#I want to convert people to the other side I want them to stay away from this hell

[trappedward]

In the car rn so gonna make this quick.

I was literally just going to turn this into another music / Kikuo rant and I thought no you know what I need to practice my writing on those anyway so instead I’ll make a point of how I’m kinda slowly becoming a Kikuo fan blog.

There you have it. Today’s segment is the gradual decline of Taimori and everything it stands for as this blog descends into Kikuo madness. I just can’t get enough of him he’s so silly 🙃. I’ve recently been conditioned to like him more than I already did because of this one account I follow and I hate it because I know eventually I’m going to really go into the deep, dark, rabbit hole that is Kikuo’s life and career and I’ll never come back.

One of my dreams is to eventually direct / run my own project (animation of some sort) and I just know that if that ever happens I am so coming up to Kikuos door personally in my rawest form and forcing him to do the music score. I don’t care if this is 20 years in the future. IF it were to EVER HAPPEN, I AM MAKING IT HAPPEN ARRRRRGH I hate this save me my brain is rotting away. I heard once that all your cells are replaced every 7 years and I think mine are contaminated and that each brain cell is being replaced with Kikuo currently and then that will just circulate into my bloodstream and then my skin and organs and in 7 years you will see that I no longer exist and I’ve actually transformed into a Kikuo clone and I think that’s horrifying

I haven’t even provided any evidence as to why I’m so far gone but I think it’s better if I don’t because I don’t want any unsuspecting people to somehow come across this and decide to pick it up as an interest cause you will regret it, you will form a love-hate relationship with him and you cant blame me I will not allow you to.

Anyway here guys to compensate have this silly little goofy picture teehee I swear it’s not poisoned.

I would cry if I walked into my local bathroom and saw this like I would just bawl and lose it right there but then I would also promptly steal it and hang it on my wall at home

[hiraizyo]

may i kiss your wounds?

synopsis — after unintentionally getting involved in a bar fight, you’re left with an angry sophia who had to deal with your injuries. nevertheless, she knew she couldn’t stay mad at you for long.

established relationship, slight violence, mentions of blood, semi fluff, mature language, angst (if you squint.)

now playing: party monster, the weeknd

a/n: this was a little idea i had while skimming through unfinished works, converting it into a sophia image. i hope you enjoy!

this wasn’t how you expected the night to go, sophia peering over at you with a scowl on her face. and it wasn’t like you wanted the fight to happen, it just… did.

you and sophia were having a good time for the most part. it had been an hour and a half since you arrived at the club, drinking and dancing along to the loud music with daniela and manon, when sophia left to go to the bar for another drink.

you continued conversing and having fun with the other two, and they managed to keep you entertained until you noticed your girlfriend had been gone longer than you expected.

“i’ll be right back.” you told the duo, manon nodding while daniela gave you a thumbs up, giggling. you chuckled as the blonde grabbed manon by the waist and swung their hips together to the beat of the song, and turned to walk away.

you weaved through the crowd of people, making your way to the bar with less difficulty than you expected considering the amount of people there were. quickly scanning the bar section, you spotted sophia leaning over at the counter, in a tight black dress that hugged her body in the best way possible.

you smiled to yourself as you admired her, she looked absolutely gorgeous, and she was all yours.

that smile soon turned sour at seeing a man beside her, round about her age. you weren’t sure how long he’d been standing there, but judging by the look on sophia’s face when he began to speak a few words to her, you guessed it could have been a couple minutes.

walking up to them and snaking an arm around her waist, you peered over at the man with distain.

“can i help you?”

sophia leaned into your body instantly, her chest being filled with relief at the thought of having you beside her.

“hi baby,” she whispered, and leaned up to place a kiss on you cheek. she hoped it would let the guy know she was taken, but to no avail.

the guy didn’t give you the satisfaction of acknowledging your presence. instead, he gave you a once over before looking back to sophia, and leaning on the counter, as if he was getting comfortable enough to continue his conversation with her.

what a jackass, you thought to yourself.

“so, how about that drink, mh?” he questioned, voice low. the guy was looking straight passed you as if you were invisible.

even the sound of his voice made you angry, never mind the fact that he had the audacity to ask such a question, which made you tighten your hold on sophia’s waist.

“take a hint, pal. she doesn’t want the drink.” you told him sternly, your temper rising slightly.

“i’m sorry, and you are?” his titled to the side, eyes switching to you.

“her girlfriend.”

“wow,” he muttered, once again looking you over. his attention moved back over to sophia, who looked as if she was very much done with him. the corner of his mouth turned upwards slightly, “as anyone ever told you that you could do better?”

before you got a chance to say anything, sophia was telling him off. “are you saying that you are better?”

her eyebrow raised ever so slightly as she looked at him in annoyance. the guys hand twitched, and you could tell that what your girlfriend said clearly hurt his ego. it took everything in you not to smirk at his reaction, knowing it would only set him off further.

he craned his neck to the side, still relentless. “huh, figures you two are together. no one likes a bitch who can talk ba—”

before he could finish his sentence, you stepped up to him, feeling angry on sophia’s behalf.

“hey!” you leaned in close, peering down at him as he settled further into his seat. “you better watch your fucking mouth.”

his lips upturned into a smirk — the guy knew he was getting to you.

“or what?”

your eyes squinted, looking at him with disinterest. “oh no, i’m not doing this with you.”

your head shook as you took a couple steps back, the distance now significantly more. he wasn’t letting up though, setting his drink down on the counter.

sophia watched as his eyebrows furrowed together in half anger, half teasing. she could tell the guy was drunk based on his slurring words, and she wasn’t liking where this interaction was going.

“so that’s it? all bark and no bite?”

“you’re pathetic.”

that definitely hit a nerve in him.

before you could register it, the guys fist collided with your jaw, his knuckle hitting the corner of your mouth so hard you felt it tear open. it hurt, badly. sophia let out a startled gasp behind you, watching in horror at the scene that played out before her.

without thinking, you moved swiftly to punch him in the nose. your hand was tightened in a fist, unclenching after the blow to him. your heartbeat was rising fast, anger flooding through you veins.

he stumbled back, holding on to his nose and scrunched up his face in pain. his vision blurred foe a second. the guy groaned, tilting his head up and then looked at you with a threatening glare. before he could get in another hit, a tall bouncer came up behind in, dressed in black and pulled him away.

what was left behind was you, breathing deeply. the adrenaline was too much for the pain in your hand to register, but you were sure to feel it later. your jaw, however, stung in a dull ache.

sophia tentatively set a hand on your shoulder, a frown etched onto her face. it was mostly out of concern, but also out of displeasure.

“i think it’s time we leave.”

her voice cut through the ringing in your ears, pulse slowing down until it was at its normal pace. her ability to bring you back to reality was unlike anything you’d experienced, seeing and feeling much clearer again.

she let manon and daniela know you’d be going, and the ride home was filled with silence. you could tell she was upset, whether it was because of the guy or at you was a mystery.

“are you still mad?”

currently, sophia dabbed a wet cloth to your lip, wiping away the dried blood while you both sat on the couch in your home. you hissed at the feeling, the disinfectant on the cloth clearly having an effect on the wound.

your jaw was bruised slightly. it wasn’t much, but it was enough to remind you and sophia of how quickly the night events took a turn. a frozen ice pack was held to your knuckles, the skin of it also bruised and beginning to turn red, both from the coldness and the impact of your punch.

sophia didn’t reply, continuing to gently pat on the corner of your lip. her eyes were focused in on the spot where the blood had been wiped away, the wound still open slightly.

“baby?”

she sighed, setting the cloth down and began to pick at her nails.

“i’m not mad. i just… i don’t know, i didn’t like seeing that happen.” the filipino rubbed her hands on her thighs, before getting up and walking into the kitchen.

you left the ice pack on the coffee table, following after her. “what was i supposed to do? did you even hear the way he talked about you?”

sophia leaned her lower back against the marble counter, arms wrapped around herself, looking as if she was trying to keep warm. you moved to stand opposite her, watching her carefully.

“that doesn’t mean things needed to get violent.” she told you, a frown set in place.

“okay, okay…” you looked at her regretfully, running a hand over your face. “i’m sorry.”

she looked to the side, biting on her bottom lip. you could tell various thoughts were taking over her mind. sophia has seen you take a few punches before, most of them being playful with your friends. not one like tonight, though.

tonight was a side of you she had never experienced.

the aftermath clearly took a toll on her. the silence in the car and both when you came home was deafening, and you hated it.

“soph,” you called out, voice barely above a whisper. “talk to me, tell me what’s wrong.”

she loosened her arms around her body, setting her left hand to rest beside her while her other wrapped around the back of her neck as she looked to the floor, rubbing it softly.

sophia’s voice was filled with concern, her eyes shining from the light of the kitchen once she gazed at you. “it wasn’t fun seeing you get hurt like that.”

“i’ve gotten hurt plenty of times!” you shrugged, not seeing the big deal. “i mean, i have a scar from last year when we went hiking and i tripped.”

sophia scoffed, pushing off the counter to stand upright. “yeah, but that was an accident. tonight could’ve ended a lot worse.”

“but it didn’t.”

“but it could’ve!”

her response was quick, voice raising ever so slightly. you squinted at her, gesturing with your hand as you spoke.

“y’know, you’re sounding really angry for someone who claims she’s not.” your hands rested on your hips, matching the level of her voice.

“because i’m not!” sophia yelled, “don’t you get it? i was scared for you!”

her words hung in the air, settling over the two of you like a blanket. it made you swallow down whatever enragement you had left in you. you sighed, realizing now that sophia wasn’t speaking out of being upset, but rather fear.

you slowly stepped towards her, until you were in her personal space and placed your hands on sophia’s torso. she looked at you, finally seeing the anxiety in her eyes. it was clear as day, and you mentally kicked yourself for not noticing it sooner.

your words were gentle, the both of you calming down from your little quarrel. “i’m sorry, alright? i’m sorry for how tonight went, and for getting hurt. and i’m sorry for not thinking about how you’d feel watching it all happen.”

your thumbs rubbed in circles against the material of the dress she was still wearing, trying to convey your feelings of regret. sophia looked at you for another moment, and you could see the forgiveness in them, before she rested her forehead against your chest and breathed in the smell of your cologne.

the filipino didn’t say anything else, but her arms wrapped around you and pulled you close, locking them against your back. you could tell by her actions that she no longer held any negative feelings, the issue been resolved.

you settled your chin atop her head while she turned to lay her cheek on you instead. “come on, let’s watch a few episodes of your comfort show and cuddle together. how does that sound?”

sophia laughed quietly, “you think cuddling fixes everything.”

“because it does.” you replied, tapping her torso with your fingers in a rhythm.

sophia rolled her eyes playfully, settling further into your warmth. she sighed deeply, relishing in the comfort of having you wrapped together, arms holding tightly onto one another’s bodies as if letting go would mean disappearing.

“okay,” she mumbled. “but let’s stay like this for a little bit longer.”

after hearing that, you placed a kiss on her head and moved to envelop her into your arms. they were now like hers, locked together around sophia’s back.

the night surely wasn’t how you wanted it to go, but having her so close against you, breathing together as one, was a perfect way to end it.

here y’all go!! i took a bit longer than expected but i hope you enjoyed <3

the votes have come back to make the fwb imagine an idol au sooo i’m lowk excited to write that ;) i decided i’d write it with daniela, since i have an idea manon x biker!reader 🙂‍↕️

[leebrontide]

Best Practices for Communicating about the Climate Crisis

Communication Tips 

Keep it local. Focusing on bringing local solutions. You can lean into community pride to help motivate community action. And while climate change may have global impacts, emphasizing local climate impacts and benefits of local policies will resonate with more people, and feel more approachable/doable.

Stay focused on solutions. While the consequences of climate change are dire, focusing too much on how bad things could get tends to make people feel overwhelmed, hopeless and cynical – which doesn’t help them get or stay involved. Try not to give more than 1 or 2 examples of local consequences of environmental issues, then dive into how this work provides solutions.

Include your audience. Instead of using “I” or “you”, talk about what “we” need to do to turn things around. This includes using “we” when you’re talking about the government, when appropriate - after all, the government is meant to be for and of our communities.

Lean into moral values. Most people agree that we have a moral responsibility to protect our environment’s health, stability and safety for future generations, so don’t be afraid to talk about that or other values that resonate with you about this work.

Focus on tangible gains. Things like “the economy” are important, but they don’t feel as immediate as combating rising costs, protecting their and their neighbors' health, and saving money. Paint them a picture of the prosperous, stable, livable city we can create.

Project a can-do attitude. A lot of people are feeling let down by leadership at all levels, and feeling hopeless and helpless about making change. So, it’s important that you show that you and others are out here willing to really do the work - and there’s room for them to join in. Also, be sure to talk about successes.

Don’t waste time on opponents. We can't get everybody on our side. However, there are enough people that are excited about the prospect of living in a safe, sustainable community, where everyone has clean air to breathe/water to drink and a family-sustaining job that we don't need to convert opponents.

Encourage investment. Rather than framing the changes we want in terms of the drudgery of having to adapt to a bad situation, try to build excitement in the possibilities we can invest in - together. Everyone likes to feel they’re getting in on an exciting, cutting edge investment. Relatedly, be wary of statements that make people feel like they’re going to lose, rather than gain, options. Remind people that our current systems are not only unhealthy, dirty, and dangerous - they’re also ineffective.

Create immediate avenues for action. Once you’ve built up some excitement about what we can do, give people an immediate step they can take to help. Give that positive energy somewhere to go and show them how good it can feel to get involved.

Focus on what you want people to do, not what you want them to stop doing. This helps people envision change, and makes them less nervous.

Communicate respect. Keep away from stereotypes and harmful words. And when you talk about other people, be careful not to put words in their mouths.

Remember, you're not just combating ignorance, you're combating hopelessness, helplessness, and burnout!

[stealth-liberal]

Whew, I have a lot to say, and I know for a FACT that not a single non Jewish person on here will give a shit... but I have to vent.

Antisemitism in America is so bad that I honestly don't know if it's safe to send my daughter off to college in 2 years. She doesn't know either. Both of us have discussed her staying home and doing as much of her university education online, so as to keep her safe. She has sensory issues and an anxiety disorder... and already she has been rejected all over the place in her high school campus since 10/7.

The Women's Empowerment Club? The club leader has made it so that no female Jewish student feels safe there, and all of them quit. The little leftist neo nazi in charge of it probably cheered as they left and patted herself on the back for her "praxis". Maybe she can start goose stepping and yelling "Heil Hitler!" while she's at it. But she's not unique. Feminist organizations the world over deny mass rape of Jewish women. Why? Because it's Me Too Unless You're a Jew. They want us all raped and in the grave. Period.

The Pride Club? Forget it. All queer Jewish kids are persona non grata there. Apparently it's cool if Jewish queers are the subject of violence... and I can't say more or I'll start wanting to kill people. I am bisexual, my husband is bisexual, our daughter is lesbian. I have been part of this community since I was 12 as an ally and since I was 15 as a bisexual (took me some time to figure out what I was). My daughter came out in 4th grade for G-d's sake. We've been there, fighting the fight and now... queer organizations all over the world are abandoning us. They honestly hope we will all die, the more violently the better.

I was a proud intersectional feminist and a proud queer woman my whole life. Or at least ever since I could make decisions about that sort of stuff and what I believed. And I have been abandoned, my daughter has been abandoned, for blood sport. Her friends are pulling away from her and we all know why... because she committed the unpardonable sin of being Jewish.

Funny part? The Muslim Student Union has done nothing to her or the other Jewish kids on campus. Ponder that thought leftists if you will.

My son is in 8th grade and for the entirety of his 6th and 7th school years he was relentlessly bullied for being Jewish. We live in a red town and it was right wing antisemitism. It was so bad that I had to remove him for his safety from the school for a while. Now? It's left wing as well, he's catching it from both sides and I don't know how to protect him.

No one cares. Frankly, if my 13 year old son committed suicide to get away from it all... they would throw a party. Another dirty Jew/Zionist down... am I right? None of you give a fuck.

I marched, I protested, I voted, I phone banked. I lived my beliefs in action, and the left betrayed me. They fantasize about me and my children being raped and murdered. The more graphically it could happen, the better for them. Frankly, I think they get off to the videos Hamas released in the privacy of their rooms at night.

There's nowhere to run. Israel isn't an option. I know everyone thinks Jews are dripping in wealth... but I frankly do not have enough money to move my family to the other side of the planet. My husband is in IATSE, the stage hand local. There are no jobs waiting for him there. There are no jobs waiting for me there. I have no family there. Neither does he.

Actually, my husband isn't Jewish. I am, our children are, but he is not. He supports us in our Jewishness 100%, but he is not a Jew and he never wanted to convert. Which is fine with me... but how the hell does that work in a country where there is no civil marriage?

I'm not Orthodox, I don't want to be Orthodox. I want full egalitarianism, so I go to Reform, Renewal, or Conservative synagogues, depending on what is closer to wherever I live. Israel is a VERY Orthodox country, and the options are Orthodox or completely secular. This is a criticism I've been laying at Israel's feet for DECADES.

And Jew Haters better not use this as a way to say how awful Israel is. Not when the countries surrounding Israel are either dictatorships or absolute power, divine right monarchies who kill dissenters constantly.

So... there's really nowhere for my family to go. So I guess I'll stay where I am being a liberal Jew and waiting for the sick marriage of MAGA and Leftists to come to my door and kill me and my family.

None of you care. All of you would cheer. I'll never trust any of you again for the rest of my life. Till the day I die... I'll never trust any of you in any part of my life (online or offline) again.

1 in 5 members of Gen Z think the Holocaust didn't happen. 2/3rds of Gen Z think stories of the Holocaust are exaggerated and that Jews were somewhat complicit in what happened to us. Blame the victim...amirite? The rates amongst Millennials are not as horrific... but they're still bad. You all are going to commit a 2nd Holocaust and pat yourself on the backs. And when history remembers you all as the Nazis part 2... you will babble in your nursing homes that you were "Just trying to save the world from the Zionist/Jewish scourge."

When that happens, I hope you die in a puddle of your own shit.

[lucozadehulahoop]

Star-crossed. Lo'ak x fem!human!reader

This was originally posted on my side blog @thankeywa. It's a brand new blog and tumblr thinks it's a bot so it's not giving it visibility. Please go give it some love, I want all my avatar!related stuff to be on there.

PART 2 HERE PART 3 HERE PART 4 HERE

I know that literally nobody asked for this, but I've noticed a disturbing lack of Lo'ak fics out there, so I've decided to give my input. I've had a story in mind for a while now, and I needed to get it out there. It will be a reader insert to make it more accessible, but it's somewhat based around an original f!character, so I apologize for that in advance if it gets too specific.

WARNINGS: Lo'ak is 20 years old in this and so is the reader, I do not write about minor characters. There will be eventual mature themes in this so MINORS DO NOT INTERACT WITH THIS WORK.

For everyone else, if you like my writing, please let me know if you want to be on the tag list for future installments and SEND ME REQUESTS (head canons, imagines, sfw/nsfw, ecc.) ! I love that shit.

words: around 1.200

summary: reader is a human left behind on pandora, she grew up with the remaining humans who'd been aloud to stay on the planet after the war and has been friends with the Sully clan her entire life. She and Lo'ak were best friends until he began to pull away from her in their teen years for seemingly no reason. This story is about them reconnecting on the day of her twentieth birthday, and dealing with the feelings they have for each other and the obstacles that come with them being from two different worlds.

TW for this chapter: angst, smoking (don't do it, ever), brief mentions of alcohol, brief mention of war and death, brief mention of child birth, reader can breathe on pandora.

Y/n looked at the 'birthday cake' made out of cookie rations that Norm and Max had made for her. No matter how many years would pass, her dads always knew how to get creative.

"I'm twenty years old, you guys don't have to keep throwing me a birthday party." She reprimanded them softly, though her heart was filled with joy. Y/n was so thankful to have people in her life who cared enough to make her day special every single year.

"Considering you spent most of your early existence tied to test tubes to stay alive, we're merely celebrating the scientific marvel your continued survival has been." Norm joked, raising a beer, and y/n shoved him, before blowing out the single candle that had been meticulously re-used each year. It was a wonder how there was any wax still left on it.

"What did the birthday girl wish for?" Max asked, reaching for a dried-up cookie and cringing slightly at the taste as he chewed on it slowly. "The whole point of a birthday wish is to keep it to myself... or it won't come true. Honestly, I question your two's knowledge of Earth's traditions." y/n shook her head, before taking a celebratory sip of alcohol.

Norm and Max left eventually, back to the main base. They were more than capable of piloting a helicopter those days, and y/n was all grown up. More than capable of living by herself. What once had been an avatar lab, smack dab in the middle of the forests of Pandora, had been converted into her home. Pandora's rapidly repopulating fauna had surprisingly left her residence alone, well... mostly. There were still some creatures who couldn't help but keep themselves away. And by creatures, she meant Spider. Y/n was also friends with actual people like Neteyam, Kiri, Tuk, and... Lo'ak. Truth be told, she didn't know whether or not she and Lo'ak were even friends anymore. They'd been thick as thieves for as long as she could remember, always getting him out of trouble and fixing him up after a scuffle with his siblings. But then, around her sixteenth birthday, he'd started pulling away, and y/n had never understood why. They'd had a big fight about it, bottom line, he hadn't wanted to be around her anymore and y/n had to accept it.

"Open up! It's fucking freezing out here!" Came Spider's loud voice followed by an incessant banging on the door that immediately pulled y/n out of her reverie. "Alright, alright..." she laughed a little as she went to let them all inside. The Sullys were always insisting on spending birthdays together, even though some of them were now getting too big to even fit inside her 'home'. Neteyam had to walk around with his back bent forward, and Kiri knocked over quite a few things before they made it to y/n's main living space, which was more or less Na've-proof. "Happy birthday!" Tuk hugged her and y/n struggled not to feel crushed by the embrace. Even the littlest Sully was now nearly as tall as her.

Y/n let them all inside, already giving them dirty looks at the sight of gifts. "I told you guys not to..."

She stayed on the doorstep a little longer, gazing out into the night, desperately hoping one last uninvited guest would turn up. She felt Neteyam's hand on her shoulder. "He's not coming. I tried to talk to him but he was being a skxawng as usual..." Y/n blushed, not really wanting Neteyam to know she was pining for his younger brother. "Oh, right! I was—just checking you were all here..." she closed the door and they both went back to join the others.

___

"Alright come on, your mom is going to kill me if you get back late and I don't have enough space in here for all of you. Spider would have to sleep outside." Y/n teased, trying to let Tuk understand it was time to go. "Hey!" Spider protested at her lighthearted jab, but knew it was time for them to get going. Nobody wanted to get on Neytiri's bad side. Y/n hugged them all goodbye and thanked them for the presents: Tuk had made her a lovely drawing, and the others had collectively made her a rather beautiful necklace, which she immediately wore. Y/n waited on her doorstep till she could no longer hear the sounds of her friends chatting, and then proceeded to do two incredibly dangerous things: she sat outside of the protection of her bunker, all alone in the cold Pandora night air, and lit up a cigarette.

She'd discovered a terrifyingly endless supply of cigarette cartoons back at the base almost a year prior, and as soon as she'd tried her first one, she'd gotten addicted. Y/n hadn't told Norm or Max, of course, as it would have broken their hearts, especially because of how fragile she was. Y/n's mother had gone into labor in the aftermath of the battle for Pandora between the Na'vi and the Sky people. The soldier had lost her life giving birth, but her baby had survived, taking her first breath in the inhospitable Pandora air. Norm was convinced Eywa herself had kept her alive, had given her the ability to take in the air that hadn't previously failed to kill any other human. Sure, it had come at the price of being particularly fragile her entire life. And how was y/n repaying that gift? By cutting her miraculous existence short more and more each day. Thankfully, it was a while since she'd been used as a test rat, or had check ups of any sort. As far as the Sullys were concerned... they were way better off not even knowing what she was doing to herself.

A sudden rustling in the trees instantly made y/n alert and she didn't waste any time getting back inside. She showered, and shamefully hid her smokes somewhere her dads or the Sullys wouldn't look. When she had nothing else left to do, y/n forced herself to crawl into bed, placing a hand over her necklace. Her wish to see Lo'ak hadn't come true in the end, and while not surprising, it still hurt like hell.

"A pack of viperwolves? Seriously, Lo'ak?" Y/n groaned in frustration as she cleared her table for her best friend to lie on.

"I thought I could take them." He hissed as she doused him with disinfectant. "Yeah, well, you know human medical treatment hurts like a bitch, so it's either my way, or you're going to have to fess up to your parents about what you did." Y/n tried to sound cold, but she'd always been too soft on him.

When they were younger, and Lo'ak still hadn't grown to be double her size, they would often fall asleep together in her bed. "You don't have to keep doing this shit to prove something, you know?" She whispered to him one night, turning over to look at him and gently touch his face. "Your parents love you. And so do Neteyam, Kiri, Tuk and Spider. Lo'ak, I— we— don't want to lose you."

Y/n was almost asleep when a loud 'thud' coming from outside woke her. Something was moving on her roof, or rather, someone... Y/n didn't show whether she was dreaming or not as she looked out the window and locked eyes with Lo'ak, because the second she did, he seemed to slide off the top of her bucker, falling down into the grass below with a loud groan.

He'd probably just woken up half of the animals on Pandora.

[bucketsofmonsters]

Where the Light Enters - Part 3

cw: unreliable narrator, hurt/comfort, slow burn, eventual sex, enemies to lovers, past childhood sexual assault, past sex trafficking, referenced noncon, non-explicit dubcon, panic attacks, happy ending, the tags look scary but this is mainly a story about recovery

Cole/Female Inquisitor

word count: 6k

ao3 link

Masterlist

The Hinterlands wasn’t the worst place in the world. It was warmer than the snow covered mountain she was relegated to most of the time, so she certainly enjoyed that. She didn’t have to wear layers and layers of fur and thus could actually move properly which was a novelty to her at this point. 

It was quite pretty too. She loved the lakes and rivers when things were calm. 

The bears in the Hinterlands were not her favorite. She always brought someone sturdy to send off after them while she stayed far away from the creatures. 

The demons were certainly unpleasant, but that came with the territory when she was the only person that could close their entrance to this world.

It was the sheer quantity of violent humans running around that really got to her. Templars in all colors and mages and venatori and the carta, half of them fighting both each other and her. 

She’d take a hundred unthinking bears over them. 

Her worst fear was getting captured. 

Of course, she would give the Inquisition up in a second and convert fully to the side of whoever captured her, she knew that much. But that wasn’t something she could recover from in the eyes of her current allies and the last thing she wanted was to get on the bad side of a force as powerful as the Inquisition who wanted her as badly as they did. 

Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. 

In the meantime, they wandered. Cassandra was ready to fight anything, practically begging someone to come up to her. 

That meant being loud and noticeable in a way that was clearly meant to draw attention. 

In the end, they watched Cassandra fight a bear. 

Varric helped, she supposed. He fired off arrows as quickly as his mechanical crossbow allowed him to. 

Rosemary did not help, but then again, what could she do? She wasn’t equipped to fight anything, let alone a bear. 

Cole was up in a tree. When Varric tried to figure out what he was doing, the only response he could pull from him was, “She needs to fight. She needs to know she’s a protector. She doesn’t need my help. I would make it worse, another thing to watch.”

“You’re not a thing, kid,” Varric said as he notched another arrow. 

“She thinks I am.”

“She’s just scared,” Varric tried to reassure him, even as distracted as he was. 

“Yes. Lots of people are scared. I don’t know how to make them stop.”

Despite Cassandra being the one fighting the bear face to face, Varric managed to deal the killing blow with a swift arrow between the ribs. “None of us do.”

They plodded off again after that. 

Her feet were already tired, still unaccustomed to the long treks that being a member of the Inquisition required of her. She wished she had a more sedentary power, or perhaps wished that they could bring the rifts back to her. 

And then, as they stomped along and imagined a world where she didn't have to wander around in bear infested woods, her least favorite thing happened. They found a rift. 

There was something genuinely incredible about them, if you didn’t know how truly dangerous they were. The way it hung in the open sky, a rip in the clear void of the air. The green glow curled at the edges, like it was trying to grab onto the empty air for purchase. 

As soon as they got close enough, its defenses sprung up and all hell broke loose.

Her power didn’t work if she was too far away, so instead, every time they found one, she found the best hiding spot she could and hunkered down, praying her companions would protect her. 

She felt even more exposed than usual. She realized that she’d foolishly forgotten a mage and thus, no one here could cast a protective barrier around her. Likewise, with only one warrior, and a relatively small one at that, she didn’t have a particularly good human shield. 

Varric tried his best, but he was a distance fighter. It wasn’t his fault. 

Cassandra was overwhelmed. One bear was fine, she could focus her attention and do what needed to be done. But here she was too split, with half a dozen demons swarming them. She couldn’t cover Rosemary properly and fight. So she made the choice anyone would. She focused all her attention on the fighting and Rosemary sunk back further behind the rock she’d found that was barely half her size. 

And then Cole looked down at her, making herself small on the floor; he looked at the other two, overwhelmed by demons; and he sprung into action. 

It was mesmerizing to watch. The way he flickered in and out of existence in some sort of cosmic dance, daggers shining in the sun. Each strike was perfectly placed, causing more damage than inelegant swords and spells ever could

He was right. The boy could fight. 

And fight he did. 

Rosemary’s arms rose to cover her head, praying to whatever god these idiots believed in that she’d make it out of this alive. She couldn’t remember what the god’s name was, but she figured she was more likely to respond in this new land so it was worth a shot. 

The chaos began to die down and she peeked out to see a disheveled but alive Varric. 

She rose shakily to her feet, leaning on the rock as she did. 

And then a bright green flickering silhouette appeared in front of her, shaped exactly like a wraith, and she fell back into soft soil.  

Cole drew back into focus out of the green as she breathed unsteady breaths. 

She could see his face like this, from below. It looked unnervingly blank, as it always did. It was like he didn’t know how to paint emotions across it, blank not in a carefully studied way as hers often was, but instead blank in an innocent, unknowing way. 

He just stared down at her, not so much as lifting a hand out to help her up. 

His brows furrowed. “Can you not stand on your own? I thought you just did.”

She stood once more with a sigh. “It’s just polite.”

She raised her hand to the now unprotected rift, focusing on the strange power the fade had implanted into her palm a year ago. 

As she did, the tear in the fade began to close, returning from a green tinged void back to endless clear. 

She flexed her hand as the rift finally sealed itself. It stung a little to close them, leaving a dull ache behind for a few hours after each use. It felt like it had been lasting longer and she worried, not for the first time, that this was doing real damage to her. 

But there was nothing to be done about it. She’d tried to wriggle her way out of this countless times, but it was the one thing they would not budge on. Those rifts needed to be closed, at the expense of her comfort or not. 

“Do they know it hurts?” Cole asked, and she wondered why he didn’t already know the answer to his own question. 

Cassandra scrunched up her nose. “What hurts?”

“Nothing,” she snapped, more ill-tempered than she ever let them see her. 

“The mark,” said Cole. “It burrows into her, aches and rots. The fade isn’t meant to go in a girl, it’s too big for her.”

Cassandra looked like she only mostly understood what he was talking about. “We all have sacrifices we must make to do our part.”

Rosemary did her best to nod amiably, a deep resentment settling in her chest. 

“C’mon Rosie,” Varric said, pulling her to the side. “I’ll see if I can help with that.”

He gave her a salve that didn’t help. She told him it did but made it very clear that she was putting on a false, brave face. 

He gave her a clap on the shoulder and told her she was good as new. 

She was glad Cole didn’t decide to speak up.

They continued plodding along, facing off against a few groups of hostile mages and warriors but no more demons. 

Cole seemed thrilled about the whole ordeal. After fighting a small squadron of mages, he rooted around in one of the corpses’ pockets, clearly looking for something. 

A moment later, he held up a note half covered in blood. “Brothers, tired of fighting. Their hands remember holding each other, their mouths remember smiling. Their cheeks draw up but it never feels the same anymore. He wondered if he was missed when he was struck down, knew he wasn’t. He knew incorrectly,” he announced. “We should give it to him, it wants to be given.”

“If you find who it’s for on the way, you can give it to him then,” she tried to reason with him. 

“He’s behind us. He wonders how his brother fared, terrified he’ll see him in the fight. We killed him. We have to give him the letter.”

“Listen,” she said, turning fully to face him. “If we don’t get moving, more people get hurt. We can deliver letters to grieving family members when people in the Hinterlands aren’t being attacked by demons and corrupted men anymore, alright?”

“Why do you try that on me? I can see inside. It’s for them, a performance. You would never deliver a letter. Their nobility wielded against me, because they want to help.”

It was a miracle Varric and Cassandra seemed as disinterested in these bizarre outbursts as they were. 

She dragged him along, trying to get him to stop saying incriminating things about her. She had to break the instinct to tell him white lies in an attempt to placate him. They were clearly doing more harm than good. 

As they continued along, Cole in a notably worse mood than before, they saw a farm in the distance and she smiled. Finally, some good news. They could acquisition some horses and then she’d be able to rest her feet and not have to walk for miles and miles. 

She walked into the farm house, explained who she was and who she was with, and asked incredibly nicely if they could spare some horses. 

And then they gave them a horse. One horse. For four people. 

Cassandra scoffed at the sight and she silently agreed. If it were just her, she would have stolen more, whether the farmers could spare them or not. But then again, if it had just been her, the one horse would have been fine. 

They took the horse anyway, figuring it was better than nothing. She silently told herself she could run off with it if things got truly dire, abandoning the rest of her party.

She could feel Cole’s eyes on the back of her head as she thought it, an involuntary shiver running through her.  

As they were leaving the farm, horse in tow, a panicked farmer approached the four of them. 

“Please,” he called out to them. “Our druffalo has gone missing. If you see her, could you return her to us? She's our prize animal, we need her.”

Cole’s head whipped around to face the farmer the second they started to speak. 

She’d already begun saying, “we’re incredibly busy,” as his head turned to her, eyes expectant and hopeful. 

The look did nothing to change her mind. 

And then they were off again. They were headed for real civilization this time. She didn’t even know this place had civilization.

Apparently the town was called Redcliffe and they were going to meet mages. It occurred to her for the second time that day that perhaps bringing a mage along would have been prudent. She thought she’d probably blocked that idea out because she could not stand Solas’s smug voice for another week. She’d almost strangled him last time. 

Surely there were other mages in Thedas that were willing to help. She would have taken anyone else. 

She supposed they were going to meet mages now. Maybe one of them loved trudging through the woods and casting protective spells around frightened, incompetent leaders. 

When they got to this town, however, the mages were nowhere to be found. Something about them being taken over. 

At least if the mages were taken over by the enemy, she had templars on her side. This is what they were trained to do, stop rebel mages. 

With no mages to confront, she turned to Varric for some guidance. 

He smiled and said, “Nothing else for it, I guess. Time to go to the tavern.”

She grinned at him, glad she’d brought him along. 

It wasn’t a very big tavern but then again, it wasn’t a very big town. It wasn’t truly small, those sorts of towns didn’t have taverns, just illegal, impossibly strong alcohol being manufactured in someone’s shed. 

Regardless of the size of the tavern, she was glad to be there. It was better than the woods. 

Varric ordered four drinks, handing one to her and Cassandra before turning to Cole. 

“How old are you anyways,” he asked, looking Cole up and down.

Cole looked at him vacantly. “Time passes differently in the fade, I don’t know. This body is twenty. Was twenty. He died.”

Varric nodded, giving Rosemary a pointed look. “Right. You can probably have a beer then. It’ll be good for you, put some hair on that chest.”

“A drink can give me hair?” he asked.

“Not literally. It’s a figure of speech.”

Cassandra eyed the exchange nervously. “I don’t think we should be giving a spirit anything to further lower its inhibitions. He’s already dangerous, the last thing we need is for him to be more unpredictable.”

Rosemary silently agreed, wanting nothing less than for Cole to develop loose lips about things he should be keeping secret.

Varric brushed the concern off. “It’ll be fine, relax a little.”

Cassandra seemed unconvinced. 

“How do I do it?” Cole asked as he looked down the drink.

“Just drink it,” Varric said, and she couldn't help but wonder if he’d ever drunk anything before. 

“But how?”

Varric laughed a big booming laugh and showed the spirit how drinking worked, chugging the whole thing in one fell swoop. 

Cole watched him carefully and then did his best to mimic it. As soon as the liquid entered his mouth he coughed, some of the beer spilling out of his nose.

“Why?” he sputtered out, and Cassandra groaned as Rosemary fought back a laugh.

His head jerked up at that, watching the smile get suppressed off her face in lieu of faux concern.

“You should let it through or your mouth might forget how to smile,” he said, and Varric seemed more concerned by that than he’d been by Cole choking.

“I smile plenty,” she said, the comment effectively souring her mood. 

“No. Real ones.”

She slammed back her drink, wishing Varric had gotten her something stronger.

But she never actually drank, not enough to get anywhere near drunk, it dulled her inhibitions too much. This spirit was really getting to her. 

Varric seemed unphased by the end of the interaction, though she could tell he was still very much interested in Cole. Meanwhile, Cassandra had wandered off. She’d never been one for taverns. 

Varric downed two more drinks before grabbing the pair of them from where they had been sitting, silently, at a table, neither of them doing much of anything. 

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s find somewhere to sleep.”

Varric found an inn, which she didn’t mind. At least it had real beds inside.

Small town that it was, there were only two rooms available. Rosemary wondered if anyone else was staying here or if they only had two rooms in total. She supposed she’d never find out. 

Varric grabbed Cole, pulling him towards one of the rooms and sending her and Cassandra up to the other with a smile. 

Cassandra insisted she sleep on the floor while Rosemary got the bed. She made sure to protest just enough that it looked like she was putting up a fight while still getting to sleep on the soft mattress.

It was a restful night. At least for her. She happily would have stayed another night but she knew it wasn’t in the cards. 

Even if she pushed for another night, eventually they had to leave Redcliffe and then Rosemary was faced with another thing she hated about the Hinterlands. 

She had to camp. 

It was especially hard to stomach after getting to sleep in a big bed in a temperate climate. 

But they couldn’t stay forever, and so off they went. 

It would have been easier on horseback, but all they had was their lone horse and she couldn’t figure out a way to spin her being the only one riding. 

So they walked, leading a horse behind them through the endless woods and mountains. 

Varric sidled up beside her as they walked. “Did you know he doesn’t sleep?” He nodded his head off in Cole’s direction as he spoke. 

She turned to look at Cole, who was off in his own world, carefully placing one foot exactly in front of the other, almost like he was walking a tightrope. 

“I didn’t,” she said, “but it doesn’t surprise me.”

“Me neither. Was hard to sleep with those owl eyes just staring at me though.”

She giggled. “I’m sure. Cassandra snores but at least I wasn’t being watched.”

“Small mercies.”

Cassandra huffed, coming back from the scouting mission she’d sent herself on. They all knew she just got antsy and needed to move, to feel like she was doing something. No one ever commented on it, allowing her the idiosyncrasy. 

Cole was not privy to this silent agreement. “You never find anything. Searching, scouring, seeking. You have to look, someone has to. Someone has to find nothing so they don’t find something.”

“Can someone shut him up?” Cassandra barked. 

Varric just laughed as Rosemary muttered, “Trust me, I’ve tried.”

“Nonsense,” Varric announced. “You can’t get mad at the kid for being right.”

“I can get mad at him for whatever I’d like,” she said, and Cole watched her stomp off. 

“She needs to be mad. Being mad is strong. Being wrong isn’t. It’s alright to be wrong sometimes.”

“It sure is, kid,” Varric replied. “I think someone should tell her that. 

“I can do it,” he said, already taking a step towards her.

Varric caught him by the scruff of his jacket. “Better not.”

They got lost on their way back. 

It was a miracle it hadn’t happened before considering how massive this place was. It was bound to happen eventually. 

But now she was pretty sure they were off the edge of what was recorded on the map. She didn’t make any move to stop them, not wanting to argue with Cassandra, who was still leading them confidently forwards. 

When they entered some sort of tunnel in the stone of a mountain, she knew for certain they were in the wrong place. They were meant to be going back home, how could Cassandra honestly think that this tunnel they’d never seen before was the right way?

But insisting they were going the wrong way would be too assertive and she’d rather someone else take the blame when they did realize, even if it took a few more days before they got back. 

“The mind is unsure but the feet keep moving. It can’t be wrong if they keep moving,” Cole said as he stepped out of the arched pathway. 

Cassandra turned to look at him before facing the front once more, barking back at him, “What does that mean?”

“You know, Seeker,” Varric said, “There’s no harm in backtracking a little. The terrain’s getting a little rough. I’m sure this way is fine for you, but some of us need a more familiar path.”

Before Cassandra could respond with anything, whether it would have been in agreement or something cruel directed at the dwarf, an ear piercing shriek sounded from overhead.

And then Rosemary looked up and saw a dragon flying over them. 

She staggered back instantly, taking cover back in the mountain path. Varric and Cassandra followed while Cole just stood there, out in the open, staring up at the dragon. 

“Kid,” Varric called, but he got no response. 

Varric ran out and dragged Cole back to safety. He peeked his head out anyways, his hat almost falling off with how far he needed to tilt his head back to see it. 

“She’s so big! Why can’t I look? She can’t hurt me. If she attacks, I won’t be there anymore.”

Varric chuckled. “Whatever you say, kid. You know, I killed a dragon once.”

Cassandra rolled her eyes. “My ancestors actually hunted dragons.”

Rosemary was more than content not being able to see the dragon, retreating further into the safety of the mountain. “I didn’t even think they existed. At least not anymore.”

That seemed to upset Cassandra, her brow furrowing. “You did not believe? So you thought the old stories were what? Lies?”

The last thing she wanted was to start an argument with Cassandra. “I don’t know that I thought about it much at all.”

Varric looked back, fingers moving slightly over his crossbow, almost caressing it. “Should I fire a shot as we leave?” he asked. “Say I fought another dragon?” 

Rosemary’s eyes widened but before she could tell him off, Cole said, “They’re all so hungry. That’s why she bites. Too many mouths to feed. No one wanders in anymore. She’s so high!”

His voice swapped effortlessly between the endless narration of others' thoughts to an almost breathy excitement at the dragon. 

If she didn’t hate him so much, it might have been endearing. 

After that, they sorted out how to get back on the right track, although Cassandra did insist upon regaling them with tales of her family's deeds. It seemed an instinct born largely of embarrassment, though she was unsure how being related to dragon killers absolved her of getting them lost. 

At least she hoped they were back on the right track. She supposed she didn’t know. It was less obviously wrong, that was for certain, but she supposed it was no real guarantee. To be honest, she just wanted to find something that would help them to orient themselves on one of the maps. She figured so long as they didn’t run into any more dragons, they should be fine, even if they did take a couple more wrong turns. 

They found no landmarks before the sun began to set and the four of them decided that they’d done enough walking for the day and settled down to camp. 

She preferred this, the smaller campsites without Inquisition troops there. They had more supplies in those bigger camps but she could never shake the sense of unease that came with them. 

Cassandra set up most of the camp, more than happy to do the heavy lifting all on her own. 

Varric was trying to show Cole how to start a fire using a rock and a dagger he’d taken off Cole from wherever he’d been hiding them. The spirit couldn’t quite seem to get the hang of it, although that didn’t stop him from trying. 

It was honestly a surprise that Cole didn’t have any magic, now that she thought about it. She was pretty sure mages got their magic through a connection with the fade, so surely someone who came from the fade should have at least a little magic, certainly enough to start a fire. 

And yet he sat there, smacking the knife into the dark rock. 

He managed to pull sparks a few times, but nothing ever seemed to come of it. 

Rosemary had little to do herself and found herself just watching. 

She also had no clue how to start a fire, but Varric hadn’t offered and so she was content to just watch. 

As Cassandra finished setting up camp, Varric gently took the knife and stone from Cole, sparking it into the little pile of brush he’d formed and almost instantly starting up a small fire. 

Cole drifted over to her as Varric stoked the flame into something more useful. 

“I’m not good at it,” he said, crouching beside where she was sitting on the floor of the forest. 

She shrugged. “Can’t be good at everything.”

“Who’s up for a round of Wicked Grace?” Varric asked as he stood up from the now roaring campfire. 

Cassandra groaned and announced that she would be going to sleep, as they all should, to keep up their strength. 

Rosemary shifted closer to Varric, asking, “How do you play? I’ve never heard of it before.”

“Never heard of Wicked Grace?” he cried in mock offense. “Well, that needs to be fixed immediately. What about you, kid, you want to learn?”

“They all lie face down, never seeing another. Sometimes when he wins he smiles and that they can see. The ace is his favorite, lives in his palm until everything is perfect.”

He laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

She gave him a dirty look. “You better not be palming cards in this game, Tethras, or I’ll bring the wrath of the Inquisition on you.”

“You’re beginners, I’ll teach you to cheat later.”

Wicked Grace was not all that difficult. He insisted that the rules were simple because it was the cheating that made it fun. She practiced palming cards as Cole announced everyone's cards in his little riddles. 

Varric was clearly a practiced player, cheating or not. Cole seemed intent on gathering as many face cards from the deck as he could, repeatedly pulling cards from the middle despite Varric saying it was not allowed. Cole responded that this was his version of cheating and that Varric said they had to. 

Varric had just sighed and allowed Cole to grab the Jack he’d held up his sleeve to add to his hand. 

She ended up winning, not through any merit of her own but because she was better at understanding Cole’s card revealing riddles than Varric was. Cole was technically losing but he seemed to be playing his own game. 

She won nothing, with Varric insisting they’d just been playing for fun and that no one should bet anything real while teaching someone to play.

Somehow, she imagined he’d be singing a different tune if he’d won.

“He would,” Cole said. “Fair’s fair, have to pay a tutors fee. You taught us either way, but we only pay if you win?”

“It was just a joke kid,” he said, giving Cole a pat on the back. “Now, you should both get to sleep. Cassandra will kick my ass if you’re both dead on your feet tomorrow.”

“I don’t sleep,” Cole said. 

“Do me a favor? Give it a shot anyway.”

Cole nodded, content with the new task he’d been given.

They both went to their bedrolls, Cole just sitting atop his while she tucked into hers and went to bed, the sound of the crackling fire sending her to sleep. 

She woke up first. She usually did, always on alert. 

Varric and Cassandra were still fast asleep. Cassandra tended to wake with the sunrise, immediately setting off to work along with the light. Varric always needed to be dragged out of bed, saying that surely they could afford to relax for a few minutes out of their day. 

Rosemary woke before the sun did. Sneaking hours, she’d called them when she was younger. The term felt juvenile now, but at the very least they were aptly named.

Cole was nowhere near his bedroll at all. She spun around with a yawn, looking for him in the treeline, before seeing him crouched on the ground, a spark flying from his hands.

She blinked a few times, willing the world to come into focus as she forced the sleep out of her eyes. He was sitting there with what she could now recognize as that rock in his hand, the other striking the dagger against it. 

She ambled over to him, sitting beside him and his little pile of dry leaves. 

“Careful,” she said with a yawn. “You’ll set the forest on fire.”

His nose wrinkled up, his eyes fully focused on the task at hand. “I want to learn but it's hard, hard to remember when it's not what I was made to do.”

“Who cares?” she asked, leaning back on her arms to watch him. “Varric can already do it, you don’t need to learn.”

“Varric remembers,” he said. “Everything you say. Everything from me too. He files it away for stories and thoughts and because he cares. But I care and it’s still hard.”

“That’s fine. Unless you decide to take up writing, I think you’ll be fine without them.”

He huffed, dropping the rock and sheathing his knife under his jacket. She noted where it was being hidden, glad that it was stored somewhere and wasn’t some magical weapon he could summon. 

“You don’t understand. You remember too, but it’s because you're scared. It means something.”

She hated this sort of thing, the emotional talk about caring that he always cycled back to. Maybe she did want him to remember more. At least that way they’d have more to talk about. 

She was spared from having to respond by the sun waking from behind the horizon, Cassandra following close behind it. 

She kicked Varric gently as she rose and he groaned. “It’s not even light yet, surely we can sleep at least until we can see.”

Cassandra did not let him and before they knew it, they were off again.

It wasn’t long before they reached familiar land and Rosemary was properly assured that they were back on track. 

Her favorite part of traveling over familiar land was that she was guaranteed to not have to face a single rift. They walked for half a day of steady, uneventful travel before they had returned and no one else so much as tried to take their heads off. 

Bull was at the gates. His face lit up when he saw her and she felt her heart stutter in her chest. 

She couldn’t do this. 

It didn’t matter. She would do it because she had to.

She greeted him with a smile, following him happily into the tavern. 

His Chargers cheered as she walked in and she pushed her hair behind her ear, feigning self-consciousness.

A drink was thrust at her and she took it happily, sipping at it carefully so she wouldn’t be too comfortable, still ready to carefully prepare reactions as needed. 

The other Chargers kept talking to her. She understood that it was so she would feel welcome, but she really wished they would leave her alone.

And Bull was all over her. He almost felt pushy tonight. Or maybe she was tired from the trip, leaning into him a little too hard, not being careful enough about the signals she was sending. 

She kept spying Cole out of the corner of her eyes, watching carefully. No one else ever seemed to see him. She supposed it was probably a spirit thing because he was incredibly conspicuous in his looming. 

She wasn’t sure how long it was before Bull pulled her off to his room. She felt a little bit too far gone considering how little she’d drunk. 

She didn’t act it, her responses coming naturally as could be from years of training. 

She had mostly stopped listening to him, at least actively. He said something to her about how she could stop him. She didn’t listen, would just go along with it all. She knew how this worked. She’d been here before. 

She nodded along. It had long since stopped feeling real, this part of it. She had practiced it endlessly, knew instinctively exactly how she should respond, and did it without so much as having to process it. 

She was pretty sure he wanted to hit her. That was fine too, another thing she’d long since become accustomed to. Plenty of men got off on it, although Bull did not seem like one who wanted her to show how much she hated it. 

She played the wooed maiden, entranced by everything he did, completely overrun by pleasure. 

It was humiliating. She preferred when they let her show she didn’t like it. It made her less embarrassed after, at least.

She barely even recognized when it was over, too far inside of herself. 

She felt herself smiling, her throat a little hoarse, although she couldn’t remember what had caused it. 

She grinned and gave him a kiss between his horns as she said something about wanting to go take a bath 

He let her leave with little protest. He at least allowed her that small dignity

She wandered off in a haze, not moving towards her own room. He might check on her if that was where she went. 

She ended up in a little shack, half exposed to the cold and not nearly dressed enough for it

She had no idea why it had hit her so hard this time. She’d been here a hundred times before, it was a well worn tool of hers. It was stupid for it to remind her of before, when she was small. It wasn’t a fight for survival here. She could reap real rewards from it now. She knew the repercussions of her actions, knew what she stood to gain and how it might fall through and not pan out the way she planned. She chose to do this. What right did she have to feel so cold?

And she was fine. She’d slept with men for protection before, would do it again when she left this place. Would do it more, probably, with less of a bargaining chip than her vital, glowing hand provided her. 

She refused to cry, would not allow it. It was a foolish instinct. Nothing productive would come from it. 

She always felt worse afterwards. Weaker. Not like the put on show of weakness she wore like armour. No, that was real weakness, a refusal to do what needed to be done and be able to be content with it. 

Warriors didn’t cry when they killed nor when they were injured. Mages did not cry when their magic stung, ripping into people as it tore themselves apart, just a little. What right did she have?

“They do cry,” said a voice beside her, and she looked up at Cole from the floor. 

She hadn’t even realized she’d sunk to the floor, too lost in her thoughts to take in anything around her. 

He dropped to the ground beside her, something heavy and woolen being wrapped around her shoulders as he did. 

She hadn’t realized she was shaking until the warmth began to set in. Even as the cold faded away, leaving her bones, the shaking didn’t stop. She didn’t know how to make it stop. 

“I can get you something,” he said. “A hot drink, warm you from the inside. That’s where the shaking comes from. I can’t take it away but maybe the warmth will make it less.”

He went to stand up and she grabbed his arm, keeping him on the ground with her. 

She rested her head on his shoulder as he settled back down, furious at herself for being comforted by him. 

Furious at herself for needing to be comforted at all. 

He shifted nervously beneath her for a while before settling down, his hand sliding over to give her arm a squeeze. 

She wondered whose head he’d pulled that idea of comfort from. 

But still, for some impossible to understand reason, she was content sitting there beside him, feeling numb no matter how long the blanket sat around her shoulders.

And then the sun was shining through a broken roof, the morning having come after she’d slipped unknowingly out of consciousness. 

When she woke up she was alone, surrounded by blankets with a pile of dried leaves and a familiar rock lying a few feet from her.

[nekole-doodles]

Here are some of my SBI hybrid(?) headcanons since I have a special love for these kinds of headcanons:

C! Technoblade: A Piglin hybrid with absolute control of his hybrid traits. Basically, he can control his human traits to piglin traits ratio. His original form basically looks like a full Piglin but his preferred form when he was young was a mostly human form with subtle piglin traits. This was because he grew up with Phil and Wilbur(then eventually Tommy) who looked mostly human besides a few hybrid traits. His preferred form when fighting as he earned the title The Blood God was either his full piglin form/his original form or mostly human with very prominent piglin features(like full tusks, piglin ears, bright red eyes, and pink-tinted skin). This is because he's stronger in this form, he has better senses, and his skin is tougher. His casual form is usually most human with pointed ears, tanned skin, smaller tusks than his fighting form, and red or very warm brown eyes.

C! Philza: He mostly just has wings and feathers behind his ears and scattered around his face(especially his cheeks) and body(mostly his hands). However, whenever he's angry or fighting, his hands turn black(with more feathers) and he has sharper nails/claws and his eyes glow gold with black scleras. It makes him look more intimidating and he can use his claws to tear through skin in fights. Also, his vision is naturally very sharp :]

C! Wilbur: I was kinda stuck between making him human, a sea hybrid of some kind, or an avian like Phil, but I decided that an avian would make the most sense since he's biologically Phil's son in canon. Also, just as a side note, only the hybrid type typically gets passed down to the children, meaning that although Phil(and also Kristin) have black/crow wings, Wilbur could have wings from a different species of bird. That being said, I feel like owl wings would fit Wilbur pretty well. I'm still figuring out exactly what species, but his wings are different shades of brown with dark speckles. He has feathers in similar places as Phil but they aren't as visible and he doesn't have claws/can't shift to have claws like Phil can. However, his eyes can change to glow gold with black scleras. It's whenever he's experiencing strong emotions in general like excitement or anger, not just strong negative emotions. I also kinda want to include the detail that little tufts of feathers grow in his hair :>

C! Tommy: For Tommy, I seriously debated with myself if he should be human, an avian, or a demon post-revival. However, after reading The Dreamwalker by Hydre, I have fell in love with the headcanon that Tommy is a shapeshifter :D That way, there's a little bit of all the headcanons I was trying to decide between. So Tommy was born a shapeshifter but his default form is an avian. His wings are red with white tips and speckles of gold throughout them. He has feathers behind his ears but nowhere else unlike Phil and Wilbur. The other forms he really likes are a full blond raccoon form, a raccoon hybrid form, a full bird form(probably a red cardinal or smth) and forms that take the hybrid traits of his friends(like Ranboo's tail, horns, and white/black freckles or Tubbo's goat ears and horns). He subconsciously adds the traits of people he loves to his form and it's his way of showing someone he trusts and cares about them. Although he's a shapeshifter, if he loses or injures a body part, he can not shapeshift to fix it. For example, Dream seriously injured his wings during exile but he can't shift them to fix them. Everytime he shifts away wings, they will come back in the state they were last in and injuries can only heal if they are physically out. He can't shift away scars in his human or avian forms because he got the scars in his human or avian forms and his base/original form is his avian one so scars stay in that form. Also, his other body parts get converted to fit the anatomy of other animals, meaning that his arms shift into wings when he turns into a bird since his arms align with the placement of bird wings better than the wings on his back. Injuries also shift between forms unless the body part is just shifted away(like his avian wings or a tail) instead of converted so if Tommy gets a wound on his arm, it will stay on the corresponding wing when he turns into a bird. He can add or remove clothes to his form but he can only take off clothes that are separate from his actual body and wasn't shifted on just so he can't make an infinite amount of clothes. If he shifts out of clothes from his human form when he turns into an animal, he'll automatically have those clothes back on no matter what and he won't be able to add clothes that he shifted on himself until he takes those off(and technically, clothes he shifts on are stuck on his body since they are an extension/a part of his body, don't think about it too much though). I'm still figuring out more of the logistics of shapeshifting but that's what I have so far and hopefully it makes sense. Also, again, credits to The Dreamwalker by Hydre for the idea and a good amount of the shapeshifter logic :)

Those are my headcanons for SBI's forms! That took longer than expected but it was fun :D

[bonny-kookoo]

Yoongi: 𝐑𝐞𝐝 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐬 (Intro)

In which everything he always wanted has already been there from the start. He just needs to make that final step.

Tags/Warnings: Vampire!Yoongi, Human!Reader, mentions of 'being high' (drug usage in a way), friends to lovers, blood (duh), red haired Yoongi, Listen I am Jungkook focused but I will put Vampire Yoongi on the menu and you'll better finish your plate

Additional Chapter Warnings: blood high= a rush vampires get after consuming blood, nothing graphic though, stereotypes against vampires

Length: Short

Next ->

♥━━━━━━━━━━━♡━━━━━━━━━━━━♥

"Yoongi... I never drink this much!" You whine pitifully, letting him lead you into your apartment where he turns the lights on for you before he closes the door, all while you cling onto him.

"I know." He simply reassures softly, well aware that you really do not actually drink that much. But you're also easily swayed by social pressure - always aiming to please people, especially if you're in a situation that's unfamiliar.

"Those guys were nice though.. why were you so mean to them?" You wonder with anpout while trying to undo the small buckle of your heels with a pout, not having much luck. Yoongi sighs.

He was mean to them- that's the tamest way of describing his words towards the group of vampires that had been filling you up with liquor only to get you weak and complacent for whatever sick and twisted shit they would've done to you later. Yoongi doesn't like that you're so easy to manipulate, but you're an adult and you usually stay away from things like that. But then, your date never showed up, and suddenly it all went downhill from there.

Luckily he texted you, just to make sure you're alright.

"Yoongii-..." you whine his name again when he carries you to to your convertible sofa, pulling out one of the sides because there's no way in hell he can actually get you into your bed like this. He unbuckles your shoes before he takes them off, putting them safely to the side where you can't stumble over them, while you already wiggle around, trying to get comfortable, and that's all fine-

Until you begin to slip out of one of your dresses straps hanging over your shoulder, his hand lighting fast at putting it back where it belongs. "Yoongi~!" You complain, trying to pry his hand off. "I wanna get out of this it's too tight-" You whine, and he sighs.

Too tight is right. The way it stretches over your behind and chest is sinful to say the least, making him shake his head as he forces himself not to look at your cleavage.

"I know love, but-" He sighs, realizing there is no other way to help, really. "I'll help you out alright?" He shakes his head, especially when you happily nod, as he puts a blanket from the side of the sofa over your shoulders, holding it shut. "Now you can get out of it." He instructs calmly, still averting his gaze though as to not catch any glimpse of you by accident. Only when the dress hits the floor does he swallow thickly, painfully aware just how almost naked you are underneath the blanket that he's holding. He could drop it now, paint it as an accident-

But he won't take advantage of you like that.

You and Yoongi are connected by technically less than fortunate events- his first blood high a horrible experience as he'd been left alone with his emotions and everything because the person he was with simply didn't care about anything but their own pleasure. He felt disgusting, used, and ever since then he'd never bitten anybody ever again, strictly sticking to his monthly schedule of getting pre-packaged and measured amounts of blood from Banks.

But what did that have to do with you?

Well, you found him when he was at his lowest, no job, no future, uncaring of anything any longer. He had nothing to his name, and yet, you bought him something to eat walked him home like a lost dog, and gave him your number just to make sure he'd be alright. And all that after having been attacked by a vampire not even a week prior, as you would reveal to him a few months later.

It made him awfully protective of you.

As he lets you pull a shirt over your head that he fetched from your bedroom (he just grabbed whatever was still on your bed, he'd never dare roam around in your closet because God have mercy on him if he stumbled over your underwear- that'll surely give him wet dreams like he's nothing but a boy stuck in puberty for sure), he makes sure to leave the bathroom door open in case you'd get sick later tonight- when you pull on his sleeve.

"Hm?" He looks down at you, where your gaze is distant.

Before you smile in an almost somber manner. "You won't stay- even if I ask, right?" You wonder, and he sighs.

"You're drunk." He argues softly.

"I know, I know.." you shake your head, letting go of him.

He knows he likes you as more than a friend. He really did fall in love with you along the way. But considering how your friendship started- he feels like it would be wrong to ask you out now. You're so sweet all the time- the chance that you'll say yes to him just because you don't want to hurt his feelings is more than just high.

He's almost certain you'd do just that.

And so he waits for you to make a move. Give him a sign. Anything so he knows you do actually like him back.

But how the fuck is he going to know what those signs look like, when all you do already seems to imply that you like him?

[theolmtales]

What do you think of Alva, the Hermit?

I don’t have anything in particular for him. I’m currently re-doing my reading & analysis on all the characters & the essences stories, but I haven’t gotten to him yet so my opinion on him is subject to change. But that’s how I interpret the current lore for him:

He doesn’t want anything to do with human emotions. For him, they get in the way of research & understanding the truth. It’s emotions that ruined Herman & his son, Luca & put him as collateral damage. Since he got saved by the Eye of darkness, his only goal is to keep researching & convert people to his god. He chooses to become a hermit to convert people, but also to stay away from them. He can do his research in peace without getting distracted by futile matters. It’s like balancing duty with fun.

It would be best to be someone who doesn’t get easily, or even better completely, sway by their emotions. Even before dying he didn’t liked socializing & he was very pragmatic, it’s just worse now. He will constantly keep you at a distance. He doesn’t want to be betrayed again, there’s too much risk involved with human emotions. He will still try not to be too rude about it if you guys get along, but he will be direct.

If you show him that you’re in control of your emotions & doesn’t let them get in your way, you have your chances with him. But don’t expect him to put his emotions for you first. If the rational thing to do will hurt your feelings, he will still do it. He doesn’t feel guilt anymore. If you get angry to him about it, he will tell you to be pragmatic & that it was for the best. If you say you understand & just want to be comforted, he will do it. After all, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about you (Thought that’s not a very healthy relationship for ya, but which idv characters actually as one anyway). But don’t expect him to change is mind on the matter, it won’t work.

Whether your interest lie in the same fields as him or not, he enjoys talking with you about it. Exchanging ideas, helping each other with your research (even if it’s a completely different scientific field) or just teaching you about it. If you’re willing to listen & learn he’s going teacher mode. You won’t escape the religious talk; he believes his gods is the truth & he’ll show you why. If he gets really into you, he won’t let you escape it, he has to make you join. Not realizing he’s letting his emotions control him in a different kind of way. I think I could see him getting attached in a twisted kind of way if it has to do with his religion. He’s still pragmatic, but it turned into an obsession (Ironic, that was the downfall of Herman).

Thinking about how he would be with someone who’s into sciences different to him made me think about someone who studies emotions & relationships. Having a friend or partner who’s into the very thing he doesn’t approve of. If you’re close enough he would help you to a certain degree, researcher helping each other. Especially because you should not be on the hunter side researching on how the different hunters’ emotions & relationships works. That’s exactly the kind of unnecessary risk he wanted to avoid. Please stay away from the nonhuman ones at least…

So yeah, that’s what I can think of for now. Might be a little all over the place, sorry. His complete detachment to human emotion could be interesting to explore. Realistically he would probably work best with someone who is rational & in a platonic way.

[icga-blog]

Heartbreak High Season 1 - Ep7

22:30–23:40

Amerie's mom get the megaphone from the principal and use it to scream at her ("Amerie! Amerie! Get out here right now"), to what Amerie seems annoyed, but not otherwise bother, staying in her tired and feed up position. Ant gets close to Amerie to say "Your mum's scarier than mine", in a joking tone, which seems to also annoy Amerie. Then, once Ant is back at Spider's side, a woman's voice scream "Anthony", and he immediately stops in his tracks, jaw dropping and all fun droning away from his face (being replaced to what looks like shock and fear). Cash laughs at his reaction, and Spider also looks like he thinks it's funny. His mom continues: "So help me God, if I have to come in there, I will drag you out myself". Ant, still looking in distress, tries to exit, but Spider stops him, no longer looking like he thinks that's funny (in the background, Missy and Sasha are still laughing, and Amerie still looks really annoyed). Amerie uses the microphone to say they are staying while Spider and Ant discuss (not audible), then she apologizes to her mom and offers to let any of the kids still inside out ("Alright, if anyone wants to leave, now's your chance"). Ant says he's out and tries to leave, but Spider stops him again ("Bro, come on", "My mum's going to kill me" "It's fine!" "She's right outside" "Okay"). The scene ends with Amerie saying they are staying the night, while Ant and Spider argue, but from later scenes we know he stayed.

Let's analyze a 1 minute scene, shall we?

This one will be focus in Ant, with sparks of his relation with Spider, because it is @aussiellama "request" and I know my audience. But I have things to say about Amerie in this scene too, and about Quinni in the scene right before it (I could always talk about Cash, this is no exception).

A little note: I mention in the previous HBH analyzes that these people don't interact a whole lot, and want to let you know that Cash laughing about Ant and Ant laughing about Dust/Spider eshay jokes about Cash is the only interaction they have. I love the dynamics I create for them, but canonically they are stranger that know of each other existence enough to laugh of each other.

The contrasts here are beautiful, so I will talk about them separately

Ant - Amerie

When Amerie's mom shouts her name, her reaction is to almost roll her eyes. She signs and sink a little deeper into the chair, but not as she is scare, as if she is tired and annoyed that she needs to deal with this on top of all of this. Right before Ant speaks to her, she does straight up and make a bit of a distress face, but the culmination of this is a quick "Sorry mom" in the end of her statement, like she doesn't want her mom to be disappointed, but not enough to actually change her ways. She is sorry, but she is not apologizing for making a school riot. She is, if so, apologizing for not hearing and staying either way.

Ant first reaction is shock (which... didn't you think she would go there honey?), and the second one is fear. He doesn't try to hide tho, no, his fear is converted in obedience. Ant, just like Amerie, doesn't want his mom disappointment (or anger), but they deal with this very differently. Where Amerie apologized for staying, Ant's tries to leave.

But, well, where Amerie's mom demanded that she left, Ant's mom said she was going to drag him out. Ant says "Your mum's scarier than mine", but only one of these women insinuate violence, to be honest. Which isn't actually relevant because there is also the fact that the principal asked Amerie's mom to talk her out of that because she organized it, but from all the other parents, there isn't a reason to be Ant's the ones to also talk to the kids. Just from screaming his name where none of the other "just participants" have their parents in their ear in front of the other kids, Ant's mom is already putting him in a spot.

I also find notable that she brings God's name, which makes sense since (as a religious person myself), if's hard for me to be mad without using God's name or religious expressions, but it is still interesting to note considering Ant's future fall about God/Jesus punishing him personally for his, Dust's and Spider's actions. Anyway- moving on.

Ant - Spider

The fact that Ant want to leave and Spider prevents him is crazy. Not Spider and Dust (that, at this point, is as much of Ant's friend as Spider is). Just Spider. Even before Amerie offer's the opportunity to leave, Ant is already trying to do it (again, his distress about his mom yelling his name is 3 things in rapid succession: shock, fear, and obedience), and Spider is already not letting him.

They are, visible, already arguing and discussing before what we can hear... Spider smiles and kind-of-laughs of Ant's shock, but not at his obedience. The second he tries to give up this thing (that, in all fairness, Ant didn't actually wanted or cared, since he is part of the firing-Jojo-plan), Spider is interfering. Ant's mom not even stop speaking before Spider's face goes to worried, and he is already shifting his arms before Ant starts to walk out.

Spider (that, we later learn, reacts to his mom's critics by being exactly the asshole she thinks he is, that fights her accusations of wrongly manhood with "yeah, I am a man"), knew before Ant that he will give in to his mom. Spider is very focus in not letting it happen, he physically holds Ant back as a first reaction thing.

Also... "Bro, come on" "My mum's going to kill me" "It's fine!" "She's right outside"

Just one of this people is saying arguments, and it's not the one that won the discussion. Do you see what I saw?

This one is a bit late (sorry for it, I have at least 5 different reason I could give you), so I will be reblogging it with a rewrite of the scene in my superpowers au as a little sorry. Hope it was enjoyable tho.

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 5: The First Time Jason Gets to Pass Out

Jason had nearly forgotten about what started all this that morning. The Grand Canyon debacle and Percy’s fit over those books seemed as far away as the bottom of the ocean, but still as they flew low over and circled around in confusion before banking off to follow an actual road, it all came trickling back.

Porkpie was following leisurely behind. An unpleasant feeling, like the ghosts they’d left that weren’t on that white stallion were sneering at this detour, but he knew that was all in his head. The only ghost he’d known before Alex and Magnus was his own mother.

There were others though. He’d felt it as he looked upon the battlefield, then off to where Mount Othrys loomed in the far distance. Alex and Magnus had been buried with honors, but it never felt like enough when all you wanted was one more moment before it was all too much and you couldn't even look anymore.

Percy nor Blackjack seemed particularly sure of where they were going from the one sided argument they could hear, and with no satyr at hand it seemed they were only going to find this Wilderness School to start looking for Piper and Leo by a combination of sheer dumb luck, their steeds insisting the kids would be found at the nearest donut shop, and a few logical leaps. The usual.

After a few towns and a dozen donuts each (Will had sweet talked the cashier while Percy and Annabeth broke in the back of the store and made sure to note the name of the palace to send a few apology dollars to later), they finally found it mid-morning. Phone books still existed if you asked the right sleazy hotel, who knew?

 A building that had once been an old asylum had been converted to ‘a school.’ There were bars on every window, most of which looked half broken or shattered anyways. Three stories tall of eroded brickwork stood the test of time through sheer stubbornness in an empty lot way out on the outskirts of a dusty town in Nevada nobody knew existed except the people who lived there. Messily painted over graffiti smothered the lowest floor. An abandoned ladder and a few empty cans showed another already in progress in hot pink. The parking lot was nearly empty, the snow falling in light dusty dirty patches filling in where people must have recently been trying to have snowball fights and build forts, but had clearly been abandoned when it all turned to mud. The sign outfront had the words ‘Where Kids Are the Animals’ scratched in red underneath the name.

They landed on the roof, a huge open space they were sure was the nicest part of the building just for being untouched. Even the lock on the door had a fine layer of dust.

“Kids have died here,” Nico stated in a way only he could. Jason personally hoped he meant some crazy cult thing among mortal teenagers they might walk in on that would make it the police’s problem, not monsters, like Dylan tossing kids off this roof for funsies until he showed up; but he’d brace himself for anything today.

Percy pulled his pen out of his pocket and uncapped it without further question. He looked as healthy as the dying grass. They knew he’d tried to catch some sleep on Blackjack with his girlfriend and the pegasus keeping him supported, but it hadn’t been nearly long enough to recover from exerting all that energy, and Nico wasn’t looking any better, the darkness thrumming around their feet like a hungry mouth waiting politely to chew and swallow.

“Will and I will scope the place out and look for them,” Jason decided.

Percy opened his mouth to protest, “I’ve been kicked out of more places like this than you can name! I should-”

“You two should rest,” Will agreed with him. Nico hadn’t even drawn his sword, nor was he looking at Will. He just slid off Zeta, then the rest of the way to the ground, shadows dancing around him merrily as if happy to have him join, but that’s all they were doing, for now. He stayed on the cold roof and went back to looking up at the sky while Will’s heart lodged in his throat.

“Leo and Piper might already have false memories of me.” Jason reminded. “If they don’t, it won’t matter who finds them, they’ll think we’re nuts and we’ll need backup if Dylan and those storm spirits are around. Will whistling is the signal that everything’s gone to hell, but until then, just,” he didn’t need to finish, Percy’s fist knotted up in Blackjack’s mane and Annabeth’s hand on his shoulder was all that was keeping him upright until he nodded and slumped to the ground too.

Annabeth’s eyes alone promised she’d watch the two as they went to the door. It was locked, but Jason just gave his coin a flip without care. It came out a sword, and he slipped it in with a silent ‘shnick’ through the crack of ice. With an easy pop of his wrist, it cleanly cut through the lock and the door swung open.

“Subtle,” Will nodded in approval as he began following him down the stairs. It was a rickety thing that felt about as safe as the laval wall at camp, every creaking step they made was sure to alert someone of their presence. Will was clinging to Jason’s back a little too much, knowing if he slipped down through a rusted grate it would only be this guy to stop him hitting the bottom.

The first floor they found seemed to be dorms, but every room they checked was empty, and depressing. Few had decorations up, most of them had at least one piece of broken furniture each, nearly all of them had flickering over hang lights embedded into the ceiling with bolts that were sure to give someone tetanus just by looking at them too long. The shiny new, industrial locks on the outside of each gleamed. The beds were deeply tempting, but neither of them suggested they should rest here for the night, nor would the others agree. Not a place where they already knew monsters had lingered. Not when home was still so far away.

The second floor was clearly the place for classrooms, but to call them that felt generous. Four doors cut into walls that were sectioned off by giant pieces of thin plywood, as if this area had all once been hollow. The noise would be disastrous cramming on either side of it, with half cobbled together desks, chairs that had nails poking through them, and chalkboards with spelling errors and wrong math equations on each half, along with at least three states that had the wrong capitals labeled on an old map on the hall. Nobody was there either.

There was yet another set of stairs heading farther down as they reached a clamor of voices, and Will was kind of disturbed he hadn’t seen any bathrooms yet. What kind of medieval plumbing did they have down in the basement?

Finally as they neared the next floor they heard sounds of life, Will saw Jason look back at him in hesitation, probably regretting bringing him along right now. He had no weapons, and Alex and Magnus’s deaths were doubly his fault. This guy probably thought him useless at worst and a useless door watcher at best.

He seemed to be waiting on something though, so Will nodded he was ready for whatever. Jason went to the door and eased it open, peaking out.

Will could only see a sliver over his shoulder, but he could tell it was much the same as the other floors. Whatever walls had once been here had been knocked out, the place was open so no trouble making could be had behind any unwatched corners. There was a meshed off gated area where a line of phones were. It was some mash of shelving for office supplies and security weapons and lunch tables crammed into the far side where all the kids seemed to be now. 

Coach Hedge was there, Will’s heart instantly leapt with relief. He was leaning on his cudgel and chewing on a block of cheese on a stick smothered with hot sauce. As they watched he took a mega goat bite and polished off half, stick and all.

There were only two security guards on each door that had metal detectors, leaving both boys to wonder if Jason’s sword would be a problem, but neither looked very interested on keeping an eye out for trouble with their nose in their phones. Will’s heart did stutter in fear for several moments as he spotted the holsters on their hips, but then realized they were taser guns. Hopefully. At least it looked more like the one Travis had given Connor for his birthday than the old fashioned kind Will liked to clean in the weapons shed.

There were no other teachers around. Jason’s eyes clearly clocked the parking lot out one window and the empty ‘wilderness’ out the other as likely exit points, his sword would cut through the bars no problem. Will was studying the kids. Like Jason had once described, they all seemed normal. Any one of them would have blended right in at camp. They were laughing, one boy had a flower crown on his head and was shoving cheese cubes up his nose. He couldn’t imagine what wretched crimes they all would have done to be at a place like this.

Jason kept his sword out, clearly relying on the Mist as he kept it low to the ground but close to his hip as he eased into the room further, eyes scanning with excitement among the three dozen or so ‘students.’

They spotted Leo first, chattering with someone in a cluster. Some odd looking colored chips were exchanging hands among the group as Leo’s nimble fingers blurred through something to do with a whisk and a cheese grater. Piper was only harder to distinguish because she was one of the few not in the crowd, but alone off to the side, pushing her cheese cubes around on her tray without interest and staring listlessly at the gouged out table like Hedge had been using them for snacks.

Dylan wasn’t in sight, Cowboy jersey or otherwise, so they began cautiously edging towards Piper with hope this could work out, as Hedge’s eyes landed on them. He sniffed the air, then narrowed his eyes curiously, but didn’t intervene as he studied Will with vague familiarity in his eyes, his Camp shirt clearly coming in handy right now.

Whatever Leo was doing caused a spark, and then somehow Hedge’s pants were on fire.

Hedge bellowed, swatting at the small flames while cheers and groans alike filled the room when Leo jumped on the table and took a bow. Hedge beat out the smoke and then reached out, yanking him off his pedestal and dragging him towards the stairwell, shouting about detention for life and ignoring Leo’s half-hearted protests about them being on winter break as the kids left behind laughed and finished collecting their winnings from the losers.

Piper watched though. Her head whipped up to follow his progress with dark circles under her eyes and a concerned frown.

They figured he was in safe hands for the moment as the two went up and carefully over to Piper, who didn’t even look around in all the excitement as the other students began taking their seats, just two more now in the crowd as they sat across from her.

She did look at that, and her eyes narrowed in instant suspicion, but obvious curiosity as she took them in silently. There wasn’t a trace of recognition as she looked upon Jason. A part of him was disappointed in that. A part of him was relieved. He had a good feeling which would win in the end as he thought of his friends and the books, an answer he could pick for himself.

“Is it true you asked for that BMW and they just gave it away?” Will asked pleasantly.

Piper stared at him with her mouth open.

“Listen,” Jason whispered urgently, “will you come and talk with us on the roof. It’s about your dad, kind of.” He still had his sword out, there was something of an order in his tone that prickled Will’s inner teenager against being told what to do.

Her eyes went from shrewd suspicion to outright anger as she hissed, “go away! No you can’t have an autograph! Why does everyone think I just carry those around-”

“No, no, nothing like that,” Will cut in patiently, giving Jason a very stern ‘please stop helping’ look. “Look, we know something weird happened at the Grand Canyon and you’ve been having nightmares. I’m kind of an expert on weird and we just want to talk about some options outside of this place, I promise.”

She looked from one, then the other with those wondrous kaleidoscope eyes of hers. That book had really undersold how beautiful she was, and Jason hadn’t exactly been stingy with the compliments. There was something about her that exuded a desire to be near her, some confidence buried deep under that ragged jacket and cutaway hair hiding half her face. One of those out going people who could have smiled and made you comfortable with ease if she wanted.

She clearly didn’t want to now. 

But she also looked at where Hedge had just dragged off Leo, then her uneaten lunch, and something of all this had clearly gotten through to her enough that she nodded and stood up to follow them.

“I don’t think I’m very good with people,” Jason decided as they began climbing back up the stairs, glancing hesitantly over his shoulder at Piper like he expected her to run. 

“I think you’re too blunt sometimes,” Will shrugged. “Relax a little, talk to her like you would Percy, or maybe not him exactly. Look, try not to stare random people down like you’re going to chop them in half,” he managed to say it as a gentle joke, enough that Jason gave him a grateful smile and another apologetic look at Piper, who was still following with pursed lips and keeping five stairs behind them with her eyes on that golden sword.

When they got back to the roof, Piper took in the empty space and pitch dark night, somehow unphased by Leo already astride Porkpie and bouncing eagerly to get a move on. Will got the impression he didn’t really care where he was going next so long as it wasn’t here and he wasn’t clapping erasers in detention.

Piper balked at everyone gathered around, then threw out her voice in a way Jason never could to tell them, “I’m not going.”

Will lost all expectation of her returning to Camp with them. He turned away as if this were a done deal and went back where Nico was and had jumped back on the pegasi before he realized it was a strange thing to be doing without Hedge and Piper astride their own.

Annabeth shivered as if chasing off a cold chill that had nothing to do with the sharp breeze and nodded of her own will. “Of course, nobody’s going to force you. We just wanted to explain your options, I promise.”

And so she did. Piper listened in silence as Annabeth explained being a demigod, Camp, and Hedge going to California to check in on her dad. She was so precise and candid, they were pretty sure she’d been practicing that speech in her head the whole way here.

“I want to go with Coach Hedge. I want to go home,” Piper said firmly, her eyes flickering from Leo to Annabeth. Leo was still on Porkpie, his smile slipping for the first time.

Annabeth was clearly trying to make herself weigh this as an option and explain to Piper how dangerous it could be, but the words seemed to be getting lost on her as determined as Piper was.

“It should be safe enough,” Jason said. “I think the whole thing about you guys in California is just some Greek nonsense anyways,” he said with a pleasant enough smile and an obvious look at Annabeth, who’d spent months out there with her dad with nary a monster sighting.

Piper seemed to think the matter was decided and stalked back down the stairs, shoulders stiff. She hesitated and looked back at Leo, who gave her an understanding nod and a finger gun salute. Her grin was reluctant, but her chin held high as she departed. She hadn’t asked a single question about half-bloods and only gawked at the pegasi for the first few seconds.

Only when she was gone did they all exchange perplexed looks at what just happened.

Of course she wouldn’t be thrilled to go to Camp if she was still considering betraying them for that voice that could easily whisk her dad off again. Just because they’d defeated one giant didn’t mean more weren’t going to be ready to take their place all too soon.

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Hedge promised as he followed to the doorway, but pausing there to look back at Annabeth. “I’ll get a hold of camp at the first sign of trouble, I scared off those cupcakes once and I’ll do it again!” Nobody bothered to correct him on their theory as their eyes darted to Jason and away. They were pretty sure nobody had been attacked because they were waiting to get the jump on Jason. The black clouds gathering above them now was only reinforcing that. “The gym equipment sucks here anyways.”

“Thank you,” Annabeth nodded, “and when she’s sure her dad is safe, try to convince her to come again. I don’t know why she still hasn’t been claimed or what else could be coming.”

“I’ve got an idea,” Jason said grimly as he jumped onto Guido’s back as the storm spirits began descending. “Let’s get out of here guys.”

“Porkpie, get Leo to camp,” Percy snapped as he whirled around onto his steed.

The largest stallion took off, Leo babbling in protest that he had no idea how to work this thing, keeping a chokehold on the poor animal until he was a white speck.

Hedge yelled in delight and hefted his club, but the wind slammed the door shut in his face. Will wasn’t quite sure if it was Dylan or Jason, but he was grateful either way as he took Nico’s hand and hefted his weight into place again. Percy and Annabeth were just as ready to go when Jason slammed his heels down and cried, “heya!”

His sword cut through three of them before they’d even finished corporealizing, and it made the cloud take chase of them at once, not a single speck left over the Wilderness School.

The wind tried its best to unseat them and Jason tried his best to counterbalance while swerving, using his pegasus’s fancy flying to its best use slashing at any of the demons that got too close to them. Even when the venti began to retreat the demigods were hesitant to break off and run, or these things could still decide to circle back for Piper and Hedge. 

Will and Percy easily took charge of the horses, steering and corralling Dylan and his friends wherever they wanted them as Jason cut through the wind on horse and sword like he was living the thrill of a lifetime. Percy tried how he could to help, but the celestial bronze only speared through the back of two, and they quickly learned not to turn their backs on him for anything, until Jason swept in and killed them anyways.

 Annabeth was doing what she could to be heard in the torrent of noise when and where another one was taking shape. Nico didn’t draw his sword, he kept his hands tight in their mares mane and was chanting something under his breath that kept giving Will cold flashes but was clearly making it harder by the moment for the shapes to become anything less than solid as Will put the anemoi thuellai through their paces riding them down, the celestial bronze horse hooves coming in occasional handy.

 The concentration broke into a wild grin on Jason’s face as the last three wailed something lost to the wind. He shouted back in Latin and sent down volts of lighting that hit each target, dispersing two into wisps of nothing like so many smaller fish scattering in the sea of the sky, but the last clung stubbornly to its four legged form trying to retreat.

Jason leaped off Guido right towards it, the atmosphere itself bending around him for a moment. He didn’t land, he seemed to melt with the miniature tempest swirling in a vortex of hatred. It should have been terrifying, but it wasn’t. Jason wasn’t being spun around, he was doing the spinning. The creature wasn’t bucking, Jason was saddling him, and before their eyes, he was astride a spirit of pure dark wind, lightning still crackling from his flank in sparks of fury, but docile beneath Jason’s heaving breaths and proud smile. Four legs, blazing pools of red where eyes should be like dying stars, the mane and tail were an essence of power that only clung to the horse-like shape without even wings for support, the body’s shape there through pure will of the rider.

He gave his new little friend a pat on the part where his neck was, mostly.

Then his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he passed out from exhaustion as the horse dissipated into the darkness of the night with a soft whinny that almost sounded like an apology.

Guido dived, doing an excellent job keeping him balanced on his back while Annabeth braced herself and lept from one to the other like a hop across a puddle. The poor horse grunted, but Annabeth promised him extra sweet oats as she gently settled Jason more safely in place. 

“I warned him!” Percy groaned.

“You know better,” Annabeth told her boyfriend fondly as she gently brushed away sweat and caked in mud from Jason’s eyes and mouth. The act felt maternal, she was doing it as much for Thalia who wasn’t here as she was for her new friend. “Wait until he’s awake for the I told you so’s, I thought I taught you better.”

Percy wasn’t looking much better, his hands shaking in Blackjack’s mane as he told him, “take us home.” Nico passed out against Will before they’d even finished gathering speed.

[jewish-vents]

I recently had to move two hours away from all the nearest big cities around me, and now I'm in a place with a way smaller Jewish community. Recently now more than ever I've been needing community support, especially given that I'm a convert and I never truly got a chance to finish the process. The only place I can turn to is the Chabad community, but I'm not as knowledgeable about them as I was with my reform community. I'm always nervous about reaching out, and about how older people will take to me being trans (male). I've also heard a lot of controversy/judgement coming from other Jewish communities directed at Chabad? I'm a bit confused about the whole thing. I genuinely have no idea if I should reach out or wait until I can move somewhere else. It sucks feeling so isolated

Ok so, I don't have a lot of knowledge or experience with Chabad communities, but I asked some friends who do know a bit more, and this is what they said:

- if you're looking to finish your conversion with them, it's not very likely it will be possible. Maybe if you're looking to be orthodox, but I'm guessing from your ask that that's not exactly what you want.

- you might want to see if your previous rabbi might let you finish the process online. I know some people who did that after they moved because they had already started with a rabbi and wanted to keep that one for the rest of it. You might have to travel for Beit Din and mikveh, but I mean it's better than nothing. Alternatively, if your previous rabbi will not want to do that, try to find a rabbi who might be ok with a lot of the process being online. I know there are some who do that, even if I don't know who exactly.

- about attending Chabad services independently of conversion. That will depend a lot on the branch and on the community itself. It might be worth a try, there is really no way to know what the answer will be until you ask, but the worst that can happen is they say no. Which I know doesn't feel great, but just remember that doesn't mean something is wrong with you specifically

- another thing to consider is the fact you're trans. People have different opinions over disclosing one's transness vs staying stealth, especially when we're talking about communities where gender (and sex) have a wide difference. It's likely, even after you convert, you might not be allowed to lead a service or do things they would consider "for men". Also, how well you pass might dictate which side of the mechitza you'll be put on (aka, if they'll let you sit with the rest of the men). I know this is really uncomfortable to even think about, but I just want to be realistic with you so you can make an informed choice and are ready if you do attend at some point. Independently of one's opinions on that type of gender roles, it is their community and they do make the rules there

All this being said, some people have very positive experiences with Chabad, some less. Depends on the community, what you're looking for, etc

Wishing you the best of luck! And if someone else has opinions of advice for Anon, leave it in the replies or reblogs please

-🐺

[sillyangstfic]

Woke up and got to thinking again! First off, I think that Felix would at least appreciate becoming human because staying a sentimonster would mean outliving everyone he loves and I don't think he's emotionally stable enough for that. Neither is Adrien. But I've taken your input and have reworked it: instead of making them fully human, the potion just makes their human side more dominant. This makes it so that they're less durable than a sentimonster but more than the average human + them no longer being tied to an amok (or their own heart/soul/brain becomes the amok). Why do I want this? Just for the sake of one fucking scene:

Gabriel, paranoid that Felix was onto him, stole the ring that used to be his amok. Adrien and Felix confront Gabriel in his Hawkmoth lair for everything, all the pain and suffering he caused. When Gabriel's usual bullshit doesn't work, he tries to use to amoks to force the pair into obedience. Except it doesn't work and he bluescreens at his loss of control. Adrien and Felix transform and Gabriel fucking loses it. Cue super awesome emotional battle between Chat Noir & Argos VS Hawkmoth while they wait for the rest of team miraculous to show up.

Also, hot take: Amélie should be the one to kill off Gabriel. The bastard spent years neglecting her nephew, deprived her sister of a good death sorrounded by loved ones, tried to kill her nephew on multiple occasions, and tried to kill her son. There's also an element of FINALLY having a competant adult in the room because all of team miraculous are CHILDREN and Fu did jack shit for them. They need a competant adult to take care of them and handle the problem's they never should've had in the first place.

Seriously just let her casually walk up to Gabriel and stab him and just leave him for dead as she moves on to care for her kids.

Bonus: You are absolutely right, we should've had a PeaDragonSnake (PDS) trio. Be it platonically, a polycule, or just a Golden Trio scenario where only two are dating but the three are so inseparable that you can't tell who's dating who. Personally I'm partial to the final option with FeLuka + Bi Kagami desperately pining for Zoé. Zoé is pining just as hard but is too much of a gay disaster to approach and Chloé is making Kagami travel to The Lands of fucking Morder and retrieve the Sword from the Stone just to prove herself worthy of even considering dating her sister. Here are the fics that converted me: FeLuka & ZoeGami.

I have a particular scene in mind where the trio is just blackout drunk. Kagami is serenading really bad poetry to describe Zoé's beauty while Felix & Luka are just making out in the background. Amelie picks them up before clothes start flying. Cut to another bar where its Chloe, Sabrina, and Adrien blackout drunk. Chloe is smugly recording Adrien being pathecially whiny that Marinette isn't picking up (it's like 2 am) and is starting to cry while Zoe is having gay panic at how pretty Kagami is in that photo. She shares it with the whole class.

In addition, Kagami's confrontation with her mother should've been a sword fight on top of a skyscraper in the middle of a storm. There's a barrier preventing Chat Noir and Ladybug from entering, on one side ya got Kagami (no miraculous, just a cool sword blessed by Longg) and on the other ya got (willingly) akumatized Tomoe. Tomoe is spouting her usual controlling bullshit while Kagami is silent and glaring daggers at her mother. The only other people in the dome are Luka and Felix who refuse to leave Kagami without backup. Cue epic fight scene that ends with Tomoe losing both her arms and a leg. Kagami also loses a few chunks of skin. It ends with Kagami taking away her mother's ring and disowning her as a traitor to the Tsurugi clan unworthy of the name (oh how the turns have tabled). Meanwhile Tomoe is absolutely terrified of how beastial her daughter became and backs off. Both stubborn bitches refuse Ladybug's miracle cure cause they need the scars to remember. (inspiration)

After that, conversation at the Tsurugi household is practically dead. Tomoe is ashamed at her loss and breaks just thinking about her prosthetics. Meanwhile, Kagami healed rather nicely (curtesy of the side effects) and is thriving while she switches between the Couffaine boathouse and the Graham de Vanily penthouse.

Ykw that scene’s pretty good human!senticousins propaganda

Also hello? How is this the first I’m hearing of this. Amelie should absolutely get to murder Gabe

Thank you for the fics also, Ima go read those

Okokok while I am a Feligami shipper, Zogami hits like hello? Oh yeah. Up there with Kagaminette for me

I think Kagami should get to write bad poetry about whoever her love interest is, and also anything and anything. I think she should be our Martin Blackwood and write horrible poetry for us

Chole getting blackmail material I see

Kagami sword fight?! Kagami sword fight?! Hell yes

Here’s my idea for that: I like the storm bit, and the showdown, top of a building is peak, but instead of Felix and Luka being there, them trying to be there, to support Kagami, but like LB and CN being unable to due to the storm

Hear me out: Kagami’s mother figures out that she’s the dragon miraculous user and uses that to get her alone on the roof, and then confronting her by handing Kagami (still transformed) her sword. Kagami, knowing she’s caught, decides to detransform and fight her mother like that, as her daughter. They battle and eventually Kagami wins, and her mother rejects the akuma on her own, accepting the loss

As a foil to Gabe, I’d have her mother learn from her mistakes. She cuts off her deals with Gabe and grows closer with her daughter. She listens to her wants more, and while she’s still strict and has high expectations, she also becomes more lenient about letting Kagami do what she wants and enjoys

[faggotry-enjoyer]

Hey! I’m from a a progressive synagogue (I think this might be a uk specific term, seems most similar to reform), so things might be different at a conservative shul but I thought I’d give some blanket advice for your first service.

The first thing is simple, you definitely already know that Hebrew is read from right to left, but instinctively you may open the siddur from the side you’re used to. Remember to start at what will feel like the back of the book. No one will judge you if you if you do, but it might help you feel more confident not to fumble at the very start of the service.

This is going to be long so I’ll split into parts

1/?

Part 2 of my long ass spiel:

When you go in there will be security of some kind. Different synagogues will have different levels of security depending on their need and funding. If the security is heavy it can feel quite alarming, so thought I’d give a heads up. If you booked fir the service in advance they’ll probably just ask for your name.

Unlike the tallit, which only Jewish people wear, kippot must be worn by all men in the synagogue. If you don’t have your own kippah, there are usually spares. Ask if you can’t find them, or you could wear a hat or bandana. This is also a good option if you’re transmasc and unsure of your reception in that synagogue. I’m not familiar with whether or not women wear kippot in conservative synagogue, but in mine it’s a matter of personal preference. My rabbi is a lesbian who wears a kippah and tallit.

Part 2/?

The saga continues….

As for where to sit, sit as close to the front as you are personally comfortable doing. It would be good for you to be able to see clearly what’s going on. However, it might be an idea to not sit in the front row, as you don’t want to miss everyone suddenly standing up and be he last one left sitting, as you might feel awkward.

The etiquette of standing/sitting:

Usually the rabbi or whoever is leading the service will say when to stand and when you may sit. There are some communities where people know what part of the service this happens, or it’s written in the siddur, in which case they may stand or sit without being told. Just follow what everyone else is doing.

If you’re unable to stand comfortably, or stand at all, it is fine to remain seated. If an old person judges you ignore them.

Part 3/?

ll leave it at this one, but if you have any questions feel free to ask! Sorry about the length, but I hope this is helpful for you and anyone reading who’s thinking about attending their first service. This is from the perspective of someone who first went to synagogue as a newborn, so there will be things I’ve missed that a Jew who converted will think of and have more insight into.

After the service there will be a kiddush. At the kiddush prayers will be said, and you’ll be handed or serve yourself a glass of wine ir grape juice. Don’t drink this right away, wait until the blessing is over and you see everyone else drink. Knock it back in one like a shot (I know this seems like it might be rude or not classy, but that’s how it’s done). If other people say l’chaim feel free to join in, and feel free to join in any “amens” if you wish to.

Lastly they will bless the challah, whith different traditions in different synagogues. In ours tye bread is covered with a cloth and the children of the congregation all lay a hand over the cloth while the blessing is said. It will then wither be left for people to take a piece, or as is more common one or two people will bring the challah round to everyone to take a piece. If there’s not one person who does it every time, in a few weeks you might want to ask the rabbi if you could bring the challah round. This is a good way to meet people you’ve not spoken to before.

After kiddush people usually stay to chat and socialise. There will probably be other prospective converts and converts there, and generally the older members are very keen to give advice. Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself! You’re thinking about becoming part of our family, and we want to get to know you! Community is what will get you through, both life and difficult conversion process.

I wish you luck on your Jewish journey.

Part 4/4

Thank you so much! I'll be sure to keep this all in mind.

[skzfairyy]

District 9: Chapter 13

Mafia!AU || skz x OC’s || PG-17 ||

Pairings: Bangchan x oc, Minsung x oc, other pairings to come!

Genre: Angst, Romance, Enemies to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Humor, AU (& so much more lol)

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, weapons, language

Status: Ongoing

Wc: 1.9k words

AN: This chapter is on the shorter side but, its a really heartwarming chapter :) hope you enjoy! -Y2K

The sun was completely hidden behind a couple of clouds when noon hit. Bangchan’s first hideout for his team was a secluded area deep in one of China’s forests. He had strategically picked a location a good distance from the nearest town, but still somewhere far enough that no one could just come strolling by. During this first year, it was crucial that they all stayed under the radar and out of sight, only going into town when the supplies in the compound ran low. 

Chan was able to secure this location after he remembered one of his assignments working with Jackson Wang led him here. Jackson owned the property, but had abandoned the entire compound due to how far away and closed off it was from everything, (socializing was essential to the District’s most notorious party host). The compound was big enough to house about 10 people comfortably.  

Minho was able to commandeer an old buggy they could use to drive into town if they needed to. It was perfect, nothing flashy considering they had to lay low for a while. 

The wrap-around compound was mostly gray with black glazed roofing tiles. The front was blocked off by a matching black metal gate. On the outside, the building as a whole looked abandoned and that’s exactly how they wanted it to appear. Along the walls there were vines of ivy creeping all the way up to the roofing tiles, overgrown Camphor trees and Bamboo blocking the view of the property. Inside, they had running water, electricity, and Jisung was able to set up a decent internet connection. A couple rooms had mattresses on the floor. One room was converted into Seungmin’s medic bay, one was turned into Han’s tech room, while Chan and Minho used the dining room as a larger office. The building will be able to house the entire team quite nicely once everyone arrives safely. 

After the big scare last night, Minho and Chan decided that they needed to find a way to distract Han from his thoughts before he gave himself a heart attack. The girls would finally be arriving today (if all goes well), so they brought him out to the courtyard and went through some light training with each other. Even though he was their tech specialist, Han’s body looked as though he was training regularly, when he really only lifted weights with the boys every once in a while. The training was mostly to help distract Han from worrying, and partly for everyone to be able to keep watch for when the others arrived. 

They spent the whole morning going through different combination attacks and defensive attacks. Their shirts had all been discarded pretty early into their training, the humid climate making them unbearably sweaty and uncomfortable. This left them in only their workout shorts and the sweat that coated their upper bodies, as evidence of the hours of training they covered. Chan found himself trying his best to navigate the rocky waters between the couple, successfully cracking a few jokes with them well into the late afternoon. While Han takes a break, heading to the kitchen through a door on the side of the courtyard, Minho approaches Bangchan. 

      “Hyung, how are we supposed to be distracting Jisung if you keep looking at the gate every 10 minutes.” 

Chan feigns a shocked look at his accuser. “I was not checking every 10 minutes!” 

Minho just stands there, giving his friend a pointed look with his arms crossed over his chest, before sighing loudly.

      “Look, believe it or not, I want to make sure they get here in one piece too, but you have got to stop worrying so much. For starters, they’re with Changbin, someone we trust more than anything, and he would’ve let us know if something happened. Plus, have you forgotten the girls are both highly trained assassins? I doubt Yura is going to let some injury stop her from completing her mission.”

He punches Chan’s shoulder lightly and Chan just smiles at his friend, thankful for the pep talk he didn’t know he needed. 

      “Have a little faith in them, yeah?”

As Han opens the sliding door going back out to the courtyard with a water bottle in hand, they hear the metal gate not far from them begin to screech loudly. Minho instantly grabs the bow staff near him that they were using to practice earlier, Chan’s gun is freed from the back waistband of his shorts. Han’s chipmunk cheeks are full of water as he stands frozen in the doorway looking between the gate and the guys, all of them holding their breaths as they wait to see who’s behind the gate. 

The gate creaks open as Changbin, supporting a sweaty and limping Yura, walks into the courtyard. Her bandages are stained with faint patches of blood old and new. One of her arms is hooked over Changbin’s shoulder while she slowly makes her way inside.

      “You won over a technicality!”

      “Technicality, shmechnicality… hey, that's a funny word! Spell it Juggernaut.”

      “Dear god…” Changbin sighs as he and the limp-bodied girl move further into the courtyard.

Han drops his water bottle and sprints over to them, their hushed bickering stopping as he stands in front of them. Han’s hands cup Yura’s pale face, turning her attention to him. Yura’s eyes frown when she looks up, but the confusion quickly fades when she recognizes her old friend. 

      “J.ONE11!” She grins, her smile for the first time in a while is bright and dopey. 

      “Yura11g0nnadi3!” Han’s exclamation is softer compared to hers, sounding more like a sigh of relief seeing a piece of his heart alive and in front of him. Changbin clears his throat from beside Yura, a puzzled expression on his face as he looks between the two of them. 

Jisung just smiles at him and shrugs. “I’ll explain later.”

      “Hey now, I didn’t know this was a GUN show!”

Yura says louder, her eyes moving past Jisung’s shoulder as she takes in the shirtless Minho and Chan behind him. She turns to Changbin, her bright smile never leaving her face as she reaches at the hem of his shirt to pull it off of him. 

      “C’mon Milk Jugs join the party!” 

As Changbin makes a sound of objection, he starts swatting at her grabby hands, until Han pulls them into his own. 

      “Okay, calm down, Killer.” He says, chuckling softly.

      “I had to give her some stronger drugs for the pain.” Seungmin says as he enters the courtyard with a couple of bags in his arms. “So she's a bit… loopy.”  He glances at the giggly girl that’s now being held in Jisung’s arms. 

He had scooped her up bridal style, the feeling of her in his arms even for a few moments, does wonders for his racing anxiety. 

      “I’m not loopy, you’re loopy Minnie.” Yura giggles as she hears Seungmin’s comment.

Jisung smiled at her in amusement, sober Yura would be mortified at her behavior right now, something he’ll be sure to tease her about later.

Minho’s eyes follow the two of them through the threshold of the entryway. Yura notices him as she looks over Jisungs shoulder, their eyes lock briefly and Minho feels himself releasing his own sigh of relief.

      “She’s okay?” Minho turns to glance at Seungmin, the brunette man making his way inside when he glances at his old classmate.

      “She will be. You can come to help me hold her down, her hands tend to… wander in this state.” Minho glances at the door once more before shaking his head.

      “I’m sure Jisung has it covered.” Minho puts the staff in his hands down, dismissing himself from the courtyard quickly with a frustrated scowl.

Due to all the commotion, no one noticed Rina enter last. A sack of supplies on her sagged shoulder as she closes the gate shut. Finally catching the attention of Changbin and Chan who were standing near each other, catching up over the long journey. When she turns around, the bag falls from her arms as she releases a ragged breath she had been holding for far too long. Rina’s tired eyes find Chan’s warm ones from across the courtyard and he smiles fondly at her.

The anxious thoughts he had over the past few days about Rina’s well-being can finally be put to rest. She made it. His eyes take in her worn-out body and he can’t help but let out a sigh of relief. 

      “Would it be weird if I hugged you right now…” her voice is soft and a bit desperate as the reality of what they just experienced over the past few days sets in.

She’s spent the past two days running for her life, away from the only home she’s ever known, away from the same ‘home’ that has inflicted so much pain on her claiming it’s for the best, all to get to the man standing mere steps before her now. The same man who promised her a life of warmth and love, just as soon as she was willing to accept it– to accept him. 

He hears her question and glances down at his shirtless form. 

      “I mean… I’m a bit sweaty–“ 

Her feet are already moving towards him, launching herself at him, and he catches her in his arms. 

      “Chris, I couldn’t care less about that right now.” She mumbles into his neck.

Her legs are scraped and bruised and wrapped around his waist as he holds her as close as he possibly can to him. His worries for her are evident through the way his arms hold her close to him. 

      “You made it.” He sighs softly in her ear, the pain and regret evident in his tone while he hugs her impossibly tighter. 

Rina pays it no mind, her arms secure around his neck, her nose breathing in his scent, safe in his arms, and finally able to breathe freely.

They have a long way to go, but Rina made up her mind some time ago that this is the man she wants to be with, and today would be the first step towards that new journey, one they’d start together. 

      “Barely.” She chuckles out as he finally sets her down onto her feet, his hands not leaving her waist as his eyes check her over.  

Popping their intimate bubble, Chan notices that Changbin had joined everyone else in the house during their reunion.

      “How are you?” He asks softly.

      “Tired… and excruciatingly hungry.” Rina replies casually, she turns to glance around and winces clutching her side protectively.

 Chan obviously notices and takes her hand in his. 

      “I’ll give you a tour of the place after dropping you off to get checked out by Seungmin.” He says as he walks backwards towards the entrance.

Although Rina wants to argue that she’s perfectly fine, she’s realizing she kind of likes the idea of Christopher Bang taking the lead a little bit more, especially when it’s about her. 

      “Only if I can get food on the way.” She responds instead.

      “Hmmm…,” he pretends to think it over in his head, “...sounds fair enough.” He smiles at their playful argument.

      “Deal.” She tries to look serious, but fails miserably at resisting the power of this man's smile. 

Rina chuckles to herself, extremely content as she allows Chan to lead her into the house.

taglist: @toalltheunknown, @skzloveforever, @ryak14, @thesunsfullmoon, @woozarts

Y2K masterlist || series masterlist || last || next

[aimportantdragoncollector]

For Trioholders I'll suggest a Xiaolin Showdown AU. If you haven't seen the show you can disregard this, though I will recommend you give it a watch at some point, it's a fun show.

If you have seen it- the trio are xiaolin warriors trying to collect all the shen gong wu and protect the world from the heylin side. All three will be the dragon of one of the four elements (even though there's only 3 of them...) with Yoichi playing the role of omi, and AFO playing the role of Chase Young, trying to convert Yoichi to the Heylin side as his apprentice.

I have seen Xiaolin Showdown! What a blast from the past.

1. Yoichi is the young dragon of water. He and his brother were orphans raised at the temple together, until his big brother ran off to become evil. AFO is a huge embarrassment to Yoichi and he tries to pretend not to be related to him--which would be easier if AFO didn't call Yoichi "little brother" as soon as they ran into each other.

2. Kaiji is the dragon of fire. When they first meet, Kaiji is obsessed with technology and generally distant. Since Yoichi was raised in a temple, he's secretly fascinated with the outside world and wants to learn more. His secret pleasure is his weekly shipment of hair care products. Yoichi's favorite show is Captain Hero, because it's the only cartoon he's ever seen. The temple has a few ancient DVDs but no internet. When they first meet, Kaiji disses Captain Hero as an old-fashioned show and earns Yoichi's ire. They fight all the time. Secretly, Yoichi thinks that Kaiji is cool and Kaiji was infatuated with Yoichi from the moment they met.

3. Sanzou is the dragon of wind. He's calmer than the other two and plays peacemaker. Kaiji and Yoichi frequently fight over Sanzou's approval/affection. However Sanzou is fully aware that Kaiji and Yoichi have crushes on each other and feels like a third wheel. Sanzou does not realize they both like him too, because he has a blindspot in this one particular place.

4. Hikage Shinomori is the dragon of earth, younger by the others by a couple years. He's the true third wheel, forced to watch his seniors' endless romantic drama. He frequently hides in the temple basement to get away from it all.

5. Tomura Shigaraki is playing the role of Jack Spicer, competing with the trio for Shen Gong Wu and desperate to win AFO's approval. He's also perpetually caught up in the love triangle drama, and has a weird pseudo-friendship with Hikage over it.

6. AFO keeps taking advantage of how easy it is to magically force people to become evil/good in the Xiaolin Showdown universe to mind-control Yoichi. In turn, Yoichi is totally shameless about trying to force his brother to become good. There's a lot of face heel turns. In fact, one time Yoichi gets taken over by bad chi, but then when the other three come to rescue him, it's revealed that his chi is already fine and he sheepishly returns. It's unclear if it only worked because Yoichi expected it to work or if he just secretly wanted to spend some time with his big brother.

7. AFO also fakes being turned good repeatedly to steal Shen Gong Wu and Yoichi always falls for it. (In Yoichi's defense he's a preteen in this AU.) Also even when AFO gets turned good a couple times, he's still ruthless and basically only cares about Yoichi. He's just on a different side. Yoichi is in deep denial about this because he wants to believe his brother is good deep down when not influenced by that horrible villain "Garaki Bean."

8. In fact, you know that arc where Omi changes the past to bring Chase Young to the side of good? When Yoichi does that to AFO, nothing changes because it turns out AFO is just the same no matter his chi. Also when given a chance to sacrifice himself to repair the timeline, good AFO is just like..."nah I want to make my little brother happy and that means staying by his side. The timeline can get wrecked." Good ending maybe?

(All of these are free to use in my Three Weeks of Trioholders event.)