#I'm just really into AUs lately. it's fun to be able to throw out a concept fully formed and not have expectations

[void-botanist]

Sapling

A Fourth Android AU

Dez Gaenopol is the brainchild of mad home improver Tirias Nenatopol and networks expert Patience Gaenlan. It's absolutely critical that you know he's not their actual child, though, because that would be weird. Despite being blue he takes after Patience in appearance because it was easier to build a shorter android and he wanted big flowers, even though he knows they're bracts. He lives in Orchardridge North, the empty house Tirias converted into an android-building space, but he's only there at night once everyone else - even Vinnek - has gone to bed. During the day there's too many people to see, and too many little jobs to get sucked into. Most recently, the elusive Binna returned from the fifth Akkanswl, and has been regaling him with exciting tales of astronaut training. Maybe by the time they send another crewed trip to Delphonus, he'll be eligible…

But for now his more immediate concern is that Tirias and Patience have decided that some cultural exchange would do him good. And instead of just sending him across the strait to Hoscha, where he could already stay with Tirias's assistant, Silas, they've cooked up a plan to send him all the way to Deridis, where Silas's sister Zel lives. He's not scared, though. He's met humans before, and nawwenn too. It's just that Silas will be the only person he knows there - at least while Silas is there - and while he knows lots of neriem live in Deridis, he's never been in a place where it was possible to never run into an uep.

Patience says humans are a riot and he'll have a great time. Tirias says Zel is a riot and he'll have a great time. Either way, there doesn't seem to be any way to get out of it. The only thing keeping him from hugging Tirias and not letting go is that there are movie theatres in Deridis, and he needs to go to one. He sets out to Hoscha with Nidilaenn, then boards an airship at the spike with Silas and his partner Zalen. The people on Hoscha usually don't look at him funny because they know him, but the tourists on the airship definitely do. He holds the concept of movie theatres in his head more tightly and busily messages his android friends and doesn't look at anybody. He'll be fine.

It takes several long, boring days of mostly hiding in the cabin to reach Winchester. He expects that everyone is going to be staring him down when he disembarks, but here people seem to mind their own business, giving him a glance or a momentary raised eyebrow before continuing on. Maybe this won't be so bad. Winchester is beautiful, too - tinged with ice and covered in snow, which he didn't think really existed in real life. But when they arrive at Zel's apartment, she's not there. Instead, she's coming down the hallway, and when she sees them, her face says oh shit.

"Sorry," she says, rushing to unlock the door, "I just got back from Ermotlift" - the capital - "with Anni" - her girlfriend - "and I left things a little messy in here, so…"

The door swings open. What lies beyond looks like the accumulated detritus of a week at the pub, except no one has cleaned up anything that entire time, and also there are clothes everywhere.

Zalen is laughing and Zel is pressing knuckles to her forehead. "I'm so sorry."

"Well, looks like your first exchange activity will be excavating your space," Zalen says.

Zel turns on him from two steps into the room. "Absolutely not. I'm going to clean this up. Here, let me make a space for you." She takes an armful of clothes off the sofa, leaving just enough space in the explosion of stuff for the three of them to sit down.

The more he looks at the mess, the more he sees, and there's more than one thing here he can't identify the purpose of: that little finger-shaped thing, the slim triangular thing that seems to just be a couple of strips of metal put together, and underwear - well, he's never really understood the point of underwear. He decides to ask about these things later. In the meantime Zel has gotten everything cleaned up, aside from the many dishes she says she'll wash later.

"Okay, sorry. Hi," she says to him, sitting on the edge of the coffee table. "I'm Zel."

He discovers over the next week that she spends a lot of her time inside streaming games, because she "hates winter in the city". At first he can rely on Zalen and Silas to give him something else to do, but when they leave, he's left to his own devices. He starts editing Zel's videos, but that's only a few hours of work each day. One day after they go to the movies with Anni, Dez decides to hang around with her, and discovers she does a whole lot more than Zel. He starts going on walks around the city with her, seeing the bookshop where she works and the books cost money, meeting her coworker who looks old in the hair but young in the face, talking to her uncle who is apparently permanently half bald because humans don't have personal winter, petting a dog (!!), and getting caught up in the surprise arrival of Hoven and the planet's long-lost fourth android, Syndy. A plan starts to take form: when Syndy's awake, he'll finally go home and gather all his android friends to Orchardridge, and they'll have the best time.

The only problem is Syndy seems to resent this plan in every way, and is determined to do her own thing, without him or his friends. Because she's not like them: she's basically human, and she has a family.

Starring

Dez Gaenopol

basically exactly like canon Dez except he has root-shaped feet and a leaf wig

Tirias Nenatopol

just decided one day that it would be fun and enriching to build a little guy

Patience Gaenlan

had the necessary networking knowledge to build a little guy and also thought it would be funny

Vinnek Bastien

Dez's best friend, possibly, and the one who introduced him to Calennec

Mizzat Keh

the first android, a math professor and the most even-keeled of them

Imjen Hoat

the second android, a nurse and the most anti-establishment of them

Zel Tillain

more interesting in the summer when it's "worth going outside"

Silas Tayerlow

not Zel's brother by birth, but in every other way

Zalen Tillain

Zel's brother by birth, which she seems to resent

Anni Chalbis

has a master's degree in robotics but found the robotics industry exhausting

Urma Pelarkin

turns out the old hair was just dyed, which is also really cool

Julian Astatine

Anni's uncle, who illustrated a Calennec zine that Dez has read, which makes him a celebrity

Peter Brebnant

Julian's friend, who has offered to give Dez his first carvings

Tulip

Peter's dog <3

Hoven Lolimmo

librarian without a library but with an extremely fluffy winter coat

Syndy Gweltsen

hateful hater who Dez desperately wants to be friends with

H. O. Gweltsen

Syndy's deceased family, who nevertheless seems like the main thing preventing her from being Dez's friend

[hotlikewasabi521]

imagine, if you will, a sbg fantasy au

I don't know if anyone's done this yet but here we go! I'm a huge fantasy nerd, so I might be biased here, but I think sbg in a fantasy setting would go hard. now you could really throw in any ships, but personally, I built this idea around Tyden and Taylyn

so consider this:

(fair warning, this got a lot longer than I thought it would, I kinda ran with it)

Tyler and Taylor are the prince and princess of the kingdom, but they've essentially been running the country since they became teenagers what with their father having passed away and their mother being unfit to rule due to her mental state after her husband's passing. After their father died, Tyler still takes on the role of caretaker of sorts. Sometimes he even has a habit of burning himself out, Taylor and Ashlyn have to remind him often that it's okay to take a break. Ashlyn actually pulled him to the side one night and practically forced him to let Taylor start taking on more responsibilities, just so that he wouldn't fall under the weight of the kingdom.

On the subject of Ashlyn, her parents served in the king and queen's royal guard, and she even followed in her parent's footsteps. Considering both her lineage and the fact that she basically grew up with Tyler and Taylor, she winds up becoming the personal guard of the prince and princess(the twins) and the acting captain of the royal guard once she's deemed ready (which considering it's Ashlyn, is relatively quick). When it comes to her hearing, she'd definitely have some sort of wool or something put in her helmet to help muffle any loud noises. But her hearing also makes her a perfect guard, even allowing her to keep surveillance a fair distance away.

Eventually, it comes a time when the advisers decide that Tyler is of an age that he needs to find a suitor. The twins manage to fight it for as long as they can but when they turn 19, there's no getting around it. This would be around the time that Aiden and Ben show up, though for an unrelated reason.

See, Aiden is a prince himself, and Ben is a nobleman(title unknown) with close blood relation to the throne as well. Aiden isn't exactly all that into being a prince though, he'd rather go out, have fun, and be an adventurer (which is exactly what he's doing in the twin's kingdom) Ben is there to make sure Aiden doesn't get himself killed or cause any trouble with any foreign powers (friendly or otherwise).

As for Logan, well, his knack for astrology isn't going to waste, that's for sure. See, he's the apprentice of the kingdom's Royal Astronomer. And he absolutely loves it. Not only does he get to study the stars and be able to help support his grandparents, who would still run a flower shop in the capital's town square

Now of course rumors floating around the castle staff that Taylor has a secret love. Granted they can never catch a glimpse of the mystery suitor, (thanks to Ashlyn's super hearing) but the kitchen staff has it on good authority that it's someone from the royal guard. (Ashlyn and Taylor likely would have kept their relationship on the down-low for a bit in the beginning, but would eventually take it public, I mean, who's gonna stop them? the twins run the country, and of course, their mom just wants them to be happy and maybe give her a grandkid or two if either of them wants to have any)

That being said, the idea of little secret late-night rendevous where they wander the castle grounds talking and maybe wind up stargazing in the gardens is too good to pass up (They may not know as much about astronomy as say Logan, but they would definitely make up their own constellations and stories to go with them)

As for our other pair: Naturally, Tyler has a very strong opinion of Aiden. He's not exactly princely, and he does NOT like the fact his attitude when it comes to the politics of being in a royal family. But at the same time, this not-so-princely prince isn't like any other noble or royal he's ever met. He's intrigued. Deep down, there's a part of Tyler that wants to know more about Aiden and the world that he's gotten to explore and adventure through.

In the end, Aiden may or may not be the one who manages to get Tyler to enjoy his youth while he can, convincing him that the weight of the world doesn't have to fall on his shoulders alone. And Tyler may or may not have found himself a suitor in the process.

[petitelepus]

The Demon Gift: Choosing Hantengu, Part 5

Demon!Slave!Hantengu X Fem!Reader

Summary: You have been living with Hantengu and his clones for a while and they are all awfully affectionate towards you.

Warnings: Cute Stuff, A Little Suggestive

A/N: Demon Slave AU, Domesticated Demons, Reader Insert, Fem!Reader, Hantengu, Master/Slave, Karaku, Sekido, Urogi, Aizetsu

Tags: @hantenguclonesimp-minuszoha, @star-dust-wanderer

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12

It had been a few weeks now since you moved to the huge house just outside the city and you and the Demons were living the dream life. With your brand-new car, you would go shopping if you needed to hoard some meat, but you were seriously thinking about maybe getting some chickens because you found them cute and you could use some eggs and meat. But you were just thinking, not ready to act on it.

Also, living with Hantengu and his clones certainly was different from living with your God-awful family. While your siblings would ridicule you and make your life a living Hell, Hantengu and others treated you with kindness that you had never felt before. They found your personality and little quirks funny and didn't judge you for them.

You also learned new things while living with Hantengu's many personalities. Despite his slight anger, Sekido was maybe the most mature one right next to Aizetsu, who was more sensitive than other clones, yet not quite as sensitive as Hantengu.

Karaku and Urogi were so similar that they tended to confuse you, but with time you were able to tell apart. And Hantengu, sweet cute little Hantengu just wanted your approval, like he needed it to live. He was honestly too cute for his own good.

Yes, having 5 Demons with you was a little hectic, but you enjoyed it and so did they. However, there were some things that rubbed you in the wrong way. Nothing serious, but right now, you were in the battle of your life.

A dance battle.

"What the actual fuck!?" You cursed as you tried your hardest to keep up with the dance instructor dancing on your huge television screen. You and the clone of pleasure were playing Just Dance, suggested to you by the Demon himself. You thought you could handle a couple of dances, but you soon found out that you weren't maybe as good at it as you thought you were.

"What, getting tired already?" The Demon asked from his spot next to you. You were maybe frowning and totally losing, but you were also still having fun.

"You're totally cheating!" You exclaimed and your outburst only amused the Demon more.

"Please, I don't need to cheat to beat your ass!" Karaku was laughing at you as he dominated the game, "I'm all natural baby!"

"Yeah, you're a natural pain in the ass!" You laughed as you raised your leg and kicked his ass, trying to throw him off his game. The only thing was that he barely moved, it was almost as if you had just tried to kick a brick wall.

As he turned to look at you and you saw that wicked grin on his handsome face, you knew you had screwed up.

"Oh, playing dirty, I see!" He cackled as he put the Nintendo's controller down and made grabby hands in your direction, "Two can play that game!"

"N- no! Please!" You stuttered as you started to back up, only to hit the back of your legs against a huge couch. With nowhere to go and escape made futile, you resorted to your last chance. Begging like your life depended on it.

"Please, Mercy!" You cried out but it was too late. Karaku bounced on you and you fell back first on the couch, the Demon going down with you.

You yelped, stunned and Karaku smirked as he used his chance to straddle your hips, pinning you down with his superior weight and strength.

"Not so cocky now, are you?" He laughed and you swallowed nervously, deciding to try begging one more time, "Karaku, please, I'm sorry! Have mercy on me!"

"Well…" He nodded slowly, "When you put it that way I could…"

"Really?" You sighed in relief like a huge weight had been lifted off your shoulders, "Oh, thank God-!"

"Nope!" He suddenly snapped and yanked your shirt up, revealing your bare tummy to him. Your eyes widened in shock but before you could beg again, Karaku started to trail and flick his fingers up and down your bare sides. Tickle torture, maybe one of the worst kinds of torture there was.

"KYA, KARAKU!" You screeched, as you started to laugh and scream uncontrollably. For a Demon of pleasure, he sure was good at torturing you.

"Ha ha ha, how does it feel?" He laughed as he kept tickling you and soon you were on the verge of tears, "Please…! Stop…!"

"You tried to mess with me, now I will mess with you!"

"Ka- Karaku, I- Ah- I'm begging!" You were crying now and it shouldn't have been so appealing to the Demon, but it was.

"I'll stop on one condition!" He laughed and you nodded furiously, "Yes, anything!"

"Ha ha!" Suddenly he stopped tickling you and you finally stopped laughing and crying and instead sighed in relief. Your sides felt sore and your throat ached from laughing so much.

As you caught your breath, Karaku observed you with a smile on his face, "I want my reward now."

"O- okay…" You nodded since you had promised him whatever he wanted… But then you felt your chin being gripped and your eyes snapped open, only to see Karaku's face only inches away from yours. He was so close to you, that you could feel his breathing against your lips.

"I want a kiss from my beloved Mistress…" He whispered and your eyes widened as your brains felt like they shortcircued. You just stared at him in shock and then he moved to close the gap between you two and you closed your eyes, bracing yourself for the kiss-!

"Kidding!" Karaku laughed as he pulled back and your eyes snapped open in shock. The Demon took his sweet time getting off from top of you and you pushed yourself upright.

"W- what?" You stuttered, still shocked and now confused also.

"Oh man, you should have seen your face! You are so red!" Karaku cackled as he looked at your flushed face. You pouted and started to hurl childish nicknames at him, not insulting him but certainly making him laugh.

You were being too cute, he wanted to tease you more and maybe actually get that kiss he so much wanted… But he controlled himself as he grabbed the Nintendo's controller and grinned at you, "Wanna still try and beat me?"

~~~~

Days passed and you were in a mood to bake something. Based on what you heard, Demons were able to eat human food, but it wouldn't keep them going like meat would. You had visited the city earlier that day and saw that strawberries had been on sale and you couldn't resist a good sale so you bought some flour, sugar, eggs, and cream also for your strawberry cream cake.

You hummed as you checked inside the oven where the cake was baking and took it out enough to poke the center with a toothpick. When the little stick came out clean, you knew your cake was done.

You set the cake to the side to cool down and picked the delicious red berries from the fridge, alongside a small knife that you would use to cut the berries into nice thick slices. You had so many strawberries that you could afford to make the slices a little thicker than you usually would.

As you prepared the berries, you heard something clicking against the floor and you turned to see Urogi's head peeking from around the corner. The claws on his talons usually tended to make a clicking sound as he walked inside the house. It gave you time to figure out his location before he could make a jump on you.

"Urogi?" You wondered out loud, "What brings you here?"

"I smelled something delicious and wanted to see what it was!" The Demon of Joy grinned as he walked into the kitchen to see what you were making, "What are you up to now?"

"Strawberry cream cake. Do you like strawberries?" You asked and Urogi shook his head, "Never had any."

"Would you like to try some?" You asked and the Demon grinned excitedly, "Can I?"

"Of course!" You smiled as you cut out the stem off and held the strawberry for Urogi to take it, "Here you go!"

"Thanks!" The Demon thanked you and you smiled but that smile soon turned into a blush when instead of taking the berry into his hands, he dove forward and ate it straight from your hand.

You stared at him eyes wide as he chewed and once he swallowed, he grinned like nothing was wrong, "Ooh, those taste good! Very sweet!"

"Y- yeah," You nodded as you turned to look at the strawberries in front of you, just waiting to be cut into slices so they could decorate your cake.

"Can I help?" Urogi asked and you turned to look at him in honest wonder. You didn't expect him to offer you help. You stared at him for a second before nodding, "Uh, yes, if you want to?"

"Awesome! What can I do?"

You thought about it for a second, but all you had left was to do was to slice the berries and make whipped cream, you doubted that Urogi would know how to use the electric hand mixer, no matter how simple it might have been to use one.

"Would you like to help me with the strawberries while I whip the cream?" You finally asked and he grinned excitedly, "Sure thing!"

"Good, but please wash your hands first."

"Okay!"

So you switched places with the Demon and while he had his hands washed, you got the bowl and mixer from the drawer, and the small cartons filled with cream from the fridge. You poured the specific amount of cream into the bowl, added some sugar, and let the mixer do its magic.

Making whipped cream was easy, but it tended to make a lot of noise and be a little messy. While you were mixing, you turned to glance at how Urogi was doing and saw that instead of using the knife to cut the berries, he used his own claws. You winched, making a mental note not to ask him for a massage or something that needed his hands.

Soon enough, the cream was done and the strawberries were cut perfectly. You hummed happily as you grabbed the cake and smacked a generous amount of cream on top of his, spreading it evenly before reaching for the berries and adding them one by one with your hands. Perfection tended to take time and you wanted your cake to be perfect.

"I think we are done!" You smiled as you looked at Urogi next to you, "Thank you for helping me. You can have the first slice if you want?"

"Ooh, sounds delicious!" The Demon smiled, but then he noticed something, "Oi, you have some cream on your face!"

"Oh, where?" You asked as you wiped your cheek and forehead with the back of your hand, but the Demon of Joy shook his head, "No no, let me get it for you!"

"Oh, thank you Urogi-!" You were thanking him when he suddenly leaned forward and LICKED the corner of your mouth.

You stilled and went tense as a steel rod, your face slowly turning red as the berries decorated the cake. What the heck was that about!?

"Delicious." Urogi grinned happily, "Cream also."

"I- You- What-!?" You stuttered, but before you could ask properly, the Demon took off running away.

"I'm going to let others know there is cake here!" Urogi laughed as he rushed out of the kitchen to alert his fellow clones about the delicious treat that the two of you had prepared. Though, secretly he thought of you and how good your lips looked and if you tasted like the berries.

~~~~

A couple of days later you were on a mission. To properly wash the underground bathtub. It was a huge job, but you were determined to get the whole tub cleaned and ready for use. Well, it was more like a small pool actually than a tub, but who kept count of these things?

"What are you doing here?"

You glanced over your shoulder and saw Aizetsu standing by the doorway to the room. You smiled and showed the wet soapy sponge in your hands, "Washing the tub. I don't know about you or others, but I'm dying to try it out."

"I see… May I offer my assistance to you?"

"You wanna help?" You asked and he nodded, "Yes… Unless you rather work alone-!"

"No no, I don't mind!" You smiled as you pointed at the bucket full of soap water and a sponge packet next to it, "Grab yourself a sponge and come over!"

The Demon nodded and moved to approach the bathtub, but before he could step in, you raised your hand, "Wait!"

"What is it?"

"Do you have anything to wear that you don't mind getting wet or dirty?"

Aizetsu frowned as he looked at the most simple T-shirt he had on and then at you, "I don't mind, but if you want me to change I will."

"No no, it's okay!" You shook your head and the Demon nodded as he grabbed the sponge and joined you in the tub. The two of you started to work together and you were getting pretty much done in a short time. Perks of having more people work on one project.

"I heard… I heard you have been having fun with Karaku and Urogi…" Aizetsu suddenly said and you blinked, a little confused and stunned but then you realized what he meant and you blushed.

"Yeah, nope, they were totally trolling me." You muttered as you fought against a blush that threatened to rise to your cheeks, "Bastards probably got a good laugh out of it."

"I see…" He nodded and frowned, "I apologize for their sake. They can get… Excited…"

"It's okay. You all have different personalities and I like all of you." You replied and the Demon looked at you, "You mean it? Even me?"

"Yes, even you," You smiled, "You're sweet and so thoughtful. I really like spending time with you."

Aizetsu's blue eyes widened and a soft blush rose to his cheeks, but you were too busy soaking your sponge in the bucket to notice.

"Huh, we need more soap." You thought out loud as you moved to get up, but as soon as you got your bare feet under you, you lost your balance due to a mixture of soap and water all around you.

"Yip!" You yelped and you closed your eyes, bracing yourself for an impact when suddenly-!

"Careful!" Aizetsu cried out as he dashed forward and you fell straight into his arms, but you also felt yourself get wet. One of you had accidentally kicked the bucket and now you were both soaking wet thanks to soapy water.

"Are you alright?" You heard him ask and you opened your eyes and nodded, but your eyes widened when you saw the Demon of sorrow, his shirt completely soaking wet and clinging to his very muscular body.

"Ah- I-!" You stuttered as you blushed and Aizetsu's eyes fell down and it was his turn to blush. Confused, you looked down and you were absolutely horrified and embarrassed how your wet shirt clung to your skin and showed your bras.

You looked up and noticed that you and Aizetsu were suddenly so close. Close enough that you could almost count his eyelashes.

"I- I…" You couldn't form words stuttering as you looked into each other's eyes-!

"What the Hell is going on in here!?" Came a loud shout from the doorway and you and Aizetsu both yelped and jumped apart like water on hot oil. You turned to look and saw a very angry-looking Sekido by the door.

"We- Uh- We were just-!"

"About what!? Kiss!?" The Demon of anger asked, much to your shock.

"N- No, I just slipped! Right Aizetsu?" You looked at the clone of sorrow next to you who nodded, "Yes… It was nothing…"

"Then you better get your ass upstairs Aizetsu because Karaku and Urogi are being pains in my ass and I got enough of them!" Sekido snapped as he pointed behind him with his thumb.

"I see… I'll go." Aizetsu nodded and looked at you, "Please pardon me…"

You nodded and the Demon of sorrow to up and left the basement, leaving you alone with Sekido, who turned to glare at you as soon as Aizetsu was out of earshot.

"What were you thinking, kissing one of us!?" He asked and you frowned, not really liking being yelled at.

"For the second and last time, I wasn't going to kiss him!" You protested.

"Tch, like I should believe you!" Sekido frowned, "It's like my feelings don't even matter…!"

You were pretty sure that he meant to say that quietly to himself, but you still managed to hear him. You sighed a little as you made yourself comfortable and looked at the clone of anger, "I like you Sekido. I like you just as much as I like Hantengu, Karaku, Aizetsu, and Urogi."

"You obviously favor others over me…!" He scowled, "I know you do! Everybody does!"

You wondered who these people he talked about were, but you had a bigger problem on your hands. A temperamental Demon who thought so little of himself.

"I don't." You frowned, "What do I need to do to make you believe me?"

"Nothing!" He frowned, "It's just…! You have been spinning in everyone's mind like a plague and we are only Demons, not Gods!"

"What does that even mean?" You asked and Sekido frowned and opened his mouth, ready to reply, but then he noticed that you were shivering in your wet shirt… And how your breasts were there for the whole world to see.

So instead of shouting, he frowned and reached to pull his shirt over his head. You blinked in confusion as blush rose to your cheeks, but you didn't get a chance to ask why he was stripping.

"Here!" He snapped and threw his shirt straight at your face, "Cover yourself with it!"

You were stunned, but you still accepted the shirt and as soon as you accepted his shirt, Sekido turned around to give you some privacy to change your wet shirt to his dry one. You were baffled but smiled since he was acting like a proper gentleman.

"Thank you Sekido." You thanked him as you stripped and he grunted, "Don't mention it…!"

You quickly changed the wet shirt to a dry one and crawled out of the tub, deciding that it was clean enough to be used one of these upcoming days. You were about to get up when you noticed a hand in front of you and looked up to see Sekido offering his hand to you.

"What?" He asked and you smiled a little as you accepted his hand and he helped you out of the tub. You were going to thank him, but then your eyes fell on his naked upper body and you blushed. He, just like the rest of the clones were honestly so handsome and muscular…!

"Get your mind out of the gutter…!" The Demon muttered and you flinched, startled by getting caught staring, "I- I wasn't thinking anything like that!"

"Sure you weren't…" He rolled his red eyes but then he smirked, "All you need to do to get a taste is to ask."

"I- Ah- What!?" You stuttered and you watched eyes wide as the Demon chuckled a little. You had never seen him smile let alone heard his laughter!

"Let's head upstairs. I'm hungry." Sekido grumbled as he turned to leave and you flinched out of your thoughts and quickly followed after him, "Wait up!"

~~~~

Later that night you were getting ready for bed with a small harmless Hantengu. Since he was so small, you thought he might enjoy sleeping with you instead in a big empty room alone. You had prepared him a dream bed, a huge fluffy pillow where he could rest like he was a priced diamond ring.

"What a day!" You cried out loud as you stepped out of the bathroom connected to your own bedroom, fresh out of the shower and wearing your nightgown.

"I- Is everything alright, Mistress…?" Hantengu asked from his spot on your bed, where he was waiting for you, and as you approached he made space for you to sit down.

"Yeah, just…" You sighed as you sat down and recalled stuff that had been happening these past few weeks and how affectionate the Demons had been, even Sekido included!

"I don't know, Aizetsu, Urogi, Sekido and Karaku have been a little friendlier with me than I thought was possible." You thought out loud and the small Demon whimpered since the four Demons were part of him.

"D- Do you hate it? Do you hate me…?" He asked and your heart almost broke when you heard the hurt in his voice.

"No, not at all!" You shook your head, "I love you, you're the cutest little Demon there is and so thoughtful it almost hurts!"

"But the others…?" He whimpered and you smiled, "I like them also. I'm just a little confused, that's all. No one has ever been so kind or affectionate towards me."

Yes, back at your family's home it was you against the world, but now that you were exiled and living with Hantengu and his clones, you felt like you were receiving love for the first time in your life. You didn't want to ruin it by doing or saying something stupid or what could be considered wrong.

"I really love you guys. You are way more precious to me than that wretched step-bastard of mine or his awful kids." You smiled, "I wouldn't change you guys for anything!"

"I- We-!" Hantengu stuttered as he tried to think what to say, "W- We love you also…!"

"Aww, you're such a sweetie!" You smiled as you leaned down and pecked the bump in the middle of his head and between horns, an act that took and startled the little Demon, making him yelp out loud. As you pulled back you gently lifted and placed Hantengu on his pillow.

"We better get some rest. I don't know about you, but I'm tired as heck!" You chuckled and the Demon nodded as he made himself comfortable while you turned the lights off.

"Good night Hantengu," You wished quietly and he whimpered, "S- Sleep well, Mistress…"

It took a moment, but you managed to finally fall asleep… But unknownst to you, Hantengu was watching you the whole time and once you fell asleep, the little Demon got up and jumped down from your bed to leave the room. He quickly made his way downstairs to the huge living room where his clones were already waiting for him to join them.

"Now that Mistress is asleep and the original one is here, we can talk properly," Sekido said as he helped Hantengu up and placed him on the coffee table between the couches.

"What is there to talk about?" Urogi grinned, "I like our Mistress and I want to show it!"

"Yes, her lips looked so delicious, I really wanted to kiss her!" Karaku laughed and Aizetsu nodded quietly, "Me too… I have grown extremely fond of her."

"Trust me, I know. I've seen how you all look at her!" Sekido grumbled before looking at the Demon of Fear, "What do you think, original one?"

"Terrifying…" Hantengu whimpered as he sobbed and held his head, "I- I love her, I want her… I want her so much, it's terrifying…!"

"Then it's settled!" The Demon of anger nodded, "We can't risk compromising the bonds we have built so hard with her, so we shall work out a plan for how to act and claim her as ours! Any questions or objections?"

The clones shook their heads and Sekido nodded, "Good. For now, we will act properly around her until we have a solid plan and chance to tell her, or better yet show her how we feel."

"Aww, I really wanted to kiss her already…!" Karaku pouted, and Urogi chuckled, ready to say something but then your voice came from stairs, "Hantengu? Are you there?"

"Hide!" The four Demons hid in the kitchen while Hantegu froze on his spot. You stepped into the living room and looked at the small Demon, "Hantengu? What are you doing here?"

"I- I-!" The poor Demon whimpered, "I- I got hungry… Please don't be mad!"

"I'm not mad at you for getting hungry, silly," You smiled as you rubbed your eyes sleepily, "Would you like me to chop you some meat or-?"

"N- No!" Hantengu shook his head because if you had gone to the kitchen you would have found his clones there, "I- I'm full! P- please take me back to bed, p- please…?"

"Aww, I can't say no to you," You awed as you picked up the small Demon and pressed him against your chest so you wouldn't drop him even by accident, "Let's head back to bed."

Hantengu nodded as he clung to you like his life depended on it and once you were away, the 4 clones stepped out of the kitchen.

"Man, I'm jealous!" Urogi whined and Karaku nodded, "So jealous!"

"I hope she shows such affection towards us also…" Aizetsu muttered and Sekido nodded, "Trust me, you aren't the only one…!"

[heygerald]

Falling Without A Harness - Chapter 4

AU where Tom Ryder is still an asshole, just not a psychotic one. When he starts being less of an asshole, and more of a person, Parker finds that he isn't so bad. Not that she would tell him that, though.

read the story here: prev / next

Parker doesn't get much sleep. Not necessarily because she's so busy that she doesn't have time, and not definitively because of the sleep disorder she has self-diagnosed off of a sketchy website she found while browsing her symptoms one day.

In truth it's because she thinks too much.

She overthinks what her to-do list for the following week should be; overthinks the plot of her favorite tv series and whether or not they are going to kill off her favorite character in the mid-season finale; overthinks whether she should spend more one-on-one time with her brother while they're both in the same city, able bodied (with his career, there was no guarantee), and with the time to waste on stupid memories. On the really bad nights, Parker overthinks whether or not she made a mistake in purchasing an old, dilapidated bookstore that has drained her bank account over the last couple of years. She worries that her life is going nowhere, that she'll soon have failed at her dream venture, and that when she dies, she'll have no accomplishments to her name.

On those nights, she ends up washing down a handful of melatonin gummies with two boiling cups of sleepy time tea.

It helps, but it also leaves her floating in a state between unconsciousness and squirrely dreams that is hard to shake off in the morning.

Harder still to shake off when her phone lights up the room in the middle of the night, the shrill song of her ringtone bleating through the pitch black of her bedroom shocking her awake in delirious fright.

You gotta get up, gotta get out, gotta get home before the...

Parker swings her hand towards the nightstand in such a rush that she ends up knocking her cellphone onto the ground. It bounces on the hardwood floor—she doesn't even care if it breaks, the damn thing—before skidding underneath her bed. The light from it casts shadows in all directions.

What if I'm late? Gotta big date, gotta get home...

It takes her half crawling out of bed, sheets tangled around her bare legs, elbow braced on the cold floor as she blindly grapples for the device to find it. Colt always made fun of her ringtone—if you're going to pick a song, at least pick a good one, he would taunt while listening to Taylor Swift on replay—and while Parker had adamantly told him where to stick his opinion, at the moment, the song blaring in the middle of the night has her half-prepared to scratch out of her own eardrums in frustration.

The stanza continues: before the morning comes...

She grabs the phone and wrenches it—and herself—back onto the bed. The number isn't saved in her phone, and panic wells in her chest. She's gasping as blood rushes back down to her toes. "Hello?"

"Jesus, finally. I thought you weren't going to fucking answer."

Whether it's the tea, the overdose of melatonin, or the fact that she had just been woken up in the middle of the night, Parker can't seem to make sense of much. The only thing she can think about is how she has a brother who does stupid stuff for money, and has called her from the back of ambulance three times and counting.

Once on her birthday.

"Oh my god," she mutters, a hand already clutching to her chest as she can feel the cavity caving in. Clarity has no place in her spiraling panic. "Oh my god, he's finally dead, isn't he? Oh my god, Colt is dead!"

"What the fuck are you on about?" the voice interrupts her panic with a modicum of disbelief. It sounds familiar, but Parker is far more focused on regulating her breathing before she throws up than placing a voice through her half-broken speaker. The room, pitch black and without anything to see, is spinning. "I'm not even with Colt."

"Fuck," she curses, before recklessly scrabbling with her nightstand. It's a total fucking mess, and in her haste, she knocks a lamp and stack of books onto the ground. The least of her problems if her idiot of a brother is already fucking dead. "Fuck! Where are you? I didn't even know he was on a job right now. Um, what hospital is he at? Wait—shit—I need to find a pen and paper..."

"Parker, Jesus, Colt's fine. Stop spinning out for two seconds. Are you on drugs?"

She blinks, unsure if she just heard what she heard, and slowly withdrawals her hand as she tries to compute what is being said.

"He's... not dead?" she croaks hesitantly.

"He's fine. I mean, well, as far as I know," the voice drones on; it's clearly annoyed now. A scoff. "Why in the hell would you assume that he's dead?"

"Because—it's—" she wipes a hand over her face tiredly, sweeping tufts of hair off her forehead to peer at the clock in the corner. Large, red numbers blink at her showing that she had only been asleep for two and a half hours. Worse still when she makes sense of what she's seeing. "It's two thirty in the morning! Why the fuck would an unknown number be calling me in the middle of the night if it wasn't for Colt?"

"Are you—wait—are seriously his emergency contact?" the voice goads, teasing and judging all in one tone. She hates it. "That's a little pathetic, honestly."

Her left eye twitches. "Who the fuck is this?"

"It's Tom."

Parker doesn't know a Tom, she's never known a Tom in the entirety of her life, and as she struggles to clear her thoughts, the idea that some asshole with a stupid name like Tom would call her out of the blue at this time of night starts to really piss her off.

"Tom who? I don't know a fucking Tom!" she shouts into the receiver.

There's a thump against the wall, a muffled call of "shut the fuck up!" rings out from her roommate's room. Too many things are happening though, and Parker clutches her head between her hands while trying to stay on topic.

"Fucking Tom Ryder, smartass," the voice chides. "Who else?"

And—

Fuck.

Yeah, alright, maybe she did know a Tom, and, yeah, now that she thought about it, he was a raging, grade-A asshole that would call someone up in the middle of the night for no reason other than to ruin the first good sleep she had in a week. All while getting upset at her for her negative response to the impromptu gab-sesh.

You know, in the way that all assholes did.

"Why—?" she starts, before realizing that she is shouting. Parker clears her throat with a glance towards the wall and tries a second time in an angry hiss. "Why the fuck are you calling me at two in the morning, Ryder?"

"I finished the book and I want to talk about it."

The words don't compute for half a second, but when they do, Parker can feel a migraine spiraling behind her eyes. She sort of feels like she's having a seizure before realizing that it's just pure anger spiking in the bottom of her chest.

She's pretty sure this is how someone feels right before committing a violent crime.

"Are you—? I was fucking sleeping!" she hisses. "Good—fucking—bye!"

Hanging up the phone certainly isn't as satisfying as it used to be when flip phones were in fashion, and you could slam the top down to end a conversation. But pressing the big red END button on Tom Ryder does grant her a small moment of satisfaction. Even more so when she imagines the shocked furrow of his eyebrows or the crease of his mouth as he frowns.

Good, she thinks sourly while flopping back onto her pillows with a sharp huff, maybe Tom Ryder could use a few wrinkles in his life.

Her peace lasts all of twenty seconds.

You gotta get up, gotta get out, gotta get home before the morning...

Parker grabs a pillow and smushes it against her face hoping that it will drown out the noise. When it doesn't, she hopes that maybe suffocation will knock her out for a couple hours of sleep. But then there's another thump against the wall and she realizes that if she dies right here and now, the last person she would have ever talked to would be Tom fucking Ryder, and she's not so sure she's okay with that.

So, she removes the pillow to take a deep breath. Then she answers the phone.

"Did you just hang up on me?" he asks incredulously.

"It is two-thirty in the morning, and you want to talk about a book?"

A huff. "Yes. Why else would I ever call you?"

If she was more awake, Parker might have taken offense at the insult. She's much too groggy to do that, though. Besides, almost everything out of his mouth was some sort of judgement. At this point, she didn't think he would be able to speak without being rude.

"Couldn't you have called me during a normal hour?"

"My audition is on Friday," he said, as if that was any sort of excuse for his behavior. "I still have to read the other two books by then."

"Wait, I'm sorry," Parker interjects with a mean laugh, pausing to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Have you been up all-night reading?"

"You could sound a little less judgmental about it," he snarks. "I do read, you know. Bad scripts and the like."

She huffs. Not quite a laugh, but not just an expression either. It's a little hard to take anything serious when she's sleep-deprived and delirious. And, certainly, he can't be serious. That's her justification for giving up, anyway. "Okay, alright, fine. Which book did you finish?"

"Contact."

"That's a good one to start with," Parker murmurs, shifting on her mattress so she can cradle her PillowPet.

It has lost of all of its stuffing, an eye, and any joy it once had, but the penguin was a gift from Colt that she can't convince herself to trash. It mirrors her frown.

"No, not a good one. I didn't understand it at all."

"What didn't you understand?"

"Any of it, all of it. Why the hell did you tell me that Dune was too complicated and then hand me this shit?" he complains. There's something odd in his tone though. Something she can hear creeping through the syllables somewhere between annoyed and confused that reminds her of their conversation weeks prior at Gail's—you don't even sound like yourself, she had said. It's only now that she realizes he hadn't sounded like himself because he was doubting himself, which was the most un-like Tom Ryder thing anyone could ever do. She frowns at the thought as he continues. "It's all about math and pi and something called a transcendental number. I should have just watched Altered Carbon."

Parker sighs. "You're getting yourself all worked up over things that don't matter."

"Don't matter? It's all the book fucking talks about!"

"That's sci-fi," she says. And while it's a piss poor excuse, it's the truth. A moment later and Parker realizes that if he really had never read anything sci-fi before, he likely wouldn't realize the rules of reading it. Sighing, she takes some pity on him to explain, "okay, look. You know when you watch an action film and there's some ridiculous sequence that makes no sense; like when the ground is crumbling beneath their feet and the character jumps at the last second and is totally okay?"

"Like in the Fast and the Furious."

"Literally every single scene in those movies."

"Okay...?"

"Right, well, you watch those scenes and tell yourself not to take them seriously. They exist because it's an action movie, right? It doesn't have to be realistic."

"Sure," he agreed, but she could tell he still wasn't getting the point.

"It's the same thing when you're reading sci-fi. Okay? All the math and theoretical physics and calculations they do—whatever it is—they throw that stuff in there to build up a universe that feels real. The audience doesn't have to understand quantum mechanics to know that Chris Pine can fly a really big spaceship in Star Trek."

"You really have a hard-on for Chris Pine, huh?"

Parker ignored his comment entirely, barreling on. "The point of the book is not that the audience is stupid and needs to take some math classes even if that's how it feels sometimes. The point is that Ellie is a genius that no one else understands or believes in. When she talks about transcendental numbers and you have no idea what she means, that's exactly how the other characters in the book feel. They don't believe her because they don't understand her."

"So, it's... like an attempt to make the audience sympathize with her but also so the author can explain how everything happens."

Parker smiles. "Right."

"That's stupid," he says, and her smile immediately disappears behind a groan. "I just don' think the author needed to spend so much time trying to sound smart."

"It's a book about interstellar travel and the existence of intelligent life," she deadpans. "It's supposed to sound smart."

Tom mulls that over, and while he does so, Parker shifts once more in bed. The red numbers blink at her are only going up, but now that her heart rate has returned to a normal level, she finds it's far from the worst conversation she's had with Tom. Especially since she gets to talk about one of her favorite books.

Even if he is an ass.

"This would have been better as a movie," he finally settles on. It's not a sophisticated opinion by any means, but it certainly is him.

"Actually, it was originally written to be a screenplay. The movie got cancelled, and Sagan adapted it into a book."

"Seriously?"

"Sure," she shrugs. She spares a glance towards her nightstand where a copy of the book lays in tatters from how often she has read it. "Ironic considering the book became so popular that it got a second movie deal a few years later."

"...you're telling me that I could have watched this instead of reading it after all?" he barks. But, well, his tone isn't so annoyed as it sounds impressed. Parker hears the taping of buttons on a remote, before he's yelling. "Jodie Foster! Seriously?"

She can't help it. Parker laughs. "It's not a bad movie, but the book is way better."

"I have to watch this now."

"I have a copy you can borrow if you don't want to rent it."

"It's three dollars. How poor are you, exactly?"

She scoffs, an eye roll that has become habit when talking to the prick even though he can't see it. Snootily, she tells him, "I just rolled my eyes at you, asshole. In case you were wondering."

A harrumph. "I do think I caught something from your bookstore. I've been sick all day. It's disgusting—it's making my mouth all dry and it practically ruined my breakfast. I couldn't even eat my avocado."

"First the cappuccino, and now the avocado. Is there anything you don't blame me for?"

The teasing got the exact reaction she wanted, and as Tom starts complaining on the other end of the line, Parker smothers a laugh into her penguin. "It was a flat white! And—"

"I'm going to hang up on you now," she sing-songed. "And fair warning: if you call me again before eight am, I'm going to post your phone number on Reddit. Gail can eat shit with her lawsuit."

"Don't you fucking—"

Parker finds a lot more satisfaction in hanging up on Tom Ryder the second time, and when the phone screen stays dark, she plops it down onto her nightstand with an amused hum. It's past three am now, something she will be regretting come morning.

Then again, it seemed that Tom Ryder was all about regrets.

Right?

----

"Do you think I'm cool?" Parker ponders two days later, a glance tossed to her brother as she idly tries on a pair of sunglasses that are in the shape of trout. They're overpriced, but she's also incredibly bored, and about five minutes away from throwing a toddler-style meltdown in the middle of the bait and tackle shop.

"Of course you're cool," he says as he models a rash guard that he's been trying on for the last half hour. He twists in the mirror, left and right, before giving himself two thumbs up. There's something dangerous about the way he grins at her. "You have me for a brother, after all. Coolest kid on the block. Always have been, always will be."

"Right. Didn't they call you Shitpants in high school?"

A passing employee coughs into their hand to hide their laugh, and Colt turns a bright red.

"She's totally joking. They didn't call me that, my nickname was something totally different," he calls after the retreating sales associate, always attempting to save face but never quite succeeding. A moment later and he's glaring at his sister. "That was one time, and it was an accident. The potato salad was—"

"Bad," Parker finishes for him with an eyeroll. "Yeah, I know. I've heard the story."

"Then why do you insist on bringing it back up all the time?" he hissed.

There isn't much activity in the oceanfront store beside the pair wandering from aisle to aisle. It's a small shack that they've frequented for years. Colt pretends to be good friends with the owner, and Parker never minds because there's a great lemonade stand right down the block. It's usually the first stop of the day when they decide to hang out on the beach. Just a place to buy ice and snacks before moving on to better things.

Which is good considering there being little to no airflow when sitting inside, and the radio seems to be on a constant loop of Justin Bieber in his pre-puberty phase. It's not so good, however, when they spend more than five minutes inside.

Today, it seems to be the first and final stop given how long they've been there. She feels her bones getting weary from all the pandering her brother has done, and she's starting to suspect that his reasons for picking her up that morning weren't as innocent as he initially claimed.

Deprived of breathable air and sleep, Parker isn't all too enthused when she props the kiosk sunglasses onto her head with a pleading look towards her brother. "Because I'm bored!" she whined, in a way that was far too little-sisterly like for someone her age. Decidedly though she doesn't care when he makes no move to leave. "I thought we were just going to buy some sunscreen before heading towards the point. That's what you said, anyway."

"We are!" he says, arms thrown wide in exasperation. Parker doesn't buy that for a second, however, and her brother folds under her stare. "Just... in a minute. I need a new rash guard. Maybe some new board shorts."

"You don't even surf."

"I... do," he argues, his head bobbing up and down as if trying to convince himself of such a bold statement. "It's just been a couple of—"

"Decades?"

"Years," he corrects her with a glare. "It's like riding a bike. You know. Probably."

"Just with water and waves and the possibility of drowning or death by shark."

"You're not helping."

She shrugs. "I never said I was here to help."

Colt's response is a melodramatic pout, pausing in his nervous shifting to wave a hand in her general direction. "Well, this would be a lot quicker if you just helped."

He punctuates the statement by performing a full spin for her, hands stuck out before realizing that's awkward. To fix that, he props them even more awkwardly on his hips, but it only makes him look like he's a Ken doll pretending to be a real person.

Parker elects to keep that to herself sensing his anxiety was getting dangerously close to his own toddler-style meltdown.

"What do you think of this? Cool? Not cool?" he continues on muttering, head bobbing in every direction as he smooths the material down over his puffed-up chest. It deflates just as quickly as he turns back to her to ask, "pink's cool, right? I'm going for a laidback look, you know. But not too laidback. Somewhere right in the middle."

Parker returns the sunglasses to the rotating stand before plopping onto a stack of buckets. He seems awfully concerned with this particular task all of the sudden, despite spending the last three years avoiding the idea altogether. Every time he was offered a chance to get back out on the water by one of his stunt buddies, he miraculously came up with an excuse not to.

It all feels weird. And when her brother got weird, there was usually a girl involved.

Ah.

"You told Jody you still surf, huh?" she puts two and two together.

His peacocking in the mirror stopped entirely. A wince. Then a smile. Then a wince again in a ball of pent-up nerves. "That's... maybe one of the—she doesn't—you don't have to hang around here while I try these on. Don't you have something better to be doing?"

"If I had literally anything better to be doing, I would be doing it."

"Okay, ouch."

Parker rolled her eyes at her brother's whining. But really, she didn't have anything better to be doing at the moment than hanging around while her brother tried to impress a girl.

Not to mention she liked this girl.

Sighing, she decided to throw him a bone. Because, what else would she be doing? Parker peered at the rack behind him for a moment before pointing to the top. "Try the blue one instead."

Colt glanced down at his chest with a frown. "But... Jody likes pink."

"Yes, but blue will match your eyes better. Make you look tanner."

"And make me harder to see if I start drowning," he huffed. But, after a moment of consideration, stripped off the pink rash guard to pull on the blue one. Always a fucking argument with him, she thought with a bemused eyeroll. Especially when a moment later, "oh, this one does look better..."

She laughed as he spun in the mirror, attempting to get a three-sixty perspective of the potential garment. Only for the moment to be interrupted by a buzzing in her back pocket.

You gotta get up, gotta get out, gotta get gone before...

Her phone's ringtone broke through her relative boredom, and as Colt ran a hand through his hair and squared his shoulders in the mirror, she plucked the device out of her back pocket.

"You really got to change that ringtone," he said half-heartedly.

Parker stuck her tongue out at him and swiveled on her bucket, so she now had a view of the empty beach outside. It wasn't even that early—nine in the morning—but this particular spot was far enough removed from LA that people didn't tend to populate it unless it was a holiday weekend.

Phone pressed to her ear, she answered with a casual, "hello?"

"Was it not possible for you to give me a book from this century to read?"

A smile teased her face, and Parker returned her attention to the sunglass rack at her side just for something to do. Testing on an oversized pair of cat-eye sunglasses, she asked, "who is this?"

"Jesus, just save my fucking contact in your phone, already."

"Why would I do that when you could just stop calling me to talk about books?" she mused, stifling a laugh when there was a load of huffing and cursing from the other end of the line. He deserved it, though. Especially after ruining her sleep the other night and practically giving her a heart attack. "There are reddit forums for that exact purpose, you know. Maybe you could ask the nerds what they think. Go right to the source."

"You're such an asshole."

"Mhm. Takes one to know one, right?"

"Earthlight isn't a movie, is it?" he barreled on. She could tell from his tone that he was annoyed, and selfishly, Parker hoped that she was ruining his morning coffee and avocado toast. "It'd be a short movie."

"No, not a movie. Could be, I guess. You feel like self-funding?"

"You're hilarious," he deadpanned, and through the phone line she could hear the distant whir of a coffee grinder working. Knowing Tom, the thing probably cost more than her car. "Maybe you should quit your little bookstore and go into stand-up comedy. Probably make more money doing that. Granted, you'd have to sacrifice your dignity, but you don't have much to start with, do you?"

Parker tutted, but the overwhelming failure of her bookstore came back to mind full force at the comment, and so rather than keep up the joke, she moved the conversation on. "So, you liked it?"

"Well don't go sounding too smug about it," he chastised. "I liked it better, but still not much. They're both so outdated."

"Too much science for you?"

"This author really fucking loves the technical bullshit just as much as the last one. Pricks, all of them."

"Arthur C. Clarke is a prick?" she snorted. That was definitely a viewpoint she had never heard before. Leave it to Tom to dislike one of the best sci-fi writes in history because he spent too much time writing, well, sci-fi. "That's a hot take. He cowrote 2001 you know."

"A Space Odyssey?" She hummed. There was rattling and banging noises—the image of a hungover Tom stumbling around his kitchen came to mind—before the sound of a milk frother cut across the line. She jerked her phone away from her ear with a wince. Muffled, his voice returned. "Alright, that's not a bad movie. I'll give him that."

"It's only one of the highest-rated films of the genre," she retorted dryly.

More banging continued on the phone and as Parker tried not to let him blow out her eardrum, a hissing sound of its own came from her end of the line. She glanced up at the airshaft above her warily, but, if the sweat pooling on her back was anything to go by, it wasn't working. She glanced around in search of the noise before a rubber pool toy bounced off of the back of her head.

"Hey," the hiss returned. Pool toy in hand, she turned to find her brother waving a hand at her. The blue rash guard had been replaced with a yellow one. Worse still, he was now wearing a matching bucket hat. He gestured to himself as if he hadn't just assaulted her with a whale shaped toy. "What about this?"

She covered the phone speaker with her hand. "What happened to the blue?"

"This one is on sale!"

"Jesus, Colt. No girl has ever been impressed by that logic."

"I—" he started, then paused, and frowned at his sister like she had just burst his bubble. She might have felt bad if she hadn't been brushing off his puppy-dog eyes for the entirety of her life. The lip wobble was a new touch, though. "...is that a no to the bucket hat too?"

Parker responded by chucking the toy back at him. It bounced off his chest with a squeak.

"Yeah, alright..." he muttered, shoulders drooping, as he snatched the hat off of his head. It left his hair sticking up in tufts.

She kept that to herself.

"—are you even listening to me right now?" Tom's voice crackled back to life. If the incredulous lilt of his voice was anything to go by, he was not used to being sidelined for other people nor did he like it. "Who the hell are you talking to?"

"There was a bucket hat situation I had to deal with."

"...are you with Colt right now?"

She laughed. First, at the fact that Tom Ryder equated a bucket hat with her brother. Second because he sounded so disgusted by the fact that she would willingly spend her Sunday morning's helping her brother shop for bucket hats.

"You mean my brother?" she corrected.

"Did you tell him that I'm auditioning for a sci-fi roll? What does he think about it?"

"Why the hell would I tell him I'm talking to you?" she asked, echoing his sentiments from their last phone call. Parker was only teasing though, while she was pretty sure Tom had meant to be mean. Regardless, she moved on as she stood from the bucket to stretch out the kinks in her legs. "A bucket hat is a bad idea, right?"

"Is this seriously more important than what I want to talk about?"

"This may come as a surprise to you, but my world doesn't revolve around things that you want to talk about," she explained exasperatedly. Not necessarily because of what he said, but because she was fairly confident that he actually believed those sentiments. Worse still, she bet no one had ever told him that before. "Particularly not at two in the morning—thanks for that by the way. My roommate is pissed at me for waking her up."

A pause. Then, "you still have a roommate? How old are you?"

"I was serious about posting your phone number online you know," she threatened idly.

Colt disappeared into the changing booth, and Parker slowly started perusing the now abandoned hat rack. Despite her disapproval, she was bored. Plus, it actually had a fairly impressive selection.

Plopping an oversized sunhat atop her head, she ignored his insult to press on more important matters. "But seriously. Bucket hats. They're out of style, right?"

"Bucket hats have never been in style."

"Fashion is all made up anyway."

"That's just what poor people say who can't afford actual fashion."

She tutted, scrunching her nose up. Derisively, she asked, "did Gail tell you that?"

"Alright, that's it. I'm hanging up."

"It was a joke—!"

Joke or not, the dial tone was the only response that she got from Tom. She stared at the phone in her hand for a moment before huffing.

So that's what that feels like, she thought.

Something bright and ugly popped into her line of vision, and Parker glanced in the mirror to find her brother sporting a cheetah print body suit paired with a trucker hat that said Wine Made Me Do It in big, cursive lettering.

"Now, not to step on any middle-aged ladies' toes, but this is fashion," he clapped his hands with a goofy grin on his face. He gestured to the hat with a crooked thumb. "Get it? Two dollars!"

Parker laughed; couldn't not even if she wanted to.

Her brother was so innocent and idiotic and awful that while she once used to be embarrassed in public by him, now she just appreciated the fact that he was, always, unashamedly himself.

"Here, wait," she poked her tongue out of the side of her mouth while angling her camera at him. "Say cheese."

"Asiago," he cooed, making a Blue Steel type face that looked ridiculous when paired with his clothes.

The picture was even better, and Parker felt tears gathering in her eyes as they giggled. The employee from earlier shot them an annoyed look, but he was promptly ignored. If she didn't care about Tom Ryder's opinion, she certainly didn't care about his.

"That was good, right?"

"Oh, definitely. Jody won't know what hit her," she teased. Colt nodded, looking all too smug with himself, despite the fact that she was joking.

This smug version of himself reminded her of someone else that he looked a whole lot like.

An idea struck Parker, and as Colt started putting back the clothes where he found them, she quickly saved Tom's number in her phone before attaching the picture to the contact. Parker hesitated when she saw his name typed out.

Asshole, she typed in big letters. It was funny for half a second, though, before she realized it didn't quite feel right.

She deleted his name. Thought about it. Then replaced it with nothing more than a simple puking face emoji.

"Are you getting that?" Colt asked, drawing her from her reverie, and when she glanced up, she remembered that she was still wearing the ridiculous sunhat. "Because, you know... I'm not so sure that's something a cool person would wear."

Parker shoved her brother towards the cash register with a laugh.

They left the store with a blue rash guard, a pair of sunglasses, and matching bucket hats.

Twenty minutes later they realized they had forgotten to get sunscreen.

---

Paker had heard a lot of stupid and surprising things in her life; things that were so shockingly idiotic that she often wondered if they had been spoken as a joke. Most of the things on that list were quoted from her brother; a man she loved, but that didn't entirely think before he spoke.

When they were kids, he had argued that fish didn't need oxygen to survive. That's why they live under water, dummy, he had said with far too much confidence that she, younger and far less educated, could only blink at him. Then there was the time in his twenties that Colt had brought up the topic of furries at the dinner table in front of their grandparents. They're not, like, really having sex... are they? he had asked while trying to figure out what costume part would go where if they did do the dirty. And of course, there was the infamous baking soda as a cure all for wounds debate, but she tried to block out the sound of his skin literally sizzling as he screamed.

Tom, in the short time that she had known him, had also said some pretty shocking things that wound up on the list. He was, after all, an unapologetic asshole/idiot that didn't care if the world was flat or round so long as it revolved around him.

But out of shocking thing she had ever heard, it was fifteen-year-old California born and bred girl that topped the list.

"I want a job," Melissa proclaimed.

Parker's pen scratched an ugly line across her poor excuse of an accounting notebook as she glanced up wildly, big eyes blinking slow and dumb, as static hummed in between her ears.

"...what?"

"I want to apply for a job," she reiterated.

The bookstore was empty save for a pair of retirees that were slowly perusing her small selection of bird watching books. An oversized fly buzzed overhead, whizzing an uneven path between the two, as an irritable car stuck in traffic laid on the horn outside.

"Like—like here?" Parker asked. There was nothing fun or young or hip about her store. Just dusty bookshelves, a musty smell she could not get rid of no matter how many Bath and Body Works' scent infusers she plugged into the corner, and a ratty reading chair that had a Melissa-sized depression in the middle. She arched a brow. "You want to work... here. In my bookstore."

Melissa rolled her eyes, shrugging. Duh, the gesture said.

"Yeah, sure, obviously," Parker hummed, despite the fact that there was nothing yeah, sure, or obvious about the current conversation. Specifically given that Melissa, on more than occasion, had complained that her store was boring. "Just... why?"

"I need money."

"Suuuuure," she drew out the syllable, wooden stool creaking as she shifted in her seat behind the register. "But wouldn't you prefer to work somewhere a little more, er, fun?"

"This place is plenty fun."

The fly from earlier buzzed between them before smacking into the windowpane. It spiraled to the floor with a depressing zzzz.

Parker raised a second brow.

Melissa, in response, threw her hands up with a huff. "Okay, so, maybe I've been rejected from Jamba Juice and Target already. Which is so, totally crazy."

"That is crazy because I thought Jamba Juice went out of business—"

"And I can get my driver's permit in three months, and I want to get my license as soon as possible. But there's no way that I'm going to have Mom drive me everywhere, so I need to get a car. And to get a car I need to be able to afford a car—which, like, the economy is awful right now if you didn't know—so I need a job. Mom and Dad said they'll match whatever money I can put towards it. And as of today, that is a fat zero."

Woes of teenage girls, Parker thought.

"That's nice of them," she said instead. Not that she envied a teenager in the twenty-first century, but for her sixteenth birthday she had been given a bike. Not even a new one. It had been Colt's old one that he outgrew, and it still had flame stickers and duck tape wrapped all around it. "But, seriously, there has to be at least one other place a kid your age would want to work."

Melissa, having been slowly circling around the center of the room, paused in her ambling to cast Parker a suspicious look. "Do you not want me to work here or something?"

"No, of course I would want you to work here—"

"Great!"

"—but I have no money. Why do you think I'm the only employee here?"

Melissa considered that. "I just always assumed you were a little uptight and didn't like other people messing with your shelves."

"Uptight?" she cried. "Why does everyone keep calling me that?"

But Melissa didn't seem to notice that she had just quoted her celebrity crush, and so she instead turned her attention to the bookstore. She cast a critical eye over everything; though there was no smoke, Parker could smell the wheels turning between her ears, and slumped further onto the counter in preparation for what was to come.

"Don't get me wrong, Park, I love your store," she started. "But it could definitely use some updating."

"Updating?" she deadpanned.

"Some new paint for starters. I think it would be so cute if you painted it, um, maybe a soft blue. Then you could paint the bookshelves in different colors—pastels, definitely—and even some flowers here and there wouldn't hurt."

Parker made a face. Pastels weren't really her thing. "You want to paint the shelves?"

"It's just so brown."

"The natural color of wood, yes."

Melissa rolled her eyes, and with a waft of Vanilla perfume, trotted behind the front desk to examine the string of posters tacked onto the wall. Most of them were salvages from the dollar store, and while Parker thought they gave the store some character, Melissa clearly didn't agree. "These totally need to go too."

"Excuse me—"

"You could still keep them," she huffed half-heartedly. Clearly, she wasn't sold on the idea, but Parker would be damned if she pitched her Jane Austen posters based on the opinion of a teenager. "Just cut them down to a smaller size, put them in some picture frames—you can get them super cheap at the thrift store—and they'll make it look less packrat-like and more eclectic."

Parker glared, an argument on the tip of her tongue.

But, well, when she thought about it, it wasn't such a bad idea. And, well, maybe giving the store a new coat of paint wasn't either. It still looked like it had when she bought it from Larry. She had spent so much money on the loan payment, that she never considered really updating the place—mostly because, duh, she had no money—but paint and some dollar store frames weren't so expensive.

"How do you know all of this?" she asked with a quizzical look.

Melissa smiled, phone waved in hand as she tossed a plait of perfectly curled hair over her shoulder. "I spend a lot of time on Pinterest. What this place needs is a total cottage-core makeover."

"That sounds so made-up."

The girl frowned. "Well, duh. Everything is made up."

Parker opened her mouth, thought it through, and then promptly snapped her mouth shut. When did kids become so philosophical?

"So," said kid leaned onto the front counter with a conniving smile. She was a pretty girl with a clear complexion, bright white teeth beneath blue braces, and a deep closest of cute, but age-appropriate clothing. When she wiggled her eyebrows, Parker couldn't help but notice how well shaped they were. "Can I have a job?"

It was a tempting offer...

She glanced at the balancing worksheet she was doing, scores of numbers and ugly handwriting sprawled across her notebook, before taking a proper look at her empty storefront.

"I'll... have to think about it," she finally hedged.

Melissa's shoulders sank in disappointment.

"I don't have a ton of money right now," she explained, not at all liking how sad she looked. Colt's puppy dog expression had done nothing to prepare her for Melissa Abernathy's professional one. "So, I'll need to look things over first."

"But...?"

A sigh. "Are you free on Sundays?"

"I thought you were closed on Sundays?"

"I am," Parker nodded. "Which means it's about the only day of the week that I could try to paint this place. If you're serious about wanting a job and wanting to help, I'll consider bringing you in on the weekends to start helping me renovate."

A grin broke out on the girl's face, and she started bouncing on her toes. "Really?"

"Just temporarily," Parker threatened with her index finger. She wasn't sure how much was being heard and how much was going over the girl's head, however, and suddenly this was all feeling like a bad idea. "You can help me paint and decorate, and then I'll look at my finances."

"And you'll hire me?"

"If I can afford it, then... yes, we could work something out."

"Yes!"

"Just a few shifts a week!"

"That's perfect."

"And I'm not paying more than minimum wage."

"Totally fair. This rocks!"

"I said if—"

Melissa was already on her phone, texting and typing away as she bounced around. Parker felt a migraine start whirring between her temples, but—well—the kid was so excited that she couldn't feel too miserable about her decision. Tourist traffic was dying down as the season's changed, and she really needed to do something if she still wanted to be in business come the new year.

There was the sound of a camera clicking, and Melissa grinned from her corner of the room. "Oh my god, Park, you're so not going to regret this. We could totally do a beachy palette—blues and greens and, oh, orange—throw some rugs down, add some little details to the bottom of the shelves that you have to look for to see. Like easter egg, stuff. Oh, this is so exciting! I'm going to get Miranda and Abby to come, they have a great eye for detail."

She watched Melissa disappear down the MYSTERY aisle, all the while chatting to whoever she had already gotten on the phone.

Parker steepled her head between her hands with a sigh.

But, well, the enthusiasm was contagious, and after a moment she was laughing to herself. Maybe a fresh coat of paint would cheer her up.

Speaking of, how much did paint cost?

She was in the middle of a google search when her phone started to ring. The caller ID only showed an emoji and a picture of her brother modeling a ridiculous outfit, and she let out a childish snort in response.

A small smile in place, she answered. "Three books in a week. I have to say that I am a little impressed."

"Hm. I'm impressed you finally saved my contact. I was starting to think that basic technology was beyond your skill set."

"Hardy, har, har," she deadpanned, rolling her eyes. Melissa was somewhere in the back of store now, likely scaring off her only customers, and she decided to give up on her accounting for the day. Twisting in her seat so she was watching the street outside, she propped her elbow on her knee. "What did you think of Nemesis?"

He seemed hesitant to answer. "I... liked it."

Parker grinned. "Oh, you did, did you?"

A sound halfway between a groan and a whine. "You're fucking infuriating, you know that?"

"For recommending you good books?"

"You don't have to be so smug about it."

"I'm not smug," she said smugly.

He scoffed, and Parker couldn't help but grin even further. The idea that Tom Ryder, pain in her ass, was admitting that he liked her recommendation was the metaphorical cherry on the top of her cake. Even better, she got to be smug to him about something.

Parker continued on to say, "I guess I'm just happy that I recommended something you like. Especially since I didn't think you liked anything other than looking in a mirror, hair gel, and hot lattes."

"For fuck's sake, it was a flat white, and it was one time."

"Was it?" she teased, enjoying the conversation far more than she should be. This was the asshole that drove her brother insane every day at work, after all. But then again, what Colt didn't know, wouldn't hurt him. "You're just so memorable, I guess. Can't stop thinking about it."

"I would hope I'm memorable," he shot back, a whole lot of huffing and puffing from his side of the line that didn't fit the whole "perfect human being" sort of vibe he tried so desperately hard to give off. A dog barked in the distance. A second, more put-off and annoyed huff argued back. "Putain, calme-toi, Jean Claude."

Parker curled an eyebrow, impressed. "Was that French?"

"Impressed?" he said, taking a page out of her book to sound unnecessarily smug.

Catching a glimpse of her reflection in the window—a stupid smile in place, lip pulled between two teeth, eyes twinkling in a way that didn't suit the sleep-deprived bags beneath them—Parker straightened in her seat. "Hardly. It's an ugly language," she said, overcorrecting just a little by insulting what some considered to be the language of love. Not her best move. "Moreso wondering why you're imposing a foreign language on your dog. Seems cruel."

"He's French," Tom said, certainly rolling his eyes.

"Ooh, a French bulldog? I love those."

Something about the insinuation that Tom Ryder would own a bulldog managed to insult him, and she heard the scorn in his voice when he responded with a scathing, "I would never own a fucking bulldog. They can't breathe and can't run thanks to decades of improper inbreeding. What use are they?"

"...they're cute?"

She heard him mutter something in French, before another bark—as if his dog, the French bastard, was agreeing with whatever complaint he made against her—and Parker was so elegantly reminded of what a pain in the ass he could be.

Chin in hand, she rolled her eyes. "You want to tell me about the book or not?"

There was noise from his side of the line; music in the background kicked up, the sound of dog food being slung into a metal bowl, a faucet running, before things quieted down a bit. "I thought the idea of moon colonization is a little overplayed, plus there's the whole bit about the telepathic organism that is so fucking stupid," he said.

Despite his tone though, somehow Parker just knew that he was only complaining so he had something to complain about. She didn't wonder how she knew that.

"The book is from the eighties. I don't think moon colonization was overplayed when he wrote it," she protested anyway, sipping on her watered-down cold brew as she did so. "And the bit about the organism is fascinating to me. Everyone always writes about ET-style aliens, but I thought it was brilliant of Asimov to create something new."

"Brilliant is what I do. Not writing a short story about a family being separated in space," he grumbled. A moment later, "you're awfully hot on these writers. You've never called me brilliant before." Sore about it, obviously.

"That's not true. I think you're brilliantly self-centered and egotistical."

"Elle pense qu’elle est une comédienne, celle-ci," he muttered, much to her English-speaking chagrin. He switched back to say, "I'm the reason your brother has a career, you know. You could give me a little credit."

"Are you?" she mused, knowing it was a load of horseshit. Self-centered and egotistical horseshit that only further proved her point. "Interesting. I thought he introduced you to Gail."

A moment of silence. "He told you that?"

"We tell each other everything," she said. Though, that wasn't exactly true, was it? "Well, mostly everything, anyway."

"Hm. I could argue that's breaking our nondisclosure agreement. I could probably fire him for it, you know," he threatened, idly, though, and without any real heat to his words. There was the sound of water running in the background, and Parker really hoped that he was spontaneously washing some dishes and not talking to her while in the shower.

"Please. We both know that Colt is the best stunt-man out there. And you only work with the best, right?"

His lack of response proved that she was right; Colt was the best at his job, and he just so happened to look a whole lot like Tom Ryder. Not to mention that Tom's entire career was built around bragging how good he was, how talented the people he worked with were, how he didn't settle for anything but excellence. In fact, Parker was half-sure she could break Ryder's nose and the only backlash Colt would get would be a whole lot of bitching.

Granted, she might get arrested, but at least her brother would be relatively fine.

"When's the audition, anyway?" she asked just to be nosy.

"Tomorrow morning."

Parker raised a brow, idly watching as some idiot failed to parallel park out front. "Cutting it a little close, huh?"

"I'm Tom Ryder," he said, in his typical sense of self-importance that she loathed. Though, this time, Parker didn't loathe it as much as she found it amusing. "I know what I'm doing and don't need your fucking opinion about it."

"Do you have that written on a motivational poster somewhere?"

"No," he said immediately. A little too quickly, in her opinion, and Parker narrowed her eyes with a sneaking suspicion that his house was just plastered with photos of himself. "Whatever. I have to go. Unlike you I don't just have all day to talk."

She scoffed incredulously, reminding him that, "you called me!"

Unsurprisingly, however, he didn't care. "I need to practice some more before the audition. Unless you want me to fail."

"I didn't think Tom Ryder could fail."

"Yeah, well," he hesitated for a moment, all that bravado he'd been displaying moments earlier gone in a flash. Parker wondered if he ever talked to anyone without it, and if he didn't, then what sort of friends he had in his life. He cleared his throat. "It's a big deal. Not just for me, but Colt too. This would be our biggest movie yet. Some extra practice doesn't hurt anyone."

Pride swelled in her chest; her brother had always impressed her with how he built his own career, moving to LA without knowing anyone and not leaving until he accomplished what he wanted. And while she was his biggest fan—number one, as she liked to joke—his success was his alone, not Tom's.

Still, without Tom it may have been less consistent, and without Colt, Tom may have been stuck doing rom coms. Parker kept that to herself.

Instead, she said, almost sensing that he needed to hear it, "yeah, well, I know you don't need it or anything, but—you know—good luck on the audition. I think you'd be really good in a sci-fi film. Despite what Gail seems to think, I might actually want to, er, see that movie. Pirated, of course. I don't go to the theaters for just any asshole."

The sound of water cut off, and for a long moment it was silent. Then, a scoff. "You're right," he said. "I don't need it."

Parker hummed, rolling her eyes, and biting back a smile at his blatant audacity. Gail was right about one thing; there was no one in this world quite like him. Maybe that was a good thing, too.

"Sure. You being Tom Ryder, and all. Guess you're a shoo-in, huh?"

"Well," he cleared his throat, "I do have the blonde hair and blue eyes."

A laugh bubbled up her throat, and she only managed to keep it to herself when the door jingled with the sound of new customers. A pair of teen girls strode inside with sweet, but nonplussed looks on their faces, and mindlessly Parker waved them towards the back where Melissa had disappeared to.

Watching them amble with her phone tucked against her shoulder, she asked, "did you just make a joke? Forget sci-fi, someone should call SNL right now and get you an audition with them."

"You're just as bad as Colt. You know that?"

"And now you're just handing out compliments," she teased. He laughed in response, wasn't quite quick enough to disguise it as a huff or a cough, and Parker bit her lip to keep from smugly grinning like a total idiot. "Just don't forget to send me that agent's fee when you get the part. I accept checks and DutchBros gift cards."

"Jesus Christ, you're pathetic."

"Am I? Because I just so happen to be popular enough to have the one and only Tom Ryder calling me three times in one week."

"Good-fucking-bye, smartass."

The sound of a dial tone came a second later, and when Parker glanced at her screen she was greeted with her own reflection. She didn't mind that he hung up on her. If anything, she almost wished that he had more time to talk. If only because he seemed to be in a rare, friendly mood.

Not because she almost actually liked talking to him. Asshole-ish tendencies notwithstanding.

"What are you smiling about?"

Parker turned to find Melissa and her two friends staring warily at her across the counter. Clearing her throat, she set her phone aside with pink cheeks.

"Er, nothing."

She harrumphed. Teenagers had never seemed so intimidating before, and with a self-conscious smile, Parker smoothed her hair down as subtly as she could.

"Need something?"

"Do you have any John Green books?" one of the girls asked.

Parker nodded, shaking off the conversation to switch into work mode, and smiled a little more genuinely at them all as she stood. "Sure, loads. Come on, I'll show you," she waved them after her, and as they browsed, they filled her in on what paint colors they thought would look best.

Melissa, she mused two hours later with disheveled hair, sweat-tacked curls on her neck, a stack of notes in one hand, and a long email chain of Pinterest posts on her phone, could rule the world one day.

She just needed a car first.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Idea for a childhood friends AU:

so it's a dark and stormy and gloomy day a couple months after Stede's birthday, and tonight his father finally agreed to drop him off at Walmart after school so he can spend his birthday money. He always gets just money for his birthday, and he feels guilty for feeling a bit sad about it, because he knows he should be happy that his father just handed him like five hundred dollars, but he just really wants to have someone care enough to wrap a present for him and pick out something he'd like. It just feels like his parents throwing money at him to fix the problem again (the problem is him).

So Stede wanders around the store, and he knows it'll be late before anyone comes back to pick him up, and his father sent along some money so he can grab lunch at the restaurant further down in the shopping center. His father, who has no grip at all on the reality of how much things cost, has sent easily triple what he'd ever need to get himself dinner, so he's planning on using the leftovers to buy just, like, a ton of chocolate. And Stede figures he'll spend his birthday money on a new video game system or something, and when he gets to the game aisle, there's another kid standing there.

Ed took the bus here after school to buy that week's groceries. It's always a bit of a bummer, because his mama says to only get exactly what's on the list for that week so they don't run out of food stamps by the end of the month, and Ed has to look longingly at other kids getting snacks and candy and know he can't have any. They've never been able to jump through the right hoops to get an amount of money in food stamps that would actually really help, Ed's dad makes just too much and no one cares that he spends his entire paycheck down at the pub. Ed keeps track of how much they've got left to spend in his mind, and tonight, he's had to leave off some of the items on his mama's list because he knows how to make these calculations and he knows the cheap boxes of spaghetti will get them a lot further than the dinosaur nuggets she put on there just so he can have something fun. He lives close to the store, it's an easy walk, but he hates having to carry everything back himself so he likes to waste some time in the video games aisle just looking, and imagining what it would be like to get a new game for his birthday when he knows good and damn well his birthday present will always be a trip to the local pizza buffet and two dollars for the arcade games.

so when Stede rounds the corner to see this kid a bit younger than him staring longingly at the latest NES games, all he can think about is how much he wishes he had someone to play with.

And the thing is: Stede has more money in his pockets than he could ever spend, and his parents don't know how much things cost, and this kid is standing there shivering in just a baggy t-shirt and jeans that someone has ironed to make them seem nicer than they are even though they're scuffed to hell and back, and all he can think is man, you look lonely, and I'm real lonely, too.

They get to chatting, and they come up with a brilliant plan. Stede buys a new NES and a couple games, and they're going to keep it at Ed's house so they can play together. They don't know it, not yet, but they're going to have a couple Super Mario-themed decorations at their wedding, because that game was their very favorite. And Stede maybe knows enough about the world already to know he can't just offer to buy Ed a new jacket, they barely know each other and he doesn't want to embarrass his new friend, but he's going to "accidentally" pay for the food Ed's getting, too, not to mention all the fun snack food and candy Ed helps him pick out.

Stede's going to wind up staying for dinner at Ed's house that night, and it'll be the best meal he's ever had, and when they're done playing games Stede's going to "accidentally" leave his jacket on Ed's bed. There's not a time after this that Stede won't accompany Ed on grocery runs, and he's going to make sure Ed and his mama mysteriously always find their pantry full despite the food stamp tally not budging. Ed's going to get to go on two trips to the pizza buffet every year, because his mama treats Stede to one, too, and Stede's going to help Ed apply for a scholarship to the fancy school he goes to across town. They're even, he says, because Ed always lets him check his homework for the right answers.

Just two kids helping each other out in whatever ways they can, and not really knowing when they first meet that neither of them are ever going to go without a friend, not ever again.

[1moreff-creator]

I would genuinely love to hear your thoughts on Ace and Teruko as friends. Like, I can see it working maybe? Outside of the killing game, preferably. (Given how it's too late for that, in light of recent events)

Hey! Certainly an interesting dynamic! Admittedly, Teruko's bad luck might scare Ace a bit too much for it to easily work, but it might be easier if Teruko can convince him of her apparent immortality. Ace would probably appreciate an immortal friend given his last friendship ended with Tayor six feet under :v

This got longer than I expected so we're putting in a read more!

Once the friendship itself is established (as you requested, outside of the killing game), it would probably be pretty fun! I kinda imagine it as the sort of friendship where they're constantly making fun of each other, to the point where it's hard to tell from afar whether they love (platonic) or hate each other. Just a lot of Teruko deadpanning at Ace's cowardly nature while Ace is constantly yelling at her, only for her to roll her eyes and throw jabs back. How does it work? Only they know.

Teruko's certainly the brains and impulse control of the friendship; Whit would probably joke about her putting a leash on Ace on more than one occasion. Teruko's probably one of the only people who can get Ace to calm down when he's mad at someone.

Meanwhile, Ace is constantly dragging her around, and Teruko enjoys the antics he gets them into. Provided her luck doesn't seriously injure everyone involved :v

There would probably be more gossip than you'd think. With Ace's penchant for eavesdropping, and Teruko not giving enough of a damn to stop him, they would talk so much shit about other people. I could even see Arei joining them on occasion. Though I imagine Teruko would have enough sense to cut the others off if they go a bit too far.

Ace doesn't mesh all that well with the friends Teruko would have in a non-killing game AU, aka Baking Squad + Mai probably (I'm obviously ignoring West Class Teruko theory for logistics purposes), unless Teruko is around. She'd probably be able to reign him in just enough for Min to tolerate him, Rose to vibe in the group, Eden's Eden so she'd try to be friends with Ace anyways, and Mai's Mai. If Teruko isn't around, Mai can substitute for Ace's impulse control since everyone loves her.

Teruko would also help keep the beef with Nico and Levi to a minimum, which probably wouldn't even be that big of an issue outside of the killing game anyways. That would also help Ace keep civil, if not good, relationships with Hu and Xander.

And while Teruko keeps Ace social life healthy, Ace keeps Teruko in good moods. Whenever she's feeling down, all it takes for her to laugh is walking in on Ace burning down the classroom to kill a spider while Nico and Xander are trying to get him to stop, Min is running in with a fire extinguisher, Rose is somehow sleeping through it as Mai and Eden try to wake her up, and Veronika's cheerfully sharing popcorn with a cackling Arei and a "so done with this shit" Arturo. Well, Teruko would probably freak out while the fire is raging, but laugh about it afterwards.

On angstier days, Ace and Teruko could definitely bond over people close to them getting hurt (Taylor and pick someone from Teruko's past) and feeling like they can't fight their fate. I have... no idea how that would work, but I can see a world where Teruko bullies Ace into trying to get his life together while Ace looks up to Teruko's strength in the face of adversity and tells her she has a better chance of changing her future than he has of changing his. Maybe. Really hard to tell how this would go.

Now I'll go over more specific headcanons of certain things I would imagine could happen if they were friends outside the killing game!

One time, when Ace had a race and he was worried he was going to lose to another jockey, Teruko put a bet of a single dollar on said horse/jockey (I don't know how horse betting works), as a joke to get her bad luck to help Ace. The jockey Teruko put a bet on fell off the horse in the race and almost died. They both agreed Teruko should never ever bet on a horse/jockey again.

Ace: Teruko! Get her the hell away from me! Veronika: Teruko! Do you want to join our horror movie marathon? Most of the class is joining! Teruko [not really interested, just wanting to mess with Ace]: What are we watching? Ace: That's not what-! Veronika: Well, I was thinking of starting with the Headless Horseman- Teruko [smirking, grabs Ace by the back of his shirt]: Sure! Ace: AAAH! [Ace ended up hiding behind Levi and Teruko as everyone, Veronika included, talked mad shit about the movie. Ace was the only one who was even remotely scared. The rest of the movie marathon, Ace was passed out, but the rest of the class enjoyed it well enough]

Teruko, hair smoking and soot on her face: Sorry I'm late, my apartment building caught fire an I had to escape the ambulance. I can't really afford a trip to the hospital right now. Ace, genuinely horrified and worried about his friend, look of shock on his face: ... Ace, now smirking: Skill issue. Teruko, smirking back: Fuck you. [They both laughed about it later, after Ace shouted at Teruko to take better care of herself]

Hope that's enough! Thanks for the ask!

[cookeybg]

Unexpected Cohabitation a JonDami fic

I like how this chapter turned out. Also finally in Part two of the series. Yay!

I'm thinking of adding the word count, what do you all think? This chapter has 1,171 words.

FYI there are two mean words in this chapter.

Title: Unexpected Cohabitation

Main Characters: Jonathan Kent and Damian Wayne (some of the others show up too, the list is too long)

Eventual relationship: Jonathan Kent/Damian Wayne (my fave)

Stuff to know: No capes, reverse robins, high school AU, no smut, no Brucie Wayne, I know nothing about sports but it will show up, (aaand I think that's it, will add more if it comes up)

[Here's my table of contents]

Part 2 - Chapter 6

Jon stood by the bleachers taking deep breaths, sweat stinging his eyes, and took a big swig from his water bottle. The sun was still sweltering in late August, but that did not deter any of the boys who had been participating in tryouts. There were ten open spots, left behind by the seniors who had graduated, and Jon was determined to be a part of the main reserve team. If he made it, he would be able to ride the same bus as the varsity players. He had been able to keep up with the more seasoned players and he really hoped that was enough to impress Coach.

He had finished his mile run before the rest of the participants and now he watched some of the stragglers finish. He took another swig from his water bottle and his gaze landed on Damian Wayne. They had not spoken at all since that awkward dinner, as a matter of fact he hadn’t even acknowledged him. Damian was currently sitting on the grass doing some stretches, his green shorts riding up and showing tanned, toned and glistening thighs. Jon could feel his cheeks warm up and immediately looked away. He really hoped if anyone noticed it could be mistaken for the running he had just completed.

He hated to admit that Damian was impressive. He basically excelled in all positions Jon had watched him practice but he had mainly stayed glued to Colin who was the team’s main pitcher. He and Damian could be seen throwing and catching the ball any free moment they got. Jon guessed that it made sense since Damian was the team’s catcher and it was important for the two to be in sync.

“Alright!” Coach’s loud clap echoed throughout the field. “Everyone gather around! It’s time to announce those on the reserve team!” All the students gathered in front of Coach with a mix of apprehension and excitement. “Remember even if you don’t make the main reserve team you can still come to practice and who knows you may eventually become part of the varsity team after the current Seniors graduate so, don’t give up!” He looked down at his clipboard and started rattling off some names.

Jon felt his insides twist. What if he wasn’t chosen? He had sounded pretty confident when he told his dad that he was a shoo in. Would he still stay on or would he instead focus on the journalism club? It would be fun to be able to hangout with Jay some more. What if-

“Jon Kent!” Coach announced and Jon let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding in. “That’s it for today! Go shower and head home, see you all on Monday!” He dismissed the teenagers and started packing up his things with the help of the two baseball managers the team had.

Jon was on cloud nine as he walked towards the locker room. He tried not to let the image of some of the participants who had started to cry get to him. He had worked very hard to recover from his broken leg and believed he earned it. The noise in the locker room was chaos some of the kids decided that they would just shower at home and took off with their backpacks and school uniform in hand while still wearing their gym clothes. Jon on the other hand grabbed a bar of soap and a towel from his locker and started walking towards the showers.

The week had been topsy-turvy at home, what with his parents being home and doing most of the packing, Jon and Conner had been responsible for their room. Conner was no help with the chore since he was comfortable with just dumping everything willy-nilly in whatever box or bag was near him. Jon had found a pizza crust in the bag where their blankets were folded in, well at least Jon’s blankets had been folded, the argument that proceeded that had not been pretty. So, Jon had been taking advantage of having a somewhat relaxing shower after tryouts instead on traversing the stressful, disorganized mess that was soon to be his old home.

Once finished he walked towards his locker, trying to dry his hair with one hand while the other held on to the slippery bar of soap. The locker rooms were basically silent. Almost everyone had left, those few had gathered in groups and talked about where they were going to hangout as they gathered their stuff and walked out the locker room. Distracted, he slipped and squeezed the bar of soap too tight. Jon watched the white bar fly up into an arc and over a row of lockers, his amazement turned to horror as he heard a smack and a yell of surprise. He rushed around the row of lockers spotting the bar on the floor. He ran towards it; the sound of his flip-flops smacked the floor loudly. Holding onto the towel around his waist he picked up the soap and looked at the huddled figure in front of him.

“I’m so sorry!” Jon reached towards the other teenager, but a hand shot out grabbing his wrist and yanking him so that his bare back hit the lockers, his arm pinned over his head while the other clutched the bar of soap to his chest.

“What the fuck!” Damian seethed, damp hair falling over his forehead.

Jon’s eyes widened in surprise. Damian boxed him against the lockers forcing Jon to bend his knees slightly so that Damian was slightly towering over him. Jon could see his nostrils flare but he could also see that Damian was only wearing his white school shirt and a pair of black boxers. His shirt was unbuttoned and Jon had to try very hard not to look at his bare chest, he also let go of the bar of soap opting to hold on to the towel around his waist. The bar made a clattering noise as it hit the ground.

“Why do you keep hitting me over the head with shit?” Damian hissed glaring down at him.

“I-I…” Jon couldn’t form a coherent thought, Damian was inches away from Jon’s nose. Way too close, closer than anyone had ever been, to his naked body. He could feel Damian’s breath, smell the mint of toothpaste and he could not look away from those very angry green orbs.

“Dames?” A voice called from somewhere towards the locker room entrance. Damian looked up tsked and pushed away from Jon hurriedly buttoning his shirt and pulling on the school uniform slacks.

“Coming!” He called, his eyes narrowed at Jon who stood staring at him with large blue eyes and clutching his wrist. Damian grabbed his bag, ruffled through it and threw the item he found on the bench behind him. “Put that on your wrist.” He commanded and left, slamming his locker door shut.

Jon picked up the item and examined it. It was an icy hot patch.

[nekole-doodles]

For today's DMSP AU, Imma talk about my Fullmetal Alchemist DSMP AU, one of my many AU mash-ups! Here we go!

Obviously, this is heavily based on Fullmetal Alchemist(The original manga plot and the FMA: Brotherhood series btw) so here are some of the roles the characters have:

Tommy - Edward Elric: They both have similar personalities but one is tall while the other is made fun of for being short which is hilarious in my opinion :) Also, Tommy joined the military when he was 12-14 and he's currently 16.

Ranboo - Alphonse Elric: I had to think about this one a lot since Tommy and Ranboo wouldn't be blood brothers like in the original and Ranboo would not be a suit of armor. Ranboo is the adopted brother of Tommy and they're still really close. Ranboo's soul was transferred into a sort of large organic doll/chimera that was the experiment of Phil(who takes the place of Von Hohenheim, I'll get to him in a bit). It's basically a lot like C! Ranboo's body but it's incredible durable/has tough skin(as in bulletproof), can't digest food(the body will reject and Ranboo would end up having to spit it out), can't sleep, and can't feel anything(he can hear, see, and smell, but not taste, feel pain/feel anything physical). His original body is basically Ranboo in real life but younger. The body Ranboo's soul is in has a lot of complexities to it that will be explained for another time.

Tubbo - Winry: He's an automail mechanic, it suits him. He also won't hesitate to clonk Tommy's head with a wrench if Tommy gets careless with his automail. He's surprisingly strong(as in probably being able to pick Tommy up and throw him) and hates feeling powerless despite always being left powerless.

Phil - Von Hohenheim: Still immortal and still left his family. Tommy doesn't like Phil because he left them but Ranboo feels more neutral about Phil. Basically like in the original FMA. Phil's wife is, of course, Kristin(RIP). He also doesn't have wings. Idk what else to say for Phil, he's really similar to C! Phil and Von Hohenheim.

Wilbur(not related to cc! Wilbur) - Roy Mustang: It just fits so well in my brain. His title is the Dynamite Alchemist and yes, he is sane. He's a lot like L'manberg era Wilbur but much less naive since he's seen what war is. ALSO, his uniform is extremely similar to the L'manberg military uniform in C! DSMP(but without the hat), I just really like that idea :)))) He and Tommy have a similar relationship as Ed and Roy in FMA but if you added more friendship and fondness because I love Crimeboys in AUs and DSMP :]

Techno - Scar: I debated VERY HARD on this one between Techno taking the role of Scar or General Armstrong/Olivier Armstrong because both fit so well for me. In the end, I decided on Scar but with a different backstory. Techno is a piglin hybrid because I added hybrid races to this world. So far, there are Enderians(I'll talk about them more in another post) and Piglins but there might be more. Techno is an anarchist still and he's very strong and good in combat. I still haven't figured out how he'll gain the destructive alchemy ability but I know that at some point, he'll be able to do more reconstruction, even being able to change the physical appearance of a person(that'll be elaborated on later). Techno did not kill Tubbo's parents btw, so Tommy doesn't have as much anger towards him besides the fact he keeps trying to kill state alchemists and succeeding most of the time. When Tommy and Techno had to work together, they had some surprisingly nice joking moments but it still took a while for Tommy to be comfortable around him since, y'know, Techno tried killing him on several occasions. I think he'll still have the voices which will be a major part of his backstory that I'm still piecing together.

Okay, it's late and I'm tired so that's all you're getting right now.

[armpirate]

UNDER HIS SKIN || JJK || Ch. 40 (Finale)

Pairings: tattoist!jk x fem!reader

Genre: smut, angst, friends to lovers, tattoo au, virgin reader.

Summary: They say there are two versions for every story, and it's important to hear both of them. Everybody is hearing your side of the story, but it's just fair to get to know his.

After breaking up with his girlfriend, the only thing he wanted was to have fun with no attachment. You wanted to get rid of your virginity, and he wanted to tick you off his list. What he didn't expect was getting so emotionally attached to you that he would regret the deal.

Previous

MASTERLIST

Aprox. time of reading: 12 minutes

*One year later*

I look back after a few minutes of feeling I'm talking on my own, finding Y/n at the bottom of the stairs while she's holding her side and fighting her own body to be able to start breathing properly. She isn't going to make any more efforts to reach where I am. I know it by the way she's looking around to find the perfect place to sit and regain some strength. 

Instead of leaving her by herself, I start walking down to where she is, tilting my head while looking at her with a funny smile, thinking of something to say to piss her off. 

—See why you need to work out with me?

—I'm fine like this, thank you —she answers, breathless—. Besides, it's not like, back in New York, I'll do something that will make me feel like my lung is escalating my throat. 

She throws her head back, as if that way the air would get through her nose better, while her hands are cupped on her hips. 

—Do you need some water or anything? —I attempt to take the bag on my back, but she quickly shakes her hand and head.

—No, it's alright. Let's go —she encourages me.

But instead of leading the way again, or following her, I stop her. She looks at me confused, and even scoffs when I take off the bag and hand it to her. 

—I know I said I was okay, but is it really necessary? —she whines— What wrong did I do to you to deserve this?

Instead of answering right away, I walk past her, getting one step behind her so she's slightly taller than me. Her hand quickly squeezes my shoulder when I turn around, my back facing her while I wait for her to hop on my back. 

—Love, I'm okay already.

—And you'll be close to passing out in a matter of five seconds —I tease her—. And if we keep stopping, we'll get there by midnight. And it's already late enough. 

—It'll be hard for you to get to the tower if I hop on your back —she mutters.

—Cocktease, you weigh nothing. I'll handle it —I assure her.

—I promise I'll be able to get up there by myself —she assures me again.

—Babe —I stop her—, just get on my back. You know I won't move from here until you do. 

She sighs, finally giving in. And when I look over my shoulder, I see her hanging the bag before she gets ready to jump on my back. I squeeze her thighs when I feel their warmth around my waist, looking up to her right after to give her a comforting smile. 

—This is so cruel —she comments, as we start making our way back to the top. 

—You're acting like you're forcing me —I chuckle—. Also, you're feeling bad about this, but not about the time you made me get up at five in the morning to pick you up from the airport?

—You said you didn't mind —she whines again—. I told you I could've picked up a cab back home, but you insisted.

—Babe, I was messing with you. I spent all night awake because I couldn't wait to see you. 

The more experience she got in the gallery, the more Jin trusted her to do trips all over the country -and even overseas- to make deals with different artists, or just to buy a painting he wanted to expose. And every time she leaves, although it's only for a few days, we always spend most of the time stuck to our phones.

I have the feeling we speak even more during those times she's away, but also the reunion is so special every time our eyes meet when I pick her up. Whoever sees us at the airport would think we've been months without seeing each other, and that we aren't living together at all back in New York City. 

—I'll give a good back massage to the birthday boy when we get to the hotel tonight —she kisses my cheek. 

—Just a back massage?

—Whatever my boy wants —she kisses my cheek again. 

I end up regretting ever coming up with the idea of picking her up to the top. It's true I can carry her easily, but not while trying to go upstairs to a place I barely was able to get to without losing my breath a few times. Although it's all worth it when I feel her squeezing my shoulders with her arms while managing to give small pecks on my temple randomly. 

The city of Seoul has never looked as pretty as it is right now that she's looking at it from the top with a bright smile. After putting my hands inside the pocket of my leather jacket, I open it and hug her from behind, covering part of her body with the fabric. 

—I'm so happy to be here with you —she confesses, eyes still fixed on the small lights in the buildings far away. 

And while I'd want to answer back straight away, I get lost on her side profile and the way her eyes are shining even brighter than the lights lighting up the place. 

—I'm definitely happier.

She frowns when she hears me saying that, turning to me for a brief second before her eyes go back to the landscape. 

—You always have to win —she pretends to be annoyed, rolling her eyes with her comment. 

—I won with you though —I kiss her neck—. You've given me the best year of my life. 

—And there's many more ahead —she assures me—. Together though. Because if you leave, you'll be miserable. 

—Who says?

—You won't? —when she turns to me, she looks upset. 

—Babe, I was messing around —I try to hug her back, but she steps back. 

—So you're saying you won't feel sad if we ever break up? That's what I am to you? Someone you can get over?

—It's not like that...

Everything I was getting ready to say, all the comforting words I was going to air out to calm her down and make her feel good, got stuck in my throat when I saw her mischievously smiling at me. 

—I was kidding —she playfully pushes me—. I thought this was the best place to pull a scene. It's very k-drama-like. 

—Remember me to stop you from watching any of those shows when we get back home —I beg her. 

—You should've seen your face —she cackles, pointing at me—. You were like "It's not like that".

Her features exaggerate to mock mine, before they go back to their nature as she laughs and giggles at my reaction. And even if she's being the most annoying right now, I can't help but smile right now. 

—I was just messing with you, love —she squeezes my side with two of her fingers—. Besides, I still had to get back at you for what you did to me at the hospital.

—You still remember that? —my eyes open wide at her confession.

—Of course I do. I was worried about you, and you were playing around with something so delicate. Who in their sane mind would do something like that?

—How can you be so rancorous? 

—I'm not.

—And you bring this up on my birthday? —I raise my eyebrow— What was even the reason for it? You thought it was fun?

—Kook —she tries to reach for my hand—, I was just messing around. I didn't want to upset you.

She doesn't have time to finish her own sentence, because she tries to hide her face on my chest while her arms wrap tight around my waist. 

—I didn't want to start anything, seriously —I hear her whining. 

—Gotcha, baby —I whisper in her ear—. You really thought you'd get at a Korean to roleplay a k-drama?

—You asshole —she pushes me away suddenly, annoyed at my comment—. I was feeling bad for you.

—I know. Your voice started shaking like it always does when you get nervous —I move my thumb over her lower lip, but Y/n moves her head away—. You know I love you, even if your rancorous ass messes things up. 

I forced her in for a hug, hiding her face back on my chest while I wrap my arms around her tight to keep her from stepping away. 

—I'm not.

—Shh, baby. It's okay —I play with her hair—. I love you anyways. 

—You know I'm really considering what are the pros of loving you right now —she answers, still not hugging me. 

—I'm husband material —I whisper—. I cook, I clean, I'm attentive, I'm cute and sexy, I fuck you just about right...

—Yeah, and you're so humble, too. Don't forget that. 

We both just giggle at the same time I sway her body in my arms, encouraging her to wrap her arms around me under the jacket. I hear her breathing deeply, calming herself down at the same time my palm finds its way to her nape. 

—I do really really love you though —she finally whispers. 

—I do really really love you, too, cocktease —I kiss her forehead—. Thank you for being around and sharing your life with me. 

—I know I don't say it a lot, but you make me feel really lucky —I can feel her smiling against my chest—. You made all the wait worth it, almost as if I was destined to meet you at Tae's pub. I can't imagine what my life would be like if you hadn't been there, and I don't want to know. 

—Thank you for letting me under your skin, cocktease —I whisper.

She scoffs at that comment, hiding her face even more -if possible- on my body. It's not like we hated our guts from the very beginning, but I can't imagine how things would've worked if we hadn't had all those small bickerings we had at the beginning.

Probably we wouldn't be here right now. 

—Babe —she calls me.

—Hmm?

—Why don't we get married?

The way she so casually drops the question makes me step back to be able to look at her and make sure she isn't joking. She actually seems serious. Or, more like, neutral. As if she hadn't asked something so serious. 

—Married? Married like...

—Soo and Mark —she shrugs—. Married with papers and rings, and the whole ceremony, yes. 

I squint my eyes, still thinking she's pulling another joke at me. 

—Your parents are living in New York, and my parents aren't so far away either. Or, like your mother said, we could do it somewhere in between so it's equal for everybody. 

—You talked about this with my mother? 

—She was the one who brought it up a few months ago —she confesses.

While I try to process the fact that my mother and Y/n are so close to be discussing this without my knowing about it, I see she's still talking about it. 

—I also talked about this with your father —I interrupt her—. And we even found the perfect place for it. 

—You talked about this with my father? —she mirrors my previous reaction. 

—It was during one of those barbecues a few weeks ago. I told him how serious I was about you, and asked him how he would feel if we ever decided to go further. We're already living together, you know, so the next step would be to make it completely official. And he said there was no one else he could imagine you ending up with, and then he started giving me all those ideas on how to propose and stuff. 

—So we both had this conversation with each other's parents —she sums up. 

—What was your conclusion?

—I do want to marry you —she nods, smiling big while those words left her lips. 

—I do want to marry you, too —I'm unable to hold back my lips from curving—. We need to start saving money. 

—Yeah, maybe it'd be a better idea to have this conversation in a few months. We're still recovering from the car, and also the trip. Let's give it two or three months.

I hug her again while chuckling.

—Do you realize how unromantic this was? 

—It wasn't the official proposal. This doesn't count —she assures me—. Today we'll focus on something else. 

I don't know what she's talking about when she unhangs the bag from her back, looking for something in it. Although I fight to control my expression when she turns around with a candle lit on a Bungeoppang.

So this is what she wanted it for. 

—Make a wish, birthday boy —she encourages me. 

I look into her eyes, seeing my whole future in them while I think what's the best wish I could ask for right now. 

Let's have a healthy life together, cocktease.

After I blow the candle, she takes it away from the pastry and hands it to me. I've mentioned several times how much I loved this when I was living here, and how I'd lose count of how much money I've spent buying this whenever I wanted a snack, so I'm not surprised she bought it before we got here to celebrate my special day. 

—I don't know if the owner of the shop found me ridiculous or endearing while trying to speak Korean, but...

—Thank you, cocktease.

I eat half of it, because I know that Y/n will probably want the other half once she tastes it -even if she never even thinks of asking, because this is supposedly for me only. We hold hands, walking around the place until we see all the locks hanging on the walls. 

I remember when I was younger I always thought I'd do this with my girlfriend, and that that would mean I'd be with that person forever, but not a single time since I started dating I ever thought of seriously putting a lock here with neither of the girls I dated. It might seem dumb for some, but there's a reason why you close the lock and throw away the key. That love should last forever, just like some of the locks here have been hanging for decades. There's no point of making such a promise with someone you aren't sure you will end up with. 

She squeezes my fingers, that are intertwined with hers, getting my attention back on her.

—We didn't propose, but let's hang a lock —she seems so excited while saying it.

—As an unofficial proposal? —she quickly nods at my question. 

—This is our ring in Korea —she brings up the lock she used for her suitcase—. I'll buy a new one tomorrow —she adds, aware of the way I'm smiling. 

—This is the unofficial promise that we will get married.

—When we have more money —she adds. 

We both find the right spot, managing to hang the lock together and closing it. Inevitably, I end up hugging her from the back when we're done, walking with her up close while she just giggles and cackles at how clingy I am. 

—Let's get to the hotel —I whisper in her ear. 

She suddenly stops before we can even make our way to the stairs, back to the route where we came from and turns her head at me. 

—But let's take the car cable now, please. 

And while she sits next to me in the car cable, I'm aware of what love is like. It's the understatement of the small gestures that show how much you know that person, and the actions that lead to make that person happy when you fill their needs without them having to say a word. It's on how the space seems so filled with their energy, that you don't need anyone else but that person. And it took me so long, but I finally found the person I'm able to feel that way with. She always manages to make me feel all types of emotions, so passionately and intensely that sometimes I even doubt they're real. 

She's the love of my life. I know. 

I will just be forever grateful I got to annoy her to the point of getting under her skin, but also having her under mine with no previous warning. 

Thank you all so much for all the support and love you've shown to this story!!

[halfratsalready]

Help me figure out what fic to write next! ✨

I feel like I’m in a weird limbo after finishing the first arc of the Lose Yourself series and I have a few ideas floating around in my head for what to write next (after the Wanderrose fic exchange, at least), but I have no clue which one to focus on.

So if you happen to like my silly little stories and want a say in what my next fic is, I’ve got some ideas and a poll below the cut! 💕

Idea I: Dark & Angsty Murder Mystery 🔪

I've discussed this one on here before so it might sound slightly familiar, but this would basically be Angst: The Fanfic. If you thought any of the Lose Yourself series was angsty, this fic is probably 10x worse. Part of me worries it's a little bit too dark to be a Just Dance fic. Multiple murders (though not described in detail), an intense attempted murder (that is described in relative detail), and some of that patented Night Swan mind control, plus some supernatural elements later on. But also a sizeable portion of it is Brezziana and Disocball playing detective and trying to solve a rash of murders, which should be very fun, in a weird and kinda dark sorta way.

Wanderrose ft. best friends Jack & Brezziana. Also featuring Discoball, Sara, Mihaly, Mothigan, Cygnus, Felicia, Boss Witch, Si'Ha Nova, and Agent D

I have the first chapter and a half written of this one already. It would be 9 chapters total.

Idea II: Angsty Jack-Centric Post-JD24 Fic 🥀

This is an idea I've had for a while but haven't really gotten around to properly outlining. This is based on my theory of sorts that Night Swan exploited the wrong weakness when targeting Jack in Dance With the Swan, where she realizes after the events of JD24 that she hadn't done it right and approaches it from a different angle. Basically just a lot of Jack-centric angst, a lot of Night Swan & Jack interactions, and a world where Treasure Jack may or may not actually become more than just an illusion...

A lot of Night Swan & Jack but definitely featuring at least some Wanderrose. Also featuring the Just Dancers, Si'Ha Nova, and the Traveler, and maybe some others.

I haven't even outlined this one yet, so I have no idea how long it would be.

Idea III: Significantly Less Angsty & More Random Self-Indulgent AU (Actually a "Silly Little" Fic This Time, For the Most Part, at Least) ✨

I've been toying with the idea lately of an AU where Leda and Sara were sisters on earth and Sara has been searching for her sister. I think it would be fun to do some intentional canon divergence (and not just have my fics' canon be derailed by a new event). There's a few directions I've considered taking this in, including Jack ending up on earth (there's like two or three ways for that one to happen and like two or three directions I could take it in) or Sara's adventures in the Danceverses just going really differently.

Still a lot I'm not sure about with this one but it's been bouncing around my head since Night Swan: The Prequel dropped, so here we are. Definitely would have Wanderrose cuz they own my heart.

The Poll

I have no idea which idea I really wanna commit to following through on first. Every time I think I'm leaning towards one, I end up leaning towards another. So I'm throwing these out there in the hopes that a few of you will be able to help me out with your opinion!

If you wanna share your thoughts in the comments or reblogs also, I’d love to hear what you have to say, so I don’t have to wait the whole week for the poll to finish to be able to see which idea(s) is/are getting the most interest!

[one-idea]

HIII it's me again :D glad to hear you're doing well!! I hope life is being kind to you <3

of course, take your time to get to this part of the story!! I hope you end up liking sabo as well !! and get ready for the heartbreak of marineford... no really, get a few tissues because there are gonna be tears

coming back to the au, your ideas continue to amaze me, I swear I had this exact expression of shock 😲 reading everything, ITS SO GOOD !!! it's very in character for whitebeard to want to take responsability of blackbeard's actions and appear to help luffy, and of course shanks is going to help his boy (also, don't wanna spoil too much, but he gets there late for reasons and IMAGINE him seeing he failed to protect the sweet boy he was confident would become the new king of the pirates, that he passed his precious hat to... he'd be blaming himself so hard and I'm here for it!)

now that's pretty much what happens in canon, but throw in the revolutionary army in the mix?? PERFECTION !!! of course Dragon would want to save his son, so it'd make sense for him to send some people to help, and who better than the boy he trained himself, sabo? there's no way that could go wrong, right ^^ (it's going to go terribly!)

the idea of sabo meeting with his brothers but not recognizing them... acting like strangers... then gaining back his memories... being right there seeing with his own eyes when it all goes down and not being able to do anything about it, to save his little brother (who he's just starting to remember is his little brother at all)... and worse, thinking he lost BOTH of them at once, right when he got his memory of them back... I'm going insane just thinking about it !!! the guilt this boy feels in canon is already off the charts, imagine in this scenario in which he was THERE and still it didn't change a thing and his baby brother died right in front of him??? he's gonna be consumed by it, probably won't feel worthy of daring to show his face to ace after everything and trying to isolate himself to wallow on his guilt and self-hatred... we love emotionally unstable blorbos in this house!! god help koala and olivia who will have to deal with this mess. and then sabo and ace will have no choice but to meet in dressrosa and that's! gonna be fun! not for them... but for us it will!

THE KOBYFICATION OF DEUCE. YOUR BRAIN IS HUGE!!!! THIS IS GENIUS!!! deuce running his anti marine propaganda newspaper is so important to me... him joining the revolutionary army... it's everything I could ever ask for... and the acedeuce beloveds... with the added bonus of that awkward moment when your coworker/boss is your crush's brother AND your crush's mother figure is also your coworker and hears you gush about him

isuka mention !!! she's such a cutie, glad to see she's here too !! also her taking the role of ace's marine rival is just perfect

sorry I got way too excited with this but your au is just way too amazing <3 thank you once more for sharing your ideas!!

🐝

I’m so sorry I took so long to respond to this.

I’m very afraid of getting to Marineford. My mental health can’t deal with the stress at the moment.

But yes you get it. Sabo and Ace working together to save Luffy without realizing it.

Like Ace just wants to get Luffy out of Impel down and this masked loser is slowing him down. How dare he!

Meanwhile Sabo has the biggest headache (particularly from his memories trying to resurface) because Ace is the most reckless person to ever live. He’s going to get them caught! Stop attacking everyone!

These two just can’t work together because Ace is in panic mode and this person who is only here to save Luffy because Dragon sent him can’t possibly understand the stress Ace is under. How important Luffy is.

Sabo (at the time) doesn’t get it. He needs to get his bosses son out of here. He gets that his adopted older brother is emotional but just calm down and think!

Later Sabo, with all of his memories will look back at this time and wonder. If I had let Ace rush it. If we were both fighting desperately for our little brother, could we have gotten to Luffy in time?

Even later when the meet at Dressrosa and Ace puts together just who the Masked loser in impel down was. When he realizes it was Sabo who “slowed him down” (kept him alive!) he has no idea how to feel. Enraged (why didn’t Sabo care about Luffy) confused (this couldn’t be their brother) desperate (one of his brothers is here, he’s not alone) upset (where was Sabo the past two years? Past 12? Ace needed him! Luffy needed them!) and fury (Luffy will never get to be with both his big brothers every again. He died think Sabo was gone)

Needless to say Ace has a lot of BIG feelings the day Sabo walks back into his life.

Back to Deuce!

I love him so much. His anti-marine paper is so important to me to. Like his dream is to be a writer. Let him write. Let him tell the world exactly what the Marines and pirates do. Let him tell the world about liberated countries and the injustices of the world government.

People say he’s afraid to show his face and that’s why he wears a mask and uses a fake name. But Deuce has never been more himself. He’s never been truer to himself than when he goes by the name Ace gave him.

He tells everyone how amazing the reverse strawhats are. And you best believe when Ace’s lineage gets out he’s writing about not only Ace’s character (how he saves people because he wants to, how no man should be judged by who their father is) but he’s doing his research on the original pirate king and just destroying all the lies the world government circulated about him. The public conscious changes. Roger’s wasn’t a horrible person, in fact he helped a lot of people. And even if he wasn’t should they really hold a son accountable for his father?

(This is after Luffy’s death and you best believe Deuce dragged the Marines for filth over that. The public knows Luffy as a 16 almost 17 year old who never left his home island. Sure he was a bit wild but everyone liked him. He never hurt anyone. And yet the government killed him because of what his father, who he never met, had done. Deuce ran them over the coals. He couldn’t stop what happened at Marineford. The revs wouldn’t even let him go to fight (he was to important by then) but he’s not going to have the last picture Ace has of his little brother be the one the papers ran with Luffy dying in Ace’s arms. Every piece he writes about Luffy he tries to find an old photo from Dawn island or Dragon’s surveillance to attach to the article. It drives home that he was just a boy, while also giving Ace new picture of his precious brother to cherish.

Speaking of Acedeuce. Deuce suffers those two years Nico Olive is there. It’s already awkward enough that Sabo, who has heard him talk about how down bad he is for Ace for two years, turns out to be Ace’s brother. But Nico Olivia? He never knows peace.

On one hand it’s nice. She helps him write his pieces about Luffy. (Ace told a lot of stories during their 3 years together) in exchange she gets a nice copy of every picture they find of Luffy and Ace from Dragon’s surveillance (he definitely had people watching over his boy) she collects them to give to Ace when they reunite.

On the other hand, she is relentless. Constantly teasing Deuce about his crush. (She’s met him before. In the early days of his paper before he was recruited by the Revs.) constantly asking when he was going to ask her captain out? When the wedding would be? Should he be joining the crew once they were official?

Deuce thinks she’s just teasing him. And he could live with it, if she didn’t make it sound like Ace wanted him to. (Baby is in hard core denial that his feelings could be returned)

Nico Olivia does not see herself as cruel. She is asking honest questions. To her (and the crew) Ace’s crush on Deuce was obvious. The question was never Ace’s feelings but Deuce’s though Olivia knew from the way Deuce wrote about Ace that he must have feelings for her captain, it was nice to have it confirmed by the other Revs. (Koala makes fun of Deuces crush at all times, especially now that it makes Sabo squirm because that’s HIS big brother they are talking about!) to Olivia she can’t see why the two boys wouldn’t get together. (After Ace has had time to grieve and process his loss of course)

Her captain deserves good things. He early lets himself want, believing he does not deserve the goodness of the world. Olivia violently disagrees. She wants her boy happy. And Deuce is a great young man who would make her boy happy. Sure she might be a little pushy, but she’s not getting any younger. Excuse her for wanting to see her kids get married before she dies. (She’s not dying anytime soon, but she will use guilt to her advantage if it will make these two knuckle heads get it together sooner rather than later)

[runningfrom2am]

achilles heel - III: getting a head start

summary:

Grace is the very opposite of her brother in every way. when she finally moves onto campus at UNC Chapel Hill, she feels like she gets to be her own person, make her own friends, and hopefully start a promising career in the museum industry, and maybe, one day, get married to her high school sweetheart and live the American dream for herself. Rafe Cameron however, upon their very first meeting, throws a wrench in her very perfect plan.

tags/warnings:

rafe cameron x fem!oc, rafe is giving very much homewrecker, fanon!rafe (kinda), college!au, friends to lovers, slow-burn (maybe?), minimal oc description, drug and alcohol use, mostly unedited, (these tags are not exhaustive, lmk if i should add anything!)

wc: 1.9k

my master list

series masterlist

requests

January 6th, 2019

Grace pulled herself out of bed three hours before her eight am class the next morning, giving herself ample time to have a shower and get ready to go eat breakfast with her brother before class. Today was a bit of a treat, because Nate had an eight-thirty class in the building next to hers, and had the chance to eat with her and walk her to class.

She knocked on his dorm door when she was all ready, holding onto her coffee mug and stepping back a little bit in anticipation of the door opening. It's only a few moments before it does, her boyfriend smiling down at her. "Good morning, my love." Nate smiles, leaning down to kiss her forehead as he closes the door behind him.

"Morning!" Grace smiles, admiring how his dark eyes compliment his messy brown hair.

"What's on the menu today?" Nate asks as they make their way to the elevator, hand placed low on her back.

"The usual." Grace shrugs, taking a sip of her coffee while they wait for the elevator.

They make their way down to the caf, hand in hand most of the time as Nate goes on and on about his classes, hardly letting Grace get a word in until Ben joins them at their table, internally cursing to himself over having to sit across from this guy that he's never liked.

"Hey, Ben, how are you, buddy?" Nate asks as her brother sits down.

"Fine," Ben replies, clearly already bored as he takes a bite of his cereal.

"What class do you have this morning? You never get up this early." Nate jokes.

"Uh, history 120? I'm in Grace's class. Figured you'd know that." Ben grumbles, looking down at his phone.

"Oh! Right. Yes." Nate nods, looking over at his girlfriend. "How's that one going?"

"It's good! We're talking about some really interesting stuff already, we've got this one book to read and I'm already on-" Grace starts explaining excitedly, reaching into her bag under the table to grab it out to show him.

"Oh, Ben, I heard engineering got invited to your frat's opener this weekend. I think it'll be fun." Nate interrupts her, and Ben freezes as he looks between the two of them. Grace looks disappointed, but like she wasn't going to finish anyways. She's used to this, her boyfriend just gets distracted so easily. Most times she finds it cute, but not so much as of late. She always just figured it was a symptom of his high IQ, which he does love to talk about as well. It drives Ben up the wall, and it always has.

"Dude- she was talking to you." Ben says, pointing his spoon at his sister. "But yeah, fuck it. I guess it'll be fun." He shakes his head as he speaks, hunched over with his elbows on the table as he continues to eat.

"Oh, yeah, sorry, Love. Continue." Nate smiles at her and watches her eyes light up again, holding the book out to him and he takes it, quickly skimming through it.

"So, yeah I'm already about halfway through it. It's incredibly fascinating, being able to look into one person's life on such a deep and analytical level when their world was so far removed from how we live today." Grace grins, and Ben rolls his eyes. Not because he's upset with her, but because he's frustrated that she doesn't see that this guy is a dick to her.

"Oh, yeah. I read this in high school. It's quite interesting." Nate agrees, handing the book back to her. "They're teaching this in university? Seems a little juvenile."

"Well, it is a first-year course." Grace shrugs, putting the book back in her bag. Ben is practically seething at this point. His sister is so smart- it frustrates him to no end that she doesn't, at least noticeably, understand that her boyfriend is talking down to her.

"Let's go, we're gonna be late," Ben grumbles, chugging the rest of his milk out of the bowl and standing up.

Nate looks at his watch, furrowing his brow. "Ben, we have like half an hour before your class starts and it's only a twelve-minute walk away." He says but Ben is already walking off to put his dirty bowl away.

"I'll just grab a refill on my coffee and we'll go." Grace smiles at him, standing up and kissing the side of his head. "I'll be right back."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･

They make their way to class, with Grace struggling to keep up with the two taller boys who just tend to walk a lot faster. She does notice, though, that Ben is moving quicker than normal.

"This is us," Grace says, stopping in front of the door while Ben just walks straight in, sitting in the back row that is almost empty since they still have fifteen minutes before class starts. He blocks off the two seats next to him with his bag and his coat, waiting for you to come in and for Rafe to show up.

It's a few minutes of Grace and Nate chatting in the hallway before Rafe shows up, brushing past them and saying a quick 'hi' to Grace before joining her brother in the back row.

"Morning." Rafe yawns, handing Ben his coat and sitting in the now empty seat.

"Morning," Ben mumbles back. "How'd you sleep? You sound tired."

"Alright." Rafe shrugs in response. "I was up late doing the readings." He explains, making his friend raise an eyebrow at him.

"You did those?"

"Well, yeah. I figured I'd at least try to keep up with the workload this semester." Rafe replies, digging his laptop and books out of his bag.

"Did you hear we invited the engineering guys to our party?" Ben asks, pushing his tongue against the inside of his cheek.

Rafe adjusts in his seat and shakes his head. "No, uh, I didn't know that." He clears his throat, grabs his water bottle, and quickly takes a sip.

"Yeah. Nate said he's coming. Which fucking sucks." Ben whispers, leaning closer so Grace or her boyfriend can't hear from the hall.

"Why?" Rafe asks. "I mean, I know you don't love that guy but I don't know shit about him so fill me in."

"He's fine." Ben sighs, shaking his head and glancing back towards the hallway. "He's just such a dick. I don't even think Grace can see it because he's like, brainwashed her into thinking he's a gift from God or some shit. It's annoying. He is like, only physically capable of talking and thinking about himself. It's actually impressive."

"Sounds like an asshole." Rafe looks back at the door as well, seeing Nate kiss Grace goodbye as she slips in the door. ‘Maybe he should ask Ben for her number after all, if he hates her boyfriend so much’ Rafe thinks to himself as she walks up, and he can’t help but admire the way her black jeans are hugging her thighs just right and her orange sweater drapes over her almost like a blanket. She looks comfortable.

"Hey!" Grace smiles at the two, way too cheery for eight am. Ben quickly moves his books and she sits down on the other side of him.

"Hey, Grace." Rafe smiles at her. "Was that Nate?" He asks, sharing a brief look with Ben as she pulls everything out of her bag and places her coffee on the desk.

"Yeah, he's got a class in E building at eight-thirty." She explains.

"He seems cool." Rafe says, nudging his friend who just rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, he's sweet." Grace agrees, nodding. "We've been together for... almost four years now. He's just my person, you know?"

He tries not to laugh as Ben rolls his eyes pretty much into the back of his head, deciding not to say anything. "That's crazy, that's a long time."

"Mhm." Grace nods, looking pleased with herself.

"So, he's coming to our party this weekend, hey?" Rafe asks.

"Yeah, he mentioned it." Grace says, turning to lock eyes with her brother. "You be nice to him, by the way! And I'll find out if you're not."

Ben raises his hands defensively. "When am I not nice to him?"

"You're not coming?" Rafe asks before she gets the chance to berate her brother about it anymore.

"No, no. Frat parties aren't really my thing, believe it or not." Grace says, smiling at him, at this point forgetting about lecturing Ben. "Besides, I've got way too much homework and stuff to do. Oh! Speaking of which, Rafe, did you end up doing the readings?" She asks, wanting to move on and not face any weird pause in the conversation.

"Uh, yeah, I did them." Rafe nods, avoiding Ben's eyes as he looks quickly between them, a confused look plastered over his face.

"I assume it went well since you didn't text me?" Grace smiles. "It wasn't anything complicated luckily, they tend to keep it pretty easy for the first couple weeks."

"Well, actually, I would have, but I didn't end up getting your number." He replies, shrugging.

"Oh, well, here, give me your phone." She holds her hand out, gesturing for him to pass it over.

Rafe opens his phone and opens a new contact, then passes the phone over.

Grace quickly types in her information, handing it back to him. "There. You're all set now."

"You gonna tutor his dumb ass or something? Good luck." Ben scoffs, shaking his head.

"At least he plans on doing the readings himself. You're the one who just asks me to relay everything for you."

"Yeah. At least I'm trying." Rafe laughs, shoving his friend's shoulder.

"Yeah, whatever man." Ben rolls his eyes, leaning into his elbows on the counter.

"Seriously, though, Grace, you should come this weekend," Rafe says, leaning back so he can see her over her brother's hunched shoulders.

"I'll think about it." She relents. "I don't know if Nate will like that, though. I'll talk to him."

"Woah, wait- why wouldn't he?" Rafe asks, raising an eyebrow at her. 

"Because he just worries about me, you know?" Grace says and Ben mouths the words along with her, rolling his eyes again. They're getting a workout in this morning, apparently.

Rafe rolls his eyes as well this time. "Respectfully, that's a load of shit."

Grace laughs as her jaw drops. "What? Why? It's sweet!"

"He doesn't think you'll be safe? At a party where him and your brother will be? Please." Rafe says, smiling at her, his eyes scanning over her shocked face. This is the first time he's seen her smile like that- he could sit and watch that all day. Not in a weird way, though. Definitely not. He just takes note of how pretty she looks when he makes her laugh. "Sounds to me like he doesn't want you there." He shrugs.

"No way," Grace shakes her head. "It's not like that- he actually likes it when I drink. It's just an environment he knows I'm not super comfortable in."

"Oh, he likes when you drink. Gotcha. Honestly, you're not making a strong argument. All boys love drunk girls." Rafe says, laughing as Ben punches his arm. "Which is another good reason you should come; because there's going to be sorority girls there and you'll need to keep an eye on him." 

"He's not going to cheat on me, Rafe. He would never do that. Especially with a drunk sorority girl- gross." Grace scrunched up her nose as she speaks, shaking her head fervently.

"Okay, fine. Just like, don't tell him you're coming! They're almost always packed- you probably won't even see him." Rafe suggests.

"You really want her to come, huh?" Ben chuckles, shaking his head at his friend. 

Rafe raises his hands defensively. "Listen- I'm just a fan of women doing what they want, not what their boyfriends say they can."

"Don't make this a feminist thing. You're so full of shit."

"Am not!"

"Well, we'll see if I get ahead on my homework. Then maybe I'll come." Grace interrupts their childish argument, opening her notebook as their prof pulls up the first of the slides. 

Rafe mentally applauds himself as Ben stares at his sister in shock, who is already getting a head start on writing down every last word on the screen.

taglist: @newbooksmell777, @tahliac11, @slut4drudy, @madelynie, @angelw33dz, @mutual-mendes (as always reply or message me to be added or removed!)

[beyourownanchor6]

Weekend WIP Game

Tagged by @wikiangela @thewolvesof1998

Rules: List your WIPs below (if you only write one fic at a time, feel free to include future WIPs/ideas!) then answer the following questions. Then, tag as many people as you have WIPs (or more)

WIP List:

active (mostly) wips

—murder!boyfriends

—chris doesn't come back au

—baseball au 2.0

—prision!buddie

other wips that are in the abandoned wips folder...maybe i'll return to them one day...

—author!buck

—insurgent au

—platonic fwb

—fwb buck 1.0.2 au

2. Which of your WIPs is currently the longest?

—chris doesn't come back au (a little shy of 14k)

3. Which WIP do you expect will end up the longest?

—probably chris doesn't come back au. i've barely gotten into things and am already at almost 14k 💀

4. Which WIP is your favorite to write/the most enjoyable to write? Why?

—hmm i'm actually having so much fun writing the murder!boyfriends au! i just love making them unhinged 😈

5. Which WIP do you find the most intimidating to write? Why?

—probably the murder!boyfriends, just bc it is so dark, and i don't want people to hate it. idk i'm afraid i won't be able to pull it off 😩

6. Which WIP do you experience the most self-doubt about. Why?

—the author!buck one. it was just a silly little idea, but writing all the smutty parts for it became kind of intimidating and i ended up hating it and throwing it to the side. i haven't looked back since

7. Which of your WIPs will you seek out a beta/sensitivity reader for? Why?

—i've never used a beta reader tbh. i usually just send my friends snippets or things for vibe checks!

8. Have any of your WIPs been struck by the curse of writer's block?

—see above the abandon wips, or any of the ones you haven't seen me posting about lately 🥲

9. Which WIP has your favorite OC? Tell us about them?

—i don't have any OC atm, but i would love to play with that in the future!

10. Which WIP is the sexiest?

—hmm probably the author!au from what i remember or murder!boyfriends just bc i think them being covered in blood and stabbing ppl is sexy 🙊

11. Which WIP is the angstiest?

—chris doesn't come back au. its a pretty heavy one. i love all the threats i get whenever i post a new snippet 😆

12. Which WIP has the best characterization (in your humble opinion)?

—hmmm maybe the chris doesn't come back au? i've had to really deep dive into both their heads for this one

13. Which WIP has the best scene setting (in your humble opinion)?

—chris doesn't come back au bc tsunami episodes my most beloved, but also murder!boyfriends, bc the dark settings are so fun to conjure up!

14. Which WIP have you worked the hardest on?

—chris doesn't come back au. it's the one i've put the most time and effort into as of late. she's been in my ideas for forever and has a special place in my heart <33

15. Which WIP do you have the highest expectations for? Why?

—chris doesn't come back au, mainly for the reason above. she's my babygirl, ok 🥹

16. Do you dream about any of your WIPs?

—mm not that i can specifically think of or remember, but i'm sure i have at some point!

17. Do any of your WIPs have particular complexities that that your other fics don't?

—murder!boyfriends is definitely darker than anything i've done before

18. Which WIP is the funniest or has the most humor?

—author!buck is the only one that comes to mind

19. Do any of your WIPs contain outside POVs or a deep dive on a character other than the main ship? How are you finding that process?

—not currently. i've played around a little with that in the past though. it's always fun diving into others heads!

20. Tell us one thing we don't know about one or more of your WIPs

—i do have a secret wip not listed anywhere above 👀

tagging: @loserdiaz @redlightsandicedtea @honestlydarkprincess @monsterrae1 @onward--upward @barbiediaz @spotsandsocks @buddierights @eddiebabygirldiaz @elvensorceress @witchesdiaz @jacksadventuresinwriting @wh0re-behavi0r @spaceprincessem @wildlife4life @daffi-990 @hippolotamus @giddyupbuck @disasterbuckdiaz

[thatfreshi]

Some thoughts I want to share about the #freshiau

1. I do really love this story, despite the fact that I am in fact very busy, so I apologize that I haven't been able to give it the love I want to consistently. It makes me more and more nervous the longer I'm away from Tumblr to come back and write more. While this is one of my favorite things I've written, I'm a poetry author, a full-time art school student, freelancing and volunteering on film sets, chronically ill, and also just a person who isn't on here all the time. This isn't to like make anyone feel bad for missing my content, but it's just to explain that my absence here has nothing to do with anything about my fanbase of this app, but it's just because I'm a busy creative with a bunch of ventures. Anyways, onto the fun thoughts.

Possible spoilers ahead if you are not caught up to Part 19 of the AU!!!!!!

2. I like this fic particularly because I've been able to take these characters and put them in a situation where their fuck-ups are more forgivable. I don't think anyone in this AU is morally correct 100% of the time, and I know that can be frustrating for some people, but it's important to remember that these are barely adults in their late teens or 20s who are going through a lot of bullshit!! And that's one of my favorite parts about it, is their relationships are constantly evolving because of what they're personally going through and how they react to their friends' problems. For example, Gale and Shadowheart will not hate each other forever! We see this in part 19 as Shadow admits she is just genuinely concerned for Gale's safety and wants her friend back, but Gale throws it back in her face after finding out about her own issues. They do genuinely care for each other, but that fear of what their friend is going through, plus the stress of their own problems, is overwhelming. I really love this dynamic, and I'm excited to watch them be friends again.

3. I feel like some people may not agree with some of my interpretations of the characters, but it's important to remember that they are in an entirely different setting. These characters were originally in a very rough and tough fantasy environment, and now they're in the modern world in a college setting. Their problems are going to be spun differently, and their traits are going to portray themselves differently in a different environment. For example, despite all of Astarion's issues and trauma with Szarr, we see in this universe that he does get to have his own space: the dorm room. In the original BG3, Astarion is never given a space to himself, and therefore has much more fight or flight. Because of this ability to have his own space, he portrays himself differently inside the dorm room, because he gets to have a space that is entirely his. However, before college this wasn't necessarily the case, as we see references to the fact that he lived in his car for a couple of years prior to college. While it was still his own space and he clearly has an attached to it, the evolution of having an abode to himself makes him different in said abode (that cozy, coffee, heavy ass blankets everywhere vibe).

4. As with all my fics, the relationship between Astarion and Tav will not be perfect, but specifically because of their age. Keep in mind, Astarion in the original BG3 is like hundreds of years old, and here he's just about to turn 21. Tav and Astarion have had way less experiences than in their fantasy universe, and have had way less experiences with others. There will be times where these two are not 100% wholesome to each other, because they are two troubled individuals who are getting into a relationship early on in life. While they are well-intentioned with one another, it will get shitty at times, and that's okay! I do promise that there will be wholesome moments, but there's a long road here left to go after a couple of kisses at a Halloween party.

Anyways, I just wanted to discuss some of my thoughts on the series. I cannot currently promise a schedule or anything, but I do plan on continuing this project until otherwise stated. If anyone is curious or has questions about the series, I'd love to talk about it! Discussing my writing is my favorite part of the result. Thanks for staying interested in my stuff, and I hope you guys enjoy where the rest of it goes.

[koreanbibliophilegirl]

(Part 2 of incorrect quotes for my dsmp superpower AU ig)

Also forgot to mention last time, I got half the quotes on this post & ALL of the ones on the post you're currently reading from ScatterPatter's Incorrect Quotes Generator!

Welp yeah that's all, uhhhhhhh enjoy??

-

Punz: Where are you going?

Purpled: To get ice cream or commit a felony, I’ll decide on the way there.

-

Tommy: What the f*ck is wrong with you?!

Wilbur: Wow, you could start with a 'good morning'.

Tommy: Good morning. What the f*ck is wrong with you?!

-

Tommy: Must be hard not being able to laugh.

Techno: I do have a sense of humor you know.

Tommy: I've never heard you laugh before.

Techno: I've never heard you say anything funny.

-

Eret: Go to Hell.

Ant, tearing up: I wish I could.

-

(A younger Phil and teenage Techno talking)

Phil: Jail is no fun. I'll tell you that much.

Techno: Oh, you've been?

Phil: Once. In Monopoly.

-

Eret: God, give me patience.

Ant: I think you mean 'give me strength'.

Eret: If God gave me strength, you'd be dead.

-

Skeppy: You're the love of my life and my best friend, I would do anything for you.

Bad: I want you to eat three meals a day and have a decent sleep schedule.

Skeppy: Absolutely not.

-

Eret: Don’t worry, I have a few knives up my sleeve.

Tina: ?? I think you mean cards?

Foolish: No, she does not.

Eret, pulling out knives: I do not.

-

Purpled: Oh just so you know, it's very muggy outside.

Quackity:

Quackity: Purpled, I swear, if I step outside and all of our mugs are on the front gate entrance path...

Purpled: (Sips coffee from bowl)

-

Wilbur: Am I going too far?

Techno: No, no, no. You went too far about seven years ago. Now you're going to prison.

-

Tommy: You f*ckers don’t know about my knife stick. It’s a knife taped to a stick and it’s the ultimate weapon.

Techno, not looking up from his book: Spear.

Tommy: BLOCKED.

-

Wilbur: You're right.

Techno: That's... That's an unusual phrase for you. Did you just learn it?

-

Purpled: In light of what you did for me, you can hug me for four to five seconds.

Tommy: FORTY FIVE SECONDS?!?

Purpled: No! Four to five seconds!

Tommy: Too late!!!

-

Techno: If there's going to be a big dramatic scene, wait until I get back.

Phil: Of course. I can't flip this table by myself.

-

Dream: Someone will die.

Sapnap: Of fun!

-

Niki: How many kids do you have?

Phil: Biologically, emotionally, or legally?

-

Hannah: I'm 10 times funnier and sexier than you.

Sam: 10 times 0 is still 0 though.

Hannah: Joke's on you, I can't do math.

-

Ranboo: Do you take constructive criticism?

Purpled: I only take cash or credit.

-

Wilbur: So that's my plan.

Kristin: Are you alright with constructive criticism? I don't want to sound mean.

Wilbur: No, go ahead, I want to hear it.

Kristin: It f*cking sucks.

Wilbur: That's not constructive criticism.

-

Niki: I prevented a murder today.

Puffy: Really? How'd you do that?

Niki: self control.

-

Hannah: Look. I may not be a saint, but it's not like I've killed anybody. I'm not an arsonist. I've never found a wallet outside of an IHOP and thought about returning it but saw the owner lived out of state so just took the cash and dropped the wallet back on the ground.

Sam: Okay, that's really specific, and that makes me think that you definitely did do that.

-

Techno: We need a distraction.

Phil: Is anyone here good at jumping up and down and making weird noises?

Clingyduo, whispering: Our time has come.

-

Ranboo: What time is it?

Tommy: I don't know, pass me that saxophone and we’ll find out.

Tommy: (Plays sax loudly and extremely out of tune)

Jack: WHO THE F*CK IS PLAYING THE SAXOPHONE AT TWO IN THE MORNING?!

Ranboo:

Tommy: It’s 2 A.M.

-

Tubbo: What do you think Eryn and Aimsey will do for a distraction?

Ranboo: They'll probably, like, make a noise or throw a rock. That’s what I would do.

(Building explodes and several car alarms go off)

Ranboo: ... Or they could do that.

-

Hannah, trying to ask Tina out: Would you like to stay for dinner?

Connor, hanging upside down from the ceiling: WOULD YOU LIKE TO STAY FOREVER?

-

[Part 1] [Part 3]

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

Good evening,

Just popping in to say hi and check in on how you are doing? I’m really enjoying the pieces you have put forth for your febuwhump! There are all so good and leaving me wanting more and imagining what would happen next. I’m also loving how each piece features a different character I.e Dean, Jensen , or Beau. And especially Beau since we got to see so little of him so I’m enjoying all fics that expand on his character.

Couple of questions.

When ideas spark for a new fic with no specific character in mind. You know you want your reader to be this and dealing with that and have X Y Z happen but it doesn’t matter who is the character, my question is how do you pick. As in how do you decided to make it a Dean, AU Dean, Sam, Soilder boy etc? Do you just choose your favorite or brainstorm the world you want it happen in and then think the idea would fit if better if it was in a world with powers or spn-verse? (I hope that made sense)

Also who is your favorite non Jensen character to write for?

Lastly do you ever go back and just read your own fics for fun or simply to dive back in the world or are you the type of person who doesn’t like to read your own stuff? I find myself personally doing it a lot lately and it makes sense cause I wrote it bc I wanted it and was curious if others did the same.

Hope you are doing well. Thanks for everything!

Hi there! Things have been a little hectic lately! Overall things are good but work's been a wee bit nuts to put it mildly. I've been working late most nights this year (and last) but my boss told me to leave early today which was a win!

The febuwhump drabbles have been fun to work on! They're definitely snapshots in time that could easily keep going. There's one in particular that's not out yet that I think could draw a lot of interest for more 👀 I'm glad I'm able to jump around with the characters! It makes things a little harder which is a good thing to me since it makes me think.

For your first question of how I pick characters for stories, I try to let the plot drive the decision. If it's set in the SPN world, in cannon where the boys are hunters, I generally go with Dean because he's my favorite but also because I feel like I can write him better than say Sam. Now say it was a story about a superhero. Well let's say I've got AU Dean, AU Jensen and Soldier Boy as my options. Do I want the hero to be dark? Vulgar? Sensitive? Rich? Poor? How do I want the relationship with the reader to develop? Short answer is I ask myself a lot of questions in a short amount of time and branch down whatever path I think makes most sense. Sometimes where it really could be anyone, if I'm leaning towards someone in particular I'll pick them, or if I haven't written for them lately it'll go to them. It's a complicated answer but it really does change depending on the story!

Favorite non-Jensen character in the fanfic world to write for is Benny and Michael (I'm going to consider him separate even though he's Michael!Dean). Benny's one of my favorite side characters to throw into AU's you might notice. He's easily a good fit for a best friend character but has a certain...roughness to him that compliments Dean if that makes sense. If they do more SPN, I demand more Benny lol. As for Michael, I think he's a truly complicated character that is capable of both good and evil. When I wrote Wicked Game that was a big risk since it's a story focused so much on Michael. A reader is absent for a significant part of it even. But I just find the concept of the villain having a soft side so much fun (and writing that dark side too).

I do read my own stuff! Generally I do this with series more than one shots or imagines but I have my favorites I revisit with those too. I think all writers should re-read their stuff for fun. There's so much that's freeing when you're not being critical of the work but just enjoying it and it really helps you understand why readers might love something you think is awful. One of my favorite things is to see someone like or reblog a fic in my activity feed and then I get reacquainted with a story I completely forgot about! You're definitely not alone in re-reading!

I hope you're doing good and have a great day!