#OC introduced in chapter 60

[traditional-with-a-twist]

lxii. Beauty and Her Beast

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How could she forget him —dangerous, grim, standing guard over her men in the caves?

The cave had been dark, the battle fierce, but Umihebi knew this man – how otherwise, when he had been the first to challenge her, to intervene between her and the redheaded prize that had proven herself a snare?

For a moment, she is back inside that cave, her empire in ruins as surely as her ship lists, smashed asunder in the water.

Again, as she has few times in her life, she feels fear. Not again, she thinks.

In the next breath, though, she has steadied herself. He is back, like a phantom from the past, but this time is different.

This time, she is holding the rope.

...

Umihebi hesitates no longer. She trusts to her instincts, even as she did on the open water — gut, fists, and a dark hiding place had all served her well over the years.

Not thinking too hard, then, about what would follow, she jerked a thumb at her grounded seamen and barked her command:

“Get him inside.”

...

The men exchange furtive grins. Too much time has passed since they’ve seen action; she had dispatched their hunting party in part to relieve them of the necessity of lying low, give them a chance to bloody their hands a bit.

They bundle the prisoner down the path, none too gently.

As they cross the first courtyard, the Crab intervenes.

...

As is his way, he stands not against but aside them, hands raised in a cartoonish gesture of shock and dismay. “Too much!” he cries. “Viper, your men have sullied my gardens with this refuse, and now here, in the inmost tranquility of my home — diseasing the air as the evening draws now, and even now my kitchens prepare our evening repast—”

Umihebi plants a hand against his chest and shoves. She would have hit harder, but a bruise would cost her in this land that exacted blood for blood.

The Crab staggers back, purpling, this time in real shock.

“You– you— in my own home—”

“Shut up,” she snaps. “That man takes his coin from the crowns of two kingdoms.”

...

He cast a disbelieving glance at the slumped and bedraggled figure, barely upright in the hands of his captors.

Umihebi lowered her voice, locking her eyes on his. “He was there the day they grounded me — he fought alongside the princes of Tanbarun and Clarines.”

The man had sense enough to understand her, she saw it flitting through his eyes. Then he drew himself up and began to wave his hands again.

“Ah! ah! Ill chance—unlucky stars that frowned on me the day I brought you into my gates — a curse, a pox on all false friends— out, out, I say—”

“You fool,” she cuts across him. “Don’t you want to know if there are more coming?”

...

He falls back, suddenly white.

Umihebi knows from that moment that her time there has come to an end. No longer is it safer for the Crab to keep her close: it is him or her now. 

The question is who will strike first.

...

She brushes past him, thoughts fixed on more immediate matters. 

Umihebi knew one way to get what she wanted, and that way was simple: pain.

Men might be led astray by love or carnal lusts; empty bellies ached for gold. Fine things tempted fine eyes, true, and on the surface she had traded in such --- but the real power lay in pain.

Simple, unqualified: hurt a man, and he would give you what you wanted.

Beauty, riches, he might find elsewhere and decide he had no further need of you. Relief from pain, though, only you could provide.

Hurt a man, and he would give you anything.

...

She selected the tools of her craft carefully. It wouldn’t do to hurt too much too soon – it was a question of finding the right threshold and driving a man there again and again without pushing him past the point where pain ceased to matter.

This was a tricky case besides because the man in question was dangerous, a trained killer to whom pain was no stranger. She had fought him hand to hand and knew he posed a threat, additionally, that was not to be taken lightly.

She knew the dark-haired man was not a warrior to trifle with. He was quick, fast enough to match her; and he was strong, powerful enough to overmatch her men.

He was also loyal – had taken no spoil for himself when set to watch over their captivity, shown not a flicker of interest when the more pathetic of her crew had wheedled and whined, proffering bribes.

...

Umihebi had him stripped to the waist and bound to a post, secured in a room not unlike her ship’s cabin: a heavy desk and luxurious chair, with a space for interrogation cleared before it. 

It lacked only windows, even the round-eyed portholes that all a ship’s luxury could just afford to offer, for now the sea snake found herself burrowing ever deeper underground. 

On the desk waited an oak chest, the lid thrown back to reveal shining coils of leather. Umihebi took her time selecting one, raising the edge of now one, then another, against the backdrop of her prisoner at his post, as if trying out jewels for him.

At last she chose a short and brutal rawhide, its ends wickedly split and belled.

Hefting the whip, Umihebi turned on that solitary figure – and paused. She came closer, whip in hand, and he did not shiver.

...

Umihebi leaned forward, eyes narrowed in the flickering lantern light, and examined the skin of his back.

Scars crisscrossed the muscle, some light and glancing, delicate as the cracks in broken glass, but others ran deep.

She laid a finger against one where something barbed had bitten into the skin, feeling the warped and ropey texture where healing had failed and made a mockery of the tissue it sought to repair.

...

“So,” said Umihebi, surveying the patchwork, “this would mean nothing to you.”

...

She was the serpent of the seas, twistier than a weed and deadly to all who crossed her path — she had been trapped and outmaneuvered once by the might of two kingdoms — but she would not be outwitted by one man.

Everyone had their pressure points, soft places in their defenses. 

She would find the key to this man’s spirit — apparently indomitable, hovering somewhere between dead and alive — and she would break him.

“Tell me who sent you here.”

...

Obi shrugged, eyes roving around the cell. “Who knows… I seem to remember that fine gentleman with the eyepatch showing me in —”

“And you want one to match?” Umihebi was on him in a flash, seizing a handful of his hair and forcing his head back. “Don’t lie to me. Tell me why you came here.”

No perspiration, no quickening of the breath – Obi looked away as if bored. 

...

‘There’s nothing to tell,’ he shrugs.

Umihebi’s lip curled. ‘Knights never work alone.’ 

‘I’m not a knight,’ he answered unhesitating, with something like a smile. 

...

“Oh, no?” she asked softly, feeling how precarious her position was, with the Crab agitated and unknown enemies lurking she knew not where. 

Umihebi leaned forward, fixing her mad eyes on Obi. He smiled grimly back.

“Then where,” she asked, “is your master?”

[aettuddae]

funky - karina [smau]

➵ pairing: idol!karina/yu jimin x band member!gn!reader/oc

➵ synopsis: aeri takes her members to a music festival to introduce them to her newly made friend, jeon minki, the front person of a popular rock band in south korea. after seeing minki, karina, aespa's leader, becomes completely starstruck with the rockstar, and decides to find a way to make them fall in love with her, even though minki is the most clueless person in the universe.

➵ genre: social media au, fluff, angst, slow burn, strangers to lovers, one sided love, idol au

➵ warnings: main character is an original character, insults, swearing, d**th jokes (kms, kys jokes), first few chapters will be mainly from jimin's pov, grammar mistakes (english not my first language), will add on

➵ status: finished.

➵ featuring: aespa, jeon somi, nct members, huh yunjin from le sserafim, rosé from blackpink, minghao from seventeen, gyuvin from zb1, hongjoong from ateez, ryujin from itzy

— profiles.

aespa | funky cat club | friends

— chapters.

• chapter 1.

• chapter 2.

• chapter 3.

• chapter 4.

• chapter 5.

• chapter 6.

• chapter 7.

• chapter 8.

• chapter 9.

• chapter 10.

• chapter 11.

• chapter 12.

• chapter 13.

• chapter 14.

• chapter 15.

• chapter 16.

• chapter 17.

• chapter 18.

• chapter 19.

• chapter 20.

• chapter 21.

• chapter 22. part 1 - part 2.

• chapter 23. part 1 - part 2.

• chapter 24.

• chapter 25.

• chapter 26.

• chapter 27.

• chapter 28.

• chapter 29.

• chapter 30.

• chapter 31.

• chapter 32.

• chapter 33.

• chapter 34.

• chapter 35.

• chapter 36.

• chapter 37.

• chapter 38.

• chapter 39.

• chapter 40.

• chapter 41.

• chapter 42.

• chapter 43.

• chapter 44.

• chapter 45.

• chapter 46.

• chapter 47.

• chapter 48.

• chapter 49.

• chapter 50.

• chapter 51.

• chapter 52.

• chapter 53.

• chapter 54.

• chapter 55.

• chapter 56.

• chapter 57.

• chapter 58.

• chapter 59.

• chapter 60.

• chapter 61.

• chapter 62.

• chapter 63.

• chapter 64.

• chapter 65.

• chapter 66.

• chapter 67.

• chapter 68.

• chapter 69.

• chapter 70.

• chapter 71. part 1 - part 2.

• chapter 72.

• chapter 73.

• chapter 74.

• chapter 75.

• chapter 76.

• chapter 77.

• chapter 78.

• chapter 79.

• chapter 80.

• chapter 81.

• chapter 82.

• 83. funkily ever after.

[the-name-is-z]

SKELETONS | ch. 60

daryl dixon x f!oc

masterlist

a03 link

Summary: The group begins to settle into Alexandria, getting used to the community. Something strange appears in the forest outside. Warnings/Information: AMC's The Walking Dead OC Insert | 18+ Advised | strangers to lovers; the slowest of slow burns; gore; angst; horror; humour; m/f; domestic bliss; performative participation; creepy corpse mutilation

Chapter 60 - Alexandria

Iris walked down the street with the others, somewhat spread like walkers in a small swarm. Deanna advised them to explore, say hello to their new neighbours and companions get to know people. Daryl refused, sitting on the front porch with his crossbow, knees hugged to his chest. He watched Iris go, feeling the stabbing pain in his chest. It felt like something between hope and regret. 

Iris walked with Carl, smiling softly as he pushed his sister in a stroller they were given. Judith was smiling and happy, even giggling at the faces Iris was making at her.

“Oh my goodness, well look at you.” An older woman cooed from her front porch. 

“What’d you find, Nat?” An old man asked, walking up and putting a hand at her back. Their faces depicted their shock at the sight of the baby, and Iris smiled and waved.

“Hello.” She called. “I’m Iris, this is Carl and Judith.”

“Well, hello dear! Please, come up into the shade, its so hot outside.” The woman beckoned, taking a seat on their porch. Carl parked the stroller at their steps, walking over and allowing the elderly couple to fawn over his little sister.

“I’m Natalie Miller, and this is my husband Bob.” The woman introduced. Iris smiled warmly. “Its been so long since we’ve seen such a little one.” She cooed, playing with Judith’s toes. Iris nodded in understanding. “You must have been so young when you had him. Such a handsome young man.” She patted Carl on the shoulder.

“Iris is our godmother.” Carl explained. “My mother died when Judy was born. My dad is… over there.” Carl pointed, and Iris turned to see a frantic Rick half-jogging down the street behind Jessie. Iris waved calmly and he raised a hand back, taking a deep breath. He came over, urging Carl to go meet with Ron, Jessie’s son. Iris dutifully passed Judith back to her father, bid the Miller’s goodbye and made her way down the street once more.

-

The second night, Rick still hadn’t slept. The adjustment was hard for all of them. Painful, even. These people were weak, and they couldn’t lose their edge and get comfortable. They had everything, but what happens when someone tries to take it away? Iris got a few hours of shut eye, but it was still pretty hard to rest.

Daryl hissed as he cut his thumb open on the edge of his crossbow. Iris raised an eyebrow as he sucked the blood off and continued messing with it. She looked up as the door closed, her eyebrows shooting up at the sight of Carol. She wore long khaki pants and a button down with a blue cardigan over top. She reminded Iris of the old Carol, the one who was deathly afraid of her fuck-face of a husband. That made Iris scared.

“Time to punch the clock and make the casseroles!” Carol said cheerfully.

“What?” Daryl asked, frowning at her getup.

“Make dinner for the older people— moms who need a break, people who can’t cook. Get to meet a lot of the neighbours that way.” She explained.

“Alright.” Daryl scoffed loudly. Iris pursed her lips, frowning at him before turning to her.

“What’s your angle here?” She asked.

“What? Someone’s gotta do it, be part of the community. Meet the neighbours, play with the kids.” Carol said innocently, shrugging. Iris narrowed her eyes but nodded anyways. Carol turned to Daryl, raising an eyebrow. “Have you taken a shower yet?”

“Uh-huh.” Daryl grunted. Carol narrowed her eyes and shook her head.

“Take a shower. I’m gonna wash that vest. We need to keep up appearances, even you.” Carol insisted. 

“I ain’t starting now.” Daryl called as she started down the stairs.

“I’m gonna hose you down in your sleep!” Carol shot back, practically skipping down the sidewalk. 

“You look ridiculous!” He yelled. Carol grinned, shooting Iris a wink before making her way to wherever it was she was going. Iris chuckled, shaking her head.

The two of them looked up as a man walked up the steps, turning to look at them sheepishly.

“Hey, uh, is there an Iris around here?” He asked, shoving his hands in his pockets. He wore dark jeans and a wife-beater, a red flannel shirt over top. 

“That’d be me.” Iris replied, raising a hand as she pushed to her feet. The man nodded, extending his own hand.

“I’m Preston. I work the garage.” He introduced. “Deanna told me you were a mechanic.”

“Yeah.” Iris nodded. He nodded back.

“Well, I’ll show you the digs, then.” He offered a half grin and Iris nodded, following him down the steps. She looked back, and Daryl offered her a nod of reassurance. They were about fifteen feet down the sidewalk before they heard shouting. Iris recognized Glenn’s voice and took off running, meeting up with Daryl on their way to the gate. Preston brought up the rear.

“It killed our friend!” Aiden, Deanna’s son yelled. He was supposed to be taking Noah, Glenn and Tara on a run today, with Nicholas, the man from the gate. “Look, I’m not having this conversation. You obey my orders out there.”

“Oh, well, then we’re just as screwed as your last run crew.” Glenn snapped in response. Nicholas’ face contorted in anger. Iris and Daryl stepped up slowly, ready to back up Glenn at a moment’s notice.

“Say that again.” Aiden warned softly, close enough to Glenn that they could kiss. 

“Back off, Aiden.” Tara huffed. Aiden’s response was to shove Glenn backward with his hand.

“Come on, man, just take a step back.” Noah added. Aiden shoved Glenn back again.

“Come on, tough guy.” Aiden urged.

“No one’s impressed, man. Walk away.” Glenn warned, his voice lethally low.

“Aiden! What is going on?” Deanna yelled.

“This guy’s got a problem with the way we do things.” Aiden replied confidently. He turned around to face his mother. “Why did you let these people in?”

“Because we actually know what we’re doing out there.” Glenn replied. Aiden reared back to strike Glenn across the face, but he was angry and slow. Glenn ducked effortlessly, jabbing him in the nose, hard.

“Aiden, no! That’s enough!” Deanna yelled. Nicholas surged into action, lunging for Glenn as he sent Aiden to the ground. Daryl tackled him before he could move a foot. Rick and Carl appeared at the gate, immediately running forward. “I said that’s enough!”

“Let’s not do this now.” Rick hissed as he pried Daryl up, keeping him from throttling Nicholas completely.

“You wanna end up on your ass again?” Iris asked with a shit-eating grin as Aiden staggered to his feet. She faced off with him, her hand hovering over a concealed knife, just waiting for him to make the next wrong move.

“I’m cool, alright?” He muttered as he took a step back.

“Daryl.” Rick huffed, yanking him upward and pushing him away. Nicholas coughed, clutching his neck as he hid behind Deanna.

“I want everyone to hear me, okay?” Deanna called loudly as everyone stepped to their sides. It was very us-versus-them and Iris was very conscious of it. “Rick and his people are part of this community now. In all ways, as equals. Understood?” She looked pointedly at Aiden as she said this, and he halfheartedly agreed. Iris yearned to throw him on his ass. “All of you turn in your weapons. Then you two come talk to me.” She ordered, jabbing a finger at Aiden and Nicholas.

Daryl paced in a small circle as the community members dispersed, leaving just their group in a small circle near the gates. Plus Deanna and Preston. Daryl stared daggers after Nicholas.

“I told you I had a job for you.” Deanna said, looking up at Rick. Well, she looked up at everyone. She was a very short lady. “I want you to be our constable. That’s what you were and that’s what you are. And you, too.” She looked to Michonne. “Will you accept?”

“Okay.” Rick agreed after a moment, nodding slowly. Iris raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I’m in.” Michonne agreed, smiling softly. She was downright excited. Daryl scoffed loudly, picking up his crossbow and storming away from the group. Iris made to go after him, but Preston stepped in between them, smiling nervously.

“So, uh, the garage?” He asked. Iris sighed, glancing after Daryl before nodding. She had to let him cool off anyways, so the garage it is. 

"Thank you.” Deanna said softly, looking over to Glenn.

“For what?” He asked.

“For knocking him on his ass.” She replied. Maggie smiled at her husband, but Glenn just shook his head and wandered off. 

“Iris?” Preston asked. She blinked, and realized he was waiting for her.

“Right. Sorry.” She shook her head, trying to get out of it. Preston led the way.

-

“This place is fucking mint.” Iris said with wide eyes, looking around at the brand-new garage. Stocked with every kind of tool you could think of, oil, lifts, everything.

“Yeah, it was brand new, opened about a week before it all happened.” Preston explained with a grin as he led her around. “I’ve been managing the supplies, tools and cars we have to fix as it piles up. Had no one that really knows how to use them.”

“No one around here can do an oil change?” Iris asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, sure, but sometimes there are bigger issues. And if you’re thinking it might be easier to just get new cars, wait till you see our inventory.” He led her to a field where they had parked all of their cars, still inside the walls. They had trucks, pickups, military vehicles, sports cars, and motorcycles, plural. 

“Goddamn.” Iris mumbled. She covered her mouth. “Sorry, I might, uh… have trouble holding my tongue.”

“Don’t worry.” Preston chuckled with a wink. “These aren’t virgin ears.” He perked up, as if remembering something. “Oh, speaking of which. Aiden found this a few weeks back and I managed to convince him to keep it here. Most of these places have CD players and whatnot, but I figured this was a good place for it.” He brought her back inside, hauling an old school boombox with a tape deck onto the counter. He then pulled out an old milk crate full of tapes. “Music was kind of my thing, before… yeah.”

“Cool! Definitely better than listening to static while working.” Iris said with a laugh. “Damn, this place might not be so bad.” Preston smiled.

-

“Hey, you’re playing the part, too.” Carol noted, pointing at the already-grease-covered wife-beater and coveralls Iris had donned. It felt so natural it was almost scary.

“Elbow deep in an engine is where I belong.” Iris said with a grin. Daryl scoffed, shaking his head. The three of them stood on the porch, sharing a cigarette. Well, Carol didn’t, but she chatted idly with them. The door opened soon enough, Rick stepping through with his brand new uniform on. He looked… like he did at the beginning.

“We good?” He asked Daryl quietly.

“Yeah.” Daryl grunted. “You a cop now?”

“I’m trying it on for size.” Rick sighed.

“So we’re staying?” Carol asked. Rick sighed again, nodding.

“I think we can start sleeping in our own homes. Settle in.” He explained.

“If we get comfortable here, let our guard down, this place is gonna make us weak.” Carol said, voicing all of their concerns. Everyone in the group had said something similar at this point.

“Carl said that.” Rick agreed, nodding. “But it’s not gonna happen. We won’t get weak. That’s not in us anymore. We’ll make it work. And if they can’t make it… then we’ll just take this place.”

-

“I don’t see it, but it’s close. Just one of ‘em.” Daryl stated. They were outside the walls in the woods, in each of their respective uniforms, standing at an abandoned house beside the junk pile someone left in the yard and died before they could burn.

“So what do you think?” Rick asked.

“We can go in when it’s empty.” Carol stated.

“How is that? It’s locked up at night.” Rick replied.

“The window, it’s just a latch, I can leave it open.”

“A latch?”

“Yeah.”

“What if one of those pricks shuts it?” Daryl asked.

“It’s not as if Olivia’s an ex-marine. It wouldn’t be hard to… you know.” Iris muttered. “In the case of an emergency or otherwise.”

“Can’t just take her out. We could wait a couple of days and leave the latch open again.” Carol shrugged. Iris pursed her lips.

“It’s getting closer.” Daryl stated, pointing out the walker again.

“We need to do it sooner than later.” Rick decided. “Right now, they’re not watching us. Not worrying about meetings like this. We may need the guns, we may not.”

“We will.” Carol assured. “Whatever way it goes.”

“I don’t like this.” Iris mumbled to herself, feeling that deep uneasy feeling in her stomach again.

“It’s necessary.” Daryl replied quietly, his hand hovering between her shoulder blades.

“They’re the luckiest damn people I’ve ever met.” Rick chuckled in disbelief. “And they just keep getting luckier.”

“How’s that?” Daryl asked. Rick shrugged.

“We’re here now.” He said simply. Daryl made a face of approval. 

“They’ve got a couple of foot lockers just full of 9 millimetre autos, Rugers, Kel-Tecs. Just tossed in there. They don’t use them, never gonna know they’re gone.” Carol explained. Iris whistled, shaking her head.

“Someone’s got one now, right?” Daryl stated, looking over at the junk pile. Rick had previously admitted he stashed a pistol in a blender there, only to return later to find it empty.

“Carl said he saw Enid climbing the walls to get outside. It might have been her. He’s been watching her.” Iris explained slowly.

“You sure he’s not watching her for… the other reason?” Carol asked slowly. Rick raised his eyebrow as Iris smirked.

“It’s a little of both.” She replied.

“He tells you this stuff and not me.” Rick complained, shaking his head. “Anyways, the others, we want them to try.”

“You too.” Carol said, pointedly looking at Daryl. 

“So we keep it quiet. Just us.” Rick nodded. He jerked his chin behind Daryl at the walker approaching. “Here it comes.”

“I got it.” Daryl turned, pulling out a thick hunting knife.

“Hey, wait.” Carol called. She brought up her pistol, a silencer screwed onto the end. She closed one eye, firing seven bullets into its chest before one in the forehead. When she turned back to Rick and Daryl’s confused expressions, she rolled her eyes. “We said you were taking me out shooting. I couldn’t go back with a full mag.”

“Lucky he came by.” Daryl replied. Iris grinned happily while Rick shook his head.

“We should get back.” Iris said, glancing down at her watch. Rick nodded.

“You’ll pull the latch, we’ll pick our moment. Us, we don’t need to be lucky.” He said to Carol as they rounded their house, making their way back to the walls. Daryl stopped dead over a fallen walker, kneeling down beside the body. 

“What the hell is that?” He murmured.

“Hm?” Iris asked, stopping beside him. The walker was laid face up, a large ‘W’ carved into its forehead.

“Is that a ‘W’?” Daryl asked.

“Looks like it.” Iris said with a frown. Rick knelt down to get a good look, scowling at it. He stood up and they moved on, but Iris stayed, looking at the carving. It was done postmortem, for sure. And the slice across his stomach, where he had been visibly disembowelled… pre-mortem cause of death. She’d seen enough gang killings to distinguish it. It also seemed an awful lot like Gareth’s hunters and their habits, though perhaps not cannibalistic, considering this man still had all his limbs.

“Iris?” Daryl called.

“Coming.” She replied, pushing to her feet and following after them.

-

TAGLIST:

@heidiland05

@ryoujoking

@catlalice

@maxinehufflepuffprincess

@lowkeyhottho

@fadingpalacebonkpsychic

@hayley1998

@negansbestie

@lizey-thornberry

[lostloveletters]

Bruised Fruit Chapter 2 (Michael Corleone x OC)

Summary: Gloria isn't sure she'll ever understand Michael, experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions and mixed signals from him the night he introduces her to his children for the first time.

Note: Chapter 3 will be posted in the next few days. I appreciate the support on here and AO3 on this series so far!

Warning: This chapter depicts a PTSD-induced night terror at the end. It’s actually not advised to wake someone from that, but this is the 1950s/60s and mental illnesses aren’t well understood, so there’s no way for Gloria to know best practices when dealing with this.

Do not interact if you are under 18 or post thinspo/ED content. I will block you.

Chapter 1 | AO3 Link | Masterlist

“I don’t understand, the reservation should be there,” Gloria said, trying to abate her frustration with the man at the front desk. “It was confirmed last night.”

Having spent five years working at a resort, she knew how hectic it could get, things fell through the cracks all the time. She just wished it hadn’t been right after she cleaned out her apartment, worked her last shift at the casino, and then drove eight hours from Vegas to Lake Tahoe. 

Tom had assured her the reservation had been made and she’d be staying at the hotel for a few weeks. He’d been dealing with Michael’s divorce filings and thought that despite Kay’s transgression, it wouldn’t look great for Michael to have Gloria move in so soon. Michael wanted her to join him at the Corleone compound the night after he proposed, but she insisted it’d be too hard on Mary and Anthony to have someone brand new in the house so soon after Kay’s exile. Gloria could just see it, the fear and anger in the childrens’ eyes as their wicked stepmother moved in to take their beloved mother’s place.

“What name did you say the room would be under, ma’am?”

“Marino, Gloria Marino.”

“I don’t see Marino, but I do see a reservation for a Gloria Corleone.”

She sighed. “That would be it. Sorry.”

“Not a problem, Mrs. Corleone. Let me get you your key, and I’ll have someone bring your things to your room.”

Not Mrs. Not quite yet, but she didn’t have the energy to explain the convoluted situation. It wasn’t his business. Instead, she merely exchanged her car keys for the room key. Normally she’d balk at using valet service, but that, among most other things in her life, wouldn’t be coming out of her own pocket anymore.

She never understood Michael’s hang-ups about her cars. One of the reasons she lived in her old apartment in the first place was because it had a private garage rather than a parking lot for tenants. Another thing that she knew would undoubtedly change. The Corleones had drivers.

She didn’t have much time to ponder Michael and his odd hang-ups. In about an hour, a car would arrive to pick her up and bring her to a restaurant to formally meet Anthony and Mary. Her stomach was already somersaulting, leaving her unsure if she’d even be able to eat. 

In her anxious mind, the only way Michael could possibly introduce her would be, ‘Hey kids, this is the woman I’ve been cheating on your mom with for the past four years who somehow has nothing to do with the reason we’re getting divorced.’ What an icebreaker. 

Gloria headed up to her room, a top floor suite with a living room and balcony. In the reflective metal of the elevator doors, she reapplied her lipstick. Her bags had already been brought in, sitting next to the couch. 

A cigarette hung from her freshly red-coated lips as she fiddled with the radio in the room until she landed on a station that played familiar rock n’ roll tracks. Opening her suitcase, she grabbed the navy wrap dress that sat neatly folded at the top, and rushed to change, knowing sprucing up her hair and makeup would take at least thirty minutes. Most of that would be spent on her hair.

As she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, she felt herself become emotional. Gone was the young woman who’d taken any odd back-of-house job upon first arriving at the casino in Vegas, eventually becoming a hostess. There was nothing left for her there, save for a handful of friends. Any other guys she had been seeing, however casually, she made a clean break from. None of those paramours had been nearly as serious as Michael, though. She didn’t think anyone could be as serious as him.

Torn from her wistful reminiscing by the phone ringing, she took a deep breath, picking up to hear that the car had arrived for her. 

Al Neri was waiting in the lobby for her, and she felt better seeing his familiar face.

“Hi Al, how are you?” she asked as they exchanged a greeting kiss on the cheek.

“Can’t complain,” he said. “Michael’s already at the restaurant with his kids. It’s a short drive, though.”

Al wasn’t exaggerating. The drive was disappointingly short, and she barely got to catch up with her fiancé’s right hand man. For as often as she’d seen Al, she didn’t know very much about him. Maybe he preferred to keep it that way.

The upscale steakhouse loomed in front of Gloria as she approached, though the smell coming from the building made her realize how hungry she was. Gloria self-admittedly had an unsophisticated palette, preferring cheeseburgers and steaks over more elaborate dishes that Michael first tried to woo her with at the start of their affair. It helped that apparently Michael’s children were going through their picky eater phases, leaving him outnumbered when it came to restaurant choices.

She didn’t realize how tightly she’d been gripping her purse until her nails began digging into her palm. Stopping in her tracks for a short moment, she took a deep breath, which did little to help her nerves as she continued inside. The host led her over to the table where Michael was already sitting with Mary and Anthony.

Seeing that a glass of rum and Coke was already set at her place for her, she mouthed a silent “Thank you” to Michael as she approached him. He smiled, wrapping his arm around her waist.

“Anthony, Mary, this is my good friend, Gloria,” Michael said.

Gloria smiled. “It’s great to meet you both.”

“Are you best friends?” Mary asked.

“Uncle Tom is dad’s best friend,” Anthony said.

“My best friend is Anthony!”

“You’re not my best friend.”

“Dad, tell Anthony he has to be my best friend.”

Gloria snickered to herself at Mary’s antics, not unlike she and Jackie growing up. The gregarious young girl led most of the conversation, even when dinner was served. She was the only one who could seem to get Anthony involved in any kind of discussion, too.

The service was unusually quick, but of course it would be. Gloria knew the type of warning the staff were given before Michael’s arrival, having heard it plenty of times herself for the various movers and shakers that would come through the casino. The only ones she’d given much of a damn about were Louis Prima and Keely Smith, and even then, she only caught a glimpse of them yakking it up with Johnny Fontaine at the bar.

“I’m gonna be president!” Mary exclaimed, nearly flinging the french fry in her hand across the table. “I’m gonna make bedtimes illegal and you always have to eat dessert before dinner.”

“You have my vote,” Gloria said. 

“No, Gloria needs a bedtime. She turns into a pumpkin after midnight like Cinderella,” Michael joked.

Mary giggled. “The carriage turns into a pumpkin after midnight. Not Cinderella.”

“Boys just don’t know anything about princesses, huh?” Gloria said. “Maybe you’ll have to bring your dad to Disneyland to teach him a thing or two.”

Mary nodded excitedly, rambling about a trip to Disneyland. Michael shot Gloria a playful glare. She took a sip of her drink, relieved Mary seemed to like her enough. She already noticed that Anthony hardly spoke since she arrived, his eyes downcast as he picked at his food. From what Michael had told her, he’d taken the split worse than Mary, who was a bit too young to fully understand. 

Despite Michael’s unspoken goal of his kids regarding Gloria as a mother figure and forgetting about Kay, it wasn’t something Gloria was comfortable with. She knew he was coming from a place of hurt and anger, but his relationship with his kids would suffer long-term by turning them against their mother. Besides, one day they’d learn the truth about Michael and Gloria’s relationship, and their opinions of her wouldn’t be very high after that.

She couldn’t let that stop her from trying to have some kind of relationship with the kids, at least for Michael’s sake. 

“How about you, Anthony?” Gloria asked. “What do you wanna be when you grow up?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I like baseball.”

“Who’s your favorite player?”

“Mickey Mantle.”

“What about Joe D?” Michael asked.

“He doesn’t play anymore.”

“My dad has a baseball signed by him,” Gloria tried. “He won it in a raffle, though. I don’t think they’ve ever met.”

Anthony didn’t respond, disinterested in continuing the conversation. She wouldn’t push it, instead letting Mary change the topic to the latest episode of ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’, deciding that if being president didn’t work out, she’d want to be a Mouseketeer instead. 

Dinner pushed on through dessert, each of the kids ordering brownies a la mode. Gloria and Michael stuck with coffee, hers with cream and no sugar, while he drank his black. She never understood how he could stomach it, even with his blood sugar.

Al walked over to Michael, leaning down to whisper something to him.

“Alright kids, time to go,” Michael said, standing to help them put their coats on. “Say good night to Gloria.”

“Night Gloria,” Mary said, waving at her with a smile.

Anthony was quiet until Michael nudged him. “Bye.”

“Good night,” Gloria said, watching fondly as Michael gave each of his children a hug and a kiss on the cheek before they left with Al.

Gloria took a cigarette from her purse, placing it between her lips. Before she could grab the book of matches off the table, Michael held out his lighter mere centimeters from her cigarette, the flame deceivingly large in front of her face. She moved back, and he flicked the lighter shut.

“Where are Mary and Anthony off to?”

“Connie’s watching them for me tonight.”

“Oh, you’re slick. Do the doting dad thing, and then I’ll fall into your bed.”

“You already do that,” he said with a slight smile, lighting his own cigarette. His brown eyes glowed amber in the faint flame, and she found herself caught in his gaze as she leaned closer to him. “Didn’t take much for that to happen in the first place, did it?”

Heat rushed to her face, cheeks ripening from the pink blush she’d applied before dinner to a candy bright red. Their short-lived friendship blossomed into an affair rather quickly. A week before his family joined him in Nevada, he arrived at the casino in Vegas with his service medals in tow. Gloria had lamented upon their third conversation that she’d never seen any of her brother’s awards but had read about Michael’s in the Life article.

As innocently as she could be alone with him in his private hotel room, her fingers brushed each one as he described how he earned them, until reaching his Purple Heart. Almost without thinking, she’d taken the medal from its case and pinned it to the lapel of his black, pin-stripe suit. He’d caught her wrist in his hand, and for a split second she thought the fire in his eyes was anger until he captured her lips in a searing kiss.

“No, it didn’t,” she said, finally breaking from his hold to take a deep inhale before snuffing out her cigarette in the ashtray. 

He reached over, taking her hand in his. “You look beautiful, by the way. Blue always suits you.”

She grinned, her tongue darting out between her lips. “I look even better out of it.” 

“Now who’s slick?”

Smugness radiated off of her, watching Michael wave the waiter over for the check. She missed when her and Michael’s relationship wasn’t so important, at least in the familial sense. Being flirty with him was always fun, but as his future wife, sex carried a sense of duty. Always available and having to compromise to his whims. 

When they stood up from the table, he placed a hand on the small of her back, guiding her outside. As they waited for the car to pull up, Michael kissed her, pulling her close so that her chest was flush against his. She deepened the kiss, her hand on the back of his neck as she slipped her tongue in his mouth.

The rumble of the car engine behind them cut through their embrace. Michael groaned as he pulled away, though Gloria managed to press a kiss to his cheek before they got in the car.

One of Michael’s buttonmen was driving, while Al was in the passenger seat. Michael opened the door for Gloria, sliding into the back seat after her.

“You got something—“ She motioned to her lips.

He rolled his eyes as he pulled the handkerchief out of his suit pocket and wiped at his mouth. “It’s a wonder you’ve never gotten lipstick on my collar.”

“I can try.”

“You have a smart mouth, you know that?”

“I’ve been told,” she laughed, eyes sparkling in the dim lights coming from the dashboard.

Putting his arm around her, he kept her close to his side. She laid her head on his shoulder on the ride back to her hotel, her eyes drifting up to admire his profile. Sharp yet delicate, like the pair of sewing scissors her grandmother had brought over from Sicily, requiring a careful touch but reliable enough to outlast the American-made ones she’d bought. 

Michael’s black hair almost matched Gloria’s, though her tone was cooler, appearing bluish in certain lighting. His eyes were physically lighter than hers, but somehow he was able to expertly channel his emotions through them, at times appearing black as coal, the peek of a fire being fed inside of him.

“We’re here, sir,” the driver announced.

“Where’s your car?” Michael asked as they pulled up to the hotel.

She shrugged. “Wherever the valet parks them.”

An off-hand response to a casual question, Gloria didn’t expect anything more from the conversation. 

“Using a valet while you’re living on your own? Are you out of your mind, Gloria?” His voice boomed in the small space, enclosing her in his rage. 

“I’m sorry. I can pay for it myself if you–”

“That’s not what I mean,” he snapped. “Al, I want her car looked at, only people you trust.”

Al silently nodded, slipping out of the car when it parked in front of the hotel. 

“Michael, what’s gotten into you?”

His jaw clenched, nostrils flaring. “Go up to the room. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Fine, but if you’re going to bring whatever this attitude is upstairs, don’t bother.”

Before he had a chance to respond, she got out of the car, annoyed and embarrassed by his outburst. She knew he wouldn’t give her an explanation, expecting her to accept his hang-ups without protest because of the nature of his work.

Her fists were clenched the whole elevator ride up to her room. Anyone who had access to the check-in log could see his last name, not hers, under the reservation. Easy enough for a bad actor to catch a glimpse of her room number and target her from there. Instead, he was raging over her car.

She kicked off her heels, ridding herself of her jewelry save for the engagement ring, and finally pulling off her dress and tights until she was only in her slip. Shuffling over to the bed, she laid on top of the covers, her back to the door. 

Michael had always been overbearing, more protective than an extramarital affair warranted, but since he proposed and they became a formal couple, the intensity only became hyper-focused on her. He’d known about the other men she had seen, not pleased, but he had no authority to stop her back then. As far as she was aware, she had been his only mistress, his affection split between her and Kay. Having it all on her was overwhelming.

In her brooding, she hadn’t heard Michael enter until he spoke.

“I’m trying to protect you, Gloria. Things are gonna be a lot different for you from now on.”

She knew it was petulant and childish, but she didn’t respond, merely shifting in her spot on the bed. He sighed. She could hear rustling behind her for a few moments.

“You can’t be so careless, darling. Especially now that we’re engaged,” Michael said, his voice soft as he climbed into bed with her, wrapping his arms around her torso. “There are a lot of people who’ll try to use you to get to me. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Alright,” she mumbled. “I’m sorry, tiger.”

Tiger. Her cat-like lover, noble and ruthless, seeking out comfort on his own terms. 

“That’s a nickname I haven’t heard in a while.”

“You just reminded me of one earlier is all.”

He was silent, his hands gently pawing at her stomach. His hot breath fanned over her skin as he buried his face in the crook of her neck. Reaching back, she ran her fingers through his hair, manicured nails scratching at his scalp. He basked in her touch, nuzzling his nose against her.

Though his breathing became steady with a light snore in her ear, she couldn’t sleep. They often traded bouts of insomnia. 

After at least an hour of lying awake, she slipped out of his hold and tip-toed out to the living room so as not to wake him. Sitting on the floor in front of the radio, she tuned in to one of the late-night stations, keeping the volume low. She hummed along to ‘All I Have To Do Is Dream’ a favorite of hers since it first came out two years earlier. Michael didn’t care for the Everly Brothers, nor much of rock n’ roll in general. Considered it raucous and juvenile. 

She closed her eyes and let herself get lost in the music, unsure of how much time had passed when she suddenly heard Michael’s raised voice from in the bedroom. Going in to check on him, her lip trembled at the sight of him. He tossed and turned, distressed babbling continuing on. The covers fell from the bed as he kicked violently at them.

“Fucking bastards—grab the rifle and—”

“Michael,” she called out. “Michael, wake up.”

“They’re moving in—shit!”

She knew better than to grab at him, try to shake him awake. The only time she’d done so, a few months into their relationship, he nearly broke her arm despite being fully asleep. The following morning, he hadn’t remebered a thing but became withdrawn when she explained why her arm was bruised. Fredo had given her two weeks off work afterward, but she knew Michael had asked him to do that.

Shuffling over to the phone in the room, she dialed the front desk, glancing at Michael, still in his troubled state.

“Hello, can you call back here in about two minutes, please?” she asked.

“Is there something you need, ma’am?”

“No, just call back.”

“Of course, ma’am.”

The two minutes waiting for the front desk to call back dragged on endlessly. Gloria felt herself tear up at Michael’s distress, feeling hopeless as ever to help him. She retreated into the bathroom. Her hand shook as she filled a glass of water for him, slipping back into the bedroom. 

The phone rang a few seconds later. She watched her lover hawkishly. He woke up at the noise, chest heaving as he sat up to look frantically around the room.

“What’s going on? Where—“

Gloria standing in the corner, eyeing him cautiously while holding a glass of water, gave him his answer. He groaned, running his hand down his face. 

“It’s okay, nothing happened,” she assured him softly, handing him the glass.

She watched as he drank, rushing to refill the glass after he drained it. When she returned, she sat next to him on the bed, rubbing soothing circles on his back.

“Do you wanna talk?”

He shook his head, setting the glass aside. “You shouldn’t have to see me like this. Having nightmares like a child over things that happened fifteen years ago. Couldn't even find the place on a map anymore if you asked me to.”

“I don’t care.” She pushed back some of his black hair from his forehead, feeling the perspiration that built up on his skin. “I love you.” She kissed the crown of his head, wrapping her arms around him as to cradle him against her chest. 

“You’re going to be a wonderful mother.”

That was what it all came down to, her fiancé’s affection for her so tied to his hope that she could right that wrong, and as she’d later learn, many others.

[silverhallow]

Every Breath You Take

Violet Bridgerton II x Edward Becker (OC) Love Story

Chapter 2: Hope to Hopeless

FOUR YEARS LATER

April 1842

The summer of 1838 had lived long in Edward’s memory, everytime he had stopped at My Cottage in the intervening four years he had longed for another glimpse of Violet, to be introduced to her formally, but he had been unsuccessful.

She had started spending more time at Romney Hall, the Parsonage or even in London with the Viscount and Viscountess so he had not had the pleasure of meeting her but following their brief meeting, he found it easier to speak to Will about his sister.

When she wrote to him at Eton, Edward had started asking what Violet was up to, asking more questions and enquiring into his best friends sister and thankfully William had not really thought that his friend was harbouring a crush on his sister, or at least he had managed to hide it until Edward had asked when his sister was planning on debuting in Society.

“Why are you asking? Are… are you interested in my sister?” William had asked, his brow raised in an amusing joke figuring it was just a joke as he looked at his best friend over his music sheets. Edward had come to visit him at his lodgings at the Royal Academy of Music and William had been packing his things for the end of term and relocating to Bridgerton House where he would be watching his sister’s season unfold.

He had witnessed Charlotte’s debut and season alongside Edward, watching Edmund and Miles attempt to scare off any suitors and there was no way he was going to miss Charlie and Alex attempting to meddle in his sister’s debut season.

He had suspected that Edward had been disappointed last season but he had not realised it was because Violet had not debuted at 17 as was the norm but William had explained their father had had a meltdown at the thought of his daughter debuting and because Charlotte had waited until she was 18, though it had been so she and Violet could have debuted together.

His father and Uncle had put their foot down and said Violet could debut when she was 18 as was the Bridgerton custom so Violet was forced to wait and therefore Edward had to wait.

“I was merely curious” he lied but he felt his cheeks burning giving him away and he saw William’s face light up

“You are interested in Vivi!!” he practically yelled, his voice full of glee and joy as he lowered the music in his hands and burst out laughing.

“It’s not a laughing matter,” Edward said grumpily, crossing his arms over his chest. “I was merely curious as to if she was going to be debuting as I’d like to get to know her more…” he said. It was mostly true. He did want to get to know her better but he did have an ulterior motive, he might only be 20 but his father was close to his 60’s now and he knew it would not be long before his father would either arrange a marriage for him with some horrific woman or would die and leave the title to him and expectations would be on him to marry and he’d have every society mama throwing their daughter at him much like his sister’s had to bare a few years earlier when it was their debuts.

If he could get to know Violet, court her, he could marry her before his father had a chance to either die or marry him off… She was his choice and he had been flawed by her beauty at 14 and seeing her miniatures that William carried that had been painted by her father, he knew without a doubt there would be a queue of men lining up around the ton to have her hand and he wanted to get in there first.

William snorted “Ed, i’ve known you for nearly 10 years, you are a diabolical card player because you cannot lie… I know your “tell”, so be honest with me… and i’ll help you”

“You will?” he asked, blinking in shock, he’d expected to get the stuffing punched out of him as it was almost like an unwritten commandment “thy shalt not covet thy best friends baby sister”

“Well, Charlie and Alex’s friends are all foozlers and imbeciles so there is no way I want Vivi marrying one of them… so if she can marry my best friend, then I can rub it in my brother’s face that I have the better friends and I know you’d never actually do anything to hurt her and if you did i know i’d beat you in a fight” William laughed.

“You wouldn’t” Edward grumbled

“Unless it was a fencing match then i’d agree with you but boxing is not your strong point” William pointed out

“It is not yours either”

“No but I am better at it than you and Charlie is built like my Uncle Phil so even if i didn’t… Charlie would murder you… and Alex would kick your arse and get away with it as he is friends with the Prince Consort”

Edward sighed “very well, you are right there. And yes, I may harbour a small affection for your sister and have done for some time. I wish to try and find a wife before my father tries to pair me off with one of his boorish friend’s daughter’s…” he had to pause and chuckle as William shuddered at the thought on his behalf.

“Not the smythe-smith girls”

“Or worse… he knows the Finch’s through a business connection and threatened their daughter’s on me when I was younger so I'd not put it past him to do it now” he said with a shudder.

“Well when we get to London i am sure I can throw in a good word for you with her” William said honestly “I know my father and brother’s aren’t keen on Vivi making her debut and Charlie and Alex were planning to be basically her guards but I’m sure the have learned from Neddy’s mistakes with Lottie last year…”

Edward shuddered “I heard about that, she was rather furious with her brother”

“I’ve never seen her like that, even after David and Alex accidentally set fire to her favourite doll…” William sighed “but back to my point if you want me to speak to her for you..”

“No, don’t say anything to her please, i’m not sure how it would come across having you basically selling me to your sister. I’d rather try my luck first, but if you could introduce us that would be…” Edward said but he was cut off by a knock at the door.

“Yes?” William said to his door and the doorman to the lodgings appeared 

“Beggin’ your pardon Master Bridgerton but there was a messenger here looking for the Viscount, it was urgent and he’s waiting for a reply” he said holding out a note and Edward looked confused as he looked down at it, his sister’s scrawl on the front of the letter.

He had only popped over to William’s lodgings for a few hours and he’d planned to return to Somerhouse, so he didn’t see how anything could be that urgent but as he opened the letter his heart sunk.

Becker House Somerset

Edward, I am sorry to write to you in such haste and interrupt your plans for the season but we need you to return to Somerset with all haste. Your Mama has taken poorly and is confined to her bed and the doctors are telling us the prognosis is not good. Please hurry and return home. Your sister is close to being confined to her rooms with the baby so she cannot do too much and I worry about them.  Your Father has disappeared into his rooms and Louisa is in America and I’ve sent a letter but it will be at least two months before she will return and I know it will give your mother great comfort and Jane will need all the help she can get with the babe and your mother. I’ve requested the messenger wait for a reply so I can request the servants sort things for your return. Your sincere friend and brother in law, The Honourable  George Spencer 

Edward’s heart stopped as he read the words, his mother, the paper fell from his hands as the colour drained from his face, “good god Ed what is wrong?” William asked, worry etched all over his face as he picked up the letter and read it quickly and swore which caused Edward to jump and remember what he had read,

“I’ve got to go” he said, looking haunted

“I’ll come with you” William said but Edward protested  “no, i’ll come to Somerhouse with you, make sure you’re okay and I can write to George so you can pack and be on the road quicker”

Edward nodded, knowing it was fruitless to argue but as he climbed into the carriage three hours later, heading out of London and heading home, he was grateful for his friend’s help but he couldn’t help but be afraid for two reasons, was he going to lose his mother, or missing his chance with Violet…

He had to hope no one swooped in and stole her heart before he had a chance to meet her, and he had to hope his friend kept his word and not say a thing to his sister…

But as the darkness fell around the carriage, he felt like hope was nothing but a heartache waiting to happen…

[pikespendragon67]

Eh, I feel bored so I wanted to share some of my current creative ideas that I’m currently too burnt out to really work on:

First is for an original series that might be called Isolationists Club or maybe a more poetic name if I really wanna put in the effort. (Probably something with wildflowers? idk) It’s about people that usually isolate themselves for various reasons finally deciding to healthily communicate with one another. So far I have the sort of club advisor as a marriage counselor that wants to delve more into individual therapy (and is notorious for actually causing more divorces since he sees how terrifying his clients’ relationships can be) and a woman that isolates herself from bullying trauma that still lingers well into her adult years. (I wanna say she’s in her mid to late 30s or maybe 40s?) I’m gonna lean into more of the emotional trauma side for why people isolate themselves rather than general fear of being outside & such.

Next is some refinement for Octopath 3 OCs! This time with pictures from this Picrew. All of them will have musical names and music will play a big factor into the main motif of the story/final boss hopefully

Octavio the Dancer is a young lad (in his early to mis 20s) that wants to learn as many dance moves as he can, potentially finding a partner or instructor to help him do so. His ability to try to recruit others is him offering a dance, BUT! It comes at the cost of potentially fighting an NPC for that person’s hand. If Octavio loses, reputation goes down. If he wins, he can potentially summon both the original & provoked NPC into battle

Cress the Thief comes from a long line of gentleman/lady thieves, and she basically keeps the Robin Hood principle while still being able to do dirty work. Her uncle is trying to get her cousin to do more nefarious assassinations, so she’s trying to keep the family’s reputation safe. I’d say she’s 19? Also! She can sell the stuff she steals to the black market that the Merchant I’ll introduce later helps run.

Tacet’s a Hunter whose village is trying to find its new Chief. Anyone from the village that’s eligible has to go through 3 trials to prove themselves. His childhood friend’s way more competitive & hot headed about this. I’d say he’s 17.

Don’t have an O or secondary T yet, but I’ll have a placeholder for the time being

If I were to keep his original name, this would be Oliver, but I wanna keep the musical terms alive. He’s like my old OC from an original series I had, which was people with powers just living their daily lives. He’ll be the Apothecary for this, where he can actually control plants. He can concoct using ingredients he creates, but it takes a lot of energy from him. He’s 35

Picardy’s the Warrior of the group, but she’s definitely more of a mercenary than anything. Her former sworn oath partner has passed away, so she wants to fulfill his final wishes for him. I’d say she’s 37-46, depending on how I feel.

Alto’s the Scholar of the group. She may or may not be involved in starting the events for the final boss (still working on that). Like how Cyrus discovered a Philosophers Stone and Osvald had that whole thing™️ in chapter 3, Alto’s also going to have her own Fullmetal Alchemist moment! This time, I think she’s a mix of Van Hohenheim & Dr. Markel. YIPPEE!!! (Also this Picrew didn’t really let me do anything but she has streaks of white in her hair). Potentially immortal or thousands of years old, but physically is 29.

I sadly don’t have an idea for the Cleric yet, so I would like some assistance here, please. Only thing I can think of is something like. Nacho Libre? Eh.

And finally, we have Harmony the Merchant! She’s a clock engineer that’s trying to inspire her family to inherit the clock shop she works at so that she can retire easily. She’s the oldest at like 60-70. And yeah! She helps in a black market of sorts since she knows how hard it can be for people to get needed resources like medicine/engineering parts

[e17omm]

Between adding over 60 hours of playtime to Persona 5 Royal in like less than a week, I've managed to finish up a new SoL chapter for Snippets. Finally I wrote the chapter that introduces my semi-OC Johanna that exists to flesh out the early St. Freya High stuff. She exists in canon, but she has no personality except for the bare minimum to work in the one manga chapter she appears in. I dont like OC's in my stories but they are sometimes necessary.

Below are some screenshots of what I have been up to in P5R. I ADORE the Female Joker Mod. The model is great and the voice actor for her is very good.

[ashiemochi]

aphrotitty - lsk|m

✠ Aphrotitty ↳ Don't do anything stupid ↳↳ does something stupid

➶ pairing: OC x Leon S(exy) Kennedy. ➶ genre: fluff, a slice of life, angst, gore at some point, smut/suggestive themes ➶ Overall word count: hella

✠Playlist -

NOTE: ✠ = time skip ✠✠ = switching povs/characters -this is set after the whole debacle with Jason and his terror fetish-

CONTENT WARNINGS: ☢ - gore/zombie stuff/mentions of blood/guns/you get the gist- ♰ - smut/just filth

AN: it's kind of a slowburn with shit load of build-up, imma try to upload as much as I can - anws, this is purely self-indulgent, but feel free to imagine Y/N or sumn. hope you enjoy this stubborn fixation (hitting 4 months v soon) istg if leon s Kennedy from infinite darkness does not smack me right fucking now- I also stole some dialogue from Damnation and Resident Evil 6 for shits and giggles and got inspired by other fanfics<3

✠CHAPTERS

I. new girl ft mint (249)

II. red popsicle (532)

III. the neighbourhood's lady (1,278)

IV. charcoal (938)

V. you've got mail! (431)

VI. painting mint ft a half-naked sexy man (862)

VII. jealousy, jealousy (470)

VIII. counting freckles (1,100)

IX. appeeling bread (366)

X. white is a boring colour (612)

XI. new (toxic) man (1,920)

XII. painting mint ft a fully clothed sexy man: the sequel (1,795)

XIII. typical rich greedy people (712)

XIV. them (1,061)

XV. fuck, burnt my tongue (315)

XVI. trick or treat! (1,194)

XVII. all cats are females (2,551)

XVIII. cabernet sauvignon (5,114)

XIX. now look what you've done (1,504)

XX. lady in gucci (995)

XXI. the type of girl she is (1,612)

XXII. echo lake picnic (3,595)

XXIII. good catch! (2,437)

XXIV. eye-bleeding cyan (3,524)

XXV. what's yesterday? (3,271) ↳ what is this; some sort of la-la land? (3,692)

XXVI. introducing Patrick (2,681) ↳ ever heard of greenlife? (3,959)

XXVII. good work! now here's some trauma (1,048)

XXVIII. the classic 'i-miss-you' (3,183) ↳ the Matthew (2,914) ↳↳ the oh-god-why-am-i-here (3,861) ↳↳↳ the unkissed kiss (3,243)

XXIX. can i interest you in a little conspiracy theory? (4,604)

XXX. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- (3,299)

XXXI. strawberry poptart with matilda (3,755) ↳ very (not) cute (3,028)

XXXII. black Ducati XDiavel (5,517) ↳ blanket kick (1,827)

XXXIII. the infamous family doctor (3,357) ↳ dramatic bitch (591)

XXXIV. midodrine (3,315)

XXXV. move you fat bitch (1,769)

XXXVI. second chance (1,383)

XXXVII. little elf in the making (4,160)

XXXVIII. hallucinating eggnogs (3,445) ↳ you ever seen a ghost? (1,921)

XXXIX. panic at the disco w/o the disco (4,516) ↳ spare affection, please (1,834)

XL. get in loser, we're going shopping (5,031)

XLI. drooling over leather jacket leon ft new year's eve (5,199)

XLII. 'cause it's the thriller~ thriller night~ (5,031) ☢

XLIII. you better watch out, you better watch out, yOU BETTER WATCH OUT- (2,551) ☢

XLIV. leon? like the zodiac sign leo? (3,328) ☢

XLV. george the friendly chimpanzee (4,749) ☢

XLVI. that's suspicious,,, that's weird,,, (4,330) ☢

XLVII. Mr X gon give it to ya (3,494) ☢

XLVIII. when houseplants fight back also screw the Romans (4,609) ☢

49. this might hurt a little (3,585) ☢

50. project pansy (4,039) ☢

51. i spy with my little blue eye 425 freckles (4,718) ☢

52. back in raccoon city (5,390) ☢

53. frederic knows best (4,416) ☢

54. the moment the universe waited for (4,364) ☢

55. i met a superhero (3,862) ☢

56. i lost him, i want him back (4,389) ☢

57. he did things to me (5,377) ↳ that no one else could (1,299) ☢ (minor warning)

58. damn, i miss that (5,593) ☢

59. give you what you want (3,360) ♰ ↳ 'cause your love is all i need (7,146) ♰

60. hey sexy (7,235)

[prince-simon]

i love about your writing that you really know your craft and how to play around with words. you always manage to get the best possible outcome, even when it happens to be some tiny detail in the end. your writing's fragile and strong at the same time.

another thing i love is, your ability to create completely new characters e.g. wilma nilsen and the character development they went throughout the story. it feels like every person in your stories is there for a reason. their actions and reactions are thoughtful, even though they all do what they want most of the time and you've no say in it haha. with wilma we really got, still do, the whole spectrum there can be. starting from fake-girlfriend and ending up with best friend that feels like home and everything in-between. to me wilma is a very deep character with so many different nuances and it seems like we know about 50-60% who she is by now and i'm very excited to get to know her even better in the future!

last but not least, your stuff makes me feel seen in a way no written words had so far (to the point i do crazy things with quotes of it ;) anyway i'd bet real money actually more than wilma, my beloved, paid for the fcking champagne, that there're quite many people who feel seen too and find big comfort in the beautiful madness that is your writing 💙

your writing's fragile and strong at the same time fuck me upppp i'm obsessed with that description thank you so much!!!

i'm so glad you think that about my oc's! i try to make them three-dimensional characters which i think is the reason i'm struggling so much with the current chapter bc i'm gonna introduce a bunch of new characters and i love them so much already and they're fully formed in my head but i get intimidated by trying to put that down on the page

but honestly i'm still so baffled by all the love wilma is getting, i did not expect that at all, especially bc she turned out to be so different from what i initially imagined her to be like

godddd every time someone tells me they feel seen or understood from my writing, it adds ten years to my life i swear!! i cannot put into words how much that means to me!

thank you so much 💗

validate me by telling me what you like about my writing

[duhragonball]

Luffa Story Arc Breakdown

“Ah shit, he’s talking about his OC again!   I told you not to wear that shirt!”

“Hey, sun’s out, guns out, my dude.”

I should have #159 up shortly, and this weekend I gotta get 160 figured out.   July is my next writing month, and I’ll be trying to add 30000 more words to this damn story.   But I still have to figure out what to do with the loose bits that I haven’t posted from the previous writing months.   It’s the same rigamorale I dealt with in 2019 and 2020, but on a much smaller scale.    So I gotta nip that in the bud before it gets worse.

Every year, I think I’m going to do proper chapter summaries on AO3, and I never go through with it because it’s just a big hassle.   By “hassle”, I mean I have to re-read the entire fic and catch all the spelling errors and plot holes that I missed the last time around.  

Honestly, reading my own work is kind of fun sometimes, provided enough time has passed that I can get some distance from it.   Someone will like an old post of mine, and I’ll check it out to remember what it was, and Tumblr Mobile will recommend other posts of mine, including my own fic, and I’ll check it out and go “Hey, this guy’s pretty good.”  

I need to tell myself that more often, because these recent chapters I’ve been posting just feel like noise.   I’ll read ‘em and they look right and I see nothing else that needs to be changed, but I just can’t stand looking at them, and I know that’s just Editing Fatigue because I had a blast writing all this Frieza stuff.   Back in January, I found a YouTube video that was just a supercut of the Frieza fight before Goku showed up, and I’d put that on and work out how to cram a time traveler into it.   Then I found another supercut of Frieza vs. Base Goku and did the same thing in April.      That may be what makes it so boring for me to read.   It’s not just that I wrote it, but I adapted scenes from another work that I already saw, and recently.   Hell, a few weeks ago I re- watched the Frieza Saga again, because I was hunting for Track M814 uses.   So it feels dull even though I know it’s hot stuff, so maybe I should re-read my older material for an ego boost. 

But I’m not gonna do that right now, because I’ve got a lot to do today.   Instead I’ll be trying to sort the chapters into “arcs”.   I’m hoping this will get me a step closer to whatever it is that I need to do.

Luffa #1-10: The origin story, to keep it simple.  I did a prologue in #1 to introduce the character, and I think I gave her a gold breastplate, like a Roman Soldier would wear, because I had this goofy idea about constantly switching her outfits that didn’t last.   Then we flash back to Luffa’s time on Dorlu Prime, her failed defense of that world from an invasion force, and her unlikely escape from captivity.   Also, the title character turns into the titular Super Saiyan, thereby fufilling the titular legend.

Luffa #11-16: Bigreen Arc.  Luffa can’t control her new form, so she ends up on a planet that specializes in medical science to figure out what’s wrong with her.   This one is designed to explain some of the disconnects in Saiyan lore.   Luffa’s not the first Super Saiyan, but she’s not even sort of familiar with the transformation, even though she’s heard tales of all the old heroes.   So this arc tries to fill in that gap. 

Luffa #17-23: Overnight Sensation.   Luffa has to figure out what to do with herself now that she has this Super Saiyan power.   She tries to go back to mercenary work, only to find it as boring as it is profitable.  So she starts asking herself what she really wants (revenge), and how she plans to get it (founding an interstellar Federation).

Luffa #24-28: Luffa’s increasing popularity frightens her old enemies and attracts the attention of new ones.   As Kandai flees in search of refuge from Luffa’s wrath, an old acquaintance shows up to reconnect with Luffa in an unexpected way.

Luffa #29-37: None So Blind.   As Kandai becomes entangled in the political upheaval on Planet Goldwall, Luffa is drawn away from her new Federation project by seductive new power, one that promises an escape from her old problems, but at the price of her very identity.   Meanwhile, the Federation is invaded by a powerful enemy from across the stars.   Can Luffa return in time to deal with this new threat.   Will she even want to? 

Luffa #38-49: Liberation of Extraliga.    Luffa launches a counterstrike on the occupied world of Extraliga, then takes the fight to the invaders.   Her offensive leads her to Kandai, but she also has to contend with the Shockmaster.   Can she defeat them both, or will she have to choose?  

Luffa #50-60: Training Arc.   Well, not just training, but I wanted a lull between the first Shockmaster arc and the second, and this is it.    I did a lot of fun stuff here.   Luffa drinks a whole bottle of waffle batter, Zatte gets into a Stand Battle, the characters from an old Dungeons and Dragons ad make a cameo appearance, the Shockmaster gets an origin story, and oh, Luffa might have gotten a little married somewhere in this mess. 

Luffa #61-69: Second Extraliga War.   The Shockmaster invades the Federation again, begging the question of why he should want it so badly.    This time, he conducts his business in person, but Luffa is read for him.   Or is she?

Luffa #70-76: The Luffa Way Arc.     Long story short, I needed an arc to explain why Luffa never taught any other Saiyans how to transform the way she can.   For one thing, most Saiyans are too afraid or resentful of her to want to learn.   In this story, Luffa meets a small band of Saiyans who accept her teachings, but it still doesn’t work out.  

Luffa #77-96: Pozet Arc.  The King of Planet Saiya finally reaches out to Luffa for reconciliation, and Zatte convinces her to accept the invitation.   But it turns out the King wants more than just friendship.   Rehval has a problem, one that concerns the entire Saiyan population, and he is convinced that only Luffa can help him solve it.  

Luffa #97-100: I’ll be real with you chief, this is just a collection of one-offs I wrote before moving on to the next arc.   First, Rehval’s wayward daughter, Princess Seltiss, has her own plans for the future of the Saiyan people, and she and her boyfriend take the first step in making them a reality.    Next, Zatte dictates a letter to her marriage counselor.   Then Luffa tries to figure out whatevr happened to Drang Dedruhn.    Finally, on the world of Archeo, Phyper Notro plots to deconstruct the legend of Luffa, only to discover the truth is much more dangerous than the rumors.  

Luffa #101-108: Trismegistus Arc.  While Luffa persecutes the Saiyans for any leads to track down King Rehval, a group of Saiyans searches for a mysterious alchemist rumored to possess a secret potion that will give them incredible power.   

Luffa #109-117: Jindan War, Part 1.   The Jindan Cult launches an attack on the Federation, and Luffa cannot take the fight to the enemy, since she doesn’t know where their secret base is.   Unable to defend multiple Federation planets at the same time, Luffa reluctantly accepts an alliance with Princess Seltiss, leader of the Saiyan Free Company.   Seltiss fears that the mysterious Trismegistus may unravel her father’s work to unite the Saiyan species, but her only hope of defeating the cult is to win Luffa’s trust.

Luffa #118-130: Jindan War Part 2.   The war continues, with neither side able to gain a clear advantage.  Luffa and her allies manage to repel the invaders, but are worn down in the process.   The Federation grows weary of Luffa’s inability to end the conflict, and the only one who seems pleased is Trismegistus, despite the high casualties and lack of tactical gains.   Eventually, his followers begin to question his motives, but do they have the courage to take action when they discover the answers?

Luffa #131-141: Jindan War Part 3.   Luffa learns the location of Trismegistus’ headquarters, and assembles a fleet powerful enough to crush him in a single attack.    Can Trismegistus survive her offensive?   And can the universe survive the outcome of this battle?

Luffa #142-146: Xenoversal.   In the distant future, a wish is made for a powerful warrior to defend time itself.    And so, Luffa is recruited to join the Time Patrol, led by the Supreme Kai of Time, and the mysterious swordsman Trunks.  But where is she exactly, and when?  Can she ever return home?  Is there even a home to return to?

Luffa #147-156: Ginyu Force Arc.   Luffa now knows how far in the future she’s traveled, and her Time Patrol work seems to be the only thing left that can give her life any purpose.  But can she even accomplish the dangerous missions that lie ahead?   Trunks has his doubts...

Luffa #157-161: Frieza Arc.   Uh, yeah, she fights Frieza in this one.    It probably speaks for itself.   I’m trying to remember a particular moment that happens in the Frieza conflict that would be of great importance to Luffa, but I’m drawing a blank.   Sorry.

[dreaming-for-an-escape]

3, 5, 14, 17, 19, 25, 48, 50, 56, 57, 65, 74, 76 OC Questions for Talia because I am so curious to know more about her. P.S I hope that for 76 you will say Salem, because who wouldn't want to cuddle with him?! XD

Thanks for the questions! :D Loving talking about Talia Newton. 

3) Talia usually wears shorts and an oversize t-shirt to sleep. 

5) Oh…a secret handshake you say? Sure why not. Mostly likely with Sabrina only though. 

14) One of Talia’s pet peeves is when people don’t properly apologize with the formal “I’m sorry”. For instance she hates it when people say “my bad” or “oops.”

17) Talia gets along well with the “Fright Club” but at the end of the day her best friend would be Sabrina. Sabrina and her have a lot in common, seeing as they enjoy the more weirder side of things. Sabrina was also the first person at school to be nice to her. 

19) Talia has a close relationship with her father Aiden. Aiden is a doctor in Greendale, and Talia wants to follow in his footsteps. Aiden doesn’t pressure her though when it comes to her future, and basically let’s her be herself because he trusts her. Plus I think it also helps him knowing that Talia isn’t a reckless teenager. Aiden is also the only family Talia has left so she tells him everything going on in her life….up until she finds out the truth about Sabrina. 

25) Talia at the moment is the type of high schooler that hides herself whenever she can. She doesn’t like to make herself stand out, but it’s ironic since her shyness is what people notice about her. She withdraws herself so much that people (not her friends) can’t help but think she’s a bit odd. Some may even find her rude because of her lack of responses but that’s just her awkwardness playing out. I like to compare her to Allison Reynolds from the Breakfast Club in a way. She doesn’t say much but when she does it tends to make an impression….Caliban is sure going to enjoy her snarky comments. 

48) Her room is a mix between a 60s/70s/80s aesthetic.  Talia, as we are going to find out is into music from the 60s/70s but is a huge fan of 80s movies, especially horror. 

50) If Talia ever got called out she’d be the type of person to own up to it…..or at least that’s what she likes to think :P 

56) Her father would be the one to have her baby photos…not that Talia likes to look at them. Looking at her baby photos just reminds of her biological parents, and that as a results makes her sad. 

57) What makes Talia stand out is her shy, guarded, weirdish demeanor. She sucks at making conversation with others besides her close group of friends, and her dad. As I said she tends to lack in responding but on the off chance she does say something it’s totally random or just too much for a person to handle. For example, someone may ask her, “How was your weekend?” And her response could be “Well, I didn’t fall down a flight of stairs or get run over. I’d I say it was alright.”

65) Spending time with her friends, father, listening to music, and watching horror movies tends to make Talia smile. 

74) More than often it’s her own father that makes her full on laugh. 

76) Haha as much I want Salem to be her cuddle buddy, I’d have to say it would be her dog. Talia has a dark brown American Staffordshire Terrier that will be introduced in the next chapter.  

[chrisbbaegopayo]

Hold Your Breath (Stray Kids: Stalker AU) ➻ Chapter 3 (part 1)

....

Genre: Thriller, Angst, Gore, Mystery, Suspense Characters: All of Stray Kids, reader, OCs. Word Count: 1.2k Warning: This story will contain elements of gore, on- and off-screen abuse, torture, mental illness, and stalking. It will feature themes that are not suitable for all ages, readers discretion is advised. Each chapter will have its own specific warning.

Sorry for the short post. I’ve managed to hit a very bad case of writer’s block, as well as other things, more on that below. (updates will now be once every two weeks)

Chapters: Premise | 01 Prologue | 02 Chapter one | 03 Chapter two | Chapter three (part 1) | Chapter three (part 2)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

She and Hyunjin ended up getting along really well in class, as they introduced themselves in the timeframe that the professor had given them. She learned that he had been here to earn himself a bachelor’s degree in literature, much like his parents wanted. He had been a pretty hardworking student and liked to participate in extra-curricular activities, although he didn’t really elaborate on which clubs he had joined since attending the university.

It had come to a surprise, then, that he knew who she was. It was kind of strange for her to introduce herself to someone who had already know of her—he did say that he knew of her and knew who she was, but never made an attempt to say anything to her, which, to her, was understandable. University could be somewhat of an intimidating place. And Hyunjin, who kept to himself during classes unless he was asked to participate in group work or class discussions, was naturally relatively inside his head. 

He had a small circle of friends, she learned, of which he had dropped after coming to this university. He told her that he stayed in touch with most of them through social media and that he had missed them. 

They didn’t manage to get too deep into their conversation, although he did tell her that he was in a few of her classes back in first and second year, and much of the reason of keeping to himself most of the time didn’t say anything to her, as they were practically strangers.

Professor Lee stopped the discussion then and then began his first lecture. Much of it had to do with what goals to set at the beginning of the semester, what they would be covering throughout the semester, as well as the many assignments they were expected to do and their due dates that accompanied these assignments. Much to her displeasure, every week, there would be a test that summarized the terms they learned the week before, just to keep them on their toes, apparently. This was probably the most for her, as her memorization skills weren’t the best…

…this would also mean that she would have to do a lot of reading. And note-taking. As much as she enjoyed reading, the mind-numbing technical terms might just defeat her.

However, the silver lining was that there would be some hands-on case studies and there might be field trips planned in the course, although the professor did not specifically say if they were definitely included. As for these field trips, they were still in the process of negotiating some plan, of which professor Lee did not specify.

They also had to write two essays throughout the semester. Great.

As the professor started lecturing, he covered what the meaning of crime was, what each term meant, and how it integrated into society on a very base level. As for the rest of the two-hour lecture, Professor Lee merely just taught through most of the time with interesting examples and various experiences that he had encountered. He made things interesting, and the majority of the class was completely engrossed. The mid-lecture break had gone by and soon, had buzzed by without much of a fuss. 

“All right, remember, class, make sure to read up on chapter 2, pages 60 through to 90! You will be expected to go through it with your teaching assistant in your tutorial later,” Professor Lee said. “Feel free to visit during my office hours should you have any questions or problems regarding class! See you next week!”

She placed her notebook in her bag and looked over at Hyunjin, who looked rather pleased with the class. “Tutorial, huh?”

He nodded and leaned back against his chair. “Yeah, it should be exciting. At least the professor was interesting, hopefully, the teacher assistant will be just as interesting. When do you have yours?”

She pulled up her schedule, and scanned it, trying to figure out which day she had her tutorial. Turned out that she had her tutorial at 11:30 a.m. in two days with a person named F. Lee. And upon showing it to Hyunjin, she was surprised to learn that he also shared the same tutorial. It seemed like a pretty pleasant surprise, she thought. To be in the same class and tutorial—it was as though something was being conveyed to her through this strange arrangement. Or not. It just seemed like a pretty interesting coincidence. 

But life didn’t have coincidences, did they? 

Regardless, the two left the lecture room and went their separate ways after swapping numbers. 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

She had never been so glad to be home. After that stalker fiasco earlier on in the day, she was ready to retire to bed. However, she cracked open the textbook she was required to read for the class and sat at her desk, trying to make some from sense from the lectures. She got a few paragraphs into the reading when her phone buzzed with a text message.

>> Hey I’ve got food Open up OMG bless thank you <<

Jisung seemed to know exactly when was hungry because her stomach grumbled a bit. She went downstairs, and as soon as she got to the door, the doorbell rang, and she opened the door, letting her best friend in.

“You always come at the best time, ever,” she said, ushering him into the house. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. Seriously.”

He laughed. “That’s why I’m your best friend, right?”

The two of them ate and chatted about their day and by the time they finished their food, Jisung had gotten up to toss the containers into the recycling bin. 

She stared at her phone for the time being and sighed. She should go back to reading, but she really didn’t want to do any reading that night. It seemed like a great time to just lay back and chill for a little longer until it was time for her to go to bed.

It was still relatively early in the evening—or late afternoon, and perhaps she could just put her feet up and catch up later on.

But then her mind wandered off to the letter she got—it was unsettling.

“Jisung?” 

He made a noise of acknowledgment, while still staring at his phone. 

“I got another letter.”

His fingers that were once tapping away, seemingly mid-text stopped. He placed his phone down and faced her. “What did it say?”

“It was...something like ‘a new semester will start new things’ or something...and then something about more gifts to come,” she recalled.

Something about Jisung’s expression worried her. 

“Did you file the complaint to the school like I said?” He asked.

She shook her head, but then upon seeing his concerned expression deepen, she held up her hands and reassured him that she was going to file it in the upcoming days.

“I haven’t exactly had time, you know, I promise I will—I’ll even let you know! I promise!” 

He sighed, and with a heavy tone, he said, “fine, as long as you know.”

She was about to say something when he leaned over and put his hand atop her head, almost in a maternal gesture.

“I’m just really worried about you, you know? These are just some precautions that you have to take, okay?” 

She nodded. “Yeah, thank you, Jisung, you’re always looking out for me...”

He chuckled, “that’s what I’m here for, remember?”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Sorry about the lack of updates lately. I’ve managed to land myself in a really deep ditch called writer’s block, and it’s honestly really draining to write when my motivation is zero most of the time. Sorry, it’s been pretty hard most of the time, especially balancing both work and creative writing at the same time. I do writing for my day job too, and every day I’ve pretty much felt like I’ve exhausted most of my writing into work, and the creative juices are NOT flowing into what should belong to creative writing. Hashtag excuses lol.

However, I did find a good way to keep my motivation up—the story is planned out, I know what’s going to happen in the bigger picture, but the details aren’t exactly set. Sometimes if I see an opportunity to implement new ideas, I will, such as relationships between certain characters and their history and such. I do have several pages of notes of the character’s relationships and backstories.

I will be publishing their backstories starting with Hyunjin, and I think it will make for interesting future plot segments. 

As well, I will be changing the updates to every two weeks until I can get out of this really bad writer’s block. 

Whether or not people like to read it or not, I’ll just keep on writing anyway because I genuinely do love creative writing. As well, I have been planning this story for wayyyy too long and even though my execution of the story might be slow and not what my mind wants me to write, I think I want to continue regardless. I’m just really grateful for the readers that I do have, and appreciate the time you invest in my story. Please feel free to poke me/talk to me about the story and let me know what you think of it. I know I haven’t advanced enough into the story for people have a true understanding or grasp of it, but I will be publishing the character’s relationships with each other and how they’re all connected. Because they are.

If I have any jumping tense problem—I’m sorry, I do try my best to catch them while writing, and I will improve and do my best not to disappoint too much.

Thank you! c:

[program-800]

Exploring D:BH fics (Part 3)

In this post I’m going to talk about how I cleaned the text data and trained the model (plain old Latent Dirichlet Allocation) shown in the interactive visualisation of topics in DBH fics mentioned here was made.

Recap: Data was scraped from AO3 in mid-October. I removed any fics that were non-English, were crossovers and had less than 10 words. A small number of fics were missed out during the scrape - overall 13933 D:BH fics remain for analysis.

Again, stuff is always WIP!

Part 1: Publishing frequency for D:BH with ratings breakdown Part 2: Building a network visualisation of D:BH ships Part 3: Topic modeling D:BH fics (retrieving common themes) Part 4: Average hits/kudos/comment counts/bookmarks received (split by publication month & rating) One-shots only. Part 5: Differences in word use between D:BH fics of different ratings Part 6: Word2Vec on D:BH fics (finding similar words based on word usage patterns) Part 7: Differences in topic usage between D:BH fics of different ratings Part 8: Understanding fanon representations of characters from story tags Part 9: D:BH character prominence in the actual game vs AO3 fics

Basically, what I did here was apply the Latent Dirichlet Allocation algorithm (topic modeling). I’m not going to go into the details behind it (not going to add to the big collection of layman LDA posts hanging out on the Internet) - all you need to know in this context is that it’s an unsupervised algorithm (i.e., I don’t tell the algorithm what topics to form, beyond the number of topics to look out for) that is trained on large amounts of text to pick out ‘topics’. Topics are like collections of co-occurring words - that they happen to usually be human-interpretable is a nice quality of LDA.

There are quite a few variants of LDA. This one is the basic vanilla one.

1. Identifying names for removal. Based on past experience with LDA, if I don’t remove names, they end up intruding in topics/forming a topic(s) on their own. That’s not really informative. I don’t really need a topic of D:BH character/OC names.

I ran the Stanford Named Entity Recognizer on all of the text. This tagger automatically picks out people’s names for me. I already had a base collection of names from my earlier run with RK1700, so I added on to that collection. Of course, the tagger won’t be 100% accurate, so I still had to check its output.

Let’s just say that was a lot of manual work. I had a collection of 13439 names in the end.

2. Keeping only nouns and verbs. Since I wanted themes, I thought perhaps nouns and verbs may be the most important words to capture those (this is up for debate. Definitely an assumption on my end, and something to keep in mind when looking at the results). I ran the Stanford part-of-speech tagger on all the text, which automatically labels the part-of-speech of each word (e.g. adjective, adverb), retaining only nouns and verbs.

3. Final clean of the text. (Note: I’ve already done some cleaning for steps 1 and 2 to prepare the text for the taggers). At this final clean, I removed words that were only 1 character long, had any non-English characters, were stop-words (i.e. really common words like I’m), or that were in my collection of names.

So now, each story is basically a list of nouns and verbs that aren’t very common/redundant words and that aren’t names.

4. Chunking the stories. My research work is with shorter social media text, so I’ve never had this issue before. But training a model to look for patterns in something as long as a fic (that can be more than 10k words, even for one-shots!) - we’re not going to get nice topics. So - I made the decision to chunk the stories.

I started by splitting them by chapters. One-shots stay as one-shots (one document), but a three-chapter story gets split into three separate documents. This bumped the number of documents from 13933 (the original number of fics) up to 41597.

Still, some chapters and one-shots may be really, really long. Here are my chunking conditions:

If a chapter/one-shot is below 2000 words, Leave it as one document. If I divide a chapter’s/one-shot’s length by 1000, a) and I get a quotient larger than 2 and a remainder of 0.5 or less (let’s say, quotient = 3, remainder =0.4): The chapter/one-shot is chunked into a chunk of 1000, a second chunk of 1000, and a third chunk of 1400. b) and I get a quotient larger than 2 and a remainder of greater than 0.5 (let’s say, quotient = 3, remainder = 0.9): The chapter/one-shot is chunked into a chunk of 1000, a second chunk of 1000, a third chunk of 1000, and a fourth chunk of 900.

The logic really is that I didn’t want random chunks of 2 words or something floating around. The algorithm can’t learn patterns from such short text.

This increased the document count from 41597 to 50126.

5. Bigrams and creating the dictionary. I used Gensim for this this task and LDA.

So, bigrams. Single words like ‘guns’ and ‘shots’ are great, but bigrams (basically two words that appear together, like gun_shot) give a bit more context. I looked for bigrams that appeared at least 100 times (no rare ones, they’re not useful for learning patterns) and appended them to the respective document that they appeared in. 

Then I created a dictionary of words for the model to sort into topics. I put some filters here too (also important to note, results may change depending on choices here). I only wanted words that appeared in no less than 140 chunks and no more than 40% of the chunks (20050 chunks); so terms that weren’t too rare or too common.

6. Training the LDA model. Important part of LDA: picking how many topics you want the model to learn. I relied on a measure called coherence to help with this. It’s basically just a quantitative automated measure of topic interpretability. The gold standard really is to get human judges around, maybe agree on saying, ‘Hm, this topic model looks fancy but makes no sense’ and you go back to the drawing board. But I don’t have that and coherence has been shown to correlate pretty well with human judgments, so it’ll do.

I ran LDA to model for 2 topics all the way to 60 topics in steps of 2. So: try 2 topics, 4 topics, 6 topics.... to 60 topics. I calculated coherence at each topic number. Once the algorithm was done, I plotted out the coherence graph and manually checked the higher-coherence-scoring models.

44 was one of them (other suggested topic numbers were 30 and 38, but they were still a bit too general for my liking. Again, note the bias introduced here from my choices).

7. Labeling topics. With the final model decided, I plotted the visualisation using pyLDAvis. Using the top 10 keywords of each topic, with lambda (λ) set to 0.6 following [1]’s recommendation, I manually labelled each topic. I’m definitely not the final word on the D:BH fandom or topic models, so perhaps you may disagree with the labels I came up with.

And that wraps up this little exercise on LDA with long(er) texts! It’s admittedly not as exciting as the network of ships, but it was a good introductory exercise to working with texts outside of my research area.

[ogbellarke]

(i took this from @ vesselofink on ig)

this was supposed to be a 'work on your wip and answer a question a day' type thing, but we'll instead use these questions to distract us from our wips!

1. what is your current word count? around 34k

2. what’s the basic summary of your wip? a girl discovers she’s an enhanced human after her father is murdered so she joins a secret group that is after those who killed her father and who plan kill more like her.

3. what is your title? calling the cavalry :)

4. who’s your favourite character? how are they introduced? my favs are the core five lol they’re all written to be likeable. and they’re all introduced in the first three chapters.

5. your favourite ship in your wip? the romantic subplot and the secret couple, don’t wanna spoil lol

6. what’s the biggest mistake your mc has ever made? i’m actually not sure yet, i’m not too deep in backstories yet but she’s an icon in the present

7. what/who inspired you to write? my very first work was inspired by a dream that wouldn’t leave me alone. but for this work, it was actually that taylor lautner movie where he finds out his parents aren’t his real parents and he has to go on the run with lily collins from a bad organization lol

8. most underrated character? her name is noa cantillo and if i ever publish, she’ll be considered the most underrated, i’m sure of it.

9. favourite lines? with or without context. “we still have too much life to live.” “even drunk you talk like a scientist.” “don’t think this means anything.” “i like jello.” “don’t tell me i’m going soft again just because i’m proud of you.”

10. create a moodboard/aesthetic for your mc. first one for my main, savannah and second one for the wip itself

11. what is your mc’s fondest moment? when she graduated and walked across the stage as her dad whistled and clapped louder than anyone with the biggest smile on his face.

12. songs that remind you of your wip and/or favourite characters? young god by halsey, somewhere only we know by keane, nothing’s gonna hurt you baby by cigarettes after sex

13. do you enjoy torturing your characters? lol no omg but sometimes it’s necessary.

14. what is your mc most afraid of? oblivion, disappointing her dad, failure to bring an end to the bad guys

15. secret talents of your characters? with the enhanced beings that most of them are, they have a faster metabolism, super speed and strength, skin pliability, and quicker regeneration. but idk about like legit secret talents yet

16. if your book had the opportunity to be turned into a media, would you take it? who would be casted as who? oh fuck yes omg that’s what’s keeping me going--the possibilty of a movie. and laurel thoma, xavier serrano, marina laswick, tessa thompson, and michael b jordan are my core 5 face claims so

17. what are some basic moral and general beliefs your mc has? she’s an atheist, first of all. she believes in second chances. she has a real good moral compass and always fights for what’s right and for those who cannot protect themselves

18. how did your characterws find out the tooth fairy doesn’t exist? savannah found out at 14 when her dad decided she was old enough. kit was a foster kid so he never got that experience. same with tate. heidi woke up to her mom putting a loonie under her pillow at 9 and was traumatized. and grey decided at 5 that he was too old for that ‘baby stuff’.

19. which character of yours has the best name? oooo, i love my main girl savannah natalia moreno (fun fact her first name was orginally natalia but 20k words in i decided i liked savannah better.) but arlington samuel reed and beckett alfred greystone are also winners lol

20. who is your least favourite oc? the villain lol gotta read to know who that is

21. teaser! post a snippet of your wip. here’s a three paragraph entry to learn how no-bullshit my main sav is :)

Grey turned to her, standing up straight with his arms crossed. If Sav were honest with herself, she’d admit the guy kind of scared her. “Excuse me,” he began with a low voice, “I'd like to advise you to watch your tone.” 

She understood how vital Grey was here, but he was no authority figure of hers, and ever since she was little, her father taught her not to let people walk all over her. She was emotional, and she spoke her mind when she got upset. 

“Excuse me, but I saw my father killed in front of my own eyes, I was chased from my home in freaking sweatpants, shot at, picked up by strangers, shot at some more, and now I'm told I’m being targeted by some secret organization that's been out to kill me since birth! I think I'm entitled to a bit of leeway right now, don't you?”

22. what are some representations your wip has? (gender, lgbt, poc, disabilities, etc) of the 12 main characters, 6 of them are women, 9 of them are lgbtq+, 8 of them are poc, and as for disabilities--there’s a character with half-deafness, one with a prosthetic arm, and another with a prosthetic leg. also the main character has ptsd.

23. is your wip a stadnalone or part of a series? honestly, it could be a series if i got my shit together. i’ve written two endings already, one of which closes it completely, the other opens it to a sequel so we’ll see

24. which character goes through the biggest change throughout the story? def the main girl. she starts out as a regular college student and ends so strong and powerful.

25. who knows about your wip or interest in writing? do they help/support you? only my fam and a few friends know about my writing at all, but as for this book, my girl @harpermiller who i love very much lets me rant and send snippets and ask questions all the time

26. annoying habits your characters have? heidi is a know it all, kit is almost annoyingly loving, tate is real closed off and even those closest to her don’t know much about her, grey doesn’t let his emotions show which makes it hard for people to help him.

27. what’s the last three lines you wrote for your wip? with or without context. no context!

Sav supposed this was their now or never moment. She knew she loved Kit Torres--she just didn't know in what way. Sometimes it felt completely platonic, other times Kit would give her a look that grew butterflies in her stomach.

28. are any characters based off people you know in real life through looks, personality, or habits? i suppose tate is kind of like a side of me no one knows. and kit gives me grant ward vibes sometimes. but other than that, no.

29. what’s a ship that could never happen in your wip? who and why? almost anyone with grey because he’s their leader and mentor. 

30. what’s your goal word count? like 60-100k honestly i just wanna finish it lol

tag 5 peeps to keep it going. pick a wip and get crackin: @nillle @harpermiller @trashy-greyjoy @biondebeauties @holy-captain

[lostinaseaoffictionalbliss]

Thorin Is Here

Summary: Thorin arrives at Bag End and Nell has to convince him to let her continue on the quest instead of sending her back home. With as determined as she is will she manage it?

Pairing: Fili X wife!OC X Kili

Warnings: none this chapter

Word Count: 1657

Nell stood back partially hidden by the other dwarves. It wasn't that she feared Thorin or that she didn't want to see him. On the contrary she was trying to figure out how to word her argument. Because if there was one thing she knew it was how stubborn Thorin could be. It would truly take a great argument to convince him to let her come and not order her back to Ered Luin. And she refused to let that happen. So as Bilbo answered the door she kept to the shadows.

Thorin looked up at the grey wizard. “Ah Gandalf I thought you said this place would be easy to find. I lost my way twice, wouldn't have found it at all if it wasn't for that mark on the door.” He took his cloak off and hung it up next to the others.

“Mark? There is no mark on that door it was painted a week ago,” Bilbo exclaimed. He wasn't very happy at the prospect of his door being messed with. Not in the least bit. Gandalf let out an exasperated sigh. “There is a mark I put it there myself, now let me introduce the leader of our company...Thorin Oakenshield.” He looked to the dwarf he was introducing.

Nell could see the scrutinizing look Thorin gave Bilbo from where she stood. “So this is the hobbit.” He circled around him looking him up and down. “Tell me Mr. Baggins have you done much fighting?” Nell rolled her eyes that was a pointless question. “Pardon?” asked Bilbo. “Axe or sword? What's your weapon of choice?” Thorin came to stand in front of Bilbo and looked down at him.

“Well I do have some skills at conkers if you must know, but...I fail to see why that's relevant.” Bilbo had started out so strong in his answer and then just deflated. “I figured as much. He looks more like a grocer than a burglar.” Thorin looked to the company with a small smile causing them all to laugh. All, but Nell that is. She bristled up as he teased poor Bilbo. No she didn't think he was fit to fight alongside them nor did she think he could defend himself, but after all the dirty looks and snide comments people had sent toward them she felt the hobbit deserved better treatment.

Everyone moved back to the table they had been eating at previously. Nell took her spot between Fili and Kili and looked to Thorin. So far he hadn't noticed she was there, which she was grateful for as she hadn't exactly figured out what to say to him. “What news from the meeting in Ered Luin? Did they all come?” asked Balin. Thorin nodded his head. “Aye convoys from all seven kingdoms,” he replied. “And what did the dwarves of the Iron Hills say? Is Dain with us?” Dwalin questioned.

Thorin let out a heavy sigh. “They will not come. They say this quest is ours and ours alone.” Nell felt her shoulders slump; she had hoped that their kin would join them. “You're going on a quest?” The Hobbit spoke up. This prompted Gandalf to ask for more light as he pulled out a map and unfolded it. “The lonely mountain,” Bilbo said as he looked over the map. Gloin then spoke up saying his brother Oin had read the portents. It was now time for the reign of the beast to end.

Of course when Bilbo asked what beast Bofur had to make a show of it. “That would be a reference to Smaug the Terrible, chiefest and greatest calamity of our age. Airborne firebreather, teeth like razors, claws like meat hooks. Extremely fond of precious metals.” All of this caused Nell to roll her eyes. They weren't supposed to be scaring Bilbo. They were supposed to be convincing him to come with them.

“Yes I know what a dragon is.” Bilbo could be very sassy when he wanted, causing Nell to smile. She was beginning to like the hobbit quite a bit, but then little Ori spoke up. He was such a sweet little thing and Nell loved him like a little brother despite him being older than her, but he really had no place to talk of not being afraid or shoving dwarvish iron anywhere; he didn't even have a weapon. All he had was a slingshot.

Of course in the next moment Nell was finally pointed out to Thorin. “The task would be difficult enough with an army behind us, but we number just fourteen and not fourteen of the best nor brightest.” While everyone else began making comments about not being dim, Thorin scanned the group and when his eyes landed on her she could see the anger burning in them, the promise that they would speak momentarily. It was very clear in those dark blue depths that he wasn't happy with Nell for being there. A sigh left her, but she kept her head held high. If she backed down now, showed any amount of weakness she knew she would be going home.

Fili spoke up taking the attention of his wife, his voice full of pride. “We may be few in number, but we're fighters, all of us to the last dwarf.” He slammed his hand down on the table. “And you forget we have a wizard in our company, Gandalf will have killed hundreds of dragons in his time,” Kili added to his brothers argument. Nell looked to the wizard in question and seeing the look on his face wasn't so sure about that statement. Of course this only started another argument as everyone tried to find out the number of dragons he had killed. Nell assumed it was zero.

Thorin stopped the arguing standing up and yelling, “Shazra.” His tone was commanding and all the dwarves stopped yelling. “If we have read these signs, do you not think others will have read them too? Rumors have began to spread. The dragon Smaug has not been seen for 60 years. Eyes look east to the mountain, assessing, wondering, weighing the risk. Perhaps the vast wealth of our people now lies unprotected. Do we sit back while others claim what is rightfully ours? Or do we seize this chance to take back Erebor? Du bekar, du bekar.” His speech was moving. Nell felt pride swell within her and the urge to fight reared its head. She could not let Thorin send her back, not now.

A little while later after Bilbo had passed out thanks to Bofur talking about death by Smaug and declined being their burglar, Thorin found Nell. He had already spoken to Balin about the quest and now he was ready to tear into Nell. “Just what in Durin's name do you think you are doing? Why aren't you back in Ered Luin? I can't believe Fili and Kili let you come here."  His voice was filled with anger. "This quest is too dangerous you shouldn't be here.” He was beyond furious that his nephews hadn't stopped her from coming. “You really think they didn't try to stop me? Trust me they did, but as you can see it didn't work,” Nell informed him. Thorin narrowed his eyes. “They clearly didn't try hard enough.” He felt they should have done more to stop her. “I have just as much right to help take back that mountain as any dwarf here,” She replied.

Thorin stepped closer to her trying to to intimidate her with his size and his status. Neither would work. She was used to people towering over her and having grown up around Thorin, plus being married to princes his status didn't bother her either. “No you do not. You are a princess. You're place is at home with Dis waiting on word from us. Not being reckless, acting fearless, trying to join a quest you have no business joining.” Thorin's tone had dropped, but his voice had somehow gotten louder. He was not pleased with how she kept arguing with him.

A small snarl left Nell. “I maybe a princess, but I am a warrior first Thorin and you know this. You helped train me along with Dwalin,” her voice turned soft, “And I'm not fearless Thorin. I am very much afraid, but warriors...heroes they aren't fearless. They're brave. Bravery requires fear, and fear is born of loving something enough that its loss would break you.” She looked to her husbands who were talking and laughing quietly together. “I can't lose them Thorin. I can't sit back and wait not knowing if they are alive or dead, not knowing if you are alive or dead. The three of you hold my heart, my husbands, my loves, the other halves to my soul and you the father I needed,” Nell’s voice cracked as she spoke.  She wasn't even looking to be the hero in stories told by others. Nell just wanted to be the hero of her own story, her husbands’ story if need be, and one day her children’s stories.

A heavy sigh left Thorin. Was he happy with her coming? Not at all. He would never be happy with the idea of her being in danger, but even he couldn't deny she had a point. He had trained her and she was a warrior. It would be wrong to make her sit at home and wonder if her husbands lived. And if they died while she could have done something to prevent it, he knew that would break her even more. “Fine you can come, but you stick with them or me or Dwalin do you understand?” He asked. Nell threw her arms around him in a tight hug. “Thank you, Thorin.” Relief flooded through her the moment he agreed. “I said do you understand?” He asked again. She nodded her head again. “I understand,” She replied.

Translations:

Shazra- silence

Du bekar- to arms

Tags:

@e-wolf-98 @ambivertedcroissant @thatfanficstuff @sdavid09

[systemic-dreams]

Just got done reading your latest DBH fic chapter and WOW - that was like the origin story for basically *everything* in DBH and it was So Good!! And I’m all attached to Arbie now! And I knew that was coming with Chloe but man it hurt and was done so well. And I saw you mention a secret backstory for Connor??? Aaahhh I’m so excite, seriously this story is SO GOOD thank you for continuing to work on it and share it with us!! Very much looking forward to more!

eeeeeeeeeee, thank you for reading it! i know i tend to write too much but everyone’s been really supportive and every comment just makes me want to write more lol. I’m also glad everyone liked Arbie! I thought it might be a little weird introducing an OC into this fic but I needed to set it up for the next chapter which is about Connor’s origins and how he got to mark 60. Not sure how long it’s gonna take to write with uni and life happening but I’m really looking forward to it. and i hope everyone is too. :)))