#Thank you all for joining me on this silly little adventure c:

[is-deltarune-chapter-3-out-yet]

We are nearing day 300 chat

Aint that exciting

Chat is this real?

[novella-november]

This isn't going to be another "you hate fanfiction!!" because very obviously you do not, but it is prompted by the discussion of branching out into original work, since it's something I often struggle with when trying to make that jump. Do you or any of your followers have any good resources on beginner worldbuilding? I really struggle with it.

Thank you!

If you check out my post where I made a "Prep Calendar" for Outline October (Which is a November-prep alternative/ supplement to Ominous October, the spooky short story event), I actually made a rather rough calendar outline of how to go about world building in advance for November;

The basic first steps for me are usually just three things:

Who are your characters

What kind of world do they live in (aka setting)

Whats your main plot/conflict?

To start worldbuilding at its lowest level, start with number one and work your way up; figure out what kind of character you'd like to write, where they live, and go from there!

Here is the prep calendar I threw together in MS paint, I definitely reccomend downloading it on desktop to actually zoom in to see what all it says lol.

And as a bonus, I will even make a fun, silly little exercise for anyone who'd like to get some practice in!

If you want to join in, grab a pen and pencil, or open up your favorite note-taking app :D

Here we go....!

Let's start out by saying that my basic concept for a character is *spins mental wheel of random ideas*....... a talking deer! 1) So now that I have decided that I want a talking deer character, now I have to decide: A) do *all*deer talk? B) Do *all* animals? C) Or is it just this one singular deer who is special? 2) If it *is* just this one singular deer who can talk, are they: D) otherwise a perfectly normal deer who just happens to be able to talk? E) Can they talk because they used to be human? F) Can they talk because they used to be an Alien or encountered Alien Tech (scifi) ? G) Can they talk because they used to be a Magical Creature or ran into a Magical Spell (fantasy) ? 3) Now you get to decide, mostly if you chose A or B from #1 but also useful for C : H) Is your story a more personal nature documentary, with realistic interactions between predators and prey? I) Is your story going to be a unique world where deer have built a society with technology and know how to defend themselves from predators? J) Is your story a unique world where all animals can talk and are equally sentient, therefore predators are revered as gods or keepers of the dead, who bring all back to the circle of life and prevent the spread of illness and disease, with older animals proudly going "to the wolves" to give their life to their brethren who consecrate the bones of the dead and keep resources plentiful? K) Or are predators the monsters in the dark, the teeth that bite, the slavering jaws that kill to live and *cannot live any other way*, so has learned not to regret? L) Or even, predators who feed from the already-dead when they can, and eat their fill of berries, nuts and fruits when they cannot, because they do not wish to take the lives of others for their own sake?

*clears throat* ahem. Drama done (can you see why I love worldbuilding) ,

go ahead and pick a letter from each of the above options, and jot them down on your paper or note-taking app.

You now have: A basic character, their backstory, and a basic setting!

From three-ish questions from a basic idea, you can spawn multiple possibilities, each of which can branch off into their own unique iterations!

Here's a few more, if you'd like to continue the exercise as further practice:

What is your deer's name?

What do they look like / what kind of deer are they? (deer of various species are found over almost the entire world, so there is tons of variety! :D )

What kind of world do they live in?

How do they interact with humans?

*are* there humans in your story?

What kind of zany or terrifying adventures would your talking deer and a human go on?

What kind of adventures would your talking deer go on with other deer or other animals?

How does your deer get along with other species?

Do they have friends from other species?

Do they have rivals from other species?

Do they have *sworn enemies* from other species?

Do they have a *love interest* from another species?

etc!

I am hoping this game/exercise is helpful, my brain being both autistic and ADHD means I am, at the drop of a hat, ready to start spouting more and more ideas sparked from a single concept at any given moment!

And yes, if you did this exercise, please feel free to use your deer character in a story, draw art of your deer character, etc!

If this exercise was helpful to you or fun, please feel free to tag any deer creations with "NovellaDeer" , I'd love to see them!

You can easily adapt this exercise to any story concept you need to worldbuild; pick what basic idea you have for a main character, and start asking yourself questions about them and their circumstances, and let yourself come up with multiple, contradicting answers for each question; the more the merrier!

After you've decided which starting answers you like the most, you can work your way down the list, asking follow-up questions, and before you know it you will have your very own original character :D

And do not feel like you need to keep your character exactly the way they start out as; characters evolve over time, and you may find yourself changing their "base" character to suit your story or to suit your tastes as you get more experienced with writing and world building!

[allovertheplace-writing]

rosie! hello, hello :D

I just read your new kazuha fic, and it was so good, I love your writing sm-

If you have time, could I request platonic genshin headcanons with itto, beidou, dottore and tighnari (separately pls) as your older brother?

if not, that's totally fine! have a lovely day :)

Genshin Impact

Character(s): Itto, Beidou, Dottore, and Tighnari

Genre: Fluff

Type: Headcanon

Description: What would these characters be like if they were your sibling?

Warning(s): Gender-Neutral Reader(My Default), Platonic, Dottore is Mean

Hi, hi!! Ahh, I'm so glad you like it \^°^/ it's one of my favorites if I'm being honest! (And not just because Kazuha is one of my favs-)

Thank you for sending me a request, btw! I hope you have a lovely day as well and that you're doing well <33

   ➢ Itto

Itto, as your brother, is either the absolute best to ever be had or so terrible you'd love to dig yourself into a ditch. There's rarely an inbetween. Despite that, you wouldn't trade him for anything in the world. He's always there for you

Scraped knee? Rushing to you like you're on your last breath. Haven't eaten and need a snack? All of a sudden he's dragging you to a food stall with fifteen mora in his pocket. Feeling a little blue? He's finding something ridiculous to do just to make you smile

Both of you are surely menaces, though

   ➢ Beidou

Another wild one! Although she's more than aware with how much Ningguang says so

Beidou adores light-hearted pranks whether they're on you or other people, but she makes sure to bring you along for the ride everytime. She's always terribly supportive of what you want to do and encourages you to do what you love rather than something that just pays the bills. And if you want to escape for a while, she'll offer you to join her at sea! Though she can't promise you that no problems will arise..

Often times she'll steal you away as soon as she sees you. Running errands? KIDNAPPED-

   ➢ Dottore

What a disastrous pair you two are. Shivers are to be felt within your presences! Well, except the fact that no one can really hold a candle to Dottore in terms of being terrifyingly unhinged...you surely have your moments, too, though!

He's the absolute worst - he'll tease you in the most mean way and flick your forehead so hard you'll get a headache. However, Dottore will redirect that aggressive affection if someone decides that they had the right to hurt you- be that mentally or physically. And it won't be affectionate, no no, it'll be their greatest nightmare.

Dottore, as your brother, is distant and harsh with hints of playful poking and prodding, yet more than a little protective. He definitely keeps you away from his lab and anything remotely related to the fatui. It's a bother to answer your endless questions(he's actually just preemptively keeping you safe, though there is a LOT of truth in him finding your insistence annoying :C)

   ➢ Tighnari

You're both the epitome of passive aggressive and exasperated. Truly, you can't have one without the other! And although you may butt heads every so often, you two get other each better than anyone else.

He still doesn't give you a pass for doing exactly what those silly little adventurers do, though! (follow the rules you gremlin) Conversations about your interests are common, sometimes you both just hang out for a weekend to exchange new information (Presentations? Presentations).

Being siblings with Tighnari is far more relaxed than with the hooligans above for sure, but watch out! He's got his moments!

[dragonologist-in-the-making]

Paper Rings

Pairing: James Potter x Reader

Summary: On his first ride to Hogwarts, James befriended the girl who was obsessed with shiny things. Over their schooling together, their friendship turned into so much more.

A/N: lmao I suck at summaries. Also I’m back sorry for the random hiatus (and sorry that posting will almost definitely not be consistent after this either). I had this idea months ago, inspired by Taylor Swift’s Paper Rings, and I only just got around to writing it asdfghjkl. Still obsessed with James though rip me I just want someone to love me like this.

Warnings: Mentions of eating (briefly), otherwise just a lot of fluff.

Wordcount: 4k (wow)

...

Little James Potter waved goodbye to his parents as the train took off from the platform, nervous about his first journey to the infamous Hogwarts, but excited to discover all the great things his parents had told him for himself. First though: finding a carriage.

Trying not to show his nerves, he wandered along the corridor, peeping into the carriages to see if there was one he could join. For the most part, he found them all too full, too loud to juggle his nerves, or the students too old and intimidating. The days would come where James would rule the corridors of the castle, but the eleven year old boy on the train was just hoping to make a friend he could share this new adventure with.

As fate would have it, he found just that and so much more. In a carriage to herself sat a young girl, his age, her face turned away from him looking out the window. The only thing he could see was a petite sparkling bow, sitting neatly in her (y/h/c) hair.

Without thinking about it, he knocked gently on the compartment door, sliding it open as she turned to look at him inquisitively. Her (y/e/c) eye’s glittered as her lips pulled into a smile, creating a complete sense of comfort for James to ask. “Do you mind if I sit?” She nodded eagerly, gathering up a few books she had dumped on the opposite seat and dropping them into her lap. “I’m James.” He smiled.

“(y/n). It’s nice to meet you.”

They sat in a comfortable silence for a short while, listening to the laughs of older students, friends reuniting after a summer apart, and watching the landscape whip by them out the window.

“I like your bow, by the way.” James spoke up, feeling glad he did when an excited smile broke across her face, looking as if he’d told her she’d won the lottery.

“Thank you! I love the way it sparkles.” She said, gently pulling it from her hair and twisting it in the sunlight, showing how rainbows danced in the glitter and were thrown across their compartment. Satisfied, she used it to clip back the hair that was now falling into her face, and their conversation moved on, following each and every thought they were having, becoming fast friends. James didn’t think the journey could get any better until two boys showed up at their door and asked if they could join them, setting everlasting friendships in stone.

As the train pulled up to Hogwarts, any nervousness James had been feeling was gone. Instead, the only thought he had was that he couldn’t be more glad he sat in the compartment of the girl with the sparkling bow.

…

Their first year passed in a blur, and the Marauders spent the majority of it in each other’s company, laughing their days away.

Now, summer had come and gone, and their second year at Hogwarts was in full swing. They walked into their charms class together, laughing about a joke Sirius had made at James’ expense. (y/n) sat next to the curly-haired boy at their desk, as Remus Sirius and Peter sat at the one adjacent to them.

“Hey, it’s not my fault I didn’t make the team last year! No first year has made a house team in like 80 years! I’m telling you though, I’ll make it on this year, and I’ll be the best chaser this school has ever seen.” James protested, huffing as he put his textbook in the middle of the table for him and (y/n) to share. She laughed at him softly, hand patting his shoulder as the other boys got lost in their own conversation.

“I know you will, Jamie. And I’ll be there cheering you on every step of the way.” His cheeks redenned at her words, but luckily their attention was turned away by Professor Flitwick.

“Now students, the charm I’ll be teaching you today is more of a fun one to start off the year than anything you’ll likely need in your everyday lives. As always, I don’t expect you to create chaos by using these charms” – he turned his gaze to a particular group of students at this point who were all busily looking elsewhere – “but simply to enlighten yourselves and to show you what magic can do. So, the charm we’ll be learning today is how to make things glitter.”

James heard an almost inaudible gasp next to him, and he could feel the excitement radiating off (y/n). He chuckled, expecting nothing less; he’d known her for a year now, and if it wasn’t the bow in her hair there was always something shiny on her at any given time.

Flitwick talked about the details of the charm, how it could be applied subtly, only giving a faint sheen, or how it could be made much more obvious. Finally, he gave them the charm and told everyone to repeat after him. “Now, like I said, just because this is a fun charm doesn’t mean it’s an easy one, and I don’t expect you to get it on your first attempt. Just keep repeating the charm and-oh!” He broke off suddenly, just as James’ vision went hazy. Once he’d focused, he saw he was surrounded by a cloud of individual glitter specs floating around them, almost as if they were in their own galaxy. His gaze shifted to its centre, shining most brilliantly of all as her proud and excited smile dazzled him, making him forget entirely they were still in their charms classroom.

“Well done Miss (y/n)!” Flitwick’s voice broke through their bubble, and slowly each star seemed to fade out of existence, until they were back in their regular old classroom, thirty pairs of eyes trained on them. “You certainly felt the spirit of the charm and went above and beyond. 10 points to (y/h). Now, if you could help Mr Potter whilst we all get back to it!”

Chatter burst out the classroom almost immediately, partners working together trying to enchant an object of theirs to take on the glittery effect. Sirius turned to her, rolling his eyes half-heartedly.

“Becoming a teachers pet now are we, (y/l/n)?” She rolled her eyes back, waving her wand to produce a cloud of glitter that settled in Sirius’ hair, contrasting sharply against its darkness.

“It’s sparklesSirius, what did you expect? Now c’mon, this is the one lesson I won’t let you not do the work in. Make some glittery greatness and I’ll bake you all some cookies when I next steal James’ cloak to go to the kitchens.” With those words, the three boys turned their entire focus to the task at hand, while James still seemed slightly awestruck next to her. “You alright, J?”

“That was amazing (y/n/n). I had no idea you could do that.”

“Well I guess you can’t know until you try.” She shrugged, picking up her quill and placing it in front of him. “Charm my quill.”

“Why me? You could just do it yourself.” James asked, confused why she didn’t do it herself since she was clearly more than capable. Once again, she shrugged, looking into his eyes as she uttered the words so nonchalantly that would stick with him for years to come.

“Well, Flitwick said you needed to practise. Plus, it’ll mean more to me if every time I look at my quill I know that you’re the reason it’s shining.”

Within a heartbeat, James had uttered the incantation and a subtle shimmer had settled over the feather, imperceptible until it was moved and caught the light. The smile he saw when he looked over at (y/n) made him vow to himself that as long as he was around, she would never have an ordinary quill again.

True to his word, every time she brought out a new quill, he was quick to snatch it from her and place the simple charm on it. It became an unspoken promise between the two of them, and every time James saw that sparkle from the corner of his eye, he couldn’t help but smile to himself.

. . .

True to her word, (y/n) was there for all of James’ games, cheering him on from the side of the pitch, always the first to reach him when the game was over. High or low, win or lose, she was always there to remind him that he had played amazingly, and that she was proud of him.

After one such game in their fourth year, Gryffindor narrowly losing to Slytherin, she was at his side so quickly that he would have thought she had apparated if he knew this wasn’t possible. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly, feeling the slight shaking of his shoulders. “Oh, James.” She quickly ushered him off the pitch before he attracted eyes, assuring him that Sirius and Remus would collect his things from the changing room and bring them back to his dorm. Once they reached his dorm, she sent him to shower, promising that she would be there for him once he was back.

Sure enough, he came out of the shower in fresh clothes and damp hair, and she was still on his bed, patiently waiting for him. She held her hand out to him, a silent invitation, and as soon as he took it she pulled him to her side and once again enveloped him in a hug.

“I’m so proud of you, Jamie.” She whispered, squeezing him momentarily before drawing back and looking into his glassy eyes.

“Shouldn’t be.” He murmured, avoiding her gaze. “We lost.”

“And yet you scored more goals than anyone else the entire game.” She pointed out, sincerity lacing her voice. “It’s just because the snitch is worth a stupid amount of points, honestly the game has a lot of flaws.” James smiled weakly, they often had these debates about Quidditch and it always ended in some silly way.

“I did hit Malfoy in the head with a Quaffle.” He admitted, and (y/n) could see the weight falling off his shoulders.

“The highlight of all our years.” She laughed, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a little box. “I got you something.” She handed it to him, and he pushed it back to her, head shaking, doubt returned.

“No I didn’t do anything to deserve it. Keep it.”

“We already had this argument and I’m not taking no for an answer.” She shoved the box into his hands and folded her arms across her chest, waiting for him to open it.

Reluctantly, he pulled the lid off the box to reveal a snitch, the snitch he normally kept on his person at all times, now shining with a slight iridescence. James looked up at her, thankful but a little confused at the present.

“I’ve actually been saving it for when you lose a game. Which has been hard because that’s hardly ever.” She broke off to give him a playful glare along with her words, quickly broken by her soft smile. “I know you play with the snitch when you have a lot on your mind, and when you start to doubt yourself. I wanted to remind you that you’re incredible and you should believe that yourself. So, when you see the snitch and you see it sparkle, you’ll think of me, and you’ll remember how great you are.” He was speechless, and in the silent air, she did what the two of them did best, and started to nervously babble. “Well, that’s assuming you think of me when you see sparkles, and quite frankly after all this time I’d be slightly offended if you didn’t-oof” her rambling stopped when James tackled her into a hug, knocking them both back onto the bed.

“Thank you.” Was all he said, but she could hear the emotion behind each word, everything he was trying to communicate. All she did was hold him tighter.

It was then that Sirius and Remus walked into the dorm, carrying all of James’ equipment from the game, causing James and (y/n) to jump away from each other. Blushes arose on both their faces, not that the other would have noticed, each too busy looking at opposite walls of the dorm. Sirius and Remus exchanged a knowing look, but decided to let it slide, knowing there was an inevitability to it anyway.

…

Once again, (y/n) was boarding the Hogwarts express for another year of school. She knew this year would be a stressful one, with their OWL exams coming up, but she also knew that as long as she had her boys by her side, she would be absolutely fine.

Speaking of her friends, she was currently walking along the train trying to find them. She knew that Lily and Remus were prefects now so they’d be at the front of the train, but she was struggling to find anyone else. Eventually, she found James, sitting in a carriage by himself, absentmindedly watching the view. She chuckled to herself at the situation, the reverse of their meeting all those years ago.

She slid the door open, catching his attention and his ever-so-addictive smile. “Got room for an old pal?” She asked, sitting next to him when he patted the seat, his hand enveloping hers as soon as she had, a silent communication. I missed you.

“I was starting to think you’d gotten cool and forgotten about me.” He joked, nudging her playfully.

“Piss off Potter, I was always cooler than you.” She teased back, glad to see that nothing had changed despite their time apart. It never did, they were always James and (y/n), inseparable no matter how hard anyone tried. “Where is everyone?”

“Lils and Moony are doing prefect duties, and Sirius enlisted Peter’s help to try and sneak into their carriage and get the insider information.” He rolled his eyes light-heartedly, forming air quotes around Sirius’ words as (y/n) laughed, eyes closing in amusement. “What’s that on your eyes?” James suddenly asked, stopping her laughter short as she tried to figure out what he meant.

“Oh!” She remembered. “I went to see Lils in the holidays and she was showing me this glitter eyeliner that muggles wear! Why, do you not like it?” She suddenly felt self-conscious, wondering if it really was too much despite Lily’s reassurances. It was a subtle white, but still, it was glitter on her face.

“The opposite!” James was quick to answer, rushing so much to not hurt her feelings that he wasn’t thinking about what he was saying. “I think you look really beautiful (y/n/n), with or without the makeup. Besides, the glitter brings out your eyes.”

At this point, they were both blushing furiously, and James was still holding her hand, neither of them willing to let go. (y/n) couldn’t help but smile to herself, and remembered to thank Lily for the recommendation the second they were in the dorm together that evening.

…

James climbed the last step into the astronomy tower, seeing (y/n) leaning against the railing already, gazing into the night sky, a blanket and an array of snacks out on the floor behind her.

It was a ritual they’d started who knows when, a chance to wind down and escape the chaos of everyday life, to enjoy each other’s company and to feast away on whatever snacks they had managed to stow away for these evenings. Tonight’s selection looked to consist mostly of cauldron cakes and chocolate frogs, with the occasional sugar quill hidden amongst the rest. “Heavy on the sugar tonight, I see.” He broke the silence teasingly, settling himself so that he was sat at (y/n)’s feet, still able to see the clear night sky above them.

“If I don’t consume my own bodyweight in sugar I think I’ll pass out I’m that exhausted.” She commented back, sinking down next to him. Automatically, his arm wound around her shoulder, pulling her into his side and resting his chin on top of her head. There weren’t words to describe the feeling of pure content as she melted into him, completely at ease.

She reached out and grabbed a chocolate frog, unwrapping it and handing the card to James with a sigh upon seeing it was one already in her collection. She bit into the chocolate, her gaze on the night sky as his was unable to break away from her, the way she settled so peacefully against him.

“The stars sparkle too, you know.” She broke the silence, voice quiet but still holding its signature melodic tone. James finally broke away from looking at her, joining her eyeline and looking at the constellations above them. Even though he wasn’t taking astronomy as a NEWT, spending so much time in the tower with (y/n) as she mapped the sky meant he knew precisely what he was looking at, and traced the constellations with his eyes.

“You know, six years of friendship and I don’t think I ever asked you why you like shiny things so much. I always just accepted it as a part of who you are.” A smile graced her face as she unconsciously twiddled her fingers.

“Don’t laugh.” She warned, and he solemnly shook his head. “I think there’s something so entrancing, so beautiful about them. I think it serves as a reminder that even the most seemingly dull thing,” she picked up another chocolate frog box at this point, waving her wand to create a light sparkle over it, “is wonderfully brilliant if you just remember to look at it in the right way. It’s a lesson we should all carry with us, and I try to remember it whenever I can. Everything is beautiful if you give it a chance.” The sparkles on the box faded in the moonlight, as (y/n) finally looked up at James, only to find him already staring back at her.

Body thinking quicker than brain, seeing her (y/e/c) eyes glimmering up at him, James leant down and pressed his lips to hers. She stifled a gasp, quickly moving her lips back against his as her hand wound gently around the back of his neck. He poured all of his admiration into the kiss, everything he had been feeling for her since he didn’t even know when, feeling his heart soar to be here with her in that moment.

Eventually, they broke away for air, and a breathy laugh fell from (y/n)’s lips, blush rising on her cheeks as she turned her face away. James reached for her hand, interlacing their fingers and gently rubbing circles on the back of her hand with his thumb. “I’ve been drawn to you since the day I saw you in that train carriage. You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met, your soul. I didn’t even realise the outside matched until we came back from that summer you spent with Lily. But god, every day since then I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. I like you, (y/n/n). I really like you.”

Around them, a shimmering cloud exploded simultaneous to a wide grin spreading across (y/n)’s face. It was their own galaxy, just like all that time ago in the charms lesson, but she was still in the centre, still giddy with excitement. “I like you too, Jamie.” Her smile turned a little sheepish. “And sorry, I think my emotions got a little out of control.” The star-like sparkles slowly dissipated around them until there was nothing left, and this time it was (y/n) who leaned up to James, connecting their lips one more time.

“You taste like chocolate.”

“I’m sure that must be awful for you, Potter”. Nothing had changed, and yet nothing would be the same either.

…

James was sat on the floor of his dorm, textbooks open in front of him, although this late in the day he was struggling to pay any attention to them. What he was focused on instead was his girlfriend, tucked into the alcove of the windowsill, absentmindedly writing away on a piece of parchment.

Her (y/h/c) hair was in plaits down her back, and in the candlelight the silver threads that James had helped her braid in this morning were casting light across the room that shifted with every little shake of her head or shrug of her shoulders.

“You’re staring again, Jamie.” She chastised, although the humour was clear in her voice. He pushed himself up from the floor with an exaggerated groan, making his way over to her and pulling her gently into his chest, pressing a soft kiss into her hair.

“Can’t help it love, you’re an actual angel.” He didn’t see it but he knew she’d be rolling her eyes as she buried her face in his chest to hide the blush that was forming on her cheeks.

“Stop being so cheesy.”

“As if you don’t love it.” She pressed a kiss into his chest, resting her head against him as she went back to her writing. He tried not to pry, but he couldn’t help but catch notice of his name and his interest piqued. “Who are you writing to?”

“Euphemia.” She replied nonchalantly, not pausing her actions as he took a step away, face scrunched in confusion.

“My mother?” she paused at this, looking up at him with false exasperation.

“Do you know many other Euphemias?” She deadpanned. He shrugged, admitting her fair point, moving back to her side where she immediately snuggled back into his warmth.

“How long have you been writing to my mum?” She paused for a second, contemplating.

“Since the start of term I think. She sent an owl, I responded, we haven’t really stopped talking since. Oh, I’m coming over for Christmas by the way, she invited me. Said it wouldn’t be Christmas without the whole family there” (y/n) looked up at him, flashing a mischievous grin, expecting him to whine childishly like he normally would, complaining that he was supposed to ask her. Instead, looking more solemn than she’d seen him in a long time, he crushed her against him, holding her so tightly before he leant down and connected their lips. The kiss was bruising, but it was packed with adoration, and it left (y/n) slightly breathless. He broke away, leaning his forehead against hers as she tried to catch her breath back. “What was that for?”

“I love you. So much. You’re absolutely perfect, and I swear, I can’t wait until the day I can put a ring on that finger and make it official, make you a Potter for real. I promise, it’s going to be the most sparkling, dazzling gem you’ve ever seen. It’ll shine just as brightly as you, and it’ll always remind you that you’re beautiful, in every way, and just how much I love you.” Her hand had come to rest on his cheek, smiling throughout his little speech, parchment cast aside and forgotten about at this point.

“Don’t be silly, James.” She laughed, stroking his cheek with her thumb. “I love shiny things, yes, but I don’t need one to be reminded of how amazing you are, or how much I love you. Hell, you could ask me to marry you with a paper ring and I’d still say yes in a heartbeat. I’m saying yes to you, to a life. You don’t need to win me over with some ridiculously expensive piece of jewellery.” He nodded slightly, pecking her lips before moving back to where he had been sat on the floor.

(y/n) picked her parchment back up, continuing on to the letter she had been writing to Euphemia Potter, unable to help themselves from planning the Christmas festivities despite it being early November.

Deep in concentration, she startled slightly as she noticed movement coming from the corner of her eye. She looked to the side to see her boyfriend once again, although this time he was knelt before her, holding up a piece of parchment that he had hastily fashioned into a ring, coupled with a sheepish smile.

Laughing merrily, she hopped down from the windowsill, pulling him up by his jumper and kissing him passionately as she slid the piece of paper onto her finger, looking forward to the day when they were older, when they could promise this for real, knowing that they had the rest of their lives ahead of them to love each other unconditionally.

When James first stepped on that Hogwarts train, he was hoping to find a friend he could share every moment with for the next seven years. He had found that in her, a best friend, now a lover, for seven years but for so much longer. The girl with the sparkling bow turned out to be his soulmate, and he sent a prayer of thanks to the stars every day.

[dourpeep]

i have even more ideas now...

what about like the moment you open up about your relationship with kazuxiao the fans who were already seeing that happen were celebrating and on both of y'alls insta or something is where you announce and it's like a picture of all 3 of you chilling together or something

and then when they finally appear on a variety show they're just questioned throughly and they talk about how you guys meet and what they like about you

ok but the moments where you just feel sort of insecure since being an idol is hard and you're technically dating your seniors and you're just hit by the antis who are against yourself relationship so you lock yourself in your room in your dorm by yourself to cope. your roommate (can be whoever) contacts them both and they immediately come over and come in and offer soft kisses and soft murmurs of reassurance that they'll never leave you and that everything's gonna be ok.

side note i can see xiao just being a whole meme without realizing?? for like variety shows he's just known for his dead pan expression and then i can see him being so competitive on shows like running man..mans ripping tags left and right, while kazuhas just hiding in a weird spot or something

kazuha on the other hand i can see him being a troll, he likes to mess around with the hosts of the show and manages to mess up some of their plans, he also likes messing with his group members, where xiao likes to say that kazuha looks innocent but is a part of the devil line with venti

onto albedo i can see him like answering questions in his vlive and fans realize that a lot of his songs are more romantic and sort of pining?? and they're asking where the motivation is from. he answers that it's just something that he saw recently so he felt motivated (it wasn't the fact that he had realized that he was 100% in love with you)

but like all of this mans inspiration comes from you, he's had multiple songs dedicated to you before your relationship was even open to the public, and when your relationship finally does, it just clicks for fans and it suddenly makes sense, your ship name trends worldwide for the day

but how you and albedo met, i can see both of you guys being in the industry already and you guys are sort of know each other but it was for a one time off collab with other artists involved so you didn't really talk with each other. like i said before albedos a solo artist while i can see you being a part of a popular group already. but then both of your companies decided to do another collab and especially picked you two since you guys already worked on a collab before.

at first it was like awkward since albedos really socially awkward but then things click when you guys start writing the song together. everything just matches so well?? and you guys just compliment each other?? and that's when you learn of albedo just staying at the studio so late so you often bring food. this leads to you guys getting closer and albedo even stops his work just to talk to you more. when your song comes out and everyone is waiting for the stage, there's just so much tension?? but the good kinda and everyone is awed by the song and the vocals coming from you and albedo.

i can also see the both of you guys appearing on variety shows together too, like appearing on a show where you two travel to another place and experience the culture there, with albedo being your tour guide and showing you all the famous places (one of the many times where fans were awed by his research and knowledge) and then if you guys were to appear together again after you guys reveal your relationship, a lot of the times they show idols as they wake up, they'll see you and albedo being clingy af to each other.

on another side note, albedos totally a troll on variety shows, he likes messing around with the hosts and other contestants since a lot of the time he's not really interested in the show itself, it's more for publicity. however, when he first appeared on a show with you fans noticed that he actually seemed interested for once and that's where your ship name started.

albedos totally a golden child tho, he's like basically perfect in everything so a lot of the times variety shows don't catch him slipping, however the one time that he did was when you were mentioned, the clip of with his ears bright red was trending for a couple of days :)

GIVING ME SO MUCH GOOD FOOD THANK YOU ANON

I think that this covers everything hehehe so I won't add to-

wait wait I put it all under the cut b/c it's a lot again-

Okay okay but like for the 'announcement' picture, what if it's like those photo booth pics (but like each picture you need to scroll through like on Insta) where it's cute and wholesome! The three of you are having fun wearing some silly glasses or hats, doing peace signs or finger hearts....and the very last photo is the three of you sharing a kiss- or, at least trying to.

It's sweet, a little silly, and most of your fans take it really well! After all, they can see the chemistry that you share and can't deny that the three of you would have a good relationship.

As for the insecurities of dating your seniors, Kazuha and Xiao are quick to knock back any of those worries. They love you so, so much and hate the fact that something like that makes you doubt for a single second. If anyone ever tries to bring it up, you know that they're going to immediately quip back.

Naturally, you're roomed with Venven :D He's technically an up-and-coming after he stopped doing idol stuff for a few years, so not only does he know the ropes, but he's also one of your biggest fans and biggest supports (outside of Kazuha and Xiao).

Though he's silly and light-hearted, he's quick to recognize when things are serious and need handling.

So as soon as he sees that you're not doing so great or if he notices the comments on your posts are going in a bad direction, he speed dials Xiao and the two of your boyfriends are right at the door in under 15.

Not only are they fast about it, but they have all your favorite snacks, a movie or two, some popcorn, and a ton of love and affection because they'll be damned if their love is going to be affected by some asshole's comments about their love life! What do they know anyway??

Actually this all could work too if Kazuha and Xiao are part of 4NEMO-

Hmmm

That'd cause so much more ruckus- not only is half of one of the most popular idol groups are taken, but by the same person??? And each other??? Man, that's wack.

BUT THE GAMESHOWS

Xiao would most certainly be super intense with those. He just can't help it--competition drives his blood and makes something snap in him. He's dead serious about doing well, regardless of the game. I actually have never watched said game shows, but--

Like...he's out for blood. No one is safe. Not even you or Kazuha if you're on opposing teams, though he'll be a bit more gentle. Maybe even with the hint of a smile while you have an expression of utter shock at the fact that he's just so fast-

Or if it's not a game show and instead you're doing some sort of idol group activity with a few others to get to know each other?

Someone suggests ping pong and, knowing how competitive Xiao gets, he's pitted up against Tartaglia and man. That's scary. There's no doubt that someone would clip the video and make it into an overly-dramatic retelling complete with music.

Hilarious.

As for Kazuha! He'd be a bit of a mish mosh! He enjoys poking fun at others, and he's so sly! Those poor hosts don't realize that he's goading them on, but sure enough--he is. Who knew that his charming smile and mild-mannered attitude could be so devastating?

But even then, he's mostly wholesome! There's a lot of little clips, mostly of your doing, of him in a 'kiss the chef' apron getting caught off guard while cooking something up. The videos aren't great because you're giggling while recording and he ends up placing the ladle down calmly before wrapping you up in his arms. Half the video ends up being the two of you laughing and joking while it's pointed at a weird angle towards the counter.

Sometimes it'll point just right and you'll get a half-blurred view of Xiao sitting at the kitchen island with his reading glasses perched on his nose and book forgotten. He tends to get up and join in for a few smooches before reminding Kazuha of the food that's still cooking.

--

Albedo!! He absolutely is the golden child. He's fantastic handling things under pressure in a cool, calm manner. Handsome, charismatic, incredibly smart--man's hit all the stops and just keeps going.

It's not until it comes out that the two of you are together that his cool façade (hardly one, though) falters and at the mere mention of you, he'll go soft. There's a tenderness in his eyes, a small smile on his lips, and his blush? Absolutely adorable. How can anyone object when he's obviously so in love with you?

And the idea you mentioned with the two of you traveling and experiencing stuff together sounds so cute (':

He particularly enjoys exploring new cuisine, so expect him to feed you some food from his plate-

There's also a few times where you two have gotten lost in the new places, more because you're both so busy taking in the sights to realize you've taken five wrong turns- But then you make it into a whole adventure, foregoing the map and deciding to wander around. What better way to discover and learn about somewhere than getting lost and wandering?

You find quite a few hidden gems this way since otherwise you'd be hitting more popular areas!

Wait- do they really show idols waking up???

Ahh regardless, Albedo's definitely a cuddler. He loves it, can't get enough of it. It's not often that he gets a good night's rest, but with you it seems like he's fully recharged and ready for the day! It's cute too because it doesn't matter--big spoon or little spoon, you on his chest or him resting on yours. Even a few times with you facing each other with your hands intertwined.

I also agree that Albedo would mess with the game show's hosts and contestants. Not only would he, but he'd be entirely smug about it (after all, we need to have that #smugbedo going on).

No doubt, there's been times where the cameras even focus/zoom in on him where he's sitting because he's got that smirk on his face.

[365runesoftheamalgamations]

The Not Yet Shifted Months pt.1

hello and how are you?

Well Everyone, it has been one exciting month and we have to say that we have made such a wonderful decision in coming back onto the Tumblr scene and trying again with our Works and Creations and Words and Pages!

And since it is our first full month back onto things ~ we came back in the middle of July, we do believe ~ we thought we would do a little breakdown of the months and stats and words and things! c:

So Let's Get A Solid Breakdown of Some Things, yes? Month: August | Year: 2022

Writing Milestones:

🌱 Progress on The Not Yet Abandoned Works has been slow but solid! Being able to jump around on all five projects (along with writing out prompts, story ideas, and rewrites of all works) has been wonderful for us!

Grayland's Shadow: 02 Drafts | 37 Chapters | 16k Words | Chapter Rewriting

The Plague Begins With Me: 01 Draft | 5 Scene Drafts | 3k Words | Scene Drafting

Marathon Runners: 01 Draft | 13 Scene Drafts | 8k Words | Scene Drafting

Mitch's Journals: 02 Volumes | 05 Stories | 11k Words | Story Writing

The Vagabond Child: 01 Draft | 05 Scene Drafts | 2k Words | Scene Drafting

🌱 We started and began posting a new work called, The Rapunzel Witch, in which we hold our very own fairytale retelling. It is wild and wonderful and new and we hope that we can keep up with the words and giving the story out to those who want to read it! c:

🌱 We wrote out and posted nine different works this month! 03 Rewrites | 03 Prompt Writings | 01 Poem | 02 Whump Writes

🌱 We created Intro Posts for the first of our current Standalone Worlds and Characters, which was more fun and silly and entirely nice to end up doing! Navamora, The World of Witches | The immortal Neal Anderson

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Tumblr Milestones:

🌱 We hit Five Hundred Posts! Thanks to Tumblr for caring! :D

🌱 We hit Forty+ Followers, with 25 New Wanderers coming into the mix! Thank you so much to everyone for joining in on our wild adventure! We hope to embrace more of the chaos as we go on! We might do something special for when we hit Fifty Followers, so maybe that can be a fun thing for September! ☆｡ﾟ+.(人-ω◕ฺ)ﾟ+.ﾟ

🌱 We had a wonderful month of Four Hundred+ Notes! This has to be one of our best months for interaction, we are so happy to have gotten back into the groove of things and be reminded that Tumblr is a good place, if you reach out into the Voids! \[^0^]/

🌱 We decided to participate in Two Writing Challenges, The Great Motivation Experiment | The 30 Days, 30 Lines Challenge! These have been so wonderful and amazing to get into, we are glad we did them! They have helped us write so much and we are thankful to everyone who helped along the way! (ﾉ^∇^)ﾉﾟ

The Great Motivation Experiment Stats: 23 Asks Answered | 3,316 Words Written

The 30 Days, 30 Lines Challenge Stats: 2 Attempts Made | Longest Streak: 5 Days

🌱 We have developed and have a working Tag List! It is not really that big of a deal, but we just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has wanted to be a part of our writings and dealings and everything else going on with our Writeblr! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

August Shifting Into September:

🌱 We will be continuing both of the challenges that we have picked up this month, shifting into September! We can't wait to keep going and get more solid progress and work done with everything!

🌱 We will try to catch up to all of the different tag games that we have been tagged in and asked to join! We do have them hoarded in our drafts, so hopefully we will be able to get the Drafts emptied and all of the Tag Games caught up!

🌱 We want to get started on getting in on some of the monthly writing challenges, so we might get ourselves entangled in some more challenges and things, mostly to do with prompts, as we prep for NaNoWriMo!

🌱 We might be introducing some older works, from our Main, in order clean up the different blogs some! So there might be some soft rains of old works, prompts, rewrites, and concepts coming our way, shifting into this next month!

🌱 As always, we will aim to continue with our works, maybe shift around a few of them for some other works that are stealing the vibrancy from the main cast! As of now, our Five Main Works will be the same, though that might change as the month progresses.

Thank you so much, if you stuck around and got to know what happened during this month! May this shift into the next month be smooth and gentle and filled with promised for everyone!

May The Words Be Ever In Our Favor!

until we write again,

[hermit-pistol]

Guido Mista Fluff Alphabet:

Okay Mista fans, here’s your food. Only one more alphabet and this series will be one! Make sure to show love and read under the cut!

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Mista has a super adventurous personality and this also shows in the activities that you two take part in. He always likes to do things that others would usually think of as silly, like going to the zoo. But! He always finds a way to make it entertaining and unforgettable. (Who wants to hold the baby kangarooooo)

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

He loves your laugh, and whenever he gets to hear it, it feels like the best reward for him. While he may have flirted with his fair share of girls in the past, looks aren't most important to him. In order to get you rolling around on the floor, he'll have to pull out the big guns, of course. Sometimes he'll tag team with Narancia to pull pranks just to get a rise out of you.

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

Mista absolutely hates when you're sad because that also makes him feel sad. When he sees you sulking on the couch, he joins you, wrapping his large arms around you. He'll keep asking you why you're sad while sticking out his lower lip, (which was absolutely lethal for you). Soon after, you forgot why you were down in the dumps, which was Mista's main goal the whole time.

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

He's a romantic, so he's always thinking about the future and what it will bring in regards to his love life. Within a few years of dating, he'll already want to move in and get a dog. Maybe two dogs, who knows. He sees marriage, children, grandchildren...all of it.

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

Mista can be pretty stubborn in certain situations. He will make the plans for dates and activities that the two of you can enjoy. He'll always ask you for your input, of course. Overall, the balance of power in the relationship is equal.

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

Mista can be a little childish when disagreements are involved. There's a possibility that he'll use humor to get out of a sticky situation, but don't let him get away with this all the time. If he's in the wrong let him know, or else things can get blown out of proportion easily.

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

Mista thanks you for the companionship and happiness that you've brought into his life. You are the longest relationship that he's had in quite some time given his current line of work, and he loves that you have the patience to stick around with him. Even though his stand keeps him company most of the time, he's glad to share time with another human.

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

Mista is very honest with you. Whether it be where he's going on a mission (sometimes, Bruno yells at him for telling you this), or telling you about his past before joining the organization, he's very transparent with you. You appreciate this, and make sure that you do the same. Hardly any secrets are kept between you.

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

Like R mentions 👀, you inspire him to keep himself clean. Of course, a normal person would want to keep up with appearances but Mista is a very special guy.... While he was cheerful before the relationship he's over the moon when he sees you and prioritizes your time together.

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Mista will be quiet, which is very uncharacteristic of him. His stand will always manifest and say whatever he’s thinking, probably along the lines of taunting and verbally harassing the person you’re talking to before they eventually grow frustrated and walk away. The Pistols would cheer, celebrating their victory.

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

Mista's kisses are very eager and wanting. In addition, he doesn't care who's around and has absolutely no problem with kissing in public. Even if you blush and get embarrassed this only give him another reason to hold you tighter and go to town. Prepare yourself... 😳

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

Mista will literally confess to you on the street. The first time he tells you that he loves you is actually in casual conversation. You had to do a double take, and he merely shrugged in response. It would take some getting used to, but you were elated that he felt the same as you!

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

He'll want to get married after his time in Passione is over, or at least has settled down to where he can live comfortably with you. The ceremony will be small, with only a few family members attending. Even if you haven't yet upgraded to a larger living space, he'll want to start a family right away. If you decide you're not ready you remind him that the Pistols are already his children.

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

Every name invented is fair game. He loves using stupid niche names too that come up after a few months of dating. Examples include but are not limited to: "green bean", "lil mami", and "bicycle crusher" (the last refers to your thighs in a related incident).

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

He tells the gang that he's crushing on someone all the time, so when he first reveals that he's in love they really don't believe him at first. Although he "always says that", it's the Pistols that escalate the situation even further. Whenever you're along with him they'll come out and start egging him on with kissy noises and the like. He'll turn as red as a tomato when you grant him his wish.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

Mista LOVES to show you off in public, and he loves watching the reactions of the passerby as he has an arm slung around your waist traveling dangerously close to your butt. It drives him nuts that out of all of the guys in Italy you chose him, and now that you two are a couple he wants to show the world.

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

While many other guys may hate the concept of hugging, Mista loves it wholeheartedly. Whenever you're having a bad day, a good day, or are just walking around he won't hesitate to wrap his arms around you and smile. Sometimes the Pistols will even join in for a group hug! He's basically the hug king, and you're not opposed to that role.

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

Very romantic babey. Since he’s so smelly he would suggest taking a bath or shower with you. This will take some extreme confidence from both of you. Whether it becomes sexual or not, just being intimate in this way is so special to him.

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

He believes in you like nobody's business. Also, he loves seeing when you follow through with your goals and sees your dreams coming to fruition! It's extremely exciting for him, and you love seeing his reactions to watching you succeed.

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

Mista loves the thrill that life and living provides. There's something new that arises every day you spend with him, and you never get bored. Loves booking hotel rooms for trips and the like and not telling you until the night before, which can be stressful yet cute.

U nderstanding - How well do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Mista is stupid but means well. Sometimes you can quiz him, and he'll still forget something as simple as your favorite food, or your favorite color. In time, he'll learn more about you and your emotions, but for now every time you tell him a fact about yourself he'll write it in his phone so he doesn't forget. 🥺

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

Mista will be so cheesy about telling you how much you mean to him. -"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...."- <-- If he pulls anything like this he usually givers you permission to slap him. You're one of the only partners that's stuck around with him for this long, and he's not planning on letting you go any time soon.

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

Mista insists that he should help around the house at times, and this means that he's going to help with the chores in any way that he can. You end up assigning him grocery shopping (a big mistake). He is so unorganized and claims that he doesn’t need a list to go off of, and this usually results in him buying whatever he wants. Watch him get all the way home and still manage to forget the milk and bread. Good thing he bought the family pack of ice cream sandwiches though.

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

If you look up affectionate in the dictionary, there's a very good chance that you'll see Mista's name. He loves to cuddle with you and especially loves to nap with you because of the intimacy. Mista can nap anywhere, anytime, but he prefers falling asleep with you in his arms!

Y earning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

Mista will be soooo needy when you are away, and so will the Pistols. When you have the free time between class or meetings he'll call you begging for you to come home with his six children screaming in the background. Eventually, it'll get to be too much and you have no choice but to come home, much to his delight. He'll never let you go.

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

Mista will definitely buy you presents if he has the money at hand. Expect lavish gifts like jewelry and clothes from him, whether it's a special occasion or not. If he could, he'd give you the world, but at times you have to remind him that you have more than enough and you don't need to be impressed by physical possessions.

[harrypotterbrainworms]

Valentine’s Doom

Summary: A very oblivious young boy has caught the loving eyes of Remus Lupin, but how can one express his feelings if every time (Y/N) opens his mouth, Remus melts like a box of chocolates in the sun.

Pairing: Remus Lupin x Male Reader

Key: (Y/N)- your name, (H/C)- hair colour, (N/N)- nickname

Words: 2587

A/N: I spent way to long on this, almost a week ;-;. I hope you enjoy it!

“Remussss, please. Pretty please with a cherry on top. I promise I’ll make it up to you” (Y/N) pleaded Remus to let him copy his homework. He had completely forgotten to do his own which was mostly Sirius’s fault, keeping him up all night.

“You do realise you have to do your homework in order to graduate, right? It’s a basic skill to have.” He cocked his eyebrow, looking up at the pleading boy in front of him.

“I know, I know, Blah blah, if you don’t learn you’ll never survive in the “real” world. I know the spiel.” He rambled on, motioning a small Remus puppet with his hand mocking the tone of his friend’s warnings.

He had spent the whole night playing tag with Sirius and racing around the courtyard like the drunk children they were. Remus knew this of course, waking up every so often to look down at them being idiots from the tower.

“And yet you still go on late night joy rides with Sirius” He sighed and closed the book he was reading as he watched his friends stuff their faces with toast and eggs.

“Please, Moony.” He begged once more, pulling the sweet and innocent face he knew Remus couldn’t say no to, even adding a slight quivering lip for dramatic affect.

The shorter boy pressed his fingers against his temples trying his best to distract himself from the sweet face of his friend, but gave in.

“Fine, last time I swear to Merlin.” He repeated the same line he always said when (Y/N) or any of his friends asked. He always managed to give in too soon to the pleads.

“Thank you!” (L/N) chirped up giving Remus the warmest smile he could, taking the few pages Remus handed him then took his seat again.

“Y-You’re welcome.” He stuttered out, blushing a bit. James wiggling his eyebrows at Remus, receiving a death glare in return.

“Padfoot, get your ass here! We have t-minus 20 minutes to copy it all” He pulled Sirius’s arm to climb over the table and sit next to him. Both of them pulled out paper to start.

“Wait you didn’t-“ The flustered boy said, not being able to finish his retort before he was interrupted again.

“Thank you again, Moony. We appreciate this so much” Remus could barely get any words out after that, only being about to nod his head in response. (Y/N) did look like he appreciated his friend’s effort to help him stay in school.

James gave him a knowing smile before continuing to devour his breakfast plate while Remus just sighed looking at the two boys copying his homework.

“You lads are gonna be the death of me.” He finally said, opening up his book again and continuing to eat his own meal.

Remus always thought he fanced boys a lot more than girls, but he knew for sure when he set his eyes on (Y/N) for the first time. They were never that close, not that he had tried to get closer. The taller boy just seemed to take a liking to Sirius more than anyone else in the group, always fooling around and getting into trouble more so than himself and James.

He spent many nights awake with James, while the other two snuck out, talking about (Y/N) and how much he liked everything about him.

The day passed by quickly as they always did, pranks and studying. Waiting for the next moon adventure.

Remus sat in the dull light of the common room that evening, relaxing to the sound of the fireplace when (Y/N) burst through the door as chaotic as ever. Collapsing on the sofa next to him.

“Hi, Moony” He smiled nonchalantly, taking a peak at the book he was reading. Remus partly ignored him, giving him an acknowledging hum.

“Oh, I see you’re reading one of my books. Do you like it?” He said while bending over to read the cover. (Y/N) as dumb as he could be, enjoyed reading just as much as Remus did. A lot of the time they spent together was in the library or reading together.

“I do, rather exciting. Didn’t expect to enjoy it this much, but thank you for borrowing it to me” Remus smiled, making (Y/N) blush a little.

“I’m glad!” He said, thumping back onto the sofa. Now trying to keep up with the pace his friend was reading at. He yawned softly, he was quite exhausted from a long day of school.  He was about ready to take a nap.

Laying his head lightly on his friend’s shoulder, he asked Remus to read aloud so he could rest his eyes.

As much as (Y/N) was a pain in his ass, he was a joy to be around. A light in his life unlike the light of his other friends. The heat on his face didn’t help either.

“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?" "It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...” He spoke in a hush tone, narrating the book for (Y/N).

“I love this part, it’s so nice” (Y/N) smiled, getting comfortable for this afternoon nap. Remus stopped for a moment looking at his soft (H/C) hair and sleep ready face.

“Why did you stop? Was it me? I’ll shut up now” He said half asleep, waiting for his friend to continue the story again and that’s how they both fell asleep that late afternoon.

His book laying over his chest, his hands wrapped around the smaller boy like two cats huddled under a sun beam.

The next week was stressful with Valentine’s Day approaching and love in the air, it was all James could speak out.

“Oh Lily, a name so sweet just like the flower. A scent so alluring, oh Lily, my love, oh how can live without you. Life is , but a muggle roller coaster going up with you” He sighed, hugging the small envelope in his arms. Sirius gagged and pretended to throw up while Remus and (Y/N) laughed at his attempt at poetry.

“This is the year, boys. This is the year Lily Evans will be mine” He looked up at the great hall’s morning sky, his eyes twinkling with the love in his heart.

The other Marauders were painfully single, as was James, but the way he talked about Lily you’d think they’re already married. Lily however looked as though she would vomit at any given time James looked at her.

Tomorrow the whole hall would be filled with hearts and love potions. He was sure someone would slip one of them a potion, it happened every year, last year they had to nurse Peter to health ‘cause someone thought it would be funny if Peter fell in love McGonagall.

“Merlin, Prongs. One more word about Lily and I might curse myself” Sirius sighed and hid his own small envelope under his robe.

“How can I?” James sighed once, looking over the Lily who was sitting with her own friends pretending he didn’t exist. He rested his hand on his arm, sighing loudly and dramatically.

The day passed once again leading the five back into their common room, all tired of classes. The conversation immediately leaped to what would happen the next day.

“I bet Lily will finally accept that we are soulmates separated by a tragic past life” James said proudly once again pulling out the small heart littered envelope he had been carrying all day.

“I bet it’ll be another Valentine’s Day alone for you, dear Prongs” Sirius said in a soft and sweet voice, not mirrored with the evil little smirt of his face.

“Fine. Let’s make a bet then. All five of us, come on” James challenged the boys in the room who looked angrily at Sirius who always started these silly bets.

“Okay, Moony? Wormtail? (N/N)? You in?” Sirius chirped

“No way, last time I had to change my hair green and silver.” Remus said shaking his head profusely, Sirius looked at him and (Y/N) with his puppy dog eyes. Almost considering changing himself into a dog to guilt trip them.

“No need to convince me twice, I’m always in for a bet”

“I’m always in too” Peter chimed in, though no one was surprised as he just did whatever James asked anyway. “Fine, I’m in. What’s the bet?” Remus finally gave in after the whole group joined in, he felt as though he was gonna regret this.

“All us dashing young men need to find a date tomorrow. Anyone who’s rejected has to spend the night on the Quidditch pitch, no blankets, no clothing. Only underwear”

“Deal.” Sirius said quickly, shaking James’ hand.

“How do we always get dragged into this?” Remus sighed and let his head fall back onto the sofa, his arms over his face.

The next day was grueling work, everyone already had a date. James hadn’t asked Lily anything yet, his anxiety suddenly overcoming him, Sirius had been slapped in the face about 5 times, (Y/N) remembered he didn’t know anyone else, Peter had actually acquired a date out of some miracle and Remus was nowhere to be seen.

“Anyone see, Moony yet?” Sirius sighed, a small ice pack on his face. All the men looked completely defeated except Peter who had practically skipped over to them with the news he had gotten a date.

“Nope” (Y/N) quickly looked around the great hall as they sat for lunch, he was a little worried about him. Maybe he was brooding somewhere alone. Maybe was crying that he couldn’t find a date, maybe he was-

“I’m gonna go look for him” He stood up quickly, speed walking towards the closest boys bathroom, then the next and the next. He couldn't see him in any of the bathrooms. He was a little more worried now, well a lot more worried.

A little tired and defeated with the next bell ringing, he got to the next class first and to his surprise and relief Remus was there.

“Idiot. You scared us, we barely saw you today, what the fuck?” He came up behind him and flicked his forehead scolding him. He apologised and said he had to fetch a special package from the owlery alone. (Y/N) didn’t ask anything, just glad to see nothing bad happened.

“Any luck on a date?” He said, still waiting for the other classmates to arrive.

“Not yet, might look at real estate on the pitch” He chuckled, his eyes crinkling in his wide smile, flushing (Y/N)’s cheeks a bit.

They chatted for a short while before the last three troublemakers burst through the potion room door. Peter still has a bright smile on his face.

“Why so cheery, Wormtail?”

“He’s the only one of us with a date” James sighed loudly, still clutching his letter for Lily. He looked a lot less confident than yesterday, Peter deflating his ego even more.

The day passed and soon they were sulking on the sofa together, all now very painfully single besides Peter who was happily owling the Hufflepuff girl he had asked out. James finally had the courage to give the letter to Lily who just gave him a small smile before immediately b-lining out of potions. He was crushed, a broken shell of a man, at least that’s how he described it. Sirius had received about ten more slaps across the face. The other two had just accepted they would be huddling for warm on the pitch or so they thought.

“Here guys, we deserve it” Remus stood up suddenly grabbing the mysterious bag he was hiding under the couch.

He handed each one of the boys a small box of handmade chocolate, Remus’ specialty. They all lighted up suddenly at the prospect of chocolate except for (Y/N). Who got discreetly given a slightly bigger box and when he opened it, they were all heart shaped unlike the other threes’.

“Thanks so much, Moony! What would we do without you” (Y/N) smiled brightly, causing Remus to stiffen up a little.

The other two very quickly realised their chocolates were different than the (H/C) boy’s were. They know what was up, but (Y/N) was not in the loop.

“I’ll be back.” Remus quickly said, doing a 180 turn towards the porthole, leaving the others.

“I hope Moony’s okay. Maybe he got rejected.” He frowned looking at the closing door. He wanted to check up on him, but maybe he just wanted to be alone.

The other two in the room looked at each other, at their chocolates and back at (Y/N). They both decided it was about fucking time, if Remus wasn’t gonna do it. They would.

“You really are dense, (Y/N). He likes you, isn’t it obvious?” James said not looking up from his homework as he sat on the desk in the common room. Sirius shrugged in agreement and (Y/N) looked a little shocked.

He looked down at the box of heart shaped chocolates in front of him, everything finally clicking in his mind as he face palmed his brain.

“Oh my god. Wait really?” He questioned again, the thought had never crossed his mind that Remus would feel the same way he did. He never thought Remus was gay like he was though now that he thought about it, it was kind of obvious.

“You really didn’t know?” Sirius said while struggling to unwrap the ribbon off his own valentine chocolates. (Y/N) really felt dumb as a rock.

“Fuck.” He cussed under his breath, quickly exiting the room to find Remus.

He saw a flash of light hair belonging to the boy on his mind, he raced toward him in a fast walk. Quickly catching up and grabbing his shoulder.

“Moony! Wait! I’m sorry, I didn’t know these were those kinds of chocolates” (Y/N) said a little out of breath still clutching the box in his hands, looking at them briefly before turning to the taller boy.

“It’s fine, (N/N). I don’t think you would’ve accepted them anyway.” Remus sighed softly, what looked like a few tears running down his face which (Y/N) immediately wiped off with his finger gently.

He smiled widely at the crying boy next to him, then gave him a huge hug.

“Yes I would have! I would’ve loved getting chocolates like that.” He said brightly, gripping onto the taller boy’s neck tighter. Not wanting to let go.

“You would?” Remus sniffed quietly, barely speaking over a whisper. He breathed into the (Y/N)’s necks, smelling the sweet smell of his coconut shampoo and cologne.

“Of course! I’m sorry I’m a little oblivious sometimes. I do like you, though… a lot.” He said sheepishly, blushing into the crook of Remus’ neck.

“You do?” He questioned again, his crying stopped and he felt very warm and fuzzy. The butterflies in his stomach beating him up.

“YES! Now come eat these with me. We won the bet.” He let go of Remus and grabbed his hand, pulling him back to the common room again.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me” Sirius said as he saw his two friends hand in hand.

“Looks like we’re sleeping outside” James sighed, looking at the pitch from outside the window...

“So cold.”

[tough-bit-of-fluff]

FFXIV Write 2021 Prompt 1: Foster

It was a quiet afternoon in a low-rent neighborhood of the Goblet, where small shops and residences pressed closely together, worn but tidy. The heat of the day had urged most shoppers and residents along, either back to their homes for a nap before continuing the evening's work, or down the stone path to the brilliant turquoise pools of the posh Brimming Heart district.

It was from one of the aforementioned small shops though, one blessed at least with a large tree to shade it, that came a high-pitched cry, pleading and dramatic.

“Aww, come on, little guy, you hafta eat *something*! Your cute chubby lil tentacles are starting to look all listless, and you're not half as slimy as you were a week ago!”

The shop was the Compass Coffee and Second Chance Shop, and the cry came from Alyona Amariyo, who ostensibly worked there. At the moment, the fluffy, distraught miqo'te was lying on her belly in the middle of the floor, peering closely at a squat, strange creature that almost defied description. The “little guy” in question. Rejected foodstuffs lay scattered around them.

“Might it not be wise,” rumbled the canny hrothgar merchant Cielbasa from behind the counter, “To be a bit more specific than urging the beast to eat ‘something’?” He ran a hand across his furry face and muzzle, and shuddered, imagining the creature latched there.

“That's a g...good point,” Letharon agreed, sweeping a hand through his own dense thatch of cerulean blue hair. He frowned with concern down at Aly, who was pressing her round, pale cheek against the rubbery lavender hide of the blank-eyed animal in an affectionate nuzzle that went absolutely unreciprocated. “We d...don't even know if it's an am...phibian or insect or…” Or an abomination from the dark spaces between the stars, sent to enslave or consume all of mankind, starting with a too-trusting catgirl. “Or w..what,” he concluded, taking a protective step closer.

“Maybe he's a kind of frog,” Flavia suggested, the taller girl smoothing her skirts as she crouched down to join in observing Aly's new “friend.”

“Your belief is that this squelching, six-legged *thing* is a *frog*.” Ciel raised a bushy eyebrow.

“I like frogs,” Flavia explained, as though that was reason enough.

“I like frogs too!” Beamed Aly. “And I like solving mysteries with my friends. And we'll figure out what he is and what he wants, together!”

“Ninki Nanka,” came the proclamation from a shadowed shop-corner, by the bookshelves. Victor stepped dramatically into the light, causing the staff and scattered customers to gasp. Aly clapped at the theatricality.

Leth blinked. “W...what?”

Qoribucha, a tall Xaela shop regular sipping a comparatively tiny cup of espresso, offered a grave nod. “Perhaps he is speaking the words which shall release it back to the Void.”

Victor repeated, “Ninki Nanka. That's apparently what this thing is. Or at least I'm reasonably sure. Look at the striations on its tail.” He gestured to the book he was holding.

Cielbasa frowned. “Let me see that.”

Victor shrugged, and, focusing, used his telekinesis to float the tome across the room to the leonine shopkeep’s hands...perhaps with a bit more force than was strictly necessary.

Ciel flipped rapidly through the pages, while Aly unsuccessfully offered the possible nanka a carrot, a gysahl green, and a handful of birdseed.

“A, ahem, ninki nanka, does not have six legs,” Ciel stated, tapping an illustration with his clawed finger.

“There will be more meat to harvest, when eventually its time comes,” Qori observed. “Perhaps it is a boon.”

“Maybe...this one's just special,” Aly suggested, not responding to the au ra’s suggestion, and massaging the nanka’s back. It made a wet noise that might have been a growl or a trill, or simply the passing of gas. A faint fishy smell filled the air, wrinkling the noses of everyone in the room, aside from the two enamored, oblivious women, and the creature itself, which didn't have a nose to wrinkle.

“You do tend to find the special ones,” Victor chuckled, reaching down to rub a pink, fuzzy ear.

“Ohh, no no, don’t eat that, silly!” Flavia chided the creature, who was waving its tentacles inquisitively at a “coffee” concoction she had made with unground coffee beans, an entire cup of sugar, and, by the look of it, several small pinecones, their sap-encrusted ends protruding from the unwholesome brew. “That’s people food, and it could make you sick.”

“That’s h...half right,” murmured Leth, bemused.

“I dunno,” said Aly. “He hasn't shown this much interest in anything at all today, maybe you could let him have a...bite? Sip? However you would interact with all that?”

Flavia nodded, holding the mug out to the nanka. It waddled over and descended upon the brew with a savage enthusiasm, tentacles flailing, thick tail thumping, as surprisingly loud slurping, splorching sounds filled the air.

“He likes it!” Aly cheered. ”Flavia, you're a culinary genius specifically for nankas, that is a highly specialized skillset, good work with that!” The other woman beamed at the peculiar praise.

The group watched the strange, six-legged nanka messily finish its decidedly unwholesome repast, then scurry around the floor in circles, before scuttling around the corner and down the stairs.

“He certainly seems...energetic, now,” Victor remarked, brushing off his vest and shirt-sleeves as if he felt slightly less clean for just having been in the same room as the strange animal.

“Maybe he went downstairs to get more coffee,” Flavia suggested.

“That's p...probably not the best idea,” Leth said, heading downstairs himself. The others followed his lead.

But when they arrived, the sight that greeted them was not of a nanka burrowing into the beans, but of a nanka frolicking in the fountain. Aly clasped her hands together joyfully, and ran to the creature's side. “Look how moist he is again! And ooh, you're making so much slime, little guy!”

Leth joined Aly and looked down with dismayed distaste. “The w...water’s turning all viscous and s...slimy, like from a h...hagfish!”

Aly nodded, tapping her lips in thought. “Do you think we should save some slime for the next time he's looking a little dried out? Or maybe he should just stay in the fountain…”

Leth put his hand on the miqo'te’s shoulder. “Aly, this is a w...wild animal we don't know much about. D...do you really think it's a good idea to k...keep it?”

Aly looked up at Leth with earnest gray eyes. “There's a lot about *us* we don't know yet. Stuff about my past, the way your machine parts work… And besides, isn't this supposed to be a place that helps travelers who aren't sure of their way? This little guy is a long way from home, and he needs our help!”

Letharon, a long way from what he once called home himself, sighed. “What are you going to c...call it? It probably won't be a l..little guy, forever,” he noted with no small amount of trepidation.

“Yes,” Ciel agreed archly from the stairwell. “What are you going to name the ‘frog’?”

“That's a great idea, Ciel! We will name him Frog.”

In the fountain, Frog ceased his splashing, and put his front feet on the ledge. He looked out into the basement café, and seemed to nod. His tentacles bobbed in apparent agreement, and his tail swished and gently sloshed in a satisfied way. Another wayward wanderer had come to the Compass to stay.

@eorzeanharmony @garleanfluff @sharp-cast-sharper-words and more, thank you for sharing your wonderful characters.

You can visit the Compass too! https://compasscoffee.carrd.co

[queenlua]

hey, i started following you recently and ur bio says ur a hacker? any tips on where to start? hacking seems like a v cool/fun way to learn more abt coding and cybersecurity/infrastructure and i'd like to explore it but there's so much on the internet and like, i'm not trying to get into anything illegal. thanks!

huh, an interesting question, ty!

i can give more tailored advice if you hit me up on chat with more specifics on your background/interests.

given what you've written here, though, i'll just assume you don't have any immediate professional aspirations (e.g. you just want to learn some things, and you aren't necessarily trying to get A Cyber Security Job TM within the next three months or w/e), and that you don't know much about any specific programming/computering domain yet.

(stuff under cut because long)

first i'd probably just try to pick some interesting problem that you think you can solve with tech. this doesn't need to be a "hacking" project at first; i was just messing around with computers for ages before i did anything involving security/exploitation.

if you don't already know how to program, you should ideally pick a problem you can solve via programming. for instance: i learned a lot back in the 2000s, when play-by-post forum RPGs were in vogue.  see, i'd already been messing around, building my own personal sites, first just with HTML & CSS, and later on with Javascript and PHP.   and i knew the forum software everyone used (InvisionPowerBoard) was written in PHP.  so when one of the admins at my RPG complained that they'd like the ability to set multiple profile pictures, i was like, "hey i'm good at programming, want me to create a mod to do that," and then i just... did. so then they asked me to program more features, and i got all the sexy nerd cred for being Forum Mod Queen, and it was a good time, i learned a lot.

(i also got to be the person who was frantically IMed at 2am because wtf the forum is down and there's an inscrutable error, what do??? basically sysadmining! also, much less sexy! still, i learned a lot!)

the key thing is that it's gotta be a problem that's interesting to you: as much as i love making dorky sites in PHP, half the fun was seeing other people using my stuff, and i think the era of forum-based RPGs has passed. but maybe you can apply some programming talents to something that you are interested in—maybe you want to make a silly Chrome extension to make people laugh, a la Cloud to Butt, or maybe you'd like to make a program that converts pixel art into cross-stitching patterns, maybe you want to just make a cool adventure game on those annoying graphing calculators they make you use in class, or make a script for some online game you play, or make something silly with Arduino (i once made a trash can that rolled toward me when i clapped my hands; it was fun, and way easier than you'd think!), whatever.

i know a lot of hacker-types who got their start doing ROM hacking for video games—replacing the character art or animations or whatever in old NES games. that's probably more relevant than the PHP websites, at least, and is probably a solid place to get started; in my experience those communities tend to be reasonably friendly to questions. pick a small thing you want to do & ask how to do it.

also, a somewhat unconventional path, but—once i knew how to program a bit of Python, i started doing goofy junk, like, "hey can i implemented NamedTuple from scratch,” which tends to lead to Python metaprogramming, which leads to surprising shit like "oh, stack frames are literally just Python objects and you can manually edit them in the interpreter to do deliberately horrendous/silly things, my god this language allows too much reflection and i'm having too much fun"... since Python is a lot of folks' first language these days, i thought i'd point that out, since i think this is a pretty accessible start to thinking about How Programs Actually Work under the hood. allison kaptur has some specific recommendations on how to poke around, if you wanna go that route.

it's reasonably likely you'll end up doing something "hackery" in the natural course of just working on stuff. for instance, while i was working on the IPB forum software mods, i became distressed to learn that everyone was using an INSECURE version of the software! no one was patching their shit!! i yelled at the admins about it, and they were like "well we haven't been hacked yet so it's not a problem," so i uh, decided to demonstrate a proof of concept? i downloaded some sketchy perl script, kicked it until it worked, logged in as the admins, and shitposted a bit before i logged out, y'know, to prove my point.

(they responded by banning me for two weeks, and did not patch their software. which, y'know, rip to them; they got hacked by an unrelated Turkish group two months later, and those dudes just straight-up deleted the whole website. i was a merciful god by comparison!)

anyway, even though downloading a perl script and just pointing it at a website isn't really "hacking" (it's the literal definition of script kiddie, heh)—the point is i was just experimenting a lot and trying a lot of stuff, which meant i was getting comfortable with thinking of software as not just some immutable relic, but something you can touch and prod in unexpected ways.

this dovetails into the next thing, which is like, just learn a lot of stuff. a boring conventional computer science degree will teach you a lot (provided you take it seriously and actually try to learn shit); alternatively, just taking the same classes as a boring conventional computer science degree, via edX or whatever free online thingy, will also teach you a lot. ("contributing to open source" also teaches you a lot but... hngh... is a whole can of worms; send a follow-up ask if you want that rant.)

here's where i should note that "hacking" is an impossibly broad category: the kind of person who knows how to fuck with website authentication tokens is very different than someone who writes a fuzzer, who is often quite different than someone who looks at the bug a fuzzer produces and actually writes a program that can exploit that bug... so what you focus on depends on what you're interested in. i imagine classes with names like "compilers," "operating systems," and "networking" will teach you a lot. but, like, idk, all knowledge is god-breathed and good for teaching. hell, i hear some universities these days have actual computer security classes? that's probably a good thing to look at, just to get a sense of what's out there, if you already know how to program.

also be comfortable with not knowing everything, but also, learn as you go. the bulk of my security knowledge came when i got kinda airdropped into a work team that basically hired me entirely on "potential" (lmao), and uh, prior to joining i only had the faintest idea what a hypervisor was? or the whole protection ring concept? or ioctls or sandboxing or threat models or, fuck, anything? i mostly just pestered people with like 800 questions and slowly built up a knowledge base, and remember being surprised & delighted when i went to a security conference a year later and could follow most of the talks, and when i wound up at a bar with a guy on the xbox security team and we compared our security models a bunch, and so on.  there wasn't a magic moment when i "got it", i was just like, "okay huh this dude says he found a ring-0 exploit... what does that mean... okay i think i got that... why is that a big deal though... better ask somebody.." (also: reading an occasional dead tree book is a good idea. i owe my firstborn to Robert Love's Linux Kernel Development, as outdated as it is, and also O'Reilly's kookaburra book gave me a great overview of web programming back in the day, etc.  you can learn a lot by just clicking around random blogs, but you’ll often end up with a lot of random little facts and no good mental scaffolding for holding it together; often, a decent book will give you that scaffolding.)

(also, it's pretty useful if you can find a knowledgable someone to pepper with random questions as you go. finding someone who will actively mentor you is tricky, but most working computery folks are happy to tell you things like "what you're doing is actually impossible, here's why," or "here's a tutorial someone told me was good for learning how to write a linux kernel module," or "here's my vague understanding of this concept you know nothing about," or "here's how you automate something to click on a link on a webpage," which tends to be handier than just google on its own.)

if you're reading this and you're like "ok cool but where's the part where i'm handed a computer and i gotta break in while going all hacker typer”—that's not the bulk of the work, alas! like, for sure, we do have fun pranking each other by trying dumb ways of stealing each other's passwords or whatever (once i stuck a keylogger in a dude's keyboard, fun times). but a lot of my security jobs have involved stuff like, "stare at this disassembly a long fuckin' time to figure out how the program pointer got all fucked up," or, "write a fuzzer that feeds a lot of randomized input to some C++ program, watch the program crash because C++ is a horrible language for writing software, go fix all the bugs," or "think Really Hard TM about all the settings and doohickeys this OS/GPU/whatever has, think about all the awful things someone could do with it, threat model and sandbox accordingly." occasionally i have done cool proof-of-concept hacks but honestly writing exploits can kinda be tedious, lol, so like, i'm only doing that if it's the only way i can get people to believe that Yes This Is Actually A Problem, Fix Your Code

"lua that's cool and all but i wanted, like, actual links and recommendations and stuff" okay, fair. here's some ideas:

microcorruption: very fun embedded security CTF; teaches you everything you need to know as you're doing it.

cryptopals crypto challenges: very fun little programming exercises that teach you a lot of fundamental cryptography concepts as you're going along! you can do these even as a bit of a n00b; i did them in Python for the lulz

the binary bomb lab is hilariously copied by, like, so many CS programs, lol, but for good reason. it's accessible and fun and is the first time most people get to feel like a real hacker! (requires you know a bit of C beforehand)

ctftime is a good way to see when new CTFs ("capture the flag"s; security-focused competitions) are coming up. or, sometimes CTFs post their source code, so you can continue trying them after the CTF is over. i liked Stripe's CTFs when they were going, because they focused on "web stuff", and "web stuff" was all i really knew at the time. if you're more interested in staring at disassembly, there's CTFs focused on that sort of thing too.

azeria has good ARM assembly & exploitation tutorials

also, like, lots of good talks out there; just watching defcon/cansecwest/etc talks until something piques your interest is very fun. i'd die on a battlefield for any of Christopher Domas's talks, but he assumes a lot of specific x86/OS knowledge, lol, so maybe don’t start with that. oh, Julia Evans's blog is honestly probably pretty good for just learning a lot of stuff and really beginner-friendly?

oh and wrt legality... idk, i haven't addressed it here since it hasn't come up in my own work much, tbh. if you're just getting started you're kind of unlikely to Break The Law without, y'know, realizing maybe you're doing something a bit gray-area? and you can cross that bridge when you come to it? Real Hacking TM is way more of a pain-in-the-ass than doing CTFs and such, and you'll learn way more with the latter, so who cares lol just do the fun thing

[niksixx]

Patience

~Welcome to Part 1 of yet another Axl Rose mini series. Since this is merely fanfiction, there will obviously be inaccuracies and things I changed around just because I can hehe. I hope you enjoy! This particular piece was inspired by the GNR song, Patience~

Pairing: Axl Rose/Vince Neil x Female Reader 

A/N: R E B L O G AND C O M M E N T 

*Picture is not mine; Found on Google. Creds to the owner*

P.S. I have a strong feeling this fic is going to tug on your heart strings. 

Tag list: @littlemisscare-all @ginny-baker-sixx @metalheartofgold @madamsixx @curly-hudson

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As a little girl, you were drawn to the little boy who sat on the playground bench alone, head down, hair shielding his eyes, hiding from the world around him. Each day, he was there. Each day, he had fresh tears in his eyes. And each day, he silently prayed for a friend.

The little boy’s prayers were answered the day you skipped over to him, placing yourself in front of him, rocking back and forth on the balls and heels of your feet as your yellow tutu swayed with the soft breeze. You waited for the boy to look up at you and when he did, you smiled, wanting to comfort him.

“Hi there! I’m Y/N. What’s your name?”

His voice was soft, hesitant, like a scared mouse. “Axl.”

“Axl. That’s nice. I like it!” You exclaimed, taking a seat beside him on the bench. Little Axl slid over to give you room, keeping his eyes on the ground. What is she doing? He wondered.

“How old are you?”

“Eight,” Axl said gently, holding up four digits on one hand, four digits on the other. “How old are you?”

“I’m ten!” You answered proudly, swinging your legs. Axl still hadn’t looked up from the ground. “Can I ask you a question?”

Axl nodded, lifting his head just a bit to brush the hair from his eyes. His eyelashes were long and thick, and tiny red freckles dotted the bridge of his nose, down his plump cheeks. “If you want.”

“How come you’re all alone?”

His eyes flickered to the three older boys on the swingset, two blond twins and a brunette friend. They were known for bullying other children off the playground. All Axl wanted to do was play with them. Be friends with them. Why did they have to be so mean? “Those boys,” he points in their direction with a shaky finger, “They were teasing me. I just wanted to be their friend.”

You followed his finger, frowning as the three boys laughed obnoxiously. You recognized them. They looked around your age. “What were they teasing you about?”

Axl shrugged, picking at his fingernails. Why were you so curious? He wasn’t used to anyone caring about him. “They made fun of my hair, my clothes, my teeth. They said I was ugly and that no one would want to be friends with me. And then they pushed me. That’s how I scraped my elbow,” He says, showing off his battle wound proudly. He hadn’t even cried today when they shoved him down.

Standing up, you placed your little hands on your hips, eyebrows scrunched together. Again, you waited for him to look at you. It took him a while, but when he finally looked up at you, with sadness swirling in his eyes, you pulled him off the bench and in the direction of the three boys.

“What are you doing?!” He asked quietly, but harshly. “Y/N!”

You ignored him, focusing on the boys. They needed to be taught a lesson, seeing as their parents had never taught them how to play nice with other children. It was a good thing your parents encouraged you to hit back if a boy ever started the fight. What did your parents call it again? Self defense?

As you approached, they snickered and stood from their respective swings, forming a line, a barrier, to the swingset. Without a second thought, you pushed the one you assumed to be the ringleader.

“Hey! What was that for?” He asked, shooting you a dirty look. His friends helped him to his feet, brushing dirt from the back of his knees. “That wasn't very nice of you.”

“Then why did you do it to my friend?” You challenged, motioning to Axl beside you. As the three boys looked his way, he stepped closer to you, cowering. “I heard you were teasing him. Teasing isn’t nice. So leave him alone!”

“What are you going to do about it?” The second boy asked. As you stepped toward him, he backed up, eyes wide. He held up his hands. “Okay, okay. Fine.”

“Now say you’re sorry,” you instructed, staring each one in the eye. Wrapping an arm around Axl’s shoulders, he relaxed under your touch. He was glad to have you there. Somehow, in a fluffy yellow tutu, a bright pink shirt, and puke green shoes, you intimated the three boys. And you’d come to his defense like a true friend would.

The boys gave each other a look before mumbling an apology. Not wanting to start more drama, they slinked off to the other side of the playground, leaving the swingset empty.

Turning to Axl, your heart softened at the formation of a smile on his face. His body wasn’t so tense anymore. “Want to swing with me?”

He nodded, and you sat next to each other on the swingset, swinging gently and laughing at all the random, silly things little kids laugh at.

“Thank you,” Axl whispered. He was still a bit shy around you, but he managed to look you in the eye once more. “For being my friend.”

You reached out to grab his clammy hand in your own, squeezing it tightly as if you were afraid he’d let go. “We’re going to be friends forever. I won’t let anyone be mean to you. Okay?”

“Promise?” Axl asked, searching for reassurance.

You nodded. “I promise.”

~~~

You had kept the promise for a while. Throughout your teenage years, you acted as Axl’s protector, his guardian angel, the keeper of his childhood troubles and darkest secrets. In school, everyone knew. No one dared to mess with him while you were around. And if they did, you had no problem putting them in their place. You’d done it many times before.

Slowly, Axl’s shell disappeared. He started to talk a bit more, about the abuse he’d suffered at the hand of his stepfather. He found friends of his own, and began to smile more often, which was a sight that melted your heart. He’d answer questions in class and even joined the choir, a place where he truly felt like he belonged. Being in the choir drove him to carry around a tiny blue book, where he’d write down his inner thoughts that he would later go on to develop as lyrics for songs performed by his band, Guns N’ Roses, with his four best friends, Izzy, Duff, Steven, and Slash. Thanks to you, there was a light in his usually dull gray eyes.

And, thanks to you, Axl began to feel things he'd never felt before. At sixteen years old, he started paying more attention to your feelings, whether you were happy, sad, angry, joyful. He would always find excuses to look at you, be around you, put a smile on your face. You infiltrated his thoughts, sometimes in more than a friendly way, and his heart would race whenever you were near him. To make sense of his thoughts, his feelings, he’d write them in his book. The moment Axl realized he was foolishly in love with you was when he found himself writing songs about you.

But he’d never shown you any of the songs, afraid of what you might think of him when you understood the songs were for you. By the time Axl turned eighteen, your friendship began to dwindle. You were twenty years old with no set plans for the future. A wandering soul. A free-spirit. Traveling the world was the only thing on your mind. Axl accompanied you to the airport the morning you planned to leave your old town behind, savoring the feeling of your body wrapped in his arms, before sending you off to start your journey in Los Angeles, California. LA was supposed to be the start of your adventure, but you quickly fell in love with the city, and never stepped foot anywhere else.

And the minute you left is when the bullying started back up again. Only this time though, Axl let the words roll off his shoulders. He adopted a new wardrobe filled with leather jackets, leather pants, hats, and bandanas, hoping his new appearance would keep others away and make them nervous to be around him. When that didn’t work, Axl eventually began to fight back. There was no one to protect him anymore. He had to stand up and do it for himself.

In his early twenties, Axl found himself living in West Hollywood, making friends with the wrong crowd, dropping hundreds of dollars on tattoos every two weeks, and trying his best to avoid jail time. He became somewhat of a rebel, a delinquent, like the biological father he barely remembered, snorting cocaine, not loving it, and then sticking with cigarettes. Instead of shying away from trouble, Axl went looking for it.

The formation of Guns N’ Roses changed everything, kept him grounded. While his time had been spent causing trouble and fighting officers, it was now taken over completely by managing a rock band. He still smoked every now and again, but he’d completely quit the hard drugs and bitter alcohol. Playing gigs, writing lyrics, and touring the world with his bandmates was all he needed. It gave him a purpose. It made him happy.

But, like every rockstar does, Axl made a few enemies on his climb to fame. He’d been in a few bar fights with none other than Skid Row’s lead bass guitarist, Rachel Bolan. Words were exchanged with Stephen Pearcy of Ratt, and he and Poison singer Bret Michaels did not get along. At all.

Now, in his mid twenties, Axl was able to let go of the grudges he’d held. Well, almost all of them. In the music world, it was normal for lead singers of different bands to have bad blood, which is exactly what Axl Rose had with Vince Neil, lead singer, or screecher, as Axl called him, of Mötley Crüe.

Axl couldn’t stand the guy, and for good reasons. Vince was stuck up, conceited, a hotshot. He was always drunk it seemed, unable to hold his liquor. Plus, his vocals weren't even that great. He had no business being as arrogant as he was.

Although Axl and Vince had never been in a physical altercation, (yet) the hatred was mutual between the two singers. The media were constantly pitting them against each other, and instead of fighting it together, they bashed and bad-mouthed each other.

What Axl and the rest of the world wasn’t aware of was your romantic relationship with Vince. Your relationship was purposely kept hidden away from the media, away from the fans. Vince never mentioned you in interviews, nor would he have you on his arm at award ceremonies. And for a while, you understood. The label needed Vince to keep up the bad boy, bachelor image. They were convinced it would generate more attention for the band as a whole. But there were days that you wished Vince would come out to the world and show you off like you, and Mick Mars, his bandmate, believed you deserved.

Of course, Axl didn’t know anything about your current life, your struggles, but that didn’t mean he never tried. He searched everywhere for you, from West Hollywood to Malibu and even Beverly Hills, but after almost a year of searching, he’d finally given up. You’d been away from him for too long. Did you have a job? A family? Where were you living? The last time he had spoken to you was more than seven years ago when he watched you board the plane headed for LA.

Though it’s been years since he’s seen you, his feelings never dissolved. If you were indeed off the market in a happy, loving relationship, then no, Axl wouldn’t dare try and sabotage your relationship, but he had to find a way to show you how much he loved you. What he needed was just a little bit of patience, and all of the pieces would fall into place.

[lildevyl]

Pick Me Up Playlist

@jellymadebutler  I know you said you’re not feeling your best so here’s a “Pick Me up Playlist” for ya or for anyone needs it!

(Markiplier)

Try Not To Laugh Challenge:  This is actually backwards! It goes from 23-1 but it’s still a nice Playlist to watch!

Markiplier Makes:  This is the whole Playlist of the infamous Markiplier Makes Videos!  It’s really funny!

Among Us:  Among Us is a new game that’s out there on Steam.  You’re either a Crewmate going trying to do tasks to keep the ship going until you reach your destination or the you’re the Imposter! What happens when you get a bunch of YouTubers together for a classic Whodunnit?  Chaos and hilarity in sue!

Minecraft:  I’m not big into Minecraft but it is very funny seeing Mark and Sean play this and see what they come up with!

I Am Bread:  This is a rage game just letting you know ahead of time!  But it is funny seeing Mark rage out of the game!  But like I said this is a rage game so there is some yelling/screaming in it!

Getting Over It:  This another rage game!  It is quite funny but like I said it is a Rage Game so there is screaming and yelling involved!

Pogo Stuck:  This is a somewhat kind of rage game!  It first starts out with Bob, Wade, and Mark playing it.  But then Mark starts playing it by himself and yes there is some yelling and screaming in the videos so fair warning!

Uno:  This is quite a hilarious game series!  It’s Mark and his friends playing the online game of Uno!

Monopoly:  This a goo game series and is quite hilarious!  It’s Mark, Bob and Wade and there is one where Lixian joins!  It really funny and think you might enjoy it!

(JackSepticeye)

Undertale:  The best way to start you off with JackSepticeye is one of his most famous series of all time, Undertale!  Undertale is about a human that falls in the Monster World and go about it learning the Monster World while trying to get home! It’s a text based game and Jack does the voices for the characters!

Deltarune:  The Sequel to Undertale!  Or that’s what everyone seems to be calling it!  I haven’t had the chance to watch the series but I’ve heard it’s really good!

Slime Rancher:  Literally you are a Rancher raising all kinds of different slimes!  It’s really cute and funny!

Cuphead:  This is a very old school cartoon like style game.  There is some violence in it but it’s mild and no more then what actual cartoons, like Tom and Jerry and the Animatics.

Bendy and the Inc Machine:  This is a horror game but it’s not the scary!  There are some jump scares but it’s more like FNAF kind of jump scare.  So, it will be scare ya but not that much.  It’s like a cartoon horror game.  Again some violence in the game but it’s mild.  This also kinda of spawn the idea of the JSE Fan Made Ego Shawn Flynn!  Jack has a cameo in the game!

Animal Crossing:  Nice little story driven game that Jack plays on his switch.  It’s very cute and it’s a nice little game to series to watch!

Spiderman:  Jack finally gets to play as his all time favorite Super Hero from his childhood!  Spiderman!

Spiderman Miles Morales:  The next gen starts now!  With the new Spiderman!  This game is based of the movie Spiderman into the Spider verse and I can’t wait to watch it and watch this series of Jack’s!

Spyro 3: Remake:  This is a cute series of the game Spyro 3 redone for the PS3!  It’s super cute and a lot of fun!  I think you might enjoy this one!

Minecraft:  Like I said, I’m not into Minecraft but this is a nice and cute series that Jack has!  Filled with a lot of Adventure and some scary events!

Meme Time!:  A cute series that Jack started where he goes on his Subreddit and looks at some of our Memes that we did!

Luigi’s Mason 3:  I can’t make a playlist for someone to watch and not include this!  This is so cute and wholesome!  It’s all from Luigi’s point of view and how he’s going to try and stop the Ghost King and save his brother and friends!

Among Us:  I have to include Jack’s!  This is so funny with Jack and his friends!  I think you might enjoy this!

(CrankGamePlays)

Pokémon: I haven’t watched this series yet, but I’ve heard great things about it!

 Papers Please:  This is very hilarious!  I’ve seen a couple of episodes and I think you might like it!

Animal Crossing:  I did enjoy watching Ethan play this!  It’s really funny and wholesome and I think you might enjoy it!

Slime Rancher:  I have to include this!  I watched this when I was feeling a little down during Quarantine.  It’s really funny!

(DolphinTreasureArt)

This a YouTuber that I found when I went browsing for Markiplier and JackSepticeye fan-made games!  DolphinTreasureArt plays fan-made games and indie games on her channel.  Along with some Cosplays and Artwork that she has done.  Some of her Fanart has gotten in a couple of fan games!

Septiscape:  First off, this series is near and dear to my heart!  This is the first ever series that watched back in 2k18 when I first found Erin’s Channel!  This helped me get over my writers block and led to me to writing my first fanfic that I wrote in over a year!  This one is an older version but I still love it!

Jack finds himself trapped in his own mind, the Mindscape and is trying to find his way home!  Along the way he finds out the Egos that he created are more then just Egos!  But at the same time, some sort of Corruption and happening with Jack’s mind and many of the Ego’s Worlds is collapsing!

Septiscape: Livestream #HopeFromHome:  This is the livestream of the updated version of the game!  It’s about 8 hours long but you can skip some parts, especially since some of the fights can be a bit repetive but I wanted to include this one!  

Soulscape:  I can’t put in Septiscape and not give you the sequel as well!  This is the well awaited sequel to Septiscape!  After the adventures of the first game, the Egos go and try to enjoy a nice little R&R only for someone to stalking Anti and trying to take his soul pieces back!  Join Anti and the Egos as they try to figure out what it going on and help save Anti before it’s too late!  And there is really cool plot twist!

Hearts and Heroes:  This is another one that is near and dear to my heart! I will also link Mark’s playthrough as well!  Hearts and Heroes and about you the fans of Markiplier and the journey that the fans go through trying to help save people from the Monsters the haunt their dreams and to help save Mark from his worst Nightmare.  Markiplier’s Playthrough here.

Septiclands: A JackSepticeye Fan Game:  This is very funny series that DolphinTreasureArt has done!  It’s silly and goofy and it has a very weird plot but it’s absolutely one of my favorites!  It’s also on her longest series as well!

The Boss: A JackSepticeye Fan Game:  Just like Heats and Heroes is near and dear to me heart so is this game!  I’ll leave a link to Jack’s Playthrough as well!  This is near and dear to my heart b/c it’s the first JackSepticeye Fan Game that I came across.  It was on Jack’s Channel that first saw it and then I watched Erin’s.  This is nice little RPG Game, but it’s about Jack being sucked into his computer and has to try and find his way home! On the way he finds out that there is two subscribers that lost in his computer and there is a major twist at the end!

The Boss Is Nothing: His Side of the Story:  I don’t want to give away what happens in the Boss!  So, this the other side of the story of The Boss!  In the Boss, Jack comes across someone he never thought he would, so now we’re getting his side of the story and why did what he did to Jack!

Glitch in the System: Chapter 1:  This is a very special game!  It’s the sequel to The Boss!  The developers over at Sarcastic Pasta Games is working hard to get chapter two out!  Chapter one is really good and you get see Erin do some Cosplay along with some voice acting for the characters/Egos!

Septic Storm:  This is a cute little fan game that’s a bit old, but it’s a very cute RPG Game!  Join, Jack, Mark and Felix as they battle Billy to end this battle once and for all!  Only to find out that Billy isn’t the one that truly is behind this, but someone else entirely!

CrankGamePlays Fan Game: The Crank Chronicles:  This is a RPG Fan Game of one Ethan Nester CrankGamePlays!  Ethan has find himself in a distant land thanks to the help of a powerful Sorceress!  But an evil threatens the land!  With help of his two best friends Mark and Tyler, Ethan goes on a quest to help save this land and find his way home!  I don’t if the developer ever did the sequel to the this game or not but it’s not a bad game!

[sweetchup]

Thanks for the last question! c: 💞 I Also love those two little spiders, they are just cinamon rolls; could you do some Hcs about that scenario? (Sorry, I don't know if I made the request in the right way, I'm a little stupid 😅💔)

“Family” Scenario General Headcanons

Oh you’re not stupid! Trust me I get confused all the time, you should see me during class. Here’s an example for future reference. Ex: Hello! Can I have a Headcanon about what the two sons from your Chrollo fanfic Family think of the troupe? Or Hi Do the boys from Family know that the reader isn’t their real mother?

Yay.... Perfect Family. Two Head spiders, Two itsy bitsy spiders and 12 Aunty and Uncle Leg Spiders that creates an amazing 16 person huge crazy family.

This will all seem super crazy to you. You had expected to be fighting for the boys from Chrollo grasps or, at the very least, forced to come up with some visiting plans to allow him to visit. But, this? The fact that you and your sons are now on the road with the troupe, the other members are now aunts and uncle spiders, Chrollo, your sister’s ex, is now your Husband and Chrollo is trying to get you pregnant.

It also didn’t help that you soon come to find out that Chrollo has been watching you all for 2 years before showing up. He even has pictures of moments of you and the boys such as them opening presents on Christmas and you all going trick or treating. Major creepy vibes. So, you basically wanna just get away with your sons from these psychos as quick as possible.

But, escape plans aren’t going to work out for you since Chrollo has full intentions on having you stay and making you fall in love with him.

So he comes up with a plan that has Kao and August each choose 6 uncles/aunty spiders to go train with and learn Nen off in the world. The boy’s first adventure! Yay... but that allows you two to be left all alone.

So, you’ll be forced to be locked in a room with only your basic needs. The fact you were chained to the bed made it easier for Chrollo to make love to you and isolate you until you experience harsh signs stolkhome syndrome.

Well....., that’s what you imagined he would do.

Chrollo actually wants your real affection, he knows stolkhome syndrome will likely take a small toll in making you fall in love with him but he wants to still try to make it as natural as possible. After all, he has spent the past 2 years watching you all from afar you all being a happy family. It makes his heart clench and his stomach turn every time he has to leave. But, he knew he had to wait. He had to wait until the troupe knew they could trust the new number 4 and 8.

So, while the boys are gone, Chrollo actually ends up taking you out on real dates, to intresting places and attempts to talk to you like an equal. The public would actually end up seeing you two as a michevious and bickering young married couple instead of the actual dark true side of the situation.

Chrollo isn’t in any rush on making you fall in love with him either. He has plenty of time. After all, learning Nen can take a long time, about 6 months to a year for the basics.

Though, even with all this nice things, this doesn’t mean Chrollo is still not a manipulative asshole. He still in charge of this relationship and has no intentions on stopping “making love to you”. He fully intends on getting you pregnant with his third child even if you aren’t in love with him at that moment. Such a doting husband...

Also don’t worry about Kao and August. He’ll take you monthly for a week to see the boys and Machi is doing regular check ups on them. He can’t have his family getting hurt or falling apart can he.

Truly, even if you didn’t like the fact of the boys hanging out with the troupe. You couldn’t deny it was cute watching them interact with the boys. Especially when it came to August trying to play fight Uncle Uvogin or watch Kao sit and play video games on Uncle Shalnark’s lap.

Soon, no matter how much you didn’t want to, you eventually warm up to these psychopaths in about 6 months. You even realize you have felled hard for Mr. Edgelord himself, Chrollo. But, being so stubborn, you fully intended on not wanting to show it. You wouldn’t give up so easily.

Well... not exactly.

It was an early Sunday morning and you were sitting against the old cobblestone wall of the current hideout. The reason you were currently sitting against the cold ground was because you were carefully and slowly attempting to fix Kao’s favorite scarf. It had gotten ripped during his training with Feitan and Phinks so you were trying to get it fixed so he would no longer pout or glare at the two. It was honestly scary seeing Kao so unusually upset.

“Mommy! Mommy! Can me and Kao have Pizza for dinner tonight?” August yells as he and his brother come running over from their play spot. Stopping and looking up at the boys, you sigh. Pizza, again?

“Well, let’s check with your father, okay?”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure the boss finds it okay, (y/n)” Nobunaga chimes in from afar, yawning and stretching from his spot on a tilted pillar. Of course nobu chimes in on this, Pizza is one of his favorite too.

“Well, this is the third time this week the boys have had pizza, Nobunaga. Too much isn’t good.” Franklin says, weighing the options. Thank goodness you have members like Franklin and Pakunoda who think of the logical side of things instead of giving the boys whatever they want. You were honestly worried they were getting too spoil from their aunts and uncles.

“Aww but Uncle Franklin! it’s so gooooood~~” August exaggerates, stretching his arms as far as he could to show that its super good.

Small chuckling and giggles echo around the room from the troupe at the boy’s silliness. You really wished you could give it to them but you really knew it wouldn’t be good for them.

“No buts August. And Kao, don’t huff. I’m sure you remember all the stomach aches you’ve had from not eating the right foods.”

Kao blinks rapidly and looks worried at his stomach. Kao has always had a very sensitive stomach that causes him a lot of pain. At first you thought maybe he had something like a gluten or dairy allergy but, after taking him to the doctors, it was just he had a weird stomach. Kao was actually really good on staying away from the things that upset his stomach but, he hasn’t exactly learn that he shouldn’t be eating too much or too often of greasy food like pizza.

You pat your son’s head, giving him reassurance. “Don’t worry Kao. I’ll find something else you’ll eat if you are worried.”

Kao seemed happy by that answer as he huffs and wormed his way into your lap. You giggle at him, you have such a silly boy for a son. As soon as determined Kao is comfy, you go back to sewing his blanket.

“Mommmm can I please have pizza? Pretty please with a shiny on top?!”

You just shake your head and let out a small laugh. Stubborn August wants what he wants and he’ll contunie to try until he somehow gets it. Though thankfully he isn’t too greedy and you can usually pick out what he’ll want next.

Not looking up from your stitching, you yell for the twin’s father. He’s been sitting on his perch and not doing anything all day so let’s have him deal with this. “Chrollo!”

“Yes? What do you need, my loving wife?”

You snort and shake your head. He’s still at it with that ridiculous nickname. The twins always gag and groan at Chrollo’s yucky nicknames for you. Though, you can’t help but feel your face heat up at them.

“August wants Pizza for dinner.”

You hear Chrollo close his book “Only him? Isn’t this the third time this week too?”

“Well, I really don’t want Kao to eat pizza again this week due to his sensitive stomach. August is fine but, you know, it...”

Chrollo finishes for you. “...it doesn’t mean it’s healthy.”

“Exactly.”

“Well I agree with you on that. I think August should eat something else for dinner tonight.”

“Aww but dad!”

“August.” You warned, playfully glaring up at him. “There’s many different things for you to eat. I’m sure there’s something else you’ve really wanted to try?”

It’s silent for a moment in the abandon building as August thinks. He pokes his chin, a habit he does when he can’t remember or pronounce the name of something.

“Buuu... Bugoli? Bowlgoog....”

You allow him to try it out for a couple of times to see if he can get it. It’s better for him to try and figure it out by himself since it helps him learn and grow. Though, sometimes you do have to help him. No one gets it right all the time.

“Bulgolgi?”

“Yeah! Bulgogi! Bulgogi.... Bulgogi” August says it a couple of times to taste the new word. Probably trying to remember it for next time.

“Well then. I’m sure Feitan knows some really nice places and recipes around here for it.” You look over to Feitan for confirmation and he nods. You smile and give a small thank you before looking down at your other son. “Does Bulgogi sound good for you too, Kao?”

Kao blinks twice telling you a “yes”.

“Well that settles it then. Bulgogi it is.”

“Yay! Bulgogi!”

August runs off outside chanting Bulgogi. Kao wanting to go follow him, slips out of your lap and claps to his chant. The air in the room gets a lot more happier at the boys’ extra silliness and the other troupe members laugh and follow them outside as well. Wanting to see and play with the crazy itsy bitsy spiders.

You sigh at the boys’ antics but still go to stand up to join the others. Though, you notice something unusual. Chrollo wasn’t joining? This isn’t like him. He usually wants to see everything his itsy bitsy spiders are up to and will even sometimes join in on the fun.

“Chrollo?” You softly call out to the man up above and facing away from you. He turns his head at your call and looks down at you, waiting for you to continue. “You coming?”

“Ah yes I am. Were you—“

Chrollo cuts himself off with a hiss as he attempts to stand up. He’s able to move his body to a standing position but, unable to keep it any longer, he soon falls back down in pain.

You stood there in shock. Chrollo was injured? That’s never happened before. Well, atleast not anything major. What happened? Was he okay? Of course he’s not okay, he—

You cut your own thoughts off as you realize Chrollo was attempting to get up again. Quickly, you climb up the broken rumble to get to the higher area to stop him.

Finally, you reach him and grab onto his shoulders to get him to stop. “Hey. Shhh it’s okay. Here, just lean against me.”

Your coos and soft voice seem to work as you are able to make Chrollo lean against you. His back pressed against your chest and both of your pairs of legs tangled, as he heaves.

Slowly, you put a hand up to his forehead. It wasn’t that hot nor cold so he wasn’t running any sort of fever or chills.

“Hey. What’s wrong? What happened.”

“N-nothing. I’m fine.”

“You don’t look or sound fine, Chrollo. Did you get injured yesterday? I heard that was a pretty bad mission.”

It’s quiet as Chrollo doesn’t bother to answer you. For such a logical and bright leader man, he’s unusually very stubborn. You wonder if that’s where August gets it from. But, you need to find out what happened. If he can hardly stand that could possible mean he has something really wrong with his back or, worse, Spine.

“Chrollo. Can you please tell me what’s wrong?”

It’s silent again as you finish. Chrollo doesn’t bother to answer again. Letting out a soft sigh, you lay your chin on top of his head.

“Pleassssseeeee Chrooooooolllloooo.” You whine, making sure to specially exaggerate his name.

Chrollo doesn’t answer again. But, you wonder if he atleast has a small smile on his face. Actually, maybe trying to get him to ease up will be the best way to get him to talk to you.

“Chrrrrrrollllloooo Luuuuuuccilllllfferrrrr!” You whine causing your weird tone of voice to echo off the walls.

Nothing again. You guess you have to step it up a notch.

Bring up your hand you lightly knock on the side of Chrollo’s nogin. “Youuu whooo? Anybody home?”

No response but you, at the very least, get a small chuckle from him. Man, he’s so stubborn. Stubborn. Stubborn!! He’s glad you’re in a silly mood today or you would have just chose to smack him already.

“Hmmmmmmmm.”

You knit your brows in consentration. You were trying to think of a way to step it up from here to make him crack. But, how... what would get him to talk no matter what.

Oh! You could always...

Your face heats up at your train of thought. Was it really the best idea to finally admit your feelings for him? You honestly didn’t think so. Though, there were no reprocrusions for doing so.

“Awwww. Chrollo ain’t home. I really wanted to tell him something!”

Chrollo doesn’t do anything but you know, from experience, that he was definetly curious and was thinking intently on what you possibly wanted to say.

“Welp, I guess I’ll leave a message then. Dear, Chrollo Lucilfer.” You change to bubble voice as if you were writing a letter. “I wanna let you know that...”

You take a gulp due to you being nervous about what you were about to say next.

“... I love you. I really do and I’m not saying that to get you to talk. Or to get you to—“

You cut yourself off as Chrollo moves his head and presses a kiss to your neck. It wasn’t sexual. You could tell he kissed your neck, of all places, because he couldn’t reach to kiss your lips or cheek.

Slowly and Carefully, You move so you two were now face to face. You breath hitches as Chrollo puts his forehead against yours.

“Say it again. Tell me that my darling wife loves me.”

“I love you, Chrollo. I love you with all my heart.”

Finally, Chrollo impatiently leans in to capture your lips with his. You could tell based on the pure passion and need of the kiss that he had been waiting so long for this moment. The moment you would finally tell him you were actually his.

You two slowly pull away, not wanting to stop, but having to due to a stupid thing known as air. Your heart flutters at his next words and the small smile on his face.

“I love you too, (y/n).”

Flustered and face beat red, you attempt to hide your face in the fur of his jacket. You couldn’t help but finally get flustered at all this lovey dovey and fluffy stuff.

“Don’t tell me your embarrassed by just 5 words. I’m sure you remember the worse things we’ve done together?”

Never mind. Moment officially ruined. Damn it...., why did you have to fall for him again?

“Well, you still have to answer my question Chrollo. What happened?”

“You are doing the same as me. You avoided answering mine.”

“No, That isn’t even a question.”

“Sure it is. Not everything has to be answered in what, who, where, ho—“

“Please don’t go off on another rant.”

“Just admit that I’m in the right, my wife, and I won’t try to continue.”

“Right about what? The fact you don’t have to tell me you are in pain?”

“Not exactly. But, you have to follow what I, your husband, says. It’s in your best interests after all.”

“Yeah right. Exactly when has that actually happened?”

“Well, My suggestion of using a plug to keep my semen in has proven very effective so far. We are going to the doctors tomorrow after all to check if you are pregnant. It also was very helpful —“

“Chrolloooooo! Stop rambling!”

[skylasbiggestfan]

Skyla’s Biggest Fan

CHAPTER 1

             It was a bright clear crisp morning in Mistralton City. “Today is the day,” I murmured to myself as I stepped out my front door. I had been training for two months to try to raise my Ducklett so that I could have a test battle with Skyla to see if I qualified to become one of her gym trainers.

           Skyla was my icon. She was everything I wished I could be and more. She was smart, talented, strong, not to mention beautiful… with her striking red hair and stylish clothes. Every night I pictured her large boots stepping on me. And that adorable little flower hair clip just made my heart flutter like a Butterfree. The fact that I even had this opportunity to be in the same room with her was enough to make me nervous. But there was a lot riding on today. Everyone in my whole family had been pilots in this small airport town, this was my only chance to be something more.

           I looked down at Ducklett and she looked up at me as if to say “you can do this!” With that, and my bag packed, I set off for her gym.

             The building that housed Skyla’s gym was like a large airplane hangar that had been repurposed. The siding had been painted a bright baby pink and the awning was neon yellow. It was cheerful and energetic, just like Skyla’s personality. When I stepped inside, I felt the blast of three enormous fans generating enough wind to knock a person over. “This is an OSHA violation waiting to happen,” I thought to myself, peering over the edge of the metal walkway to a dark floor far below. I checked to see if there were crash pads to catch any trainers sent flying by the strong winds, and saw none. I gulped.

           Just then, the large fans whirred to a halt and the air became still. A little twinkling laugh reached my ears. I turned around and there she was, giggling at me. “Your hair got a little messy, sorry about that,” she chuckled.

           “N-no! It’s f-fine!” I stammered, caught off guard by her sudden appearance. I had never been this close to her before. She was even cuter up close!

           “Are you Flo? I’m supposed to be doing a test battle with someone today for a gym trainer position.”

           I cleared my throat and tried to sound confident. “Yes, that’s me. It’s going to be a one on one battle, is that correct?”

           “Good! You’ve done your homework!” she beamed. “If you’re ready, follow me to the back and we’ll get started!”

           I followed Skyla through the labyrinthian maze of platforms and chest high walls and small trenches. As we walked through the gym I found myself trying to solve the gym puzzle in my head. “I can’t get distracted…” I shook myself back to reality. But it was hard not to drift off gazing at Skyla’s lovely ponytail bobbing with each bouncy step she took.

             At last the moment I had been dreaming of was before me. As we reached the red platform where she normally battled gym challengers, she looked over her shoulder at me. “It’s okay, don’t be nervous!” she said sweetly. But this only flustered me more. She noticed I was anxious! She probably thought I was such a dweeb.

           From her hip she pulled out a Pokeball and tossed it into the air. “Go, Swoobat!”

           “G-go! Ducklett!” I also called out my Pokemon. “This is it buddy, do your best.”

Ducklett gracefully soared out of its ball and onto the battlefield to meet Swoobat. I was extremely intimidated, but determined to use what I had been learning in my last two months of training. We opened up with a Tailwind, which got the air in the gym moving again, but this time to my advantage. My strategy was all about speed and staying out of her way, because I knew her Swoobat was strong. We had to play smarter, not harder.

           Swoobat let rip with a powerful Energy Ball, but Ducklett was too fast. The tailwind had caught the fans in the back of the gym and they started spinning again, letting loose a torrent of air. This caught Swoobat off guard as the strong gust smacked it into the partition that shields trainers from the fans. It was going well so far, but our luck wouldn’t last long.

           Skyla looked amused and unbothered, as she called out “Swoobat, use Attract!” Suddenly the heart on Swoobat’s nose started glowing and Ducklett stopped in its tracks, transfixed by Swoobat’s attack. She landed and waddled up to Swoobat, looking for affection. But Swoobat only met it with a Psychic attack, sending it tumbling into the same partition that Swoobat had crashed into moments earlier. Ducklett looked rough after just one blow. I was looking rougher. Suddenly my dream was fading before my eyes AND I was being humiliated in front of the cutest girl in all of Mistralton… or maybe even the world.

           “Ducklett! Snap out of it!” I cried! But it was no use. Again and again Ducklett took the abuse and came back to Swoobat as if nothing had happened, totally head over heels in love. The battle was over almost as soon as it had begun, and I knew I had failed.

           “Great job!” Skyla called out to me from across the battle field, calling back her Pokemon. Ducklett immediately snapped back to reality after Swoobat disappeared into a ball of red light and was sucked into its Pokeball. It swiveled its head left to right in confusion, trying to figure out what had happened. I was trying to accept that I had lost, was making plans to return to training and try again next year.

             “I think you’ll be a great trainer here at Mistralton Gym!” Skyla cheered as she held out her hand for me to shake. I nearly jumped out of my skin in surprise. “What!? But I lost!” I said in disbelief.

           “Oh, none of my gym trainers can beat me silly! That’s not what the test battle is about! I only need to see that you’re smart and can think on your toes. You definitely demonstrated that with your little fan trick. I’m excited to have you at the gym.” she explained, smiling at my bewildered expression.

           “Say, you’re pretty cute.” she said as I stood there, hair frizzed out from the wind, mouth agape, unable to speak. “Do you wanna join the gym?” she asked again, reminding me she was holding her hand out.

           Shaking myself into action, I grasped her lovely gloved hand with both of mine and nearly cried “Thank you! I won’t let you down! W-wait, did you say I was c-cute?”

           She giggled and blushed. “You’re pretty adorable. I’m going flying later if you wanna join me. I’ll even show you the cockpit!”

           “Y-yes! I’d love to!” I turned bright red but nodded enthusiastically. My nerves were going to be a big problem if we were going to work together. It would be good to get used to being around her. Maybe in the cramped quarters of the cockpit there won’t be room for any awkwardness.

           We agreed to meet after lunch and she saw me to the door. “Oh, and make sure you don’t fix your hair. I like it messy.” she said as we parted ways, reaching out and tucking a strand gently behind my ear. Her fingers in my hair sent a jolt of electricity through my body.

             I stumbled back to my house in a daze, still not fully processing what had happened. Me, a real gym trainer just like I dreamed of, AND I was going to hang out with the girl of my dreams later. It seemed too good to be true. “Pinch me Ducklett,” I sighed as we entered the front door. Ducklett gave me a quick peck. Ouch! I was awake alright. And I couldn’t touch my lunch. I was too excited to see her again.

CHAPTER 2

             My family were all pilots. There wasn’t much else in the way of making a living in Mistralton. You could be a pilot, or a mail clerk or commute to Driftveil. But I actually had never set foot in a plane before. I always wanted to be a trainer and go on an adventure, and I thought planes were silly and boring. Who needs to fly when you can get yourself some running shoes and head out into the tall grass?

             But for Skyla, I would do anything. So when she invited me to go flying with her I instantly agreed. The problem was that I was pretty sure she expected me to be able to fly a plane, based on my family. So when we met up again and got ready to board her biplane, I sheepishly had to confess the truth to her.

           “I know this is going to sound really lame,” I began, “but I… don’t know how to fly. I never learned.” I braced myself for her judgement.

           Surprisingly, none came. Instead she just smiled at me and said “It’s never too late to learn something new! I didn’t learn how to ride a bike until this year. Isn’t that funny?”

           She was so sweet, making me feel comfortable instantly. I smiled back. “Does this mean you’re gonna teach me to fly?” And then it dawned on me. “You’re going to teach me to fly YOUR plane!?”

           “Sure!” she said, taking my hand and pulling me up into the plane.

             It was quite small inside, barely big enough to stand up. We crawled up to the cockpit. I hesitated, unsure which seat I should take.

           “Here, you sit in this chair.” She put a hand in the small of my back to guide me to my seat and I jumped in surprise. She giggled again as I blushed and tucked my skirt to my legs to sit down. Skyla took the seat next to me. I noticed both chairs had a set of controls and a steering wheel…

           “I’ve never been in a cockpit before.” I said sheepishly, my face red. “What is the steering wheel called?”

           Skyla grinned, apparently enjoying my embarrassment. “It’s called a yoke! There’s also the tiller, you’ll use that to steer it on the ground before we get into the air.”

           I awkwardly fumbled my hands toward the controls, and then realized I didn’t know which was the yoke and which was the tiller.

           “Oh, let me help you, it’s this one.” Suddenly, Skyla reached over and put her hands on mine, wrapping them around a small device that looked like a bike handle. I was worried she’d notice how sweaty my hands were, but thankfully she was still wearing those big blue gloves. When I looked over at her face, it was very close to mine, and I noticed she looked a little flushed too. She looked over at me and caught me staring. We both quickly looked away, blushing harder.

           She cleared her throat and took her seat next to me. “First, you turn that key there and turn the electronic system on. Then you turn engine one on by flipping this switch here, and then engine two.”

           I followed her instructions up until the moment I had to turn the second engine on. Then I froze, unsure where to find the right switch on this huge panel of switches and dials before me. Skyla stood up and leaned over me, pointing out which switch it was on my far left. Her whole body was stretched over me in this tiny cockpit. I flipped the lever automatically, and then the plane lurched forwards, moving down the runway. Skyla lost her balance and fell into my lap. The plane picked up speed, and the force pushed her down, unable to get up. I went nearly catatonic with surprise. Her shiny smooth red hair was right in my face, and we were barreling down the runway. Her small body fit perfectly against mine as we inadvertently shared a seat.

           We were reaching the end of the runway and Skyla took the controls. We lifted off the ground, soaring through the air.

           “Sorry I gotta do this, but you might not be ready to fly” she chuckled at me. “Safety first!” She took the seatbelt and fastened it around both of us, pinning her against me as she steered the plane.

           “Watch this!” she called as she jerked the controls to the left. The plane took a sharp turn and began spinning in the air. I shrieked in terror and without thinking grabbed onto Skyla and clung there for dear life, shutting my eyes tight. When we pulled out of the spin I opened them, realizing I had accidentally grabbed her in a rather awkward way. “WAH! Sorry!” I yelled as I jerked my hands away. Skyla said nothing, but looked embarrassed. Then she laughed. “Awfully bold for your first time in the air huh?”

           Skyla gently turned the plane around and began lowering it back down onto the tarmac. When we landed, a rush of g-force thrust us forward in the seat. Skyla cheered and hollered, enjoying the ride. The craft lurched forward as it finally came to a halt, and then she relaxed and laughed. She unbuckled the seat and stood up, crawling out the plane. I followed.

             “Not bad for your first flight. I did end up doing most of the work though.” she laughed and teased cheerfully. I wouldn’t mind giving you another lesson. You’re awfully cute when you’re scared.”

           I blushed, and before I could say anything, she leaned over and planted a kiss right on my cheek.

[georgemackayhey]

Something Good

"Hey! I wanted to shyly request a George fic, I had daydream where the reader had a long hard day and takes a shower to relax and George comes in with her and they share some soft fluffy moments just enjoying each others company you know?? Anyways I’d love it if you’d entertain this idea, thanks so much!! I love your writing!!!"

Nonny, how did you know this was exactly what I needed? Please do enjoy this soft sweet George blurb during these very stressful times. My inbox is open for anyone who wants to chat about things! ♡

w/c: 1k

───※ ·❆· ※───

The world had gone to shit.

You knew that on good days, but on bad ones, you were reminded of exactly how hard it was to stay otherwise positive.

So you sped home, thinking of nothing but standing under the hot shower and started shedding layers the second you passed through the front door. You washed up without haste, anxious to have nothing more to do than to stand idly under the scalding water until it ran out.

This was something you did when feeling particularly stressed, distraught, negative. But as you stood trying to forget how poorly you felt, you were still bogged by all the built up worries. Whether it was because there seemed to be far much more to worry about, or because you hadn't taken the time to properly process things, you couldn't tell. You just felt bad.

A tiny spark of delight ignited when you heard the bedroom door open and shut from a distance, George was home. You knew he'd soon meander into the bathroom, like always. This was almost always where you met at the end of the day. He would brush his teeth while you finished up whatever you might have started, chattering about your days before heading to bed.

"I'm home, love!" George warmly informed as he entered. His voice echoed through the tile-covered room and settled your nerves for just a moment. But you just didn't have it in you to muster an equally cheery response.

"Hi," You greeted in a small sigh. Of course, you were glad he was finally around, but still so fogged by your worries that you couldn't quite move past them.

"How's it goin' in there, love?" George asked in a cautious lilt.

"It's one of those days, ya know?" You informed, trying to relax under the water. He would have known what you meant, how you sometimes lingered in the shower on the really rough days.

"I'm coming in, not to worry," George informed decidedly.

In the blink of an eye, he was stepping into the shower behind you, reaching to pull you close.

You were surprised, never having stepped foot here with George without an event much more sultry in mind. But now he joined you looking just as tired, just as in need of a moment of quiet.

He pressed kisses on your shoulder as you turned to face him, practically melting in his embrace.

What surprised you the most was knowing you both knew the world was shit, and how much you both had to worry over, but how George seamlessly swayed conversation toward the bright side of things. He tightened his hold around your middle, warmer than the water, you were now the most comfy. And he talked about how his favorite house plant grew a new flower, and how he'd found your favorite old show to queue up later. He talked about hearing your favorite song on the radio as he drove home, thinking of you.

You listened to the man ramble on about how excited he was for summer, and all the fun adventures he'd been planning on taking you on. You listened and rested against him, feeling the layers of your worry dissolve down the drain.

You predicted that the water would start to turn before too long, and George made quick work of washing up. You helped by running your fingers through his tousled hair, humming a tune and admiring the way he closed his eyes, contentedly.

"What's your favorite Elvis song?" You wondered out of sheer curiosity, and on a bit of a mission to keep the conversation light-hearted.

"Jailhouse Rock of course." George rolled his eyes with a smirk as he reached to turn off the water.

"Oh, of course, huh?" You giggled as George gently guided you out into the steam-filled bathroom.

"Which is yours, love?" George seemed to truly want to know as he reached for your towel before you could. He wrapped it across your shoulders with care as you responded.

"If I say I Can't Help Falling In Love, would that make me too basic?" You asked with a chuckle.

"No way," George assured, pulling you toward him by the ends of your towel and holding you close for just a moment. You stayed snuggled against him for a moment, taking note of his warm skin, his gentle breathing, and the way his hands pressed against your back.

As you took turns helping each other into your favorite cozy pj's, you kept asking silly questions like...

"What's the stupidest joke you can think of?"

"Do you have a favorite sound?"

"If you could only ever wear one outfit which would it be?"

You laughed your way from the bathroom, turning out the light and shuffling toward the bed. You rested against your collection of pillows and blankets, watching as George turned on the telly, rambling about how he just couldn't choose his very own spirit animal.

He clamored into bed with a sleepy smile, practically laying on top of you with a gratified sigh.

That evening as your favorite shows played on low volume, the blue flickering light set you at ease as you laid facing George. The pair of you continuing a lazy conversation, each question turning more outlandish than the last.

George traced patterns against your shoulder and you tangled your legs with his, letting out belly laughs over the nonsense you'd found yourself lost in. It was as if he was weighing you down, keeping you from floating off into the madness.

Some of your worries had been long forgotten. Others stayed undercover in the back of your mind. While you knew they were there, lurking until morning, you paid them no mind.

You would work everything else out later. You could sleep on all your jumbled thoughts and worries,  and sort them away when the time was right. For now, you had George.

You had the comfort of his closeness. And his sweet smile that grew a little wider with each second he waited for you to laugh at another stupid joke. You had the humbling delight of knowing that when you woke up to your worries, that George would still be snuggled close to you, balancing everything out.

And, you had a sneaking suspicion that by morning he would have thought up more goofy questions to ask as you trekked downstairs to make and share breakfast together.

You had George now, and you knew he wasn't going anywhere. The thought was enough to relax you completely, enough for your eyes to grow heavy with sleep. As you drifted, you still had George.

While he pretended to watch whatever had been left on the telly, his attention was still focused on you; still tracing patterns on your skin.

You wanted to sleep, to finally let go. But you kept telling yourself to hold out for a little while longer. Because every time George found a new spot to run his fingers along you would smile, and you knew he was smiling too.

The world had gone to shit, but even on the really bad days, you had George.

───※ ·❆· ※───

Requests are open ♡

[crazylittlethingy]

He loves me (Part 7.5) - mall adventure

abusive!dabi x reader (eventually x hawks)

a/n: I don’t actually know if this part adds anything to the story itself but I felt like they deserved to have this little friendship moment and I think I’m starting to like Ren a little bit too much…

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7

The local mall was a know place between teenagers to hang out, being avoided by older people on Fridays for the sake of their mental health. Which never actually made sense.

It had the default mall look, which consists in white and glass everywhere. The stores were anyone’s favorite part, especially capitalism’s, because they were so colorful, or colorless (Hot Topic says hi), filled with products you didn’t need but you certainly wanted and would, usually, deny those wants, but with a Naomi by your side, wanting to try on clothes and taste sweets, it was hard.

Which is how the four of you found yourselves at the first clothing store.

“(Y/N)! COME LOOK AT THIS” yelled Naomi, your local rich kid, at a nearby rack.

You walked up to her slowly, looking around to see if you liked something, and, as you looked behind you to make a comment to Keigo about a shirt with a funny quote, you realized both boys were no where in sight. Did they really leave you to deal with Naomi’s shopping spree alone?

“(Y/N)!” Said girl got to you and was dragging you to see some other rack. “Look! I need a new shirt” you highly doubted that “and these are from the newest collection! Aren’t they beautiful?”

As you were about to answer, she started to talk about the details of said collection, the material, how it was sewed, which color she thought would look good with a certain look and you did your best to listen, sometimes voicing your opinion about a certain piece, when you saw something in the corner of your eye.

Keigo was standing there, a feet or so away from you guys, walking towards you with a bright smile, wearing a flowery red hat, a striped lime green dress and jeans with a bright blue belt. Talk about 2000’s Disney. And honestly? He looked goofy, which made you laugh and him to grin at the way your laugh was so loud.

Naomi, confused, searched what caused your sudden outburst and she wasn’t disappointed, joining you and holding her stomach after a few seconds. Keigo looked satisfied with both of your reactions and started to pose for you.

“Oh my, I know, I know, I am too beautiful for your eyes and being blessed like this causes you to be filled with joy!” He said, duck pouting, with a hand behind his head and the other on his waist.

“Oh definitely, oh great fashionista” you managed to say between laughs “And what a great honor would it be if you thought me your ways”

“Hell to the no” suddenly Naomi was serious “As much as it is a good laugh I wouldn’t let you be fooled by the harlequin. And by the way… where is Ren?”

“You mean my most wonderful helper?” “Please, Keigo, the boy is too wonderful to be led into that path” pleaded Naomi.

“I see you have little faith in me Naomi” Ren murmured from behind Keigo, having been obscured by his wings. He was wearing his normal clothes.

“Ren! What are you doing with those clothes? I though you were on my side” Keigo made a pleading face, with a bout and wide eyes, resulting in a pink cheeked Ren that refused to look at him.

“Even if you are my friend, your taste is terrible” he answered, his hand covering his mouth and eyes still looking away from the giant bird man, whose pout increased.

“HA! I knew Ren was better than that!” Naomi went to Ren’s side and put her arm on his shoulder “Therefore, he’ll be my helper”

“Helper?” The other three asked.

“Yes, we’ll do a little fashion show here” the spoiled girl smiled in a way that was both beautiful and scary.

After looking through the whole store and pilling up mountains and mountains of clothing, Naomi was satisfied and gave the green light for your fashion show. Yet, even with her guidance, Keigo still insisted on adding a few of his touches to her looks or went with a combination that was completely bizarre, resulting in screams from a scandalous Naomi and laughs from you and Ren. The boy actually knew a lot about fashion too and was telling you about the color he thought would suit you and how to wear a certain outfit.

And when the time for the last outfit came, your phones were full of silly pictures of the four of you in the most outrageous outfits and funny faces, but, on that last outfit, Keigo decided to ignore Naomi and Ren decided to spread his wings a little. It took your breath away, even if the clothes themselves were ‘simple’.

Keigo was wearing a grey shirt with black jeans and black snickers with white details. But what made the outfit more special were the accessories. On one arm, he had two metal bracelets, one designed as a chain and the other as a wing, a watch with a red bird in it in, a ring on his index finger with what also reminded you of a pair of wings closing together; on the other arm was a reddish leather bracelet. And, around his neck, two chains, the one shaped as a wing dangling. He looked good and he knew it, smirking to the mirror, his eyes met yours.

You didn’t think much of the outfit chosen for you, you simply liked it because you felt it went with your personality and were surprised with how comfortable it was. When your (e/c) eyes met golden ones, Keigo’s smirk vanished, his mouth slightly agape and eyes warm. (A/n: I didn’t describe a proper outfit for you because maybe what I think is beautiful and nice may not be the thing you’d go for, so, if you want, I’d like to know what outfit you’d choose! So, please, comment!)

You were in a trance broken only by the sound of Naomi finding the outfit of her dreams, apparently. She wore a black see-through shirt, with a black piece that reminded you of a triangular bikini, light brown velvet skirt, high heeled black boots and a crystal necklace. She spun around and smiled as bright as the sun, probably already planing places to go with the outfit and, as she looked at you, it became clear that she was including you in those plans. She was a comforting force in the middle of her own caos sometimes.

“My my, don’t you look dashing, darlin’?” Her kind smile soon turned into a mischievous one as she looked at your best friend “Don’t you think she looks dashing, Keigo?”

“How about you, Naomi? Don’t you think Ren looks dashing?” He replied without missing a beat. It made your heart hurt a little when you realized he avoided her question about you.

And as none of you girls had noticed, Ren had gotten out of the fitting room. As you recently discovered, he liked to look good. You were used to him hiding in the uniform, shoulders tense, waiting for unwanted attention, and head hung low. But this Ren? He was standing tall, looking you all in the eyes, still a little bit pink, but expecting to hear your opinions. He knew what he was doing when he choose a black crop top that had a circular zipper, brown pants held by a black belt with some chains on the side (wait… was he secretly an e-boy???) and a pair of white sneakers. It was the first time you saw Naomi at a loss of words, so you offered your own.

“You’re looking sharp, Ren… and I bet Naomi totally agrees with me” said girl was looking like a fish out of water, but, at least, she nodded.

You expected Ren to turn red, like he always did when receiving a compliment, yet he surprised you once more and grinned widely, boy even dared to wink at you!

“Thanks, (y/n)-chan, it seems like you listened to me about the (f/c), it really suits you” ok, who was this Ren?

“Woah, kid, didn’t know you could wink and thank you” you replied and he laughed.

“I guess I can? I don’t know, but, sometimes, the right armor can help you through the day” as he shrugged, a little more tense, you noticed something: the uniform was a weight for him, one he carried and didn’t want to. Maybe it was something at home, maybe it was on his own mind, but, right in that moment, he was vulnerable, showing a little piece of himself he was sure about, maybe even proud of. And so were you.

“Well, good to know I won’t need to ask Naomi for fashion advise anymore, all she does is yell at me” Keigo said nonchalantly.

“And I know that if you are not buying that, Ren, I am. It will be a gift” Naomi said, coming out of her trance.

“O-oh, thanks Naomi-chan, but you don’t need to buy me a gift” shy Ren is back.

“Oh, love, seeing you in that outfit is a gift for me” Naomi winked at him, her Cheshire smile at full force, and the effects were immediate as Ren turned a deep red.

When you got out of that store, two hours had gone by and you still had so much ground to cover. So you and Keigo made a deal: if your group was to enter another clothing store, you two were going to leave Naomi and Ren there and go somewhere else.

You left them behind three times and, on those three times, both teens went out of the stores in a hurry, yelling when they wouldn’t find you, about 30 minutes after you left them.

During those escapades, you and your blonde friend went to a videogame store, talked about videogames you knew and liked and heard Keigo talk enthusiastically about his favorite ones. You also went to a library, discussing book plots, characters and authors. And finally to a restaurant, as the sun was going down and your hunger grew. Your last destination pleased Naomi because ‘spending money leaves an empty space on your wallet and stomach’.

The place was little and full, the air filled with a characteristic smell of fryed food and chatter. The table you were sitting at was square and grey, with a flower vase filled with lavenders and some napkins.

As usual, you talked about school, training and rising superheroes, but also about tv series, comic books and gossips.

“And how about that mysterious friend of yours, (y/n)-chan? How is he and when are we meeting?” Naomi chirped. Keigo turned serious at the mention of Touya.

“Ah… that is… a childhood friend, we talked about how he had been doing in those years we’ve been apart and… well he is a little… shy. I don’t think he’d like to meet you guys right away” you answered.

“I’m shy and I was forced to meet you all right away” Ren murmured

“That’s because you are a cutie” Naomi send a wink his way for the second time that day. “This ‘childhood friend’ is more like ‘(y/n) personal secret’, we won’t learn anything unless we force her to speak or follow them around and discovered something dark” she wiggled her fingers like some people do when telling a horror story.

“I think he is suspicious (Naomi: “Ohhhh is a he then? Is he single? I mean, do he likes girls and is single?”/ you: “I… don’t know, I’ll ask him another time”) aham excuse me, I am talking. Like I said, he is kinda suspicious, because, I mean, he appeared out of nowhere and was standing there in front of our school like a creep. People change along the years, maybe you shouldn’t be alone with him or trust him right away” The blond huffed as he crossed his arms and slacked his posture, pouting like a baby whose favorite candy was denied.

You sighed.

“I can’t deny he is a completely different person now… but he is also my first friend. Somewhere, in his heart, he still has some of the qualities engraved on my memories, I know that” you answered, more to yourself than to your friends, hoping your words were true.

When you returned home, it was already night.

As you lied down to sleep, you looked outside your window, hoping the stars could answer your prayers, that they could confirm that your future would be good.

Taglist:

@aly-insanity​

@a-typical-antisocial-fangirl​

@memekingofwwiii​

@axerrri​

@elizabeththe3third​

@angiepoggiart​ 

@kittyddandnyla​ 

@crystaldragon-69​