#and all the memories of tumblr ask blogs came flooding back

[hwljpg]

was anyone else very totally normal ab these two back in like 2013

[shiftingparadise]

hiiii! i missed it here in tumblr, i was gone for months because of uni things, and i missed your blog and your fics sm! :(( and since aot: bad boy was revealed, can i please request a levi fic? where reader was one of levi’s friends from the underground? but they’re not the closest? like they’ve always been a little awkward with each other? almost like they only hang out because they have mutual friends? but then isabelle and farlan died, so they’re forced to be around each other but now without the other two supporting the conversation so it’s all painfully, hilariously awkward ! ofc, this is a no pressure request as always <3 have a great day!!

So, I'm not very good at funny story or jokes but I tried to stick as close to your request as possible and I really liked writing it, so thank you for this beautiful request and for your patience 🤍✨

Warnings: none

Word count: 1466

“Right, I’m going to the bathroom. Be right back”, Farlan let out a tired grunt before he stood up. “Okay”, you mumbled as you crossed your arms, your head resting against the wall behind you. 

Why? Why was it always so painfully awkward when you were left alone with him? You two known each other for years by now and yet … 

Your train of thought got interrupted by Levi slurping his tea. “Nice tea?”, you awkwardly asked, almost immediately regretting it. “Tsk”, Levi’s eyes glided to yours. There was an annoyed expression on his face, like usual. You cleared your throat in response. Anything was better than this silence. “Sick?”, his voice teared through the dense atmosphere. “Huh?”, your brows pulled together. “Your voice… You sound sick”. “Wow, thanks”, you narrowed your eyes. 

You didn’t know back then. That he meant to show you he cared. 

“Levi! Y/N!”, Isabelle’s cheerful voice greeted your ears. “Isabelle”, you happily smiled back as relieve flooded over you. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, more dreadful than being alone with Levi. Not because you didn’t like him, but you two just never got as close. “Isabelle, finally!”, Farlan brushed through his hair, “We’ve been waiting for you”. “Yeah, I’m starving”, you pouted. “Everyone’s always starving in this hell”, Levi coldly added. “Oh, come now Levi”, Farlan smiled, “It’s not that bad as long as we have each other”. Levi didn’t respond, instead a small and obviously uncontrollable smile appeared on his face. “Here’s the bread”, Isabelle threw a bag on the table. “H-huh?’, you frowned as everything washed away before your eyes. As if you were looking at a wet painting. 

‘Wake up”. “Y/N, wake up”. 

That voice… 

“Wake up”. 

“H-huh?”, you slowly opened your eyes. “It’s almost 10 AM, we got to get going”, Levi coldly replied. “W-where-“. “We’re leaving today for another mission”, Levi frowned. “Right, sorry”, you immediately sat up straight. “I’ll be down in five”, you softly responded before getting out of bed. “What were you dreaming about anyway?”, his crescent shaped eyes coldly staring into your tired ones. “Nothing”, you lied. “Nothing, huh?”, his hand resting on the door. “Then why’s there a tear on your cheek?”. 

A tear? 

“There isn’t”, you quickly wiped it away. 

Right. It wasn’t a dream. It was a memory. It was the last time you were all together in the Underground. The four of you. Before Farlan and Isabelle… 

“Wait”, you shook your head. “What the hell are you doing in my room, Levi?”, you raised your voice. “Someone, I mean I saw-“, Levi struggled to put out a sentence. “What?”. “Erwin asked”, Levi pinched the spots between his eyebrows. “Erwin asked where you were, so I came to check up on you. Thought you were dead at first-“. “Dead?”, you widened your eyes. “Yeah, found you with your mouth open, you looked pale and-“. 

Ah, yes. You could see it in his eyes. The moment he realized he was almost insulting you. 

“N-no, not that you look bad, just sick-“, he widened his eyes. “Wait, not necessarily sick-“. 

Levi wasn’t normally like this, but you were the only one that was left. The only one he could rely on.

“Right”, you turned your head. “See you in five, Levi”. And just like that, he left without saying another word. 

---

Levi looked at you from the corner of his eyes. You were both sitting outside, sipping from your tea. It was awkward, like usual. The two of you never seemed to get too comfortable around each other. You grabbed your cup and brought it to your lips, sipping. You cleared your throat, trying to make the silence a little less awkward. “Weather’s been nice lately, hasn’t it?”, he awkwardly looked at the sky as there was once again a painful expression on his face. “Yeah”, you stared into the distance, “No rain, right?”. “Right”. 

God, you really hated this. 

“Levi, Y/N”, Erwin’s stern voice came from behind you two. 

You noticed that Levi relaxed his shoulders, as if he was happy to see someone else. 

“Hm”, you coldly looked at him, “What do you want?”. 

You still weren’t too happy about being forced into the corps. After all, you blamed him for their deaths. You noticed Levi had started to warm up to him. You noticed their late-night talks, the way Levi’s eyes lightened up a bit when he talked to the Commander, Hange… Something you couldn’t understand. 

“I was wondering if I could join you two”, a kind smile on the blonde’s face. “Hange’s studying again, and the cadets are already in their rooms, so-“. “Whatever”, you rolled your eyes, “It’s not like we have an actual choice”. 

Complete silence. 

“Did you try my tea yet?”, Levi was the first to speak. “Yes”, Erwin smiled again, “It was delicious”. 

So, he could talk to the person who was responsible for the deaths of your closest comrades, but he barely managed to form a sentence when he was alone with you. 

“Right”, you chuckled. “I’m going to bed”. “Y/N”, Erwin called out your name, “I’d like you to stay. We can get to know each other a little more like this”. “I don’t want to-“. “Sit down”, Levi looked at you with an unusual expression, “Please”.

You couldn’t and didn’t want to understand why Levi got along with the commander. 

“No”, you coldly looked into his eyes. “Night, Levi”. 

“She blames me, right?”, Erwin looked at you as you walked towards the building. “Yes”, Levi took another sip of his tea. “Do you?”. “Yes”. “I see”, Erwin stared at his hands, who were resting on his knees. “And no”, the dark-haired sighed. “It wasn’t your fault, but if you didn’t drag our asses out of the underground…”. “The military police would’ve caught up eventually and thrown you all into jail”. “I know”, Levi stared at his commander. “Give her time, she’ll understand”. 

--- 

You were sitting in the cafeteria, staring into nothing. You didn’t know how you felt or what you felt. You just felt empty. 

You sighed when you heard someone open the door. You weren’t in the mood for company. “Tsk”, Levi clicked his tongue as you ignored him. 

“Good”, you thought, “It’s just Levi. It’s not as if he’ll start to make some conversation”. 

“Huh?”, you tilted your head as he sat in front of you on the table. “Here”, he frowned as he placed an apple in front of you. His voice sounded unsure. “An apple?”, you looked at him with a confused look. “Haven’t eat-“, his voice died away, so he cleared his throat before trying again. “You haven’t eaten all day”, he awkwardly looked at the ceiling. “You noticed?”, your voice quiet. “Of course”, his eyes found yours. He seemed a little insulted by your response. “An apple?”, you studied the fruit in front of you. “You like those”, he sounded unsure, as if he was asking you. “I do”, you gently grabbed it. “I bet Farlan would’ve scolded you for not eating all day”, he smiled. It was the first time he ever spoke of them after their deaths. “Farlan?”, you widened your eyes. “And Isabelle would probably try to make that shitty bread as tasty as possible for you”, his smile widened. “She was always so concerned, right? Farlan too, of course”, his eyes suddenly locked into yours, his smile fading. 

You didn’t know why. You didn’t know why you were crying when you thought all your tears were dried up by now. All the hurt, all the pain… You thought it was enough, that all your tears were used up. 

“You’re not the only one who misses them”, he looked at how your tears fell onto the wooden table. “But as long as we’re alive, they won’t die. They live on, inside our memories. We can tell others about them, about the stories in the underground. The good ones, the bad ones… We keep them alive inside here”, he pointed towards his heart. “I miss them so much”, you cried out. “I miss the way Farlan brushed through his hair, or how Isabelle called you ‘bro’. I miss the way they smell and, and-“, you wiped your tears away as you tried to catch your breath. “I know”, his voice sounded so warm as his arms wrapped around you. 

You never realized how warm he was. You’ve never been this close to him. 

“I’m happy you’re still here”, he tightened his grip, making it feel as if he needed this as bad as you. “D-don’t leave me”, you sobbed into his chest, “I-I don’t want to lose you too”. “I won’t”, he sighed. “I promised them that I’ll keep you safe, and I’m not going to break that promise”. 

[majintails]

1 YEAR

Although I didn't start using this blog as a kin blog until later in the month, on this day (July 16) exactly one year has passed since I discovered I'm Fictionkin! You all are very kind and welcoming people and I was in for a pleasant surprise when I joined this community.

In fact, the whole revelation was a bit of a shock - you'd be surprised the me from 2020-2022, maybe even earlier 2023 is the same person as me from July 16, 2023 onward. It's something I would not of even considered at that time let alone viewed myself as, but in doing so, I have opened myself up to new things and experiences, reconsidered things, and improved my life in ways even past this identity - I'm even a nicer person for it now (though still have some ways to go obviously). It actually triggered a broader spiritual awakening since I'm spiritual fictionkin and for the longest time I've been rather materialistic, with changes in this regard only coming very slowly in the earlier parts of the 2020s and honestly not a substantial change.

Funny thing is that in Early 2021, I did discover two Systems on DeviantArt. Said systems recently joined the site and they were actually posting art of what they looked like insys, and they were fictives / mobians. I only vaguely understood it ("So...they ARE that thing?" - me prolly, 2021) but my reaction was without hostility; it was actually intrigue and acceptance, despite the fact I was trying to act like kind of a hard ass back then for no reason other then I thought it made me look cool when in reality it was just obnoxious and also because I had the wrong takeaway / idea from a former friend group. Stumbling across those Systems did make me research into these types of things and even if I didn't find what I was or should of been looking for, that itself was indeed worthwhile. Worth clarifying I didn't directly ask them anything or talk to them, and pretty much never saw anything else of this sort throughout the rest of that year.

In 2022 though it started getting interesting since I was moving away from how I was at the start of the decade and more to how I am now (the awakening essentially accelerated it / came to the natural conclusion faster). Around that time I was mainly looking for a place / community to settle on the internet and alternatives to the sites I was already using, especially for fandom spaces (my Tumblr was originally made in this capacity but it obviously was not useful under the pretenses of what I was looking for). In a few games and websites (ironically not Tumblr), I kept seeing people who were kin and stating so on their bios, using pfps, in-game avatar being their kin, so on and so fourth. Good chance a few were systems as well. Once again I had a vague understanding of it but of course didn't talk to them about it and this time didn't bother to look into it before dismissing it - both cases I had a "ah well" attitude and moved on it seems. But the term, Kin, it stuck with me. Obviously this is because...something felt familiar about it, like some part of me correlates to it.

Come 2023, I stopped seeing any of this stuff. But on July 16, a few days after my birthday, the term randomly came to my mind again. "So what DOES Kin mean anyway" I thought, so I looked it up and well...that's when it happened. It all came back to me, all the canon memories I've had since I was like 11 to 12 that I was - as mentioned before here, not really suppressing but definitely disregarding since I didn't know what it was or what to do, or really could do anything with it (what could a like 12 Year Old do about this tbh) but it was harmless so I kept it in the back of my mind - they flooded in and I finally paid attention to them. I pretty much connected the dots immediately, and the ensuing homesickness I felt, the shock of the revelation, understanding who I was? it brought me to tears.

I didn't know what to do at first and mostly kept to myself for a few days, before joining an adult only Sonickin server. I wasn't very active there but said server is small I kind of had to be eased into it, eventually joining another, larger server and becoming much more active there. Then I started posting canon mems and my experiences on Tumblr around the end of the month. I must say, I think it happening right as I became an adult was for the best - feels more responsible that way. As mentioned before, even outside of spirituality and kinning, it made me rethink a number of things. Over time I still had to get comfortable and not be so timid and shying away from things like I was initially, but it was made evident it was a welcoming community.

And of course I saw it was of no harm and that I'd be accepted, which was...well, that was probably the main thing I was worried about. But obviously there was nothing to worry about, and I'm glad I gave it a chance. Some of the best people I've met on the internet have been through here. Ever since 2018, I didn't feel like myself if that makes any sense, like I was just there and happened to exist with no sense of identity or self whatsoever, and when this awakening occurred, I gained it back. In a way I felt whole again.

If anyone is wondering, yes I'm still doing those two ROM Hacks about my Tails canon though as of late I've been kind of a lazy bum regarding them specifically and also recently I've been occupied with yet another, similar thing about said canon (I'll get back on this later). At this point I should probably enter the next stage of those hacks though, there's not much left to do with regards to the side of things I've clearly just been dragging my feet on and stalling.

Thank you all for reading and for the wonderful time I've had this past year with everyone!

[sadie27]

Brazen Thoughts

It’s amazing how the remembrance of a core memory can spiral into a multitude of facets which don’t intertwine with each other. I sit here on this Wednesday night writing my first blog in over ten years, but my very first on Tumblr. I’ve always had a knack for writing my thoughts down, but before I knew it, adulting come along and what I once considered a save haven, became a chore.

Over the last few weeks I’ve contemplated re-starting to blog but I was (and remained) hesitant, until today. Why you may ask? The simple answer, Ms. Taylor Swift! It’s only fair I go back to tell this (not so) enthralling story of how the talented Ms. Swift gave me inspiration and motivation. 

It’s no secret Ms. Swift’s current tour has been all over the internet, Swifties are surely living their best life because of it, embrace it wholeheartedly! Seeing Ms. Swift’s clips from her tour thus far got me reminiscing on how I first really started caring about her music. 

Taking it back to 2014 (December), I found myself assessing my life, a habit I have when my birthday is approaching (December 27th), in that particular year I was about to turn twenty-six and felt somewhat stuck in a cycle which ultimately made me delve into a mild depression, the career aspect of my life was on track, but everything else just never seemed to align. 

I was never someone who zoned in on any one artist, when I heard something I liked, I just took a mental note of it. Nevertheless, Ms. Swift had already solidified herself into the music world, she was a name everyone knew, I knew her hits that played all over the radio but that’s as far as it went. But! 2014 changed that for me, 1989 was released and from hearing songs off it on the radio, I decided to purchase the album. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made to date.

While the whirlwind of emotions flooded my mind that December, I turned the music on and really took in word for word, that entire album. Personally, the track ‘Clean’ somehow made me feel that the struggle I’m currently facing will pass over time. Her way to put words together so beautifully, granted me some level of comfort.

Then and there, I became a fan of Ms. Swift and her mastery of the craft, what a talent she is to behold! Before I knew it, I was listening to all her previous albums, and without a doubt, for every mood, there’s a song! I’ve followed her musical journey and never regretted it. She became a role model, and nine years later for me, she still is. 

I was thrilled when her tour was announced (despite being from a tiny twin island knowing the reality of actually seeing her live is a far fetched dream), I’ve since lived vicariously through the videos posted and it literally makes my heart smile as her music continues to be my comfort. It still amazing me how an individual I know nothing about, wields such power with my emotions. (I’m not complaining though). I’ve followed her music, not her life. To each his own I presume? 

So, my inspiration today came from my TS playlist, which has ‘Clean’ on there and felt it necessary to share a summary of my story (for anyone willing to read this much). It was a great throwback for me, a welcomed trip down memory lane which led me to realize that people come and go, seasons change but never in my wildest dreams I’d think the constant in my life, is Taylor Swift’s music! And, I’d have it no other way. Cheers! @taylorswift

[audioroleplayconfessions]

Since this post is getting some traction, I want to address a few things and give some advice. I believe I've had members of this group send asks to me. There's always some level of fandom drama coming from that corner, but a few times I've had large amounts of callout asks mentioning (and sometimes even tagging) certain Tumblr users. The callouts always included calls to "purge" or "eliminate" them from the community, usually alongside either completely wild accusations about them or just completely unsupported assertions that they were bad people that I had to help them "kick out". I would get these asks in such concentrated bursts that I suspected multiple people were coordinating to flood my inbox with witch-hunting accusations and calls against people.

I deleted all of them, but I wish I had screenshotted them first so that I could have a definite list of the people they were targeting and other information that might give the targeted people clues as to who is harassing them. I can only remember three or four of the people who were being targeted, but I'm considering reaching out to them personally and warning them to look out. I'm not going to mention their names here for their privacy, but some of them are active in the notes of this blog.

When I didn't share their asks, I got anonymous tantrums in my inbox attacking me for "defending" the people they wanted to oust. I got accused of defending a rape apologist for refusing to share doxxable information about someone who committed the unspeakable crime of making fanart of Alexis Solaire.

Seeing this saddens me. I don't listen to Redacted much anymore, but I have a lot of warm memories about his audios and the early days of the fandom back in 2021-2022. He played a big role in me first getting into audio roleplays. When Inversion and Project Meridian first came out it opened my eyes to what could be possible within audio roleplay, a storytelling medium that isn't given nearly as much credit as it deserves. Seeing people come from within to tear down the fandom of a medium that is already very small and unfairly stigmatized by the general populace is absolutely depressing to see.

Hopefully this all blows over. My heart goes out to people in the Redacted Fandom who feel like they constantly have their guard up because of people like this. Stay safe, and surround yourself with people that have earned your trust and who you know will defend you if you ever end up targeted by one of these groups. Be careful who you share information with, especially if you suspect them of being part of one of these harassment groups.

i dont want to reveal my identity (youll see why in a sec lol) so im saying this here rather than my main account cause im relatively well known in redacted tumblr (annnd im a pussy and this is sort of weighing on me a bit).

i dont know how to say it but there are these chats?? like mainly on discord and instagram and i think some other places too (idk i dont have twitter or x or whatever but i think theres one there too) where people have lists of these accounts they dont like and resolve to 'punish them'. im sure im explaining this terribly but i cant really say much without the people in these chats instantly knowing who i am and adding me to their insane hate pile puritan police bullshit.

i got added to one of the discord chats in august by a mutual from a redacted server i was in (not the main one like some fan one from tumblr) and genuinely? it is fucking insane. think genuine csi shit. like sorting people into who supports 'problematic ships' and 'supports problematic characters' or who are 'rape apologists' or even just 'icky' and genuinely allocating certain people to harass and threaten them. and i mean seriously organising. as in scheduling when to spam anons or making hate posts or trying to work out their real identities to 'drill the lesson in' (actual quote).

whats worse is that many bigger accounts in the fandom are in these chats. like people ive been friendly with for months (if not years) who i thought were cool, but then act completely different there. i wont name drop or anything, mainly to respect the rules of this blog and preserve my own identity (cause god knows they dont deserve that after some of the shit theyve said and done), but if youre in redacted tumblr, you defintely know at least some of them. 100% you do.

ive gone out of my way to warn some of these accounts ive seen on there frequently (so if you got an anon warning you about these chats hello!! its me!!) but i cannot understate how fucking crazy they are. not only do these supposed 'progressive accepting people' resort to misogyny, transphobia, homophobia and racism (esp this one, jesus the slurs) towards any account they dont like, they also genuinely view themselves as these insane moral authorities set on 'cleansing the fandom of the filth' (another actual quote from one of the discord chats. i genuinely had to take a lap after reading it bc it was so cringe and insane it physically hurt)

i swear im telling the truth with this btw, i know it sounds so stupid and unbelievable but i just needed to get it out of my system because ive been lurking in this chat and i feel kinda responsible for all the hate these poor people are getting, since im not standing up against them. so to anyone whos received heavy hate for 'problematic opinions' im really fucking sorry man. i shoulda tried to put a stop to it but there were so many big accounts there i was afraid of getting ostracised from the community or targeted myself.

anyway, point is. be careful. watch ur faves. and god, everyone in this moral brigade stop being so fucking demented. youre making this unfun for everyone.

(thank you for giving a space for me to speak about this btw bc i genuinely dont know how i wouldve told people widescale otherwise. i really appreciate the space you provide for us all <33 )

.

[labomi]

selfish | one (18+)

Summary: You're a former coworker of Kento Nanami back when he was just an office worker. You accidentally run into him at a bakery many years later which gives you a second chance at getting to know the man who had always caught your eye.

Pairing: Kento Nanami x f!Reader

Words: 11.1k+

Warnings: Explicit sexual content, vaginal sex, vaginal fingering, oral sex, creampie, explicit language, attempted sexual assault, kidnapping, canon-typical violence, alcohol

Note: Read on ao3 here! I’ve been on tumblr on and off for about 10 years at this point (yikes), but I recently decided to start a new one as sort of a writing blog with a lot of anime gif reblogging on the side as well haha. Kind of nervous to post my first fic on tumblr for some reason, so I hope you enjoy! Thank you for reading!

Index: [Part One] [Part Two]

“Nanami? Kento Nanami? Is that you?”

You couldn’t believe your eyes. It had been years! Was that really him?

---

The night you accidentally ran into Kento Nanami started off like any other night in your life. After an exhausting day of work, you decided to treat yourself to some sweets at a nearby bakery. The small chime on the door signaled your entrance with the lone employee warmly greeting you.

“Welcome!”

There was only one other customer in the small shop. A tall man stood at the cash register. 

Hmm.

There was something strangely familiar about the man’s demeanor. Curious, you drifted over to the display case next to the register to try and sneak a peek at his face. While admiring the delicious-looking pastries on the counter, you listened in on the conversation between him and the cashier.

“That will be 2000 yen,” the lady said.

“I’ll pay with card.”

You stiffened slightly, eyes widening in surprise. 

That voice!  

You recognized that voice!

The man shifted his face towards you as he reached to grab his wallet from his pocket. You were finally able to get a glimpse of his face. 

You gasped.

“It is you!” you exclaimed in surprise. “Nanami!”

He looked as prim and proper as ever. The man still wore a suit and tie with his hair neatly parted. The only major difference in his appearance was the sunglasses that now completely shielded his eyes.

“It’s good to see you again! How have you been?” you asked eagerly.

Nanami looked at you silently, trying to recall where he had seen your familiar face before.

Then he remembered.

A flood of memories from a different life overcame him. The man hesitantly said your name, like he couldn’t quite believe your unexpected appearance before him. You nodded enthusiastically while he absentmindedly handed his credit card to the cashier.

“Oh wow,” you breathed, feeling a little giddy. “I haven’t seen you since you quit all those years ago. What are you doing now?”

Nanami seemed to pause for a second, adjusting his sunglasses. “I work at a school.”

“Oh! As a teacher?” 

“No, just as staff.”

“That sounds nice. What school?”

“It’s a private religious school in the mountains. It’s not particularly well-known,” the man replied vaguely. 

“Oh, I see.”

A loud beep of a cell phone interrupted the conversation. Nanami reached into his other pocket and took out his phone. He frowned, looking at the device. “I apologize, but I have to go immediately.”

“Oh, uh, ok,” you said, feeling slightly disappointed. You barely had any time to catch up with your former coworker. Nanami grabbed the bag from the counter and swiftly exited the store. You watched him walk away with a sigh. What were the chances that you would bump into him again? You pouted, upset that the circumstances hadn’t exactly worked out in your favor.

“Oh no!” the cashier suddenly cried out. “He forgot his card!” She pointed at the blue credit card on the counter.

“Lemme see if I can catch him!” you responded, already running out of the bakery. You pushed open the door and ran in the direction you saw the man leave. “Nanami!” you shouted. Other pedestrians looked at you curiously, but you couldn’t see the tall man anywhere. You walked around a bit further out, continuing to call his name but to no avail. Sighing, you headed back to the bakery.

“No luck,” you said to the cashier. “He’s gone already. I have no idea how he disappeared so quickly.” Crossing your arms against your chest, you looked at the forgotten card in frustration. “What should we do now?” If only you had his number! 

“I guess I can keep it here in case he comes back,” the lady reasoned.

Hmm.  

An idea popped in your head. 

A selfish one.

“Wait! How about I take it and return it to him?” you asked. Then you realized that your request might come off as suspicious. “We used to work together, I promise I’m not trying to steal it or anything.”

The cashier smiled at you softly. “I trust you. You come in here quite a lot and that man did say your name, so I know you’re not lying.”

You sighed in relief.

Thank goodness.

After buying some pastries for yourself, you walked out of the bakery holding Nanami’s credit card in your hand. You carefully stored it in your bag before beginning the walk back to your apartment.

A private religious school in the mountains, huh?

It shouldn’t be too hard to find.

---

You groaned, fighting the urge to pull your hair in frustration. 

How hard was it to find this damn school?!

You were sitting at your desk in the dark. The only light in the bedroom came from your laptop screen which was full of search engine results for “tokyo private religious school”. You were on page 15. Not a promising sign.

Recalling your conversation with Nanami, you remembered the man said he worked at a religious school in the mountains. However, none of the private schools you had found so far were located in the mountains. You frowned. Had Nanami been lying?

You shook your head to yourself.

No. 

He’s not the type to lie. He did say it wasn’t well-known.

You scrolled further down and clicked on the next page. Quickly skimming the results, you finally found something that caught your eye. 

Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College.

Huh. What a strange name for a school.  

You clicked on the link. It brought you to a strange forum that looked somewhat sketchy and unreliable, but someone had at least posted an address for the school. You grabbed your phone and immediately plugged the address into the map app.

You punched the air in triumph.

“Yes!” The dot was located in the mountains by some Tokyo suburbs. 

This has to be the place!

Luckily, tomorrow was Friday which meant you had no classes, and you weren’t scheduled for a shift at work. You were free to find the school and return the card to Nanami in person. 

“Ok!” you said to yourself, rubbing your hands together. “Now to find out how to get there.”

---

You looked at the dot of your current location on your phone and then back at the vast empty woods in front of you.

This can’t be it!

You groaned out loud in frustration, stamping your feet in a little tantrum. 

Why is it still so hard to find this damn school?!  

Looking at your phone again, you double-checked the map to see that you were in fact at the exact location of the address you inputted, but nothing was here. It was just trees!

You sighed in disappointment but refused to give up right away. Maybe your phone’s GPS was off because you were so high up in the mountains and the signal was bad. You decided to follow the road that led up the mountain with the hope that you might accidentally stumble across the school. If there was a road, it had to lead somewhere! But strangely enough, you hadn’t seen any cars, buildings, or pedestrians since entering the area. 

After walking around for almost an hour, you decided to take a break. Sitting in the shade of some trees by the side of the road, you took your water bottle out of your bag for a quick sip. You admired the beautiful, quiet scenery in front of you.

Maybe this was a bad idea.

You were currently lost in the mountains of Tokyo looking for a school you weren’t quite sure actually existed. And it was all because you were selfish and wanted to see Nanami again. Your old coworker.

You hadn’t been particularly close to him at work, though he didn’t seem overly friendly with anyone in the office. Nanami was the stoic and serious type. He didn’t talk much with the team, but you could tell he worked hard. He was always one of the last people to leave the office for the night, if he did leave. On many occasions, you found him dozing at his desk in the morning when you arrived early to work before everyone else with the sneaking suspicion that he had spent the entire night in the office.

Unlike most of the other employees and especially your boss, Nanami seemed to still care about the clients instead of just the company’s profits, judging from the small snippets of conversations you overheard from him. You had always wanted to get to know him better, but he didn’t particularly have an approachable demeanor. At the time, you were just a young, newly graduated woman who was afraid of everything and everyone. So you often just kept to yourself.

You sighed, looking down at the ground. Taking Nanami’s credit card hostage was a pathetic way of trying to rekindle a relationship that never existed in the first place. You made up your mind. It was time to head back home and drop off the card at the bakery so he could pick it up himself. Today’s excursion was just a giant waste of time much to your disappointment.

“Excuse me, miss. What are you doing here?”

“Huh?” A man was hovering over you. You swore he hadn’t been there a second ago.

You screamed. “P-please don’t hurt me!” You put your arms out in front of you, shielding yourself from any potential harm. “I don’t have much money, but you can have it all!”

The man burst out laughing. You slowly lowered your arms, hoping that his laughter meant he wasn’t going to attack you.

“I’m not going to hurt you, and I especially don’t want your money.”

You let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness.” No longer afraid, you took a closer look at the stranger. He was tall. Very tall. Wearing a black outfit and a matching blindfold that spiked up his white hair.

What a strange appearance.

“Well, I won’t hurt you as long as you tell me what you’re doing here.” You gulped, hearing the silent threat in his words.

“Umm, umm, well, you see I-I got a bit lost and w-was just taking a rest,” you stuttered nervously, fiddling with your hands. “I heard there’s a private school around here and I’m trying to find it, because I know someone who works there. His name is Kento Nanami and we used to work together many many years ago and I just happened to run into him last night at a bakery but he left his credit card there and I wanted to give it back to him in person, so I thought it was a good idea to deliver it at his workplace but this school is so hard to find I have no idea where I’m going and-and I think I’m just going to leave now actually.” You realized you were rambling, so you forcibly shut your mouth to stop yourself from looking like a complete fool in front of the stranger.

The man hummed in thought for several seconds before suddenly grinning and chuckling to himself. His demeanor no longer felt threatening.

“Kento Nanami, huh,” the man said, still smiling happily.

“Oh, you know him?” You perked up, suddenly hopeful.

Maybe they work together!

“Leave it to me!” the stranger cheered, giving you a thumbs up. “I’ll escort you to the school and make sure you hand-deliver that credit card to Nanami!”

You felt relieved, tears almost prickling your eyes. “Oh thank you so much!”

---

“Satoru.”

“Mm.”

“Can’t you tell there’s a human who has been wandering near the barrier for quite a while now? It looks like they’re trying to find a way in,” Yaga commented.

“Well, they can’t. Isn’t that the whole point of the barrier?”

“I know that!” the principal grunted angrily. “But since you’re just lounging here around doing nothing, go check it out.”

“Fine.” Gojo got off the couch and headed outside, wondering how a human accidentally wandered this close to the school so far up the mountains.

---

It only took several minutes before you and the strange man found a path leading to the school. You blinked in surprise. You felt like you had walked by this part of the road earlier but had seen nothing.

Walking alongside the man quietly, you suddenly realized you had completely forgotten your manners. Quickly bowing to your escort, you introduced yourself and thanked him for taking the time to safely bring you to the school.

“It’s no problem. Any friend of Nanami is a friend of mine. Oh, and I’m Satoru Gojo by the way. I’m the first-year teacher here.”

He was a teacher? This man wearing a blindfold in broad daylight? You swallowed nervously. You wondered what kind of school Nanami was working for exactly.

Once you finally reached the main school grounds, all of your reservations immediately melted away. “Wow!” you breathed. The campus was absolutely gorgeous with beautiful statues, shrines, and gates. You couldn’t help but stop and admire your surroundings. “This school is beautiful.”

Gojo brought you to the teacher’s lounge and gestured for you to sit down. “So, tell me again how you know our dear Nanami?”

---

Nanami had just finished a mission when his phone chimed, signaling a text. He finished wiping his blade clean before grabbing the device. The message was from Gojo.

Gojo: Come back to Jujutsu Tech. Your girlfriend is here ;)

The sorcerer stared at the message. 

Nanami: I have no idea what you mean.

Gojo: ( ˘ ³˘)♥

He angrily shoved his phone back in his pocket and walked over to the car where Ijichi was waiting. He entered the back seat before closing the door behind him. “Hurry up. I need to find a certain white-haired idiot and destroy him.”

---

Nanami was walking towards the teacher’s lounge when he heard your bright laughter. He froze for a couple of seconds.

What were you doing here?

He picked up the pace, quickly entering the lounge to see you giggling on the couch next to Gojo. For some reason, it bothered him to see how close the idiot was to you and how happy you looked in his presence.

“Nanami! You’re here!” Gojo exclaimed, immediately noticing the other sorcerer’s presence. 

You turned your head quickly towards the doorway with a bright grin. “Oh, Nanami! Hi again!”

Nanami observed the scene, trying to figure out what was going on, but he was drawing a blank. 

First of all, you weren’t a sorcerer. How did you enter the school grounds? 

Second, did you know Gojo? The two of you seemed quite friendly on the couch together. 

Third, was Gojo implying that you were his girlfriend? That was absolutely ridiculous.

“What are you doing here?” Nanami asked you cautiously, adjusting his sunglasses. 

“Oh!” You dug around in your bag, pulling out your wallet. You removed a blue credit card. “You left this behind at the bakery yesterday. I tried to chase after you, but you disappeared so quickly. I had the day off today, so I thought I would try to find your workplace and give your card back to you.” You got off the couch, approaching Nanami and handing him the card.

Nanami took the card from you before placing it back in his own wallet. “You didn’t have to do this. How did you even find your way here?”

“I found her wandering nearby!” Gojo jumped in, grinning at the other sorcerer. “Imagine my surprise when she said the two of you used to work together back when you were just a salaryman. I just had to invite her back here. You never mentioned you used to work with such a lovely lady.”

You visibly blushed at Gojo’s words which just bothered Nanami even more. “Thank you for returning my card, but I think it’s about time y—”

“Nanami. Nanami. Namami,” Gojo said in a singsong voice. “You’re all work and no fun. It’s been years since the two of you have seen each other, and you’re already trying to get rid of her? Don’t you want to catch up a little bit?”

You played with your hair, a little nervous. “I mean if you’re busy Nanami, I can go. But I was hoping we could talk a little bit.” You looked up at him with bright eyes. “I want to hear how you’ve been doing.”

Nanami took one look at your hopeful face and immediately gave in. “Alright.” He gestured for you to sit back down as he walked over to one of the armchairs. The sorcerer pretended like he didn’t see your little jump of excitement as you hurried back to the couch with Gojo.

Once the three of you were all seated comfortably, you brought up what you had been previously discussing with Gojo. “I didn’t know you’re teaching at the same high school you went to as a student. That’s pretty cool!”

“He was one of the few students who graduated and decided to leave the community,” Gojo pointed out. “Most of us stay here and continue working for the school.” Nanami subtly glared at the white-haired sorcerer, wondering how much he had told you about the jujutsu world.

“Why did you decide to come back then?” you asked curiously.

“I changed my mind,” Nanami simply stated. “I realized I would find my career slightly more rewarding if I worked for the school than that company.”

You nodded in agreement. “That makes sense. I’m glad we eventually both left that job.” You slightly grimaced, just thinking about your past. It didn’t go unnoticed by Nanami.

“When did you leave?” he asked.

You hummed, recalling the past. “It was probably a couple of months after you left. I, uh, messed up something really badly and I got fired.”

Nanami raised his eyebrows in surprise. You didn’t seem like the type to make big mistakes. He remembered you as quite the careful and diligent worker. He narrowed his eyes slightly, wondering if you were being deceitful.

“It’s ok though,” you continued. “I worked a couple of odd jobs afterward to keep up with the bills until I decided I wanted to become a nurse! So I’m actually back in school now and working part-time to help pay tuition.”

“A nurse, huh,” Gojo remarked. “What a noble career choice.”

“Ahh, I wouldn’t say I’m noble or anything. I just think I would find my life more fulfilling if I was actively helping people,” you explained. “Probably similar to how you felt when you switched careers, Nanami.”

He nodded at your words.

uThe three of you chatted amicably the rest of the day. Gojo and you mostly carried the conversation, but Nanami would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy listening to your voice. After he ran into you at the bakery last night, he couldn’t stop thinking about you. It was the first time he was confronted with his old life after deciding to become a sorcerer again. Part of Nanami wanted to never look back on that phase of his life again, but perhaps it wasn’t all bad. Sure, he hadn't particularly liked anyone from that office, but he didn’t mind you. You had always been quiet, polite, and hardworking. 

Nanami still remembered his last day at the office. You had organized a surprise farewell party just for him with a cake, balloons, and everything. After everyone had their fill of free food and left the conference room, you had shyly wished him luck in the future and said you would miss seeing him in the office. All those memories came rushing back after encountering you in that bakery.

The sun started to set when you finally noticed the time.

“Ah! I should probably go,” you announced, checking your phone. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overstay my welcome.”

“No, no,” Gojo assured. “You are very much welcome here. Like I said earlier, any friend of Nanami is a friend of mine and all my friends are welcome here!”

“How do you plan on getting home?” Nanami asked, mildly concerned.

“Don’t worry!” Gojo said. “I got it handled. Ijichi will drive her back.”

“Huh? No, it’s fine,” you tried to argue. “I can get back by myself. It’s not a problem.”

“What kind of gentlemen would we be if we didn’t ensure you got home safely? Ijichi is our finest chauffeur,” the blindfolded man insisted. “He will take care of you.”

You looked at Nanami who simply nodded at you, encouraging you to accept Gojo’s offer. Sighing, you crossed your arms over your chest with a pout. “Alright. Thank you.”

The two men waved goodbye as you left in Ijichi’s car to head back home.

“Was it really wise to have her on the school grounds?” Nanami asked.

Gojo hummed. “It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not. Normal humans aren’t allowed here for a reason.”

The blindfolded sorcerer didn’t reply. Instead, he took out his phone and started tapping on the screen. Nanami’s phone chimed. It was a text from Gojo. Opening it, he saw it was a string of numbers.

A phone number.

“You should call her sometime,” Gojo said. “She likes you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do. What kind of woman travels to the mountains on her day off to try and find a publically non-existent school to return a credit card to someone she doesn’t like?”

Nanami remained silent.

“Just because we’re adults and jujutsu sorcerers doesn’t mean we aren’t allowed to have some normal fun. It’s alright to be selfish every once in a while.”

How badly Nanami wanted to believe Gojo’s words.

---

You heard the door open and close.

“Hello! How many I help y—Gojo?”

You blinked in surprise, not expecting to see the teacher at your workplace. While taking classes to become a nurse, you worked part-time at a small boba tea shop. You had just finished serving the flurry of college students who needed a midday pick-me-up when Gojo appeared. Several of the seated patrons whispered and pointed at him, wondering why he was wearing a blindfold and how he could see.

“Thought I would drop by and say hi,” he said with an easy grin.

You returned his smile. “Is Nanami with you too?” you asked, trying to sound casual.

“No, not today, unfortunately,” he replied. You tried to ignore the flash of disappointment you felt. “I’ll bring him next time.”

You perked up at Gojo’s promise, nodding eagerly. “Sounds good. So, would you like something to drink?” 

The man ordered a large brown sugar milk tea with extra sugar. You looked at him, mildly concerned. “You sure you want 120% sugar? It’s pretty sweet to begin with. Trust me.”

Gojo nodded. “Yup!”

“Alright,” you said with a shrug. You did try to warn him. 

You finished preparing Gojo’s drink and handed it to him along with a straw.

“Hey, do you mind if I borrow your phone for a second?” the teacher asked.

“Oh, sure,” you said, grabbing your phone from your back pocket.

Gojo took the device and opened the camera app. “Smile!” That was the only warning you got. He had taken a selfie of the two of you together. You weren’t even smiling in the photo, completely caught off guard. But Gojo was at least prepared, grinning happily and showing off his milk tea in one hand. You watched as the man repeatedly tapped on your phone screen.

“What are you doing?” you asked hesitantly.

“Here!” Gojo handed the phone back to you. Looking at the screen, you saw that he had sent the selfie of the two of you to a random number with a text that said “Having fun without you!”

“Um. Who did you send this to Gojo?”

“Nanami, of course!”

“Oh,” you said quietly, feeling butterflies in your stomach.

Nanami’s number!

You finally had it! 

Gojo chuckled to himself as he saw the way your eyes lit up.

“Oh, by the way,” you said, looking up from the phone. “It’s my birthday next weekend. I’m going out with a couple of friends on Saturday at 8pm at the bar around the corner, and I was wondering if you and Nanami would like to join? You should bring Ijichi too and anyone else from the school! Only if you want though. It’s ok if you don’t want to come or you’re worried about being awkward with my other friends even though they’re super cool and encouraged me to invite you guys and I promise I won’t be upset if you can’t make it because this is kind of last minute and I—”

“Sounds great!” Gojo interrupted your rambling. “I’ll be sure to pass along the information. We'll be there.”

“Really?” You grinned at the teacher. “Awesome! I guess I’ll see you then!”

Gojo waved at you goodbye as you tried to compose yourself before the next wave of customers arrived.

---

“Ahh!! You guys actually came!” you squealed as a group of individuals approached your table in the bar. You stumbled out of the large booth where your other friends were seated, already several shots in for the night. You clumsily hugged Gojo without thinking. Releasing him, you took in his new appearance.

“You look so different!” you commented. “But not in a bad way!” The man had traded in his signature blindfold for a pair of sunglasses that still hid his eye. His hair was lying down flat instead of its usual spiked-up look.

Behind Gojo, you saw Ijichi with a woman you didn’t recognize. 

“That’s Shoko Ieiri,” Gojo said, following your gaze. “She’s the doctor at our school.”

You happily greeted both of them, thanking them for coming. 

And finally, you saw the person you were looking forward to seeing the most. Nanami looked good as always. He was dressed a little more casually for the night without his signature jacket, tie, and sunglasses. Instead, he wore a crisp, blue button-up shirt with the top few buttons undone. You tried not to stare too much at his revealed skin.

As you approached Nanami, you reached out to hug him but you managed to stop yourself in time. You were worried about coming on too strong and opted for a small wave instead.

“Thanks for coming, Nanami! I’m so glad you came!”

Sitting at the table altogether, your other friends immediately fawned over Gojo. One of them grabbed you and whispered in your ear.

“What the hell? You didn’t tell me one of your friends was incredibly hot?”

You shrugged and ordered another round of shots for the whole table. Gojo ended up passing because he didn’t drink, so you took it upon yourself to finish it for him.

Nanami quietly nursed a beer as he observed the scene. He didn’t typically like crowded, loud bars like this, but he would make an exception for you. Gojo had also been extremely intent on making sure everyone from the school attended your little celebration. He managed to get Ijichi to come along only after getting Shoko to agree by bribing her with free alcohol.

Nanami was currently sitting across the booth from you, watching as you chatted with your friends. You were wearing a dark red dress that perfectly showed off your curves. The left strap of your dress was a little loose and it kept falling down the entire night despite you constantly readjusting it, not that Nanami had noticed. 

You looked so carefree and lively in this atmosphere. Every once in a while, you caught Nanami’s gaze and beamed at him happily.

At some point during the night, you left the table to go to the bathroom. It was only once you tried walking back to everyone that you realized how drunk you were. Stumbling a bit in your high heels, you leaned against the wall by the bathrooms for stability.

“Excuse me miss, are you alright?”

A man approached you, but you instantly waved him off. “Mmm, I’m good,” you replied. “Thanks though.” You were determined to make it back to your friends on your own, but as soon as you took a step away from the wall, you tripped. The man caught you before you could hit the ground. He had a tight grip on your waist.

 “You don’t seem good,” he chuckled softly. “How about I help you?” You could feel his hands starting to go lower, and you quickly latched onto them and tried to pry them off you.

“I said no,” you said firmly, but the man ignored you and pressed you against the wall. “Get off!” You struggled against him but to no avail.

Suddenly, the weight of the man was lifted and you felt like you could breathe again.

“Are you alright?” a smooth voice asked. 

You looked up to see Nanami in front of you. You nodded silently and admired his strong jawline and sharp eyes in the bar’s dark lighting. 

“Can you walk?”

You nodded again. Taking a step away from the wall, you immediately staggered again much to your embarrassment. Nanami grabbed your arm and lifted you up until you were half leaning on him for support. Inhibitions suddenly gone from all the alcohol in your system, you wrapped your arms around his broad shoulders and gave him a hug. The man tried to ignore the shiver that went up his spine when he felt your warm, soft body pressed up against him. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was quite jealous that you had hugged Gojo when they first arrived. What was so special about that idiot anyway? Nanami slowly wrapped his arms around you, indulging himself for once and returning the hug.

“I’m so glad you came,” you mumbled against his chest. “I was so happy that I ran into you at the bakery that one night. But I was afraid I would never see you again.” You paused. “I really wanted to see you again.”

Nanami didn’t know how to respond to your words, so he gently rubbed your back instead. You leaned into his touch happily.

“Let’s get back to the others,” he said gently. You sighed and reluctantly removed yourself from the embrace. Nanami half-carried you back to the table and carefully deposited you next to your friends. To your disappointment, he didn’t sit down next to you and instead headed towards the front doors.

“Nanami? Where are you going?” Gojo asked, eyebrows raised.

“I’ll be back.”

When Nanami exited the bar, he was greeted by several couples who were taking a smoke break. He walked a bit further away, so he could be alone. The sorcerer leaned against a random building, taking a deep breath and trying to calm himself down. 

Nanami felt quite ashamed of himself. Acting like a hormonal teenage boy just because he briefly held you while you were wearing that damn dress. He tried to ignore the way his cock was straining in his pants. Gritting his teeth, he willed his body to relax. Nanami refused to let you see him so worked like this. He especially couldn’t let Gojo see. He could only imagine the endless teasing he would endure from the blindfolded idiot.

Inside the bar, you watched sadly as Nanami left. You wondered if it was something you did to scare him away.

Gojo sat next to you and handed you a glass of water. “Drink,” he commanded.

You did as you were told, keeping an eye on the doors to see if Nanami had come back in yet. “Does Nanami not like me?” you asked Gojo quietly with a pout.

The man chuckled. “I assure you that’s not the case.”

You turned to look at him. “How do you know?”

Gojo lowered his sunglasses slightly, and you were able to get a glimpse of his gorgeous blue eyes for the first time. “Trust me. I have good eyes.”

---

Nanami ended the call with Ijichi. He leaned against the wall of the bathroom with a grimace. He was still applying pressure to the wound he had received from Mahito. The sorcerer scrolled through the contacts list on his phone. He found himself hovering over your name.

Yes, he did save your number from Gojo’s text. Why wouldn’t he? It would be frivolous to ignore that kind of contact information.

Nanami grabbed another wad of paper towel to replace the one that was already drenched in blood. He grunted in pain.

A nurse, huh.

He wondered what you would do if you saw him right now. If you fuss over him and take care of his injuries yourself. Nanami sighed. He wouldn’t mind that. Would you carefully unbutton his shirt to get a better look at the wound? He could almost imagine the way your fingers would ghost over his stomach.

With a groan, Nanami banged his head against the wall. He couldn’t believe he was fantasizing about you while profusely bleeding in a public restroom.

The sorcerer cleaned up his blood all over the sink and threw out the dirty wads of paper towels. He went outside to wait for Ijichi to bring him back to school for proper treatment.

---

“I’m going to take my break!” you announced to your coworkers as you exited the bubble tea shop. You decided to go outside for a quick breather because it was such a nice, sunny day. Avoiding the crowds, you headed over to the alleyways near the shop to scroll through Twitter in peace.

You were so engrossed by your phone that you didn’t notice the presence of someone next to you. It was only when you heard them clear their throat that you looked next to you to see a man wearing sunglasses and a hat.

“Oh, sorry. Am I in your way? I can move.”

In the blink of an eye, he held a knife to your neck. You felt the cool blade lightly press into your skin. You held your breath, afraid to react in any way.

“Don’t scream. Don’t move,” he hissed.

Your eyes widened in shock.

That voice.

You recognized that voice.

The man grabbed you by the back of the neck and pulled you in the opposite direction of the busy street where unaware pedestrians were still walking by. He pressed the knife against your side now, digging it into the thin t-shirt you had to wear for work.

“Walk.”

He led you to an abandoned building several minutes away. Once you were inside and the door closed shut, he roughly shoved you to the ground.

You landed in a heap, groaning in pain. Turning around, you finally faced your captor.

“It’s you, isn’t you,” you said evenly. “Boss.”

The man chuckled, removing the hat and sunglasses. It was your former boss from the company where you and Nanami had once worked together. You dug your nails in the palms of your hands. If he was here, you knew you were in trouble.

“You called the cops, didn’t you!” he yelled at you, pointing the knife at you menacingly.

Cops? What was he talking about?

“No, I didn’t,” you replied honestly.

“You BITCH! Don’t lie to me.” He waved the knife closer at you.

“I promise! I didn’t tell anyone!”

With a shout, the man grabbed your hair and held the knife to your neck again. You squeezed your eyes shut and couldn’t help but let a small whimper leave your lips.

The truth was you weren't just fired from your job. You were threatened. When numbers weren’t adding up, you realized that your boss was embezzling money and had been doing so for a long time. He found out that you knew the truth and protected himself by forcibly ousting you from the company. As a young professional, you knew better than to fight against a big shot financial executive. When he warned you to stay quiet or face his wrath, you were wise enough to shut your mouth, clean your desk, and leave the building immediately. True to your word, you had never mentioned your boss’s crimes to anyone. You thought you were safe to move on with the rest of your life but apparently, that was not the case.

The man spat at you before roughly kicking you away. He started pacing as you wiped his spit off your cheek with a disgusted groan.

“This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. I’m about to lose everything. EVERYTHING!”

As he muttered to himself, you tried to survey your surroundings and determine if there was a way you could safely escape. Before you could figure anything out, your old boss approached you again, knife still in hand. He seemed to have made up his mind about what he was going to do.

“You’re going to fix this. Yea. This is your fault. I’ll pin it all on you. You’ll go down for this, not me!”

As the man ranted and raved at you, something appeared in the shadows behind him. There was some movement. You blinked your eyes, wondering if it was just a trick of your imagination. But to your horror, a green creature grew larger and larger in the background. It had three heads, each with multiple eyes and giant drooling mouths with huge teeth. The monster raised its multiple arms, hovering over your boss with all eyes fixed on him like he was a piece of prey.

“Scared, aren’t you?” the man commented with a chuckle. He was misinterpreting the horrified look on your face. “This is what you get for messing with the wrong man.”

You shook your head slowly and lifted a shaky finger to point behind him.

He turned around, dropping the knife in shock.

The weapon clattered to the ground.

Your boss screamed. He immediately tried to run away, but one of the monster’s arms snatched him in a tight grip. The three heads fought with each other as if deciding which one of them would get to swallow the prize. You took that as a cue to start running.

The monster was blocking the way you entered, so you ran towards the only other door you saw, which led to a stairwell. You ran up a couple of floors before hiding in a small closet you found. It was cramped and dusty but you hoped it was enough to hide you from that creature.

Sitting on the ground, you took out your phone shakily and called the police.

“Hello, what is your emergency?”

“I’m trapped in an abandoned building, and there’s a monster here.” You realized it sounded ridiculous, but you didn’t know what else to say in the moment.

The dispatcher groaned. “This is the last time! You kids have to stop with the prank calls. This line is for emergencies only!”

They hung up on you.

You stared at your cell phone in disbelief.

Shit.

Instinctively, you scrolled through your contacts list until you found who you were looking for. You pressed the call button.

Please pick up. Please pick up.

It went to voicemail.

You cursed to yourself again.

“Nanami,” you whispered quietly, voice quivering. “I don’t know when you’ll listen to this, but you have to believe me. I’m in an abandoned building near my job, and I swear there’s a monster here. I-I think it might have killed our old boss. I don’t know what to do, I tri—”

There was a loud bang. You quickly hung up and pressed the phone into your chest while you covered your mouth and nose with your other hand to quiet your harsh breathing. The sounds got closer and closer until it sounded like it was right outside the closet door. Your heart was beating so loudly you were worried the monster would hear it. But luckily, the noises started to become fainter. Eventually, you heard nothing even after a long time of terrified waiting.

Once you were reasonably convinced the coast was clear, you quietly opened the closet door and peeked out. The hallway was empty. Maybe this was your chance to finally escape the building.

You carefully climbed to your feet and tiptoed your way back to the stairwell. 

Your phone loudly chimed. The noise echoed throughout the empty building. It was a text message from your coworker asking where you went. You had forgotten to turn your phone on silent.

Almost instantaneously, the monster started roaring from the floor beneath you. You barely caught a glimpse of it before running up the stairs again until you reached the top floor. Exiting the stairway, you ran through the hallways until you reached a dead end.

Back pressed up against the wall, you watched in horror as the monster let out a sharp laugh as it approached you. There was blood dripping out of the mouths of all three heads. You didn’t want to think about where it came from. With no other options left, you weakly held your arms up in front of your face and squeezed your eyes shut with a whimper.

Suddenly, there was an angry shout and a loud splat.

You felt some sort of liquid splash all over you. Lowering your arms, an unexpected sight greeted you. It was the body of the monster all chopped up into pieces. You realized you were covered in its blood.

Behind the monster’s corpse stood Nanami. He had a covered blade in his hand that was also stained with the creature’s purple blood.

“N-Nanami?” you whispered hoarsely.

You couldn’t believe your eyes. Did he take down that monster? With a sword?

Nanami wiped the blood off his weapon, putting it away in its holster. He approached you as you shuddered violently, still in shock.

“Are you hurt?” he asked gently.

You shook your head no, wrapping your arms around yourself.

He kneeled down in front of you, taking out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping the droplets of blood from your face.

“What was that thing?” you whispered.

Nanami sighed, twisting the handkerchief in his hands once your face was relatively clean.

“A curse.”

You gave him a confused look.

“It’s a long explanation.”

“Yo!”

You flinched as Gojo suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the hallway. You instinctively grabbed onto Nanami’s arm in fear. He glared at the blindfolded sorcerer in anger for startling you.

“Oh, you’re already done here? I thought I’d check up on you two to make sure everything’s okay.”

First, your boss had threatened you with a knife. Then, a giant monster, no, curse appeared and attacked both of you. Nanami killed said curse. And now Gojo had appeared out of thin air. Your brain was officially broken. You just wanted to go to sleep. Surely this had to be a dream. You would wake up and everything would be normal again.

“We should probably bring her to Shoko just to make sure she’s fine and clean her up,” Gojo said, observing how your eyes were starting to glaze over.

Nanami nodded in agreement. He lightly touched your shoulder, but you hardly reacted. He said your name quietly. Blinking slowly, you finally turned to acknowledge him. “I’m tired,” you mumbled.

“I know,” Nanami said gently. He picked you up in his arms. “You can go to sleep. I’ll keep you safe.” With a sigh of relief, you closed your eyes and surrendered to the darkness.

You woke up in a small room, tucked under the covers in a warm bed. Nanami was silently sitting in a chair next to you. You let out a deep breath and turned towards the man. The rustling of the covers alerted him that you were finally awake.

“Why was the boss with you?” Nanami asked suddenly.

So it wasn't a dream.

“Oh. He was trying to threaten me,” you explained. “I didn’t lose my job because I made a mistake. I found out he was embezzling money. He said the cops were starting to question him, so he accused me of reporting him.”

Nanami clenched his fists in anger. That bastard.

“Is he alive?” you asked.

“No.”

“I figured.”

You quietly observed Nanami. He had taken off his sunglasses and blazer. You admired his wide shoulders and the way his tie was slightly loosened. 

“Nanami. What do you actually do?”

He shook his head. “I don’t want to tell you.”

You gripped the covers. “Why not?”

“Because,” Nanami sighed. “It’s a dangerous profession. You don’t need to be dragged into this world for no good reason.”

“What do you mean?” You didn’t understand what he was saying. “I do have a reason. It’s you.”

The man didn’t respond.

You sat up in bed suddenly. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll ask Gojo.” You started to climb out of bed, but Nanami stopped you.

“Fine. Fine. I’ll tell you. Sit back down.” He let out of a deep breath, rubbing his face.

You silently listened as Nanami discussed the existence of curses, the theories behind cursed energy, and the role of jujutsu sorcerers. He explained how the school’s true purpose was to train the next generation of sorcerers and act as the main headquarters for all jujutsu-related activities. 

You only asked one question. “Why was I able to see that curse?”

“Regular humans can see them in life or death situations.”

“I see.”

Nanami was surprised at your reaction to learning about cursed spirits thus far. He expected you to ask more questions, to be more doubtful, to laugh and call him an idiot, or to scream and accuse him of being crazy. But you did none of those things. You just listened quietly and accepted everything he said as true. 

In your heart, you knew there was no reason to doubt Nanami. You were trying to wrap your brain around the existence of curses you couldn’t see, but you didn’t consider that the sorcerer was lying to you for a single second. He wasn’t that kind of person.

Nanami abruptly stood up. “Ijichi will drive you back home.” He started to walk away from you, but you quickly grabbed his wrist.

“Wait, don’t go,” you pleaded, eyes wide. “I haven’t thanked you for saving me yet. Thank you, Nanami.” You didn't want him to leave you. Not yet. You didn't want to be alone.

The sorcerer refused to look at you. “I think it’s best if you kept your distance from Gojo, me, and this school.”

“What?” you breathed. “What are you saying? I-I won’t tell anyone about curses or that you’re a sorcerer if that’s what you’re worried about. I promise.”

“That’s not it. I already told you. This world is dangerous. You should stay away.” He paused. “Stay away from me.”

You flinched, releasing Nanami’s wrist. The sorcerer walked out of the room without another word. You didn’t call out after him.

As Nanami walked away, he knew he made the right decision. There was no reason for you to get involved with the jujutsu world. He wanted you to live a normal life, not one plagued by constant death and despair. He was doing this for you. For your future and your safety.

“It’s alright to be selfish every once in a while.”

Gojo’s words echoed in his mind.

No. This wasn’t about him. It was about you. It wasn’t right for him to drag you into his world. He should be happy. Happy that you would eventually move on and live a long, successful life.

But why did he feel so sad instead?

---

Numerous opened textbooks and notebooks were scattered around you on your bed. You had an upcoming exam at the end of next week and were in the midst of cramming a semester’s worth of information in your head.

There was a knock on the door.

You frowned, carefully getting off the bed and walking over to the door. You weren’t expecting any visitors or a delivery today. Looking through the peephole, you gasped. You clutched your hands against your chest, trying to calm your frantically beating heart.

What was he doing here?

You hadn’t talked to or seen Nanami since your last conversation with him at Jujutsu Tech. And that hadn't ended well. You respected his request to stay away from him and Gojo, making no attempts to contact either of the two sorcerers. Instead, you had thrown yourself into your schoolwork and picked up some extra shifts at the boba shop. The less free time you had to think about your emotions, the better.

But now the man who still weighed heavily on your heart was at your doorstep. You wondered whether or not to pretend you weren’t home, but you couldn’t bring yourself to turn him away. He had clearly come here for a good reason and you wanted to know why, especially because he was the one that told you to keep your distance from him.

You unlocked the door and opened it slightly.

“Nanami.”

He said your name quietly.

The two of you looked at each other in complete silence. You waited for him to say something, but the man just continued to stand there without a word.

“Umm, well, I have an exam I need to study for, so if you have nothing to say I’m just going to g—”

Nanami suddenly pushed the door open wider, shoving you into your apartment. You stood there in shock as the door slammed shut behind the sorcerer. His unusually aggressive behavior had you baffled.

“What’s wrong with you?” you asked sharply. The man told you to leave him alone but then showed up at your apartment and invited himself inside without a word. You couldn’t help but feel a little irritated. “What are you do— mmph!”

Nanami had pushed you against the wall and kissed you.

You froze in surprise for a second before immediately kissing him back fervently.

One of his hands had settled on your waist while the other was pressed against the wall by your head. You wrapped your arms around his neck and pressed him closer to you, unable to get enough of this man. Nanami eventually left your lips, causing you to groan in frustration before he attacked your neck with wet kisses. You panted heavily, brain suddenly fuzzy as you tried to process that this was actually happening.

“W-what happened to staying away?” you breathed as Nanami sucked on a particularly sensitive spot that left you weak.

“I changed my mind,” he muttered against your skin before continuing to attack your neck.

After Itadori had saved him from Mahito’s domain, Nanami realized he had been given a second chance. He didn’t want to live a life without regret, especially as a sorcerer. So he decided to heed Gojo’s advice for once. 

He wanted to be a little selfish. 

He wanted you.

Nanami pressed his forehead against yours as he rubbed his hands up and down your soft curves. You breathed heavily, trying to catch your breath as you got lost in his dark gaze. 

“Bedroom,” you whispered. Nanami nodded and quickly released you, so you could guide him to your room. 

As soon as you entered the bedroom, you inwardly cursed. In the heat of the moment, you had completely forgotten what you had been doing before Nanami arrived. “Uh, sorry, let me clean up real quick.”

What a way to kill the mood!

Nanami didn’t seem to mind. He looked fairly amused as you swiftly closed all the books on your bed and haphazardly tossed them on the ground. Once the bed was finally cleared, you turned around to face Nanami, but he was already one step ahead of you. He gently pushed you on the bed, so you landed on your back as he hovered over you. Your breath caught in your throat as you admired the man in front of you. He was absolutely perfect. 

Nanami played with the hem of your shirt. Taking the hint, you sat up a little and swiftly removed your shirt and bra, throwing them in the corner of your room. Nanami let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding as you took in your body. You fought the urge to cover yourself, feeling slightly embarrassed at how intensely the man was looking at you.

“You’re beautiful,” he breathed as you flushed in response. He reached out with both his hands to start kneading your breasts. You moaned as he began playing with your nipples that were already hard from excitement. Nanami removed his hand from your left breast and replaced it with his mouth. You squirmed underneath him in pleasure as he lapped and sucked on your nipple. Once he was satisfied with his work, the sorcerer switched to your other breast to give it the same treatment. With every flick of his tongue, you could feel electricity run through your body. You only craved his touch more and more.

Nanami started kissing down the valley of your breasts to your stomach. He eventually reached the hem of your shorts. “May I?” he asked.

You nodded, unable to trust your voice at the moment.

As he started tugging down your shorts, you lifted your hips to assist him. The garment was carelessly tossed to the ground. Immediately, Nanami could see how soaked your underwear was with your own arousal. His dick twitched in his pants. The sight of you so wet and eager from his touch alone only heightened his lust for you.

You practically sighed in relief when Nanami removed your underwear, fully exposing yourself to him. The heat from your core was overwhelming. You needed him to touch you and relieve some of that pressure before you lost your mind. A single finger stroked your folds, already slick with arousal. You gasped while Nanami groaned, enjoying how wet you already were for him.

“I’ve barely touched you and you’re like this already,” Nanami teased. You panted, trying to grind yourself on his hand for more friction, more pressure, more anything. He chuckled seeing how desperate you were for his touch. The sorcerer finally reached your swollen nub and rubbed it leisurely. You immediately cried out, arching your hips into man’s touch.

“Fuck,” you cursed as pleasure surged throughout your veins. Your eyes were squeezed tight as Nanami continued to play with your clit. You were so distracted by his fingers that you barely registered the hot breath near your entrance. It was only when a wet tongue began to prod into you that you realized what was happening.

With a gasp, your eyes flew upon to see Nanami’s head comfortably settled between your legs as he licked at your cunt without restraint. The sight of him eating you out only stoked the raging fire inside you. You buried one of your hands in Nanami’s hair as he worked diligently to get you off. The way he lapped at your fluids and sucked at your entrance had you moaning and quivering uncontrollably. 

“You taste so good,” he groaned against your folds as you barely registered his words.

A familiar pressure was building in your body. As it got stronger and stronger, you couldn’t stop your legs from thrashing about. With a growl, Nanami locked his arms around your legs to keep them as still. It only took a gentle suck to your swollen clit for the tension in your body to finally snap. Mouth opened wide in a silent scream, you writhed around on the bed as you finally reached your peak. 

Your mind was completely emptied while white-hot pleasure overtook your entire body. You swore you could see stars behind your eyes. As you rode out the last waves of your orgasm, Nanami eagerly slurped up your release, refusing to let a single drop go to waste.

Once you came down from your high, you released Nanami’s hair and laid back on the bed with a sigh. He removed himself from between your legs. Your fluids still covered his face, and his normally styled hair was a complete mess from your grip. Just the sight of him was enough to cause another spark of desire to flare between your legs. This man was going to be the death of you.

“Holy fuck, Nanami,” you breathed.

“Kento,” he replied, wiping his mouth clean on his sleeve. “Call me Kento.”

You flushed. Saying his first name felt incredibly intimate. 

“Kento.” 

He grunted with approval and then began to unbutton his shirt. You licked your lips as his broad shoulders and wide chest were finally revealed to you. He was incredibly well-built with defined muscles and abs, but a number of scars littered his body. Some looked quite fresh while others were old and almost completely faded.

This was the body of a jujutsu sorcerer.

You now understood why Nanami warned you that the jujutsu world was unsafe. You couldn’t imagine the suffering behind all those wounds. Perhaps one day he would be willing to share his pain with you, so you could understand his world.

You wanted to rub your hands up and down Nanami’s bare chest, but he moved out of your reach to start fiddling with his belt. Eyes lowering, you swallowed nervously as you stared at the large bulge that greeted you. Nanami slid down his pants and underwear in one go, erect cock finally released from its confines and bobbing in the air slightly.

The sight of him was both mouthwatering and intimidating. You admired the bulging veins and the bits of pre-cum that were already leaking out from the tip. He wasn’t excessively long, but he was incredibly thick. You nervously wondered if you would be able to handle his impressive girth.

You wanted to touch and taste him, but Nanami wasn’t interested. He gently pushed away your eager hands and instead spread open your legs once again. At the moment, he was more concerned about prepping you than chasing after his own pleasure.

He pressed one finger into your entrance, groaning as your walls greedily sucked him inside. You gasped, clenching around him. With how easily you were able to take one finger, Nanami slipped a second into you. It didn’t hurt, but you could feel your cunt stretching around them as they thrust in and out of you. Nanami’s fingers were so thick and long that you already felt so full.

“You’re so tight,” Nanami hissed as you got lost in pleasure once again. He pushed those two fingers in and out of you, occasionally scissoring them to loosen you up. You could hear how wet you were as he continued prepping you to take his cock. Nanami moved his fingers at just the right angle to hit a spot that had you instantly moaning and clenching around him. But he suddenly removed himself from you which had you whining at the sudden loss of contact, feeling empty. However, you stopped complaining as you watched Nanami stroke his dick, spreading your fluids and his pre-cum all over himself.

“Are you on birth control or do I need a con—”

“I’m on birth control,” you cut him off impatiently. “Hurry up. I want you inside me.”

Nanami didn’t keep you waiting much longer. He lined himself at your entrance and slowly began to push in. It wasn’t painful, but you still gasped as your walls stretched to accommodate his girth. The sorcerer immediately cursed when his tip entered you. You were so hot and tight around his cock that it took all his self-restraint not to immediately ram his full length into you. With slow, shallow strokes, you were able to accommodate more and more until his entire cock was buried inside you.

You felt so incredibly full. Your hand gripped the blanket on your bed to anchor yourself as you tried to get used to the sensation of being stuffed with Nanami’s dick. He tried to remain still above you, waiting for your signal. Eventually, you met his gaze and gave a little nod. He sweetly kissed you on the lips before he started to move.

Nanami started at a slow pace afraid to hurt you at first, but he eventually settled into a rhythm that had you moaning his name over and over again. You were so wet that he slid in and out of you effortlessly, rubbing against your walls in a way that had you seeing stars again. You had wrapped your legs against his waist, allowing him to enter you even deeper. 

You were almost babbling nonsense at this point, unaware of exactly what you were saying as your mind was just consumed by pleasure. “Fuck. Kento. You’re so big,” you whined. “Faster. Harder. D-don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

Nanami adjusted the angle of his thrusts until he finally found the spot that had you gasping and clenching down on him again. He groaned, making sure to continue hitting the same exact spot with strong, fast thrusts at just the right tempo. “You’re so perfect. Looking at you, taking my cock so well,” he growled.

The pressure was building again. Everything was so overwhelming. The lewd, wet noises of your bodies moving together. The way Nanami growled praises of you in your ear. The muscles on his back rippling with exertion underneath your wandering hands. You just needed that one final push.

One of your hands sneaked down to rub your clit, but Nanami pushed it away and pressed his thumb against your swollen nub instead. Just a couple of strokes had you reaching your peak again. You clenched down so hard around Nanami that his hips stuttered, groaning loudly in your ear. You were completely consumed by wave after wave of pleasure. You couldn’t think. You couldn’t hear. You couldn’t see. All you could register was the pure bliss that racked your entire body, leaving you gasping and shuddering.

Nanami continued to fuck you through your orgasm, ramming his cock into you over and over again. His thrusts had become more frantic and uneven, chasing his own climax after you started to come down from yours.

“Where should I cum?” he groaned with gritted teeth.

You wrapped his arms around his neck and pulled him down closer to you.

“Cum inside me,” you panted against his ear.

He groaned. You were perfect. Absolutely perfect.

With a couple of more thrusts, Nanami completely buried himself inside you when he flooded your cunt with his cum. He remained inside for several more moments to catch his breath before finally removing himself from you. You slightly winced as his cock brushed past your sensitive walls. Nanami couldn’t help but admire the way his cum slowly dribbled out of you.

He laid down next to you as you both began to calm down. No words were needed between the two of you. The silence was comfortable as you cuddled against his chest. Nanami rubbed your back absentmindedly as you hummed in delight.

Eventually, the two of you got out of bed and cleaned up. The textbooks and notebooks haphazardly thrown on your floor were ignored for the rest of the day. You thought you deserved a break anyways. The two of you ate dinner together, cuddled on the couch while watching a movie, and went at it again for another round before settling down to go to sleep.

You were passed out next to Nanami, completely worn out from the day’s activities and normal sleep deprivation you had as a student. Your heavy breathing was the only sound in the tiny apartment. It strangely calmed Nanami just listening to you. He turned towards you and stroked your hair affectionately. 

A part of Nanami still worried if he had made the right choice with you. He was still concerned about your safety and well-being. Would he only bring you more grief if you constantly agonized over his dangerous missions as a jujutsu sorcerer? 

He let out a quiet sigh. He knew he would have regretted it if he continued to push you away. And if he was going to be a sorcerer, he wanted to be a sorcerer with no regrets. 

Nanami only hoped that he would never cause you any pain and anguish because of his profession. It was rare for sorcerers and non-sorcerers to find happiness as a couple. But perhaps the two of you would be an exception.

He prayed the two of you would be an exception.

---

“Welcome! How may I help y—oh!” You blinked in surprise as three individuals walked into the small boba shop.

Gojo waved at you with an easy grin. Nanami stood next to him as handsome and stoic as ever, but there was a new face behind them. He looked like a high schooler.

The blindfolded teacher wrapped his arms around the boy’s shoulder and pointed at him. “Meet Yuji Itadori! One of our first-year students!”

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you,” you said introducing yourself.

The boy tilted his head, looking at you curiously. “How do you know Gojo-sensei and Nanamin?”

Nanamin?

You chuckled at the cute nickname. 

“I told you to stop calling me that, Itadori,” Nanami replied, clearly bothered.

“Well, I’m…” you hesitated. You didn’t know what to say. A friend? An ex-coworker? A normal person who couldn't see curses but knew about their existence?

“She’s Nanami’s girlfriend!” Gojo exclaimed to your horror. You immediately flushed and looked to Nanami for him to clarify, but he didn’t react. He glared at the blindfolded sorcerer as per usual but didn’t refute the statement. Your eyes widened in realization. 

“Uh, y-yeah,” you stammered. “I guess I am.”

“Nanamin has a girlfriend!?” Itadori gasped. He had even more respect for his mentor now.

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Nanami growled much to your amusement.

You took their orders and began to prepare the drinks. Nanami and Idatori were talking in the corner while Gojo hung out at the counter near you. You had just finished sealing the drinks when the teacher explained something to you.

“Oh, by the way, Yuji is supposed to be dead so be sure to not mention his existence to anyone else.”

You almost dropped the drink you were holding. “Um, okay.” You thought it was better not to ask questions.

Gojo thanked you as he took his drink from your hand and grabbed a straw for himself. “Yo! Nanami! Yuji! Grab your drinks and let’s head out!”

Itadori followed Gojo out the door once he had his milk tea, but Nanami stayed behind.

“I meant it.”

“Huh?” you asked, cleaning the counter with a rag.

“I want you to be my girlfriend.”

You blinked, processing his words. A bright smile grew on your face. “Well, according to Gojo, I’m already your girlfriend.”

Nanami let out a rare chuckle and flashed you a small smile. “I’ll see you tonight.”

“Goodbye!” You waved as he left the shop.

Your coworker came out of the back room, looking at you suspiciously. “Why are you so smiley?” She looked around the empty shop. “There’s no one here.”

“Oh, no reason," you replied with a hum.

[cherrie-fizzypop]

New Love

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Thread 8 ~ Start from the beginning Here

Roleplay with @curiouserwilderness - Please do not interact with this post comment wise/reblog quote wise within the thread, to avoid confusion. Feel free to like, share, & read though! Thank you ♡

Main Characters: Loki Laufeyson/ Jade Lokisottir/ Kailani Moore

Jade Belongs to @lokifantasies & you can follow Jade’s blog @jade-pandora

Rating: Mature/18+

Summary: The first argument oh whatever shall they do?

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Word count: 786

Kai knew she became an organized mess of a pack rat when moving to New York, and she was heavily embarrassed by it. But after losing her parents she began to keep things for memories sake. She knew it was irrational built upon the fear of loss but it was something she was working on.

“I know I shouldn’t but it’s just… I’m not normally this messy.” Kai sighed when opening the door. She winced slightly at her organized mess before accepting her invitation to tidy up. Naturally she clicked some tunes in before starting to clean up her desk, as to hide something she’s been working on for the goddess. She gave Jade free reign of the room humming to herself before Jade had caught her attention.

“What’s wha—“ Kai asked, turning swiftly to see Jade holding a blue box that she had completely forgotten about. “I-It’s Nothing give it back?!” Kai desperately retorted, reaching for the box but Jade's playful curiosity was too quick for her. The redhead stared horrified as Jade began to sift through the photos. She had feelings of shame, guilt, & most of all regret for not disposing of the box sooner. She could tell by the look on Jade's face she was destroyed by the contents. She didn’t deny who the girl was but she did try to speak up fairly quickly to explain the situation, knowing what it looked like. “Jade I promise you it’s nothing, let me explain.” She cried desperately as Jade threw it all down and stormed out of the house.

“W-what!?” The redhead responded when Jade had exclaimed she couldn’t do this anymore.

Kailani attempted to chase her down but tripped on a sweater crashing to the floor. By the time she got back up and made it to her door the goddess had sped off.

The redhead flew back upstairs grabbing her phone wanting to desperately text Jade but she knew it was better to not distract her while driving upset. The last thing she wanted was for Jade to pick up her phone to read what she had to say and not make it home. She slid the flood eventually curling up with a blanket. Her dog made its way into it as well with her. When her phone chimed. A notification on jades tumblr.

“What the fuck?!” Kai exclaimed out loud to herself, sitting up as she read Jade's post. The second post shattered her even more. She didn’t understand how Jade could just cut off and act like this with zero context let alone an explanation. Kailani knew she was out of line when it came to keeping the box but it didn’t sit well blasting this argumentative misunderstanding over the Internet. After a few reblogs she finally got Jade to agree to message her privately which she was thankful for.

Kailani tried her best to explain things. She knew she was mostly in the wrong but she still couldn’t help but feel hurt but Jade’s ability to just toss her to the side and label herself as single so quickly. Like none of it mattered or was special. Was it just her way of protecting herself? She wondered. She typed vigorously trying to keep a calm ish text thread going.

Kai furrowed her eyebrows trying to keep the tears from falling down her face as she attempted to explain herself to the girl she loved most. As memories of her previous life with the blonde & her parents made her itch. She didn’t like being reminded of how the blonde could be rooted back to everything that seemingly destroyed her life. Not to mention how much harm the blonde had done to her which she just allowed because she thought that’s what love was.

Obviously this wasn’t working out the way Kai meant for it to ok. They both fought & said things they didn’t mean. Eventually both of them breaking down to their core feelings. Kai desperately trying to prove her love & Jade not feeling worthy of it somehow.

I’m the end the redhead broke down attempting to explain to Jade that she was the only thing she cherished dearly in her life. Hoping it would be enough to at least get back on speaking terms maybe even a chance at talking in person calmly to fix the mistakes kai had committed.

[ladylynse]

Hello 👋🏻👋🏻, I guess I'm answering all the questions in one go :) :) Hopefully, I don't make it confusing. Well, I guess now that's tumblr for us. It just got really tricky to send questions, but that's something I had said before. (It's an aventure that's for sure). Good to know that I haven't done any explanation so far confusing. Well, the rest of my week wasn't that bad, it went a bit slower than expected, or I think, it felt like that, you know? I got you, that feeling when you know the worst is coming isn't that nice. Let's hope that everything goes well and smooth as it can be. (Good luck with what you know is going to be the busiest time). Mmmm... yeah, that's true where someone use or not excel, normally depends or not in the type of job and if it is necessary. So, having those times where you are like, wait is it right or not? and then check again it can be normal. So, I think that it's good you do so, ask someone to check it over, you know? Time can and would mess up with memories, so it's all right :) :) (Obviously, the topic of memory is something else and more complex and well, not everyone does the same with it, if you know what I mean :) :)). I think that I just went from a to z in a blink XD XD Let's just leave it there, before I finally manage to made it confusing... I know, right? Saying that so quickly and first thing doesn't came that naturally. It would be funny, I think if that was the case. But who knows, maybe in the future? XD XD Wellllll... yes, it's a good sign. Enjoyment is always good. That's why I finally did it, I did sign with my username, as you can see :) :) (Although, I'm more like using @arisu-artnfics for communication and such but tumblr isn't allow me that- loooooong ago, I managed to send questions using my other blog in this case @arisu-artnfics to do that, now not possible). About your tags on the long question, that is the one I started... if that wasn't clear 😅😅 I just hope you are doing better and are all good with that snowfall warning. I only get thunderstorm warnings and floods... but that's getting better. Good luck with work again, it is painful being under staff because covid or stuff (We just got out of lot of lot of rain, some parts got bad in flood so... yeah, it wasn't pretty, but everything should go back to normal on Monday). I really hope that isn't that bad over there with the snow. Now, the shortest one, the news about ML. Sorry that it looked that bad, I was on the phone and extra spaces are a thing there. I hate it. Anyway, well you do as you do. Either way, the idea is to have fun :) :) I'll try to watch it, not life because that's in a working time for me, so not lifestream fun there. Normally subs (fans subs) appear in a couple of hours. The longest, would be next day, but still US was going to air it 2 days after, so the English version would be up not that long after anyway. I hope you enjoy it anyway. Let's have fun at the end, with it :) :) And that's it, I had wait until you are free to reply the long one to well, reveal myself and here it is. (oh btw, I'll keep waiting until your free to reply, I don't mind, I know the meaning of being busy, you know?) Nice to meet you :) :) As always have a nice day, take care and hopefully we'll talk soon :) :) -Le Fantôme anon, no more ;) ;)

(re: this ask and this ask)

Hello! Nice to officially meet you! *grins*

True enough! Tumblr updates tend to be fairly hit and miss on how much I like them/can ignore them/can't do anything but fervently hope the bugs are fixed quickly. Showing tags in the notifications list is probably one of my favourites for changes I like.

Slower than expected isn't bad! You're still happy when the work week ends but slower tends to mean that at least it wasn't stressful and possibly less tiring, depending on the nature of your work.

Things might be tight for us at work since we're down four people from last year, but it will not be worse than 2020; we will not be as severely cut back as we were when everything first shut down except for the handful of us allowed to go in. It'll be stressful, but I will not be so exhausted that I get home and go straight to bed. (You probably know how slow I am at writing in the first place, but I barely wrote a word for three months, and editing the little backlog I had at the time still took me ages.)

That's really weird that you can't send messages from that blog anymore. I wonder what bug that is. You might be able to get it fixed if you report the issue if you haven't already? I have no idea. (I don't have a secondary blog because I don't think I could keep it straight, so you all have to suffer with me putting absolutely everything on this one.)

It's all good! Your messages were clear. And for me, the snow stopped a couple of hours ago and now the sun is out. It's still cold, but the sun is out! (Temporarily; more snow is coming.) And it's a light snow. Fluffy and easy to shovel, not heavy and wet. It wasn't bad at all. We only got maybe 15 cm? It drifts in spots so it's hard to tell. I brushed a good 5-7 cm off my car after work yesterday, and it didn't stop till mid-afternoon today. We did not have the wind like we did the last time we were under a snowfall warning; that created whiteout conditions and you could not see very far to drive in the city, and it was impossible in the country. A flood warning being a more common thing would be scary, though. I'll take snowfall warnings any day. You can at least dig out from snow; with flooding, it's already spilling into your basement, ruining stuff, and bringing potential future issues with it.

That's a fair point re: subbing. The trailer looks good, though!!!

Thank you! It's appreciated.

[theonetheycallhannah]

The Treatment of Captain Syverson-Chapter 14: No Call No Show

Characters: Shane Benton (OFC), various other original supporting/secondary characters

Summary: We find out where Shane went Monday after work and exactly why she hasn’t been responding to any attempts at communication…and unfortunately, she’s not just taking some “me time.”

Want to reminisce about when this was just a happy little fluffy romance? Return to chapters past, or look at my other smutty drabbles here!

Word Count: 3.6k

Warnings:  SHANE FIGHTS BACK, BUT DEFINITELY GETS HER ASS KICKED, SO FAIR WARNING, IT’S VIOLENT. Language, mature themes, emotional abuse, mention of narcotics (morphine), vomiting, foreshadowing and mention of potential future violent/non-con/dub-con activities, but if those acts occur, they will not be portrayed on the page, but rather between chapter or section breaks, so don’t worry. Also, I use the “R” word, but not to discuss non-con, but rather to add an educational note about why one should yell “fire” when one is being assaulted. Basically no Sy material whatsoever, but he’s mentioned, so I’m tagging it as such! Shane being somewhat blasé about her mortality. I really don’t want to trigger anyone, so please read with caution or wait until you emotionally are ready to deal with our girl going through the shit.

Author’s Note: Really REALLY nervous about this one. This is not the resolution you are looking for, my friends. In fact, it’s not a resolution, at all. Lol. I foresee many people disliking this chapter for some reason or another. That’s actually okay. It’s not a chapter you’re meant to “like” per se. I don’t “like” it. I’m prepared for it to get very few notes, and I’m positioning it anyway. I think it’s some of my better writing, but I hated putting Shane through the ringer like this. It’s just one of those chapters you “get through.” And honestly, if you truly didn’t like it please give me feedback so I can improve and tweak. {For reasons other than “My beebeeeeee!” or “never mention anything less than consensual ever again kthxbye” because a) of all, MY beebee too, and b) of all, that’s what warnings are for and why they should be read.} That being said, I hope it at least tides you over until the next chapter. At least you know where she is…not that THAT’S a big relief under the circumstances! Lol!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me, Henry is not mine, le sigh, and all mention of him, his characters, any characters from his films, or his precious doggy, Kal, are strictly for transformative and recreational use. I neither ask for, nor accept payment for the work I post on Tumblr or AO3. Unbeta’d because this is for fun and escapism.

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@bloodyinspiredfuck

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@oddsnendsfanfics

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@thisismysecretthirstblog

@misslaland (apparently deactivated, idk what’s up with that)

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Hope I’m not forgetting anyone! If you want to be notified when I post a new chapter or work, I’ll be happy to add you to my tag list! Stricken blogs are getting personal messages from me when a new chapter is uploaded because Tumblr’s faulty tagging system will not stand in the way of me delivering what the people want!(?) lol! (Although…their lackadaisical notification system might…sorry for that. I have no control. lol!)

X@X@X@X@X@X@X@X@X@X@X@

Previously, in Virginia…

"Shane left work Monday and hasn't been back since. No one has seen her. Apart from you, I presume. "

"I haven't seen her in about a week and a half. I'm training out of state for a job. I've been away from my phone since Monday, and I just got back to it now."

"She isn't…with you? I assumed…"

"Well, you know what they say, Susan. I'm coming back early if I can manage it. See if I can do something to help find her."

Three days earlier, in Missouri…

Shane blinked her eyes open to little avail. She couldn't tell where she was, other than what seemed to be the back seat of a fairly new-model large vehicle, like a Suburban or a Tahoe. She thought it was new because the new car smell was still overpowering the nicotine and tobacco odor of at least one of its occupants. She could also smell the sickly sweet stench of artificial cherry permeating the cabin. The source must be very close to her nose as she lay there helplessly restrained while the vehicle jostled down the road. The smell reminded her of the horrible liquid pain reliever her mother would give her as a child when she had a fever or leg pains. She had taken enough of it then to make her averse to most cherry flavorings as an adult. She wanted to retch.

She could also make out the faint glow of a dashboard lit with LED lights, brighter and softer than those of older models. But she soon had to shut her eyes again. Her head was throbbing and her memories were fuzzy. She remembered very little of Monday…was it still Monday? But she was trying to think, despite the pounding of many drums in her cranium where a brain should be.

She remembered staying at work late to finish notes. She remembered heading home…and she remembered forgetting her phone at her desk and deciding to turn around to get it…when suddenly she was surrounded by vehicles and unable to move without having an accident. Had she known the circumstances then, she would have tried to muscle through. The horrific events came flooding back in traumatic flashes like lightning, or the pulse of passing streetlights in an unfamiliar city.

She remembered…

The glass by her left ear shattered. A hooded, hulking figure reached in through the new opening, fumbling for the handle to open the door. She'd had the presence of mind to fight back there. To punch at the probing extremity. But the extremity hit back, landing a solid smack against her left cheek, stunning her for long enough that the cruel apparition found the unlock button, pressed it, and opened the door. She didn't go quietly. She fought like the hellcat her mother always told her to be. Her foot found the odd solar plexus and groin before enough dark nemeses arrived to overpower her. They dragged her away from her car and out onto the pavement of the church parking lot she'd used to turn around. She did not make it easy for them. She kicked and punched and tried to twist out of their grips like vices. She yelled "fire" as she was taught as a young woman, not knowing the men's intentions, but certain they weren't kind, and knowing that yelling "rape" was not always effective at summoning help. Either way, it didn't matter. She could have shouted anything. No one was near enough, or cared enough, to come to her aid. As soon as her soft hands hit the gritty pavement, though, the violence intensified. She lost count of how many times she got kicked in the back, stomach, ribs. One asshole even kicked her in the tit. She'd find out who that was and he'd find himself in a special brand of pain…if she ever got out of this alive. She heard them calling her awful names that she was sure she hadn't earned, and especially not from these guys. About six of them, she thought. She hardly knew six guys. She certainly didn't know six guys that would want her roughed up like this. She heard one of the men start to say "Come on, guys, we better save some for--" and with that, she blacked out to the tune of the distinct "thunk" of a wooden baseball bat making contact with the back of her head.

She wanted to forget…for it to be a terrible nightmare…to wake up.

But she was awake. This was a waking nightmare. The cold leather on her cheek was made colder by the harsh air conditioning blowing toward her from above and below. She shivered from the chill and from the terror she was trying to suppress. Where were they taking her? For what purpose? And for whom were they leaving parts un-bruised…though it didn't feel like it.

She finally felt them slowing, heard a turn signal clicking, the courtesy of which she applauded despite her position in the active abduction taking place, and felt the gentle displacement of her body toward the driver side, knocking her head into the door. A right turn. Not that it would matter too much, but at least when she escaped, and she made herself think "when" and not "if," she would know which direction to turn to get back to town.

The blow to the head had left her sensitive to light and sound. As she was yanked from the back seat, all she could see was the glow of a dusk to dawn light above them. Normally a soft, guiding light, this one just as well have been the sun itself the way it stung her tender eyes. She squinted against it, thankful as she never would have thought to be, when a shroud was placed over her throbbing head. She could still hear the power coursing through the bulb and fixture, though. Normally a dull hum, in the state she was in, it was as loud as accidentally switching your TV to the snow channel at full volume.

"Bring 'er inside." She heard an unfamiliar male voice say.

Two strong, ruthless hands grabbed her by the armpits, causing her to cry out in pain. Such a tender place to bear weight, and why even big strong Sy hated crutches…Sy. Would she ever see him again?

"Shut up, bitch, or we'll knock you out again." She believed them, and being fairly certain she had at least a mild  concussion, she wasn't sure what a second blow of an indeterminate velocity might do to her brain. She dealt with the stabbing pain as the men dragged her across what sounded like gravel, then grass, then something hard and smooth, maybe the slabs of an old, sunken, and somewhat uneven footpath. Soon, she felt the pain of her knees hitting what she assumed were porch steps. One, two, three of them. She was trying to concentrate through the fog now setting in, and maintain consciousness. Paying attention to the sensations, she told herself, was not only helpful for that task, it might help her escape. Remember the scents, too, she reminded herself. She tried to shake off the nauseating cherry and cigarette stench from her olfactory glands and take note of the bouquet around her.

Burnt leaves…gasoline…engine grease…the tang of sappy, just cut firewood…straw…manure…this seemed to be a farm. With a barn nearby…perhaps with horses. She loved horses. If she could find a gentle horse in the night…escape might be easier than she'd anticipated.

Entering the house was a noisy affair. There was a metallic keening from the spring of an aluminum screen door. She imagined it had one of those big swirly cross beams like her grandma's used to have that she always though was supposed to resemble a butterfly. A heavier, wooden door creaked open as the three figures muddled their way in, and the floorboards protested, as well, at the weight of her captors. So, she thought, not only a farm house, but an old farm house.

"Where do you want her?" the man on her left asked into what she only knew as the void, so far.

"Take her to the cellar. I've got things set up down there." a familiar voice chuckled and growled. How did she know the voice? Was he a patient? She couldn't think of anyone she'd treated that would want her abducted and brutalized.

"You got it, E." Ugh, for some reason it bothered her when guys referred to each other by their first initials. Girls, no big deal. But bros…there was something so thoroughly douchey and…familiar about it all…

"Hold on." the man called "E" said, and she heard footfalls approaching her. As he got closer, she smelled…patchouli and incense…and the sea…and it brought back a rush of pain from past trauma followed by literal pain from his punch to her gut. She hadn't been expecting it. Obviously. The wind had been taken out of her. Literally and figuratively. She did know this man…all too well.

"We've got some catching up to do, sweetheart." the pet name dripped like venomous honey from the tongue of the snake before her.

"Elliot." it wasn't a question. She coughed the name out like a pill that had gone down sideways.

Her escorts continued their transportation of her prone body to its destination…she didn't want to think FINAL destination, but the more she learned about her situation, the more she worried that she wouldn't make it out alive.

They had to get creative in carrying her down the narrow staircase to the cellar. They argued for a moment about who would take the top half and who would go backwards.

"How about the one who takes my top half goes forward and the bottom half goes backward?" These idiots. Where did Elliott find clowns like this who needed to be told by their prisoner the best way to sort out their domestic dispute.

She thought she felt them shrug, and silently take her advice as she felt herself being lowered down the stairs, feet first, panic threatening to overtake her restrained limbs.

When they got to the bottom of the stairs, they stood her up to remove her shroud, and cut the zip ties from around her ankles and wrists. She then noticed a small cell that reminded her of the ones in the sheriff's offices in some westerns she'd seen. She started to freak out, anticipating her future in that horrid place.

"Guys, please. No. Please don't do this. I don't know what Elliott's told you about me, but I'm a good person. I don't deserve this. I have a job and friends and a family who will worry sick about me. I am begging you to let me go. Please!"

"You're wasting your breath, lady." one of the men said, gruffly.

"PLEASE!" she appealed, desperate to get through. "Don't you guys have wives or girlfriends? Mothers, sisters, aunts, or female cousins? What if a woman you cared about was in this situ---" and before she could finish the question, one of the men punched her for what felt like the thousandth time tonight. She fell to her knees, vomiting. And the world went black again.

~~~~~~~

There were no windows. There was no clock. There was just a small twin mattress in one corner of the cell, and a bedside commode in the other. As accommodations went, it was hardly a Hilton, but it could have been worse. It was all lit by a 60-watt bulb in one of those hanging fixtures her dad had always called a trouble light situated on a hook on the side of one of the exposed joists outside the cell. He'd had a similar one for the longest time. He and mom will be worried sick before long, if they aren't already, she thought. The light was aptly named for these circumstances she was in. Trouble. A heap of it. And no idea of how to get out of it.

And honestly, no idea why Elliott would want her here. How he could do such a monstrous thing as having her kidnapped. How he came to live in this place when he never worked a day in his life. She was so confused. She hoped at the very least, he'd give her answers before he murdered her, if that was his plan.

She had woken up on her side, almost her stomach, with her right cheek on the scratchy surface of the bare mattress. Whoever put her to bed had been wise to position her like this given the likelihood that she might puke again. She noticed a small bucket, presumably for that purpose, next to the mattress. There was a caseless pillow next to her head, but she hadn't found that comfort during her nap of…she couldn't tell how long. Not that it mattered. The more she slept, the less time she'd have to process this horror movie she was currently living out.

She heard the door open at the top of the stairs and Elliott shout at one of his flunkies, "What do you MEAN you didn't get her phone?" a pause while indistinct words came from said flunky across the room, or maybe the house. "Well, find it. Tear that piece of shit Explorer apart if you have to. I want that phone." She took exception to her sweet little Norah getting called a piece of shit. That was her Millennium Falcon. And yes, she'd gotten flack for naming her Norah the Explorer, but she didn't care.

Elliott stomped down the stairs, grinning the most infuriatingly happy grin she'd ever seen on him. She wanted to maul him. To tear those stupid eyes out of their sockets with her own fingernails. But she controlled her anger and resisted even acknowledging his greeting of "Hey, sweetheart."

She ignored him.

"It's good to see you."

Silence.

"I missed you."

She stared right through him.

"I heard you and that meat head soldier broke up."

She scowled at him.

"There she is. There's my girl."

"I'm not your girl, Elliott, and I haven't been in years. Why am I here?" She broke. She couldn't take it.

"We'll get to that why soon enough. First, let's talk about why you and Cap'n Crunch are no longer breakfasting together? Soggy cereal? Limp toast? Was he letting you leave the table unsatisfied?"

"As if you ever satisfied me when we were together." She spat back, calling Elliott out on his notorious selfishness in all aspects of life and relationships.

"I've changed."

"Bullshit." she rolled her eyes.

"It's true!" he insisted. "I can give you references."

"I honestly don't give a shit. We're not together. Sy and I are. Happily. And you better let me go soon. He was expecting me at his place after work. He's probably out looking for me right now." she lied. It was worth a shot.

"Now it's my turn to call bullshit, because I know that isn't true." He looked at her with that patronizing stare he had.

"You don't know shit, Elliott."

"I know that your boy took off over a week ago for Virginia and hasn't come back, at least not the way he left. I believe he's supposed to be gone at least a few weeks. Maybe a couple of months. He wasn't sure at last report."

She was literally willing him to burst into flames before her. Her gaze revealed her hand.

"Told ya. You think you're the only one with connections at the fort? I've got me a sweet little sergeant who works in ATC over there. She can out-squat anyone else on base…and let me tell you, it shows." he lifted his eyebrow, lasciviously.

"You disgust me."

"Why? You never seemed to mind my…sexy imagination." he winked at her.

"No, I'm happy that you're getting it good on the regular from an ass that won't quit. But come on. You clearly only got with this girl because you thought it would give you the upper hand against me."

"Well, that's very self-absorbed thinking."

"Really, Elliott? Do you see where we are right now?" they looked around at the dank cellar and he shrugged, unable to deny or rebut. "And this woman. Does she know about this little scheme?"

He gave her one of his more evil grins. "Who do you think kicked you in the tit?" Okay…she was new levels of pissed off now.

"Why…the actual FUCK am I here, Elliott!?"

"Well, Shane, you embarrassed me with that little stunt at the bar a few weeks ago. You thought you were hot shit, parading your sasquatch of a boyfriend around in front of me, in my town, humiliating me as all of my friends watched. And then that dickhead sucker punched me in the parking lot. I shoulda pressed charges. But him being a veteran, I knew how that woulda gone in this town. I didn't have a snowball's chance. So I waited. And I planned. And I was patient. And I watched for my moment. And it finally came. I've been watching you leave work every night for the past week, and you're always with someone, or headed somewhere else, or going straight home. Last night…last night I knew was the night when you didn't leave until after 7. You were the last one out, and I knew that it had to be then. The plan, not that you need to know, is to plaster your social media with humiliating photos, piss off everyone that you love, including your precious Sy, and alienate everyone you've ever cared about until you're miserable and alone."

Shane was crying now. She thought she might be sick again. She reached for the bucket. The delusion of this man thinking that anyone in that bar besides maybe the ones that were there with him that night gave a shit about him. Thinking that the town was his. He was a nobody there. He hadn't grown up there, he didn't work there, he didn't participate in community events. He was kidding himself if he thought anyone cared enough about him that he should feel shame over her relationship with Sy, especially five years after their relationship with each other had ended.

"How's that for a 'why,' sweetheart?" he boasted.

"It's making my ask myself a lot of questions. Like why I ever agreed to go out with you all those years ago. Why I didn't see the signs that you were a psychopath sooner. And why I put up with your terrorism for so long thinking you'd ever really change. I can't believe I ever slept with you, you absolute barbarian." and she heaved into the bucket, non-productively. She hadn't eaten since lunch, and that had to be well over twelve hours ago.

"Well, ya did. And ya can't change the past. But I'm about to take your future into my hands. As soon as we find your phone, we're gonna have us a ball, little girl."

"You honestly think I'll cooperate with any of that?"

"You won't have a choice." he held up a little glass vial. "Morphine. A tiny dose of this stuff, and you'll do anything I tell ya."

"Please. Just let me go now, and I won't press charges. I won't go to the cops, at all. I'll call in to work with a headache, or something and you can live your life with Sergeant Squats and we can leave each other alone."

"A good offer, but I need to get something out of this. I need my pride back."

"And you're gonna get that by dragging me through the mud online from my own Facebook account? Is that really the way you wanna do this? When you could just show me what a great life you've built for yourself. This is a great place here, it seems, I mean, I only smelled it, and felt how big it was while I was getting dragged around the place. But, Elliott, if you had just told me about all this, I would have been happy for you!"

"This place is Sasha's."

"Oh." she grasped for something, anything to make him see how insane he was being without saying the words. "Well, I'd still have been happy for you finding an established woman with a great job. Why couldn't you have just written me a letter telling me that? An email! Something."

"This is how it's getting done, Shane. Because this is the only way that truly ruins your life in the process. Because at the end of all of this, the backlash is going to be too much for you, and you're not going to be able to handle this life anymore…"

"No. Elliott, no."

"Yes. You're gonna take one last hit of the morphine and drive that shitty Ford right into the lake."

"You used to care about art. About beauty. You used to be sensitive. You used to have a soul. What happened, Elliott? What happened to your humanity?" Shane asked, crying, in mourning for the man he used to be. The one that she used to care for.

"I fell in love. And she broke my heart. And nothing has been the same."

"Elliott, I didn't mean to…"

"Oh, fuck, not you, don't be stupid. No, Kara. I met her right after you kicked me out, and SHE broke my heart." he  turned and started up the stairs, pausing to look over his shoulder and say, "I'll be back when I have your phone. And I'll bring friends." before he ascended, shutting the door firmly behind him.

She had never been so relieved to NOT have her phone in her life. Hopefully, her coworkers had it safe and sound, and locked up at work.

Up Next: Chapter 15-Recon

[movieguy50]

Hey everyone,

I just want to give everyone a quick update as to what's going on with the scams or what's called operation drain and run out of the 200 that were arrested the other day most have been released must have been very forthcoming and giving information some of them have been detained further pending for their interview and or their charges are going to be dropped or reduced law enforcement agencies have confirmed that there are some more smaller cell operations of this type going on here in the United States and in Canada they are now getting in with the Canadian authorities to help with the investigation up there I can't tell you that 75 of the 200 people arrested the other day were members of Tumblr so basically yes they were right under our nose and we did not know it but I knew it.

I can also tell you that information from this point forward is going to be very slim because they are wanting to Big Cheese the people that are actually masterminding all this and they're going to have to start being careful what information they let out and that's totally acceptable to me I totally understand that and they did say the other thing about passing the info. on to you guys as much as they can. They said that I have been a big help in this there's been a few other people that have come forward they've also been assisting and helping out but I still need some more help so anything y'all got if it if it means you got scammed don't worry about being embarrassed you're not going to be judged or you're not going to be treated like shit just because you fell for it.

So now if you've noticed that I changed the format of my blog it makes it look like it's in a daily or weekly episodic TV show it's still called a slice of my world but it's also episode 1-18 this is starting to become a daily or actually it should say it bi-weekly thing of me posting and I have enjoyed it don't get me wrong but the title of this is called oh how things have changed and it's basically going to be a lot of difficult reading from this point forward but stuff that once you read it you'll understand why it has been so difficult I I'm going to Chronicle the night of January 20th of last year through the morning hours of January 21st which is what I considered the moment my life changed forever.

So we begin on January 20th 2020 I had to go to work I walked 4 miles to go to work because I didn't have a vehicle anymore and we were living in a motel so I had to you know make sure one of us is working until a lot of times where I was staying even hard for me to get a ride. So I work the 3:30 to close shift which basically meant I left between anywhere from between 12:30 and 1:00 in the morning I worked at a movie theater which by the way was probably the best job I had ever had in my life I I love that place I would love to go back to another one like it. So basically I got off work about 12:30 that night and normally I would have a ride to work on Monday nights this week it wasn't possible because of something that happened at the theater the manager got behind on his paperwork on and couldn't get out on time like he normally does I had to go to the store that night because we didn't have very much food so I went to store I got about 2 or 3 nights worth of food with enough till I get to my day off from work to go to the store and get more. That was a common occurrence so by the time I got done with the store and got home about 2:30 in the morning my wife was asleep she had been sick for about a month before this which now I have directly linked into being one of the first cases of COVID-19 in the united states'.

I came home and like I said she was asleep and I gave her a kiss like I usually do sometimes it wakes her up sometimes it doesn't this time it woke her up we start talking for a little bit I went outside and I did my usual ritual I go outside and smoke a little weed you know kind of relaxed a little bit for about 20-30 minutes yeah I went inside and cooked dinner now for a little background my wife had been sick for a while she had a heart attack November 8th in 2018 and then she had a stroke Easter Sunday of 2019 a stroke that she refused to go get taken care of even though I begged her and had other people beg her to go to the hospital she would not do it when she had the heart attack the doctor was not able to fix all the blockages to her heart because some of the arteries were too small so he told me privately that if she had another heart attack she wouldn't survive it I knew that I told her that about 3 months later so she knew but on this night I never had any dream or knowing that 2 hours after I got home from work she would be dead she had a massive heart attack I was just getting ready to start cooking dinner when she started really screaming about chest pain and I've never heard her go off like she did and even though I called 911 it still took the damn people 20 minutes to get out there otherwise I still think she'd be alive but then again maybe not so to try to make a long story short they would not let me ride in the ambulance with her to the hospital she was still coherent but when they did the ekg in the room where we were staying at I could tell the guy's eyes that she wasn't going to be much longer and I think the reason why they told me I couldn't ride with them was because for the same Theory I think that they didn't want my last memory of her to be of her fighting for her life and dying and I am thankful for that because I've had horrible nightmares about this whole thing and so after I made all the notifications and everything that day I went back to work two days later and I was told I could stay out as long as I needed to they were really really super awesome and amazing to me hell they were even responsible for giving me the money to get my wife buried because they donated money they put a pool in together to help me. The thing about it was is I don't know what upset me more the fact that I wish there was something more I could have done or the fact that I had to have a fucking cop show up to my door to tell me that she was gone even though I had already known it. So when I went back to work two days later it was very very hard because she used to work there too and she used to work at the podium on the weekends where she took the tickets and everything and told people where the theaters were and everything else and I wasn't there for 2 hours and I just doubled over it was just like a big flood of emotion but I made it that night but the hard part was with the weekends because those were the nights that she worked the most everybody loved my wife it worked up there and so I mean I didn't feel like I was so alone then the pandemic came I lost my job I lost my place where I was staying I had to go to my sister-in-law's house which was the biggest mistake of my life cuz I really found out what kind of people they were plus that's when I developed a curiosity for methamphetamine and then I met the bitch from hell not even 2 months later and keep in mind she was just supposed to be a companion we weren't like going to be boyfriend girlfriend cuz I still way too broke up about my wife's death that's all I wanted cuz I couldn't stand being lonely anymore just like I can't stand it now but she got me hooked on meth and I say she got me hooked because she kept bringing it around me knowing that I found something new that I really liked and I didn't ask her to bring it around I could have said no but this has to do with that 28 day period from June to July where she was drugging me putting the dope in my food in my drinks that's why I blame her.

Then after my ex got murdered at a house party I lost my sister-in-law and nephew and then my step daughter called me one day two weeks before Christmas to tell me that she lost her fiance her baby's daddy after he had a heart attack from A congenital heart defect that he had for 6 years the only bright spot of 2020 was my step daughter had a daughter of her own and that to this day that baby is my love bug

As where I'm at right now I'm going to be homeless by next weekend again unless I can come up with $250-300 dollars by Friday night it doesn't look like it's going to happen folks unless I can get some donations and get them quick I am taking donations right now if you can help I don't care if it's 5 10 15 20 $25 whatever it is it will help I don't expect nobody to give me the money all at once cuz I know a lot of people don't have that kind of money right now so just little donations will help right now I had to actually go to Walmart today and steal food God I hate myself for doing it I didn't get caught but still my conscience was getting the best of me for much of the evening I got enough food here to last me for 2 or 3 days if I end up getting to stay here but like I said it's not looking very good at this point I've tried local resources I've tried all kinds of Charities help and all they want you to do is hurry up and wait and I ain't got that kind of time and I told him that so I I'm asking for any help that anyone could give if I don't get if I can get at least $250 out of 400 I can go get me a motel room for the week and I'll get me by until I can come back here when my roommate comes back cuz then he'll have the money for the rent and everything else so I can come back here so I just need to really get by for a week I have not had any dope in nine days I'm going crazy but I need a place to live first before I can be doing that shit so I'll just have to deal with it if you want to help I'll give you my cash app I will put it at the end of this post for everybody so the last 18 months has not been fun I went to six suicide of Temps and I just been existing when before I had it all anyway so that's basically going to end this episode of a slice of my world I'm sorry if this was such a downer for a lot of people but you know I the more and more I feel like I tell my story easier everyday gets for me cuz I don't feel like I'm burying myself with all the emotion and having to keep it bottled up anyway I will talk to you y'all whenever I talk to you I may be on Hiatus for a little bit because I won't have a phone here after tomorrow unless I go someplace that has Wi-Fi and depending on my living situation I mean like I said I'm I'm hoping and praying somebody will be able to help out by donating a little bit of money to me so I can keep a place over my head somehow someway anyway y'all. I love you take care of yourself and I'll see you on the other side

Cashtag $jojo091069

PayPal

Venmo

Google pay

Message for those tags I left blank as I don't know them by heart yet

Love,. Sean

[nekowriteshaikyuu]

gallery folder

i told you not to save it !!

pairing: kuroo x reader

warnings: mentions of nudity(well not really)

a/n: andd we’re back with another episode of ‘i write to let loose of my sad emotions’, staring me, me,,andd me. idk uhh, i have a few homework to do but i was being teased by my mum about my double chin:) i know it’s a joke and i try not to take it by heart but i’m really trying to ya know lose weight and having those comments is just making me doubt myself even more. so uhh,,, enough of me, enjoy a quick hc i made:)

(once again i apologise if it doesnt really match well with the character,,,and also my vocab hnngg)

--------<3

kuroo and you have been dating for about 2 years now. You both are really comfortable with each other. He’s that doofus who laughs like a maniac, gives of that quirky smirk all the time and just, a crackhead.

but at the same time, he’s really good in bed owO. Just- muah. he would be able to not make you walk for days but he doesn’t want you to suffer so much so he takes is nicee and sloww.

Sometimes when your feeling a little hEaTy,or just to tease your boyfriend, you’d snap a few mirror pictures of you in his jersey/clothes. The hem of the shirt just stopping at your thighs, but not enough to cover your SwEeT cHeEks im sorry, the collar area draping over your shoulder, revealing your bra slightly. You sat on the sink with your back facing the mirror, accentuating your butt and snapping multiple pictures.

you’ll always send it to him during his practice sessions with a text after that like “how long are you gonna take?” or “feeling a little lonely here;p”

everytime he’d come home busting the door like an fbi agent, dashing into your shared bedroom. He won’t even give you a second to speak or welcome him home, he’d just pounce onto you.

one day, you both were home after a long day at school and he went into the room to change while you sat at the living room couch, sipping your water and wiggling your legs.

you spotted his phone on the coffee table and took it because,,curiosity kills the cat. You’re that cat.

you opened it and already the lockscreen is you holding the plushie he earned for you during your date at the carnival. Unlocking it, the homescreen was a picture of you and him after his volleyball match, his hand wrapped around your waist and yours around his. Your felt your cheeks blushing as you recall the beautiful memory.

your eyes soon landed on the gallery icon. ‘well, a peek won’t hurt’. you clicked on it and it was floaded with tiktok memes, pictures of nekoma, pictures of you and pictures of cute doggos. you smiled as you went through all the pictures, his wide smile just melting your heart

it was all cute and stuff until you spotted a folder which was named “heaven”. 

“heaven? are these his match tournament pictures?” you asked yourself before clicking on it. 

...it wasn’t what you thought it was.

there, the folder was flooded with pictures of your noOds you SWORE you told him not to save. well guess what? he saved it. well, screenshotted it to be exact.

you’ve always been self-conscious about your nudes being leaked. Your friend had experienced it and she went on static. So everytime you sent one, you made sure that once he’s seen it, you’ll delete it immediately to avoid it leaking. But kuroo being kuroo, he’d screenshot it seconds before its wiped off.

You couldn’t stop scrolling. He saved every. single. picture. Not one of your nudes is not not there.

Just as you would even reach the end of the folder, Kuroo came out of the room with fresh clean clothes.

You stared at him before he looks up and notice you

“babe? what’s wrong?”

“kuroo...what is this?” you flashed the booming folder of your nudes. He bent over to look closer before realising your holding his phone, and going through his prized possession.

“wait how did you get my phone ?!?” he ran straight to you, tackling you to grab his phone away from you.

“t-tetsurou!! I told you not to save it !!!! it’s gonna leak !!”

“no it won’t i swear it’s only seen within my eyes!!”

“nooo!!!” his body weight really crushed you. losing your tight grip around his phone, he took it before checking if any of the photos were deleted. When all photos are still present, he sighed with a relief before clutching it to his chest

“tetsurou. delete them immediately.” 

“this is the only thing that’s keeping me alive when i’m desperate during practice, y/n. so,no”

“tetsurou !”

a/n: yay, i feel much better after writing this:) also i’m not good at writing like nsfw or anything kinda winky wonky so i hope this is fine. Also i’m really dumb with tumblr i still don’t know how to use this app so if my blog is messy and stuff i’m so sorry. But yeah, i hope you enjoy it:)

[barnzbucky]

reach for the moon - chapter 2 (Ivar x Reader)

Pairing: Ivar x reader; Hvitserk x reader (quite a lot in this chapter)

Summary: Hvitserk finally found out who you were. Ivar and Ubbe need a plan to make Hvitserk stay in the agreements of his marriage.

Warnings: mention of arranged marriage; mentions of war; mentions of unrequited love; canon divergence; oc characters; fictional city; uncanon light hearted characters; cuteness of the wrong couple;  (please, let me know if I missed something)

Word count: 1.6k

A/N: Hi! I’m sorry for my inability to do anything useful these last few weeks, I hope you haven’t given up on me, haven’t been on tumblr for a while. Enjoy ❤️️

masterlist | series masterlist

In middle of laughing and flirting, Hvitserk had convinced you to take a detour from your original path, claiming it was his utmost obligation to show you around Kattegat, a town he had proudly showed off, saying it was seeing its best days thanks to him and his brothers. You couldn’t help giggling at the way he excitedly introduced you to the fishermen and the merchants selling their produce at the market, to the cows and goats passing around, to the children and the ancient, to the houses and the ships and the docks, and everything else you already knew by heart.

Initially you had been too shocked to tell him you had grown up in Kattegat, still having a hard time believing he hadn’t recognized you. But as the hours passed with him dragging you around, you managed to slip out that bit of information, and told him you knew each other. He was mostly embarrassed for not knowing who you were, so he avoided talking about it, quickly trying to distract you with baked goods or entertaining stories.

Walking hand in hand with Hvitserk was something you had daydreamed throughout your life more times than you could count. You had imagined how his eyes would be shining because of daylight and how his skin would feel against yours; what types of things you would talk about and if he would laugh at your jokes or say cheeky things you knew he usually said to women he was interested in. 

He did not disappoint you. Even while trying to show off, as he usually did, his eyes always fell back on you, and his warm hand only occasionally left yours, making you feel elated and special and bringing warmth to your whole body, something you were almost thankful for, because it made you ignore the cold completely.

It was almost dark, and with the sun hidden behind the clouds since earlier, you weren’t too sure you would be able to get home before nightfall if you stretched your outing much longer.

“That place is the Great Hall,” Hvitserk gestured towards the big wooden doors.

You chuckled, “I know the Great Hall, prince Hvitserk, I don’t think it changed at all.”

His eyes slightly widened and he squeezed your hand tighter. You had to stop yourself from laughing, because that was the exact reaction he had every time you’d mentioned something to do with you having lived in Kattegat before.

His adorable reaction distracted you from the bad memories immediately flooding your thoughts, and you had to take a deep breath to focus back on reality.

“Yes, I forget.” He laughed and scratched the back of his neck, “Do you want to go home now? We can go to yours or to mine.”

You laughed loudly at his attempt to take you to his bed, too amused to think much of it, “I think it would be better if you took me to my house and then go back to yours.”

“Are you not going to tell me who you are?” Hvitserk asked for what felt like the hundredth time. 

You were almost reaching your destination and he still didn’t know who you were, and you refused to tell him. As soon as you started to make your way to your house he dropped the embarrassed act and went to attempt guessing where he knew you from.

You hadn’t stopped laughing the entire way, too amused with the entire situation.

“No, I’m having too much fun!” you giggled, your cheeks almost hurting from the smile on your face.

“This is torture,” he groaned, throwing his head back. But he wasn’t truly annoyed, your sweet smiles and giggles, even if at his expenses, made up for it.

“Don’t worry, prince Hvitserk, you’ll remember me soon,” you grinned.

He shook his head, the crooked smirk never leaving his face, and squeezed your hand. You were sure he knew they way your heart reacted to those small touches, and did them on purpose just to make you flustered.

“There aren’t many people who live this far into the woods,“ he acknowledged with narrowed eyes, going back to his mission of finding out who you were, “I only know two.”

“Oh?” you gave a lopsided grin. He was getting closer, but you doubted he would figure it out before you got home. “Who?”

Before he could respond, you heard your name being shouted from afar and a second later your parents came into your view. Immediately dropping Hvitserk’s hand, you sprinted towards them, throwing yourself in their arms.

To be back home so far had been an otherworldly experience, but finally being able to see your parents, knowing you would see them tomorrow and the day after tomorrow made you feel ecstatic. They had been the only people you had to rely on for so long, supporting you through everything, and you felt the most happy being back beside them. You could finally say they didn’t have to worry about you anymore. Or so you hoped.

They whispered apologies in your ears, telling you your mother had a late commission for a dress outside of Kattegat, and they had lost track of time trying to get it done in time for the trading ship to arrive.

Hvitserk slowly made his way to you, your trunk in his hand, and your parents let you go.

“Thank you for bringing my daughter home, prince Hvitserk,” your father spoke politely, wary of him.

Hvitserk was astounded at the vision of your parents. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t recognized you. You knew each other since childhood; your father was one of the warriors training other people for the raiding parties Ragnar organized, and you were always around, trying to keep yourself from playing with Sigurd. 

But he remembered you being quite different than he was seeing now. Back then, you were shy and meek, nothing like the confident teasing woman he spent the day with.

He cleared his throat before answering, “Yes, Arne, I couldn’t let her unaccompanied.”

Your father approached him and took the baggage out of his hand before returning home with your mother, giving you and the prince privacy to talk.

“Thank you for the company, Hvitserk.“ 

“Of course, I go out of my way to help a friend, Y/N.” The mention of your name, indicating he, in fact, knew you, made you drop your head back and laugh loudly. “I can’t believe I didn’t know who you were.”

The subtle blush in his cheeks made your smile wider, “Well, I can’t blame you. I certainly look quite different.”

“Yes, you do,” he responded with the same tone he had been using the entire day, and you could almost sigh in relief because he didn’t stop his advances after learning who you were.

You slowly got closer to him until your noses were almost touching, his smirk matching yours.

“I’m sure you must be busy, I’m sorry I took so much of your time,” You said softly, your eyes going over his face. “Goodbye, prince Hvitserk.”

You couldn’t help but smile at his stunned expression, with eyes still fixed on you even after you turned your back and went after your parents, not waiting for his response.

Hvitserk walked into the Great Hall with a huge grin on his face, quite the contrast from the last time he was there. Ubbe was sitting at the table sipping on mead and he exchanged a surprise look with Ivar, sitting at the throne sharping one of his knifes in one of the few moments he had for himself.

“Hello, brothers,” he greeted cheerfully, patting Ubbe in the back and sitting beside him. Reaching a hand over the table, he grabbed a piece of bread and a the jar of mead, filling his cup to the brim and downing in one go. “You’ll never guess who’s back!”

Ivar raised a brow, still deciding whether he wanted or not to ask who made him so happy, “Who?”

“Y/N! Arne’s daughter,” Hvitserk ignored Ivar’s frown and shoved a piece of bread into his mouth, swallowing before speaking again, “she looks beautiful, I didn’t recognize her, can you believe it?”

“Hvitserk-”

“As much as I love to hear about the women you bring to your bed, Hvitserk, I have to remind you, you are getting married soon.” Ivar interrupted Ubbe, instantly reprimanding their brother.

“I don’t think Tove will care too much about other women, Ivar,” he chuckled, grabbing more bread and standing to go back outside before Ivar had the chance to ruin his good mood.

“But her father certainly will!”

“He is not here,” Hvitserk laughed and turned away, not waiting to hear his younger brother’s response or to look at the way he had to bite his hand to not lose his temper.

“That went well,” Ubbe broke the silence, wary of Ivar’s angry stance.

“We need to solve this,” Ivar breathed deeply, finally calm after a few seconds, “Fredrik’s going to be here soon, and if he sees the man betrothed to his daughter, who I promised would be somewhat faithful, with another woman, he will cancel the agreement and declare war on us. You know he battled for less.”

“What do you suggest we do, Ivar? Hm? It was already hard to have Hvitserk agree to this marriage, do you expect him to just… stop taking women and be loyal to someone he is marrying against his will?”

The king stopped for a minute, pondering his brother’s words, before deciding on an obvious resolve.

“She needs to go.” Before Ubbe could object to killing her, he spoke again, “we convince her to return to where she came from, Hvitserk marries Tove, and then she is free to come back to Kattegat and do whatever she wants.”

tags: @luvjiminssi ; @ryukjin ; @hecohansen31 ; @heavenly1927 ; @youbloodymadgenius ; @ace-fiction ; @poisonous00 ; @jzr201 ; @rose1729 ; @shestrying2write​ ; @zuxiezendler ; @learninglemni-blog ; @didiintheblog ; @the-jess-life  (if you’d like to be tagged or to be removed from the tag list, just send me a message/ask, no problem ☺️ if I wasn’t able to tag, please check if your blog is available to show on search) 

[ts1989fanatic]

A senior swiftie story:

I’m not one to really talk about myself, this is especially true because I’m not your typical senior swiftie.

I turn 61 this year and I’m one of those rare swifties a guy, there’s just not that many of us out there (well those at least willing to admit to being Taylor Swift fans).

I am very lucky in a couple of respects, I see a lot of posts on here saying my friends don’t understand my Taylor Swift obsession well I don’t have to worry about that.

I married my best friend 37 years ago and she introduced me to Taylor Swift’s music. I was never a country music fan until Kat (my better half) got me to listen to Love Story.

Since returning to Canada in 1992 (Kat’s Canadian) I’m English, we have only attended two concerts Shania Twain’s Up tour in 2002 and 1989 in 2015.

Prior to that we had seen Queen, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Tina Turner in concert the only one that comes close to 1989 and even that was a distant second was Up. We really wanted to see the Reputation tour but it did not come to Vancouver this time around, and we simply could not afford to travel to any show that was remotely close.

We are both sad that we will miss the Reputation tour because it looks even better than 1989 and I did not think was possible.

These are my top three all time favorite songs from Taylor’s entire discography.

#1 Wildest Dreams

#2 CIWYW

#3 Love Story

So I lucked out and married a swiftie, so not only do I get to share my life with her, but we also share the same passion for Taylor’s music.

I also got lucky just over two months after starting my Tumblr blog, when @taylorswift started following my blog. To be honest I never even noticed her in my notes a mutual had to point it out to me (I nearly died dead)four years later and I still have to go and check just to make sure It is not a dream.

Tumblr was not my first SM adventure when 1989 came out, I tried out Twitter first because it was a platform that I was at least familiar with. That did not last very long as I simply could not stand the drama, it’s not that Tumblr is drama free but in comparison to Twitter it may as well be.

1989 means a lot to my wife and I for reasons that are hard to explain, not only is it fantastic music. It’s one of those rare albums that come along from time to time that does not have a bad track on it at all, and every song on the album could be a single in it’s own right.

Where it gets difficult to put into words requires a lot of explaining. I joined the British military in 1980 and was posted to Germany. Soon after getting to Germany my unit asked for a volunteer to go to Canada on a six month deployment.

Well I was all over that opportunities to travel was part of my reason for enlisting in the first place. So anyway I get myself squared away and off to Canada I fly.

A little trick I learned growing up (I was an army brat for my first nine years on earth) when you get to a new posting there are three people you make nice with the paymaster the quartermaster and the head cook.

So I did this, and boy did I get lucky the head cook in this case was a civilian Leo a great guy, and within weeks of getting to know him I received an invite to dinner with his family and friends.

One of those friends was the wonderful lady pictured above, do any of you guys believe in love at first sight (I never did until that night) I grew up in a house with a drunken abusive father and this made me very cynical about love.

So here was this twice divorced woman with three children who was a little older than I was (don’t ask I won’t tell) with a girl of 5 two boys 9 and 11 and she was and still is wonderful.

Let’s just say the lyric it hit you like a shotgun shot to the heart, have a special meaning when I look back on it now.

Well anyway it turned out that love at first sight was mutual, yeah I know hard to believe but it was true go figure.

We had an amazing but far too short six months together before I had to head back to Germany late November of 1980.

Now all you youngsters on here won’t know this but the early 80’s was way before SM even email was nonexistent back then. The only way to stay in touch was international phone calls ( very expensive back then) or by writing letters.

I had volunteered to go back to Canada as soon as I returned to Germany, my unit always sent one person every six months unfortunately for me someone else had already been chosen.

So back to writing letters we did a lot of that, but we also used to include messages on on cassette tape (another thing you youngsters are probably not familiar with) on those tapes we would include our favorite songs of the time.

Mine were from the European music charts (England’s Top of the pops mostly) Kat’s were North American hits. We kept that up for a few months, then I got lucky again the guy my unit was sending to Canada went out drinking the night before his early morning flight was due to depart and got drunk and missed his flight (I had nothing to do with that’s my story I’m sticking to it).

So I got a call from my Sargent major asking how soon I could be ready to leave, you better believe I was packed and ready in less than 4 hours.

Being that I am such an ahole I did not even tell Kat I was coming, I called her from the bus station when I got to town and asked her to come pick me up. You ever see someone so happy to see you but wanting to strangle you at the same time (I did that night).

I realize this is a rather long and long winded explanation of why 1989 is so important to both of us, it goes back to the music on those tapes.

1989 has that same sound and vibe of that very same music that we used to send to each other way back when. Listening to to 1989 brings memories flooding back to those early days in our relationship.

We got married in May of 1982 and moved to London in the UK for ten years all throughout the 80’s music was very important to us both and still is to this day.

So @taylorswift has always and will probably always (at least for a long time to come) write Taymazing music, but for my wife and I writing anything better than 1989 is probably an impossibility.

[hisdarlinggrace-a]

You must be part bloodhound, my dear Grace

Basics

Basics

Character: Grace Hatter/Paige Thatcher

Faceclaim: Elle Fanning

Age: 18

Canon Divergent | Indie RP | OUAT RP

Enchanted Forest Storyline

When Grace Hatter was ten years old, her father disappeared without a trace. She waited days for him, weeks, months, years, and he never came back. Grace had to resort to her own ways of survival: harvesting mushrooms like her father, bartering, and even the occasional stealing. The young girl with the skills of a “bloodhound”, as her father claimed, became rather good at pickpocketing through the very marketplace her and her father used to go to. Finagling coins from oblivious pockets, pretending to consider items at the booths as her fingers dug into an unsuspecting purse or coat, became a routine part of Grace’s life as she grew older, a life of mischief and petty theft. It was a humorous reflection of the pasts of her parents that she never learned about. Would Papa want this for her? Honestly? Probably not. She knew he wouldn’t want to see his dear Grace scavenging around for supplies and money, but he left her. He abandoned her for no reason, as far as she knew, so she had to do what it took to survive.

It didn’t take long before Grace turned from a swift handed girl to a thieving young woman, beginning to take the mission of bringing her father back seriously. She had always dreamed of lucky magic as a child, of her father reappearing with a simple wish on a star, but night after night after night of wishing and wishing led to absolutely no results. And that was when Grace truly knew she was on her own.

But now that she was an adult, more aware of the darkness around her, Grace began dabbling in magic, even the darkest kinds, in order to bring her father back. She went to any shop with the word “magic” attached to it. She asked elderly wanderers and young psychics. She devoured every book, every scroll, every word she could read. They all told her “You can’t bring someone back from the dead,” but Grace knew her father wasn’t dead. Somewhere, deep inside, she felt that he was out there alive and it didn’t matter whether he was still searching for her or had forgotten. Grace Hatter was going to find her father, no matter what.

Essential Info: Grace is now eighteen years old, searching for any magic user that can possibly help her find her father. She’s desperate and willing to give or do anything to see him again. Use this to your character’s advantage if you wish. However, she’s dwelling in the possibility that he abandoned her and is off living a much better, affluent life with a happy family. Sort of a textbook Slytherin, full of relentless ambition and will do anything to achieve her goals.

Storybrooke Storyline (Under Construction)

During First Curse

Paige Thatcher was born and raised in Storybrooke. With a comfy home and loving parents, she wanted for nothing, but something always seemed missing. Photo albums kept in the house only went back to her being around ten years old. Any older photos were nowhere to be found and her parents supposed they must’ve been lost in a flood caused by a horrible rain storm years ago. Paige was forced to believe them even if she couldn’t remember the storm happening like she should be able to. 

In her later teen years, Paige has taken the guise of junior reporter to dig into Storybrooke’s past and the memories of the residents. Just how far do their memories go? Does anyone remember her being a small child even if no records exist?

Wanted Writings

The Temptation of Magic: Grace has been searching for her father for years now and she’s starting to turn to magic, magic of any kind, to try and find him. Your character possesses magic that can maybe, maybe not help Grace track her father down. Will your character offer to help her? Is it for a price?

Reunion By Less Than Desired Means: Grace has delved too deep into dark magic but with joyous results: her father is back! She always knew she would find him one day and now, she finally did it! But there’s something off, Jefferson can tell, because even if his daughter is eight years older, he can still tell when she’s hiding something and judging from the surprising way he arrived, it’s not good.

A Deal is a Deal: Grace made a deal with your character to help find her father. Whether it be through magic or other means, Grace is indebted to your character for assistance in finding Jefferson. But just how far does this deal go?

Past Suspicions: Paige can’t find any pictures of her before the age of ten and this so called “big rain storm” that happened is nowhere to be found in town records. It’s been passed off as “Oh, well Maine gets a lot of storms. We don’t record them all,” but Paige never believed them. This verse takes place during the First Curse and Paige is on the search for evidence, skeptical of just how trustworthy the town is.

Above Ideas Don’t Fit Your Fancy/Character? Just DM Me! We can think of something that works!

OOC Information

Hello! My name is Erin, I am 19 years old, she/her pronouns, and I am the writer for this little blog here! I have been roleplaying for 9 years and I am very excited to bring this rendition of Grace to life. She is a bit different from canon, but I just thought this would be such a fun idea to write so here I am. This is a sideblog so any follows will happen from @lioncubofcintra ! If you want to discuss roleplaying and stuff, just message me here and I can give you my Discord info if you want to discuss more about plotting or closed threads! 

I live in the Central Standard Time Zone and I currently am a college student who has a part time job, hence my lack of constant presence on Tumblr. However, I am on the site for a good few hours every day so responding should be no issue for me! 

If we do roleplay together, I would prefer us using gifs or icons and cutting our replies so there are two on every post, but that is just a preference and definitely not required! I also vary in roleplay styles but I can usually match whatever I am given to work with! Though, paragraph style RPs do happen to be my favorite. I usually stick with one paragraph to four/five depending on if we match Vibes.

Anyway, please feel free to message me if you want to discuss roleplaying or if you have any questions! I am so excited to write for this lovely, albeit slightly misguided, ray of sunshine. Thanks so much!! <3

[bitsandbobsandstuff]

A love that never leaves (8)

Summary: Sometimes when you go looking for the past, you find things you never expected. When an accident brings him face to face with something he never knew he lost, Bucky Barnes begins to understand an age old truth – it’s so easy, sometimes, to love the things that destroy us.

Characters: Bucky Barnes x Reader Warnings: Bad language. A brief flash of sexy times and angsty intrigue.

A/N: Several people messaged reminding me that adding links kill searches (Tumblr is utterly ridiculous), so I’ve taken those out. If you want to access the full ALTNL Masterlist, just click the MASTERLIST header on my blog.

That last chapter murdered my heart, I hope it destroyed all of you as well! This week, Bucky gets cockblocked and the mysterious circumstances that brought him back to her take a strange turn. 

Tags are open, if you want on the list please send me a DM or ASK, it’s easier for me to track. Otherwise you can find the new updates each weekend!

Previously...

The poets say when your heart breaks, the world will grind to a halt.

The poets are wrong, she thinks.

When your heart breaks, the world will in fact keep moving. The stars will still shine, the sun will still rise. You will go on living, despite having nothing to live for. The world doesn’t stop for trivial things like grief. It lumbers on, drags you forward kicking and screaming, forcing you to keep breathing, until you’re nothing more than a ghost of who you were.

*****

MISSION REPORT

SECOND ATTEMPT AT CONTACT ESTABLISHED. AWAITING RESULTS.

He thinks to himself.

What will he do when he sees the whites of her eyes?

He grinds his teeth, breathing hard through his nose.

What will he do?

*****

After he came back, Bucky’s therapist encouraged him to ask questions. Anything and everything, the more the merrier. Nothing was off limits. At first, it felt strange, asking someone else to share the basic tenets of his life, but he grudgingly persevered. It was the only way he knew how to get the answers he needed.

The very first time they sat down, Bucky flipped his notepad open to reveal 27 pages, front to back, loaded with questions.

Some were simple.

“What was my favorite color? How did I take my coffee? When did I have my first kiss? What was my favorite book? Who was my favorite ball player?”

One after another, he fired the questions and Steve answered every single one, down to the most boring, insignificant detail. With every response, Bucky turned the words over in his head, testing them on his tongue and repeating them back. Committing them to memory so he could sketch out the simple outline of who he used to be.

Some here harder.

“Why’d I get drafted instead of signing up for the war? Why didn’t I get along with my father? Was I very religious? Why not?”

Those answers were thorny, not always nice and, but Steve replied with full and frank honesty, because there was no one else in the world knew Bucky Barnes as well as Steve Rogers.

It became a common sight, Bucky clutching the bright pink notepad Natasha gave him, carefully writing answers while Steve spoke; Steve was always willing to drop everything to talk.

Now, he recalls one question where Steve stumbled a bit more than usual.

“Did I want to get married?”

An oddly devastated sadness had rearranged Steve’s features, before he offered a vague answer.

“When we were younger, no. During the war, you changed your mind.”

“Why’d I do that?”

“It happens.”

“People usually have a reason. What happened?”

“War happened. And you know, stuff.”

“Why are you being weird?”

“I’m not being weird, I’m just - look, you, um, you met - someone.”

“Who -“

But before he could dig further, the conversation came to a screeching halt. Bells started ringing, lights flashing, an Irish voice coming through the ceiling as FRIDAY announced they were summoned for a mission. Snapping his mouth shut, Bucky tucked the notepad in the waistband of his jeans and leapt to his feet, the question forgotten.

Later, Steve tried to bring it up again, casually mentioning Bucky’s girl and some letters she wrote to him, but by then it was too late. The mission had gone horribly wrong, and Bucky was exhausted and frustrated and close to tears, and he had no desire to remember someone else he’d let down.

Hurtled back to the present, Bucky sits up in the dim light of her bedroom and throws a knee across her hips, boxing her in beneath him. Palms anchored to the bed beside her head, he looks down at her face. Anxious fear flashes through her, something he can’t reconcile. All he knows in this moment, is a desire to smooth it away.

“I don’t - why didn’t you say something sooner?” Bucky whispers. “Why - “

But he stops. He stops, because he knows why.

“Oh,” he says softly, disappointment filling his throat. “No, okay. It’s okay. I get it.”

She watches him glance at the metal arm, his shoulders sagging as he tries to pull away. Her hands fly up, gripping his arms tight, keeping him in place.

“No. You listen to me Bucky Barnes - this was not about you or anything you think you’ve done.” Bucky stares hard, clearly desperate to believe her. “I wanted to tell you, I just - couldn’t hold you to a promise we made seventy years ago. We were different people then, I know that. You have a whole other life now. I don’t expect anything, I don’t - expect you to still want that.”

The sharp ache that hits him whenever he sees her sadness tightens his chest. The words come easily, and he answers without a second thought.

Because really, he doesn’t need to think. They’re the most honest thing he knows.

“Darlin, you listen to me - I said it then, I’ll say it again. This kind of love, it never leaves. I meant that. Even if I don’t remember saying it, I know I meant it. I know I did.”

Hope fills her eyes at his insistence, that fragile kind he could smash with a single word.

Which he never plans to do, as long as he lives.

“Really?” she whispers, brushing her knuckles over his fuzzy cheek and he turns, pressing his lips to them.

“Really,” he says hoarsely.

Curling her fingers behind his neck, she pulls his mouth down and her kiss is soft and sweet and everything he’s been missing his entire godforsaken life. Bucky lets himself drown in her for a brief moment, before breaking the kiss.

“Jesus Christ,” he swears, pulling back. “We were gonna get married and I just fuckin’ left you. I left you. God dammit, I’m - fuck, I’m so fuckin’ sorry.”

“Don’t you dare apologize,” she says immediately. “It wasn’t your fault, Bucky. None of it was your fault.”

Those magic words, he’s heard them a million times, in a million variations, since the day he came back. They’ve always meant nothing, hollow assurances he actively scorned. He knew better. But now, lying here with her while the dim light of a fresh mountain morning begins to flood the room - he finally lets them soak in.

Maybe he even believes them.

“We were gonna get married,” he says instead, wonder filling his voice. “You were gonna marry me.”

“I was,” she says, and her tentative smile is like the sun. “And you were going to marry me.”

Bucky considers her for a moment before he surges forward. Nothing about the move is coordinated, it’s a messy tangle of tongues and teeth clacking together, a kiss bubbling over with frantic need, as though the world is ending and this is the only way to prevent its demise.

His kiss is frantic and passionate and so utterly Bucky, she can barely breath. Everything he does to her, it kicks her heart into a crazy tailspin and she kisses him back ferociously, drinking up the tiny sounds he makes, the way his lips fit perfectly with hers. It’s enough for forever, the way he spills over so full of life and happiness and love.

And she knows, it’s all for her.

When his hands squeeze her ribcage, fingers playing with the hem of her shirt, his lips move up to her ear with the question she’s been waiting for, and she shivers.

“Can I?”

“Yes, please,” she breathes, and Bucky closes his eyes for a moment, steadying himself.

Slipping his hands beneath her shirt, twin sighs of relief come at the feel of skin on skin. For the first time in decades, that feeling of absolute and total desire crackles through her and she arches into his touch. Sliding his right hand up, gently cupping her breast, he kisses her again and she moans into his lips when he thumbs over her nipple. His left hand hesitates on her belly, hard and cold, but then she grips his wrist firmly and tugs his hand up, placing it on her other breast and hooking her ankle behind his thigh.

Rocking himself against her, Bucky kisses every inch of skin he can find; that smooth space behind her ear, the delicate tendon down her neck, the sharp collarbone above her sleep shirt, his hands teasing relentlessly until she’s breathing fast and hard, pushing herself back against him.

Swallowing his nerves, his fingers drift down. Finding the waistband of her shorts, circling the edge, working up the courage to dip his fingers inside, he takes a deep breath and -

His phone buzzes. Loudly.

“Shit,” he rasps, jerking back. Reaching over to the bright screen flashing on the nightstand, his lust-addled brain fumbles repeatedly and he hits the ignore button three times before it goes silent. The spell is momentarily broken, the room quiet. Breathing hard, he gives her a crooked little grin and kisses the tip of her nose. “Sorry. Way to kill the mood, huh? Where were we?”

“Right here,” she murmurs, pulling his face back to hers and slipping her tongue between his lips. Bucky melts into the touch, feels himself growing painfully hard against her, feels her fingers stroking down the hard planes of his stomach, sliding dangerously close to his -

His phone buzzes. Again.

“Motherfucker,” he growls. Snatching it up, he flips the phone to silent again and throws it across the room for good measure. It lands with a soft thump in the corner and he dives back in for a kiss, feeling her shake with silent laughter.

The laughter turns to a breathless whine when he tugs up her shirt, his mouth finding the soft skin of her belly, sucking and kissing a path higher and higher, licking at the swell of her breast, so close, and god he wants to -

He wants to understand why life can’t just go his fucking way for once, that’s what he wants.

His phone buzzes. Again.

“I’m gonna kill him,” Bucky announces, sitting up on his knees. There’s only one person who has the ability to bypass the silent mode he’s put it on and he’s gonna thoroughly enjoy strangling him next time he sees his stupid face.

Bouncing off the bed, he stomps over to the corner and picks up his phone, pressing the answer button so hard he’s surprised the screen doesn’t shatter.

“What, Steve?” he snaps, frustrated desire turning his voice into a snarl. “What could you possibly fucking need right now?”

“Morning sunshine. Sorry to bother, but we need to talk.”

“I’m incredibly busy at the moment,” Bucky grits out. Watching her snuggle deeper into the blankets, she gives him a lazy smile and he slams his eyes shut so he can focus. “I’ll call you later.”

He tries to hang up, but Steve’s voice is calling out “Wait!”

Bucky vows then and there to steal Steve’s shield when he gets back and brain him with it.

“Jesus Christ fuckin’ fuck. Hang on,” he growls. Stamping down the irritation, he shoots her a look of exasperated apology. “Give me two minutes, okay?”

“It’s okay. I’ll go make coffee,” she replies, crawling out of bed and Bucky feels the overwhelming desire to tackle her and make her to stay put. A whine of dissent slips out and she bites back a smile at his frustration. “Come downstairs when you’re done, maybe we can finish this.”

And then she winks and tiptoes out of the bedroom.

Bucky forces himself not to bolt after her. Instead, he irritably adjusts the situation between his legs and waits until she’s out of earshot before flipping the screen to video. Steve’s semi-apologetic face comes into view.

“This better be real fuckin’ good,” Bucky sighs.

“It’s that signal, up at the Hydra base. It’s gone off again.”

Anger evaporating, Bucky’s eyes narrow. “It’s what?”

“It went off again,” Steve repeats. “I thought you disabled it?”

“I did,” Bucky says slowly. “You’re sure?”

“Tony triple-checked it.” His face morphs into serious Captain mode. “Real talk. Do I need to come out? Is it possible there’s something else happening?”

Bucky thinks back, recalling the layers of dust, the cottony white spiderwebs, the echoes of ancient violence stuffed in that cavernous base. Once upon a time, it contained nightmares, sure. But there was nothing there now. He’s sure.

“No, there was nothing there. I’m sure. Stay home.”

Sky blue eyes scrutinize him through the small screen. “If you’re sure.”

“Positive.”

“Fine.” Steve pauses. “Anything else you want to talk about?”

“Nope,” Bucky answers promptly.

“Sure?”

Exhaling a long-suffering sigh, Bucky gives him a pointed look. “Actually yes. You’re a nosy little shit. Why is that?”

The stoic expression fades and Steve grins. “Probably ‘cause I’m used to your dumbass needing my help all the fuckin’ time.”

Shooting him a mocking glare, Bucky shakes his head. “Fucking hell. What’s the press gonna say when they hear Captain America has such a fuckin’ potty mouth?”

“Expect they’ll blame it on you. Just like my Ma did.”

Bucky snorts. “Touché. I’ll go check it out. Call you later. Dick.”

Steve gives him a goofy, open-mouthed smile and a thumbs up. Bucky presses the end call button hard. Silence blankets the room, and he rubs the heel of his hand in his eye, pushing down a sudden wave of tiredness.

Someday, maybe, just maybe - he’ll be done with this shit.

*****

Rifling through the tidy pile of his clothes folded in the corner of her closet, Bucky dresses quickly, pulling on a long-sleeved shirt, a vest, his white tac pants. Pulling his semi-clean, but still slightly bloody, white coat from a hanger, he shrugs into it. Looking into the mirror, he fingers the two bullet holes in the chest, twitching at the memory of them punching through his flesh.

Opening his backpack, he pulls out his cache of weapons. Chooses his favorite Glock, the old Sig Sauer, his second favorite Glock, his third favorite Glock, tucking them all into their designated holsters. Sheathing a couple knives comfortably in his boots, he ties his snarly hair back and fits the white balaclava over his head.

Standing in front of her mirror, he fixes his mouth into that trademark smirk that normally accompanies a mission outfit and tries to psyche himself up. Clear his mind. Sharpen his nerves.

It sort of works. Except that miserable slump of his shoulders - that refuses to change. Grimacing at the visual, he gives up.

Was he always this tired?

Steeling himself, he heads downstairs, clearing his throat and treading loudly to announce his presence. He doesn’t want to scare the shit out of her, stomping around like the abominable snow monster with weapons coming out his ass.

Standing in the kitchen, she wears her silky cotton sleep shorts and a loose t-shirt. The sight of her pouring two steaming cups of coffee, while the sun begins to fill the cozy little cabin, is almost enough to break him. Say fuck it and tell Steve to come do it himself.

But of course, he won’t. He never does. Because here comes Bucky Barnes. He always makes the shot. He always saves the day.

He sighs.

When she looks up, her budding smile instantly fades. She goes still, the only movement the tight clench of her jaw. She sets the coffee pot down with a quiet click.

“Before you ask,” Bucky starts, “I’m not leaving. Steve called, I gotta go back up to the base. That fuckin’ signal’s going haywire again.”

A spasm of alarm floods her face and she grips the edge of the counter. “Someone’s there?”

“We don’t think anyone’s there,” Bucky assures her. “There’s nothing to indicate that, we think it’s just the tech. Guess I didn’t finish the job last time, so I need to go fix it.”

Considering him for a fleeting moment, she bites her lip and thinks; appearing to make a decision she nods and walks toward him, heading for the stairs.

“I’ll get dressed.”

“No,” Bucky says quickly, catching her arm. “You won’t. It’s nothing to worry about. I don’t want you anywhere near that place. Please.”

Squaring her shoulders, she tugs her arm gently from his nervous fingers and Bucky braces for an argument. But then she simply traces the bullet holes in his jacket, examining the torn edges of white fabric. Contemplating his comment. She meets his eyes and gives him a small smile.

“If it’s nothing to worry about, then it doesn’t matter if I come. Unless you’re saying goodbye for good, I’m not letting you go alone. Is it goodbye for good?”

Even the thought of leaving her makes his breath catch.

“No,” he breathes. “Never.”

Reaching up, she tucks an errant strand of dark hair into the balaclava. Cradles his hot, scruffy cheeks in her cool palms, and kisses his lips.

“Then I’m coming with you.”

Should he argue? Probably. Will he? Probably not. Because having someone love him like this - it just feels too nice.

“Okay,” he concedes. “Get dressed.”

*****

Any roads leading to the base have long since grown over. The only way up is an overgrown trail, accessed through a steep hike. Parking her old, now slightly blood-stained truck to edge of the path, they start to climb. Bucky takes it slow at first, until he realizes she’s waiting patiently for him to go faster.

“Altitude sucks,” he pants, pausing to put his hands on his head. “Think you might be in better shape than me.”

“No,” she replies, offering a hand to pull him up. “I’m definitely in better shape than you.”

Barking out a surprised laugh, he squeezes her fingers.

Ninety minutes later, the entrance appears. Grey on grey, the door blends seamlessly into the mountain rock, it’s curved handle set flush against the heavy metal. On his first visit, it was rusted shut, wind and weather and age an effective deterrent; it had taken him nearly an hour to bust through.

Before they enter, Bucky turns to her and unlatches his favorite Glock from the side holster.

“Guess I don’t need to tell you how to use it, since you’ve already saved my ass,” he watches her tuck her gloves into her coat and take the handle of the gun, double-checking the safety. The fluid gesture twists his gut. Looking up, she gives him a wane smile.

“No. All good.”

It bothers him. Clearly, she knows how to protect herself - he wasn’t there to do it, she had to learn - but he despises the fact that violence has touched her. That he’s tainted her with it himself. He doesn’t want that part of his life to be something they share.

Then and there, he makes himself a promise. If he gets a future with her, he’ll do everything in his power to build her a life free from the sadness that seems so adamant to cling to her. Loving her that way, forever and always - it’s the least he can do.

Pulling off the balaclava, he welcomes the bite of cold air against his sweat damp neck. Reaching into the depths of his white coat, he produces two small flashlights, handing one to her and clicking the other to life, and with a shouldered shove, he opens the door. It swings easily, clean and oiled from his last visit.

Holding the flashlight aloft, he balances his gun on his wrist, rolls his shoulders and starts forward, eyes cautiously sweeping the entrance, as she steps carefully behind.

The hallway twists and turns, snaking deep into the bedrock of the mountain. The air warms as they walk, the depth of the mountain keeping the cold from penetrating; the dampness in the air increases though, negating any warming effects and cutting deep.

Damp cold was the worst kind. It always soaked into his bones. Held tight, refused to leave.

Heavy iron doors hang from broken hinges along the walls, frozen in place through a potent combination of old age and powdery red rust. Bucky’s already rummaged through the small rooms lining the hall, turning up nothing more than a handful of paperclips and a couple broken rifles; as he runs his light up and down the doors, the rooms reveal nothing new.

A good thing, he thinks. A very good thing.

Their flashlights illuminate the narrow hall, the enclosed space muffling their footsteps. On and on they plod, until the click of Bucky’s boot makes a new sound, echoing up into the soaring ceiling of a new chamber. They’ve reached the control room now, and there it is.

In the blackness of the cavernous room, he sees a blinking red light.

What the fucking hell?

He starts toward it, super soldier eyes navigating through the darkness. Just before he reaches the light, a startled hum of electricity crackles around them, a generator bursting to life. Whirling around, finger hovering over the trigger, he finds her standing by the wall, her hand wrapped around the t-shaped handle of a giant light switch.

“Jesus fuck,” he mutters, using his shoulder to wipe away the bead of sweat trickling down his temple. “Scared the shit out of me.”

Above the switch, he notices a water-stained Hydra propaganda poster depicting a faded red skull, tentacles reaching into a black pit of writhing, silhouetted bodies. Christ. He remembers those posters. They were tacked up around the bases back in the early 1950s. Some lousy intern’s job, he supposes. Hydra marketing for a summer job.

Assholes.

“We can’t all see in the dark,” she reminds him patiently, brushing the dust from her hands.

“Fair enough,” he says weakly, heart still pounding.

In the dingy light, the control dashboard looks as dirty and untouched as his last visit, coated in a thick layer of filth that only exists with decades of neglect. But in the right-hand corner, the red light blinks steadily.

Bucky’s perturbed. Is he missing something? Is there something else going on?

Right there, the first flash of fear prickles up his neck, lodging sharp claws into his skin.

Scanning the dashboard, he sees the breakers he flipped before, cutting power to the control center. All of them are still clearly locked in the OFF position, so he breathes a sigh of relief - just like the light switch she found, there must be some kind of secondary power source.

He debates the complex panel, searches the buttons and keys and slides and comes up empty. Unless Hydra gave him explicitly detailed instructions, he was never good with tech shit like this. What’s he supposed to do? Dismantle the entire dashboard? Search for a general power source?

In the end, he chooses a slightly different route.

“Cover your ears.”

She looks warily at him, her hands slowly rising to her head.

“Here goes,” Bucky mumbles to himself and with a swing, he smashes a metal fist straight through the dashboard. The sound explodes through the room, pieces of grey plastic and black metal and glass bulbs ricocheting off the wall. Jerking his hand back, he comes up with a fistful of electrical wires and the blinking red light goes dark.

“Problem solved,” he turns to her, the wires dangling like a handful of snakes.

The sound of his blunt dismantling still reverberates through the room, and she stands tense and frozen.

“What else was here?” her voice is low. Unlike Bucky, she seems afraid to make much noise.

“Not much,” Bucky admits, tossing the wires aside. “Searched it last time, nothing useful. Looks like it was abandoned sometime in the ‘50s.” He motions back to the far wall with the gun. “There’s a small office over there, we can have a look around if you want.”

There’s no reason for it, but something about the place puts her off kilter. Following Bucky’s direction, she moves toward the office, unsure what she expects to find, but inside is exactly what he said - nothing. A small desk and file cabinet on one side, a pair of broken metal folding chairs against a brick wall, a pile of crumpled papers on the desk.

“Went through it all,” Bucky confirms, leaning against the door frame and crossing his arms. “Desk was empty, file cabinet had a few papers, looks like office inventory. Doesn’t seem like they left anything behind.”

She hums in agreement, peeking into the file cabinets and finding nothing but more dust and the moldering remains of a dead mouse. She turns in a slow circle, eyes tracing the angles of the small room, and she finds nothing. Breathes easier.

Although - wait.

Stepping closer to the wall behind the desk, she runs her fingers lightly across the brick, touching here and there. Bucky watches intently, the way her hands move in random patterns. Several minutes pass in absolute silence, until suddenly she stops. Pressing against a single brick, she wiggles it, crumbling white mortar shaking loose to the floor, and then the brick pulls free.

Behind is a deep, hollow space.

“What - ” Bucky says, coming closer. “How? How did you know?”

There’s an emptiness in her face when she looks at him. “I’ve been hiding things in floorboards and fireplaces and - walls, most of my life.” Her voice sounds infinitely tired, like the years have finally caught up. “I know what to look for.”

Bucky shines a flashlight into the dark space and they see a fat bundle of paper. Reaching in, she tugs gently, the rough brick unwilling to reveal its secret so easily. When it finally pops free, they find a folded envelope. Brushing away the layers of dust, the faded scrawl of cursive handwriting is splashed carelessly across the front, with two words:

VERSION 2.

Wordlessly, she looks at him and Bucky shakes his head in bewilderment.

“I don’t know,” he confesses. “I don’t know what it means.”

She runs her fingers beneath the envelope flap to pull it open, but Bucky stops her, glancing over his shoulder.

“What?” she asks, immediately on alert. “Did you hear something?”

“No, but can we wait until we get home? I just - don’t want you here any longer.” He says the words without thinking and flinches. When we get home? You idiot, you’ll scare her off with that shit. It’s not your home, it’s hers.

But while Bucky frets over his word choice, he notices something. That look of exhaustion and sadness filling her eyes - it disappears. Like a weight’s been lifted from her shoulders. She reaches for his hand, tangling her fingers with his and tugging him close. Tucking herself against him, she hugs him tight and Bucky holds on fiercely.

“Okay,” she agrees softly. “Let’s go home.”

And just like that, Bucky Barnes has a home.

Dropping a kiss to her forehead, he squeezes her hand and they walk toward the door, ready to leave this depressing world behind.

His brain is already plowing ahead, remembering warm blankets and the smell of hot soup and the sound of a crackling fire, all things he now associates with her, associates with happiness. His brain and his heart want it so damn badly, he nearly misses it.

Just before they pass through the door, a strange gust of air, ice cold and smelling of snow.

He stops so fast, she bumps into him. With a sinking feeling in his chest, he turns to the blank wall, eyes roaming over the faded brick.

“Did you feel that?” He glances over his shoulder. Her mouth is turned down and she rubs her nose when it smacked his shoulder.

“Yes,” she says tightly.

Stepping closer, Bucky runs his hands over the brick, searching for the source. Bending down, he freezes, seeing something new, something he knows wasn’t there before. He recognizes it instantly, an unfortunate currency he dealt for decades.

Blood speckled across the brick. A small piece of human skin embedded in the mortar. Dried, but no more than a few weeks old.

Someone was here.

“God dammit,” he hisses, jumping to his feet. “Fucking fuck!”

She kneels beside the wall, absorbing the gruesome details. “That’s new?” she asks, swallowing hard.

“Yes,” he says shortly.

She looks around the office, back in the control room. Remembers Bucky describing the welded shut door at the entrance. “You said the entrance was sealed shut when you first arrived. Could this be the same person? How would they get inside in the first place?”

The icy whistle of wind hits his face again. Leaning into the wall, he pushes, testing a few different points. “Please don’t be a secret door,” he mutters under his breath, but with a sudden grating rumble, it slides back.

Revealing a secret door. He hates secret doors.

Stark would love this.

A long, dark tunnel appears. Tapping anxiously against his leg, he debates - he doesn’t want her to follow, but he’s sure as hell not leaving her alone. He turns around, but she settles it instantly.

“Just go. I’m coming with you.”

Propping the flashlight on his wrist again, Bucky clicks it on and positions the gun. Starting forward, he hunches over, bending to fit his tall frame beneath the low ceiling. For ten minutes they walk, encountering nothing more than ice slicked walls and a hard-packed dirt floor. Finally, the darkness begins to fade, a dim grey light crawling into the spaces around them. Turning a sharp corner, they find the source.

A large metal door sits askew, propped open and allowing slivers of light and cold air to filter through. Coming closer, Bucky discovers the door hinges are unscrewed, a little pile of broken metal and stripped screws littering the ground.

Wrapping a metal hand around the edge of the door, he looks back to her. “Be ready,” he murmurs, nodding to the gun. She raises it, her hands steady and returns his nod. With a rough jerk, Bucky pulls the door fully open, the grate of rust and metal screeching around them.

On the other side, they find a thin fissure in the grey rock of the mountain. Protected from the drifts of snow outside, wide enough for someone to fit through - but hidden well enough that no one would ever think twice.

And there, lying next to the door, is a black wool glove. Threadbare, with an unraveled hole in the thumb, it looks perfectly clean. Clearly a recent addition. Bucky picks it up, that sinking feeling in his chest now bubbling like acid in his throat. He shoves the glove furiously in his pocket.

“You fuckers,” he growls to himself. Turning around, he meets her wide-eyed gaze, panic clear in her face. She still has the gun raised, but now he sees the hint of a tremble in her fingers.

He’d give his entire life to erase that look.

“Hey, come here,” he murmurs, and she steps quickly into his embrace and once more, he holds tight. Holding her this close, he smells the faint, calming scent of her lotion. “Let’s go home. I need to make a call.”

*****

“Anything?”

Once again, Steve Rogers is eating giant globs of peanut butter straight from the jar. Wasting no time, Bucky gets straight to the point.

“Someone was there. Found a back entrance they must’ve used. Assume they turned on the signal.”

Steve swears and the spoon clatters to the kitchen counter.

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know,” Bucky snaps.

“What the fuck did they want?”

“I don’t know.”

“No possible scenarios?”

“I don’t know,” Bucky grits out, pissed with Steve’s exasperated sigh. “I’m fuckin’ working on it. Give me a minute to think.”

Steve rubs his forehead. The expression on his face morphs, an odd mix of frustration and enforced calm, with a sprinkle of suspicion.

“The other reason you’re there,” he asks carefully. “The reason you’ve stayed. Whatever that is, could it have anything to do with this?”

Bucky opens his mouth to refute that possibility, because fuck you Steve, of course not - but then he pulls up short. That’s the thing. He doesn’t know. She still hasn’t told him her ability and why it ever allowed her to know the scope of Hydra’s brutality. This is one big piece of the puzzle that remains hidden.

“I don’t know,” he admits. Looking out of the bedroom, his gaze grows thoughtful. “But I’ll find out.”

*****

Downstairs in the cozy little cabin, she opens the dusty envelope.

Inside, she finds 14 photographs. They’re old, a sepia toned mix from the 1940s and 1950s, their occupants slightly blurry and peeling around the edges. On her kitchen counter, she lines them up in two straight rows.

She stares.

She begins to shake.

“Darlin, can we talk about something?”

Bucky’s voice is low and soothing, meant for comfort. Walking up beside her, he peers curiously at her profile. Slowly she turns, and the look on her face cuts him to the bone.

“Bucky - “

Cold sweat fills the palms of her hands where they lay flat on the counter and a shudder ripples through her, rattling her entire body. He moves quickly behind her, pressing himself against her back, wrapping his arms around her, surrounding her in that blessed heat.

“Hey, hey, what is it?”

Over her shoulder, he sees the images.

There are two group photos, each showing four men posing. Three of the men are dressed in white lab coats, horn-rimmed coke bottle glasses perched on their noses. The fourth stands a head above them, dressed head to toe in black, his white-blond hair gleaming even in the faded photo. Bucky’s lip curls in disgust - an SS officer, from the looks.

Until he looks closer. Something about the man’s arrogant sneer and icy stare sparks a long-forgotten memory. Bucky squints.

“Hang on. I think I remember him,” he says slowly. “He was there my first few years, but then he disappeared. Deserted, they said.”

“Deserted,” she repeats. She gives a hollow laugh. “I doubt that.”

Bucky should interrogate that comment, but he sets it aside for a moment. Returning to the pictures, he looks at the second row. The images are consistent, six full body pictures of a naked male, each accompanied by a close-up headshot - twelve photos in total. A small postcard is clipped to each pair of photos, block print letters with details.

This is familiar. Not the men themselves, but the visual and the information. Familiar, because long ago, the former Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes started with a file just like this.

Name. Country. Rank. Skills.

In the beginning, he supposes his was just as simple and basic. Until the graciousness of cryofreeze carried him through the decades, turning his paper-thin file fat with Hydra accomplishments. Assassination, murder, torture. All those details that made up the shadowy outline of the Winter Soldier.

Suddenly, he gets it.

Version 2.

Bucky knows that while he may have been the first successful super soldier Hydra created, he was by no means the only experiment. Proof of that assumption is lined up on the table before him. Soldiers and special skills categorized alphabetically in what he realizes is evidence of Hydra’s original super soldier trials.

The information is massive. He needs to call Steve, but there are shallow, panicked gasps bleeding from her throat, and he refuses to set that aside, because she is his priority - he turns her firmly to face him.

“Look at me. Darlin’, look at me. What is it?”

Wild eyes search his, so full of despair. Sweat slick fingers point to a pair of photos, depicting a tall, thin boy with curly black hair and vacant eyes.

Bucky looks closer and sees the information listed on the card.

NAME: Lewis, Henry.

COUNTRY: United Kingdom.

RANK: Lieutenant.

SKILLS: Espionage. Technology.

“I know him,” her voice cracks. She pauses and corrects herself. “I mean, I knew him.”

More than anything, he wants to ask about her past. Who she was before she found him broken and bleeding that day in her village. What she went through all those years ago that shaped her into the wary person she became. What secret she carries that weighs so heavily on her soul.

But he promised he wouldn’t. He knows the pain of having other people digging into his past, what it feels like to feel like to reveal your darkest secrets. He knows he needs to tread lightly.

“Do you want to tell me about it?” he asks carefully.

“No,” she whispers, staring down at her hands. “But I need to.”

He takes her chilly fingers in his and rubs, quick friction warming them.

“Okay,” he encourages. “Whatever it is, you can tell me. You can tell me anything.”

She stares at their entwined hands and curls her finger tight around his silver thumb.

“I don’t think you’ll like me very much. When you know.”

Bucky feels a hysterical desire to laugh. Not like her? Absurd. How could he not love her? Smiling wryly, he brings their hands up and leaves a kiss on her knuckles.

“Between the two of us, my track record will always be worse. There’s nothing you can say that’ll change my mind, so don’t worry about that. Just tell me.”

Gathering her courage, she looks up to meet soft blue eyes.

And she talks.

“When I was 12-years-old, a group of men came to my home. The - blond man. He was looking for me. They arrested my Father and I ran. As far from Berlin as I could get.” Closing her eyes, the memory of that black night burns fresh. “I made it to the coast and bought the first ticket out of Germany I found. In March of 1929, I got to London.”

Bucky imagines her as a little girl, alone, penniless, mourning her father and hiding from an unknown horror. It makes him want to raze the world for her.

“That was brave. You were really brave,” he tells her, still rubbing her skin, but she shakes her head.

“That’s where I met him.”

*****

Next Chapter

*****

Tags are open right now, if you want one, please send me a DM or ASK.

[lettersforhersunshine]

Anonymous said:

What inspired you to choose Celestia as your writing muse?

anon honey lemme take you back to 2012, when the fandom was probably at it’s most obnoxious, at least enough to draw my attention and get me into the show.

it all started on youtube when i was just chilling watching videos, and as yt recommendations go i came across some pony vids, mainly comic dubs and memey videos for that time. y’all probably know what celestia’s popular interpretations were back then but if you don’t: trollestia, tyrantlestia and m*lestia were rampant. and sure, they were funny at first but when i sat down and actually started watching the show and spending more time in the fandom it got really fucking old real quick. it was the ONLY representation of her for the longest time and it didn’t sit right with me that she was (ironically) shunted aside for her sister and made out to be the bad guy. the fandom constantly woobifying luna honestly turned me off for her for the longest time and back then you’d probably hear me complain about how overrated she was.

so, i decided to do something about that. i was a decent artist, and tumblr ask blogs were very popular back then so i was like “hey, you know what? i’ll make my OWN celestia blog. a CANON celestia blog, completely ic with none of that ooc garbage that was getting beaten like a dead horse and i’m gonna do my best to make it popular so other people can appreciate canon celestia too”

and i. actually did it somehow? once i began interacting with ask-cadence and starting that whole cat war fiasco with her the followers actually started flooding in and for a while, lettersforcelestia was decently popular! i met a lot of good friends through this, even my ex and current gf! i had so much fun improving my art, discovering new blogs and friends and i have such great memories of it all. in the end, i managed to rack up a whole 6,5k followers on that blog and i couldn’t be prouder honestly. lfc had a good run, better than i anticipated, so i hope she rests easy.

so, next chapter; lettersforhersunshine. i have no clue how i discovered the mlp rpc, probably bc thecelestialruler followed my ask blog or something?? idk but i checked them out and got sucked into the idea of tumblr roleplay, something i’d only done when i first joined tumblr and the mlp fandom with my ocs and such. i discovered more and more of the community, including ponyerrandboy who i got along famously with as a fellow dislestia fan and they pushed me to finally make my own rp blog and join the fun! so there's the story, started writing celestia back in 2014 and though there've been a few hiatuses, now we’re doing it in 2020 and i’ve come such a long way with both my writing, art, and characterization of celestia. but in the end, i’ve always stayed faithful to the base of her character as a motherly leader with a mischevious streak, and she’s honestly captured my heart. i’m glad my characterization has captured the hearts of others too! <3