#and not even death did them part not really

[strawberrykidneystone]

your hot neighbor sevika pt. 2

a/n: AHHH TYSM FOR THE LOVE ON PART ONE I REALLY LIKE THIS SERIES IM GLAD YALL DO TOO <333

part 1

a week later, after silco reluctantly had one of his goons trail you when sevika asked, she got your name

damn, you had a very pretty name

after work, you went behind the apartment building as usual to fill up the bowls with food and water for the stray cats

and wash the blankets in the cat houses if they needed

but someone had beat you to it

there she was, sevika making a scrunched up face as she opened a few cans of wet food for the eager cats surrounding her

you practically swooned at the sweet sight, hot and good with animals? what didn’t this woman have?

she brushed her hands off and stood up straight, finally making eye contact with you

“hey there pretty girl”

you giggled and crossed your arms, glancing down at the cats enjoying their food, “ ‘re you a cat mom now sevika?”

“always have been, though someone else feeds them sometimes, guess i share custody,” she said smoothly with a wink, bending down and scratching down the back of an orange tabby

“wow, sharing custody and you haven’t even taken me out yet.”

sevika stood back up to her standing height, basically towering over you as she leaned in close, “well i know a way to rectify that, y/n.”

you raised an eyebrow with a smirk and looked up at her so that the two of you were practically nose to nose, “yeah? is that the prize you want for getting my name ‘vika?”

“i’m thinking of a much sweeter prize,” she practically purred and tilted her head, her lips so close to yours that you could feel her warm breath against your own lips

you looked down at her lips and bit your lip, glancing briefly off to the side, “here? in front of the kids?”

sevika snorted and half smirked, her lambret piercing tugging to the side as she did, “im not about to let a few cats cock block me.”

you laughed and shook your head, throwing your arms around her neck and pressing a deep kiss against her lips that she immediately returned, wrapping her arms around your waist

one of your hands felt up the fuzzy side of her undercut and pushed your fingers through her hair, causing sevika to groan against your lips

she squeezed your waist and pulled you closer, your chests pressed firmly against each other as the kiss got deeper

just as you bit sevika’s bottom lip to shove your tongue in her mouth, one of the cats coughed up a hair ball

what a mood killer…

the two of you laughed it off, you explaining that the cat was unofficially named smoky since she coughed like a smoker (sevika laughed a little too hard at that🤨)

sevika cleared her throat and looked down into your eyes, “so… i’ll pick you up at 8?”

“8 it is,” you said with a smile, holding your hand out to her

she took your hand with her flesh one and laced your fingers together, walking into the apartment building

she walked you to your front door and the two of you shared a small peck before she walked back to her own apartment to get ready for your date

you swore that she was walking with a spring in her step that wasn’t there before

the date goes well and the two of you live happily ever after with 20 cats weeeeee!

taglist: @maneskinwh0re @archangeldyke-all @fandoms-will-be-the-death-of-me @sevikasfan @lez-zuha @comfortripley @sunflowerwinds

[homeofhousechickens]

Can I talk about something serious. I want to talk about some shared trauma I think me and some of the people in my askbox might share.

If you have experienced something similar feel free to give your thoughts.

Content warning for animal death and child and animal abuse.

I see a lot of people who say they couldn't raise an animal and eat it because they have this horrible memory where their family got them a pet or maybe they just got really attached to a specific farm animal that was or wasnt destined to be killed then at a later date their family either kills the animal in a traumatic inhumane fashion and makes the kid eat it or they sneakily cull the animal then feed it to the kid then go "haha your eating your friend" (horrific to do that to someone btw)

I'm not talking about meat chickens that you named and knew where going to be eaten either but it's also ok if that made you sad as well. It should make you sad it's normal.

What im talking about is when you have a favorite cow and your family knows this, then they go out into the field and shoot her in the head because you backed talk them. Or maybe you're really attached to a specific rabbit, you name it, and your family says you can keep it till one day your family gets mad at you so they cull it and make you eat it.

I want to say that your experience is awful and that you were abused. You are justified in feeling hurt and your trauma is valid.

The sad fact of the matter is your family didn't do that to teach you about death or your food or whatever. It is likely your family did that because they want wanted to cause you emotional pain on purpose. That's why the event usually happens after a bad grade or a you misbehaved a bit. Of course it can come out of nowhere as well because someone was feeling bored and wanted to teach you a "lesson".

There is no excuse for what they did to you, it was cruel.

This has nothing to do with farming or with livestock. I have realized it isn't uncommon for people who went through that to then decide all farmers are evil animal abusers who kill animals on a whim.

Unfortunately abusers exist in all facets of life. If it wasn't your pet horse/goat/cow/ect they likely would have constructed a situation where they could have traumatized you with some other animal if you were the type of child to get attached to animals.

I'm really sorry about this stuff. It doesn't really matter what animal it was either because this happens to all sorts of people from different backgrounds. Maybe your mom threw bleach in your fish tank, for example. It's all still pretty horrific abuse.

What Im getting at is that you're valid in feeling uncomfortable about death and raising animals for food. It just doesn't make the people doing those things evil or the same as your abusers.

To me raising my animals is just the part of the circle of life, which is something I think a lot of people are really far removed from. I help raise something, i treat it very well, and when the time comes i give them a quick and humane death. I never cull something when I'm feeling emotional or angry. I just extremely grateful and thankful for the animal and what it has done for me and will continue to do for me even in death. I think that's beautiful and nothing like the horrible "lesson" that so many others were taught.

[wingsofmud]

The canonically rapid evolution of the dragons in WoF is really interesting to me, so I added some aspects of that to my rewrite.

The rankings system is also interesting, so I made that a nation-wide thing, instead of something just for the nobility. Circle 1 and the palace are located in the upper most part of the territory, with the other circles going in a line south of it.

I shifted the Great Ice Cliff to separate the 1-3 Circle from the 4-7 Circle and the rest of Pyrrhia.

Info Below (For present day Icewings):

Lower Circle Icewings

Lower Circle/Southern Icewings are vaguely based off of polar bears. They're shorter and brawnier than upper circle ones. While they do give off that signature Icewing chill, their scales are not as frigid as their northern counterparts. Their tails are like a spiked club.

They can come in white, but often come in light browns, grays, reds, and oranges. The closer the dragon is to the Great Ice Wall, the more whites, blues, and purples show up in their scales.

Southern Icewings are also more likely to have spots and/or stripes on their scales, all to blend in better in the ranging subarctic to temperate to desert climate they live in. They are more omnivorous, and many herd caribou as an occupation.

They make up the majority of the Icewing population and the backbone of the military. They wear clothing more often, which usually consists of fur, bone, or fish scales. Better off Icewings can also obtain cloth and jewelry from passing Sandwing nomads.

While all Icewings have a reputation for being frigid, pun intended, lower circle Icewings tend to be friendlier.

.

Upper Circle Icewings

Upper Circle/Northern Icewings are inspired off of arctic wolves. They often have small, pale irises and their scales feel like ice to the touch. Their tails are like spiked whips. They mostly come in white with some light blue or purple accents on them. Some dragons like Snowfall have red accents. Spots and stripes are rarer and usually much paler when they are present. They are much less tolerant of the heat.

Northern Icewings don't usually wear much jewelry. It's seen as garish to make such obvious displays of wealth, unless you're the Queen. They usually only dress up during special occasions and celebrations, and even then that's usually reserved for the one being celebrated.

The upper circle consists of all Icewing nobility along with the richest dragons. Most work in or around the palace grounds. Most of their diet consists of fish and seals which they eat raw.

.

History

I changed the Gift of Order to the Gift of Equality. In ancient Icewing society, the caste was absolute. You were born into and died in your circle. The Gift of Equality came with a system to introduce fairness by basing what circle a dragon ended up in on their merit rather than birth.

Of course the Queen at that time did not account for the fact that Upper Circle Icewings have far more resources at their disposal to ensure their dragonets remain in the upper circles than lower circle Icewings. A few dragons manage to climb a circle once in a while, which the upper circle dragons love to use to shut up complaints from the lower circles. It is incredibly difficult to end up in the top three circles if you were not born into them.

Lynx is an outlier. So much so that her family has been investigated several times by Icewing nobles for fraudulent scoring. Considering the punishment for that is death, it is not a light accusation. Nothing was ever found. Of course her problems aren't over, especially since Icewing nobles aren't exactly known for being accepting.

Lower circle Icewings are usually disregarded when it comes to decisions like war and lawmaking by the upper circles. In fact, the upper circles dragons very rarely directly interact with the lower circle ones, often giving news to the fourth circle for them to spread it to the rest themselves. Though each circle and town is different, there is a massive culture shock between the 4th and 3rd circle. Not to mention the literal wall between them.

Lower circle Icewings are vying for independence, a movement that grew rapidly during the War of SandWing Succession. A movement Queen Snowfall is now expected to do something about now that the war is over and Darkstalker has been dealt with.

[eliza-forget]

I'm just curious as to why shamura would have spouses or lovers? What were they for?

(btw I love your content❤️)

Oh yes, I'll explain about these pages ehehe

BIG LORE ABOUT LOVERS

Shamura never had a love interest in mortals, although it might seem otherwise. They used them for their own needs and simply got rid of them, as shown in the frame with Narinder. Many followers loved their bishop and even knew what fate awaited them anyway, they themselves went into their nets. And Shamura doesn’t hide this part from their followers either. That's why they can find all this in their temple and decide for themselves whether they are ready for this or not.

One way or another, speaking about these lovers, few are worthy of becoming them, Shamura is selective in this regard. You can't even think about marrying a bishop, because in their reality it's impossible. In ancient times, Shamura used marriages only for gain, all this is fiction without any love, and then, marriages were supposed only with deities, like themselves. But, during all this time, Shamura never got married. They hated other deities and achieved everything on their own. Although they might consider some equal or worthy, their worldview prevailed. So it turns out that they hate deities and cannot stand mortals, at least marriages give mortals advantages, and this is not beneficial for the Bishop of War. Marriages would give their followers influence over them, somehow control them, which they don't like at all.

All these short romances with mortals are mostly about fulfilling some of Shamura's desires. I mentioned selectivity, and it is that virtually all of Shamura's lovers are those who have proven themselves in a duel with them, which didn't always mean victory for the follower, but for potential warriors they were valued. Therefore, not everything ended so sadly, but it did not flow into any sublime and deep feelings, the bishop simply used them until the death of the follower. Someone would get on their nerves ahead of time and they would get rid of the particularly annoying ones by walling them up in a cocoon. Which, by the way, is not simple in its essence. Now I'm going to tell you a crazy thought. But all these cocoons on the ceiling are literally like wine infusing. I will not describe all the details of the process, but from the followers only the skeleton remains in them, and Shamura uses everything else for their own purposes, as a delicacy. Respect to these chosen followers, their skeletons are eventually stored in the catacombs beneath the temple, where Shamura has quite a few different crypts and secret libraries. The difference here is that the follower is sacrificed to the bishop and the bishop's own hand puts you to death. And for the second part, it’s not like an enemy. Lmao, killed, but with respect.

I forgot to mention, but not to mention the final outcome, Shamura treats their lovers a little better than ordinary followers, but does not tolerate their desire to get something in return from the bishop. Yes, they can reward you with knowledge, but they will not give you power or part of their powers (As with their disciples, using ichor, turning into large monsters) just like that. This still needs to be achieved, and simple expressions of devotion or sympathy will not be enough.

And also, Shamura's disciples ≠ lovers. For them, having romances at work is unacceptable. And they would rather refuse and get rid of such disciples if they found out about their love for them. It's just not profitable to train such people.

So the relationship with Shamura is really about the spider slowly testing you and poisoning. And eventually, you, as a resource, become unusable and are disposed of. There is no talk of any love here, because this is exactly how real deities behave.

[secret-moonstruck]

DOLLHOUSE | P. JAY Ver.

Weekly challenge: Tied (secret-moonstruck x callmemonster68)

Pairing: Jay x fem!reader | (Masterlist)

— Synopsis: There was no way of knowing if this was a house or an exhibition. Y/n, a sadistic vampire, liked to have her toys always in her sight. Jay was wrong to think he could get away from this, Y/N didn't accept rebellion.

Facts: Human blood is the best to feed a vampire. However, the exchange of blood between vampires always touches all the physical and mental senses and emotions. The blood of a newly transformed vampire is more intense, as it still has the energy of human blood mixed with that of a vampire.

— Genre: smut

— Warnings: unprotected sex, fingering, oral sex, praising, cum inside, making out, clit play, begging, hickeys, cum eating, overstimulation, gore, death, blood, torture, more. .

— Notes: I'm new to this writing thing, and English is not my first language. Sorry for not writing so well, I wish to improve and bring better and well-written stories.

Everyone was tense in the mansion, they preferred to avoid Y/N's fury, so they chose to stay in their rooms, except Sunoo who was being the good boy he always was.

Y/N was sitting on her throne, with Sunoo sitting at her feet with his head in her lap as she stroked his hair. His fingers absently roaming her legs as she waited for Jay to wake up.

When Jay woke up, he was in a mix of anger and panic, he failed, he couldn't believe he was back there in that mansion, things would definitely be worse now, he knew she would be very angry.

Jay gathered courage and got up from his bed, his room, like the others, had everything to be perfect, it was big and everything suited his tastes, everything he liked was there, everything was incredible, except due to a detail that all their rooms had, all the walls that faced the large hall were made of glass, it was as if it were part of an exhibition.

As soon as she noticed that Jay had woken up, Y/N called Heeseung and ordered him to bring Jay.

Leaving his room, Heeseung went to Jay's. When he took the locks off the room and opened the glass door, Jay tried to leave, but Heeseung didn't let him.

- Sorry, just with the collar. - Heeseung said before attaching the collar to Jay's neck.

It wasn't new, she often only let them out on a leash, but Jay hated it, hated being humiliated and controlled.

Heeseung led Jay through the large hall. Y/N watched them expressionlessly, but her eyes glowed red that showed how angry she was.

- You can go, honey. - Y/N said to Sunoo, who got up.

Before leaving, he kissed Y/N on the lips. He always showed how useful a toy he was, he liked to be the favorite, always having privileges and receiving praise.

As he was led to Y/N, Jay looked around. Everything seemed normal, I could see inside the seven rooms that surrounded the hall, Y/N's throne was still in the corner right in the center of the wall, the stairs that circled behind it going to her room, the heavy white curtains were open , the antique table that was there in front of the window, the sofas full of cushions on the other side of the room, but the statues and decorations were all broken. It was obvious that Y/N had broken down in a fit of rage, it made him fear whether she had calmed down yet or he would be on the receiving end of her fury.

Heeseung apologized before giving Jay a small push to kneel when he arrived in front of Y/N. 

Y/N smiled when she saw Jay there at her feet, the collar around his neck, the ropes restraining his body and his hands tied.

- Did you really believe you could escape? - Y/N's tone was low and calm, but extremely threatening.

Jay remembered how Y/N found him so easily in the forest, even though he ran away hours ago, and how, on her orders, Sunghoon and Jake captured him so easily, while she, with just a movement of her fingers, did With his body being restrained by ropes and another movement of her hands, she made him suffocate until he passed out.

- What did you intend? Die alone? Or did you think you could survive without my blood? - Y/N laughed sarcastically.

It turns out that Y/N was a vampire, they were just humans when she captured each one, she gave a small amount of her blood causing a partial transformation, she prevented the complete transformation with a poison, so they would be even more under her control, They would need blood, but they could not have the powers or strength of vampires, and as they were not fully transformed and the doses of poison weaken them, they would die without her blood.

- It doesn't matter, it's too much to bear this humiliation, to be treated like a doll, humiliated, literally to be stepped on by you. - He knew he was taking a risk, but he wasn't afraid to confront her.

Y/N laughed loudly, giving him goosebumps, while with a slight movement of her hand, Jay's collar was pulled around his neck, making him come to her.

- Don't you like serving me? - She asked, a falsely offended tone, her hands now pulling on the collar, making him fall to his feet. - Tell me what you don't like? I don't give you pleasure? And that? Wow that's pretty offensive.

Jay didn't know how to respond. What didn't he like? It's not like he hated being there, it was just… he didn't like how everyone had to be submissive to her. Why did she control everything about them? As he thought he realized what angered him, it was her in control, he wanted to be in control, to make her pay for every humiliation, every time she made him beg for some blood, every time she pushed him to the edge. and then torture him. He understood that running away and dying wasn't what he really wanted, that was stupidity driven by anger, what he wanted was to make her pay, was to make her beg just as they needed to beg for her, was to ruin her. 

- I'm sorry, I don't hate you, I was just tired of being deprived of having you properly.

Y/N studied him for a moment, assessing whether the gleam in his eyes was really due to this desire or just anger. She realized it was true, she saw that his anger was about not being in control. She just laughed at him, he really felt offended that he had to be submissive to her.

- Oh oh, my poor boy. - She lightly tugged on his collar, making him come closer to her, so close that their lips almost touched. She made the ropes that bound him fall from his body and hands. - You really don't think you could ever have control over me, do you?

She then kissed him, it was a slow kiss, but it made his whole body burn. Damn, he could hate her, but at the same time, he loved what she did to him. 

Occasionally, she would tug on the leash, making him gasp each time she tried to tame the kiss.

When he towered over her and tried to touch her, she tugged harder on the collar, breaking the kiss.

- No my dear, you never remember, you can only touch me when and where I allow you.

Jay was angry again, he wanted to just pick her up and fuck her, but here she was again depriving him of doing what he wanted.

- You said you're tired of being deprived of having me as you want. How about I let you show me this? I will give you the chance to show me how much you love me, my dear, I will not interfere.

Y/N signaled for him to kneel again as she spread her legs, her short dress riding up, revealing her black lace panties.

Jay grabbed Y/N's leg, kissing her thighs as he slid her stockings down her legs, kissing along each now uncovered part until he reached her feet. He did this on both legs, meeting Y/N's eyes who were looking at him with anticipation, when he did the opposite, now kissing from her feet to the top of her thigh, he removed Y/N's already wet panties, running his fingers over her wetness, and then he bit her thigh, he heard Y/N moan when she felt him drink her blood, she normally didn't let them drink from her without her permission, he ran his tongue over the bite, stopping the trickle of blood that came out of your bite, Y/N gasping feeling his breath on her wetness but without touching her, teasing her. She was already starting to get irritated, when she felt her warm tongue run through her wet folds, she moaned in satisfaction. 

Jay held tightly to Y/N's thighs that threatened to close while he devoured her pussy, playing with her clit, his fingers inside her. Y/N's hands stuck in his hair, pulling silently asking for more. She was almost reaching her climax when he pulled away with a smile. After doing this a few times, teasing her, Y/N's eyes flashed with anger, he wanted her to beg, but she would never do that. He smiled, she might not be begging with words, but her expression of desperation was enough to inflate his ego.

A sly scream left Y/N's lips when Jay slapped her pussy, she involuntarily blushing under his gaze, his fingers moving inside her again, as he went back to eating her again, hungrier, his fingers more precise, his ego inflated with Y/N's moans and desperation when she finally came, I god fingers, he continued playing with her while licking every drop. 

Jay felt himself being pushed by Y/N, she was flushed and very angry, she regretted letting him play with her, tease her, she was furious that she had gotten to the point of almost begging him to fuck her. She was the one who had control over him, not the other way around. She couldn't look weak or desperate. She needed to remind him who was in power here.

Y/N stood up, adjusting her dress, and hit him, leaving a large red mark on his face before holding him down, her nails digging into his cheeks, making them bleed.

I hope you had fun, because this was the first and last time you might think you would have any control over me.

Picking up his leash again, she headed to her room, him right behind her being pulled. He watched, finding it both amusing and revolting at the same time, how someone as small as her could act so dominant over him. He wanted to fuck the arrogance out of that little body.

When they reached Y/N's room, she didn't even look at him as she moved her right hand, making ropes wrap around his wrists, pulling him and pinning him to the wall, his collar falling off. She came back to him with a blindfold in her hands.

- You are really brave, I can't believe you dared to drink my blood without permission. - Y/N said while controlling the blindfold to stick to his eyes.

- Oh, I think I hurt your pretty face. - Y/N said, running her fingers over the wounds left by her nails on his face.

Jay pulled his arms, trying to free himself, furious. But he wouldn't ask her to release him, that would be even more humiliating, as well as completely useless.

Running her sharp nails gently along his neck causing goosebumps, she went to his shirt, where with more pressure, she tore it in half, continued running her fingers over his chest and abdomen, several cuts appearing where her sharp nails passed. Jay was trying not to moan between the pain and pleasure of the burning of the cuts, but he couldn't hold back when he felt Y/N's tongue passing through his body, absorbing every drop of blood that flowed from his wounds.

She finished removing his clothes, exposing his erection, running her finger around the tip, spreading the precum before pumping it.

- Funny, you didn't try to run away from me? - She said, putting more pressure on her movements. - So, explain to me if you don't like how I treat you, why are you so hard?

Y/N continued her movements, Jay's moans made her laugh, she loved how she had control over him. Just as he was about to cum Y/N his hand, he growled in anger.

- Oh, that's right. - A tone of false sadness in her voice. - You don't deserve to cum, not yet, not after you ran away. I'm really very offended.

He heard Y/N's footsteps walking away, she was really going to leave him there in this state, trapped with his cock aching for release.

He felt his blindfold fall off as Y/N snapped her fingers removing it. She was sitting on his bed now naked watching him from afar, with a creepy smile on her face.

- Maybe I should call one of the others to satisfy me. - She said as she ran her fingers through her wet folds. - Oh Jay, you could be here with me now, but you ran away from me. You don't like to satisfy me, do you? Maybe Sunghoon can do that, he's been really good to me.

Y/N's eyes widened when, with a strong pull, Jay released her hands that were pinning him to the wall and angrily went towards her, who was too surprised to react.

- Did you forget that I haven't drunk the poison for two days? - He said, climbing over her, his hands firmly holding her waist as he pushed her to the center of the bed. - And you also forgot that I drank your blood earlier in the hall.

Y/N was too confused to think how much stronger he could be at the moment, probably not enough, she was still stronger, but it didn't really matter, she didn't want to react, she liked having him so threatening over her .

She didn't even care when he, without hesitation, simply entered her without any warning.

Nothing mattered to her, not while he seemed so powerful, making her realize how small and fragile she really was beneath him, not while he fucked her so ferociously, not while he let out the accumulated anger from so many times she humiliated him. .

He wanted to make her beg for him just like she made him beg so many times, but he couldn't take much more, he needed his release, and he got it, finally without hindrance, without torture. Y/N moaned, feeling him fill her with his cum. She couldn't take it and came soon after.

Y/N was lying on her bed, breathing heavily, when she noticed Jay picking up her clothes and leaving her room, leaving her there. 

- You're going to pay me for this Jay, don't think it's going to be like this. - Y/N shouted at him angrily, sitting on her bed. - You are my toy, you are just a doll, don't think you can have any power over me.

The others looked at Jay confused, surprised by Y/N's words, what could he have done to make her angry?

However, someone was smiling, perhaps it was time to execute his plan. 

- I think the time has come to make things fun. - Sunoo played with the small bottle in his hands.

Note2: Part two is already in progress, it will probably be posted tomorrow.

Next week's challenge: Obsession

[jalluzas-ferney]

NINJAGO AU ALERRRTTTT

AU where Nya escaped Garmadon on her own (don’t ask me how I still have to think about it) and eventually ends up being found my ronin and gets taken in by him, basically becoming his adopted daughter. With him she basically trains to become a thief, and practically turns into a more traditional ninja, since ninja are tradionally known for being thieves, spies and assassins.

(More info under image)

Difference is they do it in a more robin hood kind of way, where they usually steal either from the wealthy or bad people to then sell the items or just keep them for themselves. They also have a mechanic shop, kinda like a cover up, where Ronins wife, Melis, mostly worked at. And now with Nyas help she has even more hands to help and further their business! Ronin does still scam people, at least from time to time, even though Nya doesn’t really approve of it, but does it less and less as Nya continues being part of his family. (If you’re wondering if Melis approves of it, she doesn’t really care lmao. She wouldn’t do it herself but she’s not against it.)

And ah yes! Ronins family! Remember how ronin mentioned that he has a wife and a daughter? Well while I didn’t draw ronins wife I did draw Nya bonding with Ronins daughter, aka Nyas now adopted younger sibling. Her name is Amparo but they usually call her Pachi. She’s a very sweet and outgoing girl. Loves talking to small talk with anyone and adores watching Nya fix cars and even ronins helicopter. (By the time Nya meets her she’s 9 years old.) obviously they grow really close to each other and Nya loves her to DEATH (and vice versa).

since she goes on missions to steal things, Nya travels pretty often, so she visits many smaller villages or even larger cities. Because of this, I like to thinks she’s come across many characters we know, like Chamille, Dr Saunders ( :0 ), griffin turner, Dareth, Twitchy Tim, and he’ll even Ed and Edna. Who yes, after seeing Nya do mention her to Jay once he comes visit, but they can’t remember he name, probably accidentally messing it up in the process and calling her something else like “Mia”, so Jay doesn’t rreally make a connection between her and Kai’s missing sister he can’t stop grieving for, Nya.

Which OH YEAH. LETS ADRESE THE ELEFANT IN THE ROOM. KAI. and the ninja. You see, after Nya escaped, of course she made a grueling journey back home where she was expecting to find Kai at four weapons, but upon seeing that he wasn’t there, and everyone at the village had previously believed Garmadon and the skulkin had taken them both in the midst of the chaos, which clearly wasn’t the case which basically just pronounced Kai as missing. Because of this, Nya grieves her brother but also lived with the hope that he is still out there somewhere. She really misses him and her (other) family knows, providing her love and support whenever she’s feeling especially down because of Kai’s disappearance. Although she tries her best to hide her grief from Pachi, and even sometimes copes by telling Pachi funny stories about Kai and her childhood. Choosing to think about the happy moments and make Pachi laugh with them rather than cry about the. Of course, whenever she’s traveling she makes sure to ask almost every person in the places she visits if they’ve seen her brother.

I’d also like to clarify that the ninja in this au hide their identity. So while the ninja are well known for being heroes, no one knows who they are under their masks, due to master wu believing it’s better for their safety, which it pretty much is. This is how Nya basically DOES know the ninja and really admires them, although she’s only ever seen pictures or heard countless of stories about them. She dreams about meeting the elemental masters and seeing them fight and use their powers up close. Of course she does eventually! By the time season 5 aka possession rolls around…..TO BE CONTINUED BECAUSE I HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THEIR MEETING BETTER

feel free to ask me any questions ab the au in my ask box!

[friendlyneighborhoodslut]

The Roommate Agreement | 3-The Agreement.

Pairing(s)/Tropes—Eventual Steve Harrington X Reader, slow burn.

Summary—Three boys and one girl under one roof proves to be more difficult than they thought. To restore peace in the land, an agreement is made.

Warnings/Extras—strong language, drinking and smoking, bugs, sexual tension, MDNI-18+! Let me know if I missed anything!

MASTERLIST | | PREVIOUS PART | | NEXT PART

⊱ ────── {⋆❉⋆} ────── ⊰

Jesse was a very messy individual when he lived in 406D. The baseboards are caked with dust, the windows have a strange film on them and the carpet is littered with mysterious stains. I spend several days deploying an arsenal of chemicals to tackle the mess, windows open and chill August air drafting through the room. After a particularly grueling day on my hands and knees scrubbing at the spots on the floor to very little prevail, I decide that a quick spray of disinfectant before covering it with a rug is my best bet. I dig through the closet in the hallway for a broom to dust the cobwebs in the corners, coming up empty-handed.

“Boys,” I breathe, entering the living room. The three of them sit in the living room, smooshed onto the couch and flipping through TV channels. They perk up to look at me. “Where’s the broom?”

“In the trash, along with the mop after Eddie and Jesse used them to joust,” Steve says casually, clicking buttons on the remote.

“I won, by the way,” Eddie grins, pointing at himself.

Steve looks to him, bewildered. “You did not.”

“Right. I’ve gotta go check on the storage unit anyways so, I’m going to run to the store and pick up some furniture and supplies that are for cleaning only,” I give Eddie a pointed look and he rolls his eyes. “Anyone care to lend a hand?”

“We’ll take my car,” Ben stands, brushing some crumbs off his shirt from the chips he was munching on.

“Your little Mazda’s not gonna fit everything…” I trail off, raising my brow at Eddie.

He scoffs. “Oh, okay. So we all hate Gloria until she’s useful,”

“You named the van? You weirdo.” Steve says, eyes never leaving the TV.

The van—Gloria—really is a disgrace to motor vehicles everywhere. It’s a death box on wheels. I’m pretty sure the engine is powered by dust and spite, and it’s got this rattle when left idling for too long. I’m not sure how a mechanic lets his own car get so out of shape—But Gloria’s got space, and we’re gonna need it.

“Alright, fine. But no one drives my babygirl but me, so… I’m coming with you,” Eddie stretches out of his seat.

Steve stands too, running his hands through his hair. I swallow hard and try not to stare at them.

“Our first adventure as a family, how exciting!” Eddie exasperates dramatically, arms outstretched at his sides.

“Shut up, man.” Steve snickers, grabbing Eddie’s keys out of a glass bowl by the front door and tossing them at him. Eddie catches the keys, blowing a kiss to Steve afterwards, earning him a cacophony of groans and eye rolls.

⊱ ────── {⋆❉⋆} ────── ⊰

The car wobbles side to side, tossing me around in my seat. Eddie swerves all over the road like a maniac, dodging pot holes and probably a few stray animals. Ben sits in the front seat, yelling at him. Steve and I occupy the back seat on opposite sides. My whole body burns and tingles, my palms sweat as I chew on my nails and stare out the window. I swear can feel his eyes on me but I’m too terrified to look, as I might just combust on sight if I’m right.

It’s been a century since I’ve had a crush on someone. I’ve forgotten how miserable it is: constantly checking that my hair looks okay, hoping my makeup hasn’t smudged, scared to even breathe wrong.

This sucks ass.

A massive cement building comes into view and we pull into the parking lot. The department store is surprisingly empty on this Sunday afternoon, and Ben tells me it’s because most people in Chicago are already out drinking this time of day.

Steve pipes in with his agreement and I make the mistake of stealing a look at him. I just can’t help myself, but I immediately regret it. He’s already looking at me, hair tussled to one side and mustard sweater bunched up at his midsection as he leans against the backrest, lips parted slightly and staring at me with those big brown eyes.

I’m doomed.

The vacant isles of the store are illuminated by an uncomfortable white light that occasionally flickers. I feel like we’re in a low-budget horror movie, an unsettling and eerie feeling sitting thick over the air. Feeling suffocated, I pick up my pace towards the Home and Kitchen section.

“Look at this fuckin’ thing,” Eddie says like a child discovering something for the first time, slapping a giant fuzzy rug hung on a rack. It wiggles under his pressure and he’s transfixed, disregarding our existence.

I shake my head. “Never shopped for rugs before. Where do I even begin?”

Ben gives me a breathy laugh, squeezing my shoulder. “I'll look for one and make him haul it to the car. Any color preferences?”

I shrug. “Cheapest one. And uh, don’t let him pick something stupid,” I find amusement in Eddie’s antics, and he clearly does as well.

“Harrington, you're on furniture duty,” Ben puts on his best serious face, pointing at his best friend like a drill sergeant. He jogs backward, disappearing into the rug aisle. "Don't screw it up!" echos through the halls, dampened by the walls of carpet, lampshades and throw pillows.

I giggle, wrapping my arms around myself anxiously and swaying in place.

He gleams down at me, arms open at his sides. "What's first?"

I rub my eyes, needing to do something with my hands despite it smudging what little makeup I had the energy to put on today. "Pray to any God willing to listen that this doesn't permanently annihilate my bank account." Joking usually helps me feel better about situations like this, but this time it's just straight-up depressing.

But Steve, ever a ray of sunshine, breaks through my gloom with his light. "It's not all that bad. Let's see... what do we need?" He spins around, taking it all in. "Bed, nightstand, dresser, all that stuff right? You'll need a bed tonight, that's non-negotiable--but I've got a friend who owns a thrift shop on The Loop with her girlfriend. They're always getting furniture in there. Bet they'd let us snag some stuff at a good price," he's rambling now, talking with his hands as we stroll the rows of overpriced furniture.

I just listen to him talk, the sound of his voice entrancing.

God, I've got to get away from this man.

"Thank you, Steve. I really appreciate it," I smile meekly, reaching to mess with my hair but stopping myself right before.

"Anytime, Sunny." he responds quietly, and butterflies assault my stomach.

I want to ask him about the nickname, but I don’t want to spoil the moment. Honestly, I don't have the emotional capacity to handle the--probably dull--answer either. I like to think it means something, but the likely case is that it's a placeholder; An easy gateway to forgetting me when my residence in Apartment 406D comes to an end. It's not like I'll be spending the rest of my life with these guys. My brother, sure, not that I've had much of a choice. I'm stuck with that jerk until I die.

Steve and I pick out the cheapest--yet somehow still outrageously priced--bed and mattress the store offers. Steve rolls them out on a bright yellow cart provided by the cashier. The others have obviously been waiting for a while, as Eddie smokes a cigarette under a streetlamp a few feet away while Ben leans against the outside of the passenger door skimming through a packet of papers.

I squint against the encroaching darkness, making out the big University Housing Office title through the transparent page.

If your stomach can physically drop into your ass, mine definitely just did.

"Oh, shit," I use my last bit of breath to whisper to Steve.

He pauses to observe my brother's scowl. "He looks pissed."

For the second time in a week, I accept my death.

Ben hears us approach and looks up at me through his eyebrows. There he goes, looking like our dad again. I tremble.

I'm fucked.

He waves the packet in the air. "What's this?"

Steve leaves the cart next to the van and retreats to Eddie, leaving my brother and I to talk.

Traitor, don't leave me here!

"I was gonna tell you," I lie.

He glowers. "No, you weren't."

"Yeah, you're right, I weren't," I blurt out in distress. "Fuck, wasn't. No, I wasn't gonna tell you,"

"You realize I'm a lawyer, right? I can help you contest this," he offers.

"You're a baby lawyer and you've done enough for me by letting me live in your house," I counter.

His features soften and then, to my complete shock, he laughs. I'm apprehensive, waiting for him to pull out his typical disapproving glare and snide remarks that remind me I’ll never be as smart, cunning, or on top of things as he is.

"Trust me, Bug. You moving in does me a more of a favor than it does you," he tugs on my shoulder, gently directing me to look at Eddie and Steve. He points at them as we watch them visibly argue about something, only catching the tail end of their dispute.

"Goddammit Harrington! Do it or I'm gonna kiss you myself!" Eddie threatens, tensing in a wide stance. I furrow my brows and wonder what on earth they must be discussing.

Steve puts his hands out in front of him, bracing himself. "God, you're so weird! Why would you say that?!"

Eddie lurches forward and Steve takes off down the parking lot. They chase each other around light posts and parked cars.

"...is this a frequent occurrence?" I ask Ben quietly. I swear anytime I see those two in the same room they're bullying each other or…flirting? Challenging each other? I don’t even know.

He nods. "Oh yeah. They've been friends since high school. More siblings than friends, if I'm bein' honest. Guess they uh, both lost a lot of people back home. Came to Chicago together for a fresh start,"

We're both quiet for a long minute, listening to their voices echo through the desolate parking lot.

"Yeah, you're saving me from living alone with those two. We needed another adult in the house," Ben cackles, swinging the van door open. He wiggles the papers between us. "We're gonna fix this, okay?"

I purse my lips and nod, blinking rapidly to avoid spilling any tears. He frowns and pulls me into him, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. The tenseness in his body loosens a bit but not enough to break down the walls he's built, but I'll take the progress, as he creeps a little closer to feeling like the big brother I remember.

"C'mon. Let's go home." ⊱ ────── {⋆❉⋆} ────── ⊰

Ben did an excellent job picking out a mock vintage rug with an array of colors that perfectly covered all of the mystery spots on the floor. I laid it out and put books from Steve’s room at all four corners to flatten it.

After dropping Steve and me off at home, Ben and Eddie went to the storage unit to collect my things. They've been gone for hours, a suspiciously long time for the project at hand, leaving Steve and I to get three beers deep and attempt to assemble my bedframe.

"Jesus, what're these in a different language?" he murmurs, polishing off his fourth beer and lifting the instructions in the air.

"It's upside down, Steven," I can hardly contain my laughter as I say it, giggles slipping through the fingers I cover my mouth with.

"Oh, shit. Yeah, they are," he admits, turning it in his hands. "Ah! There it is,"

"That big brain got you into UChicago?" I flirt on the defensive so I can pass it off as just being mean if I need to.

He smiles, lopsided. "Can you believe it?" he jokes.

"Let me guess. History major," I declare, scooting closer to look at the directions with him.

Though he's not looking at the pages anymore. He's staring a hole into the side of my head.

"Masters," he adds. "How'd you know?"

I shrug, leaving it ambiguous. I don't tell him I'd nosily asked Eddie when no one else was around, or that I'd spent hours on the University of Chicago's website looking at their History Department. Steve is highly distinguished by the History Department as one of their top students with several awards and accredits, but telling him I know that makes me sound like a stalker, so I keep it to myself.

"Y'know, my parents wanted me to go into Business," he slurs his words a bit. I try not to smile at him in a way that seems pitiful. "Didn't wanna end up like my hard-ass old man. It's all about money with him. Not even sure he's got a soul," he reaches behind me, inadvertently wrapping his arm around me to snatch another beer from the pack we left on the floor. Despite the several layers of fabric between us, his touch lights my skin on fire.

I swallow as he cracks open another beer. "I think you've had enough of these," I half-joke, taking it from him setting it on the opposite side of my body. He leans into me in a retrevial attempt but I move away from him. He puts all his weight on my shoulder, knocking me over. I snatch the beer and hold it over my head, barely out of his reach, but he continues his pursuit.

Maybe it’s the fact he’s so pretty, or maybe it’s the alcohol, but I allow his body to envelop mine. He encompasses me, body pressed on top of mine as we wrestle over a singular beer bottle. It’s stupid; he could just grab another one, but he doesn’t. His large hand wraps around mine, tugging the bottle closer to us. I move to use my other hand to free myself from him but he snatches it, pinning it down above my hand.

I giggle uncontrollably, both because I’m drunk and incredibly nervous.

It’s as if the sound awakens Steve from his trance, because he stills against me. Chests flush and noses a mere inch apart, his breath fans my face. He looks, dare I say, scared. That makes tow of us.

He swallows, Adam’s apple bobbing, before recovering with a grin. “Always knew we’d end up in this position,” his voice is husky and he smells like a dangerous concoction of beer and cologne. He moves his other hand to my jaw, beverage long forgotten. He softly brushes some hair from my face with a finger, eyeing me intently.

“You’re such a weirdo,” I wiggle underneath him and he tenses, a labored breath escaping his throat. I open my mouth to tell him to get off of me, but the words die on my tongue as I feel something—someone—hard pressed against my thigh. I flush, coughing to have an excuse to turn my face away from him. Suddenly, it’s impossible to breathe. “Uh, Steve, you—“

I hear the front door open.

“We’re home!” Ben’s voice echos down the hall.

Steve and I can’t scramble off each other fast enough, a mess of limbs and strings of curses. He crawls away from me like I’m on fire. Flustered, I fix my hair and readjust my sweater. Steve busies himself with the instruction manual.

Suddenly sober, I watch as Ben enters the room, a ziplock bag in hand. I thank God for the distraction from Steve and lean heavily into it.

“I got it!” He cheers, wiggling the bag in his hand.

I furrow my brows. “You got…what?” I squint to get a closer look at the object in the clear bag.

“The key to solving your Dorm problem,” he moves it closer, and that’s when I see it. The tiny dead bodies of about five cockroaches. “I pulled their dead bodies out of your stuff,”

“That’s disgusting,” I gag, scurrying away from him.

“These little guys are coming with me to Campus Housing. We’re going to get you out of that lease.” He waives the bag of bugs around, and I damn near hurl as I remember the way they felt crawling on my skin. He’s so distracted by his victory, that it takes him a while to catch on to the heaviness in the room. “Hey, you two okay?”

“Yes!” I say a little too loud and fast.

Ben cocks his brow. “Steve, are you drunk?”

“What? No…” Steve squeaks.

“Uh huh…” my brother retorts, eyeing him suspiciously. As he turns to leave, he says “The manual’s upside down.”

“Oh goddammit, again?!” Steve complains drunkenly.

Eddie brushes past Ben in the doorway, leaning against its white frame on his forearm. “Oh, dude!” Eddie whines. “You guys drank all the beer!”

⊱ ────── {⋆❉⋆} ────── ⊰

Im convinced that sharing a bathroom with two men is a type of punishment in Hell. Toilet seats left up, beard trimmings in the sink, and toothpaste on the counters are just enough of an inconvenience to annoy me. I spent my first couple days cleaning when I’m not in class, seen as I’m the only unemployed one in the house. It’s a bitterly unrewarding task, though, as when the boys come home it’s like a hurricane wrecks the house. Eddie’s the biggest culprit, his motor-oil stained hands infecting everything he touches.

Everyday, I shower after the gym and before my 11AM class. Having memorized the boys’ schedules, I know they should all be at work by now. Singing my best rendition of Taylor Swift’s greatest hits, I step into the shower. I let the water cascade over my shoulders, trying to ground myself in reality. I try not to think about all the anxieties that loom over me.

Campus Housing. The start of college. My brother’s hot best friend that I now live with.

Steve’s either a forgetful idiot or he’s embarrassed about the other night, because he’s yet to mention it since it happened. I know we were drunk but— enough to completely forget? I could never. Mostly because I think I liked it.

The bathroom door creaks open, eerie and slow. I freeze in place, so scared that I wanna turn inside out.

No one’s supposed to be in the house.

I suddenly remember the movie Psycho that Daizy and I swiped from the video store and watched in secret when we were 16. Am I going to die here, naked and wet in the shower like Janet Leigh did, zero dignity to my name.

Heavy footsteps approach the shower. Boots, they’re wearing boots.

Through the sheer shower curtain, I make out the shape of the person. A man, based on their build. Skinny but broad shoulders and arms. He’ll easily be able to overpower me.

I try not to panic, scanning the shower for anything to defend myself. There’s a variety of bottles, a bar of soap and a singular razor that hangs from the mirror nailed to the wall. I snatch it, ripping the head apart to get the blade out of it. I grip the tiny razor blade in my hand, my only source of self-defense.

The man leans over the vanity, turning the sink on and washing his hands. I silently pick up each bottle until I find the heaviest three, setting them at my feet. I brace for a fight, opening the curtain just enough to toss the largest, heaviest bottle at the intruder. I hear the impact from beyond the shower curtain, a groan of pain leaving him. I quickly throw the next one and then the one after that in rapid succession.

“GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!” I scream, hopefully loud enough for a neighbor to hear and call the cops.

“What the fuck, Y/N?!” Eddie protests. “Can’t a man wash his hands without being abused by shower products?”

I peek my head out of the shower, wrapping the curtain around myself with one hand and holding the razor blade out with the other. Eddie looms over me, hands dripping with a mix of dirt, water, and oil.

“Goddammit, Eddie! I thought you were a predator!” I complain, the tension leaving my shoulders.

“And you were gonna… kill me with a blade from my razor?” He teases, pointing at the minuscule weapon I’d foraged.

I groan. “What’re you doing here anyways? Don’t you have a job or something?”

“Well, I live here. But if you must know, the shop’s closed due to a small fire,” he explains, drying his hands.

“Everything okay?” I gasp, wracking my brain through the possibilities. An engine fire, an oil fire, maybe?

“Yeah, I’m good,” he’s staring at me, eyes growing wider by the second. I—for the life of me—can’t figure out what he’s looking at, until he grins, “mind if I join you?”

“Ugh, gross,” I roll my eyes, closing the shower curtain aggressively. “Get out of here.”

“Breakin’ my heart, Sweetheart!” He sing-songs, pretending like he’s going to pull the curtain back by pinching it ever-so-slightly between two fingers.

“GET OUT, ED!” I screech.

His laughter gets further away until I can barely hear it through the thin walls of this ancient building. I huff, rinsing the soap out of my hair. Once the adrenaline has worn off and my body quits trembling, I laugh despite myself. Eddie’s blatant and unrelenting flirting is flattering, amusing, and terrifying all at once. I convince myself he’s just messing with me, because the alternative freaks me out too bad to even entertain it.

⊱ ────── {⋆❉⋆} ────── ⊰

While sipping his coffee, never looking up from his coursework, Steve asked me if I’d like to visit his friend Robin’s thrift shop. The Loop’s occupied by buildings so tall they touch the moon; coffee shops, stores, restaurants… anything you can think of, it’s there. I’d never heard of it until Steve mentioned it. The Loop.

“Sounds made up,” I said over my breakfast.

“Everything’s made up.” Ben reminded me of the technicality, typing furiously at his computer.

When I agreed to go with Steve, his eyes lit up like someone had set a fire behind them. I was largely unmoved by it—I forced myself to be—but Ben shifted uncomfortably, staring at his best friend with an icy glare. They’d talked about something in private while Steve was getting ready in his room, right before we left. I ignored them as I found myself mulling over what to wear. Stupid, for such a basic activity. You’d think I was going on a date with how much I cared.

We stop by a coffee shop right next to the thrift store. There’s a Help Wanted sign taped to the door, and as I order my drink I muster up the bravery to inquire about it. A heavy set woman with a golden name tag labeled TRACY with the title ‘Manager’ scribed at the bottom tells me to come by next week with my resume for an interview.

I’m so giddy about the opportunity that I almost forget to listen to Steve’s order, but I do and commit it to memory.

16 ounce hot Americano with cream and one sugar packet. Somehow, it suits him so well.

I laugh.

“What’re you laughing at?” Steve asks, opening the door for me.

I shake my head and step outside just in time to see a pair of Mallard ducks cross the path, webbed feet flapping against the pavement.

“Holy shit, ducks!” I squeak, enthusiasm comparable to a kid in a candy store.

Steve laughs, a hearty sound that makes my heart flutter. “Yeah, they’re all over ‘round here. They come from the river,"

I kneel down, careful not to let my skirt fly up in the breeze. The ducks--a male and a female--quack, ruffling their feathers as they step a little quicker.

"Aw. They're on a date," I joke, standing up. Our shoulders bump into each other ever-so-slightly.

"Should I go buy a croissant to feed them?" Steve asks, smiling big.

I shake my head. "Bread's bad for them. Corn or oats are better,"

"Putting that biology major to good use," he jokes. His arm stretches outward like he's going to drape it over my shoulders, but flinches last minute and pretends to scratch his head instead.

"Actually," I fumble, hiding my blush with my hands. "I learned that on the internet."

There's that damned laugh again. It's addicting, a rush of dopamine tickling my brain every time I hear it.

I'm suspended in a trance-like state as I follow him to the thrift shop. Hawkins Place Thrift, the degenerated letters on the front of the building read. Baby blue paint peels off the brick and vintage clothes sit on mannequins in the shop windows.

When we enter, a bell above the door chimes. Steve holds the door open for me, and I step inside, the faint smell of cinnamon and apple drifting through the air. The shop is lit by a series of old lamps and candles that cast a warm glow throughout.

"Is that Steve Harrington I see?" a woman's voice calls over the jazz music playing from a record player. I spot her from a mile away, mom jeans and a denim jacket with a puffy polka dot blouse. She's got mousey brown hair that barely brushes her shoulders and a general loving disposition about her, especially as she bolts across the room to embrace Steve in a hug.

He hugs her back and they spin once around. "Jeez, Rob. You act like I died and came back to life or something," Steve chortles.

She lets go of him, a look of annoyance on her features. "You practically did! We haven't seen you in, like, a month! Where have you--"

She looks at me, her jaw hitting the floor. "Holy shit, this is where you've been. You got a girlfriend?!"

My heart plummets into my stomach. It’s not that I mind being called his girlfriend. I do however, mind the look on his face.

"Actually, she--" Steve's cut off by her rambling.

"You're so pretty, oh my God. I'm Robin. I'm Steve's friend, but you knew that," she gushes, ignoring Steve to shake my hand. "Did you guys meet at that rich kid school? What's it called?"

"The University of Chicago, and it's not a rich kid school. Rob listen for a second--" he corrects, hands on his hips and obviously stressed out.

"What do you major in? Sorry, I'm asking so many questions. Steve hasn’t had a girlfriend since--"

"Robin!" the raise of his voice gets her attention. She releases my hands and turns to look at him. He's got a guilty look on his face. "This is Y/N. Ben's little sister," he gestures to me awkwardly. He turns away, but I swear I catch a hint of red flushing his cheeks as he rubs the nape of his neck.

Robin's expression falters but she swiftly recovers. "Ben-Benji! Right! We love Benji, right Steve?"

"Yeah, yeah sure..." Steve's mortified. I can't even begin to react, cemented in place and dealing with my own sick form of embarrassment. I think I’m going to throw up.

"You’re scarin’ the poor girl, Love,” a petite girl in a baby blue dress with short red hair appears from behind a bookshelf, seemingly out of thin air. She swoops in as my glorious savior to diffuse the situation.

Wrapping a soft hand around my upper arm, she tugs me ever so slightly towards her, and I allow it. She could try to kill me in the back alley and I’d let her just to get out of here. Behind us, I hear Robin and Steve arguing in angry whispers.

“I’m Vickie. You must be Y/N. Ben’s told me so much about you,” she gleams.

Seems like I’m a hot topic of conversation to literally everybody.

“It’s just because he loves you,” Vickie says sweetly, pulling me to a reading nook by a big window.

“Shit, did I say that aloud?” I blurt, immediately cringing after the words leave my mouth.

All she does is laugh, gesturing for me to sit in a floral-patterned wingback chair. I gladly take it, sighing as I lean back.

“Sorry about Robin. She can be a bit…eccentric,”

I snort. “Please, that’s nothing. Have you met Eddie? He’s like, the King of Drama,”

Vickie giggles. “Don’t I know it.”

Comfortable silence falls over us as we watch people stroll past the window. As my embarrassment settles, I can’t help but laugh at how ridiculous my life’s become. It’s strange, how this is the least uniform my world has ever been, yet I’m the happier than ever. I used to loathe change; I needed a routine and an answer to everything. No unknowns, zero variables—but now that my life is nothing but variables and questions, I actually don’t mind it. It’s exciting in a way.

“What’s funny?” Vickie asks, her voice smooth.

I shake my head. “How much can change in two weeks,” I respond, before adding, “How much I can change in two weeks,”

“Strange how it all works out, huh?”

I peel my eyes from the window to look at her. “So… what’s Hawkins?”

Her eyes thin. “Hm?”

“The name of the shop. Where’s it from?” I clarify, pointing at the ceiling and imagining the sign hanging above it.

“Ah, that’s right,” she recalls. “It’s, well… it’s home. Or it was, for all of us. Besides you and Ben of course. Where’d you guys grow up, anyways?”

“Houston,” I answer.

“You’re a long way from home,” she teases.

I nod, playing with my fingers in my lap. I could get further, I want to say. I want to get as far away from home as possible. Maybe someday I really will get far. I hear Canada’s nice. “Where’s Hawkins?” I deflect the topic away from myself.

“Indiana,” she swallows, lips forming a tight line. Her expression hollows for a moment, but she quickly brings herself back to earth and recovers with her signature smile. “Not so far from home.” She says it like it's a regret.

My lips form an ‘o’ as I nod, following her gaze out the window. Across the street, a little boy drops his ice cream, and he cries.

What a silly thing to cry about, I think to myself, but then I remember that crying about anything is silly when you really think about it.

⊱ ────── {⋆❉⋆} ────── ⊰

I sit cross-legged on my bed, the evening-setting sun peeking through the curtains and casting a golden glow on the walls. I go over my chemistry notes a million times, but it still doesn’t make sense to me. Every other class was a piece of cake, save for anatomy, which I have yet to tackle.

Daizy sits at the foot of my bed, feet propped up on the wall as she doom-scrolls on her phone. She’s been staying in my room with me for the past week as she delays going back home to Houston, her bank account no longer allowing hotel stays. I don’t ask her when she’s leaving because honestly, I don’t want her to. I will admit though, that the apartment is feeling a little crowded with the five of us.

The faint sounds of pans clanking and muffled voices echo down the hall and underneath my bedroom door. Steve and Ben discuss something I can’t make out, stopping suddenly when the front door opens and shuts. Eddie’s voice joins them in conversation.

Looking down at my studies, I groan. Fuck all of this.

“I’m gonna drop out,” I threaten.

Daizy eyes me from the side, setting her phone on her chest. “Give it a rest, would you?” She twists and sits on her feet, leaning forward to grab my hands. We sit there, faces inches apart, as she grins and evil grin. “Let’s talk about the elephant in the room,”

“There is no elephant in this room,” I retort sarcastically.

She rolls her eyes. “The metaphorical elephant!”

“That’s a big word for you, Days," I pester with a nickname I know she hates.

“You live with three men. Three hot men, might I add,” she leaps off the bed.

“Ugh, gross. One of them’s my brother,” I remind her.

She nods, spinning in place like a ballerina. “You’re the luckiest girl in the world, y’know that?” She gushes. “I mean, I’d give anything to get to look at them all day like you—“

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to live with three men?” I deadpan. “It’s anything but a joy,”

I slide off my bed and go to my dresser, pulling out some pajamas to change into. Daizy rants about boys—my boys, specifically, the ones only a few feet away in the kitchen—while I peel my sweater off.

Just as I’ve found myself in only my bra and underwear, my bedroom door flies open. I scream and attempt to cover myself as Eddie stands in the doorway.

“You went on a date with Steve?!” he accuses, expression a mixture of excitement and confusion.

“Oh my God, Eddie! Have you ever heard of knocking?” Daizy screeches, shoving him out of the room. “She’s literally naked, you perv!”

Down the hallway, I hear my brother shout ‘WHAT?’ At an unreasonable volume.

Eddie’s face goes pale and he freezes like a deer in headlights.

“Get out!” I yell.

He shakes out of his trance. “Oh, shit. Sorry!” The door slams closed behind him. I get dressed at an inhuman speed, a flustered mess of limbs and hair in my eyes.

I turn to Daizy and she’s staring at me expectantly, eyebrows perched. “You went on a date with Steve?”

Anger boils in my stomach. “It wasn’t a date,” I grumble, storming out of the bedroom and down the hallway. I stop in the kitchen, brushing past Steve to grab the towel hanging from the oven door. “Munson!” I call.

Eddie and Ben are arguing in the living room. I rapidly approach, tunnel vision on Eddie and I smack him with the towel. He barely flinches as he laughs breathlessly.

“Calm down now, Sweetheart, I’ve seen you naked before,” he coos.

My blood runs cold and my jaw hangs slack. I hit him again.

“I’m sorry you what now?” Steve joins, rounding the kitchen counter.

“It was an accident!” Eddie holds his hands up in surrender. “I walked in on her showering, she tried to murder me with shampoo bottles—“

I roll my eyes to mask my embarrassment. “You didn’t even see anything, I was covered by shower curtain,”

“Hate to break it to you Sweetheart, but—that curtain’s see through,”

I press my hands to the side of my head and squeeze. If I’m lucky, I’ll pop my brain out and I’ll never have to think about this ever again. "Oh. My. God."

Ben’s face is red with fury. “Alright, that’s it! Everyone shut up! Emergency roommate meeting is happening. Right. Now. Sit down, all of you,” he demands with conviction, slamming his hand on the couch. I silently sit on the sofa and Eddie sits on the opposite side. Daizy meekly attempts to escape, slowly stepping backward towards my bedroom. “You too!" Ben adds, pointing to her.

Her shoulders fall and she groans, walking to me. She sits on the floor in front of me, leaning her back against my legs. Steve sits between Eddie and me, his body heat radiating off of him. Daizy glances at him, mischief glimmering in her peripherals. I poke her ribs to make her stop, and she relents, if just barely.

The atmosphere suddenly turns serious and heavy. Ben paces back and forth, hands clasped together in contemplation. He presses his fingertips to his lips, thinking. Just as I believe I’m getting close to reading his thoughts, he starts, “Do you remember when I very directly told you two that there was a line, and not to cross it?” He speaks quietly, staring at the boys.

The pair nod. Steve looks down at his feet, and Eddie looks anywhere but Ben's face.

“Not only have you crossed the line, but it’s so far behind you that you can’t even see it. Shit—you might as well have pissed on it!”

Eddie can’t hold it in any longer, and he laughs, just for a second. If looks could kill, he’d be dead where he sits. Ben glares daggers at him. “I know you’re not laughing, you sexual deviant. You can continue to flirt with everyone you see— but people in this house are off limits, especially her!”

I’ll admit to jumping a bit when my brother points a finger at me, like lightning will shoot out of it and electrocute me. Like Thor.

I laugh at my own thought and immediately I realize what I’ve done. Oh fuck.

“You’re not innocent, either,” he rambles. “Jesus, you live with three guys. Lock the goddamn door!”

My bedroom door doesn’t have a lock on it, I want to remind him, but I fear he’ll ring my neck if I do.

“The bathroom lock’s broken and her bedroom doesn’t even have one,” Steve defends me. I dare a peek at him and he’s looking at me. I smile and mouth thank you to him.

“And how would you know her bedroom doesn’t have a lock?” Ben accuses.

Steve rolls his eyes. “Because I’ve lived here for two years, Benjamin.”

“Fine,” Ben resolves, looking at me. “She’ll take my room. Private bathroom and a lock on the door,”

He says it like it’s some sort of punishment, so I have to pretend to be upset. The boys nod along, agreeing that this is the best middle ground.

“I don’t know what’s going on with you two,” Ben wiggles his finger between Steve and me. “But quit it. If I find out you went on a date again I’m gonna wring your tentacles out like a rag,” he tells Steve, who winces at the thought and runs his hand through his fluffy hair.

Daizy giggles quietly. I kick her to try to shut her up, but it’s too late as he sets his sights on her.

“And you,” Ben calls on her. “Quit encouraging bad behavior. Do you think I couldn’t hear your little conversation earlier? These walls are paper thin,”

I bury my face in my hands. Daizy is gobsmacked and—for the first time ever—stunned to silence.

“This house clearly needs a set of clearly outlined rules,” he announces, pacing into the kitchen and snatching a notebook and pen off the counter. He scribbles furiously for an extremely long minute while the rest of us hold our breaths. Steve leans into me, nudging me with his shoulder. A warm, fuzzy feeling surrounds me as I scan his pouting face. 'I’m sorry,' he whispers, barely audible.

I shake my head. He has nothing to apologize for. It wasn’t a date—Eddie’s a drama queen and my brother’s an over-reactor.

“I behold to you,” Ben breathes, ripping the page out of the notebook and displaying it like a child with an art project. “The Roommate Agreement.”

The hand writing is doctorate at best, kindergarten-esque at worst. “Please read this agreement and sign it. Failure to do so will result in banishment; sleeping on the fire escape.” Ben points out the sliding glass window above the communal desk in the far corner of the living room, the only entry point to the fire escape.

It starts with Eddie. He reads it quietly before handing it to Steve, who makes a face and then hands it to me. The chicken scratch handwriting reads as follows:

The Roommate Agreement, Apartment 406D.

1. No pets, lest we suffer the wrath of Larry the Evil Landlord.

2. No roommate-on-roommate romance, punishable by: beating, public humiliation, or exile from the apartment.

3. Any and all decisions that directly affect all parties must be taken to a vote before finalized.

“Public humiliation or beating, really?” I snipe.

“Why are you so concerned? Plan on breaking the rules?” Ben teases.

I roll my eyes.

“Hey, can we add ‘pizza on Friday nights’ to the list of rules?” Eddie wonders aloud, ignorant to the tension in the room.

Ben sighs tiredly. “Yeah, sure, Ed. We can add pizza on Fridays,” he resolves.

“If we’re adding rules, we should add ‘knock before entering’ to the list. Since some people didn’t learn that in grade school,” I glare at Eddie.

He shrugs. “I’ve already seen you naked twice. Does it really matter anymore?”

I feel like I’m going to vomit from the thought of my naked body being burned into Eddie’s subconscious forever. Ben scowls and Steve elbows him.

“Do you ever think before you speak?” Daizy complains.

“Huh. Not really, no,” Eddie admits.

“I can tell.” she says.

“Alright, alright. Amendment to the Agreement: Pizza on Fridays, always knock before entering, and never speak about my sister naked ever again,” Ben says, looking pale.

Steve nods, suddenly feeling brave. “We should be allowed to make changes,”

“Once a year?” Daizy suggests, handing the paper back to Ben after she’s read it. "If you change it too often, it's not really an agreement, is it?"

“You don’t even live here,” Ben simmers, snatching the page.

“You’re the one who got me involved!” Daizy contests.

They lock eyes, an unhealthy mix of angst and electricity ricocheting off each other.

“Good fuck. Just make out already,” for once I'm thankful for Eddie's big mouth, as he says what we're all thinking. Daizy reaches for one of the throw pillows discarded on the floor and heaves it with all of her might. The plush hits his chest and he winces just to appease her, snickering.

Ben leans on the coffee table, stained with rings from beer cans and coffee mugs, furiously writing on the page. We pass it around the room again, reading the Amendment and signing our names at the bottom.

The Roommate Agreement, Apartment 406D.

1. No pets, lest we suffer the wrath of Larry the Evil Landlord.

2. No roommate-on-roommate romance, punishable by: beating, public humiliation, or exile from the apartment.

3. Any and all decisions that directly affect all parties must be taken to a vote before finalized.

4. We will have pizza on Friday night, every week, until the end of time.

5. The Agreement may receive 1 (one) Amendment within a calendar year.

6. We are to never speak of The Incidents again. Signing this agreement is a promise to take The Incidents to the grave."

'The Incidents' is an odd way to word 'Eddie's the only one that's seen my naked', but I suppose it's easier to digest this way.

I titter at the way it’s written, all professional and lawyer-like. That’s my brother, for you—he’s always been so serious. Steve hands me the pen and I grab it. He purposely holds onto it tight so I struggle to take it from him. I shake my head at him and he chuckles, relenting his grip to release the pen with a pop.

In wiggly cursive, just under Steve Harrington’s name, I squiggle my name and draw a little heart next to it, cementing my place in Apartment 406D and my commitment to the Roommate Agreement.

⊱ ────── {⋆❉⋆} ────── ⊰

**Holy crap, this took way too long to write, sorry! I gave up editing and half-assed it tbh so lmk if I missed something!**

Wanna be tagged? Just ask!

Tag list—

@G3n3zshack  @Rawrxbexjealous @Melalsworld @Anjxjahz @adaydreamaway30 @tiptoebabe @micheledawn1975 @crispystarfishhottub @spookysace24 

[re-whump]

Pest Treatment (1?)

no editing we die like mice but oops some of those mice were also people

an exterminator meets a borrower or two; a borrower has a very rough evening

cw: whump, tiny whumpee, carewhumper, animal death (mice), death/dead body (look, one of the main characters is an exterminator), some very callous handling of the dead, poisoning, kidnapping/capture, you know normal meetcute stuff

It was the last visit at the end of a long day, and Rich had volunteered himself to speak with their client, leaving Frankie to get down on her aching knees to check the traps they’d left out earlier this week. She shouldn’t complain. The client was a old creep and she was way too young to be bitching about her joints.

So far, she’d found three dead mice so far, which was more than she’d been expecting, really. For all the man’s complaints of nighttime noise and ruined food, she and Rich had hardly seen any actual signs of rodent activity, never mind a full-blown infestation. She slipped into the garage, where they’d seen most of the pellets.

She didn’t expect to find…this…waiting in one of the traps. Frankie didn’t know what it was or how it got there or exactly how guilty she needed to feel about it. She didn’t want to touch it. She didn’t want to find out that it was real. There plenty of blood on her hands, that was the nature of pest control, but it was animal blood, not…

It looked like a man.

She hollered for Rich. He’d been working in the field for much longer than she had, long enough to have encountered just about anything infesting these parts. If nothing else, he could confirm she wasn’t hallucinating. He excused himself from his chat with the homeowner and joined her in the garage.

“Need something, Francesca?”

She was too disturbed to bother to scowl at the long form of her name.

“Am I…? What am I looking at here?” Frankie asked, gesturing to the dead thing.

A closer examination just made her stomach turn. The thing in the trap was either some kind of tiny human or a sick doll set up as a prank. Its face, barely the size of her fingertip, was a snapshot of shock and agony, gone still with death. The snap-trap’s bar had crashed down over the tiny man’s middle and shattered his spine. Her stomach lurched and she couldn’t look away.

It was no dead mouse, but a murder scene and Rich barely flinched. The corner of his lip twitched down and he shook his head.

“Ah, hell. I’ve never seen one dumb enough to walk into a trap. Poor thing must’ve been desperate,” Rich said regretfully.

“You’ve seen this before? What is it? Was he…?” her voice struggled to make it up her throat.

“A person? Maybe. Or some kinda fairy, I think, they’re not much for talking. It’s usually best to just let them be, I’ve found. They leave on their own once we start setting out poison,” Rich said.

He told her to go take a quick break, maybe wash up a bit. The job was almost done anyway, it wouldn’t be so bad to finish it alone. She hesitated with the knee-jerk sense that she had to prove herself capable. There was little Frankie hated more than being dismissed as weak and she hadn’t yet been at this job long enough to build up a solid reputation to defend herself with.

But she could feel the blood on her hands even through her gloves and that felt like a sign of bad mental health to come if she tried to ignore this guilt. She went inside to hide out in the bathroom for a moment to clean her hands and clear her head.

What did Rich mean, that it had maybe been a person? It sure looked like one. They went out of their way to keep poisons inaccessible to non-target species, but they weren’t worried about these maybe-people? Maybe the maybe was a trick meant to knock the sin down from murder, but that thought was even more upsetting. She could throw up.

She wondered if there were others. There had to be, right, if Rich had seen them before? Should they be putting out signs or…how close to human were they? How many had they killed? Had she killed?

She took off her gloves and washed her sweating hands. The mental image of that face couldn’t be cleaned away. She swallowed hard. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She’d set out mouse traps, per her job, and somehow that thing—the man—had crawled into reality and stumbled into one. She didn’t have any reason to feel guilty. She scrubbed harder, digging at her skin until she had almost convinced herself to let it go.

She took a deep breath to go back to work when she heard a soft thud, like the soap slipping off its tray and into the sink basin. Frankie turned around to fix it and nearly jumped out of her skin. There was another one there, one of the maybe-people mouse-folk, lying flat on her stomach in the sink. She was a bit larger than the other, fat as a rat, but she was also alive. She pushed herself up to her knees with shaking arms, and clutched her gut in misery. It took her a moment to notice Frankie looking down at her, but when she did, she shuddered.

“H-help,” she gasped. Frankie swore she heard the word within the creature’s labored breathes.

This one, Frankie decided, this one she could save.

-

Starling sat beside her husband’s body and wished she felt more heartbroken. Her hands shook as she felt for signs of life and again found none. She ought to grieve, to cry, but she hardly had the space for it. She was disgusted. Furious. Sick. Exhausted.

He’d tried to kill them all, and, damn it all, she had helped. She had baked his poison into something more palatable and served it up to the whole brood.

“Did you know?” she whispered. Her throat burned. He had lived outside before they met each other. He should’ve known what rat bait looked like.

Some kinda protein bar, he had said. Found it outside. Guess someone dropped it while they were working, lucky for us.

And Starling had believed him. As if borrowers ever got lucky. There was something odd about the block, the proportions maybe, the color, but the humans dyed their food all sorts of bright colors and this had had nuts in it and they hadn’t found any real food in days and she was scraping crumbs of crumbs out of the pantry and something had to be better than nothing.

They should have left when the mice came inside, when the old man started locking down the kitchen. They should have left when the exterminators came and laid siege to the property. But Starling’s family, self included, was proud and long-established in the old home.

She gave her husband’s frozen hand a final squeeze and stumbled to her feet. Her head swam as she moved. Her body begged her to lay back down. Across the room, her mother wasn’t moving. Her sister moaned about the pain, and their cousin collapsed when he tried to stand. He couldn’t speak when she tried to help him and she fled.

She was a terrible person for it, but she couldn’t stop herself. She couldn’t face this. She was too scared to see who was gone and who was on their way out and afraid to hope there was anyone else left.

She’d eaten last, which meant she’d eaten the least, so as terrible as she felt, it was safe to assume everyone else had it worse. Maybe if she just, if she could throw up, she might…maybe she could find something to fix this.

Vomiting didn’t help, at least not enough. She was still so weak she was shaking and now her mouth tasted of bile. She kept going, further and further from her home within the walls. Her vision blurred with dizziness and tears.

She fumbled her way down towards a bathroom in search of soap and clean water to get this taste out of her mouth, at least. But getting there had been exhausting and her coordination was getting worse and worse. She grabbed scraped off a bit of soap then tripped into the hard basin below.

She pushed herself up and froze as a shadow swallowed up the light. As a living mountain, a colossus, a human stared down at her. The most notorious predator in the world. It smelled like sanitizer and bug spray.

Starling was so damn sick, she hadn’t even noticed the human was in here until it was staring down at her. Hadn’t thought twice about the wet soap, about the light. Was too dizzy to think much about the noise, since everything was already too loud. She tried unsuccessfully to get up and run. All she could do was tremble and pray for rescue.

“H-help,” she gasped.

But of course no one could help her. She had run away from her responsibility to her family and she would face her consequences alone

[idciminlove]

FIGHTER.

Part Three - Red

Kang Dae Ho x f!reader

Cinnamonacid on AO3

Warnings- Death, Blood, Anxiety, Slight Survivor’s guilt, etc.

After the first game, you face your losses..and some wins too.

The smell of blood hung heavily in the air, intertwined with the strong scent of gunpowder. You panted, trying to catch your breath and slow your racing heart. When you looked back across the line, you could see all the bodies, all the blood, all the carnage from a simple game. You should’ve known. Making billions off playing childrens’ games? There had to be a catch. There had to be a cost, and now you knew what it was.

“We made it.” You followed the voice, turning your attention away from the bloodshed, and focusing on the man standing before you instead. It was 388. He smiled at you. Despite everything that just happened, he smiled at you, sweet, hopeful, and resilient, a ray of sunshine in the midst of a hurricane. It made something flutter in your chest.

You offered him a small smile back. “Yeah, we did.”

The speakers crackled, getting your attention. “Attention all players, the first game has now ended. Please return to the dormitory.”

You hated that voice. Hated how cheerful it was, lulling you into a false sense of security, trying to keep you calm, acting as if everything was perfect, as if they hadn’t just commited mass murder. It was unsettling. It was wrong. The two guards that stood in the room walked over to the door, opening it and letting all the players walk through, making you leave in the same single file lines you had entered in.

–

It was funny. Death surrounded Dae-Ho, and all he could think about was how pretty you were. As he caught his breath, he stood up straight, his eyes studying the curve of your face, your eyes, your nose, your lips. You were one of the most beautiful people he had ever seen, and you saved him. You took his hand and didn’t let go, dragging him across the finish line just to make sure he made it. He tried not to stare, but how could he?

Somehow, he found his voice. “We made it.”

“Yeah, we did.” Your lips curved upward into a small smile. He felt his heart thump against his ribs.

As the players lined up single file to exit, he made sure to stay close to you, trailing behind. His eyes never left your back as he ran his fingers over the collar of his jacket and pressed it to his lips, a nervous tick of his. He was weary of what was ahead, anxious and fidgety. He had survived that game, mainly because of you. Who knows what would happen next? All he knew was that he didn’t want to leave your side. He had someone who helped him. Someone who he could trust, and he’d be stupid to let you go.

“Hey, uh, I just wanted to say thanks, for earlier.” He remarked, as the two of you made your way through the multicolored corridors.

You shook your head, refusing to slow your pace. “Don’t mention it.”

–

It seemed like you had a shadow. 388 stayed close, following you even after you entered the dormitory. He lingered as you took a seat on your bed, leaning against the post. The other players were scattered around the dorm, and everything was quiet compared to earlier, whispers of fear and dread spreading amongst them. Even though you were scared and exhausted from what you just experienced, you didn’t mind his presence. It was kind of comforting.

“That man from earlier…I saw you guys talking before the game. How did you know him?” He asked.

“..I didn’t really know him that well. He bet on me a lot. Went to all my fights, and no matter what, even if I was on the worst losing streak, he wouldn’t give up on me. He thought I was his lucky charm, the old fool.” You shook your head, fighting against the lump in your throat. And now he was dead. Dead for no good reason. Dead for nothing.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured, sympathetic and solemn. You waved it off, wiping away the tears beading in your eyes.

There was a long beat of silence between you two, before he spoke again, in a more upbeat tone. “So, you’re a fighter huh? That explains why you’re so strong. I mean, you basically threw me across the finish line.”

You couldn’t help but giggle at that, a bashful grin crossing your face. Out of all the reactions you’ve gotten to being a fighter, you’ve never had one like that. Most people were bothered by it, always acting differently or making a remark about how fighting was too masculine for you. That you were too pretty for it. Too soft. There were few that actually respected you, and even less that were impressed. So, it was nice to hear.

“What do you do? Boxing? Wrestling? Taekwondo?” He listed off.

“I do mixed martial arts, so I know Taekwondo, Hapkido, and Tang soo do.”

“Wow.” He mumbled, impressed. “Well, I’m sure you don’t need it, but if you ever wanted the extra protection, I was in the marines, so, I could definitely help.”

He brushed back some stray locks that had fallen into his face, puffing up his chest slightly with pride. You grinned at him. You wouldn’t expect someone like him to be a marine, not someone so sweet and warm, but you knew more than enough about irrational expectations and far too traditional beliefs, so you believed him.

“I’m Dae-Ho. Kang Dae-Ho.” He offered you his hand to shake.

You gazed at his hand for a moment, hesitating slightly, before taking it, and telling him your name. While he was practically a stranger, the two of you meeting only a few hours ago, and you knew you could trust him, especially after what happened during the game.

Before you could continue your conversation, the guards entered, this time armed with guns. The other players panicked, cowering and hiding, some of them getting on their knees and begging for their lives. The guards tried to calm them, ensuring that they didn’t want to kill you, just “provide you with an opportunity.” You scoffed. What a load of bullshit.

456 got to his feet, interrupting the panic. He spoke about one of the clauses, how you had the right to vote, and if the majority voted to leave, they could leave and take their shares, the games being terminated.

Before the vote began, the lead guard clicked a button to the glowing piggy bank that hung from the ceiling above, and cash began to fall. 9.1 billion won. 24 million each.

It was hardly even close to paying off your debts, but it would be enough for you to at least get through your monthly payment. It wasn’t worth it to stay here and risk your life. If you died, who knows what could happen to your mother. You have to get out of here.

But as you heard the others complaining about it not being enough, dread twisted in your stomach. You hoped that most of them would feel the same. You hoped you could leave. But you knew that it was out of your hands. You wouldn’t get answers until the vote was completed.

1 billion for each player eliminated. 45.6 billion for the last player remaining.

[crushedsweets]

I don't know if you've already been asked this, but Kate misses Lauren? Does she often think about her?

I think this has been asked but I cannot find it for the life of me!! Anyhow, disclaimer that this is for my AU with rewrites and a specific plot etc etc etc

Yes! Kate does miss Lauren. Sorta. Cuz she still got her right there … CW for death and whatnot under the cut

Kate keeps Lauren’s corpse in the mines. That’s part of the reason it took so long for Toby to get Kate to live at the Cabin, she felt wrong/scared/gross leaving Lauren behind. Toby doesn’t fully know the extent of Lauren’s corpse, just smells the decay and gags a little whenever he goes to retrieve Kate.

Anyhow, Kate had pretty intense feelings for Lauren before the operator took her (so middle school in my AU) and the feelings never fully went away. She’ll sit with Lauren’s corpse, cry over it, hold its hand (and accidentally break the bones when she’s experiencing skull shattering migraines cuz of slendy), etc. sometimes she mistakes the corpse for still being alive and freaks out, runs away from it and hides somewhere in the mines until she’s level headed, smears slendys ink and other victims blood all over the walls and on paper writing cryptic stuff that she left Lauren BEFORE her death. She just behaves really odd, and the one time Toby tried taking the corpse out of the mines (unaware of Kate’s attachment), Kate almost killed him. Only reason he survived is cuz slendy gave her a headache so awful she let go and start screaming on the floor

Kate killing Lauren contributes a LOT to why my Kate has such intense anxiety, even if most people interpret her anxiety as stoicism or aggression. She doesn’t want to get close to people because she’s convinced she’s gonna rip them open. In the case of CR, she doesn’t want to get close to people(men more so) in case they pull the same stuff he did. She overheard the other proxies describe her as. Undesirable and likely to never find love. Which is fucked up but she was like yesssssss

Kate living in the mines for so many years, only with a corpse, slendermans body(cuz slendys body stays hooked up on stalagmites), and some zombie-like failed proxies (Charlie) has severely deteriorated her mental health. She is still human and I treat “Kate” as a different persona from “The Chaser”, but sometimes all the trauma and exposure to slendy mixes things up

I think after Kate starts living in the proxy cabin, making genuine connections with the creepjects, and slowly starts stabilizing her mind again, she thinks less and less about Lauren. I think she would go back, carry her corpse to a nice spot in the forest with flowers and something, and bury her body properly. Let her rest. Scribble out a poorly written apology letter and leaving it in the grave. Dunno v_v

[sturniolostars]

𝓟𝓤𝓒𝓚𝓘𝓝𝓖 𝓐𝓡𝓞𝓤𝓝𝓓

∗ smut, mentions of death, abuse, eating disorders, self harm, overall mature themes

∗ Chris was used to everyone liking him. But Evelyn hates hockey players and Chris hates her and her stupid figure skating. However they have to share a rink for now and can’t help but feel a pull towards each other. How will this play out in the end?

Previous Chapter

Chris’s pov

What did she mean she knew? How did she find out? Who told her? It doesn’t matter I need to explain myself before she tells people false information or even worse the actual true information. I grab her wrist before she can walk out.

“Please just come up to my room and I’ll explain” I can see that she wants to say no and leave, but also knows that if she doesn’t give me a chance right now I’ll probably throw her over my shoulder and taker her upstairs myself.

With that, she sighs and nods. I take her upstairs to my room and punch in the code for my door and drag her inside before closing it behind me and turning to her. “What do you know?” I demand.

“I know that it was one of your teammates that got some girl pregnant while she was dating some other dude and he wasn’t very happy.” She sounded pissed. Who wouldn’t be. That made all of us sound like jerks. But it’s also not what happened

“Look they didn’t even hookup. Yes she got pregnant but it’s her actual boyfriend’s baby and she must have just got scared and blamed it on the only other person she could which happened to be my teammate.” I explain “he also didn’t know she had a boyfriend”

I can see her soften a little at that and nod. I walk closer to her half because when we were walking upstairs her ass was in my face and I wanted to fuck her for it and the other was to prove my point. “You can’t tell anyone” my voice comes out huskier.

She nods. “I won’t” she whispered. I can feel myself getting hard already. “You know you’re such a tease” I growl putting my hands on her hips. She looks confused. “Me? What did I do?!”

I smirk. “That perfect ass of yours was in my face the whole way up the stairs” she scoffs. “Well I can’t really control that” I chuckle and lean in to start kissing her neck. I can feel her shiver and watch goosebumps invade her skin. She says she hates me but her body thinks otherwise.

Evvie’s pov

I do hate him. I do I do I do. Or at least that’s what I want to tell myself. I roll my eyes at how pathetic I’m being. He lays me onto his bed. And while I won’t stop this because I think I’d start sobbing I will be cocky.

“You think you can just fuck me?” I scoff. He kisses my neck again. “No but let me make it up to you” he says dragging my panties down my legs. His fingers work my clit and slide up and down my folds.

“So wet for me. Is this what hate does?” He teases. “I bet you couldn’t even find my g-spot. I can draw a map to it just for you so I don’t regret-“ I’m cut off with a loud moan as he shoves two fingers into me.

He pumps them in and out of me while still rubbing my clit. My back arches a bit. Okay maybe I should not have made that joke because all I felt now were his long slender fingers abusing my g-spot.

He brought his mouth down to suck on me and my back arches off the bed. I was already about to cum but I’ll just blame it on that fact I haven’t been laid in a while and not the fact this man is destroying me and he’s not even fucking me with his cock.

“I fucking hate you– fuck I’m cumming!” I moan. My orgasm hits me like a tidal wave and I can feel myself convulsing around his fingers. He pulls said fingers out and slurps up my juices. It was pretty hot but fuck–

I can’t believe what I just did. I’m supposed to hate him. Not cum all over his face. I quickly grab my panties and race out the door like I’ve been in track my whole life before Chris can even register what happened.

Fuck me

a/n: might get another part out today too, so I hope you enjoy! (Tell me if you wanna be added to the taglist)

Tags: @kadesturnz @stargazer6969 @megamorgan44 @watercolorskyy @wurlibydominicfike @sturnslux3 @courta13 @kikirasweatsweathoho @bernardsbendystraws @idrk2292

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.239 thoughts

[The Greatest Ending Ever]

(Topics: thematic analysis - joy, character analysis - Andy/Fuuko/Union, narrative analysis - narrative utility, speculation - epilogue, appreciation)

Congratulations to everyone reading this review!

You did it! You pushed through all of the hard times in your life, everything that made you wish you weren't around, and lasted long enough to see the conclusion of one of the best stories ever told!

I'm so proud of you, and I hope to see you at the end of the next great story as well!

I rewrote this intro half a dozen times, trying desperately to find the right tone to set. I tried being somber, but that felt depressing. I tried being goofy, but that felt disrespectful. I tried being straightforward, but that felt detached

In the end, there was only one way that was ever going to feel right: I had to match the tone of the finale itself. I don't want to end this series feeling like we're at a funeral or in a lecture hall, I want to end it the same way Tozuka did: feeling like we're at a party!!!

Celebrate Good Times, C'mon!

This chapter is a celebration of the series, a wrap-party for the cast and setting, a curtain call to give the audience one last hurrah with everything we loved so much about the series!

We get a little "where-are-they-now" for all of the Negators, with everyone living out their dreams or putting their pasts behind them. Some of them are living large as professional athletes or business owners, some of them are more humble and bringing up the next generation, but everyone is clearly enjoying their life!

Seeing everyone living normally and happily, whether they're already successful or working their way up, is so rewarding. It's certainly a deheightening from the excitement of being superhumans and immortals, but knowing that people I love are no longer suffering and have become comfortable with themselves and their lives makes the tradeoff from being "cool" to "mundane" more than worth it

Besides, our main couple's lives are still anything but what I'd call mundane

Be the Change You Want to See

Andy and Fuuko's new lives create such perfect foils to where they started their respective stories

Where Fuuko started her story alone and locked away in isolation, dreaming of seeing the world, now she explores it without reservation with a lifelong friend by her side. She can go where she wants, she can wear what she wants, and she can touch who she wants

Andy, meanwhile, has always been traveling, but where before he did so aimlessly and alone, now he does so with purpose as part of a team (named Wind, after the "Fuu" in Fuuko). Instead of hoping to stumble upon his own end, he now seeks to create a better world, protecting people from injustices and giving them the means to improve their lives. No longer ignoring the needs of others for his own death, he now uses his life to provide others those very needs

Both now actively want to live their lives, and now, though currently apart from each other, are surrounded by people who love them, and are thematically the most important people they could be with. Fuuko travels with Gina, Fuuko's best friend standing as representation of the bonds forged along the way, while Andy travels with Rip and Nico, two of his greatest rivals representing the internal conflicts that have been resolved along the way

While other characters definitely got similar attention from the narrative, like Julia, Shen, Chikara, Feng and Sean, this group in particular really feels like the true core team. They were the most consistently present in the narrative, and even ended up being the ones focused on when removing The Heart from Fuuko (though Latla had to stand in for Rip for medical reasons), so I think it's safe to say this is how Tozuka views them at the very least

Of course, just because they're all so tight-knit doesn't mean that they can't misjudge each other at times. Their respective teams were aware of the upcoming wedding, and had faith that the newlyweds-to-be factored that into their planned tours, only to realize...

Both of them forgot

What a Shame the Poor Groom's Bride is Stupid

Fortunately, they know each other well enough that they know they aren't the only one to make that mistake, and decide to make a game out of it: whoever gets to the altar first gets to lord it over the other for the rest of their life!

This is a great moment of characterization for both of them, as not only are they comfortable enough with each other to spend so much time apart without worry, they also have absolute faith that the other, for all their faults, loves them with all their heart. Because they both messed up, neither of them can be called "the irresponsible one," while still allowing them both to be the same goofy and endearingly stupid couple they've always been

The fact that both of them make it to the altar at the exact same time, in the same spectacular fashion, establishes them as on perfectly equal footing in the relationship (despite the fact that they were both trying to make a powerplay out of their mutual screwup)

I can see how some people might dislike the choice to have them both forget the wedding, though. Where to me it reads as comfort and faith in each other, others may read it as flippant disregard for an extremely important moment in their lives together and for the sheer amount of time that they're wasting for their friends. Some folks have even suggested that this means they're going to be bad parents, which...is possible, but I just can't get behind that thought. I think they'll be odd parents, but not absentees a la Naruto or Yoh

No, I don't think this ridiculous turn of events was meant to establish that they'll be a forgetful couple or anything negative like that, I think it was yet another masterful example of Tozuka's greatest skill as a writer: narrative utility

4D Chessmaster

First of all, the panel where they realize they both forgot the wedding is, without exaggeration, the funniest panel in the whole manga to me. It's great comedy while also injecting highly personal if low-threat stakes into the final chapter

Secondly, it presented an opportunity to work Billy and Tatiana in as active members of this final story without simply having them mingle in the crowd at the wedding itself. Having the two of them specifically fill the same roles in parallel lets them act as a duo (even when separated, like Andy and Fuuko) while also reinforcing the visual of Fuuko being surrounded by her best friends and Andy reconciling with his greatest enemies

Finally, it facilitated the most important straggler making an appearance at the wedding. No, not Sean or Feng being late, they could easily have just been written to be on time in the first place, someone more thematically important and absolutely vital to painting an iconic vignette to end the series on:

Luna

The full moon is, without doubt, the most important recurring visual motif in the series, so there was absolutely no way that Tozuka was going to let Andy and Fuuko get married without it adorning the sky

It would have been easy to just write their wedding happening at night, but again, we needed to get a glimpse at everyone's lives and some much-needed levity after the rollercoaster of the final Ragnarok. Setting the wedding during the day, under the Sun that oppressed humanity for eons, only to have their ridiculous antics and disregard for tradition stall long enough for the Moon that gave them the means to fight that oppression to come out creates a wonderful microcosm for the series as a whole

The visual of Andy and Fuuko riding off into the moonlight, now surrounded by stars rather than alone in an empty, rather than the more traditional sunset is a symbol of their liberation, their freedom to live their lives as they please for as long as they please with whomever they please

It also serves to fulfill Luna's ultimate goal: to see the value of the Rules that was previously unknown to her. Yes, the Union showed her the power of love when overcoming Sun, but that wasn't the end, it was just the beginning. That moment is what paved the way for the Negators and all of humanity to make of the world and its Rules what they need to live The Greatest Life Ever

This is also why I'm happy to admit that, appropriately as usual, I was wrong in my prediction: Undead Unluck did not, in fact, end with Andy's death

Life After Love

I've said since chapter 1 that the point of Undead Unluck was to teach Andy that life was worth living, and that The Greatest Death Ever would be one that follows a life well-lived. I always figured that we would get to actually see the literal death, but looking at it now, I think that this was the better choice as a final note to leave the series on

As I said in the intro, this chapter is a celebration, not a funeral. In much the same way that Oda has difficulty killing characters in One Piece because it would put a damper on the party that follows a huge battle, Tozuka may have wanted to avoid a bittersweet ending because it would be harder to push the theme of enjoying life while in mourning

Not that it would have been impossible, and it certainly would have been impactful to force us as the audience to wrestle with that dichotomy, but a complex ending is not necessarily the best ending. We aren't stupid, we can infer that Andy and Fuuko will one day die, and that when they do, all of the people they love will still be a part of their lives to see them off and remember them

But knowing that they'll die is completely different from seeing them die. Showing us the death in person would be asking us to grieve, to accept, and to move on, but the acceptance of death has never been one of Undead Unluck's core themes, at least not directly. Instead, accepting death was more of a subtheme to the greater theme of embracing life, and that is what the final page is really asking us to do

This is the story of Andy, Fuuko Izumo, and everyone living in this world, and their quest for The Greatest Death Ever

We aren't shown The Greatest Death Ever because that death isn't actually for Andy and Fuuko: it's for us

It's for us to interpret what that death would entail, for us to enjoy our lives, and for us to complete the quest

Andy and Fuuko gave us an example, but they didn't tell us what to do. They didn't give us a cheat code, there's no way to speedrun it, we just have to take the long way and have fun figuring out how to play the game all the while. At best, Tozuka (and Akira, in-series) gave us a strategy guide to get us started, but much like the Union didn't change the Rules of the world and instead wants to empower people to better themselves, only we can decide what Our Greatest Life and Death will be

Of course, this is all assuming that this is actually the final note Tozuka is leaving us on

What Comes Next

It just wouldn't be a 4Y1A Review without some speculation, now would it?

For the last several months, I've been saying that UU would end on ch.241 in order to give the final volume the usual nine chapters (which would also have given it the 5-year anniversary Jump cover, but whatever...), but ending on ch.239 means that there would be a bit less content than usual

It's not unheard of for a final volume to be a little shorter than usual, but it's also very common for final volumes to include one or both of two options: a bonus chapter and the pilot chapter

Given that Undead + Unluck is an actual plot point, there is a very good chance that it'll be included in the final volume, and I would definitely be excited to see an official translation of it. Moreso than that, though, I'd really like just one more chapter to tie up some loose ends

The way I see it, there are three possible routes for a bonus chapter to go:

Andy's death

Ruin and Soul's life in the final world

A full exploration of Sun and Luna's backstory

The first, as I said, would likely be bittersweet, but would at least fulfill the narrative promise of Andy's dream while also giving us a nice opportunity for a little bit more AnFuu content. A lot of folks were upset that we didn't see Andy and Fuuko kiss at their wedding, and there wasn't even any discussion about how Fuuko can touch people without fear anymore, so an epilogue detailing their later years and their family life would be welcomed

On the other hand, covering Ruin and Soul would give us a look into how well the world is living up to Fuuko's vision and would give Ruin his much-needed capstone since he didn't get one during Ragnarok. How is he holding up without Blood and Shadow? What does his happiness look like? What kind of relationship does he have with Soul? I would hate to think that these two are the only ones Tozuka doesn't care to give a happy ending to

Finally, the least likely but possibly the most interesting, getting more details on Sun and Luna would just be a fun way to revisit Tozuka's world-building one last time. The world that they come from is the biggest remaining mystery, and I still don't fully understand what Luna's real goal actually was, so I think getting a little more perspective on it would be helpful, even if it still ends up being somewhat vague

However, Tozuka might want to leave it vague. It doesn't matter to the cast, it doesn't inform anything about their lives, so why does it matter that there's a greater cosmology that they'll never interact with? Furthermore, leaving a dangling thread like that means that we still have something to wonder about, a little knot for the curious to spend the next few years trying to untangle in our minds just for fun. Tying up every single detail in a neat little bow is satisfying, but satisfaction doesn't leave any room to play around in the space, so that may have been Tozuka's last little gift to us for the sake of enrichment

Volume 27 won't be out until April it looks like, so we'll have to wait a bit longer to know for sure what route Tozuka will take if he does any of these at all. Heck, theoretically he could do all three if he has 50 pages to work with, but I'm definitely not putting my money on that horse (bluffing specifically so I'll be wrong)

There is one thing I do know for sure though: this is not my last review for Undead Unluck!

Not only do we have the Winter Special coming up (eventually...), we also will be receiving a third light novel! I'm absolutely going to review both of those when the time comes, so whether or not we get an epilogue chapter, you will be hearing from me again!

Until then, it has been an incredible honor to have you all read these reviews, respond to them, riff on them, and most importantly, enjoy them. This has been one of the best fandom experiences I've ever had, and that's thanks to all of you

Thank you all for making my favorite manga something bigger than I ever dreamed it would become

Thank you all for reading my work and giving me reason to dive deeper than I might have all alone

Thank you all for being my friends

Now

Let's enjoy life

[rimatsu]

Girl how do I know you don’t bite…

Anyways, I like your speculations and I’ll be honest I’m so hesitant to put on the clown shoes but my gut is telling me the 217 truck isn’t a reunion, but it will be Buck searching for Tommy at all the emergencies they’re called to and never running into him. I think it would be smart that if they did have a reunion, they have this kind of build up because then the audience is always on the look out for him. And if they went with the fate route and this build up combined, their reunion will be outside of an emergency at the least expected time.

I’m all for crash that helicopter, but I think if they reunite with one of them in danger it will be Buck, and that’s mostly because I think Tim pays attention to fandom and one of last years most popular memes was the 118 going through the worst, while Buck lived his romcom starry eyed fantasy. It’s his time to be the one in danger. We’ll just have to see if Tommy is part of rescue

i promise i gently nibble at most

thank you! i get the hesitation but atp putting on the clown makeup is comforting. hope is a beautiful emotion even when it's completely unwarranted <3 it'll need to be tempered down in a month or so but rn we still exist in this liminal space where anything could happen so i say enjoy it while we can

oh i really like your take. it'd support the pining, will-they-won't-they angle. in an ideal world where this is definitely a breakup/makeup arc by design, building expectation over multiple episodes would make the reunion that much sweeter!

i do think we're due for a Buck NDE soon ngl. bc of karmic balance. that said, if the reconciliation is to happen, i'd rather not have it be driven by desperation following a big accident. a calmly contemplated decision not influenced by external factors is more trustworthy and rn they both need to thrust each other's declarations. but i'll admit it'd make for more boring tv compared to a dramatic hospital bed confession.

also i think they should save the chopper/jeep crash or other work related maiming after they're back together for maximum angst. it'll hit harder if they're fully committed to each other and to a future together when it's jeopardized by potential death <3

[venomwrites]

So, I felt conflicted about everything in the last chapter. Which I think is a good thing. I get Cait should have talked with Vi about her decision. But I also understand her need to do something for herself. And I've loved that Cait went and did it regardless but also in the end gave Vi a choice to be a part of it. Plus the reconnect of intimacy with the dropped badge was a nice touch because Cait actually recognized Vis trauma.

And I feel for Vi. I do. That is some fucked up shit that happened on that bridge. And not her fault. And Cait should have been more mindful of that. And I need that to be recognized. But here is the kicker: I understand Vis conflicted emotions but I also understand Vander's anger.

Because: Vi is not responsible for her trauma. But as you said: She is responsible for working through it. And what she went out of her way to do is hurt Cait. It's a trauma response. And it makes sense to lash out. But it's no excuse to do it. It's no excuse to go out and hurt ppl. And she did so deliberately. And it's conflicting in the best way. Because on the one hand, the person Vi cares about so so much, who kept her alive, goes off to join the force who hurt her deeply. But on the other hand Vi goes out of her way and maybe only temporarily to hurt Caitlyn who fought hard to keep them alive in a way traumatizing her in return.

It's a great thing! I was conflicted writing it!

I really love what you said at the end because one of the things that really drew me to exploring this AU was how Vi and Caitlyn would experience the Bridge. And we know Vi's trauma, but imagine being Caitlyn who gets tear gassed in her living room. And we see that trauma affecting them as they grow up. Caitlyn has now experienced a taste of the brutality but for all her resources she can do nothing except try to make this one Zaunite a bit less miserable. And Vi grows up filled with anger towards Piltover but also aware that there is at least one Piltover person keeping her alive.

I tried to plant this seed that Felicia, Vander and everyone else thought Vi's soulmate was someone in Piltover with resources, but no-one considered it was the Kiramman's. Vander even says to Cassandra that he wondered why she called off the Enforcers on the Bridge. So Vi's Soulmate is both directly responsible for her survival and very connected to her parents death. I think it leads to a lot of complicated feelings for Vi regarding her Soulmate even though Caitlyn did not do any of those things directly.

Vander doesn't want Vi to make his mistakes. He doesn't want he poisoned by the anger that poisoned him. That's why when he sees her being deliberately cruel to Caitlyn with the face tattoo, he calls Silco. It's almost past the point of whose right or wrong, it's kind of forcing Vi to see that she can have the anger but it's going to cost her a lot. It's almost an echo of the 'who are you willing to lose' scene in the show.

That's why I loved that scene where she finally says to Caitlyn you really hurt me instead of lashing out. And I think that's what lets Caitlyn say Vi hurt her too. The violence turns from physical lashing out to words. They grow past their predecessors because they don't descend into the same violence. Even though it would be justified. When I was a kid learning to cross the street, my mother used to tell me you can have the right of way and still be killed by a car.

Now for the acknowledgement of the trauma, this came up in my other fic but Caitlyn actually takes off the bandage. She has the VI tattoo in her official Enforcer's license. She does it so every time she takes it out she remembers what Enforcers did to Vi and her family. It's a reminder to consider her actions in the line of duty.

And then when Vi becomes an Enforcer, their licenses match.

Also. yes I loved the dropped badge. Especially in the wake of Vi deciding to go with the other Soulmates (which Cait didn't even tell her about to spare her from it). I love that when Vi decides something is more important than her anger, Caitlyn shows her she's always been more important than the badge.

[cocogum]

The Great Wave - Chapter 12 Review

‼️SPOILERS FOR THE CHAPTER‼️

Oh my god Grougalorasalar was just spitting facts in this entire chapter....

Daddy's right, yugo's fucked.

Sorry people I actually do agree with most of what Grougalorasalar said. That is, most. Not entirely. And I'll explain that later on.

Besides Grougalorasalar's facts, let me just say that I really loved how this chapter really showed us some deaths that occurred during the war since season 4 never showed these before.

(Like what happened to the bodies after the war? Did they get buried or got disintegrated??)

Not only does this show that there were more casualties than expected when the war was happening, but it's also telling us that there will be more chapters depicting death and loss Iike these with no visual restraints.

Now back to Grougalorasalar.

This fine ass man dude listed so many things that the eliatropes have done whether those actions were intentional or not.

Like how he listed the Eliacube, Nox, Qilby, Ogrest, Oropo, and the Eliasphere...

Oh! Speaking of Qilby, what he said about him may be a foreshadowing.

"I'm not even sure he's the wackiest member of your family..."

Doesn't that sound like a major foreshadowing about how Yugo will end up being far worse than Qilby?? 😭😭😭

Like come on, we got that wave coming up soon so Yugo might as well end up copying big brother right? 💀💀

But anyway, during Grougalorasalar's explanation, he actually clears out one problem that people have been trying to figure out:

How could he say all these things while knowing he had assisted Ogrest with the other primordial dragons?

Well we finally know the reason why now.

It surprisingly makes a lot of sense if we think about it.

Ogrest possessed all the primordial Dofus at that time, so it wouldn’t be surprising that he could control six dragons. Their behavior during the ovas, while they were fighting Dally and Yugo, seemed almost primal, despite the fact that we knew they could talk. They surrounded Ogrest as if he was their master, and their eyes were completely devoid of any emotion.

It makes so much more sense now because back when the great wave's first volume dropped, people kept wondering why Grougalorasalar had the nerve to speak to Yugo like that in his dream when he had clearly played a role in one of his mistakes.

And it also made sense why Aguabrial had been acting feral towards Dally and Yugo, especially since he had previously interacted with them in the manga that occurs between season 2 and the OVAs.

....Yeah, that was on Oropo, but I see why he'd blame Yugo too.

But besides me saying how much I believe most of what Grougalorasalar says, it's time I talk about the parts that I don't agree with.

The first is by saying that Armand's death was indirectly caused by Yugo because he brought the Eliasphere into this.

When that wasn't technically true.

When Yugo returned to the Sadida Kingdom, he presented the Eliasphere and specifically warned everyone not to use its power excessively, as doing so could lead to death. Armand was present during this explanation and understood the risks involved. He ultimately made the difficult decision to sacrifice himself for his people by harnessing the magic of the artifact.

It was Armand's own choice to have gone out like that. Yugo had nothing to do with it.

And the second is by saying that all of the artifacts that Grougalorasalar listed don't belong to the eliatropes.

I do agree that the Eliacube and the Eliasphere do not belong to them and should have never been touched in the first place.

But the eliatrope dofus?? Seriously????

Grougalorasalar, come on, are you being for real?

These dofus are literally the spawning eggs for the primordial eliatropes. That's literally their checkpoint savings, so the eggs obviously belong to them!

I think my guy was way into his monologue that he forgot that key detail.

These two do NOT look okay and I'm loving it.

BUT WAIT GUYS WE'RE BACK TO THE REAL WORLD!!!

LOOK AT AMALIA RUNNING TO YUGO OMG SHE'S SUCH A GIRLBOSS SOMEONE PLEASE I WANT THEM ‼️‼️‼️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Look at how tightly her arms are wrapped around him...🥺🥺🥺 She's crying omg plz no babygirl it's okay your husband's alive and took it well omg- 😣😣

The way she completely loses it when she sees him in pain means the world to me. She would do anything for him 😭😭💗💗 How many times has she gone on the attack when Yugo has been injured??!!!? ❤️❤️❤️❤️ SHE EVEN HAD THAT HABIT BACK IN SEASONS 1-2 😫😫❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

As soon as Grougalorasalar takes them back, that damn belladone poison is now apparently subsiding and fading away on its own. Usually, the poison just immediately kills the person who swallows it but in Yugo and Adamai's case, it just fades away when their bodies are just being injured by it and nothing more. ✨️ Demigod stuff ✨️

Alright, here is where we finally arrive at the scene that sparked a major discussion in the chapter comments.

And that was regarding the fact that Grougalorasalar was also seen carrying his own primordial dofus.

Many people have criticized that he shouldn't have been wearing the dofus while blaming Yugo for all the casualties that he caused while using the eliatrope dofus.

But I don't really think there needs to be a discussion.

I really love Yugo but Grougalorasalar was completely in the right for wearing them.

He knew that Yugo was the type to strike when something doesn't go his way and when he feels like he's being challenged. So did you really think that Grougalorasalar wasn't going to arm himself in case something went bad during his explanation? Or even when he would admit that he tried poisoning Yugo and his wife?

Like the reason why he was even armed with the dofus to begin with was because he knew there was a good chance Yugo could have attacked him with his own ones.

And it turned out that his hunch was right.

Yugo almost did but got stopped by Adamai (just in time too). So Grougalorasalar's decision was completely justifiable.

But despite that, I'll have to disagree on another one of Grougalorasalar's decisions: demanding to take away the eliatrope dofus AND the Eliasphere.

Like I said before, Yugo and Adamai cannot give him the eliatrope dofus because those are where they rest after death and leave to get reborn. Those literally belong to them. The goddess eliatrope created them with these dofus.

While I agree that he was right to tell Yugo and Adamai that the Eliasphere does not belong to them, it's important to note that the artifact cannot leave their possession, even if they wanted it to. Rotalström, the dragon that Armand defeated, is still technically alive but currently dormant. The Eliasphere is the only artifact capable of keeping it subdued. So, if there ever comes a time when the necromantic dragon awakens, the Eliasphere would be the first artifact used against it.

...So is Julith naked under that cloak or...? Did she get clothes before coming here with Grougalorasalar? Cuz when she woke up, he only gave her a cloak....

(Also I love how he still considers her his guardian after all these centuries that she's been dead. She hasn't been seen talking once until now. Is pookie bear feeling okay? What is she thinking about...)

Well now we know that these three goobers hid the Eliasphere somewhere and didn't kept it where we last saw it in season 4's last episode...Good.

They only have one month before Julith comes back omg this makes me wonder if they're even gonna go along with the deal. If not, then that probably means we'll either have Yugo or Amalia fight Julith. Or maybe they'll fight her together lol

This is unrelated, but I do hope that we get to see Adamai's full dragon form in the second volume or in the future ones. Because if the manga that comes between season 2 and the ovas had him use his full form on some occasions, then they should be able to do the same thing here.

[stratostella]

something i thought was really endearing about blade right from the get-go was how much they cared about the outfits and costuming and theming of it all. i know everyone talks about the cute stuff they wear already but i think going even further into that is how objects and ‘things’ play into the characters’ lives in general…

first thing i realized right when i finished the series was that this photo entrusted to hajime by amane’s father was basically the catalyst for everything that was gonna happen. hajime didn’t understand sentimentality but he starts the show with at least one keepsake (even if it wouldn’t be 'his own' at first, he struggles throughout the show to keep it) and learns about the kind of humanity that cares about these kind of things. he picks up photography, that one undead burns up all the photos in the room he’s staying in, and he watches how upset amane gets when she sees that the photos she (and haruka) held dear have been destroyed… and really everyone he’s surrounded by displays this kinda thing.

the cast of blade is really into mementos, which is probably true about, most people really. off the top of my head, tachibana is attached to the watch he got as a gift from sayoko, they both valued that puzzle as something representative of their connection, mutsuki longingly looked at shima’s + jo’s sealed cards outside battle and while this is very much a consumable rather than a souvenir he did get very sentimental about nozomi’s rice balls, hirose keeps a framed family photo as well and considered keeping the literal tangible memories of her dad, she’s instead left with his wedding ring after trial b’s death… there’s probably lots of other stuff i’m forgetting rn cause everyone has their own possessions. and while these are all mementos of experiences with other people, i think that the things they wore were another part of how they put value and identity into the objects they kept. ofc the riders had all kinds of jewelry and accessories that represented their personal identity as card riders, but i think besides that these things could also express the past bonds they had that were formulative to their identity (tachibana’s watch and 20th stage mutsuki’s ring from shima + tiger print cloth, etcetc). it’s very human to instill memories and experiences into something physical. kenzaki felt a little different to me though.

unlike the others, we don’t really get any of these sentimental flashbacks with something he owns. he honestly doesn’t seem to care about owning much and the most we get in terms of memorable incidents and connections with others are his memories of his parents in the first little bit of the series (which interestingly were so focused on how his parents died and how he regrets it that i can’t even recall if any GOOD flashbacks were shown, his recollection of them just seemed so distant…), and his time at BOARD along with the very influential event of Everything there going to shit. his jacket is arguably the only thing he wears that he’s consistently been attached to, which i thought really fit his whole relationship with the world around him; he has lots of accessories that scream ‘kenzaki’ through blues and spades and whatnot, but he didn’t really have the personal bonds with other people to have something like the others did. no one’s left that sort of mark on him. and in contrast, hajime had photos and framed drawings and a guitar and objects that became important because of those around him before he could even cement how he felt about his own identity. so he gets that heart ring much later after he manages to find himself, with kenzaki’s help.

and that’s why i was so giddy to see kenzaki in the drama cd, forced to travel light and often, keeping two things of sentimental value because of the people who’ve impacted him in the past: the blue spader that was with him throughout his time fighting with the others, and hajime’s photobook. yuppp

this all goes into my thoughts on memories and identities in general (GUY WHO LOOOVED THE NOVEL) but that’ll be for another post. side note also that i am very sorry in advance if i miss something that completely goes against what i’m saying because i watched the series WAY too fast and i would not be surprised if i forgot </3