#We'll destroy the horror content

[flowerandblood]

The Cry of the Sea

Halloween Request Oneshots Series

[ pirate! • Aemond x mermaid! • female ]

[ warnings: sex content, virginity loss, fingering, smut, angst, abduction, violence, threats, obsession ]

[ description: A mermaid who rarely surfaces of the water decides to save a drowning boy. While she tries to keep him safe, she is kidnapped by strange, terrifying people, taken away from her mother and her home. On her way, she meets a captain with one eye who will decide her future fate. Obsessive, possessive, dark!Aemond.]

*Warning! Note from the author: The heroine has a name because of the plot, but apart from that there are no detailed descriptions of her appearance. Oneshot is written from a third-person perspective.

*English is not my first language. Please, do not repost. Enjoy!*

My others works: Masterlist

____

She had only heard about who people were from stories, and what she learned made her rarely floated to the surface of the water – her mother said they were cruel, that they killed through need, waged wars and destroyed each other.

She also said that in order to walk on the ground they needed two limbs, as they had two arms, so in place of their fins were to be so-called legs.

She never dared to ask her mother how she knew such things – she spoke of something like a sound, like music, that it reverberated through the air and was pleasant to the ears, that it had a rhythm, that people danced and jumped to it.

She couldn't imagine it; she, her mother and the other inhabitants of the underwater city communicated with finger gestures.

One day she was awakened by a muffled bang, something she had never heard before, and she swam out into the night depths, seeing little. She widened her eyes in surprise to see not the night sky but an orange glow above the surface of the water. She looked back, thinking in horror that she should return to her shelter, but decided that she would just look out to see what was happening, to see if they were in danger.

So she surfaced, feeling the air in her nostrils which caused her pain – she used them so rarely that her lungs were not properly developed and she felt like she was suffocating.

She plugged her ears, terrified, hearing loud shot after shot, the great mountain with sails that her mother called a ship was hitting another masthead with fire, and she was between them, not understanding what was happening. She panicked, hiding under the water again.

The sound was instantly muffled as she plunged into the depths – she heard suddenly a loud splash beside her and saw the body of a white-haired boy struggling to lift himself up.

She could see his limbs, his legs unable to lift him higher like her fin, merely waving fruitlessly in the watery depths, his body sinking lower and lower to the bottom.

She remembered her mother's words about how people couldn't breathe underwater and once they fell into it, they died.

That's why she swam after him, terrified, grasping him in her hands; he was struggling, terrified, but she managed to hold him and they emerged from the water together, panting loudly and coughing.

"Daeron!" She heard a loud, low, desperate cry, which frightened her – for the first time she heard the words, human speech – it sounded strange, not like the noise of the water.

"Here!" She heard the childish, squeaky cry of the boy she was holding and plugged her ear with one hand, feeling a terrible pain. She heard the splash of water beside them and saw that a much smaller boat had fallen into the water.

There were people in it, big, pale, dirty, frightening.

She wanted to run away, but she was afraid that if she let go the boy would start sinking again, so she held him until they came closer. She helped him get into the boat, panting hard, shivering all over, the men who sat inside looked at her in disbelief.

"Holy Seven. I think it's a mermaid!"

"Kill her, she can deceive with her singing!"

"Are you mad?! We'll get a fortune for her! We take her, let the captain decide."

She heard loud sounds spoken quickly, feeling like her head was going to explode – she wanted to turn around and submerge herself back, but she felt a large hand grab her by her hair.

Something strange came out of her throat, a sort of high-pitched squeal that frightened her alone, and then she felt burning wetness in her eyes. Even though she was fighting her way out she didn't make it, another man grabbed her by her shoulders and forcibly threw her into the lifeboat.

She was feeling that she was cold and wrapped her arms around herself, shivering all over, her half-naked body now surrounded by the cool night wind, one of the men shouted that they were swimming away and back up.

"Drop the net!"

"Don't hurt her! She saved me!" Whined the boy she had rescued from death, pushing away the men who wanted to touch her, laughing loudly, amused, looking at her body.

She was terrified and trembledall over – a white-haired child came up to her and embraced her, shivering along with her.

"It's going to be alright. I won't let you get hurt." He whispered softly, something in the sound he made of himself reassuring her.

She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the moisture running down her cheeks, thinking only of the fact that she should have listened to her mother, and now she had to pay for her curiosity.

They threw her into a net like an animal, then lifted her up with a hand crane and her body suddenly fell to the wooden floor, lots of legs around her, lots of men speaking loudly to each other.

She covered her ears and cried, feeling only pain, terrified and frozen, and suddenly she felt that something was wrong.

The voices around her fell silent as she lifted her gaze to her body.

In place of her shiny fin, covered in beautiful scales, were two long limbs, the same as theirs.

Legs.

She covered her mouth with her hand and turned away, another terrifying high-pitched sound came from her throat that felt like it tore her skin – she just cried loudly, terrified.

What had happened?

Where was her tail?

Her mother never spoke of her father.

She said he was not worth mentioning.

"He chose the sea, but not me." She had told her once, but it was only now that it was beginning to occur to her what she might have meant.

"What is the meaning of this?" She heard a low, cold voice and saw above her a man with a large scar on his left cheek and a black eye patch.

He had the same white hair as the child she had saved, except that his was longer, tied with a black ribbon – he looked at her in disbelief, as if she were some strange, frightening creature.

"It's a mermaid, Captain! I saw for myself, as long as she was in the water she had a long tail!"

"That's right, sir, if we sell her we'll get crores!"

"Don't sell her, brother! She saved me!" She heard the voice of the same little boy holding him by the sleeve of his black leather coat, his gaze directed at her again, this time focused and excited.

"We're turning back to the harbour. Find her some clothes, nobody can touch her." He said, and after a moment the men lifted her up. Although she tried to pull away, it was to no avail.

They forced her to put on a long, smelly cloth and gave her some scratchy material, although when she covered herself with it, it made her feel warmer.

They locked her in a room from which she could only see the sea through a small hole. She watched in despair as she moved away from her home, from her mother – she pressed her forehead against the wooden wall and wept.

She heard footsteps, quiet at first, then louder and louder, and the door to her cabin opened – the same terrifying man with a black eye patch stood over her, closing the door behind him.

"Who are you?" He asked. She looked at him with big eyes, not understanding what she was supposed to do, what they wanted from her. She only swallowed loudly, not taking her eyes off him.

He came closer to her, and she stepped back quickly, pressing her back against the wall, breathing loudly, terrified.

"Do not be afraid." He said a little more calmly, kneeling in front of her, something unsettling in his eye, some kind of unhealthy fascination.

She saw the gesture of his tongue running swiftly over his lower lip, as if he was just preparing to eat something tasty.

"Who. Are. You." He repeated word after word and tapped his finger against her chest hidden under the blanket. She flinched at the gesture, curling into herself, moving as far away from him as possible.

He lifted his hand and pressed it to his chest, wearing only a grey shirt tucked into black leather breeches.

"Aemond." He said calmly. After a moment, he placed his hand on her chest, looking at her expectantly.

"You?"

She wondered if he wanted to know who she was, if he had just confessed his name to her.

She saw his eye widen as she lifted her hand, touched her thumb with her pointing finger, signifying the syllable 'Le', and then lifted her pointing finger up, signifying the lone vowel 'a'.

Lea.

He looked at her, shaking his head, sitting down in front of her.

"What does that mean?" She heard him say the words quickly, but completely misunderstood what it was supposed to mean, so she showed him the same gesture signifying her name once more.

He ran his thumb over his lower lip, looking at her intensely, tapping his fingers on his knee. He rose suddenly, startling her with it, opening some cupboard with a loud clatter, taking out some large object.

She saw that what he was holding in his hands had cards and patterns – he turned it towards her, moving closer to her and it was only then that she noticed it was letters.

Her mother had told her about them and had even drawn them for her on the sand, explaining that people used them to write down words and their sounds.

She had written what her name and a few other sentences would sound like in their language, wanting to give her a comparison of how their gestures translated into their syllables.

She touched her finger quickly to a letter she recognised as 'L'. He looked at it curiously and read it out loud.

"L" He said and she nodded, pointing then to the "E" and "A".

He looked at her in disbelief, the corner of his mouth twitching in what she might have called a smile if not for the glint in his eye.

"Lea." He whispered, and she blinked, understanding that he had said her name as a whole, that this was what it sounded like.

She nodded slowly and he licked his lips excitedly, moving far too close to her, placing the book on her lap.

He began to point his fingers at more letters, and she followed the movement of his hand, trying to decipher what he was trying to convey to her.

Y O U S A V E D M Y B R O T H E R

You

sa

ved

my

bro

ther

You saved my brother.

The fair-haired boy.

She looked at him puzzled, swallowing loudly and nodded. She heard him sigh with some kind of relief and joy, happy to be able to communicate with her, pressing his lips together, leaning over the book again.

DAERON

"Daeron." She choked out the word she had heard when she had held his brother in her arms, which apparently was what he had shouted then, terrified.

She heard their captain snort a laugh under his breath, running his hand over his face, looking at her in disbelief.

"Yes." He hummed softly, his voice seeming calmer and gentler to her. She leaned over the book, this time she wanted to tell him something, and he immediately bowed his head, looking at the letters she was pointing at.

WHY

She glanced at him with her lips tightened and he looked at her, swallowing loudly, his gaze cooled. He stood up abruptly and she was unable to make a sound, not knowing how to stop him – he walked out and left her alone, locking the door.

She tried to lift herself up on those two strange limbs, but she was falling, they seemed limp and weak to her.

She preferred to crawl – she wrapped herself in her blanket and fell asleep lying against the wall, crying silently, praying to the Drowned God to take her back to the sea.

The next day, the little boy she had saved brought her food and placed it in front of her, stroking her head, saying something quietly. He then ran away as if he should not come to her and closed the door behind him.

She spotted the fish and bread on her plate and began to eat quickly, hungry and thirsty – she was given some disgusting liquid in a steel jug, but she drank it, not having much choice.

She spent the whole day lying in one place and it was only at night that she heard the sound of the lock being opened, the same man standing over her again.

He approached her slowly, crouching on the floor in front of her, massaging his chin. She held his book pressed against her chest, tried to look through it earlier, but understood nothing of it.

He gently took it from her hand.

She shuddered as he laid down on the floor just behind her, resting his cheek against her shoulder, placing the open book in front of them, pointing one by one with his finger at the letters and syllables he had spoken so that she could see them, illuminated by the moonlight.

"We - are - sai - ling - to - King's - Lan - ding." He whispered softly, and she blinked, swallowing hard, understanding enough that they were sailing somewhere far away, that she would never see home again.

She closed her eyes and wept quietly, feeling her body begin to tremble, a shudder went through her as she felt his lips on her neck.

"Don't cry." He whispered in her ear softly, warmly, tenderly, and though she didn't know what it meant, she thought he sympathised with her.

"I have no choice. If I let you go now, my grandfather would kill me. You are a chance for us." He hummed the words into her ear, his wet, warm lips trailing higher and higher.

She wondered what he was actually doing, why she was getting hot from this kind of touch, why she felt a pleasant pulsing and tension between her limbs.

They both started panting as his hand slipped between her legs and began to touch her slick, puffy folds with his fingertips – she felt that this was a very private and intimate place, her thighs clenched involuntarily but his fingers slipped inside anyway.

She heard his every stroke accompanied by a loud click of her moisture, with every move he made a pleasant warmth and tickle ran through her spine, she felt something slap hard against her buttocks and moaned softly.

"− fuck −" She heard him mutter behind her, from which a shudder went through her. She sobbed in surprise when she felt his finger suddenly inside her, clasping her hand on his wrist, terrified.

He only shushed her while moving it deep inside her fleshy, moist walls, streching her again and again, rubbing it against the place from which waves of pleasure passed through her, from which she lost the remnants of her strong will.

She didn't put herself against him when she felt him lift her thigh, as something hot, big and hard pushed against her swollen slit from below and began to slide into her flesh, pushing her core apart with her loud cry.

His free hand held her tightly – she clenched her fingers against his skin, panting along with him as he began to move suddenly, pressing his lips to her neck, to her cheek, whispering and groaning low some words whose meaning she didn't understand, his thrusts pushing her hot, throbbing muscles to the limit, opening her wide with loud clicks of her moisture.

She had no idea what was actually happening, what they were doing, but it felt good – she felt pleasure, so she let him do what he wanted, easing down completely, moaning loudly as he turned her onto her stomach and lifted her buttocks, slamming into her with loud, wet slaps, his breath heavy, loud and aroused, his fingers digging into her soft skin.

"− I'm going to keep you for myself − you'll swell from my seed and give me offspring born from the sea − my inheritance − oh, fuck −" He mumbled out, feeling her walls begin to clench against his erection, sucking it inside her. A wave of pleasure shook her entire body, stupefying her and making nothing reach her – she felt something hot spill inside her, and then there were only their loud, accelerated breaths.

"− mine −"

_____

Aemond Taglist:

(bold means I couldn't tag you)

@its-actually-minicika @notnormalthings-blog @nikstrange @zenka69 @bellaisasleep @k-y-r-a-1 @g-cf2020 @melsunshine @opheliaas-stuff @chainsawsangel @iiamthehybrid @tinykryptonitewerewolf @namoreno @malfoytargaryen @qyburnsghost @aemondsdelight @persephonerinyes @fan-goddess

[bookcub]

Chappell Roan Book Rec

like many other, I am currently obsessed with The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess so here are a few book recs based on the songs!!

(you can message me for questions about content warnings!)

Femininomon

A Guest in the House by E. M. Carroll (horror graphic novel)

What happens when you marry a mediocre liar and there's a ghost you are definitely attracted to in the house (that might be his dead wife)?

Relevant lyric: Stuck in the suburbs, you're folding his laundry/Got what you wanted so stop feeling sorry

Bonus Rec: Romancing the Inventor by Gail Carriger (adult steampunk romance)

Red Wine Supernova

Satisfaction Guaranteed by Karelia Stenz-Waters (adult romance)

Imagine inheriting a sex toy shop with a enchanting stranger who you feel incredibly connected to. . .

Relevant lyric: I heard you like magic/I got a wand and a rabbit

Bonus Rec: Sunstone by Stjepan Šejić (adult romance graphic novel)

After Midnight

Ash by Malinda Lo (YA fantasy)

I had to choose a queer Cinderella for this one, especially one whose mother warns her away from the forest at night.

Relevant lyric: This is what I wanted, this is what I like/I've been a good, good girl for a long time now

Bonus Rec: A Restless Truth by Freya Marske (adult historical fantasy, sequel)

Coffee

The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec (adult fantasy)

When your ex is the trickster god Loki and you have prophetic futures, you know you can never just have coffee.

Relevant lyric: Here come the excuses that fuel the illusions/But I'd rather feel something than nothing at all,

Bonus Rec: Seven Days in June by Tia Williams (adult contemporary)

Casual

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi (adult gothic)

Remember that toxic homoerotic best friend you had a child? Who believed in magic and was also the most manipulative person you've ever met? It never was a casual relationship, was it?

Relevant lyric: Hate that I let this drag on so long, you can go to hell

Bonus Rec: Ben and Beatriz by Katalina Gamarra (adult romance)

Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl

A Spindle Splintered/A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow (adult fantasy)

Entering the fairy tale multiverse always leads to the strangest (and funnest) relationships (platonic and romantic) of your life.

Relevant lyrics: We're leaving the planet and you can't come

Bonus Rec: Cash Degado is Living the Dream by Tehlor Kay Mejia (adult contemporary)

HOT TO GO!

The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich by Deya Muniz (graphic novel)

What if I dressed up as a count to inherit my father's fortune and you were a princess and we both liked grilled cheese???

Relevant lyric: I could be the one, or your new addiction/ It's all in my head but I want non-fiction

Bonus Rec: Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

My Kink is Karma

Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan (adult historical romance)

She said, let's destroy my terrible nephew's life, and how could you say no to such a romantic proposal?

Relevant lyric: Wishing you the best, in the worst way

Bonus Rec: Girl Serpent Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust (YA fantasy)

Picture You

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall (adult historical romance)

Oops, I faked my death and reinvented myself and you were way more distraught than I thought you would be. . .

Relevant lyric: Do you picture me like I picture you?/Am I in the frame from your point of view?

Kaleidoscope

The Scapegracers by H. A. Clarke (YA urban fantasy)

What if we formed a coven and what if we were all a little in love with each other?

Relevant lyric: And love is a kaleidoscope/How it works we'll never know

Bonus Rec: The Girls I've Been by Tess Sharpe (YA thriller)

Pink Pony Club

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang (graphic novel)

He was a drag queen, she was a seamstress, can I make it anymore obvious?

Relevant Lyric: And I heard that there's a special place/Where boys and girls can all be queens every single day

Bonus Rec: Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (YA historical)

Naked in Manhattan

Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail by Ashley Herring Blake (adult romance)

Isn't it romantic, designing a house with someone with your entirely opposite tastes?

Relevant lyric: Boys suck and girls I've never tried

Bonus Rec: Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust (YA fantasy)

California

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers (adult contemporary)

If a PhD can't save you, maybe a drunken marriage in Vegas can?

Relevant lyric: Cause I was never told that I wasn't gonna get/The things I want the most

Guilty Pleasure

Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner (adult romance)

Fake dating your boss? 0/10 recommended. . . right?

Relevant lyric: I want this like a cigarette/Can we drag it out and never quit?

Bonus Rec: That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming (adult fantasy romance)

Bonus:

Good Luck, Babe

Sorry, Bro by Taleen Voskuni (adult contemporary)

Relevant lyric: You'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling

Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie (YA contemporary)

[tulipe-rose]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~¶~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Promise.

Muichirou tokito x f!reader angst.

Tragic, seriously grab some tissues.

Time line -> post Swordsmith village arc

He barged into the estate without a care to his surroundings. His mind was running a mile a minute, and his ears were ringing. His expression was uncharacteristically fixed into one of distress, and desperation as he raced through the hallways, trying multiple doors. He had to get to you.

The moment Ginko came to him with news, he dropped everything to see you, mission report be damned. She told him you were in critical condition due to your latest mission, and that you might not make it. She was at loss on how to relay it to him as gently as possible; she knew it would destroy him, but she eventually decided to be strong for him and delivered the message with her usual confidence. If her voice wavered, Muichirou didn't comment on it (not that he was in any condition to notice).

He tried a few more doors, before stumbling upon a nurse, who told him that she was still in treatment, which took place in the ground floor, first door to the entrance. Not so much as sparing another glance, he bolted towards the stairs, frantically looking for the said description, before spotting the door and sliding it open, only to stare in horror, eyes as wide as his sword's hilt.

There you were, barely breathing, face contorted into a wince of great pain and anguish. You were placed on a stretcher, being attended to by the head of the estate herself, and a variety of helpers. The kakushi were trying to ward him away, as you were quite fragile, and teetering on the thin line of life and death. The head doctor was moving rather quickly, scattering commands and instructions left and right. She was sweating with worry, trying her best to save you. She wouldn't forgive herself if she didn't at least try.

Muichirou made it past the kakushi, kneeling down by your side, clutching your hand gently. He couldn't bear to see you like this, and hated how little he could do. He was on the verge of tears. He trusted the butterfly lady's capabilities, but his heart wouldn't rest.

You looked around, at all these sad expressions, they were all people you loved, and you couldn't bear to see them like that. You felt your end nearing, as much as you hated it, you were aware. You didn't like dying so young, you still had many things to try.... You had so many loved ones that you'd be too pained to leave, but it was too harsh to give them hope.

You slowly reached to Shinobu's trembling fingers, urging her to stop. She gave you a panicked and greatly irritated look, but before she could scold you, Muichirou overtook her, crying, begging, for you to let her continue, he tried to assure you this could be fixed, however before he could continue, you interrupted him, gazing deep into his eyes, tears flooding yours.

'' Please... Let me go... I can feel myself going numb. I'm dying. ''

'' No! Please, listen to me- ''

'' Mui... Stop. I love you... But there's no changing what is... ''

You smile solemnly, recognising his denial, and feeling Shinobu back at work. An idea pops into your hazy mind, and you decide to act on it.

'' How about this, Mui? I'll promise myself... to you as a bride, but in another lifetime... If you let me go in this one... And become the best person you could be... I'll let you take me as yours... ''

Your breathes were getting shorter and more shallow, your essence slowly fading.

'' No. I want you here with me! I don't even know if we'll ever cross paths in some supposed lifetime! ''

He was growing pale and desperate, grip tightening around your hand.

'' But... This... Is my last wish... Please... Promise?... I wouldn't want another... ''

You stick your pinky finger out towards him, before he hesitantly intertwines your fingers, tears falling harder than before.

'' This life is now complete... I hope... for the next... to be better... ''

You smile contently, before turning your gaze to look to your friend and comrade, flashing her one last smile, before all goes numb.

'' Shinobu... Take care of yourself and him for me, will ya? ''

Your finger falls from Muichirou's hold, and sad stillness befalls the room.

😁

[mad-bird-writes]

Introduction and Current WIPs

Hiya! My name is Echo (@tousled-birdmad-girl is my main for those who care about such things) and I'm a writer. I've been writing in some form or another since I was about ten years old, but only recently plucked up the gumption and drive to attempt anything original, much less put it out for the world to see. Time will tell how this goes...

I love horror, tho I wouldn't consider myself a "genre" author, as I think horror, surrealism, fantasy and magic can be found everywhere if you know where to look, and the presence of fantasy elements does not necessarily mean you're writing a "fantasy" book. So, we'll call what I do "fiction" and leave it at that for now :D

Inspiration-wise, I draw from the works of Stephen King, everything Mike Flanagan ever put to Netflix and beyond, Paul Shapera and his ever-growing Shaperaverse, Guillermo Del Toro, Chuck Palahniuk, and the Cthulhu Mythos as a whole (with a particular liking for taking the worlds, entities and themes first created by Lovecraft and using them to create something that'd make him spin in his grave.)

Below the cut: a list of my current WIPs and some general housekeeping information. If you see something that sparks your interest, please come sit by my hearth and pour yourself a drink <3

Original Works:

The Lost Souls' Revival: After a series of personal crises, struggling creative Amari Walker stumbles across a flyer advertising a strange carnival, offering "a total restoration of spirit" for the cryptic asking price of "3Y". With nothing left to lose, she attends, quickly becoming enthralled by the Revival and its colourful cast of performers, in particular its eccentric, nameless ringmaster. When her night of fun and escapism is over, she finds herself wanting more, and embarks on a one-woman quest to follow the ever-moving carnival wherever it goes, a quest that will drive her to the edge of sanity, and possibly beyond the reach of reality itself. (vibes: steampunk, dark carnival, mythology/folklore mishmash, fantasy horror, the Fair Folk, whatever the goblins were selling in Rosetti's Goblin Market)

Better To Reign In Hell: It's 1897. The world is changing too fast. Pastor Nathaniel Lawrence is dying, for all that he's trying to hide it. His daughter, Susannah, too old for rebellion and too young for spinsterhood, is content to follow in her mother's footsteps as the town's herbalist, but a bombshell marriage proposal seems set to destroy those plans. A chance encounter with a badly wounded man may offer her the escape she seeks, but at a price: Merritt Caine is not all he appears to be, and his dark past has an unbreakable grip. (vibes: southern gothic HEAVY on the gothic, small town horror, witchcraft (fictitious and real), Satanism (fictitious and real), corruption but in a good way, religious horror, the cycle of abuse, eventual murder (of the good kind) )

The Order of The Pallid Mask: In the corpse of a city at the centre of a dying world, a benevolent cult is working to restore their world to its fabled former glory by appealing to its retreated god, The King in Yellow. Sariann, the cult's High Priestess, is willing to sacrifice whatever she must to ensure a brighter future for the city's refugees; her body, her soul, her mind. Virgil, a lower-ranking member of the Order, her confidant, attendant and trusted friend, is willing to defy the Order and his faith to keep her alive. And the Yellow King has plans and desires of his own... (vibes: Cosmic horror, Lovecraftian but make it romantic, the beauty of the unknown, rituals, creating a religion from the ashes of an old world, post-apocalypse, ancient civilization (not of Earth), Eldritch love triangle) ***

Fan Works/Other:

As far as fanfics go, I don't have any long-form WIPs on the stove, more like a series of short (well, short-ish) form drabbles, headcanons and other assorted bits, which I might as well post here when I have them as proof that I do have a creative output that extends beyond Spotify playlists and Pinterest boards.

Fandoms include:

Fallout (mainly New Vegas and the Prime series so far, but encompassing this universe as a whole)

Red Dead Redemption (particularly the second game as I haven't played the first one yet, £35 for a port of a PS2 game my *ass*)

the Flanaverse (Hill House, Bly Manor, TFOTHOU, Midnight Mass... basically everything bar The Midnight Club, which I have not watched)

the Cthulhu Mythos (if you can call that a fandom :D I was working on a queer retelling of Dreams in the Witch-House at one point, if I can *find* the notes I wrote I might bring that one out of retirement...)

plus one or two fandoms the content crucibles of which I would not subject myself to if you held me at gunpoint (iykyk)

I've also amassed a small collection of OCs from various TTRPGs I've been part of, a couple of whom still haunt my mind and may or may not be written about from time to time... (no DnD tho, I think it's safe to say we've reached saturation point with DnD-centric/derivative works) ;)

***

General housekeeping + other info: I am an adult and this is an adult writing blog by default. I will be writing smut/other sexual content and dealing with mature and dark themes throughout these listed works (and anything else I may write to post here.) I will tag for "main" triggers and give general content warnings where applicable, but I cannot guarantee to cover every single trigger a person may have, therefore, you read and interact here at your own risk. If requested, I will add more trigger warnings, but again, I can't fully guarantee to get everything.

I kindly ask that you refrain from reposting anything from this blog: excerpts, character profiles, moodboards (if I make them) etc. I also ask that you do not take anything for your personal use under any circumstances.

My inbox is open, so send me an ask if you have any questions or simply want to chat! But for now, I've rambled for quite long enough, so I'm gonna wrap this post here. See you! <3

(tagging @coffeexafterxmidnight and @dominaarts )

[cellarspider]

18/30 Alexa, play Despacito

(Previous) | (Index) | (Next)

⛬

And now, we return to Prometheus, which is trying to redeem the last two fifths of itself through blood sacrifice. Content warning for discussion of eyeball nastiness and death by immolation, Holloway.

Taking things slightly out of chronology this time, because there’s an excellent, quiet scene sandwiched in between lots of screaming: I'm sure they meant to put it in juxtaposition with this to heighten the emotion, but I refuse. We'll save that one for later. As a treat for me. And now, as a treat for me, Holloway is dying! Hurray!

So, turns out we’re spinning the wheel of Inconsistent, Ominous Black Goo effects again, and landed on “hangovers aren’t supposed to make your eyes grow tentacles”.

Holloway, apparently in denial, does not recall this fact until he’s gone out with what could generously be called a rescue party, to try and locate Millburn and Fifield. Janek belatedly and unwisely goes along to help, while David appears to go on a pleasant Sunday drive in his golf cart. He’s heading to a better scene, the lucky scamp.

Millburn is very dead–a rubber snake jumps out of his mouth, so you know he’s toast. Fifield’s body is nowhere to be found, and it will make an underwhelming return later.

Holloway collapses, covered in creeping black veins. Shaw finds this distressing. I would be fascinated to know if anybody in the audience agreed with her. I usually would, if only because certain kinds of screaming can kick me into sensory overload, but apparently there’s a psychological component to that response. And so I placidly watched Vickers meet them at the Prometheus vehicle bay with a flamethrower.

I appreciate her belated interest in quarantine and sanitation, but frankly, it’s a little late for that. I already had my rant on that earlier. At this point, things have gotten so bad that even Holloway realizes that the only solution is to go 40k on his ass.

[Video description: A 40k meme clipped from TheRussianBadger’s review of the game Space Hulk: Deathwing: A player says “BROTHER. GET THE FLAMER. THE HEAVY. FLAMER.” Sudden cut to almost incomprehensibly fiery gameplay, with a dramatic choral soundtrack and in-game voice lines “WE ARE THE ANGELS OF DEATH!” “MY FURY IS MADE MANIFEST!”, and ends right before a player yells “I WOULD LIKE TO REGISTER A COMPLAINT” and spins wildly around, spraying flames everywhere.]

Yes, Holloway burns to a crisp! I don’t know what the movie wants me to feel here, but whatever it is, I did not feel it. Did it want me to feel sad about this, because Shaw doesn’t want this to happen? Does it intend to raise the tension by having things spiral further out of control, demonstrating that a drop of the Ominous Black Goo is enough to kill a man in under a day? Am I supposed to take sick satisfaction in watching him die? All these are possible in bog standard horror movies.

However, this is a movie that wants to speak to something thematically. Holloway is positioned as a character we are not necessarily supposed to find sympathetic. As previously mentioned, the Engineers did not invite humanity to this planet. They were warning humans that if they continued to stray in their behavior, they would be killed by something that would come from here. 

Perhaps we are thus supposed to be asking questions about this: why would the Engineers do this? Why create humanity and then threaten to destroy their creations? What was their justification? David has turned this weapon on Holloway, making the choice that at least one man deserves the fate the Engineers planned for all humanity. Does he deserve that? Does anyone?

I was not thinking any of those things in the theater. Because what I actually felt was a desire to return to the scene interwoven with this one, which we will get to next time. This is the danger of creating an unlikeable, expendable character: the audience may feel no pathos when they die, nor question the death’s necessity. If they’re not along for the ride, then they may simply shrug.

Particularly when the rest of the movie is such a mess. This is only their second day on the planet, does anyone else remember that? I mean, I’ve been here for what feels like eternity, but they behaved so stupid, so fast, that this feels less like the inevitable falling apart of dozens of smaller mistakes, and more like one gigantic katamari of mistakes that will not stop rolling until it has collected every mistake in the world, and is thus deemed worthy of becoming a star all on its own, to forever shine out how badly they fucked it all up.

Next time: one of the two good scenes people tend to remember.

(Previous) | (Index) | (Next)

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Citations for alt-text rambles:

https://www.swtor.com/ 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSpFnDQr88xCZ80N-X7t0nQ 

https://youtu.be/vy5fgDvb9-c HYEEh-HAA!

Overflow Ramble, because tumblr lets you put in more alt-text than it will actually display in-browser:

A wide shot of Holloway with his arms outstretched, walking toward the vehicle bay ramp. Is this pose supposed to be a crucifixion allusion? I hope not! That would be baffling. Though as these posts have proven, something being baffling doesn’t rule out Prometheus doing it. Shaw is on the ground behind them, restrained by Janek. 

I’m trying to figure out if this was done on a studio stage, or on location. You’d think the latter wouldn’t be possible, but I’ve seen behind the scenes shots of them filming in the volcanic desert of Iceland, they definitely were in places that looked similar. But the background may still be fake after a certain point–outdoor green screens are a thing. 

The lighting on Janek and Shaw doesn’t quite feel right. Part of it’s the shadows: they’re darker on the people than in the background, which is a common problem for CG elements.The visual fidelity of the gravel behind them kind of has a sudden shift about halfway up Shaw’s head, and I’m not sure if that’s just focus or what.

If it is a composite of real and CG, it makes sense that it looks a bit off, though: these are background elements that are not supposed to be your main focus, on a shot that’s not held for too long. There’s always been trade-offs like that in visual effects, they’ve just shifted over the years. Anyway, back to Charlize Theron with a flamethrower.

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(Previous) | (Index) | (Next)

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[sabyfangirl]

A Hurt Wing

The Kratt brothers were flying around in their peregrine falcon suits, until they stumbled on Zach who was up to no good...

On a sunny day in a beautiful forest in North America, two bird-like forms - green and blue - were soaring through the sky.

"Peregrine falcon powers are the way to go, bro!" Chris cheered as he dove into another cloud, Martin flying behind him.

"Yeah, it sure is fun to be able to fly around in this suit, we should do it more often," he laughed as he flew past his brother, triggering his competitiveness, alleviated by sudden remembrance.

"I'm with you on that one, but we're supposed to be looking for a clearing for the Tortuga to land, remember? So no more goofing around," Chris said as he flew by his side, giving him a serious look.

"Okay, you're right," Martin rolled his eyes as he bumped into him playfully. "Doesn't mean we don't get to see who finds a clearing first!"

Sensing his brother's enthusiasm, carrying a gleam of eagerness in his eyes, the green Kratt couldn't help but participate in the activity. "It's on bro!"

Just like the suits were designed for, the brothers were given the ability to mimic the peregrine falcon's ability to fly rapidly and change direction very quickly, in addition to its strength, powerful eyesight and sharp beak, rendering it the fastest bird in the world. With this creature power at hand, covering more ground was far easier than one could imagine.

The Kratt brothers raced each other, showing off a few tricks and moves here and there, yet their competitive nature never stood in the way of them having fun as siblings.

"Woohoo!" Chris let out as he zig-zagged his way between some clouds.

"Nice one bro!" Martin flew up to him and gave him a high wing.

Suddenly, a loud sizzling noise pierced the area, interrupting their little game. "Chris, what was that?!"

The brothers in the falcon suits looked down to find...LASER BEAMS shooting from all directions, much to their horror. Then their eyes caught a familiar figure.

"Zach!" Chris and Martin looked at each other, eyes wide from panic. From their point of vew, they could see a few trees that had already been taken care of, making them sick to their stomachs. They simply couldn't bear the idea, and even less the sight of any form of life being threatened. Parting from that principle, the sight of Zach destroying those trees in such a cruel and inhuman way truly aggravated them.

"Tortuga, come in," Martin suddenly called the team.

Aviva showed up on his screen. "Yeah MK, did you guys find a clearing yet?" she asked with a casual smile.

"No! Get this, we stumbled on Zach and you won't believe what he's doing." At that, the expression on Aviva's face shifted, Koki tilting her head behind her. "Let me guess, capturing another animal?" Aviva scoffed.

"Even worse, he's chopping trees down to get to the animals!" Martin exclaimed. "With laser beams!" Chris added, flapping his wings hurriedly.

Aviva and Koki exchanged panicked looks. "We'll be there as soon as we can, until then keep him distracted," Koki finally said, rushing off to the pilot room. Then the call ended.

The brothers looked down to scan the scene; Zach was standing on his floating platform, arms behind his back with one hand in the other, shoulders relaxed, seeming very content, a mischievous smile on his face. His Zachbots were following his commands by using laser beams to take down the trees, one by one, they all came crashing down. If the brothers weren't in their falcon suits and flying a hundred feet in the air, they would've clenched their fists from anger.

Their eyes met. They nodded.

"Hurry it up, Zachbots! The sooner you exterminate all those pasky trees, the sooner I'll get my hands on all the varmints in them," Zach laughed, rubbing his hands diabolically.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, something green swooped past his face and missed it by an inch, followed by a blue one dashing behind his back. Zach shrieked and nearly fell out of his platform. "What was that?" He looked up to find two human-sized birds flying down on him. "Wild Ratts?!"

"It's Wild Kratts, and just what do you think you're doing?" Chris gave him a menacing look.

"Don't you know a lot of creatures depend on these trees for survival?" Martin added, his tone calmer than his brother's.

"In fact I do, which's precisely why I'm taking them down!" Zach said proudly, irritating the brothers.

"Alright Zach, we can either settle this the easy way or the hard way," Martin said, his eyes were uncharacteristically deep and serious.

However, Zach seemed completely unaffected. "Do you really think that a pair of flying pigeons will stop me?" he mocked. Just then, another tree came falling down, startling the brothers.

"Sorry Zach, but you leave us no choice," Chris shot Zach a death glare, then swooped down on one of the Zachbots before snatching it from the ground and ripping it to pieces thanks to his sharp talents.

"Hey!" Zach let out, vexed but not surprised.

Martin, in turn, joined his brother and started eliminating a decent amount of Zachbots, much to Zach's displeasure. "No, no, no, don't just stand there you useless machines, stop them!"

Automatically, the Zachbots changed their aim from the trees to-

"Martin, look out!" Chris pushed his brother out of the way just as a laser beam was about to pierce through him.

Soon, laser beams were streaking randomly all over the place, the brothers flying around and dodging each and every single one of them. One of the laser beams bounced off a rock and ended up hitting Zach's platform, almost knocking him over. "Gah!" Zach yelped, steadying himself. "What do you think you're doing?!" he yelled.

Chris stopped for a moment and started laughing, Zach turning red with anger. Just as Martin avoided one more laser beam, he looked around to find a Zachbot aiming right at his brother. Zach noticed this too, a venomous smile slowly creeping across his face. Martin felt like his heart stopped in his chest. He thought about flying at full speed and pushing him out of the way, but something told him he wouldn't have had enough time. Other options ran through his mind, but before he could do anything, a laser beam cut through the air like an arrow, striking Chris in the middle of his deactivation button. "AH!" Chris cried out in pain. Martin watched in horror as his brother came crashing down, a blast of green surrounding his unmoving body.

"Chris!" Martin landed near his brother and gently wrapped one wing around him, but when he looked down at his face, his eyes widened at the sight of...blood dripping down the side of his head. "Chris, please open your eyes," he stammered.

No answer, except for a weak moan.

"Aw, is green guy hurt?" Zach mocked, then the expression on his face became obscure. "Don't worry, you're right behind him," he snapped his finger and all the Zachbots immediately circled around the brothers.

"Zach," Martin clenched his teeth, anger building up within him. Any other day, he would've forgiven Zach for any terrible thing he might do to nature. But to have the audacity to hurt his own brother? It only made him want to shred him to pieces. "You'll pay for this!"

"Sure I will," Zach laughed sheepishly. Martin was about to say more, but was held back as he remembered the Zachbots threateningly swarming around them. He put up a protective wing to shield his unconscious brother.

Through Zach's laughter, Martin patiently waited to get zapped, when suddenly-

Bang. Bang.

He looked up to find two Zachbots completely annihilated, relief washing over him, followed by confusion.

"Hey, what's going on?" Zach whined, the loud sound of a ship above his head. He looked up and gasped in horror.

"Hello, Zach."

Martin looked up to find the Tortuga flying right above them, Aviva standing near a large gun-like machine, grinning with satisfaction.

"Uh oh," Zach gulped, knowing he was in trouble.

At that moment, Aviva exterminated the rest of the Zachbots, blasting them with her brand new weapon. "NO!" Zach let out as he closed his ears, overwhelmed.

"Now Zach, leave before I use this on your plane," Aviva wore a serious expression on her face, already aiming at the mentioned vehicle.

At that, Zach surrendered without hesitance. "Okay, okay, I'm leaving!" Zach took off like a scared child, leaving the disaster he caused behind him.

Martin looked up and met Aviva's eyes, Chris still in his wings. "Thank you," Aviva read his lips, and seeing the state his brother was in, she smiled sadly.

Nothing but darkness. All he could feel was a hand caressing his hair. "Hey Chris," a familiar voice echoed in his ears, it was calm and soft. He leaned in on the touch, slowly opening his eyes. The smallest bit of light in the chamber really irritated them.

He could see a blurry figure, already guessing who it was. "Martin?" His voice was feeble.

His brother jumped as he heard his name. "Chris, can you hear me?" Chris' vision slowly became more distinct; he could see the worry in his brother's eyes. He gave him a small nod as he smiled weakly, earning a sigh of relief from him.

Just then, Chris felt sharp pain stinging the right side of his head. He let out a hiss through his gritted teeth. He pressed his hand against the source of the pain, grunting from the pressure as he instantly regretted it. He also felt a bandage wrapped around his head.

"Careful bro," Martin reached out two comforting hands.

"What happened?" Chris asked.

The expression on Martin's face saddened. "You got...hit by one of the laser beams," he slowly looked away, a shred of guilt in his voice.

The memory of deactivating in mid-air flashed before Chris' eyes, followed by a faint voice screaming his name. The rest was a blur. He remained silent before sudden remembrance hit him. He gasped. "What about Zach? Did he-"

Martin raised a hand to cut him off. "Don't worry about him, he won't be causing trouble any time soon, thanks to Aviva and her new invention."

Chris smiled. "Well that's a relief."

Silence.

Chris couldn't help but sense something was bothering his brother. "Martin?" The blue Kratt avoided eye contact, looking down with sad eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry bro."

Chris looked genuinely confused. "What do you mean?"

"I could've saved you or at least yelled your name in time, but instead I just stayed fozen in mid-air," Martin's voice cracked. "You could've gotten even more hurt, or worse..." At this point, tears were starting to form in his eyes, threatening to fall any second. "I should've protected you, but I let you down." A small tear ran down his face.

However, he didn't expect what came next. He suddenly felt his bother's arms wrap around him, without warning, which startled him at first. "Don't say that," Chris whispered in his ear. "You never let me down."

More tears came rolling down. "B-But you could've gotten badly hurt, I just-" he paused, taking a deep breath. "I just don't wanna lose you," he managed with a trembling voice.

"Hey," Chris looked deep into his eyes. "I'm a tough Kratt, I won't let anything happen to me, ever." He wore a reassuring smile.

Martin smiled in turn, eyes glassy from his tears. "I know," he laughed, wiping his face. "But it won't stop me from always trying to protect you."

Chris laughed softly. "Fine by me."

And they hugged tightly.

[danikriatura]

This photo is usually divorced from its specific content. It is the most famous image of Nazi book burning. Most people assume the specific books don't matter. The horror is at the notion of destroying books, any books, which I can certainly understand. But let's talk about what was in them anyway.

This image shows Nazi-aligned vigilantes (not just government agents) destroying the library of Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science. Hirschfeld was the founder of modern transgender theory, and it is his displaced students who founded transgender advocacy in the US. Destroying this library destroyed the first central hub of transgender advocacy in the world. This loss is not an inconvenience. Parts of that library can never be replaced.

In the 1910s Earl Lind read one of the books from that library and wrote for a feminist magazine that mothers ought to raise their trans children according to their endorsed gender (as Lind said, their "mental sex"). One hundred years ago there was a movement to normalize trans people. It was based on scientific study and the assertion that the policies of a just society should be based on sound evidence, and sound evidence showed that gender variance was perfectly natural and perfectly healthy. That movement is what was displaced when Nazis stormed the library and burned all the books they found.

We recovered from the loss of Hirschfeld's collection, eventually. We are once again at a place where people write to feminist journals extolling parents (no longer mothers!) to raise their trans children according to the genders of their hearts. But suppressing trans existence is so visible at the heart of the party that just came to power in this country. We'll see what happens next.

Source:

Stryker, Susan (2008). Transgender History. Berkeley: Seal Press.

Edit (10/22/18): over the last 24 hours this post has been attracting attention again. I'm so saddened that this feels so relevant as the administration seeks to legislate trans people out existence. We remember. We #WontBeErased.

[385bookreviews]

1.190.1 Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler

SPOILERS

Pages: 329

Time Read: 6 hours and 57 minutes

Overall Rating: 4★ Storyline: 4★ Dialogue: 3.5★ Characters: 3★

Genre: Adult Dystopian

TWs for the book: Violence, death, gun violence, murder, fire, r*pe, child death, death of a parent, slavery, blood, cannibalism, s*xual violence, animal death, grief, drug abuse/addiction, injury, gore, child abuse, racism, physical abuse, trafficking, classism, torture, police brutality, body horror, domestic abuse, adult/minor relationship, war, s*xual content, p*d*ph*l*a, abandonment, kidnapping, misogyny, incest, cursing, mental illness, pregnancy, hate crime, emotional abuse, su*c*de, mass shooting, religion (Baptist Christianity), religious bigotry, colonization, vomit, confinement, chronic illness, excrement, xenophobia, genocide, panic attacks, alcoholism, homophobia, ableism, parentification, mentions of infertility and abortion

POV: First Person

Time Period/Location: California, 2024-2027

First Line: Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession.

Lauren Olamina: Lauren is a little bit of flat character, not showing much emotion throughout the book. This doesn't detract from the story though and makes sense in the context that you're reading her diary entries. She definitely comes across older than she is, but also with the same "know it all" attitude of any teenager that age. She felt very real to me. I didn't understand why she had to end up in a relationship with a 39 year age gap though, that was uncomfortable to read about.

Storyline: Blake takes a very dark view of humanity in this book, with abundant r*pe, robbery, murder, torture, drug use, p*d*ph*l*a, and cannibalism. I definitely don't agree that humanity would devolve to this level, however, given the eerie parallels to nowadays, this book definitely makes you sit with the content and wonder if things will actually get that bad, and what we can do to prevent this bleak and horrific future.

Representation: Almost everyone in the story is either Asian, black, or Hispanic. Lauren, Grayson, Doe, Tori, and Emery suffer from hyperempathy syndrome, a disabling delusional disorder.

Summary: This book was a scary read, and (spoiler) Parable of the Talents is even scarier. The parallels of Octavia Blake's dystopian 2024-2027 to our current 2024-2025 is a little too close to home, and really forces you to consider where we are heading, not just as a country but as human beings. I really liked Lauren's religion, Earthseed, and the whole concept of God being Change. I definitely recommend everyone read this, but be mindful of the wanton violence and numerous mentions of adult and child r*pe.

Quotes: -"All that you touch, you Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change." (p.3) -"There are over 700 known dead so far. One hurricane… That's nature. Is it God? Most of the dead are the street poor who have nowhere to go… Is it a sin against God to be poor?" (p.15) -"God is Change, and in the end, God prevails. But God exists to be shaped. It isn't enough for us to just survive, limping along, playing business as usual while things get worse and worse. If that's the shape we give to God, then someday we must become too weak--too poor, too hungry, too sick--to defend ourselves. Then we'll be wiped out." (p.76) -"Embrace diversity. Unite--or be divided, robbed, ruled, killed by those who see you as prey. Embrace diversity or be destroyed." (p.196) -"'Your God doesn't care about you at all,' Travis said. 'All the more reason to care about myself and others...'" (p.221) -"The universe is God's self-portrait." (p.315)

July 20, 2024: Lauren Olamina has a dream. In her dream she is trying to teach herself how to levitate in her room, but a fire engulfs her. She is suddenly then transported to her yard when she was seven years old, taking down laundry from the clothesline with her stepmother. She tells Lauren that when she was young, you couldn't see nearly as many stars from all the light pollution, but now cities like that don't exist as much anymore. July 21, 2024: Today is Lauren's 15th birthday. She doesn't believe in God anymore, but her father is a preacher, so her and her brothers agree to be baptized. While he usually held church in the living room of their house for their small, walled in neighborhood, he arranged for them to go outside the walls to the only church left standing for the occasion. They ride bikes, armed with guns, passing tons of street poor people, starving, dirty, and drug addicted. It hurts Lauren to see injured people, as she has a delusional disorder called hyperempathy syndrome. This allows her to feel others' pain and pleasure just as much as they do. When they arrive at the church, built like a fortress, Lauren, her brothers, and some other kids from the neighborhood are baptized. July 30, 2024: An astronaut on Mars, part of a crew trying to create a colony there, dies. The price of water goes up again, costing more than gasoline. The last TV in the neighborhood at the Yannis house finally dies. August 3, 2024: Lauren and her father discuss space. She thinks it's worthwhile to try and find new life and travel to new planets, while her father views it as a waste. Lauren laments the fact that the astronauts last wish, to be buried on Mars, won't be honored. August 12, 2024: One of their neighbors, a very judgmental and religious woman, Mrs. Sims, shot herself. Thieves had come over the wall awhile before her death and had stolen all her valuable belongings and food, and also r*ped her. The community had rallied to take care of her, but not long after, her son, daughter-in-law, grandkids, brother, nieces, and nephews all died in a house fire. Lauren wonders how someone who had based her entire life off of a religion that claimed you would go to hell if you killed yourself could do such a thing. August 17, 2024: Lauren can't get over the deaths of Mrs. Sims or the astronaut. She tells about the religion she has created, with the core tenet of "God is Change". Rather than God being a conscious being imposing his will upon humanity, she believes that the only constant in the universe is Change, so that must be God, and all humans must shape God for themselves. November 6, 2024: A new president is to be elected. He plans to stop the government space program, allowing it to be sold off to private companies. He also plans to repeal minimum wage, environmental protections, and worker protections.

February 1, 2025: Three year old Amy Dunn started a fire in the Dunn's garage. Everyone came running to put it out, as no one can afford the fire department fees. Lauren feels bad for Amy. Her mother was impregnated by her uncle at 13, and her nor anyone else in the family pays any attention to her. Lauren tries her best to look after her since no one else will. Cory, Lauren's stepmother, teaches the neighborhood children as an alternative to school, and Lauren asks if she can start early, since Lauren is in charge of the kindergarten age children anyways. February 19, 2025: Mrs. Sims cousins, Wardell Parish and Rosalee Payne inherit her house. They aren't pleasant people and accuse people in the neighborhood of ransacking Mrs. Sims house after she died. Lauren's father explains that she was robbed not long before her death. February 22, 2025: Lauren's father and her best friend Joanne's father take some of the younger people in the neighborhood out to practice shooting in the hills nearby, including Lauren, Joanne, Joanne's cousin and boyfriend Harry, Lauren's boyfriend Curtis, Curtis' brother Michael, Aura Moss, and Peter Moss. The Moss children's father has three wives, and created his own religion, running a mini cult in his own house. After doing some shooting, they notice a dog watching them. Joanne is startled and aims her gun, and it runs away. Aura sees the same dog, but screams and panic fires her gun at it. When Lauren's father goes to investigate, he doesn't find a dog, but the corpses of a woman and her two children, partially eaten. As they begin the return journey home, Lauren's father shoots a dog that gets too close. It doesn't die, and Lauren is put in pain by seeing the injured dog, so she shoots it dead. March 2, 2025: It rains for the first time in six years. March 4, 2025: Amy Dunn dies. Lauren had just walked her home from school that day, sharing an orange with her in the rain. She went out wandering at night and was hit by a stray bullet through the neighborhood gate. March 5, 2025: Lauren and Joanne talk about Amy's death, and Lauren tries to tell Amy that she believes things will only get worse. She worries that a hoard of the street poor will eventually get fed up and overrun the neighborhood and they'll have to survive on the outside. She tries to encourage Joanne to be prepared, saying the neighborhood in general needs to be more prepared, and gives her a book about plant life. March 6, 2025: The rain stops. Lauren wonders how many more years it will be till they see rain again. March 8, 2025: Lauren gets in trouble with her father for scaring Joanne. Joanne told her mother, her mother told her father, and then her father told Lauren's. Joanne made it sound like Lauren was trying to convince her to run away, but Lauren explains to her dad everything she actually said. He tries to make her promise not to talk about any of that again, but she refuses, wanting to know why they shouldn't be prepared. He agrees that they should, but doesn't want her scaring people. He tells her to start teaching her kindergarteners about plants, go and learn martial arts from someone, and that he will bring up her idea about emergency packs at the next meeting, March 9, 2025: Joanne apologizes to Lauren after church, saying she didn't mean to get her in trouble. Lauren forgives her and they remain friends, but Lauren loses some trust in her. March 12, 2025: Thieves break into the neighborhood and steal food from their gardens. Lauren's dad sets up a neighborhood watch system to have people patrolling at night. Him and Cory argue over this, as she doesn't want him to get hurt out on patrols. March 29, 2025: The thieves returned to steal some of Richard Moss' rabbits, but they were scared off by two of the people out on patrol when they fired their guns. Cory and Lauren's dad argue again.

April 26, 2025: Lauren decides to call her religion Earthseed. June 7, 2025: Lauren assembles a survival pack for herself. Her father won't let her have a gun though. She asks him if he ever thinks about going north and he says no, since all of the states have armed and guarded borders, and tons of people everyday are also flooding north for the same opportunities. June 19, 2025: Tracy Dunn disappears. June 20, 2025: Lauren turns 16. She writes in her journal that "The Destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars". July 26, 2025: Tracy hasn't been found. Another girl in the neighborhood, Bianca, is pregnant. August 2, 2025: The group goes out for target practice again. They find a mangled corpse this time, and Aura Moss decides she's done going shooting. Lauren's 12 year old brother Keith had begged to go with them, but was denied because he wasn't 15. While they were out, Keith ran away from the neighborhood. He took Cory's key to the gate with him. Lauren's dad is about to go out and look for him when they find him bloody and beat on the kitchen floor, having been robbed and the key also stolen from him. August 3, 2025: Keith is forced to confess his wrongdoing to the congregation that Sunday. August 17, 2025: Their parents bought Keith a new BB gun for his birthday to try and appease him and keep him in the neighborhood. This fails, as he leaves again, taking the gun with him. August 28, 2025: After days of searching and Cory being distraught, Keith comes home. He has clean new clothes this time, and his BB gun but their father destroys it before beating Keith up. October 25, 2025: Keith leaves again, this time taking Cory's gun. November 3, 2025: Keith returns with a wad of cash for Cory and chocolate for Gregory and Bennett while their father is out of the house. Then he leaves again, saying he's making a ton of money.

June 25, 2026: Keith comes home again. He actually sits and talks with Lauren while she makes him dinner. He tells her that he has a room with some guys who have a lot of stolen technology, but because he can read and write and they can't, he helps them to use it or sell it. He also reveals that he killed and robbed a man early on when he set out. July 20, 2026: On her way home from Curtis' house, on her 17th birthday, Keith finds her and gives her a wad of cash as a birthday present. Lauren says she'll give it to Cory. August 26, 2026: Lauren's parents go downtown to identify Keith's body. August 29, 2026: Keith's skin was peeled off and his eyes were burned out of his, showing signs of having been tortured for days. Lauren doesn't cry for him at all, saying he was sociopathic and he probably would have gotten worse as he aged. October 17, 2026: Another robbery occurred, this time into someone's house, which resulted in the Quintanilla's grandmother being killed. This marks the 7th break in since Keith died. October 20, 2026: A company called KSF buys a town called Olivar and turns it into a company town with armed guards, where all of the citizens are employees, not paid much but given housing and food. Cory wants to move there, but Lauren's dad says it's just modern day slavery and refuses to consider it. October 24, 2026: Joanne's family applies to move to Olivar. Lauren realizes the big invasion of people she thought was going to destroy the community is actually gonna be a slow dismantling as people try to find better lives. October 31, 2026: Lauren decides to go north to find a better life once she turns 18. November 14, 2026: The Garfield family is accepted to move to Olivar. Joanne's boyfriend/cousin Harry won't go with her. November 17, 2026: Lauren's father doesn't return from his job at the college that morning. November 18, 2026: Lauren and a few others go into the canyons where they usually practice shooting to search for her dad, dead or alive. They find a dismembered arm that could belong to her dad, but they aren't sure. November 22, 2026: Lauren's father is still missing. The fingerprints they took from the arm weren't his. December 19, 2026: The neighborhood holds a funeral for Lauren's father, even though they still don't know what happened to him. December 22, 2026: The Garfield family moves away to Olivar. They are collected in an armored truck with armored guards, employed by KSF. Cory talks to the guards about what it's like to live there, seriously considering the move now that Lauren's father is gone. Lauren meets with Curtis afterwards to have s*x. He wants to marry her, and she hesitates because he doesn't know about her hyperempathy syndrome yet, or Earthseed. He wants to leave and go north, and Lauren tells him they will after her family is settled into not having their father around. December 24, 2026: The night before someone set fire to the Payne-Parrish house. Wardell Parrish was the only survivor, his twin sister and her five children burning to death with the house. They suspect it was someone who took the drug Pyro, a pill that makes you need to watch things burn. While the neighborhood rushed to help Wardell and try to put out the fire, several houses were robbed, including Lauren's. December 29, 2026: Cory takes over Lauren's father's job at the college to make ends meet. Lauren begins to run the school in her absence. December 30, 2026: Wardell Parrish goes to live with family.

July 31, 2027: Bald people covered in paint and addicted to Pyro crash through the gate of the neighborhood and burn the place down, indiscriminately killing, r*ping, and looting. Lauren manages to escape. Lauren loses track of Cory and her brothers. Thankfully she has a gun and her emergency pack, and spends the night in a broken down shed. Lauren goes back to the neighborhood once it's daylight. No police or firefighters have come. She picks through the remains of her burned down house and salvages what she can, including money that was buried in the backyard. Richard Moss was killed, along with Harry's grandfather and little cousin, who had also been r*ped. She sees Curtis' brother's body, but not Curtis, and a handful of other people she had known her whole life, dead. She leaves the neighborhood, and manages to run into Harry, Joanne's ex-boyfriend, and Zahra, Richard Moss' youngest wife. Her daughter had been killed, and she claims to have seen Cory and Lauren's brothers killed as well. Zahra had been caught and someone tried to r*pe her before Harry saved her, which resulted in a concussion for him. Lauren takes them back to her shed to let Harry rest and so they can eat and decide what to do. August 1, 2027: Harry is on the mend, and Zahra reveals she was one of the street poor until she was 15 and her mother sold her to Richard Moss. The three of them agree to go north together as a group. August 2, 2027: Harry and Zahra gather supplies, and then begin their trek on foot up the 118 freeway. Only the right lane is free to traffic, the rest of the inner lanes being taken up by vendors and travelers. They eventually go off the highway and set up camp in a hill away from everyone. Lauren has cut her hair and is travelling as a man, since she is tall enough. People tried to join them at their fire, but they shooed or scared them all away. Harry is upset about this, but Zahra and Lauren insist that they can't trust anyone. Lauren takes the first watch and begins writing in her journal, and Zahra asks her to teach her to read and write. After her watch, Harry wakes up to replace her. Lauren wakes up a bit later to Harry being attacked. One man was already dead. She smashes the attacker over the head with a rock, which in turn disables her for a moment. When she realizes that the guy is still alive, she grabs a knife and slits his throat. They strip the bodies of clothes and possessions and drag the bodies down to some trees. She decides to tell them about her hyperempathy syndrome and gives them the choice to leave or stick with her. They both decide to stay, although Harry is wary of her after she so easily killed a man. She also opens up and shares verses from Earthseed with them. August 3, 2027: A large forest fire starts, and the group stays aware of it as they travel, worrying that it will jump the freeway. They find a spot to rest, but then eventually move when Harry finds a better one. Zahra and Harry have s*x that night, which wakes Lauren, and she scolds them for not keeping watch. August 4, 2027: The group stops at a commercial water station to fill up. Someone steals water from a woman with a baby, and Lauren trips him. She gives the water back to the woman and her husband. The couple stays near them on the road and camps near them as well. August 5, 2027: They come near the ocean and decide to camp down by the beach so they can bathe in the water. Lauren invites the family to come camp with them, but they don't accept, suspicious of the offer. That night, dogs came and tried to steal the family's baby, and Lauren goes over and shoots the dog. August 6, 2027: After making camp that night, the family finally decides to join their group, father Travis, mother Natividad, and baby Dominic. Travis and Natividad used to be servants for a rich man and his wife. They are heading up to Seattle, and agree to travel with Harry, Lauren, and Zahra. Lauren shares some Earthseed verses with them.

August 8, 2027: The group continues their journey by travelling up the beach. Lauren gradually converts the group to Earthseed, starting with Travis, who is immensely curious about it. August 27, 2027: An earthquake hit during their walk on the highway. Someone starts a fire in a town, and all the walkers begin to flock towards it to scavenge and burn and loot. The group continues on, coming across an older man pushing a cart. He walks along with them, wanting to get ahead of the desperate people looting and burning the town. Him and Lauren immediately connect over their Yoruba last names. As they walk, they hear screaming, and see a run down old house collapsed in on itself during the earthquake. Two women are trapped beneath, and the group works together to get them out. As they walk back to the highway, they are attacked. Lauren stabs her attacker, and three others are killed by Harry. They strip the dead men and Lauren changes clothes, and they continue on. Allie and Jill are the two women who they saved. Allie is aggressive, asking if they're a cult, but ultimately they agree to travel with them. Bankole, the older man, also agrees to travel with them. They stop at a store in a town they come across, and Bankole convinces them to invest in a rifle for hunting and long range shooting. August 28, 2027: The group has to change course due to riots and unrest in San Francisco, so they decide to go on I-5. August 29, 2027: That night they are all awoken by a gun fight on I-5 near their campsite. They all stay down till the shooting stops, and Lauren goes to find Bankole, who has disappeared. She finds him on his way back to camp with an orphaned three year old boy named Justin. They get him to settle down, and they all try to go back to sleep, Lauren kissing Bankole before they laid back down. Justin becomes attached to Allie, and she eventually takes charge of him on the road. Jill tells Lauren that they were s*x slaves, pimped out by their own father. Allie used to have a baby, but their father killed him in a drunken rage. They ran away, and burned his house down on the way out. August 30, 2027: The group makes it to the San Luis Reservoir. A lot of people are camped there but they find a place that's out of the way. Lauren and Bankole go off to talk. They debate about Earthseed some, and he tells her his wife died from robbers beating her five years ago. She manages to guess that he is a doctor. They have s*x, and she tells him she's 18 afterwards and he's appalled given that he's 57, but he admits he doesn't want to let her go. September 9, 2027: The group has continued their journey along I-5. During their walks, they saw a dog wandering with a child's arm in its mouth, and a group of children, one of them a pregnant girl, roasting someone's leg over a fire. Bankole reveals that he was travelling to get to some land that he owns where his sister and her family live. He tries to convince Lauren to marry him and leave the group, but she refuses, saying she'll only come with him if he agrees to take the whole group in. He relents, and before she agrees to marry him, she also tells him about her hyperempathy syndrome. He is surprised she managed to conceal it, and says he still wants to marry her. September 10, 2027: Two people, a woman and her daughter, snuck into camp last night and laid down on the ground and slept near them. When Lauren awoke and confronted them, they immediately curled up on the ground and said they would leave. Lauren offered to feed them, and the group convened about whether they should stay. They ultimately decide to keep them and move on. Lauren scolds Jill for not paying enough attention on watch. The mother's name is Emery, and her daughter is Tori. They were essentially slaves to a company and they were on the run, having escaped after Emery's two sons were sold away.

September 12, 2027: Tori attracted another little girl, Doe, on the road, and Doe's father Grayson. He very obviously doesn't want to travel with them, but he also doesn't want to separate Doe from her new friend, and he seems to connect with Emery. Lauren guesses that him and Doe are also former slaves. September 17, 2027: Tori and Doe go off with Emery to go to the bathroom. The group suddenly hears screaming, and Lauren and some of the others run over to see a big bald man trying to snatch Tori away from Emery. Emery is fighting back, and when he finally manages to shake her off Lauren shoots him. They get in a gun fight with the rest of the man's gang. Grayson grabs Doe and runs off. Lauren is skimmed by a bullet, and Jill is shot and killed while trying to shield Tori. When Lauren comes to from her wound and the pain of dying with those around her, she realizes that Emery, Tori, Grayson, and Doe all have hyperempathy as well, sharers as Lauren calls them. They move on, and Grayson agrees to stay with and protect the group. Allie is distraught over her sister's death, and Lauren comforts her. The group is overwhelmed by the smoke from a massive forest fire, but they manage to outrun it without any injuries. September 26, 2027: The group finally arrives at Bankole's land, only to find that the house has been burned down with his sister and her family inside. October 1, 2027: Bankole goes to the police to try to find out what happened to his sister, but all they do is harass him and steal his money. There's a well with fresh water, and the group ultimately decides to stay and build an Earthseed community.

[abomination-catboy]

FINAL FANTASY XIV: STORMBLOOD The Abomination Review, Part 1

Okay, so here's something entirely unnecessary; a review of an MMORPG expansion that came out six years ago. Hooray!

A little bit of background; I've been slowly making my way through the FFXIV expansions, in fact very VERY slowly because my attention is being pulled in 20 different directions at any given time and this game is so very, very long. I share a Discord server with some good friends and there's a section for all things FFXIV, and opinions on Stormblood are probably some of the most divisive I have encountered so far. One friend, who we'll refer to as J, really didn't fancy it at all, whereas another friend, S, enjoyed it and thought it would be, I quote 'exactly your kind of bullshit'.

So now that I've finished Stormblood and have started engaging in horrors such as 'cartoon chocobo drags party to Computer Hell Fightclub' and 'a raid with FREAKIN' MATH in it' everyone wants to know what I thought of Stormblood. So naturally, I did the normal person thing and created a blog to write the review up on in detail. LET'S GO~

It's been ages since I actually started Stormblood, so some of my recollections will likely be off. Hopefully this will just add humour, as I don't really mind myself and will not be making corrective edits :^)

I am not American, so neither is my spelling.

Spoilers for FFXIV ARR, HW and SB and related patch content, obviously.

Introduction: Welcome to Ala Mhigo

After briefly being reminded of the overarching plot of the whole game and following the trauma of watching Papalymo explode, we're thrown into another 40-hour long sidequest as Omega Weapon ker-chunks over the wall into Ala Mhigo and Lyse-Not-Yda-in-Fact suggests this is the perfect opportunity to help her people fight back against the Garlean Empire and end the war. Cool. Cool cool cool.

This is your Warrior of Light for the trip, Yhen'a Astolya. Both he and his sparrowhawk are a little unimpressed that 'get the Weapon' has turned into 'save entire nation from a 10+ year imperial occupation', but at this point that's just #WarriorofLightThings so he's resigned to his fate. At least he's cute. None of his outfits suit his personality because the character I re-made him from liked to show off his assets if you catch my drift and I'm yet to change many of the glams but. You'll see.

So anyway, Gyr Abania. What a shithole. NO REALLY SSHH The fist map is really kinda boring, and I get why; it's hard to make a desert map too interesting while still retaining the classification of desert. And here we have a whole nation that is in mostly desert. For what it's worth I think Square did a great job with their concept, but I can't help but wonder what Garlemald saw in taking this land over. I know, I know, they think they're doing us all a favour by bringing enlightenment to the savage heathens, blablabla, like any ol' antagonistic empire. Sure. But usually that's a leading reason with other factors, you know, and things like resources and land position are taken into account. I guess it's a great and easy way to send invasion forces through to the rest of Eorzea, but what else was there?

See, other people on google wanted to know too!

The internet didn't tell me, it just kept trying to give me timelines and essays, but I'm sure I missed the answer in a section of dialogue I skipped or something.

UPDATE: I said I wouldn't do these but to avoid Experts coming in to school me, another friend of mine we'll call A has said the Garleans went through Gyr Abania cause it was the only way to get to Eorzea. And their aerial invasion failed pre 1.0, which is not content I've played. They don't have a navy, b/c they're landlocked, but they made this amazing big 'unsinkable' airship that was supposed to be able to single-handedly conquer the whole world, then Midgardsormr (or as A refers to him, Dragon Daddy) said no, and destroyed it.

Anyway.

So Lyse leads us to Rhalgr's Reach after a pretty harrowing side-quest concerning an abandoned town that was used by the Garleans to experiment with some kind of magical plant plague, which was honestly kind of interesting. The Garleans suck, man.

Rhalgr's Reach is gorgeous, a nice breathe from the drab map between Baelsar's Wall and it, but first a note on the music so far.

I enjoy the new battle music well enough; it's a mix between cowboy movie rifts and traditional eastern music that somehow really works, and also makes me feel a bit like Indiana Jones, but I'm not a fan of the national anthem of Ala Mhigo following me everywhere in different forms on the map. It's okay if it's a quiet refrain version, but when the bombastic brass comes into it, it just turns me off the flavour of the game entirely. I don't think this was intentional, its just a very nationalistic approach, which is all well and good for a story about a resistance who are clearly very patriotic trying to fight off invaders and its absolutely being used in good faith, but any band of patriotism is always a bit much for me so I played a lot of this expansion in Ala Mhihgo areas with the music turned down.

So we're trying to form an alliance, and getting resistance from the usual suspects. We get re-introduced to Arenvald around this time too, who is one of my favourite tropes of 'strong man softboi' so I take to him instantly. There's a few little battles and skirmishes, and Lyse is feeling pretty g about our ragtag little Alliance before things, as they do, go pear-shaped.

Enter Imperial Viceroy Zenos yae Galvus, otherwise known as 'golf douche'.

I cannot take credit for this amazing and hilariously accurate nickname. That would go to J. Leading up to this moment they were all 'have you met him yet, have you met golf-douche?' which honestly gave him an air of mystery he entirely did not deserve.

(seriously, I'm a cat-dad and Zenos has maybe two facial expressions, this one being his 'head empty no thoughts (but murder)' one, but the fangirls think he has a rich inner world. Nobody who owns a cat sees this face and thinks that.)

People seem to love Zenos online, and I can only assume it's because he's both pretty and disturbed; that Discount-Sephiroth face and hair, with hips and thighs so thick he probably cracks Ala Mhigan skulls between them, plus he waxes poetical about murder. You know, all the things the straight whyte girls who write yaoi love in a top.

Anyway, he's a bit of a fuckwit, and he has a fuckwit golf-caddy that he carries his extra swords in (sword-caddy?) thus the nickname, so it was a little embarrassing getting absolutely reamed by him. I was on Dark Knight too, so like, let's be real Squeenix, I would have won on sheer endurance AND edge if it hadn't been one of your fun 'you can't win this battle but have it anyway for dramatic storytelling purposes' moments that we all k̙n̘̝̻o͖̙̺̣w̷̫̞̤ ̮̙̤̝a̡̤̠ͅn͓̲̩̱͕d̷ ̦ͅͅl̶̺̪̟͚̼̣̞o̶͖̪v̘̜͎ͅè̥̮͎̘.

Our party decides that because golf-douche almost murderised all of us in one fell swoop and Lyse is still feeling pretty sensitive about the whole Papalymo thing, the best option is to travel to an entirely different and very far away nation, and help them defeat the Garlean occupation there so that a) the Garlean's and hopefully golf-douche will be distracted fighting a war on two fronts, and b) the other nation will then feel indebted to us and obligated (or strong-armed? They never quite clarify) to come help fight the Garleans in Ala Mhigo.

I am instantly a bit uncomfortable about this. It's presented both in a way that makes it seem like we're trying to do good by two nations rather than just one, but also very coldly as if we're playing war to suite our own overarching agenda, which will then force these people who have been terrorised and occupied for over a decade, to come fight another war they have less (if no) stake in.

I suppose 'the fate of the entire world and the Crystal Mother Lady' is a pretty good excuse when it comes down to it, but there's still a vibe of 'end justifies the means, and because our quest is an honorable one we'll make these tough decisions for people' vibe that just doesn't sit too right with me. These nations being freed from Garlean rule isn't the goal here, it's just a favourable side-effect of our actual plan. This feeling does lessen a little later when it's made more obvious that the whole team is very invested in helping out Ala Mhigo and Doma and it's more that we have to prove to the Alliance that it's a worth-while investment in a colder way. But towards the start, yea, felt weird.

Oh, and we met the Angy One! She's a great character, one of my fav antagonists in the expansion actually. But you don't know that yet at this point of the game, she's just a nation-traitor everyone hates, and for good reason. Actually, nobody really likes her, not even on her team, but she keeps going on ahead anyway.

Gaslight gatekeep girlboss~

I do also feel like we're leaving Ala Mhigo way too soon, before I really had a chance to become invested in it, you don't even get to finish the first map (The Fringes) and this isn't helped by the Doman leg of the game being by far more visually interesting and narratively compelling, but we'll get to that next time, in part two.

So far, a little underwhelming. Pros:

Learning more about Lyse's character, actually quite like getting to know her.

The battle music

Rhalgr's Reach design is pretty stunning

Good location names

The Hidden truth > Drawing a Blank questline

And a bit of a longer list, Cons:

The 'national anthem-esque' music

The Fringes is a boring map in visual and mechanics design

The story is slow to move

Golf-douche archetype is two-dimensional and ugh

Are we playing games with entire nations just to get to our shiney Omega Boi

Barely in Gyr Abania before being whisked away to a far more interesting area and narrative, as if the game devs didn't believe in it either.

Where the fuck are my aether currents let me fly you asshats

Entirely not ghey enough

I'll give this first length of the game a 2½/5. Until next time folks, unless the hyperfocus whisks me off forever.

[mytheoristavenue]

Hi it's my first time here, do you accept requests? If yes, could you do mine? please.

How would it be if the reader spent a movie night together with Sundrop/Moondrop, watching horror movies ( like Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street ).

How will the boys react and what will happen?

Thank you for choosing me to send your first ask to! I want to first say, that my inbox is not open for FNAF/SB anymore, as, when it was, that was all I was really allowed to do and still get interaction, and I decided about a year ago that if I had to choose between content that would get me views, and content that I enjoyed, I would choose the latter every time. That being said, I will fill this one for you, simply because it's your first one, and it's such a fluffy prompt. I hope it's alright that I do this in the form of HCs, enjoy!

FNAF:SB Sun/Moondrop x Reader - Scary Movie HCs

Summary: How the Daycare Attendant would spend a spooky movie night with you!

Warnings: Mentions of nightmares, scary movies, anxiety

You would be snuggled up between them, pillows against their frames for your comfort. You'd set up a projector in their little backstage room a while back for nights like these.

You and Moon are taking turns picking, because Sunny isn't particularly fond of horror movies, and will always try to talking you into watching some fluffy kid's movie, so you simply don't give him the option.

You are both particularly fond of specific types of horror. Moon likes psychological thrillers, and you like paranormal ones. This constant back and forth between ghosts/demons and mentally ill psychopaths has Sunny reeling and hiding his eyes.

"It's ok, Sun, it's just a movie! It's not real." you comfort him, pausing the film for a moment. "Would you like us to stop?"

"N-No!" he insists. "I'm brave. I can do this."

"Of course you are!" you coo, kissing his head and squishing his cheeks.

As the night goes on, the movies seem less and less interesting as the hours tick off. Sunny's the first to snooze, powering down for the night, having spent much of his battery chasing the kids around earlier in the day. You giggle at him and plug his charging cord into his back and slump against him.

Soon, you're also dozing, your head falling forward more and more as the minutes pass. Moon notices and pulls you into his side with a serene smile. Settling in, he makes sure all is well before plugging himself in and manually powering down.

Suddenly, you rose from your sleep to find yourself alone. Darting up, you call out the Attendant's names, but receive no feedback. Peering out of the curtains of the small room, you scan over the daycare from a bird's eye view.

It would have been easier to find them if the room hadn't been engulfed in flames. Everywhere you looked, you saw colorful melting plastic fixtures, charred toys, and oh God- the screaming was so deafeningly loud. All you could hear over the crackling inferno were the helpless cries of children, begging you for aid.

Suddenly a dark, ancient voice chuckled at your panic. You couldn't pinpoint the voice, it seemed to have been coming from the suffocating air itself. "All around you will burn." it boomed, the octane prompting your to cover your bleeding ears. "Nothing around you can thrive. You will always destroy everything you touch."

"NO!" you screamed, jumping up in a teary could sweat.

"Starlight, what's the matter?" Moon cooed, pulling you back into his secure arms.

"Yeah, ya feelin' okay, Sunshine?" Sunny worried, booting up and pressing a comforting hand to your back.

Your terrified gaze shifted between them before you brought your hands to cover it, breaking down and sobbing into your palms. "I-I think I had a nightmare. The daycare was on fire and the kids-! T-they ere burning alive and it was all my fault!"

The twins both enveloped you, making sure to pad themselves with bedding so as not to hurt you. "It's alright Starlight, nothing can hurt us here."

"And even if something did, it couldn't be your fault! We'll always keep you safe, Sunshine!"

[deffonotsimping]

greetings! may i request xiao kaeya and childe for the playable reader au?

yessir!!

I have already written for Xiao because of another request I got before this one! You can find it: here!

characters: Kaeya + Childe

-> Masterlist

content!! playable reader AU, gn reader, small mentions of blood (Kaeya), spoilers for Childe's storyquest

Kaeya

OH BOY

teases everyone, gets flustered when you do it back x stoic, has never felt emotions before but has a soft spot for the local jerk

People started shipping you two because of the angst potential you have! 🙏

"KaeDer (Kaeya x Reader) shippers, are you okay? I'll pay for your therapy." - "not even therapy can help anymore." - "oh!"

You have a moderate amount of shippers, people know and acknowledge that KaeDer is a thing, but not everyone necessarily likes it. However, your shippers and KaeLuc shippers (💀) have beef.

And omg. Literally every single fanfiction, every single fanart, EVEN THE COSPLAYS!! are angst.

Usually it's either you or him with blood all over whilst the other is staring at them in horror.

"Did.. Did I do this?"

yes honey, you did, and it's amazing.

Canonically, you are a half adeptus from Liyue and you are about 600 years old.

... You see where I'm getting at?

You don't know that he is from Khaenri'ah and he doesn't know that you're an adeptus that has helped and served the geo archon. What would happen if you both were to find out, hm?

Childe

As for this one, people started shipping you two because you're Teucer's babysitter!

You appear near the end of his storyquest when Teucer has to get back to snezhnaya and you and Childe have a short dialogue that hints at you two being close acquaintances.

So so so so sooo many family aus with and without Teucer, it's so cute, I'm telling you!

Half of your fans think you two have a protective/possessive childe x helpless reader dynamic whilst the other half is convinced it's more like "spar with me!" - "ok *absolutely destroys him*"

so yeah, there are fans which are the polar opposites from one another.

You sadly don't have a lot of canon content so shippers are living off of the mere crumbs they're getting!

Surprisingly, Zhongli x Childe shippers and Reader x Childe shippers get along very well, some even see the three of you together in a relationship!

Childe's is a little short, my apologies!! (call it punishment for him never critting whenever i use him smh)

ALSO!! I haven't posted in a while (oopsie) because of christmas and all that jazz! While I'll try to get back into posting more often again, I'll have lost of exams next year, so we'll see!

[fedonciadale]

Do you think Cersei and Sansa will meet again in the books? How likely is one last meeting between the two of them, and in what circumstances could it happen? I would love to see their dynamic once again, especially when Sansa is older and has more agency and power. And what about the other Lannisters? Jaime thinks of her as his “last chance of honour”, but how will Sansa react, and what will their relationship and interactions be like? If Tyrion is to be Daenerys’ Hand of the Queen like in the show, do you think he and Dany will try to subjugate Sansa by reinforcing their marriage?

Hi there!

I'm not sure how Cersei and Sansa would meet again. I'm pretty sure Cersei will destroy the Great Sept (waiting eagerly for @sayruq's meta on Cersei's parallels to Samson) but I guess Aegon will drive her put in the books and then confront his aunt.

It might well be that Cersei doesn't die when Aegon takes KL and that she will die later, maybe even with Jaime.

I must admit that I would enjoy another meeting but I don't really see the narrative point of it. Sansa will be a better Queen but it serves no purpose to 'rubb that in' so to say. And for Cersei to live the horror of seeing her prophecy fulfilled does not depend on her correct identification of Sansa as the younger more beautiful Queen (if she even is that. I'm only sure it's not Margaery.)

Tyrion definitely will try to make the most of his marriage to Sansa and it will firmly put him against the Starks. I still have hopes that Tyrion is one of the Giants Sansa will slay. And that he won't survive or ends up exiled. That a Cersei - Tyrion meeting will happen seems to be clear to me.

As for Jaime. I always thought that he is the Lannister who survives and becomes Hand. I think he will meet Sansa. If he grabs the chance for honour is a point of contention. I think that GRRM will give him the chance. It might be a 'what if' scenario with Jaime avoiding the hard way of real redemption.

Many think he is not on a redemption arc. I personally think he is although it's only baby steps and only because he misinterpretes his father's legacy. I think if he would work his ass off for the rest of his life, the last one of his family would be a good redemption, but we'll see.

Thanks for the ask!

[aot-snk-4238]

My thoughts on AOT No Requiem (Fanmade Ending) Part 1:

With another chapter of this story coming out soon, I thought now would be a good time to share my thoughts on the first part. Before I do that, though, I have a few things that I would like to get off my chest.

A part of me hates that this project exists. Not because I find it disrespectful, but because it serves as a bitter reminder of what a complete mess this ending caused among many fans. I'm still in disbelief how things got so bad so quickly. First, you've got the people who hated it. People began turning on Isayama and calling him a terrible or incompetent writer, regretting ever getting into the series, insisting that it was worse than Game of Thrones, the list goes on and on. People who liked the ending are now endlessly referred to as "ending defenders" or more crude names like "Isayama cockriders," as though they're a bunch of incompetent fools who don't know the first thing about reading comprehension all because they just happened to like it. And then of course you've got the other extreme end of the spectrum where the ones who were disappointed are accused of not understanding the story or they're only upset because their favorite ship or fan theory didn't become canon. This, too, is very demeaning and invalidating for those who grew up with this series that they gave their heart to and cherished for so long, only to have it do what they felt was a complete 180 at the very last second that undid every part of the story they thought was special and unique. It's one of the hardest slaps to the face you can get as a reader and long-time fan, and while I can't fully relate to everyone's feelings, I can at least understand and acknowledge that it's there and it shouldn't be laughed at. Now with all of that out of the way, here are my thoughts and analysis of this fanmade ending and how it differs from Isayama's.

To start things off, I found that part 1 started off similar to how 137 did in the canon manga, with Armin and Zeke conversing in PATHS. The biggest difference would be kid Eren being transported there and seeing his older self. To be fair though, this chapter was only about half the length of what we're used to reading, so I'm sure we'll get a lot more in part 2 onwards.

While Zeke is enlightening Armin on the history of the earth and how the life form that attached itself to Ymir sought to avoid death forever, young Eren is in PATHS too with his older self, witnessing the moment Ymir found the tree and fell in it to become the first titan. At first, there is no dialogue exchanged between them. They just hold hands and watch. Meanwhile, Zeke is still talking to Armin about Ymir and how she continued to serve her oppressive master despite acquiring godlike powers that would allow her to obliterate him whenever she pleased. This is where the team working on this project attempt to provide their own alternate possibilities as to why this happened in a way that would make more sense than what we were given in the canon story in which she simply had a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome and couldn't let him go no matter how much he made her suffer.

So what are these new possibilities? They come in the form of a question, so their validity is not made absolutely certain, but they're presented as the most likely candidates nonetheless.

According to Zeke, she was unable to separate her own desires from King Fritz and was a lost girl who sought meaning. A place to belong. Tragically, King Fritz was the only connection she had in her life, so she clung to it with everything she had despite it being toxic and abusive. I could argue that these are the very reasons why she supposedly loved the king in the official manga, as explained by Eren in 139, but they weren't explained or touched on as plainly as they were here. I feel like they could have been if Isayama had just been given more time, but sadly the whole thing was rushed and underdeveloped.

Moving on, Zeke states that despite his efforts in trying to understand Ymir and her feelings, it was Eren who ultimately was able to get to her and offer her the choice of freedom. The next page transitions to young Eren standing in the clouds with his arms spread out and a smile on his face just like in the official 137, only this time 19yo Eren is next to him. Now I'm going to be honest here, this is where things started to get a little corny for me. Yeah. I know a lot of people hate that argument, but that's just how it felt to me. And before I say anything else, I want everybody to know that I am in no way about to mock anyone's fondness of this Eren over the one we saw in 139, even if it was a little over-the-top. It's perfectly fine to prefer one over the other, I'm just going to try to explain myself the best I can without coming across as harsh or unprofessional.

Eren is drawn in these panels to be a stone-faced, determined and unstoppable force who will "keep moving forward until his enemies are destroyed." This is the Eren that many people grew most familiar with throughout the series, despite his occasional breakdowns, but something about the way it was executed just felt a little too overdramatic and exaggerated. For me, the contrast between this Eren and the Eren we were presented with in 139 is too jarring. It came across to me as the fandom's idealized version of Eren, the "chad" Eren if you will, rather than Isayama's portrayal of Eren who is cold and determined, but has also been experiencing stunted mental growth ever since the day he saw his mother get eaten; side note: I know that Eren himself was responsible for his mother's death, but that's a discussion for a later time. Not only that, but the "keep moving forward" line starts to get overused at this point. We already heard Eren say this a number of times before 137 where this first fanmade chapter takes place, so I didn't find it necessary to include that at the end, but it seemed to be the writers' way of trying to reinforce Eren's ultimate goal.

Regarding the rest of the chapter, young Eren asks older Eren what Ymir is still waiting for after he showed her that she's not alone. 19yo Eren proceeds to explain that while he was able to make her feel something again, she still needs somebody to free her. He shows his younger self all of the visions from PATHS that he's seen so far, ranging from past events to alternate realities to things that couldn't be changed no matter what. Now there is only one path left that he strives toward. The one that he believes will grant him and his people freedom. This next line is the one that stood out to me the most throughout this fanmade chapter. Still talking to kid Eren, adult Eren says, "When you wake up, you will forget what you learned, but not what you felt here. This will all feel just like a long dream." Only when he kisses Historia's hand will it all come back to him. This line more clearly explains why Eren woke up crying in chapter 1, but couldn't remember why. Then he circles back to how he intends to carry out his own plan to end the cycle of hatred once and for all. Despite his efforts along the way, he couldn't change the flow of PATHS and save the friends he lost or prevent certain events from happening altogether, so he had to accept that sacrifices had to be made. In this case, he will have to literally sacrifice the world, much to Armin's horror.

To wrap this up, I'm going to finish comparing this to the canon 137, but since the first part of this project only covers the PATHS portion of it, that's where I'll stop as well. To save a little but of time, I'm just gonna be lazy and copy the first part of a quick overview of the chapter I found as part of the wiki:

So clearly, canon 137 starts off focusing a lot more on Armin and Zeke's differing philosophies and does not provide any further insight into Eren's ultimate motives like this one does, at least not yet. Armin and Eren are bound to face off soon in this fanmade version, but it looks to me like this time the writers are planning on flipping the outcome and having Eren come out victorious instead, especially when I remember the name of this project and what it's based on. I guess that means that in a way, I already know what's ultimately going to happen throughout the rest of this project. Whether it's going to be considered superior to the actual ending is going to depend on if its executed properly. I could very well be wrong about some of this, though. I want to give it a fair shot since these people have clearly put a lot of hard work and passion into this, so I will refrain from further judgement until we get the full picture. On a side note, I just want to say that the artwork is beautiful so far and I commend every artist responsible for their efforts. I also liked the song choice at the beginning and thought it set the mood pretty well.

Thank you to everyone who read the whole thing. This took me far longer to write than it should have because I'm not always good at expressing myself in a way that does not come across as confusing or contradictory. I will continue to share my thoughts as more content is released, which by the looks of it could be any day now.

[mixxoh]

Save You | One

Contents/Warnings: Swearing, Violence, Gore

Word Count: 7.3k

It had been a while since Veena had been comfortable. The constant feeling of fear and uncertainty had dwindled as the years went by but never went away, a reminder of that time three years ago in Shiganshina.

Veena was only a young teenager at the time of the attack on Shiganshina District. Living with her parents and older sister, she had a happy life living in the quaint yet busy district. Her parents owned a small shop around the corner where she often worked to pass time with her older sister, Olivia. Olivia had been the sweetheart of the district, captivating the hearts of men in Shiganshina and the surrounding districts. She is beautiful, ethereal, and has a way with her words that ensured the likeness of everyone she met. Those characteristics didn't pass well to Veena, however. Veena is pretty, but not beautiful. She's charismatic, but not as much as Olivia. She's well liked, but not as popular. In a way, Veena has always envied her older sister but ever since the fall of Shiganshina, the envy she held for her sister slowly diminished until it no longer existed.

Olivia and Veena were working in their parents shop when the Colossal and Armored Titans destroyed the wall. Veena was behind the counter counting the money they made so far in the day while Olivia was assisting the customers in the shop itself.

"Ven," Olivia called out. Looking up from the cash in her hands, Veena found her sister deeper in the store assisting a man, giving Veena a soft smile with a book in her hands. "Can you check him out? Give him the discount, please!" She asked while handing the book back to the customer, her smile growing larger.

Giving her a small smile back, she looks back down at the cash in her hands. Putting the cash in an envelope, she hears Olivia and the man exchange a few more words. The discount that Olivia gives out isn't much, really, only about 5% off, but she gives it out only to the nicer guys that hit on her. Their parents don't mind either, taking advantage of their daughter's good looks and personality to keep men coming back to the shop. Hearing the customer walk up the the small wooden counter, Veena glances up. Meeting his eyes, she gives him a smile while grabbing the book he handed out to her.

"Just the journal is going to b-"

Suddenly, a loud boom interrupted their conversation. Startled, Veena locks eyes with Olivia across the room, her eyes wide.

"Ven-" Screaming interrupted what Olivia was going to say to Veena. Veena's head snaps to the front windows of the store, breaking eye contact with her sister to see a mass of people running past the store. Now very much scared rather than concerned, Veena puts the book down on the counter and rounds the wooden counter to crosses the store to the set of windows, her gaze set on the chaos outside. Looking out to where the now even larger mass of people are running from, her fear only grows larger. As the smoke dissipates, Veena sees a large titan peering over the wall.

"There's no way..." Veena mutters to herself.

"No way, what? Veena!" Olivia screams at Veena, hearing Veena's muttering over the sound of screaming and shoes on pavement outside. Meeting Veena at the window, Olivia can feel her heart drop into her stomach as she sees the titan for the first time. "Is that...?" She mutters.

Their gaze is interrupted by another loud boom. Casting her eyes slightly downward from the large titan peering at them from behind the wall, Veena sees a large hole in the wall with titans now coming through into the district. Olivia must have seen the event too, quickly grabbing Veena's hand and squeezing it tightly. Veena was frozen in fear, not even wincing at the death grip that Olivia was giving her hand, while Olivia starting shaking in fear, feeling tears form in her eyes as she began to sob. After hearing her older sister's whimpers, Veena snaps out of her daze. Turning to face her sister, Veena grabs her attention.

"Olivia, we gotta go." Olivia's head snaps to meet Veena's gaze, her eyes wide as her heart starts to beat impossibly faster.

"Veena, are you crazy? We can't go out there, there are titans!"

"Are you kidding? We can't stay here, Liv." Veena observes the scene in front of the shop, trying to piece together a plan of what to do. Her mind was scrambling, her eyes fitting everywhere almost all at once, observing the people running by, the titans pooling into Shiganshina, and the large titan that continues to peer at the chaos it's caused.

"Crap." Veena jumps, surprised by the male voice behind her. She had completely forgotten about the customer in the shop. He's peering outside the windows with Veena and Olivia, his eyes wide and breathe hard and fast. This sisters watch as he rushes to the front door of the shop, forcing it open despite the large crowd of people running against the door. Immediately, he's knocked down as the rush of people push past him, no one caring about the grown man knocked to the ground being trampled on.

Olivia starts to sob harder, watching the man being trampled to death in front of her. Staring in horror, Veena struggles to think of a plan to get out of this situation. They need to leave immediately before the titans reach their location and they get eaten, but they can't leave through the front door or else they'll be killed by their own people during the chaos.

"Olivia, we need to go, now." Veena emphasizes to her sister. Turning towards each other, Veena has problem focusing as she watches her sister crumbles to the ground and break down in front of her.

"We'll, um, yeah we'll leave through the back door into the alleyway and follow the crowd. The alleyway should be empty. I'm sure the Garrison is doing something about the crowd right now." Veena concludes out loud. "Liv, let's go." Grabbing her hand roughly, Veena pulls her sister up to her feet and starts to make for the back door on the opposite end of the shop. Pushing the door open, Veena pulls a sobbing Olivia into the alleyway. Looking at the open end of the alley, another large crowd of people are rushing by. "C'mon Olivia." Pulling her sister's hand hard, Veena and Olivia start running to the open end of the alley to the mass of chaos. Meeting the crowd, Veena pushes herself and Olivia into the swarm and beginning sprinting with the flow of people.

It's absolute chaos, the sounds of people's screams and cries are deafening as they run to who knows where. The sight of everything are traumatizing itself, lone children crying for anyone to listen, dead bodies already littering the streets, and destroyed homes.

As they continue to run, Veena can feel Olivia pulling back on her arm. "Ven, what about mom and dad?" She manages to say despite her sobbing and her being out of breath due to the running.

Veena's blood runs cold, forgetting completely about her parents during everything happening. Truthfully, she's doesn't know what to do. She's conflicted, because if she risks finding her parents, her and Olivia's lives are even more at risk than they are now. However, if they were to continue with their current plan, they may not even see their parents again. Veena realizes she has to decide quickly seeing as they're approaching the market where their parent's were shopping at during the time of the break on the wall.

"Fuck, okay," Veena hesitates, "we'll swing by since the market's close, but we're gonna be quick, okay? We can't risk wasting too much time." She concludes as she tells Olivia. She can hear Olivia hold in her sobs, grateful that Veena is taking over in this situation.

Olivia had always envied her sister. Veena had always been headstrong and quick to think and move. She's incredibly strong mentally, never allowing things to bother her, or at least if it does, she never shows it for the sake of those around her. Olivia wasn't dumb like many thought, she knows many girls of the district were jealous of her beauty and charisma and many men wanted her. She knows her reputation in Shiganshina, but never truly understood why her sister didn't have the same reputation alongside her.

Honestly, Olivia was scared. Her mind is racing with thoughts of what will happen, what did happen, and is happening. She desperately wanted her parents here to help them and to make sure they were safe. Olivia felt immensely guilty right now, having her younger sister take over and protect the both of them during a time like this.

Turning right, Veena continues to pull Olivia throughout Shiganshina, weaving themselves around people, rubble, and bodies. After a few more minutes, they reach the almost deserted market. The market was a large area filled with booths of vendors selling anything you need or can think of, however, now it was just an area of destruction. The usually large, empty, area was now littered with broken booths, produce, bloodied bodies, and stone from the now destroyed wall. With barely any people making their way through the area, it was easier for Veena and Olivia to look around.

"Remember, Liv, make it quick. Okay?" Veena tells Olivia. After Olivia makes her understanding known, they separate their hands. Veena and Olivia begin to look in every spot they can for anything to identify their parents with. They look under pieces of booths, around corners, and even under rocks in their desperate search for their parents.

Suddenly, Veena hears Olivia release a scream. Snapping her head in Olivia's direction, just a few feet to the right of her, Veena finds her older sister with her knees on the pavement, her shoulders shaking as she sobs. Veena feels her stomach drop, immediately running in the direction of her sister. Meeting her, Veena feels her heart break at the sight in front of her. Sinking to her knees next to her sister, she too starts to cry at the sight of their parents dead bodies. Veena couldn't believe, just a while ago her parents were leaving the shop with a smile and a wave, claiming they'd be back soon.

Olivia starts sobbing harder and hides behind her hands, not believing her eyes while Veena sits still, tears running down her cheeks as she's frozen, not being able to process what she's seeing. Closing her eyes, Veena leans her head back, facing the sky, and inhales deeply. After she lets out a breath, Veena brings her head back down looking one last time at her parents. As Olivia continues to sob, Veena reaches for her parents' hands and grabs their wedding rings. She pockets them after slipping them off of their fingers and moves to stand up. As she leans back, she feels the ground rumble. Alarmed, Veena looks up and around, trying to find the source of the noise. Wiping the tears from her blurry eyes, the sound continues. Veena attempts to find it while she stands up, getting ready to grab Olivia and run. The rumble gets louder each time it occurs. Footsteps, Veena realizes. Now very alarmed, Veena attempts to get the attention of her still sobbing sister.

"Olivia, we need to go right now." Veena emphasizes, reaching down to grab her sister's shoulders, still searching for the source of the footsteps.

"Ven," Olivia manages to choke out, "I don't think I can go." Her hands still holding her head, covering her eyes.

Veena snaps her head to the back of her sister's, "Olivia, you're kidding me right? We can't stay here, let's go." Veena's grip on Olivia's shoulder's tighten as she attempts to pull her sister up to her feet. Olivia struggles, wanting nothing more than to be with her parents right now.

Veena's eyes sting with fresh tears, "Liv, please, we need to go."

"I can't leave them, Ven!" Olivia for the first time since finding their parents lifts her head from her hands and locks eyes with her sister's. Veena's heart aches more, if that were possible, as she looks at her sister with red eyes and tears threatening to spill out, but trying her hardest to hide it for her older sister's sake.

"Olivia, please, I can't lose you too. Let's go before-" Suddenly, Veena realizes the footsteps are much, much closer than just a minute ago. The thuds becoming louder and louder with each passing second.

"Hey!" Veena whips her head behind her to the sound of the deep voice calling out to them to find two Garrison soldiers running their way. "What are you guys doing? Get to the boats!" One screams as they make their way to Veena and Olivia.

A loud thud distracts Veena however, bringing her gaze to the area before her, locking eyes with a titan standing at the opposite end of the market. Her breathe hitches and her adrenaline rushes through her, her blood turning cold with panic at the sight of a titan just mere meters in front of them. Olivia either doesn't notice or fails to care, continuing to grieve their parents' deaths with her head buried in her hands.

The Garrison soldiers arrive to the sisters, noticing the titan standing just in front of them. "Shit," one of them mutters, "Smith, grab her and run before that titan decides to move for us, alright?"

The other soldier swallows thickly and nods, moving to grab Olivia's elbows to pull her up from the pavement. The soldier that spoke grabs Veena's shoulder, spinning her around and taking her frozen gaze from the titan that still hasn't moved.

"Are you okay? You both need to get to the boats immediately. Let's go." He says to her as he pushes her in the direction the soldiers came from on the opposite end of the market from the titan that continues to stare at them.

"Wait-" Veena tries to reason, not wanting to be separated from her sister.

"No, you need to leave now. Understood? The boats are waiting, you know where they are. We'll deal with her. Just focus on your safety right now." The Garrison soldier interrupted.

Veena knew he was right, in times like this you need to be selfish and think for yourself, no one else. However, Veena had already lost her parents and didn't want to lose her sister too. Veena's mind was racing with what to do, either she stays and risks her life, or she leaves and risks never seeing her sister again, whether that be death or being separated wherever they end up as refugees. She felt herself finally break down. Veena always prided herself in keeping her stress and fear hidden from others, in knowing when to step up and be there for everyone else. But she was tired. As the seconds ticked by, she felt her resolve dwindle little by little until she could barely hold herself up. She felt her eyes stinging with tears, threatening to slip out at any moment. Veena felt sick with herself. She's ashamed that the one thing she prided herself in is failing. She's ashamed that she can't support her sister who needs her right now more than ever, that all she wants to do is run and never look back.

"Liv, please, let's go." Veena pleaded with her older sister as her tears finally slipped out, staining her cheeks. She stood just a meter behind Olivia, watching as Olivia shook her head no. In a way, Veena was mad. She was extremely frustrated at her sister, her collected façade finally fading away at her sister's constant denial to save herself and her sister. Veena felt herself get angrier as the seconds ticked by. Why is her older sister acting like this, a child? Veena shouldn't be the one calling the shots, being the comforting hand in a time like this. She's only so old, being 15 years young and having to save her older sister's life as well as her own.

Veena sense movement in front of her, noticing the titan beginning to move slowly toward the group.

"Shit, Olivia, get your ass up and let's go the boats, now." Veena demanded with her sister one last time, her patience stretching thin as the situation gets worse and her stress level rises.

"Smith, bring this one to the boats," motioning towards Veena, frozen in fear as she watches the titan slowly but surely make its way towards them, "I'll carry that one to the boats. Move now!" the Garrison soldier ordered to the other. Immediately, Smith sits up and makes his way to Veena, grabbing her elbow and pulling her with him to the boats. Veena wants to struggle, wants to stay with her sister, but she can't find herself doing so, allowing the Garrison soldier to pull her in the direction of the boats. After taking a final glance at her older sister, Veena turns around and runs to the boats with the soldier, making a silent final goodbye to her family.

Veena was sitting on the soft grass outside, basking in the cool air of the autumn season as she looked at the calming scenery in front of her. She was enjoying the view when she heard footsteps behind her, the sound of flattening grass causing her to turn her head as she observed who had decided to interrupt her intended time alone that she sets time for everyday. The bright sun behind Veena had blinded her momentarily as she shifted her gaze to the intruder, quickly covering her eyes to protect them from the bright sunlight. She curses, turning her gaze back around to the view of the small town below her from the hill. Veena heard a deep chuckle resonate from behind, the person coming to interrupt her peace and quiet now just inches behind her. Immediately, she scoffs, knowing exactly who is now taking their seat next to her on the grass to join her.

She rolls her eyes, "Shut up, Marco."

He fully laughs this time, always amused by way of conversation. "Oh please, Fischer. You're a dumbass, I can't help it."

She felt herself crack a smile at that, "You're such a fucking smartass, Marco. Now leave me alone, you know 5pm is my alone hour." Out of everyone in the 104th Training Corps, Veena was closest to Marco. After the fall of Shiganshina, she had been alone for years, her witty and quick to engage attitude long gone. Veena never looking anyone in the eye, never stood up for herself, and never bothered to befriend anyone. In a way, Veena did this to punish herself. She greatly regretted what she did to her only sister, Olivia, leaving her to die in order to save herself. Veena had always hated selfish people, but had turned into one even with family involved. Her life had no direction during those years, only living to survive. Granted, there wasn't much she could do as a refugee. She constantly felt like a burden to those around her and the locals made sure the refugees knew that with either their words or their actions. Veena felt empty during those years, at some points just waiting to die, the loneliness and guilt eating at her constantly. Everyday, she wished to go back and do things differently on that day in Shiganshina.

She finally started to feel like less of a burden and more of a person when she joined the 104th Training Corps. Seeing it as a way out of being a refugee, Veena reluctantly signed up and started her training. As the days went by however, she started to actually enjoy herself. She made friends with those training alongside her and felt her burdens slowly lift off her shoulders.

Veena began actually looking forward to being a soldier, getting the opportunity make up for her sins and protect others rather than herself. She trained hard everyday, never backing down without a fight, in hopes to make it to the Military Police to live a quiet and comfortable life. Granted, it would be more rewarding for her to join the Survey Corps or even the Garrison, but even after the fall of her home district, she was still a selfish person on the inside now matter how much she hated it. Veena definitely wasn't the best cadet out there, far from it really, but her dedication to improve had caught the eyes of her superiors and fellow cadets to where she was seen as a respectable soldier, despite her skills. However, she wasn't as skilled as she had hoped, choosing to join the Survey Corps after failing to make the top 10 cadets during her training.

Veena felt Marco place his hand on her shoulder from beside her, giving it a small squeeze as he said, "Yeah, well, dinner's ready. I thought I should be a good person and grab you before all the food ran out and you just got the scraps."

Feeling herself scoff, she muttered out, "Fucking Sascha. I swear, she hasn't gotten better about this food thing after all these years, even with everyone beating her ass about it everyday." Looking to her right, she sees Marco pull a large grin, silently agreeing with her.

"She is crazy, that's for sure." He agreed. "Eat with me, we haven't eaten together ever since our first day of training."

Veena felt her blood boil, getting annoyed with what Marco was requesting despite knowing how his bestfriends act around each other. "Marco, you know I can't do that. Meals are Jean's time with you." She reasoned with him. She loves Marco, she really does, but she would definitely rather spend less time with him if it meant she could avoid Jean.

Jean and Veena used to get along, them two with Marco making an iconic trio. However, Veena and Jean's friendship ended suddenly, for reasons both of them couldn't identify. Now, it's a mutual hatred, both competing for Marco's attention. Granted, Veena knows she doesn't need to prove her friendship with Marco to Jean, very confident that her friendship with Marco is strong. Normally, she would find this type of behavior childish, wanting nothing to do with it. But for a reason unknown to her, Jean frustrates her to no end, to the point of her participating in his childish competition.

Looking to her right, she sees Marco frown, still looking at the scenery of the small town in front of him. "Yeah, I know." He mutters to his friend to his left.

She leaves it at that, feeling Marco's obvious disappointment but not wanting to get into it, knowing her attitude would get the best of her. Jean and Veena's constant competing has affected Marco the most, no doubt. Constantly being called to one of the two while the other is present, having no choice but to be in the middle of whatever their trying to prove to each other. It was hard on him, his usual nice and friendly demeaner running thin when the two of them are together. Veena obviously senses this, so she tries her hardest to either avoid Jean or ignore him, for the sake of her and Marco's sanity. Jean makes it hard to do so, however, loving how he can rile her up and see what reactions he can get out of Veena.

Veena moves to stand up, Marco's hand sliding off her shoulder at the movement. Brushing the dirt off of her pants, she holds her hand out for Marco to grab. After reaching his own to her, Veena helps him up. "C'mon, let's go eat before Sascha gets a chance at the food."

They make their way back to the Mess Hall, the sun now setting behind them. "I'll stop by your dorm after dinner for a little, I promise." Veena says, peering up at the tall man next to her. His happy eyes fit to hers, giving her a warm smile at the promise.

"Good," he says, turning his gaze back to the Mess Hall, "I miss you, Fischer, we don't hang out anymore." He informs her, the pair getting closer to the doors of the cafeteria.

Veena scoffs, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

Marco interrupts her before she can say anything, "I don't wanna hear it, Fischer, I know. It's always Jean. Why can't you guys just get along? Like old times?" Marco asks Veena, he voice softening. He really did miss his best friends getting along.

Veena sighs at that, not wanting to continue the conversation. "I don't know Marco, ask him." She stops the conversation at that. Arriving at the doors of the Mess Hall, Veena gives Marco a small wave and smile as she opens the doors and walks in, "I'll see you after dinner, I promise!"

Marco gives her a small smile back, following behind her and making his way to sit with Jean, Sascha, and Conny. He takes a seat next to Jean, saying his hello's and settling into the conversation at the table. Sascha and Conny are complaining adamantly about training tomorrow, not looking forward to the hand-to-hand combat that was scheduled for the cadets. Jean was listening to the two friends complain, saying things here and there, but never saying too much in the fear that their captain, Levi, will hear, who will not hesitate to enforce the harshest of punishments on his scouts.

"I cannot be paired up with Mikasa again this time." Sascha emphasized to their group, remembering Mikasa landing Sascha on her back every time they re-matched. "She's insane, I was sore for a week after that."

Conny nodded enthusiastically, "She really did beat your ass over and over again, it was impressive you didn't die from embarrassment, honestly." At that, Sascha smacks Conny's arm next to her, "Ow!" He exclaims, rubbing his somewhat sore arm.

"Annie's insanely good, too." Marco butts in, remembering her spar with Ymir just last week.

"Fischer's really good too, definitely not on the same level as Annie or Mikasa, but definitely a good fight." Conny commented, watching her spar last week with Christa. Granted, Christa wasn't much of a fight, but Veena made very good technical points.

Jean scoffed at this, "Please, I could take Veena in a fight." Glancing to a table a few meters in front of him, where Veena sat eating with Reiner and Bertoldt. This made Conny and Sascha laugh hysterically, eyes wide at the claim.

"Jean, you're hilarious! There's no way you'd win in a fight against Fischer, but I'd definitely pay to see you try." Conny managed to let out in between his laughs, his mouth set in a wide grin as he looked at Jean. However, Jean had his hard gaze already fixed on Veena, planning to prove his friends wrong by beating her at training tomorrow. Jean pushes up off the table suddenly, standing up and beginning to make his way to Veena.

"Oi! Jean, where are you going?" Conny calls out to him but Jean ignores him, already close to the table Veena resides at with Reiner and Bertholdt.

"Hey." Veena jumps, startled at the sudden intrusion that interrupted her conversation with her friends. Looking up, she sees none other than Jean making his way to her table. Instantly, her mood sours.

She rolls her eyes, "What do you want, Kirstein?" She asks, fitting her gaze onto his.

"Pair up with me tomorrow."

Her eyes widen, amusement starting to settle in as her lips start to curl into a smile. "Are you serious right now?"

This infuriates Jean, seeing her amusement in her eyes.

"Um, Jean, no offense, but I really don't think that's a good idea." Bertholdt butts in, sitting to Veena's left.

Jean scoffs, "What's that supposed to mean?" He accuses.

"Jean, listen, we don't mean to be rude to you when we say she would easily put your ass on the ground." Reiner points out from across the table, causing Veena's smile to turn into a grin.

She meets Jean's eyes again, "Why would you even want to pair up with me Kirstein?" She asks him, confused by his request.

"Well, Veena, everyone seems to think you're good at hand-to-hand combat." Her smirk grows at this, "But," he continues, "I disagree, you're average, at best."

Immediately, her smirk vanishes and her eyes narrow at him. At this, Jean wears his own smirk, satisfied with her reaction.

"Excuse me?" She asks him, offended. She can't believe his words, her ego definitely wounded as he insults the one of her defining features as a scout. They have the attention of the whole cafeteria now, everyone watching the scene unfold, nervous as to what's going to happen next. Veena and Jean are known to get aggressive with each other, constantly bickering, with some of their arguments almost reaching physical. This sort of thing was common for the group, Jean and Veena always finding something to argue about.

Veena chuckles darkly, standing up from her seat and leaning onto her hands that sit on the table in front of her, eyes set firmly on the man in front of him. Their eyes narrow at each other, trying to figure the other one out. Veena rounds the table, making her way to stand in front of Jean, never breaking eye contact with him.

"Y'know what, Kirstein, why even wait for tomorrow? We can find out right now if my 'skills are average, at best.'" She challenges, blood boiling and adrenaline running. They step closer to each other, challenging each other with their eyes as they continue to stare, eyes never fitting anywhere else. Veena can hear someone stand, the sound interrupting the silence that had fallen throughout the Mess Hall, shoes hitting the wooden floor as whoever it is comes closer to the pair. Eren put his hands on Veena and Jean's shoulders in an attempt to calm the situation.

"Guys," Eren said to the pair, "break it up before Captain gets here."

"Shut the fuck up, Jeager."

"Stay out of this, Eren." Veena and Jean snap at Eren at once. Eren backs off, removing his hands from their shoulders and huffs out a sigh, returning to his table with Mikasa and Armin.

"I'll take you up on that offer, Veena." Jean mutters to Veena, his voice quiet and deep.

Ignoring how he called her by her first name, Veena's eyes widen slightly at the sound of his voice, a shiver running down her spine and her body warming up, not expecting it to sound so deep. She's startled at how she reacted to his voice, realizing that she sort of liked hearing him say her name like that. Scoffing, she rolls her eyes, annoyed with herself.

Jean notices the actions. Thinking her attitude was a result of what he said, he feels his annoyance at the girl grow. He takes another step closer to her, watching as she instinctively takes a step back at his intrusion.

"Watch yourself, Kirstein, don't cross a line with me." Veena warns him, feeling uncomfortable with how close he's gotten to her, not enjoying how her body is reacting to him being so close.

Jean, of course, is unfazed by her warning, staying where he is. If he's being honest, Jean is worried. His body is on fire being this close to Veena and he doesn't understand why. He's never been this close to her, even when they were good friends, and a small part of him doesn't mind being this close to her. However, the majority of him had sirens going off in his head, telling him to back away before he did something dumb.

Before he was able to, though, the doors of the Mess Hall slammed open, revealing Captain Levi alongside a nervous-looking scout. His eyes fall on Jean and Veena immediately. "You two," his voice booms in the quiet Mess Hall, grabbing everyone's attentions immediately. Jean and Veena salute him, turning away from each other and facing their captain. Veena can finally feel like she can breath, the situation far too tense for her liking. "Come with me," Levi orders, turning on his heel and walking outside.

Nervously, the pair follow. After meeting Levi outside, he stares at them for an uncomfortably long period of time.

Jean and Veena stare back, too scared to move or say anything. After a few more long minutes, Jean begins to speak, "Um, Captain-"

"No," Levi cuts him off. "You'll speak when I allow it. Now, one of you, tell me why I just had a scout interrupt my meeting with the Commander so I can make my way over here to break up a potentially physical altercation, which, as I saw when I arrived, was very close to being violent." He orders at the pair, his eyes flickering between Veena and Jean, waiting for an answer.

Veena's heart starts racing, trying to get a grip to give her superior an answer before Jean ruins it by opening his mouth. "I apologize sir," she starts, her eyes meeting Levi's, "Our argument got out of hand, it won't happen again, sir." She apologizes, starting to feel ashamed she let Jean get to her and for things to get so far.

Levi is not satisfied with her apology, he will not condone behavior like this from his squad. "I will administer your punishments tomorrow," Levi informs, "now, finish your dinners and don't let this happen again. You're supposed to work with each other, not kill each other," He warns, "If you desperately want to fight each other, do so during training." He finishes, leaving the pair as he returns to his office.

"You're a dumbass, Jean." Veena breathes out after the Captain is a good distance away. She's exhausted from everything that has occurred in the past 15 minutes, feeling a headache take over. She turns, intending to walk back into the Mess Hall to finish her dinner before bed, seeing as she needs to shower and chat with Marco before heading back to her own dorm for the night.

"Fuck you." Jean counters, saying the first thing that can come to his mind as he trails behind her. She ignores him, and continues to her table. She plops back down on her seat, her elbows resting on the table in front of her. Veena brings her head into her hands, shielding her eyes from the views of everyone and massaging her temples.

"Are you okay, Fischer? What happened out there with Levi?" Reiner asks her, moving across the bench to sit in front of her.

She lifts her head looks at him, "He's deciding our punishments for tomorrow. I just have a major headache right now. I think I'm gonna leave dinner early and head the showers, I'll see you guys tomorrow, yeah?" She says to the two, standing from her seat.

"Yeah, see you. Let us know if you need anything." Reiner ensures, sliding her dinner his way to finish. She smiles at that, appreciating that the food won't be going to waste due to her loss in appetite. She waves them a goodbye, turning around and entering the hallway to head to her dorm to prepare for her shower.

Veena's mind is racing, if she's being honest, not quite used to her reaction to Jean being so close to her. She hates him, that fact is obvious, and the way her body started heating up at his deep voice and close proximity made her feel sick. She decided to ignore this for the time being, pushing it to the back of her mind. Arriving to the room she shares with Christa, Veena walks to her side and begins rummaging through her dresser. Finding her pajamas and grabbing a towel, she begins her trek to the showers. After her shower, she arrives back to her shared room, finding Christa also getting ready for her shower.

"Veena! Oh my god, are you okay? You seemed really stressed out after talking to Levi." Christa expressed her concern, wanting to make sure her roommate wasn't hurt as Levi is known to be harsh with his punishments.

Veena smiled at this, looking at her roommate, "Don't worry, Christa, I'm fine. He's telling us our punishments tomorrow. I'm just exhausted, is all. Jean infuriates me too much. Also, you know-"

"Yeah, yeah, 'Only call me by my last name,' whatever." Christa rolls her eyes. "But Jean can be a pain," Christa agreed, "be sure not to let him get you too worked up, okay? I'm worried about you."

Veena laughs at this, genuinely happy that she has someone to look after her. "Thanks Christa, but don't worry about me, I'll be fine." She promises to her roommate. After getting dressed, Veena turns her attention to Christa, watching as she grabs what she needs to freshen up before bed. "I'm going to chat with Marco for a bit, so don't wait up!" Veena says to Christa as she opens the door, heading out into the hallway. After hearing Christa throw out a, 'See ya!', Veena shuts the door behind her and begins her walk to the other side of the dorms that house the boy's rooms. After walking only a short few minutes, she arrives at Marco's door, giving it a knock. After a minute of waiting, the door swings open to Jean with his shower supplies being carried under his arm.

At the sight of Veena standing outside his door, Jean lets out an annoyed huff, turning his head to Marco, who was sitting on his bed reading a book, already having taken his shower. "You didn't tell me she was coming over, dude. Warn me next time so I can be out of here before I have to look at her."

Veena scoffs at Jean's annoyance, shouldering him to push into the shared dorm room. "Shut it, Kirstein, I'll only be a minute." She says, making her way to sit on Marco's bed with him.

Jean watches her pull herself onto Marco's bed, leaning her back against the wall next to him. "Whatever," he says, "Just be sure you're out of here before I get back." He finishes, heading out the door and shutting it behind him.

Jean couldn't help but feel annoyed. He hated how she was everywhere, whether that be in the same area as him, hearing her name slip out of other people's mouths, or now, even in his head. He hadn't thought of her like this until recently, tonight's events at dinner riling him up. Jean wasn't sure if it was due to annoyance or something else, but his body reacted to her in a way he didn't want to happen again, embarrassed by how caught up in the moment he got. Yes, he likes to push her buttons to see how far he can push her before she cracks (he honestly couldn't believe he almost got her to crack tonight), but tries to restrain himself from going too far, before things get physical or things are said that can't be taken back.

Veena misses hanging out with Marco, this fact becoming much more present as they talk on his bed. They were laughing, Marco bringing up what his friends were talking about at dinner tonight, specifically about what made Jean snap and challenge Veena. She was laughing hard as Marco recounted what Conny and Sascha had said of Jean when he left the table to find her. The door to Marco and Jean's dorm swings open suddenly, causing Veena to halt her laughter and snap her gaze to the front, startled by the sudden intrusion. In walks a topless Jean, his towel hanging around his hips and his hair still dripping with water. Veena's eyes widen an embarrassing amount, her eyes glued to Jean as he steps in the room. Holy shit, Veena thinks, her cheeks starting to burn. Immediately, Veena whips her head to the side, taking her eyes off of the man in the doorway as she shuts her eyes, Ew, she thinks to herself, disgusted that she had this kind of reaction to Jean.

"Fuck dude, put some clothes on next time, yeah?" She shouts angrily at him, her head turning back around to face him, eyes concentrating on his as she glares at him.

Jean scoffs, turning away from her as he rummages through his drawer to find some clothes to change into. "Shut it, Veena, I thought I told you to be gone by the time I got back. Plus, this is my room, don't overstep." He warns her, annoyance creeping up on him. It was embarrassing enough to have to walk around the halls in nothing but his towel, and now he really didn't want to be reminded that the reason he had to do that in the first place was due to Veena's presence. He had completely forgotten about his change of clothes, for some reason his mind wiping clean when he opened his door to her small figure waiting on the other side.

Veena rolls her eyes as she jumps off Marco's bed, smoothing out her clothes after her feet land on the wooden floor beneath her. "Alright, whatever, I'm leaving now." She announces to the pair, turning her body back in Marco's direction behind her. "See ya tomorrow, Marco." She says to him, giving a wave. She makes her way to the door, "Later, asswipe. By the way, stop calling me by my name, you know it pisses me off." She calls out to Jean as she opens their door, continuing through the doorway as she hears him respond with, "Yeah, whatever."

After pulling on his clothes, Jean climbs onto his bed on the opposite wall of Marco's, leaning his back against the wall. He looks at Marco, who pulled his book back out after Veena had made her leave.

"You still like her, don't you?" Jean asks Marco. Pulling his eyes from his book, Marco cracks a smile as he looks back at Jean.

"Oh please, Jean, that was ages ago, I'm over it. You never got over your crush for her, huh?" Marco cracks a smile, the memories of those years ago resurfacing as he turns his attention back to the book in his hand. Marco had always thought about this, assuming the reason Jean had changed his attitude with Veena was because of some dumb crush, but as the days turned into months and the months now turned into years, Marco isn't confident in his theory anymore.

Jean doesn't even hesitate as he scoffs, "I never liked her like that, Marco, you know that. She pisses me off too much."

Marco knows Jean is lying, "I really don't believe you, Jean. You know, it's okay to like her, she's cute, you gotta admit." Marco teases, enjoying this (one-sided) playful banter.

Jean is really annoyed now, "I'm not talking about this right now."

"Life for us is short, Jean, don't waste too much of it with petty arguments and being in denial, yeah?" Marco lectures. Jean lays down now, pulling the covers over intending to go to sleep soon. He can hear Marco sigh, putting his book on the nightstand next to him. As Marco puts out the oil lamp, hiding their room in darkness, Jean can't help but replay Marco's words in his head over and over again, annoyed knowing Marco is right about having a short life in this world.

Yay! First part! I'm not sure how many part there are going to be total, I didn't plan that far ahead. You can also find this work on my Wattpad and AO3 account! I'll be combining chapters here since I'm anticipating over 20 chapter so far and I don't want to have that many on here! Let me know how you think of Save You so far!

[thegingertrekkie]

Lost in a Dream World

Part 5: The Call

Trigger warning: mild sexual content

You feel like the wind has been knocked out of you. There's no way one person could've leveled a city like this. Next to you Iida is shaking with a mixture of despair and rage. He's crying silently, his face twisted into a glare as tears trail down his cheeks. There's a small vibration on your thigh and you grab your phone and put it to your ear without thinking. "Hello?"

"(Y/n)? (Y/n)! Oh tha--- --d are y--" the voice on the other end choppy but there. You stand abruptly and put hand on your head. You had a signal! "Where ---"

"I'm in an alternate universe!" You yell into the phone, startling Iida who was wiping the tears from his face.

"Whaaaat?" You recognized Kirishima's voice and there was a jumble of other voices in the background. You must have been on speaker "--ere ar- --u? We'll send someone to..."

"I'm not in Japan. I'm in another dimension! Another reality!" Tears are streaming down your face and Iida presses his cheek against yours trying to hear.

"The tiny mirror speaks!" He mumbles and you push him away, switching your phone to speaker so he can hear.

"Another reality? Are you fucking stupid?" Your gut twists. Its Bakugou.

"Shut up man they were in a quirk accident" Kirishima says in a hushed voice, the signal suddenly clear.

"Doesn't excuse stupid" Bakugou responds you can imagine the look on his face. "There's no such thing as alternate realities."

Iida's face has the scariest look you've ever seen in your life. You want to run from him but you're frozen to the spot. The knight grabs your phone so aggressively you worry it might break. "Bakugou" he hisses, his lips almost touching the phone as he speaks.

There's confused chatter on the other line.

"I-is that Iida?"

"(Y/n) Where are you?"

"We thought you were hurt!"

"Manual is freaking out!"

"Did Iida already find you?"

"Why is four eyes with you?"

"You deplorable, rotten, disgusting excuse for a human." Iida begins, his hand is shaking "If it was in my power I would slit your throat in this world and that world too. It would be a pleasure to paint the lands red with your blood. Your wretched existence should be wiped out throughout all worlds."

"Iida what the hell man" you hear Kaminari say

"This isn't our Iida! I'm stuck in another dimension!" You yell again "that kid needs to open another portal so I can come ba-"

"(Y/n)? You're breaking up!" You hear Midoriya's voice call out. Then the line is dead.

You felt deflated. At least they heard where you were even if they didn't believe you. Wiping away your tears you reach for your phone, but Iida jerks away from you. His eyes still have that imitating look. "You're in contact with him?" He looks like he wants to strangle you.

"That's not the same Bakugou!" You intended to sound cool and confident, but Iida demeanor has you trembling.

Iida spits at your feet and then throws your phone as hard as he can into the burnt landscape. You scream reaching your hand out toward where he threw your only connection to your home. Iida is saying something about it being an evil magic mirror but you can't hear him. Your vision is blurred by rage and your hands are clenched so tightly into fists that your nails are digging into the skin of your palm. Suddenly your fist has connected with Iida's, but you don't remember swinging at him. Pain shoots down your hand as you feel your middle finger snap against the taller boy's hard jaw bone. Then you're running as fast as you can into the flat burnt land. Your eyes scanning the ground for your phone. Surely it's broken now, but you don't care. You can hear Iida calling after you, saying it's dangerous, but you ignore him.

Your pace only slows when you see your phone in the soot. The screen is destroyed, but when you pick it up the screen lights up. You let out the breath you didn't know you were holding in and hug your phone awkwardly. You turn to head back to Iida but your leg catches on something. Your foot lands hard on the ground catching you from falling, but your other leg is still stuck. You look down and see skeletal fingers wraps around your calf. A blood curdling scream escapes your lips. You can already hear the metal scraping against metal as Iida runs to your rescue. Desperately you try to pull your leg away forcefully, but the bones dig into your flesh. It feels like your leg got lit on fire. The hand is dragging you into the ground while you scream with agony. Iida reaches you and pulls you into his arms princess style and starts running.

"(Y/n), it's ok. It's not real! This place is cursed, it makes you hallucinate."

Iida sounds eerily calm, but he's hard to hear over the sound of his face melting off. You twist and writhe in his strong grip, trying desperately to get away. Your body feel like it's burning and Iida's face looks like something out of a horror film. His body passes back into the forest and everything snaps back to normal. You aren't on fire and his face is how it should be, although he looks a bit shaken. Your whole body feels sweaty and you're a little light headed but unharmed. "...Iida" you begin but are stopped short by Iida's hand slapping you across the face.

"Don't do that to me!" He yells, grabbing your shoulders in a death grip.

Iida pushes you back into a large tree aggressively. You gasp and suddenly he's on you, kissing you passionately with chapped lips. Iida's large hands move from your shoulders to your face, pulling you up into him. You're trapped against the tree and the knight, but you're so startled and you can't move. This caught you more off guard than Midoriya. One hand grabs your leg and hooks it over his hip, you gasp against Iida's mouth and wrap your arms around his neck for balance. He moans against your lips and your head spins. Iida breaks the kids to grab your other leg, now you're off the ground and pinned to the tree by the weight of the knight. "What is happening..." you breathe right before Iida presses his lips to yours again.

"I'm kissing you" his response is muffled against your mouth.

You grab his face and force Iida's face away. "Yeah I know that but why?"

"Punishment for making me worry about you."

Iida's words make feel hot. His mouth is against your neck leaving a trail of kisses from your collarbone to your jaw and you turn your head to expose more skin to him. You moan as he begins grinding against you, waves of pleasure coursing through your body. Iida gently nips at your earlobe and runs his tongue along the shell of your ear causing you to squirm. "You like that?" He purrs into you ear and you moan in response. His teeth graze your ear again and you try to dig your nails into his back, but you only scrape against metal.

Iida sets you down, spins you and pushes you against the tree. The rough bark scratching your face as he pushes your face against it. His teeth are attacking your ear again. "This is our last night together so I'm going to make it out." His breath is hot against your ear and your body twitches "I'm going to make you scream my name"

(Next part will be a skippable nsfw section)