#and apparently they have enhanced smell which makes sense

[stahl-herz]

SO, I was reading @secretsofdbz 's fic series A different baby, and the concept of Saiyan apologies was brought up. That being, you state your grievance with the other person. Then you fight the other person, either until you are satisfied with your 'discussion', or the other person is dead. I do appreciate that of all the times Saiyan apologies have been used (so far), the two people talk with each other as they are fighting.

I mentioned this concept to a friend of mine, and she said 'That makes so much sense! Especially with how Vegeta is most of the time. He wouldn't really be the kind to use his words to apologize.'

I realized fairly quickly that she had misunderstood me, and thought it was canon. After I had corrected her, she was disappointed because it made more sense to be canon. I told her I felt the same, and 'but that's what fan theories are for, right? To fill in the gaps that haven't been 'drawn' by the author!'.

[mantisgodsdomain]

Falling victim to madness in the Chilaios Discord part one (with a link to the post mentioned at the end). Part 2 linked here (note: slightly more nsfw text). Transcript below cut.

A Discord conversation between three discord users - us, nicknamed Speculative Vore Cookbook, Cup of Chilaios Soup, and Oh Kay! (wormlette).

Speculative Vore Cookbook: Experiencing the impulse to rewrite the changeling chapters for fun and profit. Do you think that considering that half-foots apparently see dwarves as Extremely Attractive Laios sparks some kind of Thing in Chilchuck as a dwarf

Cup of Chilaios soup: GRABS YOU PLEASE CONTINUE

Speculative Vore Cookbook: Listen considering Us there will be spec bio about this but. Listen. Since we've been doing the species as "uncanny-valley-type not quite Like You" for the most part with just a little bit of increased compatibility within "families". Do you think that it would be fun if he can suddenly see all of Laios's features in this new light of this particular species. Where all of the tallman features abruptly come into focus in a format far more recognizable and all of a sudden he can draw some Very Certain Lines to someone who is abruptly several times more recognizably attractive rather than, like, would be very attractive if it weren't for the subtle distortion of species.

Cup of Chilaios soup: my third eye has opened

Speculative Vore Cookbook: Do you think being a tallman himself would help with that? An abrupt distortion of the brain. Do you think he would be able to draw back those memories to abruptly have the uncanny-valley barrier splinter under the force of, y'know, he knows precisely what that translates to, and with the added perspective it seems much less alien, and much more "for the love of god he's not supposed to be getting crushes on the job"

Speculative Vore Cookbook: We need to make elves Weirder for this also. They're like the only race on the chart right now that Doesn't have a close-relation group where things like attraction translate more easily we need to make them more fucked up Absently rotating the idea of dwarves having an excellent sense of smell compared to their other close relatives both for enhancing their appreciation for Good Food (a surprising amount of taste is tied up in your sense of smell) and for underground navigation & communication And Laios will absolutely be Weird About It

Cup of Chilaios soup: Laios: wow Chilchuck why do you smell so breedable (gets crushed by a rock)

Speculative Vore Cookbook: Walks up to Chilchuck and starts sniffing him unprompted so he can deliver a food-critic review of his scent Breedable waits for whenever we actually get ourself to do sex pollen heatfic and can also do cool spec bio stuff but like with reproductive cycles Still rotating the idea of making DM tallmen Weirder. We already know they're taller than IRL humans we need to add like some extra fuckshit in there We've got to do the speculative biology first you see. Make it more fucked up. We've already set it up so they're fairly closely related to orcs we might as well add some fantasy bullshit in there.

Cup of Chilaios soup: Tallmen have slower metabolisms maybe? And they need to at A Lot to support their mass? You are so correct eat A Lot*

Oh Kay! (wormlette) (replying to initial message): wait hold on holy fuck man.

Speculative Vore Cookbook: So far what we have for them as their Thing They're Known for is like. Endurance. Tallmen Specifically are known to be able to walk for hours without growing too tired. Not quite as strong as orcs or ogres, of course, but they're tall enough that they practically eat up ground with every stride, and they just don't stop moving.

Cup of Chilaios soup: passing the braincell around like it's a joint KINGS OF TIRING THEIR PREY OUT

Speculative Vore Cookbook: Orcs and ogres are ofc known for their brutal strength, which is Significantly Less Pronounced in humans - but all that strength burns energy, and they'll tire out far faster. Humans just keep going, far beyond what they really should be capable of.

Cup of Chilaios soup: guys who will climb a fcking mountain and be like ":D wanna walk back to town on foot"

Speculative Vore Cookbook: We think that the Big Thing People Know for elves would be their magic but we think that the magic thing is less about being naturally predisposed to it or whatever and more on the fact that enough of their society circles around it that pretty much any elf you meet's been deliberately raised to cultivate their magic, We think that their actual primary feature, like, physically, would be like. We're basing them on ungulates, right? Elves have long, willowy limbs, especially compared to their bodies. Look very graceful as adults who have had centuries of experience walking around and like wretched ganglebeasts at any point when they haven't gotten the hang of it yet. ABSURDLY fast in a sprint, because those long-ass legs are useful for Something, and that Something is being on runnable stilts. Not much stamina, though. (we are returning to this because we are fond of Marcille and we want her to be, like, Weird but in a way where they pass it off as Normal Elf Weird until the Changeling Thing happens and they have to cope with the fact that actually, elves are way weirder, and Marcille is weird in how close she is to other races as opposed to. Uhh. That Fucking Setup

Speculative Vore Cookbook (replying to Cup of Chilaios soup": "guys who will climb a fcking mountain"): Tallmen will climb a mountain carrying equipment on their back and need like a thirty minute breather tops before they're back up and at it like "okay now time to go down the other side" We think it's fun if it's a thing like the half-foot/dwarf/gnome cluster's enhanced senses, where the Absurd Stamina is part of what their other close relations have going for them, but whereas orcs and ogres have it to a Reasonable degree, Tallmen specialize really hard into doing this One Thing and get it in spades. Much like how half-foots spent all of their stat points in their ridiculously sensitive senses, to the detriment of things like strength and durability, tallmen have stupid amounts of stamina. Don't have to be as strong as your close relatives when you can simply outlast them!

Oh Kay! (wormlette) (replying to Speculative Vore Cookbook "returning to this because we are fond of Marcille): really like learning abt elf weirdness in the context of marcille, specifically as a half elf. really liked how that reveal was handled, since fionil is also a half-elf i didnt notice for a LONG time that she was perhaps different than other elves. i really like that!!! tall-men just have a lot of stamina. basically canon re: how much shit laios carries around. particularly in a good dog RIP they're like. alaskan mal specced. they just keep going and going forever

Speculative Vore Cookbook: We think that her, like, subtly softer features and such get Very Fun especially with the potential familiarity aspect vs what full elves have going on if we go full weird on elves because we fucking love how Absolutely Fucked ungulate anatomy is and it scratches a little itch in the back of our brain to let the Graceful Forest People overlap with, like. You Know The Specific Flavor Of Creepypasta Beast

Oh Kay! (wormlette): ^forever comparing everything to dog breeds

Speculative Vore Cookbook: We casually mention that Falin's wrist bones are shorter than elf wrist bones in Drain Your Well Dry and we really need to elaborate on that some day Marcille is like the shetland pony of elves in that she's got like WAY more just… bulk, compared to an elf that's normally like 98% gangle 2% meat And she's still, like, insanely boney compared to human standards. We like to think she has the build of a greyhound. Insanely long for no reason.

Oh Kay! (wormlette) (quoting Speculative Vore Cookbook "casually mentioned Falin's wrist bones are shorter): I NOTICED!!! I LUV THAT… marcille studying ennervation and everything… it kills me… i always thought of her as so carefree looking in her little spellbook and walking around and now im haunted by like. how much of it was her studying human anatomy for what she feared was inevitable!

Oh Kay! (wormlette) (quoting "like to think she has the build of a greyhound"): oh yeaaaag sighthound build would be GOOD for elves.

Speculative Vore Cookbook: But she still looks… More Similar To Other Races, y'know. You can see the similarities to her and other races and it makes it a tiny bit easier to slowly feel more at ease around her. Elves are weird and you don't see them often, but y'know, you've been around This One Elf long enough to start picking up on stuff, y'know? She's not that different from you, when it comes down to it, and sure she's a bit childish but that's probably normal for longer-lived races who're in the first halves of their lives, honestly. Aging slower and all. You can draw the lines if you pay enough attention, you've spent enough time socializing with other species that you can figure out the basic key, and though there are some things in there that really throw you off, as with any other race, it's not like you're handling an entirely new skull structure like with kobolds, right? It's readable, with enough time. Similar enough to tallmen that you can use your experience there and then fill in the gaps. And then you meet full-blooded elves when the Canaries come knocking and these guys are WAY more offputting than you thought actually. What the fuck is up with them? What the hell?

Cup of Chilaios soup: They have the reflective deer eyes from those horror edits

Speculative Vore Cookbook: Putting elves as a weird isolated branch in the humanoid evolution tree was a galaxy brain decision for us tbh. Their whole Weird Superiority Thing very much gets worse when they're the only people who don't have close relatives they can reference from. The other long-lived races seem to mingle FAR easier than them, and though we know it's The Attitude and such, it's fun to make them just… offputting.

Oh Kay! (wormlette): your miiiind

Oh Kay! (wormlette) (quoting "not like reading an entirely new skull structure like kobolds): btw dont you love the thingie about kobolds having a vocal chord structure that doesnt realy support them speaking common. so no matter how smart they are they seem "animalistic" to humans. i love that a lot it's like. hmm. i really like when it's not body horror by itself but put into a societal context, it BECOMES horrifying. u know? it would be fine. except the dehumanization it leads to

Speculative Vore Cookbook: YESSSS it slaps so hard. We think that there should be more bonus subtle differences with just random other races we think it's SO fun when biology fucks you over just as firmly as society.

Cup of Chilaios soup: SO TRUE KAY Rotating all these thoughts in my mind

Speculative Vore Cookbook: It's not that something is wrong with you. It's that you weren't built for this world the same way that everyone else was.

Cup of Chilaios soup: The parallels,,,,, the themes,,,,, Biting my leg

Speculative Vore Cookbook: Anyways do you think that part of the reason Kabru is so Like That is because he went from normal human body language to a bunch of elves with the same general bauplan but next to no shared body language vocabulary, Do you think he had to like manually learn how elves express social emotions with a race so isolated that they're probably developing whole separate methods of socialization completely divorced from anything the short-lived races even do and then had to relearn how to act like a Human when he went back into the world.

Cup of Chilaios soup: OH MY GOD Also sorry but Idk how far some of the peeps reading the manga are, perhaps it would be nice to spoiler the Kabru thing:0 BUT I AGREE THIS IS SCRATCHING MY BRAIN KABRU MY BELOVED THIS HEADCANON IS SUCH GOOD BRAIN FOOD

Speculative Vore Cookbook: We love making fantasy races like just a little bit more fucked up

Cup of Chilaios soup: As you should!!!!!!!

Speculative Vore Cookbook: TBH it widens the gap between species if they're, like, similar enough that you think you Should be able to interpret the signals they're giving off because they look Just Similar Enough that they should emote and socialize and such like you, right? But the similarity is, as they say, mostly just skin-deep, because it does so much more to widen cultural differences when the cultures also work on different biology. Anyways we think half-foot communities should be really dense in population because they descended from an ancestor with the Meerkat Strategy of having a fuckton of people with very sharp senses all looking out for the same colony in such a way where there's always at least one person awake to raise the alarm and we think it's fun if half-foots are set up for a significantly more tactile & densely-populated community than most other species.

Oh Kay! (wormlette) (quoting Speculative Vore Cookbook "part of the reason Kabru is so Like That): I DO. I DO THINK THAT. DO YOU THINK THAT tallman socialization feels so coarse and simple and easy-to-read by comparison.

Speculative Vore Cookbook: It's cool & fun if Chilchuck has to deliberately avoid almost all forms of touch to avoid being demeaned and seen as Lesser And Childish while also being wired to have like minimum five hours of skin contact with colony members per day tbh. Touch starve that man in ways that are difficult to understand for his party that he will actively have to muffle if he wants to be taken Seriously because most other races see it as Childish to cling

Speculative Vore Cookbook (quoting Oh Kay "I DO THINK THAT"): YES and we think it's very fun if him having to manually relearn tallman socialization also makes it so he finds it easier to interpret other races because he already has to like work out what Everyone's thinking from a pre-prepped body language dictionary and it's just so much easier to interpret when he doesn't have to re-invent the wheel every time

Oh Kay! (wormlette) (quoting Speculative Vore Cookbook "childish to cling": @_@ im so FUCKING normal

Speculative Vore Cookbook: :333 The changeling chapter constantly lives rent-free in our brain we think it's fun if like anyone who gets half-footed starts experiencing the intense skin hunger cravings like less than an hour in and have no idea what the Fuck it is because they've never lived in a body made to be that Social before and Chilchuck has to like take over to offer a bit of touch even if it's undignified since. Y'know. He knows how it feels. No reason to subject them to that, even if it's gonna cost a bit of dignity. It'll cost them more dignity if they start freaking out over it. It's efficient :333 Dealing with senses cranked up so high that you can tell when someone's moving around clear on the other side of the building probably makes it a whole lot harder to handle even More stimuli in a normal and dignified manner Something something we're grabbing a cool post we made

[sunthyme]

Sorry for this being a day late, I last second decided I hated how the og designs turned out so I redid them lmaooo. Whoops! Tyty sm for the support though, I love y'all! 🩷🩷🩷

💐Ignihyde💐

I cleared the tail end of Book 4 and all of Book 5 two days ago so fair warning, I'm still not completely aware of all the ins and outs of Ortho and Idia. And I might have to redo some of my Pomefiore headcanons with Book 5 in mind, namely Rook??? Whose apparently from Sunset Savanna??? Anyways, onto the designs...

🎮Idia Shroud🎮

(he/it) Unlabelled Gender - Achillic Asexual

Ah, the most relatable character in Twisted Wonderland...

- I don't think I really changed a whole lot about him physically, tbh. Gave him slightly bluer skin and dark makeup. I figured he's kinda one of the closest characters to like alt fashion and stuff so I slapped some piercings on him.

- You can't see them with his GIANT MESS OF HAIR but I gave him some piercings. I'll just grab a pic of them rq.

No bald Idia today guys.

- He's autistic. Is that even up for debate at this point? Either way, I feel like he'd actually hate having hair against his neck and typically put it into a ponytail or something. That shit would be hella warm otherwise, fire or no.

- He plays dating sims religiously but god forbid someone ACTUALLY flirts with him. In the unlikely scenario that he actually realises they're hitting on it, he just freaks out and runs, physically if possible. I think he's unintentionally shut people down hard because he cannot fathom why anyone would like it.

- He has to fight his demons whenever he see any of the people with cat ears which me too me too. Ignihyde actually has a bit of a stray cats issue, namely because Idia sets out food and water for them and refuses to let anyone take them away. They never get into the workshops or anywhere dangerous and Idia has named all of them.

- He has unique names not only for the stray cats of Ignihyde but also for all of the ones in his games, in specific his Minecraft cats.

- It's actually in the process of making a robotic cat as a sort of emotional support animal since a live cat isn't allowed in classes due to allergies (which Grim is exempt from due to him not technically being a cat and not producing allergens, fun fact).

- Oh! And I headcanon him as Greek and Japanese. Forgot that oops. Nationality-wise he'd be Australian though.

I was struggling to think of things that were just canon facts of his character already, which, to be fair, some of this could be but moving onto...

🦾Ortho Shroud🦾

(they/it/he) Nonbinary???

I actually adore how they came out omg. I have no really experience with robot/cyborg character design so I gave myself some liberties.

- First and for most, I made a lot of its robot features more obvious with panelling that would make it easy for Idia to access any brain or vocal mechanics. You cannot convince me that Idia, known for liking video games and anime, would pass up an opportunity to make Ortho look cool asf. Or maybe Book 6 can but for now, panels.

- I don't know if it's ever brought up in detail Ortho's like material components and stuff but I think they're made with the anti-magic stuff Charon's ferrymen have, further enhanced and durable. His freckles help with sensing particularly smell and temperature.

- His eyes took a bit of inspiration from Genoa, I just though a black sclera would look super cool tbh.

- It's hair is a bit crazier and I wanted to lowkey emulate Medusa vibes with it and the soulless eyes lol.

Not much else right now but I know damn well Book 6 will make me cry... Time for the ocs!

🪻Fuji Izanami🪻

Third Year - (she/he) Bigender - Bisexual

- So, a bit of a disclaimer, I've never actually seen Hercules because I was a Greek mythology nerd and was offended by the inaccuracies lol so keep that in mind with the ocs for this dorm. Fuji is my Cerberus character!

- He's the vice-housewarden of Ignihyde and tends to help out with Ortho's upgrades by moving the heavier parts that Idia can't lift.

- Since I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, Cerberus means 'spots', I wanted her to have a ton of freckles as an omage.

- She's fully Japanese and has been a childhood friend of the Shrouds, with both families going way back. He was kind of Idia's emotional support before Ortho was allowed as well as a bit of a bodyguard. She and Ortho were the reason Idia didn't have to attend with a mass guard force.

- Quiet and seems quite menacing at first but is a huge softie and loves to be around other people. She and Jack are workout buddies and bond over common music tastes in the J-Pop and K-Pop genres.

- When she's talking to Idia or Ortho, it tends to be in Japanese (neglecting that the game is set to Japanese, imagine the default is like a common tongue or something lol).

- He specialises in heavier mech tech, developing protective wear and other durable things to work with. She hopes to intern with Charon eventually and work to study the containment of blot.

Now for another set of triplets, these ones all in Ignihyde...

🕰️Ye-Jin Ryu🕰️

Second Year - (she/her) - Sapphic

So these next three characters are representative of the Fates, they're Korean.

- Ye-Jin is my 'past' character. I styled her hair is an older-fashioned wavy cut and gave her some classy pearl earrings to give that 🌸vintage aesthetic🌸.

- Her primary skill set and interest is in re-purposing older things and upgrading them i.e. keeping the older aesthetic but making the mechanisms modern and remove the fear that it'll break down from overuse and whatnot.

- As such, she's a sucker for antiques and older fashion trends, mostly consisting of long skirts and formal wear. That being said, she still wears properly protective gear w an working on one of her projects.

- A hobby of hers is photography and she loves both actually taking photos as well as experimenting with different kinds of old cameras. She's a part of a photography club and also has a photo wall in her room.

- Never one to slack, she enjoys journalling and writing letters in her pass time as well. A hopeless romantic, she and Chanda share a class and Ye-Jin writes little posty notes for her.

Now for the present..

🛰️Ji-Ho Ryu🛰️

Second Year - (she/they) - Heteroromantic Bisexual

- Ji-Ho is the present and reflects a more modern Korean makeup style and haircut. I think she'd have reading glasses but only wear them when necessary.

- She has an interest in modern technology and pushing its limits. Adding more storage to a computer than typically offered, making a car even more gas efficient, that kind of stuff.

- They like a combination of things but are actually a part of the Spelldrive Club. She wanted to try something new and expand their bases. It gave her some insight for a recent interest in prosthetics she's developed.

For the final Fate,

👾Dae Ryu👾

Second Year - (she/they/it) Agender - Pansexual

- Dae is the future! I gave her more sci-fi-y makeup and a bit more flare in its hairstyle. Some piercings and ta dah!

- They specialise in bio-tech. Looking at nature to modify scientific approaches and being more environmentally friendly. Sustainability is a top priority for Dae.

- She wants to eventually make basic resources easily accessible to all and is doing its best to work out a solution. They're connecting the dots lol.

- Dae is a part of the hiking club and loves being around nature as much if not more than being in her lab. They often go hiking with Chunying on weekends.

For the last Ignihyde student and the final Benoit...

💀Cooper Benoit💀

First Year - (they/he) Nonbinary - Queer

- Cooper is twisted from Barrel and is the last of the Benoit family to be introduced. They are a very booksmart person and a math nerd.

- He's also disabled and typically uses a wheelchair. As such, they have been working on trying to improve the school's general accessibility as even with magic, NRC's campus can be difficult to navigate in a wheelchair.

- Similarly to Idia, Cooper is a total cat person and he and Idia take care of the strays together. Cooper's slowly memorising the names lmao.

That's all for Ignihyde! Diasomnia will be out tomorrow, promise! Tyty 🩷🩷🩷

[cmyk-universe]

Chapter: 8

SHADOWS and FLAMES (part 2) ---

Since Hyona’s identity was revealed, his life had taken a chaotic turn. Though he returned to his own house that first night, it didn’t take long for him to gravitate back to Kuro’s place. By the very next day, he was knocking on Kuro’s door, greeted by cats, still wrapped in Kuro’s oversized jacket, which he flat-out refused to return.

“I haven’t figured out how to transform back yet,”

he claimed sheepishly. Kuro raised an eyebrow, clearly skeptical, but let him in without a word.

It was obvious to both Kuro and Nori, who was lounging on the couch, that the jacket had become Hyona’s new comfort item. He snuggled into it constantly, purring unconsciously whenever he thought no one was listening.

Kuro: “You know you’re not subtle, right?”

Kuro teased one evening, from the couch. Hyona’s ears twitched, and he huffed, crossing his arms.

Hyona: “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Nori: “Sure you don’t,”

---

The days passed, and Hyona’s visits became more frequent. His snow leopard traits, now fully unleashed, still haven't figure out how to control. Sometimes he knocked things over with his tail, got distracted mid-conversation by the smallest movements, and paced around at night when everyone else was trying to sleep.

One afternoon, Hyona hesitated before speaking.

Hyona: “Kuro,”

He started, fidgeting with the sleeves of the jacket.

“Would it be okay if I… stayed here? Just for a few nights?”

Kuro raised an eyebrow, leaning back against the counter.

Kuro: “??? Sure, but why? isn't your campus will be further from here than your place?”

Hyona: “It seems that I love Duskfall's atmosphere more than Neoterra.”

Kuro: “and then?” Hyona: “Well yeah.. that's it.. uhh you know, especially when I keep failing to transform back, this tail is troublesome in Neoterra. Afterall, the whole campus didn't know all about this”

Kuro’s eyes caught the flick of his tail, but decided not to ask further. Nori, on the other hand, perched on the couch with a snack, narrowed her eyes.

Nori: (leaning forward) “Okay spill, what's really going on?”

Hyona froze, his ears flattening against his head. For a moment, he looked like he was going to dodge the question, but then he sighed, shoulders slumping.

“I’ve been fighting with my mom. A lot,”

he admitted quietly.

Nori’s teasing demeanor vanished instantly, and even Kuro straightened, his usual indifference replaced by curiosity.

“Now that I know what I really am, everything’s starting to make sense,” Hyona explained, his tail curling around his leg. “All the stuff I’ve struggled with—my clumsiness, staying awake all night, getting distracted all the time—it’s because of this.” He gestured vaguely to himself. “I found out that Snow leopards are nocturnal. We stay away from human noise and activity to concentrate hunting. I guess that’s why I always work better at night when everything’s quiet.”

Kuro exchanged a glance with Nori, who nodded knowingly.

Nori: “Makes sense.. We’re all a little different, aren’t we? You’re just adjusting now... and also, from almost zero”

Hyona: (sighed) “Yeah.. but my mom doesn’t get it. She’s always treated me like a human and expected me to act like one. Now that all these random traits are coming out, it’s overwhelming. And she keeps yelling at me for things I can’t even control, like the fur everywhere. I just… I needed some space.”

Kuro: (watched him for a moment, then nodded) “Stay as long as you need,”

Nori: (grinned.) “Yeah, you’re safe here. No humans to bother you, no need to pretend. After that sudden revelation, you'll need some time to process Afterall”

That night, as Hyona settled onto the couch, he curled up in Kuro’s jacket, his purring deliberate this time. The calm, accepting atmosphere was the first sense of peace he’d felt in days.

As time passed, Hyona’s snow leopard traits became more apparent. His enhanced sense of smell drew him to Kuro’s scent unconsciously, though he didn’t realize it at first. One evening, as Kuro sat reading, Hyona impulsively brushed against him.

Kuro (startled): “???” Hyona: (froze, realizing what he’d done) “Oh—uh—sorry! I didn’t mean—” Kuro: “Don’t worry about it. It’s normal.” Hyona :(blinked) “Normal?” “Yeah,” Kuro said, smirking faintly. “It’s a shifter thing.”

Hyona hesitated, then relaxed, his ears flicking in relief. Over time, these small moments became more common. Whether it was Hyona curling up on the couch or Kuro sitting silently beside him, they grew comfortable in each other’s presence, though neither of them acknowledged it outright.

Nori, of course, found endless amusement in their interactions.

Nori: “You two are ridiculous,”

she said one evening, watching as Kuro silently draped a blanket over a drowsy Hyona. Kuro Huffed as if he already know what Nori is going to say.

Nori: (grinning) “What can I say, this is way too entertaining. You really have some soft spot for cats, even the big one”

Kuro: “Shut up”

And so, the three of them continued to build their strange, mismatched little family in the safety of Kuro’s place, finding comfort in each other’s quirks and flaws.

Back to index

[wickedsrest-rp]

Werewolf (Pl: Werewolves)

QUICK FACTS:

Rarity: ★★☆☆☆ 

Lifespan: 70-90 years

Supernatural abilities: Transformation to wolf-like form; on full moon have fast healing and increased strength, which extend to human form

Enhanced/special senses: Hearing, smell, night vision all in both forms

Immunities: None

Weaknesses: Silver, can’t shift during new moon, control difficult

Can detect: Typically werewolves by scent, possibly species with animal-like scents, possibly undead by not hearing a heartbeat

Detected by: Hunters (rangers), possibly species with heightened sense of smell

Additional notes: This species does not have heightened strength and accelerated healing unless it is around the full moon. Werewolves do not have an innate sense to allow them to recognize other werewolves unless by scent

OVERVIEW: 

Once human, werewolves are shapeshifters transformed by lycanthropy, which can be passed down through a bite or by birth. They’re forced to transform into large, four-legged lupine creatures during the full moon, as well as the night before and after, and are particularly bloodthirsty during that time. Werewolves will never have full control of themselves during the full moon and will always be forced to shift then, but born or experienced werewolves can more easily learn how to control themselves during other times. Werewolves tend to run in “packs” (groups or families) consisting either of other werewolves or a mix of shapeshifter species; these may have some kind of hierarchy but there is no “alpha” as many erroneously believe. Some of these packs can be quite insular and off the grid, especially for born werewolves. 

APPEARANCE: 

When transformed, werewolves appear as large, bipedal beasts with fur and wolfish facial features. Their feet are more paw-like while their hands resemble something between the two, making it easier for them to grab, strike, and eviscerate their prey. They are very quick on their digitigrade legs, but thanks to longer-than-average arms and a compatible spine, werewolves can run on all fours to increase this speed even further. Their color and build may vary but all are powerful and monstrous. When in human form, werewolves do not have any wolf-like characteristics.

INFECTION: 

Only humans can be turned into werewolves and only when bitten (as opposed to scratched) by a werewolf in their wolf form. It’s uncommon for someone to survive getting bit by a werewolf, as the werewolf usually will kill someone outright. However for those that survive, the bite itself can prove deadly for some. If a non-human is bitten, they will grow ill until the wound heals, or may simply not survive the bite. Bites heal slowly and scar regardless of whether they infect someone. The first signs of lycanthropy may start prior to the first full moon or it may not be apparent until the shift actually begins. Though rare, some humans are immune to the infection, and will not become werewolves if they survive being bitten. 

TRANSFORMATION: 

When transformed, the human side of the psyche is completely dormant for the first few transformations, taken over by a feral predatory mentality that knows only the hunt. The werewolf may not remember turning at first, due to the traumatic nature of the shift. Transformation is excruciatingly painful as their bones and internal organs shift around. However, the experience and process of the shift into wolf form can differ between individuals, with some having a harder time than others; born werewolves generally have an easier time than bitten ones. 

With considerable practice, an experienced wolf can gain the ability to transform at will outside of the full moon. This is harder for bitten wolves. Werewolves must be careful of how long they stay shifted – those that stay transformed for long periods of time (weeks, months, years) may lose themselves entirely to the wolf, coming back to their human senses only with great difficulty. Some werewolves choose to cage or chain themselves up while they transform, which can be successful, though many people underestimate the strength of a constrained, hungry werewolf. This can also make the werewolf harder to control while in human form due to pent up aggression and listlessness.

Partial or accidental transformation isn’t voluntary but may be triggered if an individual’s life is threatened, or they feel a strong, primal emotion. This may happen in a fight or flight situation or if something sets off an instinctive response (which may vary by individual). During a partial shift, there is a risk of a werewolf going into a full, uncontrolled transformation if their control slips enough.

ABILITIES: 

In wolf form, werewolves have brutish physical strength and resilience. Though their strength isn’t “supernatural” most of the time, the wolf form is powerful and hardy, stronger than any typical animal.

Around the full moon, werewolves have both supernatural strength and accelerated healing in both forms, though the wolf form always has the edge. A werewolf around the full moon can heal about 5x as quickly as humans.

Their claws and sharp teeth are lethally dangerous.

Even when not transformed, werewolves have an enhanced sense of smell, sharp hearing, and excellent night vision. 

Due to their enhanced senses, werewolves can usually sniff out whether someone is a non-human species that is part animal, or undead (if listening for a heartbeat), though wouldn’t know the specific species unless already familiar with their scent. They also use their highly attuned senses to sniff out information about others in their pack. 

Much like normal wolves, werewolves that live in packs communicate through scents, body language, and vocalizations and are much more in tune with one another than with stranger werewolves. Werewolves secrete a variety of pheromones that reveal what each individual is trying to express, like a warning of immediate danger, for example. 

WEAKNESSES: 

Werewolves are sensitive to silver. In human form, it would appear to be an allergy, with rashes forming wherever silver touches the skin. When in wolf form, direct contact with silver will burn the skin. 

Silver bullets are particularly effective, though not deadly if they don’t strike vital organs and are removed relatively quickly. 

Like most creatures, decapitation or injury to a vital organ will kill them. 

Werewolves are unable to shift at all on the new moon (and the two nights surrounding it). This creates a window for hunters where they know werewolves won’t be able to harm them with brute force. 

While many bitten werewolves surely want a cure for lycanthropy, there is no known cure. 

Werewolves will stay in whatever form they were killed in. If they are in wolf form at death, their body remains that way and vice versa.

Hunted by rangers, who can sense their presence.

[dc-said-bi-robin-rights]

Part 1 of This Is Halloween:

It was no secret Rose Wilson loved partying.

She wasn’t what anyone would call a particularly outgoing and sociable person—some people would even go as far as to call her antisocial, which wasn’t actually the same thing as ‘not sociable’, but whatever—but there was just something about a good party that enraptured her. The press of so many bodies in close proximity. The vibration of the music. The booze. The ability to blame all your bad decisions on the booze. Even the smell of a good party—an objectively unpleasant mixture of vomit, sweat, and the scent of various alcohols—appealed to her at some level she couldn’t really rationalize.

It probably had something to do with her father’s serum, like most things in her life apparently did. She can’t remember the thought of parties ever really appealing to her before she was injected… but then again, she hadn’t exactly had the most standard childhood, had she? Maybe she would have grown up to be a party girl even if Slade had kept away like he promised he would. Hell, maybe she’d have grown up to be a party girl even if her mother hadn’t died before her eyes when she was a little girl. Maybe her love of parties has nothing to do with her past or her enhanced senses at all. Maybe she was just someone who liked partying.

Whatever the reason may have been, the end result was always the same: her standing in her trademark leather jacket with a plastic cup in her hand surrounded by drunk strangers who either blatantly wanted to fuck her or thought her fashionable new eyepatch was the coolest thing to ever exist. She’d liked the first group more than the second one in those early days. At least they didn’t make her feel like one of those old-timey circus freak types people used to come and laugh at back in the day.

And, well, it was easier to forget things while on top of someone screaming your name at the top of their lungs. Even if they’d probably struggle to remember it the following morning.

And then, the Titans.

The Titans threw some shit parties.

It was honestly bonkers, the way the Titans managed to slice off everything fun about partying with an almost surgical precision but keep every single element of the activity that could make it awkward and uncomfortable. They even banned booze.

At a party.

No problem, Rose had thought, naively convinced she wasn’t hanging out with the actual lamest people on the fucking planet. I’ll just bring some of my own and stash it in my room. She could try spiking the punch every once in a while, maybe give herself an excuse to laugh at her teammates the way she knew they laughed at her. Or she could keep it all to herself and get drunk off it when the memories and the past and the visions and everyone’s consistent, inherent suspicion of her got too frustrating to deal with. It wouldn’t be a substitute for the real thing—for family, for love, for having people who’d actually give a shit whether you lived or died—but she was increasingly beginning to suspect such things just weren’t meant for her. That all she had, that all she’d ever have, was her swords, her jacket, and violence. Violence that ran in her blood. Violence that, for a single fleeting moment, had kept her warm on the snowy mountainside where her future was stolen from her. Violence, violence, violence. Violence in sex, violence in love, violence in the heart of a stupid little girl with stupid little dreams who’d believed a man who said he’d make everything better and paid the price.

But nope. Tim had gone and put a stop to that, too. And he’d done it by getting Wendy and Marvin—and geez, not to speak ill of the dead, but those two sucked—to search her room and pour her alcohol down the drain.

Hooray for the Patriot Act, she guessed. Less so for anything resembling fun around this place.

After that, the hits just kept on coming.

Loud music after ten? Banned.

(“But… we live on an island.” “So?)

PDA? Banned.

(“You’re kidding, right?” “Nope.” “It’s a party.” “So?” “People make out at parties.” “Not at ours they don’t.”)

Skinny dipping? Banned.

(She hadn’t obeyed that one, she recalls fondly, thinking of Eddie)

Explicit material ? Banned.

(“It’s a picture of myself, Tim.” “It still counts, Rose. Besides, don’t you know sending those is dangerous? I, uh, know you probably trust whoever you were gonna send this to, but more than 80000 women a year…”)

But way too personal conversations, complete disregard for personal space, and people getting way too comfortable touching her without permission? Oh, you better bet that was not only allowed, but encouraged. Some garbage about team unity and bonding and bleugh. Count her out. If that was what parties in Titans Tower were gonna be like, she’d pass, thank you very much. It’s not like she couldn’t get her kicks elsewhere… y’know, once the possibility of her father kidnapping her again the moment she set foot outside the Tower died down.

Which it never quite did.

So, no parties. None worth remembering, anyway.

And then Tim stepped down as team leader. And, for the first time since she first joined the team, Rose Wilson had an opportunity. Because while Tim may have been as unmoving and self-imposing as hard rock, Cassie… well, really wasn’t at all like that, much to her surprise. That’s not to say she was lax or anything, far from it, she was easily the most stubborn, bossy person Rose had ever met… but she could be reasoned with… persuaded.

Convinced.

So Rose had done just that. It’d started off small, at first. M’gann had always been weirdly curious to try out weed but utterly refused to just do it in secret because she thought it would be disrespectful to Cassie, so all Rose had to do to get her onboard her agenda to liven up the place was dangle the possibility of an inter-team petition to loosen the anti marijuana rules beneath M’gann’s nose and she took the bait hook, line, and sinker. Eddie, for his part, had been something of a harder sell thanks to that incident but in the end all she had to do to get him on her side was flutter her eyelashes enough times for him to get the picture and he was falling over himself to agree to anything she proposed. As usual.

Bart had come easy too, and all she needed to do to get Kon to sign up for the effort was accuse him of faking his punkness, which just left Blue Beetle and Mia to convince. She hadn’t bothered, though. At that time, Blue Beetle was still too scared of her to directly argue against something she’d proposed and Mia was still in the kind of honeymoon era that meant she was just happy to be included in the team’s affairs in the first place, which meant that neither of them would oppose the proposals she meant to bring to the table even if they disagreed with them (and Rose wasn’t even sure they did). For all intents and purposes, the team was hers.

And just as Tim had rallied the team to implement nonsensical rules that constrained their own independence, Rose rallied them to get rid of those same rules. It had been hard, way harder than it should have been if she was honest with herself. There were some rules that had be struck down one after the other just based on the way they were written and others that her support would evaporate if she openly tried to rally against, so she had to be smart about the way she went about it. And that’s not even mentioning the balancing act that was holding her fragile coalition together—M’gann would jump ship if Rose gave her what she wanted too early but Kon and Bart weren’t exactly the most patient guys around and there had been points where even Eddie seemed on the verge of giving up on the effort entirely whenever Cassie dug her heels in against a particular proposal. Rose had to switch tactics, but how?

The answer had come one day in the form of a heated sparring match that… well, turned into something else halfway.

After that, it had never been too hard to convince Cassie of anything.

Rose can’t help but smirk a little at the thought as she examines herself in front of the mirror, turning this way and that in order to better inspect the intricacies of her homemade costume. She’s a pirate this year, a costume choice that had surprised no one when she’d mentioned it the day before during dinner. It had been a little predictable, given her eyepatch, but Rose didn’t mind being predictable every now and then. It just meant that people knew you and knew what you were like, and wasn’t that what she’d wanted in the first place? People who noticed? People who gave a shit?

Maybe being predictable is just the prize of having a family.

Dismissing the thought for later inspection, she pulls up her fishnets for hopefully the last time—they kept slipping slightly whenever she moved, and it was starting to annoy the shit out of her—and picks up her bandana, tying it around her head and knotting it at the back. She’d traded in her swords earlier today for a pair of golden-hilted plastic cutlasses that now hung from her hips and swung against her legs whenever she walked, but they added too much allure to her look to simply abandon them, so Rose sighs and begrudgingly readjusts her belt too, knowing it definitely won’t be the last time she’ll have to perform the action tonight. She allows herself a quick selfie in front of the mirror to cheer herself up before getting to work on the tiresome task of working her hair into pirate braids.

Rose has always liked Halloween, even as a child… though admittedly that had initially been more because of the candy the holiday came with than the ‘dressing up’ aspect of it. That had only started appealing to her after she turned twelve and her mother, seeing how much her daughter enjoyed making mud potions and pretending to curse the odd insect that wandered into the compound after dark, gifted her a costume of a witch. It was an ugly thing, made for a child twice her size, with a tattered pointy hat that dropped way too often and a ratty fake broom with most of its horsehair falling out, but Rose had loved the stupid thing and her mother had loved seeing her in it.

She wonders if her mom would love her pirate costume the way she’d loved her old witch costume. Would she think it was too homemade? Too elaborate? Too slutty? Too simple? Too orange? Too gray? Would she like the textured, scale-like design of the outer edges of the corset or would she think it was too much like her actual costume? Was the collar too much? Should it be a tied collar instead of one with a buckle? Was the contrast between the gray and orange of the corset and the black and gold of the belt eye-catching or just distracting? Maybe it was neither, and her belt needed more golden buckles along it to truly stand out. And what about the fishnets? Should they go all the way up? Did the sliver of exposed thigh make her look more alluring or like she was trying too hard?

She doesn’t even care about the answer. She’s never cared about what people think, at least not when it comes to the way she dresses. She just wants to be able to ask. She just wants to be able to shoot her mom a pic and a quick text saying ‘hey mom, how do I look?’ and get… what, exactly? What would her mom think?

She has no idea. And that’s the entire problem—the fact that she doesn’t even know! The fact that she can’t just ask, because she’s dead, or missing, or whatever, and she is never going to know if she doesn’t find her.

She has so many things she needs to ask. Questions that are important. Questions that aren’t. Questions that will never get answered if she really is dead.

Questions like where were you?

Why did you leave?

How did you survive the fall?

And… when did you stop looking for me?

It’s the only possibility that makes sense. There’s footage of her everywhere now that she’s Titan, and her secret identity is pretty much just a formality at this point, considering that her father doesn’t really hide who he is anymore and anyone who’s anyone already knows anyway. How is that she’s the one looking for her mother and not the other way around when her face—and more importantly, her hair—regularly shows up on every newspaper from here to Canada and…

She feels a clump of hair being torn from her scalp, and she stills for a moment before taking a deep breath and forcing her hands to relax.

Nice job, idiot, she chides herself.

Can’t even braid your own hair right.

[technicallywrite]

Cosmosgate update 11 — Wake up and smell the accelerant

I'm doing the reasonable thing this week! No, not focusing on my day job, that would be silly. I mean, splitting a monster chapter into two well-balanced* parts.

So here is Chapter 11 of *that Cosmosgate fic*, aka part 1 of my spin on the Big Finish audio story UNIT: Assembled: Call to Arms (which you hopefully don't need to have listened to for this to make sense, but if you have/do it may enhance your experience). I originally planned to do the whole thing as a single chapter but my narrative ambition is once again proving too much, because I had to go shove some ship progression in there.

On the menu: a staff briefing, coffee with Gordy, revelations (because I can't effing help myself apparently), the beginnings of some actual action, and a rough helicopter ride for our favorite flight-averse scientist.

(* I don't know about well-balanced, since I've only written part 1 and I have a rough estimate for part 2, and historically that has meant very little -- anyway the point is this is mainly aspirational)

[wellnessscommunity]

Stunning Nature Healing Spirit For Better Life

The age-old practice of heading out to the woods is now making a roaring comeback, thanks to a world thrumming with technology and jam-packed with concrete cousins. “Forest bathing", also known as “shinrin-yoku”, is not necessarily walking or aerobic exercise; it is a holistic sensory experience of nature, which includes an emotionally responding mindfulness process and all the psychological and physical satisfactions associated with it.

It may seem simple, but the impact is no less involved; the strength of evidence behind the claim that forest bathing positively affects mental wellness is solid and vigorous, so it is absolutely on the list of things to discuss when mental wellness comes around.

What Is Forest Bathing?

In the 1980s, following the British 'forest therapy' approach, a Japanese public health campaign for stress reduction and chronic illness received the new name ‘forest bathing’. Walking may differ from hiking; however, it's more or less slow and deep in the woods. In more concrete terms, it would involve walking through the woods and listening to birds tweeting, stroking the bark of trees, or just sitting under a canopy of leaves.

Applying the five senses

Listening to the rustle of leaves, smelling the earth with moss, feeling the breeze in a quiet mood, under the bright sunlight that shines through the leaves, and observing the sun's interaction with branches.

The Science Behind Forest Bathing and Mental Health

Indeed, a short but influential citation of studies still lends credence to the notion that nature exposure has a quantifiable impact on mental wellness. It has been shown that immersion in forests bathes most strongly in cortisol level reduction (the primary stress hormone), improving mood and cognitive function.

Alleviates stress

Natural elements, particularly forests, probably have anxiolytic effects on humans. For example, natural sounds (such as running water or singing birds) activate the parasympathetic nervous system to induce sleep. Many researchers have already shown that a 20-minute forest bathing experience reduces cortisol levels, reduces feelings of stress, and relieves anxiety.

More Focusing-Awake

In a world where distractions are unlimited, people's mental capacity is almost constantly being depleted or has not yet been developed at the level required for concentration. Forest bathing is to step back from overstimulation when our mind asks for it. It is said that nature operates through "attention restoration theory," i.e., creative activities somehow restore our capacity to concentrate.

Improved Emotional Well-being

Studies have proven that exposure to nature enhances the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter responsible for controlling moods. Forest exposure attenuates depression symptoms and clears the way for serenity and resilience to arise.

Enhanced Immune Function

Suboptimal immune benefits through forest bathing (i.e., exposure to trees in natural settings) enhance qualitative characteristics conducive to holistic wellness qualities that underpin complementary therapies to psychiatry; however, tree expels phytoncides, volatile organic compounds that contribute to immune enhancement. Healthy people usually have healthy minds.

Forest Bathing as a Holistic Wellness

Practise Forest bathing relates very well to holistic wellness. The idea works in all areas of health, including mental, physical, social, and spiritual aspects. It aims to stretch the one to take a step outside of the individual-self niche to reconnect the individual to the natural world and to enlarge the feeling of responsibility for its protection.

Mental Wellness: The most apparent and collective benefit of forest bathing is mental wellness. Stress relief and improved emotional equilibrium help manage the disease better.

Social Wellness: Forest bathing can continue to be shared in company and, thereby, is conducive to bonding moments, further intersubjective communication, and fostering a feeling of belonging.

Environmental Wellness: Hiking in the forest allows one to soak up the benefits of forming genuine bonds, maximising appreciation for such deep meaning. Growing ecological sustainability leads to greater participation in the massive conservation task ahead.

What if you bring forest bathing into your routine?

Refrain from imagining that forest bathing means living in a luxurious condition in the heart of a deep forest. Imagine, for example, the park-urban, wooded, or even backyard!

Set an intention: Meditation can also serve many functions, such as relaxation or mood enhancement. You must specify your motivation for participating in the activity.

Engage Your Senses: Look for sights, smells, visual items, touch, and natural tastes

Make it a routine: Regularly make forest bathing a weekly or monthly habit and treat it as integral to your self-care.

Wellness Communities and the Popularisation of Nature-Based Practises

Forest bathing is the prime principle in the ethos of the Wellness Community of India (WCI). The largest wellness community in India, WCI believes in holistic wellness approaches that are equally significant to the mind as much as to physical or environmental wellness. WCI's very inclusive agenda calls for practices such as forest bathing to help people rediscover nature and re-emphasise the importance of their well-being in today's life.

It encourages its members to implement natural practices into their daily lives, reinforcing a deeper level of well-being. This benefits personal well-being and the broader culture of mindfulness and sustainability.

Bathing in the forest is not merely a passing mode but a changing practice that reconnects human lives with nature. With the emerging research highlighting the mental wellness and well-being benefits of forest bathing, forest bathing leads to living a life that is more in tune and harmonised with being. These practices are harmonised so that the power of nature is always at work to help us attain balance and equilibrium within ourselves.

Healthcare organisations like the Wellness Community of India strive for community well-being by encouraging the application of mental, physical, and environmental health practices and promoting a sustainable integration with nature. Through an alchemy of wisdom from the past and contemporary life, WCI maintains wellness that is welcoming and profoundly inclusive of everybody.

[ere-the-sun-rises]

I love Origins!Logan and dad!Logan, so I took the liberty of running with some more of your idea. I'm curious to hear what you think!

"This is how many now?" Laura asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Look kid, it's not my fault there's so goddamn many of them and they all apparently live within a ten mile radius of me." He huffs, but the actual answer is nine.

"Right." She rolls her eyes and hands him a paper. "If you're looking for ten, Hank asked me to give this to you."

"Beast? What does he want?"

"Dunno." She shrugs and walks off to meet the new kids clustered around Mary Puppins, all sharing packets of beef jerky and pepperettes.

Logan hesitates to open the letter. He'd not had any interaction with this world's X-Men, mostly out of his own raging guilt. He wasn't the noble hero they were familiar with, nor was he even particularly good at being part of them in his own world. He also wasn't too big of a man to admit he was fucking terrified of it - of seeing dead faces alive again, maybe looking and behaving entirely different from how he remembered his own. Yukio had been more than enough of a change for him.

The thought of her makes his heart hurt a little. She'd been a good friend, and he regrets not being able to say goodbye. He hopes she doesn't try looking for him, but he knows she will. She's sweet like that. Thank god this universe's Yukio is a darling teenage lesbian - more difficult to conflate the two.

He opens the letter with a resigned sigh.

Hello Logan,

We have recently come across a young mutant boy who appears to have a similar set of characteristics to both you and the boy Amber you have been assisting. He was discovered by local authorities rooting through trash and bit a deputy. He is roughly eleven, but appears to lean into his animal nature. I have attempted to assist him, but he does not like me very much. Any assistance or guidance you can offer would be very much appreciated.

Sincerely, Hank McCoy

"Ah, shit." He mutters, and grabs his keys.

| | |

As per his request, Yukio lets him into the Mansion and helps him avoid all the other X-Men. Whatever Laura or Wade told her about his past ensures she doesn't ask any questions, just helpfully guides him.

She knocks very gently on the correct door and opens it, peering in. "Victor? You've got a visitor. This is my friend, Logan."

He enters the room and the boy looks up at him defiantly. "Are you here to tame me too?"

"No." He says, hands in the pockets of his jeans. "I'm here to teach you how to hunt."

| | |

Laura and Amber are the two of his new brood (thanks Althea) who have the most animal instinct in them. The others have claws or fangs or healing factors or enhanced senses, but only Laura and Amber are really wild on the inside.

And now Victor.

"Are you going to kill me out here?" Victor snipes, but Logan can smell the acrid scent of fear sweat seeping off him and tries not to judge.

"No." He answers. Laura and Amber trail behind, looking around and sniffing, marking their way back to the truck. Not that Logan ever got lost in forests, but it was a good habit to have.

"Then what could you possibly mean by 'hunting'? You don't have guns or bows."

He raises an eyebrow and looks down at the sharp talons extending out of the top of Victor's fingers. "Because you would need those things."

"Hunting is fun." Amber says, trying to lighten the mood. "It's really nice to get to be in nature."

"I was born in the Albertan Rockies, I already know what nature looks like." Victor barks, which makes Amber shrink back. Laura snarls, standing in front of the boy protectively.

"Stop being a shithead." She snaps, making Victor jump. "If you were so fucking good at this, you wouldn't have been rooting around in garbage."

Logan scents the evening air and stops. Victor almost walks into the back of his legs. Instead of wading into the fight, he pulls Victor around and kneels. Wordlessly, Laura and Amber follow suit, so he gently pushes down on Victor's shoulders until he does the same.

"Smell that?" He asks. "Do you know what that is?"

"Nighttime." Victor replies, still suspicious.

"It makes up nighttime." He agrees. "But what do you actually smell?"

Victor frowns. "I don't know. Night stuff."

"When the sun sets, plants release excess water to soothe their leaves. It runs off them and into the ground, where the water mixes with carbon and nitrogen to release this scent, bergamot." He rubs some dirt between his fingers and holds it up for Victor to smell. "Trees also slow down sap production when the sun is at rest, so the sugars start to thicken in the trunk, where they're sitting, so the trees smell sweeter. Older trees smell sweeter. Do you know why the air is so sweet here?"

"No." Victor replies, less hostile and more curious.

"The giant Redwoods are very old." He gestures around them. "They leave a lot of leaf litter, which traps decay under their waxy finish. When you disturb the leaves, you get a burst of decay, which is also usually sweet once the fluids are gone."

"Fluids?"

"Death is all around you, a part of how the world functions. Whether they were hunted or died on their own time, animals return to the soil." He brushes away some leaves and pulls out an owl pellet, breaking it open to reveal the compressed bones of a mouse. "And that's just what you can smell."

Victor cocks his head and Logan angles his head so his eyes will catch the last of the evening light, startling the boy.

"Tapetum lucidem." He shifts away. "It helps us see in the dark, but it catches the light and can give our location away. Usually only predators have it, so others won't bother you, but prey will run."

"No one else can see in the dark like this?"

"No. They can't hear, see, smell, taste or feel like we do." He nods over to a black bear wandering through the trees with a cub. She stops and looks at them. Logan stands, hands loose at his side, and lets out a sub-sonic rumble. She huffs back at him, then noses her cub the other way and ambles off.

"Wow." Victor smiles.

"Our mutation gives us a place here that humans don't have." He continues, gesturing for them to stand. "We're welcome here, but only so long as we cooperate with the ecosystem. We're not here to dominate it, but live within it. You can chase, but don't kill for fun. If you don't need to eat, let it go."

"So, are we not hunting yet?" Victor asks, confused.

"You're a cub. Part of hunting is the practise, getting used to your territory, learning it and everything in it. Learning to chase and when to give up the chase." He ruffles Victor's hair. "For tonight, we're going to explore and play-fight. Put your senses to the test."

| | |

The sun is barely peaking over the tips of the trees when Logan wakes, having spent the latter half of the night sleeping in the bed of his shitty old pickup truck. Him, alongside the two boys and Laura, were wrapped up in a collection of blankets and pillows Laura affectionately called his 'nest', all huddled close to him to keep warm. Laura tended to starfish when she slept, but Victor and Amber were each under an arm, cuddled in close. Victor's head was laying in his chest while Amber had his nose buried in Logan's neck. He hums in gentle satisfaction, surprised when he feels Laura's fingers wind into his hair.

"Go back to sleep." She says quietly, still mostly asleep herself.

"Okay." He chuckles, amused, as she rolls over and smushes her face further into her pillow.

Amber huffs in his sleep and lets out a contented chirruping sound. Victor sniffs and one if his legs jerks a little. Logan settles back down, letting his mind wander.

He thinks of his brother - seriously thinks about him - for the first time in a long time and wonders what ever became of him. He hopes that unlike his brother, the Victor Creed he has laying in his arms this morning will go on to live a happy and settled life, free from the war and blood that dominated so much of their lives.

As much as he had denied himself the comfort as a punishment, Logan had always known he was a pack animal. His brother had seemed to reject that notion entirely, had wanted to escape all forms of attachment except to Logan himself - a connection he guarded fiercely. Maybe this time, Victor wouldn't feel like he had to choose. Maybe this time Logan would do it right.

Maybe this time, Logan could actually make things better.

Please for your enjoyment imagen Logan finding a young freshly mutated feral mutant who ran away from home out of fear one day he was walking Mary.

Logan is so sympathetic because he has been there and it's terrifying all your senses getting dialed up to 11 and all new instincts is scary. He ends up sitting with them for a while and just talking and recounting his few memories about how scary it was for him (he's mad he can't remember more because it's helping the kid). He tells stories Laura told him about her own experience as well.

The kid slowly relaxed and ends up crawling into Logan's lap as Logan tells stories about Wade who has a damn lazer toy for cats that makes him go insane.

He ends up bringing the kid back to his and Wade's apartment and asks the kid about there parents. The parents weren't anti-mutant thankfully the kid was just scared. Logan and Wade end up getting the kid back to there parents and if Logan ends up with a kid who he starts training well that's his business.

[high-dragon-bait]

An Assortment of Random Dragon Age Lore Headcanons/Canon Fixes That Add Nothing But I Am Always Keeping in Mind

lots of these have to do with elves apparently

Mabari were bred not only for intellect, strength, and loyalty, but longevity as well. 20 years is the average lifespan for a mabari, with some reaching their 30s

At least 10-15% of all elven births are twins

Elves' nightvision also goes along a heightened sense of hearing, smell, and increased stamina

The elven language is not a dead language, it's just a very diverse one. Each region has its own dialect, with Free Marches Elven and Ferelden Elven sounding very different from one other. It is also almost unrecognizable from Ancient Elven, think English vs Old English, some words may carry over, but for the most part they read as two separate languages

That is why Dalish elves are also taught common, not only does it make it possible to speak with non-Dalish, it makes it equally as possible to communicate with Dalish of other regions

Inquisition takes place over five years, seven if you count Trespasser

The lyrium-inscribed markings Fenris has were granted to warriors of ancient Arlathan

The Hawkes have elven blood somewhere in their lineage

Half-elves don't look entirely human, but since most humans have a very specific idea of what an elf looks like, anyone that doesn't meet that idea is considered appearing to be human

Purple, red, amber, and other "unusual" eye colors are not uncommon in elves

The development of magic in a person is often accompanied by an enhancement or sometimes complete change in eye color

The vallaslin design a Dalish wears is chosen by their keeper, not them, and is based on their position in the clan, as well as their achievements and personality.

Adding to the above apprentices often talk about which god they think they'll receive and sometimes shape their behavior towards a specific god's virtues to better than chances of receiving that vallaslin

Some very expensive wines, especially Tevinter wines, include tiny portions of lyrium to "enhance their flavor and effects"

[euphoricfilter]

To Build A Home (Part Three)

Part three: Thief

Pairing: Ot7 x 9 tailed fox Hybrid! Reader

Fox Hybrid! Jin, Human! Namjoon, Human! Yoongi, Wolf Hybrid! Hoseok, Cat Hybrid! Jimin, Wolf Hybrid! Taehyung, Fox Hybrid! Jungkook

Genre: Hybrid AU || Fluff || Angst || Smut/ implied smut || Strangers to lovers AU || Best friends to lovers AU

Summary: Your's and Namjoon's relationship develops, a new friendship blooming. There also seems to be a thief lurking around your garden who has ulterior motives when the two of you finally meet.

Word count: 10.2k

Tags/ warnings: Talks of hybrid mistreatment, mentions of genocide, mentions of child labour, implied malnourishment, angst, fluff, namjoon being a sweetheart, jimin's redemption will come, he means well so don't hate him.

Notes: i feel kind of iffy about the chapter but it's my own fault for not sully planning out this story. both of my stories apparently have bitchy jimin but he means well in this one, he's only trying to survive

series masterlist

Part four

+++

“It smells like a wet cat” you and Taehyung stare down at your sad excuse of a garden patch.

It had been a week since Namjoon and Yoongi had come to visit, you and Taehyung had spent more time together while Jin worked, yours and Jin’s relationship was mended, and your life seemed to be going alright. The issue with your adoption termination coming closer and then being sent as the government’s lab rat hadn’t made much progress. With Yoongi not fond of you and Namjoon iffy about adoption you were once again stuck, at least you had Taehyung and Jin to cheer you up when the impending doom got too much for you to handle.

(If worse comes to worst, you’d use all of your inheritance money to buy enough hybrids to form a ‘pack’. You didn’t even want to look up how much a fox hybrid would cost, they weren’t as common as the domestic hybrids, the rarer the hybrid the higher the price. You were far from poor, but you doubted you’d have enough to buy (you hated talking about hybrids like they weren’t people) a fox and another 2 hybrids. (Damn those government officials and their new laws))

This morning, you’d woken up, woken Taehyung up at the crack of dawn, practically dragged him down the stairs with a spring in your step because any day now it would be harvest day. Taehyung had said—although reluctantly- that he would help you dig up your vegetables when they were ready. Of course, you took him up on this offer, and if he would have known that you’d be slamming his bedroom door open at barely 7 am then he would have flatly declined but the happy sparkle in your eyes when he showed interest in your garden was enough to convince him to say yes. Even if that meant waking up hours before he could even function.

“They must have been hungry, they nearly ate everything” Taehyung hums, hands on his hips.

You both take a moment of silence for your vegetable patch, a moment of silence for the homemade vegetable and herb stew that Jin will not be making. To say you were excited for his stew would be an understatement, it was the highlight of your year. Stew was an awful meal idea, soggy vegetables, and chewy meat in a watery broth.

Unless it was Jin’s succulent, juicy, flavourful homemade stew. Which you will proudly announce that his prized stew used yourhomegrown vegetables and herbs. But alas you would have to go a year without it. You could already feel the withdrawal symptoms forming.

“You think it was a hybrid?” Taehyung asks, his sense of smell having dulled down due to the musty room in the facility.

He’d noticed after a few weeks of living with you and Jin how lacking his sense of smell now was, he supposed the constant chemical smells have dulled his nose, and constantly listening for when any humans were coming enhanced his hearing. He could make out the conversations you and Jin had of an evening, even with the thick oakwood door separating him from the two of you.

He could only smell you when you were close, his nose almost touching you, or on an item that was drenched in your scent. He thinks your scent must be more pungent than Jin’s, he had to have his nose touching the elder to be able to smell him properly otherwise he wouldn’t know how the fox would be feeling. As he found it hard to differentiate a happy scent from sad scent since he left the facility.

“They don’t smell like a pure bred” you tilt your head, nose twitching as you try to figure out the exact scent that covers the expanse of the garden, “Definitely a wet cat” you hum.

You crouch down in front of the crates that your owner had built you years ago to keep your vegetable patch in, the nutritious soil that Jin had bought for your birthday last year having been flung across the grass. It had been on sale, but it was all natural and your plants loved it. The tomatoes had (past tense) looked so ripe and juicy, cabbages looking bigger and fresher than any other year.

“All my hard work” you sulk, lips pulling into a pout as you look at the half-chewed carrot, lettuce leaves sprinkled over the grass like rose petals.

Taehyung pats you on the back sympathetically as you babble about the mess of your garden.

“There’s always next year” he runs his fingers over the base of your hybrid ears.

You just give him a deadpan look. “You haven’t tried the stew, you wouldn’t understand”

Jin frowns when the two of you slink back into the kitchen, evident frown on your face. “Were they not ready yet?” he asks over his shoulder.

He turns to look at the two of you when he hears a thud, which he sees is you face planting the table and Taehyung bites his lip to suppress a smile.

“Nope” Taehyung answers when you just sigh, “There’s a thief. Someone ate everything” Taehyung explains, Jin tilting his head in confusion.

“Everything?” Jin weaves around the table, crouching beside you, hands on your knees to help himself balance.

“There was one radish left” you tell the fox, “A reallysmall one as well”

“Go and get it, I’ll make a salad for lunch” Jin brushes the base of your ears, smiling at your dramatic antics.

“With one radish?” you cry out, hands flinging in front of yourself to prove your point.

“That one radish could make the whole dish” he tells you, “Go and get it and we can make cookies later”

You push yourself up off of the chair, palms hitting the table. “Yes, sir” you salute, marching towards the door.

+++

“Can I have another bowl of noodles?” you ask Jin, standing from the table.

“Sure, there’s some in the pot still” Jin hums, his hands submerged in the soapy water.

Taehyung watches you reach up into one of the higher cupboards for another bowl, struggling as you try and balance on the tip of your toes “Why don’t you just use the same bowl? You’re making more work for yourself, why would you wash up two bowls?” he asks, mouth full of cold noodles.

“It’s not for me” you turn to Taehyung, who pauses.

“Hybrid?” he asks simply, and you nod.

“What if they don’t like cold noodles?” Taehyung asks, wolf ears twitching.

“I didn’t think of that” your hand pauses, fingers lightly grasping the bowl “Everyone like’s Jin’s cooking though” Taehyung hums in agreement, more interested in his food.

After you’d placed the tray on top of your vegetable patch crates, you skuttled back inside. The cool evening air causing goosebumps to raise on the skin of your bare arms.

Pulling your knees to your chest, you sit and watch the garden from the wide window ledge in your bedroom.

A few years back Jin had renovated the room once you decided to move out of your old bedroom and into his. He had to buy a bigger bed, your tails almost suffocating him more times than he could count. The window ledge was now covered in an abundance of soft blankets and pillows, perfect for reading during the evening, a hobby you’d picked up from Jin during your teen years. He’d told you that reading was special and that being comfortable while reading is important so you can really immerse yourself into the story.

The living room wasn’t somewhere you really liked to read, memories of when your owner was still alive and would spend evening reading you book after book still a memory you weren’t over. And you felt like you could never truly enjoy a book in that room again now that he was gone. Jin understood this and told you it was okay; he would just upgrade your guys’ bedroom so that you could have optimum comfort while reading.

However, it would be your look out spot until you caught the vegetable thief. You weren’t sure what you would do when you found out who exactly ruined your garden, ask them inside for a cup of hot chocolate? Maybe. You couldn’t exactly ask for your vegetables back, but you could offer a nice warm meal now that the weather was getting colder, maybe even one of your favourite blankets that keep your feet nice and warm in the winter.

You couldn’t even comprehend what living day to day would be like once the nights got chilly. Fearing if you’ll live for the next day and even then, as a hybrid, the fear of not knowing if you’ll be free tomorrow. You weren’t stuck up enough to not notice that you lived on the better spectrum of hybrid lifestyles, you could have been in Taehyung’s position where you’re shoved in a facility, only known by a number rather than name, scavenging for scraps of left-over food with limited health care, the tip of Taehyung’s ear miraculously not getting infected, or living on the streets with nothing but the clothes on your back and the sun as a reminder of the days coming and going.

“Sunshine?” Jin shakes you awake.

Your fingers twitch as his hands brush over the base of your tails, “Your back will ache if you sleep up here” Jin smiles as you wiggle around.

With bleary eyes you frown up at the fox. It takes a moment for your mind to process where you are but once your mind wracks itself for information you sit up abruptly. Mind spinning for a moment as the blood rushes to your head. You don’t think you’ve ever woken up this fast from a nap.

Your eyes dart to the garden through the window. “It’s too dark” you slip off the window ledge, feet toeing at your slippers before you stalk over to the door.

You turn to Jin once your hand grasps the door handle, “I’ll be back, love you” you tell him, tone determined. He nods, muttering an ‘I love you too’ back, albeit a little confused by your behaviour but he expected no less from you.

Taehyung lifts his eyes from his phone as you scurry through the living room into the kitchen. He shakes his head as you aggressively pull the back door open, almost denting the wall, a cold gust of wind causing his hybrid ears to twitch.

“What happened to her?” Taehyung turns to Jin once he emerges in the room, now with his pyjamas on.

“Not sure, she was asleep up there” Jin shrugs, falling onto the couch with a sigh. Muscles aching from a long day at work.

You on the other hand take long strides towards the back of the garden. Fishing your phone out of your pocket, you turn on the flashlight. Your shoulders fall forward and a long sigh passing through your lips when you see the empty bowl left on the crates of soil.

You flash the light over the bushes, body falling extremely still as you listen for any rustling. It’s when a hard gust of wind howls, your body shivering that you decide it’s best to go back inside.

You grab the bowl, chopsticks laying in the soil as you wander back inside where Jin is holding a blanket out for you. Taehyung grabs the bowl and chopsticks from you, carefully placing them in the sink as you flop down over Jin’s lap on the couch.

“Did you find them?” he asks, you shake your head.

“I fell asleep and missed them” you tell him.

“I’ve been down here all evening and I haven’t heard anything” Taehyung tells you as he takes a seat on the chair.

“I’ll try again tomorrow” you wave the both of them off with a pout, the bowl of homemade cookies making you feel a little better about your failed plan.

+++

You wake up the next morning to something clanking in the back garden. It takes a minute for your mind to process the sound, a minute for you to untangle your limbs from Jin who is still dead to the world, a minute to get down stairs, almost falling down them, Jin’s pyjama pants way too long for you, and another minute for you to rush to the back door (You couldn’t find the keys, almost slipping more times than you’d like to admit and almost bashing your head on the kitchen counter).

Your mind races at the thought of finding the vegetable thief, and now would be the perfect time to ask them in for breakfast and a refreshing drink or if they needed some clothes (maybe if you liked them enough you could incorporate them into your mismatched pack, and you’d be one step closer to freedom)

Pushing the door open you frown at your next-door neighbour’s yappy little dog that slipped through the gap in the gate. The dog had a habit of riffling through the neighbourhood trash cans, you weren’t sure if it was because the dog just didn’t like the dry looking food you’d seen its owner lug through the door each month, or she just had another dog and didn’t feed the little devil that would chew on plastic before the sun would rise. She never seemed to care when her dog would go missing for most of the day, finally coming home once it was bored of sorting through all the rubbish your street produced weekly.

If you were being completely honest you weren’t sure how the dog had lived this long, at first you had tried to stop it swallowing a bottle cap, but it bit your hand and from that day the two of you were sworn enemies. You weren’t sure if dogs could digest plastic and paper properly but that wasn’t something you were worried about, at least less waste was going to landfill sites. You were half convinced it wasn’t actually a dog and your neighbour was raising a demonic entity, you wouldn’t interfere if she was, she just needed to stop her dog from knocking over the trashcan because you were the poor sucker that had to clean it all up.

You slam the back door harshly, hearing the dog bark at you for startling it. You have to will yourself to not open the door again and throw the damn dog over the fence.

“Not the garden fairy?” Jin asks you, leaning against the back of the couch.

“Neighbour’s dog” you grumble, “You’re up early, even for a workday”

Your feet shuffle over to Jin, leaning your head on his chest as he runs a hand through your hair, your tails swinging happily behind you, one of them circling round Jin’s back.

“Someone woke me up” he gives you a knowing look and you bite your lip before pushing yourself up on your tip toes to give him a kiss on the cheek.

“Sorry” you smile sheepishly, “I really thought it was them”

“It’s fine” he pulls you back into his chest, his fingers itching to run through the soft fur of your tails, “Just remember to ask them inside once you find them, I’m sure they could use a proper meal and some clean clothes”

“I will” you murmur, limbs turning to jelly as Jin scratches the base of your ears.

It was later in the day, you and Taehyung flopped over the couch watching a true crime series, bellies full of cheap takeaway that you bought when the doorbell rang. The both of you make eye contact. Your hybrid ears twitching in interest as you attempt to decipher who would be knocking at this time of the day. Jin has his own keys, never forgetting them no matter how frazzled he is in the mornings, and your neighbourhood consisted of a bunch of individualistic pretentious assholes, never talking to their neighbours, never asking for help, no eye contact, nothing.

“Do you have guests?” Tae asks, pausing the tv.

You pull the ice pop out of your mouth, “I don’t have friends, do you really think I would have guests?” you deadpan, and he snorts.

“Those government guys?” he asks with a slight tilt to his head, and you groan.

You push yourself up off of the couch, ice pop long forgotten in a bowl as your feet carry you to the front door. Your hybrid ears flinch when the shrill of the doorbell echoes throughout the entrance area of the house.

You could already feel your skin crawling at the idea of those two God awful men coming to visit, you’re glad Taehyung was here so at least you could scream if they tried anything stupid.

Taking a deep breath, fully preparing yourself to just turn back towards the living room upon seeing their faces. Surprisingly when you peek through the peep hole, your head tilts in confusion once you see Namjoon stood there, fiddling with his fingers.

You unlock the door, pulling it open, and looking up at Namjoon. The both of you just stand there in silence for a moment.

“Hi?” it comes out as more of a question, evident confusion in your tone

“Hey” he smiles, a bird chirping somewhere in the background.

You just stare at his—well defined- chest for a moment, his shirt pulling a little taught as he stands straight, shoulders pushed back.

“Would you like to come in?” you ask after a moment, and he nods.

You think you hear Taehyung sniggering in the living room but when you turn to look at him, he’s busy looking at something on his phone. You narrow your eyes at him before shutting the door.

“I actually came to ask if you wanted to go to the garden centre with me? I have the afternoon off work and planned to go- Jin told me about your garden, he said this was all fine, by the way, I did ask him” Namjoon rambles, you just blink at him before smiling.

“Sure, that would be nice, you can go and wait in the living room if you like? I need to change” you motion down to yours, well, Jin’s pyjamas.

Namjoon nods enthusiastically, easily slipping the sandals off his feet as he wanders into the living room, nodding warily at Taehyung who ignores him.

You can only pray the two of them get along as you climb up the stairs.

“I won’t bite” Taehyung looks up at Namjoon once he hears your bedroom door close.

Namjoon’s head shoots towards Taehyung at the sound of his voice, worried that he was caught looking over the living room “That’s good to know” he gives the wolf a tight-lipped smile.

Namjoon’s eyes trail over the room, he didn’t get a proper look at your home the last time he was round a week ago, too worried Jin and yourself would think he’s snooping. He looked over the array of photos hung on the wall, all of them holding either you or Jin, sometimes the both of you together celebrating different events, birthdays, new year’s, a few parties that didn’t give away any specific details of the occasion but the both of you looked happy.

He’d come to realise that you home was the two of you, paintings from childhood with your messy signatures at the bottom, or wonky looking clay models that looked a little more like a phallic object than a vase. There wasn’t much of anyone else, no hint of Taehyung, no hint of anyone other than the two of you living in this home.

“Is there something wrong?” Namjoon asks, palms starting to sweat as he catches Taehyung just stares at him intensely.

“Make sure the place you’re going isn’t too busy, she has really sensitive ears, and I think she’s really self-conscious about her tails since they make her stand out so much, and you have to keep an eye on her because she forgets where she is sometimes, she doesn’t like doing things alone either so you have to go with her wherever she wants to, okay?” Taehyung tells the other, nose held high.

Namjoon’s mouth opens a little, nodding as the information is thrown at him. “Yeah, sure” he breathes

Taehyung turns back to the tv, exiting the show the both of you were watching, he can finish it with you once you got home.

The both of them hear a thud from the stair, turning to look at you stumbling over your feet as you try and get your socks on.

“Sorry, my tails are little hard to figure out in these jeans” You grimace when you almost trip on the carpet.

“Take your time, I have the rest of the day off” Namjoon waves his hands, worried you’ll break a bone.

“Stinky” Taehyung calls and your head shoots up to look at him.

(Long story short, Jin had seen some all-natural fertilizer on sale while grocery shopping a few days and knew it would be perfect for your plants (this was before the thief came). You’d accidently spilled some over yourself when trying to take it into the garden, you think you nicked the side of bag because the next thing you know, soil juice is running down your sweater. Coming back into the kitchen, apparently, you’d smelt awful. Taehyung had called you stinky and the name had apparently stuck.)

You tilt your head in question, “Gotta wear your collar” the wolf tells you.

You frown. A real sulky frown. The type that would make Taehyung fall to his knees and give you the world if you asked for it. But! Jin wasn’t here so he would just have to stand his ground with you. He has to remind himself not to spoil you too much, even if it is tempting.

“It’s so itchy” you dramatically fall onto the chair adjacent to the couch, hand clutching at your neck.

“We can put it on once we get to the gate if you like, you only need it when there’s other people around” Namjoon smiles over at you, before looking over at Taehyung for some sort of approval. Namjoon misses the sly smile that you direct at Taehyung who shakes his head at you.

“Remember your phone this time please” Taehyung’s tails wraps around his thigh as he hands it to you, surprising you by pulling you down for a hug. You wrap your arms around his neck, squeezing a little as you smile.

“You don’t want to come with us?” you whisper, he shakes his head.

“I’m good. I don’t even have a collar yet either” he pats your back, motioning with his head that Namjoon was waiting.

“I’ll ask Jin to sort that out for you” you wave a little sadly at him as you slip into the entrance of the house to put your shoes on.

Namjoon doesn’t rush you, waits patiently as you tie your shoes and waits patiently as you bite your lip while thinking which collar you should take with you, he doesn’t rush you when you fiddle with the lock on the door either.

It’s silent between the two of you as you wander towards the gate, it wasn’t necessarily an awkward silence, but Namjoon could feel his palms getting sweaty, worried you’d take his silence the wrong way. Maybe you thought he was just doing charity work to look good, or he wasn’t actually interested in you as a person but the status he could get from having a hybrid, and you were certainly a rare one.

He wouldn’t ever tell you this, but he had looked up hybrids once he got home last week after your dinner, he didn’t know what he was expecting but he couldn’t find anything on ‘mystical type’ hybrids (he felt bad, he made you sound like a Pokémon). There were no accounts on hybrids with multiple tails, just ‘regular’ fox hybrids like Jin.

“I took the bus, if that’s okay with you” he asks, you stop walking.

Namjoon stops, noticing you just looking at him, “What’s wrong?” he asks, eyebrows furrowing in concern. What if he said something wrong?

“Hybrids aren’t allowed to take the bus” you tell him, watching his eyes widen a little.

“Oh, I didn’t know” he whispers, you shrug

“I know a walkway we can take to the garden centre; it’ll take longer than the bus will, but the scenery is nice” you throw a thumb over your shoulder. Namjoon nods, happy you don’t seem offended by his mistake.

Namjoon follows beside you as you walk down a small alleyway towards the back of the complex you lived on, the path widening to a dirt road for the two of you to walk on.

Maybe you’d be able to find where your garden thief was staying, there were a bunch of bridges and small holes for people to stay in around this area.

“Yoongi sends his regards” Namjoon speaks up, you laugh at that.

“He didn’t did he? You’re just being nice” You don’t look upset at that Namjoon notes.

“How did you know” he asks, hand scratching the back of his neck, embarrassed that you could see through his lie so easily.

“Taehyung told me where Yoongi was at with the whole hybrid thing, I don’t mind if he doesn’t like me” you tell Namjoon honestly.

“Ah I should have guessed it was Taehyung” Namjoon laughs, shoulders shaking as he does, “I seriously think he has a personal vendetta against me”

“Not you, humans in general” you kick at a stone, dust flying up as you do.

“I guess not a lot of hybrids have good experiences with humans” he mutters, your hybrid ears twitch, tails swaying from side to side behind you.

“Not a lot. But there are” your fingers fiddle with the collar in your hoodie pocket.

“You have any good experiences?” he asks, head turning to look at you. Watching the smile pull at your face.

“Yup” you nod, not giving too much away, and Namjoon doesn’t seem to catch onto the deeper meaning behind your words “I think this is a pretty good experience. I haven’t left the house properly since last week when you found me”

“Jin seemed pretty upset about that” Namjoon hums.

“Upset? He was pissed” you scrunch your nose at the memory.

Like the both of you had promised, your relationship had progressed. No more secrets and no more bottling up emotions from each other. As selfish and horrible as it sounds, you’re somewhat happy that you had decided to be stupid and leave the house, what felt like years of tension finally dissipating. Of course, the two of you should have handled it like adults from the start, when the two of you saw your relationship start to change you should have talked instead of leaving it too late, but it all worked out in the end.

You didn’t feel like you had to tiptoe around Jin, and Jin was a lot more honest with his emotions, evenings spent with him telling you in the soft lamp light about what keeps him up at night, nightmares of you slipping between his fingers like sand, never being able to pick up all the grains that made you again, being washed away by the waves of the ocean, straying so far out at sea where he can’t reach you anymore.

“I’m glad the two of you seem fine now” Namjoon smiles down at you, your grin challenging his own. “I’ve been thinking about what you asked me the last time we met”

Your eyes open a little wider, head tilting in confusion. “What I asked?”

“Yeah, about wanting a hybrid”

You nod, hybrid ears twitching in interest. You liked the sound of where this was going.

“Yeah?”

“I wouldn’t rush into it, but I’m not against the idea. I know Yoongi wouldn’t mind as long as he doesn’t get disturbed and I’m financially stable enough. So, it’s not like he would have to support them, just put up with them when he’s home” He tells you, head tilting up to look at the sky, “I just worry they would be lonely, but I don’t know what types of hybrids are fine living with a friend” he rambles.

“There are hybrids that don’t like being a part of packs”

“Yeah?” he turns to look at you.

You hum, “Obviously look into it more, but there is always a way. You’re a kind man Namjoon, you’ll be the perfect person to save a hybrid”

You stop once you reach the end of the dirt road, Namjoon stopping beside you.

Sighing, you fish the collar from the pocket of your hoodie. Your tails drop once you hear the collar click shut, Namjoon smiling down at you sympathetically.

“That’s pretty” he tells you.

You only frown up at him, and he can’t help but laugh, hand hesitantly scratching between your ears.

You both wander into the garden centre, your nose twitching at all the rush of scents that hit your nose. You couldn’t smell many other hybrids, their scents covered up with the smell of dirt and wood, the mixed smell of all the people burning your nose a little.

You catch sight of a bunny hybrid, its small tail twitching as they follow their owner around. The two of you make brief eye contact, before their eyes travel to your abundance of tails before they turn their nose up at you with a sneer on their face.

“These are cute” Namjoon picks up a plant pot, the dusty greens and browns looking abstract on the pot.

Your hands subconsciously pull your bunch of tails towards your stomach, trying to make them as small looking as possible.

“Y/n?” Namjoon calls you, your head snapping up to look at him, “You okay?” he asks, worried.

You nod, easy smile pulling at your lips.

You didn’t need to ask the bunny why he had looked at you that way, the reason why was obvious.

“You sure?” he puts a hand on your shoulder.

“Yeah, I thought I just saw something” you wave him off, turning and picking up a plant pot, “This one is cool”

Namjoon nods as he starts telling you about the best plants to put in these kinds of pots, and how nice they would look if you added string to hang them up with.

“Are you looking for anything specific?” you ask Namjoon once you wander around a little more, weaving your way through the aisles with no goal.

“Not really, I was thinking of adding some more plants to my studio, but I’m not sure” he then smiles sheepishly, “after Jin told me about what happened to your garden I thought it would be a good excuse to spend a little more time with you”

You feel your heart rate pick up a little at that, “You wanted to hang out?’ you ask, hands freeing your tails, they spring back behind you before swaying a little faster back and forth.

Namjoon had to hold back from pulling you into his chest, you were too cute for your own good.

“There’s a café around here if you want to get something to eat before continue?” he throws a thumb behind him.

You nod, “I read online they have new strawberry smoothies” you tell him.

“I’ve only ever tried their coffee” he tells you honestly and you dramatically place a hand on his shoulder.

“You’re missing out” your fingers clasp onto the sleeve of his jacket.

+++

“Y/n?” Namjoon calls your name once the two of you are sat at a table, he carefully places the cup down.

You tilt your head, letting him know you were listening.

“I was talking with a friend, and they said they hadn’t heard of a nine tailed fox hybrid” his voice is low, head tilting back, worried he was too straight forward and had offended you in some way.

“Ah” you sigh, “I’ll tell you a secret only Jin knows then, I don’t really talk about it a lot” you scrunch your nose, pulling your chair closer to the table.

“You don’t have to” he shakes his head, “It must be special to you”

“It’s not special. Horrifying, I think that’s a better word.” You watch his face change, like you didn’t have to tell him, “It’s okay, this all happened before I was born and like 6 years of childhood the memories don’t hurt as much as they used to”

“Do you know how humans make hybrids?” you ask, Namjoon shaking his head.

“I have a general idea, but I never really looked into it.” He tells you honestly.

You smile albeit a little sadly. You tell him most things you know, the fragmented details of what you can remember from childhood before you’d met Jin or your previous owner.

You explain your earliest memories being in a ‘failed’ hybrid facility, the experimenters were okay with pumping poor women with unknown chemicals, but they drew the line at genocide apparently. All the hybrids who were considered unsuccessful are sent to small base camps in the suburbs. Unsuccessful experiments is a broad term.

You only have one of the two common hybrid features? Failed. You have more than the common amount of hybrid features? Failed. You have no features but heightened senses? You’re not as shunned as the rest, but still failed.

The goal was to create the perfect human, with the same abilities as their animal counterparts. And if the superhuman had a tail and animal ears? So be it. They rose above the average man. Better sense of smell, more accurate eyesight, hearing beyond comprehensible. According to scientists, your immune system is meant to improve, and life expectancy increase. The perfect specimen to rise above all men.

Which was a lie. Hybrid’s life expectancy had decreased over the last few years, the new formula that had been developed over the last decade clearly not working like they had intended, side effects grew, and more innocent baby’s lives are ruined, their chance at a normal life ripped away before they can even comprehend they’re alive.

You found it ironic, how hybrids were meant to be the better, new and improved beings but ended up as essentially slaves to humans, treated no better than a stray dog.

You feel your skin crawl like a thousand ants clawing their way up your limps as you explain the failed hybrid facilities. They have special huts for new-borns, older hybrid women who are forced to stay in these camps take care of the babies. If you’re lucky, and live through the first few years of life, you get to work, it was a privilege, cleaning, cooking, a lot of the boys are sent to work in mines from the age of 4. Nights would be spent huddled together in the small room of hundreds of unsuccessful experiments. There would always be a certain shadow following each of you around, reminding you that you aren’t as good as the rest, you were the failed batch. And your only purpose now was to serve the lucky suckers who had to watch over you for the rest of yours and their days.

You didn’t resent the memories as much as you thought you would, it felt freeing to tell someone about it that barely knew you, who held no preconceived ideas about your past or your present or what the future may hold for you. They didn’t feel like your memories, like you were an outsider watching your own life pass by.

You didn’t cry, nor did you victimise yourself in anyway. Namjoon felt like you were reading to him from an unbiased perspective. He felt mad, like the words he wanted to say were bubbling up his throat, he wished you would have complained and not belittled your suffering, because he wasn’t there but just being told about it was making him angry, he couldn’t imagine how you must have and still feel about that time in your life.

You would give input from your own experiences, but you would tell him you only remember certain aspects, later telling him that you guessed they must have been flash-bulb memories since all the clear memories you had were of times you felt an extreme emotion (although you never specified which one). You’d tell him about the stories you were told about what the scientists did to people, the forced labour, discrimination, all of it that you could remember in that moment.

He’d find it endearing when you’d apologise for interrupting yourself because you remembered something that you forgotten to say, often stumbling over your words like your brain was working in overdrive, too quick for your mouth to keep up with.

It took you escaping that place to realise how wrong all of it was. You were never once told that it was wrong while living in the facility, all the older hybrids acting like your family and that all of this was normal. You’d left out the part of your escape, and growing up with Jin and your owner, Namjoon looked a little forlorn by the end of your explanation of what happened inside those places so you changed the topic to his career which he was more than happy to talk to you about, chatting animatedly about his new set up and how Yoongi had to help him build his new desk since he almost snapped the table leg.

The air around the two of you shifted from that point on, less tension, less wary glances from Namjoon. And in that moment, you thought that maybe you had a new friend.

+++

Eventually you and Namjoon had to leave, your hybrid ears pressing against your skull from all the noise, your nose in no better shape.

Taehyung had been waiting patiently at home for you, thanking Namjoon for bringing you home safely. You did invite him inside for a coffee, but he said Yoongi would be waiting for him at home with dinner, so you said your farewell, this time you departed with a light hug, the both of you smiling. You waved him off as he strolled down the street to the bus stop.

Namjoon felt like he made some progress with your relationship, he didn’t really have an end goal, he just liked talking to you. Your carefree spirit was contagious, and he wouldn’t mind being friends. He would have to thank you for sharing such a special part of yourself with him like you did over coffee although he worries that the longer he associates himself with you, the wider pandora’s box would open, a whole slew of consequences coming out of your guys’ relationship.

You chewed off Taehyung’s ear, giving him a haul of all the things you bought.

“And I got this for you” you carefully pull a cactus out of your bag.

“A cactus?” he asks, taking the pot from you as you nod.

“It reminded me of your personality when we first met” you tell him as you rummage through the bag again, he looks at you with his lips pulled in a thin line.

“The pot is boring, so I bought you another one” you pull a funny looking clay pot out of the bag, shaking it slightly to add effect.

He sniggers at the pot, it had little dogs painted on them, most of them grey and he could see the resemblance of his own hybrid ears and tail. You didn’t exactly tell him the dogs reminded you of him, but he got the memo as you wiggle it around happily.

“Thanks” he leans down, arm wrapping around your shoulder as you smile happily at him.

“Oh yeah, Jin told me we need to cook tonight, he’s home late” Taehyung tells you, pulling you to lay sprawled across his lap after he places his plant pot and cactus on the table. “I don’t really want take away again either”

“I have a cookbook upstairs somewhere” your hybrid ear twitched when Taehyung threads his hands through your tails, you whine when he tickles the base, your spine turning to jelly, cookbook long forgotten.

+++

“This looks like shit” you and Taehyung stare into the pot, your fried rice somehow looking burnt and soggy all at once.

“It’s not about looks” you tilt your head, grimacing at the bubble that popped. You weren’t sure fried rice was meant to bubble.

“It could taste okay” Taehyung turns to look at you, arms flinging over your shoulder as you stare at him with an unconvinced smile.

“I’ll get the bowls; you get the spoons” he motions towards the drawer. You nod, taking one more look at your fried before

You both spoon some rice into your bowls, “I think you should try it first” you offer, pushing the food around a little.

“Ladies first” he rebuts, and you laugh.

“So happy to know chivalry isn’t dead, but I insist you go first.”

“Together?” he asks, shoving his pinky finger in your face, you lean back, connecting your fingers, thumbs touching.

Both of you take a hefty spoonful, nodding at each other once before shoving your spoons into your mouth. You both chew, cheeks stuffed with fried rice.

Taehyung swallows first, hand coming to stroke his chin in thought.

You swallow, “it isn’t awful?”

“It’s edible. Let’s add soy sauce” he stands.

You watch Taehyung rummage through the cupboards, wide boxy grin stretching on his face when he shows you the soy sauce.

“Do you think the vegetable thief will like it?” you ask, “we did make a lot”

“They’d probably eat anything” he hands you the bottle of soy sauce, shoving another spoonful of rice into his mouth, “actually this isn’t that bad, a little wet, but not bad” he tells you, food half chewed.

You can’t stop the giggle bubbling up your throat, moment like these just making you happy. Taehyung made you happy.

Goosebumps raise on the skin of your arms once you open the door to the back garden, the evenings seeming to be getting colder and colder. You flip the garden lights switch on, legs taking long strides towards your gardening patch. You pull the table over to stand next to your vegetable patch before placing the tray right in the centre of the table.

The tray had a bowl of rice, a small note apologizing for the awful meal and as compensation a small gift. You’d seen a small stone carved fish somewhere while shopping and you must admit that if you visitor was in-fact a cat hybrid then the fish was a little stereotypical, but it was better than the stone insects that they were selling. (You were sure the caterpillar would appear in your nightmares.)

You scuttle back inside, shutting the door behind yourself as you sigh in relief.

“Stinky” Taehyung waves you over, “We have to finish our episode” he points to the tv.

You instantly nod, forgetting you were meant to be on lookout for the vegetable thief. The true crime series was interesting! Who could blame you for having your priorities a little wonky?

+++

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Taehyung asks you from the bed inside the summer house. You turn to him for a moment before peering out the window again.

He was laying on his stomach, a pair of Jin’s fluffy socks on his feet (matching with your own) to keep his feet warm as a velvety blanket drapes over his back, the outline of his tail softly swaying beneath it.

“I mean, it’s not a bad idea” you shrug, bouncing on the tips of your toes, legs starting to ache.

You’d ‘dragged’ Taehyung (He didn’t really put up a fight) into sleeping in the summer house with you, this way you’d be able to catch the thief. You did ask Jin, but he told you the moist air of summer house would ruin his skin and he had an important meeting in the morning, being the ever so understanding friend that you were, you allowed him to sleep in his own bed and instead turned to Taehyung to have a sleepover with you instead. Technically it was his fault you had forgotten all about your task last night by making you watch the rest of your true crime show, the both of you bingeing it into the early hours of the morning.

You’d woken up late that morning, your reminder being Jin asking if you could go and get the bowl and tray from the garden so Taehyung could finish washing up.

You were happy the thief seemed to have liked their gift, you took the empty bowl and missing present a good sign that you were making progress, even the note you had written wasn’t there anymore.

“We’ll freeze out here” he gives you a deadpan look.

“I wouldn’t say that, the weather isn’t even that bad yet” you sigh, flopping onto the beanbag.

Like the last few nights, you carefully placed a meal out for your garden thief. However, instead of the rice cakes that the three of you had eaten you’d decided to make sandwiches. You think that the thief would appreciate a meal that is intentionally cold rather than hard rice cakes that had frozen in the cold evening weather. You may have gotten over excited and made enough to feed your whole street, but this way your garden thief had enough for breakfast and lunch tomorrow as well.

Taehyung flicks on the lamp beside the bed, beckoning you to come and lay beside him. You look out of the window again. The sun starting to set in the horizon.

The warm glow of the sun peeked through the blinds hung up on the windows, Taehyung’s tail swishing in the slices of orange sunlight that was cast across the bed.

“You’ll hear anyone if they jump over the fence don’t worry” Taehyung throws a blanket over your back, sniggering at the lump that your tails form.

The two of you fall down a rabbit hole of Youtube videos, falling asleep a little after a goodnight text from Jin telling you both he was going to bed.

Taehyung shifts over to your side of the bed at some point in the night and in your sleep filled haze you feel his arms and legs tangle with your own, his hands holding onto a few of your tails, hands light, conscious that they were sensitive even while he was sleeping.

The last thing you remember is the warmth that engulfed you, the blankets cosy, Taehyung was naturally nice and warm, so you didn’t mind him snuggling up to you either. It was blissful.

You jolt awake to the sound of the metal tray slamming against the metal of the garden table legs. You groan, arms lifting Taehyung, who was practically laying on-top of you as you throw the blanket off your body. You hear Taehyung whine behind you as you pull the door open, you rub your eyes, morning sunlight burning them momentarily. You hadn’t realised you’d fallen asleep. Again. Damn Kim Taehyung for always distracting you when you had other, more important jobs to be doing. Which included finding the vegetable thief.

Your socks soaked in the dew on the early morning grass. You cringe at the wet feeling between your toes. You were once again surprised with how fast you had woken up; you’d curse the thief for ruining your sleep schedule, it seemed you’d been waking up earlier and earlier each morning since you’d been trying to catch them.

It’s when your eyes finally trail over to the table beside your vegetable crates that you see the silhouette of someone scurry into the bushes on the far side of the garden, you follow them on wobbly feet, legs still sleepy and mind still hazy.

You stare down at the sandy coloured tail that peeks out of the bush as it sways across the dirt, the fur a little wet from the grass.

You quietly crouch down, fingers grabbing at the tail before pulling it. Hard. The only way you could describe the sound the stranger made was a yowl, just like a cat. You hear them slap their hand over their mouth, making no move to get out of the bush, you tug again.

“You can come out” you yawn, grip not loosening on their tail.

They crawl out of the bush to snap at you for being rude (you shouldn’t go around tugging people’s tails like that), their eyes widening when they see its you.

He takes a moment to look over you, his eyes stopping to watch your nine tails sway back and forth behind you. His head tilts, and you think you see a flash of hatred behind his warm irises, but you couldn’t tell, the moment too quick for your sleep filled mind to decipher.

You look at the scrawly clothes he was wearing, shorts and shirt torn, bare feet mucky from the wet soil.

“I thought you were someone else, apologies” the cat hybrid smiles.

You take a moment to look over him, he had a cute face, plump pink lips and eyes that turned to crescents when he smiled. His sandy cat ears twitched a top of his head when you don’t say anything after a beat of silence.

“Well, this is my house” you tell him, pointing to the large house behind you. He peeks over your shoulder, nodding as he scans over the garden. “And my garden”

You seemed rich, with a house like that.

“Are you the one that leaves the food out?” he asks, cheeks burning pink as he asks. It would be humiliating for an outcastto feed him.

“Yeah. Are you the one that ate the vegetables in my garden?” you narrow your eyes, the pink travels down his neck as he nods.

He lunges forward, grabbing your arms, “I’m sorry, I’ll repay you I was just so hungry” he emphasises, and you nod in understanding.

You tilt your head at him, “You don’t have to repay me, you could have just asked” you shrug, smile pulling at your face.

“I’m Jimin” he shoves his hand at you, you stare for a moment before shaking his hand.

“I’m Y/n” you tell him, and you see a sparkle in his eyes, “Do you want to come inside for breakfa-”

The both of you flinch when the door to the summer house slams open, your hybrid ears flattening against your head.

Jimin stands in front of you, shoulders squared. Ready to fight whoever was there.

“Oh, you found the thief?” Taehyung drawls, fingers scratching his head as he waddles over towards you. His chest was flush against your back, body weight almost tipping you forward as he crouched down behind you.

Jimin hisses at him, Taehyung’s eyes narrowing at the cat. “Jimin he’s my friend it’s okay” you tug at the torn shirt Jimin was wearing, you’d have to find him some new clothes.

Jimin smells the air, your strawberry creamy scent abundant around the wolf. Jimin upturns his nose, turning back to you before pulling you up off the ground. “Let’s go eat” he points to the house, you nod.

“Taetae let’s go” you grab at his sleeve, the wolf grunting as you pull him towards the house.

He had a bad feeling about your little new friend.

+++

“Here you are” Jin places a bowl of porridge in-front of Jimin.

“Thanks, Hyung” the hybrid beams at the elder, eagerly picking up his spoon. Jin couldn’t help the proud smile that he sends your way once Jimin starts digging in.

If Jin put a little more porridge in Jimin’s bowl because the boy looked like skin and bones, then neither you nor Taehyung needed to know that. Jin always felt a sense of déjà vu when looking at hybrids like Jimin, they reminded him of yourself when the two of you first met. Lost, hungry, and in need of some love. Because nothing is ever truly broken, you just need the elbow grease and patience to fix it all up again.

Taehyung frowns, pulling your chair by one of its legs closer to himself. You pull your bowl over, handing Taehyung a spoon before you turn to him.

“What’s wrong?” you ask, Taehyung sighing dramatically beside you.

“Nothing” he huffs, and you lean your head on his shoulder, looking into his eyes with a smile. Taehyung pushes between your eyebrows with his index finger.

“He’s been in this house for five minutes and already acts like he owns the place” Taehyung leans his head on top of your own.

“Five minutes is a little bit of an exaggeration” you snigger, “It’s been,” you look over at the clock on the microwave, “an hour”

“Five minutes, an hour they’re basically the same thing” his gaze flits over to Jimin who was more consumed by his breakfast than anything you two of you were saying. Although, you were pretty sure he could hear Taehyung, the wolf not being discrete in the slightest.

“Are you jealous?” you pick up your spoon, worried your porridge was getting cold.

“M’ not” the wolf sulks.

“Tae you’re so cute” you sigh, shaking your head in disbelief.

“I have work” Jin calls out to the three of you as he slips his shoes on, meandering around the table to give you a kiss on the cheek as you wish him luck with his interview as the fox gives Taehyung’s ears a scratch before smiling at Jimin.

“Jimin, you can stay for dinner if you’d like” the fox waves at the three of you, ignoring the long sigh Taehyung lets out. You snigger, chewing on your porridge.

“Jin is really nice” Jimin smiles over at the two of you, you return his smile with just as much enthusiasm, Taehyung grimacing more than smiling. You elbow him, he pinches your thigh.

Jimin watched the two of you bicker.

“I’m older than you” Taehyung laughs is disbelief, and you scoff.

“You don’t act like it” you counter.

Taehyung throws a hand over his chest dramatically, look of mock shock on his face, “You’re a bad influence”

+++

“What are you going to do with him?” You and Taehyung were playing monopoly on the coffee table in the living room while Jimin was washing up in one of the spare bathrooms.

You shrug, “I don’t know, it feels rude to ask him to leave” you roll the dice.

“So, you’ll just let him stay? Hey!” he barks, “you have to pay me” he crooks his fingers, beckoning for your money, you just pout over at him.

“But Tae I’m running out of money. Can I do an I owe you?” you ask sadly, the wolf takes in a deep breath, his eyes narrowing as you look into his eyes.

“Fine” he slumps forward, grabbing the dice from your side of the table.

“You have a really nice house” Jimin wanders back into the living room, towel around his neck, “Where’s your owner?” he asks, looking over the bookshelves.

“Don’t have one” you tell him simply, shoving your upturned palm at Taehyung. He places the paper money in your palm.

“Don’t have one?” Jimin plops himself down beside you, thigh touching yours. Taehyung’s eyes narrow at Jimin before he snatches the dice off the table.

You hum, biting your lip as you try not to laugh at Taehyung landing on your most expensive property. You had also invested in a hotel on that piece of land.

“Just Jin, Taehyung and I live here” you look over at Jimin with an easy smile, he nods.

Jimin watches the two of you, jealousy swimming behind his irises.

Now that he was inside, yours and the wolf’s stenchwas everywhere. Didn’t the two of you have any dignity? Bickering like children while you had a guest over, not tending to his needs, instead playing board games like he wasn’t even there. The two of you sitting so close all the time you may as well be sitting on top of one another.

“Jimin, you okay?” you nudge him when Taehyung gets up to get you guys a drink.

You watch his face change frown a scowl to a bright smile, his whole demeanour changing within a split second, you think you had whiplash.

“Yeah, just a little overwhelmed” he lies, watching a look of understanding wash over your pretty little face.

You seemed easy enough to manipulate.

One frown, and you’d be ready to serve him whatever he needed. He was embarrassed you had found him scavenging for food, even feeling enough pity to leave him a meal out for the last few nights. You were so charitable, and so utterly naïve.

+++

Jimin stares up at the ceiling from where he was laying in bed, he could hear you and Jin chatting in the room down the hall.

He didn’t know how he had gotten himself here. He didn’t understand, the both of you seemed like nice people, you seemed happy enough to kindly invite him into your home (which was rare as hybrids were often territorial with their pack house), but he didn’t understand why he had to live on the street?

The wolf looked like he belonged on the street, with his shaggy fur that looked scrawly, and the tip of his ear bitten off because he got into a fight. Not Jimin. He was a house cat! (Ironically without a home). Whose fur was soft, a pretty sandy yellow and he had a nice face, heck he could have been a model, an actor, anything if he wasn’t a hybrid.

And you, how on earth had an unsuccessful piece of shit like you gotten the life of luxury he deserved? No owner, no restrictions, just you and your dumb puppy friend who clearly didn’t like him and the fox that seemed more like a caretaker than a pack mate.

Jimin wasn’t stupid, far from it. He could hear the wolf’s complaints from the other side of the table during breakfast, and your soft girlish giggles that filled the expanse of the kitchen. Ignorant to his act of obliviousness as he finally got a hot meal inside of himself.

Jimin was smart enough to take advantage of this situation that you handed to him on a silver platter. You’d allowed him into a treasury, he’d seen the expensive looking ornaments on the shelves in the living room or the jewellery box slung in the corner of the kitchen. You had so many things, you probably wouldn’t notice if a few went missing. Never assuming the poor kitty you kindly let into your home was the reason your possessions going missing.

He waits, waits until he can’t hear a sound coming from anywhere else in the house, everyone having settled down for the night.

He clicks the bedroom door open, feet light as he tries to avoid the squeaky floorboards. Cringing each time the noise reverberates down the hallway.

He uses the light of the full moon to help himself navigate the house, streetlight pooling into the living room where Jin had forgotten to close all the curtains before he went to bed a few hours ago.

Jimin bites his lip in thought, he needed the smaller valuable items. He wouldn’t be able to carry anything too heavy or bulky, his escape would surely fail. His fingers skim over the shelves, touching over the nicer looking ornaments, picking them up to see if they were a good weight.

He shoves a few smaller trinkets that could get him some sort of money into the pocket of the pants Jin had given him this morning. They looked a little worn, too big for you but too small to be Jin’s or Taehyung’s.

He meanders his way into the kitchen, fingers skimming over the silver-plated box that sat on one of the side tables, pulling the drawer open, Jimin almost moaned at the treasure he found inside. He already had plans of escaping your home, you weren’t keeping hostage but suffocating sight of you happily living your life too much for his ego to take.

Tomorrow he would say he needed to leave after breakfast, shed a few crocodile tears to pull at your heartstrings. If you knew anything about the real world, maybe you’d be stupid enough to give him some money, a big lunch to go and a pitying smile when you wave him off. He’ll be richer, less hungry plus he would have all the little trinkets he can sell at the pawn shop downtown for a pretty few pennies.

He riffled through the box.

Click.

He felt his whole-body freeze when the lights switched on.

Jimin’s heart raced, fingers shaking as he takes a deep breath. He was sure that he was quiet enough to not wake anyone up and he sure as hell waited long enough for the three of to be asleep.

He gulps thickly, standing straight he turns to see who was standing with their arms folded, leaning against the door to the living room. Their gaze pierced into his own across the open planned space, he bites the inside of his cheek before opening his mouth to defend himself.

Well Shit. He’d been caught.

[morellanimmermehr]

any sfw/nsfw asrian headcanons u don't mind sharing 👀?

Hi anon! Sorry, I know it's been a while since you sent this - too many WIPs distracting me 🙈

Anyway, Asrian headcanons!

SFW:

In any happy post-canon scenario where they are together, I imagine Julian getting into alchemy via Asra. It's hinted at in Muriel's upright ending, and it just makes so much sense for them. Julian finds it much more accessible than other forms of magic, since it's a combination of magic and science, and Asra gets a better understanding of how Julian's mind works through it as well. The two of them do experiments together, many of which end in utter chaos.

Asra doesn't like coffee, but he keeps some around for Julian and eventually becomes quite fond of the smell because he associates it with him.

Nadia knows, and she ships it.

I headcanon them getting back together after Lucio’s reversed ending (to the extent that anyone has time for romance in that messed up situation). Now, hear me out - I know there are a couple of moments in Lucio’s route that could be read as hinting at Asra/Nadia, but at the end of the reversed ending, Asra, Julian, Muriel, Portia and Mazelinka have apparently run off together - which, given that Asra and Muriel don't really know Portia and Mazelinka, makes Asra and Julian the only thing that even connects the group. So as far as I’m concerned, that's Asra and Julian deciding to run off together and taking everyone else they care about along.

This will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has read my recent stories, but I heavily headcanon that Julian was the one who broke off their plague times relationship. (I know about the Ask Arcana that called it "mutual ghosting", but tbh I take that with a grain of salt, for several reasons.) "He fills the room with excitement, makes you feel special. And then he finds some way to sabotage it." - Yeah, enough said. Asra got his own version of the "dock talk" from Julian, and considering how bitter he is over it, it must have hurt. A lot.

NSFW:

Biting. In my head, Asra does this a lot, to the point that I hardly ever manage to write anything spicy without Asra using his teeth on Julian at least once. But then, who can blame him - Julian's skin bruises easily, and he looks so good with marks.

Julian biting Asra is rarer, but it does happen sometimes - mostly when he's fishing for punishment and wants to goad Asra into being rougher with him.

Julian has an almost Pavlovian response to the incense Asra likes to burn. Asra is obviously well aware and makes good use of this knowledge.

Asra uses magic frequently during sex. Conjuring ropes, magically enhanced sensation play, etc. Julian is all the more into it precisely because he doesn’t really get magic - he has no idea what Asra is capable of, nor can he predict what Asra will come up with next.

"Good boy." No further explanation needed.

And finally, this one I very much did not come up with myself, but I have been obsessed with it ever since it was first mentioned to me, so I can't not say it: hypnosis. Both the more real world like variety and the "Asra can do some kind of spell that'll put Julian in a trance, because *handwaves* magic" variety.

[angelamajiki]

PARINGS: Shouta Aizawa x Reader

CW: yandere, stalking, rape/noncon, pain kink, pain play, mild scent kink, home invasion, gags, restraints, virginity kink, scumbag aizawa, pet play, humiliation, cum stuffing, fingerings, snowballing, voice kink

SYNOPSIS: You have been calling the same phone sex operator for months, creating stalker and CNC fantasies. What happens when he rings true to his words?

AN: this is very dark, be warned! just had to make a fic out of the little idea I had <3

It’s always you who requests him. He can tell you're a virgin, the way your voice wavers when you feel like responding to him. Sometimes you don’t, letting your breathy moans do the talking for you.

“Good little girl.”

“Getting off to a phone call from your stalker? What a whore.”

“Cum for me, pretty girl.”

”Do you like that, pretty little kitty?”

He never had a knack for giving nicknames, but he had to make it known that he remembers you. Remembers that voice. Hopefully, he’ll be able to remember your body one day.

Tracking you down was easy enough; you didn't bother to block your number and public records was just calling his name. God did he love untouched girls like yourself. So wet and pliant, so easily manipulated, so naive to believe everyone had good intentions.

Cameras were placed around your house so he could watch you when he couldn't hear you. If it was a stalker you wanted, he was going to give it to you.

You called often and asked for him always—such an obedient girl. The live feed from your bedroom streamed in front of him whenever you rang, but he was tired of playing games this week.

“Just look at the way you’re kneading yourself; you like to tease yourself. Don't you, kitty?”

Your breath hitched, but he knew it wasn't from pleasure. Looking around, he chuckled at your confused expression.

“You got a real cute face, you know that kitty? I can't wait to fuck it one day.”

Be rational, you told yourself. Its all part of the fantasy, right? He can’t actually see you.

“That’s a cute bed spread you got there, I didn’t take you for the type who liked lilies. You always keep roses in your kitchen vase.”

Okay, he was definitely listening to you now.

“Say, you live on 14th Street, don't you? Why don't I come down and give you an in person session?”

“What do you say, kitty? Or should I just break in like I always tell you I would?”

The phone hung up after that comment. Sure, you were up to the fantasy of being stalked and raped; that’s why you called him. It was too embarrassing to tell a partner your fantasies, not like you had one. Or roommates for that matter.

His voice is what soothed you after a hard day, but now it kept ringing in your ears. Listening to his breathy chuckles sent shivers down your spine, but you never expected to feel them there.

Three raps came from your bedroom door before it opened. You were buried in your sheets, hopelessly, desperately attempting to be asleep. Like that would stop him.

“I know you're awake.”

An “ah” of realization came from him.

“Unless you sleeping peacefully is part of the fantasy. This is new, but I can indulge you in that kitty.”

The bed dipped and creaked with his weight, fear sinking into your heart further as a hand smoothed itself over your shoulders.

“So tense.” He tutted. “I’ve got something that can help you relax.”

His tongue lapped at the outer shell of your ear; arm slung over your blanketed body.

“Such a naughty girl. Tell me, how many times did you get off to the sound of my voice telling you I was going to take your virginity by force.”

A hand snaked its way up to your throat, squeezing gently enough not to cause pain but enough to cut off part of your air.

“Tell me you want me to rape you, here and now. Or I’ll take you out to the alley and make a display of it.”

His voice barely reached above of a whisper the entire time, the same soft sound he used over the phone. Hot breaths tickled your ear and neck as you squirmed, gasping at straws for air.

“I promise to be gentle; I know you like a tender man who takes what he wants.”

Your throat restricted even more under the hand to the point where you felt light-headed.

“Please!” You gasped, using your nails to scratch at his wrapped fingers. The pressure withdrew.

“Please what, kitty? C’mon, you can do it.”

“P-Please rape me.”

A sharp laugh came from behind you.

“Is that any way to address me? I thought we were using special nicknames here.”

He let you have your moment, apparently amused to see you choke for air as he stroked your back.

“Please rape me...sir.”

“Atta girl.”

The hand made its way back to your throat, only resting there as the thumb stroked over your tender flesh. The other one snuck under the blanket and groped at your chest.

“You're a virgin, aren't you, kitty? Don't worry; your owner is going to talk you through it. Nice and slow so you feel everything I'm giving you.”

Fingers wiggled their way under your bra and began pinching at your nipples, tugging and pulling at the hardening nubs.

“Stop squirming, or I’ll have to tie you up. You'll get your treat soon enough, kitty.”

You yelped after a particularly rough tug, tears springing in your eyes. His one hand managed to rip your bra apart, giving better access to his perverted fingers.

“I know you like it, the way I knead your pretty little breasts. Come, take your clothes off. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

Everything came off before he instructed you to stand at the edge of the bed for him. He circled you like a predator, making inspections.

“I have to make sure my kitty is well-groomed and taking care of herself.”

The weight of his hot breath on your skin weighed down on you, pulling you further under his spell. He lifted your arms and smelled your scent.

“Lavender deodorant? What a shame; I wished I could have smelled your natural musk.”

Humiliation flushed your face hot. Disgusting pervert, it seemed he was into everything as long as it wasn't consensual.

“Sit down on the bed, legs spread.”

The baritone of his voice shook you to your core, but not in the pleasurable way you're used to.

“Don't make me ask twice, pet.”

His command was hard to ignore after following them for such a long time; it was practically instinctual to do as you were told. Shaking legs spread as you turned your head to the side. Another tut rolled off his tongue as he gripped your cheeks with one hand.

“Don't turn away from me. I want to see the look in yours when I take you and make you mine.”

You hadn't even realized before that he had brought a bag with him. From it, he took a bar spreader, rope, and a spider gag, all of which he put on you. The gag made your mouth uncomfortably wide, leaving nothing to his imagination.

Rough fingers pull you tongue from your mouth, his own coming down to lick at before spitting down the back of your throat.

“Swallow.”

You did.

“Good kitty.”

The name didn't comfort you anymore. Nothing about him comforted you anymore. Not his voice, not his nickname, and certainly not his breath, which you felt like was burning all over your body.

“I’m going to be nice and leave your throat alone today. However, if I give you a treat, you will swallow it. Do I make myself clear?”

You nodded, terrified at the notion that he intended to come back after tonight. Crouching down in front of you, he inspected your wet pussy before spitting on it as well. Gingerly moving your lips, he circled your tight hole and stood up.

“That should do.”

Watching him undress himself seemed to make time move slower, knowing that he was about to take your virginity within minutes. His hard cock sprung out from his boxers and hit his happy trail, bobbing slightly against his abs. Not only was this man toned, but he was also huge.

“In we go, kitty.”

Not even taking the courtesy to gather some slick from you, he pushed in, taking his sweet time as he locked eyes with you. He went agonizing slow, grinning as you wailed in pain.

“Hurts, doesn't it? Let's see how painful we can make this.”

You were hardly prepped, only having wetness left behind from your previous phone call. It stung, and it stung bad. Your eyes wept as you looked up at him with a pleading gaze, hoping he would take mercy on you. He did no such thing, pinching your clit between his fingers and rolling it with intense pressure. Moaning, he watched as you convulsed and twitched in pain beneath him.

“Being such a good girl for me, kitty.”

Another glob of spit landed in the back of your throat, making you gasp and choke on your sobs. He loved that you were an ugly, messy crier. It only served to make his dick harder.

Once he bottomed out, he stayed there for a while, letting you feel the fullness of his thick cock.

“The name’s Shouta, by the way. I'm sure you must have been curious.”

He spoke so casually, so calmly. It made you furious how collected he was while you were a whimpering, sniffling mess.

“Don't worry; we’ll have all the time in the world once we’re done to get to know me.”

Goddamn, that voice. That hypnotizing, nauseating voice. It's the reason you're stuck here underneath a fucking phone sex operator that turned out to be your stalker. What a mess.

A tap to the temple pulled you back to the present.

“Keep your focus here, kitty.”

Hips drew back and snapped into you, not letting you take a moment to adjust as he set a brutal speed.

Oh, how you wished you could leave your body, but if anything, your senses were all the more enhanced, taking in every last drop of your surroundings. The sounds of the bed creaking under his pounding, his grunts and breaths, the skin slapping against skin, your own cries of misery. The feeling of his breath, how your once silk sheets now felt like sandpaper across your skin, the metal of your binds, and the burn of your rope. Everything and nothing all at once.

The minutes seemed to draw themselves out into hours as he continued his assault. He, or Shouta, you supposed, wasn't lasting very long. It didn't suit him; he seemed like a man of stamina. Maybe it was because he played out a sick fantasy of his that made him cum in minutes.

Unprotected, he came deep inside you before sliding out, giving your pussy a slap as he made his exit.

“Such a tight little kitty you've got there.”

Fingers at the ready, he stuffed his cum back inside you, toying with your clit all the while. He was quick to make you cum, making you see stars at the intensity of your orgasm.

“Don’t worry; I'll make you cum on my cock next time. I have plenty of games planned for us when I take you home.”

Pulling his fingers out, he pushed them down your throat to clean them before getting up and dressed again. He left you there, tied up and gone without a word.

In reality, he was just getting his car ready for you, but who was he to deny himself the pleasure of seeing your panicked face when he came back?

You were going to make a fine pet for him.

[dragonfire44]

This Light to My Darkness Chapter 1 Meeting the Client

The air felt dense, closed in but not as if it was suffocating. The trees were tall and clustered, which was really no surprise given that this was a forest.

Despite that, it smelled nice, damp moss, a hint of rain – old rain; which was good that it wasn’t going to start raining as that dampened his sense of smell. Pine permeated the air and a mix of different flowers.

The dirt path was littered with pine needles; in the distance he could hear a steady trickle of spring water. There were different kinds of flowers, some white, some light purple, yet the pink ones caught his attention, as it made him think of the Fairy Tail mark on his best friend’s hand. Her favorite color is pink.

He brushed his fingers against rough bark as he turned his attention from the flowers. Angling his head up with eyes closed he sniffed the air a few times, separating the forest smells to the aroma that didn’t belong in the woods.

“Natsu?” Lucy whined from where she’d just plopped down onto a log. Though worn it was relatively firm that the blonde had no concern of it giving way under her.

“How much farther?” The words sounding more like a wail from a small dog, not that Natsu would ever remark on that.

“Don’t worry Lucy,” Wendy spoke up with a soft, gentle voice before Natsu could even open his mouth. “I’m sure it won’t be much farther.”

Lucy turned to the youngest member of their group with a sad sigh; in the bluentte’s hands she held a map. Carla, the white exceed was standing next to Wendy with crossed arms sporting a bland expression.

“Maybe we should stop for the night?” Gray commented from his lounging spot against a tree.

“AYE!” Happy cried from atop Natsu’s pink head. He was flat on his stomach, his little green pack resting on his back, with a fish inside – he knew because he could smell it and his tail twitching every few moments in apparent serenity.

Lucy moaned inwardly that the blue furred cat got a free ride and she had to walk. While she could use Horologium, the group tended to give her crap about that and well it did kind of make her feel embarrassed. And plus she did need to work on her endurance.

Still she was exhausted and dirty and really just wanted to take a nice hot shower and fall into a nice soft, fluffy bed and sleep till the next day.

“We shouldn’t stop,” Natsu stated, pulling his arm away from the bark to cross them over his chest. “If Erza were here, she’d say it was important to meet with the client as soon as possible.”

Gray raised an eyebrow at the fire dragon slayer, “you sure it’s not just because you’re not tired and want to fight?” Gray said with a snort.

Not that he was discounting Natsu’s words; Erza was quite the slave driver. But she’d chosen to take a mission with MiraJane since the takeover mage rarely ever went on any anymore. Though privately he was sure they just wanted some alone time.

Lucy huffed blatantly annoyed, “well how much farther?” She spat again.

Granted the thought of camping here in the woods didn’t particularly thrill her. While they had the necessary stuff, all of them had packs of course; she still didn’t feel like roughing it outside if she didn’t have too.

Natsu shot Gray a scowl very tempted to start a brawl but the edge of frustration to Lucy’s words had him reconsider; wasn’t like he couldn’t punch Gray in the face later.

“Well the map says,” Wendy spoke up into the sudden silence, her brows scrunched as she peered again at the paper.

“Oh, right,” Lucy cut in, “because the maps been oh so helpful.”

Wendy looked crestfallen and Carla bristled but before the white exceed could say anything in defense of Wendy, Lucy was twisting around to glare at the pinkette, “how could you get us lost!?” She snapped, a finger pointing at him as she lightly trembled from her ire.

“You have super enhanced sense of smell! Which, you always brag about!”

Natsu didn’t think he bragged exactly…

“We are not lost,” Natsu stated with a slight frown.

Lucy threw her hands upwards in exasperation, “then, why are we still stuck in this godforsaken forest!?” She screeched. “It’s been hours!”

Wendy raised her hands placating, worry and slight nervousness etched on her gentle face, “Lucy, cal…”

Lucy rounded on the girl, fire in her eyes, and a sharp retort on her tongue –

“Don’t.” Natsu commanded, stilling her. The word was hard, a hint of warning in his tone and it took her by such surprise that she froze.  She slowly turned her gaze to Natsu, his features were flat, his mouth pressed thin.

Carla took that one moment of stillness to snap with visible fury, though she did try to keep it from coating her voice, “don’t take your anger out on Wendy just because you’re tired!”

Lucy clenched her hands, working her mouth as she forced her gaze back to the younger girl, grimacing at the tears in the brown orbs. Her eyes darted down to the disproving gaze of the white exceed and swallowed tightly. She sagged back onto the log, in her frustrated anger she’d jerked up. She felt like a heel.

She pressed a hand to her face, grimacing at the feel of dried sweat and dirt. No doubt her hair was a tangled mess, even with the small ponytail.

���I’m sorry, Wendy.” She whispered quietly.

“It’s okay Lucy,” Wendy said gently a soft smile gracing her face; “it has been a long day.”

Gray re-crossed his arms, a part of him wanted to be surprised at Natsu’s over protectiveness for Wendy but he knew the pinkette saw her as a little sister. And while Natsu was protective of everyone in the guild he showed more towards certain people. Granted he was surprised he’d been so quick to snap at Lucy, seeing as the celestial mage is Natsu’s best female friend. Honestly that was a bit short. But well they were all mostly tired - maybe the idiot was more fed up of traversing through theses woods then he let on.

It didn’t help that they’d left early and gotten on a train, which having to deal with Natsu’s motion sickness of moving vehicles was always a bit of a chore when it came to getting him on them and dealing with him during the ride if he wasn’t knocked out by Erza. While he liked not having to deal with Natsu like that he didn’t think knocking him out like that was very appropriate. Not that any of them would ever say that to her. And with Erza not here, not one of them had wanted to do that themselves.

While Gray did enjoy fighting with Natsu, he didn’t much like hitting him in his weaken state. It left a bad taste in his mouth.

And for whatever reason the train didn’t go to the town they were heading to. So they’d had to disembark as close as possible and travel on foot the rest of the way.

They could have gone around the forest, but not knowing the length put them in a bind. They didn’t want to take days to get there or worse weeks. And Happy and Carla hadn’t seen an end to the forest from the air. Definitely sounded better to cut through it then trying to avoid it.

Of course the mission they got stuck doing had a massive forest in the way. Maybe passing through the woods was like a test or trial.

Gray snorted rubbing a hand through his black hair. He glanced up at the green leaves, the trees were so thick and clustered he couldn’t even see the sky. At least they gave a lot of nice shade, and the sound of bird calls was pretty soothing.

They hadn’t even met with the client yet, but he was starting to get a bad feeling about this mission. It didn’t help that the request had stated a fire type mage was mandatory. While Maco qualified he wasn’t prone to taking very long missions anymore, or very far away ones. And this one was both. It sounded long and it was far. Hell the place was on the edges of Fiore, and the town was called Elwood or something like that, either way he’d never heard of it.

But what had bugged him about the request was the limit of mages. That was a very rare thing to put. After all why would you care how many came to help? And usually the limit targeted specifics, like if a couple was needed, it would state at least two people needed to come.

But this one had stated no more than five mages were to come. It was disconcerting. While the two exceeds put them past that number, they figured the cats wouldn’t count as they weren’t people. And it did say mages. Loopholes were nice.

Not that he expected the client to make a fuss about the two cats.

“There’s a stream not far from here,” Natsu stated, interrupting the stagnate silence. Natsu pointedly didn’t answer Lucy’s shouted question.

Lucy groaned but pushed herself up, hands grasping the straps of her light brown bag that rested against her back.

Gray cast a quick glance at the group, eyes pausing at the map Wendy held and sighed. The map had clearly been a scam. It didn’t really help them wade through this forest. He very much wanted to go back to the train station and slug that asshole in the face for putting the idea into Wendy and Lucy’s head to buy a map of the area. Because while it showed the forest; it didn’t show how to navigate it. And that bastard had to of known that going around the forest made little sense.

Well at least now they knew why this town wasn’t traveled much to. Who wants to take on a forest to visit a small town at the edge of the country?

They trekked in silence.

Lucy wasn’t too keen of speaking right now, even if Wendy had forgiven her, plus talking required energy.

She stared forlornly at the passing greenery, desperately, silently going over a hot shower which helped push her on. Her feet ached though she was super glad she’d worn brown boots for this job. Her light brown shorts didn’t really help against stray branches but mostly plant life was what was in the way, unless she ran into trees.

She made sure to keep part of her attention on Wendy who was following behind Natsu and the other on the scenery. While she wasn’t a nature buff, she did enjoy flowers, and the air smelled very good. She closed her eyes sucking in a deeper breath just to enjoy the Geosmin. Then promptly tripped, with a startled cry she dropped. She hit the ground hard, her chest smiting dully. A part of her felt just done with the day, and contemplated just staying right here.

“You okay?” Gray asked from beside her, his blue bag hanging off one shoulder.

“Yea,” she grumbled, she peeked an eye open in time to see the faint concern on the ravens face flutter back behind a cool indifference. She sat up taking note that Wendy was now holding Carla in her arms, the map nowhere to be seen.

“I’m fine,” she repeated to the bluenette, watching the younger girls face smooth from the slight concern. She huffed as she turned her head to the side, the embarrassed flush stark on her face she knew.

It took her a moment to process the odd color hidden among the greenery. She shifted towards it, wonder slowly flooding her face.

With a shocked yet delighted gasp Lucy jerked towards and then hunched near the small flower.

“Lucy?” Gray asked confusion evident.

“It’s a Fairy Slipper!”

All five behind her blinked owlishly, not that she was giving any thought to their reactions.

“What?” Natsu uttered.

“Lushy hit her head too hard, she’s seeing things.” Happy hummed out.

“Shut up, stupid cat!” Lucy cried, not letting his typical annoying words get to her.

She clasped her hands to her chest and wiggled a little in delight. “Fairy Slipper,” she reiterated.

She turned to the confused group, “Levy told me about them. It was in a book on flowers.”

Wendy shuffled carefully closer making a curious sound; even Carla sported an interested look.

She turned her gaze back to the rare sight, “It’s known as Calypso Orchid, it’s a hidden treasure. A single flower, has a height of six inches, emerges from a budlike corm, with only one dark green egg-shaped leaf per plant. They have delicate, easily-damaged root systems, and can be hard to spot among the thick moss carpeting the forest floors.”

She glanced up at Wendy seeing awe on her face, “I’ve always wanted to see one, and the name!” She cried jubilantly. “It takes after our guild and looks pink!”

Wendy giggled. “It is lovely.”

“I suppose we were lucky you tripped.” Carla mused.

Lucy smiled brighter, funny how things like that happened sometimes.

Natsu eyed the small delicate plant before glancing at the joyful expression on the blonde’s features.

Gray caught a slight shift from Natsu and looked away from the girls fawning over a flower to rest onto the weirdly quiet dragon slayer. Granted he’d been rather off since he’d met up with them at the train station. He wondered if the fire breather was partially concerned about the job request asking for a fire mage. He couldn’t begin to think of what else it could be if not that.

Natsu’s attention was solely focused on Lucy, a soft fond look gracing his face and his heart gave a twinge. He quickly looked away with an annoyed glare.

Why couldn’t Natsu look at him like that? He thought sourly.

Sometimes it sucked being in love with your male best friend slash rival who was clearly in love with his best female friend.

The bitterness reared around and he clenched his teeth to will down the surge of jealously. It really didn’t help that it was common knowledge that Lucy was in love with the fire dragon slayer. Why they hadn’t already confessed he didn’t know, perhaps they both hadn’t realized they both felt the same?

Gray didn’t know but he defiantly wasn’t looking forward to the day that the two announced they were dating. As long as things stayed the same, he could believe he might have a chance with the pinkette.

Or at the very least not have to worry with Lucy taking up more of Natsu’s time once they started dating. It was common after all to spend a lot of time with the person you were dating.

Natsu had never shown interest in anyone, but he had brought Lucy home with him to join the guild and even went on missions with her. Something he wasn’t prone to doing outside of Happy or taking an S class with someone.

No one knew for certain how the dragon slayer felt but it was pretty darn apparent she was important to him. And judging from that look he’d just sported Gray would be damn shocked if Natsu didn’t love her.

He just didn’t see what Natsu saw in her. Sure Lucy was beautiful, not on the level of MiraJane – though that was his personal opinion. And she was kind, outgoing and optimistic. But really… what did she bring to the table aside from that?

It wasn’t like she could ever fight Natsu like he could. Natsu needed a challenge and Lucy would never be able to provide that. Hell he’d been Natsu’s rival since they were kids.

A small part of his mind whispered that perhaps he couldn’t compete with Lucy because Natsu was only into girls.

It hurt. Sometimes he wondered why he didn’t just stop taking team missions, because it ached to be around Natsu and gnawed at having to keep his distance. Hurt knowing that Natsu looked at him and saw just a rival, a friend.

It would sting less to be around Natsu. Yet the thought of staying away, putting distance between them left him feeling a sour churning in his gut. He’d rather be around the dragon slayer, brawl with him, and hear his brilliant sunshine laughter then to go without; because something was better than nothing.

At least he hoped.

Finally Lucy stood, realizing the time slipping through the hour glass. She glanced towards Natsu mildly surprised that he hadn’t insisted on going by now. He was looking off into the distance, most likely in the direction of the stream.

She frowned lightly, he’d been awfully quiet since they’d hit the forest. Granted he wouldn’t take off and leave them when they were dependant on him to get them out of this forest… unless of course a fight hit. He’d promptly forget and chase after them. Earlier he’d even avoided a brawl with Gray, it was kind of concerning.

She sighed but still a fond grin made its way onto her face, she caught Gray’s eye and it slipped. Gray had a dark frown and it felt like he was borrowing it into her. If looks could kill…, she swallowed slowly then revamped her grin and said brightly, “sorry for the wait guys.”

Natsu spared her a quick glance and nodded.

The rest of the way was uneventful. Lucy tugged out a water bottle, careful to keep the strap of her bag from slipping off. As she pried the cap off, she wondered about the mission.

The job description hadn’t been all that informative. The pay was decent but not eye catching, really the only reason they were even doing this job was because it had requested a fire mage. And well it was pretty common knowledge that if you wanted a fire mage to hit up Fairy Tail.

While Natsu wasn’t the only one, it made her wonder if the client was looking to have Natsu come but then why not just request Natsu specifically. It was pretty rare for someone to be requested and not have them do the mission; especially in Fairy Tail, so perhaps another reason?

And Maco and Romeo were the only ones besides Natsu who had fire magic. But both of them were not well known. And this town was way out here so it was even less likely that they knew of them compared to Natsu.

Then again maybe they hadn’t wanted to use Natsu’s titles; while ‘dragon slayer’ was commonly known now a day, Natsu had been known by ‘Salamamder’ longer – at least she thought. When she first met him she knew of Salamander not of the fire dragon slayer. If this was some kind of secretive or sensitive job maybe the client didn’t want to risk letting others know who was coming to help.

Or maybe she was just reading into it.

But the job itself would require talking to the client. She wished she had some kind of idea as to what this job would entail.

“Fish!” Happy’s cry cut into her musings and she looked up to realize the spring was right before them.

“We’re not here to fish, Tomcat!” Carla snapped clear disproval etched onto her face.

Lucy surveys the area, noting some yellow and lilac colored flowers; water glistened off of wet coated rocks.

“We’ll follow the stream this way,” Natsu voices, pointing right. “To the town, it should flow around or near the place.”

She supposes the town must get their water from somewhere.

They resume walking, though a part of her couldn’t help but glance forlornly back at the water, wishing they could of stayed a little and she could soak her throbbing feet. So Lucy has taken to a repeated mantra of hot showers and fluffy beds to make each step forward easier. Not that it really helps.

Natsu grins as he glimpses the world outside of the trees. Behind him Gray mutters, “Finally.”

Lucy emits a small jubilant squeal, hands clasping together in front of her chest before she stills.

“You know, with our luck,” she starts musingly, a finger to her chin, “I was really expecting to get into some kind of fight before we got out of the forest.”

“Aye!” Happy chimes.

Gray tilts his head at the blonde, “I thought so too.”

Wendy glances at Natsu, who’s stilled as well but doesn’t seem interested in commenting. “Well maybe,” she hugs Carla a little more enjoying the soft fur against her bare arms “that Fairy Slipper was a good omen.”

Gray and Natsu both snort almost in sync but Wendy’s grin stays firm, eyes sparkling at the possibility.

Lucy mimics that grin, “yea!” She liked the thought.

“Should we meet with the client or just find a place to stay first?” Carla asks into the silence.

Gray and Natsu share a look, Lucy frowns.

“Let’s find the place and see if they’re still awake, it’s only about eight.” Gray states.

Lucy groans but supposes it’s for the best to let the client know they’ve arrived as soon as possible. While there hadn’t been a deadline, it had stated to come in a timely manner. And without any info and no urgent need it was only proper to set out promptly. Still if they have to wait till morning, she didn’t think it’d make much of a difference.

With weary sighs from the majority of the group, Gray takes the lead, seeing as Natsu can’t smell out an address.

The town looks a lot like Magnolia. Buildings are about the same sizes, there are bits of greenery on some people’s window sills.

She spies a few people talking, a couple holding hands. Lights are on in some of the buildings; café, or restaurants she figures.

She peers at Gray to see him glancing at the job request to street signs. She hopes they get there quickly. She’d of liked to freshen up before this meeting but not having secured a place to even sleep makes that kind of hard. Hopefully the client doesn’t take offense to most of their state. They’d have to know the quickest and easiest way was through the forest… hopefully.

She glances between everyone, she’s pretty sure she looks the worst. It figures.

Hell Gray still has his shirt on, granted he dropped it a couple times along the way, but they never got too far before someone noticed.

She didn’t even want to contemplate the amount of money he had to spend on clothes with how often he loses them due to his odd stripping habit.

It was like never having enough rent money and that was terrifying.

“Ah,” Gray’s hum cuts the silence, “here it is.”

Lucy turns to look at the place and feels her jaw drop. It was a manor. Not as big as her house had once been, but it was defiantly close.

“Oh,” Carla states quietly.

“Great,” Lucy huffs, “the client has money.”

Natsu raises an eyebrow, “so?”

Lucy gives him a flat look and gestures at herself. Rich people tended to be snobbish, and entitled smug jerks. She’d met her fair share, though she was aware they weren’t all like that. The princess of Crocus was a good example.

Natsu doesn’t look impressed. “If they want our help then they shouldn’t care how messy we look.”

Lucy sighs, at least Natsu hadn’t said filthy. While she felt that, she didn’t think she looked that bad.

“Are we going in or what?” Happy says with a whine.

Natsu tilts his head up to look at his little buddy.

“I want fish, Natsu.” Happy says pitifully. He’d already eaten the two from his bag.

Natsu offers a small grin, “I’m starving too, but we can eat as soon as we’re done here.”

“I’m actually surprised you didn’t just run off to the nearest food source the second we got into town and start pigging out.” Gray comments with wry amusement.  

Natsu whips around with a heated glare, “you trying to start something Ice princess!?”

Gray offers a smug smirk as he crosses his arms, “I’m shocked you restrained yourself flame brain.”

Natsu growled, jerking a step towards him, his earlier thought about punching Gray in the face coming back to him. It was defiantly later.

With a fisted right hand raised he –

“Guys!” Lucy splutters, her tone frustrated but annoyed.

“Not now Lucy,” Natsu says, not even sparing her a glance.

Wendy makes a distressed noise and Lucy surges forward to put herself between the two boys, arms spread out at her sides.

Natsu pauses, raising an unimpressed eyebrow.

“Really?” Lucy snaps. “We’re right outside the client’s house,” She stresses.

When Natsu blinks sage green eyes at her and looks ready to go around her, she adds, “the sooner we see if we can talk to the client, the sooner you guys can eat.”

And as she knew it would Natsu promptly drops his fist and darts towards the white gate with a shout, his white muffler swishing behind him “right! Let’s get this taken care of!”

Happy cries an, “aye sir!”

Gray shoots Lucy a venomous glare that no one sees and he quietly seethes. Damn her, it’d been way too long - since before the train ride since Natsu and he had butted heads. Their brawls were practically the only time he got Natsu’s sole fixed attention.

And Erza wasn’t here to keep them in check. Granted they hadn’t had too much of anything - he figured Wendy’s presence was curbing Natsu. Since Erza wasn’t here to do it. Or hell he didn’t know – it sure as hell was weird.

He presses his arms tighter to his chest, it was also the only time they pretty much had any contact.

“Hurry up Ice poke!” Natsu calls from where the group has gathered at the door.

And Gray lets a gust of air out. Damn he felt pathetic. He’d probably never live it down if anyone ever learned that a lot of the fights he starts with Natsu is just so he can touch him. Or to see that fire in his eyes, to have that –

“Gray!”

Snorting Gray opts to not reply but begins making his way to where the rest are.

He closes his eyes as Lucy raps upon the door. They wait in anxious silence. All for varying reasons. Lucy is so ready for a hot shower and sleep. Wendy and Carla both want to take a relaxing bath, Happy and Natsu both want to eat, and Gray just wants to immediately crash onto a bed and not move for at least eight hours.

It takes no time at all for the door to sweep open; an elderly man dressed in a black suit most likely a butler given the appearance and the largeness of the house.

“May I help you?” he inquires politely. His gaze’s sweeps over the group, noting the disgruntled appearances of most but eyeing the two odd looking cats for a long moment before settling onto the blonde girl.

Lucy offers a sheepish grin, “Sorry for the late hour,” she starts courteously back, “we are from the Fairy Tail guild, responding to the job request.”

The man merely blinks, “do you have proof of your affiliation to this guild?”

Lucy nods and raises her hand to display the pink Fairy Tail mark that all members have.

He hums lightly, eyes darting to the pink haired male, “yours?” he questions.

Natsu raises an eyebrow at being singled out but complies, shifting to show the red mark on his shoulder.

The elderly man nods is satisfaction stating, “Two is fine,” when Wendy and Gray share an uncertain look, “I highly doubt you have non members with you.”

“Please come inside, and I will inform the Master of your arrival.” He steps back, pulling the door wide.

They all shuffle in, each slowly taking in the grand entryway.

Lucy gazes at a portrait of a family, as the door shuts quietly.

“This way to the sitting room, please.” The butler gestures with an arm out.

They followed silently. All too weary to care about the splendor around them; though Lucy eyes a few landscape paintings.

They were ushered into a spacious room, painted a light blue color, the furniture – whites and blue fitting well with the scheme.

“Please have a seat,” the butler states pleasantly.

As soon as the door closed Lucy inched over to the white couch that looked like it could fit four or five people and sagged down gratefully. She took a moment to enjoy getting off her feet for a few moments before carefully removing her bag and gently settling it onto the blue plush carpet. Gray took the blue chair with a relieved hum, while Wendy and Carla settled next to Lucy’s left. Wendy’s light lime green bag nestled on the ground by her legs.

Natsu eyes the room, and then glances at the shut door; he really just wanted to get this over with and sighed. He made a motion to rub a hand through his hair before belatedly realizing Happy was still splayed atop his head. His fingers brush the soft blue fur of the Exceed’s head, earning a curious yet slightly tired sounding noise.

He merely runs his palm over Happy’s head and plops down beside Lucy.

Wendy was starting to nod off when the door opened, Lucy made a quick motion to rise earning a jolly, “it’s fine, stay seated.” A firm yet slightly gruff voice stated, most likely due to age.

Lucy settled more comfortably in relief, though made sure to keep proper posture now that their client was here.

The newcomer settled down across from the three onto the coach, a glass rectangle table between them.

“Jose, the butler will be along shortly with some tea.” He murmured, taking in the scruffy looks.

Lucy blushed and almost apologized for their appearance, instead pressed her palms flat on her knees.

They spent the next few minutes in awkward – for some, silence waiting for the tea.

Wendy tried valiantly to keep her eyes open, her head kept rocking slightly, her eyes constantly trying to slip and stay shut. Carla helped by lightly pressing a claw paw into her arm.

Happy had closed his eyes, not caring if he took a small nap, wasn’t like he was having any tea. Gray stared determinedly at the glass table, his arms crossed, trying not to give into the ache of slouching back and letting the chair lull him to sleep.

Natsu merely stared at the man with a set frown, arms crossed and slouching into the coach, not caring about looking respectful.

The man, who looked to be in at least his fifties returned Natsu’s stare, though he kept a faint smile.

The door opened emitting Jose, efficiently the butler laid out the tea, one for everyone, even the cats much to everyone’s collective surprise. He took a silent vigil behind the chair his Master sat at.

Lucy, dying for something that wasn’t just water, carefully picked up the white tea cup, gold trim around the rim, her eyes darting to their host who inclined his head and took a dainty sip.

“It’s delicious,” she praised.

The man nodded, took his own sip before gently replacing it upon the saucer.

“I’m sure you’re all tired, so I’ll try to keep this brief.”

His mouth twitched in mild amusement when all of them gave some form of relief, from their expression or sound.

Navigating the forest was quite the task, though not so difficult with a dragon slayer; as he eyed the exotic looking male with pink hair, the infamous white scaled scarf around his neck. He hadn’t expected the rumors of the fire dragon slayer to actually have pink hair.

“My name is Mason; I am the mayor of this quaint town.”

The raven raised a brow at this, but for the most part no one reacted.

“Recently a group has been coming into town and delighting in causing trouble. It started small but it’s gotten to the point people are afraid to stay out late, to go out on their own.”

Lucy wondered if that was why she’d seen so few people out and about on the way here. It wasn’t that late after all.

He reached for the tea as he sighed, “as the mayor it is my duty to make sure the people of this town feel safe and are safe.”

He took a sip savoring the lemon flavor before replacing it onto the table. He entwined his fingers, resting his arms upon his lap.

“And you want us to stop them?” Gray asked, “Kick them out of town?”

“Partly,” he agreed, “people have ended up hurt, things have been stolen, things destroyed. But as of yet no one has died.”

Lucy and Gray frowned at this.

“It’s possible simply speaking with them may fix the issue, though I am not hopeful. If this can be resolved with no fighting that would be ideal.”

“But,” Lucy uttered looking mildly perplexed. This didn’t make sense, why did the job request want a fire mage then?

Natsu twitched at the possible thought of coming all the way here and not being able to fight. He held in a growl. Happy merely kept dosing.

“There would of course be reparations, can’t very well let this go.”

Wendy nodded at this, her cup of tea left forgotten in her hands as Carla quietly sipped hers, now situated besides the bluenette.

“It is believed that they have a base somewhere in the woods,” he paused as all but the pinkette twitched, amusement coloring his tone as he continued, “however we are having a gala in the next coming day, it will be a relatively large gathering, these people are bound to show up to cause chaos. Steal even hurt people.” He took a breath.

“I ask that at least one of you if not two attended the event, blend in. The others can guard the wealthier rooms.”

Lucy wasn’t thrilled about the party, but it did beat going back into the forest. She knew everyone save perhaps Natsu would feel the same.

“That sounds doable,” she offered when the mayor remained silent for more than thirty seconds.

“Outfits will be provided; Jose can relay measurements to make sure you all get proper fitting garments.”

Lucy was relieved not to have to go out and buy something. She didn’t bring a ton of jewel with her.

“Is there a limit to how many can attend this party?” Gray asked curiously.

Mason shook his head, “If all of you think it best to attend; that’s fine, but I do ask that proper behavior is portrayed. If you want to switch people in and out that’s fine. But someone should be present at all times.”

Gray tilted his head, “so you don’t care if no one guards your wealthier rooms?”

Mason’s smile seemed to thin slightly, “the people’s safety is more important than replaceable items.”

Gray caught Natsu’s eye and he knew they were both thinking similarly, he held in a snort.

“If a fight is unavoidable, I ask that you keep your surroundings in mind.”

All but Natsu and Happy nodded. Natsu wasn’t going to make a false promise. Sure he could lie but why bother?

“My son Alexander will be attending, he can escort one of you, or all of you. And I am sure he can guide you at the party if any questions arise. I ask that you reframe from bothering me during this time unless someone is dying or has died.”

Everyone kind of blinked at this, feeling mixed thoughts but Lucy spoke up after a stiff moment, “of course.”

She did know how important wealthier people took these kinds of events.  

“What do these guys look like?” Natsu inquired, speaking up for the first time.

“Ah, yes,” Mason mused, he’d almost forgotten. “We don’t have much to go on them in ways of appearances or abilities. As I stated, no one has been killed.”

Lucy and Gray gaped, and the blonde was quicker than the ice make mage to sputtering out, “Wha… how do you not have some idea as to what they look like!?”

“As I said most people are too afraid to go out at night, these events typically happened late, or too fast. There really aren’t any reliable descriptions.”

“Well what do people say?” Gray asked, tone carrying a disbelieving quality. Though he figured perhaps they hadn’t canceled the gala due to this fact. Plus he was pretty sure these types of things were planned months in advance. Canceling due to something this small in scale must seem silly.

Mason eyed the raven, his smile practically gone, but merely said, “Wearing a dark cloak, or hood.”

He leaned back against the soft cushion with a sigh, “these people are outsiders. Most here can innately tell these people don’t belong, but that doesn’t mean they can explain what they look like.”

Gray wasn’t sure he bought that.

“Is there anyone here who uses magic?” Wendy asked softly as she leaned over to set her empty cup of tea onto the saucer.

“Not many people in this town do.” He exhaled closing his eyes as he briefly rubbed his nose. “That might be why these mages came here.”

“How do you know they can use magic? If, no one has really seen their abilities?” Natsu questioned.

Mason met the sage green eyes firmly, mouth set, “the damaged buildings is an easy tell. No none mage could inflict that.”

Natsu hummed with a nod.

“Do you, Fairy Tail accept this job?”

Natsu snorted earning a disproving look from Lucy; he promptly ignored it, though the mayor didn’t seem to mind and said, “We came all the way here.”

Lucy inwardly grouched – and trudged through a freaking forest to boot.

“Splendid.” Mason practically crooned a glint that could pass for relief twinkled in his eyes.

Silence reigned for a few moments before Mason clapped his hands together, “Now if there are no more questions?” he paused to assess the faces of his guests. When no one spoke up and the blonde even shook her head, he rose.

“I should have inquired at the start, but perhaps introductions to end things off?”

Lucy blanched and realized with shock that they had indeed not introduced themselves. Jeez, Erza was usually the one who did that and most of the talking.

Natsu didn’t find it that big a deal; the mayor knew they were from a legit guild. So what if they waited till the end of the meeting to give names?

Grays scrubbed a hand through his hair, mildly annoyed he’d forgotten proper standard greetings. Wendy flushed and glanced at the white exceed.

Lucy stood, “My name is Lucy.” She deliberately didn’t offer her last name. While doubtful the Heartifllia name was known out here, no reason to risk it for now.

She gestured to the girl besides her and the bluenette took the queue, “I’m Wendy and this is Carla.”

Carla merely inclined her head and said respectively, “thank you for the tea.”

Mason offered a small smile to the talking cat.

Lucy waved a hand at Natsu, giving him a flat look – he hadn’t even touched his tea, talk about bad manners. “Natsu,” the dragon slayer complied. He was so ready for food. “And the cat is Happy.”

Mason raised a brow at the name.

“I’m Gray.” The raven stated as he finally rose, having been reluctant to move till he knew for sure they were going to be leaving.

“There is a hotel straight down about a block away. If you will leave your measurements with Jose I will bid you all a goodnight.”

Lucy let out a moan of delight as she snuggled into her pillow. She’d gotten her long anticipated hot shower. And now she was so ready to sleep.

Wendy was curled up with Carla in the other bed, both fresh from their baths and already asleep.

~

Gray collapsed onto the bed forgoing a shower, his shirt lost to gravity somewhere in the room.

Something was strange here. His brain was too tired to think on it, to parse it. He’d worry about it in the morning.

When Natsu came back from his shower, having eaten earlier he found both Gray and Happy passed out. Shuffling over to his bed, he settled onto the mattress, not as soft and comfy as Lucy’s sadly but it beat the ground. With a final glance at his sleeping buddy he closed his eyes.

~

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31993957/chapters/79250947

Click Link for all current Chapters and All Tags

[dandelions4us]

Two Sides • Wenclair

Summary: Where Enid and Wednesday have a project to do together. Or... Where the both of them have “unrequited” feelings for each other.

Word count: 627.

Warnings: none, just wenclair being oblivious.

Enid Sinclair

“Can you pass me the glue, please?” Wednesday asks, her monotonous, low yet firm voice startling me off a bit after we fall into a peaceful silence while doing the art project we got assigned together.

“I didn’t mean to scare you. Sorry.” She mumbles the last part but my enhanced hearing catches it. I smile. “It’s okay! Here’s the glue.”

Our hands slightly touch; a little, nice wave of shock running through my body. I hope she didn’t hear my breath hitch, let alone the loud, fast beats of my heart. I look around, shaky hands recoiled quickly, trying to hide my panic (probably unsuccessfully).

Crap, how I was in love with her... I have never shuddered at the touch of someone. Never before felt my smile grow in my face seeing that person walk in the room. My heart being filled by the mere sound of their voice, the smell of their perfume and the beauty of their soul.

However, even affected by the physical reactions of passion, didn’t fail to notice the small glint of color in her pale, usually dead looking cheeks. I would also swear I saw her blink. Why would she — the stoic, above feelings and mundane trivialities —, Wednesday Addams, react at my touch?

After all, clearly, my feelings are not reciprocated... right?

Wednesday Addams

“Can you pass me the glue, please?” I ask, disturbing the comfortable silence we were in and startling Enid slightly.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.” I say, which is already abnormal, giving the fact I tend to affright people and don’t apologize — sometimes, don’t even acknowledge it. Additionally, my stupid, malfunctioning brain insists, so I end up murmuring a ‘sorry’ too, low enough that no one, not even her, could hear; disregarding the fact that we were alone in our dormitory.

Yet certainly she did. And naturally smiled at me for it. That foolish, dumb, beautiful smile. I detested her smile. Despised it so much because of the things it made me feel. Abominable, disgusting feelings my body seemingly craved more and more since it been given to it for the first time.

“It’s okay! Here’s the glue.” She responds in her signature cheery voice I despised as well.

And then we touch. Slightly. Imperceptible to non attentive eyes. But it felt like I was being electrocuted. The same pleasing feeling I get when having a psychic vision, but better.

I could also feel heat coming up my face. A warm, odd feeling could be sensed from it to the back of my neck and up my ears. It’s such a unusual thing I blink a few times to get used to it.

I assume I don’t have to mention I’ve never felt something like this before. I don’t like new things. Especially not new feelings. I don’t like feelings at all. So how come this eerie sensation spreading through my body has not repugnated me? It felt rather pleasant, howbeit.

The issue is: I know why. But my pride, repulse and stubborn self refuses to admit it. How could I? There is no such sense in me, someone who avoids feelings and social interactions like vampires avoids sun and garlic, could ever be enamored by Enid Sinclair, a walking sunshine?

That is a query to be later discerned, perhaps never. The major concern was the fact that I was, apparently, not the only one doomed by the reverberations of our unintended touch.

The abrupt pause in Enid’s breathing and her trembling members perplexed me. What reasons could make her fluster at my touch?

She would not be deranged enough to share said feelings with someone as ominous as me... correct?

A/N: they're so oblivious and for what?? making us mad lmao 💀 well this is it yall, hope you liked it! i pretty much enjoyed writing it (especially wednesday's pov). let me know if you guys want a part 2! get enough sleep, hydrate and eat some! ily <3

[sciapod]

Bathtub Photoshoot 💦

Pairing: Henry Cavill x First Person-POV (Female, or at least X wears a bra and has breasts)

Summary: Little private photosesh' with Henners and then some.

Warnings: Dry humping but let's just call it grinding. Edging. 18+ to be safe!! Contains smut. You might be able to find the tiniest bit of angst. And bit of fluff.

Word count: 2.5K

Not beta’ed! I take full responsibility for this fuckup.

Inspired/prompted by this post by @cavillfics

Masterlist

I obviously don't own Henry Cavill, nor do I know him IRL, so it goes without saying that this is a figment of my imagination.

(I took the liberty to edit the photo just a bit and don’t know who to credit for the original edit. Let me know if you know, so I can give credit where it's due.)

Happy reading 💦

---

“Babe, I've got an idea! Can you do something for me, please?”

When I heard you coming through the front door, I rushed to meet you there. You were finally home again and was hanging your jacket on the coat rack when I found you.

“Oh, well,” you reply, “I really want to just lean back, maybe take a shower or something. It’s been a long week, babe. And hello, by the way.”

You step over to me, reach around my waist and pull me against your firm body.

“Mhm, you smell lovely,” you whisper in my hair. I sigh, then wiggle myself free of your embrace.

“Henry, listen,” I look up at you with my best attempt at puppy eyes. You breathe deeply and turn your face, scratching mine with your stubble. It sends shivers through my body.

“Okay,” you hum as your hands roam my body, finding their way to my bare thighs then sneaking up beneath my robe, “tell me.”

I grab your hips and press my core against your thigh as I lean backwards, looking up at you, “I want to take some pictures … of you.”

Your face goes through a range of emotions; surprised, suspicious, smirking, friendly and finally incredibly charismatic: Front-page-style smile.

“That’s the one!” I say with excitement.

“Which one?” you tease, furrowing your brow and looking all suspicious again.

“You know perfectly well, you buffoon!” I say, as I slap your chest playfully.

My entire body lifts when you laugh. You kiss my forehead and twirl some of my hair between a few fingers. Your eyes shift, gazing at various areas of my face. I sigh, then reach for your hands, the one playing with my hair and the other, which I find gently caressing the lace of my panties.

I hold your hands between us and look up at my man.

“You do realize, of course, that you are basically a Greek god carved out of stone.”

“I have been told so, yes.”

“And you do realize that every artist needs a muse, a model, to create from.”

“I have a faint idea of that, yes,” you say, smirking down at me.

“And I happen to be short of a project, and subject, for my portfolio.”

“I see,” your smile broadens, “but what does that have to do with me?”

“Henry!”

My declining patience must have been obvious somewhere in my face or perhaps my exclamation, because you burst out laughing, throwing your head back as you do so. I can’t help but melt a little.

“Tell me what you need me to do, darling,” you say, stroking my hands with your thumbs. I feel warmth spread through my chest. Your face softens and I feel the warmth spread further down.

“Fuck,” I breathe, casting my eyes to the floor. I’m suddenly filled with all kinds of insecurities, imposter syndrome and such, but there’s a reason why you’re my man. You sense it immediately and lift my hands to your lips, kissing them sincerely.

“You’ve got this, babe.”

I sigh, “I know, sweetheart. It's just… Urgh.”

You kiss my forehead.

“Tell me your idea.”

“I…” My voice breaks. You lift my chin up with a single finger, as if it were suddenly light as a feather, forcing me to look into your striking blue eyes.

“I don’t know,” I finally exclaim. “I didn’t have a concrete idea. I just knew that I wanted you to be in the photos.”

You smile, almost apologetically, “Okay, look. I really want to help. But I’m so damn tired. I’ve got an idea, though, of how we may be able to hit two birds with one stone.”

“Okaay?” I say, a slight tinge of hope seeping into my core again.

“I need a bath–”

“–I can’t take a nude picture of you!”

You laugh again, but shake your head, “No, silly. Let me finish.”

My cheeks flush scarlet.

“I need a bath, but instead of taking a shower, I’ll jump in the tub. Once in there, you can have me do whatever you want.”

I squint my eyes, then see a lightbulb flash on.

“YES!” I almost yell, running my hands up your torso and leaning in for a kiss.

“Yes,” I repeat, then press my lips against your sculpted ones. It is as if your lips curl to a smile amidst the kiss.

“Yes,” I say one last time, meeting your eyes, “If you get the water running, I’ll collect my gear.”

Your hands go wandering about on my hips again, dragging my robe up and making my hairs stand on end. You look down at me with a confident smile, saying, “great minds think alike.”

I fight off the urge to kiss you again and instead draw away from you. You catch the waistband of my robe and it slides off as I step away, revealing the new set of lingerie I’m wearing underneath. I stand, looking at you with what I imagine is the expression of a suspicious feline. You, on the other hand, make a low whistle and shake your head in slow motion, clearly surprised and pleased to see what I was hiding beneath. Then you nod toward the living room, signalling I get on with finding my camera.

It takes me a few minutes to find the right lens. When I enter the bathroom, you’re in the process of unbuckling your belt. The tap is running and there’s already a bit of water in the tub.

“Wait,” I say, stopping you just as you’re about to pull your jeans down, “I think I want you in the water dressed.”

You stare for a moment, shrug, say “sure,” then proceed to tug your jeans over your perky bum again.

“Right, erm,” I think for a moment, “No, you know what? Lose the pants, but keep the t-shirt on.”

“Lose the pants,” you repeat and let your jeans fall to the floor. As you stand back up, I realize something.

“We might have a problem,” I say, eyeing the hefty bulge in your boxers.

You follow my gaze, noticing the same problem, then nod in agreement.

“But then again,” you say, “what did you expect, looking like that?” you hint at my open robe and lingerie.

We both shrug, then burst laughing.

“I guess we’ll just have to make it work!” I say, “Now, in the tub with you, buddy.”

You feel the temperature of the water and deciding that it’s decent, turn off the tap, step in and lie down. There’s not a lot of water in there, but I’m assuming it will do. You look up at me with anticipation, “Now what?”

I squint at you, finding the bulge slightly distracting, basically towering above the waterline like another Burj Khalifa. Obviously, you notice my lack of response.

“Hey, babe!” you say, snapping me out of it. I feel my nether region clench.

“Okay, okay!” I shake my head to wake up. You shake yours too, smirking at me.

“We need to do something about that,” I say.

“I can try to hide it?” you suggest.

“How?” I squint. It’s a mastodon of a package you has stored down there, I think to myself.

“Anyway, I need to find a position to photograph you from.”

I begin taking random photos of you from various angles and perspectives, simultaneously adjusting the settings on the camera as I do so. Meanwhile, you roll around to one side, then the other, then back again. The squeaking sounds of your body rubbing against the sides of the tub while you change poses makes the whole situation rather comedic, and I'm convinced you're doing it even worse on purpose. Determined to be somewhat professional, I try to ignore your distractions.

“It’s a good thing we have such good lighting in here,” I say, gazing around the small room, pretending to be focused and ignorant of your attempts at sabotage.

“How do you want me, babe? I feel like… I don’t even know? A fish out of water,” you say, doubting your own wording, “or something like that.”

I sigh, “I know, I get it. I need to think. We’ve also still got that… situation… going on.” I gesture at the, no less apparent, tent between your legs.

“Okay,” you say calmly, “I’ll just lie back and relax, while you think of something.”

“Good.”

As you settle into a comfortable position, I mentally run through the various “golden rules” of photography that I can remember.

Then it’s as if I notice the obvious. The absolute god-like adonis carved in marble in front of me: My initial inspiration. Your white t-shirt, soaked from all the turning and splashing around you did, is sticking to your chest and abs, enhancing the lines of your muscular torso, yet still in a perfectly suggestive fashion; somewhat similar to the drapery you see on these same sculptures. In a fit of impulse, I crawl up to stand on the edges of the tub.

You open your eyes –awoken by my scramblings– fear in your eyes as you reach for me, “be careful, babe!”

“No no, darling! Stay put!” I say, “I’m perfectly safe. It’s dry. My feet are dry. I’m stable, but thank you.” I smile, reassuringly. Suspicious yet accepting, you lower your arms and lie back down. I notice your eyes trail down my exposed body. Lust now clear as daylight in your gaze.

“I think I’ve got the photo soon, babe, then we’re done,” I explain. “Just close your eyes for me.”

You shake your head and smile, then do as I said.

Your head rests on the back of the tub, but your fingers begin fidgeting … around your nether region.

“Are you uncomfortable?” I ask between photos.

“No…” you smirk, eyes still closed, but you shift and rest your hands awkwardly on your stomach instead.

“We can’t have that,” I say, “you’re covering the main part of the photo,” I tease.

You open your eyes, still smirking but not saying a word.

“And you’re revealing, exposing, what we need to hide,” I try to hold back my laugh.

“Okay,” I continue, “what about… what if you hold your t-shirt at the hem and stretch it down to cover your crotch. Place your other hand casually beside it. Yeah, like that! Exactly, babe. Beautiful.”

I take a couple of photos and look at them on the tiny screen.

“Right, hold that pose, but just… kinda relax, if you can. I’ll take a few shots more and then you’re done!”

You close your eyes again and begin taking deep breaths, lessening the tension that must have been building in your shoulders over the last few days. As peace falls upon your face and body, I take the last photos. After quickly reviewing them on the tiny screen, I decide that I’m done. I turn off my camera and place it on the shelf above the tub before crawling down to sit on the edge of the tub, my feet in the water between your legs.

“Okay, it’s a wrap!”

Your eyes flash open and you let go of your t-shirt. The fabric bounces back, revealing your hairy tummy, teasing me. You look up at me with mischief, then give your member a squeeze.

“Get down here,” you say, almost ferocious in your voice.

I feel myself get all giddy with sudden anticipation as you rise like Poseidon from the water. Before I can do anything other than yelp, you pull me down onto you and with a splash and a thud I land against your rock-hard body. I'm instantly soaked.

“Finally,” you mutter, drenching my face and neck with hungry kisses. Your hands tease the collar of my robe before sliding it over my shoulders. Your eyes explore the curves of my upper body, then you adjust me so that I sit straddled upon you. You don’t speak a word, but your eyes and body say everything I need to know.

I feel your girth throbbing against me. You slide my robe all the way off and without taking your eyes off me, you cast it aside. Then your hands slide up my body. You cup my breasts tenderly, admiring the lace and how the new style of bra suits my breasts. You lick your lips as your thumbs begin stroking my hardening nipples. I sigh and begin grinding against the tip of your member.

You sit up and proceed to kiss and bite the flesh of my breasts. Gently holding the lace aside with your fingers, you capture my nipples between your teeth, ever so gently, before circling your tongue around them with exquisite attention. While squeezing my breasts together, you kiss them one after the other, back and forth, before venturing up to my collarbone and neck. All I can do is whimper and moan.

Then you grasp my hair, pulling my head back. Between kisses and bites on my exposed neck, you breathe damp, sultry words onto my skin. Expressions of how I’ve been a tease, how patient you’ve been and how much you want me now. I want to answer, but I can’t do anything but mutter incoherencies; your throbbing cock eagerly pressing against my core and thus stealing all of my vocabulary.

My breath quickens as I grind harder, cursing the fabrics that keep our cores from meeting, merging. Then you push me towards you, allowing our lips to meet in hungry kisses. My bra loosens. You must have managed to open and take it off me with your other hand, before also casting it aside. You grab at my liberated breasts, then sit up and pull your drenched t-shirt over your head. It lands on the bathroom floor with a splash. My hands instinctively seek the wet fur of your stomach and chest, momentarily squeezing your pecs, then wander south again.

Your eyes read pure hunger and you buck your hips. As I fall back down from the jump, my core meets the powerful strength of your pelvis, bucking yet again. I gasp, overcome by a mixture of arousal and humor. You buck again, a laugh escapes me and somehow, after a few times of this, you’ve managed to free your erection from your boxers. I didn’t notice, but at some point you must have turned on the tap again, because I see you turn it back off. I guess this increased level of water also explains the more slow-motion-like sensation I experience as I land back down on your pelvis; a somewhat softer landing than before. In my own defence, I was entranced and my mind was not functioning at 100%, hence the questionable description. Anyway, both our hips are now submerged under water and I simply shake my head at your mischievous ways. You smirk and pull me down to a deep kiss, slapping my ass through the water, making more water splash all over the place. Everything in the room is certainly wet by now.

I grind against your exposed and infinitely hard cock as your fingers slider under the lace. Your hands grab my cheeks with determination, enhancing the force and enabling you to better thrust against my grinding motion. The friction is causing short-circuits in my brain, making me see colours that aren’t there. My first climax is staggeringly near, but just before I get to release, you buck your hips again, making me scoot off your cock. A devious grin is smeared across your chiseled face.

“You had me waiting, sweetheart. Now it’s my turn to tease.”

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