#and I feel like the revision of both of their deaths being their fault is an interesting narrative tie together
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diadoodledump · 4 months ago
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I've been beating this drum for a hot minute but I will never not be bothered by the revision of Catharine and Willis Todd's being reframed to just be abusive addicts, which isn't a great thiiing.
but from a writing standpoint, there is the potential for that reframing to have been done by the actual characters, and having the reframing of Jason's death and becoming the red hood as being inevitable because of his background being a form of internalized classism of well, Bruce. there's something very interesting in the idea that in Bruce's grief of Jason's death, and then the grief of his return, he pushes the responsibility onto the thing he couldn't control, Jason's past.
idk obviously dc would never, but it would be fascinating to have the narrative be self aware and make it a shitty thing the writers just kinda did be examined and challenged in-universe.
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luchicm04 · 10 months ago
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lost in the forest - part 1
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Masterlist
Summary: A normal girl with a normal life goes on a trip, only to come face to face with the biggest enigma of her life.
Pairing: Senju Tobirama/Original Female Character
Tag: #lost in the forest fic
posted on ao3
Word Count: 2.2k
Overall warnings: canon-typical violence, adult content, time skips, angst, kidnapping
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Walking becomes difficult the more she pushes into the forest, she isn't afraid... It's her fault for losing her guide because of the selfish desire to take photos with her luxurious pro camera. 
She curses the passion in her hobby that made her end up in this situation. She sighs, and stops to raise her hand holding her cell phone trying to obtain a ray of hope. "Dammit, no signal", she growls at her bad luck. The fanciest phone neither the biggest company in the country couldn't keep her from being uncommunicated in such a wooded area. 
She should have guessed this would happen when she decided to enter that tour centered in ecology. 
“Just calm down... Everything will be alright and you’ll laught about it later,” she laughts at herself not wanting to see the downsides of the issue. She carries a small backpack that she easily prepared. 
She’s paranoid and a little distrustful but above all prepared for inconveniences. “I’ve got to keep walking,” she purses her lips bacause she never learnt this type of things. 
She loves travelling, seeing other countries... but she feels stupid by her not attending any survival courses. 
It would have been better. 
She goes on and trips over, almost scratching her fresh pants. She frowns at the lack of mosquitoes she hasn’t seen since she began walking. 
Even so Karen is a very professional woman. She analyzes, observes and assures that something changed in the ambience. She gulps as the trees start to become weird... thicker. There are less bushes and the sounds are null. She looks at the sky. Dusk looms. 
“It’s a good thing I carried a flashlight,” she muses opening her bag and puts away her phone to save energy. Despite having an external battery she can’t get overconfident, judging from her energy bars and the little water in her canteen. 
She could survive five days with that from now one... She hopes someone saves her. 
She swallows hard when she realizes movies were never beneficial to lost people, remembering that TV show where a bunch of friends on a plane end up on an island. She sighs... She rambles and starts to think about other things to try to remove her fear of staying one night on a forest alone. 
And it not being the last time. 
She revises the instructions in her bad memory about the most important things to take into account in these situations. It’s primordial to find a place to sleep away from the ground. She looks up at the mysteriously tall tree tops. 
She doesn’t want to think about the change in the forestation. Sure it’s because she’s more fucked and pushed more into the woods. 
Still Karen... A barely 30 years old woman feels optimistic about it. It’s a good thing she has training, although she knows it’s different from being in a gym. The fresh air enters her lungs when she prepares to climb the tree. 
However... she doesn’t get very far when she feels something sharp near her throat. She raises both hands cursing her luck at being arrested and gulps thinking that she could have entered dangerous lands considering the high number of crimes like this that people easily ignore. 
Her mother had warned her this could happen if she became lost. This is why she told her not to come here! 
“I assure you I just got lost... I’m not interested in revealing your affairs to the police, so please don’t hurt me,” she tries to negotiate with the first thing that comes to her mind. Her heart speeds up, her feet tremble, she sweats... She doesn’t want to cry. 
Showing fear is worse... because being a woman, death is a mercy in this case. 
She keeps calm, but the stranger’s whisper is her only answer. 
“Huh?” She gulps again feeling the weapon at her throat tighten. Her eyes glaze. She sighs... She’s terrified. “I didn’t understand that?”, she declares after hearing that distinct language. 
Could it be indigenous? 
“[...]”, the stranger repeats again. It doesn’t sound like any local native language she heard about in the trip. It’s more like a kind of Japanene, Chinese or Korean that she doesn’t distinguish. 
She always mixed them up. But she could speak a bit in the first one. 
“I don’t understand,” she tries in Japanese. Seriously, if only she had studied Japanese after Spanish instead of German, she would be better off right now. Her mind isn’t making the right questions, neither focusing on the fact that somebody is speaking that idiom in the center of this forest. 
“[...]” The stranger clenches harder. However someone arrives startling her. She doesn’t want to maintain bad thoughts. Two man start to talk and she doesn’t make the effort to understand them. 
Her Japanese is limited. But this isn’t that language. She should have payed more attention to Mr Tanaka’s lessons. And when she feels this could not get any worst for her, being thrown against a tree is the last thing she remembers. 
The headache. 
──
Karen wakes up disoriented, feeling thirsty and of course doesn't react for a few seconds. She's scared. She's in a strange place with old-looking decorations that look straight from those period drama movies her little sister adores so much. 
She doesn't want to cry... Her logic tells her to check where she is, her head is spinning but is proud enough to continue. She's not tied down so she takes the chance to escape. 
First, to know where she is, check for hostile people and that sort of stuff. 
Quietly, with silent footsteps she leaves the bed and she feels dizzy. Leaning heavily on a wooden wall, she swallows. She curses but she holds on not to lie down even though she feels such a terrible headache. 
She hates this feeling. The need to vomit. Until she touches a light bandage on her head. The blow was strong, she sure needs something more than a diclofenac for the pain. 
Hopefully her insurance can pay for it. 
However, it is the door that opens that scares her. She turns back, she wants to run but the only thing she does in her poor state of health is fall on her back. The man only looks at her, he looks strange with a weird outfit that doesn’t make any sense. 
“Get away from me!” It’s silly to say it when you’re clearly at his mercy, now you know why people have the most illogical dialogues in the worst moments. The stranger with white hair does nothing but observe her with his red eyes. 
Contact lenses? She doesn’t know and it’s what she doesn’t process in a physical analysis that she’s unable to do. She turns back until she runs into a hard wall. She doesn’t move and watches the movements of someone who speaks of things she doesn’t understand. 
She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t speak, seeing nothingness in that white face. 
Who is this person? What is someone with almost oriental characteristics doing on this side of the world? Is he involved? She doesn’t know what to think... Karen is alarmed when that strange person with exaggerated features from a convention her sister would love to attend keeps talking. 
“I don’t understand you,” she tries English, German, Japanese and Spanish. She doesn’t care if she understands enough. She doesn’t come any closer and she’s glad that this guy doesn’t pay enough attention to her when he goes out, leaving her alone. 
She sighs with relief at not ending up as another percentage of missing people on this side. 
She feels hatred... although she knows deep down that she is already part of that percentage as soon as they realize she isn’t answering her cell phone. 
“That’s right, my things!”, she tries again when her world moves, making her fall forward with a lost look and the heaviest pain in her head. The last thing she sees are old-fashioned sandals coming from a point above. 
The darkness again... is her friend. 
──
She wakes up again and it’s night. She has a cloth on her head and so very thirsty that she cannot describe it. She sits down with heaviness. She’s dizzy looking around carefully. 
The darkness is firm, the shadows rise oblivious to her problems. Her hands are still not tied so she is sure that she will be able to get out. She swallows thickly with her heart tightly clenched again. 
Karen continues with her plan ignoring her thirst and bad taste in her mouth. She continues her walk and gulps. She curses silently, continuing as stealthily as she expects. 
She was always careful, attentive to all places and avoiding conflict points only to end up in this situation due to a bad trip. She grunts... Her things are nowhere to be found so she continued. She is walking clumsily, sticking her head out of the door and doesn’t see anyone. 
A point for her that she is willing to take, completely unaware that it was just a false feeling that she was alone. But she doesn’t know it yet. Her steps continued clumsily. The sting is light, she doesn’t know if they treated her clinging to that abnormally rustic hallway. 
She leaves. The are some sliding doors that confuse her for a moment. She clings to logic and adaptability to get out of this problem and continues. The hallways are confusing without any type of decoration or things that indicate how much in danger she is. 
It’s empty... that’s till good but now it feels suspicious. 
If you are in the wolf’s den, it’s not an optimal sign not to find anyone, no guards with weapons or something like that. She thinks the worst, however she’s still optimistic seeing that maybe she found the exit. 
Nevertheless, when she sees the sky she stops in her tracks. Karen is obsessive with many things. She has degrees in matters that her family is always critical of because they have nothing to do with her career just because of the passion of understanding what surrounds and fascinates her. 
One of those things are constellations. “Damn!” is the only thing she says when noticing that the constellations look so clear, so impressive that she swears if she had her camera she would take several photos. 
The moon is high up, surrounded by the majesty of the intermittent glow of such distant planets, but what she feels isn’t so positive when she realizes that the view isn’t the same from her hotel. It is different... and even more so when she tries to find some known constellations. 
Failing in the attempt, her heart stops with suspicion. The disbelief of being in something as silly as this... she’s afraid, but most of all she keeps thinking that she’s dreaming which causes her to laugh hysterically. 
“Yes... this is a fucking dream, that blow sure was hard,” she convinced herself by looking further down. The forest is thick, the house is empty and she sees nothing but darkness. 
“[...]” Someone calls from behind scaring her, almost making her fall if it weren’t for the man who is just younger than her in silly clothes from ancient Japanese times taking her by the wrist. “[...]”, he continues saying something. 
But she doesn’t listen. She walks away, she tries to run. It’s stupid, she’s clumsy. She falls down out of fear of everything that’s happening around, a little effect of hysteria starting to come out. Her tears are running, but not so much to cloud her unique thought. 
‘Run away.’ Not caring about the preparation, the fact that she will die of hunger if she leaves or worse yet, eaten alive by some wild animal... Karen doesn’t think much anymore, she just wants to see her family. 
But she tops dead when that man appears again. She doesn’t want to look at her back, she’s sure she didn’t see him walking next to her. She swallows thickly when he takes a step forward. 
He looks friendly. He raises his hands in peace, so different from the first cold contact she had with that faded man with fake eyes. 
This one is... his hair is ridiculously light with a dark complexion very different from the pale one. His gesture is soft, he looks worried. She doesn’t let herself be fooled by taking another step back. 
“Don’t come near me!”, she instructs. The girl may be an important manager in an international company, a person so qualified in things that no one would imagine. Nevertheless, deep down she is still a simple human. 
One who is terrified at this moment and whose life is in danger. 
The stranger stops. He tightens his gesture but remains soft, he trusts no less with the strange words that come out. However, the lack of ability to communicate is the biggest impediment that causes more problems than it solves. 
Two people there... They look at each other, they get frustrated thinking about other things that have nothing to do with them. 
But not everyone has patience, not when she falls into unconsciousness again for some reason. 
Oblivious to the fact that others thought it was better to get rid of her. 
Karen... just fell asleep again. 
Her head will be the death of her the next day. 
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A/N: As you can see, this is another story proposal that I will be working for now. I don’t know if it will update as quickly as the others but here we are, fighting with the muses to bring out another character so different from the others.
She isn’t reincarnated, much less impersonating another character... An isekai? Hahaha well I don’t know if this turned out like it was in my mind, but I’ll be walking along this direction to see where it will stop.
Does she know this world? Does she know where she is standing? How will they bridge the communication gap? Or better yet... will she live long?
These and more questions can be asked... drawing themselves little by little among the corridors of this world... that I simply do not get tired of forming in my head with these variables.
Thanks for reading, we’ll see each other soon.
Author-chan out! 
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moe-broey · 1 year ago
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OKAY. I. FINALLY HAVE DONE IT. IT TOOK A LOT OF TESTING AND TROUBLE SHOOTING AND FIGURING OUT BUT I THINK I HAVE IT
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My Askr and Co. team!!!!!!! Sometimes I switch one of them out for story stuff (full immersion lmfao), but!!! It's them it's the OGs 🥺🥺🥺
Alfonse is still pretty much the same, but since the Dragon Flower limit was increased, I feel he no longer needs Fury! Which, removing it does synergize better with Florid Cane anyway, beyond the Canto gimmick (having an Atk/Spd bonus if kept healthy).
Biggest thing I needed to figure out though was who I was giving the special skills to (from an extra Acsended Mareeta and Felix). I WAS tempted to give them to Alfonse (head empty he means everything to me) but I came to the conclusion that Ruptured Sky works too well on him. I even think it's fun from a storytelling standpoint, where he's consistent almost to a fault -- can result in him being reliable, or juuust missing the mark (he's still adaptable as well though!). PLUS! Both are speed based skills, and even With my speedy Alfonse build, AND even with all those Dragon Flowers, Sharena outspeeds him at lower investment.
So it did come down to trying to decide which would work best between Sharena and Anna.
Sharena absolutely needed to be completely revised, since I realized I accidentally doubled up on Null Follow Up on her weapon and B slot (and her C slot was a wimpy Threaten skill lmfao). Ultimately I felt Felix's kit synergized better with Alfred's Arcane I gave to her -- espp Bulwark keeping her healthy! In this way I think I accidentally made her a tank. Especially with all the stat bonuses coming together, on top of a damage reduction special. Really my ONLY bit of grief here is she no longer has her special attack voicelines........... I'm SO sad about that 💔💔💔 (HOWEVER. IT. IS REALLY FUNNY.)
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She's just standing there..... Menacingly........... (quite literally with the Menace skill too from the Summer Dimitri manual that's up for grabs. I'm not so sure if it Suits Her storytelling-wise but tbh it's funny. GO GIRL START KILLING‼️‼️‼️)
As for Anna! I actually haven't touched Anna's build in years, she's not a unit I ever use outside of the once a month free orb and sometimes for story... last I left her was with Life or Death 3, Vantage, and a Spur skill. I wanted to keep in line with this initial build though... bc I feel like it suits her.
Outside of this one time (very early on, before I really put a lot of thought into things) I Never use Life or Death (I'm too cautious HAHAH) so I was comfortable giving her a Life or Death 4 I had laying around. BEYOND THAT. IT WAS. SUCH A NIGHTMARE. To figure out What the rest of her kit should be. A Lot of trial and error, testing, troubleshooting, everything. Because the BIGGEST THING is I wanted to keep Nóatún on her. She gets INSANE movement from it, and I felt like if I could Just Get This Right, I could pull off something as gimmicky as my Hit and Run Canto Alfonse. You have to trade SO much power for that movement, and she's already made of glass and paper the way I'm building her (but I am SO committed to this idea bc it's EXACTLY how I conceptualize her character in my mind -- strong starter, hard hitter, high movement = speedy and lots of experience on the battle field!! And SOMETHING in her C and Seal slots to communicate teamwork and commanding.)
EVENTUALLY. WHAT I THINK WORKS. Spurn helps her Not Die As Much/As Quickly (thank you damage reduction), and I think the balance between Oath/Solo skills gets the idea across.
BUT ALSO. THIS. THE MOST FUCKED UP THING I DESPERATELY WANTED TO SHOW OFF IT'S SO FUCKING GOOD!!!!!!!!!
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LOOK at this. LOOK at how STUPID this is. How by giving Alfonse Odd Tempest HE IS. SO POWERFUL. HE MAKES A KILLER OPENING (EXACTLY AS HE ALWAYS SAYS HE WILL‼️‼️‼️). Reposition into Canto into look at him fucking go. He's fucking gone. Halfway across the battlefield. AND ANNA HAS FANTASTIC SYNERGY WITH THIS!!!!! Being able to get That One Extra Space thanks to Nóatún!!!!!!!! (Unfortunately this was a terrible matchup and she died instantly, but this is more for demonstration purposes 🫡)
I am a little sad that Sharena gets left on the back lines when this works out but. I think she's still doing her part. Esp since I'm testing out Ardent Sacrifice on her, where I typically exclusively only use Reposition and always have a healer. On top of eating hits, she also covers for her allies as well! Making sure they're okay :)
Finally! Takumi! I. Have no idea how he fits in here tbh I don't even know how Pathfinder works. But I love him so much so dearly and he's here because he's a highly respected veteran member of the Order of Heroes. Also everyone say thank you Alcryst for fucking finally giving him a usable weapon and decent skills (I have gone through SO MANY ideations of base Takumi builds and they have NEVER been on the level of stronger units he was ALWAYS WOEFULLY OUTCLASSED. Which is DEVASTATING bc I really like using base forms sometimes!!!!). I'm SO happy he's finally on par w stronger units now!!!! OH. AND. THE MAJOR THING ABOUT HIM ACTUALLY. Is once he gets the ball rolling he is procing Deadeye every fucking turn. Just like in Fates... 🥺🥺🥺 (killing and maiming and violence complete with a cheeky attitude and bravado!)
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brightlilith · 2 years ago
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.005.
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.important.
< previous chapter ; next chapter >
Masterlist Tokio Hotel - Masterlist Connected by music • Tom Kaulitz
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𝘿𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 28, 2022 — 𝙎𝙖𝙡𝙫𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙧, 𝘽𝙖𝙝𝙞𝙖 - 𝘽𝙧𝙖𝙯𝙞𝙡.
...
𝘞𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴.
𝘞𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳.
𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺, 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘴, 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘴; 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴; 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘮𝘦. 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶.
୨୧ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ୨୧
I wake up panting, sit up in bed and feel strong arms around my waist. Bruce looked so angelic both awake and asleep, but a savage in bed. Even though we weren't alone for a while, he still made me come silently, not least because my parents were in the next room. How embarrassing if my parents caught us, no?
I remove his arm from my waist, I get out of bed wearing my slippers and my robe, I go to the kitchen to get a glass of water, but I come across Riri, her little arms, which looked more like sticks, were crossed and her face was of anger, she knew what had happened in the room.
𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘪𝘷𝘦.
I completely ignore her, I didn't want to talk, I just wanted to drink water and go back to my boyfriend's arms.
Her coming into my life made me question whether what I felt for Bruce was true. The truth is yes, I love him and would do anything for him.
But I still found myself thinking about Tom, and how our love ended in seconds, I know it's my fault, my mind always reminds me that I was the one who left him.
I hate myself internally for this. But I needed it, I couldn't take it anymore.
I drink the water and turn around, Riri was still there, but with a pitying face.
I felt tears fall from my eyes, but no noise or words were spoken.
"Why did you show up?" - I finally spoke, breaking that strange tension. My choked voice denounced that I was about to fall apart.
"The universe wh---" – I immediately cut her off.
“The fucking universe doesn't have to meddle in my life." - I said. “Why now, hm? Why not when I was being threatened with death? I GAVE UP ON HIM, BECAUSE OF THEM." - And finally I screamed, not so loud as not to wake up people who were in the house.
"Do you know how much I suffered? I asked both God and the universe, any mythical being that could help me through this without having to give up on him..." - Tears fell uncontrollably, I was shaking with so much anger.
𝘍𝘜𝘊𝘒!
I left the kitchen as quickly as possible, leaving Riri alone.
I went back to my room and Bruce was still sleeping peacefully, I took off my bathrobe and slippers and lay down on the bed.
Bruce's arms quickly went around me.
"Where were you?"- He asked still sleepy, his hoarse voice made me shiver completely.
"In the kitchen, drinking water."- I tried my best to keep my voice steady so he wouldn't realize I was crying.
He just mumbled in agreement and went back to sleep, I looked at the clock and it was 3:42, and I just lay there, looking at the ceiling thinking about everything only to fall asleep soundly in a few minutes.
But one question still circled my mind;
𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘮𝘦? 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸?
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Constructive criticism and supportive messages are always welcome, it motivates me to keep writing.
(Not revised)
~
💗
© morganaah/brightlilith ─ all rights reserved. do not copy, translate or share my work on other platforms.
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Tokio Hotel; @sunooslover @willow-sages
Tom Kaulitz; @justash02 @pearlssck @dearstell @venderretta @instabull @aqxllo @Neteyamlovr
Bill Kaulitz; @aqxllo @Neteyamlovr
Gustav schäfer;
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Klaus Mikaelson; @instabull
Let me know if you want to be added to the tag list 💗 the ones in blue, it's because I couldn't score.
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miss-bunni-mochi · 11 months ago
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Humans are known to criticize,
Even themselves..
Even witches weren't immune to this, after all they are human too. Baby had sat there for hours, gazing into the river. It almost seemed that she was looking at more than her reflection in the water; Like she was staring at her soul, criticizing it for everything that wasn't her fault.
This is how it was for her though. Her mother's birthday was always a hard time for her. It made her bitter as she had gotten older, as she resented herself as a child. Resenting the fact she couldn't do anything to save her mother. Maddie was her mother, but she wasn't the woman who gave birth to her.
Mochi hadn't been able to find Baby anywhere. By anywhere that meant 2 places:
1. Annoying Lucifer.
2. Hanging out with Levi.
Even Solomon had started to look for her. Unfortunately, he found her first.
Solomon approached her, crouching down to place his hand on her back. As he began to rub circles into her back he tried his best to comfort her. "You know, my mother is gone too" he started. "I understand how you feel." Baby stared at him in disbelief.
"Gone?" She questioned, almost sarcasticly. "Your mother left you and your sister, my mother is dead!" She didn't mean to be so cold in this moment, but she had kept it together for too long; Both her body and mind were exhausted at this point. In her anger, she rose up, staring down at Solomon in a distasteful manner. "I watched my mother being murdered in front of me. And after? After, I lived on the streets until Maddie found me. A woman I had never met!"
She began to turn on her heels, she neither had the energy or patience to deal with Solomon today. But before she could walk away, his hand stopped her by the shoulder.
"Baby, I know how hard that must have been, but if anything it made you stronger." His tone was laced with pity, something Baby hated more than anything.
Her anger had been seething since he had tried to comfort her. At that point, it burst as she slapped his hand away. "What the fuck Solomon?!" Her disbelief with this man only seemed to grow. How could a man who was so old be so stupid? "Made me stronger? I was a six! The only thing that should have made me stronger was milk!"
Baby thought back to that day, the day her best friend almost burned to death because this man, her brother, wanted to teach her a "lesson".
"How stupid are you?" She was ripping into him at this point. But, she couldn't care less right now. "Just because you've lived longer than me doesn't mean you understand how I feel!" She needed to stop, or she was going to say something cruel. "And you wonder why your sister wants nothing to do with you? You treat me as if I'm an infant– You treat her as if she is an infant!"
At this point, she storms off, leaving him to his thoughts.
It was too late now, she had hit him where it hurt.
Because, she herself, was hurting.
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Hope you enjoyed that @kawaiisimp!
I dug it up out of the depths of all my old writing, and revised it a little. Here's to sticking it to the man! The human man, that is.
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not-freyja · 11 months ago
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Okay here we go! In which I take all of your theories and quesions seriously and only refuse to answer/clarify anything that would be a spoiler.
Picture 1 - The Timeline
time is scratched out and replaced with sapling. because of the war of eras? nickname yipee?
Yes. Ravio calls Mask/baby Time "Sapling." He has since they "met" in Ch. 30. This is about the War of Eras. Stay tuned for Wind's Epilogue.
the music notes linking time to wind must refer to how the song of time sent time back and left that timeline w/o the hero's spirit
Yup! Got it in one!
the triforce linking legend to time has to mean something but my minimal zelda lore knowledge is leaving me to die. ik its the downfall timeline, so is it a reference to how the triforce got Fucked Up by pig man? did it get messed up??? never actually played cards meaning to learn /reference
This is about how Legend himself used the Triforce to resurrect the Fallen Hero / Bring back Time / Create both Wind and Twilight's timeline's indirectly. Legend says so in ch 41, and Ravio brings it up again in ch 49 and 51 respectively.
there's so many scribblies around hyrule (i love the hearts on the 'i's its adorable). hyrule found the book and thats why he gets loops?
It is adorable. Fucking love Ravio. The scribbles are representative of time loops, but what they actually represent is... variously clear. One of the squiggles is representative of the Book Loop.
[ hi revision glowmin here. had a thought: what if there's multiple timelines that branch out from when rulie first used the book. what if the first visit wasn't legend. how many fractured timelines could that one event have caused ]
Dink is going to great pains to keep the Timeline stable and unified. That's the driving logic behind where they go when. He does not want the Timeline to re splinter, and he has reasons for this.
from chapter 49: “So this entire situation is Rulie’s fault?” Twilight’s side moves as he talks and Hyrule leans away from him, falling into Wind instead." haha no don't dump all the fault on hyrule you're so sexy aha /reference 'dink does something fucky' has me cackling. is wild's existence caused by dink? three question marks, 3 parts of the triforce, mmmm that is cooking?? or could just be irony that line also points to rulie again so i Think this has something to do with. the blood curse. that i only know about from fanfiction. ALSO THE LINE CONNECTING RULIE TO WARS!! IS SCRATCHED OUT!! (also from chapter 49: "Dead, lightning bug,” Ravio soothes. “He’s dead, you killed him.”)
I feel like ch 51 answered most if not all of this. At least it should have. These were really good insights/guesses for the information you had at the time, well done!
Picture 2 - Who's Dink is it Anyways
the line about four's shadow has me. okay listen i don't remember the chapter but i KNOW there was a line abt the yiga talking about a small town forge. is that four's home from minish cap. bc back when they met ravio the first (? i forgor) time, ravio told four to remind him about some dark magic (??) book. i thought this would be to revive shadow. is it. is it to revive red instead?? i am not okay abt red death
I know. No one is okay about Red death. No one will ever be okay about Red death. But uh... you have theories about that too I see.
But yes, that is in fact Four's house / workshop from Minish Cap. Bitches love Minish Cap acknowledgement.
'palace' you mean the fucking TONGS FOUR SWORD PALACE??
Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy?
the line drawn to the underlined dark link beneath time: 'hylia said "mouth of the river". i think this could either be time or sky. time bc he breaks the timeline into 3, sky bc he literally got cursed for being too cool
Time. It's Time. His Dink, his focal point in the fracture of the original Unified Timeline. Poor baby boy.
rulie: i am going to fucking SCREAM. the line from cia to rulie has 'why' written next to it and that's what i wanna know!! 'not safe' is in a fucking box!! underlined question marks!! ravio bbg please. oh and 3 x's but idk if thats more triforce analogy or just. there to be There
Why does anything happen, really? Well, according to Ravio in ch 51, the book somehow moves from Wars' to Rulie's era explicitly to forge the CHain and save Hyrule's life.
Is he right? Fuck if I know, it's not like I wrote the damn thing.
recycled ganon had me cackle. inconsistent dates tho,,, is that like. linking up to why they're going in reverse in wild's time? bc twilight is the direct predecessor iirc???
So it says "inconsitent data" not "dates." THis is in reference to the fact that they have literally never managed to get a frame of reference for the way that time is moving for them in Twilight's era. Like... who the fuck knows? Not the Chain!
wind: i cannot read what it says next to dead. looks like,,, 'masko' maybe? evidence of there being a dark: i have not beaten wind waker yet but I HAVE got the master sword. is the time lock shenanigan at the bottom of the ocean dink's fault or the master sword's fault.
"Mask's" is what that says. As in, it is Mask's (Sapling/Time's) Ganon that Wind fights. That's now three out of three timelines handled in regards to cleaning up Time's mess!
Wait... wait a minute! Where the actual fuck did Calamity Ganon come from then!? Answer in ch 51 as you saw.
i know like 2 things from hyrule warriors: traitors are cringe and cia apparently is creepy. thats probs why talking about dark versions of him is 'personal'. i wonder what 'safe' means in this context; safe to visit? safe to rule out? shaking ravio like a paper bag. wild drives ravio to apple juice alcoholism more at 11. it is personal is underlined. is it wild's dark? rulie's dark? why are they going backwards? are they going to show up in wild's hyrule for when he DIES because they're going backwards? bro what is up with kyle.
*Evil Laugh.* No comment.
Picture 3 - the visits lets fucking go
WHY IS 8 VISIT BLANK. HOLUP
Because he has no data. It is actively hapening right now. For once it is not that deep.
visits 2 and 3 being about shadow and red. dont look at me i'm crying | visits 2 and 3 are in the same order both for ravio and the links. hmmmmm that's Odd
That is odd, isn't it. Real weird that a consistent pattern of nonlinear narrative would just break like that, huh? For like no reason!
...
*whistles and walks away*
RAVIO LEARNING WHO RED IS AND THEN NEXT VISIT HE'S FUCKING DEAD. HE GOES TO WAR AND THEN HE'S FUCKING DEADDDDD
I literally will never be able to apologize enough for what I have put Ravio through off-screen.
visit 6 'got em' what did you get ravio. huh?? you silly merchant man what did you get??? it certainly wasn't bitches
No bitches. Only a Bitch (Leggy boy).
You'll just have to wait and see on that one. It's the next trip to Ravio town after all.
this is the part of the lore board that i actually fucking. bro the circles this is running me through is insane. like how do i even analyze this its making my headache die so we're just gonna spitball. it. kind of goes in reverse? not really but kinda?? visit 9 is first for all the links, but last for ravio. is this linked to wild's visits being in reverse? if it ends at 9 i'm gonna throw a sock at my wall
Mood. I... I really don't know why I did this to myself. Okay, I mean I do know, it's for the plot/themes, BUT-
Glowmin, I literally wrote this down for the first time when drawing the board I was just keeping track in my brain like a crazy person and somehow writing it down made it make less sense? WHAT
Picture 4 - crying begins
the first like. act of the fic summarized in 1 easy (/s /lh) flowchart. they see the what? rooms? runes? ruins? rains? god i'm illiterate
"They lose the reigns," As in, Hyrule stops taking his turns making portals and they start going where Dink/Hylia want them to.
starting panic for the Dark. singular. i forgor how/if they figured out it was just one.
Ravio used every single brain cell he had to reduce the Ganons/Dinks like a fraction across multiple timelines and realities, as you read in ch 51. Good bunny.
ravio crossing out where wild should be in the timeline is sending me. i think he's got shit from all 3 timelines in his hyrule (yadda yadda A GAME THEORY) so that would explain why they all just cross each other out.
So yeah this is about Wild himself, but more specifically it's about Ganon. He's trying to figure out whose Ganon is it anyway that Wild fights, and the answer is: None of them! This is figured out over on the left of the board / the section you labeled "whose dink is it anyway."
Logically, Wild cannot exist. He cannot have fought a guy that doesn't exist. So...
What the fuck happens?
'wind said shit' that's a good observation. is this as in he said STUFF or as in he cursed and actually said the shit word. important distinction. maybe Wind says something in the war of eras??
This is about the War. No further comment.
the question mark between cia and rulie. is that dink. whats up with the question marks after hyrule. does that imply that it fucking disappears at some point?? or do they just not know
So this is about the chain (ha) of possession of the spellbook. With all the information that you the reader now have, after chapter 53, it can now be written as:
Cia (pre fic) -> ??? -> Rulie (ch 1) -> Legend (ch 2) -> Ravio (very briefly off screen before ch 4) -> Rulie (ch 4-48) -> Warriors (very briefly in ch 48) -> Ravio (ch 48-31 via backwards time travel and non linear motion through time / Visit 8 to Visit 9) -> Vio (ch 31-present day/ch 53 and presumably onward until told otherwise.).
It's still a mystery how it goes from Cia to Rulie in the first place. Ravio has a theory about the why but not the how, at least not one he wrote down here.
...Please tell me that makes sense.
Picture 5 - part where i think ravio's mental state went wewewewewewewwoowowwowow
Yeah that about sums it up.
'evil god hylia?' the Potential though. i don't think its gonna happen but man that'd be a twist. how do you stop the reincarnation of your lover's soul: fucking kill all of them
The Potential indeed. Not this story though. Maybe another time.
'evil blink' is that. vaati?? nvm it says evil link i'm illiterate again oopsies!! now we know how ravio came up with dink. cooked
Ravio fucking cracked, he went "What if a Link but like... evil? Like a Dark Link? A Dink, if you would?"
'inconsistent travel more than one person in control' yeah fucking kohga is in on this. drag him ravio
Fuck the Yiga clan. All my homies hate the Yiga clan.
'resurrected monsters by blood curse/blessing' is this related to hyrule's blood curse. i don't think dink wants to revive ganon so what does he need the blood for. is he wanting to ascend to godhood?? vague sputtering sounds
So Dink is trying to resurrect Ganon and also -
Actually you know what don't worry about it, we'll get there eventually.
one timeline makes sense when we hear abt why ravio didn't tell everyone about red's death. still sad but that line paired with 'so we keep going forward [...] no counting on do-overs [...] one step at a time [...] together [...] or not at all' really hits home.
You picked up on the motifs, I see. About the lack of second chances, about how you can't undo what's been done, how mistakes and regrets and kindness and love ripple out across time and lives and...
The things we do are permanent, like so much broken glass.
All we can do is go forward. Together, or not at all.
analyzing the adjuration ravio board
ALRIGHT MOTHERFUCKERS SIT DOWN SHUT UP WE'RE GOING OFF 4 CUPS OF WATER AND A MIGRAINE BUT WE ARE GOING TO COPE
i unfortunately have an abysmal zoom so i've Enhanced the writing for bits I couldn't quite read but anyways LETS GET INTO IT. WITNESS THE ANALYSIS FROM AN IDIOT WHO BASICALLY ONLY KNOWS THE LORE OF FOUR SWORDS.
@not-freyja hi i hope you like this insane loveletter to adjuration (idk how else to. share it. yay)
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alright starting off with the timeline and all the looping fuckeries (motherfucker got more arrows than an ikea checkout lane)
time is scratched out and replaced with sapling. because of the war of eras? nickname yipee?
the music notes linking time to wind must refer to how the song of time sent time back and left that timeline w/o the hero's spirit
the triforce linking legend to time has to mean something but my minimal zelda lore knowledge is leaving me to die. ik its the downfall timeline, so is it a reference to how the triforce got Fucked Up by pig man? did it get messed up??? never actually played cards meaning to learn /reference
there's so many scribblies around hyrule (i love the hearts on the 'i's its adorable). hyrule found the book and thats why he gets loops?
[ hi revision glowmin here. had a thought: what if there's multiple timelines that branch out from when rulie first used the book. what if the first visit wasn't legend. how many fractured timelines could that one event have caused ]
from chapter 49: “So this entire situation is Rulie’s fault?” Twilight’s side moves as he talks and Hyrule leans away from him, falling into Wind instead." haha no don't dump all the fault on hyrule you're so sexy aha /reference
'dink does something fucky' has me cackling. is wild's existence caused by dink? three question marks, 3 parts of the triforce, mmmm that is cooking?? or could just be irony
that line also points to rulie again so i Think this has something to do with. the blood curse. that i only know about from fanfiction.
ALSO THE LINE CONNECTING RULIE TO WARS!! IS SCRATCHED OUT!! (also from chapter 49: "Dead, lightning bug,” Ravio soothes. “He’s dead, you killed him.”)
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who's dink is it anyways
the line about four's shadow has me. okay listen i don't remember the chapter but i KNOW there was a line abt the yiga talking about a small town forge. is that four's home from minish cap.
bc back when they met ravio the first (? i forgor) time, ravio told four to remind him about some dark magic (??) book. i thought this would be to revive shadow. is it. is it to revive red instead??
i am not okay abt red death
okay back to the flowchart: shit they haven't been to skyloft yet. i did not realize that until now
'palace' you mean the fucking TONGS FOUR SWORD PALACE??
the line drawn to the underlined dark link beneath time: 'hylia said "mouth of the river". i think this could either be time or sky. time bc he breaks the timeline into 3, sky bc he literally got cursed for being too cool
rulie: i am going to fucking SCREAM. the line from cia to rulie has 'why' written next to it and that's what i wanna know!! 'not safe' is in a fucking box!! underlined question marks!! ravio bbg please.
oh and 3 x's but idk if thats more triforce analogy or just. there to be There
recycled ganon had me cackle. inconsistent dates tho,,, is that like. linking up to why they're going in reverse in wild's time? bc twilight is the direct predecessor iirc???
wind: i cannot read what it says next to dead. looks like,,, 'masko' maybe? evidence of there being a dark: i have not beaten wind waker yet but I HAVE got the master sword. is the time lock shenanigan at the bottom of the ocean dink's fault or the master sword's fault.
i know like 2 things from hyrule warriors: traitors are cringe and cia apparently is creepy. thats probs why talking about dark versions of him is 'personal'. i wonder what 'safe' means in this context; safe to visit? safe to rule out? shaking ravio like a paper bag.
wild drives ravio to apple juice alcoholism more at 11. it is personal is underlined. is it wild's dark? rulie's dark? why are they going backwards? are they going to show up in wild's hyrule for when he DIES because they're going backwards? bro what is up with kyle.
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the visits lets fucking go
WHY IS 8 VISIT BLANK. HOLUP
revision glowmin again. We’re not at visit 9. I have no clue why I thought we were there. Migraines are shit.
visits 2 and 3 being about shadow and red. dont look at me i'm crying | visits 2 and 3 are in the same order both for ravio and the links. hmmmmm that's Odd
RAVIO LEARNING WHO RED IS AND THEN NEXT VISIT HE'S FUCKING DEAD. HE GOES TO WAR AND THEN HE'S FUCKING DEADDDDD
visit 6 'got em' what did you get ravio. huh?? you silly merchant man what did you get??? it certainly wasn't bitches
this is the part of the lore board that i actually fucking. bro the circles this is running me through is insane. like how do i even analyze this its making my headache die so we're just gonna spitball.
it. kind of goes in reverse? not really but kinda?? visit 9 is first for all the links, but last for ravio. is this linked to wild's visits being in reverse?
if it ends at 9 i'm gonna throw a sock at my wall
for visit 5 on ravio's side it looks like it says pregnant. ik it doesn't but i cannot make out what it is
[ revision glowmin here again. its research. why did i think it said pregnant. that has literally nothing to do with the fic. ]
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crying begins because i can barely ready any of this so bear with me here (BEAR WITH ME!!)
the first like. act of the fic summarized in 1 easy (/s /lh) flowchart. they see the what? rooms? runes? ruins? rains? god i'm illiterate
starting panic for the Dark. singular. i forgor how/if they figured out it was just one.
ravio crossing out where wild should be in the timeline is sending me. i think he's got shit from all 3 timelines in his hyrule (yadda yadda A GAME THEORY) so that would explain why they all just cross each other out.
'wind said shit' that's a good observation. is this as in he said STUFF or as in he cursed and actually said the shit word. important distinction. maybe Wind says something in the war of eras??
the question mark between cia and rulie. is that dink. whats up with the question marks after hyrule. does that imply that it fucking disappears at some point?? or do they just not know
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the part where i think ravio's mental state went wewewewewewewwoowowwowow
'evil god hylia?' the Potential though. i don't think its gonna happen but man that'd be a twist. how do you stop the reincarnation of your lover's soul: fucking kill all of them
'evil blink' is that. vaati?? nvm it says evil link i'm illiterate again oopsies!! now we know how ravio came up with dink. cooked
'inconsistent travel more than one person in control' yeah fucking kohga is in on this. drag him ravio
'resurrected monsters by blood curse/blessing' is this related to hyrule's blood curse. i don't think dink wants to revive ganon so what does he need the blood for. is he wanting to ascend to godhood?? vague sputtering sounds
one timeline makes sense when we hear abt why ravio didn't tell everyone about red's death. still sad but that line paired with 'so we keep going forward [...] no counting on do-overs [...] one step at a time [...] together [...] or not at all' really hits home.
this took 3 hours but yeah i'm Normal about this
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arson-404 · 3 years ago
Text
Hello! @bubblyani inspired me to make this!
Truth | 01
Warnings: 18+, lime, blood, death, murder, suicide, depression
Fandom: Lucifer
Pronouns used for reader: she/her (reader is also AFAB)
Enjoy, loves. <3
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"Please? It'll be so much fun!"
Your friend said, putting an emphasis on 'fun'.
You sighed, rubbing the bridge of your nose. "Fine, but if either of us gets kidnapped at this club, it's not my fault."
"Oh my God, you're so dramatic."
"It's my talent. When are we going? I have work to do today." You asked, fumbling with a shirt that was on the floor of your bedroom.
"Does eleven o'clock work?"
You glanced over to the clock, reading the time.
7 PM.
You'd be done with work at around eight-thirty.
Thinking for a moment, you reluctantly agreed. "Okay. LUX, right?"
"Yay! Yeah, the owner's super hot. And so is one of the bartenders. Maya? Macie? Something with an 'a' and 'm'."
"Gosh, you thirst over everyone."
"You would, too, if you saw them! Which you will. Well, I don't know if the bartender will be there, but—"
You two talked a while, until you had to do your at-home work.
You liked working at home because you didn't really like going out to work for countless hours, but sometimes it was nice to let loose.
Like at this club you were going to go to, which you were kind of nervous about.
Your mind gave you flashbacks of one night when you just turned twenty-one and went to a club with your friends, Hørizon was the name.
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The sounds of booming music made it's way to your ears, your head pounding.
"Five shots of whiskey over here!"
"Um, I- I don't think I ca..." Too drunk, you couldn't even finish your sentence, as you wobbled a bit in your seat.
A minute later, a whiskey shot was in front of you — too drunk and tempted, you grabbed the small glass, gulping it down.
Delilah's friend, Tina, paid for the drinks.
The burning sensation in your throat didn't affect you much after the many shots you took before.
Your head turned to your best friend, Delilah, -which you had just met a few weeks ago at this time-, who was selecting the first contact in her phone to call, since she was a little too drunk to dial a number manually.
"Heeeeeyy, Fionaa, we're at a club." She slurred her words a bit, giggling. You could hear the faint voice from the phone.
"Oh my God, are you drunk?" Delilah only giggled in response, too drunk to make a coherent response. "Okay, I'm assuming you're at that one club you went to last week, right?" "Mmmhm!" "Are you with anyone else?" "Errr... like, my friends."
You could practically feel Delilah's friend pinch her nose. "How many?" "Uhhh... one... two... four..." She paused. "Fourth!" She said, giggling, adding a -th to the word she meant to say.
"Alright. You're lucky you're my... friend."
And then you blacked out, waking up at Delilah's apartment on the couch, others on the floor or sharing the couch with you.
You still remember that awful hangover you had afterwards.
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You chuckled at the memory, stretching a bit. After finishing an essay for your boss, revising and editing it, you glanced at the clock, checking the time.
8:51 PM.
It was definitely past 8:30, but you weren't going until eleven.
You had time to pick out your outfit, relax, and do some housework if you wanted to -which you didn't want to-.
Standing up, leaving the chair you'd been glued to for almost two hours, you sighed, making your way to the closet.
You rummaged through it, and after a little, you found an outfit you liked.
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Humming, you put it on your bed, along with your extra wallet (which had less money than your normal wallet, so when you went to the club, you wouldn't lose a bunch of money from being robbed or losing it) and some water to put in Delilah's car to sober up after the club.
You checked your phone before putting it on your charger.
Footsteps padded against the floor as you made your way to the couch to watch some of your favorite show, 'The Good Doctor'.
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'Some' turned into almost three hours.
And now you had eleven minutes to get ready.
You rushed to the bathroom to do your makeup — not like anyone would see it, anyway. But you liked doing your makeup, not because you were insecure, but because you just liked trying new styles.
And you really liked eyeliner.
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(Reference picture, I think it's Niki Nihachu, but I'm not sure.)
After you were done, you shoved the makeup into your container in the bathroom, hastily going to your room, fumbling with the clothing to put it on.
After about five minutes, you succeeded, and grabbed your phone from the charger, opening your messaging app up.
You
Hey, you ready?
Seen at 10:57 PM.
Lilah 💖
yep. i'm already headed there.
Seen at 10:57 PM.
You
Don't text while driving.
Seen at 10:57 PM.
And don't respond to this.
Seen at 10:58 PM.
You turned off your phone, putting it in your pocket, grabbing your stuff, your wallet shoved in your other pocket, two bottles of water in the other hand.
A few minutes later, your door opened to reveal your friend in a clubbing outfit, her curly black hair mostly laying on her right shoulder.
She had a see-through black top with another top under it, the same color.
Delilah had a black bag, the actual bag part laying on her right hip, the strap on her left shoulder.
She had a black skirt-shorts with a red and black plaid flannel tied around her waist.
The beautiful woman also had long, black, high heeled boots, going up to under her knees, but short enough to walk.
Her tattoos were slightly visible on the lower thighs.
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(What I based her off of. Not sure who this is!)
"If I wasn't planning on making a move on that bartender — if she's there, I would try to date you, oh my God, you're gorgeous." Her lips formed a flirtatious, but platonic joke.
"Oh my gosh, you're definitely prettier, what the hell do you mean?" You smiled, winking.
"Alright, you've convinced me, I'm prettier." She said, shrugging her shoulders. You let out a playful pout, "Damn, I'm so broken."
"Whatever, you'll get over it. Let's go!" She smiled, tugging your arm, taking the water bottles and putting it in her bag so you could lock the door.
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Soon, you both arrived at the fancy, famous club called LUX.
Excitedly, your friend, Delilah, got in line with you, figuratively jumping up and down with joy.
"Oh my God, you'll love it here, Y/n. All of the men, women, and enbys are definitely gonna hit on you, bae."
"Assuming I'd be confident enough to let them approach me."
She rolled her eyes, chuckling.
You both got closer and closer to the doors of the provocative strip club, you both paid your halves when you finally approached the doors.
Stepping into the building, you both smiled. 'This time, I won't drink as much.' You promised yourself.
Oh, how promises break.
Immediately, Delilah went to the bar — partly for the drinks, but mostly because she saw a particular bartender.
Giggling at the absurdity of her actions, you went to a couch, not drunk enough to have confidence to talk to people or dance — not that most of them would remember, considering how many had drinks in their hands.
You fiddled with a silver ring you had bought about a month ago, which laid on your index finger.
"Why, hello! I've never seen you here before! I would remember a face like yours." A velvet voice was heard, oddly close to you.
'Wait, are they talking to me?'
You whipped your head up, mouth parted a little.
There stood a tall, dark haired man with dark eyes, a black suit with a slightly visible white shirt under it, black, shiny shoes on his feet.
You swallowed. "Hello..."
You should've gotten drunk beforehand.
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Hello, everyone! I have no clue how drinking or hangovers work, or strip clubs, since I'm 18, but I hope it's not too far off. 🖤
Sorry it took so long to get to Lucifer, it's more of an introduction to some characters in this chapter.
Also, Delilah is bisexual, and goes by she/they.
The reader is possibly bi-curious, it depends on your view of the reader. <33
Delilah may have a lil' crush on Maze and just thinks Lucifer is hot, haha
129 notes · View notes
tinysushimark · 4 years ago
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My Everything (HRJ)
1.7k words. (Fluff)
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Sometimes you wished you could run away from college and then run a café and live with your boyfriend.
You looked up at him, he was playing on his phone, why was he so relaxed? He has finals too next week. "Renjun! Don't you have to study?" You said.
"I'm done with my course." He said looking back down at his phone.
You sighed, he was always one step ahead of you, even when you were in school he used to teach you things because he was done. Now, even in college he was done before you. Even though you had different majors, you had the same college and fortunately, your classes took place in the same building.
A sigh escaped from your lips as you looked at the amount of chapters left. "What's wrong baby?" Renjun said, sitting next to you.
"I have 3 more chapters left, and exams are next week." You said. "Anything i can help with?" At this you snickered.
"Babe you're an arts major, how are you going to help me with Company Law?" You smiled and looked down.
"I am smart." He said.  "I never said you're dumb."
He stood behind your chair and started massaging your shoulders and neck. "Renjun what the-" He shushed you. "Get back to work." He kept massaging your shoulders.
"Renjun stop. That fucking hurts."
"You're stressed it's all pent up-"
"I told you to fucking stop it." You shouted at him, shooting a death glare.
"Why are you being so mean? I'm just trying to help." Renjun spat at you.
"You're clearly not helping, so how about you leave? You're just adding on to my stress with your completed course." You shouted at him.
He picked his bag up and slammed the door on his way out, making you flinch a little.
Asshole, that's the only word that came to your head once he left. His temper is very very short. Sometimes you wondered why you dated him and got annoyed at him. You had noticed how nowadays, the way he dealt with you had started changing.
He'd shout and slam doors. He never did that before but he was doing it nowadays. He is definitely bored of you and wants to break up with you, this is what you thought.
He on the other hand was very stressed, it wasn't about studies, it was about his family. After he left for college, he got to know about the fights which happened back at home. His mom and dad were fighting a lot more than when he was back at home. It had driven him off the edge that he wasn't there to stop his parents. He was an only child, so he'd end up persuading them to stop fighting, but he couldn't do it from here, in college. The only person who'd listen to him was getting annoyed at him too, you. He thought that he was the problem, probably everyone around him has problems because of him.
You weren't able to complete your course because Renjun decided to stay the nights in between semester and took you out so much. If he would've told you to study, you'd be revising by now. He forgot that you leave everything for him. He hadn't told you anything about what was happening back at home. He applied to the same college as you because he didn't want to lose you but he slowly understood that he was just a distraction for you.
Renjun didn't speak to you the entire week, and the week after that. You were done with your exams but still no contact or trace of Renjun.
You called him multiple times those weeks but he didn't pick up, knowing that he was probably busy revising, you left him alone. You needed the space.
After your exams were over you went to his shared flat, one of his flatmates saw you in an alleyway and smiled at you. "Mark, have you seen Renjun?"
"Renjun went to college, he must be back by now though." Mark said.
"Ok, thanks."
"If he isn't home, you can just wait on the couch, he'll be back soon I think." Mark said.
You nodded, bidding Mark a goodbye and walking to their apartment. Renjun had told you the password to the apartment, all his flatmates knew that he had a girlfriend and they didn't mind it. They were friendly and got along with you.
When you unlocked the door and got in you saw a girl in the kitchen, around the same age as you.
"Oh Mark you're back?" She said and turned around. "Hello." You said and she smiled at you. "Who are you by the way?" She asked you, the question took you aback.
"I'm Rejun's girlfriend." You said, her mouth formed a small Oh. "What's your Major and Year?"
"I'm a final year in BCom."
"I'm a first in year Mass Media. Oh by the way I'm Mark's girlfriend."  She said and passed a cup of coffee towards you. "Renjun isn't home, how about you wait here till he's back? He said he wanted to get some groceries." Mark's girlfriend said. She was younger than you and Mark. Mark was doing his post graduation and she was in her first year. You and Renjun were the same age.
When Renjun had moved in only Mark was living here, before another guy named, Jeno had moved in. You had found yourself a reasonable one flat apartment but slowly it's cost was rising which was a problem for you, but you kept living in it.
"We're looking for a flatmate." Mark's girlfriend said, trying to break the awkward silence. "Oh, where do you live?"
"The apartment above."
The both of you started talking about college and she told you details about the flat and the empty room. It seemed decent and you thought about it. "Can i see it?" It was a chance to be closer to Renjun, he wouldn't have to commute so much to see you.
Renjun came back home an hour after you had arrived, Mark and his girlfriend kept you entertained. They made you coffee and spoke to you.
When Renjun came home, you saw his red face, which was puffy.
He saw you and stood at the door frozen. Slowly tears started to fall from his eyes and your movements were quick. You ran to him and hugged him. He fell on his knees near the shoe shelves and you hugged him. He cried into your arms and you soothed his back.
"What's wrong Jun?" You asked softly. Instead you got a louder sob for a reply.
His grip around you tightened and he cried for a few minutes before pulling away and pushing your hair back from your face.
"My parents are getting divorced, and i thought i lost you because you lost interest in me-"
"Renjun I love you." You said hands caressing his cheek. "Why didn't you tell me about all this?"
"I didn't want to burden you, and I thought you'd get affected."
"Renjun, if it's bothering you and is a problem to you, it's my problem too." You said smiling at him.
"They've been fighting a lot lately, since i came here."  Renjun looked down at the floor. "I wasn't there to stop them."
"Renjun, its not your fault." You put your hand under his chin and made him look up at you. "It's not your fault. Don't blame yourself."
"But I should've been there and because of me you weren't able to complete your course on time, its all my fault."
Your boyfriend who was almost a head taller than you, suddenly seemed like a small lost child who you wanted to coddle and sing to. He looked so troubled and sad that your heart hurt. It wasn't his fault, he blames himself for everything.
You remember the time when you were cutting vegetables and got a slight cut, he blamed himself for it, saying that he knew that you dont know how to use a knife so he should've been the one cutting the vegetables.
He was harsh on himself and as much as you believed you could change it, you couldn't but you wanted to.
"Renjun, its not your fault that i didn't study, it's my fault. That's on me."
"If I hadn't stayed the nights, you'd be done."
"Renjun you stayed over the weekends, i always had weekdays but i ended up wasting them, it's on me." You explained to him.
"What about my parents? That's totally on me. I shouldn't have left them knowing how hostile they are towards each other."
"If they were hostile towards each other did you ever consider that they were both stressed together. They didn't want to be together Renjun."
He finally looked at you, eyes dejected.
"I want to break up with you."
"Why?"
"I'm nothing but a distraction to you."
"You are my driving force. You're like a miracle to me. I wish you could see that."  You connected your foreheads. "You're the person i look forward to each day, knowing you'll provide me comfort and that you'll be there to listen to me."
"And i wish i could show you how much i feel for you, It can't be expressed in words." You whispered, planting a small kiss on his cheek.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you what was going on and  for keeping you in the dark." Renjun said.
You nodded. "You're not gonna hear the end of it, they annoyed me so much over the phone about who'll keep the pearls and me." Renjun said. "Honestly, your mom deserves the pearls." You said looking into his eyes.
A small giggle came from his chest. "Yeah she does."
That's when the door opened and Jeno entered. "Renjun, its dirty here-"
"Oh hi Y/N!"  Jeno smiled and waved at you. Mark slowly pulled Jeno, "You're ruining their moment dude." Mark muttered under his breath.
All of you laughed and ate ramen for dinner, enjoying each others company.
"Renjun, Mark's girlfriend told me there's a room upstairs that's empty. I was thinking i should move in there." You said when he brought you to his room.
"Actually, i was about to ask you if you wanna move in together, Mark wants his girlfriend to shift downstairs, we can have the entire apartment to ourselves." Renjun smiled. "Plus my house is closer to our college."
"Yes, I'll move in with you."
New beginnings awaited you two, all full of happiness and sunshine with a few rainy days, but no storm lasts forever, all of them pass, and bring along sunshine again.
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maladaptive---daydreamer · 4 years ago
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Black ribbon and silver bows
The fifth of may meant that there were exactly 2 months until Draco turned 17. Draco had gone above and beyond for your birthday, spoiling you with 17 individually wrapped gifts that he sent you on a wild goose chase around the school to find. You wanted to make him equally as special as he made you feel, but what did you get the boy who could get anything he wanted?
You thought about getting him a pet, but you didn’t think his mother would appreciate a cat roaming around the halls of the Malfoy Manor. Then you thought about getting him a broom, but as usual, Draco already had the best of the best. Your mind turned to clothes, but the man only wore black shirts with tailor-made trousers. 
“Still thinking about what to get Draco?” Blaise’s voice asked, pulling you from your thoughts.
“Ugh yes, anything I think of, he already has”
“You’re fault for choosing rich, should have dated a Weasley, they’d be over the moon with an unworn robe” 
You smacked Blaise’s arm “Don’t be so rude, Blaise. Just because you don’t like them doesn't mean you can be a prick”
“Why don’t you make him something? I’m sure the elves would let you sneak into the kitchen to cook, you could draw something, write him a poem”
If you were a cat, your ears would have pricked at hearing the word ‘draw’, Draco was never a fan of the decorations in his room, maybe you could paint him a painting that he could hang up on his wall.
“You might have just saved Draco’s birthday”
The increase of chatter across the library hinted that your free period was over and it was now time for lunch. You and Blaise collected your things and returned the books to the returns trolley before making your way to the great hall. You bumped into Draco, Pansy and Daphne on your way there. The five of you made your way to the Slytherin table to see Crabbe and Goyle already tucking in. 
“Why am I not surprised that you two gluttons are the first on the table?” Blaise asked, throwing his school bag down and taking a seat. 
The rest of your group sat down as well, the elves had made different variations of chicken wraps for lunch today. You picked up a grilled chicken wrap and began eating it, famished after your hour of revision during your free period. You had just finished the first one when Draco said your name.
“You’ve got sauce on your mouth, darling”
You stuck your tongue out trying to lick it off but you kept missing. 
“Hold still a sec” Draco instructed. He used his thumb to wipe the spot of sauce from your mouth, licking it off his thumb once he was done. 
“Ah my saviour!” you fake swooned. 
He laughed and continued to eat his lunch. You wolfed another half of a wrap before feeling full. 
“Are we still revising for charms after dinner?” Daphne asked, looking up from her homework. 
“I’m on it, but the boys have quidditch practise until 7, so they’ll have to join in later” You replied, snapping the lid of your lip balm back on
“Actually, practice is cancelled, so Blaise and I’ll be there” Draco added, downing the rest of his pumpkin juice.
“Y/N, you alright?” 
Your head whipped around to see Neville Longbottom standing behind you.
“Are you lo-” Draco began to sneer
You pinched the outside of his thigh making him grit his teeth instead of finishing his sentence. “Neville, hi”
“I just wanted to return your charms notes, they were dead useful, thanks,” He said with a light blush, holding your pile of notes out.
“Oh, thank you. I’m so glad you found them helpful” You took the notes from him with a smile. 
“Have a nice rest of the afternoon,”
“You too Neville,”
He returned to his friends and your friends turned onto you.
“Why are you so nice to him?” Blaise demanded.
“Oh merlin, when are you guys going to get over this rivalry, he needed help, so I helped him.”
“He’s also Longbottom”
You rolled your eyes. “Anyways, does anyone want to let me copy the last two questions for the dada homework?”
Daphne slid her roll of parchment over to you and you quickly scribbled the answers. Just as you had screwed on the cap for your ink lid, the bell for your next lesson rang. Nowadays your lessons were less structured, it was two months before exam season which meant the teachers pushed to revise topics rather than introducing new ones. Some teachers preferred to let you get on in groups doing your own thing, others had a strict revision lesson planned. But one thing was for certain exams had definitely taken over your life.
After your charms revision session with your friends, you and Draco found yourselves walking up to the astronomy tower. The sun was beginning to set as you nestled yourself into his lap.
“Don’t you think it’s mad that in a couple of years we won’t be able to do this anymore?” You asked, tightening his arms around you.
“We can watch the sunset from anywhere love”
“Ha ha you know what I mean idiot”
“I’m ready to leave this place”
“Sorry Mr ‘I should have been in Durmstrang’”
“I should have, my father agreed more with their curriculum”
“Maybe cause his old death eater buddy was running it”
“He’s your father's old death eater buddy too”
“My father never thought about sending me to Durmstrang”
“That’s because it’s a boys-only school, love”
“I don’t like you”
“That’s because you love me,”
“Speaking of love, do you remember the first moment you realised you loved me?”
He paused “As a matter of fact I do”
“Do tell, Mr Malfoy”
“We were at that party at the Parkinson’s in our 3rd year. You had a silver dress on. Your mum forced you into these heels and you hated them. You wobbled over to me and clung to my arm the whole night. But as soon as we were shooed away from the adults, you took them off and practically shoved them into my hands and started walking around barefoot. Pansy’s grandmother came out of the parlour and saw you without your shoes on and went berserk, she called you a disgrace, all our mothers came out to see what was going on and I’m pretty sure your mum looked like she was going to kill you”
“I remember that! Then I transfigured her ostrich feather boa into a snake around her neck!”
“She nearly pissed her pants” He laughed, causing you to smile.
“So is that your favourite memory of us?”
“No, my favourite memory takes place in our 4th year at the Yule ball. I didn’t want to dance in front of all those idiots but you pulled me up there anyway. But as soon as you held my hand it was like they all disappeared and it was just me and you. I spun you out and when you spun back into my arms, I dipped you and you looked so beautiful. But that is fighting for the top spot from the time you sucked me off in the restricted section, and the time you floo’ed into my room last summer at 2 am and I absolutely ruined you”
“Okay okay I get the picture your favourite memories are when we have sex”
“Not all of them, just some, what’s yours?”
“5th year, Christmas break, your parents’ Christmas party, you hid my promise ring inside my dessert” you held your hand up letting your ring sparkle in the candlelight, it was simple, a small princess cut emerald on a gold band, but it was oh so precious “You kept staring at me and I was so confused, I wasn’t even looking at what I was eating until you jerked my hand back and told me to look in the spoon and there it was. You cleaned it off and slid it on my finger right in front of everyone. Or maybe it was the time you made me sit on your face when we snuck into a room at the leaky cauldron”
Draco laughed and lifted your hand up and played with the ring. “After we finish Hogwarts, I’m gonna replace this ring with a diamond one”
“You are?” 
“Why do you sound so surprised, I told you already I was going to change your last name to mine, even your parents know”
“I know but I didn’t know you wanted to do this so early"
“Of course I do, why wouldn’t I?”
“You are so whipped”
Draco shoved you off him playfully.
“But it’s okay because I’m equally as whipped” you replied sitting back in his lap.
“You’d better be, otherwise I’d-”
“You’d what? Tell your father?”
“Right, that’s it” His fingers found your sides as he began tickling you. By the time he felt as though he tortured you enough, you were both breathless. 
“I love you," He said, smoothing your shirt down.
“I love you more”
“Who’s up here?” Filch’s voice grumbled. 
You and Draco grinned at each other as you quickly threw your robes on and lifted the hoods, running straight past Filch and into the Slytherin common room. 
You had now learnt what Draco’s favourite memory of you was. All that was left was actually getting around to paint it. If you weren’t in a lesson, you were revising, usually most of the time with Draco. Even on weekends, you found yourself in in the library completing practise exam papers and testing yourself on flashcards. And any time you weren’t working, you and Draco used as an opportunity to spend time with one another without being bogged down with work. You’d already decided that the room of requirement would be the perfect place to start painting, but the issue was figuring out how you’d be able to sneak there and back without arousing suspicion. 
After much deliberation, you decided that your best option for sneaking out was on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Every Tuesday after dinner, Draco and Blaise would go out to the quidditch pitch to blow off some steam, by the time he had finished and showered, you were almost always already in bed. On Wednesday, you decided you’d tell Draco a little white lie and say that Flitwick had asked you to tutor a struggling 5th year in Charms, it would give you a few hours to yourself to get ahead with painting. 
The upcoming Tuesday your plan was in action, you made Daphne swear she wouldn’t tell Draco where you were and you made your way to the room of requirement. It was honestly a Godsend. You stepped into a room full of different sized canvasses, there were tubes of oil paint and palettes of watercolours and squeezy bottles of acrylic. A table was full of paintbrushes of different sizes and shapes and there were an easel and chair right in the middle of the room. 
You picked out a large rectangular canvas and placed it landscape on the easel and got to sketching the outline of your painting. If all went to plan, it would be a loop of Draco’s favourite memory of the two of you at the ball, if it didn’t well, then it would be a still image and if everything went south, you’d have to somehow find a way to get some lingerie to distract him from your lack of presents. 
Painting the canvas was going to be the hard part, sketching the outline, however, was proving to be a huge nightmare already, you had drawn and redrawn Draco’s face about a hundred times, not being able to get it exactly right. You were about to kick a hole in your canvas when a small a5 picture caught your eye, stuck under the foot of the easel. You picked it up to see a photograph of the exact moment you were trying to recreate. This was why you loved this room, taking a deep breath, you redrew Draco’s face finally getting it as you liked it. By the time you had finished the full outline, it was almost two am, you knew you were going to struggle to wake up in the morning, but that was something for future you to deal with, present you had to find a way to sneak out of the room and back to your dormitory without detection. 
In order to make as little noise as possible, you took your shoes off and ran across the castle in just your socks, you were only a few steps away from the entrance to the common room before Mrs Norris came around the corner. She meowed loudly as you whisper-shouted the password, the corridor revealing itself. You ran down it and straight up the stairs into your dormitory. You tried to get into bed as quietly as possible before falling asleep. 
In hindsight, staying up sketching until 2 am was a horrible idea. It was only 1 in the afternoon and you were struggling to stay awake. 
“I don’t get why you don’t just pay someone to paint it for you,” Daphne asked, scrunching a piece of paper into a ball and throwing it in the bin beside you.
“Because then there's no sentimental value behind it” You replied, massaging your temples.
“What time did you fall asleep anyway?”
“By the time I drowned out Pansy’s snoring it was 3, I was just lucky I had a free period first so I ended up getting an hours extra sleep”
“Merlin, remind me to never fall in love”
You laughed before rubbing your eyes and returning to your work. 
It took you four weeks of staying up till 2 am to finish Draco’s painting. You had spent hours mixing the right shades of paint, at one point you ended up getting rid of the paint on the whole canvas and starting again but exactly three weeks before Draco’s birthday, you had mastered the spell to make your painted figures move and your masterpiece was complete. Your only worry was that Narcissa Malfoy would hate it and would stop her son from hanging it in his bedroom. 
In order to get the huge canvas from the room of requirement back to your dormitory, you had to ask Neville to ask Harry if you could borrow his invisibility cloak. If Draco had found out that you got Harry’s help you were 90% sure he’d be the one kicking a hole in your canvas. For now, the canvas was safely tucked under your bed. 
The next morning, you stuffed Harry’s cloak in your bag and made your way down to meet him. You had agreed the previous evening that you’d meet outside Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom before breakfast to make the exchange. As planned, he was stood with Neville right outside the entrance to the toilet. You pulled the cloak out and handed it back to Harry. 
“Thank you, I know you and Draco don’t like each other, but it means a lot that you'd go out on a limb to help me.”
“While I question your choice in men, Y/L/N, you’ve helped Neville out on more than one occasion and any friend of Neville’s is a friend of mine.”
You smiled at Harry, “I’m gonna head to breakfast before Draco gets suspicious, see you boys, later”
They waved goodbye as you made your way back to breakfast, stopping in the normal girl's toilet to sort your shirt out which you found you were wearing inside out. Your group of friends were already sat down eating, all but Draco.
“Where is he?” You asked.
“Couple third years said they had to tell him something in private, oh wait, speak of the devil” 
You turned and he did not look happy. His jaw was clenched and he was walking oddly fast, he came to you and gripped you firmly by the arm. “Can I speak to you, outside, Y/N”
You looked at him confused but followed him out. As soon as you were out of earshot from the hall he turned around to face you, he looked pissed, he kept walking forward until you were pinned between him and the wall. 
“You want to tell me why some friends in 3rd year saw you giving Potter his invisibility cloak back?”
“What?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, darling, we both know you’re not. ‘it looked like she was holding something but there wasn't anything in her hand’. Why did you have his cloak”
“I was planning on recreating that memory of yours in the restricted section for your birthday, I asked Neville if I could borrow Harry’s cloak to get us there and back but then I remembered you wouldn’t have come if we were using his cloak so I gave it back” You lied smoothly 
He swallowed and nodded, not moving back. You pushed him off and scoffed. 
“Is this what you’re doing now? Sending third years to follow me?”
“You of all people should know I have eyes and ears everywhere.”
“Those eyes and ears shouldn't be snooping on your girlfriend”
“They wouldn’t have to if you weren’t lying to me about where you were for the past month.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Helping a 5th year with Charms as per the request of Flitwick? Well not according to the professor himself”
“Dra-”
He laughed, “Can’t even cover up your lies properly. Why don't I give you a few hours to come up with a cover story, I can’t bear the sight of you right now” Draco turned and walked away, ignoring you as you called out for him. 
He acted as though you didn’t exist for all of your lessons, he didn't sit next to you, he didn't speak to you, he barely looked at you. You chose to have dinner alone in your room that night. It had occurred to you during your second period that Draco thought you were cheating on him with Harry. It made sense, you were sneaking around and you were seen giving Harry’s cloak back as if to say that you two had been meeting up in secret under it. But it also made absolutely no sense either, you and Draco had been together since the beginning of your 3rd year. Your father was a death eater for Pete’s sake, it didn’t take a genius to realise you’d be disowned if you brought home Harry fucking Potter. 
You were partway through your transfiguration homework when Daphne came bounding up into the dormitory.
“Right, what is going on with you and Draco?” She asked, throwing her bag on the floor and collapsing on her bed.
“Nothing,” You lied.
“See that is absolute bullshit because he has been a moody prick all day and you skipped dinner, so come out with it, spill”
You sighed and explained everything. 
“Why don’t you just tell him the truth then?”
“Because if I do, it’ll ruin the surprise”
“And if you don’t it’ll end your relationship, my mother is over the moon at the fact that I’ll be a bridesmaid at a Malfoy wedding, you don’t want to crush her dreams do you?”
“You’re right, do you know where he is?”
“He went straight into his dormitory”
You nodded and made your way there. He was joined by his friends.
“Rest of you out, thanks,” You said, walking in and standing in the middle of the room. 
Blaise looked at Draco and he nodded, prompting him, Theodore and Goyle to leave. He refused to look at you. You took a seat at the end of his bed and began to explain.
“I’m well aware you think I’m cheating on you with Potter, but that’s really the complete opposite of what’s happening. The truth is, for the past few weeks, I’ve been arranging your birthday present. I finished it last night and I asked for Harry’s cloak so I could bring it back to my dormitory without revealing the surprise. That’s where I’ve been sneaking off to. Not to go snog Potter under his invisibility cloak”
“Oh”
“Bet you feel really fucking stupid now don’t you,” You scoffed
“I’m sorry, darling,”
“Do you not think? Could you imagine my parents’ reaction if I brought home Potter? They’d disown me faster than you came the first time we-”
He grabbed you into a hug before you could finish your sentence.
“I am truly sorry, princess, for jumping to conclusions and for ruining my surprise.”
“Well, you haven’t totally ruined it, you don’t know what it is yet.”
“Can we come back in yet, I need to get out of this fucking uniform” Theodore shouted from the bottom of the stairs.
Draco shouted back a yeah and his friends returned. 
“See you two’ve kissed and made up, about time too, Draco’s a right git when he's moody”
Draco threw a pair of balled-up socks at Blaise’s head before you got up off the bed.
“I’ll meet you in the common room once I’ve finished my homework,” You told him before pressing a soft kiss to his lips. He mumbled an okay before kissing you once more and you were on your way. 
The next morning, at breakfast, you noticed your father’s owl descend onto the table in front of you. You took the letter expecting him to fly off and return home but he waited expectantly, clearly, he was told to wait until you replied. He hopped up onto your arms as you took him to the owlery to recuperate while you read your letter and replied. 
Y/N, 
You’re hopefully aware that it is Draco’s birthday in a few weeks, I hope that you have got him an adequate gift. You know how important your 17th birthday is and as I remember, Draco spoilt you with 17 gifts. Since you are a young lady, you're not expected to gift him anything as lavish as some of the presents he gave you, but tradition dictates that you should get him something worthy of a pureblood wizard, in particular jewels. Please reply as soon as possible, only so I know that you won’t embarrass your father and I (and in the case you do, I can send you an alternative). Your brothers and your father send their regards. We miss you. 
Mother
You rolled your eyes at her need for keeping up appearances and quickly scribbled her back a reply. You wished you were at home to see her reaction to you gifting him a painting you painted yourself. Once your father’s owl had filled himself up with water and owl feed, you attached the letter to him and sent him on his way. 
Later in the evening, your mother’s owl pecked at you through the library window. You went out into the corridor and took a letter and a box off of her. Once you had freed her of her cargo, she hooted and flew off. You opened the second letter and read.
Sweetheart, I know that you are an accomplished young artist, but a painting will simply not do, especially for his 17th birthday. However, since I am your mother and I know you best, I had a feeling I would need to help you in this department. I took the liberty of going into Bourgin and Burke’s on the weekend and purchased a rare black diamond ring for Draco on your behalf. I think he will like it and I think you will too. I hope you are studying well for your exams, 
Mother
You tried to rip open the wrapping on the box but it wouldn't move. The fold at the bottom lifted itself up a bit and ran across your finger, giving you a papercut. A thin line of blood collected on its edge and the wrapping dissolved leaving you with a red ring box, she was always partial to a bit of blood magic. You lifted the lid to see a thick silver band, it looked like it was either white gold or platinum, your mother thought sterling silver was too cheap, the oval cut diamond set atop a larger oval of platinum. It wasn't too plain but it also wasn’t overly gaudy, just as Draco liked it. You returned to the library with your second gift, making a note to hide it under your bed with your painting.
The next few weeks went past in a blur of mock exams and constant revision. Your first exam wasn’t until the 10th of June, giving you plenty of time to celebrate Draco’s birthday properly. The night before his birthday, half of Slytherin house was gathered in the common room waiting for it to hit midnight. You asked the elves to bake a cake for him and smuggled it with some snacks to have a small party with your friends. 
At 11.59 you pulled a tie out from behind you and held it up.
“Gonna let me tie you up huh?” Draco asked with a smirk. 
“Nice try, Malfoy, but this is for you” You replied getting up and tying it around his eyes. 
“What are you doing, Y/L/N?” 
You pointed your wand at the wall causing birthday banners and streamers to hang. Blaise brought the cake in from the 1st year dormitory. The large grandfather clock donged deeply as it hit midnight, you pulled his blindfold down as the whole common room burst into a rendition of happy birthday. He laughed and put his arm around your waist pulling you into his side. Nott finished the song on a horrible high note as Draco blew his candles out. 
“Make a wish, Draco” Pansy shouted. 
“I don’t need to, I've got everything I could wish for right next to me.”
You smiled up at him and gave him a kiss before addressing the crowd. “Eat my friends,” You felt like Dumbledore as plates of food dotted themselves around the common room. The attention moved from Draco to the food as everyone got up and attacked. 
“Happy birthday, my love,” You said wrapping your arms around his neck.
“Thank you, princess, I wasn’t expecting this at all.”
“Only the best for my boyfriend”
You spent the next few hours playing truth or dare with your housemates, it was cut short when Snape barged into the common room, the decorations were ripped off the wall and the music from the radio stopped. 
“I am going to give you until the count of 10 to return to your dormitory, anyone I still see standing here will be spending every weekend for the rest of the year cleaning with filch”
He began to count down from 10 as everyone scrambled to run into their dorms and get into bed. 
You were so excited to surprise Draco with his presents that you skipped breakfast, instructing Daphne to tell him to meet you in the astronomy tower. You decided you were going to decorate your spot a little bit, you set up a soft blanket and some cupcakes and hung up the leftover banners and streamers from your midnight party in the common room. You had his gifts wrapped up with ribbon and some bows just to be extra, they sat in the centre of your blanket, the canvas taking up a large chunk of it. You had realised Draco would probably struggle to take the canvas back home, but that would be a problem he would have to deal with later.
 “Y/N?” His voice called out from the bottom of the stairs. 
“Up here, love” You replied, your head popping up over the bannister. 
He broke into a smile when he saw you and rushed up the stairs taking them two at a time. You sat on the edge of the blanket and waited for him.
“Happy 17th birthday, Draco” You exclaimed as he reached the top. 
His smile got even wider as he pulled you up and into a tight hug. 
“I am so in love with you, do you know that?” he mumbled into your neck.
“I hope you feel the same after you see your presents,”
“Darling, you know you didn’t have to get me anything, you’re the best gift I could have ever received”
“I didn’t have to but I wanted to, here look” 
His eyes fell onto the two wrapped gifts, he sat himself down and opened the top present. 
“How did you get your hands on this?” he pulled the ring out and examined it closely.
“RIght so backstory to this, my mum didn’t believe that my original present was traditional enough to be a ‘wizard’s 17th birthday present’ so she went out to Bourgin and Burke and got this, but I wouldn’t have given it to you had I thought you wouldn't like it, so think of this as a gift from your in-laws.”
“My father’ll be jealous, he's been wanting a black diamond in his collection for ages now” He put the ring back in the box and was about to shut it.
“Wait, let me put it on. you put my ring on, so I’ll put yours on, practise for the big day”
He smiled at you as you sat down next to him and pulled the ring back out of the box. He held his left hand out for you and you slid the ring onto his ring finger.  
“You know after this, they tend to kiss” He grinned. 
“Oh yes, of course, if we’re going to practise we should be thorough” You pulled his head down and his lips met yours for a passionate kiss. 
He pulled back after a few moments with a grin. 
“We should keep practising, just to be on the safe side”
“Enough flirting, Malfoy you have another gift to open”
He turned and picked up the canvas in his hands.
“Is this the one you were sneaking away for?”
You nodded and he began to tear off the wrapping. He got up and placed it against the wall and stood there looking at it, silently. He was silent for a while as he watched the loop of Draco spinning you out and then dipping you on your return with a kiss. Although he hadn't said anything, you got the feeling that he didn't particularly like this gift. He was probably thinking of a way to let you down easily.
“Do you not like it?” You asked quietly.
“What? No!” he turned around with a genuine smile. “I love it, darling, it's perfect. Honestly, it's beautiful.”
You physically relaxed and went to stand next to him. “You said you didn’t like the painting in your room above the fire so I thought I’d give you something to change it with, I’m just not sure if your mother would like it, since its not one of those classical masterpieces.”
“I don’t care what my mother thinks, as soon as I get home, I’m hanging this right up on my wall. I just never knew you could paint like this”
“My mum made me start painting when I was three, I stopped lessons as soon as I started Hogwarts but I kept it up on the side as a hobby and, well, I thought I’d immortalise your favourite memory of us.”
“You never cease to amaze me” He turned and pulled you into him “Thank you,”
“Don’t be silly it’s your birthday, stupid”
“Not just for this, for everything. For putting up with everything, the jealousy, the anger, the-”
“Hey, I’m not putting up with anything, I love you, Draco, all of you”
“Merlin, I can’t wait to marry you” His lips crashed into yours for a frenzied kiss, overwhelmed with emotion. “This is by far the best birthday I’ve ever had, nothing will be able to top this”
And he wasn’t lying. Whenever he was asked, by his kids, his grandkids even his great-grandkids, what his favourite birthday celebration was, his response was always the same, his 17th birthday.
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lady-divine-writes · 3 years ago
Text
Kurtbastian - “Always and Forever”
Summary: After the death of their daughter Grace, Kurt and Sebastian drift apart. Kurt wraps himself up in his grief so tightly he starts to push Sebastian away, and Sebastian, feeling himself shoved aside when he needs Kurt most, cheats. They make the decision to start over, to leave New York City and their pain behind, and start over again in a house Upstate. Sebastian buys Kurt a "fixer upper" and gives him free reign. While redecorating the room that will be his studio, Kurt comes across something interesting underneath the wallpaper. It starts to become an obsession for Kurt - an obsession that begins to replace Kurt's love for his husband, which Sebastian is holding on to by a thread. Can Kurt and Sebastian break through the pain and the hurt and find a way to fall in love again?
Notes: Inspired by the Klaine advent drabble prompt "ache". So this is a story I started a while ago, but stopped after chapter 4 because it started to get a little too real. But I’ve started revising, and now I’m ready to finish it.
Chapter 1 (3197 words)
“God! That traffic was insane, wasn’t it?” Sebastian complains, pulling off the highway and onto the less congested road that leads to the heart of Manhasset.
Kurt mutters in agreement, but he barely noticed. His right temple has been glued to the passenger side window the entire trip. Eyes pointed skyward, he watched the clouds pass by as they drove, counted the trees, followed a flock of birds as they flew off to warmer climes far, far away.
Away from here, the way Kurt wishes he could.
“I called ahead to turn the gas on. And the electricity... ” Sebastian has been rambling about nothing for the whole hour and forty-five-minute drive, filling the tense air of the Navigator with verbal static. “We’re gonna want to air the place out for a few hours. The realtor told me it stinks like mold but that there isn’t any actual mold in the house. I hired two separate contractors to go through the place anyway and make sure. I wasn't going to take the guy's word for it. He struck me as a sandwich short of a picnic. I mean, you should have seen him, Kurt! He was wearing a purple paisley tie and brown loafers with a grey suit. And not like royal purple. That would have worked. But puce! Jesus Christ!” He chuckles. It bleeds into a nervous cough. “I didn’t say anything, but it would have been nice if you were there to give him some subtle pointers. Or not so subtle. You know how much I love seeing you in action. Oh, and we'll have to go over our insurance policy. I’m having a second independent appraiser… ”
“Are we there yet?” Kurt interrupts, preferring to focus on how the changing leaves mute the skyline than on a single word coming out of his husband’s mouth. Not that he could catch a one the way they’re sprinting off his tongue like lemmings off a cliff.
The trees soothe Kurt, smooth the rough edges of this bumpy ride. They grow differently out here than in the city: springing up in rows, displaying their fall colors, blending one into the other like an ever-changing river - red tree, yellow tree, brown tree, gold tree… 
Their daughter Grace would call out the colors on their long car rides Upstate, conjuring rhymes where there were none. They roll through his memory in her singsong voice.
Green tree… uh... lean tree!
Kurt smiles, clutching on to the sound of her voice.
He's terrified of the day he'll forget what her voice sounds like.
“Just… uh… just a few more blocks,” Sebastian replies, his attempt at chitchat cut short by his husband’s impatient tone. Despite his infinitely expressive voice, Kurt only uses three tones nowadays - angry, impatient, and indifferent. Sebastian hasn’t learned how to avoid any of them, but he hates Kurt’s indifferent tone the most. “Not too far.”
“Good. Because I’m tired of sitting in this stupid seat.” Kurt switches positions, massaging his hip for emphasis. 'Tired of sitting in this stupid seat.' That's what he said. But he meant, 'tired of being stuck in here with you.' 
And Sebastian knows it.
Sebastian turns down two streets that spiral together tighter and tighter until he and Kurt are locked in to their new neighborhood.
Locked in to their decision to move here.
“Here it is.” Sebastian pulls up to the curb at the point before the street turns into a cul-de-sac.
Kurt sits up slowly to accommodate his stiff spine and numb ass. Looking around, he sighs in frustration. “Here what is? There are five houses on this block. Which one is it?”
“Guess.” When Kurt sighs again, Sebastian says, “I’ll give you a hint – it’s one of these three,” and motions to the houses on Kurt’s right. Kurt rolls his eyes but turns to the houses closest. They all appear relatively identical – three floors with a pointed roof and a square porch, reminiscent of a gingerbread house. They probably have basements – a huge selling point in this vicinity. But they don’t call them basements Upstate. They call them cellars. Somehow, the word cellar is more refined, and therefore more acceptable than having a dull, run-of-the-mill, drafty basement.
Need that cellar so you can have the most expensive cabernet on the market on hand in case we need to drunkenly judge Sally Jones’s latest highlight fiasco.
“She should have gone with lowlights, Sharon. (sip) Haven’t I been saying that, Kayla? (sip) Haven’t I been saying that she should have stuck with lowlights? But only around her face. (sip) Ha-ha-ha-ha! Please, pass the brie.”
Kurt spent a good portion of his life living in a basement bedroom, so he’s not above the word. But he remembers a time back in high school when he thought that was the person he would grow up to be. He’d start out as one of the New York elite, then become an Upstate snob. When his kids (two of them – a boy and a girl) were grown and gone, he’d start an artists’ colony. He'd retire to a lighthouse, isolate himself in obscurity while being ironically jaded at the world.
Well, he's nearing forty, and he is jaded, but for entirely different reasons.
The house at the curve in the cul-de-sac is painted a sea green Kurt isn’t thrilled with. But that can be remedied with a bucket of paint and some elbow grease. From its position, it probably gets the bulk of the noon sun. 
There goes their electric bill. 
Kurt knows Sebastian doesn’t care about trivial things like finances, but just because they have the money to spend doesn’t mean they should shovel it out the window. Plus, there's their carbon footprint to think about. But more importantly, there goes his fair skin, which will freckle at every meal while he does nothing other than sit at the kitchen table.
No, thank you.
The house beside it is in a better position, slanted away from direct sunlight. But it’s painted a slate blue that comes across as too harsh considering the neighborhood’s neutral color scheme. Sebastian should know better than to see that house and say, “Yes. That’s it. That’s the one,” unless the inside looks like the Palace of Versailles.
The last house is also blue, but this blue borders on pale grey, a similar shade to his father’s house in Lima. A maple tree has grown through the pavement in front, shading the house and shedding its red-gold leaves all over the front yard. 
And this house has a porch swing. 
He and Sebastian used to talk about owning a home with a porch swing. It became a prerequisite for the home they wanted to retire in. Kurt pictured sitting on their swing side by side in the early mornings, sipping coffee and watching the sunrise.
Sebastian, on the other hand, talked about having sex on the thing and scaring the neighbors.
Same planet, different worlds.
“It’s this one,” Kurt guesses, gesturing to the blue-grey house. “The one with the swing. Isn’t it?”
“Don’t sound too excited,” Sebastian jokes but warily, afraid of what the fallout might be if Kurt doesn’t like it. Sebastian has been climbing a tenuous ladder to make his husband happy. One misstep and he'll plummet back to the bottom, with no certainty that Kurt will let him try to climb up again. It’s his own damn fault, Sebastian reminds himself as they get out of the vehicle. He did this to them, so he’ll let Kurt lash out, let him bare his teeth and his claws, let him dig in with both hands and rip.
Sebastian deserves it.
He leads Kurt up the walkway in silence, past the tree and the swing. He unlocks the front door and pushes it open, standing back so Kurt can be the first one over the threshold. Kurt takes his time, poking his head in first, then taking a hesitant step. This is an all-or-nothing moment for him. In his heart, once he walks inside, there's no turning back.
He sets his foot down, rests his weight on it, and a dozen memories come flooding back: the house he lived in with his mom and dad, the house he and his dad moved into when his dad remarried, the dorm rooms he suffered from high school to college.
The first night he spent in Sebastian's penthouse, the excitement of feeling like he'd found his true home.
The house he dreamed of raising Grace in. 
In the end, they stayed in the penthouse for convenience. He regrets not getting her an actual house with a yard and a swing.
Like this one.
The irony.
The room lists, Kurt's head swims, but he wraps his arms around himself and doesn't let it show. He focuses on the here and now. He's taken a step. He just needs to take another. And another. Keep going. Keep moving forward, or else he'll crumple to the ground.
And Sebastian will rush to catch him.
Kurt would rather bury himself under the porch.
Kurt breathes in through his nose and out through his mouth, relies on a cold and detached demeanor to help him instead of the strong arms of his husband.
This house has a different feel from the open floor plan of the penthouse they've been living in since college. It's cramped around the corners, with a lot more shadows and a lot less noise. Sebastian likes that better. He’s an Ohio native, same as Kurt. But unlike Kurt, he considers himself a country boy. Even though Sebastian built his identity around becoming a state's attorney like his father, he loved the quiet life: wide-open spaces, blue skies, unhurried, and just plain normal. 
Kurt saw Ohio as a cage he couldn't wait to break free from.
Sebastian could have bought Kurt any house he wanted. In that vein, Sebastian feels like a heel for jumping on this one without consulting Kurt first. He reasoned that he'd been the one house hunting, not Kurt. So when a contact told him that the owner of this house, a house Sebastian had had his eye on for a while, was finally selling, it seemed too perfect, especially considering the timing.
Sebastian bent over backward to rescue it from escrow.
Kurt didn't want to leave the city, but it was full of too much pain for him to handle, too many memories, friends and acquaintances who had yet to hear the news, and those who constantly offered their condolences. Few people greeted him anymore without their smiles dropping and the words, “I’m so sorry,” coming out of their mouths, as if joy shouldn't exist around him anymore. 
It made his head, his heart, and his soul ache.
Kurt loved New York City, but there was nothing left for him there but the constant hollow thud he felt whenever he saw something that reminded him of their angel Grace. School would be starting soon. All of her friends will be moving on to the fifth grade. But his daughter...
Life ended for her too soon.
“Here.” Sebastian reaches for Kurt’s hand, but Kurt reflexively pulls it away, slipping his hands into his pockets to cover for his flinching from Sebastian’s touch. Sebastian should be used to it by now, but he isn’t. “Let me show you why I think you’re going to love this house.”
Sebastian jogs up the stairs to the next level. Kurt follows a few steps behind. When he reaches the top, he sees three doors. They pass the first two without mention. Sebastian opens the last.
“Here.” Sebastian crosses to the opposite side and throws open one of two windows, filling the musty space with the crisp bite of autumn. “I thought this room could be your new studio.”
Sebastian knows him too well. The room is perfect. Even at dusk, it’s flooded with natural light. It looks out over the rooftops of the other houses, giving him a view of the surrounding forests and orchards stretching way past the highway. With a little TLC, it could look just like his studio in their penthouse.
Or he can turn it into something new.
Start with a clean slate.
“What are the other two rooms?” Kurt asks offhandedly. He doesn't need to. 
He knows what the other rooms are. 
There are only two rooms they can be.
“A bathroom and the master bedroom,” Sebastian answers, watching his husband stroll across the floor.
“So this would have been… ?”
“A spare? A guest room?” Sebastian shifts his weight from foot to foot, unable to find an easy groove to stand in.
Kurt frowns. No. It would have been Grace’s bedroom if she were still with them. Kurt was trying to get his husband to acknowledge that. Cruelly. But if she were with them, Sebastian wouldn’t have cheated, their marriage wouldn’t be falling apart, and they wouldn’t be running away from their problems.
“I guess I could put a foldout bed in here,” Kurt throws out as he estimates the space.
“You can if that’s what you want,” Sebastian agrees. “Or you’re just saying that to hurt me, which, if you are, you’ll be happy to know, it’s working.”
“I’m not saying that to hurt you,” Kurt eloquently lies. “I’m being practical. I’m not going to have easy access to the Vogue workshop if I live two hours away. If I expect to get a new line started, I’m going to have to pull long hours.”
Sebastian scrutinizes his husband, who’s doing his best to avoid looking at him. “You’re… thinking of starting a new line? You didn’t mention that.”
Kurt shrugs. “Did I have to?”
“No. I mean, I wasn’t sure that you would go back to designing so soon after.” 
"After?" Kurt tilts his head inquisitively but still makes no eye contact.
"After... moving. There's going to be a lot to do here. I thought you'd give yourself a year. Maybe more." Sebastian answers so quickly, Kurt wonders if he'd practiced. They talk in code, this whole conversation a carefully choreographed tango through a labyrinth of knives.
Sebastian didn't mean after moving. He meant after the death of their daughter. Kurt practically spent every spare second he wasn’t designing for work designing with her. Kurt has been a designer since high school. Aside from music, it's his passion.
Sebastian feared Grace's death might sever those harp strings.
"I think you underestimate me. Besides, you’re considering going back to working in the city after… ” 
Pivot, walk walk, close.
The dance changes. They switch places, and Kurt leads.
Kurt isn't talking about them moving or Grace.
Kurt means after Sebastian cheated. 
Kurt only agreed to move out of the city and live in a house he's never seen to keep Sebastian away from the man he's convinced will become too big a temptation to resist the next time they get into any kind of argument. Granted, it took their daughter dying for Sebastian to cheat, but Kurt figures it’ll keep getting easier from now on to come up with an excuse. 
Can't agree on where to go for dinner? Have a huge blowout over which cards to send out for Christmas? That's it! I'm sticking my dick in someone else!
“Anyway, I wouldn’t want to wake you by crawling into bed at four in the morning, not when you have to be at work at six,” Kurt finishes when he’s let that dig soak in long enough.
“I’m not going back to work for a while, remember? That’s what a leave of absence is. And even if I was, why would I mind you waking me?” Sebastian risks a grin. “In fact, I was thinking that it might be nice to get back to what we used to do in the mornings before work. I miss that.”
Sebastian holds his breath while he sees how that remark lands. He waits for Kurt to look at him. Kurt hasn’t been able to look at him, really look at him, since hungover Sebastian came home in a taxi the morning after, clothes ruined, their marriage officially in the gutter. Grace passed away six months ago, which means he’s been waiting for a while. 
He’s still waiting. 
“This isn’t all about you,” Kurt reminds him, raising his eyes to the ceiling.
Kurt didn't yell. But that doesn't mean he's not furious.
“I know,” Sebastian says softly. He rubs his cold hands together, wishing he could stick them underneath his husband’s thick, button-down sweater, and press his palms against Kurt’s skin. A year ago, Kurt would have squealed, “Bas! Your hands are freezing!” But he would have wrapped his arms around himself and held on, would have let Sebastian lean in for a kiss, would have fallen for the line, “Now that my hands are warm, maybe you can help me warm up a few other things.”
Then they would have made love on the wood floor with the door open.
If only he could make Kurt laugh the way he used to.
Then maybe Kurt would love him again.
But going by his husband’s expression, dreary as the olive sweater he holds closed with one hand at the neck, Sebastian knows that now is not the time.
“Is this what you need to make you happy?” he asks. If only it were that simple. If only a house, or a car, or a vacation could turn back the clock and erase everything that happened.
Erase everything Sebastian did, and bring their daughter back.
Kurt doesn't answer right away. He's not purposefully keeping Sebastian in suspense. He couldn't care less what's going on in Sebastian's head. This is his future he's considering. 
He's going to take his time.
He circles the room, contemplating the echo of his footsteps on the roughly finished wood, debating whether or not it's a sound he wants to hear for the rest of his life. If not, is it worth putting in the time to fix it? 
He traces the path of sunlight as it travels across the wall. That brings a new detail to his eye - a torn corner of wallpaper above the open window revealing a word underneath.
Darling.
Kurt eyes it from a distance, tries not to pay too much attention to it in case Sebastian is behind it. It doesn’t look like it was written recently. It's more than likely part of the pattern underneath. But leave it to Sebastian to try to woo his husband back with something syrupy like that. 
Something hopelessly romantic.
Something he thinks Kurt will fall for.
“No,” Kurt answers honestly, re-examining the fading wallpaper, the scuffed floors, the peeling ceiling. His gaze glances his husband’s face and settles on the dust-streaked window. He stares out at the sky, the clouds, the trees, the birds flying wild and free. He’s never going to be able to fly away like that, so he might as well accept this cage he's been given. It's what he's supposed to do, after all. “But it’s worth a try.”
He has little else left to lose.
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remus-moonyylupin · 4 years ago
Text
Traitor Traitor Traitor
Remus trekked across the snowy lane, dragging his feet slightly as he went. He wasn’t entirely sure he should be going to their graves in the first place but he knew deep down he owed it to them. Before he knew it, he arrived at the quaint row their polished headstone sat in.
He looked down upon it with an empty stare. There were their names, James and Lily Potter, etched into the smooth stone. Proof they were actually gone.
Remus sank to his knees and took a deep rasping breath. He’d been having a lot of those rasping breaths lately. He had to keep reminding himself to breathe, the war was over. But the war wasn’t over. Not really. Not for Remus. He was still in the rubble, grasping at the broken pieces. a war raged inside him. A raging, despair filled war.
The snow soaked through the knees of his trousers as he kneeled there, staring. He reached out and traced James’ name with a gloved finger. He was shaking, he realized. He hadn’t shaken quite so hard in a while.
**
“Remus? Can we talk?” James’ timid voice had come from outside the bathroom door.
Remus finished brushing his teeth quickly and pulled on his pajamas. “Mm?” he hummed from inside, still fiddling with his night shirt, attempting to hide his scars as much as possible. He pushed open the door to find the other 3 marauders standing in a solemn group, staring him down.
“Umm… everything all right lads?” he asked timidly. He could sense the tension, smell peter’s fear, practically taste james’ adrenaline. He shook his head slightly as if to shake away the tiny remnants of the wolf. The full moon was only two nights before and he still felt a bit animal-like.
James cleared his throat. “We wanted to ask you a question, er. Actually more of a statement? What i’m trying to say is-“
“Remus, are you a werewolf?” Sirius cut him off.
“A- am I a wha- no pfft of course not how would you, er- uhm” Remus spluttered helplessly. He saw the look on their faces and knew they knew. His hesitation, his inability to keep cool had given it all away. They knew. He felt his knees buckle and sat down hard on his bed, his head in his hands.
“So I suppose I’ll be leaving school then. Sorry for lying to you, lads. I’ll start packing.” He stood up abruptly and began grabbing his things and throwing them in his trunk.
“Whoa whoa what’re you doing?! you can’t leave!” Sirius said.
“Well of course I can. I’m dangerous. I’m- I’m a monster!” Remus exclaimed, throwing a thick jumper into his trunk.
James snatched up the jumper and placed his hands on Remus’ shoulders, shaking him lightly. “You’re not a monster, Remus.”
Remus shot james a look that said ‘don’t test me’ and grabbed the jumper back.
“Oh come off it, mate. You can’t leave! Who’ll do my charms notes?” Peter looked exasperated.
Remus folded his arms across his chest defensively, refusing to believe they were being serious. When had anyone ever been okay with his condition? His own father wasn’t okay with it for Godric’s sake! “So you’re telling me you aren’t the least bit afraid of me? You lot are completely okay with a literal monster sleeping in your dorm every night?”
Sirius burst out laughing. “Remus, you fold your socks. You have your books alphabetized on your shelf. I am not the least bit afraid of you.”
Remus looked around at the three of them all nodding fiercely in agreement, an incredulous look on his face. Were they really okay with it?
“Yes mate, we’re serious. We’re sure. We promise.” James said with a firm nod as if he could read Remus’ mind.
“Literally,” Sirius grinned.
Remus smiled. They accepted him. They actually accepted him.
**
He looked at the small array of flowers laying at the base of the cold, smooth stone and smiled sadly. Lilies. James had always made sure Lily had her flower on Valentine’s day. Remus took out his wand and conjured a small bouquet of lilies. He laid them gently beneath Lily’s name. Lily. The first girl to be friends with him without trying to snog him. Lily. Wonderful, smiling Lily.
**
“Oi! Evans!”
Lily rolled her eyes and ducked her head behind the open book in her lap. “What d’you want, Potter?” she sighed.
James grinned and stood up, dusting off his robes as he did so. “Oh c’mon Evans. Can’t even bother to look at me anymore?” he teased.
She snapped the book shut and flashed him a smile before returning her features to her usual ‘I’m so done with your shit’ face that she used when addressing James.
He smiled even wider and ruffled his hair. “Will you go out with me?”
She laughed and stood up. “Eow not even a pick up line this time! How charming, but unfortunately I’m going to have to decline. Again.”
James’ shoulders slouched and he flopped down onto the sofa in front of the common room fireplace next to Sirius. Sirius threw an arm around James’ shoulders and patted his back. “Next time mate,” he said with a solemn nod. James grumbled something that sounded like “fat chance.”
“Remus are we still going to the library? I need to look at a few books for that transfiguration essay,” Lily asked, snapping back to business as usual.
“Yeah sounds great.” Remus said, jumping up from his spot in the comfy chair adjacent to the couch James was now sulking on. “I’ll bring my notes so you can look off of those too. I need to look at some things for Care of Magical Creatures. Trying to get a head start on revisions this year,” he said as he grabbed various scraps of parchment and shoved them into his bag.
He slung the strap onto his shoulder and smiled at Lily. “All set?” she asked.
Remus nodded and they set off to the library. He snuck a look back at the others and saw a flabbergasted James staring after him. “How? Bloody how?” James said, shaking his head. Remus chuckled and kept walking.
Lily and Remus walked side by side for a while until Lily broke the silence. “Dunno what you see in those dorks.”
Remus bumped his shoulder against hers playfully. “Aw they’re not so bad. A bit immature but they’re family you know?”
She smiled. “yeah I know. That's sorta how it is with Mary and Marls. I love ‘em to death but I can only take so much girl talk.”
“It’s not just the girls! Bloody hell, all I hear about is ‘what’s all the fuss about snogging, Sirius?’ and ‘well once you get the hang of it, it’s great James. you’ll get there, mate, don’t worry.’ it’s all any of them talk about!”
Lily smirked. “Good to hear I'm not the only one getting an earful.”
They laughed and then were quiet for a moment. “It’s not so bad, though,” Remus said thoughtfully. “You know James really likes you?”
Lily looked up, surprised. “Remus you know I-“
“No I know, Lils. Ijust thought you should know he’s not teasing. He really likes you. Talks about you all the time. And of course you don’t have to feel the same but-“
Lily cut him off by grabbing his hand and swinging it between them. “It's okay, Rem. I like James too.”
Remus looked at her and grinned. “Lily! That’s brilliant!”
“Mm yes… but I’m going to mess with him a bit. Now that I know he’s smitten,” she smirked.
Remus smiled and they walked into the library together, still hand in hand.
**
Remus looked at the headstone in front of him and then glanced about at the others. He realized how many people had died. He wondered how many had died young and unfairly like Lily and james. He wondered how many had had their chance at life ripped away from them so quickly it felt like the world itself was against them. He thought of James and Lily and Marlene and Dorcas and Peter. Poor, nervous Peter. He'd tried so hard to help out in the war. And now he was gone too. Killed by sirius.
Sirius. Remus clenched and unclenched his fist at his side. Sirius. He couldn’t help but feel a squeeze around his heart at the thought of Sirius. stupid, buggering Sirius. Remus hated that he’d trusted him. He hated that Sirius had been the spy all along. He hated that he didn’t see it coming. But most of all Remus hated that he couldn’t stop loving him. No matter how much he cursed his name and couldn’t stand what he’d done, he still loved him.
“He’s a traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor,” he whispered and shook himself slightly. Every memory together was tainted, every happy moment shared, every argument and smile and laugh. All tainted by Sirius’ betrayal. And yet Remus still loved him.
**
Remus supported a very drunk Sirius, one of Sirius’ hands gripping Remus’ shoulder tightly.
“Sirius,” Remus said, taking the sloshing cup from the smaller boy’s free hand, “You’re drunk.”
Sirius smiled benignly and reached for the cup. “No ‘m not, Moony. You’re drunk!” he said thickly.
Remus smiled. “Sure, Padfoot. I’m so drunk I just fell into my best friend.”
Sirius laughed and slumped into Remus a bit more. Remus guided them both to a large armchair and they sat down, smushed up against one another.
Sirius laid his head against Remus’ shoulder absently. “Remus?”
“Mm?” He looked sideways at the top of Sirius’ head, but Sirius didn’t look up. Drunk wanker.
“You’re so… you’re just so great.”
“Are you attempting to compliment me?”
“I’m just saying,” he said quietly. “You’re so cool Remus. You’re… you’re beautiful.”
Remus tilted his head back to get a look at Sirius who was wearing a dopey look. “Sirius… you’re drunk.”
“Maybe. But i’m right.”
**
“Remus?”
“Mm?”
“D’you think my family hates me?”
Remus curled his arm around Sirius more protectively. “Course they don’t hate you. They just can’t see all your greatest qualities. But I can” Remus smiled into Sirius’ hair.
Sirius curled up and made himself small against the other boy. “Just can’t shake the feeling they hate me. I know I shouldn’t care what they think after what they did to me but-“
“It’s okay, Sirius. They’re your family. It’s their fault what happened when you were little. And it’s their loss that they can’t see how amazing you are.”
Sirius rolled over and searched Remus’ eyes for the truth. He smiled slightly and said, Thanks, Rem.”
Remus hugged Sirius close to him and they just laid there like that for a while, curling into one another. It was comforting to be held like that.
“Hey Remus?” Sirius spoke into Remus’ chest. Remus could feel his warm breath against his bare skin.
“Mm?”
“I’m mental about you.”
Remus felt a blush creep up his neck. “I’m mental about you too.”
**
Sirius came bursting through the portrait hole with such a clatter remus thought he must’ve been chased by a pack of elephants.
“Moony!”
Remus looked up from his book and nearly fell out of his chair. Sirius was standing there wearing one of Mary's mini skirts and one of remus’ jumpers. And bloody hell he looked hot. Sirius smirked, apparently happy with the reaction he’d received and sauntered over to the chair Remus was seated in.
“Heya there, Moony. How’s your book?”
Remus laughed and slammed the book shut. “Hiya Padfoot. I see you’ve been raiding closets again.” The words came out easily once he’d recovered from the initial shock.
“I look just stunning, don't I?” Sirius laughed.
“You always look stunning, Pads.”
Sirius looked momentarily taken aback but then straightened up and flipped his beautiful hair over one shoulder. “I know.”
Remus laughed and scooted over, pulling Sirius by the waist into the large chair to sit with him.
**
A brown barn owl swooped through the open window in the common room Remus was smoking through and dropped an envelope into his lap.
“Got mail, Moony?” Peter asked from the floor without looking away from his chess board.
Remus puffed smoke and picked up the envelope. “Yeah from mum.”
Peter didn’t respond. Remus could tell without looking he was planning the perfect winning strategy. Peter was a god at wizard chess.
The werewolf stubbed out his cigarette on the windowsill and ripped open the envelope. Inside were two sheets of parchment. One with his mother’s neat cursive dancing across the page and the other with his father’s messy, scribbly writing sprawled across it. He picked up the sheet with his mum’s writing first.
Dearest Remus,
My dear baby boy. You’ve known I've been sick for some time. It’s a muggle disease, one with no cure. You’ve known this from the start. I'm so sorry everything was so sudden, my starshine. I'm afraid things have gotten worse since you’ve been at school. I regret not writing more often, I miss seeing your lovely notes and hearing the stories of you and your friends. I don’t have much time, my love. They’re moving me to hospice tomorrow. Your father says he can arrange a visit with Mcgonagall soon. I love you, my starshine. You make every day a gift. See you soon, love.
Love,
Mum
Remus set down the letter with trembling hands. No. No this couldn’t be happening. He attempted to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat and picked up the second sheet, feeling shakier than he ever had before.
Dear Remus,
Your mother has passed away. I'm sorry you couldn’t say goodbye, she died in her sleep the night they moved her into hospice and I didn't have a chance to post her letter. I'm very sorry, my dear boy. The funeral will be this friday. Mcgonagall has been contacted and plans will be made. I love you, son.
See you soon,
Dad
Remus stared down at the piece of parchment blankly. His mum was dead? So suddenly? It didn’t feel real. It couldn’t be real.
He suddenly felt a surge of anger at his father. He didn’t have time to post her letter?! She was dying and he knew it! I’m her son! I had a right to say goodbye! Remus’ cheeks grew hot and he was in danger of breaking down right there on the windowsill.
The portrait hole opened and sirius stepped through, his face lighting up in a radiant smile when he saw Remus.
“Moony!” Remus looked at Sirius, panic and pain written all over his face. “Oh moony, what’s happened?” Sirius rushed over but the tears had already begun to fall. Sirius glanced around at the half-full common room and helped Remus down from the windowsill, gathering the letters and guiding him upstairs.
Remus was glad. He hated breaking down like this. Hardly anyone ever saw his emotions. anyone except Sirius.
“Moony…” Sirius searched his face but all he found was sorrow. “Oh Moony you poor love, what’s happened?” he asked softly.
Remus shook his head and pointed to the parchment clutched in Sirius’ hands. He read through the first one quickly and looked up at Remus. “Oh love, it’s gonna be okay. We can go talk to Mcgonagall and-“
“Read the second letter.” Remus’ voice sounded hollow.
Sirius gulped and bowed his head to read the second letter, his dark hair falling forward in silky sheets.
When he finished he silently set down the parchment and crawled onto Remus’ bed. He reached out his arms and pulled the werewolf close.
“It’s going to be okay, love. It’s going to be okay,” Sirius whispered into his ear, stroking his honey colored curls.
Remus curled into himself, making himself small. He rarely curled up like that, but right then it felt nice to be held so tightly. He made himself small and cried. His mum was gone. He'd never felt such sorrow.
“Hey Remus?” Sirius said quietly. “I love you”
“I love you too,” Remus croaked in response.
**
Remus stared blankly at the etched words in front of him.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. I'm sorry James and Lily, I can't stop loving him. I want to but I can't. I hate myself for it. I just-“ he took a heaving breath, tears threatening to spill over. “I need time. And I'm so so sorry. I wish you guys were here.”
Remus stood up and brushed his trousers off with his hands. The snow left two dark wet marks on his knees. He wiped his eyes and left the way he came. He knew he shouldn’t have visited. He knew it was a bad idea.
They’re really gone. And he’s really a traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. stop loving him, Remus. Stop loving him. Traitor traitor traitor.
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bulletballet-arch · 3 years ago
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The Revised [ Full ] History of Eve in Picture Perfect
( until I decide to tweak and edit it some more )
In this verse, Eve’s mother Linda would reside in Brooklyn for three years after the death of her husband, William Littlejohn, his brother Malcolm, and Malcolm’s wife Yvette. Initially, she stays in Brooklyn simply because she feels she is supposed to. Her in-laws, Amos and Liza, want to observe her. Similarly, Linda’s parents want to ensure she is fine after narrowly facing death. Haunted by the massacre, Linda suffers from survivor’s syndrome, but she is never allowed to vocalize the pain felt. In the midst of secretly attending therapy sessions ( while Eve is taken care of by her Grandma Evelyn and Papa Giuseppe ) Linda finds that her lifestyle is stagnant. She feels as though she is a woman who does whatever someone else wants. Therefore, Linda decides to move to Manhattan with the five-year-old Eve in tow. They live in a luxurious apartment and Linda makes her living as a secretary on Wall Street while Eve attends ballet classes.
Linda didn’t have to be a secretary, as the Littlejohns (and her father) provided her with money, but she liked working. It kept her mind off things. Sometimes things would feel great until people asked her was her husband the late William Littlejohn. In time, Linda gets a boyfriend who is a stockbroker. He’s white, he’s a recent divorcee and because she worked so closely with him, Linda knew it would be unprofessional to date him. But she thought to herself, ‘this is my decision. It’s okay because I have some control.’ The idea of control was a myth, though. She became his arm candy, similar to what happened within the Littlejohn Family when she initially became linked with William.
Linda could not complain too much, though. Because her new lover was good to Eve. The overall excellent dynamic caused them to get married. Their marriage lasts for four years. Eve is eight years old when they divorce. It’s a divorce that’s long. Messy. He was going to jail for a pyramid scheme was a part of and Linda didn’t want to stand by him. After the divorce - and the trial - Linda decides she could use a break. She decides that she and Eve should leave the country for a little while. Because why not? She has the money. The first country they go to is England, staying in London.
It was supposed to be a month-long vacation, but she kept putting off returning home. She didn’t want to house hunt back in New York, she didn’t want to be identified with a scandal, she didn’t want to see any family. So they began living in London. When Eve is nine years old, Linda would decide to go to South Africa. Eve experienced cities such as Durban, Ghana, Cape Town. While Linda was really in Africa to become more connected to her ancestors, all and all, she thought the experience would be good for Eve. Her baby girl could have a lot of memories of different buildings, landscapes, cultures. And, this exposure did make Eve happy, however, she had no stable school life or friendships. So on a social level, Eve was miserable. She also tried having pen pals, but that only worked for so long before both parties ceased writing one another.  Eve did feel at home when she was in New York with her extended family during holidays like Christmas. Eve’s maternal grandparents wanted her to live with them, but her mother refused it. Eve has a vivid memory seated in the back of a taxi, crying because she didn’t want to go to the airport. And as for Linda - well, she would never notice this, but whenever she was deeply distressed, her mental desire was to just keep moving.
When Eve was fifteen years old, her mother fell in love with a highly esteemed professor from the University of Cape Town. This would be her mother’s third significant relationship. They all began living together and he begins an inappropriate relationship with Eve. It’s all an act of grooming that Eve isn’t aware of. Linda catches on to it and calls out her boyfriend for his behavior. However, he is offended by the accusations. He moves out, but he still contacts Eve through phone calls and  even picks her up from school at one point without her mother’s consent. Eve remembers her mother always asking her questions, ‘did he touch you?’ ‘What did he do to you?’ Eve was overwhelmed, as she felt her mother didn’t believe her. It caused Eve to give her the silent treatment, which in turn caused Linda to decide to move again. This time, they would leave Africa to live in Europe - France, specifically.
In France, the two moved twice. First to Paris then to Lyon. Eve liked Lyon more than Paris, but was much too stubborn to admit it. Part of Eve was worried that if she was open about her love, then her mother would want to move somewhere else. She attended college with a focus on art conservation. Ultimately, she did not fully complete her apprenticeship because she would meet Alexandre DuBois, a con artist she fell in love with.
He did not expose his true nature to her at first, but she began questioning the source of the jewelry he was continuously giving her. When she reached the conclusion that he was a criminal of some sort, Alexandre kept insisting that it wasn’t as much of an issue that she was making it out to be. To prove this he wanted Eve to come with him to a job wanting Eve to participate as well. Eve declined, she wasn’t trying to get in any legal trouble. However, Alexandre said he didn’t like boring women. Offended, she agreed.  He slicked down his hair so it could appear straight. Wore his best suit. Meanwhile, he instructed Eve to dress as though she was going to attend the most extravagant party. When they stood side by side, Alexandre was looking like a wealthy white man with a young, black mistress. The trick, Alexandre told her, was to always act as though you belong. For days Eve waited for consequences. For the police to knock at her door. Something. It didn’t happen. She told herself never again, but she got addicted to stealing with Alexandre, as it became an adrenaline rush.
Eventually, Eve and Alexandre were apprehended by law enforcement. Linda bailed Eve out and told her that if she was not going to continue reaching for her career goals then she would send her to America. Eve would fight back, insisting that she was an adult, so she doesn’t have to go to America just because she said so. Linda then has enough and states that since Eve is a young adult, she can live with Alexandre.  The relationship that would progress between Eve and Alexandre was not without its faults. Even when Eve moved in with him, Alexandre was cheating on her discreetly. He had his alternate hookups and one-night stands, with Eve simply being his main girlfriend. When women smugly confronted Eve of how Alexandre was nothing but a womanizer and she was his latest victim, she fought for the sheer integrity of his name. Behind closed doors, when Eve confronted Alexandre about his inability to be monogamous: he blackened her eye.
The relationship comes to an end when Alexandre gains access to an elite party. During their fumbled job, they would be acknowledged by someone who would be very influential in Eve’s future, Gisella Agostini of the Corsican Mafia. The two would leave the scene in shame, fiercely arguing in the car about who messed up. Eve brings up how he’s a liar and manipulator, only for Alexandre  to rip the pearls from her neck and kick her out his car. She had to find her way back to safety in the dark of the night.
While Alexandre and Eve are separated, the Agostini family does research on the two. They see that Alexandre has a long history of theft, and even a previous murder charge, while Eve just seems to be a college student who got caught up in the thrill of crime. First, Alexandre is snatched off the street by Agostini goons. In what he deemed as an act of self-preservation, he sells Eve out, claiming it was her idea.
When Eve is abducted by the crime family, Gisella confronts her directly. The old woman states that she could fix everything and spare her from her ‘husband’s wrath.’ But the truth is, Gisella’s husband doesn’t do anything in the crime family any longer due to his age and illnesses, but Gisella uses him as a ‘front’ to reign.  Eve ends up working for the crime family,  and in little moments, she ever so gradually speculates she is in the midst of a female mob boss. As the months go along, Eve’s mother wants to make amends but Eve doesn’t want her mother to know she is now gang-affiliated. Eve is very afraid for her life. This leads to more mother-daughter tension due to the lack of communication.  
As the years pass on, Gisella is progressively attached to Eve. This is reflective of how she has her own passion for the world and the diverse people who live in it (especially those of the African diaspora.) In turn, Eve initially grows to feel like she’s a part of some sort of stable family. Ultimately, their relationship gradually becomes overbearing and toxic. Eve is literally feeling like she’s owned and controlled by an old white woman. Therefore, Eve distances herself from dealing with Gisella personally because it was too much. However, Eve continued working for the crime family in regards to assassinations and heists, but she was not eating at Gisella’s home for dinner or talking over tea. Eve decides to make amends with Gisella by the time she is 31. Little did she know, the woman was on her death bed at this point. They were kind to one another and Gisella lets Eve know she can do whatever she wants now. Later that week, the old woman would die. While Gisella’s death comes as a shock - Eve was also feeling relieved. Afterward, Eve has mild conflict with Gisella’s nephew who feels like she should not be leaving the crime family, but Eve insists Gisella harbored no ill will towards her and wanted her to do whatever she wanted. So, she’s leaving.
Eve relocates to New York to begin a new, stable life. It’s what she wants. It’s what she needs. Or so she thinks. She thought New York would have her feel at home and content as it did when she was a child, but she didn't feel this way at all. She felt like a stranger among her family, like a guest or something.  Eve proceeds to sell the art she makes for a living and gains recognition from it. Admittedly, she’s bored with a quiet life. It is entering a relationship with Salvatore Scozzari that sparks her passion for crime, although he would much rather her marry him and live a quiet but glamorous life. But in the end? Eve can’t do it. Breaking up with Sal by claiming she’ll be working at a gallery in California, she travels to another state. Her life as a thief starting up a second time.
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Alright, so this is a bit later than I intended, but real life is a pain sometimes. And for those who missed the last post, that’s mostly on me for posting it at midnight, so you might want to go back and check for that - it covers the whole convo between Toshinori and Izuku on the rooftop!
But yeah, this is the final stretch, all the rest of chapter 1, so let’s hop right into it because it’s gonna be a ride.
[No. 1 - Midoriya Izuku: Origin]
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Lookit that firebreath (I know it’s not shh). Also, again with the weird lack of crowds / people around in what should have at least a few stragglers. I get that drawing crowds / background masses is annoying, but in a wideview scene like this it’s unnerving. Japan is a high-population-density country, so… uh...
Izuku stares forlornly at his notebook, thinking about all the things people have told him over the past half chapter I mean day about being realistic and thinking seriously about his future. Izuku turns the book so the title faces away from him and starts tearing up, rubbing them away while he chastises himself for crying when he already knew he was being unrealistic, and that his knowing was what had driven him so hard to not see reality.
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Overhead sign: 田 (den/ta) 等 (tou) 院 (in) 商店 (shouten) [business] 街 (machi) [boulevard, street]
Store sign: (コ)ネストアー (konesutoaa) [cornerstore]
Well, there’s the crowds, though still not able to account for all that empty street. We also see that Izuku has managed to wander his way to another hero fight despite not even really paying attention, and even though he tells himself he’s going to make himself feel bad for watching, he still heads over to join the crowds. 
He snaps out of his funk when he sees the villain, asking himself how they got away, then realizes he must have made All Might drop it, which means it’s his fault (which kid, honestly, considering he just left those bottles in open flap pockets instead of holding them firmly in his hands, you are not the one to blame.) Also, he utters the ‘this is my fault’ out loud, but the people in front of him obviously don’t hear, distracted as they are with the reason the heroes are just standing around - which is the middle schooler the villain has.
Izuku has a brief flashback to when he was being violated by the villain, and is horrified that someone else is going through the same pain. We get a brief panover of the crowd:
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Izuku and Toshinori are like, only fifteen feet apart here, and have the same reaction to the crowd’s commentary. Incredible. We zoom back in to Izuku, who is blaming himself for All Might not being able to do anything. He mentally echoes the same words as the heroes, that someone with the right quirk needs to show up to help catch the guy. He internally tells the captured person to hang in and apologies, saying someone will save him soon.
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God I love this spread. This is everything about Izuku right here. You can actually see where Izuku shoved himself through the crowd in order to sprint forward, and you can also see the genuine fear in Katsuki’s eyes in that moment where he and Izuku locked gazes. Also I checked, he sprinted right past three pro heroes, with none of them reacting in time. Incredible.
Toshinori and said heroes all freak out, and Izuku’s panicking right along with them but is still rushing forward despite that. Death Arms and the bird-helmet hero both yell at Izuku to get back, but don’t actually go after him. The sludge villain and Katsuki both react as well, recognizing Izuku.
Izuku’s notebook hits the ground spine first, and we flash over to Izuku wondering what the hell he’s doing. The sludge villain moves to try and hit Izuku when he gets close enough, while Izuku pulls off his backpack and continues to panic-think over what to do… with the book just so happening to open to the page he ends up thinking about, on Kamui Wood’s signature attack from the beginning of the chapter. 
He throws his backpack right at the sludge, all the stuff in it flying out as extra ammunition for the villain’s face to dodge, and while distracted, Izuku ducks underneath the strike and calls for Kacchan. Fortunately, the sludge has been forced to pull away from Katsuki’s mouth, allowing him to take a breath before demanding “You? Why?!” 
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Remember this for (checks watch) 284 chapters from now. Also fuck, I just realized, remember this?
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'a pro should always be ready to risk his life'
'the reason I smile is to stave off the overwhelming pressure and fear I feel'
'a symbol of peace who saves people with a smile must never be daunted by evil'
Izuku took those words to heart as well, and is already reflecting them only moments after his dreams were crushed. And you can tell in the next panel that Toshinori heard those words and was slammed right to the core because of it, because he knows that kind of drive, that sort of spirit.
We see the villain going back to suffocating Katsuki, while telling Izuku to stop it. Toshinori calls himself pathetic again while powering up, and the villain tells Izuku to stop getting in his way, that it’s only a bit longer, and moves to smash Izuku out of the way. Inside the sludge, we can see Katsuki close to passing out. The other heroes finally dash forward to try to get him out of there in time, only for someone else to latch onto the arms of both kids instead.
That someone, of course, being All Might, still steaming from going into his hero form. He tells Izuku that he (All Might) should ‘practice what he preaches’ and reiterates that a pro should always be ready to risk his life (while blood seeps from his teeth). 
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I’m blown away by Horikoshi’s art in this, and this is where he started. God, just thinking of current manga events and the art there… this man needs to be stopped, he’s too powerful, I am going to cry doing comparisons and I don’t even have a clue about any fancy art terminology or the like, all I can do is stand back and be awed.
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Izuku has had a rough day.
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And here we see the force of the blow, which somehow didn’t blow away the crowds or damage the windows of all the buildings of the surrounding blocks. Jesus fucking christ. And then the remnants of the blow head upward, causing it to start raining because of the rising air current from that one punch. 
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How was all that shit not blown away????? A mystery to everyone. Also, Katsuki and Izuku are both passed out on the ground while the crowd and media go fucking wild over what All Might just did. All Might turns to keep an eye on the two while also wobbling slightly, the pressure of holding this form past his limits.
After that, we go back to narration from Izuku, talking and showing the cleanup efforts and the villain in two garbage bags (as he deserves). The heroes chastise Izuku for putting himself in danger (I want to note that this has nothing to do with his quirklessness as far as the scene portrays), while Katsuki gets praised for being tough and having a good quirk, and gets an offer to sidekick. Katsuki isn’t listening or just plain doesn’t care, too busy glaring… or not really? At Izuku.
We get a short scenery panel, I guess to suggest the passage of time, and then we see Izuku putting his backpack back on, thinking moodily about wanting to apologize to All Might but not being able to, so he’s planning on leaving a message on the hero’s website. Katsuki calls Izuku out, and takes a shaky moment before snapping at him, saying he didn’t need Izuku to save him, that he could have handled it himself, that he doesn’t want a quirkless kid’s pity, and that he’s not gonna get won over just with this and to stop mocking him. He then spins on his heels and stomps off with a last ‘stupid nerd’, while Izuku thinks Katuski’s a tough guy. He still agrees with Katsuki, though - he didn’t do anything, he didn’t change anything, but he’s still happy, and now he can focus on a realistic future.
And then All Might zooms into view, scaring the hell out of Izuku. Izuku asks why he’s there when he was surrounded by reporters, and All Might says it wasn’t hard to shake them off, considering who he is- before he hacks up blood and deflates into Toshinori. Toshinori continues on more calmly, saying he’s there to thank Izuku and revise his earlier statement, as well as offer a proposal. 
He starts off on how, without Izuku’s story, he would have been nothing but ‘fake muscles and insincerity’, and thanks Izuku. (Izuku quietly muttering ‘fake muscles?’ here makes me cackle, because honestly, same.) Izuku tries to refute it, saying it was his fault from the beginning, getting in All Might’s way and daring to ask if he could be a hero despite his quirklessness- only for Toshinori to cut in and say that that was exactly it - out of everyone there, it was only the timid, quirkless kid who acted, and in so spurred him to action.
He goes on to talk about how the top heroes show signs of greatness as children, how many of them claim that their bodies moved before they could think. Izuku is shaking and clutching at his heart, hunching over and tearing up as he recalls his mother’s words, her apology to him. Toshinori continues, asking if that was what happened to Izuku, who replies with a yes while crying. He thinks about what he’d wanted his mom to say back then, and so we cut to the end of the chapter:
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God, what a fucking great first chapter. I can’t think of another series I’ve read that hooks me in so well right from the start like this. 
Also wait, holy shit, the anime LIED to us.
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‘The story of how I became a great hero’, not ‘how I became the greatest hero’. There’s a massive distinction in there between the two, and Izuku’s character leans WAY more towards the manga phrasing over the anime phasing. He’d never consider himself the greatest, those would always go to All Might and likely Katsuki first, and then probably his other classmates and friends as well. He’d be happy to be among the greats, but he’d never consider himself on top of them all. 
...huh, that’s the end, besides the one character panel that I’m gonna throw in a separate post. I fucking love this project so much, and I really wanna see what else the manga has to offer that the anime has lied to me about. This section went by a bit faster than expected, but I suppose that’s what comes from almost all of it being action, so. Thanks for sticking around so far, and let’s see what’s to come in chapter 2 together! :D
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I hope I'm not being too awkward when I ask (and feel free to ignore this): if you had full creative control of the show, how would you run season 5? You can pick and choose whatever leaks you want to include.
Not awkward at all! Thank you for the ask, @arsenicpanda! This was quite unexpected in the best of ways!
It took me a while to come up with an answer, because as much as I like to speculate, my experience of Riverdale has always been that of the passive viewer: I consume the show as is. I watch. I applaud or I whine. There’s usually quite a bit of eye rolling. I also read A LOT of fanfiction. The latter experience serves different purposes than watching the show and none of those purposes are a canon fix-it. In terms of TV-watching, the product is what it is and I watch it purely for entertainment and relaxation. I do not engage creatively with Riverdale, although I’m both critical of the show and VERY appreciative of the incredible creators in our fandom. So what would I do in season 5?? I’ll try to combine some of the things I’d like to see with some of the things I think we’ll get. Here goes nothing!
1. Wouldn’t it be nice if, for once, a member of the Coopers weren’t after Betty? Yes, I’m talking to you Chick 2.0 Charles. However, I absolutely love @sullypants’ hypnotism theory, which explains all the unpleasantness of 4x17-4x18, while being bonkers enough to be perfectly plausible for Riverdale. Canon accepted!
2. My head canon is that Jughead and Betty do not break up before, during or after college. Even if actual long distance (not the 15’ Stonewall Express variety one) puts a strain on their relationship, seven years is a long time not to work through their issues, especially if bughead is supposed to be endgame (the same, incidentally, applies to post-time barchie). However, I’ll go with the break up for this one.
3. Jughead publishes his book. It’s about Stonewall and it’s called Stone-cold. That’s peak canon!writer!Jughead right there. Bret reads Jughead’s book and writes explicit fanfiction about it in prison.
4. Jughead does have writer’s block but he is not an alcoholic. WTF, Riverdale? He’s also in debt because he has to pay student loans and has used the advance money for his second book to foot JB’s college tuition. Realistically, Betty should be in greater debt (4 years in Yale cost like 300k?!), but for some reason she’s not.
5. Polly and the twin tweens move in casa Cooper-Jones. Jellybean moves out the next day. I’m afraid we won’t hear of her again, because Trinity Likins is too young. WTF: I googled her and she’s 18?! Revision: JB never moves out and has a lot of scenes with Jughead and Betty. We never hear of FP again. He’s probably gone to the place Sierra McCoy is. 
6. Hiram has one of the main storylines. Veronica guest stars. Hermione has had enough and joins FP and Sierra.
7. Betty goes back to Riverdale when Alice calls with news of Polly’s disappearance, then asks the FBI to create a post for her there. Archie, also back in Riverdale, wants to helpTM Betty. He goes behind her back and convinces Betty’s supervisor to be her partner while in Riverdale. For some reason, they have to fake date. Betty is furious. While on a “date” at Pop’s, Jughead comes in. He’s investigating Pop Tate’s disappearance. Archie is all about selling the fake dating. Betty is not. Jughead is … not sure about things. Veronica and her s1xep1 black cape make an appearance. Core four engage in 10 minutes of uninterrupted cringe.
8. Archie’s earnestTM interventions distract Betty from figuring out things or put her in danger. Betty Cooper seethes at the mere mention of Archie’s name. Archie is oblivious to the bughead UST and tries to interact as much as possible with his old pall Jughead. Jughead does not appreciate. Veronica catches up with what’s really going on one episode in. B and V become best friends again because the show is already juggling 10 different plots at once and ain’t nobody has time for characterisation and shit. Ronnie sees Archie’s glistening abs and charity work and remembers that Chad hasn’t hit the gym for 6 months and is also a very shifty businessman who works with daddykins.
9. At this point I would greatly appreciate it if feminist!icon!Veronica gets a storyline that passes the Bechdel test even for 1 episode. Unfortunately I doubt it. Her vendetta with Hiram has lasted so long, that I literally have no idea what would constitute a good storyline for her?
10. Betty gets shot (we’re overdue one of the girls having a near-death moment). Preferably trying to protect Jughead. Preferably Archie is there too but she doesn’t give a shit, as Jughead is always her only choice. Preferably it’s Archie’s fault they’re in this situation in the first place. But it’s ok, because his heart was in the right place (i.e. on the left side of his sternum). Give me the killer telling Betty she has to decide whom to save. Give me slow motion Betty tackling Jughead. I’d like Archie to chase the killer (who escapes) while Jughead tries to tend to Betty’s wound while calling an ambulance. Director’s note: bloody hands are slippery on the i-phone screen. Preferably nervous over-talkative Archie vs mute Jughead in the hospital. Veronica consoles Archie, because her independent storyline was wrapped up in the previous episode. Give me Jughead crying while hugging Betty Cooper’s clothes in her closet. Archie finally admits he and Betty are not dating and that she can’t stand him.
11. Betty gets a scar but otherwise heals admirably. In fact she’s out of bed chasing the Mothman down the Lonely Highway by the next episode.  
12. Other things happen, involving other characters. I don’t know. I’d really like to see Reggie in an odd friendship/partnership with Jughead (unfortunately doubtful). Also: if Cheryl isn’t Dr Curdle Jr’s successor what is even the point?
Note: Ever since reading this incredible fic by @darknessaroundus, I desperately want bughead’s final scene in the show to be Betty and Jughead breaking and entering with their baby in a sling.
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a9saga · 4 years ago
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I wanna make one thing clear. Nobody killed Jenny Schecter. Nobody. Not even herself.
The L Word was the most sloppily written, most lazily dramatic show, and it never cleaned up any of its undeveloped sub plots that they began once and then suddenly dropped entirely and pretended never happened. I swear to God the writers must have never revised a damn script. And this wasn't the type of thing that you only noticed if you're really hypercritical of shows you watch. Very little in the show happens subtextually. It's not a subtle show. Its on fricking Showtime.
Jenny herself over the course of seasons is an example of how the show would just create drama without reason. In season one she and her boyfriend just moved into west Hollywood next door to a couple of lesbians and through one experience with Marina at a party hosted by some of the neighborhood lesbians, she begins to understand she is really intensely drawn to this woman and her boyfriend is at this point still seemingly necessary to her new life, but he doesn't hold up to her interest in this woman no matter how guilty she feels. This makes sense as a plot point. This is how you begin a show about a bunch of lesbians in proximity to one another. The new girl in the neighborhood wants to ditch her fiance for a woman she just met. And after all this Marina stuff subsides eventually, Jenny is a decently developed character. She has flaws and good traits alike. She's messy but she's passionate. She's a drama queen but she cares about people. For instance, Max? Jenny is the main support system for Max in his transition at first, she's really like the only one enthusiastic for him about the whole thing besides that Scottish guy who does drugs in Kit's restaurant and has a couple of otherwise completely unacknowledged sex scenes with Max that dont develop into anything else and don't matter in the future to the show at all. Again. It's a Showtime show. You get the quality you should expect.
And Max is another great example of a sub plot the writers lose interest in! He's a priority to the show for basically just that one season. Honestly they treat Max like shit and lose all interest in him until they get him pregnant in the last season and even then he's only in like every other episode for a few minutes. That was mean. And so was Jenny. Jenny has like, anti-character development throughout the show which is not normal for writers to do to a protagonist. She goes from Jenny Schecter, aspiring writer and newly out lesbian in a new neighborhood to Jenny Schecter, two faced bitch with princess syndrome. They just start writing her in being obviously mean and wrong. And when Max gets pregnant suddenly she's misgendering him on purpose left and right and to my memory maybe the shittiest person to him about his pregnancy? Except of course for Tom, Jodi's interpreter and the guy who got him pregnant who was all on board for parenting the baby until for no reason he gets up in the middle of the night and leaves Max's room and never comes back. Oh and immediately changes his phone numbers apparently, and I guess cuts off contact with everyone on the show or something. That was also just a sudden, uselessly dramatic thing the show threw in that you didn't want it to, that was not justified other than to fuck over a character in a vulnerable situation, and which isn't even in character of the guy who did the thing.
But anyway. This is all to say that no member of the main cast killed Jenny Schecter. You know why? Because the writers are too fucking lazy and careless to make you want to point the finger at anyone, again, including Jenny herself. They don't give you one particularly good reason why anybody might've done it or how they were possibly tied to it. They don't give you reason to think anybody is more likely to have killed her than someone else. They give you nothing to work with in your mind's eye besides your ability to understand who in the main cast hated Jenny the most already. Jenny up and died for no reason because you aren't properly made to raise an eyebrow at her death. Jenny's death is another undeveloped subplot that the show isn't interested in seriously developing, except it is meant as the dramatic series finale to leave you at the edge of your seat so they want you to think it's *mysterious* except that's actually just a recurring fault of the show. Half assed undeveloped melodramatic subplots that get dropped and written out well before your mind forgets them. Don't let them trick you into thinking this was clever of the writers. It's not. It's so consistent with the headache inducing and lazy writing of the show it's absurd. Nobody killed Jenny Schecter. Mark never recorded Shane and Jenny in their own home. Papi was never falling in love with Kit. Etc etc. Ultimately none of this shit happened because they were unfinished and dropped entirely, and the whole murder mystery of Jenny's death ended up being less important than everyone being interrogated by police and explaining their personal history in the show like it's fascinating when weighed against this sudden death. Alice sighing and explaining "the only person I ever loved as much as Tasha... was Dana 😔" is just the investigation being a substitute for therapy. The murder mystery is an afterthought to the cast's final reflection on their relationships to each other just to stick in your mind after the show ends the way the writers want them to. And then they're like. Oh no but who killed Jenny? Nobody. God killed Jenny. Big Bird killed Jenny. The old rescue dog Jenny adopted to put down and then seduce the vet she took him to came back to life and killed Jenny. I killed Jenny. Your mom killed Jenny. The Joker killed Jenny. No one in the main cast killed Jenny. The writers just want you to think they did enough to make you think one of them did. They didn't.
Now that we've established the absurdity of the l word, why did I watch the entire show? Because I was a senior in high and a newly realized lesbian of course. That was more than 4 years ago now. I finished just before Showtime announced they would be bringing it back. I haven't watched generation q so I can't tell you anything about that. But my confliction for the original show as well as my really weird and intense love for Shane are both documented on this blog. I can't believe watching the l word in senior year and falling way too deeply and all-encompassingly in love with Shane is not a universal or even common experience. What were you guys doing senior year? Haven't you watched the l word?
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luninosity · 4 years ago
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fanfic writers tag game!
I was tagged by the marvelous @musette22 for this lovely fanfiction tag game that was devised by the clearly very brilliant @thewaythatwerust, to discuss some of the fics I’ve written over time! Thanks so much! 💖
Let’s see, I shall tag... @thebestpersonherelovesbucky @turtletotem @gerec @whtaft and @ninemoons42 <3
Which of your fics…
* Did you think would get a bigger reaction/audience than it got:
Ah, a tricky one! I feel like I never really have expectations - I just write words because I can’t not! But maybe lines of light, which was my Steve/Bucky Fake Character Death Trope fic - it’s sort of a weird little fic, but I wanted more of that trope, but maybe that’s just me!
* Got a better reaction than you expected:
Oh, goodness - just about all of them! I remember being so shy and so nervous to share any of my writing, years ago, and now I write things that people seem to like...I think probably never mind the why and wherefore surprised me most, though! That’s my TJ Hammond/Johnny Storm fic, and when I started writing it mine was literally the third fic on AO3 for that pairing, and for that small a fandom, I’ve just been amazed.
Also, of course: I’m constantly amazed by how much people love Like Sugar! It was the biggest thing I’d ever tried to write, and it made me a better writer along the way, and I suspect it’s the Evanstan fic/series people might remember most, from my fics? (Also also, if original-fic-inspired-by-an-Evanstan-drabble counts: the love for Character Bleed has been overwhelming!)
* Is your funniest:
...am I funny? I don’t know! *waves hands about* I feel like I never set out to “write something funny,” but then again I like terrible puns and wordplay, so there’re probably funny lines in most fics? I hope?
Honestly maybe every inch of north and south, which has the Chris-turned-into-a-puppy plot, or Now That I’ve Found You, Stay, because giant patriotic dildos, or some of the banter in just a couple lovebirds, because I love Chris and Seb in that one. Or some of Bucky’s pulp fiction stories in tales to astonish. Or all the TERRIBLE autumn-related puns in the current Evanstan fic, A Place Not Far Away!
Or we could go REAL old-school and pull out the McFassy semi-crack fic in which James gets magically cursed to turn into a kitten. There’s that.
* Is your darkest/angstiest:
Ahahahaha. Um. *stares in Characters Having Emotions*
Okay, okay, um... Aside from certain specific chapters of Like Sugar and Amateur Cartography, it’s either The Tones That Tremble Down Your Spine (Bucky needs all the softness, after this! of course so does Steve...) (sometimes I think about adding a chapter, because it ends a little abruptly, but I also wanted it to - not everything’s 100% resolved, but it’s clearly on a healing trajectory!) ...
...or, over in Cherik-land, I hope we rise to the occasion, which does have a hopeful ending but is painful, or the balancing act stories (also Cherik) which were...personal in many ways (also originally written over on Livejournal, because I’m old).
* Is your absolute favourite:
Impossible! *laughs* It’s always the current story I’m (actively) writing. Which at the moment is the Evanstan autumn fluff-with-porn A Place Not Far Away. I don’t know if it’s my favorite-favorite, but it’s nice to get back to Evanstan and I love fall.
* Is your least favourite:
Also impossible! There’re things I love about all my stories. If I have to...maybe It’s Time To Bring This Ship Into The Shore, mostly because Michael’s such a dick to James for a lot of it. Which is also true in Loving Days (why was that a plot point in a few of my McFassy fics?) but I think I did a better job with his redemption in that one, and showing how much he changed and tried harder. And with Ship & Shore I wasn’t super-knowledgeable about the soul-bond trope (it was a request-fic) so I never felt quite sure I’d done it well enough!
* Was the easiest to write:
Amusingly, considering how epic and glorious and long the whole series became, I’d say Like O, Like H - the first Like Sugar Evanstan story. It just flowed. It knew what it wanted to be, and I tried to keep up. (Lovebirds was also one of those, as was the TJ/Johnny fic, never mind the why and wherefore.)
* Was the hardest to write:
the sound of rain on tin. It’s been the fic I’ve had the hardest time with ever. It’s my own fault for trying to do too much in terms of plot - sort of AU, an Evanstan-Stucky crossover, Lovecraftian elements - and then starting to post before I had it all properly sorted. I do know how it ends in general terms, I promise! but resolving plot/action has never been one of my strengths, and we’ve hit the point where I actually have to figure out How To Fix The Magic Portal-Thing, and I don’t feel like I’ve got it worked out well enough.
I mean if you all just want me to write the emotional Sebastian talking to Steve Rogers (and maybe a little curious kissing) and Chris talking to Bucky, and then *poof* suddenly Seb and Bucky are back in their respective universes and we get Emotional Reconciliation Scenes and Love Confessions, that part’s easy. I’ve had stray bits of those scenes done for years.
* Have you re-read the most:
Like Sugar, in part for continuity as I worked on later stories and in part because I’m really kind of proud of it.
* Would you recommend to someone reading your work for the first time:
Depends on what genres they like! I’m probably best known for - if anything - Like Sugar, and I think it’s pretty representative of my writing in terms of loving tender kink-with-emotions! But the person would have to not mind Evanstan RPF and soft Dom/sub kink and arranged (sort of) marriage tropes.
Other than that, for Evanstan, maybe Sweet Disposition (the third version of the clothes-sharing fic!); or (baby won’t you please), which is the Chris And Seb Go To A Sex Club For Research For a Role fic, or tempt me, tease me, which is...Sebastian leaves an unsatisfactory date with someone else (brief and random) to go pick Chris up from a bar, and then there’re lots of revelations about Feelings, and also porn-with-emotions. Those last two ‘feel’ similar in my head for some reason - mood, maybe, or story arcs about revelation and discovery.
...for Stucky, maybe when and where our eyes meet (Bucky falling asleep! soft blankets!)...or tales to astonish, because it’s such fun!
...if you want to go a bit older, I have weird affection for my first-ever Cherik fic, Know That It’s True, which is a Cerebro hurt/comfort fic, and then I love the slow development of the McFassy in No Wonder, No Wonder, which I occasionally still think about trying to revise as original, but it’s so character-driven that it’d be hard, but I love the feel of it, the hints of magic and the setting...
* Are you most proud of:
Like Sugar! At the time it was the biggest story I’d ever tried to write, both in terms of length and in terms of world-building and planning and characters growing closer together. Character Bleed got more complicated in terms of needing multiple outlines and plot, eventually, but I couldn’t’ve done that if I hadn’t done Like Sugar first.
* Has your favourite line/exchange/paragraph (share it):
Too hard to pick! There are so many! 
I sometimes say it’s this one, from tempt me, tease me, though not always:
“If you’d like,” Sebastian offers, “we can even tell them I borrowed your key and lost it, if you don’t mind asserting small untruths to hotel personnel.” Big blue half-plastered Captain America eyes stare at him some more. “…Chris?” “You…” One hand waves, a partial gesture, pulled back at the last second. As if Chris has meant to reach out, and thought better of that. “You really would? You wouldn’t, y’know, mind?” Sebastian half-smiles. Thinks of cars with broken-glass windows in Romanian capital-city streets, thinks of students waving flags and cheering with feral glee, thinks of saucer-eyed childhood memories and songs of revolutionary fervor and desperate upheavals of optimism like birthing-pains. Chris Evans is beautiful and genuine and real, and Sebastian would do far worse things, would splinter his body and perjure his soul, to give Chris one more day in which to eat pizza and laugh and clap friends on the shoulder with a broad happy hand. “No,” he says, “I wouldn’t mind.”
Or, from the WIP - the next chapter of A Place Not Far Away - because my favorite is often what I’m currently working on, there’s this! Enjoy? <3
They both watch Sebastian for a second; he’s nodding, jotting down a quote, hair bouncing with the motion. His fingers are quick and tanned, gathering notes; his jacket’s casually open, and dirt’s left a scuff on his right boot.
 He’s a New York City reporter in a black leather jacket and a stylish sweater, but he’s also a reporter who doesn’t mind getting dirty and will run through a corn maze and helped set out signs the first day Chris ever met him.
 Carly pats Chris’s shoulder, says, “Enjoy yourself,” and heads off to supervise some historical blacksmith demonstrations. The sky shimmers in clouds and satin and magic and unfallen rain.
 Sebastian bounces back over. “That’ll be fantastic, she was so excited, she’s already thinking about next year, which is so perfect for a pull quote, and it’ll get people thinking ahead about coming here then!”
 Would you come back, Chris doesn’t say. Would you come back next year, next month, next week, even if your story’s done? Would you stay and not leave?
 He can’t ask that. This is Sebastian’s job.
 He says, “That’s awesome. You want lunch?”
 “Absolutely. I haven’t eaten my way through your menu yet. Recommendations?”
 “Classic Oktoberfest? The whole German sausage, potato, onion thing? That one’s popular. And, um, baked apples. In maple cream sauce.” Food. He can talk about food. Promoting their menu. Not getting down on both knees and promising to bring home every pumpkin Sebastian likes, if that’ll make those happy eyes stay at his side.
 “Sounds good.” Sebastian’s eyebrows go up, beckoning Chris into the joke. “And I do like sausage.”
 “I like your sausage,” Chris tells him, and Sebastian’s laugh is a splash of sunshine through clouds and cold and tree-branches that stretch to the sky.
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