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gamergirlbonestaskforce141riot · 1 year ago

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Chapter 12 Nemo dat quot non habet (No one gives what they do not have) - On the road

Taglist: @glitterypirateduck @letsreadallday @jamesrifftapes @sofasoap @mmyrrhh

Previous / Masterlist / Next

Warnings: None. They keep being awkward

AP-7 Valencia-Benidorm

The journey was only one hour and a half, but by minute fifteen, Ghost was about to throw Soap out of the SUV.

He knew full well that the Scot was restless in a vehicle. If it wasn’t loudly pointing out things in the landscape, it was complaining about the lack of snacks, or trying to fiddle with the car’s radio. This time he had taken the passenger seat while Riot and Gabi were in the back, and not even the murderous glares that Ghost directed his way were enough to make Soap settle.

So at the first petrol station he made a stop, and turned slightly to look at Soap.

‘‘You have ten minutes to buy whatever you want, provided that you then shut up for the rest of the journey’’

‘‘Deal!’’ Johnny bolted out of the SUV, followed by Gabi, and the couple joyfully walked to the shop. Christine was slower to get off, waiting for Simon to get out of the vehicle as well.

‘‘Do you want anything?’’

‘‘To strangle him’’ Ghost grunted, leaning against the car, and she laughed softly.

‘‘I mean from the shop’’

‘‘A gag’’ He huffed when she laughed again, a bit harder, and couldn’t help but chuckle beneath his balaclava. ‘‘I swear, he only does this when I’m driving. When Price drives, he doesn’t dare to behave like this’’

‘‘That’s because he trusts you’’ Christine shrugged, still smiling. ‘‘And Price would kick him off the car’’

‘‘I’m about to do it, too’’ Simon felt indignant at the thought that Soap would be more scared of Price than of him. But a small part of him, deep inside, felt relief. That part grew bigger when she covered her mouth trying to stiffle a loud laugh.

‘‘You won’t’’ Christine grabbed her mask from the backseat and put it on before getting her wallet. ‘‘You sure you don’t want anything?’’

Nothing that can be bought

‘‘I’m sure’’ Simon shrugged, watching her leave. He could see through the big windows how Soap and Gabi were checking each aisle, chatting among themselves. Shaking his head, he lifted the balaclava up to his nose to breathe freely, now that he was alone.

When Christine came back after just some minutes, he didn’t bother pulling it down immediately. She was fumbling with a small package, her mask dangling from her left ear. The relentless Spanish sunrays were falling on her, making her blonde hair shine like white hot fire, and for a second he felt tempted to dip his fingertips in it, to know if he would burn.

‘‘Peanuts? Roasted, no salt’’ Christine smiled again, offering him the now open package, and Simon shook his daydream to look at it, hesitating. She shook it playfully. ‘‘Johnny and Gabi are buying a ton of snacks to keep at the apartment too, so it’ll take a while’’

‘‘I told him ten minutes’’ Simon sighed deeply and accepted some peanuts. Christine hummed in response, looking around while chewing. The petrol station was far enough from the highway that the vehicle sounds wasn’t too loud.

‘‘He likes you, you know’’

Simon looked at her again, raising an eyebrow, while she leaned against the car, next to him.

‘‘What?’’

‘‘Johnny. He respects you a great deal. He looks up to you’’ When Simon huffed she insisted. ‘‘I know what you’re thinking, that he likes everyone, that’s not true. He just fakes it better than most’’

‘‘What I’m thinking is I’m no one to look up to’’

‘‘Why?’’

Simon looked down at her, open-mouthed even. Why? Why?

‘‘What the fuck is there to look up to in me? He should aim to be better than me, in every aspect’’

Christine seemed to think for a moment, chewing another peanut, before tilting her head up towards him.

‘‘You say that as if you weren’t good enough’’ When he opened his mouth to reply, she kept going, unbothered. ‘‘You are reliable, comitted, disciplined and methodical. What’s not admirable about that?’’

‘‘Acting like a machine is admirable now?’’ Simon let out a low chuckle, one of those deep rumbles that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand out, and Christine rolled her eyes again, trying to shake it.

‘‘In this line of work? Yeah’’ She shrugged, throwing a peanut at him. ‘‘And if you’re talking about the rest of it, yes, I think so too. You may think you are broken…’’

‘‘I am’’ He huffed, but caught the peanut. Christine continued speaking, unfazed.

‘‘… but we all are broken in some way. What we broken ones have to do’’ she raised an eyebrow, with a serious face. ‘‘is break everyone else’’

Simon stared at her, his brown eyes wider than usual while he tried to take in what she had just said. Relief washed over him when he saw the twisted left corner of her lips twich while trying to keep the serious face, and in the end, she couldn’t and started giggling.

‘‘You’re a menace’’ This time he couldn’t find the fondness in his voice.

‘‘Yeah, yeah, but I got you’’ Christine kept the smug grin, looking back at the shop when Johnny and Gabi’s voices started to sound closer, and walked around the SUV to open the passenger door. ‘‘What would you do without me to keep you on your toes?’’

Simon chuckled, shaking his head as he opened the driver’s door to get in, pulling the balaclava back down to cover his mouth.

‘‘I don’t want to know, lovie’’

The way she smiled as she plopped down on the passenger seat and started adjusting it was enough to warm his heart.

‘‘Hey, ah was sitting there!’’ Johnny pretended to protest, but followed Gabi right away to the backseat, with a wide grin. Christine laughed softly.

‘‘Not anymore’’

‘‘We’ve bought a lot of snacks’’ Gabi commented, starting to mention each and every one of them, but Simon was barely listening to what was happening in the backseat, more focused on getting out of the petrol station and back in the highway. ‘‘Let’s hope that allows us to get to Benidorm without more complaints’’

‘‘As long as Johnny keeps his mouth shut’’ Simon grumbled, checking the rear mirrow to watch out for other cars before merging.

‘‘Oh, ah can do that’’ Johnny grinned and suddenly dragged Gabi towards him, chuckling when she squealed, and covered her mouth with his. The redhead laughed and complied, and soon they both were making out like two teenagers in the backseat.

Christine covered her mouth to hide her wide grin, seeing Simon’s narrowed eyes beneath his balaclava and how he slightly shook his head.

‘‘Fuckin’ hell…’’ He grunted, but had to smile when she started giggling. The very same giggle of that moment in the hill, months ago, when she had laughed at the virgin sheep joke.

Just for that giggle, he’d suffer the sounds coming from the backseat.

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exlwandering · 1 year ago

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Found a writing prompt, it was "How to Perfectly Cook Your Human" took it and ran, gets a little weird and gross so CW for gore. Cannibalism, and misuse of a medical cadaver. Also lots of cooking descriptions. Enjoy 🔪🥩

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How to Cook Perfect Human: A Tutorial

Hey, Im dead. I'm also called cadaver 23. Not my name but who the hell and I to tell the doc what I’m called. Today’s topic of discussion is not how horrible Mr. William Burke is at his job at selling corpses, today we talk about a very viral topic indeed. Can anyone guess it? Well, it’s CANNABILISUM!!! Exciting I know! And today's meal? Me. and tommorows and the day after… Probably for a while honestly im about 180 pounds and people tend to not eat over a pound of meat for like a whole week so… I’ll be on the menu until I go bad, guess he’s stuck with me. But enough about me and how many portions I am, lets talk about the real reason you’re here, to eat.

Step One: Get the meat. (This is arguably the easiest step apart from actually eating lol) First you need to find the right person tho, this is done by looking for people like Mr. William Burke, a freelance Broker (somone who sells deep people, aka people not fun at parties, like really dude, so many jobs and you pick seeling dead dudes… I’m not one to judge tho.) Someone like him is slopy, (I mean it’s not like he has any idea what he’s doing??? He literally took my head off with a chainsaw in his back yard??? xD Guess I am one to judge lol) Any way because he’s got no Idea whats going on, and frankly neither do I, he sells for really cheep. The Rich B**** TM cadavers are worth like 5,000 big bucks for the whole thing, but people like me , ya boy, are like a couple hundo for all of me and like 200 for just a leg (I mean common, talk about a bargain baabaay!!!) After you’ve confirmed that I’m cheep all you gotta do is send some emails! I mean like, he’ll try and sound like he knows what he’s doing so he don’t get sued by a cadavers family but like… It’s not like he doing back round checks or anything so… You know what to do ;)

Step Two: Get Your Ingredients!!! I suggest, since you’ll be getting me for like a bargain, you totally need to be buying some good spices for me, like rosemary, garlic, (running out of spices here…>:/) you get the gist. You also need to figure out how youll be cooking me! My personal fave would be a pot roast. Before I became a cadaver I lived for a good roast, it was my favorite meal growing up, so obvs you should be cooking me like that! For me!!! My Memory! Ya know, what I would want… Yeah. But. Ya know that’s totally not the only way to cook me. You could make pulled human, I heard human tastes and acts like pork so. You could also grind me up and make human burgers. Or even stake, make me look like an expensive dish! You get the idea, anythings on the table, just don’t burn me… Unless that’s what you want. Then I guess do it. :< It would make a sad tho.

Step Three: Cook Me. Before we go forward, I wanna make something clear, I never ate human, or cooked it. So I’m not an expert on this part, I am on step one, not so much step two, I could never really buy expensive stuff before being Cadaver 23 so, I don’t know much, but these next steps I’m completely in the dark here. SO >:) From now on I’ll be talking about what I directly experience as I’m cooked. HERE WE GO!!!! The cooking requires some prep, one of the first things I felt happen was the skin being removed and placed aside, while this was happening I hear the guy preparing me talking about how tasty the skin can be when fried, like pork skins! Mmmm, yummy, (TBH one of my most fav road trip snacks). After this My thighs and calves are pried from the bones, said bones maserfally ripped apart from each other. After this, the four biggest bones and are put on a cutting board before being split right down the middle. They did this four excruciating times guys (talk about over kill). He places each bone of a pan with pepper to taste before putting them in the oven to roast the marrow. Both of my claves are cut into medium sized cubes, the exsus being thrown away, like nothing. Each side of my cubes are placed on a frying pan before sauce is put in with me, and I’m left to simmer until thoroughly cooked. One thigh is cut into sizable pieces before being put in a dutch oven with spices and hearty veges like potatoes and carrots and one big thing of garlic to roast us together. When I’m cooked they take forkes to me and pull me apart, mixing in some rosemary and other things that they desired. One thigh is cut into one thick slab before being placed in a cooker with large cut vegies like potatoes and celery and carrots, (woldn’t you know it their making a healthier meal with me than I ever ate before being… yeah. Their meal.) I’m a fancy steak, a pulled human, and most importantly I’m a pot roast now. But that’s not all, like they promised my skin is used, cut into rectangle shapes and placed into a large bowl of boiling oil, my skin bubbles and curls in on itself before becoming translucent and hard, easily snapped. My bones are finally pulled out of the oven, my marrow scooped out with a spoon and placed in a small bowl. I’m finished.

Step four: enjoy. I can feel their teeth. There’s three of them, which explains the three cooking methods. The fork goes through my muscles in one plate, on another I’m scooped up by a fork and pressed down by a partition of cubed potato, and finally on another plate- no a bowl, I’m picked up by a spoon filled with hot broth that burns everywhere it touches. Carrots, potatoes, and celery floats beside my thigh muscles. The slow grinding of my flesh is constant and thruming until I am mush. I crack and squelch between their teeth. My Skin snappeing and mosining and turning to mush and then nothing, only sunsitnace for their bodies. I’m also in the bowl next to the bread, still warm as My Marrow is scooped onto a butter knife and scrapped atop toasted bread slices and once again swallowed. I am in three bowls. I am in two plates. I am in three bellies.

I don’t know much about how to cook a human to perfection, but I do know one thing, I am now a perfectly cooked human. That’s all. Finally.

#canabalism #cw: gore #cw cannibalism #misuse of a cadaver #original writing #original post #horror writing #human cadaver

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mindbat · 1 year ago

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At the Dawn of a New Year

We made it, everyone! Congrats and welcome to 2024 🎉

So much has changed. So much is going to change.

I’ve been away from the blog for a long time, and for that I apologize. I’ve been going through some life changes, culminating in a split from my wife.

I’m also been in therapy for several months now, for the first time. It’s both cause and consequence of everything I’m going through. Therapy for me is like going to the gym, but for my emotions. It’s hard, and I’m always sore afterward, but I’m stronger and glad I went. Would recommend.

Some things haven’t changed, though. I’m still living in Victoria, BC, and still feel incredibly lucky to be here. This city has welcomed me in so many unexpected ways. I’m grateful, and I can only hope I can pay it back someday.

I’m also still working my day-job as a programmer, and toiling away at my novels and short stories on the side. Still living without a car. Still trying to get the right amount of seasoning on my roasted vegetables. Still buying way too many books (I know, “too many books” is a category error. There are never enough books).

I want to start this year off with gratitude. Both of what I’ve accomplished over the last year, and for what’s to come. So, as 2024 rises and stretches, like a cat waking from a nap in the sun, let me list the things I’m grateful for:

My writing group, with whose help I’ve finished editing a novel for the first time. And not just finished, but synopsis written and everything ready to submit to agents, starting this week.

The organizers of the Surrey International Writers’ Conference, who put on such a welcoming and stimulating conference. And because of whom I was able to meet an agent that gave me the injection of confidence I needed to finish up that novel synopsis.

My co-workers at Cisco, who every day demonstrate to me how a non-toxic technical culture can work.

The folks at IRCC and BC’s Provincial Nominee Program, who gave this middle-aged guy a shot at permanent residence in Canada.

My D&D group, who opened their gaming table and their arms to this immigrant.

Dan, David, Baamonde, Alex, and Haywood, friends who have stuck with me over many years, through many ups and downs.

My family, particularly my mom and older sister, who have never held my lack of phone calls or texts against me.

The Victoria Creative Writing Group, without whom I would not have met my writing circle.

The Victoria Bowmen Club, who taught me what’s it like to really wield a bow (after years of me writing about it).

The folks on social.linux.pizza, mstdn.ca, and tenforward.social, who helped me find my footing (and friends) in the fediverse.

So many gifts, from so many people. Thank you, all, for everything you’ve given me, everything you’ve taught me.

May your new year be a bright one.

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yourdeepestfathoms · 2 years ago

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Ride the Cyclone Kids Playing Overwatch (again)

the thrilling sequel to this

After some time, Noel decides to pick Cassidy, Bastion, and Mercy as his mains! His aim is still garbage, but at least he isn’t switching characters every single time he dies.

Cassidy is a bit tricky for him because of the aim thing, but Cassidy is a pretty-looking man, so he likes him.

Bastion’s turret form is the way he gets the most kills. He’s such an annoying player that will just MELT through the other team’s defenses.

And then he healbots as Mercy lmao

What can he say? He likes the bimbo!

Oh, he also tries his hand at Lifeweaver from time to time!

But then… The Incident happened…

IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! He saw that Ricky was low on health and surrounded by the enemy team, so he Life Gripped him to get him out of harm’s way!

Right as Ricky used his ult.

Instead of Wrecking Ball’s mines deploying all around the enemy team and blowing up, they deploy where absolutely no one is fighting, effectively wasting the ult.

Ricky just kinda stared at Noel. Noel was getting leered at by a hamster.

Noel: i’m so sorry

Not seen: Mischa and Penny laughing their asses off

Ocean, coming back by from spawn: why are Ricky’s mines where no one is??

Noel: I DIDNT MEAN TO

Ricky assured him that it was fine, though! Accidents happen! He wasn’t mad!

Another advancement! Ocean picks up Brigitte as her main!

She still loves Tracer, and she still plays her all the time, but Brigitte doesn’t require aiming because she uses a flail. So she just presses down on the primary attack button and Does Not Stop.

Constance also picks up Ana! She likes playing her a lot!

Penny likes to go invisible and spam “Boop” around the enemy team. It’s so funny to watch them spin in a circle to try and find where she is.

The MINUTE someone says ANYTHING toxic, Penny and Mischa are targeting them and them alone.

The other team is lucky that Mischa plays on console because if he had access to a keyboard, he would be BRUTAL in the game chat

Only if the other team is toxic, though

You know who DOES have access to a keyboard, though?

Ricky

So the others tell Ricky to type stuff for them

Also Ocean!

Cause she plays on her laptop because never in a million years would her parents buy her a console

So she also types stuff

Or sometimes they’ll hear the aggressive clicking of a joystick as Penny writes a message out on the Xbox keyboard

After a game, Penny has exactly fifteen seconds to try and type out the world’s most vile roast with her Xbox controller

Constance, an Ana, watching a nanobladed Genji hurtle toward her with the speed and strength of a collapsing star (she missed her sleep dart, there’s nothing she can do to save herself now)

Ricky, a Wrecking Ball, watching Constance get sliced to pieces by a nanoed Genji that’s going at 363kph after missing her sleep dart (he knows he’s next)

Penny, a Sombra, sprinting across the map, shouting “I’LL HACK HIM, I’LL HACK HIM!” (she gets killed the moment she gets there)

Noel, a Mercy, thinking it’s a good idea to try and rez Constance when the nanoed Genji is 0.6 inches away from him (the sword is put straight through his throat)

Mischa, a Winston, watching in horror as all of his friends are slaughtered in cold blood (he had died 4 seconds by the enemy D.Va before all hell broke loose and could only helplessly spectate the massacre)

Ocean, a Tracer, jumping off the edge of the map to keep the enemies from getting a team kill

The amount of times both teams have seen Ocean Blink off of a map as Tracer

And more than half the time, when she tries to throw her Pulse Bomb, she ends up getting caught in the blast and dying

Ocean: why does my OWN BOMB hurt me??

Ricky: you’re not ready to hear what real bombs do

Everyone hates push, which is fair, because push fucking SUCKS

ESPECIALLY COLOSSEO

FUCK COLOSSEO

ALL MY HOMIES HATE COLOSSEO

Noel doesn’t know how to use Deadeye At All

Like, Mischa will flip through the POVs after dying, watching his friends fighting for their lives, and then this dummy is prowling around in some random hallway with a tumbleweed clipping into Cassidy’s foot, absolutely nowhere near any enemies

Noel: i don’t know what i’m doing

Mischa: i can tell

Constance gets possessed by some kind of bloodlust when she faces another Orisa in a match

She doesn’t know what comes over her, but she’s always beefing with the other horse

Ricky: where is Constance??

Constance, in some random building, fighting for dominance against another Orisa:

One time Ocean accidentally said she “unshelled” a D.Va, and the gang has been saying that since then whenever D.Va’s mech breaks

Penny is the CEO of yelling “GET THE BABY” whenever D.Va’s out of her mech

Ocean gets lost on the maps So Easily

Mischa, spectating Ocean after dying: Ocean, where the fuck are you going??

Ocean, somehow at the enemy spawn instead of the payload: I DONT KNOW WHERE I AM

Ocean is the designated “payload princess”

While everyone else is off fighting for their lives, she’s sitting on the payload while the other team is distracted

*In Blizzard World, on defense*

Noel, guarding the point, watching Ocean, who is also guarding the point, hide behind a wooden post that is definitely not big enough to conceal Tracer’s body: you look awful

Ocean, crouching on these hay bales that are on the point: how do i look now?

Noel: fucking stupid 😭

Also as the exact opposite of Constance: Ocean HATES fighting other Tracer’s

And they’re SO HARD TO HIT

And they’re usually way better than she is 😅

Ramattra used his ult one time, and Ricky and Penny IMMEDIATELY reversed right back into spawn

When the opposite team ults, the general reaction is either A) “SCATTER” or B) “HIDE”

Whenever they hear “FIRE IN THE HOLE,” Mischa is instantly like “SPREAD OUT SPREAD OUT”

“It’s high noon” they are hiding behind the closest object and staying there

When D.Ava ults, Ocean uses ALL of her Blinks as Tracer trying to flee the general area

Most of the time, she hits a wall and just accept her fate 😭

They once got matched against someone they already played with three times, and that bitch LEFT

That one time Ocean, as Tracer, snuck around the Entire Team in Eichenwalde and captured the point with no interference because they were all distracted with everyone else

One of her best moments

They got our asses handed to them after that, but that’s not the point

Constance: they got a Widowmaker!

Noel, immediately getting sniped: i know

“Revoke gay rights” -Mischa, being killed by a Tracer

“God, please put your balls on me” -Penny, trying to get healing from Constance, who was playing Zenyatta

“We’re gonna have to gaze into her hole so many times” -Ocean, having misheard what Moira says during her ult

#ride the cyclone headcanons #ride the cyclone #rtc #ocean o'connell rosenberg #constance blackwood #ricky potts #noel gruber #mischa bachinski #penny lamb #jane doe

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artemistorm · 2 years ago

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Mother

Here you go, a random scene from my LU modern AU I call Temple AU starring Warriors and Linkle. (1,012 words)

******

Someone knocked on the door. Time started to get up from his seat but Warriors motioned him off.

“I’m already up,” he said putting the margarine down that he’d just grabbed from the fridge.

“I bet it’s the cops,” Wind said. “One of y’all is getting arrested.”

“It’s not me,” Hyrule said quickly. “Unless the Zora Mart has cameras in the parking lot.”

“They don’t,” Wild said. “I’ve checked. Pass the corn, Sky.”

“Ugh. What did you guys do in the—” Sky started.

“What are you doing here?!” Warriors exclaimed down the hall at the doorway.

“Is that any way to greet your sister after sixteen years?” A female voice snapped back.

“How did you even find me??”

“Why should you care? You’re the one whose been ghosting me! Now let me in.” The woman didn’t wait and pushed past Warriors.

“Hey! You can’t just show up and push your way in here!”

“I can and I will.”

“Who’s the lady friend?” Wind nudged Four who shrugged.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me?” Linkle snapped.

“Guys, this is my sister Linkle,” Warriors sighed.

“Twin. Twin sister,” Linkle said and bowed. “A pleasure to meet you all! I’ve seen so much about you on the news!”

There were several groans from around the dining table.

“All good things I hope?” Twilight asked through his teeth knowing the answer.

“Nope!” Linkle cheerily replied. The groans continued.

“If you’re his twin sister, how come we’ve never heard of you?” Wind asked. “Ow! Four! Don’t hit me!”

“No, no, he’s got a valid question,” Linkle said. “Why have you been straight up ignoring me? Pretending I don’t exist?”

“Sister! Good to see you! What have you been up to all these years?” Warriors said with obviously faked elation. “Not in front of them!” He muttered which everyone heard but politely ignored. “We’ll get into that later!”

“Would you like some dinner?” Time offered.

“I would love some dinner! I didn’t even have lunch because I gave all my cash to the homeless man who showed me how to get to the train station and then my card declined when I tried to buy a hot dog because my bank thought my card had been stolen.”

“Oh! That, uh, sounds like quite the day,” Time said pulling an extra stool up to the table. Sky filled a plate with the barbequed goat and roasted potatoes they were having and handed it to her.

“Oh it was! But now I’m here having dinner with my long lost bro and his buddies!”

“So… how’s it going? What are you up to these days?” Warriors asked. “What brings you to Castletown? Last I heard, you were living in the woods with a, um, a witch.”

“You are totally right!” Linkle said with a mouthful of goat, then finished chewing and swallowing before continuing. “As you know, I spent most of my childhood and young adulthood apprenticed to Grandmother learning cottage witchcraft and apothecary science and honing my skills as an expert archer, until she ran out of things to teach me and got too old to teach anyways. Then I got a job as a cuckoo shepherd on a local farm—actually, funny story, I was knocking on the door of a random farm cuz I got lost and was trying to ask for directions but they thought I was the new farmhand and instead gave me a job minding cuckoos. I was too embarrassed to correct the mixup and the real person they actually hired never showed so it all worked out in the end. I needed a way to make real people money anyways. So I've been doing that for a couple of years."

“So what brings you here?”

“Grandmother died.”

“Oh! I’m sorry.”

“And I lost my job. The cuckoos got eaten by a flock of juvenile lizalfos. While I was away performing the Last Rites ceremony for Grandmother.”

“Damn. That’s tough.”

“Yeah. But don’t worry, that was months ago. Grandmother has appeared to me twice since then. She’s doing great in the afterlife. And she was the one who told me where to find you.”

“I don’t know how I feel about that…” Warriors said, dreading the direction this conversation was going.

“So, uh, big brother, if you don’t mind…” Linkle started.

“Oh here we go,” Warriors muttered and steeled himself.

“I’d like to give you intel on the Yiga Clan’s movements in the Gerudo Higlands.”

“Uh… what?”

“And I’d like to stay with you at your place for a bit. Just until I can get my apothecary shop open.”

“Can we… can we go back for a second? Did you say the Gerudo Highlands? I thought you were living in Akkala.”

“I was until I wasn’t. Grief’s a funny thing you know? I don’t even remember how I got there! Anyways. While I was on my way back from Kema Kosassa—”

“Best to save that conversation for later,” Time interrupted.

“So what do you say Wars? Can your sister stay with you?” Sky asked. Warriors couldn’t tell in Sky was teasing him or being genuine.

“Wars? Is that what you’re going by nowadays?” Linkle interrupted. “That’s not a very nice name. Is it because you got kicked out of the military in the middle of the war and you feel bad so you—”

“Linkle,” Time put his hand up.

“Oops. Sorry. That was rude wasn’t it? Sorry. Still getting’ the hang of this whole social skills thing. When you live on your own with only an old lady and some cuckoos for company for sixteen years those sorts of lifeskills tend to backslide, don’t they?”

“Fine. You can stay with me.” Warriors relented.

“Oh goodie! Yay! I’m so glad that—” Linkle bubbled.

“For one night,” Warriors cut her off. “Then we find you a hotel or something.”

“Wars. Come on. It’s your sister!” Hyrule objected.

“I know. I’m sorry. It’s just that… I’m used to living a certain way in my own space, and… I barely know you…”

“We’re complete strangers aren’t we?” Linkle said.

“Yeah. Pretty much.”

“Not for long we won’t be! There’s so much to get caught up on!”

“Great. Welcome Linkle. Who wants dessert?” Legend asked.

“Ooh! I do!” Linkle cried excitedly, accidentally flinging barbeque sauce on Time’s face with her wildly flailing fork.

“Great. Yeah. Dessert.” Warriors murmured. Sky put a hand on his shoulder supportively.

“We’ll help,” he mouthed to Warriors.

“Thanks,” Warriors mouthed back.

#linked universe #lu warriors #lu linkle #modern au #Linkle has no social skills #she is a darling sweetheart #but also slightly unhinged #I love her so much #ask game

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nijohirjesyho · 2 years ago

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Proposed Live a Live crossover for FFXIV

It’s probably not gonna happen but hey, they crossed over with Octopath Traveler’s Gatcha game so that’s cool. SE if you see this you can buy the idea off me for 20 bucks, I want this so badly. Also, spoilers for Live a Live, I don’t care if the game’s 30 next year, the remake’s almost exactly a year old. But since Oersted’s on the cover and in the trailers, his existence is no longer being treated as a spoiler.

[Typical Random Roulette let’s be honest]

I’m torn between the requirement being The Black Wolf's Ultimatum/the end of ARR or being set post ShB. But the basic concept stays the same, just depends on if we roast G’raha for his habit of cross the rift gatcha rolls.

The WoL gets a quest of something weird happening in the shroud, typical event quest nonsense. They go to investigate and lo, 5 weirdos.

Their hostile at first until the Yugioh Protagonist Reject goes “Wait, they just thought of themselves as the Warrior of Light, they might know something, don’t stab them.”

A ninja decloaks behind you.

So they introduce themselves, as Akira, Oboromaru, Masaru, Lei (I’m picking her because she’s popular of the Shifu’s three students and to have a girl in here), The Sundown Kid (The Kid’s fine), and the little robot is Cube.

Yes he’s round. Don’t worry about that.

They pause, count, and realize one of them is missing, so first task is go find Pogo.

Fortunately, it is not hard to find the caveman that’s dancing around excitedly, having found a boar. Which your party now has to deal with.

The WoL fights it, I think, so the others can go “cool, you do know how to fight” and also “this is Pogo. We think that’s his name. He responds to at least.”

Akira, who’s psychic btw: “Listen, the dude thinks in shapes, that’s what I’ve got. He doesn’t do words.”

Now that they’ve got him, they explain that something like this has happened to them before, and they’re pretty sure they just need to find a “Lord of Dark” and defeat him, and they can all go home.

Possibly a debate here about an unnamed ‘him’ that they’re unsure if they need to look before resuming that they’re happy to have the WoL along for help.

At this point you would be able to bring up Zodiark, (possibly special dialogue if after EW) and they all agree that while that sounds bad that doesn’t sound like who they’re looking for.

“Lord of Dark? Name probably starts with an O and gonna be a reoccuring pain?”

The WoL: Odin maybe?

They decide that the Odi in Odin and the title “the Dark Divinity” is a pretty solid lead, and ask you to help them find him and beat him up so they can all go home.

Like the FFXV crossover, you’d get to hang out with them a bit and chat, but it would probably be twice, either the group broken in half so you have a smaller group to chat with, or you pick two characters to talk to.

(If you pick Cube you two just vibe in silence, before Cube offers you a warm drink)

If chosen, they all (Pogo and Cube excluded) talk a bit about where their from and evil they’ve faced before, and give the WoL some advice and encouragement.

That over with, they queue in unsynced since they don’t have a healer, they’re like four DPS, two tanks, and whatever Cube is. (Baby and the one with an AoE heal).

So the eight of you fight Odin, and yeah, he’s not his normal self, something’s definitely warped him to be more like the seven of them remember, but you’re bringing him down, until it hits the DPS check that Odin always has.

This is a scripted loss, in that the other 7 get knocked on their asses, while the WoL is still up, but so is Odin.

When a new voice calls out “gods damn you!” and jumps in. The final hero, and the only one who looks like he fits the current setting, Oersted.

(I have mentally written dialogue for this btw, I’m just skipping a lot of it so as to avoid making this post longer. I’d say avoid subjecting you to my brain rot but you’re getting it already.)

WoL and Oersted go for it, and Oersted is definitely wrecking shop. His dmg output is insane. [Not because he’s my blorbo and poor little meowmeow but because that’s a reflection of the game, his stats are NUTS compared to the others]

Odin gets defeated, duty complete, huzzah.

The heroes get up, check each other over, chat a bit, before Akira probably goes “alright, I know this one [WoL] doesn’t talk much, but we all know you can.”

Oersted: “What a terrible thing, so filled with malice, and with hate. How far it must have reached to find this seed, to water it thus.”

I am bad at iambic pentameter but he definitely speaks in it, adjust accordingly.

Anyway, they all seem a bit wary of Oersted but he thanks you for the chance to fight beside a companion again, and to be cautious of letting hate fester in you, and to be sure to nourish love and hope instead.

They all take their leave, quest ended, you’ve spent time with them, defeated the bad guy yay! (Replay the quest to hang out with different NPCs the true LaL experience)

Quest rewards: Cube Minion, Megalomania Orchestrion (YES I SPELLED THAT RIGHT IT’S MANIA NOT VANIA THIS TIME), and limited time glamours in the Gold Saucer such as Sundown’s Poncho and Hat (not visible on Hrothgar and Viera)

Please look forward to it (never happenng)

#Thank you for support my terminal LaL brain rot

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victorluvsalice · 8 months ago

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Welcome to Summer Saturday in the Chill Valicer Save, where my original plan was to do a "store day," but like so many plans, it didn’t survive contact with “the enemy” (aka me getting distracted trying to get through a bunch of other stuff in the game). But the trio did still get out and about, and they did still have a good Summer Saturday.

But we'll get to that in a minute, because first – house update! Yes, before I started playing, I made a few updates to the gang's house, and I am here to share them with you. So here we go –

-->After doing a quick check of my mods (couple of things to update from Lumpinou) and making back-ups and all that other fun stuff, I popped into the game, looked at the crafting barn, and went “well, I can’t figure out how to add a basement to the MAIN HOUSE, but HERE…” So I drew out a room under it, added some nice slat stairs with one of the new Horse Ranch railings going down (under the ones going up to Smiler’s party barn area), gave it a solid wooden floor and some nice stone walls (also both from Horse Ranch – that pack has some solid Build/Buy stuff, I must say), sold the woodworking bench that got kicked into the household inventory when I added in the new stairs (I wasn’t using it anyhow, honestly – Alice’s jewelry-making bench is now in its place) and voila – one barn basement! It’s rather sparsely furnished at the moment – kind of hard to furnish a room when you don’t have any working lights in it (the farmhouse is set up so the lights only go on when someone is in the room to conserve power, and my attempt to get Victor to turn on the ceiling lights I scattered in there only worked until I actually moved an object in there, whereupon they went right out again), but I also wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to put down there, beyond the nectar maker and a few nectar storage racks to help with aging. Ended up moving Victor’s cauldron down there as well, since that way I could free up the middle of the barn again – I could move the SimsCo canning factory down there too, I suppose, and make it for food and drink production? Kind of like the basement processing center at the store? I will ponder this. But yeah, currently what’s down there is the nectar-maker, the nectar storage racks (with the nectar Smiler’s already made inside one), Victor’s cauldron (and the cool stone circle underneath), and the yellow couch from the back porch. Why is THAT down there, you ask?

-->Well, because I ended up putting their new chess table in its spot! :D Yes, remember how Smiler actually successfully hosted a gold-tier Weenie Roast over in Copperdale last update, and thus got a nice wooden chess table (the one where the top is a partially-unfinished slice of a log) as a reward? I decided that it should go on the back porch because that’s where the chess lights were. :) I used the special camping chair (the one with the fish pattern) that they unlocked with their Silver Weenie Roast a while back for the seats, then moved the VIP bucket that was sitting on the side table next to the couch over to the counters by the barbecue, and the candy jar that was on that counter over to the side table. Because that felt more logical now. :P I also ended up moving the cooler they got for the original Weenie Roast here at the house over to the porch near the barbecue as well, then deleted the campfire in the yard entirely. Because they don’t really use it, and thanks to fun with “Simple Living,” they can’t even use it to roast weenies. *shakehead* I love that lot challenge but it comes with some BIZARRE restrictions.

I also BRIEFLY experimented with pulling the porch forward so I could make the kitchen a bit wider, in an attempt to fit more stuff into it – but then I realized “oh shit, that means I’m going to have to pull out the side of the house upstairs too, and that is going to be a whole thing and – yeah, that’s more than I want to deal with right now.” So everything went back to the way it was before. *sigh* Damn kitchen restrictions – though I suppose I could try widening it the OTHER way? Be a little less of a ballache, and all it would do is make the spot for the pet obstacle course a bit smaller, and they don’t use that much…we’ll see what I decide later!

-->And the final bit of Build/Buy fun before I started the playsession proper – getting a sign for the farm! :D Because while I was going through all the Horse Ranch stuff, vaguely looking for anything relating to mini-sheep/goats (I thought they had a special bed or something like how chickens have coops and cows and llamas have sheds – appears not), I suddenly remembered this pack came with ranch entrance signs and that I’d wanted to put one over the front path to the Van Liddelton farmhouse. So I found the one whose aesthetic matched the farmhouse the best and plopped it over the front path, then decorated it with some metal signs for a cow, a chicken, a cowplant, and a freezer bunny. Oh, and a longhorn skull for the center. XD It looked really cool –

But while I was looking for those entrance signs, I found ANOTHER beautiful entrance archway that was included with the pack, made of wooden beams with flowers (I believe morning glories) and string lights wrapped around it. I was like “!!! I can’t NOT use this,” but at the same time, I really wanted the “official” sign –

And then I decided “screw it, I’ll put this in front of the greenhouse.” So that’s what I did, moving over the wheelbarrow with the gnome and the little cart currently there and putting the new archway in front of the door, with the dark wood and yellow flowers since I liked that swatch best. :) It looks really nice! I like it as an extra bit of detailing for the front. Lots of good stuff in this pack, glad I got it!

#sims 4 #the lazy save #victor van dort #alice liddell #smiler always #the gang now has a basement! Good for them #I'm glad that I thought of adding one to the barn rather than the main house #I had NO IDEA where the entrance was going to be if I put in the main house #other than where the laundry nook currently is under the stairs to the second floor #but I rather like that laundry nook there sooo #it all worked out #in fact it works out better than it currently does #because in a future update you'll get to see that basement PROPERLY decorated XD #but for this particular update it's just kinda there #works for Smiler's nectar-making purposes though!#and yes while I may not actually be interested in getting the gang a horse #I am now glad I bought the pack just for the damn Build/Buy #good floors and walls #and those archways are great #I really wanted the gang to have a sign proclaiming this to be their farm #and I was even more delighted when I discovered I COULD officially name it 'Van Liddelton Farm' :D #yaaaay #and that other arch in front of the greenhouse?#oh that's beautiful love it :D #glad I was able to incorporate it into their home!#they deserve a pretty arch covered in pretty lights and flowers :)#queued

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drabbles-mc · 8 months ago

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failed to read this as a bedtime story. instead im reading it in the middle of the workday because no one can stop me 😌

Sorta feels like you’re just a part of it, part of him, part of the day and the routine <- oh. okay. so you're just.....you're gonna have me yearning in the middle of the afternoon like this??? fuck off affectionate

And you gotta say, those one’s are nice ones, cause it lets you shut everything off, which you figure is the same thing he likes about it. <- big fan of the fact that these two are carting around emotional baggage that would need to be checked at the airport and they just aren't saying anything about it sksks honestly??? same

sits on the step when you got a perfectly good bench on the porch <- obsessed with this detail. would love to elaborate but im afraid the language in my head cannot be translated to english

you watch him ride off like he’s already got you down with a mortgage and a ring and everything else <- i adore this because idkidkidk it feels so real. like getting out of a serious longterm relationship (this man had a whole marriage) and going back to casual dating has to be such a strange transition. like you forget how it goes. how do you do casual after you built an entire life with someone?????? johnny sure as fuck doesn't know!!! so he's just gonna keep acting like a whole husband

“Well, they’re wrong, alright? S’not like that for me.” <- oh 🥹

Cause that would tire him out, no matter how flattering he’s trying to be. <- damn. mothers really do be like that huh? 😅

Mrs Saccone don’t even bother knocking no more <- SKSKSK not the nosey neighbor accepting defeat!!!! i adore her

Before you got the hang of it, he said he was always thinking you might come flying off one day, right up over his shoulder onto the concrete <- JOHNATHAN DAVIS 😂 you can't just go SAYING THAT to people 😂 sksks i love him. i hear it so clearly. i'm crying laughing he's just sooooooo!!!!!

cause no matter how he tries to fix his face, it never looks right <- i know exactly what they mean by this but it still sounds like a lowkey roast and it's making me giggle skskks

But sometimes how it is and how it should be aren’t really working out, you know, and today you’re feeling like reminding him of that. <- reader stays spitting facts and i love them for it. this is the typa person johnny needs in his life. little shots of cold water to remind him of what's what

“Oh, like you and Brucie are running some big scary gang or something. Come on, Johnny.” <- pffftttt no but they're so so right. Johnny at least cuts an intimidating image. but Brucie??? sweet lil Brucie with the gorgeous wife????? stoppit right now sksk

“What? I need to buy a leather jacket first?” <- every few lines i've said it and every few lines i'll say it again: i love them so much!!!! if johnny isn't gonna swoop them up EYE will

omg i'm gobbling every word of this Reader Lore

“I’m thinkin, you’re gonna take a look at one of those guys and realise you picked the wrong one,” <- JOHNNY?????????????????? SHUT YOUR MOUTH RIGHT NOW???????? bro the way i lost my eyebrows in my hairline at this. i cant. i dont even know the words to say about it.

Benny. Benjamin. his presence looms over the narrative always

In a kind that has that little bike stand screaming for help kinda way. <- ohhhhh 😏

On the way home, he’s even telling you which ones of them you’ll like, which ones you’ll not like so much, and which ones you don’t need to bother getting to know at all—and you figure that means they’re a real extreme version of one of those other two categories, so you listen real close to that part. <- okay but i want the entire venn diagram laid out in my dms asap thank you very much. im obsessed i need to know the ins and outs of the categories

GODDDDD I LOVE THEMMMMMMMMM i'm kicking my feet and giggling and spinning around in my office chair

white room - pt.4

johnny davis x gn!reader, 18+, canon typical themes and language, 3.9k words, 4 of ? ao3 link | previous part a/n: thankyou for all the comments so far, it's really keeping this whole thing alive <3 <3 (gif credit to @hausofmamadas ! )

After that, the dates don’t feel like dates no more. Sorta feels like you’re just a part of it, part of him, part of the day and the routine, you know? Which you like as much as you don’t, cause seeing him so much is real nice—and it’s nearly every day sometimes. But you’d still like to go out and do things together too, nice things, the way people do when they’re still trying to win each other.

How it’s working now, is Johnny’ll show up some time—meaning after work, or after dinner, or after it’s gone dark and you shouldn’t be accepting visitors at all, but you do, cause it’s only him, you know—without the least bit of warning, and he’ll ask if you wanna go someplace. And someplace is either that bar you and him have sorta made into your bar, from that one night that time, or sometimes someplace is everyplace, cause he likes just riding round with you. Likes cutting through the night with you on the back. And you gotta say, those one’s are nice ones, cause it lets you shut everything off, which you figure is the same thing he likes about it.

But if you’re really honest, most times, you don’t even get off the front porch.

He comes over just to sit right there with you, like it’s the most normal thing in the world. Like he pays part of the upkeep or something. Some days it’s like maybe a few minutes, other days, it’s closer to a couple hours. Always with no requests, no offers, just, "You got a minute?" And you say, "yeah, for you I got ten," cause, well, you’re kinda starting to feel like need it. Like you’d sleep funny if you didn’t get to see him, even just for a little while.

What you think it is, cause it happens so often, and real routine, you know, every Tuesday and Thursday and Sunday, you’re thinking he’s stopping by before going to one of them club meetings. Comes over just to see you, cause he knows he’s got no time for nothin else, so it’ll have to do. And believe it or not, sometimes he’s even got a couple of guys with him, but they carry on while he’s parking up, not waving bye to him or nothin, so it makes no difference really.

Then Johnny gets off, and takes a coffee when you offer it to him, and sits on the step when you got a perfectly good bench on the porch, and you sit right there next to him. Just talking and stuff. Saying lots without really saying much; small talk that’s a little sweet and a little boring, too. How’s your day, you know, what you been up to.

Funny enough, more often than not, his days are just as boring as yours are. Just bikes and trucks and roads with nothing much else on them. Occasionally, he’ll have a little sort of gossip on someone, like Corky pissing Wahoo off about something, but by the time you see him next, they’ve already gone right back to being best buddies, and Johnny’s got nothin more to say about it.

But you like to hear whatever he’s got to give, boring work stuff or not, cause then it means you’re even, you know? You can go on and on about the office and he’s got to mean it when he says he don’t mind hearing about it, cause you mean it when you say it back to him, right?

When he’s done talking, he sets the empty mug down and says, see ya, Lips, and then sometimes he kisses you, and sometimes he don’t, and you watch him ride off like he’s already got you down with a mortgage and a ring and everything else that would have a person waving him off like that. You don’t mind so much. About the kisses, or the little talks you guys have. It’s just like stopping for gas, you figure. He’s only there to fill himself up before he goes back into that wolf den, and if it’s you he’s filling up on, well, that’s more of a compliment than anything else he’s ever said to you.

“You’ve got this thing,” he said one time, “this thing about you that makes me feel like I’ve slept a whole week just from being here.”

And you said, “That’s those new coffee beans I got,” pointing to the ‘I heart Chicago’ mug he was cradling.

“I’m serious.”

But you were too. “No one’s ever thought I’m anything but real tiring,” you said.

“They tell you that?”

“In some way or another.”

“Well, they’re wrong, alright? S’not like that for me.”

Feels crazy to say so, but from the look of him when he arrives, and the look of him when he gets back on that bike to leave again, then sure, it really seems like he's telling the truth. You’re winning out over coffee and a night in bed, somehow.

Before you can even notice it, a whole month goes by, and it’s all cause of Johnny.

His little porch-side pit stops make one day go flying on into the next, and the next, and so on, and stuff. Then all of a sudden, you’re telling him about the signet ring that was your Pop's—so that’s why you wear it on your thumb like that—and telling him about the year you worked in Minnesota—cause that's where your grandparents lived—and you sort of do kinda tell him about Mom, but not really. Cause that would tire him out, no matter how flattering he’s trying to be.

Somewhere in that month he starts saying things about his kids, and Betty too, that you never really thought he’d ever say to you—cause why would he, you know? There's somethings even you wouldn’t ask about. But he comes by so often, it ends up coming out of him in one conversation or another, and before you know, it’s been a while. A real note-worthy type of while. And Johnny Davis has kinda sorta become your Johnny, as much as you’ve become his, in a lazy porch step kind of way. And you feel like you know him almost. Like he’ll stick around, and you will too.

There he comes again now, see, turning down your street right as you put the coffee pot on. You don’t drink it after work, or ever really, but he does. For the meetings, like you said. So it works better to have it ready for him. Mrs Saccone don’t even bother knocking no more, cause his bike’s cutting up the quiet more often than it’s not, and you reckon she got all tired of lifting up the broom like that. Or she got over it, you know, like she realised he ain’t the trouble she thought he was.

Johnny says it’s cause he saw her once and said hello, all polite and charming, so now she likes him. Yeah. Sure, you said, couldn’t be that she’s eighty something, you know, and can only bang a broom on a wall so much. Plus, she don’t like anyone that ain’t related to her, but, eh, if Johnny wants to think he’s wooed her then it’s whatever. Both of them are fine about it, or at least not causing some sort of neighbourhood war for you, so who cares?

“Hey Johnny.”

You’re already out waiting for him by the time he’s outside, cause you hear the engine long before you can see him, and he pulls up over the driveway that never gets any use no more. He don’t shut the bike off like he usually does, though. Just sits there with it running under him, feet flat either side of it.

He nods at you greeting him, then says, “Wanna go for a ride?”

So it’s one of those days. A Wednesday, you remember.

“Where to?”

He shrugs, and he looks real tired today, now that you’re looking at him proper. His eyebrows all low and lazy over his eyes. “Nowhere,” he says.

Well, that’s good enough for you. “Alright,” you tell him, “as long as nowhere leads somewhere that sells some bread. I’m all out.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Gimme a sec.”

These days, you’re on the back of that thing like you know how to drive one yourself. So quick and professional about it, Johnny don’t even have to help you up no more. Just trusts that you can climb on and off all by yourself, and that you know when to lean and squeeze your knees, and all that other riding stuff too. Which you figure must be nice for him now, cause it means he don’t gotta worry about anything other than the road.

Before you got the hang of it, he said he was always thinking you might come flying off one day, right up over his shoulder onto the concrete. You told him, you never knew that was a thing that could happen in the first place, but it was too late to be nervous about it by then cause you were already used to it, you know? So he got lucky with that one. Any earlier and you’d’ve said you’re not going no where fuckin near that thing, whether he was romancing you, or not.

Tonight, you’re going for miles before Johnny shows any real sign of stopping. All the way out of town, and then some, right into the crap that lies in the dirt between home and the next one over. When he does, the sun’s only barely clinging on over the top of the horizon, which must be why he’s picking now to pull over someplace, cause if he waits too long it’ll be dark, and cold. Though, you never notice the cold when you’re out riding no more, not like you did that first time, cause when you’re wrapped right up in the warm of him that’s all you can focus on. But he’s forgotten his gloves today, and his hands will sure complain about that once the sun's gone.

He’s picked some little row of storefronts that you’ve never seen before, rolling into the lot with his bike in neutral. Not firing or purring or anything, just cruising in, real slow, with one hand on the bars and the other on his thigh.

And you know why he’s done it, cause one of the storefronts has a big stack of grocery looking crates sitting outside of it, and everything else that might suggest it’s a place that’s selling bread, but you can tell it’s closed before he even puts the brakes on. Lights off, blinds down. You get off and have a look through the window just in case, like the guy might be in there behind the counter still, but nope. It’s as empty as it looks.

And when you go back to Johnny, he seems real sorry about it. Like he could’a known.

He’s got his bike parked up and quiet now. Got it standing slanted on that little stand that don’t look like it can really hold the weight of the thing, let alone that and Johnny, who’s leaning against the lean of it, too. Two big hunks of stuff on one little arm.

“Guess I’m not taking lunch tomorrow,” you tell him. Which you regret as soon as you do, cause then he looks like he feels even worse about it, wincing a little, and you were only saying something just to say it.

“I might have some at my place,” he says, more like an apology than a real offer of anything. “I guess we could stop by on the way back.”

You wave him off. “Don’t worry about it.”

There’s this sandwich place by your work, which you like more than any other sandwich place you’ve ever been to, and you never really have any excuse to go there, so in a way this is a blessing, you know. No bread, what a shame. Bologna and extra cheese please.

“We gotta think of some other place to go now,” you say, messing with the loose thread in your jacket pockets, while Johnny messes with the cigarette he’s not bothering to light yet.

Probably planned on smoking it while you were in there shopping. Now he’s just tapping the end of it on his thigh, then flicking it round, and tapping with that end too. Which is a little more fidgety than he usually is, now that you’re thinking about it.

“Did something happen today?” you ask him, cause no matter how he tries to fix his face, it never looks right. Looks like his mind's somewhere three miles behind you in the road still, and with the tapping, and the tiredness. Yeah, you don’t need to be one of those brain doctor guys to work it out. You don’t even need to know him the way you do. Any Joe could look at him and think something was up, some way or another.

“Something like what?” he says.

You wait some more. You’re not feeling like knocking around the bush about it.

“S’okay,” he goes on. “Just somethin’, some trouble the other day. Last week. Still sitting on my mind a little, is all.”

Which is a long time for anything to be sitting on it, and you saw him two days ago, but he looked fine and said nothin about it then. So he’s either lying, or real good at hiding things, until he can’t hide them no more. “Wanna talk about it?” you ask.

He shakes his head.

“Wanna talk about it in a way that’s not really talking about it?”

He puffs a big breath out of his nose, then his head goes back and away like you’re bothering him, or something. “Come on,” he says. “No is no, you know how it is.”

But sometimes how it is and how it should be aren’t really working out, you know, and today you’re feeling like reminding him of that.

You move forward until you’re standing right in front of him, and cause he’s sitting and leaning the way he is, that means he’s looking up at you now. And with his legs crossed at the ankles the way they are, they’re going straight between your knees like some big lazy bean pole. Which you figure puts him right where you want him.

“You know you don’t always have to keep me in one hand, and club stuff in the other,” you say. Which is what this is really all about, if he felt like saying so. “I can mix with anythin and anyone, Johnny.”

“I know that.” He rubs a palm down over his face, then shrugs and says, “But I don’t want you mixing with it.”

“Why not?”

“Cause it’s not—you don’t need all that.”

“I think I do.” Cause he is all of that, not just cause he’s club president, but because he’s Johnny, and the club, the guys, it’s all a part of him—and yeah, sure, you’re really starting to need him, alright, which means needing all of that, too. “I can handle it.”

His face pinches a little like he might’ve stood on something sharp. “You don’t even know what you’re asking for.”

“Oh, like you and Brucie are running some big scary gang or something. Come on, Johnny.”

You’ve not met Brucie yet, not properly, but from what Johnny says, he’s as normal as anyone. An electrician that helps him count dues and wire up telephones. Johnny’s right hand and best friend, it’s cute, yeah, and no different from anyone else they run about with. Whatever he’s painting to try and scare you off, you’re not buying it. You might’ve in that pizza place that one time, but now?

He sighs, looking even more tired than he was when you started pecking at him. “It’s not…it’s just things you got no interest in, you know. Stuff you don’t wanna waste your time on.”

“How’d you reach that conclusion?”

His chin flicks up. “Well, look at you."

And you do, you look down your front and your jeans and the boots you never wore until you started riding with him. “What? I need to buy a leather jacket first?”

When he laughs, you can tell that he wishes he didn’t, but he can’t help it as much as you can’t stop your mouth from saying the things it does sometimes.

“You know, my mom’s on some crazy pilgrimage right now,” you say.

Then Johnny does what anyone would do and says, “What?” like you started speaking a different language mid-sentence.

“Yeah, said she was going to San Francisco for a little while, to see some guy and learn some yoga, or something. But now she’s in Europe, trying to be one of them, I don’t know, sort of spiritual guide people, and going place to place looking for something she can’t even explain to me.” You clear your throat from the little frog in it. “Which isn’t the point,” you say.

His head shakes like he’s lost. “What is the point?” he asks, impatient in a kinda charming, sort of irritating way.

“The point is, she’s a funny sort of person, and before she was doing all that, when I was a kid, you know, she was always moving us about and stuff. Always dragging me along with her when I was too small to be doing things like that.” You fold your arms and Johnny don’t say nothin, so you carry on a little. “We were going all over the country, near enough, and staying with all sorts of people that I never saw more than once.”

He frowns. “What for?”

“You’d have to ask her that yourself.” Cause you and her got a real sweet understanding lately, one that means you don’t ask her why, just as long as she don’t make you feel bad for not wanting to do what she wants anymore. Best sort of deal you two have ever come up with. “All I’m saying is, I saw some real weird shit before I even learned how to read eight letter words. And I bet you not one thing about that club of yours would surprise me. Or scare me, or whatever it is.”

He nods slow like he’s thinking about it. Which you figure is him being nice, cause he’s probably only nodding to buy him time to work out what to say when a person says something like that, admitting something personal that no-one likes hinting at, you know. Like Moms not being very good moms when they ought to have been. Like kids not getting to be kids, and stuff.

“See, I’m not worried about that part,” he says.

Well. That sweeps you right off your feet almost, cause you figured that was his whole deal. “You’re not?”

One of his hand wanders up your leg til it’s sitting on your hip, with his thumb through the belt loop there. “I’m thinkin, you’re gonna take a look at one of those guys and realise you picked the wrong one,” he says. “Ugliest one you could’ve,” he says.

Which is a load of hot, steaming horse crap. So you laugh, and he’s looking at you that way he does when he gets you to throw your head back like that.

“Don’t do that when I’m being serious,” you tell him, trying to stop yourself from smiling, but not really stopping at all.

“Who’s not being serious?”

“What is it really?”

“Just what I said,” he insists. But he’s smirking in his eyes so you know that he’s lying.

“Johnny,” you say.

“Benny,” he says back.

You stop. “What?”

“That’s what it is,” he says, “I don’t want you meeting him.”

Suddenly this guy's a real comic, who knew? You prod a finger into the meat of his shoulder, scoffing at him. “I took you for a lot of things, Johnny, but I never took you for a man who’s gonna worry about losing out to someone like that. Benny or no Benny.”

That hand on your hip squeezes you a little, and pulls you in closer than you already are. “Yeah?” he says, smiling cause you’re feeding his ego now, and you don’t mind one bit about doing it.

“None of those guys are even my sort,” you tell him. “Wouldn’t pay them no mind, even if you never existed.”

At that, he kisses you in a way that feels like a reward, though you can’t figure out which one of you’s is winning. It’s all short and sweet and soft against those lips of his, and just when you're thinking like he might take it somewhere further, cause his hand’s sliding round to the back of you, he pulls away and looks right into your eyes. And you’re so close together, you’re sorta going cross-eyed to look back at him.

“You really wanna get involved?” he asks.

“Yeah, I really do.”

“Even if it’s not pretty, or whatever?”

“Even if it’s the ugliest thing in the world,” you say. “M’tired of only getting half of you.”

He nods, and it’s so slight you wouldn’t have even noticed if his chin didn’t budge against yours, stubble scratchy and forgiven for it. “Alright, then.”

You lean back to put some air and sense between the two of you. “Really?

“If it’s what you want,” he says, like it was always that easy.

Yeah, it’s what you want, you tell him, in a sort of a way. In a kind that has that little bike stand screaming for help kinda way. Kissing him so much, he don’t know whether to push you back, or lie down on that seat and let it all happen.

And then that’s that, you guess, flood gates lifted. You get to know about club stuff, as long as Johnny don’t mind you knowing, and he don’t seem so reluctant to have them meeting you no more. On the way home, he’s even telling you which ones of them you’ll like, which ones you’ll not like so much, and which ones you don’t need to bother getting to know at all—and you figure that means they’re a real extreme version of one of those other two categories, so you listen real close to that part.

You don’t ever find out what was getting him looking tired that way, not really, but he does say they’re opening a new chapter now, after some debating about it. Which sounds like something that’d be a real headache to sort out, so you figure that must’a been it.

It’s also how you find yourself invited to one of those picnics of theirs, whatever that means. The first one where this chapter and Milwaukee’s chapter are all getting together, a real big one, apparently. So naturally you says you wanna go and Johnny says alright. Alright, you know.

Pick you up early next Saturday, he says, cause apparently you gotta ride for a while, and these things go from when the first bike arrives til the last one leaves again. Johnny’s gotta be there for all of it, of course—and you’ve just fixed yourself to the back of him like one of those old reliable saddlebags of his—so you gotta be there too. And, well, you’re really sort of excited about it.

~~~~~~~~~~

taglist: @garbinge @drabbles-mc @raven-black102 @lyralu91 @hoodeddreams13 @businesscalamity

#johnny davis

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i-just-wanna-be-fuckin-happy · 2 years ago

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Food Rules for Eating Actual Food That Nourishes Me and Makes Me Feel Good, Not Gross

The following is a set of rules I developed after reading the excellent book Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan (which I highly, highly recommend), flipping through a million cookbooks, heavily googling, watching other families eat in a (mostly) noncreepy way, and just paying attention to my own eating experiences. Note: This has NOTHING to do with losing weight or being “skinny.” I’m really tired of people talking about being skinny like it’s some achievement. You didn’t climb Machu Picchu, you didn’t complete your master’s degree, you just subsisted off of celery and hummus for a week while being the most stressed-out version of yourself the rest of us had to suffer through.

No diets. COME ON! You know this! There is no miracle cure for weight loss. No special pill or juice or cleanse that is going to give you the body you want. I’m so sorry! I wish there was! I would do it. Don’t drive yourself crazy with something that’s never going to work. Also: Food is a good thing. We are lucky to have food. Please, let’s not stress about every bite.

Eat food. Not low-fat, low-sugar, “lite,” protein powder, it-came-in-apackage-that-said-“natural”-so-that-means-something-right? Food made in a lab is not food at all. It’s science. You are not a lab rat. No need to run an experiment on your stomach. I have an exception to this: I keep a (simple) protein bar in my kitchen and at my office for emergency situations. Nothing is worth a hangry version of me.

Eat food that makes you feel good, not sick. Again, simple, but it took me YEARS to learn this one. I stopped eating almost all fried foods simply because I always felt sick after eating them. There is no discipline to this other than realizing that I always, always had an upset stomach after eating fried chicken and deciding I didn’t want to feel that way anymore. Listen to what your body hates. Let your body’s hate be your guide. Namaste.

If you are having trouble figuring out what your body likes, keep a (low-key) food journal. It took me a while to figure out what foods felt good and what put me into a food coma, so I kept a little journal in my purse of what I ate and how it made me feel. Salad with tofu for lunch: HANGRY THE ENTIRE FUCKING DAY. Salmon and lentils for dinner: pleasantly full and energized. Special doughnut for a colleague’s birthday at four P.M.: crazed with sugar, like a baby who just had her first bite of cake and wants MORE NOW, unable to pay attention in a meeting when I really needed to pay attention. Write down for just one week what you eat and how you feel; you’ll be floored by what you learn.

Don’t make food choices when hungry. Have you ever noticed that if you go grocery shopping on an empty stomach, you’ll leave with a basket of ice cream, carrots, and a block of cheese? How are you supposed to make dinner with that? Seriously, can you tell me? Because I’ve been there so many times and have never been able to find the answer. I am incapable of making any choices about food when I am already ravenous. I also tend to get into arguments around this time. “No, what restaurant do you want to go to??? If you have a preference, just say it!” Try to make your food choices when not on the verge of eating another person.

Make your freezer a precious miracle solution from the heavens. Keeping a freezer full of healthful meals, or meal components, is one of the best ways you can make sure you are nourishing yourself. When I roast chicken, I always make a little extra so I can dice some and put it in the freezer. Same with soups. If I make a chickpea stew, I make a couple of extra servings, pour them into ziplock bags I decorate with Sharpiedrawn hearts, and freeze them. My freezer is stocked with fruits, spiralized zucchini, muffin-tin frittatas, turkey meatballs, and other real food. This way, I’m not tempted to buy a box of microwaveable mac and cheese and call that dinner. Tho, occasionally, there is nothing better than a box of Annie’s mac and cheese.

It’s okay to go on a cleanse, but it’s not okay for that to become your personality. I’ve done a bunch of the juice cleanses. I’ve had the charcoal water that costs twelve dollars and “detoxifies” your blood. I’ve done the whole fasting thing. These drastic changes to your eating habits can be good for shaking things up every so often, sort of like the food equivalent to cleaning out your closet, but they are not a long-term solution. DO NOT BECOME SOPHIE. Sophie is the girl standing in front of us in line at the wedding buffet talking endlessly about her juice cleanse and how it “totally and utterly” changed her life and how she “never really liked full meals anyway.” You “never really liked” meals, Sophie? YOU’VE NEVER FELT THE ECSTASY OF STRAIGHT-UP DESTROYING A FULL PIZZA, SOPHIE?! YOU HAVEN’T LIVED, SOPHIE! Never be the one who is endlessly talking about some cleanse, some cure-all, your new diet, the new BEST food trend, etc. You have more interesting things to talk about than what you eat.

Keep a yummy, healthful treat around. At the end of the night, if I want something sweet, I have a few dried mango slices. They are delicious but not something I want to demolish in one sitting. What about a whole-grain toaster-oven waffle with a little honey? Three dates with a cup of mint tea is an elegant and tasty treat. The point is, always have something you ENJOY around you. You’re less likely to binge on things you don’t like when you have something that does satisfy you around. I’m looking at you, can of Pringles I don’t even like but I can take down in three minutes flat. How did you even get in my house?

#food rules #diet #health #healthy #healthy food #healing #self love #selfcare #food

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maeum-your · 2 years ago

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CHAPTER 45 | what's after like? (written)

word count: 5.2k

warnings: short mentions of domestic abuse, substance abuse, alcoholism, almost death, and abuse of power; panic attacks

a/n: i swear there's also lots of fluff 💀

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masterlist

never in her life did y/n think that she’d end up in jay’s bed one day, engulfed in his warm, bare arms, breath tickling her neck. but oops, i see i’m getting ahead of myself. let’s rewind and go back to the 30th of october, the day of the fated business party.

y/n and ningning were standing in the red haired girl‘s front yard holding hands. y/n tensed up every time a car came down the street. they were waiting for the car.

punctual as ever he arrived at exactly 6:45, just as he had said he would.

ningning pulled her best friend into a tight embrace. “you got this, okay? take a few deep breaths. and if that bitch tries anything give me a call and i‘ll mess her up real good.“

sick to the stomach y/n just nodded, trying to put on a somewhat confident expression but very obviously failing. ningning pushed her towards the street and winked.

“now go! your draddy is waiting.“

jay opened the door of the passenger seat for her and gestured for her to go in. “m‘lady.“

y/n curtsied. “lord farquaad.“

he blinked at her for a second, expressionless, then just walked away without closing the door.

the drive was unbearably awkward. like i-just-caught-you-and-my-mom-doing-the-hanky-panky-on-the-kitchen-table awkward. obviously that‘s not what had happened. for y/n‘s part, she didn‘t know how to talk to him at all now that he had started avoiding her like the pest.

“so…,“ said jay.

“so…,“ echoed y/n.

“you look good tonight.“

“wow, did mr. park forget all the roasts he prepared for tonight or is he just saving them for later?“

“no, i mean it. you do look really nice. not that you don‘t usually look good. i like your usual style. it‘s cute. i mean,“ he started stammering, “objectively your dress is a good length. not too long for the conservative and not too short for the party people. anyone would like the dress. so i do too. yes, since i‘m part of anyone too. and it‘s a nice shade of blue too. the best shade of blue, in my humble opinion. a nice midnight blue.“

y/n stared at him confused. “are you sick?“

“no, i‘m totally fine. why are you asking?“ he cleared his throat and fixed his already fixed tie for the tenth time.

“because you‘re rambling nonsense. god, that was so awkward. why are we always so awkward?“

another not less awkward laugh left his lips. “i guess it needs some time getting used to this whole friend thing.“

oh. yeah. how could she have forgotten that she moved from the enemy zone to the friend zone? so nice. silence overcame the car yet again.

“you look good too,“ she bursted out. he was nice to her, or at least trying to, so she should return the favor. it wasn‘t a lie either. jay always looked like perfection personified but just something about jay in a suit hit different.

their final destination was not too far away. they passed jay‘s neighborhood and entered an even wealthier and fancier one (how that was possible was beyond y/n‘s comprehension). they entered the estate through a gigantic iron gate and then drove through an arrangement of the most beautiful gardens and then parked around the water fountain.

jay, ever the gentleman again, opened the door for her and held out his hand.

“last call. we could still make a run for it if we wanted to.“

she accepted his outstretched hand and got out of the car. “we can do this.“

the place was streaming with hundreds of guests. the pair tried to blend in with the masses, silently hoping to not be discovered by anyone they knew. y/n had never seen that many rich people all in the same spot. it made her realize that no amount of money could buy you a good sense of fashion. jay could probably even make a plastic bag look hot on him but he knew how to dress himself and was just lucky enough to do so with clothes made out of high-quality materials. still, y/n with her $5 dress on sale looked classier than the majority of people inside this mansion.

even jay looked out of place in this room full of rich people. he was completely tensed up and y/n had to pretend that his iron grip on her hand didn‘t hurt a little. he wandered around aimlessly for a bit but then stopped dead in his tracks.

“they‘re right there.“ he nodded in the vague direction of “right there“, which meant by the bar completely covered in gold. “they“ meaning his parents who were in conversation with a tall, brunette woman and a girl with piercing blue eyes.

“you know what? maybe we should just go.“ his voice was shaking slightly.

as they turned around they almost crashed into the chest of a very tall woman. she raised her pink handbag, matching her all-pink outfit, in which sat a tiny chihuahua with a bow tied around its neck.

“oh, jay jay! we‘ve been looking for you. where are you going? your parents are standing right there talking to the gilmores. we all thought that you‘d be engaged to miss rory by now since your families are so close but you never seemed to show any interest in girls.“ she paused for a moment, lost in distant thought. “we would have all supported you if you were gay but alas, i hear you‘ve finally found yourself a girlfriend. you must be y/n.“ she shook her hand with passionate enthusiasm. “i have heard all about you, of course. which isn‘t a lot, i have to admit. seems like this boy wanted to keep you all to himself, eh? not even telling her own mother about you. she was ecstatic at the news. her little boy finally in love. and now go introduce her to your parents, jay.“ she shooed them away and they had no choice but to walk towards the golden bar.

the woman, whose name y/n still didn‘t know, gave jay‘s mother a kiss on both cheeks.

“ah, darling jiyoung. how are you doing? your son got lost looking for you so i brought them here. do you see how beautiful a girl jongseong has picked out?“

“indeed!“ exclaimed mrs. park.

y/n held out her hand but mrs. park shook her head. “what nonsense, my dear. come here.“

she was pulled into a spine crushing hug. her sweet perfume infiltrated her nose and the hair of the fur collar was tickling her nostrils. how long had it been since she had last been hugged like this by her own mother? it felt nice in spite of the sensory issues and the fact that the hugger was her fake boyfriend‘s mom whom she just met for the first time.

“welcome to the family, honey. i‘m quite enraged that jay has been hiding such a gem from us for this long. he‘s so mysterious when it comes to you but the burning blush on his face whenever your name is mentioned tells me everything i need to know. i can‘t wait to get to know you better. i‘ll see to have a private dinner arranged for just us.“

overwhelmed but thankful with all the kindness she was being shown y/n smiled warmly.

“that sounds lovely. it‘s so nice to finally meet you, mrs. park.“

she looked almost offended. “my dear, no need for these kind of formalities. please just call me jiyoung! oh, and i almost forgot: this is james, my loving husband“

the stern-looking man by her side had not uttered a single syllable since they had arrived but had been attentively watching her with furrowed eyebrows. he eventually held out his hand for her to shake and then his lips formed into a smile.

“i see that my son and the company seem to be in good hands. it’s lovely to meet the girl who has warmed our son’s heart. for a while i feared he‘d be alone forever. seems like he was just waiting for you.“

the task of not getting even more delusional than usual was becoming harder and harder. y/n was on the verge of pulling up twitter to scream on her private account but the urge to make a lasting good impression ultimately won.

then the friendly grilling began. about her aspirations for the future, her hobbies, any allergies, her opinion on hugging trees, and so on. she tried to be as honest and open as possible but she steered away from the topic when the question about her parents came up.

“so, y/n, what is it about my jongseong that you love so much?“

“mom!“ said jay full of indignation. “can you please not?“

“what? i only want to know how you charmed this young lady.“

y/n squeezed his hand to tell him it was alright.

“there are many reasons why i lo–“ she realized what she was saying and dragged out the vowel for a second longer, “–iiike him. first, he is incredibly smart and passionate about the things he loves. his heart burns for the pursuit of knowledge and that‘s why he is so well read too. even if the only books he‘s ever read would be the harry potter saga then that would have been entirely enough to win me over. but he has so much more to offer still. he is also kind and compassionate, even if he might not show it all of the time but it really does shine through and–“ she choked up unwilling, suddenly overcome by emotions she hadn‘t realized had been there, “i‘m so incredibly thankful for his presence in my life. he makes me feel precious and loved and every day i wake up wondering how i could ever repay him.“

her eyes were fixed to the floor, trying very hard to look anywhere but into his or his parents‘ eyes. jay‘s grip on her hand had tightened impossibly more during her little speech so at this point there was barely any blood flowing to her hand anymore. but she‘d never tell him to let go.

jiyoung wiped a little tear from her eyes. “that was beautiful.“

yes, and now can we forget about it, y/n thought?

“jongseong. y/n,“ came a very unwelcome voice from behind them. she had been hoping for a distraction and that‘s exactly what she got.

“lia,“ muttered jay through gritted teeth.

lia was approaching them with a triumphant smile on her face, her high ponytail wagging from side to side as she strut towards them.

“i see you finally met your boyfriend‘s parents, y/n? isn‘t she such a sweetheart, jiyoung?“ she cooed.

she pinched y/n‘s cheeks and casually put her arm around her shoulder as her body stiffened. send help, seemed to scream her eyes as she looked at jay.

“now, now, jisu.“ a hand appeared on lia‘s shoulder and tore her off y/n. “what did i say about personal space?“ it was a man in a well-tailored dark green suit. y/n froze.

“i told you not to call me that,“ grumbled lia.

“what, your name?“ he laughed. “don‘t be silly.“

his eyes flickered towards y/n who had grown pale as a sheet.

“i know jay, of course, but would you mind introducing me to your young friend here?“

“dad,“ y/n whispered.

“hmm, dad is a very interesting name indeed,“ he mused.

lia‘s eyes were widened in shock. “what did you just say?“

“you can��t even recognize your own daughter? wow, i shouldn‘t be as surprised as i am right now. maybe if you had stayed to see your kids for longer than just kindergarten then you would know who i am.“ y/n‘s fingernails were digging into her palms.

realization dawned on his face. “y/m.“

“it‘s y/n, you scumbag,“ she hissed. “but I wouldn‘t expect you to know.“

“hope your mother’s doing well.“ he could shove is fake sympathy up his ass for all y/n cared.

“thanks to you no one is doing well. i hope you’re happy.“ the last words came out choked as tears welled up in her eyes.

he stepped closer with open arms.

“don’t touch me,“ she yelled. “don’t act like you care. you’re not my father.“

she stormed off. it was too much. seeing her father and him acting like he hadn’t ruined her life. y/n was trying to find the damn exit to this place but with the masses of people swarming about and the tears swimming in her eyes it was hard to see. she could hear jay calling her name as she made her way through the mansion.

she mumbled half-hearted apologies as she bumped into people. the room was spinning and no matter how many times she gasped for air, her lungs couldn’t get enough. she finally saw the golden-adorned door and made a run for it, stumbling her way towards it, but not even fresh air and the newfound space could make the aching in her heart stop.

taking the car was not an option so she opted to run further into the grounds where the woods were. she ran as far as her lungs would allow but they were burning and everything was spinning. she didn‘t get far before collapsing by a tree, dark spots dancing in front of her eyes.

she let out a wallowing sound, clawing at her chest.

“y/n?“ the girl didn‘t look up. breathing got harder with every breath she tried to take. she felt like she had been thrust into the atmosphere of an entire new planet.

jay knelt down in front of her on the dirty, muddy ground.

“look at me.“

she shook her head.

“look at me.“ he repeated firmly. her eyes met his. through the panic she barely registered the mix of fury, worry, and sadness meeting in his eyes. he gently took her hands in his.

“try to breathe with me. you can do it. ready? inhale,“ he took a deep breath, “and exhale.“ he breathed out. y/n tried to copy him but her breathing was too sporadic and she couldn‘t get it under control.

after a couple more attempts he asked her to close her eyes. at this point she was so dizzy that she followed him without question.

he guided her hands to his stomach where he placed them. he repeated the same mantra, only now could she also feel the way his stomach expanded and contracted with every breath.

jay was patient. it took around ten minutes for y/n‘s breathing to start resembling a pattern again. jay was drawing circles on her hands throughout the entire process. his fingers were slightly trembling. she slipped her hand out of his.

“y/n…“

“no. closer, please.“ the desperation in her voice made his heart ache. without question he engulfed her into a secure hug and she clung on for dear life.

they stayed like this, him stroking her back, as their breathing finally started to sync.

“i know you probably don‘t but if you want to talk about what happened then please go ahead. i‘m here to listen.“

y/n bit her bloody lip from chewing on it too much and finally remove herself from his embrace. it was jay they were talking about here. her enemy. her fake boyfriend. the guy who had looked down upon her for years. jay… who had run after her and helped her through a panic attack. jay who had let her cry for hours on his shoulder, ruining his white shirt with her tears and his dress pants in the mud. jay.

“my dad never married my mom,“ she started. “she was hired to clean his house. he is or he used to be, i don‘t really know, a powerful, stinking rich CEO who didn‘t have to pick his own nose because he could always hire someone to do it for him. my mom grew up poor and took on various jobs for money. she was hired at his house to do the cleaning but then when he started touching her, promising a higher pay, who was she to say no? he was also apparently quite handsome and charming in his earlier years so she was infatuated with him anyway. she inevitably became pregnant. she told him the news, secretly hoping he would care enough for her or at least for the baby. instead, he made her sign a contract to keep silent and to never come near him again. in exchange she received an envelope with a little bit of money.

“so my mother was left with me and barely any money to cover the costs piling up. we got evicted as she couldn‘t pay the rent so we were homeless for a while. a mother and her 10 month old child living on the street. it was an especially harsh winter and i got very sick. we had been sleeping under bridges and in tunnels and were unable to escape the cold winds of the season. a dangerous fever seized me and i almost died. my mother went to the only place she knew to call for help, setting aside her pride and the contract she had signed. my father was close to turning her away but not even his stone cold heart could have a baby‘s death on its conscience. he caved in and paid for all the medical expenses and i was able to recover.

“he let her stay, taking care of financial matters while she continued to clean his house in return. my mom got pregnant again and nine months later jung– my brother was born. he didn‘t send her away the second time. he might have not been very present in our lives but i still grew up with memories of him pushing me on the swing or dressing up my infant brother in suit and tie. i thought we were happy. turns out life would have been a lot easier if i had just died that winter.

“before I even started elementary school, he kicked us out. said that he found out he had another daughter and it‘s pretty obvious that he had sorted out his priorities. he kicked us out without notice, just told my mom that he had arranged a job position for her and had bought a small house for us to live in. we were not to contact him or his family ever again. i never expected that i‘d one day i‘d just run into him.“

jay made a thoughtful humming sound. “i think i get it now. your hatred for rich people. why you hate me.“

“i don‘t hate you.“

“but you did. i never knew what i had done. we got along really well the first few days of freshman year and all of a sudden you started treating me differently. your words were filled with venom every time i tried to talk to you. i was sad. i really wanted to be your friend.“

“i never hated you, i think. at least not really. i hated what you stood for and i guess i was in a way scared of you. i now see that i was stupid. you’re so much more than the status you were born into. the little speech i gave to your mother about why i like you so much? none of it was a lie. i meant every last word. you would never do the things my father so easily did.“

he placed his hands on her shoulders. “never. i swear to all that i love. i‘m not like that man and i will never be. okay?“ his voice had a desperate ring to it, like he needed her to really see him.

she nodded.

“what happened next? to you and your mother?“

the girl sighed and looked away. “my mom started blaming us. if only we had been better children, more lovable, more classy, more intelligent, he would never have left her. she started drinking and getting warnings from work. they were very patient with her, after all they were doing my dad a favor but even that patience had its limit. she lost her job and tried to take on smaller shifts as a cashier but she would either fail to show up or would come completely intoxicated. no one wanted to have her for more than a couple of days and eventually she just gave up. when she‘s not getting drunk at a bar now she‘s busy spending the rest of our money on quick drugs. all you can do is hope that your sleeping is convincing enough when she comes home so she doesn‘t get you.“

“get you? does she–“ y/n nodded before he could finish. she couldn‘t bare to hear it said out loud.

“it‘s not too bad. i mean, i‘ve learned to deal with it even though i would of course rather avoid it. better me than my brother. i know what you‘re thinking. that i‘m a terrible person to not have called the police or child services on her. i beat myself up every single day. i want to keep my brother save but what would happen if he‘s taken away? i‘m almost of age so he wouldn‘t be allowed to stay with me. and you know how the system operates. it would ruin his life. and some days i– i actually manage to feel pity for my mother. she made life a living hell but at least she stayed. if it hadn‘t been for him…“

jay wiped away a tear that was sliding down her face, gently caressing her cheek in the process. “i understand. he really screwed you over, huh?“

a dull chuckle left her lips. “you could say that. lia being this messed up makes a lot of sense now. i still can‘t believe that she‘s supposed to be my half sister. maybe we‘re more similar than I thought.“

jay‘s hand now moved to brush a loose strand of hair behind her ears. “you‘re not messed up. you‘re not a burden either. what you are is special and loving and kind and smart and funny. you are an enrichment to all of our lives. your brother‘s. sunoo‘s. chaeryeong‘s. ningning‘s. jimin‘s. heeseung‘s.“

he glanced at her lips.

“mine.“

y/n was reminded of something.

“since we’re already being honest with each other can i ask you a question?“

“anything,“ he whispered.

“why didn’t you kiss me?“

jay was thrust out of his spell. “what?“

“that day after our first fake date. correct me if i’m wrong but we almost kissed but then you just scadoodled away and things have been so incredibly awkward since. is it– is it because there is someone that you like?“

a soft smile played on his lips. “yeah, there is someone i like so very much and for that reason i couldn’t do it. she has been all i can think about recently. no, that’s a lie. i’ve liked her since the very first day we met.“

y/n tried to swallow but her throat had all dried up, doing her best to ignore the way her heart clenched.

“she is a very lucky girl then to have your attention. why don’t you tell her?“

“i just did.“

“no, silly. i mean the girl you–“ she paused, her eyebrows furrowed.

“oh.“ realization hit her like a truck. “hold on. let’s unpack that for a second. i still think this is some sick joke or something but if you were hypothetically telling the truth then i still don’t get why you couldn’t kiss me.“

“not hypothetically but being very honest, i have to admit that i felt so ashamed after what had happened at sunghoon’s party. i’m aware that you reciprocated the kiss but still, i should not have kissed you. i didn’t have my emotions under control and just took your first kiss like that. it should have been romantic and enjoyable. with someone who would ask you first if it was okay and you would actually like that someone. you didn’t want to talk to me at all afterwards. i thought you hated me, at least more than usual, and i couldn’t bare to repeat the same mistake. i wasn’t aware you wanted me to kiss you that night of the date. i was too scared of my own feelings for you to realize.“

“so he’s a gentleman,“ y/n teased. “didn’t want to give the girl he liked a goodbye peck on the lips after almost swallowing her whole in a basement.“

he cringed. “don’t say it like that but… basically, ehm, i guess that’s pretty accurate?“

“so you really do like me?“ she asked, still thinking she must have hit her head earlier.

“very much so.“

“are you sure?“

“a hundred percent.“

“positive?“

“not for much longer if you keep on doubting me,“ he huffed.

“okay, okay. just one more question: when you say “like“ do you mean it in a romantic way or just platonically? like you would love your bro?“

“in a way that makes my heart beat faster whenever i see you smile and suddenly i make it my mission in life to make you happy.“

“soo,“ she began, “if i asked you to kiss me right now because that would make me incredibly happy you would grant my wish?“

“with pleasure. but if this is a real question than i need you to answer one of my own too. do you have feelings for me too?“

“oh honey,“ she laughed, “you should see my private account i made in freshman year for the sole purpose of having a place to scream about how awesome you are and how much of a crush i had on you. the same account has recently been revived for the same purposes. my friends really do hate me now. i hope that answers your question.“

he grinned, obviously satisfied. “it does. but i want you to say it.“

y/n shot him a reproachful look.

“i like you, okay? in a way that has you as my first thought when i wake up and the last when i fall asleep. in that i never want to hurt you again and that i would sell my soul to have great conversation with you while cooking together.“

jay pulled her onto his lap and her arms automatically wrapped around his neck as his hands found their place on her hips. they sat so close, the tips of their noses barely touching.

“may i kiss you?“ he breathed against her lips.

“please.“

his lips were soft and moving gently as he pressed them on hers. it was nothing like the kiss they had shared in the basement, which had been full of confusing emotions and impatience. this one was unhurried and slow. it was their souls finally making peace and uniting.

the kiss didn’t last all too long. both smiled as they exchanged short, sweet kisses, barely containing themselves from giggling like little kids.

he leaned his forehead against hers. “is it too early to ask you if i can be your boyfriend?“

“only if it’s too early for me to say yes.“

jay closed his eyes. “stay over tonight.“

“wow, wow, wow, there, mister. moving a bit fast now, are we?“ she nudged him playfully.

ignoring her remark with a roll of his eyes he cupped her face in his hands. “i don’t want you to go back to that house. not ever again. i want to be sure that wherever you are you‘re save and loved. so please don‘t go,“ he pleaded earnestly.

“okay,“ she whispered. “but only for tonight. i can‘t leave my brother there all by himself.“

“we‘ll get him out of there too,“ jay promised.

that made her remember a very important fact that she had tried to push to the back of her mind.

“ehm, jay?“ he hummed. “you remember my brother?“

“jungwon? yeah. we‘re pretty well acquainted.“

“exactly! you see– wait a damn minute. did you just say jungwon?“

“i figured you were finally fessing up so i thought i would make it easier for you.“

“you– you– i‘m absolutely flabbergasted.“ she scoffed. “you knew?? and never said a word? how on earth did you even find out?“

he scratched the back of his head, a sheepish smile playing on his lips.

“jungwon would always draw this cat sitting on a cloud with the moon in the background and a tiny little fish swimming around. i know for a fact that he designed it himself – he was very proud of it – and i couldn‘t help but notice you had the very same cat drawn on your cast (which, by the way, is a whole other conversation for another day) which made me suspicious. further hints just proved my theory. i‘m so sorry but it would have been impossible to ignore all the times you, him, and your friends almost slipped up. and him as stephanie from lazy town was the final proof i needed. truly uncanny.“

y/n hummed, completely lost in his eyes. “do that again. that was really sexy.“

“i was just talking?“

“exactly. casually proving you‘re smarter and way more observant than everyone else. kinda makes me want to relive the basement scenario.“

she overdramatically bit her lip and wiggled her eyebrows at him but all she got back was a light smack on the arm.

“but wait! so you‘re not mad then?“

y/n had always thought jay would be furious once he found out but she felt like something didn‘t add up now.

he furrowed his eyebrows. “of course not. why would I be? i love jungwon and i lo–iiiiike you too. two in one.“

she made a face. “don‘t even think about dating my brother. but… i don‘t know. i just thought that since you hated me you would kick him off the team the second you found out but as i‘m talking i realize my error because you never actually hated me.“ she sighed. “i can‘t believe i was so wrong about you.“

she snuggled closer to him, burying her face in his shoulders.

“i‘m so sorry. for everything.“

he started lightly rubbing her back with one hand. “it‘s okay. there really is nothing to apologize for. we were both dickheads at times. but look at us now! we learned and grew us people. besides, i wouldn‘t have it any other way if that meant i wouldn‘t get to hold you in my arms now.“

that sounded nice. feeling save and protected was an incredible feeling. it‘s been so very long. y/n suddenly realized just how tired she was. she was completely spent from crying and all the drama and confessions of the evening that she almost fell asleep right here and there.

“come on, sleepyhead. let‘s get you home.“

and take her home he did. to his. to theirs.

they didn‘t let go of each other throughout the entire night. it was the first time in a while that both of them were welcomed by peaceful dreams.

a/n: if you're reading this you're hereby legally obliged to tell me what you think!! did we expect this at all? i had this planned since the beginning so writing it felt kind of scary since that would mean we've almost reached the end. but I had so much fun writing this so I would really appreciate it if you could share your thoughts with me <3

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masterlist

summary: y/n hates rich people and park jongseong is no exception. they have been academic rivals since freshman year (which he doesn't like to acknowledge) and always argue about the dumbest of things. but what happens when y/n's brother jungwon joins the dance team led by jay and their friend groups begin to mingle?

taglist 1:

@sophiko22 @missmadwoman @jungwons-rat @msxflower @minato-ariato @person-standing @blessed-sky @honeyhuii @yaeluvz @jaywonlix @nar-nia @bekah931215 @sirephines @revemixer @jjhmk @heelariously @ddeonuism @fylithia @dxlicateee @acciomylove @kyleeanne @solitxre @strwbryparfait @beibybtch @tomorrowbymoa-together @vantxx95 @sunshineshouchan @winter-berries @lilacboba @chewnotgyu @chaeflms @wondering-out-loud @wonniesimp @dinosdance @3ggieyolk @sunbokie @sadmusiclovs @zhaixiaowen @seollyeong @staerrymariam @sol123recs @bigtoewinwin @enhasengene @centheodd @joti17 @soobin-chois @jungwonswifex @sweetjaemss @indelicate-macalino @chiyuv

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