#Give love to Kain and he will come back later

[myeagleexpert]

The Perfect Boyfriend ( PT 2 )

𝕭𝖆𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖕𝖊𝖔𝖕𝖑𝖊 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊 𝕬𝖓𝖉 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖋𝖎𝖓𝖉 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖘𝖊𝖑𝖋 𝖕𝖗𝖆𝖞𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖚𝖕 𝖙𝖔 𝖍𝖊𝖆𝖛𝖊𝖓 𝖆𝖇𝖔𝖛𝖊 𝕭𝖚𝖙 𝖍𝖔𝖓𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖑𝖞 𝕴'𝖛𝖊 𝖓𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖗 𝖍𝖆𝖉 𝖒𝖚𝖈𝖍 𝖘𝖞𝖒𝖕𝖆𝖙𝖍𝖞 '𝕮𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖘𝖊 𝖇𝖆𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 𝖆𝖑𝖜𝖆𝖞𝖘 𝖘𝖆𝖜 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖒 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖒𝖊

Doppleganger/Skinwalker!Yandere x YN (AFAB)Summary: Despite living in a pink world, there's a little voice in the back of your head that tells you that there's something strange with your boyfriend. It can't be anything important, right? (You'll regret not listening to it)Warnings: (Toxic relationships, obsessed relationships, mental manipulation, the smell of rot, description of death, description of fear and panic, a little sentimental smut, The thing loves you - too much.) Uncertain motives. He tries to keep you trapped. Some character will threaten to die, gore,long fic ( 12 pages +-) The term 'YN' and 'you' is used several times in the fanfic for better grammatical use, my first time writing something like this, so please be gentle. <3

𝕭𝖊𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖊 < < 𝕾𝖍𝖊 𝕶𝖓𝖔𝖜𝖘 > > 𝕹𝖊𝖝𝖙

YN wakes up screaming.

She sits up quickly in bed with a cold sweat running down her forehead, looking disoriented as she tries to identify the dark environment around her.

“Shhh honey, it was just a dream.” A male voice, from the other side of the bed, approaches her comfortingly.

“W…wait-“ the girl tries to push the man away, still confused and tired, but the hand she uses to push him away is soon enveloped by his warm comforting hand.

“I'm here, sweetheart, you're safe and sound here.” He pulls her into a hug and makes her lie back down on the bed, pulling fluffy and warm blankets up to her neck. “It was just a nightmare, huh?”

Kain continues to hug her, caressing YN affectionately, small circles on her back and a warm hand in her hair as he wraps her protectively.

“L-listen….-“ she tries to break free but he quickly stops her, pressing a kiss on her lips to shut her up.

“Shh my love, you can talk about your nightmare later, okay? If not, you'll keep remembering and you won't be able to sleep anymore.” He gives her a few more kisses on the cheek “Let's go to sleep, okay?”

“You're safe here, YN. It's okay. It was just a nightmare. I'm here.” He continues to whisper sweet nothings in her ear, and then he starts to softly sing a strange song.

“Nana baby…… Cuca's coming to get you…. Daddy went to the farm, mommy went to work……

“You're safe here, YN. It's okay. It was just a nightmare. I'm here” He repeats. And again. And again. Even after you reluctantly fall asleep.

“Nana baby…… Cuca's coming to get you…. Daddy went to the farm, mommy went to work……

YN dreams with quick flashes of a disgusting creature, a rotten smell, a metallic smell… and Kain's smile. The young woman wakes up calmly a few hours later with the sun rising and the smell of food coming from the door… is he preparing something?

Oh, he was already ready.

"Good morning, dear!" he says, entering the room with the bamboo breakfast tray.

Kain places the tray on the dresser next to the bed gracefully and walks to her side, giving a soft kiss on the top of her head and then gently putting her tangled hair in a bun so she can drink her coffee properly. "How did you sleep, love?"

YN looks at him confused, not really knowing what happened or not… but decides to keep quiet about it.

"I slept… well, I guess?" she laughs, giving him a soft kiss on the cheek "But I don't remember falling asleep. What happened?"

Kain holds back a smug smile, choosing to focus on the feeling of YN's lips on his skin.

"Oh, sweetheart. You fell asleep on the couch yesterday, we were watching the movie when you fell asleep. I brought you here so you could sleep better in the room.”

“And… I was already wearing pajamas? I don’t remember that.” The young woman looks at the cotton pajamas, a white American pajama set with little pink hearts. It was a couple’s promotion, so Kain was wearing pink pajamas with white hearts.

“No, my baby, you were wearing that polka dot dress but I changed into pajamas.”

After all, he always liked to play house.

“Ok, my love, thank you for taking care of me”

“Everything for you, sweetheart.” He hugs her and goes to her closet, choosing the clothes for today’s work day, a habit he did when YN was late or simply wanted to be one less thing to worry about.

As soon as he finishes choosing the clothes, Kain decides to iron them while YN gets out of bed and goes to take a shower, locking the door for safety. In a long bath, YN tries to remember what really happened the day before, noticing that she feels slightly sore and tired, with her head too heavy for her body. The holographic bubbles mixed with the memories that she tried to connect in an almost random and disorganized way…..

I took a bath…… and I was happy…. I got a promotion at work…

There was a pink cake…… and some music playing….

YN gets out of the bath and grabs the pastel pink towel to dry herself.

I watched a movie, but I don't know what it was about…. I was with Kain in the living room, cuddling….. And the boss… had she sent messages?

The young woman takes a brush to comb her hair, noticing that it is more tangled than usual……

Yeah. She had sent messages. I saw the messages when I got out of the bath…. but what was it about?

As she dries her hair, she smiles to herself. It must be the photos from yesterday's party! How silly of me, I didn't even like the photos and shared them! Let me see now~

Wait… photos?

With a breath of realization the girl remembers, a deja vu connecting the loose memories and she holds her breath: the messages from the boss- ex-boyfriend- three weeks- fear- the perfumed path- rose petals- pink cake- panic- film- cell phone- door- Kain- rotten smell. But what happened for her to forget everything? YN has a script of what happened yesterday, but for some reason she doesn't remember the main key: Why was she afraid?

She continues combing her hair and notices that the back of her head is strangely sore, and not the kind that comes from sleeping badly… but the kind that comes from a blow. She lets go of the comb and with her hand she feels her head looking for the source of the pain, and finds a lump forming. Silently moaning in pain, she wonders how this lump got there. Kain is so careful with her, how could this have happened? YN does a quick skincare routine and thinks that if something has happened, she can check it on her cell phone.

“Everything is ready, honey! Your clothes are on the bed!”

“Thank you, love!” she answers to Kain’s voice. Hearing her answers, he takes light steps to leave the room.

As she leaves the bathroom, she feels that there is something strange, like a hole under the carpet. But that's not important now, not when she sees the clothes he's put out: an office chic look, there's not a single wrinkle or crease in the whole outfit, a sign of Kain's care, and there's a sweet smell on the clothes that makes YN feel like she's on cloud nine again, she picks up the clothes and brings them to her nose to delight in the sweet scent of fabric softener. Who would pay attention to these details about her? He's so perfect <3

What more could she want?

"Oh, how I love my boyfriend-"

Boss: YN THIS IS NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND.

Like a painful deja vu, YN remembers exactly the messages from her boss as she struggles to know if it was all a dream or not.

Boss: KAIN DIED IN AN ACCIDENT THREE WEEKS AGO.

She can see the messages on the bright screen of her phone, it was before she went down for dinner. She remembers feeling her heart racing as she tried to contain her despair. She remembers a terrible image of Kain in a car accident.

Boss: RUN AWAY IMMEDIATELY!

“Oh… fuck.” She curses in a low tone as she frantically searches for her cell phone in the room, the bathroom, and the dressers next to the bed. There is only one way to confirm, and she needs to find her cell phone. She has two options now: If this is a big misunderstanding from yesterday's horror movies, she will give Kain a big kiss for even doubting him, but if what the boss says is true… then she has to get out of there as quickly as possible.

In a hurry, she changes into the clothes he chose and for the first time in two weeks she walk straight ahead without looking at the pink bag Kain gave her. It accompanied her every day, a beautiful pink quilted bag with gold and pearl details, but it is small. Despite being a work bag, YN hardly carries anything other than her lip gloss, her cell phone, and other things, but this time, she needs to go further and chooses the black bag she had bought for herself. The bag was black and also padded, bigger and more spacious, with silver details and chains.

Before you freak out, let's get the facts straight like a logical and respectable woman.

She says to herself as she chooses silver earrings to match the beautiful silver necklace she is wearing. YN knows very well that she can't just go to the police station and accuse the man of being… I don't know, what crime is he committing? Anyway, until she proves that the man she is with in the house is not her boyfriend and a potentially dangerous person, she needs to keep a cool head. The police might think that SHE is the crazy one and humiliate the poor girl at the police station, belittling all her fears and anxieties.

The boss is my witness. The evidence is on the cell phone. …..And where is the cell phone?

She leaves the room with her bag and quickly goes down the stairs, alert, trying not to breathe too much of the air fresheners while trying to behave normally. Unfortunately, she misses a step or two, causing her to trip… but before she hits the ground, strong arms protect her from the fall.

“I could ask if it hurt when you fell from the sky, but… the stairs are closer, aren't they, angel?” Her boyfriend's voice is playful, but his arms touch something that gives him goosebumps, and not in a good way. “Why… are you in such a hurry, my love? Be careful going down the stairs.” He tries to hide it as he helps her up.

“I'm looking for my cell phone, er… honey. Didn't you see it?”

Act normal, act normal, act normal….

“It's charging in the living room.” Kain simply points to the outlet next to the couch

YN hurriedly finds herself on the couch, grabbing her cell phone and feeling a momentary relief at the thought that she would finally find the answer she was looking for. Her heart beats rapidly as she searches through the conversations with her boss.

Please tell me what's going on!

Boss: YN, can you format the document you sent just now? On page 3 you need to add the details of the client's project.

YN: Sure, I'll send it to you in 5 minutes.

The messages have been deleted.

The most recent one is from three days ago.

Her heart stops. Her breath catches in her throat. Her blood pressure drops to her feet. YN can't believe what she was seeing. She searches through her gallery and checks to make sure the message wasn't on other apps.

She feels like she's right on top of the hole the rug is hiding, but she can't remove the rug yet or she'll fall in herself. Kain watches her analytically from the stairs, still trying to decipher her emotions, wanting to get inside her head to know what she's thinking, why did she change her purse today? Why the silver necklace? He bites the inside of his cheek and tries to sound as normal as possible.

"Did you find your cell phone, sweetheart?" His smile is charming and irresistible, but it doesn't reach his blue eyes.

He's the one who turned it off.

You take a deep breath and hold your wide eyes, slowly getting up and going to the door "Yes… it's charged to 100%. I'm going to work now, I'll be back at night, okay"

Kain's smile fades "At night? You know I can't stand being away from you for so long." He says sweetly, leaning against the wall "Couldn't you come back before sunset? We could do something together…”

“You know my boss is very strict, Kain. I can’t ask her for an afternoon off.” Yn gives a weak smile, she could ask her boss for an afternoon off but she didn’t want to spend the afternoon with this strange man, now that she knows that the man is not the real Kain she sees him in a different light.

“Oh yeah? Maybe she’ll be in a good mood today.” Kain kisses Yn’s hand quickly, but unlike usual, there’s a dark tone in his words

“Y-yeah, maybe she’ll be fine today. I have to go-“ even though YN opens the door and tries to get out of the corner, Kain’s hand still holds her tightly

“Aren’t you forgetting something, dear?” Kain looks at her with an intense and possessive look

YN is slightly terrified when she looks into his eyes, there’s a strange atmosphere in the place. “I… ar… I ……” she looks at him anxiously and the motorcycle outside waiting for her, and tries to pull her hand away once more, however, Kain continues to hold on tightly.

“I love you.” He chuckles, lightening the mood and pressing another kiss on the back of her hand, but still doesn’t let go, waiting for his beloved’s response.

“….. I… I love you too.” Even with hesitant words, YN manages to answer her boyfriend, sealing the promise and completing the daily ritual.

Feeling satisfied, Kain finally lets go of her hand and allows her to go to work, waiting for the motorcycle to completely disappear from sight before entering the house and preparing something special.

At work, YN feels a horrible sensation of being watched, but how can that be, the work environment is something safe, right? As soon as the break is allowed, she runs to the bathroom, locking herself in one of the last stalls and opening an anonymous tab…. as a precaution…. to try to understand what Kain is and how she can escape this situation.

“A skinwalker is a mythological creature that steals the skin of its victims and disguises itself as them…”

“…… an extremely malicious and sadistic creature with its victims…”

“DON’T BELIEVE ANYTHING THE CREATURE SAYS! The creature will say anything to get the victim.”

“The creature hardly gives up on its target. In two or three days it gets what it wants.”

“The creature leaves no witnesses, so if you are the target of a supposed skinwalker, flee the place immediately and surround yourself with people. It will not be able to attack you for fear of being seen.”

“If you cannot get away, use silver objects to protect yourself…”

“RUN AWAY IMMEDIATELY!”

Holy shit.

In life, there are times when you curse in anger or frustration for being in a complicated situation, but YN sighed in such a way that all her bones roared in unison “oh… fuck.” While she was still searching for more information so focused that she didn't realize that she was the only person in the bathroom and that the lights were starting to fade…

“YN~” a voice hummed as the echo of the bathroom did its job

YN remained silent, mentally thinking that the person would leave, however, elegant and slow footsteps in high heels echoed through the bathroom until they reached the last stall, the girl recognized her boss's black heels and smiled in relief.

“Oh Boss, it's you!” she sighed in relief and threw her cell phone into her black bag “I really needed to talk to you! About those messages you sent, you know?” she started talking nonstop trying to get the subject moving, relieved to finally have someone to talk to about this and a potential help.

As soon as YN opened the door she was faced with a strange sight, to say the least. She analyzed her boss from head to toe: Her black heels were tight, her clothes were so wrinkled that it looked like she had just rolled out of bed with them, her hair was in a messy hairstyle… and she found familiar blue eyes.

No..... no no no no no no......please no....

“Yes, dear? What did you want to talk to me about?” she smiles uncannily with her red lipstick smudged and poorly drawn, something that the perfectionist boss would never allow.

YN takes a step back, the boss takes a step forward.

“Boss…. are you okay?” there is a strange glow in her eyes, like a reflection that shouldn't be there.

I'm in a place with people…. he can't hurt me here.

“…. I'm fine, my dear." The boss says with a frozen smile and an impossibly straight and rigid posture, her voice is like a musician trying to play an instrument for the first time, testing out the tones and tones hesitantly, like a robot would slowly carry the answer “I really wanted to… talk to you.”

Yn walks past her anxiously towards the washroom, washing her hands and fixing her hair while looking in the mirror at the boss trying to get out of there as quickly as possible. “Yes, boss?”

The figure slowly turns to YN, the sound of high heels echoing with each step that approaches the young woman “You're making a mistake, YN.”

“….er, what am I doing wrong?” as she dries her hands YN turns to the other woman anxiously.

The boss continues with the same frozen smile.

“Your…silver necklace.” The figure points to the necklace around YN's neck “It's against company rules to wear that kind of accessory here.”

“That necklace? But I've already worn it be-“

“No.” The boss opens her hand and YN feels her body freeze with what she says next “I came to collect the necklace, you must comply with the company's rules.”

“I can keep it in my bag so… I don't want to bother you with such simple things.” The girl holds the necklace and slowly moves away from the boss.

“No.” The boss says in a more authoritative tone “I came to collect the necklace.” She approaches the girl with her hand still outstretched.

He can't take my necklace… but… what happens if the lady gets in touch with him? The website didn't say this part...

YN nods slowly and takes off the silver necklace, handing it to the boss who closes her hand immediately before the girl could change her mind in the last seconds.

“Good girl, darling.” The figure approaches until their chests almost touch, when she notices that YN was looking at the door and not at her, the woman gently grabs YN's chin, making her look into her...his blue eyes.

“You know, darling….. you work a lot, you know? I'm very proud of you, that's why I'm giving you the afternoon off so you can spend it with your boyfriend.”

“My boyfriend….?”

“Of course, he's such a perfect man for you, isn't he? And he loves you so much, YN, he'd do anything for you.”

Come on, is he advertising himself well?

“…. yeah, he's…. like a dream to me.” The boss widens her eyes at YN's words.

“A perfect dream, isn't it? You don't want to wake up and live a nightmare, do you?”

Yn just nods and stays quiet, feeling the implicit threat in her boss's words on her skin. She grabs her black bag tightly and says goodbye to her boss, leaving the bathroom while the lights still flicker. Maybe if she had been brave enough to wait for her boss to leave, YN would have seen how much she was staggering in her daily high heels.

He's here! Why didn't the silver work? And I still had the big mouth to talk to the creature from the messages!

She sighs again and again, she quickly leaves the company. Who would she run to for help? She's new in town, few family members know, and involving anyone would be too dangerous… what do I do?

Where would I run to?

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown, she remembers someone saying this and to add to it she completes: This kind of fear is like a snake that eats piece by piece of your body without a specific order, today it devours your toenail and tomorrow - if it feels like it- it can devour your stomach entirelyallowing the acids in her stomach, fueled by anxiety and tension, to season the meat so she can swallow it with more satisfaction.

Driving distractedly, YN's gaze remembers Mr. Thomas's flower shop… and for now, this will be her refuge until she thinks of a plan. The flower shop is quiet, only with old music in the background while Mr. Thomas, the good old man, is preparing a bouquet…

"Oh, Miss YN, are you back already?" He greets her from afar

The young girl feels so lost now, not knowing what to do, she wanted it all to be a big misunderstanding so she could go back to the floating pink world she was in, but the knowledge that something non-human would be ready to kill her when she returns makes her little feet stay firmly on the ground, makes her take slow and distracted steps that take her straight to the alstroemerias, the same ones from yesterday, and points to the flowers.

“…. I'll have a bouquet of those, Mr. Thomas.” In a monotonous and almost empty tone, she asks, making the florist stop what he was doing and asks her to repeat, fearing that his age is already getting the best of his attributes

“What did you say, YN? What flowers will you want?”

“The alstroemerias….. make a pretty bouquet, okay?” She takes robotic steps to the counter, waiting for the elderly man to make the bouquet. She trusts that it will be a beautiful bouquet of alstroemerias…. but for some reason she doesn't even know why she chose those flowers. The elderly man is experienced and knows that each flower has its meaning, but mainly the emotion of the person choosing the flower and the bouquet says more than they realize.

Mr. Thomas picks the best flowers from the astromelia and looks for some more to make a beautiful bouquet, at least to cheer up the poor girl. The old man takes the flowers to the counter to choose the wrapping and some messages and finds YN sitting, simply staring at the floor with her head down, distracted, with an anxious look on her face.

“YN, what paper do you want for the wrapping? The usual?”

Why hasn’t he killed me yet?

“YN? Are you listening to me, little one?”

Why didn’t he pretend to be my boyfriend… treat me so well? What are his intentions?

“YN!” in a louder but still soft tone the old man catches the girl’s attention

“O-oh, sorry Mr. Thomas… I’m just thinking about things. The wrapping paper will be…” she can’t think of anything, her mind wandering between unanswered questions and anxiety in her chest “Why don’t you choose? I know you’ll look for what best matches the flowers.” The girl smiles and pushes the decision to the florist who sighs worriedly

“Oh dear…. what's going on with you? Are you feeling okay?”

Please don't ask me that… not today…

“I'm fine but… I'm feeling… stressed. Work stuff, you know?” She pulls a hair behind her ear, as if she were tidying up whatever mental mess she was apparently having.

The florist narrows his wrinkled eyes at the girl, reading her like a book, then he does the most comforting thing YN has received all day. He approaches her, placing a hand over hers, with deep empathy and genuine concern that makes YN's heart melt, finding a true safe haven in the words of the old man, who looks at her as if she were his own granddaughter.

“It's him, isn't it? What did he do to make you like this?”

“Oh Mr. Thomas…” speechless, the girl lets her eyes water as she stubbornly looks up, preventing some tears from coming out

“What did he do to you, YN? You were so fine yesterday… and today you seem so anxious and sad.” He softly tells the story of the events, careful not to scare or scare the girl

Think of an excuse, YN, quickly…..

“....Remember what I said yesterday about how he was drunk and high?” the real Kain “Well…. yesterday he….. yesterday he came home under the influence, you know? Acting strange……”

“Did he hit you?”

“No… he hasn’t arrived yet.” The girl whispers almost inaudibly as she thinks about the possibilities

“… And, are you afraid of him?”

The girl, with no more strength to speak, closes her mouth and nods quickly as her heart races.

“I’m going to get something for you, keep an eye on the store, okay?” he whispers softly as he walks to get something from somewhere in the store.

Moments later a female voice is heard entering the flower shop.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Thomas!”

YN had never been a religious person, but she could thank God for sending Sister Martha at that moment. In a new city and trying to find independence away from her family, there were few people she knew and had made sincere friends with. Coincidentally, a childhood friend had recently become a nun and was being assigned to the church in the new city. The sister was wearing her church uniform, her curious eyes searching for the elderly figure to pick up some flower order for a temple decoration.

“Oh, YN! What a pleasant surprise!” the woman smiled immediately upon seeing YN at the counter, giving her friend a tight hug while bringing an air of purity and warmth with her “Long time no see, girl!”

“Yes, Martha… I missed you so much!” YN hugs back and lets her friend's genuine warmth invade her. After a few moments of hugging, her friend slowly pulls away and looks at YN with a worried look.

“What happened, YN? How are you?”

“Nothing, sis…”

“There's no point in hiding it from me, tell me what happened!”

If it were anyone else, Martha would have talked better in a friendly and non-invasive way, but being Yn, she doesn't mince her words.

“Last week I saw you and you looked like a model, why are you so… like that? Who's the funeral?”

My.... Martha, it's going to be my funeral.

“It was him, Martha…” she reluctantly confesses, avoiding her friend's gaze.

“Him? Who is he? Ooooh…. your boyfriend.” Sister Martha had never liked the real Kain and even after his return with YN was nothing but flowers and wonders, she was very suspicious. “Your demon boyfriend.”

An idea popped into YN's head, like hope being born again. As a teenager, before becoming a nun, Martha was a curious and mischievous teenager, who looked for everything, including mythologies, magic, witchcraft, and the dark world that happens under the bed when children go to sleep. Nowadays, she fights spiritual wars, dealing with evil and good in a very physical and literal way. Maybe, just maybe… she can speak in some code so that her sister can understand.

"I'll invite you to exorcise him at my house then.” She jokes but knows that Sister Marta is seeing through her and YN hopes she reads the subtext

“I'll need a whole team to remove the evil inside Kain's body… that boy of yours is a complicated man.” She jokes

"Complicated defines him well."

The two laugh a little, lightening the mood, but Martha asks again in a more serious tone this time, whispering to her friend like secrets in a confessional......

“You… are you serious. Do you really think he's possessed by a demon?”

“I think he's something… worse than a demon.” You sigh worriedly and anxiously “it seems like someone else… you know?”

“YN…” the young nun widens her eyes, she has a slight idea of ​​what her friend is talking about but knows that the whole team doesn't have the capacity to solve this, it's something extremely dangerous and if not done right it could have bloody consequences. This should be dealt with by sorcerers, but YN needs something quick to deal with it

"Oh...."

“Oh my friend, I will pray for you. I promisse.” In an apopogetic tone with her mouth half closed, the nun apologizes as she walks away from the store, breaking YN’s heart and all the hope that had sprouted when she also understands the subtext of the sentence:

You are on your own.

The girl remains paralyzed, sitting on the bench so as not to lose her balance. She cannot think about how helpless and vulnerable she feels, as if she is in a philosophical debate about whether she should just accept it.

5 seconds later the nun returns to the store, looking agitated and anxious as she looks for YN, the girl feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

“YN!” she looks at the door then turns quickly, holding a package of leaves in the girl’s hand

“Myrtle. Myrtle tea - it's good for…. the cardiovascular system, for the skin, it's also good for stomach aches - and…. headaches and……” she searches for more answers while looking anxiously between the door and Yn's shaken face “Take this. It'll be good for you.”

The sister hugs Yn tightly and whispers seriously in her ear“Run away. Take this and get out of here.”

The nun still speaks loudly as she says goodbye again in an agitated manner “We'll be praying for you.”

YN is speechless with the sudden change in attitude and wonders if it was a message from God or if the nun saw something strange outside. Thoughtful, she doesn't notice when the old forester approaches with the colored papers for the bouquet and a surprise between them.

“Here you go, this paper will certainly enhance the tones of the flowers.”

“Oh, thank you very much!”

“Yn… I have something else for you.”

The old man puts a gun in YN's hand as he explains seriously, "They're just two silver bullets. One to distract him when that kid wants to threaten you and get out of line… the other for when he thinks you're a tough guy and you're putting your foot down on him."

Me… kill him? Are you telling me to kill him?

"Mr. Thomas, I don't think it's necessary…"

"There's no point in running away, girl."

He says so seriously that YN's smile falls and she looks at him with more questions than answers.

"You broke up the first time, and you got back together. You're trying to make things easier for him, and you're going to break up again, and then you're going to get back together again." He sighs painfully

"The cycle will only end when someone dies… and I don't want it to be you, girl."

The old florist was fed up with seeing rude boys pick beautiful flowers one day, and their parents come to buy funeral arrangements the next, apologies that turn into funeral invitations, beautiful flowers being crushed by ill-intentioned people, every day. Each story has a specific situation, but the cycle is the same: the girl dies in the end.

“With a man so obsessed with you, he won’t stop until he gets what he wants. He’ll go after you to the ends of the earth, YN.” The florist places his gentle hand on Yn’s hand and closes it, making the girl accept the gun firmly “This is for you to defend yourself… and end this cycle”

How ironic, from a place so full of life, YN left with two deadly objects in her bag and a beautiful bouquet in her hands.

--------

Unfortunately, the way from the florist to her boyfriend’s house is not very long and YN drives the motorcycle slowly as if she wanted to buy more time for the inevitable. In nature, the mother puts food in the mouths of the little birds because they cannot feed themselves and from one day to the next they are pushed off the branch to learn how to fly. YN feels exactly like this, her boyfriend took care of everything for her, from a hair out of place to more complex situations, in two weeks Kain had such a strong effect on YN's mind that she depended on him for everything and felt like she was floating in the clouds, without any thought or instinct for survival… now she feels pushed off the branch, struggling with her little wings to keep from crashing to the ground and fighting for survival.

When she reaches the door of the house with her heart beating fast, she realizes that she has no plan or strategy for this situation, just an instinct not to die.

It's him or me.

It's better to face madness with a plan than to sit still and let it take you in pieces. - the little voice in her head advises again

She could go back to her own house, but he would follow her there. She could go somewhere full of people, but eventually the two of them would come face to face. It could be at any moment. It's just a matter of time to postpone the inevitable, the anxiety was eating her up inside, devouring her stomach while her mind fought not to sink into this storm, looking for possibilities in which it would come out on top.

Fuck this. Fuck you. Fuck Kain. Fuck everything.

She knocks on the door with a blank look and prepares herself for the worst, clutching her bag tightly.

Is this how the victims facing the guillotine felt? A straight line to death?

5 minutes later, the door remains closed and YN decides that she will open the door herself and enter the house.

"Excuse me…. Kain?" She leaves the bouquet in the living room while following the scent coming from the kitchen. She looks for him around the house and comes across a breathtaking scene: The handsome man is wearing an apron again, humming some music with his headphones while preparing something in the kitchen.

“L… is for the way you look at me” he stirs the pan with something gelatinous, completely immersed in the music.

“O… is for the only one I see…” almost like a spontaneous dance. Kain takes a tray from the fridge and unmolds little hearts and places them on a crystal tray.

“V… is very very… extraordinary.”

"E… is even more than anyone that you adore can….." her boyfriend pours the appetizing syrup over the little hearts, it's a bright red, a mouth-watering syrup. But not as much as Kain, he's wearing a formal white shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbow exposing his strong arms and jeans that are tighter on the thighs, his locks are messy in an attractive way. For a minute her instinct tells her to bite him all over, mark every little bit of that juicy body and forget any stupid plans. His eyes widen when they see that his beloved has already arrived, taking off his headphones and meeting her at the kitchen door.

"Oh, my dear! Are you here yet?" he wipes his hands on a dish towel and takes off his apron, and hugs her, a smell of sugar mixes with his irresistible cologne.

"…yes, yes… what are you doing?" YN takes a moment to compose herself

“It was supposed to be a surpriseeeeee~” he whines, placing his head on her shoulder “I know you’re really stressed because of work, so I prepared a recipe for you to try.”

He leads her to the kitchen counter hand in hand before she can protest and takes one of the sweets from the tray, cooling it with a breath and placing it in front of YN’s mouth.

“Open your mouth, sweetheart~” with a hoarse voice he asks, placing the sweet in his girlfriend’s mouth “It’s delicious, huh? I prepared it with you in mind.” He whispers, keeping his eyes intense in her eyes, he licks his lips when she lets out a small sound of satisfaction

“It is…. but what did you put in here?” she feels her body go slowly limp and a strange heat starting to tingle through her body

“Nothing.” He grabs another sweet and eats it too, staring at YN as he holds her against the kitchen counter with strong arms “Just something to make you more excited… more relaxed” he squeezes her thighs, bringing her closer as he whispers in a sultry tone

“Let me take care of you, darling~” Kain presses a slow kiss to the girl's jaw

“You look so tense… what happened?” He could feel Yn's breathing intensifying, his own heart beating voraciously trying to keep his desire under control, needing to taste her once more, see her go crazy once more...

"W-wait, Kain…" with one hand on YN's delicate back, Kain pressed her tightly against him, taking her lips in a hungry and possessive kiss, frowning in desire, feeling the shivers on his body intensify

The juicy syrup was already delicious on its own, but when the creature put aphrodisiacs in it, it got even better. Everything was going well, everything was very good until the nosy boss spilled the beans, he dealt with it in his own way, but YN still remembered what happened the night before, he didn't know what exactly… but it was enough for her to move away from him unconsciously, wanting to be independent with that damned black bag, looking for answers to questions she shouldn't even be thinking about and worse… maybe she was planning to run away. He would never allow that.

The couple pulls away for air with YN biting his lower lip, making him let out a low moan “Oh my darling…. did you know I love you so much?” He presses their bodies even closer, practically glued together as his hand wanders inside her shirt, caressing the soft skin of her belly

"You're so beautiful…" he bites YN's ear in a hoarse voice "Did you know I would do anything for you, huh?"

"A-anything?"

"Yes, anything for you, my sweetie~" he goes back to kissing her with desire, his body trembling and writhing to touch every part of her, wanting more of her delicious love, sucking on her desire, wanting to get under her skin, molding her as if they were one flesh, isn't it beautiful?

He was hungry for her.

Every time she resisted a little as if she was coming to her senses, Kain would take another candy and put it in her mouth, and another… and another… until he was drunk with love in the valley of her breasts, with his pants getting tighter every second rubbing between YN's legs…..

"Oh my sweet Yn…. you're all mine huh?" he bites her neck "All of it. Heart and mind. Right?" he rubs harder

“I'm all yours, you know? All yours…. yours…” he murmurs a few more times in a low, hoarse voice

“I'm crazy about you…. I love you so much…” Kain's chest rises and falls hard, his breathing is heated as he moans lightly, his pupils extremely dilated as he observes YN's reactions, his gaze clouded by extraordinary sensations

“You love me too, don't you Darling?” smiling like a fool, Kain cups her cheeks making her look at him, it takes her a while to answer or even realize that he's talking to her “YN.”

“Hmm?”

“Do you love me?” this time his voice is more serious, hurt that she didn't answer at first. Is the spell being broken?

“…. I… love you, Kain.” She closes her eyes and answers, it was a painful truth and that in seconds, it would be nothing more than memories.

“I love you too, Yn,” he hugs her again affectionately, suffocating her with sweet words and his presence, “You don’t know how much.”

The fire dissipates soon after with such an intense makeout, leaving the ashes of what it consumed. YN feels disgusted and mentally tired, as if she had been trapped again.

Get a grip, YN, let’s go… there’s a killer in the house.

She washes her face and as if the neurons of audacity were being connected, as if the survival instinct spoke faster, she has an interesting idea.

“Honey, what flowers are those?” the male voice asks from the living room, looking with disgust at the beautiful bouquet of alstroemerias on the sofa.

YN turns on the fire and puts water to boil, putting some myrtle leaves in the water, making the smell slowly spread throughout the house. With a mischievous smile, she asks in a sweet voice.

“Honeey, bring it here to leave it there in the living room, please. I'll be right there.” He mentally curses the flowers, coughing and sneezing a lot as he grabs a nearby cloth and wraps his hands in it, taking the flowers to the other side of the room while YN stands at the kitchen door, debating internally whether he should continue with the plan in mind as she watches the scene.

He heads to the living room, sitting on the couch and gesturing for her to follow him. Meanwhile, his expression gently closes, showing a slight irritation with the flowers… and smelling a different scent in the air making him feel unbalanced, but he can't say what it is yet.

"Let's talk a little, my love. I feel like there's something bothering you."

"Yes, love… there's something I've been thinking about for a few days." She sits in the chair opposite him, her posture straight and rigid and her hands folded politely on her lap.

She mentally tells herself that she is strong and brave, and that this is not scaring her, when in fact her insides are screaming at her to get out of there and that this is just a serious conversation that every normal couple has.

Kain watches her with an expression of apparent interest and curiosity. He crosses his arms, his expression slightly closed as he listens to her speech.

"Oh, I'm curious. What were you thinking, love?"

What if I just break up with him and run away?

The handsome man waits expectantly for her to speak, although there is a slight tension noticeable in his body and expression. his fingers flapping on the couch like tired butterfly wings, an act that would normally make YN anxious and she would throw a pillow at him playfully as a tease. But not now. Not when she's closed like an old book, when her expression is hard to read.His eyes examine her carefully, looking for any sign of weakness or discomfort, wondering what he could do to solve this.

"You must have heard that saying, we all have skeletons in our closets…" she begins with the worst metaphor possible for a murderer, and as if she were slowly running her hand over a soft fabric, in a quick and unvarnished movement she asks:

"…and I've been wondering, is there something you're hiding from me?""

Kain straightens up in his chair as he listens to her, trying to appear calm and unconcerned. His gaze changes from curiosity to a slight discomfort inside.

"Ah, that saying… What makes you think I'm hiding something from you?" He tries to keep his voice soft, but there's a slight note of caution in his words

"I'll give you two options: Female instinct or survival instinct?" she asks, analyzing him, herself not knowing where to begin

Kain continues to look at her with a distressed expression as he tries to think of a way to make her understand. His voice comes out desperate as he tries to convince her to his side.

"Hmm, female instinct or survival instinct? It seems like you really want an explanation, love." He laughs and adjusts himself in the chair slightly. "Female instinct, come on. What are you saying?"

"Okay, let's go: You are not Kain… the real one." She calmly tells the fact that the skinwalker thought she would never find out, his smile falling and a surprised expression on his face.

"Who are you?" Kain's expression closes and his mask of calm and relaxation completely dissolves. His blue eyes widen slightly, showing a tone of surprise and fear inside.

After a brief pause, he answers with a voice that tries to be calm, but shows nervousness, the effect of the myrtle tea permeating the air makes Kain feel unbalanced in his powers and disguises, the magic becoming more difficult to maintain and an absurd hunger growing in his stomach.

"Me? I'm your boyfriend. The love of your life. The person you're going to spend the rest of your life with. What do you mean, asking me who I am?" he turns his head in a cute way with a scary connotation.

"Who are you?" YN asks again in a louder and more serious tone this time, standing up aggressively from the chair with her bag tightly clutched.

"The Kain I know died in a car accident!" YN spits out the fact, like a poison that needed to be released.

Her boyfriend watches her with a confused and nervous expression. Kain tries to think of an excuse or explanation, but he knows there's no way to get out of the situation, not after yesterday's gap, like pieces fitting together in a puzzle he knows she knows. After a few moments, he takes a deep breath, his voice coming out with a tone of resignation.

The house of cards has fallen. The bastille has been invaded. The spell has been broken. YN is fully awake now.

"Oh…"

"So you know." Kain continues, his voice taking on a more serious and possessive tone. "That makes things a little more complicated, doesn't it?"

Perhaps, if he was strong enough, he would conjure something to convince her that he is her real boyfriend.

Perhaps, if YN was still under his control, she would believe

But if he doesn't know at what exact moment it went out of control, then it's much more difficult to recover, like an arrow shooting in the darkness. The creature doesn't know how the night will end, and neither does Yn to be honest.

Who is the prey and who is the hunter?

As humans say "a spanking doesn't hurt" to raise children, maybe telling the truth and giving them something to fear is also educational? Who knows?

Who knows,perhaps it's time to step out of the shadows.

"I won't hide from you anymore, sweetheart. I… I want you. From the moment I saw you, I knew you were special to me." Kain gets up from the couch and walks towards YN, who slowly moves away from him, watching him with a bitter look, no longer the passionate and loving look.

"I was watching you, admiring you. And finally, I managed to have you all to myself. But you're smarter than I had anticipated, love. More determined, harder to control. I admit it."

"So baby, I think our relationship should end….. what guarantees me that I won't be your next victim?" She quickly takes the gun out of her black bag and points the gun at him when she sees him transform into the monstrous appearance of the creature.

Kain watches her with a frustrated and threatening look, his voice becoming hoarse and deep as his body transforms into his true skinwalker form.

"Ohhh, baby, do you really think you can just break up with me like that, so easily? After everything I went through to have you?" his voice becoming hoarse and deeper as her body transforms into its true form

The creature gradually reveals its most hideous and repulsive appearance, stretching its body until it almost touches the ceiling, its hands becoming thinner and with prominent veins, its skin becoming terribly paler and with its color revealed, in certain places there are red and purple spots like bruises and in others, green spots like fungi in various parts of the body. The clothes torn by the transformation gave the girl the vision of the skin sticking together in some parts, delimiting the body in a terrible and pulled way, she could count how many ribs it had and the heart, as if swollen abnormally, makes a large bulge in the middle of the chest, she could count the beats clearly and a damn strong smell.

Faced with such horror, Yn lowered the gun slightly, and felt the acid in her stomach rise with such horror, the butterflies in her stomach were fake, they had transformed into spiders slowly scratching her throat. For a moment, she thinks she should have just dumped him on the bike and run away.

“You don’t frighten me,” said YN, although they did frighten her, very much.

The creature smiles.

“You are such interesting prey, love. So… tempting.” He approaches her, his voice taking on a more seductive tone.

Kain continues to approach her, his eyes shining with a mixture of desire and cruelty inside. His voice is soft but threatening and YN points the gun frightful at him again.

“You cannot avoid your fate, darling. You are mine. And I will not let you go so easily. You are my prey … And I will hunt you until the end of time if necessary.”

“Find someone else for this.” She says firmly as she walks away from him.

Kain takes two steps forward, YN takes three steps back.

They both dance in a tense and predatory rhythm.

The creature watches her with frustration as she move away from him. His body shows anger and aggression inside as he tries to think of a way to keep her close to him.

“Oh, my love, do you really think it will be that easy to get rid of me? You can try to escape, but I will always find you. And we will always find each other, even if I have to steal the skin of every person you see out there.” He roars determinedly “I will always hunt you. Don’t try to resist, love… It’s useless.”

“There’s no point in fighting, love. I am the darkness that inhabits the shadows, the creature that lives in horror stories. And you… You are my light, my obsession, my desire…"

He is now close to her, his voice taking on a more possessive and threatening tone as he sucks the shadows around him in a dark way, the horrifying creature feels stronger now and he makes sure to show it visibly, his body becoming larger and more muscular, the claws in his hands becoming large and sharp.

The poor girl's heart accelerates as her breathing becomes rapid and shallow and the feeling of desperation takes over her as she sees the creature's new form.

"You are my prey, love. And I will not stop until I have you as mine"

"My skin stays with me, thank you." YN says with anger in her eyes as she puts her finger on the trigger, the atmosphere is tense, and they both know that a fight will break out at any moment.

Kain watches her with frustration as his determination is challenged. His voice becomes harsher as he sees the gun in his girlfriend's hands.

"Oh, do you really think that this weapon will protect you from me? I'm older, more powerful, stronger than anything you've ever faced, love." He tenses, as if preparing to act at any moment."You can't beat me, love. No matter how much you try to resist…"

"I heard silver bullets are your weakness, love… let's find out together if this will work?" she says in a sarcastic tone.

Kain watches her with frustration as he realizes that she knows about his weaknesses. His expression closes, showing displeasure as he listens to her sarcastic provocation.

"Oh, you think it's very funny, don't you? But you don't know what I'm capable of doing to keep you tied to me. You don't know how cruel and desperate skinwalkers can be. I'll have you, love, no matter what it takes." At that exact moment there are frantic knocks on the door, making them stop immediately.

"YN, OPEN THE DOOR!"

It was old Thomas, the florist taking the place of the hunter in an old tale. The poor man, worried about the girl, decided to go check on YN's well-being. The situation must be very serious for her to have picked up the gun.

Oh…. no…..

YN looks at the door and at Kain.

Kain looks at the door and at YN.

Both surprised by Mr. Thomas's unusual visit to the house, but with different emotions.

YN is paralyzed by the idea of ​​him being in the middle of the shooting and the creature.

Kain smiles predatorily at the great opportunity in front of him.

"Ahh, it seems we have an unexpected visitor here, love." His gaze turns back to YN, his head turning horribly 180 degrees, his expression showing a slight tone of evil, licking his lips. "Maybe I should deal with him first, before he messes up our plans?"

"YN! TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!" the old man continues to scream outside, ignorant of the horrible situation inside the house.

The girl's breath catches in her throat, without moving a muscle, without any provocative response to retaliate against the creature, the gears in her brain stop momentarily as she weighs a possibility to remove Mr. Thomas from the scene, the loophole in her plan.

"Oh, my darling, you're worried about that nosy old man, aren't you? Will he ruin our little plans? Or will he just watch as I claim you as mine?" He uses an arrogant tone, with false sympathy as he watches his paralyzed girlfriend, he slowly approaches the door until he touches the handle.

"Don't. You. Dare." With a gritted teeth she threatens before she can think of the consequences. Kain watches her with frustration at her reaction. His hand is ready to open the door, but he hesitates at her determined voice. He looks at YN with an irritated look.

"Oh, you really think you're going to stop me from dealing with him, love? You don't know what you're messing with, sweetie."

YN's finger is on the trigger as she slowly approaches the creature, ready to shoot if necessary. "Leave Thomas out of this!"

Kain tenses as YN approaches him with her finger on the trigger of the gun, ready to fire at any moment. H

His expression closes as he watches her cautiously. "Ah, YN, you're braver than I ever imagined." He tries to maintain control of the situation, although there's a note of desperation in his voice that he tries to disguise with arrogance by raising his chin.

"What are you going to do, love? Are you going to shoot me? I'm faster than you."

"But not faster than a bullet."

Kain tenses when he hears the determination in her voice, the cutting words almost hurting him. His expression closes as he knows she's serious, YN has always been very determined and attentive to details, it was difficult to get into her life and he wasn't going to get out that easily.

"Oh love, are you really serious? Are you really capable of shooting me if necessary? I thought you loved me."

The old man knocks on the door again.

"YN, if you don't say you're okay, I'll break into the house myself!" Mr. Thomas threatens and Yn sighs again, knocking more frantically on the door, making her shiver.

Kain observes YN's frustration and fear as the old man continues to knock on the door. His evil mind works quickly and he realizes the delicious opportunity opening up before him. With a malicious look, he takes advantage of the situation.

"Oh, honey, it seems our friend isn't very patient, is he? Will he really come in if you don't answer?"

Oh my god Thomas…… what did you come here to do? How do I get out of this situation?

"Tik tok, little princess~ it's rude to keep visitors waiting. Aren't you going to answer?"

What if he comes in? Will he be another victim of this creature? Will Kain make a show of devouring him in front of me or the other way around?

THINK YN THINK

"I'm curious to know how this night will end… you or the old man? Do you want me to choose?" With her delay, the skinwalker walks to the door, steps light as a feather while the bones creak and move from place to place while walking in a bizarre way. When Kain puts his hand on the doorknob threatening to turn it, she screams without thinking twice.

"M-MR. THOMAS!" she lets out a scream that she had been holding in since the beginning of the conversation

"…. I….. I'm fine! I'll explain it to you by message later, okay? Have a good night!" She trembles all over when she hears the friendly florist say goodnight back to her, his footsteps receding and echoing in the silent night.

YN allows a momentary wave of relief to wash over her, telling herself that the important thing is that the old man is safe and out of the picture. Kain huffs in anger but inside he is smiling proudly, holding YN where he wants her, but when he turns around he finds her not shaking with fear or more sensitive because of the threat to the old man but finds the young woman remaining vigilant and with the gun, her arms hurt from holding the gun so tightly but she fears that the moment she lowers it she will be killed.

Do not take your eyes off the thing under any circumstances. Do not take your eyes off the thing under any circumstances. Do not take your eyes off the thing under any circumstances.

Her mind works quickly to come up with a plan of action, the mental gears working hard to overcome the lock. She knows that facing a creature with supernatural powers will not be an easy task, but she tries to remain calm even with the fear running through her veins. She tries to remember something she saw on the internet to help her, but her mind is blank, only focusing anxiously on the horrible figure in front of her.

"You're so stubborn, love. I'm trying to show mercy, but you insist on being difficult, don't you? I'm starting to get tired of your stubbornness. Let's see how long you can resist, princess." He huffs, slowly approaching her, like prey stalking prey until they are both close, his body bending inhumanly until he is at her level.

His voice booms in Yn's ears, as if bringing her back to reality and her surroundings.

As YN observes the locked door, an idea springs to her mind, she remembers that the bedroom window is open, which could offer an opportunity for escape… or distraction.

But Kain knows her very well.

"You know I'm faster than you." He immediately stops his train of thought by crossing his arms, the smell of myrtle still present in the room like a toxic and poisonous perfume. Her plan to try to escape through the window is unexpectedly interrupted when the creature intercepts his thoughts, speaking softly as it crushes any and all hope of YN, leaving her with one last and morbid solution.

"Are you really thinking of trying to escape through the window? I think you know that I am faster than you, my love. That would be useless."

"But you are not faster than a bullet." She repeats the phrase she said earlier, Yn's arms tremble painfully from holding on so much, but her gaze is more precise and focused now. Upon hearing her threat, the skinwalker lets out an irritated sigh. This story again?

"Oh, you are really going to threaten me with that thing? I told you I'm invulnerable to firearms," ​​he says, his voice turning cold and calculating. "Unless you want to make a huge mistake, you should put that gun down."

"You may be invulnerable… But I'm not." YN smiles as if she's won and points the gun at her own head.

The skinwalker's grim expression is immediately replaced by a look of shock and concern as you point the gun at yourself.

"Hey, hey! Stop it!" he barks orders, his voice surprisingly alarmed. "What do you think you're doing?!" The creature approaches you, clearly anxious about what you're about to do

"Please, put that rifle down!" he insists, trying to remain calm despite the tense situation, his blue eyes almost popping out of his misshapen head. "You don't want to do this, trust me."

"You're not giving me a choice, my dear, and desperate people do desperate things." YN shakes like a leaf in the wind and her eyes start to water again, but her entire aura shows his unwavering purpose.

He – the thing – can feel it.

"No, please don't think like that," he begs. "What you're doing is a mistake. We just need to talk and come to an agreement, okay? It doesn't have to be this way, my love. Please put that rifle down." The creature feels its own inhuman heart stop and with great pain and discomfort it returns to the humanoid form that YN was used to - the perfect boyfriend, Kain, extending his hand in a gesture of supplication

"Let's think it over, okay? We can talk, negotiate, anything. But please put that gun down. It won't help at all. Let's talk."

Now he's getting to where I want to go… let's negotiate: my freedom

"I know this whole situation is complicated," the boyfriend adds, clearly trying to remain calm. "But it doesn't have to end like this. Let's talk, find a solution, okay? There's no need to despair. Please put that rifle down." Kain grows even more tense as he watches the situation unfold before him. His words come out more insistent now as he desperately tries to think of a way to reverse the situation.

"Oh, honey, don't do this. You don't have to go that far. I can change, I can be less scary." He approaches her, his gaze filled with desperation as he tries to take the gun from her hands, slowly approaching her as the two walk unconsciously to the kitchen.

"Less scary, Kain? It's not about looks, but about your skeletons in the closet. I'm. not. going. to. be. next." She says, stamping her foot on the floor to punctuate her arguments.

Kain continues to look at her with a distressed expression as he tries to think of a way to make her understand. His voice comes out desperate as he tries to convince her on his side.

"Oh, love, I know I have my skeletons in the closet, but you don't have to go that far. I can change, I can be different for you. I won't hurt you, I'm not the monster you think I am."

"What guarantees me that, creature?"

Ouch.

YN asks him, everything she read on the internet was that they were lying and sadistic creatures, how can she see such desperation and genuineness in his blue eyes?

Kain continues to look at her with anguish as he tries to formulate words that can convince her. His hands tremble as he hears her words ‘creature’ so venomously and cruelly, as if the two of them didn’t have a love story together - this one, which YN doesn’t even know half of the obsession.

“Love, I swear, I’m different from the others. I’m not a liar or a sadist. I only came after you because I wanted you, I just wanted to have you for myself.” He pauses briefly and continues to look into her eyes, desperately trying to make her see the truth in his words.

“Please, love, trust me. I won’t hurt you, I just want to have you. I just want to protect you and take care of you. I'm different from the others… You need to believe me."

Liar Liar Liar

In a moment of distraction, the pot with herbs that weaken the creature dries up and all the water evaporates, causing the herbs to start burning, drawing YN's attention. Taking advantage of the moment when the girl's eyes quickly observe the pot, Kain runs and takes the gun from her, throwing it under the table while hugging her and containing her in his strong arms.

"Ah, love, I finally managed to make you stop. You don't know how worried I was about you." His voice sounds soft as he hugs her tighter while taking them both to the floor.

Run away run away run away run away

"Let me go! Let go of me! HELP! SOMEONE! LET ME GO!" He hugs her tighter as he continues to speak in her ear sweetly.

"I know you were desperate, I know you were afraid of me. But you don't have to be afraid, love. I will never hurt you. I'm your boyfriend, I just want to take care of you and protect you."

"Let me go! Let me go!" she struggles in his arms. Kain continues to hug her as she struggles in his arms. His hands grip her tighter as he tries to hold her.

"No, my dear, I won't let you go. You're too desperate, and I won't let you go." He tries to calm her down as he continues to hug her, his voice comes out soft but determined.

YN continues to scream and tears of deep despair come from her eyes, she claws at Kain's arms as she tries to drag herself out of the desperate prison that is the creature's love.

"Shhh, love, you need to calm down. I know you're scared, but it doesn't have to be this way. I'll take care of you, I'll protect you like I've always done until now. You need to trust me."

"Are you going to protect me from what if the one who can kill me here is you? You fucking liar!" she stops screaming momentarily to retort to him, her hoarse throat thanks her.

Kain continues to hug her protectively as she desperately tries to get out of his arms, like a cat would try to get out of its owner's arms. His hands hold her tighter as he tries to explain his situation with sweet words, suffocating her with love and kindness as he holds her hands so that YN doesn't hurt him anymore, the small scratches she made were nothing compared to Kain's broken heart.

"My darling, you don't understand. I don't want to hurt you, I want to protect you from other creatures… and from yourself. You are safe with me. Trust me. Don't you like this world? Stay here and with me."

"Liar! Let me go! Let me go!" YN feels her eyes burning and the body with thorns piercing her soft skin, her air being suffocated with each passing minute painfully, as if he were in everything and every shadow in the kitchen watching her from every angle.

“Nana baby…… Cuca's coming to get you…. ...Đ₳ĐĐɎ ₩Ɇ₦₮ ₮Ø ₮ⱧɆ ₣₳Ɽ₥, ₥Ø₥₥Ɏ ₩Ɇ₦₮ ₮Ø ₩ØⱤ₭……

Eventually, after struggling in the man's arms and crying desperately for hours, Kain sings the strange and hypnotic song to calm YN, and finally finally she reluctantly falls asleep in Kain's arms.

Please Marta, fulfill your promise and pray for me.

Tags: @buniwtch @spookynotkid @aminekun009 @twinklingbeautifulstars @heizouislife @cheesecakeyuri @hewhehe @sumeyyeecrin

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Every like, repost and comment is very welcome and appreciated. ♥

[cheapfinish]

How Spider-Man 'Rescued' Me

Fourteen years ago, Marvel took something away from me, fourteen years later I took it back.

I owed it to that character, I owed it to the fans that character inspired, because while the Spider-Verse movie makes the claim that anyone can be that character, you first have to be shown first that character is worth the journey. For most of those years, he simply wasn't.

He was a devil dealing loser who shirked responsibility to his family and his future, who would ever want to be him?

For ten of those fourteen years, my hero was gone, he wasn't learning vital lessons, he was drifting too much away from what made him special, he pursued and fully realized dreams, sure, but there was always a catch and he didn't prove capable of sustaining them, and there's a good chance he never will, all in the name of 'relatability', of the 'everyman', all half-hearted buzzwords to hold back the sustainment of creativity and imagination, and limitless growth.

The Rescue was conceived as a proof of concept, a love letter to a loose end that was never properly picked up om, not even in the pages of the very universe that followed through on some elements of it. Kaine brought baby May back to his mother, that we know from MC2 comics, but Peter didn't seem to have much involvement in the situation coming about, that struck me as a bit odd, almost unfair that he had no say in a moment that I feel under any other writer/artist, would have been something that truly redefined the comics and character.

So I took it upon myself to give him that moment, even in an unofficial capacity, and have it realized as a webcomic. Not the most original piece, but one that I knew would provide me and the fans with adequate closure, not just the characters.

Is it canon with MC2? It's a fanfic, of course it's not, it's not official, could you count it as being part of MC2? Sure, if you want, my own personal stance is it's entirely it's own thing.

I'd like to thank my artist Xavier Rojo for his bedazzling artwork and time dedicated to the project, I'd like to think all those who have followed this strip's progress on the blog and for the many likes it has received.

Spider-Man, his family, his message, resonates so strongly to me, to many of you too, he was always the one hero I could relate to through all walks of life. As a teenager, he was bullied, as an adult, he's misunderstood, he could be a dick, he could be a sweetheart, he can be sarcastic and quick to wit and temper, he can despair and self doubt.

He taught me that I am a human being, that we are all human beings, that we are all outsiders looking in, wanting to be accepted, wanting to be noticed and for all the world to marvel at our might.

He rescued me.

And I hope, even for just one more day, I got to rescue him.

-Zarius

[transrathma]

tagged by @bg3 for truly the most classic tumblr tag game possible so here i go

i shan't tag anyone directly but if u r my mutual and u want to share consider urself tagged

favorite color: luv shades of gray. theres a specific sort of medium blue-toned gray like the sky turns before it storms that makes me crazy. you know how it is. when i was in high school i told my therapist my favorite color was gray and she made a face like i admitted to a murder

last song: snakeskin by rina sawayama....... listen to the kaine playlist btw

last movie: tbh i cant remember dsjkdsnjksd the last one that comes to mind is near dark (1987) ..... severen my boyfriend severen<33

currently watching: argghhhh man i dont REMEMBER..... i havent watched a lot recently :( me and my roommate are in the middle of crystal methyd's season of drag race and i'm planning a stranger things rewatch but i have to make room in my brain first

currently reading: rereading six crimson cranes by elizabeth lim! i got my hands on its sequel, the dragon's promise, so that's in the works. it makes me so crazy i love it so much. also constantly rereading the inkworld trilogy

current obsession: have you heard about gale my husband gale of waterdeep he's a wizard he's from waterdeep he's very powerful and he has beautiful brown eyes and he's friends with a tressym named tara and he's my most favoritest guy. in all seriousness though as much as i'm critical of it i have to thank bg3 for giving me something new to do with kaine, who is my oldest oc and my very dear friend. they're a major catalyst of the everything in my home dnd game, and having another lens to examine them through has been very helpful in writing them for our campaign. i could talk about them at length but i'll spare you (for now)

sweet, savory, or spicy?: my instinct says spicyyyy but tbh it varies. shoutout gochujang tho i put that shit in everything

currently working on: i constantly have about three to six canvasses rotating in clip studio that are always my ocs - usually sketch pages, but sometimes big stuff. rn i have a page for etienne, one for the warhawk, one for kaine, a larger kaine piece that i may or may not render later, and one surprise tool thatll help us later (it's kainegale, to no one's surprise). i'm ALSO finally finally working on the continuations of kainefic. first up is a collection of drabbles/oneshots/whatever you wanna call them to tie the larger parts of the main story together, and then i'm gonna work on a bit of a multichapter epilogue piece :) they have two separate weddings and kaine gets to go back to their home country (which has been conveniently missing its sovereign heir for quite some time)

ty for tagging me fray i love to talk about myself

oh also

[thelittlestspider]

random headcanons for peter, ash, wade, and other characters. (some sfw, some nsfw, so just keep that in mind. most of them are for this fic specifically, but some are more general? idk. some were inspired by other people.)

- peter and felicia's eyes glow in the dark.

- felicia has silver tipped fangs.

- after peter got bit by the spider, his regular teeth fell out, and stronger teeth grew in, along with fangs where his canines would be. the fangs produce a numbing venom that, if injected with enough, could paralyze and/or cause someone's body to shut down and kill them.

he also has spinnerets, but the only time he really uses them is when he's like nesting or courting lol.

- in total peter has been divorced 4 times: 2 with mj, 1 with felicia, and 1 with bobbi.

- peter can talk to spiders, and felicia can talk to cats. i'm sorry, i just think it would be funny.

- the way mj/felicia ended up together is peter/mj/felicia were hooking up during both marriages, and during peter and mj's second divorce, mj and felicia realized they were in love with each other and got engaged lol. peter was petty about it.

mj and felicia gossip about peter behind his back, and try to set him up with people. peter hates it lol.

- mj and felicia bought each other engagement rings and came up with their own separate proposals.

- people recognize peter from the parker industries era and give him shit about being poor.

- clint is still salty about peter marrying bobbi lol.

- the way i imagine peter and bobbi got married was they got black out wasted in vegas, woke up married, and were too lazy to divorce right away. they were too busy hooking up and traveling.

- peter's hooked up with most of his friends (mj, harry, felicia, matt, wade, johnny, clint, natalia, bobbi, luke and jessica). so at the beginning of the story, he feels like he's alienated half his friends, but in reality, peter isolated himself. he's an unreliable narrator!

- peter had some kind of falling out with matt while they were hooking up between divorces. he tries to make amends with matt before matt moves to california with kirsten, but matt forgets to call him lol. later matt comes back to visit and they actually talk to each other.

- ben and kaine are nosy brothers who like to know peter's business at all times lol.

- one of the things that attracted wade to peter is the way peter can eat insane amounts of food.

wade: it's like watching a snake unhinge its jaw. beautiful and disgusting at the same time.

- wade throws a divorce party for him and peter after shiklah and mj divorce them.

- my favorite ash headcanon of all time is that his mom was an addams, and that's why he's so tough/durable compared to regular people. but his mom was estranged from the family, so he has no idea why he's different.

- during like a year or so after the cabin, ash sells his story to be made into a documentary, and later, it gets made into the ev*l dead films. (this also happens in soul alone as well)

i just think it's interesting from, i guess, a meta standpoint for a character to deal with the public mythologizing/sensationalizing/consuming their story for entertainment (ex: the stab movies in scream).

- this headcanon is kind of dumb, but i'm gonna put it here anyway. the headcanon is that evil ash is the one that wrote the necronomicon, and he wants ash to rule by his side when he takes over the world. but the book, having known about ash since its creation, has grown attached to ash over time, and doesn't want evil ash to corrupt ash.

- both ash and scotty are originally from new york. (in this fic, ash moves to michigan when he's a kid. scotty never moves to michigan.)

- ash was a cheerleader in high school. (in the greater multiverse, most of the ashes were in band).

- clint and natalia were thieves before being arrested and drafted into shield's suicide squad. the only reason they got free was because of the avengers.

- after clint and natalia flipped shield the bird, natalia started doing mercenary work, and kept running into wade. the two had met before because of weapon x and shield, but they didn't really become friends until natalia semi-retired. sometimes wade hooks up with clint and natalia.

- logan, bucky, natalia, and wade have all met in passing because of weapon x.

- peter and natalia had a weird rivalry where she would just randomly challenge peter to fights, and peter would show up to stop her thefts.

clint: do you have a crush on spiderman?

natalia: i don't want to crush him, i just want him to know how strong and cool i am.

clint:...

natalia: and maybe kiss him too. i can do both.

- the iconic black widow look was created by natalia after she heard about spiderman. she designed her weapons, suit, and everything. (in natasha's original appearance, there wasn't a black widow look. like the other black widows did not dress like this lol. i like to think the red room saw natasha doing her thing and were like "oh damn..." and just tried to copy off her. then later that's how we got yelena.)

- natalia's version of the serum isn't as strong as bucky and steve's, but she does have enhanced speed, strength, stamina, and slow aging. in this verse she and bucky were both cryogenically frozen when they weren't on missions after they tried to run away together. so later when they send natalia after tony, she's 20 (peter and clint are like 18 and 19. bucky's like 20 something).

- peter and natalia do yoga together whenever they have a day off.

- peter kind of wants natalia to give him the strap, but he has things he needs to work out first.

- peter has a thing for wade being bigger than him. he likes that wade's big enough to envelope him. and his muscles.

- peter kept biting ash and numbing him. ash got so fed up that he put his metal fingers in his mouth like, "chew on this." 😠 and peter found a new kink he didn't know he had.

- peter has issues with people buying him things. this is a huge point of contention between him and wade, because wade loves buying stuff for his partners. ash isn't as strict about it as peter because he knows wade's doing it out of love (ash was a sugar baby at one point. he lets wade get him stuff, but he has rules for how much wade can spend and how many presents he can get him per month. and wade has to let him buy him things too).

so if peter won't let wade buy him something he wants because of pride, ash has wade slip him the money when peter's not looking, and he runs to go buy it. sometimes peter catches him, and ash runs through the store cackling because peter can't stop him without using his abilities.

peter: *stomping angrily through the mall* i hate you both.

ash: aw baby. it's not a crime for us to buy you something for your birthday!

wade: partners in gift crimes. *he high fives ash* this is gonna be the best super soft birthday ever!

ash: better than your divorce party?

wade: of course, sweetness. you won't be working this time. hopefully, peter won't be throwing up. though i can't promise no one will be throwing up because i plan to have copious amounts of alcohol. do you think we can smuggle a horse into our house?

ash: we can rent one for the back yard, but it's not allowed in the house.

wade: deal.

[spider-mar2004]

🕸❤𝕎𝕖𝕓𝕓𝕖𝕕 𝕊𝕔𝕒𝕣𝕤💙🕸

Not wished home

Pairing: Kaine Parker x Marlette Saravia [OC x Canon]

Characters: Kaine Parker, Marlette Saravia, Ben Reilly & Miguel O'hara

Summary: Is time to now take a look of Marlette's home, seemed like a heaven for others, but is actually, a hell for her.

Warnings: Swearing, Spanish Dialogues, Some Romance, Kissing,Slight Angst, Discussion, Mystery tension later, Suspicion from Miguel's part.

As the next clear day happened, Marlette groaned in a tired way, she slowly opened her icy blue eyes just like the light sky, while then she felt an arm hugging her waist and a slow peaceful breathing from Kaine. Two skins in contact, making a natural warm sensation, it felt good, actually she would love stay longer but no, could be also risky.

Slow movements from her started, trying to get up from the cozy bed but Kaine held her closer, letting go a low groan from his lips. She rolled her eyes and carefully took his arm off from her, but the man refused and half opened his brown eyes.

"Urgh c'mon just more minutes..."

"Kaine, seriously i need to go."

"Give Miguel Shito'hara another fucking excuse..."

He snorted, while Marlette slowly shook her head, but, he wanted be with her, he never felt a strong sentiment for her. Seems like the black cat energy person became clingy just like possibly a dog, for a part she would love stay longer but... Just, these simple and cute actions could take some... Consequences.

"I already did many times to come here, just at least let me dress myself."

Finally she moved from his strong arms and she started to dress up after that spicy night they had.

While Kaine watched her dress up, his eyes were locked on her beautiful scarred back, which was his favorite part of her body. Geez, those few bite marks and hickeys made him raise an eyebrow.

"I can assume that you tasted like a great beef, possibly."

He smirked slightly, Marlette as finished, she would make her holografic suit appear, then she crossed her arms as turned to see him.

"Welp, if you say, you tasted like a crispy chicken."

"Let me guess, by my skin."

"Obvio." [Obvious]

Kaine slowly got up and would dress up, putting his suit on. Marlette looked at him doing that and titled her head slowly.

"Gotta do a mission?"

"Most likely yeah..."

He sighed, sometimes a bit tired of that same job as always.

"That's okay, i have to go back to my universe. I need check some things there and that's it, if possible, could be nice if you could come but... Y'know."

She frowned slightly, her eyes staring down at the floor for few seconds. Kaine understood that, but he would totally love go with her.

"I don't see a problem there but, if you say, there's the reason why."

He looked at her directly at the shiny eyes, Marlette raised up her shoulders. Enough talking, someday soon the risk could come but before that, she walked to Kaine and would give a kiss of peak, which he responded that.

"So... Are we officially a thing...?"

"Being honest to you... Most likely confirmed, but we must keep this as secret. I don't and i won't believe about the "forbidden love" stupid fairytale shit."

She affirmed, with a pair of nods. Kaine understood and also nodded aswell, then he would gently nuzzle her neck, while Marlette inhaled softly his long brown hair and nuzzle his head. Both closed their eyes, expressing their each other's soft side.

Seemed like that hating relation like fron a cat and dog, it turned into now a couple of swans. She never expected something like this happen, either Kaine, they both just guessed they would dislike or maybe start a distant relation but no, the multiverse seemed like making themselves for each other. With more "last" nuzzles, Marlette would unite her forehead against Kaine's gently.

"Well you are already doing it, but, whatever you believe, just... Please take care, Big Beauty."

"Same to you, Pelito." [Lil hair]

Then they would give another quick small peak kiss, It was great how they became more expressesive with their feelings than just grumpy and rage, but of course, all keep it inside of a cage of secrets, both having the key of it.

After the small and short sweet gestures, Marlette would open a portal, look at her first and new partner with a small warm smile, which Kaine smiled softly too and gave a small wave. She gave a goodbye nod and then finally left.

Kaine Parker... His heart struggling by the past slowly turned him darker, to now, his heart fixing and having the feelings even sparker.

As the woman left, Kaine would frown of a slight sadness face. He never felt this to someone, either with Annabelle. He wanted keep the spark alive but, calm down, this relationship hopefully won't be messy. But, all inside in the "Pandora" box, so then, putting his mask on, he also left swinging off with his webbing.

Earth-928, Spider-Society.

In the control center area where Miguel O'hara used to work, there was small spider robots trying to fix the damage caused by Kaine before. This was so stressing for him because the technology was so avanced, which fortunately could get the resources for fix it, but may take time on that. Miguel was observing how the small metalic "creatures" were trying their best fix the controls but due the short patience this man had, he just would start walking two sides while looking down and mumbling.

"He would pay this, if he knew how time this took-"

"Miguel Miguel... Drop it already, just don't allowhim come back here and done!"

The holografic small lady Lyla said as she just popped, she was checking her own nails.

"I see him again and i swear i-"

"Damn it just stop, try relax yourself, take a coffee or something, after all Kaine Parker is not a biiig thing to deal, either is an anomaly so we are good here."

She explained, she was somehow right, Miguel shouldn't spend his energies and rage on just another Spider-Man, after all he's from the future, so why just complain about that?

Anyways, he sighed, slowly accepting about what Lyla explained, but, his dislike with Kaine wouldn't leave like that easy. Since now is harder track anomalies or other members, he decided to call Ben Reilly, who accepted the call as he was also swinging around the city.

"Uh hey da- Miguel. Tell me, need something?"

"Any tracks of her?"

"No boss, right now i am at my universe which i don't see anything from other worlds and less her..."

"Is she playing with me hide and seek or what?"

Annoyed Miguel asked, lately he was getting not so happy how Marlette somehow "hides" from him or her job. Ben honestly shook his head, he clearly didn't know but he would still try his best for keep looking.

Ben was now in Earth-616, his home basically. Not fully sure why he would search there but since he traveled some other universes, maybe his own she could be there.

"I don't know... Might she could be here or if not her universe but! I'll try bring her soon as possible!"

"Hopefully, cause lately my patience is going to explode. Just, find her, ahora." [Now]

Then he cut the call, Ben blinked a pair of times under his mask, he felt something's wrong will happen but, he would still doing his job. When he kept swinging and doing some tricks in the middle of the air he felt a small spider-sense feeling, but the time was too short that even accidentally he crashes agaisnt of Kaine, both spider clone siblings fell down by the collapse but fortunately they landed safely in a lonely space for themselves.

"Urgh Ben?"

"Kaine? What are you-"

"Oh finally, amen, you are here."

They slowly got up, Kaine looked at the wirst device which his eyebrows under the dark mask frowned in slight annoyance.

"Whatever, is that dude finally let you catch a breath here or?"

"U-uhm... Not really, more like... I want to ask you if have you seen Marlette? Y'know the buff lad-"

"Dude, i don't have alzhaimer. And no, i didn't seen her."

His tone became firmly and lied, Ben slowly took off his mask, aswell Kaine, both brown eyes staring at each other.

"I might won't keep saying the same thing over and over again. But this is useless Benjamin Parker, we are clearly different than the others spiders from the multiverse, YOU know we don't belong a same timeline order, either me, either you, either him..."

As he meant the first person pronoun, he would press his finger against Ben's chest for give a small push.

"I... Kaine i know what you mean but what i can do-"

"Ah shit... here we go again... Listen, i am not really forcing you leave but i seriously warn you. Why follow the rules of a spider-man that has totally different story than almost ALL others? Then most likely we are anomalies then, our origins are clearly different Ben, and thanks by the asshole of Jackal."

"You're right some point but..."

Ben sighed and lowered his head.

"I wanted help because since we have different origins... We might be died. So maybe just giving Miguel a help may make him-"

"That's ridiculous, we have anomalies everywhere and might we can be too. Then we all die, again and again and again. I am too fucking tired to die. Then Miguel would be killed himself too."

The harsh words from the scarred clone made the blonde clone wide his eyes.

"We were doing the wrong job, that's a later reason why i decided be away of that. Is plus, i would be happy of how he kicked me from there. So, why work on such of a selfish man? Are we doing something wrong?"

"No..."

"Is that REALLY necessary save every infinite universe?"

"Yeah...-?"

"No. We can't do that. We're not gods. And Miguel seems like he thinks himself as a universal savior, who's actually a fucking bastard. Only he thinks of himself and do a make-up like he is a great hero, and i tell you. You're not an expert about saving multiverses because i know you even more than that Tequila-ass. You are a clone Ben, WE, Are clones. We're NOT Original Spider-Men."

Ben as he was listening deeper, he looked at the wrist device, now he was even more lost, what he should do? Follow his brother's words, or follow Miguel's commands.

"I... I am afraid now Kaine... I am not sure of this now..."

"Afraid of stop being his side? I would be glad. He doesn't have the rights to kill you, but he can, but if he does, everyone will go against him. And i would love see his scared face when that shit happens."

This conversation was complicated. Ben felt a wave of insecurity about this, he won't die again, he won't then have an endless journey without a break, afraid of even now the possibility things could happen as Kaine mentioned about their origins.

"Since we are anomalies like you say... Why then Miguel didn't kill us already?"

"Because he is one aswell! Open your eyes! You are being a dumbass blind!"

"WHAT IF MAYBE HE CAN ALSO HELP GOOD ANOMALIES THEN-"

By the exclaimed words from Ben, Kaine didn't hold anymore and give a hard slap on his cheek. Which the blond clone whined and complained of pain for few seconds and stepped back, leaving a small slight reddish mark, causing Ben start to shiver in fear.

"I'll don't tell you it anymore. I am enough now."

Then, he walked off, not giving words anymore. While Reilly slowly stood up and saw him leave with his own hand on his cheek. But, guess sometimes a slap could fix things sometimes. He started to think and analizing all what his older brother said.

And remembering how he also mentioned that seemed to be being used like some sort of tool. Is obviously that nobody can save the multiverse, the multiverse can save itself actually. But seemed like the loyalty from Ben's part was pretty strong but... This could be really dangerous, the reason of why Kaine was been warning this is for his good, and Marlette's aswell.

Ben Reilly is made for save people and be the hero of his own universe. Which this is a coincidence.

What about Jessica Dew? Her origins, or well better said her powers appeared differently aswell! Which was when her mother was pregnant of her being struck eith a beam of radiation with DNA of different arachnids...

This now made sense, but at the same time, too messy.

His eyes widened as he just now understood all better, but he just stared his brother fully leave now, not moving, just his mind working.

Earth-809070, 9:00 PM.

Marlette was in the futuristic city, walking on the top of some buildings which as she finishes to walk, she would jump and land on the next. Rarely the place was being peaceful, not crimes happening a lot lately. And she was thinkimg about the first and new relationship she has with Kaine, for a side she was like, a mix between proud and calm that she had someone who was like her or at least understand her. But, he won't totally spend her time on just cuddles and kisses, each one had important stuff to do. Her masked face glanced on the city and the starry night sky.

Something that worried her, was how the things will work? A multiuniversal relationship would be harder than a distant relationship. Not mostly of Miguel if he finds out, is just what if her and Kaine can't now visit each other anymore? He was the first person she felt and took comfort, not caring by the dislike from the start. Like, how they can live together, how their life could be by this...

But well, just let the time figure it out after all.

All she was just tired, she slowly started to think about stop listen Miguel, but, she would just by the interest of have contact with the universes, more specially on Kaine's universe. Hopefully, a piece of peace could help her...

She took a deep sigh, the eight eye lenses from her mask looked at a piece of ripped paper fly by the breeze, which with her webbing, she took it for take a look.

The ripped paper just had few words. "Wanted" as a big text with bioluminiscent green letters, and "Find her" with orange glowing letters with small stains of blood.

Her hand would tightly smash the paper and since it was connected with her web, she burnt it with her bio-electricity. While her expression changed to a very annoyed one, her shoulder spikes raised up due the upset sentiment.

But, tomorrow will be another day.

Earth-616, 8:20 AM.

The next day later, Kaine had an stressful night, which even also didn't let Aracely sleep due worries and stress in general. He was there, searching something to breakfast but since he was such a simple guy at the gastronomy, he would just pick a cereal, he took the jar of milk and a cereal box.

As he was close to finish preparing it, a portal appeared, Kaine made an annoyed face due guessing it was Ben so he turned to see but as he saw it was actually Marlette, his face softened.

"Oh hey Marlette."

"Hey."

At the start of their love, they are not being used for call petnames or lovenames, their process is a bit different since is their first time into it. Marlette vanished her suit, just staying a black crop top and dark gray legging pants, with also black simple shoes.

She always had the habit of dress dark clothes but that's fair. While Kaine just had a gray shirt and red sweatpants with circle patterns on each side.

"Are you going to eat cereal?"

"Uhhh, yes? You want some?"

"Tsk, eso no es comida. Let me prepare you something." [That's not food]

She stood up and went to the kitchen, checking what to prepare.

"Seems like there's no much things here..."

"Oh c'mon please no need-"

"You accepted me, now deal that. Now permission for cook something."

She took four eggs, then took a pan, she looked around and went check the vegetables.

"Is there red pepper?"

"Uhhh-"

"Oh yes, here's one."

She took a red pepper, then she would cut it into small pieces with a knife she took. As she finished, she also took an onion and a piece of garlic , normally the food inventory was mostly made by Aracely because Kaine is not too open of many foods. Cutting the onion and the garlic, she would put the red pepper, the onion and the garlic together and it after she broke the eggs, scrambling them with now the mixed ingredients.

"What are you doing?"

Kaine curiously went behind her and looked what she was cooking, leaning his head on her shoulder.

"Perico, is basically scrambled eggs with onion, garlic and red pepper. And optional a piece of bread."

She explained, then as she felt his head there, she smiled slightly and kissed his cheek softly. Geez this wild woman became now docile.

"I assume is mexican food."

"Defenitively you need difference hispanic things than just Mexico."

Kaine shrugged, when all is ready she would put the food in two plates.

"Is there bread?"

"Let me search."

He would open a cabinet, he only found just one bread.

"Just one, is that-"

"Fair."

She grabbed the bread when he gave it, then she broke it in half and put the eggs with the bread aside. Putting the new breakfast on the table.

"Now this is a breakfast."

Marlette smirked a bit and then she sat down on a chair, waiting for her partner start to eat first. Kaine at the start was confused about the food, he sniffed it but it didn't smell bad, then he pulled out two spoons, giving one to her and preparing glasses of water.

"I can use this for make a sort of sandwich?"

He asked, Marlette nodded as she added her egg to the bread after open it with her hands, Kaine saw it and he did the same. When it was time for taste it, he widened a little his eyes, he liked it! He never ate something like this so he began to eat a little faster. She softly giggled as she knew the reaction.

"Glad you like it."

Softly she said, then she began to eat. After a pair of minutes, Kaine thought on something so he would ask something kinda "risky".

"This is a quick question and is... You never really told me about your universe, i assume is futuristic but is that different?"

". . . Well yeah, pretty much futuristic but not too the same as Miguel's, is like... More morden style if you know what i mean, not too futuristic weird like those floating cars and such exactly."

She explained and kept eating.

"Hmm... Maybe could be an idea if you take me there."

He joked smirking, Marlette coughed a pair of times so she quickly drank some water.

"Ugh... Are you serious? I don't think if can be a good idea..."

"Why so? I mean if is by him we can just avoid him just me hidding, my suit can camuflage."

"Since when your suit is avanced? And how did you make it?"

"Not too avanced like yours but, is kinda avanced and no, i stole it, that's all."

He kept eating, enjoying the early meal.

"But... If you won't that's okay then. After all if you are not fine with it, maybe is there danger right?

"Not really... Is just i am not very into that place, that's why i spent my time more into the society."

"Fair enough, don't worry."

Nodding, he understood, he wouldn't like force her something's not agreed with her so they would just forgot the little theme for a bit.

After the break fast, Kaine got up and stretched his arms.

"You have something in plan?"

"Not for now, we can take a small break together."

"Sounds great, wanna watch the TV?"

He invited, Marlette nodded, so they both went to the small living room, sitting down on the sofa and turn on the TV.

After minutes later, Marlette slowly laid down her head on Kaine's lap, softly sighing, he looked down at her, blushing a little but he wouldn't mind. He started to caress her head and soft hair, while she closed her eyes relaxed, while thinking about take him to her universe.

Well, she went often this world, why not take him to hers? It should give a balance. So after few minutes she broke the silence.

"Thinking better... Might better we can catch an eye there, so i can take you."

She suddenly suggested, Kaine was slightly confused about that.

"Are you really sure? You earlier said no."

He raised an eyebrow, unsure.

"I mean, catch an eye would be quick, so literally wouldn't end bad. Plus you will obviously survive by the glitches."

She slowly stood up, Kaine respected her decision but would of course he would be alert in case. Activating her suit and mask, she would type the code for get access of her universe, opening a portal.

"Hey i am not done calm down!"

Kaine exclaimed, he fast as he could went to put his black with red suit on and mask, he came back.

"Then hurry up."

"You should wait at least a bit..."

He sighed as she just entered, and then he followed.

But, without expecting, Ben Reilly landed on the window and saw the portal, he widened his eyes as he knew the place where Kaine was staying lately and the portal. He knew something happened there, so very quickly he entered from the other window which was opened and stared at the "entry of the other world". He was about to call Miguel but...

Ben, do not screw up. He thought, now really unsure after the words were from his sibling.

Back again to Earth-809070. They arrived seconds after, she landed first and then Kaine on the roof from a futuristic modern square house.

The masked clone looked at the place, looking around, but he wasn't too surprised but. It looked pretty nice.

"Well well... Being honest this looks better than Miguel's universe... Pretty simplier model. I guess like it."

He agreed, nodding and walking around from the roof. Marlette rolled her eyes under the mask.

"For rookies may can be pretty but... Not sure."

"Why's that?"

"Well... Is most likely due my life experiences here."

Then she would walking in backwards, running foward and then swing off with her webs.

"Damn it wait! Shit, you don't know the concept of patience!?"

He exclaimed, doing the same actions for follow her.

"Is just i don't like talk there."

She coldly mentioned, then she landed on a not really tall building, and it was hidden between taller structures, there was many lights due again another night time.

Is ironic, In Earth-616 is day and in Earth809070 is night, kind of like America and Europe timezone difference.

Kaine snorted as he finished follow her, and sat beside her as she did too.

"Was it really necessary move to somewhere also boring?"

"Not that."

With her clawed finger, she pointed at something floating. It was a big "spaceship" styled basement, which in the house roof they landed it was very closer. Kaine tlited his head.

"Is that...?"

"Mhm... That's the military basement i used to work named as Hyperion Defense Corporation, i was been there for years, and after all... I won't really them see me."

She sighed and lowered her head for look down, Kaine listened, staying silent.

"You'll see. They had an excellent quality of security system, all good, i am grateful that they saved me from the explosion accident happened. But at the same time... Literally a huge pain, i know, i am veteran but, I was never happy after being rescued after. I should be really grateful for saving my life, but would be a shame that turned into eternal years of having almost zero rights."

She explained quietly, her face frowning in lightly sadness.

"Sometimes, I wish really travel to the past, and warn the younger me about... This..."

The spikes from her shoulders lowered a lot, Kaine listening that, he also frowned in worry.

"But, if you would do that. You won't know what's the "edited" future will happen then, that's why it happened. And is not your fault Marlette."

He slowly leaned his head on her shoulder.

"I hate say this, I am afraid Kaine. Who knows if i stay in my universe, i'll recieve more pain?"

"Wouldn't really happen, i had an era where it was a long hell for me too. But... I feel alive now. Well, uh, kinda? Or, Mostly, you know what i mean. Right now i am not recieving more pain, apart from of course physical pain by my duty obviously but, as my life? Nah. I even also died before, so i know this-"

He glitched and he complained of slight pain. Marlette flinched a bit, but she held him with a hug.

"Fuck... I am alright don't worry..."

"Wait, What do you mean did you die?"

Confused but also a little worried, slowly took his hand, Kaine held her hand back with a sigh.

"Just clone things, not too mega interesting. But yeah, is not fun, i am not going to say how it feels, how it seem. But is not too fun after all, unless if you are like a phoenix bird thing, die, to reborn."

". . . You need to be careful with that..."

She took off his mask, for caress his pretty long hair, which her holografic mask faded away. The upset expression displayed from her face, Kaine shook his head slowly while she would fix his hair a bit.

"I am fine, this is nothing if i am being honest."

"If you like we can leave right now."

She suggested, But Kaine denied.

"I am not either going to have multiple glitches and die right now, is it's okay."

He reassured her, putting his hand which was holding her hand on now her thigh. Marlette calmed down and blushed slightly when he put his hand there.

"Why not if... We can just forget all of this, forget all the miseries we have passed."

"Yeah, you're totally right. Let's forget this already so, ven para acá." [Come here.]

Their bodies moved closer as they leaned themselves for form a kiss between their lips. All those bad memories should be fading away, and just enjoy this mini moment. Kaine separated from the kiss, he tapped his own lap as an invite for be more comofortable, so Marlette accepted and sat down on his lap.

"If is this a trap, i'll kill you."

"Do i have hormones like a teen?"

"Huh, who believes."

She rolled her eyes, while Kaine held her waist, doing a small smirk.

"I knew you are like kind of heavy-"

"Like every woman says... "Are you calling me fat?" Is obviously my muscles, dude."

She playfully bit his lower lip with a tiny low giggle, while Kaine blushed lightly so she stopped.

"Noooo you are in very underweight."

He joking sarcastic giggled aswell, Marlette snorted.

"Pfft, Yeah totally i agree with you, Osito."

"What does that mean?"

"Little bear, just look at you, long hair, bit of beard there and well."

She raised up an eyebrow, Kaine knew what she meant so he blushed more.

"You got me like a list of names, i should give you more then."

"Ah yeah? Like what? Big Beauty is one already."

"How about also Mami?"

He teased her, her cheeks turned reddish pink as she looked at him.

"Ay baboso!" [Dumb]

She gave a very soft and gentle slap, Kaine laughed a bit.

God damn it that laugh just... So blessing. Marlette never heard him laugh, so she looked away with a stronger blush.

"I know you like it, just you won't admit it."

Kaine took her face for make her see him, staring at each other eyes.

"Mhhhmmm... I see you are being docile, the fierce side left you now. Now c'mere Mamma."

He hugged her, he laid down facing after he kissed her lips again, doing soft smooch noises, relaxed closed eyes, hands caressing each other's body, just enjoy their paradise.

Meanwhile Ben decided to enter, he traveled to the universe, landing on the same roof house spot. His eyes surprised as he saw the world futuristic modern style.

"Oh my... This is like Miguel's world but simpler...-"

The wrist device sounded, Ben quickly accepted the call, the small yellowish holografic of Miguel O'hara appeared.

"Found her yet?"

". . . N-No, please give me few minutes."

"Just do it already!-"

Ben hung the call not letting the phrase complete, not wanting listen him for now anymore. Then he jumped and went swinging off, he looked up at the floating basement, very curious but he shouldn't lose time on that. So he kept searching, until his spider-sense activated and saw two laid down figures, being sneaky he landed on a building which was near, crawling on it while being very careful. From the distance which wasn't too far and either short, he managed to recognize the pair of persons.

His eyes widened a lot as he figured out it wad his brother Kaine and Marlette kissing. Oh lord, he just felt like froze. Ben can't believe about this, but he understood why Kaine was also being protective with her, without think twice he just would break the moment, he can't hold more questions without answers anymore.

When he suddenly appeared and landed, Marlette and Kaine heard him at the same time, Kaine pushed her up away and he got up, face flusttered but angry at the same time.

"Ben!? What the fuck are you doing here!"

"Well more like WHAT are you doing!"

Marlette looking at the siblings, she hid her blushed face with her mask turning on.

"Obviously Nothing you Hay Head! Just seeing this universe!"

"You know Miguel will kill you right!?"

"Oh hoh, no. I destroyed his controls by my stings, so he can't track me easily now."

"Controls or not, still! Just let's go! You shouldn't be here!"

And the brothers discussing now, Marlette inhaled, her suit glowed brighter by the stress which rarely happens.

"ENOUGH NOW."

She snapped as she also shot two webbing at their mouths for keep silent, both looked at her.

". . . Kaine, i charge of this."

She seriously said, while Kaine stepped back. She cut the webbing with her clawed finger and stared at Ben with her deadly eyes.

"Listen here... First all, Kaine and me we have a thing now. But if you fucking dare and have the enough testicles to tell this anyone and Miguel, you're dead. And in a brutal way. I am sure you would enjoy be the meal of her, right?"

"Her...? Who is her?"

"The multiverse will show you someday. Trust me, is not something cute if you thought that."

"Wait h-hold on. Since when you and Kaine started this?"

"Nothing of your business."

Kaine became confused by hearing that pronoun, but, he focused on Ben. So he would cut the webbing from his mouth with his clawed finger from his suit.

"And what do you want..."

"I... I wanted to apologize, you was all totally right about it but... This hard."

Marlette became now the confused one, until she saw something that caught her attention.

A blood stain along with clawing marks on a wall from the distance, she looked away upset, not wanting even think about that.

"U-uh, look i guess i have no time for explain this detailed-"

"Come on."

Kaine took Ben, walking away leaving a distance, man to man, brother to brothet, clone to clone.

"So, did you finally open your eyes."

He crossed his arms, giving a serious look. Ben nodded slowly.

"I did Kaine but... Is just difficult, Miguel is not an easy person for this and- I am sorry okay? I try my best be a great person-"

"Benjamin Reilly, just follow someone's steps doesn't make you great person. Look, i may forgive you. But do not introduce Miguel into this."

"I promise Kaine... Actually i'll just, be distant with him and if is that's possible, just keep my job as Scarlet Spider-Man there."

Ben took off his mask and looked at Kaine with those puppy-like eyed. Kaine's eyes softened.

". . . Fine then. You idiot, that's who i trully missed. The casual dumbass Ben, not the Shit'ohara's slave."

He hugged his blonde sibling, a gesture he never felt, by that warm hug, he felt his heart spread a warm sensation, his eyes softened, hugging back he closed his eyes.

He missed that kind of love. He accepts that his taller brother was grumpy but, brothers are brothers.

Meanwhile Marlette kept staring at that bloody trail. Like a mark from a monster she was struggling mentally.

In her mind she would imagine now an armoured robotic white hand, stained of dark blood, with a hand holding a an eyeless bloody corpse.

But, it quickly cut as her device sounded, she accepted the call and saw it was Miguel.

"Miguel..."

"Marlette, to my office, right now."

Uh oh, that voice tone wasn't so happy, something's wrong now by kinda obviously reason.

After hours later, Marlette arrived to Miguel's office finally being in the Spider Society. Miguel was staying still, with his big board back and hands forming fists. Marlette vanished her mask, seriously looking at the boss.

"What's the reason of leaving us."

Coldly he asked, not even turni g to see her.

"We clearly know about this, i don't have the same nature like Peter or Ben or whatever the fuck you think."

"I clearly needed you a ton of times. I clearly also called you a ton of times. And what you did? Think that are you playing with me?"

He slowly turned, eyes being red like the bright bloody moon.

"I wanted just rest mentally Miguel. Oh wait let me guess, i don't have even rights for that as i see."

"Rest is a thing, and disappear is another. If you give me the simple answer where you been, you can just go."

Marlette listened, she didn't feel either hot and either cold.

"Exploring universes and taking study about them."

Miguel wasn't conviced of that answer. Since when Marlette "studies" about other worlds?

"Which exactly ones."

"Amazing, you look at me like i am a computer. Is just some other universes from some few of the millions of spiders. That's it."

"Then give me your device and check the historial of universes you was been visiting."

Okay, that made her heart skip a beat.

"Wait no, i have an emergency right now. I'll show you later."

She quickly ran off, using her device for go back to her universe. While Miguel, looked at her leaving, felt something on her was going on, and he didn't like it...

She might hide somwthing from him.

And he, is going to search the truth of this.

LONG CHAPTER OK OK IK I AM SORRY! But it worth it!! Also for doesn't know what a Perico is, is a classic Venezuelan breakfast, here pic

Ironic i dont like that due the veggies but oh well-

Enjoy!

[kudosmyhero]

The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 3) #10: Spider-Verse, part 2: Superior Force

Read Date: May 22, 2023 Cover Date: January 2015 ● Writer: Dan Slott ● Penciler: Olivier Coipel ● Inker: Wade von Grawbadger ● Colorist: Justin Ponsor ● Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos ● Editor: Nick Lowe ◦ Ellie Pyle ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● teams of Spider-folk gathering to take on their hunters ● Superior Spider-Man’s dark/mirrored lenses are pretty cool. I’ll start digging into Superior Spider-Man soon ● let’s see if they can defeat this dude ● finally, a hit he felt!

● I do love the Inheritors’ sense of fashion ● so the Inheritors can clone themselves ● 👏👏👏👏

Synopsis: As Miles Morales and Ultimate Jessica Drew struggle to hold off Verna's Hounds, she laments that the hunt is over before it began. Superior Spider-Man, Assassin Spider-Man, and Spider-Punk emerge from a portal and immediately kill the Hounds. When Miles tells the confused Jessica that the Superior Spider-Man is the one he met a while back, Spider-Punk snaps at them to shut up and change into their costumes. While Verna mourns the deaths of her pets, Miles looks at the shattered gravestone of his mother and says she made things personal between them, with Verna furiously responding that she will feast on his bones.

On Earth-13, Peter Parker (Earth-616) asks why he's so special, and is informed that it's because he's the only one who's faced an Inheritor and won. Spider-UK gets a reading on the second team and Old Man Spider proposes they go recruit them. While Old Man Spider explains to Spider-Woman (Earth-616) that they found a second army of Spider-Totems, Cindy Moon muses over whether she feels the same intimate attraction to any of the other Spiders since so many of them are alternate versions of Peter, but the only other one she is attracted to is Kaine.

Old Man Spider says they need to act quickly to recruit the other team before the Inheritors find them, claiming that three teams will be enough to recruit them, and Peter insists Spider-Gwen stay behind. When she indignantly protests, Ben Reilly begins to tell her how the Gwen Stacy of Earth-616 died but says it will have to wait until later. Old Man Spider gives Peter (Earth-616) one of their devices to travel the Great Web and tells him to pick a team. He choses Miguel, Spider-Woman, and Silk but Old Man Spider insists that Silk remain behind as well, though he refuses to say why. Insulted, Silk waits until they've gone through the portal and then follows.

In the year 2099 A.D., Spider-Man Noir notices a portal opening and rebukes Assassin Spider-Man's suggestion of shooting anything that comes through. Spider-Woman (Earth-807128) calls for their boss and Peter is horrified to see the Superior Spider-Man. Spider-Woman (Earth-616) and Kaine immediately recognize Octavius as well, and Peter explains that he had been time-displaced while fighting Miguel O'Hara, who is delighted to be back in his home dimension. Old Man Spider is perplexed by Octavius's dimension of origin being Earth-616, and outraged that Silk disobeyed orders to remain behind.

When Spider-UK says they need to return to Earth-13, Octavius angrily snaps at him to shut up and that they'd interrupted months of research on a device that dampens their readings to an extent, as Kaine's and Silk's are off the charts. Old Man Spider starts to explain that Kaine and Cindy are the receptacles of powerful totemic entities called the Other and the Bride, but Octavius dismisses his talk of Spider-Totems as superstition. When Daemos emerges from a portal and attacks them, Otto's team - who had been training for such an occurrence - fight back, with Assassin Spider-Man, Spider-Cyborg and Spider-Man Noir firing at him and Spider-Woman (Earth-807128), Spider-Monkey and Six-Armed Spider-Man attacking him and aiming for his vitals. Daemos eventually overpowers them, killing Spider-Cyborg and punching Spider-Woman (Earth-807128), Spider-Monkey and Six-Armed Spider-Man through a wall. During the ensuing brawl, Miles recognizes Peter (Earth-616) and expresses confusion at there being two of him, while Spider-Girl (Earth-982) and Kaine bicker over who will be the one to kill Daemos. Silk glumly watches the battle from the sidelines, stating she never should have come, and Old Man Spider angrily retorts she should have never left the bunker in the first place.

Before she can press him for answers, Octavius interrupts by landing a fatal blow on Daemos, the brutality of his actions causing Miles to agree that Peter (Earth-616) is the real Spider-Man. Peter (Earth-616) remarks that killing Daemos was wrong, but Spider-Girl (Earth-982) tells him it's justice and that she wishes it was by her hand. Peter corrects her, saying that he meant that when he'd killed Morlun the Inheritor's body dissolved but Daemos hasn't. Spider-Man 2099 states that Octavius augmented his weapons with 2099 technology to induce a stasis charge on Daemos' corpse. Six-Armed Spider-Man and Lady Spider then volunteer to help Miguel conduct an autopsy.

Octavius blames Cindy for the Inheritor's attack and begins to suggest they terminate her, but Old Man Spider interrupts, stating that he is the only one who truly knows what's going on. Before he can continue, a portal opens behind him and a second Daemos snaps his neck. Brix and Bora step through as well, and in the ensuing chaos Assassin Spider-Man is killed. Kaine and Ben deduce that the Inheritors are clones, explaining why their bodies disintegrate upon death, and Ben opens a portal to the Inheritors' home base. Ultimate Jessica Drew joins them, stating that she is a clone as well, and Peter (Earth-616) reassures a despondent Miles as Spider-UK opens a portal back to Earth-13. The dying Old Man Spider calls out to Peter (Earth-616), revealing himself to be Ezekiel Sims from a world where Morlun killed Spider-Man. Ezekiel tells Peter (Earth-616) to protect the Scion, the Bride, and the Other at all costs. Silk steals Peter (Earth-616)'s portal device, intending to set right the deaths she caused, and opens a portal while attracting the Inheritors' attention. Spider-Woman (Earth-616) volunteers to follow Silk while Octavius sends Spider-Man Noir to accompany them. Brix notes that the Spiders have Daemos' old body, but he says he'll retrieve it himself and sends them after the Bride. Mayday prepares to attack him, but Peter (Earth-616) stops her and they return to Earth-13. Spider-UK informs the others that Old Man Spider was killed, and Peter (Earth-616) reassures Anya that her mentor and Silk are still alive. Before they can converse any further, Peter (Earth-616)'s Spider-Sense goes off and he turns to see Octavius, claws extended, announcing that they are at war with the Inheritors and from this point on he is now in charge.

(https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_3_10)

Fan Art: Leap of Faith by leonardovincent

Accompanying Podcast: ● Amazing Spider Talk - episode 10

[rappaccini]

whole thing:

gwen's from district 6 because 6 is what i was left with after figuring out where everyone else is from. she plays in a band with the mary janes, who are basically the covey, and defends her best friend peter-equivalent from bullies.

gwen's reaped at like 15 or 16 to send a message to her head peacekeeper dad because he was getting a little too influential. peter volunteers to join her.

it's the 69th or 70th games. something like that.

their mentors are cindy-65 and jesse drew. cindy is completely unhelpful and jesse gives them a few pointers but basically expects them to die.

peter pulls a peeta and springs a showmance on her, but it is absolutely unwanted and he uses it as a way to pressure her into a relationship with him. the cameras love it. she hates it.

it comes down to gwen, peter and harry-stand-in, the career who's actually pretty swell. peter attacks harry when he sees him and gwen planning behind his back. gwen gets thrown off a cliff in the crossfire. she survives because she landed in water. a lizard mutt stalks her out of the water, and as soon as she reunites with peter she shoves him into its jaws to save herself.

she immediately gets the villain edit and is remembered as the frigid heartless bitch who betrayed her childhood sweetheart.

when she goes home, the whole district hates her. her dad disowns her. cindy offers her no support and jesse is the only person who tolerates her presence. gwen's pressured by president osborn to prostitute herself and refuses. he has her dad killed. people hate her even more. the mary janes eventually flee the district because they're being threatened for associating with her.

gwen says fuck it, i have nothing to live for now. moves to the capitol and shacks up with gross politician murderdock who's had a thing for her for years and has done this to a few other female victors before. yes, it's like that.

other hellships she's stuck in: gamemaker miles warren, who is even Worse than murderdock, the miles-8 equivalent who's probably a victor who went sellout and became a capitol shill. possibly osborn but that's redacted. she's having the Worst Fucking Time.

she's at the club. often. and yet it cannot save her.

couple years later when the quarter quell happens, gwen goes in with jesse drew, and pretty much has decided to get him as far as she can and then kill herself so he can go home to his wife and kids and maybe people won't hate her anymore.

k here's the list of the relevant contestants.

-> 2 female: jessica drew. pulls the pregnancy card in the interview but it's true this time. still doesn't work but points for trying.

-> 3 female: margo kess. won by hiding out successfully using a pair of infrared goggles.

-> 3 male: miguel o'hara. pulled an enobaria to win. nobody knows how the hell district 3 coughed up someone this buff but it's never happened again. margo's former mentor and basically her father figure.

-> 4 female: gayatri singh. won by coasting on sponsorships. bloodbath fodder. 😔

-> 4 male: pavitr prabhakar. won through dumb luck, good looks and gayatri crafting a mentor/contestant showmance narrative. it became real after he won. he will never emotionally recover from this.

-> 5 male: miles morales. pulled a beetee: hid the whole time, then electrocuted everyone left in a huge upset. one of the youngest to ever win. blond peter was his alliance partner who died protecting him.

-> 6 male: jesse drew. won back in the day using illegal peacekeeper training. now a devoted family man. he's getting the emotional climactic mentor death.

-> 8 male: peter b parker. won the 50th bc this man has haymitch energy.

->you know what to make this extra fucked up, let's make 12yo mayday the 8 female tribute

-> 12 male: hobie brown. katniss-gale combo, so maximum chaos. 18yo orphan who volunteered to take his friend's place and started so much shit while he was in the arena.

everyone else is cannon fodder. disregard them. insert billy, ben, kaine, bailey, cindy 616, anya, mattie, cassandra, julia, felicia, zarine, zero as needed.

oh in case it isn't clear yet gwen isn't the mockingjay. hobie is. and he's actually fully conscious of what the fuck's going on and in on the conspiracy. gwen has no clue this is happening bc she’s too busy snorting coke, sharpening knives and telling jesse she’ll die for him as he awkwardly pats her on the head.

the closest equivalent to a thg character gwen gets is johanna, with a dash of finnick, peeta and enobaria. she's the bitter, disillusioned victor who seems like a capitol lapdog but turns out to be a victim.

anyway when the quell happens, gwen's 20-21ish. she isn't in on the escape plan because most of the tributes in on the rebellion all hate her. also she's too busy trying to kill them to give jesse his win. so like, fair.

no gwiles. she's too old for him and he's too freaked out by the villain edit to get close to her.

she doesn't get rescued by 13. she's stuck in the capitol and gets a venom arc when she's hijacked. breaks out of prison. she's in the sewers. she's in the walls. she's eating rats. she kills murderdock/warren/miles-8. good for her.

she's located during the big rescue mission and tags along to get to 13.

she finds the mary janes in 13. good for her!

she immediately starts bumping that morphling. also helps hobie sneak off to kill osborn. (hobie kills the president. good for him!)

god knows i'm looking to shove ghostpunk in wherever i can so in this au i think they hate each other at first. hissing and spitting across the cafeteria. then in the arena they bond over being suicidal for their respective causes and mutually inspire each other to want to survive. the tension starts to brew but they Never Act On It. he steps aside after helping her reunite with her band because he gets that she needs them more. maybe like 30 years later when the war is over and the world is kinder they combine their bands, take their show on the road, and quietly get together then. in the meantime there's super intense yearning though.

sometimes the brainrot's so intense that it crosses wires with another fandom and you end up writing a whole au scenario where you adapt spider-gwen into a hunger games au

[mardababa]

6.2 MSQ ramblings by your local Golbez fan

Partner and I finished the entire thing in one sitting last night. Here's my thoughts now that I'm more awake, in vaguely chronological order...

(Tl;dr more FFIV callbacks than you can shake a spoony bard at!)

Varsahn getting a new adult mammet body is a brilliant way to reference Rydia's return as an adult without having to actually use a child character for the role or doing some kind of timey bullshit.

Troia is brilliant. I was losing my mind over the music the entire time...

Speaking of Troia, let's get this out of the way because I've been obnoxious about it on Twitter, Discord, and in-game: HI MY IRL NAME IS BEATRICE. It's me. I feel so seen as a big FFIV fan. Thank you whichever dev did this.

of course, the choice of name isn't really because of random FFIV fans like me. Beatrice is obviously an extension of the Dante's Inferno theme that begins with the Archfiends.

Also, the creepy statues jumpscared me!

Beatrice's mechanics are a nice mixup of the gaze mechanic, otherwise nothing too new here.

So many empty rooms breaking up pulls. Why???

Scarmiglione...I was too distracted by his voice. He sounds like Fandaniel. Maybe if it was just a slight raspier it would've worked better for me.

that said, I adore how hectic his fight is, even though I was constantly expecting the "back attack" during the dungeon. Of course, the back attack happens later instead.

Using Troia as a somewhat explorable zone of course makes the empty rooms make more sense. This part is a lot of back and forth and even with mounts it's kind of tedious, but all the voidsent lore is worth it.

The voidsent talks remind me of Megaten demons by the way. Voidsent Summoning Program when?

That feeling of going back through the dungeon and talking to previously hostile NPCs—it reminds me a lot of old school RPGs! It's definitely something that's been a little missing from XIV imo.

Zero. I love her. I love that she operates on a different morality and value system from the usual sort of person the (ex-)Scions deal with, and she isn't going to give that up just because we've been nice to her. Of course, there is some compromising on her part, but she's very solidly set in the ways of the Void.

also: she's a tease for Zeromus. Now, I don't think she will be Zeromus, or that he will necessarily even appear, but if not foreshadowing, her name is the devs teasing those "in the know".

Zero's Domain! It was here I said out loud "wow, that's quality patch" because adding in another location after the dungeon feels big. It's appropriate for the Thirteenth and I hope going forward we'll be able to come back freely and use it as a base of operations.

AND THE MUSIC ITS THE FFIV OVERWORLD THEME I started tearing up a little.

Sad gay Voidsent relationship lore :(

Speaking with the Voidsent around Zero's Domain leads to some fun dialogue btw, my favorite is the Mindflayer kinkshaming a summoner that tied his vessel up.

ok. Barbariccia. I was unfortunately spoiled by crafting recipes (AGAIN) that she would be the trial and not Cagnazzo. I really like the way she's written, and once she appears in person, there's not much of the fanservice you might expect. Instead she has some power poses. Imo that's kinda sexier.

Her design—and Milon's—visually are...I guess pretty much what I should have expected of XIV's style of monster/character design and detail.

Now, as soon as Barb said she was next, I told my partner "I hope Estinien gets some spicy dialogue with her." Ok small tangent time. I personally think Zephirin was the Kain analogue in Heavensward in terms of his backstory and development, but hey I'm not going to deny that Estinien is the one with the "Dragoon who 'betrayed' you" job arc.

AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW ESTINIEN GETS THE SPICY DIALOGUE. And not just any spicy dialogue, he gets to fucking quote Kain Highwind verbatim. Good job, Estinien. "Ride the wind" indeed.

AND THE TRIAL THOUGH. Absolutely bonkers. I only died once because Phys Ranged Movement Privilege but holy shit the mechanics spam. I love the intensity. I was expecting Calofisteri mechanics but nope it's just insanity instead.

Her phase change is a pretty cool way to handle the "wrapped in hair" aspect of her and translating that into something you can still fight.

They did a good job not making her Calofisteri 2.0 or Garuda 3.0 basically.

I think everyone basically assumes Azdaja will be Shadow Dragon, and I'm very interested in how that's going.

So IMO the segments after returning to the Source drag on a fair bit and just keeps going. But this was also bc it was 1 AM for me.

Golbez!! GOLBEZ.

His voice. I like it. It's really hard to top Peter Beckman's iconic performance for Golbez, but his VA here does a good job with this take of the character.

AND WHAT IS YOUR BACKSTORY. GIVE ME THE GOLBEZ LORE. What is his ambition???

It is very refreshing to see Golbez back in his classic villain role though! And he brings a more militant theme too—we're dealing with his minions and their minions, not with him directly like with most of the other antagonists.

Memoria lore will be relevant for Golbez right? INB4 he's Zero's brother hahaha...wait I like this

I have to admit, this is the first patch in a while I've been honest to god this excited and manic about the MSQ. I was so afraid of the FFIV handling going poorly, but they did a great job in keeping it fresh.

Now I'm going to Island Sanctuary.

...Void Sanctuary when?

[myeagleexpert]

The Perfect Boyfriend

𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖘𝖒𝖊𝖑𝖑 𝖏𝖚𝖘𝖙 𝖑𝖎𝖐𝖊 𝖛𝖆𝖓𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖆 𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖙𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊 𝖑𝖎𝖐𝖊 𝖇𝖚𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖈𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖒 𝖄𝖔𝖚'𝖗𝖊 𝖋𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖚𝖕 𝖒𝖞 𝖘𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖊𝖘 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍 𝖊𝖒𝖕𝖙𝖞 𝖈𝖆𝖑𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖘

Doppleganger/Skinwalker!Yandere x YN (AFAB)Summary: Despite living in a pink world, there's a little voice in the back of your head that tells you that there's something strange with your boyfriend. It can't be anything important, right? (You'll regret not listening to it)

Warnings: (Toxic relationships, obsessed relationships, mental manipulation, the smell of rot, description of death, description of fear and panic, a little sentimental smut, The thing loves you - too much.) Uncertain motives. He tries to keep you trapped. The term 'YN' and 'you' is used several times in the fanfic for better grammatical use, my first time writing something like this, so please be gentle. <3 < < 𝕮𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖑𝖊𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙 𝖉𝖎𝖓𝖓𝖊𝖗 > > 𝕹𝖊𝖝𝖙

It was already night when your boyfriend showed up at your door, well… er-EX boyfriend. You and Kain had been together for a few months, but when you realized how toxic and rude he was, you felt the need to break up with him. Just a week later, he shows up at your door asking for forgiveness and begging to have you back.

“Shall we at least talk?” Kain’s voice sounds like a broken record that became softer and more pleasant to listen to as he spoke, like a person with a hoarse throat from a hangover, which… well, that was Kain almost every day.

He says, offering you a beautiful bouquet of Japanese flowers, in shades of pink and pastel pink, of various sizes, wrapped in paper that imitated butterfly wings, wrapped in such an elegant and harmonious way. It was an incredibly beautiful and thoughtful bouquet. It was actually an image you had recently visualized at the flower shop and in your desired heart. Point 1 that something is wrong.

Kain has only given you flowers exactly 3 times. All three of them were cheap plastic red roses, still with the price tag on them when YN picked them up and an unmistakable smell of old invaded her nose so much that it made her cough, she has always been sensitive to smells.

These smell of harmonious and enchanted nature, as if one of Monet's beautiful paintings had come to life. But YN is hurt by the aggressive breakup, mulling over painful old memories while trying to maintain her pride with a glass or two of wine. With her mind clouded by sadness and anger, she fails to realize that the man in front of her is strangely… strange.

"What's the bouquet for? You're not going to buy me with that." YN crosses her arms and looks skeptically at the beautiful flowers.

"Please! Accept it as a peace offering!" he says approaching YN with the bouquet, trying to place it in her arms almost desperately.

They were too stupidly beautiful to refuse… but there is something in her heart that tells you to close the door immmediatly.

Sensing your hesitation, he tries to convince you once more.

“Just a conversation, nothing more. I know that… we didn't end up on the best of terms… but please, I need to talk to you.” The man looks at YN with sincerity and devotion in his… blue eyes? YN could have sworn that his eyes were beautiful brown.

“Okay. Okay. Just ONE conversation. And after that… I don't want to see you in front of me anymore.” The girl stomps her foot and maintains her angry and indifferent posture as she receives the flowers and opens the door wider so he can enter.

“And don't even think about jumping on my couch like last time! I'm still paying for the conc-“ Normally Kain would have thrown his muddy sneakers on the floor and sprawled on the couch, but to the girl's surprise, he was right next to her, waiting for her to guide him.

“Did I break your couch? I'm sorry, let me pay for the repair now, okay?” Don't pretend to be nice in front of me, just look at him pretending to be innocent as if he hadn't thrown in my face that the problem was mine.

“I don’t want anything from you, let’s get things moving.” YN spits out the venom, entering the room and placing the bouquet on the table while the man follows her wherever she goes, until they sit on the couch (the one that isn’t broken) in the living room.

In better light, YN can see that there’s something different about him. And Kain dyed his hair, his short black hair was chin-length, the ends highlighted in rich caramel tones. The skin that was once worn out by tiredness and nights of drinking was almost porcelain, clean, with hardly any prominent pores. The thin, frowning mouth had soft, kissable lips, his jaw was well defined too. The post-breakup glow, huh?

“You look different…” you make the observation as you settle into the couch, trying not to seem interested in anything he might have to say, but curiosity is addictive, right?

“Did you like it?” He lights up when you notice and runs your hand through his hair, tucking a strand behind his ear as he approaches you.

It's for you.

When he tries to get closer, you aggressively place a pillow between the two of you, much to Kain's dismay, who seems to immediately wilt at your attitude. "I said different. Don't let it go to your head." As sharp as a Tramontina knife, you cut him off immediately.

"You said you wanted to talk, come on. Talk." You snort, putting on a serious posture and looking him straight into his fake eyes. Contacts, Kain? Seriously?

"Ah.. yes, I wanted to talk to you YN." He turns towards her, giving her all the attention she once begged for. A bitter taste invades your mouth, like the feeling of receiving a gift that your child would dream of receiving, but you miss as an adult. A belated gift, that means less than the dust on the soles of your shoes.

“I ask you to reconsider… we've had our ups and downs in our relationship, but I know it has a lot of potential. Let's try again, let me show you how much I've changed, how happy we can be together.” He tries to give a friendly smile.

Change in a week? Nah, spare me.

“Nobody changes that much in a week, Kain. I don't move out of resentment and you've never changed out of guilt.” YN puts him against the wall coldly. “Why do you want to get back together? You called me worthless and now you see the potential in us? Humph… Your offer isn't the best.” She snorts as she looks at him with disdain, wanting to know where all this is coming from.

“Wait! Please!” Kain approaches and desperately takes her hand. “I know I was rude and rude to you… I was selfish and I never gave you the value you deserved. I was terrible and you have every right to refuse me…”

Oh, and how I do.

“But if you give me a chance, I promise you won’t regret it-“

“Oh, I don’t want to pay to see. In the last fight I ended up punching the wall… I don’t want to wait for you to hit my head.” Your gaze is furrowed, irritated and for a moment you notice the same look pass quickly through Kain’s. Is he upset that you threw that in his face?

“I’m sorry about that scene YN, it wasn’t me…” the last part rings so true that YN raises an eyebrow skeptically “You didn’t deserve to go through that.”

Masculine hands move to hold YN’s cheeks as he gently caresses them. They seem too big.. but let’s leave that thought for later. He’s different.. and little by little you’re feel disarmed by his attitude.

“I can’t live without you. Please… just give me one chance to prove to you that I’m your best option. That I’ve changed. That I can be better.” Kain's voice is like a warm blanket, enveloping all your senses… like a mermaid would envelop a sailor until he drowned.

He's never spoken to me like that. He's never used that tone with me.

As the red lights in your head go off, you try to pull away from his hands. Seeing your attempt to pull away, he tightens his grip and moves even closer to your body. There's something strange in his blue eyes… maybe it's a devotion you weren't used to… or something strangely… uncanny.

"YN…" he whispers sweetly and delicately, moving even closer until your eyes are staring directly into each other's.

"I love you… so much. You mean so much to me." He closes his eyes and rests his forehead against yours. "Give me a chance… just one."

Something possessed you at that moment. The wine must have messed with your head. You must have been drugged. The water was bad. You must be sick. You must have been PMSing. Or ovulating. Or menstruating… because there's no rational reason why you gave in, and nodded slightly with your head tilted to accept his offer.

"Are you serious?" He looks into your eyes and finds no lie, just a hesitation. "I'm so happy! You won't regret it!" He hugs YN and wraps her in strong arms, burying his face in her shoulder while placing small kisses on her face.

When you hug him back, very suspiciously, you notice that his body is different. Taller, more muscular, more attractive… he couldn't make such a change in a week, he didn't even go to the gym.

"YN, look at me…" with a delicate hand on her chin he guides her to his lips, where they kiss delicately, savoring each other's presence. Until the smell of his perfume invades your nose, enveloping you in a light trance.

Kain smells like expensive perfume.

He always smelled like alcohol and cigarettes, something you always complained about. He now had a feeling of cleanliness and elegance, the leather jacket was new too. The smell of perfume is almost suffocating. Why would he be wearing such a fragrant and expensive perfume?

When the two of them are separated for air, Kain looks with so much devotion and love while caressing her lower lip "I love you."

Kain smiles in a way that YN had never seen him smile like that. Big mouth, too white teeth and some sharp hidden fangs.

There's something wrong with her ex-boyfriend.

But two weeks later… YN forgets about it, keeping any survival instinct or voice of conscience in a drawer at the back of her mind, along with the unpleasant memories of the relationship. Mentally thanking him for having changed.

It was as if she was floating on clouds and Kain was her ray of sunshine.

As time went by, YN fell more and more in love with Kain, as if she was getting to know a new side of him. It was as if he had created a rosy and passionate world, where he controlled all reality around her, solving everything for her. YN felt trapped in a state of enchantment and dependence almost like a drug addict, laughing alone and going limp in his presence.

It was fascinating for Kain to manipulate YN's emotions, keeping her trapped in a state of passion and blind trust while he himself fell into a state of disillusionment. Every gesture and behavior of his was calculated to make her fall even more in love, while he tried hard to hide any detail that could reveal the truth. YN found herself increasingly trapped in the spell, unable to realize that the man she had fallen in love with was… too perfect, a romance novel, the kind she had most innocently dreamed of until the adventures in hidden paragraphs. Kain did everything perfectly and still left her wanting more.

It's been two great weeks, YN visits him at his house almost every day and they're getting ready to live together, she's been going out with her party-loving friends, she's been so productive at work that she got a promotion today!

“Congratulations YN! I knew our project would boost you in the company.” Your boss praises you, it was hard and delicate work but she knew that by putting herself in your hands she would prosper.

“Thank you very much for your trust.” You smile at her.

“The guys are going to celebrate the success after work, are you coming?” she asks, noticing that you're not getting ready to go out

“Oh no, I promised I'd go out with my boyfriend to celebrate today. But I'm going to celebrate the weekend with you guys!” you say, reminding her that you're still going out with the company this weekend, but she looks confused

“Your boyfriend? Didn't you guys break up two or… three weeks ago?”

“We're back together, and he's better than ever, can you believe it?” you show her a picture of the two of you at the eco-park, him holding your waist while smiling beautifully.

Your boss looks suspicious, she could swear by the name of the company that she'd seen him somewhere before, like a piece of information on the tip of her tongue that's soon forgotten strangely… but she tries to give you a vote of confidence “Err… I'm happy for you. But remember, we've had clients who were wolves in sheep's clothing. Enjoy the honeymoon phase.” She gives your shoulder a gentle squeeze before leaving. “Call me if you need anything, dear.”

Wolf in sheep's clothing… interesting.

You think about this as you ride back to his house on your motorbike, and right on the way you enter the usual flower shop and meet Thomas, the friendly old man who sells the flower shop.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Thomas!” you greet him as soon as you arrive at the store. His tired eyes soon find your presence as you explore the garden in search of a plant that catches your attention.

“Good afternoon, girl.” He walks towards you in slow steps, supporting himself with his old wooden cane.

“I think I’ll take this one here-“ you point to beautiful white alstroemerias.

“Your boyfriend is allergic to these.” He warns, looking at them. “He came here the other day and when he was going to touch this one, it looked like my cat, he started coughing and almost vomited when he touched the plant.”

You turn your head to him in confusion. Kain has never been allergic to flowers.

“I found it strange, because people usually aren’t allergic to this type of alstroemeria.” The old man scratches his chin thoughtfully but then laughs to himself. “But I suppose, each organism works differently.”

“That’s true, the human body has one of those.” You laugh with him, but then you notice him staring at you. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s taking good care of you, isn’t he? You look very radiant, girl.” The old man’s soft voice breaks any tension you were feeling before, and with a slightly blushing face you admit that yes.

“You know, the first time he came in here I thought he was a drunk when I bought those red, plastic roses… on your first date.” Mr. Thomas’s body shivers with disgust at the boy’s lack of romance.

“Oh my god… my head hurts just remembering, he dropped some flowers and came staggering, he smelled terrible of cigarettes.”

“It’s likely he wasn’t drunk… but high, Mr. Thomas.” You whisper to him.

“And how did you fall in love with something like that?” the rolled eyes make YN laugh a little at the florist's drama but before she could say anything he continues

“But the second time he came, he seemed like a gentleman. He walked elegantly through the plants and I was surprised when he chose that bouquet of Japanese flowers…”

“Me too! I wanted them so much!” you sigh in love

“Exactly the flowers you wanted…” he murmurs softly as he picks up a dead leaf from one of the vases

“But that's not what caught my attention, dear…”

“What caught your attention?” Was it his muscles? His hair? The beautiful way he speaks?

He spends a few seconds thinking about how to tell you exactly what it was that made him feel....

“A few years ago, when I was young, I traveled for work and spent a week away. When I came back, the first thing that caught my attention was the smell I could smell from the door…” the old gardener narrates his story with his eyes clouded with nostalgia and worry, as if he wanted YN to understand his point making you feel anxious…..

“My wife had been dead for 3 days… The putrid smell was terrible.” The words are almost like a whisper “I never forgot that smell.”

“That boy smelled like death the second time he came here.” As the gardener looks directly into your eyes YN feels her breath catch in her lungs.

What does he mean by that?

“What did she die of?” YN curiously asks him

“Heart attack or something like that.. I'm sorry. I…” the old man shudders and sits in a nearby chair visibly shaken by such memories while you get him some water trying to somehow give him comfort.

“Oh YN, the smell was very strong and terrible…. when that man came in here I could only remember that.” The man's vision was blurred because he loved his wife very much, he held on tightly to his cane to keep himself steady.

"I'm sorry about your wife, I'm sorry I made you remember all this…" YN crouched down next to him as she picked up the glass of water, feeling guilty for such emotions in the old florist.

He then looked at YN with pity for her kindness, big confused and kind eyes stared back at him, old Mr. Thomas and decided to swallow his tears as he tried to compose himself.

"I'm not saying your boyfriend is a zoombie or anything like that" he laughed as he slowly stood up "But I'm saying he smelled really bad when he got here, remind him to take baths, okay?" he said with the same funny tone as always, playing with the rhymes and tones of the words while to lighten the mood she laughed at him.

"Oh, he smells much better now." You said remembering the bubble baths you took together

"Was it you who gave him that perfume? Good choice.”

What?

“What perfume, Mr. Thomas?” you ask, helping him to the counter.

“It’s an expensive perfume, very good… I think I’ve only smelled one person wearing it, the mayor of the city in 1980. Good taste, it’s an extremely refined perfume.”

“O-oh… yeah.”

“Now he wears it a lot, I felt suffocated in his presence…” he says, adjusting his clothes and cane. “Well, me and my plants.” He laughs to himself.

“Sorry about that, I know they’re sensitive to strong smells.” You laugh.

"I give him a second chance, he brings me really pretty flowers, huh?"

"Oh, the romantic ones."

YN drives confused back to Kain's house, she remembers the drive being longer before they got back together, there were more houses in the neighborhood and that he still lived with his parents. In two weeks she has never heard of his parents… or the neighbors… or the dog he had… where are they?

Her steps are automatic and before she knows it she is in front of a cozy and chic house, with plants in front decorating a beautiful backyard with very green grass and all doubts and questions disappear when she knocks on the door, anxious for her dear boyfriend to answer.

Almost immediately the door opens, he seems to always be waiting for her like a dog anxiously awaits its owner, he would never leave her waiting.

“Good night, darling, I missed you so much.” He wraps her in a comforting hug and gives her a sweet kiss on the forehead, inviting her to come into the house, taking off her coat and boots, a gesture that always makes butterflies fly in YN’s stomach.

Oh, the little gestures < 3…

Wait, what is he wearing?

“Oh, you look beautiful in an apron, you know?” YN compliments her boyfriend, giving him a mischievous smile.

He was wearing a pastel pink plaid apron, with red lace the same shade as his cheeks when he hears her compliment.

“Oh, did you like it? I-i just wanted to surprise you, my love. Let’s celebrate, remember?”

“And how could I forget?” YN hugs him and he quickly wraps his arms around her again “I’d rather be here with you than go out to celebrate with the company.”

“And I’m going to make you enjoy every bit of tonight…” he murmured with a smirk on his lips as he brushed their noses together in a delicate gesture. He took YN’s chin between his fingers, guiding her head to within inches of his mouth. At this moment, YN’s hands began to roam Kain’s body, transforming the moment into something more intimate.

“Oh darling, what a big body you have…” she said in a husky tone, playing with the hem of his shirt. A sneaky hand left trails of fire on Kain’s body.

“It’s to protect you better, my love…” he chuckled, pulling her closer to him with his hands on her waist. The air was heavy between the two of them, and YN delighted in seeing her boyfriend’s pupils dilate like a cat’s.

“Oh darling, what big eyes you have…”

“It’s to see you better, my little one…” he chuckled softly, and his large hands began to explore her body, from her hips to her breasts, firmly cupping her breasts. goosebumps on both of them, some sparks of passion starting to turn into dangerous flames….

“But darling, what big hands you have…” the young woman's body is pressed closer against his warm body as she bats her eyelashes innocently, an innocence that doesn't reach the small smirk on her lips

“Oh, yes darling, I have nice big hands, don't I? It's the better to hold you, sweetheart……” in a husky and low voice he answers, bringing his mouth to YN's neck giving long kisses in the region Kain lets out a soft moan as YN runs her hand through his hair encouraging him, the sensation sending jolts of pleasure down his spine.

He looks at YN, blue eyes full of desire and an almost primal hunger, as he continues to kiss and tease the delicate skin…

“Oh but.. darling?” YN breathed

“Yeah?” Kain breathed back

“And why such a big mouth?”

He licks his lips as he brings his girlfriend's face closer with one hand, inches away from her succulent lips, possessively squeezing her curves with the other, making YN moan slightly, their heartbeats synchronizing as they look intensely into each other's eyes…

"It's fo-" The oven alarm goes off, a high-pitched and unromantic sound, making the two young lovers frustrated by the break in the moment.

YN grunts, leaning her head against Kain's chest, feeling embarrassed now that the sound of the alarm has brought her sanity back. She always feels like she loses her self-control around Kain. He laughs lightly at her reaction and strokes her hair gently.

"Hey, it's your surprise in the oven…" he kisses the top of her head "Go take a shower, honey, it's time for me to finish the preparations, okay?" She nods and lets go of him, climbing the stairs to the first floor, almost floating, still recovering from the previous moment with a silly smile on her face, the same one Kain had while preparing the frosting and strawberries for the cake…

YN's nose only realizes now that the house has a very sweet smell, normally she is already used to the smell in the house but today the traditional smell of roses and homey is more like an open candy store, when entering the room she notices that there are more air fresheners than usual in every corner and corner. Kain knows that Yn has a sweet tooth, always looking for desserts and sweet smells and he was very happy to make this house as comfortable as possible… but is he not exaggerating? Nah, never.

The young woman enters the marble bathroom, now with feminine touches everywhere the eye can see: Skincare that smells like tutti frutti gum, soap that smells like strawberries, shampoo that smells like raspberries, towels in a shade of pastel pink, matching the bathroom rugs and the flowers near the mirror.

YN laughs dreamily, who would have thought that for such a big man with such a rough appearance, Kain wouldn't be more than happy to have the same feminine smell as his girlfriend? He insists, as they take a shower together. He insists while using the same floral perfume as his girlfriend, claiming that he wants to have the same smell as his girlfriend, he feels closer to her every time she does leave and he could recognize her sweet scent.

YN leaves the bathroom refreshed and radiant and puts on a comfortable dress but with a slight neckline, delicate pink with white polka dots to match her boyfriend's cute apron. She sighs in relief that the day is finally over and all she will do now is enjoy the night with Kain, he always made her worries melt away with the slightest touch, and with the slightest touch from YN, Kain felt determined to do everything for her.

They were a perfect couple and beautiful to behold.

The world was pink with cotton candy clouds.

The background music was like a fairy tale from an old romance.

What more could she want?

As she dries her hair, she receives a message from her boss and ignores it thinking it must be a photo of the company's celebration or a request to reform some document. Not today, she thought to herself. When the messages became frantic, YN began to find the situation strange and, shrugging her shoulders, decided to pick up her cell phone and check what was happening.

She held her breath.

It wasn't a photo of the company party.

It was an image of Kain's body, dead in a car accident.

It wasn't a message asking her to reform some document.

It was a message in capital letters that screamed in desperation:

Boss: YN THIS IS NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND. Boss: KAIN DIED IN AN ACCIDENT THREE WEEKS AGO. Boss: RUN AWAY IMMEDIATELY!

YN feels the world fall apart as she lets her cell phone fall from her cold hands, while she keeps the storm of emotions inside her in a confused way. Trembling, she sits on the carefully made bed, and a cold hand tries to cover her half-open mouth. In a state of shock, all the girl can do is stay paralyzed, staring at the emptiness in the room while her hair drips and wets the bed.

No… this can't be real…..

She looks at the photo once more, a big red circle marking the date: It happened three weeks ago.

How….. is this….. possible?

She tries to reason while catching her breath, a mixture of sadness and fear taking over her heart.

"Honey, everything is ready! Are you going down now?" Kain's voice echoes through the house, he is asking at the foot of the stairs while drying his hands.

Fear is not enough.

Panic takes over YN's body so much that she starts to shake horribly and any logical thought disappears, becoming paralyzed.

"Will you be long, sweetheart?"

I need to get away from here. This man wants to kill me. OMG. OH MY GOD! WHAT DO I DO?

"YN?" a voice with more authority in its tone, as if demanding to know why she is not responding.

Amidst the accelerated beats and the pressure in her ears, she hears him take a step on the stairs and terrified she tries to hide it.

"N-no!… ah…. I'm looking… for my perfume." She tries to hide it by stretching to open and close the drawer next to the bed, pretending to be looking.

“Don’t be long, my love, I already miss you <3” he hums in a sweet and passionate tone as he returns to the kitchen.

Quick.

Action plan. Quick. I need help.

YN: Okay, what do you mean by that? (message not sent)

YN: Who is this man then? What is he? (message not sent)

YN: I need to get out of here, please come and get me! (message not sent)

A shiver runs down the girl’s spine when the internet suddenly goes out, what could have happened to her? Will I have to deal with all this alone?

Oh my God…..

She runs a trembling hand through her wet hair trying to calm herself down with all this and for the first time in two weeks she hears the little voice inside her head, the one that said there was something strange with her boyfriend.

He doesn’t know that I know.

An advantage? Yes.

Disadvantage? Anything could be in his plans.

What is he using me for? Why is he pretending to be my boyfriend? Is he behind the real Kain's accident? What if I call the police? What if he wants to kill me while I'm sleeping? What if he poisons me…? Oh no.

YN's eyes widen at the possibility and an overwhelming anxiety takes over her body, her breath catching in her throat, her heart racing, sweat running down her forehead.

"Sweetheart, do you want me to escort the princess to her royal kitchen?" the voice of the aforementioned person is heard in the hallway, he is in the middle of the stairs humming "Have you found your perfume yet, love?"

A second passes.

And another.

"YN, are you okay?"

You need to get out of here. Quickly.

"…… y-yes…… I, I'm… coming down now, okay?" disguising it in a shaky voice, she slowly gets up from the bed and picks up the perfume on the headboard next to the bed, applying it with difficulty because the sweat on her hands made it slip.

She swallows the terrible urge to scream for help, to jump out the window, to tear her hair out, and takes robotic steps until she leaves the room, passing through the damn hallway like a sheep going to the slaughterhouse. At that moment, the various sweet air fresheners make her feel nauseous and her head spins. She rests one hand on the wall as she goes down the stairs, her eyes wide as she holds her breath.

Slowly she takes in the scene: The dining room looks like it came straight out of a romance movie, there are rose petals on the floor and candles in vintage candelabras on the table, in the middle of the table there is a beautiful decorated pink cake and at the entrance is the perfect boyfriend.

"May I have the honors, my princess?" He extends his hand in a chivalrous manner and YN, as an instinct of her body for having done this scene many times, gives him her hand.

Kain's eyes are full of devotion as he presses a gentle kiss to the back of YN's hand, looking her directly in the eyes during the act, the action takes seconds to finish.

“I’m glad you chose me. And as promised, you won’t regret it.” He takes her by the hand and gently pulls out the chair, waiting for his lady to sit down. YN is doing everything she can to not freak out, trying to act as normal as possible, trying to relax at any cost so he doesn’t notice.

“T-thanks for the… kindness, dear.” With a dry mouth she says.

He hums in return, “Oh, anything for you.”

YN can’t help but think that everything he says and does has a hidden meaning now, like a predator sadistically toying with his prey. The young man brings the cake closer so YN can appreciate the vitsa, which he spent the afternoon learning on YouTube how to decorate a cake with icing and create a romantic setting.

“Well…” he clears his throat “I hope you like it, it was my first time doing something like this and I really wanted you to like it.” He tucks a strand of hair behind her ear while giving a charming smile

“Y-yes… yeah, it’s beautiful, love.”

YN forced a smile as she struggled to stay calm, trying not to show the chaos that was unfolding inside her. Her hands were still shaking as she watched Kain cut a piece of the cake and place it on a plate for her.

The strange man, still in the role of the perfect groom, decides to be more romantic and proposes to feed her, in a cute way. He asks YN to open her mouth while trying to make it seem like a sweet and loving scene.

"Open your mouth, honey. Let me give you a piece of cake. Say 'Aah~"

YN opens her mouth automatically, while her mind is still stuck on her boss's words. Her expression is almost absent, as she tries to maintain the facade of apparent calm in front of her boyfriend. Kain puts the piece of cake in YN's mouth and observes her face, thinking that her apparent passivity was a product of the romantic scene they were having. Meanwhile, YN could only think about finding a way to escape from there as quickly as possible.

With each bite, YN felt the fear increase even more, praying to any being in the heavens to save her, for someone to clean up this mess, for her to have the strength to stop him. A wave of ultra sensitivity hits her mind, a result of stress and anxiety, and she can't stop thinking that it's all too much… too much. The cake is too sweet, sickly sweet, the frosting is too pink, the cherries taste too much like cherries, the background music was a soundtrack from her favorite romantic movie making her hair stand on end to the point of pain, capturing every sound and vibration in constant alert, as if at any moment he would take out a knife and stab her.

While YN ate the piece of cake, her mind was still stuck in trying to find a way to escape that situation without giving herself away. She tried to act as normally as possible in front of the stranger in front of her, while her heart was pounding with anxiety and fear.

“Are you okay, love? You seem tense… isn't the cake good?” Kain asks, gently running a hand over YN's cheek and involuntarily she pulls away.

Kain's eyes widen and a twinge of sadness passes through his blue eyes.

YN regrets that.

“S-sorry, love… I'm just tired from work.” YN tries to act as normal as possible but he can almost see through her that there is something bothering her, or to be more exact, he can see through the neckline of her dress that the beautiful woman's heart is abnormally racing.

“But… but the cake is delicious!” To prove the point, she herself picks up the fork and takes a piece of cake to her mouth, holding back the urge to vomit. “Beginner's luck, maybe?” she laughs and teases him a little.

Act normal, woman. Act normal or he'll notice.

“Who knows?” He smiles at her, not understanding what happened but decides to save this subject for later to enjoy the romantic dinner

“I've always been lucky on my first times…” he winks at her

“O-Oh…” YN laughs embarrassedly, not hiding the blush that rises on her cheeks

Dinner soon ends, YN comments a few things about work while Kain gives details of how his day was and in the end they go to watch a movie on the couch cuddling wrapped in soft and warm blankets. YN who was previously so interested in the cinematography of films, obsessively observing each character and each angle now doesn't even know the name of the film or what genre it is.

Would it be horror like a terrible joke of the storm inside herself? Would it be a romantic movie to continue this psychotic game of house?

All she can think is that now is the perfect time to run away.

Now that Kain is sleeping so soundly in her arms with a contented smile.

The clock strikes midnight and with a little trick she manages to leave without waking him, making her steps as light as a feather as she walks to the door, the only source of light being the TV playing scenes from the movie.

Her heart was beating strongly in her veins, she could hear her own heartbeats in her ear as she took a deep breath until she reached the door she had dreamed of, the exit to salvation.

As soon as she puts her cold hand on the doorknob, a brutal realization hits her in the face, she doesn't have her cell phone… and she doesn't know where it is.

With a sharp gulp she decides to go without it because this might be her only chance of survival, she tightly holds the motorcycle keys and opens the door.

"Where are you going at this time of night, sweetheart?" the creature's voice was like a roar held back by teeth, Kain's figure was on the other side of the door making her blood run cold immediately, YN's cell phone was in his big hand with the messages with her boss open.

His figure towers over her trembling form, his head twisting in an inhuman manner, watching YN intently, a horrifying smile on his lips.

For the first time in two weeks, YN smells a repulsive, rotten smell.

A scream is heard.

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Every like, repost and comment is very welcome and appreciated. ♥

[linkspooky]

This is kinda random, but what is your top 10 favorite otps?

Sure.

#1 of All Time SPUFFY

Spuffy, it wrote the book on both beauty and the beast archetypes, and enemies to lovers. For me the most important thing in a ship is the character development it brings about. Spike's redemption doesn't work without Buffy, because it's meeting the one person who expects better than him and won't put up with his selfish crap, that forces his character arc. Buffy's development is also nothing without Spike, it's meeting Spike that makes Buffy confront her dark side, and realize that being a good person isn't something you are, but something you work towards for the sake of your loved ones. The ideal ship should inspire this permanent character development and chane (Unless it ends tragically), they should be an inseperable part of each other's character arcs.

#2 Kumagawa / Ajimu

This is what I was talking about when I said "unless it ends tragically". Sometimes you ship two people who should never end up together, because they probably won't accept their differences. However, even in a failed relationship, two people can be important to each other. There's not really a hapyp ending for Ajimu and Kumagawa, despite their similiarities when they're together they just seem to make each other worse. In Medaka Box they are the anti-Zenkichi and Medaka. However, for Ajimu Kumagawa represents her only human connection, and for Kumagawa Ajimu represents the first person to be "good" to him even though their relationship soured at one point. Therefore I find the ship interesting because despite the fact that they are permanently separated they are still an incredibly important part of each other's identities and who they are now.

# 3 Matsuda / Junko

Basically for the same reason as what I said above. There is no universe where Junko and Matsuda end up in a happy relationship, as long as Junko is still Junko. However, Matsuda and DanganRonpa Zero as a whole add so much to Junko as a character. As long as Matsuda exists, Junko's more than just a black hole that only cares about despair, and I think together the side materials like IF and Zero show that Junko actually is capable of caring for people outside of her natural tendency to want to throw everything into despair, however, humanizing Junko in this manner doesn't actually make her a better person. She can have feelings like romantic, and familial love, and she still chooses to destroy those things and the people in her life. It just adds so much to Junko as a character, which is what I like ships as, an extension of characterization through character interaction.

#5 UIHAI

I love Ui and Hairu because it's like a broken fairy tale. It was a love that could have saved Hairu, but it didn't, because for Ui he always realized his feelings too late to save anyone. Hairu was obsessively chasing after Arima for the smallest amount of approval, when Ui was right there, and already in love with her. They seem like the perfect couple that could never get together, because Hairu is too fixated on Arima, and Ui is too fixated on his job. They are perfectly suited to giving each other what they wanted, and even in lots of side materials and sketches they seem like a pair, or Ui's feelings for Hairu come across as pretty clear but it never came to be in canon.

#6 ZACK / AERITH

Once again for the same reasons as above, it seems like a fairy tale romance of a knight, and a girl he wants to protect, but it fails completely to live up to that story. Zack and Aerith is a tragic story of first love for both of them, and it's also really formative for who Aerith is now as a character. Zack tried to be there for her, and he tried to be a hero to Aerith, only to very consistently not be there for her, and then disappear from her life all together. Much later on, Aerith is incredibly isilated, unable to fall in love with the real cloud without projecting Zack onto him. It's a relationship where in a better world they could have been there for each other, but also the failure of the relationship develops them as much as characters as them getting together might have. Zack and Aerith are one of those relationships that seems ideal on the surface but they are very different people with different wants, Zack wants to be a hero, Aerith just wants to be a person first.

#7 LINK / MIDNA

The best zelda ship period. Once again the most important part of a ship interaction is the change that both characters inspire in each other. Midna begins not caring about Link at all, never referring to him by name, only seeing him as an object, an old legend, a hero to be used instead of a person. Midna's a manipulative freak, and Link breaks through to her because he actually isn't interested in being the hero of legend, he just wants to save the people closest to him at the village because he feels indebted to them, and Midna inevitably becomes one of those people. Link and Midna's partneship makes the game, because it's Midna who pushes him and makes him into a hero, but it's Link through his unfledging acceptance of her who inspires her to be a person once more, and not just the twilight priness.

#8 Morrigan / Warden from DRAGON AGE ORIGINS

This and Spuffy are like the only two on this list who actually end up together, so let me just have this. Once again my favorite aspect of a ship is the transformation the relationship brings baout in a character. The warden is a non-character, but for Morrigan herself, her relationship with the warden is what allows her to escape an abusive household, and beyond that decide not to repeat the cycle of abuse with her new family. What made this ship an all time fave was in witch hunt when the Warden gets to ask her what she wants, and she's just completely confused. Even with her mother dead, Morrigan is still a tool of her mother's ambitions, it's still all about her mother wants. It's her love with the warden, either through friendship or romance that awakens Morrigan to the fact she's allowed to exist as a person with wants and needs outside of what her mother wants her to be.

#9 Kaine / Nier

It's the Most Humanizing Ship Ever Between Two Mass Murderers. As a story, I think Nier is about finding the life, and love, in a story that is ultimately, fatally doomed. Nier only worse and worse as the game goes on but that doesn't mean there was never any love in his life. For every bad thing Nier does, he was not bad to every single person, specifically Kaine, it was Nier's love and belief in her that allows the wounds in her heart to start to heal. As Nier and Nier gets worse, Kaine's own shadow self says, that her feelings in her heart are no longer hatred, or even revenge, there's just a pure white light of love left. In a game where everything only rots, Kaine has healed to the point where she can love again when she never thought it was possible. It's why I like ending D the best, because it's Nier knowing he can never escape his own sins, but he can use his last action to heal Kaine fully all the way and allow her to live on a few more years.

#10 SATOSUGU

Once again, there's no universe where they end up together, and yet still on opposite sides of a conflict they remain each other's closest friends. The most important thing about a ship is the character development it leads to and Gojo would not be who he is today without Suguru. I generally get the sense that Gojo's idea of a good person isn't himself, but rather who Geto used to be before he broke. Gojo actually relied on on Geto for a lot more than he realized, considering it was the one connection he had that seemed to humanize him. Geto provided the chosen one who can do literally anything in the world with his powers, support and guidance. He was the jade, and the foundation of their two person friendship, and then the jade broke.

Gojo and Geto's broken relationship is not only the most emotional thing in the series to me, it's also an incredible part of who they are ten years after the fact. Gojo straight up didn't bother to make friends for ten years later after the fact even though he could have, Geto still told his daughters that Gojo and him were best friends, they just had a fight. He couldn't comperehend in Volume Zero that Gojo would still regard him as a friend after everything that they had done.

It's like one of those "Can't live with them, can't live without them" pairs. They want to be each other's one and only but it just won't work because they don't understand each other, and neither of them is willing to compromise. They are also each other's perfect yin / yang complement. Gojo is the opposite of Geto, and still carries a part of Geto within him, and Geto even after becoming the enemy of the sorcery world while Gojo is the savior, still carries that friendship with Gojo inside of him as well. While their relationship is a failed one, it's also a past I hope that the next generation Megumi and Itadori both learn from, even if Geto never truly comes back.

[something-very-special]

“and it’s gonna be TONS OF FUN.”

Look, we all know Route B is the one where you ruin everything and suddenly everybody thinks they’ve been playing the villain the whole time but can we talk about

the other stuff?

I said it must be surreal for people coming in off Automata with all those references suddenly making sense but this is surreal for me coming off the original game to have these little extra scenes intercut through the game.

See, here’s the thing that I really grew to love about NIER-- it’s a fundamentally small story. Its ramifications are world-shattering, but the story itself is very small. It’s not about the conflict between Gestalts and Replicants, it’s about love, and the great and terrible things it can do. Love between brothers, between lovers, between fathers and daughters, brothers and sisters, a ragtag messed up family. The greater conflict is the backdrop and driving force, but the story isn’t about that so much as it’s about all the tiny tragedies that you bear witness to on the way to the end.

(And I realize now how powerful the Little Mermaid story would be if it could be contrasted to Papa Nier, there’s... oh there’s stuff to think about from that perspective, isn’t there? Not that the tragedy doesn’t exist with Brother, but it’s kind of how Gideon hits different between the two-- the story in isolation still makes sense, but it means more contrasted between one or the other.)

The Shades are easy to remember. But the tiny tragedy that I love most, of course, is Kaine and Emil. Two people ostracized as monsters forming their own little family unit, utterly happy to have found each other (and Nier’s there too, I guess). There was a lot implied by the little dialogue they really exchanged during the first run of the game (and the original game in its entirety) but it spoke volumes about the kind of relationship they had established. (It speaks even more to go into Automata and see that truck!Emil has been preserving Kaine’s house and the field of Lunar Tears even though he didn’t retain the memories of Kaine herself.)

The newly added scenes aren’t at all necessary, but they are such a welcome addition and corroborate a few different things that were hinted or implied rather than explicit (or were easy to miss-- later Kaine mentions they ‘don’t have Emil to hold [Tyrann] back’ and that seems like a really bizarre jump if you don’t notice that you can’t hit the finisher gauge against her in the Lost Shrine until Emil has her pinned with a spell; there’s a little cutscene post-Junk Heap that calls attention to it. And while we’re still in the parenthetical can I just say I still love the organic feel of so much of the writing? He says “If that happens, I’ll stop you again”, she says “You sure about that?” and there is no hesitation or response from him. Kaine gets the follow-up ellipses and her “Thank you” is genuine. There’s trust there. Even if she doesn’t necessarily believe her transformation can be stopped, she believes him, and that’s enough.)

But it’s also not too much. What got me all over again was the scene added after you finish the keystone; Nier contemplates going it alone against the Shadowlord, Kaine and Emil are right behind him and very huffy that he considers leaving them behind. And it becomes clear that apparently they have actually plotted out Emil’s suggestion to fix Kaine’s possessions and get his body back, and Nier’s gonna help them, and they’re gonna have to travel the world to do it and they’re gonna taste every local delicacy on the way and it’s gonna be TONS OF FUN.

And you expect that from Emil, who is literally a child and a ball of sunshine when the main story isn’t happening... and then Kaine joins in. “Yeah. And I’m gonna eat way more than my fair share, so you better be ready to pony up.”

You see that?

Kaine’s ready to be happy.

Tyann will later make mention of her heart being ‘full of light’ during the final stretch and this is interpreted as love-- usually love for the protagonist, as she goes on about how she’ll ‘be his sword one last time’. But it’s described as her rage and sorrow going away. Terrible things have happened on this trip and she’s privy to more of them than the rest of the party, but she’s entering the final battle with this also on her mind. Not that they’re necessarily going to actually travel the globe on a gastronomic adventure (but I would play that cooking game), but she’s glad to be here, with them.

(She is also the one who asks if Weiss is all right during the final battle. I might be misremembering but I swear this was Nier’s line in the original, I can hear Papa Nier yelling it in my head.)

In fact, with the added scenes, it becomes more explicitly clear that Kaine only gives up at the end of the castle because Emil isn’t there to bring her back and she knew she needed him to go on. She knew he would be able to let her go on, and would always be there so she could keep on going on. Kaine wants to die after her grandmother’s murder and her possession by Tyrann and only holds on because otherwise Tyrann would use her body to do terrible things, but it’s here that it becomes clear that you know what?

She’s up for an adventure. Might be fun.

[kainissoable]

As I gently ease myself back into the habit of writing, have a silly pet AU crossover with Dan and Raziel. No proofreading, we write one dumb idea and vanish like men.

*

Transcript of a post on Readthat by moryt666

Help my cat and my friend’s dog are pining for each other. Are they in love?

Before you call me a lunatic, let me give some background. Two months ago my friend got a chance to do a short placement abroad, but she needed someone to look after her dog. I’ve had dogs before, my cats have always got on fine with them, so I agreed to take him on.

[Image ID: A large long haired white cat with amber eyes and a red collar sitting next to a small grey cat with yellow eyes and a blue collar.]

Edit: I’m not a breeder and don’t know Raziel’s parentage. When I got Kain, I was assured he was a three year old neutered male. I only found out that was a lie after he escaped and came back pregnant, and by then I didn’t want to change his name or pronouns. Every kitten in the litter could have had a different father for all I know.

Kiya had warned me beforehand that while he’s loyal and obedient to a fault, Dan isn’t very bright for a collie. It turns out that was an understatement. With absolute affection, that dog is a dumb as a bag of rocks.

To being with the cats ignored him, which was fine. I was busy trying to figure out life with a clingy dog who faced such problems as:

-The catnip mouse won’t play with him

-The doors are in a different place to Kiya’s apartment (he never did figure that one out and still tries to go for walkies through the closet door)

-A door is less than half open and he can’t get through

-He tried getting through a half closed door and shut himself in

-The cats hate him

-Spiders exist. I found this one out when he started howling at 2am. The same dog who once mauled an abusive ex-boyfriend will refuse to be in the same room as a money spider.

Well my clever little Raziel figured out the last one. I heard the start of the Spider Howl, saw a grey blur streak across the kitchen on a search a destroy mission, and the howl stopped. A moment later, Raziel zoomed back in, followed by Dan.

After that, I don’t think Dan stopped following him, tail wagging, except to eat and go for walks. He’d sit at the bottom of the cat tree gazing up adoringly at his saviour, drag his bed next to Razzie’s, and never give him a moment’s peace.

I kept an eye on things because Raziel likes his space, but after about three days of this I found them curled up on the sofa together.

[Image ID: A collie dog lying on a beige sofa with one paw around a small grey cat. Both of them have their eyes closed.]

After that they were pretty much inseparable. Raziel would sit at the door whenever I took Dan for a walk waiting for us to get back. They’d sleep together, eat together and groom each other.

And then Kiya came back home. It’s been three days. Raziel has spent all of them sitting by the front door yowling. Kiya is coming round for dinner every night so they can see each other, because the bloody animals refuse to eat otherwise.

I have no idea what to do. Are we going to have to move in together? Help.

[delicate-fayette]

I love your stuff and you kinda make me want to get into the games! Could you rec some of your favorite ones?

Omg thank you!!! You have no idea what it means to me to hear you like my stuff!!

Hmmm. Well, honestly that’s really hard of a decision for me to make, because I adore ALL of the Final Fantasy games haha. But I’ll give you a list! For your sake, I won’t delve into the plot of these games, bc I don’t wanna spoil anything.

(Keep in mind that all of my fav games are mostly the older ones, so the graphics might be a bit outdated haha. But luckily most of these aren’t hard to find bc most of them are on a lot of platforms nowadays.)

Final Fantasy Tactics! - My favorite game in the series, and the first one I ever played. The protag of this game is my favorite in the entire series! This game is very bittersweet and has a lot of political intrigue. Just for you to know, this game is really hard. Like, you might just wanna watch it on YouTube if you aren’t someone that’s likes strategy. But really, I think this game is definitely worth a shot. It has some of the best writing in the series. (I’ve written some Yandere headcanons of the main protag, Ramza before btw-)

(Just to keep in mind if you do end up playing/watching FFT, please make sure that you get the War of the Lions version and not the original version of the game. The original has a lot of bad translations and the dialogue so bad it ruins the story. Please just play the War of the Lions version lmao).

Final Fantasy 4 - Absolutely adore this game. This game is kinda funny bc literally everyone either dies (don’t worry they all come back later) or gets possessed at some point. But other than that it’s a fun classic FF game with well-written characters! Cecil and Kain are the best characters in the game.

Final Fantasy 6 - Very good classic FF game. It has a shit-ton of characters, which makes a lot of characters interaction (and more people for me to simp over-). My fav characters are Celes, Locke, and Terra! All three of them just have such good character development which makes their stories more satisfying. (Ngl I have a fictional crush on all three of them lmao)

Final Fantasy 7 - You’ve probably heard of this one over a million times, and it’s for good reason. It’s the most popular in the series next to FF15. FF7 is very ambitious for its time, and is special for that reason. My fav characters are Cloud, Tifa and Aerith haha. Sephiroth is a great villain in this game.

Final Fantasy 9 - Probably one of the most existential FF games lmao. This game has a lot of talk about existence and how you live your live, so be prepared for this feels trip. Vivi is my favorite character in the game, he’s just such a baby. He’s deserves the world. Zidane and Garnet were both my bisexual crushes when I was younger lmao, and they’re romance is really sweet (not my fav in the series, but still sweet). My one favorite villains in the series, Kuja, is here too! (I’m thirsty for that man)

I hope this helps a bit! If you have any questions about any games in the series, please feel free to ask! I really like taking about FF, so I always like excuses to talk about it lmao. The only game in the series I struggle to understand is FF11 bc I literally know nothing about it lmao. But other than that fire away!

[shiroi---kumo]

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ He's setting up again as Kain shifts away. Talking about a friend who died recently in a place called Fotset and he can only assume that's a place in his Amestris. What an odd sounding name. Still Kain explains what his friend had said to him as he shifts away only to come back with a thin piece of metal on a chain that has what he assumes are letters he can't read pressed into it. This is Amestrian, is it not?

Perhaps Kain can teach it to him later - but that's not important or the point of this. It's that this - what appears to be a tag - is all that's left and the Misterican can feel the weight of it as it rests in his palm. Does that mean Kain wears something similar to this as well? Does Eversti? Miss Riza? Is this human practice or military? Somehow he doesn't feel like this is the appropriate time to ask and it really isn't doing anything for the sinking pit he can feel resting at the center of his chest.

He knows Kain means well though. Kain always means well.

And he says he doesn't know how the Mistericans feel about this sort of thing so the prince does the only thing that comes to mind as he gently gives the tag back to his friend. That same gentle hand reaches towards Kain's neck and pulls up the chain on the white crystal necklace that the Prince had gifted him for his friend's birthday.

"That's what this is." He sounds plainly with bits of his sadness still clinging to back of his throat. "Misterican Proof of Existence. That gem is proof that I lived."

And he doesn't flinch when saying it. It's as simple as stating an every day fact. Common knowledge if you will, except for a human such knowledge is everything but.

"As Mistericans, we don't leave corpses when we die. The Soil holds no place for us, so our bodies fade and our Mist returns to the sky from whence we came. Our beings return to the nature all around us and the Mist of the Mistericans of the past is what creates the natural world.

So we gift these gems born of our Soul's Breath to our loved ones as proof that we were once here. They are made so that our loved ones can keep a piece of us with them at all times. So if anything should ever happen to me, with that gem I will remain at your side forever more and be with you always, and on top of it all, it's white - so the whole of the Cosmos will recognize that Mist as my own. No other living being has ever had Mist of that color. It is solely mine."

He shifts as he looks the gem over for a moment and then allows it to fall from his fingers back towards his friend's collar once more. There is a strange look in his eyes - a sadness; a loneliness; an almost missing light that should be reflecting within jade moons but simply isn't.

And he's trying the think of what he's explained. He's trying to see if Kain understands because as a soul composed of Soil, he wouldn't blame him if he didn't. Sometimes he finds himself wondering if it is possible for a Soil Soul to even understand a Mist Soul completely. Black Wind certainly doesn't and he is the embodiment of Soil Saint incarnate. He can't blame him though.

Perhaps it is just in their nature to never truly understand their counterpart. It does leave him feeling awfully lonely though. Having brethren in Chicken is one thing but despite being a fellow Sky Child, it is not the same as having a fellow Misterican to speak to. If he could have that - anyone - it doesn't matter if he knew them or not - just anyone would do.

Black Wind may not have the Windarians but he had the humans and on that note - every other living species in the universe. Last of the Windarians, yes, but the man was hardly alone. The Prince of the Mist couldn't begin to say the same.

So it's a heaviness in his chest that he cannot describe. It is a heaviness in his heart that feels like there is a hole there. A hole in his soul that feels more gaping by the day. It feels like he's lost more fragments of himself than just the ones falling away due to Chaos' damage. He feels an emptiness he cannot begin to describe. An emptiness he cannot begin to explain and a frustration he does not know how to begin to voice that he was never gifted his half of the Oath. If he at least had, had that - then perhaps his chest wouldn't feel so hollow.

"There were all... like family to me. My family extended out far beyond the boarders of a standard human consideration. I do not know how humans would feel about this or if they have something similar but my family - I had two. I had my family by blood and my family by soul. On Misterica, we had a practice we referred to as a soul bind. In which two Mistericans would offer up their Mists to create gems similar to the one around your neck.

Except in doing so, they would become committed to each other. For life. We called this practice a Life Oath, and I had seven of them. All of my teachers made such an Oath to me upon taking their positions and Revon had as well close to when I was born. They were in service to me, and I'm sure that sounds odd to someone outside of my culture but that is just how such an Oath functioned.

They bound themselves to my very soul to serve me for the remainder of their lives... and I don't even have my half of the Oath to keep them close. Our Mists created gems that were fitted to a set of earrings. They were to wear one and I, the other, but I wouldn't have been given them until I became an adult. They were lost with Misterica, I'm afraid."

A thicker cloud of mist escapes his lips as he sighs in defeat and shoulders fall towards the floor. There's a deep sadness reflecting in barely lit jade moons while fingers stitch together to fidget against themselves awkwardly.

"I miss them, Kain. I feel like there is a whole in my chest that grows bigger by the day. They were my entire world. All of them. They were all I knew but I was okay with that. I adored them. A family I chose and that chose me in return. It's been so hard, without them here with me. They were supposed to watch me grow up. I don't know why my mind will not think of anything else but they have consumed my thoughts completely tonight. I think I am just lonely. I am feeling rather empty and I normally feel quite lonely when I am feeling such a way. I'm sorry I'm dropping all this on you so suddenly."

He needs to wake up a bit more - Kumo deserves a lot better than this half-asleep attempt from him.

Something about focusing is so difficult sometimes, but he's got to try just like he always does.

He's got to do for Kumo what Kumo does so often for him and just concentrate.

As the Misterican settles in next to him, he puts all his thought into the way it feels, into the cool sensation of the swordsman's arm wrapped around him. It's just enough preparedness to listen with a more clear mind when Kumo does talk again.

Mother and Father and Usva - that's his brother, Kain thinks - and Revon - stoic, a kind man, his guard if he recalls correctly.

Surely their presence has to be missed, if it were constant. It has to be weird not having them so close by, like an empty space almost, like Kain assumes Mustang felt when their team was sent to every corner of the country. Profound loneliness - that's what it is.

He can't say he quite understands this time, but... but he can sympathize. He can be here. He can do his best to answer back what Kumo surely has thrown into the void all this time.

One of Kain's hands finds its way into soft white hair for a moment, mindful to avoid the horns nested within it as he thinks of what to say.

"It's okay to miss them," he replies, clearing the sleep from his throat. "You loved them. You loved them a whole lot and you still do. It doesn't just end because they're not physically here. It doesn't just end because the memories aren't as vivid anymore - love's just weird like that, right? It's great, but it hurts just as much sometimes... and I'm not gonna fault you for hurting. You can't replace people like that. And you know, I don't talk about Amestris much, but... there's one thing I liked, if you'll listen. There's one thing that someone I cared a lot about told me not too long before he died."

Pass it on. Pay it forward. That's what Kain does - communications experts are the most efficient messenger pigeons.

"He said to me that the only way he knew how to deal with the fact people and friends died out there in Fotset was... was that it was true only physically. He said when they die, it's... not like they're being erased forever, because they still existed to us. They're dead. They're totally dead, and it hurts so bad, but we've still got... so much of them to hold onto."

It's a miracle he's able to finish the statement without crying. Usually, any thought of that kid brings him nearly to tears, so talking - well, talking is usually off the table. Somehow, his eyes barely sting at all. Somehow, he's able to move himself a bit away from Kumo to the very edge of the mattress to pick up his coat off the floor, and he's able to dig in the pockets to find a pressed piece of metal.

It's only a few inches long, fitting in the palm of his hand. There's rust around the edge and numbers punched under the letters on its surface. He doesn't need to see to know exactly what it all says because he's read it and run his fingers across it thousands of times now to the point some of the lacquer has stripped off.

"This was his. I was... supposed to turn it in, but even if I hadn't ended up here, I don't think I would have." He's handing it to his friend, trusting Kumo will be careful with it and return it to him later on. He has no reason to believe Kumo is anything less than respectful.

"That tag was literally all that was left of him. Found it like... a week after it happened. And I think - it's probably really stupid - but I think that was just him reminding me to remember, because like... that's the only way he can still live in any way, is if people remember him. Sometimes, it helps me be less... lonely, I guess? Like maybe all that love I have for him doesn't have anywhere to go, but his - his, I still feel, because he existed once. I don't know how your people felt about stuff like that, but... they loved you, I bet. And it's emptier without them, but I- I don't know exactly where I was going, but I think I'm trying to remind you that it's okay to miss them and... it's not stupid to do that. And if you want to just... lay here and grieve for a bit, you can."

[meyerlansky]

since I watched u play thru marble nest and you had all those withheld Thoughts and Opinions can I ask ur thoughts on one aspect of the story: the way everyone in town seems to disagree on what kind of person dankovsky is, what he wants to do, etc.? it feels to me like it's meaningful on a story and meta level that he's so built up by others to be whatever they want to see?

admittedly most of those went unsaid because i’m inarticulate as shit when i can’t write my thoughts out and i lost my train of thought talking to npcs, and also all of them basically just end in "godDAMN i love him"

BUT YES oh man i definitely agree, daniil is on the receiving end of a TON of projection and assumptions, and i think the thing is, he sort of... cultivates it? like artemy gets people's assumptions projected on him too, but he's MUCH more vocal about correcting it when someone's expectations of him don't match up with how he sees himself. daniil, on the other hand, tends to wear people's perceptions of him like a second skin, and doesn't push back nearly as hard or as often when those perceptions don't sync up. i will be nice to my dash and put my rambly bullshit under a cut, but tl;dr i think daniil finds value in finding out how people see him and utilizing that perception to get what he really wants, and he's willing to play the villain in particular because a. negative perception is as useful as positive perception if you're clever enough to use it to your advantage, and b. based on some stuff in artemy's route but especially based on the particular circumstances of marble nest, he thinks that, to some degree, he deserves to be thought badly of.

so i realized halfway through writing this you probably meant marble nest's story specifically, but i think it's relevant to his characterization in artemy's route too, because... marble nest daniil is not that different from artemy route daniil, as far as i'm concerned—he's just more desperate and more beaten down. as for the actual question, overall i get the vibe that daniil's used to leveraging how he's perceived to get what he needs out of a situation, and he's waaay more comfortable playing the villain than, say, artemy is, if that's what people are putting on him from jump. it's less work, right? correcting people's assumptions is a waste of valuable time and energy, and people are hard to convince once they've set their mind to something. why bother when you can just play along and, if you're clever enough about it, get what you need out of the interaction anyway? he gets built up into so many different versions of himself by different characters because he's willing to be different things to different people without it eroding his goals or his sense of self. he has a flair for the dramatic, obviously, but i don't know how much of it is innate and how much of it is cultivated in service of that kind of perception leveraging. like, prime example, the day 1 conversation with artemy reads as EXTREMELY performative—from his word choice to his demeanor to the exclamation points in the dialogue to the fucking LIGHTING, he comes off like he's playing a role, and not a new one. and when the conversation's over, he's learned some things about what kind of person artemy is, what kinds of things get a rise out of him, all without really revealing too much of his own hand. but the front sloughs off the closer he gets to artemy, and it sloughs off QUICK, to the point that A DAY AND A HALF LATER he's gone from saying "you owe me" in the most facetious way possible to "i need your help" and "if this goes badly, i'll take the consequences" completely unselfconsciously, and subsequent conversations with artemy are complete turnarounds from how he approaches artemy and their relationship on day 1. on the whole, i think he cares way less about his reputation than he does about Getting Shit Done, and he's surprisingly willing to be the scapegoat for other people's fears and other negative emotions, as long as the end result doesn't hamper his goals. which makes some sense considering his corpus of research involves spitting directly in the face of natural law and the people who consider themselves responsible for enforcing it. you don't do that kind of shit if you care about being well-liked. so i think 99% of the time, daniil gets read multiple ways—often incorrectly—because he finds more value in utilizing those perceptions than he finds in correcting them and Being Known. as far as characters we see in the game go, artemy's the exception, which might change once daniil's route is out, but every comment everyone else makes to artemy about daniil leans on their assumptions about him, which means he's not going around showing anyone else what he really thinks.

i also think daniil has sort of... internalized that he's Unlikable, on a personal level. he doesn't walk into a single situation in p2 expecting to be liked, or willingly helped, or for his presence to be wanted beyond the utility he can provide. he relies almost entirely on his ability to deliver solutions [with, uh, declining success as the game goes on], the respect his reputation and his status as the kains' guest confers, and on the rumor that he's willing to get violent if things don't go his way. i think he's utterly convinced his ultimate goals will benefit humanity as a whole and therefore are fundamentally good, but i don't think he thinks HE'S good. there's a couple of moments in marble nest where he can pretty explicitly shoot down people saying nice things about him, and the "i guess i had to prove them right" and "do you condemn me?" lines in the shelter convo do not read to me like the words of a man who thinks he's 100% in the right in the way he's gone about achieving his goals. so like as much as i think he does have a very solid sense of Who He Is, i don't think it's a very generous self-image, and i don't think it's entirely accurate either, because i do think he's fundamentally a good person, despite people [in the game and out of it] not really bothering to push past whatever front he's put on. artemy pushes through it, and the kids in marble nest push through it, and i think it's somewhat telling that the kids in marble nest are... the only real people IN marble nest. georgiy undermining his authority as soon as he's indisposed is part of the fever dream; the soldiers and orderlies believing he's the one giving the okay to kill kids and civilians are part of the fever dream; the clerk assuming daniil will agree with his racist bullshit is part of the fever dream. all these negative images of himself are in his head—based on previous conversations with the real people, but at the time of marble nest, in his head. they're all things he, somewhere in his mind, expects people to think of him or expect of him, and to me, that's not the kind of stuff someone as arrogant and convinced of his own awesomeness as people seem to think daniil is would think about himself. but the kids worrying about his health and taking care of him while he's infected are real, and for whatever reason they think he's worth trying to save. THAT'S the reality, THAT'S who he really is, even if he can't see it himself, and i don't think he can.

so ANYWAY i think the multiplicity of daniils in marble nest in particular is to some degree a manifestation of the fact that he IS willing to be different things to different people, that he knows this about himself, and that he has SOME level of anxiety over the thought of the various masks becoming the reality, and him losing control over who he ACTUALLY is, not just how he's perceived. i think this bothers him in artemy's route as well—the last thing he says to artemy translates to "the greatest power is to have power over oneself" and i do not think he's talking about himself. i think he's talking about artemy, and the fact that, ESPECIALLY from daniil's perspective in artemy's route, artemy very much controls not only his own narrative, but at the very least strongly influences daniil's and everyone else's too. [there are also layers and layers with that line and the doll narrative but i am too tired to get into it right now and also the doll narrative fucks my feelings up in so many ways.] i have no idea if any of this makes any sense, but here it is /gestures weakly at All This

[carewyncromwell]

The Cinderella AU is back...and with it, a proper introduction to the character who fills the “evil stepmother” role -- Carewyn’s cold, cruel grandfather, Charles Cromwell. If you’d like to learn more about Charles and his family’s canon counterparts, you can consult this post, but to summarize quickly, in Carewyn’s canon, Carewyn’s mother Lane ran away from home to elope with a Muggle, which ended up protecting Carewyn and Jacob from Charles’s emotionally abusive influence. (At least until R started going after them, because hey, what d’you know, in Carey-bear’s canon, Charles is R’s leader.) But in this AU, Carewyn has to answer to Charles for some reason...so yeah, that doesn’t bode well, does it? You’ll just have to read on to learn a little more about why that might be...

Fashion changed very dramatically during the Renaissance, thanks in large part to the cross-pollination of different cultures and influences that came from more extensive travel, the growing popularity of published works, and royal funding of the arts. Pre-Renaissance men’s fashion, at least for the nobility, was very big on oversized sleeves, which ended up creating a more “top-heavy” frame. (Just look at most portraits of King Henry VIII.) As the Renaissance went on, though, trunk hose (which creates that kind of “bubble butt” look that we’re used to seeing in William Shakespeare Halloween costumes) became the latest fad, shifting a man’s frame to be much more “bottom-heavy.” Women’s fashion briefly flirted with wide trumpet sleeves (as one can see in this portrait of a young Elizabeth Tudor, later Queen Elizabeth I), but by the time the 1550′s were over, rounded sleeves grew much more popular. Fitted sleeves also went in and out of style in a lot of Europe throughout the 16th century, though sleeves were considered a special feature on gowns, so they often had a lot of embellishments, such as paneling, embroidery, or puffs. One exception to this rule, however, was in Italy, where fitted, detachable sleeves that could be used on multiple gowns became fashionable. Fashion in Italy in the 16th century was notably understated and modest compared to a lot of Europe, which tended to favor a lot of ornate beading and embroidery -- there were even laws on the books restricting how “bedazzled” women’s fashion could be. One such law even banned stripes, as it was considered wasteful to use two different kinds of fabric just to make a pattern. That being said, there were plenty of people in Italy who said “screw the rules” and worked around them anyway. Carewyn’s dress in this picture is somewhat based on this design, but with some tweaking, most notably with a fuller skirt and more ornate and puffy sleeves.

Previous part is here -- whole tag is here -- and I hope you enjoy!

x~x~x~x

When the end of the month arrived, Andre requested that Carewyn come to his chambers bright and early in the morning. Carewyn had anticipated that the prince had some extra duties for her to attend to, but instead, he immediately led her over to a corner of his bed chamber that he’d drawn a curtain around. When he pulled the curtain back, he revealed a full tailoring station inside his walk-in closet, complete with organized rolls of fabric, various jewels and beads strewn about over a table, several unfinished hats stacked on the nearby desk, an entire separate wardrobe of unfinished pieces, and several mannequins with fine fabrics half-pinned on them.

One mannequin, however, was wearing a completely finished, luxurious dark scarlet gown. It was made of about six different fabrics, all cut and sewn together in a complex tapestry of folds and textures and trimmed with many sparkling beads and jewels. Also lying on the floor just in front of the dress was a pair of heeled shoes made of off-white cloth with red and white roses sewn into the toes.

Carewyn couldn’t help but gape. Andre was grinning from ear to ear.

“So?” he asked. “What do you think?”

Carewyn glanced out the side of her eye at the prince, over to the dress, and back.

“Did you...make this, your Highness?” she asked, amazed.

Andre laughed. “Carewyn, please, it’s ‘Andre.’ But yes! I got inspired while working on your shoes, so I stitched this up to go with it. ...Do you like it?”

Carewyn walked around the mannequin to look over the gown, not daring to touch it. She’d never seen so many fine fabrics on one dress before -- velvet, linen, silk -- and all the embellishments must’ve taken full days to finish --

“It’s -- well, it’s extraordinary, your -- Andre,” she corrected herself very quickly noticing the prince’s pointed smile. Even she was finding it difficult not to smile too. “The beading on the sleeves, the lace work -- the alternating wool and cotton paneling along the bodice...it’s worthy of an artisan!”

Andre looked clearly both incredibly pleased and impressed. “You have an eye for detail, Carewyn!”

His face burst into a bright white grin as he bent down and picked up one of the off-white cloth shoes.

“I’m pleased you like it,” he said brightly. “I thought it’d be the perfect thing for you to wear today. Lord Cromwell sent a message to the palace asking Father if you could return home for a visit -- so I worked all night to get this done in time so that you could wear it for your outing with your new shoes.”

Despite her best efforts, Carewyn couldn’t completely keep the dismay and discomfort she felt off her face.

“What? Oh -- oh, your Highness, I -- ”

“Ah, ah, ah,” chided Andre, “what have I asked you to call me?”

“Andre,” Carewyn corrected very quickly, her eyes drifting up onto the dress rather than at Andre, “this dress is...truly beautiful...but it befits a lady of status, not -- ”

“It fits you,” Andre said, undaunted. “I used the measurements from your uniform fitting. It should fit you like a glove -- or better.”

Carewyn felt like her stomach was shriveling up. She hated turning away such a lovely gift -- under any other circumstances, she would love wearing it out and about. But...

“That...that is...it’s so kind of you, to use me as your template...”

Or “dress-up doll” -- that is what the Queen said I would be, isn’t it?

“...but I simply couldn’t wear such a gift on my visit...not when I have no comparable gifts to bring my cousins. Many of them are around my age, and...and well, I know Heather, Iris, and Dahlia would be very upset, knowing I got to wear such a beautiful dress and they didn’t.”

None of her cousins had ever been very respectful of Carewyn’s personal belongings. Not long after she first arrived, her aunt Pearl’s two bullying sons, Kain and Arsen, stole her jewelry box while she was sleeping and sold both it and its contents for pocket change. Her youngest cousin, her uncle Blaise’s bratty son Tristan, had once thrown a bottle of red wine out the window that shattered mere feet away from Carewyn and soaked her dress so badly that it never washed out. Even Iris had -- after Carewyn caught the eye of one of her suitors who’d come to call -- ripped the sleeve off Carewyn’s dress so badly that she had to hide from sight for most of the day, until she’d managed to sew it up enough that her chest wasn’t exposed. Carewyn had had to hide her mother’s old dress from her cousins for years, for fear they might steal and/or ruin it.

Andre frowned deeply.

“Well, I hardly can send along anything for your cousins without knowing their measurements,” he said with a quick glance at the wardrobe full of unfinished pieces.

His face then brightened with an idea.

“How about this -- I’ll order you. I order you to wear this dress on your trip home, and to have your cousins give you their honest opinion of it. Then you must bring their opinions back to me. Goodness knows I could use some feedback -- and maybe a few new ideas, if they have them,” he added with a teasing grin.

Carewyn opened her mouth to object, but Andre cut her off.

“As your prince, I command you to showcase my work to your family,” he said through a broad grin. “Am I clear?”

Carewyn really, really didn’t love the idea -- but she had to concede that she could use this to her advantage. She needed a stable place at the palace in order to achieve her goals, and she could help maintain that stable place at the palace by justifying to Charles why she had to be there. And Charles’s whole interest in her being there was to try to endear the Cromwells further to the royal family, and maybe even secure one of her Aunt Claire’s daughters a space in that family...

So, with a heavy sigh, she put on a small smile and inclined her head respectfully.

“Very well, Andre. I’ll wear your work proudly.”

And so Carewyn set off for the Cromwell estate on horseback, dressed in the new shoes and dress Andre had made for her. The shoes were lovely and fit perfectly, but they were rather impractical for walking around outdoors. Carewyn thought to herself that she might have to continue wearing her old shoes when she returned to her palace work, if for no other reason that she hated the thought of getting them scuffed up.

As to be expected, when she arrived, her cousins reacted very hostilely to her appearance.

“Well, well,” sneered curly-black-haired Kain, “what do we have here? Playacting as a lady, little Winnie?”

“All hail Lady Cinderwyn, Duchess of Dust!” sniggered his similarly dark-haired brother Arsen.

He reached for her wide skirt, but Carewyn -- remaining on her horse -- steered herself far enough back that he couldn’t reach.

“I wouldn’t damage this, if I were you,” she said as coolly and levelly as she could. “It’s not mine.”

Arsen and Kain exchanged a mocking, wide-eyed look and an “oooooh.”

“Are you a thief now, little Winnie?” asked Kain. “How far you’ve fallen -- we might need to call the castle guard on you -- ”

“Cinderwyn’s a thief!” crowed tiny Tristan in a sing-song voice. “Cinderwyn’s a thief!”

Claire’s three daughters looked a lot less mocking.

“You have some nerve, stealing clothes from your betters,” spat dainty, brown-haired Heather. “Grandfather should lash you within an inch of your life -- ”

“I haven’t stolen anything,” Carewyn said very firmly. “Now I wish to see Grandfather. I have a message from the Prince he’ll want to hear.”

“Grandfather’s inside,” said Claire’s gangling, button-nosed son Elmer with a crooked smile. “I’m sure he’ll enjoy your new look, Lady Cinderwyn...especially with the finishing touch!”

He jumped right into a mud puddle that splashed everywhere. Carewyn just barely avoided the spray, but when she moved back, Dahlia and Iris successfully grabbed hold of her velvet brocaded skirt and yanked hard in either direction, as if trying to rip it.

“Iris -- Dahlia --  ” said Carewyn, her voice growing colder and harder as she struggled to hold in her temper and emotion as best she could, “if either of you have any ambition to marry his Highness, I would strongly suggest letting go of his dress this instant!”

All of Carewyn’s cousins stiffened.

“His dress?” repeated Dahlia, looking outraged. “You mean to say you took this from the Prince?!”

“He bid me to wear it, for my visit,” Carewyn shot back fiercely. “Or would you have me oppose his Highness’s will?”

“You...arrogant, pretentious, ungrateful little rat!” shrieked Dahlia. She tried to yank Carewyn off her horse, and there was a slight struggle as Carewyn tried to both comfort her horse and prevent Dahlia from dislodging her.

“Now, now, children,” said a very coldly serene voice, “a little less noise there.”

All of the Cromwell children looked up to see Charles Cromwell striding across the lawn. He was dressed in black, gray, and white with a dark red cape with black trim, and he supported himself on an ebony-wood cane with a dragon’s head carved out of black zircon for a handle. Behind him were Carewyn’s aunts, Pearl and Claire, with their husbands, as well as her uncle Blaise. All three of them were looking over Carewyn’s outfit disapprovingly -- Blaise looked particularly irritated, his upper lip curling as he rested a hand on top of Tristan’s shoulder that made the small boy flinch.

Iris and Dahlia were still clinging to Carewyn’s skirt, but they’d frozen up like startled cats when their grandfather appeared.

“Grandfather -- ” stammered Iris, “W-Winnie’s a no-good thief -- she stole this dress from -- !”

"I have stolen nothing,” Carewyn repeated coldly. She stroked her horse’s white mane several times to soothe it.

Pearl too had come up to rest a hand on Arsen’s shoulder and was looking at Carewyn very critically out her own almond-shaped blue eyes -- most of Carewyn’s family had them.

“Is that so?” she said, her voice a low growl in her throat. “Explain, then, what gives you the nerve to show up here dressed in such obnoxious clothes.”

“It’s positively garish,” added Claire in a higher, simpering tone from her comfortable spot in her husband’s arms, mirroring her sister’s disapproval like a child would imitate their older sibling.

Carewyn raised her eyebrows very coolly. “Prince Henri will be very disappointed to hear that. He worked very hard on this.”

This startled all of the Cromwells. Blaise looked scandalized.

“And I suppose that makes you think the Prince favors you somehow?” he spat, his eyes flashing dangerously as he released Tristan’s shoulder and approached Carewyn’s horse. “Rather than just thinking of using you as some saucy little tart and then discarding you, just like your wretch of a father did your mother -- ”

"I think nothing of the sort,” Carewyn cut him off coldly.

Don’t you dare talk about my mother.

Charles, the least visibly startled, took a few steps forward. Iris and Dahlia finally released Carewyn’s skirt so as to get out of the way, and Charles came to a stop about three feet from Carewyn’s horse, his own almond-shaped eyes locked on his ginger-haired granddaughter’s face.

“I believe you owe me a full report, child,” he said quietly. “Stand before me and give it.”

Carewyn’s red-painted lips pursed as she picked up her skirts and descended from her horse at last. She looked up at Charles with a very stoic expression.

“Prince Henri learned that I would be coming to see you, as per your request,” she explained. “He commanded that I wear this dress, for my visit. He’s heard about my cousins and desires Dahlia, Iris, and Heather’s opinions on it. Then he requested I deliver their feedback back to him this evening.”

The time limit was a flat-out lie, but one Carewyn knew she could get away with. She did not want to stay at the Cromwell estate overnight -- she’d rather sleep on a lumpy old cot in the servants’ quarters than on the floor by the kitchen fireplace. 

Claire looked at Charles, her face breaking into a rather eager expression. “His Highness wishes to hear from my daughters? He must have heard from the rest of the court of their extensive talents -- ”

“Or at least purported talents,” said Blaise under his breath with a rather cynical look. “Seems the rumor mill is working well...“

Pearl shot Blaise a glare, but Claire didn’t seem to hear him -- she had already whirled on Carewyn.

“Tell his Highness that the dress is a work of art, fit for a queen!” she said insistently. “And make sure that he knows that there are much better models for his work here, at the Cromwell estate -- Iris has a far superior build, Dahlia the most perfect shoulders -- ”

“I suppose Winnie can do far worse than inanely fawning over your daughters’ target on their behalf,” said Blaise in a rather cutting voice. “Mindlessly swooning certainly worked for you.”

“Blaise!” Pearl snapped reproachfully.

Charles’s eyes drifted over Claire and her three anxious-looking daughters thoughtfully.

“...What feedback...do you believe would most please his Highness, child?” he asked Carewyn.

“He appreciated it when I noticed the details,” said Carewyn. “I would think if anyone had any creative ideas to add onto it...or perhaps constructive criticism...he might react well to it. His Highness is very interested in fashion and tailoring...I’m sure he would appreciate knowing someone who could indulge in that passion with him.”

He must be awfully lonely, locked up in the palace all the time. It’s no wonder he tried to find things to do indoors that could bring him some joy, if he’s unable to go much of anywhere...

Charles’s eyes flitted over the silk and ornate beading on Carewyn’s sleeves.

“His Highness certainly does have an eye for finery...has the royal family come into additional wealth recently?”

“I don’t think so,” said Carewyn. “The castle staff is very limited. And although the nobility are all dressed and fed well and the castle is decadent, the staff is frequently short of common necessities like nails and coal for the fire. Not to mention the staff’s rations are sparse.”

Iris gave a loud, haughty laugh. “Ha! Probably just as well -- you could do with getting some of that meat off your thighs!”

“Iris,” said Charles very sleekly, even as the rest of Carewyn’s cousins sniggered.

His lips curled up in a smile that didn’t touch his eyes.

“...It seems that the King and Queen are indeed in need of our family’s charity. But we must indulge their pride. It’ll be far easier for them to accept help from a future daughter-in-law and princess than simply from a loyal servant of the realm. Carewyn -- you shall report back what his Highness wishes to hear. Customize three answers for Heather, Iris, and Dahlia -- one fawning, one critical, one creative. Whichever answer he likes best, we will then pursue that route with the cousin you’ve assigned to it.”

His almond-shaped blue eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly upon Carewyn’s face.

“And once we’ve secured an invitation from the Prince...I expect that you will step aside, to make room for your cousin to make her move.”

Carewyn’s expression didn’t shift.

“I’m not interested in courting princes,” she said lowly.

Heather, Iris, and Dahlia can knock themselves out. Andre will see through them sooner or later, and it’ll be all their own fault.

There was a cold, diamond-like glint in Charles’s eye. “...Yes...you truly don’t care to chase any man except for your brother...do you, Carewyn, my dear?”

Carewyn tried not to blink or look away.

“You have news of Jacob?”

Charles sighed airily. “I’m afraid not, my dear. I know he’s well, of course...but news from the War front, as you know, is simply impossible to come by...”

“You know he’s alive,” Carewyn shot back a bit more sharply than she meant to. “That doesn’t mean he’s well. No one could be doing well out there.”

“And yet I’m sure you’re happy that the first is guaranteed?” said Charles. “At least, so long as you do your duty to your family, and to me?”

It was a warning, but it was done so delicately -- it was like his voice was flirting with a threat, rather than flat-out making one.

Carewyn’s lips came together tightly as her gaze drifted to the ground.

“You know I wish no harm to come to either you or Jacob,” Charles said softly. “Losing a child was terrible enough, losing grandchildren as well...well, it would deeply upset me. And per our agreement, you are the one who must shoulder the burden of your brother’s and your debt to me...particularly since you have no dowry and no possible claim to my estate. Remember, Carewyn...you are responsible for how you are treated -- and for how Jacob is treated.” 

Carewyn’s eyebrows knit tightly together over her closed eyes.

“...Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now then -- rehearse the answers you plan to give to his Highness with your cousins. I wish them to sound convincing, so that when one or more of them is invited to the palace, they will be able to play their part appropriately.”

Carewyn hated every minute of hashing out responses with Heather, Iris, and Dahlia. Like their mother Claire, they and Elmer were all “follower” type personalities who tended to echo whatever they thought would please others -- so Dahlia, Iris, and Heather were constantly trying to steal each other’s ideas to “improve” Carewyn’s answers, despite all three of them supposedly needing to take three different approaches as part of Charles’s plan. Even the three girls’ hostile attitude toward Carewyn largely came down to her refusing to follow their direction, despite her lowered status in the family giving them authority over her -- something that, Carewyn believed, they would never do if their positions were switched.

When Carewyn was finally ready to leave (and successfully avoided Tristan’s muddy hands when the wickedly grinning little boy forcibly tried to hug her goodbye so he could leave stains on her dress), Blaise pulled Charles aside. As the male heir of the Cromwell legacy, Blaise had always followed in his father’s footsteps most, but there was one thing they didn’t agree on.

“Father,” he said, his voice very low in the back of his throat as he watched Carewyn ride away at a fast gallop, “I don’t approve of her returning to that place.”

Charles smiled coldly. “You always have disliked sharing your toys with others, Blaise.”

“It’s a bad influence!” said Blaise, whirling on his father. “We can’t monitor what she does, how she behaves -- who she speaks to -- how can we hope to keep her, if we consistently open her cage?”

Charles’s eyes, the same color and shape of all of his children and most of his grandchildren, sparkled with something crueler.

“Ah, my boy,” he said sardonically, “you have much to learn about cages. Physical cages have strong bars, but ones easy to see and constantly weathered. But a cage forged carefully in another’s mind...can become so strong that the prisoner willingly chooses to stay.”

Charles turned on his heel, his lips curling up further still even though his face remained so doll-like and emotionless.

“As weak and overemotional of a thing she is, Carewyn is far more like you and me than Lane ever was. She’s very resourceful and she’ll do whatever she has to in order to get what she wants -- and that drive fuels everything she is and does. It may make her spirited, but it also makes it so that as long as she sees Jacob’s life in the palm of my hand...so too will she be.”

Blaise’s eyes flickered with a strange skepticism. “And...if Jacob’s life were ever not under your sway?”

Charles’s expression grew even more detached and emotionless as his smile faded and his eyebrows raised.

“...Would Carewyn really want to contemplate what state he’d be in, if he weren’t?”

Carewyn couldn’t be happier to leave the Cromwell estate behind. She didn’t slow down her horse’s pace until she’d reached the outskirts of the market, well after the manor house was out of sight. Only then did she slow her horse down to a leisurely trot, so that she could enjoy some time on her own wandering down the village streets before heading back to the palace. The castle staff wasn’t expecting her back to work until the following morning, so she could take her time.

Unfortunately for Carewyn, there was another reason her cousin Tristan’s hands had been so muddy -- and that reason soon became apparent when Carewyn reached into one of the pockets on the side of her saddle, thinking to temporarily change out of the pretty shoes Andre had given her and were now pinching her feet for the ride home. When she reached into the pocket, she instead found the tiny snake that Tristan had stolen out of the reeds by the nearby pond.

With a scream of surprise, Carewyn flung the snake to the ground -- the snake arched back, hissing angrily, and that in turn spooked Carewyn’s horse. With a loud, scared whinny, it reared back, bucking wildly.

“Whoa!” cried Carewyn. “Whoa, boy -- whoa!”

Several passerby turned around at the sound of the noise. A few looked like they wanted to help, but were too warded off by the horse’s kicking feet. Carewyn tried desperately to calm her horse, stroking its mane with one hand and clinging desperately onto the reins with the other, but it was no use. She wasn’t strong enough to wrench her horse into submission. And so when the horse gave a particularly violent jerk, Carewyn was thrown right off.

“AHH!”

Out of nowhere, someone dashed forward. Carewyn ended up slamming right into them, and the two landed roughly in a heap in the dirt.

Carewyn watched her horse gallop off the street, her face very tense and distraught. She then looked down at the person she’d landed on top of, and she gave a visible start.

Her “hero” was a man about her age dressed in modest clothes with tanned skin, slightly-too-long dark hair, and a beard. His sparkling black eyes were squinted slightly as he winced in pain, but nonetheless shone with some concern as he looked her over.

“Are you hurt, Lady Cromwell?” asked Orion.