#UG LOOK AT HIM HE'S SO HAPPY

[al1fers-haven]

I have a request :)

Maybe the reader owns Alastor's soul and calls him nicknames he doesn't like, but he puts up with it since they at least only do it in private.

He only gets them to stop after he calls them "sir/madam" in which they're like "😳 do it again"

(Fluff)

I absolutely loved writing this, i might incorporate it into a story I'm writing for him lol

“Of course Madam.”

Alastor x soul owner!reader. Prompt: After calling Alastor nicknames for so long and showing up in the most random places to do so, Alastor finally starts doing it back. Fluff

Alastor had literally owed his life to you, seven years ago when he was on death's doorstep you found him and nursed him back to health.

The rumors going on about some radio demon going missing and how they were so thankful really got you looking for him, and when you found him in that state? You couldn't just sit there and watch him die. About a year since the incident happened, Alastor offered his soul to you as a thanks for the help, bowing, and everything as he fixed the suit you fixed up for him.

And how could you say no to such a handsome man offering himself like that? Let alone an overlord.

He spent 7 years around you as thanks, cooking for you when you asked, doing the shopping, and then returning to his little radio shack that you adored oh so much. The man was completely oblivious to the signs you threw at him. When you asked him to accompany you to the Happy Hotel the princess was running, he almost wanted to say no till you poked out your lower lip and pouted. His leash was in your hand as he grumbled a yes.

Of course, whenever you two got to the hotel, it started with little things, calling him Al in front of everyone else and nothing else. Little snickers left Angel's lips at how quick he reacted to your asks. Constantly at your beck and call. But then it started to get worse.

Instead of Al, whenever you two were doing literally anything together alone you'd start calling him 'Puddin', or even 'Hon.' A lot of different reactions coming from Alastor each and every single time. His ears twitched as he expressed his obvious dislike for all of the nicknames you called him. Pudding? No

Sweetheart? Hell no

Berry man? Nope!

The only one he somewhat tolerated was 'Honey'. A warm feeling settled in his chest every time he heard that word fall from your lips. It wasn't until he spoke to rosie about it that he realized he might've fallen for your annoying habits.

It wasn't until he started that your feelings for him were obvious. Your face turned red as you called you mon cher and placed your plate in front of you. He couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. Your eyes go straight to the food.

"Alastor, be a sweetie and grab me a glass of water?" You looked back at the tall man. Alastor nodded his head and bowed a bit playfully. "Yes ma'am." You blinked a couple times, face flaring up once more as you suddenly appeared in front of him. Surprise written on his face. "What'd you say?" He tilted his head. "Yes ma'am?" You went quiet, squinting at him. "Say it again Alastor." "...Yes ma'am?"

You've never pounced on a guy that bad before, kissing him and nearly knocking him over actually.

The next time the group sees Alastor he's a mess, lipstick stains all over his face and shirt collar. His face was a bit pink as you stood next to him, lipstick smeared and smiling ear to ear. "ug...So..Mr.Smiley has a game?" Angel pointed at Alastor with a bewildered face.

[smuttyazrael]

Wolfy problem Part 1

Word count: 909

Summary: Bill gets turned into a werewolf. Wolves need breast milk to live. They thrive under their special breastmilk. Y/N volunteers to be his wet nurse.

Warnings: Masturbation, Oral, Sexual intercourse, Fingering, Cum kink, Lactation kink.

Lying in bed bitten by Greyback knowing he is going to turn into a wolf. You are standing with the Weasleys. Fleur has left knowing what this means. The healer explaining to everyone how Bill will have to live from now on.

"Wolves have to drink breast milk if they want to survive. Some wolves get wet nurses but its better if they have someone to live with them and feed thier cum to. Feeding thier cum will allow the witch to produce a breast milk especially for them. This will allow them to thrive better. They will be less unbalanced and destructive during the full moon." The healer explains.

"What do we do then?" Mrs. Weasley asks shocked.

"Find a witch who wouldn't mind lactating for Bill for the rest of his life. He will live a long and happy life with that." The healer says with a shrug.

"Where do we find that?" Mrs. Weasley asks with a wail.

"I would be willing, Mrs. Weasley." You offer.

"You have your whole life ahead of you and school, Y/N. You can't do that." Mrs.Weasley says.

"Yeah, I can. I can take my test outside of looking after Bill. I can floo back and forth for my classes. It's not a big deal." You say not minding. In your mind you are licking your lips at the thought of having a hot man that needs you to live.

"If your sure Y/N?" Mrs. Weasley checks again.

"I am."

"Come right this way Y/N. You can start sucking his cock now. You will need at least three of his loads a day to produce milk. If you have his children you will just produce more milk then you normally do for him. More milk you need for him more you need to suck his cock." The healer explains to you.

You see the blanket tenting at his waist. You lick your lips pulling the blanket down showing his massive cock to the world. Its massive, and angry. His purple head bobbing. Precum stringing from his abs to the slit in his head. You take his head in your mouth. The salty taste bursting on you tongue.

You look up he is still asleep. You bob up and down taking him deep in your mouth all of a sudden his hand grabs your hair and pushes you down, taking him in your throat. Causing you to choke. He fucks your mouth. You look up he is still sleeping. You can feel his cock expand and he cums. You gulp it down. There is so much cum. It takes you a good minute to finally swallow it all down. Its creamy and salty. You love the taste.

His eyes flicker open. "What happened?" He asks.

"You were attacked by a werewolf. Y/N offered to be your personal wet nurse." The healer tells him .

"You did? You know what you need to do?" He asks.

"Yeah, already started. I just need to suck your cock two more times, then I should start producing for you." You tell him with a smile.

You see his cock reharden and start throbbing. He rubs it gently while the healer keeps talking telling him everything he needs to know about his new disorder.

You slip over taking it in your mouth. Feeling the weight on your tongue. He grabs your hair in his hands to hold your head and thrusts into your mouth.

"Fuck, Y/N. Your mouth is so good. Ug. Such a good girl. " He moans out.

You feel yourself getting slick. You bring your fingers down to your clit. You start flicking your clit with your fingers.

"Fingers out of your cunt. That cunt is now mine." Bill growls still thrusting into your mouth.

You whine. He groans at the vibrations in your throat.

"You will get your pretty cunt filled just you wait." Bill groans out. "Fuck, almost there..... take my seed." He cums spirts down your throat. Just as much as the last time and the same consistency.

"Did you always cum this much?" You ask licking the cum off his cock and licking your lips off.

"I did cum a lot but not that much. The wolf definitely makes me cum a lot." Bill tells you with a smile. "Now, come here. You deserve some cock filling you up."

He pulls you close to him. He sits up putting you both in doggie. He slowly pushes his cock into your heat. You moan feeling fuller.

"Good girl." He says starting to pound you.

"Bill, how are you feeling?" His mom asks. He doesn't stop thrusting into you and doesn't lose his punishing rhythm.

"I'm doing alright. Y/N will make sure I feel good. She will never let me go without." Bill says in between moans.

"Yes, she will. Should we get her food?" Mrs. Weasley asks him like nothing is going on.

"No, she has lots of protein in her belly." Bills says. He rubs your clit and you moan squirting your cum all over his balls and cock. "Fuck....F-fuck....Here is comes baby girl." He stutters cuming into you. You can feel his cum blasting into your womb.

You collapse under him. He rolls to his side and pulls you into his chest to cuddle.

"Are you sure you both don't need food?" Mrs.Weasley asks.

"No, Y/N and I are just going to take a nap." Bill says still panting.

[bohbee]

Brothers reacting to MC randomly hugging them!

Characters: Lucifer, Mammon, Leviathan, Satan, Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Belphegor

Warnings: Charging? Scaring? Lmao thats like it

Notes: I hope you guys like this, there will be one for the Dateables though I do not know when, could be in an hour, could be in a month lmao

Masterlist

Lucifer

Lucifer had just finished with his work, so you decided to visit him. His eyes laid attentively on his DDD as he stretched his back. He stood up, clicking his DDD off only for his ruby irises to glare at the door. "Who's there?" His voice was slightly stern, yet the exhaustion was heavily visible.

You silently giggled to yourself and waited on the wall beside the door quietly, waiting for him to open the door. "I am not falling for your pranks." You inwardly snorted 'Wow the Anti-Luci league really did him some damage....' You thought to yourself. However, your thoughts were quickly interrupted by a heavy sigh and loud footsteps. The door swung open, a dark aura emitting from the room.

His left leg carefully swooshed the outside air, and he then took a step out. 'Now!', your body charged towards his, his eyes widening. Before he could react, your arms latched onto his waist. You squeezed softly, pressing your face into his chest, not daring to look up. A soft chuckle was heard, he then hoisted your body up in which he gained a yelp from your pretty little mouth.

Lucifer walked back into his room and closed the door, not letting go of you. "My my, MC. Did you really have to be so suspicious over a hug?" He finally let you down and peered into your eyes. "Of course I did!" You said with a heavy smile. His lips softly pushed up. It wasn't often that someone could give him such calm, happy emotions, you though? You did it each time.

Mammon

Mammon sat on his couch counting the Grimm he just successfully made, soft music was playing in the background as his mumbling of numbers could be heard. You snuck into his room carefully treading down his stairs trying not to alert the Greedy Demon. Finally, you made it down the steps, and you tiptoed behind the couch and observed him.

Your eyes watched him as he smiled softly, his knee bouncing happily as he counted his well-deserved cash. He was invested in his own world, even if you were to make a noise, he probably wouldn't hear it. 'Perfect time' you thought to yourself as he sat down his bag of Grimm getting ready to grab another.

You flung your arms around his shoulders, hugging him awkwardly from behind, he let out a deafening screech and thrashed around before tossing you forward to the other part of the couch. Earning a loud 'Umph' from you.

"OI STUPID HUMAN! I COULDA HURT YA" he yelled at you his hand grasping his heart, you giggled at him. "Heh, I got you pretty boy" you pounced the blushing demon into a hug yet again, "Pfft course you'd wanna hug The Great Mammon..... don't let go."

Leviathan

The two of you were gaming late in the night, trying to defeat this seemingly impossible level. No words were spoken the only noses that could be heard was the game, the controllers, and the annoyed grunts. That was until Levi killed the final boss, the screen lit up blue "Accomplished" was shown in big letters. The two of you sat there, eyes wide like a bug, and completely stunned.

"FUCK YEAH LEVI YOU'RE SO COOL" You shouted out of nowhere before yanking him into a death grip of a hug. The purple haired demon poofed into a red balloon, his body tensing up heavily. "Y-y-you really w-wanna touch an ug-" you stopped his self-deprecating words by squeezing him tighter. "Levi...... The great otaku...... THE AMAZING AVATAR OF ENVY..... if you don't stop with those words and hug me, I will steal a Ruri figurine." Almost instantaneously, his arms wrapped around you, his body shaking slightly.

The two of you sat like that for a while, his body finally relaxing. Soon enough, sleep overwhelmed your senses, and you laid off in the dream realm in your crush's arms. His tangerine eyes focused on your form. A small smile and a HEAVY blush overwhelmed his features, he then closed his eyes and joined you in the amazing world of dreaming.

Satan

You were walking alone in the Devildom (HOW DARE YOU?!) when you turned your head and spotted a familiar blonde male in the cat cafe, you smiled softly to yourself and walked in the cafe. "Hey Satan" You waved at him, his attention pulled away from the kitten and he smiled at you. "MC? What are you doing here?" his green eyes glanced around to see if someone was around, only to meet yours with a disappointed look. "Oh don't give me that look Satan, I was bored and luckily I found my favorite demon."

You sat down beside him, and started playing with the kitten in front of the two of you, "Say how about after this.... we go to the bookstore?" You say without turning your gaze away from the cute kitted that was rolling around. His eyes sparkled in love, a rare genuine smile plastered his face, "I would lov-" he was cut off by you suddenly ingulfing him.

"Suprise cat attack hug!" You exclaimed, in between the two of you was the adorable kitten. Satan hugged you back, making sure not to smush the little troublemaker. "You always know how to fluster me, my dear."

The two of you soon left the cafe and walked to the bookstore.......... did I say two of you? Ah, well. I meant three. You, Satan, and the new whisker member of your cat family trotted along the path to the store.

Asmodeus

You sat down in the front row, eyes locked on the stage. Today was the day that marked a beauty contest in the human realm, and you were not going to miss out on your favorite demon strike a pose. Music started playing and many stunning people walked out on the stage but none of them compared to the shining beauty that Asmo was.

The competition soon finished and as expected he won first place, the crown dissipated quickly, leaving you looking around for the Avatar of Lust. "Mc~!" The soft tantalizing voice you knew oh so well said. You quickly whipped your head around and ran towards him, embracing his body quickly. "You did so good! Ah, it was truly beautiful!" You exclaimed.

The strawberry-blonde male let out a beautiful laugh and hugged you back "My my mc~, you keep on squeezing me like that and I won't be able to handle myself." He flirted, his arms tightened around you, and he placed hundreds of kissed on your face.

"Now my dear~, how about you give the first-place winner a congratulatory gift?" his peachy eyes peered into yours, his pupils dilated slightly as he looked at you with so much love and admiration.

Beelzebub

It was yet another restless night for you, your eyes focus on the leaves on your ceiling until shuffling from the kitchen grabs your attention. You slowly sit up and quietly walk out of your room, and towards the noise. As expected, the orange haired male made eye contact with you, his mouth filled with food. "Mphthee warf armph youm dphin upf" (Mc? What are you doing up?)

You smiled at him and walked over to his large form, you wrapped your arms around his torso and laid your head on his chest. One of his arms wrapped around your body as the other placed food in your proximity. "Want some?" he asked softly, cocking his head to the side curiously. You took a small bite of the food and smiled at him "missed you" you mumbled. Finally, your body felt rested as you leaned into the warmth of the nicest brother.

He smiled to himself and hoisted you up, grabbing some food before walking in your room. He turned around and plopped himself on your bed, the two of you laid like that for a while. After an hour of chatting sleep finally overcame your senses, your cheek was smushed on his chest. He pulled out his phone and snapped a photo of the two of you. Before, he himself, let sleep play through his mind.

Belphegor

The brothers were called to duty in the Human Realm leaving you to stay in the Palace with Barbatos. It was fun, definitely, though you missed your sleepy demon. The days droned on and on, until finally, the day where they were coming back finally hit.

You stumbled out of the guest bedroom and ran down the marble stairs, your eyes locking on the infamous avatars of sin. A large smile carved itself on your features as you launched your body on the navy-blue haired demon. You laughed loudly "Belph!" The poor demon tried to catch you though the amount of force in the hug brought the both of you to the floor. A large 'Oopfh' could be heard from the two.

Belphegor's purple eyes widened as he looked at you with shock "Mc?!" he lazily wrapped his arms around your figure, the rest of the brothers snickered and took photos. "Mm I missed you too..... lets stay like this." He said, his face burying itself in your hair (if you lack hair, I am sorry)

The two of you laid there, in the middle of the palace for hours just talking to each other and basking in each other's presence. Though a few hours later photos of the cute interaction would be ALL over Devilgram.

♡♡♡♡♡♡

[strwbrryeyes]

tsuki and reader who loves video games :3 whenever reader finds a new game, they always talk about it to tsuki and have him try it with them at least once!! if tsuki likes the game, reader considers it a huge win; although tsuki doesn’t play a lot, if he sees reader playing a game he likes, he’ll sit with them and play for a bit <3

𖦹°｡⋆ Actually not boring (tsukishima x reader)

⟡ cw: no pronouns used i think, fluff, a little cussing, not proofread, lmk if i missed anything.

⟡ a/n: i kind of went off prompt i'm sorry </3 i just could only see tsukishima acting like this asdfghjkl hope you like it anyway but also i'm sorry if its bad im still getting used to writing again! alsosorryhinata-

“What the hell are you doing?” Tsukishima asks as he walks into your shared bedroom to see you at your new light blue and white PC setup. You turn around in your chair to face him with a bright smile on your face.

“I’m playing on Kenma’s new Minecraft smp!” you excitedly say to him as you pull him down to your level to show him how Kenma, Hinata, Kuroo, and Bokuto’s characters are all standing around the spawn area.

“Seems boring,” your boyfriend squints his eyes as he looks at everyone’s skins “what in the world is Bokuto’s avatar? it looks ug-”

“Isn’t handsome?! Just like me!” A loud screech from Bokuto comes through your headphones and cuts off Tsukishima and bursts your eardrum as you forgot to mute your mic and deafen. Tsukishima groans and rolls his eyes before grabbing your mic from your desk to bring it up to his face.

“No but it is ugly like you.” Tsukishima says into the mic causing Bokuto to shout and hit your character as if it was Tsukishima but you punch him back to get him to back off. After that small distraction, you deafen yourself and turn to look back your boyfriend.

“Jeez, thanks babe, now my ears are bleeding,” you glare at him and he scoffs shaking his head, “Why don’t you play with us? I’m sure you’ll have fun!” you change the subject to try to convince Tsukishima to play with the group but all he does is plop on the bed on the otherside of the bedroom.

“Minecraft is boring and childish, we went over this when you tried making me play with you last month.” Tsukishima says in a monotone voice as he scrunches his face.

“But this time it’s mod-”

“Nope, don’t care you can’t convince me.” He cuts you off not even giving you a chance to finish what you were saying making you let out a huff and turn back to your PC.

What you were trying to explain before you were rudely interrupted, was that it was a modded Minecraft server with a bunch of different tech, magic, and animal mods and that you really thought he would enjoy it since some of the mobs that were added to the game were different types of dinosaurs you could tame and ride. You shake it off not caring enough to try to convince him again for now.

After about an hour and a half, you and Tsukishima are still in the same spots as before doing your own thing while talking to each other occasionally. The both of you had ordered dinner since neither of you were really up to cook or go out so Tsukishima had paid for the food so long as you agreed to go down the the apartment complex lobby to pick it up from the delivery driver.

“Babe, food is almost here you can go down to the lobby now.” Tsukishima told you making you groan out of annoyance because you were working on a tech project with Hinata on the server and didn’t want to leave him alone for the fear that Hinata may break something important (he isn’t very good with minecraft mods).

Regardless, you deafened your headset after telling Hinata you would be right back and to not touch anything before standing up from your seat and turned to face your boyfriend “Okay, I’ll go get the food but can you come sit here and make sure Hinata doesn’t touch anything?” you asked Tsukishima with puppydog eyes and a pout that he couldn’t resist so all he did was sigh and sit at your desk like he was told, making you happy and then off you went to get the food.

After you left, Tsukishima didn’t pay much attention to your computer screen since Hinata had told everyone in the game chat that he was going AFK to go to the bathroom and after knowing Hinata after all these years, Tsukishima knew Hinata would be in there for a while so Tsukishima was just scrolling through his phone until he saw movement on your screen in the background. He figured Hinata had come back from the bathroom but it hasn’t even been that long so he took it upon himself to fully look at the screen and what he saw was Bokuto and Kuroo running around what seems to be your base. At first, Tsukishima wasn’t too worried but still kept an eye on them incase they did something stupid because if they did and you came back to something being wrong, you would blame him for not stopping it. Nothing was out of the ordinary until the two avatars came back into frame with a…dinosaur? Tsukishima couldn’t really process what was happening except for the fact that these two bafoons were dragging a large mob that was named ‘Kei’ with a lead and away from your base. Confused and annoyed Tsukishima picked up your headset and undeafend it to hear what Kuroo and Bokuto were saying in proximity chat.

“Bro, they’re going to kill us!” Bokuto sounds worried as he follows Kuroo around.

“They’re AFK she won’t even know it was us, she’ll just think Shoyo did it!” Kuroo quietly shouts as if he didn’t want other people to hear. ‘What an idiot’ Tsukishima thought before unmuting the mic.

“What do you think you dumbasses are doing?” Tsukishima says seriosuly into the mic causing the two to stop dead in their tracks.

“Kuroo made me do it!” Bokuto finally yells into his mic before running away into the distance leaving Kuroo behind.

“Listen, Tsukishima, you don’t have to tell [name],” Kuroo says nervously as he unleads the dinosaur “I’ll just leave it here an-” Kuroo is cut off by Tsukishima running towards him with a sword but is slowed down when he runs out of hunger giving Tsukishima the leverage to kill Kuroo.

Now that those two ‘idiots’ were gone, Tsukishima took it upon himself to inspect the mob that looks like a dinosaur. He smirked at the fact that it was named after him, thinking it was cute and also mounted it with a saddle to he could ride it a bit.

A few more minutes go by and Tsukishima is still playing around with all the mobs you have already found in the short time you have been playing and was (un)surprisngly amused, so amused that he forgot that you weren’t even in the apartment until he heard the door to the bedroom open,

“Sorry I took so long, I had to talk to the front desk about a package that I was supposed to get…” You walk on saying but got quieter when you saw your boyfriend flying in the sky on a dragon. Tsukishima didn’t even want to turn around because then you would see that his face is red from embarrassment so he just kept flying in circles until you forcibly turned the chair around to make him look at you with a smirk plastered on your face. “Whatcha doin there, my love?” You smugly ask him as he struggles to find the words to say.

“I uh- I um stopped Bokuto and Kuroo from stealing your pet!” Was all your flustered boyfriend managed to say. It wasn’t often Tsukishima would get flustered like this but everytime he did, you would soak it in to make sure you never forgot it so naturally, you took a picture. 

The picture snapped him out of his embarrassed state to glare at you but witht hat shit eating grin on your face, he knew he had no choice of redemption so he caved and told you everything that happened with annoyance but excitement in his voice.

“Oh! I also got you this giant wolf looking thing! It was right outside your base and I thought you might want it!” Tsukishima exclaims like a child as you sit ontop of his lap giggling as he showed you things he thought were cool after he was adamant not hearing you out on how he should play on the server too.

“Kei, my love, your PC is right next to mine,” you manage to let out between giggle as you point to Tsukishima’s barely used computer set up that he sometimes used for work and to occasionally play other video games with you “Why don’t you just play with all of us? I’m sure they wouldn’t mind!” you once again ask him to join the server but all he responds with is a sigh and a look that automatically says no.

“They’re going to make fun of me for being a nerd!” Tsukishima ends up pouting not being able to stay seriously annoyed at you for too much longer and all you can let out is a single ‘Ha!’ before kissing his forehead.

“They aren’t going to make fun of you! They’re just as big of nerds as you are! Kenma is literally working with a magic mod while Kuroo is making a rocket to go to the moon with Bokuto while me and Hinata are making an automatic cooking station so we can open our own restaurant!” You explain to Tsukishima, telling him more about the different kinds of mods that are on the server which only intrigues him even more making him agree to play on the server on the condition that you two make another base further away from everyone else so no one could bother him too much which you agreed to.

Before setting up everything Tsukishima needed to download on his own computer, you both travelled a couple thousand blocks and found the perfect biome to start your modded minecraft journey together and moved all of your belongings and pets there so you wouldn’t have to go back and forth. Once everything was moved to your new area, the both of you logged off for the night to go eat your now cold dinner and agreed that you would play more tomorrow night and that you would both learn what each mod does before focusing on one specific mod.

Tsukishima wouldn’t show it, but he was actually extremely excited to play on this server with you and his high school friends since he never really got to see them anymore and wanted an activity to bond over with you. He was happy and he has you to thank.

BONUS:

~Half an hour after you and Tsukishima logged off: Hinata Shoyo’s apartment~

Hinata groans as he leaves the bathroom walking back to his desk, muttering something about how he shouldn’t have eaten that much mac and cheese. 

As he sits back down and exits the menu/paused screen of minecraft Hinata is left speechless as he looks around him and sees that mostly everything that was once there is gone except for a few of his own chests and a few signs that you left behind that read ‘Sorry Shoyo, Tsukishima is making me live with him now’ ‘We can still work on the restaurant but we cant be roommates </3 - [name]’ Hinata sighs as he finishes reading the signs and starts to walk away to go find someone else to hang out with until he sees another sign a few blocks away that says ‘haha loser - tsukishima’ and at that point Hinata just decides to log off.

[norel-ravenclaw]

Hazbin Hotel Scenarios

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Featured characters: Alastor, Sir Pentious, Charlie, Angel, Husker, Lucifer, Niffty, Vox, Vaggie, Rosie, Zestial

Rating: sfw; occasional scenarios that hint at reader x character, minor angst and drinking

Description: Random scenarios with Hazbins!

PLEASE ask me to write stuff for Hazbin or Helluva!

- Meeting Rosie and having lunch with her and Alastor, he’s so pleased that you two get along so well. Gossiping after shop hours at Mimzy’s club.

- You find a plushie that reminds you of your fave. (A deer, a spider, a chibi tv character, a snake! So cute!) You’re careful to hide it, but one day they catch you and tease you about it.

- You’re sitting in the hotel lobby at the end of the day, listening to music, and Angel gets home. He leans over the back of the sofa and asks what you’re listening to. You offer him one of your ear buds and laugh at his reaction.

“What is this?”

“Electro swing. You could say I was inspired~” You jump up and grab his hand, urging him to dance with you.

Husker raises a brow at you both from behind the bar, dancing like idiots without music, but you both look so happy, he can’t help but smile.

Alastor walks into the room and sees you attempting swing dancing. Curious, he uses his magic to have the radio pick up the music from your phone.

You notice him and let him join in, trying to teach you the right way to swing. (You’ve never seen him look genuinely happier.)

Angel grabs Husk and makes him dance too.

Hearing the music downstairs, Sir Pentious and Charlie peek down to see what’s happening. Charlie gasps in delight and races to find Vaggie so they can dance.

You end up dancing between everyone there. Even Nifty joins in (making her cockroach puppets dance).

Lucifer gets back in the middle of things, and Charlie gleefully spins over to him, pulling him into the fray and pushing him to you. He tries to apologise for bumping into you, but you’re whisking him into the dance before he can finish.

- Being in hell, being dead, that’s kinda a lot sometimes. Angel’s days are always a lot. So the two of you cuddle basically every time you’re in the same room.

- Charlie, in her bid to find ways for her guests to connect, searches the human realm internet for pictures of everyone. Despite the odds, she somehow manages it.

You’re coming downstairs while she and Nifty are setting up the projector, a very familiar picture of you larger than life on the wall.

Angel awws from the sofa and Husker smacks him.

Then his own picture comes up, a handsome gangster looking man from the twenties.

Now it’s full blown wolf whistles.

Then…

“Alastor?? Damn…”

Angel hears you and grins. “Right?”

“I’d let him kill me~”

The man in question steps in with a complicated smile. “Oh my. I’ll not even ask how you managed to get ahold of such a thing.”

Charlie squeals in excitement. “It took me three weeks! Ooh, Angel is next!”

A… skilfully cropped picture is next of him.

Sir Pentious comes down the stairs behind you (you’re still impressed that the snake can navigate stairs) and gasps when his own portrait comes up in the slideshow. “Oh my ssstars!”

“Woah, check out those luscious locks Pen,” Angel says.

Everyone gets a drink after that.

- Alastor smiling so softly at you when he takes you to Cannibal Town and you think the old architecture is pretty. A band is playing in a nearby gazebo… more impromptu dancing. A chance to fix your embarrassing lack of skill, he insists.

- You’re going to bed one night and happen to see Sir Pentious coming out of his room without his top hat, and you’re frozen for a second.

“Oh, hello. Er, isss something wrong?”

“N-no! Sorry, it’s just… your uh… It looks like you have the most amazing hair, the way the black comes around your face… It’s pretty… Sorry, sorry this is so weird, I’m sorry goodnight!”

You slam your bedroom door, leaving him a blushing mess.

- Angel is teasing you about something (or someone) and says something about calling them Daddy.

“Ugh, I’m not calling anyone that!”

“No? Husky, whaddya think about him?”

He glares at us while wiping down a glass and you shrug. “I mean he’s definitely daddy material, but I’m still not calling him that.”

Angel bursts out laughing before Husker throws a glass at you both.

- Imagine being brilliant with social media, blowing up your tiny one person business overnight in helping people promote their stuff, and catching the attention of the Vees. Telling them casually the solutions to problems they’ve been trying to solve for months. Their looks of impressed and interested awe.

- You were out for the day with Lucifer and Alastor, knowing they had a meeting with the overlords later. You wait outside, and Zestial, uncharacteristically running almost late, passes you by on the way in. You are a bit old fashioned, and the way you politely incline your head to him makes him stop in his tracks and ask your name. Perhaps it is worth noting a soul such as yourself…

- Every time you appreciate something from the 20’s/30’s, Alastor gets so happy and clingy with you. Everyone comments how touchy is is with you and just to spite them he starts doing it more.

- Bumping into your fave in the small but densely packed library, with collections from both Charlie and Lucifer. Reading together in comfortable silence. (Or scrolling on their phone as they’re escaping someone/something.)

- Helping Charlie pirate human realm leadership podcasts as she’s stepping into her role more.

- Making a (non magical) deal with Alastor after Lucifer screams at him one too many times for not listening to his voicemails. For every technological or modern world bit of information you share, he’ll teach you something from his own era.

- Finding Alastor tinkering on old radios he collects, sleeves rolled, jacket off. Losing your mind over his deer tail and scrambling - failing - to hide your sheer delight. Finally breaking down and confessing that it’s absolutely darling~ He threatens to kill you and you agree it would be justified. He huffs and nods you over to his desk. He could use a second pair of hands. Or maybe he just wants to electrocute you so you can never tell a soul what you just saw, he says with a smile.

- Vox was there from the beginning days of television, and as much as he knows how brutal the entertainment business is, he still secretly likes a bunch of old fashioned shows and movies that no one ever talks about. He’d be so happy if you threw a vintage movie night for him and let him ramble about the good old days~ Dust off his warehouse collection of old memorabilia and string up lights and he’ll ask you to marry him.

- Going shopping with Angel! Snack and lunch stops are a must.

- Husker is dead on his ass drunk, having a breakdown on the stairs one night. Bottle in one hand, head resting on the bannister posts. You come downstairs for a midnight snack, and seeing him sitting there, you decide to sit on the other end of the step. You don’t say a word, just letting your tail wrap around his and mirroring his own position with your head on the railing post too. You just sit there together for fifteen minutes before he mutters a thanks you can barely hear and heads upstairs.

- Discovering you have Sinner Powers and having eager Morningstars and Alastor help you practice.

- If you hate bugs, helping Nifty make traps for the roaches. She’s your best friend after that. Like it or not.

- Vaggie drunkenly tells you that she secretly wants to see Charlie all princessed up one day. So you and Angel find a dress and fix up her hair (Nifty wants to help! The end result is amazing, but she might have to cut off her hair to get out all the tiny braids, whooops.) Vaggie has a conniption when she sees her and starts stumbling over her words and everything. Alastor puts on a record for them to waltz to. Lucifer is there. He definitely cries. 5000%.

- Going to visit Rosie on your own and getting allll the tea on Alastor~

[jymwahuwu]

Sorry to bother you @alani-r darling🥺💗 but I just got a brainrot moment bwhddkaah

Like imagine jing yuan holding baby yangqing smiling holding him like a cat while yang qing is babbling and reaching out to you as he explained

"This poor child is all alone with no parents surely you have a heart to help me raised them?? You're the only one available and the most motherly for them!"

Panicking on the way he holds yang qing and now the sudden responsibility of taking care of a baby amongst everyone that are more capable in taking care of him. Took him from his arms and just agreed because knowing him he will slack off a bit and let his assistant take care of him.

Cuse on easily be trapped on yandere jing yuan plan to monopolize your time with him and not letting you have a relationship because "look we're such a cute happy family dear~♡" now officially and unofficially married to him and can't have any lover because you and the general are acting like yangqing parents and no one dares to intervene that.

Ao

TW: yandere, harassment, (implied) non-con

Sorry for taking so long to reply 🙏🥺 This pose…it's too cute I can't 😭💕

Jing Yuan put one hand on Baby Yanqing's chest, and supported his legs with the other palm, like hugging a kitten. And Baby Yanqing extended his chubby little palm towards you. His mouth is slurring "da", "mm", and "h…ug" as if he is eager for you to play with him.

"Wh-whose child is this?" You are dumbfounded. From the baby's brown hair, it can be known that he is not Jing Yuan's biological son.

Hearing the explanation, your heart is gripped. Such a little baby lost his parents? You held out your hand, trembling again, hesitating whether to take it back - but no, Jing Yuan is in charge of governing Luofu. Even if he wants to be with this baby as much as possible, his status will not allow him to do so. Maybe he'll leave the baby in the care of an assistant…

Half a minute later, you clumsily lifted the baby Yanqing from the general's arms, imitating the parenting posture you had seen before, patting and shaking him on the back, coaxing him, without noticing that Jing Yuan's smile widened.

Since then, you have taken on the responsibility of taking care of this baby. Yanqing stays at your home for three days every week, and stays in the general's mansion for the rest of the day. You scour the Internet for parenting information, slowly guiding your toddler through his steps, and teaching him manners and knowledge.

What you can't stand is Jing Yuan's constant harassing you, always pushing and stretching inside you, and chuckling in your ear. You cover your mouth, suppressing a moan. Not only that, you often receive some space express packages, and when you open them, you find that the packages are full of baby products and parenting books.

Jing Yuan often accompanies you and records the imprints of Yanqing's growth, such as measuring his height, shoes that are a little bigger, his favorite stuffed toy sword. He leaves you with no time to plan and start a new relationship.

You are their family now, aren't you? You don't want Yanqing to be sad, right? 💖

[makuyi13]

"The Least They Could Do" (Morpherine / Morph x Wolverine)

by @makuyi13

"The ways they could make him happy if they were Jean. But they weren’t. Logan was the man, the myth, the legend, and Morph was just Morph. And they were just friends.

And they hoped to God that was enough."

-

Author's Note: Alright guys I've gotten over an adequate amount of my fears and written a little one-shot after years and years of not being able to write fan-fiction! So anyways this is a really big step for me and I'm obviously very nervous, so please be nice. If I messed up on Morph's pronouns or grammar or spelling somehow, though, please do tell me so kindly. Anyways fellas enjoy I hope it's good :)

Oh I added some more edits, too. The ending is better now.

Edit: The hell have I been doing not posting this on AO3. Here you go fellas https://archiveofourown.org/works/57571678

-

Logan was upset. Again.

It was like the guy was sentenced to be upset for life. There was always something for him to be frustrated about. There would be a few days, weeks if he was lucky, when there wasn’t, and all was well. But then something would go wrong again.

This time it was about Jean.

Again.

She was to have a baby with Scott.

And of course Logan was upset about it.

Morph felt bad about it, being such good friends with Logan and all, and caring about him and his happiness so much, but there was a part of them that was glad that Jean was with Scott. They didn’t know why, and there was always a bit of them that didn’t want to find out. And even worse (Morph felt horrid about this), there was always that part of them that hoped Logan would never have Jean.

It made them feel evil, wishing that kind of misfortune upon somebody, especially their best friend. And being evil was a wretched thing, they knew, but they couldn’t help it. They couldn’t help it at all.

Smart people knew better than to bother Logan when he was upset. But the good thing was that Morph didn’t necessarily consider themself smart. So that was how they found themself opening the front door and stepping outside the mansion to go find Logan.

It happened to be cloudy. All murky skies and chill, although there wasn’t excess moisture or cold. Morph walked down the slight slope, hands behind their back, looking around. Logan was slumped in the distance, staring off. Morph jumped and started, almost running, but caught themselves just in time. As they stepped nearer, they suddenly became painfully aware that they had hands. They tried to drop them by their sides, but they seemed too stiff. Crossing their arms seemed weird and hostile. Keeping them behind their back just seemed awkward and unnatural.

They shook their head forcefully. What was wrong with them? That coffee Jubilee made them must have had something in it. Morph shoved their hands in the pockets of their sweater after whatever fumble just went on. Ignoring it all, Morph opened their mouth to say “hello”.

“What’s cookin’, good lookin’?”

Morph cringed. Of course what came out instead had to be something dumb. They felt their face burn and suddenly felt a strong desire to dig a hole and die. God Almighty, why would they say that? Just why? Why did they always have to try and fail to be funny?

Logan didn’t look their way, but grumbled something under his breath instead. He didn’t say anything else, and Morph took that as an invitation to sit down next to him. They brushed their long skirt, gathering it as they settled. They began to have second thoughts about this. Maybe Logan didn’t want to see them. Maybe they couldn’t really make Logan feel better. Maybe Logan didn’t care if they were there or not. After all, who were they? They were just a friend. They weren’t even Jean.

But… that didn’t really matter, did it? They didn’t need to be Jean to have the kind of time that they wanted to have with Logan. Did they?

Morph realised they were staring and studying Logan a little too closely. Running their eyes along his brow, down his temple, his mouth�� Ugh, they thought to themself. That was really pathetic of them. Ripping their eyes away and trying to shift a little to seem a bit more animated, Morph heard Logan sigh next to them. As if he had been tensing his muscles the entire time he was out here and had relaxed them just now.

“You know you don’t have to follow me around when I ain’t feelin’ well, right, bub?” Logan finally spoke, his voice gruff yet slightly defeated.

“It’s the least I can do,” Morph shrugged.

And yet it kind of was the truth. There wasn’t really anything Morph could do to make Logan feel better but this. They thought all the time about all the things they could be. Thought about the sweet songs they would play for him if they were some kind of musician. The long, heart-warming letters they would write if they were some kind of writer. The ways they could make him happy if they were Jean. But they weren’t. Logan was everything; he was the man, the myth, the legend; and Morph was just Morph. And they were just friends.

And they hoped to God that was enough.

They blinked a few times. Keep it together. Clear the mind. But now they’ve realised that Logan’s shifted his body so that they’re sitting across from each other, facing each other, and now their mind’s a little too clear. Blank, even. And then Logan’s reaching for their leg and their heartbeat’s getting loud and fast, fast and loud, and then that thick, rough hand of his is touching the fabric that’s swimming around Morph’s legs, and all they can think of is damn, all they can hear is the heavy, rapid thump of their heart. 

But all Logan does is touch the hem of the skirt and softly say in his tough, gravelly voice, “This looks good on you.”

And it suddenly means the world to Morph. Their heart squeezes tight and releases. He likes my skirt, he likes my skirt. They dare to look at his face. It's saddened, defeated, creased with age and worry and hardened with pain, and yet they can't find ugliness in it, because there's a sixteenth of a smile lingering on his chapped lips and an unbearably sincere look buried deep in his brown eyes, no matter how much Logan tries to hide it all and shove it under. And that's when Morph knows they would wear that skirt over and over just to see that kind of look in Logan's face again and again. A confusingly, maddeningly good kind of feeling is rushing through their veins, and Morph wants to push it away, tell it to leave them alone, but they can't. Because they do love that feeling, even if they don't know what it is.

"Thank you," Morph breathes, wishing they had more to say.

And then Logan avoids their eyes, turns his body away and it’s over. Morph could kick themself. But instead they silently swear not to say or do anything stupid while they’re with Logan. So they just sit. And so does Logan. Neither says a single word. Neither moves. It’s just Logan and the grey sky and the still air and the lawn and Logan and the silence and the sweater weather and Morph hoping with all their heart that Logan was feeling a little bit better at least. But then again, they didn’t really do much for him. They couldn’t really. All they could do was just come and be there and try their best not to fumble like an idiot (again). Even if Logan said they didn’t have to.

It was the least they could do.

[bp-zb1fics]

Tall & Handsome & wants birthday kisses

pairing: ricky x reader

genre: highschool au (same verse as shy, shy, shy), fluff, romantic tropes

tw/tags: longtime friends, birthdays, coming of age vibes, a lot of banter, feels, cuteness, vandalism of school property, gyuvin will be fine, violent thoughts that are mostly unserious, many kisses, rizzky

wc: 1128

summary: for ricky, the best birthdays are spent with you

a/n happy ricky day~ little late here but it's 520 somewhere ~

Read part 1 here~

“You know I’m going to miss you right?”

You’re 12. It’s Ricky’s last birthday with you before his family moves and puts oceans and time zones between your friendship.

“We have each other’s SNS,” he points out. “You already made me promise to send pictures when the plane lands. Don’t make it weird.”

“But I will,” you insist. “I’m just saying, you know, it’s going to be weird not seeing your ugly face all the time.”

“You’re ugly,” he retorts because puberty is starting to get to the both of you, making it awkward and strange in ways where only you can understand what the other is going through.

“I hope you stay ugly forever.”

“Take that back.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Nope.” You have the audacity to make a face at him.

“Take it back.”

“Okay, tell me you’ll miss me too.”

“Ugh, you’re so annoying.”

“Say it or I won’t take it back and you’ll just be ug-”

“Okay, okay, fine.”

You look at him expectantly, arms crossed over your chest with the most infuriating expression that a 12 year old can muster on your face. He takes a deep breath, staring back at you.

“I’ll miss you.”

“Really? Is that it?”

“Did you ask me to say anything else? I said it.” Okay fair enough.

“Fine. I knew you’d miss me anyways.”

God, you’re annoying. It’s even more annoying when you give him your gift and it’s an amazingly huge sketchbook along with a pizza-themed birthday card where you’ve written too many words for him to even read in one sitting. And it’s the most annoying when Ricky gets off the plane and he’s in his new bedroom in his new house and he realises that-

-well, he actually really misses you too.

__________________________________________

“Happy 16th, Ricky-ah!”

It’s been four years since Ricky’s had a birthday with you beyond the greeting messages you’d send, maybe a short call if the timing is right.

It’s absolute chaos. (But that’s mostly Gyuvin and Junhyeon’s fault)

Somehow, they’ve managed to turn his desk into a- he didn’t even know what to call it. Black construction taped over the top, someone (definitely Gyuvin) managed to hang silver streamers right from the ceiling above and his chair completely covered in gold foil and shiny red cellophane in some sort of convoluted throne.

They also tried to surprise him when he walked into the classroom but jokes on them, Ricky learned how to hold a poker face and keep himself from flinching a long time ago. Probably from that time when you were 10 and made a game out of who could give each other the bigger scare. It was stupid. So stupid that Ricky decided to learn how to do that because you were so cute when you were frustrated.

Oh cute what? He’s pretty sure 10 year old Ricky didn’t have any reasoning like that.

He’s just letting you put that silly plastic crown on him because he’s nice and it’s been awhile and he doesn’t want you whining about it to him the whole day. Nevermind that the look he gives Gyuvin promises blood, murder and death if the other boy so much as said anything. 

(Gyuvin says something anyway, Ricky’s really going to punch him one day no he isn’t )

You even get him one of those little cakes from that convenience store and cafe near your school. It’s your lunch break and you’re leading the birthday song, sitting across from him, clapping your hands as Gyuvin, Junhyeon and even Gunwook decide to try and do their own harmonic rendition.

“Make a wish, Ricky-ah~”

Maybe Ricky’s definitely deaf from Junhyeon’s creative decision to belt the song out at maximum volume. Maybe his fist is twitching in an effort to resist the urge to sock the shit-eating grin off of Gyuvin’s face. But suddenly, all he can see is how your eyes shine, even if that’s probably from the light or the glow of the candle.

Ricky makes a wish and he realises that-

-well he might actually like you more than he thinks. (And by more than he thinks, yes, like more than friends).

__________________________________________

“So now will you tell me what birthday gift you want?”

Your boyfriend gives you that coy look which honestly, you don’t know how he’s capable of doing at your young age.

It’s been pretty great so far. You had birthday lunch with the dog mafia, their unofficially adopted children and a few other friends at Ricky’s favourite pizza place. And you’ll have dinner with his family later.

Right now, you’re at his house, lazing the afternoon away because Ricky had insisted on spending time together, just the two of you. Honestly, you’re pretty sure he was about one more side comment away from actually strangling Gyuvin if you hadn’t tugged him away.

“Remember when I turned 12 and you called me ugly?”

“Eh, all of a sudden?”

“You never took it back.”

The incredulity of your stare is very much felt by both of you. Dumbfounded, literally.

“What- are you- is this for real? You’re kidding me right?”

He takes your hands in his, pulling you towards him so you’re staring right at each other. You tilt your head back, seriously he needs to stop with the rizz.

“Take it back.”

“Seriously?”

“Take it back.”

“Okay, okay I'll take it back. God, anything else you want?”

He leans in, pressing his lips to yours. You jump a little, not exactly expecting that. And then you melt. He pulls back, leaving a hint of strawberry and the smell of his cologne.

“19.”

“What?”

“I want 19 of that for my birthday.” He’s managed to keep a completely straight face but you have eyes and the pink on his cheek and at the tip of his ears is definitely not a trick of the light. Well, two can play a game.

You lean forward, cup his face in between your palms and peck him on the nose a few times, giggling. 

One. Two. Three. Four.

You press light ones over each eyelid, propping yourself up to kiss his foreheads, littering small ones all over his cheeks. 

Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Four-

Maybe you lose count at some point, your lips lingering over his, soft and sweet. You playfully bite at his bottom lip before pulling back to look at him. He’s definitely trying not to smile too much.

“For the record, I never really thought you were ugly.”

“I know.” Your nose scrunches up and he kisses the corner of your mouth.

“You’re lucky it’s your birthday”

“Ah, so can I have 19 more?”

Honestly? He can have all the kisses he wants. Even on days that aren’t his birthday.

[lettersfromaphrodite]

[16.40]

― pairing : Chris x fem! reader ― content warnings : fluff, a little bit of angst, smut (but it's not too explicit), royals au, Chris is a Duke, reader is a Countess, there’s a mysterious bandit pulling those Robin Hood cards guess who could it be, medieval settings as always // main inspiration for this from Elisa di Rivombrosa ― word count : 4.489

― notes : this fic looks familiar?it is! I’m reposting ALL my works on this brand new blog and therefore please, bear with me! as always, askbox is always open and feedbacks are always welcome 💌

👑 ROYALS! STRAY KIDS SERIES

Chris // Changbin // Jisung // Hyunjin // Seungmin // Minho // Felix part one | part two // Jeongin

«Promise me you’ll only get married for love.» your mother had told you countless times when you were younger; you loved to recall her words as you peacefully stared into the small lake close to your family’s territories, your eyes losing in the majestic nature in front of you.

Your horse neighed not too far away from you, and you quickly glanced at her, just to see that she was peacefully eating some strands of grass. Shifting on the rock you were seating on, you went back fantasizing.

Sometimes, you wondered if you were really going to keep the promise you made to you mother when she was still alive, but you had to admit there were days where you thought you probably would not. You were a noble, and hardly noble people got married for love; nobles’ marriages were all about money and politic interests.

ugging your knees to your chest – as much as your gown allowed you to, you smiled to yourself as you thought about being lucky to have grown up in such a serene and happy environment; your parents met at a ball, and luckily, they quickly fell in love. Their love lasted all their lifetime, and they always made sure to make both you and your brother grow up with the same values as them. 

«Well, this is definitely an uncommon place to meet, My Lady.» an unfamiliar voice startled you, and your head snapped towards its direction.

Judging by the voice, it must have been a boy probably around your age, but you couldn’t make out said boy’s features, since he wore a mask covering the lower part of his face so that only his eyes could have been visible, if it wasn’t for the hood hiding his remaining features.

He comfortably sat sideways on your horse’s saddle, which surprisingly enough let him do it without any warning neigh; furrowing your eyebrows, you wondered how she could be comfortable when a bandit was sitting on her back with a bent knee and a short blade elegantly dancing between his fingers.

«Who are you?» you asked with a wary tone as you stood up, your blue gown falling once again around your legs until it touched the grass, and your eyes locked on the blade.

«Oh, you never heard about me?» he asked, clearly pretending to be hurt, judging by the tone of your voice. «I definitely must work harder, then.» his mischievous tone worried you, but the stranger must have been noticed your discomfort, because he put his blade away with a polite «Forgive me.» the action confusing you.

You were about to ask him another streak of question, mixed with a «Get the hell down of my horse.» in a way which wouldn’t have been considered worthy of a Countess, when he surprised you once again. His head slightly turned left, holding up a finger to silently tell you to keep quiet, and immediately jumped off your horse.

«Well, My Lady. This had been an wonderful first encounter, but I have to go.» he politely bowed towards you, «I’ll see you soon!» he added, and with that, he ran back in the direction of the woods, his cape helping him blend in with the nature surrounding him. You stood there, dumbfounded, trying to process what just happened, before you noticed a small patrol of officers clearly looking for him.

«Forgive us, Your Grace.» one of them referred to you, his strong foreign accent accompanying his army’s uniform. «Have you perhaps seen a bandit around here?» your eyes widened for a second, and the officer mistaken your expression for fear. He tried to tranquilize you, but he honestly was not making an exceptional good job, since he told you a lot of information about said boy. «The Hawk and his man have been spotted running back towards the woods.»

«Yes- yes, I saw him,» You nodded at the officer, pretending to be still shaken from the story about said terrible and cruel bandit, «he went that way.» you told him, pointing on your left, instead of pointing towards the woods.

They politely thanked you, before storming off on their horses, chasing for the Hawk in the wrong direction. Before they could realize you lied, you quickly got on your horse with a hammering heart, confused at your own actions.

Apparently, ou just saved the town’s most wanted bandit’s life, and you absolutely didn’t know why.

«How early is too early to leave?» you politely asked your brother, which was standing next to you in the Duke’s sumptuous ballroom; your eyes annoyingly studied the crowd, and you quickly noticed that, behind the people dancing in the middle of the room, there was a small group of women focused on something, or rather, someone.

«I see you spotted the Duke’s charming son.» your brother whispered as he followed your gaze.

«Hyunjin,» you giggled, «How am I supposed to see him?» you whispered back, referring to the fact that between all those people, only a mop of wavy blonde hair was visible. You and your brother shared an accomplice giggle, and talked how obviously those women were interested to his title, when you spotted a familiar figure gracefully walking towards you.

«Your beloved Countess is coming this way,» you hastily whispered to your brother, and you smiled at the fact that at the mere sight of her, Hyunjin’s cheeks tainted with a faint shade of red, «don't do anything I wouldnìt do.» «If you put it this way, I believe I have plenty of choices.» Hyunjin joked, taking a few deep breaths to hide his flustered state; the three of you entertained a pleasant small talk for a bit, and eventually, your brother asked her to dance, leaving you alone and finally giving you the opportunity to get some fresh air.

No one was on the balcony beside you, and you were grateful for your time alone, since formal balls have always annoyed you to death; you gracefully placed your gloved hand on the marble balcony, your eyes wandering on the fountain in the middle of the small labyrinth under you, when a strangely familiar voice snapped you out of your daze.

«Well, this is definitely an uncommon place to meet, My Lady.» you turned around at the speed of light, expecting to find the Hawk once again, but you were meet with a young, blonde boy around your age.

«Your Grace.» you politely bowed to him, and he quickly shook his head.

«Please, let’s forget formalities when we’re alone,» he chuckled, your eyes shifting between his warm brown eyes to the dimples cornering his amazing smile with your brows slightly furrowed in confusion. «I see we share a mutual dislike for balls.» he added with a teasing whisper as he walked next to you.

«I’m Chris,» he said, slightly outstretching the palm of his hand towards your frame, as you noticed you were definitely close, and you immediately took it, placing your hand in his as you introduced yourself as well and Chris briefly kissed the knuckles of your gloved hand.

For a moment you thought you were able to feel his plump lips over the layer of satin covering your skin, but you settled for ignoring the thought, and politely smile at him.

“I wouldn’t blame all those women, if they were amazed by his beauty and not only his title.”

The afternoon quickly went by, and only when you saw two butlers lightening up the candles on the balcony, you realized that you and Chris basically spent the afternoon talking on the balcony, as you helped him hide from all those “annoying women,” as he had previously referred to them.

The clear sky had slowly painted itself with dark colours, and the dim lights provided by the flames of the candles were dancing on Chris’ features, making him look even more handsome.

«Christopher?» you both heard an authoritative voice approaching the balcony, and Chris immediately pulled on your waist while murmuring a streak of apologies. 

Chris held you close to his body as you both hid next to the heavy curtain, which separated the balcony from the ballroom, and hidden by darkness, you saw a man walking few steps on the balcony, turning his head left and right. You couldn’t think straight with Chris’s soft breath gently fanning your cheeks, and you were sure there was a raging blush covering all the way from your cheeks to your chest. 

Chris’ gaze was focused on the man while his back was pressed against the marble wall and slowly, his hand reached out to partially drape the curtains over both your frames with a slow movement. Eventually, the man got tired of looking for Chris, and deducing he was not on the balcony either, he got back inside with what seemed an exasperated sigh.

«Thank you,» Chris sighed, leaning his head against the wall «If he found me, my father would had thrown me immediately in those harpies’ group.» he tightened the hold on your waist, and you realized just then that you had been clinging on his strong arms the whole time. 

Chris was attractive, and he was also a kind and gentle boy, but as much as you could appreciate his company and be attracted to him, you wondered what would have happened if someone found you like this, hugging on the balcony behind a curtain.

«Chris, we should-» you mumbled, and you believed you lost any capability to speak as soon as he looked back at you, now both fully aware of your proximity. Beside your brother, you’ve never hugged a man, let alone being alone and close like this, your noses almost touching in such a compromising pose.

«Usually, by now there would be a game of cards going on in the room next to the ballroom.» Chris said, «Care to join?» his wide smile was enough to make you nod immediately. Chris led you through the ballroom, his arm tightly linked with yours as you were accompanied by curious whispers.

«So… The Duke.» Hyunjin said with a smug smile once you both were back on your carriage leading back home.

«So… The Countess.» you remarked with the same tone, before both of you erupted in giggles.

«You’re gonna be the talk, sister,» your brother said with a sigh, «you were the only one he willingly spent time with.» You were glad to the darkness in the carriage for hiding the wide smile on your lips.

Months had passed since you first met Chris, and incredulously enough, you were now a couple. He had been nothing but gentle and caring with you, and his natural gentle behaviour quickly got your brother’s approval.

Surprisingly enough, Chris’ parents were ecstatic about him finally choosing someone, and they quickly fell in love with you. You quickly found out how romantic he was, always gifting you roses, expensive presents or sometimes, writing his feelings in secret letters you’d mysteriously find on your pillow.

No matter how many tender or passionate kisses you and Chris had shared, you’d always be a blushing mess, your heart hammering in your chest and the feeling of burning desire creeping through your body. You and Chris were free to date and to be seen as a couple in the public eyes, and so scenes where Chris had his arms tightly draped around your waist weren’t that uncommon anymore, but you still couldn’t help feeling incredibly flustered about it.

«People are staring,» you’d whisper every single time.

«I can't blame them, they must be pretty envious,» Chris would answer, «after all, the prettiest girl in town is my fiancée.» he’d kiss your forehead affectionately, leaving the warmth and the passion of your more intimate kisses only for the two to know.

Since your parents raised both you and Hyunjin to be polite with your servants, a strange habitude had been going on since you were kids; in fact, you were invited to their smaller and humble balls. You and Hyunjin had always more fun spending your nights with them and actually having sincere fun, instead of spending your time at someone’s ball pretending to have fun while being in the same room of a bunch of overdressed ladies and gentlemen.

However, you kept wondering why your servants were so happy they constantly look like they were on cloud nine since your engagement with Chris had been announced, few weeks later.

«You couldn’t find any better man,» some would say, and you’d smile at them and nodded, but still wondered why they seemed to personally know him, sometimes. Your happiness, unfortunately, wasn’t the only side of the coin you had to consider.

The people’s discontent was worsened by the injustices suffered by the authorities charged with governing your hometown, and this is where the Hawk comes in: him and his men had restlessly targeted the commander of the army entrusted to your city, and repeatedly plundered their headquarters, so as to redistribute supplies equitably among all the villagers.

The Hawk’s mysterious identity became a real enigma, and no one in the village dared to expose him, since he was helping poor people by challenging public authorities. As much as you – and your brother, secretly approved his actions, you could not help but be annoyed at the boy anytime you met him.

The Hawk proved to have the ability to show up at the most inconvenient times, and yet another time this theory had proven itself being the truth as you were quietly swimming in the small lake where you first met, the thin fabric of your white chemise was the only shield your body had in that very moment.

«We must stop meeting like this,» he said, and you totally immersed back in the water, leaving only your head out. The Hawk was there, once again seating on your horse’s saddle, as he waved at you with a gloved hand, «pretty entertaining, I must admit.» You scoffed, swimming towards him and the pile of your clothes laying on the grass.

«You must stop sneaking up on me like a pervert.» you told him, getting out of the water while fully aware that the chemise was clinging on your body at the point where there was almost nothing left to the imagination. The Hawk whistled, and you resisted to the temptation of throwing a small pebble at him.

«Care to turn away?!» you said, and he chuckled at your annoyed tone as he turned around until you were facing his back. You quickly dried yourself and re-dressed, as a rather strange comfortable silence now fell upon the two of you.

No matter how the boy managed to annoy you or rile you up so effortlessly, sometimes you could not help but feel like you already met him somewhere, you still never got to wrap your mind around it.

«I came to congratulate on your engagement.» he said, as you were striding towards his direction. «I bet the Duke’s ecstatic about it.» he added, and you mistook the malicious irony in his tone for sarcasm.

«Is that envy I hear?» you said, holding on the reins of your horse before telling him to get off your horse. «He is ecstatic about it, and I am as well.»

With another amused chuckle, the Hawk gracefully climbed off your horse, looking at your frame getting further and further away as you quickly rode away on top of your horse.

«I’m glad our marriage won’t be annoying, love.» he murmured, looking at your frame with a wide, smitten smile safely hidden under his mask.

What you definitely did not expect, was to be kidnapped by the Hawk’s men a month before your marriage, while you were headed to the village in order to choose the flowers for your bouquet.

Strangely enough, no one dared to hurt you, neither tie you up. In fact, you were sitting in their hideout, arms crossed in front of your chest in annoyance, politely waiting for the Hawk to arrive, as his man stood few steps from you, as if waiting for your outburst of rage.

«Care to tell me what’s happening?» you asked, for the umpteenth time, irritation clear in your voice. Their hideout was neatly hidden in the woods, and you doubt that any authority would have found it unless they perfectly knew the zone or followed one of them; there were few small hideouts built on the trees – which definitely blended in with the surroundings, and you wondered who these people actually were. «Do you live here?» you asked out loud, trying to calm down, already knowing that no one would have answered you anyways.

One of the Hawk’s men quickly appeared on top of his horse, followed by few others, loudly warning everyone that some soldiers had followed them.

From there, everything happened too quickly for your to realize; delicate hands – probably a woman’s, gently but firmly helped you up and guided you towards one of the almost invisible ladders hanging from the small houses, when a pair of strong arms immediately took her place, and helped you climb up.

«Mislead them and make sure you have lost them before coming back!» the man which was basically carrying you up shouted to his men, and you quickly realized that you were indeed climbing your way to the Hawk’s private den with said man following you close behind.

«Don’t you even think about it.» his low and warning tone sent a shiver down your spine, and you wondered how could he be aware about the fact that you were thinking about refusing his help and call for the soldiers.

Differently from all the times you met him, you could feel he was dead serious, and you settled for obeying him; after all, he was a bandit. You curiously watched as him and the other quickly gathered the ladders so that no one had a way to climb up unless they would roll them all the way back to the ground, and you plopped on his small mattress with your arms crossed in front of your chest.

You refused to talk for the next couple of hours, and the Hawk didn’t pay much attention to you, either, too busy spying and observing what was happening just below them.

«Care to tell me what’s going on?!» you asked as soon as the shouting below you had stopped, signalling that the soldiers effectively followed his men away from there.

«Your soon to be father in law approved the army's behaviour.» he explained, leaning against the wooden wall, after putting his bow and arrows back in their place. «If he wants to see you again, he’ll have to take his statement back, so that the town’s not going to be under their control anymore, and of course the soldiers must leave.»

«You’re kidding me, I hope!» Your eyes widened comically wide. He slowly walked in front of you, «The Duke is never going to do that.» you added with an obvious voice, and he simply kneeled in front of you.

«Trust me, he will.» he said, tilting his head to the side. «I know him better than anyone else.»

«And how could you, I wonder? You’re a rebel.» you scoffed, looking at the wall on your right.

He hesitantly took off his leather gloves, tossing them on the mattress next to you, before holding your hands in his; you tried to break free from his hold, but he was indeed too strong for you, and plus, the familiar touch let you speechless for a moment. You spent enough time with Chris so that you could recognize his touch between hundred people, but… The Hawk couldn’t be Chris, right?

With slow movements, he guided your joined hands towards his cape, in order to take it off and expose the higher part of his face.

Blonde, wavy hair and warm brown apologetic eyes met yours, and you froze; he guided your hands on his cheek, lowering the fabric which was covering his face from the nose and below, and your hands started to tremble at the sight of Chris staring back at you.

our head started to spin, trying to process the fact that the most wanted bandit in the city was your soon to be husband, the boy you loved with all your heart; your first instinct was to scream, but somehow you couldn’t find your voice. Chris didn’t move an inch, your hands still joined in mid-air as he waited for you to say something.

«You… Chris, you lied to me.» you mumbled, feeling your heart sink and tears threatening to fall from your eyes. Chris furrowed his brow in a sad expression, before nodding, adverting his gaze.

«Believe it or not, you were safer not knowing anything of this.» he answered, and your heart calmed down a bit. Chris sat next to you, as he explained everything the Hawk and his men were doing, and you couldn’t help but forgive him.

Deep inside, you knew that his intentions were good, and by now, you knew Chris well enough to be certain that he would have never hurt you on purpose. As much as it pained you to find out like this, you had to admit that knowing his identity was risky, especially since by now, there was a bounty on his head.

That afternoon, was the first time you and Chris made love, since no more lies were hidden between the two of you. Chris’ kisses were soft but passionate, and the fact that you were sprawled on his small mattress in his small wooden cabin made it feel even more intimate.

ware of it being your first time, Chris made sure to pepper your body with soft kisses, the movement of his hips slow and sweet; he’d praise you every few seconds, his raspy voice and his body pressed flush against yours while his length was moving inside you making your head spin, resulting in your nails sinking and scratching his back and Chris groaning in response right next to your ear. 

Chris waited for you to build your orgasm just to come with you, moaning next to your ear and mumbling promises that could put the most experienced lover to shame.

«Do you think your men heard us?» you asked, hiding your head in the crook of Chris’ neck as you were now cuddling and sharing much gentler and softer kisses.

«It’s probably a good thing,» Chris chuckled, caressing your spine with gentle fingers as one arm was behind his head. «So they can get used to it quite soon.»

«What?» you said, propping yourself up on your elbow to look at him. «What do you mean?»

«They’re all people you know pretty well.» Chris offered you a wide, malicious smile as he reached out to gently boop your nose. «Well, some of them are my servants, but the others are… yours.»

«Please, don’t tell me my lady in waiting is part of this, too.» you said incredulously closing your eyes while connecting all the puzzle pieces which had been laying in front of you for months, and Chris laughed, suddenly pulling you to his body while rolling the two of you around.

«Do you think all my love letters walked on your pillow by themselves?» his grin widened as he saw your narrowed eyes as you pretended to be angry at him.

«I’m really an idiot.» you mumbled with a pout, and Chris made sure to kiss it away every time it appeared on your features.

You’ve been hiding in the bandits’ den for five days, and not only you and Chris had made love for countless times, but you also met almost three quarters of your servants, diligently taking turns between working at your residence and working on their part time job as rebels.

«Now I understand why you were so happy about my marriage.» you mumbled one night during dinner, while you were seated around a small campfire, and some servants started laughing, while others deeply apologized to you. Your lady in waiting was quick to seat next to you, hugging your shoulders as the cloth, which was supposed to hide the lower part of her face, was neatly pooled around his neck.

«He had been anxious about you all the time.» she confessed, her tone low and only for you to hear. «He kept thinking that if you ever found out, your feelings would have changed.» you carefully listened to her as your eyes travelled towards Chris’ frame which was animatedly talking with one of his friends, not too far from where you were.

«Please, remind me that sentence you always say - you know, the one about your husband.» you answered, turning towards her.

«That… Men are idiots?» she asked, her brows furrowed in confusion. You nodded, your eyes once again locked on Chris.

«Yeah, he’s an idiot for thinking something like that.» you sighed, «He’s lucky, he’s cute.» and the both of you erupted into complice giggles.

Chris turned towards your group with a wide, triumphant smile on his face while holding a letter in his hands. «We did it!» he exclaimed, and you were sure that among the woods, their loud cheering could be heard everywhere.

Learning that the Hawk and Chris were the same person all along had been quite a shock, but learning that Hyunjin was aware of it all along was even worse.

«Ah! I knew it!» your brother hugged you close, affectionately kissing your hair after you and Chris – still dressed up as a bandit, had rode back to your house on his horse, his arms securely around your waist as he held the reigns. «I knew you were safe with him!»

«You knew?!» you groaned, your eyes repeatedly shifting from Hyunjin to Chris, and they both gave you an innocent smile; you sighed, settling for ignore both of them in order to finally get a warm bath.

Things quickly returned to normal, needless to say, both you and Chris grew nervous as days went by, your marriage approaching and now, being just a week away.

Chris loved to sleep at your house, even if you weren’t married, yet, and also loved hugging you from behind while both of you were watching the sunset from your small bedroom’s balcony.

«So, I was wondering,» Chris’ malicious tone made you chuckle in anticipation, as you felt his chin resting on your shoulders and his hands around your waist, over your white chemise. «Should I wait for you dressed as the Duke or dressed as the Hawk?» he joked, gently rocking your bodies around as you giggled together. 

Chris affectionately kissed the side of your head as you both waited for another day go by, waiting for the day to be officially proclaimed husband and wife.

all works © lettersfromaphrodite

Do not modify, repost, translate or plagiarize my stories. I only publish my works on tumblr & AO3.

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[changingplumbob]

New Goth: Chapter 4, Part 4

Harvestfest wraps up

CW: Mentions of death Content Warning Guide

Savannah is the twin in pink with hair clips Mercedes is the twin in blue without hair clips

Full family photo! Then Milton decides that while everyone is here he may as well show them the puppet show he’s been working on.

Rahul: What is it called

Milton: School

Cassandra: I think I’ll have to watch from a seat if that’s okay

Savannah: Mama has a baby inside so she needs to be careful

Mercedes nods halfheartedly while Milton slips on the puppets and begins his tale.

The show isn’t all that bad. Of course at creativity level 3 it isn’t all that good either… There are a few funny jokes in it that make the Chopra’s laugh though, Rahul is the best audience a kid could want. Alexander and James are using the time that Milton is being watched to work out in the home gym. They’ve already seen many versions of this puppet play from Milton. Hamlet hangs around for a while hoping for a pat but the viewers seem engrossed.

In the end Milton receives a round of applause from the family.

Savannah: We should have a puppet theatre

Mercedes: Why

Savannah: We could do stories together

Mercedes: But we can do that with dolls. Why change

Rahul: You’re not a big fan of change are you Mercedes

Mercedes: No papa. But I would like a treehouse

Rahul: *laughs* Come on you two, we should find Uncle Alexander and Uncle James and thank them before we leave

Savannah: Why

Rahul: Good manners that’s why. Now come along

Savannah: I’d like an older cousin

Mercedes: I don’t want one to boss us around like Milton does

Milton: I heard that

Rahul: Girls, I said now!

Twins: *quickly standing* Yes papa

As they leave the library Milton sighs and turns to Viola.

Milton: Did you have a good time Viola

Viola: Ye ye, gooey. Ug?

Milton hugs the toddler who is happy with the attention. Alexander and Cassandra walk in talking and the youngest Chopra is scooped up.

Cassandra: We better be getting back to Henford

Alexander: Before storytime? I need practice

Cassandra: I doubt a teen would like you reading to them but what do I know. I think my ones are getting tired, and I may need a nap myself

Alexander: Take care of yourself sis

Cassandra: I will, and if I don’t Rahul does

The rest of the day passes quickly. Alexander has joined the critic career with his eye on being a food critic, finding it a great way to combine his literature degree with his cuisine hobby. James takes care of chores around the house since he is a neat sim after all. Alexander practices his research and debate until he hits level 4, coincidentally enough the level he needs for promotion. James meanwhile spends some time playing games online with Joey, Keira and Marta.

Milton looks at this toys again before bed. He’s glad Alexander got them for him, he’d missed them. Who knows if Bella’s journals would provide any answers as to where she was, but he wanted to keep trying. He only had one mummy, and he missed her every day. Of course in the middle of the night he woke up from a bad dream and realised the way to protect himself was clear, bear suit! Before we knew it Monday was here and Hamlet was waking everyone up accordingly.

James decided to spend the day doing something he loved, fishing! He invited the club around to check out the stream that ran along the edge of the property. It had begun to snow but with no ice the fish should be biting. I had hoped they would all deposit themselves along the stream but nope. Bob decided his time was better spent upstairs watching the culinary channel. Reece caught something! It wasn’t a fish but hopefully his skill has gone up a little.

After school...

James: How was school today

Milton: Good and bad. Can you help me with my project please Uncle James? It's meant to be a volcano

James: Sure, as an ex-teacher I know my way around a fake volcano. Now tell me about school. Why was it good and bad?

Milton: I gave the note from Alexander to my teacher about my costume and she was fine with it

James: But?

Milton: *sighs* Reynaldo and Maria hung out with me but everyone else avoided me

Friendly reminder that the twins go to a different school, I promise they were not avoiding him.

James: Don’t worry about "everyone else", focus on your friends. If they still think you’re awesome enough to hang around with no matter what you want to wear, they’re good ones

Milton: I guess. It’s just hard. People treat me different even before I was in this

James: Milton... your father died and we don't know what happened to Bella. Many of the kids in your class won’t be able to think about what that means, and won’t know what to say about it. Sometimes if people don’t know what to say they’ll say nothing

Milton: I don’t miss father so much now. But I need to know what happened to mummy

James: If you need any help going through those journals I’d be happy to help

Milton: I know but… I want to do it by myself. It helps me feel close to mummy. There, is the volcano done?

James: Almost. Now you have to present it

Milton: Present it?

James: Practice for class. I’ll be a good audience and you'll be prepared for your classmates

Joey decided to swing around for dinner to catch up with everyone. It’s leftover ham from the holiday so everyone ends up feeling a bit dazed. Alexander has to go write another column for work afterwards so James, Milton and Joey put in some gaming time. I’m not sure how Milton does in the bear suit but he’s not sad so we’ll stick with it.

Previous ... Next

[spaceorphan18]

The Rogue and Gambit Project: A New Beginning (X-Men #1-3)

The true beginning of Rogue and Gambit's story really comes with the new and somewhat iconic era of X-Men. X-Men: The Animated Series drew its inspiration from the relaunch designs, and for someone who grew up with this era, it feels nostalgic as well as historic. Rogue looks and sounds like the character I grew up with. Gambit being crucial to the line up and no longer an afterthought feels pivotal. I feel like we've finally arrived.

And while I know this era isn't void of problems -- believe me, I know... I kind of enjoy this early Rogue and Gambit dynamic. It's fun and flirty and has a little bit of an edge to it. And the angst. So. Much. Delicious. Angst.

The funny part is... there really isn't a whole lot of it in these first few issues. Things don't really heat up until issue #4. Not only that, I'm gonna have to bring up Rogneto again... I'm so sorry, guys. Blame Chris Claremont.

Alright, let's dig in...

X-Men #1

Rogue in her now iconic new uniform -- this is going to be a standard for quite awhile. Get ready to see this pose a lot - Jim Lee, and artists after him, really like to do the whole one leg up, one fist out thing. Anyway, despite the fact that I (shockingly) don't like that much yellow on her - she's so pretty. I've always loved this era's hair.

Anyway, you want plot details you say?? This is Chris Claremont's last hurrah on his initial, epic 17 year run with the X-Men. And of course you can expect two things -- space shenanigans and coming full circle with Magneto as the villain. The crux of it is about Magneto possibly being a threat, despite the fact that he wants to be left alone, and of course, the X-Men get sucked into the drama.

X-Men #1

Gambit's redesign - which uses his initial costuming but man does he look so much better. He looks 'cool' in the way that all the X-Men look cool in this era. The dude can pull off the color fuchsia. That isn't easy to do. I do like, however, in color theory that the pinks and purples of Gambit goes well with the greens of Rogue's coloring. But more to the point - Gambit is pretty now, which is what we're all really here for. ;)

Anyway - because this is a relaunch, after our initial Magneto based prologue, we get a (re-)introduction to the entire team in one of my absolute favorite sequences of X-Men comics. The teams will eventually be divided into two groups; the Blue Team -- Cyclops, Beast, Rogue, Gambit, Wolverine, Psylocke, and Jubilee and the Gold Team -- Storm, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel, Forge, and Colossus, but for now, they're one happy family doing a classic danger room sequence as designed by Charles Xavier.

X-Men #1

The whole sequence is really pretty awesome, but it leads to one of my favorite comic book moments -- where Gambit just goes for it and kisses Jean. It's a fake, robot Jean, but it's a bold move. And leads to Cyclops wanting to drop a truck on him. It's such a classic moment and I love it.

X-Men #1

Our first Rogue and Gambit panel happens right after Wolverine wins the whole training sequence (because of course he does). (Also - Claremont can't quite resist and we get a final 'bang, you dead' moment.) Meanwhile, Rogue and Gambit still haven't spoken to each other - but at least they know the other one exists. Progress, right?

X-Men #1

I really need to take a moment and appreciate the fact that most of the time during this era, when Gambit isn't in his uniform, he's running around half naked.

X-Men #1

Ug, alright, let's talk about Magneto again. This whole arc is about Magneto kind of having an existential crisis (which, you know, happens when they need to reset you to villain again). And, unfortunately, we'll get a few of these moments scattered throughout these issues of Rogue trying to talk sense and reason into him due to their 'spark' in the Savage Land. I get that someone should be a reasonable voice -- especially when the rest of the X-Men are attacking the guy before any kind of provocation. But I'm still rolling my eyes that it's Rogue. Notice he calls her 'child' during this? He'll do that throughout. Eesh.

Magneto claims that he has no beef with them and offers them all safe haven on his floating asteroid base -- Asteroid M. And guess who doesn't join him? That's right - Rogue at least has enough sense to stick with the family she knows and cares about over a possible, not really fling. Btw - I hadn't mentioned it back when I was talking about the Savage Land, but there was nothing to suggest Magneto can actually touch her. (I think that might be an Age of Apocalypse thing?)

Also, in case you think any of this sounds familiar - pretty sure X-Men '97 drew heavily from this arc for their Season 1.

X-Men #1

The first time either of them mentions the other one, and it's Gambit being sassy about whether or not Rogue should be a considered a lady. I kind of love it, actually. And love that Beast is like -- oooh, you're playing with fire on that one.

X-Men #2

They're getting more on panel togetherness! Granted it's group shots and they're taking down Magneto, but I'm taking all the scraps!

X-Men #2

Alright, well as much as I'm not a fan of the Rogue/Magneto dynamic, I'm still going to be fair and talk about it. Because it is part of Rogue's development. The key thing here though is that Rogue isn't going to compromise her values and beliefs because she may feel something for Magneto. And this will continue to ring through always through the comics. Of course, how nice of Magneto to swat her away like an annoying fly. Romance for the ages, guys.

X-Men #2

More on panel time! They're really going for all the group shots these days - probably to milk sales. But I mean, Rogue and Gambit look good just standing next to each other, so who am I to complain?

So, back to the plot... Magneto is getting pissy because the world governments are seeing him as a threat. He kidnaps Moira MacTaggart and berates her and blames her for all of his issues (because, you know, she messed with his genetics after he was de-aged, in an attempt to make him /not/ a villain). It was... a whole thing don't worry about it.

Anyway, he has Moira (somehow) brainwash the Blue Team into joining Magneto's side. Because they can't otherwise be convinced. Which, oh my gosh - what's with all the brainwashing lately?? Of course, this means it's Gold Team to the rescue...

X-Men #3

I'm going to try to document every time they're on the same cover. Also, it isn't X-Men unless there's at least an X vs X brawl every other month.

X-Men #3

Another group shot with Magneto in between them?? What can this mean??? Actually, nothing, I think it's just a coincidence. But - I really like the art here.

But.. you guys! YOU GUYS! We get our first real Romy moment in this issue! Granted - they're still brainwashed! But it's another first! Here we go...

X-Men #3

So, they're all hanging out on Asteroid M, taking it easy because - apparently that's what you do when you're a brainwashed Magneto fan. I love that Cyclops is still in his full uniform while Gambit has managed to strip down to his undies. I'm sure we can all tell who is the real fun one of the group.

You know what I like about this exchange, though? Gambit was casually complementing her diving skills and Rogue is the one who decides to get flirty about it. Of course, Gambit's going to push it further - see how far she wants to really go, and that'll cause her to run -- a dynamic that we're going to see a ton of as we go through all of this early stuff.

But for all that Gambit's going to push - it's not completely unwarranted or completely out of nowhere. Yeah, he gets flirty with the ladies on principal. Yeah, he went for kissing (fake robot) Jean unprompted because he thought he could. I won't defend some of the ickier aspects of these comics.

But... I'm fascinated by the idea of - what if she could touch? Would it still be a game to him? Would she have let it continue? Would they just have had a little fling right off the bat? Are her powers what really pushes them to have a deeper relationship than what they might have had? Just all the thoughts I'm throwing out there.

I also like that, that little moment of humor, where she knocks him into the pool, is so genuine it shakes her out of her mind control.

I also like that Gambit's genuine concern for her stops his playfulness.

It's such a tease of some great stuff coming up, and I am here for it.

X-Men #3

And that's really all we get guys. The Gold Team shows up to save the day but not before some X-Men fighting amongst each other. Magneto monologues for a while. Charles tries to get him to see reason. The people of Earth try to nuke Asteroid M and everyone gets outta there while Magneto decides to go down with the proverbial ship.

X-Men #3

This is in the closing moments of the issue - and I'm putting it here because it is Rogue talking about Magneto again -- but kind of seeing reason and how their ideologies do not work. She's trying to get Xavier to see this, and it's funny that Xavier is having a very hard time trying to let his old 'friend' go. Rogue, however, is fine. Maybe there had been a small, romantic spark of being caught up in close quarters in a shared moment. But that was all it was.

There is more to a longer lasting romance than fleeting moments due to circumstances. ;)

The X-Men take off leaving Magneto and his real followers to their fates. Of course... we know that it's never the real end of Magneto. Asteroid M may blow up, but he'll be fine.

However, I'll take a moment say that it's a poetic ending. Chris Claremont closes it out with a sort of goodbye. His tenure on X-Men is now complete, and we've fully stepped into a bright, new era!

X-Men #4 is gonna bring it. Let's do it! ;)

[lqtusxtearz]

Florist

Summary:

A florist in their hometown is known for being kind and cheerful. A large luminous hexagon emerges in front of their business one night, and a tall guy, Miguel Ohara, enters and hands them a flower. They are taken aback and inquire whether they are Y/N Mendoza. Miguel is taken aback and asks if they may stay in his store for a bit to repair his gadget. They become friends and spend time together, behaving as though they are married.

They finally fixed his gadget after a month of being with Miguel, and he doesn't want to go. Miguel informs you that he must return because someone need his services. You don't take it well, but you also don't make him stay with you. On

You are a florist in your home town, and you are well known as a kind and bubbly person.

You are an average person who takes care of the flowers until one night, as you close your shop, a big glowing hexagon appears right in front of your shop. You were about to scream, but a big man who is around 6'9 tall who would not freak out when there's a man come out of the portal and just covers your mouth to prevent you from screaming? The tall man shook you and forced you two to get inside your shop, and you were just standing there looking at the man with petrified eyes. He saw this, and he sighed. He walks toward you and gives you a flower that you are not familiar with. You look at him, confused, and he looks at you, waiting for you to take the flower. You take it and look at the tall man and ask, "What are you? Who are you?" you said to him, not taking your eyes off him. You might now know what this man's intention is, so you grab the nearest thing that you can hold and just hold it. In the meantime, he saw this and sighed, "By any chance you are Y/N Mendoza?" You were shocked because he knows your name. You raise an eyebrow, looking up and giving him a judgmental look, and shake your head as a no. He groans, nods, and looks around. He checks his thing on his wrist, and you look at it confused. He grumbles in Spanish and is pissed, causing you to get scared and raise the thing that you held minutes ago for defense: "Hey..uhm, can I stay here for a while until I fix my gizmo?" he asks. You were about to say no, but your brain just said, If you say no, he will just stay here, but this time with a body to burry, so you automatically nodded and smiled weirdly. He looked at you confusedly and nodded.

So that's how you met Miguel Ohara; he's been staying for a week fixing his gizmo, and you two have been slowly getting close by Chatting for an hour or more, cracking jokes, and even baking a cupcake once for him. He is also helping you in your shop by entertaining your customers and helping you wrap some flowers. One time, when you were cooking adobo, you cut your hand because of how clumsy you are. You are more focused on your favorite series on TV than your work, causing you to cut your hand. When Miguel knew about this, he went full-time and scolded you about how you should be more focused on your work than your Series on TV, and since that day he has been with you in the kitchen, helping you and reminding you to focus on your work. There's one time when you are at your shop and you like to listen to your customers cute moments with their husband or boyfriend. It makes you happy and even fangirl when the quality time is wholesome. You heard him chuckle at the back, looking at you with loving eyes. "Wanna recreate it?" he said, looking at you, waiting for an answer, and well, you are flustered. "Just go back inside and watch something, you said, chuckling a bit. A week has turned into months, and you love spending time with him. You two act like a married couple, and sometimes the locals misunderstand that you two are married. "Ikaw Dai Ako pana e kasal na nako siya tanawa murag mo Bana ug Asawa aguy! "The old woman said to you as she bought the flower for her husband's grave, and what she said made you blush hard enough for the red to get Visible and giggle a little.

After a month of staying with you, Miguel finally fixed his Gizmo, but he doesn't want to leave you after all. You two got so close, but he has to return because someone out there needs him. He told you, and well, you didn't take it too well, but then again, you didn't force him to stay with you, so you have to learn to accept it. On the day that he was going to leave, you cried so much that your eyes are now puffy. "Don't worry, I promise you I'll visit, okay?" he said to you, which made you happy that he would visit, so you nodded, not able to stop your tears.

Once he was gone, your shop became gloomy, and your regular visitors asked where he was, but you always said that he went back home. At night, you waited for him every night, expecting him to come back into your arms again, but after days of waiting became weeks, weeks turned to months, and months turned to years, and on July 23rd, you gave up and tried to forget him, and you asked yourself, Why do you always wait for him? Why do you always have hope that he will actually come back? why? You ask yourself that, but the answer is quiet.

Miguel, in the meantime, once he is back at the headquarters, he tries to get back to you, but he can't, and he doesn't know why. He tries to find your Universe, but he can't for some reason. He even asks his AI, Layla, but even she can't find it. No matter how hard she tries, she just can't, but he doesn't give up; he asks Spider-Byte, even though she doesn't know until Spider-Byte has said something that pissed Miguel off.

"Maybe this Universe that you are looking for doesn't exist, or maybe her universe Vanished like a big crunch?"

He looked at her, pissed. "That's impossible! That universe exists! I even stayed there for a month! That's impossible!"

The truth is that he is scared. Maybe what she said is the truth; maybe your universe died; maybe... It vanished. He is scared, so he keeps trying until July 23rd, 3:45 a.m. He found the universe that you live in, but you were dead. You were stabbed to death late at night. because your door is not locked and you were sleeping on the couch, and you had your plate ready at the table near you waiting for him, but instead of Miguel, it was something else. It was death.

[bromfieldhall]

Pyewacket

Penelope is in love with Colin. Colin is in love with Penelope. Both think that their love is unrequited and don't want to act upon their feelings in case it ruins their friendship Enter, Pyewacket...

My submission for Polinween Week 2 - 'What's a Little Fur Between Friends'

Bridgerton Modern AU

PYEWACKET

It was on a warm, slightly humid, evening in late August that Penelope Featherington fell completely and utterly, head over heels, in love for the second time in her fairly young life.

He was a handsome boy, brimming with confidence and gorgeous green eyes that bordered on hypnotising. As soon as he’d sauntered in through the open back door of her modest, two-bedroom house, she’d known she was a goner.

She’d always loved cats.

Purring loudly, his black, glossy fur had tickled as he’d rubbed around her bare ankles before he’d jumped up and settled himself down on her old, comfy settee, like he’d lived there for years.

That had been a month ago. She’d put up notices, had him checked at the vets but with no microchip and nobody calling to claim him, he was now officially hers…or maybe she was officially his really.

Whatever way round it was, ‘Pyewacket’, as she’d named him, was here to stay.

“A pie-wotsit?” her friend, Eloise, had quipped with an incredulous laugh when Penelope had told her.

“It’s an old name for a witch’s familiar,” the redhead had explained. At Eloise’s blank look, she’d shrugged and added a little defensively, “Well, I like it.”

“It’s great, Pen, honestly,” Eloise had assured her with a grin. “I would’ve probably called him something boring like John, but Pye…”

“…wacket,” her friend had supplied helpfully when Eloise had trailed off with a frown.

“Yes, Pye, really suits him.”

Penelope had simply shook her head and smiled. She’d take that.

And now, to celebrate, she’d bought Pye a dark green collar with a little bell, a new catnip toy and a small tin of tuna. He ran over as soon as she opened the can and paced around her legs with the odd little mew as he waited impatiently for his treat. She placed his bowl on the stone tiled kitchen floor, then put the kettle on and herself a m ug of tea.

She’d just sat down with her steaming brew when her phone went off and she smiled when she saw the name that flashed up. No matter what continent he was on for work, he never forgot her birthday.

Ever.

“Hi Colin.” A loud rendition of ‘Happy Birthday to You’ came back at her and she laughed when he held the last ‘you’ for far longer than she thought was possible. “Thank you for reminding me I’m another year older, but sadly not any wiser,” she quipped when the singing had ended.

“Oh, that sounds rather ominous,” he replied, suddenly serious. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Of course,” she said in what she hoped was a dismissive tone.

Apparently, it wasn’t…

“Penelope, I know you. What’s happened? Is it your mum? What’s she said now?” he fired off, already getting angry on her behalf.

“No, it’s not mum - or Prudence or Philippa,” she added before her friend mentioned her sisters.

“Well, it’s something,” he prodded. Colin paused, but when Penelope didn’t speak, he asked flatly, “Is it Alan?”

Penelope sighed heavily and shook her head at his continuous propensity to get her boyfriend’s name wrong.

Well, ex-boyfriend now.

“It’s Alfie, Colin and yes, if you must know we broke up last week,” she told him unhappily.

“Switch to facetime,” he demanded suddenly.

“Colin…”

“Pen, switch to facetime. I want to see you so we can talk properly,” he told her firmly.

“I’m sure you have better things to do than listen to me having a moan,” she argued without any real heat, “and I thought you said were meant to be filming some secret lagoon today or something?”

“That’s later. So, I’m exactly where I want to be. Talking to you on facetime, Pen,” he retorted.

She tutted but pulled her phone away from her ear and saw that he had already made the call. She hit accept and his face came into view.

‘Well. Happy, fricking, birthday, to me,’ she thought, drinking in the sight of him.

From his chestnut brown hair – that was slightly too long and curling up at the ends in a way that made her fingers itch to reach through the screen and just tug – to his ridiculously deep blue eyes, lightly stubbled chin and golden tan.

He looked gorgeous…and of course he was shirtless.

Her gaze dropped briefly to his chest, skittering over the liberal covering of hair there. Dear God, if he only knew what that did to her, he’d probably wear a polo neck for the rest of his life.

They were only friends, after all. Something that she constantly had to remind herself of when her mind – or gaze – wandered off to their own little fantasies. It didn’t matter that she’d been in love with him for forever.

Well, years, anyway.

And honestly, she’d long since made peace with her unrequited feelings in regards to Colin Bridgerton.

Mostly.

He’d been out of the country for a couple of months now. Said he’d had an idea for a new book and had left with barely a few days notice.

She understood. Like him, she was a writer. Romance novels that sold surprisingly well, considering the lack of any real lasting relationships in her personal life to draw upon. Still, her books had ensured her bank balance was very healthy and when the writing bug bit, she knew you had to go with it, wherever it took you.

For Colin, that just happened to be the other side of the world more often than not. New places to see, new experiences to catalogue. He thrived on the adventure and it clearly showed…if his sun-kissed beach body was anything to go by. Not an ounce of fat anywhere from what she could see…

“So,” he said, drawing her attention back to their conversation. He had a small, sympathetic smile on his face and tilted his head slightly as he continued, “do you want to tell me what happened?”

Not really.

She certainly wasn’t going to tell him that Alfie had become very suspicious of her feelings for Colin and was oddly convinced that the love of her life also felt something back.

 She’d quickly brushed that notion off as ridiculous but then, with impeccable timing, several messages had suddenly pinged through on her phone from Colin. It was merely a rundown of his day with some photos of things he thought she might like to see. For her, that was normal. For Alfie, not so much it seemed…not for a long while.

In the end, listening to his reasoning, even she had to begrudgingly admit that, from the outside, it had kind of undermined her argument.

And, to top it all off, Pye hadn’t liked him. Not one little bit.

“There’s nothing to tell. It just didn’t work out and he…we decided it would be better to end it,” she finally replied with a shrug.

Colin’s eyes narrowed as he assessed the truth of her words. He didn’t quite believe her but, at the same time, she didn’t seem particularly upset, so he reluctantly decided not to push the reasons why. He was just unaccountably pleased that the idiot was gone.

“Well, having never spoken to the guy, Pen, I can safely say that he’s a fool,” he told her wryly. He was rewarded with her laugh and grinned. “So, what are your plans for your birthday? Going out somewhere nice tonight?” he asked, changing the subject.

“No, not now. Alfie was taking me out for dinner, but I’m going to get a pizza in and open a bottle of wine instead,” she replied with a smile.

“Sounds like that that’ll be a far more interesting night,” he commented with a chuckle. “Is Eloise joining you? How is she? I haven’t spoken to her recently.”

“She’s good, but I haven’t told her about Alfie and me yet because she’d already made plans with Phillip for this evening,” she explained with a sigh. “I know she’d cancel on him just because it’s my birthday and I don’t want her to. He’s a nice guy and I think she really likes him.”

“Poor chap,” he commiserated with a huff of laughter. He loved his sister but she could be…difficult at times. 

“She’s not that bad,” Penelope rebuked lightly.

Colin merely raised his eyebrows at that and they both shared a laugh.

“So, since El is busy, what about one of your other friends?” he asked, bringing the conversation back around to her. “You can’t be alone on your birthday, Pen.”

“Oh, I’m fine. It’s just another day at my age and, anyway, who says I’m going to be alone? I’ll have you know I’ll be spending the evening with a very handsome fellow,” she told him rather smugly.

On the other end of the call, Colin’s hand tightened around his phone as felt his stomach drop – and then churn unpleasantly. She’d met someone else already?

“Well, that was rather quick,” he muttered to himself.

“What was that?”

Colin’s eyes widened as he realised he’d spoken louder than he’d imagined and felt heat start to warm his cheeks.

She was staring at him with an expression that told him she wasn’t quite sure that she’d heard, what she thought she’d heard.

“Oh, uh, nothing, I just said that...um…I’m sure you could have your pick,” he covered relatively smoothly and even managed to summon a charming smile.

At least, he hoped it was charming because it felt like the skin on his face was so taut it might actually tear apart if he tried to force his mouth any wider.

Penelope regarded him for a couple of seconds longer then suddenly giggled.

“I’m pretty certain he picked me.” She glanced away for a moment then looked back at him happily and added, “Hang on, he’s just finished eating. I’ll go get him and introduce you.”

What?

He was there?

All this time?

Colin’s heart stuttered along with his words. In the end all he managed to get out was an odd, strangulated sound that really had more to do with the fact that Penelope had leaned forward to prop up her phone against something on the table. It had afforded him with such an appealing view of her ample chest that he’d been rendered momentarily speechless.

Good Lord, if she knew just how much she affected him, she’d be horrified. Rightly so. Friends didn’t ogle friends – even if one the friends desperately wished they could be more.

The sound of footsteps made him focus back on the screen. She was returning with her new…whatever. Shaking himself mentally, he tried to adopt a neutral expression so that he could at least appear to seem unbothered by this unexpected turn of events.

“Here he is,” Penelope gushed as she came back into view. She sat down on the settee with a big bundle of fur in her arms and turned him so that Colin could see his face. “Meet Pyewacket, the new addition to the Featherington household.”

Oh.

A cat.

If he hadn’t already realised awhile ago that he was in love with his friend, the ridiculous amount of relief that flooded through his system in that single moment would’ve been a huge wake-up call. Even for him.

He watched as Penelope stroked him, the cats back arching under her ministrations. Pyewacket was clearly enjoying all the attention and purred loudly as she scratched lightly behind first one ear, then the other.

Colin smiled a little at the obvious tenderness on her face as she fussed her new pet. He’d be a very happy man indeed if she ever looked at him like that.

Suddenly, Pye stopped purring and stared unwaveringly into the camera, directly at Colin. He wasn’t sure if he’d made a noise or had moved slightly, but whatever the reason, he’d definitely grabbed the cat’s attention and as he stared back, he was taken with how very green his eyes were…and how they seemed to pierce straight into his soul.

It was a distinctly unnerving feeling that had him clear his throat a little in discomfort. He tried to look away but couldn’t. Something held him captive, like an invisible hold and then, one blink, and it was gone.

Pye turned away and after circling in Penelope’s lap a couple of times, he settled down, seemingly falling into an instant sleep.

“Well,” Colin began, still trying to get his head around what had just happened, “he’s a handsome devil.” He forced a grin. “Great name. Witch’s familiar. Suits him.”

Penelope beamed and he relaxed a little.

“I guess that’s my outfit sorted for the Halloween party this year then,” she commented with a chuckle.

“Oh, you’re going as a sexy witch, huh?” he teased, his grin easier now. “Good thing I’ll be back in time. I very much look forward to seeing that costume on the night.”

Her eyes widened as a delicate blush stained her cheeks and he belatedly wondered if he’d overstepped - but needn’t have worried. She was apparently more surprised about him returning.

“You’re coming? Really? But…I thought you said we wouldn’t see you until Christmas?” she exclaimed in confusion.

“I did, but I’ve actually made much better progress than I thought I would, so I should only be gone a few more weeks,” he explained, keeping it vague.

In truth, he’d only just decided to return and it was primarily because her prat of a boyfriend was no longer around.

On screen her expression softened as she smiled.

“That news is probably the best present I could’ve had for my birthday,” she said sincerely. “It’ll be good to have you home again, Colin.”

Home.

Where the heart is...and his heart, he now knew, had always been hers.

“Pen…”

Before he could say anything more, there was a loud knock on his hotel room door.

“I’ll go and let you get that,” she said, picking up her phone.

He sighed and nodded. He wasn’t really sure what he’d been about to say anyway. Although the urge to blurt out his feelings had been strong, there was no way he was going to make that kind of declaration over a bloody facetime call. Penelope deserved so much better than that.

“I’ll be in touch,” he assured her instead, “and let me know when your real present turns up. I think you might like it.”

“Present? What present?” she asked perplexed. “Colin?”

“Happy birthday, Pen.”

Grinning, he gave her a wink and a little wave, then ended the call.

“Infuriating man,” she muttered as she tossed the phone down beside her on the settee.

Pye lifted his head and mewed softly as if in agreement.

“Exactly!” she replied with a curt nod.

Absently, she started to stroke his fur, her mind running over and over the unexpected phone call. After a few moments she let out a groan of frustration and moved Pye gently off her lap so that she could stand. She refused to waste any more time torturing herself by reading anything into Colin’s meaningless flirtations. He probably didn’t even realise he was doing it at this point. They’d known each other for so long it was second nature for him.

Picking up her now lukewarm mug of tea, she took it over to the sink and tipped it away. Flicking the switch on the kettle, she leaned back against the counter and waited for it to boil to make a fresh cup.

She’d just added a dash of milk when her doorbell rang. Answering the door, the postman handed over a small parcel that needed her signature. She duly complied and walked back into the kitchen where she placed the box on the counter.

She could see it was from Colin and a dart of anticipation rose within her as she carefully opened the parcel. After putting most of the packaging to one side, she found a note and a small ornament wrapped in tissue.

She opened the note and read it quickly.

‘For your birthday, Pen. I saw this and knew it belonged with you. Love Colin x’

Intrigued, she pulled off the tissue and stared at the beautifully carved wooden figurine in amazement.

It was of a cat. Seated with its tail curled around its paws. Black, of course, with deep green, painted eyes.

She let out a delighted laugh. What were the odds? He couldn’t have known about Pye because she knew that he hadn’t been in touch with any of his siblings recently. In fact, she was the one that tended to update them as Colin often spoke to her because she was always so interested in what he was doing.

“Look, it’s you!” she declared, turning to show Pye the ornament.

He was sat on one of the breakfast stools and eyed the figure a moment before leaning forward and giving it a cursory sniff. He pulled back and looked at her then let out a little chirrup.

“I agree, it is beautiful.”

Still giggling to herself over the uncanny coincidence, she went and got her phone from where it lay on the couch and quickly typed out a thank you message to Colin. He replied almost immediately saying she was welcome and that he was looking forward to seeing her in a few weeks.

Penelope sighed and sat down. Seeing her. Not simply looking forward to coming home, but to seeing her. And so was she. Looking forward to seeing him. More than she knew she should allow herself too really. She didn’t want get her hopes up anymore.

As if sensing her sudden sombre mood, Pyewacket jumped up beside her and reached out a paw, gently touching her arm. She gave him a scratch on the head and smiled a little sadly.

“Oh, Pye, all these years and I’m still such a fool for him,” she muttered with a shake of her head. “As if this time will be any different from all the other times he’s come home, right?”

He mewed a response and she turned her head to look at him in amazement. It was the damndest thing but she could have sworn that it sounded like, ‘yes’.

She suddenly laughed at the absurdity of the notion and gave him a little pat.

“Come on, let’s find your toy and have a play,” she said, dropping a kiss on the top of his silky head.

Pye regarded her a moment as she went off, then trailed after her, tail upright, the tip twitching slightly.

Humans were a funny lot, he decided. But he liked this one and he knew the other one did too. A lot.

And come All Hallow’s Eve, Pye was determined that she would know just how much the other one did as well.

[bethanydelleman]

Northanger Abbey Readthrough, Ch 7

John Thorpe has arrived... yay. His introduction is anything but auspicious:

they were prevented crossing by the approach of a gig, driven along on bad pavement by a most knowing-looking coachman with all the vehemence that could most fitly endanger the lives of himself, his companion, and his horse.

We have another clue that James and Isabella have some sort of attachment:

his devoirs were speedily paid, with a mixture of joy and embarrassment which might have informed Catherine, had she been more expert in the development of other people’s feelings, and less simply engrossed by her own, that her brother thought her friend quite as pretty as she could do herself.

I love how Catherine will later gather all these clues that General Tilney is a wife-murderer/imprisoner but she misses every clue of basically everything else.

John Thorpe isn't even hot or well dressed guys:

He was a stout young man of middling height, who, with a plain face and ungraceful form, seemed fearful of being too handsome unless he wore the dress of a groom, and too much like a gentleman unless he were easy where he ought to be civil, and impudent where he might be allowed to be easy.

At least Willoughby and Wickham have the decency to be eye candy! I have NOTHING good to say about Mr. Thorpe. He reminds me of Donald Trump to be honest (I try to stay non-political here, but the constant lying and aggrandizement and saying contradictory statements one after another... it's so Trump). He also swears a lot, which Austen delicately writes as d---. The way that James jumps in every so often with the real truth, but John just glides right past his corrections, ug. (but funny).

Then John Thorpe becomes Sir Walter Elliot, though worse because at least Sir Walter is hot:

Her companion’s discourse now sunk from its hitherto animated pitch to nothing more than a short decisive sentence of praise or condemnation on the face of every woman they met; and Catherine, after listening and agreeing as long as she could, with all the civility and deference of the youthful female mind, fearful of hazarding an opinion of its own in opposition to that of a self-assured man, especially where the beauty of her own sex is concerned

Sir Walter also judges both sexes, because of course he does my beloved, pansexual dandy:

The worst of Bath was the number of its plain women. He did not mean to say that there were no pretty women, but the number of the plain was out of all proportion. He had frequently observed, as he walked, that one handsome face would be followed by thirty, or five-and-thirty frights; and once, as he had stood in a shop on Bond Street, he had counted eighty-seven women go by, one after another, without there being a tolerable face among them. It had been a frosty morning, to be sure, a sharp frost, which hardly one woman in a thousand could stand the test of. But still, there certainly were a dreadful multitude of ugly women in Bath; and as for the men! they were infinitely worse. Such scarecrows as the streets were full of! It was evident how little the women were used to the sight of anything tolerable, by the effect which a man of decent appearance produced.

It's always interesting to me to compare Northanger Abbey and Persuasion because the heroines and the feelings towards Bath could not be more different! Anne Elliot hates Bath, Catherine LOVES it. Anne is the wisest, most grounded heroine and Catherine is the most naive. But here we have parallel scenes where a man critiques the looks of other people and the heroine is not happy about it.

Now we get into John Thorpe getting down on novels.

“Not I, faith! No, if I read any, it shall be Mrs. Radcliffe’s; her novels are amusing enough; they are worth reading; some fun and nature in them.” “Udolpho was written by Mrs. Radcliffe,” said Catherine, with some hesitation, from the fear of mortifying him. “No, sure; was it? Aye, I remember, so it was; I was thinking of that other stupid book, written by that woman they make such a fuss about, she who married the French emigrant.”

John Thorpe may be the only outright racist (xenophobic?) and anti-sementic character we see in Austen. So good for him, I guess? But also clearly an idiot. Also, The Monk, which John says he did enjoy, was a very controversial novel at the time. It features rape, murder, demons in women's bodies, etc. The titular monk kidnaps a virtuous maiden, which is a hint at what is to come...

Then we have John's address to his mother, "“Where did you get that quiz of a hat? It makes you look like an old witch." which I assume is derogatory (affectionate). This seems to be his way with family, "On his two younger sisters he then bestowed an equal portion of his fraternal tenderness, for he asked each of them how they did, and observed that they both looked very ugly."

Now Catherine, it should be noted, does not like John pretty much immediately, but she's flattered and convinced by both Isabella and James into thinking somewhat better of him. She is also engaged to dance with him, which considering her previous disappointments, is a logical feeling.

Ug, men in Austen knowing nothing about women again, "He is as good-natured a fellow as ever lived; a little of a rattle; but that will recommend him to your sex, I believe" Will it? Does it? I have a hard time imagining any Austen woman liking Thorpe, except maybe Lydia Bennet or Anne Steele? The man is insufferable! Also, Lydia goes for looks so maybe not even her. Come on, James! Have more faith in women!

And then Catherine goes home and gets right back into reading Uldolpho, which is exactly what I would have done too. Elizabeth Bennet is not your book-obsessed heroine people, it's my girl Catherine!

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Vesuviella: Part 22

“Alright, everyone! If you could all take your places for the first marketplace scene, please!”

You settle down stage left, afforded a clear view of the stage (and audience, thanks to the distinct lack of curtains) and watch as Portia, Lucio, and Asra make their way to the other side.

There’s one last conference with the director before Julian hops off stage. You watch Portia get into character, hand coming up to cradle an imaginary wine glass as Asra tries not to laugh at her imitation. Lucio gives his replacement skirt one more impatient tug and then the three of them are off. You flip open Julian’s script and do your best to follow along:

ENTER: Evil Stepmother (E.S.) and Ugly Stepsister (U.S.), stage right. Nobody is happy to see them. E.S.: Come along and stop complaining, child, I’ve had enough of your ridiculous tantrums today. U.S. (whining): But mother, I saw it and I want it so it needs to be mine! (stomps foot)

You watch as Lucio brings his heel down, catching the hem of his skirt and pulling it right to the floor. You half-expect to hear a loud rip when he does so, but Portia’s stitching holds firm and he topples himself backwards instead to the raucous laughter of several South End ensemble members. He rights himself quickly with a flush. You can’t tell if the blood in his face is a positive reaction to the happy attention or frustration at falling over. Thankfully, it seems to be the first kind as he clears his throat and continues with his line:

U.S. (cont): How am I supposed to seduce the butcher’s boy if I’m not wearing that sausage necklace? I want him to notice me. You know what? Fine! Since you won’t get it for me, I’ll ask Cinders instead. Cinderellaaa! ENTER: Cinderella, stage right, carrying several unidentifiable purchases. She is struggling to balance them and looks tired. Cinderella (submissively): Yes, Ugly Steps – I mean, yes, sister?

You watch the way Asra smirks around their lines, far more sassy than submissive and clearly uncaring about their misrepresentation of Cinderella’s character. He juts out a hip to perch the empty boxes on, arching an impudent eyebrow at Lucio while Julian facepalms off stage. Portia turns to face her quarreling daughters with a haughty toss of her hair:

E.S.: Cinderella, I expect you not to fall behind on your duties. Fetch us some bread from the baker’s and be back before we’re finished at the dressmaker’s. Cinderella: Yes, milady. U.S. (pulling Cinderella aside): Give this to his boy for me, okay? I know you want to read it, but you’re not allowed to! And tell me what he says! Cinderella (sighing): Yes, Ug – Yes, sister.

You watch Asra make their way across the stage, ignoring Portia’s covert glare as they hike their skirt up to their thighs to avoid tripping. Portia and Lucio stay huddled in a corner that you assume is going to be the dressmaker’s as Asra pauses mid-stride, going off script as he opens up the blank piece of folded paper that Lucio shoved into his hand.

UNSCRIPTED: Cinderella opens the note one exaggerated fold at a time, smirking as she reads the contents before clearing her throat and sharing it with all present. Cinderella (imitating U.S. with uncanny accuracy): I’m perfect and you know you want me. If you ask nicely, I’ll let you pay me to go on a date with you. Signed, the unattainable girl of your dreams. (giggles and refolds the note) Sounds like that poor boy’s been having nightmares. END UNSCRIPTED PORTION

You watch Cinderella make a mad dash for the edge of the stage, the Director muffling his laughter into his gloves. The Evil Stepmother gives chase with a furious scolding about how no self-respecting maid on the job would show that much leg while the Ugly Stepsister opens and closes her mouth in search of the right words to protest with. You hear a choke and look behind you in time to see Selasi, the beloved baker, give Lucio a cautious look and creep backstage. You turn back to where Portia is dragging Asra back to the front by their ear and wonder just how many of your friends Julian has recruited to perform in his play.

[rolesplay]

・┆✦EMBER GLOW — an uchiha sasuke + haruno sakura/sai fanfic.

She loved him. He hurt her. And now that she's crying over another man, why is he the one hurting? ⚠️character deaths

"Ah! It's pearls! Thank you!"

"Are you sure? I knew you like them but Miss Beautiful said diamonds are better and I've read pearls signify tears—"

"Tears can both mean happy and sad tears. For better or for worse, right? You'd still be there for me."

"I try."

"Again, thank you. Not very romantic of you—I was expecting something more, because, well, you're almost always by the book—"

"I wanted to try myself, without anyone or any book guiding me."

"And you definitely got me by surprise! Now, let's go! I bet Kakashi-sensei and Naruto's already waiting for us at the gates!"

"They'd wonder why we are late. Although, really, it was all your fault, Ugly. Had we not done—"

"Ah! Sai! Don't say it! Aloud! We're in the public! Please!"

"Okay."

"Sai!"

"...?"

"Come on! Hurry up!"

"..."

"Sai!"

"Sorry, you just looked beautiful there. I would have loved to paint you."

"..."

"That blush makes it even more so."

"...just... let's just go!"

— The princess in her flower bedPulled the jungle underground —

Kill him. She was about to kill him. He waits. But she can't.

Caring is not an advantage. It never was. But then again, how can he say? He was doing this because he cared. He cared that he was lied to about his brother, he cared that his brother had been forced to kill their family.

He turns and tries to kill her with his chidori. He hits someone—someone that isn't her.

He wonders why, in the far, far corner of his mind he thinks and feels relief. Had he not cut his ties with them? With her? Had he not told himself that he would annihilate the village (home, it used to be home) she lives in? That he would kill everyone that made his family suffer so?

You have to save her no matter what. I know you can save her. Once you've got her, carry her and run, as far, and as fast that you can.

"SAI!" The kunoichi screams. He watches as she takes hold of the boy's body.

The way her voice trembles and rises makes him remember of their genin days, especially the time where he almost, almost died, and she screamed his name instead.

She begins healing the boy instantly.

— Where cherry bombs stained the blackbird's redAnd explosions never make a sound —

The boy was considerably wounded, tired and low in chakra when he (stupidly but bravely—he gives him that) jumped and blocked the attack and protected her.

He remembers how he had once treated her as one of his precious people—someone he did not want to lose. Now he wants to kill her, and realizes that he had no hesitation when he tried to, awhile ago. It means that he had gone stronger... right? Or it could mean he had fallen, deeper and deeper into his revenge.

This has nothing to do with you. Stay out of my business. As I have already told you before, I am an avenger.

That was what Sasuke Uchiha lived for: not justice, but revenge. So when he finally manages to kill his brother, he does not know what to do exactly. Until someone tells him that it wasn't his brother's fault. The cycle began again. He was alive again. Because the reason he is still here is because of that. Because of revenge.

"Ug...ly..." The boy's speech is broken. He is speaking in mere almost-whispers.

He wonders why he's just standing here, why he wasn't doing anything. He could kill them. But he doesn't. He watches as the scene unfolds before him.

The boy continues, and with a smile, continues speaking. "We're... We're ev...en...now—"

"Shut up."

She does not cry, but the way she says it, reminds him of that time again.

Sasuke-kun!

Her voice echoes in his mind. He flinches.

"But Ha...g," the paper-pale boy tries his hardest to speak still with the same smile. "I'm fine. It's... It's...f-fine."

Lies. It was obvious lies. He is dying.

"I said, shut up," she growls, her teeth gritting. "Shut up. And stop with that stupid smile of yours. So I could concentrate. Because when we're finished—" here, her voice chokes. Is she going to cry?

Pathetic, is what he thinks. But also, why? Why him? Why cry for him? Who is he?

"When you're healed," her voice is steadier now. "I'll take you home and kick your sorry ass there because you scared me of almost dying."

When. Not if. When.

The boy chuckles. "Cruel Hag." The boy's voice is fainter this time. Dying. The boy is dying.

— My captain on the snowy horseIs coming back to take me home —

"You came back." The blond boy who self-proclaimed himself as his best friend, said quietly as they waited outside her room.

It was a statement and a question. The question was why? Why did you come back?

The answer was painstakingly obvious: for her. Because that was the reason, wasn't it? It was her. Had always been her.

She was Sakura. Cherry blossom. Spring. Kakashi and Naruto and him, they had winters inside of them. No matter how nonchalant Kakashi is, no matter how cheerful Naruto seems, no matter how indifferent he is. They were the same (he just doesn't want to admit that). Except for her. She was spring.

Even during winter it keeps it's beauty, never losing to the cold. A strong flower that waits for the hope of spring.

He didn't reply though. Well, he did, but it was only a mere grunt. "Hn."

"Not talking, huh," the blond mumbled, sighing at his seat.

He hated it, waiting. And realized that would have been probably what she, what everyone was doing. Waiting for him to come back.

"Who was he?" He found himself asking. The boy had black hair and pale skin. He had so many uncanny similarities with him it was almost funny.

"Your replacement. You know, in the team."

Scratch that, it was hilarious. They replaced him with someone who looks like him and it's hilarious. A stupid, cruel, cruel hilarious joke.

"I always thought," the blond continued. "I always thought it was gonna be one of us. Always thought it was gonna be you. That she'd wait for you. I mean, she's liked you since our childhood. But then Sai came..."

Was he really that replaceable?

"And he was worse than you," the other boy sighed. "In fact, Sakura punched him during our initial meeting."

— Maybe I'll rideTo save my life —

"Ugly..." The boy speaks again.

The kunoichi does not listen, and focuses on anything, anything she could do to alleviate his pain, to help him, to save him.

"Sa...ku...ra..." He gathers all strength he has left, and holds her wrists. "It's fine. I'm fi...ne..."

It gets her attention, and she stops. And finally, finally, she starts crying. "I'm not! I can't just— You can't — I mean, I haven't even—... I can't lose you too... Because I lo—I lo—"

The way she blabbers reminds him of how she tried to stop him from leaving the village. He knows that desperation and sadness all tremulous and broken voice all too well. He wonders what would have happened if he hadn't said thank you. If he had stayed.

On that day, you taught me that solitude is painful... I understand that so well right now. I have family and I have friends.. but if you're gone... To me... It will be the same as being alone...

The boy smiles. "I love you too."

She pauses, and her eyes widens in horror. She whispers. "No."

And he remembers again why he only thanked her. Because telling, saying much more would have hurt her even more.

The boy pulls her down and kisses her and she responds fervently as he dabbles with his own blood and draws at her skin with it. And then he stops. Dead.

She screams. And tries to bring him back to life. Again and again and again.

Why does it hurt? He asks himself. Why?

Her chakra is visibly wavering—at the range she's going she'll be killing herself soon. So before he can even change his mind, he stays behind her and holds her, stops her (it's funny how he's the one stopping her for a change). She yelps, and struggles. He picks her up so she stands up.

"You killed him!" She yells, and she faces him and punches him. Again and again and again. And it was light, small punches that was very much unlike the punches he saw just awhile ago, marked by many craters around the place. Yet it hurt him all the same. She's still crying. "But, but I could've saved him. And I was the one who you were aiming for right? I should've been... I should've been the one to die." She stops, and her legs wobbles and she falls, sobbing. "I should've been the one who died."

He looks at her, and pretends not to notice the blood stained unfinished artwork the boy had painted on her skin. A flower, a blossom. Red swirling figures.

—Maybe I'll flyWith an eagle eye —

"Oi, Sasuke."

"Hn?"

"I'm leaving. I have to check on Hinata."

"Hn."

He was left alone, and he doesn't know if he should be thankful or not for the silence.

"Uchiha-san?" A nurse went out of the room, avoiding looking at him, but calling him all the same, for the sake of professionalism, and perhaps, a bit of gratitude. "Sakura-san is fine now, she just needs to rest. The medicine she needed have already been administered. There is no need to worry."

"Aa."

The nurse nodded and hastily left. Afraid of him, he guessed. She wasn't wrong, because she should be. Actually, he's mildly surprised that no one had taken him and brought him to questioning yet.

Now, he had nothing to worry about. She was fine. Now he could leave.

He stood up, and began walking away (like he did, all those years ago) but was stopped because of her voice. Again.

He turned to look.

"Sasuke-kun..."

The door to her room was open, and she was leaning heavily to the doorway and the knob. Fatigue was apparent from her features.

She walked, or at least hobbled towards him, in a slow pace.

He stood there, not knowing what he should do. Should he leave? Should he stay? But all thoughts about it were thrown out the window when she faltered and fell. He was beside her quickly, holding her up by her shoulders.

"Sasuke-kun..." She repeated.

He lead her to the chairs nearby, careful not to let her fall. He sat, and she fell. She couldn't even bring her own weight.

She took a couple of breaths.

He spoke, "Maybe you should be back at your—"

"You're leaving." She mumbled as she buried her head on the crook of his neck, struggling with her breathing.

He felt like something was wrong, but didn't comment on it. "Aa."

"Thank you, Sasuke-kun," she mumbled as she shifted on her position.

He looked at her. Her eyes were closed, her head on his shoulder. She looked peaceful, if it weren't for the heavy breathing she was doing. Peaceful. Something that he thought he could attain with revenge.

And then he noticed the glittering white band on her finger. A ring made of pearls.

"Sakura..."

"I hated him at first, you know," she was smiling. "And it's funny because he actually understood me. I mean, you did, before. When we were younger. Telling me I'm not useless..."

Sakura, you must have noticed first, right? Your analytical ability and genjutsu know-how, is the most improved on our team.

"Sakura."

"But he could see through me. He knows me somehow."

Your words might be sincere... but... I know your smile is fake.

She sighed. Shifted again. "Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn?"

"I'm sorry, but you're not the one leaving tonight."

He frowned. Blinked. His mind tried to grasp what she said as he stared at her.

"I'm tired, tired, tired of waiting, Sasuke-kun."

Ah, Sakura  Haruno, the  girl  who  waited. Who  pleaded  and  cried—

If I could had taken all your pain... onto myself to comfort you, I would have.. and here we are again, and still all I can do is sit here and cry. ...I'm so pathetic..! But.. Sasuke-kun! If I still have a place in your heart, no matter how small it may be... then please... I'm begging you —!

"I'm tired of people leaving. He won't —I don't want him to be..." she trailed off, took a sharp intake of breath.

To be like me, he thought wryly. And as he turned his gaze away, it hit him.

Could  it  be—?

Never again. I already lost everything once before.

"Sakura, what have you done?"

I don't ever want to watch those dear to me die before my eyes again.

"I'm glad he didn't make me promise anything. Lest I regret what I did."

Poison. She poisoned herself. One of the prized medics, one of the best kunoichi in the village. Hell, in the whole world. Poisoned herself.

No.

"Sasuke-kun, you'll stay for my funeral, okay?"

No. No. No. No. No.

"And you'll bury me beside him. Please?"

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

"Sasuke-kun, just... just this once... please make my wishes come true."

No.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath.

"I'm dying anyway."

He sighed.

No.

"Aa."

She snorted and giggled breathlessly. "Ah, Sasuke-kun, my fairy godfather. Or friend? My fairy godfriend? Kami, it sounds weird."

He smiled. Softly. Just like Sakura, to be wondering about that of all things before she dies. "It does."

"Sasuke-kun..." Pouting.

He felt like he was genin again. Doing low rank missions on what was basically his family then. Spending time with them. With her.

He chuckled.

—

Her funeral was huge—he didn't expect so much, so many people to be coming. These were the people she helped along the way, the people who also helped her in return. She had come a long, longway from the lovesick girl she was during their academy days.

"Teme. Here."

He left early, not wanting to see her body lowered to the ground.

He traveled for some distance, knowing the shinobi of Konoha would probably chase him again, and stayed at a tree branch when he was tired.

A sketchbook. That was what the dobe gave him. He frowned. Still, he opened it.

It was sketches. First of Team 7—the new one—as a whole. Sometimes fighting, training, eating. And as he flipped through the pages, he realized the subject of the drawings changed, focused on a certain girl. And then more pages. And then he realized the drawings were not mere black and white sketches anymore. This was paint, clear with colors. It was like... It was like, in the artist's mind, how the girl grew more colorful and brilliant each time he painted her. How lovelier she became. The last picture... The last picture was a picture of her, standing at the midst of people at the street. Everything was perfectly detailed, but the girl's eyes—they were the most striking. It was her eyes alright. The brilliance and hue of it; it was all her. And she was smiling, running ahead of the onlooker, but looking back. Probably urging one to hurry up!

He smiled and let his hands run over the picture. "Sakura..."