#Though no shade to people who do it it looks super cool! But this is part of diversifying regression

[piinktearxs]

It’s okay if you don’t own or want agere gear

it’s okay if you don’t own or want an agere room

agere inspo boards are fine but don’t feel pressured to conform to the aesthetic just because that’s what you see online - nobody is going to see that space without them being worthy of it (ergo non judgmental of how it looks or how it is) - you do what feels best for you in that moment, no pressure, this is YOUR safe space so whatever makes sense to YOU

[gloomyluvr]

NEEDY

in which rafe just wants to nap

fem!reader x rafe cameron

fluff

warnings!: bit of sarah shade. cameron siblings getting along (iktr 🙂‍↕️), reader is from the cut and kind of a pogue idk,

a/n: hiii ! first rafe fic ever and first fic since 2023 (oops...) to my spiderverse readers i will write when they give us content and when the fandom is alive. hope this fic is good and people like it. it's not the best but i'm working on other fics so give me a chance please 😣. this ones pretty short. pls let me know if you enjoyed this or if there are any spelling errors. requests are open !

masterlist

summer in the outer banks was nothing short of fun. spending most days at the beach taking in the warm sun, relaxing and cooling down in the cold water, all while hanging out with the people you love most. but fuck, did it get so hot sometimes. unbearably hot. it wasn’t enough to cool down in the water, the intense sun on skin overpowering the coolness of the ocean. it was worse at the chateau, or anywhere on the cut. only a lucky few could afford the luxury of air conditioning. fortunately, you had a super awesome hot rich boyfriend with a mansion with air conditioning that ran 24/7. 

you laid in bed with the youngest cameron sibling, helping her with online shopping for the upcoming school year. having been with rafe for just a couple months, you had become close with his sisters. you saw sarah at the chateau with john b more than you had ever really seen her at tannyhill. therefore, when you spent time at the mansion, you typically spent time with wheezie when you got bored with rafe. 

“wait, that one’s cute,” you pointed to a crop top on wheezie’s laptop which rested on her knees.

“i think i already have that one though.” she looked around her room to see if the top was among the clothes on the floor before giving up and continued scrolling through the catalogue, “i feel like these clothes are too revealing.”

“cmon wheeze! this is nothing, you just gotta get out of your shell. it’s just clothes, try something new and i don’t know, maybe you’ll like it.” you tried convincing the younger girl. over the past few months you had become like an older sister to her, as sarah spent more time with john b and the other pogues.

“my dad would never let me buy these,” she turned her head to look at you. 

“just put it on rafe’s card,” you whispered, “i won’t tell.” you stuck your pinky out and wheezie quickly wrapped her pinky around yours, giggling. 

as wheezie finalized her cart a familiar voice began to call out for you, “babeee! babeee where are you!”

wheezie rolled her eyes, “speak of the devil,” she muttered. 

“summon him and he shall come,” you smiled at her which she returned, “i’m in wheezie’s room!” you called back. on queue, you heard obnoxiously loud stomps coming up the stairs. “he is so dramatic and for what?”

rafe stood in the doorway looking at you and his younger sister, “why’d you steal my girlfriend, wheeze?” 

 it was your turn to roll your eyes, “she didn’t steal me, dipshit. you were too busy ignoring me for topper and kelce and your stupid game so i came up here where i am truly loved.” you sighed, wrapping yourself around wheezie who stuck her tongue out at her older brother. in return, rafe picked up one of the shirts laying on the floor and chucked it at wheezie. 

“douchebag!” she yelled.

“cmon y/n, i wanna go take a nap.” 

“but i’m so comfy here!” you whined cuddling wheezie tighter. 

rafe walked over to your side and quickly got on the bed, spooning you and throwing one of his long legs over your body, reaching wheezie. rafe wasn’t an affectionate brother by any means, but when he was with you he definitely softened up with everyone around you guys. 

wheezie kicked her brother’s calf, “ew get your nasty dogs away from me!” but rafe didn’t budge.

“what’re you guys doing?” he mumbled looking at the laptop screen. 

“y/n’s helping me shop for school.” 

“why? you have enough clothes. you don’t need none of those crop tops. no boyfriends till you’re 30.” rafe stated as he viewed the clothes on the screen.

you gently smacked the leg that was on top of your own, “don’t be rude! wheezie’s not little anymore.”

 “hm, whatever.” he grumbled, nuzzling his face against your neck, eyes shut as he fully enveloped you leaving no space between your bodies. his hands found yours, wasting no time to intertwine your fingers. 

“get off me, fatty!” you feigned disgust, as if you weren’t enjoying every second of rafe’s neediness to cuddle.

rafe grumbled, “only if you come take a nap with me in my room.” 

“fineeee, get up then,” you reached behind to gently smack his butt and he quickly got up, no effort to hide his big smile, “sorry wheeze, duty calls.” you sighed, getting up following rafe as he walked to wheezie’s door.

before walking out he turned back to wheezie and stuck his tongue out as she had done earlier. with no hesitation, wheezie returned the gesture as you smacked rafe’s head and shoved him out the door. 

[lilbabypanda-blog2]

Phainon x (fem)reader

Phainon is crushing, and Y/N is oblivious XD

🤭🫶🏻

_______________________________________

Okhema City was a marvel of elegance and energy, its golden towers glowing under a soft, perpetual light. The streets hummed with the sounds of music and conversation as people moved through the grand plazas and intricate skybridges. Laughter drifted from bustling vendors, and faint trails of sweet, spiced aromas filled the air.

Phainon walked beside you, exuding what could only be described as dramatic confidence. His regal coat swished behind him, the embroidered gold and blue threads catching the light with every exaggerated step he took. He kept glancing at you out of the corner of his eye, trying to appear casual but failing miserably.

You, however, were entirely oblivious to his nervous antics. Your gaze was fixed on the city around you, marveling at the sheer beauty of the architecture and the lively atmosphere. “This place is amazing,” you said, a smile tugging at your lips as you looked up at the softly glowing arches above. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Yeah, it’s... something,” Phainon replied, his voice a little too eager. “But, uh, I could show you the really amazing parts. I know all the best spots.”

“Like what?” you asked, genuinely curious.

“Oh, uh...” Phainon faltered, his confidence slipping under the weight of your direct attention. “Like, um, this fountain right over there! It’s super... historic?” He pointed toward a glowing marble fountain that you were already walking toward, his enthusiasm betraying the fact that he hadn’t actually thought this through.

Trailing behind you were Phainon’s companions: Tribbie, a small girl with fiery red hair and vibrant blue eyes who seemed incapable of standing still, and Mydei, tall and intimidating with his untamed blonde-and-red hair and an aura of perpetual irritation.

Tribbie grinned as she jogged to keep up with you two. “He means he wants to show you off,” she whispered conspiratorially to Mydei, giggling. “Look at him! He’s been tripping over himself the whole time!”

“I noticed,” Mydei muttered, crossing his arms as he followed. “Not like he’s being subtle.”

Phainon overheard them and whipped around. “I am being subtle!” he hissed, his face red.

“Sure you are,” Mydei deadpanned, not even bothering to hide his smirk.

“Don’t listen to him,” Tribbie said, skipping up to Phainon’s side. “You’re doing great! Well, except for the part where you keep blushing every time Y/N looks at you. But other than that, perfect.”

“Tribbie, please!” Phainon groaned, glancing nervously at you to see if you’d noticed their conversation. Fortunately—or unfortunately—you were completely engrossed in admiring the intricate carvings on the fountain.

“It’s okay!” Tribbie whispered loudly. “Y/N’s totally clueless. You’ve got time to pull it together!”

“I don’t need to pull anything together!” Phainon snapped, though the panic in his voice betrayed him.

“What are you two whispering about back there?” you asked, glancing over your shoulder.

“Oh, nothing!” Tribbie said with a grin, skipping back to walk beside you. “Phainon was just telling us how much he loves—uh—fountains! Right, Phainon?”

Phainon coughed, his cheeks still pink. “Yes. Fountains. Very majestic.”

You raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t press the matter, much to his obvious relief.

Tribbie, however, was far from done. “So, Y/N,” she said, clasping her hands behind her back and tilting her head in a way that could only be described as way too innocent, “what do you think of Phainon? Pretty cool, huh?”

You blinked at her, caught off guard by the sudden question. “Uh... sure. He’s great.”

Tribbie gasped dramatically, spinning to face Phainon. “Did you hear that? Y/N thinks you’re great!”

Phainon’s eyes widened, his face turning an alarming shade of red. “She didn’t mean it like that!” he said, his voice cracking slightly.

“I mean,” you said, looking between them with a confused smile, “you are great. You’re a good leader, and you’re... fun to be around. Why wouldn’t I think that?”

Phainon opened his mouth, then closed it, his brain clearly short-circuiting. “I—uh—thank you?” he managed weakly.

Tribbie clapped her hands together. “Oh, this is too good. Mydei, isn’t this great?”

“Yeah,” Mydei said, rolling his eyes. “If by ‘great’ you mean ‘painful to watch.’”

“Okay, that’s enough out of both of you,” Phainon said, his tone equal parts exasperated and mortified. He took a deep breath, trying to regain some semblance of composure. “Y/N, do you want to see the market district? It’s a lot livelier than this part of the city.”

You nodded, still oblivious to his obvious fluster. “That sounds fun.”

As you all made your way toward the bustling marketplace, Tribbie leaned closer to Mydei, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief. “You know,” she whispered, “we should help him out. Like, nudge things along a bit.”

Mydei gave her a flat look. “Or we could let him suffer. That’s been entertaining enough.”

Tribbie stifled a giggle as she looked up at Phainon, who was now awkwardly trying to match your pace without looking like he was trying too hard. “He’s so hopeless,” she whispered.

“I can hear you,” Phainon muttered without turning around.

“Good!” Tribbie chirped. “Maybe it’ll inspire you to actually do something about it!”

Phainon groaned, his face in his hands as he walked. You, meanwhile, simply admired the sights, blissfully unaware of the chaotic energy simmering between your companions.

By the time you reached the market district, the air was alive with music and the scent of freshly baked bread. Phainon, for all his flustered awkwardness, managed to walk beside you with his usual confidence—though his companions’ constant teasing kept his nerves simmering just beneath the surface.

For Phainon, it was a miracle you hadn’t picked up on his obvious feelings. For Tribbie, it was her favorite ongoing drama. And for Mydei, well, it was just another day in Okhema City.

The market district was a riot of colors and sounds, with stalls overflowing with intricate wares: handwoven fabrics, shimmering jewelry, and jars filled with glowing powders that seemed to hum faintly with energy. Street performers danced and spun glowing ribbons in the air, while vendors called out their prices, each trying to outshine the next.

You walked ahead, drawn to a stall filled with delicate glass ornaments that sparkled in the warm light. Phainon hovered a step behind, trying to look relaxed but still stealing glances at you.

“You know,” you said, turning a small, intricately carved pendant over in your hands, “this place is so vibrant. I feel like I could spend days here and still not see everything.”

Phainon took a deep breath, willing himself to act natural. “If you wanted, I could show you around tomorrow. Or, you know, whenever you’re free.”

Tribbie appeared out of nowhere, practically popping up between you two. “Ohhh, a private tour? How romantic!”

Phainon choked on his own breath, quickly covering it with a cough. “Tribbie, not now!”

“What? I think it’s sweet!” she said with an exaggerated pout, blue eyes wide with mock innocence.

You blinked at her, clearly confused. “I mean, it’d be nice to have a guide,” you said, glancing at Phainon with a smile. “You know a lot about this place, don’t you?”

Phainon’s heart skipped a beat at your words, but before he could reply, Mydei strode up, carrying a skewer of grilled meat and giving the group his usual deadpan stare. “What’s going on now? Is Tribbie making it weird again?”

“She’s trying,” Phainon muttered under his breath.

“I’m helping,” Tribbie said brightly. She grabbed Phainon’s arm and gave him an encouraging shake. “Go on, tell Y/N about how you’re practically an expert on Okhema City!”

“Uh, well,” Phainon stammered, clearly thrown off by the sudden pressure. He rubbed the back of his neck and tried to pull himself together. “I’ve spent a lot of time here, so I guess you could say I know it pretty well.”

“You guess?” Tribbie teased, nudging him with her elbow. “Come on, sell yourself! Tell them about that time you saved that merchant from bandits!”

Phainon groaned, his face turning red. “Tribbie, that’s not relevant—”

“Wait, you did that?” you asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah,” Phainon admitted sheepishly. “But it’s not a big deal or anything.”

“Not a big deal?” Tribbie gasped, placing a hand dramatically over her heart. “Y/N, did you know he fought off three bandits at once? With nothing but his sword and his sheer determination!”

Mydei snorted, taking a bite of his skewer. “Don’t forget the part where he tripped over a crate halfway through.”

“Hey!” Phainon snapped, glaring at him. “That crate was in a bad spot!”

“Sure it was,” Mydei said dryly, smirking.

You couldn’t help but laugh at their banter, the sound drawing Phainon’s attention back to you. His flustered frustration melted into a soft smile as he watched you, his companions’ teasing momentarily forgotten.

“Still,” you said, glancing at Phainon, “that’s impressive. You’re braver than I thought.”

“Brave?” Tribbie repeated with a grin. “He’s practically a hero! You should see him during training—he’s always going on about protecting people and doing the right thing.”

“Tribbie,” Phainon groaned, his face buried in his hands.

“What? I’m just saying you’d make a great knight in shining armor!”

“You mean a dramatic idiot,” Mydei muttered, earning a glare from Phainon.

“You’re not wrong,” you said with a playful smile, making Phainon freeze in place.

“W-wait, what?” he stammered.

“Nothing,” you replied innocently, already turning back to the glass ornaments on display.

Tribbie leaned toward Phainon, whispering loudly enough for everyone to hear. “She totally likes you.”

Phainon let out an exasperated groan. “Tribbie, stop!”

“Or,” Mydei said, his tone dripping with sarcasm, “you could just tell them how you feel instead of embarrassing yourself all day.”

“I’m not embarrassing myself!” Phainon protested, though his flushed face suggested otherwise.

“You kinda are,” Tribbie chimed in with a grin.

“You know what?” Phainon said, throwing his hands in the air. “I’m just going to go buy something. For Y/N.”

Tribbie gasped. “Oh my gosh, are you getting them a gift?!”

“It’s not a gift!” he said quickly, already heading toward a nearby stall selling small, carved figurines. “It’s... uh... a gesture of friendship!”

You raised an eyebrow as you watched him stride off, clearly flustered. “What’s he doing?”

“Something dumb,” Mydei muttered around a bite of his skewer.

Tribbie clapped her hands together, practically bouncing on her heels. “Oh, this is the best day ever.”

As Phainon returned with a small, delicate figurine of a bird carved from white stone, his nervous smile made you tilt your head in curiosity.

“For you,” he said, holding it out. “I saw it and thought... well, it reminded me of you. I mean—not in a weird way! Just... it’s graceful. And unique. And, um...”

“Thank you,” you said, cutting him off before he spiraled completely. You took the figurine, turning it over in your hands with a smile. “It’s beautiful.”

Phainon’s shoulders sagged with relief, though Tribbie immediately burst into applause.

“He did it!” she said, grinning at Mydei. “He actually did something right!”

Mydei just shook his head. “Don’t encourage him.”

You laughed again, the sound filling the air like music. Phainon smiled, his heart swelling despite his companions’ relentless teasing. Maybe you hadn’t caught on to his feelings yet—but moments like this gave him hope.

For now, walking beside you through the glowing streets of Okhema City was more than enough.

As you passed through the busy market, your eyes caught sight of two familiar figures ahead—Dan Heng and Trailblazer.

“Hey, Y/N!” Trailblazer’s voice called out, a mischievous grin spreading across their face as they waved toward you.

"Hey!" you called back, a bright smile spreading across your face. Without missing a beat, you waved back and started making your way toward them.

Behind you, Phainon straightened up at the sound of their names, his steps growing a little stiffer. Tribbie noticed immediately and nudged Mydei.

“Looks like Phainon’s acting all nervous again,” she whispered, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief. “He’s got that look.”

Mydei grunted. “He’s not fooling anyone. Especially not Y/N.”

Phainon pretended he hadn’t heard them, but his cheeks were just a little flushed as he joined you, Tribbie, and Mydei in greeting Dan Heng and Trailblazer.

“So, what brings you two here?” you asked as you approached.

Dan Heng nodded with a small smile. “We were checking out the local sights. Thought we’d catch up with you and see how things were going.”

Trailblazer grinned, their eyes flicking over to Phainon before returning to you. “Well, it looks like Phainon’s been keeping you entertained.”

Phainon stiffened at the sudden attention, his white hair swaying lightly as he gave a small nod. “I’ve only been showing Y/N around. It’s nothing special.” His voice was a little too casual, and his gaze flickered away nervously, though no one commented on it—except for Tribbie.

“Nothing special?” Tribbie shot a glance at Phainon, her voice full of playful innocence. “Phainon’s so modest. He’s been the perfect tour guide—especially when he bought Y/N a gift earlier. So thoughtful!”

Phainon’s face went crimson. “I—Tribbie, please.” He looked around desperately as if hoping for a distraction, but everyone was watching him now.

You blinked, completely unaware of the undercurrent of tension. “Yeah its pretty cute look"

“It was just a little trinket,” Phainon mumbled, now avoiding eye contact as he fidgeted with the hem of his coat. “Nothing to make a fuss over.”

“Oh, I’m sure its just a little trinket,” Trailblazer teased, arching an eyebrow at him. “Is that what we’re calling it now?”

“Trailblazer…” Dan Heng’s voice was flat, warning them to ease up on the teasing.

You, still oblivious, gave Phainon a warm smile. “I think it was really sweet.”

Phainon tried his best to hold his composure, but his cheeks were a little too pink for anyone to miss. “It’s... really not important.”

“Sure it’s not,” Trailblazer said, nudging Dan Heng with a sly grin. “What do you think, Dan Heng? Think we should give them some space?”

Dan Heng didn’t respond immediately, but his eyes flickered briefly between you and Phainon. He sighed, but there was a hint of amusement in his voice as he answered. “If you want to, sure. But we know how Y/N is when they’re excited about something.” He turned to you with a faint smile. “You’re enjoying the city so far, I take it?”

You nodded enthusiastically. “Definitely! Phainon’s been an amazing guide. I’ve learned so much about Okhema already.”

Phainon’s stiff posture relaxed slightly at your words, though he was still visibly flustered. “I’m happy to help.”

Trailblazer, clearly enjoying the awkward tension, leaned toward Phainon with a grin. “You’re making great progress, Phainon. Keep it up.”

Phainon’s eyes widened slightly. “I—I’m not—”

Mydei crossed his arms, leaning in slightly toward Phainon. “You’re not fooling anyone, man. You might as well just admit it.”

Tribbie giggled at Phainon’s embarrassment, her blue eyes sparkling with amusement. “Don’t worry, Phainon. You’re doing fine.”

Phainon sighed deeply, his shoulders slumping. “I don’t know what you’re all talking about.”

But his blush was all the answer they needed.

Dan Heng gave a small, knowing smile. “It’s alright, Phainon. You don’t have to say anything.”

Trailblazer tilted their head slightly and gave Phainon a wink. “Oh, I think Phainon’s doing just fine.”

You, still unaware of the subtle back-and-forth happening around you, smiled and glanced between your two crews. “We should all hang out together more often! You all seem like you get along great.”

“Yeah, we totally get along,” Trailblazer said, their grin far too wide. “Just like a big happy family.”

“Don’t encourage them,” Dan Heng muttered under his breath.

You laughed, giving Dan Heng a playful shove. “Come on, Dan Heng. You can’t be that grumpy.”

As you continued chatting with Dan Heng and Trailblazer, Phainon found himself strangely quiet, caught between the overwhelming urge to retreat and his desire to stay close to you. He still couldn’t shake the feeling that your attention was like a distant star, just out of reach, even as you smiled at him occasionally.

[cat0901h3]

Goosebumps Books 1-10

Can't believe that it took me nearly two years to just do 10 covers for the books. Will be posting more Goosebumps in the future, along with other stuff.

Read more to know my personal opinions and critiques on my fanart for each book:

Welcome to Dead House: I wanted to make the house look alive like Monster House, so I gave it more human characteristics (ie: the people in the windows to form eyes, or the finger-like branches.) Also paid homage to a horror film by styling it after The Amityville Horror house.

The Benson children themselves look a bit depressed, that's because the first book is actually more scarier than the rest of the series, so they're a bit angsty.

Stay Out of the Basement: This one killed a lot of my green markers lol. I tried to make Dr. Brewer as menacing as possible while still showing that he is a father with the photos, There were going to be more plants reaching out, but I decided that the leaves hidden on him would be enough.

Though I have to admit my disappointment with the lighting. It still looks a bit too bright, and not dark enough. That's just my own critique.

Monster Blood: Honestly, pretty mixed about this one. While I'm proud of the bubbling ooze that looks like a skull, which is outlined by one of my colored pens. I'm not proud that everything else is so muted with brown. Almost all of Jacobus' works are vibrant and saturated, so it being dull in colors feels like a disservice to him.

Also, Andy's last name was made up by me, she apparently just doesn't have one. It's inspired by Stephen King. Btw, hope you love banana and strawberry dyed hair, you'll see more of it soon in future batches.

Say Cheese and Die!: One of my favorite books, and of course it gets the best fanart imo. The screaming skeleton form of Greg Banks with red bg in the polaroid, contrasting with the dark background is just super cool, coolest shit I've ever done. Though I might be biased, I really like skeletons. Like Curly.

I actually made concept art for a Say Cheese and Die! graphic novel, which includes drawings of the photos and Spidey! Let me know if you're curious.

The Curse of The Mummy's Tomb: Not much to this one honestly. Just a mummy casually busting down a wall filled with hieroglyphics. Though I will say, I was experimenting with shading with purple and blues like Jacobus. As you can see, didn't stick for long.

This is also the book that I discovered that if the protag doesn't have a last name, then there is an official one either in the Presents novels, the mobile app, comics or other.

Let's Get Invisible!: This was pretty tricky to draw. Drawing someone turning invisible maybe easy in Photoshop or Procreate, but this was traditional art. Sure Jacobus did it with airbrushes, but I all had were pens and markers. But I somehow managed to pull it off, which is insane that I even managed that in the first place.

Night of the Living Dummy: Ah, the infamous Pamela Vorhees book, where the main antagonist isn't the mascot, but instead some other puppet lol. I've seen a lot of fanart of Slappy, but never of Mr. Wood. So I wanted to do justice for Wood while still showcasing Slappy. While I am proud for how it mostly turned out, there are two things that bother me. 1. This is the night sky that is black, the rest are either blue or purple. 2. I forgot to add the lines that make the jaw on Mr. Wood, whoops.

Aside from that, I hope guys like that Misfits poster in the background and Kris's cool hair cut. The green was inspired by the comic adaption not 2015 Jacksepticeye.

The Girl Who Cried Monster: Please forgive me for the small thumbnail, I wasn't using a ruler at the time. The design for Mr. Mortman wasn't much of a challenge. I loosely based it off of the French rendition of the cover and gave him a large leech-like mouth.

In my headcannon, the teeth spin like a garbage disposal, making easy work of the turtles.

Welcome to Camp Nightmare: Another one of my favorites, and I think I did a decent enough job, too. The lighting is perfect, the clouds look alien enough, and you can just barely see the screaming campers inside the tent. I do have one issue though, and that is the size of the monster, Sabre. In the original sketch I did, he was supposed to blend in like a bush, but instead he looks like Sasquatch Sr. Oh well.

While they did give Billy a last name in the Presents books, I had to make up one for Dawn. Just based it off Gwen Stacy lol. Also, hope you enjoy the little bonus pictures down below.

The Ghost Next Door: The original Jacobus art was perfectly vague enough to keep the twist there but not spoil anything. Of course to do the same thing, but with a twist of my own. The "ghost" shadow that you see in the street is the Dark Figure that follows Hannah around or when Danny is near. I wanted it to look like it was constantly on fire, since SPOILERS: someone in the book does die in a fire.

Another headcannon is that the Dark Figure isn't actually a ghost or whatever, but instead the embodiment of Misery.

[kyri45]

✨ShadowPeach Bio Parents Bio AU Q&A! 16/10✨

Welcome to the Q&A! A space where I can answer related or similar question about the Shadowpeach Bio Parents AU! If you submitted your ask anonimously, then you’ll have to check the whole post if it’s answered here, if it’s not, worry not! Your asks might have been used for a future comic or just in the queue~

Anonimo ha chiesto: i absolutely adore your shadowpeach bio-parents au comics they flow really nicely from post to post, and i looove the balance between angst & fluff i feel as if with shadowpeach, its always either angst or fluff- no inbetween, but somehow you've found a really nice mixture of both thanks for singlehandedly keeping me in the LMK fandom haha

Thank you! Fluff and angst keep going around each other like a microwave ahah

Anonimo ha chiesto: So like with mks monkey form does he have to deal with shedding during summer I think it would be funny if macaque and Mk got fluffier during winter. Wukong wouldn't complain about a fluffy macaque though probably like sleeping with the best plushy.

Oh man I think they do indeed haha. Pigsy would scold MK bc he keeps finding fur hair everywhere in the house

Anonimo ha chiesto: You seem like someone who knows a lot about the LMK fandom, so I must ask where does the idea of Princess Iron Fan and Macaque being sworn siblings come from? Like, is it from JTTW, and im just not aware of it, I'm still trying to learn as much as I can, and I need to actually read the book. The fact that people assume I know a lot about the fandom is so hilarious (not in a mocking way, I'm just very surprised) bc like- I watched the whole show in 1 day, speedwatched Overly sarcastic production recap of JTTW and read half of the book in a week. All of this in July. That's everything that I know from the fandom.

I think it's an headcanon. in JTTW Wukong, Macaque and DBK are all part of the brotherhood so.

Anonimo ha chiesto: First off I LOVE your comic but I have the animal autism and wanted to share some Monkey facts: monkeys don't sweat like humans do they mostly sweat on the palms and feet, areas they have no fur. For overheating monkeys mainly seek shade staying under trees , increase respiration (panting), seeking water sources. Also some species might shed for a thinner coat during summer. Sweating is an exclusively human thing and why humans have been so successful humans are persistent hunters. We would often follow herds for miles waiting for them to tire and overheat while sweating keeps us perfectly cool. Humans are also the only animal to blush. Lol Again no hate love the comic I love me some Flustered blushing gay monkeys. I just have the animal autism and wanted to info dump.

Thank you for the animal fact dump! Those were actually super interesting facts!

@draxeanlxia ha chiesto: Hey question that I have no idea if you already answered but how old is MK in your BIO Parents AU? I know people (usually) believe him to at least 18 due to China’s minimum driving age but others believe him to in his early 20s. Also Mac in your AU said was ‘grown ass man’ during the baby arc. So in your AU, how old is MK?

So. in the AU he's 21 y/o. Meaning that when he arrived to Pigsy door they saw him and went "yeah, he looks around 2/3" and from then they counted on. Buut there's also the thing that he looks a little younger than that age. I wont say anything else.

Anonimo ha chiesto: Who your Favorite Lmk character??

mmmmmmm... MK bc he's monkey now. Before season 4 probably Macaque or Wukong. But I have a "thing" for characters discovering they are actually a different species and slowly gaining new/different body features bc of that, so when I saw him flickering at the end of s4 I flew to a different universe. Literally the whole reason this AU exist is because I would die for this trope

Anonimo ha chiesto: What inspired your Human Wukong & Mac designs? Mostly because my brain looks at Macaque and thinks “Cranky middle aged pirate” meanwhile Wukong’s is “That chill gay uncle” (this is based off of purely looks by the way)

Macaque is drama queen so of course he would wear a trenchvoat during fall. plus he's old inside and outside bc of all Wukong bullshit. Wukong is your friendly neighbour who lives in a sketchy house and survives on peach sodas and chips (oh wait that's just canon Wukong.)

ainnur ha chiesto: You know I like how Wukong in your comic just compare something hot with Laozi's furnace. Like with spicy food and time he help MK created the weapon. Mk: You know Wukong you mention Laozi's furnace a lot. Must really tough 49 days for you... Wukong:Yeah worst 49 years *eating peach* Mk: Can tell- wait- years..? Wukong: Yeah a day at heaven is like one year here or so..Do the math, bud *continue to eat the peach* Mk:.... what..? Wukong just casually and accidently recall his trauma because he thought it never effect him like his other trauma. Also the brotherhood have 49 years to help him but they didn't do anything. "Yeah because normally you would rush into my rescue"

Thank you for giving me this traumatic info I didn't know about. Now I will never look at Wukong the same (why did my boy have to suffer so much)

Anonimo ha chiesto: Macaque: I think I'm in love with Wukong . . . Any thoughts. Chiyou: and prayers you're going to need them.

me too bitch, the fuck

@mirror-queen226 ha chiesto: I agree about the last ask you posted (about Wukong surely wearing a dress on a date), and I just couldn't help but say my own headcanon too (with a little bit of knowledge about the ancient times that Wukong was just a child on the jttw and lmk): I dunno if you agree but okay. Honestly, both Wukong and Mac/Mihou (like i usually call him) does not care about clothes, if they feel comfortable with them, be it for woman or man, they'll wear it, especially Wukong though, I feel like he'd act like a famous diva in a on a runway showcasing new high-class clothes from Victoria Secret, Channel, or something, whilst Mac is much more discreet but not too far from that too. And considering Wukong was wearing WOMAN clothes when he was in the brotherhood in the season 4 lmk flashback, it just made me believe in that headcanon even more :) Also, I am really loving your au, it's just so perfect the way you develop every character slow and patiently, keeping their personalities untouched, not changing but instead expanding and showing them a bit more, how they are really trying to improve (Wukong and Mihou in this case) and how satisfying it is to see. I always rush to see the new updates you post about the Biodads au every time i see too, and honestly, one of the 5 best au's ever, you draw so good too, it's adorable! That's all I wanted to say, have a nice day, drink water and take care of your health! 🥰🥰🥰

Yeah true! Like they are shapeshifter, they wouldn't care what species they are, even less the perceived gender norms

Anonimo ha chiesto: Little question, while the monkeys where at Chiyou's forge, shadowpeach where still sleeping together or not?

They were all sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor (but they all were close to each other.

Anonimo ha chiesto: Generally curious what you think would have happened if MK had not been woken up and the stone wasn't broken what do you think would have happen. would he had grown up on FFM?

Aww he probably would have been raised by Wukong. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.

@wolfsonic ha chiesto: I have question! Does Rumble and Sabage have sentience in your stories? Like, do they have their own personalities like MK clones do? If yes, what do they think of WuKong and MK? Also, will we see more of them? Cause I'd love Mk to meet them when he wasn't stuck as a cub and not remember.

Yeah I think they have a littel bit of personalities. They like both MK and Wukong, but would also do prank on him.

Anonimo ha chiesto: I think I won't say I'm in love from Hercules fits macaque very well

The little monkeys are the muse doing backup choir

Anonimo ha chiesto: Can we see what a courtnapping room typically looks like?

Courtnapping rooms are made specifically for the courted one, so they are all different. Basically, the room should include everything the courted person would need to live comfortable and also a collection of things they like / to pass the time /love.

It must show that the person courtnapping them is able to provide, care and protect for them. And also knows what makes them happy.

So it can be a huge castle full of jewerly and elegant clothes/ornaments or just a cozy room with some chips and video games.

Anonimo ha chiesto: Is LBD going to be a topic in your au again ?

maybe

@wolfasketch ha chiesto: We need MK interacting with his new found Auntie and Uncle please(we also new to see Red being flustered by MK while his parents are around and PIF being like "Ooohhhh")

We are VERY luky Red Son and MK didn't grew up together or we would have thier parents playing love-matching with them while they are toodlers

Anonimo ha chiesto: could we possibly get a traffic light trio and shadopeach grooming train at some point, i would love to see some bonding time between them all <3 and i would love to see mk grooming redsons hair since there's so much of it

Wait who would be the second person to be groomed? I assume RedSon hair are too hot to touch. (when he's flustered, at least)

Anonimo ha chiesto: So like how does Redsons hair/ fire work. Does it just feel warm to MK and Mei. Will it only burn/ hurt you if he doesn't trust you. Another note it must be nice having two fire demon friends during winter.

I think when he's relaxed, the hair is just- a little bit warm, then with his feelings and emotion it can go up to a bigillion degrees, so it's not harmful as long as he can control it.

[blasphemousclaw]

ok so I watched Vaati’s new video on Rykard, really liked it overall but I wanted to go into more detail about what I liked and what I disagreed with. 

Gonna start with a list of the things I loved/found super interesting:

The way he laid out the evidence for Rykard’s inquisition having been on behalf of Leyndell was really really well laid out!!! 

I laughed at the “FAMILEEE” soundbyte 

His discussion about the origins of “hexes” was super cool 

I had never heard of the cut item description linking the Serpent Arrows to Shaded Castle! 

The idea that poison was involved in Rykard’s desecration of the Minor Erdtree… he didn’t mention this, but this idea could explain why there’s sickly greenish growths at its base?  

(Gelmir Minor Erdtree vs. Consecrated Snowfield Minor Erdtree)

Talked about the idea that the Great Serpent grew because of the sacrifices it was fed, then was killed, then came back as a normal-sized snake, that Rykard fed himself to and then grew large due to once again devouring sacrifices

Pointed out that the snakes inside the Abductor Virgins look like metal!!! I thought I was crazy for thinking this

1.0 Daedicar mentioned ‼️

His overall characterization of Rykard and his motivations is really good. he gets it

Now here’s some arguments he made that I disagree with:

Early in the video, Vaati makes the argument that the blue-robed Officials originate from House Marais because the blue robes are a part of Maleigh Marais’s garb as head of the House, because Inquisitor Ghiza wears bandages, suggesting that he’s “sickly born” like the rest of the Marais family, and because the unnamed guy in the Volcano Manor portrait also wears a metal mask like Maleigh Marais. He argues that House Marais were assimilated into Erdtree society, and presumably that the Official’s blue robes were a precursor to the other robes associated with the nobility (the Ruler’s robe, the Upper Class attire, and the Consort’s robe). 

There are several reasons why I disagree with this theory:

Masks aren’t unique to the Marais family: the Ruler’s set comes with a Ruler’s mask, said to be “customary dress among lords,” and Tanith also wears a mask with her Consort’s robe. I speculated that masks are simply part of the noble fashion alongside the particular style of robe. 

I don’t think it makes a ton of sense for pompous noblemen to have adapted their style of dress from a robe associated with a family of executioners carrying out “the darkest duties of mankind”

The Volcano Manor portrait guy does not have bandages under his mask like Maleigh does.

Maleigh and Ghiza don't really look alike at all:

Also, a different explanation for Ghiza’s bandages could be that he’s a remnant of the 1.0 version of Daedicar, a torturer in Rykard’s inquisition: “he would test new methods of torture first upon himself."

Overall I think a better explanation for the Marais attire is that, since their ancestral duty was serving as executioners on behalf of the Erdtree's justice system, they simply incorporated the Official's attire (worn by magisterial officials carrying out "surveillance, executions, gruesome rituals") into the garb of the head of their house.

I absolutely think House Marais is connected to Volcano Manor though; I've suggested that as executioners they serve as a branch of the Erdtree justice system working in tandem with Rykard's inquisition.

2. Later in the video, Vaati makes the argument that the Abductor Virgins were made after Rykard snakeified himself. I personally think that they were made before the snakening, but I can see the evidence for the contrary and I definitely think it’s possible. However, Vaati later says that the Abductors were used to transport people to the Underground Inquisition Chamber to be interrogated, which contradicts his argument that they were made after Rykard’s snakening… if Rykard is now a serpent, no longer a Praetor, what use is there for interrogation? And who is doing the interrogating, if Tanith was the only human left loyal to Rykard, and his inquisitors have long abandoned him? If the Abductors were made after Rykard became the serpent, the victims are probably just being fed to him. 

3. Towards the end of the video, Vaati says that the serpent displayed in the Temple of Eiglay is the flayed skin of the Great Serpent, and that might explain the Godskin’s presence there. But it’s not the flayed skin of a snake, it’s a snake shed:

It’s a pale, milky, almost translucent color, with some ragged edges and holes. Snakes shed their skin as they grow, and we know the Great Serpent “devours, grows, and lives eternally.” Rykard even has some shed skin stuck to his body and tail:

4. Lastly, I’ve beat this horse to death but you can’t say with 100% certainty that Rykard was born with red hair because he has pale hair in the present day. I will die on this hill

[rosesradio]

how it feels to write...

valdangelo: i'm in my friend's gaming room, and they just pulled out a huge box of snacks i'm not allowed to have at home. super smash bros is cued up on the wii. it's 2013, and nothing bad has happened yet.

jercy: i'm sitting in a field at my old high school, the air cool and refreshing as i crack open a new queer romance i requested the library to order. some people are playing football in the distance, though i couldn't tell you who's winning or what's going on. it's a spirit week day, and i'm allowed to wear a hat.

lukercy: i'm in the club when i shouldn't be. i have plans the next day, though maybe i should forget about them. there's someone speaking to me, their voice warm and low. i don't know their name and don't care to know. i can only look at their lips.

valgrace: i'm with an old boyfriend in his shoebox apartment, talking for hours until we realize it's way past the time i should be home. it doesn't matter. his bed is warm and time stands still as i am, for a fleeting moment, understood.

lukethan: i am crawling through a haunted maze that the church put together, my heart pounding. i'm not sure why i'm so scared; my parents said everything would be okay. the money is for a good cause. it's dark, and i can only hear my own shallow breathing. a warm hand latches out like a python, grasping my ankle.

jasico: i'm weaving through the trees at girl scout camp. after the third time walking through the poison ivy fields, i have no rash; perhaps i am immune, perhaps i am a superhero. there is a large cement box in the center of a field, some sort of industrial project i do not yet understand. inside there is a deep, empty blackness. it calls out to me. i should jump in.

lukabeth: i am at a party at my friend's house, playing a game one of them found online. hands wrap around my throat, pressing me to the bedroom door. i black out, dreaming in shades of yellow. in the dream, i'm yelling at my sister, crying to her. i am ignored. i wake up, gripping the carpet with sweaty hands. a strange man comforts me, telling me i shouldn't have played such a stupid game. his breath smells of alcohol. there are no sober adults in the house.

x readers: i am in an auditorium, putting on a play like i used to as a kid. much like the stress dreams, i have over forty lines and didn't crack open the script. i manage, and i look out, and i wait. the lights don't blind me this time. i can see everyone in the audience. they wear masks and clap politely. the sound is muffled, fading into silence like tv static. their eyes are expectant once more.

[mcflymemes]

PROMPTS FROM BEYONCÉ'S COWBOY CARTER *  assorted lines from the album, some slightly adapted, adjust as necessary

nothing really ends.

for things to stay the same, they have to change again.

hello, my old friend.

you changed your name, but not the ways you play pretend.

do you hear me?

let me make myself clear.

can you hear me, or do you fear me?

can we stand for something?

now is the time to face the wind.

can you stand me?

this isn't the time to pretend.

they used to say i spoke "too country."

they don't know how hard i had to fight for this.

goodbye to what has been.

you were only waiting for this moment to arise.

i had to leave my home at an early age.

i'm not in my bed.

i gotta choose myself.

i might cook, clean, but still won't fold.

i'm still working on my life, you know.

only god knows.

i got art to make.

i got love to create.

they won't dim my light.

i had to sacrifice and leave my fears behind.

you'll remember me, 'cause we got something to prove.

i will lead you down that road if you lose your way.

i'm born to be a protector.

even though i know someday, you're gonna shine on your own.

i gave water to the soil, and now it feeds me.

there you are, shaded underneath it all.

i feel proud of who i am.

i first saw your face in your father's gaze.

how many times have you let yourself get down?

be fond of your flaws.

i just hope you love yourself like that.

i really hope the best for you.

you're my love, my sweetie pie.

don't let go.

lay your cards down.

i'll be damned if i can't slow dance with you.

don't be a bitch.

there's a heatwave coming at us.

i give you kisses in the backseat.

you make me cry, you make me happy.

just toss it.

they couldn't have me and they never will.

sometimes i hold you closer just to know you're real.

sometimes i take a day off just to turn you on.

i could be your bodyguard.

you should let me ride shotgun.

you know how people like to start shit.

someone better hold me back.

i'm warning you, don't come for my man.

don't take the chance just because you think you can.

the games you play are nothing new.

you don't want no heat with me.

i know my man better than he knows himself.

shoot your shot with someone else.

i'm warning you, woman, find your own man.

i have to have this talk with you.

i really tried to stay cool, but your arrogance disturbed my solitude.

look what you made me do.

if you cross me, i'm just like my father.

you say move a mountain and i'll throw on my boots.

how does it feel to be adored?

think about leaving? hell no.

time moves quickly, and so do i.

i don't need anything.

here's to hoping i'll fall fast asleep tonight.

i need to get through this.

i came here for a reason, but i don't know the purpose.

time heals everything.

i'll be your backseat baby.

been a while since i haven't tried to pull away.

come here, you sexy little thing.

baby, you play too much.

i'm looking super hot.

i'm a fucking animal.

every time you know just what to do.

no one ever got me going quite like you.

girl, i wanna take you home.

they won't be around.

i hope that you know that once i loved you.

history can't be erased.

got you up all night and now you don't wanna leave.

how can a true love go so wrong?

put on a show and make it nasty.

let me sink into your arms.

i died and someone brought me back to life.

i plan to steal your heart again.

who am i to judge?

i will carry on.

baby, i've been waiting my whole life for you.

wherever you wanna go, that's fine with me.

all i see is the best of you.

i'm gonna give you the best years of your life.

you owe me a debt.

i hated you once.

tap me on the shoulder when you reload the gun.

i know they're looking for me.

i fall to pieces each time i see you there.

it don't matter what nobody says.

we can take back roads.

just say what you need from the store.

i'm coming home.

take that shit on the chin.

have mercy on me.

this house was built with blood and bones.

i need to make you proud.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Loving the digital circus content! Digital crew x tiger!reader. The are basically a tiger that can walk on two feet and talk but can still run on all fours. Their suppose to do tricks like jump through rings of fire or so super cute tricks for entertaining people. But they have a dark sense of humor and a temper. Not wanting to be there. Their kind to others who treat them nice tho. Ex: Jax makes a poor joke or tries to mess with them expect one of another crew members turn the corner to see Jax neck in between their razor sharp teeth with a nervous smile. “Heh guess they don’t like jokes.”

TADC cast x feisty!tiger!reader

...is feisty the right word..? I dont think so but I'm drawing blanks

This one may be a little all over the place and this isnt exactly written with romantic stuff in mine !! Hope that's alright anon !!

Side thing I just noticed the anon icons have shades

That's so cute

CAINE:

Honestly I think he would constantly compliment your stripes! Thinks they look cool..... and given that hes a ringmaster, hes definitely going to be using you for circus acts... sure you're not a lion, but hey, beggars cant be choosers. As for your humor, I'm a little stumped on whether or not he would enjoy it... I think it would depend on the joke!

Would kind of just stand there watching you bite jax. Kind of just

Strolls off while whistling, pretending he didnt see anything

Likes calling you "spitfire" thanks to your personality as well as the whole fire loop trick

POMNI:

I mean, you're a big cat. And also physically large, probably. You're fast and you're agile. Pomni understands that in reality youre a person and this is your digital body, but shes still getting used to this world. Obviously very wary around you, and I don't think shes an enjoyer of your little jokes. Probably has a genuine freak out if she walks in on the jax thing. Like actual genuine fear

Does not enjoy your temper either, I think she may avoid you tbh. Like she would still be polite but. You know?

RAGATHA:

Probably also not a fan of your temper and sense of humor, but since this is ragatha we're talking about shes still going to be as nice to you as she can be and include you in things. probably one of the one of the only people to actually try to fet you to back off of jax. Purely basing this on her intro thing where she literally shrugs off an axe to a face. Ragatha has balls of steal and a few bites arent going to stop her, I think

Polite to you but I also dont think you guys would be close

JAX:

Honestly jax looks like he would make a squeaky toy noise while you bite him. Jax being jax, hes going to antagonize you. Probably calls you "kitty". Does the 'pspsps" and "here kitty kitty *Pat's thighs*" thing when hes trying to get your attention

Sure you biting him cant kill him or leave any real damage, but it's definitely not comfortable

Is a dark humor enjoyer though so at least you guys share that in common

KINGER:

Attends some of the little shows you and Caine put on. Claps very loudly and probably very cartoonishly since hes not bound to.. well having arms..! Your sense of humor does freak him out, though, since hes scared that one day you're going to get sick and tired of this digital world and start a rampage... I mean you've already demonstrated you're more than willing to be aggressive

Overly polite to you, trying to make sure he stays on your good side. Squeaks and runs off when he walks in on you biting jax

ZOOBLE:

You dont mess with them, they dont mess with you. You guys kind of just stay in your own lanes. Does enjoy some of your dark humor. Also likes your stripes, they think they look nice! Maybe they start wearing striped limbs more often!

I know I'm leaning heavily on the jax biting thing but I think if they walked in on you biting jax they would huffed out an amused but short laugh before carrying on with whatever they were doing

GANGLE:

You know how gangle covers her mouth when zooble is taken apart by the gloinks? She does that when she sees jax in your teeth

Vefy very intimidated by you.. but also.. has a weird crush on you.. maybe I'm self projecting on gangle, a lot, but so far I've said that gangle is into:

Mysterious broody guys

Monsters

Gentlemen

And now, big strong intimidating folk

She just like me frfr

Like would she be weird or straight forward with her crush on you? Hell no. Is she good at hiding it? No not really. So.. I guess her snd Caine are the only two that have the potential for romance..

Honestly gets a crumb of satisfaction with you biting jax, given how much he messes with her. Does feel bad about feeling satisfaction

[heliads]

Can I request a Loki x fem reader where the reader is a super kind empath Avenger and comforts Loki, who also has been recruited as an Avenger (very reluctantly) but is still a bit ostracized from everyone else on the team. The reader is able to see how poorly Loki was treated in the past and promises to be there for him. They both end up falling in love but are too afraid to tell each other (the reader is able to feel this weird warm and fuzzy emotion Loki directs at her and she can’t pin point what emotion it is). They end up confessing when Loki sees an avenger member take advantage of the readers sweetness so he steps into comfort her. He confesses and they kiss 😚

Also have an amazing day and take your time with requests!!!

hope you have an amazing day too!

masterlist

If you squint ever so slightly, peer out from the reach of your favorite chair just enough to see into the surrounding hallway, you can almost make out the silhouette of Tony Stark pacing back and forth outside his office door. 

As resident empath of the Avengers team, you’re in charge of reconnaissance, general battle backup, and checking in on everyone to make sure they’re still intact. You’ve also gone ahead and assumed that to mean that you can use your abilities to read the hearts of your teammates. Hey, it’s what they hired you to do, right? It’s not like you’re scanning their minds, now that would be invasive. All you’re doing is sensing how they’re feeling. Anyone could do that with a bit of good knowledge on body language.

You shift slightly, and there– you can just make out a cloud of colors circling Tony’s figure. That’s how emotions have always appeared to you ever since you were a kid. When people are having a perfectly normal day and not too much has happened, you’ll only be able to pick up on a tendril or two of colored smoke around their frame, a few hints at happy or sad but nothing too special. 

Conversely, when something crazy is going on, it’s like they’re walking out of a bank of mist, Mr. Darcy at the end of Pride and Prejudice (2005)-style. For instance, at this very moment you can’t even tell what shade of shirt Tony is wearing through the dense emotion rattling around him.

This is obviously a sign that something is going on. Usually, Tony’s pretty laid back, or at least he pretends to be. Cool blue is his trademark. Sometimes, closer to missions or just after them, you’ll see bright lime or sickly yellow lancing through them, panic and stress from too much pressure on his shoulders. You can sense his anxiety attacks before they start. Tony has no idea how many times you’ve used your gifts to divert those things, and if you have it your way, he’ll never figure it out.

Tony’s not panicking right now, though, or not in the way that you’re used to. Instead of purple or blue, all you can see around him is red, blazing red. Tony’s not usually a red kind of guy. Red means anger, outrage, and by the looks of him now, something has happened to cook up a regular bonfire of irritation.

As you watch, though, more colors join the fray. You can spot uneasy yellows and greens, an undercurrent of fear. What could possibly be going on to make Tony so unhappy? The situation is complicated, to be sure, but that’s nothing new around the Avengers. Take it from a S.H.I.E.L.D.- registered empath:  no one ever feels just one thing at one time. There’s always a dozen different emotions swirling in between your heart and head. And right now, Tony’s got quite a few to chew on.

Unable to contain your curiosity, you get up from your seat and pad over to him. Tony almost flinches when he turns and sees you, but he rubs a tired hand over one eye and greets you like normal.

You arch a brow at this attempt at pretending everything is fine. After all this time, Tony should know that you’re not one to get fooled by a pretty lie like that. “What’s going on? You’re totally freaking out.”

“So glad to see you, Y/N,” Tony complains, “I look great? Thanks for telling me. You’re always so quick with the compliments.”

You give him a look. “I know how you’re feeling. What’s up with you?”

“It’s not me you should be questioning,” he sighs, “it’s the newcomer to our team.”

You frown. “I didn’t think we were getting someone new.”

“We weren’t supposed to, but Fury added another guy last minute. Apparently it was either that or have him rot down in a cell for all eternity, and we don’t want to risk pissing off his brother,” Tony clarifies.

“Who’s his brother?” You ask, curious.

“Thor,” Tony says, and then you understand at last.

“Loki is joining the team?” You can’t believe it. Loki attacked New York all of six months ago. Sure, Fury has always been one to maximize opportunity, but you can’t believe he’d let Loki into the ranks of the Avengers so quickly.

“That’s what I said,” Tony harrumphed, “but apparently it’s already done. He’ll be coming up later today to meet us all. You know, without trying to kill us this time.”

You chuckle under your breath. “I can’t wait to see how that goes. How long do you think we have until Steve breaks out a patriotic speech on our or his behalf?”

Tony snorts. “It’ll happen any minute now. Look, here Steve comes up the stairs now. It’s like he marches everywhere he goes. Unreal.”

True to Tony’s suspicions, Steve, upon learning of Loki’s arrival, does indeed treat all of you to a talk about looking past first impressions. If the red flickering around his eyes and fists says anything, though, it’s that he’s just as pleased about the whole affair as Tony.

You, for one, aren’t sure what to make of the whole thing. Something must have happened to make Fury trust Loki, and until you learn otherwise, that’s as good an endorsement as you’ll get around here. Before long, Thor is marching into the Avengers complex with a stranger in tow, and all of a sudden, you have eyes on your new teammate.

It’s strange, your first impression of Loki. Second, technically, but you’re not counting the Battle of New York. That was different, you were trying to kill each other. Now you’re supposed to count on him to save your life.

Tony shoots a quick glance your way, cocking one brow as if to ask, getting anything? The honest answer is no, not yet. Asgardians are always hard to read, you figured that out when you first met Thor. Everything about them is different, even down to how they feel certain emotions. Loki is no exception. At first, you think he feels nothing at all. Then, you realize he’s just very good at hiding it. His back is perfectly straight, spine stiff and unfeeling.

That is, until you look a little deeper and you start to see the threads of colors playing around his clothes, his hands, his blank stare. They’re green in color, green and gold like the stitching on his apparel. They’re not happy emotions, these, they’re–

They’re fear. Loki is afraid. Not that anyone here will kill him, not that sort of fear. He is certain that all of you will reject him, that this great god will have to watch humans laugh at him and just deal with it anyway.

You can understand feeling like that. When you were first recruited to the Avengers, you almost thought it was a joke. Surely an empath wouldn’t be useful in the heat of the battle. They had to convince you of that later, once you could start changing people’s emotions instead of just reading them. Still, you know what it’s like to doubt yourself, even when you’re sure that you are worth more than anyone can imagine.

So, you step forward first, and greet him with a smile. “I’m Y/N,” you say, “it’s good to see you.”

Loki arches a brow, and you don’t have to read minds to know that he’s thinking is it? as strongly as he can. This confusion only grows when you hold out a hand to him. For a moment, you think he’s going to reject you, but your smile stays insistent. He doesn’t have to like you at all, but goddamnit, you’re going to like him. He can deal with that on his own terms.

He must be able to pick up on this sort of stubbornness, and for some reason this is what wins him over at last. Loki extends his hand to shake yours, and just like that, the ice is broken. It’s as if a collectively held breath is released across the room.

That isn’t to say that the rest of the Avengers take to him so readily, nor that Loki is as willing to accept them as you. He tends to stick to himself, avoiding crowds unless he can’t avoid it. He begrudgingly tells you it’s because being around that many people either reminds him of Asgard or the battle or both.

He tells you a lot, actually. It doesn’t all happen at first. He may have shaken your hand, but he seems dead set on despising you. However, you’d made up your mind to win him over at that point, and you weren’t going to rest until you met your goal. It took a lot of slow, deliberate effort, but before long the conversations weren’t so one-sided and you swore he actually smiled when you entered the room.

Also, he stopped hiding his emotions as much. The first time you saw a hesitant wave of goldenrod brush across his shoulders, you thought you were hallucinating. It was there the next time you saw him, though, and the next, and the next, deepening to sunset orange and staying there. Happiness. He liked being near you.

Once trust was built, real friendship could follow suit. Turns out Loki was just as reluctant to join the Avengers as your lot was to welcome him in, but when Director Fury makes a decision, pretty much everyone has to follow suit. Thor had warned him against causing more trouble, so Loki was here to stay. He used to think that was a bad thing, but judging by the way his tone has softened as of late, he might not be so sure of that anymore.

Loki starts to tell you more, once he stops thinking of you as an outsider. He tells you about Thanos, about how he had twisted Loki’s mind so that he could only attack the city. You had suspected something was wrong with Loki during the Battle of New York– his eyes glowed a strange color, the emotions flickering around his chest were almost alien, so unusual even for a god– but hearing it is the confirmation you needed to be sure. Loki had not attacked you in his own mind. He had not tried to kill you, that was someone else forcing his hand.

That last part was especially crucial. The night he finally told you about Thanos’ control, Loki had not been able to leave until he was certain that you understood that it had not been him leading the attack on the Avengers and your home. At last, you convince him that it is alright, and only then can he rest easy.

The rest of the Avengers aren’t able to share in this peace, however. They don’t want to give Loki a chance, which, seeing as they’re not able to actually see his emotions, you can sort of understand, but at this point it’s growing tiresome. It’s been months now since Loki joined the team, and he has not lied to or betrayed or attempted to murder anyone. You want to yell at them to grow up, but you don’t feel like picking someone else’s fights.

Instead, you’d rather spend your time pondering another puzzle. Loki’s moods have shifted again towards you, but this time you cannot understand them at all. Something’s changed about the way he looks at you, how he speaks, and you have no clue what any of it means.

When you have trouble, though, there’s only one surefire solution:  you need to talk to Natasha Romanoff. Nat’s been your best friend since you joined the Avengers, actually. She gets you. You get her. It’s a good time all around.

So, Natasha doesn’t look too surprised when you all but throw yourself into one of the chairs in her favorite space in the complex one sunny morning. The only question on her mind isn’t to ask what’s up with you but what Loki’s done now.

You grimace. “I don’t know, that’s the worst part. He’s acting weirdly.”

“Isn’t that normal for Loki?” Nat questions. “I mean, he is a disgruntled younger brother/frost giant/Norse god. I feel like weird for him is kind of expected.”

“No,” you argue, “This is different. Something’s changed.”

Natasha furrows her brow. “And you haven’t been able to pick up on anything?”

“Well,” you hesitate, “maybe there’s something. I have no idea what it is, though. It’s happy, I think, but it’s sad at times, too, and flickery, like even he can’t explain it. I don’t know how to describe it in the slightest.”

She nods decisively. “It’s love.”

You blink in surprise. “What? No, I just said I had no idea what this is. There’s no way you would be able to guess it so quickly.”

Nat shrugs. “Actually, your vague description was exactly why I know what this is. Only love makes no sense like that. Love makes you happy, but it breaks your heart, right? It confuses the hell out of you because that’s what it’s supposed to do. There’s nothing else that could make anyone feel like a mess of emotion but love.”

You sigh. “That still leaves the fact that it’s Loki, though. You actually think he’s in love with me? I’m a human. I mean, inhuman, technically, but same difference to him. Why would a literal Asgardian god ever look at me like that?”

Natasha’s gaze is knowing, but you can’t quite meet her eyes. “I don’t know why he wouldn’t. You won him over faster than anyone was expecting. I think the biggest question isn’t what he’s feeling, but what you are.”

You brush her concern aside. “Well, of course I know how I feel. I’ve had this much time figuring out how other people’s emotions work, it’s like a user manual for what certain things feel like in your own head. I just can’t believe that he truly feels the same. Maybe he’s trying to trick me by pretending to feel a certain way, I wouldn’t put it past him.”

Nat scoffs. “I thought you were the president of the ‘Stop Loki Hate’ fan club. What’s gotten you doubting him again?”

You shoot her a look. “I’m not doubting him, just myself. Also, there’s no such fan club. Fury banned us from attending Avengers-based clubs, remember?”

She nods mournfully. “All it took was one bad experience. Look, all of us showing up to the ‘Personally Victimized by Nick Fury’ meeting was funny. He was just being a bad sport.”

You smile fondly. “I remember. I’ve never seen that much red in my life. He was totally outraged.”

“Oh, I know. You didn’t need empathy powers to tell that much. At least we abstained from putting on the fake eye patches.” Nat muses.

You bite back a laugh. “Yeah, that might have been overkill. Anyway, back to the point. Are we sure about this?”

“We’re sure,” Natasha assures you, “I’m sure you’ll get in your own head about it later, though.”

“You can count on it,” you grin, and say your goodbyes.

Natasha is right as usual, as it turns out. Both about your feelings and the fact that you would second guess yourself. You were going to say something to Loki, but you talked yourself out of it later that night. It just feels wrong, that’s all. There’s no way a literal prince of the gods would fall in love when you’re just, well, you.

You do your best to push it out of your head, Nat’s knowing glances be damned. Life is too busy to contemplate men who won’t speak their minds. It feels like a new crisis hits New York every week. Speaking of which, you’ve actually got complaints about that. Namely, the fact that you haven’t been on a mission in quite some time despite your status as an Avenger.

You get frustrated once a couple of months have gone by without you seeing a fight. You pull Steve aside when you hear about something going wrong again. “I saw Fury’s memo about needing an extraction team for a situation over in Spain. Can I sign up?”

Steve shakes his head. “Thanks for the offer, Y/N, but we’ve already got enough guys on that team.”

You frown at him. “You can never have too many guys on an extraction team. It’s, like, Avengers lore that stuff always goes wrong on those. I can at least tag along as backup just in case. I’ll grab my gear and be off in like five minutes.”

Steve doesn’t seem willing to back down, though. “Look, I’m glad you’re passionate about the team, but we’re good, honestly. If you’re getting bored, just join the next mission, I’m sure one will come up sooner than later.”

You sigh. “That’s what everyone said last mission, and the one before that, too. I haven’t been out of the complex on official business in three months. I’m an Avenger, Steve, let me act like one.”

Steve puts his hand on your shoulder, forcing you to look him in the eyes. “Y/N, I meant what I said about being glad you want to help, but this is serious. I’m a supersoldier, that’s why I’m out there all the time. Nat’s been trained for this sort of stuff since she was a kid. It makes sense to send us, right? You know we value your gifts, but we can’t risk hurting you.”

Your stomach twists. “You mean, I’m really best when I’m looking at people’s heads, not actually in a fight.”

Steve doesn’t seem to realize he’s upset you, and he nods emphatically. “Exactly! You’ve got a great skill set, just not for right now. I bet we’ll find something soon, though.”

You flash him a thumbs up, already walking back down the hallway so he can’t see the way your face twists. “Can’t wait.”

You let your composure drop the second you’re around the corner. Is this really how they feel? You were useful in the Battle of New York, you know that, and the other agents say you’ve been improving with your abilities by leaps and bounds. You’re handy with a gun or knife, too, so you know you could survive a fight and be of use. You’ve done it before, why are they so keen on stopping you now?

It makes you feel, well, useless. It’s hard to stop the tears from pricking at the corners of your eyes, and you quickly change course to head for your private quarters. You don’t want anyone to see you like this.

Of all the fantastic timing, though, the one person you want to run into least of all right now steps into the hallway just as you think that. Loki nods at you as usual, but he stops dead in his tracks when he sees you. “Y/N, what’s wrong?”

You shake your head dismissively, trying to physically will yourself to look normal. “Nothing! I’m great. Everything’s good.”

He doesn’t seem convinced, though, and reaches out a careful hand towards you. “Are you sure? It doesn’t seem like everything is good.”

You let out a watery laugh, and that does it. “No, actually, things are terrible. Everyone on the team sees me as a joke.”

Loki frowns, clearly taken aback. “Well, that’s not true at all. I don’t see you as a joke in the slightest.”

“Everyone else, then,” you amend with a messy wave of your hand, “I’ve been trying to convince them to let me on a mission for months and they won’t do it. I know my gifts are damn near useless, but I just want to help.”

“That’s not true,” Loki repeats, “They’re a lot of good, actually, and you know that. You’re the best interrogator they have, even compared to Romanoff. You see through everyone’s lies in a heartbeat, even mine, and I’ve had plenty more time to practice them than most. You can sense a trap or ambush in half a second. They’re fools for not wanting you out there with them.”

You smile weakly at him. “You don’t have to say all of that. Thanks, though.”

“Of course I do,” Loki says blankly, “it’s true, and I need to.”

“Why?” You ask curiously.

Loki swallows hard, looks away, and then you see it again– that faint mist of pink, right over his heart. It’s just like Nat said, isn’t it? Just like that.

He forces his gaze back to you, and you’re shocked by the certainty in his eyes after all this time of ducking around your feelings. “It’s true because I love you, and I would not be able to stand it if you let the rest of them talk you into thinking otherwise. They’re toy soldiers, the lot of them, all the same. They couldn’t see real worth if it was standing right in front of them.”

You smile, and for once it’s not cracked or teary or anything, it’s real, as real as the pink ribbons tying the two of you together. “I love you too,” you say.

“Of course you do,” he replies, but he’s smiling too, and you think– no, you know– that everything is going to be alright.

marvel tag list: @mayfieldss, @rogueanschel, @mycosmicparadise, @ellobruv, @callsign-scully, @with-inked-solace, @sher-lokid7, @amortensie, @23victoria, @watchreadfangirlrepeat, @gods-fools-heroes, @w1shes43, @deafsuperhero, @fadedver

[starhvney]

𝐒𝐔𝐁𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝟑 | 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟓: 𝐂𝐎𝐎𝐋 𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐒

𝐂𝐖: none? very wholesome today.

𝐀/𝐍: um.. so this chapter originally was supposed to be cool moms and a dinner... but now it's just cool moms because i realized i was nearing 7k works and the dinner hadn't even started lmao. anyways enjoy this chapter it's super cute

𝐖𝐂: 6,400 +

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 ☆ 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 | 𝐀𝐎𝟑 | 𝐅𝐈𝐂 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 | 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐒

ivy didn’t even glance your way as you walked into homeroom the next day, her hair covering her bruised cheek and head turned sharply away from you. a few people mentioned the slight splotch of purple against her porcelain skin, but it seemed everyone was under the impression that she had just fallen and injured herself. 

you’re surprised that she didn’t try to frame you for her injury, especially since you came to school the next day with not even a red mark against your skin. you suppose she really wanted garroth to be under the impression she was a sweet girl who would never get in a fight.

oh, please. 

it’s not like she had to try extra hard to do so, with how trusting and kind the school’s “prince charming” was. 

to add on to your suspicions, ivy proceeded to not bother you for the rest of the week. it was something that was both relieving and incredibly anxiety-inducing. was she really done messing with you? or was she planning something else?

your thoughts are interrupted as you nearly collide with a meif’wa girl who was stationed around the corner and peeking from behind some lockers at the display in front of her. aphmau and a familiar-looking boy argued in the hall, just outside of the werewolf classroom.

the meif’wa girl turns to you, her round eyes holding a brilliant shade of gold and pale cheeks colored a lovely shade of pink. a pink that similarly matched her straight hair that framed her round cheeks and curled at the ends of her shoulders. with her perfectly groomed black tail and ears and the cute bows she used to accessorize, she looked like an adorable porcelain doll. 

“excuse me!” she muffles an apology behind the hand she raised to her mouth, her voice mousey and soft.

“oh, that’s okay! i was sidetracked,” you glance back at your friend and the boy who towered over her. “um… what are you doing?”

“well, i always end up passing by those two after my classes are over, and i’m starting to think maybe they like each other without realizing.” she blinks up at you, her smile particularly cheeky and feline. “i want to see if my ship sets sail.”

“your…ship?” you trail questionably, frowning at aphmau’s peeved expression and the guy's deep frown on his scratched and bandaged face.

was this the rude classmate from werewolf studies that aphmau had mentioned before? 

“yeah, wouldn’t the enemies to lovers be cute?! and he’s the new “bad boy” junior. i love playing cupid in the school,” she giggles from behind her hand. 

you blink, watching as the rather scary-looking boy rolls his eyes, looking totally fed up as aphmau holds her hands on her hips.

“uhh… yeah. nice to meet you by the way,” you give her your name, politely waiting for her to respond as you slowly make your way towards the two.

“oh! it’s… nana.”

“i’ll catch you around sometime,” you wave, before quickly shuffling right up to the tense duo.

man, he is tall. his skin was a tanned olive color, with cuts and bandages littered across his face. ink-black hair hung messily in front of his equally dark eyes and thick brows.

“you ready to go home, aph?” you ask, though you kept your eyes trained directly on deep brown ones.

you recall why you thought he was familiar now, he was the one who unintentionally photobombed your first-day selfie with aphmau and bumped into her without apologizing. 

she lets out an irritated huff of air, muttering a “yes” before marching down the hall before you.

you stare at the boy a second longer, before turning away and stretching out your stride to catch up to aphmau. the two of you make your way out of the doors, walking down the street in silence.

“…so?” you start, raising an eyebrow and carefully lacing your hands behind your back. 

“i confronted him on why he teases me and is rude to me for no reason and he just said “i was annoying”,” she uses air quotes as she mocks his choice of words. “so i got mad and said he was a jerk and no one would want to be friends with him if he acts like that to people who are just trying to be nice.”

you roll your eyes.

“good. if you act like that all your life you’ll end up sad and alone.”

“that’s what i said!”

when you make it home, your mom is once again eagerly awaiting to tell you something, still in her work clothes as she lingers near the entryway.

“so! we happened to move closer to some other family friends that were also friends with the salomes, and we’re going to meet them all at the park tomorrow afternoon.” she announces to you as you enter the kitchen, clasping her hands together excitedly. “there’s three boys around your age, too!”

“uh, what? why am i just now finding this out?”

“oh don’t worry so much, i’m gonna be there and they’re sweet kids. at least they should be.”

you huff, “alright then.”

☆

you and your mom enter the park from a different side than when you came last time, the trees are less dense, and there’s lots of open space to run around. nearby is a pretty and intricate fountain, with a sculpture of the matron on top. you glance away from it, eyes immediately landing on aphmau and then sylvanna.

sylvanna smiles warmly, approaching mom and giving her a hug. “it’s good to see you again, girl!”

“i know! it’s so good to see you!”

aphmau and you glance at each other a bit awkwardly, crossing your arms as your mothers once again hit it off.

“and oh, mija! you look so cute today, que linda!” her mom’s warm brown eyes land on you.

“thank you-“

“yes, of course! well, why don’t you two talk while we catch up and wait for zianna? when we older ladies go jogging together you two can play with her kids!”

before you can say anything else, the two walk a short distance away, already chatting up a storm with wide eyes and…seriously intense expressions.

“uh, whose kids? what?” aphmau exasperatedly asks to no reply.

you look over to aph as she holds her hands out in annoyed confusion. her hair is held back by a red headband that matches her outfit: red sneakers along with a red square-neck tank top that was loosely tucked into a denim skirt.

you shrug at the girl, used to not being told what was happening until the last possible moment.

“uh… good to see you, i like your outfit?” you start awkwardly.

“…thank you.” she says, looking down at her attire as if she had forgotten what she wore today.

you walk over to a bench that rests under a large and twisted tree. the afternoon sun beats down on the pavement and reflects onto your faces despite taking refuge under the leaves, causing the two of you to squint at each other. the heat from the summer had finally begun to leave, thankfully, and a warm breeze rustled some of the trees, sending some more leaves onto the ground's growing collection.

aphmau sighs, leaning back as she gazes around at the park.

“ugh, at least i’m with you,” she mutters. “are we gonna have to babysit some five-year-old brats?”

“oh, no actually i don’t think-“

“hey, girlfriends!” a bright and cheery voice interrupts your conversation.

you turn to see a beautiful woman with warm green eyes and black hair tied back into a styled ponytail. she was definitely a grown woman, but her blue—and slightly revealing—jogger set and trendy gold jewelry told a different story.

“ah! wassup girl!” sylvanna calls out from behind you, both her and mom jogging up to the woman who you now assume is the third mother in this get-together.

“oh you two, it’s been too long,” the black-haired woman greets. “and you both are still lookin’ fine!”

“zianna, it’s so good to see you!”

“what’s with the slang?” you lean over and mutter to aphmau, who rolls her eyes.

“that must be where my mom learned it from, it’s been nonstop with her, too.”

suddenly the cheery voice is closer.

“oh! and look at you two! you two became so beautiful, like little dolls! lookin’ just like your pretty mamas! you all are going to have so much fun together!”

“oh, um thank you, it’s nice to meet you-“ you start.

“it’s nice to meet you! wait… you ‘all’? great. so we’re babysitting multiple brats.”

you turn to glance at aphmau warily. now why would you say that…

“well, i wouldn’t exactly call us brats.” a familiar deep and smooth voice causes you to jump as you spin back around towards the source.

garroth stands tall as usual, today wearing a dark teal carhartt jacket over a white tee and some loose tan cargo pants and white sneakers to pair. his fluffy hair is tucked under a baseball hat with the pdh emblem and a small captain embroidered along the side. behind him were two slightly shorter boys, their faces filled with a tad more youth based on the baby fat that still clung to their cheeks.

one had a lovely shade of chocolatey brown hair and shared the same warm green eyes as their mother. he had a kind, friendly face, one of childish friendliness and openness that hadn’t been squandered by teenage years. 

the other was… starkly different from the others. straight, dark black hair covered the right side of his face, hiding the rest of the rather cute freckles that splayed across his cheeks and nose. his strikingly icy blue eyes and pale—almost nearly translucent looking—skin contrasted against the rest of his dark outfit and features. he looked the least athletic out of the other two, his loose hoodie swallowing and hiding what looked like a thin and gangly frame underneath. 

“wha- i- garroth?” aphmau stutters out, her jaw dropping in complete shock. “what are you doing here?”

“huh. so you’re the other kids. that’s funny.” i smile. “who would’ve thought our moms were friends?”

“i… oh…” aphmau finally catches on, her thin eyebrows raising in surprise.

an annoyed sigh comes from the black-haired kid, who you can now safely assume is garroth’s brother. “so, these are the brats we have to babysit?”

you wrinkle your nose and narrow your eyes at his complaint. well, aren’t you just a ball of sunshine? 

“babysit?” you echo.

he doesn't seem older than you. in fact it would be safe to assume he was younger considering the higher, nasally, middle-schooler voice he had.

“hey, not-alone buddy!” the other brother cheeses in aphmau’s direction, baby cheeks squishing against his smile and crinkling his eyes.

“mom, are you kidding me? these guys also go to my school!” aphmau looks back at her mother.

“oh, how did we not talk about that?” your mom giggles, the other ladies laughing along with her.

“i had no idea your boys went to the same school as my daughter!”

“oh, samesies! that’s so adorable!” zianna cheers. as she smiles i can see where that brown-haired boy got his energetic grin from.

“i guess that means we have a lot to catch up on. ready for our jog?”

“yep! ok, kids, have fun together!” zianna turns to the emo brother. “remember, zuzu, i want you to try at least one sport with your brothers and new friends while you’re here at the park! we need to toughen you up, but not so much that you aren’t so tough for mommy kisses!”

under the black hair, you can see his pale skin turn to a bright red in embarrassment. 

“mom! stop embarrassing me!” he complains. his voice has a slight whine to it.

“i love you too, zuzu! you kids play nice!” she airily smiles and waves, already beginning to walk backward from us, to which your and aphmau’s moms follow.

“be good! text me if there’s an emergency!” your mom waves to you, seemingly excited about the meetup despite being much more mellow than the other two women.

you smile and wave to her before holding a thumbs up. “kay!”

“do you still listen to beyoncé, zianna?”

“are you kidding me? i brought this portable speaker so we could listen to her while we run! it’s gonna be the bomb dot com!”

“word, yo!”

…

and they’re gone.

“oh wow.” the youngest boy sighs.

“can mom get any more embarrassing?”

“hm. so that’s where my mom learned to talk like that. i see.” aphmau says, raising her eyebrows and narrowing her eyes in accusation.

“uhh, i’m pretty sure your mom rubbed off on our mom.” garroth pipes in.

“more than likely they both rubbed off on each other and it just started escalating.”

“hey, garroth!” you finally greet, gathering your bearings and waving to the tall boy.

his eyebrows raise and his eyes soften to the look of an adorable puppy dog. he gives a small smile, back waving at you and chirping your name in greeting. you turn to look at garroth’s brothers.

“ah, i haven’t met you two yet,” you introduce yourself. “it’s nice to meet you two.”

“yeah, whatever. now we’re stuck in this stupid park in the stupid sun.” the dark-haired boy slinks away from you with his hands shoved in his pockets.

you have to stop your jaw from dropping in bewilderment. is this boy really garroth’s little brother? there’s no way they share an ounce of dna. 

“hey baby brother, where are you going?” garroth questions, his lips dropping into a disappointed frown as he follows the scrawny boy.

“i’m going to sit under a tree. on my phone. and as isolated from you four as possible.”

you glance at the other brother, who offers a sheepish smile.

“i’m vylad, it’s nice to meet you too… sorry about zane.”

you shrug your shoulders awkwardly.

“um… it’s no problem. nice to meet you, vylad-“

“nope! come on now, you heard mom. we need to get you into a sport.”

“i’m not doing it.”

garroth and—as vylad kindly introduced for you—zane have begun to talk a bit more heatedly from the tree zane decided to stubbornly plop himself under. 

“yes, you are.”

“why should i?”

garroth looks down in contemplation, before looking up at zane with an almost mischievous expression.

“because if you don’t, i’ll hug you in front of the entire school every chance i get. for the rest of the year.”

you three spectators snicker in amusement as zane looks down in annoyance.

“…i hate you, garroth.”

oh.

“aww, zane! you should just tell your brother you love him.” aphmau laughs, a bit nervously at that.

“shut up you girl-woman-thing!”

“girl-woman-thing?” you deadpan, raising an unimpressed eyebrow.

“uhh… so, vylad! pick a sport.” aphmau quickly recovers.

“easy! soccer!”

garroth has walked back to us. he’s smiling, but the corners of his mouth turn into something that looks more dejected.

“are you sure? i was thinking base-“

“oh my gosh! i love soccer, vylad!” aphmau gasps.

“really? you should’ve said something when you were talking about it with laurance. you should try out for the team,” garroth starts tugging off his jacket, tossing it onto the nearby bench.

“i played a lot of soccer as a kid, so i wanted to try something new. like track, maybe. i still really love soccer, though!” she looks back to where the parking lot is. “i actually have a soccer ball in my mom’s car, i’ll go get it.”

“okay, i know a perfect spot in the park to play on!” vylad agrees, excitedly beginning to walk down the sidewalk. “it’s further down this way.”

you nod, glancing over at aphmau. she waves you on along with the brothers, already walking off to the parked cars.

“alright! you guys go, and i’ll meet you there, okay?”

you split off from her, following the boys down the pavement before remembering garroth’s teal carhartt still on the bench.

“oh!”

you spin back around jogging and retrieving the jacket before catching up to garroth. it’s heavier than expected, and you jokingly pretend to use it as a dumbbell before handing it off to him.

“i threw a baseball in my pocket and my phone is in there, so thanks,” he sheepishly accepts it, tucking it over the crook of his elbow.

“while aphmau and your brothers play soccer—“

zane sighs in annoyance from behind you.

“—do you want to play catch? i’ll probably drop it more than i actually catch it, but…”

garroth chuckles, reaching up to softly facepalm in amusement.

“sure, i’ll throw softly.”

you clap your hands quietly, turning to the younger boy that you had finally caught up to.

“so, vylad, right? are you in aphmau’s class or something?” you inquire, wondering where the edge lord behind you fits into the equation.

“yep! i transferred from o’khasis prep cause the commute was too far, and i got to move up a grade cause i had pretty good grades.”

“oh! that’s cool,” you glance back at garroth. “i thought i heard that o’khasis accent.”

garroth’s eyes widen for a split moment as the tips of his ears begin to redden. vylad giggles a bit, finally stopping in front of a pretty field with freshly trimmed and thick grass. conveniently, it also has two goals set up on either side for community use.

“yeah, zane and i actually got homeschooled for a bit and didn’t catch on to the accent, so garroth is mainly the one who still kinda has it from when we lived there.”

you hum in understanding, glancing back at the boy who was readjusting his hat and scratching the nape of his neck.

“i didn’t know i still had one.”

“it’s nice.”

you’d almost forgotten that the emo kid was there until he sighed again, looking around for a shady spot to retreat to. before he could walk away, garroth yanks him back by the hoodie, pulling him into a forced side hug. zane makes a noise of discomfort, a sound mixed with annoyance and disgust.

“no, you’re gonna play with vylad and aphmau.”

zane glares over at the brown-haired brother who has wandered a little off into the field. he holds out a thumbs up, smiling as he squints through the sun's rays.

“why don’t you actually say something nice to her?” garroth pinches zane’s shoulder.

shockingly light blue eyes glare at you through straight, dark lashes, narrowing at you in pure annoyance.

“hi,” he tensely greets, jaw immediately clenching.

“hi…” you awkwardly return, before pointing towards your cheeks. “um, i like your freckles…?”

the boy’s nose wrinkles, seemingly not liking the cute undertones your compliment implied. despite the look of refusal and defiance that he gives you, his whole face begins to grow pink.

“okay?” he snarkily responds, looking at you like you had just said the sky was green.

“go with vylad,” garroth groans, releasing him and lightly pushing him forward, causing him to stumble out into the grassy field.

he catches his footing, shooting a sharp glare back to garroth and flashing him with his middle finger, black rings and nails contrasting against the pale skin. garroth shrugs at him, completely unphased.

“i’m sorry about him, he’s uh… going through,” he gestures at the boy in black now skulking over to vylad who was jumping around like a goofball. “uh, whatever that is.”

you shake your head with a dry laugh, shrugging your shoulders.

“it’s fine, it’s not your fault.”

he sighs, frowning at his younger brothers.

“yeah well…” he begins, trailing off before shaking his head. “never mind.”

“i got it!” you hear aphmau announce, her small footsteps bounding up to you and stomping to a stop right next to you, soccer ball in her hands. “you playing?”

“we’re not that good at soccer, so we were gonna let you and vylad teach zane while we play catch over here,” garroth pulls out the baseball from his pocket… and then reaches into the hidden inner lining of his jacket and pulls out two baseball gloves.

how did he hide those in there?

aphmau blinks, before shrugging and excitedly running off into the field with a chirpy, “okay then!”

garroth smiles at you before looking down at the two gloves, handing you the slightly smaller and much more worn one.

“this one was from when i was younger. it’ll fit you better and it's worn in already, so it’ll be easier to catch.”

“oh, thanks.”

he nods, tossing up the ball in his hand and catching it as he paces a little distance away from you. he lightly spins the baseball between his fingers before nodding at you to get ready. you lift the glove up, feeling a bit nervous as the broad-shouldered baseball captain stands in front of you.

“what position do you play, garroth?”

“pitcher.”

he throws the ball your way. it’s still dauntingly fast, and your whole face unwillingly flinches as the ball smacks against the glove. you can tell he barely put any force into it, too, which makes you feel bad for anyone who has to bat up against him.

“i can tell,” you meekly respond, holding the ball between your first two fingers and your thumb.

“sorry…i thought i threw that soft,” garroth smiles, a small entertained laugh leaving his lips.

you shake your head sheepishly, throwing the ball back and watching as it satisfyingly lands in garroth’s glove.

“not bad,” he throws the ball back, a bit slower this time. “how do you like phoenix drop so far?”

“uhhh—“ you think of your recent detention and put a little more force into your throw. “it’s okay.”

“just okay?”

“well, it’s school. and i guess there’s a few good people who have made it better so far.”

you deadpan back at him when he doesn’t throw back the ball, instead humming and readjusting his cap while looking at you expectantly

“yes, you’re one of them.”

he grins cheekily, tossing the ball back in satisfaction.

“cool.”

“i can run.” you hear zane protest, and you turn to look at the group. aphmau is slowly backing up, arms crossed as she watches him glare at his polar opposite brother.

“…really?”

“away from you.”

you glance back at garroth before both of you silently agree to walk closer. you both pause near aphmau, who is picking at her nails.

“sorry… i knew you were excited to play soccer,” garroth apologizes for his brother’s behavior once again, glaring over at the boy’s attitude.

“it’s,” she sighs. “fine. at least he’s giving it a chance? he always seems so lonely in class.”

garroth shrugs, looking on at his brothers with a complex of emotions on his face. 

“yeah, but he likes to be alone, so i try to respect it. he’s my little brother, so it’s not like i can parent him out of being that way, even if i try.”

you watch his side profile as he stares at his younger brothers. he looked so fond of them… but strangely distant. 

“no! i don’t want to play with you vylad!”

“fine…” vylad sighs, his tone dejected. “then garroth can kick to you.”

“hell no!”

“what’s going on?” garroth walks forward, aphmau and i trailing behind.

“zane being emo,” vylad shoots a glare at his peeved brother. “he doesn’t want me or you to kick the ball to him.”

“it’s stupid.”

“you just don’t want garroth or i to show you up.”

“shut up.”

“i’ll kick with you, zane,” aphmau pipes up, nervously stepping forward.

zane looks at her for a moment before bursting out in laughter.

“you? you couldn’t kick the ball to me from where you are right now with those twinkle-toe-looking short-ass kid legs.”

you hate that the corner of your mouth twitches in amusement. 

“zane,” garroth says, his tone threateningly even and deep as he shoots an irritated glare at the boy. “that’s rude.”

aphmau walks forward, grabbing the ball from vylad. she sets out on the ground before kicking the ball right by zane’s shoulders and into the goal’s net. 

“you're supposed to block it, by the way.”

“that was just a practice run.”

vylad walks towards you and garroth, though his eyes are trained on his older brother’s, his excitement from before now turned into a disappointed frown. garroth’s hand claps onto vylad’s shoulder, patting the younger boy assuredly with a sigh.

thwack!

your attention is suddenly pulled back to the mood-killer of the day, only to find him crumpled on the ground with his hand to his face. garroth, who saw the whole thing, doubles over in silent laughter and uses vylad to keep him upright. 

“damn,” vylad says, before joining garroth in his giggles.

“oh… my… i’m so sorry!” aphmau apologizes frantically, her hand slapping over her mouth.

you sigh, jogging towards zane as a strange feeling of pity fills your stomach. he sits himself up, hands still on his head when you reach your hand out for him to take. he flinches when he realizes you’ve walked up to him, his lip curling and hands winding back like he was getting ready to slap it away. 

“just take the hand, dude.”

a second passes before his bony hand slaps onto yours, digging uncomfortably into your skin as you help him get back on his feet.

“you good?”

he glares off at his brothers, eyes pricked with tears no doubt from getting hit square in the face. his pale skin was irritated and splotched red, his only exposed eye beginning to swell.

“yeah, it just stings,” he trudges ahead of you and off the field, sitting on a nearby bench.

“i have to say, i wasn’t expecting you to catch the ball with your face!” garroth laughs at the younger boy.

“shut up, garroth!”

aphmau catches up, stopping in front of zane with a petrified look on her face.

“oh my gosh, zane, i am so so so so sorry!” she rambles, hands coming up to cover her mouth.

“you did that on purpose.”

“no, i swear i didn’t! i’m just not good at aiming!”

“you could’ve told me that before you fully sent the ball hurling towards my head.”

“i’m so sorry. are you okay?”

“i’m fine.”

“yeah, his other eye got messed up from—“ vylad starts, before getting cut off by a warning look from zane.

you happen to glance over at garroth, who has a deep frown on his face. he notices your stare, and immediately his expression shifts back to his normal passiveness.

“well, this definitely calls for a break. i’m glad you at least tried it out, zane.”

zane rolls his eyes, only to make a small groaning sound and hold his head.

“whatever.”

you look around, noticing a bathroom building that had a vending machine outside of it. without saying anything you jog off towards it, leaving behind your group. reaching in your pocket, you snag some cash you had taken with you, sliding it into the machine and pressing down on the water button.

quickly, you grab the water and jog back, seeing that the moms have returned from their run.

“oh, he’ll be fine, he has two brothers, and zane’s been through much worse.”

you wave to your mom, before holding the water bottle out near the boy’s face.

“here. it’ll help with the swelling.”

“well, aren’t you just a sweetheart! you should take notes from her, zuzu.” zianna gushes, coming up to you and cupping one of your cheeks adorably in her hand.

zane sighs, holding the water bottle up to the side of his face, letting the cold condensation soothe the sensitive skin.

“thanks,” he grumbles and you nod in response, waving off the gesture like it was nothing.

“oh-em-gee, this is totes deja vu! remember that time that aphmau did this exact same thing to zane when the kids were playing dodgeball in the old neighborhood?”

“that’s totes right!”

“yes, i remember! they were all the cutest little kids back then!”

you glance back at aphmau and the three boys, who look just as confused as you feel. as you lock eyes with aphmau, something clicks, and you remember the childhood photograph on her wall.

slowly, your jaw drops, eyes widening in realization.

“huh?” she questions, looking concerned by your sudden expression.

“the picture!”

she blinks, before her head whips back to garroth and then to the other two.

“the picture!”

“what picture? we just met you guys?” vylad looks between you two and the women giggling behind you, amused by the whole situation. “what are you talking about, mom?”

she breaks out into more giggles.

“oh, don’t tell me you don’t remember each other?”

sylvanna catches her breath from her own amusement, placing a hand on her chest.

“we lived in the same neighborhood when you guys were all so tiny. you played with each other every week!”

“oh, girl. i was so devastated when the two of you moved away!” zianna frowns at the memory.

the five of you teenagers gawk at the information, jaws hanging open in shock.

“you know, i actually do vaguely remember. aphmau wore that red dress all the time,” garroth glances at you. “and i remember playing t-ball with you.”

you furrow your eyebrows, trying to recall the memory and getting a few glimpses of your childhood.

“oh yeah…”

“well, they were pretty little, so it’s no wonder they don’t really remember,” your mom laughs, glancing at you. “you were such a worried and cautious kid even when you were little. you cried more when the boys or aphmau did when they got hurt, trying to make sure they were okay.”

“yes, i remember that! she’d come running back to the house asking for bandaids that weren’t even for her all the time, the little medic. seems like that hasn’t changed.”

“this is so cute! i had no idea you guys didn’t remember each other! we should have dinner over at my place tonight so we can all catch up!” zianna squeals, grabbing onto sylvanna and your mom in excitement. 

“that sounds wonderful! we’ll head home to wash up and i’ll bring a dish or something.”

“same here, we’ll be there!” your mom smiles.

“ooh, please bring those quesadillas, sylvanna,” zianna butchers the pronunciation, before turning to your mom. “and you should totes bring that yummy guac you used to make!”

“it’s que-sa-di-yas, zianna,” sylvanna playfully rolls her eyes.

“it’s delicious to me!” she claps her hands with a laugh.

“alright, we’ll see you later this evening then.”

“bye, girlfriends! let’s go boys, you’ve got some cleaning to do.”

you turn and wave to your—freshly reunited?—childhood friends, who seem equally as bewildered.

“uh, i guess we’ll talk later,” garroth waves back, robotically turning to walk with his energetic mother as the cogs still turn in his brain.

“see ya…?”

you and aphmau trail behind your moms, who are excitedly planning to drive together to the ro’meave home later.

“this is crazy. we became friends with them again without even knowing.”

“yeah…small world i guess.”

☆

“do i have to wear a dress?”

“yes, it’s a small dinner party and we need to look presentable,” your mom answers, turning to make sure your dad also kept his word on dressing decently. “plus, the ro’meaves are super rich…”

“what was that?”

“nothing! besides, it’s not like it’s a super fancy dress, you look so cute! do you have the guac bowl?”

“yes…”

she nods, ushering you and your dad out of the house and speed walking down the sidewalk. you both deadpan at each other, your dad scratching through his beard with a sigh.

“alright, if it makes your mom happy.”

you shrug, “and me.”

“that’s good enough for me, i guess.”

aphmau’s house smells good, the scent of chicken and beef quesadillas wafting through the air.

“oh mija, aphmau and one of her little friends from school are out back picking some hot peppers for the salsa, why don’t you go join them!” sylvanna points towards the back door, before leaning towards you. “and make sure there’s no flirting or funny business.”

you nod with a knowing smile, holding back a laugh at her insistent stare.

“okay, i’ll give you an update when i return, captain.”

you slip out of the sliding glass doors as the adults start to talk, looking around before spotting a garden to your left. you step off the deck, following a pretty mosaic stone trail to the intricate, fenced-in veggies and flowers. after stepping into the gate, you admire all the terra-cotta and talavera pots, as well as a lime and orange tree in the mix. everything seemed almost overgrown, but so carefully groomed and placed that you could tell it was well cared for. 

“hey guys,” you greet, spotting aphmau in a cute red dress and headband, as well as that white-haired kid from your first day. “oh, and hey travis! good to see you again.”

his eyes widen, before he shoots a brace-filled smile your way, earnestly greeting you with a call of your name.

“good to see you too! so you’re going to vylad’s house, huh? that’s crazy.”

“i know, right? none of us remembered each other at all.”

“yeah, super weird,” aphmau shakes her head analyzing the jalapeños she picked in her hand.

“i think it’s super cool! you have a little connection to someone you didn’t even know was there.”

you smile at him. “yeah, that’s a nice way of putting it.”

“yeah, garroth is almost unrecognizable from the childhood photos,” aphmau trails. 

“stop drooling,” travis deadpans at the girl, laughing as she flusteredly panics in response.

“i’m not!”

“you totally were. but hey, i don’t blame you! lots of girls have a crush on him.”

“no kidding,” you monotone, an image of ivy’s twisted face popping into your mind.

“i do not have a crush on him,” she defends, though the red on her cheeks betray her.

“uh-huh, sure,” travis drawls out sarcastically, turning to laugh with you when aphmau hisses at him to stop again.

he puts his hands up in defense, backing up when he’s threatened with a jalapeño to the face. the two of you let your giggles fiddle out, before travis seemingly remembered something important, his lips flattening into a serious line.

“hey, i heard you two were with gene and his gang a while ago… is that true?”

“oh, i mean we did “meet them”, i guess. but we didn’t really talk to them.”

“oh, okay. good. i was kinda worried.”

“where did you hear that?” aphmau stutters, dusting off her clothes as she stands back up, seemingly satisfied with her selection of peppers.

“dante told me. he said gene mentioned it or something. he didn’t say anything bad, but he was talking about you two,” he reaches up to fiddle with a strand of his hair by his ear, lost in his thoughts for a moment. “i just… know they’re not the best influences, so i wanted to check on you guys. dante really looks up to gene, but i don’t think he knows the kind of stuff he gets up to.”

“thanks, travis. that’s really nice of you.”

he nervously laughs, shrugging his shoulders.

“i mean yeah. i haven’t gotten to know you that well but aphmau’s my not-alone-buddy, so if you guys are good friends i’d like to look out for you, too.”

your chest feels warm as you smile at him. 

“thanks. i’ll look out for you, too.”

“oh! that reminds me travis, how’s theatre club?”

“ooh, you joined?”

“yeah, i did!” travis stutters, eyes lighting up. “it’s going really great. hey, you know the girl with blue hair that hit me in the face on the first day?”

“katelyn?”

“uh, yeah! she stops by and visits the club sometimes…” his cheeks grow to a warm shade of red.

“sounds like you have a crush, travis.”

“wha—no, i mean—!” he sputters, scratching the back of his neck. “i mean she is really cute… but she has a boyfriend already.”

you blink. katelyn has a boyfriend?

“really? who?”

“his name is jeffory. goldwyn is his last name, i think. he’s a really good-looking senior so i don’t even have a chance.” he sighs.

you hum in pity and understanding for the boy, recalling the tall, smiley, and handsome upperclassman who had stopped by volleyball practice a few times. he had pretty eyes and brown hair, and he seemed super friendly and charming from the few times you said hello. now that you think about it, he did really only hang around katelyn when he did come by the gym.

“so i’m not even gonna try anything. she is really pretty, though.”

“maybe one day,” you halfheartedly encourage with a shrug of your shoulders. “uh… not wishing on her to break up with him or anything—“

travis laughs, face brightening again from the small dejected pout that had begun to form on his lips.

“hey!” sylvanna calls from the porch, her projected voice startling the three of you. “what’s taking you three so long?! we have to get going soon! dios mío…”

“coming, mom!” aphmau calls giving you two a look before shuffling out of the garden with her peppers in hand. “guess we lost track of time.”

“yeah, better not make your mom mad,” travis mutters, quickly falling behind the girl before leaning over to whisper to you. “she kinda scares me.”

you laugh at him, stepping through the sliding doors into the house. dad quickly scopes out the boy, making himself known by very firmly grasping his shoulder and reaching out to shake his hand. you watch as travis’s soul nearly leaves his body, face paling at the gruff-looking man in front of him.

“how’re you doin’ kid? what’s your name?”

“uh—hello sir,” travis stutters, quickly shaking his hand. “it’s travis.”

your dad pauses, squinting down at him uncertainly.

“what’s your last name?”

“va—valkrum… sir?”

“huh. you terry’s boy?”

“you know my dad?”

“yeah. we were old buddies a while back when you were just about to here in height,” dad gestures to his knees with his hand. “i thought you looked familiar.”

you glance over at sylvanna and mom, who are staring at each other with shocked looks on their faces.

“well, nice to meet you, son. you need a ride home?”

travis freezes with his mouth open, trying to muster up words.

“if it’s not out of your way, that would be nice.”

he nods, before leaving the poor boy be—as he was almost quaking in place. when your dad is out of earshot he leans over to you again, face still pale.

“your dad scares me more.”

©starhvney, 2024. please do not steal or repost my works as your own

tag list: @orinlin @pain-in-the-ashe @youmake1mistake @thenyxsky

[hearts4golbach]

The Night shift.

Chapter 9.

Johnnie Guilbert x Fem!Reader.

new year, new me. new year, bolder me, I decided. luckily, I wasn't working on New years eve I invited Johnnie and Jake over to celebrate, get fucked up, and stay the night for new years.

"yooo, y/n!" Jake called as he walked in my door.

"I think we pregamed a little too hard." johnnie giggled with a weird accent.

"damn, you guys pregamed without me?" I asked as he passed me a few different alcohols. "you look like an alcoholic right now."

"it's new years! everyone's an alcoholic on new years!"

"so true. I'm about to get sooo fucked up!" I giggled, pulling the pizza I had made out of the oven.

"awe, fuck, man." johnnie couldn't stop giggling as he leaned against the counter. "I'm going to be covered in vomit and shit by the end of tonight."

"why would you be covered in shit, man..." Jake trailed off.

Johnnie slapped his arm. "you know what I meant, asshole." Jake gave him a look and he began to blush.

I raised an eyebrow. "are you two gay for eachother?"

"some people think we're lesbian women or gay men but-"

Jake cut him off. "if the boot fits..."

I squinted at them. "I mean, that's pretty accurate."

"y/n, stop trying to take my bitch." Jake rolled his eyes.

"whaaat are you talking about?" I asked sarcastically. Johnnie turned away to laugh, a darker shade of pink spread across his face.

"we will go right now, slut." he said in a high pitched voice, waving a pizza cutter at me.

"you're autistic." I replied normally, snatching the pizza cutter from him and proceeding to use it.

"what else do you got to drink up in this bitch?" he asked, walking over to the fridge.

"I have diet cock and diet mountain dew, or water or milk." I said, ripping off 3 paper towels ans getting everyone a few slices of pizza before putting the other in the oven.

"diet what the fuck?" johnnie asked.

"diet cock, my little twinks favorite." I smiled, pinching Jake's cheek.

"oh shit, Tara's calling." Jake said before stepping into the living room.

"who's tara?" I turned to johnnie.

"his ex. she's super chill though, so don't worry."

"okay, good." I sighed. "whats something you want to happen in 2024, like a goal or something."

his breath hitched at the question. "I can't tell you, it'll ruin it."

"wow." I replied, pretending to be hurt.

"you'll just have to wait and see." he smiled.

"okay." I shrugged

"do you have one?"

"I wanna be more outgoing."

johnnie remembered the talk we had. "oh, yeah. yours is good." he smiled. "I think you got it."

I rolled my eyes and laughed. "thank you, johnnie."

jake walked back into the room a minute later. "is it cool if Tara comes? she was ranting to me about how lonely she is."

"I don't care." I shrugged. "she can come." I smiled and told Jake the adress so he could send it to her.

less than 20 minutes later, there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it." I said, dragging myself off of the couch. I opened my door to be met face to face with the same girl from the cafe.

"oh my god, hi!" she squeeled. "you have to give me updates. I'm tara." she shook my hand.

"hey, it's so nice to formally meet you. that was a weird first interaction." I giggled.

"so you two know eachother?" Jake pointed at us.

"she came into the cafe the other night and we talked about.. issues." I glanced at johnnie. he was already looking at me. his arms were crossed as he leaned against the doorframe to the kitchen.

"I think tara just found her new best friend." Jake looked towards johnnie. He simply nodded and giggled.

"you know it." she responded.

"so, we have like 6 different alcohols and pizza. I can make more pizza, too." I walked into the kitchen, taking the last slice of cold pizza.

"can we make more? I can put it in." Johnnie offered.

"what are you putting your dick in?" Jake asked, turning the corner and meeting us in the kitchen. "her?" he asked, pointing to me.

"shut the fuck up, dude." johnnie shoved him while he laughed.

I rolled my eyes. "if you don't mind, you can do it. I don't mind either way."

Johnnie's cheeks were bright pink. "okay, I don't mind, so I'll make it." he gave me a shy smile.

I cleared my throat and shot an awkward smile back. I quickly moved my hair out of my face and turned to tara. she glanced at johnnie then raised her eyebrows. "him?" she mouthed.

I looked away for a second to see johnnie digging in the freezer. I looked back and nodded once.

her hand flew over her mouth. "that's so cute, this is happening." she whispered in my ear before running into the living room to talk to Jake.

"uhm, they seem a little bit closer than exes." I scratched the back of my neck.

"yeah, they had a good breakup so they stayed friends. I'm sure deep down they really miss eachother, though."

"yeah, that's what it seems like." I paused, sitting on top of the counter. "whatever happened with your ex?"

"I still haven't heard from her." he glanced at me. "I don't think she'll ever fully leave me alone, though."

I frowned, crossing my arms. "isn't it basically stalking at this point? and isn't that illegal?

johnnie shrugs. "I have no clue, its weird."

I nodded, not knowing how to verbally respond. I picked up a few cups and one of the multiple alcohols and sat in the living room with Tara and Jake. he smirked at me, then immediately dropped his expression. "I know your secret." he said in a grim tone before smiling again.

I scrunched my eyebrows. "okay, then. who wants some?"

They said me in unison, and I heard johhnie ask from some from the kitchen.

"guys, we have to do a cheers video so I can post it." tara grinned.

"real." Jake nodded.

"okay." johnnie walked into the living room and sat next to me. I passed him his cup and held up mine.

"cheers!" Tara began

"cheers!" johnnie and jake said, mimicking her voice.

"that's so cute." I complimented, watching the video.

after about 3 shots, johnnie was fucked up.  His eyes slightly squinted as he narrated basically everything he did. Although, he usually ended his sentences with, "I need to shut the fuck up," or "I don't know why I said that."

I settled on just having one drink since I had to go to work tomorrow night. I was buzzed for sure, but I could think straight.

johnnie leaned against me, wrapping hid arm around my shoulders with a smile. "sooo," tara began, "Jake, will you be my new years kiss?"

he looked at her weird before a look of realization washed over his face. "of course. johnnie, when was your last new years kiss?"

"neverrr." he rolled his eyes.

"really? me neither." I laughed

"maybe you guys should!" tara nodded, giving Jake a look.

"yeah!" Jake agreed, but johnnie was too drunk to realize what they were doing.

I looked at johnnie. "you think me and y/n should kiss? wouldn't that be awkward cause we're just friends?"

"me and tara are just friends, there's nothing bad about kissing the homies." Jake smirked.

"I mean, y/n?"

"i- uh, I'm down." I stuttered.

Johnnie's gaze on me softened. "okay, me too."

tara rested her hand on her leg, palm up.  Jake gave her a quick high-five. "I saw that."

[cozymochi]

might be a long answer but how about 11 and 12 for the twst ask game!

BUT I LIKE EVERYBODY!!! 😭😭 I feel strongly but also not too strongly at the same time. I feel kinda out of place saying that since soooo many people are just raring to go on who they hate, and weirdly enough twst has been the only thing I’ve been into lately where I just… like everybody? Just bear in mind I do not dislike any of the “least favorites”, they are just not my first choice when put next to their other doormates if I HAD to choose. I’ll probably reiterate that a million times if I gotta. Mind a couple might be dead tied.

11. Favorite character from each dorm?

HEARTSLABYUL - DEUCE ♠️ tho Ace is super close. I don’t like splitting them up but Deuce has never done anything wrong ever so-

SAVANACLAW - RUGGIE 🍩

OCTAVINELLE - …JADE? Probably. 🐬 Wait… yeah.

SCARABIA - JAMIL 🐍

POMEFIORE - ….EPEL and VIL are tied 🍎👑 …maybe Vil? I dunno. …But Epel-

IGNIHYDE - ORTHO 🔥I stand by Ortho so hard. Kind of a bummer he keeps getting relegated to just “Idia’s brother” or omitted all the time in fan-work when he’s so dang cool. But oh well.

DIASOMNIA - SEBEK and SILVER are tied ⚡️🗡️ I think I lean Sebek a smidge more cuz he has dumb tropes I like.

12. Least favorite character from each dorm?

HEARTSLABYUL - Cater (don’t get me wrong, I like him I enjoy him)

SAVANACLAW - …mmmmn… Leona and Jack are tied solely because Ruggie is their competition and I love Ruggie a lot. But I do really like them both, they make me happy when I see ‘em. CANT DRAW THEM THOUGH—

OCTAVINELLE - LOOK I LOVE ALL THE MER-FREAKS. But I guess maybe Floyd? But again, I love him too. Actually, maybe he and Azul are tied.

SCARABIA - Kalim ONLY by process of elimination because I love him too. BUT THERES ONLY TWO CHOICES.

POMEFIORE - Rook (No shade though, he makes me laugh)

IGNIHYDE - Idia by process of elimination. I just really love Ortho so sometimes Idia just doesn’t cross my mind. But, he’s very funny and pathetic.

DIASOMNIA - Malleus. FUNNY BECAUSE HE’S PROBABLY THE MOST DRAWN PERSON HERE LOL. I love Malleus I do, but I really REALLY love the other three thanks to what book 7 did, so I guess bro is in 4th place. Or 3rd place since Sebek and Silver share 1st place. However… we’ll see where he is by the end of Book 7 when all his lore finally gets dumped out. + whatever post 7 character centric event he’ll get to serve as something of an epilogue. (Sorta like Ortho got with Fairy Gala remix after book 6)

I hope these answers were as obnoxious and eye-straining as possible. Not doing that color shifting thing again!

[nokiatelava]

✿✿All For Us✿✿

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

Author’s Note - Hi everybody! I just want to give a pre-warning as this story will be violent! If it is not your cup of tea I apologize! But I just wanted to give an early fair warning! But anyways, I hope you enjoy the story!

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

Summary - How could this happen? How did this happen? A family outing, a day to just let the stress from your duties fade away. A plan gone bad. What is the Sully Family going to do as they are now kidnapped? Will they ever be saved? Taken, held, afraid, and almost separated, the Sully’s fight their own Wars and demons as they try to make it past their struggles. Hoping to come together again.

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

Warnings - violence, head injury, other injuries, shock, swearing, derogatory terms, unwanted touching, suggestive comments, one of the recoms is like super creepy, crying, kidnapping, screaming, praying, fighting, mentions of blood, mentions of killing, death threats, weapons, guns, knives, quaritch, attacking kids, hostages, held at gun point, pulling of queue, trauma, (is this angst?), bombings, technically a war?, resucing

✾•❃°•❁°❀°❁•°❃•✾

When you woke up this morning, you knew it was going to be a good day. It was a feeling you couldn’t shake off your bones.

You awoke happy, and so did your family. So your father had planned for you all to go for a swim, maybe to a stream, or to a secluded pond.

Wherever it was, you all wanted to spend time together, he mentioned the idea of making food so you could all have a picnic in the mean while.

Everyone was quick to agree. So right after breakfast, everybody was packing up their items, getting ready to go have fun for the day.

Before the whole family was able to leave, your father had to make a quick stop for a mini-meeting at Puo Relongtai’s hut. The second in command of the Warriors group, also, your boyfriend’s father!

Your father only asked the basics, if anything were to happen, just send a search party. Though it seemed harsh, it was a — unfortunately — normal request of all Na’vi who planned to leave for the day.

After their short conversation, you all joined back again at the ikran’s mounting spots, you knew the way to Azraa’s like the back of your hand.

When it was decided who Tuk was going to join on their ikran, you all flew. Away from the Hallelujah Mountains down to the forest. Playing small games of tag as you flipped and weaved around with your ikrans.

Once on the forest floor you departed with your ikrans as you caught the sight of a secluded pond. It was beautiful and perfect, good trees that kept a cool shade off to the side.

You swam, ate, danced, laughed. You were all having fun!

All having fun until you were not.

All until now.

Tuk claimed she had to use the bathroom, so you waited in front of the area she was using.

Your heart stopped as you heard a scream.

Her scream.

You rounded the tree immediately, looking for her only to be slammed onto the ground. Your head knocking the dense dirt with a loud thud.

It was a pain that went through your whole spine, your eyesight blurring immediately.

You were dazed, but you could still comprehend the other screams of struggles in the distance.

You weren’t left to think long enough. Your queue was pulled back so hard, it was being squeezed so tight. All you could do was wince in a small protest, not that it did much against your captor. Your nervous system was being interfered with and Eywa did it hurt.

The only thing you could have actually registered in that moment, the only thing you felt. It was only the rough hands in your hair, on your arms, the dirt you were being dragged through, the scrapes of small rocks on your legs.

Who are these people? Exiles? Tawtute? You hoped not.

You vision was clearing itself back up and you finally got the mind capacity to blink again. That when you realized where you were, and who was holding you.

To see 5-fingers and eyebrows on a Na’vi was unusual, though it became a bit more normal in the Omatikaya Clan due to Toruk Makto being originally a Dreamwalker. You on the other hand, hated seeing, even thinking, about Dreamwalkers.

Those people in their stupid green uniforms and their stupid big guns.

Those demons.

You let out a hiss of anger, though it sounded strangled and strained, you hope it got your point across.

The harsher tug on your kuru is not what you were expecting.

“Shut up. Wild bitch.” Your face is slammed back into the ground, rattling the bones in your body at the sheer force.

You hear other screams, screams of anger, but they’re all muffled.

Is it your parents? Are your parents here? Where are your siblings?

‘I can’t see anymore.’

There is a voice next to you, fading into your ears slowly.

“-/n. Y/n. Y/n open your eyes. Open your eyes please babygirl, please.” The light that accompanied your vision was too bright. You let out a small groan at the pain in your head.

“Y/n? Y/n you can hear me right?” The voice who was constantly fading in your ear was your father. He was calling out to you.

“Dad?” Your voice is shaky, knowing that your parents are here makes you just want to cry, but you chose to keep a brave face for your siblings.

You have to.

“She’s awake now, so keep your fucking mouth closed.” The voice was so rough, so rough and unforgiving.

“Don’t swear… Don’t swear in front of Tuk..” You mutter.

Is this what shock feels like? Living in a different part of your head and only watching the world from afar.

“What’d you say to me?” You feel a hand on the back of your neck, squeezing you as it pulled you up with no effort.

“Please. Please just leave her alone, she’s talking out of shock. Don’t hit her.” It’s your father talking again, you wish your father talked forever. You feel better when he talks.

Going against the Sun, you look up trying to observe the situation better now that your sat up.

You wished you had just kept your eyes closed.

It was a sight you did not want to be met with.

You felt angry, so angry.

Your family, your parents and siblings. Being held by their arms and kurus. They all looked so afraid, so scared and so sad.

There was no sound, it was just a radio silence as you all had basic background on what would happen if you were to talk.

You were scared to breathe.

The demons holding you took it upon themselves to talk with each other. Talk like they aren’t holding you captive.

“Rosario. When did boss man say he was coming?” The man holding you asked the man holding your father.

“Mh I don’t know, but I think with how far he is. I think he said it could take like almost a whole day to get over here or something.” The man named ‘Rosario’ shrugged.

“He can’t just expect for us to wait here, does he?” It was a woman who spoke next, the woman who had grabbed Tuk.

“I don’t know Bee, you know how he gets.” The voice of the man holding you vibrates behind you.

It’s too many people, too many people and you want to get away.

“Well Kilti, we all know how he gets. But I don’t have the patience for it.” Was that his name? Last or first? You do know that most people are called by their last names in any kind of force. It doesn’t matter.

You only know 3 out of the 7 people holding you all as hostages at this moment.

You don’t know who’s holding your mother, you don’t know who’s holding Neteyam, you don’t know who’s holding Kiri, and you don’t know who’s holding Lo’ak.

You look at your mother for a while, her silence in this situation is so uncharacteristic.. You would have expected her to jump up and kill all seven of them with her bare hands.

Is it because of their guns? Is she making a plan already?

The crackle of a radio is heard, a scratchy voice coming from the radio of the man holding Kiri.

“Cruz. Cruz come in, over.” The voice is unfamiliar, but you study your dads face to see if he can make out who it is.

Though his face doesn’t make any of recognition.

“I’m in, over.” This supposed, Cruz, replied.

“Take them and go back to the tent. Wait for us there. It’s too dangerous for you all to be out in the open like that. Who knows what those savages have planned.”

You wish you had the power to swipe everyone here, out. Who does that man think he is to call your people, your family, savages?

When you find out who that is, you’ll make sure to show how savage a Na’vi really could be.

“Alright, will do so, over.” After that, there’s no response. You wish that it was because whoever that man was, was killed.

You hoped that he was killed, killed by something, anything.

“You heard him. Now get up and let’s get moving.” It seems that this man, Kilti seems to have some sort of vendetta against your people, or just specifically, you.

He tugged you up harshly by your queue, forcing you forward by pushing the back of your head while holding your arms.

“When we get to the tents, we gotta cuff ‘em.” Kilti orders.

“While we’re walking, let’s think front or back!” They all laughed, and at the way your father’s ears folded down and he cringed his face.

It must have been some type of innuendo.

You sighed, raking your brain for any ideas you could to escape. But you came up with none. It was too dangerous, too dangerous in this environment to even speak.

“Y/n..” A voice shook from next you, causing you to turn your head quickly, regardless of the pain in your body.

It was Tuk.

“Oh Tuk, talk to me, it’s okay.” You nodded, encouraging her that she’ll be just fine.

“I’m scared Y/n.” Tuk’s eyes started to water, her bottom lip quivering.

You tried to make sure she didn’t cry too much or too loud. You don’t want to evoke any type of reaction from the demons holding you.

“Both of you, be quiet, we’re here.” The woman with the name, Bee, nodded her head to a tent in front of you.

It looked odd to you. It was not a hut, it was not inviting, welcoming, nor was it colorful. It was a place full of dread, a depressing aura all around it.

“Good that we came back now, I think it’s gonna start to get dark soon.” They all muttered in agreement, pushing you all inside of the tent one by one.

“So, where we tying their hands, front or back?” The one who had made the innuendo earlier asked.

Bee scrunched her face, “you’re such a weirdo Cosby, but we’re putting them in the front.”

“Alright then. Let’s go, into the corner. We’re putting these on you, if you try any kind of funny business, we will kill you.”

“Not if we kill you first.” Your mothers comment rang in the air, it stayed there, the words laying heavy in the room.

“Mom, mom please. Don’t say that right now it’s okay.” You were quick to try and mediate your mother. You should have known her silence was going to build up just to explode in anger over time.

You should have known, you should have known.

She was silent again, and you became more afraid. “Mama please?” You tried to fight back the tears that were almost willing to escape. But your mothers harsh stare at the man in front of you made your heart drop.

She had that insatiable look in her eyes. That look she gets when she’s getting ready for raids, that look she gets when she even thinks about Sky People.

“Dad, dad! Get her!” You started to freak out, scared your mother would have an unruly reaction and get all of you killed.

“Neytiri, look at me, look at me, please.” Your father held her face, the soldiers behind her tense with their guns.

“If you do anything, they’ll kill all of us. Please don’t do anything, okay?” Your mother sighed, closing her eyes, mumbling something. Maybe a prayer or a comment before nodding.

After that, they all lined you up to handcuff your hands in front of your body, each person had their person in front of them.

The weird one, Cosby, had picked you to be the one he handcuffed. And he was being so weird, making comments quietly as to not let your parents hear.

“Name’s Brent Cosby, unfortunate I have to tie your hands in the front. Would have been much more enjoyable to see the back of ‘ya.” As he said that, we ran his finger under your chin, making you move your head away from him.

“Don’t be like that girly, I like the front too!” He grossly winked at you. After he finally cuffed your wrists, you were all directed into a corner, put there to be on watch.

The man, Cruz, stood there with a gun aimed directly at all of you. Watching your every move.

“Mama!” Tuk ran into Neytiri’s arms, they both tried their best to give each other a hug.

Lo’ak and Kiri leaned onto Jake’s shoulders, Neteyam leaned onto yours.

“Are you okay?” You whispered against his head. Trying your best to put your arms around him from over his head.

“Are you okay? Y/n you got your head slammed onto the ground multiple times, your kuru was pulled on so much! You’re the most injured here.” Neteyam, technically scolded you, you let out a small chuckle as you really thought about it.

“I’m okay baby bro, promise.” You stuck out your ring finger awkwardly, trying your best to hold your pinky down.

“I’m not the baby.” Neteyam rolled his eyes, joining his ring finger in yours, a small smile on his face.

You smiled back at him, thankful that in this moment you were all okay and still together. Thankful that you were the one who had sustained the most injuries rather than any of your other siblings.

You took it for them.

You always would and always will.

You love them too much to let them get hurt. But to you there is no such thing as loving your family too much.

The time has evidently passed now by a few hours, the small rays of Sun that peeled through the top of the tent now gone as night time rolled around.

The voice from earlier crackled on someone else’s radio again, almost repeating the exact same words from before.

“Greene. Greene come in, over.” The voice was so grainy, so scratchy it made you feel more angry. Angry at the world angry at everybody.

“I’m in, over.” The man answered.

“We are almost there, make sure you have the hostages nice and ready. They’re not prepared for what boss man has in store. Hasn’t talked all day, those savages don’t know what they got coming for ‘em.”

Savages. Savages. Savages.

That’s all you were to them, that’s all you were to Sky People. Just savages who threw themselves around to kill people.

Your people are savages because they fought for their own land. Fought for a better freedom and to not live in fear.

In a way to fight a fit of anger, you pinched your ears, picking at the skin till it was too sensitive to take anymore.

Your family huddled closer due to the man’s very threatening tone, your mother’s snarls made you reluctant to look her way, although it was not even directed toward you.

“Dad.. What’s he going to do to us?” Tuk asked your father, all Jake could do was let out a small smile, rubbing her head.

“Nothing, he’s not gonna do anything to us okay Tuk?” She nodded, mirroring the smile Jake had.

She was still a child — you all are — but it was just how quick all of you had to grow up to know, he was going to do something to you all.

In about half an hour, heavy footsteps sounded from outside the tent. Your body tensing with each foot fall that became louder than the last.

Two figures emerged from the entrance of the tent, their eyes darting straight to all of you.

Tuk shivered at their glare, turning and burying her face into your shoulder.

Now you should pray.

Pray to Eywa that she would be the blessing to get you out of this mess, she would make a blessing come out of this mess.

You knew she would, Eywa never deceives any of her fellow children or creations.

“Eywa help us, allow us to get out of this place, allow us to go home, allow us to be a family. Get rid of the demons that plaque us everywhere, let my people be themselves.” You prayed, rocking back and forth, saying the prayer out loud so it can fly to Eywa, fly to her and let you be heard.

You don’t know what happened in the conversation between the two that walked in, and the seven other demons that took you.

But the face your father had as he seen who the man was. The supposed ‘boss man’ was his oldest enemy.

Your father’s face was full of terror, looking on in fear as if he had seen a monster.

Which he had.

“Quaritch.” You dad whispered, his eyes wide and lifted with shock.

“Sully.” The man winked cruelly, a smirk resting upon his thin lips.

“Don’t hurt my kids. Don’t hurt ‘em Miles. Take me, kill me. I’m the one you want, yeah?” Your father scoot forward, getting up from his knees to face Quaritch.

“Ma’jake! No!” Your mother was up next, the recoms that stood behind them gripped their guns tighter, some taking aim at your mother.

Scared of an authentic savage.

It made you angry. Enraged beyond relief.

“Don’t touch anybody.”

The room fell to silence, your parent’s heads turning to face you quickly. Confusion the only thing written on them.

“And who’s this, huh?”

“Don’t touch her Miles!” Your father tried to direct Quaritch’s attention back towards him, but the man was solely focused on you, waiting for your answer.

“I’m Toruk Makto’s daughter.” In response to you, Quaritch scrunched his face.

“You’re still keeping up with that Taktuk Maketo stuff? Thought you would have gotten over that already, Sully.” His English accent made you want to pull his face off.

He’s mocking your culture. Mocking you.

Mocking your father.

Your mother obviously felt that same way, a viscous snarl being directed towards him.

A small, red dot was what took your attention. A small red dot pointed directly on your mothers forehead. You followed the way of the light, the end coming at the top of a demon’s weapon.

Over the barrel of a gun.

Quaritch watched your eyes, seeing where your attention was directed. He waved his hand behind his back, signaling the person who aimed the gun — all of them — to stand down.

“What’s her name? Just tell me, yeah?” Quaritch looked at your dad, tilting his head. It must have meant something, something if your father made the face he did.

“It’s Y/n. Y/n Sully, and you better let my family go.” Your siblings breaths hitched, afraid that your tone might set one of the soldiers off.

“Y/n please, don’t do anything stupid, Y/n.” Neteyam was whispering behind you, hoping you wouldn’t do something that would cause you to be put in more harms way.

“Y/n huh?.. They all yours Sully? All these little “half-bloods” you got running around. Got a whole litter of ‘em, must have been getting busy while I was gone, aye?”

The way he spoke and the suggestive things he talked about, with multiple children present made you disgusted.

How could he act like this?

“Don’t talk like that.” You grit your teeth, your tone low as anger radiated off of you. Quaritch only let out a chuckle.

“Got a feisty one, eh? I like that.”

It was random, and you never could have expected it.

Expected what he did.

He grabbed the back of your head, reaching for your queue. You yelped at the burst of pressure through your body.

“No!” Your mother yelled, trying to lunge toward you. But a soldier stepped forward quickly, pointing the barrel of his gun to your mothers chest.

“This your daughter? Pretty little daughter, Taktuk Maketo, huh?” He shook your head side-to-side.

Tuk screamed as she covered her eyes. She couldn’t deal with seeing her precious older sister being treated the way she was.

Kiri put Tuk under her arms, wrapping them around her as best she could.

Quickly, the siblings huddled together, closing their eyes, trying to silence the pained screams from their sister, the anguished yells of their mother, and the painful grunts of their father.

Their father who is trying so hard. Trying to keep both his wife from getting herself killed, and their daughter getting killed by a manic man with no sympathy.

They all stayed together, holding each other scared as tears fell from their closed eyes.

You were barely conscious, the whites of your eyes only being visible as your queue was still being pulled.

“She would make a good punching bag, wouldn’t she?” One of the male recoms said. The others mumbled in agreement, except Bee.

She was the only female one here right?

Maybe you could get her to help you.

As you made eye contact with her, you whispered quietly. Your voice raspy as it was laced with pain.

“Help me, help me please..” Tears were brimming your eyes as you didn’t know what to do.

But you had seen the pain in her face, her eyes holding hurt and sympathy as she looked at you.

You were scared. So, so scared.

When you were suddenly pulled to stand up straight, your balance obviously wobbly, you thought they were going to just shove you back towards your family. Done bothering you.

But you were wrong. Oh so painfully wrong.

“Let’s test out the material, eh?” You noticed that one of the male soldiers, Cosby, started getting into a position.

A punching form.

When you had realized, you realized to late. Your eyes widening. But before you could even register trying to move out the way, a blow to the side of your face knocked you to the floor.

Your vision was running in waves, the colors around you mixing together in waves.

The screams of sadness around you muffled, as well as the cheers from the soldiers.

“Get her up. Keep doing it.” Quaritch ordered, standing off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest as he only watched attentively.

Someone picked you up from under your arms, standing you back up, holding you straight as you started to topple forward.

You left your eyes close, not wanting to see when the man was going to hit you.

The side of your face was already bulging, pushing your eye closed from under it. A bruise spreading from your cheek to under your eye. Tears fell from your closed eyes.

Just as they had like your siblings.

Another punch landed onto your eye, the one that was already bruising. You fell to the floor, silent whimpers leaving your mouth as you held back your sobs.

Again, you were placed straight up. Your parents protests going unheard.

“Why are you doing this!? Why are you doing this to her!? Tìftang!” Your mother yelled, you father only held her, trying to hold her back and calm her down. Tears falling silently from his eyes.

This time you were punched in your jaw, being unprepared, you had accidentally bit your tongue.

Blood dripped from your mouth onto the soil in the tent, your tongue throbbed, already swelling.

Tara Bee — the only female recom there — hands shook. She didn’t want to see this. See a female go through something like this. She wanted to stop them, stop them from continuing this. But she wanted to live, she wanted to be able to live her life somehow past this.

But watching this hurt her soul.

So she closed her eyes and turned away, taking deep breaths.

When you were stood up again, knees trembling as you rocked every possible direction, you were able to pick out soft sounds outside.

It sounded like something hitting the floor? Or being dropped down. You heard it 4 separate times, seemingly all on one side of the tent.

Four small ‘plaps’ hitting the dirt outside.

When you were knocked down again, it wasn’t from a punch.

Something just blew up.

Your ears rang, and you brought your hands to cover them, trying to quiet the piercing noise.

There was a liquid coming down over your lip, dabbing your finger on it, you seen it was blood.

You weren’t shocked your nose was bleeding.

Where is your family? Where did those evil people go?

As you hearing had finally faded back in, you heard rushed voices. Screams of orders, screams of terror and… yips?

Yips.

Your people. Your people came to save you?

Through the smoke, you managed to make out seeing multiple figures moving. Who is who?

It didn’t matter did it? You were so tired. You just wanted to sleep, take a little nap.

Suddenly, hands were placed hastily onto your shoulders. Your eyes snapped open — the best they could — the swelling skin blocked most of your vision. But you were able to make out a blurry figure on top of you.

They had pointed ears and straight hair, you could make out blue skin from the moonlight. Their shoulders bare, something of a familiar shape hanging off of it.

“Y/n! Can you hear me!? Answer me please!” That voice. It was so familiar, who is this?

Awpxey.

Awpxey?

Your vision cleared, and you were face to face with your panicked boyfriend.

“Y/n please!” Tears streamed down his face as he held your hand to his chest.

“Awpxey..” You whispered with a small smile.

“Y/n, yes Y/n it’s me! It’s me, Awpxey!” His eyes brightened, his hand holding yours tighter.

“C’mon, I’m gonna get us out of here okay?” You didn’t have time to respond, he was already scooping you up bridal style, bringing you out the side of the blown up tent.

You could see the sky, it was so bright and beautiful. The moon nice and big looking back down at you. The exoplanets that were all visible glowing in the presence of their moon.

“I’m so tired Awpxey..” You spoke against his chest, listening to his racing heartbeat as he ran.

“I know you are Y/n, but it’s okay. Don’t close your eyes Y/n.” But it was too much.

How could you keep up with this?

Your eyes started to slowly close, every blink you took shutting them.

“Y/n? Y/n please, we’re almost back okay? Just keep them open please Y/n!” Awpxey’s legs picked up speed, running faster to the planned transportation point.

Before he was even able to take several more steps, you had fallen unconscious.

He decided to not try to wake you up, just keeping his focus on running you back to safety.

When he had arrived, multiple were waiting there, there ikrans and pa’li ready to do what they had to.

Healers quickly took to your side, cutting binds on your wrists off before doing a quick assess of your injuries.

“We need to head back, it is to dangerous to treat her hear.” Everybody agreed with the healer’s words, she couldn’t have stated it any better.

“She’ll come with me.” Awpxey nodded towards the rest as he placed you on his ikran, putting an extra strap from the ikran a saddle around the both of you and tying it. Holding you both close to each other.

The ride back felt like it was longer than any other ride before, when in reality it was only 2 minutes.

But when he entered High Camp, every thing was a rush. People were running to aid everybody.

But when you were noticed, being carried by Awpxey, someone had yelled.

“Y/n is here, Y/n is here!” And once again, Awpxey was flocked with people, and you were taken right out of his arms.

His mouth opened in shock and protest, but nothing came out. Nothing came out as he knew you needed that help.

What those things did to you was completely unforgiving. They truly are demons.

A hand came down on his shoulder, and turning around, he was met with Jake.

“Thank you. Thank you for gathering everybody to come save us.” Your father’s eyes were watering.

Awpxey nodded. “I-it’s okay, you’re welcome sir. I did what I knew was right.”

Jake patted his shoulder before walking away, heading into a tent where Awpxey was able to catch a small glimpse of the rest of your family.

You, no where to be found. You must have been in another tent, getting treated for your brutal wounds.

Awpxey sat down somewhere, placing his head in his hands.

He was scared, scared that you would somehow succumb to your injuries, and he would never be able to really talk to you again.

Hours passed, the atmosphere was a little more quiet but the movement of healers and other people walking around High Camp were still audible.

Time passed to the waking hours, the Sun started to rise and peeked through the headlines of the trees. The chirps of the daytime animals coming to life.

The silent steps of feet were heard, and Awpxey thought nothing of it although they were close. And then started to sound closer.

A tap on his shoulder pulled him from his thoughts.

He looked up, meeting the eyes of a slightly older woman. Her voice soft as she pointed to the side.

“She is ready to see you.” The “she” in question did not have no time to be pondered on.

Awpxey stood quickly, his bones popping as his stiff body finally stood straight.

The woman led him a little ways away. The small walk helped refresh Awpxey as he was finally able to take some deep breaths in order to see you again.

Both Na’vis then approached a hut, small whispers and the soft clatters of clay pots audible from the inside.

She pulled the curtains on the entrance back, allowing Awpxey to enter first.

The sight he was met with broke him.

There you laid on a medical woven mat, barely conscious with your family around you.

When you were able to register the fact he had entered the hut, you gave him a smile.

A smile that broke his heart as he was able to see the true pain you were in. Your face was swollen to no end, red and purple marks littered across your face.

It was almost everywhere on you.

“Y/n..” He whispered, tears building lightly in his eyes. He stumbled towards you, his eyes only focused on you. He felt as if it was only you and him in the world at the moment.

“Hi Awpxey.” Your voice was quiet, rough and pained. And he had shushed you quietly, knowing that it hurt you.

“You do not have to speak to me Y/n.. I know you are safe now, please don’t hurt yourself trying to talk to me.” His hand reached gently to your head, trembling as he was scared he would hurt you.

He knew your face was a sensitive place to touch right now. But his touch on your head was lighter than an Atokirina, you barely felt it. But you felt even more safe knowing that he was also here, here and not injured elsewhere.

“I’m here for you okay?” And you nodded with a smile, knowing he would become worried if you even tried to speak.

You were safe now. Together with your family and your lover. Loved and protected, just as they were.

Hi everyone!! Thank you so much for reading this! I’m sorry if it came off as a like super violent fic that made you uncomfortable, trying to bother any of you is NEVER my intention!! All the recons here I made up myself except Wainfleet and Quaritch! Oh and, I’m a little excited also because I’m working on my Masterlisttt!! I apologize for any spelling mistakes!! But again! Thank you so much for reading and all the love 🤍!!

[adobe-outdesign]

could you review some of the neopets as animals outfits, like the fennec kacheek, red panda vandagyre, and cockatiel pteri? (those are examples, choose whichever you like!) thank you <3

(Note: I included a random selection of outfits in this post, but feel free to send in asks if anyone wants to see a specific outfit I didn't cover.)

I'll be honest, I'm personally not super big on the "outfit that resembles a real-world animal" trend. First, I play Neopets for the cool fantasy creatures; even the most true-to-life Neopets species have some pretty fantastical colors. I feel like making pets just look exactly like actual animals kind of defeats the purpose of them being Neopets. I get why people would like it and I'm not saying it's bad; it's just not my thing.

Also, the other reason I'm not always big on these outfits is that a lot of Neopets have colours that already resemble real animal patterns. Not only do the outfits blur the colour/customization line quite a bit, but usually I like the colour ones much more, as they keep the actual design of the Neopets in place and just change the patterns and colors, rather than covering up the fun fantasy elements. This also helps them avoid the uncanny valley effect, which I talk about more below.

Also I might be over thinking this but who is making these outfits. None of these animals seem to exist in-universe as far as we're aware. what are the shopkeepers basing these off of. the colours at least have a magic as an excuse

Examples that I think are okay:

Feathery Pteri Outfit: This one's nice! I like the layered patterning on the wings and the high-contrast colors. Most, though, I like that this sticks fairly close to the actual pet, mostly just changing up the tail shape. This almost could've been a paintbrush colour, but then again what colour is up in the air.

(Side note: the eye clipping over the beak is a rendering issue? I think?)

Bouncing Zafara: This one definitely strays farther from the actual pet than the Pteri, but it's a fitting animal choice and it doesn't fall into the uncanny valley, which is all I care about. The body is still somewhat recognizable as a Zafara in terms of shape, and the Miamouse as the joey is super cute.

Freshwater Lenny: Kind of the same case as the Zafara; not super one-to-one with the actual pet, but it's still recognizable as a Lenny and isn't too uncanny. The legs are a particularly nice touch, actually changing the pose to look more heron-like (though they are also the part that strays dangerously into being too detailed).

Please don't:

Adorable Kacheek: Sorry to the fans of this one, but this outfit just resides deep within the uncanny valley to me—like it's a mascot suit instead of just a normal pet. The artstyle is way off from Neopets, looking much more Subeta-ish (except Subeta's art usually isn't so off putting). It's not a bad artstyle, mind you, it's just not very Neopets-ish. I also feel like a fennec fox was also a bad pick for this one, as it's basically unrecognizable as a Kacheek at all.

Feathered Eyrie: Speaking of the uncanny valley, this is another pet that lands squarely there due to having entirely too much detail in the shading and weirdly realistic fur textures. It also just doesn't look very good aesthetically—the beak doesn't fit the face, and the wings are an absolute trainwreck (not only is the perspective wrong, but the left wing is coming from the middle of its back!). On the plus side, you'd be hard pressed to not recognize this as an Eyrie, and it's a fantasy creature instead of a regular animal, so I guess that's something?

Furry Meerca: Hmm... no. This one also suffers from an overly-detailed artstyle and way too much realism, which is especially jarring when placed on top of the Meerca's heavily stylized body shape, resulting in a perfectly round animal with hyper-realistic animal eyes. It's also particularly bothersome because we already had a chipmunk Meerca design in the form of the striped Meerca colour, which is just this but less soul-haunting:

Which is what I meant at the beginning when I was talking about colours vs outfits. The colour is a Meerca that looks like a chipmunk; the outfit is a chipmunk that looks like a Meerca. Big difference.

[thlpp]

Have you seen that someone (Clint from Clint's Reptiles) target-trained his tegu? I thought it was super cool. I know a lot of tegus can be a bit bitey because they associated human hands with food, so they think it's feeding time, which is why Clint decided to give target-training a try.

(Clint is a zoologist with a YouTube channel for people who aren't familiar)

Idk, tegus are so cool. Reptiles (and a lot of non-mammals tbh) are a lot smarter than a lot of people think and target training is a good demonstration of that (I also know of an animal sanctuary that is target training an alligator, so it's not just tegus)

Short answer: yes, I watched all of Clint's videos about argentine tegus, including the one showing how he target-trained Gus-Gus. These videos helped affirm my interest in adopting a tegu myself, but the one of the largest factors have been posts by @kaijutegu showing how intelligent and rewarding tegus can be as companions.

Before picking up my new friend from her old keepers, I bought a shocking pink dog toy to be our training target. I chose this specific shade because I personally am allergic to pink, and don't own anything of that color, which would make the toy uniquely associated with feeding time.

I stuck it on a stick and have been showing it to her when offering food. Her lack of appetite and desire to just nap (trying to brumate, I guess) make it a bit difficult with the training, since food is the main reward in that system, and if she's not interested in food, the rest just doesn't work.

The flip side of this is that she's not been trying to nibble on my hands as a snack, so there's that.

We're still establishing rapport, though, and having a solid foundation of trust is pretty much a requirement for any enriching interaction between her and me. I'm looking forward to when we get there!

She was being given up because of changes to her temperament, supposedly becoming cage-defensive and bitey, explained by her entering "guberty" (tegu puberty). I haven't seen a lot of that from her, but this may be because I'm a New Person and therefore Scary, I don't know.

She did bite my sleeve once while I was trying to get her from under a sideboard, but that was clearly because she felt cornered (which she was). After being extracted from under the furniture and on the way to the cage, she also scratched my wrist trying to wiggle herself free, but that one time was very different from her typical behavior. Since then the access to underneath the sideboard has been barricaded shut, so as to avoid repeating this situation, as neither of us enjoyed it.

I have been picking her up almost daily without incident since, so she's not quite the anger monster I was expecting.

Note on picking up tegus: My understanding is that the best way to pick them up is kind of like you would a bunny rabbit: the football hold. Scoop your forearm under the tegu's chest, tummy, and pelvic girdle, then gently grip the base of tail with other hand. My new friend hasn't objected to being lifted that way.

PS - This is not a blanket endorsement of all things Clint has ever said and done. I'm highly critical of his support of breeding spider ball pythons, for one, so don't at me. However the vast majority of his videos are filled with good information, and if he manages to prevent people from impulse-buying a venomous snake or a crocodilian, he's doing good.