#I don’t actually have a problem with the dance party scene

[bucksboobs]

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[uzurakis]

Hiii I have a bllk request- Sae and/or Kaisers reactions to their gf getting hit on :)))

Have a great day/night thank youuu :))

TRYNA GET WHAT’S MINE?!

featuring: michael kaiser. itoshi sae. itoshi rin. ryusei shidou.

n. i needed to rewrite your entire request again because the moment i clicked save, tumblrdotcom decided to not save it for me (yes, i wrote it directly in the drafts) + i didn’t proofread (too lazy). and well nonnie, this is ur req ^^ hope ya have an amazing day/night too :D

MICHAEL KAISER. you offered a polite smile, glancing around for kaiser. “why, thank you,” you replied, trying to keep the conversation brief. “i’m actually here with someone.”

the man ignored your hint and continued, “well, he’s a lucky guy. mind if i keep you company until he returns?”

just then, kaiser appeared, two champagne flutes in hand. his red eyeliner narrowed slightly as he took in the scene. with a dramatic flourish, he stepped between you and the man. “hey! am i interrupting something? oh wait, i am! oops.” your boyfriend grinned, feigning innocence.

the man hadn’t responded when kaiser slid an arm around your waist and pulled you close. he planted a loud, exaggerated kiss on your cheek, making sure everyone nearby could see. “just marking my territory. nothing to see here, buddy.”

“alright then,” the man raised his hands, clearly taken aback. “no need to get possessive. i’ll leave you two to it.”

as the man walked away, kaiser turned to you with a playful smirk. “but looks like you have an admirer. should i be worried, mein liebling?”

“not at all, mr. jealous, not at all.” you said laughing whilst lightly smacking his chest.

“good. because i’d hate to have to fend off any more admirers tonight. it’s exhausting work.”

ITOSHI SAE. “my partner is waiting for me, sorry,” you shifted uncomfortably, glancing in the direction where sae had gone. “oh, come on, don’t be like that,” the stranger persisted, leaning in even closer. “one dance wouldn’t hurt, would it?”

then however, you felt a familiar presence beside you. sae had returned, his face a mask of cold fury. “is there a problem here?” he asked, voice sharp and his eyes glaring daggers at the stranger.

the stranger straightened up, taken aback by sae’s sudden appearance. “uh, no, man. just talking to her.”

sae’s grip on your wrist tightened. “this party is boring. we’re leaving,” he said, didn’t even bother to wait for the guy’s response. he guided you away, his hand firmly holding yours.

when you both walked out of the venue, sae’s pace was brisk, his silence fuming with barely-contained jealousy. it was emanating, you could feel the tension radiating from him. just before you exited, sae threw one final, icy look back at the guy who had hit on you.

once outside, you stopped, pulling gently on sae’s hand to slow him down. “sae, it’s okay,” you said softly, trying to calm him.

he stopped, turning to face you, his eyes still burning with anger. “it’s not?” he said, voice low and intense. “i just can’t stand the thought of anyone else trying to take what’s mine,” he admitted, tone rough with emotion.

“let’s just, get out of here. i need to be alone with you.”

ITOSHI RIN. you took a step back, trying to maintain a polite distance. “no, i’m not interested.” but the guy ignored your words, moving closer. “just your instagram, perhaps?”

out of the blue, rin appeared beside you, his presence commanding immediate attention. his eyes, usually more relaxed and lousy, had turned cold and hard, like shards of ice. he stepped between you and the guy, movements sharp and precise, as if he were a predator cornering its prey.

“you should be careful who you hit on,” rin said, voice low and menacing. each word was enunciated with a deadly calm. the guy hesitated, clearly intimidated by rin’s intense gaze and threatening tone. he swallowed hard, the confident smirk slipping from his face. “i . . i didn’t mean any harm,” he stammered, bravado evaporating under rin’s piercing stare.

rin took a step forward, closing the gap even more. his shoulders were squared, and his posture much radiated authority and danger. “move along,” he ordered, voice dropping to a deadly whisper that brooked no argument, “get out of my sight.” the menace in his tone was unmistakable, as if each syllable dripping with venom.

rin nodded, his gaze still scanning the crowd for any potential threats. “you and i stick together for the rest of the night. i don’t want to leave your side.”

RYUSEI SHIDOU. as you were nibbling on a canapé, a guy approached with a charming smile. “hey there, beautiful. enjoying the party?” you smiled politely. “yes, it’s quite nice.” next, he leaned in slightly, clearly interested. “i couldn’t help but notice you from across the room. want me to fetch us a drink?”

seconds before your words intended to sprung out, you felt familiar arms wrap around you from behind. shidou pulled you close, the presence of him leaving a mark of possesiveness. “careful,” he said whilst eyeing the stranger, his voice remarkably stayed playful, “she’s a heartbreaker. trust me, i know.”

you laughed, shaking your head. “liieess. i am not.”

the guy looked a bit taken aback by shidou’s sudden appearance and casual demeanor. shidou, however, was completely unfazed. he gave you a playful squeeze, resting his chin on your shoulder.

“so,” shidou said, turning his attention to you for a second time, “who do you think has better biceps? him or me?” he flexed one arm slightly, showcasing his muscles under his short sleeve as if the stranger wasn’t even there.

you couldn’t help but giggle at the absurdity of the situation, playing along with shidou’s antics with your style. “aww baby, you know the answer already. now you’re going to make him apprehensive.”

shidou grinned, giving you another squeeze. “just making sure you know who the real winner is here.”

the guy, sensing he was outmatched, finally surrendered. “i get it. i’ll leave you two lovebirds alone.”

he walked away, and you turned in shidou’s arms to face him and no words, you only chuckled at him. shidou shrugged, “y’know, i hafta keep things interesting, baby.”

@uzurakis

[hunnylagoon]

hey! I want to request a fluffy one shot about ellie being a parent with the reader. The rest is in your hands, write what comes to ur mind!

Small Hands

Summary: People say that the magic disappears when you have children, that never applied to you and Ellie, you are just as hopelessly in love as the day you were married. You celebrate Christmas with your friends and family despite a few bumps in the road.

A/N: I usually don’t fuck with kids but this concept actually seemed really cute to me. This chapter is a bit shorter, sorry if it’s rushed, I wrote this while studying for my exams. Thank you for requesting! If anyone else has requests, feel free to leave them and I will get around to them! There is the smallest teensiest weensiest smidgen of a angst in the middle but it comes from a third party. Warning for mentions of postpartum depression

-

The air was infused with the spicy aroma of gingerbread and the warm glow of twinkling lights as a group of friends gathered for their annual Christmas party. The cozy living room, adorned with tinsel and stockings, echoed with laughter and the jingling of bells. The adults, each holding a mug of steaming cocoa (with a splash of Bailey's), exchanged stories of the year gone by while the children, eyes wide with wonder, eagerly awaited the arrival of Santa Claus.

The living room sparkled with the joy of reunion, as friends who had become family over the years shared in the holiday spirit. You being the hostess of the party, had a flair for festive decorations, you had turned your home into a winter wonderland, complete with a towering Christmas tree and a crackling fireplace. "Levi, get away from there!" Your eyes went wide and you slammed your mug onto the coffee table before you ran to retrieve your son who was wearing an elf onesie and had been attempting to pull out bottles from the wine rack. Your friends and family laughed at the scene "Geez," You grabbed him from beneath his arms and scooped him up, quickly bringing him close to your chest. He had just turned four and was rapidly getting too big for you to carry him. You put him on the ground and ushered him toward the game room telling him to go play with his sister while all of the children were playing some kind of board game or watching the Polar Express. "Where is your mother?" You mutter under your breath, gaze suddenly focusing on the sink full of dishes, you sigh and walk towards them, figuring it easier to get them done now as opposed to when the part has ended and you're too exhausted to do so.

In the tranquil kitchen, the rhythmic cadence of water splashing and the clink of porcelain against stainless steel create a melodic backdrop as you diligently tend to the post-dinner ritual of washing dishes, humming along to the song 'Last Christmas' which you could hear ever so faintly rise above the busy chatter of the living room. your hands, adorned with soap bubbles, move with a graceful choreography, navigating each plate, glass, and utensil with practiced efficiency. The moonlight streaming through the window illuminates the dance of water droplets, casting a prism of reflections on the gleaming surfaces. The scent of citrus-scented dish soap permeates the air, as you, lost in thought, scrub away at remnants of roast chicken and mashed potatoes.

"There's my girl," You feel a pair of arms snake around your waist, you didn't need to turn around to tell who it was; it had of course been your wife, you looked down at where her hands rested on your midriff, her silver wedding ring glistened beneath the warm overhead lighting in the kitchen.

"Are you aware your son is trying to get into the wine rack again?" You turn around to face her, her hands changed from their spot on your waist to the edge of the kitchen sink, leaving you stuck between her and the counter, faces inches apart.

"What can I say? He's got drinking problems," She teased, gaze flickering to your lips for a minute.

"That's all you," You said, your faces were so close that you could've sworn that you could count every single freckle on her face. Without warning, Ellie puts her hands back onto your waist to pull you close, she plants little kisses on your neck, earning a giggle from you "Really?" You laugh "Is me washing dishes really that attractive?"

"Oh, absolutely," She thought you were so incredibly stunning, even in something as simple as a red cable-knit sweater with faded mom jeans and hair tied up sloppy in a claw clip. You had only bought the claw clip in the first place because your daughter told you they were trendy.

"Okay, seriously, there are kids here," You laugh, gently pushing Ellie away from you "We can save that for later."

"You just look so beautiful," Ellie wears a goofy smile on her face.

"In mom jeans?"

She shrugs "As beautiful as the day I met you, if not more."

You can't help the huge smile that consumes your face. You and Ellie had met in college, she was a bartender and you went to her bar every single Friday just to see her, all of your friends sat in a booth but you would always push for them to sit at the bar when they refused, you sat alone just to talk to the pretty girl behind the bar. "Do you remember how we were spending Christmas in College?"

"One bottle of peppermint schnapps and a bag of chocolate-covered pretzels."

"You're forgetting a game of strip poker," You add.

"That's probably because I was hammered off my ass," She says bluntly and it makes you laugh. Back in college, the pair of you made plans to fly home to see your families but a snowstorm had other plans, with arrangements cancelled you went back to each other, cozying up on Ellie's beat-up couch and dumping schnapps into eggnog, god it tasted awful but the sound of Ellie laughing, her cheeks and nose pink from cold air almost made it taste better.

"You know..." You say, drawing Ellie's attention "I think it might be time to start the gingerbread house contest."

Ellie is way ahead of you, she leaves the kitchen and enters the game room, you can tell the exact moment she announced it by the kid's reactions all you heard was cheering before a dozen kids stormed out of the game room and gathered around the dining table where you had meticulously placed a gingerbread house decorating kit at each chair as well as little bowls full of several colours of frosting and miscellaneous candies lined down the center.

Parents sat next to their children or stood behind them, either rooting for them or guiding their small hands along the gingerbread, aiding the decorating process. Ellie sat between both of your children "Levi, you can eat it after you build it," She chuckled, gingerly moving the plastic butter knife of icing to the edge of a wall for the gingerbread house, "See? You put icing along the edges and then you stick it together and then when it dries, you have a house!" She explained in simple terms to your youngest, turning her head to look at your daughter who was too busy conversing with her friend to decorate "You should be listening to this too, Kenna, useful tips," She teased. Kenna rolled her eyes, she was ten years old and at that stage where she was starting to get embarrassed by her parents. Ellie laughed at your daughter's reaction, locking eyes with you from your spot by the doorway where the two of you share a look of understanding.

"Uh oh, looks like Papa's intervening," Dina said, she stood next to Jesse, cradling her baby, JJ, in her arms, watching the scene unfold.

"Alright, kiddo, here's what we're gonna do." Joel shooed Kenna's friend away, replacing her. Under hushed whispers he explained a plan to Kenna, the two were discussing a layout to win the gingerbread contest.

"Oh, it's getting heated now," Ellie said, now moving her focus onto Levi's sloppy gingerbread house.

Everyone was in the festive dining room, laughing and talking, truly in the Christmas spirit, all except for one; you heard what sounded like faint sobs coming from the kitchen. With furrowed eyebrows, you followed the sound and found none other than your friend, Catherine crying into her hands.

"What happened?" You break the silence, catching her attention.

Catherine begins to wipe away tears, shaking her head "It's nothing, it's so stupid-

"Well, it's not nothing if you're crying." You cross your arms. Catherine can't seem to get the words out, she just shakes her head and squeezes her eyes shut in her best attempt to push back tears, her blue eyes red and puffy "Whatever it is, I'm not going to judge you."

"It's just-" She takes a deep, shaky breath" Sometimes I wish I wasn't a mom, I just wish I could pack up my bags and leave in the middle of the night and never come back." Catherine was an English teacher at a middle school, you had met her not long after you met Ellie. She was also a new mother, she had only had her baby girl, Clementine for six months; you saw how tired she was, she always for dark bags under her eyes, she used to intricately braid her dirty blond hair every day but now she only had the energy in her to tie it up into a loose bun. "I'm sorry," She laughed "I don't know why I'm crying."

"Because it hurts." You answer, eyebrows furrowing with concern.

Your daughter ran into the kitchen with a huge smile on her little face "Mom, you need to see my house, Papa Joel is helping me and it looks really cool so far-" Her smile faded in the slightest when she saw you with Catherine, "Is Cathy okay?"

"She's fine, sweetheart," You kneel to eye level with Kenna "Her tummy just hurts from too much hot chocolate so I'm gonna take care of her for a bit." You brush one of Kenna's lose hair behind her ear and plant a kiss onto her freckled forehead "Just go back to making your house, I'm sure it looks awesome, I promise I'll come see it when it's done but I think your auntie Sarah would love to see it." Kenna nods casting one last look at Catherine who turned around to hide her tear-stained face from your daughter and hurried out of the kitchen. "Cath, let's talk outside." You move towards the sliding door on the other side of the kitchen, you hold it open for Catherine who follows you outside, immediately hugging herself in an attempt to fight off the cold. "So, where is this coming from?"

Catherine looks around the snow-covered yard, she sees the snowman that your children made with Ellie the day before and it only adds to the unbearable weight on her shoulders "I'm not good at this, I'm a bad mom-

"No, you're not-

She lets out another sob "Like just now, you are so patient with Kenna and Levi, you and Ellie have this incredible house and an amazing family, you guys never fight and I just feel like I'm falling behind."

"You're crazy if you think Ellie and I don't fight, we argue all the time about the stupidest things, like earlier we fought about who would pop that champagne cork. We fight, but that doesn't mean that we don't love each other, I'm sure you feel the same way about Emmet."

"I love Emmet," She says "I really do and I love Clementine so so much I just wish I had a minute to breathe." Catherine can hardly look you in the eyes "I work with kids all day and take care of them and then I get home and it's just more of the same but there's cooking and cleaning and it's endless."

The silence stretches between you two. Catherine's face is scrunched up, her pale turning red from the cold. With each unsteady breath, she heaves, a cloud of carbon dioxide emerges. The sleet covering every inch of ground acts as soundproofing over the neighbourhood, the only thing you can hear are birds flapping their wings and Catherine's heavy cries.

"Do you remember when I wanted to be a writer?" She asks "When I used to have dreams, I would hole myself up in that one corner booth of that coffee shop every Sunday and I would write for hours on end."

"And every time someone mentioned a book or movie that they like, you would ask what they liked about it so you could use bits of it in your writing." You say, your lips stretching into a thin melancholic smile at the memory.

"Well, it's all gone out the window." She was shaking by that point, not from the frigid air or her now wet socks but from misery "Two years ago I was hosting wine-tasting parties and Emmet was taking me out to these beautiful high-end restaurants. I could fit into sleek back dresses and wear high heels for hours without getting blisters, now all I eat is Kraft dinner and takeout. Every nice blouse I own has gotten baby vomit on it."

The way Catherine is speaking, she sounds bitter with despair hanging in her tone. You at a loss for words, postpartum depression was common but you hadn't realized just how much Catherine was suffering. She had spent six months feeling this way with no one to talk to. When you first adopted Kenna you were terrified, you thought that you wouldn't have a mother's instinct and that you were going to screw her up in some way or that she would resent you because you aren't her biological mother.

"I haven't got a full night of sleep in six months, all I hear is that fucking screeching cry. That's all she does is scream, she screams when she's happy, when she's sad, when she's upset and angry, it's all I hear and I'm so fucking sick of it." She buried her face into her hands "Emmet just loves her so much, he does everything with her without complaint and I can't help but hold the slightest bit of resent for her, I probably sound evil right now."

"You don't," You pulled Catherine in for a hug. Embracing her and all of her sadness, if it belonged to her then it belonged to you as well. "I'll tell you this right now, it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better." Her head was tucked into the crook of your neck.

"That isn't helping-

You pushed her away, holding onto her shoulders, forcing her to face you. "Remember when you adopted that dog?"

"Toothless," She smiled at the thought of her old Labrador.

"He was a puppy when you adopted him, he had way too much energy, barked at every sound, and pissed and shat on the floor of your apartment a lot," You say, face dead serious despite the subject matter "That night before exams when you were exhausted and all you wanted was to sleep, you tucked yourself into bed and Toothless was right beside you and then he pissed all over your white duvet. You called me and you just cried and cried because you were so stressed and that was the tipping point. How about that time he dragged your period-stained underwear out of your laundry basket when you had a date over-

"Okay, I get it," Catherine laughed.

"My point is, when that puppy stage passed, you were in love with that dog, you blew off plans just to take him on walks downtown. If you had a bad day, you would curl up on the couch with him. Not that I'm comparing your child to a dog but when this postpartum leaves, that child is going to be the light of your life. Fridays at the bar won't sound appealing when you can make popcorn and watch Disney with your daughter, nothing else is going to matter as much as that girl. When Clementine gets older you'll find that every eye-roll means you're doing something right."

"Is that true?" She asks "About the eyerolls?"

"No," You laugh "It's just something I say to make Ellie feel better."

Catherine chuckles, wiping away what remains of her tears. "Thank you."

"I know it feels like it's the end of the road but it's not. It gets easier every single day but that's the hard part, you need to get up and face it every single day." Your words calm Catherine down. Her tears dissipate and with a deep breath she is no longer shaking "We should go back inside now, I wanna see who won the gingerbread building contest." You sling an arm around her and guide her back inside through the sliding door.

"But my socks are wet." She says, hesitant to step back inside.

"I'm sorry for making you stand in the snow but that conversation needed to happen," You urge her inside anyway, not caring if your freshly cleaned kitchen floors get wet "I'll lend you a pair of slippers."

You and Catherine return to the dining room where the contest is just wrapping up, both in fuzzy slippers; the pair Catherine wore had little black spotted cows on them while yours were teal and made to look like Perry the Platypus, a gift you received from Ellie out of the blue because she thought they were hilarious and wanted both of you to have a matching pair. "Just in time," Dina says, she's wearing a white turtle neck and blue skinny jeans, leaning against the wall, watching her husband with a smile "They're about to announce the winner."

Ellie is speaking in a hushed voice with Jesse who is holding JJ in one arm, she's acting as serious as ever and even pretending to ask JJ for his opinion, the baby just babbles in return "Interesting, thank you, JJ," She says. Ellie turns to the crowd, everyone goes silent waiting for her words "The consensus is... You are all winners!"

Many of the older kids groaned in annoyance, all of the adults knew this was coming that didn't stop Tommy from saying that it was outrageous.

As the night unfolded, the kids, bundled up in cozy sweaters, gathered around a table filled with art supplies to craft their ornaments. Laughter filled the room as little hands carefully adorned paper snowflakes and painted wooden stars. The parents, caught in the infectious energy of the children, joined in the crafting, reminiscing about their childhood holiday traditions.

With bellies full and hearts warmer than ever, the group of friends settled into a circle around the fireplace. The children, tucked in cozy blankets, many of the kids fell asleep in the game room while 'Home Alone' played on the TV.

As the night drew to a close, the guests exchanged hugs and well wishes. The flickering lights of the Christmas tree cast a soft glow on the scene as the friends, with their children in tow, bid farewell, knowing that the memories forged on this magical night would linger in their hearts long after the last snowflake had fallen. Parent hauled their sleeping children away into their cars, putting a close on the night.

Ellie took Kenna, hand in hand, to the bathroom, making sure that she thoroughly brushed her teeth. She tucked her daughter in, giving her a kiss on the forehead. Kenna tried to argue that she wasn't tired but the second her head hit the pillow her eyes shuttered closed and any chatter she had in her was replaced by soft breaths emerging from the sleeping girl.

You had taken Levi straight to bed, he was already passed out when you found him curled in a ball on a blanket in the game room. He gently put him down on his bed and pulled a Spider-Man blanket over the top of him to keep his little body warm. You made sure that his night light was plugged in before stepping away and closing the door, but not all the way, you left it open a crack, just the way he liked it.

And so, the echoes of laughter, the warmth of shared moments, and the spirit of togetherness lingered in the air, a reminder that the company of cherished friends and family had just left, leaving you and your little family to sit in the static quiet of the fireplace crackling.

The air is still tinged with the scent of cinnamon and pine, and a soft glow emanates from the myriad of twinkling lights that adorn every corner. The Christmas tree, a majestic centrepiece, stands tall and proud, its branches adorned with an array of ornaments that glisten in hues of red, gold, and silver. A cozy fireplace crackles merrily, casting a warm embrace upon the room. Festive stockings, embroidered with care, hang in anticipation of surprises. Plush blankets drape over sofas, inviting you to sink into their warmth. Every surface seems to gleam with the holiday spirit, from the gleaming silverware on the dining table to the festive wreaths that adorn doorways. The ambiance is a symphony of holiday joy, where every decoration tells a story of cherished traditions and the magic of Christmas despite the displaced blankets and dishes, as well as random craft supplies that were somehow everywhere.

"We should probably clean this up before bed," You say, bending down to grab a throw blanket off the floor.

Ellie grabs your wrist to stop you "That's what tomorrow is for," You turn to face her "Right now I just want to be with my wife."

You grin "I don't think I'll ever get sick of you saying that."

"I don't think I'll ever get sick of saying it."

You kiss Ellie, she has one hand pulling you in from the small of your back. "I think I have a crush on you." You giggle.

"A crush on your wife?" Ellie raises an eyebrow "Who could imagine that."

"No I mean, I obviously love you but there's a difference between being in love and having a crush, we've been married for fourteen years and I still get excited when you call me pretty. I can't help but stare at you in a room full of people and when you look back I get butterflies because I just can't help but be thankful that I got lucky enough to have you." Your lips curve up into a smile "I don't think that was corny enough," You say sarcastically.

Ellie kisses you again, it is simple and sweet, like the taste of sugar resting on the tip of your tongue "I guess I have a crush on you too," She looked so pretty in her jeans and red flannel, sporting the haircut you gave her with pride; whenever someone mentioned her haircut she would get all giddy and say 'My wife did it!'. An idea snaps into your mind, and you swiftly break away from Ellie and kick off your Perry the Platypus slippers, jetting to the kitchen to the sliding door and running outside. Ellie calls after you, with no response, she follows your trail of teal slippers. She pokes her head outside "Honey?" She calls into the night, and instead of your voice answering her she is decked in the face by a snowball. "Ow!"

With rosy cheeks and twinkling eyes, your breath forming clouds in the cold, launched the first snowball, its trajectory guided by both precision and mischief. Ellie, undeterred, retaliated with a well-aimed throw which truthfully fucking hurt when it crashed into you as she used to play softball and didn't know how to gently throw anything. The world around you transformed into a playground, each snowball being thrown with more power.

As the not-so-friendly competition unfolded, your movements became a dance—a graceful ballet of dodges and throws. The landscape bore witness to their camaraderie, marked by the hushed giggles (trying your best to stay quiet enough that you didn't wake the kids) and the occasional shrieks of delight. Frost-kissed eyelashes framed your beaming faces, capturing the essence of a moment suspended in the magic of winter.

The cold air filled with the warmth of your connection. You both paused, momentarily breathless, her laughter echoing in the serene stillness of the snow-covered landscape. Amidst the snow-laden trees and glistening ground, you and Ellie shared a quiet gaze—a fleeting, unspoken acknowledgment of the bond that stayed unbroken with each tossed snowball.

Your cheeks flushed with both the chill of the air and the thrill of the game, finally forfeited, coming out from your shielding spot behind the shed, you laughed as you approached Ellie, moving your delicate hands to shake snow out of her hair. The memory of the evening lingered, a cherished chapter in the story of your enduring love.

[anothersadsimp]

Musical Detour

Astarion x Bard!Reader

Words: 3000

Synopsis: Imagine that scene in Tangled where they're all dancing n stuff but Tav does the music. Thats pretty much it. FLUFF

A/N: THIS STARTED AS A SMALL CUTE IDEA AND HERE WE ARE OVER 3000 WORDS LATER FUCK. Okay back into the void bye.

You and your party had just arrived at Wyrms Crossing after defeating a used to be immortal and a literal god. Tensions were high as well as the exhaustion that flooded your minds and bodies, but there was an elder brain to be stopped. Refugees surround the lower levels of the city, bickering and groaning from long travels. 

“So many people seeking refuge.” Shadowheart mummers. 

“All hoping to get into Baldur's Gate, where my father is held. They won’t get the help they need until we save him.” Wyll notes.

“One problem at a time. Why don’t we set up camp? Me, Astarion, Karlach, and Gale will take a look around.” You suggest, trying to keep your tone light. 

“Sounds good, be safe.” Shadowheart nods, before leading the others to the area we scouted. 

“Well, where are we off to now, oh fearless leader?” Astarion chides. 

You sigh, looking around the surroundings overwhelming you. You see a cobble road to your left which leads to multiple buildings with people bustling about. You turn and nod your head towards the road, “This way seems like a good start.”

You start walking down the path where it leads to the main road. Once you reach it there's a line of people waiting in front of a gate. You were about to start maneuvering around them when one of your companions stopped.

“Oh. My. Gods. It’s the Circus of the Last Days! My mum and dad would bring me when I was a kid.” Karlach exclaims, stomping in place for a moment in excitement. “Tav we have to stop in just for a little bit. Please?” 

Her excitement brought a smile to your face, and you couldn't help but want to go just for her enjoyment. Who knows what silly mischief your current company will get into going in, it certainly piqued your interest. You looked around Karlach’s large frame to the others behind her with your shoulders shrugged, and a natural smile gracing your face.

You knew just how to convince Astarion into getting into trouble, more than he actually realized after you became official. It wasn't just the effortless smile that seemed to radiate off of you that convinced him, but your eyes grew wide as soon as they met with his.

He sighs, “Fine, but if there's any clowns, you’re on your own.”

Karlach jumps with excitement, which makes your smile widen. Suddenly she grabs your wrist and pulls you towards the entrance. Astarion frowned for just a moment after your face, holding an expression that rivaled the sunshine on his skin, was ripped away.

“No stopping those two once they’re together. They seem to be the only one that can keep up with Karlach’s energy.” Gale comments before following behind them. 

Astarion watches a moment longer before jogging up to stand behind you, Karlach taking his spot next to you still holding your wrist. He is still as close to you as he can get, his chest just barely rubbing against the back of your armor. The feeling causes you to turn your head to the side just so with a small smile, always acknowledging his presence. 

Your attention gets turned back ahead of you as the line moves up. As you step up you see an elf in some of the most colorful clothes you’ve seen, along with a ghoul dressed up as hideously as the elf.

“Hello, hello, and welcome to the Circus of the Last Days!” He greets enthusiastically.

“Hello, we’d like to enter please.” You say.

“Ah yes! Come and forget your worries! Benji just has to check if you're a vicious murderer first.” He says with a smile. “Benji!

The clownish ghoul stalks up towards the four of you and begins sniffing the air.

“BLOOD. TASTY BLOOD, SO DELICIOUS” It shouts and laughs maniacally.

“Well, I gotta say that's the first. Sorry folks, I'm afraid you cannot enter. Have a nice day!” He dismisses. 

After seeing how excited Karlach had gotten, and how her shoulders drooped, you refused to take no for an answer. Even if you could feel Astarion perk up behind you at being turned away, and Gale sighing somewhere behind. 

“Oh! Did I forget to mention, I’ve been recently hired! Meet your new bard! And their band of misfits.” You exclaim, gesturing with your arms and showing your violin. 

“Oh! No one tells me anything around here. Well, welcome to the family. You’ll want to talk to Ringmaster Lucretious once you head in. Good luck!” He says before moving to open the gate to the circus.  

You smile awkwardly towards the strange gatekeeper and continue into the entryway. Once through you could see colorful booths lined up, each with a different character expressively trying to get customers. You slowly walk past each one, taking in every detail you can of each vendor. Clearly they’re swindling. Years of being a bard on the streets had taught you a thing or two about how con artists work, and sometimes having to be one. 

“Surprising to see how many people fall for these silly games, just a waste of gold.” Gale comments. 

“Common, I want to play at least one game, the point is to have fun!.” Karlach whines. 

You reach into your pouch and pull out some gold holding your hand out towards her, “Go crazy Karlach.” you say with a smile.

A fiery, playful grin adorns her face, “Thank you!” She grabs the gold from your hand and quickly brings you into a bone crushing hug before racing off.

You, Astarion, and Gale continue walking, checking out the rest of the booths. As you venture deeper into the circus you start to hear music. It sounds like a few people playing together playing a familiar song. One you know by heart. You couldn't help but follow the music, your pace increasing.

“Something catch your attention, my dear?” Astarion asks behind you, but it doesn't quite register in your head and you continue walking.

You round a wide corner to see a little band playing just a few shallow steps down. There's a gnome holding a strong steady beat, while a drow plays strums on a lute. Alongside them was an elf carrying the main melody on their flute. The music begins to take you, the beat drumming in your chest, becoming your new heartbeat. The rhythm of drow’s strumming makes it feel as if you could float away with its voice. You tracked the elfs movements as he played the main part of the song. He’s floating around the crowd, trying to keep them engaged. 

You close your eyes for a brief moment, really listening to the flute. The key they’re playing the song in, each particular note to the beloved melody they play. Slowly you grab your violin strapped to your back with its bow. You can hear the notes in your head, and you know just the right moment to jump into the song.

“Everything alright?” Gale asks, but once again the question falls upon deaf ears.

The three musicians look at eachother, and the tension and volume of the music increase. It’s about to happen, and your eyes coles once more. The main part is coming up and that's when you’ll jump in. You keep your eyes closed counting to drumming that took over your heartbeat. 

1

2

And

You leap down the 3 shallow steps to be on the same level as the other musicians starting to harmonize with the flute. Your eyes were closed, lost in the melodies the four of you create. Your body moved with the music stepping, skipping, turning in whichever way the music desired it to.

People nearby cheered, some throwing gold at you and the three others. Eventually the cheering turned into a gathering of dancing and laughing. Random circus patrons and even workers stop to watch your merry band. The laughter made your eyes open to see wide smiles surround you. Couples and children dance around you causing a wide smile to shine on your face. 

Meanwhile Astarion and Gale stood right where you left them staring at the scene before them. Astarion shifts his weight onto one leg, and his arms cross. He tilts his head to the side as he watches you, and swears your smile blinds him momentarily. Without realizing it the corners of his mouth curl up as you start to interact with the crowd. You crouch down in front of a small human child and poke them lightly with the tip of your bow during a small break. The child giggled, hands coming out to try and catch your bow but you pull away with a twirl and begin to play once again.

“Always up to something.” Gale smiles, his body relaxing.

“You mean always causing a scene? Then yes, they’re quite good at that.” Though the words seem a tad harsh, there's no sense of malice in them. That soft smile of his refusing to leave. 

After another twirl you stop a moment, out of breath but refusing to stop playing. You look over towards your companions and see them looking at the scene unfolding. Only Astarion was staring straight at you. You stare into his blood red orbs the best you can from the distance between you. Even though you’re already breathless it feels as if he took your breath away, and not the performing. Warmth spread through your body from his gaze making you feel both giddy and shy. 

You force yourself to turn away from Astarion to look at the ensemble beginning to end the song. The drum slows, the rest following its beat as the flute dies off. You begin to improv with the strums of the lute as the drum slowly fades. You lock eyes with the drow ready to finally finish the song. They strum the last chord, as you play the last few notes while slowly bowing. You draw the last note out and stop, bowed over in a small lunge-like stance and your chest heaving.

The crowd erupted into cheers, and shouts. Gold clattered onto the stone beneath your feet, which made you stand to full height. Everyone around you had wide smiles, applauding you and the others for the show. You walk over to talk to the other musicians, and help them pick up the gold.

“Did you know they could play like that?” Gale asked, one hand holding his chin clearly amused. 

“I-I had no idea.” He said in disbelief. 

They both knew you could play, have even heard you practice no matter how hard you tried to hide it. But they had no idea how well the practice had really paid off. They had no idea how well you actually perform in front of people. Astarion briefly wondered how your name wasn’t well known for your talents. 

You turn away and leave the group of musicians behind you, violin packed on your back, and head towards your companions. About half way there the small child you poked ran up and tugged on your pant leg. You crouch down to see they have a few small wildflowers in their small fist held out towards you.

“Thank you! These are beautiful.” The child lights up at your words and runs back towards their parent. You stand back up and continue to walk back towards your friends. You look down at the flowers and pick one to put behind your ear.

You stop in front of Astarion and Gale, still too preoccupied with the flowers to see their astonished faces. Once you were satisfied you looked up at them, and you can’t tell if the warmth you’re feeling is embarrassment or residual from all the dancing. 

“That was amazing!” Gale exclaims, his smile wider than you’ve ever seen. 

You let out a little huff of a chuckle, a bashful smile adorning your face, “Thanks.”

“So, you do really have talent after all.” Astarion teases, with a wicked smirk to match.

Somehow you can't help but relax from his silly teasing, a genuine smile coming back as you hit his shoulder. “Shut up” you mumble. 

“It’s really a shame Karlach missed that. She’ll be sad when she finds out, no doubt.” Gale comments. 

“Please, she would’ve burned her heart out from dancing if she were here.” Astarion cracks.

“We should probably find her.” you say trying to change the topic, “The games couldn’t have taken that long. I saw her run off that way” you point. 

“Right. Well let’s make sure she hasn’t burned anything, yes?” Gale rhetorically asks as he leads on the way in the direction you pointed towards. 

You turn to follow Gale but stop when you don’t feel the vampire's presence behind you, “You coming?” You ask.

You turn around after asking to see if he’d followed but you still see him standing there. His arms were no longer crossed, he had one hand on his hip that was jutted out and the other resting at his side. His eyes were still trained on you almost as if you had put him in a trance. He finally made eye contact, and that subtle smile that naturally came to him when looking at you grew. 

Astarion started making his way to you, never once looking away from your widened eyes. You couldn’t look away from him as he stalked towards you, Gale and Karlach forgotten from one endearing gaze from your vampire. You take note of that cute little smile that adorns his face. It’s small, but it's rare to see a smile like this one from him. Once that's genuine.

He stops in front of you, one hand coming to grab your waist to bring you closer. You raise your hands up to his chest, one hand still clutching the other flowers the child gifted you. You’re nearly chest to chest if it weren't for your arms trapped in between you two. The hand on your waist now further towards your back as his arm wraps around you. The other hand comes up to the one holding the flowers, running his fingers gently over the back of your hand. 

“You really are something, you know that?” His voice is deep, and low enough for just you to hear. 

“That I am, though I do hope you mean it in a good way.” You tease, head cocking to the side. 

“Depends on the day, really.” He says with a dumb contemplative look on his face, that smirk never leaving. “But yes, I do mean it in a good way.” 

He looks back into your eyes, before the drop down and he leans closer. Both of your eyes close in unison as he gives you a gentle, chase kiss. You unintentionally softly sigh into the kiss, loving the feeling of him close to you. He pulls away and you’re still momentarily dazed, eyes taking a second before opening to see him looking back at you.

A little chuckle escapes him at your dazed expression, “Aren’t you just an adorable little pup.” 

You hum at his teasing comment, slowly coming out of the trance he put you in. You look at the flowers still clutched in your hand and grab the small red one with your other hand. 

You somehow get closer than you already were, your lips grazing his ear, “Same can be said about you, my love.” you whisper. 

As you tease him with your breathy words against his ear, the hand holding the small dainty flower comes up to place it in his luscious locks. Your hand brushes his other gently as you work causing the smallest of gasps to escape his lips, you would’ve missed it if not being so close. You step back after twining the flower into his curls, taking in every detail of his face and your work. The red hue flower perfectly matched the highlights of his eyes as they shine in the sun that bathes the entirety of Baulders Gate.  

“Perfect.” You smile. “Anyways where did the other misfits go?” You wonder, starting to turn around looking for them. You start walking in the direction you saw Gale disappear to, leaving Astarion behind. 

He stared in bewilderment as you walked off, not quite ready for you to turn the table so fast on him in more than one way. ‘Certainly is something’ he thinks to himself as a small smile of disbelief graces his lips, before walking after you. 

BONUS:

You and Astarion were still looking for Gale and Karlach. The circus really wasn't too big, and how does one lose a tall, rambunctious, fiery Tiefling. You were coming up on the last few booths, and still no luck. Did you pass them?

“Where in the hells are they?” You wonder out loud, beginning to get tired of walking in circles. 

Astarion was cut off, from what was no doubt a teasing or snarky comment, by running footsteps approaching the both of you. People part as you see Karlach jog towards you, you can tell she’s burning hotter than usual. You brush it off knowing it's from excitement, judging by the smile on her face. You then notice she's holding something rather large in both of her arms.

“Guess what I just got!” She shouts.

She raises a large owlbear blush closer to her chest as to showcase it, arms around its middle as if she's carrying a real owlbear cub. You’re surprised it's not being chared by her excitement.

“He matches the one we got at camp, now he’s got another friend!” She screams in excitement. “That game merchant had no idea what hit him!”

“Oh, no. Please tell me you didn’t set anything on fire.” You groan

“No, but they will need a new strength gage, and hammer.” Gale chides in, strolling behind Karlach. “Quite an impressive display nevertheless.” 

“Somehow I’m not surprised. Now I heard something about a terrible clown? Let's see how terrible.” You say with genuine curiosity.

“You’re really gonna drag me to a clown show?” Astarion scoffs.

“Come on! It’ll be fun, well fun to make fun of him.” You say, having to think halfway through after listening to yourself. 

Your hands grab one of Astarions before dragging him along with you to the circus stage. He groans and reluctantly lets you lead him away. The other two follow behind you, Karlach distracted with her new plush and Gale wondering how he ended up with such fools.

[mellifiedprincess]

this was a request, and i thought it was a sweet idea. this one’s a little sad, just jacks baby girl gets some hate, but don’t worry because baby boy jack won’t let that shit slide. i hope i don’t disappoint! :)

jack champion x reader

I’VE GOT YOU

An angel. If anyone were to ask Jack to describe you in a few words, without a thought, he would say an angel. That’s what you were to anyone who knew you. You had this golden aura that surrounded you. You were this ray of pure sunshine, walking around spreading nothing but love and kindness. Even when people didn’t deserve it. Some people just took advantage of you too much, Jack noticed, of course he noticed. You were his angel baby, after all.

That was one thing Jack always worried about when it came to you. You were too nice, too loving, and while those were good qualities to have, they weren’t exactly in your favor as of recently.

It started at one of the after parties of the Scream XI premiere. On your way in, you got separated from Jack. He got in fine. And while usually he made sure you were right in front of him, both hands on your waist just to make sure you didn’t get dragged from his sight, you got pushed to the back of a group, breaking your hold on Jack. It wouldn’t have been a problem, not one at all, if the people that separated you wouldn’t have looked at you with pure disgust, telling security you were a groupie trying to squeeze your way in.

Being the overly nice sweetheart you are, you tried explaining that you were separated from your boyfriend Jack, but was immediately met by laughter. “There’s no way Jack would be with you! He’s literally in my dms all the time.” One brunette girl says, she looks at you with false pity and begins laughing with her friends again. Of course her words hurt your feelings, but you were never one to make a scene. So, as soon as you feel those familiar hands on your waist, you quickly forget about the interaction, just relieved that Jack found you.

“Sweetheart, you know your supposed to stay in front of me. You’re only about the size of a cupcake. What if you would have gotten hurt, hmm?” “I know, I just got pushed to the back. I’m fine th-.”

“Wait! You’re actually with her? What the fuck?” The girl from earlier interrupts you, and then begins laughing in disbelief. Jack’s jaw was locked, eyes staring daggers through the girl, before looking back down at you. “Was she mean to you while I wasn’t here?” He knew the answer. He knew something was wrong with you the second he found you. But he also knew that if you wanted him to do something, you would say so.

Instead of answering him, you just shrug, almost getting distracted by playing with Jacks fingers. “Angel, you know you’re supposed to use your words when talking to me.” He gently grabbed your chin, tilting your head up to make eye contact with him. “I know, I just don’t want you to say anything to her. I just want to go dance with you, Mason, and Jaz.” You can’t help the small frown that forms on your lips.

You feel Jack place a sweet kiss to your cheek, before grabbing your hand in his. “Okay, baby. Let’s go dance.” An excited squeal makes it’s way past your lips, and you jump up and down excitedly. “God you are so fucking adorable.” He says before finally leading you into the building.

The next time someone was mean to you, you were out getting lunch with Mason and Devyn. Jack had reshoots for an unreleased project that day, so he couldn’t make it unfortunately. But, you didn’t mind spending time with two of your closest friends without him.

You were all catching up, telling each other what’s been happening in your crazy lives, when out of no where you felt something cold being poured over your head followed by someone shouting “Stay away from Jack, you bitch!”. You couldn’t do anything but sit there in shock, tears beginning to pool in your eyes. You watch as Devyn jumped up, chasing after whoever it was, while Mason rushed to your side, throwing his jacket around you. “Are you okay? You want me to call Jack?” He didn’t know what to do, he couldn’t believe someone would do that to you.

You immediately shake your head no, pleading eyes looking at him. “No! Don’t call Jack, please! He’s busy at work right now, he doesn’t need any distractions from me.” You wipe your tears away furiously as they stream down your reddened cheeks. Mason sighs before pulling you into his side. “That bitch got away!” A furious and out of breath Devyn comes back over, talking to someone on the phone. “Yeah, I’m here with her now. Hold on.” She gives you a sympathetic smile, holding her phone out to you. “I called Jack, just to let him know what happened.” You sniffle again as you grab the phone from her hands, already knowing how upset your boyfriend is gonna be.

“He-hello?” Your watery voice breaks Jacks heart, his sweet baby girl doesn’t deserve any of this. “Hey angel.” He pauses for a moment, trying to figure out the best route here. “Devyn just told me what happened. Listen to me okay? I want you to go back home for the rest of the day. I’m leaving set early and coming straight home.”

“No don’t leave set early! I’ll go straight home, just please don’t leave because of me.” You pleaded with him, you know him leaving early because of you will only result in more nasty rumors being spread about you and your relationship. He doesn’t respond for a few seconds, contemplating the best course of action. “Okay, baby. Hand the phone back to Devyn now.” Before you hand it back though, you hear Jacks voice again. “Hey, I love you, okay? Everything’s gonna be fine.” “Okay, sweets! I love you too!”

Jack ended up asking Devyn and Mason if they didn’t mind staying with you until he got home. Devyn wasn’t able to unfortunately, but Mason offered to at least walk you back to your place. This would later come back to bite you in the ass.

As soon as Jack came home, he wasted no time in pulling you into his chest. Taking your face in his hands, and placing sweet kisses all over your face. “How’s my pretty girl feeling?” You wrap your arms around his waist and snuggle closer into him. His warmth and smell making you feel dizzy in the best way possible. “I feel way better now that you’re home. I even made your favorite for dinner!” His heart could have burst right then and there. “We can eat later, right now I just wanna love on my girl. Is that okay?” His thumbs rubbing the apples of your cheeks. “That’s perfectly okay, sweets.” You pinch his sides, turning and running to your bedroom as he starts chasing after you. But he stops as soon as Butters catches his eye. “Um, baby? Why does Butters have a mini cowboy hat on? And are those cowboy boots for cats?”

And here we are present day. Its been a week since the incident at lunch with Devyn and Mason.

Jack was still so furious at the person who dumped their drink on your head, and called you a bitch?!

You were trying your best to stay positive about everything, and that made Jack even more furious at the person. You were just too fucking good for this cruel world, and the fact people were hating on you all because you had what they wanted, was absolutely ridiculous.

You were doing a great job at not reading all of the rumors or hate online. That was until you saw an article online, claiming you were cheating on Jack with Mason. With Mason of all people? Mason who has been nothing but a big brother and best friend to you and Jack? You couldn’t believe what you were reading. And what made it even worse, was the picture attached to the article. One that someone had to have taken while following you two back to your apartment. And to anyone outside of your lives, it did look very suspicious, his jacket thrown around you, as well as his arm around your shoulders. But that was just Mason being protective of you after the encounter you had a few minutes prior.

You knew Jack wouldn’t believe any of it, that’s not what you were concerned about. What you were concerned about was all the hate comments Mason would likely get, not to mention the comments you would be getting. And you knew you shouldn’t look at them. You knew it would only cause you more hurt.

That didn’t stop you though.

Before you knew it, it had been two hours and you were still reading through the hate. You didn’t even realize you had tears streaming down your face this whole time. The things that people can come up with. It’s truly unsettling how crazed people get over celebrities.

Some people went as far as creating an entire instagram account, dedicated to hating on you.

But the breaking point for you was when people started threatening to kill you or begging for you to kill yourself. The fact people actually wanted you dead because of your relationship with Jack made no sense at all.

The panic started settling in, not even giving you a chance to fight back. Your breathing was labored, mouth dry, tears still coming down like a waterfall. Your chest felt so tight, it all just hurt so much. But luckily, Jack walked in just in time. “Baby? I’m back from the gym. Josh and Haley wanna get dinner with us tonight.” You heard his keys get thrown on to the kitchen island, before his footsteps start making their way to your bedroom. “You can start getting ready, while I shower. Orrr you could join me-“

As soon as he sees you, he already knows what’s happening. He already knows what started the panic attack. Nevertheless, he falls to his knees in front of you, grasping your small hands in his large ones, and starts rubbing comforting circles on your wrists. “Hey” His voice is a whisper, he didn’t want to make things worse for you. “Angel?” You’re not able to respond, only look up and lock eyes with his pretty brown ones. “Hey, there you are. Are you able to talk?” You can only shake your head no. “That’s okay. Just tell me how bad this attack is, use your fingers.” You hold up 8 shaky fingers.

He nods his head, grabs your hands and places a kiss to the back of both of them. “Baby, were you looking at things online you know you’re not supposed to be looking at?” With a trembly sigh, you nod your head. “Yes.” You’re voice was so tiny and broken, Jack swore to himself he could kill whoever made you feel this way.

“People want me dead, Jack!” You burst into more tears, covering your face with your hands. “What?!” Jack stands to his feet, sitting down beside you before pulling you into his lap. “Where’s your phone?” You grab it from the bed and hand it to him. While he reads through some of the things that have been said, he pushes your head to the crook of his neck, running his hand through your hair.

That lasts for a few minutes before he puts your phone down and reaches for his own. “Don’t worry, sweet girl. I’m gonna fix this.” He stands up, taking you with him and heads to the bathroom. “I’m gonna run you a bath, help you relax a little bit, okay?” “That sounds really nice, baby. Thank you.” You give him a small smile, and place a quick kiss to his lips, before he starts the bath.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes. I don’t want you thinking about anything. Turn that pretty brain off and just relax.” Jack was stern when he said this. He was being serious and you knew better than to try and argue with him.

“Okay, I will! But don’t be too long please.” He leans down to place one more kiss to your lips before heading back to the bedroom. He knew he should at least give his manager a heads up, but at this point he would start a fucking war to protect you. He opens his instagram app, quickly clicking on all of his favorite pictures of you, before typing his caption-

“This beautiful girl right here, means more to me than anything fame could give me. I would throw all of it away, give all of this up, if it meant she would never see a day of sadness again. All of these nasty rumors being spread about her, are absolutely disgusting. And now she’s receiving death threats? This has gone too far and I regret not saying something before now, but coming home to find the literal light of my life having a panic attack, because people want her dead, was the breaking point for me. I will never want anyone like I want her. I will never love anyone like I love her, and all of these crazy fangirls need to realize that.

And to my angel- you bring so much happiness to everyone who truly knows you. I love you so much, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to truly express how much. If I could take all the tears you’ve cried over the past few weeks away, I would. And I’m just so incredibly sorry that someone as pure of heart as you, had to go through all of this. You will always be too good for this world, always will be too good for me. And I just feel so lucky, that I get to wake up every day, wrapped in your arms. Knowing you chose me, out of everyone in this world, to love. Keep your head up, baby. Let them say whatever they want, cause at the end of the day, we’ve still got each other. That’s all we need.”

After what felt like an hour, but was only 15 minutes, Jack walks back into the bathroom. He sits down beside the tub, and looks over at you. “Hey, sweets.” You mumble, the dried lavender calming you almost to sleep. “Hi, my love.” He tilts his head slightly, giving you a look of pure love and adoration. “You almost ready to get out?” You give a sleepy smile and nod. “Yeah, can you grab my towel for me sweets?”

“Yeah baby, it’s in the dryer so it’s all nice and warm for you. Be right back.”

Jack quickly makes his way back to you, wrapping the towel around you and without any warning, picks you up and carry’s you back to your bedroom, placing your comfy robe around you. “Now, c’mere.” Jack beckons you to sit back on his lap, he’s placed himself against the headboard now. When you make it closer to him, he gently grabs your arm, pulling you to his body. You wrap your legs around his waist, and immediately start playing with his curls at the back of his neck.

“I need you to listen to me when I say this, sweet girl.” You look at him and nod, “Okay, you have all of my attention sweets.” He only smiles, reaching to grab one of your hands, and placing a kiss to the palm of it.

“I want you to know, that I love you. I love you so much, it honestly scares me. Before I met you, I didn’t think I would ever find anyone. And then I met you and everything that didn’t make sense before, does now. You’ve planted these flowers of love and care in my heart, and they are so deeply rooted now, if I were to lose you, it would kill me.” Jack spoke so soft, but stern enough where you knew he meant what he was saying.

“I wish I could go back, and say something to all the haters before now, but I didn’t and I’m so sorry for that, angel.”

“It’s not your fault it happened Jack.” He shakes his head, cutting you off. “It’s my job to protect you, baby. I should have been better at it.”

“I love you, and you do more than enough for me, every day.” You try to reassure him, but Jack being Jack, would take more persuasion. “I already feel 100 times better, just being here in your arms. You make me feel safe, and fearless against the world.” Your lips meet his for another kiss, this one deeper and more meaningful.

“You are heaven sent, I swear.” Jack whispers against your lips. You knew the hate would continue, you knew Jack still felt like it was his fault, but you also knew Jack loved you and would protect you no matter what.

[jishyucks]

Gleam and Glitter — hhj

‣ pairing: hwang hyunjin x reader

‣ genre: fluff, implied friends-to-lovers, rich-kid!au

‣ wc: 3.4k

‣ summary: You’ve quickly established that no one at this damn charity gala cares about the event’s purpose. They were just there to party. And you wanted nothing else but to leave; alternatively, in which Hyunjin saves you from your misery to see the city’s Christmas lights.

‣ warnings: lots of being annoyed at the rich (even though reader and hyunjin are rich), 1st world problems, reader’s wearing a dress and heels but no specific pronouns are used (I’m pretty sure), the pair eat some desserts

‣ an: 2nd part for my True Love Gave to Me Series! It's a little slow at first but the parts near the end are cute! Just like the Mark one, I wish I could write more for these two, I srsly think I could've done more but still,,, ENJOY!

Series Masterlist

The venue was beautiful. 

The ballroom was transformed into the party’s theme, Winter Wonderland, adorned with white, silver, and royal blue decorations. From the ceiling hung giant snowflakes, lit up with twinkling lights that glowed softly within the dim room. 

The dance floor, placed in the middle of the room, was surrounded by tables draped in pearly white table cloths, giving it all a sleek, clean look. You can tell how much planning had gone into the centrepieces—delicate ice-looking glass sculptures of various animals. Within each of them were more lights, drawing out the details of the sculptures.

At the other corner of the room, the live band had already begun their setlist. They were dressed in blue or white, or both, as it was the theme of the party. You couldn’t quite tell what song they were playing, but it sounded nice and classy. 

And guests were trickling in, entering the room hand in hand with their plus ones. You can tell that they were all in awe from the scene. I mean you don’t blame them—the scene looked like something straight from a movie. Whoever had planned and decorated the venue knew what they were doing. 

The venue was beautiful… Too bad most of the people attending were snobby rich bitches who really don’t deserve anything good (respectfully).

The main purpose of the event was to raise money for charities involving children for god’s sake—sure it was okay to go all out and grab the attention of the wealthy, but it was so painfully obvious that two-thirds of the guests didn’t give a single fuck about the charities. They were just there for the publicity, hoping to look good in front of the press and it pained you. 

It pained you because, although you barely had the capacity to have passions for anything, you did know that you wanted to use your money for good. And heavy on the good for children.

The party was now in full swing, guests mingling in practically every corner of the room. The live band had just been replaced with a DJ, party songs blasting through the speakers. A small part of you does want to join in, but you wouldn’t say that you associated yourself with any of the people here. 

There was one person who you did love being around—your best friend, Hyunjin—but you simply weren’t sure where he had disappeared off to since you had greeted him at the start of the party. 

“Shit.”

You’re not sure how you hear Hyunjin groan as he slumps in the seat next to you. He stretches his back over the chair before falling limp. 

You can’t help but laugh, “What’s up with you?” You shift in your own chair to look at him, your blue evening gown getting twisted underneath your ass.

“My parents introduced me to like—I don’t know—six old business owners?” Hyunjin mutters, “I don’t even remember a single one of them.” 

“Well, you gotta start working on that future CEO,” you joke, slapping his back, “Don’t wanna be the boss who calls his employees by the wrong name, do you?” You know Hyunjin hates when you call him future CEO, because, well, he doesn’t actually want to take over his father’s company once he retires. But being the only child in his family, it’s a responsibility that he couldn’t really get out of.

“No,” he pouts, lips jutting out. 

You let out another laugh, this time rubbing his back to provide some kind of comfort. From a nearby group of people, you hear people laughing, though it didn’t seem genuine. You echo them. 

“Y/N, they’re gonna hear you!” Hyunjin nudges your arm. “No they won’t. They’re all just caught up in their own world,” You roll your eyes. Then you dramatically say, “Oh how I wish to leave this place.”

There’s a few beats of silence between the two of you. Just by watching Hyunjin, you can tell he’s thinking, eyes darting back and forth as if he were reading a page of a newspaper. 

“Would it be crazy if I asked you to run away with me?”

Your heart misses a beat, “What?”

“Run away with me,” Hyunjin repeats. He’s almost expressionless, staring back at you as he waits for a reply. 

You blink at your best friend, utterly confused by the nonsense coming out of his mouth, “Hyunjin, you really need to be more specific with your words.”

Hyunjin brings a corner of his mouth up towards one side of his face, trying to word what he was asking of you. It wasn’t that difficult to explain, yet Hyunjin’s short on words right now because of all the introductions he’s just had. 

“Do you know what an Irish goodbye is?” 

You shake your head, “No? Is that even a thing?” 

“It’s when you just leave without telling anyone,” Hyunjin explains, “So… let’s leave without telling anyone.” There’s a youthful glint in his eye and you just know that Hyunjin’s ready to take off. He’s excited, even, just thinking about leaving and getting away from this place. You like the idea, too. 

“And do what?” Hyunjin shrugs and your face contorts, laughing, “You’re the one who’s suggesting to leave and you don’t have a plan?” 

The smile Hyunjin flashes is one that shows off his bottom teeth, brows raised and eyes widened, “Sorry, I didn’t actually think you’d consider it.” 

“Do you even know me?” you scoff, “Of course I wanna leave. Anything to get away from these people.” You scoot forward in anticipation to go, but you still really want to hear what Hyunjin’s plan is. 

Hyunjin searches the room as if it were going to hand him the answer. Then he hums and looks back at you, “Do you want to go downtown?” 

Without any hesitation you nod, “Yes.” 

Hyunijn watches as you scan the room, eyes trying to weed out your parents and his. You could guess they were speaking with people you’ve grown familiar with, so you try to pick them out, too. When you couldn’t spot any of your parents, your eyes darted in Hyunjin’s direction, eyes wide and round. “It’s clear.”

You don’t warn Hyunjin before you shoot up onto your feet, trying your best to keep discrete from any wandering eyes. The heels under your feet almost fail to support your pace, but you pay no mind, eyes dead set on the doorway furthest away from anyone’s attention. Hyunjin’s close at your tail, turning back every few steps to make sure that there was absolutely no one watching you both leave. 

The adrenaline’s causing your heart to pump above the average, and you can’t help but let out a laugh the moment you reach the door, soon finding yourself in an empty corridor of the venue (save for the doorman at the front and the woman attending coat check).

Hyunjin stumbles out after you, breathing heavily, “You didn’t even tell me you were going to take off like that!” 

Ignoring Hyunjin’s exclamations, you start making your way toward coat check, heels clicking against the marble floor. Hyunjin is unsure how you’re moving so quickly in heels, but he chooses not to question you.

“Y/N~” Hyunjin whines, “Slow down!”

“If we’re not quick we’re going to get caught,” you shoot a reply over your shoulder. You kindly ask for your coats, retrieving them within seconds before you toss Hyunjin his jacket. “Yeah, but we need to wait for Mr. Jang to come pick us up!” 

By the time Hyunjin finishes his sentence, you both find yourselves outside of the venue, cold air instantly nipping at your exposed skin. There were cars whizzing past, all probably on their way to your desired destination. Right at the bottom of the steps was a sleek black car, similar to what your family owned, and a man who you recognized as Mr. Jang, the Hwang’s driver. 

“So you did plan this!” you look over at Hyunjin. 

Hyunjin shakes his head, “No, but Mr. Jang will jump at any chance to actually do something.” The boy leads you down the steps and reaches the vehicle before you do. He greets Mr. Jang with a bow and then tugs on the door’s handle, opening it for you to hop in. You can’t help but giggle at the gesture, giving Hyunjin a look before sliding in. He shuffles in after you, smiling out of excitement.

“Where to, son?”

“Downtown, please.”

⋆⁺₊❅⋆ ⁺₊❆⋆

It’s when you both get to downtown that you realize that neither of you knew where to go. 

Sure, the plan was downtown but the city was a big place. Hyunjin should have been more specific, because right now, you were both standing in the middle of a busy street trying to decide which direction to go.

“Close your eyes, spin, and then stop when I tell you,” you suggest to Hyunjin, who’s trying to search his phone for any places you both could visit. 

“How about you do it!” Hyunjin’s brows furrow and he pouts, “It sounds like you’re going to ditch me.” 

“Now why the hell would I ditch you,” you sigh, “Just do it. I would do it, but I’m in heels.” 

You gesture for him to go on with the action, but not before he mutters a ‘the heels didn’t seem like a problem earlier’, earning him a thwack on his shoulder. 

Squeezing his eyes shut, Hyunjin sticks an arm out, using his index finger to point. Then, he begins to spin clockwise. From an outsider’s glance, this man probably looked ridiculous—he was dressed in formal attire and spinning like a top, almost taking out a few passerbyers in the process. 

You were finding this so amusing that you almost forgot that you had to tell him to stop. 

And when you tell Hyunjin to stop, he somehow ends up with his finger just inches away from your nose. You burst out laughing, your hands coming up to clutch your stomach because, for one, Hyunjin took the challenge seriously, and two, he looked absolutely ridiculous just standing there eyes closed and pointing. 

You don’t notice how Hyunjin’s eyes finally flutter open to see what was going on and how his taut expression relaxes the second they land on your bright figure just laughing, even if it is at his expense. His arm drops to his side, making a muted whap against his jacket. This catches your attention.

“I’m sorry,” you say, wiping a tear that has managed to slip out of the corner of your eye. And when Hyunjin doesn’t answer immediately, you take a step closer to him, “Hello?” 

“O-okay, so, that way!” Hyunjin’s brought back from space, head shaking. He side steps and walks around you, leading the way down the street while making sure you were following him. 

Hyunjin has no idea what just happened. It wasn’t like it was the first time he's seen you happy. In fact, you’ve always been happy around him. So, why did he suddenly freeze seeing you happy this time? 

Hyunjin shakes the thought out of his head, dismissing it as the remnants of wine from the party still in his system, and continues walking down the street, just a few paces in front of you.

You and Hyunjin weave through the people walking down the street against you, hands full with shopping bags or stuffed deep into their pockets. The pace Hyunjin had taken began to speed up, as if he had spotted something over the crowd that you couldn’t quite see even with heels. 

Glancing back, Hyunjin gently latches onto your wrist, afraid that you’d get lost in the sea of people, pulling you closer before he continues to step through the occasional gaps between bodies. 

“Where are we going?” you say out of curiosity. Hyunjin’s too occupied to answer you, still keeping his grasp firm around your wrist. He tugs you along for one more block, and by then you can tell that he did have an idea of where you were. Hyunjin knew where to go.

You feel like you’re able to breathe again when Hyunjin leads you into a plaza, and you let out a breath that you didn’t even know you were holding in. There was more space for people to walk around, buskers at each corner of the opening, and restaurants decked out in Christmas lights and decorations. Some places were blasting Christmas tunes out of outdoor speakers and, from afar, you can see Santa Claus taking pictures with children. You feel your heart fill with warmth in the atmosphere, excited to wander around and kill time with Hyunjin. 

“Do you want to eat something?” Hyunjin questions. The boy halts in front of a food truck, head falling back to scan the menu. The food truck was a dessert truck—candied fruit, ice cream, cake pops, and more. You can see that they also sold drinks. 

You nod, “What are you getting?” 

“I’m thinking a cake pop… you?” The line shifts forward and you both take a step forward to follow. 

You hum and try to decide on your own treat, “Can you get me candied strawberries, please?” 

It takes a little bit to reach the front of the line and finally receive your food. When the man on the truck hands Hyunjin the food, you go to grab it but Hyunjin refuses to let you take it, pulling the treats back to his own body. “Huh?” you frown, “Do you want me to pay you back or something?” Your mouth was practically watering at the sight of the tanghulu. It was almost unrealistically red, like strawberries you’d find in cartoons. 

“It’s cold,” Hyunjin shakes his head, “You can keep your hands in your pockets… I’ll hold it for you.” Then he holds the stick up to your lips, “Here.” 

Your brows furrow and you groan, “Hyunjin, I’m capable of holding it myself, you know.” You’re quick to grab the stick from Hyunjin and give him a look, “But thanks anyway.” 

Hyunjin grins, "Alright, suit yourself." He takes a bite of his cake pop as you enjoy the sweetness of the candied strawberries. The plaza is filled with a festive atmosphere, and you decide to stroll the rest of the area while munching on the treats. 

By the time you were halfway finished with your food, you had been able to properly take in the scene of the plaza. It was actually much larger than it was at first sight, the area stretching down another block or two of buildings. It extended into a wide pedestrian mall, with shops busy on either side of the broad walkway. 

Everyone there looked happy, like characters in the background of a movie. They minded their own business, stopping to watch the street performers entertain the passerbyers, or taking impromptu stops at the local shops lined up along the mall.

And though it did seem like such a first world problem for you to want to experience this without the stress that your parents constantly impose onto you to run a company, you like to think that your feelings still count. Even just a little.

“Look over there,” Hyunjin speaks up. He’s pointing further down the road and into a smaller plaza. There were people skating on a small, man-made, ice rink. 

A gasp leaves your mouth as you when you take notice of the gigantic Christmas tree sitting off to the side of the rink. It had been strung from top to bottom in lights that occasionally changed colours. Ornaments decorated the tree with large ornaments, accented with ribbons and garland. 

It was beautiful. 

It was beautiful and you wanted to go get a better look at it. 

Leaving Hyunjin’s side, you begin walking ahead of him, long forgetting the tanghulu in your hand. And just like earlier, Hyunjin calls for you to slow down, mainly because you were charging through the crowd with a pointy skewer, but also because he cannot catch up. You paid no mind to his attempts to slow you down. You were already dead set on catching a closer glimpse of that tree.

Hyunjin reaches you when you finally choose to stop. Your head falls back to look at the tree from its topper to its base, mouth falling open in awe, “Tell me why I’ve never seen this before.” Then you turn to look at Hyunjin, who’s looking at the tree himself, “How do you think they decorated it?”

Hyunjin lets out a laugh in the form of air shooting out his nose, “Cause all we know is work and school and business. I guess we never really have the time to enjoy these things, do we?” Then he thinks up a clever answer for your second question, but fails, “And honestly, I don’t know. Maybe one of those man lifts?” 

“You’re right,” you laugh, “We need to Irish Goodbye more often if it means we get to see more things like this.” You glance around the area and find a bench nearby. Wordlessly, you grab onto Hyunjin’s sleeve and tug him along to sit. 

You can feel how cool the metal bench is through your dress, but you lean back anyways, continuing to admire the Christmas tree. It was weird because you were feeling this sort of delight growing in your chest just at the sight of the decorated tree, though if you were asked what you were feeling you wouldn’t be able to put words to it. It was like the cherry on top of the sundae, perfectly fitting the ambience of everything that you and Hyunjin have seen tonight. 

And for Hyunjin, sure the tree and the lights strung up all over the plaza were beautiful, but he was having a hard time keeping his attention on them, and instead kept taking glances your way. It was probably the fact that this happiness was different than the ones he’s seen before. It was like your inner child had jumped out, eyes filled with all the galaxies the universe held. 

The corners of his lips had stretched at the slightest, eyes following in pursuit. 

Hyunjin realizes now that if you were happy, he was happy. And he’d do anything to make it happen. 

But he wouldn’t admit that to you just yet. 

Or anyone. 

It was enough for now that he had admitted it to himself.

Feeling eyes on you, you catch Hyunjin looking at you, expression soft. "What's up with that look?" you tease, your eyes narrowing. You lean over and nudge his arm with your shoulder. 

Hyunjin feels heat rush to the apples of his cheeks and the tips of ears. He hopes that you don’t notice, “It’s nothing… just thinking about how we should actually do this more often.” Hyunjin pries his eyes away from you and forces himself to look at the tree which, frankly, wasn’t as pretty as you. 

“We should…” you nod, “This is way better than the gala.” 

Hyunjin agrees silently. 

The two of you sit there in a comfortable silence, just taking in the environment. It wasn’t everyday that you both got freedom like this and it was nice. And you can tell that Hyunjin felt the same. 

Before you finally go to speak up after a while, your phone rings. Glancing at the caller ID, your heart rate shoots up when you see it's your parents at the other end of the line. You quickly answer it to not cause suspicion, already sensing the concern in their voices.

“Hello?”

"Y/N, sweetheart, where are you?" your mom asks. You could hear your father’s voice saying something in the background, followed by another man’s voice. 

"I’m still at the venue," you lie, "I just needed to get air. Why?"

“We found the owner of—” You roll your eyes. Of course. 

“I’ll be right there, mom,” you say flatly, “Bye.” And you hang up. 

“So?” Hyunjin questions. You notice that he had shifted in his seat to look at you, “What did she say?” He didn’t want to get you in trouble. 

“She was talking about the owner of some company,” you shrug, “But that means we have to go.” 

You stand up and take one last look at the tree before you have to drag yourself back into your own reality. It was good while it lasted. 

Hyunjin frowns at your expression and gently takes your hand in his, “I’ll take you back here soon.”

You smile, eyes lighting up at the thought of coming back here again (and in much more comfortable clothes, too). “Promise?”

Hyunjin’s glad to see the joy instantly return to your previously deflating figure and nods.

“Promise.”

an: Thank you soso much for reading! Pls stay tuned for the upcoming members!

[lxfinty]

┊'𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐢'𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞'

neteyam te suli tsyeyk’itan ; avatar: the way of water

pairing: neteyam x omaticaya!gn!reader 

warnings: light fluff, budding romance, a lot of commas (not even a warning but it’s bugging me how I used so many)

request: n/a

summary: inspired by ‘yes to heaven’ - lana del rey

a/n: I heard this song and immediately wanted to do a fic with it, but then I saw the footage of the deleted dance scene from avatar 1 (lmk if you want a link or something) and knew it had to be done,, takes place some time before the sullys leave the forest

character credit: avatar movie series

w/c: 1.7k

part 2: ‘and if you don’t, i’ll dance anyway’

As you approach the Omaticaya’s kelutral, you cannot help but immediately smile in the festive ambiance.

The clan is currently hosting a celebration for the success of one of the war parties. Ey’tey jahmka hiru’tayas – tree drums made of holes within the Hometree – are being struck in various different locations; the vibrations of the melodies sending happy tingles throughout your body.

Around you, your people are in various states of enjoyment. Warriors are reunited with their families, thanking Eywa for letting them live to see their loved ones again. Many have dressed in their best garments, littering their hair with beads and their bodies with jewelry. 

This was a time to not only appreciate the survivors, but to give final thanks to your sisters and brother who have returned back to All-Mother after their great fight.

You tried to put a little extra effort in your appearance this morning, adorning your braids with a few colorful wooden beads and your loincloth with a few accented pieces.

Walking through the Hometree, you grin at recognized faces, making sure to welcome the returned and give gentle smiles to those experiencing loss. As you weave through the crowds, you catch sight of the eldest son of Toruk Makto, sitting around one of the many fires with his family.

You would like to say Neteyam is one of your best friends. 

Ever since you were young and his siblings had found you exploring the forest, you’ve joined them on their many wanderings and activities. The only thing is, Neteyam is always too busy that he never actually gets to join and enjoy himself. He’s always off training with his dad or out on a hunt; he never allows himself to relax and actually be a child.

You hate it.

There have been many nights where you have caught Neteyam returning from training, long after his father has returned; forcing himself to perfect his stances and study his problem areas – not that he has many.

He has engulfed his life in expectations: following them, achieving them, perfecting them, then exceeding them. The pressure he has had since a young boy due to his status as the next olo’eyktan has taken over his childhood, and he no longer allows himself to simply exist.

Due to this, you try to help Neteyam loosen up whenever you get the chance, and right now was the perfect opportunity. 

You stroll over to the area where he and his family reside. He’s currently conversing with Lo’ak, though he does not seem to be enjoying himself. His toothy smile – which you have bare witness to on several occasions – is not in appearance and a small, almost sad looking grin has taken its place.

“Hi, Y/N!” Tuk rushes out of her mom’s arms and darts in your direction, holding her own arms out when she nears. 

“”Hey, Tuk,” you playfully scrunch your nose as you pick up her small frame. You twirl her around whilst lifting her high above your head before placing her on your hip. “How is my favorite Sully sibling doing today?” You tickle her stomach lightly while speaking loud enough for the rest of the family to hear.

“Nah that’s just cold,” Lo’ak puts his hand over his heart and shakes his head in a hurt manner, “all the years we’ve been together and this cry baby comes along and suddenly I mean nothing to you.”

Tuk sticks her tongue out from the place on your side, making a small hum before placing her arms around your neck and resting her head on your shoulder. 

“What can I say Lo’ak?” You lightly shrug your shoulders before sitting in the empty space next to Neteyam and placing Tuk on your lap.. “You’ve been slacking in the favorites department and a demotion was long overdue.” 

You nudge the elder brother’s shoulder and inquire in a light tone, “and how is the family’s best tsamsiyu doing today?” 

It almost seems as though his mood has already lightened from the way his smile brightens.

“I am good Y/N. Thank you for asking.”

You carry light conversation with the Sully kids, complimenting Neytiri on her beautiful jewelry and greeting Jake when he stops by after mingling with his people. In this time, Neteyam only makes light jokes and adds very little to the conversation, even as Lo’ak repeatedly pushes his buttons in hopes of him pushing back.

You softly sigh, stopping the moves you’re currently doing with Tuk: you swinging and twirling her in correspondence to the music from your position on the log. You turn Tuk around and point towards a few kids who are dancing together and watch her run off to join them.

As you turn to ask Neteyam what is wrong, the drummers start to play one of your favorite songs and you cannot help but smile. You quickly hop up and wave the kids to come join you. Lo’ak gets up immediately, happy to move around and do basically anything. Kiri, though reluctant, slowly rises and you take her hands, quickly spinning her in a circle before you both move to the beat. 

You close your eyes and let the music consume you: swaying to the rhythm, gliding on your feet, moving your arms in accordance. Music was always one of the main ways you felt your connection to Great Mother deepen. Whether it be remembering the verses that accompany your clan’s various songcords, learning the ways of the drums, or joining in on any events that had dances involved; music always moved through you in a spiritual manner.

The song shifts, changing into a partner dance that every Na’vi is taught from a young age.

Immediately, you open your eyes and meet Neteyam’s gaze. 

You tilt your head in a “come here” gesture, but he scrunches his nose and shakes his head, his braids jostling due to the movement. You giddily walk over to him, a slight skip in your step, and grab his hands, attempting to pull him up from his sitting position and towards the dance circle.

“Y/N, I am not much of a dancer.”

“You must dance,” you say as you manage to pull him up, “it is the way.”

As you drag him away, you glance back and see Neytiri smiling at you and her son. You bow your head back at her before proceeding into your necessary positions.

“Y/N, I really do not know what I am doing.” 

The boy almost seems…nervous? Whether it was because of his so-called “lacking” dance skills or simply because he was dancing with you, you did not know.

“You learned dance when you were younger, yes?” You rock on your heels and bounce on the balls of your feet once he nods, “then you are fine, ma Neteyam.”

As the music starts to pick up, you hold your forearms vertical in front of your face, your palms facing you. Although he is opposed at first, Neteyam slowly does the same, and you can’t fight the giant smile that appears on your face. 

You slowly start to twinkle your fingers as your arms raise above your head. When your hand brushes against his, you can’t help but blush. You look him directly in the eyes to make sure he is doing okay.

You find he is doing more than that.

His smile seems to be growing by the second. His shoulders lose their tension, his eyes fluttering like he is finally letting go of his mind and taking in his environment. 

Once your arms straighten above your head, your turn your hands over and slowly bring them back down with the same twinkling fingers. As your tips gently tap against his, you can’t help the way your heartbeat picks up. 

You’ve never felt this close to Neteyam before. 

Whenever the two of you spent time together previously, it was always in light of his siblings: you joining him and Lo’ak on an ikran ride, you aiding Kiri when she patched him up after injury, you babysitting Tuk when Jake and Neytiri went out hunting while the others were busy. It’s come to your realization that the “moments” you’ve had with Neteyam were never really yours.

Now, even though you guys were not technically alone, felt different than the other times. This was between you guys; you and him alone.

Even though your mind was pacing a million thoughts a minute, you noticed that your partner had stopped the gentle taps against your fingers. 

This sent your brain into overdrive.

‘Why am I thinking like this?’

‘Has he ever thought like this?’

‘Oh Eywa, did I really just force him to dance with me?’

‘He was so reluctant at first. Is he only giving in because I wanted to dance? 

‘Have I made him uncomfortable?’

“Y/N…?”

You startle a bit at the sudden voice so close to you and start to pull your hands away.

“I am so sorry, Neteyam. I did not mean to force you to dance with me. You just seemed so out of it today, more than usual at least, and I wanted to help you relax a bit. Wait, not that I notice when you are out of it. I mean it is kind of obvious that you would be – you are the son of the olo’eyktan after all. Wait, I am supposed to be helping you forget that right now…”

Neteyam grabs your hands back and gently intertwines his fingers with yours. Your eyes pop back up to his face. The confusion must be present on your face because he actually chuckles when you meet his eyes.

“Thank you, Y/N. Truly I…I needed this.”

You cannot stop the warmth that spreads across your skin at his soft words.

“Oh…It is no problem.” Your eyes pop down to your locked hands and you softly grin before looking back at him.

What happens next actually surprises you.

Neteyam pushes you back a bit before twirling you around and continuing the dance. It catches you off guard at first, but you quickly recover and nudge his shoulder once you’re reeled back back in.

“What has happened to not being able to dance, hm?”

“A big part of dancing is who your partner is,” he says with the slight tilt of his head and a shrug, “if you dance Y/N, I’ll dance.”

Okay I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make this a oneshot or divide it, but I haven’t posted in so long and this was already a decent size by itself so yeah

Also, I’ve organized all the requests and stuff I’ve been sent for various shows/movies/books, so I’ll get to everything when I can !!

[waywardangel-wilds]

I'm working on this scene for my WIP and idk if I like it??? is it any good??

The bedroom was imbued in darkness when I returned. My fingertips lingered on the doorway as I dawdled at the threshold, my gaze fixated upon the windows. The blackout setting was on, blocking out the cityscape among us. I knew there was a party beyond them. The city, alight with eager bodies, dancing and singing and drinking on possibly the last night of my life. The city, just on the other side of those walls, and us, within them without anywhere to go.

“Katniss?” he murmured into the dark. “Come to bed.”

I tore my gaze away from my own musings and stared into the darkness where I knew the bed awaited. I had no illusions about sleeping that night. It would have been impossible to find any semblance of peace, under the circumstances.

I took one step after the other, putting a knee up on the mattress once I found it, I crawled across the cool sheets until I found my bed mate. I came to rest close to him, my head finding its usual spot on his chest, right where I could listen to his heart at its loudest. It lulled me to calmness with its securitizing sounds of rushing blood, the music of life.

“Peeta?” I whispered into the stillness.

“Yeah?”

“Tell me a story?” I asked. “Something happy.”

“Something happy,” he echoed, and I closed my eyes at the rumble in my ear. “You know all my happy stories. You were there.”

“Tell me one anyway.”

“Okay,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Oh, I broke Bannock’s arm once.”

I frowned with confusion over the smile in his voice, “and this is a good thing?”

“It was funny.” He shifted to his side, bringing his face closer to me. “I think I was eight.”

“How’d you manage that?”

“We were... Well, he was being an asshole actually.” He laughed a little. “I don’t remember why but he was pissed. Probably some dumb reason, I used to tell people his secrets for fun. Just little brother stuff, you know? Anyway, he used to get annoyed with me a lot ‘cause I was ‘ruining everything,’ or whatever.”

“That doesn’t sound like you,” I objected.

“Oh, I’m a different person when it’s just my brothers and me.” He snickered.

“Anyway, he’d been chasing me around the house. I was small enough back then that I was hard to catch. Mom wasn’t home, or she would have beat the crap out of us for running inside.” He still sounded like he was smiling. “Anyway, he chased me out into the stairs. I was fighting him with all I had ‘cause I didn’t want to end up with another wedgie, but the stairs aren’t all that big, so when he tried to grab me, I jumped back and he tripped. He fell down the stairs and took me with him.” He was snickering. “Problem was that I was kinda pudgy back then, so when I landed on top of his arm, I broke it good.”

“That’s awful!”

“No, no, it made the coolest sound.” Peeta insisted, “I swear it crunched. It was awesome. Also, no wedgie. Oh, and I got to make fun of him for weeks after that.”

“That’s so gross. Poor Bannock!” I insisted.

[byzantine-suggestions]

@suburbanbeatnik OK SO:

As far as the “mixing up different historical eras” problem goes, this actually happens in a lot of different novels. Theodora by Samuel Edwards is the most blatant example I can think of at the moment—near the end of the book, a horde of Huns, inexplicably led by Khosrow, starts marching on Constantinople while Justinian is in his plague coma, and Theodora sells the crown jewels (I don’t believe the narrative specifies the buyer) to fund Belisarius and his troops, who are the city’s last defense. Khosrow is similar to Mehmed II, Theodora takes on the role of Anna of Savoy, and the overall political situation is implied to be very bad for Byzantium, with Constantinople on the brink of total failure and most of the empire's territory gone. (Like, there’s discussion of Justinian and Theodora meeting the invaders at the gates so they can die together, because they think the whole empire is collapsing.) The story does end with the Byzantines winning (using Greek fire, another anachronism), and Theodora gets her jewels back (I do not remember how), but yeah, the author completely blended two very different periods together. Different variants of this exact plot appear in different novels—a *lot* of books treat the 540s as politically similar to the 1200s or 1300s, and a *lot* of books have Theodora sell her crown for some reason or another, usually to fund the defense of the City or one of Justinian’s schemes. (One book–maybe one of the ones by Marié Heese? I can’t think of the title, sorry)—had her sell her jewels to fund the building of the Hagia Sophia. (She gets them back in that book, too—I think Narses literally just discovers an enormous stockpile of gold somewhere, and that fixes the financial problems.) And a lot of different books put Belisarius in a Heraclius or Basil-like role, although I’m less well-versed in Belisarius books than I am in Theodora books. (The Sarantine Mosaic by Guy Gavriel Kay definitely did this—the character of Leontes is pretty much Heraclius and Belisarius combined, while Valerius and Aliana are straightforward Justinian and Theodora equivalents, except for the fact Aliana is the equivalent of an iconodule rather than a Monophysite. But that gets a pass, imo, because it’s not pretending to be totally accurate.)

Religious inaccuracies and mixups are also really common overall, especially in older books. One Victorian-era book called Blue and Green, or the Gift of God: A Novel of Old Constantinople was very bad with this, presumably because the author was a British Protestant who made no secret of his disdain for the “pagan heathenism” of the Byzantine Empire. (His descriptions of religious ceremonies are very funny, because he describes them as, like, Christian ceremonies, if Christian ceremonies had strippers and drugs. The inciting incident of Theodora’s spiral into prostitution is her doing an erotic dance at a respectable, aristocratic wedding—not a bachelor party, an actual wedding—and this is presented as normal.) Really, you can probably just check out any Byzantine book from before, say, the 1980s on archive.org, and there’ll be weird religious anachronisms all over the place. Lots of authors bring iconoclasm or the East-West Schism (the one that happened in 1054) into the sixth century, I guess because those are more recognizable and dramatic than the Monophysite thing. Authors tend to put Justinian and Theodora on the opposite sides of these conflicts, and Theodora is usually on whatever side they consider “wrong,” which differs significantly from book to book depending on the author’s religious leanings.

Regarding the Theodora/Macedonia thing—Ross Laidlaw’s Justinian: The Sleepless One definitely did this (there were a couple of cringe sex scenes in this book—he always referred to Macedonia as “the other one,” I guess to avoid saying her name a bunch of times? It’d be like “Theodora felt the other one’s lips...” and so on. It sounded so strange.) Macedonia was Theodora’s main love interest—Theodora does marry Justinian, and she likes him well enough as a person, but she’s pretty explicitly gay and uninterested in men, and she has an affair with Macedonia until Macedonia dies in an earthquake. I believe Stella Duffy’s Actress, Empress, Whore duology also had Theodora and Macedonia hook up, but Duffy’s sex scenes were less fetishistic and cringeworthy, and their relationship didn’t last for the entirety of the novel. Theodora having sex (or sexually charged interactions) with Antonina, Macedonia and her other female friends is reasonably common in shitty Theodora novels in general, but it’s never, like, a plot point. It’s just an excuse for the author to write about attractive young women getting it on in the Roman baths, or whatever other fetish-y nonsense piques his interest.

These points aren’t even the weirdest things about most of these books, though. I should just sit down one day and do a full post about all of the absurd things that happen in Justinian and Theodora stories, because shit gets real weird in most of them. Messy historical anachronisms and fetish-y male-gaze lesbian sex scenes are nowhere near the strangest aspects of some of these books—remind me, one day, to talk about all of the Penis Diseases these authors invent to explain away Justinian and Theodora's infertility.

[faramirsonofgondor]

A great example of ted’s non-confrontational approach is how Ted refuses to correct Trent when he asks if it’s true that they threw a party in the locker room for losing the match in s1. All ted had to do was say “actually that was a party planned for sam’s bday” and it would have changed trent’s attitude to some extent. But no, ted is too stuck in his “people will observe what i do and come around to seeing that i’m right” attitude. There was literally no reason not to correct the record and it made ted look totally unserious about his job!

Yes! Ted is a very non confrontational and I don’t really think he actually understands just how harmful his behavior is. He tends to handle most of his issues by ignoring them and believing that things will sort themselves out. He also acts like people will be able to understand what he wants from and adopt his mindset. Especially when Jamie is concerned. Jamie was harming the teams dynamic in season 1 and Ted just decided to be patient and beat around the bush instead of stepping up and telling Jamie to cut it out.

It sort of reminds of the scene in The Office where Stanley is very openly disrespecting Michael, and Michael tries to take the friendly approach but Stanley continues to be insubordinate and rude. But once Michael actually invokes his authority and tells Stanley that needs to cut it out and respect him, because Michael is his boss, Stanley begrudgingly cleans up his act and begins to respect him.

I think if Ted had done similar, he could’ve seen results from Jamie a lot sooner. The problem is that Ted dances around the topic at first and then gets increasingly frustrated when Jamie doesn’t meet his expectations. Telling Jamie to remember that’s he’s only of 11 and that he should be a team player is truthfully really unclear and shitty advice. Especially considering Jamie has issues picking up on “implied” messages. So, Ted thinks that he’s being clear and telling Jamie to pass the ball around, but Jamie probably didn’t really grasp that. Then the whole thing with stepping over Sam, and Roy trying to fight Jamie happened. And Ted decides the best course of action is to bench Jamie, and he’s still not communicating clearly on why he’s benching Jamie because he thinks it’s obvious. Then, when Jamie says he’s injured, Ted immediately assumes Jamie is lying and blows up at him. Like Ted’s reaction was extremely inappropriate. And I’ve seen a lot of people say that Jamie deserved it for being a prick and shit, but Ted is his boss, who’s nearly twice his age and who (in Jamie’s mind) is punishing him for unclear reasons. The fact that he NEVER clears any of this up is just so?????

And then the whole thing with Sam’s birthday. Like it’s not the only time that someone outright asks Ted something and instead of answering he just completely dodges it. There are so many things he should’ve clarified, like telling Jamie he never sent him away, or telling the team Jamie was coming back. Not to mention, he just never did shit about Nate’s behavior in season 2?? It’s just so frustrating when Ted is supposed to give the team guidance and be a good coach but then he ends up constantly contradicting his own standards for others. Like he says “be curious not judgmental” and then proceeds to be extremely fucking judgmental with Jamie.

I really just don’t think Ted sees how his mindset is hurting the people around him. He has a responsibility to the team to make sure that things go smoothly and they’re all happy and healthy but instead he avoids their issues half of the time, or gives them half assed advice the other half of the time.

Ted just needs to learn to be more direct with other people. His metaphors are so complex and time consuming half of the time and it’s actually a bit irritating. Like the whole Denver Broncos thing after Colin came out??? Ted could’ve just been like “we support you and care about you and whatever you’ve been going through” but instead he has to turn it into this whole speech. Some of Ted’s speeches are appropriate and well timed, but some of them also just really miss the mark.

It’s just really frustrating to see, especially considering Ted fucks Jamie over the most but he supposedly cares about Jamie a lot (which might be true but he never acknowledges how he’s hurt Jamie or that he’s never really shown him that he cares about Jamie). Like I think somewhere in s3 Jamie probably just came to the conclusion that Ted has a problem with him and only him because it seems like Ted is extremely lenient when it comes to everyone else’s shitty behavior but Ted got super mad at him (and the whole Zava shit). In reality, I think Ted has been getting away with being very indirect with other people because they’ve been pretty decent at picking up on what Ted wasn’t saying, but for people like Jamie it was probably just really frustrating and difficult because Ted was being confusing and then extremely angry.

I think Ted’s general avoidant behavior is where his “forgive him” advice comes from as well. Ted got by with never acknowledging or addressing Jamie’s trauma because other people were there to do it for him (Beard giving Jamie Ted’s note, Beard kicking out Jamie’s dad, Roy hugging Jamie, etc.) So when there’s no buffer, when it’s just him and Jamie and he’s not able to avoid the topic he tries to get Jamie to forgive and forget because it gives Ted an out from having to worry about Jamie and his trauma. In his mind, if Jamie just forgives his dad, then there won’t be an issue anymore. And it’s not just Jamie he does this with, he does it with a lot of the team. When there’s a certain situation he can’t relate to he either 1) tries to come up with a story or metaphor that encapsulates his mindset and perspective or 2) he tries to get other people to let their issues go. I think we see this most clearly when Isaac attacks the homophobe in S3. He is extremely aware of the fact that Isaac is upset about what was said, and not in just a “i hate being insulted” kind of way. Nobody just attacks someone like that because they’re insulted. But Ted is either purposefully ignorant or he just oblivious because implies that he should just let that kind of stuff go and ignore it. Which first of all, I really don’t think the locker room, in full view of the team, coaches, and Trent, was the appropriate place to have this discussion. Secondly, I think Ted just doesn’t get that not everyone has his mindset and some things just can’t be let go of that easily (I’m not saying Isaac was justified or anything). Thirdly, Ted should’ve waited for Isaac to calm down and reign in his anger and his frustration before saying anything like that.

Ted acts like his advice/mindset is perfect for every scenario when it’s really not. And it’s an extremely harmful way of thinking because it’s not just Ted that it’s affecting. Especially considering Ted doesn’t actually follow through with a lot of his own advice and expectations. Like the most prominent example I can of is Jamie, who seems to absorb everyone’s advice and follow it to the letter. He applies the advice he’s been given to his mindset and approaches every scenario with it. He understands the poop-eh metaphor and applies it the quickest and most consistently out of everyone in the team. The issue is that sometimes Jamie over corrects for things and it fucks with the boundaries Jamie has with other people. Like the entire scene where Jamie is expressing his concerns about Zava in a respectful manner, and yet here the coaches are making fun of him, telling him that he’s doesn’t really have a right to be upset, and assuming that it’s just his ego. Zava fucking steals Jamie’s first goal of the season, and nobody says shit. This is so inconsistent to Ted’s ideas and expectations in S1, and it’s just really unfair and unprofessional to Jamie. But Jamie doesn’t know if he’s allowed to address that or not because Ted is the one who’s in power and he doesn’t want to risk upsetting Ted again.

Anyways sorry this turned into a whole rant thing, I just have so many thoughts about all of this!

[girl4music]

“No one is birthed into the world complete and we don’t cross a line somewhere in our 20’s to find that we’ve arrived at adult. We shape ourselves into the people we are by making choices or circumstances will do the shaping for us. Which brings us to Willow…

This episode is a significant one for the Rosenberg and I realized watching it that I’ve suffered something of a Mandela Effect when it comes to her. Specifically I’ve been misremembering the very first episode where Willow’s eyes turn black upon casting a spell. In ‘Becoming Part I’ after Giles tells Willow that casting a soul restoration spell might open a door she’d be unable to close. She insisted. But his warning implies that casting magic potentially leaves an indelible mark on the caster and while being watched by Cordy and Oz something channelled through her and I was sure that she looked up, looked forward and had black eyes during the remainder of the spell - but no. Still, the door was open, and in Willow’s case what that has meant so far is magic becoming her number one coping mechanism. Magic has been a metaphor for a few things, but one of it’s analogues set up early on by Giles’ abuse of it to get high in ‘The Dark Age’, was drugs. A metaphorical connection between magic and alcohol was made in ‘Something Blue’ when Willow first tried to deal with her grief over Oz by way of a sick bud-light dance party. She has resorted to magic to cope with her lust, to cope with her anger, to cope with her grief,… and in ‘Tough Love’, her rage.

Historically there has usually been a scene afterwards where she suffers guilt for the spell’s misfire and bakes a round of apology cookies, but the episode always stops just short of her learning the actual lesson. Her regret is never specifically for the use of magic to solve her problem, but for the fact that she wasn’t capable enough to pull the spell off the way she wanted to and everyone tends to let it slide. On to the next episode. Heck, Buffy said more to Jonathan in ‘Superstar’ than she has ever said to Willow… because Willow is just… in pain, angry, lonely, lost. That’s all. It’s a familiar pattern with abuse-based coping mechanisms given there always tends to be a lot going on for that person. Big things that their friends and family members see as what actually drove their loved ones to this and that big thing feels more important right now than confronting their loved one about their little problem. Now is not the time, now is never the time and then time slips past.

But Willow has continued to become more powerful with every passing season and in ‘Tough Love’ her breaking into the Magic Box and channelling actual black magic I think represents a turning point. This is the first time her eyes actually turn black and if every spell leaves an indelible mark upon the caster, there is something in her now that she will always have to carry. But in keeping with Willow learning the wrong lesson or none whatsoever, the final scene in the episode follows the pattern we’ve seen to this point. Scoobies feeling bad for what Willow must be going through, conversations about consequences not being had and Willow feeling defeated and depressed. If the pattern fits not just because of Tara’s state, but because Willow wasn’t strong enough to wield the necessary power to properly take her revenge. Wasn’t strong enough,.. yet.”

Once again, nice job, Ian. Hit some points that I’ve never really thought about myself as you often do.

About your comment on the final scene of the episode being confusing because of the location they’re in.

Tara has not officially moved in with Willow. Yes, she stays in Willow’s room more often than not (hence the double bed replacing the two singles since ‘The Replacement’) and because of the traumatic events of ‘Family’ where her abusive dad just let himself in when it was unlocked, making it unsafe for Tara to be there alone, but they don’t officially live together. Willow still has her dorm room and Tara still has hers. So the room you see them in at the end of the episode is Tara’s dorm room, not Willow’s or Buffy’s.

[skulls-soul]

Ok so @galactic-knightmare as a au in we’re king boo and Luigi have a father-son relationship and I really needed to practice drawing king boo so what did I decide to do is use this AU as fuel and inspiration

So here’s a bunch of doodles of king boo and some boo’s as well as lovely little Ghost Prince Luigi. full warning though as u can see I don’t necessarily know how to draw baby Luigi and I’m still getting the hang of drawing king boo I did this without reference (because my phone was charging) so it’s not the best of the best but either way I figured I’d still share it because at the very least I think the interactions are cute

These first couple of doodles are old their When the first few chapters were out so these were just to try and find out how exactly they would look. So it’s nothing but a bunch of faces and me trying to figure out how in the hell does baby anatomy work my favorite in this page has to be Luigi trying to climb onto king boo

just more practice in general, you can see that I tried drawing king boo kind of levitating Luigi but I gave up on drawing baby Luigi halfway and then jumped to adult Luigi but with these doodles I had an actual reference of what king boo looks like

Here i start doodling little scenes of what I imagine has happened in the AU so kind of little head cannons I just realize that (I made Luigi a little bit of a problem child when it comes to washing) and you know what I stand by it I don’t think he would like it when he hast to put his bandanna or hat or himself to wash

On the top right Luigi is a little upsetti spaghetti because he’s constantly being changed into a bunch of different outfits because of course the boos need to find out which clothing actually fit him (although king boo is pretty sure that’s just an excuse) you can see that I have a little list and it’s basically just what I imagine Luigis first three words to be I think it’s Canon that the first word he says is papa and boo but I imagine that the third thing/1st phrase he’d ever say is “stop it” (or at least try’s to say it)

you can see just a bunch of different scenarios in we’re king boo would say stop it Because of course I had to give examples

There’s king boo with a flashlight with Luigi on top of him this is from the shenanigans chapter in where one of the ghosts find a flashlight and starts basically flashing everyone even poor Luigi got blinded :(

Then there’s ghosts who are just tossing the painting around of the boo’s that did the whole shenanigans I imagine king boo says stop it but won’t do anything else

And then at the very bottom right you can see Luigi running away after being told that he needs to take a bath

Although my favorite Has to be the drawing to the left of the ghost that you capture in the first Luigi mansion‘s game that was taking a bath helping Luigi out also the little bubble mustache (don’t worry Lu one day)

Top left you can see three ghosts stealing baby clothing from some wire hangers because that’s where I believe they get them 

Just below that there is a painting of king boo and baby Luigi I imagine that king boo wanted to have a serious painting but someone gave Luigi sugar beforehand so he couldn’t stay still so this ended up the outcome although the king doesn’t hate it and probably prefers it this way because he can see Luigi being his silly goofy self

To the right of that is one of the ghosts from the Mario party games holding maracas

And then at the bottom is an entire scene of what I imagine Luigi‘s first birthday to be like. him with shorts and a frilly shirt some ghosts dancing to the left and to the right you can see a pin yada or the poison mushrooms from the games and three ghosts doing the how low can you go game then there’s a floating violin and piano 

And last but certainly not least A Polaroid photo of Luigi eating his birthday cake with icing all over his face I tried doing another little false mustache but clearly failed that’s ok though

Btw you can find the fanfiction of this on ao3 it’s called phantom interference

[she-ismysun-archive]

🚨 THE ROOKIE 6x02 SPOILERS 🚨

do not read if you don’t want spoilers. Holy shit 100th episode started off with a BANGER. This is my live blog thread.

DADDY COP? FOR REAL? WHAT A FUCKING INTRO. NO WONDER ZANDER RANDOMLY BROUGHT IT BACK UP ON HIS INSTAGRAM.

100 SPARKLE INTRO ✨✨✨

Henry missed his flight???? NAAAUUU

HELLO CHASTITY AND SKIP TRACER RANDY. HE SKIP TRACER BOUNTY HUNTED PETE LOL. I literally can’t stop screaming. I can’t stop SCREAMING. I feel so feral

Chastity is teaching him how to kiss! 😆😆

please 🫣 PLEASE TELL ME THEY DONT LOSE THE RING?

Oh brother. Aaron is not as ok as I thought he was or would be. Bro is NOT ok!!! He’s still benched for a reason. Wade will not make the same mistakes he did before. He will not lose another one.

Wow healthy communication? No. Angst continues. Please help me save me save ME. He’s so mad. She’s so hurt. Pleeeease our lovers will resolve this episode I said so!

OSCAR?

Henry missed the bullet train.

What is happening with Nyla and Celina rn. NARCOTIC POT?

MONICA?! Double fucking whammy

Friendship hugs. I said so. They’re friends. Please don’t force this romantic relationship :((

THEY PAWNED THE BAILEN WEDDING RINGS? DEADASS????

the hammer episode name drop 🫠

“No please don’t do me any favors” Angela please save us WAHH THEYRE BICKERING

Hello wedding DJ - womp womp drug dealer

BILLY BOB BENNET (the hammer)

Oh they’re scheming. Oh they’re scheming so hard

So I definitely misread this shot in the promo (they have not made up yet)

Eric Winter’s hardest fight scene of his entire career

Lucy negotiating is so fun

TIM OFFERING LUCY UP TO BE THE FIGHTER?? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.

Tim get his shit rocked but he WINS - wait I just noticed Lucy holding his belt??

TIM? HOLDINF THE RING ON ONE KNEE Bdjdksnsksk

Goodnight Tim

HAHA “THE ROOKIE” NAME DROP

Nyla just calling Celina “the rookie” and she gets to do her first interrogation

No flower. Almost no ring. Almost no Henry?? ENJOY GIRLS NIGHT? SHES TRYING TO GET HENRY INTO THE COUNTRY.

CAKE TOO EARLY 🫣🫣 AND IT HAS COCONUT CREAM

Randy is the florist expert now (Ty ClipTok)

Ou they’re both. Gossiping about each other at the bachelors party

Lucy: he’s the problem

Tim: how do I prove to her that I’m not the problem?

DAMN IT. THEYRE GETTING DINNER TOGETHER NOW (Celina and Aaron) AND TIM WANTS TO MEET LUCY AT THE STATION

lie. detector. test.

LIE. DETECTOR. TEST. 🥹🥹🥹

YES. I LOVE YOU. HES A LYING LIAR WHO LIES?

he’s a. Lying liar. Who LIES 😭😭😭 it took a LIE DETECTOR TEST for him to ACCEPT that he doesn’t want Lucy to do UC work.

Luna’s getting her social work degree!

And of course their officiant doesn’t show up. Thank you Wade for saving the day

This wedding is so goddamn beautiful. Their vows are so fucking beautiful.

God they tricked me with all the happy promo shots of Chenford but their angst is far from over

Randy and Chastity is DJ-ing?? James saves the day with a playlist of his own.

Will Tim and Lucy make it out?? God I hope so! (I know they will but this is hurtinggg)

AARON. GOOD GOD. They were laying that on THICK. And now Celina is leaving the wedding. God Celina please be ok

I just spent last night spiraling about “dog bring a live part”

They’re dancing but they’re going to talk. Yea you DO need to deal with it Tim. YOU ARE GONNA GET THROUGH THIS

SHE SAID IT BACK

The chenford wedding kiss 🥹

ITS JOEVER. IT IS JOEVER

Celina is in fact NOT OK. And Aaron is drunk off his ass. Of course why would Nolan have a peaceful wedding night when everything else went wrong.

Alright then. That was wrapped up quickly. Everyone quick thinking weeehh Everyone’s ok.

This is the third shot of them laying on their back? It’ll be fun to clip that together.

Well ok then.

I feel so betrayed and tricked but it was delulu of me to think they would make up that quickly!!! IT TAKES A LIE DETECTOR TEST FOR HIM TO ACCEPT THAT HE DOESNT LIKE THE IDEA OF HER DOING UC WORK? This is actually just so in character for them! This is actually just chenford being chenford because it took them going undercover as a couple to even CONSIDER the fact they have feelings for each other.

[koizumiyuu]

Social Outcasts

Part 7

warnings: none in this one.

Silence stretches as they walk through the hotel, (name) silently following Chishiya as he leads her to her supposed room at a casual pace.

Chishiya. She should have connected the dots a little sooner. She’s heard that name even outside the university. This guy’s father is some big-shot doctor, that even (name)’s heard of before. It makes so much sense now. He’s some nepo baby continuing his father’s legacy. That must be where his sociopathic tendencies stem from. Him being bored of life and now making it everyone else’s problem in a world where he’s able to do it without consequence.

The sour look must have slipped to the front of (name)’s expression because her companion speaks up to break the silence as they turn into a long hallway, ”I had a feeling you would end up here sooner or later.”

(name) frowns at the comment, but doesn’t directly respond, “So what is this place? Some kind of cult?”

That seems to amuse him and he smirks, but eventually, he just shakes his head in a vague non-answer as he faces forward again.

They stop in front of a room and Chishiya gestures to the door as if to wordlessly that this is it. (name) gives him a look, but pushes it open. She doesn’t expect him to stick around long, and he proves her right almost immediately as he turns on his heel with a parting comment, “See you later.”

(name) doesn’t say anything in response as she shuts the door.

True to Hatter’s word, the lock on the door is jammed with super glue, making it possible to close the door but not lock it. It doesn’t matter much. She doesn’t intend on keeping anything incriminating in here that would get her killed. Though it is bothersome that anyone can just bust it at any moment. But then again, with enough willpower, someone could do that even through a lock.

As the rules request, (name) makes her way over to the closet in search of a bathing suit to wear. There aren’t many options, but after looking over the items in the drawer, she settles on a dark blue two-piece that’s neither too revealing nor concealing. She pulls on her hoodie over top, zipping it just enough for it to still be visible that she’s actually wearing a bathing suit underneath.

While coming up here, she did take notice that this place is as lively as ever, despite the dead atmosphere everywhere else in the city. The hotel is full of people, drinking and partying, and talking amongst themselves with smiles on their faces. She can admit, it is a nice change of pace compared to the vibe of looming death in the empty streets of Tokyo. As much as she doesn’t believe this place to be a ‘Utopia’ as Hatter called it, it will be nice to actually have electricity, water, and a place to sleep.

About an hour later (name) decides to go down and observe the place from closer up. Judging by the interesting greeting she received earlier, this place has some kind of hierarchy going on, and she would be stupid to not try and figure out the exact chess pieces. After all, Hatter did briefly talk about ‘executives’ and ‘ranks’.

People don’t seem to be paying her much attention as she makes her way down to the first floor and outside to the pool area. Most are busy either drinking, dancing to the music, or chatting amongst themselves. Outside there’s a bar, and surprisingly, even someone behind the counter. (name) appraises the scene quietly as she makes her way over there. A guy with dark hair gives her a smile from behind the counter, asking what she’ll have, and (name) offers him a faint nod, asking for water. She takes a few sips, continuing to observe her surroundings.

“I knew there was a new girl!” a cheery female voice sounds from behind her and (name) looks back to see a tall girl with dreadlocks and a smoking aide between her lips. She’s wearing a blue two-piece swimsuit and is seemingly appraising her with her arms crossed over her chest.

(name) didn’t exactly expect someone to be soughing her out so soon, much less approaching her for conversation. But this girl’s demeanor doesn’t seem to be malicious, at least at first glance. So (name) decides to see what’s her deal, aiming to be polite, “That’s me, yeah. I’m (name).”

The girl smiles, pleased to be met with a positive reaction, “So I’ve heard. I’m Kuina, it’s nice to meet you.”

A brief glance at her locker tag number tells (name) that she’s not an executive, so her comment about ‘hearing’ suggests she must be close to someone who is. That, or she’s good at eavesdropping. She wonders if this girl is trying to appraise her or if she’s genuinely just looking for friends. Her face doesn’t give it away though, as she gives Kuina a smile, “You too.”

 The girl suggests they go sit down somewhere and (name) agrees, moving to sit in the shade with Kuina in some of the beach chairs further away. They briefly talk about nothing in particular, before (name) decides to prod further while she has the chance, “So… What’s the deal with this place?”

Kuina makes a face at that question, and it becomes obvious that (name)’s thoughts were likely correct. She pulls the smoking aide from between her teeth, debating how to answer, “Well… a Utopia. At least that’s what Hatter wants it to be. In reality, everyone here does whatever the hell they want, and you just gotta fly under the radar if you don’t want trouble.”

Judging by the amount of information this girl is willing to give up, (name) guesses she’s probably not out to get her, so she relaxes a fraction, “And the psychos with guns? What’s up with all that?”

Kuina frowns, as if just the idea is distasteful, “Those are the militants. Aguni is their leader, and they’re here to basically keep the rules reinforced. They deal with the traitors, but some just enjoy stirring up trouble for no reason.” She hesitates, then adds, “A good piece of advice: try to stay away from Niragi and you should be fine. God knows the guy is a nutcase,”

(name) nods slowly, already familiar with the name, “Figures…” She looks around absentmindedly, gaze drifting over the people lounging around the pool without a care in the world, “And Chishiya? He’s an executive too, isn’t he?”

“Oh, you know Chishiya?” the brief flicker of fake surprise on Kuina’s face gives it away that she already knew that. ‘Gotcha…’ “Yeah, he is. We’re friends, him and I. Well, allies, more like. He’s awfully full of himself. But really smart, so he’s useful to have around.”

(name) nods, not commenting further. Kuina’s reaction and answer suggest that it was likely Chishiya who she’d heard it from about her arrival. And it was also probably him who wanted Kuina to gauge what she’s like. Though the girl herself seems more kind-hearted than Chishiya’s apparent mind games. (name) decides it would probably be useful to have an ally in a place like the Beach, so now the plan is to get into her good graces. And by the looks of it, she’s already halfway there.

Eventually, Kuina offers up to show (name) around the hotel. She tells her her own room number, shows the kitchen and the dining hall, as well as some of the cool places to hang out and pass time. She’s unsurprisingly good company, cheery and energetic, not lacking topics to keep the conversation flowing. Weird hierarchy aside, this place is actually not half-bad.

The day wraps up and the lot of the Beach gathers in the main hall, watching as a bunch of the players split into small groups and drive out to participate in games. Kuina said earlier that she still has days on her visa, so she’s not going tonight, but that this is a regular occurrence of how they do things every night. Players that have fewer days left, all split into groups assigned by the executives and go complete the games to bring cards back to the Beach.

Her and Kuina both hang back as the Hatter gives some type of motivational speech from the balcony in the middle before a voice interrupts their quiet observation. “I see you two have met.”

(name) turns to see Chishiya’s usual smirk as he approaches from behind, hands in his pockets and a casual posture like always. (name) wants to roll her eyes at that. As if he didn’t already know they would and planned for it. But she doesn’t, instead deciding to play along and just nodding slightly, “Sure did. Kuina showed me around.”

That makes Chishiya’s smirk widen, “Isn’t that nice of her.”

His sarcasm earns a scoff and an eye-roll from Kuina, but eventually, she doesn’t shoot back as the crowd from the main hall disperses.

Next.

[strangeauthor]

heyy if multiple are allowed for the writing post, 2, 4, 7, 10, 18, 22?

i love talking and i have the inability to stop talking so multiple are welcomed

2. What are some common elements of stories you are tired of seeing? What would you avoid writing about?

light=good and pure and dark=bad. so i intentionally subvert in my stories. you can see this in Chaos where B'trayed is potrayed with white and are the Bad Guys and the heroes mostly wear darkerish clothing and are the good guys, or, to be more specific, Nick's uncle eventually gets the power of darkness but is the biggest dork of the cast and has a cat named Pancake

4.In your works, is blood thicker than water or is the blood of the covenant thicker than the water of the womb? (Are familial ties or friendship ties more important?)

its a mixture of both and it depends on the characters, though honestly i like leaning towards the latter.

7. Favorite description in your wip? (If asked more than once, respond with a new piece each time)

this is from my last draft but a lot of the stuff i written in it will be carried over in the final draft because i'm just that iconic

“I said no, Nick.” Amandus stood up, “You just got out of a damn fight with one of them, and now you’re going to a party with them afterwards? Are you serious?” “It’s a chance!” Nick stood up, glowering. “It could be the only other thing in this damn search that can give us clues about dad! All I’ve done is stay at your house!” “Nick, it’s not that simple---” “If we just started the damn search already, maybe none of this would’ve happened!” Nick clenched his fist. “Do you want me to find the truth?” “I do! But here’s the thing, as far as I know, you’re the only person I have at the moment! I can’t lose you! I already had to bury one nephew and I don’t want to bury another!”

man i really like this one the most. there are others of course but this one always gets ppl lol

10. What scene was the most fun to write for you and why?

i think it's the gala scene to be honest, mostly because i had fun describing what the characters were wearing and how it (mostly) correlates to their characterization (except for poor Nick because he hates suits lol)

in the final draft im gonna expand more and actually have them dance and maybe even fight dance at some point. yes i loved that scene in owl house why'd you ask

18. What writers have inspired you with their use of language? What are some of your favorite quotes?

aw man this one hurts because a long, long, long time ago i would've told you it was rick riordan and how he's the literal reason why i'm a writer because of how he described the world in the stories he write and how his characters influenced mine with his language (i dont have any quotes because memory problems lol) but i cant. cause he's a zionist. and it fucking hurts. so i gotta try to find more people to get inspired by so i can answer this one properly.

22. How do you come up with character names? Do the names have a special meaning? If so, what are they?

imma be real with you. i just go on behind the names and try to find the ones that are the most fitting for the character's personality lol there are some that fit; once again, Amandus, his name means worthy of love which i think its nice.

[momokodaisy]

Like yeah, I know John had a wife, but sex still played no role in his films, just pure love. So it was disappointing for the first episode of ‘The Continental’ to have three sex scenes — one happening off to the side in the most lifeless 1970s New Year’s Party I’ve ever seen (people looked more shuffling than dancing), then young Winston has one mostly kept offscreen, so I though ‘okay, that’s a little better’, but then they have two detectives outright naked, showing their backsides and doing the act onscreen for a solid minute, and I was like WHY. This is the ‘John Wick’ franchise. You’re appealing to the wrong people here, we really don’t need to see that. It literally had nothing to do with the plot. And my non-asexual friend hated it too, so I know it’s not just an ace thought in this case. The opening fight was pretty good though.

So I have not seen any part of the Continental TV show, nor will I ever watch it, so I can't give my 100% Verified Critic TM opinions, and thus I will be going off your testimony, Anon. And uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah. It sounds exactly as bad as I expected it to be.

First, just for context for others who maybe haven't seen the films - sex is not at all a thing in JW quadriology. There are no sex scenes, John has no love interests, I don't even think there's an instance where a character catcalls or makes a reference to getting laid. The most sexually charged scene, arguably, is a quick shot of Ares touching John's butt during a patdown. Even the scene where a woman removes all her clothes is written and shot intentionally un-sexually charged as possible and is instead far more sad and tragic. So yeah, throwing sex scenes and sexually-charged nudity into a """""John Wick"""" tv series is. fuckin stupid.

The real problem here, though, isn't that the creators are making unnecessary sex scenes, that's a symptom of a bigger issue. The issue is that the show is not at all interested in what made the John Wick movies work. The John Wick movies are pure action camp, they are over-the-top depictions of guys fighting each other in brutal and violent ways, just done artistically. Rule of Cool is law, and that makes for some of the most stunningly gorgeous visual cinema to date. The JW films can be summarized as "pretty man in suit do murder" and as long as it looks good, that's all that it needs to be. Sure, Kolstad and Stahelski added some crazy worldbuilding that gets more and more ridiculous as the movies go, but again, this is just an excuse for Keanu Reeves to get in a black suit and pretend to shoot a fuckton of stunt guys. None of this needs to make sense. The world John lives in does not need to be logical or realistic, it just needs to service the next action scene. Because, let's face it, this is a classic Greek tragedy unfolding before our eyes, John nor anyone else is gonna have a character arc, there aren't subplots that need to be tied up by the end. We're just here for the spectacle. And that's ok.

However, we live in a disgusting timeline where studios feel the need to a make cinematic universe out of everything, so instead of just fuckin…. giving Kolstad or Stahelski or literally anyone the money and resources to make more projects, they try to come up with shit from an IP. And all Lionsgate really has going for it right now is The Hunger Games and John Wick, so they want something with JW franchise names we know. Hence, a backstory about Winston and the Continental, which literally?? no one asked for?? ever????? If anyone actually cares about Winston's original rise to power, or what John did to hide Sofia's daughter, or what exactly happened in the three-men-in-a-bar-with-a-pencil story, we fanfic writers have already gotten to work on that, I don't need a panel of executives doing that for me. And a part of the appeal of the John Wick underworld is that it's there, it exists, it's just how the world works, and we do not question it. The moment we start asking questions about how it works proves that we've lost the point, which is YO BRO JOHN'S SWORDFIGHTING THE IRON CHEF GUY WITH KATANA IN A GLASS ROOM THIS IS SO SICK

So. yeah. doesn't surprise me at all the sex scenes felt out of place and don't work for a John Wick spin off. Nothing about this premise works as a John Wick spin off. Put shit in, get shit out.