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lizard-shifter-noms · 9 months ago

Text

Still Subject To Change Chapter 2 (NEW)

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Hello everyone! i decided to repost arc 1 of SSTC

(the chapters were way too long and had a bunch of typos but hopefully this will make reading easier)

this Story contains Vore, Don't like don't read.

if there are still any grammatical errors i’m sorry.

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Silently stalking closer i planned to just grab it and get back to where i left Robin i was startled by a Loud shout of.

“HELP HELP I’M KIDNAPPED SOMEONE HELP THEY TIED TO A TREE”

The deer of course ran away as soon as the wailing started and I was left once again without anything to eat.

At this point it was a wonder that i did not feel any Hunger Pains but i sure WAS feeling Angry now as this was the second time i got interrupted while getting something to eat.

All but Dashing through the surrounding greenery not caring if the branches cut my skin I waltzed into the clearing I had left Robin in, who was still shouting but stopped when he saw me.

Yanking him from the tree and holding him in front of my face i hissed angrily

“What’s the big idea? you WANT some Monster to come get you? Because of your screaming I lost the Deer i was hunting so I didn’t get anything to eat yet again! do that one more time and you’re the one to replace the meat, got it?!”

He was looking at me thoroughly horrified and with tears beginning to form in his eyes while he shook in my hand struggling to breathe from me holding him a bit too tight

“I’m sorry! I'm Sorry! I saw a Road and thought if someone was there they would get me free! I’m sorry! i didn’t know you already had seen something I'm sorry! please don’t kill me”

He cried out, starting to weep softly to himself.

Looking at the weeping boy in my grasp I started to feel a bit guilty for scaring him like this.

I changed how I held him so he could breathe easier and instead cupped him to my chest next to my heart, sighing.

“I’m not gonna kill you, just don’t scream like that again okay?”

I tried to calm him down while not looking at him.

The entirety of this nonsense was Harder than I thought, I never had to take care of another living being and I did not know what to do.

“Look i apologize for shouting at you but i got angry and i really haven’t had anything of sustenance in three days I'm surprised my stomach didn’t just eat itself yet”

He was still curled up but he stopped weeping into my shirt but he kept refusing to look at me.

“Also, you mentioned a road? I don’t think there’s supposed to be anything this far out? Can you point me to it?”

He looked up and pointed towards a place a bit down the slight slope we were on and I could actually see a sort of path there.

“Can you stay quiet this time when I check that out?”

I asked him softly and started walking to where he pointed at me trying to be as quiet as I could once again.

Robin still didn’t really look at me but he did keep quiet until we reached what did look like a small road in the middle of a forest but it was far more muddy than any human made path and had no footprints that could belong to any sort of human.

It did however have lots of animal prints like Deer and what i assumed to be wolves

“this is an animal trail! oh that’s actually lucky!”

Robin finally looked at me, suddenly seeming a bit more eager to do something.

“So you mean we can set a trap here?”

“i guess but i have no idea how to make one though”

I admitted to him and tried to think of other ways to catch something, Maybe I should try to just ambush it?

“I know how to make one! i can tell you how, but uhh you need the rope for that”

I looked back at him and considered what he told me,

On one hand he could use this to try to escape again.

On the other hand, the trap I’d be making had a chance to actually work and I could still just hold him to prevent him from running away.

“Alright fine if you know how to do it tell me”

I started unraveling the rope around him as I spoke and made sure to hold onto him as the last of it fell down.

“oh.. well you need two tree trunks and some sticks also a rock”

he started to explain while he clung to one of my fingers that were holding him and just generally tried to move his arms that had been bound since yesterday.

Picking up everything he asked me one handed and putting it in a heap next to the trail, I still had no idea what type of trap this would make.

“soo now explain to me what to do and i will build it as you tell me but no funny business got it?”

He nodded and started instructing me on how to build the Trap.

As I went along with his instruction I realized that the Trap consisted of the principle of just smashing whatever walked through between the two trunks I had to get.

Well that would definitely be effective albeit a bit Grim.

“I think it looks good! you’re not a bad builder!”

Robin’s praise at my building skills caught me a bit off guard but I regained my composure just as fast.

“Now we wait somewhere and for the love of all the rivers of Hell be quiet this time!”

He nodded and put his hands over his mouth to show that he would be as silent as possible.

looking around and deciding to just walk around a fair bit away from the trap to wait if it catched anything, as well as try to find some edible plants in the meantime.

Walking through between the stocky old trees while Robin just hung limply in my grasp, apparently rather bored I eventually found a patch of dandelions not too far from the trap.

“Hey look, those are edible, do you want some?”

Robin looked at when i was pointing and the asked confusedly

“they’re edible? i thought they were just some weeds”

“no they’re perfectly edible i think some of the poorer people in Tunstead used them to make salads and i’ve had my fair share of them too”

I told him and proceeded to sit down next to the Flowers, ripping a few of their stems.

Gods the Blossom looked absolutely miniscule in my Hand, a single one didn’t even cover my fingertip anymore when they used to fit perfectly in the middle of my palm.

Sitting Cross Legged on the grass I set Robin in front of me.

“don’t run i WILL catch you”

“i don’t think i could outrun you, your legs are longer than i’m tall”

He also sat on the ground and started ripping flowers out of the dirt and started fiddling with them.

“Donovan? What did you do that the Lady at the market flipped out like that? the way she screamed made it sound like you stabbed someone to death or something”

Ah yeah that question had to come up sometime as neither of the Guards could have actually seen what had happened

“i stole a piece of Bread and the Lady saw my pointy ears so i guess that's enough to make someone scream bloody murder”

I decided to answer honestly as there really was no point in lying and I’ve never been one to outright deceive people.

“thats…Thats it? with how the Lady was screaming it sounded like you murdered her Husband or something”

he was still fiddling with the Dandelions in his hands but seemed a lot more at ease upon finding out that i had not killed anyone

I continued picking up the flowers and stuffing them into my mouth even if it was such a small amount compared to my new size.

Glancing down now and again to make sure Robin stayed put, I saw him having that 100 yard stare again while he just messed with the flowers in his hands.

I was not sure if i should say something or nudge him but he did say that this happened rather frequently so i left it be.

At least until a Booming sound echoed through the forest making me flinch and he let out a rather adorable high pitched squeak.

I decided not to comment on it and instead tried to think of something that could make such a sound while scooping him into my Hands once again while standing up.

“uhh i think that was the trap? should we look?”

Robin pointed out nervously and shakily held the flowers he was fiddling with a few seconds ago which I now saw had been made into a Flower Crown, which fell to the ground as I stood up.

“sure, i hope it got something in it though”

I did really hope the trap got something as I’ve been running on basically nothing for three days now, even if strangely enough I still did not feel any hunger whatsoever, pushing it off as stress from being a Giant I went back to where the trap was with Robin in my hand.

This was getting inconvenient but my shirt had no pockets so I would just have to deal with it.

Getting to the Trap it did indeed work as there was something that Resembled a Boar even if it had its skull smashed in by the Tree Trunks that were used to build this thing.

The only recognizable feature in its face were the Tusks.

The overall size of this thing was also impressive as it was longer than Robin was tall, about seven feet in length.

“Jackpot, that thing got a lot of meat on it don’t you think?”

I grinned down at Robin who was staring at the Animal with an unreadable expression.

“i didn’t think this would have enough strength to just pulverize a skull”

He admitted and looked in sort of horrified realization at it while I tried to pry our catch free one handed.

I succeeded in pulling the Boar out between the Logs but the motion caused blood to spill from its smashed skull running over my fingers and making the Scarlet liquid stick to my hand.

Gross, I hoped I could find a way to clean that.

Walking away with both hands occupied, I went back to the little clearing the Dandelions were in and nabbed a few branches with the hand that held the boar so we could make a fire.

However, upon setting things up I realized that I was way too big to properly prepare the meat.

Robin was staying unusually quiet and just kept staring at the Boar before he asked

“Can you carve it at your size? Do you even have a knife?”

“No to both of those but if i give you a knife and you promise not to use it to attack me would you prepare it? i would probably just mess it up with my too big Hands”

I knew giving him anything sharp at all would be a risk but at this point it had been three and a half days since i had anything to eat and i knew that a body couldn’t just function on nothing.

Reaching into my pocket and Giving him his Dagger back for the time being I set him in front of the Boar so he could get to work while i tried to make a fire,

but I never took my eye off of him for long to ensure he would not suddenly run up and stab me.

It took quite a few tries but eventually i managed to get a fire going just as Robin told me he was done

“What am I supposed to do with the guts? i don’t want to leave them next to the Campsite, who knows what monster might get Lured by the smell”

He did have a point in that so I started to dig a hole to bury the bloody entrails.

As Robin stood up I noticed that his front was soaked in Boarblood so I took my Handkerchief out once again.

“you’re also kinda bloody wash up with this while i cook”

I tossed the cloth at him and he started trying to get all of the blood off himself with the oversized fabric while we waited for the meat to cook.

When the meat was finally done and I took it off the fire the Sky had started to take on a magenta hue which only intensified as I extinguished the flames with some of the dirt I had dug up earlier.

Not really knowing how to share this thing I simply ripped off a leg and gave it to Robin who took it rather awkwardly from me and tried to just bite chunks out of it while I tried to think of a way to eat my portion as I could not possibly pull the meat off the bones.

In the end I just shoved it into my mouth, biting the Boar in half, crunching on it firmly, easily destroying bones that would have been too large to even be put in my mouth before.

Robin just looked at me with a rather horrified expression as I stuffed the second half of the Boar in my mouth.

He only managed to eat about half of the leg, maybe a bit less and just held the leftovers out to me.

“im done, you can have this also”

I carefully took the half eaten leg from him with two fingers and devoured it in a single bite.

“so uh i think we should camp here for the night cause i don’t want to walk through these woods when it’s dark”

I went to take the rope out again so we could repeat yesterday’s spiel.

“Can we not tie me up this time? i hate trying to sleep while bound its uncomfy and i get that pins and needles sensation in my arms”

He tried to persuade me so I wouldn’t tie him up overnight again but I knew he would bolt the second I closed my eyes even if he had been strangely placid this whole time.

“sorry but no i want to be able to sleep without you running away and getting an entire army to murder me”

I told him as I tied him up, once again using the spare shirt to cover his arms.

He was trying to look Grumpy but it just ended with him making a pouting face again.

“I hope this Night is gonna be warmer, the last one made me freeze my ass off and now the Blanket is all bloody”

“Well you can use me as a giant space heater i guess”

Lying down on my back, I simply put him on my chest and laid a hand over him like a tent so he wouldn’t roll off.

“here this should work, also if we find a river i’ll wash the ‘Blanket’”

“Thank you? though i do hope this night is warmer”

He curled up under my Hand and for a second I got the Mental image of a little mouse but shoved it away.

“i can hear your heart from here”

The quiet admission had me perk my pointy ears as I glanced down at him.

“yeah i guess, i have two of them”

“you what? but I only hear one?”

He looked at me incredulously as I told him about it.

“well yeah only one works, some of my organs are doubled i also have four kidneys, well three now since some fucker drugged me to sell it to an Alchemist, I’m glad i managed to break that guys nose before he gutted me completely”

I chuckled grimly at the memory of lying on a cold table and someone cutting into my side before just punching the guy.

“So you just… have more organs than you need???”

He seemed extremely confused over this.

“I suppose that’s one way of putting it but I still would like to keep my insides… well inside”

I did not know why I was telling him this stuff.

After all, when the week was over I’d let him run back to Tunstead and would never see him again.

Though it had been a long time since i could talk to something that was capable of responding so i guess i was just bored with the silence.

I closed my eyes and laid there for a bit knowing that Robin would not be able to get down with me literally as his mattress.

Shortly before i conked out i could feel him lying his head over my heart, glancing down i saw him having that distant stare again, and after about a minute he closed his eyes as his breathing fell into a calmer rhythm indicating that he had fallen asleep.

That was fast, I thought before falling asleep myself.

The next morning I was awoken by sunlight hitting my face and I tried to get up before remembering that Robin was still on my chest.

Looking down i saw that he was still sleeping so i nudged him with finger to get him to wake up

“mmm nrmm ten more minutes”

he just rolled over and gripped my shirt as if trying to use it as a blanket.

“Wake up, sun is out and i want to get going”

I nudged him again and this time he groggily lifted his head blinking owlishly at me

“Wwha? oh… OH! uh good morning?”

He tried to awkwardly Greet me as he tried to get up but fell over as he was still bound with the rope.

I nabbed him off my chest before he could tumble down from it.

“good morning to you as well i thought Guards were supposed to get up at dawn?”

“Uh usually Arthur wakes me up im not a morning person”

He yawned and tried to stretch as much as he could before the rope stopped him.

“Well let’s get going then i want to see if we can find water today, the Waterskin you have is almost empty and i want to wash the Blanket you used”

I really hoped we would find a river or at least a pond today so I could also wash my Handkerchief / Robins Blanket as it had started to just flake off bits of dried blood.

Standing up and making sure Robin didn’t fall off I stretched my muscles and tried to figure out in which direction to go to find some water, in the end I decided to just continue the path I took yesterday.

Picking up everything including the ragged Boarskin as it could be useful later I started to Marching troughs between the trees.

At some point i heard a distant noise like something falling down, At first I thought that it was just a random animal until it happened again and after a few seconds again.

“Do you hear that? any idea what that could be?”

I asked Robin who shook his head and stared into the direction the noise was coming from.

“What if it’s one of the monsters that live here? i don’t wanna go there”

He all but whispered to me.

“I’m going to check it out but you can wait here if you want”

I was Really curious but I also wanted to make sure that IF there was something this close to us we wouldn’t be ambushed out of nowhere by a being we had never seen before and wouldn’t know how to defend against.

“you’re insane! What if you die? what if it nabs ME and runs away to kill me???”

Robin tried to get me to not check out a potentially deadly creature but I really didn’t want to end up surprised in the middle of the night by whatever that was.

“its fine, and i said you could stay here while i look what that is im just gonna put you in a tree again”

I picked a random tree and tied Robin between two branches before stepping back and turning to face the noise.

“I’ll be right back don’t worry it’s probably just another Boar or another big animal”

I tried to reassure him before leaving in the direction the Sound was coming from quietly prowling through the Forest.

Hitting my toe on a protruding boulder I cursed under my breath as I got closer to the source of the Thumping noise only to see something that at first glance looked like a fox with deer antlers on its head.

On a second look it was the size of a horse, had hooves, a cow tail and something that looked to be mushrooms growing out of its back.

I’d never seen something like this before and it was currently headbutting an old tree that was wider than I was tall resulting in the thumping noise I had heard.

As it assaulted the tree branches fell off to the ground, and I could see that they were almost spilling over with maggots.

Eww.

The Maggots didn’t stay there for long as a flock of magpies immediately descended upon it picking it clean in just a minute if not less.

I had no idea what I was watching but decided it best to just leave, backing up I stepped on a branch, the snapping noise alerting the fox/deer creature who whipped its head around in my direction.

I didn’t dare breathe as it looked at me with a head that at first resembled that of a Wolf but with four eyes and a pair of tusks, it blinked and then ran away in the opposite direction, the Magpies following swiftly.

I had no idea what I just witnessed but I did not have time to think about it either as a wordless, blood curdling scream echoed through the woods coming from the place I had left Robin in.

Immediately assuming that there were more monsters that might not be as shy as the one i just saw i sprinted in an adrenaline fueled dash back to where i left him not caring that my face got cut by branches and only shielding my eyes when necessary.

Arriving within seconds where the screaming was coming from, I could at first not make out any sort of danger just Robin still dangling from the tree but screaming like he was murdered.

Coming to a halt next to him and trying to figure out what was happening I saw that a big Spider was climbing down a thread in front of his face and him trying as best as he could to stay as far away as possible.

Not recognizing the species but assuming that it must be extremely venomous for Robin to scream like this, I snatched him away from the spider, not daring to touch the Arachnid in case it had enough venom to kill me.

Stepping a fair distance away and putting him on the ground while trying to see if Robin had been bit by it, but he tried to curl up and had started to hyperventilate

“hey! HEY did it bite you?!”

Nudging him I tried to at least get him to tell me if he was bit but he continued to Hyperventilate with tears in his eyes.

“Okay calm down the thing is gone you can calm down now!”

He didn’t seem to hear me or anything at all really and I worried that he would lose consciousness if he kept breathing like this.

“Okay, try to copy me? it’ll help i promise”

I just hoped it would work as he started to wheeze between his Breaths i tried to show him a breathing pattern that would help calm him down.

Breath in four seconds.

Hold for seven.

Then out for eight.

I repeated this until he started to mimic it and eventually his breathing normalized.

He was still wheezing a bit but he was getting enough air now and slowly going back to normal.

PREVIOUS / NEXT / OVERSIGHT

#sstc #lizards writing #vore story #giant/tiny #extreme cuddling #g/t story #sfw vore #g/t vore #Barmea #still subject to change #nsx vore

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td-brick · 3 months ago

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i wanna hear about ur thoughts on joeather 👀

OKAY! be forewarned these aren't super collected/eloquent 😓 it's an adaptation of a twitter thread i made a month ago (which i'll add at the end bc. it's basically just a tl;dr of this post). but hopefully it summarizes my thoughts well

Its not exactly about them being in a relationship (even though i ship them, that's just for fun) but their dynamic could have been really interesting if all stars wasn't Like That and td wasn't a deeply misogynistic show in general but ANYWAYS. I think that they're kind of like 2 sides of the same coin. They each think the other could be nothing like them bc of their different presentations (meaning heather being feminine and jo being gnc/masculine) and that's kind of due to each of their experiences with misogyny (internalized or from other people) causing them to hold disdain for the other based on that. but at their core they are very similar people and especially on a show like td their attitudes and personality act alike.

Ive already talked about jo and how her growing up being treated with misogyny causes her to act the way she does (it's here it's REALLY long but yeah) but i haven't talked about heather yet and i think its a really interesting aspect of her character. idk if the character bios are really accepted as "canon" and maybe they did reference this in the show but i don't remember which sucks. but if she was super unpopular/got bullied in the past and she gets mistreated at home too (by her brother) it would make sense that she develops an attitude similar to jo, where she doesn't care about other people (at least that she shows) and only protects her own interests. also that she acts really mean and "cutthroat", because she's used to being treated like that herself and kind of develops a mask where she mimicks that just so she can protect herself. In my mind it also kind of ties into how she hides a lot of her interests (obviously Saw is the most obvious one but in world tour she also mentions how she has a glitter glue collection And she seems genuinely really passionate about it! and she starts talking about it but then she gets embarrassed and tells the other contestants not to judge her) because they compromise not only her mask of being perfect and unable to be affected by things/unfeeling or whatever idk how to word it. but also what she perceives as being the perfect example of femininity. she was bullied in the past for her looks (probably in a misogynistic way bc she didn't fit a standard of what girls are "supposed to" look like) she internalizes that misogyny used against her and it contributes even further to her attitude of not letting her care about anything. because yes she is selfish but her only real interest is getting further in the competition. she says it herself she doesn't like being mean and pretending to be someone she's not makes her exhausted

and that turned into more about heather than joeather but that's why i think they would be interesting. they both have such different interests and that leads them to having much different experiences with misogyny that makes them not like the other bc they represent something they dislike about women. but they're so similar and no matter their different backgrounds they both end up in the same place on td in a way. idk if that makes sense but. and here's the twitter thread in question

Ignore how many times i said contrasting twitter is NOT a place where i put a lot of care into my writing. there are typos but they're corrected in the alt text

ANYWAYS that ended up being really long but. I hope you enjoy hearing my thoughts on them + I hope this is an alright read of their characters :^)

#asks #rj originals #jo #heather #joeather

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ladytauria · 3 months ago

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1, 7, 19, and 32 for the ask game please! ❤️❤️

aaah i forgot i hadn't answered this! i thought i had, whoops ^^;

i'm pretty sure these are from the weird asks for writers 🤔 so hopefully im right, lmao

1: What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

I use Crimson Pro; it's a free font I found on Google Fonts, lmao. However, I tend to cycle through fonts. One will capture my attention for a while and then I'll change it again. I do tend to prefer serif fonts at the moment, but I also had a phase where I wrote in nothing but Calibri!

That said, if I can't use my preferred font for whatever reason, I don't mind using either the default font or the closest one I can find in their offerings. The most important thing to me is generally paragraph spacing; I don't like trying to write with a wall of text, and I also don't like having to hit enter twice because I don't enjoy cleaning that up when I go to paste anywhere dfghjkl

7: What is your deepest joy about writing?

I looove when I come up with a satisfying turn of phrase or metaphor! Or just... playing with words in general; puzzling out how to describe things or how someone would phrase what I want them to say. This is also what I sometimes find the most difficult & exasperating too, though xD

19: Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

I've been writing since I was small. I remember using construction paper to make a picture book about a dog who---if I remember right?---became a superhero, lol. I also remember using a previous year's calendar to create a picture book as well; trying to find a narrative to string through the pictures they used for each month. (It was a horse calendar, if you're curious.)

I don't have either of those anymore, but.

However, I would say that my writing journey actually started when I was 10-11. My parents had set-up a family/kids computer in the living room, and I basically lived on it dfghjkl I started writing my first book. It wasn't great and the concept was ripped off from the Inheritance Cycle since I was obsessed with it at the time. The second was a little more original xD

Mm... And then a couple years later I was working on something different and decided to look for a place to post it. I found FanFiction.Net, which wasn't really the right place, but it DID get me started writing fic. And THEN after a few years of that I decided to seriously focus on original fiction again, because it's always been my dream to publish, lol.

Where am I now... I'm very happy with my writing voice. I can read over my stuff and only cringe at the occasional typo or wonky phrase, which is really nice. I'm still working toward getting published... in theory. I've been putting off revising/refining/rewriting my first draft, lmao.

32: What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

This is a hard one to answer 🤔 While I do tend to find phrases and such that I like, I don't know that I return to them specifically a lot. It's more a whole body of work dfghjk

Hmm...

Oh! Okay. So, I used to read a lot of fanfic for the anime Ghost Hunt. And there's this one fic, Beneath the Lilac Tree, which has a scene in it that I just ADORE. Two brothers, twins, are eating dinner together at a hotel and as they're conversing, they---switch plates? Offer the other food off their plate? It's been a while and I don't remember the specific action BUT it stuck with me? And I think about it all the time. It struck me as just this lovely moment of familiarity and intimacy, and I remember coming back to that fic and rereading it a lot, in part for that scene xD

Thank you so much for asking!!

#asks and answers #bat-kidsarebi-kids #deeply adore your url btw

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starqueensthings · 5 months ago

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Summary: yesterday's events on the combat base are forgotten amidst a turbulent morning, until a surprise at work single-handedly ensures forgetting anything about that place, or that person, would be near impossible. Rating/WC: all chapters are rated 16+ for mature themes unless stated otherwise. 6508 words. WARNINGS: none really... allusions of anxiety but nothing potent. Some suggestive language. A/N: This chapter is a little more dialogue heavy than some of the others... hopefully y'all are okay with that. My brain also did that thing with those perfectionist tendencies and made me read it so many times looking for errors that words just simply arent words anymore. If you see typos, passive verbs, or run on sentences... no you don't. OH ALSO, DONT FORGET FLIMSI MEANS PAPER. I am starting to sprinkle in a lot more Star Wars jargon! PLEASE ENSURE YOU’VE READ THE FOREWORD LINKED BELOW FOR AN IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION OF WHAT DEGREE OF CONTENT YOU CAN EXPECT THROUGHOUT THIS STORY BEFORE PROCEEDING.

FOREWORD | MASTER | NEXT | PREV | AO3

(1) “ Is this the long overdue engagement brunch you’ve been promising me for weeks? Or is it the galaxy’s most extravagant bribe?”

That sharp intonation rang around the confines of those empty kitchen corners; the abandoned holopad awaiting attention atop that stone counter suddenly ignited amid an effort to alert that deserted room of an incoming written transmission, though its song and dance remained both unheard and unseen by its preoccupied owner still hidden two rooms over. Bent double in the lingering humidity of that tiny refresher whilst careless motions from toweled hands laboriously attempted to towel dry that impossibly thick mane of ebony hair, June sang loudly in tandem to the song issuing from the radio perched impetuously beside the sink, hips bobbing with a sense of near-awkward confidence, the nature of her back aching stoop utterly robbing those movements of the restraint and grace she typically offered the art of dance.

Morning showers were largely atypical for someone whose work schedule demanded they rouse amidst the earliest hours of each aborning rotation— a time unknown to most; a reverently ephemeral gap between the dark and incipient dawn, when even the most practiced of night owls submitted to the need for repose and burrowed themselves securely into their beds; it remained Coruscant’s (and it’s egregious overpopulation’s) only hope of witnessing something that even bore slight resemblance to serenity, as the moon offered the sky one last farewell kiss before its radiant counterpart stretched its arms upward from below the horizon.

No. Typically, a dozen hours spent confined in the frigidity of the hospital’s many operating rooms saw June near-desperately seeking the reinvigorating ablution of a hot shower upon her return home in the evening, granting the rest of her apartment only a momentary glance to affirm its regularity before leaping urgently into the sanctity of that steaming, tiled temple. But every eighth Benduday saw her routine inverted and the otherwise implacable anarchy of the Surgical Floor brought to a screeching halt, as all droids bearing the subclassification of ‘Medical Assist Personnel’ were required to adhere to the mandatory maintenance policy, including: circuitry inspection, processor recalibration, servo lubrication, and databank encryption. And due to the nature of the sophisticated machinery of which the hospital housed, and the innovative array of medical intervention it was subsequently able to provide whilst accompanied by those invaluable, artificially-intelligent companions, the temporary shutdown mandated that all surgeries, not categorized as Class-A Urgent, were deferred until the process reached completion.

Despite having participated in this necessary interruption countless times, June continued to find that shift in routine quite irksome; the chance to amble around her apartment completely unhurried felt less like the rare opportunity for a languid morning, and more like she was being subjected to a timeout of which she’d done nothing to warrant, eyes darting impatiently toward the wall chrono near-regularly to gauge just how much time she’d managed to waste amidst the myriad of inconsequential tasks utterly failing to keep her occupied. And though that abeyance granted her the unfathomable privilege of actually sipping her morning caf and cherishing its flavour atop her tongue (instead of the hasty, throat scalding gulps she typically took before dashing from the kitchen), that unwelcome stillness walked hand-in-hand with the promise of an overactive mind perpetually threatening to resurface malignant past experiences in that complete void of distraction… her most valuable tool.

Chest heaving neath the sheer exertion of pulling scrub pants up thighs still partially damp and tumid from that hot shower, she trod breathlessly into the kitchen and tossed her lunch bag atop the counter beside the stove. From the pantry in the corner, she extracted: the last of her favorite peanut granola bars, a packet of assorted fruit flavoured gummy snacks (shamelessly intended for juvenile consumption, though June had long-since proven to wholly lack the mental fortitude required to leave the store without them), and a foil-topped, styrofoam cup of dehydrated instant-noodles, all of which she threw pell-mell into that insulated tote without even a glance.

(2) “Okay, but real talk... Are the strudels fair game? Because the one with sprinkles has been begging me to eat it for the last twenty mins and my willpower is fading fast.”

A shrill chirp from across the kitchen purloined her attention as she reached to collect a clean fork from the drawer at her hip and drop it carelessly atop that pitiful troupe of snacks, the screen of that abandoned device strobing anew with another desperate attempt to inform its owner of her continued negligence.

“What in Maker’s name…” June mumbled under her breath, brows furrowing neath a potent perplexity as she studied the pair of enigmatic messages she’d unknowingly snubbed. Brunch? Strudels? Sprinkles?

The once-intentional grip around her beloved holo loosened as she spun back to face the refrigerator, wrist drooping as her focus shifted, narrowed eyes quickly locating the flimsi calendar affixed onto that gleaming appliance by a pair of decorative, faux leaf magnets. Yet, with each second her gaze danced upon those thirty-five blank squares, her mind whirred atop a frantic need to try and remember some lost premise – a strudel-worthy engagement of which she’d likely agreed to participate, but had wholly forgotten to jot down whilst in jumping the hurdles of Challa’s newly bequeathed educational directive. Perhaps one of the nurses was celebrating a birthday? Possibly today marked an anniversary of sorts? An acquaintance from another floor celebrating tenure, or retirement? A student, graduating? Or could it be that the surgical department had managed to notch yet another stupendous milestone into their belts, and the President had been kind enough to reward each of the staff with a sprinkle-covered pastry?

The thought alone was enough to tug her from that torpor, a dubious snort escaping her nose as she placed her holopad back on the counter and zipped her lunchbag closed; the day the surgical staff was granted a token of appreciation for their unremitting dedication and hard work, would be the same day every Bantha in the galaxy suddenly sprouted wings and forewent gravity to voyage through hyperspace with the Purrgil.

“Welp,” she grunted. “Whatever this shindig is, here’s hoping it’s not a potluck because I am not sharing my gummies.”

She delayed her departure only long enough to run some organic seed oil through the ends of her hair and hastily braid those unruly locks into a rope, draping it over her shoulder in an effort to prevent the dreaded “skyway tangles”; a label her good friend Alda has once adorned to the abhorrent series of knots that inevitably formed in one’s hair after a trip through the blustering skylanes overhead.

Barely a minute later saw June emerging from the lobby of her building, doors clunking shut behind her and a sigh of content leaving her lips as she crossed the grounds of the apartment complex toward the parking lot where her speeder slumbered in the void of its call to action. Bearing witness to the way the sun bathed every corner of that stone walkway in its midday effulgence was yet another infrequent privilege allotted by the suspension of her routine, as noon hour typically saw her stooped over a gurney in one of the many, frigid operating rooms. But the breeze had yet to assimilate that spring sun’s inherent warmth, and whizzing through that skyway grid, high above the various peaks and gables of Coruscant's tallest roofs and highest towers, had a series of relentless shivers rolling down her spine, hands beginning to tremble atop those handlebars as she eagerly directed her bike toward the hangar door where hospital staff housed their vehicles for the duration of their shift.

A trooper clad in a kit of white and scarlett stood to greet her as she approached that viridescent rayshield, appearing from his hidden perch behind the tinted windows of the security booth of which he took refuge in the absence of intrusion, that shiny and unmarred plastoid creaking as he sunk into one hip and folded his arms over that red, painted chest.

"Slept in, didja doc?” he asked as she slowed to a halt in front of him, the vocoder in that familiar bucket utterly failing to conceal the teasing lilt in his voice.

“Slept in?” June snorted while reaching to extract her ID card from the pocket on her thigh, near-instantly noting the white crown decal circling the dome of his red helmet. “Me? Come on, King. You oughta know me better than that by now. I wouldn’t know sleep if it danced naked in front of me.”

Though his eyes remained perfectly veiled by the opacity of that dark visor, there was no mistaking the way that trooper intentionally and infuriatingly spurned the extension of her offering as she held her clearance card outward, her lips instantly pursing upon watching those armour-clad arms tighten the entanglement atop his chest in a motion of uninhibited obstinance.

“And what if I danced naked in front of you?”

She hesitated for only a breath before a contentious groan escaped her lips, posture slumping amid a swelling impatience she simply could not corral as that question spilled from his lips bathed in the promise that he would not permit her to exit this exchange without suffering yet another round of his relentless advances.

“What then, hmm?”

“Well first I’d vomit,” June snarked, response free from of the reticence that teaching on the base had begun to imbue in her, hand now vigorously shaking the card between her fingers neath a desperate attempt to attune his focus away from this imminent, noisome standoff and back toward the task of which he remained honour-bound to complete. “Then I’d probably throttle you to within an inch of your life for subjecting me to such cruel and unusual torture without cause, or have you forgotten my response from the last time we broached this particular subject?”

“Can’t blame a guy for being persistent, can ya?” he attested, shoulders shifting briefly toward his concealed ears while he continued to ignore her increasingly frenetic motions.

“No,” she grumbled, reinvigorating the violent flap of her hand between them, eyes departing the smirk hidden behind that bucket to affix themselves on the little plastoid card amid a silent plea that he save the unpleasant repartee and simply do his job . “But I can blame a guy for making me late–”

“Then make this quick. Agree to a date.”

“I don’t have time to socialize, King," June groused atop a heavy sigh. “Now or later, so can you just scan the card please?”

“Just one date, doc. That’s all I need to convince y–”

“No. It was no last time, and it’ll be no next time. Now scan the dam–”

“Hmph... someone’s feeling extra feisty today,” he cooed following a deep, throaty chuckle, tipping forward to within inches of her scowling expression and wholly rebuking the way she rapped the edge of her ID against his vambrace. “Lucky for you, I’m into the bratty attitu–”

“Scan the kriffing card, King.”

Her hissed demand elicited nothing from that coy trooper but a small snort, arms slowly unfurling and head shaking neath an amusement of which she would never share.

“You know, I would,” he purred, sightlessly snatching the wriggling card and turning it over in those gloved hands, fingers trailing tauntingly around its perimeter, “If I thought it would accomplish anything. This is an access card for the combat base… It’s not going to do you any good at GRMF."

Her stomach plummeted, gaze darting frantically toward that glossy duraplas square between his kevlar-clad digits, dread surging through her veins at first sight of that white Republic cog emblem only partially hidden neath his fingertips.

“Kriff.”

“So how about that date?” King probed again, flicking that now useless ID into her lap and securing those arms atop his chest again. “Any more appealing now that I can save you a trip home?”

“I don’t live that far,” she snarled at him.

“Suit yourself,” he sang atop a sigh of feigned remorse. "See you in half an hour, minimum . That midday Coruscant traffic can get pretty clogged, so here’s hoping you’re not pressed for time or anything. Being a doctor and all, I’m sure time is of no concern–”

“You're nauseating, you know that?” she grumbled under her breath, only-barely containing the potent need to tip her head back and groan to the sky about her own shameful negligence. “Would it be enough to say I’ll consider it?”

“I’ll take what I can get.” Though his expression remained concealed by the goading shield of that red and white bucket, the snicker that rattled through the vocoder was bathed in a disturbing sense of success, and its sound forced her to near-instantly swallow back a sudden guttural heave.

June wasted no time engaging the throttle and surging forward the moment that humming green barrier disintegrated upon the prod of a button somewhere atop his on-person control system, and she offered him nothing more than a transient glare before rounding the first corner in that overladen speeder lot.

By the time she neared the dueling pair of sliding doors acting a vestibule for the surgical floor, Jacoba’s pair of arcane messages had long since-vanished from her awareness. Instead, every stride into and out of those clanging and chiming elevators saw her fighting to repress the sickening blend of embarrassment and revulsion still simmering in her gut. It wasn’t until she stuck her nose into the staff room to ensure an absolutely vital pot of caf sat gurgling on the counter, did she remember the expectation of some party . But that austere room remained as prosaic and unassuming as ever; a myriad of lunch containers battled to occupy the limited square footage in that shared fridge as they always did, a vast collection of mugs had convened in the sink awaiting the bath they so desperately needed (a task that, rightfully, June should have initiated, as at least half had been soiled and stained by her inveterate caf addiction). Yet, any semblance of celebration remained absent; not a balloon to be blown, not a streamer to be seen, not a noise maker to be found.

“Hm,” she grunted, shoving a hand into the depths of that fridge amid an attempt to ensure those promised, sprinkle-covered-strudels weren’t simply concealed behind several bulky lunch bags. Though, aside from a sandwich whose bread had either been baked with blue milk, or had been abandoned to the callous corners of that shelf for so long that it had grown a particularly fuzzy layer of mold, there was nothing of peculiarity.

“Meh, whatever,” she mumbled to herself as she departed for the open ward, vowing to forgo this mystifying investigation and simply address that duo of ciphered messages when she reached her office.

The ward itself entirely juxtaposed the bustle of the hospital’s several dozen other floors; as to not completely paralyze that symbiotic metacommunity, each ward adhered to a certified rotation that dictated what day of which week their allotted droid personnel received the temporary reset mandate. Since Lumi was required to comply with the strict policy, June did not bother pausing at the droid station to rouse him, instead veering around the gargantuan welcome desk toward the hidden hall that housed their office spaces.

But barely a trio of steps passed underfoot down the secluded corridor before that once-placated confusion flared anew. Her always clutter-free desktop coming into focus only short strides down that quiet hall, that gleaming table now wholly replete with an odd arrangement of, what appeared to be …packages, and it was a collection of which she never would have permitted to belitter that cherished space for any longer than necessary.

“What the–” she queried upon nearing the threshold, lips falling apart and brows contracting as those blue eyes scanned the unheralded assortment heaped in front of her.

Five. Five oversized, kraft takeout boxes lay in a ceremonious crescent arrangement atop that white surface, their lids erected to expertly expose their myriad of delectable contents. Scones, muffins, biscuits, strudels, cookies, tarts, several different fruit and nut spreads; an entire bakery enclosed in that collection of containers.

June had never seen such an appetizing display in her entire life, especially not arranged so decorously atop her desk, and her mouth began to water upon first sight of what appeared to be a perfectly baked cheddar tea biscuit nestled delicately in the corner of the middle box. Yet, it was not the exuberant display sending her nostrils aflare and a euphoric sigh from those gaping lips, but the unfamiliar, yet, glorious aromatics of a flavored caf, its enamoring perfume emanating from a spout-adorned takeout box just behind that scrumptious abundance. Flanked between a tall stack of emerald green, disposable cups and pile of matching flimsi napkins, a rolling pillar steam danced through from a small exhaust hole in that kraft container, filling that cramped corners of that office space with an intoxicating redolence of which she’d never known.

“Pastries?” June whispered, frozen atop that threshold.

“Yes, I ate the strudel!” Jacoba needlessly admitted the moment June appeared, evidence of her transgressions still apparent by the powdered sugar lingering in the crevasses of her dark lips. “I couldn't help myself!”

“What is all this?” June asked her friend, the handles of both her lunch bag and her purse slipping down her forearm as she gestured toward the obscure feast in front of her.

“You tell me,” Jac answered with a shrug. “What are we celebrating? Or, if it's a bribe, what do you want?”

“We're not celebrating anything. I didn’t order this…” A soft, incredulous chortle escaped June's lips as she absently let her cargo thunk to the floor at her feet, the notion that Jacoba may have legitimately believed her to order such an extensive collection of finely crafted baked goods was near-laughable.

“You didn’t order this stuff?” Jacoba probed immediately, eyes widening in something near-horror. “As in, did not? Please tell me you’re joking? I’ve already eaten like four pastries.”

“Of course I did not,” June snorted. “Why the kriff would I order 1600 different kinds of muffins, Jacoba?”

“Don’t pretend like you haven’t done crazier shit, Juniper,” her best friend snarked back at her with a small roll of her eyes. “Remember the cheese fondue fiasco last year?”

“You always have to bring that up, don't you?”

June eased somewhat apprehensively into that cramped but dazzlingly bright room, hands finding their perch atop her hips and a small sigh leaving her nose as she reached her desk and peered down at the unexpected assembly. “ Hutchie’s ,” she murmured, reaching for the box furthest on the left and trailing her finger along the ornate, gold signature adorning the underside of each lid. “Never heard of it.”

“Me neither,” Jac chimed in, wiping the remnants of that sweet indulgence from her lips with the sleeve of her cardigan. “They make a kriffing mean eclair though.”

“Well what do we do with it?” June asked, retracting her hand from its yearning hover over the tea biscuit still silently vying for her attention in that dainty, doily swaddle. “Should we try and find who it’s meant for? Probably for the neonatal ward. They're always getting stuff delivered.”

“But that doesn’t make sense,” Jacoba objected with a small shake of the head. “The delivery guy asked for you by name. Malya said he showed up at the welcome desk looking for a “ Dr. June ”, so she led him here. That’s kinda why I thought eating it would be fin–”

“Ah. Good morning, girls.”

June spun at the sudden sound of her boss’s drawling voice, turning to find Challa framed in the doorway with nostrils aflare and chest twitching atop a series of deep, inquisitive sniffs.

“It’s noon, Challa,” Jac corrected him with a smirk, gesturing with a small nod toward the window opposite where that midday radiance continued to flood every corner of the room.

“So it is,” he assented, offering only a fleeting glance toward the watch strapped to his lissome wrist before his gaze fell upon the flagrant display of food. “Goodness, what an exhibition. It smells delightful. What precisely is the cause for celebration?”

“Don't know,” June answered with a shrug, having both posed and denied some semblance of that question several times over the course of the last hour and had yet to find even a fragment of an answer. “I was kinda hoping you might, because neither of us were let in on the secret. We have no clue where it came from.”

“How unusual,” Challa hummed, though his expression offered nothing but insouciance and mild amusement as if such an oversized and mysterious delivery was simply run-of-the-mill. “It bears no connection to me, unfortunately. Though, just as well– I could not procure the wine you requested. Apparently it’s an opulence not offered at local establishments. I did, however, manage to acquire a Cleanser Tube for your apartm–”

“You did!?” June gasped, jaw falling open. “Seriously? No way! ”

“What!?” Jacoba protested as Challa pulled a single piece of white flimsi from its clamp neath his arm. “She gets a raise and a fancy new washing ma–”

“Contact the comm channel listed to schedule delivery,” Challa advised June as she collected the document, blatantly ignoring the pugnacious outcry from behind the sugar covered desk on the right. “And pay no attention to the fee listed near the bottom; this is a gift courtesy of GRMF, but it’s imperative the hospital’s parsimony remain intact so please keep this between us, June.”

“Of course!” She answered completely void of coherent thought, an ebullience incited by the unexpected ingratiation sending her near leaping on the spot and cradling that sheet of flimsi against her chest as if its top-secret context bore something of extreme high value. “Eeeee! This is so exciting, Challa! Thank you!”

Something near an affectionate smile topped those thin lips, though he simply raised a hand to politely deflect her tittering gratitude, waiting until she’d expelled the last of her delight before letting the emergence of a darkened tone diminish the merriment in the room.

“June,” he began neath that characteristic severity. “I am most eager to initiate the continuation of yesterday’s discussion, but there are a couple pressing matters I must first address. When you have a moment, dissect your surgical schedule and assign me as a second surgeon to whichever case you think might offer us the promise of an undisturbed discussion.”

June offered a nod of understanding, eyes quickly shifting to locate the datapad atop that encumbered desk so she may accede to his request as soon as he departed. Once those magnificent Lekku vanished down the hall, June near-threw herself into the chair behind her desk with an elated sigh, gazing near-glassy eyed down at that flimsi still pinched in her fingers.

“I hope you know I’ll be doing my laundry exclusively at your place now,” Jac groused from her seat whilst reaffixing her attention to the holocomputer screen currently displaying a particularly nasty looking intracerebral hemorrhage.

“Yeah right,” June snorted, carefully folding that cherished contract and tucking it into her purse for safe keeping. “You’ve never done laundry a day in your life, first of all. Second, the chances of you breaking my new Cleanser with your atrociously beaded clothes is, unfortunately for you, way too high.”

“Thechancesofyoubreakingmynewcleanser,” Jacoba mocked in a sickeningly childish voice atop another roll of her dark eyes.

“Oh whatever… have another snack, Jealous Judy,” June snorted, reaching into the nearest box and extracting what looked and smelled to be a perfectly flakey buttertart, wrapping it in an emerald green napkin and placing it on the desk at her friends elbow next to a steaming cup of that enchanting, flavoured caf.

“I don’t know exactly what this heavenly nectar is, but I'm about to drink all of it," June advised the room at large moments later, greedily watching that stream of shockingly fragrant, dark liquid pool in the green cup she'd placed in front of her; several deep, slow inhales near-instantly filling what felt like every corner of her being with an aroma so pleasant, she was unlikely to ever forget that intoxicating blended aroma of spiced apple and mild vanilla.

“You have a keratoplasty in an hour,” Jacoba warned. “Maybe wait to overdose on caf until the jitters won’t permanently blind someone.”

Finally conceding to that herb-infused tea biscuit’s relentless call to be devoured, June ripped off large chunk of that fluffy dough and jammed it eagerly into her mouth, jaw immediately mutinying against the overzealous portion she was now demanding it mash as she reached to extract her work shoes from under the desk, but hardly a breath after she’d lifted her foot to force her toes into that black sneaker, the distressing sound of panicked, laboured breathing met her ears.

“You okay, Gra’ta?” Jacoba asked as June’s gaze darted upward toward the door where a frantic looking nurse stood stooped in the threshold, one hand desperately seeking stability with a trembling grip on her knee while the other clamped itself atop her heaving chest.

“Yeah,” Gra’ta near-wheezed, reaching toward her neck to gingerly trail a quivering hand across the first harrowing signs of a dark contusion erupting neath that blue Pantoran skin. “The guy in 11S just had me locked in a chokehold. It took everything Pherto had to get him off me.”

“What?!” June gasped, black sneaker now forgotten and dangling uselessly in her hand. “Maker, are you okay? Why didn’t you call a code white?”

“I'm fine,” she answered, though despite attempting to flippantly wave away their continued concern, there was no ignoring the mist forming atop her golden eyes as the need to expel that sudden surge of adrenaline robbed her of the immutable composure she so proudly upheld. “Everything is fine now. He just woke up from a mitral valve replacement, and the–”

“The post procedure psychosis hit,” Jac finished for her. “Kriff, what is it with cardiac procedures and the idiopathic delirium?”

“No one knows,” June chimed sombrely, shoving her foot into her shoe and hastily tying a knot in the laces. “But immediate physical therapy and pain control have been proven pivotal in helping it dissipate.”

“Pherto’s on it,” Gra’ta confirmed atop a heavy sigh. “Listen, I have to run but I was supposed to bring this over a while ago. I found this on the floor behind the welcome desk, June. It’s got your name on it. Malya said it likely fell off one of the boxes that arrived earlier?”

From the breast pocket of her scrub top, Gra’ta extracted a small dark green card, that familiar gold foiled signet gleaming in the light only briefly before disappearing again as she handed it across the desk. June took it enthusiastically, heart leaping as her fingers closed around the possible answer to this unforeseen strudel mystery.

“Wait!” she called as Gra’ta heaved one last preparatory sigh and turned to admit herself back into chaos. “Take a snack or two before you go.”

“Thank you,” the nurse smiled, accepting the stack of donuts June had hastily wrapped in a handful of those emerald napkins before disappearing back into the open ward.

“She’s having a terrible day,” June near-whimpered upon taking her seat again. “Probably been at work less than an hour and already been strang—”

“Open it open it open it open it,” Jac chanted, interrupting the attempt to commiserate and spinning her chair away from her computer, dark eyes alight with something near a manic curiosity as they affixed themselves on the little card now laying next to that half eaten biscuit.

Though no bigger than the size of a standard business card, for what that tiny envelope lacked in size, it made up ten fold in beauty. That stunning emerald flimsi, glazed with what appeared to be a graphic rendition of a some sort of leaf, shone radiantly in the sun pouring in from behind its current holder. Yet it wasn’t the detail adorning the little gift that captivated and held the attention of the narrowed blue eyes still gazing eagerly in its direction, nor was it the appearance of that same loopy penmanship, curling it’s way delicately around her name, but the truly marvelous wax seal tasked with keeping those contents private.

“So ritzy,” she breathed, gently running a finger around the perimeter of that solidified gold before fitting the shredded edge of her thumbnail beneath that sparkly wax button and delicately prying it upward.

The little card she pulled from its swaddle near-perfectly matched the luxury of its housing, though instead of that remarkably ornate penmanship, the message inside lay beneath a somewhat hurried and disjointed scrawl of which she’d never seen before.

‘June,

I took you at your word and ordered one of every cheese centered snack they had, plus some other things I thought you’d maybe like. Hopefully something in this bunch manages to brighten your day that way you’ve repeatedly brightened mine. ’

There was no need for a valediction, no need to see the name of the person who had requested and implemented the delivery of this astonishing gift. It could only be one. There had only been one capable of doming her cheeks in such earnest, only one of whom could incite such a frenzy in her gut. An uncharacteristic giddiness of which no bite upon that bottom lip could stifle saw her hand darting upward to conceal what she could of that betraying grin, eyes flicking back to where that untidy scrawl had shaped her name.

“Who’s it from?” Jacoba demanded through the muffle of what sounded to be a mouthful of pastry number five. “The suspense is killing me.”

But, much like the appearance of his lopsided smile, that message had near-instantly robbed June of the ability to form coherent thought beyond the unprecedented glee of which his presence seemed to innately bring her, and she offered her best friend’s curiosity nothing but a cogent silence whilst stealing another moment to reread those scrawled sentiments.

“I’d much prefer real cheese… nothing woo’s me quite like a snack and a hot caf.”

“I’ll remember that.”

Her jaw shifted ahead a giggle that she only barely corralled behind pursed lips as the image of that teal-painted captain danced across her mind, amber eyes twinkling, mouth hitched slightly toward one ear as he gazed down at her and uttered that promise with a sincerity she’d foolishly doubted in that moment.

Heat coursed through her veins toward her cheeks as she banished that image from her mind only long enough to peer sideways at the snack beside her. That glorious caf and cheddar biscuit, his fulfilled promise, now lay long-forgotten, and the suddenly invigorated flap-a-bout in her gut had rendered even the thought of attempting another bite, a task of a near-Herculean quality.

His memory had danced across her awareness several times since their unexpected run-in yesterday, since curiosity and instant recognition had sent him back peddling into both the dead-end corridor where she’d gotten herself stranded and back into her life. And though offering the notion any fragment of affirmation only promised to set her hands atremble, there was no denying that a portion of her had attached itself to the idea of him frighteningly quickly and seemingly without hesitation. There was simply just something . Something about the way his eyes surveyed her so softly yet so knowingly, as if he'd somehow learned everything there was to know about her during the span of those two short encounters, and feared none of it. Something about the way that right side heavy smirk appeared as she spoke, as if he entirely understood the intention behind every word that left her lips— as if he simply knew who she was.

Yet, despite this precipice bringing with it unheralded feelings of which June had never previously permitted herself to entertain, she could not deny it was near-perfectly matched by an apprehension of which her consciousness would simply not relent, and no sooner had her nerves found themselves drunk on that rush of gratitude and affection, did her stomach begin to twist atop an equi-potent reservation… a warning of which she’d long-trained her mind to issue when circumstance had thrust her into the unknown and unsafe territory of potentially reciprocating male affection.

Despite her hearts best efforts, erupting into a cadence worthy of war as if every powerful beat thundered to recruit the service of her other organs in the battle against the grievously imminent reproval, that excitement quickly dissipated amongst the ominous breeze of which that red flag fluttered. The fact remained, he was a man, and June had spent her entire adult life meticulously fortifying a mentality that promised to keep herself free of them. Desires must remain at only that. These feelings, as intoxicating and ineffable as they were, threatened to pave a road away from the safety of which she’d long ago crafted, and though the soft shifts of his twinkling gaze atop her features seemed to set her very nerves alight in a way they’d never experienced, every beat of that bounding heart in favour of entertaining this possible connection was a rhythmic step toward a vulnerability she’d once sworn to never experience.

Her eyes unfocussed upon that tiny card, written sentiments blurred by inattention as she clamped her thumbnail between her teeth and began its absentminded destruction.

“Oh, are we doing that thing again? Where we just ignore each other? Because a heads up would have been nice…”

“No, sorry Jac,” June mumbled, wrenching her gaze from that scrawl and permitting a heavy sigh to steal from her lips. Swallowing upon the realization that attempting to conceal the surging inner conflict from someone who knew her more thoroughly than anyone else in the galaxy, would prove largely ineffective and likely only invite one of Jacoba’s infamous wraths to ensue, so she simply closed that little card and extended it outward so that her friend may ascertain the details first hand.

Collecting the abandoned cup of caf from the desk and drumming her fingers anxiously atop its side, she watched Jacoba’s narrowed eyes dance rapidly across that beautiful little verdant momento.

“But this doesn’t even say who it’s from!” her friend exclaimed angrily a mere second later, flicking the apparently useless flimsi haphazardly onto June’s desk. “How are we supposed to kn—”

“It’s from Howzer,” June interrupted, attempting to ignore the way letting her lips wrap their way around the shape of his name had reawoken the butterflies in her stomach, and though she pulled that biscuit toward her amidst an effort to locate any semblance of distraction, it now looked as unappealing as the sandwich in the staff room.

“Who? ” Jacoba asked bemusedly, and had that sudden plague of emotional duality not rendered June near-ignorant to everything else, the look of unadulterated confusion atop her best friend’s face would have been near-comical, as Jacoba had long-since deemed herself the Queen of Gossip and rarely donned such an expression.

“A guy—”

“A GUY?!”

”Shhhh!” June demanded in the wake of Jacoba’s incredulous outburst, both sets of eyes quickly darting toward the door to ensure that sudden incredulous blast hadn’t roused any attention.

“He's a soldier,” June answered somewhat lamely atop her mind’s failed attempt at elucidating exactly who and what Howzer presently was to her. “He was the patient I cauterized after Challa pulled me off that thoracotomy last month. I ran into him on Base yesterday and... well... he was kinda flirting with me I guess.”

“Flirting? ” Jacoba repeated instantly in hiss.

June near-cowered under the intensity of her friend’s wide-eyed, disbelieving stare; it seemed whatever explanation Jacoba had expected to hear from her, the notion of a possible love-interest had not at all been on the radar.

“Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit,” Jac sang quietly, “I know I’ve been out of the dating game for a while, but I don’t think he would have sent cookies to someone that slapped him . So– does that mean that you were flirting back?”

Attempting to hide a portion of that shameful truth, June hid behind a long sip of caf before offering a small shrug. “I don't know,” she admitted atop a repressed sigh, fingers continuing their pointless tap atop that cup. “I didn’t tell him to fuck off, so… maybe? I guess? All I said was, if he wanted to woo me, he'd better do it with snacks.”

“Oh, you're open to people wooing you now, are you?”

“I mean, I don't know,” June repeated in little more than a mumble, something near-shame creeping up her throat and threatening to bring that lonesome bite of biscuit with it. She swallowed and dropped her gaze to the lid of the cup in her hand, a tiny shard of shredded thumbnail loitering where she'd unknowingly ripped and tore that keratin apart amidst her torpor.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jacoba cast another furtive glance toward the door, ensuring this increasingly poignant conversation promised to remain entirely unheard by any unwanted ears lingering in that otherwise quiet corridor.

“June…”

“Don’t ‘June’ me. I know it’s insane. I’m trying to igno–”

“It’s not insane at all,” Jacoba argued quietly, “So shut up and listen.”

With lips pursed against the autonomic urge to snark back at her best friend’s command, June simply placed her nail back between her teeth and shifted her gaze to her knees.

“You've been… strong… for a long time, June,” Jacoba spoke soberly, leaning her elbows onto her knees and clasping her fingers together. “You've managed to uphold this conviction— this ‘I hate men’ mentality for nearly a decade. I know why and I don’t blame you, but while I know you think that’s what’s been keeping you safe, it’s also kept you alone. You are as stubborn as you are strong and you know that. If you have any sort of feelings for this Hazlan guy—”

“Howzer.”

“—Howzer, then why not just lean into it a little bit this time? Just see where it goes?”

“Jac—” June stammered, placing her cup back on the desk in front of her and shifting uncomfortably in her seat. “I shouldn’t. I can’t… and I don’t even think I’d know what to do if I could. ”

“You're not proposing to the guy,” Jac shrugged, sitting back in her chair. “You don’t really have to do anything. Just don't shut him down. Let him flirt and see where that takes you. If you get a bad vibe from him, cut him loose. A swallow does not a summer make, June. It's been ten years��. One foray into the possibility of a relationship is not going to derail the life you’ve made for yourself. Plus, you did four straight years of self-defense… you could probably break every bone in his body if you felt the need.”

FOREWORD | MASTER | NEXT | PREV | AO3

Tag list: @anxiouspineapple99 @sinfulsalutations @starrylothcat @nobody-expects-the-inquisitorius @secondaryrealm @dystopicjumpsuit @freesia-writes @sev-on-kamino @littlemissmanga @523rdrebel @wings-and-beskar @wolffegirlsunite @drafthorsemath @jediknightjana @starstofillmydream @mooncommlink @wizardofrozz @trixie2023 @clonethirstingisreal @lune-de-miel-au-paradis @mythical-illustrator @arctrooper69 @smw-on-kamino @sverdgeir

#The Only Exception #starqueenswrittenworks #Captain Howzer x fem!OC #Howzer x fem!OC #fem!OC x Captain Howzer #fem!OC x Howzer #OC: June Kiore #Captain Howzer #Howzer bad batch #bad batch Howzer #mild anxiety #allusions to past trauma #suggestive language

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collectionoftulips · 2 years ago

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hi! it's me! (once again, I'm so sorry if this is long or stupid, just feel free to ignore it!)

first of all, i dont know if it is intentional or if it is something that just grows out of you as you write further chapters, but i feel that these last chapters are more... intimate? i mean, they *feel* more intimate for us readers (or at least me). and it's so cool that as they begin trusting each other more and more, their relationship building up, so does the writing style. it's a bit magic, actually ✨

i would give my life for gregory and hyacinth in this fic, no questions asked. their support to anthony!!! i mean obviously the family is supportive, but something about the way they are so hyped warms my heart. and on the same line, i can already see hy and kate watching kate's old performances and kate helping her and becoming her role model, somehow (and anthony obviously melting at the sight of this)

also i feel like anthony every chapter when the new dance style is mentioned, searching on youtube. i know zero about dances so it is always fun and interesting to learn!!

i dont know what else to say, appart from that i love this fic and im always thinkin "oh i want to read the next one" and become frustrated when i just cant because of time. but it makes me happy to see the update email! and i find myself thinking of scenes througout my day

and... quotes time!!

"The lack of memory was not immediately apparent, but rather something that only became clear once he tried to backtrack his steps, there was just… nothing" im not going to lie, this sentence and at the beginning really scared me, i thought that he might have messed it up

"It wasn’t so much that he could remember seeing her, only that he could recall being aware of her." i GASPED. i don't know why, because it is actually not that huge, but this sentence really screams that he *likes* her, he *notices* her

"He told himself that there was something good about the fact that she waited by the door, holding it for him, instead of running in the other direction. That it was normal for the pang of affection that warmed his heart to be there as they stood almost near enough that he could smell the lilies of what he suspected was her hair conditioner." okay, this one is long but my sweet bean trying to convince himself that the pang is normal! oh sweetie

"The judges only saw a snapshot of his dancing, Kate saw everything, all the flaws and mistakes as well as the small progresses, and if she thought he could do this - who was he to disagree?" + "The certainty she expressed by stating this fact was almost enough to quell Anthony’s doubts" he trusts her so much and he is so moved by her trust, i could cry

"It was just dancing, Anthony knew that, but he couldn’t help but wonder if it didn’t feel a little bit like magic." just, screaming. that's it

and that final quote... my boy is flling fast!!

once again, thank you thank you thank you for this fic! im sorry if this is messy or has typos but im writing on the notes app so that i dont forget anything, just fresh out of the reading. anyway, thank you and have a great day! ❤️❤️💕

It is not long or 'stupid' in the slightest - don't apologise. I am just sorry it's taken me ages to respond. I blame the cold I had though, which seems to have robbed the concept of time from me entirely. I really love these asks I get, they genuinely make my day.

I'm so glad you feel like the chapters are growing gradually more intimate - it was definitely something I was hoping to convey with the progression of each chapter and each stage of the competition. I'm so thrilled you like it ❤️

I love writing Hyacinth and Gregory in this story. I also find their unwavering support for Anthony's endeavours really endearing and hopefully this most recent chapter that I just posted gives some extra context as to why and hints a bit more clearly at the type of relationship they have with him.

I don't know anything about these dances either and I actually look up some of the basic steps on YouTube and learn some vague rules for each dance to help me write it a bit better, and it's so much fun.

Genuinely, thank you so much for these asks, they are so sweet and kind ❤️ Been feeling a bit iffy about my writing recently and this helps me a lot not being all like 'I'm just gonna throw in the towel because clearly my writing is meh'. So thank you ❤️

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tenfoldtranslation · 9 months ago

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get rid of’ these eggs-- do I speak English?? -> use up these eggs

I really do use too many exclamation points

"The point of life is to enjoy it.""I don’t wanna stress." big mood

There is so much text on randomly difficult background patterns, I hope the letterer can manage... also fingers crossed the letterer is good this time

lmao this is the same joke as Fuku o Kiru Nara (ossan ka)

(how many people will get the meme reference?? if many, maybe just ’saw long cat’? probably not but) -> hopefully this will have a real translator's note

Apparently nekojita only applies to hot things, I always thought it was cold things too.

I wanted to put "Kh" instead of "Tch", but I think it might only be my family that makes that sound when they're disappointed...?

kigurumi -> snow suits (I’d cancel myself for this too) I was checking bc I think ’snow suit’ implies it’s a single piece, but so does ’kigurumi’, right?

moe -> cute (I’d cancel myself for this too) (on the same page even, that’s bad)

what’s that thing Katrina talked about, phatics?

They're like snow! -> They're like ice! (talking about how cold hands are) localization babey

okay it is two hands not hand

oh this is the ’don’t repeat the thing’ people were talking about (>手を出して　>手？)

I feel like Haa means the soft breath vs blow

I love this series' take on romance (except maybe [redacted character that hasn't shown up yet] ... and not exactly [redacted] but I appreciate it). Now I wanna readdd moreeee

Times when punctuation just works different (. having more emphasis than !)

oooh I have mochi to eat o.o (OH I DIDN’T NOTICE THE MOCHI IN THE PICTURE X( okay maybe mochi it is…)

also there's some really hilarious English used as graphic design on t-shirts (it's like, copy-pasted out of, idk, economics magazines?)

ah mostly they don’t use honorifics because they’re all family…

author’s note explains why we gets Valentines every year haha

we know bath salts aren’t just drugs right. I’m not sure there’s any way around calling them that. it’s become very hard to find information about regular bath salts…. -> went with 'bath powder'

oh it is gulp, nod is kokuri (it was 'gokuri')

lol jisho coming in with the ’efficacious chemicals’ definition ftw (of 'kusuri')

trying to figure out if non-drug bath salts have chlorine in them (it seemed like they have chloride, so hopefully that's close enough...)

Is [redacted] wearing anything on this page? A towel...?

flip that, reverse it (the prey is trying to become a predator -> The predator has become the prey.) It's obvious enough from context which is which

how many times have I read this and it still said "there here is"???? like three times at least?? (-> there he is)

soaked -> damp -> WET (LIKE THE BLORBOS *finger funs* yeah funs not guns huh)

shiver would work but gata is clattery right? -> chatter

Wait. -> Hold up. (saw Bet On It again too recently)

Trying so hard not to turn これ、どうしたんだい into "wots all this then" -> what's all this -> what's this stuff -> where did all this come fromf (UGH apparently there was a typo in my draft, sob)

not college, university (it's mostly the U.S. that says 'college') (though I guess this is for a U.S. audience anyway...)

押し付ける　oh good jisho says ’foist’

Translator’s notes I can’t include: why are you putting fruit in a cupcake THAT’S A MUFFIN --- I guess TECHNICALLY they're on top... D: (I had taken out 'cupcake' entirely but it ended up for now as) -> This cupcake is yummy. All the fruit pieces are delicious!

Still don't really know what おてんば means where it's used

うぷ Danganronpa

Translator's notes I can't include: "I have a friend who has a huge sweet tooth. I’ll hand these off to him." =how Japanese society functions

"[redacted]-sensei, you can have mine, let me try one of yours!" Mind is in the gutter again

ゴゴゴゴゴゴ I wish we could just replace these with wiggly lines

Having to figure out from when the chapter was originally published, the weather, and other context that the character was actually gone over spring break (between school years in Japan) and not over the summer as I assumed

Oh many I didn't even include the part where it said cats can't have shrimp, but in actuality it's only raw shrimp that a really a problem, but Japanese doesn't feel the need to specify that they'd be raw because why wouldn't they be (as a U.S.-ian I just assumed they were cooked)

Maybe [main character] is like yuruyaka

Trying to figure out how to say "school nurse" using words that a small child wouldn't understand (since it's 養護教諭 in Japanese)

It's bad when you're trying to figure out a synonym and all the synonyms are still in Japanese (shikkari -> reigi-tadashii)

I was gonna split this thought into two but the third part is relevant

"Leave it to us." ahh that’s the otoko ga iitai serifu top 3 (I was just listening to Ore no Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru)

this is the kind of stuff that’s actually hard to translate ToT "easy to eat" but that sounds silly in English -> This one’s not so sweet, so it’ll be a nice change.-> This one’s less sweet, so it will be a nice change.-> think of it like a palate cleanser

"True. But he’s still a walking disaster." Ah, that’s not what katabutsu means… -> "True. Though he could loosen up a little."

I found a non-volume version of the pages that still had the editorial text on the opening pages included, and some of them it's a CRIME that they weren't kept for the volume publication, they're already good but it made it so much better

"school lunch cook" Also it should be 'high school' but we'll get there

(rip & RIP pun…) so pumped for this

spongebob -1 hour leatahh-

profit, make out, kill, earn big, make the big bucks, earn a living

Kay, are you ready? (not [redacted])

" take out my feelings on" would be much different… and that’s not right, right? -> to cheer me up

some tricky sfx in this. おず? For あくあく, oh right I did look this one up… baby hands grabbing, hayaku shiro, しきりに口を開け閉めする, 一瞬驚きおそれるさま。 · 突然はげしく折れ曲がったり、動いたりするさま

wow this page is like, ALL SFX

解せぬ "Doesn't get it" memey (OH RIGHT IT WAS POP-TEPIC)

う〜ん okay yeah maybe it’s like うねる nvm うなされる

I keep working on this when there are cats nearby and it keeps being so relatable

Existing fandom saw a line that said ママ友 and interpreted the person in the panel as [main character's] mom and that's totally not right. I feel like ’mom friend’ means something different anyway, but I think in the end it's the best choice.

Phew, first draft of volume 1 turned in!! I'm so looking forward to once this gets announced and I can actually talk about it!! Hopefully it'll have more readers than the last series I worked on ^^; Especially because we really need to make it to some of the later volumes, like people need to buy it so we can get to at least, like, volume 8!

To celebrate, here's a short list of translation quandaries/thought/notes that would be too stupid to put into print!

’Bowl’ is better but I think it says ’皿’ so we’ll go with ’dish’

When the original says "evolve" but that's not how evolution works

’shitsuke’ is hard to translate

(ahh now I see why my editor was complaining about the apostrophes, they only show up as pointed the wrong direction when I copy-paste them out)

Apparently lay is transitive and lie is intransitive, who knew??

Silly owner! -> Tricks are for kids! (changed it to Stupid owner!)

KIDDEN (I can explain once the series gets announced)

Looking up the difference between sardines and anchovies

"Thanks" with your mouth full: could be "Danks" but that looks too much like "dank" (went with "Fanks")

MC is really great but there are several lines the get borderline creepy if you look at them wrong ("SFXCreep", "Ahh. You smell so clean.")

you KICK Miette?! (but that’s anachronistic to when this first came out ;o;)

Translator’s notes I can’t include: this reminds me of the eromanga days ("I’ll make sure it’s not scary. So relax, okay?")

(Followed by "I’m not blushing. Not blushing!!" It do be like that sometimes)

This series has a lot of one-page gags which is way different than the ones I worked on before, it's kind of nice to have it all condensed like that!

(It took me like, a dozen reads to finally get all the tiny story threads with the art and the jokes I think)

Oh wait I forgot to send this!! "[Page 36: The joke was originally a play on ’hayaoki wa sanmon no toku’, meaning ’there’s benefit to getting up early’, and [character] heard ’sanmon’ as ’salmon’.]"

(Same character) ohhh, [redacted]-yuki, light snow fall; small snow flakes (like her tips)

へーい -> Mmkay.

It's kinda refreshing, I guess, that we see [main character] without a shirt on a lot...?

About さんきゅー: lol I’m gonna says ’thanks’ is okay since it’s in hiragana (and then I changed... and snuck in Purrfect, thanks; that'll probably get changed. There's actually a spot where it says "Perfect" later, but I think changing it would interfere with a joke there.)

Translator’s notes I can’t include: since it doesn’t actually say body horror ("Like body horror?" -> "Like a horror movie.")

Translator’s notes I can’t include: ("don't make up a man to get mad at" -> "Don’t judge what you don’t know!")

thank goodness for Katekyo Hitman Reborn so I know what a 仮定教師 is

There's a panel that just says マーキング that kinda squicks me out for some reason.

doesn’t specify which meal but, dinner? could be both…? ("今日のご飯なぁに？" -> "Yuya, what are we having today?")

SANMA SAURY

oh same problem here actually, it’s not necessarily rice… (ご飯)

[character name] is named after another character I like from Ajin and acts like another character from D.Gray-man, so those influenced my first draft, but I think I have a solid enough grasp on his own character now after reading up to volume 10

see ’picked you up’ really doesn’t work here (for 拾う, because it means 'took in', but it could get confused with 'lifted off the ground')

too sexy for his shirt

if boku is uke and 俺 is seme, is オレ switch? >>

[main character] really doesn’t strike me as someone who’d say ’Tch’??!! -> "Got me."

oh, cat fight, I hadn’t noticed (I get so focused on the words sometimes it takes me way longer than it should to notice the art)

meager? flimsy? sparse? skimpy? paltry? *scant?

Translator’s notes I can’t include: also now it’s a sneaky Ajin reference (right?) OH that's why I wanted 'play ball' and not 'play catch'... (it did get changed to 'play catch' as of now)

LOTR potato song

just realized [character's name] looks like [redacted] Street

"ass backwards" would be really funny too (went with "Do you two know the phrase ‘cart before the horse’?)

Things on Walmart are called ’senbei’ so that means I can use 'senbei' too right

we were just doing this to Panda (scaring my friend's cat and her tail puffed up)

OMg the jisho example sentence for gikuri… 圭はその問いにギクリとさせられたが、頭を何でもないといいたそうに横に振る。 [redacted] is startled by that question, but shakes her head as it to say that it’s nothing

two very conflicting purposes for this line: not revealing [redacted]'s gender, and also conveying what the line means >>

not to mention it's about おっぱい and this isn't that kind of manga

I mean I guess we could just say 'buns' (instead of dango) but since we're launching directly into Otsukimi that seems unfair to the reader

(It was really funny how frequently things I was doing irl overlapped with what was happening in the manga as I worked on it! Christmas, mochi, snow, cats being cute...)

hey their names all use different writing systems

もみもみ-> knead knead, directly followed by こねこね→knead knead

"Super" seems too girly for [redacted female character]?

"You know, in other countries, they say a lion lived there [on the moon]." I swear I searched for at least half an hour and I cannot figure out what this is talking about. Hopefully someone else can figure it out.

oh like the wood getting in the mochi?? (from the thing you pound the mochi in, we had just been talking about that)

"The moon’s so pretty." -> I love you?

"now I’m translating and I don’t want to get up bc of the cats…"

Staying with my host sister in Tokyo-Chiba gave me perspective on what really counts as ’inaka’ LOL

I probably posted about this already, but over the 2.5 months of translating this, I've become hyper-aware of dekopons. They're everywhere! Even in the U.S.! Trader Joe's just featured them in their latest flyer!!

Translator’s notes I can’t include: deception by orange: ("OK BUT THEY HAVEN’T EXPLAINED THIS YET… god am I going to be sucked into ANOTHER red herring about oranges XnX" -> after Code Geass many moons ago)

"ああしてるとやっぱ男の子だな" -> "Boys will be boys." I dislike this line but I feel like this is an okay solution…? except [main character] isn’t like that XD is that making a new point? I mean I guess what he said in JP would be making the same point… < ah that’s funny because [main character] is supposed to be (speaking?) more feminine

"やっぱユーヤはかっこいいね" -> "You're handsome." this feels like a huge stretch but also supremely in prince [redacted] character?? like she says it offhand. okay well the first word on jisho for kakko ii is ’attractive’, so maybe handsome works? I still think this is the right choice

Tara-> cod means you get poetry like "I think we’ll do hot pot with cod for dinner."

Translator’s notes I can’t include: moyashi (?) ! (like D.Gray-man) -> string bean

is that too SpyxFamily? -> Borf (from わふん) (Went with WORF) (I did borrow "shock" for ガン though)

I thought it sounded dumb but I’m getting attached to it… ("Alarm of cuteness blast")

uptight? careful? particular? mindful? cautious…

Translator’s notes I can’t include: Knitting doesn’t work that way. Also even if it does, the clothes would look more knitted...

仕事、おつかれさま -> "We know you worked hard today." is this what gets me cancelled

最高気温10度 well actually that one works both ways XD XD XD whether it's Celsius or Fahrenheit, 10 degrees is still cold!!!

I don't think the book they're reading about Santa is any existing book in particular

"I’m not a kind" oops -> "I'm not a kid" (silly typo)

"It’s no fun receiving without giving in return." "Prepare yourself!!" (this is about presents, but... is that too sexual or am I just a bad person? it’s fine. bad person confirmed)

lol that puts "Roger!" in two of my series too

Heh sounds too lecherous but hmph sounds too dispassionate…

I really should be writing this 100% in caps all the time huh (since manga is usually lettered in all caps, it might be better to have an idea of what it might look like)

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sparrowmoth · 4 years ago

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ive been watching these posts all day trying to think of a word. and i DID finally. carvie + lullaby

@inertiazz This was such a blessed prompt, the headcanon went feral and became something more of a drabble, so... I offer you some soft!Carvie? ♥

Before the banishment, when Evie and Carlos were quite little and their mothers used to ignore them send them off to play while they sat down for drinks and gossip, the two of them would often end up alone in Evie’s bedroom. She had a queen-sized bed big enough for them both to drown in and high enough that they needed a stool just to get up on it, so they would clamber up and lay there with a bunch of Evie’s books to pass the time.

Sometimes so much time passed that they would start to get tired, and either they would realize their mothers intended to talk well into the night, or they would look out the window and see all the lights of Hell Hall had come on, but Cruella’s voice had faded out.

“We can have a sleepover!” Evie would whisper excitedly, and Carlos would agree to it because it was worth the trouble he’d get into the next day to sleep on a real bed with the only person who ever made him feel warm in those days. He’d hide beneath Evie’s bed until Grimhilde came to check on her before she went to sleep, and then he’d crawl out and back beneath the covers next to Evie.

She’d sigh and complain sometimes how his clothes were dirty and he “obviously” hadn’t had a shower, but that never stopped her from cuddling against him. Sometimes, she’d even sing to him when he couldn’t sleep or he’d woken them both up from a nightmare. It was always the same song, the lyrics whispered like a secret between them: “Apenas las estrellas comienzan a salir, Pin Pon se va a la cama y se acuesta a dormir. Pin Pon dame la mano con un fuerte apretón, pues quiero ser tu amigo…” [1]

Evie stopped singing it as they got older, and Carlos didn’t think he minded since he didn’t want her treating him like a baby who couldn’t fall asleep without a lullaby. They couldn’t be that soft in the world they lived in, so…

It wasn’t until several months after they had been in Auradon that Carlos found himself thinking about the song one night as he was holding an inconsolable Evie, stroking her hair gently after she’d woken from a nightmare. He only half-remembered the tune and his Spanish wasn’t as good as hers, but he started to sing his broken version of the lullaby to her, earning strange looks from Mal and Jay. He ignored them and continued to sing until Evie started to giggle, tears still streaming down her face when she raised her head to look at him.

“Arepas los estela?” [2] (Her voice was rough, but warm with humour.) “U-un fuego apretó… pues que?” [3] She broke down laughing, shaking her head as she wrapped her arms tight around Carlos, who blushed awkwardly at the same time as he tried in vain to glare down Mal and Jay’s smirks.

Finally, with the lamp switched off again and the four of them piled into bed, Evie curled her arm around Carlos’ waist, snuggled closer, and whispered so only he could hear, “Te amo, Pin Pon.” [4]

“Te amo, princesa…” [5]

[Spanish translations, notes, and my excuses a disclaimer under the cut.]

TRANSLATED TEXT (with the disclaimer that although I’m Mestizx/Latinx, it’s been a long, long time since I spoke Spanish fluently, so I apologize to any of my people who actually do speak Spanish if these translations are hot garbage lol).

[1] “As soon as the stars start to come out, Pin Pon goes to bed and goes to sleep. Pin Pon give me your hand with a strong grip, because I want to be your friend...” (Note: This is a Spanish lullaby, but the exact translation varies; the song is about a cute little cardboard doll named Pin Pon going about his day.)

[2] “Arepas los estela?” / “Arepas the wake?” (Note: This is intended to be a silly garble of words. Btw! Arepas are a traditional food that are pretty much a staple for Colombians. Don’t ever use tortilla as a synonym or I will die a little inside.)

[3] ““U-un fuego apretó… pues que?” / “A fire squeezed... so what?” (Note: Even more nonsense because Carlos is bad at Spanish and Evie is amused.)

[4] “Te amo, Pin Pon.” / “I love you, Pin Pon.” (Note: Evie’s jokingly using “Pin Pon” as a nickname for Carlos because the song starts out with the little doll washing his face with soap and water, which is something she always tried to make him do on the Isle since he always showed up with dirt on his cheeks from all his chores and tinkering and how long he’d have to go between baths.)

[5] “Te amo, princesa…” / “I love you, Princess.” (Note: They’re soft. The end.)

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anditvanisheslikemist · 2 years ago

Text

by surprise, part 3 of 4

As what was going to be the third and final part of this fic approached 5,000 words with more still to write, I decided that splitting it up was the way to go. So! Here's part 3 of what should now be 4 parts.

Hindsight ‘verse (AO3) but you don’t need any background. Nico/Matty, this new part is 2100 words. Not explicit yet, but will become so in Part 4.

Read the story so far: Part 1 Part 2

Part 3:

He tries to keep working after Izzy leaves. He really does. He has one window open with dates and quantities and notes about exceptions and special circumstances, and another with the spreadsheet that the food banks need by next week, and he's trying, trying to pull anything useful from the first and put it into the second but the screen keeps blurring in front of his eyes.

He buries his head in his hands and fights back frustrated tears. There's a nudge at his leg: Jupiter, looking very concerned.

"I'm okay," he tells her, but his voice is a mess and she doesn't seem to find it convincing at all.

His phone rings before he can either try harder on the convincing front or just give up entirely. Matty, on a video call. Nico shakes himself and tries to look more put together than he feels. "Hey."

"Hey," Matty says. He's got the phone in one hand and his sandwich in the other. "How're you holding up?"

Nico shrugs, and then has to turn away from the screen when a strong hh'ITCHHiu! comes out of nowhere. "Izzy left," he says, sniffling.

"Yeah, Jamie told me. She texted him when she was heading home." Matty takes a bite of his sandwich. "Seems like you're still at it, though."

"Trying," Nico says, and his eyes fill with tears again. "It's just…" He bites down on this lips to keep them from spilling. "Not really working."

Matty puts down his sandwich and leans in close, his face nothing but concern. "Babe."

"I'm okay," Nico says, even though the tears are winning now. "It's just…" He gestures at himself, not wanting to say the fever in case that will make it real, and sniffles some more.

"I don't think you're going to get any more work done," Matty says gently. "Time to call it a day?"

He works his lips between his teeth, not wanting to admit defeat, but his head hurts and his throat hurts and he can't breathe through his nose, and his eyes just keep watering without his permission. "Okay."

With a little more prodding, Nico messages his supervisor to say he'll be out sick the rest of the day and probably tomorrow. When he looks back at what he wrote, he finds three typos in as many sentences. Maybe that will just prove his point.

"Okay," he says again, and somehow it's like giving in has made him feel worse. He's shivering, which isn't right. It's plenty warm in here.

"Okay." Matty's voice is warm but insistent. "Fever check, meds, sleep."

He closes his eyes against the to-do list. "'s just a cold."

"Nic." Matty's the only one who gets to call him that, and it's intimate every time. "I can see you shivering from here."

"Wish you were here," he says, low and raw, eyes cast down.

"Me, too." Matty pauses, apparently listening to someone on the other side of the phone, and then nods. "Jamie's gonna cover for me as long as it's slow enough here at the end of the day. I can't leave now, but hopefully I'll be home a little early."

"Thanks, Jamie," Nico manages.

Jamie's face appears at the side of the screen, sympathetic. "Feel better, bud."

He nods, but he's fading fast.

"Sign off your computer," Matty says, because yeah, when he gets like this he needs someone— needs Matty— to take the lead. "There you go. Do you already have water? Good."

He trudges up the stairs and changes into pjs and takes his temperature with shaking hands.

"A hundred point eight," Matty reads aloud when Nico holds the thermometer up to the phone. "I'd've guessed higher."

"Me, too." His voice is a whisper, eyes closed standing up. "I feel bad." He'd like to be able to come up with better words, but he can't find any.

"Meds," Matty repeats. Then, once Nico takes them off the bathroom shelf: "Just painkillers? We've got some cold and flu meds somewhere…."

Nico shakes his head. Decongestants make him feel weird. Might be worth it at some point, but not now. He just needs something for the headache, and the sore throat, and the fever that's threatening to rise.

"Okay. You got it? Good."

From anyone else it would be patronizing, but from Matty it just feels like a solid handhold in shaky ground. Good, you're doing good, Matty says, and he makes it into bed.

"Sleep. I'll be home in a few hours. Love you."

"Love you, too." -

He doesn't actually get to sleep before the first problem presents itself: his nose won't stop running. Like, at all. He'd pulled the curtains closed before he got into bed, so the room is dim, the afternoon light just barely spilling in around the edges. He sits up and his head spins and he coughs for a while and it spins some more, but eventually the world steadies enough for him to get up and shuffle to the bathroom. He pulls out a hand towel from the linen closet, then stops at his dresser; he's got quite a collection of handkerchiefs in his top drawer. He pulls out the stack of the plain cotton ones and brings the whole thing back to bed. Double-checks that the tissue box on his nightstand is full and pulls it onto the bed as well. Thankfully he doesn't have to go searching for a trashcan. Given how many tissues he goes through even when he's not sick, they keep it on his side of the bed. It's very intentionally tall enough to fit an entire box's worth of discarded tissues. Because that's how some days go.

Like today, apparently.

He coughs some more and rubs at his face, hissing when he hits his raw nose. The Aquaphor is still on his nightstand from this morning. Thank god. It's the only thing he's found that really works for keeping his nose and upper lip from cracking when things get bad.

By the time he's done with that, Luna has appeared at the door. "C'mere," he murmurs, patting the bed, and she jumps up beside him. Yes, she'll probably make him a little sneezier and stuffier when he's already this sensitive (allergy shots and diligent cleaning and the benefits of long-term exposure only go so far), but at this point, he'll gladly trade that for her comfort and warmth.

He lays down the hand towel on his pillow, and a handkerchief on top of it, and then a second layer of handkerchief for good measure, and finally lets himself sink down into the bed. Luna curls up at his hip, and this time doesn't run when his breath catches and he directs a wet chhhh'shiew! toward the towel-and-handkerchief setup, then sniffles his way into a doubled-up h'TSCH, hehhh…CHUU!

He pulls out three tissues and blows his nose as hard as he can, then tosses the tissues and settles back onto the pillow. His nose is already running again, and he wipes it with the handkerchief that's now anchored under his head, and then he's asleep.

He must've half-consciously heard Jupiter's excited noises when Matty came in, because it doesn't come as a complete surprise when the bed sinks and there's a hand at his forehead, followed by a kiss.

"Hey." Matty's voice is quiet, his hand at Nico's back.

Nico tries to say "hey" back, but it just sets him coughing again, which makes an absolute mess of his already-running nose, but he's wrapped the blankets tightly around himself to try to fight off the chill, so—

"You're okay." Matty sweeps his hand under the towel on the pillow so that he can bring it, and the handkerchiefs, up to cover Nico's cough and gently pinch away the mess at his nose. The slight pressure makes his breath hitch again, but he doesn't sneeze like he's expecting, just coughs and coughs. "Okay, let's sit you up—"

The world tilts unpleasantly but a second later he's being held steady against Matty's side, head resting against his shoulder, and it's easier to breathe.

"You're home," Nico says once he's gone through a dozen tissues and the well-used handkerchiefs are in a careful ball on the floor.

"I'm home. Apparently nobody has any writing assignments due tomorrow." He brushes Nico's hair back off his forehead to check his temperature again. "Either that or they're all going to show up right before the writing center closes and Jamie's going to be swamped."

Nico hums— as well as he can through a blocked nose— and then turns his head away, just a little, for a spraying tch'SCHHHew!

"Bless you," Matty murmurs into his hair, and hands him another couple of tissues, and then a third when those aren't enough. "This cold is a fucking miserable one, huh?"

"You're gonna get it if you're not careful," Nico says, but it's muffled against Matty's flannel shirt.

"Think that ship has sailed. I'll be okay." Matty rubs his back some more, until he's caught his breath and he can go a whole thirty seconds without blowing his nose. "You want me to get Luna to come downstairs?" He switches to rubbing at Nico's chest. "Sounds like you're starting to wheeze."

Frustration blooms, again, at the way his body won't just do its fucking job. Or, in the case of his immune response, won't do its job just a normal fucking amount. "Yeah, it's probably time."

Matty kisses his temple and gets up to hand Nico his inhaler and then to coax Luna out of the room while Nico lays out another handkerchief on the hand towel on his pillow. At first, it doesn't seem like she's going to leave— and he appreciates her loyalty, but not her dander— but Matty disappears and then there's the sound of a bag of cat treats being shaken, and she's out of the room in a flash.

Matty comes back upstairs and sits up beside him in bed, talking through his day until the combination of the eased breathing from the inhaler and just having Matty there, knowing he's not alone anymore, pulls him under again.

"Nico."

He makes a congested sound of protest at being awake.

"Sorry. You should eat, though. And it's probably time for some more meds, yeah?"

"Too cold," he mutters, burrowing deeper under the covers. "Not hungry."

"Okay, well, there's going to be food, so do you want to eat in bed?"

"No." He sighs dramatically. He knows that part of his current objection to life in general is that he does need food, even if nothing sounds appealing. "Fine. I'll come downstairs."

He stays upright long enough to eat the soup Matty had gotten from the deli on his way home. It's spicy and steamy and it makes his nose stream, but in a way that actually seems to clear his sinuses out, at leas for the moment.

Matty brings him the bottle of painkillers, and then opens it for him when Nico tries but his fingers ache too much to wrestle off the cap. "What do you think, are you ready for the decongestants yet?"

He considers it, and settles on, "No, the steam's helping."

"Sounds like a hot shower would be a good next step." Matty takes his hand and rubs his thumb against Nico's. "And then bed."

Nico drops his head onto his own arm. "It's not even 7:30."

"Pretty sure your cold doesn't know how to tell time."

He grumbles at that but lets Matty run his free hand through his hair. "Give me a minute."

"So you can fall asleep on the table?"

He nods. Food helped, but now he's just impossibly tired, and somehow even more aware of his headache than before. "Gotta let the meds kick in."

Matty hums. "Couch, while you wait?" When he gets a nod, he pulls Nico to his feet and walks him to the living room. "I'm going to go clean up, okay?"

Nico bites down on his lips as his eyes fill with tears again.

"Not okay. Got it. Come here." Matty leans back against the arm of the couch and pulls Nico to lie against him, then covers them both with the blanket from the back of the couch. "Better?"

h'tCHMPH! Muffled into the blanket. "Better."

There's a box of tissues on the side table, because anywhere he lives is going to have one in every room. At least. Matty hands him a few and then pulls the box onto the couch with them while Nico's blowing his nose. "Take your time. We've got nowhere to be."

Part 4 to come!

#snz #sneeze kink #sneeze fic #hindsight 'verse #anditvanisheslikemist writes

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fiercely-raging-writer · 2 years ago

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Get ready for A BIG List of books.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.K. Clume I can't recommend this book enough. Found family, gay, screw the beaurocracy, a little bit of fantasy, and all around just amazing. Quite literally my comfort book.

Illuminae Files by Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff Sci-fi, told via documents. Funny but also action packed. Also a little bit of found family. (the last scene in the third book kills me /pos) Warning for violence and some gore.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel Idk what you'd call it genre-wise, but possibly the best-written book I have ever read. Gorgeous writing, and a beautiful story. Warning for world-ending plague, so maybe don't read it in early 2020 if you have anxiety. (cough, cough, like i did)

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo My favorite book of all-time, I think. Found family, LGBTQ+ and POC rep, hillarious, amazing plot, incredible characters. Idk how much more i can say, since I think just about everyone has heard about this book by now. Let me just say that the TV show is shit compared to the book.

Viscious by V.E. Schwab (and sequels: Vengeful + ExtraOrdinary) morally grey found family. An AMAZING take on superpowers (you get powers by dying and coming back (heart stops but restarts),and your powers are determined by your last thoughts). MAJOR warning for violence, though. And one animal death.

Ranger's Apprentice Series by John Flannagan Technically middle-grade, but I adore them deeply and they still hold up as entertaining to me now at 18. Lighthearted and quick reads.

Anything by Rick Riordan (if you haven't read Percy Jackson, what are you even doing with your life? /j /lh)

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein Women pilots and special operatives during WWII. Amazing, incredible, still rips my heart out even after ~4 readings.

Okay, there's my huge list of suggestions, adjakdjs. I'm so sorry for making you read all of this. And sorry for it being 99% sci-fi/fantasy, but those are really my favorite genres.

~ Morri 🗡(@memento-morri-writes)

CANNOT thank you enough for all of these omg.

the house of the cerulean sea sounds really REALLY good!!!! i mean it's literally all i love in a book so i will def check it out :DD

and i've heard of illuminae!! it was recommended to me by a close friend, i'm glad to see you've liked it too :D AND it's in the form of documents 👀👀👀 officially intrigued fkjfsjkdjks

[morrigan WHY. would you do that to yourself. smH. i am gently patting your head.]

I'VE READ SIX OF CROWS!!!!!!!!! it was INSANE and it made me so unbearably happy when i tell you i was grinning for the next week after reading the book i'm not lying. and yeah, the show definitely doesn't do it justice. hopefully we'll get more of the crows in the second season 👀

viscious, [you know how many times i typoed that one word. sigh] from what i've heard, sounds AMAZING and also that is a very interesting way to get powers, it's the first of its kind and it's a very cool origin story tbh. also morally gray characters my beloved <33

i haven't read the ranger's apprentice, but i have read the outcasts series by the same author!!! and i remember getting a sneak peak into the first book and being really intrigued. more incentive to read it now :DD

!!!! that sounds beyond cool, and any book that still incites Feels after many rereads is one worth reading.

i have read all of rick riordan's books!!!! it's been ages since i've actually sat down and reread all of them because i read most of them in elementary school [in like second-third grade] and i still remember how i tore through the whole blood of olympus series in like four days. i was obsessed with the riordanverse. to say the least.

no do not apologise!!!! i haven't read enough fantasy for how much i write it and it's one of my favourite genres, and sci-fi, when done well, is right up there with the others :DDD so thank you!!!!! so much!!!!

#when i get around to reading any of these i might just yell about them to you 😭 you've been warned fkhdfhjsjd #morri <3 #to read #save #asks

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uglierdaikon · 3 years ago

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2, 7, 15, and 22 for the writing meta asks! 💕

yay yay thank you thank you!

2) Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

Okay, two answers for this. One: insert ominous chuckling here. For anyone reading Be Still My Foolish Heart, love, hugs, best wishes. That is all I can say at this time.

For a non-fandom answer, I'm working on the second draft of my National Novel Writing Month project and it's coming along so well! I'm looking into my options for the best place to share parts of it so I can hopefully amass some interest that I can wave in a publishing company's face. If any of you out there are secretly a publishing company plz publish my lesbian pirate book.

7) What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

ooooh this is a spicy question. Okay. Upon some reflection, I know that my writing has been described as macabre before, and I think that's accurate. I wouldn't say that I use dark humor, but I would say that I like to walk a balance between humor/comedic moments, and moments of emotional vulnerability. I want my stories to read the way that life feels. Sometimes you're having a nice laugh with your friends and you get shanked in the chest by a deep and inexpressible emotion. That's what I'm going for, except I try and fail to express said inexpressible emotion. Cathartic. I think that's the word I'm looking for. I write for catharsis, and I hope other people can get catharsis by reading what I write!

To be honest, I don't know if other people agree about this! I'm never quite clear on what exactly people perceive about my writing, beyond just liking it or not liking it. Thoughts, anybody?

15) Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

So I did answer this one, I hope you don't mind me just copy and pasting that answer!

Wow, pain pain death and dying. I hate all of these things. I'd say summaries are worse though. A fun fact is that I actually change my summaries and tags sometimes after a fic has been posted. It's the one part of a fic that I can't just fucking let go of if it's not the way I want it. If I find a typo in a chapter? A piece of dialogue I meant to delete? Well that's just fate. But if I don't like my summary or my tags that's gonna nag at me until I die.

22) Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?

Oh, all the time. I'm a narcissist when it comes to my writing.

I think it can be really fun to reread my old writing! I like to make a habit of waiting a few months after I've finished a project, then reading the whole thing from start to finish. By that time, I've usually forgotten the way I phrased things, and I'm less connected to the feeling of writing it, so in a way I can experience my story as a reader. On one level, this is awesome for learning things about my own writing and trying to grow as a writer. On another, I just think it's fun! I've been writing for so long, and been sharing my writing for so long, that I don't feel much shame or embarrassment over old works. It's a nice trip down memory lane, and a nice laugh sometimes.

#thank you so much for asking!#I hope this was as fun to read as it was to write lol #I don't remember how I've been tagging asks #also like #if anyone wants to know about my lesbian pirate book #eyes emoji #plz #ain't too proud to beg

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lizard-shifter-noms · 9 months ago

Text

Still Subject to Change Chapter 3 (NEW)

——————————————————————————-

Hello everyone! i decided to repost arc 1 of SSTC

(the chapters were way too long and had a bunch of typos but hopefully this will make reading easier)

this Story contains Vore, Dont like dont read.

if there are still any grammatical errors i’m sorry.

——————————————————————————

Examining him and not seeing anything that could qualify as a spider bite I tried to further calm him down by petting his hair which only worked a little bit.

“Are you good now? Are you alright?”

“I-i there was-spider in- spider so close to my face way too close- i could see its mandibles- why my face–”

I put a finger over his mouth before he ended up rambling himself into another panic attack.

“The spider is gone, were away from it don't worry”

I tried to reassure him but he was still shaking like a leaf, so I scooped him up and started removing the ropes so he could move again.

As soon as the ropes fell off he curled into a ball in my hand looking smaller than ever before.

“sorry sorry i- there was just- it was so close to my face”

He stumbled out not making much sense.

“Whatever, calm down, you can talk when you feel like it, okay?”

He nodded shakily and curled up even more as I went back to walking, this time in another direction to not meet any more surprises in this area.

The whole time Robin just laid in my hand until I managed to find an actual river, where I decided to set up camp even if it was a bit early to do so.

Setting Robin who had been silent the entire time on the ground I rummaged in my pockets for the water skin and tried to fill it up which only worked halfway as my fingers were still way too big to properly hold it.

Offering it to the strangely silent Robin while I tried to pick some Dandelions before they closed themselves overnight.

“You've been rather quiet this whole time, Are you sure that thing didn't bite you?”

He looked away for a bit then mumbled something barely audible.

“i have arachnophobia”

The soft and quiet admission did put some sense to his reaction though, so the problem wasn’t that the spider was a venomous species but that it just was a spider at all.

Watching him fiddle with his shirt hem and refusing to look at me I realized that as a prospective guard such a thing would not be tolerated and that it was a thing he would have to keep secret.

“well spiders really are ugly and i don't like them either so i guess well just avoid those fuckers in the future right?”

“you're not angry?”

He asked meekly and I was a bit put back at this question.

“Why would I be angry? it's not your fault that you have a phobia”

I remarked but still was a bit confused as to why he thought I would be angry over something he had no control over.

But then I realized that it was a Human trait to just get angry at other people and blame them even if they were not at fault, so it wasn't entirely out of the picture for him to assume I would do the same.

But I was not human, not entirely at least and for the first time in about forever I saw the good side to it.

His next words however showed that I still wasn't really any better, as humans really were all I had ever known it wasn't unusual of me to gain some of their traits.

“you- uh you said that the- that the next time i screamed like this you would- you'd... eat me…”

The last part was said so quietly that I almost didn't hear it, but now that he mentioned it I did remember hissing something like that at him when my first try to catch an animal was interrupted by his screaming.

“i'm not-”

I put my hand up to my face before gripping a bit of my hair

“I'm not gonna do that just because you have a Phobia, okay? i know i said i would but i'm not gonna just because you saw a spider”

Then I remembered what I learned on the streets, that I should never take back a bluff or nobody would ever believe me again.

“you'd have to do something really bad, for me to get angry enough to do something like that, but i don't think you could do anything that bad out here”

He did not look happy at the Clarification but said nothing about it.

“So what now?”

He asked instead and was side-eying the rope he was regularly tied up with overnight.

“same as yesterday i'd say, tie you up and then sleep”

I grabbed the rope from where it laid and started the whole spiel of binding him again, after this week i would be able to tie a knot very fast i mused.

I put Robin down next to the Dandelions I had been munching on, which had begun to close themselves as the sun went down.

Using what little light I had left, I tried to wash the blood off my Handkerchief to the best of my ability, putting it on a nearby rock to dry till tomorrow.

I went back to Robin who had already fallen asleep and lied down with my head next to him while creating a barrier over my head with my arms intertwining my fingers and using some moss as a pillow.

Looking up I saw a lot of stars, more than I had ever seen in Tunstead and wondered if the farther I got away from civilization the more of them I would see.

I kept staring at the night sky until I fell asleep to the chirping of crickets nearby.

The following morning i woke to a tugging sensation near my ear, something was messing with my hair and it was lying halfway under my head.

Staying as still as possible and trying to figure out what it was, I listened closely for any clue what was going on.

Feeling tiny hands tussling over my scalp I had no doubt that it was Robin messing with my hair, as he was the only being close enough to touch me.

The tugging was rhythmic and at some point I realized that the motion was similar to having a braid done.

I did not know why he would do that but I could somehow picture him doing that with this distant stare of his.

He seemed to space out a lot and then fiddle with whatever he could get his hands on, in this case my hair.

I debated if I should tell him I'm awake or act like I was just waking up.

In the end I chose the latter, and acting as if i was just waking up i moved a bit making him freeze like he'd been caught stealing cookies

I acted like I had just woken up and started to slowly move and get up.

“Morning, did you try to burrow under my head?”

He tried to rob away which only ended in him looking like a caterpillar as he unsuccessfully attempted to get out of the divot my head had made in the moss.

“It was cold again and i didn’t wanna wake you”

He mumbled into the ground and I nabbed him from his awkward position to remove the rope for today, which was already pretty loose anyway.

He rubbed his wrist as soon as the rope was removed and I put the spare shirt back in my pocket.

“And for the future don't try to burrow under me, you might end up getting squished”

“sorry i won't do that again, but i have no idea how you can just sleep when the ground literally freezes over”

He grumbled out tiredly and resumed to cling to my fingers as I went up to get my Handkerchief only to find that it had traces of frost all over and was still wet.

“Well at least it's free of blood now i hope it dries over the day”

I debated if I should just put it in my pocket or if I could take it with me some other way until I figured out that I could just tie it around my wrist.

Setting Robin down and shoving the water skin into his hands I told him to go fill it up as I couldn't hold it properly to fill it up.

Not letting my eyes off him I bound the cloth around my wrist and as I went over to pick him back up I saw my reflection in the water with my pointy ears, blue eyes and, as predicted, three tiny braids on one side.

I decided not to mention it as it seemed Robin got bored extremely quickly and it didn't bother me so I just left them as they were.

Placing him in my hand again I started walking again towards the mountain that loomed in the distance like a broken fangtooth, still seeming no closer than before, and just as ominous as always.

As we walked Robin seemed to fiddle with his sleeve before he asked

“did you- uh did you find out what that noise was? yesterday i mean”

I ended up telling him about the weird Creature and the maggot eating magpies as well as describing it all in a lot of detail upon request until it was well past noon.

“i think we should look for something to eat, something that's not dandelions for once”

Robin perked up a bit at that and started blabbering again.

“I agree with that! I'm starting to get sick of them.

Maybe we can find some wild Blackberries?”

“Blackberry season is in Autumn, this is wayyy to early for them i think they only just started to bloom”

He seemed a bit disappointed in that but didn't complain much otherwise.

“What else is there then? i'm not good at remembering what's edible and what's not”

“Daisies are also safe to be eaten so i guess we could look for some of those or maybe clover blossoms those work too”

I listed some of the ones from the top of my head.

“i'm starting to hate flowers i don't care that their pretty”

He grumbled and crossed his arms as best as he could in my grip again.

“fair enough, that's understandable but it's that or nothing”

I remembered plenty of times when some wild plants were all I could get so I knew it wasn't too bad even if it took some time getting full.

Strangely, I STILL did not feel any hunger whatsoever and I started wondering if this cursed Bracelet had something to do with it.

What if that continued until I died of starvation? Would I even notice it? What if I started forgetting to eat? Would I just fade away?

I hoped not.

It wasn't long before I spotted a small field with various flowers, some edible and some not.

i could see dandelions again as well as some Daisies and plantains this would do even if i had hoped to find something better.

Sitting down I put Robin next to me and started to stuff flowers in my mouth, never looking away for more than a minute.

It took some time getting enough that I considered to keep going, so picking Robin up again who had made once more a flower crown I went back to walking through the forest.

After about 2 hours I walked into an area that had a lot more underbrush than normal which made it hard to navigate inside of it and sometimes even completely blocking my path making me backtrack for a bit.

Looking back down at my hand while walking I saw that Robin had fallen asleep again, he really must have been tired to nod off like this.

The sky would soon be getting darker again so I decided to look for a place to camp in the thicker underbrush.

As I was walking I suddenly felt a painful sensation in the thinner skin between the thumb and pointer finger of the hand I held Robin in.

He'd Bitten me!

I dropped him on reflex and he let out a startled yelp, running off through the underbrush as I cursed loudly at the blood seeping out.

despite being small he had an impressive jaw strength i gave him that.

But now I had to go catch him again and maneuvering through the thicket proved to be very difficult.

As I ran searching for him while the sky went darker overhead, a hundred scenarios went through my head.

Did he plan this?

Was he looking for an opportunity like this all along?

To get away as soon as he got the chance?

Was any of what he told me even true?

I knew Humans lied a lot so it wasn't completely out of the picture that he'd done just that.

I started to get angry about this.

Of course no Human would ever want to spend time with a Bastard!

why did I even think that the little small talks were anything but a ploy to get me to lower my guard, to make me feel at ease in his presence.

He really was just like the other Humans and i didn't know why I ever thought someone would just randomly be friendly with me.

He was a Prospective Guard for fucks sake of course he would just ditch me the first chance he got.

And now he would probably get the army to kill me or something if I didn't catch him first.

All but stomping through the thicket and sometimes getting branches in my face when I wasn't shielding it with my arms, I saw him trip over a fallen log and scramble to get up again.

Easily stepping over some bushes i bent down grab him just as he got up, covering his mouth with a finger as i didn't want to hear some dumb sorry excuse for biting me.

He BIT me out of nowhere there was no good explanation for that other than trying to get away.

The fire of anger in my head did not subside as I walked over to where I could hear the river.

Settling down next to a huge boulder I could lean on, I thought about what to do now.

simply tying him up again would not soothe my rage but it sure would stop him from escaping again.

Looking down at Him I saw and felt him visibly shaking as well as fighting back tears.

Good! with how angry i was about all of this he damn well could feel a little fear!

There was still blood seeping from the bite wound that was actually bigger than expected and more painful than I anticipated for something like this.

I Glared at him furious at the indignity I had suffered.

I put Robin in my other hand to wipe the crimson liquid off on my shirt and freeing his mouth in the process.

He immediately started wailing and crying out

“I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bite you! I don't know why I did that! Please don't kill me! Please, I'm sorry! It was an accident!”

He was rambling again but I only half listened as I got the blood off my hand gripping him a bit thighter i raised him up towards my face.

Baring my teeth and showing off canines that were way too long and sharp to ever belong to any human, I growled at him.

“An accident my ass! you're just like all the other humans! double crossing me whenever the chance arrives! like HELL you didn't plan to escape the second you could! I don't know why I EVER thought a HUMAN of all things would be nice to ME!”

As i loudly told him what i thought he started squirming in earnest and trying his best to wiggle out of my grip whimpering loudly

“Please, I'm sorry! don't kill me! don't eat me!”

Eat him? ah yes i threatened to do that didn't i?

That would be possible of course, after all i was big enough to do that now.

I wouldn't kill him of course as the only thing i was proud of was to be able to say that i had never killed anyone or anything that classified as a person.

But I could put him in the Storage organ, though he didn't have to know that it existed.

“don't what?”

I hissed at him shifting my grip to have him dangle by the back of his chainmail.

That had to go I realized, and started ripping it off of him as well as the leather tunic and his Boots.

“Don't eat me”

He squeaked and tried to tuck his legs closer to his chest.

Chucking the stripped off items on the ground next to me I lifted him a bit higher and gripped his torso forcing his legs to straighten out.

“Too bad”

Pushing him Head first into my mouth his legs started to flail as much as they could and I could hear high pitched screams buzzing in my Skull.

It was a weird sensation as I had never taken something alive into my mouth but it was manageable, so, tipping my head back I shoved him all the way in and swallowed hard.

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

Robin was in a place he assumed to be worse than hell.

He truly didn't mean to bite Donovan; he just spaced out again!

Seeing the white Blocks of bone that were bigger than his head that had to be teeth he Screamed, those could easily crush his skull in a single bite!

Flailing wildly with his legs and trying not to get close to the ivory boulders he started pleading to be let go and that it truly was an accident!

he had spaced out again!

But it seemed he was not heard as suddenly everything was tipped forwards and he could see down the throat before a loud ‘GLK’ sent him down towards the throat.

He Realized that Donovan didn't plan to bite his head off, but he wondered if that was any consolation considering where he was headed.

Maybe it would have been better to die a swift death between those Teeth than melt away to nothing in acid while still alive.

Screaming again and trying his best not to go down any farther by bracing his elbows on the side of the throat, but another push on his feet sent him even deeper in and pressed his arms to his sides.

The walls that squished him and rendered him immobile tugged him deeper down in a rhythmic motion after a second ‘glurk’ sounded out.

He distantly could feel a different pressure coming from one of the walls of the tube he was currently trapped in.

It took him a moment to realize that that must have been Donovan's hand poking at him, to make sure he didn't choke on Robin? to make sure he went down smoothly? or to gloat?

Robin didn't know, didn't want to know, he just wanted out! but a third and last swallow sent his writhing form even deeper into the core of the Giant, past the loudly beating heart, away from the prodding fingers, and into a fleshy chamber that had just enough room for him to comfortably sit in without being too claustrophobic.

There would have even been enough space for another person to sit next to him without being squished together too badly he noted grimly.

Turning around and wiggling into an upright position left him sitting there stunned for a few seconds.

He was surprised to still be in one piece and hadn't gotten chewed up like the Boar a few days ago.

Starting to panic he did the only thing he could think of.

He screamed as loud as he could and started kicking and punching everything he could, hoping to make Donovan nauseous and spit him back up.

He didn't want to die! Especially not like this!

The walls of the fleshy chamber were damp, and he didn't know if the Liquid running over his cheeks were his own tears or the beginnings of stomach acid.

He screamed again as he slipped over and his arm landed in a puddle of what he presumed to be acids.

Scrambling up again he immediately went back to punching and kicking, desperately hoping he could cause enough of a fuss that he would be freed.

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

After Robin slipped out from where my fingers could press in on him and spilled into my storage organ that was previously only used to hide valuables, I realized that this might not have been such a great idea.

He was kicking and screaming and sometimes it hit something sensitive.

It wasn't too painful but sure as hell uncomfortable and would start to ache later, maybe even bruise.

Looking up as something soft and cold landed on my nose I saw that it had begun to snow softly.

Great, as if this night wasn't already absolutely awful! Now it would get really cold too, so sleeping comfortably was off the table.

Not that I could anyway with the current situation.

And i couldn't block out his screams either as covering my ears wouldn’t protect me from sounds literally inside of me.

Looking straight forward trying to focus on these strange sensations and wanting at least the assault on my guts to stop.

“STOP KICKING ME! for fucks sake you're fine!”

I bellowed out but he didn't seem to hear me and I started debating on what to do.

He either didn't hear me or ignored what I said so I tried to squish him by pressing my hands into my storage stomach.

He only screamed louder and started thrashing worse than before, still having some room to move about.

So thinking quickly I filled my lungs with as much air as possible and leaned forward while pushing my hands into my middle.

This did effectively squish him and he went quiet, only twitching a bit and shaking like a leaf.

Holding him like this made me notice that i could feel everything he did, from his arms trying to move, his chest heaving with his breaths and even his way too fast heartbeat.

Now that I wasn’t that angry anymore i felt bad for having done this, it really wasn't his fault that he got stuck with me, and trying to get home was a normal thing to do.

Still holding my hands over the squished Robin i heard him sob, not wail or scream, just sob, and I felt even worse than before.

“please *sob* don't kill me, I'm sorry please *sob* Please let me out i don't wanna die…”

Hearing his heartbreaking crying I suddenly felt incredibly guilty for what I just did.

I truly hadn't meant to scare him this badly! I really needed to work on my anger issues.

Looking at the softly falling snow that had started to cover the ground I tried to think of a way to comfort him, so easing up on the squishing I attempted to speak quietly but still loud enough to be heard.

“Hey”

I said softly and felt him flinch into one of the walls trying to curl up again now that he had the space to do so.

“What do you want?”

the words he spoke were said in a dejected manner, like he had given up…

“I- look i'm sorry i didn't mean to scare you this bad but i promise you're safe! you're not in my stomach right now”

He slowly uncurled a bit and touched one of the walls before taking his hand back.

“How do I know you're telling the truth?”

The words were hesitantly and quietly spoken like he was afraid of the answer.

Taking a breath, I thought about how to word this best.

“I swear by the entirety of my Faeblood that i will not hurt you, i might be a Bastard but my fae half still prevents me from breaking any promises i've ever made”

He uncurled a bit more, seemingly a bit more at ease now.

“If this isn't your Stomach where am I then?

He seemed less scared now and was asking comprehensible questions too, albeit still a bit timidly.

Looking at the snow, who was falling worse than before, I tried to explain it to him as best as I could.

“Well, remember when I told you I had some of my organs doubled? yeah that's one of those, it doesn't work though and i have used it as a coin pouch in the past”

I hoped that this description was at least somewhat understandable.

“So you just… used this as your coin holder? did you not get sick?”

He had uncurled almost completely by now and was shyly poking at the walls.

I tried not to think too much about the fact that it felt good and instead shoved the thought away.

Laughing a bit at his Question i replied to him.

“No luckily not but i had to be careful still some of them were sharp”

I started rubbing a bit at him and at first he flinched away again before leaning back to the front of my Pouch back to the wall.

“Can you let me out then?”

I winced at the question seeing that the snow was even worse than before and i was somehow not being affected by the temperature, but feeling the snow crystals that laid on the ground crunch under my hand, I knew that if i let him out now he'd get sick from the cold.

“I can't, it started snowing and you'd get sick immediately not to mention that right now you're not dry thanks to me but I promise i'll let you out in the morning!”

I hoped this wouldn’t make him upset again but if he insisted I would let him out and try to keep him warm by using some other method if I found one.

“Snow? But it's spring, why would it snow? how cold is it?”

Looking around I saw frost covering every bit of ground that was not near me and my breath coming out in little clouds.

“Very cold, the ground froze and my breath makes little clouds, i think you'd just freeze the moment i get you out, but if you truly want to come out i'll try to make a fire or something”

He seemed to think about it for a second.

“i'm not sure if i like this, but i don't wanna freeze either so i'm staying for now i guess”

I was secretly glad he chose to stay, not because I liked the feeling now that he stopped kicking but because spitting him up on this cold would have made him sick and I did not have any medicine.

I tried to slowly lie down to get into a sleeping position even if i probably shouldn't with weather like this but i was too tired to care about that.

Feeling Robin try to brace himself as I moved to lay on the cold ground my brain kept denying that having something moving in there felt good.

I was honestly a bit scared of that part.

What if I started eating random people?

It truly might be best to disappear from any civilization and just vanish into the woods.

Not that anyone wanted a Bastard like me in their Kingdom anyway.

I felt a weird sting at the thought and I was confused as to why?

I had believed up until now that there was absolutely nobody that would ever like me.

But Robin was the first person I spent more than a day or two with and he somehow still doesn't seem to actually hate me but now he probably feared me after I literally ate him.

As I laid on the ground I sensed Robin move to get comfy and put a hand over my Pouch where I felt him.

He was snuggling into the ‘floor’ and yawned before curling up and slowly falling asleep.

He must have been exhausted after such a scare and thinking he was going to die.

I felt extra bad about it now.

Looking up at the stars and slowly falling snow my hand went back over my pouch and started to softly rub against it.

I literally held an entire life inside my own body which was weird to think about and a little scary too, because I was now responsible for everything and he couldn't even defend himself from any outside forces.

It shouldn't be possible either, but this weird Bracelet had done something to make me a Giant.

Feeling Robin snuggle closer to my hand I continued to massage the spot he was under until I myself fell asleep, still trying to ignore the way my brain told me that having something living inside felt good.

PREVIOUS / NEXT / OVERSIGHT

#sstc #lizards writing #vore story #giant/tiny #soft vore #extreme cuddling #g/t story #v0re #g/t vore #sfw vore #Barmea #nsx vore

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obxcunt · 4 years ago

Text

Love bites || (5)

pairing: jj maybank x reader [eventually] || rafe cameron x reader [currently]

warnings: SMUT, cursing, typos.

summary: it was supposed to be a good summer for you, the last one in the obx before going to college, the last one with your friends and family. Unfortunately, a sudden and mysterious death is about to completely change your life, pushing you directly into a brand new world and into a very sexy vampire’s arms.

part four || masterlist || part six

“...Okay, what’s the plan?” You asked the blond boy. “Ward is obviously not the only slayer living around here, we need the names of the others. We also need an address, they used to have secret meetings in the past, they’re probably going to have one soon. We need to spy on them as much as possible. I think that’s all, for now.” You hummed, focusing on him. “Oh, really? You don’t want me to find a cure?” You asked sarcastically, a bit nervous. “Wait! There’s something else!” You sighed, the boy clapping in his hands. “Ward’s journal, i’m sure he has one, they all do. It’s too keep everything on track, it could be extremely useful.” He added. “We can’t steal it, JJ.” He agreed, sighing. “I’ll use my phone, to take pictures.” He seemed satisfied by your idea. “I better not fail this one, what if—” JJ touched your shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry. I’m sure you can do it, Y/N.”

Today, was the big day. You walked inside the Cameron’s mansion, looking around and shouting everyone’s names a few times: but no one answered, even though you were supposed to meet Rafe here and the door wasn't locked. You took the opportunity: walking straight to Ward’s office, leaning against the door and listening attentively, just to make sure no one was in there before walking in.

“Okay…” You murmured, closing the door behind you. “Where are you hiding your stuff, Ward?”

You walked to the desk, opening each drawer: not finding anything very interesting. You sighed, sitting on the chair, and looking around, wandering where he could hide it. You looked at the papers on the desk, reading some of them and noticing a police report: on Kelce’s death. You hummed, moving the piles away. Alright, Ward is definitely preparing something with the police department.

“Y/N?” Rafe called from the hallway, making you jump.

“Shit, shit, shit.” You murmured, standing up.

You tried to run towards the door, but took a step back as you heard his footsteps coming closer to the office. You looked around, panic taking over as you sat down on the desk: crossing your legs and trying to look calm.

He opened the door, frowning at you. “Y/N? What the fuck are you doing here?” He asked, looking behind him before walking in and closing the door.

“Well…” You said, licking your lips. “I know you always wanted to have some fun on your father’s desk…” You smirked, the whole scene making him hard as rock.

“Shit.” He murmured, looking at you with desire. He walked up to you, opening your legs: spreading them enough to stand between them, his hands grabbing your thighs. “That's an amazing idea.” He said, smirking as you wrapped your legs around his waist. “Not a first but—”

“Don't ruin everything by talking, Rafe.” You said, rolling your eyes at the Kook boy. “We have to make it quick, right?” He nodded, looking at your body. “What are you waiting for then? Take me!”

Rafe smiled: appreciating how eager you were to have him. You pulled him into a heated kiss, your hands messing up his hair. He moaned against your mouth, getting tighter in his pants at the idea of having you again. He took off his shirt, revealing his amazing body: he looked so fucking good. You caressed his biceps and abs, hands going straight to his belt.

“Oh my god!” You whined, getting brutally turned around and slammed against the desk, face falling straight against the wood. “Rafe—”

“Shut up, baby.” He whispered, pulling up your skirt and pulling down your panties in a second. “Fuck.” He hissed, freeing himself from his pants and boxers, stroking his member. “You're ready?”

“Fuck— Yes!” You moaned, feeling the tip of his cock between your folds, teasing your entrance. “Rafe, please.” He smirked, stepping back to spit on his fingers, caressing your folds a few times with them, teasing you with slow movements around the clit. “I need you, Rafe.” You moaned, the declaration making him groan.

He started pounding into you, recklessly. “Shit, Y/N.” He breathed, looking at your bodies uniting. “You're so good for me.” He grabbed your hips, going faster and harder, your moans making his ego ten times bigger. “You like that?”

“Yes!” You screamed. “So— Deep.” He used one hand to push your head down again, pressing it against the desk as he kept going on, listening carefully to your whines: making sure he wasn't hurting you. “Faster, Rafe!”

“I wanna look at your pretty face.” He confessed, pulling out and turning you around: the both of you already out of breath. “You're so cute when you moan my name.” You laughed, the sound turning into another cry as he entered you again. “That's better, scream for me baby.” You rolled your eyes through the pleasure, letting the Kook boy use you, both hands gripping on the edges of the desk.

You fucked in this position for a while, until he got bored of it and decided to spice things a bit: taking you against the wall, kissing you through the action. You bit his lower-lip, making him whine in pleasure, his face shining in the light with the sweat recovering his forehead. You felt it coming, running out of breath and gripping on his shoulders for dear life: your legs feeling numb as he held your thighs.

“Come for me, Y/N.” He said, slamming you against the wall a bit harder this time, slowing his thrusts as you both came against each other, mouth wide open and panting. “Holy fuck…” He opened his eyes, moving the hair out of your face, kissing you one last time while putting you down.

“That was…” You paused, taking a deep breath and pulling down your skirt. “Wow.” You admitted, feeling sore as you looked for your panties. “Wait—” You said, turning around and noticing something on the wall: the biggest painting had moved.

“Oh…” He said, laughing while pulling up his pants and boxers. “We probably moved it when we fucked against the wall, it's fine.”

You nodded, retouching your hair. “What is it?” You asked innocently, grabbing the panties laying on the floor. “A bank vault or something?” You joked, fake-giggling and putting your panties back on.

“Yes, sort of it.” Rafe replied, pushing the painting and making sure everything was alright before turning back to you. “You can use my bathroom to clean up.” He kissed your forehead, pushing you towards the exit. “I’ll wait for you in the living room, okay?”

Unfortunately, you didn't find anything today: Rafe interrupting your investigation too soon. At least, you knew where to look next time, because obviously there will be a next time. You were determined to find things, especially the list: you were intrigued about it, wondering if maybe your own family was made of slayers. Hopefully, no. You thought, not wanting to create even more conflicts with your father.

You knocked on the Chateau’s front door, looking around and noticing JJ’s bike near the porch. “Hey!” A girl shouted from behind making you jump.

“Shit—” You breathed, turning around to see a smiling Kiara standing behind you. “You scared me…” The other girl laughed, walking by and opening the front door for you.

“Sorry, girl.” She said, inviting you inside. “You must be, Y/N.” She added, closing behind you by simply waving at the door: which impressed you. You nodded, looking at the mess in the living room. “Sorry for the mess, but we are on boys land right now.” She said, grabbing some empty cups off the table.

You laughed, a bit intimidated. “I— I’m here to see, JJ.” You said, following her like a lost-puppy.

“I know.” She replied, entering the kitchen. “The tarot told me.” You frowned, relaxing as she started laughing at your puzzled face while dropping the cups in the sink. “I’m joking, Y/N. He told me you were coming here, this boy talks about you a lot.” She paused, regretting her last sentence as you frowned. “Anyway, he’s out. God knows what he’s doing but—”

“Kiara.” JJ said, walking in the kitchen. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk about God and me at the same time.” He joked, walking towards the fridge. You both turned around to look at him. Kiara wasn’t surprised as much as you were: probably used to his sudden apparitions now. “Do you guys want anything?” He asked, opening the fridge. “Y/N?”

“I’m good, thanks.” You replied. “We need to talk about the—” You paused, glancing at the witch on your right. “Does she...?”

“She knows.” JJ replied, taking a beer: opening the bottle with one hand. You didn’t know vampires could drink alcohol. “So, what did you find? Something interesting?” He asked, leaning against the kitchen island, right next to you.

“Not really.” You admitted, disappointed. “However, there is this—” You paused, noticing the brunette looking at you. She narrowed her eyes, making you blush. “Wha— What’s wrong?” She smirked, shaking her head.

“Someone had sex.” She replied, the answer increasing the blushing. The blond boy remained silent, looking at his beer as you laughed nervously. He already knew it: he smelled Rafe’s strong scent all over you as soon as he walked in the room.

You didn’t want to talk about it. “It’s the tarot again, isn’t it? They told you?” You joked, the question making Kiara laugh.

“I like her.” She said to JJ. “You smell like sex.” She explained, winking. “And your hair, it’s a mess.” She pointed at it, laughing. “Rafe Cameron, huh?” You wanted to disappear, sensing the judgment. “Anyway, it’s time for me to leave. My beautiful and impatient girlfriend is waiting for me.” You nodded, retouching your hair in silence. “It was nice to meet you, after all these years. I’ll see you guys later.” She left.

An awkward silence installed itself. You were too scared to look at JJ, feeling guilty. You were supposed to find more infos today, you couldn’t help feeling bad, especially after Kiara’s last sentence.

“Tell me.” He started, focusing on the dirty floor. “You didn’t find anything because there was nothing or because you were too busy fucking Rafe Cameron to do some research?”

“JJ...” You whined. “I did find something.” He looked up, the eye contact making you smile. “Do you remember the massive painting in his office, the one behind the desk?” He nodded. “He hides something behind it. I couldn’t look because Rafe came in—”

He laughed. “That‘s right.” He said, drinking. “Rafe definitely came in.” He grimaced, shaking his head.

“Gross.” You mumbled, crossing your arms. “Can we— Let’s talk about something else. This is embarrassing.” He ignored the suggestion, drinking a bit more. “Are you mad at me, JJ?”

“I’m not mad.” He said calmly. “I’m just— I’m just worried.” You sighed, scratching your neck. “I’m not gonna ask you to stop seeing him. But this is serious and we really need to stay focus on—”

“Don’t worry about it.” You cut off. “I’m not gonna stop searching for infos. I really want to help. I’ll try another time, probably at Topper’s birthday party.” JJ frowned. “He wants to throw a party at Rafe’s house, since his parents are not leaving that weekend.”

The blond nodded, finishing up his drink. “Okay.” You sighed, hoping he wasn’t mad at you. “Relax, pretty girl.” He looked at you again, smirking. “I— I’m not mad at you. But, be careful with him, alright?” He threw the empty bottle away. “I don’t trust this guy.”

You couldn’t say anything. Rafe made many mistakes in the past and always had asshole tendencies. He was different with you though. At least, you wanted to believe it, to believe in his good side.

“Wha— What are you doing, JJ?” You asked, watching him stepping closer and grabbing your wrist. “Wanna bite me or something?” You joked. He turned it around, his deep blue eyes leaning on the palm.

“Keep that pretty mouth shut for a second.” He murmured, focusing on the lines. “Kiara taught me something recently. I’m gonna read your future.” He explained, smirking at you. You seemed very anxious, which made him laugh. “Shit it’s—” He sighed. “That’s not good.”

“Wait, what are you talking about?” You asked, looking at it with confusion. “Wha— What’s not good about it?” You started panicking, the blond boy sighing dramatically and shaking his head. “JJ!”

“I don’t know how to say it, Y/N.” You pulled away. “It— It seems like you’re gonna lose some teeth and need a wig soon.” He said, laughing at you. You weren’t reacting, looking at the boy with a blank expression. “Come on.”

“You’re an idiot.” You said, crossing your arms. “What’s wrong with you? You scared me.” You punched his arm. “That’s mean!” You punched him again, pouting and increasing his amusement.

He calmed down, loving your pouty lips. “Come on, Y/N. It wasn’t that bad.” He smiled, placing both hands on your hips: turning you around and gently slamming you against the fridge to tickle you. “You’re fine—” You laughed, placing both hands on his shoulders to stop him.

“You’re still an idiot.” You joked, realizing the sudden proximity between you. “You—” He smirked, looking down at your parted-lips. “Nevermind.” You laughed nervously, feeling hot and bothered by the sight of his incredible biceps.

“It’s past 6pm.” He said, not moving. “Do you want me to take you home?” He didn’t really want you to leave, but didn’t want you to get in trouble either.

You sighed, shaking your head. “I— I don’t wanna go home, yet.” He frowned. “It’s just— It’s always the same, my parents fighting, getting drunk or an empty house with a painful silence. I want something different, tonight.”

JJ nodded, surprised. “Alright.” He said, not wanting to force you. He didn’t know anything about your home life, yet. “You can stay here.” He added, trying to hide his excitement. He really appreciated the fact that you wanted to stay with him. “If you feel comfortable around vampires and weirdos, it’s up to you.” You chuckled, removing your hands from his shoulders. “I’ll take you home later.”

You listened to an impulsive thought: kissing the blond’s cheek. “That’s really sweet.” He remained silent, in shock. This couldn’t be real, he thought. You were both blushing, his hands still holding you close to him. “JJ?” He blinked, unable to move. “This is weird, isn’t it?” You chuckled, his reaction was adorable. “Us, hanging out and this whole week. So much happened.”

“It doesn’t feel weird to me.” He admitted, swallowing hard. “I— I mean, you’re good company, Y/N.” You both laughed, the blond boy removing his hands from you, unfortunately.

“I like it too.” You admitted as well. “Maybe we should’ve had done it sooner.”

He smiled. “Maybe.” Your cheeks were burning at this point: which he thought was so fucking attractive. You were secretly driving him insane. “You’re a little bit red.” He murmured with a smirk, wanting to tease you.

You remained silent, starring at him attentively. It felt intense and surreal. You were both standing on planet earth and both felt far away from this world at the same time, everything around you seemed to disappear: letting the blond boy and you alone in your own bubble, at peace. He looked down at yours lips for a second, cursing himself for feeling so attracted to you, but the idea of Rafe Cameron tasting those lips earlier today calmed him down: lucky bastard.

“Hello, love birds!” John B shouted from the living room, walking towards the kitchen’s entrance. “Are we interrupting something?” He asked, Pope appearing next to him. “I feel like we are interrupting something.”

“We definitely interrupted something.” Pope whispered to him, the two boys looking at their friend with amusement. “He seems mad—” He paused, looking back at John B. “Do you think he’s mad?” He asked him.

“Definitely.” He nodded. “Look he’s giving us the angry vampire look.” John B added, grimacing and laughing.

“Get out!” JJ said, making you laugh. “Fuck— We weren’t doing anything weird.” He looked back at you, hoping you weren’t feeling uncomfortable. “Guys, this is Y/N.” You waved shyly at the two boys. “Y/N, this is John B and Pope.”

Pope was the first to reply. “Does she know about how you—” He suddenly whined, getting interrupted by John B’s elbow attacking his ribs in a solid hit, the other boy smiling awkwardly. “Wha— Shit it hurts.”

JJ sighed, rubbing his face. “I hate you guys...” He whispered, shaking his head through his embarrassment as you laughed. “I— John B, do you mind if she stays with us for dinner?”

“Of course not.” He replied, pushing Pope towards the exist. “But—” He chuckled. “Is she like, your dinner?” He joked, wanting to tease him a bit more. You blushed at the question, glancing at the boy next to you. “I— Not the killer look again, JJ!”

“Get out, man!” JJ yelled, losing his composure. “Seriously! Or i’ll beat your ass!”

John B laughed, rolling his eyes at the vampire. “You mean, bite my ass?” He asked, raising his hands to protect himself as he laughed at his own joke. “Okay, okay, i’m out.” He added, before finally leaving the kitchen.

JJ huffed, not even able to look at you in the eyes. “Your friends are—” You paused, chuckling. “Interesting.” He smiled. “But, you haven’t answered his meal question, JJ.”

He frowned, scoffing. “Wha— What are you talking about?” You smirked, admiring how you were the one making him blush now. “It’s not—” He paused, smiling. “Oh, fuck off, Y/N!” You both laughed, the blond boy wrapping his arms around you: wanting to tickle you again. “Come here!”

“No, JJ!” You laughed hysterically, kicking him. “Sto— Stop!” You cried, head falling back against his neck.

The Pogues remained silent in the living room, both on the couch, smirking and looking at each other. The two boys were listening to your laughters and whispered, both happy to see their friend enjoying life again.

———————————————————————

tag-list: @prejudic3-deactivated20201112 @starkeyrafe @thestorysofargone @ifilwtmfc @callmeimpetuous @katiaw2 @your-local-candle-addict @iccyyyybitch @agirlwholovescoffee @hvrcruxes @mayybankz

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ruinsofxerxes · 4 years ago

Note

You gonna taunt us with your unfinished fic in the tags 😭😭

LOL SORRY BRUUHHHHH. But for real, after I wrote those tags I went searching through my laptop, and found the two chapters I wrote back in 2014ish!!! Like I said, it’s totally unfinished, and I haven’t even looked it over since I wrote it so there could be typos and I have completely forgotten what even happens in these chapters but if you wanna read it, here ya go lol.....rip to this fic.....it would have been fun......the one that got away............ . . .. ........ .. .

1. Chapter 1 Edward awoke, and this time it felt different. He had a vague sense that this was not his first time regaining consciousness. He could remember in memories so vague that they were nothing more than notions that there had been a long stretch of dark unconsciousness that had been punctured by short bouts of unintelligent wakefulness. This time was different; even in his unalert, half-asleep state, Edward could feel things he hadn't before. The room was quiet, wherever he was. The bed thin but soft nevertheless as was the flimsy sheet that covered him up to the chest. The word safe came to mind and, for some reason, that was more of a relief than a given. There was a small creak to Edward's left. His ears were easily able to place the sound, and Ed felt himself fill with even more relief. "Brother?" Alphonse's voice inquired far too hopefully. Ed hadn't realized he had done anything to give away that he was awake. He was still coming to himself, and his eyes still closed. Perhaps he had made a small noise upon awaking, or maybe Alphonse realized this time it was different, just as Ed had. Maybe, judging by that hopeful, almost disbelieving tone in Al's voice, he had been watching his brother sleep. When Al spoke next, his voice had drawn closer, his armor clanking further as he bent over Edward slightly. "Ed?" His voice faltered with uncertainty when Ed didn't respond. Ed was still in a daze even though it had been several minutes since he was sure he was definitely awake. He had to be on some sort of medication. Ed had been hospitalized enough in the past few years to know damn well what it felt like to be drugged up on pain killers. Which begged the question: what the hell happened to him? Ed forced his heavy eyelids open. He blinked the sluggish feeling away, and his view was overtaken by his brother's helmet staring down at him. Once Alphonse saw his brother's eyes open, his shoulders sagged visibly with relief. "Brother, are you okay?" Edward stared at his brother for a moment with growing concern. He was slightly disappointed as well but a reason for that emotion was not making itself known. "I'm fine, Al," he stated flatly. He didn't feel any pain at least. Grogginess aside, he really did feel fine, but he couldn't think of a reason why Alphonse would ask him such a question, and that worried him. Edward glanced around himself to find he and Al were at the hospital. Ed wasn't surprised considering the previous information he had gathered, but it unnerved him regardless. He looked back at Al, who was watching over him, his body language obviously on edge, as if he believed Ed could fall back into unconsciousness at any moment. Ed took in his brother's armor body and, with a start, a small snippet of memory came back to him. That's right, Ed thought. They had been chasing another lead on the philosopher's stone, hadn't they? But Al was still in his armor. He didn't seem overly eager to tell Ed whether or not they had been successful in their search either so Edward knew they had failed to find the stone. It wasn't a very promising lead anyway. It had brought them to some backwater town neither of the boys had ever heard of in the middle of the Eastern area. Ed hadn't had high hopes, but the realization was discouraging anyway. "I-I'm glad you woke up," Alphonse continued quietly, not meeting his brother's gaze. "I was getting worried that you wouldn't…" His fingers twiddled with the pages of the book sitting closed on his lap. It was a thick, old and battered book no doubt gotten from the East City library in order to pass the time that Ed's had been dead to the world. But just how long had he been gone? Ed craned his neck slightly to look at the cover; his heart leaped as he saw the title said something about comas and other similar medical conditions. How long had he been out if his brother was reading up on something so grave? "Al…what—what's wrong? How long was I unconscious? What happened? We didn't find the stone, did we?" Ed pushed himself up slightly but fell back into the pillows heavily. His balance was off and something wasn't right. Ed clutched at his right shoulder, suddenly struck with the realization. "And where's my arm? What happened to my arm?" His automail arm was completely gone, leaving nothing behind but an empty shoulder port. Without a moment's hesitation, Ed flung off the thin, white sheet covering his legs to reveal that they were both present. Ed exhaled his held in breath, his eyes sweeping over the nicks in his prosthetic and the bandages and gauze covering his flesh right leg. "Brother, stop. Calm down," Alphonse said, trying hard to stay calm himself. He reached over, gently taking his brother's shoulders in his large gauntlets and forcing Ed to lay back down. "Al, what happened?" Ed repeated. His voice was still slightly panicked but he made no move to struggle from the suit of armor's hold. After a moment, Alphonse let go and sat back in the hospital chair. "Ed, it's okay. You're going to be alright. We got you to the hospital early this morning, and you've been falling in and out of consciousness ever since. That's why…I was worried, I didn't know if you'd stay awake this time." Ed searched his brother's face but found nothing in the expressionless mask. He only felt marginally better by what Al told him. "Did something happen to me when we were looking for the stone? It was another false lead, wasn't it?" Alphonse looked up then and stared at his brother. He was quiet for a moment, and Edward shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. "Ed…the stone wasn't there at all. It was all a trick, we got ambushed shortly after we arrived. You…you don't remember that?" Ed shook his head slowly from side to side, staring at his brother in disbelief. He pulled the blanket slowly off himself more gently this time and gave his body a cursory glance. His legs seemed to have gotten the worst of it if all the patches were anything to go by. Part of his left forearm was wrapped up as well. Feeling his face tentatively with his only hand, Ed found nothing more than a bandage on his cheek and one hidden under his bangs to cover his right temple. As Edward patted himself down, Alphonse had spoken up again. "The doctors said you might suffer memory loss. I was hoping you wouldn't…" He shifted in his chair. "You were showing signs of hypothermia and your body was going into shock when we found you. It's a good thing we found you when we did. I don't…I don't know what would have happened if we had come any later." Edward paused his examination at the sudden thick emotion in his brother's young voice. Alphonse had pulled his shoulders in and was staring down sullenly at the book clutched in his hands. Ed's lips pulled down in a tight frown. He had screwed up once again, and Alphonse had received the worst of it, having to sit without pause by his brother's bed, not even knowing whether or not he'd wake up. "Sorry…" The word slipped out guilty before Ed even realized he had said it. He leaned over awkwardly and patted Al's large hand, even though Ed knew he couldn't feel the gesture. "Sorry I worried you." Al shook his head. "It's okay, Brother. It wasn't your fault. And you're okay now, that's what's important, right?" He didn't seem too convinced. Ed wasn't either soothed by the words much either but he didn't say anything. Ed drew his hand back after a pause and settled into the pillows. "Was I really that bad off? Did you really think I was in a coma?" He nodded toward the book when Alphonse glanced up. Al looked down at the object in question as if he had forgotten it was there. His hands gripped at the edges in thought. "This actually wasn't for you…" Al shifted uncomfortably as if he didn't want to relay the information he obviously knew. Al seemed to be handling Ed gently now, as if the loss of his memories from whatever had happened made him fragile and one more bad thing on top of it all would make him bow and break under its weight. "Who…" Ed asked gravely. He stared Alphonse down, making it evident that he didn't want to be fed sugar-coated half-truths. "You probably don't remember," Al started, squirming, "but the colonel was there too." "What happened to him?" Ed voice had hushed considerably. "We don't know. It seems like he got hit in the head somehow and probably had a concussion…the doctors aren't sure if he'll wake up. Or if will be any time soon." Al's voice tapered off. "How do they not know what happened to him?" Ed asked, getting frustrated with this entire situation and the doctors' incompetence and his own lack of recollection. "You were there, weren't you? Don't you remember?" "I…Brother, we got separated when we were ambushed. I went and got help as soon as it happened but by the time we found both of you, you were in terrible shape. With the colonel unresponsive and unable to tell us what happened to him, it seems you're the only witness. But now, with your memory..." "This is ridiculous." Ed was struck with a sudden rush of restlessness. He hated hospitals. He hated being sick or injured. He had to get out of this confining bed and this building with its thick, anesthetic smell. His feet touched the linoleum floor before he even knew where he planned to go. He just knew he had to get out of there; he had to find the colonel at least. Ed needed to see the man with his own eyes. Surely he was somewhere stuck in this hospital along with Ed, whether he was conscious or not. Alphonse grabbed Ed's arm gently before he could make any headway for the door. "Brother, you can't. You need to rest." Ed halted and stared at his brother in slight confusion. Couldn't Al understand what he was feeling? How helpless he felt? Lying around in a hospital bed wouldn't do anyone any good. Ed tried willfully to get his gaze to convey that in a way he knew his words couldn't. "The doctors need to come check up on you first," Al said more to himself than to Ed. He knew his brother well and he knew Ed hated sitting around idly. Al almost let him go, but he kept his grip firm, knowing Ed's wellbeing should come before his restless attitude. "You just woke up. I know this is frustrating but you can't just go running off." Ed frowned but he looked at the armor, silently knowing Al was right. "Brother, please sit back down. I'll try to tell you everything I know, okay?" Ed shifted his weight from foot to foot. Finally, he relented; he was more tired and out of sorts than he would willingly admit. Besides, hearing any information he could was better than running off cluelessly. The young alchemist flopped back down on the mattress, and Alphonse helped pull the blanket up around his brother. "Can you tell me the last thing you remember?" the younger boy asked as he settled back in his chair. Ed stared down at his blanket covered feet, thinking. "We were on the train, I think. You were complaining about losing at cards once again and you called me a cheater—" "You are a cheater," Al pointed out. "That was once when I was twelve!" Ed defended. "Anyway, we were on our way to the town of Awrosut after Mustang had given us another lead on the stone. And that's all I can remember besides waking up a few times before now." Alphonse listened quietly and nodded once Edward fell silent. "You…you missed a lot," Al decided, slightly exasperated. He took a deep breath that held no air and sighed, the noise echoed inside his hollow armor. He began to tell Edward everything that had happened, and Ed felt a heavy weight begin to settle down on him and its pressure began to smother him. 2. Chapter 2 Edward's head tilted slightly to the side as he stared down in pensive thought. It had been days since he had first awoken in the hospital, but Al's words still haunted his mind. They hounded him every waking moment as Ed tried desperately to piece together an unsolvable puzzle. If only he could just will his mind to remember. Then they wouldn't be in this mess. But he couldn't. And they were. There was nothing anyone could do about that. What Al had told him hadn't helped much either. It gave Ed a general sense of what had happened but not even that story could spark back any memories that could help either himself or the colonel. According to Alphonse, it had begun early in the morning last week when the brothers had gotten off the train in the small town of Awrosut. As Al described it, Ed could vaguely see the village in his mind's eye. But that was still a blur and what Ed did remember was more of a feeling than actual images. If someone asked him to draw out a visual of the town, Ed doubted he would be able to. Regardless, Ed acknowledge that that was true and could halfheartedly agree with Al that that is what had happened. He did it more to satisfy his brother more than anything else; Al had incessantly asked throughout his story re-telling whether Ed remembered certain details or not. More often than not Ed would nod or answer with a shrug, even if it wasn't true and his memory of anything after the train ride was still swimming in an unrelenting fog. After that, they had gotten off the train and promptly run into the colonel on the platform. What dumb luck, Ed thought with an eye roll. He could only imagine what his reaction had been when he and Al had run into the old bastard out in the middle of nowhere. Mustang had been in town to catch a connecting train back to East City. Now that was something Edward actually did remember. The colonel had been out of town for most of the week prior, at some important meeting in Central he had been called upon to attend. Al then told Ed that they had been approached by a man that had heard the Elric brothers would be in town. Ed had no idea how the man knew them or how he knew of their location or their reason behind the visit. Apparently the colonel was just as confused about that development as the brothers had been. But the man was a local and he seemed to know his way around better than they did so a flimsy trust formed quickly. The man raddled on as he showed them through the small town. Apparently it was much to Ed's chagrin that Mustang followed them since the colonel's train wasn't due for a while. There had been supposed rumors concerning the warehouse district part of town which resided next to a large river on the outskirts, and that was believed to be where they would uncover the stone. Ed knew now the stone, just like the rumors, had all been a lie to get them there and catch them off-guard. They had been ambushed as soon as they entered the first warehouse. The man had turned on them without hesitation as that had been his plan all along. Ed had no doubt he must have been working with others, but Al said he was the only one the three of them had fought, and lost, against. Edward stared down at the colonel now. Idiot. If Mustang hadn't stuck his nose into their business he never would have gotten caught up in all of this; he wouldn't be lying unreachable in a hospital bed with no improvement in the last several days. He might not have been damned so easily. Ed couldn't help but feel angry at the man before him now. He had never been too fond of the colonel. He was jerk to Ed even during the best of times, but that didn't mean Ed ever wanted anything bad to happen to him. As much as he hated to admit it, he respected the colonel and in some twisted sort of way, he was fond of their bickering and silently supportive relationship. Of course he would never admit that out loud but Ed supposed it was okay to think it here in the silence of Mustang's room, where only his own thoughts gave him any real company. As Ed pondered the event that had led them both here, he couldn't help the tugging in the back of his mind. Really, it all seemed rather convenient. That he and Al had been in such a remote location and had run into the colonel of all people. Ed remembered now how bad of a feeling the whole town had given him, but it had been buried under a desperate hope that this lead would heed real results for once. He had been such an idiot. This had all been set up to hurt him. For what reason, Ed wasn't sure. It couldn't have been for ransom since they had tried to kill him, Al said. Maybe they were jealous of his status and power at such a young age; maybe his alchemic abilities threatened them. Ed wasn't sure he would ever know the reason and that unnerved him. The thought of hearing the truth somehow unnerved him even more. And if the colonel had been there, was it possible he had been set up too? No, no, that was ridiculous. He had an actual reason for being in town; it was nothing shady like Ed and Al's lead. Ed pushed the conspiratorial thoughts out of his head. He still wasn't in his right mind. He was still shaken up by the incident and still healing; none of his memory had yet to make a reappearance. It wasn't good to be jumping to conclusions, especially in such a fragile state of mind. Ed shook his head, physically trying to break up the train of thought. It was the colonel's own stupidity and his own carelessness that had gotten him jumbled up in the brothers' predicament. And now he was the one paying for it for trying to protect them. He was never supposed to be a factor. Ed still wasn't satisfied with that thought, but he dropped the subject anyway. It had been days now that Ed had been stuck in the hospital and the colonel hadn't improved at all. At least he hadn't gotten worse, Ed countered. Ed had found himself drawn to Mustang's room several times since he had awoken. Ed tried to tell himself that was only because it was the only place he could get away from the smothering doctors and nurses and Al, who was always fussing over his wellbeing. But that wasn't all of it. Ed was concerned. He'd never really worried about his superior before but now that seemed to be all he was thinking about. Ed felt guilty about the entire thing too. Maybe if it hadn't been for Ed's carelessness, the colonel wouldn't have gotten hurt. So some form of self-imposed penance made him feel obligated to stand watch in the colonel's room, watching like a hawk for any sign of improvement. Hawkeye was there a lot of the time as well. It seemed she spent all her time not spent filing paperwork at the office here in the colonel's room. Ed tried telling her early on that she didn't need to worry and watch so closely, the doctors would take care of everything and she needed to take care of herself first and stay rested. She had just smiled sadly with a deep sort of understanding in her eyes and told Edward he should take his own advice. After that they didn't talk much. At the times when they were both in the room they would sit silently, not staring directly at the colonel but not really looking at anything else. Ed still preferred the times when Hawkeye was busy with work. He preferred the silence. It was calming considering all the restless thoughts and noise that went on in his head as he struggled to fix this seemingly hopeless situation. Stepping into the colonel's room was more serene than Ed first thought it would be. But the doctors didn't come by as often as they did with Ed, and the small sounds of the hospital could easily be shut out behind a closed door. The room was white and bright, it was calming and not overbearing like it seemed to be in Ed's room. Ed knew that was just his mind playing tricks on him, but he didn't really care. The sooner he got out of the hospital the better. Ed hated the feeling that came with being injured. He hated being treated like an invalid and being treated like a fragile little boy. He could see the pitying looks the staff gave him and he could only count the minutes until he escaped from their gaze. But leaving the hospital also meant leaving all this. Ed glanced around the room, reluctant to leave its calm space. He was schedule to be released today and he couldn't have been happier when he first heard that news. But something kept him rooted here. Leaving the hospital seemed to Ed like he was giving up somehow. It felt like everyone was moving on with their lives while the colonel was just left here without a care. Ed felt like he was abandoning his superior when this man had been the only one to share to some degree what he was going through. Even if the man had yet to regain consciousness, Ed felt a new connection between them since they were the only two to go through the whole dilemma. Ed could almost hear the smirk in Mustang's voice if he could hear Ed's thoughts now, smugly asking Ed where the sudden sense of loyalty had come from when he had almost never followed his orders before. "Brother?" Edward jumped out of his chair at the entrance of a new voice. He turned around swiftly, embarrassed, as if his brother could hear his thoughts. Alphonse was standing at the threshold to Mustang's room. His imposing armor barely fit in the doorway. He held Ed's suitcase in one hand and had his brother's signature red coat draped over his arm. "Are you ready to go?" he asked quietly, as if not to disrupt the room's serenity. "I…uh, yeah." With an exhale, Ed glanced at the colonel's still form one last time. He tried to act casual as he stood up straight and turned away. Of course he'd come back and visit. Even if Mustang didn't make for good company at the moment. Ed wasn't giving up on that old bastard just yet. He wasn't abandoning the colonel, Ed thought even as he headed for the door. Even if he was leaving, he would still work hard and he would save Mustang if no one else was going to do anything about it. Ed was the one who had gotten him into this mess, and he would help him get out too. Ed was never one to give up, and he wasn't about to start a streak of cowardice now, especially not when the colonel's life hung in the balance. "C'mon," he said, reveling silently at the strength in his voice, "let's go."

#i did a quick scan through the two chaps and im like......i don't remember writing this #sahdklasdljasdjsaldjal #I'm almost certain I saved an outline somewhere tho #next thing to find :/#ok fr tho i gotta read this because I don't remember and I want to lol #but fr again i actually did write a fic last week for the first time in two years #i gotta edit it but instead i'm doing this :/#Anonymous

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inessencedevided · 5 years ago

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The Untamed, episode 46 - watching notes

Full disclosure: I'm not in a particularly good mood today. Have you seen that "no productivity. Only guild." Meme flying around? That's me today :|

Hopefully this will distract me (though distraction was the problem in the first place 🙈)

I apologise for any typos you'll finde in this post 😅

To recap, the last thing I learned was that apparently, Jiggy married his own sister because Jin Guangshan was a scumbag who raped more women than he could possibly remember

I was told by several people that this episode is their favourite. No pressures or anything :D

The way someone is dragging up Jiggy's secrets has a lot of poetic justice to it. Everyone is outraged and gossiping. Consensus is reached quickly. Kinda makes me feel that that someone (who probably also wrote the letter to jgy) knows exactly how to use the sect world's worst qualities as a weapon

Yao what's-his-name, resident gossip queen, at it again

Don't look at me my memory is as bad as wwx when it comes to names :D

I was about to write who is Lianfang Zum again and then I remembered that it's jiggy's honorary title. See what I mean? ^^

What does it say about me that my heart makes a leap when I simply see wwx leaning close to lwj to whisper to him? 😅 I'll probably die reading the novel, that's what that says

Oh so it was the maid who sent the letter

Come on Wei Wuxian! That was cruel

Yeah Yao what's-his-name, why would you need to know the identity of who ever is behind this? It's not like you've ever been deceived before!

What's... with that bracelet?

I love it how everyone looks positively startled when Lan Wangji says something unprompted :D

Wait ... Zwei Jun is in his hands? Shit, i don't remeber what happened there. Where did Xichen go again? 😬

I'm so confused right now 🙈 I can't watch and read the subtitles and type

Okay, watched the whole conversation again, now I'm following

I reiterate my earlier statement that whoever is pulling the strings here knows exactly what strings to pull to get the clans to act

Great, another mob 🙄

Loooool

NOW you want his help? 😂

Sure, as soon as he can serve YOU with his "evil tricks", that's okay!

You can see how much wwx changed because he does not hold their hypocrisy to their faces. He mostly seemed tired of it

And Jiang Cheng just realised that wwx might indeed not be responsible for Jiang Yanli's death, didn't he? He's almost stunned 🥺

Or is BEAUTIFUL to see Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji move in such unity! 😭

Oh ... those are the graves of his foster parents, right? :(

And Yanli ... oh God I forgot about Yanli 🥺

I'm crying again. Nothing on this show will ever hit as hard to me as the Yunmeng siblings' fate

I couldn't help myself, I legitimately just stroked my laptop screen where Yanli's plate was 🥺

So many conflicting emotions

Thanks to a friendly anon, I know that these three bows together are marriage thing! 😭😭😭

So yeah, they're married now. I dont make the rules :')

Somehow, this feels like them asking wwx's foster family's blessing

And now I'm imagining Shijie smiling back at them gently and I'm crying 🥺

And by God, I love lwj's gentle teasing :')

This whole scene, he's so soft! 😭

And it think that Wei Wuxian probably thought that he'd never get to step into Lotus Pier again. But here, he can finally say his goodbyes to his Shijie properly. He can heal! 🖤

And again, I cannot stress enough how wonderful that is! And how rare and precious in a show like this. So often character's get put through unimaginable trauma, but they either brush it off no problem or the show/movie ends immediately after the main action and you are left to imagine the number it did on the character's psyche. There are so rarely fantasy shows that really dive into the emotional fallout the plot has on their characters and then give them time to heal. Thus show does both and I'm so goddamn overjoyed my it!

Come to think of it, it reminds me of a very good hurt/comfort fic 🤷‍♀️

Jiang Cheng pleae, fir once, try not to be angry immediately when you're hurting :(

He still takes special offence that lwj is there. Makes me wonder if he still feels like wwx chooses lwj over the Jiang sect and is still hurt by it 😔 (note that at the same time, he reminds wwx that he's very much not a member of the Jiang clan anymore. God, the man has not worked through his own feelings ...)

For once, as much as I love it when lwj defends wwx (especially when it's not against any physical harm, but because he doesn't want wwx to be hurt emotionally) I think him interfering with this particular conflict does not help

Okay sorry, but no! lotus pier was not destroyed because wwx saved lwj in that cave. That was just an excuse for the Wen sect. They would have come eventually anyway

Ohhh

So there's my answer

He's still hurt because he feels wwx chooses anyone else over his family, which is to say him

And he probably can't understand because their positions are so different. The (future) sect leader and the son of a (dead) servant and a rogue cultivator who never felt quite like he belonged 😔

It's so goddamn tragic how much between these two was destroyed simply because they have such a different status in society and could never quite understand each other's perspective

And again, wwx just takes it 💔

Until, that is, lwj's honour gets besmirched

Don't fight in front of Shijie 🥺

Jiang Cheng's every action screams that he still loves his brother and that amidst all that pain for his lost family, is also deep betrayal and grieve for the brother he thought he could always count on 🥺💔

Can we appreciate for a second how much this shot tells us? From Jiang Cheng's angry desperation, to Wei Wuxian's quite acceptance of his rage (which must be so confusing to Jiang Cheng and probably hurt him even more. Because fighting is always how these two resolved their issues!) to Lan Wangji who is in full on protective mode (which I find more than heartwarming,but still think probably isn't helpful rn)

He ... what?

I still don't quite understand when exactly wwx's lack of golden core shows. Why does he have a nosebleed here?

What?

Oh!

Wen Ning 😱

I get what he wants to do!

Have we ever seen him this calm and determined before?

Abd they understand 😱😱😱

The look on all of their faces! Shiiiiit

I'm crying again

Oh wangii is crying 🥺

Wen Quing 💔💔💔 I'm crying even harder just looking at her. I've MISSED her 🥺

Lan Zhan your FACE!! 😭

The way he's looking at wwx in his arms, as if he's seeing him fir the first time

And by god, I can only imagine what he must be thinking

He must be reevaluation every single interaction they had since wwx started down the path of demonic cultivation 😭

I'm a bit in awe of Wen Ning here and how much he must have been holding in. That's the steadiest and most confident he's ever been

Oh Jiang cheng 💔

That looks like a man whose entire world has just been shaken to its core

And Lan Wangji is crying so much 🥺

God I hope he doesn't blame himself even more 🥺

Aaaaaaahhhh, so that is why he wouldn't just carry the sword for appearance sake and why he just had a nosebleed!

Jiang Cheng probably needs about a month to process all that :/

And therapy ...

Aaaaaaahhhh! The boat scene! I've seen gifs! 😍😍😍

A penny for Lan Wangji's thoughts ...

Oh I'm so so so so glad that Wen Ning gets to say thank you to the man who raised his ... cousin (?) :')

Oh god we get to see!!!!

Oh little a Yuan 😭😭😭😭😭😭

I wonder now, did Lan Qiren know who the child was that his nephew suddenly brought back to cloud recess?

I'm glad that we all learned from this that keeping secrets from the people we love, especially secrets that concern them personally, will eventually come back to bide us in the ass. Than you for delivering that important lesson, wen Ning!

Which reminds me that I hope they eventually tell wwx that they know 😬

I swear to god, one of these days I will melt from the gentleness in lan Wangji's gaze :')

Shit. He had to be awake? 😳

You can pinpoint the moment Lan Wangji's heart breaks for all the suffering wwx endured and how close he came to loosing him even then 🥺

Waking like that in you lovers arms in the middle of a lotus pond - that's the dream *sighs* (minus the passing out bit)

It's weirdly cute that wwx thinks that it's Jiang Cheng's insults that have lwj so upset 😅

Oh GOOOOD ...

I can't

The moment Yanli's themes started to play and she appeared I started to bawl 😭😭😭

And he's sharing the lotus pods with them ... oh please, lwj, please understand what he's saying. That's his pove language! His sister's food was how he received love and right now he passes it on to you! Please, please understand it! 🥺

Oh lwj, don't 🙈

Awwwwww ....

He's breaking the rules for you!!! Just to make you smile!!! 😭😭

And holy shit look at their expressions 😭

By now you should know that he's willing to break the rules for you :')

And poor third wheel Wen Ning 😂

Now there are glittering butterflies???

Do they have some kind of romantic aesthetic bingo going on in this episode???

Oh okay, messenger butterflies

Please appreciate wwx almost climbing into lan Wangji's lab in excitement :D

Thay scene transition was pretty af!

Hey! Why do they bully wen Ning? 😤

*shakes wwx by the shoulders* DO YOU GET THAT HE LOVES YOU NOW???

Huh, this episode was a roller coaster. you guys did NOT exaggerate! I loved it to pieces. I'm floored once more by all the actor's performances. Wen Ning revealed a lot about his character, Jiang Cheng broke my heart, Lan Wangji made it melt and Shijie is still able to make me bawl in an instant. But ... I'm not left with a bitter feeling. Sure, jiang Cheng and wei Wuxian havebt reconciled, but the truth is the first step to even have that possibility. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are both healing and whatever happens in the last 4 (4!!!😭) episodes, I'm not dreading it that much right now. I feel like we're climbing upwards :)

@sweetlittlevampire @fandom-glazed @elenirlachlagos @allhailthedramallama @luckymoony @kyrrahbird @i-love-him-on-purpose thank you guys for staying with me for this crazy ride 💙🖤💙

Also one last thing: please don't tell me what happens differently in the novel in any given scene. I am still reading it (about half way through rn) and I'd like to still be surprised by stuff like first kisses and love confessions 💙🖤

I should have put something like this at the end before, but I always forgot. That's on me 😅 so don't feel bad, if you've shared something before :)

#the untamed #sophie watches the untamed #wei wuxian #wwx #lan wangji #lwj #jiang wanyin #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #wen ning #a yuan #the untamed liveblog

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