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rd0265667 · 4 months ago

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Mina x Reader: la folie d'un(e)

Permanent Taglist: @cwpiqwon @justme-idle

A/N: Yes, The picture is a weird choice, I promise it's the right pic. Also sorry @keervah. and thanks @frenchyypoo and @1luvkarina for beta reading

Your eyes shut tight at the bright glare of the sun, causing you to wince in annoyance. As you reach around your bed, you found yourself alone. That was odd, Mina loved to sleep in on her off days, especially after a week long stint on the graveyard shift. Hmm, maybe she got hungry.

“Babe?” You groggily call out, scratching your hair, expecting to smell some waffles, or any of the foods Mina usually liked to prepare for breakfast, but no. No response from her either. Your eyebrow raised in caution. No note, no message, nothing. Your first thought was an intruder. As someone who was married to a law enforcement officer, you’ve had many close scraps with pissed off criminals hoping to get revenge, or an up and coming criminal wanting to kidnap a cop for leverage. Arming yourself with a small kitchen knife, you creeped out of the kitchen slowly. No signs of forced entry, your IDS was still armed. Either your intruder was a ghost, or you were all clear.

Letting out a sigh of relief, you holster the knife, going to the fridge to grab some milk. You’ve had this situation happen more often than you’d like, but that’s the downside of being married to a police officer. Mina would disappear in the morning, for some manhunt or all hands on deck situation. When these situations arose, you found it best not to call, the miniscule chance of the call messing something up was too huge a deterrent for you to interrupt her work. She’ll call when she can. In the meantime, to keep your mind off of it, you grab your tote bag, intending on heading to the market for some shopping. On the way out however, an old photo frame that sat at the mantle next to the door seemed odd. You distinctly remember it being a picture of both you and Mina at the beach, your first date, now instead, it was a picture of you with your family at one of your cousin’s weddings. That’s odd, you could have sworn it was a picture with Mina. Maybe she’s been doing some redecorating. A discussion for when Mina comes back. “Yo! Juin!” You shout out as you waved to the teenager manning the store. “Morning Boss, what do you need today?” He said as he got up, adjusting his apron. “Just looking for some fruit. Where’s your pops?” You ask, looking through the fruits available at the store. “Oh he’s in the back, settling some shipping problems with the delivery guys.” Juin replied as he took the watermelons and other assorted fruits from you, going to wrap it up. “Big day? You usually don’t buy so many fruits in one go.” “Well, Mina’s probably had a long day, so I want to prepare a fruit platter for her to go with dinner.” You reply with a smile as you hand him the money. “Mina? New Girlfriend?” Juin asked in confusion. “Come on man, you’ve met Mina, she’s been my wife for 2 years and counting. Don’t you remember her? Japanese, shy, looks like a penguin, loves ketchup irrationally.” You ask, perplexed that Juin could not remember Mina. “Doesn’t ring a bell.” Juin replied, clearly not joking too. The youth these days, them and their poor memories. “Oh well, gotta run, say hi to your dad for me, he definitely knows her. Ask him to show you a picture of Mina.” You say, placing the fruits into your tote back, waving before walking off. As you walked off, Juin’s dad walked out. “Hey pops, Y/N came by. They mentioned a wife? Mina?” Juin asked his father “Who’s Mina?”

After a little more shopping, you hauled your bags back into your apartment complex, seeing a neighbour, and good friend of Mina’s, Nayeon, waving to you, rushing up to you and relieving your load of bags, then looping her hand around your arm. “Expecting company tonight Y/N? I’m disappointed you didn’t invite me first.” Nayeon pouted, looking at you in mock anger. “Another day Nayeon, I have a lovely spread for Mina tonight.” You respond, gesturing to your bags. Nayeon looks at you quizzically. “You have a girlfriend now? How could you keep this from me?” Nayeon asked, now more shocked than her previous mock anger. You chuckle awkwardly, trying to see when Nayeon would burst out laughing, or be unable to hide a smirk about this trick, but none. Nayeon seemed serious. “Come on, Nay, seriously. Mina was the one who introduced me to you. The two of you are in the same book club? There’s no way you don’t know her.” You ask her, worried as pieces slowly began to fall apart. She was missing this morning, no note, nothing. Juin didn’t remember Mina, more importantly, Nayeon didn’t either. Nayeon, who spent more time with Mina and their little friend group then she spends sleeping. This doesn’t make any sense. Seeing Nayeon shake her head, clearly now worried about you, you shook your head, muttering under your breath. “This isn’t possible. I have to go.” You hastily run to your door, leaving Nayeon standing behind you, confused and worried. You fumbled with the key in your hand, frantically trying to open the door. When the door finally creaked open, you bolted in, intending to find a picture of Mina. Maybe Nayeon was just having a medical issue, and a picture of Mina would jog her memory. You sprinted around the house, trying desperately to find Mina in a picture. But somehow, not a single one could be found. Picture frames where photos of the two of you once sat, were now replaced by pictures with your family. Even those photos you knew, you were certain, Mina was in, she was absent from those pictures, disappeared like she had never existed. How could this happen? Were you going mad?

You hastily pull your phone out, looking for her contact, but none showed up. Dialling her number, the phone company says that the number is not registered. Desperate, you phone the police. “Hello, Castle Hills Police Department Dispatch. How may I help you?” “Where is Officer Mina Myoui, badge number 23796.” You hastily spit out. “Who is this?” “This is Y/N L/N, Officer Mina Myoui’s partner.” “Alright, I’ll check.” The clacking of the keyboard in the background of the call offered no help to calm your nerves, forcing you to try to take deep breaths to keep your heart rate low. “I’m sorry, we have no record of an Officer Myoui.” You immediately hang up, dropping the phone to the ground as you felt the world around you begin to dance. Mina was gone from pictures, gone from…everything. Did she never actually exist? It didn’t make any sense, you remembered every single moment you had spent with Mina, meeting her at a cafe near her station, your first date at the beach, getting married, moving into this apartment together. But it was undeniable, no one else remembered Mina, not her friends, not her coworkers, there was no trace of Mina, not in photos, nothing. Was she really a hallucination all this while, or was this all a huge nightmare, but if this was a nightmare, why would you be able to rationalise all this, you had read this before, was this madness? And why is this happening and does that lamp look weird, maybe the dimensions were off and why is this happening today, and-

Before your mind could race anymore, the world grinded to a halt. The honking of traffic outside went silent, birds stopped chirping. For a matter of fact, they stopped flying, frozen in the air as if time had stopped. And it had, for everything, and everyone, except for you. Looking around in confusion, you heard a thud at the door. Still disoriented, you just stared at the door. As the lock clicked, the door opened, and through the door, stepped Mina. Though initially stunned, you quickly ran up to her, throwing her into an embrace, one which she reciprocated, wrapping her hands around you and squeezing tight. “What’s going on, Mina? No one remembers you, and nothing of you is here, it's like you don’t exist.” You frantically ask, not willing to let go of Mina, afraid that she’d disappear the moment she left your grasp. “I’ll explain everything. Let’s sit down first.” Mina said, pointing to the couch as she made a poor attempt at hiding the tears in her eyes. Grabbing her hand as tightly as you could, the two of you walked to the couch. “Y/N.” Mina started, a slight pause in the middle of her sentence, taking a deep breath. “I’m not human. I’m a goddess.” She said, looking you straight in the eye. “Don’t lie to me. I’ve been through enough today Minari. Please, just tell me the truth, that’s all I need.” You plead, feeling your brain about to break at any moment. “I’m not lying, My parents wanted to give me a normal adjacent childhood, so they left me on earth with parents to take care of me after I turned 6.” Mina explained, extending her hand as she conjured a small flame in her hand. You were shocked, but after the news that no one remembered your wife, this just seemed like a somehow reasonable extension of the day. “Okay, if you’ve had these powers for so long, then why would everyone forget you now? Why all of a sudden?” Tears welled up in Mina’s eyes, fists clenched. “My mom was killed. There was a rogue in the pantheon, and she killed many of the gods and goddesses. I need to ascend to take her place, then put the rogue down. But… for me to ascend to the pantheon, there cannot be a trace that I existed as a mortal here.” Mina explained, fingers trembling. “You did this…You erased everyone’s memories of you, every trace of you.” You questioned, a tinge of betrayal bubbling in you.

Mina was unable to look you in the eye, fist clenched, hesitating a moment before nodding. “Then why do I remember?” You ask, perplexed. “Because I love you. I had to make everyone forget about me, and erase every trace of me, but I thought I could sneak one person past with their memories. You. Leave you with the memories of our love. And it worked. I ascended without a problem. But I saw how you were suffering, not because you had forgotten about me, but because you remembered. I don’t want to see you slowly go insane, my love. I can’t do that to you.” Mina explained, hand lightly cupping your cheek. “So what now.” You mumbled, realising your happy life was slowly collapsing like a house of cards. “You know what I have to do.” Mina whispered “Please, Mina. No. I want to remember you. I want to remember our first kiss, our movie nights, our everything. Please, Mina. Even if I can’t have you, at least…let me remember what I once had with you. I won’t go crazy, I know you had to ascend, I’ll go about my life now, but I want to remember. Please.” You say, at this point, you had stopped even attempting to hold your tears in, staring at Mina, trying to map every bit of her face for what could be the last time, her almond shaped eyes, her blond hair, her little mole, everything that made up the woman you loved. Mina shook her head with tears in her eyes. “The only reason I was allowed back down was because I said there was someone who I had forgotten to wipe. They’ll check, Y/N. I don’t have a choice.” Mina whispered, cupping your cheek, pulling you in for one last kiss. As you shared your last kiss, your last embrace, you begged, you almost screamed, cursed at the powers that be, for all of this to be a dream. For you to wake up in your bed, held by your loving wife, living the perfect life you had enjoyed for so long “Goodbye, my Y/N. My love for you will never fade, I promise. I love you.” Mina whispered, before gently placing her hand on your forehead. “No Mina! Please!” You screamed in despair, but it was too late. Mina, eyes clenched shut, unwilling to look in the eyes of the person she had spent so much time with, and loved so deeply, forget about her, and forget about everything they had done together. The love they shared together, the kisses in bed before going to work. All gone Then, as if a curse was laid upon her, while removing your memories, she was forced to watch the future she was robbing the both of you of. You would have had two kids. One would have been named Jackson. The other, Rachel. You would have had your vows renewed at Hawaii on a family vacation. The two of you would have had long lives ahead of you, full of love, full of everything you could ask for, all because you would have had Mina. Not anymore

As Mina recoiled back, she fell onto the sofa, sobbing into her hands as you now stood frozen at the couch. Mina took her last look at you, wanting to burn you into her memories, and simultaneously, she felt an intense wave of grief and sadness. Your memories of her are lost now. You would meet someone else, fall in love with someone else, walk down the aisle with someone else. It was supposed to be Mina. It was Mina. But not anymore. Walking up to your frozen figure, Mina leaned in, leaving one last peck on your forehead.

“I’m so sorry, my love. This is my curse now, all of our memories, remembering you but never being able to have you. I’ll live for thousands upon thousands of years, but I’ll never love another. I’ll be cursed to love the ghost of you. A madness, la folie d’une”

#rd0265667 #fluff #twice x reader #twice mins #mins x reader #myoui mina x reader #twice mina fanfic #mina fanfic #mina fluff #mina angst

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teecupangel · 1 year ago

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Concept: Imagine if Altaïr had a habit of adopting birds of prey and stuff.

Ezio did the same thing except with cats (including a lion cub, if you know the reference to Da Vinci you'll get it)

Connor adopted canines constantly.

Desmond inherits all of these and takes in every single stray animal he finds. It doesn't matter if it's even safe to keep as a pet. He just adopts every single animal in sight.

In other words, through genetic manipulations, the Isus have created the ultimate savior of humanity:

A Disney Princess.

And it all started with Altaïr accidentally turning one of the towers in Masyaf as an aviary that only housed Birds of Prey.

No one knows how he did it.

They were pretty sure he started doing it after his father died and no one had the heart to tell a grieving child to stop adopting birds as a coping mechanism.

By the time Altaïr had been initiated, the aviary and its occupants have become just another staple in Masyaf.

Is it weird that they only listen to Altaïr?

Is it weird to hear Altaïr have a full blown conversation with them?

Very much so.

But it was Altaïr.

He was as weird as he was talented.

So people just left him be.

Time passed and Altaïr became a legend in the Brotherhood.

There were whispers that he could command any kind of birds of prey to do his bidding.

Perhaps he could.

Perhaps he could not.

No one found out the truth.

Ezio, on the other hand, was known as a hoarder of cats.

He gives food to even the dirtiest stray cats that could be found scurrying in the streets.

And they would follow him back to the Brotherhood’s hideout where some poor servant or recruit would have to bathe the cat, suffering the scratches and bites.

Only to be rewarded by the cat purring contently when it is presented to Ezio who holds it in his arms and calls it bella or bello.

And then… Ezio managed to get a hand on an illegally smuggled lion cub who grew up to be quite… large.

A very spoiled large cat who always loved it when Leonardo would come to visit because he would give the lion treats so it would let Leonardo study it.

Now, Ratonhnhaké:ton didn’t plan to adopt any animals. It just so happened that he joined a wolf pack in taking down preys once and now he was considered a… ‘kindred spirit’. They would join Ratonhnhaké:ton whenever he was off hunting and wouldn’t take his kills.

When he left the village, he saved a dog being mistreated by Red Coats and the dog just followed him to the homestead.

While he was sleeping the barn, he saw another dog, all skin and bones, rummaging the containers where the old man keeps the horses’ food for any scraps it might eat and he felt sorry for it so he would throw it a bit of the meat he would prepare for him and the first dog that kept following him.

By the time, Achilles finally agreed to train him, the wolf pack that he had hunted with near his village came to the homestead and… just followed him around.

Achilles thinks it’s a gift.

That there have been Assassins that had a close kinship with animals like Altaïr with his birds and Ezio with his cats.

The wolf pack stayed in the homestead when Ratonhnhaké:ton went with Achilles to Boston. The dog that Ratonhnhaké:ton fed also stayed because they learned that he was already quite an old dog.

Achilles didn’t say anything but the grief in his eyes made it clear that the old dog’s owner had been one of the many dead Assassins that Achilles knew.

When Ratonhnhaké:ton returned from Boston…

Not only was he accompanied by the first dog he adopted, he apparently adopted 3 more dogs along the way.

Achilles has himself to blame for that one.

And so, time moves on and Desmond Miles is born.

The window to his nursery was always close because birds and squirrels would come inside an open window and surround his cradle.

His mother had been worried that those squirrels and even some of the birds might carry something that would make a baby sick.

When he grew older, his friends were the animals in the woods surrounding the Farm and the guard dogs that Farm used.

The other children thought he was weird because of his affinity to animals.

Many adults found it to be a bit disturbing but also a sign of the greatness that Desmond would achieve.

Why else would he have the same ‘skill’ as Altaïr and Ezio, after all?

Then Desmond showed… to be lacking in training.

He wasn’t bad.

He was even better than a lot of the other kids.

The problem was…

Everyone expects him to be more than that.

And Desmond couldn’t take it.

So he ran away.

And the animals ran away with him.

And Desmond finds an abandoned farm where he finally carves out a place of happiness for himself and his friends.

… Desmond has no idea where the bear came from but he became docile after Desmond scolded him for destroying the trash bin and eating spoiled food.

#it’s about leonardo’s mechanical lion #yeah that’s a thing #assassin's creed #desmond miles #altaïr ibn la'ahad #ezio auditore #ratonhnhaké:ton #connor kenway #teecup writes/has a plot #fic idea: assassin's creed #ask and answer #disney princess desmond

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twst-drabbles · 9 months ago

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Leona 27

Summary: Little Leona likes to nap in a bowl filled with scraps of Cheka’s old baby blanket. During those times, you like to scratch him and watch him melt into a pile of sand.

(Hmm, might write about Rook next. I miss him and his weirdo antics. No clue what to do on that front.)

Often, you have to be careful with your timing when it comes to petting Leona. If you try to approach him too early with your affection, he’ll bat at your fingers and run away from you. If you give in to your impatience and insist on giving him affection, he’ll straight up leave the house and won’t come back until Falena or Cheka come here to pick him up.

For a creature that naps quite a bit, his tolerance towards anything is very thin. Which you suppose is natural for spoiled critters such as him. Vil was much the same way until you came along and humbled him.

Ignoring Leona worked out for the most part. He’d stay in the house of his own volition, only venturing out as far as the garden and as high as the roof. Sure, he’d still make demands of you and would sand your things if he thought that would get you to listen, but that time trapped in that airtight container you got from Crowley certainly got him thinking twice.

Anyway, all this to say that Leona went from ignoring your existence until he wanted a servant to always wanting to be in the same room as you because he must keep an eye on you, like you’re a threat or something. And because Leona was constantly in your presence, it was only a matter of time before he started napping in it.

In every room you’re usually hanging out in, you have these ornate hand-painted bowls you’ve received as a gift just sitting there close to you. Inside those bowls were a handful of cloth cut from Cheka’s old baby blanket. You felt a little weird asking for that at the time but now you had no regrets.

Because, inside the bowl on the patio you’re at was Leona, face buried deep into the creases as he laid on his belly. Only in moments like these could you reach out and stroke his face without it being a gamble.

Leona’s been getting better at getting pettings, though he only tolerates a few pats before zipping off elsewhere. When in the deep throes of sleep, however, you could dig your fingers into his face and he wouldn’t care.

You lifted his limp head, watched the weird way the dips and creases of his face shifted and melded together like writing on sand, then scratched the bottom of his chin. He woke up in instant, features rushing right back to definition, blinked, then sank onto your fingers.

Leona was one of those pets that, when he starts really getting into feeling your nails scratch against his form, he starts wanting it deeper. He lowered himself further and further, the shape of himself getting flatter in the way boneless creatures do.

You snorted just as Leona finally lost his grip on his form, losing his colors to the golden sand. He fell with a dull thud on his little scraps of blanket, gold flecks trailing down through the gaps in your fingers.

Leona reformed himself like clay, didn’t even bother with putting himself in his tiny clothes. Instead he looked up with his sleepy eyes, grabbed your fingers and shoved his face into your palm.

Oh he’s going to regret this later once he fully wakes up, you just know it.

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst-drabbles #twst-drabbles exclusive #drabble #savanaclaw #leona #leona kingscholar #house pet au #reader insert

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anonymousonlyanonymoud · 1 year ago

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The Lost de Rolo Chp. 3

Trinket

Previous Chapter.

Next Chapter.

Obligatory Trinket POV. Pre-stream events are referenced here.

TW: Blood, body modification, mentioned death

Trinket was not in his armor for once.

The bear had grown accustomed to the weight of it, so it felt a bit weird as he ambled around without it.

His Vex was currently in the food room with Keyleth and Scanlan as they went through the sticks and bottles they'd traded shiny things for. Grog was with them, not paying attention as he focused on his sharp thing, scrapping a rock across the edge to make it more sharp.

It was a new sharp thing, one that was dark with a red shiny thing on the not-sharp end and didn't exactly smell right. The bear preferred Grog's other sharp thing to this one.

Trinket eyed the dark sharp before huffing as he flopped onto the stone floor at His Vex's feet, tapping his claws against it in boredom.

His Vex smiled and offered a quick head scritch before giving her attention back to Keyleth while Scanla said something that had His Vex glaring.

Trinket didn't care about what they were talking about. He just wanted to go with them this time.

He'd been left behind after those... Not good things had attacked.

Trinket didn't know what they were, but they were bad. They had hurt Vax, then sent other not-good things to hurt his friends! Trinket hadn't been able to protect his friends either time and then His Vex told him to stay behind.

He hoped that despite not protecting them last time, he could follow them on their next adventure.

Like the last time, it had something to do with Percy's family. A missing piece of it.

Trinket wanted to help Percy find this missing piece, he knew what it was like to miss family and didn't want Percy to feel that again.

But his armor was gone, taken off of him.

It seemed like he would be left behind again.

Keyleth and Vax could want to braid his fur and make him look pretty again, (He didn't like it, but it had made them happy. Trinket would sit through it again if it made Vax and Keyleth happy.) But, it looked like he wouldn't be coming with them. Again.

A sad huff left the bear and he shoved his head into Vex's lap.

He didn't want to be left behind.

The front door opened and shut as two sets of footsteps came down the hall and into the room.

Trinket recognized the sweet, warm smell that came with Pike and the smokey-powdery scent that came from Percy.

Percy used to smell like something was constantly burning, but he didn't anymore. Trinket was glad that he didn't smell like burning. That smell was something, bad. But it was gone, and that made His Vex happy.

Percy made His Vex happy.

Just like how Keyleth made Vax happy. Or, used to.

Keyleth still made Vax happy, just not like she used to. He seemed sad when he looked at Keyleth now.

A few days after they came back, Scanlan said Vax and Keyleth were having a long talk. Pike had smacked Scanlan across the back of his head and said it wasn't that kind of talk. Trinket didn't understand what they meant. Their language, though being the same as His Vex's, was weird,

"Where's Vax?" His Vex asked, making the bear lift his head to see that Vax hadn't returned.

Pike scratched his ears as she walked past to sit beside Grog who set his big sharp aside,

"He was still talking to Father Tristan when we left,"

"Whatever for?"

Pike shrugged at His Vex as Percy fell into the empty seat next to Trinket.

Percy was drawn tight up on the chair with fingers tugging at his short hair. Trinket knew from experience that it was painful and shuffled over to plop his head in Percy's lap.

The human didn't even question it and dropped one of his hands to Trinket's head. He didn't give any scritches though, which made Trinket huff,

"But did it go good at the temple?" Grog asked, which made everyone turn to Percy who sighed while removing the circles on his face,

"It did work, Grog," Trinket saw a slight smile on Percy's face, "I saw her. My sister's alive,"

"Well dat's great!" Grog exclaimed while clapping, "When we leavin'?"

"And, uh, where are we going? Exactly?" Keyleth asked,

"Westruun,"

"That's great! That's really close, Percy!" Keyleth sounded happy to Trinket.

His head was still under the table so he couldn't see her,

"I know. It's... closer than I ever thought she would be..."

"However," Pike's voice cut across Percy's quiet talking, "We should talk about Vax's reaction,"

There was a very long pause that made Trinket wonder if something had happened. He shuffled until his head was no longer on Percy's lap and plunked it onto the table.

Nothing had happened, but everyone was looking at Pike who appeared worried,

"What do you mean Vax's reaction?" His Vex questioned while gently rubbing his ears,

"I don't know. He just... Didn't seem happy? About where Ciara was,"

Percy spoke up after Pike, the hand with the stone rubbing the ear His Vex wasn't touching,

"Vax recognized the building she walked into quickly. Almost immediately, in fact," Trinket's ears twitched at the soft footsteps that came into the kitchen, "I'm certain he knows where Ciara is,"

"You would be right about that, Freddie," Everyone turned to see Vax leaning against the wall.

Trinket didn't like the look on Vax's face. It didn't look okay, it looked sad and angry.

Trinket didn't like when Vax, or any of his friends, were sad or angry. That meant something was wrong,

"Where was she, Vax?" His Vex asked.

Vax's eyes darted around the room before looking at the floor. Trinket looked too, but there wasn't anything at Vax's feet,

"Entering the Clasp's tavern,"

A low growl escaped Trinket as the rest of the room went silent.

He remembered that word.

Clasp.

Trinket didn't know what a clasp was, but he knew it was full of people who had hurt Vax and Pike a while ago, forcing them to fight some kind of monster after kidnapping them. They had killed someone important to the clasp thing, and surprisingly, it had been Scanlan who had gotten them out of that situation.

Trinket still doesn't fully believe that Shorty was able to do that by himself. He most likely had help that Trinket didn't see.

But that clasp thing was back and Trinket didn't want any more of his friends being put in danger because of that clasp and Grog was agreeing with him,

"T'ose asses!" He growled while reaching for the dark sharp, "We got t'deal wit' them again?"

Pike sighed while leaning against the big man, "Looks like it Buddies," She glanced at Vax who was rubbing the back of his neck, "Last time, you mentioned that you were a member,"

"Yeah, I did. And that didn't go so well. But, we were dealing with the Emon chapter. I was, for lack of a better term, initiated into the Westruun chapter,"

"And, even though that sounds great, amazing, and something that could totally help us, I have the feeling you're about to tell us something not good," Scanlan piped up as he crossed his arms on the table as Vax sighed.

Vax tugged at his hair before shaking his head and saying,

"The only reason I joined was because I discovered that someone had contracted the Clasp..." Vax stopped talking before looking at Vex.

Trinket recognized that look, it meant His Vex wouldn't like what came next,

"Someone had made a contract to have a member of the Clasp, bring him my sister. l managed to make a deal with one of the Spirelings-"

"What kind of deal?" His Vex's voice was tense as she stood up to look Vax in the eye, "What kind of deal did you make with the Spireling?"

Trinket could tell this topic made His Vex nervous, and with the way Percy's fingers briefly tugged on his ear, Trinket knew he was uneasy too.

And when Vax didn't answer right away, Trinket grew nervous too.

Vex may be Trinket's person, but he'd known Vax since he'd been a cub! Trinket didn't want Vax to be taken away by some kind of deal! From what the others have said about their time away, that had almost happened to Percy!

Trinket wasn't going to let some, deal, thing, take Vax away!

"In a way, I had to complete the contract. They wanted me to bring them a body, and I brought them a body. They brought out a stick made out of tongues, and used it to turn the person I brought, into you," Vax sighed and kept looking toward the ground.

Trinket still didn't know why the floor was fascinating to Vax,

"And, they branded me afterward. The Spirelings had me swear loyalty to the Clasp. So, if they ever called upon me, I would have to answer,"

Vex's hands were clenched around the edge of the table and her fingers were turning white. Trinket worried he would hear something snap if she didn't let go so he lathered a slobbery lick to her fingers.

It did the trick as her hand found its way to Trinket's head and settled against his fur. But, the bear could feel the tension of his human from the stiff way she stroked his ears,

"Have they ever called on you?" Trinket didn't like how tense His Vex's voice was.

Vax shook his head, "No. Never,"

"But that doesn't mean they won't-" Trinket felt Percy's hand grab Vex's atop his head and her voice cut off with a sharp, angry breath before she slowly sat back down.

Trinket shifted his head to look at His Vex.

She was still angrily looking at Vax while her mouth had pressed into a thin line. The bear knew Vax was in for a long and loud yelling at some later point.

Keyleth carefully twisted her stick between her fingers while nervously looking between the twins,

"Could the, membership, help? I mean, I know it didn't help last time, but, you said that you were a part of the Westruun Chapter, and, we are going to Westrunn, so, could that be in our favor?"

Vax shook his head, "I don't think it does, Kiki. I'm not in any position to ask for any favors,"

"Also, and this is just a thought, the person who paid to have Vex kidnapped might want to try again if he sees her in Westruun," Trinket growled lowly as Scanlan talked.

If that bastard so much as looked at His Vex, Trinket would bite his head off! He would rip him apart and crush his bones into splinters!

"Scanlan, for once, has a point," Percy said as Scanlan let out some kind of protest about always being on point,

"Then we kill 'im!" Grog exclaimed, still holding onto the dark sharp that made Trinket uneasy,

"I was never told who he was, Grog," Vax said,

"Then how did you know about this contract to kidnap me?" Vex's voice was still tight with anger and not even Trinket nuzzling her side was able to calm her,

"I politely asked the man why he was following you,"

"An' he jus' told you what he was doin'?" Grog asked, finally putting the bad sharp thing back down, unknowingly allowing Trinket to marginally relax against Vex.

The bad sharp was still there, but out of Grog's hands,

"The main problem will be what happens if they try to open the contract again," Added Pike which made Percy ask,

"If that is a possibility, then maybe-"

"Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, if the next words out of your mouth are that I should stay behind I swear!"

Trinket watched the unfolding argument with disinterest. He would like it if His Vex stayed behind with him. It wouldn't be as lonely as last time.

But, he knew that Percy meant a lot to His Vex and she would want to help him find the missing piece. Which meant that if she were forced to stay with Trinket, she would be unhappy. Trinket didn't want His Vex to be unhappy, but he also wanted His Vex to be safe.

The shouting continued around Trinket, but he only pressed further into Vex until she shot up from her seat and proclaimed,

"I am not staying behind! And the next person who suggests that will find themselves hogtied in the dungeon! Now get your shit ready!"

In the silence that followed, Vex grabbed the sticks and two bottles off the table and stomped out of the room.

Vax sighed while pushing off the wall, "Well, you heard her,"

Vox Machina began packing their things so they would be ready to leave early the next morning, but Trinket stayed in his place at the table.

No one said anything about Trinket going with them. It looked like he would be left behind again.

He huffed in despair and lay on the ground, sad that he wouldn't be able to help until His Vex called out from further in the Keep,

"Trinket, come here. Your new armor's arrived! We have to make sure it fits before we leave!"

The bear shot up from his place on the floor and began running to where he had heard His Vex, almost trampling Scanlan in the process, but he was too excited!

He was going with them!

They flew over Westruun, their Matron watching through their eyes as they followed their Girl.

They had been watching her since she was a child in Whitestone, climbing trees in the gardens to hide from the adults, running and playing with the other children when she wished to join them in their games.

They'd always watched over her, until those things came.

Those things hid her from their Matron's sight for three years.

They could not find a way to see her, even their Matron could not find her inside that castle. But they watched as Whitestone became a dark place from the roof of their Matron's temple.

The ravens watched as the people fell into despair as the sun hid from the sky while dark magic leaked from the castle.

Years passed, they felt the darkness spread and their Matron's sight on Whitestone weakened. The dark magic in the land was suffocating, but the ravens stayed. No matter how many of them fell to the darkness, they stayed.

What had started as seven, dwindled down to two when they once again caught sight of their charge.

She was different.

Her hair was no longer dark but a shock of startling white that looked paler than the Matron's mask. Dark blood stubbornly clung to the changed hair despite the pouring rain, and her right arm hung uselessly at her side.

That was another change, the arm.

What had once been flesh and blood was now dark and metallic. Gears replaced joints and rods were speared into whatever remained of her shoulder.

Their Girl was in pain and scared.

She's been in pain since they followed her into the woods and out of Whitestone.

They did what they could for her.

They brought small animals they hunted, knocked fruits and nuts from trees, and stole what they could from small parties of humans they came across. She took what they brought her without question.

She began to teach herself how to steal, and they would distract her targets when they could. But she soon became proficient enough to not have to rely on their help. Their Girl began stealing coins from pouches and food from stalls and tables.

They watched her teach herself how to wield weapons with her left hand.

They watched her learn the new movements of the metal arm.

They listened when she began calling them Adrik and Nyx.

They watched her discover the city of Westruun, and the temple dedicated to their Matron.

They watched her enter and peered through the windows as she hesitantly began to pray after placing nine coins on the altar.

They watched their Girl find solace with their Matron who rejoiced that one of her own was reaching out.

They watched over her, but they could do nothing when she was grasped by the Spireling.

They could only watch as what little spirit she regained was crushed by the Clasp.

They could hear their Matron weep when their girl fell back into a darkness that clouded her mind.

She stopped seeking solace with the Matron and began ignoring the ravens who had watched over her for years.

They asked their Matron to intervene, but she would always say it was not time, her voice full of sorrow.

But today had been different.

Their Matron told them the Other was coming.

They didn't know much about the Other. Only that his gold thread was entangled with their Girl's and that their Matron's eyes had been on him since he'd encountered those things that had taken their Girl's light.

The ravens knew he was coming, and that one of them would have to lead him to their Girl.

But he wasn't here yet, and until he was there, they would both stay with their Girl.

#legend of vox machina #vax x original character #vax x reader #critical role #grog strongjaw #keyleth #percy de rolo #scanlan shorthalt #trinket #vax'ildan x original character #percy de rolo x vex'ahlia

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oncewhenalongtimeago · 1 year ago

Note

Helloo, do you have open asks? If so, I would like to ask about hiccup and the "acts of service" w Reader(fem).

If you want it can be a continuation of "sorry, but I think I lost your plot ", but otherwise no problem!

I hope you have a good day <3

Sorry, but I Think I Lost Your Plot pt 6

Pairing: Onesided!Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III x Modern!Fem!Reader

Words: 1,911

You find yourself running chores for the Haddocks more often than not. You’re not sure whether this fact irritates or pleases you. At least you’re getting paid (not really).

Tags: Time Travel, Reader into Movieverse, love language, acts of service, part 1

You shifted your arm, pulling the package you carried closer to yourself as you clambered up the steps to the top loft.

You peered over the edge as you pulled yourself up, revealing Hiccup at his desk in the corner, scratching away at a piece of parchment with a newly burnt stick of charcoal. Toothless wasn’t anywhere to be seen, not at the moment. He was probably off hanging with the other dragons while Hiccup did something non-dragon intensive and, therefore, probably Fury-boring.

“Hi,” You started.

“Uh-huh,” Hiccup grunted, after a long moment.

It seemed more of an automatic moment at first, so you weren’t sure he noticed you at first, too absorbed into what he was doing, though at the sound of your footsteps it seemed he did make a minor effort to cover the corner of the paper closest to you with his elbow.

You furrowed your brow as he mumbled something grumpy and noncommittal about his Dad and coming back later.

“Hiccup.” You tried again.

He looked up this time, blinking slowly and shifting his arms as if he was about to stretch, before going rigid.

“I heard about your trip to Outcast Island-?” You tried, for the third time, now that you had his attention.

“Oh, hey, hi-!” Hiccup shoved a few papers off his desk, kicking them underneath the table, you tilted your head to the side though you did your best not to look too closely, in case the papers were of a more private nature, “Don’t look at that -I mean, it was nothing big, but-yeah. It was crazy. Did- ah-”

“-And so did everyone else. Mrs.Ingerman put together a care package.” You offered it up to him, ignoring his quiet, confused, mouthed ‘Mrs,’ “So, uh… Delivery!”

“-Hey!” Hiccup said, hiding a strained smile behind a tall pile of pipes and other miscellaneous scraps. The area under his eyes was dark and pronounced and his hair was frayed in some portions.

It was dark, your vision washed over by a thin, navy film since the sun had set just a few hours prior. You had only the heated light of the forge to bring you light and the few lit torches lining Berk’s path to guide you there.

You wondered if you caught Hiccup at the wrong time. You feared the bond you formed scurrying around Dagur had faded, and Hiccup was back to being a little weird again. It brought you a little bit of sadness, but maybe it was for the best. It would be bad to keep meddling in the affairs of plot.

At least you hadn’t surprised him this time, which was minorly pleasing. You tended to do that a lot for some reason, despite not being particularly quiet or sneaky in any way.

“This is for you,” You placed the bow of stew you had balanced in one hand and the plate carrying a heavy leg of meat in the other on one of the nearby workbenches, cautiously and nervously pushing aside a few nails and ends with the uneven edge of the plate.

“Do you need any help?” You asked, already walking towards him, arms partially extended to help him bear the load.

Hiccup had been spending a lot of time in the Forge recently, meaning he’d probably been skipping out on meals. You did it a lot too, but you knew the toll it took. And there were only two meals a day here. It was a very rare but precious day when you were able to scrounge up a lunch for yourself.

If his father hadn’t done it, the Chief would request you to bring down a meal for Hiccup from the Great Hall. It was one of the many tasks you were given that didn’t pay, but you found you didn’t mind. At least in this instance.

It was the Chief, after all. And maybe you felt a little bad for Hiccup.

“Help?” Hiccup asked, wobbling shakily on his peg and foot. You were sure in a moment you’d be the same. While being on Berk helped some, you were afraid that you were unable to shake off your modern scrawny demeanor.

As you brought some of his load into your arms, counting a healthy, large roll of leather, a sack of needles and pins and twine and a thick group of thin, metal rods, You decided to stay.

You marched through the underbrush, pushing aside low-hanging branches and long, scratchy bush fronds, nearly cursing when your sleeve caught and one of your hastily done stitches were pulled.

You weren’t particularly great with a needle, especially the ones they had here, made of bone and a bit thicker than the ones you were used to back home.

You were wearing your shirt from the day you arrived on the island, which was admittedly much thinner and a whole lot less sturdy than any of your clothes from here.

You wondered what it was like back home, if anyone was still looking for you. In a sort of unsure and roundabout way, you sort of hoped they were.

Anyhow, your best needlework was done the night before last, in an effort to help Hiccup out with one of his newer contraptions, some add-on or other to Toothless’ flying gear.

You’d spent that night trying to follow his instructions to the best of your abilities, kneeled on the floor beside him, but your work was still a measure more fragile than the quick and industrial tacking Hiccup was well-practiced in.

To your benefit, though, you were tracing out and stitching carefully measured pieces by candlelight. It was difficult to do in the dark, and you did your best to compensate by being overly cautious, though that also might have been a sort of burden.

Today, you had your first break in a long while. You got everything done in the morning and so for once, there were no chores for you to chase after or any deliveries to make. It was a little bit less awesome without a working internet connection, but it was what it was.

The last time you’d seen Hiccup, he looked so drowsy and frayed, you couldn’t help but to be reminded of one of those large posters of Albert Einstein you remembered from way back in one of your old middle school classes, with some crummy science encouragement joke pasted to the bottom in Comic Sans.

He’d spent a lot of late nights at the forge recently.

You also hadn’t seen for a while. Not since yesterday. No one else had, people were starting to talk about it, it was beginning to get late. You figured you might as well just give it a look around, though you also very much wanted to take a nice, long nap.

So here you were, marching around deep in the woods as the sun began to set, washing the world over in yellows and orange hues.

You yawned, feet crunching against dry leaves until you broke out into a clearing, which was a minor relief. You took the time to stretch and sigh before looking around.

It was a small clearing full of uneven lush grasses, one half sort of upturned and shaded, the other half occupied by a small lump in a green tunic, and a larger, darker black-navy one just behind the treeline with many different fins for different parts of his body.

Hiccup said it was to see if he could add to or maximize Toothless’ speed, or something. You thought that maybe he was just trying to look cooler or something, though by the end of it, you were sure that Toothless looked a lot more like a sailboat.

“Hiccup…?” You mumbled, tiptoeing quietly towards the green lump, mindful not to make much noise though you approached with the full intent to prod him awake.

His tunic wasn’t quite saturated or dark enough to blend him in with the grasses.

You touched his arm lightly with your hand form where he lay on his side, before pausing. He had been very tired recently. It would probably be wrong of you to prod him awake and make him hobble all the way back to the village.

“Rise and shine,” You mumbled, still patting on his arm. You stopped mid pat at one point, instead choosing to poke him with your finger.

Hiccup just sighed tiredly in his sleep, rolling over further into the grass. You were certain he wouldn’t be waking up soon. You weren’t even sure when the last he slept was, so he could very well be out until the next time the sun set.

You dropped your hands to your side as he drooled uncomfortably face-down into the dirt.

You blinked through drowsy eyes yourself, wondering if you might be able to wake him up for long enough to get a blanket underneath.

You hoped Hiccup would still be there by the time you got back. You hadn’t really stopped to tell anyone about him, though you weren’t in much of a rush. Maybe it was a consequence of your own fatigue, clouding your own line of vision. You hoped they weren’t too worried.

You stumbled in the complete darkness over sticks and rocks, shuffled back with the armful of blankets in your arms.

Living in the stables afforded you some privacy but also meant that your things got dirty quicker. Which meant you had to clean them a lot. And sometimes you didn’t. But you had very recently so these should have been fine, all the pisces taken straight from your own bed.

Admittedly you had a few more than what was standard, though you quite needed them for the extra cushioning and to compensate for the fact that you weren’t as accustomed to the cold climate, especially at night. It was rough out here. They were hard to come by though given you didn’t have much and blankets were much harder to make than in the future.

It wasn’t that bad today so you assumed you’d be fine without for the time being.

After a very long walk with many almost-trips, you broke back into the empty clearing. It was a bit hard to tell through all the bedding, but it was, disappointingly, empty.

You sighed painfully, resisting the urge to rub tired eyes. You wished you had taken a nap or something earlier, barely able to keep yourself up. You weren’t sure you could make the walk back at this point, honestly, even though that was the plan.

What you should have been planning, though, was how you were going to be able to get your blankets back after the fact.

Well, you still had your bedding.

You dropped it with a noise between a whine and a groan and sort of wormed your way into the pile, kicking out what you could and smoothing what you needed to so that you felt and had to deal with as little wrinkles as possible.

You let your eyes fall shut for the most of it, too tired to pull them apart, heavy and sticky with sleep. You only vaguely regretted that you were too tired to look up at the stars, as you had for many nights now through a hole in the roof of the stables just above your bed when the skies were clear.

You exhaled, letting the relieving embrace of sleep envelope you.

#long awaited #how to train your dragon #httyd #x reader #hiccup haddock #fanfiction #hiccup x reader #httyd imagine #toothless #fem reader #female reader

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midnightbrightside · 8 months ago

Note

I’m desperate to your immaculate takes on Krisnix from that one ask—what do you think about 2 and 39 (bonus if the little animals get thrust upon them…it’s Trucy who brings home a box of kittens or something)

ayyy thank you im glad you like my krisnix thoughts!

2- What would they do if the other woke up in a manic state after a nightmare?

when phoenix has nightmares kristoph holds him as he sobs, gently shushing him and saying it was just a dream. phoenix grips kristoph's arms tight to ground himself and it sometimes leaves bruises. kristoph always points them out in a "look what i put up with for you" kind of way that fills phoenix with shame. "really, phoenix, what would you do without me?"

when kristoph has a nightmare he needs to be completely alone but also held as tightly as possible, he also stops speaking. phoenix holds his hands but kristoph snatches them away like the touch burns him and he looks up with wide, scared eyes. so phoenix keeps his distance and encourages kristoph to breathe deep until he stops shaking. then he asks kristoph if he wants to talk about it, kristoph shakes his head. phoenix then asks if he wants a hug, kristoph croaks out very quietly "im not... a child" and phoenix nods "you're not" and holds out his arms. kristoph collapses into them.

39- Who would rescue an injured animal and nurse it back to health? What would the other think?

i got too excited abt this one. gonna put everyone one my "kristoph loves animals" agenda.

trucy comes back home absolutely drenched by the rain holding a box of 6 sopping wet abandoned kittens. she begs phoenix to let her keep them and it absolutely breaks phoenix heart to say "we dont have the space or the money for everything they need. it's late so we can keep them for tonight but we'll have to take them to a shelter tomorrow, im sorry, sweetheart." trucy is NOT happy about it. in true preteen fashion she takes them to her room and starts planning all the ways she, a 12 year old, could raise 6 kittens. phoenix sighs and starts searching what he should feed them, just for tonight.

kristoph arrives later on to pick phoenix up for a date, sees the little furballs meowing around the apartment, and immediately starts fussing.

"these poor babies! where did you find them, and why are they so filthy?"

phoenix explains whats going on and adds "we tried to give them a bath but..." he holds up his arms to show the scratches.

kristoph scoffs, "really, phoenix, you dont have nearly the means nor the knowledge to take care of one animal let alone six." he looks down to where trucy is sitting, playing with the kittens with a makeshift toy made of scrap cloth, and frowns.

"well, first of all, kris: ouch. i was actually thinking we could maybe keep one-"

trucy interrupts from the floor "THREE at LEAST!"

"- and secondly, as i said, we are going to take them to a shelter first thing tomorrow" he looks so apologetic, so sad.

"Absolutely not" Kristoph snaps, "the local shelters are overrun as it is, to say nothing of how they are managed. I wouldnt trust them with these poor creatures either." he looks like hes thinking about something, "Trucy, dear, have you noticed if these kittens are injured or perhaps sick?"

trucy perks up and lists how each cat is faring, which ones are walking funny and points out how one of them has a weird spot near it's eye. as she's rattling off each one's ailments, phoenix notes that she's already named them and his heart melts a little more.

kristoph tuts, "we'll have to take them to the vet then, we can get them microchipped while we're there. vongoles' carrier should be big enough for the journey, oh, she would make an excellent mother..." he almost sounds like he's thinking out loud.

"so we're keeping them???" Trucy beams.

kristoph explains that they're not old enough to be separated from their siblings yet and that she and Phoenix dont have the space to care for all of them, but he is more than happy to take them until they are ready to go to a good home. he shoots a sharp glare at phoenix as he says "typically, cats adjust to a new home much better when adopted in pairs", phoenix gets the memo.

the next day they take the kittens to the vet and kristoph buys all the supplies he could need. over the next few weeks he nurses them back to health and trucy drops by almost every day after school to see how they're doing and play with them. phoenix knew that kristoph liked animals, but it's something else to see this 6'1 icicle of a man dote on these tiny creatures, he even calls them by the names trucy gave them. in moments like these he doesnt seem dangerous at all.

and vongole LOVES them, she's so excited when she first sees them she barely knows what to do with herself. kristoph was right, she makes a great mother. phoenix finds everyone's energy infectious, he buys food, 2 cat beds, some toys, other supplies, and when the time comes he asks kristoph about the kittens.

"sorry, Phoenix, i already found good homes for them" kristoph smiles apologetically and phoenix's heart drops, "i didnt even know you wanted one, i know trucy did, but you didnt seem too enthused. perhaps it's for the best, you dont have the means to take care of a pet." oh.

trucy is miserable. phoenix feels like hes dissapointed her. kristoph is smug as all hell.

#just in case anyone forgot the type of guy phoenix is dealing with here....#ill reblog with an alt ending tho #krisnix #kristoph gavin #phoenix wright #ace attorney #ace attorney headcanon #ask #anon #mine #my fic

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a-small-batch-of-dragons · 10 months ago

Text

A Budding Romance

Hey!!! I just reread one of your fics- I forgot the name but it's the one where Janus could hear the narration, I really enjoyed that and was wondering if you'd be willing to write something similar with another self-aware side? – anon

Read on Ao3

Warnings: none!

Pairings: intrulogical

Word Count: 1237

Roman has a pleasant morning observing his two favorite nerds flirting with each other.

It starts as simply as it could, perhaps: in the living room, with a handful of the Sides spread around the couch, the floor, and the chairs. Logan and Virgil sit at opposite ends of the couch, Remus sprawled at their feet.

“Bit exposition-heavy for an opening, isn’t it?”

“Huh?” Virgil pulls off one of his headphones. “Did you say something Princey?”

Roman looks up from his notebook and shakes his head. “Just talking about narrative development, my dear Emo, don’t mind me.”

Virgil looks at him suspiciously for another moment before going back to his phone. Roman glances around to make sure no one else is suspiciously eyeing him before looking back down at his notebook.

“You know, when you say it like that, it makes it sound far worse than it actually is.”

Thankfully, for his sake, Remus doesn’t perk his head up at the sound of making things worse than they are.

Roman rolls his eyes and goes back to scratching words along the page with a pen that really needs to be replaced, he has to reactivate it every other word.

“It’s a perfectly serviceable pen, you’re just jealous.”

“You know,” Remus remarks, not looking up from his assortment of gears and pipe cleaners, “if you want to borrow a viscera quill—“

“I do not, in fact, but thank you so much for the offer.”

Remus snickers. Logan looks up from his own notes, raising an eyebrow. “You have a viscera quill?”

Roman groans silently as Remus’s grin widens. “Oh, Lolo, I thought you’d never ask.”

“Now he’s done it,” Roman mumbles under his breath as Remus starts to go on and on about how he developed a quill that writes using the effluvia of various creatures— “wait, wait, wait, what the hell does ‘effluvia’ mean?”

Remus pauses in his tirade long enough for Logan to look over. “It’s bodily fluids.”

“Like shit and piss!”

“…technically, I don’t believe fecal matter counts as a ‘fluid,’ but…yes, among others. Saliva, blood, mucus, any sort of…”

“Body juice!”

“So why not just say bodily fluids?”

“It doesn’t sound gross enough,” Remus pouts, to which Logan only looks…mildly bemused about, “but wait, why are you asking about it?”

“Neither of us said it.”

“Came up in a story,” Roman says easily, which is technically not a lie so Janus doesn’t show up, “don’t mind me.”

Remus gives him one more strange look before going back to what he was talking about. Roman just settles further into the chair, a small smile blooming on his face as he watches the two of them talk. Logan’s grip on his notebook is slowly relaxing. Remus has all but abandoned the pile of scraps in favor of sitting up properly. Even Virgil glances at the two of them, does a double-take, and looks over at Roman, eyes wide.

Roman just shrugs with a very ‘what can you do?’ smile and keeps watching. Remus’s back is almost fully to him now, but he can see the way his shoulders rise and fall that his face must be as animated as ever.

”This is good for them,” Roman mumbles, “they’ve not gotten enough chances to be weird about the same thing.”

This is true: more often than not, when it comes to matters of discussion, the two of them are on opposing sides of the argument. Logan, as the steadfast voice of reason, which is something he doesn’t get nearly enough credit for—

Roman snorts.

—is often quite directly responsible for reining in Remus’s more…let’s say, ‘unorthodox’ suggestions.

”Nothing Remus does could be considered orthodox, that is true.”

“Aw, thanks, Roro.”

Logan chuckles, still looking at Remus with that softly fond look he denies having every single time one of them notices it. When Remus is done making sickeningly sappy faces at Roman, he turns back and fully freezes mid-word at the sight of it.

“I-uh—“

“Go on,” Logan says quietly, “I was enjoying that.”

“Uh—um—well, uh, I think that the, um—“

“Watch his ears,” Roman whispers, “they’ll start to go red.”

Sure enough, the very tips of Remus’s ears go pink, then a bright red, then a deeper red as he continues to stumble over his words. Roman leans to the side, hand over his face to cover his own snickering mouth. Logan just waits patiently, letting Remus try and get himself together, before taking pity on him and lightly prompting the last thought he’d been sharing. Remus takes the out and starts describing…whatever it was that they were talking about.

“Wow, way to keep a hold of the plot.”

But as becomes abundantly clear, the specifics of their conversation don’t matter. Rather, it’s the way Logan keeps straying his hand toward his notebook every so often, just to write down one little thing, before returning his full focus to Remus. It’s the way Remus will get caught off-guard by Logan’s expression and have to look away to refocus himself. And it’s the way that neither of them have noticed that Roman and Virgil have given up all pretenses of minding their own business and are now openly staring at the two of them.

They catch each other’s eyes and have a wordless conversation of their own, before Virgil shakes his head and sinks out. A second later, a text appears on Roman’s phone saying keep me updated.

Now, whether or not they ever decide to let Remus and Logan know they have a group chat devoted to the cute things the two of them do remains to be seen, but this is definitely a prime opportunity for sneaking an adorable picture of the two of them.

“Ooh, great idea.” Roman sneaks a shot of Logan smiling softly at a blushy Remus. “That’s a keeper.”

Within the bounds of Roman’s role as a Side, he so rarely gets to enjoy the softer aspects of his responsibilities. The majority of his time is taken up by being Creativity, which is of course his main role, but the glamor of it faded long ago. ‘Creativity’ is more drafting, redrafting, the grind of editing, than it is the actual performance of the results. And, of course, there are the parts of it that rasp a little too harshly against the more sensitive parts of oneself. To create is to be vulnerable, and that only gets so much easier.

Passion helps, of course, but passion is as fickle as candle flame if not properly nurtured. Passion, Romance, Ego, tragedy walks in their footsteps as easily as breathing. It speaks more toward the intensity of the emotions and experiences rather than the positivity or negativity. And for Roman, who lives and breathes as the embodiment of it, it can be difficult to catch his breath.

But of course, there are moments of softness. Like this one, where the two of them are sitting in their own little world and talking about nothing at all. The pleasant lightness of it all floats through the air, sweet as a summer breeze. So Roman can soak in it, for just a little while, as these moments grow few and far between.

“And whose fault is that?”

General Taglist: @frxgprince@potereregina@gattonero17@iamhereforthegayshit@thefingergunsgirl@awkwardandanxiousfander@creative-lampd-liberties@djpurple3@winterswrandomness@sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes@iminyourfandom@bullet-tothefeels@full-of-roman-angst-trash @ask-elsalvador @ramdomthingsfrommymind@demoniccheese83@pattonsandershugs @el-does-photography @princeanxious@firefinch-ember@fandomssaremysoul@im-an-anxious-wreck@crazy-multifandomfangirl @punk-academian-witch@enby-ralsei@unicornssunflowersandstuff@wildhorsewolf @thetruthaboutthesun @stubbornness-and-spite @princedarkandstormv @your-local-fookin-deadmeme @angels-and-dreams@averykedavra @a-ghostlight-for-roman @treasurechestininterweb @cricketanne @queerly-fluid-fan @compactdiscdraws@cecil-but-gayer@i-am-overly-complicated@annytheseal@alias290@tranquil-space-ninja @arxticandy @mychemically-imbalanced-romance@whyiask@crows-ace @emilythezeldafan@frida0043 @ieatspinalcords @snowyfires@cyanide-violence@oonagh2@xxpanic-at-the-everywherexx@rabbitsartcorner @percy-07734@triflingassailantofmyemotions @virgil-sanders-the-gay-emo@cerulean-watermelon@puffed-up-bees@meltheromanstan@joyrose-fandomer@insanitori@mavenmush@justablah65@10paradox10@uhhh-hi-there-i-am-nervous@cutebisexualmess@bella-bugatti-frogetti-baguetti@ultrageekygirl

#dragonbabbles #fic #sanders sides #roman sanders #virgil sanders #logan sanders #remus sanders #sympathetic remus

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narrans · 1 month ago

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A Small and Tall Collection | Chapter Six | Unease and Illness

Chapter Six | Unease and Illness

Ashlynn didn’t let herself sleep in the next day. As much as she wanted to stay under her gathered fragment scraps and blankets, she wanted to get the work for her new bed under way as fast as possible. The moment she was upright, she got to work sewing the edges of the fabric fragment together on the sides, leaving a gap just for her to be able to fill it properly.

She didn’t gather nearly enough fluff, sadly, but that was what tonight was for. Ashlynn’s plan was to return and gather not only more fluff from the discarded toy, but also cotton balls from the cabinet under the sink. It would take several trips, but it would be well worth it.

So, that’s what she did. The Borrower woman sewed the cloth together on either side, leaving a gap, and then gathered up her belongings to head out for the place under the sink. If she was right, the boys would be spending time playing and would have no need for anything in the bathroom except to wash their hands after they did their business. This time, however, she remembered to wrap her hands so the twine wouldn’t scratch her to ribbons. She wasn’t about to have another set of massive cuts on her palms if she had anything to say about it.

The trip down the walls was, in a word, uneventful. She made her way down the twine line and into the bathroom cabinet in record time. Her backpack and side satchel were both stuffed to the brim with cotton balls by the end of her trip and she was on her way back in a jiffy. It was on the way back as she passed by the familiar electrical cover leading down into the kitchen when she picked up a fragment of conversation that chilled her to the bone.

“Where’d you put it?” asked Rey.

“What is it now?” Soren replied.

“The little pocket thing and the tissue piece.”

The younger boy, Rey, said those petrifying words so casually that Ashlynn nearly missed her next step entirely. It was a pure miracle that she managed to catch herself on a bundle of wires as her head snapped to the place she could listen into the human world. With clumsy caution, Ashlynn crept up to the edge of her hiding place and listened harder to the words of her human roommates.

“Oh, that? I tossed them. Why? Did you need them?” asked Soren.

“No, I was just wondering. I was going to look at it a little longer and try and find what it went to,” Rey replied.

Instantly, Ashlynn’s mind started reeling.

Pocket? What pocket? What tissue piece?

That couldn’t be… Ashlynn’s heart stopped as she scrambled to slide her backpack off of her back, mind swirling at a nauseating speed as she spotted that a sewn pocket she’d added that housed the piece of tissue she’d used the night before to stop her bleeding hand.

“No,” she breathed, speaking aloud completely involuntarily. “No. No. No.” She clasped her hand over her mouth and backed away from the hole in the ceiling. Everything in her body screamed to run. To flee and hide far away from this place.

I’m such an idiot. How could I be so stupid!? I should’ve checked my pack! I shouldn’t have gone down there. They know! They know! I left a whole freaking pocket from my pack just because I got spooked. I should have just moved slowly and carefully. I shouldn’t have run!

As Ashlynn’s mind continued to spiral, she swallowed the tension in her throat as she began to try to come to grips with the fact that she’d have to leave as soon as possible. The Borrower woman, shaking like a leaf in a windstorm, was about to turn and run back to her area when she heard the one human, Soren, speak up.

His words alone gave her pause.

“Well, I don’t think those went to anything, bud. It was probably just part of something that you forgot you had. With how messy your room gets and all the weird places I find both of your toys, I’m surprised anything is still in your room,” stated Soren. “It probably just got caught on something of mine and you haven’t noticed until now. As for your lion, I don’t know what might’ve happened to the patch, but we’ll go get a new one if you really want it fixed today – after you finish cleaning.”

“You mean go to the craft store?” asked Rey eagerly.

“Yes, and undoubtedly you’ll want to visit the electronics aisle. So, get rid of twelve things that you haven’t been using, Dorian too, and we’ll make a little field trip of the afternoon. Okay?” proposed Soren.

“Deal!” Rey practically vaporized out of his seat as he darted back to his bedroom to clear out his unneeded items. Dorian wasn’t far behind. Ashlynn watched from the safety of the walls as the older human, Soren, stood and stretched, his hands nearly reaching halfway to her hiding place by the ceiling light, and continued to stay motionless until he left to continue whatever task he was doing before.

As she sat there, bag clutched to her chest and her heart racing, she knew she had a decision to make.

She’d been noticed. At the very least, the humans had taken notice of her activities. It didn’t sound like they suspected her specifically, but they definitely knew something was a little off – especially the youngest.

She cursed at herself for being so bold with her borrowing.

It was the cloth! It was that cursed cloth. All because I wanted a bed to sleep in. I should’ve waited. They’re cleaning everything today. I could’ve gone through their discarded items when they were done. I’ll bet they were getting rid of clothes too. Why didn’t I just wait!?

She began to question everything. What other times did she mess up? Was she slipping? Losing skill? Getting careless because she was on her own now? Was she as good of a Borrower as she thought she was? Nothing like this had ever happened before, and the fact that it happened in the first place felt like a punch in the gut.

Ashlynn didn’t realize how hard she was shaking until the felt a cramp starting up in her leg and the rigidness in her body making her feel sore. Every thought felt clouded and distant. It was like a haze settled over her. It wasn’t the right time for her to have sluggish judgment. She shook her head and focused on the problem at hand.

The decision was a very cut and dry one – stay or go.

Considering the circumstances, Ashlynn figured she should just cut her losses and go as fast as possible. She hadn’t quite settled in. She’d had a little bit of time to rest. The items borrowed would get her through the next week and a few days if she rationed correctly. It was the safest option because now all three humans suspected something was a little off.

On the flip side, things could work if she stayed. The weather wasn’t optimal for her to leave. There were other apartments to borrow from. Plus, the dad, Soren, seemed to dismiss the notion that anything was off or weird about the patch of cloth missing and the bag pocket she’d lost from her bag.

It was a hard decision. Both could prove dangerous for her. In circumstances like this, she would sometimes flip a cracker fragment or simply air on the side of caution and go with her gut and spare crumbling the cracker fragment further. This time was different. Both circumstances were just as dangerous and she had no one to bounce ideas off of.

It was a lonely feeling. It forced an uneasy sickness into her midsection that chased away her hunger and made her want to hide. Every question she’d ever had an answer for was called into question as she silently debated the best course of action for her and her survival.

Unease clutched Ashlynn’s mind as she made the fateful decision to stay.

It was risky and she still wasn’t sure if it was the right decision, but based on the circumstances she thought it might be best. The youngest was easily distracted and wasn’t giving the pocket he’d found a second thought. The older brother didn’t seem to care and the dad, Soren, seemed to have the same opinion.

For the moment, she decided to not go down into the apartment below for a little while. She had supplies and there were other apartments that she could go borrow from. None of them were as optimal as the one with the human boys, but there was nothing she could currently do about that.

It was a terrible waiting game, and Ashlynn was a reluctant participant. It was all she could do.

~~~^*^*^~~~

Two weeks. It had been an entire two weeks since the incident where Ashlynn had been noticed; or, at least, when something seemed off in the apartment to the humans who lived down below. Her borrowing missions had been infrequent and scarce because of the other apartments she decided to visit and pickings were slim to say the least. Twice she’d had to tighten her belt, and she was eager to get back to the original apartment.

The initial unease was obviously warranted, but now it was like nothing had happened. The dad, Soren, had fixed the one toy and never mentioned anything weird going on in the apartment again. The two boys also seemed to drop the issue, but the few times Ashlynn dared to linger by the light and observe the youngsters made her question whether or not Rey had actually dropped the issue entirely.

It maybe was her imagination, but Ashlynn could have sworn that the gadgets and “inventions” that Rey was making functioned like traps and cages consisting of pressure plates and trip wires. The thought about getting caught by one of the youngest humans in the apartment complex was bone chilling, but now little else could be done.

She had to risk it.

When she’d made her previous conviction about not going back down to see the trio of humans down below, she didn’t take into account that the different families would be leaving for days on end or inviting other humans over for elaborate dinners. Sadly, leftovers were scarce, and it wasn’t until one night after she’d tumbled behind a box of empty crackers with a carrot fragment tucked under her arm that she reluctantly admitted to herself that she was being just as risky with these humans as she was with Soren and the other two youngsters.

“Risky no matter what,” she mumbled as she bit into the carrot after pealing off her borrowing shoes and flopping down onto her bed. She chewed on the stewed carrot and stared at the beams above her head as she laid back on her bed. It would be a lie if she said she wasn’t relieved that she would be returning back to the original apartment that began her borrowing adventures.

“I’ll just have to be more careful. Aware. No mistakes.”

The Borrower finished her meager feast and let herself drift off to sleep for the next few hours, plans of sneaking down to the apartment below looming in her mind.

Ashlynn woke a few hours later out of sheer habit and, knowing she had nothing but the simple carrot in her supply cabinet, forced herself up out of bed and dawned her borrowing bag. The occupants of the apartment down below with the three boys would be asleep. The kitchen would be unguarded. There were undoubtedly leftovers because, based on everything she’d seen before, there was always something left out on the counters or the table.

Was it stupid to go down without close observation and checks? Yes.

Was she going to do it? Yes.

It was a necessary risk. Also, if she stayed put any longer, Ashlynn knew she might chicken out and decide to not refill her pantry at the most opportune time. The lamp on her hip led the way through the dusty halls all the way back to the familiar secured line leading down into the kitchen.

Ashlynn couldn’t tell if it was nerves that was making her shake and sweat or if her instincts were trying to ward her away from this place, but there was a distinct tremble to her hands as she grasped the line and gave it a tug. The shake was imperceptible, but Ashlynn still felt it as she slipped her gloves onto her hands.

Get yourself together, Ashlynn. You’ve done this a thousand times. That kid didn’t leave anything in the kitchen. You’re going to be fine! Get in. Borrow what you can. Get out.

She threw herself into the darkness and slid down the line. The feeling of weightlessness overtook her as her stomach hit the top of her throat. Instinct took over as she grasped the line tightly, the friction slowing her down to a graceful stop as her feet touched down noiselessly onto the beam by the electrical cover. The Borrower extinguished her hip lamp and tilted her ear toward the opening.

One second.

Then five.

Nothing.

No sound except for the hum of the refrigerator and the crack of the ice box. It was familiar and made her feel ever so slightly at ease. She didn’t let it dull her senses though. Hands tingling with anticipation, she leaned against the electrical cover and popped the familiar piece of plastic off of the wall. She held her breath, but heard nothing but the sound of her heart thumping against her eardrum.

So far, so good.

Ashlynn poked her head out from the protection of the walls and, as luck would have it, an unattended plate of food was less than a foot away. Her eyes widened almost as big as the plate as she stared longingly at the different pieces. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans covered the plate. There was even part of a dinner roll.

Her salivary glands filled her mouth as the thought of eating filled her mind.

With nothing and no one else in sight, Ashlynn tiptoed out onto the counter and filled up the pieces of plastic wrap and foil she’d borrowed from previous adventures. She didn’t want to be too liberal with her borrowing, seeing that most of the plate was still full. Still, she needed supplies and scraping a little from already cut or messed-up pieces didn’t seem like that big of a deal.

Ashlynn was turning back toward her electrical cover safety when, from down the hall, there was the familiar squeak of the floorboards. Her blood instantly chilled and, briskly, she darted back into the walls rather than letting herself freeze out on the middle of the counter. The safety of the walls welcomed her, and the electrical cover was snapped back in place just as the lights turned on in the kitchen.

Based on the weight of the footsteps, it was probably Soren, not that it mattered at the moment. Ashlynn was free and clear, and she would eat well tonight. The climb up the line back to her home felt like barely a jaunt and she was back on her bed eating a candle warmed meal by the end of the night.

If she’d known or managed to observe the family of three, she might not have indulged in the easy-to-reach plate because, just in the next room, Soren was taking Rey and Dorian’s temperatures and tucking the feverish boys into bed with him to monitor the rising numbers on the mercury filled tube. It was going to be a long night with two sick boys, and he would undoubtedly have to call into work the next day.

Nothing like sickness to bring people closer together right before the holidays.

~~~~~^*^*^*^*^~~~~~

Continue

~~~~~^*^*^*^*^~~~~~

A Tall and Small Collection | Original Story

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ofallthingsnasty · 1 year ago

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Yes, yes I know I love to talk about Doflamingo and reader in weird pet play-esque scenarios but have you considered that he is also the type of guy to go "walks like a duck, quacks like a duck" when it comes to you? Especially when he didn't pluck you out of your life with the intention of becoming some twisted little human pet - when you were just supposed to be a little bit of amusement.

tw.forced pet play, dehumanization, violence, minors dni

You can stomp your feet and pout and bite and scratch and yowl if you want - but there will be a certain point where he'll grow tired of that little 'feisty' thing you've got going on. It's amusing while it lasts, but you know what's even more entertaining? Beating you down and training you like the dog you pretend to be. Lips that can only spit acid and bark at him don't deserve to speak at all, don't you think? They should be stretched around a gag and those teeth that nearly break in two every time he gets too close to them - those should be kept behind a lovely little muzzle. Sharp nails and strong fingers belong on the floor, or, if you're especially rabid, tied to your shoulders so you can walk on your elbows. Soles you use to run from him should be bare; pointing upward to the ceiling so that he may cane them to make you jump and yelp. The clothes he provided you with so generously should go right back where they belong because who dresses their little darlings other than those weird, overly-involved pet owners? Under his roof, animals should be kept just the way they are, in all their natural glory. Gone is the space in his warm bed - not only does he hate the thought of your slobbering on the place he sleeps, you'd also benefit from some crate training, that's how bad your separation anxiety seems to have gotten. No more loving, hand-fed meals on his lap, no more cooking - now you lick your bowls clean by his feet and don't beg for scraps from the table or else you might get a taste of his heels. Oh, he knows how much it confuses you - to go from an entirely free rein, that horrid little attitude that he let fester deep within you for far too long to strict rules and high expectations. But you're smart, resilient and it's not too late to beat that bad behavior out of you - every little drop of venom, every scratch, every bite was just a call for help, for a more structured existence. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck... Then it's a fat little duck, isn't it? He just wasn't able to see that the first time he met you.

#tw.pet play #tw.violence #/doflamingo #/one piece #doflamingo x reader #one piece x reader

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mr-wrestlemania · 3 months ago

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Living Legends Chapter 2(Monster AU)

(Previous Chapter Link)

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/58924921/chapters/151198903

Chapter Summary: Tensions grow between the rockers as Shawn gets more and more restless. He knew he wasn't the only monster in the WWF, but as he learns just how close they are the more it seems like there's trouble in paradise.

Contains: Minor scene of two characters smoking weed

Bret took a deep hit of his cigarette and exhaled with his eyes to the floor. The parking garage was less than ideal to mope about but it was the only vacant spot Bret could find. He glanced down at his hand and clacked two of his claws together.

A tired sigh escaped his lips as he leaned against the wall behind him. The guilt of blowing up at Shawn made his chest ache. Just as Bret took a second hit, Jim came through the door.

“There you are! I've been looking all over for you.” Jim panted a little and walked over, “What's going on? That wasn't like you back there..”

Bret loosened his jaw and held up the hand that bore claws.

Jim's eyes widened and looked at Bret nervously, “It's coming already?! Shit. You brought that bracelet with you or is it back at the hotel?”

“I left it behind by accident. I didn't mean to do that back there, I just..You know I get around this time.” Bret turned away and flicked the cigarette into the trash can.

“Look, we'll talk to him. If memory serves, Shawn had a weird reaction to you too. The whole eyes thing.”

Bret nodded slowly as he recollected the brief moment before he ran. Shawn's eyes were a vibrant, inhuman baby blue color with pure white pupils. The shape eluded him since he couldn't look too long, but how did he never notice..?

“You're right, maybe he would understand. I can't blame him for never telling me.. I'm not eager for everyone to know about my situation. I'm still not sure why he threw the match, but I'll ask later.”

“There ya go.” Jim beamed, “I think the Rockers are in the same hotel as us. I saw that Marty guy at the front desk last night.”

Bret finally started to smile and nodded at Jim, “I'll talk to him tonight. Don't let me forget.”

Marty sat next to Shawn on a bench to tie his sneakers up. “So, that aside, you mind telling me why you decided to throw a match like tonight away? Was it because of the overdose-”

“No! Fuck, Marty no. I'm over it okay?” Shawn glanced away when Marty met his gaze. “Look. The writers wanted me to spice things up a little. I think it'd be better if we met with them tomorrow so you aren't left out. I'm sorry I didn't tell you beforehand I wasn't right-”

A gentle hand rested on Shawn's shoulder and Marty sighed softly. “I think I get it. You'd have told me if you were in the right state of mind. I wanted to ask you about that when I saw you but it wasn't the right time. Are you okay?”

Shawn scratched his arm, his whole body felt like it shrunk in itself. “No. I don't even know how to put it into words, Marty. something feels wrong with me but I can't place it. I couldn't drain you dry, so I only took a little..”

Marty only looked more concerned, “Did you feed while I was gone? You had that blood transfusion treatment..”

“I had that yeah, but emotionally I had scraps. The lust from a random woman, pity from others seeing my treatment.. it was all so shallow. None of it was filling, no matter what I did.”

Marty pulled Shawn out of his near fetal position and hugged him close. “I'm sorry. You must have felt so alone.”

Shawn let out a shaky sigh and laid his head on Marty's shoulder.

“Do you want to go out tonight, have some fun to forget all of this for a night?”

The idea itself made Shawn feel numb all over again, “No! Dammit Marty no! I don't want that. I just want you to hang out with. Don't you get it?!” He pushed Marty off of him with tears in his eyes.

“Shawn..” He frowned at the fact he made Shawn cry. The sight of it alone made him tear up. “We can have fun on our own then. Just us, okay?”

Shawn took a deep breath and lowered his shoulders. “Yeah. Are you ready to go?”

Marty nodded with that dumb smile of his and slung his bag over his shoulder. “Can we get take out on the way back?”

He couldn't help but snort at Marty and followed his partner close.

The Rockers laid themselves out in their hotel room, both transfixed while passing a blunt back and forth. If Shawn had to pick one substance for Marty to be on, it was weed. He was calmer and less likely to do something stupid besides making absurd munchies. It was also one of the few substances his body would actually accept, so he hardly had any complaints.

Marty was on the bed with his eyes narrowed at the TV, “What channel is this..?”

“I don't even know man. I can't find the remote.” Shawn chuckled as he crawled across the bed to turn the ac unit on. There was something so satisfying to Shawn about the sound of a window unit but it was like a siren's lullaby to him.

Once it was cold enough, Shawn plopped down beside Marty and took the last drag of their blunt. “So..what kind of addicts were in that program you went to?”

Marty grunted and shifted towards Shawn, “All kinds but mostly boring humans who drank because they were sad. Why?”

Shawn slowly reached toward his bag and pulled out a brush. “I should've checked you for fleas first if you were on time. You never know what they could carry. Desperate people from desperate situations.”

He folded his arms as he sat up, “You're overreacting. Or.. are you making excuses to touch me?”

Marty's jests hardly phased Shawn and he carried on looking through Marty's hair. The feeling of the plastic brush and Shawn's fingers combing through his scalp gave him goosebumps. It was especially more tingle inducing because of the weed.

“I have a right to be jumpy, you know. They're stupid and steal blood. They also make blood taste weird!” Shawn huffed.

Marty giggled, “Did you drink from a flea infested rat in school-Ow!!” He recoiled from Shawn flicking one of his horns.

“It was a dare I don't wanna hear it dude.” Shawn rolled his eyes at Marty's continued giggles. “Cool you're clean. I'd hate to have to compete with something smaller than my fucking pinky.”

“That's why you inspect the hotel beds so furiously for bed bugs, I know. Least I got a free scalp massage out of that.” Marty laid his head back with his eyes closed and a dumb smile on his face.

“Fuck you, those little bastards are just as bad if not worse.” Shawn curled his nose but perked back up at the sound of A knock at their door.

“Mmm…Can you get it?” Marty stretched his legs out and rubbed his nose.

Of course he'd get it, who else would. Shawn tried not to feel too pissy while he got up but he did nudge Marty's hoof while he scooted by.

He peered into the peep hole and could see Bret pacing a little. Shawn perked and started to unlock the door. “Bret! Hey..What are you doing here so late?” Bret sighed and stuck his hands in the pockets of his jacket. “I just wanted to talk to you, if you got a minute.” Shawn glanced over at Marty giggling away at the TV, “Yeah. I actually do.” He turned around to shout at Marty, “Hey! I gotta talk to Bret, don’t let me get locked out!” “Yeah sure.” Marty responded but didn’t turn away from the TV. Shawn rolled his eyes and shut the door behind them.

He smiled nervously and walked with Bret along the sidewalk. The buzz of the streetlights put Shawn at ease, but Bret kept occasionally glancing up at the sky instead.

“I just wanted to apologize for my behavior earlier. I’d normally never blow up at you like that it’s just..” Bret bit the inside of his lip. “You can already tell I’m not like the others, right?” Shawn gave the veteran a lax smile, “The claws kind of tipped me off. They were kind of hard to miss.” Bret chuckled and shook his head, his body looked more relaxed as they continued to walk. “I figured. Don’t spread this around okay..? Not many people know about it.” “I can be real tight-lipped if I want to, don’t worry.” Shawn nudged him, “Come onn tell me I’ve been guessing almost all evening man.” “I’m a werewolf.” Bret said quietly. “When a full moon is right around the corner, I can get a little high strung.” “You almost sound like you’re pmsing.” Shawn snickered until Bret punched his arm, “Ah! Okay okay, but you can’t say I’m wrong. You probably can’t even eat chocolate like them huh?” “Fuck you.” Bret softly laughed.

Shawn sighed deeply, “It's not completely your fault though. I threw the match on purpose. Management thinks Marty and I should be.. well. They want to push me towards a solo run.”

Bret raised his brows a little and hummed, “So you did that to cause tension? Does Marty know..?”

“....Not yet. He deserves to. I wanted to tell him, believe me. I just haven't been..feeling my best I guess.”

“You and me both.” Bret glanced at Shawn with a glint of curiosity in his eyes, “What about you?”

A pit sat in Shawn's throat and his eyes instinctively looked at their feet. Bret being a werewolf made him all the more nervous to confess his nature. “Would you think differently of me if I told you?”

“That depends.” Bret shrugged a little as he thought, “I haven't met many like me, so I can't say I have reservations. Ones who prey on kids though are pretty low in my book.”

Shawn looked Back up at Bret, in surprise. He certainly kept children off his list, so perhaps there was a chance?

“Okay, just don't tell anyone, please. They might get paranoid or jumpy around me.” Shawn looked at Bret, pleading with his eyes.

“..I promise. My word is as good as gold, besides you said you'd keep mine. Take a deep breath and just say it. You'll be okay.” Bret smiled.

Shawn folded his arms close to his chest, his stomach flipped at the sight of Bret's smile. “Okay. I'm an Emotional Vampire. I mostly feed off people's emotions…”

Bret's eyes widened, and the lack of immediate response made Shawn shrink even more. “Hey, hey. I don't hate you for that. I just don't think I've ever met a vampire, let alone ever heard of one like you. I mean, you can walk in the sun.”

“Really?” Shawn chuckled a little. His chest felt less tight the more he listened to Bret, “Well, yeah I can do things they can't but some stuff still applies to me.”

“You'll have to tell me about that sometime. I don't wanna keep you too long.” Bret smiled at Shawn before he looked back at the hotel. “Be safe on the road, okay?”

“Always. I appreciate you talking it out with me.” Shawn returned the smile, clasped hands with Bret, then finally went back to his room.

However, to Shawn's horror, Marty wasn't answering the door. “Fuck, MARTY!! Wake up bastard!!” He hit the door as hard as he could but heard nothing on the other side.

Shawn paced wildly while he ran his hands through his hair. “Fuck..fuck!!! I don't even have the keys to the car..”

Just then, a nearby door opened and a familiar woman poked her head out, “What the hell are you doing??? Do I need to call the cops?”

Even without her makeup, Shawn recognized the fierce woman in the doorway. He nearly forgot to close his mouth as he stared at her with a red face. “I- Sorry..My tag partner fell asleep and locked me out- ma'am. Are you Sherri Martel..? I'm a wrestler too. .”

Sherri's posture relaxed and she even started to smile, “Aw, and here I thought you were some lunatic. Who are you? You do look familiar..” Her dark eyes looked him up and down. For once, Shawn felt bashful under a woman's gaze.

“Shawn Michaels. I'm part of The Rockers..” He rubbed his neck, almost sure she didn't know him.

“Oh!!! Yes Randy commentated for a few of your matches. I almost didn't recognize you without your hair styled.” Sherri giggled.

Shawn sighed, “Yeah. I just washed it, that's why. Uh..Is there any chance I could use your phone to try and wake Marty up..?”

“Better idea, you write him a note to slip under the door and you can stay in my room. Unless you want to try to wake him up all night.” Sherri leaned against her door with a curled smile.

“Really? You don't mind?” He could hardly believe her generosity, but it matched up with what he heard about the strong manager. .

“Not one bit, long as you keep those fangs in your mouth.” Shawn's shocked reaction caused Sherri to chuckle again. “Shhh it's okay. You're not the first I've met.”

Sherri jerked her head inside to invite Shawn into her room. Shawn felt like his legs were frozen to the concrete, unsure of what Sherri would do to him. He hesitantly followed her inside, only to be met with a pretty standard room. Her outfit for the next venue was neatly folded on the dresser and her makeup was neatly organized on the side table next to the couch.

The only thing that stuck out to him was a pair of sticks that stuck out of her bag. Sherri watched him out of the corners of her eyes, like she knew he was scanning her space. She sat on the bed and sighed.

“Relax, I'm not going to kill you. I can't say I'm like you but I guess we're in a similar boat.” She leaned back to stretch her arms until they popped.

Shawn sat down on the couch and raised a brow, “You mean you're- SHIT!” He shot onto his feet again when he got a good look at Sherri's arms.

Her arms had turned into watery tendrils that extended towards the ceiling. She almost seemed amused by Shawn's reaction and pulled them back. Sherri brushed the tendrils on her nightgown to turn them back into regular hands.

“Ah, didn't mean to stretch that far.” Sherri smiled at Shawn's shocked expression and leaned back onto the bed. “What? Never seen an Aloja before?”

“A what..?” Shawn swallowed nervously, “Is that like a water woman..?”

“Technically. I can turn into a Water Blackbird… cast spells with my hazel wood..” She hummed a little, “I like taking a watery form mostly. It's a bit more fun to scare someone who doesn't know what no means.”

Shawn finally snapped out of it and laughed at the mental image she painted for him. “Man, that would be a riot to see. Sad you had to resort to that though.”

She shrugged and kicked her slippers off, “It's a tough industry, but right now? I can't be a wrestler, dumb bastards don't know what to do with their female talent. Managing is the next best thing.”

“You're a tough bird- Uh no pun intended.” Shawn rubbed his neck.

Sherri sat up with a little smile and went to get a blanket. “What about you? You wrestling for the same thing? Not many vampires last in this industry.”

Shawn rubbed his neck and sighed, “I've always wanted to be a wrestler since I was a kid. I'm not sure I can describe what drew me in honestly.”

She returned with the blanket and sat it in Shawn's lap. Her gaze was as warm as her smile, “Well, you’re an extraordinary performer and vampire. You must not be used to talking about this, I'm not making you uncomfortable am I?”

“No! No-I mean.. You pretty much read me like a book. I'm used to being secretive with others but today it's just been a lot.” Shawn returned the smile and unfolded the blanket, “Thank you though.”

“You're welcome.” Sherri grabbed him a spare pillow, then went to turn off all the lights.

Shawn didn’t fall asleep as easily as his host. He laid on the couch with questions that nagged at his mind. Was it always so easy to just tell someone what he was all along? No, there was always that present danger if he told the wrong person. Maybe it was because he knew Bret and Sherri were like him. Still, he wasn’t used to being so open with people he barely knew.

In the end, he felt a calmness spill over him. His thoughts drifted into the void as his consciousness slipped. Whatever was plaguing him could wait til tomorrow.

That morning, Sherri rose first to answer the wake up call. She looked over to Shawn and chuckled quietly.

“Anyone else would have guessed you were a corpse from looking at you sleep.” She smiled while she watched Shawn stir.

Shawn slowly sat up and yawned, “Yeah, I get that a lot. Makes blacking out at places a little dangerous.

Sherri snickered at the idea and moved around to turn the lights on. “He might be awake now if you want to call him. I imagine you'd like to get packed yeah?”

“Right.” Shawn dragged his feet and sat on the bed next to the phone. He dialed the room number and waited. “Fucking hell Marty wake up..”

The second try finally got a response, “I told you guys I'm up.. I just got distracted.” Marty mumbled on the other end.

“I’m not the desk clerk buddy. I got locked out last night, can you meet me at the door?”

“Shawn!! Oh shit, shit! Yeah hold on, I'll do just that!” Marty hung up the phone before Shawn could respond.

Shawn sighed and could only laugh at everything that happened in retrospect. He looked at Sherri and gave her a soft smile.

“Thanks for letting me crash, I really appreciated it. I do hope I get to bump into you again, just on uh- better circumstances.” Shawn was walked to the door by Sherri.

Her gaze was soft, but Shawn couldn't detect much from her aside from mild affection.

“Oh of course. See you at the next venue.” Sherri watched him before she shut her door.

Shawn knocked on his door a few times and sure enough Marty yanked Shawn inside in the blink of an eye.

“I fell asleep didn't I? Shit Shawn I'm sorry. So much for a guys night. We'll have a redo, promise.” Marty paced around to help Shawn pack, “Where did you crash?”

“Oh you won't believe it Marty. Sherri Martel, the Sensational Sherri, let me crash.” Shawn swooned and fell back onto the couch.

Marty paused and he raised his brows, “You got lucky, I hear she is such a sweetheart. You didn't make a snack out of her right?”

Shawn stretched and started to help Marty pack, “Oh no. She knew what I was before I could say a word. Yet she let me in anyway. She's something else Marty. I hope we can work with her, man...”

His emotions were all over his eyes, literally. Shawn's pupils resembled hearts the whole time he spoke about Sherri. Marty couldn't help but laugh. It was adorable to see Shawn be the one so smitten.

“Check your eyes big boy, they're doing the thing again. Want your shades until they go back to normal?”

Shawn checked a nearby mirror and turned bright red, “Fuck-Yes.. Thank you Marty.”

While they were on the road, Shawn could sense something was stirring inside Marty. Marty was in the passenger seat spacing out. He turned the radio down a little and sighed.

“Marty, somethings eating at you. What's going on?” Shawn kept his eyes on the road while he spoke

Marty didn't look at him, “Its not important, but heaven forbid I try to keep my feelings to myself.”

Shawn furrowed his brows, “Where the hell is this coming from? If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. Fuck.”

The hostility only grew in Marty but he did his best to swallow most of it. “I don't know, it's just funny how you cried to spend the night with me and the first chance you got? You ran away to Bret. I'm surprised you didn't sleep with him.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Shawn pulled over to the nearest shoulder and put the car in park, “You were the one who fell asleep and locked me out! I would have spent the rest of my night with you!! Not like you were present anyway.”

Marty scoffed, “We were having fun! Shit you even smoked with me Shawn!”

Shawn grunted and rolled his eyes, “Maybe I really wanted to do something with you besides getting drunk or high! Wasn't the whole point of rehab was to help you see that?!”

“Oh please, that place was a joke, Shawn. I only got through it to come back to work with you. Us Satyrs aren't exactly known for being boring and sober anyway.”

His stubbornness made Shawn want to rip his hair out. Sure if he was human, he'd probably be doing things alongside him, but his body couldn’t take the same things as Marty. Partying was fun too, but partying with Marty was starting to lose its luster.

Shawn sighed and pushed his shades up to hide his eyes, “Yeah, you're right. Look, let's just forget last night. I'm ready to party later if you want to celebrate.”

Marty relaxed and smiled again, “I'd like that. Thanks for that, Shawn. Sorry if I said anything too harsh..”

“It's okay.” Shawn feigned a smile as he put the car in drive.

By the time they got back on the street, Shawn was already completely numb.

The locker room was bustling with everyone getting settled in. Some had to shoot promos, others had interviews to do but The Rockers had a rematch with the Hart Foundation to tape.

Shawn was preparing by doing some stretches with Marty. Although Shawn looked like he was a million miles away.

“Hey-Shawn? You listening?” Marty waved a hand in front of his face, “Helloooo?”

“I'm here. Sorry. I kinda got lost in thought.” Shawn realized he forgot to blink and took a second to close his eyes.

Marty sighed with a smile on his face, “It'll go great, don't worry. If we do well here, we'll get to face off with them for tag titles! Can you imagine?”

Shawn smiled at the idea of him wearing a championship belt and hummed, “Yeah.. Then we better give it our all then. Could you do me a favor when we're out there?”

Marty took a deep swig from his thermos, “Ahh. Sure, what is it?”

“If it looks like I'm in a tough spot, can you get the crowd to clap?”

The Satyr grinned at his friend and laughed, “Ohhh that will be perfect! It will give you an edge and feed you at the same time! I might have done that anyway, but now I will for sure.”

“Good.” Shawn nodded and started to pick some earrings out.

“Do you need a snack before we go out there?”

“No.” Shawn lied through his teeth.

He was hungry but not enough to feed off Marty again.

“Alright, just make sure you eat sometime today okay?” He smiled and pat Shawn's back. “Oh should I go talk to the writers like you said? I almost forgot after..well everything.”

Shawn winced, “Maybe..? All they really told me is that they had an idea . I didn't agree to it just yet.. I wanted to wait til you got back.”

Marty sat up a little and his smile waned, “What was their idea?”

“Well..” Shawn scratched his arm a little and frowned, “They want us to try singles. You know.”

“They want us to break up..?” Marty got quieter and his eyes strayed to the background. “Do you want us to?”

The silence was deafening. Marty's heartbeat was all Shawn could hear. It pumped blood faster the longer Shawn stayed quiet. The thumping almost drove him mad. He took Marty's hand and squeezed.

“I don't want to hurt you. Singles or not, you're my friend. You know that, right?”

Marty's muscles relaxed and he finally looked at Shawn. “Yeah? That's reassuring. I don't wanna lose you. We're all we have, yknow?”

That wasn't true.

But Shawn had to keep his smile up and nod.

“I know. If I hear anything else, I'll let you know. Promise.”

Marty finally got up, “Thanks for telling me. It feels like that weight has lifted off us huh? Woo!!”

“Yeah!” Shawn lied again.

“Lets give the Hart Foundation hell!”

Shawn followed behind Marty rather in front of him. Despite being pumped and looking restless; the light did not reach his eyes.

#shawn michaels #hbk #wwe #wwf #bret hart #shawn michaels wwe #90s wrestling #80s wrestling #marty jannetty #hartbreak #hbk wwe #jim the anvil neidhart #jim neidhart #sensational sherri #sherri martel #wrestling fanfic #living legends fic tag #the rockers

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verrixstudios · 7 months ago

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« Muddied blood fills the rivers

forcing even those of ice to shiver

look not for dull scales

though from mud comes the wails

Four dragonets will rise to power

before a final acid shower

dirty blood will rise to fame

a new territory here to claim »

“Mako, what is this?” Flourish asked in confusion, the bright blue and rather lanky dragon was staring at the tattered scroll, a face of confusion.

“Uh..” Mako murmured, looking to the ground sheepishly. She was shorter and rounder than the bright dragon before her, and her dark scales were helping her blend into the shadows she so desperately wanted to crawl away and hide into. She was always a terrible liar, and even worse at hiding what she wanted to lie about. Her nightwing father blamed it on her seawing side.

“Mako!” Flourish repeated, urgently this time. She turned quickly, pushing the paper into the other’s chest. It fluttered pathetically to the ground, landing on the dark talons below. “Cause it sounds a lot like one of your prophecies again!”

“It’s nothing!” Mako complained as she lowered her head, her frilled tail swiping the tattered page into a pile of similar tattered pages. “I told you, those things get stuck in my head until I write them down! It drives me bonkers, actually.”

“Okay well usually they’re something like ‘oogly boogly wow, dinners gonna be a cow, yay-“

“None of them have ever said ‘Boogly’!” Mako interrupted with a wrinkle in her dark snout.

“My point is-“ Flourish interrupted in return, huffing, “-Why does this sound like an actual prophecy and why was it hidden in a pile of scraps?”

“Because… It’s weird. It’s nothing like my other ones…” Mako mumbled dejectedly, her wings folded right at her sides, fiddling and fidgeting. “I doubt it’s one that comes true,”

“Even the ones about dinner are always true!” Flourish exclaimed with a flick of her tail, her scales flickering a mix of colors she was clearly trying to hide. She was concerned. Why was this so weird? Why was Mako acting like this? Why now?!

“Well- yeah! Cause they usually hunt for whatever they say!” Mako retorted, growing nervous with the raised voices echoing in the room. A dull ache was beginning to gnaw at the back of her head. Something about claws. Jaws? Brawls?

“Yeah but your writing always comes true! It’s when we know to prepare for injuries all the time! So what makes this one wrong? What does it mean? Are we in danger? Are we going to get land?” The questions were practically pouring from Flourishes mouth as the practically neon dragon began to pace the ground. She didn’t notice the others discomfort until the dark dragon rather suddenly pushed past.

Mako awkwardly scrambled toward the slab in the corner, a groan rumbling from her throat as she held her head. She dipped her claws into the slowly drying ink spills nearest and began to scratch into another opened scroll.

« Within each tribe, claws will sharpen

blood will spill before three moons darken

Only end in sight to see

each queen gives territory

Acid will burn

Fire will spill

The darkest night churns

Under a new queens will »

#I had another plane ride #So i wrote this #wings of fire #dragons #writing #poem #writing spoof #ocs #nightwing #rainwings #seawing #hybrid #self made prophecy #I may draw this scene #I don’t know yet #don’t judge me i’m no author #grammar police please don’t kill me I have cookies #and warm milk

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brandogenius · 11 months ago

Note

“I love you doesn’t begin to express what I feel for you.” with Julien 😭😭😭😭

‼️ RPF‼️

PROMPT - julien x reader

short mini fic. word count: 460

“you have a way with words” you replied as the shorter placed her chin against the acoustic guitar. a lopsided grin appearing on her face.

“are you always this cheesy in the night time?” you added, wrapping the blanket tighter around your shoulders. the wind blowing stray strands of hair across your face.

the two of you were sat on small lawn chairs on the balcony of your hotel room at one am in paris. the street lights flickering down below you as the city comes to life. the lights twinkle in your eyes as you tear them away from the bright lights, staring into juliens ones.

“is it too cheesy?” the shorter questions, sheepishly. goosebumps littering her tattooed arms as she crosses some words out on the crumpled sheets in front of her. weighed down by the luke warm coffee mug settled on the glass table.

“i like it” you shrugged, attention turned towards the scratched out lyrics. “you don’t need to write it out. it fits perfect with the melody. it is a love song isn’t it? keep it in” you reassured.

“i guess. just kinda sounds cringe dont it? maybe i should just scrap all of this- start over” you were quick to stop the shorter woman from spiralling. placing a hand over her tattooed hand, you gave her a small smile.

“keep that line in. i like it- i approve. keep writing” you gave julien a look and nodded towards the papers. with a small sigh, she relaxed her shoulders, placing the guitar back on her knee. you turned your attention towards the other, pulling the blanket over your lap as you sipped on the nearly cold coffee.

“who’s the song for? it’s a love song- you just writing it for the sake of a long song or is it dedicated to someone in particular?” maybe you were a little bold, but you were curious. julien always shares the thought process about her songs with you. it was a bit weird, seeing her a bit more closed off with this one.

julien fumbled with her guitar pick, shrugging as she tuned the guitar. the redness in her cheeks and nose , easily mistaken for the bite of the cold breeze that sweeps past them.

“something like that” she mumbled, not giving a confirm nor deny. pressing her ear closer to the tuning pegs.

“clarify for me?” you raised an eyebrow. cold hands hugging the warm mug. you stared at julien with question in your eyes.

“you’ll see when it’s released” the glint of mischief was present in juliens eyes making you laugh quietly to yourself.

you were excited for it. a love song written by julien. maybe you could hope and pretend it was written for you.

#pom writes #julien baker x reader #julien baker au #julien baker angst #julien baker one shot #julien baker fluff #julien baker fanfic #boygenius au #boygenius fanfic #boygenius one shot #boygenius x reader

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thesimscurator · 1 year ago

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For Rent Update to Career World is Live!

The For Rent update to Career World is here! Before I link it, though, a quick:

CAUTION: There is a serious bug in the game right now that causes irreversible save file corruption. The causes of it are unclear, but it seems to have something to do with residential rentals. I actually GOT this bug while doing this update, and had to scrap two weeks’ worth of work on the update and start over completely from scratch by downloading the previous version of Career World from my own Tumblr—because once it’s in, it can’t be fixed. Luckily, I did not get it on the second attempt (I checked obsessively as I was going), but I don’t know: A) why I got it the first time, B) why I didn’t get it the second time, or C) how to prevent it from happening again in the future.

Because of this, I have not opted to overwrite the previous version of the save file with the new version as I usually do. Until this bug is fixed (please go click “Me Too” on the bug report, it’ll encourage the devs to give this more attention), I want people to have the option to play with or without rental residential lots, knowing that there may be more risk of save file corruption by playing the version with rental residentials. To be clear: neither of these two versions of Career World is currently corrupted. I have uploaded clean saves for you to download. But since I don’t know what triggers the bug, the save may become corrupted as you play, and it looks like this is marginally more likely to occur in the version that has been updated to incorporate For Rent. You will know you have triggered the corruption if you begin to see exclamation points over lots instead of the usual lot identification symbols.

If you get this bug as you play, do not save your game! And perhaps even more importantly, do not close the save you were just playing and click into another; exit the game entirely. There is some evidence that this can spread from one save file to another if you play several save files in the same session. There is, I repeat, no fix for this. The only thing you can do with a corrupted save is restore old versions until you find one that doesn’t have the corruption yet. In the case of Career World, you can always come back to this page and re-download a clean copy from this website.

That was the important info for everybody, but for a few players, I must also give the usual . . .

IMPORTANT MOD NOTE: If you use Frankk’s Language Barriers mod, you must download and install the latest version of that mod before opening the save file in order to retain language data for Tomaru, the newest language.

OK, now that we’ve covered the important need-to-knows, here are links to:

Career World updated for For Rent

Career World only updated as far as Horse Ranch—i.e. without any content from For Rent

Both are also now linked in the main post.

Phew! Alright, now we can get to the details of:

What’s New?

Rental residentials, of course! The thing to know about them first off: there is another, far more minor bug in the game right now that hard-codes the names of all rental residential lot types as whatever EA originally called the lot rather than any new names the player might have given that lot. So, many of the existing apartment buildings—which used to have names that told you what they were, like “Sunny Retirement Village” or “FutureSim Employee Housing”—have reverted to having unchangeable informationless names, or worse: misleading and defunct names, like the house with a basement rental in Britechester that has gone back to being called “Pepper’s Pub” even though I moved Pepper’s Pub and it already has that exact name on a totally separate lot (ditto for the now-duplicated “Thebe Estate”). This is a mess. I will fix it if they ever change this bug/feature/whatever it is, but at the moment, please know that rental residentials have weird names that I can’t change, and the real identity of the building is probably buried several clicks deep in the unit descriptions.

In order to combat this somewhat for players who are willing to read these Tumblr updates, here’s a list of rental residentials with specific gameplay identities that I think should be more obvious than they are with the locked lot names:

Special Rental Residentials:

1) The apartment building on the FutureSim campus (Mirage Canyon) in Oasis Springs is employee housing for employees of FutureSim Labs (the scientist career employer), or its subsidiaries Obscure Logistics (the engineering employer) and Rainy Day Entertainment (the tech guru employer), and their families. If you do not have a scientist, engineer, or tech guru in the family, you are not eligible to move into these apartments.

2) The trailer park in Bedrock Strait in Oasis Springs is a retirement community. We don’t want any young whipper-snappers here, nor any of these go-getter old folks who still work and will just remind us of the daily grind we’re trying to forget. Don’t even dream of moving here unless you are 1) an elder, and 2) retired. And no live-in children or grandchildren, either! If you can’t remember the golden age of landlines, find somewhere else to live!

3) I did a little playtesting of the solar farm in Oasis Springs for this version of the save file, and discovered that A) you couldn’t even get to any of the solar panels to maintain them the way this was originally set up, and B) it wasn’t actually possible to make money from selling electricity—the lot value was too high relative to the payback from the solar panels. But, I discovered, it is possible to have the electric payback exceed your bills if the lot is changed to a rental residential with the living quarters set as the one and only unit and the solar farm itself as common area. So that’s what I did: I fixed the solar panels so you can access them, and set the place as a rental with only one unit. You can now functionally play as a solar plant operator. And of course, the Landgraabs are your landlords. They do own the whole electric utility, after all. (This is also now true for the power plant in Evergreen Harbor and the hill house/micro wind farm in the Windslar neighborhood of Windenburg.)

4) The cluster of huts at the top of the hill in Sulani’s Ohan’ali Town is an eco-living commune that blends traditional Sulani ways of life with new green technologies. Residents live in separate off-the-grid huts with little more than bedrooms and kitchens, powered by the commune’s on-site solar panels, windmills, solar hot water heaters, and dew collectors. In the collective space, however, you’ll find a thriving taro patch, a communal art studio, game tables, a full bar, a small basketball court, chickens and insects to raise, a roadside stand for selling the commune’s produce and crafts, and lots of opportunities to interact with fellow members of this intentional community. One of the huts is generally reserved for students on study abroad who have come to learn about Sulani culture through this communal living experience—see the List of Study Abroad Opportunities (now updated for Tomarang!) for details.

5) The defunct motel in StrangerVille was bought for an almost-literal song by an eclectic throuple of artists who are very flexible about making changes proposed by tenants. Currently, all the former hotel rooms are just in the state they were when the place was a hotel, but if you move in here and want to—say—combine two units into a larger, single unit like they have done with their own, they’d be open to that. If you want to add a rooftop space to your top-floor unit, or even create some kind of wonky townhouse by linking two units that are directly above one another with a rooftop space, they’re open to that, too. If you want to install blackout curtains over all the windows, paper the walls with conspiracy-theory notes, and run secret experiments in your former hotel room, go nuts! They’ll really let you do just about anything. All you need to do is play as the owners for a minute to change these things before moving your sim in.

6) The big house where Pepper’s Pub originally was in Britechester is just that—a big house. They rent out their converted basement to university students, but this isn’t really an apartment building. The understanding with this one is that whoever lives in the above-ground house portion will always be the property owner and not just a renter—and in order to make this true, I have had to add an owning family to that section of the property, which means the college administrator Jade Rosa has been house-sitting for all this time has returned! You now have the option to dive right in to professoring or college administration with the new family that now lives there (thanks to Ivelle_creates for making the couple).

7) Both the large piazza in Tartosa where the Thebe Estate used to be, AND the apartment building at Ro Kaya Rockside in Tomarang, are mixed-use areas with commercial establishments on the ground floor (and sometimes into the upper floors) with apartments above. This is not exactly possible yet in The Sims 4, but several of the businesses are still usable—you can buy wedding dresses off the mannequins in the Tartosan bridal shop, for example, because that gameplay is tied to the mannequin object and not the lot type. Mostly, however, these commercial areas are designed with gameplay as their associated workers in mind, allowing you to live in an apartment but do work tasks in one of the on-site businesses (EX: be a cosmotologist who works in the on-lot salon).

(And a quick sidenote on the piazza in Tartosa: there is the potential for A TREMENDOUS NUMBER of apartment units on this lot. I have only designated the three that are occupied as actual units for now, because I was already running up against the per-save-file unit limit, but if you want to move your own sim in, just pick whichever of the many empty spaces suits your fancy, create the perfect apartment for your sim, and designate it as a new unit. Or, if you are really into furnishing/interior decoration and you want to turn this into basically an entire town, you can just bulldoze the existing rental residentials in other worlds, use the bb.increaserentalunitcap on cheat to allow yourself all the space you need, and go to literal town.)

8) Tam Nang Sands in Tomarang is a resort hotel. The place is set up for short-term rentals only, and is really meant to be played from the property owner perspective, to create a faux active career as a hotel manager. While it is possible to play from the tenant perspective and “stay here” on “vacation,” the game does not register it as a vacation and will make you sell your current residence in order to move here. I don’t really recommend doing that unless you live with someone else and are planning on going on vacation without them; then you can use the “split household” feature to send part of your household for a temporary stay while the other part of the household holds down the fort. If the Sims team ever release an honest-to-goodness hotel system, I will update this, but in the meantime this is better played as the manager.

9) Isda Riverfront in Tomarang is the site of the Linh family compound. While most Tomarani people have abandoned this traditional mode of housing the entire extended family in a walled compound with central courtyard and a special family spirit house, the Linh family is determined to stick to it, no matter how many foreigners marry in. And that, of course, means that unless you’re marrying in, you may not move here. Marry in or be born in, that’s the deal.

10) The colonial mansion on the former site of The Screaming Gecko in Tomarang has been set “for rent” so it can be used as a private second home by a wealthy sim. One of the new and unique things the rental system now allows us to do is have sims own multiple homes and just swap between them at will; all you have to do is set all the homes you want to own as residential rental lots, assign all the rooms to a single unit in each, and then buy all the homes as a property owner. Since property owners pay no rent to live in a property they own, voila! You can live that snowbird life and just move to Tomarang when you get tired of winter, then move back to your original house (or any other vacation homes you own) when you need a change of scenery. I seriously considered having Judith Ward buy this house, since there is text in the tiger sanctuary about her having a particular connection to it, but ultimately decided I wanted you, the player, to have the opportunity to buy this with whatever sim you’re playing—whether Judith Ward herself or any other. And bonus, you can actually use this method to play out tax-evasion-by-the-wealthy storylines, because the property taxes on a big, expensive mansion that you own outright are astronomical, but taxes on “rental” properties you “manage” is just a flat $50 per unit per day, which is often far less than what you would have been paying on an owned house. This pack introduced lots of new paths to crime, for rich and poor alike!

All in all, there are 22 rental residentials in the save file now, with a total of 90 units (so you have 10 to play around with still!), the overwhelming majority of which are just empty and waiting for you to select and move your own sims in. If you choose to live in one of these buildings and want to have more neighbors, just move a few in from the gallery or elsewhere in the save.

And a quick note about a choice I didn’t make: I have not split any of the boarding houses in Copperdale into separate units for different students, because having a whole bunch of high school students with common interests in the same household is what allows you to control them as a group at the school and have them engage in active club activities together. This was half the point of creating the boarding-house system for Copperdale in the first place, so they are always going to be giant, unwieldy households full of sims. Embrace the challenge! You can play single high school students in any old save file. The same goes for the three movie set households added in the last update: all those sims need to be in the same household and simultaneously controllable for the gameplay to function correctly, so they have not been subdivided.

Tomarang Makeover:

As with some previous worlds, I’ve tried to lean in to the differing neighborhood identities by making Morensong bustling, crowded-together, modern, and rundown, while Koh Sahpa has a much more chill, spread-out, traditional, and upscale vibe. Morensong is overrun with street cats (i.e. it has “cat hangout” as a neighborhood trait), while Koh Sahpa has “peace and quiet” as its neighborhood trait. Both neighborhoods of Tomarang, however, have “mold” as a world challenge, because the air is just so heavy with moisture—the only exceptions to this are lots with absolutely no indoor space whatsoever, and therefore sufficient airflow to prevent mold growth. But if there’s an interior, there’s going to be mold.

The limited number of lots presented a challenge for filling Morensong with businesses and activities, but I think I did pretty well, considering. Its four lots are split half-and-half between residential and community, but one of the residentials is a mixed-use building with businesses on the ground floor, including a functional street market where you can play as a vendor if you’re living in the building. And I managed to pack quite a lot into the two community lots, as well! The one currently set as a thrift and bubble tea shop can have its lot type changed to karaoke bar, bar, lounge, or nightclub at will, depending on which spaces you want to focus on, what events you’d like thrown there, etc. And for the other lot, simmers made so many wonderful and creative alternatives to the bland national park that I couldn’t pick just one, so I picked four. I have turned this into one of the Eco Lifestyle four-in-one community space lots, with each of its states a completely different venue by a different simmer. If you want to keep it as a botanical garden, just leave it on the “community garden” state and you will have a fuller version with actual plants for your sims to tend (all flowers and tropical plants), spirit houses, and a picnic area—great if you’re playing as a botanist or a florist. If you’re some kind of vendor who doesn’t live at Ro Kaya Rockside and you want a more playable version of the night market, just set it to “marketplace” and now you’ll have easily editable stands at which to sell your wares. If you want a community center with tons to do, set it to “makerspace,” and if you’re looking for a non-rabbit-hole temple / Tomarani wedding venue, set it to “community space.”

In Koh Sahpa, I played around a bit with the new career and lifestyle possibilities unlocked by the new rental residential venue type. Three of the five lots out here are rental residentials, but none of the three are classic apartment buildings or townhouses like you’ll find in Morensong. One is a luxury hotel, where playing as the property owner means keeping the guests happy and the place in tip-top shape with very short leases and lots of rules. Another is a traditional family compound, where your “tenants” (or your “landlord,” depending on which household you’re playing) are actually your family members, and the point is to do lots of gathering and socializing in the common space, throw potlucks every night to represent big family dinners, and all pitch in to help when a maintenance or emergency event hits. In this “rental,” there are no rules and the leases are basically forever. The final “rental” is only marked as a rental residential to enable you to buy it as a second home—once you’ve purchased it, all you have to do is turn your own home into a rental residential and you can move between your two houses at will. In addition to these rental residentials, a straight-up vacation rental and a spa round out the primarily vacation-oriented neighborhood of Koh Sahpa.

Of course, this is a career-focused save, so a lot of the choices I made with Tomarang’s lots—like the ones described above—were career driven. But identifying careers for Tomarang was a bit tricky. For Rent certainly came with new ways to make money, a new part-time career, and several interesting gameplay features that fold particularly well into existing careers . . . but interestingly, none of these new features were particularly location-specific. You can be a landlord or a handyperson anywhere, and the same goes for blackmail or break-ins. So while I made many additions to the Career Chart as a result of this pack, none of these new career options are limited to Tomarang. Instead, Tomarang has joined the lists of especially good places to pursue several other pre-existing careers, like fisherman (I mean, those waters!).

That said, I did make Tomarang an especially great spot to pursue anything that jives well with vending your wares at the Night Market (and the many extensions to it I added), so being a freelance crafter, artist, food stall owner, fisherman, gardener, florist, jeweler, or anything else that consists primarily of making or collecting small items to sell will be particularly rewarding when playing in Tomarang. I had also listed a new ministry of labor career as a masseur back when the Spa Day refresh came out, but never had much of a dedicated space for it. Now, with Tomarang, I decided to lean into the well-regarded tradition of Thai massage by including three different venues of varying quality where your masseur sim can give commercial massage in this world: a seedy downmarket massage parlor on the Ro Kaya Rockside lot, a mid-tier venue at the historical spa in downtown Koh Sahpa, and an upscale open-air massage area at the four-star Tam Nang Sands Resort Hotel. Plus, there’s a private massage room in the colonial mansion, so if you’re playing as a massage therapist and someone moves in there, feel free to invite yourself over and charge them for private massage services.

On the subject of things at Ro Kaya Rockside being seedy, I chose the building I did for that lot because the builder, eenitmartini (Matinee on YouTube—go check her out!) made this absolutely fantastic criminal lair/hideout/underground nightclub as part of her building, so all credit to her for the fact that there is now an “Illegal Gambling Ring” club in this save file, hosted at Ro Kaya Rockside and open only to criminals, secret agents, and undercover cops. This means that, while not exclusive, Tomarang is also now an especially good place to be a criminal—which is great, because the For Rent pack enabled me to create a plethora of new specialties within the criminal career, including things like “B&E specialist” and “blackmailer” (see the Career Chart for details).

As usual, I have also used the T.O.O.L. mod to add extra activities to the open parts of the world—most notably, I added several extra stalls to the night market, so you can play there as a vendor. You’ll note that most of them do not have sales tables/food stalls at the front of the tent; this is because, as I was testing, I discovered that you can’t actually sell anything using these objects unless the game knows you own them, so you’ll have to bring your own and place it from your sim’s inventory for these spaces to be functional. There are two that are already complete: Alon Sadya’s food stall in the main part of the market, and Chánh Linh’s fish stall on the other side of the buildings, over near the public toilets. These stalls are completely functional for these individuals, but will not be for anyone else unless you have the owners remove those key objects so you can replace them with others that belong to your active household.

Townie Updates:

Vanesha Cahyaputri, poster child for the pack and model landlord, is now running a four-star hotel in Koh Sahpa! She has quite the job trying to keep her little sister from breaking into people’s hotel rooms to snoop, in addition to keeping the buffet table stocked with local delicacies, making drinks for guests and offering them massages when they emerge from their rooms, and of course keeping up with maintenance and bookings.

The extended members of the Linh-Sadya clan now live in a traditional Tomerani family compound that has allowed me to split them into three households instead of two. They routinely throw big potluck-style family dinners in their shared courtyard. The elder patriarchs have both retired from their more demanding careers and are now in relaxing part-time jobs that cater to their interests—namely, fisherman for Chánh (complete with functional night market food stall!) and handyperson for Arturo. Their elder daughter Liên and her husband Alon both work in Morensong, where Liên makes over sims at the salon at Ro Kaya Rockside and Alon runs a night market street grill. Auntie Thi is still a secret agent, but as part of her work she has now infiltrated an illegal gambling ring in Morensong and is trying to uncover secrets at their weekly poker night. She also adopted a new cat, Bub II, a toyger who is a smaller, more approachable version of the tigers that are Tomarang’s special animal. All members of the extended Linh family now know learnable recipes for Vietnamese and Selvadoradian dishes, reflecting their mixed heritage.

The Bun Ma family have established themselves as fixtures at Ro Kaya Rockside, Morensong’s shadier district. Bua runs a hole-in-the-wall noodle soup place, Nin gives massage at various locations around Tomarang, and Kasem runs the illegal gambling ring under the building that Thi has infiltrated—in between break-ins and expert hacking of various trust funds. Yes, you wouldn’t expect it from the sweet-faced young father of an adorable toddler, but that’s part of what makes him such an effective criminal.

But wait, there’s more! A few sims outside of Tomarang have also been updated:

Eliza Pancakes has become much more investigative since becoming a cop. Some people might even call her nosy. Kasem had better hope she never uncovers any of his secrets.

Katrina Caliente took the scads of money she has gotten from selling expensive Selvadoradian artifacts to museums, bought the other three condos in her building, knocked the whole building down, and built a modern desert villa for herself, her two daughters, her dog, and whatever boy toy she’s currently entertaining (still Don, at the moment). She was tired of sharing space, and there are more than enough apartments in Oasis Springs, anyway.

Geoffrey Landgraab got tired of playing secret agent and has returned to what he really always has been: an electric company mogul who owns and operates power plants around the worlds. It’s up to him to fill job vacancies in these plants by “hiring” onsite managers, keeping them happy, and handling maintenance on the plants. What is more, at the same time that he realized he was only fooling himself about the secret agent thing, he also realized he was only fooling himself about being family-oriented, because let’s face it: he disowned one of his sons, the other one is evil, and his wife is a criminal. Instead, he has decided to focus his love and attention outward to the world by re-branding himself as a generous philanthropist. He now regularly attends charity benefit parties, gives to online charities, says yes to anyone who calls him asking for a donation, volunteers his time, and will even go on sprees where he goes around just handing money to random sims on the street. Good thing he has so much that he could live off just investments for the rest of his life.

SimTube star Dustin Broke is running out of material. His jokes, memes, and dances have gotten a little dated. Over time, he has become—well—cringe.

Judith Ward has adopted a tiger (and given a boatload more money to the tiger sanctuary, besides!), as per her lore in the new pack. Her in-house handyman is also now in the actual handyperson career. It’s good to be the queen!

The university administrator who had Jade Rosa house-sitting for so long has returned from the family vacation she took to Tartosa to show her kids their father’s homeland. The family is now happily reinstalled in their big fancy Britechester home, back to work as Dean of Admissions and adjunct art professor, respectively, at the University of Britechester, and back to charging Jade rent for her basement apartment underneath their house. If you’re looking to play either of the advanced branches of the Education career, they are now an option.

The group of salarypersons I downloaded originally as unhoused NPCs in order to give Kado Akiyama some co-workers to do karaoke with have now moved into houses on his own street! While I left most units empty in the places I converted to rental residentials, I did feel kinda weird about leaving an entire street’s worth of stand-alone houses empty except for the Akiyama family—it was just a little too post-apocalyptic for my taste. So since I already had this Mt.Komorebi-based club, I figured I’d turn its other members into neighbors and integrate them into the community a little more.

For users of Frankk’s Language Barriers mod, which is a supported mod in this save file, I have updated the native languages of some previously-existing townies for the new inclusion of Tomaru. Before this pack came out, I used Komorebigo as the stand-in for all languages originating from Eastern Asia writ large—now, I have separated it out into Komorebigo for East Asian languages (not only Japanese but also Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Mongolian, etc.) and Tomaru for Southeast Asian languages (Vietnamese, Thai, Tagalog, Malay, etc.). So now, for example, the Filipino sim Jules Rico, who shipped with the Eco Lifestyle expansion, is natively bilingual in Simlish and Tomaru (previously, I’d had him set as natively bilingual in Simlish and Komorebigo). So there have been a few alterations to townies like that. I hope to get to do more updates like this in the future as the Sims team diversifies the worlds on offer and Frankk—who absolutely makes my game with this beautiful mod—continues to expand the language offerings of the Sims universe.

Other stuff that has changed:

I took that excellent new object that looks like a “for sale” sign and stuck it outside every unoccupied house in this save file. I just thought it was a nice touch.

While I was working on this update, I saw a YouTube video that reminded me what a great object the photo booth from High School Years was, and realized I was under-utilizing it. I have now gone back and scattered several more of these around, ensuring that each world has at least one photo booth somewhere. Thanks, lilsimsie!

Pressure cookers and kettles have been strategically added in places where I thought they were needed.

A few of the more run-down houses have the new “maintenance” lot challenge—and some have mold, as well!

I realized there was nowhere to get nectar in Tartosa (a serious oversight), so I scattered a bunch of bottles around the public areas of the large piazza that is the local rental residential in Porto Luminoso. They are just debug bottles and nothing special—for that, you’re going to have to help Hugo Villareal restart Tartosa’s defunct nectar-making business. I’m sure his bottles will be better than the debug ones.

All this updating took me into spring, so seasonal lots (including prom!) have been updated.

That’s it for this update! When you don’t randomly get the corruption bug, it’s actually quite enjoyable. I had a ton of fun doing all the building conversions and playtesting, and I hope you’ll have fun playing, too!

Download now: Career World For Rent update

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