#She was lucky enough to find it early but since I have been terrified of it coming back and her not finding it soon enough

[hearts4pearlescentmoon]

I don’t post about ads like at all but this is just vile

having a fake solution to something that is as extreme as breast cancer and advertising it to people as a way to weaken and get rid of it.

They didn’t even get real people, you can fucking tell it’s an ai generated image. You know what that shows. It shows that their “solution” doesn’t fucking work. If it worked, there would have been real people to hold up that sign. There would have been real doctors. The sign wouldnt have a misspelling and the sign would have been made by REAL PEOPLE. The typo just shows how little the fucker who payed money to advertise this cares.

here is some on the side effects of ozone therapy from just a simple google search.

Air embolism.

Myocardial infarction.

Temporary blindness.

Interference with blood flow.

Irritation and damage to the vaginal mucus membrane.

Increases risk of infections.

I know we all just scroll past and ignore ads, but this is just makes me sick

[lilbitdepressed27]

Tara Carpenter/Fem!Reader

Summary: Cast Away AU

Warnings: angst

WC: 4.0k

Author's Note: hope you guys enjoy

"Mmh."

The sensation of light kisses being placed on your neck was what brought you out of your slumber. Opening one of your eyes to see your beautiful girlfriend leaning over you.

"Tara. It's too early." You groaned into your pillow. A weight on your lower back. You didn't mind the sudden weight. 

"Come baby. Wake up. I want to spend some more time with you before you leave." Her lips were close to your ear. Her warm breath sending you chills throughout your body. The warmth of her body on your bare back. Kisses being placed on your shoulder. You could feel her smiling as she placed kisses on you.

The sound of the storm raging on pulled you out of your thoughts. The wind hollowing as you tried your best to stay dry. But it was no use. The deflated raft doing little to keep you dry. The dreading realization that you were stuck on this island by yourself setting in.

You never really thought how dark the open ocean was. That you could only see when the lighting strikes lit up the sky. It was terrifying. You were scared. Scared and alone.

*

You weren't sure how long it's been since the plane crashed. You and tried to keep track of the days. Tried to keep sane, to keep your hopes high. Hope that you'd be rescued. But it had been hard. By the time the first month passed. Your hopes had come crashing down.

A month into trying to survive on a deserted island. You had come to realize that you were the only one on the island. No signs of people or animals on the island. There wasn't even any birds on the island. Which scared a you quite a bit. You never would have thought or even imagined you'd be in a situation like this. Your mind going strong to the show named Lost.

You prayed to what ever higher power that, that wasn't the case.

Hunting for fish had been hard. You had experience finishing and you were good at it. But that had been with fishing equipment and here you didn't have any equipment. Making fishing harder. Using what you could find from wreckage of the plane that washed up in the beach. Some luggage, parts from the plane, using everything you could get your hands on to help you in any way.

All you wanted was to see your girlfriend again. Your friends. Your family.

*

"How about we just spend the day together by ourselves?" You asked as you watched your girlfriend get ready for the small party. Since you were leaving for Christmas break to visit family, your friends decided to throw you a party. Spending the Christmas break with your family overseas. You had asked if Tara wanted to go with you but her sister was coming home from college and she wanted to spend some time with her older sister. Which you understood. It wouldn't be long till you, Tara and your friends headed back to college as well.

"Come on. You know they wanna see you before you go." Tara turned away from the mirror after putting on her ear rings. A knowing smile on her face as she looked at you. "Plus, we will have plenty of time alone before you leave." Placing her hands on your upper thighs giving them a squeeze. That really made you want to ditch the party.

"Tease." You mumbled as she giggled and pulled away.

"Seriously let's go before we're late."

*

You were tired, cold. Catching fish had been hard but you had gotten good at it. You were able to use the the deflated raft to collect water when it rained. It had been a great help so far. Using the coconuts you found to fill them like water bottles.

It was hard, you had lost so much weight so fast. With coconut water, sometimes rain water, rarely the fish you caught. It was not enough. You were lucky none of the wounds you had caught any infection. Building a fire was a lot harder. Thankfully you remembered some of the tips from a YouTuber you watched. Making the fire took time and a whole lot patience.

You were sure you were going crazy. Talking to the picture of your girlfriend that had been in your pocket watch that had been safely in your pocket. "You wouldn't happen to have any matches, would you?" You had cursed your self, you were not going to lose your mind. You refused.

But it was so lonely. You weren't sure when you last spoke. It felt like months had passed since the plane crash.

How long were you really going to last?

*

You laid on your bed with Tara on your chest. Her hand playing with your own on your stomach. Your palm on hers. You had been focused on the movie when you heard her giggle, the giggle taking your attention away from the movie.

"What?"

"Your hands make mine look so tiny."

You looked at your joined hands, seeing the difference in size. You let out a small laugh before you interlocked her fingers with yours. Bringing her fist up to your lips.

"I love your hands. They're so soft and just perfect to hold." She mumbled into your cheek before placing a kiss on said cheek.

*

Your hands were rough now. All the hard work you had to do with your bare hands. Nothing about your hands were soft now.

You had found a cave, one where you had moved all your things to. It was a nice shelter from the rain and storm. The fire you made helped you stay warm in the cave. The walls of the cave were filled the drawings. Ranging from the plane and the map of the world. You had tried to figure out where were you. Then there were drawings of your family, friends. Tara.

You wondered what she was doing at this very moment. You wondered if she liked the Christmas present you got her. It was a beautiful gold necklace one with her initials and yours. In a way you both had thought of the same thing when it came down to getting each other a present.

You had hoped she liked the present, what you would given to see her reaction.

*

"I got you something."

You were at the airport waiting for your flight to be called. The two weeks would go by so slowly without Tara by your side. Your flight wouldn't be called till another thirty minutes. She was holding a small wrapped box.

You took the small box, thanking her with a kiss. "Thank you baby. My gift is under Sam's tree cause I knew you would open it as soon as I leave." You laughed as she pushed you away but she had laughed as well. Knowing you had a point.

"Come on open it. I wanna see your reaction." The excitement in her eyes was so strong and you just couldn't help your smile to grow. So with the same excitement you carefully unwrapped the box. Jaw dropping once you saw what was in the box.

A gold pocket watch. You had one but it had broken and it was unfixable. You took the pocket watch out of the box. Seeing the your initials and Tara's on the top of the lid. A now gentle smile when you saw a picture of the woman you love when you opened it. A picture of Tara was inside. She was in her light pink jacket, her hands in the pocket of the jacket, a dimpled smile on her face as her head was slightly tilted to the side. Posing for the picture that you had taken. It was your favorite picture, although you had loads of pictures of Tara. It was your locksreen.

"Do you like it? They asked me if I wanted to add a picture and well I thought you'd like one of me. If you don't-I love it Tara. Thank you." You leaned over pecking her lips. She was quick to pull you back in by cupping your cheeks.

"Flight 180 to San Juan Argentina is now boarding." The hold Tara had on you tightened. A part of you (a huge part) didn't want to go. Yes your family was taking a vacation to Argentina. And you would absolutely love to explore that beautiful place. But you wanted Tara by your side. You knew Tara had her own family here so she had stayed.

So with one last hug and kiss. That felt like it didn't last long enough. Tara had loosened her hold on you letting you board your flight.

*

It had been too long now. Three and half years. Three years since you last saw Tara. Three years since you last saw your family. Three years since the plane crashed. Three years since you've been alone. No one was going to find you. You had accepted that now.

You would have been in college now. Starting your fourth year. You had only been able to finish one semester. Every time you thought about all the what ifs, it really made you depressed.

"I have it down. If I'm right. The wind is pushing north. Which means if we get the raft we built in the water the wind can help it push through the wave break." You spoke to the picture on the pocket watch. The picture was now a bit more faded now. You tried your best to keep it safe and dry.

"I know, I know. Be careful. But I am not dying on this island. If I stay here and let this chance pass. I don't think I'll last much longer." You've spent the past few weeks building the raft. You had found a part of a porta potty wash up on to the shore. You knew it could hopefully help the raft move with the wind.

"Enough coconuts to last me long enough. Some empty ones to collect water when I'm out there."

You turned your gaze back to ocean. You were either going to die out in the ocean and be eaten by birds or drown to the bottom of the dark ocean. But you were sure, positive that you were not going to die on this island.

"I'm not dying here."

*

The older woman had been so, so in doubt. She was back home along with her kids and husband. The nauseating and heartbreaking news that she just received. It was hard to believe. Her heart telling her it wasn't true. Refusing to accept what the police told her. They only looked for two months.

You couldn't be gone. Not her little girl.

Upon arriving to her house, her eyes filled with more tears. Seeing your girlfriend and your friends. Their hopeful faces. The moment she stepped out of the car. She knew that they knew based off her expressions. The cry that Tara had let out was enough for her to burst into tears as well. Her own cry being muffled by her husband's chest as he tried his best to keep his own emotions under control.

You were gone.

And they didn't even have a body to bury.

*

"Hello am I speaking to Mrs.Y/LN?"

"Yes this is she. May I ask who's speaking?"

"Hello ma'am I'm Detective Chen, I'm here to tell you that we found your daughter. Y/n Y/ln."

*

For the first time in three and half years. You were freshly cleaned, the nice older nurse offered to cut your hair. And you were thankful for that. With you being so clean you saw scars and cuts you didn't even know you had. Bruises all over your body. Severally sun burnt. A part of you felt weak. Doctor said that was normal due to how long you went without any nutrients.

Now you were waiting. Waiting for your family to get there. You had been asleep for quite a while.

"Y/n?"

At the sound of your mother's voice you looked away from the wall you were staring blankly at. Your emotions finally bursting. Your arms reaching out for the woman that gave you birth. The woman who loved you unconditionally. Her own cry being let out as she rushed to your side.

"Oh my baby. My little girl." The warmth that she brought was one of the things that you missed. Soon your dad and older sister joined the hug. The three of them holding you tight.

*

The flight home was long. Your sister filling you in on what was happening. Since you technically were pronounced dead, Tara had moved away. Your sister telling you that along with your friend group they all moved to New York. They no longer lived in Woodsboro.

"Oh and Y/n. They don't know. We haven't really been in contact with them. Tara's also..." She wasn't sure if she should tell you. But she knew you deserved to know. "Tara's with some guy now. They started dating about a month ago now. I think. From what I've seen." She remembers seeing the post online. Mindy had shared a video and in the video Mindy had mentioned how Tara and a guy named Frankie were dating.

You sat back in your seat. Your shoulders slumping as you looked down at the pocket watch. The hope had you since you had been rescued had dwindled down. Tara moved on. She moved on from you.

*

You weren't sure what to do. It's only been three days since you got back. Spending the past days in bed. Your mom refusing to let you out of her sight. You didn't blame her. You missed being under her care. Your room had been just how you left it. The pictures of you and Tara still hanging on the wall. You couldn't bring yourself to call her.

If she moved on, did you really want to bug her. Ruin her chance to fall in love again. Could you let her go?

You had to. It wasn't you choice to make.

*

Walking in shoes had been such a small thing you had missed. Not worrying about stepping on something sharp or hard had been such wonderful thing. You had beg your mom to let you walk. Being cooped up in the house had become a bit much.

One of the first things your dad did when he brought you back was going to the town cemetery and having your tombstone removed. You still saw it though. It was weird to see.

Being back home has been something you had fantasized. Now be actually home felt so unreal. You were afraid that you'd wake up from this dream and be back on that island.

"Y/n?"

You turned your gaze from the pond. You had been walking for quite a while before stopping at the towns pond and setting on the bench. Staring blankly at the pond. Since coming back, a part of you still felt like it was on island. You felt off being back.

Standing there was a shocked Christina Carpenter. "Oh hello Ms.Carpenter." The older woman took you in. You looked different, your face skinner, bruises and cuts on your face. When she heard about how you were found in the ocean. She didn't believe it. She remembered how devastated her youngest daughter was. You had been pronounced dead after the search party gave up after two months of searching. But here you were.

Her heart breaking at the empty, broken look in your eyes. You looked so lost. A completely different person from what she had grown to love for her daughter. "You're alive."

"...yea. Uh how have you been Ms.Carpenter?" The older woman hadn't changed much in the past three years and a half.

"Does Tara know?" She ignored the question you asked. At the look of your guilt face looking down, she knew the answer. Feeling a bit angry at that, remembering how much Tara suffered when you went missing. How many asthma attacks Tara suffered, remembering all the times she had found Tara in the middle of those asthma attacks. She held off on reacting on that anger when she saw your eyes. The tears. The confusion, the heartache.

"No. I wanted to call her. But my sister said that she's with someone. I didn't want to...she's moved on Ms.Carpenter. I feel guilty about that if I call her I'll cause her pain, confusion or...I don't know. I don't know what to do." The tears finally escaped your eyes. The love you had for Tara had grown stronger and bigger while you were away. To be back and not have her by your side had you feeling just as lost as you felt on that island.

*

"Hey mom." Her two daughters walked through the door. One of her daughters being accompanied by a tall man. They were home for thanksgiving break.

"My girls." Pulling both of her girls into a hug. The pocket watch felt heavy in her pocket. You had been playing with the pocket watch through out the whole conversation she had with you two days ago. She had convinced you to lend her it, so she can get it fixed. She had seen your hesitation, before you gently placed it on her open palm.

"Who's this?" The young man moved from behind one of his daughters, his hand grazing against her daughter's hand.

"Hello Ms.Carpenter I'm Danny. Sam's boyfriend."

Feeling her shoulders lose their tension she smiled and shook the boys hand. She knew Danny. She had spoken with Sam about the boy that she's been dating for a few months now. It was only now that she actually met the boy in person. Looking back at Tara who looked better than before but she knew her daughter. Her dark brown eyes still held so much loss. Pain. Yearning.

"Tara's where's what's his face? That boy you're dating."

Tara shook her head with a small laugh. "Mom for the last time, I went on one date with him and that's it. I'm not dating him. So you don't have to remember his name. I don't like him, not even a little bit and I'm not ready for a relationship." Tara couldn't bare the thought of loving someone like she loved you. Her love was only for one person.

Mindy had told her that it wasn't healthy to hold on. That she was only hurting herself. She knew Mindy was only trying to be helpful but she couldn't move on. Not from you. You were-are her soulmate. Her one true love. She's never met someone who made her feel that you had. If it wasn't you, then it was no one. She only ever saw a future with you. She had planned a future with you.

There was no one else she wanted to be with. People can call in denial all they wanted. She didn't care.

"Girls. There's something I need to tell you." She had planned this conversation in her head. She even wrote some things down. But now her mind was blank at actually having this conversation with her girls.

The girls sat down as Danny offered to take their things to their room. With Sam's directions of where her room was at he left up stairs. So with out saying she held out her hand to Tara.

Tara confused stuck out her hand, her palm open, her throat hitch in her throat when she felt the familiar cold metal on her palm. Her eyes misting with tears when she saw the same pocket watch. The engravings of your initials and hers on the top of the lid. The gold was scratched and obviously damaged but it still opened. There was her picture. Faded.

"How. How did you get this?" She wanted to cry. But the spark of hope flamed brighter than it ever had the past three years and a half.

"Tara, a cargo ship found her somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. She's alive."

The words echoed in her head. The words she had dreamed of every single day to hear. She was finally hearing. But it didn't feel real. It felt like a dream. She didn't let her sister or her mother say anything else before she bolted out of the house. Ignoring the shouts of her mother and sister.

*

You had gotten out of the shower. Changing into some sweats and that hung loosely. You were still a bit too skinny. Your old clothes fitting you loose. Your sports bra was bought new. A size or two smaller than normal. Your cuts were a bit more healed. The scar you had on your palm was something you'll always remember. You had fading bruises. You were healing. Slowly but surely.

Stepping out of the bathroom connected to your at the same moment your room door was pushed open. Standing there was the woman that kept you alive. The woman that you dreamed of seeing every single day that you were on that island.

"Y/n?"

Her voice, it was like you were hearing it for the first time. She was beautiful as ever. Seeing her only few feet away from you.

"Tara."

It was all she needed to hear to cross the room. Crashing into you in a tight hug. Her grip hurt but you didn't care. Cause you hugged her just as tight as she cried into your chest. The ache, the emptiness you felt before it was forgotten the moment you had Tara in your arms. She refused to let you go. Refusing to unwrap her arms around your bare waist.

Her heart broke at how skinny you had become. She couldn't imagine what you weren't through. All the scars and bruises you had all over your body. She pulled away to look up at you. Your eyes were also wet from crying. But they held so much more. Her hand coming up to cup your cheek. You leaned into her palm eyes closing.

"I missed you so much."

"I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for. I'm just so happy you're here now." Her hands never left your body. Although she was a bit peeved that no one told her the exact moment you were found. The question was, why didn't you call her.

By the way she was looking at you, you could guess what she was thinking. "It was three years, almost four. I wasn't sure if...if you know I didn't know if...I saw the post Mindy posted and I thought you were moving on. I didn't want to, I don't know bug you?" You finally pulled your gaze away from those brown eyes that read you so well. You now felt unworthy of Tara's love. You weren't the same and you for sure didn't look the same.

Tara watched the way you shrunk in on your self. She knew you too well. She knew you since you both were toddlers. When you wanted to cry, you would blink more than usual, you avoid eye contact. That time you fell off a roof and had a nasty scar on your leg, you had refused to wear any shorts. She later found out that it was cause you felt self conscious about the scar.

She watched as you pulled away from her and put on a shirt. "Y/n, I still love you. I loved you then and I love you now. Nothings changed. I'm not dating anyone. I haven't dated anyone since—Mindy is an idiot. You know that. The only person I've ever loved and still love is you." Her hand gripped yours. How she missed holding your hands.

With her other hand she gently took your chin and made you look at her. "I love you."

Her eyes held so much honestly and love. Making you want to cry, you wanted to know what you did to deserve someone like Tara. Her compassion, her love, her loyalty.

"I love you to."

The night was spent with you in Tara's arms. She had dreamed of you being in her arms, and now thankfully it had come true. You were back, you were back in her arms.

Safe and sound.

:)

[jeridandridge]

Haaaaay, hope you're having a good day!

I had a prompt if you're feeling it! (Totally cool of you're not 😁) Ava squeezes some funds out of the superintendent for a team building weekend at a cabin in the mountains. Teacher!reader and melissa have been together for a minute (or it can be new 🤷‍♀️) but no one else knows. They get put together to share a room. They're excited (as excited as you can be for a "work trip/getaway" with your coworkers lol) until they have a huge fight either before or at the cabin. But before either of them can try to leave the situation, the group gets snowed in.

Angsty but with a happy ending maybe? Feel free to change whatever you want!

☆*~Thank yoooou ~*☆♡♡♡

I had so much fun with this! Thank you for the request 🩷 I hope you saw my media post for the day after 😉

Snow Storms

“Get ready yall! Load out is in ten minutes!”

It was far too early for Ava to be actually excited about something, but you were happy to see everyone amped up. Somehow Ava managed to get funds from the district for a team building weekend and now here you were, outside of Abbott on a Saturday morning before the sun is up.

When you see Melissa pull into the parking lot you hide a smile in your coffee cup. The relationship was still new enough where no one knew about your cozy bubble, you small smiles and hidden glances at school and all your dates and nights spent together.

“Are you ready to par-tay?!” Janine does a little dance next to you.

You let out a laugh putting your hand in your pocket. “I’ll let you know when I fully wake up.”

“Hey, hon, pipsqueak,” Melissa nods to you and Janine. Giving her a friendly smile you nod back.

“Are you ready for the trip Melissa? I hope we’re roomies!” Janine beams.

Melissa looks horrified and you can’t help but laugh.

It was going to be an interesting weekend. On the bus ride to the Poconos you sit across the aisle from Barb and Melissa, giving her an amused smile when she winks at you.

“Alright yall, I’m giving room assignments before I forget,” Ava stands up looking at the group. “There’s only one single room, so that’s mine. Janine you’re with Barb, Melissa, you’re with the young blood, and Jacob you’re with Gregory. I’d put myself with Mr Eddie but this is a school sanctioned trip” she smirks. Gregory looks terrified as usual.

Rooming with Melissa would be difficult for you on this trip, especially since you love how cute she looks in her pajamas. It’ll be hard to keep your hands to yourself. Your girlfriend must notice your blush because that’s when she decides to tease you.

“Hey hon, you better not snore.” She shoots you a look across the aisle.

“Don’t worry, Schemmenti. I’m a great roommate.”

-

Two hours later your eyes go wide when you see the place you’d be staying in. The cabin is a nice one and you have no idea how Ava managed to get something like it. It’s a two story perched far back off the rode just near the ski slope. There’s a fine dusting of snow on the ground, not quite enough to enjoy the area fully.

As everyone grabs their bags for the overnight stay you hang back playfully nudging Melissa’s shoulder with a smirk. “Lucky me, huh?” You tell her quietly.

“You’re lucky, girlfriend.” Barbara looks to Melissa almost exhausted already.

“I’d tell you it won’t be so bad but, I can’t do that.” You laugh watching Janine and Jacob interact.

Inside the massive cabin everyone brings their bags in and finds their room. As soon as the door shuts your back is pushed against the dark wood and sweet, glossy lips are pressed against yours.

Smirking against her lips you snake your arms around her neck running your fingers through auburn strands.

“Mmm, Mel, don’t start something you can’t finish.” You smirk meeting sparkling green eyes. Melissa playfully growls squeezing your backside.

“This giant house, no one would hear a thing, Tesoro.”

Laughing you push yourself off the door. “C’mon, rain check until later. I wanna see what Ava has in mind for team building.” You smile. “I’m a little scared actually.”

Melissa playfully swats your butt, wiping the corner of her lips with that devilish smirk you love so much.

-

After a few hours of get to know you activities and dinner you stand by the large window overlooking the ski hill watching the snow come down.

“Are we sure this is gonna stop sometime soon? Because this is coming down.” You worry.

“Uh yeah about that,” Jacob sits up on his phone, “That snow storm shifted and we’re getting hit.” He says holding his phone out.

Ava looks at the phone horrified. “I’m gonna be stuck here for more than 24 hours with you people?!”

“Could be worse. At least we’re all sorta friends.” He shrugs. “Why don’t we start one of the activities?”

As the snowfall gets heavier and the sun goes down you get a little nervous at how much there actually is.

“What’s wrong, hon?” Melissa asks plopping down beside you on the large sofa. Quirking a brow you look around at the group spread around the room enjoying themselves.

shoulder to shoulder with the redhead you hum. “I don’t know how long I can last snowed in up here,”

Melissa nods patting your knee. “Don’t worry, hon. I’m here.” She smiles.

“Ooo cutie alert, what’s goin on here?” Ava smirks pointing between the two of you.

“Sitting, talking. Normal human interaction.” You shoot back at your friend.

“Nah, yall are cozy.”

“Ava, they’re simply sitting together. Besides, Melissa has a dinner invitation from Gary.” Barb smiles proudly.

Hearing this bit of new information has you quirking a brow, fuming on the inside. You pretend to find a spot on the coffee table very interesting as your mind runs wild. Why would Melissa hide that from you? You knew the vending machine guy had a thing for Mel, he had eyes of course, eyes that lingered too long sometimes. You hated him.

“Barb, I already told ya, it ain’t gonna happen.”

The air in the room suddenly feels tense, the fire in the room making you sweat. You’ve already blocked about the conversation happening as you get up sliding swiftly out of the room.

At the front door you slide on your boots and the nearest coat going out to the front walkway, letting out a shaky breath as the cold hits your cheeks and the snow gets in your eyes. Letting out a breath you tip your head up watching the snowflakes come down.

“Why did she go outside?” Ava shrugs watching Melissa run for the door.

“Tesoro, get back in here!” Melissa yells down the long driveway as she jogs towards you. You can’t do anything but scoff, eyes on the

“Go inside, Melissa.”

“No. Get over here and talk to me.”

You can see her shiver in her sweater out of the corner of your eye and you almost reach over to pull her close to you.

“Why didn’t you tell me Gary asked you out?”

“Hon,” Melissa sighs with a shrug. “I didn’t think it was important.”

“Not important.” You laugh. “You know I hate the guy and how he talks to you. So yeah, it’s important to me. Is that also why you don’t wanna tell anyone we’re together? Make sure you still have back ups if this doesn’t work out?” You play dirty when you’re mad, and you feel like she deserves it.

Melissa’s nose is red and her arms are crossed as the wind whips. “That’s not it at all! You know I love you.”

Shaking your head you put your hands in your pockets. She’d never said those words before but you knew. It didn’t change the fact that she hid something like that from you.

“Yeah, well maybe if you can’t tell people we’re together and can’t turn a man down when he asks you on a date, this isn’t a good idea.”

Melissa’s shoulders deflate and her lips part. “You don’t mean that.” She lets out.

Jaw clenched, your eyes burning from a mix of tears and the wind you stand completely silent for a moment before the sound of crunching snow sounds from underneath your boots as you go.

Huffing behind you Melissa follows close by back to the cabin. “Are you really not gonna talk to me?”

“I’ll talk to you, Melissa. We’re talking right now.” You shiver looking at the front door, Barbara nearby through the glass.

“Are you breaking up with me?”

Spinning on your heels Melissa almost jumps back, looking at you with tears in her eyes.

“I don’t know.” You answer honestly. The look in her eyes is enough to make your heart ache, but you won’t back down.

Melissa looks behind you, Ava and Janine are practically pushed on the glass watching you both while Barbara tries to pull them away.

“You want them to know?” Melissa asks, confusion written on your face.

“What are you-“

Before you finish your sentence, your girlfriend wraps her arms around your neck pulling you into a soft kiss. The chill from her nose hits your skin and her soft lips warm you up instantly. Putting your hands in your pockets you grin against her lips wrapping her into your coat.

The warm bubble you two created makes you forget where you are and why you were so mad.

“I told yall! I told yall they were together!” Ava yells from the door.

Breaking the kiss you rest your forehead against hers.

“Well played, Schemmenti.” You smirk.

“I love you, Tesoro. I’m sorry.”

“I really do love you, Mel.”

Going back inside, you’re teased mercilessly by Ava and gushed over Barbara. Team building weekends aren’t so bad.

[asocial-lobster]

The Island

Warriors watched as Legend batted another branch away from his face with an irritable grunt. The forest was denser than it had looked to be in the distance, and they only made slow progress. A fact which was starting to annoy the vet, if one were to judge by the way he cursed under his breath.

But then again, it had been an awful day already, and it was still early in the afternoon, so there was time for lots of things to go wrong yet. Maybe Legend deserved some slack after having been tossed overboard and washed ashore on an unknown beach, all their equipment left behind with the others on the boat.

Warriors himself was feeling … oddly calm despite their current predicament. He had seen Legend topple over the railing and into the angry ocean, he’d caught a glimpse of Legend’s terrified expression just before he disappeared into the roaring water.

Warriors’ own face had surely been a mirror of the veteran’s, fear for his brother’s life driving the captain to jump in after him. The waves of panic in Warriors’ mind had been just as gruesome as the literal ones which threatened to pull him and Legend apart and drag them to an early grave.

But they had survived. Somehow, they’d gotten incredibly lucky and washed ashore before they drowned. Warriors wondered if Hylia had intervened on their behalf to make sure they survived. Maybe she was out there somewhere, keeping watch to make sure they didn’t die before completing their adventure.

Oddly enough, that idea was equally comforting and terrifying to Warriors.

But whatever the reason, they had survived. Legend and Warriors were alive and as well as could reasonably be expected given the circumstances. It felt like Warriors’ mind had decided that since they were alive, there was nothing more to worry about. Like it had already used its quota of anxiety for today. The forest felt almost safe despite their current lack of both weapons, healing supplies, and travel companions.

Warriors wondered if that was a trauma response he wasn’t yet familiar with. Maybe his mind was just gearing up to royally fuck him over later.

Legend grumbled as a vine swung back into his face from where he’d pushed it away. Clearly, he wasn’t sharing the captain’s calm state of mind.

“You okay, Vet?” he tried carefully.

“Just peachy,” Legend snapped. “I love almost drowning and getting lost on a stupid, tropical island in an era I don’t know.”

Warriors didn’t really have anything to say to that.

“…Sorry,” came Legend’s voice a few minutes later.

“Apology accepted,” the captain replied. He didn’t say anything more than that. He’d learnt long ago that there was a fine line to how far one could go when asking Legend personal questions. If his brother wanted to talk about what was bothering him, he’d follow up on it himself now that Warriors had initiated the conversation. If Legend wasn’t interested in talking, it would only serve to aggravate him further if anyone started pestering him.

“Look,” Legend said, and pointed to something. His annoyed expression had been replaced with the more business-like one which occasionally appeared on his face when things got bad. It was his “hero-face”, Warriors supposed, the one the vet wore when he was completely serious. It was an expression the captain had learnt to respect. If the vet thought a situation warranted absolute seriousness, he was usually right.

Legend was pointing to a building. Giant columns of marble rose to both sides of an opening in the wall. The roof was sparklingly white in the afternoon sun. A dirt-trodden path led into the darkness between the columns. It looked as though the rooms inside the building might stretch into the cliff behind it.

“Is that…?”

“A dungeon,” Legend confirmed. “Possibly even the one we were looking for when we ran into the storm.”

Warriors frowned. “I don’t like this. We have no supplies. Our priority should be to find the others.”

“I agree,” Legend said. “It would be suicide to go in there without weapons. We should change course. Maybe follow the shore and hope we can find a village that way.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They turned to leave, but froze as a roar rose from somewhere near the dungeon. They looked at each other.

“Oh, that’s not good.”

“Moblins?”

“Moblins,” Legend confirmed.

“Well, shit.”

“Quick and to the point as always, Cap.”

“Shut up.”

Another roar sounded, this one closer by.

“We should get out of here,” Warriors said.

“Agreed.”

They bolted through the forest, vines and thorns snagging at their clothes. Warriors’ mind decided it had some fear to spare despite his earlier calm, and the boost of adrenaline sent him flying through the undergrowth.

He sprang through another bush and screeched to a halt. Legend, still going full speed behind him, smacked directly into him. Luckily, the vet was even smaller than he was, and he managed to keep on his feet.

“What’s going – oh.”

Legend cut himself off as he peered around Warriors.

“This day officially sucks.”

The captain couldn’t agree more.

In front of them sat three very startled bokoblins, apparently in the middle of an early dinner. A small fire flickered between them, the remains of an animal still attached to a stick which hung over the flames.

The bokoblins scrambled to pick up their weapons.

Warriors lunged, hoping he could get his hands on a weapon if only he was quick enough. Between the moblins on their heels and the three bokoblins, they were already outnumbered. Their chances of making it out alive would go from slim to none if they’d also have to fight unarmed.

When he was a meter away from the pile of weapons, Warriors realized he wouldn’t be fast enough. Changing tactics at the very last second, he caught one of the bokoblins around the middle and effectively knocked them both away from the pile. Warriors registered out of the corner of his eye that Legend used the opening to pick up a club, which he didn’t hesitate to ram into another bokoblin’s face. Warriors didn’t have time to see anything more than that, because his own bokoblin snarled beneath him and tried to rip out his throat with its fangs. He managed to avoid the sharp teeth but had to roll away in the process. He got to his feet a few meters away from the monster, eyeing it warily.

Warriors spared Legend another glance. The vet was expertly weaving around the two other bokoblins. He moved like a swordsman despite the club in his hands, relying more on precise jabs and slashes than brute force. Still, it was obvious he was generally skilled in combat, and the bokoblins had yet to land a single hit on him while the monsters themselves were already covered in bruises.

Both of the other bokoblins carried clubs, too. If Warriors could get his hands on one of those clubs ... well, it wasn’t a sword, but it would be better than fighting emptyhanded.

When the unarmed bokoblin charged toward him again, Warriors dodged to the side. It stumbled forward, letting out a startled shriek when it almost lost balance. The captain swung his leg around in a circle, the top of his foot connecting with the back of the monster’s head. It fell over and stayed down. Warriors wasn’t counting on it remaining like that for long, but he didn’t stay to deal with it. Instead, he turned his attention back to the three other fighters.

Legend’s eyes caught his momentarily, and something passed between them. The next moment, the veteran pressed his attack so that the bokoblins were forced back. Warriors swiped the feet from under the closest of them, and it fell with a surprised grunt. He was over it before it had a chance to get up, and he managed to wrangle the club out of its hands. He struck forcefully down with the club on the bokoblin’s skull, and a sickening crunch told him he wouldn’t need to worry about this opponent anymore.

Meanwhile, Legend had clobbered his own foe to death, able to move more freely now that Warriors was dealing with the other monster. The third bokoblin finally got to its feet again, rubbing the back of its head. Legend struck it down before it had the chance to realize the tide of the battle had turned against it.

Warriors weighed the unusual weapon in his hand.

“Not my first choice of weapon,” he said. “But it did the job. Let’s get out of here before those moblins show up.”

As if on cue, the bush rattled and two moblins jumped out of it.

“Of course,” Warriors mumbled.

“I’ll take the right one,” said Legend. The captain nodded. And with that little detail clarified, they sprang into battle.

Warriors’ moblin carried a club – a club almost as big as the captain himself – while Legend’s opponent carried an actual sword. Warriors dodged when his foe attacked, a little unsure of how to handle the situation. He was lacking both his usual sword and shield, and thus really had no way of parrying; he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to deflect the moblin’s club with his own. Both because of how unwieldy his weapon was, but also because of the moblin’s greater strength.

Well, the moblin had a longer range than he did, so there was no point in trying to move away from it. He would have to get closer if he wanted to land a hit.

When the moblin attacked again, Warriors darted under its arm. He twisted himself mid-air and rammed the club into the moblin’s side with all the strength he could muster. The beast staggered to the side, but soon regained its footing.

Cursing under his breath, Warriors threw himself down to avoid the monster’s next hit. Luckily, it was still slightly off-balance, and it didn’t come anywhere near striking true.

The captain rolled away from its feet before he was crushed. He jumped up and charged towards the monster. It struck out, but he feinted left at the very last second. Mirroring a spin attack he’d once seen Time perform, he bashed the club into the monster. This time, it roared in pain and fell, something beneath its skin audibly cracking. Warriors spared no time in bringing his weapon down on its head and ending the monster’s life.

He turned to help his brother just in time to see him go down.

Legend had been holding his own against the much larger opponent fairly well, especially considering that the moblin had a clear advantage with the sword. Unfortunately, the thud from the other moblin’s body had forced him to take his eyes off the blade and look behind him. He dodged the moblin’s next attack a moment too late and took a hit to the arm.

Warriors didn’t have time to look at Legend’s wound. He could only hope it wasn’t too serious as he stepped between his brother and the enemy, weapon raised. Cold fear mixed with hot anger in Warriors’ veins and turned him reckless. With one hand, he grabbed the moblin’s arm when it jabbed, and with the other he swung his club. The bones in the moblin’s arm snapped, and the monster howled in pain. Instead of letting go of the broken arm, Warriors yanked it toward himself, drawing another scream from the moblin’s throat. He bashed its head in with the club and put it out of its misery.

He quickly scanned the area, and when he didn’t see any other enemies, he hurried to Legend’s side. The veteran had clamped his hand over the wound in an attempt to hinder the bleeding, but the red liquid flowed steadily from between his fingers, nonetheless.

Warriors gripped the edge of his already ruined tunic and ripped it into something which could be considered bandages if you squinted.

“You need a tourniquet,” he decided. He picked a branch from the ground, then wrapped one of the strips around Legend’s upper arm. He tied the knot around both branch and arm, using the branch to tighten the tourniquet. The blood flow from Legend’s arm slowed significantly.

“Let me see it,” Warriors requested and gestured to the wound. Legend nodded once, teeth gritted together in pain, and removed his hand.

The cut was deep, and it was no surprise it had been bleeding as much as it did. Actually, Warriors thought to himself, though he opted not to share the thought with Legend, it was extremely lucky the moblin hadn’t cut the arm clean off. He cleaned Legend’s wound and wrapped it tightly with the rest of the “bandages”.  He couldn’t do much more without a potion or Hyrule’s healing magic.

“How’re you feeling, Vet?”

“Like I’ve been half-drowned and stabbed.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right.”

Warriors flopped down to lie on his back with a weary sigh.

“We should probably keep looking for the others, but I’m really tired,” he said. “Today sucked. I know our lives are fucked up, but surely this day makes it into the top three worst days of our lives.”

Legend laughed, pressing his uninjured arm to his stomach in an attempt to control himself. The captain smiled a little. Getting the veteran to truly laugh always felt like a win.

“Not even close,” the vet wheezed between laughs, “you?”

“Me too,” Warriors admitted. “Oh goddesses, we almost died so many times and it’s not even close.”

A slightly maniacal giggle forced its way out of his throat, and the two spent several minutes laughing hysterically. A small corner of Warriors’ mind recognized the absurdity of the situation and was just slightly worried about both his and Legend’s mental condition, but he couldn’t stop. It felt like all the stress and fear he’d been feeling today was finally leaving his body completely, and something about this whole mess was funny in a very fucked up way.

“I can’t believe we survived that,” Warriors finally said when they were both done laughing.

“Me neither, honestly,” Legend said. “It’s been a while since I had to fight without my equipment. I hadn't realized I’d grown so dependent on it.”

The veteran turned quiet, and Warriors raised himself onto an elbow to look at him.

“You ready to talk about what’s been bothering you all day?”

“You mean aside from the obvious?”

“Something was bothering you even before the storm,” Warriors said.

Legend sighed.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He sat up and hugged his knees. The captain followed suit and sat at his side.

“The truth is, I hate boats,” the vet admitted, pointedly looking away from his brother’s face. “One of my adventures started with a storm and a shipwreck. So, it’s not exactly been a fun day.”

Warriors made a little sound of understanding. There were so many things he still didn’t know about Legend’s adventures. The vet only spoke of his trauma rarely – with Warriors, at least – but they’d been growing closer during the last few months and were also getting to know each other better. The captain’s adventure had been very different from what he knew of Legend’s, but as two of Hylia’s chosen heroes, there could only be so many differences. They had both faced impossible odds to save a kingdom they loved. Warriors had discovered during his adventure with the Chain that that kind of shared experience inevitably resulted in a friendship.

“I washed ashore on a beach, just like we did today,” Legend continued. “In the beginning, it wasn’t so bad. The people on the island were nice.”

“But something went wrong,” Warriors said gently.

“But something went wrong,” Legend agreed. “Monsters started showing up everywhere.”

Legend’s face was covered by an emotion Warriors couldn’t quite interpret. Grief? Guilt? It was rare that the veteran dropped his façade completely and let others know how he felt. The captain felt … honored that his brother was choosing to share this with him. The story carried with it both something private and vulnerable. And Legend had decided he could trust Warriors with it.

“I defeated the monsters,” Legend said, cutting right to the heart of the matter, “but the island disappeared. Along with all the people on it.”

Legend looked at him for the first time since he’d begun his tale. His violet eyes were filled with an intense sadness.

“It wasn’t a real island, you see. When I shipwrecked, I was trapped in the dream of a deity called the Windfish. The island and everything on it was part of its dream. And when I defeated the monsters, I woke the Windfish, and the dream faded away.”

“I … I don’t know what to say.”

“Yeah, well, there isn’t much to say,” Legend said. “It sucked back then, and it still sucks now.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Warriors said.

Legend laughed bitterly, a sharp contrast to his earlier glee. “Wasn’t your fault.”

“I’m still sorry it happened.”

Legend curled tighter around his knees and hissed in pain when he accidentally jostled the wound.

“The worst part was that it felt real. It’s been difficult for me to … trust my senses ever since.”

Warriors frowned, feeling more than a little alarmed at the sound of that.

“How so?”

“It isn’t as bad as it used to be anymore,” Legend said, “but sometimes I doubt if what I’m seeing is real. It’s been bad today, since the whole shipwreck-thing was exactly how it started last time.”

“Has it happened while we’ve been travelling together?” Warriors asked. “And how do you deal with it?”

Legend shrugged. “Happens every once in a while. Usually, I just find my ocarina and play The Ballad of The Windfish. And if nothing happens, then I know I’m not dreaming.”

“You know you can always come get me if you need company when it happens, right?”

Legend gave a small smile. “Yeah, I know, Cap. Thanks.”

Legend leaned back against his uninjured arm and looked at the sky. It was growing darker, the awful day finally over. High above them, a few stars were coming into view.

“‘And verily, it be the nature of dreams to end.’ That’s what the fucker told me right after the island disappeared,” he said. “The Windfish, I mean.  And after everything I’ve seen on my adventures, I’m inclined to agree with it.”

Warriors put a careful hand on Legend’s shoulder. When the vet didn’t draw away, he put his arm around him. After a moment’s hesitation, Legend let his head rest on his brother’s shoulder. The physical contact was slightly awkward, since neither of them were that comfortable with touch, but Warriors found it was nice to sit like this. He should cherish all the moments he had with his brothers. Who knew how long they had left together, how long before the dream faded away?

So, Legend and Warriors stayed by the small campfire for the rest of the night. He removed Legend’s tourniquet and tended to the wound as best as he could without more supplies. The blood flow had mostly stopped, and it looked like the only permanent mark from the injury would be a wicked scar. After a day of disasters, it felt like a miracle to Warriors that at least one thing was going well. They spent the evening quietly trading stories from their adventures, both good and bad.

After Legend had fallen asleep, Warriors sat by the fire, watching the night around him. He had gotten first watch, and with only two people, it would be many hours before he needed to wake Legend for second. It was while he sat, watching his brother sleep peacefully, that he realized how close he’d truly grown to the other man. There were very few people in his life he felt comfortable sharing his trauma with, but somehow Legend had become one of them. It felt good to tell the vet about the war.

Warriors smiled. It was impossible to know what the new day would bring; they had almost no supplies and weapons, and they were still trapped on an unknown island. They would have to search for the Chain again tomorrow. But right now, they were okay. They had gotten through it. And if Warriors trusted anyone to have his back through all of this, it was his brother.

[bardot49]

Fight or Flight

Chapter 3

Rating: 18+ (Minors DNI)

Pairing: Joel Miller x OC (Jackson era)

Warnings: Themes of anxiety, PTSD, blood, gore, death, illness, injury, canon violence, cursing, eventual smut, explicit

Tags: Jackson!era Joel, Soft Joel Miller, Moody Joel Miller, Joel miller x AFAB reader, joel x female reader, Joel Miller Romance, Joel Miller x OC, Joel Miller slow burn

Masterlist here

Previous Chapter

Chapter 3

Chapter Summary Flora’s efforts to avoid Joel leads to feelings of hurt on both sides

The next morning Flora feels awkward about the whole situation. She has feelings for Joel but is afraid, she's been on her own for so long. First the QZ for sixteen years and then when she ended up in Jackson around four years ago. She usually doesn't let herself remember the years of hardship in Seattle. It was a very harsh way of life there, existing not living. She learned quickly that it was better to fade in the background and avoid getting unwanted attention. She had heard harrowing stories of what some people went through in the QZ, especially women. There were many awful things that happened there over the years. The whole situation was hopeless. She had long given up the idea of finding love and concentrated on surviving each day instead. She eventually had an opportunity to flee the QZ, it was terrifying prospect going into the unknown but she knew she couldn't survive staying there another year and felt she had no other option. The small group she was with all perished one after the other until there was only herself and a woman called Sylvia. They were rescued by Maria and her group when they were skin and bone, surviving on berries and not far from death. Sylvia was a diabetic and slipped into a coma shortly after. She passed away a couple of days later, a lot of damage had been done to her organs by the lack of insulin and even with much needed medicine her body wasn't strong enough to recover. It's too painful to think back to those times, she still has nightmares about it every once in a while. She knows she's lucky to have found a home in Jackson but she still finds it hard to open up to many people. She was so traumatised she barely spoke for a long time. Slowly she found solace in tending the plants and made some true friends, especially Sally. Hamish helped her practice using a gun and while she still wasn't that confident in using it, she started going on quieter patrol routes with him and gradually got more familiar. She feels sad thinking of Hamish. The nightmares about Hamish have gotten less and less frequent, and not as violent but the sense of loss still hurts her. She finds it hard to sleep so she gets up and goes to the hall extra early so not to see anyone. There are only a handful of people there and some of them looked like they still hadn't been home since the party the night before. She goes to the greenhouse, wanting to keep busy so she starts to plant some of the bulbs in the ground for the spring.

A while later Sally strolls in happily humming a tune to herself. She starts to talk about all the goings on the party. She then says "Your Joel…". Her ears prick up at the sound of that and Flora snaps at her defensively "he's not mine". Sally laughs and says "Ok, whatever you say Flo, he only has eyes for you…" She rolls her eyes at her saying "Please shut up about it, you're getting on my nerves". Sally is taken aback at the sudden change in her attitude and says "Is it the monthly curse bothering you love?". In frustration, she stands up knocking over a plant pot in the process "For fuck's sake, no its not that, please change the subject". "Ok, fine sorry I mentioned it, I'll leave you be" Sally gives her a wounded look and goes to tend the roses. Flora is sorry to lash out at the older women, she has been a good friend the last few years. She rushes over to her, giving her a hug and apologizes for snapping at her. Sally says "I know you've had a tough time of it love" gently patting her on her hand in understanding. She knows Sally's teasing is good natured, she doesn't mean to upset her. She knows she takes herself too seriously most of the time and Sally only wants to lift her spirits.

Glad to have cleared the air with Sally, Flora declines her offer of going to lunch, making up an excuse saying she had to do something at home so ends up going there so not to meet anyone again. On her way back to the greenhouse she sees the Miller brothers coming out of the hall and she ducks behind a bush. 'What's wrong with you?' she thinks, its so ridiculous. This seems to go on for a few weeks, she trying her best to dodge him. Another time in the stables she sees Joel approaching and runs the other way. There were other times she thought she saw him pass near the greenhouse and throws herself on the ground, leaving Sally to give her a quizzical look. Sally doesn't want to cause her any more strife so keeps her mouth shut on the matter. She knows its childish, Joel had done nothing to deserve it. Dina comes and goes next door each day but there's been no sign of Ellie. Dina joins her in the kitchen one evening and excitedly tells her that her boyfriend Jesse is going to cook her dinner for their one month anniversary. Flora asks her where is Ellie as they're usually inseparable but Dina looks crestfallen and tells her that Ellie doesn't like Jesse so they're not talking at the moment. She noticed how Ellie looks in awe at her friend and wonders if she might feel something more for her than just friendship.

Another week passes and Flora decides to go to the graveyard. She goes there every so often and hadn't been able to face it until now. She gets a surprise to see a familiar figure standing at the next row ahead. She has no time to do anything before Joel turns and sees her. She's taken aback when he looks at her stony faced. "You don't have to hide from me, I won't bother you anymore". Before she has a chance to reply he storms off. She's shaken at his change in demeaner. She obviously wasn't that subtle with her own behaviour and she regrets it. She likes him more than she can admit to herself but is afraid, its all so new to her. She feels awful at that moment, why does she ruin things? She can't help but feel pathetic. In shock she forgets where she was but eventually notices the name on the headstone where he had been standing - Sarah Miller.

The next morning Flora goes for breakfast a little later than usual recently. She sits down on a bench on her own and starts buttering her toast. Tommy and Joel pass by her and Tommy salutes her but Joel doesn't give any look in recognition her way. She knows she brought it on herself. "Hi Flo, can I sit with you?". She looks up at Ellie and smiles at her. Ellie seems subdued, she asks her how she's getting on and she says she misses Dina. She's surprised at Ellie's vulnerability, she usually puts up a tough front. Flora lays her own hand on Ellie's to comfort her. She feels a pair of eyes on her and sees Joel staring at her, his dark eyes scrutinising her. Their eyes meet for a moment before she looks away, her cheeks flushed. She encourages Ellie to come with her for a few hours in the greenhouse. Despite her protests that gardening is boring, Ellie seems in better form when lunchtime comes around. So much so, she starts to joke "Oh man, since the party Joel has been in worse humour than usual, he really needs to get laid already". "Ellie, don't mention his name around here or you'll be in trouble" Sally jokes. "What the fuck happened between you two anyway?" Ellie enquires. "Nothing" Flora answers curtly. Ellie and Sally exchange a look and Ellie shrugs her shoulders and changes the subject. She walks Ellie home after the day but only goes as far as the top of the street. She spots Joel on his porch strumming his guitar. Ellie thanks her and runs up the steps to talk to Joel.

Ellie becomes a regular visitor to her in the greenhouse, turning up a couple of times a week. Flora is glad to see her and the hours pass by quicker when she's there. Ellie suddenly gets quieter like she's working up the courage to ask her something. "Will you help me bake a cake?" She laughs with relief and agrees heartily. She used to bake the odd time but hadn't done it in ages. Ellie had asked the kitchen for the ingredients and the loan of a kitchen scales. When Ellie comes into her house they start measuring the ingredients. "Is this for any special occasion?" she asks Ellie. She knows the date of course because its the anniversary of outbreak day. She'd never forget the day the world ended and she lost her family like so many others. Ellie admits its for Joel's birthday. She's can't help but be intrigued to hear this but is hesitant to bring up the subject of Joel. "Maybe we won't bother with the pink icing so" with a smile and Ellie grins back at her.

Joel walks home after calling to the graveyard, there isn't a day that Sarah isn't on his mind but today of all days seems to be tougher to get through. He doesn't want to celebrate anything. He walks in the door at home to see Ellie, Tommy, Maria and baby Joey waiting for him. Tommy comes out of the kitchen with a two layer sponge cake with Happy Birthday Joel written in white icing. He blows out the candles and he quizzes Ellie how did she do it and she finally admits she had a lot help with it. He guesses it is Flora she means without her even saying her name. Ellie doesn't bother with a lot of people so he knew it must have been her. A fresh pang of sadness hits him once more and the feeling of rejection is still there.

Flora doesn't see Joel for another two weeks. She wasn't actively trying to avoid him but it was a busy time in the greenhouse and gardens, the vegetables needed to be planted so to have fresh crops in the coming months and they are busy drying herbs. Ellie pops in every so often but doesn't mention Joel at all. One day Flora happens to meet Maria in the street. She tells her she's glad she met her because she was wondering if she would be ready to go on patrols once more. She feels nervous about it at first but Maria reassures her and says they are going to change around the patrol partners for the next few months as there are new people starting and they want someone experienced to show them the ropes. She nods and says she will try to go to the next town meeting the following week.

The day of the meeting comes and Flora tries not to be nervous. Sally, Dina and her find a spare seat in the increasingly packed hall. Where they are sitting they have a good view of the entrance and she sees the Miller brothers come in, Ellie following behind them. Her breath gets caught in her throat when she sees Joel. His hair is a little longer with curls reaching just below his ears and he's wears a green jacket which suits him. She tries not to stare at him. As the meeting goes on, she braces herself for the list of names to be called out. She hears Joel's name with Jesse and Ellie. She hopes there won't be any fighting between them, with things being strained between Ellie and Dina recently. She hears her name called out with Eugene, one of the older men who's very capable and calm and one of Jesse's friends called Sean. She's relieved to be paired with them. The rest of the meeting goes by quickly. She's surprised that she's actually looking forward to going back out on her horse after all these months.

The first few weeks of patrolling go smoothly and Sean learns the ropes very fast. Flora is glad to hear from Sean that Ellie and Jesse have been getting on ok too. In fact they all hung out together a couple of times. She's glad for both of the girls that they are friends again. The first snow falls in early November and she goes early to the stables to get her horse ready. She hears voices coming from nearby. The two men on her patrol route are very good time keepers. She get a shock to see Joel standing there with Sean. Before she says anything, he tells her Eugene had a few too many drinks the night before so Tommy asked him to fill in. She nods in response. There's no warmth in his voice and he goes to get his own horse ready for the journey. She's stunned but follows him on the route with Sean riding beside her.

Sean and her chat away as they continue on the trail but eventually Joel holds up his hand to silence them. He signals that there may be danger nearby because one of the traps had been set off. Flora pulls out her gun and she looks around to see anything out of the ordinary. She takes a few deep breaths and tries not to panic. They barely move for a few minutes. They decide its better to go on foot through the forest so tie up their horses in the clearing nearby. Sean looks petrified but she motions to him to walk slowly and keep looking in all directions. Joel walks up ahead and climbs on some rocks to get a better view. Out of nowhere an clicker runs towards him, the haunting sound it makes send a chill through her but with his partial hearing loss, he doesn't hear it until the last moment. Adrenaline starts to pump through her veins and her reflexes kick in. She screams "Joel, watch out!" and somehow manages to shoot the infected. It falls with a deafening thud on the frosty ground. She rushes up to Joel in a panic asking if is he's ok. He's lying on the ground and struggles to stand up and is visibly pale from shock. "Joel, I…" she doesn't manage to finish the sentence but she reaches up and touches his chest lightly, her hands trembling. He looks at her and manages to say thank you. Flora hadn't realised she had been holding her breath. He puts his hand over hers and says it's alright. Her own heart is pumping quickly and she nearly feels Joel's heart pounding through his jacket as well. Sean comes up to them scratching his head and curses. Suddenly the moment has passed and they pull apart. Once they go back to the clearing she climbs on her horse but her hat flies from her head in a sudden gust of wind. Joel fetches it and hands it to her with a pained expression, his mouth in a straight line. The three of them continue on their journey and she keeps looking at Joel riding his horse up ahead, wondering what would have happened if he got infected? She wants to say so much to him but can't. She was so close to losing him, this makes her realise how much he means to her.

When they arrive back at Jackson, Joel is even quieter than usual, he's lost in thought. It had been very close, a split second more and he would have been bitten. He owes Flora his life. How can he ever repay her?

It's business as usual when Eugene is back for the patrol the next day. He is apologetic, explaining he tries to abstain from alcohol but there are times he can't stop himself. Sean and Flora nod in understanding. The three of them set up new traps around the area in an attempt to catch any infected that might wander over that way again.

"Are you ever going to talk to her?" Tommy asks Joel as they walk to the building they're renovating. "Who, Flora? No, she made it clear that she doesn't want to see me" Joel says firmly. Tommy shakes his head "You're only using that as an excuse, she saved your life so you owe her". Joel thinks about it more and he decides to go to the greenhouse in search of her but meets Sally instead. She tells him that Flora had to run home for a few things. He goes to her house and meets her as she bounds down the steps, holding a large box of glass jars in her arms. Flora pauses and stays on the second last step so she's eye level with him. "I'm making jam" she blurts out, explaining. "I just wanted to thank you again for what you did" he says solemnly. She says shyly "I was glad I was there". "I won't bother you, I know I make you uncomfortable" he says and she doesn't know what to say but starts babbling "You don't, its my fault, I'm not used to attention so I was scared but -". He stops her there with a wry smile, "So its the old excuse 'its not you, its me', I get the hint I'll stay out of your way" and abruptly turns on his heel to leave. She's astounded by his behaviour. She calls out "Its not that Joel, please listen to me, I've never done this before…" He walks away briskly before she can say anymore. Flora feels stung but continues back to the greenhouse with the thoughts of the conversation going around her head. Sally doesn't mention him but can tell she's distracted by something. The two women make batches of strawberry, blackcurrant and gooseberry jam all afternoon so she's glad to keep busy.

Next Chapter

[pelorsdyke]

ronancetober - day six: fantasy

Robin doesn’t hear Nancy approach so much as she feels her, knows the way her presence settles the earth around her.

The ranger peers at her from across the fire, sparks reflecting off Nancy’s hair. Robin melts a little. The rest of the party is long since asleep, Steve and Jonathan having settled down early in their tent and the rest of them petering off over the next few hours. Now, it’s just Robin and the stars— and Nancy, of course. It’s almost peaceful.

Sometimes, Robin is glad her friend can read her as well as she can. Rather than speaking up, attempting to comfort Robin or reassure her, Nancy simply allows her to revel in the silence, her presence a steady reminder besides Robin.

There had been a moment— just a second, maybe two— today when Robin had been certain Steve was going to die. She’d been out of spell slots, and though that’s not exactly something she could’ve predicted, she’s still been badgering herself about it since they set up camp. Steve doesn’t blame her, she knows, but there’s little to no chance of him ever doing that, so it’s little comfort. Jonathan, luckily, had been just a few yards away, close enough to dash Steve’s way mid-combat while Nancy had the dragon distracted and cast lay on hands.

She can still picture the giant gash across Steve’s forehead, bleeding while she just stares, useless. Great, she thinks, a sorcerer who can’t even fucking cast.

(She’d burnt it saving Jonathan’s ass earlier in the battle, and that’s good, she’s glad, but it still doesn’t lessen the feeling that she should’ve done more. Done better.)

Robin must look especially lost in her self-hatred, because after another beat of quiet, Nancy leans over.

“Did I ever tell you,” she begins softly, with that meaningful tone that draws people in regardless of what she’s saying, “about the time when Mike and I were adventuring, back before…” She gestures widely, all-encompassing.

Robin shakes her head mutely.

“Well,” Nancy says, “we were out with Lucas and Dustin, so it must’ve been back when Jonathan was still at home with his mum.” Robin traces the history backwards in her mind’s eye. Jonathan, still at home with Joyce, despite how lucky any fucking adventuring party would be to have him. Will, lost to the demogorgon, the Byers desperately trying to find him. Robin knows Nancy had helped out her brother’s party while Will was gone, knows that it had been the reason she and Jonathan had decided to join a group of their own. But she’s not sure where the story’s going, if she’s honest.

“There was a demodog,” Nancy continues, “and we hadn’t rested before handling it, because we were stupid kids.” She scoffs, the sound heavy with judgment. “And…” Nancy hesitates, the words getting stuck in her throat for a moment. “And Dustin got really fucked up.”

Robin startles, a little. She doesn’t know the younger party that well, but she knows them well enough— knows Nancy’s always harbored a soft spot for Dustin— and she knows with immediate, sinking clarity what Nancy’s trying to tell her.

“Gods,” Robin murmurs, and she reaches out to lay a palm on Nancy’s thigh, warm and soft. Nancy hums in appreciation but continues anyway.

“He was pretty close to dead, Robs. And I’m— I don’t have…” Nancy pauses. Recovers. “I had cure wounds, but I was running low on slots. We’d just handled something else and without the rest… I don’t know. It was terrifying.”

Robin thinks about it, about tiny little Dustin, smaller even than he is now that Will’s back with the party and Jonathan’s joined theirs, weak and bruised, blood smeared on his face. It doesn’t make her fuckup today better, but it does remind her that she and Nancy can share the load. That their being able to comfort each other, familiar with each other’s trauma in a way you can only become when it mirrors your own, has only made them stronger.

Still, she says what she knows Nancy has been avoiding saying to her since Jonathan saved Steve’s life.

“I’m sorry, Nance.” She squeezes, once, twice. Nancy drops her own hand on top of Robin’s and laces their fingers together. “It wasn’t your fault. You did what you could.”

Nancy levels her with a look that reads I can smell your bullshit, but doesn’t engage. “I just wanted you to know I get it,” she says instead, smiling sardonically. “I get it better than I wish I did. We’re all… we’re all here to help each other up, Robin. That’s what a party is for.”

Robin finds herself smiling too, just a little.

“You’re right. I know you’re right. Just, can we… do you mind sharing, tonight? I don’t want to sleep alone.”

Nancy nods, immediate and resolute.

“Of course,” she says, gentle again. “Every night, if you need.”

[paigelts05]

"Better employees" [FNAF SB, Renegade AU]

https://www.deviantart.com/paigelts05/art/1106928250

Published: Oct 6, 2024

With my AU focusing on a lot of the humans, I've grown fond of many of the characters from the games who get maybe an in-game message chain if they're lucky, such as the FNAF AR cast and the former employees from SB's in-game messages.

Here are some of the characters from the message "Better Employees". I had to take a lot of creative liberties, as we only know a bare minimum about these guys, but someone's gotta give them characterisation from nothing (I even gave the guy sacked over chicken alfredo a name).

Elsa was fired for being early. Elsa Sockeye's story started as a child; when being dropped off late for school once due to traffic jams caused by a traffic accident traumatised her due to how her homeroom teacher yelled at her and terated her like a delinquent, just because her parents got stuck in traffic that they couldn't have predicted  whilst dropping her off at school. She had to change schools, as she couldn't physically step foot in the building without having a panic attack. Due to changing schools, she didn't have many friends, so grew up quite lonely, but the fish that lived in the ponds and rivers kept her company during the spring and summer, and the small flames of campfires and fire pits kept her company during the autumn and winter. As an adult, Elsa is very passive, and is happy for anyone to call her a friend, and she always shows up for work early as to avoid her traumas of the past. The security gig at the megaplex was just a way for her to pay the bills between jobs, and she'd been working at the megaplex for six months before Dennis went off on one at her for always being early. This set off her long latent anxiety, and her friend Aiden had to help her collect her things and leave. After a while, she calmed down, and when asked, she brushes it off as nothing. Even when Dennis invited her, Aiden, and Jenkins around to apologise, she played it off as fine, especially since several days after she had been sacked, an incident known as The Riot occured, and Elsa knew damn well that she would not have been able to survive that, making Dennis an anti-hero in her eyes.

Aiden was fired for correctly telling a customer that the megaplex does not serve chicken alfredo. Aiden has never considered themselves the most likable person. Honest to a fault, compares things to niche interests in such a way that nobody knew if they were insulting someone or complimenting them. They grew up on the border of a forest near a river, and they spent a lot of time following the river, wondering what they might find the creatures from the newspaper clippings they collected to keep themselves company. One day though, on a dark night as they explored the forest, they found more than what they bargained for as something with glowing eyes in those woods found them and chased them down. Aided dived into the river go avoid it, and whilst they did get swept a mile downstream, that thing with the glowing eyes in the dark didn't follow them. As the woods wasn't too large, they found their way home in the morning, and wound up with a bad cold that kept them off school for a while. Despite their terrifying encounter, Aiden became more obsessed with finding out about what strange creatures lived in those woods, feeling as if rivers were a safe haven, and oddly enough only fearing the dark. Aiden grew up to be an amature cryptozoologist, but seeing as studying cryptids didn't pay the bills (every time she thought she found one, it turned out to be just some guy or animal. Sometimes a posessed guy or animal but that's just as normal and boring), they got a job working at the new megaplex that had recently opened up. They worked there for ten months before they were sacked over telling a customer that chicken alfredo wasn't on the menu. Out of themselves, Elsa, and Jenkins, they were the last of the trio to get sacked. They were pissed at how shitheads like Dennis got to sack people left right and centre for legitimately no reason, and found it bloody hilarious when Dennis was himself sacked for how trigger-happy with the pink slips he'd been. When a few days later, Aiden turned on the news to see that a riot had broke out at the megaplex due to the higher-ups attempting to murder the remaining staff, Aiden didn't know what to think anymore: had Dennis been putting on an act and had he been trying to save people from the chaos of a riot that he foresaw, or was he just a douche whose actions happened to save Aiden's ass unexpectedly. A text from Dennis that invited Elsa, Jenkins, and Aiden around to Dennis apartment for a fire pit was kinda proof that Dennis had just been a jerk whose jerkishness had unintentionally saved the lives of the four of them, because even though the Riot had no casualties, Aiden knew that they'd probably not have made it. Even then, Aiden wanted a little bit of payback of the pranking variety…

Jenkins was fired for not changing the urinal cakes after each use. Jenkins had had memory issues for as long as he can remember. He always struggled with reading and remembering, so as a kid, he took to keeping a journal in order to write down anything that he may forget. He also found it easier to listen to books than to read them, and when listening, he managed to retain information. He struggled in academic subjects at school, only really able to excel in hands-on work, but even then his nose would cause him problems, as strong smells iritated him heavily: the smell of wood dust hurt, the smell of chemicals burned, and most plants made him sneeze until his head hurt. As an adult, he wound up taking a lot of odd jobs to stay afloat. One of these jobs happened to be at the megaplex as general staff. He mostly wound up on cleaning duty, but he wasn't an official part of the janitorial team. As physically painful as the strong smells of pizza grease, bleach, motor oil, and other miscellaneous bodily fluids were, he powered through. He was so pissed when he got sacked for not… Changing the urinal cakes after each use…. Jenkins had some choice words for Dennis: first of all, stalking the bathrooms all day sounded downright creepy, and second of all, there were not enough urinal cakes in the world to change them after each use. Also, it had been three months, why was it only a problem now? When he was watching the news several days later, he caught a story about a Riot that happened at the megaplex. He was honestly shocked: why would a company try to kill all the employees of it's primary source of income in one night in such an obvious manner, and how on earth did everyone manage to survive? Jenkins knew that he'd have probably been screwed, as even though everyone was fine because those who couldn't fight stayed in the cafeteria that had become a stronghold, it's making it down there that Jenkins knew he probably wouldn't have been able to do. When Dennis invited him around, he went along just to see if the guy had an explanation for why he was so sack happy or if he was just a jerk whose actions happened to save them all.

[cryopathiic-a]

60 + 61. It was one thing to come home to terror and mischief and interrogations— it was another entirely to come home and find Douma and her mother in the same room. With.. whatever they had together, it only meant that Ezra would be doing her best to drive a wedge between them, and now that she knew Douma were there Ezra would make it her mission to separate them.

She was lucky Atreus were there to send their mother away. She was lucky to get there as early as she did because she knew once her mother realized who they were to her— what would happen. Her only option was to try to rip the bandaid off as quickly as possible.

Astra was terrified. For the first time, they were seeing.. or hearing… the terrified beats of her heart, one after the other.

There was no smile, or emotion on her face— it would have been a very long time since they saw this expression in truth . And they would know that something was incredibly wrong.

Until the tears rolled down her face and she was clinging to him with everything she was. Because Astra had an intense fear of abandonment. And Ezra very much caused people to abandon her.

The cup of tea had been left to grow cold atop the table. Intricate patterns of vines climbing its handle, with the faintest little rose tinted blossoms; magnolia flowers painted by hand on its porcelain. The other one, across the table, had been used, but only slightly; just enough to be left tainted by the imprint of human lips, but not because the drink within had brought any real enjoyment. A sip; to mark? To possess. This cup I own, as I do everything in this appartment, even though it was not furnished by my own efforts, I still claim the spoils of another; because I own them too. To threaten, subtly; I barge into your space and touch your things, even if you would not like me to, there is nothing you can do, for I do not need your permission. His own slender fingers had poured that honeyed gold within, offering its warmth to what he had thought was a friendly intruder.

Of course, Astra had set some rules in place about opening the front door. No running, no yanking the humans inside without permission, no pranks; and most importantly, no baring his fangs at strangers. They were not supposed to know that she had allowed a creature like them this much freedom. It was a mutual deal, Dōma gets to breathe something other than the musty air of the boxes and cells they'd stuff him in before, Astra gets to supervise him at her own comfort. And perhaps he would do good for protection. It wasn't as if her appointed task could not possibly draw unwarranted attention. Though... he had always expected his time to be deployed as a weapon, would come when that door opened and a familiar face stood behind it. Not... her own mother.

Pale lips had showered a rain of relentless questioning upon the woman in question. What was Astra like as a child? Did she have long hair? What were her favorite toys? Did she like to dance and sing? All of those things, a mother would know about her child, he thought. Perhaps his own parents were not the best example. But he had thought back to that woman, the one with emerald eyes... Had Ezra held her little daughter like that back then? Bundled up and cozy, looking into her eyes as if she witnessed the ocean's expanse within? Hm.

Someone who looks at their child like that, would probably be more consistent with their narration, huh? A demon is not inherently perceptive; most of them are born in a haze, the rabid hunger taking over their minds when they first transform. But even Upper Two's first kill had not come like that; no, they had been very deliberate about the follower they called into their audience chamber and the way they approached, stripping her shoulders bare tenderly and allowing her to marvel before their beauty, until the very first bite. In many ways, Dōma held the disposition of a predator; and he would not be dragged into mundane tales, weaved by a tongue that did not glisten silver; but was laden with bile. She was filled with hate, that woman. After so many years solidified upon that plush flowerbed, he knew how to tell them apart.

Still, they had parted with a smile, even as her own progeny hovered at the doorway like some statue, paralyzed before the sight. No, he had never seen Astra that upset before. Normally, he would be the one rushing to the door to open, hopefully to coax her into allowing him a droplet of life, but the conversation had been too distracting. Especially after certain things begun to unravel.

❝ —! ❞ Arms found his waist with a thud. The sheer force would have had a human step back, surely, but for a demon that was optional. He would feel rigid, at first, naught more than an ice pillar in the middle of the main room. Standing idly, without much of an expression save for those prismatic hues fixing atop her head, somberly. For a moment, there would be no telltale sign heralding whether the demon was about to shove her across the room. She had stepped so close, without a warning; without heeding the hoarfrost falling from his breath. And then—

❝ There there. It's alright. ❞ It was mellow. Palms came to rest between her shoulders; atop her head. Words fell with practiced ease. It grew softer, but still cold against his chest; a completely still chest, without a heave and fall. His faint heartbeat encased in ice would not be perceived by human ears, unlike her own, that filled his head; as if she was cowering away from... something. From what? From that woman? How sad; how sad that her own mother's presence would provoke such a reaction.

❝ Hey— ❞ The bubbly smile lingered, albeit a little reserved, for once. Though he did not mirror her pensiveness; which was odd, even for him, as he would usually tune into her sentiment mechanically. But this too was a familiar situation, he supposed. Though normally he wouldn't be... grappled like this. Touch slipped to her waist, smoothing over messy hair as they concealed her features. Would her face fluster? Her eyes redden and sting with tears? Oh, she sounded devastated!

❝ — Master Astra? ❞ There was a comical tinge to it, and normally he'd expect to be scolded; was it to push a boundary, or to offer the reassurance of an inside joke between them, as the former Kizuki never called her by title, unless it was to provoke something. Should she look up in that moment, she would be offered a warm smile, as slender fingers pat the top of her head, ruffling the ornaments holding her hair in place. ❝ You're squeezing me a bit, and it's getting harder to hold my breath, you know. Want to... lie down on the pillows with me for a while? There's still more tea, and you could tell me about what set you off so badly. ❞ There was a hint of contempt. But old habits are hard to shake off. His one arm wrapped completely around her neck, squishing her to his frame as he pressed it over his cold, dead heart.

❝ I make a very good listener, as you know. ❞

[electricbluebutterflies]

Hi! I really love your works, particular Joel and Tess. The post you just shared with different ways to say I love you is so them too, would you consider writing one of them for them? I was thinking the sit next to me or the If you do it I do it ones but it is up to you of course!

"Sit next to me" is a good prompt. Early-era, PG-ish, also on ao3.

As a general rule, Tess doesn’t flirt. That requires effort and a confidence level Tess normally doesn’t have, even after a few drinks, and-

It doesn’t count if it’s someone she knows, or at least has already let touch her. The rules are different. Maybe all of this is different.

She hadn’t expected to see him again, after – Boston is still big enough for someone to not want to be found, even the sort of person who spends any time in the sorts of places Tess does, and she’s never been the second-date type let alone the girlfriend. But she’s never let a good opportunity go to waste, and that man is still so pretty and right there and apparently hasn’t socialized himself too much in the couple weeks since he pinned her to a wall and-

“Hey! Over here!”

The yelling is objectively unnecessary, the enthusiasm questionable, and Tess does not have a plan beyond possibly trying for a repeat of their past encounter. She’s always been reckless like that, detached mind and body, impulsive unthinking lucky-she’s-never-caught-anything and-

“You need somethin’?” he asks, more confused than unimpressed and god that voice does something to her, looking at her like he knows he knows her from somewhere but he’s had to learn too many new faces too fast to keep ‘em all straight and-

“Sit next to me,” she says. Might as well be direct.

“Not an answer.”

“You do know who I am, yeah?” Unfortunately not the first time she’s had to use that phrase this week, and still just sounds wrong, but at least this time isn’t you-do-know-I-have-way-more-underworld-connections-than-you’d-think-from-looking-at-me, at least this time is-

“Tess, right?”

Is it bad that she’s genuinely shocked he remembers her name? That’s how far her standards have sunk, she processes, how little she expects from former flings, how little-

Former, she thinks, may not be the right word here. Not if she has anything to say about it.

“That gets you a drink,” she replies. “You remember my first name and you’re making eye contact. That’s…”

“The bar is that low?”

“The bar is six feet under and most men still trip,” Tess laughs, trying to be cool, trying to keep the bitterness and the self-criticism buried where they won’t ruin her evening. “And here you are…”

“You’re a hard woman to find.”

“You went looking?”

“Kept an ear out. Figured…”

“You don’t wanna go where I do. You really don’t.”

“See, that just makes you more interesting.”

She’s gotten that compliment before, in a way that didn’t usually sound like one – interesting, she’s learned, is usually a polite way of saying batshit crazy. Not that she’s earned that, she’s done a few desperate things in self-defense but that don’t count, and-

“You really are the most desperate thing,” she murmurs. “Out of any living thing you could latch onto, you pick me.”

He has the sense not to directly respond to that, but his free hand reaches for hers and she lets it happen, allows the small initiation of what might become everything she wants. Whatever she did to provoke this imprinting, she’s in no mood to fuck it up.

“There’s something about you,” he says at some point later, towards the end of the evening, towards the part where she’ll take him home again. “Something…”

“Terrifying? Confusing?”

“Compelling. That enough of a word for you?”

She answers with a heartbeat of a kiss, much as she’ll ever do in public without ulterior motives. There are lines, even for her, even-

“And I thought I was bad at this shit,” she laughs.

“Don’t think so. I’m still here.”

[darylsgirl]

I was claimed by Daryl Fucking Dixon NSFW 18+ Daryl Dixon & Reader

Summary: 

Your sick of waiting for Daryl to make a move or even speak to you and decide to dress up to do your chores hoping you’ll catch his eye.

You manage more than that He gets jealous when other men/ and one woman ;) show an interest and he admits he’s wanted you all this time an roughly claims you.

*Heyyy to anyone who reads this! If anyone reads this Haha, This is my first ever attempt at fan fic and it kind of got away from me and is a lot more intense than i thought it would be! If there’s anything you don’t like about this please feel free to tell me! I’d love to improve for my next one :) Hope y’all are having a great day wherever you are :)*

How long had it been? Since the end of it all? 

Since all those carefree nights we used to stay up drink, party & Fuck. 

Months? Years? 

It felt like all time stood still when He found me. 

I was alone, Terrified & hiding in an abandoned liquor store when I heard them, I Snuck to the window and saw the biggest herd of walkers I had ever seen. I made sure all the bottle’s i had scavenged were wrapped up in my clothes to dampen the noise and waited for a break in the herd so I could make a run for it to my bike just across the road. After what felt like hours there it was my chance i put my hand on the door handle but before I was even able to twitch the handle,  I felt a hand clamp over my mouth and drag me backwards away from my chance of escape. 

“Fuck you think your doin girl, Tryna get yourself eaten!” I stared up at the man before me with his hand still over my mouth. His angry eyes met mine and I stopped fighting gazing up into those piercing blue eyes. That was the last thing I saw before the pistol came down on my temple. 

I woke with a bag over my head and my wrists bound, I was in a car and I could hear the engine stopping and the brakes kicking in ‘Shit’ . I thought I had no time to think of a way out of this. Two doors slammed shut and I could hear two men arguing.

“Answer me, Fuck did you hit her for Merle. She’s only a girl she couldn’t av ‘urt us, She looked me in ma eyes. There was no fight just fear” 

“Bitch had it comin Daryl, Tryna kill hersel and take us with her” 

“Did’n even no we were there, Or are you that shit of a hunter yous unable to sneak up on people naw, Stop being an asshole and get the fuck outta ma way” 

The car boot opened and someone lifted me out by putting a hand under my knees and one under my head cradling me, he held me tightly with my head in his chest. I inhaled and could smell his manly scent, It was intoxicating, He held me for a moment more before he set on my feet; next the bag was ripped off my face. Instinctively I winced waiting to see if the light would blind me but all was still dark around and i could see we were in a forest.  The man with the mesmerising eyes gripped my arm and started walking me into the woods. 

A logical person would feel fear at this point but there was something about those eyes, I just trusted him.

“Got a lil way’s to go, ya ok walkin? Or you need me to carry you rest of the ways?” His southern drawl mixed with those blue eyes made my knees go weak. I stumbled slightly then stood again and kept one foot in front of the other. I nodded to the man that I was ok and kept going. 

Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the edge of a camp, A few people rushed forward “Shit what happened to her?” “Has she been bit?” “Why is her head covered in blood?” “Where did you find her?”

Daryl rolled his eyes and replied “Merle, No she aint, Merle again annnd liquor store.” He said the last answer with a smirk. 

I scowled at the pair and dropped my mouth open to throw a few choice words their way when I was stopped by Merle grabbing me and spinning me round to face him, He moved some hair out of my face, fingers lingering near my mouth and said.

“Girl looks mighty fine to me, Pretty face not messed up, not one bit! And I do love me a pretty face sweetheart” he winked at me moving his hand from my mouth to my throat he pulled me close to him wrapping his other arm around my back to pull our pelvises close together so I could feel his growing erection against my stomach. “How about it honey” He said winking again  

I drew my head back with the intention of smashing his nose, When we were tackled to the floor Merle was pulled away from me and i rolled onto my back and back on to my feet, I looked back at the two brothers and saw Daryl’s hand smashing into his brothers face whilst he was shouting “I’ll mess up your face you asshole” 

Daryl was dragged off Merle by two men, Merle got to his feet and laughed “It’s allllll good baby bro, I’ll forget about this, this time. I know how feral you get when you see a pussy you wanna claim.”

Daryl locked eyes with me as Merle said this then spat at the ground at Merle’s Feet He picked up his crossbow off the ground and stormed off towards the woods shouting “Man forget ya, I had enough of your shit for one night” over his shoulder. 

That was months ago now, That night the group took me in and took care of me and I took care of them. We moved from the original camp to the CDC then a farm and now we are in a prison in Georgia. The prison has been good to us so far, there was that run in with a crazy guy who called himself the governor and we lost a few of our family. But we persevered and built this place into a home and soon started bringing in new people to help run our home and join our family. 

In the time i had been with this group i had noticed there were a lot of frustrated people here, Especially the men, I can’t get through a day without some proposition or another. I also can’t say that I didn't enjoy the attention, It had been awhile since I had felt another's hands on my body and I craved it, I craved it more than air at times and the person I craved it the most from had decided to pretend I didn't exist. But that didn’t stop me from going to bed each night with my wandering hands and relieving my aching pussy with the thoughts of his hands exploring my body and that voice groaning in my ear. Hit the spot every time. 

There had been a few men that had caught my attention but after a few conversations and meet ups with each they all started to pretend i didn’t exist the same as he had. I didn’t even get so much as a kiss from any of the fuckers and when i decided to confront them and ask why they refused to tell me and walked away. 

It had hit summer here and i had hit my breaking point, I’d had enough of being passed over and wasn’t going to take this shit anymore, I was going to make them all regret not taking me up on the opportunity when it was there for the taking.

I woke early for my shift in the fields the next morning, Still thoroughly determined to set my plan in motion I grabbed my knife and a set of clothes and set to work. I cut most of the legs off my jeans and the sleeves from my Tartan shirt. I pulled the jean shorts on and folded the legs over so they became tighter and pushed my already perky ass up. I then pulled my shirt on forgoing the usual under shirt and tied the two sides closed in a knot above my belly button so my slim waist was on display. I buttoned one button above the knot so that not too much of my bra was showing; Turning it from slutty to sexy. I pulled on my best brown cowboy boots. Combed my hair out. I was very lucky to have thick wavy hair that rarely required me doing anything with it. I just let it dry and brush, I grabbed Maggie’s make up bag and applied a small amount of make up just to accentuate my natural features.Smiling at myself in the mirror this was perfect, Let's see that southern shit ignore me now. Or any of the others for the matter. 

I sauntered out of my cell into the main block and walked the long way through the middle of everyone taking extra care to have a bounce in my step to make my boobs bounce nicely and swayed my hips more to make my ass jiggle as I walked. I greeted everyone in the same way i usually would with cheery “Good Morning’s” Instantly i felt eyes roaming my body and not just the male’s which made me grin I was happy either way. A few let out low whistles and I winked in return. This felt great. I want to feel this way every day, my pussy had soaked my panties by the time I had made it out of the block and into the yard I was panting with need. 

I took a few minutes to calm my breathing before continuing out towards the field, I glanced at the guard tower to make sure he was here today keeping watch, When i saw his leather vest and his longish wavy hair my breath quickened again, Shit it was going to be hard to get through today without a little relief, It took everything i had not to rush up the guard tower and beg him for it, Instead i continued over to the field, waiting until i was in his vision before looking up smiling and waving. Sure enough there he was binoculars in his hand staring down at me. I grinned again, wiggled my fingers at him and sauntered away from the tower. 

Luck was with me today and I was set to work on the potatoes which were planted in a perfect view of the guard house. I made sure to always face the tower when just sitting working so he had the frontal view and when I needed to bend up or down I turned my back to him so he got a great view of my ass. Everything I did that day I made sure to find some way to make it sexier. More than a few men came to bring me water or talk to me that day i gave each of them a big grin, Laughed and put my hand on their arms and send them on their way enough to make them feel there could be a chance, I felt Fucking powerful. 

At the end of the day i saw Maggie making her way over to me with a backpack over her shoulder, “Y/N I gots you a gift” she said in a sing song voice “from Merle of all people” she laughed and pulled out two big bottles of Merle’s special moonshine “I guess someone saw your production today sugar” She giggled a bit more handed you a bottle and settled down on the grass next to you. 

Daryl

Ever since Merle and me brought Y/N back to the group with us she’s been a literal pain in my pants, I'm surprised my cock was even capable of a hard on at this point as it feels like it hasn't gone down in months. So far i have managed to stay away from her as i wasn’ gonna let no bitch get the better of me and i wasn’ going to let fuckin Merle be right. 

My mind wandered back to her again when i started my shift in the guard tower that morning, I considered going into the office to rub one out but decided i'd be on the balcony waiting, I always made sure i got the shifts in this tower when she was being put in the fields, Watching her sweating down there in the heat was good enough to get me off later in the night when i was alone in the office. I lived out of this tower now as I liked it better alone even now with Merle being back in the prison, I didn’ need his shit talking around me at all hours. Not when I had my own entertainment. 

There she was right on time to interrupt me from my thoughts, Holy shit what was she fucking wearing. I grabbed my binoculars to get a closer look, When i found her again with them she was almost fucking naked by the looks of it! In tiny shorts and an even smaller top, From this vantage point i had the best view straight in her bra, I kept my eyes on her all day fuck the perimeter it’ll be fine and i’m sure some weak ass will scream and let me know. 

I watched her all day as she wiggled her hips and wiped the sweat from her chest, Turns out i wasn’t the only one watching even guys I've fuckin told before to stay away come flocking, What don’t the asshole’s understand about “i’m always fuckin watchin” by her quitting time it wasn’t just my dick that was rock hard and throbbin but also the vein in my temple that tells me i’m about to snap.

Balling my fists up i wait for her to start walking back but Maggie fuckin Greene starts walking towards her, Fuck sake. I send the next watch away and tell them ill radio to come back. I wasn’t allowing no fucker to have this view. I watched as Maggie sat down in the grass with Y/N and pulled out two large bottles. I grabbed the binoculars again. Fuckin Merle! That’s his shine if i ever saw it. Making a mental note to smack that bastard later for this. Now everyone had gone back inside it was deadly silent out here which meant their voices were carrying more than they knew and i could hear every word. I settled back down and watched the girls for a while biding my time. 

Y/N

You both look at each other with a glint in your eyes, Pop the tops off your bottles and start downing it. Maggie comes up for air first. Dropping my bottle and swallowing the harsh liquid i Cheer in celebration and yell a little too loud “that Merle may be an asshole but he sure makes some good hooch” 

“Sooooo ya had any bites today?” Maggie grins winking at you. “Yeah but not the one i want, He’s so fucking frustrating. I think I've noticed him watching me more today than he has the entire time i’ve known him” I sigh. 

“You know he's got a huge thing for you or he wouldn’t be acting like this”  Maggie Giggled. “But then who in this friggin place doesn’t especially after today! You even made my breath hitch never mind poor Glenn who had to get a shower!” “Ugh maggie he’s your guy why the hell is he looking at me!” I grimaced. She put her hand on my thigh and winked at me again “He’s got my permission, don't worry it spices things up a little” I didn’t move her hand just enjoyed the feeling of her fingers running up and down the inside of my thigh.

We both downed more of Merle’s hooch giggling and the conversation turned to a debate on the size of Daryl's dick. I lick my lips promising to tell her if I ever get my hands on it. The conversation is turning more and more heated as her hand is getting closer and closer to my throbbing core. She’s getting that close now I’m sure she can probably feel the heat coming from it.  As we are getting close to the bottom of our bottles and really starting to feel the effect Maggie still with one hand on my thigh leans close to my face and whispers “He’s stayed up there watching past his shift. Let's give him something to see hmm?” As she’s finishing the end of her sentence I bridge the gap between us and meet her lips with mine. I bring my hand up to her hair and pull her closer into me, deepening the kiss Moaning into her lips. 

Daryl 

When the girls first started chatting i wanted to find out who they could be talkin about and punch the prick out till i heard my name and if my ears weren't already prickling up they definitely were now, He heard Y/N promise Maggie that if she sees ma dick she will tell her how big. He bites his lip and decides he’ll help her keep that promise. 

He picks his binoculars back up and notices Maggie's hand running up and down Y/N’s thigh. If there were two people he thought he wouldn’t have to warn away, it would have been Glenn and Maggie and they pick a night that he’s mad as hell to change his mind about that? 

He brings one hand to his aching dick giving it a few tugs through his pants to relieve some of the pressure and brings his eyes back to them just as he sees the girls lean into each other, Shit! Shit! He doesn’t know whether to run down there and interrupt finally or let them continue. Y/N pushes Maggie to lay her fully down and straddles her hips, I grabbed my radio and called for the replacement as i couldn’t take much more.

While i waited for the lazy shit to get here i watched Y/N & Maggie get even more heated and their hands exploring each other the moaning reaching me in the tower, I look to my right and see Glenn watching from behind one of the buildings hands and lower half suspiciously hidden.

Ah hell no fuck this tower! Daryl reaches over the side and grabs the pipe work swings himself over and uses it to get down quickly. As he hits the bottom his replacement is strolling over he grabs him by the scruff of his shirt blocking his view into the field. “Put ya lazy ass in that office and don’t fuckin leave till i come back and tell ya, ya can leave. Ya fuckin hear me?” I growl at him. The kid runs into the office in the tower. I spin around pretending not to see Glenn hiding there, I ran across the field towards the girls and as i reached them i let my shadow fall over them. 

Y/N

From where i am lay on top of Maggie i watch as Daryl slides down the side of the watch tower and charges over to us, I smile against Maggie's lips when he gets closer i moan feeling her hand snake its way into my bra, Were both panting loudly and moaning when his shadow falls over us. 

He clears his throat next thinking we hadn’t noticed him there. Maggie moves her mouth to my neck and I let out another moan but this time I raise my eyes to his and lick my bottom lip not breaking eye contact. 

“Come with me...NAW” Daryl growls and grabs my arms and pulls me off and up. Maggie looks at him and pouts “oh boo Daryl always gotta ruin our fun” I wave to Maggie giggling as he starts to drag me across the field. 

“What the fuck Daryl” I try to push him off my arm but his hands are unyielding. “Shut the fuck up ill deal with ya in a minute” He growls and pushes me up against the wall of a building stares longingly into my eyes then darts his arm out and smashes someone’s head into the wall. “Didn’t think id have to fuckin warn ya Glenn, Thought it was pretty fuckin obvious. Don't let me catch ya ass again” he grabs my arm again and drags me across the court yard until we reach a secluded spot, He slams my back up another wall and presses his body up against mine keeping me pinned between him and the wall. 

“What you think you’ve been doing girl, Flaunting your shit all day for any man to beat his meat too?” 

I squirm under his gaze, Shit i think i actually pissed him off, Definitely not the emotion i was going for!

“You think i’m gonna sit by and let tha happen?” 

I find my voice, “What do you mean, You won’t let something happen. You’re not the boss of me!” you say glaring back at him, If he wants to play the pissed off game he won’t be playin it alone.

“Ya know exactly what i mean! I’ll show you who the fuckin boss Y/N” He said, pressing his hips harder into mine. I try to suppress my moan. His eye’s darken even more hearing me moan for him now. 

“Who do you think told those pricks to back the fuck away from you, They wouldn’t of just left you alone on their own naw, they needed some rough persuasion Y/N” 

I glare at him again and he pushes his hips back into mine again.”Ya gonna learn yet? Every time you glare at me, ill smash my dick into that dirty clit o urs” He explains with a wink. 

Not knowing how to respond to that You ask “You’re the reason no man looks at me anymore? What fucking business is it of yours”

“Hell fuckin yeah i am” He says with a smirk “No one will dare ya touch you if I've claimed ya, So i did” “Naw I’ve claimed you, I’ve made it very clear if anyone touches you they’ll lose a fuckin arm” He growled

“For fuck sake Daryl! You can’t just put claims on a girl you don’t even give a fuck about” I said with a snarl.

“I give a fuck, Just didn’ want ya to know i gave a fuck, I enjoyed watchin ya squirm... but ya forced ma hand and naw... Well naw i aint gonna be gentle bout it”

You close your eyes tight, If he hadn’t of “claimed” me i would be in heaven now but learning that he’s behind your dry well makes you so mad. 

“This what you were trying to get huh?” “I would of thought twice before you pulled this shit, I aint no gentle man” she breathed into her ear. His gravelly voice driving me crazy. 

I look him in the eyes and shove him hard, running back to the cell block. I took a breather when i got through the door and realised he hadn’t followed me. As i was walking past the showers a hand darted out and pulled me inside. 

“Woah what the fuck” I gasped as I felt a hand move over my ass and pull me against him, Jees i need to wear this outfit more often. 

I was pulled into the light and saw it was Zach who had pulled me in with him, Zach was one of the ones who daryl must of scared away. 

“Hey baby, Missed me?” he breathed at me. “How could i miss you zach i never got a chance to know you, You let that asshole scare you away” I said hurt 

“Gimmie another chance Y/N, ill show you a good time, This could be our secret. We could have some real fun and piss that hillbilly asshole off” He squeezes me tighter to him. 

“Gerrof Zach if your too pussy to pursue someone when warned of by a man I’ve only ever spoken to once then you’re not a guy i want any fucking part of”

“Awww c’mon you don’t mean that” he grips the back of my head and pushes his lips to mine i tried to fight him off be but he had too tight of a grip. 

A low growl came from the doorway “I believe she said to get ya bitch ass hands off her” Zach jumped back like someone had shocked him when he heard the voice. Daryl walked forward and put his arm round my shoulder “an i believe i told ya to not even look at her again bitch” His voice gets louder “Tell me asshole what did i say i was gonna do to ya?” 

H waited a moment staring at Zack “Hmm to fuckin scared to answer?” he walks forward and punches him rapidly in the face Zack goes sprawling across the shower floor. Daryl stands over him and threatens “it’ll be worse next time if you don listen to me and come near ma girl again”

Daryl turns and heads back to you and wraps his arm around your shoulders again “Bet Ya glad i claimed you now” I nod slightly. I squirm out of his arms and run back to my cell, my hooch high still buzzing in my mind. Thank god without this how could i be this brave? I smile when I get to my cell wondering how long it will take him to catch me. 

I  barely had time to catch my breath before i felt him, He made no noise whatsoever like a hunter closing in on his prey.Whenever he was near me it felt like my entire body was electrified and tuned only to him. 

I spun around and my breath hitched in my throat at the sight of that venomous glare, He just stood and glared with his eye’s roaming every inch of you, You could feel every hair on your body standing to attention for him. 

In the blink of an eye he was back in front of you again pinning you back against the wall with his hand tangled in your hair, pulling your head to the side exposing your neck. 

He looks over your body panting his eyes still liquid stone, Ever glaring. I could feel the heat coming off him in waves as he studied me. His pushed his mouth next to my ear, “When i’m finished with ya, ya legs will be useless and everyone in this damn place gon know my name. An i promise you aint gon forget who’s ya are” He paused for a second staring into my eyes, “Naw take this shit off before i rip it off ya” He said pulling roughly at my shirt.

With Shaking hands i reach up and untie my shirt and push it off my shoulders, Watching his eyes grow darker as he watched. My shirt fell to the floor he grabbed the centre of my bra “All of it” He growled. I undid my bra and threw that into the corner. He looked down at my shorts seeming impatient gripped both sides and ripped them down. He came back up to me gripped my arms and pushed me further up the wall off the floor and quickly puts his legs in between mine and rests my body on them. 

He reaches forcing my head to the side again and brings his mouth down to my neck kissing and biting furiously his other hand gripping my breast roughly, Earning a loud moan from me. I reached for his shirt desperate to run my hands on him, Before my hands met their mark he had gripped my wrists pinning them above my head. 

“Ya don’t move, Touch or make a fuckin sound unless i say so, Ya hear?” I nodded eyes growing wide at his words. He let my feet touch the ground again and tore my underwear off, He bunched them up in his hand “Mmm look how wet these pantie’s are for me girl” “Open your mouth, Naw” I obediently complied letting him stuff them into my mouth, Dying to moan under his stare. 

He stepped back and let his vest fall over his shoulders and hit the floor, He then took his shirt off and used it to bind my hands together. He stood back admiring his handiwork, I Squirmed under his lustful gaze feeling myself getting wetter by the second. I watched him slowly bring his hands to his belt unfastening it then his button and zip, His pants hit the ground and he kicked them to the side. My breath went wild when I saw him in all his glory i love a man who doesn’t wear any underwear.

He lunged forward again pulling my legs over his and wrapping leg around his hips pressing his huge dick at my entrance. It was so long and thick: my mouth started salivating instantly imagining wrapping my mouth around it. 

He pulled my underwear from my mouth and growled into my ear “Scream my fucking name” as he plunged his entire length into me, The breath was forced from my lungs “shitt, Daryl!”

“Did i fuckin stutter, I said scream it” he growled again biting my neck pulling out almost of the way and plunging deep into me again. Damn did i scream this time my eyes rolling back into my head enjoying the sensation. 

“Tha’s better now ride it bitch” 

I felt raw already from his huge length and girth filling me like i’d never been filled before. Pulling my arms around his neck to steady myself i used him to pull myself back up and then down slowly trying to adjust to his size. 

His mouth met mine in a rough eager kiss, capturing my tongue with his. He pulled his mouth back to my neck and whispered “Ya don know how long i’ve been waiting for this, Tell me how much you love my dick Y/N”

“Ahh” i cried out “so much baby so much” My eyes rolling into the back of my head still rolling my hips onto him. “Naw, Tell me who you belong to” “You” I moaned “You i belong to you daryl” I panted out. 

“Louder! I want everyone in the fuckin place to know your mine” 

“Oh god, Daryl, I’m yours! Only yours” I screamed 

“Better” He smirked. He moved my arms from around his neck and released my hand’s from his shirt. He walked backwards with me still perched on him, His legs hit the end of the bed and he sunk down taking me with him. 

“Now show me how much you love this dick”

I positioned myself better over him and sunk down to the hilt slowly savouring every glorious inch of him. My eyes shot open again moaning when my clit hit his pubic bone and i started grinding harder and faster now. 

I could feel his hand’s everywhere, God i can’t believe how long i had been longing for this moment, I cried out again. He leant up on his elbows and pulled one of my nipples into his mouth nibbling, and running his nails down the inside of my thighs. The combination was pure ecstasy. I could already feel the pressure in my mound building painfully begging to be released. 

He removed his mouth from me earning a sad moan from me desperate to feel his mouth on me, He looked back at my eye’s amusement on his face. He ran both hands up to my chest again gripping almost painfully. “And these, Who do they belong to Y/N?” “You baby, All yours” i breathed shakily. I was so close when he growled again “Say my fuckin name” My wall’s started constricting against him. “Ahh god, Daryll ....fuck Daryl” His eyes shone at my words. He was even more spurned on now. He flipped us over, throwing me into the bed and pulled my hips into the air ramming harder and deeper than before. 

“Cum for me baby” He whispered in his incredible gravelly voice.

Those four words was all I needed to push me over the edge. Crying his name out again i felt the damn of pressure welled up in me from the moment I saw him burst open. I rode out my high as hard as i could against him, I collapsed to the bed and felt him slow down, My brain fuzzy from my incredible high. I tried pushing myself up on my elbows and my eyes caught another’s at the door. 

I looked down and back up rubbing my eyes, “Shit Darryl stop!” I reached for the sheets to pull them over me. There were at least 6 men gazing in, Daryl continued unperturbed. You tried putting your hand behind you trying to push at his stomach to get his attention. He captured your arm and it around your back and pulled you up against him. 

“You think I didn't know, Now tell me again who you belong to” “Daryl please!” I said trying to cover my chest. He grabbed the sheet and flung it away. 

Rick spoke up from the back Your cheeks flushed horrified they had all seen you in the throws. “I think Daryl told you to do something, He doesn’t like to be kept waiting” He said with a gleam in his eyes. You gazed around the men seeing Rick, Zack, Merle, Glenn & i wasn’t sure who else grinning enjoying the show. I was suddenly unashamed as i felt the pressure build back up dangerously high.

Daryl seeing my eyes wander over the group wrapped my hair around his wrist and pushed my head back into the bed, Ramming harder and faster than i’d ever felt before making me scream again. “Say it” he shouted at me “Ahh shit im daryl’s, You claimed me baby” He replied “And no one else is going to make you feel this good again are they?” 

“God no, Only you, Ahh so good!”

“Ya heard her '' He said addressing the men “She’s mine. Naw you can all fuck off back to your pits and keep your fucken hand’s to your selves asshole’s” You heard Merle hoot “wooowee you get it baby brother” You stomach turned grateful daryl had told them to leave, before his body pushed another orgasm out of you. 

They all turned and left as Daryl biting my ear lobe moaned into me “Now cum again for me baby” He suddenly dove his hand under me and onto my clit. 

I instantly caved again screaming into the bed. 

Feeling my second orgasm pushed him to the brink again and he jackhammered into me. Hard. Chasing his high. I pushed back furiously desperate to feel him. I moaned “Cum in me Daryl please i need to feel you” 

I felt him explode moaning my name and grinding deep into me riding it fully out” 

He collapsed on top of me breathless. We lay like that for a few minutes when I felt him going hard in me again. He pulled out and lay back on the bed pulling me into his chest his heart still pounding in his chest.

“God girl, If i’d of known you were that good a fuck, I’d of taken you that first fucking night” A relaxed grin on his face. 

He turned and took my face in his hands kissing me softly and murmured into my lips “I hope you don’t think i'm done with you yet” He winked “I aint had a girl like you in a loooong time i aint even close to done with ya” 

He rolled back onto me pulling my lip with his teeth. “Ready?” I nodded desperate to feel him again. 

God knows how many hours & Orgasms later he fell off me pulling me close into his chest again. I passed out instantly, Thoroughly exhausted. He chuckled into my hair and followed me into blissful sleep. 

When we woke the next morning his arms still tight around me, Smiling in his sleep. 

I looked over happy wishing i could stay here forever but there was work to be done. 

I slowly picked his arm up and tried to wiggle out from under it, Before i'd gotten half way those glorious muscles had flexed and pulled me straight back into him. “Morning beautiful. Hope you don’t think your going anywhere. We’ve got so much time to make up for.” He nuzzled his face into yours sweetly. You could feel him growing hard against your hip. “Don’t worry i’m feeling responsible. I’ll make it quick!” 

He fucked me again for another hour until we were both sweaty, shaky wrecks. 

I groaned and rolled to the edge of the bed and sat up trying to stand up and instantly felt my legs buckle beneath me. He was up and caught me before i came crashing down. He laughed. “Don’t say i didn’t warn you” You laughed with him. “God, I love that sound” He said, staring into my eyes and planting a sweet kiss onto my lips. He stood and started grabbing his clothes from around the room and dressing. 

“Take your time getting up, I’m back in the guard tower again today, Don’t forget what i taught you last night” He said with a wink and ducked down to kiss me. He moved to the doorway and moved the curtain turning back at me. “Oh and babe I wanna see that outfit again today, Now i know it’s all for me” He winked again and left. 

I fell back on the bed with a huge grin on my face. Holy shit I can't wait for tonight! 

[hxseok-honee]

3005 || part 11

3005 [part 11] || "Perks of dating a Slytherin"

[no matter what you say and what you do // when i’m alone, i’d rather be with you]

previous || masterlist || next

a/n : mayhaps i,,, went a little crazy,,, writing this,,,

taglist [open] :

@deepseavibez @lele-bb @monamone @unadulteratedlyunique @bluefaeriefury @hooniepie @loveyoongles @lilacdreams-00 @ramyagovindraj @skyrro @diminieshoe @calling-dips-on-j-hope @yuusilverscar @butterflylion @dingzerenistall @miki-chi @army-moa75 @drpepperobsessed @cecedrake2217 @somelazysundays @xxxanimangxxx @cosmicdaylight @navybluewonderland @itismochirice @dreadity @secretlycrazyhummingbird @taeshuworld @lochness-butmakeitsexy @beeeb05 @preciouschimine @thetrueghostqueen @sonderkook @pb-n-juju @aviwasabi21

a/n : there were some blogs that tumblr wouldnt let me tag -- sorry about that!

_________________________________

“Jeez, it’s insane in here -- we’re packed like sardines!” Y/n trails into the Three Broomsticks after Jimin and Tae, barely managing to catch the Ravenclaw’s complaint over the noise of the crowd. She’s barely made it in the door of the pub, but she can already see that she might be stuck there a while. It’s full to capacity, a sea of colored scarves and matching hats -- early November has brought nothing but cloudy mornings and chilly nights, the lower levels of Hogwarts particularly affected by the evening drafts. She’s lucky that Hufflepuff is kept at a consistent level of cozy warmth, but she can tell Slytherins must deal with constant cold by the way that Hoseok and Yoongi, who hover in the doorway behind her, have only draped their deep green scarves over thin long-sleeve shirts.

From the front, Jimin complains, trying to no avail to push through the mass of students and find a free table or even call dibs on one that’s busy. And even from behind Tae, Y/n can see the Gryffindor is pouting, which is entirely endearing, but she doesn’t get the chance to point it out to him -- there’s a hand on her waist, gently guiding her to the side. Another hand wraps around her wrist, this one shockingly warm against her cold skin, and she turns to see Yoongi pulling her in silently toward him while Hoseok brushes past her on the other side. The smaller Slytherin pulls her in close enough that she has to cross her eyes to properly see him, but he’s not even looking at her. He’s gazing expectantly in Hoseok’s direction.

Following his eyes, she sees that something of a miracle is occurring -- the mass is parting for Hoseok, students bumping into each other as they rush to get out of his way. He says nothing, simply making his way through the crowd and beckoning them in after him. Tae stumbles after Jimin, and Y/n only follows when Yoongi quietly moves his hand to the small of her back and nudges her in their direction. Before she can get too far from him, she feels his lips press against the shell of her ear as he whispers to her.

“Perks of dating a Slytherin -- nice, huh?” Y/n’s heart jumps to her throat, and she lurches forward slightly, putting distance between them. She still hears as he snickers behind her, but she ignores it and follows after Tae.

As she goes, she sees that, ahead of her, Hoseok has reached a round booth, just big enough to fit the five of them. There’s a couple of Ravenclaws that get there at the same time he does, and when he turns to look at them, Y/n can see exactly why the crowd had parted for him. He’s got a look in his eye -- nothing compared to the look he’d given Remus in the forest all those weeks ago -- but it’s almost as if he knows he doesn’t need it. His face is blank and his eyes are empty, something entirely terrifying to someone unfamiliar with Hoseok. He looks like a true Slytherin, one that commands obedience with his mere presence.

One of the Ravenclaws takes one look at Hoseok and is immediately stepping back, pulling his companion along with him. Hoseok only nods gratefully to them, clearly showing that he hadn’t meant to be intimidating -- it’s just who he is. Then he turns and waves them forward, Jimin rushing in a bit fast and shooting his housemates an apologetic smile. He slips into the booth, Tae following close behind. They file in like that, Hoseok sliding in after Yoongi and letting his hand fall comfortably to his boyfriend’s thigh once he’s settled. Y/n sees the movement and notes in the back of her mind with surprise that Hoseok’s hand is much bigger than expected -- it covers almost all of Yoongi’s thigh.

“See something you like, Princess?” Hoseok leans in to whisper it, but, judging by the looks of disgust that cross Jimin and Tae’s faces, he hadn’t been quiet enough.

“And on that note, I’m gonna order us some food!” Jimin scoots out of the booth, making a beeline for the bar as Taehyung reaches dramatically after his best friend. He turns back, resigning himself to the strange dynamic of the trio before him. But Y/n only scoots in to cling to his arm, smiling up at him, and the Gryffindor relaxes.

“So, is there anywhere you guys need to go after lunch? Jimin and I want to stop at Honeydukes!” Hoseok nods along to Taehyung’s request, humming in consideration.

“I could really go for some jelly slugs…” Y/n and Tae stare at him in disbelief, unsure if he’s just messing with them. The idea that Jung Hoseok -- the guy that had just moved an entire crowd for them with no more than a look -- could enjoy something so… sugary… is beyond them. But apparently, it’s a topic of regular conversation in the 7th year Slytherin boys’ dorm.

“I told you, that shit’s bad for your teeth--”

“Says the one who sits in class chewing on sugar quills instead of using a real quill to take notes.” Hoseok cuts Yoongi off with finality, challenging him to continue, but the shorter boy only grimaces and mumbles under his breath about Jimin taking too long. Y/n and Taehyung look to each other for answers, only finding more confusion.

When Jimin does finally return -- somehow managing to balance 5 plates of food in his arms -- the group settles in to eat, chatting about various things until they finish their food. It’s nice, Y/n decides, to hang out with friends she doesn’t always find herself with. Although she’d become rather close with Jimin and Taehyung recently, she’d spent every Hogsmeade weekend with Jin and Namjoon until now, so this is all still relatively new to her.

It’s especially new to hang out so closely with Yoongi and Hoseok -- she admits that she’d definitely gotten comfortable with them since the day that Yoongi had claimed her bed as his own while she’d had a strangely deep heart to heart with Hoseok, but she still feels slightly tense around them. Their constant flirting has been more than disarming, but it flusters her most when they’re right in front of her. At least when they’re texting, she can hide in the comfort of her room, but here… she has nowhere to run if they decide to start teasing her.

As if to drag her out of her thoughts by proving her right, the warmth of a palm sliding across the expanse of her thigh startles her back to reality. She glances down quickly, taking in the fact that there is actually a hand on her leg, before following the arm up to its owner. Hoseok only eyes her with confusion, having reached across Yoongi to get her attention.

Turning quickly to Taehyung, she looks up at him with confused panic, as if to confirm that she’s not hallucinating. The Gryffindor’s already staring down at her leg, having seen the movement out of the corner of his eye. He meets her gaze with wide eyes before turning away, as if to tell her it’s none of his business what she gets up to with Hoseok in the middle of this pub. When she tries to lean in further for his attention, Tae only turns his whole body away from her, sipping at his drink and denying her silent plea for assistance with feigned ignorance.

He catches Jimin’s eye in doing so, and the Ravenclaw glances over quickly, his gaze catching on Hoseok’s ringed fingers resting on the inside seam of Y/n’s jeans. Immediately, Jimin’s choking on his food, turning away with reddening ears as he puts his napkin up to his mouth. Hoseok looks around, eyes wide with confusion at the reactions he’s getting. Yoongi only closes his eyes and nods, fully having expected this chain of commotion in the booth.

Y/n looks down at the hand in her lap once more, hating that the only thing coming to mind is that now she can definitely confirm that Hoseok’s hand is as large as she’d noted previously. She stares down at it, scandalized, only coming back to reality when Hoseok squeezes her thigh, drawing her attention back to him. He’s smiling, but it’s filled with bemusement.

“Princess, I’ve been talking to you for like five minutes -- where was your head?”

It was thinking about yo--

Y/n blinks, shaking her head both to answer Hoseok and to rid herself of the intrusive thought she’d just had. She looks to Yoongi quickly, terrified that he might somehow be sitting close enough to have heard the unexpected words that had crossed her mind. He’s examining her carefully out of the corner of his eye, but his face is void of emotion except for the hint of amusement in his gaze. When she makes eye contact with him, he leans in, holding her gaze and whispering to her in a low voice.

“He’s only trying to give you your potion for today -- are your thoughts wandering somewhere they shouldn’t be, babe?” Y/n leans away the closer Yoongi gets, deciding they’re both much too close for comfort. Pulling her leg gently from Hoseok’s grasp, she scoots in the booth until she’s flush with Taehyung, who continues to sip at his drink with vigor, as if he hadn’t just heard the entire exchange. She’s about to force the Gryffindor to acknowledge her existence and help her, but there’s another hand falling to her lap, this one different but warm all the same.

It’s Yoongi’s, and while he has his palm turned up toward her -- a vial filled with familiar contents sitting innocently there -- the contact is enough to have Taehyung elbowing Jimin urgently, decidedly finished with his lunch. The Ravenclaw scoots toward the edge of the booth, taking one last gulp of his butterbeer before gesturing vaguely at his coat pocket, where his phone sits untouched.

“Text from Namjoon -- bookstore -- gotta meet hi-- bye!” Wrapping his hand around Taehyung’s wrist, he pulls the boy with him out of the booth, and with that, the two of them disappear into the crowd and out the door. Y/n stares after them, panic seeping into every fiber of her being as she turns slowly to face the two Slytherins she’s been left alone with. Hoseok’s also staring at the spot their friends had disappeared into, but Yoongi only presses his hand further into Y/n’s lap, urging her to take the vial.

“Full moon’s tomorrow -- drink up, babe.”

--

“No, that has to be a fucking joke -- you’re lying to me--”

“I’m not lying! I hiked my ass up that fucking tree and sat there throwing sticks at this girl so she would stop hurting herself until 5 o’clock in the morning!” Y/n groans and hides behind her hands, laughing out of sheer humiliation while Hoseok retells the story of the night they’d met -- the night she’d almost killed him. Yoongi leans his head back against the booth and breathes out a laugh, unable to believe what he’s just heard. He turns to Y/n, reaching out and tugging on her wrists until her eyes appear from behind her hands.

“Thank you very much for not ripping my boyfriend to shreds before I could confess. I would have been pissed.” She pulls her wrist from Yoongi’s grasp, pushing at his shoulder with another groan. She notices out of the corner of her eye that Hoseok’s gesturing silently toward the bar, holding up three fingers before pointing at their table -- their third set of refills in the last two hours. The glint of the metal bands on his fingers catches her attention, and she swallows hard as she returns her gaze to Yoongi’s face. The look he’s giving her tells her he’s caught her staring, but he only smiles when she clears her throat and attempts to move on.

“I just think it’s ridiculous that -- for someone who claims to be obsessed with magizoology and all things magical creatures -- Hoseok didn’t think ahead before wandering out to the Forbidden Forest on a full moon night.” Hoseok cracks a smile, rolling his eyes good-naturedly at her jab before focusing in on the waiter that’s sliding three fresh butterbeers onto their table. He slips the man a tip with a quick thanks, man, before pushing two of the drinks over to Y/n and Yoongi. There’s something so effortlessly smooth about the way Hoseok had handled the entire interaction -- as mundane and simple as it’d been -- that sets Y/n’s nerves on fire, and she accepts the drink shyly. Her mind flashes back to the one time she’d been here with her brother and his friends, the way Remus had stumbled over his words and almost spilled his drink on the table. It isn’t as cute to her now as it was back then--

Wait, what the hell?

“Princess?” She looks up from her drink and finds both Hoseok and Yoongi staring at her, heads tilted in matching confusion. Hoseok’s eyes flick down to her drink, and he gestures toward the bar with his thumb. “You’ve been drinking them cold this whole time, but I can get you something else if you don’t want it--”

“No! No… Thank you. This is good.” Hoseok stops short at her outburst, Yoongi’s eyebrows lifting past his fringe in surprise. Y/n only looks between them for a moment before lifting the drink to her lips awkwardly. When she sets it down again, she doesn’t notice the line of foam stretching across her top lip. The boys focus in on it, Yoongi taking his bottom lip between his teeth as he decidedly leans toward her after a moment. Resting two fingers under her chin, he swipes his thumb slowly over her mouth, sitting back and sticking that same thumb in his mouth to clean the sugar off his skin when he’s done. Hoseok watches the exchange with unwavering intensity, following the path of Yoongi’s hand all the way to the smaller boy’s mouth. Y/n doesn’t realize she’s done the same.

Seeing that he’s being stared at, Yoongi smiles awkwardly, leaning his elbows on the table as the tips of his ears turn pink. Looking to his boyfriend, he opens his mouth.

“So… it’s your fault you almost died?” Hoseok blinks, the moment gone. Y/n takes another sip of her drink, giving herself time to hide behind the large mug that covers much of her reddening face when she tilts it back. She swipes self-consciously at her mouth with her sleeve when she’s done, hoping they wouldn’t have to repeat the intimate display from before. She thinks that, if not for the fact that she’s found herself sensitized to the sound of Hoseok’s voice, she would have missed his response.

“Alright, I feel like I have to defend myself here -- I mean, I was 13 and way too excited about finding that pack of sentient wolves I’d read about. You really can’t blame me for not expecting there to be students of Y/n’s… special nature.” Hoseok glances around the pub inconspicuously, and Y/n finds herself covered in goosebumps when he lowers his voice at the end.

What the hell is happening to me?

Y/n blinks quickly, willing her frazzled state to just disappear, and focuses on what he’d said previously instead. She meets his eyes, sighing slightly when she sees that he’s already peering at her, thoroughly entertained by whatever it is that he’s finding on her face.

“So--” Hoseok straightens, discarding whatever he’d been thinking about to pay attention. “--are you just a total magizoology nerd then? Is that what you wanna do after graduation?” As if he hadn’t been expecting her genuine interest in his life, Hoseok bows his head slightly at her question, visibly shy. Beside him, Yoongi smiles fondly, and Y/n’s reminded of that day in the forest, when their roles had been switched.

“Oh… Yeah, I guess that’s what I’m interested in…” Hoseok trails off, but Y/n watches Yoongi nudge him almost teasingly, urging him to continue what he hadn’t wanted to say before. “I-uh-- I’ve been looking at internships at St. Mungo’s, but I really don’t think I’m gonna get--”

“He’s going to get in. They’d be crazy not to take him.” Yoongi interrupts him, practically beaming with pride. “How could they not? He’s got real passion for it, it’s obvious. I’m kinda jealous -- I wish I could do something cool like that.” Hoseok takes a sip of his drink, clearly doing what Y/n had done earlier to hide from them, but she lets it slide with a teasing glance when he meets her eyes over the rim of the glass. Turning to Yoongi, she hums, noting that he doesn’t seem fazed at all with admitting something about his future.

“You can’t do something cool like that?” She doesn’t mean to pry, but even after she realizes that the question could be sensitive, Yoongi only breathes out a laugh, shaking his head. She’s relieved he hadn’t taken any kind of offense.

“Nah -- my parents are what you’d call… elitist freaks. They’ve got a serious hard-on for that psychopath running around with his cult, so… I’m honestly lucky if I make it out of this war with all my morals intact.” She is deeply unprepared for Yoongi’s response, the sudden heartbreak she’s experiencing only worsened by the fact that he says it with a straight face, as if he’d long resigned himself to the truth of his words. When he sees the look on her face, Yoongi’s expression softens, and he tilts his head to look at her, his eyes twinkling with endearment.

“Don’t pout at me like that, babe -- you're making me want to kiss it better.” If Y/n hadn’t been expecting that comment, Hoseok really hadn’t been expecting it. He chokes on his butterbeer immediately, waving at Y/n frantically when she tries to help. Slamming his drink down on the table, Hoseok grabs Yoongi, pulling the smaller boy to him, hiding his face in his boyfriend’s shoulder while he finishes his coughing fit. Yoongi only pats his back, making a face of playful disgust at being used as a napkin.

“Well, now that Hoseok’s thoroughly embarrassed himself and his Slytherin reputation in front of, like, a million people, I think it’s time we go get him his jelly slugs.” Yoongi nudges his boyfriend out of the booth, gesturing with a nod of his head for Y/n to follow as he sets some money on the table and slides out of the booth.

In contrast to the way Hoseok had entered the Three Broomsticks, he leaves with his head bowed, ears red as he slouches his way to the door. Yoongi chuckles from behind Y/n, shaking his head as he guides her through the crowd with his hand on her waist.

“Look at him go -- my tall, embarrassed boyfriend. How cute. Gotta get him his jelly slugs.” He says all this like he’s talking to himself -- not quite in full sentences, each word full of a kind of exasperated adoration that Y/n finds impossibly cute. Yoongi’s shaking his head like he’s disappointed by Hoseok’s rare awkwardness, but he’s smiling like he’s in love. Y/n feels both giddy by the display of affection and strange that she’s granted this kind of access to their relationship. She feels torn, quite frankly. Like she shouldn’t be allowed to see this side of them.

By the time they finally reach Honeydukes, Hoseok has regained his confidence, going so far as to walk backwards while he talks to them. It’s ridiculous, really, the way he changes before her eyes -- the slouching boy from before transforms into the arrogant Hoseok she knows well, the one who practically hangs off of her now, looking for any excuse to touch her. One hand pulls at her scarf, adjusting it, while the other grabs for her fingertips, asking with a smirk if she’d like him to warm her up before linking their fingers together playfully. Yoongi only follows along, smiling and feigning innocence when Y/n turns to him for help.

They’re so busy causing chaos amongst themselves that they don’t notice another group headed straight for the doors of Honeydukes -- when Y/n does finally see them, she’s startled simply because, in any other case on any other day, she would have noticed them from a mile away.

“Y/n, hi!” Remus smiles wide at her, waving excitedly when he catches her attention. Y/n stops short, shocked by his sudden appearance which, really, is not all that sudden. “I texted you to see if you wanted to meet up today, but I guess luck’s on our side, huh?” Making a noise of surprise, she reaches for her coat pocket, where her phone remains unchecked. She hadn’t even felt the vibrations of a notification, too distracted by Hoseok and Yoongi.

As she’s checking her phone -- and seeing that she does, in fact, have an unseen message from Remus -- she misses the way James’ gaze hones in on where her hand is still attached to Hoseok’s, but she certainly feels when Hoseok rips his hand from hers and stuffs it into the pocket of his jeans. Looking up in confusion, she finds that he’s not looking at her, only staring with determination at the display in the Honeydukes window. He looks conflicted, almost guilty, and when she turns to the Marauders, the expression of scandalized surprise on James and Sirius’ faces tells her why. If Remus had seen them holding hands, his face betrays nothing.

“I’m gonna just… go get my jelly slugs. I’ll see you inside.” Hoseok brushes past her, leaving her there with Remus as he heads into the sweets shop. Yoongi looks after his boyfriend, and Y/n sees him start to follow but stop in his tracks, choosing in the end to remain beside her. The decision throws her, but she’s learned that Yoongi doesn’t do anything without thinking it through first, so she lets it go. Turning to the boys, she smiles sweetly, addressing them with surprising ease, considering she’s in the company of her childhood crush.

“Did you guys just get here? I didn’t see you at the Three Broomsticks at all.” James shakes his head, pushing away the memory of her display of physical affection with Hoseok as he responds. Sirius, however, continues to squint suspiciously, looking between her and Yoongi as he hovers near Remus.

“Nah, we were just at Zonko’s for like two hours -- gotta stock up, you know.” He shakes a large plastic bag filled with tricks and pranks for effect, and Y/n steps forward to peer inside.

“Woah… I can only imagine how many detentions this’ll get you.” The boys all laugh at how well she knows them, but Sirius leans in with a conspiratorial grin.

“Say, Y/n -- I feel like we haven’t seen you in forever! Why’s that, hm?” Y/n meets his eyes, lost.

“What do you mean? We talk all the time--”

“Well, yeah, but with your brother glued to Jin now, our crew’s been feeling so… empty these days. The Telepathy Twins have abandoned us!” He drapes himself over Remus’ back and cries out dramatically as he finishes complaining, something that has Y/n rolling her eyes with a smile.

“I’ve been here, Sirius -- we can hang out whenever you want!” Sirius perks up, leaning in toward her face with a sly grin.

“How ‘bout now?” Y/n lifts a single eyebrow, leaning away from him with a look of disbelief.

“Now? But…” She’s about to say that she’s busy and can’t leave with them, even if Remus is right there offering to hang out. But her hesitation sets Yoongi on edge, and he steps in quickly, wrapping his fingers around her wrist and tugging her back toward him. When she’s close enough, he takes his arm and throws it around her waist, moving behind her as he pulls her flush against his chest. She’s suddenly trapped against him, something made more clear in the way Yoongi leans his chin on her shoulder. She can almost feel the smirk spread across his lips as he speaks, his voice vibrating against the shell of her ear.

“Sorry boys, but Y/n’s really hard to get a hold of these days. Hoseok and I barely managed to reserve time with her today -- what kind of person would I be if I just let you steal her away from us?” Y/n’s not sure what to do with the show Yoongi’s putting on, and she knows by the way his arm is firm against her waist that he’s not letting her go anytime soon.

She watches lamely as Sirius hums contemplatively, having expected some sort of reaction from Yoongi but not quite this. Remus’ eyebrows lift in surprise as his gaze drops to the arm wrapped around her, but he doesn’t say anything. James is the first to respond, shaken from his shock at Yoongi’s bold move by the realization that this looks not unlike a literal standoff right in front of a crowded shop.

“Well, we’ll just have to schedule our own time later on, then, won’t w-- oh!” He reacts when the doorbell above the Honeydukes door rings out, revealing Hoseok as he exits, holding a bag of jelly slugs and sugar quills for Yoongi. There are a couple chocolate bars in his hand, something he knows helps Y/n after the full moon. He’s so busy sifting through his bag that it takes him a second to see the scene he’s just walked into.

When he does look up, he’s stopping short, eyes trained evenly on the compromising position his boyfriend’s in. Whatever thoughts are crossing his mind in that moment are unseen on his face, his eyes unblinking as they pass over Yoongi’s arm, Yoongi’s chin, Yoongi’s lips pressed against Y/n’s ear as she’s pressed against his chest. They all stand there for a moment, frozen, waiting for Hoseok to react.

And then he’s blinking, looking away as he moves toward Remus and holds out one of the chocolate bars in his hand. Remus takes it, uncertain of what’s happening in Hoseok’s head right now. The Slytherin explains with one line and a polite smile.

“You look tired.” He’s not wrong -- Remus’ eyes show his exhaustion, his face and shoulders more slouched than usual as his body fights against the force of the moon, almost full. He looks how Y/n feels inside, but the adrenaline from the day spent with Hoseok and Yoongi -- apparently not yet over -- had kept her from feeling the full effects of the near future. Now that Hoseok’s mentioning it, Y/n feels herself start to become drained of energy, something that she knows Yoongi notices when she shifts in his arms and he tightens his hold on her.

Remus takes the chocolate with a tired smile, thanking Hoseok under his breath. And then he’s leaning around the Slytherin to wave kindly -- albeit a bit awkwardly -- at Y/n and Yoongi, still entangled in each other’s limbs.

“Good luck tomorrow, Y/n -- let me know if you need me, okay?” It’s innocent, it truly is. And Y/n’s grateful for it, the way Remus has always looked out for her. But the way Hoseok glances over his shoulder at her, his eyes appearing almost resigned, leaves her unsettled. And when the tips of Yoongi’s fingers dig into her side, betraying his annoyance with the comment, Y/n can’t help the fluttering feeling that rushes into the pit of her stomach. A feeling strictly reserved for Remus -- until now.

She waves awkwardly as they go, painfully aware of the sudden wave of crisp air hitting her back when Yoongi finally steps away from her. He holds his hand out for Hoseok’s bag, offering to carry it. Hoseok hands him the sweets, passing Y/n her chocolate bar without a word. The three of them are quiet as they exchange items, none of them quite certain how to proceed from what had just happened. Y/n feels guilty, like she’s the reason Hoseok and Yoongi are silent with each other.

Then, Hoseok’s turning to her, decidedly ignoring the entire situation with an easy grin. But there, in his eyes, is a glint of mischief, something teasing and light but intense enough to tell her that he won’t be forgetting about this moment for a long time, and that ignites something in her that she’s never felt before -- not even with Remus. It sends her heartbeat straight to her ears, muffling everything around her as her stomach drops in a way that she can’t bring herself to describe negatively. She barely registers Hoseok’s hand on her elbow, calling for her attention as he directs a bright smile at her.

“Ready to go, Princess?”

[terzos-edibles]

Silver Linings

1. Gotta Keep On, Keepin' On

Summary: No kid, no tribe, and avoiding his responsibilities, Din Djarin has gone back to bounty hunting and mercenary work under the watchful eye of Boba Fett. After a job on Ibaar goes very wrong in more ways than Din would like to count, he is forced to flee with a very peculiar New Republic doctor. He is determined to get enough credits and fuel to drop the doctor off on her home planet and be done with it. But will he be able to part ways with her after she finds all the right and wrong ways to push his buttons?

Words: 1.8k

Rated Mature: language, canonical violence, depression, mentions of suicidal behavior.

“I don't know if I'm scared of dying But I'm scared of living too fast, too slow Regret, remorse, hold on, oh no I've got to go There’s no starting over No new beginnings time races on.” - My Silver Lining, First Aid Kit

Ibaar-

The fist of the Empire reached far, sweeping across the farthest reaches of the Galaxy; the deepest corners seemed to have felt its influences. Even the smallest, poorest planets had Stormtroopers deployed to them - a formality to further oppress the planets’ occupants and show their might - and dissuade any sort of rebellion from sparking. The destruction of the second Death Star and subsequent death of Emperor Palpatine at the hands of the Rebellion had shown that plan hadn’t, well, panned out. Still, in the five years or so after the fall of the Empire, the New Republic was just now starting to finally make its way into the Outer Rim Territories after ensuring that the more strategically essential planets were well taken care of. Remnants of the Empire still clung to those planets, holding out hope that the Empire would somehow revive itself and their loyalty would be rewarded. Many felt that the New Republic had abandoned them, that things hadn’t gotten any better since the Empire had fallen. It would be the same as it had always been. The Outer Rim would continue to be forgotten, continued to be terrorized by Remnant Stormtroopers, continued to be terrorized by pirates, and continued to be terrorized by gangsters. People had given up hope once again.

But, aid was coming. Slowly, but it was coming. New Republic troops were starting to make their way back out towards planets that needed them, bringing with them much-needed supplies and rations. Marshals were installed in the major cities and villages to help keep the peace and bring a sense of law to an otherwise lawless territory. Medical teams were dispatched to provide much-needed tautology assistance to planets that were unable to get the care they needed.

Doctor Gertrude Ásketill was the first in line to sign up for those peace operations. She was coming hot off of her time as a rebel medic. She was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and full of hope as they deployed her to the first assignment. She had an entire team - plenty of assistants and droids to ensure that everyone got the proper care they needed. They were able to start a proper clinic, train the locals, and establish a line to the core planets to ensure they could get all the medicine and vaccines they would need. Trudy felt good when she left that planet for the second.

The second planet saw fewer supplies and resources. She thought maybe it might have been a mistake. This planet had a bigger population than the last. Perhaps they didn't realize they needed to send more supplies, but then the third and fourth planets came. Supplies and resources were stripped as funding got cut, and slowly her team was redistributed to other projects.

And that left Trudy on the fifth planet - Ibaar.

It was just her and a few other doctors spread across the Outer Rim that was left of the program. She was sure that they would be recalled back to Chandrila - the capital of the Republic, but that had been almost a year ago. She had been on Ibaar for about as long. She was alone; at least, it felt that way. The only other two in her clinic with her was an older model R4-7 droid named A9-C that had been reprogrammed to help in the medical field. The humanoid-shaped, bug-eyed droid was built in the early days of the Empire and complained more than he assisted. The other was a teenager named Max, who had taken an interest in medicine. Whether it was because he liked Trudy or wanted to become a medic was to be answered. He was a good assistant and listened.

The only other Republic representative on Ibaar with Trudy was the Marshal: Baxley Morgan. How that man ever got the job of Republic Marshal was beyond her. It was probably why he ended up out here. He had a good heart, but the boy was dumb as a brick, and while she was no fighter - she could at least shoot a blaster well enough to hit whatever she was pointing at. It might not have been where she wanted it to go, but at least it’d hit its target.

The Empire had put blockades up to punish the Ibaarians for being sympathetic to the rebel cause. The aid that had been promised to the Ibaarians had finally come, and it was a little lackluster. The locals were friendly enough, but they felt a little betrayed. Trudy couldn’t blame them.

Trudy had become jaded herself; things were back to the status quo. There weren’t any more Imperial blockades, but with the lack of resources and supplies coming in - there might as well have been.

Ibaar, all-in-all, wasn’t a bad planet. It was a mountainous, temperate planet. The capital village, and the one that Trudy was in, was nestled in a valley - built into the side of the mountain while the rest of the land in the valley was used for farming. The natural cliffs that reached their stony fingertips to the sky provided a natural defense for the village, and the hundreds of waterfalls that cascaded down their sides gave the village and farms much-needed water. On a clear day, you could see for miles around. Though for all of Ibaar’s beauty, the weather was the worst. They could be lucky to see the sun one, maybe twice, per month. The rest of the month was plagued with overcast clouds, fog, daily rain, and nightly thunderstorms. It took some getting used to, and Trudy had ordered extra vitamins to help with the lack of sun.

Despite being the capital village of Ibaar, Laakso Village didn’t even have its own docking bay within the village’s boundaries, especially - making already scarce supplies harder to get. Luckily speeders made that journey a bit less complicated, though it was still rough going. A local warlord and his gang - a former Imperial commander and his troopers - had taken it upon themselves to decide that the Ibaarian Mountains were a great place to hide and run their smuggling business out of, using the old rebel tunnels from the war.

It made things dangerous.

Unsuspecting travelers going to and from the port or any of the other smaller villages in the mountains would be ambushed. Those lucky to survive had their property stolen. The bandits would look for anything from blasters, food, credits, various forms of technology they could get their hands on, and medical supplies. Trudy didn’t know how many villagers and travelers she had patched up in her time there, injured by ambushes. While the gang kept the locals terrified, they still hadn’t been bold enough to make their way into Laasko Village, choosing instead to raid the smaller outer villages - ones not protected by a marshal.

Baxley was having a hell of a time dealing with it himself and had brought up hiring some extra help. Trudy had nipped that in the bud; hiding behind hired mercenaries wasn’t going to do anyone any good - that he really needed to call in support from the Republic. The conversation tapered off after that, and the emergency seemed to have died down. However, as it always did, there was no downtime. The newest crisis cropped up - the report of the flu on a neighboring planet in the same system. A planet Ibaar happened to trade with. Which meant Trudy had to work to get vaccines to Ibaar before everyone was sick. She had ordered them about a month ago. Thank the stars someone was on her side, and the vaccines only took a month to get to her. Someone had made the shipment hastily, and they were currently waiting for someone to pick them up. Trudy couldn’t pull her boots on fast enough when the docking attendant called her to report they had been dropped off. Within fifteen minutes, she was in a speeder with a blaster and Max in the passenger seat. They would get there by nightfall - if they were lucky. Trudy just hoped to the stars above that nothing happened on their way.

----

It seemed as though Trudy’s silent prayers were answered. She pulled the speeder around to the docking bay and left it idling as Max hopped out of it, striding up to the attendant’s office and rapping his knuckles on the glass. He had grown like a sprout since Trudy had been there, now easily towering over her - though that wasn’t exactly hard to do. Brownish red shaggy hair constantly fell into his eyes, much to his mother’s dismay, and he was a lot less intimidating than he liked to think he was, especially with those freckles. Trudy waited as they exchanged words, waving a hand as the attendant poked his head out of his office and motioned to where the vaccines were - clearly annoyed he had been interrupted from his dinner and whatever wrestling match was on the holo. Trudy moved towards the vaccines, scanning them in with the datapad she pulled from her pack and happy to see that they didn’t have to quite rush back with them. Their cooling system had enough charge to allow them to rest a little bit - though they would still have to make the trip back by night. Max helped her load the crates into the back of the speeder and went out front to buy them both some roasted tip-yip and drinks from the food cart out front. Trudy turned around, eyeing the gunship docked in the bay the vaccines had been stored in. Annoyance twisted in her stomach that the valuable vaccines were stored where some random visitor to the planet could just poke through them. Though, the presence of the gunship made her raise an eyebrow. Not many ships like this made their way out here; either the owner was here for a quick refuel, or they were up to something no good. She scowled at it as Max returned with the tip-yip on a stick and a couple of cool bottles of water. “We didn’t get harassed today,” Max observed as he sat down on the roof of the speeder, and Trudy took a seat inside. “You think somethin’ is goin’ on?”

She nibbled at the meat on the stick and offered a shrug, turning to look back at the gunship. “Who knows. I just hope they keep whatever they’ve got going on out of the village. I want to sleep peacefully when we get back.”

You know the phrase famous last words? Those were Trudy’s.

--- Miles away, a Mandalorian clad in beskar armor was about to attempt to take down a stronghold of bandits and remnant stormtroopers all on his own. Maybe Fennec Shand was right. Maybe he was suicidal. ** Chapter 2: But I Ain't Dead Yet Taglist: @novemberrain221, @blackdogdesignuk, @mistyfur5, @thepoisonofgod

[whore4teamcap]

Partners Against Crime

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Gender Neutral Reader

Summary: After your boyfriend takes a promotion, you’re assigned a new partner. How will you both deal with the separation and potential of someone getting in the way? 

Warnings: This fanfiction does revolve around law enforcement but I will not include any controversies. 

Word Count: 2.4k

A/N: Thank you @stucky-my-ship for requesting this! I’m so excited to turn this into a series. Hope you enjoy <3 Thank you so much to those who read! Feedback and interactions are heavily appreciated. Also! Please reach out if you would like to be tagged in future parts and my other projects.

Part 1

You flickered your eyes open as a blaring noise came from beside you. No matter how many years of experience you had with this job, you swore you would never get used to this schedule. Even when you were starting out as a beat cop everything seemed easier. It was probably just the adrenaline from coming straight out of the academy but then your life changed. You were promoted from beat and finally landed your goal job as a detective. You dreamed of being a detective ever since you were little. You smiled softly at the memory of you sneaking downstairs to watch tv behind your parents backs. Often finding yourself glued to crime shows; they fueled your desires to take down criminals.

You throw your arm toward the side table and shut off the alarm. Then you proceed to roll over and frown at the empty bed space beside you. Your boyfriend, James Barnes, well you called him Bucky, just got promoted to Sergeant. He was officially in charge of the precinct you both worked at. Which was both a blessing and a curse. You were so proud of Bucky, he finally got the promotion he has been working his ass off for and the new job came with a lot of good things for him.

But, you couldn't hide the fact that it was gonna severely weigh on you. You and Buck had been partners since you first got promoted to detective. You both really clicked from that day forward. It was gonna take a lot to get used to not having him by your side. In this line of work you need a person you can trust one thousand percent. At the end of the day this person is in charge of your life and you're in charge of theirs. Bucky was the definition of what a partner meant to you. Which is why it was no shock that three years later you both shared an apartment and ended up falling in love. However you just knew the promotion would put a damper on that as well. You had to keep your affair hidden from the precinct and trusted very few people. When you moved in with Bucky, you weren't even allowed to update your address so every now and then you'd make your way over to your old place to pick up mail. Luckily, you hit it off with your old landlord and he helps with anything and everything you need. Although you were certain he did it to eventually get a legal favor. But you didn't mind. It bought you time with the man you love.

Being that the precinct didn't know about you and Bucky, you couldn't stop yourself from worrying about the future. He was no longer your equal. He was your boss and you were terrified of the thought of someone finding out about your relationship. It could get both of you fired or moved to different precincts. Which was the better of the two, but it would be hard to work without each other. You strongly believed what made you best at your job was having him beside you. Or at least in the same work place. This mindset also made you question if your relationship would ever progress more than it was. Of course you wanted to eventually marry Bucky but how would that work with your jobs? There were so many obstacles the two of you faced and it made you even more stressed for your first day without him.

While groaning, you rub your face. Then you gain the strength to pull yourself from the half empty bed. You make your way to the bathroom and turn on the water. Giving it time to heat up while you go grab a towel and pick out clothes for your day. After showering and getting ready, you stepped out of your shared room. The apartment is small and cozy. New York was an expensive city to live in but you both made it work. When you were looking for apartments, you didn't care where you ended up just as long as we were with each other. Being that the apartment was tiny, you could see straight into the kitchen from the hallway. Your eyes fell straight on a note besides the partially full coffee pot. You smile to yourself and walk over. You lift it off the counter and begin to read,

Good morning Doll

I hope you slept well. I left early this morning to get a head start on everything at the station. I made us coffee. I hope it's still good by the time you wake up.

Yours,

Bucky

P.S. Please grab our usual at the deli before you come in

You let out a brief chuckle at the final sentence written on the piece of paper. You grab a travel mug from the cabinet and place it in front of you. Then you proceed to grab the pot and pour it into the cup. After adding creamer and sugar, you bring the cup to your lips and take a small sip. The coffee was good but on the colder side. Therefore you pop it in the microwave while you quickly grab your belongings. When you hear the beep, you remove it and put the lid on. Carrying everything with you out of the door.

While driving to work, you swing by the deli up the road from your apartment building. You park on the busy New York street and quickly get out of your car and run inside. The bell above the door dings and Frank and Linda look up from behind the counter. You shoot them a large smile and they quickly return. The deli was owned by this sweet older couple since the early 70s. They were so kind to you and really cared for their regulars. So much so, they memorized Bucky and your order. Sometimes even having it ready before you arrive in the mornings.

"Good morning (y/n)! Where's Bucky?" Frank asks, his welcoming smile fading into a light frown. He walks toward the edge of the counter to meet you.

"Good morning! He went in early. First day of the new promotion. I'm still gonna bring him breakfast though," you explained while Linda grabbed a brown paper bag from the far counter and brought it toward you.

"Oh! Please tell him we wish him well, would you? We remember like it was yesterday when you both started coming in here. You've come a very long way and were so proud of you both," Linda said kindly. Her words turn your cheeks a dark shade of pink.

You could remember that day like it was yesterday as well. Bucky brought you here on your first day of the job and you've been coming to Frank's since.

-

"Why don't we stop and get food before we start our case? I know this amazing deli a few blocks away from the station," Detective Barnes suggests and you nod.

His gaze stays on you while you both get into his car. You slide into the passenger seat then proceed to put your seat belt on. You watch him do the same then start the car.

"So how long have you been a detective?" you ask softly, fiddling with your notebook and pen in your lap.

"Bout' 5 years or so. Rogers, the guy you met back at the precinct, he was my partner. We go way back," He replies while he pulls out of his parking spot. Beginning to make his way up the block.

You watched the busy street and took everything in with new eyes. You lived in New York your whole life but the city was still new to you. Your gaze shifts to your partner and you blushed lightly. His dark hair, calming smile and kind personality seemed to draw you in. But you pushed those thoughts away. This was professional and you knew that. However you found yourself incredibly lucky to be partnered with someone who already gave you such a welcoming homely feeling.

"Whatcha thinking about, (y/l/n)?" he asks. Shifting his attention from the road to you. His eyes connected with yours and suddenly all of your first day jitters went away.

His eye snapped back to the road and he began puling to a stop. Veering off to the right side of the road into an empty parking spot. Once his eyes snapped away, you took a deep breath and looked away as well.

"Just trying to get a good read on my partner. Making sure he's not dirty or part of something that'll get me killed," you say jokingly. You let out a laugh at your own stupid explanation and Barnes' attention quickly turned back to you. The corners of his mouth instantly went up and he shot you a toothy grin.

"Don't worry. If you're with me long enough. I'd let you in on my dirty cop side. No need to fear for your life," He joked back. Holding up his hands as if he were surrendering.

"All about the money in the end, isn't it Barnes?" You asked, continuing this forming inside joke.

"Oh definitely."

You both get out of the vehicle and you notice a big sign above the small deli. The name reading FRANK'S. You both walk inside and you smile as you're greeted by a seemingly older couple. You have been to countless deli's in New York State but this one gave you a great feeling. You didn't have family in the city. So it amazed you how quickly strangers could become such a crucial piece in your life.

-

She hands the order to you and you begin to pull out your wallet. Frank instantly puts his hand up and smiles, "Please it's on the house today. Also don't forget your coffee! Feel free to grab one for Bucky too."

"Thank you so much," was all you managed to reply with. Their utter kindness always brought so much love to your heart.

You notice you forgot the mugs so you walk out of the shop toward your car. You unlock it and pull on the passenger side door. You put the food in your car. Then lean over and grab your nearly empty travel mug from home and the spare from your car. You bring them inside so you can quickly fill them up before making a b line to work.

When you arrive, you walked into the precinct with your hands full. Doing your best to carefully get to your desk. You notice Bucky making himself at home in his new office and you can't help but feel an overwhelming amount of happiness for your boyfriend. He looks so excited and you were so incredibly proud of him. You set your coffee down then pull out your breakfast sandwich placing it on your desk. You grab the brown bag and Bucky's coffee wasting no time before you walk into his office. The man instantly looks up from his papers with a smile.

"Good morning beautiful. Is that for me?" He asks softly, keeping his voice low enough so no one hears.

"Good morning Sergeant Barnes," you say with a small smirk growing on your lips. You move closer to the desk and set everything down. "Linda and Frank gave us our food for free today. They wanted to congratulate you on the promotion. They're very proud of you."

"That's very kind of them. I needed this. Thanks for picking up the food. Rogers told me to come in early and I'm kinda glad I did because he was able to give me the full run down. Hopefully everything goes smoothly from here on out. Although it was weird coming in alone. I hope that won't become a regular thing. Despite the headache, I love our chaotic mornings," Bucky explains followed by a small chuckle. Your mind instantly recalls how usually your mornings consisted of you both fighting for space to get ready. Except you also both secretly adored the morning due to the fact Bucky loves to wake you up with light kisses.

"I agree. I really hope it's not regular. I already lost my partner, the last thing I want to lose is alone time with my boyfriend," you sigh then force a slight laugh. You didn't mean for it to come off in an upsetting way, but you realized it did when the room fell silent.

"Is my new partner coming in today?" You ask curiously, unable to find anything but awkwardness after your statement. You pay close attention to his face and notice a sour look appear. Maybe he wasn't taking it as well as you thought.

"Yeah. He should be in soon," Bucky replies and you nod. You walk out of his office and make your way to your own desk.

You unwrap your sandwich and use one hand to eat and the other to flip through your files. Taking in all of the new information for the case you are starting. You quickly finish your food then you take a large sip of your coffee. You haven't been given any information on your new partner so you wanted to make sure you knew as much as you could about your mutual assignment. Just in case you were stuck with someone inexperienced.

After about a half hour of being lost in thought while analyzing your papers, Bucky's strong voice fills the room. You look up and catch his gaze. He motions for you to come toward him; you get up from your chair and follow behind him into his office. Inside you see a man sitting in one of the two chairs across from Bucky's. He had on black dress pants, a light blue button up shirt and a black blazer. The outfit complimented his body quite well. Your focus moves up to his face, noticing his piercing blue eyes and his slightly long blonde hair. You hear a fake cough come from Bucky and instantly look at him.

"Detective (y/l/n), this is your new partner. You guys will be working the Reagan case together."

The man stands up from his chair and eyes you up and down. He finally extends his hand to you and you shake it.

"Hi, I'm Detective John Walker."

[ikeromantic]

First Day

This is an Ikemen Sengoku coffee shop AU. Approx 1700 words. Nobunaga, the owner of Azuchi Cafe, hires a girl to work in his coffee shop alongside his other oddball employees.

Pastry Chef and little rain cloud: Ieyasu Tokugawa

Head Chef and irredeemable flirt: Masamune Date

Dining Room Manager and rule-master: Hideyoshi Toyotomi

Barista and most popular kid in your class: Ranmaru Mori

Barista and coffee disaster: Mitsunari Ishida

Accountant and walking bad-boy vibe: Mitsuhide Akechi

I have never written a coffee shop AU and I have no idea what I'm doing.

Nobunaga unlocked the back door at 3am. It was so early most people would still call it night, but he enjoyed the peace and quiet at this hour. As if he were the sole living human in a world of stray cats and blinking traffic lights.

He flipped on the lights and began morning prep. As the owner of Azuchi Cafe, he didn’t need to be the shop opener, but he was the kind of man who’d never ask his employees to do something he wouldn’t do himself. This meant he often worked from opening until close, cleaning the kitchen at 10pm. It was something he was proud of, even if it was exhausting some days.

Ieyasu arrived a few minutes later, along with the morning shipment. Fresh fruit, cream, some new coffee bean varieties, and other items he stocked daily. The blond was quiet as he helped unload. Not a morning person, not by a longshot.

Once the crates were inside, Ieyasu made a beeline for the espresso machine and had two cups on the counter before Nobunaga completed his inventory check.

The blond downed both cups and then got started in the kitchen. He was too smart for a cafe job - easily one of the best bakers Nobunaga had ever met. And this cafe was blessed with two, though the other man was a polar opposite of the silent, serious Ieyasu Tokugawa.

As if thinking of him summoned him, the back door swung open and in swaggered Masamune. “Good morning!” His voice was loud and vibrant, as always. He never needed caffeine to feel awake - Masamune was naturally caffeinated.

“D’you have to be so loud?” Ieyasu glared.

“Do you have to be such a grouch?” Masamune raised his one eyebrow. His other eye was covered with a pirate-style eyepatch. The look wasn’t just for effect. He’d lost his left eye to a childhood illness, but that hadn’t dampened his spirit or enthusiasm.

Ieyasu held up a dough covered middle finger in response and went back to making croissants.

Masamune put a hand to his heart. “Such cruelty.”

“Stop bickering and start cooking.” Nobunaga tried to sound stern but couldn’t help the little smile on his lips.

The two of them did, though the grumbling and sniping never really stopped.

While Ieyasu handled bakery items, Masamune was in charge of the grill. Hot sandwiches, soups, and whatever else he decided to put on the menu. Nobunaga had given up trying to restrain him. The man was a genius cook, and whatever he made sold, so it made sense to give him his head.

Akechi showed up next. Mitsuhide was an accountant by trade, with a law degree besides. He didn’t technically work at the shop, but he did the books and didn’t charge much for the work. Nobunaga wasn’t sure why he spent so much time at the cafe, but he’d become a fixture. Showing up before opening to do Azuchi’s books and then sitting in the dining area, working on his laptop for hours.

“Anything I should know about,” Nobunaga called, before Mitsuhide disappeared into the cafe office.

“If there was, I’d tell you. Probably.” Mitsuhide gave him his trademark smile, sly like a fox.

“It’s that probably that worries me.” Nobunaga frowned. He didn’t actually believe Mitsuhide would sabotage him. Not after so many years as a client. But with that man, you never quite knew where you stood.

Akechi shrugged. “I can’t think of a reason not to - but you never know.” He disappeared into the office, and soon the only sound from that room was the clacking of a keyboard.

The sky to the east was beginning to lighten, the stars fading from view. It would be time to open soon. As if on cue, Mitsunari showed up with Ranmaru in tow. They were the baristas, taking orders, making coffee, and serving the sit-down diners.

“Isn’t it a beautiful morning?” Mitsunari said this to Ieyasu’s back as he passed him.

The blond snorted. “It looks like every morning. Literally, exactly the same.”

“And every morning is beautiful.” Mitsunari Ishida smiled. “I am so lucky to work with such wonderful people. It will be a great day. I can feel it.”

Ranmaru laughed. “Absolutely. Just ignore old grumble-pants here. We are going to have an awesome day.”

“I am not old,” Ieyasu snapped.

“You are compared to me!” Ranmaru was the youngest in the crew, and he liked to remind the others about it.

“That’s enough. Get up to the front and prep the display. Both of you.” Nobunaga pointed toward the front counter.

Ranmaru gave him a pouty look, but did as he was told. Despite his penchant for causing trouble in the kitchen, he was great with customers, and pretty reliable.

Mitsunari didn’t seem to realize he’d been in the middle of the bickering. He just smiled and followed Ranmaru to the front.

That one, Nobunaga thought, was dangerous. At first impression, Mitsunari Ishida seemed like an airhead. Cheerful to the point of being vapid, and clumsy as well. But he could take orders faster than anyone else, remember which customer had which preference, and quote the menu without a glance at the board on the wall. He was great, so long as you didn’t ask him to pour the coffee.

At opening, Hideyoshi finally sidled in. He was the dining room manager, in charge of the servers, and everything on the front end. Nobunaga trusted him implicitly. Most cafe owners had to worry about theft and inattention from their cash-handling employees, but not him. Not with Hideyoshi Toyotomi at the counter. That man was a veritable saint, if sometimes a little melodramatic about his service.

“I know you told me I didn’t need to be here until 10, since you open. But I couldn’t let you handle everything alone.” Hideyoshi’s version of ‘good morning’ as he tied his apron on.

Nobunaga sighed. “You are my closing manager, Hideyoshi. You’re going to be stuck here until 10 or 11 tonight . . . and you realize, I do have employees here, helping, right?”

Toyotomi nodded. “Sure, sure. But extra hands always help with morning rush, right?”

“Right. And that’s why I have a new hire coming in at 8.” Nobunaga sighed.

“A new hire?” Mitsunari’s violet gaze lit up. “Will I get to train them?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Ieyasu grumbled. “We want them to make coffee, not learn how to dump the pot on the floor.”

“Stop being so mean,” Ranmaru sniped back, defending Mitsunari.

“Hey, hey! The new employee isn’t gonna get trained by any of you. Clearly, the boss is going to put them with me. To pass on my culinary genius.” Masamune’s one eye sparkled.

“No, no, and absolutely not,” Nobunaga said, raising his voice. “Hideyoshi and I are going to train them. If the lot of you don’t terrify them into quitting on their first day.”

And that was the end of that discussion. It was 5am and the door opened. The steady stream of customers kept everyone busy for the next few hours. Lattes and cappuccinos, americanos and macchiatos, and decaf for those in denial. The flow began to slack as 8am approached. Most people were at work now, coffee in hand.

Clean-up started in the kitchen, and Hideyoshi began on the dining room.

The glass front door opened at 8am sharp. The new hire walked in. This wasn’t Nobunaga’s first time meeting her, but he still felt a twang in his chest as she smiled brightly at no one in particular.

“I hope I’m not late!”

Hideyoshi eyed her up and down, nodding to himself. Flat shoes, cute but practical. Hair pulled back sensibly - stylish, but not overdone. Professional clothes, fitted and comfortable. He hadn’t been part of the interview but he was feeling pretty positive about this candidate. He gave Nobunaga a nod.

“No, you’re right on time,” Mitsunari replied, leaning on the counter. His angelic smile was fixed on her.

The impact was obvious. One did not face the pure, focused joy of Mitsunari and not feel it. She blinked for a moment, stunned, her cheeks flushing. “Oh. Well that’s good, right?”

“Sure is,” Ranmaru said, coming around the side of the bakery display. He wiped his hands on his apron and held one out to her. “Welcome to Azuchi!”

“Hey, that’s my line,” Nobunaga grumbled.

“Yeah, but I’m cuter when I say it.” Ranmaru’s cheek reply got a chuckle from Masamune.

The one-eyed chef came out from the kitchen to observe. He wasn’t looking for whatever qualities Hideyoshi had, but what he saw made him grin. “Well, lass, I’d say welcome again but that’d make me look like an idiot. How ‘bout I help you put on an apron and show you around the place?”

“Again, my line,” Nobunaga said tiredly.

Ieyasu poked his head out from the back and sighed heavily. “Great. Another fluff head to train. Look, when you get bored listening to these idiots, come find me in the kitchen. I’ll try to teach you to bake. I’m sure you can manage a simple recipe. Probably.”

The girl looked unsure how to respond. She finally shrugged. “Yeah, ok! I’m here to work, so whatever you want to teach me, I want to learn.”

“You’d be better off learning how to keep the books,” said an amused voice behind Ieyasu.

The girl’s eyes darted up as Mitsuhide came out from the back. “Not that I’m hiring. I don’t do internships either,” he continued. He stepped out from behind the counter and closed in on her like a stalking cat. His golden eyes slid down from her face, over her chest and hips, down her legs, and back up, slow as syrup. “Though I can think of some reasons to make an exception.” He handed her a business card. “For when you tire of this service job.”

“Ah, thanks?” She glanced at the card and by the time she looked up again he was gone.

“Everyone, get back to work. I’m handling the new hire. You’ll all get a chance to train with her. I want her to work swing, so she’ll need to know a little of everything.” Nobunaga clapped once.

The workers all got back to it, though not without plenty of backward glances.

Hideyoshi handed the girl an apron. “Good luck!”

[weebwrites]

What It Takes (Meizou x Reader) (Ximen x Reader)

Fandom: Meteor Garden / Boys Over Flowers Warnings: Unrequited love, Love Triangle, Happy Ending, Sad Ending Words: 2k217 Requested By: No One Synopsis: Meizou can’t help but wonder what it will take for his fiancé to love him instead.

Note to Self- Don’t fall In Love First

Mei Zou had been ecstatic when he first heard of the arranged business merger between his family and the Y/L/N group. Since the moment his mother brought the idea to him, he was shaking with excitement. He had always been worries of his parents plan for his future- maybe that’s why he tried to have as much fun as possible in his youth.

Mei Zou told no one about the engagement plans, but, of course, Y/n noticed. She called him out the first time she saw him since he was told the news. It never stopped shocking him; she was the most observant person Mei Zou had ever met. 

The group of five were lounging in the bridge room, and the second Y/n looked up from her music composition book she asked Meizou what made him so excited. He was quick to re-gain his composure and call it a secret- saying she’ll find out soon enough. 

The other three people in the club room looked over at the both of them. Ah Si rolled his eyes, making some remark of how freaky it was- that she knew them so well. 

Ximen walked over to her and put his hand gingerly on Y/n’s head, “I think it’s cute how her gaming strategy bleeds into her personality.” He moved his hand to her jaw so they were looking at each other, sharing a smile. 

Lei nodded, “It’s nice to have someone you can have a silent conversation with.”

Meizou kept his eyes on the pair in front of him, his hands balling at his sides, morphing into pale chords of muscles as he clenched the chair’s fabric. Y/n had looked back at her book, making progress on the song she was composing. 

He watched as her hair fell from behind her ears, obscuring his view of the girl. He noticed the signs of her becoming increasing frustrated. Just as he was about to move over, Y/n had called out to Lei. 

“I’m trying to convert my song from guitar to piano, but I’m not sure how to compensate for the fret change during the bridge. What chord do you think will work here?” She made eye-contact with the soft boy.

Before looking at where she was referring to, Hua Ze Lei gently brushed the hair from her face before answering her question. 

If only we were together already, Mei Zou thought, then I could stop them from looking at her like that. It was hard on the boy to see Y/n interact with other guys on a daily basis. He’s loved her since they were children, but he had no clue what the future held. So, for now, he bit his tongue. It would be so much easier if she loved me already. 

------------------------------

Note To Self- Don’t wait too long

He was many things- an artist, a bridge player, a loyal friend, a play boy, a hopeless romantic, the list goes on- but Mei Zou is not an idiot. 

He recognized the signs- falling in love was most visible from the outside. It started small, he would walk beside her in the halls. Then he would be the first to her classes, then he started to drive her home, until he’d take her out before reaching her house. It had started small, the love between an angel and a broken man. 

Meizou wasn’t an idiot. He knew Ximen was cautious with love, to the point of thinking he might never get married. It was a shock when he realized his friend was actually in love.

When Meizou first noticed his friend’s lingering glances and moment longer hands on her waist, he cornered him in the hallway. He had pushed Ximen against the lockers, grabbing his collar. Meizou scolded him, warned him that Y/n wasn’t like the girls he toys with, she’s more than them. He warned him about messing with their Y/n, the only female member of F5; Meizou gently reminded him that it wasn’t just himself Ximen would have to worry about, Ah Si and Lei cherished their princess, and they’d do anything to protect her.

Ximen shoved his friend off of him, aggressively declaring his love for her. “I love her, Meizou,” he whispered after. “I can’t stop- it’s like she’s the only thing in my life- every girl I see is just a person who isn’t her, every breath I take is one I wish was with her; she’s in every thought I have and my hand feels empty without hers’ in it. I don’t know how but I love her. I love her.”

To say he was shocked would be an understatement. Meizou guided Ximen back to their club room to keep away from peering eyes. They sat and drank the scotch the room was stocked with. Even as Ah Si came and went, Ximen hadn’t said a word since the hallway. Nothing fell from his lips since he whispered his love for their bestfriend. Meizou had never seen Ximen so vulnerable before, so delicate; if he told his friend about the engagement plans Meizou feared he would shatter like a porcelain heart, so he waited.

--------------------------------

Note To Self- Decide Your Priorities Early On

Having the plans be a secret wasn’t difficult. Meizou wasn’t told anything since the reveal, so it’s not like he was keeping anything other than that from hs friends. No, having it be a secret wasn’t what was difficult- but keeping it a secret was the most painful experience ever. 

Meizou watched their love story from the side lines- seeing the stages of their relationship was like watching acts of a play in a theater he couldn’t leave. He was the understudy of a lead who never got sick. Still, Meizou waited. He waited for Ximen to mess up, to freak out. It was messed up- something he never thought he would stoop low enough to do- yet every time Y/n gushed about her plans Meizou silently prayed his friend wouldn’t show up.

He prayed Ximen would forget, he prayed Ximen would make a mistake- just once. He wished he would say the wrong thing- offend her by accident; he prayed on every lucky star that Ximen would hurt her- just once.

Yet with every ill-intended wish it was like their love grew stronger. Ximen had given up his go-to dating plans the moment Y/n agreed to go out with him. Long gone were the roses and strawberry scented cards, no more was the heart on the side of the building. Y/n wasn’t like that. 

Instead they would go to a second hand book store and find a book that had been lived in- one with dog-eared pages and cracked spines. With their books in hand they would to go a cafe, they’d order two drinks (A hot tea of differing flavors and a Spiced Chai Latte) and a piece of cake. Occasionally looking up to smile at their partners, they lived through the books. Smudged highlights of their favorite quotes, smushed rants in the margins when the plot got heated, tears softening the pages which hurt their hearts; the two poured their souls into the pages, and then they gave part of themselves to the other. 

They’d go their separate ways and read the books their partners had chosen for them, laughing when they read a funny note the other had left, calling in tears when everything goes wrong, they annotated the novels. The books would be swapped back and forth, each time read from a new perspective until each page was filled with reminders of love, silly rants, or just mementos of their time together. The book became more ink and highlighter than paper, and it’s meaning had transformed. This was what they were as a couple, something that never seemed to be breakable. Something endless.

Ah Si was spectacle at first, hesitant to expose Y/n to his playboy turned romantic friend. He had always thought Y/n would end up with Lei- but he gave Ximen a chance, and he waited. He waited for Y/n to show up at his door step in tears, he waited to kill Ximen for making her cry. He waited and he waited and the day never came. 

Instead, Y/n cried over how sweet he was. Instead she told him how well he treated her, how Ximen made her feel so special. She called Ah Si late at night not heartbroken, but reduced to giggles and squeals after a perfect date. Never came the day Ah Si would comfort a heartbroken Y/n, and he had never been happier for her. 

Lei was the first to know of Y/n’s long-lasting crush on his friend. He was surprised- back when she told him at the age of twelve. But since then he expected the calls of how he was perfect, how he’d never see her as a girl. He knew Y/n’s feelings inside out, and he was worried when she told him that Ximen had taken her out on a date. He waited for Ximen to get bored, for Y/n’s perfection to not be enough for him. Lei watched silently as the pair spent every second together, watched with careful eyes as they fell hard. 

After his worries for her well being subsided, Lei waited for Y/n to fade from his life. As it was, Y/n called him every day and texted him throughout it. He waited for the calls to stop, for her texts to become once a day with simple meanings. He waited patiently to be along on the rooftop with only the memories of his bestfriend to keep him company. He waited and waited and waited, staring at the phone or the rooftop entrance. Days, weeks, a month, two, yet the phone always rang, and the door always opened. Lei realized Y/n wouldn’t be abandoning his relationship with her for someone else. Maybe it was because he chose love and abandoned his friends when he did- maybe that's why he tried to prepare himself for Y/n’s departure from his life- waiting for her to disappear. But the day never came, and Lei stopped waiting.

Ximen was terrified every day. He was anxious as he drove to her house, wondering when he would freak out. He was scared when he looked down and saw Y/n holding onto his arm, wondering when he would push her off. He clenched his hand tight as he watched her dance through the streets of Shanghi, wondering when he would ruin his one shot at happiness. 

Every date his heart was beating out of his chest, every stolen glance felt like the last. Every smile thrown his way was a wakeup call- every time her voice reached his ears it cut through the fog of self doubt and misery which swallowed him whole- she was his savior. His angel that managed to save him every time, the only life raft on the sinking boat; she was the only good thing left in the world that fought to bruise his ego and tie him to a hundred pound weight of misery. She was the softest blanket, she was the best alarm. She was everything. His hand unclenched. He calmed down.

Meizou should have known this would happen. He decided then, seeing her beautiful smile, that her happiness is all that mattered. 

---------------------------------------------------------

Note To Self- Sometimes Things Don’t Work Out, Sometimes That’s Okay

When Meizhou told his parents he wouldn’t go through with the wedding they were furious. When he broke down in tears they had no clue what to do with themselves. 

“She’s in love with someone else,”

They comforted him as best as absentee parents could, patting his head awkwardly with empty words. They offered to go through with it anyway, have her fall in love with him after they’re married.

Meizhou refused- he didn’t want to. 

Instead, Meizhou stood at the altar, watching as Y/n approached. She was beautiful. Her dress dragged behind her and her eyes watered with tears- she was gorgeous. 

Lei and Daoming Si stood across the isle, beside Y/n as she took her rightful spot. She stared into the eyes of her beloved and, for once, it wasn’t jealousy that prickled under his skin. It was sorrow- deep and painful morning for the death of his future. His beloved would never be his, his beloved was someone else. He cried.

Y/n had never felt better. Her mother had been apprehensive about giving her consent, saying she hadn’t expected Ximen to be the one she fell in love with. Y/n wasn’t sure what she meant, but her mom dressed her to the nines and did her makeup personally. 

And now here she was, standing in front of the man she’d gladly spend every moment of her life with.

“How did I get so lucky,” she whispered, as Lei handed her Ximens ring and Meizhou handed him the other.

“No love-” Ximens eyes swirled with love and adoration, “how did I get so lucky?”

The room erupted into cheers, applause, the occasional scream or encouragement as they kissed. The world faded around them and the only thing that mattered was each other.

Meizhou waved them off as they climbed into the limo towards their honeymoon. 

[hermitcraftheadcanons]

Scattered AU Masterpost Part 1

This is a collection of all material associated with the Scattered AU (read about the premise here)!

Join the new Discord server here

AU material under the cut (because this is growing super fast already)

Due to post length limit (which is apparently a thing), find Part 2 of this AU here.

A few ideas to get us started:

- Tango and Zedaph spawned relatively close to each other, but they haven't found each other yet and each think they are alone. They keep just barely missing each other in their exploration of the area. Maybe, with the powers of Zed's perfect sense of direction and Tango's laser-sharp perception skills, they'll finally stop walking circles around each other...maybe.

- Xisuma spawned alone, deep underground in a massive, confusing cave system. He desperately wants to figure out what's going on and how to fix it, but a bad run-in with the Warden damaged his helmet, leaving him unable to use admin commands.

- Mumbo spawned the farthest out of anyone, right next to a woodland mansion. He quickly realized that hoping to stumble across another person this far out is a lost cause, so he's trying to create some form of communication using a combination of redstone and Evoker magic. The Evoker isn't very helpful, and it isn't going well.

- Joe and Vintagebeef were the only ones to successfully spawn at spawn. They aren't really sure what's going on, but they've decided to build a small village as a base of operations while they figure it out (and to signal signs of life to anyone who might successfully find their way back)

- Cleo spawned in a village, and is currently hiding out in a house while trying to convince the villagers to trust her. Let's just say they aren't thrilled to have a zombie in their midst (and the iron golem is even less pleased)

- Impulse had the misfortune to spawn in a guardian temple. Between the guardians and the constant threat of drowning, he's been in a death loop since the world started.

- False and Stress spawned right next to each other. They figured out pretty early that something was wrong with regen, and using their combined strengths, they made it to the Nether to get ingredients for healing potions. They are now on a mission to find the others and distribute the potions to whoever needs them.

- Ren actually managed to travel a good distance back to the world center, before getting pretty badly injured. With no regen, and knowing he'll have to start the journey all over if he dies and respawns, he's decided to pull together a small base and take shelter while he waits to be found.

- Scar spawned on an outer End island, with no idea how to get back to the Overworld. He keeps finding strange glitches in his surroundings, and he swears he can hear soft Vex laughter whenever he turns his back...

- Keralis spawned in the Nether, and he is absolutely terrified.

That's all I have for ideas so far. The location of the others (and what happens next) is up to you!

Contributions so far:

- Bdubs spawns in the void, but he just doesn’t die. Maybe it’s spawn protection, maybe it’s the glitches, but he just keeps falling and falling and falling further from the bedrock, unable to do anything to help himself as he descends further into the void

- @fluffy-papaya

- After wandering around aimlessly for days or maybe weeks, Tango finds an automatic farm for... well... he's not sure, exactly. But he does know who built it- it's got Zedaph's mark all over it. So he stays there, fixing broken Redstone, trying to figure out what it does. And when Zedaph returns to collect melons (so that's what this thing is for), he finds Tango waiting for him.

- @rayveewrites

- Etho spawns in a underwater cave, but there is air in it and for some reason a shipwreck so he can get some wood and tools. But he has to get out to contact anyone because the reception in caves don't happen to be the best, little does he know just outside the cave is the monument where Impulse is, they're so close yet so far from one another

- anonymous

- Maybe Etho ended up spawning at the very top of a mountain, he could see far from up there and has a general idea of where he is, but no idea how to get down as all around him is powderd snow hiding ravines, and cliffs. . . And a few goats that Etho has narowly avoided getting headbutted by. (Etho went to the mountain after escaping the cave)

- @ciaravixen

- Welsknight spawned in the Nether

- (paraphrased) Ren fell down a ravine in the mountains on his journey to the world center, and decided to make a small cabin base rather than try to carry on injured. Doc spawned in those same mountains, and may find him eventually.

- anonymous

- Grian spawns on the tallest peak of the highest mountain. Surrounded by thick fog and almost ever-falling snow, with crevasses and cliffs that drops thousands of blocks to the ground around every corner. No trees, no life, and barely enough air to breath. It's so cold. A thin red sweater isn't nearly enough to keep him warm.... he's likely caught in a death loop for quite awhile as he refreeze over, and over, and over again. And when he does manage to climb down, an ice pillager lies in wait...

- @therainofsweetmelody

- Scar’s End spawn is on a single island- he can see other islands around him, but they’re just out of jump reach- he tried, and fell and died, and respawned back onto his little island with the whispering voices around him a tad louder, and the islands just a bit farther away. He stops trying to jump to them eventually, out of fear they’ll vanish and he won’t have anything to focus on besides the whisper of ice cold hands and wings on his skin

- anonymous

- Oh! Maybe since Xisuma’s admin helmet is broken and he’s unable to run any world commands, that means mob hermits like Cleo, Doc, and Jevin aren’t quite the same. Maybe Cleo locked herself in that house for the villagers protection as much as her own. Maybe Doc eventually joins a lone creeper pack. Who knows! -💧

- anonymous

- Zed and Tango spawned in the same jungle biome, explaining the melon farm and why they could be literally three blocks from each other and still not be aware of each other’s existence. -🟣

- The first thing Scar does once he first spawns in (besides from almost having a panic attack) is take a jump into the void. This of course does nothing. He checks out the rest of the end islands around him, and finds a rather large end city just in render distance. There should be treasure or something that could help him survive, right? -🟣

- Keralis was lucky enough to spawn in a warped forest biome and next to a basalt delta, so he’s got wood and stone. It takes a bit, but he gets full gold armor and finds his way to a nether fortress. He figures with the broken regen that the other hermits will try to go for potions. Maybe he finds Stress and False, maybe not. -🟣

- I apologize if I'm sending too many asks, please feel free to say if so! I'm just already so invested in this idea, and absolutely love where it's all going! Shattered au brainrot go brrrrr - anyways; Cub spawns in a valley within the messa. To one side an abandoned village covers the cliff, and to the other, mines drill deep into the rock. A stream luckily runs through the valley, though it's slowly drying up. He can hear strange sounds in the mines, and feels something in the village watching

- @/therainofsweetmelody

- what if the hermits caught in death loops start gaining scars and marks from all their deaths? like impulse had permanent scars from the guardians and grian’s hands are permanently blue from freezing to death all the time

- anonymous

- X finds some axoloyls in a lush cave and falls in love. He gets some wood from said cave and gets some buckets so he can keep them -🟣

- Cleo gets stuck in a death loop with the iron golem, who is blind to her not attacking the villagers. One of the smarter villagers realizes she’s not fighting back, and calls the golem off. -🟣

- (paraphrased) After the iron golem is called off, Stress and False find Cleo badly hurt in the village house. They make sure she's comfortable and safe before going to the Nether to get potions, where they find a battered Keralis and carry him back. They turn the house into a little hospital while they brew potions and take care of Cleo and Keralis until they're strong enough to move on.

- anonymous

- Stress and False have set up a Nether Portal near a Nether Fortress, for easy escape to the relative safety of the Overworld. Keralis has never been more relieved in his life than when he found that portal.

- @/rayveewrites

- Doc spawned a thousand blocks away from ren, not knowing hos friend was there he happened to go in that direction. He managed to get materials, tools and food for himself before he sees rens little hut

- anonymous

- Jevin was one of the luckier hermits, when it came to where he spawned. He woke up in the shallow green waters of a floral cave, illuminated by glowing rocks and berries. He wasn't... quite alone. Although no other hermits could be seen, he quickly found a small family of axolotl living in the closed-off cave. They became his companions as he tried to assess his situation, and served as comfort when he realised his communicator was almost useless. Being slime, the environment was very welcoming

- @/therainofsweetmelody

- Xb spawns in the middle of a desert, with not even a village in sight. While he's used to being in distant lands with limited resources, he's very much not used to it on the Hermitcraft server with limited contact to the others. As the nights go by and the sands grow more hostile thanks to never-burning husks, he grows more and more lonely.

-@/basaltdragon

- At first, Doc is elated when he spawns on a mountain surrounded by goats. That is, until he discovers that none of his fellow hermits are there with him. After being headbutted down the mountain into the snowy tundra below and left on precariously low health, he hunkers down in a nearby igloo. But it's not exactly easy in a food-scarce biome when his only contacts are two villagers and the horde of strays that gather outside each night...

-@crows-in-space

- in one sense of the word, scar is safe. There's enough chorus fruit on the island to keep him alive, and despite his concerns the enderman don't even bat an eye at him. Theoretically, he could survive for longer than many of the others. But the whispers keep nagging at him, pushing him closer and closer to the edge. Sure, he could survive, but how long could he stay on this deathly quiet piece of land before someone would find him? He can see the faint outline of an End City on one of the fading islands, and every passing moment it haunts him. If he could just give in for a moment, let the powers of the vex harness his body for just a few seconds, maybe he could make it over and gather some gear- maybe even an elytra- and then he'd be set. But fear and logic talk him out of it. He's made deals with the vex before, and that quick trip across the islands could put him in a much more dangerous position than only being stranded...

- @/crows-in-space

- What if after scar gives up, he finds his vex mask lying on the floor with a tag saying ‘do it, it’ll help you get across’ (shade's note: Scar does it)

- anonymous

- For the Scattered AU: Scar gets an elytra, and after much internal struggling he decides to take a chance and leap into the darkness for hope of finding another island. During his terrifying glide he hears a distant scream from the void that is so familiar, but he can't quite place it, and he's in no hurry to risk flying any lower to check it out. - M

- @petrichormeraki

- Iskall and doc's robotic eye glitch out so they don't have any depth vision, so no mater where they spawn, they Are bound to die a few times from missinterprating how far away an Arrow or trident is, and how fast something is coming at them.

- @/ciaravixen

- I initially thought of this for Ren, but since there was already an idea for him, it could probably work for Iskall instead; He spawns in the middle of a scorching desert. Dunes of sand for as far as the eye can see, with barely a cactus or dead Bush in between. No water, no life - only the ever-present heat of the sweltering sun, and the large skeletons everywhere. He manages to find an abandoned temple after days of dragging himself through the sand, and spies a desert village on the horizon

- @/therainofsweetmelody

- Scattered AU! The way the "not killing Bdubs in his own spawn in the void" glitches work is similar to the forgiving void mod works where when you hit the bottom of the void you are teleported to the top instead of taking damage, but since Bdubs can't see anything in the void he doesn't know this (beyond a constant falling) feeling until he manages to "fall forward" enough to find some end islands, he finds scar this way but is so excited to see him he died from fall damage right in front of him

- @theclockworkowl

- (Scattered AU) Piggybacking off the death loop scars ask, when/if Bdubs is rescued from the void, he's in ROUGH shape. His external limbs are blackened and freezing with frostbite from the void (voidbite?), and his bones are permanently weakened from his form being subjected to the cold abyss for so long. Bdubs needs to relearn gravity after falling for so long, and doesn't use elytra anymore. The solid ground under his feet is something he'll never sacrifice for convenience ever again. - M

- @/petrichomeraki

- Wels spawned in a giant crimson forest in the nether. Towering mushroom trees, thick red vines, with piglins and hoglins he constantly has to run away from. But he finds something.... interesting as he's exploring. A house has been built into a wall, a mixture of nether and overworld blocks. Stepping inside, someone clearly lives there - someone who's not a piglin. Imagine his surprise (and relief) when a certain familair knight walks through the door. "Helsknight?"

-@/therainofsweetmelody

- xB wakes up in a dripstone cavern. It's damp and cold and the spikes are very tall, forming a sort of natural cage around him. At the very least, zombies and mobs can't get through, but the longer he stays there, the weirder the sounds get. There... wasn't a new mob for the dripstone caves, right? Right? (i'm trying VERY hard not to do new hermit OR crossover headcanons for scattered au. i swear) ~@betweenlands

- Scattered AU! Everyone Etho dies He spawns in a new place, first it was the underwater cave, then it was the top of a mountain, but it wasn't until he spawned inside an ocean monument and saw impulse trying to escape just as he was dying he realise the importance of the pattern, He was cycling though each of the other hermits spawn locations, which made all the wierd almost hermit made wierdnes make sense, the underwater one was his but the mountain was Grian's spawn spot,

- @/theclockworkowl

- Can the hermits see death messages? (They can) I'm imagining the potential angst of that, where normal world messages (achievements, commands, deaths) go through just fine but the others can't chat. The helplessness of watching their friends' names endlessly filling the chat and having no idea where they are, having no clue how to help, not even being able to offer comfort.

- @/basaltdragon

- Someone had mentioned xisuma also ending up in a floral cavern with axolotl, right? What if this was the same cave Jevin found himself stuck in? After days and days of clawing at stone, xisuma finally breaks into a cavern filled with faint light. After discovering the friendly acolotls, he notices a strange blue mass floating in the water.... and is almost startled to death when he sees the skull faintly showing through the slime, and the familiar wobbly voice coming from it. "Xisuma?"

- Doc and Grian (and later on, ren) spawned on the same mountain. Grian, of course, at the very top: stuck in the endless snowpeak, towering high above the clouds. Doc, meanwhile, ended up at the base, surrounded by snow and goats and giant taiga trees as far as the eye could see. Once Ren got stuck in the ravine, he often heard a familiar scream before a sickening splat every now and again, as the ravine lies almost completely below the highest peak. He's afraid to check his communicator.

- @/therainofsweetmelody

- grian’s practically given up since there’s not much for him to do. there’s no food and his hands are too frozen to mine. a little fox stays by his side at least. he’s about to freeze again and his health is low and he hears crumching footsteps approaching. he assumes its the iceologer coming for him but instead he hears “grian?” and he can make out blurry figures before he passes out and wakes up wrapped up in a blanket infromt of a fire. (whoevers managed to find and rescue him is up to you :D) (Shade's notes: the person who found him was Doc, and he took him back to Ren's cabin to warm up)

- anonymous

- Scar isn't the only one changed by the time he reaches spawn. Impulse drags himself up onto land finally, breathing heavily, and there's something different about him. Sharper teeth. The shadow he casts more inconsistent. Always faintly smells like saltwater. And his eyes glow faintly, a pale washed-out non-color like light at the bottom of the ocean. Something suggesting nonhuman geometry. Something sleeping that had to reawaken to escape. ~@betweenlands

- Eventually, Etho spawns in a jungle. By a complete stroke of luck, he sees the smoke of a campfire. Tango and Zedaph are happy to see someone- anyone- else. Especially when it turns out Etho somehow managed to get the coordinates of a certain Ocean Temple. Sure, it's far, but they can make it. After all, there's an 'I' in team ZIT, and they aren't leaving him behind.

- @/rayveewrites

- (summary of a couple different writing peices) After escaping the Guardian Temple, Impulse set out to find any other Hermit he could. He has gained some unnerving qualities and abilities that he doesn't really understand, but he's trying not to think about that right now. After defeating several mobs he should not have been able to defeat with his level of progress, he now possesses one Totem of Undying. He met up with Zedaph, Tango, and Etho on their way to find him. They are now hosting him at their campsite and are glad he is safe, but Etho is unnerved and suspicious of his more unsettling attributes.

- I had sent this idea right after the inbox closed, rip. But anyways - what if mumbo ended up befriending the evokers and pilligers in the woodland mansion? Of course, it wouldnt be like that at first- the constant death to the axes and swords and magic, the growls and yelling and cursed glares. But he always came back to work on the redstone and evoker magic in a desperate attempt to contact the others. Eventually, the evoker stops sending their vex, and the pilligers stop swinging their weapons

- @/therainofsweetmelody

- (Scattered AU) After Scar gives in to the Vex. Bdubs is barely conscious to begin with; dying to the void so many times really took it out of him in every way possible. But when he is awake, what he sees makes him scared. Scar with faded, cold eyes. Scar with transparent wings, gone in a blink. Scar being able to do things he shouldn't. Scar says it's to get them out of there, but every day he gets a little paler, a little colder, and Bdubs grows more worried. - M

- @/petrichomeraki

- Perhaps xb and Iskall are on opposite ends of the same desert? On one side, high sand dunes covering miles, with a single desert temple and isolated desert village hidden amongst the cliffs and hills. On the other, the deep flatt valley next to a Mesa mountain, flat nothingness stretching far past the horizon. It would still take quite a long time for them to find each other, but at least there's a change they could meet... and, perhaps, over that mountain, cub could be somewhere in the mesa

-@/therainofsweetmelody

- Iskall and Xb eventually find each other in the desert. Sunburned, dehydrated, and sand-blasted, they hug when they first meet despite not knowing each other well. And they try their best not to die, because what are the chances they'll ever find each other again? Two heads are better than one for finding their way to the rest of the hermits.

-@/basaltdragon

- Its probably a week or so of falling before bdubs managed to move enough to finally see the end islands just barely rendering in the distance. As someone had mentioned, perhaps he became so hopeful that he missed his mark, hitting the ground with a sickening splat just blocks beside scar. It took bdubs almost another week to get forward enough to see the islands again. This time, he landed right on scar... sending the vex back to his spawn several islands away, and leaving bdubs alone for days

-@/therainofsweetmelody

- While Bdubs and Scar are more than happy to have found each other again, their moments together are tense and filled with gaps of uncomfortable silence. There's an unspoken agreement hanging over them: Scar doesn't question Bdubs' frozen and frail state, and Bdubs pretends not to notice how Scar's skin has gotten pale and ghost-like, or how he glances behind him often, like he's being followed by a shadow only he can see. Though of course, Bdubs does notice. The whole server does. Grian wakes up in a cold sweat from a dream of Scar's ruthless attempts to destroy the mycelium resistance. Cub feels his own ties to the vex magic acting up once again, now worrying more than ever what Scar may have encountered in this broken world. Even Mumbo's evoker friend begins acting different, though Mumbo can't seem to determine whether it's out of excitement or fear...

-@/crows-in-space

- Scattered AU After the Wels meeting Hels Headcanon I imagine maybe Hels offers a deal to insure his safety on the Hermitcraft Server in exchange for Wels safety in the Nether. Wels very reluctantly agrees adding to the deal that Hels won’t hurt anyone. To bad he didn’t notice his Evil counterpart cross his fingers while shaking on it.

- anonymous

- Scattered AU:  TFC spawns on the main end island, dragon and all. With out proper preparation he’s been stuck in a death loop since the world’s start. Sometimes, right before he dies, he wishes that the janky respon would de-age his body; he’s not the agile young man who could take down the dragon solo anymore.

- @liagrace-b

- Scattered!Grian can’t fly. His normal down-featherly wings look like every feather has been plucked off, leaving the very sensitive skin open to the elements. But the world’s code itself has altered the physics of the wings themselfs. Grian can feel how much heavier the wing structure sits on his back, meaning that they couldn’t let him glide even if fully feathered. Poor Grian hasn’t survived the freezing cold long enough to know if his feathers would grow back with enough time.

- anonymous

- EX somehow gets into the scattered mix. Spawning in the Deep Dark, the exiled admin is terrified, and will stop at nothing to find his brother. 🌙

- (Scattered AU) Scar and Bdubs, after months(?) of travel, make it to the Ender Dragon's island. Bdubs is scared for both of their lives; he is in no condition to fight, he can't even STAND, and he's so, so afraid to die and be condemned to falling forever in the void once again. Scar says nothing, only gently setting his friend down behind an obsidian pillar before his skin goes completely translucent, his eyes clouding white. (Paraphrased: Scar defeats the dragon, him and Bdubs meet up with TFC)

- @/petrichormeraki

- the plugins do not work, so singleplayer sleep is out. Beds do reset spawn point, so the Hermits who spawned in a place where they can get them would do well to make several and use them as checkpoints along their journey (and hope that they don't get broken, especially for those who had to escape death loops....)

- (my answer to some questions)

- Those trapped in death loops change, adapting until they aren't harmed anymore or till they escape. After all, what are players if not adaptable?

- @permafrost782

- Xisuma blames his broken helmet for being unable to admin, as some sort of comfort. But there is no comfort there. The truth is, not even Joe, Tango, Cub, or Hypno can access the chat, can even begin to run commands to fix what has gone wrong. If they could, they would have teleported everyone to 0,0 and reset the worldspawn. Those partnered with any of the admins feel a certain kind of hopelessness. Those without feel a different kind of hopeless.

- @/basaltdragon

- To add to the scattered AU: Though i had seen someone explain the void connecting to the end so Bdubs gets out of that fall, i had the thought of this; What if eventually the void loops around with the overworld's sky, so he's basically in a continuous loop if falling to his death and respawning in the void until he finally is lucky enough in his falls to get over water and live. After that he just has to stay alive otherwise he returns to the void..

-@aetosofvalla

- Somewhere, in the back of Scar’s vex-addled mind, there’s the worry of Jellie. Where is she? Is she with another hermit? Did she spawn in with another village again and will he have to find her again? -🟣

- (Scattered AU) Cub and Scar have been linked by the Vex ever since their deal. One day, Cub's iron armor burns against his skin all at once, and through the searing pain is a horrifying realization that Scar has given in. - M

-@/petrichormeraki

- After a while Cub gets the resources to build a nether portal, but then he finds his portal has connected with someone else's. He finds himself lost again, without access to the farms he's built or the resources he's gathered, but at least he knows a friend is close.

- anonymous

- The End duo come across another end city. There’s a boat at the far end. Scar flies up on delicate vex wings to get the spare elytra and other loot. They’ve been walking for far too long. He floats down (as if he had the slow-falling effect. There’s only health in the brewing stand. Bdubs’ worry for Scar increases) with an extra set of trousers, boots, an elytra, the potions and a pic. Scar offers the elytra to Bdubs. He refuses. It’ll take longer to walk, but he never wants to fall again🟣

- Mumbo gets caught up in redstone work and doesn't bother trying to find anyone else. So when another hermit finally finds him, he has to stop his evoker friend from attacking. Whether or not he's successful is another thing.

- Anonymous

- (Scattered AU) Consider. When Doc finds Grian on the mountain peak while exploring the terrain, a message sends through everyone's communicators. <Grian was blown up by a Creeper>. Doc doesn't get a death message that time, despite both of them suffering the consequences of a surprised Doc in a server where mob-oriented hermits are more volatile than they should be. Doc doesn't go looking for other hermits again after that, and Grian is shocked into numbness at the dawning realization that his monster friends might be so much worse off than he thought. - M

- @/petrichormeraki

A summary of where things stand so far

- scattered au pog!!! hypno is in a seemingly endless flowery field. it was nice at first, but there's no trees, no food, and hardly any water. the sun is so hot. flowers aren't filling. hypno thought he liked being alone.

- Anonymous

- Mumbo doesn’t succumb to the magic of the mansion like perhaps Cub and Scar have, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t entirely unaffected- his skin becomes a little more washed out, instincts a little more violent- he certainly can’t go into villages anymore, otherwise the iron golem will smash him to bits

- @/fluffy-papaya

- With Scar using Vex magic, the Vex turn their attention to Cub, trying to tempt him at every turn. More then once he's found his mask in one of his chests, staring up at him, or awoken in a cold sweat from a dream full of vex. So far, he's resisted the temptation. Wether that lasts is another question entirely.

-@/bat-connoisseur

- Maybe eventualy hypno realises Even flowers would need water to grow, or that the bees must have a bee hive somewhere around here, and the bee hive is always connected to a tree(I think thats the case in Minecraft). So he tries to find where the buzzing comes from and follow the bees around.

- @/ciaravixen

- cleo bases a lot of her identity around being a zombie, right? she probably isnt too happy to be cured. she probably cries all the time it takes her to heal. it had to be done, but that doesnt mean she has to like it. and she doesnt, not one little bit.

- Anonymous

- that ask about Mumbo not bothering to look for anyone got me thinking.... Mumbo getting too caught up in his work with the evokers to look for the others. Mumbo making friends with the illagers. Mumbo knowing that it's completely reasonable that nobody has found him yet, but still getting the creeping feeling that no one is coming for him. Mumbo spending all his time with his new friends because, after all, they're here, and the hermits aren't... All this to say that, when the hermits eventually do find him, he might not be very inclined to leave...

- @/crows-in-space

- At one point, Mumbo's new friends are just...watching him try to do his stuff, observing. Mumbo's getting increasingly frustrated when ne of the evokers watching him breaks off and hands him something. At first he thinks its a totem of undying, its shaped like one, but its strange. Made out of iron, and its eyes are diamonds instead of emeralds. Then it starts to burn his hands and he passes out from the pain. When he wakes, its gone and he moves on, a bit more wary of his 'friends'. Maybe it was a mean joke, or some kinda of strange inhiation for the mansion maybe Except next time he's frustrated, he thows his hands up annoyed and fangs rise out of the ground around him and snap at the air. He cries out, confused, before looking at his hands which almost look like they've been painted with gray paints. it wont come off. He seems mentally the same but now he starts to experiment with his new found abilities. Maybe they can help with his redstone or even find others.

- Anonymous

- after trying a poisonous flower, hypno respawns back in the field. this time, he tries walking in a different direction. maybe this is the way out.

- Anonymous

- The flowers in Hypno’s area are just so perfect... blooming dandelions don’t lose their seeds when he brushes against them, petals that are crushed underfoot quickly regain their shape- and if his mind wasn’t so affected, he would’ve noticed the flower he picked was quickly replaced by another

- @/fluffy-papaya

- The Moobloom has one unique feature: The ability to leave behind flowers in its path... that is, the ability to alter the world around it simply by walking. These flower plains are not particularly large, maybe eight or so chunks across in each direction, but glitched world generation spawned in a herd of mooblooms, and all they've been doing is walking around causing little distortions, one on top of the other. From the inside, where Hypno is standing, the plains go on forever. The air is thick with buttercup pollen that's slowly dulling his sense of space and time. He has to pull it together, somehow. Force the world to recognise that he's walking forwards in a straight line. Or he'll be wandering in circles forever...

- @/draconic-dreams

- another hermit- maybe beef? sees the edge of a deep, fragrant field. on the horizon, not far away, is hypno, walking in circles. he calls but he cannot hear beef. something tells the man not to go into that field- at least, not without a flint and steel. (Shade note: Beef and Joe saved Hypno and are currently sheltering him (unconscious) in their spawn sanctuary)

- anonymous

- Maybe if they went through the exit portal and it glitched but good. They don't think about the fact it should send them back to their spawns, Scar feels something at the back of his mind that very much isn't him tell him to change his mind, stay in this place becuase they'll just be trapped if they try to leave, but Bdubs grabs his arm and jumps in before Scar can say anything. For a second, blessed silence, Scar's mind feels clear and normal. then they show up at world spawn and scare theother

- anonymous

(Shade note: people at the spawn haven now include Joe, Beef, Hypno, TFC, Scar, and Bdubs)

- Once Keralis and Cleo are healed up, the village gang starts going to 0,0 to try to meet up with others. On the way, they find a flower forest (potentially the same one Hypno’s in). They find some mooblooms and fall in love (this was def not done bc I want some fluff, nope not at all /s) -🟣

- Mumbo receives a set of robes from his evoker friend. He’s loathe to get rid of his suit, but at the same time... well, all the better to fit in, right? This is a glitch and fluke anyway, and he might as well blend in if the illagers ever turn on him. That’s it. That’s the only reason he tosses the suit jacket into the fireplace, don’t be silly. It has nothing to do with the feeling that he just doesn’t want to leave...

- anonymous

- I’m imagining Shattered Impulse looking like the Fishman from Shape of Water + the teeth of an Angler fish and the ability to unhinge his jaw. Poor guy probably gets mistaken for a glitched mob when someone finds him.

- @/fandomrecycling

- Yes hello it's me again. After the pollen spells breaks for Hypno (and whoever else might have tried to save him beforehand...), he notices he's a little different. he can't always control how he moves, he doesn't like eye contact, and he takes an even bigger interest in his, well, interests than before. Basically Tourettic Hypno go brrr (I am tourettic so feel free to ask me clarification!)

- @/fireflower-dusk

- I don't think Keralis has been mentioned except for being in the nether so I would like to contribute that he spawned in that soul sand and skeleton biome that has almost nothing in it.

- anonymous

- Mumbo, being hundreds of thousands of blocks out from spawn, is the last hermit to be found. Even after the glitch was fixed, Mumbo was so caught up in his research and new abilities that he no longer felt it mattered. He'd been apart from the hermits for well over a year now; and a long time ago he gave up hope that they'd come back for him. This was, of course, until he woke up one morning to a disturbance outside. When he goes to check the source of the racket, he's left frozen in place at the sight of Iskall on his mansion's doorstep. And at the end of it all, despite Mumbo telling himself that he was better alone, Iskall's hand on his shoulder, reassuring that "Yes, I'm here, yes, I'm real, and no, I'm not leaving, you spoon." Is enough for Mumbo to break, clinging to Iskall as if he'd disappear at any moment, murmuring "I'm sorry" over and over like a broken record. -🧸

- Maybe after Wels and Hels make their deal, and Wels gets some gold gear and a respawn anchor to click, Hels shows him how to create a portal to Hels the place to which from there, they think they can get into the overworld. The only catch being that to get in to Hels the place you need to focus all of you emotions onto pure hatred and anger, but the question is could Wels do it?

- Anonymous

- Hels taunts Wels about how no one came to get him, and plants ideas about how this was done on purpose, about how he's the only one to spawn in the nether for a reason. He tells him the hermits want him gone. And Wels of course becomes angry but he becomes angry at Hels for trying to tell him his friends didn't care about him. He's also angry at himself though, maybe for thinking he hasn't done enough to make his friends want to keep him around. He is never mad at the hermits though, never them

- TFC's concerned. Even if he thinks it's great he found Bdubs and Scar, the latter shouldn't be able to just kill the ender dragon alone. TFC doesn't know much about Scar but the man can barely fly usually, why did he turn into a vex, anyway? vexes don't exist in the end. TFC need to ask, at least to make sure he's ok, but everytime he tries he stops in his track once the cold, icy blue eyes stare back at him. devoid of the usual warmth his green ones have.

- Anonymous

- (Scatter AU) Saw someone mention the other ops on the server and had a thought: Tango is a programmer with a specialty in game programming. He’s probably sitting at the campfire thinking of every single way the game must have been corrupted to cause this many problems. If he could just get into the code, maybe he could fix some of these problems. I’ll bet he’s driving himself a little crazy thinking of everything that could be done to fix the world and not being able to do anything...

- Anonymous

- Cub was lucky, he thinks. Seeing the many death messages in chat, he's torn between gratitude that he's ended up with what almost looks like a normal spawn, and worry for his friends. After gathering enough resources to stay reasonably safe, he knows what he has to do next. So when he encounters Xb, he eventually suggests he takes some resources and a bed he's salvaged from the abandoned village and heads towards 0,0, hoping there'll be someone there. (1/3)But as for him... well, there's an obvious place to head as far as he can see, for someone with a safe enough spawn point and the ability to gather resources. A place where he knows for sure he'll find someone else, someone who needs help. After all, unless this world is even more messed up that it seems, there's only one place where a player would be killed by the Ender dragon, and he knows exactly how to get there. (2/3) (Shade note: Him and xB were not successful in finding the Hermit who the mystery portal belonged to. They must have died in the Nether and returned to their spawn point. XB resists the idea that they split up, but he sees the logic in it and agrees to start the long journey for 0,0.) (pt. 3 was eaten by the inbox)

- Anonymous

- Maybe one of the reasons Cleo doesn't like being a human as much is because she had chronic pain (particularly in her back) when she was alive, and when she gets cured after meeting up with False, Stress, and Keralis, her back pain comes back (along with all the other pains of being alive)

-@/justme123abz

- Whenever Etho spawns, wherever Etho spawns, he takes it upon himself to tell each and every Hermit he can find to head towards 0,0. He's not sure why, but he believes that if they get everyone together, they can figure out how to fix the broken world.If there aren't any Hermits in sight, he'll make a sign out of whatever's avalible before going searching. It's a complete pain to try and build anything coherent out of sand and cactus, but he has to try. He has to get everyone together. It's their best hope. It's their only hope.Even Evil X. Even Hels. Everyone. He doesn't care about past grievances. They need to get through this. And their only option is to do it together. (Shade note: He doesn't stay with Team ZIT for long. He probably dies trying to protect them from something, knowing that it will only result in him finding another Hermit anyway. Even though he himself isn't making any progress toward the origin, he counts it as a victory every time he can guide one of his friends just a little bit closer.)

- Doc Ren and Grian himself thought that him being found and safe would fix everything right? yea no he has horrible fevor, he struggles to retain warmth depsite 2 feet from a fire, he's tired and has a hard time stay awake becuase on the mt he slept alot, he barley eats cuz he cant hold too much down rn. He cant stand being alone or he'll start to panic, ands he's just trying to ignore the new fox fetures he has desperately when he's aware enough to do. Doc and Ren have a hard time ahead of them.

- Anonymous

- Mumbo was trying to make a machine with redstone and evoker magic to contact the hermits right?so what if he did build the machine ad at first his only way to get the magic was to go annoy the evoker hoping he would try to hit him and instead hit the machine to power it. Plan backfired so many times because of the vex killing him before. So when Mumbo becomes apprentice he wants to try power the machine himself but it breaks because he can't control how much magic he uses yet.time to study magic

-@/artsarasp

- Etho dies with the Zit and ends up back in it. Next he ends up in X's spawn, there's no one around but he finds the bloody tunnel X punched himself, and races down it to see in the distance Xisuma and Jevin in a cave.He calls out to them, only to get overwhelmed by zombies that just spawned, He manages to gurgle out 0,0 before he dies again. (He's now determined to be the messenger of meetings, even willing to die on purpose to find them all). After that? Ren's old spawn, now he has to track ren

- anonymous

- I guess hypno’s been... hypnotizd 👉😎👉

- We need more Jevin and xisuma interaction content, be it fluff or angst, how aware is jevin by the time Xisuma gets there? How many axolotls do they take with them on the way to the surface?

- @/ciaravixen

(Shade comment: We need more Jevin and xisuma interaction content, be it fluff or angst, how aware is jevin by the time Xisuma gets there? How many axolotls do they take with them on the way to the surface? )

- Mumbo having to learn how to use the magic, the evoker will probably also try to teach him how to summon the vex, even if Mumbo really wants to just focus on the magic and not the evocation.What if he's able to summon Scar since he gave his name to the vex? just by accident and Mumbo gets so startled by Scar's new appearance that he immediately interrupts the evocation and makes Scar dissappear. Scar reappears where he was before confused cause for a moment he saw Mumbo?did he allucinante??

- @/artsarasp

- Scattered AU! So what if what happened with EX and Hels happened with old hermits to? Like Biffa, Generikb, Jessassin etc etc. Everyone is concerned as it is but then they see a death message from one of them and realize it's even worse then they thought.

- Anonymous

- Once Wels and Helssknight are in Hels the have to sneak around a lot. Hels isn’t as popular there as he had previously boasted, that’s why he had tried to take over the over world. Cue heart to heart talk before a Hels version of another hermit cuts them off. (Can you pick the Hermit I’m kinda stuck here)

- Anonymous

- Iskall must have not even known the direction he was walking from his desert spawn, so its purely by luck he ended up finding the mansion mumbo resides in- his cybernetic eye is fixed almost instantly upon his arrival by mumbo and iskall feels his hope fades as he realises they’re /so/ far from the hermits. I also guess he must be worried about whats happening to his friend right before him, mumbo wouldnt willingly give into the vex and evoker magic right? 1/2 But he isn’t so sure anymore, the days at the mansion are quiet and uncomfortable as Iskall has to be wary of the illagers that walk the halls, mumbo assures him of his safety, but theres no light in his eyes - he doubts the illagers welcomed mumbo at first- The usual banter isn’t there at all, its dead silence as mumbo keeps on working and Iskall can see how paler his skin becomes and the blue scars that litter his body 2/2

- Anonymous

- Etho died and respawned at the true spawn once. Beef was elated to see him and was afraid if he let him go, he would disappear. He didn’t want to lose his friend again. In the end, he does, he was actually with Etho when he dies, and he never lets the feeling go.

- @/harley-the-pancake

- aww poor etho! At least he's okay with this new role as messenger. Now i can just imagen he ends up at Ren's spawn and manages to track the man, nearly dying but staying alive and- thats a house in the distance! He goes over and nearly runs into Doc, who invites him in surprised and they catch each other up, their spawns and Etho's situation. They're overjoyed to hear about the others and Ethos glad to see them realtivly okay. Grian's condition is worrying however, changed and still weak (1) They agree they need to start heading to 0,0 but Ren is nervous about leaving safety, Doc wants them safe, and with Grian still sick and weak from laying in snow for weeks it'll take a bit until he's stable enough to travel (he'll probs have to be carried anyways). Etho stays for a few days at their insistence for rest, he wants to keep going there is more hermits out there he hasn't found, they are insistent that he take time to recover. Then, he lets himself die. Off to the next hermit! (2)

- Anonymous

- This is for the very very beginning, but maybe before False meets up with Cleo, she spawns in a warm ocean biome. Coral structures fill the water around her, and tropical fish dart between them. It would be almost peaceful, were it not for the fact that False was encased in a cage of coral.It’s a gamble every time. She has to try and smash her way out of her colorful prison before the tide rolls in, slow and steady water rising up her body and over her head. The water makes her movements clumsy and arduous as she tries to free herself, racing against time to escape the awful tide. (Pt 2) OH SORRY I HAD AN IDEA (this is from the coral False anon)What if Stress and False both spawn in that biome and they have to try and help each other out before the tide comes in?? Added angst if one of the times one manages to escape but the other doesn’t

- Anonymous

- (scattered au) Every time that a hermit dies the universe and the world file starts to corrupt, the way that things are going if everything doesn't go back to normal soon, then the world will crumble on itself with the hermits inside.

- Anonymous

- Admins log, day: ⬛⬛⬛ I've finally managed to find my way to the drip stone caves, weirdly I think I may have a good connection down here, I'll try to contact the others, if they haven't forgotten about me yet. (Shade note: Far away in the woodland mansion, Mumbo rubs his eyes and marks down another failure on his latest contraption. How long will it be until he can generate a signal? He has no way of knowing that, for a single moment, it worked. He stopped checking his communicator a long time ago, so he doesn't see the single message until much later: <Xisuma> can anyone hear me?)

- At some point Etho cycles round to Doc's spawn. His friend is long gone but there are five creepers in formation watching him. Waiting for something.It takes a moment for him to recall the trick of unfocusing his ears just right, so that their hisses resolve into words. He hasn't had to do it for years, after all. He hasn't run into General Spaz since he left Chocolate Island.“It'ssss been a while, Esssssho” the General says. “Let'sssss make a wager”The General reaches out for a handshake... it seems the glitch finally gave him a pair of arms.(ancient Etho lore go brrrr)

- Anonymous

- Both the snow and the void are cold, and getting stuck in there means getting frostbite a lot is fairly likely, so Grian and Bdubs would be unlikely to get out with all their fingers...

- @/bat-connoisseur

- Based on a little piece of this ask where it was mentioned that Hypno passed out only three steps outside the flower biome, I start to wonder, how long was he wandering in circles without food? Why did he collapse so immediately? Was the biome itself perhaps sustaining him? Keeping him "healthy" (if you could call it that) and alive? COULD he have starved to death if he hadn't been pulled out? Or would he have just kept walking? And walking. And walking...

-@/asexualbert

- An idea focusing on evil xisuma. He ended up spawning on the nether roof, stuck with nothing but mushrooms and bedrock as far as the eye can see. No communication, no water, no way out. He can probably eat the mushrooms, at the very least.... but there may be some bad side effects from it. It's disheartening and lonely up there, dying from starvation over. And over. And over. At one point, etho may have spawned there as well... but of course, he wouldnt last long. Condemned to endless roof...

-@/therainofsweetmelody

- Okay, hear me out: after Hypno’s been out of his illusion for a while, he starts to get headaches. He doesn’t think anything of it, until he wakes up one day with small horns growing and flowers in his hair. In conclusion: Moobloom!Hypno

- @/harley-the-pancake

Art:

- An Impulse

- A Grian

- A Guardian Impulse

- A Void Bdubs by @/sweetest-honeybee

- This Hypno by @/irys-97

- an Iskall and a Grian

- a fox Grian

- A Guardian Impulse

- a suffering Xisuma

- Mumbo and Evoker doodles

Writing:

Up. He needs to go up. He spawned too deep in the world, and though he'd heard of underground spawns there was no way, no way in the world that being so deep under was normal. Every cave he crawled up either came to a dead end or opened into a massive, mob-filled cavern, and somehow he still hadn't found even half a mineshaft. He could spend hours upon hours painfully clawing his way through the stone, but he keeps convincing himself it'll be faster to find a cave that leads to the surface. The pounding heartbeat of a warden stills rings in his ears, an ever-present reminder of his terrible luck. If only he could get some wood. Just a few planks, some torches. Anything. It's almost as if the stone doesn't want him to leave.

- @basaltdragon

- Buried by @arts-and-drafts

- Cleo grits her teeth and pulls a leather cap low over her head and stays on the outskirts of the taiga village, where the less scrupulous people go. She can't stay here long, if an iron golem catches her she's going to end up social spawning a bunch of less sapient friends and wiping out the village. The air is cold and thin out here, close to the mountains. The strays leave her alone. She's not sure how to feel about that. ~@betweenlands

- "A poem, by Impulse" by @/rayveewrites

- Pulse by @/arts-and-drafts

- Unnamed Impulse fic by @bat-connoisseur

- Another Impulse fic by @/betweenlands

- Don't think about it by me (@shadeswift99 )

- A poetic fic by @irys-97

- this short anon piece

- If I lose myself by @/arts-and-drafts

- Mountainside by @/basaltdragon

- Sleepwalk by @/betweenlands

- This Grian fic by @silverechosandsmileymasks

- A Jevin fic by @/basaltdragon

- This Hypno piece by @/fireflower-dusk

- This Iskall anon

- Alternate Impulse fic by @/rayveewrites

- Short Grian fic by @rk9-mew2

- an alternate headcanon for Mumbo

- This Xisuma fic by @/bat-connoisseur