#I stuck to 200 words instead of 100

[wind-without-wings]

'Show'

A twist. A step. A leap.

Yzl’s fingers barely brush against the ground as she flings herself away from the enemy’s blade. The moment her palm touches the ground, she pushes herself upwards again.

A turn. A duck. A lean.

The blade gently brushes against her ear as she pulls her head to the side. A few white hairs flutter at the edge of her vision and into the dust kicked up around them. Her opponent puts so much force into the swing, he stumbles past her; gives her time to back away. But she doesn't stay away.

A jump. A stomp. A kick.

The blade spirals along the ground, slamming into the white wood walls of The Pit. Yzl steps across the man’s back and shoulders; he still tries to get up, lifting her up with him. Clicking her tongue, Yzl raises one leg before quickly slamming it back down again--right against his ribs. She tried not to break anything, but she was growing bored. She just wanted to be free of such a predictable fight, and luckily the man yielded.

A hop. A spin. A bow.

A hidden smile from The Boss, better than any hard won coin.

[ms-demeanor]

Since some people might want a Mac, I'll offer a Mac equivalent of your laptop guide from the perspective of a Mac/Linux person.

Even the cheapest Macs cost more than Windows laptops, but part of that is Apple not making anything for the low end of the tech spectrum. There is no equivalent Mac to an Intel i3 with 4 gigabytes of RAM. This makes it a lot easier to find the laptop you need.

That said, it is possible to buy the wrong Mac for you, and the wrong Mac for you is the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar. Get literally anything else. If it has an M2 chip in it, it's the most recent model and will serve you well for several years. Any new MacBook Air is a good pick.

(You could wait for new Macs with M3, but I wouldn't bother. If you are reading these guides the M3 isn't going to do anything you need done that a M2 couldn't.)

Macs now have integrated storage and memory, so you should be aware that whatever internal storage and RAM you get, you'll be stuck with. But if you would be willing to get a 256 gig SSD in a Windows laptop, the Mac laptop with 256 gigs of storage will be just as good, and if you'd be willing to get 8 gigs of RAM in a Windows laptop the Mac will perform slightly better with the same amount of memory.

Buy a small external hard drive and hook it up so Time Machine can make daily backups of your laptop. Turn on iCloud Drive so your documents are available anywhere you can use a web browser. And get AppleCare because it will almost certainly be a waste of money but wooooooow will you be glad it's there if you need it.

I get that you are trying to help and I am not trying to be mean to you specifically, but people shouldn't buy apple computers. That's why I didn't provide specs for them. Apple is a company that is absolutely terrible to its customers and its customers deserve better than what apple is willing to offer.

Apple charges $800 to upgrade the onboard storage from a 256GB SSD to a 2TB SSD.

A 2TB SSD costs between $75-100.

I maintain that any company that would charge you more than half the cost of a new device to install a $100 part on day one is a company making the wrong computer for you.

The point of being willing to tolerate a 256GB SSD or 8GB RAM in a Windows laptop is that you're deferring some of the cost to save money at the time of purchase so that you can spend a little bit in three years instead of having to replace the entire computer. Because, you see, many people cannot afford to pay $1000 for a computer and need to buy a computer that costs $650 and will add $200 worth of hardware at a later date.

My minimum specs recommendations for a mac would be to configure one with the max possible RAM and SSD, look at the cost, and choose to go buy three i7 windows laptops with the same storage and RAM for less than the sticker price of the macs.

So let's say you want to get a 14" Macbook pro with the lowest-level processor. That's $2000. Now let's bump that from 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD to 32GB and 2TB. That gets you to $3000. (The SSD is $200 less than on the lower model, and they'll let you put in an 8TB SSD for $1800 on this model; that's not available on the 13" because apple's product development team is entirely staffed by assholes who think you deserve a shitty computer if you can't afford to pay the cost of two 1991 Jeep Cherokee Laredos for a single laptop).

For $3000 you can get 3 Lenovo Workstation laptops with i7 processors, 32GB RAM, and a 2TB SSD.

And look, for just $200 more I could go up to 48GB RAM and get a 4TB SSD - it costs $600 to upgrade the 14" mac from a 2TB SSD to a 4TB SSD so you could still get three laptops with more ram and the same amount of storage for the cost of one macbook.

I get that some people need to use Final Cut and Logic Pro, but hoo boy they sure are charging you through the nose to use products that have become industry standard. The words "capture" and "monopoly" come to mind even though they don't quite apply here.

"Hostile" does, though, especially since Mac users end up locked into the ecosystem through software and cloud services and become uncertain how to leave it behind if they ever decide that a computer should cost less than a month's rent on a shitty studio apartment in LA.

There's a very good reason I didn't give mac advice and that's because my mac advice is "DON'T."

[askyuuandco]

My Yuu, when she learns about Malleus's absence in Dorm Leader meetings and she's just being a b*tch to them all (malleus isn't 100% safe either) and sick of their garbage

-------

My Yuu: So let me get this straight. A man who lives in an area that has been stuck in an 18th century time capsule that has no modern technology what so ever like cars and other stuff, a man who is fear by many and not feared by a select few due to his high level magical powers, like literally everyone runs away from this man, and you thought it was a good idea to give him emails and digital letters that he doesn't understand and read???...HAHAHAHA!!!

Riddle: Well, when you put it like that, you make it seem like we are idiots

My Yuu: Oh no, you are idiots. That's exactly what I'm saying. I am making fun of you all. :D

Vil: excuse-

My Yuu: Your excused Vil :)

Vil: 😡

My Yuu: Malleus dear, how many phones have broken?

Malleus: um 200 I think?

Idia: *faints*

My Yuu: and thought it was wise to give emails?

Azul: but Lilia, Silver, and Sebek literally know how to use a phone and live in the same area! How come he gets a pass but they don't?

My Yuu: Silver and Sebek are around the same as all of us here and grew up with the same things parents didn't deprive them of anything. Lilia is probably 600-700 years old in human years and travels a lot on a daily basis, meaning he's one of the few fae that got a full and complete understanding of modern technology. Malleus has been stuck in a castle and 1 continent for 178 years and hasn't had left that spot, forced to stay by himself most of the time and no interaction with other people or children his age. The only reason why he's even in this freaking school is to make friends and learn about modern human culture as a whole. And you lots thought it was a good idea to be rude. How mature of you :D

Azul: I have no further questions ;w;'///

Malleus: so am I not in trouble?

My Yuu: Oh no. You are in trouble, young man, for the number of phones you have broken and staying in 1 place for 1-2 hours at a time, and temperament issues

Malleus: :(

Leona: Ha!-

My Yuu: Leona Kingscholar, you say 1 more word and send you to the gods, but you'll probably be sent to hell instead. Do u wish to die right now? Because i can grant you that wish. Don't test me. 😡

Leona: ...

My Yuu: and you know what you all as dormheads lack basic teamwork skills anyway as to wonder why your dorms never get along is because you guys never get along I'm this close on rage quitting on all of you because I am so done with your bull crap

Kalim: but your fingers are touching

My Yuu: exactly. :D

Dormheads: >x> ...

My Yuu: :]

Dormheads: we'll fix it

My Yuu: glad to hear :D

Crowley: *shaking behind the group*

Dormheads: so much for our 'generous headmaster' =_=

[just-my-latest-hyperfixation]

📚 🔮 🎨 i love u

Love you too!!! 😍💖🌸

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend? Aaaargh, you know that I forget any opinion I've ever held the second anyone asks me for one! There's so many incredibly talented ppl in this fandom, and so many fantastic fics, how am I to choose one??? Here's some I've read and loved recently:

hunter's moon by mourningshowers: a very intriguing werewolf AU with a cool, unique spin on pack dynamics, and stunning prose - the descriptions of ppl's scents in particular stuck with me, they're so vivid and evocative! butter, sugar, and northern mockingbirds by @thefreakandthehair: the most perfectest, soft, mushy, sweet bakery AU. If you're in need of a fic that will leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy and happy inside, this is a definite rec! Never coming down (with your hand in mine) by @eyesofshinigami: the latest instalment in their omega!Eddie series, which I adore. If you're into a/b/o and omega Eddie, give this one a read!

🔮 Any advice for writers working through burnout or writer’s block?

Some things that work for me, personally:

Just write! I sit myself down, set a word count (100 words, 200 words, doesn't matter, it's about getting started) and don't get up or hop on socials before I have written that word count down. Maybe I'll find my flow and keep going, maybe I'll think it's garbage and leave it for the day. I never delete what I wrote, even if I hate it. Instead, I come back a day or two later and look it over with a fresh pair of eyes. Most of the time, I'll realize that it doesn't suck as bad as I thought it did.

Write something small! If my large WIPs seem too daunting atm, I'll try a microfic or drabble - something small and relatively low effort. Those also have the added bonus that I can yeet them out immediately after they're done, and the reactions I get usually give me the serotonin boost I need and motivate me to write more. (Bc I'm an attention whore like that! XD)

Let the brain run idle! I take a walk. I craft or doodle something. I play with my kid. I watch a movie or go out with friends. The main thing is, I don't write. I try to not even think of writing. That's often when my best ideas hit me out of nowhere.

🎨 If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

I am blessed enough to have a bunch of incredibly talented mutuals who have made so much wonderful, gorgeous, incredible art of my work. I look at it daily, it makes me feel so incredibly loved and cherished. I couldn't wish for more! That being said, if someone asked me, I'd probably pick for a scene from Someone who cares because that's my oldest fic (my baby, my firstborn, etc.) and it doesn't have any art yet.

Fic writer asks

[obsessedfluffbutt]

I want to talk a little bit about my take on Ronaldo Fryman.

Some notes to start: I don't like Ronaldo. At all. He's annoying and obnoxious and I totally understand where the hate he gets comes from.

Onto my thoughts: Ronaldo is a pretty typical, chronically online incel type guy. He's incredibly toxic most of the time and not particularly nice to anyone if it gets in the way of what he's doing.

Ronaldo is me when I was in school. I was heavily isolated from my peers, living in the middle of farming nowhere, always had to help with the family business, was rarely able to socialize outside of my family if I wasn't online, and was labeled as the "weirdo" in school.

Ronaldo is somewhat isolated outside of the internet, living in a small town, deemed the "weirdo" by his peers and only had close relationships online or with his family. So he deals with that isolation the same way I did, by deeming himself somehow "special" and diving head first into ghosts, and cryptids and conspiracy theories. Online communities for these things can be surprisingly supportive at times, especially if you live in a "haunted" area.

In my case the farm I lived on was well over 100 years old, and was the towns former post office before being converted into a farmhouse when the town basically died. The town itself boasted maybe 200 residents when I lived there, and I was considered "the weird one" out of all of them, with the exception of the lady down the road we weren't allowed to talk to cuz she was "a witch". I'm not even kidding.

All this comes together to mean that Ronaldo isn't some awful character with no redeeming qualities. He's just a total weirdo who needs to get out and experience real people and real relationships, and if he doesn't he'll be permanently stuck as an incel.

In my case, I got out. Met my future partner online, then met in person, we went out experienced all sorts of fun stuff together, and have now been together 9 years.

I see a lot of the old me, the me that sometimes I'd like to forget about and pretend never existed, in Ronaldo Fryman. Which is why I dislike him so much. However I've learned that I have to give myself some grace, I was an undiagnosed autistic child with anxiety and depression who thought I would never live passed the age of 18. I should give the character Ronaldo that same grace.

I grew up eventually, even if slower than those who had better support, and now I own my home, volunteer with a few animal rescue groups, and have had a steady job of my own.

This is why it makes me sad we never got to see any growth or development from Ronaldo in the show. He's permanently stuck in our minds as this chronically online incel jerk.

I'm glad Lars got the redemption arc and growth that he did, but it makes me sad that Ronaldo didn't. Because that makes me think that, if I ever were to run into old schoolmates they would all assume I'm still, in their words, "the crazy weirdo who'll marry a cardboard cutout of an anime character" instead of an individual who grew.

[bus-stop-to-kpop]

TXT Reaction #2 - Y/N is scared of fireworks

Requested?: No

Word Count: 100 - 200 each

A/N: I didn’t manage to post this last year so I waited a literal year only to almost miss my time to post it again. (┬┬﹏┬┬) Anyways I hope you have a nice New Years eve and a good start to 2023!! Lots of Love from Admin J

Yeonjun:

Yeonjun was aware of your fear of fireworks, you had told him before but said you would still go to watch them with him.

He was grateful for you trying to put your fear aside for him, but quickly realized you were more uncomfortable that you had predicted.

A few hours before midnight the two of you were strolling around the streets when the first people already started off their fireworks.

Even though you tried to hide your reaction, Yeonjun who had his arm around yo, felt your body flinch with every explosion.

"That's not it. Let's go somewhere else." Before you could even protest Yeonjun was pulling you into the opposite direction.

He came to a stop in front of a karaoke room and pulled you inside with him.

"But you were so excited to watch the fireworks?" You felt guilty about making him miss it. "It doesn't matter, it's the same as last year anyway. This year I wanna enjoy some nice karaoke with you." He smiled brightly to assure you it was fine, before handing you a mic and picking your favorite song.

Soobin:

Soobin gets scared when you tell him there's something he needs to know. The way you sit him down on the sofa and look at him all serious gets him nervous.

His mind wanders, what could have happened for you to be like this. But when you tell him you can't go to watch the fireworks with him because you're scared he just laughs.

Not because he's making fun of you, but simply because he's relieved that it's nothing serious.

Actually as an introvert, he's very happy to be able to stay home together with you instead of being out there in the cold, stuck between the people in the crowd who want to watch the fireworks.

So you order food, play some board games and when it's shortly before midnight Soobin puts on some music so you don't have to hear the explosions of the fireworks.

Beomgyu:

He already knew of your fear, so he didn't even plan to go out. Instead he invites you to his studio, you know, because it's soundproof. The sound of fireworks can't reach you there.

He has various different foods delivered so the two of you can eat all evening long. He even buys a little bit of alcohol from the store nearby, before you arrive.

"Woah, isn't that a bit much." You laugh seeing everything he got spread out on the small table in his studio. Beomgyu insists that all this food is necessary so the two of you survive the night.

After eating you decide to mess around with the equipment recording some stuff as jokes, but Beomgyu surely is going to use it as adlibs in the future only so he can have your voice in one of his songs.

Both of you don't even notice the time has passed so fast and midnight is already over until Beomgyu gets a call from his family to wish both of you a happy new year.

Taehyun:

You didn't tell him about your fear, scared that he would think it's ridiculous and childish, even though Taehyun would never think that.

Deciding that facing your fear might help you get over it, you met up with Taehyun at the park. Looking for a spot to lay down your blanket so you could sit down while watching the fireworks.

Taehyun noticed something was off though, you weren't as cheerful as usual and you seemed nervous.

"Are you alright?" 'He asked as he sat down next to you on the blanket. You nodded your head but it was obvious to Taehyun you were lying so he asked again.

With a sigh you told him about your fear of fireworks and how you had been scared to tell him, not even noticing the single tear rolling down your face until Taehyun wiped it away.

It was too late to go back home now, the clock closing in on midnight, so Taehyun looked through the bag he brought for his noise cancelling headphones to ensure that you could still look at the fireworks without getting scared by the loud explosions, while he held you close to him to keep you calm and protected.

Huening Kai:

Kai had brought you to a New Years Party with him, without knowing of your fear.

At first it was all fun and games, you were having fun at the party with Kai and his friends, laughing and drinking.

But the closer it got to midnight the more nervous you got. It was obvious everyone was excited for the fireworks but you.

So when everyone went to gather outside to watch them you excused yourself to the restroom for a minute.

Kai was nervous, it was only a minute until midnight and you still weren't back, were you feeling unwell? He decided to go look for you, getting confused when he found the restroom empty.

He finally found you in the kitchen looking outside while holding yourself to calm you down. Kai hurries to you asking what's wrong, so you have no choice but to explain your fear to him.

Kai hugs you tightly as fireworks start going off outside, "I want you to feel comfortable an safe." He doesn't mind if that means he won't get to the see the fireworks.

[saving-word-crawls]

Gravity Falls Word Crawl

By: BritishSass

I’ll admit, this is a super simple crawl, so feel free to add more zeros or ones to make the writing times and numbers longer/larger. This crawl is just about the first episode, since… well, I’ve got some writing to do that isn’t this, even though I wish I could do more.

You, along with your friends Dipper and Mabel, have been sent to Gravity Falls for the summer. Unfortunately for you, you’re stuck in the same house as them. At least it isn’t in the same room? As you ride the bus, are you excited to be going to Gravity Falls with your friends? If you are, then write for the 10-minute ride there as you theorize about what it’ll be like there. If not, then do a 5-minute word war with one of your friends to pass the time and avoid thinking about it. If you lose, you’ll have to do their chores for a week (Or another 100 words), so be careful!

You and your friends arrive, and Dipper finds a weird journal in the woods… He enlists your help with figuring out what it means, so you spend 15 minutes writing/studying the writing in the journal.

Huh, it sure looks like there’s something strange afoot. Dipper makes sure you hide the journal well whenever his Grunkle Stan passes by, so at least you don’t have to worry about keeping an eye out for him. On the other hand, it sure looks like Mabel’s having fun! Write 200 words as you watch her try to rig a way to get a boyfriend, or write for 5 minutes as you keep helping Dipper with the journal.

Hey, it looks like Mabel’s actually found someone! Do a 5-minute word war to determine whether or not you believe that Norman is, well, normal. If you win, then you’re pretty sure he isn’t. If you lose, it takes another 5 minutes writing/studying to put together that something is at least a little bit off here.

Dipper finds a picture that seems a lot weirder than most, at least: A picture with Norman’s hand falling off. Ooh, that doesn’t look good. Write 150 words as Dipper prepares the cart to go after Mabel.

You hop on board to join him, and you both hurry through the woods to find her and Norman. It seems you’ve arrived just in time, as Mabel is being tied down by a bunch of gnomes! Write another 300 words to help her get out while Dipper gets out the shovel.

The two of you help Mabel out of her predicament only to find yourselves in an even larger one! You all get in the cart together, hurrying through the woods as you try to get away, but the gnomes fuse into one giant gnome, chasing after you! Write for 15 minutes as you escape!

The cart unfortunately crashes, and you three all climb out. Everything seems like it’s going to end poorly when Mabel gets up and offers to marry the gnomes as they asked. At least, until she gets out the leafblower! Write 150 words to help clean up the mess of the gnome colony without their leader.

Luckily, that seems to have worked. The other two comfort each other, but you don’t exactly have a sibling to awkwardly sibling hug here, so you just head inside, greeting Grunkle Stan. He offers that you can pick something before the others do because of the “overstocked inventory,” as he puts it.

If you pick the notebook and pencil, then write 200 words to try it out!

If you pick the hat, then take a walk instead-- you’ve been writing for a while, and the best way to try out a hat is with the sun and wind.

If you pick the grappling hook, then write for 5 minutes as you try to figure out how to use it.

If you pick the bumper sticker, then do a word-war for 5 minutes. You need to talk to someone else.

Overall, you’ve had an eventful first… Day? Week? You aren’t sure how long you’ve been in Gravity Falls, but already, you’ve had quite the adventure! Write about it for another 10 minutes, or just take a break. You’ve earned it after such a big day.

[ultramaga]

“ Maybe I’m missing something “ Or maybe you are dishonest.  “ you seriously made illogical leaps here “ See, what an honest person would do is not just state that as a fact, but prove it with evidence, using quotes of my actual words. Instead you try for the wall of text in your next paragraph, in the hopes that noone will notice the sleight of hand. You never deal with logic, but you are so eager to claim your opponents are the illogical ones.

Seriously, ChatGPT is going to put the Leftists out of work. Almost everything a Leftist says can be generated by one bot over a weekend.  “ It’s nearly impossible to have a household with multiple people “ Moving the goalposts. The topic was EQUALITY. Have you forgotten that, or are you just hoping we have? “ if a disabled person gets married and wants a family, there becomes a financial issue “ AGAIN, EQUALITY. You cannot claim to have some discrimination when exactly the same problems arise for straight people. Marriage means combined finances, which means straight people can lose their pension if they get married. BUT YA GOTTA PLAY THE VICTIM. Holy shit! Sorry, either you don’t understand logic at all - and if you had Leftist teachers at school, that’s hardly surprising - or you are desperately gaslighting.

“ It is a risk for someone disabled to marry someone who is not financially capable of providing for them both. And it really shouldn’t have to be like that. “ You should write a nasty letter to the creator. Disability is a part of reality. It doesn’t entitle you to other people’s labours. That’s slavery. Claiming you want to have a pension that isn’t means tested just means you could marry a rich person and still leech off the taxpayers.  You say marriage is a risk? Get over it!  But the context here is MARRIAGE EQUALITY. That is the idea that there should be no discrimination on the basis of SEXUALITY for MARRIAGE. https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/lgbti/marriage-equality-2012 Now you have that, and want to move the goalposts so that you get to have the pension and the rich hubbie? No, fuck off. The money goes from the taxpayers to those in the greatest need. That means “means testing”, i.e. assessing whether or not the spouse has money.  If you don’t like that, try earning money.  That means not being a Leftist, and assessing rationally what consumers want, and supplying the demand.

Like they did with Maverick. They stuck their finger up at wokeness, and created a macho movie, like we used to have. Made a bundle. Turns out you can make money from manly men, who knew? I had a look at the biggest box office bombs of all time. Lightyear 2022$200$226.4$106–122$106–122[# 72] Moonfall 2022$138$67.3$138$138[# 82] Strange World 2022$180$73.6$197$197[# 112] Turning Red § 2022$175$19.8$167$167[# 123] Chaos Walking 2021$100$26.5$112$121[# 25] Jungle Cruise § 2021$200$220.9$150$162[# 66] The Last Duel 2021$100$30.6$99$107[# 71] The Matrix Resurrections § Most of these are woke as shit. I highlighted the ones I know about, I haven’t heard of the others. And streaming has had woke show after woke show been collapsing under the woke. Hell, Picard nearly killed Star Trek - until in season 3 they mostly abandoned the woke and decided to try making money instead.

Turns out an entire TV show about emasculating male heroes doesn’t draw in the crowds.  Appealing to Leftists never works anyway. They are anticapitalist. Hollywood etc is trying to sell stuff to people who will only steal, loot and burn. And denying, mostly, the huge numbers of people who ACTUALLY BUY THINGS. Meanwhile, the gigabillions of profit are being made by not-woke products made in Japan and Korea.

Western superhero comics went woke and now the main comic companies exist only thanks to the movies - which have now gone woke and are no longer making money.  The ones that are successful aren’t woke - The Boys comic (not tv, although that bounces about), the Invincible comic (cartoon flirts with it but mostly ignores it). Meanwhile, Japan just generates hit after hit.

Turns out having dominant masculine men and pretty women is a successful formula. Who knew?

A traditional nuclear family. HOW HETERONORMATIVE. But oh so profitable!!

Manga has obliterated the western superhero comic industry, because it doesn’t give a shit about Leftist values, and focuses on making money. Leftists only understand money as being something they are given because Leftist by the State, and they either don’t understand or don’t care that every dollar that comes from the State comes via coercion from TAXPAYERS. Money that was supposed to be given out to those incapable of earning money themselves. But Leftists, mostly, CAN earn money. They CHOOSE not to - they choose to make products nobody wants, and when the market refuses to buy, they just scream slurs at them. Disney's Elemental SLAMMED as a Bad Racism Allegory?! https://youtu.be/H7mxJIuhIco The Flash is One of the BIGGEST Box Office Bombs of ALL TIME! https://youtu.be/OBr5BMwpEL0 Doctor Who Showrunner SLAMS 'Diverse' Writers?! https://youtu.be/kvj8qt_gh20 Phoebe Waller-Bridge Thinks She's Getting MORE Indiana Jones?! https://youtu.be/P-ggQB1sBEU Failure after failure after failure. Leftists can scream that the audience is a bunch of incels - but they can’t make us pay for their stuff, unless they do it through The State. https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/school-life/11yo-boy-reads-from-pornographic-book-at-school-meeting/news-story/3f1ea17f3496a5236046abe366ea51c2 And that’s the back door that they use if they can. They will take taxpayer money that was given on the grounds that it would go to those in need, and they will spend it on kiddy porn. They will make YOU pay for the perversion of YOUR children. Leftists are worthless parasites. If every one of them died, the only problem would be the cleanup of the bodies.  That can’t really be said of any other group. Leftists alone live with their hands out, expecting free stuff, and screeching when the mattress pile still isn’t to their liking.

[milo-hypno]

Milo, your Fanfic Q&A reblog - would you do 3 and 14 for Married AU? there's definitely some black magic happening ^^

Absolutely, I'll do my best!

3. If this work is an update/new chapter, how do you stay motivated on multi-chapter works?

I mean, a lot of things are at hand! The satisfaction of bringing an idea I had to life is certainly nothing to sneeze at - and since I like to print my works, knowing that when it's done I'll be able to hold a finished product in my hands is a nice motivator.

I also can't lie and say that the feedback I get from readers doesn't help - I do my best not to write for it, but all the same, knowing that people enjoy what I do is a nice drive.

But I think the thing that keeps me most motivated, actually, is sprinting (will touch on later) and sharing the nights work with a close friend. We both write in-fandom, and every night we sprint (well, she's certainly more dedicated to it - I do my best to be daily, but I miss sometimes) and then afterwards, we will send each other what we wrote, and then give feedback.

It gets me more excited to write every day, and gives me a gentle external pressure to work something out when I'm stuck. I can talk about my works, get advice, and give in turn - which is great for me! It also has a quicker deadline, so I can't just procrastinate and go "Ah, I have another 3 days to get it done, I don't need to write tonight."

14. Explain your writing process for this work.

I can't say I have a massive like, 12-step program, but the routine I've found works best in the past year is:

1 - initial plan, which usually involves writing a scene out that has Just Come To Me, or messaging a friend to talk about it with. For Married Au, it actually started with talking to a friend about a wholly separate AU, where we were trying to think of a reason why two characters might get married without being in love. (I had... a certain fixation to the trope at the time.) I was also juuust recovering from covid at the time.

That quickly turned into "Hey, what if Grian and Mumbo got married for like, an internal compass"

After that, I first talked about the idea more with said friend, and THEN I wrote a solid thousand words of outline.

When I outline things, I'm careful to make it more like guidelines/reminders, instead of say, "Grian breaks down in front of Mumbo in the middle of the night, Mumbo says "Hey don't worry I've got you."

My first 3 chapter outlines look like this:

Which is really nothing more than planning pacing, and enough of a reminder to jog my memory - anything too detailed, and I find that writing the scene can be exhausting - though, I do have notes with more details the further in and more plot-ridden a chapter is.

Other than that... all I do is:

Sprint (semi-)nightly - a writing sprint being a set amount of time where you write as much as you can. Discord has a bot available that allows you to do so with friends, which is very fun and a good motivator!

The habit is easy to break, but rewarding. When I was working on my DSMP fics, I used to average 100-200 words a night. Now, I average 500~, and sometimes I'll get a massive amount of inspiration for the scene, and will get up to 2k usually. (The most I've ever written in one night is 5k words - and man, my wrists ACHED at the end!)

Write consecutively - I used to write scenes like I was throwing darts at a dartboard, going to whichever plot point I wanted to at the time. It worked for me back then, but now, I've trained myself to the point where I barely write scenes before their time in the story. (Co-writing a fic with Ski helped a lot in that regard, because you're forced to keep it linear.)

I don't stop myself from doing a scene, however, if I'm in the mood - often times, I end up grateful I did so, since the scene could be a lot different with even a few hours between when I wrote it, and when I could have.

And finally, like I said above - exchanging the day's writing with a good friend, and sharing the excitement for it, is a massive motivator and key step for me.

I think the one thing that I trip on, however, is if I get to a scene where I didn't have enough planning - mentally, or in an outline. Usually, I don't improv story beats, just how it plays out exactly - but I have a vague shape in my mind for everything. So I guess my best advice is... if you have a spot in your story where it's just a "fill in the blank", maybe do so sooner than later.

[pet-pet-peet]

Can i get some headcanons of reader avoiding kisses and hugs in a playful sort of way for the vice dorm leaders?

Omg yes, this sounds so frikkin cute ><

100 follower event (over)

200 follower event

Masterlist

Tw: Intimacy is mentioned, except with Ortho

Pairing(s): Trey, Ruggie, Jade, Jamil, Rook, Ortho (platonic), Lilia x gn reader who teasingly avoids their hugs and/or kisses (separate)

He doesn’t get to kiss you much, with how busy he tends to be, so anytime he can, he will

When he leans in for one and you move your face so he kisses your cheek instead, he’s thrown off

He just takes it as you not wanting to kiss him right now, doesn’t push it but is noticeably a bit sad since he was hoping it would ease his stress

You have to explain to him you were just messing around so he won’t take anything too hard and won’t overthink it

Give him a big, long smooch after, poor bean deserves the love

He doesn’t really lean into kisses much, preferring hugs since they’re more comforting to him

Especially when you pet his ears, he loves when you do that; but he doesn’t love that you just dodged his open arms

He pouts, but our sneaky boy isn’t giving up and he hugs you from behind as you try to walk away

You’re not getting away from him THAT easily, now you lost your privilege to decide when the hug ends

You’re gonna be stuck there for a while as he snuggles you in a somehow petty and vengeful way-

Another bean who’s stresses can easily be discarded by loving kisses; And boy is he stressed after a hard and crowded day in the Mostro Lounge

He finds himself in your loving embrace after he’s able to settle down for the day, and he leans his head towards you for a kiss

You avoid it by looking out the window..and he’s a little upset, but decides to play your game

He starts kissing your cheek and jaw, then your neck

He doesn’t stop until you’re a flustered mess, it’s what you get for being so mean to him

At the end of the day, he just wants to be in your arms resting

So you, sitting there and pretending he isn’t near you, reading your book as his eyes gaze longingly, make him a little sad

He shifts so he’s up against your side and kisses your temple; ignoring him from there gives you a very upset and pouty partner

You can’t hold in how cute you think he is, so you let him know you were just messing with him

What you didn’t realize was that he now has a reason to get very petty revenge on you in the future..for now, though, he just wants cuddles

Rook’s another hugger, he loves feeling your warmth against him

He hugs you all the time, so to avoid his hugs means you have to avoid him- and you bet he noticed immediately

He uses his big brain hunter skills to sneak up on you and ask if he did something wrong, a very expressive, sad expression on his face

You cave and tell him that it was just a prank, that you were just messing with him, and his face lights up

He lifts you in a hug, one that seemed so innocent, until he starts to carry you away with a mischievous glint in his eye

He doesn’t just like hugs, he requires them

Who can EVER really avoid hugging this wholesome bean? Honestly, it’s more of a challenge for you

But he notices that you don’t seem to want to hug him today, and tells you that it’s fine and he hopes you’re doing okay

You break and hug the sweet bean, he’s just too nice to you- and he smiles so brightly when you give him hugs!

He’s got a cheat code for hugs, it’s not fair

He can really go either way, it depends on the day

We’ll assume he’s having more of a kiss day, though, so he does his usual and appears in front of you upside down

His eyes look at you eagerly as he waits for you to kiss him in greeting, and he blinks rapidly as you just greet him with a smile and words

He probably figures out that you’re trying to mess with him, so he tests you by tearing up and pouting cutely, “Do you..not want to kiss me, dearest?”

If you don’t have very high willpower, good luck, because he’s gonna make this challenge on him flip onto you very easily- two can play at this game, in his mind

*All Images are official art from Twisted Wonderland and do not belong to me. They are the Lab Coat Groovy card art

[annieqattheperipheral]

yes! willy still berated and not recognized for his work ethic smh. the fact that he hasn't ever even been considered (by the media. idk internal) for an A??? sacrilegious.

the teams who recognize C & As should reflect team's aspirational vibes direction (not just settled vets or best players) they're the ones getting the W

MLSE sadly is v much stuck in the old ages. Dubas did what he could to drag it into modern technology era. But its still v much "pay ur dues" shit (like how they kept kadri down for so long before bringing him up)

If they wanted Aus to be the future of the team, fine, nurture him name him C from a young age like so many other franchises did w their lil baby hockey einsteins. But they didn't so instead he operates a bit more selfishly (i don't say this as a bad thing, every successful person has to be selfish) instead of team strength.

I wish mitchy wasn't viewed so childishly. ofc has a lot to do w his slender twinky stature and his childlike exuberance. That kind of excitement and drive and worrying himself sick over how his boys are doing and being there for them 100% of the time would drive everyone on the team to want to go 200% for him. (ofc yes yes he did have some growing up to do like how easily he used to get affected by soc media & reporters and needed to go on a sm ban.)

MLSE named jt C thinking he'd be a good dad to a bunch of directionless kids which is nonsense. head coach is built in team dad (not to be confused w team daddy) and you don't party w dad you get scolded by dad (and spanked by daddy . im sry what)

willy my bb. Just only gets better w every season. If treliving loses him this offszn the guy knows absolutely nothing about hockey nor business. Willy is gonna make so many ppl eat their words. Will be a superstar and should be captain of the leafs.

With the reality we're in my only hope is that JT loosens up w hosting knies in his basement and learns to breach the gap between generations... But so far he's only made him go to work hours early and advised him to read self-help books and memoirs. Basically exactly the same advice my dad gave me as a teen lmao all while ensuring he never needed to talk to me

I don’t know if Auston attends many weddings tbh, he seems pretty quiet every off season. He only hangs out with his family and his Arizona friends in the summer. I only remember seeing him at the Kadri wedding (like 2017-18?) and one pic of him at a wedding in the summer 2019 his friend posted and that’s it. That’s a low number considering how many friends he has in the league/hockey world

And that right there makes me wonder about Leafs culture yet again. Yes they all love and respect each other but they're quite silo'd from each other eh?

Ofc i get wanting to draw a line bw work and personal. And aus right to do whatever he pleases in his off time

...but when you've got schenn coming in and setting up a full team dinner on an away game for the first time ever in this core's history. That's heartbreaking shocking facts. They're lovely and cordial and playful n whatnot like u are with coworkers u don't hate.... But when push comes to shove literally that is why they don't stand up for each other on the ice.

Like ok let's use the best example possible: matthew tkachuk. Dude shows up to Florida and immediately takes out the trainers for a meal and barky like ohhh helllsss yea this dude gets it. He gets team vibes. That's how they pushed n pulled each other to the SCF. That's how Calgary made anything happen despite the cruelty of sutter littered all about.

And ppl want Aus to be CAPTAIN????????? bffr

BE. FUCKING. FOR. REAL.

I had to spell it out bc acronyms just ain't enough in these trying times

Another example on a smaller scale-- willy hosting away game dinners for the Swedes. Those blond bitches are BONDED. Looking out for each other on the ice. Crying and weeping and cradling and walking each other out of arenas after getting traded mid practice

I'd rather have willy or mitchy as captain over jt or aus. I think u plop that level of responsibility at his feet mitchy would be like omg Steph babe pls setup team events for me?? U make cocktails right? Just booze us all up and take us ax throwing or whatever. And he'd worry his cute ass off about his little creatures

Or willy as captain?? That boy looks chill but he is dedicated and focused on every task and he would whip up a Google shared spreadsheet and calendar with his little round wire specs on and get everyone on the same page. And then he'd show up last to every one of his events ofc but dw its all setup by vendors & ready to go

... sigh. Ok lmao that got long.

MLSE wants everyone to stop focusing on the core? Well how about you give them a reason to care about anyone besides themselves

They have the skills. They've always had the skills. They need the culture

[animeomegas]

Aye yo! I have returned >:]

My favourite snack is Chips

My favourite subject is reading

My favourite weather is sunny✨ (spring)

And for fandom... Idk if you know Black Clover or anything so I'll just go with MHA for the fandom TvT✨

Welcome back!! @whiskers-the-lyxra

Love interest: Shinsou

Genre: Romantic comedy

Length: One chapter, but like, 10,000 words.

Plot:

Getting stuck in a time loop has serious potential for angst and stress, but what if the purpose of your time loop is successfully asking out the prickly and loner boy you've always had a crush on?

There's -100% angst and 200% shenanigans.

You wake up one school day determined to ask out Shinsou. Everything goes pear shaped when he proves skilful at avoiding you at lunch time, so disheartened, you post pone your plans.

Until you wake up again that morning.

This time you ask him in the classroom before he can escape, but he assumes you're mocking him and gets angry. Failure number 2.

And you wake up again that morning.

This time you write him a letter and slip it in his locker, signed by secret admirer. He throws it in the bin without reading it.

Failure number 3.

And you wake up again that morning.

This time, you stay late after school to train in the gym you know that Shinsou uses and offer to spar with him. He accepts with some suspicion, but accepts nonetheless.

And it your surprise, he accepts your offer to go to a cafe nearby after the training finishes. But you put your foot in your mouth when he asks why you're doing this. You talk about how you saw him at the sports festival and- he shuts down from the conversation, suspicion rising.

Failure number 4.

And you wake up again that morning.

You repeat the previous day, but when he asks why you're doing this, you instead speak of his dedication to training and being a hero, you talk about how much you admire him, how pretty you think he is too. You get him to blush and you feel giddy. He agrees to swap numbers with you.

And this time, when you head to sleep, you finally wake up to the next morning and a cat meme Shinsou had sent you while you'd been asleep.

[dreadnotau]

Happy one year of Dread Not, everyone!

Yeah, it really has been that long already. It honestly doesn’t feel like it’s been a year at all! Even if you just recently found the comic, or stuck with it since the first promotional post, thank you. This project has been one of the most fulfilling I’ve taken on in a long time. And, as usual, I’d like to say some things on this occasion.

Firstly, hoo boy the numbers are bigger than I imagined they’d be. As of writing this, the Tumblr account has 295 followers, and the Twitter account is sitting at a comfortable 41. That is a LOT of people. As some of you may recall, I made a milestone post when we reached 100 followers on Tumblr, and I genuinely thought that would be the biggest milestone I reach that year.

I didn’t even notice when we got past 200 followers (most of whom were coming from my youtube channel of all things), and now we’re close to 300! That’s madness!! Especially for a project like this that’s being handled by exactly one person with minimal help from a friend. (That friend is @meowchela btw I feel like I don’t promote her enough. She’s basically the reason this comic exists at all, she’s wonderful).

Obviously I don’t want this whole post to just be about the metrics, I wanna talk about other things that surround this comic. Like how much of a mess working on it tends to be. I don’t wanna turn this into me whining about school but, long story short, I’m in my last year of high school right now, prepping for college and writing my thesis (I think that’s the right English word…) and it’s all VERY hectic.

I’m not gonna pretend that I’m trying my hardest at all of this, I will be the first to say my time management is awful, I’m just bringing this all up for anyone wondering why updates are so slow, and why I missed the page upload on catholic Christmas. It all gets a bit hard to keep up with sometimes, but I won’t stop working on this comic, that’s for sure! Paradoxically, somehow I’m more motivated to work on Dread Not if I should be doing other things. I think it’s pure spite at this point.

Speaking of responsibility, I promised more bonus content both on Tumblr and on Twitter on several occasions and, as you all can probably see, that has not happened yet. The simplest explanation is that I often don’t have ideas for what kind of bonus content to even make. Sketches of the characters? Finished drawings of the characters? Scrapped scenes from the comic? Non-canon scenarios and scenes? The characters’ design references? Canon facts about the characters and the world that I wasn’t able to include in-comic? More speedpaints??

I’m sure these all sound great on paper, but I have no idea how much time and energy I’d have to potentially allocate for each, and how much they’d actually impact people’s interest in the comic. For now, the bonus content will stay minimal until I can think of something reliable and interesting to release as said bonus content.

If you’re really invested in Dread Not, though, I’d recommend joining the discord server! It’s not too big, it has around 20 people in it so far, and I like to think it’s a fairly casual server! The reason I’m promoting it here is because it helps with my motivation to work on the comic a LOT. It really makes a world of difference when you can talk to people one on one instead of just relying on numbers on a post.

If you don’t want to join the server but still want to share your thoughts on the comic, the ask box is always open, and so are my DMs! Both here and on my main Tumblr. My main Tumblr got a bit of an upgrade recently, so I’ll maybe be more active there than I was before. Maybe. No promises.

On the bright side, I have nearly the whole story planned out now! I know that might not sound like much, but the story has been very loose with it’s structure so far (as you may have noticed). The story jumps from character to character at near random, some ideas are left hanging for tens of pages on end until they’re picked up again, and the narration in the yellow boxes feels arbitrary at best and out of place at worst, at least when I go back and reread it myself. This is because act 1 was sketched out in it’s entirety before I started actually fully rendering and releasing the pages online. So, the story of act 1 was made in a very “explorative” way, in that I had only vague concepts I wanted to get down on paper eventually in my head, and a blank canvas to work with. The pacing and structure of it has been a little lacking because of that, and I’m doing my best to right that wrong by planning out acts 2, 3 and 4 before beginning to sketch them properly.

Speaking of, I can finally put a somewhat number to how long this story will be! All of what’s been released so far, and what I’ll release in the foreseeable future, is only part of Act 1. Act 2 will be a bit more hectic, and although I don’t have the exact number yet, I’m *assuming* the overall page number of it will be similar to Act 1. Act 3 will be a doozy, as it’ll technically have two intermissions as well. And Act 4 is a beast of it's own. It’s all almost too long to even think about without getting stressed immediately. But I know it’ll be worth it! Now that I have an actual path set out for me, I can try and tackle this growing giant of a project with more of a plan than I had when I started.

Although this is Dread Not’s first anniversary, I’ve actually been working on the comic for quite a bit longer than that. If we don’t count the concept phase, then just the comic itself is nearly two years old! (Jesus, time flies) But I do want today, the 23rd of January, to be the proper and official Dread Not Day. It doesn’t have any significance other than bringing a smile to my face, though. And hopefully to yours, too!

Here’s to another great year of working on this behemoth of a project, and probably several more after that because this story isn’t gonna be done anytime soon! Pour one out for my drawing hand, folks, it’s a long road ahead.

And, again, thank you for reading. Thank you for sticking with me and for enjoying what I’ve made. I hope you’ll enjoy what comes next just as much, maybe more. Stay tuned!

[tuanhood]

hypnotic | part one

paring: vampire!im jaebeom x reader

genre: angst, eventual smut (part two), vampire au

warnings: language, cringey vampire cliches i’m sure

word count: 9,800+

summary: jaebeom has been waiting 200 years to find his mate - the one who can break his trance and isn’t affected by his hypnotic abilities. You don’t seem to be that person, but he just can’t seem to get you out of his mind… why? 

a/n: hello guys! so i originally had this planned to post tomorrow (the 30th) but it was so long i decided to split it up and post one part today and the other part on the 31st! This first part is mostly Jaebeom and not a lot of Y/N but SO BE IT. This is also my first time writing in the genre of vampire/fantasy loL so please forgive me because it’ll probably be cringe and not make sense. if that’s the case lol drop me a message!! also vampire jaebeom was requested FOREVER ago. so here it is practically 3 decades later. and i attempted to make a banner. if someone can make me a better one it’s v much WELCOME.

part two

Knock Knock Knock 

He wished he could just pretend like he was asleep. He wished he could use that as an excuse to not answer the door, but based on the very strong feeling he was getting from who was behind it – that wouldn’t work. 

“I know you’re in there! Just answer the damn door Jaebeom!”

Jaebeom rolled his eyes, leave it to Bambam to be at his front door before the day even had a chance to truly begin. Before letting him in, he went through all the possible things or excuses he could use to get out of whatever his younger friend had in mind.

“Is your vintage YSL here or is it still at the dry cleaners?” Bambam asked, pushing past Jaebeom as soon as he has the door partway open.

Gruffly, Jaebeom turned back into his apartment to Bambam already halfway to his bedroom – no doubt to look through his closet, “What are you doing here Bam?” 

“What does it look like? I’m here for the vintage YSL asshole!” 

He’s learned by now that it’s better to let him do his thing – whatever that may mean. So instead of following Bambam, he plopped down onto the same couch he’s had for nearly 15 years. “You know when I first bought that shirt it wasn’t considered vintage!”

Jaebeom waited for a response, but instead, he was met with silence. After a few moments – many of them thinking about how maybe it was time to replace the couch – he felt his “vintage” YSL button-down hit him in the face. 

He groaned; the impact was surely going to create wrinkles in the material he tried to keep in pristine condition. It was ironic since he was often heard making fun of how much Bambam cared about clothes, but Jaebeom liked to keep his things nice. “Bam I just got it back from getting cleaned a couple of days ago.”

“Put it on.” 

The tone of his friend’s voice seemed rather impatient. If he had closed his eyes, Jaebeom would have thought he was talking to Jinyoung or even himself. 

“Why do I need to put it on? It’s 8 in the morning; where are we going?”

“Um excuse me? Did you forget what day it was? Now come on, we’re meeting Jinyoung at that new café down the street in fifteen.”

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, trying to picture the café on the mental map he keeps in his mind, “the one that used to be a video store in the 90s?”

Bambam made his way into the living room, picking up a few glasses that rested on the coffee table Jaebeom’s feet were on top of, and marched over to the small kitchen. Jaebeom has lived in this apartment more years than he’d like to admit, especially because enough time had passed that the neighbors he had were clearly aging and he just stayed 26. The thought of moving somewhere new often enters his mind, but with this place, he just can’t bring it in himself to go quite yet. It’s almost as though something is tying him to this city, this place – like he’s waiting for something.

“Yes, and a speakeasy in the 20s both of which are not important right now because we live in the 21st century Jaebeom. Now come on, Jinyoung’s waiting – that asshole is always early.” 

He heard Bambam mumble something along the lines of known him 100 years, would it kill him to just be on time for once, as he furiously dropped the glasses on the kitchen counter.

“Do I have to go?” 

Bambam paused his motions of putting Jaebeom’s dirty dishes into the sink to stare the older vampire down, “Jaebeom you only turn 200 once.” 

He scoffed in response, “Jesus don’t remind me.”

“We have to make a whole day of it! So please just put the shirt on, because I want you looking presentable,” he stopped in the middle of his sentence, suddenly wiggling his eyebrows, “you never know what could happen.” The final word is drawn out, almost sing-song like and it drives Jaebeom up the wall because he knows exactly what Bambam is referencing.

For Jaebeom and those like Jaebeom, they didn’t consider the day they were born as their birthday, but instead as the day they turned. There was no point in celebrating their birth anymore as they were no longer alive. However, at this point after 200 birthdays, – alive and dead combined - Jaebeom was beginning to believe that there was no point to those either. He always knew being immortal was a curse but day by day that idea was only solidifying itself in his mind.  

Jaebeom let out a gruff breath which only made Bambam look up from the fork he was scrubbing, “Bam I don’t know what you think is going to happen today… but it certainly isn’t that.” 

The “that” he was referencing was one of the main factors that as of late had made him feel like living forever was indeed a waste. It was the thing that was supposed to make him feel “complete.” According to old texts and traditional vampire folklore, he was now walking around half full, but once he met his mate, he would become whole. At first, he didn’t believe the tale. He had gotten by so far without a mate that the idea of him not being complete made him laugh. But watching both Bambam and Jinyoung find their mates – Bambam 70 years ago and Jinyoung 16 years ago – made him finally acknowledge and reflect on the piece of himself he was missing. 

And fuck he was lonely. 

Bambam chuckled at him as if being in on his own personal joke. His friend was strange like that sometimes, “just put the shirt on Jaebeom.” 

By the time he’s had the shirt on and Bambam has somehow convinced him to let him wear his Rolex he got as a gift from his friend Jackson in 1920, Jaebeom feels mentally prepared to leave the house and embark on this dreadful day. The reminder that he has now been around for 200 years and still is not whole.

“Finally,” Jinyoung sighed when Jaebeom and Bambam finally reached the café down the street, “I’ve been waiting 20 minutes.” 

A disgruntled Bambam checks his watch, “well if you don’t want to wait every single time, don’t be so fucking early,” he promptly turned to Jaebeom to share his grief regarding their friend, “you think he would learn after all this time.” 

“Let’s just go order,” Jaebeom shrugged, not caring to be in another disagreement between his longer than life friends.

“Be honest you’re early on purpose just so it gives you something to complain about and a reason to make us feel bad!” 

Jinyoung ignored Bambam’s theory, replying to the oldest, “no need. I already ordered for the three of us. It’s a special day, the birthday boy doesn’t need to pay,” he glanced at Bambam, “you on the other hand…” 

The two new arrivals, flop down into the sofa chairs on either side of Jinyoung, along of them situated to make a half-circle in front of a low coffee table. The three of them had somehow stuck into this… pattern. Years of friendship that contained years of Bambam/Jinyoung squabbles that Jaebeom would often have to mediate. Patterns were nice, but sometimes they would get old – especially after so long. 

As the two of them argue over whether or not Bambam should pay Jinyoung back for a simple iced Americano because Bam swears he got the drinks the last two times, Jaebeom looks over to the counter where the baristas work on – no doubt – the plethora of orders they have. The factor of the café being new has certainly been the cause of the popularity and amount of people in the shop. He can’t help but feel bad for the individuals working on the drinks – three years ago he had been one of them for roughly 18 months and knew that it wasn’t as easy as it appeared to be. 

In retrospect, Jaebeom didn’t have to work. He had so much time to learn and understand what it meant to be financially responsible. Not only that, but he’s literally had hundreds of years to save. Plus, his early investments in companies ended up landing him some pretty substantial and valuable shares. Jaebeom was sitting on quite the pretty penny. 

“Wow your portfolio is remarkable… I’ve never seen one like it,” his latest financial advisor had said to him in complete awe, “I mean an early investor in Amazon? Apple? Mastercard?” 

Jaebeom had laughed nervously, “What can I say? My grandpa had good intuition, I guess.” 

Money aside, he had wanted something to do with his time – hence his barista job. It was fun, but like most things, Jaebeom just grew tired of it and as he watched the girl working the espresso machine let out an exhausted breath, he realized that he wasn’t missing it. 

Jaebeom has become good at studying people. It was something he still wasn’t sure of whether it was a vampire thing or just something he had picked up over time. Watching the girl at the machine, her hair is in a low bun, a few strands falling in front of her face. It’s clear with the way the hair tie is situated, that the hairstyle was once a bit neater, tighter, and sat at the middle or even top of her head. However, the now fallen placement and slight disarray signal how busy she’s been working and how fried she must be feeling. 

He looks to the string bracelet on her wrist, visible from far away enough for Jaebeom to conclude that she must have someone in her life deemed important to wear one of those “friendship” bracelets. He never saw the point, but humans were strange creatures, despite him once being one. 

Jaebeom’s breath hitches when he catches sight of the delicately drawn tattoo on her wrist near the bracelet. It’s of lavender and it immediately reminds him of his mother who had loved exploring the lavender field that had been near his home when he was a child. Despite all the time that has passed since he lost his mother, the pain that aches inside of Jaebeom when he thinks of her isn’t any less. 

His thoughts are interrupted by the call at the coffee bar, “Order for Jinyoung.” 

The call comes from the overworked girl he had been studying and Jaebeom wants more than anything to stand up and retrieve their orders. He finds a weird want to hear what her laugh sounds like. Maybe he could say something or strike up a conversation that would-

“What are you doing?” It takes Jaebeom a moment to notice that he has partially stood up from his chair as if he’s about to go somewhere. Cluelessly, he replied, “going to get the drinks.”

The youngest shook his head, “No way! Birthday boys don’t get their drinks, they don’t lift a finger.” 

He knew Bambam was one to take birthdays seriously, but this was beginning to feel like it was going the extra mile too many. 

“I’ll get it.” 

Jaebeom watched Bambam get up to retrieve the drinks. He expects him to just grab the drinks and return to the table, but instead, Bambam says something to the girl. Arching his neck to the side, he tries to make a clear path to eavesdrop on what’s being said, hearing being one of the benefits of turning. Unfortunately, the café is too loud for him to focus on the conversation and he’s defeated by the fact that he’ll have to stay in the dark.

The girl laughs loudly at something Bambam said and Jaebeom can’t help but feel mixed about it. On one hand, he got his wish – hearing her laugh – but on the other hand, he wasn’t the cause of it. For some reason it makes him bring his clench and unclench his fists which rest on the arms of the sofa chair. Jinyoung takes notice.

Jaebeom quickly looks down at his lap when he senses that Bambam is returning to where they’re sat, not wanting to give away that he had been staring. First, he places Jinyoung’s and his drink on the table, soon turning back around to go back and fetch the last drink – Jaebeom’s. 

When he comes back, Jaebeom looks up to see a large grin spread across the youngest’s face. He has that look again – the one as if he knows a joke Jaebeom doesn’t. 

The latter nodded his head in thanks for getting the drinks as he inspects his green tea on the table. Just as he’s about to pick up the mug, he’s stopped in his tracks by an announcement coming from the coffee bar. 

“Hello everyone! Sorry for the interruption, but I’ve been told that we have a birthday here today,” you said. Giving announcements wasn’t your strong suit, but you figured now that you were an actual owner of something, you were going to get over your shyness. But you didn’t think it was going to be that often that a tall, skinny and pale boy with a Rolex on his wrist would be asking you to get your coffee shop to sing happy birthday for his friend. Even when you were a barista working for someone else no one had made such a request. This was a café after all, not an Applebee’s.

Jaebeom wished more than anything that he could sink into his seat and just disappear. If only that cliché that vampires turned into bats were true, then he could just fly away at a moment’s notice. Leave it to Bambam to torture him like this. It wasn’t intentional of course, but it certainly felt like it to Jaebeom. 

It was especially tragic to him because the girl he had been studying was the one leading the entire café in singing “Happy Birthday.” He did his best to avoid looking at her, feeling like his entire body was heating up in embarrassment even though he couldn't heat up. 

You on the other hand felt a little insulted by the birthday boy’s lack of eye contact. You hadn’t even managed to get a good look at him before you started singing and now it was not possible with the way that he was looking down at the ground, his long hair falling in front of his face, concealing itself to you. It wasn’t difficult to conclude that he felt awkward about a bunch of strangers he had never met singing him happy birthday, you had felt the same whenever your friends tried to ambush you on your birthday… but you at least looked up and acknowledged the presence of the people singing. A tight smile from this guy would even be happily accepted. 

When the song is over and the claps that follow finally subside, he looks up to see the café back at its previous state of normalcy, not a single person looking at him anymore. Jaebeom lets out a sigh of relief. 

“You could at least act like you liked it,” Bambam huffed in annoyance. He wished Jaebeom could appreciate the idea of birthdays like he did. 

“I really didn’t need to be the center of attention today Bam.” 

“But it’s your bir-” Bambam begins to explain, but Jaebeom abruptly cuts him off, not wanting to hear his reasoning for today’s antics, yet again. The day hadn’t even started.

“My birthday, I know. Thanks for reminding me.” 

Jinyoung clears his throat and plays with the spoon that came with his Flat White. Just as Jaebeom is the mediator for Bambam and Jinyoung, sometimes Jinyoung has to be the mediator for Jaebeom and Bambam. Essentially the commonality in the disagreements of their trio friendship is Bambam and currently, Jinyoung feels as though he should route the conversation elsewhere.

“What else is in the cards for tonight then boys?” 

It’s then based on the look on Jaebeom’s face, that Jinyoung thinks that maybe talking about the plans for tonight – on Jaebeom’s birthday – isn’t re-routing the conversation. Especially since it’s Bambam’s whose eyes light up and is the one to reply to him.

“Obviously we’re going out tonight,” Bambam paused and turned to Jaebeom, wagging his finger in the latter’s face, “there’s no way you’re getting out of this. I’m not taking no for an answer this time.”

Jaebeom rolled his eyes and didn’t respond as he knew he didn’t have a choice in the matter. He had rejected Bambam’s invitations to go out consistently for the last 6 months and on his birthday of all days, Bam was going to force him out of the house just as he had done this morning to come to the café.

He looks back to the front counter, his eyes searching for the barista who has now suddenly disappeared. A frown begins to make itself known on his face, feeling a bit disappointed by the fact that she may have left already or gone elsewhere, but soon she’s popping up from behind the counter, no doubt getting something from the cabinets below. Jaebeom feels relief. 

“What did you say to her?” he asked suddenly looking back at Bambam.

He cocked his head to the side, confused, “What did I say to who?” 

“The barista behind the counter.” 

His friend nodded his head slowly, suddenly realizing what Jaebeom means. A smirk appears on his face, “nothing much… Just how it was your birthday and it would be really good if we could all embarrass you by singing about it. She’s not a barista, by the way, she owns the place. Kinda backward thinking there Jae. It’s the 21st century, women can own things now, they can vote.” 

“I know that,” Jaebeom hissed. 

Bambam puts up his hands in defeat, “I’m just making sure.” 

“Don’t you know her?” Jinyoung asked, “isn’t that why we came here?” 

Jaebeom’s interests are perked. It’s not often that the three of them meet new people. It’s not like there’s a huge point to it. The last new person the three of them met was Mark – also a vampire – a bartender at their favorite club in the city, but that was in 2007. 

He waits for Bambam’s explanation as to how he knows this girl and why they came here specifically beside it just being near Jaebeom’s apartment. 

Waving his hand nonchalantly, the Thai boy gives his answer, “I don’t really know her. Minji does. Met her in some kind of class, I think. SoulCycle? Pilates? Zumba? I don’t know. I can’t keep up with her and her activities these days.” 

Minji is Bambam’s mate. He had turned her only a month after they met. 

Jaebeom’s not sure what he would do if he met his mate. He doesn’t know if he would want to subject them to turning and living the same kind of life as him, but he also doesn’t know if he could continue life alone after meeting his mate. If he ever meets them.

“Why the curiosity?” Jinyoung asked, for once finding it hard to remain stone-faced. Even his usual chill, non-revealing demeanor seems to fade away when it appears that his older friend might be attracted to someone. 

Jaebeom simply shrugged, “it’s nothing…” 

“What do you think? Could she be the one?” Bambam asked teasingly, pointing to the girl behind the counter. 

Jinyoung rolled his eyes almost immediately at the younger boy, “if you’re going to keep bothering him about it, don’t make it so obvious idiot.” 

Jaebeom had been alive – or more like undead – for 200 years and more than half of that time he had to listen to this same conversation from his friends over and over again. His patience was wearing thin and 180 years later, he was tired of their pestering. 

He leaned forward slowly and grabbed his green tea off the table, making sure to visibly flinch at the heat of the drink, Bambam, and Jinyoung chuckling at his reaction. Out of the three of them, Jaebeom certainly had the most practice when it came to “putting on a show” for the humans and “acting” the most human. Taking a sip, he looked back at the girl behind the counter. 

The youngest vampire had spent many of their outings and conversations hypothesizing who Jaebeom’s mate could be. Despite being the oldest of the three, Jaebeom was the only one left who still hadn’t found his mate and he was beginning to feel hopeless. Typically, Bambam pointed out any human girl as a candidate – all of them of course ended up not being his mate. Therefore, Jaebeom didn’t pay attention to his picks anymore, but he had to admit… He did get a strange feeling from the girl behind the counter. 

Jaebeom looked to you, hoping to catch your gaze as you quickly made the coffee orders for the few people waiting to the side of the cash register. Just when he was about to give up and focus his attention back on his friends, you tore your concentration away from the drink in your hand and looked up at him from across the cafe. 

Jaebeom focused his gaze deep onto you with his eyes – testing, checking, and trialing your focus. You didn’t look away, instead, you trained your eyes deeply into his and stared at him until finally, it was Jaebeom who broke the contact. 

He shook his head at his friends, disappointed by your inability to break the trance and ultimately confused at the feeling he still got from you despite that. 

Jaebeom took another sip of the tea, “it’s not her.” 

“Did you have to debate that Uber driver on the Twilight franchise?” Jinyoung groaned at Bambam as soon as they’re out of the car. 

The entire twenty-minute ride, he had got into a heated discussion with their driver on how Twilight was not “true” or realistic to most actual vampire folklore. It had been an excruciating thing to listen to. 

“Got to stand up for our kind dude.” 

“Okay, but what happens when she starts asking how you know all these things or why you’re so interested in vampire stuff?” Jinyoung tended to always be right. This wasn’t an exception.

Brushing off his pants, Bambam gives him a nonchalant wave, “chill out man. Everyone loves vampire stuff.” 

“Maybe in 2008,” Jaebeom said just barely loud enough for his friends to hear them. The two of them laughed, Bambam shoving him playfully on the shoulder, “Birthday boy getting funny on us.” 

“I was always funny,” Jaebeom deadpanned. 

“Funny and looking good tonight. Let’s get you laid, shall we?” 

After a day that was jampacked full of various activities planned by his youngest friend, the last thing Jaebeom wanted to do was spend extra energy on trying to get some girl to come home with him tonight. Besides, he wasn’t that guy anymore. 

Jinyoung scoffed, “he doesn’t need to get laid tonight.”

“Yes, he does! Jaebeom how long has it been?” 

This time it’s Jinyoung that shoves Bambam’s shoulder – except it’s not all that playful. 

“Fine don’t answer that, but I’m just saying there will be quite a few girls here that you can have your pick of, despite your plain outfit.” 

Jaebeom looked at the clothes he had changed into when Bambam spared him a sliver of time to go back home to digress and feed his cats. The latter had wanted him to borrow clothes of his, but instead, Jaebeom decided on pulling pieces from his closet that felt more like him, less like Bambam. A plain pair of ripped jeans, an oversized black shirt that he had bought at a shop from his trip to London last year, and his mother’s necklace that often wasn’t missing from its spot around his neck.

Bambam’s earlier critique was that he was dressed too basic and that no girls would bat an eye at him. Girls don’t like plain guys, he had said. The comment makes Jaebeom wonder about you and whether you’d fall under the category of not liking “plain” guys. 

He bites the inside of his cheek. It was probably the eighth time he had made himself do it today. Jaebeom had found his mind often drifting to you throughout the day for some unexplainable reason. During their walk in the park, he wondered if you would take strolls during your breaks from the café or when Bambam forced him to go paint pottery for an hour and a half he thought about what you would paint. It frustrated him because he hadn’t even spoken to you – not a word and yet you were clearly on his mind for one reason or another. It wasn’t even like you were his mate. He had tried to see if you were unaffected by his trance, his hypnotic capabilities, but you had just stared at him completely fixated just as everyone else was. 

Jaebeom was not going to think about you any longer. He was already planning on avoiding your café. 

“We’re on the list,” Bambam tells the bouncer when they arrive at the entrance of the club. He scans the list and motions his head towards the direction of the door to signal to the three of them to go on ahead. There’s a bit of a whine coming from the people waiting in line which admittedly so makes Jaebeom feel a little guilty, but Bambam ensures him it’s fine, “why have a friend who works at a club if we can’t use him for the perks?” 

“Why does he keep bartending again?” As soon as the question is out of Jaebeom’s mouth he realizes it was a stupid thing to ask since the answer is apparent. 

Bambam laughed at him, giving his long – irreplaceable he’d like to remind everyone – leather coat to the person at the front of the club. Jaebeom swears he hears him tell the coat check guy the “proper” way to put it on a hanger. 

“Obviously for the girls Jaebeom.” 

Mark’s mate – Hana had passed on a long time ago. Jaebeom had never got the chance to meet her, only hears about her in passing from some stories that Mark has told the three of them. He hadn’t turned her. Jaebeom’s never asked why. 

“Girls… of course.” 

He can’t help but think about how Mark must feel inside. Although Jaebeom doesn’t know him as well as he knows Bambam and Jinyoung, whenever he’s with the older boy he’s always got a smile on his face. Often quiet, but he’s always got certain energy bouncing off of him that would indeed make him popular with women. However, if what they say about mates is true, would that mean that a piece of Mark was now missing? Did he feel like he was less of a person? Jaebeom felt like that sometimes and he hadn’t even met his mate yet. Mark had his, but now he didn’t. 

“Drinks?” Jinyoung asked the two of them and Jaebeom is partly surprised. Out of the three of them, Bambam was the one who was the most comfortable in a club or even bar setting. He figures that Jinyoung must be using his birthday as an excuse to cut loose and become someone else for the night.

Bambam instantly nodded his head at Jinyoung’s suggestion and Jaebeom finds himself trailing behind the two of them as they make their way over to Mark at the bar who is throwing his head back at something the girl across the bar is saying. Judging on Jaebeom’s intuition – it’s a bit fake and overplayed, but you got to do what you got to do.

“My man!” Bambam yelled over the music, leaning against the counter in a way to make sure he doesn’t get the elbows of his long sleeve turtleneck wet. Mark in response, turned to them and smiled, then routing his attention back to the girl, giving her an apologetic smile. Her half-smile says everything Jaebeom could need to know – this girl would not be going home with Mark after his shift tonight. 

“What can I get you guys tonight,” Mark turned to Jaebeom and the latter can barely make out his sharp canines in the dark club, “birthday boy you want anything special?” 

Before Jaebeom can reply that he wants to be at home, Bambam answers for him.

“Could we maybe get something that’s off the menu?” He wiggled his eyebrows at Mark who gave him a shit-eating grin, knowing immediately what he was talking about. 

“Off the menu” meant Mark’s secret stash of O negative underneath the counter. While alcohol had the same effect on them that it had on the average humans, adding a bit of blood just made a little bit better. Okay… it made it a lot better. 

“Three negronis coming right up,” Mark winked to give a little signal that these would most likely not be as well composed or put together as a negroni, but due to them being in public, he couldn’t necessarily announce a shit ton of alcohol mixed with human blood was going to be served up to them. 

“How has your birthday been Jae?” Mark asked as he was in the middle of placing three glasses onto the countertop in between them.

It was difficult to explain since to Jaebeom it had just been another day except for a little bit more excruciating. The celebration of another year “older” filled him with thoughts of how much time has passed, whether he’s done anything truly important and why he still hasn’t found the person who is meant to complete him… but like he said only a little more excruciating than any other day. 

Jaebeom shrugged in response, “Bam planned a lot and for the most part, it was…” he paused for a moment, wondering if he should say how he felt – numb, lost, and wishing the day would come to an end as if tomorrow won’t bring the same thoughts or problems. But as he looked at his friends who had tried so hard today to make him happy and celebrate, he decided to guard them against the ultimate truth, “for the most part it was fun – really good. I mean besides the singing at the café of course.” He throws in the last part to at least have some kind of believability to his story. 

He notices Mark’s eyebrows lift out of curiosity as his concentration focuses on measuring out each part of the drinks, “An entire café sang you happy birthday? Damn, I don’t think I could ever get through that, so I can only imagine how you feel.” 

“That was Bam’s idea,” Jinyoung muttered. 

Once again, Bambam does his nonchalant waving of the hand, “it wasn’t that bad. I mean okay, maybe it was… But Jaebeom was obsessed with the girl who led it.” 

Jaebeom suddenly feels like he wants to put duct tape over his friend’s mouth. 

“I was not obsessed with her! I don’t even know her!” Jaebeom for some reason felt the need to defend himself, which was probably the worst option. Him getting defensive was usually a tell-tale sign for his friends being right on whatever they were confronting him with. 

Bambam scoffed, bringing gliding his drink across the bar to be directly in front of him once Mark has poured it neatly into the short glass, “I noticed you staring at her before I went to get the drinks. That’s why I asked her to do it in the first place.” 

“So, she doesn’t know Minji?” Jinyoung questioned. 

The youngest takes his first sip and immediately lets out a hissing noise, signaling to Mark that it’s both strong and good. “No, she does, but Jaebeom’s weird staring only made it that much better.” 

Mark pushed the other two glasses towards Jinyoung and Jaebeom, “Was she your…” he drifted off, almost as though he was finding it physically difficult to get the word out. Jaebeom can’t help but feel the want to reach his hand out towards Mark and place it comfortingly on his shoulder, but his group of friends don’t do that. Instead, he saves him the trouble by answering back right away, not forcing him to say it.

“No, she wasn’t.” 

The bartender nodded slowly, suddenly avoiding his gaze from the three familiar boys across the bar from him, “That’s uh… too bad that she wasn’t able to break the trance. Sorry, Jaebeom.” 

He knows that Mark is just trying to be nice, especially when they’re on a subject that he clearly can’t and doesn’t want to talk about, but the attempt to be comforting makes Jaebeom nauseous. 

“Well maybe he’ll find her here tonight,” Jinyoung quipped, placing a hand on Jaebeom’s back. Sometimes the latter swore that his friends treated him he had just found out he had a terminal illness. 

“I sincerely doubt it,” Jaebeom commented gruffly. 

There’s a sound from the other side of the bar from a customer who seems fed up with the conversation being had between the four of them – distracting Mark from serving anyone else. He gives a signal to them to notify them that he’ll be there in a second. “Well… come to me if you guys need more drinks.  It’s on me tonight.” 

“Thanks, man,” Jaebeom tells him honestly because he might need a couple more drinks before he gets to the state of wanting to be in this room.

Mark said a final word of “see you guys later” and heads to the other end of the bar to help customers who have been waiting. Grabbing their drinks, Jaebeom, Jinyoung, and Bambam turn around to depart the bar, to find somewhere to sit for a bit before the drinks truly begin to hit them.  

With his drink in hand, Jaebeom took a sip and reveled in the perfect balance of alcohol to burn his throat and blood to soothe it. The drink was probably the most relaxing part of his day thus far and as he looked out at the crowd, he could already tell that maybe the mixture was going to his head due to his sudden thinking that this place wasn’t all that bad.

Despite not being a club guy, if he were to go out, Jaebeom would always choose this club that Mark works out. To put it simply – it was vampire friendly. With Mark behind the counter and his “secret” supply free-flowing, it became a notoriously known place for vampires in town. If he had to guess, the attendance on an average night was probably evenly split 50/50, humans and vampires.

The humans weren’t aware of the vampires of course – for the most part.

Jaebeom cleared his throat once they’ve found a booth to sit in, “so… Bam what do you know about that girl?” 

Both Jinyoung and Bambam exchange glances before looking back at the birthday boy. The latter tried his best to conceal the smile on his face, “not much… just that she owns the café, knows Minji, and is very single.” 

For some reason, Jaebeom’s stomach does a little flip, but he wishes it wouldn’t. “S-So?” Through his stutter, he tries to remain as confident as possible, but his friends see right through his façade.

Jinyoung leaned forward until his elbows rest on the top of his thighs, “Jaebeom you can be honest with us… Why the sudden fascination with this girl? Are you sure she didn’t break the trance? Just with the way that you’re acting…” Jinyoung drifted off, not bothering to finish his final sentence, but once again looking at Bambam. It makes Jaebeom lean forward in his seat as well. 

“With the way, I’m acting? I’m completely normal. I’m fine. She didn’t break the trance and now I’m just curious about her as curious as anyone would be about someone they meet.” 

There’s the silence between the three of them until Bambam speaks up, “You didn’t meet her though.” 

It dawns on Jaebeom that he didn’t even speak to you and he wonders why does it feel like he did. Why did it feel like he knew you but didn’t at the same time? Why haven’t his mind and body been cooperating with him since this morning at the café? 

Just with the way that you’re acting…

The way he was acting? What did that mean? Was the way he was acting mean something specific? 

He feels like he blinks and thirty minutes go by. And in that past thirty minutes, Jaebeom had somehow managed to drink 6 of Mark’s “negronis.” He felt like his head was beginning to get dizzy. It wasn’t often that Jaebeom found himself drunk on the verge of drunkenness due to alcohol not affecting him as much as humans. To even remotely get to that state, he had to drink a lot and it had to be strong. 

“You feeling it Jaebeom?” Through the darkness and the haze of the alcohol, Jaebeom could barely make out the hint of the smile playing on Jinyoung’s face. He had switched to a glass of wine at some point while Jaebeom was binge drinking which had to be the most Jinyoung thing ever. Who drinks a glass of wine in a dark, sweaty club? 

He’s afraid to answer him verbally which would give his friend an obvious sign of how he was feeling. So instead he just shrugged – as usual. 

“Dude let’s get out there!” The youngest shouted, motioning his hands to the middle of the club, “dance… maybe find you a girl?” 

Jaebeom watched the people pressing up against each other on the dancefloor, moving their bodies, and drinking like their lives depended on it. He wondered if he wanted to be a part of that. Everyone out there was so full of life and vigor… he just wasn’t. He also didn’t know if he was that drunk, but bless Bambam because he didn’t need alcohol to be out there. 

For what feels like the millionth time, his mind drifted to you. Was this your kind of place? Would you come here? If you did would you come alone? With friends? Someone else? You didn’t seem like the type of person who would like this place. You seemed more like him – the observant, calm, inquisitive type who would much rather be at home with a book than at a party. 

Then for a moment, he can picture it. It’s almost like he’s in a trance – an image of you curled up on a couch – his couch – under a large white cable knit blanket fills his mind. Rather than reading, your painting with watercolors – the kind that seems to be in every elementary school classroom – and he hears a voice out of view. His voice.

“Painting really?”  

Jaebeom sees you glance up from your painting to look at him, smiling.

“Looks like I’m gonna have a lot of time on my hands so… might as well get good at something.” 

Jaebeom hears himself laugh, “Okay but watercolors?” 

He feels like he’s going to pass out when he finally hears it – your laugh. 

“Let the artist work Im Jaebeom! She needs to get good enough to live off auction house money once her paintings get sold! Shh!” Despite your words, you smiled and suddenly moved the tools away from you onto the coffee table. You lifted half the blanket off of you and patted the space of the couch beside you, “you know I can’t say no when you give me that face. Come here.”

And just like that, the vision is gone. Jaebeom feels confused because it didn’t feel like a dream or fantasy, but it felt real… it felt like a memory. 

“Hello, Earth to Jaebeom?” 

Right… dancing. Maybe dancing would help him forget whatever game his mind was playing on him.

“Yeah let’s fucking go.” 

Another instance occurs where Jaebeom blinks and everything moves so fast. Suddenly he’s no longer sat at the table with Bambam and Jinyoung, but instead in the middle of that mess on the dancefloor with everyone else. He almost feels like one of them. He almost feels human again. But as soon as that feeling washes over him, it quickly dissipates. 

He knows it must be the drinks doing all the work, because otherwise, he would have never found himself in the middle of all these people, thinking that dancing is a good idea. Dancing had never done anything remotely good for him before, so why now? To help forget? Was it going to help him do that? 

“I swear it’s like he’s not even here.” 

Jaebeom tuned back into the moment, and it’s when he realizes that Jinyoung and Bambam have been trying to get his attention this entire time.

“Sorry I was just- the alcohol you know…” He says it so quietly that he knows his friends won’t be able to hear him over the music and the millions of conversations happening around them. But he thinks that maybe it’s better that way and that it truly doesn’t matter what he says.

Jinyoung comes closer to Jaebeom, until his mouth is right next to his ear, “we were just asking if there’s anyone that you’re interested in.” 

They’re still on this idea? Jaebeom asked himself. 

Even in his drunken state, he didn’t think that finding some random girl to fuck was going to help with the emptiness he’s been feeling lately, but for the first time since getting up and onto the dance floor he takes in the people around him. As depressing as it was to observe, most people were here with someone else. 

It’s then his gaze falls onto a couple that stands far on the left side of the floor, behind where Jinyoung is standing. The two of them have their fronts pressed up against each other, dancing so closely with arms exploring one another’s bodies. The female has her head resting on the male’s shoulder as if she’s too exhausted to keep going, but can’t dare to part with him. It’s like they’re part of each other and any distance would cause them to lose all sense of themselves.

The girl lifts her head off the male’s shoulder and gives him this look that makes Jaebeom’s heart – if it was still beating – ache. She says something to him and he nodded happily in response. Even through the dim lights and large crowd, Jaebeom could see the sharp teeth inside her mouth.

She placed her head back against his shoulder, this time, however, the male had his head angled back, stretching out his neck. The girl moves in closer until her mouth just ghosts over the skin, breathing on it until the boy shuts his eyes awaiting the sting and pleasure that will come next.

Biting down against his flesh, breaking skin, the girl drinks from her partner. Even though he’s at a distance from them, Jaebeom can tell by the look on the man’s face that he’s enjoying being fed on and that it certainly isn’t his first time. 

He feels like his eyes are frozen on the couple. It’s been so long since he fed off someone instead of the stuff that he gets from his connection at the hospital. Jaebeom tries not to think about the way his fingertips tingle and his throat dries up at the thought of drinking from a warm body. The alcohol has only dehydrated him and made him feel even more thirsty – he��s afraid that going back to the bar and asking Mark for a glass of O negative exclusively isn’t going to make that go away. 

After a moment or two, the girl removes her mouth from the boy’s neck and drags her tongue over the spot where she had drawn blood from, ultimately covering the wound and signaling that she was done drinking. 

He thinks of how risky it is to do that at a place like this. Although half of the people around them also take part in the activity of drinking blooding and granted most of them aren’t paying attention to those around them – there are still unsuspecting humans everywhere. If one wrong person were to see then that could be it for this club being a haven for the vampire community in the city and that would probably be… it for vampires in this city in general. 

But who was he kidding? He was being a hypocrite because he’s for sure done the same thing. 

You’ve once again entered his mind. However, this time it isn’t an image, picture, or vision that occupies his thoughts, but instead just the idea of how you would react to who he is, what he really is. Throughout his time that he’s been undead he’s only done the “reveal” to a handful of people and even then, it took him a long time to get there. Well except for one person who ultimately was a mistake and his friends hadn’t hesitated to let him know.

With you, Jaebeom felt that you wouldn’t be the kind of person to judge him instantly based on what he was. You would be shocked of course, maybe even scared, but you wouldn’t let that cloud your judgment. You wouldn’t let yourself reject something just because it was unfamiliar. 

What the fuck was he on about? 

It must be the alcohol doing this to him. He would have to thank Mark for making them strong this time around, but also make a mental note to never let this happen again. Jaebeom was already a deeper thinker, but this was getting out of hand.

There’s a sudden grasp of Jaebeom’s elbow and he feels himself jump at the sudden touch. His eyebrows furrowed when he realized it wasn’t one of his friends considering Bambam and Jinyoung were both dancing over to his right side. 

When he turned around to greet the person who had grabbed him, he was disappointed, surprised, and annoyed all in one. It was the last person he had expected to see her, except not really because it made perfect sense. 

“Jaebeom… hi.” Ara smiled shyly at him, tucking a string of hair behind her ear and slightly looking down at the ground. He wants to groan because he knows she’s doing this because he had once mentioned that he thought it was hot when she looked innocent. He shouldn’t have ever said that.

He’s not sure what to say, because what are you supposed to say to someone you’ve been trying to avoid for the past year and a half? Jaebeom had said everything he had wanted to say to her. 

At one point in his life, he had been stupid. He had been stupid and he had abused the power that had been bestowed upon him since the day he had been turned. Perhaps one would assume that he’d been foolish with his ability just at the start – 100, maybe even 150 years ago. Instead, Jaebeom had gone through a rough patch about a year or two ago. 

The overwhelming pressure of finding his mate had started to get to him again. All he needed was someone, anyone to break the hypnotic trance and that was it. A task that seemed so simple, yet never came. So, Jaebeom had used hypnotism to his advantage, getting as many girls as he could in his bed in the shortest amount of time possible. He wasn’t proud of it and it was something he would constantly regret as long as he was ali- around. 

One of those girls… had been Ara. 

Jaebeom felt relieved when she didn’t wait for him to answer back at her greeting, “How are you? I-It’s your birthday, right? How old are you turning again? 27?” She winked immediately after her question and he wants to roll his eyes.

She was the mistake by the way. The mistake that knew about who he was. 

He doesn’t even remember how it happened, how his secret slipped, or what the circumstances of her finding out was. Part of him thinks he was just horny, thirsty, and weak, but she found out and she… loved it. 

Weirdly enough, Ara loved the idea of him being a vampire and his “lifestyle” which at first Jaebeom didn’t think too much about. He thought okay she’s taking this extremely well… better than anyone else I’ve ever told, but whatever, but then it became strange. 

She was what those in the vampire community call a “vampire fetishizer.”

He coughed awkwardly, his gaze wandering over to Jinyoung and Bambam, hoping they would catch sight of him stuck with Ara and come rescue him. Jaebeom wasn’t that lucky though, not even on his birthday, “Yeah… 27.” 

Jaebeom can’t help but look at her neck. It’s fully on display and it was clear that Ara had come here to find someone to feed on her. He had been the one to show Ara this place before he had been clued into her little… vampire obsession. 

“Well did the birthday boy get everything he wants today?” She smiled and gave Jaebeom those eyes. He feels his cock twitch in his pants and he realizes he has to keep himself in check because he’s not that weak tonight… right? 

His eyes flash to her neck again and Jaebeom feels his throat get even drier. He was so thirsty and he knows Ara would be so willing. 

No Jaebeom… No. 

“I-I uh yeah… you know got- yeah today’s been good,” he stuttered awkwardly, bringing his tongue out to wet his dry lips. Judging on the look on Ara’s face, she’s taken the action the wrong way. 

“You look thirsty Jaebeom… do you want a drink?” 

He knows what she means and Jaebeom swallows hard in an attempt to distract himself, to remind himself that he’s not that thirsty. He doesn’t need it that bad.

“I-I think I am.” 

The words come out faster than his brain can process to stop them and the part of Jaebeom that’s coherent, sharp, and aware wants to punch the weak and drunk Jaebeom in the face. 

Without a word, Ara turned from Jaebeom and began walking to one of the exits at the side of the club. He feels like he’s the one in a trance, mindlessly following her through the people, not even hearing Jinyoung and Bambam calling out to him. The only thing that Jaebeom makes note of as he follows her is Mark’s face behind the bar, giving him a tight smile. It almost stops Jaebeom. Almost. 

When they finally get outside through the exit door, they find themselves in a small alley between the club and a dry cleaner. 

Jaebeom doesn’t even get a moment to think before Ara is pushing him against the wall of the dry cleaner, her hands roaming up and down his body, her lips going to his own. They’re pressed up against each other so closely that he recalls the couple he had watched earlier. He feels sick comparing this moment now to the two of them. 

“Fuck I missed you so much,” Ara sighed seductively into this ear, making Jaebeom’s stomach churn further at her clear longing for him. Well not him, but the vampire part of him.

“Please, I need it,” she mewled. At her words, he almost puts a stop to this whole thing and has to question whether this is the right thing to do. Jaebeom wonders if this is old Jaebeom behavior – the one that just used women and threw them away later like toys, but then he remembers that this is Ara. She’s using him as well. 

It’s almost as though that old, cocky, snide Jaebeom appears out of nowhere as he says his next words and brings himself closer to her neck, “do you really need it?” 

“Yes, Jaebeom I do, please.” Ara already sounds so desperate and he’s barely done anything. He can’t help but smirk at her reaction.

“Then I guess I better give it to you then.” 

He’s about to do it. He’s about to bite down and finally relieve his thirst, his craving, but then he looks to the side of the alley – towards the street. He feels like he’s seeing things again like he’s in the middle of a hallucination or mirage. That thought is pushed away when he locks eyes with you. 

“Don’t mind me,” you placed your hands up in front of yourself, to show him you’re not eavesdropping. Your action frustrated you because it would have been much better to say nothing, but you felt yourself panic. The prolonged eye contact with him while he’s just seconds away from pressing down – bitting down? – on the girl’s next for some reason pushed you into defensive mode. Not to mention his eyes… his eyes were – red? 

The girl hadn’t noticed you; you aren’t even sure if she heard you, but she certainly noticed Jaebeom’s stare fixated on you. When she faces you, she wears an unpleasant sneer, clearly annoyed by your interruption of whatever this was. 

“Can you go?” She said, the agitation in her voice more than apparent. 

Rather than immediately leave the scene, you continued to stare at Jaebeom. It’s difficult to say why you decided to walk this specific way home despite it being so late and dark out, but for some reason, you couldn’t help but be pulled in this direction. You weren’t someone who believed in signs or fate, but it felt so wrong to go any other way tonight. That was another thing, you felt this kink in your neck that practically forced you or taunted you into looking down the alley between this dry cleaners and club. It was yet another thing about today that felt unexplainable to you as you certainly weren’t expecting the birthday boy from the café today to be in a compromising position with some girl. 

After a moment of more uncomfortable staring – something else that had happened at the café today with him – Jaebeom breaks your gaze and looks down at his feet. The eye roll and acrid look on the girl’s face don’t go unnoticed by you. 

You shouldn’t be here. 

“S-Sorry. I’ll just get going then,” you concluded, unsure why you felt an uncomfortable sickness spread throughout the entirety of your body. 

You barely knew this guy – all you really knew was that today was his birthday and that he was friends with Minji’s boyfriend. Basically nothing. Yet now and even earlier back at the café you had felt this weird sensation within yourself. Not even when you looked at him, but just being in the same presence. It had been so hard to focus on making coffee today when he was seated across the room. Every part of your body just wanted to get closer, gravitate towards him. It was fucking weird… and scary. 

The girl nodded as if to signal “yeah about time,” at the announcement of your departure. Jaebeom on the other hand, still had his eyes glued to the ground as if looking at you once again will cause him some kind of pain.

Just as you’re about to continue your trip back home, you stop yourself and look back at the couple in the alley. 

“Happy birthday by the way…” you paused wondering if it would be weird to say his name considering he doesn’t even know yours, but you shove the thought out of your mind, “Jaebeom…”    

Hearing you say his name causes that tingling feeling in his fingertips to come back and his entire mind is sent into a frenzy. He feels too awkward, too shy to look at you again, but a sudden thought washed over him. What if earlier was a mistake? What if you are his mate? With the way he was currently feeling just at you saying his name, the visions he had in the club and the nonstop place you know had in his mind, it was difficult to believe that you weren’t his mate. 

Bambam and Jinyoung had found it difficult to explain to him what it felt like to find your mate, but surely what he felt right now wasn’t normal behavior or feelings. Unless he was a psychopath. 

Tightly shutting his eyes and drawing together all his strength, Jaebeom aims to try once again to see if you can break the hypnotic trance, unaffected by his abilities. However, as soon as he’s finally ready, head turned up to face you – you’re gone. You didn’t wait for him to respond to the happy birthday message. Instead, you simply left not wanting to be a burden or troublesome to whatever it was those two were doing in that alley. 

“Thank fucking god, let’s get back to it,” Ara concluded with a final roll of her eyes, gripping Jaebeom’s shoulders to get him close to her once again. He stares at her neck, but this time he doesn’t feel anything. He no longer feels thirsty and his appetite is gone. 

Jaebeom shrugs her off slightly. The encounter with you has caused him to wake up and realize what a bad idea it would be to do this right now. He hopes that Ara won’t put up a fight – he doesn’t want to have to hypnotize her if he doesn’t need to. 

At his actions, Ara takes a step away in disbelief, as if she actually can’t believe that Jaebeom is changing his mind and no longer wants her, “are you serious?” 

He doesn’t say anything but instead avoids eye contact with her just as he had done for you. 

Snorting, she glared at him, “Fine. Whatever. I don’t fucking care. I can find someone else to feed off of me. Yours never felt that good anyway. Asshole.”

Just like that, she’s out of his life once again and Jaebeom can’t help but feel thankful. He should have never been weak enough to be dragged out by here anyway. He had just been consumed by thoughts of you, alcohol, and the couple on the dancefloor. Then again, not coming out here would have robbed him of the opportunity of seeing you again and finding out that you actually knew his name. 

That’s when it dawned on him. 

Fuck… how much had you seen? What did you see? 

Jaebeom realized that he might have some explaining to do

[the-lone-witch-and-secret-room]

How are you able to write 8+ word chapters? I've been trying to write longer chapters, but I can't seem to get a good handle on it. Got any tips?

Honestly, anon? Don’t do this to yourself. You don’t actually want to be writing 8k+ chapters (assuming that’s what you meant and this was a typo). It happens to me because I can’t get my characters to shut up and have a lot to say that I need a lot of text for, but honestly, I don’t recommend it. I love my story, but I miss the times when I was able to reasonably update it once a week. Those huge chapters are immense sources of stress and work for both me and whoever gets stuck beta reading it.

What can I recommend for writing longer chapters in general? It really depends on what your writing style is like, overall. Some people love writing dialogue. Some prefer thoughts and descriptions of actions and emotions. Some love making lush descriptions of the environment. (I find dialogue the easiest to write, myself.) Without knowing what your writing style is like, anon, it’s hard for me to tell which of these areas you could expand on. It’s not good advice to tell you to describe motions more when you could actually be describing in great detail and struggle in entirely different areas, so I can’t really give you great advice here.

If you’d like to, feel free to DM me an example of your work so I can take a look and give you proper advice :)

Also, general important thing to note when it comes to writing: longer doesn’t always mean better.

One of the best examples of this is actually a story series I read in a totally different fandom about… two years or so ago? It started out as a story with 30 chapters of reasonable length, but in the end, it had five huge parts, and both chapters and chapter numbers got higher with each installment. The fourth book had like 100 chapters that were each around 10k words in length. The fifth had over 200 chapters that were each over 20k. I gave up somewhere at… I believe it was about 30 chapters into the fourth installment, because aside from some major red flags and questionable writing choices the plot was just… really bad? I dropped the story because at I believe it was the eight kidnapping, the whole thing got kinda tiring. Extremely long stories can be tiring to read, as can long chapters, and as you can see here, you’re at risk of them getting repetitive.

Never stretch out a story/chapter if there’s no story you actually want to tell. Don’t put more into a chapter just because you think it should be longer. If you force a certain chapter length instead of ending the chapter naturally/stretching it out because you have something to say, chances are it will not end up being very good. Readers usually realize when things are just there for the sake of existing—even if it’s often just on a subconscious level. If you hand them a chapter with a bunch of filler sentences, it will get tiring to read, and feel like it goes on endlessly.

Sometimes short chapters are genuinely better! I’m a person that never shuts up, but depending on the writing style can work really, really well. Some of my favorite fics actually fall under this category!

TwoPercentMalk for example is hands down one of my favorite fandom authors. He has a bunch of shorter chapters, but they always tear me up emotionally, have some of the greatest characterizations I’ve ever read and make me laugh a ton.

Richynepp’s Blight twins fic is probably one of my favorites overall and the fic that first sold me on Vinira and Jerbric ships. The chapters are relatively short, but they have unique, interesting interactions and really great characterization.

Brave in Bronze has three chapters and is about 10k words total. It’s one of my favorite owl house fics to date because of the sweet scenes, heartfelt moments and great humor.

Heck, Mama's Gonna Wait Up Until You Get In is only about 700 words, and that oneshot tore me up emotionally!

So, like I said, it’s not always length that makes a story better. The important thing is the content, and getting that across in the most impactful way—not necessarily the most drawn-out way.

[hpkinktober]

Almost a month after HP Kinktober ended, I have finally created a complete masterlist of the wonderful Drarry works we were gifted with from this astoundingly creative community. Since I am only human, please let me know if anything is wrong with this post (broken link, mispelled author name, etc). 

Day 1: Foreplay 

Love Me Like Red Wine by @triggerlil​ (M, 290) 

Harry prepares a meal, but Draco can't focus on the food. It's not his fault that Harry's so damn attractive.

Foreplay by @ladderofyears​ (E, 100)

In which Draco wears sky-blue, lacy bikini knickers. 

Kiss Him All the Way Up by @chuckweasley​ (M, Digital Art) 

Is Harry into feet? Does he want to kiss Draco on every square inch of his body? Is he kissing a trail from his toes up? You decide!

Water Spirit by @laurisophi​ (E, 703) 

Harry wants to surprise Draco for their anniversary and show more of himself.

"You look like a lake spirit, bath by the moon, covered in green.” He kisses your shoulder and one hand slides over your back, your side, your hip.

A ficlet for the first day of HP Kinktober 2020: foreplay.

Day 2: Instant Darkness Powder 

Under the Cover of Darkness by @manixzen​ (M, 2k) 

Thanks to Pansy, Draco's stuck at a party with a whole bunch of drunk Gryffindors. And now they want to play party games. If only Draco can slip out unnoticed before this gets any worse.

Instant Darkness Powder by @ladderofyears​ (M, 116) 

Auror Partners Harry and Draco are trapped in the dark. Flirting ensues.

A Smoke Afterwards by @chuckweasley​ (M, Digital Art) 

I wonder who’s holding the lighter...

Day 3: Polyjuice 

Prompt: Polyjuice by blackswingsblackwords (T, 349) 

In which there is (supposed to be) roleplaying.

Polyjuice by @ladderofyears​ (E, 100) 

Harry takes Polyjuice Potion so Draco can fuck himself. 

Polyjuice by CuriousEmWanders (E, 985)

In which Draco lets his curiosity and obsession get the best of him. He just needs to know what Harry looks like. How else is he supposed to find out?

Day 4: Amortentia 

Occupational Hazard by @ladderofyears​ (E, 100)

Potions Master Draco has been brewing Amortentia. 

Prompt: Amortentia by blackwingsblackwords (T, 463)

In which there is a secret relationship. 

Smells Like You by CuriousEmWanders (E, 3.1k) 

Draco may not smell anything in his Amortentia, but that doesn't stop him from taking it to help him submit to his Dom de jour. 

Day 5: Spell Play 

A Magic Number of Orgasms @ladderofyears​ (E, 100) 

Harry and Draco experiment with a sex spell. 

Just Let Go by @manixzen​ (E, 3.4k) 

Draco struggles with letting go of his need for control, both at work and at home. Harry can help.

Prompt: Spell Play by blackwingsblackwords (T, 1.1k) 

In which an exhausted dad dates a smitten hero.

Day 6: Parseltongue 

Lucky Bloody Serpent by @ladderofyears​ (G, 100) 

When Harry gets a pet snake, Draco gets (a tiny bit) jealous.

a simple thank you can go a long way by @crimsonhead-ache​ (E, 2.7k)

The one where Draco needs to thank him and Harry allows him.

Also Parseltongue.

And dicks.

Draco’s Favorite Thing by CuriousEmWanders (E, 1.2k)

Draco has a thing for when Harry talks to him in parseltongue, and he's glad Harry doesn't know. Or does he?

The Hottest Parselmouth by @chuckweasley​ (T, Digital Art) 

Draco cannot handle how hot Harry is when he’s speaking parseltongue, even though he has no idea what Harry’s saying.

Day 7: Creature!Fic 

I’ll Huff, And I’ll Puff, And I’ll Blow Your House In... by @ladderofyears​ (M, 100)

There’s a Werewolf on the loose and he’s out to get Draco! 

Thirst by @fluxweeed​ (E, 4.4k) 

The path of Malfoy’s scent is obvious; Harry hasn’t fed for days, so his senses are sharp. Deadly.

And Malfoy smells so good.

Day 8: Imperius

Imperius by @ladderofyears​ (E, 100)

Harry and Draco are put under the Imperius Curse.

Non-con warning 

Day 9: Legilimency 

Legilimens by @ladderofyears​ (E, 100)

Draco shares his sexual fantasies with his lover Harry. 

Day 10: Dark Magic Ritual 

Reanimation Ritual by @ladderofyears​ (M, 100) 

Draco performs a Dark Magic ritual to bring his dead lover Harry back to him. 

A Moment of Intent by @manixzen​ (E, 4.6k) 

Auror Harry Potter and Curse Breaker Draco Malfoy are on another case, this time a Dark Arts Ritual gone wrong. Surely, they won’t botch up yet another crime scene.

Day 11: Invisibility Cloak

Tryst Behind The Tapestry by @ladderofyears​ (E, 1k)

It's Eighth Year and Harry and Draco enjoy some very sexy - and very invisible - fun after dark has fallen at Hogwarts.

Invisibly Arouse (E, Digital Art) by @chuckweasley​

The boys get frisky under the cloak!

Day 12: Duelling

Duel by @ladderofyears​ (M, 365) 

Harry and Draco practice duelling and things get a little heated.

Prompt: Dueling by blackwingsblackwords (T, 534)

In which a lesson is learned.

Cut Me Open (and use me) by @triggerlil​

Draco is the heir to the throne of England. Harry is a nobleman who wants to reclaim his honour. Somehow, these two things are intimately linked. Enter a sword, a dagger, and the hands of God, and you have a story about two men with tongues like knives, learning to lick love off sharp edges.

Day 13: Mirror

Deep Dark Truthful Mirror by @ladderofyears​ (E, 2k)

Draco shows Harry a very old, very powerful magical object: a mirror that will show his deepest, darkest sexual desires.

Getting Ready for Harry by @chuckweasley​ (G, Digital Art) 

Harry likes Draco in glitter and cozy sweaters...don’t we all?

Day 16: Magic Sex Toys 

hot damn, hot water, hot shower by @crimsonhead-ache​

Harry was more than ready for a long soak, a nice glass of firewhiskey, and twelve hours of sleep.

Too bad life never works out the way it's planned, or is it?

Colour, love?  by @choulatte​ (E, 7.7k) 

Holding Harry’s gaze, Draco took out the lube and let his fingers dance over the golden cockring he'd previously kept hidden, liberally coating it in the slippery substance. He watched how Harry’s eyes followed his movements, a desperate groan escaping the other man when he finally recognized his fate.

Draco merely smiled.

Both by @chuckweasley​ (E, Digital Art) 

Harry knows Draco likes to be filled.

Day 17: Room of Requirement 

No Fantasy Required by @manixzen​ (E, 4.1k) 

The Room of Requirement has never quite recovered from the war. It seems hell-bent on fulfilling every need of students and faculty alike, in or out of the room itself. Professors Potter and Malfoy really wish it would stop trying to do the students’ homework, though.

The Room Of Requirement Always Provides by @ladderofyears​ (E, 100)

Just a hundred words of Draco and Harry having some smutty fun in the Room of Requirement.

Day 18: Herbology 

Knowledge by @ladderofyears​ (E, 100)

Harry and Draco inhale sex pollen.

Day 19: Hair Pulling 

Yeah, Pull it Harder by @chuckweasley​ (E, Digital Art) 

The sex is very good. 

Day 20: Veritaserum 

Neither Of Us Have To Say A Single Word by @ladderofyears​ (T, 365) 

When Draco is being badly bullied, Harry steps in and looks after him. Pre-slash.

A Bit of Honesty by @manixzen​ (E, 3.6k) 

A Hogwarts ball, a spiked punch, Professor Potter and Professor Malfoy on chaperone duty… what could go wrong?

Day 21: Dragonhide 

Dressing Up by @ladderofyears​ (T, 333) 

The Potter-Malfoy family negotiate the tricky issue of Halloween costumes.

All Wrapped Up by @chuckweasley​ (E, Digital Art) 

The boys take care of each other the best they can. 

Day 22: Gillyweed 

The Shape Of Love by @ladderofyears​ (E, 200) 

Harry and Draco take Gillyweed and make love in The Black Lake. 

Day 25: Tattoos 

Tear it down piece by piece by moonstruckmuse (E, 7.8k) 

Draco just wants to get rid of this stupid Dark Mark. Why is this so complicated?

His to Adorn, to Cherish, & to Keep by @maesmora​ (E, 1.4k) 

Draco Malfoy is many things: calm, collected, in control. At least until Harry Potter gets his hands on him, and those aren't the only things Draco lets Harry put on his body...

Day 26: Exhibitionism 

how can anybody have you and lose you and not lose their mind too? by @crimsonhead-ache​ (E, 3.8k) 

As soon as he received that letter in the post last week from Potter’s boyfriend, he knew he would be in for it. 

Day 27: Formal Wear 

I guess that’s just me, honey, I guess that’s how I’m built by @crimsonhead-ache​ (E, 4k)

The way they adorned Potter’s body like they were made for him made him want to kiss his seamstresses’ feet. The lines, the colors, brought out his skin tone like nothing ever could.

Well, except perhaps the ropes Draco keeps in the bottom drawer of his bedside table.

Harry Potter and his Great Big Suit Kink by @swisstae​ (M, 2k)

Harry really doesn’t want to say it. Not because he thinks Draco will judge, mind you, but because it’s so embarrassing. Harry Potter—Saviour of the Wizarding World—turning into an incoherent mess at the sight of his boyfriend wearing a suit.

Waste Not, Want Not by @dragontamerdame​ (M, Art) 

Harry may have gone a bit too far. 

Day 28: Floo 

the rush I get touchin’ you is somethin’ else by @crimsonhead-ache​ (E, 3.1k)

Harry frowned though; instead of feeling his joggers that had adorned his lower-half, now he felt the air hit his bare legs.   He was going to murder Draco.

come through the fire my love by @triggerlil​ (T, 534) 

Harry prepares for date night with Draco... until the man calls him through the floo to tell him he'll be late. Draco's just lucky Harry has a thing for fire.

Day 29: Wandless Magic 

Without a touch by moonstruckmuse (M, 207) 

Learning to do wandless magic.