#I love talking to people and I hardly ever get asks here cuz it's my side blog so I'm extra happy that this was the ask I got

[wandering-free-and-queer]

Hi, so I'm the main blog behind @jasper-pagan-witch and I just want you to know that I think it's very sweet and wholesome that you're also tagging what your husband picked and he will definitely be counted among the totals. I hope y'all have a good evening/whatever timezone it is there!

~Jasper

Aw thank you for reaching out! Yeah my husband and I both play MTG and he was reading over my shoulder so I explained to him the gist of pop culture paganism and he was offering his opinions as a nerd. You're so kind to include his votes, I'll tell him that his votes are being counted too.

It is in fact nearly midnight here so I'll go with "good night", and return the sentiment to you, whatever time zone you are in.

[targaryenluvs]

OMG HUNGER GAMES!!!

Can i ask for a finnick odair with a winner female reader who she avoids but he is obsessed with and wants to marry in front of the whole capitol

Some dark-ish fluff

WANT AND DESIRE!

pairings: dark!finnick odair x fem!reader

warnings: obession, stalking, nc kissing, forced engagement???

summary: you’d thought you’d escaped the capitol, and to some extent, him, the ever so sweet and charming finnick odair. but it seems your fate had been signed as it seemed you couldn’t get away from him no matter how hard you tried.

a/n: i actual hate writing dark stuff cuz i never know if it’s decent, I DO FLUFF GUYS WE CAN TAKE THAT ROUTE 😭 NOT PROOF READ

you wondered what you were going to get.

all the pastries infront of you were mouthwatering and the aroma had your stomach growling.

“i’d recommend the dark chocolate cakes, they practically melt in your mouth. but maybe something as sweet as you wants a change?” and there it was, the voice and person you’d hoped to avoid. at such a large capitol party your hopes were high but it seemed as if the man had a radar, with your name on it.

“finnick, how are you?” you feigned interest as you turned his way.

“better, now that i’ve seen you.” he beamed at you, undeniably happy. it’s not as if you weren’t interesting at all, or ugly, but you truly had no idea why he was so infatuated with you. you’d never given him any signs, or at least you didn’t think you had, you’d hardly ever talked to him. even if everybody loved him, you could tell something, was off.

“how sweet of you. there are so many people here, best if i try my best to meet as many as possible, have a nice night finnick.” you dismissed him as you placed the cake down, yes it was petty but the fact that he’d suggested eating it deterred you even more-so than it’s insanely sickening contents. “i’ll come with you, the people would love it. the capitols diamond and darling. there’s not a single pair of victors as great of a duo as us sweetheart.”

and as he linked your arms together, you were off. you thought it’d be better to just go with him, stand and smile as he talked. it would give you a slight break at least, but after so much time greeting people your face was threatening to fall apart. so after an hour or so you’d excused yourself to the bathrooms, unknowing of the blonde on your trail.

“are you okay y/n?” finnicks voice asked sweetly as you lowered the towel you were using to pat down your face. “what’re you doing in here? the party’s down stairs finnick.” what did he want? you are so fucking tired of this party and just wanted to leave, you’d been here for hours already, long enough to know that it’d be appropriate to do so. and you may or may not have wanted to put as many kilometres between yourself and finnick. “i just wanted to make sure you were okay, everyone’s asking for us.”

“you, they’re asking for you. i’ve been here for a while, everyone’s seen me. you haven’t, they want you. and if you’d mind letting me exit.” as you tried to move past your wrist was caught in his tight grip. “they want to see us both sweetheart, trust me, we’re much better together. can’t you see? all of the capitol loves us together, even the districts.”

“i don’t care, if i’m going to marry someone it’ll be someone i actually like.” the door slammed shut as you walked away from him. finnick laughed, if there was thing he loved about you, it was your short temper. he walked after you, his hand clutching the velvet box in his pant pocket, he was going to propose one day, why not now?

as you made your way through the place, fake smiles aimed at everyone, finnick caught up to you. “y/n, please.” you turned around, “what? what is it?” you shouted as the party’s attention zeroed in on the two of you. you could her muttering of the people and shuttering of cameras.

this bitch.

he was down on one knee, a huge diamond ring rested in the middle of a box. his eyes glistened, teary eyed. was this dickhead really crying? as if he’d waited his whole life for this moment. “finnick-” you warned as you raised your hand, only for him to grab it and pull himself up. people were cheering and clapping as he wrapped his arms around you.

“i have loved you, since the moment i saw you. everything about you is my favourite thing, your smile, your laugh, your eyes- your gorgeous, gorgeous eyes. there’s no part of me that could go on without you. i love you so much sweetheart, so please put me out of my misery and marry me, you’re the only person i could ever imagine myself with.”

say yes!

what a lucky girl!

i knew they’d get together.

the crowd around you egged you on to accept. how could you not? finnick odair, tribute, youngest victor, terribly handsome and the capitols darling. a catch in everyone’s eyes but they couldn’t be further from the truth. a man who’d purposefully proposed infront of the capitol, knowing you could never say no. god knows what snow would do to you, let alone the capitol for breaking their favourites heart. you weren’t worried for yourself too much, you’d been a hollow shell ever since your games, but your family? your parents and siblings didn’t deserve to be killed.

“i know you’re in shock sweetheart, but i’ll take that as a yes.” finnick kissed your forehead and then slid the ring onto your finger.

the crowd is deafening and the flashes blinding.

and as he kissed you again, you couldn’t help yourself from crying. as everyone viewed it as tears of joy for being in love but you knew the truth about finnicks love for you. there was none.

just want and desire.

[cozymochi]

DOES TIA Do any school club stuff? Does she have one she admires, likes? Dislikes?

THANKS I LOVE TIA LORE DUMP EXCUSES!! SHE IS OFFICIALLY in the Newspaper Club 😩, but not out of actual interest. It’s just a means to assist in documenting her school life as she’s supposed to do. It’s her credit, I guess. Honestly, they don’t really get into the logistics too much, so I wouldn’t sweat the details here either. I imagine Crowley just shoved her (and Grim) in there.

Though despite being in that club, Grim says he’s in the “Gourmet Club.” But that’s just self-proclaimed only 😩 that club doesn’t actually exist, it’s just an excuse to eat food after classes are done. (Tho im pretty sure this is actually true, I have no basis for this though, just a hunch, but my hunch hasn’t been wrong yet.) I’m sure his “club” has a lot going for it considering the sole member lives with freaking Tia, an already gifted chef. Besides, they count as one student. If Tia is officially in the Newspaper Club, then so is he via technicality.

Since cooking is an art she’d probably be more drawn to the “arts” clubs. It’s hard to say if she admires any though, given I think she can have a one track mind at times. I don’t think she really gives herself the opportunity to be interested in them beyond surface level. Which kinda sucks, cuz she might be missing out on new things to experience or be invested in. She’s not a sports person either, but nearly all her closer friends are in sports clubs, so she’s often present to see tourneys, games, whatever if they have any. Which btw, this is definitely a shift from how she’d be back in her home world, cuz if her friends there ever invited her to anything or ask her to do something like that she’d’ve just shirked it in favor of focusing on her long term goal (as per her Tiana allusions, cough cough. And now she may never see those friends again :’3). She still kinda tries to shirk going to these things because… habits, y’know. I’m not entirely sure she has any opinion on sports clubs themselves, again, that one track mind can sorta. Y’know.

The only club Tia would actually want to hypothetically be in is a Cooking Club because god forbid she stray from the path she set up for herself. Though, I am not sure if one is confirmed to actually exist at the school. The Master Chef/Culinary Crucible special class DOES though, so I don’t know. I DREW THAT! …If Tia wasn’t so serious sometimes, I don’t think she would be totally opposed to just joining in on the “Gourmet Club” thing. She loves food too.

Total aside, I like to imagine that the Newspaper Club is sparsely populated with a few guys (probably 3) who just don’t even talk to each other lol. They all do different things without exactly collaborating because it’s NRC. No one reads the newspaper anyway!! Internet exists, as everyone points out. Club time for Tia is sitting in a classroom and perusing her ghost camera photos and organizing things. Or just… think. Worst case scenario she and Grim are completely alone in that “club” and it was a dead club that only got resurrected cuz it was convenient for the bird man and happened to line up with Tia’s documenting school life thing. Honestly that feels real. She’d rather be doing anything else though. It’s not like clubs were a school requirement back home unless you wanted to look more rounded on some applications. Clubs weren’t exactly on her radar either, it was saving money to get into her own school of her dreams. So dividing time for a club and hanging with people was mostly off the table.

I think Tia is still trying to figure herself out though. A lot of her identity so far is still solely based around her long term career goal and hardly considers much of anything else if it doesn’t tie into that somehow. The whole “being transported to another world” thing is just an obstacle on the path right now. Omg I wonder if she’ll be forced to go through life changing stuff, learn lessons, and go with the flow on top of being forced to confront any internal demons that up until now she’s been burying from watching other guys completely collapse from doing so, plus… other typical things of the genre!!! 🫣🫣

…it’s an in-joke that I think she low key enjoys the picture taking. The cast is very pretty.

[survivalove]

There was yet another viral ATLA comparison tweet recently that went “Who winning in a fight between Katara, Toph and Azula?” and I was talking about it with some of my friends who watched the show because….

I noticed when a lot of people talk about this (and atla in general but specifically this) they talk with a lot of projection and bias of the characters’ personalities and not about their actual fighting abilities in the show?

Because, correct me if I’m wrong cuz I have Katara blinders and also haven’t watched the show in a few months so I COULD BE WRONG, but…

I don’t recall Katara losing as many fights as either of them do in canon.

Toph loses a fight in imbalance (and to Aang when they first meet) but a lot of people haven’t even read the comics so the Katara-Toph comparisons bother me less because they never truly fought in the show either.

But Katara has not only beat Azula twice, she’s also never lost a fight after season 1 from what I can remember.

And yet, people continue to act like she’s not a great fighter, especially in favor of those two when she’s literally the only one to beat one of the others, TWICE at that.

When Toph meets Azula in the invasion, Azula doesn’t have her bending and Toph is left to fight two Dai Li agents. The show never once shows these 2 in direct opposition. Toph also never has to fight Zuko, who Katara has. Never fights Mai and Ty Lee, who Katara has. Katara not only has more wins than them, but the show also shows her directly fighting more significant opponents between the three of them.

I actually wanna speak about two of those fights, yeah yeah Sozin’s Comet but also, the 1v1 in Ba Sing Se. Not only do people cry “oh Azula was breaking down in the finale” but now they claim that the fight in season 2 was also not fair? because she was too tired from fighting Aang and Katara?? And I’m like??? Aang made one waterbending move with Katara and one solo earthbending move at Azula before Zuko switched sides and started attacking him. Then Katara was left to fight Azula on her own for far longer, and throughout the whole fight, Azula literally did not get a hit on Katara once, to the point her brother had to intervene.

If you ask me, their fight on Sozin’s comet is a much stronger case for Azula as an opponent. For one, Azula was literally overpowered by a comet and was shooting lightning and fire all over the place with more intensity and speed than she ever had. Meanwhile Katara spends majority of the fight on the defensive but still impressively keeps up with Azula enough to dodge her moves until the very end when she defeats her.

All this to say, even though they’re all girls, I do feel a bit of misogyny is at play here: I feel like people are more critical of Katara as a fighter because she’s kind, girly and the female love interest. (I think this also relates to why so many people insist she shouldn’t have ended up with the mc but that’s a whole other discussion).

Katara is not the tomboy brawler or the cold blooded villain. Her femininity cannot be ignored and her strength cannot be tied to a villainous narrative. Katara not wanting to bloodbend pisses people off, because it’s “more proof she doesn’t have what it takes”. She doesn’t “have the stomach” to end her mother’s m*rderer so how can she beat Toph or Azula? “Female characters are hardly both healers AND fighters” so Katara automatically isn’t either. Even though the canon explicitly shows she is one of, if not THE BEST female fighter in the entire cast.

It does not compute. Their prejudice for kind hyperfeminine love interests in media automatically puts her down several notches and her strength is something to be contested in a way theirs aren’t. It’s okay for female characters that aren’t overly feminine to be strong because it just makes sense. It’s ok for female villains to be stronger than the male heroes because that’s what makes them badass villains. The hero’s girlfriend? eh not so much.

The more blatant misogyny starts to surface when they start talking about stuff like personality and emotion like just say it out loud at this point! It was never about “Who you want to win?” but “Who can win?”. And Katara is anything but a loser.

[platinumdragonchaos]

Answer asks 60-69. 😁

60. do you enjoy tumblr?

Sometimes. I like the artwork and pictures of nature and funny things but I don't like the lack of general communication and the fact that I get hardly any reblogs or anything.

61. have you ever had a tumblr experience that made you wanna delete the app?

I've met some really cool people and had some good talks and then one day they just vanish, delete their blog or simply never log in anymore. Oh and that massive influx of bots a few times over the years was really friggin annoying.

62. whats your least favorite game?

The game of life, lol. I had fun with retail WoW back in the day but then people started not playing or I didn't have good enough gear to join them in raids and I kept switching servers to play with other people I knew just to have them outlevel me, never wanna play and I found myself often playing alone which is pretty silly for a MMO I was paying a subscription for. I even bought it for a gal i knew cuz she wanted to play but then we hardly ever played together. Waste of time. I still play sometimes but on private servers. F paying money to play a game.

63. were you a markiplier fan?

I had to look this up, it sounded familiar but I wasn't sure. I never watched any of his YT. Never really been into watching other people play games.

64. how do you respond to compliments?

Generally I am taken aback and I say thank you. I always try to return a compliment with one.

65. whats something that would make you fall in love?

There's no one specific thing. I love milady but it's not like I can pick an event or words or anything other than time and realizing my life is better with her in it.

66. do you believe in marriage?

Sure. I dunno if I'll ever get married though. It's not like I'm anywhere close to being on that level or have money to buy a ring or afford any kind of ceremony.

67. do you have a crush on someone?

I guess I crush on my GF now but we kinda grew together. She crushed hardcore on me while we were friends for years and we just kinda ended up a couple but I never really had a thing for her like that.

68. do you like tumblr?

Like and enjoy are kinda the same thing so see question 60. In the end if i didn't get some pleasure out of it I wouldn't still be on here.

69. were you a voltron stan?

I never watched it. I was too young when it was first on in the mid 80's and too old when it was on in the late 90's. It's kinda like Might Morphon Power Rangers right? I never really got into that either.

Thank you for the asks! In return and without even looking at the list I say 40-49

[fluffallamaful]

HI AGAIN IM BACK!!!!!

I have a couple more lee!George hcs!!

Man's is definitely a grabber when he gets wrecked. If his hands aren't pinned, he's gonna try to grab the lers hands or just something he can hold onto for dear life while he's cackling his little heart out

He'll fight it to the grave that he loves cheer up tickles. Like anytime he's sad about something, dream or sap just come find him and give him gentle little cheer up tickles. (He'll stay as still as he can let them tickle him but he'll fight it to the grave that he likes it lol)

Is the absolute worst ler ever. /lh

He can't even say the word 'tickle' without turning into a tomato and plus if the ler just gives him a couple pokes, he's down and laughing so he doesn't get the chance to tickle others often.

He genuinely hates being tickled in public unless it's like a couple pokes. He always says it's embarrassing when a group of people just look over at him as he's laughing.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

There's this little blurb I can't get out of my head so here you go:

"George!!! You can't just steal all of my charger cords and get away with it!" "I litterally didn't even do that, I'm colorblind. Dream stole them sap, im telling you." "No he didn't, cuz hes always asking me for my charger cords, and he still doesn't have any, so I know it's you!" George's face started to heat up as sapnap came closer to him, wiggling his fingers at George. "S-sapnap, wait! W-we can talk about this!!" "We can't talk about it, but you'll have a lot of laughs over it!" And with that sapnap dove at George.

(Lmk if you like them, also lmk if I wrote George somewhat correctly, I hardly watch George so I don't really know how to write him lol)

Have a good day/night!!!!

welcome baccckxkkjkjjk eeeeeeeee!!!!

(discussion below!!)

🦙🦙🦙…

ok yes absolutely agree with you about george being a grabber i love that so much 🥺 like he just doesn’t know what to do with his hands otherwiseeeee. his hands are so expressive i’ll cry 😭 and yes the cheer up tickles we talked about before but yes i like the idea that he will absolutely deny his enjoyment and the fact that it’s working for sureee. he can’t be just giving that satisfaction away

i DONT however agree that he’s not a good ler omggggg??? omggg i could rant for hours about ler gogy omg. like the little voices he does are so cute?? and i feel like he’d be able to say the most cringy/flustery teases without shame if he’s in a crazy enough mood. i also just think his competitive side would shine like he’d just be so keen to let the lee know that he is absolutely destroying them right now and they can’t even do a thing. he’s just such an underrated lerrrrrr like he’d just be able to embarrass the heck out of a lee and i feel dream and sap would just absolutely cave when matches against his crazy energy. i feel very strongly about ler gogy supremacy as you can see 😂 also lee gogy supremacy. just gogy supremacy in general

AND AHHH a little fic?? gogy the charger stealer. i’m sure it’s happened in their household already. it’s cute that you’ve got george already recognising sap’s tease as though they’ve used it on him before :(( he’s just such a little menace and i love the idea of his button pressing coming back to bite him

🦙🦙🦙…

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: August 8th

Well, doing big posts all together worked for a while but lately I’ve been putting it off because it takes a long time to get them done. I think I’m gonna try switching back to answering asks whenever I can fit it in and posting them one at a time instead of waiting until I’ve filled out one of these major collections.

But for now, here’s more ask answers! Thank you for the questions and for all the kind words along with them ^^.

Hello!! I'm here to ask if its possible to get  the game and its dlcs on steam and play it on android?

I’m afraid not. Steam doesn’t have Android builds on their own site and Steam is not cool with keys for other sites being given out for Steam purchases, so you don’t get the Itch version from buying on Steam.

Hello! Sorry to bother you but, I had a question, if we buy the Game on itchio do we get steam keys or would we need to purchase it twice? 

You would have to buy it twice if you want it in both places, I’m sorry. To repeat myself a little, Steam doesn’t like the key trading thing. Itch may support giving keys for another site, but the reverse isn’t doable with Steam and Steam doesn’t even really want you to get a Steam key for buying somewhere else either. So we just don’t mess around with that.

hey, sorry if this is frequently asked, but is step 4 free dlc or paid for? some of your sources are contradicting each other. 

It’s free! There’s a paid wedding DLC, but Step 4 itself is entirely unpaid.

Hello! I just had a quick question, for the Baxter and Derek DLC's will we be able to confess our feelings to them or let them confess to MC? or will it only be one way? (they confess to MC)

Both type of options will be available!

Hey there! I wanted to ask whether or not the Derek DLC is still on track to be released in August since on the steam discussion board it says it will be released mid 2021. I totally understand if it isn't, I'm just really looking forward to it! If you answer then ty! And keep up the amazing work :D 

It’s not, aha. Unfortunately, 2021 wasn’t easier than 2020 as we hoped so things are still slower than planned. It’ll come out late 2021 or early 2022.

Hi! Firstly I just want to say that I LOVE Our Life. I have played a bit of similar games but this one instantly wins for the best one! Everything about it is amazing! I just wanted to ask if Derek would ever lose feelings for MC, like if they make the deal and then MC gets with Cove would he move on? and even if you don't, after "losing contact" would his feeling fade or would he still like MC? 

If you don’t really keep in touch with him and clearly move on with your life, Derek will too and he’ll be over it. But if you are still close as best as you can be, he’ll still think the MC is special. Though, he’ll always support your relationship with someone else if that’s what’ll make you happy.

Hello! Sorry if you've answered this before but: 'How's Lee related to us? Though which momma? And does she share our player-chosen last names? Also, do you know if Noelani took Pam's last name or did it happen the other way round? 

She’s related to Pamela and Pamela’s last name is the one they use, so the MC has the same last name as Lee.

Will we be able to choose which (they or he) we tend to call Qiu by more often, or will it randomly change depending on the moment? 

Qiu knows which pronoun they’re comfortable with at a time and you’ll call them what they’re happy with. And it doesn’t change between lines, it takes multiple scenes or even full Steps for it to switch. So for extended periods Qiu will be totally a guy or fully agender.

Will Step 4 of OL2 have moments?

It’ll be an epilogue like it is in OL1, so it won’t have a bunch of different Moments.

Hello! Just a quick question, is Sunset bird from OL1 based on a real location? If so what's it called? I wanna visit it +_+

ps i love your games so much <3

It isn’t based on one specific town you can go to, but there are a lot of little coastal towns in Cali that have a similar vibe!

Heyaaa ( I hope you're all well ), umm… it might seem kinda stupid to ask but did Patreon members can have a key for the dlc's ( all the steps-released dlc ) even if they became a member this month or later ? (me? saying this cuz it's my case? maybe ;-;), and once again thanks for absolutely all the amazing works on all the games ! u-u 

You wouldn’t get the DLCs for backing there. The Patreon is for extra bonus content/early access, rather than being a storefront to purchase the normal DLCs. Rarely we give them out as a side gift, but it hardly happens and if what you want is the DLCs it’s best to ignore the Patreon and  buy keys for those directly from Itch or Steam. I’m sorry for the confusion.

Hey y'all, love what youre doing w/Terry. Trans rep outside of player customization is so rare and important to see more of so thank you so much. I do have a question and its that does he have a canon sexuality? I know Miranda was said to be straight ace but I dont believe anything was stated for Terry probably because he wasnt revealed to be a guy which changes things. Im also curious if well get answers on how long hes liked Miranda since he may have liked her in step 3 before she liked him 

Terry likes women and Randy likes men! And he did like Miranda back in Step 3.

Will the Wedding Dlc release at the same time as Step 4? 

They’ll come out separately with Step 4 releasing first.

I really love Our Life so much! I've spent over 20hours playing it even though I only got it a week ago! I was wondering if I could make a fangame for Our Life with a different love interest but same plot. Next-door neighbors romance, multiple steps, etc? I'll probably make it on Google Slides though- 

Sure! I hope you have fun with it and I’m glad you love the game.

How does Cove feel about poly relationships? 

He’s got nothing against them for the people they work for, but he’s 100% monogamous and would only be comfortable with a partner who was willing to be monogamous with him.

Idk if this has been answered before but will Step 4 include the option to advance your feelings towards Cove? 

Yep, you’ll be able to determine your feelings and what your relationship is.

In step 4 will there be a chosen to say we live with Cove even as just friends? 

Yeah, you can choose to live with Cove and that can be done when you’re friends.

I just played the game with the MC and Cove being best friends and omg it’s still so damn cute like the wholesomeness of it all is too much for my heart I swear ^.^  Now with that all said I was wondering can we still marry Cove? if we only love him as a friend like let’s say we’ve made deal with him similar to the one we can make with Derek because let’s real no one could compete with what the MC and Cove have even if they aren’t in love. 

It’s great to hear you enjoyed the friendship story! You can live with Cove, but you can’t marry him platonically. Cove has familial affection for the MC if they’re best-est friends. He wouldn’t think to marry someone he loves like family and even grew up with as though they truly were siblings.

Are you still going to be making a DLC for XOBD? :] 

Yes! We’re slowing adding voiced lines and fixing errors.

It makes me laugh that Shiloh's last name is Fields because that's what I put as my last name! So in Our Life when he talked about "Ms. Fields" picking him up I was extremely confused, lol. That dude mimics personalities so much that he stole my surname!

Oh, wow, that’s a very funny coincidence, haha.

hi !! i cant seem to be able to get the scene where mc is able to propose to cove despite being at the 'love' stage and telling him i'd want to get married, are there any other details that im missing out on? the options just dont appear at the end... 

Maybe you missed telling Cove you were in love with him even if you mentioned wanting to get married or you might’ve accidentally said earlier in the game that you don’t want to progress your relationship further with Cove. We haven’t removed them, so you can get the scene again. It’s just kind of easy to miss since there’s multiple requirements. You can read a little guide in the FAQ.

wait what di you need to do to be able to propose to cove? I've been trying but haven't had much luck 

You can check out the FAQ linked above!

does cove only develop a crush on the mc if the mc is also at crush/in love with him? 

Technically, yes. We treat the non-romantic relationship options as truly non-romantic since we don’t want to bait and switch people. But there’s nothing wrong with headcanoning that Cove does have feelings developing for the MC even before the MC has.

Is there a way to make/allow Lee and Baxter to date?

No, they just don’t have enough time together.

We also got a group of asks related to Tamarack in OL2, but I’m afraid the way they talked about people with larger bodies made me not want to post their words, even if the person didn’t say they’re trying to be hurtful. I will separate out the core question and answer it though, so people can know that info.

Does Tamarack lose weight in later Steps?

No, she doesn’t. As for the other questions included, to be honest, I don’t have to explain/defend having romance options of different sizes. I’m sorry if you’re dealing with unhappiness that’s connected to body image, if that’s where the negative emotions are coming from, but even so I can’t meet you on that level and pretend it’s a problem that needs an answer. A girl who simply isn’t thin being a main love interest is just not an unreasonable concept. Also, Tamarack isn’t a lesbian. Yes, she can date a female MC, but that doesn’t undo her actual sexuality, so I’m not sure where that one part at the end was coming from.

I wonder... can we "fight" with Qiu over leader status? 👀

Not really, haha. No matter how cool your MC is, they’re never gonna replace Qiu for the other kids around. So you can either partner up with him, follow him too, or not be a part of all that group politics stuff.

So when I play the game, sometimes I mentally call Cove “Covie/Covey” and that made me wonder, how does Cove feel about being nicknamed? Not like Romeo/Space Cadet/etc. but like pet names relating to his actual name

It’d depend on his age, personality, and your relationship with him! When he’s younger he’d probably be embarrassed, when he was grown he’d probably be more casual or happy about it.

will you be able to date baxter in step 3 while at crush with cove (but not dating him ofc) sorry if this has been asked already. i really love baxters step 4 design btw!! 

Yeah, you can be crushing on Cove and date Baxter if you weren’t already dating Cove. You just can’t be truly in love with Cove and then switch to Baxter.

I just got my friend into our life, and they adore shiloh and derek sooo will there be more of them in the second game? 

I’m afraid not. But you can see plenty more of Shiloh in XOXO Droplets/XOXO Blood Droplets, haha.

I see you haven't gotten any xoxo droplets asks recently but I'm still obsessed with these boys!! I was just wondering if Nate would curse under any circumstance? 

Yeah, Nate does use certain swear words (damn, hell, bastard) on very rare occasions.

Hi there! I have a question about the wedding dlc. Will we be able to plan a honeymoon during the planning stages of it or would it be something that Cove and the mc would rather plan later on? Thank you! Absolutly love the game by the way, definitely one of my favorite games! 

The focus will be on the wedding day itself. The topic of the honeymoon might come up a bit, but there won’t be any choosing of the exact location and such.

Hi! I have two questions and it's completely understandable if you only answer one/neither and I'm sorry if you've already answered either before! First, is there a set year in which OL:B&A takes place (ex: Step 1 being set in 2010 & Step 2 being set in 2016, etc.) or is it simply up to interpretation? Second, have you guys thought about doing a coming-of-age game where the MC has a tough home life or upbringing? (like one of their parents is an addict, a parent being transphobic whilst the player has the option to be trans, or having friends that are influencing them to do drugs, etc.) That's all! Thanks for making beautiful games. <3 

There is a set timeline!

Step 1: 2006 Step 2: 2011 Step 3: 2016 Step 4: 2021 

And we don’t currently plan on making a game like that. The Our Life series exists to be a safer environment for people to play around in and if we did do a brand new series that was harsher edged it’d be something more fantastical and/or plot-driven instead of a different type of modern day slice-of-life growing up story. I’m sorry.

i don’t know if you’ve already answered this, but do you have a guess on when phase 4 will come out? as well as ol2? i’m so excited for both of them, the inclusivity in this game is amazing, you guys should be really proud of it! 

Step 4 will be coming out very soon! OL2 is gonna take until 2023 to be anywhere near completion. But we might episodically release the Steps one at a time as they get done instead of waiting for three to be finished before launch like we did with the first game.

Hello, I was curious if there was an official or unofficial discord server for the game? 

We do have a discord! You can join by clicking this link HERE.

how long do you plan to keep ol's patreon running? 

Hopefully for at least a few more years.

Are you considering ever making merch? 

Yeah, but I don’t know when it’ll happen or what exactly we’ll make, aha. It’s something we want do, just nothing is set.

hi! i just found out about your game a couple of days ago on tiktok (so sorry if you’ve already answered this question) and i was wondering if y’all are ever planning to release it on iOS? 

I have no idea. It’s hard for a small group to get Apple approval and I honestly can’t say if it’ll ever happen or not. Maybe someday, though!

Hi, I love the art style of Our life and I would like to know if the artist has a Twitter? Also, could it be possible to fund more CGs for the game from him/her? So many times, I wish there was one like when the cutscene of the sunshower. 

That’s nice of you to offer. He doesn’t have a Twitter, at least not one that’s public enough to be shared with me. And I’m afraid not. The issue is that the CGs take huge amounts of time rather than there not being a budget for it. He’s gotta make CGs for Step 4, the DLCs, and new character sprites, too. There isn’t space in the schedule for even more. Sorry for that.

Hi, how are you?!

Are you planning on accepting new writers or is it always the same people who write your stories??

Thanks!!

Our Life: Beginnings & Always won’t be getting new writers, but we will be hiring a new team of writers for Our Life: Now & Forever eventually!

perhaps this counts as nsfw and I'm sure it has been answered before but what does Cove prefer, chests/boobs or butts? or perhaps both :3c thank you for this wonderful game (and the patreon bonus moment, it was worth all the waiting and more ♥) 

He’s a “chests of all shapes and sizes” kind of guy, haha.

i was wondering- did any of the writers actually grow up by the beach? as someone who's lived in a beach town all their life it really did feel nostalgic to play through our life 1 

I was born and raised in Cali! Though, not right by the beach. We still had to make trips out, but the setting is based on my own childhood memories of small beach towns we went through.

In Derek’s upcoming DLC, will we be able to reference the pact we made as teens? (love olba and xod/xobd so much btw you’re literally amazing) 

Yep, you will be able to talk about that!

Oh, sorry about the Cole being secretly L ask, then!

If you wanted context: Death Note is about this one guy who finds a notebook that kills anyone who you write the name of in there. The guy eventually develops a God Complex and starts mass killing criminals and stuff. L is the one trying to find out who is killing all these people.

Me and my sister first joked about it because I couldn't remember how to translate a word about the way Cove was sitting, so I just did the pose, and it looked a lot like how L himself sits! Then we just snowballed from there, with more and more nonsense connections.

That’s okay! Thanks for explaining. I’m sorry I didn’t know what you meant.

[marshmallowprotection]

me is replaying ray's ae to properly went through all the chatroom and vn without being overly emo cuz i already got the good ending lmao. so somewhere on day 3, saeran mentioned that the clouds are for him and the stars are for his brother (context ; saeran ask mc to remember him when they see clouds and mc ask him can they do that with stars instead)

now that intrigues me cuz i have never thought abt it. like, i know saeyoung have always loved space but for saeran to specifically associate him with stars? he told us himself that he feels like he didnt know anything abt saeyoung after they were separated. so it kinda makes me wonder if saeyoung ever talked about stars with saeran when they were younger. and obviously he knows about saeran's fondness of the clouds since yknow he sometimes brought saeran outside to do cloud-watching together.

bruh, it's 3 am and here i am contemplating about the smallest thing 😭🤚🏻 but srsly i don't think saeyoung ever mentioned stars in the chatroom before, just space in general.

Saeyoung talks about space as a general theme. However, it's not common that he talks about the stars specifically in detail. There’s maybe a few times that he talks about constellations. But, when he talks about them, he only talks about the one for Gemini. It always relates back to his brother. He does show us his favorite photograph that V took at one point and he talks of those little details that make the sky seem endless and open for exploration! It’s obvious the sky represents freedom to him. 

He and Saeran share the love of the sky. Saeyoung loves it because he knows that he and Saeran are together underneath those clouds and stars. He uses that to help himself feel secure. It gives him peace and comfort. Saeran loves the sky and the clouds because they look like freedom. It's an important theme for both of them. They are parallels. 

Saeran loves the daytime and Saeyoung loves the nighttime. They are twins and they are yin and yang. Together, they balance each other out and when they're not together, it feels disruptive. It feels wrong. They were never supposed to be put away from each other in the first place. It's so wrong to separate twins from each other because they share a bond that most people will never understand. 

My assumption for this situation can go two ways. The twins were never allowed to go outside for very long. This was because they had to be mindful of the fact that their mother could wake up at any time and realize that they were gone. It would always be during the day when their mother passed out that they could go do something. It would hardly ever be during the nighttime because Saeyoung had to go run errands as well, nothing is open at night. 

When you think about it, Saeran loved the clouds and the bright sky because it was bright. He was chained up in the house and never allowed to go very far to see the light. The darkness wasn't interesting to him. It was dark. The only thing that he wanted was to be around something bright and colorful. It was a separation from what he dealt with inside of that house. Saeyoung understood that and did his best to keep Saeran outside when it was bright. Saeran feared the dark and isolation. Nighttime can feel that way, even if there’s stars in that sky. 

It's possible that Saeyoung didn’t talk to Saeran about the stars because of this. It's possible that he focused on talking about the things that he knew Saeran liked more. He is that kind of person. He kept a lot of stuff to himself. Saeran’s diary proved that because while he mentioned and showed those coding books to Saeran, he didn’t share much. 

He was trying to learn things on his own as fast as he could. He was trying to be the one that saved his brother. He didn't want Saeran to think about those things. He wanted Saeran to see the sky, get ice cream, and have fun. So, it makes sense that he would keep a lot of the things that he liked to himself so that his brother could express himself.

There's also a strong possibility that Saeran learned about how his brother felt about the stars through watching the chat room. We know that he was watching everything and that he has an awareness of what he thinks of his brother without really knowing him as an adult. He references his interest in space enough that it would make sense that GE Saeran is aware of it. There's just an inherent connection that they have to the sky as well. So it's hard to say which way this goes.

[red-doll-face]

Here is a request for slashers if they're open. My brain does a thing where I am affectionate w a person but if I get nudged away (even if it's just to readjust the position), it goes "oh no. They don't want u to touch them. Do not touch ever again or they will get mad at u. U disgust them." Even tho touch is my love language & it hurts, I just won't touch. If confronted, I will get confused & panicky cuz "u didn't want me to touch? Im respecting ur wishes? Did I miss something?" Its a mess.

Requests are indeed open, I’m sorry I take foreverrr to do these but i hope u enjoy! I don’t know what to call this tho. For simplicity’s sake I’m calling this nervous reader lmao, idk what else to call these.

Slashers x gn nervous Reader

Jason Voorhees:

Jason can very much relate to the feeling. When he first meets you, he’s sure that you’re frightened. He restrains from being too close to avoid coming off as overbearing, doesn't want to touch you because if you flinch he’ll be so hurt. He just assumes he disgusts you. Based on the reaction all of his other victims have when they see him, he’s sure you’ll probably be the same.

Once Jason is sure that you don't feel that way, he’s a cuddle monster. He wants to be close all of the time, holding hands, letting you sit in his lap, you name it. He’s so starved and quickly decides that touch is his love language too. He’s not even sure how he’s lived this long without it.

The only time I can see Jason maybe gently sort of setting you down elsewhere and walking off is when he senses strangers on the property of what once was Crystal Lake. He’s out the door before he can even see your hurt expression, Which is worse because this might lead you to jump to conclusions.

If you distance yourself from Jason, he immediately is thrown off. He can’t directly ask you if he’s done something wrong and when he tries to initiate affection with you and you don’t reciprocate whole heartedly, he’s at a loss.

He’ll get on one knee while you sulk on the couch and give you a silent plea to tell him what's wrong. You can panic and try and avoid it but he is certain there's something going on and he wants so badly to know what he’s done to put you off. You tell him and he immediately is shaking his head no, he could never be mad at you, never be disgusted with you. You’re the most breathtaking person he’s ever had the pleasure of holding, the first, most likely.

Jason nods because he understands how you feel. In the future, he’s persistent about how you feel when he untangles himself from you, making sure you’re ok.

Michael Myers:

In the later stages of your relationship, Michael is insatiable when it comes to being in contact with you. For a long time, towards the start of your relationship, he didn’t like it. It felt weird. All of the touch he's experienced prior was so clinical and sterile that he doesn’t quite know how good touch is supposed to feel. He’s so touch starved that he’s almost positive he doesn't even need it.

Slowly, he builds a tolerance for it, much like one does with alcohol, constantly checking his boundaries and letting him control the situation and he’s all for movie night, huddled up on the couch, or waking up with his head on your chest. His own personal pillow.

There are, however, moments when his need to make someone tremble with fear and then blodgeon them to death with a can opener from their own kitchen becomes too strong, so he tries to keep away from you. In the past, he might have used you to satisfy similar desires of a sexual nature and may have really hurt you but he knows that it’s not always enjoyable to you.

Then, you stop touching him. Much like Jason, he starts to think you’ve become sick of him. Sick of his coldness, his muteness, his withdrawn demeanor. Maybe you’ve moved on and he tries to tell himself he doesn’t care but he doesn't think he can see himself touching anyone but you now.

It gets to the point where he comes home one day and you look heavily troubled, expressions he’s seen on your face before, only in the event that something terrible has happened. You ask to speak to him and he obliges.

You explain that you don’t think this relationship is working, that you’re pretty sure he’s disgusted with you and how difficult this event is because you didn't even want to talk about it but it's been hurting you for too long.

His response is to stand up very slowly, pick you up and lay down with you over him, simply laying there. Hopefully, knowing you’re the one person he would ever allow to participate in this intimacy is enough to show you that you mean more than you think you do to him.

RZ Michael Myers:

This Michael is more perceptive to your touch than his counterpart, your touch sends little shivers down his spine and as soon as he gets pretty used to it, he’s eager for more. This also takes some time but significantly less. He’s enamored with the idea of returning to a somewhat normal life. Your affection grounds him in that fantasy as much as being a murderer might take him out of it.

As he establishes a relationship with you, he may even be the one to start touching you instead of the other way around. He’s read books and always wondered what it might feel like to have someone genuinely touch him without fear in their eyes. Without malice.

An unsuccessful ‘day at work’ might have Michael feeling a little het up though. He can be moody and more rageful. Neither you nor his hobbies can calm him. He seems colder than usual in these states and can come off as very standoffish.

So when you try and touch him and he shrugs your hand off his shoulder, he can’t or isn't in the state of mind to address your frown and worried look. Michael, instead stomps off somewhere to be alone for a while; maybe take his anger out on something else. Some unsuspecting soul or maybe even a poor animal in the wrong place at the wrong time.

After he’s calmed down some, he returns and almost forgot about that sad little gleam in your eye before he left. Michael remembers when he sees you blankly staring at the TV, pointedly avoiding his gaze even as you utter a weak welcome home. It’s not very welcoming. He sits stiffly beside you, watching you from the corner of his eye. You’re closed off from him and he doesn't like it at all.

Migrating towards you slowly, he eases you into a familiar hug, his big bear hugs that are a little tight but inviting all the same. His huge torso and long arms seem to swallow you in his warmth. You hardly reciprocate. You look a little surprised. Though he never addresses it verbally, (which is probably better for you) Michael offers a single glance that communicates everything he needs to say. Don't ever think that again.

Thomas B. Hewitt:

Thomas’ self esteem issues and self image are not good. He honestly doesn’t like to imagine what he looks like to other people unless it can be as a threatening man you don’t fuck with. Meeting you, he realizes that it’s good to protect his family but he’d rather you not see him as someone only capable of harm. Tries his best to get the point across that while Hoyt may be adamant that horrible things happen to you, he’s not going to let them.

Thomas has received affection but always a familial affection. A pat on the back from Monty, proud claps to his shoulders from uncle Charlie, and hugs and kisses from his dear Mother. Nothing so foreign as a strangers touch over his arm or a soft embrace.

Unfortunately, Thomas can get reactive when you attempt to touch him without his mask on. He’s absolutely settled on the false reality that you’ll see his face and immediately decide that you never want to touch him again. Interacting with you with his bare face? That's a no for Thomas.

He puts on his mask that covers the scarred skin over his face and you look dejected. He was preparing for you to pressure him but instead finds himself trying to find out why you won’t touch him now. It’s not his face, is it? You respond with your reasoning. Thomas is so confused. How could you think that you disgust him? That he doesn’t want you to touch him?

He’s quicker than the others and immediately sweeps you up into his arms and holds you as close as humanly possible. Feeling disgusting and like some sort of burden is a feeling he’s so familiar with and if he can take it away from you, he will.

Will aggressively initiate touch with you for the next week or so just to solidify the fact that he cares about you and won't reject you just as you didn’t reject him.

Bubba Sawyer:

Bubba is a great cuddle buddy and partner. Hugs are his favorite and he hugs his brother all the time, lifting both Nubbins and Chop Top into the air for some brotherly love. If you’re smaller than them he’s all about picking you up and perhaps a little rough housing with you. He’s careful though or at least there are attempts made to be careful

Bubba, though he could easily spend the whole day doing nothing and everything with you, has work. Chores, butchering. Cooking, and tending livestock. Plenty to do at the sawyer house and he does most of it. Suffice to say there are times when you want to lather attention all over him yet he has to go back to work.

So caught up in work that he doesn't get what's going on til way later, when you’ve had time to stew in your emotions, firmly telling yourself that Bubba is annoyed by you probably. He’s baffled and confused at your silence, your crossed arms. The little furrow in your brow. He can already tell there’s something upsetting you.

Honestly, Bubba is so affectionate I can’t see him being the kind of person even capable of alluding to the fact he might be disgusted by you. How, if all he wants to do is love you? You may bring it up as a joke that you thought he didn’t like you and he almost seems offended. Not like you?

Bubba can squash any feelings you may have about that and then some. He will not let you drown in insecurities, not on his watch. This man will do everything in his power to make you feel beautiful because you really are.

I’m sorry these are super long but thanks for requesting!

[danses-with-dogmeat]

a romanced hancock reacting to sole wanting him to be a father figure in synth shaun's life?

Thank you so much for the ask anon!

So, I couldn't decide if I wanted to do more of a drabble or headcanons, so I just did both! I thought this prompt was really sweet, I hope you enjoy!

You stood in your shared room at the top of the Old State House, before the man in the red coat, the man you loved, awaiting his answer to your proposal. Having just asked him the question that had been patiently waiting at the back of your mind since the day that Shaun had come back into your life.

"Oh sunshine..." Hancock's gravelly voice broke the silence that had followed your question, "I'm beyond flattered that'd you'd ask that. I mean, I love that kid to pieces, but... you really think a ghoulified, blood-soaked, mega-junkie like me is the best fit for the kid to look up to?" The ghoul gave a soft chuckle, but Sole could see his brow furrowed slightly with uncertainty. A rare sight, given his usual gusto.

"Hancock," you said, in an attempt to reassure him, "you're a hell of a lot more than that. And Shaun is crazy about you, the reason I brought this up now was because he asked me when he could start calling you 'dad'." Hancock's dark eyes widened at your words and it took him a moment to answer.

"He- he did? Man... It's not too often I find myself at a loss for words but, I mean, me, a dad? I never thought that would've been possible, given my eh... present condition," He brought his hands up to gesture at his whole body. Your eyes never left his, the only change in your expression being a small smile, encouraging him to respond to your earlier question. Hancock sighed, taking a few steps towards you.

"So I suppose the thing I'm trying to say here is, I'm not sure I'm qualified for the position you're offering me." Your shoulders slumped at his words, you couldn't help but think he'd have been more receptive to the idea of being Shaun's new father. He may not be perfect, but he's one hell of an upgrade from the synth child's last "father."

"Look sunshine," Hancock decided to break the silence again, noticing your disappointed expression, "you sure you want this? I don't really tend to think of myself as 'daddy material'." You cocked an eyebrow at him, despite the weight of the conversation, you found yourself unable to keep a suggestive smile from spreading across your lips at his choice of words.

"Hey now, aren't you supposed to be the responsible one in this outfit?" Hancock quipped, his crooked smile imitating your own as he took another step closer. Before he could reach for you, you brought your hands up and grabbed ahold of his shoulders, trying to regain control of the conversation.

"Look, John, I know you don't always see it this way," you looked him in the eye, willing your next words to sink in, "but you really are an outstanding role model. I mean, look at all you've done for the people of Goodneighbor, and the Commonwealth. You're out there actively trying to make this wasteland a better place, lending a hand to the little guy and doing all you can to take down the tyrants. You're a skilled leader who genuinely cares about the people you're responsible for, you're fiercely protective of the ones you love, and of the ideals that you support. You're a good man, John. And I couldn't think of anyone better for Shaun to call 'dad'."

"Shit sweetheart, you really know how to make a ghoul blush. Tell me, how did I ever get so lucky to have you in my life?" He whispered softly, shaking his head slightly as he looked deep into your eyes. You couldn't help but blush at his comment and at his unrelenting smoky gaze, you looked down to break the tension for a moment.

"We're talking about you here, John, remember? So..." you trailed off, hoping to finally get a straight answer from him.

"So?" He asked.

"So, what do you say? You gonna make me ask you again, or what?"

"Look," he reached a ruined hand out to lightly take your own, his thumb rubbing soothingly over your knuckles, "you and that kid are the most important thing I've got going on in my life, and if you really want me around, then I'm not goin' anywhere. And for the first time in my life, I fucking mean it." He grasped your hand tightly, before you gently removed it from his own, instead bringing your arms up to pull him into a tight embrace, which Hancock happily leaned into, nuzzling his head into the crook of your neck.

"Just one thing..." you said, finally pulling away, "we might have to work on that foul mouth of yours."

"Don't worry sweetheart, if we're doing this thing, we're gonna do it right. I'll teach the kid all he needs to know. The real creative foul language, how to cure a hangover, where to get the best chems. All that important shit." You rolled your eyes playfully, mirth shining behind your dilated pupils as you stared into the eyes of your son's new father.

"Now, about that foul mouth of mine..." his hand slunk around your waist and pulled you into him as a mischievous grin spread across his lips a moment before they met yours.

And now, a few headcanons, for your consideration:

- After agreeing to act as Shaun's father, Hancock would seriously clean up his act. He may occasionally still take chems and drink (cuz, let's face it, he's still Hancock, and quitting cold turkey is hardly an option) but much less than he used to, and never around Shaun. This is only partly because he doesn't want to bring Shaun into that part of his life, but also it has a lot to do with his decreasing dependency on self-medicating. Being genuinely happy with his family, he doesn't feel as though he needs to escape.

- He would continue to be mayor of Goodneighbor, but would leave many of the day-to-day decisions to a committee (composed of Daisy, Fahrenheit, Dr. Amari, and an elected security guard). While Hancock, Sole and Shaun would live at another (more kid-friendly) settlement of Sole's choice.

- Hancock would actually excel at teaching Shaun. Whether it would be a shooting lesson, showing Shaun how to cook, teaching him to fish, or telling him about pre-war history (usually with a good amount of focus on the American revolution given his own fascination with it), even if Hancock wasn't extraordinarily knowledgeable, he would do his absolute best at helping Shaun get some form of an education.

- Once Sole was able to convince Hancock that Shaun liked his voice, rough as it may be, he would love to do bedtime stories. Even though Shaun is probably just getting old enough to outgrow them, he has a particularly hard time getting to sleep, and he soon finds that the ghoul's low, calm voice is a surefire way to drift off when the sun goes down.

- Hancock would be one of those parents that always looks like they know what they're doing, he would be patient during Shaun's tantrums, would be very focused on communication, and would have a nice blend of being protective of Shaun, but not to the point that it would be stifling. That being said, he would remain awfully uncertain and need constant reassurance from Sole, seeking their advice on almost everything to do with Shaun. Inside, he would have trouble realizing he's as good of a father figure to Shaun as everyone says he is. However, outwardly, he would be as confident as ever. Even fooling Nick into believing that he was completely at ease in the role of being Shaun's dad.

- He'd be killer at all of the popular kid games, playing hide and seek with Shaun when they visited the Old State House, or playing tag back in sanctuary, or even imagination games where he had to be the deathclaw and Shaun got to be Grognak the barbarian (do deathclaws exist in the Grognak universe? It doesn't matter, they do to Shaun). Hancock normally wouldn't let anyone win, he believes in playing fair, but occasionally for Shaun, he'd hide in the obvious places, or trip when running away in tag, or let it slide that Shaun says Grognak is strong enough to punch a deathclaw's head clean off in one hit. (Man, if only he could do that.)

- If other kids were bullying Shaun, Hancock would be the type of parent to bring the bully aside and have a frighteningly quiet conversation. And by conversation, I mean an in-depth description of what Hancock will do to the kid if he's mean to Shaun again. (Think of that scene at the beginning of the first Jurassic Park movie where the main character is describing to a kid how a velociraptor guts its prey and eats it alive. That's Hancock. Both the man, and probably the velociraptor too if the bully doesn't heed his warning.) Hancock wouldn't necessarily kill the kid for being mean to Shaun, but it's because he wouldn't have to, after his 'discussion' with the kid, he'll never even look at Shaun the wrong way again. Thankfully, the 'discussion' is all Hancock's ever had to do when kiddos are involved.

[jj-babebank]

Room 107 // chapter I // JJ Maybank (smut)

I have started my first JJ story, which will consist of several chapters that I will constantly be updating. The story picks up where season 2 leaves us. TW: Contains mentions of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, sex and violence. 

Chapter 1 can be found below.  Oh, and - please feel free to submit requests, I tend to write a lot ;) 

Enjoy xx

Chapter 1 - La Guardiana

Days had passed since the Pogues had last seen civilisation, maybe even weeks. The sun was hotter than ever, with close to no wind to mask the warmth. JJ was taking this particularly badly. 

“I’m so done with eating bananas, man,” he moaned, kicking a pebble as he trotted a little behind the rest of his friends, “Can’t we just stumble across an oasis or something and end up in, like, an actual city?”

As if on command, his friends stopped in their tracks, the girls awing and the guys smiling happily. 

“We just might, JJ,” said John B, looking at the city unfolding itself in front of them in the distance, “We just might.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m actually starving,” laughed Sarah, nudging John B’s arm, “Don’t tease!” “Hey, so am I,” he cooed, “First joint we find, we’re going in for food.” Kiara rolled her eyes, “As much as I would love to accept that offer, let me remind you that we have no money.” Sarah nodded, “Mhm, nothing at all.” “Nada,” John B looked at the two girls sternly, “And when has that ever stopped us exactly?” Kiara rolled her eyes once again, smirking at her friend, “Alright, I suppose a good meal would give me the energy I’d need to run a marathon after getting caught not paying.”

The group continued walking down a not too busy street, studying the buildings, looking for a restaurant, cafe, diner - anything, really. They hadn’t had a proper meal in God knows how long and they were famished. They couldn’t help but notice how all the buildings on the street were of the same height - no more than four storeys each, all painted in different colours. If they hadn’t known any better, they’d have thought that they had left the United States of America altogether, although one thing was certain - they were definitely not in the Outer Banks anymore. 

The street wasn’t crowded at all, there were hardly any cars or people lurking about. JJ concluded that this was probably an unpopular area of whichever city they were in. This would also explain the lack of supermarkets and restaurants. He really wanted to ask his friends to stop for a little break - his throat was so dry and his legs could barely hold him up anymore, but he knew better. The longer they walk, the faster they’ll find what they are looking for. Having no indicator of the time on them wasn’t helping either, hell, they could have been walking for 12 hours for all he knew, and with no result. 

“Maybe we should just ask someone,” Pope suggested, “Neither of us is a wanted criminal anymore, I’d say we have nothing to worry about.” John B smirked at his friend’s remark, but ultimately agreed to ask the first person they ran into where the nearest food joint was. Turns out, they were standing right in front of it. 

“La Cubanita Hotel and Restaurant” it spelled out in bold, red letters. The building was narrow and a light shade of blue, totally contrasting the obnoxiously coloured sign planted in front of it. Much like the rest of the buildings on the street, it had no more than four floors, each consisting of a row of Spanish windows with brightly coloured frames. The Pogues looked at each other with a hint of uncertainty before John B lead the way into the building. 

On the inside it looked like a typical diner - tiled floor, red and blue booths, a long bar accompanied by bar stools and, cheesily enough, a boombox. JJ guessed that the way to the hotel was through the back, but he didn’t put too much thought into it. The place seemed dead, with only one of the booths being busy. It was either an off-peak hour or this city was actually a ghost town. 

The group sat at one of the booths on the other side of where the other people were and JJ took a second to observe them. A group of bikers, all wearing stereotypical biker outfits from leather jackets down to bandanas. They were in their mid 50s and were all smoking indoors, drinking what looked like whiskeys, despite of the blazing sun still very much being out. JJ had to give it to them though, they did look pretty darn cool if he did say so himself, and those cigarettes looked eerily appetising to him at this given moment. Oh, what he’d give to have a sip of whatever they were having and a long, much needed drag of one of their cigarettes. He was so lost in his daydream, he barely realised Kiara poking him in the arm. 

“JJ,” she urged, “Waitress is here!” In this moment JJ turned his attention to the new subject in question, their waitress. She was standing at the foot of their booth, wearing her uniform, black and red, holding a pen and a notepad, chewing a piece of gum, waiting for his order. Could this place get any more stereotypical? JJ thought to himself. “So what’s it gonna be, handsome?” She said, not even bothering to look in his direction. “Uh…” JJ fumbled with the menu, “I’ll just have whatever they’re having.” He said, pointing at the bikers in the booth across from theirs. The woman rolled her eyes, popping her bubblegum. She took the rest of the Pogues’ orders before disappearing somewhere behind the bar. JJ followed her with his eyes, blocking out the conversation his friends were currently having. The waitress came back out of what he assumed to be the kitchen and handed the paper with their orders to another girl behind the bar. JJ guessed she was the barmaid, and boy was she a bit of him. 

She was wearing the same uniform as her colleague, although JJ had to admit - it looked a whole lot better on her, at least from what he could see from above the bar. Her hair was long and brown, half of it tied up effortlessly, and slightly messily, although JJ didn’t mind one bit. He watched her as she took the paper from her colleague and went to fetch the drinks written on it. He couldn’t make out what exactly colour her eyes were, and quite frankly - he didn’t really care, she was gorgeous regardless of what her eyes looked like, and she looked around his age. Had the sun and heat gotten to his head, or was it just the fact that he hadn’t touched a female in so long, he didn’t know, but if there was one thing JJ Maybank was notorious for, it was his ability to pull any girl his heart desired effortlessly. This is why he excused himself from the table and, albeit his friends’ confused looks and comments, he made his way towards the bar, sliding into one of the stools directly across from the girl. 

She looked up at him, “Can I help you?” “Brown…” JJ mumbled to himself. “Excuse me?” She said, this time sounding slightly annoyed. Her eyes were brown, JJ thought, brown and sexy. He coughed, trying to compose himself and gave her his signature Maybank stare. It worked wonders back home, surely it would work wonders now again. “Name’s JJ,” he said suavely, “I’m not from around here-“ “Clearly,” she muttered, picking up a bottle of whiskey. JJ assumed it was for him, “Aren’t you a little young to be drinking, JJ?”

JJ smirked, “What can I say, I have the face of a boy but the body and mind of a man.” The girl snickered under her nose, “Sure. Well since you’re here, make yourself useful and bring your drinks over to your friends,” she gave him a fake smile, placing a tray with their orders on it in front of him, after which she turned her back to him and walked towards the back of the bar. JJ was too busy observing her behind to notice the other waitress standing next to him, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “Should I take that or will you?” She said, waking JJ up from his everlasting daydream. “Oh, uh, don’t sweat it…” he said, picking up the tray and carrying it over to his friends’ booth. “So much for customer service,” Sarah laughed. “And to think my dad says I’m hostile to our customers,” Kiara muttered out. JJ took his seat next to her, his eyes never leaving the bar. “La Guardiana,” Pope read out loud, “This place is called La Guardiana, and apparently we’re somewhere in Florida.” “Florida?” John B said, confusion dripping through his words. Pope nodded, pointing at some text on the bottom of the menu. 

La Cubanita Hotel & Restaurant **, 97 Diego’s Crescent, La Guardiana, FL 

“Holy shit, we’re in Florida!” John B whisper yelled. Sarah laughed at his reaction, “Calm down now, Sancho, let’s not draw any attention to us,” “Yeah, you might wanna tell Casanova here that,” teased Pope, nodding his head in JJ’s direction, “Was it really worth it to potentially blow our cover just to talk to that girl?” JJ snapped at Pope, “Hey, man, just ‘cuz you don’t have the nuts to go over there and talk to her yourself,” “Yeah, I really want to attract the staff’s attention, you know, even more than we already are, seeing as we’re the only other busy table at this place.” “Your food,” the waitress from earlier was back with some of the Pogues’ orders. They waited for her to be out of earshot and JJ spoke up, “Relax, P, I bet you I can charm the pants off that girl and we won’t even need to sneak out without paying!” Pope gave JJ a fake smile, “Mhm, I’m sure she’s gonna be so deep under your spell she won’t even notice us leaving without paying a cent." JJ rolled his eyes, picking up a toothpick from the table and placing it between his teeth. “Might even offer us a place to crash, you know, because she’ll be so captivated by you.” Pope continued to tease. “Yeah, chicks totally dig this whole I’m homeless and I haven’t properly showered in like 15 days look you're going for,” Sarah joined in on the teasing. Kiara laughed and added, “Yeah, and the bit that’s gonna fully seal the deal for her is that you have literally nothing to offer her, like 0 dollars.” Everyone was laughing while JJ just crossed his arms in front of his chest and turned to look out the window, “Talk all you want, guys, but once we get that gold back, you’ll see who’ll dig what.” “The rest of your order,” he recognised the girl’s voice. It was her bringing their food over this time. She placed John B’s plate in front of him and then made her way around the table, next to where JJ was sat. She handed him his plate and bent down slightly, so that her lips were on the same level as JJ’s ear, “Next time you decide to share your criminal plans, you might wanna talk a bit more quietly.” She whispered, setting his cutlery down for him, “Oh, and, you might be charming wherever you come from, but your friend’s right. That shit doesn’t work around here.” She said, patting him on the shoulder before walking away. JJ didn’t waste time sitting around to listen to his friends pass comments about what had just happened, he downed his whiskey and practically chased after the girl. “I’m guessing you’ll want another one?” She said, not even turning around. JJ wondered how she knew that he was there. When she turned to face him, the bottle of whiskey was in her hand. “Let’s see… Do I pour you another one and close my eyes about you planning to leave without paying, or do I do what anyone else in my position would do and call the police on you? Hmm…” she pretended to think, her eyes never leaving JJ’s now panicking ones. “Please don’t call the cops,” he blurted out, the whiskey hitting his brain and making him stress out more than he wanted to admit to, “Look, we - we were in a boat accident, we don’t even know how we got here, hell - we didn’t even know where we were up until 10 minutes ago! And we - we don’t have  any documents on us, we don’t have any sort of identification, what would you -“ “Relax, kid,” the girl smirked, picking up two glasses and pouring a generous amount of whiskey in both of them, “I won’t rat you out.” She said, handing JJ one of the glasses and raising hers for a toast. JJ clinked his glass with hers, a large smile growing on his face, his dimples becoming very prominent, “Thank you, really… That means a lot.” The girl took a moment to observe JJ, then to look at his friends having a heated conversation at their booth, all of them practically stuffing their faces with food in an almost animalistic sort of way. Could this boy really be telling the truth? Could these kids have been lost at sea with no place to go? She looked back at JJ who was also looking at her. Despite the smile plastered on his face, she could clearly see that he was extremely nervous still. “Hey,” she said, “I told you to relax, didn’t I. I won’t charge you for your food, in fact… I might even have a place for you to sleep and clean up tonight.” JJ’s eyes grew wider at her words, “You what?” She leaned in closer to him over the bar and lowered her voice so that he would be the only one to hear, “Hotel upstairs, my aunt owns it. She’s currently out of town with my cousin. Should be back next Thursday. I think I can fit you and your friends in. You just have to promise to be on your best behaviour.” She said, pulling away and taking another sip from her drink. JJ couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was too good to be true. She was hot and she was willing to help? This must have been his lucky day. Sarah could suck it, and so could the others. Clearly this girl was into him. Why else would she be offering to help? “So, uh, what’s in it for me?” He asked, a hint of mischief in his voice. The girl opened her mouth, but before she could speak, the other waitress groaned from behind her. “Samara, how many times do I have to tell you?” Her croaky voice rang. The girl, who JJ had just learned was called Samara, rolled her eyes and repeated with her colleague, “No drinking on the job, yeah yeah, I know. But Heather’s gone and so is Conner, so who can tell me what to do, really?” She said, finishing what was left of her whiskey, “Besides, Georgia, as far as I’m concerned, since they’re both gone, that leaves me in charge, no? Now get back to work,” she said, making her colleague roll her eyes at her. Samara turned around to face JJ again, giving him a wink, before disappearing into the kitchen. JJ couldn’t believe his luck. He swung his arm over the bar and picked up the bottle of whiskey to pour himself one more drink before returning to his friends. “Guys-“ JJ tried getting their attention. “So what are we supposed to do now? We’re totally screwed!” “They’re gonna call the police on us, hell, they probably already have! The cops could be on their way!” “Guys!” JJ yelled, catching even the bikers’ attention. His friends looked up at him, worry filling all of their eyes. “You’ll never believe what I’m about to tell you, oh, and Sarah? You can eat your words.” He smirked before telling them what had just happened. “Hold on,” said Kiara, her face revealing her confusion, “So this random girl in this random place just randomly said that we can crash here until when?” “Next Thursday, or was it Tuesday? What day is it today?” JJ scratched his head. “JJ!” Kiara slapped his arm, “What if this is a trap? It sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? Like, what’s in it for her? We don’t even know her! What if she’s a murderer or something?” “She’s right, you know,” Cleo chimed in. “She is,” said John B, “But we have nothing to lose, literally.” Pope nodded, “I’d usually agree with Kie, but John B’s right. We have nothing to lose. And what if she calls the police? What could even happen then? We get put in jail for agreeing to sleep in a hotel for free? Come on, guys, I’m sure we can all agree that a bar of soap and a normal bathroom would do us good. I mean, we stink.” Everyone laughed at Pope’s remark before Kiara turned to JJ again, “So what’s the plan?” Realisation just struck JJ that he didn’t in fact know what the plan was. Samara had told him virtually nothing about how any of this would go down. Where were they supposed to meet? Was she going to take them to their rooms? Would they all be sharing one room? He was so busy thinking about how all of this would go down, he barely noticed Samara herself passing him a note. It was taken out of her colleague, who JJ now knew to be Georgia’s notepad. The note read in messy handwriting:

Bring your friends to the lobby. Straight down the hallway by the bathrooms. 

JJ turned the piece of paper towards his friends and they all got up, rushing towards the hallway by the bathrooms.

[fandomn00blr]

Old Wound

I hurried up and jotted down this little one-shot for Strigana Week (@striganaweek​), because these vampire wives are my favorite, and they deserve some more attention! Today’s prompt is ‘Scars & Comfort’ and, uh, well, I guess we’re talking pretty literally here. This also forced me to do a lot of superficial internet research about everything from an ancient synagogue in Sardis (ok, so that didn’t make it into this piece...), the 13th century Mongol Invasions in Hungary (that’s how I’ve decided Striga dies), to the development of synthetic ‘cobalt blue’ in Paris in the early 1800s (relevant to Morana’s interests, obvs), which, if you squint hard enough, you might be able to see in some of my head canons about their past and future adventures! Hopefully, I’ll do more with all those things later, cuz boy howdy, did I dive down some rabbitholes...

---

“Striga…” Morana calls from the bedroom.

“Curse that apothecary!” Striga hisses, slamming her fist down onto the bathroom vanity and rattling Morana’s perfume bottles. “I will return tomorrow night and drain him within an ounce of his pitiful life!”

“Now, now...before you get murderous, why don’t you give me a chance to soothe your old aches?”

Striga finally turns to look at her, and the pained expression on her face just barely softens when she sees that Morana has changed into the cobalt blue and black silk chemise she purchased on their most recent trip to Paris. Striga had found the ‘modern city’ dirty and confining, full of bustling humans whose short, insignificant lives seemed to dictate that they always be on the move, always building, growing, doing. But Morana...well, she always had been much better at adapting. She truly enjoyed the city. Delighted, in particular, by its streetlamps which defied the nighttime, and allowed its people to be lured into a false sense of safety, as if they could ever truly own the night. There was also the music, the art, or rather, the artists...and of course, the river.

Morana sits up, swinging her legs to the side of the bed and patting the mattress beside her. “Come to bed.”

“I am sorry, but I’m just not in the mood tonight, my love.”

“I know. You are in pain. And I want to help. Which is it? Your neck or your lower back?”

“The...original wound,” Striga mutters.

“Ah, yes. Of course. Is it really that time again?” Morana asks, feigning ignorance much more poorly than Striga knows she is capable of. “It had completely slipped my mind...”

Striga rolls her eyes. The special nightie suddenly makes a lot more sense, even though they had agreed long ago that formally commemorating the date of their first meeting had become unnecessary and tedious when they had all of eternity to spend together. Anniversaries, in celebrating another year around the sun, seem just a bit too human for Striga’s liking.

But her shoulder hardly seems to care that she is immortal, and insists on keeping the mundane ritual each year by reminding her of her last mortal wound.

Morana smiles and waves her over impatiently, and Striga complies, slumping down onto the mattress next to her with an annoyed huff. But as Morana moves around behind her and begins to massage the tense, bulky muscles in her neck and shoulder, she lets loose a small sigh of relief.

“Shall I kiss it to make it feel better?” Morana asks, working the heels of her hands into her.

“If you must…”

Morana pushes the collar of Striga’s tunic down off one shoulder to reveal a large scar, paler than Striga’s skin, running from her chest, over her shoulder, and down her back, almost like a shoulder strap. She presses her lips softly to it at first, kissing her way up along the gruesome mark, and reaching one of her hands around toward her breast.

“Morana…” Striga groans admonishingly, remembering the fear and panic she'd felt as she lay bleeding out from the giant axe wound that had nearly taken her entire arm off. She'd prayed to her gods, then -- not the prayers of gratitude and victory she had practiced, but the prayers of a coward -- to Erlik, that he send death quickly to end her suffering, whatever his judgment.

“Fine, fine…” Morana opens her mouth, exposing her long, delicate fangs, and sinks them into Striga’s shoulder with quick precision. Striga tenses at first, inhaling sharply, but then lets out a long, slow exhale. Morana withdraws, then moves further down her back and does it again and then again, leaving a trail of tiny puncture wounds all up and down the scar. With each inhale and exhale, Striga begins to melt back against Morana.

Death came to her, of course. But not in the way she'd expected -- not some ugly, bone-bleached shepherd, pointing her toward her desolate afterlife like she’d been taught. Instead, it came to her as a goddess, beautiful, brown-skinned, with pale blue eyes glowing like beacons in the night of what was supposed to have been her greatest victory as a human, a battle she just barely remembers winning, if being the last one left breathing amid a pile of fallen allies and enemies counts. Striga no longer even recalls who or what she had been fighting for. But she does remember the sweet things Death whispered in her ear as she dragged her dying body to the blood-stained Danube and emptied her of the rest of her life, draining away the pain of her own mortality. And even sweeter things as the goddess granted her something new. Something better. Something everlasting.

“You have always known how to soothe the worst of my pain…even from the beginning,” Striga says, closing her eyes as Morana wraps both arms around her and pulls her into her lap.

“I was simply hungry, darling.” Morana drags her long nails lightly over the scarred part of her chest. “The smell of fresh blood is what drew me to you. But you were exquisite, even with that garish wound...how could I let that go to waste?”

Striga laughs, loud and triumphant, and opens her eyes to look up at her. “Well then I’m glad I had enough blood left to sate your appetite.”

“Oh, no. I could never have enough of you.”

Striga reaches up for Morana’s chin. “Never?”

“Not ever.” Morana leans forward, capturing her lover’s lips between her teeth. She doesn't bite. Not too hard, anyway, and Striga lets out a sort of purr, low and deep in her throat.

She sits up, and pulls Morana around in front of her, deepening their kiss as Morana slides into her lap, her hands reaching back over Striga’s broad muscled shoulders and around her neck.

“Mmmm…” Morana hums. “Feeling better so quickly?”

“Why do we even bother with worthless human medicine?”

“The humans have proven useful,” Morana reminds her. “If not for their petty wars, we would not have met. Or done nearly so well for ourselves over these past six hundred years.”

She reaches down for the hem of her nightshirt and starts to lift it over her head, but Striga stops her with both hands, grasping her wrists and tugging it back down to her hips.

“Leave it on,” Striga growls.

“And they made this!” Morana laughs, shrill and delighted. “Which seems to be doing something for your old war wound.”

“Yes...well, it is your color.”

“And much easier to find these days, thanks to human ingenuity!”

“Hmmm...if only their chemists were as good at synthesizing blood or immortality as they were at dying frivolous nightclothes…”

“Frivolous?! How dare you!”

“Not as frivolous as starting a war over precious stones to crush into dust to dye your favorite dress, I suppose…”

“Ah, but I do sometimes miss those days!”

Striga rolls her eyes again, and then buries her face against Morana’s neck, pulling the blue silk strap away from her collarbone with her teeth and letting it fall delicately off her shoulder.

“Oh...now who’s enjoying being frivolous?”

[felidaefighter]

Our Metaphorical Get-Along Sweater

In which Wilbur thinks of Ranboo as an arch-nemesis while Ranboo is just There Vibing and also, Phil has adopted Ranboo, making for two very different siblings and a very interesting relationship

[Fluff, comedy, work in progress; every chapter will swap POV]

Chapter One: Brother To A Stranger

     Phil is usually a fairly reclusive person, and yet Wilbur finds himself parting from the fifth hug just this morning. “I’m just… so happy you’re home,” Phil says with a warm and loving smile, and Wilbur knows it to mean I’m so happy you’re alive again. “I’m glad to be home,” Wilbur affirms, and then adds, softly, “I missed you.” Phil immediately responds in kind. Wilbur may be an adult, but after thirteen years in hell and darkness, he thinks he’s earned a little bit of that “living at home with your dad” sort of life. He had showered the night before, for a very very long time, enjoying the feeling of rain that didn’t burn-- as much as that memory was more of Ghostbur’s than his. Phil hadn’t minded, though, so it was fine. He had changed his bandage and washed his clothes, and woke up just a little before the sunrise, sitting on the balcony to watch it. He and Phil had then shared a quiet morning. It was nice. Peaceful.

     “Ah, here comes Ranboo!” Phil said, as a passing glance out the window alerted him to the hybrid’s presence, and Wilbur groaned internally and really hoped he didn’t make a face. Ranboo was okay, Wilbur supposed. He was fine. He just also happened to oppose everything Wilbur stood for and everything Wilbur believed, and his adopted little brother and said brother’s best friend seemed to think he hung the stars in the sky, for some reason, and liked him better than they liked Wilbur. Which, fair. Wilbur hadn’t exactly made himself the nicest person before his death-- and he supposed during, for a time. So that at least was understandable. Ranboo was fine as a person, really. Wilbur just didn’t like him all that much.

     Ranboo knocked on the door and, of course, just like that Phil let him in. “Oh, hey Wilbur.” Ranboo said, apparently a little surprised. Again. Understandable. He’d only been there a day. “Hello, Ranboo,” Wilbur replied, voice even because he was being polite, he really was trying he swore, he wouldn’t let Phil be disappointed and he wanted to give Ranboo a chance-- or at least try to. “It’s good you’re both here, actually,” Phil said, with a look of sudden remembrance, “I wanted to introduce you.” Wilbur shot Phil a very confused look. Wasn’t it clear that they’d already met based on the way they greeted one another? “We’ve met,” Wilbur told Phil, and thankfully for now confusion overrode every other feeling he might have.

     Phil sighed and Wilbur’s confusion grew even more as Ranboo, apparently, knew more of what was going on than Wilbur did as the hybrid’s eyes revealed a look of sudden understanding. “Yes, but you’ve not been introduced properly.” Phil actually walked over to Ranboo’s side. Phil put a hand on Ranboo’s shoulder and Ranboo stared nervously at the floor. “Ahh how do I say this, how do I say this,” Phil muttered under his breath, and Wilbur was too incredulous to be impatient. “Right. Wil, a lot has happened since you were away and, well. This is Ranboo, my adopted son. That makes him your younger brother. Ranboo, this is Wilbur, your older brother. I really really hope you two are gonna get along,” Phil said, blunt-forcing the news with a nervous little cackle at the end. Wait. What.

     “What?” Wilbur asked aloud, bewildered, because there was no way he had heard that right. There was no way that even Phil had fallen for whatever sort of bewitchment Ranboo seemed to be capable of. But Phil was making that awkward grinning face that Wilbur knew meant he was being presented with the harsh truth, and Ranboo coughed awkwardly. “Yeah uh. Phil… adopted me a little after I moved in here. Don’t worry, it-- it doesn’t really change the living situation or anything, I still have my own house--” he gestured, the house very much inside the fence border of Phil and Technoblade-- “So I think it’ll be fine. Right, Phil?” He finished, glancing at Phil, who had started sorting his chests.

     Phil sighed again, settling himself. “Yes,” he agreed, “It’ll be fiiine. Ranboo’s hardly ever here anyway, usually out with Tubbo or gone mining,” Phil said, attempting reassurance. Wilbur took a moment to compose himself, shoving all of his current feelings into an overstuffed closet like a kid trying to hide a mess from their parent. Which worked well as a metaphor, considering the situation at hand. “Yeah,” Wilbur said carefully, “It should be just fine. I suppose you’re both right, between having a different house--” that was literally right next to theirs-- “And being gone a fair amount of time, I don’t think that’ll change anything up too much.” It absolutely, completely would. “Thank you for letting me know, Phil. Honestly I can think of at least ten different ways I could’ve found out and all of them are worse, so.” That part was true at least. All things considered, this was the best way to find out. But why did it have to have happened in the first place?!?

     “Mhm. Exactly, exactly,” Ranboo agreed, and at least Wilbur could take solace in the fact that he felt just as awkward about this whole situation as Wilbur and apparently Phil too did. Wilbur was always grateful for his father, but never-- and he did think he meant never-- had he been as grateful as he was now, as Phil broke the silence. “So, Ranboo, was there a reason you stopped by?” Ranboo lit up. “Oh right! Yeah, I was wondering if you had any golden carrots I could borrow? The farmers give you and Techno better deals-- I can repay you the emeralds as soon as I get back, too, since I have plenty.” Phil chuckled fondly as he opened a cabinet and handed some of the golden carrots to Ranboo. “Nah mate, there’s no need to do that. It’s fine, we have plenty.” Ranboo took the carrots with a soft thank you.

     Wilbur leaned back against the wall, content to listen and not participate for the moment, eyes narrowed and trying to gauge the situation and their interactions. Ranboo was nothing like him-- the polar opposite of him-- and yet, it was undeniable that these were the interactions of a father and son. “Sooo, adventuring or mining this time? I doubt you’re low on anything.” Ranboo perked up, clearly excited about whatever upcoming deeds he had planned. “Adventuring! I’ll probably be away for about a week, actually. I really really want to find an enchanted golden apple. I know I teeeechnically already have one, but it’s good to be prepared-- besides, I don’t think Tubbo has one, and he probably needs it more than I do.” Ranboo grimaced. “He’s a lot more accident-prone than I am.” Phil cackled. “That’s so true. Alright. Well, be safe, give the crows a holler if you need anything, good luck!”

     Phil patted Ranboo twice on the shoulder, and Ranboo headed out the door, calling “Bye Phil! Bye Wilbur!” as he left, Wilbur giving a short wave in return. The door closed. Theoretically, the morning could go back to being peaceful and nice. Only theoretically. Wilbur turned to Phil, baffled and, quite frankly, feeling like a whiny child. “You what?” He repeated, satisfied that Ranboo was out of earshot and maybe now he and Phil could properly talk about it. Phil just waved his hand dismissively. “Aghk, it’s fine. He was in a bad place, Wil, I took him in ‘cuz he had nowhere to go.” Phil smirked, allowing himself a brief cackle. “And not just because we blew the place where his old house was up. Anyway! I started looking after him a bit, we had a chat, and I officially adopted him. It’s fine, Wil, he’s way younger than you and I doubt you two are even gonna wind up interacting that much. Your first day here and he’s already gone for a week! You’ll be fine.” Wilbur wanted to huff and grumble and pout, but Phil, as always, was right.

     “But--” Wilbur started anyways, and was met with “No buts!” and a shoosh from Phil. Phil sighed, and came up to Wilbur, gently squeezing his shoulder. He spoke more softly this time. “It’ll be okay, Wil. I love you, nothing changes that. No matter what, you’re always my son. I’ve told you that.” Wilbur hated to admit it, but this soothed him deeply, and he relaxed into his father’s care. “Alright, Phil. I trust you. If you really think this… this Ranboo guy is alright, I’ll give him a chance. I mean, I promised Tommy I’d give him a chance, ‘cuz apparently he and Tubbo think he hung the stars in the sky or something--” Wilbur caught himself starting at bitterness, corrected his tone-- “But I meant it then and I mean it now. For you, Phil.” And how could he be upset with Phil, when that promise brought a warm smile to his face? “Thank you, Wilbur. That’s all I can ask.” Wilbur sighed, world-weary. It was going to be a long rest of forever.

-----

     Phil had gone downstairs to fix up the massive arena that he and Technoblade used for sparring. Wilbur would likely go help him later, if Phil wanted help, but for now he was glad for the solitude; something he was almost certain that he and his father had in common. Solitude wasn’t great, after far too many years sat in it, but because of that it was what he was used to-- anything more would likely be too overwhelming. Just the knowledge that he had a choice, though, and could wander or feel different temperatures or go to Phil, who would always always be there, was enough to ease his mind. And he needed both-- the solitude and peace of mind-- to try and figure out what in the world just happened.

     Wilbur supposed it made sense, in a way. He had been gone a very long time, after all, and Phil always had a bit of a soft spot that he had to find some outlet for, much in the same way that most normal people had to find an outlet for all their violent spots. What he couldn’t wrap his head around, was why Ranboo? Wilbur toyed with a yo-yo he had snagged from Phil (more accurately, that Phil just had lying around), grateful for the endless stimuli this wonderful world had to offer. There was clearly more to the story than what was immediately available, and it irritated Wilbur that he didn’t know. God knows he’d never be able to get a straight answer out of Tommy. Phil’s explanation would be brutally short and lacking any sort of detail-- Wilbur had always been the better storyteller of the family. His best bet was probably Ranboo himself, and that guy had memory problems! Wilbur figured he’d wind up needing to piece most of the story together himself, but that was fine. He wouldn’t mind a puzzle.

     Still, thinking it over with the few details he had been given, about Ranboo himself at least, Wilbur couldn’t really conceptualize it. And he definitely wasn’t any sort of jealous. Phil had never exactly been the mercy type, so he definitely wouldn’t have taken Ranboo in out of pity or guilt. The more he thought about it, the more baffled he was, and the more he concluded that maybe Ranboo did have some sort of supernatural bewitching powers. If his hybrid nature let him do enderman things, there had to be a possibility that his other half let him do bewitching things, right? Wilbur found himself tangled in his thoughts and, somehow, his yo-yo. With pleading, befuddled eyes, Wilbur looked directly at a crow on the windowsill, holding back soft, confused laughter. “Phil, I appear to have gotten myself tangled in a yo-yo. ...Help.” The crow, very helpfully, swooped down into the basement to inform Phil.

     Upon entering, Phil burst into laughter immediately, a sound that Wilbur had dearly missed but oh my god now was not the time. “Aw, mate, how did you even manage this?” Phil said, attempting to untangle Wilbur but having to pull away every few seconds for another bout of full-body laughter. “I Don’t Know,” Wilbur admitted, as Phil continued losing it, “I guess it’s just been a really long time since I played with a yo-yo, Phil.” Phil turned Wilbur this way and that, trying to figure out how it all looped together, muttering to himself breathlessly between laughs as he did so. “Oh you got the-- how did you manage to-- under your--?” A hoard of raucous crows joined them in the chaos. “--Ahhh, Wil!” Phil exclaimed, throwing his hands up in defeat and stepping back, letting out one big cackle; Wilbur chuckled a little too.

     Phil gave up and helped Wilbur shimmy out of his predicament instead, handing him the very sad, very knotted yo-yo for Wilbur to untangle on his own. “Try that first next time, but I’ll be up to help if you somehow manage even worse next time,” Phil said with a melodious, contented sigh, heading back down to the basement. “I will, I promise,” Wilbur said, soft smile on his face. Well, that was unintentional. But it had been nice, actually. More than anything, Phil deserved to be happy. Even if that meant having two sons, one of whom was the biggest, wimpiest pushover and yes-man Wilbur had ever seen. Wilbur groaned out loud. Seriously, Ranboo? Maybe age had finally made Phil senile. Wilbur and Ranboo couldn’t be more different-- how had they managed to both get the same dad? So maybe he was a little jealous. Whatever. Well, Wilbur thought with a decisive sniff, he’d still been there first, and he was older. He was definitely going to use that at every opportunity.

     Even knowing he had a few days to think about it, Wilbur realized pretty quickly that as far as a final conclusion went, that was about as far as he was going to get on any given day . No sense mulling it over until his head looked like the yo-yo string; he’d be fine, and it wouldn’t change things too much between him and Phil-- that at least had always been a given. He and Ranboo, though? Wilbur hadn’t thought his feelings on the hybrid could be any more conflicted than they already were, but apparently he now had a second sibling to deal with, and he hadn’t even chosen this one. It was going to be… strange. Very, very strange. But hey! Such is life! Full of surprises! Wilbur sat on the porch rail, watching all the uniquely patterned snowflakes, and slowly untangled his yo-yo string.

[butgilinsky]

okay I had a thought but idk if you still write for them but I loved blueberry pancakes and the blurbs you did for it. but did u ever do one about like the anniversary of Rafe's mother [death/disappearance/leaving]? cuz just imagine him being all sad and it's all soft 😭 xx

a/n; i haven't written for the boat show in what feels like forever but i liked this idea so here we go (also i'm watching gilmore girls rn and this reminded me of luke's dark day). this also got longer than i expected it to so i’m sry for that. enjoy!

the first year the two of you were together, you had no idea about rafe's dark day. nobody gave you a heads up or told you that it was something you should be on the look out for. you simply didn't hear from him for an entire day, and no matter how much you looked for him around the island, he was nowhere to be found. it wasn't until you had had enough of being in the dark and called topper that you got any sort of explanation.

"he didn't tell you?" anxiety pumped through your bloodstream as your mind raced over all of the possibilities of what that could have possibly meant.

"tell me what?" topper only looked even more confused at the sound of your question, unsure of how you of all people didn't know what today was or where rafe was.

"it's his dark day. every year he disappears for the entire day. doesn't call or text, and we can never find him to save our lives. we stopped bugging him about it around two or three years ago."

you tried to go over everything about rafe that you'd learned in your time together. you weren't sure where he could be or why he'd disappear like that without a single word. the two of you never did that. you talked to each other, communicated efficiently. this wasn't like him.

you decided not to push him for the rest of the day, only opting to ask him about it the morning after when he asked if you wanted to spend the day on the beach.

"where were you yesterday? i asked top and kelce where you ran off to but neither of them knew." he froze at the question, his muscles tensing and jaw clenching. he wasn't angry, wasn't even surprised you asked, but he wasn't ready to tell you the truth.

"i went to the mainland to pick up a few things."

it wasn't until the next year when you were spending the summer back in the obx, home from college and practically attached to rafe's hip, that you found out what his dark day truly consisted of.

he called you a little after 10 pm, drunker than he would've imagined he'd be if you had asked him earlier in the morning.

“baby!” you had to drag the phone away from your ear, taken by surprise by the loud voice booming through your phone’s speaker.

“hi, baby. you doing okay?” you knew it was the same day he had gone dark the year before. he didn’t know that you had written down the date last year and remembered for this very moment.

“i’m great! the mainland is so much better than the island baby, we should move out here. we should move out, period. do you think we should move out? i think it’d be good for us.” you tried to ignore the fact that he was talking about a step neither of you had taken before and tried to focus solely on the slur in his words and the time of night it was.

“baby, where are you? do you need me to pick you up?” he sighed then, one heavy enough for his shoulders to slump far enough to threaten the concrete below him. you couldn’t see him, couldn’t see the distress etched into his features but you could hear the distraught tone he used.

“no, my truck’s here. i can’t leave it here. i’d just have to get it tomorrow and-“

topper gave you a sideways look, one that told you everything you needed to hear in this moment just before he pointed at his keys across the room. rafe hardly questioned why you were with topper or why you were so adamant on picking him up, even on the mainland. it was easier to get his location than you expected it to be and within the hour, you were sitting behind the wheel of rafe’s truck with a drunk boyfriend slouched in the passenger seat.

“i was six when she left.” it was mumbled under his breath and hard to hear but that didn’t stop your ears from perking up at the indication that he was opening up a part of himself that he kept quiet from everyone else in his life. “i remember her waking me up in the middle of the night and apologizing profusely. she couldn’t be with him, said he was crazy. and for the longest time i thought she was the crazy one. i thought she was the one that up and left like there was nothing of importance here for her. but she was right, he is crazy. he’s crazy and i can’t blame her for leaving because if i had the means to, i would’ve been gone the second i got my diploma.”

it changed a lot in your mind. it explained a lot of why rafe was the way he was. it explained the hostile relationship between him and his dad, explained why he never accepted rose into his life. it explained a lot and though it was hard for you to wrap your head around, you were there for him unconditionally. it showed in the way you grabbed his hand in yours and the way you stayed silent through the sobs he choked out on the way home.

“i’ve never healed. i cant. not when i don’t know where she is or what she’s doing. is she safe? is she alive? does she have another family? does she even miss sarah or me?” you turned to him then, only for a second before you looked back at the road ahead of you.

“if she doesn’t miss you she’s crazy. she’s the one that left and while i can completely understand why a person would leave ward cameron, i can’t imagine someone leaving rafe cameron.” he smiled at you, one fueled by his unwavering emotions and clouded mind.

“i love you.” he mumbled softly, using a tone that hinted at his disbelief that your words were true and honest and not fueled by your affliction towards him.

“rafe, i’m serious. anyone who leaves you in their rear view mirror is an idiot-“

“she’s not an idiot.” your lips clamped together in a tight line. you spilled an apology, explaining that you never intended to talk down on the woman who he clearly loved more than life itself. despite the fact that she had been gone for over twelve years, she clearly still played a large role in rafe’s life. “everyone moved on after she left you know? sarah was young enough to hardly notice. dad had rose even when mom was here. it’s like i’m the only one going through this.”

your heart sank at the sound of his confession. all of this stress and hurt was placed on a boy too young to realize that moment would change his life forever. you knew he went through it alone. you’d heard sarah mention that she hardly remembers her mother, that she wouldn’t remember what she looked like if it wasn’t for the picture she had tucked away into her nightstand.

rafe was the last person that people on the island assumed was going through something. they hardly looked past the attitude that rafe exuded and the careless demeanor he always wore. but not you. you were determined to listen to rafe talk about the skeletons in his closet and the way he reacts to them. you were determined to get him home safe and sound from the horrors of alcohol and how it makes him react. you were determined to help him through it all.

so the next year, just before his dark day, you told rafe that whatever he was doing that day, you were doing it with him. he didn’t love the idea at first given that that was one of his only days to himself, but he agreed. maybe he didn’t need to be alone on that day anymore. maybe you were here with him for this reason. maybe he should just be grateful that you’ve stuck around this long and are willing to truly be there for him.

rafe would never spend his dark day alone again.

[wrestlingchick2021]

Santana AEW x Reader

Inner Workings

NSFW!

Santana Pov

It started off normal. Breakfast with the inner circle, then off to the gym but things changed when she became involved. Jericho's daughter, that beautiful, spunky, sassy, and slightly sarcastic blonde that I've come to know and love.

She was perfect in every way possible, atleast in my eyes. She was a heel, which was bad and she was being manipulated into loving my enemy, MJF and yet I couldn't help myself because every, single, night, I jerked off to the thought of her.

"Hey? You ok?" My partner Ortiz pulled my out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just thinking." I told him.

"About her?" He whispered. I nodded knowing he knew.

"Alright guys! We have a match to win so let's go!" I heard Jericho call. I sighed knowing she was gonna be there. It was hard for me to know that she was gonna be part of the match and eventually I was gonna have to fight her. As I heard our music, I looked around to see if I could see her. I couldn't, which was unfortunate.

I heard the Pinnacles theme and out then came, first Tully and Ftr then Shawn Spears and Wardlow, and finally Max and her. She was smiling as she hung off his arm like a leech. One thing I noticed though, was he wasn't in his gear. She walked to the ring and slipped in. She stared at me and mouthed something. It didn't appear to be threatening but I still stayed on guard.

As everyone made there way to there sides of the ring, she was gonna start the match along with Hager. It didn't seem fair for Jericho to do that but I knew she could handle it. The bell rang and the match began. After about 13 minutes, everyone was down except myself and her. We were the legal competitors and we both laid in the middle of the ring, exhausted, bloody, and bruised.

She was barely able to get to her feet and I grabbed her ankle first and pulled her back down to the mat and underneath me. I was about to his her when I realized the max had come over to ringside. She looked up at me with fear, I didn't know what's was happening but I got up and walked threateningly towards Max. Like, a man possessed I was more preoccupied with him and didn't notice her get up. She had come up behind and me and took me down with one DDT and went for the pin, I couldn't kick out, I was in too much shock. The pinnacle had won and she rolled off me and looked extra shocked.

That was when I did the unthinkable and got up and pulled her into a choke hold. I didn't know what came over me but I didn't want to hurt her. It was weird though, she didn't fight back.

"You want her, fine, have her Santana. She's of no use to me anyway. She can't fight." I heard Max chuckle as he walked off with the rest of the pinnacle. I let go of her once I saw Jericho step back into the ring. She fell to her knees and looked at him as he walked away, she then looked at me.

"What did you do!?" She yelled and tried to hit me but I stopped her.

"I helped you. He was using you!" I held her in my arms as she fought back.

"No! No!" She screamed.

"Let's her her back to our locker room and we'll figure this out ok?" I tried to say calmly. She stopped and looked at me.

"What? You want to help me figure this out?" She asked shocked. I nodded. She realized and and walked with us calmly. It honestly surprised me. Once back at the locker room, she sat down in the farthest corner away from us and stared.

"Ok, now what? She's here." Sammy asked.

"She obviously wants nothing to do with us." Hager commented angrily.

"Guys, relax for a second. We don't exactly know what's going on. Max may have ditched her but this could all be some devious plan to get in our heads." Jericho spoke calmly trying to get us all to work together.

"Chris, we don't know what she's gonna do but we do know that she responds to me." I commented softly.

"You think you can reason with her? She's been manipulated by him for so long." He asked me questioningly.

"I think so. Just let me talk to her privately." I asked. He nodded and gave me the entire locker room to myself. Now that it was just her and I, she got up and made her way over to me. Once we locked eyes it didn't take long for her to hug me and break down. She trusted me, ME! This was great news for me because I thought maybe she would talk to me.

"Hey bella (beautiful in Puerto Rican), talk to me. Why the tears?" I asked her softly.

"I hate him! He's cruel! He hates me too ya know. He wants me out of Aew!" She spilled quickly.

"Hey hey, easy. Take a deep breath." I shushed her. "I can make it better but you need to breath first."

She obeyed and took three really good deep breaths and was finally able to talk to me calmly.

"Max is awful. He makes me stay quiet unless I'm being directly talked to by him or any member of the pinnacle. He's making me look like a fucking snob and I'm not. Not at all! I want to do interviews, I want to wrestle in matches I actually have a chance of winning. I don't want people cheating for me!" She ranted quickly. I could hardly understand her so I kissed her to shut her up for a few seconds and maybe get her mind off it.

When I pulled away she looked at me. "I've wanted you to do that for so long." She whispered softly. I almost missed it.

"I know. I feel the same way and I couldn't quite understand what you were saying." I chuckled softly.

"Santana, I think I love you. Like a lot. But with max, I don't know if I'm confused or not." She admitted sadly.

"Then let's find out? Together? Cuz I think I love you too." I admitted back.

"How so?" She asked confused.

I pulled her to me and she gasped. I was hard and we both knew. "Baby girl, are you virgin?" I had to ask because she seemed genuinely clueless.

"No but I've never been loved. I don't know the difference between real love and sex for fun." She looked away.

"Then let me show you." I whispered and kissed her deeply. She reciprocated by wrapping her arms around my neck. I walked us over to the couch and sat her down while holding the kiss.

"Santana, I'm scared. I don't want this to be a one time thing." She whimpered.

"What are you talking about silly girl. You're mine now. I'm not letting you go." I growled softly and kissed her again. She moaned into the kiss.

"Now let me show you real love." I told her with a soft smile. I saw her smile back. I pulled away and got on my knees and very slowly I did her gear. She watched me closely, studying me.

"Relax, I'll make you feel good. I promise. It's all about you baby girl." I told her. That seemed to make her relax. I slowly kissed you her thigh and when I heard her gasp I knew it felt good. It was a different kind of gasp.

"Santana..." She whimpered. I looked up at her with concern. "Eat me." She said softly and lustfully.

That was all I needed to hear from her. I dove in to her pussy like a starved man. As I licked and sucked on her clit, she was whimpering and moaning like crazy. I couldn't control myself. I pulled away and that caused a whimper in confusion.

"You want me to fuck you? Show you real love?" I asked her with a growl in my voice. She nodded slowly. I began to slowly undo my pants and she watched my ever moment. She was panting, a screen of sweat covered her forehead and thighs.

"Whatever you have left on, strip it. Trust me." I commanded softly. She didn't have to be told twice and did as I asked.

"Ready?" I asked. She nodded eagerly. I pulled her hips closer to me. I gently began to nudge the crown of my cock into her tight pussy. I finally had to opportunity to make her mine, forever. This is exactly how I thought it would be. All those nights I spent jerking off in the bathroom had finally paid off. She was just as perfect as I thought.

"Santana, move. Please?" She begged. I hadn't even realized that I wasn't but I obeyed her wishes and moved slowly so she could adjust.

"What are you doing?" She asked confused.

"Letting you adjust sweetheart." I told her as I thrusted slowly.

"No. I don't like it. I want you to pound me into the couch. Till I can't breath." She growled.

She was a lot kinkier then I thought. I wrapped my hand around her throat and began to fuck her harder. When I heard that lovely little squeal of hers, I knew I had hit that special spot. As I hit it over and over again she didn't something I didn't expect. As she tightened around me, my grip on her throat got tighter, and she squirted on my dick. That caused me to pull out and cum on her chest and tits.

"Woah... That was amazing." She said with a tired smile.

"Good. Now, I want to ask you something." I told her.

"What is it?" She replied.

"Will you leave the pinnacle and join the inner circle and be my girlfriend?" I asked quickly.

"I would love to be your girlfriend but I don't know if they want me here." She said and looked away.

"Of course they do! Your dad wants you back." I said.

"No he doesn't. He hates me." She says after we finish getting dressed. I made my way over to the door and opened it letting in her dad and the rest of the inner circle. Chris walked over and hugged her. She was taken a back.

"Come back, please?" He asked.

"Of course. The pinnacle was over rated anyway." She giggled.

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

For the writing requests: Zedaph with a fear of heights?

I seriously love getting such open-ended prompts like this because then I can just go wild. Hope you like what I’ve written!

CW: panic attack

…

  There’s a reason Zedaph doesn’t usually fly places. He prefers to travel by nether where possible, but on this occasion, there’s no point going all the way through the nether hub when he can just fly over the mountain to Impulse’s base. It’s a short flight so everything should be okay.

  But the one thing he forgets to check before he sets off is the durability of his elytra.

  As he’s flying over the cliff, he feels a jerk and realises immediately that his elytra has snapped. He starts to drop but, reacting quickly, manages to grab onto the very edge of the cliff, stopping his fall. 

  However, his grip doesn’t last long.

  He lets out a screech as he slips down the mountain face, struggling wildly for a foothold. After a few seconds, he’s able to catch one on on a small stone ledge sticking out from the cliff about a quarter of the way down. He manages to turn himself around but he soon realises that was a BIG mistake.

  Because now he can see the two hundred block drop below him. 

  Already starting to panic, Zedaph shakily takes out his communicator. 

<Zedaph> Help!

<Zedaph> Elytra broke!

<Zedaph> Stuck on a cliff!

<Zedaph> Can’t get down!

  As he’s typing out his coordinates, he gets three messages in a row.

<Tango> Are you okay? Where are you?

<Impulse> Where are you Zed?? 

<Xisuma> Where are you? I can help! 

  Zedaph manages to send his coordinates before panic overwhelms him and he presses himself against the stone cliff face, squeezing his eyes shut. His world sways around him, making him dizzy and threatening to send him pitching forwards to the ground below.

  Xisuma is the first to arrive on the scene. One look up tells him that Zedaph is too low down to be grabbed from above, so he sets about trying to find a way to save his friend from down here.

  “Where is he?!” Tango gasps, landing neatly on the ground next to him. 

  Xisuma points him out. “There. We need a way to either slow or break his fall. I don’t suppose you have any splash potions of slow falling, do you?”

  Tango shakes his head. “N-No, I don’t. What about water?” 

  “Good idea, but too risky. From down here, we can’t tell where he’ll fall and we don’t have time to cover the whole area in enough water to completely break his fall.”

  Up on the cliff, about three minutes have passed since Zedaph first called for help, but it feels like over three hours to the terrified hermit. One glance down tells him that a crowd is forming under him but he can’t force himself to look down long enough to see who’s there. The only thing he could make out in his brief glance down is the bright yellow design he recognises from Impulse’s t-shirt. 

  “Zedaph!” 

  He almost glances down again but the nausea and panic rising in him is causing him to freeze. 

  Tango tries again: “ZED! Do you have anything on you to help get you down?!”

  Zedaph knows he should look in his inventory. Perhaps he has an ender pearl on him? It would be worth the pain of pearling from all the way up here if it meant he could be on the ground in seconds, and avoiding a terrifying fall would certainly be a bonus.

  But he can’t. He can’t move. His hands are gripping the stone indents so tightly that his knuckles are turning white. If he lets go, if he moves, if he tries to check his inventory, if he looks down, if he even opens his eyes…

  ...he’ll fall.   “He can’t get down!” Tango gasps. “What do we do?!”

  “Slime!” comes a voice from above.

  The small crowd looks up to find Iskall swooping overhead. He lands quickly on the ground and starts handing out slime blocks. “This’ll break his fall. Quick!” 

  Tango, Iskall, Impulse, Xisuma, and a few others start to spread the slime blocks all over the ground, creating a bouncy platform that will save Zedaph if he falls. 

  But less than a minute later, a terrifying scream sounds from above them as Zedaph finally loses his grip and slips right off the ledge.

  Zedaph screams again as he plummets, his hands wildly grasping at the air in a futile attempt to slow his fall. He knows he will die if he hits the ground, but there’s nothing he can do to stop it from happening. 

  Below him, he hears two distinctive voices scream his name. 

  A second later, he feels himself hit a bouncy surface and ricochet off. Arms flailing, he falls the six or so blocks to the ground, taking only a heart or two of damage as he does. He lies where he fell, gasping for breath through panic and adrenaline. 

  “Everyone get back!” calls Xisuma’s hazy voice. “Give him some room! He needs air!”

  He feels someone drop down next to him. “Zed! Zed, can you hear me?!”

  Zedaph can tell from his voice that Tango is terrified out of his mind right now, but he can’t summon the energy to talk or even nod. He is fully hyperventilating now, his lungs heaving as he tries and fails to gulp in enough oxygen through his sobs. 

  “What do I do?!” cries Tango in distress. “I don’t know what to do! How do I help him?!”

  Then a newcomer arrives. “Stay calm, Tango. Reassure him that you’re there and he’s safe. Keep saying that. And remind him to keep breathing.”

  “O-Okay…!” Tango takes a deep, shaky breath. “Z-Zed, it’s okay, I’m here. You’re safe, I’m here for you. I’m not going anywhere.”

  The knot in Zedaph’s chest loosens slightly. 

  He feels Tango’s hand on his shoulder. “Breathe, Zed. Breathe deeply. In, out. In, out.”

  “Don’t tell him to breathe deeply,” comes the other voice. It sounds familiar but Zedaph can’t quite identify it just yet. “Just breathe. Mimic normal rhythm and it’ll return.”

  “R-Right, right. In. Out. In. Out. Can you do that for me? In. Out. In. Out.”

  Even though Zedaph knows Tango well enough to see through his calm facade, just the presence of his best friend is allowing him to slowly calm down. He mimics the timing of Tango’s breaths, his heartrate slowly but surely returning to normal. 

  At that moment, he hears the voice of his other best friend from somewhere behind him. “-want to see him! I want to see Zed!”

  Zedaph’s eyes are closed but he feels Impulse’s presence immediately. He breathes shakily but deeply out, finally able to stem the tears flowing from his eyes. 

  He rolls onto his back, one hand resting on his aching chest. 

  Someone takes his other hand and clasps it tightly. “It’s okay,” Impulse’s voice whispers. “You’re okay, Zed. You’re safe.” 

  Impulse’s hand in his and Tango’s reassuring hand on his shoulder helps Zedaph relax. His breathing returns to normal and he tilts his head back slightly, his stomach swimming with nausea. 

  He opens his mouth and manages to croak, “T-Tango.”

  “We’re here.” Tango can hardly raise his voice above a raspy whisper. “We’re both here.”

  Finally, Zedaph manages to open his eyes. Sure enough, he finds the pale faces of his best friends gazing worriedly down at him. 

  As he struggles to sit up, Impulse and Tango both immediately place a hand behind his back to help him. “Take it easy,” says Impulse softly. “You gave us a real scare, buddy.” 

  Gripping his best friends’ arms for support, Zedaph lets out a long breath. “I-I gave myself the fright of my life, th-that’s for sure.”

  “Zed…” Tango hesitates. “What happened up there? Why didn’t you open your inventory?”

  “I...um...” Zedaph also hesitates. He trusts his best friends implicitly but this is something he has never shared with anyone before. “I have acrophobia.”

  Tango gives his best friend a concerned frown. “Zed, I’ve known you for years. How have you never told me you’re scared of heights?” 

  Zedaph shrugs helplessly. “I-I don’t know, it just never came up before. It’s not as bad when I fly with an elytra cuz I’ve had years of practise; it’s just extended periods of time where I’m high up and I just freak out completely. I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. And I’m sorry for scaring you guys.”

  Tango quickly shakes his head. “No no, don’t apologise. I’m just so relieved you’re okay.”

  Zedaph closes his eyes and rests his head on Tango’s shoulder. “Me too.”

  In the ensuing pause, the same voice from before says, “How often do you have panic attacks?”

  Opening his eyes again, Zedaph looks up and finds Grian standing a few blocks away, a concerned look on his face. “Hardly ever. This one just got triggered because of my acrophobia. You?”

  Grian hesitates, glancing from Impulse and Tango to Zedaph. He realises that Zedaph can tell from the way he calmly and efficiently gave his advice that he’s no stranger to panic attacks “Not often. Anymore.”

  “Thanks for helping us out, there,” Tango says gratefully. “I wouldn’t have had any idea what to do if it wasn’t for you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ve been in both your places before. And let’s just say I know from experience that if there’s anything worse than having a panic attack, it’s having one in the presence of people who don’t know how to help you.” 

  Impulse gives a thin smile. “Well, we’ll definitely know what to do if it happens again in future. Thanks, man.”

  “No worries.” Grian smiles back at him, before glancing down at Zedaph. “And Zedaph, take as much time to recover from this as you need to, without feeling guilty or like you should be over it by now. I don’t know how many attacks you’ve had in the past but take it from me: rushing your recovery will make things worse. Take some time to relax.”

  Zedaph manages a nod. “I will. Thank you.”

  Grian nods back. “Feel better, man. I’ll see you later.” 

  As Grian walks off, Zedaph attempts to rise to his feet, but his legs buckle. Thankfully, Tango and Impulse are right there to steady him and lift him up. 

  “Where do you want to go, Zed?” Tango asks gently. “Anywhere you want.” 

  After a moment, Zedaph glances up at Tango, then at Impulse. “I want to lie on the grass outside Toon Towers with you two and as much cake as I can eat.”

  Tango and Impulse exchange a grin.

  “We can arrange that.”