#and i finally got the energy to go back and redo it

[viric-dreams]

An old voracity lives here, in the far reaches of the zee. The priests are long gone, but sacrifices are still made. Perhaps you have come here to make a sacrifice. Perhaps the sacrifice is you.

[seunghansgf]

Rough sex with seunghan?? Jealousy or maybe just stressed from work

sativa | hong seunghan x reader

𐙚 plot! : seunghan had a stressing day of work due to practicing his group’s upcoming comeback choreo “boom boom bass.” you had volunteered to help him destress.

₊˚⊹ᰔ warnings!? : dom & sub dynamics! pet names! seunghan is a meanie dom >:( ! semi-overstim! rough sex! unprotected sex! (wrap ur willy or i’ll slap u silly!)

｡𖦹°‧ if you are uncomfortable with smut of seunghan or smut in general, please do not proceed past ‘read more’ point! if you are aware of what you are reading then enjoy!

seunghan had a long stressful day at work, which isn’t out of the ordinary for him especially since comeback was around the corner. but god shotaro and wonbin were running practice like it was the navy, constantly having to redo the choreography, going over each and every step in great detail due to wonbin’s perfectionist behavior. learning boom boom bass was fun at times but of course today had to be the day where wonbin was being incredibly sensitive about the crucial details for the choreography. seunghan decided to go over to your place for the night, not only to spend time with you but to also destress ( mainly to spend time though lol ) he had the spare key to your door and had let himself inside, you were nowhere to be found to his surprise. “asleep already?” he closed the door behind him as he removed his shoes and set his bag down, going down the hall to your bedroom before knocking on the door.

you got up from your bed and opened it to see your boyfriend standing there, oh how good he looked but you could tell he was stressed. you grabbed him by the hand and dragged him inside your room before closing the door, seunghan sat on your bed as he ran his fingers through his already messy hair. “long day i’m guessing?” you said as you crawled onto the bed again and wrapping your arms around his shoulders from behind him, he could only nod and sigh, he hated days where he couldn’t feel any way of speaking without thinking he’ll just sound mean, you felt the energy he was having and sat next to him. “i can help you destress.” you said as your hand wandered on his arm, he was wearing a muscle shirt and his usual sweats, he gently grabbed your face and kissed you.

and now he has you under him, on your stomach and your ass up as his hands guided your hips to bounce on his cock, groans and moans coming out from him as your face was buried into the pillow. “aw come on, baby, you wanted this, no?” seunghan said with a tongue click before speeding his movements up again, your head lifted itself as you cry out in pleasure, your knuckles nearly turning white from how much you had been squeezing the pillow for the past few rounds, seunghan scoffed before reaching with his free hand to hold your head back by your hair. “answer.” he said, his voice laced with fake pity, he enjoyed getting off how easily you go for him, he couldn’t help but laugh earlier when he had gotten you to squirt simply with his fingers. he adores how pathetic you are for him. “hani.. ‘s too much!” you managed to finally whine out, you don’t know how much longer you could withstand being edged AGAIN, seunghan just shrugged and continued to plow his cock into your cunt, not a single care in the world. “aw, that sucks huh.” he laughed and watched how his cock slid in ‘n out of you perfectly.

“hani please!” you whined out again as you cried out in pleasure, it felt so good but god you hated how he kept edging you, it felt like torture. seunghan just moaned out in response, the feeling of your wet cunt around his cock always sent him into the clouds. “just a little more, baby, you can do it.” he said as he felt himself nearing his urge to cum in you again, his hand on your hip moving you quicker with his movements as his head tilted back from how good he felt. “wanna.. cum please..” you begged yet again, your body shaking from the overstimulation that hani’s been causing you plus the constant edging. seunghan thrusts got sloppy as he kept hold on your hair, his breathing heavy. “alright. fine. go ahead.” he finally gave in as he came in you, you finally cumming right after, the whines and moans you let out made him feel more satisfied with himself.

he pulled out and let go of your hair before cleaning you up with a warm towel and flipping you onto your back gently, as he cleaned you up, he kissed your forehead and smiled. “thank you.. this helped alot actually.” he said with a sweet smile on his face, you smiled back at him shyly. “of course, baby, anything for you.” you pulled him down to cuddle you and he gave him, laughing a bit. that moment was cut short of you both heard the sound of a call hanging up. yours and seunghan’s faces couldn’t even comprehend the shock that left your bodies. he grabbed his phone from the counter to see who was called.

it was sohee.

[dseval]

ArchiveVerse Cross

(sorry if the quality is butchered everyone Ibis paint is uncooperative today)

Finally, i'm able to work on ArchV content, with my favourite character, Cross. More under the cut.

Cross is the first one to get a 'reference sheet' or a character intro, since he's the first one to kickstart this AU too. Expect more ArchiveVerse charcaters to receive the treatment in the future.

(though for now Delta is next, because i absolutely hate his current archv design, and i'm redoing it. If you had anyone you're interested in seeing next, please tell me.)

I actually don't know how to format this post, though, so sorry if the information is all over the place (or if it's too much information). To understand most of the things I write here, please refer to my ArchiveVerse post.

★Info★

Cross, a student from the Omega Public School (OPS), used to be a normal student. That is, until he got caught in trouble along with Ink and a student from Juvie, Error. Ink was let off scot free, but Cross wasn't so lucky. Due to the troubles he caused, he was quickly arrested and thrown to the Juvenile Containment. Much to his own displeasure.

There, as much as he distances himself, he made friends with the other students contained there (Dust, Killer, Horror, and Nightmare). Though, it doesn't deter him from grinding hard for credits and speedrunning his community service to be released fast and quick from Juvie. He succeeded.

After graduating from the Juvenile Containment, Cross returned to OPS, and swore to just become a normal student, avoiding having himself thrown into Juvie again. He tries his best to steer clear from trouble, though the other Juvie students seem to bring that trouble to him, often dragging him along to their mischief.

Quick facts:

His height is 180 cm (probably he's the third tallest character in archv)

Cross's powers are Lightning, and on the side, he has small matter manipulation powers, able to break down molecules, though he hasn't explored his capabilities with this yet.

His powers are volatile, and he still had difficulties controlling it. Occasionally he'd accidentally zap someone when he touched them. Purple sparks of lightning also fizzle out of his fingertips when he's flustered or nervous.

He wears at least three layers of clothing.

Cross has been described as handsome, with long legs.

He rides his bicycle everywhere, often going for rides in the weekend too.

Cross always brings his school bag whereever he goes, in it are chocolate energy bars, and other utilities.

His eyelights are starry whenever he's overjoyed (this is his swap sans trait guys)

Every student in OPS has their own house, Cross makes sure to keep his living space tidy and neat.

Character relationships:

(These are only the ones i can mention off the top of my head)

Cross and Dream hangs out sometimes. To drink latter or get breakfast. Cross really admires him.

He often hangs out at the arcade with Delta, Epic, and Color. Delta seems somewhat hellbent on beating him at anything, Cross felt like he can't lose. Epic and Color plays a cooking game.

Dust, who was banned from entering most merch stores and malls, often sent Cross for fetch quests to get him any new Ice-e merch. Cross finds this annoying but obliges.

Killer and him often zap each other back in juvie, he still have black spots and bruises in several parts of his body. Nowadays, they still zap each other sometimes, Killer mostly for teasing— and Cross, on accident.

Horror and him often went to all-you-can-eat events together, they also exercise together occasionally.

Even out of Juvie, Cross still calls Nightmare by 'boss'. Nightmare finds it embarrassing of him.

Cross rarely met Ink, still somewhat wary that Ink will drag him into some sort of trouble. Though, he doesn't hate him.

Credits (please tell me if I missed anyone!):

Cross Sans by Jakei

Artstyle inspired/taken directly from Mx2j, one of the artists for Blue Archive. The character intro format itself follows Blue Archive.

Mentioned characters: Dream & Nightmare Sans (Joku), Dust Sans (Ask-Dusttale blog), Killer Sans (Rahafwabas), Horror Sans (SourAppleStudios), Ink Sans (Comyet/Mye bi), Error Sans (CrayonQueen/LoverofPiggies), Epic (yugogeer012), Delta (AnimatedZorox), Color (superyomna)

[synnamon-hearts]

𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭

𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭

Pairing: Ghostface!Josh Washington x Fem!Reader

Description: Staying home alone while there was a killer on the loose was a decision that would change your life forever—but you never would have imagined how...

Warnings: Mutual Pining, Dark Fluff, Angst, Talk Of Violence, Blood, Gore, Friends To Lovers, Suggestive Flirting, Implied Smut, Talk Of Mike Being A Creep, Extra Talk Of Characters' Death.

Word Count: 2.6k

A/N: Ah, my very first Ghostface fic. It feels nice to finally fix this up and repost it. Josh was always perfect for the role. I mean, he already has that psychotic energy that goes so well with it. 😅 And I always loved this fic too much not to redo it. It's been sitting in my draft for awhile but it's finally done and ready to read! I hope you all enjoy it! 🖤 Oh! And if enough of you do like this fic, I may consider doing more spicy Ghostface!Josh fics in the future... 👀

𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭

I sat in my bedroom on a late Friday night, not doing anything but staring up at my ceiling in complete boredom. My parents didn't want to leave me home alone, but I insisted they go out. After all, it was their anniversary. Though I wanted them to have a good night and celebrate, I didn't really want to be home alone either. There had been a serial killer going around, taking out almost everybody I knew.

Even though the attacks hadn't been directly on me, I still had that grueling feeling that I could be next at any given time. My parents made me promise to keep all the doors and windows locked and stay inside while they were gone, and I had strongly intended to keep that promise.

So I decided to just stay in my room, laying in bed while counting the minutes. Time was going by slowly until I got a call—a call that would change my life forever in the most unexpected way. And I don't know why I chose to answer it, since it was from an unknown number, but something deep inside of me told me to press that green button on the screen.

"Hello?" I muttered simply after answering my phone and bringing it to my ear.

"Hello, (Y/N)." Said the voice of an unknown man on the other end. It was deep and dark—a voice I would definitely remember if I heard it before.

"Who is this?" I asked as I furrowed my brows in confusion. Though it was a very easy question, the man stayed silent for a few seconds. Deep, heavy breaths were the only thing heard on the other end of the line; until the man spoke again in a more sinister tone.

"The question isn't who am I–it's where am I?"

The beating of my heart rang through my ears as it's speed increased faster each second. I wasn't sure if it was just some sick prank or not, but I had a pretty damn good feeling about who it was. Still, I didn't want to accept the horrid truth—I didn't want to believe that it could be the man who had been slaughtering all of my friends.

"This isn't funny!" I shouted into my phone with anger in my tone. I tried to keep my voice strong—to not show how I really felt by letting my voice fall weak and crack. But it was hard not to. "Seriously, this better not be a fucking prank!"

"Oh, what's the matter, (Y/N)? Don't you wanna play with me?" His voice sounded mocking, teasing with a little hint of a laugh at the end of his words.

"N-No..." I whimpered, my voice being just barely above a faint whisper. Tears filled my eyes as I sat up in my bed, eyeing my bedroom door wearily while praying deep down that there was nobody in my house.

"Aw, too bad, little bird. We're going to play regardless of what you say. You won't regret it." He cooed mockingly, sounding as if he was trying to hold back another laugh as he spoke. "Here I come."

Within a matter of seconds, somebody began banging on my bedroom door. I screamed from astonishment and pure terror before scrambling off my bed to find something—anything that could be used as some sort of weapon.

The man continued to bang on my door for what felt like hours, but only turned out to be a couple of minutes. But to my surprise, he stopped... And then there was silence—unsettling silence.

I ended the call with the man—nearly dropping my phone several times due to how shaky my hands were—before attempting to dial 911. But as luck would have it, the screen turned black, and I quickly realized that I had forgotten to charge my phone.

It's crazy how one small, dumb mistake could have such a fatal consequence...

"(Y/N)?" The man sang from the other side of my door. "Come out, come out wherever you are!"

"Go away!" I cried out, clenching my phone in my hand as fear crippled my body. "I'm going to call the police!"

It was a lie, I know, but I thought that maybe a threat would be enough to get the psycho away from me, long enough for somebody to come find me.

"Oh, (Y/N)." The man chuckled darkly. "The police won't get here on time. And besides, don't you want to meet the man behind it all—the one who killed your little friends?"

I froze for a minute in complete shock and fear. This man—who had taken so much from me within the last month—was just outside my door. The chances of me getting away at this point were slim. So, if I wasn't going to survive, I might as well have found out who this monster really was. But maybe I'd be lucky and survive if I found a way to kill him first? Regardless, I needed to know who this man was...

"F-Fine..." I tried to make myself sound much more confident and tougher than I really was, but failed due to the way my voice cracked thanks to my anxiety. "Come in..."

I grabbed my alarm clock and fully prepared to whip it at his head the second he opened the door, but life had a different plan for me.

To my surprise, the man kicked my door open and there stood a tall figure, wearing an all-black cloak and a white ghost mask. The costume was frightening enough and made me feel quite uneasy, especially with how he cocked his head as he stared at my weak form like a curious puppy—though I knew the rabid beast that hid behind the innocent gesture. There I stood—like a complete fucking idiot—holding my alarm clock in my hand as I stared at this murderer with a look of pure horror on my face.

The man slowly approached me and with each step he took forward, I took one backwards until I hit the wall behind me. After what felt like a century, the killer was finally one foot away from me—the black eyes of the mask drinking me in as I coward in fear before him. But just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, my eyes lowered and focused on the bright crimson liquid that covered his hands and knife.

"W-Whose blood is that?" I asked with much hesitance in my voice. Though it was a question that I did not want an answer to, I figured it was pretty important; since I still had some friends that were still alive, and my family as well.

Without a single word, the man leaned in almost as if he was attempting to pin me between him and the wall. The only sound that could be heard was his breath behind the mask and my beating heart. But then—breaking the silence like a hammer smashing through glass—he chuckled lowly.

"It used to belong to your friend, Emily."

Though the man was wearing a mask, I could tell by the smug sound of his voice that he had a huge smirk plastered on his twisted face. It was at that moment, I felt my heart stop. Without even realizing, tears began to fall down my cheeks as I grieved the death of my friend.

"Oh, come on!" He scoffed. "Why are you shedding tears for that little bitch?! After all, I did kill her for you."

I froze up completely after hearing his words, like time itself had stopped to let the sudden news sink in. I was shocked, but it all made sense. Out of anybody in my friend group, I was never attacked by the killer. So he was killing my friends... For me... Only one question remained inside my mind:

"Why?"

It was the only thing I could think to say. I didn't understand why this psychopath—this murderer was doing all this awful stuff for me. The man only laughed and then, to my surprise; lifted his mask over his face, revealing his true identity.

I audibly gasped and it was as if the shock of who stood before me punched me right in the face. My heart sank and my body grew cold, as my mind refused to accept the truth. I just stood there, with tears in my eyes as the only thing that escaped my lips was a name: "Josh?"

Josh Washington—who I had known for years—stood in front of me with a twisted, psychotic grin on his face as his eyes stared down at me with a lot of excitement in them. They seemed almost gray now, compared to the light green that shone with kindness before. His hair was now disheveled too—strains of it hanging down into his eyes; I had never seen it messy like this before, since he always had it slick back and tidy around me. It definitely added to the psychotic look he had going now.

"Ta-da!" He cheered while he threw his arms up dramatically as if he revealed some positive surprise like a birthday party. "Surprised? Of course, you are! Do you know how many movies I watched to get this right? It was a lot. After all, that's how the best killers learn: watch a few movies, take a few notes; it was fun! And the look on your face now makes all that work even more worth it!"

I only continued to stare at him in silence as tears filled my eyes. He was one of the few friends who made it—other than Chris and Sam—but I had never suspected him to be a killer; it didn't feel real or right in any way. He was always so sweet and kind... It didn't make sense...

"W-Why?" I asked in a barely audible whisper. "Why did you do this?!"

He shook his head as if he expected me to know, while his smile only broadened as he did so. "I told you, (Y/N). I did it for you."

"But why?!" I cried out, raising my voice as I did so, my vocals now scratchy and damaged from my earlier cries. He seemed surprised by my sudden outburst and took a step back as his eyes widened from shock.

"(Y/N), I did it because those fuckers were jerks! They treated you like trash, talked shit about you behind your back, and tried to keep us apart!"

His motive shocked me and also unlocked some realization in my mind: he was right. They were mean to me and treated me like garbage. But killing them just seemed too far. Though... It also ignited another question in my mind.

"What the fuck do you mean by 'kept us apart'?" I asked as I furrowed my brows with confusion. I swore at that moment that if jealousy had been the reason for his murders, I would kill him myself just out of anger due to his stupidity.

He laughed again, but this time his expression held a look of disgust and anger.

"Those assholes kept telling you that I didn't want you—that I was even appalled by the idea of being with you—all over the simple fact that Jess had a crush on me. You call that being a friend?" He scoffed bitterly. "Not only that, but those bitches had sabotaged many of your other relationships, as well as bullied you into thinking you were not good enough for anybody."

I stayed silent, looking down at my feet as the tears finally fell down my cheeks. Merely seconds later, I felt a gentle gloved hand meet my cheek. He caressed it softly with his thumb, to carefully wipe my tears away.

"You don't have to listen to their abuse anymore; they are gone." He whispered softly. "And you don't have to worry about not being good enough anymore either. Do you know why?"

I shook my head as I sniffed quietly, unable to speak due to not fully trusting my voice to form words correctly.

"Because you're good enough for me." He murmured in the softest tone I had ever heard, only making me tear up more.

I slowly looked up to meet his gaze—his soft gaze of adoration. He smiled warmly as he continued to hold my cheek in his large hand. And for the first time ever, I felt truly loved.

"And I know Mike was being a pig with you, that's why I slaughtered him like one." He admitted proudly as his kind smile split open into a prideful, toothy grin. I couldn't help but giggle as I wiped a few more tears away from my other cheek.

"Yeah, despite being with Emily, he would never give up on me. He just didn't understand that I didn't feel that way for him." I admitted sadly.

"I mean, I don't blame the guy because you are a fucking goddess, but he would go a little too far with his attempts to 'woo' you."

"Woo?" I chuckled at his choice of words.

"You know what I mean." He rolled his eyes playfully. But once they gazed back down upon me, they had grown soft and loving again. "So, would you consider being the lover of a dangerous psychopath?"

I smiled warmly as I stared up at the man before asking, "Well, I don't know. Promise not to stab me?"

"Not with this knife." He gestured down at the bloody knife in his hand, while his voice dropped low and seductive as his lips turned up into a sexy half smile.

"Good answer." I chuckled before placing my hands on his cheeks and pulling his face down to mine for a sweet kiss. Then—after pulling away a minute later—I gazed into his eyes with a lot of love and warmth. "We'll get to that later."

He smiled and placed his lips back on mine, while holding me tightly in his arms. The kiss lingered for another good minute and lit a spark within me—a spark that told me that I was in love. Once we pulled away, he stared down at me lovingly.

"Seriously though, I promise to protect you at all costs and destroy anybody who threatens your safety." He declared in a warm tone as he brought his hands back up to caress my cheeks again, the soft fabric of the gloves drying my soaked cheeks.

"I know." I responded as I smiled happily before planting another warm kiss on his surprisingly soft lips. "And I'll do the same for you."

"Oh? Do I have myself a little partner in crime?" He teased and my sweet smile twisted into a more sinister one as I took his knife from his hand, gripping it firmly in my fist and moving it up to place the blade against his throat.

Though the sharp metal was nipping at his skin and painting the ridge deep crimson, he didn't seem to care. His lips stretched into a devilish and seemingly excited grin, as he gazed down at me with a look of adoration in his green orbs.

"Hey, we all go a little mad sometimes. And I may know of a few more people who need to be taught a fatal lesson." My voice grew darker and more evil as his smile broadened with pride for his new lover —me. "I just need to have a mentor by my side to guide my way."

"My lady," he spoke softly as he carefully took my small hand in his big one. "It would be an honor."

𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭

[fanatical4creation]

INVERTED!Poppy!!!

Finally made her up, I was just putting it off and putting off designing her but then I took my pen, my new laptop and drew it, now look at her!!!

Alright let's start shall we?

Design:

"OMG FANATICAL WHY DOES POPPY LOOKS LIKE A FRISK-" Shhhhh, you need to calm down, i'll explain everything;

Alright, bare with me: The original Poppy mentions in an animation, that she's talking to her therapist, that people usually thinks she's a Chara, but she's none! And I think, I theorize, I suppose that the reason why she looks like a Chara is bc an Frisk was drawing her (you know her lore?), so supposing that the whole concept of Invertedverse is that the original universe Underswap, that Frisk who drew her is an Chara, so if the Frisk drew a Chara in the original, here the Frisk that is now a Chara would draw a Frisk....... so, that's the logic here.;

Even though Poppy is still not a Frisk nor a Chara, but I don't think I translated that into her design, maybe I'll redo it sometime.

Her clothings are intriguing. It's her original teenage/adult clothings but with some green and a purple cloak or cape, whatever that is. This cloak represents her importance inside OmegaTimeline, that reminds me;

View from back Ω:

Made it with wind because it's cool, plus, her silhouette is cool too

Story:

Core was the "ruler" of Omega Timeline, everyone would look for them when there was a problem and needed help, everybody trusted them, but they put Poppy on their place... Core is a very mischievous character, no one really knows why they put Poppy in charge.

Omega citizens theorize that the reason is because Core was lazy, or that they didn't like the attention, or maybe they wanted to focus fully on recruting people, even thought after Poppy got in charge Core was rarely seen interacting with people and also the numbers of new survivors to get to the OT decreased.

Poppy tries her best to help remain peace within Omega Timeline, even if it requires all of her energies, thought she could really use some help, she thinks that the reason why her parent is more absent while she was in charge was because they knew she could everything alone, and that she should do it.

She doesn't have many friends, and the old ones got far away because she's too busy working signing papers, solving problems, financing projects, etc, etc.

Character:

She suffers. That's the truth, she just needs a vacation and a hug from her girlfriend.

She doesn't like parties... just thought it was important to mention.

Poppy doesn't like her parent, almost hates them even, they seem so irresponsible, imature and a coward, after just letting their daughter in charge of a (practically) country in surprise, it's expected for her to feel that way

Poppy has to be the clueless character in the whole Invertedverse, the reason is that she's so busy at work, or too busy being tired, and she usually gets information on what's going on from Core, but Core have been very silent lately, wonder why...

She has the hobby of playing board games, dancing and origamis!

She likes to cook more for others than herself

Sometimes she would visit the Madame T's orphanage, mainly to see Cadence and her friends, but also to donate and all of that things famous ppl do in orphanages idk.

Even thought she does a lot of hard work sometimes she'd take credit over someone elses work unintentionally, i mean, she's kind of the president.

She can't lie, like literally, maybe it's just her morals, or maybe it's a supernatural force idk.

She also keeps taping her fingers in hard surfaces all the time, I think it's anxiety.

Oh yeah, her full name is still Poppy Marusina, but she can also be called Iris Marusina, or maybe I'll change that to her original name, idk

Poppy (c) fmsdraws

[duckchu]

If your asks are still open can I request the Heartsteel boys reactions to their S/O overworking themselves? How would they react if reader suddenly faints, gets a nosebleed, covered in bruises cos they keep bumping into stuff half asleep? I just want to see how they would care for someone hehehehehehe Thank you once again, I LOVE READING YOUR STUFF (IonianSunsets here btw teehee)

Omg thanks for the request :3

Idk when you requested so sorry if it was a long time ago (I didn't get a notification and it doesn't show the date of the ask)

Reader is a soloist here since I like writing idol reader lol. If you don't like it, I can redo it

Kayn

It was just another day, you and Hearsteel were set to have a photoshoot together for a magazine, promoting your collaboration single.

He started noticing you were growing restless, drinking way more coffe and energy drinks than usual, but didn't say anything

I mean he wasn't better

Though he did it for different reasons

But today he noticied you were especially clumsy

You kept on bumping into stuff or people. He was getting really worried

Then when you were getting the photos taken, you started swaying lightly.

He quickly rushed to you as you fell

While you woke up quickly, he was still worried, heart racing so hard he was sure he would have a heart attack.

After that the shoot was postponed as Kayn got you home. Surprisingly he didn't speed too hard, not wanting to give you any additional stress.

After that he forced your manager at knife point to give you a well deserved break

And then begged Alune to let him stay with you

She did

He became really soft for a few days, cuddling with you and touching you almost all the time

Don't tell anyone tho

Aphelios

It was just a normal award show

Nothing big

Ezreal and you were the hosts

Honestly you in that pretty dress was the only thing which made him pay attention

Untill he noticed you were slowly starting to stumble with your words and your legs were getting shaky

He wanted to go to you and make sure you were okay but he couldn't just go up on stage

You were just to announce the song of the year category, but the it happened.

You lost your consciousness

The ceremony was put on hold, everyone in the audience shocked.

You were given medical attention and announced a hiatus to rest

After that Aphelios always made sure you were well rested and fed

Would litteraly force you to lay down if he noticied you overworking yourself

Would learn to cook just so he could be sure you ate

Yone

You were just recording the mv for your collab

It was all good, you just finished filming your solo shots when you collapsed on set

Yone quickly got up and ran to you, making sure you were breathing

After you woke up, you thought he was mad at you

He was just so...quiet..almost as if he wasn't here

You didn't know, but he just needed time to process what happened

He takes better care of you after that

To the point of being overbearing

He just wants to make sure you feel well

But if it bothers you, a simple talk with him will solve it

Sett

You were meant to have a special stage with him on a music show

Nothing hard, just cover an old song

But before it began he stopped you

- Y/N, are you sure you want to do this? You don't...look good-

Well that was nice.

He held your arm, looking at the bruises you got from bumping into furniture when you came back home at crazy hours after a tiring day

Then you got a nosebleed. Great.

He didn't want you overworking yourself.

He made you go back to the rest area and get some sleep

Ezreal

He was at a photoshoot when he learned that you have landed yourself in the hospital

He kept on bitching to the other guys about how he had to go visit you and that he can't finish the shoot

Finally they were done with his shit and made Kayn drive him there

He went into your room, worried sick

After you were discharged next day he was with you all the time

Making sure you're not overworking yourself

The rest of the band has to beg you to get him to stop worrying so much about you

When you do, he still texts you all the time to make sure you're ok

K'Sante

You were just chilling at his place when he noticied bruises on your arm

He questioned you throughly

After you confessed to overworking yourself severely

He made you stay the next night and prepared you some body care

Massage, relaxing bath, all that

He understands your job is really demanding, but does want to make sure you take breaks

Hope I didn't disappoint you, love you

Duckchu

[sangoqueenkoko]

KAMISATO AYATO

“Please tell me, this is not why you woke me up.”

Fluff

HYDRO MASTERLIST | DRABBLE MASTERLIST

.

Drabble prompt: page 1: #14 = “Please tell me, this is not why you woke me up.”

Warnings? A sad and tired Ayato :(

Contains a mention of Thoma, Ayaka, and Ayato of course!

701 words.

please note before reading🔻🔻

(i wrote this within two hours with neuvillette idle in the background, “MELUSINES-” shush! and i am really not a fan of this. so it may be rewritten at some point.)

High summer in Inazuma cannot be pleasant for some. Most houses in the city would have the appropriate conditions for such weathers like this. From the small houses just outside the city, all the way to Tenshukaku. As well as the Kamisato Estate.

But the pros of the weather being like this is that it should be cooler in the evenings. Where the sun’s rays shine behind Mt. Yougou, peaking around into the Estates windows. It was warm, but not too warm. It gave the light breeze the lovely warm and fresh feel as the sky slowly gets darker. It was lovely.

Inside the Estate, usually full of the sounds of quiet conversations, quiet and tidy house cleaning, and the fluid yet neat sounds of a thin brush scribbling on some paper. Important paper.

And the person who writes on that important paper is your beloved husband, Kamisato Ayato. The Yashiro Commissioner. The two of you had been married for almost 4 years now. The best 4 years, actually.

Ayaka looked up at you like an older sibling, someone who she turned to when she didn’t or couldn’t want to talk to Ayato or Thoma about something. And of course, to Thoma, you were like another best friend.

No one on the streets of Inazuma could speak of Ayato’s name without thinking of you. And vice versa. Two peas in a pod.

Ahem. Anyway.

Today has been a particularly warm and busy day for the Commissioner, a couple of meetings he had to attend, a trip into the city, and as always, some papers to fill in. So he was pretty spent on energy. All he wanted to do was wind down and relax with his beloved spouse.

Even that wasn’t easy. Just when he was about to finish his last thing for the day, it being the paper work, he realised that he made a spelling mistake. Which was rare even for him. Seeing how well he does his work first time around, it’s odd to see him make such mistakes. This only upset him more. He had to redo that before he could do anything else.

Now he was testy, in general and while trying not to mess up again.

After reading so, so very closely to the first version of the paper, and peaking his concentration, his energy was drained more. And after what felt like an eternity, he was finally finished. Meaning that he could finally be with you.

He finished his bathroom and bedroom routine before going into your shared bedroom.

It felt like a ton had been taken off his shoulders as he realised that he could now relax.

“You feel tense, dearest” you said as he held your hand before kissing the back of it softly, “was today Okay?” You asked with a sweet smile. One that he always melted at the sight of.

He sighed before replying, “the usual.” You know what that meant. You knew it was busy and stressful. But you also knew that he knew how to separate his work life from his home life, therefore he would have time for home life.

But seeing as he had done most of his work today, he could have some time off tomorrow yo actually rest and recharge. And seeing how stressed yet tired he had been as of late. You had a plan for next morning.

You went to sleep that night ready to take action of the plan.

And Ayato went to sleep unaware.

Next morning, after informing Thoma and the rest of the Estate staff of your plan, you got into action. Your idea was to give him… a small spa day. A secluded one to keep away outside business that did not need to be near at all time like this.

“Ayatooo~” you said quietly as the warm sun rays came through the rooms window, “I have a day planned for you.”

He would open his eyes to see that you had your hair pulled back away from your face with a face mask on.

“I figured that you could use some… stress relief.”

To his ‘amusement,’

“please tell me, this is not why you woke me up.”

whoops, it’s shit!

so sorry

[cafecourage]

I've got another monkey bread order (with the customary side of london fog tea) because I'm indecisive. :)

The chain waking up to find that their s/o has woven flowers into their hair. (Reader had last watch and got bored, what else were they supposed to do? They looked too precious for them to *not,* after all.

- Glitter anon, who has finally figured out how to get the space between the dash and g while not on mobile ✨

I did something different for this post that I seen some people have done.

Link doesn’t tend to sleep during the day. He is a ball of energy even when it doesn’t show, so having him finally sit down and relax was a miracle to say the least. There was a part of you that would like to leave him to his rest but considering he had trapped you under his body. Well a part of you was as his head was resting on your lap. There was a part of you that wanted to braid his hair, which was typically ok. But you couldn’t tell how deep asleep he was. First you pick up some wild flowers that were in reach organizing them a bit. They were small enough that you could do something funny.

So with a light hand and a ton of love, you gently take his hair being mindful of his sleep.

———————————

This wasn’t the first time the Old Man™️ had woken up with flowers in his hair and it really wont be the last time. So he honestly sat up from your embrace not realizing while his hair was now indeed braided, it also had flowers woven through. “Good morning my love.” You said cupping his face admiring your work but also his pretty boy face.

“More like Good Afternoon.” Time said leaning down to kiss you. “Thanking you for doing my hair.” You had to stop yourself from giggling, you really wanted to point out the flowers. But you kept silent. Time, the observant man, noticed your amusement almost immediately. “What did you do-“ he reaches up to feel the soft bumps of the flowers.

“Keep it in?” I asked before he could comment.

There was a pause before he sighs “ok.” He said with a soft smile. “But I have to take them out tonight.”

“Of course!”

_____________________

Twilight can’t really help himself when it comes to cuddling up with you. He liked holding you to much. It didn’t occur to him that you would take this time to mess with him. Granted Twilight’s hair wasn’t long enough but you manage to get some flowers in there. You didn’t expect him to run his hand through his hair ruining all your hard work. “Twi!” You cried as that took you a long time to do!

Honestly he was stunned to see flowers coming from his hair before turning sheepish. “Sorry Darling.” He looked so guilty that you couldn’t stay mad but how dare he use puppy eyes against you!

You could only hold on for so long before you playfully collapse in his arms “fineee I’ll forgive you this time.”

_____________________

The Captain wasn’t used to getting knocked out instantly as he was a light sleepier and the fact he was sleeping in the afternoon instead of training was a miracle. You took advantage of this fully. Though you had made sure to be very careful, even then the captain finally awakens sadly. “Hi darling.” He shifts so he could lean up to kiss you.

“Hi Sleeping beauty.” Even when awake you continue to braid flowers in his hair. “Your hair is soft.”

He hums leaning into your touch “With how long it is I have to take care of it.” He was slowly going back to dream land, “do we have to leave yet?”

“No, I think we have more time go back to sleep.” You didn’t have to convince him further.

_____________________

Sky was a deep sleeper we knew this. Everyone and their mother knew this. So you took your time weaving flowers in his hair. You had taken out a few of the Loftwing feathers and beads in his hair before redoing all of it. Making sure his original hair accessories were now framed with the flowers in his hair.

It honestly took a few hours before he actually woke up. “Ngh…” He shifts finally as he woke up. He look down at your now asleep in his arms. Thats how long it took him to wake up. Sky blinks as he processes that your asleep first before his hair was different. Sky kisses his forehead. “I love you.” He whispers as he silently wishes you only the sweetest of dreams. Some of his now braided hair falls and he finally sees your work. “Oh…” he reached back and gently pull forward more of his hair to see what you done and that only filled his heart more with warmth. He holds you closer nuzzling his face in your hair opting to thank you later and let you relax.

_____________________

Legend barely takes naps. He admittedly refuses to. You don’t know how he did it. But he managed to fall asleep in your arms. Which while cute had put you in a particularly bad position as you wanted to move. Your legs were becoming numb and you didn’t have any more flower to sneak into his hair. It wasn’t until one of the boys (you didn’t bother to look) screamed while wrestling. Which caused Legend to bolt up. You were quick to wrap your arms around his neck. “It’s just the others play fighting.” You soothe him as you could tell the veteran was panicking a bit.

“Wha- oh. Goddess… why.” Bunny boy closed his eyes to take a few moments before flopping back down on you. The flowers now crushed in his hair. Legend grumbles reaching up “did you put flowers in my hair?”

You hummed “yeah…” it was automatic for you to start playing with his hair you slowly take out the crushed flowers. Anything to make Legend to relax again.

____________________

Fairies love Hyrule. Fairies also love flowers. So when they saw you braiding flowers into Hyrule’s unruly hair they had to join in. Honestly at this point you were sure some flowers got onto your hair as the fairies were all around. It took awhile for Hyrule to wake up. But when he does he was slow to fully wake up. Sitting up some of the more loose flowers fall out and on his lap. He stares down at them then at you. “You look pretty.” He mumbled as he reaches to touch some of the flowers in your hair.

“You look handsome yourself.” You said, Hyrule pauses and you can see the math in his head as he processes. He snorts and began to laugh when he finally figures it out. “Hey! I am right!” You giggle with him as you wrap your arms around him.

He kisses your cheek then moves to place on to your forehead. “You’re adorable.”

____________________

Wild doesn’t do well with naps. The boy has to much energy and like a hummingbird you are 50% sure he might die if he stopped moving fully. Though that doesn’t really matter as you had got him to sit still and relax for a few moments. A miracle truly.

It was time to move out and begrudgingly you had to walk the Champion up. “Wild.” You shake his shoulder “it’s time to get up.” He only grumbles as he slowly gets up not even bothered by the flowers in his hair as it always has things inside of it.

“Good morning.” He mumbles as he helps you up standing. You end up not telling him as watching the others debate on it too but also just letting it be.

____________________

You coudn’t see the Minish. As much as you wanted to, but you know this was the Minish’s doing as while you were braiding Four’s hair flowers keep appearing. So it was ether the Minish or some mysterious creature was supplying you with Flowers. At this point you were making a flower crown out of his sash. Just because you could.

“Darling….” Four shifts turning in your lap so he was looking up at you “what are you doing.”

“Playing with you.” You snickered as it was the truth. “Sorry if i woke you up.”

“It’s fine…” He mumbles turning around again “can you take them out?”

You hummed pretending to think about it. “Finnne.”

[fangirlingfromdownunder]

A Sweet Mishap- Chapter 16

Pairing - Jensen Ackles x Reader 

A/N: I just want to start by thanking everyone for all the love on this story so far. Let me know if you want to be added to the tag list. This chapter is a little heavier (as is the story going forward, but I'll include potential triggers for each chapter as relevant), so please read the TW below and only read on if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, this chapter's a little longer since I likely won't be able to upload this Friday due to work commitments.

Potential Trigger Warnings: none

A Sweet Mishap Masterlist | Main Masterlist

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Stella’s house is a bustle of energy by 10am. The hair stylist and make up artist are setting up while the photographer is milling around getting photos of the dress and accessories as they get laid out. Me, Stella and the bridesmaids are all sipping fresh coffees as we try to wake up. The excitement is definitely in the air, but so is the tiredness from the early wake up call. I lay out some freshly baked breakfast snacks, kindly donated by Stewie for the big day; while he declined to do the cake weeks ago, once he got back in the kitchen he promised to provide some light snacks for the morning. We are all thankful for his contribution, as none of us feel like cooking. 

Felicity and Gabriella are the first in the chairs; while they of course want to spend the most time on the bride, it’s also important that she’s the freshest. I enjoy sitting back, relaxing and snacking while I wait for my turn. While I wait, I scroll through my photos for the hair and makeup inspiration pics I took offline and then connect up to Stella’s bluetooth speaker and put on some music to boost the mood. The stylists start some small talk about the bride and groom, how they met, the bachelorette party, the plans for tonight, anything they can think of to build the excitement. We all join in, sharing happy and funny stories. 

After a while, Stella and I are finally sitting side-by-side as the stylist brushes and curls her hair and the beautician applies foundation to my face. It’s everything I could have dreamed it would be, and I can’t help but hope that one day the roles are reversed and she’s by my side while they’re styling my hair for my wedding. I push the thought away before I can imagine any other parts of that fictional day, like who the groom could be. Instead, I root myself in the present, wanting to enjoy this day for what it is: one of the best days of my best friend’s life and so by default, mine.

A few hours later, me and the bridesmaids are helping eachother into our dresses carefully, trying our best not to disturb our hair and makeup. The stylists are still standing around on standby to complete any final touchups, but we all know there isn’t time for a redo if we mess anything up too much. Once we’re all dressed, we finally help Stella into her snow-white ballgown-style wedding dress. I help straighten out the off-shoulder straps over her biceps, ensuring the sequins don’t scratch her, while Felicity carefully kneels down to fluff out the skirt. I then pull her hair out from where it caught in the back of her dress and smooth it out along her back, careful not to catch or pull on her perfectly styled curls and bun. 

When I come back around in front of her I take both of her hands in mine. “So beautiful, Nick isn’t gonna know what hit him.” The bridesmaids agree with me, gushing over the fully-dressed bride. We all put on the final touches like our shoes and jewellery while the stylists check and touch up our hair and makeup as necessary, just before we’re interrupted by a car horn outside. I look over at Stella with a big smile, “Time to go marry yourself a husband!”

Stella squeals with excitement. We collect our bouquets and purses and head outside. There are two classic cars in the driveway all decorated up; one for me and Stella and one for the other two bridesmaids. I help Stella in, being sure not to crumple her dress or veil or get it caught in the door when I shut it behind her, I then round the car and get in the other side. The bridesmaid’s car pulls out first and then ours follows a close distance behind. Stella’s knee bounces all the way to the chapel. I let her squeeze my hand as she tries to steady her nervous excitement. 

When the cars pull up out the back, the carpark is already full and her parents are waiting by the door. I get out and then help Stella out before straightening out her dress and making sure she looks perfect. I then hand her over to her parents. They pull her in for a big hug as I step to the side with Felicity and Gabriella. The three of us walk inside and stand just behind the doors in a line as one of the organisers explains the process to us, despite having gone through a full rehearsal last night. I smile back at Stella, standing between her parents as I hear the bridal march begin to play through the chapel. As the organisers push open the large wooden doors everyone stands and turns around. Felicity and Gabriella start to walk down the aisle first, followed by me and then finally Stella and her parents. As I look up at Nick I can see the tears in his eyes as he focuses on his beautiful bride. I smile brighter. Once I reach the front I step to the side and face the crowd as I watch Stella step up to her husband-to-be. He kisses her cheek and takes her hands as her parents pass her to him. I step forward to take her bouquet before standing back to the side. She gives me a grateful smile before focusing fully on her groom and I just know that everyone else has fallen away in their minds and it’s just the two of them there together.

The ceremony is beautiful, it goes perfectly according to plan, just as everything in their life does. The celebrant welcomes everyone and starts the ceremony before prompting them to share their personalised vows. They both share their promises and words of love through teary eyes before exchanging their rings. Then, after sharing a passionate kiss, they run hand-in-hand back down the aisle, out the wooden doors and into a waiting car. Everyone follows behind to see them off. We wave excitedly as they zoom off for a private photoshoot before the reception. As everyone mills around outside and chats, I try to emerse myself in idle conversation to pass time. The doors to the restaurant won’t open for a little while so we need to pass time. Eventually, once the sun is beginning to set everyone starts to file into their cars and make their way over to the venue; I want to be in there and set up before the bride and groom make their big entrance. Gabriella, Felicity and I catch a ride with Travis in the hire car they came in, Travis rode with the groom so is happy to drive the rental with us. 

The restaurant is beautifully decorated, just as we left it. With party favours on each table and stunning centrepieces, made up of flower arrangements. Each seat is labelled to match the seating plan that I’d painstakingly helped Stella and Nick create to ensure the smoothest night possible. Most people get along, but every family has those few people that are best kept apart for whatever reason. Everything is exactly as I remember except a small stage set up in the corner with a sound system and instruments. Despite no one being near them, quiet music is playing behind the chatter of everyone’s conversations about how great the service was and how beautiful everything is and just catching up in general. It’s amazing how weddings can bring everyone together, I see people you haven’t spoken to in years. Of course, I don’t no many people there, but that’s okay, today’s not about me. I’m just thrilled for Stella. 

I visit the bar and order a wine to get my night started before I move around the room doing my best to mingle and chat with her family and a few of our shared friends from college that I haven’t spoken to in a while. Most of them have partners accompanying them, but a few are single. After a while, everyone finally takes their allocated seats. A few gasps and whispered chatter ring out around the room seconds before live music starts to play from behind me. Just as I’m about to turn around everyone starts to cheer as the bride and groom make their big entrance. I join them clapping and cheering as yI give them the biggest smile as they make their way – the long way around – to their seats in the middle of the bridal table. It’s only when I turn to look over at Stella and Nick that I catch the band in my peripheral vision and my jaw drops. 

I force myself to keep my focus on the lovely new couple and not make eye contact with the man expertly strumming his guitar from the small stage. The raging ball of guilt in my stomach does a sommersault and I feel sick but push it back down. Thankfully, Travis takes the attention of the room by standing up to toast the newly weds and give a short speech. I keep my eyes firmly on him as he speaks. Once he finishes he nods over to me as he introduces me for the maid-of-honor speech. It takes me a moment to acknowledge him. But once I get ahold of myself, I stand up and focus on my notes as I attempt to deliver the speech smoothly. I push everything else out of my mind for those painfully slow few minutes as I focus on the bride and groom and tell stories about mine and Stella’s friendship and how happy I am that she found Nick and how happy I hope and know they’ll be together as they move into this next stage in their life. I finally raise my glass and everyone cheers. I wink at Stella as I sit down.

Before the meals are set to come out, Stella informs me that she needs to use the bathroom. I follow her in and help her lift up the massive skirt and keep it from getting dirty while she uses the toilet.

“Was that your doing?” I ask as she pees.

“I told you, I got an offer that I couldn’t refuse. Plus, Dean Winchester was my crush first. How could I turn that down. I don’t know what happened or didn’t between the two of you, but he was very persuasive.”

“How? I didn’t…”

“I don’t know how he figured it out but maybe three days ago the venue called me and said someone had offered to play for the wedding, they gave him my number. And as I said, he was very persuasive.” I help Stella fix her dress while she washes her hands. “It’s my wedding, I got a band that I happen to love. If that also results in my best friend getting her plus one and a dance then that’s just a bonus. I hope you know that I expect a full, detailed explanation of everything that has already gone down and everything that goes down while I’m on my honeymoon, once I get back.”

“We’ll see. For now, tonight’s about you! So let’s get you back out there to your husband!” Ilead her back to the table just in time for the alternative drop meals to be delivered. After dinner, each of their parents and a few other guests give speeches before handing back over to the bride and groom to give their speeches to each other. I engross yourself in the speeches to keep my eyes from wandering to the back of the room. Although amongst all the kind words and talk of eternal love I notice that the background music isn’t being played by a live guitar anymore but instead is a quiet pre-recorded romance track. With that revelation, I let my eyes wander and I notice the stage is free of people. Knowing he’s no longer so close behind me, at least for a few minutes I relax slightly. 

By the time all the speeches are over, the band’s back in place playing quietly as Stella and Nick stand in the centre of the room to cut their cake. As the knife scrapes the plate, they kiss and everyone cheers. The staff then come in to take the cake to the kitchen to slice it up and prepare the desserts. My attention is instantly drawn to the band when I hear Jensen’s deep voice sing the first notes to the song Stella picked for their first dance. I’mamazed that he either already knew it or learned it in just a few days. Stella and Nick take eachother’s hands and move slowly in time with the music. I watch as they gracefully move across the floor. Her head rests on his shoulder as he leads. 

As the song ends and the next one starts Felicity and Gabby nudge me and I quickly stand up and take hands with Travis as he leads me to the floor, followed by the two bridesmaids and groomsmen. I do my best to throw myself into the dance and focus on Travis as he leads me, dancing surprising well for what I know of him. Once the song ends I try to pull back but he holds me close. “I know the kind of man you know me to be, but I promised I wouldn’t let you dance alone or sit out tonight.”

“You didn’t have to do that…I’m okay.”

“I did…Stella’s surprisingly scary.” 

I smile and nod, prepared to let him lead me into the next song. But as the next song starts I notice the voice filling the room is different. Someone comes up behind us and places a hand on my shoulder. “Mind if I have this dance?”

I flick my head around to look at the owner of the deep, Texan drawl. 

Travis looks at me to check and I nod. “Alright,” he says as he steps back, “She’s all yours.”

I smile at Travis as he walks off to find someone else to dance with before spinning around and taking Jensen’s hands and letting him sway me with the slow beat. In a hushed voice I say, “I can’t believe you’re here…”

“You stopped answering my messages or calls…What choice did I have?”

“To forget me…Move on?”

He shakes his head. “I know this isn’t the time or place to have the conversation we need to have, so will you meet me tomorrow?” I meet his eyes briefly and nod. “Good, then let’s just enjoy this dance.” I rest my head on his shoulder for the remainder of the song. Just before the song ends he spins me out and back into his chest. “I promised the bride a dance, so I should go. But thank you. I plan to steal another from you later.”

“Yeah, she’s a pretty big Dean fan…She couldn’t believe I didn’t know you.” 

He lets out a little chuckle, “Yeah, you’re rare and special. Save another dance for me later?” I nod and he pulls away and crosses the floor to where Stella and Nick are playfully dancing to the now upper-tempo song. When Jensen cuts into their dance Nick comes over to me. We both stand off to the side, leaning against the bridal table. 

“Hey, so, uh…I owe you an apology,” he says, breaking the awkward silence.

“Nah, it’s alright. You were just looking out for your bride, as you should. I’d be more mad if you didn’t.”

“Maybe, but I did go overboard. I just get protective when it comes to her…But I should’ve known pushing you away would make her mad too. I’m just glad she didn’t call today off.”

“Nah, she wouldn’t, she loves you. And she knows you were acting from a place of love when you did it. So do I. Plus…you weren’t all wrong, but this isn’t the time or place. We should get back out there before your bride physically drags us out there herself.”

“Yeah…thanks for helping make all this happen by the way. I don’t think I ever told you, but you’ve been a massive help. That’s another reason I’ve felt so bad for what I said, despite what I said you kept turning up and helping with everything. You already know she appreciates it, but I do too.”

I look around the room. “I’m just glad it all worked out. You guys deserve a fantastic night.” Not sure what else to say, I take his hand and lead him out onto the dancefloor.

Jensen moves back and forth between the stage and the dancefloor, doing his job performing but also giving the people what they want and dancing with any girl who recognises him. The night’s almost wrapping up by the time he gets back to me. I’m leaning against the wall finishing a glass of wine when he come up to me.

“So, I was just informed the next song’s the last…care to join me?” He holds his hand out to me expectantly. 

I finish the last mouthful of wine, put the empty glass on the nearest table and take his hand. After everything I’ve said and done and after he pushed so hard to be here, I feel you owe it to him, but also I really want to be in his arms again. He leads me into the middle of the room as his bandmate starts to play and sing a slower love song. He pulls me close, his hands resting on the middle of my back, not letting them fall too low. Mine rest around his neck as we sway in time with the music. As the song goes on, he starts to sing along quietly, just loud enough for me to hear. 

“I've been waitin' for so long

For somethin' to arrive

For love to come along

Now our dreams are comin' true

Through the good times and the bad

Yeah, I'll be standin' there by you

Baby you're all that I want

When you're lyin' here in my arms

I'm findin' it hard to believe

We're in heaven

And love is all that I need

And I found it there in your heart

It isn't too hard to see

We're in heaven”

Once the song ends he pulls back, but only far enough that he can make eye contact with me. “Give me a chance…let me come over, or come to my hotel, or meet me somewhere neutral, location doesn’t matter, just please…for whatever reason I can’t stop thinking about you.”

“Jens…”

“I’m just asking to talk.”

I nod. “Alright, but somewhere private. We don’t need a repeat of last time, tonight’s gonna be bad enough.”

He nods. “Yeah.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” I hear Stella say from behind us. I pull away from Jensen to face her.

“Congratulatious on the big night. I hope you had a great time,” he says to Stella.

“Thank you. And thank you for coming and playing for us tonight, it was much better than a jukebox. Plus, you made a lot of people’s nights,” she looks at me with a smirk, “Most of all my amazing maid-of-honor here, and believe me, she totally deserved a great night after all the hard work she’s put into making it happen.”

He looks at me and smiles, “Yeah. Well anyway, I better help Steve pack up the gear.”

Once Jensen’s out of ear-shot, Stella says, “I’m so sorry for interrupting, that seemed important, but Nick and I are gonna head out, but I couldn’t disappear on my honeymoon without saying goodbye to you first, and thanking you for everything.”

“I’m just glad you had a great night,” I pull her in for a hug.

When she pulls away she reaches over for her bouquet on the bridal table. “Amid everything I forgot to do the toss, but…” She hands it to me. “Give him a chance. Give yourself a chance.”

“Stel…” I shake my head while smiling at her, “Just go and enjoy your honeymoon. We’ll talk when you get back.”

As Nick approaches, she quickly says, “I’m definitely gonna do that! Thank you, I love you and I’ll talk to you in 10 days!”

He wraps his arms around her waist as he comes up behind her. “You two have fun!”

The remaining guests wave the happy couple out as they run out hand-in-hand. Everyone else filters out pretty quickly after that but I hang around to gather some of the decorations and items that I know Stella will want to keep, such as photos, the wishing well, and the guestbook. Just as I finish getting everything important into a couple of boxes, Jensen comes back up beside me. “Need a hand?”

“I can manage, you should go.”

Felicity call out from the doorway, “Hey Y/N, need a ride? My Uber’s here!”

I look over at her and then back at Jensen apologetically. “Sorry, I should go.”

“Uh, yeah…” he nods, and I pick up one of the boxes but he puts his hand on it to stop me as I turn around. “ Unless, you wanna stay back for a night cap, I can call you a ride after. It doesn’t have to be with me, I can get you your own.”

I hesitate and Felicity calls out again, “Y/N! He’s getting impatient. We gotta go!”

I look between her and Jensen again and then sigh before waving at her and calling out. “You go. I gotta finish up here.”

She rolls her eyes at my hesitation before disappearing outside.

Obviously feeling guilty for putting me in a difficult position, Jensen takes his hand off the box in my hands and apologises.

“It’s fine. I would’ve had to do a few trips and they wouldn’t have liked that either. But I can get my own ride, it’s fine. And, uh, I think they’re gonna kick us out, so the night cap’s probably gonna be out too, sorry.” I look around and notice it’s just the two of us left inside. I put the box back on the table to rest my arms for a moment.

“Alright. How much are you against getting a ride together at least? I don’t wanna overstep or anything. I just want more time,” He gestures at the boxes, “Plus, I could give you a hand with all this.”

I bite my lip as I consider his offer. “Listen, I’m too tired and too tipsy and this is gonna come out all wrong, but I just need you to know that just because you came all this way doesn’t mean I’m going to have sex with you.”

He opens and closes his mouth a few times as he tries to come up with a response. “No, I…I don’t expect you to…That’s not…I wasn’t insinuating.”

I nod. “Alright good. A ride and the boxes. That’s it then. I just need your arms.” I pick up a box and then realise what I said. “That’s not…I just mean…”

“I get it. It’s fine. Let me just call my driver and then I’ll give you a hand with those.” He pulls out his phone.

“Your…driver?” I shake my head. “It must be nice…”

“It’s not what you think. He’s a good friend.” Jensen shakes his head as he holds his phone up to his ear. “Hey Clif…Yeah, I’m ready if you just wanna pull up round back…Yeah…” he glances back over at me with a smile. “We need to make a stop on the way though…Yep, I’ll cover it…See you soon.” He hangs up and leans against the table looking at me before he grabbing the other box and walking out to the parking lot with me. 

While we wait for his friend to bring the car around, he says, “Look, I’m sorry if I’ve been too forward or given the wrong signals. I don’t mean to. I didn’t come all this way to attempt to win you over for sex…I just wanted to give you a reason to talk to me. As I said, I can’t stop thinking about you, and I couldn’t leave things the way we did.”

A large black car pulls up in front of us and a tall, muscular man gets out of the driver’s seat and opens the trunk. Jensen puts his box in and I follow suit. Jensen then opens the back door for me to climb in. I slide over to the far side and he climbs in beside me. Once the driver takes his seat again he turns around, “Where to boss?”

“You can drop the act Clif, she knows you’re a friend.”

“Alright, Boss. Where to?”

Jensen rolls his eyes and then looks over at me. I tell them my address and Clif keys it into the GPS. Despite wanting to use the time to respond to Jensen’s confession outside the restaurant, I feel awkward with his friend in the front seat. Between the nervous energy and the adrenalin in my system, my leg starts to bounce. Jensen notices and after hesitating a few times, finally places his hand on my knee; he doesn’t slide it any higher, just sits it comfortingly on the top of my knee. We endure the rest of the ride in silence until Clif finally finds a park on the street in front of my apartment building.

“Am I waiting?” Clif asks.

Jensen looks at me, smiles and then nods. “I’m just gonna help her with those boxes, I’ll be right back.” I open my door and Jensen follows suit. He opens the trunk and we each take a box and then I lead him inside to the lift.

As I press the button, I look up at him. “You can just leave it, I can manage from here.”

“You don’t want me to see your place?”

“Honestly? Not really…But also, you’ve done more than enough.”

The lift dings as the doors open. He steps inside first, leaving me no choice but to follow. I put the box on the floor so I can press the button for my floor. Once the doors shut he says, “So, am I crazy? Am I chasing something that you’re never gonna be ready for?”

“No. I just have things I need to work through. Trust issues, personal issues, financial issues…Look I’m too tired for this conversation tonight. I know you came all this way, but…”

“Yeah, I came all this way and put you on the spot, which is exactly what I promised I wouldn’t do. I’m sorry.” The doors open and I lead him down to my apartment but stop in front of the door. I pull my keys out of my purse but don’t move to unlock the door. Sensing my uncertainty he places the box on the floor by my feet. “Take the night. I don’t want to push you. Just text me in the morning and let me know what you decide. I will step back completely if that’s what you want or need. But if you want to give us a chance, text me somewhere to meet and we can talk. Okay?”

I nod as I fiddle with the keys. He nods and turns and walks back down the hall to the elevator. I look down at the boxes and notice Stella’s bouquet sticking out the top; her words ring through my head. I look back over at Jensen just as the doors open. I call out, “Meet me at the cafe, 6pm!”

He smiles, nods and then steps inside. Once the doors close I let myself into my apartment, cart in the boxes and dump them in the corner. Not having the energy – physical or mental – to wash off my makeup, undo my hair or shower, I collapse on the couch.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Taglist: @stoneyggirl2 @hobby27, @n-o-p-e-never, @deansimpalababy,

@winchesterwild78, @kr804573, @chriszgirl92, @smoothdogsgirl

[nonsensical-pixels]

i'm finally back to building in ts2! have my latest lot showcase: a house i've redecorated for a growing family, the owners being the town tailor and gardener 😊

idk if anyone really remembers, but on my old blog i think i talked a little about the town this family lives in? it's called redbud bay, and it was my first custom town for ts2. i kinda based it off of a series by pleasantsims, i think... back then when i was first playing i got lazy and just used plasticbox's lots mixed in with a few from 3t2 sunset valley. now i've gotten better at building and decided to go back and redo the whole town in a cohesive style.

so welcome to 4 helix road, the home of jaclyn phelps, aaron phelps, their 3 kids, jaclyn's apprentice lily, and 2 cats! more info on the design choices, family stuff, etc. can be found on my reddit post.

Interior

from top to bottom: living room | dining room | kitchen | upstairs hallway cum office | lily's room | master bedroom | kids' room | basement/nursery/tailoring room

Exterior

yeah, it's just the backyard lol the actual lot is based on one by plasticbox, so i can't take credit for building the basement or general layout of the house, just the decorations.

hoping that i'll actually have the energy to stick with this town for more than 2 weeks at a time this play session 😍

[gamebunny-advance]

Let's Just Rip Off This Band-Aid (Kliff Doll Repaint)

I still haven't finished adding the fringe to his scarf, but at this point, I don't think y'all will actually care that much. It's a personal project anyway, so I'll just finish it on my own time. Right now, I want to be released from the shackles of this project.

Once again, my poor camera and lack of editing do him no favors (he's got a real bad case of jaundice in that first pic. I PROMISE he's not that yellow-orange IRL ;o;), but he is (mostly) done.

Well, he was (mostly) done like a week ago, but just yesterday I decided to redo a few things to try and "fix" what was really bothering me about him, so I really made recursive progress. That said, I do like him more now than I did a week ago, so I'm not mad about it.

A little backstory: Alongside Kun3h0, I've been working on him for the past month, so I've been pretty occupied with this project for a while. Now, I do wonder to myself why exactly I thought making this would be a good idea. All I can really say is that my impulsive tendencies drive me to do things against my better judgement.

But, I will still give y'all my documentation and thoughts on the process + more pictures.

(I'll talk a little more about it later, but for those of you that aren't going to go through the long-ass readmore, the Neon J. mask is a reference to an old comic I drew.)

(It's so old, I was still writing everything by hand~)

So, the "real" answer to "why" I made this is really as simple as "because I could." As I said in the Kun3h0 post, I've been wanting to repaint dolls for a long time, years even, so in the back of my mind, I'm always thinking of ways I could finally start one.

Well, recently I just finally put together the ideas and motivation I needed to start. And of course, that was with Kliff.

I don't remember *exactly* how I stumbled across everything, but I do recall looking at doll clothes online and stumbling across this trench coat (pictured with the other clothes for this project).

(I took this pic mostly because I thought I was going to take pics of every major step of the process, but that didn't end up happening).

I thought it was pretty darn close to Kliff's coat, and I got the horrible idea that, "I could def make a Kliff doll to go with this coat as long as I can repaint it."

I feel like usually people would think the other way around, but that is basically the truth of this project: I didn't find clothes to fit the doll, I made the doll to fit into the clothes. Because for me, customizing the doll wasn't really the intimidating part: it's making the clothes. I don't know how to use a sewing machine, and currently lack the patience to learn (and due to some personal trauma that I don't really want to get into), but I can hand-sew, so starting any project that involves it requires me to be willing to set aside a lot of energy for me to do it, which I don't often have.

But, if I could find ways to cut down on the sewing, then I'd be more willing to start. And somehow, I was able to find just about everything I would need for a potential Kliff doll without having to sew anything. In the end, I only sewed together one thing, and it's the one thing that isn't actually finished: the scarf.

So, I blame the trench coat for the entirety of this project: if I'd never seen it, I would have never made a Kliff doll. In fact, I got the clothes before I even had the doll.

Since I was brainstorming this project, one of the most important parts is of course the base doll, which was tricky. Male doll repaints are fairly uncommon, especially of older men, so there weren't a lot of resources or places to get inspiration for this project.

From what I found, most male (fashion) dolls were very youthful, and the ones that weren't usually took heavy modifications to achieve, which was out of the question. Kliff was supposed to be an "easy" project, so on top of not wanting to sew any clothes for him, I also didn't want to have to alter the doll that much to make it look like him. This was a lot to ask for without putting in any personal work, but in a way, this goal was supposed to keep me from actually starting this project: really this whole thing was supposed to just live in my head as a fantasy as most things do, but then I just stumbled into the right set of things, so I couldn't stop myself from going through with it.

The doll I landed on was a BTS Mattel doll. Now I've said before that I know basically nothing about BTS, and that is still true, but that's beside the point. In my research for finding a suitable doll to work with, I found out that a popular base were these BTS dolls. At first, I wasn't into it because I was still running into the "youthful face" problem that I was with other brands: most of them had pillowy lips and nice soft faces, but I did eventually find one that I thought was close enough: J-Hope.

(It's not the worst match up.)

I don't have pics of my doll before I started working on him, but it was pretty close to the stock photo. He has much thinner lips than the others, and a taller, more angular head shape that I thought would work best for Kliff. I did worry a bit that the nose wasn't "strong" enough to really be Kliff (and IMO, it wasn't XP), but it was the closest I found yet, so I decided to bite the bullet and get one, and if I had one, that meant I needed to start gathering everything I would need for this project.

So, no backing out now.

Now, actually acquiring this doll was a whole other song and dance, but here's the part that's important for how the process went:

Due to a miscommunication with the seller I eventually got him from, there was a delay with shipping, so I didn't actually get him until weeks after "officially" starting this project. In the meantime, the clothes and things for Kun3h0 (who I started as an impulse project within the impulse project) had already been gathered.

The original plan was that I was going to work on and subsequently post about Kliff first since he was a comparatively simpler project. All the things I was avoiding for Kliff: sewing clothes and making modifications to the doll, were all going to be incorporated into Kun3h0, so she was theorhetically going to take longer and be posted later, thus telling a small story of "starting simple, ending complex." But since I didn't have his doll, but didn't want to delay working on Kun3h0 just to wait on him, I started on her and repainting his clothes anyway.

So, I don't have any pics of the doll or his clothes from when I was working on them, unlike the sparse ones I had for Kun3h0, I only have pics from after he was finished.

But I'll still tell y'all what I can to at least preserve the story.

For starters, repainting this coat was probably the most time-consuming part of this process.

I really thought that it would take one or two days maximum to turn this coat bright yellow, but I think it actually took over a week. And I really should have known; the coat was a medium tone, and I know that yellow takes a while to build up on anything that isn't light. I lost count at some point, but I swear that thing has over 20 coats of paint on it. Mind you, the first 10 or so coats were watered down with the textile medium, which also contributed to how long it was taking for the coat to take color, but at some point I just got so frustrated that I stopped mixing in the medium and painting directly onto the coat to get the color to layer faster. This is a huge no-no for painting acrylics onto fabric, lest the paint crack from creasing the fabric, but I just couldn't be bothered anymore. I needed this thing to be dandelion yellow NOW or I was gonna lose it.

There were consequences for taking that shortcut, such as the paint cracking in high motion areas and the coat getting stiff, but it's not terrible. In the end, I accepted the trade-offs or else I might still be painting the coat. Perhaps one day I'll reverse engineer the pattern for the coat and make him a new one, but I wouldn't count on it. In retrospect, I wonder if I would have had an easier time if I had thought to bleach the coat first?

As you might notice, I contoured/shaded part of the coat in orange. That's something that I actually *just* added yesterday and added another couple of hours to the work time. It was just bothering me that the doll was essentially a giant slab of yellow, and was part of the reason I didn't like it very much. But I got inspired by this repaint to try contouring the coat to give it more depth.

(I also used this person's videos to modify the hands. He has one deidcated to just reshaping the BTS hands.)

In the end, I'm pretty happy with the results.

The rest of the clothes weren't as difficult to deal with.

The pants took the paint a lot better, likely due to being dark paint on a light surface. Since I used less paint, it's not as stiff as the coat and still go on very easily. Though, they are VERY high waisted, and I'm not sure if that's normal XP

The shoes are also painted (and slightly modified), though I had to paint them twice because the first time, the paint got stretched off when I tried to put them on the doll's feet: the shoes were just *slightly* too small for the feet of the doll, so they really get stretched to fit his feet, and his heels don't actually go in all the way XP.

He's still capable of standing on his own, but I try not to remove the shoes, so I can avoid having them crack again.

In my "initial clothes" pic, I put down a different shirt than the one he's wearing. The original plan was to repaint the shirt black, but my work space is very limited, so I couldn't really repaint three pieces of clothes at once without significantly risking that I would stain other things. In the end, after getting scarred by how long it was taking for the coat to take color, I decided to just give him one of the black shirts that came with the coat. This does make him somewhat inaccurate since the current shirt has flowers/plants on it, but I'm gonna say that they make up for the lack of flowers on his scarf. Maybe someday I'll make him a new shirt from an old sock or something, but for now, I don't think it's a bad look.

Other clothing of note is the scarf, but since it's not technically finished I didn't take any close pics of it. It's actually made of an old headband of mine that I just cut and painted to look like his scarf.

Originally, I had actually glued on ribbon to it for the stripes, which took a couple days for the drying, but because I couldn't flatten out the scarf to easily glue the ribbon, it turned into a mess and bulked it out too much: since the scale of the doll is already small, I really needed to keep the fabrics thin. This was especially important for the scarf since it was going to wrap around his neck: if it were any thicker, it was going to practically eat up his face, which it still does, just less so.

Speaking of face...

When I finally got the doll in the mail, I started working on him right away, so I don't have any "before" pics of the doll.

After I did the usual "wiping off the face and pulling out his hair," I started with repainting the entire body and head.

Despite Kliff being ambigously "WHITE 🫵," Kliff isn't as pale as the original doll. I'd say even the stock picture I posted above has more warmth than the actual doll did. So, I got the base to be "coral" all over, dusted him in light orange chalk pastels for contouring, and most of his details are outlined in shades of burgandy. I didn't take any nude pics of this doll, but he is countoured all over his body and you can rest easy knowing I gave him some nips XP. But maybe someday I'll show y'all doll!Kliff's washboard abs XP.

TBH, I did want to detail some tattoos and some body hair too, but I just didn't trust myself to do either of those well with the tools I have (my brushes aren't thin enough, and my hand not steady enough for those kind of intricate details). Maybe someday I'll at least get his tattoos in (and after I've actually designed them XP), but we'll see. I don't plan on having the doll in short sleeved clothes very often, so details like that are the least of my concerns.

TBH, I was pretty proud of how the face paint originally went on. I really took my time to make sure it went down flat. It really was beautifully smooth~

But disaster struck.

I had painted the head while it was still separated from the body, and when it finally came time to reunite them, the paint on the head cracked and peeled when I shoved it back on. And, foolish fool that I am, instead of accepting my losses and starting over from a perfectly clean head, I just peeled the lose ends and repainted the exposed parts, which of course made the paint uneven. I somewhat justified this with the idea that most of it would be covered by other details, but in retrospect, I really should have just started over properly.

But, after that ordeal was over with, it was time to actually work on the face.

I can't clearly remember if I worked on Kun3h0 or Kliff's face first. I think I worked on them simultaneously because it took me a LONG time to actually get the courage to work on Kun3h0's face.

I thought I did a decent job on Kun3h0 since I really only had the 1 eye to repaint (the hidden eye is painted, but it's basically just a void with no details), and it was a bigger "canvas", so it was easier to paint. Besides having 2 eyes that I would need to make nearly identical, they were also a lot smaller, so it took a lot longer to paint them in a way that satisfied me (and since it's not easy to "redo" acrylic paint, his eyes lost a lot of smoothness too).

Again, I don't have any "before" pics, so it won't be easy for me to convey my troubles about it, but I do want to say that I think Kliff with a closed mouth is very cursed.

:I

He just looks like he's itching to say something heinous and that is no different for the doll.

It was so difficult for me both match his expression on a face that wasn't *completely* his and still look like him. Although I chose this doll because he most resembled Kliff, he was never gonna be a perfect likeness of him, but despite knowing this, it still bothered me that the face was still just very "young" looking.

Granted, I don't think the original Kliff looks *that* old either (if I didn't know any better, I would assume he was in his 30s, not his 50s, especially compared to other characters around the same age), but still not as *smooth* as the doll is (even with my paint mishaps).

If you can believe it, the face actually used be worse. I don't have pics of it, but like the coat, I actually repainted his face yesterday to again try and fix what was making me dislike it before. I think the problem is that I didn't outline the eyes as much as the final one (like, I don't think I lined his undereye at all), so he was lacking depth. The mouth was also a little more off. Instead of being like "<--->" it was more like "|-|"

(A rough illustration of what I'm trying to describe.)

So, while it's still not perfect, I do like him more today than I did a week ago.

I think the only things left to talk about are his accessories, starting with his wig:

I'm not actually a big fan of the color. When I started this project, I wanted to try and make him as accurate as possible, and the original Kliff design has a very "cherry jolly rancher" hair color.

However, how I draw him and how he appears in Encore Edition gives his hair a more red-orange tone which isn't as intense. In the end, I opted for accuracy towards his first design since that's the one I was technically most familiar with and wanted to replicate, but in retrospect, I should have realized that I was never gonna be able to seperate my personal quirks from this personal project, so I should have gone with a color that was more accurate to how I interpret him. (I dunno if I would have gone as far as to give him triangular eyes, but one of my biggest takeaways from this project has been that I should have just allowed this to be "my take" on the character instead of trying to be "accurate," meeting in the middle, and satisfying neither condition.)

I don't think I really got across how much I HATED brushing out yarn for the wigs when I posted Kun3h0. It was just such a tedidus process, from brushing it out, to straightening it, to gluing it down. It was such a mess. I'm still finding loose wisps of yarn hair floating around my home since I made them.

Since I had more than had my fill from making Kun3h0's wig, I once again started taking shortcuts when it came to Kliff: I really should have made more wefts for him. I figured since his hair was (compartively) shorter, that I wouldn't need to make as many, but in the end his wig turned out both too thin and too thick.

Since his hair is so messy, I didn't follow any kind of guide for his hair like I did Kun3h0. I basically just glued around the perimeter of the cap, horizontally on the inside, and made sure it would fold over in the front.

Part of the problem is that I made the wefts too thick: instead of just gluing down what could actually touch the surface of the work area, I wound up gluing layers on top of each other, so the wefts would be like a mm thick when they should have been less than half of that. So, I barely got enough coverage for the scalp, and the parts that I did get down are very thick. I think it makes his head look bigger than it should which kinda adds to the uncanniness of him.

I did try to style it as close to canon as possible, but there are some things that just aren't (easily) possible in certain mediums, and Kliff's wild hair is one of them.

In retrospect, I probably should have just sculpted his hair with clay or something: it probably would have been more accurate, but I don't have much confidence in my sculpting ability, and again, I didn't want to modify the doll that much, so I stuck with the yarn.

I might suck it up and try and make him a new wig, I still have a LOT of red yarn left over, so maybe I can make him some new styles too. But the tedium of going through with it makes it very unlikely that I'll follow through~

(The wig from other angles.)

Since the beard is made from the same yarn, I'll lightly talk about that. There aren't too many resources about bearded dolls, but I've seen people root it, glue it, and even just paint it if they weren't supposed to be thick. In the end I used this repaint for reference (suggestive content warning) and glued it on.

The scarf covers most of it, but I think it turned out okay. I need to add just a *little* more to his left cheek, but otherwise I feel like I was successful.

Next, it's usually hidden due to all the crap that's on his head, but I did give him an earring.

I didn't think about it until way too late in the process, and I tried to poke a hole through his ear so he could actually wear it. However, when I tried to do so, I almost ruined his head paint a second time. Saying, "fuck that," I decided to just glue it on.

If I had been more brave with modifying this doll, I might have just resculpted his ears entirely, because, being based on a real life human being, the doll's ears don't flare out that much, so they're easily covered by other things.

His glasses are just a piece of painted plastic that hold to his face using some plastic cord. They fit well while his wig is off, but putting them on with everything else is a goddamn nightmare.

Since his ears are so small, and his hair is so short, there's nothing for the glasses to "grab" onto without the cord, but the cord is too short to fit around the wig once it's on, but I can't make the cord longer to sit over the wig, because the glasses need to go over the headband, and it's a pain in the ass trying to layer everything like that.

So, I have to put the glasses in place first, TAPE the cord to his scalp so they don't move, put on the wig, then put on the headband. It's really such a hassle, but I don't think I can truly convey the annoyance of having to do it all without showing you. So, unless I absolutely have to, I'm never taking any of those things off him again.

I think the last things are the headband, mask, and tablet.

The headband is just a spare scrunchy that I have. I don't have one in the *exact* same color as the real one, so I went with the closest one I had, which was this teal color.

I didn't feel comfortable repainting one since it's essentially an elastic band, I don't think the paint, even with the textitle medium, would be able to hold up to all the stretching I have to do to even get it on his head.

If I happen to find a white one somewhere in my stash, then I might try dyeing it using water and acrylic paints to see if I can get it green, but for now, I think this works. A little thick, but it works.

The tablet is just a piece of foam painted with paint markers and the mask is a piece of cardboard. I wasn't planning on really recreating any scenes with this doll, but since I remembered that comic, and thought it would be easy enough to make, I went ahead and made it as an in-joke to myself.

Honestly, I think it's the most charming piece of the entire ensemble. Plus, he can wear it without me having undo/redo any of his other head accessories, so it's easy to make him wear it whenever.

My final comments about the doll itself are that he's fucking huge. I should have taken a pic of him next to Kun3h0, but he is too tall to even fit on my display shelf without sitting.

(Please ignore any mess you might see in the reflection. This is just one of the only flat pieces of furniture he can stand on without me standing on something to take a pic.)

Despite my interests, I don't actually collect dolls (I'm more into figures and plushies), so I wasn't expecting him to be so big. In fact, Kun3h0, who would be considered a small to medium doll in collector's spaces, was also bigger than I thought she'd be, so you can imagine my surprise when I got my hands on him.

So... I don't really know where I can put him. He obviously can't live in front of my TV, but beyond being too big for my shelf, he also doesn't fit in with any of my other collectibles. And I'll be honest, the contrast of him "clearly not belonging" among my more "kawaii" items was a motivator in starting this project, I live for the gap moe after all, but in practice he really just sticks out like a sore thumb. (This is also why his first pics are in a slightly different location without many props. I just couldn't put together anything from my collection or find a spot among my things to take a good thematic pic with. The magazines/CDs he's with are from my dad's collection.)

I do have space at higher elevations in my room, but it's kinda off putting to have him staring down my room, looking like he's plotting something (my space is too small to ignore it). So I dunno what I'm gonna do with him. I did have plans to make him some... cuter outfits so he wouldn't stick out as much, but that requires sewing, and I'm kinda worn out from this project.

In conclusion, despite my troubles with this project, I'm not entirely displeased with the results. At the very least, it was an experience, and one that I might even be willing to do a third time 👀...?

But for now, I'd like to rest and maybe go back to drawing again. I feel like I haven't drawn anything "real" for a while now. We're inching closer and closer to the next follower milestone (4 digit number BA-BY!), so I'd like to at least get back to being good enough to sketch some stuff for y'all soon~

[seducemefanficsandheadcanons]

Can you write about James and Mika going on a late night drive that eventually leads to car sex?🫣

Hi anon! I'm so sorry this took so long, I'm admittedly not great at writing James. I hope I did him justice, and I may come back and redo this prompt when I get better at writing him and smut.

Late Night (James x F Reader)

NSFW

Not proof read lol

As I laid in bed, I found myself feeling restless. It wasn’t uncommon for me to struggle to sleep, but I just couldn’t stop moving. Tapping my leg, stretching my arms, rubbing my face. Anything but staying still.

Eventually James, who’d been holding me patiently, spoke up. “Are you alright, Love?”

I sighed and adjusted so we were face to face. In response, he moved an arm under my neck and the other draped over my waist, holding me close. “I can’t sleep,” I complained, a slight frown on my face.

He hummed, rubbing my side. “Is something on your mind?”

I shook my head. “No, I just have too much energy,” I explained. 

James thought for a moment before speaking. “Perhaps we could go for a drive,” he offered. “It may help with your restlessness.”

I smiled and nodded, sitting up. “That sounds nice.” I said.

I felt so thankful for him at that moment. He was always so patient with me, always trying to find ways to help me. With little things like chores, and bigger things like my insomnia or worse, a devil who kidnapped me from school. He was so good to me.

When we got in the car, he chose to drive. It was a slightly chilly night, the shorts I was wearing doing little to warm me up, so I brought a jacket. As he drove down the street, his hand rested on my lower thigh.

After a few minutes, I spoke. “Hey James?”

He glanced over. “Yes, Dear?”

“Thank you,” I said softly. “For this, and always being so amazing.”

He smiled, a soft blush on his features. “You do not need to thank me. In fact, I should be thanking you.”

I tilted my head. “For what?”

“Loving me,” he answered, his eyes burning with his emotions even as he watched the road. “You are the kindest, most beautiful woman I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, let alone loving.”

I flushed, smiling more. My eyes traced over every detail of his face, the way the moonlight highlighted his features. He was perfect, everything I could ever want. “I love you, James,” I answered softly.

He smiled more, gently squeezing my leg. “And I love you.”

Looking at him, the feeling of his hands on me, it sent a wave of desire through me, even without his magic. I smiled, placing my hand on his. “You know…” I started, pulling his hand higher on my leg. The faint pink tint that spread across his face was incredible. “I think I know how to burn some of my energy.”

He raised an eyebrow as he moved his hand even higher. “Do you, now?” he asked teasingly, his pinky going under the fabric of my sleep shorts.

I swallowed and nodded, a shiver running down my spine as his hand gently brushed over my core. He smirked, rubbing me through the fabric, too light. My hips thrusted against my will, craving the friction his hands provided. He kept his eyes on the road, seemingly looking for a place to pull over. I felt the unmistakable heat of his enthrallment flush through me, a short moan escaping as the heat coursed through my veins and straight in between my legs.

Finally, he pulled over to a secluded area, pulling me into his lap. His hands left goosebumps in their wake as they trailed down to my hips, kissing me hotly. I found myself rocking my hips against his, feeling his length grow in hardness as he let the seat all the way back.

He groaned, turning us over so I was the one laying on the seat. His eyes flickered gold, his clothes dissipating as he began to pull mine off, starting with unzipping my jacket, kissing the freshly exposed skin of my shoulder as I was left in my tank top. It wasn’t long before he took the rest of my clothes off.

His mouth found a sensitive part of my neck, nibbling softly as his fingers rubbed over my folds. “Ah- James,” I whimpered.

He groaned quietly, sticking a finger into my center. “You like that?” he teased, his mouth brushing over the shell of my ear.

I shivered and nodded, but it wasn’t enough. I needed him. I reached down to his cock and began stroking; the short moan he stifled sent a thrill straight to my core. 

Finally, he brushed the tip over my folds and slowly pushed in, so torturously slow. A shiver ran through me as he deliciously filled me up, the emptiness of my arousal being answered. Even so, he moved slowly, millimeter by millimeter, until finally I begged. “More Raestrao, faster-”

At the sound of his true name, he finally slammed into me, drawing more and more loud moans and gasps as he continued to pound into me. He had one arm under my neck to hold his own weight up while the other trailed down to my hip, changing the angle until I was seeing stars.

His own groans and sharp breaths were in my ear as he nipped the shell. “Nnn- you feel so amazing~” he praised, his voice husky and deep.

I couldn’t respond with anything but mewls, my nails starting to drag down his shoulders as the heat in my abdomen began to spread. Every part of my body heated up as he continuously thrusted my most sensitive area. I could feel him begin to twitch inside of me as he got louder.

His hand on my hip moved, starting quickly rubbing over my clit. I began to clench around him, my eyebrows knitting as my eyes clamped shut as he whispered in my ear. “Cum for me~”

At his command, my back arched off the seat as I cried out, trembling from the sheer amount of pleasure I felt as the warmth in my body released. It only took a few more thrusts until he spilt into me, his own hands trembling slightly as his enthrallment dropped.

After a few moments to catch our breath, he pulled out with a shiver and propped himself up on one of his arms to look at me, bringing a hand to cup my cheek. “Are you alright?” he asked softly.

I smiled softly, lazily nuzzling into his hand. “I feel great, amazing actually.”

He chuckled and kissed my forehead sweetly. “I love you.”

I smiled more. “I love you too, James.”

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

Re-Animated is finally out, so that means it's time for PART 2 BABY

EVERY SONG IN ZOMBIES: THE RE-ANIMATED SERIES + SHORTS SUMMED UP IN ONE SENTENCE:

Shorts:

Endless Summer: Zeddison fight existential dread once again, and this time it's their own fault!

Nobody's Better Than Bucky(Im just guessing the title here Idk): How the fUCK DID BUCKY MANAGE TO TAME A WHOLE ASS PLANT MONSTER IN LIKE 5 MINUTES GODDAMN-

What Do We Do Right Now: Genuinely the funniest fucking song in the entire franchise

I Still See You: Ha ha Willa sang a love song to a cricket everybody point and laugh!!!

Series:

My Year (the Re-Animated Remix): GOD I wish we got to see the full version animated...

Repeat: Why the fuck do you people want to redo your senior year of highschool!?!?!?

Zed's Plan: This has the EXACT same energy as the montage song from South Park lmfao

Zoda: Glad to see they're fully leaning into Zed's "clearly becoming class president will let me change the towns laws" bs from the 2nd movie, makes that whole thing feel slightly less stupid

A Zombie and Her Machine: Eliza why are you like this

It's Free Period: Interior crocadile alligator core

Underwater Airplane: It's just Wynter shouting random shit into a microphone Idk what to tell you

When Worlds Collide: I have no clue what the hell she's talking about but at least the song is catchy asf!

Be An Alpha: Now introducing; BUCKY AND WILLA'S MUSICAL ALPHA MALE PODCAST!!!!!!!

We're Bringin' It: Bucky why are you like this

You're Dae: It's me, Bucky, yeah(I'm incredible)

Welcome to Seabrook: Don't have much to say on this tbh it's just the opening number of a school musical, it's def dethroned I'm Winning as least memorable in the series no competition-

Shrimpossible: I didn't understand most of what he was saying but goddamn if Trevor Todjman didn't put his all into that preformance

Meant to Combine: Wyatt and Eliza you cheesy motherfuck- oh shit they're vegans they don't eat cheese nvm

Be Like Me: Basic ass montage song is basic

It's Okay: Men would rather create a giant mud monster, get eaten, and hallucinate their sister singing a song to them before going to therapy smh

I'm a Cat: RAZZMATAZZ MENTION!!!!!!!!

I'm a Box: Literally the best way they could've wrapped up that episode

Back 2 Back: I don't have anything to say about this one either tbh, but it's more memorable than the opening number to the musical!

Okay that's it. Expect a part 3 when the rest of season 1 comes out because there are supposed to be 34 fUCKING songs in this show and these are only 18 of them!?!?!?! Plus I have no idea when the rest of the season is coming out. So.

Also I'll make a Part 4 when the 4th movie comes out :)

Part 1

[loversj0y]

Cornelia street for your 200 event? Congratulations by the way!!

event masterlist

pairing: wilbur soot x gn! reader

TWS: lots of drinking, anxiety as well

notes: this one was tough to write solely bc... toe breakup. sigh. makes it hurt to use this song tbh. also i just couldnt focus writing this one so if it seems a bit off, thats probably why

wordcount: 1.6k

taglist: @l0veb0mb1ng / @core-queen / @zooone / @lillylvjy / @ghostsacrosslndnfields / @melunnek

The first time you officially met Wilbur was at a random party. It was a summer party one of your classmates had set up, and she told you it would be a small ordeal. The opposite occurred, which truthfully, you should’ve expected given that it was a party to celebrate the classmates moving into their final year of Uni. You didn’t hate the party atmosphere, it was a nice party even if it was more crowded and louder than you’d expected. You had a few drinks and a few good conversations before stumbling into Wilbur. 

You did literally stumble into him, tripping over someone’s shoe and landing against him. His drink knocked into you as well, spilling all over the front of your shirt.

“Oh, holy shit, are you alright?” He asked quickly, holding onto your arms.

“I’m alright, yeah, sorry. Are you?”

He smiled, “I’m fine, don’t worry about it. Let me help clean you up.” He pulled you to the bathroom, closing the door and muting most of the party droning out with it. 

“We had english together, last semester, didn’t we?” He grabbed a towel, drying your shirt off. 

“Uh,” you flushed, “I’ll be honest, I barely payed attention to that class. I was playing Minecraft on my laptop in the back most days.” 

“Oh?” He laughed, “Good to know I wasn’t alone then. I’m Wilbur.” “Y/N. If you can’t tell, I’m not great at first impressions.”

He smiled, “Well, if you want, we could always have a redo.”

“A redo?” You chuckled, “How so?”

“Hm,” he thought, “How about we act like we were too drunk to remember meeting tonight? And then, I know a good, quiet bar downtown where we can show up separately and pretend we don’t know each other until one of us gets the courage to go up to the other?” He grinned up at you.

You laughed loudly, and he looked at you like you hung the stars in the sky, “Okay, yeah. That sounds great.”

You and Wilbur did go to that bar. In fact, it became a common thing for the two of you to go that little dive bar every weekend. It was a bit further from campus, a good thirty minute walk, but it made up for it in the almost secretive energy the bar had, making it easier to hide your growing anxieties and embarrassment about just how close to Wilbur you’d gotten. What started as the fleeting thought about how attractive he was had manifested into a strong crush, one that toustled you like a wave everytime you saw him. It got harder to keep your composure around him. And the best way to combat the shaking hands and stuttering words?

Shots, obviously. As the two of you joked, you both got progressively drunker. To the point where neither of you were able to safely get home. So a cab it was.

When you got in the cab, drunkenly stumbling in, the cabbie asked where he was taking you both.

It occurred to both of you that neither of you wanted to be alone right now, it was only a matter of boldness now.

You looked at Wilbur, “I rent a place on Cornelia Street.”

Wilbur nodded, leaning into your side a bit, “Okay.”

You told the cab driver your address, and he drove quickly, probably not wanting to risk the two drunk college kids puking in his cab. The drunkenness started lightening up on the drive, Wilbur only left tipsy, while you were on the comedown of your drunkenness.

You and Wilbur split the cost once you’d gotten there, and you held onto his arm as you pulled him upstairs. It felt like a stepping stone, a new era of your relationship, to have him come over to your apartment, even if you were still drunk. 

Stumbling in, he looked around, “Your place is really nice.”

“Thanks,” you smiled softly, walking over to the couch with him. You both sat down, probably far closer than you would’ve been if either of you had any sense of personal space or decency left in you.

“You sure you’re good with me staying here tonight?” You snorted softly, “Of course, Wilbur. I’d rather you stay here than try to walk home alone.”

“Aww, someone cares about me,” You flushed a bit, leaning your head against him, “Maybe I do. What about it, hm?”

He wrapped his lanky arms around you, squeezing you, “You sap,” he placed his chin on top of your head, “God, everything you do makes me just want to kiss you more,” he admitted.

“Wait- what?” You asked, suddenly feeling incredibly sober. 

“Yeah,” he hummed, as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

You pulled out of his grasp, sighing, “You’re drunk.”

He chuckled, “You’re the drunk one here, your tolerance is far worse than mine.” You hated admitting that was true.

“Then, were you serious?”

He looked down at you, quiet while he looked over your face and coming to terms with the fact that you were not drunk enough to forget what he’d said, “Yes.”

You reached forward, taking his hands, “Can I… kiss you?”

He nodded quickly, pulling one hand free to rest on your cheek. You pulled him in the rest of the way, kissing him slowly. He tasted sweet, like strawberry liquor and smoke, and it felt like a consequence you’d gladly pay for.

Months went by. Wilbur was always with you, even if you and him hadn’t set an official title to your relationship. You went from autumn air, dancing in the moonlight on your room, wearing his jacket to classes, playing games, the rains of spring, opening windows for the summer air, all to end up here. Graduation had passed a few weeks ago. Wilbur was staying in town, he’d already found a job. You were between two. There was one in town and one pretty far away.

The only thing keeping you from choosing the one where you’d get to stay here, where you’ve lived and loved, was that you didn’t know where you stood with Wilbur. With everything that you two have been through, you still didn’t have an official label. And you kept meaning to talk about it, but you kept putting it off out of worries and concerns. You thought he was leading you on. You knew why you hadn’t talked about it, but why hadn’t he.

It felt selfish to think that, communication was a two-way street after all, but you just could’nt help your own anxieties sometimes. 

So instead of jumping into his arms, you jumped to conclusions. That he was leading you on, that he wasn’t serious about this. So, you planned on leaving. 

You packed a bunch of your things, getting in your car and starting to drive off, without a goodbye. You hadn’t even made a decision on the jobs either, but you were just going to head home for now.

You were about ten minutes out when Wilbur called. You almost didn’t answer. 

“Hello?”

“Hey, love, where are you? I just showed up to your place and you’re gone.”

“I’m leaving, Wilbur.”

He laughed, at first, “Yeah, yeah.” When you didn’t joke with him, he’d gotten far more serious, “What do you mean?”

“I’m just leaving.” “Without saying goodbye?” You never would’ve left if you had. You aimed for bitterness in your words, some part of you almost wanting to start a fight. “Like you’d care much.”

“Darling, why wouldn’t I care?”

“Why did you never say we were dating?”

He was silent, “Wait, is that what this is about? I- I wanted to talk to you about it, but I just panicked, darling. I-”

He paused, seriously considering what he was going to say next, “Darling, I love you. And if you come back now, I promise you, you will never wonder again, because it is within my full intentions to make sure the entire world knows exactly how you are mine.”

“I-I love you too,” you responded quickly. You’d never turned around faster.

That night, you and him sat on the roof, and finally solidified everything you were. You finally selected your job in town, and you couldn’t help but see Wilbur in the city you looked at from that rooftop.

“Look at that,” Wilbur hummed, staring up at your apartment building.

You held his hand tightly, looking up, “Oh, yeah. It’s almost weird to look at.” You smiled. 

He stood behind you, wrapping his arms around your waist. You had moved out a year ago now. You and Wilbur found a nice place to live together, and you had been living together since. It was a worthy move, but it still felt weird to look up at your old apartment. 

He nodded, “God, do you remember the first time I cooked for you?”

You laughed, “Yeah, it was our first official date. I had to open all the windows to get the smell of burning out.”

“It was a cleansing fire, I think.” “You would think that,” you laughed louder, leaning into him, “It was good though. A new beginning of sorts.”

“Especially for several of your pans,” he snickered, kissing your cheek softly. 

You chuckled, nodding, “Some of them definitely needed it.” You smiled, sighing softly.

You couldn’t say it outloud, you didn’t want to make Wilbur worried. You just knew that if any residual fears you had about Wilbur leaving you proved true, you’d never be able to walk here again, the entire apartment a reflection of your relationship.

[barbwillbrb]

OC Smash or Pass 🔥

Got tagged in this a couple times (thank you @commander-krios and @kimberbohwrites ❤️) and finally got a moment to fill this out. :3 Let’s do this thing.

First, no presh tags (sorry if you’ve been tagged multiple times!):

@ladyofcrowsandcoffee @matchabunbun @lemonsrosesandlavender @savriea @reverieblondie @redroomroaving @faerunsbest

Bringing out the bug guns for this— my boy Rackal Orro (I suck at taking screenshots and need to redo his BG3 run but have some art and a pic I took with my phone. Also see “tav: rackal” tag for more info/art with him).

Quick facts:

Half-drow (drow father, human barbarian mom; all of the height/strength comes from her)

Has a twin sister, Clairice

Oath of Devotion turned Oathbreaker (happens during game, but he’s been struggling with rules vs. justice/virtue for a while and beginning to think his oath is getting in the way of doing the right thing)

Former Flaming Fist; been freelance adventurer for the past five years after being discharged

Age: 52

Height: 6’11”; over 7’ in armor.

Sexuality: panromantic demisexual

Pronouns/sex: He/him, AMAB

Pros:

While rough around the edges and prone to impulsive decisions, Rackal has a heart of gold and ultimately wants to do the right thing. He has a very strong sense of justice, and protects the innocent/weak. Similarly, he will fight tooth and nail for his friends/loved ones.

Will fight in your honor/lay someone out if they cross a line.

Very observant/insightful with a good memory, Rackal is quick to see if something is wrong with a companion, but also has the sense to read their language/figure out what they want/need. Big caretaker energy; he looks after his people.

He is the quieter of the two siblings, but he always means what he says. He’s a terrible liar.

He has a soft spot for animals, especially dogs. Living in the city, he and his sister couldn’t have a dog— Scratch is the glue holding his sanity together in Act 1.

Very, very strong and will be insulted if you think he can’t carry you (will also prove you wrong).

He loves very deeply, both platonically and romantically; once you have a place in his heart you will never leave it.

He is an eager-to-please soldier who knows how to follow an order, has self-worth issues, and is desperate to prove himself worthy again. You will have many orgasms.

Similarly, he is observant and will read you like a book in the bedroom.

Has a tongue and dick piercing.

Cons

Prone to impulsive, reckless decisions— especially if the only allied party that could come to harm is himself. He’s not one to risk other’s wellbeing, but is more than willing to hurl himself into the fray. He has more than one close calls before his companions try to get to the root of this behavior (survivor’s guilt/suicidal tendencies).

The braincell goes out the goddamn window when he’s with his twin. He definitely licked the spider because she dared him to and he was not about to let her hold that over him.

Unfortunately because SOMEONE (*glares at Emp*) thought it was a brilliant idea to disguise themselves as Rackal’s dead lover, any romance with him will he a slower burn as he is getting jump scared by a ghost in his dreams/waking moments. If you’ve been a good friend/companion to him, you’d be able to start breaking down his walls after Emp’s reveals his identity.

Unfortunately, he is also very bad at communicating his own wants; if/when he starts to develop feelings for you, he’s going to keep them very close to himself out of 1) concern that he is imposing and 2) fear of rejection. He will wrestle with his feelings and whether to address them, especially with the chaos surrounding you. However, his behavior/actions will likely betray his feelings— always keeping an eye out for you, making space for you, remembering things about you, etc. If he starts collecting things/bringing items back to camp that he thought you might find interesting, he is GONE. Smitten.

The twins are determined to get their friends their happy endings; as such, Rackal goes to Avernus with Wyll and Karlach. He will come back and will wait for you if you’ll have him still, but he needs to do this for his friends.

Being with him means dealing with Clairice as well. This can be either a pro or con.

Know that if romanced and on a mission with him, he will do whatever he can to protect you. This means being potentially involved in one of his hare-brained, last minute gtfo escape plans. If he says “do you trust me,” this is not a question but a warning that something very dumb is about to happen and it’s gonna require 1) Featherfall, 2) a broken window, and 3) a “watch this!” directed at the Gods.

In order to ride this ride, some form of connection/feeling has to be there; Rackal is not really one for one-night-stands with strangers. He could be convinced into something casual with a very close, trusted friend, but honestly he will develop feelings on his end (would keep them likely to himself, tho, unless there is a chance they could be reciprocated).

Anyhoot, you guys know what to do! Smash (or other if smashing is n/a for you due to sexuality but you still wanna hang or something) or pass, Rackal Edition!

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Daughter of the Rain and Snow

Concept: Around ten years after the events of Crooked Kingdom, 25-year-old Captain Inej Ghafa frees Maya Olsen from a pleasure house in Ketterdam. Maya is looking for revenge against the man who put her in her position, a man who she knows nothing about except his name: Kaz Brekker.

Tags: @wraith--2 @lunarthecorvus @just2bubbly @real-fragments7 @ethereal-maia @cartoon-clifford @origami-butterfly

Content Warnings: in more general terms I want to remind people to be aware of the nature of Kaz and Inej's experiences and relationship since even if I'm not directly addressing these things they tend to be implicit in any writing about them, but specifically to this chapter there's ptsd references, discussion about drowning, threats, violence, and there isn’t any child death taking place but it is talked about so I wanted to mention that just to make sure I’m being clear

Chapter 15 - Kaz

“What are the chances of being arrested if I murder a member of the Merchant Council in broad daylight?” Kaz snarled as he limped into the Crow Club.

He was finally going to give Ethan this Saints-forsaken financial record. Part of him was hoping the boy was guilty after all, so he’d have an excuse to kill someone. Annika looked up from her table and snorted a short laugh.

“For anyone else pretty high. For you? Depends on the Council member,”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning it depends on whether Jesper would shoot you before the Stadwatch got there,”

“Like Jesper could take me,”

She laughed again. Kaz didn’t have time for that. He flung two bags of coins into her lap and marched on past as he said:

“One for you. One for Rotty. Keep the tables busy,”

Annika’s mock salute was the last thing he saw from the corner of his eye as he headed straight for the back room.

Ethan sat, alone, behind his desk, head half buried in the books until Kaz hit his cane against the doorframe to summon some attention. Ethan flinched and threw his head up, and upon seeing Kaz found himself somewhere between relieved and even more anxious. He closed the book in front of him with slightly trembling fingers.

“Kaz, you - I don’t-”

Kaz dropped the record into front of Ethan, open on the Olsen transaction. He took in Ethan’s twitchy manner and dishevelled appearance with a slow study if the boy, who was now leaning over and blinking several times to read the words.

“When did you last sleep?”

“Wh- I don’t- I was waiting for you,”

Ghezen, the kid hadn’t left the room since Kaz told him he’d be back with the ledger.

“It’s been 30 hours,”

“You said you didn’t know how long you’d be,”

“Well you’re useless to me like this. Go back to the Slat and get some sleep, we’ll talk about this tomorrow,”

Ethan left in a haze and Kaz shook his head as he took a chair and pulled the most recent books towards him. Something was telling him the last 2 days of adding were going to need redoing, and besides it gave him a good opportunity to read through the recent ledgers for any discrepancies. This wasn’t as good a distraction as talking to Ethan would have been, but it was something. Kaz thought of Inej pulling away from him in their little house, dark eyes burning like a fire half- hidden by the black silhouette of the moon. He flexed his fingers in his gloves.

“What was the alternative?”

“Me!”

She was right, in a way, he thought. What would their little piece of the world look like if he had taken the energy he gave to the Dregs and put it into them? A marriage that didn’t rely on letters left from the beyond, safety, security, maybe family. And where would that leave him? Following Inej around Ravka, replacing the fear of the ship with the fear of her falling from the swings? Watching her teach their children the high wire whilst he imagined them falling, saw their little bodies splayed across the concrete? Or would he still be left waiting for her ship to return, tucking the children in every night whilst they asked when their mother would come home and he had no answer to give them? Always passive, always outside, watching her life through a lens whilst he couldn’t find where he fit into it.

She would have her ship, and he would have his city.

Even now that had to be the way it was. He had watched her try to be part of his world for years and known she wasn’t happy, he couldn’t ask her to sacrifice that again. But he didn’t know if he had the strength to sacrifice his world for hers instead.

And now this.

Kaz didn’t want to blame Inej for being angry with him, but she’d read the Saintsforsaken ledger hadn’t she? She knew he’d done nothing to this girl or her father that justified her placing blame on him. Something itched at him in the corners of his mind her shut out. You didn’t want to blame Jordie. Of course he didn’t. But it seemed all a more clean cut affair with Maya’s father, didn’t it?

No matter how Maya felt though, surely Inej could see?

She reminds me of you.

Kaz had no hope of focusing on these stupid ledgers. The numbers swam from line to line, like they were taunting him with the one thing he was supposed to be able to do. This, at least he was supposed to still be good at. A glance, an acknowledgment, and the numbers should have been stored in his mind. The filing cabinets in there scrolling over a decade of records that he could call upon at will. But now he was straining to concentrate, and his mind was filled with nothing but Inej and her dark, burning eyes. Flinching away from his touch. Drowning in the harbour. Thirty hours. When had he last slept? He didn’t want to. The dream came too fresh, too often. That oil black hair spilling around her, floating in the water. Limbs drooping, borne aloft by the waves, fingers in his turning to taut and bloated flesh. He couldn’t touch her. Couldn’t reach her. He was falling from the wire without a net.

He shoved the books away and hurried out, ignoring Pim trying to get his attention as they passed each other near the stairs. He went into his office and slammed the door shut, feeling the shake of his gloved fingers on the lock. He was stronger than this. This wasn’t supposed to happen anymore.

And if it did? He wasn’t supposed to be alone.

He slid down the door and sat on the floor in cold, shivering silence, his bad leg stretched out in front of him. He had to get her, had to explain to her, had to - what? What did he even want to say?

He would move the earth for her. He would kill, had killed, for her. He would die for her. And it didn’t mean anything, because even now he didn’t show it. Because even now, he refused to torture himself with the idea of their future. Their happiness, together. In Kerch, in Ravka, they could move to the permafrost in Fjerda for all he cared. He would carve a life for her in the face of a mountain, if that was what she wanted. But it felt like an infection. It was worming its way through him, and if he didn’t quash it there was every change it might destroy him. Destroy them both. All he was so desperate to give her was impossible to say, because saying it out loud made it real. It made it something that could be lost.

Kaz didn’t know how long he’d sat there before he managed to slowly pull himself back up, weight first in the door handle and then against his cane. There were no lights on in the room. He let the door swing on its hinges as he left, to walk back to the Slat. To force himself to sleep; to let the dream wash over him so he could fight it like he’d fought everyone and everything else.

And so it was as the door swung and the lights remained off, as Kaz limped away in stoic silence and the street lamps began to glow, that no-one noticed the hand reach up from beneath the desk and leave a neat, sealed letter next to the inkwell.