tease. But feeling him twitching and panting made it clear that your boyfriend was an exhibitionist. His mouth pressed firmly against the crook of your neck, his breath hot against your skin as he snarled, thrusting inside of you faster, deeper. The head of his cock pressed firmly against your cervix before pulling out just enough to slam into your g-spot before pushing himself in as deep as he could.

Being out in the open like this, with the chance of anyone coming across you, had your knees buckling, making it difficult for you to stand. This had to be one of the most erotic moments of your entire life. Having Choso fuck you in the middle of the woods like some animal in heat. Fuck, it was so arousing it was honestly driving you wild, causing you to dig your nail into the bark of your sturdy tree while your walls squeezed around your boyfriend tightly.

Choso smirked against your skin, a deep, rumbling chuckle sounding inside his throat as he leaned in his mouth close to your ear. “Heh, what was it? Weren’t you the one teasing me earlier? Liking the idea of being caught?” his sharp canines dug into the skin of your neck, your sharp cries muffled by his palm. “I think you’re the one who likes this. I can feel you clamping down on me. You’re squeezing me so tight.” his words, your eyes rolling back as you nodded in agreement. “At least you're honest. Now be a good girl and cum for me.”

Who were you to deny your boyfriend? Your head rocked back, resting against his shoulder while you shut your eyes tight as you came around him, squirting hard. Your moans were still muffled and inaudible because of his palm, and you were thankful for his hand. Because holy shit, your boyfriend was fucking so you so good. His cock was sliding deeper into you before throbbing as Choso came, his fingers gripping at your hips, squeezing them to the point you would have marks left. These marks would be a pleasant reminder of your sexual escapade out in the woods. A delightful memory as the warmth of his cum flooded you in the deepest parts, slowly spreading until Choso barely held you both up.

After a minute to recover, your boyfriend weakly pulled out of you, watching as you stumbled forward just an inch before resting your head against the tree you were clinging to your thumb in your ears as Choso adjusted both of your clothes before his hands gently grabbed your shoulders. He massages them before placing a gentle kiss against your cheek, smiling softly.

“Are you okay, honey?”

“I’m great,” you whispered, turning your head to watch him with a shy and hesitant smile. But we might have a bit of a problem.”

“Are you hurt? I wasn’t too rough with you, was I?”

The other concern in his voice had your heart fluttering. “No, I am okay. I just uhm—” Your body decided to answer your boyfriend‘s question for you. He watched as your legs gave out, resulting in you slowly sinking to your knees. The impact had you whining. “I don’t think I’ll be able to walk for a while.”

Luckily for you, your boyfriend was one of the sweetest souls you had ever known. He carried you all the way down the hiking trail, happily chatting with you as you wrapped your arms around your neck. You peppered kisses along his cheek as if he didn’t just fuck the life out of your legs. It was safe to say you both would be taking more hikes in the future, especially if they ended like this.

Forever Tag List:

@darkstarlight82 @pandoness @nealeart @simp-plague @sugurubabe @chilichopsticks @reap3erslov3 @wil10wthetree @luvsymai

Summer Fest Tag List:

@typicalife-101

[xzinbdg]

oh dad? idk

synopsis: yn as a single mother never really wanted to look for the father it was just a one time thing at a party and she was doing alright by herself but ever since her daughter turned four she started asking questions that even she doesn't know the answer to.

as soon as you texted sunghoon your next step had to be telling haru what's going to happen. the only problem was that you weren't sure how to approach the situation. haru was a smart little girl but that didn't change the fact that she was only 4 years old. would she understand what you're trying to say? well no matter what you still had to tell her. you made your way to the living room where your daughter watched the tv.

- hi baby

- hi mommy - the little girl smiled upon seeing you

- there's something mommy has to tell you so please focus on mommy okay? - haru nodded and shifted her attention towards you.

- there's someone very special that you will meet today, it's your daddy - haru's smile grew as she listened to your words

- daddy? - she said happily.

- yes, so let's start getting ready okay? - you said smiling and in a minute the little girl was already running to her room to pick the prettiest outfit.

to say that sunghoon was nervous was an understatement. as he started getting ready his mind went blank for a minute. what if she doesn't like me? what if she cried because I wasn't there for her when she was growing up? then his mind went even further "what if im a bad dad?" he quickly tried to get rid of those thoughts and finish getting ready.

as your car reached the parking lot your heart started speeding up.

- mommy are we here?

- yes honey - you couldn't help but smile at your excited daughter.

sunghoon was already waiting at a table for you two. nervous as ever looking at all the people coming in hoping to see your face quickly. and finally he sees you and the little girl holding your hand looking around. he got up and waved to you. seeing him you signal your daughter that it's her father, and their eyes meet. sunghoon doesn't even realize that he's crying until you ask him what's wrong.

- ah it's alright, i guess the emotions kinda got to me - he says wiping his tears and crouching down to the little girl now hiding behind you because of shyness.

- hello haru - sunghoon says - i'm your daddy - he sends her a smile and she smiles back.

- hi daddy - she looks up to you and you signal her to hug her dad which she excitingly does and sunghoon hugs her back immediately. the three of you enjoyed nice dinner with your daughter asking sunghoon a ton of questions that he was more then happy to answer.

- should we go get some ice cream? of course if your mom says yes - both of them looking at you in anticipation.

- let's go - you smiled.

you have to admit that the sight in front of you was something you had secret dreams about. it's not like you had troubles with haru by yourself but seeing her with her dad was a happy sight. and you're glad that she likes him which did kind of surprise you. haru was always very shy in front of strangers and it took a long time for her to open up but with sunghoon she was very open from the start. maybe it's because he's her dad?

chapter 10 - hello

previous ☆ next ☆ masterlist

author's note: they met 🥹 ngl i kinda felt emotional writing this... 😭💕 yns last tweet 👀

genre: smau, crack, strangers to lovers, parents au

pairing: sunghoon x mother!reader

taglist: @softiehee @beomgyusonlywife @cha3w0n-hearts @mixtape-racha @viagumi @electrobutterfly @alwayswook @smg-valeria @enharts @fantastichoagieuniversityhairdo @lhsvibez @they2luv1naia @oopshee @cyberstephzz @oshakyao @enhaz1 @papichulomacy @tobiosbbyghorl @ikeusimp @msauthor @heeheesang @hyunjinheartbreakprince @mnxnii @junnysbae @enhacolor @soobieboobiedoobiedaboobie @danielleism @d-dilemma @dummyf @missychief1404 @sumzysworld @randomanothercreature @jung1w0n @nujeskz @moonshoon @seunghancore @nshmrarki @whateverhoon

[persevereforahappyending]

A Beacon in the Dark |11|

Pairing: Joey x Reader

Summary: Joey likes helping people, it's what she's best at. Hunting down the monsters of myth and legend might be the best way to save people.

Warnings: Death, Murder, Killing, Kidnapping, Guns, Shooting, Stabbing, Blood, Violence, A LOT of Violence

Word Count: 17.6k

Note: This chapter was always going to be long but turned out MUCH longer than expected. Probably should have tried breaking it up... but oh well!

Main Masterlist | Series Masterlist

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21

You rolled over with a groan, as soon as you opened your eyes you closed them, bringing a hand to shade them from the bright light. You rolled over again, blinking the spots away as you focused on the cool ground beneath you. You furrowed your brow, tilting your head as you looked at the cold concrete you were apparently laying on, there hadn’t been any concrete in the woods. Your head snapped up, your eyes going wide, the woods. You had been in the woods. Joey. Joey had been with you.

Your heart began beating out of your chest as you frantically looked around, you’d never forgive yourself if you hurt her. You finally looked down at your hands and saw them stained red. You shook your head, there was so much blood. You backed away, as if you could get away from it. When you looked down you saw your entire body was caked in dried blood.

You looked up when you heard a door open. You held your breath until you caught the familiar scent of Grace. You were home, you were in your cage. You remembered giving Joey the device, meaning she used it if Grace found you and got you back here. You had no idea what you did before that though, no idea how long it was before Joey pressed the button, what you did during that time before or after. Your eyes tracked Grace as she walked across the room to your cage before pulling out her phone and unlocking the door. The door swung open, she stood at the entrance, but you didn’t move.

“Did I hurt her?” You rasped out. Your throat was always so dry after changing, especially if you had killed. You couldn’t help the way your eyes filled with tears as you awaited Graces answer.

“No,” Grace whispered. She always spoke so soft after you shifted back, like she was afraid to spook you.

You let out a relived breath. “Who did I hurt?” You might not have hurt Joey, but you clearly killed someone, multiple someone’s from the amount of blood covering you. You knew it wasn’t an animal, you weren’t that lucky, besides, you could smell it.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does!” You roared. You pinched your eyes shut, this was why Grace treated you like this after shifting back, you were always irritable at best. “Who did I hurt?” You looked up, meeting Graces eyes for the first time.

Grace walked up to you; she brought a hand to your cheek, but you pulled away. She gave you a pointed look and when she caressed your cheek again you couldn’t help but lean into the touch. “The witches.” Your tear-filled eyes searched her face, trying to figure out if she was saying what you thought she was saying. “They were the only ones killed.”

You let out a shaky breath and ran a hand through your hair. You didn’t care about the blood, you were already covered in it, you would need a shower anyway. “The girls?” You ask hesitantly, just because you apparently didn’t kill them didn’t mean someone didn’t. You got ambushed by the witches and once you shifted everything was blank, you weren’t sure what happened, if the witches started the ritual before you killed them all or not.

“They escaped.” Your lip twitched, you wanted nothing more than to smile at a successful mission, but you couldn’t. “Were found by a park ranger, who got them help.” You nodded, your eyes drifted down to the concrete, all that mattered was that the girls were safe. “They didn’t see you; they just said a group of women kidnapped them. An investigation is underway, they’ll find the tunnel and the room the girls were kept in, but no bodies.”

You nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for.”

You mindlessly nodded. Every time an incident happened you apologized, and every time afterwards Grace said the same thing. You wondered what it would take for you to need to apologize. You couldn’t control what you did while shifted, you had no memory of your time as a wolf. Despite all that, the guilt never seemed to go away, you never knew what you felt guilty for, you just knew you deserved to feel that way.

“She’s in the living room,” Grace’s soft voice cut through the self-hatred. You froze, you weren’t expecting that, you didn’t know why Joey was still there, she saw you for what you truly were, she should have run back home where she would be safe.

“Why?” You asked, keeping your eyes fixated on the floor. You thought she was warming up to you, but you didn’t think you had developed the kind of loyalty where she would stay. She probably only wanted to get answers, learn the truth, learn why you lied to her, then she’d cut you off, tell you exactly what kind of monster you were. “She probably hates me.”

“I convinced her to stay.” You looked up, meeting Grace with tear filled eyes. “She deserves the truth.” She was right, Joey never deserved you lying to her. Everyone was entitled to their privacy, but your secret could have gotten Joey killed, or worse.

“What did you tell her?”

“Nothing, it’s your story to tell.” You nodded, it was never easy to talk about, the only one you talked to about everything was Grace and that was because she was the one to find you. You would tell Joey though, you would tell her everything, assuming she wanted to stick around and hear it. “Get cleaned up.”

You mindlessly walked out the door. You made sure to take a path that wouldn’t lead you past the living room. You listened for Joey’s heartbeat, hearing it was steady as she didn’t move from her spot. You didn’t want her to turn a corner and come face to face with you all naked and bloody, she might have already seen you at your worst, but you were hoping she didn’t see the aftermath.

When you got to your room you went straight to the bathroom. You didn’t have any clothes to peel off since shifting shredded them, so you just hopped right into the shower. You turned the shower on the hottest setting and let the water pour over you. You didn’t react as the water got progressively hotter, until it would burn a normal person, but you could take it, you liked the sting. It felt like the only way you could ever clean yourself of all the blood was by taking a scalding hot shower, you weren’t sure if it was because it hurt, and you deserved the pain or because the hotter the water was the more it felt like you were actually getting clean.

You kept your head down, your eyes staring at the drain as all the water going down was tainted red. After a few minutes of letting the water run over your body you finally grabbed your scrub brush and got to work. It took several minutes of scrubbing your entire body before it was finally not stained red. You tilted your head back, letting the water wash over your hair before running your hair through it a few times, making sure to get the clumps of blood and anything else out. When you didn’t scrub well enough you learned glops of blood or chunks of flesh tended to get stuck in places. Ever since the first time you learned to be incredible thorough with your scrubbing.

When you were finally cleaned up you stepped out of the shower, looking back to see the tile stained as well. You would have to bleach and spray it down when you got done with your talk with Joey. You went through this every month, you wished there was an easier way to clean the shower, you felt bad for always leaving it a mess, even though Grace understood and always said it was fine. You grabbed a towel off the rack wrapping it around yourself then grabbed another to run through your hair.

You made your way out of the bathroom, smiling when you saw Grace laid out a set of clean clothes, all nice and folded at the end of the bed. You slipped on the sweats and the t-shirt, not even bothering to put on socks as you walked back into the bathroom. You put an obscene amount of toothpaste on the toothbrush and began scrubbing your mouth, trying to get rid of the taste of whatever you tore apart out of your mouth. Not that it mattered, it was usually a few days before things went back to tasting normal. When you were finished you frowned at the toothbrush, seeing all the bristles broken and curved. Ever since you changed you went through a toothbrush pretty much once a month.

After tossing the toothbrush in the trash you gripped the edge of the sink and stared at your own reflection. There were dark circles around your eyes, you usually took a very long nap after shifting back but you didn’t have time for that, you needed to talk to Joey. At the thought of Joey, you gripped the counter tighter, the last time she had seen you you were a raging monster filled with bloodlust, you remembered the fear in her eyes when you started to change in front of her. You finally released the counter when you began to hear a crack, it wouldn’t be the first time you broke one of Grace’s marble countertops, but you knew it wasn’t cheap to replace, and it was always awkward trying to explain how it happened.

You shook your head, you couldn’t keep stalling, Grace got Joey to hear you out, she had been here long enough. You flung open the door and made your way out of your room, as soon as you got to the stairs you hesitated again. You didn’t kill her, but you didn’t know what you did do, if you hurt her, how close you came to hurting her, you knew you didn’t bite her, Grace would have told you that.

“Stop stalling,” you heard Grace whisper. Your head snapped up; she was probably in her office, if she wasn’t still cleaning out the cell, but you heard her as if she were standing next to you. One of the perks to what you were, came in handy on missions, but the benefits definitely didn’t out way the consequences in your opinion. No amount of strength, speed, heightened senses, none of it was worth it when you had to go through what you did every month.

You let out a shaky breath and took the first step. You had to get it over with. There was no doubt in your mind Joey would hate you, she would hate you for lying, for being a monster, for almost killing her, she’d never want to see you again. You slowly descended the stairs, completely lost in your mind, it was better this way, probably. Joey hating you was for the best, she would be safer, it’s not like you actually thought she’d ever like you back, this would just help rip off the band aid. Joey would be alive and safe with her son as far away from you as possible, and you were better off alone where you couldn’t hurt anyone.

You came to a stop once you hit the entryway of the living room. Your eyes instantly found Joey, she was sitting on the couch, hunched over and had her hands bawled into fists. Her entire body was tense, and it was all your fault. “Hey,” you whispered, afraid to break the uneasy silence.

The second you spoke Joey somehow tensed up even more. She slowly lifted her head, and you could tell she was cautious, she had no idea what she would see when she looked at you. You held eye contact for a moment, seeing the distrust all over her face. You walked across the room, her eyes tracking every move you made. You would normally sit on the couch, it was much more comfortable, but Joey probably didn’t want you anywhere near her, so you opted for the chair that was as far away from her as possible but still around the little coffee table.

“Ar-are you okay?” You asked. Your arms were on the armrest, but you gripped it tighter than necessary. You wanted to appear open to Joey, showing her there was nothing to fear, even though you knew that was useless at this point.

Joey let out a humorless chuckle. You couldn’t help but look away when she looked at you, the anger burning behind her eyes. “Am I okay?” She scoffed.

“Did I hurt you?” You whispered, gripping the armrest tighter. You would never hear the end of it if you ripped Grace’s chair, but you couldn’t relax until Joey answered the question, until you knew you didn’t hurt her.

“No.” Your grip instantly relaxed making you flex your fingers and let them hang loosely on the armrest again. “You certainly tried though.”

You closed your eyes. You wondered how close you got; how close you were to tearing Joey apart. “I’m sorry,” you rasped out. It didn’t mean anything, even if it was true, you still did it, you lied and almost killed Joey, an apology didn’t mean shit, it’s not like she’d forgive you anyway, it’s not like you deserved her forgiveness.

“You lied to me, from the very beginning. You told me we were going to hunt down monsters,” she let out another humorless chuckle. “You talked about how much you hated them. When all this time…” you flinched at her words, she never finished her sentence, but you knew what she was about to say when all this time you were a monster as well. “Why lie? Why put me on a mission when you knew what would happen?”

“I didn’t want you on that mission,” you said instantly. “I fought against it every step of the way. I wanted to go out there alone, it’s what we should have done.”

“Grace said she wanted me there.” You nodded. “Not for the witches or the girls but for you.” You let out a deep sigh, Grace was always trying to protect you, you didn’t deserve it. “Why? It’s not like I could have stopped you.”

You nodded, taking in Joeys question. You fought her on it but you knew exactly why Grace wanted her on that mission. “It was to give everyone else a chance,” you answered. “If I had gone alone, I would have torn through everything in my path.”

“You did.”

You looked up at Joey through tear filled eyes. “It would have been so much worse.” You looked back down in shame; you couldn’t stand the judgment coming off of Joey. “You alerted Grace, that allowed her to get to me in time before I could hurt innocent people. You being there also stalled me, the wolf only wants to hunt and focusing on the witches and then you kept the girls alive and Grace getting there stopped me from finding campers or who knows what else I could have come across.”

“So, I was just a distraction,” Joey scoffed.

“No, not exactly,” you quickly denied. “Grace always hoped that if I was around someone familiar when I was changed, that I would hesitate, that I might recognize them.”

“You don’t recognize people when you turn?”

You swallowed a lump and just shook your head. “I don’t remember anything after I shift. The last thing I remember before everything goes black is my bones breaking.”

You didn’t know why you didn’t remember. Every other werewolf you ever came across had control, they attacked who they wanted and left others alone, they had their human memories as a wolf and vice versa. You learned a few blacked out their first few shifts but you had yet to experience that.

“So, you know you don’t remember things and you left me completely defenseless,” Joey nodded along. “A heads up would have been nice, a way to stop you. I don’t know what kills a werewolf but-”

“Silver,” you cut her off. You looked over at her to see her eyes widen, as if she didn’t expect you to say that, or didn’t expect you to answer at all. “Anything made out of silver will hurt me.”

At that Joey furrowed her brow. “That knife,” she said slowly. “It wasn’t like mine; it wasn’t iron.”

You shook your head. “It was a precaution; I had hoped to use it to hold myself off.” You scoffed, “Lot of good that did.” You thought maybe having the knife would give Joey a better chance, but you never even got the chance to hand it off to her before the witches got you. “Silver will hold me off but a silver bullet right here,” you held a finger to your head. “Will kill me.”

“Is that how Grace restrained you?”

“Partly,” you nodded. “She had that trailer rigged in case anything like that happened.” Which it had happened more times than you cared to admit, but at least Grace’s invention was getting use. Despite the fact that it was literally meant to contain you, you had to admire the device, it was pure genius. “She avoided my head, but she did shoot me with silver bullets, then the trailer is metal, thick and strong enough for me to not instantly break through.”

“Meaning you can break through if you want?” Joey raised her eyebrows.

“Technically yes.” There were metals you couldn’t break through easily, like the cage downstairs but to use that for a trailer would make it too heavy and Grace needed to be able to drive you away, whether it be in the middle of the woods where you couldn’t hurt anyone or back home. “The spikes she shot me with,” you gestured to your shoulder where one of them hit you. “Are made of silver. Then once I was in the container, she released wolfsbane.”

 “Wolfsbane?” Joey raised her eyebrows at that. “That’s also real?”

You couldn’t help but smile. There were so many movies and shows about werewolves, like vampires, one didn’t know what was real and what was pure fiction. There were a lot of weird things fiction brought into the werewolf curse but the two things they always seemed to get right were silver bullets and wolfsbane.

“It’s a plant but it can be spread through the air or mixed in with a liquid, there’s a lot of ways to get it in the system,” you said. “It won’t kill a werewolf, but it hurts like hell, it burns us.” You winced just thinking about all the times wolfsbane had been used on you.

“Why are you telling me all this?” Joey asked. Despite what you and Grace told her about her questions being answered she clearly didn’t believe that would actually happen or maybe she didn’t believe you would be so willing to tell her how to kill you.

“So, you know what to do next time,” you shrugged. “Even if you don’t continue working with us, it’s good to know what’s out there and how to stop it.” You let out a deep sigh, if Joey by chance wanted to continue working with you, you wanted to give her a chance to escape next time. You also knew what else was out there, the kind of wolves that existed, not many of them were as restrained as you.

“You’re literally telling me how to kill you,” Joey let out a disbelieving huff. “Who does that? You kept this secret from me the entire time and now you’re just willingly telling me how to kill you.”

“Because I hate what I am!” You snapped. You closed your eyes then clenched your fist and slowly unclenched them. “I don’t want to hurt you, or Grace, or anyone.” You opened your eyes again. When you looked at Joey this time, it was through tear filled eyes. “If it came down to it, I would rather be killed then have to hurt you or Grace or someone innocent. That’s not who I want to be.”

You gripped your knees tight. When you slowly release your knees you stared down at your hand, it was still human looking. You had been getting better at control, there were times you’d grip your knee or clench your fist so tight that your claws popped out and you usually didn’t notice until blood was running down your arm or leg.

“How long have you been like this?” Joey asked softly. You weren’t sure if she was being kinder because of your outburst, and she was worried you’d rip her throat out or if she actually cared about not upsetting you.

“I was bit two years ago,” you rasped out. Looking down at where the bite mark was, you had forgotten about until it was all over, that night flashed through your mind.

“That’s how it works?” You looked up to see a spark of curiosity in Joey’s eyes. She might have been pissed at you, but she still had that wonder about all this stuff. “A bite?”

You nodded. “Not sure how it all started,” you shrugged. “There’s families who are born into this, but then someone can also be turned by a bite.”

“H-how did it happen?”

You sucked in a breath. You knew the question was coming but you still weren’t ready for it. “That’s a long story.”

“I know you promised me answers, but if it’s too much to talk about, you don’t have to.”

The corner of your mouth twitched up, even after lying to her, Joey was still so understanding. “No,” you shook your head. “You deserve to know.” You let out a long sigh as you leaned back in the chair. “It’s not a pretty story.” You looked at Joey until she gave you a nod to continue. Just because it wasn’t easy for you to talk about didn’t mean it wasn’t hard for other people to hear. “Two years ago, I was on my way home when…”

You walked down the street like any other day. You had just got off a late shift at the bar and were making your way back to your crappy apartment. You shoved your hands in the pockets of your jacket, trying to keep them as warm as possible. You really needed to save up for a car, the New York winters weren’t doing you any good.

Someone came up behind you, throwing a bag over your head. You tried whipping around but you felt strong arms grab you and hold you in place. Your eyes darted around, even though you only saw darkness. You could hear the squeak of brakes as, what you assumed was some sort of vehicle, pull up to your left. There was a click, a door sliding open, and the next thing you knew you were tossed into the back of the vehicle. You crawled around, trying to find your footing when you heard the door slide shut and a second later a car door close.

You reached up and ripped the bag off your head only to be met with more darkness. You blinked, trying to get your eyes to adjust to the little bit of light coming from the little lights on the roof of the vehicle. You were definitely in a van of some sort, you looked back and saw nothing but a metal wall blocking you from the front seat, there wasn’t even a window to see the driver.

You whipped back around when you heard whimpering. You squinted and could just barely make out a group of two girls and two guys huddled in the corner. With a shaky finger one of the girls pointed to the other side of the van. You followed her finger to see a large man in all black and a mask covering everything but his eyes and mouth. He jerked his head to the side, telling you to huddle together with the others. You couldn’t see any weapons, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have any and there were at least two more people in the front seat, so you did as he asked.

The two girls gripped onto you, pulling you into the huddle as soon as you got within reach. You could feel the others trembling against you, or it might have been you, you weren’t quite sure. You weren’t sure what was going on, you had heard stories of human trafficking and people getting kidnapped, you just never thought it would be you. Something about this felt different though, they were wearing masks, but they weren’t worried about restraining any of you, maybe they were just that cocky or they were confident that none of you would fight back. You could only stare up at the man in the back with all of you, his body jostled from side to side as the van continued to speed down the street. All you could see was his dark eyes when they met yours, you held your breath, waiting for him to say something but he just smirked.

You weren’t sure how long all of you were in the car before it came to a stop, sending all of you flying forward into the far wall. You heard the man chuckle and through the pile of limbs you noticed him get up. He was just a giant shadowy figure towering over all of you, then someone opened the back doors of the van, and the man was illuminated in moonlight. The man walked backwards, not bothering to turn around until he hopped out of the van.

“Let’s go!” Another man shouted, slamming his fist on the side of the van. You and the others froze, you were sure ignoring the man was a bad idea, but you didn’t know what would happen if you didn’t listen to him. “Now!” He pounded the side of the van even harder.

You and the others scrambled to your feet, most of you needing to crouch down so you didn’t hit your head on the top of the van. All of you hopped out of the van single file, with you making sure to stick towards the middle of the group, you wanted to bring as little attention to yourself as possible. You kept your head down; you didn’t know what would happen if you began looking around or caught the eyes of one of the men around you. You tried to sneak a peek through your lashes though, you saw three men near the van, most likely the ones that grabbed you, then you saw more boots further to the side, though you couldn’t make out whether they belong to men or women.

You tensed when you heard the wheels of another vehicle approach, you took a risk and looked up, seeing an identical van come to a stop. Two men hopped out of the van and made their way to the back, where the man from the passenger side opened the back doors, allowing a third man to hop out. They did the same thing as the guys from your van, they banged on the side of the van and ordered everyone to get out. A few seconds later a group of another five people, one girl and four guys, hopped out of the van and stood in a single file line, each of them with their heads down. You could practically see them shaking from where you stood. There was now a total of ten of you, with six masked men standing around all of you.

“Everyone line up!” A man shouted. Everyone seemed to freeze at the same time, you weren’t sure if your two groups were supposed to line up together, technically you were lined up, unless they wanted a different type of line. “Now!”

You all quickly scrambled, forming a long single file line. You all kept your heads bowed as the men walked up and down on both sides of you. You held your breath when you heard the crunch of boots getting closer. You weren’t sure where you were, but you were standing on dirt, you tried glancing out of the side of your eyes at your surroundings, but everything was so dark, the only lights seemed to come from the vehicles.

“March!” The man ordered. This time none of you hesitated to get moving.

You all marched in single file, some people moved too quickly and stepped on the heel of the one in front of them. You weren’t sure where they were taking all of you but eventually you crossed over onto a grassy area. You strained your ears to try and decipher anything that might tell you where you were, but you heard nothing, not even bugs.

Everyone bumped into each other as the line slowly came to a stop. There was a loud groan, like a latch on a metal door being lifted, then there was the sound of a large metal door creaking open. “Move!” Someone from the back shouted. You assumed whoever it was shoved the person at the end of the line because the person behind you stumbled into you, making you stumble into the person in front of you.

All of you shuffled forward, eventually leaving the outdoors and entering some sort of building. You couldn’t tell what it was, there were no lights inside, but when you passed by the door you saw it was indeed a giant metal industrial style door. The door had a large latch that had to be lifted up to unlock the door, and there was nothing to open the door from the inside. You had never seen a door quite like that, you knew a door that only opened one way was always meant to keep something in, though you couldn’t imagine what they possibly wanted all of you for, that would make them want to lock you all up.

“Along the back wall!” A male voice echoed throughout the room.

Since there was no light you all stumbled forward until you hit a brick wall. You kept one hand on the wall, feeling the cold stone beneath your fingers as you turned around. You kept your head down even though it was dark, for some reason you thought they’d know if you looked at them. You heard several pairs of boots shuffling away from all of you, indicating the men were making their way out of the room. A second later there was a loud sound of the metal door slamming shut, and then the latch being flipped back into place, locking all ten of you in the cold dark room.

There was only the sound of everyone’s breathing for several minutes. It seemed as though all of you were afraid to move. You were pretty sure not a single one of the people who had taken you were in the room, but you didn’t know what would happen if you moved. You weren’t sure what game they were playing, why they wanted you or any of these other people. For all you knew there were cameras or listening devices in the room and as soon as any of you started trying to escape someone would come in and take and do who knows what to you.

“What the hell is this?” One of the guys asked.

“I-I-I-I was ju-jus-just wa-walk-walking ho-home,” one of the girls got out. You couldn’t see her, but it sounded like she was hyperventilating or close to a panic attack, not that you could blame her for that.

“Me too,” one of the other girls whispered.

“Same,” one of the guys spoke up.

“So, they grabbed all of us off the street?” the same man who asked the question spoke again.

“Seems that way.”

“What do they want? Who the fuck are these people?”

“I didn’t even know they were there until they tossed a bag over my head,” another man said.

“Same,” you finally rasped out. “Two men grabbed me, tossed a bag over my head, I didn’t see anything, I just heard the car roll up before they tossed me in.”

“Someone had to see something right?” another girl spoke up, sounding more hysterical than the first one. “We were picked off the street, there’s cameras, witnesses, something!”

“It was the middle of the night,” the first man replied not unkindly. “I don’t know about all of you but as far as I know there was no one around.”

Everyone remained silent, everyone seemed to have been in the same position, you knew it had been the same for you. The girl wasn’t wrong about cameras, there were traffic cams, store cams, ATMs, there was some form of camera all over the city. The only issue was that if no one knew any of you were missing, or no one knew where you last were, then there would be no reason to check the cameras. You highly doubted some store owner checked the cameras to his shop every morning, unless he had a reason to, and even if by some chance they did, they’d also have to care. People had a habit of remaining quiet when something happened, usually not wanting to get involved, or not wanting to put a target on their own back. In this case you honestly couldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to talk about a van rolling up and grabbing someone, the speed and way it happened told you it was definitely not the first time for these people, they were professionals.

“Well, someone will miss us, right?” the girl asked again. “Family? Friends? Someone will definitely notice when we don’t show up to work!”

You let out a humorless chuckle. “I have no one,” you said with a careless shrug. You had a job but even if you didn’t show up your boss would only be pissed about the inconvenience, he might leave an angry message but otherwise he’d write you off, fire you without giving your existence a second thought.

No one spoke up, no one tried to say their friends or families would look for them, it seemed everyone was in the same boat as you. All of you were taken the same way, all of you were people that no one would miss. You furrowed your brow, for the guys who grabbed you to know all that it meant they had to be watching all of you for some time. They had to know when and where each of you would be to plan this so perfectly. You let your head flop back against the stone wall and slid down to the floor, something this big, with this much planning and so many people involved, there was no way any of you were getting out of this.

“What if we attack them when they come back?” one of the guys asked. “We can work together and as soon as they open the door, we grab them!”

“What about the other five?” the first man asked.

“Not to mention all the others,” you added. “No idea how many, but there’s a lot more than the six who grabbed us.”

“There’s still ten of us!” the guy continued to try and be hopeful.

“And who knows how many of them there are!” the first guy snapped. “They’ve clearly planned this all out. We don’t know their numbers or what kind of weapons they have.”

“I didn’t see the guy in the back of the van with a weapon,” the man said weakly, still trying not to give up on his argument.

“That doesn’t mean he didn’t have one.”

“Or that others don’t have one,” you added. “They’ve clearly done this before; it would be way to risky to take this many people and not have a way to keep us in line.” Even if all of you made it out of the room you had no idea what awaited you on the outside. You didn’t get a good look, but you had to be out in the middle of nowhere or on a large patch of property. You didn’t know the area so odds were if you ran, you’d get lost, it would probably be easy for them to catch you all again, or take you out, they might just shoot you in the back as you tried to run away.

“So, what do we do?” the guy asked.

You and the man didn’t respond, there didn’t seem to be anything you could do besides wait and meet your fate. When no one answered it seemed to take all of the fight out of him because you heard someone plop down on the floor with sigh. Hope was the strongest thing one could have in this type of situation, hope of someone rescuing you, hope of surviving this, hope of getting out, but none of you wanted to provide hope. As much as you wanted to fight back, you wouldn’t just roll over and let them do what they wanted, but it was still hard to find any sliver of hope that you would get out of this. If you were being honest with yourself, your only hope was that your death would be quick.

You remained against the wall, your leg propped up and your arm resting over your knee, while the other leg was stretched out. Your eyes had adjusted to the dark as best as they could, but it still wasn’t like you could see anything. Everyone had shuffled around the room, it sounded like someone was feeling around the walls, hoping for some sort of weakness, two of the girls were huddled together to the left of you and were sobbing as quietly as they could. You turned your head, when you felt someone slide down the wall and sit next to you, even though you couldn’t make out any sort of features on the person.

“Hey,” the guy said, and you recognized him as the one who first spoke up. “Are you the person who actually agreed with me?”

You huffed out a laugh. “Yeah,” you replied. None of you could see each other, you barely knew what anyone looked like. The only way to identify each at the moment was based on each other’s voice, and not everyone had spoken, there were still two guys who had yet to speak.

“My name’s Cody.”

You weren’t sure why he was telling you; you didn’t believe any of you would be alive long enough to warrant knowing each other’s names. “Y/N,” you told him anyway.

“What’s your take on all this?”

You let out a deep sigh as you gave it some thought, not that you hadn’t been trying to figure that exact thing out since they first grabbed you. “I have no idea,” you shrugged. “At first I thought maybe human trafficking.”

“It doesn’t feel like that.” Cody seemed to be thinking as he said that, he wasn’t trying to dismiss your thought, he just wasn’t sure he agreed with it. “I’m not sure I can explain why.”

“I know what you mean.” You let your head flop back against the wall again, you weren’t sure why, but you didn’t think the people who grabbed you would be coming back to transport you all again, you had a feeling that whatever was going to happen to all of you would be done here.

“Clearly they’ve been watching us,” you whispered, even though the room was empty, and you knew the others could hear your entire conversation. “There’s a reason they grabbed us, they didn’t pick us at random.”

“But?” he asked, clearly already sensing you weren’t done yet.

“But it also doesn’t seem like they care who they grabbed. They grabbed both men and women, but not an even number.” You furrowed your brow, there was ten of you and you’d normally think if they were kidnapping both men and women that they’d want an even number of each but that’s not the case, the number of men was higher than the number of women.

“Maybe that’s not what’s important to them. Maybe the most important part is people who won’t be missed.

“Then that makes what they’re planning even more concerning.”

Cody sucked in a breath, seeming to understand what you meant. They didn’t care about gender, that didn’t play any importance in their plan, that just meant the same thing was going to happen to all of you. That didn’t do anything to ease your worries, that only made them worse. You weren’t sure if the guys were going to come in an take you out one by one, take you out in pairs. Or do something to the entire group of you, there were endless possibilities of horrors they could put you all through.

“Whatever happens,” Cody whispered. “We need to stick together.”

You weren’t sure if Cody actually had some sort of hope that you guys could make it out of this or not. The way he spoke to the other guy made it seem like he knew fighting back would be pointless, but this kind of comment made it seem like he thought there was a fighting chance. Even if there was no chance, even if you all faced what was surely a guaranteed death, at least sticking together would mean you might not die alone, and maybe it would mean making things a little more difficult for your captors, which even if you did die would definitely be worth it.

Everyone fell silent after that. Sobs eventually died down, whether it was because they passed out or because they were finally gathering themselves you didn’t know. The guy who had been looking for away out kicked and pounded on the door, screaming in frustration until finally slumping to the floor, seeming to realize there truly was no way out. You weren’t sure how long all of you had been in there, no one ever came to check on you, no one ever came to drop off food or water, for all you knew it would be days before anyone ever came back. Eventually you found it hard to keep your eyes open and you fell into a restless sleep.

You shot awake, your eyes darting around trying to make out anything but only seeing darkness. “Hey, hey,” Cody said, his hand coming over to rest on your shoulder. “You fell asleep.”

You let your head flop back against the wall and you closed your eyes as you let out a shaky breath. You had hoped everything had been a horrible nightmare, but it wasn’t, you were still locked away in some mysterious dark building. You didn’t open your eyes again until your heart no longer felt like it was about to beat out of your chest.

“Did I miss anything?” you rasped out. You cleared your throat; you couldn’t tell how much time had passed exactly but your dry throat told you it had been several hours.

“Nope,” Cody sighed.

All of you continued to sit in the dark, occasionally the sound of someone shuffling around could be heard but no one tried to find a way to escape again. You and Cody sat in silence for the most part, some of the others had whispered conversations but you didn’t see the point. There was no use in getting to know each other when you didn’t know what was going to happen, you didn’t want to build connections with these people, for all you knew this was some weird fight club and you’d be forced to fight and kill each other. That was doubtful in your mind but still, there was a chance something would happen, and you might have to choose between yourself and one of the others, or maybe they’d make you choose who lived and who died between the others, you had no idea what these people planned.

The sound of the latch being lifted had all of you perking up. You straightened your back but didn’t pull yourself back up to your feet again. You held your breath as you waited to see who would walk through the door, but no one did. There was a groan as the door swung open slightly, just enough to show it was open, but no one came through. It was dark outside, but a small bit of moonlight was enough to let a bit of light in the room.

You and Cody, both pulled yourselves back to your feet and glanced at each other. You each had the same suspicious look in your eyes, not quite sure if you should move and what would be awaiting you if you stepped outside. You finally got a good look at Cody, he hadn’t been one of the guys in your van, he had been in the second one. He looked about your age, his hair was dirty blond, he was in a blue t-shirt and jeans, each of which were rather dirty, and his boots were caked in dried mud. Cody definitely looked like he did manual labor, most likely working in construction of some sort.

“This could be our only chance,” the guy who kept trying to convince you all to fight back said. He ran to the door but turned around when he realized no one else had moved. “Come on!” he gestured with his arm.

“We don’t know what’s waiting for us,” Cody said.

“So, we should just sit here and wait to die?” you looked at Cody and saw the way his eyebrows knitted together. Cody seemed just as conflicted as you, if you stayed you were just giving up, waiting to let them do whatever they wanted but if you ran, it was an unknown, who knew what they’d do to you then, it could be so much worse. “Whatever,” the man scoffed. “I’m not sitting here to wait to die.” And with that he pushed the door open the rest of the way and took off out into the night.

You stepped forward and Cody instantly grabbed your arm. You looked back to see the worry in his eyes. You raised your hand, silently asking him to give you a minute, you could see the internal struggle behind his eyes but eventually he, although reluctantly, let go of your arm. You inched forward towards the door; you could feel everyone’s eyes on you as they waited to see what would happen.

You finally came to the threshold and couldn’t bring yourself to cross it yet. You peeked your head out the door and saw nothing and no one. You furrowed your brow, you could see the man still running at full speed towards the woods, but no one was chasing after him.

“What do you see?” one of the other guys whispered.

“Nothing,” you answered, shaking your head. “It’s just a giant open field and it looks like woods surrounding us.”

“I’m out of here,” he said and pushed past you and took off towards the woods.

You opened your mouth, but nothing came out before the other three guys pushed past you, taking off after the others. You looked back to see Cody had stepped forward a bit, but he still seemed cautious about leaving the room. One of the girls stood up and made her way to the middle of the room. “What are we waiting for?” she asked. “This is our chance!” when none of you moved, she just rolled her eyes and ran out the door as well.

You looked back to the two other girls, seeing one curled in a ball in the corner of the room, while the other stood on her feet, trying to get the other girl to stand as well. The other girl tried to coax the girl to get up as softly as she could, but the girl just sobbed and shook her head, curling in on herself even more. The girl eventually let go of the other one and took a few steps away, shaking her head as she made her way out of the room as well.

“What are you thinking?” you asked Cody.

Cody shook his head as he stared out the open door. “Something about this doesn’t feel right.”

“Agreed.” Someone clearly opened the door, they wanted all of you to run, but you couldn’t figure out why. You weren’t sure why someone would kidnap ten people only to just let them go. “But we can’t stay here.”

Cody gripped at his hair and groaned. He eventually nodded, seeming to reluctantly agree with you. “We can’t just leave her,” he pointed at the girl still in the corner.

You opened your mouth, but Cody was already crouching down next to the girl. He was whispering comforting words to her, trying everything to get her to stand up. It seemed futile though, the girl wouldn’t budge, she wouldn’t so much as look at any of you. It was harsh but you needed to leave her, you couldn’t stick around waiting for them to come and pick you off, all because you didn’t want to leave some girl you didn’t even know.

“We can come back for her,” you suggested. Cody looked up at you with a furrowed brow, clearly not liking the idea of leaving the girl here. “If she doesn’t want to come, we can’t do anything.” You were really jus trying to be practical, even if Cody wanted to carry the girl it would only slow the two of you down. “We can’t do any good if we don’t save ourselves first.” You didn’t lie, if you somehow managed to make it out alive, you would come back for the girl, you would send help, but you weren’t about to stand there and die for someone you didn’t know.

Cody slowly got up and reluctantly nodded as he joined your side. You grabbed Cody by the arm and pulled him through the door, he didn’t take his eyes off the girl the entire time. When the cool air hit you both Cody finally turned around. “Everyone took off that way,” you said, pointing towards the right where the woods were.

“Where the hell are we?” Cody asked.

The two of you stepped away from the box and spun in a circle. A box was the only way to describe what you were kept in; it was literally a giant box made out of stone and metal. There were no windows or ventilation of any kind, if you were all left in there, after a few days you would have all surely suffocated. There was nothing else around, there was a patch of dirt that you had all been standing on when you first arrived, but the rest of the area was just a large grassy field. There wasn’t even an actual dirt path the vehicles drove on, just tire tracks from them driving the same path over and over again.

Both of your heads snapped back towards the woods when you heard a howl echo throughout the air. Your eyes widened, you had never seen a wolf in the wild before but that was most definitely a wolf, though it sounded larger than you expected. A few seconds later a screamed ripped through the air, making your entire body shudder. You didn’t know who the scream belonged to, but you knew it was a man’s scream.

“We need to go,” you said. You weren’t sure why, but every fiber of your body was telling you to run. “We need to go now!” you took off to the woods and only looked back once to see Cody was following your lead.

As the two of you ran for the woods you heard several more howls begin to echo throughout. You weren’t sure where any of them were coming from, it sounded like they were surrounding you, yet nowhere near you. As soon as you hit the woods you came to a stop, every direction looked the same, you weren’t sure how far you were from civilization to begin with. You jumped back, Cody and you grabbing onto each other when you heard a girl’s scream pierce the air next.

“What the hell is going on?” you whispered. You hadn’t seen any of your captors, but you had a feeling this is exactly what they planned.

“Let’s just keep moving,” Cody said.

It was clear he was trying to come off as confident, but you could see the way he was shaking. You nodded and the two of you began making your way through the woods. Unlike the previous night it was now a full moon and lit your surroundings as well as it could, but there were still too many obstacles that prevented the two of you from taking off and running again.

You heard another girl scream, but this time it came from behind you. You and Cody both looked back in the direction you had come, each of your eyes widened when you realized there was only one person in that direction. Cody didn’t hesitate to take back off the way you had just come. “Wait!” you called after him, but nothing seemed to be stopping him. You looked in the direction you had been going and then back to Cody’s disappearing figure, you groaned, internally slapping yourself before turning and taking off after Cody.

You quickly caught up to Cody before he broke through the woods. The two of you slowed down as you approached the box again, the screaming had died down, but you could hear snarling and growling coming from the inside. When you got close enough you could see a large black wolf chomping down on something in the corner. You brought a hand to your mouth when you noticed the pool of blood now coating the floor and the human hand at the wolf’s side.

You must have made some sort of noise because the wolfs head snapped back and glowing yellow eyes were now staring back at you. You stepped back, nearly tripping as you realized it wasn’t a normal wolf at all, it turned around on all fours, but you could see that the creature definitely wasn’t just a wolf. It lunged for you, but Cody slammed the door on it. He kept his back pressed to the door, putting all his weight on it as he tried to keep it closed. Cody’s eyes widened as his feet began to slide and claws slowly started to inch their way out of the door. You shook yourself out of your shock and ran towards Cody, slamming your body into the door. The monster let out a whine as it pulled its claws back in and you and Cody flipped the latch, locking the creature inside.

“What the fuck was that?” you shouted, gesturing at the box. You jumped back when the entire box shook as the monster began throwing itself at the walls and growling.

“Who fucking cares,” Cody said. “We need to go!” He grabbed your arm and the two of you took off back towards the woods. This time neither of you slowed down when you hit the woods, you just kept running, jumping over logs and rocks as they appeared in your path, and ignoring the way the branches smacked you.

There were two more screams just like the others and if they met the same fate as the girl that meant there was only one more girl left and two more guys, plus you and Cody. Your numbers were quickly dwindling, and you were pretty sure you and Cody were the only ones paired up. You weren’t sure if the creature you locked in the box was the only one out there or if there were more, you also weren’t ready to admit to yourself what it was, all you knew was that it wasn’t a normal wolf.

You and Cody kept running until your foot got caught on a branch, sending you tumbling to the ground. You groaned as you pushed yourself up, but your eyes widened when you were met with the face of one of the girls. You scrambled back and snapped your head back when you felt a boot but quickly relaxed when you saw it was only Cody. Cody reached down and helped you back to your feet, neither of your eyes ever leaving the body.

“What the fuck,” Cody whispered. “She was torn apart.” You shook your head, the girls’ lifeless eyes stared up at you, the rest of her was ripped to shreds, her entire stomach look like it had been clawed open and her rib cage was practically ripped in half.

“You think this is from the same one?” you whispered. Almost as soon as the question left your lips you heard another howl, then another, and another, as if they were communicating.

You let out a shaky breath as tears filled your eyes. “They’re hunting us,” you whispered. Cody shook his head as if denying your claim, but he still couldn’t form the words to actually argue against it. You didn’t say it outright, but you implied that the people who captured you were these monsters, and they brought you out here to hunt you down. Which was insane, monsters weren’t real, the Wolfman, all of that, it was just fiction.

“We need to keep moving,” Cody whispered.

You nodded even though you honestly didn’t see the point. You trapped one in the box, but that was only because it was already in there. You weren’t sure how many of these things were out there, you had no weapons, there was no way you could outrun a normal wolf so you highly doubted you would be able to outrun one of these things.

“Come on,” Cody said, and gently led you over the body.

The two of you took of through the woods again, not as fast as you had been moving before but much more careful than previously. You tried to ignore the howls as you ran through the woods, none of them sounded close but for all you knew they were waiting and watching for the perfect time to attack the two of you.

Cody suddenly stopped, making you run into him. You furrowed your brow until you heard a branch crack, making you freeze. Cody scanned one side while you scanned the other, each of you holding your breath. Not even the insects were making a sound, you were just waiting to catch the glimmer of yellow eyes before you saw razor sharp teeth lunging at you again. There was another crack and then more, whatever was coming at you was coming fast. You and Cody both turned when you could determine the direction the sound was coming from only to see one of the guy stumbling out of the woods.

You both jumped back, it was the guy that ran out the door first. He was panting and covered in dirt and blood, you weren’t sure if the blood was his own or someone else’s. He looked around until his eyes landed on the two of you, there were tears streaming down his face. “It killed them,” he sobbed.

“Who?” Cody asked.

“The-the girl,” he pointed off in the direction he had come from, that meant all the girls were dead. “And two of the others,” he shook his head. That meant that there was at least one man still out there, you, Cody, and the man in front of you. You weren’t sure if the guy you heard scream was part of the one’s the man mentioned or if that had been two other men. “It-it just tore them apart.”

“What did?” the man was looking around frantically; you weren’t sure he had even heard Cody’s question. “Hey,” Cody grasped the man by the shoulders and forced him to look at him. “What was it?”

The man was still shaking, and tears were still streaming down his face as he stared right into Cody’s eyes. “Werewolves,” he whispered.

Cody let go of the man, giving him a forceful shove away. “Bullshit.” The man stumbled back but remained upright. “Those aren’t real!”

You stumbled back, grabbing Cody by the arm to pull him with you. Your eyes widened and stared above the man’s head when you saw a large grey wolf standing on his hindlegs as it towered over him. The man choked on a silent sob, seeming to already know what was behind him before he turned around. You and Cody could deny it all you wanted but there was no arguing that standing before you was a werewolf, there was nothing else it could be, despite how insane it sounded.

The werewolf swiped its large claws at the man. The man stumbled slightly as he slowly turned to face the two of you again. He brought a hand to his neck, and you could see blood gushing between his fingers. He opened his mouth trying to speak but nothing came out, nothing needed to though, you could see the word he was trying to form, ‘run’ that was all it seemed Cody needed to grab you by the arm and yank you off in another direction. You looked back over your shoulder to see the werewolf swipe up, impaling its claws through the man’s back before lifting him high in the air. The werewolf let out a monstrous roar and you turned back around, unable to watched what happened next.

As the two of you took off through the woods you heard another scream from a man, not too far away from you. The two of you slid to a stop, the scream came from just in front of you. You tugged on Cody’s arm to drag him to the right, you needed to keep moving, you already knew what awaited you if you continued forward. If your math was right, then you and Cody were most likely the only ones left. There was a small probability of one other guy was still out there, but for all you knew he was already dead, and if he wasn’t dead yet, it was only a matter of time before one of the wolves caught up to him.

The two of you continued to run until you broke through the woods. You slowly came to a stop, furrowing your brow at your surroundings, it was different than where you were previously. There was still a large patch of land but in the center of it was, what you could only describe as, a giant mansion. There was a paved driveway that led to the house, making a giant circle out front and to the right was a giant four car garage. There were no gates or walls around the mansion, it was completely open, and then surrounding the area was woods. It seemed the driveway led to the only road out of this place. You wanted nothing more than to run the entire way, but you knew if you didn’t get a car or weapons of some sort, the two of you would never make it.

You heard more howling, making the two of you turn back to the woods, it sounded like the monsters were all off, still trying to hunt you down, they probably didn’t know the two of you had reached their home. “Let’s go,” Cody said, nodding at the house.

The two of you took off across the lawn as quickly and quietly as you could. You tiptoed up the front steps, you and Cody shared a look before Cody rested his hand on the door handle and gently pushed it open. It was unlocked, meaning they certainly didn’t expect anyone to make it to their home. Cody slipped into the house first with you right behind him, you quietly closed the door as soon as you entered.

You strained your ears, listening for any sort of movement in the house but heard none. The house was gigantic though, so you knew you’d have to be careful, you weren’t sure how many of these people there were still. You followed Cody as he creeped forward, gently pushing open the door to the left before peeking his head in. He looked back at you and gave a small nod, indicating it was all clear.

The two of you moved through the house, checking each room before entering them. You hadn’t run into anyone yet and still had yet to hear a sound. Besides the werewolves hunting you outside, this seemed like a relatively normal mansion, well, as normal as a mansion could be. You finally pushed open the door to what appeared to be an office. Your eyes widened at the large oak desk centered at the back of the room, there were two oak chairs in front of it, then in the middle of the room was an oak coffee table, accompanied by two oak sofa’s, each of the chairs and sofas had matching lush red cushions, and everything looked hand carved.

“Hey, over here,” Cody whispered as he made his way towards one of the cabinets in the room. He tried to open the doors, but they didn’t budge, he groaned as he began searching the surrounding area for what you assumed was a key.

You started to make your way towards Cody when something above the desk caught your eye. You walked past Cody and made your way around the desk. You sucked in a breath as you stared up at the painting hanging on the wall. “Hey, help me look for a key,” Cody said. You were only partially aware of him beside you as he began opening the drawers of the desk. “What’s wrong?” he finally stood up and you could feel his presence behind you.

You were staring at a hand painted family portrait. If you counted right, there were fifteen people in the portrait. Several men and several women, standing side by side in matching outfits. Most of the men were large, anyone of them could have been the ones to grab you off the street. Your eyes landed on one man in the middle of the back row. You pointed your finger at him, as it tried to click in your brain as to how to recognized him.

“That’s the man,” you said. You looked at Cody who scrunched his eyebrows together before looking back at the painting. “He was the one in the back of the van.”

“Are you sure?” Cody asked hesitantly. “You said they were wearing mask.”

“He was but yes.” You turned to face Cody, absolutely confident that that was the man from the van. “He’s got the same stupid smirk,” you flicked a glare at the portrait.

“So, what,” Cody’s furrowed brow only deepened. “This is like some family bullshit? They kidnap us then hunt us down? Like, some weird sort of cult?”

“Like a pack,” you whispered, your eyes widening in realization. You didn’t know how everyone in the portrait was related but based on what you’d already seen tonight, you would say this wasn’t just some psycho family, it was a pack of werewolves, who seemed to like to hunt for their prey under the full moon.

“This is insane!” Cody shook his head.

“I know! But I got nothing else, do you?” Cody just closed his eyes, unable to come up with a better argument.

“There’s weapons over there,” he pointed at the cabinet he was trying to get into before. You looked over to see a large wooden case that had several types of guns and various other weapons locked behind it. “We need a key.”

You nodded and turned to help Cody continue digging through the desk. Eventually you found a small metal key taped under one of the drawers of the desk. You handed it to Cody, giving him a hopeful look. If the key didn’t work you would need to find another way to get the cabinet open, there was no way you’d survive without any weapons. Cody rushed over to the cabinet and after jiggling the key in the lock a few times there was finally a click.

You ran over to the cabinet, swinging both doors open so the both of you could look at everything together. You grabbed one of the shotguns and a box of shells. “Do you know how to use that?” Cody asked.

You opened your mouth then shook your head. “Never really been into guns or hunting,” you admitted.

“Here,” Cody took the shot gun from you. He opened it up and held out his hand and you dropped two shells into his palm. He placed the shells into the barrel of the gun and then flipped it up, snapping it back into place. He pumped the bottom part of the gun; you weren’t sure on the technical name, but you knew from movies that doing that meant as soon as you pulled the trigger the gun would fire. “It’s got two shots,” he handed you back the gun. “Then you’d need to reload. You nodded and slipped the box of shells into your pocket.

“Will any of this even work?” you looked at Cody. He grabbed one of the magazines and placed it into a handgun; after giving it a quick check he slipped it into his waistband. “It’s all we have.” He grabbed another handgun, doing the same thing but this time he handed it to you. You looked down at it before copying Cody’s move and slipped it into your waistband.

Cody pulled open one of the drawers and revealed several types of knives. You each grabbed a large hunting knife and another smaller one you could slip into your pocket. You opened another drawer, and your eyes widened as grenades lined the drawer. You looked at Cody who had the same look as you, you each grabbed a few grenades, and the stuff needed to strap them to your bodies.

Your head snapped up when you heard the creak of a floorboard. You both froze and heard nothing for a second until the floor creaked again. Cody held a finger to his lips and pointed at the door to the right of you. You inched towards the door with Cody following behind, neither of you taking your eyes off the door to the office. You turned the doorknob, flinched at the quiet squeak it made but sounded loud as it echoed throughout the otherwise quiet mansion.

You pushed open the door as quietly as possible and backed into the room. As soon as you turned around your eyes went wide. You stumbled forward when you felt Cody bump into you as he made his way into the room as well. You could hear him suck in a breath, telling you he was seeing the same thing you were. The entire room off the office was filled with werewolf stuff.

The two of you stepped further into the room that seemed to show the history of werewolves, or at the very least this family. There were paintings of various werewolves, none of which looked like the two you saw earlier, based on the clothing of who they were killing they looked older, possibly this family’s ancestors. Each of the paintings involved a werewolf standing over someone, based on the weapons strewn on the ground they were most likely a hunter. There was also a bookcase lining one of the walls and it was stuffed with, not books, but what appeared to be leatherbound journals.

Cody made a noise, making you turn around, he waved you over to a large table in the middle of the room. You furrowed your brow as you joined his side, looking down at the table when you got close enough. Your eyes widened, the table had a large map pinned down, it seemed to be the layout of the land, there was a red dot that you assumed represented the house you were currently in, then surrounding the house, as expected, was nothing but woods, then there was a large patch of land with a small yellow dot, which you assumed represented the box.

You found the driveway and ran your finger down the path, trailing it through the woods, then eventually finally hitting a road, which you followed down until you hit what looked to be a main road. You let out a scoff and shook your head, you were literally miles from civilization, you had to get onto a small two-lane road, then turn down a one lane path that led through the woods, then you would finally hit the driveway that led up to the house. You really need to find a car to get out of there otherwise the two of you would be walking for hours.

You felt Cody brush your shoulder and you looked to see him sliding photos and documents across the table. You scrunched your eyebrows together, they weren’t just any normal photos, they were photos of you, and everyone else that they had grabbed. The photos were taken from far away, like they just snapped the picture while you were walking down the street or coming out of a store. You noticed there was a single page document on each of you, each of the papers said the same things, some basic details about where to find each of you, what your patterns were, and that none of you had any family.

You shook your head and walked away from the table, needing a minute to process everything. It was one thing to suspect how well they planned everything; it was another to see all their plans and researched laid out on a table in front of you. You ended up making your way over to one of the walls that had the largest painting of a werewolf, it was standing tall, it had dark grey fur, its arms rested at its side, but the black claws glinted in the moonlight, and its glowing yellow eyes stared down at you, with the moon being partially blocked by the beast standing so tall. Unlike the other paintings this one didn’t have any bodies around the werewolf, it was just the creature itself, standing tall and imposing.

You noticed a little golden plaque at the bottom of the painting. The plaque had the name ‘Edward Whalen’ etched into it. Underneath the name plaque was another one, this one was slightly bigger and has an inscription on it as well. You bent down to get a better view, your eyes scanned over it and learned Edward was a rather infamous werewolf a long time ago, he was the original leader of this pack, known to be the biggest and strongest of all the wolves. As you read on you learned Edward was slain by a hunter, who used a spear to kill him.

You looked down at the case and noticed a painting of the man who seemed to be the hunter. There was a knife and a few other items that looked like they would have belonged to that period of time. You looked to the right where there was another display case, this one talked about how the rest of the pack hunted down the hunter and killed him. You nodded, those were definitely his actual items in the other case. You looked up to see there was a large spear mounted to the wall next to the painting of Edward, the little gold plaque under it confirmed it was the spear the hunter had used to kill Edward.

“We need to get out of here,” Cody whispered. You nodded and followed Cody to a door you hoped led back out into the hall and not to another room.

You held your breath as you turned the doorknob and waited, listening for any sort of movement. You hadn’t heard anything since the floors creaked, you figured that was just the house settling, it was old, those types of homes made noises all the time. When you heard nothing you both slipped into the hall, staying back-to-back as you check both ends, making sure it was all clear. The two of you slowly made your way down the hall towards the other end of the mansion where you knew the garage was located. You both froze as you passed the main entry when you heard a howl. You waited and listened, it still seemed like the wolves were out in the woods.

You continued to make your way through the mansion, eventually getting to the garage. You opened the door, your eyes widened, as it was in fact, filled with four vehicles. The two vans all of you had been tossed in weren’t there, you weren’t sure where they kept those. The garage was filled with two large SUV’s and two large trucks.

“Which one?” you asked.

Cody shrugged and pointed to one of the trucks. While Cody dug through the little key box on the wall to search for the correct key set you ran around to the passenger side. As soon as Cody unlocked the truck, you hopped in, and Cody jumped in the driver’s seat a few seconds later. He hit the garage door button and began backing up before it was up all the way.

Cody whipped the truck around and began speeding down the driveway. Before you could hit the edge of the woods a large brown werewolf dropped down in front of you. Cody jerked the wheel, making the truck swerve, trying to avoid the werewolf. It was no use though, the werewolf jumped onto the hood, and smashed it’s clawed hand through the windshield. You pushed yourself against the door, trying to avoid the claws and smacked around for your knife until your hands finally wrapped around the hilt. You stabbed the knife through the creature’s palm, making it let out a pained howl. Cody jerked the wheel back and forth, trying to regain control until you slammed into a tree, pinning the werewolf between the truck and tree.

The werewolf arched its back, letting out another howl. Cody slammed his foot down on the gas, pushing the werewolf harder against the tree. “Gun!” he shouted.

You struggled but you lifted the shotgun and stuck it out of the newly shatter windshield, aiming it right at the creature’s head. You pulled the trigger, the kickback making you groan as it pushed you back against the seat. The werewolf’s head snapped back, both of you held your breath as you watched the blood and chunks of fur drop down onto the hood. The werewolf slowly lowered it’s head, acting as if half its face wasn’t blown off by the blast, and then then it let out a growl right in your faces. You raised the gun again and fired at his head once again. Its head snapped back again but it slowly lowered it and showed all its teeth as it snarled.

“Go!” Cody shouted, already opening his door as he bailed out of the car. You followed his lead, running around the truck as you reloaded the shotgun just as Cody showed you. The two of you could only stand there as the werewolf gripped both sides of the truck, its claws digging into the metal as it began to push the vehicle away. Your eyes widened; it was slowly rolling back, but it was only a matter of time before the werewolf was free, then two of you would be dead.

Cody raised his gun and began firing at the gas tank on the car. You saw a few bullets go into the car but only gasoline poured out, nothing caught on fire. “Fuck!” Cody said.

A large grey werewolf jumped into the bed of the truck. Both of you stumbled back, your eyes now on the newcomer. All of them probably heard the howls of the one pinned, it was only a matter of time before they all showed up. The grey wolf looked to the one pinned and you could swear its eyes darkened as it slowly turned its head towards the two of you and let out a snarl.

You reached around and grabbed one of the grenades strapped to you. You looked down at it, pulled the pin and threw it. The grenade landed in the bed, making the werewolf look down. A second later the grenade blew, the reaction causing the back of the truck to explode, the bit of gas that leaked onto the ground catching fire. The grey werewolf caught fire and was slashing around its claws, trying to put itself out. Almost instantly the fire traveled to the front of the truck and blew up, setting the wolf that was pinned on fire as well.

The two of you could only stand there as you watched the truck along with two werewolves burn. The one pinned to the tree eventually slumped forward and the one in the bed fell forward out of the truck. Both of them were left unmoving in burning heaping lumps of flesh. You felt Cody grabbing at you and you turned and ran back into the house where the garage door was still open.

As soon as you got back inside Cody closed the garage door again. You furrowed your brow; you figured you were just going to grab another vehicle. “We’ll never make it,” Cody said. “Not with them still out there,” he pointed towards the outside. “We need to kill them.”

You let out a humorless chuckle. “Did you not see what it took to kill those two?” you asked. “I shot one in the face, twice!”

“And fire worked!”

“There’s at least thirteen left.” Cody furrowed his brow, you just shrugged. There were fifteen people in the family portrait and now two of the werewolves were dead, assuming there weren’t others in the pack and the entire family was out there tonight that meant there were thirteen left. “How can we possibly kill all of them?”

“We need a big explosion.” Cody looked up; his mind looked like it was running a mile a minute as his eyes darted around the garage. “There!” he pointed to a few gas cannisters. “We can pour this around the house, then light it up and…” he made an exploding motion with his hands.

You nodded, blowing up the entire house with them inside would certainly work. At the very least it might weaken them enough that a shot gun to the head would kill them. “That only works if they’re all in the house,” you pointed out.

Cody nodded. “They had to have heard all that,” he gestured towards the outside again. “It’s only a matter of time before they come running.”

You nodded and the two of you got to work, knowing you wouldn’t have much time. You each took two gas cannisters and began walking towards the door. The doorknob started to move as soon as you approached it. You dropped the cannisters and slammed your body into the door, closing it on whoever was on the other side. You stayed like that for a moment, tilting your head as you listened for movement on the other side.

A hard forced slammed into the door pushing it open. You gritted your teeth as you pushed back trying to keep the beast at bay. You screamed at you felt something sharp pierce your side, you looked down to see your shirt torn and blood already beginning to soak through. You didn’t have time to dwell on it though because on the other side of you a claws had burst through the door. You saw Cody flinch, raising his hand to block the woodchips flying at him. You saw Cody’s eyes widen before you felt something sharp stab you in the shoulder.

You were pulled through the door and dragged through the hall. “No!” you heard Cody scream as you were dragged further away from him.

You kicked your feet trying to catch yourself on something. You tried punching back at the beast, but it only made it dig its teeth into you further. You reached down and felt the hilt of the smaller knife you had grabbed earlier. You brought the knife up, stabbing blindly until you heard the creature let out a whine, finally releasing its hold on you.

The wolf was whipping its head around and then suddenly an axe came down, slicing right through the top of the creature’s head. Blood gushed from the wound, dripping down on to you. You felt a hand grab you and yank you back to your feet. You saw Cody looking at you with concerned eyes. You jumped when you heard something flop to the ground, you looked down to see the werewolf dead, an axe sticking out of its head. You then noticed you had stabbed the knife right through its eye, you bent down and pulled it out, swiping the blood on your jeans.

“Oh god,” Cody whispered. You turned to see him looking you over. You let out a hiss when his finger brushed over the wound on your shoulder. “Sorry.” You looked over to see blood was now soaking through your shirt over your shoulder and through the tears you could see the puncture marks of where it dug its teeth into. “Are you okay?”

You looked up, meeting Cody’s eyes. You could feel your hair sticking to your forehead and your body suddenly felt much more exhausted than a moment ago. “I’m fine,” you brushed it off. “Let’s end this.”

Cody looked at you for a moment then reluctantly nodded. You followed him back to the garage and picked up your cannisters again. “I’ll take the upstairs,” Cody nodded to the staircase.

You nodded and picked up your cannister and began pouring. You started at the garage and made your way down the hallway. You made sure to open the rooms you passed and pour some gasoline in there as well, though you didn’t enter the rooms all the way. When you got to the staircase you saw them already soaked with gas. You looked up at the balcony to see Cody making his way down the hall.

“Hey,” Cody whispered. “Look for a lighter.”

You nodded and continued on your way down the hall. You sat the can down when you got to the kitchen. You had already ransacked the office, so you knew there was no lighter there, the only other logical place would be the kitchen. You entered the kitchen, slightly taken aback by how large it was, there was a dining room with a large wood table off to the left of it. You shook your head and began digging around until you finally came up with a lighter.

You smirked to yourself as you twirled the lighter around on your finger. When you looked up you were met with glowing yellow eyes staring back at you through the window. You dropped to the floor just as its arm shot through the window, shattering the glass. You flipped open the cabinet under the sink and dug through it until you found a cleaning spray. You slid to the side and stood up, you raised the spray can and pressed the top, spraying the werewolf in the face. It shook its head, but you raised the lighter, clicking it a few times until a flame appeared, instantly igniting the spray and creating a small flamethrower.

The werewolf backed away from the window, clawing at it’s face but you knew that wasn’t enough to kill it, it wasn’t even enough to catch it on fire. You didn’t waste time as you ran over and opened the oven. You turned the knobs on the stove, making sure to turn everything on but not ignite the gas. You then hit the button to start heating up the oven even though the door was open. You dug around through the drawers again and pulled out all the silverware you could get your hands around, you shoved it all in the microwave and shoved the cleaning spray in there as well and slammed the door shut.

The door that led outside burst open and the werewolf stomped in, standing on its hindlegs. You hit the popcorn button and ducked down, barely catching sight of the werewolf snapping its head in your direction. The werewolf stomped around the island, and you ducked out of the way, making your way out the door. You looked back to see the werewolf look at the microwave just as it began to spark and make a popping sound. You slammed the door shut and took cover. A second later there was a loud explosion and a howl of pain. What followed was another bigger explosion that blew the door apart, sending wood pieces raining down on you.

You pushed yourself off the floor and peaked your head back in the kitchen, seeing everything charred black, small fires still going on the wood surfaces, and a werewolf laying dead and burnt on the ground. You picked up the gasoline cannister again, silently thankful the explosion wasn’t big enough to ignite what you had already poured.

You made your way into the office and actually poured a trail of gas all around the room. You dumped some on the desk and tossed some on the family portrait. You then made your way into the history or trophy room and poured more gas all around the room. You made sure to toss gas on each and every single one of the paintings and a good amount on the table with the map and all the files on you and the others.

You stopped at the display with the spear one last time. You weren’t sure why, but you ripped the spear off the wall. You figured if the spear was actually used to kill a werewolf before then it would surely work again. You poured the remainer of the gas out as you entered the hallway again. You dropped the cannister when you heard Cody scream.

You ran to the entryway and saw Cody on the balcony with a large werewolf standing over him. The werewolf raised its paw and swiped Cody across the chest, making him let out another yell.

“Hey!” you called out, but the werewolf didn’t even look at you. You reached for the handgun Cody gave you and fired, aiming for any part of the werewolf you could hit.

The werewolf whipped it’s head around and glared down at you. It seemed to forget about Cody as it stood up on two legs and launched itself over the railing. You fell to the ground as the creature landed on top of you, dropping the spear in the process. You turned your head as the wolf roared in your face. You pinched your eyes shut, preparing for the tearing of your flesh to begin but it never came.

You slowly turned your head and opened your eyes to see the werewolf still above you, tilting its head as it stared down at you. You let out a shaky breath as the creature raised its paw and gently pulled back your collar with its claw. The werewolf leaned forward and took a good whiff. You weren’t sure why it hadn’t killed you yet, you searched its face, it opened its mouth in what you could only describe as a smile.

You fumbled around until you could wiggle the shot gun out from under you and slide it around to your front. You raised the shot gun up, pressing it under the werewolf’s head. It looked down at you, so the barrel of the gun was directly under its chin. You stared into its yellow eyes and pulled the trigger, sending chunks of werewolf raining down on you. Its body slumped to the side and your grip on the shotgun only tightened. You looked over to see it was in fact dead. You guessed that at such a close range the werewolf couldn’t survive having its head half blown off. You wiggled out from underneath the creature the rest of the way and grabbed the spear.

You whipped around when you heard Cody stumbling down the stairs. You caught him, wrapping an arm around his waist and one of his around your shoulder so he didn’t collapse. “We’re not done yet,” Cody said through gritted teeth. “Down there,” he pointed to one of the doors.

“Let me,” you said. “You’re too weak.”

Cody shook his head. “I’m fine.” He stumbled as he moved away from you and let out a long groan as he picked up his second cannister. He shuffled on his feet towards the door and opened it, revealing a staircase that descended down into the dark.

You rolled your eyes as you went and grabbed your second cannister. You knew there would be no arguing with Cody, you would just have to make sure he didn’t bleed out. You followed him down the stairs into the darkness, making sure to pour the gasoline as you made your descent. As soon as your feet his the ground you brought a hand to your nose, even the gasoline wasn’t strong enough to cover up the wretched scent that was the entire basement.

There were flickering lights lighting the way as you pour gasoline behind you. You bumped into Cody when he suddenly came to a stop. You turned around, your eyes widening at the sight of cages lining one side of the room. You weren’t sure how you didn’t hear them before but there were five wolves, each of them locked in a cage. They were pacing back and forth, snarling and snapping at you and Cody.

“Keep going,” you said, nodding at Cody.

He got to moving and you each poured more gasoline, making sure to toss some into the cells, watching as the locked-up werewolves flinched away and growled at the intrusion. You weren’t sure what made these werewolves different, why they were locked up if the others got to roam free. Assuming these five were part of the same family, you began counting in your head, by your math there were only five werewolves still running around somewhere.

A large force hit you, sending you flying back. You coughed as it knocked the wind out of you. You pushed yourself up on your forearms to see a large werewolf standing in front of you. “Hey!” Cody shouted and fired his shotgun at the back of the monster’s head.

The werewolf smacked its arm back, not even looking as it hit Cody, sending him flying into a brick wall. Cody slumped to the ground, his shotgun falling to his side. You had just begun to pull yourself to your feet when the werewolf turned around and dug its claws into Cody’s gut. Cody tried to let out a scream, but it was more of a cough as he began to gag and spit up blood.

“No!” you yelled. You didn’t even think as your grip around the spear tightened and you ran to Cody. You jumped, raising the spear high and shoved it through the werewolf back, impaling it through the heart, and coming out the other side.

The werewolves in the cells began to howl and throw themselves at the bars of their cages as the werewolf slumped forward. You dropped down next to Cody, pressing your hands to his wounds to try and stop the bleeding. Cody coughed again, spitting up more blood.

“You need to go,” Cody rasped out.

“No,” you said, shaking your head. “I’m not leaving you.”

Cody’s bloody hand dropped onto yours, making you look up at him. “I’m done.” Tears filled your eyes, and you shook your head, this couldn’t be the end, you almost made it, the two of you needed to make it out. “I can at least do this.” You furrowed your brow then you looked down when you felt his hand move, you followed his hand as he reached for a grenade.

“No,” you reached up, covering his hand holding the grenade.

“You have to go.” He blinked his eyes a few times, you could see how hard he was fighting to stay conscious. “This has to be worth it.” You buried your head in his chest and shook your head, this was exactly why you didn’t want to care about the others. “I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”

You looked up at Cody one more time before pulling away. “I’m sorry,” you whispered.

“Go,” he ordered, getting weaker with each breath. As soon as you started backing away, he pulled the pin from the grenade but didn’t let go of it, he couldn’t risk it blowing until you were out, and the remaining wolves were in the house. “Hey!” he yelled with a burst of energy. “I’m down here!” he lifted his handgun with his other hand, despite all the shaking he fired a few rounds, hitting one of the wolves in the cell, making them cry out.

You wiped your tears on your sleeve as you realized what he was doing. You ran across the room and hid on the side of the wall when you heard the pounding of something big running down the stairs. You pressed yourself against the wall as you watched one wolf run into the basement, then another, then another, then another. Four. There were now four wolves in the basement, the last ones left. You looked back just as Cody pointed his gun at the incoming wolves, firing more rounds, even though he knew it wouldn’t stop them.

You took the opportunity, knowing Cody was buying you as much time as he could to run up the stairs. You heard an explosion just as you reached the top of the stairs, you didn’t look back, you could feel the heat of the flames as the fire quickly spread. You burst out the front door, not bothering to close it behind you. You barely got away from the house before a bigger explosion happened, the force of it sending you flying further away from the house and into the grass.

You stumbled as you stood up again, watching as the entire mansion was ablaze. You could hear the cries of the remaining werewolves as they slowly burned alive. You reached for your wounded shoulder, not even flinching when your fingers brushed over where the wound should be. You pulled your collar down to see the bite mark was still there but had completely healed. Your eyes widened and you lifted your shirt, only to see the gash that you had gotten was also healed. You shook your head and turned away from the burning house, you couldn’t think about what this could possibly mean as you began your long walk down the driveway.

“Eventually I stumbled upon a gas station,” you said, blinking away the tears that had started to fall during your story. “There was a bathroom around back and used it to clean myself up. Jumped in the back of a pickup as it left the station.”

You looked over to see Joey nodding, seeming to process your story. “That’s how you became…” she said but unable to finish her sentence.

You nodded. “Tried to pretend everything was fine, acted like everything was normal, and it was normal, for about a month, until…”

“The full moon.”

You nodded. “I had no idea what was happening to me. I was walking home from work when…”

You stumbled out of the bar. You had gotten a job at a different place because even though you were only gone twenty-four hours, as you had suspected, your boss had replaced you. You didn’t know what was wrong as you gripped the edge of a dumpster, you felt like you were burning up and you had been irritable all day. Customers were always jerks but for some reason you seemed to have a short fuse today.

There was a pounding in your head, making you bring a hand to it, trying to ease the ache. You pulled your hand away when you felt something sharp scratch your scalp. Your eyes widened when you held your hand out and you saw claws where your fingernails should be. You pulled away from the dumpster when you saw that hand looked the exact same. You shook your head and ran down the alley.

“No, no, no,” you mumbled to yourself. “This can’t be happening.” You tripped as you tried to cross the road, your ankle snapping in a direction it wasn’t meant to go.

You pushed your way forward, dragging your broken angle with you as more of your bones snapped. You eventually made it to the closest bit of woods you could find and collapsed to your knees. You pressed your palms into the ground, your eyes watching as your claws dug into the dirt. “No!” your growled out, your back arching as it snapped, forcing you to look up directly at the full moon.

The werewolf that stood over you played through your mind, it had peeled back your shirt, it saw the bite healed, it knew. You had been bitten and now you were one of them. Tears streamed down your face as more of your bones broke and reformed until everything went black.

You groaned as you rolled over, slowly opening your eyes only to raise a hand to block the sun shining down on you. You were squinting as you tried to get your eyes to adjust, the last thing you remembered was leaving work. You looked down and scrunched your eyebrows at the sight of leaves and twigs under you.  You brought a hand to your head, trying to remember what happened. Bones breaking flashed through your mind, you jolted backwards when you remembered your hands having claws.

You raised your hands to see they were back to normal, but they were covered in blood. You looked down, seeing the rest of your body was stained with dried blood. You shook your head as tears filled your eyes, you had hurt someone, you became one of those monsters and hurt someone. You collapsed forward, pressing your forehead into the ground as your fingers dug into the back of your head, you just wanted to wake up from this nightmare.

You froze when you heard the sound of a shotgun. You held your breath as you felt the barrel of the gun rest against the back of your head. You slowly lifted your head and came face to face with the barrel of the gun. Past the gun was a blonde woman, wearing jeans and a leather jacket, her eyes were unforgiving and trained on you.

“Please,” you whispered. Tears continued to fall from your eyes as you leaned forward, putting your forehead directly against the gun. “Please,” you pleaded as your body shook with sobs. You didn’t know who this woman was, but you wanted her to pull the trigger, you deserved it, you couldn’t live like this, you couldn’t hurt people like the monsters who hurt you. “Please.”

“That was Grace,” Joey concluded. You nodded, neither of you talked about that day but it never left your mind, you would never forget begging Grace to end it all. “But she didn’t shoot.”

You shook your head again, wiping away one of the tears that had started to fall. “Said she saw something in me,” you said with a little shrug. You still weren’t sure what made Grace save you, she had no reason to. She came across a monster covered in blood, and she should have put a bullet in their head, but she didn’t. “She took me in and said she’d help me.”

“And you’ve been with her ever since.”

You nodded. “I owe Grace everything,” you looked over at Joey.  “She saved me.”

You suddenly stood up, wiping your eyes as you refused to look at Joey again. “Now you know,” you looked down at the floor. “That’s my story.” Joey still hadn’t said anything, and you weren’t sure you wanted her to, you weren’t sure you could handle whatever she had to say. “I’ll send Grace in; she can take you home.” You knew there was no way Joey would want to be alone in a car with you ever again.

You made your way across the room and rested your hand on the entryway as you glanced back, but not enough to actually look at Joey. “I understand you probably never want to see me again,” you cleared your throat, you couldn’t breakdown again. “But it was an honor working with you, anyone would be lucky to have you as an employee or a partner.” You quickly left the room, not waiting to see if she’d respond as you went to get Grace.

Taglist: @thinking1bee @so-to-aqui-pelas-fic @alexkolax @thatshyboy1998 @chxrry-lov3

@bella423 @morganismspam23 @pianogirl2121

[cultkinkcoven]

Just things about Lucifer

He laughs and chuckles and giggles a lot- more than you would think- but it’s almost always comedically short. Just a little titter, “aha. Ha.”

His thinking face looks very concerned. it might be something he does unknowingly. Whenever he’s thinking hard about an answer all the emotion drains out of his face and he looks almost angry

He bites and sucks on his lower lip whenever he’s unsure of something

He sleeps- or at least mimics sleeping. He actually consciously takes the time to lay down and rest around for hours.

He doesn’t tend to use very much technology, writes all his notes on paper.

Seems to have some kind of changing preference when it comes to body hair that is somewhat inexplicable. I’m not sure what dictates when he is or isn’t shaved.

His tattoos change and move. Sometimes he has none. Sometimes he’s heavily inked. Same with piercings.

Gets drunk and high- or at least can be altered by substances. He seems to have a very high tolerance, naturally, seeing as to how he is a God. But he has also deliberately gone out of his way to get intoxicated. I guess alcohol in astral spaces still does that to him.

He checks himself out a lot but tries not to be loud about it. I’ll catch him subtly gazing into his own reflection, he thinks he’s really hot. (He’s right)

He gets the zoomies? Sometimes he’ll randomly come upon me and it’s like he’s hyper, and he seems to just run around.

He gets board very often and leaves his station, seems to just randomly wander around for a while and then return to his work.

His eyes reveal his attention a lot. Idk how to explain this but it’s like when his eyes are on you- or something, it’s like there’s a spotlight. His gaze is very lofty.

Similar, you can really tell when he’s listening. He almost does the thing a dog does where they tilt their head to hear the sound better. He makes a very specific face, almost kind of looks blank, like he’s recording.

He enjoys food and treats in a very literal way, idk how exactly that works for a god but he does keep a bowl of candies for himself that he grazes off of often.

He doesn’t like eating alone when it comes to actual food. Can never be the only one eating, has to share or watch me eat as well.

He gets itchy? Idk it’s little things like that that are always surprising and complexing to me because what do you mean your head is itchy????

He learns very fast and “updates” in real time. It’s very interesting to watch him learn and decide to completely change his approach to certain things. It’s like: Lucifer: that cream would make a nice offering

Me: yeah but if I leave it too long it’ll mold and then I’ll have to get my bf to get rid of it bc I’m really terrified of mold

Lucifer: *processing… memory updated* I see….

*later* me: hey I got you some red wine

Lucifer: thank you, now you dump it out at the end of the day

Me: I thought you usually liked longer than that

Lucifer: it starts to mold in a few hours and mold is bad

Me: aw lol ok

He does the dad orange thing. If ever he shares a treat with me and I’m like “I like this! This is really good!” The next time I show up there will be like 10 more lmao. “You said you liked this. Here’s some more. And some more.”

Seems to be pretty lenient with his spirits??? He’s never exactly chummy or benevolent but he’s also very relaxed. Idk every now and then a spirit (they usually look like little balls of light or even like fairies) will approach him and ask? Something. Idk I can never actually understand what’s being said. They speak too quiet. And he’s usually just like “okay. Fine. That’s okay. Yes, sure.” And I don’t know what it is but the spirit is usually like “??!! 👍??????” And he’s like “yes, “or don’t worry about it.” I’ve rarely ever seen him react in a way that wasn’t more or less “sure.”

He seems to genuinely find children interesting and somewhat likes them. Finds them entertaining. Which is interesting because he’s said he doesn’t like kids, but his behaviour says otherwise.

Sings to himself quite a bit, presumably songs he made up, absentmindedly.

Big watcher- not just of me but of other people and spirits, even deities. He loves just observing and watching. Whenever we’re working with another spirit like Cerberus or Hermes, he likes to watch them a lot- to the point where I’ve almost sensed a vague discomfort from other spirits from time to time. He seems to find other spirits interesting as well at times.

- related- other spirits and deities definitely find him somewhat weird or unsettling in a way. Not in a way where they dislike or judge him, but just in the way that it’s very obvious that he is kind of a weirdo even among other divinities. Was very surprised to see even Lord Hermes act slightly different because he deals with everybody.

The thing is that he is usually the dominant spirit because he is my Patron and he and I own the circle. Other spirits usually just enter our space, expand and change it, but don’t necessarily take dominance over it. So there is a lot of? Idk how to explain this. Interaction, between the two spirits that seem just slightly off kilter. They keep their eye on him and he keeps his eye on them. But it’s like they’re keeping their eye on him because he’s staring at them intensely in this almost awkward way. Idk if that even makes sense.

He thinks out loud a lot- I guess I shouldn’t say a lot but sometimes. I can’t read his mind, but sometimes he almost speaks without speaking, and it’s usually just him explaining what he’s doing or going to do. Sometimes they’re observations that range from oddly mundane (“it’s morning”) to weirdly intimate (“you’re a bit sweaty”)

Will just throw the most unexpected very cultural slang in there sometimes. Recently used the term “baby mother”. “The smokies”- to refer to the cops, “we’ll l have ourselves a little cook out.” Referred to weed as “ganja”. “PICKNEY” (a Caribbean word for a child) I know it probably comes from me but it just throws me for a loop every time.

[whatispersonalspacejyp]

Victoria

Genre: smut, history (Victorian time)

Pairing: Vampire Hyunjin x doll like (f) reader (x Minho)

Word Count: 2065

Summary: What happens when you go into a restricted area of the castle? Will Hyunjin take it lightly? Or would this be your end? Do you find an exit? Or are you trapped in his playhouse forever.

Warnings: Corsetry, degradation, odaxelagnia, sadist hyunjin, bondage, dacryphilia, creampie, erotic asphyxiation

Requested: Yes

Original Date: 14 October 2020

Part One: Bernadette  Part Three: Jeanny   Epilogue: Maria

Hyunjin stood over your body. You were scared and sat on the ground crawling to the wall when he just came closer.

“Sire please. Don’t hurt me. It wasn’t me!” You said in mercy.

“Don’t sell me a dog! I know you were in there” Hyunjin screams in anger, he lifts his hand and grabs you by the hair.

“I told you, no snooping around doll. Your master is really angry at you. What kind of punishment shall it be this time. Oh, I know. Get up.” You quickly followed his request and stood up. Hyunjin quickly moved behind you and moved your hair out of your next.

“Well… I’m quite thirsty.” Hyunjin smirked, leading you into your bedroom. You had sneaked out of your bedroom in the daylight. To figure out a way to escape and you had the idea the restricted area had the answers to it.

To your luck, you managed to get in as the door was opened. It was a big bedroom, covered in black red, and gold. A wedding dress was seen laying on the bed and loads of dolls were sitting on a shelve.

You freaked out when you heard footsteps coming close, so hid. Hyunjin had walked in and then closed the door to walk away again. Once you knew it was safe you got out. Running through the hallway had probably alarm your presents to him.

Hyunjin grabs one of the corsets laying around and forced you into it. pulling tightly so a lot of string was available to bind your pulses together.

He then moved you on the bed. Hyunjin slams his cock into you without any warning and smirked at your pained expression. He always enjoyed seeing people in pain, especially if he was the one who caused it.

You screamed in pain when Hyunjin leans down to bite your neck. His thrusts went in sync with sucking your blood, making him moan. You had started to cry, feeling light-headed.

Hyunjin hits your G-spot with his cock and you soon came on his cock.

“Such a slut, can’t even hold her dignity. I bet you like this don’t you?” You quickly nod, as your mind went blank. Hyunjin keeps on a fast pace, as he went from your neck to your breast.

While he sucked one, he made sure to play with your other one. His other hand was reaching for your clit and started to rub it, leaving you with a lot of pleasure to handle.

You moaned it out and Hyunjin let’s go of your breast and reaches for your throat.

“Don’t make a sound slut. I never gave you permission to make any sounds.” He groaned out.

He keeps on thrusting into you. You felt too much please because of him, or was it because you were feeling light-headed. but black spots entered your vision and soon, you didn’t feel his hand on your neck or the way he sucked your breast. The drawing on your clit and even the strong thrust disappeared while your world became black. Hyunjin had noticed you had passed out and could help to smirk, letting go of your throat and puts both of his hands on your waist. He kept on going until he came twice in you.

Cum drips out of you and he got up, grabbing his clothes and got dressed as if nothing happened. He was polite enough to get you out of the corset and let your naked body hang off the bed without any care.

After all of that, he walked away.

A young man had managed to get into the mansion, ready to do some discovery. He walks around the mansion when he heard a female cry. He quickly runs to the room and opened up.

“Miss? Are you okay?” You had woken up naked. No Hyunjin anywhere and it made you cry as you wanted affection, but all he did was use you. You wanted to leave, hoping to find a man who fulfills all your needs, you quickly got dressed and then you heard the voice as the door opened.

You looked up to see a man standing there and you felt saved as if it was a dream come true… but you needed to get out of this place first. You motion to him to be quiet and you jumped op. Holding the man’s hand and motions to make a run for it to get out of here.

The man nods. The two of you opened the door and started to run. Hyunjin who was on the other side of the mansion heard the noised and was alarmed. And started to run quickly, to try to find out what is happening. He saw a man, pulling you with him to the exit and he started to scream. ‘ The two humans looked behind them to see Hyunjin there, his eyes were bright red and were ready to attack the two. but the two of you managed to be quicker.

You to run to the big doors of the mansion which were still opened. You managed to get out of it. Luckily the sun was in the sky, protecting you from the evil inside the mansion. Or at least for now.

You looked at the man who saved you with a smile.

“Thank you sire, I own you my life.” The man smiled and winked.

“No worries, I’m Minho. Now let’s get you to the village, it’s clear you need some medical attention.” You nod at the man and felt him lift you up, making you close your eyes as you could finally sleep peacefully.

Even outside of the mansion you could hear the angry screams and cries, as his doll had left him. Ready to get revanche on the one who took her.

[kiruliom]

how to load psds on ibispaint!

this was made with coiners in mind but will work with p much every psd so no worries if you wanna use a base or a sticker pack in a psd file (note, since its important, psd files meant to change the color of an image only load as intended through photoshop and photopea, so youll need either of that for them, not any other drawing programs.)

first of all: where to find files?

honestly, there isnt a clear answer. you can find some for most of them through just seeing if the coiner has linked any. most of them will be linked through file hosting sites, most common is drive or deviant art, but I used catbox for a while then switched to filegarden personally. the user @daybreakthing has took upon solself to turn a lot of more complex flags into psd files, so you can find a lot of them on sols old and current deviantart page (linked in their pinned)

the only downside for deviantart is you HAVE to log in to download the files. it is free however and you dont have to do much else.

for this tut Ill be using the nonhuman x for x flag psd by daybreakthing, (coined by sol as well, on melabea)

^^^ this guy

now onto the actual tutorial:

youre here likely because you already tried it, but its good to go over what not to do, and the results, anyway.

if you try to open it like a regular file, you will get errors, often more than one.

its important to note that psd files, while still considered image files, have no previews (except on drive) so they will look blank or empty. no worries about that, they will load properly.

here is what to do (or what I do, anyway)

go to your gallery, google photos, or another file manager (like just files or an external file manager)

Im using google photos bc my device's gallery wont let me share psd files

select the image, go to 'share', and pick ibispaint. theres a chance it wont pop up in the first screen, so just press the more option.

if ibispaint is not an option, try another image or file manager!

it will ask if you want to convert the file to ipv, select yes!

and thats all!! if all goes well it should be in your gallery when you open ibispaint. keep in mind it may crash once or twice when you first try to open it, just clear your app history cache thing and try again! (ibis paint is held together by duct tape and prayers)

I hope that helps!! if you have questions or problems, never be afraid to ask, I love to help!

tagging @idwl since their anon had a question related to this and I was directed to, to help :3

sorry about the amount of clutter with the red arrow and circles and pixelated stuff, I wanna obscure irrelevant or personal stuff while making sure people dont miss anything important.