#also he looked low-key terrified the whole time bless
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76th Emmy Award Nominee for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Jack Lowden and wife Saoirse Ronan attending the ceremony.
#jack lowden#saoirse ronan#they look stunning together actually#sounds so good#they grown up so fast#bless this mess#slow horses#also he looked low-key terrified the whole time bless#(no disrespect to her we already know how much of an amazing acress she is and i'm just happy he's starting to get some recognition as well#scottish people are just built different#both my scottish boys were slaying it last night
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How would the ROs react if deep in relationship stage they accidentally ended up discovering an engagement ring hidden in the MC's stuff?
Cassandra: Would be so happy yet freaked out at the same time because she knows, that your going to know, that she knows. She is terrible at lying and will look so nervous around you until you actually do it. Will talk to her father and sort of subtlety question him if he was asked for his blessing because if he wasn't then her answer will be no until you do receive her father's blessing; that old man means to much to her for her to marry someone who he doesn't approve of. He just wants what is best for her.
Valeria: Will shriek like a little girl and hop around the room. She is so overjoyed that you would want to marry her and she is already envisioning the wedding. She would blather to her mother and would be practicing sounding surprised at your proposal when she is alone. Has a stupidly happy face for like week; then she would start dropping hints and low key pushing you to ask her already because she is not going to be able keep this to herself for long.
Tomas: He will be frozen stiff for a good while. He's put the ring back EXACTLY how he found it and sort of brood in a corner for a few hours. He might really love you at this point but marriage scares him, his parents were happy until they got married and then his mothers real colors showed after they said their vows. What if this changes things? He loves how you are now and he doesn't want to ruin that. The idea of being together forever is appealing but unrealistic in his eyes due to his personal experiences. He would avoid being alone with you and decline any romantic dates for a few months; he wants to avoid this as long as he can. He just isn't ready.
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Ludovica: She will pick up the ring and hold it in her hands as if it were the most sacred and fragile thing in existence. Tears are flowing down her face before she even realizes and she is just, stuck. She loves you more than life itself and this ring suggests that you would be willing to promise yourself to her, and want her to be only yours; forever. She is so unbelievably happy but also terrified; bad memories flood her mind and she is quietly breaking down, falling to her knees, cradling the ring. Marriage wasn't kind to her the last time around and she is terrified that if you were to marry her that you might die too, just like her late husband. She couldn't bear that.
She is convinced that she is cursed and that she is being selfish for falling in love with you. She doesn't want you to die, but she also doesn't want you to leave her. But all at the same time, she still wants that fairytale ending; she wants to have her strong, sweet prince/princess in her life, to love and to hold. To vow to love her forever, telling her that they will never leave her behind and actually really mean it. So, there she is, wide eyed and sobbing, holding the ring close to her chest. Your likely going to find her with the ring in the same place where she first found it. She will avoid your eyes but sob quietly, asking that you hold her; she is going to be too emotional for the next few hours before you both are going to be able to have the necessary conversation of what happens next.
Aurelio: He is stone faced for a solid ten seconds then he is moving it somewhere out of your reach. He has thoughts on the matter but he refuses to even acknowledge what he just saw or did, he's going straight into denial and going about his day as per usual. It won't be until like a whole month later that he is drunk enough to actually let his mind wonder about the ring and marriage. He is scared, but also happy, he loves you, and he wants a family one day as well. But this is a commitment, a huge one at that. He trusts you and all but what if it doesn’t work out and he is all alone again. Having loved then lost isn’t better that never loving at all in his opinion; whoever said the original saying is full of shit. But he does ponder on the life you two could have; the estate not feeling so lonely, maybe have the halls filled with the sound of laughter after you guys have a few kiddos running around... maybe it won’t be all bad.
It is with this conclusion he starts preparing, buys you a ring of his own and plans the perfect proposal. He is grateful he knows you wouldn't say no, if you were planning to propose to him as well. The fear of rejection might of been a forever roadblock in your guy's relationship now that he thinks about it.
Elio: He will ponder this for a bit. He isn't sure what the necessary purpose of marriage would be if you two are already in agreement of being romantically exclusive as it is. The whole thing comes off as an unnecessary hassle in his opinion, Elio mostly goes along with whatever you want but this time he might actually need to push back for once. He isn't a religious person and in fact has a big enough bone to pick with the church as it is. He is going to talk to you about this when you get home and your going to need some immense persuasive skill and use a whole lot of logic to win him over on this one.
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over on patreon Camille Alexander asked for evil women so you know i had to make a whole squad that mixed in a bunch of other prompts.
Amy Crook wanted bones, Siadea wanted hummingbirds, FyreNWater wanted 'soft, yet unyeilding, Triskadeka12 wanted discarded cocoons (though the one here is still in use), Beelezbuddy wanted lamps, and Kona Goodhart wanted 'wagtails sing'.
Fun Fact: all of these ladies can take on human form, at least for a little while, but drawing them in their more fae/monstery forms is much more fun.
These 4 ladies are the Queens of the House Of Returned Wings. It's a secret society where people who know in their hearts that they must have fae blood or were a fae in a past life learn to use their latent powers to take control of their lives, be their own bosses, and eventually cross the veil to regain their rightful status in the realm of the fae. One teeny tiny problem is that only people who can really prove they deserve to be uplifted get to come live at the House where they can mingle with the Queens and learn the true fae arts before they are sent across the veil to start their new lives. So much recruitment and strange rituals and labor intensive but low paying work to be done. So many paychecks that are desperately needed turned into envelopes full of cash that are thrown into fairy circles that appear in back yards and are gone as soon as backs are turned.
But those little bits of magic you get back are totally worth it. The queens give out such amazing wishes for loyalty. So what if the price becomes heavier each time and the wishes seem to wear off quicker and quicker with more and more disastrous results? That's only because the magic is borrowed from these incredibly gracious ladies. If you work hard enough you'll have your own magic back, and you won't have to worry about any silly time limit or spell corruption.
No, this isn't a super culty magic MLM. Why do you ask?
Let's talk about the queens.
First up is Ambrosia. Ambrosia spends most of her time in the ballrooms of the House holding elaborate parties, and she is a hungry person to her core. Hungry for entertainment, fine foods, noise, she's always flitting from thing to thing in a constant fight to stave off boredom. And everyone lets her do this because a bored Ambrosia is a nightmare creature. If the Dionysian key jangling she surrounds herself with constantly stops for more than a second, Awful Things happen. She doesn't usually kill because there are few things more boring than a corpse, but she has a plethora of cruel ways to get the party started again. People who live in her circle usually come to the House because they feel restrained or bored with their former lives and feel like through her teachings they can blossom into their real fully expressive and indulgent selves.
Too bad all these guests eventually just become party favors to break and throw away.
***
Raine lives in her elaborate greenhouse and rules over the gardens of the House. She is said to be the kindest queen, which considering the other queens still isn't that great. She doesn't really get into all the LuLaRoe-esque recruitment garbage, preferring instead to ask those who would follow her the important questions. Like how much fertilizer they can lift, do they want to see the truth of the world, are they afraid of death, ect. She's been working these special gardens for a long long time, seein' things grow and seein' things die, and she has so many secrets up on her greenhouse shelves that the universe hides in the dirt. If you make it to her gardens she'll greet you with open arms and help you find whatever you need, but you'll work the soil until your body gives out for the knowledge you seek, and that same knowledge will probably break you into a million pieces.
Can't work like that.
And the only thing left to do with a disciple who can't work is make some very fine fertilizer.
***
Grace spends most of her time wandering through her elaborate suites full of curated oddity collections and rare books, followed closely by her entourage of extraordinary followers. These are people unappreciated in their former lives, the best of the best of the best who's amazing knowledge, unique looks, incredible experiences, or special talents were suppressed, ignored, or even gravely punished by the outside world. And oh, Lady Grace knows how that is. As the most special, most beautiful, most smartest, most bravest, most strongest, most unique woman that ever lived (or will ever live if she has anything to say about it), she knows. That's why she takes the poor things under he wing and helps them transform from mere worms thrown to the outskirts by the jealous masses into the perfect selves they always were. They belong here, with her, among the greats. And they also belong to her. It's not like any of the poor things are actually close to her level, they're only mortals after all, they'll only waste whatever makes them special with old age or death. The cocoons are actually a blessing for them. She gets their youth and beauty and knowledge and precious memories, and they get to be a nice troph-...I mean...have a nice memorial in what happens to be her hunting trophy room, and know that that special spark inside them will live on forever in her.
Forever and perfect.
***
The 4 queens rule over the House Of Returned Wings equally and no one is really supposed to be over anyone else. But also Ms. Pied is totally running the show and the other queens are fully aware that they are mere underlings. Ms. Pied invited each of them to the house one by one and gave them their spaces to rule over. Ms. Pied turned them into what they are now. Ms. Pied is the reason fresh people keep coming in and no one ever bothers their little operation. What is she getting out of all of this? Who knows. Her group of followers is very small and consistent and they never really stray from her business offices if they come up to the House at all. She asks for nothing really. She just keeps things running.
And considering how things are run, that makes her terrifying.
#fae#the house of returned wings#gaslight gatekeep girlboss#body horror#long post#back on my writing bullshit y'all
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Marry Me Part 2 (Final)
The morning after Damian proposed he went looking for his brother and stepmother. (She had a knack for finding beautiful jewels and Dick was a hopeless romantic and would kill him if he didn’t let him help.
“Grayson, Selina, I require your assistance with something and no it cannot wait.”
They both look up at him from the living room couch, watching the news.
“Where’s Marinette? You never come down without her.”
Selina looks behind him as if she was hiding behind his larger frame.
“She's still asleep and will remain that way until at least noon since she stayed up till an ungodly number calling her friends and family back in Paris, but that is not important now. (He says obviously irritated at her unhealthy sleeping schedule) Last night I may have made a spontaneous decision and need your help with the next step.”
Selina and Dick both look at him questiongly knowing damn well what he's talking about.
“Do you regret it?” (Dick)
“Did you get her pregnant?” (Selina)
Damian sputters for a moment his face turning red.
“The answer is no to both questions. Just get dressed and meet me outside.”
He walks away muttering about how Selina ‘has no sense of shame’ and how Dick ‘was an idiot to think he’d ever regret it’.
Dick and Selina both share a smile before getting ready and meeting an impatient Damian outside.
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“I proposed to Marinette last night and I want your help picking out her ring.”
Damian immediately exits the car and heads inside as his brother and stepmothers excited squeals fill the air.
Soon after he starts browsing they both join him looking for the perfect ring to give to her.
After an hour of searching Damian looks up, waving both of them over.
“What about this one?
Selina comes over first, immediately nodding her approval.
“Oh yeah, a little subtle for my taste but Marinette will love it.”
Dick immediately agrees, cooing over how cute this whole thing is and tearing up that his ‘baby brother is going to get married and he will have little nieces and nephews running around in a few years’.
Damian completely ignores him calling over a worker to get the ring in the correct size before buying it. Walking out with the simple diamond ring with pink accents on both sides of the diamond in its velvet black box.
“Okay, before we get back home where you have access to your katana I need to tell you something.”
Damian pauses at the car turning to face his brother.
“I messed up really bad this time and I’m very sorry. I was snooping around last night trying to get pictures of you and Mari being all sweet together like I usually do, but Jason, Selina, and Tim all saw me at different times and decided to watch and take pictures and videos too. I posted a bunch of the pictures to what I thought was my private Twitter like I do when you two do something especially sweet, but it wasn’t my private one and I couldn’t tell because I was crying too hard. I’m really sorry, Damian.”
Dick sucks in a deep breath after his ramble refusing to look up and meet his little brother's eyes until a loud groan followed by a thud makes him.
Damian smacks his head against the roof of the car several times more before letting out another groan and looking at his favorite least annoying brother.
“You’re lucky that I’m still in too much of a good mood to want to kill you right now. Get in the car, I want to get back before Marinette wakes up and it's already around 10.”
Happily counting his blessings even though he's low-key terrified Dick hops in the back seat and lets Selina take the front.
The drive rather quickly and Damian wastes not time in running to his room where he left his Angel.
He breathes a sigh of relief noticing she's still very much asleep. Running back downstairs he makes her a plate of breakfast and grabs a platter to fill with food for all of the kwamis.
Rushing back up to the room he sets the tray on the nightstand before going over to her side, brushing some hair out of her face, making her grumble and burrow deeper into the covers in an attempt to stay asleep.
He laughs softly sitting down beside her stroking her cheekbone.
“Angel, wake up. I brought you breakfast.”
She grumbles, reaching out from the covers to wrap his arms around her waist and snuggling into his side.
“At least let me put the ring on you. I need to talk with Grayson anyway.”
She thrusts out her left hand, still refusing to open her eyes.
He sighs, sliding the ring on her left finger and placing a kiss to her forehead before standing up to leave.
“I love you, Habibiti.”
The following noise that is probably an ‘I love you too’ but could also be a ‘shut the door’ is the only response he gets before he goes to find his brother(s).”
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“Grayson, Todd, Drake, you three are fixing this entire internet mess that you started and that is final.”
Sounds of protest erupt from the room as he takes his leave to feed the animals.
“Hold up! Dickie-bird is the one who fucked up, why do we have to fix it?!”
Jason pulls him back by his hoodie, thoroughly pissing him off, to face them again.
“Because, Grayson would be too emotional and sappy and just humiliate himself and make the situation worse, Drake knows how to navigate the internet better than the rest of us and, you are always happy to talk about Marinette and I need you to keep Drake awake long enough to fix this.”
Jason nods his head accepting the explanation when Tim interrupts.
“And why can’t you do it?”
A smile that puts all three brothers on edge takes over his face.
“I have a wedding to plan.”
Followed by him immediately shutting the door and going about his chores.
BONUS:
*Marinette wakes up, eats breakfast and changes before noticing the new rind on her left finger*
Marinette: HOLY SHIT I’M GETTING MARRIED!
Marinette:JASON! JAY! I’M GETTING MARRIED!
Jason from down the hall: I KNOW! I WAS THERE WHEN HE PROPOSED!
*Marinette immediately calls her friends and family and start crying while Chloe, Adrien, Kagami, Alix, Kim, and Max all immediately buy plane tickets*
*Jagged cries and also buys plane tickets for him and Penny*
*Luka goes with Jagged*
BONUS 2:
*Two weeks before proposal*
*Marinette running to Jason (her self-proclaimed older brother) and jumping as he catches her*
Marinette: JAY!
Jason: PIXIE-POP!
*Damian groans setting her bag on the floor*
Damian: Must you two be so dramatic? You saw each other last month.
Jason: Piss off Demon Spawn! She's MY baby sister
*Cue pissed off and tired (because he was so excited to see Mari that he couldn’t fall asleep last night) Damian *
Damian: Yeah? Well she's MY wife
*Cue immediate pause and lots of blushing from aforementioned couple*
Damian: I meant fiancé!
Damian: NO! GIRLFRIEND! I meant GIRLFRIEND!
*Marinette exe. has stopped working*
*Damian rushes over and throws her over his shoulder*
Damian: I meant GIRLFRIEND, and you wipe that smile off your face Grayson!
*Damian runs to his room with Mari and eventually they fall asleep together while the batfam collectively loses their shit down stairs*
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Wilhemina Came To A Halt
Requested by anon: “Wilhemina confesses her love to reader on New Years but the fireworks are too loud”
A/N: thank you anon, I really loved writing this fic <3 Shoutout to @mckennamayfairgoode ; your writing has contaminated mine, there is SO much burning in this one x
Word count: ≃ 5 200
When Wilhemina pressed the doorbell, her heart was beating faster than it had ever beaten in her whole life. Her palms were embarrassingly clammy and left glistening shapes on the head of her cane.
A few weeks ago, this state would have terrified and revolted her. Now she accepted it as her new normal whenever she was about to see you.
The truth was, she – the door opened and there you were, flashing the most beautiful, warmest of smiles at her that annihilated all the thoughts in Wilhemina’s brain. She felt incredibly small and incredibly tall at the same time, as if she could melt at your feet and touch the stars.
A few weeks ago, Wilhemina would have been incredibly embarrassed to think that she was the kind of person who could smile giddily at another person for an incredibly long time, and later remember it as one of the best moments of her life. The knowledge was only slightly unpleasant now. It was made easier by the fact that you always, always did the same. Just stood there before her with a smile shedding light on her and your gaze lost deep in her gaze as her heart thrummed in her ears and her fingertips tingled.
Moments like this were too short and lasted forever. She cherished every one of them, collected them selfishly. For the truth was, she was head over heels in love with you.
The revelation had come to her all of a sudden, bursting free after months of denial. She had no idea what to do with it. She carried the love in her, a burden, stifling her and scratching her and painting the world in hundreds of bright colors. She saw beauty in things she had always despised or found ugly. Once, you had exclaimed at the elegance of a flying butterfly – she had fallen in love with butterflies.
Paradoxically, every other human being she found even more pathetic and idiotic than before, since she knew now that they didn’t have the brains to see how beautiful, how charming, and how kind you were. How could they set eyes on you and not lose their heart? There was only one explanation: they were morons. Hopeless idiots. How empty their life was, how empty hers had been. She despised every single one of them who did not fall at your feet or build a shrine to you.
From Monday to Friday she would wake up with an eagerness to see everything that you would touch, to hear everything that you would say to her at work. She would do her hair and apply her makeup with a beating heart that almost made her forget the ache in her back. Painting her face had acquired a new meaning: she no longer only did it to hide the loathsome but also to please, to enchant, in the hope that maybe you would find a glimpse of the beauty you sowed every day of your life. Surely if your fingertips touched her cheek, her skin would light up and shine, and even the world, taking one look at her, would blush.
The weekends had to pass as quickly as possible. And then they no longer had to, for you started inviting her to your place, on picnics, to the pictures. Talking to you was easy, listening was a blessing. She found that when she was with you, secrets slipped from her mouth and your hands never hurt, but cradled instead.
So here was the truth. Wilhemina was in love. Deeply, infuriatingly. With all the passion that had lay dormant within her. The tiny part of her that had always held on to hope had known that the day she would fall, there would be no restraint: she would love with all that she had. Her world shook and reshaped itself around you. It chose a new sun, and its light reached dark corners that had never been warmed up before. It threatened to thaw the ice in her head and in her chest. It was dripping already.
Now she treasured the beating of her heart. You had given her life value just by looking at her.
So it was with the weight of her love enlightening her from within that she took off her coat and handed it to you with a small smile. And the people in the room who turned to glance curiously at her as she entered, saw the glow and smiled to themselves, as one does who feels in the air the warmth of the upcoming spring.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” you beamed at her; then added low in her ear: “I don’t know half of the people in this room, and I’m not sure the other half I like.”
A small laugh ran past Wilhemina’s teeth.
Your aunt had given you the keys to her flat for New Year’s Eve, since she was away for work and her windows offered one of the best views on the fireworks show. You had invited a few colleagues and friends from Kineros Robotics, who in their turn had invited a few friends of their own. Before you’d known it, you had lost control over the guest list. But you had shrugged good-naturedly, and merely said that this kind of thing happened all the time.
“Is that the man who tried to sell Jeff and Mutt sexy underwear for the robots?” Wilhemina asked, nodding at a man who sat sipping wine on the couch.
You pressed your mouth against Wilhemina’s shoulder to stifle a giggle. “Yes,” you breathed. “He came with a suitcase.” You straightened up, met her eyes with a flash of mischief in yours. “I’ll ask him to try them on on you.”
Wilhemina waved a hello at Mutt just so she could turn her face away from you as heat flooded her cheeks. She didn’t fool you, though. You bit down on a grin, and wrapped one hand around her wrist as you asked her, as casually as possible, if she wanted a drink.
Wilhemina’s eyes flicked down to your hand, as wide and shining as they always were when you touched her. As your fingertips stroked her skin, her cheeks turned that soft pink that was now and forever your favorite color.
“You are such a tease,” Mutt had once told you, a little reproachfully, after he had passed a very flushed Wilhemina hurrying out of your office. “The poor girl’s gonna die of yearning.”
“No she won’t,” you had answered, a fond, dreamy smile on your lips. “Part of loving her is waiting for her. I bet you she doesn’t even know what’s happening to her.”
Wilhemina tapped her cane on the floor. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it earlier,” she said, eyes avoiding yours.
“That’s alright,” you smiled. “You’re here.” You tilted your head to the side, trying your best to fight your grin as you waited for her to collect herself and meet your gaze again. “Care for a drink?”
Wilhemina followed you across the room, finally taking in her surroundings. There were people sitting on the couch, people on the balcony, people speaking in groups everywhere. Some of them were wearing fancy, glittery clothes; some were drunk; others were dancing to the mellow indie music that tried to make itself heard over the chatter of voices. Cold air wafted through the French windows that led out onto the balcony. Wilhemina’s eyes fell curiously on a group sitting on the floor before she realized they were playing spin-the-bottle. A boy and a girl pulled away from each other with disgusted laughs.
“Shall we?” you teased, with a mock bow.
Wilhemina shook her head urgently, confusion and nervousness written all over her face. She hurried away from the group as fast as she could, and only stopped when she had reached the kitchen.
You fixed her and yourself a drink, then took her on a tour of the flat. The place was quite small, and very crowded, which gave you an excellent excuse to stand as close to Wilhemina as possible, and brush her arm or shoulder with yours whenever you could. Once, as your fingers grazed her hip, Wilhemina almost tripped over her own feet, and you had to cough to try and hide the smug giggle that escaped you.
Wilhemina delighted in the art reproductions you pointed at, the yellowing plants you bent over quizzically, the carpets your feet threaded, the battered old book you picked up from the floor. Even the handle of the bathroom door your fingers closed around looked to her like the most beautiful handle she had ever seen. She skimmed her fingers over it when you were not looking. Part of her was growling that she was being so very ridiculous, but the voice was very weak, drowning in the sea of joy and giddiness that was her mind.
You took her hand as you led her outside onto the balcony. Wilhemina shivered, so you draped a blanket over her shoulders, which she accepted, even though she hadn’t shivered from the cold.
“Look at the view,” you smiled dreamily, leaning against the railing. “It’s so beautiful.”
“Yes,” Wilhemina breathed, looking at you.
Perhaps, she thought, if she shivered again despite the blanket, you would press her close against you for warmth.
She chased the thought away. But it came back, singing and drunk.
She rubbed her arm exaggeratedly.
“Are you cold?” you asked, straightening up.
“A little,” she answered harshly.
“Then let’s go back inside. I don’t want you to catch a chill.”
“I’m fine”, she retorted, still as harshly.
You eyed her confusedly for a second or two.
Wilhemina rubbed her arm again.
A small, amused smile danced on your lips.
“Lucky for you,” you said, closing the space between her and you, “I’ve been told I’m a very good human heater.”
You wrapped your arms around her waist and pressed your front against her back, your chin coming to rest on her shoulder. Wilhemina was very, very stiff against you. But then, slowly, her body relaxed, as if melting in the warmth that oozed out of you and seeped through her clothes
You stayed like this, watching the city lights. Faint echoes of techno music drafted from somewhere on your right. You heard voices, a car honking. You couldn’t tell whether the quick heartbeat you could feel thrumming in your chest was Wilhemina’s or yours.
When you glanced up at her, her eyes were closed. She looked so different from the Wilhemina you had met so many months ago. There had been talks at work, that certainly Mutt and Jeff were paying her or fucking her to be kinder. Once, she had walked in on you pressing ice on your swollen cheek after you had thrown yourself at a big, tall man who had been making dirty jokes about her. Her fingers had skimmed your skin worriedly, big dark eyes scanning your face for any sign of pain. You had lied, invented an excuse as to why you had punched someone twice your size and weight. But God - no one would slander her on your watch.
You rubbed your chin on her shoulder, and stopped yourself at the last second from pressing a kiss on her cheek. Her skin was flushed from the cold and looked so incredibly soft.
“I’m gonna have to go back inside,” you grumbled. “I’m supposed to be the host.”
Wilhemina hummed her disapproval, eyes still closed.
“Will you manage without me?” you chuckled.
God, if you could just – nuzzle her cheek. If there could be no consequences. No risk of her stiffening, closing up, snapping at you, running away. If you could just – press a kiss.
You watched as her eyes fluttered open, and scanned the jeweled darkness in front of her.
“Of course,” she scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
You gave her a gentle squeeze before you slowly peeled yourself off her. The process was almost physically painful, as if she were a part of you now, a new layer of skin. Your heart protested.
You weaved your way back inside to greet a few people who had just arrived. Wilhemina followed you and planted herself in a corner near the front door. She pretended to scan the small crowd, but her eyes regularly sought your face. Mutt and Jeff came up to her to share a few words and then disappeared into the kitchen. The rest of the guests, most of them Kineros Robotics employees, stayed away from her.
You crossed the living room carrying a bouquet of roses and smiled at her. A few minutes later, as you stepped back into the room talking on your phone, you looked her way and waved. Wilhemina moved to another corner when hers got invaded by two tipsy girls. Next time you appeared, you scanned the room questioningly, and your expression only relaxed when you found her again.
Wilhemina had never before in her life been someone else’s first priority. The idea that she was now, made her feel weird things she couldn’t quite comprehend. As if she were floating, or made of golden light as that of a summer evening. She could have burst into tears or bounced on her feet. Instead she returned your smile, and averted her eyes shyly.
Dear Lord, Wilhemina Venable didn’t get shy. What was wrong with her? She was being ridiculous and pathetic, and what’s worse, she was putting herself in danger. There were people in this room. People with eyes to see the soft pink of her cheeks and the nervous shaking of her hands. She should walk up to you, proud and threatening, tap her cane on the floor to scare you and then she should say something mean, something like “I love you” - no! she scolded herself, with a shiver of terror. Something mean! Something that would hurt! And she would say it loudly, she would make it boom and thunder for everyone in the room to hear and remember how strong and ruthless Wilhemina Venable was.
Here, you were waving at her again, with your face illuminated, and you were weaving your way to her through the crowd. Wilhemina tightened her grip on her cane and raised her chin and thought very hard of what she would say as you came closer and closer, you were here! right next to her, so very close she felt the air shaking and dancing in the joy your presence brought. A hand touching her wrist, warmth everywhere, she was melting into a puddle at your feet. You smirked knowingly at her and she felt herself blush, heart beating madly as you repeated what she had been too entranced to hear the first time: “Mina, I wanted to introduce you to my friend Anne.”
Mina! Her heart burst.
A breathless “Yes” was all she could manage to say.
God, she was pathetic. As more heat flooded her cheeks, as she noticed the amused, knowing expression on Anne’s face, something else rose in her. Something cold. Something all too familiar, that slid up her veins winding like a snake to beat up her heart. It left it bruised and crying.
Wilhemina raised her head and tried to swallow back the self-hatred. Like waves when the tide is coming in, it reached further.
You saw the change on her face and in her posture. You frowned, faltered a little under the sudden hardness in her eyes. As Anne characteristically started to ramble, you stubbornly held Wilhemina’s scowling gaze, and you wondered, as you had dozens of times before, how you could protect her from the blows when the blows were dealt by herself. How to cut open her chest and carefully remove the self-hatred. Put it in a box, throw away the key. And the sadness and the fear. Remove those, too.
Someone called for you, so you excused yourself and left Anne and Wilhemina together. The former set curious eyes on the latter and asked her questions in a cheerful, chiming voice. From behind her shields, Wilhemina spat out answers that soon weakened Anne’s enthusiasm. Anne refused to give up so soon, though. You had told her so much about Wilhemina, spoke of her with such light, such bright happiness in your voice and eyes that a few incivilities weren’t enough to send her away.
And Anne – Anne had been touched by you. She had been made sublime. Try as she might, Wilhemina couldn’t find ugliness in her features or clumsiness in her gestures. And Anne spoke of you with such kindness, in such high terms – when you came back, she let out a happy squeal and took your hand in hers.
Utter, complete idiot, Wilhemina tried to convince herself. Except Anne wasn’t an idiot. She too was aware of your supremacy. Wilhemina could see it, the way her eyes shone with admiration, the way she touched your arm and laughed too loudly at something you said.
Anne sat between Wilhemina and you on the couch as you people-watched and exchanged jokes and sipped your drinks. As minutes ticked by, Wilhemina felt herself slip into silence. Anne’s body next to hers was sending forth burning mockery that made her want to shrink back and curl in on herself. She sat with her back ramrod straight and her eyes glazed, fingers nervously playing with her empty glass, as thoughts she tried to silence nagged and mocked in her ears.
At one point, Anne stretched her body, arms curling up towards the ceiling and back arching elegantly, and Wilhemina had to look away to stop herself from throwing insults at her or bursting into tears – she didn’t know which would be more likely.
At 11:55, people started to sing excitedly. A young man grabbed Anne by the arm and led her into the kitchen. You stood up, and offered your hand to Wilhemina.
She hesitated one second, out of pride, before she slid her palm against yours. You laced your fingers with hers.
Those who were brave enough to stand in the cold had clustered on the balcony. You playful pushed a man to the side to request a place at the railing. The available space was small, so Wilhemina’s side was pressed against yours.
The city spread out below her was vibrating with happy expectation. She heard laughter, she heard joyful cries, she heard music. The cold breeze blew on her cheeks but the cold didn’t harm her. She was made of fire when your body was touching hers like that.
The streetlights went off, and an excited shiver ran through the city. You leaned in against the railing. Wilhemina turned her head to look at you.
She watched, mesmerized, the fireworks in your eyes.
Your lips parted in silent admiration at the lights, and Wilhemina wondered whether anyone had ever looked as beautiful as you did in this moment. She doubted it. Jealously and selfishly she leaned closer to you to keep this secret treasure hidden from the rest of the world. You glanced at her, and your gaze lingered admiringly on her face before you shook yourself and focused your attention back on the fireworks show.
When blue blended with red Wilhemina’s breath hitched, and something in her swelled like a wave. It was the genuine happiness on your face, the firmness of your body against hers; one more blue, one more red.
As the next fuse whizzed up the sky, Wilhemina breathed out, “I love you.”
Paw paw paw, mocked the lights. The noise swallowed her whisper.
“Y/N!” cried Anne, appearing out of nowhere with her eyes shining and her steps bouncing, “Y/N! New Year’s kiss!”
Wilhemina took a step away as Anne cupped your face and pressed a kiss on your lips which you, with a giggle, returned.
Red. Just red, this time.
Wilhemina watched the fireworks as they whizzed and exploded, her eyes glazed and her heart ice. She decided her heart was ice and she couldn’t feel anything anymore. Just a prickle - but as you broke the kiss, and Anne, with beauty, laughed, and captured your lips with hers again, the prickle became a blow that broke the ice.
A flower of gold bloomed in the sky and immediately died. Wilhemina looked at the golden dust as it floated downwards.
Something settled in her chest, something new that must have been lurking beneath the ice. It ached. Her fingers started to shake.
It was the finale, she hoped, looking at the fireworks, it couldn’t get worse. There were pink and green and yellow and gold. There were bruises in the sky, and smoke for the lights to choke on.
Like an automaton, Wilhemina turned and walked away from the balcony. She let her brain take over since her heart was dying and making her fingers shake.
In the living-room were people with their faces pressed against the windows, people kissing in corners and on the couch, one woman crying. No one noticed her as she walked past. No one saw her, except a little boy who curiously glanced her way, and immediately lowered his eyes with an awkward, nervous expression, to resume playing with his toy.
Wilhemina had almost reached the front door when her right ankle hit the corner of a coffee table. Pain shot up her leg, making her hiss. She made to bend down and press her palm against where it hurt, realized her eyes were filled with tears, vision swimming, objects and colors blending. Her grip on her cane was shaky and weak. She would sit down just for a second, she thought – Hell no, she scolded. She would push on, put on her coat, reach the door, open the door, and Lord in Heaven if she so much as showed the slightest limp she would, growled the hatred in her chest, the hatred biting everywhere, she would walk for miles in the dark till the pain in her back felt like agony, like molten metal pressed to her skin from within. Shoulders up, chin up, back straight. She forced herself to focus on the pain throbbing in her ankle. Her palm pressed against her chest.
Just as she was about to move again, a hand fell on her shoulder.
“Where are you going, Mina?” you sang in her ear. Your breath tickled her skin and made her shiver. “You missed the last part of the show.”
Your hand gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. She could feel your touch, burning her through her clothes, spreading warmth from her shoulder to her toes. It set everything inside of her on fire, brought everything back to life and made her feel – she didn’t want to ache.
And yet – how addicting a feeling. She had never felt so alive, body and soul so violently vibrating with life and want.
“Is everything alright?”
You had walked around her to plant yourself between her and the door, scanning her face with a frown of worry deepening between your eyebrows.
From the living-room behind her rose voices. They broke into a song. Applause, laughter. Your eyes stayed on her.
“Do you want to leave?” you asked. Nervously you shifted your weight on your feet. There was guilt flickering in your eyes. “I can give you a lift, if you want.”
“I drove here,” Wilhemina heard herself say.
Your eyes flicked to her lips, before meeting her gaze again.
“I know,” you said with an awkward chuckle. “But if you’re too tired to drive, you know, or just would rather I drove you, I could – what I mean to say is, I really don’t mind. Or you could stay here,” you added quickly, eyes shining at the thought – it was just the light, Wilhemina told herself. Just the light. “There’s a spare room with clean sheets. If you’re too tired to drive.”
From far away, a firecracker exploded. Someone in the living room screamed excitedly.
“Did you like the show?” you asked.
“I don’t care about fireworks,” Wilhemina answered. She had meant to speak coldly, but the ice in her had melted under your touch and she was made of heat.
“You don’t? Is that why you didn’t stay to watch the end?”
More firecrackers. The sound reminded her of her defeat. More bruises in the sky, more green.
“I didn’t want to bother you and your… girl,” she heard herself say. Her throat closed up behind the words, as if in protest, refusing to let any more words out ever again if it was going to hurt like that.
“Oh,” you laughed, waving a hand to dispel the thought, “she’s not my girl. We’re both single and you know, a New Year’s kiss is always nice.” Your eyes smiled – but it was a sad smile. “And you know how it is. You rarely get to kiss the person you really want to kiss.”
You laughed, nervously, ran one hand through your hair. Your other hand was still on her shoulder, holding her as if you were afraid she would disappear. Your eyes fell to the floor as a blush bloomed in your cheeks – and then, you looked up again, and watched her with a new, curious expression Wilhemina had never seen before.
“Did you get your New Year’s kiss?” you asked.
Bold. There was boldness in your voice that scared her.
Wilhemina pressed the head of her cane to her stomach protectively, and tilted her chin up to look taller and stronger. She veiled her eyes, shielded her heart, built up her walls – to no avail.
Your face broke into a soft, sweet smile that was so loving, so incredibly fond, it reached the last dark corner in her.
“Oh, sweetness,” you breathed.
Sweetness! Before she could register what was happening, you had leaned in and pressed your lips against hers. And the world shattered.
She didn’t feel the kiss with her lips, but with her whole body, every inch of her tingling and melting and igniting all at the same time. The sweetness and the softness coursed through her and made her forget she had ever been cold, ever been hurt and hated. You rubbed your lips against hers, chaste and warm and dry. She couldn’t move, couldn’t think. All she could do was feel.
When you pulled away, there was something cheeky and victorious shining in your eyes. A laugh ran under your nose as you saw the completely stunned expression on Wilhemina’s face.
“Breathe,” you smiled, stroking your thumb over her lower lip.
Wilhemina closed her mouth and inhaled shakily through her nose. She couldn’t understand what had just happened. She tried to process it, but it didn’t make sense. She had turned away, walked away, and you had run after her, touched her shoulder, called her sweetness – you had called her sweetness! – like a balm to her heart, and then the tingles and the fire and the melting…
“Breathe,” you repeated fondly.
“Did you just…?” Wilhemina whispered.
Your smile grew, sewn with warmth and affection. “Yes,” you whispered back, cupping her face in your hands and holding her gaze as she searched your eyes to try and make sense of it all.
Joy sparkled in the black of Wilhemina’s eyes when her mind finally caught on.
“Could you…” Her voice trailed off.
“Yes?” you breathed expectantly.
“…do it again,” Wilhemina breathed back.
You didn’t waste a second. Your mouth met hers again, bolder this time, desperate to taste and to love. A soft moan pushed up Wilhemina’s throat and wrapped around your tongue. She dropped her cane to clutch your collar, lost her balance. You wrapped one arm around her waist and pressed her against you for support.
“Someone’s quite eager,” you giggled against her lips.
She only whined and kissed you again.
And just as you were quite sure you would lose your head, just like you had lost your heart, her body tensed and her hands pressed on your shoulders to push you away.
You refused to let go of her waist, afraid she would fall without support and way too addicted to the feel of her already. Part of you had to be touching her, now and always and forever.
You met her eyes.
For a few moments Wilhemina only stared at you. And then to your utter dismay, her gaze hardened and her face closed up.
You searched her eyes worriedly, but it was like trying to see the ripples of the waves on the ocean’s surface at night under an overcast sky.
“Did it make you feel better about yourself?” Wilhemina spat – voice so cold, so very cold when she had been so warm pressed against you just a second ago.
“Excuse me?”
“Kissing the girl no one wants to kiss. How so very kind and heroic of you.”
She swallowed, blinked; a glimpse at the moon through a hole in the clouds.
“I do not want nor need your pity,” she snapped.
Your thumb started stroking her hip, to ground her, to call her back to you.
“I did not kiss you out of pity,” you said softly, with a reassuring smile. Wilhemina only glared. “I’m not playing with you, I promise. I’ve been wanting to kiss you for months.”
Wilhemina let out a disbelieving laugh. “Then why haven’t you?”
You leaned closer to her, and smiled again when you heard her breath hitch.
“Because you would have run away,” you whispered. One of your hands came up to cup her jaw and greet the warmth and softness of her again.
And just like that, the wind blew and dispersed all the clouds; and the full moon poured out its light on the ocean. And then you saw.
What you saw wasn’t the peaceful floating of stars on lazy waves. There was no white foam grazing sand with a gentle, sleepy sigh. What unfolded instead was a scene of terror. Half-drowned sailors clutching pieces of wood, corpses sinking, screams under the indifferent eye of the moon. And you on the shore, shivering, watching mesmerized and terrified the bodies thrown this way and that, the arms flailing and reaching out towards the sky.
You swallowed past the lump in your throat and gave Wilhemina a smile, so sweet, so tender – just for her? She felt herself tremble.
“You would have freaked out and pushed me away, wouldn’t you? A little like you’re doing right now.” Another smile, so full of adoration it pulverized every single one of her remaining defenses. “Except now,” you went on, voice getting lower to share a secret, “now you know what you want. Don’t you, sweetness?”
Yes, whispered Wilhemina’s heart. Instinctively she pushed the thought away, questioned it. Yes, her heart insisted.
“I love you,” was what she said.
The smile that you gave her lit up the night.
Had the world always been so bright? Had every single thing always been so beautiful? Wilhemina’s heart was bursting with so many emotions and above it all – love. Love was singing inside her. She was shining.
Tag list: @mssallymckenna @supremeinlilac @pluied-ete @rainbow-hedgehog @pearplate @angelxsarahp @paulawand @asktammyr @peggycarter-steverogers @coconutlipss @saucy-sapphic @thesupremewife @paulsonpills @vintagepaulson @billiedeansbottom @lilypadscoven @winslctrg @simpforpaulson @venablesgirl @mckennamayfairgoode
#this is the worst title ever I know#ahs#sarah paulson x reader#wilhemina venable x reader#wilhemina venable#fics#ahs imagines#sarah paulson
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haikyuu fic recs — the most beautiful, lovely, breathtaking masterlist (vol. I)
so i’ve been binging fics to cure my sadness, and i thought that these select masterpieces were too magnificent to not be plastered on every billboard ever. some tore my soul into shreds, while others melted said shreds back whole, but all of them made me feel some form of sheer, unadulterated love, so. please enjoy! 🥰⛅️✨
note: all of these fics are exquisite and you should read all of them, but if you’re short of time, those with ☆ are my all-time favourites!
daisuga
butterfly in the subway by bigspoonnoya ☆ | T
Sugawara Koushi has no idea he's already in love with the man he's supposed to hate.
i lovelovelove how all the concepts tied in together like a perfectly wrapped gift
also very wholesome, made me feel so inexplicably warm. like, love can exist everywhere!!! despite everything!!! that’s just so inspiring
i revisited this many times, i think it was (one of) my first haikyuu fics and honestly. it set the bar so high and i have no regrets
you’d fit my lonely arms so perfectly by boxofwonder ☆ | G
“Oh. You're. Not Asahi.”
Calmed down enough that he can speak again, Daichi takes a deep breath, his smile settling on his face easily and wide.
“Not as far as I know, no.”
-
Suga accidentally calls a stranger instead of his best friend, tells him all about his burned batch of cookies before realising, and that particular mistake might turn out the best one he ever made.
major, major fluff
the buildup!!!
god this made my yearning for love so much worse
the perfect stranger by downmoon | T
There’s a man standing outside Suga's door.
Scratch that. Start over.
There’s a man he doesn’t know standing outside his door, holding his sleeping nephew in one arm, with another kid clinging tightly to his free hand.
so domestic please read the entire series from start to finish it has my whole heart
shoyou and tobio as their actual kids 🥺
these two parents are so in love it makes me wanna cry
asanoya
silica sand by lilien passe ☆ | G
Overworked, over-stressed programmer Azumane Asahi works on the top floor of a Shinjuku skyscraper. Nervous around his coworkers and terrified of the long drop on the other side of the window, Asahi falls into a miserable routine, only to have it broken one day by a simple message on the outside of the glass.
PLEASE. so well-written it makes my heart glow and ache simultaneously
made me ascend into asanoya heaven
such a brilliantly unique concept i love it A+
qué syrah syrah by loudlucy | M
Asahi wants to be a Master Sommelier. It's the highest honor in wine service, and the certification would allow him to live the life he's always envisioned for himself. Too bad the certification test is notorious for being the world's most difficult.
Most people fail their first time taking the exam, and Asahi is no exception, but he has more difficulty than most dusting himself off and getting back on his feet. Enter Nishinoya, a young man who shares his same dream, and who believes in their goals so fiercely it forces Asahi to embark on a delicious and sensuous journey of viticulture and validation.
AKA The Wine Tasting AU that literally no one even knew to ask for.
NOTE: You Do Not Need to Know About Wine to Understand This Fic!
another super unique concept!!! (´∀`=)
my god their chemistry is amazing
the writing made me feel things ngl
stop my bones from wondering by cerasi ☆ | T
After graduation, Asahi hides from the world and needs help from a few sources to find his way back.
i want to write sonnets and sing ballads for this fic, it’s that beautiful
as always, Top Notch Writing *chef’s kiss*
no but i seriously... can i kiss the author? asking for a friend 😳👉🏼👈🏼
iwaoi
star-crossed by starlitcities | T
“I never thought I’d see the day that I’d envy a human,” Oikawa admits, showering himself in tiny suns, because he can actually feels those, like a fusillade of warm kisses on luminous skin that leave marks. To humans, they’d be freckles. Skin stars, Oikawa calls them. He didn’t make that up, a human did.
“Who created the rule that we can’t touch, I wonder,” Iwaizumi ponders, floating heedlessly through space.
“Maybe it’s because we can fly. Humans dream of flying, right?”
“I don’t think so.”
gsjsgsjshsjshsjsj star!iwaoi
they’re LITERALLY STARS
beautifulbeautifulbeautiful i love how the author conveyed the beauty of touch and humanity 🥺🥺
please bless yourself further with the sequel sun-kissed
conquering the great king by suggestivescribe ☆| E
Iwaizumi blinked his gaze over to Oikawa, "Last time was supposed to be a one time thing," he said, voice low, lacking some conviction.
Oikawa's lips twitched into a smirk and he brought them hovering just over Iwaizumi's, "One time thing, Two time thing, what's it matter as long as it's not a Relationship thing?"
yes.
in fact, this entire series (breaking the rules) features daisuga, kuroken, asanoya and it’s SO GOOD. every single one.
but anyway, character development!!!!! plot!!!!!!!!! writing!!!!!!!! i’m here for it all
tsukkiyama
campfire in your chest by deanpendragon ☆ | M
Kei realizes in their second year of high school that he’s probably been in love with Yamaguchi since they were ten. However hopeless he might be in handling that situation, Kei prays he’s at least not as hopeless as Hinata and Kageyama. But he just might be.
SO BEAUTIFUL
i am also a sucker for anything with stars, moons and all the love in between
no words to describe this work of art please just go read it and be blessed
under the lilac tree by raewrites | G
there’s a lilac tree in Kei’s backyard.
gorgeous in its simplicity
softtsukkisofttsukkisofttsukki
not as grandiose as the rest but the love written into every word, action and character is absolutely show-stopping
kagehina
saffron and cayenne pepper by dontsaycrazy ☆ | T
Cooking is hard. Even if you have your very attractive, very grumpy neighbor there to help you.
-
In which Hinata's lack of cooking skills are a danger to him and others. Luckily (or not), Kageyama is willing to teach him, if only for the sake of avoiding any burned down apartments.
the essence of their characters were captured so well and yet it’s like they’re completely new characters too? author, whoever you are, you totally owned this
this made me ship kagehina so hard
fluff! cuteness! lots and lots of cooing!
kuroken
the galaxy is endless (i thought we were, too) by cosmogony ☆ | T
soulmate
/ˈsəʊlmeɪt/ • noun
A person who was made from the same star as you.
-
// Kuroken AU where the last words your soulmate will say to you appear on your skin when you turn 16, and how Kenma and Kuroo learn what this means over the course of their lives.
ahhh here it is. beautiful, heartbreaking, soul-emptying agony. you want angst? choke on this, and your tears later on.
no but seriously please read this if you haven’t you won’t regret it at all i promise
written from kenma’s perspective so you experience every depth and multitude of emotion he does and it’s so raw and- brb imma go cry for a sec
knot in my heart by hearthope | T
There’s a picture. Kenma blinks, looking at the little calico cat, being held up next to the face of a guy with stupidly messy hair and a crooked grin.
Cute.
The— the cat. The cat is cute.
Just the cat.
-
Kuroo starts spending a lot of time at the flower shop Kenma works at. Kenma definitely isn't into him.
okay so i like it when authors unravel a normally stoic character’s full scope of emotion and give them depth, sue me.
anyway, back on the fluff train!
i absolutely f*ck with flower symbolisms, cats and bitchy best friends who have dirt on each other. the layers of romance, friendship and everything in between is so prettily developed 10/10
bokuaka
the jacket you never returned by daisuga ☆☆ | G
He leaned over, kissed Bokuto on the cheek, and smiled bitterly, eyes watery.
He will never remember. Not now, not ever.
What they were will now forever be forgotten.
-
"You used to call me Keiji, Koutarou."
YOU USED TO CALL ME KEIJI, KOUTAROU!!!!!!!!!!
i beg you to listen to Spiegel im Spiegel when it’s first mentioned in the story please
i read this and screamed through my tears for a solid 1.5 hours. i rarely cry.
no f*ckin regrets though i read this thrice already and it hurts so good every time
rules by conesofdunshire ☆☆ | E
In which Akaashi Keiji is an overworked accountant who stumbles upon Bokuto one night playing the piano in the lobby of his work. Bokuto is different, that much is obvious. But with such supreme musical talent and a smile so dazzling it rivals the sun, there's just something about him that brings Akaashi back every night.
this fic. this fic has my whole, broken, sobbing heart and laughing soul
gorgeous. breathtaking. magnificent.
bokuto is so WARM and akaashi is so STRONG and they both find the solace they need in each other and it’s all i want for me 😭😭😭
in another life by littleluxray | T
Sleeping didn't come as easy as it used to. Bokuto knew this, and now Akaashi did, too.
The hospital AU that no body asked for, but that I took upon myself to write.
this is a famous fic that i doubt any seasoned haikyuu reader wouldn’t know, and RIGHTLY SO BECAUSE, the PAIN. the pain. the pain.
i could feel my lungs shrivel up and my chest cave in on itself. fatigue and rest are things i struggle with too so this whole story resonated with me from start to finish, and it broke me. in like, the best, most revitalising way
i would read this again but it still haunts me at night. i need to heal from the first time before i have the guts to try one more time HAHAHA 😆💔😭
tea-stained polaroids by dalyeau | G
“I'm gonna date that,” Bokuto declares solemnly, and Kuroo throws a plastic spoon at his head.
mmmmmmm pretty photographer + personalised coffee cups + cute baristas = diabetic fluff fic
i smiled so much throughout this you have no idea. cheeks achey but so good
i may have squealed a little at the ending
kurotsukki
moonfall by batman | T
There is no unlearning Tetsurou, after all. There is only leaving him.
-
(Five things of Tetsurou's that ended up in Kei's home, and one that never left.)
the writing!!!!!! is pure beauty!!!! sheer grace!!!!!!! the construction of the AU and the romanticism and hsjsgsjshsj
didn’t cry but. heart ache and bittersweet smiles are another level of misery that is just as fulfilling
yea just pleasepleasepleaseplease go read it thank you and have a good day
hidden gem by realmSpinner | E
Things get complicated when everything you thought you knew about a guy changes, and they get even more complicated when you actually start liking those changes.
That guy working with you AND becoming your neighbor? That's just a cherry on top of the cake of confusion.
this AU was refreshingly different, and amazingly so
top!tsukki??? sign me the f*ck up
the whole plot, man. perfection.
pings by barfs ☆☆ | T
[5/02/16, 3:50:17 AM] Tsukishima Kei: Please wake up.
[5/02/16, 3:50:23 AM] Tsukishima Kei: I hate begging. You know I hate it.
[5/02/16, 3:50:34 AM] Tsukishima Kei: I bet you’re snickering at that, wherever you are.
[5/02/16, 3:50:53 AM] Tsukishima Kei: But, it keeps hurting and I don’t know why and it feels like shit and I know you could tell me why, but you’re not here and I would really appreciate it if you’d just wake up.
[5/02/16, 3:51:02 AM] Tsukishima Kei: You’re laughing at that too, aren’t you.
[5/02/16, 3:51:10 AM] Tsukishima Kei: Dying is probably up there in the list of top ten shitty things you’ve ever done, and you’ve done a lot of shitty things.
god.
you already know what’s coming, and yet. when it comes.
how the f*ck did the author make grief beautiful????????? (at the expense of me dying along with kei and everyone else i guess)
this fic will ruin you and bury you under all your pain (i hope you’re ready)
but also put you back together with the “sequel”
kyouhaba
close to the chest by darkmagicalgirl | T
It takes Yahaba thirteen years to realize he's different from the other kids, one to figure out how to hide it, and two more to learn to be happy just the way he is. Yahaba's journey ft. an extremely annoyed Kyoutani, best friend in the world Watari, and loads and loads of good senpai Oikawa.
cause i’m (not) alright with the slow, burn~
no fr, take slow and burn very seriously
overthinking yahaba? i understand. i do.
again, such an amazing fic; 10/10 recommend
safe here by crossbelladonna ☆ | M
“Raids are routine work,” Kyoutani tells to Yahaba before he can air the question. “Sometimes there is no sleep done until we accomplish something, say kill a certain ghoul. I guess they’re still going through the possibility that people in the accident are still alive huh?”
Yahaba quirks a smile, pushing his mask up his head.
“You’re alive.”
Kyoutani looks at him intently and all of the things that they’ve gone through for the past month seems to flash in his mind.
“Yes I am.”
i haven’t watched tokyo ghoul but i understood everything perfectly. such is the power of f*cking kickass writing
*cue ugly crying and a lot of unresolved angst*
like the grief??????? ruin me please thank you 🙏 (i think i’m a little masochistic)
rare pairs
mannequin men by surveycorpsjean ☆ | M
[bokuto/akaashi/kuroo/tuskishima]
The modelling world is full of hungry wolves, constantly clambering over the other, snarling and desperate. They fight, and they kill, trampling over anything in their path.
In this case, Akaashi fell in love with the wolves.
i did not expect this to be good, and it wasn’t. it was SPLENDID.
akaashi is so enamoured with them from the get go i love it
a tiny bit of angst that stabbed me in the heart, but the happy ending soothed it (thankfully, because if there wasn’t one i will sue)
characterisation, writing, plot development; everything is great. can you tell i’m running out of synonyms for ‘beautiful’
feel like gold by heronfem ☆☆ | T
[bokuto/akaashi/kuroo/kenma]
In which Kenma is unapologetic and comfortable with who he is, Akaashi learns a lot about himself in a short period of time, Kuroo is wildly in love and an eternal survivor, and Bokuto remembers that love doesn't cure mental illness, but having a support system sure helps a lot.
Or, the one where 4 young men get together, and are helplessly, hopelessly, utterly in love despite everything.
e.e. cummings?? poetry??? f*ck yes
so beautiful. i’m so star-struck by this fic it’s simply stunning
there are no words to fully capture how worth your time and heart and mind reading this fic is so please. do yourself a favour, and fall in love with this fic with me
the sky and guilt are the only feelings i have left by oopsthisisqueertoo ☆☆ | not rated
[bokuto/akaashi/kuroo]
Akaashi is at his wits end. He feels nothing. He's quickly crumbling as a human being. He wants nothing but sweet release of death. In his fourth year of college he drafts a plan for his suicide. He is to graduate, publish writing for others to be inspired by, and slip quietly away. Shortly after, he meets a dog walker named Bokuto who asks him out and Akaashi reluctantly agrees. Nothing matters anymore and he treats Bokuto like an obligation. Until he's not anymore.
TW: SUICIDE ATTEMPTS & DEPRESSION
this was... this gutted me entirely and filled my body with too many shades of agony
arguably one of the best haikyuu fics i’ve ever read
so beautiful in the most painful way fathomable; strongly recommend
april to may by surveycorpsjean | T
[bokuto/akaashi/kuroo/tsukishima]
They're an odd family.
The four of them? Parents?
But still, they're a family.
So they'll support each other until the end.
aaahhhhh third gym as parents 🥺
so much fluff. i also love april and may
they’re still so in love there’s love in every millimetre of this fic :”)
that’s it for now! i’ll add more if i come across anymore good fics. i hope you enjoyed this list! if you have any requests/fic recs, or if u just wanna chat, feel free to just ask! hehe 🥰 k aight bye~
#haikyuu!!#haikyuu#fic rec#beautiful#writing#ao3 fanfic#daisuga#kuroken#bokuaka#tsukkiyama#kagehina#third gym#iwaoi#fic#reference#hq
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His Dark Materials - Season 2 Episode 7 *FINALE* (Thoughts and Rambles)
We have a LOT to unpack here oh my god oh my god
When I say I was screaming and yelling during the episode, I mean I was LITERALLY screaming and yelling
This post is mostly screeching and capital letters, you’ve been warned
“So cold” “life or death meant nothing” - well shit. Accurate description of a Spectre attack damn
I didn’t know what those creepy noises were at first and I was sat here absolutely TERRIFIED because it was creepy as fuck. Then I realized it was cliff ghasts because they said something that I recognized from the book and I was like “oh shit”
Pan and Will talking is the sweetest omg
The fact that Pan told him that Lyra thinks he’s as brave as King Iorek Byrnison :’)
“She’s the best friend I’ve ever had” “You’re her best friend too” - STOP, MY HEART
Lyra was awake and heard the whole conversation :3
“I’m no longer an aeronaut” :( “I’m an insect” - LMAO
Hester and Lee’s banter remains my favourite thing and now it’s bittersweet tbh...
“You could never be an insect, Lee” “Okay, hare” - bless them
Marisa finding where Lyra was staying and then finding Lyra’s coat?? And crying with it pressed to her face?? :’(
In case I haven’t mentioned it already, I am incredibly gay for the witches/their aesthetic/costume. Absolutely beautiful queens, all of them
Oh hi, it’s Mary and the two kids!
The fact that Mary helped them find their adults :’)
Also, “We like you miss” - BLESS
I’m kind of confused as to whether the blue flower petals are important or if it’s just her smelling them? IDK
“I’m close to my father, it’s time I found him” - OOF OKAY UMM ARE YOU SURE
“I let my best friend down” - Noooo Lyra, no you didn’t! :( Your dad is a terrible parent and killed him, that’s not your fault!
“Maybe this is how I let you down” - Well done, Asriel and Marisa, you’ve fucked up a perfectly fine child is what you’ve done
Will telling Lyra that she hasn’t let him down :3
That witch turning up because she was trying to warn Marisa about the spectres, only for Marisa to torture and kill her... oof
FUCKING MONKEY I CAN’T DECIDE HOW I FEEL ABOUT HIM
“She’s MY daughter” - Okay, damn, lady...
“EVE. She’s the mother of all” - OH FUCK YOU TOLD HER. OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK
THE SPECTRE ATE HER DÆMON OMG NO THIS IS HORRIFYING WTAF
Seriously, the way the witch went so grey and lifeless and just fell to her knees and down... Urgh, my stomach is turning
Just when I thought I hated the monkey again, he starts whimpering because he’s afraid of the Spectres :(
“Stop whimpering” - DAMN MARISA YOU ARE A STONE COLD BITCH HUH
Pan being the damn voice of reason and telling Lyra they should stay with the witches like yes, Lyra, listen to him for once!!!
Okay but why are the Magisterium soldiers lowkey dressed like German soldiers from one of the World Wars???
I’m not really surprised that BBC left out the detail of Ruta and Asriel fucking when she found him to be honest XD
So the witches think that the Æsahættr is a person but it’s actually the KNIFE. AND THEY DON’T REALIZE. RUTA YOU DON’T NEED TO GO ANYWHERE, IT’S LITERALLY RIGHT THERE
“...That’s not my dæmon.” “Run.” - OH SHIT OKAY MY WHOLE BODY JUST TENSED UP
So umm Lee got shot and FUCK NO FUCK NO I’M NOT READY FOR THIS EMOTIONALLY THANKS
I LITERALLY DO NOT WANT THIS TO HAPPEN OKAY
“You’re either with me or against me” Umm he’s your dæmon?!?!
THE WAY SHE SCREAMED AT HIM OH MY GOD SHE’S FUCKING TERRIFYING HOLY CRAP
“What are you frightened of?” - oh, I don’t know, Marisa, maybe because YOU FUCKING SCREECHED AT HIM. MAYBE HE’S FRIGHTENED OF YOU
Also I love the detail of Marisa getting onto her hands and knees, sort of crouching and mirroring the monkey’s body language. I just love the parallel
The way the monkey flinched from her when she went to touch him omg :( No dæmon should be THIS afraid of their person (or at all?!?!)
Honestly, I find this series’ portrayal of Marisa fascinating tbh
“We have to do whatever it takes to keep her safe” - Umm, like maybe drugging her and hiding her in a cave for months? 🤔
Also in case I didn’t say this before, the fact she has complete control of the Spectres is fucking scary and always has been from the very first time I read the books
Okay so Lee is fully aware that he’s going to die if he stays behind but he does it because he knows that it’s the best chance of making sure that Lyra ends up under the knife’s protection (because Jopari will find her). All Lee wants is for Lyra to be safe and that hurts my heart so much, he loves this child so much :’(
“I love that little girl like a daughter” - LEE STOP MY HEART IS ALREADY BREAKING AS IT IS
NO NO NO NO I AM NOT AND NEVER WILL BE READY
Oh hey Red PAN-da (sorry I know I keep repeating that joke but honestly LOOK AT HIM)
“Once I change, you’ll stop changing” - OH SHIT. So we’re having THAT conversation then
“What do you think you’ll be?” “A flea I hope” - LMFAO I LOVE IT
“Is it Will that’s changing you?” “I think” - FORESHADOWING FOR AMBER SPYGLASS ANYONE?!
All the meanwhile, while Lee is dying and shit is going down, Ms Mary Malone is just chilling in a cave on a mountain by a waterfall, just reading
I literally struggled to watch Lee’s final scenes. I literally didn’t want to watch it because I cried reading it in the book, and I knew I’d be the same here
The fact that Lee HATES taking away people’s lives but he says “it’s theirs or Lyra’s”... I love him. He loves her so much.
“Think about anything, think about bacon!” - LMFAO I LOVE YOU HESTER YOU ABSOLUTE GEM
THE BULLET CLIPPED HIS SCALP AND I HAD A HEART ATTACK
“This is my fault, isn’t it?” - NO HESTER NO DON’T YOU DARE BLAME YOURSELF DARLIN’, YOU ARE THE BEST AND WE LOVE YOU AND LEE LOVES YOU
I do this everytime I read the book and I did here even though I know what happens, but I was praying mentally that maybe Serafina would reach Lee in time... just maybe...
I’m really sitting here crying over Hester and Lee on a Sunday night, love that for me
Hester limping :(
“Don’t you go before I do” - FUCK YOU BBC AND PHILIP I’M SOBBING MY EYES OUT
“Oh how far we flew” - STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT FUCKING NOW I SWEAR-
I literally yelled and cried out “NOOO” when Hester faded away and Lee died. I am so upset even though I KNEW it was coming. I am literally not okay.
Oh god no Will, now is not the time to be walking away from Lyra and that witch
Also why is that witch asleep on guard?? Come on, love, do better, it’s not like these are the two most important children in all the universes....
To be fair to Marisa, I’d feel pretty invincible if I were climbing up a mountain while the Spectres were guarding me/on my side
WILL AND JOHN FINALLY MET AHHHH
“I was told I’d find my father here” - YEAH AND THAT’S HIM WILL ASDFGHJKL;
I’m low-key disappointed that there’s no brawl between Will and Jopari here. Like they instantly recognize each other and... hmm. I know there has to be changes but still.
“Your mother, Will, where is she?” - Awww. John really didn’t stop loving her :’)
“My son... is the Knife Bearer” - oooooohhhhhhh
“You have a dæmon” - that’s right, Will. Don’t worry, you’ll get one next season
The way I audible went “oh shIT” when Mrs Coulter found Lyra fast asleep. Like I said, I knew what was going to happen but STILL
I’m not really surprised that those Spectres killed the witch who was supposed to be guarding Lyra and Will tbh like that’s what happens when only ONE witch guards two teenagers and that witch falls asleep
The way that Lyra panicked when she woke up and saw her mother stroking her cheek omg
Off topic but I’ve only just realized that Jopari has a fucking man-bun LMFAO OKAY
The fact that Jopari tried to get back to Will and Elaine but couldn’t will always hurt me
“And you chose these people over your family?” - I MEAN-
“I’ve thought about you every day.” - Awww
So John tells Will that he has to go to Asriel and bring him the knife, and he tells him all about the war that’s coming and I have LITERAL chills because I’m so ready
“And then we go home?” “... And then we go home.” - RIP MY HEART OUT, IT WOULD HURT LESS
“I’m not strong enough” - yes you are, Will! I promise you, you are! And Jopari says, “Both of us were brought here” - exactly! You were brought there for a reason by fate or whatever you want to call it!
“Your duty was to be my father” - WILL REALLY CAME FOR HIS DAD LIKE THAT I GUESS
“Look what you’ve become without me” - Oh my god, just when I thought I wasn’t going to cry again
JOPARI HUGGING WILL, SEEING THE SOLDIER AIMING, AND THEN PUTTING HIMSELF BETWEEN THEM SO HE TOOK THE BULLET INSTEAD OF WILL ASDFGHJKL;
So in the book, Jopari is killed by a scorned witch who had once asked him to be her lover, but he had turned her down (because of Elaine and Will obviously), and she kills Jopari in front of Will and then he kills her (I think?). But here it’s just a soldier leftover from the Lee vs Magisterium fight, so... yeah. Kind of a little peeved about the change personally but whatever I guess.
“The night is full of angels, they will guide you now” - AHHHHH
Also, might just be me, but maybe that line would have been slightly more impactful if the scene had taken place at night
This show really said “fuck healthy parental figures” I guess
Except Will’s mum, she’s the best and if anything were to happen to her we’d all riot
SAYAN KÖTÖR FADING AWAY NOOOO I HATE SEEING DÆMONS DIE
Okay, last little gripe, but I just wanted to say that in the book, Will doesn’t realize it’s his dad until literally the last second before his dad dies - like they both realize and then BAM, Jopari is killed. And while I do love the father-son reunion, I am kind of annoyed by the change because it was such a huge punch in the gut in the book that Will searches for so long for his dad, only to lose him the second he finds him.
Serafina finding Lee’s body and kissing his forehead was yet another punch in the gut, thanks Pullman/BBC/BadWolf
The fact that Will had to bury his dad :(
Also, WILL WEARING JOPARI’S JACKET OH MY GOD MY HEART
Oof that shot of his amputated fingers...
So the narration, when it started I thought it was Jopari at first, like from one of his letters... but then as it continued, I went “hang on”, and then I said outloud “wait, is that ASRIEL?!”
DID MARISA REALLY PUT LYRA IN A FUCKING TRUNK?!? BITCH ARE YOU OKAY?!?
Will putting his hood up like his dad did just hits differently
Okay so um ASRIEL HI I WASN’T EXPECTING TO SEE YOU THIS SEASON OH MY GOD THE SCREAM I LET OUT
HIS MONOLOGUE BY THE WAY IS FUCKING ART AND A MASTERPIECE BUT I WAS TOO BUSY CRYING OVER JAMES MCAVOY TO WRITE THE WHOLE MONOLOGUE DOWN
Oh, hi Stelmaria!
It always makes me scream that this man is not only Lord Asriel now but he’s also fucking Mr Tumnus and MOTHERFUCKING BILL DENBROUGH LIKE HOW IS THIS MAN INVOLVED IN SO MANY OF MY FANDOMS?!?
ANGELS ANGELS OH MY FUCKING GOD-
“We stand with you, Asriel Belacqua” - AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
“Let us prepare for war” - FUUUUUUUUCK
(I was deadly serious when I said this was just me screaming and crying by the way)
I’m still reeling over the fact that Marisa put her daughter in a fucking trunk. Like I get you can’t exactly carry a drugged child about in the open but Jesus Christ, love, really?!?
Also Ruth Wilson / Marisa Coulter in a headscarf? *chef kiss*
The way that the screen went to black as she put the lid on the trunk down - SHIT OH SHIT GOOSEBUMPS
THE CREDIT SONG IS SO BEAUTIFUL BECAUSE IT HAS FUCKING ANGELS NOW I’M-
I WASN’T EXPECTING THE POST CREDITS SCENE OH MY GOD
ROGER?! ROGER! IT’S ROGER I’M NOT OKAY-
BBC YOU CANNOT JUST DROP THAT ON US LIKE THAT FUCK-
“What is this place?” - I’M SCREAMING SO LOUD I CAN’T HOLD IT IN
For anyone unaware, the reason I’m screaming so loud over the post-credits scene is because in TAS, while Lyra is drugged and in a groggy sleep, she has these visions of Roger talking to her from the Land of the Dead, which then later leads to her and Will actually GOING to the Land of the Dead and... well, the rest is even HUGER spoilers but YEAH I’M NOT OKAY.
Honestly, I’m just so happy and emotional because I’ve been waiting over a decade for a decent adaptation of not only NL but for TSK and TAS too, and we’re 2/3 there now. Just one more book/series to go... I wish we could have it now. I really hope that filming for the final one starts ASAP because if we have to wait two years just to see the conclusion to this series, I might cry.
This series is so amazing, and this season especially has been so incredible to watch. It’s been the highlight of my week for seven weeks, and I have no idea what I’ll do with my Sundays now that it’s over. I’ve asked for the DVD for S2 for my birthday already (since it comes out 29th December and my birthday is 13th January... just saying), and words can’t describe how much I do love this series. I know it sounds hollow since I say it about so many things I’m into, but this was such a huge part of my childhood and it’s one of my favourite fantasy series of all time. It’s truly one of the most incredible pieces of literature and now it’s making for incredible television... I love it so much.
#hdm#his dark materials#lyra belacqua#lyra silvertongue#marisa coulter#will parry#lee scoresby#hester#pantalaimon#jopari#john parry#lord asriel#serafina pekkala
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The Case File – Mice and Murder Ep 2
The Case of the Dismal Dinner
Summary
Welcome back to our flashback/Tisch fight already in progress where we learn what Daisy and Sly’s shared look was about while Rekha and Grant go for the proverbial jugular emotionally. It’s 12 years ago and Sylvester is tracking down a stolen diadem, the very same diadem that he sees Daisy swipe off the thief who has it (a jackal named Roscoe McCoy in case that matters). Sly swipes it back from her and, when she notices, she sniffs it down to his train car where he is sitting in the dark, waiting for her. He doesn’t turn the lights on, opting instead to dramatically strike a match to light his pipe, illuminating himself sitting in a big chair, holding the stolen item.
Daisy tries to bluff like she’s Virginia Chase, the owner of the diadem, but Sly knows that’s not true because he was hired by the real Virginia to track it down. Daisy is usually a better liar than this but she is insta-smitten by this figurative and literal fox and it’s throwing her off her game. But before they can continue their little tete-a-tete, they hear a gunshot ring out from Daisy’s room and know Roscoe and his guys are coming after her. Sly stuffs Daisy in a trunk before the boys show up and they actually seem a little impressed to meet him, him being a famous detective and all, but a Nat 1 deception means they hear Daisy being huffy in the chest and a fight/escape scene that Brennan takes over narration for ensues.
After that, Sly and Daisy become close really quickly and partners in both senses of the word. Daisy tells him she’s an American PI and they work together on cases, travel the world, and become engaged within the year. But, the day before the wedding, when Sly is alone, he discovers all the documentation proving that Daisy lied about who she is, is actually a criminal, and has been using their partnership to sell information to other criminals.
She shows up and tries to pretend like she’s being set up but he replies, “You being duped is the only lie you’ve told I can’t believe.” He says that being with her changed him. He didn’t think he had it in him to actually love another person. He forgives her. He still wants to get married. Daisy is thrown by this reaction. She tells him she’s not gonna change for him and he might as well leave her. She’s being all unapologetic femme fatale about it but he gets the sense that under her bravado she’s low key pleading with him to give up on her. He doesn’t want to. He can’t. He still shows up the next day in his wedding tux. Daisy is nowhere to be seen. When he goes home, there’s a deerstalker cap on his porch and a note that just reads “-D”.
And we snap back to the present where Daisy is trying to figure out if she can take advantage of Lucretia’s fascination with the occult and all the rich vulnerable people present to make some money. Meanwhile, Sly has been totally rocked by seeing Daisy and is drowning his sorrows at the bar with Ollie, the otter bartender. Squire Badger (which is what I’ll be calling William) shows up and, in not so many words, threatens Sly for having not solved the case and making a fool of him. He says, “You’re not gonna rub my nose in this.” Move your nose then bitch, says Sly on a dirty 20 intimidation check. He’s sad about girl problems, not you! Squire Badger is scared off, but he looks like he knows something that Sly doesn’t. That someone is coming for him.
Buckster (and Ian too btw) clocked the above conversation and sidles up to Sly at the bar. See, not only does Buckster know about Sly and Daisy’s history, he knew it was happening *while* it was happening. Sly used up all his cool swagger on the Squire so by the time Buckster shows up he’s a whole mess over Daisy. Buckster starts implying that maybe they can help each other out since they both dislike the Squire and with Sly’s Nat 20 Insight, they can totally clock each other’s double meanings perfectly. It’s a very cool game thing where Sly and Buckster are having an innocuous conversation about the weather or whatever but Grant and Sam are just saying what they mean. It’s like they’re having a telepathic conversation. Sly agrees that the enemy of his enemy is his friend and he’ll go along with Buck’s plans as long as he can keep his hands clean, even if he doesn’t really care for Buck himself.
At the same time Gangie is in the kitchens getting fed (see the notes for a full list of kitchen staffers and other NPCs) and after the staff leaves, Gangie is told by Ambrose Harding (the Squire’s turtle valet) that there’s is business for him to attend to after dinner.
Buckster talks to Lawrence Longfoot--the rabbit photographer from last ep who we learn runs a trash newspaper. He and Buck bond over being trash and he gets a pic of Sly and Buck together.
Vicar Ian goes to talk to the Squire and basically tries to (openly) suss out whether the money was a bribe or a setup or what? Like, people are fully there (including the Lady Fawnbrook and her gossipy cat wife Tabitha). They snipe at each other a bit and then the Squire reveals that he’s talked him up to the Cardinal and the Cardinal agreed that he’s such a good vicar, he should be moved to Siberia. The decision has already been made and Ian doesn’t have the pull in the church to do anything about it. Yikes.
Before dinner, the rat butler catches Buck and asks if he has time to talk to Squire Badger. Buck agrees to go with him and he’s taken to the billiards room where the Squire is along with Harding and James Hawkins, Squire’s Hawk war buddy (a literal war hawk). Buck immediately puts his foot in his mouth by messing up the Squire’s title with his American ignorance of British peerage rules which annoys him, the elitism of it all. The Squire’s friends leave and then Buck starts talking about PR and how this whole situation has been bad PR for the Squire and it would be a shame if his PR got even worse. The suggestion of blackmail sends the Squire into a full honey badger don’t care style rage and he knocks TF out of Buck, flips the pool table, and then catches himself and scurries off. Daisy, Sly, and Gangie all hear this conversation from their positions in the house via the pipes running through the manor. Buck picks himself up and, on a 25, realizes that two of the mouse maids were hiding behind a curtain, hearing the whole thing (specifically, Edwina Thimble and Carolyn Dickory--oh like hickory dickory doc, BRENNAN) . They were playing hooky so he flips them a coin each and they all agree that no one saw or heard anything. “Two blind mice, see how they run,” he quips as they leave (sidenote, what a morbid nursery rhyme to exist in that world--to be fair, it’s pretty morbid as is).
Lucretia decides to turn the séance into a post dinner séance but still brings Daisy and Lars to see her occult room which is full of crap from, as Rekha said, “1800s Party City”. Lucretia does a hilariously vague read on Daisy and says that there’s something happening with her involving a man she knew or maybe still knows but she’s in her feelings about Sly so it kinda shakes her up. She tries to get Lucretia to charge for her “””incredible gift””” (so she can skim off the top of course) but Lucretia thinks it would be a misuse of her ~talents~. She does give Daisy an incredibly broad as to be useless even if magic exists blessing before she leaves.
Once she does, Daisy scopes out the room (which she realizes must have been retrofitted for Lucretia and wasn’t previously a séance room) and sees that the one thing in the room that doesn’t really match the aesthetic is a giant portrait of one of the previous squire badgers. On a 24 she notices two things: (1) the painting has recently been restored with new paint and (2) the frame is bolted to the wall. She wants to check it out but Lars is right there so she makes a note to check it out later and leaves.
Lars, being a very ride or die friend for Sly, bounds after her and basically calls her trash and tries to tempt her with garbage so she’ll lose composure and start chowing down. She drools at the sight but keeps it together and leaves. Lars runs off to tell Sly that they were a good good dog and gives him a full play by play.
Gangie meanwhile is watching a small argument between the butler and Harding in the servant’s quarters hallway and he realizes that he’s being talked about in veiled language. The butler is questioning Gangie’s employment and Harding says that, as servants, they shouldn’t question their master and that Gangie is employed for reasons that Squire Badger is aware of and reasons he is not. Hmm. Gangie realizes that Harding knows about his past which is weird because Gangie’s criminal record doesn’t follow him. There’s no internet. So what reason would this guy have to know about him?
Gangie doesn’t like this and decides to dip and steal some silverware on the way out. Mrs. Molesley (who I’ll be calling Mrs. M from now on) helps him (lol I’m not entirely sure if she didn’t know what he was doing or if she’s just down with stealing) and says that she’s been working there since Squire Badger was in diapers (she was his nanny) and if anyone bullies Gangie, she’ll take care of them. She also offers to make him a sweater so he doesn’t get cold and she’s just so nice that Gangie has to say yes. He looks to make sure no one is around and gives her a dandelion he picked. Cute!!!
And now it’s time for dinner and our very first box of doom roll for the most terrifying encounter of all: how close you have to sit next to your bitter ex! This is of course for Sly and Daisy with higher than a 15 meaning they don’t have to sit next to each other and anything lower meaning they have to sit pretty close. It is the first BOD roll I’ve ever wanted them to fail (mmm, except maybe Adaine’s werewolf roll but that’s a different conversation).
It’s in the 6-10 bracket which means they’re sitting across from each other (below that would have been them next to each other). Everyone is seated based on how on Squire Badger’s shitlist they are. So you have Ian at the absolute back. Sly to his right and Daisy on his left. The Buckster and Lars to the right and left after that. Then Armond (armadillo lawyer guy) and a snail guy because Brennan is a madman who cannot be stopped. Constance (Squire’s daughter) makes a toast to her dad wishing him well even though they haven’t always seen eye to eye (hmmm).
Buckster fills in Daisy on his confrontation with the Squire quietly enough that no one else hears. Daisy then turns to Sly and says she hopes they can be civil. Sly is like, “Sure Ms. DUMPSTER.” They’re the kind of exes who know exactly how to hurt each other but are also super open to being hurt. Emotional glass cannons is how Brennan describes it.
Buckster is given a note by Harding from Squire Badger and, once dinner is over, he takes Daisy off to the side to read it. Gangie follows, unseen. Ian, who recently prayed to God and got not super clear results goes to talk to Luecretia to see if maybe ghosts can help him instead. She is, as usual, not super helpful but does rush out to get her very necessary ritual dagger and declares to everyone that if anyone sees a ghost they have to tell her. As she says this, there is a flash of lightning and, through the window, Sylvester sees just for a moment the form of his nemesis, Fletcher Cottonbotton (who is by the docks).
Anyway, Buckster reads the note. It’s a document from the Squire selling his interest in BB Industries (Buck’s oil company) to Hazel Hogswallop who is another small shareholder in BB Industries. But, in doing so, it names Josiah Jackrabbit (one of his competitors) her proxy which means he’ll be able to vote on things (and with a lot of power with all that stock). The contract was written in fresh ink which means (1) it was probably written after their fight and (2) hasn’t been mailed yet (I smell a heist attempt). Buck rolls insight on the writing (mastermind rogue ability) and with a 27 senses that the Squire has gone off his rocker. This isn’t going to make him any money. Josiah doesn’t have enough liquid cash to pay him what this is worth. And the thing with Hazel would have taken time to set up. This has been in the works for a while and he’s been sitting on it until the time was right. And he senses, like Sly and Gangie did earlier, that someone besides the Squire is pulling the strings.
Then Gangie suddenly hears Constance’s distressed voice through the pipes from upstairs: “Father you’re possessed! You’re a mad man! This will never work. Speak of this to me never again.” And she slams the door (Buck, Daisy, and Gangie all hear). Constance comes downstairs and Squire Badger follows, looking upset. Mrs. M checks in on him too see if he’s eaten and he kind of gruffly has her follow him (along with Mr. Harding) into the drawing room.
There is a scream. Something drops. Silence. Footsteps. A door opens. Then a voice, “My God!”
Everyone rolls initiative. Ian moves first and, upon hearing all the commotion, gathers everyone together to go towards the sound (interesting choice but sure). Daisy recognizes that the scream heard was Mrs. M but barely knows who she is. She goes towards the commotion anyway. Gangie also goes towards the scream. Buckster grabs his gun (well he says “weapon”, but it’s gotta be a gun, right?) and makes like he’s following her but actually hides. Lars and Sylvester go towards the scream.
With everyone gathered, Ambrose opens the door. Inside they see Mrs. M, her hands covered in blood (my guess? From trying to stop the bleeding), kneeling on the ground over the dead body of the Squire. The room is a mess and stuff is scattered everywhere. There is a bloody knife in the Squire’s hand and a stab wound over his heart. Ms. M, who is distressed as hell, says there was something wrong with him. There was a flash, and she looked down and he was stabbing himself. Everyone thinks this is suspicious as hell. She was the only one in the room. Everyone looks to Sly, the famous detective who is not in the presence of a murder case in progress. What does Sly say? “Lady Lucretia. I’ve seen a ghost.”
Case Notes
I have to acknowledge how ON FIRE Grant was this episode. Like everyone was. Buck was great with the Squire. Daisy and Lars sniping at each other was fun. But man Grant had so many good lines. The “move your nose”. The heartbreak with Daisy (ugh, so sad!) And that blackout line!!! I am biased towards foxes as you can see from my avatar so I am very here for this great fox rep.
Based on the way their staredown went last ep I kinda thought Daisy was the wronged party but ugh. Slyyyyyyy. He forgave herrrrrrr. And he still went to the alter. Daisy how you could youuuuuuu?
Also, sigh, Fox and the Hound. I keep getting hit with these after the fact.
I loved Rekha’s “Of the Chase Sapphire’s?” improv.
That racoon/mink line was so sleazy. Weird compliment but Brennan is good at being animal-racist. Sidenote, Daisy makes a comment about being careful being a fox in England which I presume is a ref to fox hunting and like the implication of that are como se dice troubling.
Here are all the new NPCs for this ep and here’s a full NPC guide that also includes the list of names Gangie gave Buck which Buck shares with Daisy this ep.
And on that topic I can’t get over the concept of a married couple named Millie Molton and Mollie Milton. Like, did they get married solely for the bit???
The best Ian-ism of the ep was him talking about getting rejected from Siberia. Poor guy.
Fave OOC moment was everyone at the table getting aggressively patriotic in response to the Squire being dismissive to Buck. There is nothing funnier than someone singing a purposefully overwrought version of I’m Proud to Be An American.
“It’s 2020 for us bitch!”
The moment Mrs. M said she was gonna make Gangie a sweater I was scared for her. Sweaters take a long time to get made. I was like oh no. The plot is gonna stop you from making that sweater isn’t it. I’m willing to be proven wrong (Brennan loves his maids with secrets, see: Cathilda) but she seems super sweet and if anything happens to her I’m going to be upset.
What’s behind the painting Brennan. I know there’s a door. I know this house is full of secret tunnels and revolving bookshelves and all that. Let me see it!
One great little moment was when there was a flash of lightning and the minis for Sly and Lars like stop motion moved to look at it. Just great attention to detail. The work that gets put into this show is incredible.
Edit: A note I forgot to mention. There’s gotta be a secret door in the room where it happened, right? Like, creep in, flash of light to mess up her vision, do some shenanigans, peace out.
#dimension 20#dimension 20 spoilers#mice and murder#mice and murder spoilers#the case file#(just under the wire! I had a busy week guys.)
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TF2 Mercs with a pregnant Fem!S/O and even though the pregnancy is super hard on her, they're still really excited for their own kid. When they find out, they have to gather everyone and let them know and ask if they can help out when they can. When she gives birth, everyone is on the other side of the door waiting to see because hey, they have to live with a kid now and that's gonna be super different.
Scout:
This poor boy is so unbelievably excited, but he’s also really terrified. Because he never had a dad, he’s convinced that he’ll probably be a horrible parent. He’ll probably cry about it a few times until his S/O comforts him and tells him that she thinks he’ll be a great dad.
He feels really bad about the difficulty of the pregnancy. Sometimes he just pulls them into a hug and apologizes; somehow he feels like it’s his fault. He does his best to help out when he’s home but he’s not the best at chores.
When the baby is finally born, Scout is really emotional. He bursts into tears as he’s handed his little girl. Once he and his S/O hold the baby, the very first person he shows her to is his mother (Spy is right next to her). After that, he has to show all of his brothers and the other mercenaries with a big grin on his face.
For a while, he just sits by his S/O’s side as she holds the baby, and he can’t take his eyes off of the two of them. He wipes his eyes and looks down at his child to tell her how much he loves her.
Soldier:
Soldier is just as excited as his partner about the baby. He’ll always be there helping when his S/O is trying to plan for the baby, though a lot of his ideas are absolute garbage. He actually had a few good ideas though.
He knows how rough this is on his S/O, so he makes absolutely sure she will never have to lift a finger the whole time. He makes a lot of mistakes, but he tries so hard to keep her healthy and happy. It’s super sweet.
When the baby comes, he’s so excited. He’s at her side the whole time, yelling encouragement and telling the midwife to do their job correctly, despite the fact that the midwife obviously doesn’t control how fast the baby comes. He demands to be the first one to hold his baby. When he’s handed his son, his S/O is shocked at how he says, low enough to almost be a whisper, “Hello, little trooper. I’m your father.”
He’s so, so careful as he carries his son around and shows him to all of the mercenaries. They’re also baffled by how much he’s lowered his voice. In the future, he always lowers his voice when his kid’s around, but goes back to normal volume when they’re not.
Pyro:
Would adopt kid, not father one
Demo:
Demo’s really happy about sharing this with his S/O, but honestly he’s a little scared. He feels like he’s not fit for the role, and feels like he doesn’t deserve it. He needs a LOT of consoling and encouragement from his S/O. He peppers them in kisses and tells them he’s going to do his absolute best.
He’s not a mother hen like Soldier, but he takes excellent care of his S/O and makes sure she never has to work hard. He’s a surprisingly thoughtful partner during the pregnancy
During the childbirth, he’s holding his S/O’s hand and she can see he’s terrified. He knows she’ll be fine, especially if she got an epidural, but it breaks his heart to watch her struggle so much. When he’s handed his son, he sits down and happily cries, “Oh my god. (Y/N), look at him! Oh, he’s perfect.” He sits with his son for a long time, unable to tear his eye away from his face. He’s too shocked to say anything. He probably cries a little the first time the baby does.
He’s beaming when their families and friends enter, he’s so excited for them to meet his son. He gives the baby to his S/O so they can decide who to give the baby to first, but he’s always next to the person holding him to keep him safe.
Heavy:
Heavy is honestly in shock when his S/O tells him she’s pregnant. He wants a baby so badly but he feels like he’s too old to be having children. He’s scared of bringing a baby into the world knowing full well that he’d be lucky if he was still around by the time they turn 25. He doesn’t tell his S/O this though, because he still does want this baby and wants to care for them and his S/O.
Heavy is definitely a mother hen type. He takes as much time as possible off of work so he can stay with his S/O and do all of the chores. He gets a little mad every time he comes home and they’ve done some chores.
Throughout the birth, he’s standing next to his S/O, letting her grip his hand as hard as she can (I don’t care how big or strong she is, she can’t hurt his hand). When the baby is finally born, Heavy sits at his S/O’s side, staring at his daughter. He doesn’t want to hold the baby, believing he might hurt her, but his S/O insists he’ll do fine and hands him his baby. For a while, he sits there stroking her cheeks and muttering the sweetest things in Russian to her.
He gives the baby back to his S/O when their families and friends come in. He’s always low-key eyeing the person holding the baby to make sure she’s safe.
Engie:
Engie is so excited about the baby. He’s always wanted a family, and he’s so happy he gets to start one with the love of his life. He’s always telling her how grateful he is for her. He often tells her she looks more beautiful than ever, and he means it every time, even if she’s currently curled up on the couch with no makeup and looks exhausted because of morning sickness.
He is so sweet and is always doing everything he can for her. He doesn’t baby her and lets her do things by herself but is always telling her to relax while he does most of the chores.
During the birth he’s good at keeping himself together, but he’s internally screaming. He never leaves his S/O’s side. When he’s handed his son, he has the biggest grin on his face. He sits with his S/O so she can interact with the baby too, and holds him close to his chest, exclaiming all of the fun, exciting things he wants to do with him as he grows. He eventually hands the baby back to her, hugs her tightly, and presses a kiss to her cheek to thank her for giving him something so wonderful.
He has to show the baby to all of his family members and the other mercenaries; He’s so excited to show his little boy to all of them. He’ll joke that he hopes his son ends up taller than him.
Medic:
Initially, Medic isn’t excited at all about having a baby. He never wanted one, and his S/O only got pregnant either by accident or by begging him to have a baby with her. He’s never rude about it or brings it up though.
Despite this, he does an excellent job of caring for his S/O and making sure she’s healthy. He attends every doctor’s visit (he wanted to do them himself, but she insisted it’d be better to see a specialist). He never lets her physically exert herself and is always making sure she’s comfy.
When the baby is born, he’s pretty indifferent. He’s glad the his S/O and the baby are okay but honestly he still doesn’t care that much. When she offers him the baby, he sighs, “Oh, alright,” and is very poker-faced as he settles down with the baby. They sit in silence for a moment, then his son wraps his tiny fingers around his pointer finger, and cooes at him. Medic smiles a little and rubs his thumb over the baby’s tiny hand. When the baby smiles back at him, his own smile grows into a toothy grin and he looks up at his S/O. He finally realizes what a blessing this little boy is to them.
Before their families and friends are let in, he apologizes for being so horrible throughout the pregnancy. When introducing the baby to the others, he never, ever lets go of his son, and no one is allowed to touch him other than him and his S/O.
Sniper:
Sniper wants a baby and is super excited about having one with his S/O, but he’s honestly really shocked as well. He doesn’t think he can care for a baby at all. In his mind, a grumpy traveling assassin like himself can’t care for a child. His S/O assures him that they’ll find a way to make it work.
He does an excellent job of caring for them. He finds a good home to raise the baby in and does all the research to find good hospitals/schools/whatever so their child is raised in a great place. He is always taking care of her when he’s home and his heart is broken every time he has to leave her alone for a while.
During the birth, he’s white as a sheet and probably passes out for a short while. But when he is conscious, he’s super encouraging to his S/O and holds one of her hands the whole time. When he finally gets to hold his daughter, he’s wiping the tears from his face. He almost doesn’t believe that despite the life of suffering and loneliness he’s lived, he gets to raise his beautiful daughter with the most wonderful person in the world. He cries a ton and doesn’t let go of the baby.
If his parents are still around, only Sniper’s mother (and his S/O’s mother if his S/O wants that), him, and his S/O are allowed to hold the baby. But he’s really happy and has to show the baby to everyone.
Spy:
Spy is so, so grateful to be having a baby with his S/O, but he’s also so scared. He’s happy that he gets this last chance to redeem himself as a father, but he thinks he’s going to screw it up. He’s scared he’s going to be a horrible parent or be a coward and run away from his baby and partner. He spends a lot of sleepless nights in his S/O’s arms, his mind racing at the thoughts as they comfort him.
He’s such a good partner throughout the pregnancy. Of course, he can’t always be home because he has to work, and he hates it. But when he’s home, he’s a mother hen who doesn’t even let his S/O wash the dishes. He’s excellent and keeping her healthy and always takes her to her appointments.
When the baby comes, he’s literally shaking and is standing at his S/O’s side the whole time. He doesn’t hold or react to the baby until the three get some alone time. He takes his daughter into his arms and sighs shakily, a smile spreading on his face and tears pricking his eyes. He says softly, “Look at her. She’s beautiful,” before spending several minutes holding her to his chest and muttering all sorts of sweet promises in French.
He’d prefer everyone else meet the baby once his S/O and the baby are out of the hospital. But when they finally get out, he holds a wonderful house party for them, where she can finally meet everyone.
#tf2#teamfortress2#tf2 scout#tf2 soldier#tf2 pyro#tf2 demoman#tf2 heavy#tf2 engineer#tf2 medic#tf2 sniper#tf2 spy#tf2 x reader#tf2 x s/o#tf2 x y/n#tf2 x you#tf2 headcanons#tf2 imagines
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Thunder In His Mind
Another Franken Fic for your reading pleasure, brought to you by @thesevenumbrellas and @random-nerd-3, sponsored by the JatP 18 + Discord.
Ao3 link here
cw: past-gaslighting, trauma, ptsd
Summary:
There's more to Willie than what meets the eye and Alex has to find out in one of the worst ways possible. It's all Willie can do to not fall apart in his arms during a thunderstorm.
The worst part about being a ghost Willie thinks, is - that he knows - is that you can’t really check the weather. There are plus sides to it sure, skateboarding wherever he wants - but not whenever because that’s something Caleb controls - an extremely cute Hot Dog ghost boyfriend? Also a plus to being undead. The weather is an issue though, it had been for years. Ever since the day he died in that car accident. Being dead meant you can’t feel anything physically; you can’t feel the heat of the sun against your skin or the wetness of the rain when it fell from the sky.
The issue at hand is the thunder.
It’s the thunder because the loud echoing booming claps of the storm reminds him of the ear shattering crack that cut through the air when he died. When he skated into the road to save the life of a little girl who forgot to look both ways. “My name is Rose,” she whispered, tightly squeezing Willie’s hand between her tiny fingers. He can remember struggling to breathe - he found out later in the medical report that his ribs were shattered. Another boom of thunder sounded over head and Willie couldn’t help but wince slightly at the sound of it.
“Roses are strong flowers,” Willie managed to say between his hyperventilation. “You need to be strong,” he can remember saying. The shadow touch of the blood caked to the side of his head made him reach up to place his hand against it as he began to scratch at the side of his head.
“Willie?” Alex asked the question as he gently pulled Willie’s hand away from his face. Willie wasn’t dying all over again. He was here in the present with Alex, his amazingly awesome boyfriend who made him question whatever cosmic being ran the universe because in no possible world did he deserve someone as amazing as the drummer. “You okay?” Alex asked again, snuggling closer into him, wrapping his arms around Willie like he was a koala. They’re curled up in the dark corners of a Pride art exhibition together, broke in after it closed early because of the storm. The walls are painted with rainbows, filled with bright colors and Willie could feel hope sneaking through the pain he locked away long ago when he first signed onto the club. It was after hours so they spent time walking through the exhibits acting as each other’s tour guides only to end up snuggling together on the floor once the storm started to get more serious.
He wants to say no I’m not. He wants to say help me Alex, please. He doesn’t though because like Caleb always says, outside of skating he’s a coward through and through. Willie exhales slowly and when he spoke he tried to make it sound like he wasn’t lying to the only person who loved him back. “I’m fine,” Willie says, his voice dry and cracking and he knows Alex won’t believe him in a thousand years. Another clash of thunder sounds overhead and Willie couldn’t help but flinch again, he pointedly avoided looking Alex in the eyes.
“Yeah, I know,” Alex says softly. They were lying so close to each other that Willie could feel the vibrations in Alex’s chest when he spoke. The low timbre of the beat of his heart reminding Willie that he was safe . Reminding Willie that he was loved outside of whatever relationship he had with Caleb. Then Alex presses a soft kiss to the top of his head and whispers, “it’s okay not to be though. You know that right?”
Willie wants to be okay, he wants to keep pretending. That he hasn’t been . He's been dead the longest between the two of them after all, Alex needed him to be his grounding force and he couldn't be that for him if he was weak. But Willie was tired, he was so tired of being a ghost. He was tired because Caleb had been breathing down his neck recently, working everyone in the club to the bone after Alex and his friends escaped. Not that Willie blamed Alex because Alex was kind and Alex was good and he didn't deserve him . But apparently Alex had other plans in mind because suddenly Alex wrapped his arm around Willie and held him close, like he was something cherished, like he was precious . It wasn’t at all like Caleb’s cold shoulder pats after a long night of entertaining the guests or Caleb’s short worded compliments. Alex was warm.
“I’m sorry,” Willie whispers, turning to bury his face into Alex’s sweatshirt like they were a secret meant only for Alex to hear. He lets himself curl into his boyfriend, legs tucked in as close as possible, fingers clinging to the warm familiarity of the pink sweatshirt. He can hear Alex’s heart beating a gentle rhythm over the thunder. Just rest for a moment, Willie thinks to himself, still keeping up his guard. Caleb is going to want him back to the club after the storm ends. He doesn’t want to show up with bloodshot eyes and a tear streaked face - it would be hard for the makeup girls to get him ready for tonight’s performance. Willie waits, his shoulders tense in anticipation but Alex doesn’t speak. Instead he presses his lips firmly to the top of his head, reminding him that he wasn’t alone. For the next few minutes they stay like that, curled into each other with Alex wrapped around him protecting him from the harm of the outside world.
Then lightning flashes and Willie braces himself for the clap of angry clouds over their heads but it doesn't come. Which didn't make any sense because thunder always comes after lightening. Willie’s conditioned to it, anxiety building up in his chest as he waits for the tell tale sound of a car cracking his helmet in two. Willie fools himself, letting Alex's low hum wash over the eerie silence of the museum and then - and then... right when Willie let himself relax completely the loudest fucking thunderclap in the whole world cracks over head and Willie jumps, poofing out of Alex's arms and somehow manages to solidify across the exhibit, knees pulled into himself tightly, his fingernails digging into his skin; a welcome pain to distract him from the onslaught of memories and pressing his hands against his ears in a weak attempt to block out the memories flashing through his eyelids.
In times like these, times where he’s stuck and he’s trapped and he can’t find a way out are the worst. He has to remember though, to remind himself that he isn’t alone anymore and that even though he felt like his world was crumbling around him that it actually wasn’t. That Alex was there and Alex was solid and Alex was - well, he wasn’t alive but he was warm. “Shh, I’m here,” Alex murmured, his voice a blessing in the chaos of Willie’s mind.
“I’m sorry,” Willie whispers again, this time voicing his apology louder. He lets Alex hold him, wrapping his arms around him like he’s a child being comforted. “It’s so stupid I -” Willie starts before Alex cuts him off with a light tsk.
“It’s not.”
“It is ,” Willie insists, unsure of how Alex couldn’t see how foolish it was that he, a grown ass man, was afraid of a little storm. Alex wraps his arms around Willie, rocking him gently to the rhythm of the rain hitting the roof above them.
“You help me when I freak out,” Alex points out and well… yeah he does but that’s different. It’s different because he’s Willie and Alex is Alex. Alex, who never deserved to die just as his dream had become tangible. Alex, who Willie had betrayed and hurt. Alex who he almost lost because like Caleb says… Willie’s selfish and stupid and desperate for anything remotely beautiful in his life. Alex is so beautiful. He knows that to be true even now, as the thunder rolls overhead and the lighting falls around them. He’s so beautiful it hurts to look at him sometimes. His smile is so earnest, his concern so genuine. He holds Willie like he’s worth protecting, like he’s the only thing that matters in the world. Like… like he’s something precious meant to be treasured and protected and kept safe.
Willie’s not anything Alex thinks he is. He knows how much pain the world can give, how much more pain he’ll have to live through. As terrifying as knowing the pain is, it's even more terrifying because he knows the second he leaves here - the second he leaves the warmth and the safety of Alex and goes back to Caleb - the second he goes back home he'll lose this. He'll lose the safety net he built for himself because Alex doesn't like Caleb for some reason well no. Not for no reason. Alex has a very perfectly logical reason to hate the man who Willie saw as his surrogate father - even if their relationship seems a little too one sided at times- and he can't fathom a reason why Alex didn't hate him too because he had played a huge fucking role in getting the boys to the club and convincing them to sign their fucking souls over for the soul purpose of his selfishness. For thinking Alex would run the first chance he gets the second he realizes just how messed up he really is.
“You’re thinking too hard,” Alex says, finally breaking the silence between them. The sentence is said so matter of factly, Willie almost laughs. Almost being the key word in that sentence. Despite feeling like the world is crashing around him Willie lets a smirk cross his face as his eyes sparkle mysteriously.
“You can read my mind?” Willie asks, wincing at how intense it sounded, no sense of playfulness in the words at all. Alex doesn’t seem to mind the cutthroat question. He just hummed thoughtfully as he considered.
“It’s part of my ghost powers,” Alex answered back, Willie felt his smile against his shoulder.
The answer makes Willie snort which in turn makes Alex laugh and maybe Willie can finally let him have something nice and keep it . Alex’s giggles echo throughout the exhibit and Willie let the sound wrap around him, a blanket of warmth surrounding him in his cold.
“Oh yeah?” Willie manages to ask, the words sticky and dry. He swallowed thickly to hide the surge of panic in his throat. “What am I thinking of?” He asked, letting Alex press a kiss against the back of his head, his fingers starting to comb through his hair . Alex’s whispered suggestively into his ear, his throat ghosting against his neck when he placed a kiss against the exposed skin. Willie couldn’t help but let out a laugh, his heart beating a little faster. He didn’t deserve any of this, to be comforted during a storm when hiding in his HGC bedroom had worked just fine in the past. “That new trick you still haven’t shown me? The picture you laughed at because it looked like an upside down dog head?” Alex asked. The compulsion to look up overpowers his fear of the dark and when he finally does shift his head. Alex is almost shining in the light of the storm, his smile stretching across his face. In the midst of the storm he’s still shining brighter than Willie could ever shine himself. Alex smiles at him, his eyes twinkling in the reflection of a flash of lightning. “I’m thinking about how beautiful you are,” and there’s another clap of thunder but it isn’t as bad this time. Here, snuggled on the floor of a museum tucked between Alex’s strong arms was starting to help him relax more, keep his focus off the storm.
Suddenly, the shadows disappear and Willie's mind is cleared more than it's ever been before. There aren’t any expectations for Willie here. Alex isn’t Caleb. He doesn’t order Willie around or tell him to shush because he sounds like a whiny little boy when he complains about complicated choreography that was hard to nail down and the exhaustive rehearsal schedule that sometimes ended in Willie passing out in his room for over twelve hours straight before poofing into the middle of rehearsal to watch Alex kill it on his drums.
His world is once again centered on his gravity, his world, his boy in a pink sweatshirt.
Willie turned around, sitting so he was criss crossed on the floor and his fingers were intertwined with. Their noses brush together. He can feel the tickle of blond hair against his forehead where it’s escaped from the cap. “You good?” Alex asks, leaning forward slightly so their foreheads touch. Willie knows what he means the second he asks it. Sometimes it’s hard to forget that not everyone is like Caleb. That not everyone hides their intentions behind carefully crafted spiderwebs of lies. So at the next thunder crash Willie nods in response, his stomach still twisted in his gut but he was able to ignore it this time; ignore the pain he felt in his mind in exchange for Alex’s presence.
“Yeah, I’m good...” Willie says, nodding his head. They were close enough for their noses to brush against themselves. He’s surprised to discover how much he believed it even though he thought it was a lie. He’s good here with Alex. He’s good with a body protecting him from the thunder outside. He’s good to curl up here and dot kisses down his boyfriend’s jaw until he’s a blushing mess.
Because this is what home is, this is what he remembers his home being. He remembers the warmth and the kind eyes and the strong hugs and the pitter patter rabbit-like beat of his heart. Alex pulls him close again, Alex will always pull him close. And he's breathing. He's breathing. And Willie turns to smile into the nape of Alex's neck, letting the drummer tie off the braid with a spare hair tie and the drumming of his heart overpowering the sound of the clapping thunder echoing overhead. "Her name was Rose," Willie said suddenly, intertwining their fingers together, placing them over his heart.
"Rose?" Alex asks, his confusion masked by a hint of recognition in his voice. Willie nods as he plays with Alex's fingers, distracting himself from the distancing storm around them. She was so young , Willie could remember the flash of her smile, brighter than the sun had ever been. Ten years old was too young.
"The girl I saved when I died, when I raced into traffic? She was just standing there in the middle of the road alone and I - holy shit, Alex I died, " he said, the realization actually settling into his chest and he suddenly felt the weight of the car crush into his chest again.
Alex looks at him and for a split second, Willie can’t read his expression. “C’mere baby,” Alex whispers, pulling him in again. Willie collapsed into his chest, wrapping his arms around Alex’s back to twist his sweatshirt into his fists. For half a second the brief fear of pulling away flashes in his mind and Alex tightens his grip. Willie would never think about trying to pull away. “Willie you’re so brave, you know that? You’re so amazing. I mean me? I died eating a hot dog. You died saving someone, Willie. You’re incredible ,” Alex whispers and Willie can’t help but tense because baby.
Willie can't help the shudder that runs through his body hearing the pet name escape through Alex's lips. "Don’t - Don’t call me that," Willie said, starting to feel like he’s losing control again. He flickered and fell through Alex’s body landing on the floor in a heap. Caleb's warped whispers snaked into his ears, wrapping around his mind like a vice. William baby don’t you want to make me proud tonight? Caleb asks as he straightens Willie’s suit for him. Baby those steps were a little behind tonight. You need to pick up more rehearsal hours baby. I don’t need my best performer slacking off. What would my clients think? Caleb asked, his voice coiling around Willie’s thoughts and snaking through the cracks his fears left behind.
"Willie I'm sorry I -" Alex started, only for Willie to cut him off with a shake of his head. His hair fell in front of his face so Alex used his hand to hesitantly tuck it behind his ear.
"It’s fine. Pet names I mean just…” He trails off, suddenly feeling uncomfortable in his own skin. Thunder crashes again and Willie jumps before finishing his thought. “Just not that one okay?” Willie asks, hoping Alex wouldn’t pry. Hoping Alex would never have to see how horribly rotten he really is from the inside out. Alex’s forehead wrinkles in confusion but like Willie hoped he didn’t pry, but he knew the conversation was just getting tabled for a later date. “You got it,” Alex promised, leaning forward to seal it with a kiss to Willie’s forehead. Willie feels himself flicker and his hand passes through Alex’s. Thunder claps at the same time Willie flinches and he has to hope Alex thought he flinched because of the storm and not his touch. It wasn’t fair how deep Caleb has his claws into Willie, using him to hurt the people he loves.
Willie hates how hard he has to fight the tremble in his limbs as he clings to Alex like a lifeline. He inhales deeply, breathing in the perfume Alex somehow managed to get his hands on. Alex smelled like peaches and summertime and everything Willie used to love when he was alive. The smell helped ground his mind, keep him in the present instead of spiraling into worst case scenarios. Think, Willie thought to himself, one again breathing in the smell of peaches off the nape of Alex’s neck. His eyes are diamonds, his skin feels like silk, his heart beats to it’s own rhythm and you’re the one who gets to hear it. Willie thinks, trying to calm the twisting panic and rise of bile stuck in his throat. “I’m sorry,” Alex says, the words whispered quietly between thunder cracks. When he peels his eyes from the ground and finally looks his boyfriend in the eyes again he’s met with hard pressed diamonds reflecting in concern.
“Don’t be,” Willie says back and Alex’s concern warps into something akin to festering anger.
“I am . I -”
“ - I know.”
“ I’m sorry ,” Alex says again, like if he heard it enough he’d actually end up believing it. Willie just shook his head - another clap of thunder sounded so loudly it shook the walls of the museum. Willie tensed, his shoulders tightening despite knowing that he was safe here.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Willie points out. If anything he should be apologizing to Alex. He should be groveling at Alex’s feet begging for forgiveness because he was selfish and almost had him sell his soul over to Caleb.
Something reflects in Alex's eyes that Willie can’t quite place. It isn’t just confusion or concern or anger. It looks like Alex is feeling a mix of all three, with a twist of cold understanding layered on top of it. "You know you can trust me right? This relationship works both ways," Alex says softly, his voice starting to tremble. Willie didn’t understand why he was acting so... so sad. Willie let them fall into a comfortable sort of silence, tense but easy at the same time. The sound of the thunderstorm filling the museum in their quiet.
"I should... I should get going. Caleb lets me out during storms cause he knows about uh... but he'll be wanting me back." Willie says, pulling himself out of Alex's soft sweatshirt covered arms and away from the beating of his heart. Alex's eyes furrowed in confusion. He always did look cute when he was confused, like a puppy dog. The storm’s far enough away that the soft dribble of light rain is the only thing left behind in it’s wake, which means Caleb would send someone after him if he doesn’t show up in a few minutes.
"What do you mean? Willie, if I said something wrong I -'' Alex stammered out before Willie leans forward to press a chaste kiss against his lips, lingering for a few minutes when he finally pulls away. Alex knew about the car crash now, the real reason he was really dead. He knew he was afraid of storms - William not even children are afraid of storms. It's about time you grow up - Caleb's voice whispers in the back of his mind, cutting into his spiraling thoughts.
Willie stumbles to his feet. He’s still shaky, but he can walk. He doesn’t want to risk angering Caleb more than he has to. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” he says. The words feel flat even to him. Alex knows it all now - well not all of it, but enough - and that knowledge is almost too much to take. His boyfriend stares at him, big green eyes confused and sincere... and so unlike anything Willie has seen in a long, long time.
“I can help,” Alex insists, refusing to let go of Willie’s hand. It pains him, but he has to leave. Caleb might be evil, he might be the cause of all of their problems… but after everything the ghost club was still the only thing Willie had left to call his home.
“Sometimes there’s nothing you can do Alex,” Willie whispers, gently placing his hand against Alex’s neck. Alex leans into his touch as he wraps his own hand around his.
“Willie-“ Alex starts again but before he hears Alex ask him to stay again because he knows he would. He’d do anything Alex asked him too if it made him happy but he owes Caleb his life and that’s not a debt he forgets easily. But Willie resorts back to his instincts because well, they haven’t led him astray yet and he keeps Alex at arms length when the familiar tug in his gut pulled him back to the Hollywood Ghost Club in time to get ready for Caleb’s opening act.
#julie and the phantoms#franken fic#jatp alex#jatp willie#angst#fanfiction#drabbles#whump#willie angst#we hurt the characters we love#jatp#ren's writing#i love the gays your honor#asdfeeasd#caleb covington
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Outright Blanket Thievery
Pairing: HumanF/OrcgreM/OrcM [Reader/Gorrim/Gorvok] Rating: GEN DC (Diabetic Coma Alert) Tags: Silliness, Comfort, Cuddling? Word Count: 3313
[Authors Note: I am not going to lie, your prompt gave me the giggles something awful, but I appreciate you giving me time to finish nano and deal with my pneumonia. Sorry this took so long but getting back in the groove has taken some time.I was also inundated with enough work projects for 3 full-time employees and have been consistently pulling 12 hour days. Your patience is a blessing.]
@monster-bait
As beautiful as winter could be, sometimes a person just wanted it to be over. Despite the heat being on you were still freezing. Sitting on the couch under a couple of blankets and shivering slightly while trying to focus on the TV. Binge watching Netflix alone wasn’t nearly as much fun as it was when your roommates were around, but you were bored and didn’t want to do anything that would require you to move out from under the blankets. Your cocoon of warm was slowly beginning to work and you were just not willing to ruin all your effort even to get up for a drink.
When you had initially found this place on Ulric’s List there was the feeling of it being too good to be true. The location was incredible, as was the building. The area was one of the more expensive ones to live in but the rent was reasonable. You would have roommates but they were professionals that were not home as much. That was why the rent was low, it turned out. They were looking to rent to someone that would be willing to take care of the place while they were gone, and they would be gone often. You would have your own bedroom and bathroom, but all other areas were shared. Despite the lack of private entrance, and your own kitchen, it was simply too good to pass up.
Agreeing to an interview and wanting a chance to view the apartment and check out the area, you decided to meet them there on one of their days off which was in the middle of the week. It wasn’t the greatest of accommodations but with their schedules it was the best that could be done. When you first met them you weren’t sure who was more surprised, you or them. They had not expected a human to respond to the ad, and you had not expected your roommates to be the largest, meanest, most aggressive looking people you had ever seen. One, Gorvok, was an impressively large orc, who was the biggest orc you had ever met, and somehow the other, Gorrim, was taller. You had never met a half orc half ogre before, in fact you had never seen an ogre up close but now you were pretty sure they were massive and terrifying.
It had been a mistake on your part, not realizing that when you brought up the results for the apartment hunt, that you did not filter the results meant for humans. What you had done is filtered out the human results instead. It had been your intention to apologize and be on your way, but Gorvok had stopped you. He believed that this arrangement could work out. As a human, the bedroom would be more space than you would get in a human sized apartment. It would allow you to have separate spaces in your room and afford you more privacy. Also, being human would not impede your ability to look after the place, it really wouldn’t take much.
There was still the issue of your comfort. Both males were worried that you would be afraid of them, but you realized that to do so would just perpetuate existing stereotypes, which you weren’t too keen on despite your initial surprise and hesitation. Also you were never going to find another offer like this. It was more than affordable, and nicer than anything you would be able to find on your own. Pushing your anxiety aside, you took the offer and moved in two weeks later, and honestly it was still one of the best decisions you had ever made in your life.
You had the whole place to yourself more often than not, and all those worries about having male roommates and them being creeps was unfounded. You were pretty sure they were actually a couple to start, and if they weren’t well that didn’t matter. Neither had done anything to make you feel unsafe or uncomfortable, the opposite in fact. Both were eager to make sure your comfort level was maintained and had even stepped in when one of the neighbors got too friendly with you. More so than you had ever felt in the past, you felt safe.
In all honesty you had thought the best part of the arrangement would be how often you had the place to yourself, but you had become surprisingly lonely. Especially after the first few times you actually hung out socially with your roommates. Despite a few awkward moments and cultural misunderstandings, you discovered that they were surprisingly fun to spend time with. They were warm, friendly, a little mischievous but not in a mean way. Gorrim in particular was fond of gentle pranks, never anything mean or potentially hurtful. Mostly just silly stuff that made everyone laugh. While Gorvok was a fan of puns, to the point that both you and Gorrim would sometimes boo him out of the room or ground him just to make him stop.
Overall, you were happier when they were around and that made the nights apart both harder and yet easier. The only reason it was easier was because you realized, after almost a year with them, that you had begun to genuinely care for them both. You worried for them, and wanted to take care of them as best you could. The shock came when you realized that you had developed a rather embarrassing crush on both men in turn, and alternated between which one you fantasized about, though lately the fantasies had taken a bit of a turn and you no longer had to choose, both were there and somehow that made it worse.
Thus far you had managed not to embarass or out yourself and kept your desires secret. It was more than physical, you knew that, but there was still a physical element. Part of the problem was over time you had all become comfortable with each other, so much so that you realized that there were some cultural modesty differences, mostly in that modesty seemed to not exist in orcish culture. Nudity was not seen as obscene or even sexual. The first time you walked into the kitchen to find Gorvok nude had been an experience that had you hiding in your room for days and Gorvok being somewhat upset for much longer. Eventually you got over it, but you couldn’t tell him the real reason you were upset. You just blamed it on your humanity and apologized.
Though if you thought Gorvok cut an impressive figure, then catching Gorrim working out had almost broken you. Both males had strong, muscular bodies, but not like bodybuilders. They had solid forms with some softness. They were also both impossibly hairy, Gorrim more than Gorvok, but that was the Ogre in him. Ogres were known to be quite hairy, some had fur, and most had horns. Like orcs they had tusks, but Ogres had two sets and sometimes their tusks grew large enough that dental intervention was required to prevent permanent damage. Never in your life had you felt such a strong attraction to anyone, but these two did something to you that you simply couldn’t explain.
Now you had to fight back your own wants and desires for everyone's sake. They were your roommates and if they weren’t dating each other you assumed they were gay. Not because of any thing specific they had said, but because you were positive you heard them fucking on more than one occasion yet it was never addressed or even mentioned. You weren’t sure how to bring it up and didn’t want to upset anyone by asking the wrong kind of question, so you just pretended you heard nothing.
So there you were, curled up on the couch freezing despite the blankets and the fire going. You were alone and a little miserable. Not just because of the cold, but because you were lonely, lonely and bored. Sure it was easier on your labido when they weren’t around and it helped avoid any potentially awkward moments, but that didn’t change the fact that despite your attraction to them they were also your friends. It just wasn’t as much fun without Gorrim’s pranks or Gorvok’s terrible puns. Ok, so maybe you could live without some of his terrible puns, but still.
You knew Gorvok was going to be gone longer this time. He was visiting his family, some emergency involving his brother. You hadn’t even known he had a brother until he was getting ready to leave. The look in his eyes still haunted you a bit. Orcs were close with their family and clans and it was clear his brother was someone important to him, you were afraid to ask what was going on and why he never mentioned his family before but you left it be.
Gorrim was supposed to be back sometime this week, but you weren’t sure when. So for now you were just stuck alone, cold, bored, and lonely. You had other friends you could hang out with, but you wanted your roommates home. It was a different feeling and it made you melancholy to think about it too much. Sinking further into the couch you sighed, you were still thirsty.
Lost in your malaise of misery and mummification in the blankets on the couch that you missed the sound of a key in the door and Gorrim coming in. He was usually a loud individual and you normally wouldn’t have missed it, but he was being surprisingly quiet. You didn’t even know you were no longer alone in the apartment until you heard his deep gravelly voice from behind you.
“I did not realize humans had a cocoon stage.”
You screamed and fell off the couch in a tangled heap of blankets, struggling on the floor as the sound of booming laughter filled the space. Of course after the initial panic you recognized Gorrim’s voice and just layed in a small heap on the floor and waited for him to stop laughing and help you. Thankfully it didn't take long and soon you were lifted into the air and and set gently on the couch. It took a bit longer for you to unwind yourself from the blankets but you managed and just glared up at the still chuckling Gorrim.
“Was that really necessary?” You asked as you wiggled out from under the blankets.
“Probably not, but it was funny. I had no idea I would scare you so much.” He smiled and sat down on the couch.
Despite the laughter he looked tired and like something was on his mind. You glanced over at him and wavered between asking and just sitting there pretending to be angry about it. You weren’t really upset, it hadn’t even hurt and it was kind of funny. Looking away you stared at the fire not really realizing what it looked like with you just sitting there, no TV or anything on, just wrapped in a blanket on the couch.
“You hear from Gorvok yet?” Gorrim asked after a few moments.
“No, you?” You glanced over looking hopeful only to see him shake his head looking solom.
You were both quiet for a bit, just sitting in silence until Gorrim got up and headed toward the kitchen. You turned around on the couch and called out to him to get his attention.
“Hey, while you are up, can you get me drink?”
Gorrim stopped and turned around slowly with a curious look on his face. “Did falling off the couch make you thirsty?”
“Nope!” You smiled. “I have been thirsty for a while. Just didn’t want to get off the couch.”
Gorrim started laughing again, and hard. He was shaking his head and just giving you this look.
“What? I was comfortable and it is cold!” You pouted, sulking a bit but it was clear he was going to do as you asked.
He came back a few minutes later carrying two mugs of hot chocolate. His was significantly larger, and when he handed you yours you could see the tiny marshmallows floating in the drink. It was kind of sweet and adorable. It was also one of the many reasons you liked him so much. Gorrim was thoughtful and kind, even if he was a bit of a punk sometimes.
“Thank you.” You took the drink and sipped it. Having to let go of the blanket and let it slip down.
The hot chocolate went a long way to warming you and you were distracted by not only the sweet drink but the warmth filling you that you didn’t notice the blanket inching off of you slowly. Humming quietly you pulled the cup to your chest, eyes closed as you let the warmth fill you. It wasn’t just the drink, having Gorrim back made the room seem warmer somehow. When you finally opened your eyes and set your drink down you noticed the blanket was now only half on your lap and over by Gorrim, who for his part, looked innocent as usual.
You looked him up and down, then at the blanket, then at him again. You weren’t sure if the blanket had actually just slipped off you or if he had something to do with it. Leaving it for now, as you were a bit warmer, you went back to your drink and the silence. This was a much better silence than before. It was a comfortable silence and not a lonely one. Lost in thought again, worried about Gorvok, you didn’t notice the blanket inching away from you again.
By the time you did notice, the blanket was no longer on you at all and somehow was now on Gorrim who looked perfectly pleased with himself as you just stared at him.
“Ahem…. That was mine.”
“Technically. It is a communal blanket.” He countered.
“Yes, but, I was using it.”
“And now I am.”
There was something about his smug, matter of fact delivery that fueled your bravery. You set your cup aside, noticing his was on the table, so spills would not be a problem. Reaching over you tugged at the blanket, but it would not budge from his iron grip.
“Why are you trying to take my blanket?” Gorrim asked ever so innocently
“Your blanket?” Your voice pitched up. “I thought it was a communal blanket?” It was hard to keep a straight face but you did your best.
“Mine now.” He quipped and had the audacity to snuggle further into the blanket with an over exaggerated sigh.
“Oh that is it!”
Launching yourself at him bodily you tugged at the blankets with all your might. Of course Gorrim didn’t have to do much to fend you off being about 4 times your size and stronger than anyone you ever knew. It was like trying to wrestle a statue. He wasn’t moving, even a little. How ever you did notice the smallest hint of a smile on his face.
“FINE! If you are going to be a selfish blanket hog, then I will have to improvise.”
You weren’t sure what fueled your bravery at this point, as there were lines that had never been crossed by you. This was your roommate who was potentially in a relationship with your other roommate. None of that mattered in this moment as you tugged the blanket up instead of to the side and crawled under it and up into his lap. Wiggling and struggling until you popped up from under the blanket with your back to his chest and the blanket pressed tight to you as you made yourself at home on his lap.
“Maybe next time you will stop hogging all the blanket and this wouldn’t happen, but since you are being an absolute child about it, now you have to share!” You hrmfed, glad that he couldn’t see your face as you could just feel the heat in your cheeks.
This was the most sustained physical contact that you had ever had with him. There had been physical contact in the past, you guys had lived together for over a year. Hugs happened rarely but they happened. There were plenty of other small instances, but never anything like this. You were in his lap, you could feel the warmth of his body, the softness of his stomach, the hard muscles of his chest, hell you could feel his breath on your head, stirring your hair a bit. Wiggling slightly you leaned back harder into him and made an exaggerated sigh just like he had.
Your whole body shook with his laughter as you felt his massive strong arms wind around you as he leaned down and rested his chin on top of your head.
“Well, alright then.” He continued to laugh but it died down after a minute. “I was wondering if you were ever going to warm up to me.” he added softly.
You were silent for a bit, not sure what he meant. Slowly you turned a bit so you could look at him, the confusion clear in your eyes. You felt him shrug as he looked at you.
“You’ve been a perfect roommate, you are wonderful. You just seemed like you’ve tried to keep your distance. I get that half breeds have a reputation and I know how frightening I look.” He paused for a moment as you seemed to struggle to find words. “I mean you are friendly enough with us and I always enjoy socializing, but you seem to keep us at arms length, so I wasn’t sure, that's all.”
You were quiet for long moment. “I just.. I wasn’t sure where the line was. I thought you and Gorvok were. Um… well.. I mean.. Not to make assumptions but.. See…” You were struggling and the face journey you were going on must have been something because Gorrims smile just got bigger and bigger and you just knew something dumb was going to fly out of your mouth. “I heard you guys.” and there it was.
Gorrims booming laughter almost shook you right off his lap, but he had a pretty good grip on you so you weren’t going anywhere.
“I see.” He rumbled close to your ear.
To your credit you managed to stop the full body shiver that would have given a little too much away. “I… didn’t want to say something insensitive or anything like that. So I just. I wasn’t sure because you guys don’t always act like a couple.” Throwing up your hands you started over explaining. “Not that there's anything wrong with that. Every relationship is different and I am fine with any sexuality. OHNO! I am in your lap and this must be so awkward for you!” As deep embarrassment filled you, you tried to wiggle out of his grasp but he was holding quite tightly to you.
His voice was back against your ear, and you could swear you felt the brush of his lips against your neck, but that must have been your mind playing tricks on you. “If only life were that simple. My relationship with Gorvok is complicated, we don’t really do labels all that well if I am being honest. While we are airing things out, I think it is only fair for you to know that both Gorvok and myself don’t have any gender restrictions in the lovers we take and the relationships we build.”
You froze, your mind trying to piece together exactly what he was saying when you felt that warmth against your neck. This time the pressure wasn’t something you can ignore when his deep voice washed over you. This time it vibrated you straight to your core.
“When it comes to someone special, we like to share.”
#orc boyfriend#reader story#reader x orcgre#monster-bait#200 follower lottery#Follower Lottery Winner
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Change of Hands
So this is a little 2.3k thing I wrote based off the lovely art from @liccy on tumblr!! When I first saw the Hyrule holding Wild picture in this post I had a lot of emotions. And while this isn't the original idea Liccy had when she made the drawing (as it was made as a sequel to this beautiful art piece by @scribbs-dibbs [who I unfortunately can’t tag, but I send them my love!]) my brain kinda ran away with this idea so I had to write it.
I totally recommend everyone go check out both of these amazing artists' works, because they are both awesome and deserve love.
Also, Liccy, thank you so much for letting me write for your beautiful art! It has been so much fun and an absolute honor.
Cross-posted on ao3
Now onto the story!!
* * *
It was supposed to be a normal dungeon. No one had expected anything… off about it. Wild and Hyrule had even gotten permission to explore it.
It should’ve been fine.
And it was, until they got to about three quarters of the way through and were met with a figure in a dark crimson robe standing - no, floating - a few paces in front of them.
It confused them both, because they’d already beaten the mini-boss of the dungeon, and they hadn’t gotten to the point of finding the boss key yet, so reason would say that this was a normal enemy.
Except it didn’t look like any of the enemies either had ever faced before.
“Hero of Hyrule, Hero of the Wild,” said a voice from the cloaked figure. The voice had no identifiable features, sounding ethereal and ancient in a way that sent shivers down both of the heroes’ spines the with dark power it radiated. “You hold the golden power that I seek, and the divine blessing carried by those chosen of the Goddess Hylia. Surrender to me now that I may obtain these both.”
Wild didn’t miss the small gasp from Hyrule at the mention of a ‘golden power’, nor did he overlook the way Hyrule’s right hand hovered closer to his left.
But neither of them responded to the figure’s demands beyond both readying their weapons.
“You have chosen to not surrender,” the voice said. “And with this choice, your lives are now forfeit.”
…
Wild wasn’t sure how long ago their initial encounter with the cloaked figure had been. All he knew is that he and Hyrule had been running through the rooms of the dungeon (now enchanted by the figure - who had to be a sorcerer, Hyrule had said - to move and change so the map they had both worked hard to find was now useless.
Poisonous gas flooded through the chambers, settling about knee high off the ground, but still managing to seep into their bodies, slowly draining both their health and energy.
Surges of enemies they had already killed off came back to attack them, and traps they had already disarmed appeared at the worst times to add to the damage.
Wild had already had to rely on Mipha’s Grace once to heal himself, and even with doing that, he could feel his health still steadily decreasing. Hyrule was in just as bad, if not worse shape, having used a great deal of his power to get them away from the sorcerer’s initial attacks and to heal himself once when he was on death’s door.
At one point, Hyrule stumbled, and Wild was barely able to catch him in time to keep him from falling face first into the poison layer at their feet.
There was a small ledge a few feet away from where they stood, peeking up above the poison. Wild quickly moved Hyrule over to the ledge, helping his friend climb up onto the ledge and settle his back against the cavern wall.
“We need to rest,” Wild said, trying to prop Hyrule up as best as he could.
“We can’t stop,” Hyrule protested, despite his eyes sliding closed. “The sorcerer will find us.”
Wild knew he was better off than Hyrule, and he hated it. Mipha would keep healing him every time his health got too low. But she couldn’t heal Hyrule - Wild had already begged for her to, and even though Mipha was willing, her powers just didn’t work like that.
“Just a few minutes,” Wild insisted. “I’m sure I have a potion or…”
He paused as he noticed the faint flicker of golden light coming from Hyrule’s left hand.
“Uh, ‘Rule, what is that?”
Hyrule blinked his eyes open and looked in alarm to where Wild had gestured. When he realized what it was, he gave a defeated sort of chuckle and moved to take off the bracer that covered the back of his hand.
“That,” he said. “Is the ‘golden power’ the sorcerer is trying to kill us for.”
Wild stared in amazement at the flickering golden light of the complete Triforce on the back of Hyrule’s hand.
“You… You didn’t tell us,” Wild said softly.
“I couldn’t,” Hyrule answered. “I… I’ve been betrayed and hunted too many times for this. I was terrified to let anyone know… at first. I wanted to tell you all but…” Hyrule gave a weak cough before grimacing.
“Can it heal you?” Wild asked. He admittedly didn’t know much about the Triforce. He knew his Zelda had wielded its power before, but beyond that…
Hyrule shook his head. “I don’t have the energy to wield it right now. It’s flickering like this because it knows we’re in danger, but…”
He didn’t have the chance to finish before the ground began to shake around them. Behind where Hyrule sat, the wall began to crumble and give way, falling into a dark, black abyss behind them. Wild cried out in alarm as the ground beneath Hyrule began to fall away as well.
Hyrule looked up at Wild with a look of fear in his eyes right before he was sent plummeting into the abyss.
Wild barely had time to process it before he was reacting - springing forward and grabbing Hyrule’s outstretched left hand right as he fell. He held Hyrule suspended in the air above a seemingly bottomless ravine below.
“Hold on, I’ll pull you up!” Wild called, tightening his grip on Hyrule’s hand.
But the poisonous cloud had risen in with the shaking ground, and was now slowly creeping up the length of Wild’s stomach where he lay holding tightly to his friend. The gas burned his eyes, nose, and throat even as he tried to close them off against it.
“Give in, little heroes,” the voice of the sorcerer intoned behind Wild. “Give in.”
Wild could feel his health draining as the poison clouded around him. He couldn’t give in. He had to save Hyrule.
“Wild, you can’t,” Hyrule said. His voice was weak, the increased flow of poison reaching him as it tumbled off the end of the cliff. “You can’t save me now.”
“I’m not going to let you go,” Wild growled. He could feel tears coming to his eyes that weren’t from the poison. “I can’t lose you. I won’t lose anyone. Never again.”
Wild could barely see Hyrule shake his head through the tears and gas.
“I’m sorry, but this time you have to.”
Wild felt Hyrule squeeze his hand, and with it came a flood of power that Wild never expected. The power coursed up his right arm with an explosive force, tearing away Wild’s sleeve as swirls of golden light danced up the limb.
The power took Wild by surprise, and forced his hand open, releasing his hold on Hyrule.
“NO!” Wild screamed, not able to see as Hyrule fell but already feeling that piece of his heart (the ⅛ he had given to Hyrule, just as he had given the same to each of the others in his new family) shattering.
A dark chuckle sounded behind Wild and he turned his head to see the sorcerer standing there.
“It seems that there is only one life left for me to take now,” they said. “Then the golden power will be mine.”
At the mention of the golden power, Wild dropped his eyes down to stare at his hand. There, shining brightly and radiating more power than Wild could ever imagine, was the symbol of the Triforce, glowing and whole.
Hyrule had given it to him, wanting him to protect it.
And Wild would.
“Please,” he whispered to the power now flooding his veins. “Please lend me your strength.”
With a flash of brilliant light, Wild felt the power of the Triforce surge. He couldn’t help the yell that tore from his throat as he targeted the power at the sorcerer.
The sorcerer embodied darkness and all that chosen of Hylia stood against. Wild raised his hand, glowing with the divine power of the Golden Goddesses, and willed the darkness to be purged.
The light flared and an ear-splitting shriek echoed through the room as the Triforce burned away the spells and their source with a fury that threatened to overwhelm Wild. But it was over within seconds, dimming down and revealing an empty chamber exactly as it was before the sorcerer had appeared. The broken wall and floor were both repaired and there was no other sound beyond Wild’s labored breathing and the rapid beating of his heart.
Wild fell to his knees, holding his hand tightly to his chest. He’d defeated the enemy, made everything back to how it should be.
He’d won.
But it wasn’t enough. Despite the victory, Wild still felt hollow. Looking at his hand again, he couldn’t hold back the choked sob.
He hadn’t been able to save Hyrule. He’d let Hyrule fall. He couldn’t save him.
He had failed. And now… now he was alone.
Again.
He couldn’t go back to the others… not without Hyrule. He couldn’t… couldn’t face them. Not when he knew what they would say.
It was his fault. He’d let it happen.
Sure, some of them would try to reassure him with false words. Twilight and Four and Time would probably all say he did his best. Wind would offer him a hug and Sky a shoulder to cry on. Warriors would probably just give him that look of understanding that was one that seasoned soldiers all understood. And Legend…
Gods he knew he couldn’t face Legend. He’d just let Legend’s protege - the only other one from Legend’s timeline and the only one of their group that Legend had actually easily been able to open up to - fall to his death.
Just another person to add to the list of people that Wild’s failures had taken someone important from, he guessed.
Wild knew he wasn’t going to be able to go back to them. He couldn’t face the reactions they would give him. Which meant…
He was alone again.
Another sob ripped from his throat as he opened his eyes - not having realized they had been closed - and stared at the still glowing mark on his hand.
“Can’t you bring him back?” he begged. “He was your chosen protector after all. Can’t you bring him back?”
“That’s unfortunately not a power the Triforce has,” a voice said from behind Wild. The champion hero’s head flew up to see Hyrule standing there, a small smile on his face. He looked beaten up still, sporting several cuts and bruises on his face, but he was there. With a watery laugh, he continued “It can’t bring someone back from a certain death of falling off a cliff… at least not on its own. It needs a particularly determined wielder to be able do something like that.”
Wild let out some type of cry as he leapt to his feet and threw himself at Hyrule, successfully knocking the other to his ass.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Hyrule said. “I’m here.”
Wild buried his face deeper into Hyrule’s tunic, gripping it tightly like a lifeline as he sobbed.
“You were gone,” he whispered. “You… I couldn’t save you. I failed and I couldn’t… I didn’t want to be alone again.”
Another sobbed ripped from him and he tightened his grip, trying to convince himself that Hyrule was there. He wasn’t imagining this. He was there.
Wild felt tears drop down onto his head as Hyrule lifted his hands to his hair, pulling him closer.
“It’s okay,” Hyrule murmured softly. “You did what you had to, and it turned out okay. You didn’t fail. And I promise, you aren’t going to be left alone.”
Soft fingers combed through the looser strands of his hair as Wild let out a shaky breath, feeling his energy draining as he sank in Hyrule’s hold.
“You’re not alone Wild,” Hyrule said quietly. “We aren’t going to leave you alone. I swear it.”
…
After taking some time to recover, they left the dungeon pretty quickly. The others were waiting for them, worried looks on each of their faces. They had felt the surge of the Triforce’s power, and hadn’t known what to think.
Wild and Hyrule had explained as best as they could, as well as explaining that Wild was now the one who would be the protector of the Triforce from that point on.
It had been hard to explain, and Wild hadn’t wanted to admit to anyone the real reason he was still torn up.
He couldn’t admit that when he hadn’t been able to save Hyrule from falling… he felt like he had failed again. That he was alone again.
But that night as he cooked dinner for his friends, he remembered Hyrule’s words.
That he hadn’t failed.
That he wasn’t alone.
And he realized that those words were true.
He hadn’t failed.
He wasn’t alone.
Wild looked up at the others scattered around the campsite. Twilight and Warriors were in the middle of a sparring match that Wind was intently watching. Four and Time were carefully looking over the various pieces of the group’s equipment, murmuring quietly to each other and making note of the different pieces that needed repairs. Sky was leaned up against a tree, a piece of wood and his carving knife in hand as he whistled a peaceful tune. Legend had pulled Hyrule to the side and currently was fussing over the various injuries that Hyrule had.
Wild watched them, and knew that he had all pieces of his heart again, together and whole.
It was enough to bring a smile to his face.
But not enough to let Hyrule convince him to help with dinner.
They’d both had enough poison for one day, after all.
#linkeduniverse#linked universe#things I wrote#i'm like super proud of this just fyi#most of it was cranked out in like an hour#and then just some edits done after#everyone go check out the beautiful art and cry with me about these idiot boys#i love them very much
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Gonna take this as an opportunity to request a rare pair. Either May/Tony or May/Rhodey for “volunteer chaperones”
It was a mistake. A complete, total, absolute mistake. May was never, ever doing this again.
She looked around, overwhelmed. Yep. She was still surrounded by teenagers armed with battle robots they’d built themselves. Allegedly they were all to remain at their workstations with proper protective equipment, but they were teenagers. They were absolutely not going to wait until the competition to try out their lasers and saws on each other.
“Peter, I’m gonna tap out,” May said, trying not to wince as Peter’s robot unfurled a whirring blade and attempted to cut a piece of lumber in half. “I’ve gone through too much to watch you chop off a thumb now.”
“My thumb is nowhere near the blade,” Peter said, waving his hands in a manner she supposed was meant to be reassuring. “Besides, you never know, it could grow back.” He gave her a shit-eating grin, and May nobly managed to refrain from calling her kid an asshole.
“Chaperones are allowed coffee breaks, right?” May looked longingly towards the exit.
“You’re supposed to supervise me the whole time I am engaging the robot,” Peter recited, making air quotes with his fingers. “It’s in the Teen Battle Robot Competition handbook.”
May rolled her eyes at him. “I’ll be gone ten minutes, tops. Cover for me.”
“May!” Peter hissed, adorably frazzled for someone who fought crime on the regular. She ignored him and wove her way through the crowd, trying not to focus on the terrifying murder robots the children were creating all around her. This was so seriously not her thing. She slipped on her sunglasses and headed out the door, aiming for the nearest coffee shop.
She aimed to be gone for ten minutes, though thanks to the line and the fact that she really didn’t want to return to robot hell immediately, it stretched out past half an hour. She finally returned, iced coffee in hand, pushing through the door while scanning the room for Peter.
Instead she ran directly into someone. Her hand holding the coffee bumped into her chest, covering her top with iced coffee.
“Shit!.” She shook droplets of coffee off her hand as she transferred the cup to her dry hand, and patted at her shirt with the napkin she’d had wrapped around the cup.
“By all means, save the shirt, screw the bystander.”
It couldn’t be. May looked slowly up, still dabbing the napkin at her chest, to see Tony Stark standing there, grinning at her.
“What are you doing here?” Crap, that was rude. May tried not to be rude to Tony, because while he could be supremely irritating and smug, he had done things for her kid that she could never repay him for. But… what was he doing here? And dressed like, well.. A farmer. She quietly chose not to question it too much. Besides, this was her time with Peter, as ill-suited to the outing as she might be.
“Same as you, I assume,” Tony said, flagging down someone who magically had a towel on hand. He offered it to her with a, “I can help if you want.”
“I’d rather you didn’t, thanks,” May said, but she accepted the towel. She dried up the worst of the spill -- it was sheer luck that she was wearing a dark top that wouldn’t stain, merely clung to her damply. Tony seemed to appreciate it, though she raised an eyebrow at him when she noticed him looking. He had the decency to quit immediately.
May didn’t love the idea of Tony popping in and taking over her time with Peter, though, no matter how little she was enjoying the killer robots. It was exactly up his alley, and she should bow gracefully out, but… “I hope you aren’t here to be Peter’s chaperone. I’ve got that covered.”
“And bless you for it, that kid is a disaster,” Tony said fondly. “I’m here for that sarcastic little bastard over there.” He gestured towards a kid in a faded AC/DC shirt who was using a controller to aim what appeared to be a ray gun mounted atop his robot at the ceiling.
“You don’t have a kid,” May said with certainty.
“Nope,” Tony agreed. “But Harley’s a kid I watch out for, and he’s almost as bright as your kid.”
Pride laced his words, and he was watching the boy with a soft fondness that made May feel immediately guilty for her own possessiveness moments before. She of all people should understand the bond you could forge with a child not of your own blood, and know the legitimacy of such a bond.
“He have superpowers too?”
“Nope, and it’s probably a good thing,” Tony said cheerfully. “Think Peter will notice I’m here?”
“You think he hasn’t already?” May said. It was the right answer, Tony’s eyes lit up in a genuine way that made it clear to her how often she saw him playacting at happiness.
“Come on, I’ll introduce you to Harley,” Tony offered. “Unless you want me to get you out of those wet clothes first?” He waggled his eyebrows in a way that was so over-the-top that May just laughed.
“Shockingly I didn’t bring a wardrobe change to a day outing. It’ll dry.” Hopefully she wouldn’t smell too awful when it did.
“Here.” Tony shrugged off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders like a letterman’s jacket before she could think to protest. Despite the rough material, it was warm and smelled like Tony -- expensive and a little much -- but May didn’t take it off.
She didn’t even want to, which… was something she would have to examine more closely. She was no stranger to gallant gestures, and she didn’t normally accept them from people she wasn’t interested in. Tony was a force of nature, she told herself. He wouldn’t accept it back even if you tried.
Plus, there were way too many teenage boys in the room for her to really want to walk around in a cold, wet shirt that clung uncomfortably.
Tony flung his arm over her shoulder, apparently deciding that if his jacket was allowed to do so, so was he, and he led her over to the kid he’d claimed.
Harley was the polar opposite from Peter -- confident, sarcastic in a biting way, and treated Tony like he was any other human being. It was a sharp contrast to the hero worship Peter tended towards, and the shyness and sweetness that she was always worried was going to be worn away by the world they lived in. But watching Harley and Tony together made it obvious that deep down Harley was another kid who had been given the short stick by life and was trying his best to carve his own path through it.
Harley also kept giving her what could only kindly be called the stink eye. It took her a moment to work out why -- he’d watched Tony stroll up with his arm around her shoulder, she was wearing Tony’s jacket like they were going steady, and it was fairly obvious that her expertise was not in mechanical engineering.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out what the kid was assuming about her, and May couldn’t figure out a casual way to tell him how very wrong he was. Finally she settled on, “I gotta go see how Peter’s robot is coming along.”
“You know he’s actually lined up to battle Harley’s robot,” Tony said, and it was obvious from Harley’s confused expression that Tony had not divulged his connection with the competition.
He looked back and forth between them. “Who’s this Peter kid?”
“An intern,” Tony replied smoothly.
Harley was clearly not satisfied with this answer. “You’ve never offered me an internship.”
“This is a different thing,” Tony replied. May winced; Tony was entirely too new to managing teenagers to understand what he’d just done. Harley’s expression darkened and May knew without a doubt that Peter’s robot was a dead machine rolling.
“I’m just going to head back over there,” May said, gesturing vaguely towards Peter’s distant station and hurrying off before she got somehow wrapped up in the argument Harley was about to start.
She hustled off, and only realized she was still wearing Tony’s jacket with Peter raised an eyebrow at her.
“I ran into Tony -- literally-- and dumped my coffee on myself,” she explained.
“Very, uh, gentlemanly of him to offer his coat,” Peter said,. “And why was he even here? He hasn’t said hi to me.” He checked his phone, where she could only see messages from Ned bemoaning his parents for choosing this weekend for a family trip.
“Apparently,” May said, stretching out the word to show it was news to her, too, “he’s mentoring a kid in this competition. I didn’t get the details.”
May marvelled as Peter’s expression became a mirror for one Harley had worn moments before. Tony really knew how to pick ‘em.
“What? What kid?” Peter stood on his tippy-toes, looking around to try to spot Tony. His expression darkened even more when he found him. “That kid? He’s the three-time champion! Last year his robot managed to freeze and set his opponent on fire simultaneously!”
May’s eyebrows raised. “You know him?”
“Some other kids were talking about him earlier,” Peter explained. “They somehow didn’t mention that Tony was with him.”
May thought back to Tony’s appearance and he had appeared more low-key than usual. The jacket she was still wearing was denim, which… she wouldn’t have thought was in Tony’s wardrobe at all, honestly. “I think he’s in disguise.”
“Huh,” Peter said. “I didn’t know he knew how to do that.”
“To be fair, I only realized it in retrospect.” May shrugged. “I think the fact that he isn’t announcing his presence is doing most of the disguise work for him. No one would believe Tony Stark would show up at a battle robot competition and not try to win.”
“He is though,” Peter said darkly. “With that kid.”
“Well,” May said, looking at Peter’s robot, “guess we just have to kick that kid’s ass.”
Peter grinned.
An hour later -- and the time seemed to magically fly by much faster than before, now that May had a goal in mind -- it was time for Peter’s first battle. He wasn’t up against Harley until the third round, and May felt a little proud that Tony had assumed Peter would make it through to the finals without any help. Her boy was brilliant, and it always gave her a warm feeling when others acknowledged it, too.
Especially Tony, but she would never, ever tell him that.
Peter’s robot destroyed his competition in under a minute, and twenty minutes later, in his semifinal round, he took out a robot that seemed to be made entirely of buzzsaws in an agonizing three minute match.
He won, though, and they settled in to watch the competition. Harley’s robot had destroyed his first competitor in thirty seconds, and in this battle, he revealed that he’d somehow installed a flame launcher on the underside that melted the wiring on the robot he was fighting in the semifinal.
Finally, it came down to Harley and Peter. Tony was beaming proudly, and May had no idea how anyone failed to notice it was him, flannel or no.
“Kick his ass, kiddo,” May told Peter encouragingly. “You’ve got this.”
Peter gave her a double-thumbs up, and marched into battle.
May slid over to where Tony was watching, standing shoulder to shoulder with him as their kids prepared to destroy each other. “Hope you’re prepared for defeat.”
“You know I can’t pick favorites,” Tony said, “except for how there’s no chance in hell that Harley’s not gonna win this.”
“Wanna bet?” May said teasingly.
“Why, Ms. Parker, I wouldn’t have taken you for a gambling woman, but yes, yes I do,” Tony said. “My kid wins, I get to take you out for that dinner.”
Tony had been threatening to take her out to dinner for months. “And if my kid wins?” she asked.
“Why, you have to take me out, of course. Terms have to be fair.” Tony’s grin should make her want to smack him, but May had found that the bastard tended to grow on you.
She considered it half a moment, but… what the hell. She held out her hand to shake on it.
When she turned back to the rink, she noticed that both Peter and Harley were giving them the stinkeye, even as the ref counted down for the battle to begin.
Once it did, there was absolute carnage. May saw a streak of fluid that looked alarmingly like blood arc through the air after a saw unfurled off Peter’s robot and surprise-attacked Harley’s. Then as Harley’s robot retaliated, there was fire and sparks. When the smoke cleared, both robots were incapacitated.
“A tie!” declared the ref, much to the disappointment of both boys.
May glanced over at Tony. “Guess it’s a draw.”
“So we have to do two dinners, obviously,” Tony said without skipping a beat.
From the corner of her eye, she could see Harley and Peter turn towards each other, and she was proud to see Peter offer Harley a handshake. A moment’s hesitation, eyes cast towards Tony, but Harley shook firmly. She had a feeling that was not going to turn out great for Tony.
“It’s a date.” Tony continued, looking so overly confident that May knew that he was hoping that she’d agree.
May’s attention crashed back into focus on the man in front of her. This could go so very badly, and there was Peter to think about, for when things inevitably crashed and burned, but…
May had made most of her best decisions in life on impulse, and she knew what she wanted to say. “Pick me up at seven.”
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Since we have a week off, is there a chance you could do a top 10 Fjorester moments so far?
OH HEY THIS SOUNDS LIKE FUN YES LET’S DO IT
10. “Did you just say I’ve been with your mom?!”
This whole sequence is hilarious. Jester is clearly annoyed that this woman is hitting on Fjord (as he tries to hire company for Kiri iirc) and tries to use her mom as leverage which clearly doesn’t work but...
what really gets me is how appalled Fjord sounds. It’s not “The Ruby of the Seas” it’s not “a famous courtesan” it’s not “a big score for a sailor like me” nope nope in his head this is “Jester’s mom” and given the flirty nature of their relationship he’s clearly Not Happy with the suggestion and Idk why but the way his voice becomes high-pitched with panic is just amazing and it was one of the first moments when my brain went PING he has a crush PING
9. Turning into water
Objectively, everything about that scene was hilarious. Fjord’s tired sigh, “nope, but thank you for that terrifying thought” was so funny and bantery... but what really gets me about this scene is how honestly worried about him Jester is at the beginning, just as he wakes up, and how later she tries to lighten the air between them with a joke...
And you can tell that it works because, despite Fjord’s initial discomfort, he turns it around and he gives her a wink and a smooth line and Jester just MELTS and it really just encapsulates so much about their friendship and dynamic and this was like episode 4 or smth
8. Post-Plank King talk
So this scene is pretty good already as a vulnerable and honest talk between them but also I like it for a few particular reasons. Firstly, the context. During the pirate arc, Fjord and Jester had some issues mostly because of Avantika, and Jester was starting to second-guess just how well she knew Fjord and he was pulling back from everyone under the pressures of leading... so to see her seek him out and just ask if he’s okay and how he is feeling was a wonderful thing for both of them. Also, I love how Fjord chose to open up to her about his conflicted feelings towards Vandran and how the whole thing hurt him. It’s just SO RARE to see him be this honest about his insecurities, and it really goes to show how much he trusts Jester. I also like that she mentions the accent thing. For us, as an audience, it’s pretty indicative that the person Jester thought she knew, actually is the real Fjord. That she has known him the best from the start and kept his secrets for him because they trust each other so much.
I also love the ending so so so much? Jester mentioning his growing tusks was such a soft little thing, and Fjord in turn acknowledging how much she supports him and thanking her for keeping his secrets was so sweet.
Plus, how to forget that perfect romcom ending where they both awkwardly pretend they have something else to do? PEAK SLOW BURN ROMANCE I TELL YOU.
7. Wursh
So this is two separate things, technically. First, their first meeting and Jester obviously noticing Fjord’s discomfort and insecurities and rushing to try to cheer him up after the talk. Jester is super perceptive, and she knows Fjord better than anyone, so I really appreciate that she didn’t just notice, she went out of her way to try to address it with him.
Also, though, the second time when she low-key threatens Wursh and makes sure he’s being nice to Fjord feels my heart with joy. Anyone who thinks Jester’s feelings for Fjord are shallow or performative is missing the point that she’s doing these things in private. He has no idea. She’s doing this out of love and selflessness, just checking in on him and making sure that he’s not going to be hurt by anyone else. And the way she TALKS about him, how gentle she sounds when talking about his insecurities and how she tells wursh that she knows he has a good heart I just- dfljañdlfja
6. Meeting the Ruby
I love so many things about this meeting omg. Firstly, that after watching Marion Lavorre aka the most famed and hot and expensive performer and courtesan in the Coast —at least— Fjord’s first reaction is “Hey, Jester, would you like to do that?” Like he has full faith she totally could do that and even when she voices certain self-doubts and Beau reassures her that she’s pretty and graceful, his contribution is “your singing voice is nice” as if the only thing that could stop Jester from reaching those heights was singing because she’s beautiful to his eyes.
Further proof? This boy, meeting the Ruby of the Seas, again, most beautiful and sensual woman, and his reaction is “I see where Jester got her good looks from” like, damn son, slow down! And Marion, bless her, all flirty but also perceptive being like “i can see you care about my daughter, do you watch over her?” and nearly making him break down right there, like Marion is part of the We Been Knew club.
And AFTER though, Fjord who has all this issues with family and who longs to find them but also dreads it, watching Jester (right after Caleb pointed out that her cheerfulness is an act) and making a point to ASK if she’s okay, “how are you feeling? do you want to have a drink? a walk? a talk?” this boy always going out of his way to make sure she feels okay and making sure they fix whatever is troubling her it’s just peak soft
5.The Tree Dive
Okay so what can I say about this that i haven’t yelled about yet? Travis “No Romance” Willingham giving ups PEAK ROMCOM DRAMATIC MOMENTS that take our breath away? Check. Fjord who just recently had an epiphany as to HOW MUCH Jester means to him and how her unwavering support is the one thing he can lean on, freaking LEAPING after her when she falls off the tree? The fact that there were ZERO seconds of hesitation between her falling and his jump? Feather fall giving them one quiet floaty yaoi moment where they hold hand and look at each other right before he booms them back up? How about Jester’s shocked and scared “Fjord, you-“ once they are back up, like she just CAN’T BELIEVE what he did for her?? AND THEN THE BOY USES HIS LAST SPELLSLOT JUST TO GIVE HER A BOOST WHEN SHE STARTS TO PANIC?!
IT’S FINE IT’S FINE I DIDN’T NEED MY HEART ANYWAY
4. The Second Temple
This one is, like, especially interesting when you consider the context, right? Like, it’s right after the blue dragon fight and Fjord just spent the whole past day trying to patch things up with Jester while she pulls away… and then they are here and he’s ready to go through with this and Jester is just SO SCARED FOR HIM. She doesn’t want to leave him behind, and he KNOWS that.
The way she just sits down to talk to her god, her best friend in the world, and ask him to look after him for her just MELTS MY HEART. And you can see it melts Fjord’s too. I mean, here is a boy who grew up all alone, with no one to help him or stand up for him, who deeply believes that no one in the world would possibly care about his problems, and then there’s this girl who is so worried about him, literally praying for him. And like, just the moment when he sits next to her and he’s so soft and touched by her worry. “Jester, it’s alright. You don’t have to tell me. I appreciate the sentiment.” THIS IS PRETTY MUCH A STAR WARS CLASSIC “I KNOW” OKAY??’ and her quiet “i really hope he does help you” “me too”
*banging pots and pans* TRAVELER SHOW TF UP FOR YOUR GIRL AND HELP FJORD OKAY WILD MAMA BEAT U TO IT BUT YOU GOTTA STEP UP
And the last part is just so cute, like, “just, don’t turn evil to me?” “Or anyone else? just you” listen listen listen if we ever talk dark au’s this is basically the foundation, “fuck the world but i can’t lose you”
3. Tusk Talk
There’s so much to appreciate about this talk, especially with Fjord being so open and vulnerable about his past, but I’m super soft about how Jester chooses to reassure him. “I think you would look good either way, Fjord” because she likes him and not just about his body, it’s about who he IS. And you can tell how much her opinion matters to him by the way he hyper focus on Jester after that comment. Everyone else keeps talking and he’s just like “you’re saying I should grow them back?” and she just reassures him again that it doesn’t matter to her.
And he does something that is still so impactful to the narrative about 50 episodes later: he gives her control, he trusts her enough to overwatch him getting over his worst childhood trauma, and in that moment he makes himself vulnerable in a way he never has before. And she takes that trust and honors it, and she comments on his tusks now and then, she makes them a mark of pride in her tattoos, she reassures him whenever those insecurities resurface. It’s such a meaningful thing that he has chosen to share with her, I don’t think I’ll ever be over it.
2. Underwater Kiss
Again, what can I say that I haven’t yelled about before? Fjord, who just tried to drown Avantika btw, sees Jester drowning right before of him and this protective self-sacrificial boy just grabs her by the face and KISSES HER. Travis used those words exactly, hell he specifically referenced The Shape of Water. And then he gives her all of his air. HE JUST DOES THAT.
He could’ve done so many other things?! Taken the key from her? Pulled her to the entrance with his double swimming speed? AND INSTEAD HE DID THAT
AND THEY HAVEN’T FREAKING TALKED ABOUT IT
ALSO JESTER’S FIRST KISS??? AND HOW JUST ROMANTIC AND AESTHETIC AND EXCITING IT IS?
when i tell you my heart can’t take it
1. Jellyfish Talk
Of course, of course, this is the TOP Forester moment. I mean. How could it not be? The romantic light, the heart to heart, Jester first and foremost checking on how Fjord is feeling with his mission and then carefully bringing up her negative feelings, for the first time, willingly, because she trusts him so much. And Fjord, who just had Caleb open his eyes about Jester hiding her emotions, being so tentative around her, so careful. Fjord being vulnerable too, opening up about his own negative emotions, give and take, so that she will feel better opening up. Fjord being so soft and reassuring for her, coming up with crazy plans to make her laugh and cheer her up. THE SOFTNESS with which he says “Don’t be sad. Your mama is pretty proud of you, that much is clear.” He’s so gentleeeee
And listen listen listen this moment is also key because of how much it affected what came next. Like, Avantika comes and muddles everything up, but this talk lingers between them as a moment of sincerity before all the lies, and then, as soon as they move on from this hell, Fjord’s main priority is getting Jester back to her mom, making sure Jester is okay, trying to return to that point. It takes them a while, of course, but you can tell this moment is a strong foundation for them to find their way back to each other.
Because in this moment, in the ship surrounded by beauty, they saw each other without masks.
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Ooh if you're comfortable sharing any, what are some of your favorite fanfics? (If not that's ok, I don't often share mine with people, haha)
I would love to talk about my favorite fanfics! I would definitely NOT talk about my favorite fanfics anywhere else lmao but tumblr is my oversharing space anyway 🤷♀️. One thing you should know though is that I like angsty fanfics (with a happy ending). I read some dark stuff. So it might not be your cup of tea, and that's okay!
Now we have that out of the way, lets talk my all time favorite fanfic that I would die for:
It's gets worse before it gets better by Captainmentalstability.
Summary:
After dying at a much too young age, Kim Namjoon is a guardian angel. Now he is faced with the prospect of saving three young lives - Kim Taehyung, Min Yoongi and Jeon Jungkook - by taking on a human form and keeping them safe. But as time goes on, he grows fonder of each of them than he ever expected to, and the line between right and wrong starts blurring little by little as he watches their relationships change.
Kim Taehyung, abused by his father from a young age.
Jeon Jungkook, used to being used and discarded.
Min Yoongi, lost and hopeless, ready for his life to end.
And the only thing Namjoon knows for sure, is that the four of them need each other.
This story. Omg. This story will never stop amazing me. It's sooooo well written. The writer is so freaking good at expressing the emotions of the characters and really making you feel them. They aproach serious themes in such a respectful and real way and I really appreciate that. personally I love this fic because I relate to some (or a lot OOPS) of it and it made me understand myself a little better. I've never read anything that evoked that many emotions in me, honestly. Sometimes I go back to it just to read that one part where that one character expresses that one thing because I have a hard time finding words for what I myself am feeling. It just feels so real and good and sjsnjekkeek yeah. I love it a lot. It made me cry. But I love it a lot.
Dark stuff aside, it's also really amazing to see all the characters bound and come together and form friendships. I came here for the angst, but I definitely stayed for the healing and growing :'). I'm so freaking overprotective over these characters okay I would consider murder if anyone came close to them. Reading this for the first time involved a lot of throwing my phone away in ANGER because they were getting hurt or making a stupid decision AGAIN but it also involved a lot of smiling at my phone because omg look at them BOUNDING and TRYING and I AM SO PROUD OF THEM. Also namjoon in this story is the wisest man on the planet and I would 100% take life advice from him. Sometimes I'm going through a rough time and I'm literally thinking "what would Guardian! Namjoon say?". I'm not kidding. This fanfic did that. I am currently rereading it so I have a lot of feelings about it as you can tell.
This story is part of a series so if you like this one you are in for a treat because there are literally 3 more.
Another amazing story is:
Home is (this house and the people in it) by Fruitily.
Summary:
"Okay,” namjoon says slowly, “you can’t just drag strangers home with you because they tell you their name.”
"we didn’t kidnap him. he is here very much of his own volition,” taehyung pipes in. he slaps at jeon jungkook’s shoulder. the boy looks sort of pained, and yoongi can’t blame him. “we met him at a street corner, near jimin’s work. it was raining, and he didn’t have an umbrella, and he was looking kind of lost, so we asked him to come with us.”
"And you just went with them? two strangers? them?” namjoon stresses, and jimin and taehyung look kind of uncertain, like they’re not sure whether they were just insulted.
Jungkook merely shrugs.
"You end up doing all kinds of shit,” he says, and yoongi perks up at the sound of his voice, “when you live out of your car.”
/
or: jungkook stays for a night, and then ends up staying a lot longer.
Idk if you can see the overarching theme of found family peaking through but omg I love found family stories so much. Yes please give me a group of friends finding a home in each other and helping each other.
This story isn't as dark as the other one by far! It's been a while since I read it but I mosly just remember a warm feeling in my heart. It's so sweet and nice. It's really a found family story to it's core. There is just a lot of love and warmth and silliness in this story. Also a lot of flustered yoongi. Which is always one of the best things ever.
Also, all of the stories by this writer are amazing!! Really if you just want to smile and Idk be attacked by the sudden need to fall in love with someone, reat fruitily's stories.
Sadly this story isn't finished but a lot of the other ones are!
Than there is also:
The songbird and the sea by maia_archives
Summary:
In a world where dominance of the sea is an endless battle between pirates and mariners, Park Jimin is content living in his little village on a small, uninteresting island by the eastern mainland. He wants nothing to do with the bloodshed of good and evil, the heartless killing of both innocents and condemned, the constant establishment and disruption of order. What he wants is peace, to live his life in the same town he was born in, to spend his days in the beautiful forest, and to use the powers of his Blessed Rune to nurture the home he loves so dearly.
But when his island is attacked by pirates, Jimin will have no other choice than to do as they command and leave all thoughts of peace behind in favor of boarding the Agust, a pirate ship captained by the infamous Min Yoongi, Black Fox of the East.
When I first read the summary I wasn't really gonna read it because I never read fantasy but I was intrigued by the fact that it has over 5000 comments. This story has something I generally do not like, and that is the fact that yoongi is a giant asshole in the beginning. Seriously. The man is RUDE and MEAN and unnecessarily violent and cranky. I don't like it when people portray yoongi that way. I do genuinely love this story though and it was my all time favorite for a while! The story telling is amazing. The word building is amazing. I really fell in love with the univere as a whole and I became super invested in it. It just feels really alive. If the premise makes you go "uhhhh what?" I woud really advice you to just give it a a chance. Yoongi will redeem himself later in the story. If you are really sensitive to characters being assholes/getting forgiven maybe this one isn't for you. But otherwise: it's just really good. I would be capable of writing fanfiction about this fanfiction, I'm not kidding. Definitely a story that made me super excited and always curious about what was gonna happen next. I was completely obsessed with it for a while and literally made fan art for it :')
Those are really my favorites tbh. I also really liked blue sided baepsae's by nicowememoney and Scripturient27 but for some ungodly reason I never finished it? I feel like it would definitely be on this list if I had.
Summary:
The employees of Bangtan Time Travel agency—Namjoon, Yoongi and Jungkook—just want their billion won. And their clients, Jimin and Taehyung, want to see Big Bang. Simple, right? Except their time machine breaks and they end up in a crazy dystopian future with:
- a terrifying hoverboarder with a heart-shaped mouth and a shady hot stranger with really wide shoulders;
- a hoverboard tournament they HAVE to win (except none of them really know how to hoverboard); and
- emotions they can't seem to make sense of (read: love)
[Featuring star-crossed lovers Namjin, we-don’t-like-each-other Yoonseok, sickeningly in love Vmin and a very confused Jungkook who falls in love with a badass female bartender who looks a little too much like his work sunbae Yoongi.]
As I said I never finished this story so I can't really talk about the whole thing but from what I remember it's just really fun and different and interesting. Also they keep describing hoseok as this super cool leather jacket hoverboard guy and that is just a really nice thing to look at in your head.
And that's it! Just as a final note, fanfic is kinda personal? I like a specific kind of story and if you don't like that kind of story that's all okay! If anyone reads any of these feel free to come yell at me because I have been yelling about them in my head for 2 years. I would seriously be capable of writing a book about It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better. Which is low key what I'm doing here.
Thank you for asking!
#anon#THIS BECAME LONGER THAN EXPECTED#I had fun writing about these so thank you so much for asking!
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i met you in the dark. 02
summary: Jungkook was rich and well dressed. The perfect target. But, everything changed once you decided to steal from him. And you’re beginning to find out he’s not exactly who you think he is.
pairing.: jungkook/reader also namjoon/reader
word count: 3.5k
genre: angst/ mystery/ drama/humor
Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.
Chapter 2: Stolen Goods
The warm breeze hit your face and filled your lungs with air. As the bus went faster and the wind moved simultaneously, you closed your eyes. For a slight moment, regret rushed through and you wished things were different. The reality of almost getting caught, regardless of how small or large that chance was, left you feeling hopeless and slightly ashamed. A very rare feeling for you.
The “if onlys” started rushing in and they were inevitable to avoid. You wondered how different your life would have been if you weren’t alone from the start. Would things change if you had parents to support you? If you had a home you were comfortable in? If you had money and didn’t need to resort taking from others? The impending anxiety of these questions became too overwhelming so you forced your eyes open.
When the bus stopped, you strolled out slowly as a cloud of confusion and despair hovered over you. Usually, the walk to your apartment took about 5 minutes, but today you wanted to walk by the river. The calming nature of the water was definitely refreshing. However, it also left you feeling envious. A part of you longed for that comfort and calmness in your own life. As you walked by the edge of the river, you noticed people laughing, smiling...being happy.
But, it wasn’t long before the noise and laughter faded and the only thing you could hear was the sound of your own breath. It was heavy and fast, similar to the millions of thoughts that crossed your mind. As you tried to compose yourself and forget about the hotel, your eyes traveled to a couple sitting next to you on the grass. Their bright smiles were terrifying. How on Earth was it possible to be that happy? The thought lingered in your mind for a while before you turned your gaze away from them and pulled out your phone.
“Fuck it.” you muttered as you typed Seoul Park Hotel into Naver. You clicked their careers page and saw the receptionist position listed. The apply box was at the very bottom of the page. Apply. A simple yet devastating word. Part of you wanted to exit and forget about the job, but when the interaction with the girl replayed in your mind, you couldn’t help but feel infuriated.
Your rage fueled your desire to prove her wrong. In an instant, you attached your resume and clicked apply.
“Fuck.” There was no going back now, so you got up and went home.
Like usual your closet spaced apartment had no heat. There was also no point in calling your landlord because you knew he didn’t care at all. To begin with, your apartment wasn’t rentable. There was one sink that you used for connecting your showerhead and also washing your dishes. A living area which was also served as your bedroom. And a mini fridge next to a portable shelf filled with plates and packets of ramen. That was basically it. So, your apartment wasn’t actually an apartment and a human being couldn’t actually be happy living there. But you still felt blessed that you even had a place to sleep in, something that in the past wasn’t so easily available. This messed up blessing was all thanks to your grandma. She used to be neighbors with your landlord and asked him to let you stay here. Granted you did have to pay rent, but he reduced it tremendously because of her. Even though he should have regardless because this place was horrible. Nevertheless, you were thankful, you truly were. But with it still being cold outside and absolutely no heat in your apartment, it was hard to remain positive.
As you were about to get all bundled up in bed and call it a night, you suddenly remembered that you forgot to take the watch and wallet to the pawn shop. The watch was a good $200, which would cover your rent for the next 2 months. And the genuine leather wallet would be an additional $40-70. You checked the time on your phone and saw it was 8:13pm. The shop closed at 9pm. In about 30 seconds you grabbed all your stuff and bolted out the door.
“Hello,” you called out as you made your way into the pawn shop. The owner, who usually worked the front, wasn’t in today. In his place was a guy that looked about your age. He was wearing a baseball cap that hid most of his blonde hair and a simple white t-shirt. He replied with a hello but his gaze remained fixed on his phone.
“I’ve got some stuff,” you casually said as you dug into your backpack. Again, you noticed he wasn’t really paying attention.
“So where’s Mr. Kim?” you asked as you placed the wallet on the counter first and then the watch. He finally put his phone down and lifted his head up once he noticed the items in front of him.
“He had something to do,” the guy replied nonchalantly as he picked up the watch. To be honest, you were surprised by his deep voice. However, it wasn’t intense. It was soothing and calm.
After examining the watch he picked up the wallet. You were surprised when he started trying to grab something inside of it. “What’s this?” he asked curiously moving a key around in his hand.
Your eyes turned bloodshot. You completely forgot you had placed the key back in the wallet.
“Oh..um..sorry must have put my key in there by accident,” you tried to explain grabbing it from his hand.
He looked at your frantic expression for a few seconds before letting out a slight chuckle. “So...you put your key...inside of someone else's wallet..by accident?” he sounded out.
You were taken aback by his carefree inquiry. “Listen, I don’t know what you’re trying to say but that’s my wallet,” you tried to defend.
“Why would you be selling off your own wallet at a pawn shop?” he continued to question playfully.
“That’s none of your business,” you stated coldly. He didn’t say anything this time. Instead, he put down the wallet and picked up the gold watch. “Don’t tell me this is yours too?” he asked with a clear rhetorical tone to his voice.
You rolled your eyes in disbelief. But, just as you were about to respond, he cut you off. “It’s okay. I don't really care if these are yours or not” he stated all of a sudden. And for some strange reason, you believed him.
“Wonderful,” you said throwing a fake smile.
He went back to looking at the items now. “So $80 for the wallet and $300 for the watch,” he stated.
You were shocked because that was definitely more than you expected. Typically Mr. Kim gave you a low value, so this was surprising.
“Thank you,��� was all you could say. He opened the cash register slowly, looking like he was thinking about something.
“I’m just curious-” he began. “-Why not just show this stuff off?”
His question was unanticipated so you didn’t reply right away.
“Because I need the money,” you finally said truthfully.
Now, he was the one who looked shocked. “Why do you look surprised?” you asked noticing his confusion. “You do work at a pawn shop. That’s kind of the whole point of this business.”
“I guess you’re right about that,” he chuckled.
As he gave you the money, a thought popped up in your mind and you had to ask him. “Would you?”
“Would I what?” he asked.
“Would you show this off?” you reiterated pointing to the watch and wallet.
He looked straight at you and you realized how intense his eyes were. They were dark and piercing for sure.... but definitely not empty. In a way, they made you feel comfortable.
He was now leaning slightly across the counter with his hands folded. “I think-” All of a sudden the door opened and a middle-aged woman walked in. He gave you a smile and lifted himself up. “Next time,” he said before greeting the women.
You put the money in your bag. “What makes you think there will be a next time?” you wondered.
“Something tells me you’ll be back,” he coyly said as if he knew the secret you were trying to hide.
-|-
It was 8 am and your phone starting ringing. In a groggy, half-asleep state you picked it up not knowing the number that was calling you.
“Hello?” you murmured.
“Hello, is this Ms.Y/LN?” the male voice on the other line asked.
“Yes. Who’s this??” you asked annoyed since it was so early in the morning. It better not be another spam call.
“I’m the manager at Seoul Park Hotel. We got your application a couple of days ago. Are you free anytime soon for an interview?” he explained.
You instantly shot out of bed. “Yes...Yes, I’m available. When can I come in?” you asked enthusiastically. This was completely surreal.
He paused. “Give me one second.”
You were left to your own thoughts until he returned. As you thought more about the conversation, you realized his voice was familiar. Then all of a sudden he came back on the phone and your thoughts diverged back to the present moment.
“Would it be possible to come in today at 11am?” the manager mentioned. His voice was definitely familiar.
It was such short notice, but you didn’t say anything. This was your one shot. “I’ll be there,” you confirmed.
“Great, see you then,” he stated.
You hung up the phone and ran to the bathroom to shower and get ready. The true challenge, however, would be figuring out what you were gonna wear.
As you scrimmaged through the pile of clothes across your bed, you realized that you had absolutely nothing except for jeans, hoodies, and t-shirts. But out of the corner of your eye, just as you were about to give up, you noticed a dress. It was the dress Grandma had gotten you after your first met her. It was your only option at this point.
It was a light blue wrap dress with pastel flowers, You had no idea what you were supposed to be wearing to these things, but anything was better than jeans and a hoodie.
Now the struggle was going to be finding shoes since you only owned sneakers. The cleanest shoes you found were a pair of black, slip-ons. You decided on those.
Even though spring had arrived, it was still cold out. You rummaged through your coats and found a leather jacket. It wasn’t entirely professional but at this point nothing you had on was. You put on the jacket, grabbed your bag, and headed out the door.
As you were about to walk down the stairs of the building, you stopped dead in your tracks. “Fuck my resume,” you remembered.
In the chaotic pursuit of figuring out your outfit, it completely slipped your mind that everything you had written on your resume was a lie. You checked the time on your phone..it was 9:30am. That meant you had about an hour left to memorize everything.
-|-
Scrolling through your phone, you re-read the fake resume a dozen times. You muttered all of the information to yourself hoping it would stick in your mind somehow.
“Okay, Sogang University. Management degree. Past Experiences include....” you were suddenly blanking on the experiences you listed. You glanced quickly at the document on your phone.
“So I worked at a department store. Managed a local restaurant, and did freelance work. Okay. Easy enough. I got this. Department store. Restaurant. Freelance.” you kept repeating those three words hoping that if you said them long enough they would become part of you.
The bus stopped and in a frantic state, you looked out the window. You ran out, realizing this was your stop. When you looked at your phone you saw one hour had already passed.
Seol Park Hotel was in one of the most reputable areas in Seoul. As you walked down the street, you noticed elegantly dressed and seemingly pretentious rich people. They were all carrying their designer bags and wearing their expensive jewelry so carelessly. It would be so easy to pickpocket them. But, you tried to bury that inclination and instead walked past them normally.
“Wouldn’t even have anywhere to hide it,” you thought to yourself.
You were standing in front of the hotel now. When you looked up at the twenty-something floored glass building, there was a small part of you that didn’t want to go in. The paranoia of seeing the guy from the subway again began to set in. You stood outside for about 10 minutes before you noticed people staring strangely. Despite your hesitation, you buried your feelings and walked in.
As you got closer to the desk you saw the girl from last time there. “Great,” you gritted through your teeth.
“Hi, I’m here for an interview with the Manager,” you stated giving the fakest smile as you tried not to say anything too offensive.
“What’s your name?” she asked less than enthusiastically while avoiding any eye contact with you. It seemed this was her regular personality.
“Y/N.”
She typed away on her computer. “Okay, take the elevator to the 2nd floor and wait for the manager there,” she explained looking up at you. As she did that, her expression changed and her eyes widened.
“You-” she began to say. But before she could finish her sentence you walked away and made your way to the elevator.
In contrast to the extravagant lobby, the second floor was more simplistic and modern. You got out of the elevator and sat down on the couch that was positioned parallel to the windows. It looked like you were the only one on the floor.
You were beginning to feel anxious. It was five past 11 and the manager still wasn’t showing up. Giving in to your restlessness, you kept looking at your phone every few seconds trying to see how much time had passed. Then, as your eyes were glued on the time, a deep voice spoke in the distance, “Sorry I’m late.” You got up quickly, startled at the suddenness.
As you put your phone inside of your bag and looked up at the man, a rush of panic ran through your body. He also stopped cold, noticing you as well.
“Pawnshop?” you stuttered as the guy from the pawn shop stood in front of you. He looked surprised as well, but after a few seconds, he relaxed and walked over to you as he was doing beforehand.
“Well, this is a surprise,” he started laughing at the situation.
“Wait so you’re the manager?” you asked confused. “I thought you worked at the pawn shop.”
“I was covering for my father that day,” he explained nonchalantly.
Your eyes widened even more. “Your father? Wait, Mr. Kim is your father?” you asked in an even more confused state.
“He is,” he confirmed.
“Wow,” you said aloud, which led him to laugh slightly.
You noticed your dazed expression. “Sorry, this is just a strange coincidence,” you admitted.
“Not really. I told you I’d see you next time,” he replied with a hint of confidence in his voice. Your fingers curled at the cringy way it came out.
You forced a weak laugh. “Yeah...”
After a few seconds of silence, he spoke up. “Anyways let me formally introduce myself. I’m Kim Namjoon, the manager here at Seoul Park,” he stated extending out his hand. You bowed slightly and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you..again. I’m Y/N.”
“Alright Y/N, follow me and we’ll start the interview,” he stated turning slightly and pointing towards a door at the end of the hall. You nodded your head and followed him inside.
Once you were both sitting down, he opened a folder and pulled out your resume. Now you were nervous.
“You know I’m kind of surprised. I didn’t expect such a strong resume,” he mentioned looking over the piece of paper.
“Thank you, neither did I,” you stated jokingly, hoping he didn’t notice the sarcasm in your voice.
“Well, you should be proud. All of your experiences are perfect for this position,” he commented.
There was a slight pause. ”But to be honest, what really interested me was your experience with VIP customers at the department store,” he added reading from the resume.
You nodded your head in agreement, but internally you completely forgot that you had written that. “Yes, it was a very challenging and rewarding position. I learned a lot by working with VIP clients,” you lied.
He put the resume down. “Oh? Like what?” he questioned as he leaned back onto his chair.
You gripped onto your bag tightly and tried to think of something to say. “Um... I would probably say how to interact with VIP clients,”
But as that explanation came out, you noticed Namjoon didn’t look impressed. “And how to steal,” you nonchalantly announced. Instantly his head popped up. “What?” he blurted, worried by your answer.
“Not that kind of stealing,” you said laughing. “What I mean is that all VIP clients have money to spend. And at my last job, I learned how to give them what they wanted but also what they needed,” you tried to rephrase. But Namjoon looked completely lost.
“I stole their money by essentially making them spend their money on things they didn’t necessarily ask for,” you continued.
His demeanor changed and he looked more reserved. “And you don’t see anything wrong with that?”
As you thought about his question you weren’t sure if it was a trick or not. Were you supposed to say that there was something wrong?
You decided to go with your gut. “No, I don’t. Good customer service is recognizing what your client needs without them having to say it to you.”
His eyes lit up when you said that. Your gut was right.
“I agree,” Namjoon said giving you a slight smile. He opened his mouth to say something, but awkwardly paused and looked down at his desk.
“So I want to be completely transparent with you,” he finally said. “The position you applied for is a bit different from what the job posting actually mentioned online.” You quirked up your eyebrows in confusion.
“It is a receptionist position. But it would be for the VIP desk at this hotel. So you would be in charge of all VIP related activities,” he reassured noticing your perplexion.
You nodded your head slowly. “I see.”
“I’m sorry this wasn’t in the description. But it’s a discreet position because you’ll be having a lot of interaction with VIP clients. So we didn’t want just anyone to apply,” he tried to explain more sincerely.
“No, I understand. I’m fine with that,” you emphasized.
“Great! So we’ll contact you in a couple of days to let you know when to come in for your first shift. And you’ll get your schedule and everything else then.”
“Wait?..I got the job?” you questioned surprised. Namjoon nodded his head in response as he got up from his chair. You also got up.
“Wow..um thank you. I really appreciate this opportunity,” you stated fathomed at the situation.
“You deserve it,” he said. His words were sincere which made you feel very vulnerable somehow.
Namjoon followed you out of his office and pointed towards the elevators. “See you next time,” he added as you were about to walk off.
You smiled.
The elevator came and you got in completely overwhelmed. You lean your head against the wall. Somehow it was taking longer than normal to arrive at the lobby, so you lifted your head to check the box that read off the floor numbers. It was going up. When you checked the buttons, you realized that you had pressed the wrong floor number. The doors to floor 11 opened up and a man wearing all black walked in. He was also wearing a hat so you couldn't see his face properly. But by his muscular build, you expected his face to be attractive.
As you moved back to give yourself some space, your eyes traveled to the floor. That's when you noticed it. The gold ring.
A huge knot formed in your throat and your eyes unknowingly traveled to look at his face again. He stared back at you with a sinister look in his eyes that made you nauseous. Before you knew it, he grabbed a hold of your wrist and threw your arm up to his face.
“Where’s my stuff?!,” he spat through his clenched jaw.
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