#If it spreads it will keep spreading this vile stuff

[amerasdreams]

seeing the nazis on this show ask about sabotage

I mean I can see the exact same questions asked by russians in Crimea.

The exact same things are going on right now but we ignore them. We watch from a safe distance of decades. But the same kind of drama and heroes are right now in the occupied areas. We cannot see much of t but it is still evident. We have clues of what goes on there. How evil the occupying powers are. But people ignore this--why? Because it's too distressing? Because it doesn't interest us if it's real? Because it doesn't fit into our political worldview?

We tell these stories because it was so momentous. And now these stories will be told fully... but we should still see it now if we are interested at all in such things.

It matters more now because it's going on now and real people now are dying. Being tortured.

Look at the Smersh channels on telegram and tell me that's not diabolical. That it is a bit nazi like.

[corruptedcaps]

Brat App

Ugh why did Mom have to marry the Dad of that bitch Alison?! As if being bullied at school isn’t enough now I have to get it at home too? I guess it’s not all bad though because I was able to hack into Alison’s phone and invite myself onto the exclusive ‘Brat App’ that Alison and her friends are all on. No idea what it is but with any luck I’ll find out some dirt on Alison to get her finally expelled so I can have some peace.

Hmmm this just looks to be some sort of social status game with challenges built on top. Every challenge has a ‘Brat’ value associated with it. So the more challenges a person does the higher up the leaderboard they climb and the higher up the rank. No big shock that Alison is sitting at the top as a level 10! Which gives her the rank of ‘Brat Queen’ which appropriate. By my calculations that would be…. nearly 10,000 points! Wow she must be addicted to this game. Looks like I got 1,000 bonus just for signing up and I can spend it on my little avatar of myself. Let’s see what I can buy. Sure why not, let’s improve her eyesight.…

Holy crap what just happened? My body feels all tingly and different. My glasses are making my eyes blurry. Did… did this app just cure my eyesight? This is unbelievable! What else can it do… more athletic, long nails, thick hair, big boobs, perfect posture. It makes sense now! All these challenges are real life challenges! This is how Alison is the hottest most feared girl in school! Ok new plan, if I raise the ranks of this app, and surpass Alison’s score then she’ll have to listen to me and become nicer. How hard could it be? I’m already at level one after all and these challenges don’t seem that difficult….

Bold makeup. Check. Revealing dress. Check. And that’s net me… let’s see here. 50 points? At this rate I’ll finish college before I have enough points! I need more bigger ticket items. Let me redeem these pathetic points at least. Mmmm nothing changed but it did give me a nice little tingle. Ok for 1000 points I need to… send some nudes?! Absolutely not! Alison hasn’t even done that! For another 1000 I need to suck a married cock? How vile! Ok this is more doable. Spread a vicious rumor about a classmate for 300. I could do that I guess. Hmmm I have to post it directly to the app so it can’t be about Alison or any of her friends. I know, I’ll say something about Lisa the unfortunate overweight girl in our class. She’ll never see it. I’ll say she was banned from Dairy Queen for breaking in and eating their whole stock. And send! Ohhhh somethings happening!

Oh god my tits! They’ve gone up like two sizes! But why? Hmmm looks like I hit some hidden ‘Bitch Bonus’ by doing that challenge. This is amazing and all I had to do was make fun of that whale Lisa. I know it was mean but it feels so fucking good! She’ll be fine it’s not like anyone will believe it anyway. <ding> ohhh that felt nice, what was it? Oh one of Alison’s friends liked my post. <ding> mmmm another one of her friends liked my post! Every like is 10 points and feels so gooood! <ding> oh fuck yesss girls keep liking! It feels so hawt! Maybe I should spread a few more lies…

Mmmm my body feels so much better in these clothes I redeemed! After only a few more rumors I got easily up to level 5, ‘Beta Bitch’, which unlocked my beautiful nails, my gorgeous silky hair, my perfect makeup, and all the knowledge to maintain them. Even my body is better shape, I’m so flexible now! Not to say anything about my lovely big tits! Alison’s friends seemed to really enjoy my wicked little rumours. I can’t deny it wasn’t fun writing them and it was even better getting the likes for them!

But I do feel kind of bad for all those losers I wrote stuff about though, I think the Brat App is effecting not just my body but my mind too. I feel so nasty and mean everytime I use it and even more now in this tight blouse and short skirt. I can’t help if I’m hotter than those dorks now! No that’s the app’s influence talking! I have to stop using the app, but I need to topple Alison! Ugh what do I do? <ding> what’s this? I’ve unlocked a new bonus. ‘Morality Suppression’? Hmmm that would solve my problems I guess and there is an option to turn it off later. Ok I’m going to do it! It’s for the good of the school after all. Here goes…

Ohhhhh fuck yesss that sooo much better. Like hell this is for the good of the school this is for the good of me! I feel so fucking free now. To think I was feeling regret for those pathetic fattys and geeky nerds I was writing about! I only regret not writing more! The only people worth anything are my bratty followers who like my posts and even they need to know their place and they will when I surpass Alison and become the new Queen bee. Oh fuck I feel so horny being this bad! I need some release and quick! Mmmm maybe I can finally tick off some of these challenges old me was too much of a loser to attempt. Mmmm yesss those will raise my rank in no time! Oh I have the perfectly wicked idea that will make me a bratty goddess by the end of the day! Oh step daddy!

Changed? Nonsense step daddy I’ve always looked like this. I’m a spoilt wicked little bitch just like your precious daughter, only you can fuck me. What’s the matter step daddy? Cat got your tongue? I bet you always wanted to fuck your mean little princess didn’t you? But you’re a good man and would never do that would you? But guess what? I’m not your daughter but I’m everything she is and more. Would you like a look under my shirt? Sure you would.

Hehe I see you like it step daddy. The outline of your cock is practically bursting out of your pants. Mmm and it looks so impressive. Let me have a peek <zip> oh step daddy, I can see why mommy married you. You’re so big! It’s making my mouth water. I need to have it step daddy, please say yes! I know you’re still hesitant so maybe it might convince you if I stopped calling you step daddy and instead called you… daddy. Mmm you like that don’t you… daddy? You want to put that big cock in my mouth and have my perfect pink lips suck it don’t you… daddy?

Mmmm thanks daddy for the great fucking, you’ve helped me complete so many nasty challenges. Suck a married cock. Check. Fuck an older man. Check. Call him daddy. Mmmm double check. After everything we got up to I completed over a dozen challenges, more than enough to take you bitch of a daughter’s crown. I just have to redeem the points now and assume the throne…. Mmmm it feels so good but something different is happening… oh fuck something amazing is happening!

Mmmm oh fuck yessss! Look at me, I’m a blonde busty bitch now! Im older and sexier and I feel so fucking nasty and hawt but how is this possible? Oh I see I unlocked a new challenge tree and a new rank. Mmmm ‘Homewrecker’ I love the sound of that! Who needs to be a bratty queen when I could be the wicked bitch that stole her daddy instead. Thats right darling, I’ve levelled up to being your mistress now and if you’re lucky and do as I say soon I’ll unlock ‘Trophy Wife’ and you can spoil me rotten as you should. Don’t worry I’ll still call you daddy, it makes everything feel so much more naughty. My mother? You mean that old crone Emma? She’s not my mother anymore, she not even my rival, she’s just an obstacle to our love, isn’t that right? Mmmm I knew you’d agree…. Daddy.

EPILOGUE

Alison was wondering what her father was doing that was taking so god damn long that he couldn’t have sent a car or something to pick her up from the mall like he promised. She had spent so much on his credit card that she was surrounded by high end boutique bags. Just when she was reaching her finally straw she got a message from him telling her he had sent a friend, some woman by the name of Gabrielle, to pick her up. Alison hadn’t heard of any Gabrielle before, except maybe her new dorky step sister but she went by Gabby anyway.

Following her father’s instructions to Gabrielle, Alison’s mouth was agape when she turned the corner to find a stunning blonde waiting for her. The blonde looked at Alison with distain and made Alison feel insignificant for the first time in her life. She didn’t like it. Gabrielle didn’t let up with her stare down, enjoying the way Alison averted her gaze. Alison meanwhile was grateful that their encounter was going to brief.

“So you’re Ted’s daughter? Hmmm I expected somebody a little more… impressive.” Gabrielle said not willing to hide her distaste. If this was anyone else Alison would have ground them to dust with only a few choice words but she felt so intimidated as she got into the car with the blonde bitch.

So much so that her phone dinged to tell her she lost some Brat points for her weakness. She had never lost points before! Gabrielle smirked to herself as she looked at her own phone and saw her points climb. She couldn’t wait become a wicked step mother.

[holidayinhell]

Hi!! I love your writings!! Pls never stop giving us the most vile and evil whump stuff 💗💗 💗💗

could you maybe write a whumpee breaking something that is really important/sentimental to whumper and getting extremely punished for it (maybe to the brink of death 👀) (bonus points for sobbing/ panicky/begging whumpee)

heyhey, sorry it's taken a little time and its still not finished, but here's a little part 1 for you. :)

“Come here.” Whumper settled back into his chair, gripping the ends of the arm rests with both hands. A warm smile spread across his face. “Sit down.” 

His tone carried a casual, disarming ease that only made Whumpee more uneasy.

Whumpee crossed his legs, lowering himself next to the coffee table.

“No, Whumpee, not on the floor. Why don’t you have a seat on the couch?”

It sounded like a gentle suggestion, but Whumpee recognized it as a command nonetheless. He lifted his frail body from the floor and cautiously took a seat on the leather couch.

Whumpee’s stomach sank. He had a bad feeling about this. 

“Uhm.... thanks,” he uttered.

Now was the time. Fess up. Whumpee knew he should say something. He should have brought it up days ago, but each time he tried, he simply couldn’t. 

The plush cushions gave under his weight. Whumpee shifted uncomfortably on the overstuffed couch, unsettled by the foreign sensation of comfort and Whumper’s inexplicable politeness. He nervously dug his fingers into the edge of the cushion, holding on for dear life...

“I was thinking, we should talk, Whumpee.” Whumper said, leaning forward in his chair. He spoke calmly, in a relaxed, conversational manner, as if they were old friends. 

Whumpee’s hands trembled uncontrollably. He tucked them behind himself, desperate to keep his shaking hidden.

“Jesus. Don’t be so nervous, okay?” Whumper cracked a smile. His eyes narrowed, stripping Whumpee’s confidence as the man’s gaze raked over his ruined body. “I just have a question for you, and I need you to be honest.”

Whumpee swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry as he fought the urge to shrink back into the cushions, to be swallowed up and disappear into nothing.

“I broke it.” 

“Yeah?”

“Y-yeah. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner.” 

Tears welled in Whumpee’s eyes. His heart rate picked up and he fought to steady his breathing. “An-and I’m sorry that I broke it. Sorry I hid it, too.” 

Whumper tilted his head, arching one of his eyebrows curiously.

“I hid it from you.” Tears streaked down Whumpee’s hot cheeks. “I know that was wrong, I-I don’t even know why I did it…”

“Well, the damage is already done.” Whumper said calmly. “So I’m not sure this whole ‘apology’ means much, Whumpee-boy.” 

Whumpee felt a pit form in his stomach.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered again.

Whumper shifted back into the couch, fishing around for something in the inner pocket of his jacket. He drew out the object with special care, wrapped in the palm of his hand. 

Slowly, he unfurled his fingers, revealing the shattered watch face. The jagged cracks caught the dim light. 

Whumper shook his head disdainfully. “You must’ve been pretty damn angry when you did it, huh. What’d you do, take a hammer to it?”

Whumper turned the dented pocket watch in his hand, allowing the broken glass pieces to shift and fall to the floor. 

“Huh—?” 

Puzzled, Whumpee stared at the watch. No. This isn’t what it looked like the last time he saw it. The damage was ten times worse than he remembered, it was far more broken than from when Whumpee dropped it. When he’d accidentally dropped it, it only cracked the glass. It wasn’t shattered like this. 

He blinked his eyes incredulously. Like Whumper had said, it looked like the watch had been deliberately smashed with something heavy.

“No—it-it didn’t look like that.”

“You’re saying this isn’t the watch you broke?”

“No, I mean, I think it’s the same one. But when I… when I dropped it, it didn’t--” 

“You smashed the shit out of it.” Whumper interrupted flatly.

“No! I only drop--”

“You did.” Whumper interrupted with a snarl. His voice dropped, low and serious. “You broke it, Whumpee. Yes or no?”

“I mean I br--”

Suddenly the man sitting across from him didn’t look so friendly.

“Stop babbling.” Whumper scowled. “Yes or no.”

Whumpee blinked the tears from his eyes. Whumper did this on purpose. He was all too aware of what his captor had planned to do next…

 “Yes.” The pale man uttered.

Whumper sighed, shaking his head as he rose to his feet.

“You lied to me. You ruined a precious heirloom, and you stuck it in the back of my cabinet like a piece of junk. You hid it from me, Whumpee. And you thought I wouldn’t find out.”

“Please, I didn—!”

“Shut up.” 

His voice shook with rage, each syllable sharp and clipped. “I don’t want to hear another fucking sound from you.”

The tall man struck Whumpee hard across the face.

Clutching his cheek, Whumpee collapsed to the floor. Fuck. Fuck. Dazed, he scrambled backwards across the rug, clutching at the filthy carpet as he scurried away from Whumper as quickly as he could.

He tried his best not to panic, but his senses urged him to flee.

“Crawl. Stupid, Whumpee. You fucking idiot.”

Crab walking backwards on his hands, Whumpee came to a halt, sinking to the floor. His wide, pleading eyes looked up at the man, pleading for mercy.

“Please…”

“Now what are you doing?” Whumper smiled, leaning down.

“I’m sorry!”

Whumper grabbed a fistful of Whumpee’s sandy blonde hair and forced his face to the ground.

“That’s not crawling, Whumpee.” He growled. He clutched the collar of Whumpee’s shirt and threw him forward into the hallway. “Get on your hands and knees you filthy fucking animal.” 

Whumpee’s body shuddered as he flipped over and forced himself onto all fours, shame burning hotter than the stinging in his cheek.

“You're gonna crawl the whole way there.”

Whumper closed in, his presence suffocating.

“Don’t you dare fucking look at me.” He snarled. “You know where to go.”

Whumpee’s heart sank. He knew.

[thebearer]

Hiya! Love your blog!!! I get so excited when there's a notification about you.

What do we think of carmy dealing with reader's pregnancy cravings?

ahh thank you so much <3

"You know what sounds really good?" You grin, running a hand over the swell of your tummy.

Carmen goes rigid. He's not ready. He knows he's not. not ready to hear what you're about to say.

Still, he hums, carrying on folding your clothes in the basket. You pad over to him, arms slung around his waist, running down his firm abdomen lovingly.

"I would love garlic bread." Your mouth watered. Carmen looked at you carefully. Surely there was a catch, there always was with your monstrosity of cravings.

"Yeah? Just garlic bread?" Carmen asked, cautious. He didn't want to set you off, sound too suspicious or have any sort of tone since that always resulted in your tears.

"Yeah but with the cheese and stuff." You nodded. "Do you have all the stuff for it?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course, baby. Just sit down. I gotcha." Carmen smiled, kissing your head lightly and pulling out the ingredients he needed.

Finally, a pregnancy craving that didn't make him want to throw up or feel like he needed his culinary license revoked. Your cravings were... questionable at best. Nutella grilled cheese, a peanut butter milkshake that you ate by dipping slim-jims in it, Doritos and frosting; the list went on. Carmen just had to watch. The one time he'd voiced his disgust, you'd sobbed, violently. Accusations that Carmen found you disgusting and unattractive that left him reeling with confusion.

Now, he knew better. The concoctions were vile, but maybe they were leveling out. Carmen hoped, setting your garlic bread in front of you, blushing when you peppered his cheek in kisses.

"This looks so good." You groaned, sliding past him towards the fridge.

"Thanks, baby." Carmen muttered, putting the tray in the sink. "There should be left over sauce in the middle if you want any."

"That's alright." You hummed, plucking out a different jar. Carmen stilled, watching you waddled back to your seat.

He tracked you, watching carefully as you opened the jar- a homemade jelly blackberry and peach that Marcus had made- spreading it thickly over the steaming bread. Twisting the other jar open, dill pickles, that you insisted on having even though they gave you heartburn now.

Carmen felt his stomach turn, watching you take a bite. There's no way that's good, he thought, willing his face to stay neutral. Yet, you ate it like it was.

He wanted to be disgusted, he really did. He was, in a way, but if it meant you were eating and keeping it down, meant you were nourishing the baby... how could he be mad?

So Carmen watched you, sat and chatted while you happily ate. Handed you Tums when your heartburn inevitably set in, started the dishwasher, and sat with you on the couch, head in your lap by the bump.

[strayflowersstarsandlove]

Fire fire (hwanghyunjin)

"I've always liked to play with fire fire". Fire. If it wasn't for the fact that watching Hyunjin dance gave you the ultimate chills, fire would have been a very fitting word to evoke the burning sensation at the pit of your stomach.

Which you weren't sure was due to just the insane amount of passion and talent he was clearly displaying while running through the dance routine he self choreographed... Or the fact that Yeji was dancing with him. And you. Couldn't. Help. The. Jealousy. What a horrible horrible feeling jealousy is.

You hated it with a burning passion, the same passion you could clearly see in their dancing skills. They weren't even performing yet, just rehearsing at the dance studio, and yet their energy was impeccable, the control over their bodies astounding, they exuded talent. The routine was so intense and electric evrytime they locked eyes you felt just how complicit and in synch they were.

You almost felt like an intruder at some point, like you weren't supposed to be watching something so captivating, borderline intimate. You were so immensely proud of your boyfriend and in true, genuine awe of Yeji's skills, but you just couldn't shake the creeping vile thing tugging at your insides.

"Woah! That was awesome!", Hyunjin shouts, panting and sweating abundantly as he lurches forward to grab his water bottle and theatrically falls to the ground from the exhaustion, his arms and legs spreading apart so he's laying on the floor like a starfish. The song they had been playing on loop throughout rehearsals stops and you  swallow down the uneasiness in your throat: you clap enthusiastically as Yeji bows and giggles bashfully, her bright ginger hair falling messily out of her high ponytail.

She looks lovely, you think. She is beautiful and fit and knows how to move her body so well. "You did a great job, guys. Well done very well done", you say earnestly, as they both thank you and exchange a quick, friendly goodbye hug, "I sincerely apologise but I really got to blast, I have a schedule in less than 20 minutes. Thank you so much for today", Yeji frets adorably, she bows deeply again and then gathers her stuff as she waves you and Hyunjin goodbye, a foot already out the door.

Hyunjin grabs a clean trowel from a wicker basket in the corner and alternates dabbing down his face and his neck to big swigs of water as he slowly recollects and calms down. He sprawls out on the floor next to you, his chest rising and falling quickly as his hand crawls on your lap for you to take it. You smile weakly at him and slightly play with his fingers, now that you're alone with him and the studio is silent, the sound of your own thoughts begins to grow louder, you really have to concentrate to try not to let them prevail over your mouth.

"Is everything okay?". You avert your eyes from your lap where you've been keeping Hyunjin's hand, even though you had long stopped touching him, so caught up in your head you absent mindedly just left him hanging there, your fingers suspended mid air above his own. You nod slightly, not daring to meet his eyes even though you can feel him looking at you, from the corner of your eyes you see him sucking in his cheeks and pouting as he fixes his eyes on your face in either concentration or brooding.

Hyunjin's not one to push you. He will observe you from afar and wait for you to make the first move if you wish to, but he's not going to initiate anything, this much you know. And there were certain times where you appreciated this observing, conscious side of him. You liked how he knew how to read the signs and gave you ample space and time to simmer down in order to eventually approach him. This being one of the times you're glad he isn't pushing you, though his whole demeanor speaks for itself as he's clearly not happy at how you seem to have shut down completely.

To be fair you two hadn't been very talkative the whole morning even while driving to the studio, you knew he had been working so hard to come up with the choreography for Play With Fire, endless were the days where he left at 6 in the morning and came back home at 1am. You also knew he had been practicing with Yeji for the last few weeks. The slimy seed of jealousy had been growing and growing inside of you for days on end now.

"Okay... I'm gonna go over the routine a couple more times and then we can go. You don't have to sit through this again if you don't want to", Hyunjin says lowly, already walking towards the Bluetooth speaker so he can restart the song. Something about his tone sounds a little condescending but a little meek too, and it makes you tick.

You know he's stressed out and overworked and you know you're not acting your best right now but you can't help but feel a mixture of annoyance and hurt. He had asked you to come see him at practice, you didn't just invite yourself over. You had been hesitant too, at first, mostly cause you thought the dance floor was his sacred place and you weren't supposed to invade his space.

When you eventually found out he was going to practice the whole routine with Yeji you had even insisted you weren't so sure it was right for you to be here, possibly meddling with the chemistry and coordination the performance required of them. "I want to be here, Hyunjin. I wouldn't have come in the first place otherwise", you say softly, but he doesn't hear you.

The music booms through the speakers again and he goes back into full performer mode. Somehow managing to dance just as consistently as earlier, if not with even more decisiveness and impactfulness in his movements. All the while remaining gracious, moving fluidly.

Here's something you always admired about him: he moved like water. The definition of fluidity and grace, an undertone of something very dramatic and intentional in the way he contorted his body, in the way the look on his face always matched the vibe and intensity of the song he was dancing to. His body was the show itself, in a way. And you were hypnotized.

This time he ends the routine by dropping on his knees right in front of you, the last act of his performance where he's supposed to snap to his side and point his arms and fingers to Yeji now happening before you, mere inches away from you, his eyes intense and dark as his breathing is labored and his whole body is tense.

You, on the other hand, are awestruck, your eyes wide and dumbfounded at the unexpected ending: "you are really fucking hot for doing that you know?". Your mouth moves before you can even form any other coherent thought and you slap your hand over your mouth while Hyunjin quite literally falls to the floor in high pitched giggles, hands clapping, knees shaking and all.

The tension finally breaks between you two and you laugh just as loudly, shaking you head in disbelief at the words that just came out of your mouth just like that. You fall on your back and hold your stomach from the cramps while Hyunjin crawls over to you and pecks your lips, "thank you, I really needed that", he exclaims, still giggling a little, he pushes back his newly cut red hair, his hand running through the shortened ends out of habit, he presses his forearm to his forehead, trying to dry some of his sweat.

He looks so hot, you weren't lying. You close your eyes and breath out the last of your laughter, your hand reaching for his, this time playing with his fingers with more intention to it, "I'm sorry for being so sulky, I promise I loved seeing you practice", you confess, "you sat through the same routine for over 4 hours, even if you didn't love it anymore, I would have understood that", he replies, his breathing still uneven and fast, "was there any reason for your being sulky? I thought you were mad at me", he adds after taking a swig if his water.

You open your eyes now, forced with the reality of having to fully confess. You pull yourself up a little and bury your face in your hands, "I feel terrible. I was never mad at you I'm just.....", you sigh and drag your hands down your cheeks in an exasperated manner, "I guess seeing you and Yeji dance like that made me feel... Jealous".

The cat's out of the bag and if for a brief second you felt even the tiniest but if relief in telling him, it's immediately followed by the most unnerving frustration at your own self, shame filling you right up.Hyunjin pries your hands away from your face and looks at you with fond eyes. Which is unexpected to say the least.

"Jagi...", he murmurs softly, cupping your cheek in his palm, "you're jealous of Yeji? For real?", he asks patiently, "It's so stupid I know, you guys are both so talented and so professional and you barely even touch while dancing and Yeji is so so lovely and sweet and I feel like a complete idiot". You didn't even mean to cry but fresh teardrops spill out of your eyes regardless. You feel horrible. On the other hand Hyunjin seems touched, sad for you even.

He gently kisses your tear stained cheeks as he tucks your hair behind your ears so they don't stick to your face, "it's not stupid and you're not an idiot. You just care, a lot. I'm sorry you felt like that, me and Yeji go back years and years. We were trainees together, me and Chan hyung used to hang out with her and Ryujin back in the day. As friends, just as friends. She's like a little sister to me".

You nod slightly, reaching for his hands so you can press soft kisses to his wrists and knuckles, "I'm sorry, please forgive me, I trust you, I really do. I just got too invested with how sexy the performance is", you mumble in between sobs, Hyunjin grins at you and coos, "it's okay y/n, it's okay", he slowly guides you down onto the floor, he hovers above your body and ever so gently distributes his weight on top of you.

He kisses your jaw and your neck, cushiony lips pressing on your throat, his damp hair tickles your chin and your faint sobbing mixes with the soft hiccups of your stifled laughs, "see... that's better, jagi, so much better", he murmurs.His heartbeat quickens against your ribcage, kisses become sloppier and hungrier, hands roam underneath your shirt.

Your limbs become tangled in a matter of few minutes, your pants are off, his breath is hot on you, your fingers knotting his hair. Fire. Chills. Fire again. You're burning up with lust now. Whatever trace of sadness and jealousy leaving your soul with every item of clothing that gets removed from your body.

"Hyunj-Hyune... uh" , you hiss as his teeth sink into an especially tender spot on the side of your neck, "what if-uh what if someone walks in?", you manage to ask, pulling at the last fragment of sanity left in you when Hyunjin rolls his hips into you, "door's locked", he replies hastily as he pulls down both his pants and his boxers at once to then reprise his kisses on your very swollen very red mouth, "the place is rented for another hour and half".

It has most definitely been over an hour and half but nobody has come knocking at the door. You and Hyunjin are still laying on the floor, still tagled, still breathless. The heavenly weight of his body and the feeling of him still inside of you are enough to keep you high and exhilarated long after your climax.

You kiss his cheek repeatedly as he pants, hiding in the crook of your neck. "Thank you", you mumble underneath your breath and Hyunjin lifts his head up just a bit, looking at you confusedly in his hazy, messy, wonderful state, "what are you thanking me for? For making love to you?", you giggle and peck his lips, "everything. Just everything. You certainly know how to love me good, really good".  Hyunjin smiles contentedly and readjusts himself right back into you, "no need to thank me. Especially when I'm inside you. There's nothing I won't do for you".

[mazzystar24]

“ why do some people call out or talk about dumb and lesser fandom drama but haven’t spoken about those anonymous fics”

I beg you with all my fucking heart to muster up two braincells and use them

I haven’t gotten this hate directly but I keep seeing posts either saying it or ppl having it said to them

You are claiming to understand what’s so disgusting and vile abt what the person who wrote those did but you’re here not taking two seconds to think hmm maybe the dumb and lesser stuff is easier to talk about for more people than those fics?

Lemme throw some bullet points and break it down into little words for some of these absolute fucking idiots:

• you’re always gonna find more people willing to talk about the little discourse than the harder to talk about topics especially in fandom spaces

That doesn’t make them a bad person for it because

1. Everyone has their boundaries

2. Everyone has their own shit and no one should be having to sit there and tell you they’re traumatised to get you to back off

3. This is again a fandom space by not talking about it they aren’t disadvantaging or not spreading awareness abt or supporting any causes by making a post saying what others have already said a thousand times over which is that those fics were a disgusting thing to do

4. “ oh but you’ve pointed out racism/homophobia/misogyny and this thing and that” again see all those points but also like this is like someone saying don’t be racist and then someone going oh wow so they talked about how ppl shouldn’t be racist but not about how ppl shouldn’t be sexist so they must mean being sexist is acceptable

5. Again it’s not like everyone was super quiet about it like I saw all the outrage on here and it was being served toward that anonymous writer from BOTH sides, no one on either side as far as I can tell agrees with that shit so stop saying shit like oh they were a buddie fan

So fucking what? I’m sure i have the same music taste as some murderers but that doesn’t make me a murderer? Get a grip honest to fucking god

6. Also that fucker was living for the attention that’s why they kept making more with mocking bios and shit

That’s all the angry rant for today guys🫡

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Herpes anon here, just following up.

Thank you for the response, and similarly thank you to your followers for theirs.

And thank you for making it clear that folks with illnesses shouldn't be treated like biohazards. That is absolutely what I believe, and I promise the internalized anxiety about infecting others is not a statement about other people's value as human beings. More a label for myself to keep myself extra cautious so I never make anyone else go through what I did. I've acquired a refillable 7-day antiviral course for outbreaks, and if it gets annoying enough or I find myself with a regular partner, I'll be talking to my doctor about getting a daily antiviral prescription. I'm also keeping a little tube of topical antiviral medicine in my pocket now. Abreva, as recommended.

I talked to the person who infected me and they are going to be a lot more careful going forward, using protection for oral sex and such. Very cool of them. They just genuinely didn't think occasionally getting cold sores was something that needed to be disclosed in general. I just wish that weren't the norm.

I regret to inform your kind follower who recommended avoiding touching the sores that basically the first thing I did during the initial outbreak, before I realized what was happening, was spread the infection around. So, uh, first hand advice from a newbie I guess: Don't touch your cold sores, and think real hard about orally servicing your dildos before fucking them.

My research suggests that, without a daily antiviral, oral herpes is statistically transmissible on any given day with about a 10% chance, even without visible sores. And please correct me if that's wrong. The person I got mine from had an outbreak the following day, so I basically had an unlucky dice roll.

I guess the thing that troubles me about the literature about the infection I find is this rhetoric about it being so common. I worry that might encourage a mentality like the stuff that was popping up around covid: “If practically everyone has it, who cares about protecting people from getting it.” I think the message is meant to make the infected feel less vile/deviant, but it also sounds a lot like it could make the infected more careless and callous, you know?

About my incredibly troubling sense of needing to have sex with people to keep them around, I promise this incident has very much cured me of that stupidity – existential crisis style. Shame it took this to do it but it could've been a whole lot worse.

Thanks again,

Trying To Manage It Without Shame

hi anon,

I'm glad you're in such a better place!

re: your concerns equating herpes with COVID-19, I guess I'd answer that the main difference is that herpes is a virus that has been with us since the early days of human evolution that is, in the grand scheme of things, virtually harmless, while COVID-19 is a very new outbreak with a tremendous global body count.

so there is a little bit of a difference there!

glad to hear you're embracing the herpes-status without shame!

[frutiylaris]

Warhammer 40K and 30K Masterlist (Update)

Hell again, this is an update to the warhammer youtuber masterlist that I previously created, it will focus on adding newer creators that were reviewed and checked. If you are confused, please consult the previous Masterlist post. Updated Scores: MajorKill 0/10 - Harassment, no matter the context or circumstance is not acceptable. I'd say do better but that discord and community he has is vile. A blight upon warhammer creators The Serpents Lodge [Removed] - After recent investigation, brought up with private concern from a blogger here. The lodge has been removed for their behaviour. New Creators added: Chaotic Voices 0/10 - Supporting harassment is frowned upon, no matter the context or circumstance. Live from the black library! 0/10 -I knew Chrono, at least by proxy, and whilst they were fine back then... information has been given to me that I cannot share showing me how horrible of a person they are. I'm sorry that your life is not great, but that is not a shield you can wield agaisnt criticism. Isyander & Koda 7/10 - Whilst there are minor errors here and there, probably one of the better "casual" sources of warhammer podcasts to get into. However, point deducted for giving community memes the time of day. Explaining Warhammer to my girlfriend 3/10 - I'm happy for them, I see them occasionally on the dash and the whole content idea works well for what they want from it, but you aren't a good source due to broad sweeping statements. Keep up the passion, though! Idiotic Synergy 5/10 - A wee bit cringe with the voice acting but good hearted and clearly enjoying himself, but please for the love of god stop with the femboy fulgrim jokes, it's not that funny. DreadAnon 0/10 - Thanks for the tutorial reminding me that Analog, delay and echo exist in Adobe Audition, but associating and spreading misinfo from the 'chudhammer' space is grounds for exilement. Adeptus Ridiculous 0/10 - I am biased against Bricky due to his networking with Vtubers, I despise Vtubers. However, this is judging a channels merits. The bookclub? A step in the right direction, but you've exposed yourself as an idiot for not reading ANY BOOKS. For someone who speaks so confidently and with gusto you sure are not qualfied to speak on anything except surface level stuff. But thats not my primary complaint, it is tertiary. My main complaint is that whenever the word 'female' or equvilant thereof it is nearly always in a sexual context and that rings alarm bells in my head. Also stop demeaning every fucking faction with those incessent perverted memes that wont DIE. I think devaluing the Tau only to sex jokes and gundam, as well as slaneesh, in relation to sex jokes, is terrible and has been a disaster for the wider lorespace and newer fans. Uncritically citing lexicanum, and at least, in one case plagerizing an entire page with only the barest of changes, HOWEVER! That may be a false positive on my end and as such will require further research for now it is [BEING INVESTIGATED] The shilling is also insane for videos, with ads, patreon, with an entire store page, you are giving Valrak a run for his polishing dorn's chainsword money. Unacceptable. Being a 'Lifelong' fan does not equate to you being qualified as you still get things wrong, at worse? Misleading, at best? Just marketing speak. Wolf Lord Rho & Valrak 0/10 - Guy's, I understand you are passionate, but stop the shilling, please. 40K Theories [Remleiz] 6/10 - Focused on speculation and Theories, I have barely anything bad or good to say. He exist, he does what he sets out to do. Arbitor Ian 5/10 - I have nothing bad or good to say about Ian, stop getting into fights would one of them because Ian is not cut out for the internet slap fights- buuuuut it seems he has stopped doing so, so good job. The Pontius 0/10 - No, female custodes are not some blackrock psyop meant to make warhammer woke and gay. The only thing you are doing is getting scared of shadows and believing lies.

GW is a company at the end of the day and I am not sorry that you think women as a whole are not allowed in the hobby. Boohoo, grow up. [Version 1.1 Update] If you have any suggestions, arguments or rebuttals, please comment and explain why to the best of your ability. That is all, thank you for your time.

[brsb4hls]

I tried so hard not to get into wank, but I need to just voice once, so I can let go.

This is about the reactions to the NG situation and some takes are absolutely rancid.

Like, I do get if people keep his work, because they seperate it from him or don't boycott anything, because it wouldn't work anyways or whatever. That's the usual discussion that happens around stuff like that and nobody is completely morally sound.

But do you all have to spread such abysmal takes?

Warning for mentions of SA, and sex in general, more under the cut.

Worst ones, paraphrased (no dog piling):

1. "If a women approaches a man and agrees to x or goes to x place, it's clear that sex will happen, their grown ups. The women knew what they were getting into".

First if all, no! You can spend time with the opposite sex without fucking.

Secondly, constent can be revoked at any time! As soon as you feel uncomfortable in any way or don't want to anymore, you can demand a stop and if your partner doesn't listen, it's rape!

I want to put that out there for all the folks who might feel pressured to go through with stuff.

Examples: if you agree to vaginal and your partner starts anal without you having tslked about that=rape.

If you agree to sex with a condom and your partner pulls it off and keeps going=rape

If you say stop at any given tim and your partner keeps going=rape

It's your body!

2. "Tempted to stand with NG to stick it to the haters"

Yeah, being pro abuse on main out of spite is a solid and mature life choice for sure.

It's one thing to simply keep consuming his contend and another to actually stand by him clearly.

3. "NG could have (insert horrible thing) ad I wouldn't care, I need my show."

Pls find another thing, that's so not healthy.

4. "It's normal for old men to be perverts, let them be."

Yeah, normalizing abuse, because it comes from a certain demographic is very helpfull.

5. "If x show gets cancelled, it will create more victims (people emotionally deoendend on it)."

Weird ass guilt tripping, not the responsibility of others.

So to wrap it up: fuck NG, I don't care about him, but stop sreading such vile, dehumanizing shit please.

I just want people to stay safe out there and not let themselves be guilt tripped, manipulated or worse.

Do what you feel is right and your body is yours at all times, no exeptions!

[kissesforsatoru]

WAS IT A GENERAL YAN WAKA HC- IF SO YES BUF ALSO IF UOU ASK WHICH WAKA SPEFCICALLY BD WAKA BD BUT YOU CAN DO ALL TIMELINES

pairings : wakasa x gn!reader

summary : general yan! bd! waka hc's

⤷ cw : NSFW 18+, general yandere themes, possessiveness/obsessiveness, manipulation, gaslighting, isolation, bullying, mind break, overstim, cock warming, unhealthy relationships.

notes : i got so carried away with this, this might just be my longest hc's yet 😭

- wakasa wouldn’t necessarily be yandere right away, i don’t think; instead, he’d actually be pretty normal with you at first. you know, treat you right and all that other good stuff. the only thing off about him in the beginning is how possessive he is. he can get carried away with love bites and keep sucking sensually on your skin even as you whine for him to stop 'cause that hurts, but he’ll just pop off your neck with a lazy smile and tell you he’s sorry (he’s not). or he’ll glare intensely at guys and girls that got too close to you, all while keeping his arms tightly around your waist. but you think to yourself that it’s not that bad—that’s his only flaw, so it’s okay, right? wrong. sooo wrong.

- with him it’s a slow build, where the longer the relationship between the two of you goes on, the more his red flags start to show, but even when they do, you won’t notice them. wakasa is a very manipulative yandere, and he’ll subtly condition you to think that what he’s doing is normal or that you’re being irrational for lashing out at him. he keeps you nice and wrapped around his finger from the very beginning, making sure that you will listen to him no matter what he does.

- the first really big yandere-like thing he does is isolate you. he’ll tell you he doesn’t like your friends because they’re too touchy or they’re not good for you, he’ll tell you that your family is too controlling and that you should cut them off for continuously meddling in your relationship. you might not notice wakas red flags, but your friends and family certainly do, and they aren’t just going to sit back and let you fall deeper into a toxic relationship, but waka is quick to get them out of your life. he’ll tell you that you don’t need them anyway because you have him—he’s the only one you need, that you’ll ever need. he can take care of you, provide for you, support you, and love you far better than any of them ever could so just forget about them.

- waka is very stalker-ish despite the fact that you’re already his. he’ll have a tracker on your phone so he can know where you are at all times, he’ll have cameras in your apartment so he can know what you’re doing and who comes over, and when you move to his apartment, he’ll put cameras there too. waka will also make multiple social media accounts that he’ll mostly use to stalk you with, but he’ll also use them to rile you up and say vile things to you, spread rumors about you, i'm talking hard core bully you until your self-confidence and sense of self-worth are absolutely destroyed, all so he can have you for himself. he wants to be the only one you trust, the only one you think can properly love you since everyone else seems to think that you're disgusting and unlovable. of course, you don't know about any of this, waka is very secretive about it, so you never find out.

- with how much bullying he puts you through, waka is able to blame his possessiveness on protectiveness instead, telling you that he has to keep everyone away from you so you don't get hurt anymore, and obviously you're going to believe him because he's the only one you can trust. he'll tell you never to leave the house without him unless you absolutely have to, and if you do then you have to tell him where you're going and why you can't wait for him to go with you. he'll keep your neck nice and marked up for when the two of you do go out together so other people get the hint. he's never too far away from you anyway, at least an arm's reach away at all times so he can easily grab onto you whenever he wants. he also constantly reminds you that you're his, and that he's the only one who can love you properly, nobody else will ever be able to compare to him. and if you ever doubt him, he'll just bully you even more to remind you that he's all you'll ever have.

"you're mine, baby. nobody else can take care of you like i do."

"you don't need anyone else, they'll just use you or hurt you, so keep relying on only me, yeah? i'll treat you right like you deserve."

- waka has a lot of experience with sex. he knows all the right places to make someone absolutely writhe and scream under him, but he especially knows how to make you feel good. whether he's using his tongue, fingers, or his cock, it doesn't matter, you'll be seeing stars either way. i don't see waka being the kind of guy that praises a lot during sex, he's much dirtier with his words and likes to tease more than anything else, but if his darling is especially broken by all the bullying, he might just whisper praises in your ear as he fucks you. he shows you his love through his actions, makes you feel good with light kisses all over your body, and all-consuming, sloppy kisses to your pretty mouth. his hands explore your body fervently, rubbing on your most sensitive parts to draw out delicious reactions from you—he adores the sound of your whimpers and moans, absolutely eats them up no matter how many times he hears them. i don't know why, but i feel like he'd like to please you more than he likes for you to please him. i think he might just get more of a kick out of knowing he's pleasing you well, and he does please you well. of course, he loves to fuck you rough and use you however he likes to get off still, but seeing you all jumpy and touch sensitive after he's sucked on you for a while just turns him on like nothing else.

"oh, right there? you like that? does my baby want me to go faster? aw, poor thing. shh, i'll take care of you."

"just lay down, baby. i know you'll feel much better after i fuck you."

- waka takes to sexual punishments more than other kinds of punishments. if you act out, he sees it as you just wanting his attention, so he fucks you to set you straight. overstim is his favorite punishment, i think, because he'll fuck you so dumb you just forget about defying him, all you'll be able to think about is his cock and how good he makes you feel. otherwise, he'll make you either cock warm him or fuck yourself on his thigh as punishment. he'll wait till you're wiggling desperately on him, trying to find a release, and then he'll make you beg him to fuck you. shows you that you can't do anything without him, that you need him to do even the littlest things like please yourself.

- if you do something really bad, like try to break up with him or anything like that, then he'll just lock you up somewhere in his house and leave you there. he won't talk to you or even look at you, he'll just drop off your food and leave again. he can do this for months. he wants to ensure that you won't ever try to do something like that again all while enforcing your dependency on him. isolation is the best way to make a person lose all independence, and waka takes complete advantage of that. he'll wait until you won't even be able to think of leaving him again without having a breakdown.

- honestly yan waka is just a sneaky bastard that uses extreme forms of manipulation to get what he wants, which is actually so terrifying. he's amongst the top scariest tokrev yans.

[cresent971]

Two lovebirds that were destined to be together forever and ever one thing I hated was how people kept on doing the exact same thing as before they need to stop already my feelings for Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson will never change at all I'm done with people thinking they can just ruin their relationship with their significant other that nonsense is not funny anymore I'm actually getting tired of it basically this is immature and childish and saying I'm a petty prick who takes joy out of ruining someone else's relationship with their life partner I'll never understand why people think they can just ruin someone's life and make them miserable this isn't funny at all I get tired of people thinking they can just ruin someone's life and their happiness in getting this is immature and selfish and disrespectful and inappropriate if people cannot stop this madness they will face severe consequences for their actions this makes my blood boil really badly if people are gonna continue this madness they should be In the deepest pit of hell possible no amount of forgiveness or anything will bring them back I've had it with people thinking they can have the upper hand and start causing nonstop chaos this isn't funny at all this is ridiculous and saying I'm a lowlife leech who gets a rush for no reason they both deserve an apology from those who have wronged them in the most damning way possible this has to end the I'm not dealing with anyone who thinks it's acceptable to treat michael jackson and Lisa Marie Presley like garbage they need to keep their toxic and vile and repetitive comments and vulgar and derogatory slurs to themselves I am sick and tired of people doing these things this makes my blood boil way more than anything in the world this is absolutely uncalled not every single day I get irritated and annoyed already people need to keeps their mouths shut and not say anything at all this whole Ordeal has to stop immediately this will not get them anywhere in life at all if they continue this madness they are gonna face more than they can handle this is not funny at all this is highly immature and childish I'm not amused anymore if people can't stop spreading rumors about these two lovebirds then they should face serious consequences and backlash from it all this is not funny anymore I'm at a loss for words right now how are people still gonna continue this madness and think they aren't gonna get consequences for their actions that's a fat faced lie right there they will face significant consequences for their actions karma has a way of getting people who spread malicious and Digusting and vile and repetitive comments or anything else on the internet you mess around and you will find out the hard way immediately if people keep doing this let's just say that their digital footprint will be tarnishing on second thought scratch that off their digital footprint is cooked they won't be able to undo what they done once that's out on the internet you're digital footprint is fried immediately and let's just say that you will never be able to undo the damage after it's been destroyed this goes to the morons out there that keep spreading lies and other Digusting stuff you're digital footprint will be destroyed as well I'd definitely watch what I say or post on the internet that kind of stuff will get your butt in hot water and in severe trouble with the governments and the fbi I'd watch what I do or say online it will come back and get you in a world of trouble I would not do it at all I'd think twice before doing something that could land in prison for life

[reigningm4x]

I think it's hypocritcal on Kelly's part to make a post about how there's tm hate in this world when her & her family are known for being racist & homophobic to others. So she shouldn't act too surprise when she's getting back the same energy from the people. Like practice what you preach. The hate on her is justifiable. She's just not a good person overall. I don't understand how you and others can defend her for that.

Where was she homophobic? Or did you just see someone say that and ran with it? The amount of hate she’s getting isn’t justifiable. You just want to latch onto any excuse to keep being a vile hater online. As everyone has said, there are valid reasons to criticize her. But what you and your hater group fail to understand is that you keep spreading fake ass shit and making stuff up just to fulfill your high school mean girl fantasies, which makes YOU also “not a good person overall”. So really, you look worse than she does.

[bicsbec]

The Illusionist (ao3 link)

Augustus Porter had had an uncanny knack for Illusions from a young age. He could reproduce his dad’s broadcast from the crystal ball in almost exact detail as well as produce a broadcast entirely of his own device, making his dad say silly things until Perry was in stitches from laughing.

He’d been a quiet child, mostly lost in his own head, having a careful eye for the things that surrounded him. Illusions spilled out of him like drawings, each one a curious experiment to see how close he could get to the real thing.

Human junk was his favorite thing to observe. His dad had always been amused by how Augustus called them treasures, but he never discouraged his son’s fascination. The materials were so different from that of the Demon Realm. Hard plastics and glossy paper and elaborate metal contraptions with inexplicable lenses. New surfaces and objects to mimic.

As the years in his track went by, Gus realized his heart lay in the Human Realm and its strange and fascinating customs. Illusions were easy and rather useless compared to the stuff his friends could do. Magic could be so much more than the intangible. 

But that was before. Before they faced down Belos, before Gus could sort through memories, before they got stuck in the one place he’d always wanted to get lost in. Before his illusions were the only window to the Demon Realm, as artificial as it might’ve been.

Magic was magic, whatever shape it took. He wasn’t going to take it for granted now. Especially seeing how crestfallen Luz was, one of the more impressive witches Gus had ever witnessed, now without the Isles’s power and nothing to fuel her glyphs.

And his dad had always wanted him to be a Master Illusionist, which was easy enough. Perry Porter always thought his son was Head Witch material, always encouraged his strong suits and passions. 

And Gus missed him terribly. So, Master Illusionist he would become, in every shape and form he could muster. 

Gus was taken with movies. It turned out those silver disks made for terrible cookies, but created incredible projections onto the rectangular crystal ball in Luz’s living room. They were called movies, images that were engraved into the disk and told the same story over and over again. None of them were real, showing stories in the stars and underwater and in fictional lands. But there was one that gripped Gus, one that shook him and told him to pay attention. It was called The Apparitionist. It was about a man that did human illusions, magic “tricks.”

Gus had to learn them.

“Hey, Luz, Hunter,” he said, peering over Luz’s shoulder at the dining table. Hunter sat on the other end, struggling to keep his eyes open. They both snapped to attention at Gus’s presence, Luz slapping her hands over her notebook and Hunter crossing his arms over the book in front of him. Totally not suspicious. Gus rolled his eyes.

After wrangling Belos at the Day of Unity, Gus had a vivid impression of that monster’s worst memories and what he suspected Luz and Hunter were keeping quiet as they researched ways back home: Belos had been human, the human that created the portal door, he’d created Grimwalkers, which seemed like something Hunter didn’t want to talk about, and Luz had helped him unknowingly. They were completely innocent, victims to Belos’s vile plots, yet they seemed completely guilt ridden. 

Gus wished they wouldn’t be. But he wasn’t going to pressure them into talking before they were ready.

“Gustonimo!” Luz exclaimed nervously. “Hey! What’s up?”

“Okay, so,” he started, spreading his hands like he was setting the scene, generously ignoring how awkward and obvious they were being, “there’s this movie, and it had magic, like human magic, and I need to learn everything about it, so I need to borrow your library card.”

“Like, close up magic?” Luz asked, rubbing at her eye and relaxing at the sight of Gus’s theatrics. “You could look up videos on MewTube.”

“Really? That’s all it takes?”

“Well, no–actually, there might be paywalls,” Luz said, starting to lift up the covers of books littered on the surface of the table. “Oh, here it is,” she handed Gus her library card, “look up videos, but check out some books, too. Those are free.”

“Yes! Thank you, Luz!” He hugged her head before bolting out of the dining room.

“Take Willow! And look both ways before crossing the street!”

“Got it!”

Willow was outside with Amity, watching Ghost sunbathe. The palisman was belly up, stretching her little arms out on the grass. Amity was visibly enamored. Gus considered Amity lucky to have such a “normal-looking” palisman; apparently Emmiline was too big for Human Realm standards, so she couldn’t just hang around unsupervised. 

“Hey, Gus,” Willow greeted warmly. “You headed somewhere?”

“Uh, yeah,” he said, snapping out of his thoughts. “I’m going to the library to check out some books. You guys wanna come?”

“More research?”

“Sort of? I wanna figure out how to do human magic,” he said, wiggling his fingers mysteriously. 

“Sounds fun,” Willow said, standing from the porch steps. “I might look into native flowers. I keep trying to conjure different plants, but they come out wrong. Then they die.” She shrugged. “Might help if I understand the stuff that’s from here.”

“Come here, Ghost,” Amity called, dusting herself off. “I’ve been meaning to check out the library. Like, the rest of it. See how the human side lives, y’know. When I go with Luz it’s always strictly business. She’s always so stressed, I don’t have the heart to ask to wander around.”

“Cool,” Gus brightened, “then we better take care of these.” He waved a circle, hiding their ears with an illusion. Amity’s hand hovered over her ear, something sad lingered in the gesture for a moment, but then it was gone. 

They made their way over to the library, discussing the things they wanted to look up first and looking both ways before crossing every road, as instructed. They almost got run over only two times, which was less than the first few times they’d been outside.

Plenty of things were different from the library back home. Nothing floated or tried to eat your hand if you had a late fee. But a lot was the same, like the strict rule of silence and the frown on the librarians’ faces when they thought you might be a particularly loud visitor.

Gus presented the librarian on shift Luz’s card. A corner of her mouth tightened. 

“Ms. Noceda still has a great number of books on loan,” she said, not bothering to look at the light box on her desk. She usually did that to revise the number of books on loan. They’d become familiar faces, it seemed.

“She’s bringing them by on Friday,” Amity said, which was true. Hunter and Luz went through piles of books by the week, always making sure to circulate out as many books as possible. 

“Yeah, okay,” she relented easily, “just–don’t bring out so many. She and the other one usually max out the amount they can take.”

“No problem,” Gus smiled pleasantly. She returned a tired smile and gestured them along so she could deal with the grouchy-looking man behind them. 

Gus had seen Luz pull out the drawers that held catalog cards rather carelessly without much consequence, so he braved a handle. And…nothing. He still had his hand, and there were no teeth, just yellowing cards that hadn’t been handled in years. Interesting.

His fingers glided over the Ma- drawer, not really knowing what he was looking for. He went through various drawers, subject, title, author, he was ready to spend the rest of the day hunched over looking for this. 

And there it was. A handbook. He assumed it was old, the year of publication started with 19. He memorized the section numbers. 793.8. The rest didn’t seem important, and from what he could tell, similar books seemed to be kept together. The 793.8 section seemed like a promising place to start.

And it was. Card tricks, sleight of hand, juggling, whatever the heck ventriloquism was. 

He sat in the corridor and started pulling out books. Introductions and summaries that sounded like what he was looking for. He wasn’t in a hurry, this was a new form of observation. Where Illusion spells needed observation and patience, human magic appeared to need study, practice, and patience. A similar enough endeavor. 

He felt himself slip back into the days of his childhood, producing wonderous illusions that lit up his dad’s face. 

He took mental notes and mimed instructions as he read them, getting a feel for movements and the flow of misdirection.

“Hey, Gus,” a voice startled him out of a section on forcing cards. He looked up to find Amity. She was wearing a weird smile.

“Hey,” he said, a little cautious. He and Amity weren’t really in the habit of talking. But it wasn’t like she was unpleasant company either.

“Didn’t mean to scare you,” she apologized. “Can I sit with you?”

“Uh, yeah,” he said, watching her sit and pick up a book from his pile. “Interested?”

Her cheeks were suddenly pink. “Uh, kinda?”

“Really?” Gus lit up, ready to fill her in on all he’d gathered. Misdirection and interest and attention and patter and—

“I’d been sort of wondering if you could, uh, teach me. Um, Illusion magic, I mean,” she said quickly. “Just a few spells, nothing too complicated.”

Oh?

He must’ve made a face because she quickly added, “If it’s no bother, obviously. I, um—”

“Why?” It was all he could think to say. “I mean, why now? Why illusions?”

“I…I miss my siblings,” she said with a small shrug. “They were both in the Illusion Track for such a long time. I guess–I never knew what all the fuss was about, I want to understand them better. Maybe feel closer to them? I don’t know. It’s silly…”

Gus smiled. He was familiar with the feeling. Wasn’t that what he was doing in the library in the first place anyway? “It’s not silly. I think it’s sweet.”

Amity returned his smile and flipped open the book in her hand. “So, uh, how do these…conjurings work… Conjurings? Why are they called that? They’re not conjuring anything.”

Gus shrugged with a laugh. “I don’t know. Humans are weird like that. They call the really good ones “masters of illusion” or “wizards” and junk like that.”

Amity chuckled. “Magic really isn’t a thing here, huh?”

“It really isn’t,” Gus said, shaking his head and returning to his place in the book.

“Need help bringing this to a table? Willow found an empty one.”

Gus looked up again. “Uh, yeah,” he smiled, realizing he wasn’t alone. Not like he’d been when he was a kid. He didn’t have to isolate himself and quietly practice because he didn’t have friends his age. He could talk to his friends, show them things he was excited about, and they would listen. “Yeah, that’d be nice.”

“So, how was it again that humans do magic?”

His smile grew wider. 

It was past lunch when Gus and Willow walked out of the library with a book each. Amity listened to both of them rave about the things they found out, Willow going on about landscaping Mrs. Noceda’s garden and all the techniques she could try to experiment with. Gus was excited to get home to practice and binge MewTube videos on Luz’s phone. 

This time they only almost got run over once. Gus promptly bragged about it as they stepped through the door.

Luz always fussed over them when they went out alone.

“Are you okay? Did you look both ways?”

“Yes and yes,” Gus said, sitting down next to Hunter. 

“The carriage screamed when it got close,” Amity said as Luz inspected her and Willow.

“But you’re not hurt?”

“No, we’re fine,” Amity said, squeezing her hand. That seemed to convince Luz. “By the way, the library lady is expecting your books back on Friday.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Luz said, wandering back to her seat. “We’re almost done anyway.”

“Anything new?” Willow asked, more curious than hopeful.

Hunter did a so-so gesture, but Luz just shook her head. 

“That’s too bad,” she said, not particularly disappointed. They’d gotten used to these results. 

“So,” Hunter nudged Gus, “find anything useful?”

“You bet I did,” Gus brightened. “Luz, do you have any cards?”

Using Illusions as a crutch, Gus demonstrated the basic idea behind a split deck and the pinky hold. He knew the cards sat awkwardly in his hand and he needed to adjust his grip better, but Hunter and the others could still appreciate the gist of the trick. 

Luz had lived in the Demon Realm for months, yet she seemed fascinated by the manipulation. Gus understood why. 

Magic in the Demon Realm was easy to accomplish. A bile sack you’re born with. It’s like breathing, it’s something witches are meant to do naturally.

Creating an Illusion took practice, growing a Plant took care, creating an Abomination took craftsmanship, but none of it was beyond grasp. Human magic could be fumbled, was easy to dismantle, was meant to deceive the eyes, creating a veil over what they thought they saw. There was something exciting about being fooled. 

They set to clearing the table for a late lunch, but Gus continued practicing. He was too wrapped up to eat. Hunter watched him through a mouthful of fried maduros.

He proved to be good audience practice, following Gus’s patter easily, asking him to repeat the manipulation again to see if he could catch the moment the illusion began. It was good practice. The more he repeated the trick, the easier the cards felt in his hand, the smoother the movement, the less he needed his Illusions to cover his fumbles, the more confident he grew.

As Hunter kept his eyes trained on Gus’s hands, Gus watched Hunter. He couldn’t help but smile at his best friend, grateful for his enthusiastic interest.

Emmiline liked MewTube. She never chirped much, but Gus knew. His bond with her was a silent one, of quiet knowledge and understanding. There was also the fact that both her eyes focused when a video played. 

But more than that, Emmiline loved Gus. He knew because one of her eyes would focus on him if he spoke as they watched a video.

His fingers ran idly along her split ridge and her little horns as he took sporadic notes on the video playing. His mind wandered and snagged on words that drove him down different streams of thought as his eyes grew accustomed to spotting sleights and his brain registered old information that could be overlooked.

“Emmiline,” he started absently, then faltered when the meaning of his thoughts registered, “do–do you think— Do you ever think about home?”

She turned away from the screen, tilting her head in a worried manner. One eye tracked his hands, the other watched his mouth. She did this with his Illusions, his close up magic, and his ramblings. His confidant in all matters serious and silly. She listened with an endearing attentiveness that melted Gus’s heart. That alone provided some comfort.

“Like, how do you think everyone’s doing? It can’t be good, right? Are the kids our age alone? Is Matt okay without his brother? Is he—”

His hand slacked around the pencil. Emmiline chirped curiously. 

“Well, what if…what if…” Emmiline made her way up his arm and curled her tail around his neck, a small hug, his palisman wrapping around him as best she could. “Do you think they’re okay?”

She gave him a reassuring chirp. His stomach felt funny and warm. An ache that made his leg bounce. He knew it wasn’t any good to dwell and build worst-case scenarios in his head. It gave him nightmares about his dad being…not okay. 

Sometimes it felt like time had stopped in the Demon Realm, like everything froze the moment the portal door closed. Not to stop the bad thing, but because it was too much bad. Overloaded, overwhelmed. Like reality couldn’t handle that amount of bad.

He also couldn’t handle that amount of bad.

So he tried not to think about it. Tried not to miss his dad and his friends so much. Tried not to dwell.

He was safe, in the Human Realm. Learning human magic and immersing himself in the culture he so eagerly wanted to understand. It was exciting!

But it also left a warm pit in his stomach, often confusing in its signals. 

He sighed.

“I know I’ve said that I want to go home a lot,” he said, running a gentle knuckle under her chin. “It’s almost a catchphrase at this point, but I don’t think I even want that. I just want things to be normal. I want the grass to be red and the moon not to be sucking the life out of everything and I want my dad.” His voice cracked near the end. He hated being so scared.

Emmiline’s head nudged his cheek, understanding, empathy, comfort, and solidarity rolled up into a single gesture.

Gus loved Emmiline, his little piece of home. 

It was the weekend, which meant Mrs. Noceda would tear through the house with a loud machine. Gus and Hunter were the first ones up, being so close to that thing’s roar.

“¡Buenos días!” Mrs. Noceda called cheerily as they stumbled into the kitchen. “Sorry for the noise. Saturdays are the only day I have time to get the house in order, with Luz in school and work… Hm…” She turned off the machine, looking at the boys thoughtfully. “Luz isn’t in school yet, Vee is. But she’s always so busy and anxious.”

“Do you need help with chores around the house, Mrs. Noceda?” Hunter asked with some eagerness. He was probably losing his mind with nothing to do, no orders to take, no routine to cling to. 

“Camila is fine, mijo. And no, you kids have been through a lot. I don’t want you worrying.”

“There’s six of us now, though,” Hunter insisted. “That must be overwhelming.”

Hunter was right. Mrs. Noceda seemed almost as exhausted as Hunter.

“What can we do to help?” Gus pipped in. Camila softened. 

“Well, you could start by putting on some music on the stereo. We always put on Manny’s music when we clean,” Camila mused. Manny, Mr. Noceda. “They’re over by the DVD drawer.” 

Hunter walked over, rummaging through the plastic cases. “Any preference?”

“No, no, you boys pick,” she said, hefting up a bucket onto the table and rinsing a rag. “Here, Gus. You can use this to wipe down the counters. No electronics, I’ll get them with the vacuum.”

“You got it, Camila,” Gus said with a smile. He immediately started in the living room, with its decorative tables and the figurines that lived on their surfaces. 

Something that sounded like string and horn instruments began to play from the sound boxes. A voice started singing about searching for something and a welcome party and being part of something. Gus wasn’t sure, some words were harder to pick out than others.

“Oh, Mr. Galaxy! Manny loved him!” Camila chimed, humming along with the tune. 

Hunter smiled, probably relieved that he’d done a good job. 

“What can I do to help, Camila,” he asked again, his nose scrunching at her name. Gus could tell he wanted to be more respectful. 

“Have breakfast,” Camila said, starting to fold the blankets on Gus’s mattress. “That means you, too, Gus. You can start cleaning later.”

Gus found Hunter reading through the list of breakfast foods stuck on the fridge, placed there for their benefit. Hunter was a creature of habit, Gus had come to realize, so he just started pulling out his usual picks: eggs, milk, ham, cinnamon, and bread.

“Gus, could you get the eggs?” Hunter was still reading the paper.

“Sure,” he said, cracking an egg over the frying pan. 

“And the cinnamon.”

“Yep.” He sprinkled it over the running yolk.

That’s how they moved through preparing breakfast, Gus anticipating Hunter’s request, and Hunter moving through the kitchen cleaning up after Gus.

“So,” Willow’s voice came from the dining room, “what’s for breakfast?”

Gus looked over his shoulder to smile at her. Mornings instantly became brighter when Willow was around. She had her exercising clothes on, sweat running down her temples even though it was getting cold out.

“What’d Luz call them? Sunny-Upside-Down eggs?” Gus said, poking at the white part, still kinda liquid.

“With cinnamon?” Willow perked up. 

“That’s right,” Hunter moved to serve her a plate. “Luz doesn’t know what she’s talking about. The ham toast will be done in a bit.”

“Thanks,” Willow smiled warmly, her cheeks turning pink. Gus generously said nothing, as painfully obvious as his friends were about their crushes. “Y’know, Vee was talking about going to the park today.”

“Any lead on getting back?” Hunter asked, rubbing the exhaustion from his eye.

“No, nothing like that. It’s just to get out of the house,” Willow said, taking a seat at the dining table. “You and Luz need to take a break. Get some fresh air.”

“Sounds…”

“Like a good idea,” Gus finished for him. Hunter looked between the two of them, debating in his head a moot point. They were going to the park and taking a break. End of story.

“Yeah, that,” he said with a sigh. He finished lathering the ham in syrup and brought their plates to the table. “So, how’s the human magic going, Gus?”

Gus lit up immediately. 

“Spectacular and dazzling,” he said informatively. “I have a few polished tricks, Emmiline gives me a four-point-five star rating.”

“Four-point-five?” Willow asked.

“She’s highly critical. I appreciate it.”

“I’d love to see one.” 

“Sure, yeah. Let me go get the deck.” 

When he came back with his linoid finish deck, he found Vee inspecting the remains of their cinnamon and eggs in the pan; he hadn’t heard her come down the stairs.

“Alright, Willow,” he said, spreading the cards out in front of her, “pick a card, doesn’t matter which.”

“Okay,” she said, pulling one out from the middle of the pack; he tidied the cards into a stack again.

“I want you to memorize your card and place it wherever you’d like in the deck,” Gus continued with practiced intonation. “Look, I’ll even cover my eyes.”

This was one of his more practiced tricks. It came to him with ease, which meant that it was ready for an audience that consisted of more than his palisman. 

He followed through the motions mechanically, remembering to keep his tone bright, with a final (and classic, if he did say so himself), “Is this your card?”

Willow’s eyes widened, obviously surprised. “Yeah, it is.”

Vee picked up her head, pulling away from the fridge and turning towards them, “You did it?”

“Yeah, that’s Willow’s card,” Hunter confirmed. 

“That was all you. Zero magic,” Vee said, clearly impressed.

“Human magic, baby,” Gus shot her overly confident finger guns. It was the first time he didn’t use magic as a crutch with an audience of people. Truth was, he was over the moon. Now his sleights had Vee’s seal of approval. It made all the fumbles and skids worth it.

“Gus, that’s awesome!” Willow beamed.

“How’d you do it?” Vee asked him.

Gus grinned. “I promised not to tell.”

“Can you do another?” Hunter asked

“Yep! Okay, here we go,” he fanned the cards in his hand. “Watch closely.”

Luz had started school again. Which meant a significant decline in research. Instead of consuming library books, she was under the tutelage of Vee, trying to catch up to the semester and understand everything Vee had covered for her. 

Gus thought that maybe the decrease in work would mean that Hunter would start sneaking out of the house again, but he just seemed tired. He nodded off at the table during dinner and in the middle of conversations. Willow would throw him worried glances, which made Gus worry as well. But beyond odd looks and deeper eyebags, Hunter seemed to be doing an excellent job at ignoring his obvious exhaustion. 

Willow spent her time in Mrs. Noceda’s garden, performing small miracles in what used to be a barren dirt bed. Sometimes Hunter went out to help her, sometimes it was Amity.

Vee was learning how to shift into a new face, they couldn’t have two Luzs walking around Gravesfield. It was slow progress, but she was persistent. She was keeping it a secret from Mrs. Noceda, wanting to surprise her.

Amity had already burned through all of Luz’s Good Witch Azura DVDs (which brought about slideshow nights that she and Luz put together, subjecting the rest of them to the intricacies of each convoluted plot point of both books and movies). 

Gus had been sitting through the special features, trying to understand how they’d accomplished the visual effects of one of them, when Amity brought it up again.

She peered over Vee’s game on the Swap before sitting down to watch the director’s commentary with Gus.

They did that a lot, quietly hang around each other, sometimes sharing the same space while they did different things. Even though she seemed absorbed in her game, Vee would pipe up with commentary of her own as the movie ran again. 

“Everything’s digital now. It doesn’t even look like actual magic. They’re better off using lighting footage,” Vee said, glancing up briefly.

“I think it’s cute how they try,” Gus said, leaning on the couch arm, his cheek squishing against the cushion, Emmiline curled on top of his head. 

Gus didn’t need to look over to know that Amity was vibrating with the attempt to not jump to the film’s defense. 

“Any thoughts, Amity?” Gus asked teasingly. 

“Conn—!” Vee jumped, seemingly holding her tongue. “Concho, this stupid level.”

“I think,” Amity started, overlooking Vee’s outburst, almost biting out the words, “that every film can use a healthy dose of criticism.”

Gus very much enjoyed having more friends to tease beyond Willow and Luz. 

The front door opened, Luz stepping inside looking drained. She dragged her feet over to the couch, dropping her bag beside it and collapsing over the back rest cushions. 

“Hey,” she greeted them weakly. She poked at Amity’s head. “Hi, sweet potato.”

Vee paused her game and reached over for Luz’s bag, checking excitedly for new assignments. Amity twisted around to face Luz, a big smile already on her lips. 

“Hey,” she said blushing. It managed to pull a more genuine smile out of Luz. They were cute. It was gross.

Gus turned his attention back to the screen when he saw them lean in for a kiss. 

“Room. Get one,” he said overdramatically. That got Vee’s attention, making her look up.

“Oh, jeez,” she reached over and threw a pillow over at Luz. Gus handed her another, making them giggle. 

“Where’s Willow and Hunter?” Luz mumbled through the pillow.

“Baking,” Gus supplied. “Something about a healthy distraction.”

Luz hummed, lowering the pillow to peer at the screen.

“’S that Good Witch Azura?” She asked, already knowing the answer and resting her cheek on top of Amity’s head.

“Nope, because you have two projects due,” Vee said, pulling out rubric sheets from the bag. “Come on.”

Luz pouted with a look that said can’t you do it for me? It was fascinating to see a side to Luz that hated schoolwork. Vee was learning to read Luz’s expressions, because she only said, “Mamá said I’m not allowed to do your homework anymore.”

“Fine.”

They went upstairs, Vee taking the steps two at a time and Luz trailing behind grumbling about burnout and how school is pointless.

“Hey, Gus?” Amity started as Gus got up to put the DVD away. It was no use trying to watch it with Luz home, she’d only use it as an excuse to sneak away from her homework. 

“What’s up?”

“Do you remember what I said at the library?”

“Uh, about the catalog system being overly complicated?”

“Well, that too, but no. About, um…”

Illusions.

“Oh, yeah, yeah.”

“Is it still cool? For you to teach me?”

“Yeah, absolutely,” he said brightening. “We can start right away if you want. It’s not like the crystal thing can be running while Luz still has homework.”

“So, where do we start?”

“Light spells,” he said. Amity made a face and Gus could practically read her mind: baby spells. There was a reason people back home didn’t take Illusions seriously. He produced a prism out of light, a visual aid for Amity. “I know, I know. But Illusions are about optics. They’re projections, light that our eyes pick up. Therefore, we go back to baby spells.”

He saw Amity’s face shift, actively changing gears, a new perspective taking place. Like she’d just accepted a new challenge.

“Get the basics right and you’ll be creating hi-def party tricks in no time,” he finished after playing with the light spectrum for a second longer.

When it came to Illusions, Gus had a natural intuition, years of practice guiding him through the motions, but he knew it was hard. He also knew that without a good foundation, Illusions would crumble, become see-through, lose saturation. So, if he was going to teach Amity, he would demand near perfection from her. But Amity was going to meet him right where he was, ever the pupil striving towards overachievement.

Hunter was sleeping, which was frankly a miracle. Willow had insisted they let him be, but Gus knew he slept like a rock. When he was severely sleep deprived that is, which was most of the time these days. 

So Gus put it to the test, for the sake of levity. He drew up a mini-Gus, who hopped around Hunter’s head and blew raspberries at him.

“Rude,” Willow giggled. “Don’t wake him.”

Gus snorted. Mini-Gus put his hands on his hips, turning to Willow, his eyebrows dramatically raised. “Wake him?” He whisper-shouted, moving to his ear and shoving his head inside. “Wake him!?” His voice seemed to echo. Hunter didn’t stir, not even a little.

Amity’s expression had gone from amusement to awe as she watched mini-Gus balance on Hunter’s nose. 

“How do you do that?” Amity asked, her eyes lighting up as mini-Gus began to hum a Mr. Galaxy song. Hunter had clung to the bard’s music ever since that weekend. Gus knew most of them by heart at this point.

“Patience, young grasshopper,” Gus said mystically, like in the fighting movies Camila fell asleep to. “Resonance comes with practice. You’ll get there.”

“We should really let him rest,” Willow said with a giggle as mini-Gus swung around Hunter’s loose lock of hair. He needed a haircut. “Plus, Vee wanted to show us something today.”

It was something called Tarot, the human version of oracles. Amity wasn’t thrilled, but she listened politely. Gus and Willow bombarded her with questions as Hunter slept soundly on the couch, the coffee table beholding their set-up. 

Gus loved how humans created different ways to understand the world around them and retain a sense of control. Control over fate and the smallest inconvenience during the day, an explanation for senseless things. Taking comfort in knowing. Vee just said it was only human to want those things.

“How’d you learn all of this?” Willow asked her, which made her blush slightly.

She waved a bashful hand. “I, uh, have this really cool friend. I met them at camp, we haven’t talked much since Luz–and you guys–arrived back, uh, here. They’re really into all this human witchy stuff.”

“Can you do a reading?” Gus asked, resisting the urge to inspect a card.

“I’m still learning, but Masha taught me about the Past Present Future spread at camp. They called it an ‘overall vibe check’.” 

“Sounds fun,” Willow said, looking over at Amity.

“They’re harmless, right?” Amity asked.

“As far as I know,” Vee said, shuffling the cards in her hands. “Alright, let’s see.”

The first card on the table was the Six of Cups.

“Alright, cool. Cups usually revolve around friendship and community. But this one is also like nostalgia, like the joy of being a kid and feelings of togetherness. It’s a good first pull, I think it’s like the history of your friendship.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Willow said, looking between Gus and Amity. Amity smiled, linking their arms together.

The next card was The Devil.

“Oh, okay,” Vee frowned. “This is one of the important ones. It doesn’t have to be terrible, it’s like an anchor or a tether, the things that make us…vulnerable. But, uh, it’s also stuff like obsession, miscommunication, detachment. I wouldn’t say it's dangerous, just easy to spiral out of control. Slippery slopes, stuff like that. Maybe.”

“Sounds familiar,” Gus said, looking over to Hunter’s sleeping figure.

 The last card was the Three of Pentacles.

“Okay…okay, yeah,” Vee nodded to herself. “This one’s also about what keeps us on this plane. Unity, success, collaboration. Projection towards the future. So, if I got this right, everything will be alright, after some trials and tribulation.”

“So, this is the past, present, and future?” Amity asked, pointing at the respective cards.

“More or less.”

“Okay, so the Human Realm is our current trial, right? That’s our present?” Gus asked, somewhat hopeful. If this was the worst of it, it wouldn’t be that bad. And things would be okay soon enough, the next phase would be success.

“Maybe,” Vee shrugged. “It could also be further ahead. These are kinda like impressions. The Six of Cups could be closer than you might think and the Three of Pentacles, further. I couldn’t be sure.”

“So, we have looming trials?”

“Well, that’s ominous,” Amity said.

“Don’t love that,” Gus said, peering over the Devil card. It looked like one of the portraits of principals past at Hexside. The guy before Bump.

“Sounds like our luck,” Hunter grumbled from the couch, startling Vee and Amity who had their backs to him.

“But with a successful outcome,” Vee said, trying to sound optimistic.

“It’s even kinda sweet,” Willow said, picking up the Six of Cups.

“How far in the future was this again?” Gus asked.

Vee just shrugged.

“Well, it’s not like human witchcraft is a thing, right? You said there’s no magic in these cards,” Amity said, negotiating with herself how seriously to take the reading.

“It’s not the kind of magic I can eat, but the Human Realm can be spooky sometimes. I couldn’t tell you for sure.” 

“Don’t love that,” Gus said again.

“¡Mira pa'llá!” Camila said, rather astonished. She'd been digging through the basement, looking for a vacuum nozzle, when she found a box labeled “apa uni.”

“Gus! Here, take this upstairs,” she said, handing him the box. “I think I saw the nozzle bag, un segundito.”

“Whatcha got there?” Luz peered over his shoulder, making him and the box jump.

“Open it!” Camila called from downstairs.

They set the box on the living room floor. Luz sat cross-legged, popping open the flaps.

“Holy smokes,” Luz said, holding up a small rectangular box. Gus got closer, inspecting the image on the side. It was something with a close likeness to demons from the Toes, the words Monster of the Dark Lake across the picture.

“What is it?” Gus asked. It looked like a huge cassette, with a solid color casing. He’d never seen one in such great condition, undamaged by the Boiling Sea. He’d never been clear on its function, as none of the teen magazines he had scavenged ever seemed to mention them.

“It’s a VHS,” Luz said, digging through the box and stacking similar cases to the side. “It’s like an old DVD.”

The cases had titles like Modern Prometheus and The Man Wolf. 

“They’re my old monster movies,” Camila said, setting the nozzles on the couch and sitting down next to Luz. “Your dad hated them. ‘The effects are so cheap, Cami.’” Camila smiled fondly.

“Do we have a VHS player?”

“I think I saw it on the top shelf down there,” Camila mused, “but there’s no guarantee it’s working.”

“We gotta set it up.”

“You don’t have homework?”

“I’m all caught up, just some math exercises.”

“Finish Math, then we’ll see about the VHS player.”

“Ay, ma.”

“‘Ay, ma’ nada. Homework first.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Gus lived vicariously through Luz in these moments, he suspected Willow and Amity did too. He’d give anything to hear his dad tell him to fold his laundry or to not leave his shoes in the living room.

It was hard not to miss him.

As Luz got up to presumably finish her school work, Camila got Gus’s attention with a nudge. 

“Why don’t you fetch the VHS player for me? It looks like a stereo, but with a slot this size in the middle,” she said, holding up one of the plastic cases.

“Sure thing, Camila,” Gus said with the best smile he could manage.

He spotted the machine Camila was talking about easily enough, but he wasn’t good enough at juggling to spell it down unscathed. He peeked outside, finding Willow with her sun hat and gloves, working on Camila’s garden. It was really Willow’s, but she’d never call it that.

“Hey, Gus,” she smiled, wiping her brow with the back of her hand, smearing a streak of dirt across her forehead.

“Hey, Willow. Could you help me with something inside?”

“Sure thing,” she said, dusting herself off.

Willow spelled the random objects that buried the VHS player and Gus was able to spell it down without incident. He really wanted to avoid further damage to the old thing. 

“Oh, Titan, wait, help.” Gus hadn’t expected its actual weight, having grabbed it by the edge of one side and his hands dipping to the ground.

“Oh! Here,” Willow quickly scrambled for the other side, narrowly saving it. “That was close. What was this thing again?”

“A VHS player,” Gus said, leading them to the living room. “It shows what’s on those cases, like disc movies. This is a lot older apparently.”

“I think I saw one of these at the Owl House,” Amity said, walking over with her bowl of breakfast in hand. “Eda said she’d seen it in theaters over thirty years ago.”

“I don’t think my dads had met yet by then,” Willow mused.

“Yikes,” Gus said. “Eda’s ancient.”

“Bet you wouldn’t say that to her face,” Willow challenged playfully.

Gus laughed. “No, I wouldn’t. I like being an unmauled child.”

“So, we’re watching thirty year old movies?” Amity asked, peering at the cases.

“I think these are older,” Willow said, inspecting the back of one.

“Only if Luz finishes her school work,” Gus informed Amity.

“I see,” Amity smiled knowingly. “So, does the player work? It’s old, right?”

“Camila said we’d have to check. She didn’t seem too sure.”

“I’m sure I could get it working, if anything,” Amity said. “Dad messed around with a lot of engineering stuff for his Abominations. It can’t be too different from that.”

“Oh, wow, that looks like a dinosaur,” Vee said, leaning against the back of the couch. “Where are the cables?”

“What cables?”

“Y’know, the ones it needs to run electricity through it and for the image to appear on the TV.”

“It was just this.”

“Mom must’ve put it away separately, I’ll ask,” Vee said, looking around the house. The cleaning machine roared from upstairs, giving away Camila’s location. “Be right back.”

“Where’s Hunter?” Willow asked, looking around.

“Bathroom. Something about shaving his head,” Gus said.

“What?!”

“Scout haircut, apparently,” Gus shrugged.

“Someone should stop him,” Amity said, visibly resisting the urge to laugh.

“He’s probably done already,” Gus said, feeling only a little guilty over how hilarious he found Willow’s horror-stricken face.

“Hunter!” Willow rose to her feet and jogged to the bathroom. “Drop the scissors!”

Willow came back with a clean forehead and a red face. “He said he’d be right out.”

It turned out Hunter hadn’t shaved his head, it was shorter on the top than it used to be, but no bald head. They dragged him into their quest for the VHS cables, turning the rest of their late morning into what was feeling like a wild goose chase.

Camila said it should’ve been near the VHS player itself, but no such luck. Their mark was a plastic bag labeled “cables” with magic marker. There was nothing magic about it, but Gus loved the name. While fruitless on the bag front, Gus found it to be a wonderfully bountiful search, with treasures of all kinds. He’d unconsciously made a “keep” pile, much like the ones he did when he sorted through the artifacts that washed up in the Isles.

“Guys?” Luz called from upstairs. “Where is everyone?”

“Down here!” Amity called back.

“Woah, okay,” Luz ducked down to survey her friends, strewn across the cluttered basement. “What are you all doing down here?”

“Looking for the VHS cables. Ma said they were down here.”

“What, the bag that says cables?”

“Yeah.”

Luz picked up something by her foot. “Is it this?” She opened it and sneezed, a layer of dust scattering and hanging in the air. Luz wiped her nose, peeking inside the bag. “I think it’s this. It has the red-yellow-white cables.”

They had a new problem: the cables were too outdated. 

Luz and Vee were looking online to see if they could find the adapter they needed.

“Y’know, it would suck if after all this, the VHS player just didn’t work at all,” Vee said as she scrolled through the laptop.

“Don’t speak that into existence,” Luz waved her off. “How about tech places in Gravesfield?”

“Here’s the number,” Vee said.

“Not it!” Luz brought her index to the tip of her nose. Ever since they’d been back in the Human Realm, Luz had exhibited new behaviors, like being back home made her remember human customs she’d neglected in the Demon Realm. Vee narrowed her eyes at Luz.

“Ugh, fine. I’ll call.”

By the time Vee had finished the call, Hunter’d gone to pick up the adapter, and everything was connected, the sun had already set. The player turned on, seemingly functional.

“Imagine the tapes are damaged,” Luz said as she slipped the case into the machine.

“If they don’t work, it’s your fault for manifesting it,” Vee said, taking her place on the couch. 

“I’ll get Camila,” Hunter said as the tape rewound.

“This has to be some sort of miracle,” Luz said in awe, sitting next to Amity. The screen displayed the word play on a blue screen and the movie began to play. “MA! HUNTER! Hurry!”

The movie itself was fine, but Gus was intrigued with the illusions used. Camila said it was make-up and prosthetics for the monsters and light effects for the fantastical scenery. Gus was delighted to hear humans also used light to create their special effects, though it looked very different from what he could do. 

But he was settling his sights on the next hill to overcome: after he felt he’d mastered his sleights, he was going to look into monster make-up, that being closer to the creativity he was used to with his own illusions.

“Psst, Gus,” Amity whispered as the credits rolled. He looked over to find a small illusion in her hand. A slightly crude recreation of the creature from the film. It couldn’t move and the saturation was a little overdone, but it was an illusion. “I thought I’d give it a try.”

“Amity, that’s awesome! Look at this little guy, you even got the gills!”

Luz looked over, eyes widening at the figure in Amity’s hand. “You made that?”

“It’s just practice,” Amity shrugged, blushing.

“Look at you, multitracking!” Luz threw her arms around her. “I’m so proud of you!”

Amity smiled fondly. “Thanks,” she said, but she was looking at Gus.

He shot her a wink, more than happy to be able to help his friend.

[lovejosephquinn]

Just and idea maybe you can elaborate on, imagine you and Joe broke up over idk what but he’s coming over to your apartment for his stuff and you do revenge makeup/outfit.One thing leads to another you end up in bed together and while he’s thinking things have gone back to normal and he’s taken back at the end you get yourself together hand him his box and say bye leaving him a little shocked

I'm not good at angst but I will give it a go, maybe it's time to break some hearts if it's good enough!!

Tysm for your request 💛 Under 18's DNI.

Word Count: 3k

Tagging the people that replied to my post: @itsfreakingbats @lma1986 @shawnamae87 @whoscamila @josephfakingquinn @joequinnisgod

It's true, everything had gone to shit since the day you and Joe ended things. It was all over a drunken kiss he'd had which spread like wildfire across the internet which you caught wind of pretty quickly. He admitted his wrongs when you'd asked and you told him you couldn't trust him, more or less down to the fact that he didn't tell you as soon as it'd happened. To which this broke your heart to have to see it the way you did, ending everything was hard because as much as it didn't seem that way; he was the greatest and best relationship you'd ever had.

It'd been a couple of weeks since Joe moved out of the flat you shared together, you'd felt sick to your stomach when you received contact from him for the first time since you broke up when he asked when he could come and collect the rest of his stuff. You'd arranged for him to come over this afternoon with every intention of not being there when he did so it hurt less and then just to lock the door behind him and repost the key through the letterbox. Yet something inside of you screamed for you to be there, to see his face when you opened the door, to muster the fakest smile to show him that you were ok. You were not.

You decided after pondering on whether to stay looking like you'd been dragged through a hedge backwards or whether you should make yourself look good, a show him what he's missing type of look. Going with the second option was a moment of spite on your part, but it'd feel good to see his jaw drop when you were up on your high horse. Sliding into your favourite jeans, a meshy long sleeved top which was highly revealing to the black bra underneath, you curled your hair and put on minimal to enough make up, spritzing yourself with your favourite perfume to finish the completed look, there was a knock at the door shortly after.

The entirety of your organs felt like they were going to regurgitate out of your mouth when you heard the sound coming from the front door. Your eyes immediately watering, your heart racing and a vile sense of nausea punching it's way through your stomach. You thought for a second if it was a good idea to just pretend you weren't in and have him come back another day, but then who'd see how good you'd made yourself look for nothing; putting on a brave face you sauntered to the door, unlocked it and swung it open.

"Hi oh-" Joe paused, scanning you up and down, a bag firmly clutched in his hands which he'd brought to collect his stuff.

"Hello." You bluntly replied, watching his eyes practically undress you.

"You look-" He sighed.

"I look?" You tilted your head to the side, folding your arms to bring attention to your revealing chest.

"Beautiful." Joe's eyes immediately fell to the ground and in that very second you just wanted to wrap your arms around him and cry. But you weren't letting go of what he'd done to ruin what you had and you had to remember that he was unfortunately still the one in the wrong and it was time to move on.

"Your stuffs on the sofa in a box, I got it all ready for you." You'd not given him entirely everything that belonged to him in the flat, you'd hid one of his sweaters in the back of your wardrobe for safe keeping; you know for if you ever missed him then at least you had somewhat of a piece of him to cuddle late at night. Eventually you hoped that feeling would be gone and you could just burn it, but it was still early days and seeing him right now was a contributing factor that you were not ready to get over this man.

"Oh, thank you." You gestured for him to come through and he walked by you, looking around the flat, chasing all the memories that flooded the walls of times you'd shared together.

"Looks good in here, you cleaned it up nicely." Joe's eyes were firmly back on you, the sparkle in them gleamed from the water cursing his eye lids.

"Yeah I-"

"I miss you." Joe interrupted abruptly, he just had to throw that one statement in there to get you sweating and oh boy did it.

"You made the choice to do what you did." You were seething, why in the world would he mutter those 3 delicate words at you that now have you wanting the ground to swallow you up.

"And I regret it everyday. Can't you just give me one more chance Y/N? I can't be without you. I'm not doing good, I'm not happy. I'm in a dark place without you by my side and I need you." Sniffles sounded from Joe's nose as tears finally made their way down his cheeks.

You stepped up to take a look at him, scanning him just as he had you, he did in fact look like shit, he'd grown his beard out, not taken care of his messy curls, looking like he'd just gotten out of bed. It was 3pm and this wasn't like Joe to look so out of it. Maybe he really did regret it, but was it a mistake? Or was it purely a purposeful need to kiss somebody else because he wanted to. You'll never know the truth because you weren't there when it happened, but you know it did so that was enough for you.

"Prove it." Joe's eyes grew, the chocolatey gaze which normally looked so warm and welcoming was darker than usual, two black hole's of doubt and misery stood before you.

Joe cupped your cheek with his hand, bringing his lips down to kiss you delicately, slowly and quickly, enough to pull back just so that he could test the waters to see if that's what you meant. You were heading into dangerous territory kissing him back, especially when he pulled away and you reached up immediately, wrapping your arms around his neck, pulling him down to gain a deeper contact.

Joe's arms wrapped around the small of your back, pressing you against him, not letting go of what once was his, claiming what he could to try and make it all better. Your mind was running in circles, ten to the dozen trying to fathom why you were stood in the middle of your living room making out with your ex boyfriend, but your words had misconstrued the situation and had developed into something that should probably not have happened. But your evil and wicked broken heart was now searching for something further, something to break him, something to give him a taste of his own medicine. Would that make you the worse person? maybe, but you didn't particularly care.

You were brought back down to reality when his tongue made it's way into your mouth, gasping for air you quickly embraced the feeling of his muscle writhing around yours. The familiar feeling of his erection pressing up against your thigh was a welcomed one and the pit of your stomach was no longer feeling sick, but ridiculously turned on, bolts of electricity were being sent to your core and you were relishing the pleasantness of it; purely because you'd not felt this good about yourself or anything else in weeks. You pulled away, a breathless mess, panting inches away from his lips as Joe took a large unsatisfactory gulp of nerves.

"Is- is that what you meant?" Joe whispered.

You nodded slowly, not even registering that your head was moving without your body telling you too. Taking a hold of his hand and leading him to the sofa, pushing him down so he fell flat onto it, you climbed onto him, straddling his thighs, rubbing your hands up and down his chest and taking a heavy sigh before leaning over to his ear and replying "fuck me like it's the last time."

You didn't even get to the last word before Joe flipped you to lay down on the sofa, picking you up and putting you down like you were a rag doll, launching you right where he wanted you, unbuttoning your jeans and pushing them down your legs, throwing them over his shoulder abandoned and unwanted. Your body writhed as you felt his hands feel every ounce of naked skin touch you so beautifully, so careful to observe every part of you that was within his sights.

Joe moved himself into position between your spread legs, licking a stripe up your pretty panties before his eyes shot up to witness the whimper falling out of your mouth. "Yeah baby, is this what you want?" Baby. That word made you instantly feel sick again, but you quickly wavered it off with a nod and a small mhm to answer his question.

Pulling your underwear to the side, Joe dug in, not wasting a second in tasting your cunt, sucking rapidly against your swelling clit, spitting onto your hole so that he could gain better access to shove two fingers inside of you, flickering his tongue against the part of you aching most, kissing his soft lips against it, his free hand gripped to your thigh making small indents into your skin, keeping you in place, holding you like his life depended on it.

"Yes oh my god Joe- just like that." You arched your back, everything about what you were doing was so wrong but felt so right and he loathed the fact you were into it, pushing his face in deeper when your hands came down to tighten against his hair, rocking your hips over and over to create a rhythm that was pushing you further and further to the brink of release. His finger's felt so good inside of you, hitting all the right spots and pushing against your walls so skilfully, curling up just to where you liked it, hitting your sweet spot. Joe knew you inside and out, he knew what you craved and he knew what you weren't so fussed on and that was the irritating notion that you held deep inside of you, the fact he still had this hold on you.

Your orgasm hit you like a ton of bricks, you saw stars, you had flashbacks of all the times you and Joe and shared intimate moments like this, tears sprouted out of your eyes, every emotion that was both beautiful and sinister was revealed. Your body jolted through the release, giving you a sense of fulfilment but also a disgusting realisation that this would never happen again.

Joe got up, wiping his mouth, his eyes magnetised to yours, watching the way you looked both happy and sad.

"You always tasted so beautiful too." Joe cooed lowly.

You bit your lip, washing away as quick as you could the deflated feeling as a way of getting Joe to continue his actions. Joe stood up before you, unbuttoning his trousers, taking down his boxers with them and letting them fall to the ground. Removing his creased up t-shirt and bringing himself back to his previous position, he cages himself above you, leaning on one elbow, you look down to watch his hand jerk his cock a couple of times, bringing your sights back up to see his features that are burning with desire.

"Fuck me Joe, hard." You almost say it like it's an order and Joe immediately complies. He pushes every inch inside of you, not even waiting to adjust before he thrusts at an erratic pace. His hips slam down on to you, his balls slap against your ass. Moans are flying in every single direction from the both of you. Your slick and his saliva from previously eating you out like a ravenous animal helped quicken the pace, he was railing you like he didn't care, like he hated you, giving you everything he could. He knew he wasn't going to last long from the way he was going, but he'd savour every second.

"You take me so well love, you always have. Oh my-" Joe screeched an exhale, lifting himself and pulling your legs to his shoulders, his hands gripping against your legs as he took a few more intense thrusts against you. Your hand fell to your clit, rubbing it in fast circular motions, wanting nothing more than to feel that release just one last time. Joe's eyes watched your movements and his head instantly fell back, his eyes rolling into the back of his head, his mouth dropping open so wide it could of caught flies.

"Shit, yes. You're so tight." Joe managed, bringing himself back down and kissing your neck, his tongue tingled from your perfume, the scent firmly moulded into his muscle and seeping into his taste buds. "Fuck I'm gonna-" You came in unison, milking him for all he was worth whilst your slick dripped out onto the sofa, he fell on top of you, his lungs burning for oxygen.

"Joe, you're crushing me." You uttered out loud, you were enjoying the weight of him on you, not wanting it to end but seemingly the deed was done and what was left?

"S-sorry." Joe pulled out and immediately took himself the few steps to the bathroom to clean up before coming out and getting dressed. You were already sat back up right on the sofa, fully clothed when he got back to you.

Joe eyed the box of his stuff that he'd not previously spotted, the reality of what he'd actually came for dawned upon him. He sat by your side, staring at you intently whilst you kept your eyes to your twiddling thumbs.

"That was amazing." Joe said.

"Yeah it was." You replied, you couldn't deny the fact. It shouldn't of happened, but your mother taught you that everything happens for a reason and this was revenge wasn't it? This was to get back at him, to crush him just as he had you.

"Surely this meant something, surely this isn't-"

"That was the last time." You continued to stare to the floor, but your peripheral vision could witness everything that Joe's emotions showed. His eyes grew cold, his body stiffened, his hand in mid air which had just gone to place itself on top of yours stood still.

"It can't be, our connection it's too strong, you know it is. Please I'm begging you, take me back, I can't live without you baby." Joe came back to life, previously feeling paralyzed to your words, his hand rested on top of yours and you immediately shook him off.

"It's over Joe, get your stuff and go." What a coward, what an idiot you were. Fucking your ex and then letting him off like that. Your intentions were thorough and you'd stuck to your guns which you were proud of, but you could almost pin point the moment you heard Joe's heart smash into smithereens.

"I can't-"

"I said, go." You looked up as Joe stood up to grab the box, not taking a second look back at you as he left his key on the coffee table as you asked, swiftly exiting and leaving you alone.

Why was your heart so full of regret? Why didn't you tell him not to go and to prove himself further? You knew yourself there was no getting over him anytime soon and doing what you'd done had just made it worse. You grabbed your phone, looking at the name in his contacts through fogged up lenses, you couldn't see shit for the tears which eluded your vision. You fell to the floor, shaking and cold, a mess. Right back where you started. You clicked the call button all of 15 minutes after, to which you were brought to an even more shocking detail when the phone didn't even ring, it instead beeped and cut the call off. Joe had blocked your number, he had done you a favour, stopping himself from being tempted to contact you. You'd truly lost him just as he'd lost you. But why did it hurt so bad?

Because you loved him, you always would.

[dearweirdme]

Why do jikookers have such a hate boner for taekookers??

I swear you go on ANY taekook related tweets that got a lot of attention and they are out there trying to make us hear their morals policy or whatever.

Like I won't lie and say there are not some taekookers like this, of course there are. But they don't go around on each and every jikook related stuffs to comment! Like what type of mental gymnastics is going on??

Even here on Tumblr. They are everywhere! Like seriously. On their own blogs, they keep talking about the same discussion over and over. It never ends. Taekookers this and that, why we are delusional, why we are hypocrite and why we think jikook is fanservice.

Let it go! They talk more about taekook/ers than whatever is going on in their space!!

Someone should tell them that whatever they want us to hear, it's not going to change any taekook believer perspective. If anything, they are proving us further and further that they are bunch of insecure people who can't see the other side enjoy their stuffs.

Like leave us alone damn!

Hi anon!

I think we are part of their coping strategy. They kinda need the comparison between Tkk and Jkk for Jkk to make sense almost. Rebuttals to Jkk debunking posts are almost always met with arguments of why Tkk isn’t real. I’m not sure if Jkk would have been this big of a thing had it not been for Tkk’s existence also.

Jkkrs gaslight each other. Some of their biggest blogs are the most vile people around. They don’t even know how to speak to their own anons properly. Those are the blogs that are followed blindly though. They give a sense of community and justify their followers in spreading hate.

[fluffytheocelot]

Carmen Week Day 5: AU

AWW YE HERE WE GO BOIS I HAVE BEEN SO HYPED FOR THIS ONE! Sorry its a bit late lol

Anyways--

Last Wolf is very near and dear to me, it was the first fic I actually had the confidence to write, but Thief's Guide is almost completely my own. It's not based off of another series, pretty much all the worldbuilding and plot is mine. Last Wolf still follows the timeline and plot of the original show (changed and added to of course, but the original show is the backbone.

A Thief's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is exactly what it sounds like lol. Carmen and her friends surviving in an apocalypse while on the run from VILE and ACME, complete with a dope soundtrack.

And Julethief of course :) because i love them

This is definitely an AU I wanna write down, I promise. Uhh maybe when I get this chapter of Last Wolf out I'll start??? Maybe. We'll see lol.

Feel free to drop me an ask about it! or last wolf too lol.

Dope soundtrack:

if the song came out during or before 1986ish, then its probably something the characters would listen to (namely Carmen, jamming to cassettes she scavenges on her Walkman). anything after that would just be soundtrack/credits music if it was a show.

uhhh story info under the cut lol

Around the mid 1980s, Dr. Bellum's unnamed predecessor was experimenting with a virus that, well, turned people into zombies. The test run soon got out of hand, however, and the virus quickly spread to the entire world.

Technology pretty much stays the same. Radios, paper maps, Walkmans, stuff like that. Music and TV obviously aren't getting widespread release anymore, so anything that came out past like, 1986 doesn't exist.

(Wow Fluffy that's so unrealistic there's no way people wouldn't quarantine themselves to stop it-- *looks at 2020* nevermind)

VILE uses it as a power grab, offering people shelter, food, etc. in exchange for joining. Fun.

There's incredible amounts of chaos and violence for the first decade or so, until late 1999 when VILE faculty member Dexter Wolfe is assumed to have been caught and killed.

Two things happen: ACME arises as a direct rival to VILE, and VILE acquires a certain Black Sheep.

ACME wants to find a cure. VILE wants the apocalypse to keep going so they stay in power. VILE and ACME are both much more well known.

Black Sheep grows up in a VILE compound, learning all her important thief skills of course, as well as the skills needed to survive the apocalypse: Firearms, bows, blades, living in the wilderness, etc etc. Pretty much anything you can think of needing to know in the apocalypse, Carmen learned when she was like six lol.

She officially enrolls at about 15, and escapes at 16.

Eventually she figures out VILE wants the apocalypse to keep going and escapes into the night on horseback, with Cookie Booker's stolen hat and coat.

She's on the run for a while and eventually winds up in Ontario, where she meets a recently orphaned 12 yr old Player. The two become fast friends and pretty much grow up together over the next few years. Carmen is very protective of Player and teaches him how to survive in case anything happens to her.

They make their way to Boston, pick up Zack and Ivy, and Team Red is complete! (for now)

Along the way they eventually acquire our favorite grumpy ninja, Carmen's favorite ACME agent, an aussie electrician and a couple more surprise people ;)

Carmen also discovers she may be the key to ending the apocalypse, but is ACME really what they say they are?