#and if he asks him about his progression and what poems he likes

[orangechickenpillow]

Somehow Edgar Allan Poe exists in the Baldur's Gate universe and I'm convinced that, among other things, that's what Astarion is always reading at camp

[pr0cyon-lotor]

Au where Shen Yuan is a dragon with a giant cavern full of books and plays. It's enchanted and stuff so the cavern moves and shifts so it brings you to a section of the library with what you need/want. He occasionally lets people enter to read his books, but you aren't allowed to take them out no matter what. You are sometimes allowed to copy the information on your own scroll or book, but you need permission first.

He gets visited by Wu Yanzi and a young Shen Jiu. Wu Yanzi is looking for demonic cultivation manuals because Shen Yuan has almost one of each manual, encyclopedia, etc ever written.

He pays no mind since he doesn't really care if malicious people come in or not. He does passively keep an ear out just in case.

Wu Yanzi finds a cultivation manual that has everything he needed and could be sold for a lot of money since it was extremely rare and in pristine condition. He tries to sneak it into his bag, and the dragon just eats him. No warning. No heads up. No trumpets or fanfare. No foreboding messages to return the book. Just chomp.

Shen Jiu is taken aback because did his teacher just get eaten? JUST LIKE THAT?!

The dragon nudges the stolen book back into the shelf and looks at Shen Jiu. Shen Jiu is convinced he's going to die there. Except he doesn't get eaten or harmed. He gets gingerly picked up by the back of his robes and taken to the spiritual cultivation section of the library.

Shen Jiu gets plopped onto the floor and the dragon nudges a few beginner and cleansing cultivation manual to fall from the shelf for him and then promptly crawls back to its den.

Shen Jiu, who is instilled with the undescribable urge to scream "what the FUCK?!", instead sits down and starts reading and practicing because honest to god are you going to disobey a dragon that absolutely towers over you?

So when he's satisfied with his cultivation progress, he finally gets ready to leave. The dragon comes back only to put the books away from the shelves that were too far up for Shen Jiu to reach.

Shen Jiu thanks the dragon, which only gets him a huff in response, and because he hates to be in someone's debt (even if that someone is a dragon hundred of years his senior) he says he'll return with books to fill more shelves. He leaves soon after.

He manages to get the Qing Jing Peak Lord's attention during the Immortal Alliance Conference, which was his intention. He gets in a little late but his cultivation is practically caught up. He easily ranks up to head disciple.

During his time in Cang Qiong Shen Jiu jots down everything he learns. He writes down music he composes, discoveries he makes, talisman and array designs he creates, even poems he has written. His Shizun insists that he adds them to the Qing Jing library, and he does but he leaves polished copies of his work and excludes the very important parts.

Eventually when he's peak lord, he goes on an expedition by himself with the scrolls and books he's filled through the years. He finds the dragon's cavern and finally meets it after so long. He presents his life's work to the dragon, practically bearing his heart to it.

The dragon looks at him curiously and transforms into a human form. Shen Jiu watches as the dragon takes the bag from his hands and pulls out the first book, which had all the songs he made for the jiejies in the Warm Red Pavilion to preform.

The dragon say down and invited Shen Jiu to join him. He does and the dragon continues to go through everything while asking him questions about something he wrote or created. Sometimes they get off task and start talking about something else and both appreciate being able to talk to someone that understands classics or is good at debating.

By the time Shen Yuan finally finishes with everything Shen Jiu gave him, they have surprisingly clicked very well. Shen Yuan tells him he's going to make a section in his library for all his works, so he can bring more if he wished because Shen Yuan thought he was a genius that was just starting to shine.

Shen Jiu agrees to continue giving Shen Yuan his work if only to have an excuse to return. And that's how it became tradition that every once in a while the Qing Jing Peak Lord will go off the mountain with a stack of books for days on end and return to none of them.

Sometimes he would even have a strange man come to his peak. If the man visited, that meant Shen Qingqiu was going to be in a good mood, so obviously the kids always told him to stay or come back soon.

And also just as obviously, this is incredibly suspicious to the other peak lords. Cue Liu Qingge and Qi Qingqi pestering Shen Qingqiu and demanding to know what is the meaning of this. Also cue Shen Yuan misunderstanding and getting jealous and then realizing he has feelings for Shen Jiu (after a solid month(s) of denial).

So the next course of action is to keep Shen Jiu from Liu Qingge and Qi Qingqi because they're threats to Shen Yuan's time alone with Shen Jiu. Also he doesn't trust how Shen Jiu covers his face with his fan when they talk to him. Shen Jiu also covers his face when they both talk, so obviously that must mean something and he doesn't like it.

Isn't dragon jealousy great?

Eventually the peak lords find out about Shen Yuan and it was definitely a whole ordeal. Shen Yuan maybe threatened to burn Cang Qiong to the ground at some point, but the threat didn't go through so did it really happen?

Shen Jiu definitely knows about Shen Yuan's feelings for him and is absolutely fucking smug about it. Like who wouldn't want a highly intelligent dragon with a library that is any scholar's wet dream that INSTANTLY becomes a begging puppy when he wants your attention.

As far as Shen Jiu is concerned, he's winning at life.

[pnutbutter-n-j-elyy]

When They Accidentally Bring Up an Insecurity| Jisung

(xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)

You had always admired Han's loving spirit and his ability to find inspiration in the smallest things. He brought light into your life in ways you never thought possible. And he helped you see the world in a way most didn't. You loved that you had that in common with Han- an appreciation for things that breathed life into your creative works.

You had never been very good at drawing. Or writing. Or anything having to do with the fine arts. Rather your creativity came more in a problem solving way. But in order to connect with Jisung, you decided to take up sketching to connect with Han a little more, because you loved him.

But that just created a deep-rooted insecurity about your creative abilities. Surrounded by so many talented people - as you were around the kids -you often felt your own contributions paled in comparison, and it was a fear you kept to yourself.

One evening, Han was over at your place, working on some new lyrics while you attempted to write poetry. He was sprawled on the couch, notebook in hand, humming a melody under his breath. You sat at your desk, scribbling down words and then erasing them feeling increasingly frustrated with your lack of progress.

You had long given up drawing, and you thought it might be easier to write a poem, since it was words that described your feelings. You could easily write a poem about something you knew well right? It couldn't be that hard.

You scratched your head as you tried to think of rhymes.

"How's it going over there?" Han asked, glancing up from his notebook.

"Not great," you mumbled, trying to keep the disappointment out of your voice.

Han chuckled, not noticing your tone. "I figured."

His casual comment felt like a sting, a reminder of your perceived inadequacies. You forced a smile and nodded, but inside, you felt your confidence crumbling.

He got up and walked over to you, picking up your paper in his hands. He chuckled. "Poetry now huh?"

You felt your cheeks burn and tried to take it from him. "No-"

"No jagiya I want to read it." He said holding it above your head and reading it. "You make me laugh when I am sad, Your jokes are the best I've ever had. When you smile, my heart feels light, You make everything so bright." Han giggled again. "It's like one of those poems we had to write in elementary school."

That made your cheeks burn even more. "Jisung give it back-"

"Your hugs are warm, your eyes so kind, With you, I leave my worries behind. You're my sunshine, my best friend, With you, I hope the good times never end." He gives you a cute pouty face in a teasing manner. "Awww Y/N... it's such a cute little poem. It's like a little nursery rhyme."

"Jisung stop!" You called out again, feeling your eyes burn as you put your fists to your eyes, the embarrassment you had taking over.

"I know my poem's not that great, But loving you is my favorite fate. Thank you Jisung..." His smile fell and he swallowed. "Thank you...Jisung for...for being you. My love for you is always true." He looked up and seemed to realize what he was teasing you about and his lip trembled. "Y/N-"

"I want to be alone." You mumbled through your tears. Jisung wanted to reach out, but he knew he had hurt your feelings, but knowing you he also knew you needed space.

The next few days were a blur of self-doubt and creative blocks. You avoided drawing and writing, and found excuses to stay busy with other tasks. Han noticed your change in behavior and even if you guys had talked a couple hours after the incident, he still didn't think his apology was enough.

One afternoon, while you were both working on a puzzle together, Han brought up the subject again. "Hey, you know I'm really really sorry right?"

You nodded. "I know. I'm not mad anymore, Jisung."

Han frowned. "But you haven't been writing at all. Or drawing...I feel like it's my fault. No...I know it's my fault. I'm sorry I made fun of your poem- I loved it. I really did. It's the sweetest thing anyone has ever written me..."

You felt a pang in your chest, wishing you could believe him. "Thanks, but sometimes it feels like I'm just not good enough."

Han looked taken aback. "What do you mean? You're incredibly talented."

You sighed, finally letting out a bit of your frustration. "It's just… I see how talented everyone else is, including you, and I can't help but feel like my work doesn't measure up."

Han's expression softened, and he reached out to squeeze your hand. "You're amazing in your own right, and comparing yourself to others isn't fair to you. I wouldn't ever want you to compare yourself to me. That's like comparing a doctor to an actor. Both are genius in their own right, but do you expect an actor to be able to perform surgery like a doctor? Or the doctor to recite the entire second act of Hamlet? You have your talents that I could never even begin to measure up to, Y/N. Its the same with everyone who walks this planet..."

His words were kind, but they didn't fully reach the core of your insecurity. You forced a smile and nodded, hoping the conversation would end there.

A week later, Han invited himself over to your house, hoping to put an end to both of your guy's misery. You hated feeling like you had to walk on eggshells around him, and he hated thinking he was making you uncomfortable.

You guys ate dinner and started watching a drama. After the fourth episode Han pressed the pause button.

"Baby...can I show you something?"

You nodded, slightly confused as to why Jisung would pause your binge.

He grabbed his laptop from his bag and came back towards you, placing his headphones on your head.

He unlocked his laptop, clicked a few buttons and a soft melody filled your ears. Your eyes widened.

"Did you guys wrtie a new song?" You asked excitedly, but Jisung shushed you gently and motioned for you to listen.

You closed your eyes and let yourself go, embracing the music fully.

You felt your heart almost stop when you heard the words of your poem masterfully intricated into the song.

"Why did you show me that?" you asked, your voice trembling. You didn't dare open your eyes, or you were sure the tears you had would fall.

Han sounded puzzled. "Because it's great and I wanted to share it."

"But it's not great," you snapped, tears falling from your eyes as you opened them. "People will know you just used those words. You're so much more well versed and-"

Han stopped in his tracks, realization dawning on him. "I didn't mean to make you feel that way. I just wanted to show them how talented you are.” You shook your head.

"Ouch, Y/N..." Jisung chuckled, his voice breaking a little. You looked at Han, whose chubby cheeks were encompassed by his pout. His boba eyes sad.

"No- No baby I meant... I feel like my words are stupid. Not your voice. Your song was absolutely beautiful... I just feel like I made you waste such a good backtrack."

You wiped away a tear, feeling exposed and vulnerable. "It's not your fault. It's just… I can't help but feel like I'll never be as good as everyone else. And I feel like you did that to make me feel better..."

Han pulled you into a tight hug, his voice gentle and soothing. "I wish you could see yourself the way I see you. You're incredibly talented and creative, and your art is a reflection of who you are. It's unique and beautiful, just like you."

You clung to him, the sincerity in his words slowly breaking through your walls. "I just want to feel like I'm enough," you whispered.

Han held you at arm's length, looking into your eyes. "You are more than enough. Your worth isn't defined by how perfect your art or writing is or how you compare to others. It's about the passion and love you put into what you do."

His words resonated with you, and you felt a sense of comfort and reassurance. Han's unwavering support and belief in you made a difference, and you realized that your insecurities didn't define you.

"And I didn't make that song to make you feel better...I made it so you could see just how much inspiration I find from you. Y/N I love you more than anything. So, I was over the moon when I wrote this. And even more elated when I got to use the words the love of my life wrote. That's only the demo..." He grins sheepishly. "I was thinking...it would sound cool if you could leave that poem as a voicemail. I could make it the outro of the song..."

You looked at him with wide eyes. "You mean it?"

"Of course I mean it baby. I mean... I know Stay speculates I'm in a relationship...it's been a year now so I feel like this would be a fun way of confirming that. And I want the world to hear the beautiful voice of my baby." He coos, squishing your cheeks.

You giggle and nod, as Han peppers kisses all over your face.

One evening, as you both sat on the couch, Han handed you a sketchbook he had bought for you. "I got this for you. I want you to fill it with whatever makes you happy. No pressure, just pure creativity. It doesn't even have to be art. Maybe you could write me more poems..."

You smiled, feeling a warmth spread through your chest. "Thank you, Ji. For everything."

Han wrapped his arm around you, pulling you close. "I'm always here for you. And for inspiration. Because you're my inspiration." He says nuzzling his nose against yours.

You leaned into him, feeling a sense of peace and contentment.

His inspiration. You thought.

What an amazing thing to be...

@abovenyx @wolfs-archive @oddracha

@iyeeeverydee @parisanmorovati @seungmincenteric

@panbish-1209 @fxiry-vtt @sseawavee

@shuporanporang @amarecerasus @softkisshyunjin

@whoa-jo @meanergreener @rikibun

@ayyonoona @shinywombatcrusade @y4yayael

@skzstan12345 @mariteez @allys-reads

@jazziwritesthings @skzstannie @yongbokkiesworld

@kkkeopi @neverendingstay @moony-9

@minsungsthirdwheel

[russellsppttemplates]

Love notes (Charles Leclerc)

A look into Charles' notebook allows words and feelings to be exposed

Note: english is not my first language. The request didn't specify this, but friends to lovers was the first thing that popped into my mind and I know I'm not the only one whose favourite trope is that one so I did it ✨️

Thank you so much to everyone who likes and reblogs, your feedback is appreciated 🤍 and I'm taking requests so if you have any ideas or concepts you want to share, feel free to do so as I'll try to get to them the best I can!

my masterlist

Cw: mentions Charles' father and his passing and implications of the loss of someone close to the reader

Tag list: @myloverjk-blog @hiireadstuff @c-losur3

"And you want me to tell you that code?", you asked Charles over the phone.

Your boyfriend needed to go to the bank to sort a few errands out, and since you had finished moving the last boxes of your belongings to his apartment, you stayed back to tidy them and organise them within the apartment. As it turns out, he forgot to take the documents with the codes.

"Yes, please amour - it's in my notebook on my desk on the office", Charles asked, "I think I went as far as taking the paper out a little so it peeks out but I forgot to take it with me", you could hear the smile and blush on his face.

"Let me go there - don't you mind me looking on your notebook though?", you said as you moved through the apartment, "by the way, I have already found some space in the kitchen for mug collection - yay! Okay, found the notebook - is it the document with your signature or the one that has the details?", you questioned.

"The one with the signature, at the end, left side", Charles repeated what the bank assistant was telling him so he could help you find what he wanted, "and it's the third and fifth number on the Mobile Key".

"Okay, I have it - it's 4 and 1", you informed him, "those are the third and fifth numbers".

"Merci amour, I don't think I need anything else! Once I finish up here, I'll head home to you, I love you! And Y/N, I trust you with everything I have - I have nothing to hide", he offered, making you bid him goodbye before ending the call.

His words ressonated with you as you flickered through the pages, noticing some doddles and racing notes before you decided to look at it from the beggining.

The first page had what looked like a poem and it dated back to the end of 2016.

My father told me to be careful

- Try to slow down a little

You don't ponder nor stay still

You don't belong or give yourself to anywhere

He said - my boy, you know what you're capable of

The world awaits you, go ahead and smile

You don't want to be left behind

It's not been easy dealing with everything. There's hope and there's the want to do more to prove everyone that I belong in Formula One. Still, I'm happy that Prema decided to have me race for them next year in Formula Two and things should go up from there. Time and patience, work and rest. Spending time with the people I love most and care about me the most.

Y/N also progressed on her studies and she's doing really well - she makes our friend group very proud! The guys are investing on their careers too and it's nice to see that, in a way, we're all growing up.

The page went on about all the whereabouts of the group, who had gotten together with someone, who had moved out of their parents' house and the ones who got work offers. There were jotted up plans for the summer holidays that, in hindsight, were mostly realized.

When you turned it to the next one, the poem continued with the same tone.

My mother said to me

- You have to see what's happening

That girl is much more than a friend

And you don't want to lose her

She reads it in my eyes

Or in my open soul

I don't know how she does it

But no matter how much I deny it

My mother is always right

I really like Y/N. Not just as a friend, but also as someone who I want to share my life with.

Whenever someone wonders how I think my life will be like in five, ten, fifteen years, she's always there. There's racing - me climbing up the ladder to points, podiums, wins and championships -, and there is my family.

Y/N and our own family.

Mum claims she noticed it since we were kids and that right now is the right time. Y/N is single again and I can't afford to lose her. Lose her as a friend or lose the opportunity to confess my feelings, or the worst one: lose her because she doesn't feel the same or feel like being in a relationship right now?

It's funny how this works, how much I care about her and how it hurts me when she isn't feeling well. Or how bad I feel because I keep missing some of her university milestones because I'm racing somewhere in the world but she always call me and I'm right in her hand while her family and our friends are in the stands or waiting area.

Even though I'm the one that's furthest away, she keeps me close.

Charles had notes about you? He always carried the little notebook around but you assumed it was because of important information he wrote there. You didn't expect this.

His words rang in your ears as, while your boyfriend had told you he had been crushing on you for a while, he had never admitted feeling this doubt. Not to this extent.

Suddenly, it felt like you were taking a look from a different angle at Charles' soul. The intimacy and vulnerability wasn't foreign and you fell in love with him a little bit more.

Today is the day to get closer

To face her and see what she says

And if luck follows me

As I'm writing this, I hope Y/N is getting ready to meet me in the park. She looks beautiful in anything, but I'm hoping she wears one of her dresses that make her look like a real life princess.

Maybe we will be happy

What I have planned isn't elaborate, because I don't think she would like a big production, and I hope it's enough to show her where I stand.

I asked maman for some help with the cakes and cookies and got the rest from the shop, we're going to have a picnic and I've decided today is the day where I tell her how I fell about her.

There is no point in hiding it, and Joris and Riccardo seem so sure that she shares the same affection.

Today is the day to grab her

I hope she does.

To be with the one I always wanted

And if the nervous voice doesn't fail

Y/N said yes to being my girlfriend!!! As it turns out, she does feel the same and we both agree that it was a mixture of stubbornness and bad timing for eachother. Now, it's the right place and the right time.

I hope we will be happy

The memory is clear as day on your mind.

I confessed how much I love her and she reciprocated it.

Charles asked you to meet up with him at the park because he wanted to talk to you. The seriousness of the text was confirmed when you arrived, Charles pacing around the picnic blanket until his eyes found yours.

"I can't pretend anymore", he said, "you're the first person I look for when I get somewhere I know you will be too, I can't stand to see you hurt or upset and I will kick myself every day if I'm ever the reason you hurt, which I hope I'll never be. You deserve the world, Y/N, the moon and the stars, and I'm going to get them for you because I love you", he offered.

You had been so dumbfounded that you could only approach him and kiss his lips, cupping his face closer to yours, "I've been in love with you for so long, Charles", you whispered back.

It was the day where your love story truly began despite having existed for all of your childhood. You were his and he was yours.

Come with me, love is not time

Continuing to look through the notebook, you spotted some racing notes with numbers and acronyms you weren't sure that they meant, taking a while to find another page that had similar writing.

It's not even time that does it

Come with me, love is the moment

In which I give myself

Y/N is asleep right now as we fly back home after the race. She hasn't left my side and I think this is the first time she's sleeping since we got the news. We knew it was coming, but it doesn't mean that it hurts any less.

In which you give yourself

The feeling is unbearable. Someone who gives you so much also takes so much away from you when they go away. There's so much to go through, and all of the feelings haven't come up yet.

Maman is waiting for us with Lorenzo and Arthur, and I hope we will all find peace with this heavy feeling together.

Y/N told me the feeling may never leave, it creeps up when you least expect it and there are no rules to it.

Time is precious and I want to spend as much time as I can with the ones I love. God knows I did that with papa and it still feels like it wasn't enough.

The creak of the floorboards alerted you that someone else was inside the apartment before Charles' head peeked, "Hello, mon ange", he smiled, coming up to kiss your forehead.

It's these moments where we're not doing anything particular or special that mean the most. Y/N has given me all she's got and I've given her all of me, at the end it's the most human thing to do. Be there. Be present. Allow the other to feel everything they need to feel and protect them. Y/N has protected me and she's never let me doubt that we are for each other.

"I looked through these - I didn't mean to invade your privacy but I got curious", you admitted. It would be no use to lie about it or try to hide it away.

Time will wait, stop there

"Did you like what you found?", Charles asked, pulling the other office chair to sit at the table with you, "I have this one here that I really like actually", he flickered through the pages.

So I can stay like this looking at you

Time knows well, even time understands

That someone doesn't rush

"I wrote this one when we were on holiday, it the boat", Charles tapped the page, "you looked so beautiful that day and I felt like I was running out of time to appreciate you. Then I spent the whole afternoon watching you and I felt like time slowed down a little bit because it knew I was appreciating you", he charmed.

That looks at you like I do

"These are very beautiful, Charles - this one is so beautiful", you smiled, kissing his cheek and cuddling up to his arm as he continued to leaf through the notebook.

Call me an adventure and come and have an adventure

There were also drawings and loose poems along with some photos he kept of you two. One of the hike you had done in Ibiza last year caught your eye. You stood on top of the rock and by the way your arms were positioned, you were calling Charles to join you in there while he snapped the picture.

Change my plans and I promise I'll believe

That I'm the only one you want to see when you wake up

Your haven if the world collapses

Come and deceive me with that look of yours

The sweet way that trips me and without counting

Quench my thirst with a kiss to shut me up

Make me a poem and let me stay

I do not forget

But I want to hear from your mouth all the words that make me blush

Speak softly in my ear

And grab my hand

"This was last year, one of the seasons where I had to deal with so much disappointment in racing, and you never let go. You were there to hold me everytime things didn't go well, to celebrate my achievements and my podiums, and you still make it feel like an adventure every single day", Charles mused, "being loved by you is assuring, comforting, liberating, soothing, amazing, incredible and the best feeling I have on the world! Loving you? It's as incredible as it is a big responsibility because I have to make sure the adventure is still there and that we're both in it", Charles admitted.

Before the night is over

"Being loved by you makes me feel like the only other person in the world", you looked up at him.

"Loving you is making sure the time stops when you're with me so I can tell you all the silly stories I know just to make you smile, all of this to make sure you know you're the reason behind my happiness and the one behind the longing that never lies when you're not there. It's hugging you back tight and have my heart wide open because it's yours to take", he sighed with a smile on his face.

"I love you, Charles - being loved by you is the best thing I get to experience in this life", you smiled before kissing his lips.

"This helps me a lot when you're not with me, it's like I can talk to you", Charles muttered, "and I get to have the memories written out too, you never know when this can come in handy".

"You have no excuse if your speech in our wedding feels impersonal or doesn't have any memories then", you joked as Charles' finger lightly pressed down on the remaining pages of the notebook, making sure you don't get the idea to flicker through the random pages he has used to doodle the perfect engagement ring for you, smiling at the thought of having you be his forever.

"I definitely don't, amour - I'll make sure it's a good one when the time comes", he smiled.

[wolverineluvr]

saw your yan denji fic and loved it :D if you dont mind, could you also make some yandere denji headcanons?

"love at first sight"

cw: stalking, yandere themes, obsessive behavior

a/n: tyy!! And ofc, I hope you like it<3

Yan!Denji who randomly bumped into you one day. All you did was apologize and go on your way. But your voice. Your face. You. It drew him in, like an irresistible song from a siren. He couldn't help himself.

He followed you, he tried to be smart about it, to not be suspicious. To make sure you didn't see him. You didn't, in the end. But honestly he didn't do a good job.

Yan!Denji who watched as you walked into your apartment, he watched you close the door and turn on the light. He watched the house as you went to bed, and he watched for a little longer for anymore glimpses of you, before he left.

He was scolded by Aki for straying off and not coming back until the sky turned black, and the moonlight danced on the rooftops. Your rooftop. He wonders how you'd look in different lighting. In the evening, the sun shining softly through clouds and giving off a beautiful golden glow. Every sight anyone would fall in love with.

Yan!Denji who didn't get much sleep that night, only thinking of you. He wonders if you're thinking of him. He knows you're not. But a delusional part of his mind thinks that you are.

Eventually he fell asleep, thinking of how you looked doing a million different things. How you looked when you bit into a delicious apple, how you looked when you slept, when you cried. Do you like apples? He wishes he knew.

Yan!Denji who found himself watching you enter your house the next day, and the next, and the next. He crept closer to your window every night. Never looking in at your sleeping face just yet, before he left.

One night he does, and what he sees is better than anything he could've imagined. Your face is soft, relaxed. One of your legs is out of your blanket, and the moonlight shines through your window and lights up your room, your face, beautifully. You're the type of girl people write poems for. That people would kill for. And that begs the question,

do you have someone in your life?

Yan!Denji who constantly thinks about you. Thinks about how you probably have a boyfriend. He doesn't even know your name. Maybe he should try to talk to you.

Aki and Power can tell something has been going on, Aki had asked when Denji started seeming distracted but he just got an annoyed, dismissive response.

Yan!Denji who thinks of you like you're the sun. He's like the moon, always chasing after you, but never moving from his spot behind you. Never progressing, never seeing your warmth in full. Maybe he's not even a moon, not even a star or a planet. Only a human, basking in your warmth through the day, left in the cold when you're gone.

So far away from you, yet you seem so close. Soon, he'll meet you really. He hopes, at least. He'll see you in full.

[bruciemilf]

Hi, I was wondering if you had any baby Batkids headcanons, just all of them being extra clingy and obsessed with their dear dad. 😊

YES!! daily dose of fluff!!

Jason keeps a meticulous collection of poems that remind him of Bruce; Some collected from his favourite books, some he's written himself. They progress from love, to rage, to sadness, to regret, to a final, angry forgiveness, to love again

When Dick moved out, when his body was still clumsy and unfamiliar in his apartment, he spent hours just staring at his contact list.

Just aching for the courage to call Bruce. The little boy in him was begging to go home, and Nightwing kept denying him. But he'd know. it's a family tradition that Bruce always calls first.

Damian was never tickled; He hasn't giggled since he was 6, and Talia couldn't give to him what Ra's never gave to her. He was a blade, and blades don't feel.

When Bruce tickles him for the first time, he thinks its a punishment. His stomach hurts from laughing too much.

Tim's obsessive tendencies go root deep. He's vigilant, keeping a faithful watch on Bruce's every move. That's why he's there for. That's his purpose. He's good at that. He's useful for that. Keeping Gotham safe. It makes up for his invasion in the family.

One time, Jason gets hurt on patrol. Its a stab wound. Standard and measly. Just another scar on top of many. But it's a scar Tim could've prevented.

" I should've warned him. Should've-- saved him, been faster," And Bruce says he did warn him; He did everything right. There's no such thing as a good patrol. " I didn't do it on purpose. Bruce, it wasn't on purpose. Please believe me."

Bruce commands emotion in a way Tim is envious of. You think you see past the mask and he always shows you something different. Tim expects to get yelled at, and scolded, and berated for his sloppiness.

And then Bruce holds him, with an intentional tightness and unyielding tenderness, " Oh, my boy. My poor baby."

Stephanie doesn't get upset when people DON'T assume she and Bruce are father and daughter. Mostly because they're right. They're not. At their best, they're co-workers. At their worst, they're Bruce and Steph.

Fathers are overrated, anywhere.

But just for once, she'd like people to assume. She'd like to be mistaken for Bruce Wayne’s bastard child, or his one night stand, or drunken mistake, like the rest of the boys.

But when Bruce does put a hand on her shoulder, when a creep flirts with her at a Gala, " You're not in my daughter's league. You can't even afford tickets." It does feel good.

Cass and Bruce have particular love languages. Cass is tactile. She needs to touch you, and feel you, even if she doesn't speak. It's a proof of existence. It proves she's not an instrument of danger. Even danger deserves gentle things.

If there's anything true about Bruce, it's his lack of judgement. He asses, weights and critics, sure, but he's never one to judge. "Hey, honeybee. " and Cass loves that she doesn't have to hide. She can exist around him, and he can just hug her, and that's enough.

Cass has a tattoo of the bat symbol on her chest. Blsckbat rarely works with officers, but when she does, there's no pleasure in it. Especially when she has to stop them from putting a bullet through a starving kid's head.

"I gotta ask you; How do you do it? Why do you do it? No one's looking. No one's gonna know."

And Cass, angrily, rips a chunk off her suit to reveal the bat symbol. Gotham's mark of worship, it's unholy saint.

Thought saints aren't saints because they're holy. Saints are saints when they bleed. And they don't know how not to do that.

" This means mercy. This means Life."

[goldenlaquer]

Woahhhh if asks are open... can I ask for Gintoki trying really hard to impress this girl he likes, but everything goes to absolute shit because this is Gintama? Totally fine if you delete! I still devour all your old stuff to fill my soul with life 🥹 Never come across anyone who writes Gintama as accurately as you bebe 😘

Sakata Gintoki Headcanons:

If Gintoki made a list of pros and cons about himself, it would probably read like this:

Pro: he has a big dick. (Big dick reading as BIG DICK, in bold, all-caps. Triple underlined.)

Con: he's a perfectionist. (Con: he's a liar.)

So, it isn't all that hard to imagine impressing you would be a Herculean task for Gintoki.

Asking Kagura for advice is like shooting yourself in the foot. Gin-chan is penniless, she says matter-of-factly. No lady wants a broke, mooching, deadbeat boyfriend. A pause to let him absorb these insults, and then, Papi brought Mama three heads, she kindly tells him like it's the secret to your heart, and that's very romantic in Yato culture apparently. Which reminds Gintoki that Kagura is from a different species just as much as her barely counting as female to begin with. Well, in human culture, he could give you as many heads as you'd want— but that's bases away and he's been swinging strikes all throughout this sad, unrequited game.

Asking Shinpachi— no, no. Now, that's a lost cause.

He tries. He does. He really tries.

He tries complimenting you. Suavely slide in a comment about how your teeth looks like it could bite into hard candy, no problem. That your hair doesn't look as dry and brittle today than it did yesterday, and oh wow, your tits look... wow. Double thumbs up.

He tries paying for your meal, to show that he can provide for you, that he's not going to be the broke, mooching, deadbeat boyfriend Kagura deemed him to be. Work a few odd jobs and have all the correct bills in his normally depleted wallet, even break a comb on his hair and get dressed to the nines in his nice, regular clothes that passed the sniff inspection when he shook it out from a pile of unwashed laundry— and it's just, while on the way to his favorite family diner he invited you to, he's passing by a pachinko parlor, with all of its flashy get-rich-quick displays and bright dinging noises from within, and that was when he's suddenly sensing it... the taste of victory. Long story short, the only thing he'll end up tasting is the strawberry parfait that you paid for.

Whatever poor progress that manages to inch forward always ends straight back to the negatives. Damn the perverted stalker and her masochistic plays she forces on him. Damn the timing and whatever deity has pitted against him when you step onto the scene to the sight of him wielding a paddle as the stalker squeals happily while tied to the wooden cross. No, this isn't— he wants to tell you, but your expression has already smoothed into a carefully blank canvas before you turn your back to him and walk away to leave him to... it. No, this isn't what it looks like, he wants to scream.

In a mood of desperation and shots deep in cheap gutter sake, he'd even wrote a poem in the dead of night, detailing the color of your eyes and all the things they reminded him of, invented a new word just to make a rhyme with your name, how the sound of your voice catches in his chest when he hears it— shit if he knew anything about pretty words, he'd never wrote anything longer than a drawn penis before— and once he was done, what he did next was ball the whole sheet up, open the nearest window, and pitch it to the stars. The lamest shit he ever did in his life will be taken to his grave.

Sometimes, because his name is Gintoki, and he is the protagonist of a septic tank for low hanging fruit comedy series called 'Gintama', sometimes the whole universe is against him.

There is a two episode-length arc the occurs, but due to the time-constraints of these headcanons and the writer's own laziness, the details of it shall not be outlined, but please know it involves an exposition, conflict, rising action, a climax (and not the good kind), falling action, some explosions and a tiny grave misunderstanding that leaves you storming from the wreckage in fury and exasperation, and Gintoki catching your wrist, spinning you around to face him. Emotions and adrenaline running high, chests heaving in exertion, and seeing your face covered in soot and sweat and your eyes huge and wet, looking damn more beautiful than you have any right to be, that's when Gintoki finally decides to put his big balls to use and confess himself to you. Opening his mouth and—

Plotfully, the wind picks up, and then suddenly a wadded ball of paper rolls to hit your feet. Both you and Gintoki look down to stare at this interruption. You bend down to pick it up and unfold the ball, startling at whatever you find, snapping your eyes up to him. "Gin, your name is on here?"

Shit! Gintoki realizes, recognizing the paper now. This is the worst possible timing! My stupid shitty poem somehow found its way to the woman it was written for. And why the fuck did I sign it!

He looks left and right, searching for a vending machine to put his head through, and when there are none, he's scrubbing his face with his hand, looking at you and the damned poem he wrote that found it's way to you, as if was meant to be there. "I wrote it." He finally grumbles. "For you. Don't be creeped out."

Your eyes scan the page from top to bottom, reading. Your eyebrows shoot up, looking up at him with wide eyes.

"This is really what you think about me?" Your trembling voice barely above a whisper.

Gintoki pauses. Then nods. "Yeah. Every word."

Your expression blanks. You turn the wrinkled paper around. Gintoki squints.

Shit! Gintoki thinks. I was so drunk I never wrote anything down, I just drew a penis!

[jinnie-ret]

If ur taking rq still can I rq a skz x 15 year old girl in training (like that protection gic you wrote ) and how they react to her being good at producing, singing, rapping and dancing but they didnt know she could do all that until they keep running into her or maybe look for her because they ordered fkkd for her too eat with them and they see her in her rehearsals and in her dance practice room learning like idk an itzy choreo or sum by herself and they see shes improved since they last saw her do everything? Ig like a little Ace if u would like to put It that way!

It's ok if u don't want to or can't do this tho! Love ur writing💕

ace of hearts

stray kids x reader (platonic)

genre: fluff

content warnings: none

word count: 1.1k

summary: stray kids have nothing but good things to say about the upcoming ace of jyp.

I hope you enjoy! There's a small excerpt of a song Y/N has written herself which I actually wrote (it's a hobby of mine hehe) so if you want me to post the whole thing I'll do so, maybe as a poem haha

My asks are currently shut but if you want to be added to my taglist, do let me know! And if you liked it, please reblog and like! :)

MAIN MASTERLIST

Shoulder shimmying had never been so hard, but Y/N seemed to have finally gotten down the choreo to ITZY's 'Wannabe', the members of Stray Kids seeming to think so too. They had just been looking around for a room to practice in when they came across their young trainee friend, who they hadn't seen for a while due to their busy schedule.

A small applause sounded from behind Y/N, making her jump as she saw the door open and Stray Kids clapping for her.

"Ah! Hello sunbaenims!" Y/N blushed and bowed politely. She wasn't expecting to see them there, so absorbed into practising for her next showcase.

"Hi there!"

"Annyeong!"

"Wow!"

They all let out greetings as they walked over excitedly to Y/N.

"How has everything been? It's been a while since we saw you," Jeongin smiled widely at Y/N, trying to ease the obvious nerves he saw from her.

"Have you been practicing regularly? Your dancing has improved a lot," Changbin nodded his head in approval.

"Ah, you really think I've improved?! Yeah I've been practising a lot these days..." Y/N bashfully admitted, rubbing her sweaty palms on her leggings. Was it from exercising or from nerves? She wasn't quite so sure herself.

"We can see that. You're better at dancing and freestyling than us now," Lee Know laughed, praising the younger girl jokingly, but there was still a hint of seriousness to it that showed Y/N he was proud of her, and that helped her relax more.

"Maybe one day even Jisung will be jealous of your dancing skills," Felix laughed, causing the quokka like man to look over at him with a mock appalled face.

"Haha maybe I'll take his place as the ace," Y/N smirked, feeling comfortable enough to joke around with them. It wasn't a regular occurrence that she saw the boys but everytime she did, she was soon able to fall back into a relaxed state where it felt like she had known them forever.

"No way! You will never be as talented as me!" Jisung smirked back, yet he couldn't help but goofily smile back at her as he ruffled her hair.

"Well, we're glad you're practicing so hard. Would you like to have some fried chicken with us?" Seungmin piped up, his eagle eyes noticing that she only seemed to have some water in the room with her. Plus, he remembered what it was like being a trainee, and an offer of fried chicken would not be one to be turned down.

"Oh sure! If there's enough to go around!" Y/N clasped her hands together excitedly.

"Of course there's enough food! We're so proud of all your progress by the way, we can tell how hard you've been working, Y/Nnie," Chan praised her, as they all sat down together on the floor.

"Here, eat up," Hyunjin passed over a box of fried chicken to Y/N from the bags of fast food they had.

"Just remember to take a lot of rest too," Jisung commented genuinely, yet anyone could tell he, as well as the other members were very much so enthralled with the heaven sent food in front of them.

"Don't worry I do!" Y/N rushed out, before taking a bite of the fried chicken and wiggling slightly as she did a happy dance.

"You're so cute when you're excited!" Felix giggled as he saw her.

"That's exactly what Channie hyung does," Seungmin laughed along.

There was a moment of peaceful eating before Chan kept up the conversation.

"Oh yeah, we wanted to ask you something! Are you good at rapping?" Chan wondered, wiping his hands on a napkin.

"Well, I don't want to brag but I think I'm pretty good," Y/N shrugged, she had practiced enough and knew she was at JYP for a reason, and her talents certainly didn't go to waste when it came to rapping.

"Oh yeah? You actually rap too? I had no idea. Have you tried writing your own lyrics before?" Changbin got excited at the prospect of hearing Y/N rap.

"I'm not as confident in writing rap lyrics as I am in singing them if that makes sense?" Y/N explained, hoping it was understandable.

"I get what you mean. You must be very talented though since you can sing so well," Lee Know wondered.

"Do you happen to write your own songs too or do you learn songs from other artists?" Chan asked, interested in what her identity as a future artist would be.

"Oh I like to write my own songs too!" Y/N beamed. Now that, was an area she was proud of herself for.

"Really? Can you play one of your original songs for us?" Hyunjin said in a shocked tone, head tilting slightly in disbelief but wanting to hear her sing nonetheless.

The boys all stared at her in anticipation.

"Oh, sure... If you really want me to," Y/N became nervous again, because this was Stray Kids! Yes they felt like her friends but to sing her own personal works in front of them was still nerve wracking.

"Yes, we really want you to!" Jeongin encouraged her, offering that same reassuring smile as he did earlier.

All of the members were now eagerly waiting for her.

"Ok, here's a chorus I wrote recently," Y/N finally nodded, making the boys even more excited as she began to sing.

"Oh it's in my bones.

Hereditarily alone.

Surrounded by people,

But that gives no meaning.

It's in my bones."

The boys stared in in wonder, thinking the words were so beautiful and they loved the emotion she put into it even for such a small snippet of the song.

"Her voice is amazing..." Hyunjin was in awe.

"Yeah, you have a really good vocal tone!" Jisung clapped.

"And you wrote that yourself?" Chan smiled like a proud dad.

"Can we hear more?" Changbin said hopefully, nudging Y/N playfully.

"Well, I think I should now that I've sang a teaser for you," Y/N beamed, and for the next couple of minutes she sang the rest of the song to the boys. She even played a small backing track which consisted of an acoustic guitar, simple but sweet, building up towards the end of the song.

"I can't wait to see you debut!" Felix clapped with the other boys.

"You really will steal everyone's hearts, Y/N, you'll go far," Chan said, a big smile adorning his face as everyone offered their comments and praises to Y/N.

"Just don't let it get to your head," Lee Know joked, causing his members to whack him playfully and tell Y/N to not listen to him anymore.

"Thank you guys, it really means a lot."

tagged: @skz-streamer @kiraisastay @hannahhbahng @backintomykpopphaseagain @sakufilms @arloo00 @dunno-wut-to-do @splat00z @hanjiquokkaaa

[yan-lorkai]

Hiiiiiiiiii😍 ...so happy to see your request open😍😍 please write for yandere jamil and yandere riddle sharing the same darling (female reader) .(please make it fluffy if possible)...thank you ❤❤❤❤

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Warnings: Yandere content, poly relationship, female reader, implied isolation, murders, punishments.

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ In theory, it is a relationship capable of being long-lasting and functional. Riddle and Jamil are able to maintain a relationship based on mutual respect and the desire to keep you protected from other people. But before that happens they have things to discuss and deal with it, Jamil doesn't like how restrictive Riddle is and Riddle feels insecure that you'll like Jamil more for all the things he knows how to do.

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Although when they resolve these issues, they are quick to work to make you fall in love with them and propose a three-way relationship, Jamil and Riddle will always make sure you feel comfortable with them, whether this is your first time having a poly relationship or not.

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Riddle has no knowledge on what is expected in a romantic relationship but he did read quite a ton of romances. He is a little nervous but he doesn't show it, maintaining a gentleman persona around you, opening doors and accompanying you wherever you need to go, lending his ear to your problems and coaxing you to spend time with him and Jamil. He's not that touchy, both because he is not used to it and because he is too mindful of your boundaries and won't do something you don't explicitly want, he has more of a acts of service as his love language, but he occasionally likes to hold your hand or put one of his arms around your shoulders. He do more romantic things as your relationship progress and you're both comfortable with it.

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Jamil, on the other hand, is more relaxed with his affection to you, he knows you truly loves them both equally and he adjust himself to what you're more comfortable with. Though I do see him as someone who has more of a acts or service and quality time person, he absolutely love to spend his free time with you because you breath new air onto his stagnant life, you are a sight for sore eyes. And he is left giddy everytime you come to watch him play, scoring multiple times just to hear you cheering for him.

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Jamil sometimes helps Riddle articulate his thoughts, though he does find funny how much Riddle fumble awkwardly around you.

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Having a sister, Jamil knows quite well what get a girl's heart swelling happily and he does all sorts of things for you. He even let you using as a model for you, braiding his hair and painting his nails. Jamil likes gifting you things, though he rather likes making them himself. Turns the gift into something more personal since he was the one who created it. He can makes jewelry for you, can knit, sew and weave you clothes.

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ And while Jamil makes you those things, Riddle remain more suave, writing little poems or passing you little cute notes to remember you to drink water and take care of yourself. If Jamil provides for more on the material side of things, Riddle works more on your emotional, always checking on you.

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ They fall in sync very quickly and understand each other very well because of their love for you, almost being able to communicate through their looks. Sometimes they send each other photos and videos of you or exchange names about people that are being a bit too flirty and touchy with you, people who ended up missing and a bloody mess, oops. You're like the light in the end of the tunnel for them, the only good thing in their life and they spoil rotten. Attention, affection, everything you could ask for. They only ask is that you don't let your light be tainted by those other peoples.

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ While on NRC, you guys normally have study dates or baking dates, chitchat on Riddle's unbirthday parties, or just do something you really want to. You also have regularly sleepovers on your dorm.

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Things got complicated on vacation because Jamil and Riddle lives in different countries, plus Jamil has to deal with a lot being Kalim's servant. You three have to think of a way to deal with it everytime.

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ They don't punish you, they can't. Riddle can collar you, sure, but that won't stop you, if anything you'd be angry. So Jamil is usually the one to make you stop acting a certain way using his unique magic on you while cradles your face lovingly in his hands as he stared into your eyes. Your eyes slowly rolling back and your mind foggy, but it's ok, they've got you. Just stay pretty and love them as much as they love you.

[leonkennedygvrl]

cw: smut!

imagining leon as your study partner for your english major, you’re a complete book nerd. during class? you’re reading. break? you’re also reading. on the bus? still reading.

whilst you weren’t exactly an introvert, it seemed to change whenever leon was around. you’d become all shy and flustered, and this wouldn’t slip past him. being in the library alone was dreadful, because you’d be squeezing your thighs together constantly trying to forget the perverse thoughts you had out of him.

“what even are you reading?” leon asks, eyebrow raised as he sat a seat across you. “i like poetry, but you’re always reading it.”

he takes the book, skimming through pages left him in disbelief. the poems were short but consisted of unadulterated erotica.

when the sun finally falls and my parents are no longer awake, i feel at peace as my hand glides down my body, reaching the spot that made me see stars whenever i touched it.

he didn’t take you for the type to read this stuff, and progressively they got more… steamy. talking about fantasies, fetishes, or what the poet would wish their lover/crush would do.

one thing led to another after leon found your favourite poem in the book since the sticky note glued to the page had multiple hearts on it - so his big hand was in between your thighs, like the poem, two fingers curled and knuckle deep in your sopping wet pussy whilst he encouraged you to read that specific one. (well at least tried, he was just fingering you way too well :3)

though all that left your mouth were breathy whimpers that leon would block with his lips, you’re in a library, remember! silence is key!!

but it just felt so good, he knew what he was doing with that shit eating grin on his face, boner bulging through his pants.

what a nice study buddy you have <3

[elsaellaelys]

Beach Party: Witchy Like

Too late, but it should be on

Kinktober

summary: JJ is mesmerized by his girlfriend in her witch fantasy.

WARNINGS: 18+

pairing: Boyfriend! JJ Maybank x Girlfriend! fem!reader

1.287 words

a/n: Oh my God. I'm so ashamed of being late, I'm not gonna say anything. Bye <3

ps.: I'm only writing requests now as I am so busy (publishing my poems, baby). So let me know what you want to here.

--★--

JJ couldn't take his eyes off his girlfriend since she opened the door and sitted beside him in the car. They went stray to the Halloween party, but oh, how he wanted to ignore it all and bring her back home, to the bedroom. Her witch fantasy costume was dark, yet sultry. It featured a low cut top with a deep v-neck and spaghetti straps, offering a glimpse of her cleavage, a mini skirt with a slit fell over her legs, showing off her tanned thighs. A pair of fishnet stockings completed the look, adding a touch of sexy mystery.

Y/N's costume was incredible stunning and her figure was dazzling all who saw her. JJ felt boring compared to his girlfriend, weren't them supposed to match? He was dressed as a pirate, complete with a swashbuckling hat and a flamboyant outfit. When he first saw her in her witch fantasy costume, his heart skipped a beat. He had always found women in costumes attractive, and her outfit was no exception. When they were close, he couldn't help but note the way her legs looked in her mini skirt and how her cleavage was on display in her low-cut top.

As the party progressed, her JJ grew more and more attracted to her, his attention focused completely on her. His heart raced as he looked at her, her beauty and warmth flooding his senses and making him feel alive in a way he'd never experienced before.

Y/N understood the power she had over her boyfriend, and she knew how to use it to her advantage. As the party went, she would catch his eye and give him a seductive look, a flirtatious smile, or a teasing grin, sending his heart racing and his mind into overdrive. She knew how to push his buttons, to drive him wild with desire and passion. As she drew him further into her spell, he felt an overwhelming need to have her, to possess her, and to make her his. He was completely under her control, willing to do anything for her.

"Like what you see?" she asked, leaning over his shoulder from behind, playing with the hair on his neck. JJ smirked and tried to play it cool, but he felt her bobs pressed against his back, he was having a good time with his friends at the party, but he couldn't help but be distracted by her. Every time she laughed or smiled, his heart skipped a beat. Every time she walked past him, he got a tingle down his spine. He tried to focus on his conversations and stay engaged with his friends, but all he could think about was getting her alone. He couldn't wait to get her home, to have her all to himself. He kept urging her to leave the party, trying to come up with a reason to justify his impatience when suddenly an idea crossed his mind, JJ knew he had to make a move, he couldn't let his girlfriend's beauty go to waste.

He accidentally knocked over his beer, spilling it on her dress. "Oh no, darling look at this, we should clean it up, let's go the car." She looked annoyed at first, but he was so sincerely apologetic that she quickly forgave him. As they walked out to the car together, she couldn't help but notice his gaze and the way he was looking at her. She felt a strange mixture of annoyance and attraction, knowing that she was playing right into his hand.

He found a cloth in the glove compartment an began to help her dry the beer from her dress. As he rubbed the cloth against her dress, he kept his eyes locked with hers, his gaze filled with a mix of desire and affection.

He slowly leaned in, his breath grazing her skin, her heart racing as she waited to see what he would do. She was both flustered and excited by the way he was looking at her, feeling an intense heat build up inside. He kept rubbing the cloth, and his touch began to feel more intimate, his fingers gently caressing her skin. She closed her eyes, lost in the moment, her body tingling with anticipation.

And then, finally, their lips met in a passionate kiss. She could feel his tongue exploring her mouth, his hands caressing her hair and her face, his passion and desire pouring through her.

They didn't even remembered how they got into the car's backseat, cause the heat had grown to their whole body, soon he was guiding his hand down her dress, inside her panties, and, even between gasps and moans, she unbuttoned his pants.

"You look so hot, J."

"Really? I'm mean, you're the one who look stunning here. There's a bunch of pirates in the party."

"Oh bullshit." she pushed him for a kiss "You're the hottest, the most handsome, I just want you to take off this eye patch and this stupid pants." she laughed.

"Yeah? Then stay quiet for me. I've been struggling to not get hard the whole night, all because of this pretty costume..." He kissed her neck "This pretty body... Now let me make it worth the while."

He lifted her and her dress, putting her underwear to the side, somehow, he managed to get his hips between her open legs, pressing her to the seat. Y/N gasped, hands slapping at the window, eyes watering at how deep he already hitted her. "Shh, shh, shh, baby. You want someone to pass by and hear how well I'm making you feel?"

"Fuck J, I don't care, just go faster, please." she said in one breath.

"Oh, you want me to faster?" JJ mockingly asked, slowing his pace, making his girl groan, she pushed him back in with her leg, trying to fuck him herself, but he wouldn't let her move, locking his hips with hers and pressing her clit. "Oh, little witch can use her spell on me anymore?"

"Shit. Maybank. Don't do this right now." she clenched around him, ripping a moan from his throat. "We can go home after this, and you can do whatever you want, just let me finish."

"If you want it that much..." JJ quickly came back to his fast pace and Y/N quickly saw her edge, gripping his arm and the back of his neck while he pounded into her, she bitted his shoulder to shut her mouth when the pleasure took over her body. He didn't stopped though, she already started squirming, clenching even more, now JJ was fucking her own juices into her again, making wet sounds where their hips met.

"JJ..." she whispered.

"Shh... stop whining and cum again, witch." Y/N holded her lip between teeth, a new orgasm rushing over her again. And again. The sensation was overwhelming. It felt like a rush of heat flooding through his body, her heart racing, her breath coming in long gasps. She had lost control and was being taken over by an intense, undeniable desire. She couldn't think clearly, all of her rational thoughts disappearing in the face of the overwhelming pleasure.

"JJ, please..." She whispered.

"You know the safe word, baby." He remembered her, but quickly pulled out, rubbing her clit in the way he knew it would be her end. And he was right. She squirted all over his chest letting out a long "Fuuck!" Her mind, for a moment, was transported to another place, of pure and overwhelming bliss.

JJ smirked widly. "That's not the word, so I'm gonna take that's not the end." He sitted beside her, dick still standing tall. "Come here, make me cum now."

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for possibly being a dick to my friends?

I (15, genderfluid) have had a group of friends since I was 12-13 (all about my age, mostly F but varying degrees of gender). We'd have the occasional drama, mostly started by my now-ex friend (let's call her A) (15F), but everything was pretty okay.

That was until about February, when my friend, B (15F) broke up with A. B told me that A had been saying some nasty things about me behind my back (that I'm sensitive, ugly, annoying, etc). I was hurt, because I thought A was a good friend prior to learning this. I confronted A about it (I didn't tell her that B told me), and our relationship got a bit rocky from there. I ended up blocking A for my own mental health.

Quick context break, from what I can piece together, A would call me sensitive because I would protest her and others joking about suicide.

Things started getting hairy when our mutual friend C (15M) told everyone that he didn't think I was sensitive, and that the casual joking about suicide had caused him a lot of problems. A then immediately did a 180 and tried to end the drama between us by getting B to send me messages she wanted me to hear. However, despite apparently wanting to end the drama, she did not apologize to me, and instead said, "I'm not sorry, because in my eyes you are sensitive," amongst other things.

Around this time, my then-partner, D (14NB) broke up with me, citing they weren't in the right mental state for a relationship. A week later, they started dating B.

I was feeling really hurt and lied to at this point, and I kind of cut off D until C got me and them into a group chat to talk through our problems. We made a bit of progress and talked through our feelings. I was two hours ahead of them at the time, though, so it was past midnight for me.

A slightly important part of this story is that I have a tendency to write self-indulgent poetry about my feelings. This includes one about the red flags I noticed in me and D's relationship, but ignored. To wrap up the conversation and get to sleep, I sent that poem to C and D instead of a proper explanation of some of the stuff I was mad at D about. (In retrospect, this was a very stupid idea. But I was desperate for sleep, so?)

A couple days later, C explained to me that the drama between me and A had kind of messed him up, and that for his own mental health, he would go no-contact with me for a while to work on himself (which is fine, that's respectable).

Afterwards, B seemingly got mad at me for the whole poem thing, so I asked her about it. We had what I felt like was a mature conversation, and wrapped up most of the problems she had with it (mostly that it looked like I had compared D to an unsavory public figure, which I explained was not my intention). I also sent an apology to D for insulting them and causing any problems with that poem. They said it was fine, and that they weren't that offended.

Today (just barely, in fact), B blocked me, stating that I talk too much shit and cause a lot of problems.

Tldr;

Why I might be TA: There's a very real possibility that I do talk too much shit without realizing it, especially because, in the past, I've been known to not realize when people are uncomfortable with my actions unless they directly tell me.

Why I might not be TA: I feel like, for my situation, and knowing only what I knew at the time, I made justified decisions.

[mime-the]

Hello guys, gals, and nonbinary pals!

It’s time for me to share my CRK AU, which was oh so nicely encouraged to be done by a few little peeps. [You know who you are…]

Ahem, here we go!

Summary

The Mirrored Destinies AU is basically a swap between the 5 ancients and their respective beasts. Shadow Milk swaps roles with Pure Vanilla, and so on! This influences everyone’s personalities to be tweaked for obvious reasons, and for silly new dynamics.

Deceit & Truth

Pure Vanilla Cookie is now the Beast of Deceit. This brings along a name change, and he becomes Vanilla Extract Cookie!

- Vanilla Extract follows an “ignorance is bliss” philosophy. This means that he conceals the truth and twists it to be more “appealing”. He covers up whatever bad deeds his friends do and passes the harder ones as good deeds that were “probably deserved”. This lack of concrete knowledge allows him to manipulate cookies in his favor, as they don’t have the information to allow them to break out of his lies.

- He uses his magic to apply pressure and fog up other cookies’ minds, giving him an opening to sow his own truth. He may not be a complete puppeteer like canonical Shadow Milk, but he still uses others to do his dirty work by whispering sweet lies to them.

- He’s more calm, but still relatively snarky and keen to stand his ground if someone tries to go against him. Vanilla Extract also has a superiority complex, perceiving himself as the master of knowledge and believes that he knows what’s “right” for everyone.

- Vanilla Extract’s greatest ally is this AU’s White Lily Cookie, as the virtue of silence tends to go hand in hand with keeping the truth hidden.

Here’s what the old man looks like:

In turn, Shadow Milk Cookie is now the holder of the light of truth! This too carries along a name change, making him Skim Milk Cookie.

- Skim Milk is the embodiment of the phrase “curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.” He always seeks out the truth of a situation, even if it may result in upsetting knowledge. He also frequently gives constructive criticism to other cookies, in attempts to make them aware of their faults and where they can get better. This is usually prefaced with a “Can I be honest with you?”

- Like the canonical Pure Vanilla, he is adept in healing magic. Unlike him though, Skim Milk is more willing to use force when necessary. Of course, if a situation can be resolved without escalation he will take it, and frequently tries to deescalate if he sees things getting antsy. He also uses the knowledge he has to write poems, songs, and other such creative things in order to bring awareness to issues or progress of things that people should support.

- He’s pretty high-energy, and is almost always moving or thinking. This means he has a tendency for tapping his hands on items. Personality-wise, it means he is actually relatively optimistic! He always believes things will be better, and that every issue can be worked out in the end. He does also have some sass to him though, but he does his best to keep it at a minimum.

Here’s how the dork looks like:

Their Dynamic

The relationship between them sparked when Vanilla Extract Cookie wriggled out of the silver tree, fully solidifying the connection between the two, even after resealing. They share a mutual hate for each other, as Skim Milk despises how his counterpart keeps waving away the truth in favor of lies, and Vanilla Extract despises how many questions the poet constantly asks him. Vanilla Extract tries to get him to use his writing capabilities to sow in distrust and discord between other cookies whenever the two interact, but Skim Milk always fights back. In return, he constantly tries to interrogate the beast for information about the past and his own life, which pisses him off frequently as he insists that the information doesn’t concern the hero. It’s a constant tug of war between the two…

[joyburble]

So, we see Donfang Qingcang reading on screen several times, and I think it's an important character message.

On encountering a problem, in episode 4, that can't be addressd by violence, what is the first thing our character does? He RTFMs. He sends Shanque to fetch the Fucking Manual, and he Reads It. What. In fact, they both read it, at least until they find the right bit.

Iconic. And adorable.

Definitely much less surprising in a Chinese genre than it would be in any English-language genre. But this section is so spectacular I want to give it a lot of weight.

The scroll is extremely long. He baulks, for a second, at the length,

but this, his face says, cannot possibly defeat him: he backs himself (I love it) and gets down to work.

It's illustrated. I'd love to hear from someone who can read any part of the text. He engages in detail with the content.

He continues in episode 5, having made some progress, and still backing himself to work out what it all means.

He takes it out on the balcony to study it by daylight. When his plans don't succeed at first, he doesn't reject the information, he thinks about it harder and compares it with the data.

Then something interesting happens: after making Orchid's tummyache better, he sits down, and without any stated reason tries to read something else, which looks like a completely normal book:

He can't focus because she's so sad, but we get a glimpse of the corner of a title label. When he puts it down, we can see it's a paperback stitched in the traditional Chinese manner.

It could be anything, but looks a reasonable size for a novel. There are also some other books on the table. Maybe they're technical works from Xiao Lanhua's library, and he's just bored and curious?

This wouldn't be as clear if it was the only example, or if we saw other characters repeatedly reading. But I don't think we do.

In episode 18 post-whump we learn again that what he does to relax and distract himself, when in pain and/or wanting attention, is read a book. It's a slim volume with a vertical format and a pretty, embellished cover. Perhaps a book of poems?

In Episode 26, now knowing he is loved, he is reading for fun again, with no explanation asked or given. Another sewn book, but in this case it has a hard cover with a shiny and colourful design. What could it be? Who knows? It seems to be making him smile a little.

The message we are getting, here, is that what he does when he wants to relax and enjoy life, is read. We’re supposed to understand that in his natural disposition, minus his father’s crimes and his profession of violence, he is a gentleman and a scholar. He is curious. He is capable of handling new information. He has brains and capabilities and ingenuity. He has a big ego, but he can put it in the engine room, not the driving seat. It's a gently-delivered message, but I think it contributes a lot to our perception of the character.

In dream-world episode 31, he is reading a scroll with Xiao Lanhua. Are they reading a story to each other? Doing the voices?

So apparently in his imagination it's a bonding activity too: you can read together with a person you love and share your reactions. A bit like you and I are doing now.

Finally, I think they published this behind-the-scenes shot for a reason (thank you @moonsupremesblog, and I'm sorry this probably should have been a reblog of this post but I got too far in before I remembered)

We can see it's Dylan Wang referring to a script, but we do a double-take because it's totally in character, the lighting, composition, and depth-of-field intentionally reinforce that effect, and we have to look at the plastic cover and the little place-tags to realise it isn't.

[mareastrorum]

and 8.? Very related, might be the same thing.

1. the character everyone gets wrong

It's hard for me to gauge how many people actually hold a particular fandom opinion about a specific character. A lot of the C2 characters fit here, as do some C3 people, so I'll go for one that isn't discussed as often.

I think a lot of people get Caduceus wrong because his arc was fairly subtle in the stream. He went from a passive believer in the Wildmother to a cleric acting upon the world in her name. In the beginning, he was always looking for signs and waiting for someone to tell him what to do. He liked that.

But in a world like Exandria, Caduceus needed to become someone who would make decisions and choose a path, and he did. He was the first one to learn about Cognouza. He insisted on learning more about it. In every discussion, he insisted every time that it was aberrant, wrong, and had to be stopped. Early Caduceus never would have done that, but by the time the Nein got to the end game, he was ready for it.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

I'm going to be honest, I almost went with a tamer answer, but this is the "choose violence" ask game, and it’s Indigenous People’s Day, so here's the answer that's going to invoke carnage.

The Nine Eyes of Lucien was a terrible book. It sucked for many reasons, but the key one that has soured more as time goes by is that Brevyn Oakbender is a white savior.

First: what is a white savior? A white savior is a trope in western media where a white character saves a minority character (or a group) from the plight of being naturally inferior. It’s been around for a few hundred years now, and it gained prevalence in the U.S. in the slave trade era. A more well known historical example is the poem The White Man’s Burden, which was one of many works justifying colonization because white supremacists reasoned that was how indigenous peoples could be included in the modern, proper, Christian culture of whites. For those who don't want to click links, here's the first stanza of the poem:

Take up the White Man's burden— Send forth the best ye breed— Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child.

Man, that sure would be on the nose for tieflings, wouldn’t it?

More recent works involving the white savior trope tend to focus on middle-class white characters (especially women) acting charitably towards minorities (especially Black characters) as a way to highlight how good white people are for fixing the problems minorities face. Most importantly, there is little, if any, criticism aimed at white characters or the systems of oppression that benefit them and which caused the problems in the first place. Instead, those social ills are typically reframed as failures by individuals, who are also conveniently minority characters. It's just that the "it's because they're not white" part isn't said aloud much these days.

Not every white character in a story about minority characters is a white savior. The purpose is what matters. Characters are narrative devices to tell a story, so why is this white character in the story? What do they add to the plot, characterization, and themes? If the white character is constantly portrayed as superior and benevolent towards the inferior minority characters, and the plot progression is directly tied to the decisions, actions, and roles of the white character, then that is a white savior story. A lot of stories about white people standing up to racism, bigotry, and systemic oppression tend to fuck this up because the creators choose to make the white character the hero. White savior stories are about how great white people are, not about the minorities they deign to help. It is not something an author does accidentally. It takes effort to structure a story that way.

In all honesty, this trope tends to fly under the radar because most audiences just aren’t examining things critically or from a critical race theory perspective. I wasn’t even sure that had been what I’d read until I read through TNEOL a second time the following week. I first noticed this because each time I read a derivative work of any kind (even licensed ones or adaptations like novelizations), I am extremely critical of new characters. Why did the author add someone new? What does this character add that could not be achieved with pre-existing characters? There is always a reason for it, and it’s not always bad, but that reason informs my opinion of the work overall.

In the case of Brevyn Oakbender, the only unique trait she added that could not have been achieved with a pre-existing character is that she is blonde, blue-eyed, light-skinned—white. Literally everything else about her personality, behaviors, roles, and actions could have been achieved with any of the other Tombtakers because almost all of their facets were unknown in canon.

If Brevyn was only supposed to be a self-insert, it really wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Representation is generally a good business decision in media, especially when the target audience matches with that background, and—let’s be real—white people are more likely to buy books featuring white people. While I won’t presume to map Lucien onto any particular minority group, a tiefling with purple skin and red eyes is definitely not an analogue for a white character, and neither is Cree, a black-furred tabaxi. While Tyffial, Zoran, and Otis are arguably white (lighter skin tones, specifically), they are also “other” enough (elf, goliath, halfling) that it wouldn’t give some white audience members that same feeling of having a main character who they can reflect themselves onto. But, wait: why not use Jurrell? The only thing set in stone about Jurrell was the name and that they had died after Lucien (which wouldn’t be too hard to set up as a tragedy appropriate for the book). But Jurrell isn’t a very white name is it? Enter an Aryan girl with a clearly white first and last name. If that was all there was to it, I’d have chalked that up to PRH setting expectations to achieve sales and not thought all that much of it. That level of incidental white race emphasis is just business in the U.S.

Except that in TNEOL, Brevyn is also responsible for every positive development in Lucien’s life and is the catalyst for the plot moving forward. Lucien only causes problems and Brevyn solves them, right up until she dies for him.

Lucien’s canon backstory isn’t touched upon in the stream except for the most recent 2 years. The stream only covers that (1) he grew up in Shadycreek Run, (2) people were unkind to him because he is a tiefling, (3) he somehow joined the Claret Orders and became a ghostslayer, (4) he led the Tombtakers away from the Orders, which had become “clouded”, (5) the Tombtakers were active for about 5 years before Lucien died, (6) they did illegal acquisitions, bodyguarding, and thieving, as well as expeditions into Molaesmyr, (7) Vess DeRogna hired them to escort her to Eiselcross and the ruins of Aeor, (8) during that expedition, Lucien kept a book that Vess felt was rightfully hers, (9) after agreeing to a trade for the book, Vess DeRogna killed Lucien during a ritual to travel to Cognouza, (10) Lucien’s soul was shattered and eventually reconstituted once Molly died, and (11) he is the Nonagon chosen by the Somnovem. Everything else was implication at best or unknown.

As a prelude: It’s not reasonable to constantly attribute all plot developments to the protagonist. Overdoing it can come off as very “Mary Sue” because the protagonist would somehow be the only person in the world that can make change happen. It’s also a little strange for a character not to want to settle into some type of normalcy. Even in a TTRPG story, there has to be some goal, and it might be as simple as securing a “wander the world and do quests for money” type of life. Plot stagnation is about whether the story is moving forward, not whether the characters have something to do with their time. Thus, external forces must be a catalyst for changes in at least a few situations to avoid both Sue-ishness and plot stagnation. Among many options, new characters are often introduced to move the story along when an existing character otherwise would not take action. They might be a quest giver, a new ally/rival/enemy, or a new party member. Thus, it is perfectly reasonable to expect some plot developments to be attributable to characters other than Lucien even though he is the protagonist in the book, and it’s totally reasonable for a new character to come in and handle some of that.

So here are the plot changes caused by Brevyn:

She heals Lucien from a potentially lethal injury, and he falls in love with her at first sight;

Brevyn's mother provides Lucien with room and board (which had not been offered previously), thereby side-stepping all survival issues caused by being a poor, homeless orphan in Shadycreek Run;

Lucien and Cree join the Claret Orders based on Brevyn’s recommendation;

Lucien, Cree, Otis, and Brevyn leave the Claret Orders to work for the Cerberus Assembly (specifically, Vess DeRogna) because of a referral extended by Elias de Corvo specifically to Brevyn;

Tyffial, Jurrell, and Zoran—who had been squatting in Brevyn’s mom’s home—teamed up with the group to steal Brevyn’s mom’s bones from a crypt, and that incident is the reason they came together and are named the “Tombtakers”;

Lucien doesn’t lose the Somnovem’s book during a cave in, resulting in him becoming the Nonagon.

For a story where Lucien is supposed to be the protagonist, that’s an incredible number of key plot advancements that were directly caused by a supporting character. The same supporting character. The sole white character. That's also not getting into the little details like she's the reason that Lucien uses twin black scimitars, that he wears shirts to show off cleavage, that he likes butterfli— wait, I said I wasn't going to get into those details. Moving on.

Why weren't any of those plot developments a result of actions or choices by Lucien or any of the other Tombtakers? I’ll briefly examine each of those, because these choices matter. They weren’t made in a vacuum, but Roux insisted in her interview that she had broad leeway to do with the story as she pleased. She made conscious decisions about what the story would be. So what does that tell us compared to the alternatives she could have chosen?

The meet cute over a trap bomb was why Lucien was interested in Brevyn in the first place, and their romance was barely touched in the book other than some flirting and brief references to how Lucien felt about her. The result is that it felt like part of a checklist, which is disappointing given how much set up was done to explain why Lucien got a bomb to the face and Cree didn’t. We also know Cree as the cleric of the Tombtakers, but Brevyn is the one that heals Lucien. We could hand wave that away as Cree not yet developing those abilities, but there’s also the simple fact that blood hunters don’t have healing abilities. So not only does Brevyn have skills that the reader expected from a different character, she is also an exceptional character with abilities not available to others like her. And sure, Lucien could have fallen in love at first sight in some other way, but this set up emphasizes his carelessness and helplessness, and it establishes Brevyn's unique level of charity, empathy, beauty, and skills right off the bat.

Next, we address the fact that Brevyn and her family gave Lucien a modicum of stability. How Lucien survived as a destitute orphan on the streets of Shadycreek Run could have made for an interesting backdrop to a lot of character development, especially the negative aspects of his personality. The only real reasons not to use that to frame Lucien’s character development at that time are (a) word budget within the novel, and (b) what themes can be explored in that circumstance. By introducing a white family to house Lucien, the situation becomes “good-hearted white people extend a hand of charity to a murderous, reckless colored boy” instead of “destitute boy struggles to survive after escaping abuse and is refused aid because of racism.” Neither makes Lucien look good, per se, but one definitely makes white characters look good, and it saves on word count. It also conveniently lets Roux minimize the issue of racism in Lucien’s background.

Given that the Claret Orders is a secretive group, it makes sense that the most common way that anyone would be recruited is a chance encounter with an existing member. There is no LinkedIn or job board recruiting people to undergo a secret ritual and learn to fight monsters. Conveniently, Brevyn is already a member and was visiting her mother at the exact time that Lucien showed up with a hole in his face, and somehow, she came to the conclusion that referring him and Cree to join the Orders was a good idea. We don’t know why she thought that because the book didn’t elaborate. Another option could have been another character meets all three of them and recruits them together. Any of the other Tombtakers could have been used for that purpose, and it would even start the thread about how they fostered that connection into their eventual mercenary group. However, that might have required some exposition or side plot, and then Brevyn wouldn’t have been elevated over Lucien or Cree by age, experience, and competency.

Once at the Claret Orders, there had to be a reason that Lucien and the Tombtakers-to-be chose to leave. In the stream, Cree had said that Lucien led them away and alluded to some sort of disagreement between the group and the Orders, but that was done away with. Instead, Lucien languished at the Orders and had no plan for his future, then left once Brevyn received a job recommendation from Elias de Corvo, and she asked Lucien to come along. Why pass up the other Tombtakers for this? Why couldn’t it have been a job that turned into a new path? This retcon is particularly disappointing because Lucien’s acquisition of skill and experience as a blood hunter would have been a good point to seed character development, both for a coming of age timeline and in this early arc of the novel. However, this was another opportunity to cement how charitable and respected Brevyn is, and that was more important to Roux than any of the other threads to be explored in that section of the book. After all, Brevyn was recommended by the most famous blood hunter in Exandria to work for the most powerful group of mages in the empire, and most importantly, none of the other Tombtakers were—especially not Lucien. The white girl is superior yet again.

The Tombtakers’ group name is a pretty obvious reference to grave robbing, and the fact that Lucien was pleased to refer to the group as that in the stream suggests that he liked the name. It came off as tongue-in-cheek and demonstrated a lack of shame from each of the members. The origin could have been an inside joke, a petty rebellion against the need for a mercenary group to have names, or any number of reasons. However, the origin Roux chose is that the group formed by stealing bones from the Jagentoths, not because they actually rob graves as a profession, nor because of anything to do with pillaging the heritage of elves in Molaesmyr. After all, that would be villainous, and Brevyn—a white person—is a member, so the Tombtakers needed to be neutral or good, not evil. Thus it’s a kind-hearted mission to put a white woman’s remains to rest and help the grief-stricken white protagonist side character. Because the key part of white savior stories is that the white savior is good, and that cannot be maligned by a negative reference to grave robbing.

The problem with adding a new Tombtaker is that the character also needs to disappear before canon events and there needs to be a reason that no one refers to that person by name in the stream. Thus, it was obvious from the start that Brevyn would either leave the group on poor terms or die. The former would require more plot and word count, so it’s no surprise that we got the latter. Lucien discovered the Somnovem’s book in the ruins of Aeor, but subsequently the group had to flee a cave in. While running, Lucien (a dexterity-based ghostslayer, which is a subclass with the signature ability to literally move through solid matter—like a ghost) tripped, then Brevyn grabbed him and dragged him along (because we need to know that she is not only stronger than him, but she is also more agile and faster), and he dropped the book. Once they got to an apparently safe location, she ran back, grabbed the book, and was crushed by the cave in. Even Brevyn’s death was orchestrated to emphasize her martyrdom and consideration of Lucien, who inexplicably failed at the exact things he should excel at. Out of all the ways Brevyn could have died, Roux chose to have her die in a way that makes her look good and Lucien look incompetent. It couldn’t just be that he discovered the book that would doom him; his interest in the book had to get a white character killed before he ever opened it, which conveniently doubles as a justification for the Tombtakers resorting to villainy. Now there’s no need to explain why such a positive influence in Lucien’s life had not prevented any of the canon events. Instead, it implies that things wouldn’t have gone so badly if the white character had still been around to guide everyone else.

Of course, later, both Molly and Cree attempt to invoke Brevyn's memory to dissuade Lucien from his path as the Nonagon, because obviously there's no other positive role models in his life. In fact, they also argue that if he would just mourn her properly, that would help him realize he's on the wrong path—positing that even his decision to try to take over the world is also because of Brevyn. Specifically, the lack of Brevyn and Lucien's inability to cope without her. Finally, even his decision to stop the fight at the very end is also tied to her memory. The white girl isn't even there for any of that, and Roux made absolutely sure that we knew that every positive choice Lucien made or could have made was because of Brevyn.

There isn't a single decision that Brevyn made in TNEOL that was wrong unless we conclude that her decisions to help/save Lucien were wrong. Wow. Wait a minute. In fact, that's objectively correct. If Brevyn had just let Lucien die or not given him a helping hand at any point in the story, the whole plot with Lucien as the Nonagon never would have happened, and the world would have been saved by his sheer incompetence. Let me rephrase that: the only wrong decisions the white character made were to help the non-white protagonist.

WOW.

So, hey, if you are an aspiring writer who happens to be white, and you plan on writing a story about characters that aren't white, maybe don't insert a white savior. Just don’t do it. That'd be great if you could avoid being that blatantly racist. I would truly appreciate it. If you manage that, then congratulations, you have already managed to write a better story than New York Times best-selling author Madeleine Roux’s The Nine Eyes of Lucien, because at least you aren’t resorting to white supremacist tropes to appeal to a primarily white audience in the 2020s.

In closing, the common fandom opinion that TNEOL was a good story is wrong. TNEOL sucked, Roux is either racist or happy to use racist tropes for money, and I feel bad for the CR team that this is what they got for taking a chance on a villain novel.

Happy Indigenous People’s Day. :D

Choose violence ask game.

[skeletinmoss]

The curse of the dark Phoenix

Chapter 8: Rescue plan

First chapter | Previous | Next

“Well, I managed to read the journal,” Logan offered handing Virgil the book in question, open on a specific page. Clearly curious to see Virgil’s response to what was on it.

Roman hoped Lo knew better than to show Virgil that poem. He thought Logan was more invested in protecting the arch mage’s dignity than that.

Was he really that concerned about Roman getting his heart broken? Or was he hoping to gauge Virgil’s opinion of Gustav?

“Hm,” Virgil mused as he flipped past the page Logan handed to him. He briefly glanced at a few more and then returned the journal. Not too affected by the contents. Other than a bit of pity. “Good job. Though this is not the true text yet,” Virgil pointed out.

Logan nodded and tucked the book away. “Yes. After hearing him talk. The way he writes is… it doesn’t match at all,” he muttered frustrated.

“Logan. It was Gustav’s job for longer than you can phantom to uncover and keep secret information. If you broke through all his protections in one day, I’d have to wonder how he managed to be the best in the game for so long,” Virgil pointed out, making Logan feel significantly better about his slow progress.

“After we save your friends we should pass by the archives for old maps to see if there are any clues as to where these ruins lie,” Logan mused. “Though we should see the council before that to inform them of our discoveries. I don’t think we can, in good conscious keep the three of you a secret from them and the king for too long…” Logan mused.

“Actually, Remus would be your best bet on finding the ruins. He traveled the uninhabited areas of the country the most over the years. He didn’t get the title ‘terror of the mountains’ by attending knitting circles,” Virgil pointed out.

“Terror?” Patton asked, his voice skipping a few octaves.

Virgil chuckled. “Exagerated. He’s a little feral but harmless,” he promised. “Mostly,” he added after a moment’s consideration. Oh. That was so reassuring. Still. The man Roman remembered from the memory seemed to have some kind of control over his potentially more aggressive tendencies.

“Well. In any case. That means that both our missions lead to the same place. Logan? Any clue?” Roman asked.

“Actually, yes. Based on the uniforms Remus described, I put together that we are looking for a colder climate, and he mentioned water leaking from the ceiling several times. He said it was a temple, he never mentioned anything like a cave, no animals coming in other than those they brought to sacrifice to him. And a big red stone that seemingly grew from the ground. Which was also, wet. I think that they are in an underwater temple. Specifically at the sunlake, so named because so called Sun stones naturally occur here. And I think that this is how they keep him in his guidance form. With an unusually large sunstone,” Logan surmised proudly.

“Sunlake… Hmmm. I think we called it by a different name back in the day. But I think I know the one you talk about. It makes sense. And the good news is, there’s an inn not too far from there. Which means that we can be with Remus as soon as a day after we stop by my home,” Virgil smiled satisfied.

Roman was about to argue the math, but then he realized that the kind innkeepers probably could let their visitors out through any of their locations.

He trusted that Virgil knew the math on this journey better than them. Not to mention, them having horses now might alter the time table.

“We have a plan. So now we have some rest. And some food. And then we travel on,” Virgil stated. Roman couldn’t help but smile at the hope rising in his chest.

Wanting to take full advantage of the upswing in Virgil's mood, Roman, jumped up and made a grand gesture. "Then we will make haste and free your friend from his prison in three day’s time!” he declared. “We will storm the church and free him from whatever chackles hold him prisoners and clear a path for his Grand escape!” as the picture became clearer he remembered that they hadn’t exactly left the capitol prepared to take on cultists. And their secret weapon might be going in with a handicap.

“We should try and find weapons to defend against the cultists. I assume that the sunstone will affect you too?" he asked.

Virgil nodded. "Even if I had a moonstone amulet on me, from the sound of it the sunstone in the temple is pretty big. It would cancel any moonstone I could carry with me out," he confirmed, growing concerned.

"Even Remus isn't crazy enough to set off a spell in guide form in a potentially unstable building. It's hard to take half measures in that form, I won’t be of much help." And the good mood was going down. Roman was not so easily discouraged however.

"No need to worry! We can practice some defensive spells in the next few days. You and Pat can teach us! And once we have our hands on some weapons we're going to be fine. The cultist have been doing their thing undisturbed for 50 years. They won't know what hit them. Before they can remember defensive protocol, we'll be out of there!" Roman declared confidently. Virgil smiled carefully. Some hope returning. And something else...

"Let's start with getting some sleep. I presume we will forego the meditative magic hour and opt for a full 8 hour cycle now that we have this... time altering circle active?" Logan surmised. Mildly uncomfortable nut also fascinated by the magics at work.

"Janus is going to love you,” Virgil smirked. “But yes. Rest first," he agreed a bit reluctantly.

They set up to rest in the room. There was only one bed and it was out of the circle Virgil made. So they laid out their sleeping mats on the floor. Heads to the center.

Roman laid down with Virgil to his right and Logan to his left, Patton across from him. It didn't take long before his friends let rest take them. The high mage, however, was wide awake and growing less likely to fall asleep with the minute.

"You aren't sleeping," Virgil observed, laying on his side, facing Roman.

"Neither are you," Roman pointed out mirroring his position by tucking his arm under his head like a pillow.

"That shouldn't bother you too much. Just ignore me. Go to sleep," Virgil instructed.

"I'm not going to leave you to worry by yourself. Especially while you also feel guilty. Which you shouldn't, but I get it," he offered. Virgil kept quiet.

"No one saw it coming, and you didn’t have any reason to think something was off. If you had, I have no doubt you would have stopped it. That is likely why they went after you first," Roman pointed out. "You can't drive yourself mad on what ifs and should haves. You are here now and you are fixing it. And in order to fix it you need to be well rested. Reincarnating has to take up a lot of energy. So rest. Remus will get your message the moment we break the circle. You will see him again soon. And you can kick his butt for being by himself while people were going missing," Roman rambled.

Virgil chuckled, warm fondness trickling through to Roman's mind.

Then he was silent for a long moment, contemplative. "I know you... have affectionate feelings for me," he mused. Roman felt himself go red. Oh. So they were having that conversation now. Okay…

"And I... won't pretend that i don't... that my initial superficial attraction to you hasn't started to grow into something else..." Roman's heart started racing. Sure he’d felt Virgil had positive feelings towards him, but he hadn’t been sure which parts of those had been mere wishful thinking fueled misinterpretations on his part.

"But I’m... I cant explore that with you right now. Too much is going on. I can't be distracted. Not even by a verry cute guy like you," he insisted. Roman nodded in understanding. Not trusting his voice. Virgil maybe kind of sort of liked him back…

"Can you be patient with me?" Virgil asked.

That was a ‘later’! Not a ‘no’ but a ‘Later’!!!!

"Of course," Roman promised as soft as he could so his voice wouldn’t do something weird.

Virgil smiled at him and for a moment his guards went down and Roman felt his fondness in full force and he knew that it was for Him. He made him feel that way…

“I think I can sleep now. Thank you," Virgil murmured before curling up and slowly drifting off.

Roman grinned to himself and used Virgil's building inner calm mellow out his own feelings so he could find sleep too.

Sure, he had to wait. But in all honesty he wasn’t entirely sure about his feelings himself. He had enough to figure out, not just on his feelings about Virgil but about how the quest was turning out. They could take it a day at a time.